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Dear Andy,
Welcome to the ninth and final Project Learning newsletter of 2005.
In the January 2006 newsletter, we'll share information with you
(non-disclosure permitting) from the forthcoming Microsoft
Project Conference - please see below.
Later this month we'll be sending out our annual e-card wishing you all
season's greetings. As many of you are aware, we'll be
donating the money we would spend on greetings cards and postage
to charities. We'll let you know who these
worthwhile causes are
via the e-card.
The
big news in this newsletter is that we've commissioned another
survey about Microsoft Project training, and we'd like to invite
all our newsletter subscribers to take part. As a thank
you for completing our survey, the first 250 respondents will
receive a ‘Microsoft Project Toolkit’ CD with our compliments.
Just see below to find out more.
With
this month's tips and tricks, we're looking at the quite
advanced topic of detailed assignment editing. Don't
forget to review the AVI movie
on the website to see these techniques demonstrated in context.
The last two items in this newsletter are an invitation for you
get in touch with us and also to meet us face-to-face.
See you in 2006!
Sincerely,
Andy Jessop
CEO and Founder
In
this newsletter:
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Microsoft Project Training Survey |
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In our
last survey, 94% of respondents stated that they were Microsoft
Project users, with 83% of them stating that their project
management software provided a benefit to them. However, less
than half of the Microsoft Project users had received any
product training in the previous two years.
In
this survey, we’d like to find out how people use Microsoft
Project, and also find out what they would look for in a
Microsoft Project training solution. To thank you for
completing our survey, the first 250 respondents will receive a
‘Microsoft Project Toolkit’ CD with our compliments. This
toolkit, which is produced by Microsoft, contains tools,
resources and training aids designed to help users get more from
Microsoft Project. Our own Project Mentor Lite software is
included within the toolkit, together with solutions from
respected project management vendors, as well as Microsoft
themselves.
To
access this 10-question survey, just follow this link:
http://www.surveyshack.com/s/Vld1qXGzQa.VkAoh1krC
Results of the survey will be posted onto our web site in
January 2006. Everyone who completes the survey will be
given access to the surveys dataset as an Excel file (not
including personal details, as we never provide these to third
parties!).
To
review the results from our previous survey on how project
management and its tools are used, just go to this page on our
website:
http://www.projectlearning.net/survey_home.htm
To
find out more about Project Mentor Lite, and why Microsoft chose
it to become part of their Project Management Toolkit, just
follow this link:
http://www.projectlearning.net/project_mentor_microsoft.htm |
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Tips
and Tricks |
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Many Microsoft Project users
are rightfully wary of resource optimisation; levelling is often
seen as a ‘dark art’ and clumsy editing of assignments can
adversely affect the project’s schedule. Once assignment
editing is understood, however, it is a useful technique to
model in greater detail how people will work against tasks and
can often result in more realistic project schedules.
If you click on the link below,
these tips and tricks illustrate the techniques available; from
simple task splitting to timephased editing and the creation of
assignment contours.
http://www.projectlearning.net/newsletters_tipstricks.htm |
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New ways to contact us |
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We've always been pleased that
customers and enquirers alike have found it easy to make contact
with us. We are aware that for some people (especially
those in the USA and Canada), email has up to now been the option of
choice. We're delighted to say that there are now some
great alternatives:
If you are a Skype user, you
can call us or chat online with us directly. Just use the name andyjessop as a Skype contact, or use this link:
call Project Learning
If you
are a MSN Messenger user, you can connect using: andyj@projectlearning.net
If you're in the USA or Canada and you
don't have Skype, you can call us without having to pay
international dialling rates. Just use this national-rate
New York phone number:
1-315-849-2533
Already, several people (customers and general enquirers who
have used our USA number)
have told us that they like the fact that we're a company
wanting to communicate and share information with
others. We hope that you agree. If you do happen to
call and we're unavailable, don't worry - we have a 24/7 call
answering facility, so we can get straight back to you.
For
all our contact details, just go to this page on our website:
http://www.projectlearning.net/contact_us.htm |
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Microsoft Project Conference |
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Unless
you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware that
Microsoft has been busy over that past few months developing a
new release of Microsoft Office, and hence Microsoft Project.
Did you know that there are two events taking place early in
2006 that will provide an insight into what's new on the
horizon, together with
best-practice sessions aimed at both technical and non-technical
users?
Last
year's invite-only event was a sell-out with 1,500+ delegates
from around the world.
This year's events are now open
to general attendance and should prove to be
the
'hot ticket' for Microsoft Project users worldwide. With
up to 80 sessions and keynotes from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
and Mike Angiulo, the GM of the Microsoft Project Business Unit,
the events will take place from January 17-19 in Seattle and
February 23-24 in Munich.
To
find out more about the conference and the registration process,
just follow this link:
http://www.msprojectconference.com/
We'll
be at the Seattle event (as we have been since its inception 5
years ago), and we'd really look forward to meeting any of you
there. Just get in touch (using the contact options above)
and we'll ensure that we meet you face-to-face.
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October and November prize draw winners |
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The five winners of the October draw of new newsletter
subscribers are:
The five winners of the
November draw of new newsletter
subscribers are:
Each of them will receive a $10 / £10 Amazon voucher with the
compliments of Project Learning Limited. |
| If
there is anything you would like us to cover or include in
future newsletters, please
complete this simple form. While we can't promise anything,
we'll certainly take a look at your suggestions.
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