THE 2014-15 TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE GUIDE a Builder's

THE 2014-15 TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE GUIDE Prepared For A Builder’s Digital Toolkit - Master Session

Las Vegas Convention Center, January 22, 2015

Revised 09/06/2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... 1

ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE GUIDE FOR 2014: ...... 4

MASTER CLASS: A BUILDER’S DIGITAL TOOLKIT: AN OVERVIEW OF MUST-HAVE TECHNOLOGY FOR BUILDERS AND REMODELERS ...... 5

STAYING SAFE ONLINE: BONUS CONTENT ...... 6

CHEAP TRICKS 2014: BONUS CONTENT SIMPLE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO BIG BUSINESS PROBLEMS ...... 14

HOW TO EVALUATE AND SELECT TECHNOLOGY SUCCESSFULLY “TOP-DOWN”: ...... 37 THE FUNNEL : ...... 37 INPUTS AND OUTPUTS : WHAT IS A “P ROCESS ”? ...... 37 THE DANGERS OF GOING “B OTTOM -UP” ...... 38 STAYING “T OP -DOWN ” ...... 38 CONSTRAINTS: ...... 38 PRODUCT SELECTION: HOW ...... 38 CREATING A REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT: THE “WHAT” STEP : ...... 39 WRITING REQUIREMENTS : THE “M UST DO STATEMENTS ” AND TERMINATING FACTORS : ...... 39 “HOW”: EVALUATING , IDENTIFYING , AND COMPARING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ...... 40 USING YOUR REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT : ...... 41 IMPLEMENTATION: THE PROJECT-ACTION PLAN ...... 41

LINKS AND OTHER RESOURCE LISTINGS ...... 42

SMART PHONE AND PORTABLE (TABLET) APPS ...... 43 ONLINE CATALOGS OF SMART PHONE AND TABLET “APPS ” FOR CONCTRACTORS ...... 43 AUGMENTED REALITY AND VIRTUALIZATION – SMART PHONE ...... 43 RESOURCE SITES - PHONE ...... 43 FAVORITE SMART PHONE OR TABLET APPS ...... 44 BUILDER AND INDUSTRY BLOGS : ...... 44 BLOGGING PLATFORMS : ...... 44 E-MAIL MARKETING ...... 44 PERSONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS ...... 45 PHOTO AND IMAGE STORAGE ONLINE ...... 45 SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES : ...... 45 SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS AND ADD -ONS : ...... 45 SOCIAL BOOKMARKING : ...... 45 WEB SURVEY TOOLS ...... 46 WEB -CASTING AND PODCASTING ...... 46 WEB VIDEO , VIDEO SHARING , AND WEB -TV SITES : ...... 46 ALTERNATIVE , WEB -BASED , AND OPEN -SOURCE APPLICATIONS ...... 47 ALTERNATIVES –GENERAL : ...... 47 ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT : ...... 47 HR (H UMAN REOURCES ) MANAGEMENT : ...... 47 CAD AND BULDING DESIGN : ...... 48 COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE ...... 48 DIAGRAMMING AND PROCESS MAPPING : ...... 48 PHOTO AND IMAGE EDITING ...... 48 PRESENTATION AND PUBLISHING ...... 49 PRODUCTIVITY AND ‘O FFICE ’ REPLACEMENTS ...... 49 PROJECT INTRANETS : ...... 49 PROJECT MANAGEMENT : ...... 50 CROSS -PLATFORM CLOUD PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS : ...... 50 VIRTUALIZATION ...... 50 UTILITIES AND OTHER MUST -HAVE TOOLS ...... 51 DOCUMENT TEMPLATES ...... 51 DATA SAFETY , SECURITY , BACK -UP AND RECOVERY ...... 51 EXCEL TOOLS ...... 51 FILE SHARING AND “S AVE AND SYNC ” SYNCHRONIZATION ...... 52 ONLINE BACKUP ...... 52 BACKUP YOUR BACKUP – AND OTHER CLOUD DATA ...... 52 DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT - PAPER TO CLOUD ...... 52 REMOTE ACCESS , REMOTE CONTROL , REMOTE MEETINGS ...... 53 SEARCH AND RESEARCH ...... 54 TRAINING ...... 54 WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS , WEB DESIGN TOOLS , AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) ...... 55 VOICE OVER IP (VOIP) ...... 55 SHOPPING CARTS ...... 55 WEB DEVELOPMENT AND HOSTING ...... 55 DOMAIN REGISTRATION – GENERAL HOSTING ...... 55 SHARE POINT AND EXCHANGE HOSTING ...... 56 PAY -PER -CLICK AND SEO ...... 56 CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (CMS) AND SPECIALIZED WEBSITE BUILDERS ...... 56 WEB FORMS BUILDERS –CRM TIE -IN ...... 57 MORE CHEAP TRICKS ...... 57 ENGINEERING SITES AND RESOURCES ...... 58 FAX SOLUTIONS ...... 58 GENERATION “Y” RESOURCES ...... 59 IT MANAGEMENT AND PURCHASING HELP ...... 59 MOBILE OFFICE AND GPS ...... 59 MICROSOFT OUTLOOK ™ ADD -INS ...... 60 PDF TOOLS ...... 60

ARTICLES AND OTHER RESOURCES ...... 61

ARTICLE: USING SAVE -AND -SYNC SERVICES FOR BACKUP AND MORE ...... 62 ARTICLE: LEAN OPERATIONS : ...... 65 CONSTRUCTION PROS … SEEK OUT (AND ELIMINATE ) T.I.M W.O.O.D.! ...... 65

BONUS ! GETTING THE MOST OUT OF MOBILE...... 69

LEGAL: ...... 91

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER: ...... 92

ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE GUIDE: 2014 has shown continued modest recovery in some building and remodeling markets. There is still much less work available than in the mid-2000s, but there are also significantly fewer remodelers, trades, and builders to do the work that remains. That spells opportunity IF you have the right tools and know how to use them.

The trend away from massive, “all-in-on” ERP/ Integrated systems and toward smaller, lighter “apps” is undeniable. Many of our clients are saying “If I can’t do it on my iPhone, I don’t want to do it…” Vertical market builder-specific software isn’t going to go away completely of course, but companies producing it are finding they have a whole new class of competition - inexpensive generic “apps” that can largely be dealt with on a smartphone or tablet. Smart developers of the “all-in-one” systems are going to concentrate efforts on their mobile platforms, and those that don’t are going to become irrelevant.

In terms of overall builder/remodeler financial performance, technology continues to be the difference between struggling financially, and really taking advantage of this new opportunity as we head toward 2020 and beyond. It has never been cheaper or easier to put technology to work in your business, which is a good thing because in this new market reality, the intelligent application of technology might very well be the difference between meeting your business and personal goals – and just barely getting by. What can technology do for you? What can’t it do? Just name it – there’s a software application, a web-based site or service, or an inexpensive piece of hardware that can help you achieve your objectives.

1 Fire “T.I.M W.O.O.D” from your organization. This is of course shorthand for something far more significant. Go to page 10 for more information .

1 Control Direct Costs and Reduce Overhead: Do more projects with fewer people, and replace expensive “old- fashioned” office tools with modern, streamlined tools and processes. While improving, not decreasing, the quality of your projects. A full-blown remodeler or builder integrated technology system might run a few hundred dollars per month or per-project… whereas a single $15/hr office manager with payroll burden will set you back up to $1000/week. That’s up to 10X the cost of the technology that replaced that position.

1 Slash Cycle Times : Scheduling, Project Management, even Simple To-Do Apps can knock days or even weeks of “air” out of your cycle times. Not just the construction cycle. Cutting the sales cycle is just as important if not more-so, as is reducing the time it takes to correct warranty issues.

1 Stay On-Budget: Use Web-based (Cloud) Technology to set-up a working estimating/purchasing system that can minimize variances, and capture both option sales before the job, and profitable change-orders after the job starts. It’s amazing how much more can go to the bottom line when you’re no longer giving away work for free!

1 Minimize Defects and Call-Backs : Good communication leads to far fewer mistakes and better morale. Use information management to get and keep everyone “on the same page” throughout the project. Use centralized web-based document management to make sure your customers understand exactly what is going on, and everyone on your team has everything they need to build the project. The ability to PUBLISH data centrally “to the cloud” will help to keep your entire team accountable. For example - a few minutes learning how to rough out a simple building shape in Trimble SketchUp can replace dozens of back-and-forth emails, phone calls and other conversations, because your customers will be able to see and understand what you’re talking about.

TIP: The first sites or services linked in each category in this guide will be marked with a “[MCG FAVORITE]” – so check those out first! Joe has hand-picked every link in this guide. Just keep in mind that many of the sites, software, and services are still in public or private beta which means they could change, be purchased, or go out of business at any time with no warning. Many are very generic in approach, many are too simple for tech-savvy builders or too complicated for the tech-challenged. So use common sense – try them out and see for yourself how they might fit in your business. Better yet – use our Top-Down Strategic Method (the next section) to dial in exactly the best technology for your business . If you need more help, contact Mountain Consulting Group (www.mountainconsulting.com ) or post your question on Joe’s Business Technology forum (www.joestoddard.net ) at the Journal of Light Construction online.

MASTER CLASS: A Builder’s Digital Toolkit: An Overview of Must-have Technology for Builders and Remodelers

LEARNING OUTCOMES The “Big Picture”: This is an introductory course that will give attendees a general understanding of how to best-utilize mobile devices, the cloud, and social media throughout the various phases of their business and the lifecycle of their projects.

Lean: Attendees learn how to utilize web-based and mobile technology to reduce the "Seven Primary Wastes" in a building operation, saving time, money, and extra steps.

Priority: Learning what technologies will produce the best and fastest ROI for a particular situation. Which departments/positions to automate first, second, and so on

Challenge Items: Each of the categories includes several "challenge items" that we encourage attendees to put into practice as soon as they get home(or sooner if they can!).

STAYING SAFE ONLINE: BONUS CONTENT

No doubt about it - the Internet “Cloud” has radically changed how we all do business – and usually for the better. The problem is, the bad guys have followed us “into the cloud” in droves. Not a day goes by that you don’t hear about some new online scam. Credit card numbers ripped-off; Bank accounts emptied out; Identities stolen. Cyber-crime is growing at record speed, but you don’t have to be a victim. It’s easy to stay safe online – once you know what you’re up against and how to protect your company and personal information from theft.

This session will teach attendees the common-sense steps they need to take to stay safe when working online. We’ll show you the most common online scams, and most importantly – how to avoid them.

Learning Outcomes: 1) “Think like a hacker” and most importantly, how to avoid falling prey to their online scams 2) What makes for a “strong password” - and why what you’re using now could be cracked in seconds 3) Which cloud-based websites and services are safe and secure – and what to avoid at all costs. 4) Learn the five key things every contractor should do _ today _ to bulletproof their company (and personal information) against cyber-crime

Staying safe and mal-ware free while “in the cloud” STAYING SAFE ONLINE (T16)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 1

Slide 2

My brother-in-law recently asked me “where is the CLOUD?” “Cloud” is just another name for the Internet – it Where and What comes from “Ethernet” - the “Ether”. Where and What Instead of software or files being IsIs ThisThis “Cloud”,“Cloud”, Exactly?Exactly? installed/stored on your computer or •• VirtualizationVirtualization ofof Desktops,Desktops, Servers,Servers, EntireEntire NetworkNetworkss on your own office server – they’re •• OnlineOnline DocumentDocument StorageStorage installed in a data center somewhere, •• Web-basedWeb-based applicationsapplications and you get to that “somewhere” • Back-up and Sync services using your Internet connection . Ditto • Back-up and Sync services • Remote Printing for document storage online, online • Remote Printing • Voice and Video over IP backups, mobile applications, voice • Voice and Video over IP and video over IP, (Internet Protocol) •• MobileMobile Devices,Devices, Sites,Sites, ServicesServices , Social Networking - and just about •• ProjectProject CollaborationCollaboration •• SocialSocial NetworkingNetworking anything else on the “web” today. •• AndAnd MoreMore ! ! Even though it’s not 100% technically true, for our purposes we can use “Internet” ,“Web” , and “Cloud” pretty much interchangeably.

Slide 3

All over the globe you will find large unmarked NorthNorth AmericanAmerican NetworkNetwork andand DataData CentersCenters buildings like the ones shown here. These are “data centers” – structures built to house the computers and networking equipment that makes up the “brains” of the Internet.

InsideInside Google Google Data Data Centers Centers http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 3 http://www.mountainconsulting.com 3

Slide 4

Map of “The Cloud” by ISP

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 4

Slide 5 And inside of those big plain InsideInside ofof aa ProfessionalProfessional DataData CenterCenter buildings this is what you’re going to find. Rows and rows of either rack mounted or custom-configured server equipment. Companies rent this gear by the piece, the rack, or the “cage” depending on how big they are – or they “Co-locate” their own gear and place it in the data center where it can be professionally managed. These places have bulletproof security, several layers of bio-metric ID before you ever get into where the servers are – as well as every failsafe you can imagine. They’re like the “Borg” from Star Trek - they’re designed to never go down. Multiple power sources, Generators, Dry Chemical fire suppression, Cooling that sucks air through the racks and under a raised floor – redundant everything… and every connection in the building is monitored 24/7/365 by a network operations center, or NOC. The second a server stops responding, the NOC is notified and corrective action is taken. That could mean a manual re-boot, or an automatic switching to a data center on the other side of the country. It all depends on the hosting arrangement a company has.

Slide 6

On the other hand – this is what you’ll probably get if you try to build your own “Network room.” Inside of your “Data Center” Inside of your “Data Center” The bottom line is that it is almost impossible for the typical small contractor to duplicate anything near what you can get from a professional data center. The “cloud” is good enough now for banks and major medical establishments - it’s good enough for what remodelers and builderss need. Sure there are always horror stories but there are 1000x more horror stories you never hear about with builders trying to maintain their own networks.

Slide 7

Alphabet Soup: URL, DNS, WHAT?

Reading a URL – RIGHT to LEFT

What is an IP ADDRESS ? Public (Routable) vs. Private 192.168.100.107 DNS (Domain Naming Service(s) Translates Names (URL) into Numbers (IP Address)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 7

Slide 8

“INFRASTRUCTURE”“INFRASTRUCTURE” YOUR Infrastructure will have to take into account all of the following: - Your Office or home office - Your Jobsites (Mobile) - Your Vehicles (Mobile) - Key Subs and Suppliers who need to share your information

- Any other remote locations such as sales offices

Slide 9

HowHow WeWe LoseLose DataData –– and and thethe costcost TrueTrue Cost? Cost? TimeTime DisruptionDisruption Opportunity Cost Opportunity Cost

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 9 http://www.mountainconsulting.com 9

Slide 10

Staying Safe Online

Ounce of Prevention is worth a pound of cure Time of attack is now measured in seconds Personal Firewall Hardware Firewall in your router NO web-routable IP addresses inside your firewall !! (In other words don’t self- host your own website or file sharing unless you really know what you’re doing! Good overall anti-malware/spyware Microsoft Security Essentials STRONG PASSWORDS Use encryption when storing sensitive data on your computer/device Don’t Store Credit Card/sensitive Numbers on websites (Amazon, Wal-mart.com, etc. have all been compromised)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 10

Slide 11

Working Digital - What it takes

Everyone must have access (WiFi, WWAN, etc.) Fail-over of all critical systems Multiple ways to connect to Web Spare Hardware as appropriate Choose Reliable Vendors and Hosts Back-up and Data Recovery DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN Local Copy and Drive Images Offsite Data –Secure location (Web-based) Training

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 11

Slide 12

Not Registering All Domains:

NotNot havinghaving controlcontrol overover Remember that once your site starts to youryour domainsdomains andand youryour hostinghosting ! ! get some traffic, somebody out there is going to want to steal a little of it . Here, the builder made a big mistake by not registering every derivation of their domain name(s). A Splogger (spam-blog) is using the misspelled version to profit from Google ad-word sales, ripping off the builder by diverting traffic that should have been to their website.

http://www.mountainconsulting.comhttp://www.mountainconsulting.com 1212

Slide 13

Solve Back-up Issues Once and for All: Save-and-Sync CrashPlan (Free) DropBox SugarSync

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 13

Slide 14

Using Dropbox

Dropbox adds a LOCAL folder to your PC /Mac/ SmartPhone-Tablet Shared copies are also local folders on collaborators’ computers Automatically Syncs with stored version in the Cloud

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 14

Slide 15

Addressing Safety Concerns

Is the “Internet” Safe ? NO Can you make your IT/IS Systems Safe working online? YES! (Relatively Safe… there is risk in everything) Social Engineering ACH Fraud (PatCo- Maine) Learning To Recognize Rogue E-mail, other scams 90+% of data breaches are local / human error

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 15

Slide 16

Rapid Recovery

Drive Image of all PCs Virtualization (eliminates all these problems) Data backup in the Cloud As little data as possible stored on mobile devices

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 16

CHEAP TRICKS 2014: BONUS CONTENT SIMPLE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO BIG BUSINESS PROBLEMS

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS : The trend today is toward smaller, “best of breed” apps – bits and pieces you can put together to meet your needs. It used to be you had to use industry-specific apps/services, and you certainly still can. But now you have many more choices.

Thanks to the Internet practically every device and platform can communicate with practically every other device and platform so it’s more about what you need to accomplish instead of being constrained by Windows or Macs or whatever. For smaller contractors a good strategy might be to start with some of these inexpensive tools, work with them for a year or two to figure out what you really need, and THEN move toward industry- specific systems if you still feel the need.

The Internet and Social Networking t has improved our industry in more ways than we realize - particularly by exposing the “bad actors” . If you’re a shyster, there’ s no place for you to run and hide. By the same token, social networking allows you to build a community that will come to your defense if you are wrongly accused.

Slide 5

10 Things You Can Do NOW:

Technology is Green… and LEAN. Add value – reduce cost Use Social Networking to bulletproof your reputation Use “the Cloud” to reduce errors on your jobs Replace “My Documents” with one of the Save-and-Sync Services like Dropbox and stop worrying about back-ups and data loss. Learn to Use Evernote.com , the smartest, most useful “framework” application available today. Use GPS/Location services for Routing/Logistics of crews . Save gas, wear-and-tear, and have happier customers and better projects Stop driving to meetings – use Web-based meetings Use web VIDEO – for advertising yes… but better yet for TRAINING Automate Estimating using the sensors in your SmartPhone/Tablet Give “T.I.M. W.O.O.D” a pink slip. (see next slide)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 5

10 Things to Do Now : (above)

ADDING VALUE by SLASHING WASTE

If you’re into “Green” and “Lean” - The smart use of technology is about as “green” and “Lean” as you can get. “LEAN” is all about adding value and eliminating waste from your operation. TIM WOOD is an acronym for the “seven primary wastes” (or “Muda” in Japanese”) . The “Cheap Tricks” we’re talking about today can help improve in all of these areas:

• Excess Transportation: Dead-end runs to the lumberyard turn a $5 tube of caulk into a $500 hidden cost. Better estimating, scheduling, and more transparency about what you need on your

jobs and when you need it will eliminate this total waste.

• Excess Inventory: Stuff kicking around your shop – not enough to do a job , not enough to send back, but enough to have to handle over and over. Again – estimating, scheduling, better take-offs will reduce/eliminate

• Excess Motion: Every unnecessary step costs time and money. This is about bringing the work to the workers, reducing steps on the jobsite, and staging your jobsites in the most efficient way. Simple things – using your phone camera to show subs where to park – are huge improvements.

• Waiting: Visit any residential jobsite… what is the most likely thing you’ll see happening? NOTHING. That’s because more than 50% of the typical job schedule is created by time waiting on something. Dry time. Delivery time. Dead days in a schedule. How might you use technology to reduce this waiting time? [Examples: Web-based scheduling. Smart-phone camera, Shared folders/e-mail for instruction]

• Over-Processing: This waste is worth spending extra time thinking about – it’s the equivalent of using a sledgehammer to drive in a finish nail, in other words systems/tools that are too big/complex for the job at hand – and therefore require too much overhead, too much training, etc. This is perhaps the single biggest problem builders have with their technology. Small volume builders trying to use systems that were designed for production builders. Remodelers trying to make software intended for commercial GCs work. And not always “bigger” –using inappropriately generic software when you NEED industry-specific software can also create over-processing. The best example of this would be trying to use a generic CAD product to do something it was never designed to do- when one of the builder-specific CAD packages are perfectly suited for the job.

• Over-Production: This is the product of not value-engineering your jobs. Using massive LVL garage door headers in a non-bearing wall, just because it was too much trouble to question the building inspector. Or packing in extra studs for no reason other than to fill a space. Building an extra truss or custom light fixture because it was too difficult to really get the count correct. Obviously this is all a waste of time and materials, and therefore wasted effort and higher costs.

• Defects: At the end of the day , using technology is all about reducing Defects: Not just material defects or omissions in the building itself. A project that takes longer than was planned, or cost more than was budgeted are also examples of serious defects that technology will help you to reduce/eliminate.

Cloud Computing 360 Degree View of Information One major benefit of “the cloud” is centralizing data so the Right •Right Information Buyers •Right People Information can be put in the hands Consultants Subcontractors •Right Time of the Right People at the Right Time.

Business Everyone has access to THE Sales/Options Intelligence information, not an out-of-date copy or an older version. Warranty Financing Service

Internal Project Operations Manager

http://www.MountainConsulting.com 7

SmartPhones (and Tablets) – not just e-mail, address book, and calendar Mobile Hot-Spot E-Sign Documents Get Everyone Online Mark-up Drawings GPS: Logistics Distance-Finder Route Your Crews Measuring Estimating Make Hi-Res Videos View Documents in Mark-up Photos the “Cloud” -or- Hold a Meeting Remote Control a PC Update your Give a presentation websites

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 9

What can you do with a SmartPhone? A lot. • Years ago we could only dream about a device that would be able to do everything today’s smartphones are capable of. Don’t think of the current crop of SmartPhones/Tablets as replacements for your PC/Laptop - as much as a companion technology that has a totally different set of capabilities, mostly because of the multiple sensors on-board.

- GPS, Camera, Motion Sensors Allow the device to “know” where it is in space and time. Couple that with the Internet and you have a remarkable set of capabilities.

- Just as we “went to press” – Apple “announced the announcement” for the iPhone 6, slated to have even more capability in terms of advanced input/output and “self-awareness”.

Slide 10

Housingzone Appcenter WHERE TO FIND CONSTRUCTION- ORIENTED APPS for Phones and Tablets

Professional Builders’ HousingZone AppCenter is one of the best source of “Apps” out there currently – NOTE: Hanley-Wood and JLCOnline.com will soon be compiling construction apps too – stay tuned.

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 10

Slide 11

Structural Design BeamBuddy SteelBeam

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 11

We’ve tested dozens of structural beam design apps. The best ones are very expensive and don’t qualify as “cheap tricks”.

Here are the best two we’ve found (Note these are not span tables – you need to know basic beam formulas and understand the math). Both are available for iOS and Android

BeamBuddy – for the design of Wood Beams and headers SteelBeam -- for the design of basic Steel Beam shapes e 12

BuildCalc

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 12

The best $20-30 you’ll spend for your phone/tablet. Created by Do-It-Yourselfer Ben Askren, BuildCalc takes the “Construction Master” type of calculator to an entirely new level with embedded routines for calculating stairs, balusters, and much more.

Slide 13

Dragon Dictation (Free)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 13

Dragon, the company behind the “Naturally Speaking” software has the best voice-to-text capability available for smartphones/tablets. (Some iPhone 5 users say it’s better than Siri”. Very handy for dictating notes while driving, then sending as email or text message.

JotNot Pro

Capture (camera) Convert to .PDF Send to cloud service

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 14

GO PAPERLESS: There are dozens of “use your camera to scan” apps out there – JotNot PRO (you do need to spend a couple bucks) is the best we’ve found. Very accurate and fast – a way to dispose of receipts and other scraps of paper from the jobsite.

This is also a good example of how easily this crop of apps integrates with other cloud services you may be using – in effect acting as the “input” for your cloud document management system. JotNot Pro will dump output to a bunch of different Cloud Services – including Google Drive/Docs , Evernote, and Dropbox.

Slide 15 DIGITAL SIGNATURES: Once you capture a document as a Soft Sign .PDF (for example with JotNot Pro) – Right Sign you sometimes need to provide a binding signature. There are several Sign Easy apps that will allow you to sign a “scanned” document, including

Soft Sign Right Sign Sign Easy

They all allow you to quickly/ easily sign a .PDF file and send it along . http://www.mountainconsulting.com 15 These signatures are binding in most courts because the application

provides sufficient documentation of . both who and where the document Slide 17 was digitally signed

17 MagicPlan Uses phone camera to map outline of rooms for purposes of “as- built” documentation.

MagicPlan is still free (and there is a free “CSI” version for crime scenes) and is becoming one of the most useful iphone apps available for as-built documentation. The business model is an “in-app purchase” you pay $2-3.00 for each .PDF plan mailed. Slide 18

Mark-Up and Send

MyMeasures Measures

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 18

Nothing automatic here – just a handy way to mark-up photos with dimensions.

MULTI-PLATFORM MULTI-DEVICE CLOUD-BASED SYSTEMS Slide 20

Evernote: Brain in the sky

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 20

EVERNOTE PRO ($5/mo) This application really requires an entire session on its own – but it has grown from a “clip and save to the cloud” service to one of the most powerful multi-platform application frameworks available. Basically a “Second Brain in the Sky” - the idea behind Evernote is that it will capture and organize any kind of information you can shovel into it, using any kind of device you can think of .and then let you retrieve that information from practically any other device you have connected to the cloud.

There is now an Evernote Business ($5/mo/ user) that gives a company administrator central authority over multiple users.

CLIENT SOFTWARE: Evernote is available for all of the following devices (partial list) allowing you to access your Evernote data from almost any device.

- Web Browser Client - supports all major browsers

- Desktop software for PC, Mac, and Linux computers - Smartphone/Tablet apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, and others.

NOTES: A “Note” is the basic unit of currency in Evernote – and can hold any kind of information, including - Other files – for example office files, CAD files, PDF files - Audio/Video material - Web Clippings of all types - Captured eMails - Basic text notes - Photos

NOTEBOOKS: You set up “Notebooks” to hold whatever information you want to organize in any way you want.

PRO has a few unique features that make it well worth the $60/year. - It will index text in both HAND-WRITTEN NOTES, SIGNS, and PDF files, making all of it searchable. You can literally take a picture of a scrap of 2x4 with a note on it and capture it to a project folder.

- You can also automatically dump information into Evernote by linking folders on your hard drive, and assigning email addresses to Evernote Notebooks. - Dump files into the folder on your hard drive – POOF they’re now part of Evernote

- Evernote Folders and Notebooks can be “public” – “private” – or shared with only certain people, making them very useful in project management.

SOME USES OF EVERNOTE: (your imagination is the limit) - Online Plan Room - Business Card Organizer – basic CRM - Capture and Organize web clippings on any topic - Project Cut sheets and Product selections - Project Photo Galleries - Warranty Tracking – Repair tracking - General Project management - Any other “database” type application where it’s necessary to capture and then retrieve data.

EVERNOTE PARTNERS: ( The Evernote “TRUNK”) There are now hundreds of partnering applications - products/services that work with Evernote to extend its capabilities. A good example is the Livescribe “Smart Pen” (next slide)

BOOKS and TUTORIALS: If you search within Evernote and also Google, you’ll find many tutorials and extra texts on how to best make use of Evernote, also YouTube videos. Highly recommended that you locate and make use of these resources. .

Slide 21

ToodleDo (Desktop & iPhone)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 21

For some of our clients, Toodle-Do (dumb name but great software) is competing head-to-head with the builder-specific applications like BuilderTrend or Co-Construct. Like other multi-platform services Toodle-Do supports most mobile and computer clients, plus a web-based interface. It’s basically a task/ to-do, and document management service that can be used to for any basic project management .

Slide 22

Trello

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 22

Trello is one of several “KanBan” systems that include Kanbantool.com Kanbanflow.com . Currently totally free (it’s in Beta, so that will eventually change) - but it sets up like an old-time “Logistics” board you’d find at a trucking company or train station. You set the “board” up any way you want – with “Lists” that can segregate groups of tasks and “Cards” which are individual to-dos or activities. You can set up QC lists for any given task, forcing quality assurance before a task is marked “complete”. There are now several apps very similar to Trello available – see updated listing for more information.

Slide 24

Online Meetings GoToMeeting (http://gotomeeting.com ) Now has web cams, better audio Cross-platform support iPhone Client GTM Join.me ( http://www.join.me ) $20/mo (half the price of GTM) Provided by “LogMeIn” (good company) No web cam/ video

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 24

Slide 25

SKYPE and Google Voice Both offer free service, both voice and one-to- one video..

With multiple-party video for a small fee.

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 25

Slide 26

PC Software and Cloud-Based Services FAVORITE FREE OR CHEAP SOFTWARE - SERVICES

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 26

Slide 27

Finding Free/Cheap Stuff http://www.allthingsweb2.com http://alternativeto.net/ http://www.allthingsweb2.com http://appchronicles.com https://chrome.google.com/webstore http://www.housingzone.com /appcenter/business-tools

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 27

Slide 28 EXCEL RESOURCES

Excel is fun

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 28

A community college professor has put hundreds of excellent tutorials on using Microsoft Excel on YouTube, free for the taking. Start with the 23-video series “Excel Basics” and go from there.

Slide 29 MICROSOFT OFFICE REPLACEMENTS

Office Replacements http://docs.google.com (Google Docs) http://www.office365.com (Microsoft) http://www.openoffice.org (OpenOffice) http://www.zoho.com (Zoho)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 29

Slide 30

Google Forms

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 30

Google Forms is a special features of their cloud-based spreadsheet app (“Sheets”). You can use it to create simple customer satisfaction survey forms and collect the responses from the web in a spreadsheet in your Google Drive account.

Slide 31

Zoho Apps: ZOHO http://www.zoho.com (CRM- 3 for free)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 31

Slide 32 FREEDCAMP - FREE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

FreedCamp (Basecamp)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 32

Freedcamp started out being an open-source alternative to 37signals’ “Basecamp” product, but it has evolved into a bonafide framework/platform thatcan be extended in a variety of ways.

Slide 33

Free or Cheap Templates DocStoc (http://www.docstoc.com ) ConstructionOfficeOnline (http://www.constructionofficeonline.com )

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 33

Slide 34 FREE DESIGN SOFTWARE / RESOURCES

SoftPlan Studio Example of conventional Software married to the web Collaborative Aimed at homeowners, particularly GenY – will be able to share files with SoftPlan Pro users

http://www.MountainConsulting.com 34

Slide 35 , 37

Trimble SketchUp and 3D Warehouse FreeFree SketchUpSketchUp Tutorials Tutorials Example of conventional www.brightideasconsultants.comwww.brightideasconsultants.com Software married to the web Collaborative New approach to modeling. Give the tool away – let the market find the use for it http://www.sketchup.com

http://sketchup.google.com/3d warehouse

http://www.MountainConsulting.com 35

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 37 http://www.mountainconsulting.com 37 Slide 36

Floorplanner.com

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 36

NEVER LOSE DATA AGAIN Slide 39

How We Lose Data

True Cost? Time Disruption Opportunity Cost

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 39

80% of data loss is a combination of human error, and machine failures. Computer hard drives are mechanical machines that WILL stop operating one day. When they do, your data is toast unless it’s backed up.

Slide 40,41

Solve Back-up Issues Once and for All: Save-and-Sync UsingUsing DropboxDropbox CrashPlan (Free) Dropbox adds a DropBox Dropbox adds a LOCALLOCAL folderfolder toto SugarSync youryour PCPC /Mac//Mac/ SmartPhone-TabletSmartPhone-Tablet SharedShared copiescopies areare alsoalso locallocal foldersfolders onon collaborators’collaborators’ computerscomputers AutomaticallyAutomatically SyncsSyncs withwith storedstored versionversion inin thethe CloudCloud

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 40 http://www.mountainconsulting.comhttp://www.mountainconsulting.com 4141

RESEARCH USING THE CLOUD Slide 43

www.JLCOnline.com

Authoritative Building Science and Construction methods Business Primer Expert Forums

http://www.MountainConsulting.com 43

Slide 44

demographics www.Wikipedia.org www.City-Data.com

http://www.MountainConsulting.com 44

Use these sites for preliminary market data Wikipedia has a surprising amount of market and demographic data, more being built all the time.

Slide 45

Other Research NAHB BizTools (www.nahb.org/biztools)

http://www.MountainConsulting.com 45

Slide 46, 49

Excel is fun masterSketchup.com College prof. puts masterSketchup.com all of his Excel coursework on YouTube.

“Excel Basics” is a must-do for everyone using spreadsheets.

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 46 http://www.mountainconsulting.com 49 http://www.mountainconsulting.com 49

Slide 47, 48 Matt Donley’s new SU tutorial site

www.Softplansplash.org www.SoftplanTuts.comwww.SoftplanTuts.com 1000s of UserUser CommunityCommunity Examples sitesite forfor SoftPlanSoftPlan from andand SketchUpSketchUp leading designers

47 4848

EVALUATING and DEPLOYING TECHNOLOGY SUCCESSFULLY Slide 51

Top-Down Strategic Method

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 51

Stay “TOP-DOWN” - Identify WHAT it is you want your technology to solve (the “Requirements” or “Objectives”) FIRST. Then shop for the combination of features that will satisfy those requirements. DON’T purchase software because it looks good or you think there may be some use for it down the road. Many builders buy software “bottom up” – finding the solution first (usually at a tradeshow) and then fabricate some problems for their new purchase to solve. That is the wrong way to approach technology.

Slide 52

Requirements Document Requirements = Objectives WHAT you need the software to do LIST each function Be Specific Single Outcome No Negatives

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 52

Always write your requirements / objectives down – use a requirements document template.

YOUR OVERALL WEB STRATEGY: Slide 55

One-Page Web Presence Strategy Domain Name: Shorter is better CMS-Driven Website (Simple, but easily updated) Wordpress or one of the Proprietary CMS Systems Plenty of Call-to-action forms feeding your CRM system Strong Facebook Page – Participate Social Image Repositories – Watermark Images Cater to Mobile Users Lots of Video - YouTube Use FB posts, Twitter, etc. to update website automatically (for SEO) No blog unless you’re Gary Katz

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 55

If you don’t have a lot of time or money to spend but want a solid web presence, your best bet is a simple marketing website, tied to a well-done Facebook business page. Use social photo repositories for all your photos (so your readers can easily link to them) and watermark your images with your URL and/or phone number and company name. ISlide 56 Slide 56

“Website” vs. “Blog” WordPress - Complete CMS • Thousands of plug-ins

• Free at many major hosts ( GoDaddy.com)

• Works for nearly any kind of web presence, including e-commerce

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 56

For most small-mid builders, WordPress is an excellent content management platform that can be used to build both blogs and conventional websites. Plug-ins extend WordPress to do whatever is needed.

Slide 57

ONLY HALF of your readers are using a Computer right now

Half of your traffic could be from SmartPhones or iPads… how does your site hold up ?

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 57

Be sure that your site is “adaptive” or “responsive” –meaning it can automatically display properly on handheld devices. Slide 58

Another Look at Martell: The Martell Experience BuildBuild aa YouTubeYouTube ChannelChannel

AlmostAlmost nothingnothing moremore effectiveeffective –– or or lessless expensiveexpensive

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 58 http://www.mountainconsulting.com 59 http://www.mountainconsulting.com 59

Martell Homes is an example of a well-done marketing website and corresponding YouTube channel (http://www.themartellexperience.com )

Slide 60

Can You Blog? ThisIsCarpentry

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 60

Gary Katz’s excellent “This is Carpentry” is the standard you’ll need to meet if you expect to have a blog with any real user traffic. If you’re not up for that – then stick with Facebook and YouTube.

NOTES:

HOW TO EVALUATE AND SELECT TECHNOLOGY SUCCESSFULLY “TOP-DOWN”:

Have you ever purchased “Shelfware”? That’s technology that you were sure was going to help your business, but wound up just “sitting on the shelf” because you couldn’t get it up and running, or , after you did - discovered it was not as good a fit for your business as you had originally hoped? No doubt the answer is ‘yes’ because it’s happened to all of us, including me…and probably including me this week! Thankfully the “Shelfware” for me these days are the $.99 games for my SmartPhone, and NOT the $99,000 (or $999,999) mis-steps so many builders and remodelers have experienced.

There is a way to avoid “shelfware” – it’s called a “Top-Down” evaluation, something we at Mountain Consulting Group have developed over a period of 20+ years. We use the “Top-Down Strategic Framework” for a lot of other things as well as technology evaluation – it’s a great way to make business decisions in general and something I’d be glad to speak to anyone about if they’re interested, but for now - take a look at the diagram below:

The Funnel: First of all, notice that the diagram is in the form of an upside-down pyramid – to me it looks like a “funnel,” which is perfect for this because your goal is to take the universe of available technology (or whatever you’re trying to evaluate), and reduce it down to one single outcome – THE selection . ( By the way, this is the same process you should be guiding your customers through when they’re selecting floorcoverings or bath fixtures , and if you call me I’ll explain how to modify this diagram to do that too) . Inputs and Outputs: What is a “Process”? A “process” is defined as “a series of steps or events that convert inputs into outputs.” That’s it ! Don’t get sucked into some management mumbo-jumbo that makes it any more difficult than it is, you as a builder or remodeler are involved in dozens or even hundreds of all different kinds of processes in your business (and personal lives too). In the diagram above, the INPUTS for each step down the “funnel” are on the left hand side of the diagram, and the OUTPUTS for that step are on the right. In this case the inputs are more “discovery” – figuring out what you need, and the outputs are often some kind of a “deliverable” – meaning something tangible you can put your hands on. A document, report, another written process, or other items that can help you compare the technology apples-to-apples are all “deliverables” from the steps in the “Technology Evaluation Process”.

Staying “Top-Down” The Dangers of In the diagram above, you’ll move from your Mission/Goals/Vision (the WHY you’re doing something) first taking any “constraints” into consideration, and then through Going “Bottom-Up” the “Requirements” Phase (WHAT you want to accomplish) - eventually selecting the Trying to go the other direction – technology you’ll actually use (HOW you’ll get the job done), and finally, creating a bottom up, is why we wind up with so much “Shelfware.” I call it project plan or “action plan” to actually get the technology installed, configured, and “trying to defy gravity” - which trained in your organization. This approach takes all the emotion and guesswork out seldom works. Going “Bottom-up” of the process, replacing it with is essentially finding a cool solution to something before you’ve identified There are a couple of important rules to this approach: First, you can’t move down a the problem you’re trying to solve. step until you have absolute clarity on the step above. So you shouldn’t move into We buy the “HOW to do it” before actually looking at software demonstrations (HOW) until you’ve produced a written we really know WHAT it was we REQUIREMENTS Document (WHAT). If you think about it, that rule is only were trying to do in the first place. common sense - you can’t buy a tool to do something until you know what it is you’re trying to do. Once you’re sure about WHAT it is you need to accomplish, then A physical example of “bottom-up” would be something like purchasing you can start looking at the products and services (the HOW) to do it. an expensive piece of shop equipment before you had the CONSTRAINTS: slightest idea what kind of project Constraints are the factors that could prevent your company from achieving success. you’d use it for. Good chance it The most common is “budget” – not enough money, but human resources can be just would gather dust for months or years until the right kind of job came as much a constraint. The greatest software in the world won’t help you if it requires along for it, or worse yet, you’d buy 8000 man-hours to implement, but there are only two of you in the company. the gear, and then wind up Remember that you’re always better off using more of a smaller/lighter system then expanding your entire business in paying for features you won’t be able to get set up and running for lack of time or some ad hoc un-planned way so the money. gear wasn’t sitting idle. Hire PRODUCT SELECTION: HOW someone to run the equipment, and someone else to find work for the I’m jumping down the funnel for a minute to prove a point. “Selection” is simply the equipment, and then ramp up the process of researching the marketplace and then selecting/purchasing the products(s) marketing for this new service you and services that you need to achieve your business objectives. BUT WAIT – if it’s are now offering… and then go that simple, why do companies get it wrong up to 80% of the time? Our answer to that through the learning curve and lose simple question is that they purchase technology before they really know what they money for a couple years. So now, need. Companies fall into the trap of believing what they read in advertisements or because of that one future what over-zealous salespeople tell them, or just as foolishly they allow their “IT ‘shelfware’ you’ve increased your people” (who might know the inner-workings of technology inside-out (and I’m being overhead by 25% which means you generous because we have encountered a considerable number of generally have to sell, start, and complete a dozen more projects, which means incompetent IT people posing as “experts”) but seldom have even the slightest clue you also will need another truck, when it comes to business requirements). In the building industry THERE ARE NO more shop space, and on and on it STANDARDS when it comes to technology functionality. Five different products can goes. all claim to “manage projects” but since there is no standard for what that specifically means, your guess is as good as mine whether or not any of them will work for your You get the picture. I dread company. Instead, we recommend that every company in need of technology back “tradeshow season” because I know up, slow down, and create a set of written requirements that every contending all of our clients are going to come system can be objectively tested against. This will manifest itself as a “requirements home with some new Shelfware. But document” and it could be as simple as a few bullet-points on a legal pad.. to a 500 before it becomes Shelfware, it is page detailed guidebook, and everything in-between. The main purpose of the first a 12-24 month distraction as they try to figure out what to do with requirements document is to give your company a solid, objective, apples-to-apples whatever it is they didn’t need in the criteria by which you can start testing technology products. If you do this right, the first place! best products or services for your needs should practically select themselves.

CREATING A REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT: the “WHAT” step: Writing Requirements: The “Shall Do” Statements

The “What” Level The main “deliverable” in a top-down evaluation process is called a “requirements document” - and it can be as simple as a few points you jot down when selecting a simple SmartPhone “APP” - or as complex and complete as a true “Request for Proposal” you might write and send to the vendor of one of those complete end-to-end integrated construction suites so they can clarify exactly how they might solve your particular problem. Here’s a couple of typical simple “requirements statements”

“The software shall allow the capture of the vendor’s e-mail address”

“The device shall synchronize “notes” with Microsoft Outlook”

There are a few rules for technology “requirements”

1. They’re written in a way that confirms ONE single outcome, so you can easily determine whether the technology does, or does not conform. No squishy “maybe.” If the software needs to do three things, write three requirement statements. This also allows you to organize your requirements document as a simple check-list.

2. They must be easily understood by everyone. Use the word “Shall” followed by a simple statement.

3. Each requirement states what you want the technology to do – NOT what you don’t want it to do . “Negative requirements” such as “The software will not force the user to log-in multiple times” are nearly impossible to confirm without considerably more information. What does “multiple times” mean? More than once, or more than twice? How many minutes or hours apart?

Instead, you would write “The software shall enforce a single log-on to access the system”. Again, it’s yes or no - either conforms - or it doesn’t. Writing Requirements: The “Must Do Statements” and Terminating Factors: All of the examples above were written as “ Shall Do ” statements - “The technology shall do...X.” There is another “case” called a “terminating factor” meaning that if the product or service does not conform, in other words it is unable to do this one “Must Do” thing, no matter how great the rest of the product is - you simply can’t use it, period. .

In those cases you write the requirement with a “MUST DO” statement. Example: “The database MUST allow the creation of up to 1024 custom document merge fields in the following field formats…” (and you’d of course repeat for each of the field formats necessary).

Back “in the day” when computer systems existed in a silo, terminating factors were not uncommon. Thankfully today, because of Windows™ networking and “the cloud”, finding a true “terminating factor” is rare. There’s almost always some kind of work-around to even the toughest problems. But that doesn’t mean you should stop looking. A “work- around” might salvage the system investment, but it could also leave you or your employees with a kludgey work-around everyone will hate for years to come.

Bottom line, you want to smoke out anything even remotely close to a “Terminating Factor” BEFORE you start writing checks to vendors and spending a year setting up a system.

“HOW”: Evaluating, Identifying, and Comparing Products and Services Once you’ve written your requirements and organized them logically into a requirements document, it’s time to start comparing your available options to your requirements. Those “options” will generally be one or more of the following:

- Generic (no particular industry) “on-premises” or “locally installed” software. Software applications that are installed on some physical device you have (Server, Workstation computer, Laptop, SmartPhone, Tablet, etc.). Generic software will have to be modified or configured to meet the needs of specific industries. For example, Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application, but has nothing to do with “construction” until you set it up to do “estimating”. Microsoft Office Professional 2010 is an example of generic, on-premises software.

- Industry-Specific or “vertical” on-premises or locally installed software. “ImproveBuild RBS ” and “BuilderMT ” are examples of industry-specific, on-premises software There are also industry-specific add-ins that work with, or “on top of” a generic application. For example, Maderasoft Estimator is a set of add-ons that turn generic Excel into a full-functioned construction estimator.

- Generic cloud (or web) based software or services : This is software that is owned and managed by a software company, and made available to you via the Internet, typically via a monthly per-user subscription fee. The trend today is toward “multi-platform” software that can be accessed from a PC/Mac via a web browser, or from smartphones and tablets by using a lightweight “app”. Examples would be “ Google Apps ”, “Basecamp ” by 37 Signals… or “Evernote.com ”

- Industry-Specific /Vertical cloud-based software or services . Exactly the same principle as generic cloud- based software, but just like on-premises software, will be pre-built with specific features that meet the needs of a particular industry. BuilderTREND and Co-Construct are examples of cloud-based project management systems

No “Future” Features: Note that requirements are fulfilled or not based only on what a product/service does NOW, and NOT what it might do in some “future release” or what it seems like it’s doing in a current “beta” release. The reason is simple - features found in beta (software being tested but not yet fully “released) may or may not make it into a final version. Vendors often have to pull features at the last minute because they can’t resolve issues or “bugs”. Likewise, promises of future features/functionality might never materialize – and even if they do, the feature may work nothing like you envision. With that in mind – the only thing that matters is what’s available right now . Note that so many of Google’s Apps are in perpetual “beta” meaning they can change or pull them at any time, with no notice and no apology. We don’t believe in entrusting your business to anything but stable, fully-released products/services.

Be Wary of Pre-Published “Software Comparison Guides”: There are all kinds of “technology comparison guides” you can purchase online and from various technology consultancies. At worst, they are totally misleading and untruthful. At best, their information is apt to be outdated and incomplete. Often, the guide itself is sponsored, meaning some products are paying to be shown in the best possible light. Even if that’s not true, it’s doubtful that the people compiling the guides are experts in the type of software being “rounded up.” Another problem is that publishers send their list of questions to the various vendors, who then have their VP of sales/marketing answer the questions. There’s nobody actually implementing the systems to see if the feature/function answers are accurate. For example, I recently downloaded a “Top CRM Software” guide that listed certain products as NOT having features I knew they’d had for years… and others as HAVING features (or worse, listed as “Partial” without any explanation) that I knew for a fact they’d never had.

The ONLY way to use your Requirements Document is to independently demo each of the products/services you’re interested in, and check for yourself whether or not the package meets the requirements. It’s perfectly OK to provide your requirements to the various software vendors so they can prepare and show you exactly how they might approach each of the requirements. Even then, you’ll find massive differences in the true capabilities of competing products.

USING YOUR REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT: The graphic below is a simple requirements document template. Once you know the “WHAT” – you can start to compare the products/services against what you’ve come up with, noting whether or not each product/service complies with the requirement(s). Tally up the totals for each product/service – note any “terminating factors” – and the right product or mix of products should present itself.

IMPLEMENTATION: THE PROJECT-ACTION PLAN Once you’ve determined the products/services you intend to use to achieve your objectives/ satisfy your requirements, the next step is known as “Implementation”, or the process of installing and configuring the products, and then training yourself and your users how to best use them. Even if you’ve done everything perfectly up to this point, Implementation can still sink your ship. The thing to remember is that it is a PROJECT, just like any project your company is undertaking, will have TASKS, RESPONSIBLE PARTIES, and TIMELINES FOR COMPLETION. A company-wide CRM or Enterprise Resource Planning system could be a year-long project involving thousands of hours, hundreds of tasks, and dozens of people. If you’ve never been through the process before, don’t try it without professional help. Even relatively simple systems like 3D CAD or estimating will go more smoothly if you have someone available who is experienced in the types of data that need to be gathered, and the overall flow of the project. Some software companies have “professional services” departments, or will work with consultants like our company in order to get their clients up and running as quickly as possible.

Avoid “Open-Ended” implementation plans. This is where the software company says “here’s what you need to do – call us when you’re done and we’ll show you the next steps…” The most successful implementations are “closed-ended” meaning that every task has an actual deadline on the calendar, and the overall project is managed using a critical path- much like building or remodeling a home or commercial construction project. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help if you need it - Mountain Consulting Group, LLC is very experienced at implementing all types of technology and can either help you directly, or point you to experts in the type of technology you’re trying to get up and running.

LINKS AND OTHER RESOURCE LISTINGS

SMARTPHONE AND PORTABLE (TABLET) APPS A couple years ago, this category didn’t even exist. Now, mobile smartphones and other handheld gadgets are the future of mobile computing, with today’s “SmartPhones” being as capable as desktop computers just a few years ago. And what project manager or salesperson doesn’t know how to use a phone? It’s a platform that requires very little re-learning. Applications like JotNot Pro turn your phone into an input device for your website, blog, or project management software. Handhelds are so important that some larger companies are no longer distributing laptop computers to some employees… just a SmartPhone. QR Codes are (finally) starting to take off -making it easy for consumers to get additional information via their SmartPhone or Tablet without having to type. Finally, there’s the trend of putting an entire computer on a thumbdrive or other removable media . Online Catalogs of SmartPhone and Tablet “apps” for Conctractors AppCenter http://www.housingzone.com/appcenter/business-tools Currently, HousingZone’s AppCenter is the most comprehensive place to find construction-oriented “apps”

App Advice: http://appadvice.com/ - Just like it sounds AppsGoneFree: http://appchronicles.com/category/apps-gone-free/ Free daily apps Free App Report: http://freeappreport.com/ More free apps iPhoneApps Directory http://www.iphoneappsdir.com/ iOS only –directory of all types of apps

SplashTop http://www.splashtop.com/ : Turn your iPad or iPhone nto a second display ! Several different apps

Google Voice https://www.google.com/voice Unified inbox and more – very cool!

VLINGO http://www.vlingo.com/ Adds voice-to text/action capability to SmartPhones.

Augmented Reality and Virtualization – SmartPhone Layar http://www.layar.com One of the first “augmented reality” applications. Point your Android-enabled phone at a Layar-enabled place and receive all kinds of additional information overlaid on your phone’s screen.

Ceedo http://www.ceedo.com/ Take your desktop w/ you – on phone! Resource Sites - Phone QR CODES – http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588 Intro article to QR “2D” bar codes

Crackberry.com - http://www.crackberry.com News and gossip blog/site for users of RIM Blackberry phones. Features ‘leaked’ operating system updates sometimes months before their formal release.

PhoneScoop http://www.phonescoop.com The latest buzz on mobile phones, SmartPhones, and other handheld devices. WHEN is the iPhone going to be available on Verizon? (Summer 2012…really..) This site will know.

Portable Apps http://portableapps.com/ Just like it sounds, this site features dozens of lightweight apps that will install on a USB thumbdrive or memory card. Carry your entire computer on your keyring !

Favorite SmartPhone or Tablet Apps It’s difficult to “link” to these, but you can get to them via the Apple AppStore or Google/Android Marketplace. Most of these are very inexpensive or free, but may charge a fee for each project or upload. There are literally dozens – maybe hundreds of these apps available. This list is a “short list” of ones that we have actually used successfully, either ourselves or with clients. Estimating: • MagicPlan - creates fully-dimensioned as-built drawings of rooms using your phone’s camera • FloorHeating : Lays out radiant tubing for radiant floors

Structural Design • BeamBuddy – for wood beams • SteelBeam - for Steel beams

Feet-Inch Calculator: • BuildCalc (www.buildcalc.com )

Document and Business Card Scanners • JotNot Pro - allows both processing and signing of documents • ScanBizCards - One of the best business card scanners we’ve found • Evernote Hello - Not strictly a card scanner, but still a good way to get cards digitized • CardMunch - Unique system- will manually process cards you send them as well as scanning

GPS and Mapping • ElevationChart: (iOS only) Creates an elevation cross-section from points you plot on a map

Builder and Industry Blogs: BuildIntel http://buildintelblog.com/ [MCG FAVORITE!] Baltimore marketing firm with finger on the pulse of our industry via Twitter and their blog. Great blog roll on the left of their site is a complete list of the top bloggers in our industry if you don’t see them here.

Do You Convert A bunch of our favorite http://www.doyouconvert.com/blog/ builder blogs Sales Guru Mike Lyon’s blog bit the dust in 2012 Blogging Platforms: WordPress http://www.wordpress.com [MCG FAVORITE!] HIGHLY RECOMMENDED In the past couple of years WordPress has morphed from a simple blogging platform, to one of the most extensible and complete content management systems CMS) on the planet… mostly because of its open framework and thousands of third-party developers writing add-in applications. From a simple blog to a complete website and e-commerce solution, you can build it with WordPress.

Blogger (by Google) Several other blogging http://www.blogger.com platforms bit the dust Free Blog Engine from Google. in 2012 E-mail Marketing MailChimp [MCG FAVORITE !!] http://www.mailchimp.com Modern e-Mail Campaign Manager We’ve used half a dozen of these in the past year and I must say my overall favorite is MailChimp because of how easily it integrates with other online applications . But select one based on your specific image hosting, list size, and budget.

iContact / iConnect Constant Contact Vertical Response http://www.icontact.com/ http://www.constantcontact.com http://www.verticalresponse.com/ Another popular choice Another popular choice Another popular choice

Personal Information Systems You no longer have to go hunting for information- it will come to you! Use these new Web 2.0 pages to organize your information, websites, RSS Feeds, and personal productivity tools. Many utilize handy web “widgets” – tools like calendars, RSS readers, weather and more you can modify to suit how you work.

ProtoPage [MCG FAVORITE !!] We were stunned to learn that Google was discontinuing iGoogle later this year. After surveying every source we came up with Protopage as a viable alternative http://www.protopage.com

Snap Appointments PageFlakes My Yahoo http://www.snapappointments.com/ http://www.pageflakes.com/ http://my.yahoo.com/ Online appointments made easy Customizable homepage w/“Widgets” Yahoo’s customizable homepage

Photo and Image Storage Online FlickR http://www.flickr.com [MCG FAVORITE] One of the first social photo sharing sites is still the best – connects to other social media for easy sharing.

Picassa Web Albums ShutterFly Studio http://picasaweb.google.com/ http://www.shutterfly.com Google’s online photo storage ShutterFly has free image hosting

Social Media and Social Networking Sites: Wikipedia’s List of Social Media Sites [MCG FAVORITE !] HIGHLY RECOMMENDED http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_software This category is so hot and growing so fast I can’t keep up – but Wikipedia can! Here’s an absolutely current and up-to-date list of just about every Social Media website imaginable.

FaceBook Twitter LinkedIn http://www.facebook.com http://www.twitter.com http://www.linkedin.com Over 1 Billion Active Subscribers! Micro-blogging is now everywhere Business-to-business communication

Google Plus + https://plus.google.com/ Don’t ignore this important newcomer – it will almost certainly be a factor when optimizing your web pages for Google and other search engines !

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com Fastest growing social media site – allows people to “pin” photos and images into collections that they can share. Great for builders/remods looking to show off a portfolio.

Houzz.com http://www.houzz.com/ - Online “Ideabooks” for building and remodeling projects. People create their “Ideabooks” and can query design professionals and builders about the photos that are uploaded.

Social Networking Tools and Add-ons: We all know what Twitter.com, Facebook.com, and LinkedIn.com can do for us, but how can we make that experience even better? By using these handy add-ins that extend the functionality of our social networking sites.

TweetDeck http://www.tweetdeck.com [MCG FAVORITE !] HIGHLY RECOMMENDED A much-better interface for keeping track of your Twitter campaigns.

Ping.FM CloudMagic Backupify http://ping.fm/ http://www.cloudmagic.com http://www.backupify.com Update all your sites at once Search across multiple social sites Back up across multiple cloud services

Social Bookmarking: Instead of trying to sync bookmarks between computers, why not keep them “in the cloud” where you can share them with co-workers, clients (how about a list of manufacturers’ sites for selections?) and more ?

Delicious http://www.delicious.com MCG FAVORITE] The #1 social bookmarking site. Create groups of links you an share with clients, subs, or suppliers to organize your jobs and streamline selections.

Digg StumbleUpon ReddIt (read it ) http://www.digg.com http://www.stumbleupon.com/ http://www.reddit.com/ Tracks the popularity of your links See what others are looking for The web trending all in one place

Web Survey Tools Note – there are a ton of free and cheap web survey tools… do a Google search for “Free Web Survey” and you’ll find at least a dozen – most are very similar. I’ve included a few here that we’ve tried with good success.

SurveyMonkey http://www.surveymonkey.com [MCG FAVORITE] Build and send your own customer satisfaction surveys, poll your subs/suppliers, and more. Free version available. QuestionPro Poll Daddy Free Online Surveys http://www.questionpro.com/ http://polldaddy.com/ http://www.freeonlinesurveys.com/ Similar to Survey Monkey Web survey and polling service. Portal site for more survey services

Web-Casting and Podcasting BlogTalk Radio http://www.blogtalkradio.com/default.aspx Start your own radio show to promote your business. VIRB iPodder Downcast http://www.virb.com/ http://www.ipodder.org/ http://www.downcastapp.com/ Free storage for multi-media and video Directory of available Podcasts A podcast app for iPhone/iPad

Buzzspout: http://www.buzzsprout.com Inexpensive hosting for your podcasts Stitcher: http://stitcher.com/ On-demand radio/talkshows/podcast on mobile devices and the web Web Video, Video Sharing, and Web-TV Sites: YouTube http://www.youtube.com [MCG FAVORITE] Ubiquitous web video site, now owned by (you guessed it...) Google. Creative builders and remodelers are using YouTube to post everything from good construction practices for subcontractors, to marketing videos for clients. YouTube consistently ranks in the top five in search traffic

LightWorks http://www.lightworksbeta.com/ Free open-source video editing software. Highly Recommended

Justin.TV Viddler Vimeo http://www.justin.tv http://www.viddler.com http://www.vimeo.com/ Start your own TV channel More storage space than YouTube HD Video Hosting

VideoHelp : http://www.videohelp.com/ Like it sounds, community of videoheads ready and willing to help with web video projects . Also templates, tools, free software, more.

ALTERNATIVE, WEB-BASED, AND OPEN-SOURCE APPLICATIONS More and more conventional applications are moving in to “the cloud” and being delivered over the Internet. This year is the first time there have been a selection of web-based accounting applications available, and even some CAD programs now have one foot in the cloud. This year we’ve kept the links to free or cheap applications. (trying to stay under $30/user/mo).

Alternatives –General: Alternative To: http://alternativeto.net/ [MCG FAVORITE] – Start here. This website has free and open-source alternatives to most commercial software – highly recommended

OpenAlternatives: http://www.openalternatives.org/site/ Another “alternative software” site.

Accounting and Financial Management:

FreshBooks Gnu (new) Cash Less Accounting http://www.freshbooks.com/ http://www.gnucash.org/ http://lessaccounting.com/ Time tracking and invoicing software FREE open-source accounting Simple online acct. system –

Kashoo http://www.kashoo.com Totally free (up to 20 transactions/mo) simple cloud-based accounting FreeAgent http://www.freeagent.com/ Another online accounting system – this one is micro-companies QuickBooks Online http://www.quickbooksonline.com : Great for small-volume remodelers/builders – roughly equiv. to “Quicken” but still a nice compact accounting system that will integrate with other “cloud”apps.

QUICKBOOKS – HOSTED: This is not a separate service per se, but rather a group of vendors offering remote access to Cloud-based Quickbooks via Remote Desktop connections. Unlike QuickBooks Online, you get a fully-functional working version of QuickBooks, exactly like the desktop version, because that’s what it is! Note that ANY application can be “webified” this way with good results, including the entire Windows desktop and everything on it (virtualization).

SoHoos: http://www.planetsoho.com/ Small Biz contacts, invoices, inventory, payments, and more. FREE Working Point : http://www.workingpoint.com/ Full-featured Accounting/Financial Mng. App - $9/$20/mo

Xero http://www.xero.com [MCG FAVORITE] Full-featured online accounting system – similar to QuickBooks in scope, and starting at only $19/mo. This is one of the few web-based systems that will allow you to import the NAHB chart of accounts .

HR (Human Reources) Management: LessHR http://lesshr.com CATS - Online Human Resource Management System

CAD and Bulding Design: SketchUp (Google) http://www.sketchup.com [MCG FAVORITE !] SketchUp is becoming to design what Word™ is to writing - everyone needs to learn the basics. Free version for casual use, $495 for the “Pro” version which adds the LayOut presentation module and Ruby scripting

Softplan Studio FloorPlanner 3D Warehouse http://studio.softplan.com/main.php http://www.floorplanner.com/ http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ FREE 3Ddesign /visualization FREE 2D space planning Companion site for SketchUp

Competitive Intelligence HitWise http://www.hitwise.com/ Website traffic analysis Engine

ISPionage: http://www.ispionage.com/ Great web competitive intelligence service. Uncover competing PPC strategies. GigAlert: http://www.gigaalert.com/ More competitive web intelligence and reputation management Diagramming and Process Mapping: DIA - http://dia-installer.de/index_en.html [MCG FAVORITE !] FREE! Great little free technical, diagramming utility – not web-based, DIA installs on your PC. Replaces Visio.

Lucid Chart: https://www.lucidchart.com/ [MCG FAVORITE !] A diagrammer with Chrome browser plug-in

Creately Gliffy WiseMapping http://www.creately.com http://www.gliffy.com http://www.wisemapping.com/c/home.htm Web-based alternative –modern! Web-based. Free basic account Create “mind maps” online for free

Photo and Image Editing Gimp and GimpShop, GimPhoto and GimPad [MCG FAVORITES ! ] http://www.gimp.org/ , http://www.gimpshop.com , http://www.gimphoto.com Open-source image editing package. These free hacks to Gimp create FREE photoshop-like replacements

Paint.Net Picasa (Google) PicNik http://www.getpaint.net http://www.picasa.com http://www.picnik.com/ Totally free image editing software Google’s image/organizing software Web 2.0 photo editor

SumoPaint: http://www.sumopaint.com/ Cloud and/or desktop image editor . Free and up. Caesium: http://caesium.sourceforge.net/ Free image compressor – resizer Cerius http://www.cerieus.com/ Another free photo editor PhotoBie : http://www.photobie.com/ Another online photo editor

R.I.P. One of our favorites – Aviary.com was morphed from a product to a developer’s add-in SDK (Software Developers’ Kit) So look for Aviary capability in other products down the road..

Presentation and Publishing

VoiceThread http://voicethread.com/ [MCG FAVORITE ! ] Web 2.0 application that lets you create interactive multi-media presentations and e-Learning, updated from your phone !

Scribd VCASMO http://www.scribd.com/ http://www.vcasmo.com/ Publish your e-book online Combines PowerPoint and Video Productivity and ‘Office’ Replacements Google Drive (AKA “Docs”) http://drive.google.com [MCG FAVORITE ! ] Word processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation applications – all online, and all inter-connected Web 2.0

OpenOffice Oracle Small Business Suite Zoho Application Suite http://www.openoffice.org http://www.netsuite.com/ http://www.zoho.com/ MSOffice Alternative - FREE Not free- but complete Free/Cheap Office replacements Project Intranets: I have several favorites in this category, all very different, but all accomplish the same things, allowing you to share documents, photos, task and contact lists, and much more. This is just a sampling of the very good services available – we’ve left out the more expensive paid services such as BaseCamp from 37signals only because of price.

Microsoft SharePoint Services: http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint [MCG FAVORITE!] Microsoft’s collaboration platform integrates with Microsoft Office to let builders and remodelers share documents, photos, meetings, and more on the web.

Microsoft Office365: (formerly “Officelive”) http://www.office365.com : Total replacement for “on premises office suite and collaboration. For fee ranging from $ 5-20/mo/user includes the entire MS Office suite, plus one seat of SharePoint, one seat of Exchange server (email) , Microsoft’s version of VoIP phone and LiveMeeting – a replacement for GoToMeeting. Higher-priced plans include a physical install of Microsoft Office.

Yammer: http://www.yammer.com Third-party MSOffice and SharePoint “Social Network”

Remindo FREE http://www.remindo.com The folks in India are starting to get good at this stuff… Remindo is a very ‘Facebook-like’ collaboration/company Intranet site, making it instantly usable by 300,000,000 people who live on Facebook. Very smart.

Central Desktop GroupSite HyperOffice http://www.centraldesktop.com http://www.groupsite.com/ http://www.hyperoffice.com Alternative to SharePoint™ Collaboration /Social networking Online collaboration suite

Project Management: This category competes with builder-specific services and is so generic that I don’t have a favorite, but am including some of the more modern/lean/collaborative project management services for you to check out. These are all inexpensive and/or free for a single project.

FreedCamp: http://www.freedcamp.com Essentially an open-source clone of 37Signals’ “BaseCamp” – Freedcamp is rapidly developing into its own project management “framework”.

JXProject: http://www.jxproject.com/ : Cheap/Free on-premises scheduler/project management software a la MS Project . $20/yr for 5 activations

Do.Com: https://www.do.com/ A thoroughly modern web-based project management app – this one works with Google docs, and is very GenY in approach – more like a social networking site. (Formerly “Manymoon”)

PlanetSOHO: http://www.planetsoho.com/ Small Business “Management” system – Free !

Remember the Milk! Zen Project Management http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ http://www.agilezen.com/ A simple useful online list/task manager Lean project management

Cross-Platform Cloud Project Management Tools: This is a new category of dissimilar tools that all have one thing in common – your information is stored in the cloud but is available from almost any platform. PCs, SmartPhones, Tablets, etc.

Evernote: http://www.evernote.com [MCG FAVORITE]. The ultimate second-brain in the sky. Extensions allow you to clip almost any kind of information from any source, organize and retrieve it any way you like from practically any device. $5/mo for the pro version which is a bargain. Highly, Highly recommended !

ToodleDo: http://www.toodledo.com [MCG FAVORITE ]. A generic “list generator ” type of tool that can be implement from a very simple “to do list” … to something akin to a basic scheduling system. Several clients are now using this instead of more expensive “builder specific” software.

New! 3/1/2013 Podio: http://www.podio.com “Do-it-Yourself” apps for project management – in a SharePoint-like framework from Citrix online (the people behind GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, etc.). Use either pre-made apps or build your own - We’re just starting to test this but it looks very good – Not cheap, but free for the first five users making it viable for small companies

Producteev: http://www.producteev.com/ Another cross-platform To-Do

SpringPad : http://springpadit.com/home/ An EverNote-like “ Intelligent Notebook”

Task Coach http://www.taskcoach.org/ Another cross-platform task manager – FREE!

Toggl: https://www.toggl.com/ Cross-platform time-tracking Very simple!

Virtualization VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox.org/ Free open-source Server Virtualization

UTILITIES AND OTHER MUST-HAVE TOOLS Even though the web is the next computing platform, we still have to keep our laptops, netbooks, and smartphones running and our data backed up and safe. This category is a petting zoo of useful tools for maintaining your IT gear. Document Templates DocStoc http://www.docstoc.com/ [MCG FAVORITE] Over 8 million documents and templates uploaded by users –available free or cheap

Construction Office Online: http://www.constructionofficeonline.com . This is another source of construction-related templates ranging from free to pricey… really good to mediocre. Use common sense but you may find what you need!

SCORE Templates: http://www.score.org/resources/tab-a General business tools from the Service Corps Of Retired Exectuives Good stuff available for download !

Vertex Excel Time Templates http://www.vertex42.com/ Free timesheet and time calculators and tons of other templates

Business Plan Templates: http://www.businessplantemplate.net/ Free and cheap biz plan templates .

Data Safety, Security , Back-up and Recovery

My LockBox http://fspro.net/my-lockbox/ A free security tool that allows you to hide and password protect files on your computer

Should I Change My Password? https://shouldichangemypassword.com/ Web-based tool to find out if your password has been compromised

CloneZilla http://clonezilla.org/ Open-source drive imaging software

ScamWarners http://scamwarners.com/ Site warns against online scams. Crude site with lots of ads – but get past that for good information.

EXCEL Tools ExcelIsFun ! www.youtube.com/excelisfun [MCG FAVORITE!] Amazing free Excel /YouTube resource A community college prof. puts his entire coursework online. Start with “Excel Basics” – HIGHLY Recommended

The Company Rocks: http://www.thecompanyrocks.com/ Another great Excel training resource. Also PPT and Word

File Sharing and “Save and Sync” Synchronization There are so many players here it’s hard to keep up with them, for good reason. Almost everyone has at least a desktop and a laptop they need to keep in sync, and the Internet is by far the easiest way to handle it. The current trend is a group of apps called “Save and Sync” that create both a local and a cloud copy of your files. Draft of JLC article Follows.

DropBox http://www.dropbox.com [MCG FAVORITE!] Great new technology - sets up shared folders between you and peers that can be accessed either like local folders… or from a password-protected website.

CrashPlan: http://www.crashplan.com Similar to DropBox but offers free peer-to-peer only (no web storage) option Box: http://www.box.com . Another Save-and-Sync contender. See attached article SugarSync: http://www.sugarsync.com Another Save-and-Sync contender . See attached article

YouSendIt: https://www.yousendit.com/ A good large file sharing service- good iOS app.

Tonido Personal Cloud http://www.tonido.com/software_what.html Share folders via the Cloud

Ubuntu ONE: https://one.ubuntu.com/downloads/windows/ A cross-platform file-sharing service - Ubuntu Linux Wuala: http://www.wuala.com/en/ Lacie’s online storage/file sync system 2GB free

Send This File GETT: YouSendIt: http://www.sendthisfile.com http://ge.tt/ https://www.yousendit.com/ Free large file transfer service Dog-simple /cheap file sharing A large file service good iOS app. Online Backup Carbonite http://www.carbonite.com Automatic “in-the-background” backup service. Only $50/yr for unlimited storage. Now with multiple iterations/version control. I think this is the best and easiest online backup solution for small-volume builders.

MozyPro Elephant Drive BackBlaze http://www.mozy.com http://www.elephantdrive.com/ http://www.backblaze.com/ 2GB/mo free, then $5/mo Backup with permanent storage $10/mo Great new online backup $5/mo iBackup and iDrive (http://www.iBackup.com ) - good services that are pushing prices down for online backup

Backup Your Backup – and Other Cloud Data Backupify http://www.backupify.com Service that backs up your data that’s already in the cloud. The more you depend on your cloud services, the more important this becomes. Separate versions for Google Apps, Saleforce.com, and “Personal Apps” which includes Gmail, Google Drive, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and more. 2GB of data for free, then $4/mo and up depending on plan. Document Management- Paper to Cloud Shoeboxed: OfficeDrop http://shoeboxed.com http:// www.officedrop.com Scan-and-Digitize service Scan and Digitize service

Remote Access, Remote Control, Remote Meetings

GoToMeeting.com http://www.gotomeeting.com An easy, reliable, and inexpensive way to conduct meetings online. To be honest, I’ve tried all the cheaper or free alternatives and if you’re on a budget – there’s no shame in using those. But if you want near-perfect reliability and ease- of use… GoToMeeting is still your best bet – now has HD webcam capability too. $50/mo approx..

Join.Me https://join.me/ Very simple Screensharing – free for basic 1-on-1 , $20/mo for “Pro”. This is our second choice if you don’t need webcam capability .

Crossloop http://www.crossloop.com/ Looks like a support site – and it is… but the software tool is FREE, and lets you share desktops with other users just like GoToMyPC and other commercial solutions.

Glance: http://www.glance.net/ Simple screensharing - $10/ for a day pass (no commitment). Easy, but very basic.

Hamachi (and LogMeIn) http://hamachi.cc/ Virtually painless VPN solution utilizing the Internet . LogMeIn is a lower-cost alternative to GoToMyPC. Some folks like it better, I’ve found it to be slower.

RealVNC http://www.realvnc.com/ Works very much like commercial products, but is commercial open-source. Totally free versions are available online but require considerable “geek factor”

Show Document http://www.showdocument.com/ A simplified screen sharing service Free version avail. (limited)

TeamViewer http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx All-In-One Solution for Remote Access and Support over the Internet. FREE accounts available

UltraVNC http://www.uvnc.com/ Totally free version of VNC platform. Requires considerably more “geek factor” than commercial versions.

VYEW : (“View” – get it?) http://vyew.com/s/ Online meetings – free for up to 10 participants . Pro is 150 for #20/mo

Yugma: http://www.yugma.com Free for personal use (limited features) or only $10/mo for 10 participants (GoToMeeting is 4-5X the price). Yugma is a great alternative to GoToMeeting, and their tech support is fantastic. I had a little trouble with one of the required Java add-ins and they got back to me and solved it literally in a couple of minutes. Sort of like Avis, they’re #2 but trying harder.

YuuGuu http://www.yuuguu.com/ Another remote meeting/access solution.

Search and Research Ad Hunt’r (Formerly All of Craig’s ) http://www.adhuntr.com/ Search all of Craigslist sub-sites at the same time.

BlogDigger http://www.blogdigger.com/ A search engine to research what is being posted on blogs about your business. Is it good… or not so good?

City-Data [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.city-data.com Stats and demographics for most areas of the United States. Great for researching market potential

City Rating http://www.cityrating.com/ Cost of Living, School Ratings, Crime stats, Weather, Occupational Outlook™ and more for all US towns and cities.

DataCatch http://www.datacatch.com/ Not free, but DataCatch makes tools that extend Google (and other) desktop search tools to include external drives, network drives, and other hard-to-search areas.

Journal of Light Construction Online [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.jlconline.com Home of Joe’s Computer Solutions forum, and one of the best building science research sites on the Internet (Joe’s Forum - http://www.joestoddard.net )

Google [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.google.com/ Forget complicated web directories and product databases. Learn to use Google and you can research anything you need to research on the web.

Wikipedia [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.wikipedia.org Online human knowledgebase/encyclopedia. Use it to gather demographic data about your market and buyers

ZoomInfo http://www.zoominfo.com/ Specialized search engine for people, job-seekers, and jobs. Handy for researching candidates for hire.

Training 12 Tools for Creating Screencasts – from Mashable http://mashable.com/2008/02/21/screencasting-video-tutorials/ Here’s a list of tools you can use to create training videos and presentations… for your subs, for your clients, for whoever needs to know more about how you operate.

Google Guide: [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.googleguide.com/ All things Google - Highly Recommended! This site is the most comprehensive “how to use Google” resource available on the web. Bookmark it !

Web 2.0 Applications, Web design tools , and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Canvas http://www.gocanvas.com Application framework that lets anyone create mobile apps without programming App2You http://app2you.com/site Web 2.0 system that lets anyone create online software without programming!

ISPionage: http://www.ispionage.com/ Great web competitive intelligence service. Uncover competing PPC strategies.

Google for Webmasters and presentation [MCG FAVORITE] – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED http://services.google.com/breeze/webmasters/googleforwebmasters/ Search Engine Optimization is all the rage, and is often just snake oil. Google will tell you straight up what it takes to get ranked in their search engine, and you don’t need to pay anybody big bucks to do it for you.

QR CODES – What are they and why do you need one? http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588 Intro article to QR “2D” bar codes, which can be used to beam product information, installation videos, and just about everything else to your cell phone and/or PC (This site – “searchengineland.com” – is a good resource unto itself! ) Voice Over IP (VOIP)

Recordable: http://recordableapp.com/ Record phone conversations via their 877-number SIPGATE http://www.sipgate.com/one - Landline replacement service – full-featured FREE for individual accts.

Shopping Carts Shopify http://shopify.com/ Very easy online shopping cart service

WEB DEVELOPMENT AND HOSTING There are literally thousands of places to register and host your web domain. It’s confusing and frustrating. For that reason, we recommend sticking with GoDaddy for general domain registration and basic site hosting, including basic e- Commerce and WordPress blogs. No, we are not sales agents - don’t make a dime if you go there – we recommend them because they get the job done for us, and will for you as well.

Domain Registration – General Hosting GoDaddy Domain Registration http://www.godaddy.com Register and manage all your domain names at GoDaddy. Great management tools and a wide range of domain products, including low-cost hosting. We host most of our own sites and client sites with GoDaddy – they offer free installations of WordPress, Drupal, and dozens of other content-management and web-based applications for your site.

GreenGeeks : http://www.greengeeks.com Alternative to GoDaddy – some of our clients find this company to be more socially responsible, etc. Good registration/hosting/service .

BlueHost: http://www.bluehost.com/ Another low-cost host.

SharePoint and Exchange Hosting Apps4rent.com http://www.apps4rent.com Apps4Rent has hosted SharePoint accounts starting at less than $10/mo. We use them ourselves.

FrontPages -Web Sharepointhosting.com 1and1 Web Hosting www.frontpages-web-hosting.net/ http://www.sharepointhosting.com http://www.1and1.com Another good USA SharePoint host Claims some big-name clients One-size-fits-all - $29/mo

Pay-Per-Click and SEO BuildingOnline’s Production Agency http://www.buildingonline.net/ Allan Wickstrom’s agency. one of the few consultants in this business who understand “pay per click” and can make it work for you on the web. Also experts on Search Engine Optimization – something everyone needs but almost nobody understands the way Allan does. Content Management Systems (CMS) and Specialized Website Builders Wordpress http://wordpress.org/ (hosted) and http://www.wordpress.com (software) [MCG FAVORITE!] Open source content creation and blogging software, in the past couple of years WordPress has morphed from a simple blogging platform, to one of the most extensible and complete content management systems on the ‘net… mostly because of its open framework and thousands of third-party developers writing add-in applications for it. From a simple blog to a complete website and e-commerce solution, you can build it with WordPress. GoDaddy and other hosts offer free installation HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !

GoDaddy Website Builder: http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder-new4.aspx GoDaddy’s new and improved “Website Tonight” builder system.

Other “Site Builders” Squarespace Yola SnapPages http://squarespace.com http://www.yola.com/ http://www.snappages.com Very stylized “no-code” sites Build a complex website- no-coding Another “site builder”

Concrete 5 : http://www.concrete5.org/ Totally free CMS system – (be sure to click the English version of the site)

CushyCMS: http://www.cushycms.com/en Add-on CMS system for any website. Allows in-browser editing

Lubith: http://www.lubith.com/ WordPress Theme Generator

Drupal : http://drupal.org/ Full-featured open-source CMS

Joomla http://www.joomla.org/ Another full-featured open-source CMS

OLark http://www.olark.com/ Live-operator chat for any website – low cost. Zopim: http://www.zopim.com/ Another live-operator chat for any website – low cost.

Simple CMS : http://www.simplecms.com/ Add CMS to any website in minutes - $13/mo for “Pro” also check out Cushy PageLime, and Surreal (Google URLS)

PageLime: http://pagelime.com/ adds a “cms-editable” CSS class to any element on your site

Surreal CMS http://www.surrealcms.com/ : CMS-itizes sites built conventionally

Squidoo http://www.squidoo.com/ build a page (a lens )and share it

CityMax http://www.citymax.com/website-builder.htm?rid=238 Another proprietary web-builder

Web Forms Builders –CRM Tie-in Adobe Central (www.adobe.com – Google the full URL) - Adobe has free/cheap system to produce easy web contact forms that can feed your CRM system .

APPNitro “MachForm” http://www.appnitro.com/ Another online form-builder

WUFOO: http://wufoo.com/ Another online form-builder Partners with Freshbooks, Highrise, WuFooey (wordpress)

MORE CHEAP TRICKS Consider the following sections the “Junk Drawer” – Items I thought you should know about and things I use myself on a daily basis. I’m especially happy with some of the utilities like IzArc (which replaces WinZip -$40) and PDFCreator, an open-source PDF printer… and I use these daily instead of their commercial equivalents.

10-Minute Mail http://10minutemail.com/ 10-minute mail gives you a working throw-away address for all those sites requiring an email address for your opt-in.

Gizmo’s Freeware Reviews: http://www.techsupportalert.com/ Site compares and reviews free software in nearly every category.

DD-WRT (Router Hacks) http://www.dd-wrt.com/ Ok, for the geeky among you… here’s a site that provides hacked firmware for your Internet router, allowing it to do all kinds of new stuff. Proceed with caution!

DIMIO SOFTWARE - utilities http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/ All kinds of FREE utilities – synchronizing, back-up, controlling your computer’s shut down process.

FileZilla http://filezilla-project.org/ [MCG FAVORITE!] Free open-source FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software. If you’re building any kind of a website, sooner or later you’ll need to upload files to it. Filezilla is just as capable as CuteFTP and other commercial software. We use this almost daily to manage old-school websites.

Free Downloads http://www.free-downloads.net/ Great site reviewing hundreds of free and cheap downloads and trial software.

Folder Size http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/ XP and Vista users only…this utility adds columns to Windows explorer that show the size of your folders

Folder-Size http://www.mindgems.com/products/Folder-Size/Folder-Size.html Another folder-sizer

Google Guide: http://www.googleguide.com/ All things Google - Highly Recommended!

LiveCD List http://livecdlist.com/ A list of CD-able operating systems (boot from CD)

Windows Directory Stats: http://windirstat.info/ Another folder-sizer

Giveaway of the Day http://www.giveawayoftheday.com Like the name suggests – this site offers a free copy of commercial software, a new title almost every day. Most are junk titles, but every once in a while something good shows up !

IzArc Zip Utility [MCG FAVORITE ! ] and 7-Zip http://www.izarc.org 7 Zip http://www.7-zip.org/ Free open-source replacement for WinZip ! iScribe http://www.memecode.com/scribe.php Free lightweight e-mail client - replaces Outlook and many others.

Lean Enterprise Institute http://www.lean.org/ Everything you ever wanted to know about “Lean” – start here.

MagicIso http://www.magiciso.com/ Utility that emulates a DVD optical drive, making it possible for you to open and install software from .iso files even when you don’t have the actual CD or DVD.

Magic Jelly Beans Keyfinder http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/ Software locates and retrieves your various software product keys –FREE

OtherInBox http://www.otherinbox.com/ Online system attempts to de-messify your inbox

PDFCreator [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator Totally free open-source PDF creation and editing tool. Replaces Acrobat in many applications.

Rocketdock http://rocketdock.com/ Cool custom “dock” that turns your PC into a Mac sort of… Free but if you like it, please donate or buy a shirt.

Router Passwords http://www.routerpasswords.com/ How many times have you forgotten the default username and password to your router? - Here you go !

SnagIt [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.snagit.com Even though there are freebies, and even built-in tools in Windows and MacOS, SnagIt is worth the money, it’s the best screen capture utility on the market today - $40

SnapLR http://www.vessenger.com/snaplr Free screenshot/annotate tool

SoonR http://www.soonr.com Another File Sharing Application.

TWiT-TV (The Week in Tech) http://www.twit.tv/ Do you remember TechTV? The ScreenSavers show? Well TWiT is Leo LaPorte and all the old TechTV gang, alive and well on the Internet and podcasts, and they tell me with a larger audience than they had on cable.

Visibo Incredible StartPage http://blog.visibotech.com/p/incredible-startpage.html Great StartPage for Chrome browser

Webware http://www.webware.com Site compares and reviews the latest Web 2.0 offerings – many free. Check out the “top 100”

WinSnap http://www.ntwind.com/software/winsnap.html Open-source screen capture utility/alternative to SnagIt - $19

Engineering Sites and resources

BuildCalc http://www.buildcalc.com [MCG FAVORITE!] The BEST feet-inch/construction calculator on the web and for iOS/Android Buy it!

Construction Calc http://www.constructioncalc.com/ Online store featuring many construction engineering and calculator titles.

Engineer’s Edge http://www.engineersedge.com/ Good site with all kinds of engineering tools

Fax Solutions Faxes are a dinosaur in other industries, but we can’t seem to get away from them, so here are some resources to help you deal with them. I’m a fan of the e-Fax service because it allows you to send an attachment from your email account and have it wind up on someone’s paper fax machine.

Page 58 of 92 2014-15 Technology Resource Guide – ©2015 by Mountain Consulting Group, LLC. All rights reserved e-Fax and Fax-Away http://www.efax.com , http://www.faxaway.com Inexpensive and reliable web-based faxing solutions

FaxNoMore http://www.faxnomore.com/ Remove your fax number from Spammers

Fax Providers.com http://faxproviders.com/index.html Good index of Internet/Email fax providers. Getting dated, but still a good resource by David Berger

Generation “Y” Resources

Pew Social Trends http://pewsocialtrends.org/ Pew is an organization that tracks all kinds of social and demographic trend info, much of it free.

Understanding Generation Y – Oberlin University http://www.oberlin.edu/stupub/ocreview/2006/12/08/features/Understanding_Generation_Y.html

IT Management and Purchasing Help DealNews http://www.dealnews.com Still a great site for uncovering deals on big-screen TVs, laptops, and more.

SlickDeals http://www.slickdeals.net/ Site tracks multiple coupon and discount deals on IT gear

Software Surplus http://www.softwaresurplus.com/ Discount Software Site. Be careful – make sure your licenses are legal!

Mobile Office and GPS AccuTracking http://www.accutracking.com/ Inexpensive at under $10/user for a basic plan…AccuTracking utilizes your cell phones to locate and report on your service fleet. Featured in our JLC article.

Jotto Desk (Mobile Office) http://www.jottodesk.com The best vehicle laptop/technology stand we’ve found.

GPS Magazine and GPS Review http://www.gpsreview.net/ and http://gpsmagazine.com/ Reviews and information about GPS devices

Microsoft Outlook™ Add-Ins These tools claim to make the ubiquitous Outlook™ easier to use or more efficient.

Timebridge http://www.timebridge.com [MCG FAVORITE!] Tool that helps coordinate meeting “open times” in both Outlook and Google Calendars . Honestly, we wish everyone we worked with would use this tool – it eliminates phone and e-mail tag when trying to coordinate meetings.

Xobni (Zob-Nee) http://www.xobni.com Yes, it’s “inbox” spelled backwards. Enhanced search and sort for your Outlook inbox.

PDF Tools PDF Zone and Planet PDF http://www.pdfzone.com/ , http://www.planetpdf.com/ Everything about the .PDF file format

PDFCreator [MCG FAVORITE ! ] http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator Free open-source PDF creation and editing tool. Replaces Acrobat in many applications.

NOTES:

ARTICLES AND OTHER RESOURCES

ARTICLE: USING SAVE-AND-SYNC SERVICES FOR BACKUP AND MORE

By Joe Stoddard

Online backup systems like Carbonite.com or MozyPro.com do a great job protecting your data from a catastrophic loss, but that’s about all they’re good for. They don’t take advantage of the collaborative nature of the Internet, and aren’t really good for day-to-day document management or working with other people. On the other hand, while full-blown online document management systems like Microsoft SharePoint offer the features that “backup only “ don’t, they can be complicated to set up and learn, and have more functions than many of us will ever need.

A third type of web-based “file hosting” service has the potential to completely change how you use your computer technology. Like backup-only, these services keep your data secure and backed-up “in the cloud,” where you can access it from a web browser. But in addition, some of these “save and sync” services can also place a copy of whatever is shared online onto other computers or mobile devices “on the ground,” which means you can work on those files without always having to be online.

So What? Storing your files and folders in the cloud means that as long as you have Internet access you can get to them. Say you’re at a supply house and you need to quickly view a project’s specs – no problem, you can do it from your mobile phone. If you’re at a customer’s house and want to show them the latest CAD revisions, you can access the drawings from your laptop. If you’ve got a PDF product catalog that’s too large to email, you can share it in the cloud and let the other folks open a copy on their own computers. Then there’s disaster recovery. I recently had not one, but two, laptops blow up on me in one month, but because all my data was in the cloud it was a minor inconvenience instead of a business-ruining catastrophe. Services that share a copy of files locally make it easy to selectively share information with other users –the files just magically show up on their computer. You don’t have to struggle trying to email large files, and they don’t have to learn anything new or “log in” to something online. Best of all, when a file is changed, everyone connected to that folder gets an update, so everyone is always working with the most current copy. You can use that feature to set up a folder for each job you’re doing, and then share only that folder with the customers and any subs working on that particular job. Likewise, you can set up a “Financial” folder shared only with your accountant, and a folder with the new house plans you’re developing - shared initially with your draftsman, then later with suppliers so they can access the drawings and upload their quotes. All of this can happen without the hassle of emailing files back and forth or worrying that somebody is using an outdated version of the plans (or that you’ve been working from an old quote).

Available Services Below I’ve reviewed six of the most popular “save and sync” services, and there are new ones popping up all the time. I did my best to get current pricing, features, and limitations, but of course this is the Internet, so prices and specs are going to change. Always check the product website for up-to-date information. The chart on page **** compares basic features of the services.

All the services I’ve included will store files on the web and synchronize them with other computers, and most have dedicated client software available for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Now that most mobile devices will let you at least view (if not edit) common file types, these services can help you replace an office trailer full of filing cabinets with your shirt pocket!

One caution: Most of these save-and sync services use much simpler access control and sharing permissions than you’ll find in full-blown document management systems like Microsoft SharePoint. You’re not likely to find role-based access control (where a customer gets different files in their folder than a subcontractor) or check-in/check-out that will lock documents being used to prevent them from being edited by others. For most of us, though, these limitations won’t be a big deal.

Dropbox. Founded in 2007, this was one of the first save-and-sync services, and is still the standard by which the others are judged. Dropbox allows you to invite people by e-mail to join your password-protected folders. Once they do, a copy of the folder and its contents is created on their computer or mobile device. Changes are automatically synchronized back through the system so that the original file, the version stored in the cloud, and all the locally shared copies are always up- to-date. Dropbox plans range from “free” for 2GB of storage, or $10/ $20 per month for 50/100 GB respectively. By default, Dropbox synchronizes everything in its cloud, but you can disable synchronization of any folders to conserve space on your local hard drive, or to use Dropbox for archival storage of files you want back up but don’t necessarily need to work with day to day.

One Dropbox feature can take you by surprise: People you invite to your folders can delete files, and when they do, the files disappear from everywhere including your hard drive. Luckily, Dropbox stores six prior versions for 30 days. If you plan on doing a lot of sharing with others, consider Dropbox’s optional $3.99 per month “Pack-Rat” add-on that makes every file recoverable (supposedly) forever. Dropbox also has a “Teams” plan that costs $795 per year for up to five users and $125 for each additional user. Team plans offer unlimited storage and include the “Pack-Rat” feature.

Box. This service has morphed from a simple “hard drive in the sky” to a complete business collaboration system – with a few catches. To get the full Monty of features and functions - such as role-based access permissions and the ability for collaborators to a local copy of files instead of just accessing them online - you need a “Business Account,” which provides a Terabyte (1000 GB) of online storage for $15 per month per user (with a three-user minimum). Box also offers “personal” accounts, both free (5 GB) and paid ($10 per month for 25 GB, $20 for 50 GB), but you have to sign a “not for commercial use” agreement.

Box has client software for smartphones and tablets, and Box’s Business edition takes it a step further by bridging the online-offline world with a variety of “partner” applications that make your Box files and folders available directly in desktop applications like Microsoft Office and cloud apps like Google Docs. Box Business also has an integrated project management system that lets teams assign and track tasks around document creation and collaboration.

SugarSync. This is a full-featured service that may have the widest range of features in this round-up. In addition to the usual mobile platforms, SugarSync has native client software for Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. Users of Outlook can download an add-in which allows users to email files into their “personal storage cloud.”

CrashPlan. This commercial open-source alternative calls itself a “backup” service (more akin to Carbonite or MozyPro), but because it also syncs files between multiple PCs and its own cloud service, I’m including it here. CrashPlan has both consumer and pro plans. The consumer plans are cheap - $3 per month for unlimited online storage, and $10 per month for up to 10 computers in a “Family Plan.” A nice twist is you can use CrashPlan for free to sync as much data as you want between your own computers; you only pay if you use CrashPlan’s web storage. That makes CrashPlan a good choice for someone who deals with large files like high-resolution photos or video that are too large for practical online backup but still needs an easy way to avert disaster by backing up the files to multiple computers they own – maybe between a computer in the office and another one at home. This is not as convenient or stable as a data center backup, but it’s definitely better than doing nothing, and CrashPlan’s tools can make it happen automatically in the background.

Syncplicty. A relative newcomer, Syncplicity, like Box, uses partner applications to extend the reach of its services across a wider range of platforms and business applications. It also, like Box, has both personal and business accounts, but the good stuff requires the business account, which costs $45 per month ($15 per month per user, three-user minimum) and gives unlimited storage. Syncplicity business plans integrate with Google Docs, Microsoft SharePoint, Salesforce.com, and other common Cloud-based applications. Ubuntu One.com. Another commercial open-source service, Ubuntu One was developed on the Ubuntu Linux platform, and it’s the only one in this round-up that doesn’t have a native MacOS client (although it does have an iOS client for iPhones/iPads). Where Box and Syncplicity are all business, Ubuntu One was built for personal use. You won’t find integration with Google Docs or Microsoft SharePoint, but you can install an add-in to stream music from your Ubuntu One account to any of your devices. Free accounts allow 5GB of online storage and allow sharing at the folder level.

What Works For Me I’ve personally used every one of the contenders listed here, as well as a some I didn’t include, and for my business, Dropbox has proven to be the best fit. Previously I was using an online backup-only service along with a hodge-podge of online file management and collaboration systems, each with its own log-in and quirks to remember. Since DropBox effectively provides the same file security as the back-up-only services, and since its file-sharing capability was enough to do what I needed to do with my business, I decided to simplify things use it alone, opting for 100 GB storage $20 per month.

Because this change involved moving all my files from one place to another, I made sure I had two complete back-ups of everything before I started – as insurance against the remote chance that a glitch in the process could cause data to be lost. I did one last backup to my MozyPro account and another on a local USB hard drive. Dropbox sets up a folder on your hard drive called “Dropbox “ or “My Dropbox” (depending on your version of Windows). The default location is inside the Documents folder, but you can have it placed wherever you want. I put it at the same level as “Documents” – in the root of my Windows User Profile.

Next, I moved (instead of copying) all of the sub-folders and files I had set up under “Documents” into the “Dropbox” folder. This is an easy Windows Explorer operation that can be done with keyboard commands or with your mouse. While the files and folders in the main Dropbox folder were synchronizing with Dropbox on the web (an operation that took a couple of days to complete), I tweaked every one of my software applications to use “Dropbox\” as its default “Save to” location. I also scoured my hard drive for other files I wanted to be backed-up automatically and also modified those locations to use the Dropbox. It’s amazing how much critical data is saved by Windows outside of “My Documents” - such things as your Outlook .pst file, the QuickBooks “company” file, custom dictionaries and signatures in Outlook, Microsoft Office templates, configuration and .ini files, and libraries of CAD symbols, textures, and components. This part of the process took some work, since practically every application I use has some custom configuration.

Web Addresses and Details of Services Mentioned in this article:

ARTICLE: LEAN OPERATIONS: Construction Pros … SEEK OUT (and Eliminate) T.I.M W.O.O.D.! By Joe Stoddard, Principal Mountain Consulting Group, LLC

Now that we’re starting to recover from the worst housing collapse since the 1930’s, many of you may be considering adding staff. There’s one construction pro you’ll want to avoid like the plague –his name is T.i.m. W.o.o.d., and he shows up – uninvited, at every builder, remodeler, designer, trade, supplier, and general contractor in every town, in every state and country.

I’ve known T.i.m. for a long time, and so have you, but because his appearance is always changing, he’s hard to recognize. You probably brought T.i.m. into your company without realizing it, and once he’s part of your operation, he’s tough to get rid of. He’s greedy – you’ll have to pay him two or three times for the same thing. In fact, it’s hard to get anything done if T.i.m. W.o.o.d. is involved. Just having T.i.m. hanging around is enough to send any effort to improve your business into the ditch.

T.i.m. is disorganized, and reckless. He never picks up after himself and he will make a mess of your shop, sales models, offices, and jobsites – wasting everything in sight. In fact, wastefulness is what Tim is all about: T.i.m W.o.o.d. is definitely not “someone” you want anywhere near any part of your business.

Of course, you’ve probably figured out by now I’m not talking about a real person ( and my apology to all the actual construction professionals named Tim Wood ) . I’m talking about what the Japanese call Muda - the “seven greatest wastes” in the manufacturing process. In “Lean” manufacturing (or service delivery) your goal is to increase the Value inherent in your product or service, and ruthlessly seek out and eliminate the Waste, which is the opposite of value. Meet T.I.M W.O.O.D Here is a brief description of each of the “seven principle wastes.” I’m betting you can recognize every one of them in your own business. Note that the T.I.M W.O.O.D. mnemonic makes them easy to remember but does not put them in any particular order of severity. But I guarantee you they’re all costing you money, reputation, or both.

• (Unnecessary or extra) Transportation: Think of all those dozens of truckloads of materials delivery and vanloads of tradespeople running around on your jobs. The next time you have to make a dozen daily trips to the lumberyard with a pickup truck because you were too disorganized to have one big load delivered to you , it’s “Unnecessary Transportation ” and can be avoided by simply spending more effort planning. Extra transportation also arises when you need to ship more than the minimum required to get the job done, the result of over- producing or over –processing (see below).

Unnecessary transportation burns more fuel, wears out more tires, and wastes more time than you can shake a stick at. It also increases the chance of damage, loss, and delay to goods and services – and it potentially adds both additional overhead and direct job costs to your projects.

• (Excess) Inventory: I’ve yet to visit a contractor that didn’t have an extra truss or two, an expensive custom copper light fixture, or a box of floor tile kicking around their shop. It’s never quite enough of anything to do an actual job, but always too much to throw out or give away. By contrast, “Lean” manufacturing requires only the exact number of parts necessary for production of whatever it is you’re building –nothing more. Extra raw materials, extra Work-In-Process, and extra finished product are all “inventory.” Excess inventory represents money out of your pocket that has not yet produced any income, and may never produce any. It’s pure waste.

How does “reducing inventory” square with the relatively recent homebuilder practice of building “spec homes” and selling them the way a car dealer sells cars off of a lot, instead of the age-old practice of taking orders and building only what was pre-sold? That’s a complicated issue...

Between 2006 and 2007, when analysts knew the market was crashing, but before the general public was aware of the size of the problem, mid-market builders were typically paying high interest on excess land inventory and unsold spec houses. Many of those companies are no longer in business . They simply couldn’t convert their inventory into cash quickly enough and the snowball of carrying costs and inflated overhead rolled them over.

During that time, there were also builders who had the software tools and workflow/process that allowed them to predict with accuracy when a spec house was likely to sell during the construction process. They would analyze the “absorption rate” of similar homes in a particular area, and then accurately predict whether a home was likely to sell at 50% completion, 75%... or not at all until after it was finished. Based on that knowledge, they would be able to make an educated decision whether or not they should start a home in a particular “slot” , bump that start to a later date, or skip the start altogether (of course reducing their annual revenue in the process)

The ability of a builder to base a “start” decision on data and valid trend lines (instead of emotion or guesswork – speculation) made all the difference in their survival. The builders who had those kinds of management systems are still doing fine. Having those software systems in-place all but eliminated “excess inventory,” thus adding tremendous value to their operation.

• (Excess, unnecessary) Motion: The “Motion” waste generally refers to human ergonomics (reaching, stretching) and action/movement inside the factory/shop floor, or on the jobsite shuffling things around here and there - (as opposed to excess transportation – which is moving people or things between places). Excess and unnecessary motion wears out your equipment prematurely (including your carpenters’ backs). It causes unnecessary scratch- and -dent damage to building products, and it poses unnecessary safety risks to your tradespeople. Site builders should take a lesson from modern manufactured housing facilities, where they bring the work (including tools and equipment) to the workers, instead of making the workers go to the work.

• Waiting : Tomorrow morning, go to any jobsite, anywhere in the USA, and what are you most likely to see happening? Absolutely Nothing. Studies have shown that more than half of the time, new homes under construction are sitting there with nothing going on – waiting for the next thing to happen. Waiting affects other parts of your business too. Whether it’s a management team waiting for one last member to call in for the online meeting, or a house that was just drywalled waiting for the painters, waiting costs you money . Waiting also poisons your jobs by contributing to a “There’s no URGENCY -I don’t care when it gets done” attitude that will impact every tradesperson working on that project.

By contrast, building at a “crisp pace” with virtually no wait time will increase your quality . Lexus automobiles roll off the line 30% faster than their domestic counterparts and with far fewer defects overall. (I know … Lexus…Toyota… Toyota has had some bad press lately, but it because they actually stepped up and tried to do the right things. I’ll let you decide if our domestic auto manufacturers would been as forthright). In any case, your goal as a builder should be to reduce all forms of waiting to as close to zero as possible. We encourage clients to make it part of their mission statement to “work at a brisk pace without sacrificing quality.” Managing a schedule with no “air” requires good scheduling and project management, but the result is always value-adding.

• Over-processing: “Lean” says you should use tools and techniques that are “adequate for the job at hand and no more.” Tool and software junkie builders are the wrong people to talk to about over-processing. Computer-guided saws to cut studs. GPS layout devices to lay-out a simple deck. Complex ERP software when Microsoft Office and QuickBooks would do the job. (By the way, we have taught for years that you’re far better off utilizing 90% of a smaller, lighter piece of software than 10% of a mammoth).

Check out the overly-styled blueprint example on the last page of this article – that’s the classic example of over- processing. Over-processing requires additional (excess, unnecessary) expertise, more manpower, additional shop and/or storage space. It’s all waste.

• Over-Production : This is the “Muda” of all Muda’s, because it creates or hides all of the other wastes. It especially generates excess inventory of “stuff” that has to be stored and kept in like-new salable condition. That

means more buildings, more HVAC, more people, more forklifts, more trucks, more-more-more which is the opposite of Lean. Lean is about lessless-less. Luckily, a homebuilder or remodeler is not as apt to over-produce as a widget manufacturer (in a factory), but there are still plenty of isolated cases (the extra truss… the pile of custom-milled maple trim because you didn’t want to run short…)

• Defects: Everyone’s mantra should be “On-time, On-budget, and 100% Defect-Free”, which is kind of redundant because a slipping schedule and being over-budget are just as “defective” as errors or omissions in the work- product. Defects are like over-production in that they require more of everything else to correct them. Plus, they’re giant de-motivators. No tradesperson, no matter how much they’re paid, enjoys having to fix something they’ve already completed.

Defects aren’t always as obvious as a project that winds up $50,000 over-budget, or is delivered months after it was supposed to be completed, and more subtle defects can be even more destructive to your company. If your 60-minute management meetings always take 90 minutes because you don’t have an agenda, or are unwilling to follow it- that’s a serious defect. So is always starting a weekly meeting 15 minutes late, which actually costs you tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a year. Bottom line, you should strive to deliver your projects, (including internal projects and meetings,) with zero defects, and that includes time, budget, and quality.

Zero-defect projects don’t start with an end-of-project “punch list” – they start on the first minute of the first day that anyone starts thinking about the job. We teach “Build it Seven Times in Your Head” which simply means “build it thoroughly on paper before you start moving materials and people around on the jobsite. Delivering a defect-free product starts with the way a salesperson presents your company policy (to set expectations) and doesn’t stop until the project is delivered to your internal quality control process by the superintendent and blessed as 100% complete and clean, ready for your buyer’s orientation.

Adding Value from the Perspective of Your Customers: Value is best thought of as providing what the customer is willing to pay for . Did something add to their home’s appraisal, or make the home easier for them to re-sell? Did it make the home more energy efficient or more livable? Is the home a greater source of pride in ownership for them? You’ll never go wrong if you strive to add more value from the perspective of your customers.

Adding Value to Your Product: (Don’t Value the Wrong Things) Let’s pick on our friends in the design professions to drive home a point. Architects and designers often obsess over how their drawings look and go out of their way to turn boring blueprints into true works of art. Unfortunately for the artsy architects, their customers don’t want artwork and are not willing to pay more for artwork. The end-user of blueprints needs clarity (not style) , and might even be willing to pay more for less, if “less” meant building what the streamlined drawings represented more quickly, for less cost and with fewer defects.

Highly-stylized drawings are wasteful on many fronts - they require more time to draw, more paper and ink to produce, more postage to mail, and more effort to interpret. Overly-processed drawings are also difficult for tradespeople to read, which invariably leads to mistakes, re-work, and higher direct costs. The user of those drawings winds up paying more – several times over: More for the drawings, more for the house, and more for the marketing and PR that a happier homebuyer might have offered for free in way of a referral.

The sad irony here is that if the design firm was really concerned about adding value to their product (the drawings), they would want to make them crystal clear and so easy to read a 4 th Grader could build the house without error. They would make the working drawings less artistic , not more. They’d use simple block fonts instead of fancy hand-lettering, and they’d include only the details relevant to that particular project, instead of page after page of irrelevant “Typical” details.

Instead of flat static “presentation plans” that only other designers can interpret, they’d embrace today’s 3D “BIM” (Building Information Modeling) technology to convey the real “feel” of the structure for buyers and builders, and provide accurate bill-of-materials take-offs with very little additional effort.

Adding Value to Your Business: Finally, value can be examined from the standpoint of the business itself – and how it impacts society as a whole. The remodeler who takes extra care to make sure their operations are not inconveniencing anyone in the neighborhood – no second-hand smoke, no music blaring, no mud in the streets, not leaving things unsecured that could attract thieves to the neighborhood… that standard of care definitely adds value to an operation. Although it may be impossible to assign a dollar value to it – as the saying goes “little things mean a lot…”

Whether it’s from the standpoint of your customer, your business, or your product; value is opposite of waste . Wastefulness is bad, value is good. Volumes have been written surrounding process re-engineering, “lean” manufacturing techniques, and various quality control methodologies. Entire graduate curricula are based on this one simple idea:

The goal of any business should be to do more of those things which add value, and less of everything else .

Notes:

BONUS ! GETTING THE MOST OUT OF MOBILE. Note: Slide numbers won’t be consecutive - non-content slides have been removed.

Learning Objectives Getting the Most out of Mobile:

Which Platform(s) to Invest in ? Apple, Android, Windows, Something Else? Mobile Productivity: How to use task lists, to-dos, address books, and other built-in features of these powerful devices Reduce Paper Overall, Damage claims and send-backs: Utilize device cameras and basic mark-up to nip problems in the bud. Streamlined Scheduling and Logistics: The benefits of setting up a simple mobile scheduling system in your shop that stays on top of weather and traffic The Apps you need – The Apps to avoid: There are thousands of add-in “apps” (applications) that will extend the capability of your mobile devices even more. Which are must-have and which are a waste of time and money?

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 5

Slide 6

Why Get Involved in Mobile ? It’s the POST-PC ERA Add value to your customer = more business 4U Properly equipped sales guy can be a real resource Do more to help your customer – deliveries Better personal organization/productivity Lower Your Costs by cutting 7 Wastes Reduce errors across the board Slash your windshield time Track and route your fleet Process paper where it’s created / in the field Documentation (Video, Documents, QR codes) Design Center – Use as demonstration device Entertainment -

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 6

Players and Platforms THE DEVICES AND CAPABILITIES

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 8

Slide 9

Device Comparison (50,000’) Take Integrated Approach Base decision on other software/systems you may be using Apple iOS (iPhone and iPad) More predictable But less configurable Apps often start here Best Screen Resolution Android (Google) More configurable but less integrated/predictable Fewer Apps Windows Mobile (Win8/RT – Windows Phone) Most seamless MSOffice and Outlook Integration Best in Windows Universe

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 9

Generally speaking, Apple (iOS) devices are more “integrated” and work better as a “system” – but at the expense of being more configurable. Android devices are more configurable/ customizable but are not as seamless a use experience. Finally – if your company is heavily vested in Microsoft software, it could be that neither Apple nor Android are the best choices… but instead you should be looking at the Windows Mobile devices.

Slide 10

Devices

iOS

Android (Nexus) Google Nexus Kindle Fire HD/ Nook Color Windows “Surface” RT (Windows “Lite”)

Windows 8 – Full-Strength Regular Windows

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 10

Slide 11

Basic (Personal Productivity) Address Book (that can sync to cloud or desktop) Calendar (that can sync to cloud or desktop) Text Messaging E-mail on device (iMAP support) Most SmartPhones can act as Mobile Hotspot Multi-Media (Camera/ Video / Music Player) Take Notes Surf the Web Digital Reader (even iPhone) Games

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 11

Slide 12

Computer Companion – not Replacement SENSORS – device knows where it is in space/time Accelerometer Location Services (Cellular / GPS) Cameras Multiple Network Capability WiFi / 3G/4G / Bluetooth Advanced Input/Output Capability

The best applications take advantage of new capability – not duplicate computer

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 12

Slide 13

Extended Capability with “Apps” Three Types of “Apps”

Free-standing apps - run on device Client software for larger ERP system (Example – BuilderTrend or even QuickBooks

Client software for cross-platform multi-device systems (Evernote, ToodleDo, Trello, etc.)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 13

10 years ago we could only dream of what is readily available today on even the least expensive smartphones. In addition to all the calendar/e-mail/ contact/ web-browsing capability are the addition of various “sensors” that can place the phone or tablet accurately in space and time. By using the on-board camera in conjunction with those sensors, you can document where you were when a picture was taken or a document was “signed”.

Slide 14

Multi-Platform and the Cloud

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 14

Slide 15

Practical Applications of SmartPhones and Tablets ADDING VALUE FOR RETAILERS

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 15

Slide 16

Adding Value Case Study: Outside Sales Rep Camera, Remote Meetings, Email, Portals Document and solve problems on jobsites Send Group SMS, update Twitter, Social Media Instant Communication: Research Websites – add value to builder Mastery of the local market, competition, jobs avail. Access to Inventory and Mobile Payment Portal Sell upgrades, complete transaction on-the-spot. Process Paper into .PDF (Digital) and e-Sign Eliminate paper for both company and contractor

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 16

Slide 17

Mobile Point-of-Sale Square (squareup.com) Intuit (gopayment) PayPal (PayPal Here) BOA (MobilePay On Demand) Amazon ?? GoPago Flint MobilePay

(MSP = Merchant Service Provider)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 17

DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY ALERT ! Merchant Payment Services and Point-of-Sale terminals are the new use smartphones and tablets. There are a ton of iPhone add-ins allowing anyone to accept Credit Cards for around 3% of the sale- not much different and often less expensive than a standard Merchant account – with NONE of the hassles. Square charges 2.75% for card-present and 3% for no-card present, requires no credit check or anything else, and deposits your money within 24 hours.

Slide 18

Rental Yard via SmartPhone www.getable.com Middleware that connects your rental yard software to mobile users

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 18

Getable.com is a new start-up that provides a “secure intermediary” server between your rental yard software and the contractor’s Smart device., letting the contractor see your rental inventory and reserve it for a job right from his smart device.

Slide 19

Review and Mark-up Designs Work with customers in real time, wirelessly, from anywhere.

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 19

Slide 20

Structural Design BeamBuddy SteelBeam

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 20

We’ve tested dozens of structural beam design apps. The best ones are very expensive and don’t qualify as “cheap tricks”. Here are the best two we’ve found (Note these are not span tables – you need to know basic beam formulas and understand the math). Both are available for iOS and Android

BeamBuddy – for the design of Wood Beams and headers SteelBeam -- for the design of basic Steel Beam shapes

Slide 21

21 Estimating with MagicPlan Uses phone camera to map outline of rooms for purposes of “as-built” documentation. Create As-Builts in minutes not days

The MagicPlan app is free (and there is a free “CSI” version for crime scenes) and is becoming one of the most useful iPhone apps available for as-built documentation. The business model is an “in-app purchase” you pay $2-3 for each .PDF plan mailed. We’ve been using this app extensively and it saves hours of measuring and CAD input once you get the hang of using it. Slide 22

BuildCalc

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 22

Easily the best $20-30 you’ll spend for your phone/tablet. Created by Do-It-Yourselfer Ben Askren, BuildCalc takes the “Construction Master” type of calculator to an entirely new level with embedded routines for calculating stairs, balusters, and much more.

Slide 23

Dragon Dictation (Free)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 23

Dragon, the company behind the “Naturally Speaking” software has the best voice-to-text capability available for smartphones/tablets. (Some iPhone 5 users say it’s better than Siri”) Very handy for dictating notes while driving, then sending as email or text message.

Slide 24

Process Paper on-the-spot JotNot Pro, Scanner+ Softsign/Rightsign/SignEasy (over a dozen scanner apps)

Capture (camera) Convert Sign Send to cloud http://www.mountainconsulting.com 24

Slide 25

Soft Sign Right Sign Sign Easy

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 25

DIGITAL SIGNATURES: Once you capture a document as a .PDF (for example with JotNot Pro) – you sometimes need to provide a binding signature. There are several apps that will allow you to sign a “scanned” document, including

Soft Sign Right Sign Sign Easy

They all allow you to quickly/ easily sign a .PDF file and send it along . These signatures are binding in most courts because the application provides sufficient documentation of both who and where the document was digitally signed.

Slide 26

GPS – Fleet Tracking www.accutracking.com

Case Study: John Carroll – Photovoltaic Installer

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 26

Slide 27

QR Codes

Product Information Correct Installation Videos Send recipients to your website or blog Send immediate e-mail or short text message REMEMBER !! People are using mobile devices to scan the code – don’t send them to PC formatted website !

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 27

If you’re not already using QR codes –you should be. When someone scans the code with their smartphone, you can send them product information, installation instructions or videos, links to your website or blog, a text message. Just make sure you send the information in a format that can be easily used on a mobile phone- since that’s what your user will have to read the information. DON’T send stuff that requires a PC or Mac “Desktop” computer to interpret.

Slide 28

For Further Study… MOBILE DEVICE RESOURCES

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 28

Slide 29

Mobile and App Resources https://chrome.google.com/webstore http://www.housingzone.com/appcenter/ http://www.allthingsweb2.com http://www.appadvice.cm http://alternativeto.net/ http://appchronicles.com

Device Sites http://www.tuaw.com http://www.androidcentral.com http://www.wpcentral.com

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 29

presentation 2: Leveraging social media Note: Slide numbers won’t be consecutive - non-content slides have been removed.

Slide 1 We originally did this session for a group of lumber/hardware retailers, but it’s just as relevant for LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA builders and remodelers. for MATERIALS RETAILERS: Gaining more sales and providing stellar customer service with today’s Social Media Marketing tools

HDW Spring Market – Jackson MS Saturday, March 02, 2013 2:00- 2:45 PM

http://www.MountainConsulting.com 1

Slide 4

Learning Objectives

Description: So you have a website – but do you have a web presence? Are you taking advantage of the Internet and meeting your customers where they live online? If not, it’s time to take advantage of todays’s Social Media and Social Media Marketing tools

Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, WHAT? Which Social Media outlets are critical to small business today, which you should skip (and a couple to avoid altogether). Write Once - Publish Many: How to leverage the social media content you create for maximum impact. Why You Should Resist having an “Agency” manage your social media activity and do it yourself. , To Blog or Not to Blog: What it takes to have a successful “Blog” , and why you might want to spend that effort doing something else online. The Key Analytics : Is your social media activity working for you, or just wasting time and energy? You can’t manage what you don’t measure, so here are the half a dozen key web metrics you need to keep an eye on at all times. What are the “Big Boxes” doing right… and wrong with their social media efforts ?

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 4

Slide 5

The Players YOUR WEB PRESENCE

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 5

Slide 6

Your “Web Presence” Marketing Website Social Networking Your Blog (Optional) Facebook YouTube Pinterest Houzz Flickr Photobucket Twitter LinkedIn Collaboration Sites Web-based applications. Find ways to tie them together. (“Cross-pollinate”)

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 6

Think “Web Presence” Not Just “Website”: Today working on the web means dealing with several kinds of websites. Marketing, Project-specific, Social networking, Web-based applications… all should be hooked together (“cross-pollinated” is the current buzzword) for a common purpose.

As time goes on, we are seeing the “regular” marketing website becoming less and less important, particularly as more people are relying on smart phones, tablet or “pad” devices, and other

Page 84 of 92 2014-15 Technology Resource Guide – ©2015 by Mountain Consulting Group, LLC. All rights reserved unconventional access methods. Certainly- more people are going to get to the “inside” pages of your website first - by passing the home page altogether, and they’re going to get there from mobile devices, from social media sites, or from links on other websites or social media properties.

Slide 7

The Players – how to use them Your Marketing Website : Your Hub Your Blog: Thought Leadership. Articles useful to your customers and their customers (not just “It’s spring – time to clean the gutters) Facebook: Great for one-on-one customer service exchanges. Show them “warts and all” YouTube or Facebook Video Instragram Twitter: Get the word out – quick messages to your customer base and other large groups. Pinterest Houzz YouTube: Example ProGuitar Shop

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 7

Slide 8

Why You Need to Do this (Even if you don’t want to…)

Reputation Management Just because you’re not online does not mean your unhappy customers aren’t. Best defense is a strong offense. Social Media Masses-Followers. GenY Buyers: Start purchase process online, period IF you’re not there, they aren’t buying… and they’re soon to be the only group spending any real money

A sure way you can compete with the “Big Boxes” Drive up to 25% of newly-found sales from the web

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 8

Slide 9

Do’s and Don’ts DO ABSOLUTELY DO NOT Everything Clickable and Use Graphics for phone #, Copy/Pastable address, other key fields Create Your own Hire an agency to create Content generic content Have an Employee do (framework- OK) Customer Service Real Have your agency interact Time with your customers Return Inquiries REAL Wait until “Next Business TIME Day” Connect all Social Media Restrict how customers so people can choose can interact with you

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 9

Slide 10

WhatWhat notnot toto dodo

http://www.mountainconsulting.comhttp://www.mountainconsulting.com 1010

This is a good example of what not to do on Facebook - clearly the posts are made by an ad agency, not an employee who is actually able to assist the reader . (Yes, we’ve blacked-out the company name to protect the guilty ☺

Slide 11

What to do – Elizabeth Koval, Houston

Interesting AND USEFUL

People, People, People

Re-purpose Content

Address Watermark

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 11

Slide 12

Do’s and Don’ts – Website DO ABSOLUTELY DO NOT Use CMS system Hand-code HTML with a Industry-specific, so much “web designer” the better Make sure web and blog Ignore mobile users are adaptive”/”responsive”

Send QR code response Use QR Codes to desktop web browsers

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 12

Slide 13

Do’s and Don’ts – Video and Images DO ABSOLUTELY DO NOT Make extensive use of video for both Rely on dense text Product Knowledge/Sales Training in-house and contractors Lots of photos of people Just show products Do voice-overs in both English Only English and Spanish Use YouTube – Closed-shop “Beware of encourage sharing, the Dog” . That was 1960 particularly of your marketing. “trademark”

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 13

Slide 14

Good Example Website: The Martell Experience

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 14

Martell Homes is an example of a well-done marketing website.

Slide 15

Single Log-On ties Apps Together

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 15

Social media services are now using each others’ log-on credentials to let visitors in. Slide 16

Good Blog Example ThisIsCarpentry

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 16

Slide 17

Key Analytics Overall traffic Where From? Bounce Rate? Time on Site ? Pages visited?

http://www.mountainconsulting.com 17

You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and “analytics” are how you measure the success or failure of your web and social media efforts. You want to know that the visitors to your various web properties are 1) In your actual market area 2) Are ready, willing, and able to purchase from you, and that they’re finding what they need and moving down the sales pipeline via your social media sites and marketing website.

For your marketing website, Google Analytics are free and will do the job: http://www.google.com/analytics/

For Facebook , Facebook Insights (free) is your first source of data.

For YouTube , you can start with YouTube Analytics http://www.youtube.com/yt/advertise/youtube- analytics.html .

For Twitter – you don’t need outside analytics to gauge how many people are “following you “, or their profiles. All you need to do is ask them (via Twitter) !

Should you use Facebook Advertising or other Pay-Per-Click such as Google AdWords ? That really depends. If you’re selling product online (so geography doesn’t disqualify a buyer), then maybe. If you’re staying bricks-and-mortar store (only ) than you have to stay aware that only people who live/work around you are your buyers, and so national-reaching pay-per-click ads will almost certainly be a waste of money.

Alan Wickstrom, who operates the building media site www.BuildingOnline.com and online agency www.BuildingOnline.net has laid down the gauntlet for a minimum purchase at around $5000-6000, and that’s with careful negotiation of ad terms. “Less than that, we simply won’t generate enough impressions to provide measurable sales” Wickstrom said.

LEGAL: By accessing the information contained herein this instrument by any means whatsoever, whether by reading the original or a copy thereof, hearing a recording thereof, or being conveyed an approximation thereof by any third party in any medium printed or electronic, you acknowledge and agree completely with all of the following: This document, The “Cheap Tricks 2013 Resource Guide” hereinafter referred to as the “ Resource Guide ” or the “ Guide ” is compiled by Mountain Consulting Group, LLC currently off 13 Rolling Acres Lane, Lawrenceville, PA 16929 and hereinafter referred to as the Publisher and/or the Author of the Guide .

You or Your , refers literally to you, yourself, the attendee, reader, user, consumer of the information contained in the Guide, as well as your heirs, assigns, associates, employees, or any other person with whom you share the contents of the Guide.

The Show or Session is any tradeshow, conference, speaking opportunity, or any other event private or public where the Guide may be made available to You.

We, Us, Our refers jointly and severally to the Author /Publisher of the Guide, to the Organizers/Producers of any tradeshows and/or conferences whether physical or in digital format where the Guide may be made available, and to the heirs, assigns, associates, employees, and family members of the Author /Publisher/and said Organizers/Producers.

By opening this Resource Guide, whether in physical or digital form, YOU agree to abide by the following conditions of use:

A) The Guide may contain typographical errors and/or other unintended errors and omissions in content and/or structure. The Guide may contain business advice based on our observation and analysis of the information presented to us which may not be fully accurate or relevant to your situation, or if implemented, whether properly or improperly, could be detrimental to your operation. Therefore, YOU agree that You are responsible for all due diligence to evaluate the contents of the Guide against Your current market situation prior to implementing any product, service, or advice contained herein, and further agrees to hold US harmless should the content of this report result in negative or unintended results. Any discussion in the Guide of products or services provided by third-parties is for your reference only. We can make no authoritative statements regarding any other person, product, or service. No purchasing or implementation decisions should be made on the advice herein the Guide exclusively, without thorough second and third level vendor diligence, concluding in formal request for proposal (RFQ) and clarification from those vendors.

B) YOU acknowledge that the information contained in the Guide is offered strictly on an “As-Is” basis, with absolutely no guarantee or warranty of fitness of purpose, nor of suitability for task of any kind whatsoever, express or implied.

C) YOU voluntarily, willingly, and knowingly ASSUME ANY AND ALL RISKS associated with the information included in the Guide, known and unknown, for the past, the present, and the future.

D) YOU RELEASE, INDEMNIFY, AND HOLD HARMLESS the Publisher/Author /Organizer their heirs, assigns, associates, family and employees from and against any legal or civil claims, demands, actions, liens, rights, subrogated or contribution interests, debts, liabilities, judgments, costs (including their attorney’s fees), arising out of, claimed on account of, or in any manner predicated upon Your use of the Guide, in the past, present, and indefinitely into the future.

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER: A former (and still once-in-a-while) homebuilder and general contractor, Joe Stoddard has been knee- deep in technology for the building industry for 30 years, from DOS 1.0 in 1981 to “Web 3.0” in 2012 and beyond. Joe is widely regarded as the “go-to guy” when it comes to evaluating and deploying technology in the building industry.

His “top-down” philosophy focuses entirely on where technology can add value to a builder’s clients, operation, and product line…and his “crawl-walk-run” implementation approach makes it possible for builders to have immediate success, enjoy a return on their investment right away – while still “building bridges” between the high-tech and low-tech pieces of their operation.

As a regular contributing editor in the pages of the Hanley-Wood family of publications, Joe is read in print by tens of thousands of builders, remodelers, designers, and general contractors monthly. He moderates the popular “Computer Solutions” online forum at the Journal of Light Construction Online ( http://www.jlconline.com ), and is a founding partner and principal of Mountain Consulting Group, LLC.

Mountain Consulting assists builders, remodelers, and allied industry professionals improve their business processes and automate their operations through the careful application of technology. Clients have included top-400 homebuilders, “big-50” remodelers, other management consultancies and software providers.

Contact Information:

Joe Stoddard Mountain Consulting Group, LLC 13 Rolling Acres Lane Lawrenceville, PA 16929 877-868-8310 Toll-Free http://www.twitter.com/moucon Twitter [email protected] http://www.mountainconsulting.com