1. Enable Organizational Change Management

Changes occur each time you introduce new technology. New technology aids in sales growth and business performance improvement. Some companies often focus only on the technology. Nonetheless, companies that address issues related to logistics are far better off. Engaging your employees and helping them embrace new technology improves your overall performance.

2. Protect Your Interests

Enterprise software initiatives involve parties from within and outside your organization. Varied perspectives and interests from systems integrators, software and hardware vendors and IT consultants can cause conflicts. As such, implementation consultants will help you protect your interests. Business management consulting can also help you identify and prioritize your needs versus wants. They also help you select the software that meets your needs. That helps you save time and money. Configuring your software lets your consultant understand your requirements better. That makes it easy for your business analyst to advice you how to protect your interests. An implementation analyst ensures you have the appropriate resources, plans, and strategy.

3. Focus on Your Core Business

IT is not a core business for most companies. Instead, it’s a service offering at the corporate and regional levels. You don’t have to replace enterprise software after every 5-10 years. Implementation consultants allow you to focus on your core business. Whether you need IT expertise, organizational change or risk management expertise, a business analyst fills the gap and complements your resources.

4. Navigate the Lifecycle

Your consultant helps you define your path, make informed decisions, and stay on objective when things change. An advisor will help you identify your business risks and their mitigation. For example, a consultant helps you find ways to mitigate the risk of incomplete data in your new system.

5. Achieve Expected Benefits

A business consultant will help you identify your expected benefits. You also learn how to develop your business case. Again, a business consultant makes your software initiative more economical through better quality management.

Overall, your implementation consultant will help you complete a project on time. A consultant will also ensure that all problems are ironed out of your system before it goes live. You may engage a business consultant to help you on matters regarding workload analysis and utilization analysis. Hire a trusted consultant to help you make your business efforts more manageable and economical. You may be able to find more resources and insights at the Carpedia International Ltd. website.

Small Business Loans Versus Grants

Small business loans and grants are two completely different things. While a business loan may be easier to obtain in terms of the procedure and qualification procedures needed, it is never “free money”. The money has to be paid back with some interests. On the contrary, grants are awarded to small businesses with the knowledge that they don’t necessarily have to pay them back.

Qualification

Grant-giving institutions in Canada seldom provide grants to individual entrepreneurs looking to start or expand their businesses. In fact, these institutions don’t even supply grants to individuals who are planning to start their own non-profits. Most institutions are interested in providing grants to specific types of organizations and groups. Although there are some grant–giving organizations that might consider grant requests from certain non-profits, they only do so if they are located in areas where the institutions have existing business presence. In other words, these institutions only offer grants to projects that are, or will be consistent with their goals and objectives. On the other hand, government grants are only available to educational institutions and non-profits whose major focus is scientific research, education, medicine, or technology development. Moreover, if you do qualify for government grants for small businesses, it is important to note that the proceeds must be consistent with the funding institution’s objectives.

Partial Cover for Business Costs

Unlike grants received by government bodies and institutions, project-based grants require applicants to provide alternative or counter funding. Additionally, grants for small businesses may only cover just a fraction of the project’s cost. In fact, it is very rare to get a grant that covers 100% of the total cost needed to start or expand a small business.

Bottom Line

Contrary to what many people believe, “free money” in form of grants are available—real business grants exist. In fact, every year, hundreds of small businesses and other minority-owned businesses in Canada receive such grants from a wide range of government agencies and other non-profit organizations. While grants don’t have to be repaid, they have to be used to at least start a new business or expand an existing one—and based on the funding institution’s goals and objectives. Other types of grants must also be used for innovation research. If you would like to learn more, visit Ontario Centres of Excellence and check out their online resources.

The Office Ribbon

Perhaps the most notable, and controversial, change is the addition the Ribbon. This new feature first appeared in Office 2007, but the 2010 version saw it expanded across all of the programs in the package. The Ribbon is a collection of buttons that represent common or important commands that users might need on a regular basis. This includes buttons for changing the font of text, adding highlights or changing the orientation of a paragraph.

Office 2010 saw an expansion of the Ribbon interface to allow users to customize their toolbars to match their individual needs. This resolved some of the complaints made by Office 2007 users, who were frustrated at the forced changes. Users can add the commands they use frequently to the Ribbon so they are always in reach.

Media Functionality

Bloggers and tutorial writers now have a much easier time capturing images in Office 2010 Suites thanks to a simpler screenshot function. The default Ribbon now includes a Screenshot button, which shows available images to choose from when pressed. Photo editing tools are now displayed automatically when an image is added to a document, so users can make adjustments quickly and move on.

Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook also saw a big improvement in photo editing options compared to older versions of the software. Users can apply different filters and effects on pictures from within the application, so they don’t have to modify the image with a third-party program first. While this functionality isn’t as sophisticated as a complete photo editing program, it does have many of the basic tools needed for document creation.

Simultaneous Editing

Writers and editors that collaborate with colleagues to create document drafts have long been frustrated by the “file in use” error when another user has the document opened. Office 2010 alleviates this problem by allowing multiple users to access and change a document at the same time. The new suite also offers automatic synchronization of offline and networked documents.

Exploring Office 2010

There are tons of smaller features and upgrades in the Microsoft Office 2010 Suite, including a few notable ones for each program. Frequent Excel users may be interested in the new sparklines, which are tiny graphs depicting changes in data in connected cells. No matter what part of the suite you use most, you are sure to notice some new features and interface options in the latest version.

What You Should Shred
Typically, protecting yourself requires shredding any paperwork that includes:

* Account numbers
* Passwords and PIN numbers
* Social Insurance Numbers and Tax IDs
* Signatures
* Birth date

Any of this information could be used to impersonate you and gain access to your accounts or apply for credit in your name. To be safe, you should also shred anything with personal information such as your name, address, email, or phone number that make it easier to impersonate you or uncover more information. Maybe some of this information is public knowledge, but simply tossing it in into the trash makes it so much easier for it to be stolen and used.

Some documents you should keep for a period of time if they will help to avoid possible legal issues in the future. These should be kept stored in a locked metal box in a discrete location. If you have an electric shredder for your home or office (and you should), document destruction should include everything you have no need of.

Junk Mail
If you aren’t going to open it, shred it. Even letters to “Occupant” might be credit card offers that could provide a thief with a credit card in your name.

Credit Card Statements
Some people advise keeping them for awhile, especially if you need them for tax purposes. Your usual process should be to make sure every charge is legitimate, then shred any receipts once they’re paid. Even better, sign up for paperless billing so that there are no documents for thieves to find.

Mortgage and Tax Documents
For legal reasons, save mortgages and any records of property improvements until five to six years after you’ve sold the property. Save tax information 6-to-7 years before shredding.

Pay Stubs
Save them, but once you’ve done your taxes, shred the check stubs you don’t need.

Medical and Financial Statement
Keep them for a year in case there are disputes or errors. When they’ve been paid and cleared, shred them.

Insurance Documents
Shred bills as they are paid. After coverage has expired or been cancelled, wait five years before shredding the policy documents.

Utility Bills and Store/ATM Receipts
If this is something that can help with your taxes, save them. Otherwise, as always, verify billing charges are legit and shred them as soon as they are paid.

The government passed tough laws in 2009 meant to discourage identify theft – but it’s still on the rise. The odds are against any thief going to all the trouble to reassemble random documents from shredded paper. A cross-shredder that reduces them to confetti is even more of a deterrent. Paper shredding is the first and best way to safeguard personal information.