http://76.12.155.87/ en Copyright 2009 2009-11-05T13:49:17+00:00 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/UWO1crEwqEA/ #When:13:49:17Z While participating on a review team for a recent client proposal, I heard another reviewer—a senior manager with our client firm—recommend that we omit the word “unmatched” from the proposal’s executive summary. He commented, “Words like this are meaningless hyperbole. They’re just a waste of space.” Did my fellow reviewer have a point? Firms preparing federal proposals must carefully adhere to often arcane and complex submission requirements that frequently include strict page limits. Failure to observe these rules can lead to entire pages being discarded unread—or even to the whole proposal being excluded from consideration due to noncompliance. Page limits aside, no evaluator wants to wade through excess verbiage to find the information requested by the RFP. Finally, the use of superlative language invites skepticism from the reader: “‘Unmatched,’ eh? We’ll just see about that!” Considering these dangers, one might easily conclude that effective proposals should avoid superlative language and simply “stick to the facts.” But this conclusion misses a key (and oft-neglected) point: a proposal is—and must be approached as—a marketing document. For all the government’s attempts to evaluate proposals independently and objectively using quantitative metrics, much of the evaluation and award process remains subjective and comparative. This is even truer for non-federal buyers who are not obligated to observe the FAR. The offeror who offers nothing beyond dry factual responses to RFP requirements misses a vital opportunity to differentiate itself from the competition—and to convince the buyer that its solution offers the best (notice that superlative?) value. Joe Friday may have wanted “just the facts,” but an effective proposal requires much more. How, then, can you effectively differentiate yourself from the competition while avoiding the pitfalls of empty superlatives in your proposals? The key is corporate humility—not in the false sense of debasing yourself and your accomplishments, but in the true sense of seeing yourself as others see you. Trinity’s CEO, Peter Mirus, recently blogged on the importance of this honest self-knowledge as a component of an effective overall marketing strategy. By knowing the genuine value your firm offers, you can begin to place that value front-and-center in your proposals—and begin to set yourself apart from the competition in terms that cannot be dismissed as “meaningless hyperbole.” Proposal Development 2009-11-05T13:49:17+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:13:49:17Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/q7JS34zLQwo/ #When:13:41:42Z Browser compatibility, or the ability of a web site/application to work in multiple browsers, is a concern for every web developer. Recent statistics show that five web browsers hold significant market share. The leaders in that report (in order from greatest to least) are Firefox, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 6, and Chrome. The browser used by the largest number of web visitors can vary from site to site. However, most public sites require compatibility with more than one browser to minimize the difference in appearance, functionality (operability), and performance (speed) from browser to browser. Browser compatibility testing is therefore done as a matter of routine at Trinity (unless a strategic assessment indicates that it is not necessary), though such is not the case with all development shops. If you would like your current web deployments tested for browser compatibility, contact Trinity today. Web Design & Development 2009-11-03T13:41:42+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:13:41:42Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/8gBZHKu2M0w/ #When:12:37:28Z In a previous post I mentioned "color memory" as a quality that many experienced graphic designers and artists possess. I would like to elaborate on what I mean by that. Color memory is essentially the ability to do with colors what a police line-up asks you to do with faces ... to distinguish one shade of red, for instance, from among many shades of red, using only your memory of having seen that specific red before. Many artists have this ability because they routinely work with standardized color wheel values, standardized paint and ink colors, and even standardized video display colors. Such standards are reference points from which experienced designers can distinguish specific color variations. That is why artists can "match" specific colors by sight. The graphic design process involves the representation of particular colors across a variety of color systems. Video screens display colors use a 3-color light-emitting system (RGB). Desktop printers create colors using 4 toner colors. Commercial printers create specific colors by the juxtaposition of 4 semi-transparent inks (cmyk) arranged in screen patterns composed of tiny overlapping dots. It is part of the graphic designer's training to understand these color systems, their limitations, and the best ways to achieve color consistency when translating specific colors from one system to another. As a design piece moves through the print-production-cycle from concept to the finished printed piece it is reproduced, at different times, in different color systems. It is created on computer display screens, reviewed as desktop print-outs, reviewed again on computer screens as printer's PDF files or as high-end photo-print proofs, and then finally as 4-color process offset printed pieces. The graphic designer's color memory, and cross-system color translating ability are of great benefit to clients who need to predict what the finished product will look like while it is under development. Color memory also allows the designer to direct a printer's press operator to make subtle global adjustments when the job is on press ... the last stage of quality control in the print-production-cycle. Graphic Design 2009-10-29T12:37:28+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:12:37:28Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/gKYMucZRdTE/ #When:14:58:27Z Education is the primary practical step to keep the network secure and business data safe.  Employees need to understand that if an unauthorized individual has successfully infiltrated a computer, he or she can cause immense and often irreparable damage to the employee, as well as to the company. For example, an unauthorized individual can use personal information obtained through social media sites to obtain email passwords, generate personal attacks, or simply to acquire additional confidential information such as answers to secret questions by visiting a personal Facebook page to find names of pets, a place of birth, etc. The unauthorized individual may even be able to obtain a contact list and then send a bot-infected email to every associated contact, may obtain confidential information related to the company accounting data, personnel files, or project information, and may disseminate this or other information to illicit third parties. For the protection of your business’s critical information, as well as for the protection of private data for each of your employees, Trinity recommends the following practical policies for work computer use. Do not visit social networking sites while at work. Do not click on instant messenger links or download files using instant messenger. Do not install any program or download any non-work file without approval from your IT department. Identify the source of all work-related files prior to downloading them. Delete any email received from an unknown source. Never download files that end with .bat or .exe. Notify your IT department if files with these extensions are received. Prior to clicking on a link pasted in an email, contact the source of the email to ensure that the indicated individual actually sent it. Do not browse the internet for fun, even during "down time", and do not visit websites that offer anything free or “too good to be true”. Immediately report viruses or even pop-ups to your IT department Think before you click. IT Managed Services 2009-10-27T14:58:27+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:14:58:27Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/8KNjLoD5sis/ #When:13:24:17Z Within each subcategory of the uber-category "Business Development" there are many professional business consultants  providing an extreme variance in value accompanied by an extreme variance in pricing. This is why, in many categories, it is impractical to believe that a good solution will be achieved if the company takes a commodity pricing approach to hiring a professional consultant. In other words, if the company sends out a solicitation for bid and selects with the lowest price available, that company is unlikely to receive returned value that exceeds the average. Rather, the company has to exercise due diligence and  perform a "best value" assessment. This is not to say that the company needs to go with the most expensive option, even assuming that the most expensive option provides the "highest level of value". What is needed is a provided level of value that corresponds to the associated level of need--the right solution at the right price.  (Please note that the "right price" is not the price that one wishes, but rather the fair price for the value that is provided.) Again, not the "highest level of value", necessarily, but rather the "best level of value." Some companies convince themselves that all consultants are created equal--it allows them be lazy about acquiring enough knowledge to make a value judgment on the services that they are receiving for the price that they are paying. There is no reasonable excuse for this mindset. If the company doesn't know what it is already receiving (the value of the service, and how that value stacks up to the industry)--how can it make an educated decision about whether or not it is receiving fair value for the price? Simply stated: it can't.Trinity seeks to demonstrate "best value" to all of its clients when recommending solutions. Not only is this the most prudent thing for us to do, but also: 1. We are interested in long-term relationships. Win-win strategies, we believe, will make both parties successful. We want to grow with our clients--not at the expense of our clients. 2. Trinity has a corporate commitment to building trust in business relationships. We hire only those consultants who will practice their profession at an ethical standard far above the industry standard. Being ethical, to Trinity, includes striving to charge a fair price for the value received. Corporate Blog 2009-10-22T13:24:17+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:13:24:17Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/TAGWsQisKAo/ #When:13:14:16Z Trinity has used many online project management and team collaboration tools.  We have yet to find one that we can endorse without reservation--every system has its flaws and limitations (some of them more egregious than others). However, for many client engagements, Basecamp has proven to be a good solution for keeping everyone on the same path--which, when you come to think about it, is the most important aspect of project management. What Trinity loves most about Basecamp is the Comments functionality. Project details, creative ideas and client/development team communication can all be documented using this feature. Everything is linked to the associated Message, To-Do or Milestone item and neatly organized in chronological order. Further exploration of benefits: Store ideas/inspirations Great projects come from great ideas. Ideas can be easily lost without a repository that can be utilized by the entire team. How often are great ideas appended in an email and lost forever?  How many are scratched on the corner of a notepad and tossed out in a mad frenzy to get organized? Basecamp provides an environment in which ideas can be quickly and easily stored. Understand the project in manageable process pieces In Basecamp, major project Milestones/goals are associated with To-Do lists, in which individual To-Do items are assigned to one or more team members.  This provides a series of understandable, manageable action steps (To-Dos).  Accountability for the action steps are clearly defined. This in turn creates ease in project status assessment--you know what exactly what stage the project is at and whose court the ball is in. Workflow made easy. Organizing a project into detailed action steps can quickly make a workflow very complex--resulting in horribly nested lists as each action requires further sub-actions. In Basecamp you can’t nest tasks--the farthest you can really go is the name of the To-Do list and the individual items in a single layer underneath it.  This can be a frustration to some users, but it also has the potential to create beauty through simplicity.  This "no sub-tasks" limitation ensures that the workflow remains manageable because it requires the project, problem or necessary action to be broken down simply and creatively. Track communication in collaborative situations Managing team communication is imperative.  What many don't appreciate is that Basecamp is first and foremost a communication tool.  Because of Basecamp's simplicity, communication headaches are greatly eased.  Client/development team communication can all be documented and posted via email through the comments attached to a To-Do item, Message, or Milestone. Additional Notes - Jamie Pittock at Erskine has written an excellent article “Project management is easy” http://erskinelabs.com/post/project-management-is-easy/, which highlights how Basecamp simplifies project management.- You can find Basecamp at basecamphq.com- This post is not intended to be a comprehensive evaluation of Basecamp- Trinity Consulting, Inc. is in no way affiliated with Basecamp/37signals If you would like to discuss Trinity's experience with Basecamp as well as similar tools, please Contact Us. Web Design & Development 2009-10-22T13:14:16+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:13:14:16Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/Brjs6fU7UAc/ #When:16:56:30Z There is no shortage of conversation related to the automation and organization of proposal management process. With the increasing popularity of virtual proposal teams, it is no surprise to see the multitudes of collaboration systems contending for adoption by proposal professionals. Most of the conversations found online begin with some form of the question: What is the best proposal management application? The good news is that question has a simple answer. The bad news is the answer isn’t what most people want to hear. The answer to the stated question is: "It depends." If there were a single product that stood above the rest in every scenario, everybody would use it.  Yet there are dozens of collaboration tools written specifically for proposal management and many more general tools with customization available for proposal development. SharePoint is arguably the most common tool used in the enterprise market, but there are a number of considerations that go into that selection.  Even with ready-built templates available, it is unlikely that SharePoint will immediately fit your needs without additional customization. Before deciding what tools are best suited to your particular situation, you must fully understand your needs (and the needs of those who will score your proposals.)  Then you will be able to ask the right questions in evaluating the costs and capabilities of proposal management systems according to your strategic priorities. Proposal Development 2009-10-20T16:56:30+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:16:56:30Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/896axmcIZHU/ #When:20:38:47Z During 2010 the greatest potential threat to business network (i.e., computer) infrastructure is a “bot”, a type of malware that allows an unauthorized individual to gain complete control over a particular computer or network of systems. A bot attempts to silently infect a specific computer and remain undetected thereafter, using the computer to disseminate corporate or confidential data (to the bot’s owner), disperse spam or even viruses, and infect other computers on the network. Bots can infect a computer (and thereby a network) via many different avenues, the most common being the internet, to include email, instant messengers, and standard web pages. Of particular note, social networking sites, such as linkedin.com, classmates.com, facebook.com, myspace.com, and youtube.com (among others), are now among the most common sources of malicious bots. To illustrate how a bot may infiltrate a particular computer, as well as to illustrate what information is at risk, Trinity will herein use these social networking sites as a general example. Networking sites are dangerous because an unauthorized individual can easily impersonate a friend or colleague and post an infected link or file to an otherwise harmless personal page. Once another individual selects the link or file, a bot can instantly infect the person’s computer without the individual being aware of the intrusion (note that the vast majority of antivirus programs are ill equipped to prevent bot infection). Moreover, personal information stored in particular networking sites is not private, regardless of whether the individual shares the information publicly. In other words, any information placed online – on one of these networking sites (or numerous other information-storing sites for that matter) – is information the entire world can view. This public visibility of personal data poses inherent security challenges to corporate networks. I will explore this issue in more detail as well as provide practical guidelines to keep private data safe in Part II of this blog series. IT Managed Services 2009-10-16T20:38:47+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:20:38:47Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/6pvi_M9G24E/ #When:20:30:03Z The two largest contributing factors to Trinity's success are (1) the character of our staff and (2) their drive to discover better solutions to problems/challenges.  Because of these two things, it is a privilege for me to come to work every day and experience these valuable qualities as the events of the day (week, month, year) are played out. Not being able to provide the best solution to a particular challenge drives us nuts. If the lack of an available solution is attributable to a particular corporate weakness (on Trinity's part) that we can identify and address, we bear down and make improvements. Every company likes to brag about its strengths and sweep its weaknesses under the rug.  But the reality of the world is that all people, and the companies that they word for, have strengths and weaknesses.  Nobody hits it out of the park every time. The rewards that are merited in life, including business achievements, are not measured by whether one has any weaknesses, but by whether one constantly strive to overcome them. Many people, and the companies that they work for, are all about emphasizing their strengths. However, it takes discipline and character to acknowledge and address weaknesses so that those weaknesses can be turned into strengths. Corporate introspection is a good thing. The acknowledgement that we all have weaknesses is a good thing. Using the "we all have weaknesses" card to excuse poor behavior/performance is a bad thing both in our personal lives, our businesses, and our society.  It is admirable to forgive -- we all need to do that. But "forgiveness", in my opinion, is often mistaken for "making excuses for others".  And too often, we make excuses for others but never forgive! How does that make good sense? In professional business consulting, addressing weaknesses in a client relationship is not a one way street.  Trinity challenges its clients--and we desire to have clients that welcome that challenge.  But Trinity's clients also challenge us to grow, to expand our knowledge, etc. -- in short, to improve ourselves in too many ways to count. Trinity holds a leadership meeting about every two weeks where our executives talk to each other about improving our internal practices to better serve our clients--and to make ourselves better professionals and better people. In short, Trinity works to turn its weaknesses into strengths--a commitment both to ourselves and to our clients. Trinity is not satisfied with being less than the best. Corporate Blog 2009-10-16T20:30:03+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:20:30:03Z http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trincon/blog/~3/fGqYtjOg2mQ/ #When:13:14:23Z Also see: The Designer and the Pressman Here is an example of how the designer can help at a press check. I recently attended the press run of 25,000 4-Color books, which I had designed. After the job was set up on the press, I was called to look at the initial review sheets, and noticed that the registration (the 4 layers of overlapping process colors) was slightly off. I knew that the pressman was working on a high speed web press that is capable of exact color registration and that correct registration is the first step in evaluating or requesting any color adjustments.  This is because registration effects color—so registration has to be corrected first. The registration was corrected, and we resolved subsequent color issues in short order. An additional benefit of stressing exact registration at the first press sheet review is that it heightens the pressman's awareness to such issues on subsequent reviews; as a result, the back side of the first sheet was registered correctly without asking. It was also helpful to discuss with the pressman that the printed piece was designed to avoid certain effects that are difficult to achieve on press. This conversation was appreciated by the pressman because he saw that the design was forward-thinking enough to avoid on-press problems. Graphic Design 2009-10-15T13:14:23+00:00 http://76.12.155.87/#When:13:14:23Z