tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8671348129949594342024-03-14T11:13:37.483+05:30TUHUND - The Ultimate power of ERPComprehensive, powerful, simple & user friendly Web Based ERP system configurable to suit all business processes of any organization of any size. TUHUND is truly an enterprise solution admired by many young entrepreneurs and successful leaders across the world.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-83523887786918699042018-11-14T13:50:00.000+05:302018-11-14T13:50:33.369+05:30How is Reminder on Email in Tuhund ERP different from snooze?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tuhund has recently released option of setting action
reminder on Email. This is quite different and far more superior to snooze
function ordinarily available in a few email clients and portals. Snooze
function is just to set a time alert to remind for an action at a time in
future. Tuhund Reminder on Email on the other hand can be used to set a
complete workflow for the actions to be taken. In simpler words, you can set
any number of reminders on a single email, you can set instructions for each
action and you can also select how you need to be alerted. This can be set on
received email as well as sent email. You may even opt for SMS alert for
important email. </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sEDHK7bnmLo/W-vNCf1Lm5I/AAAAAAAAAIE/RVIuZw4sKrcksHZBL4Q3SxoHqficyrsNACLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tuhund ERP Email Inbox" border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sEDHK7bnmLo/W-vNCf1Lm5I/AAAAAAAAAIE/RVIuZw4sKrcksHZBL4Q3SxoHqficyrsNACLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder01.png" title="Tuhund ERP Email Inbox" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CEXTQ81R9CI/W-vNICdUq1I/AAAAAAAAAII/zbup6sNJZy0D6vfW1AkC3gR4AasWQaQ6ACLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tuhund ERP Adding reminder on an email" border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CEXTQ81R9CI/W-vNICdUq1I/AAAAAAAAAII/zbup6sNJZy0D6vfW1AkC3gR4AasWQaQ6ACLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder02.png" title="Tuhund ERP Adding reminder on an email" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jo0bBfmGYEM/W-vNIszGVFI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/ZVKeKimNdGAPlBQkgVmi5OuNCzOa9XdpACLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tuhund ERP Reminder set on an email" border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jo0bBfmGYEM/W-vNIszGVFI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/ZVKeKimNdGAPlBQkgVmi5OuNCzOa9XdpACLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder03.png" title="Tuhund ERP Reminder set on an email" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ho9uZrz3MDI/W-vNIo8KsYI/AAAAAAAAAIM/FEFR35sE05YQUN1BycLvw5cIZ6YOK7JaQCLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder04.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tuhund ERP Reminder set on an email appearing as action task" border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ho9uZrz3MDI/W-vNIo8KsYI/AAAAAAAAAIM/FEFR35sE05YQUN1BycLvw5cIZ6YOK7JaQCLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder04.png" title="Tuhund ERP Reminder set on an email appearing as action task" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nn1Tj0gRrmo/W-vNJY7x8hI/AAAAAAAAAIU/dyOxJ8BCfyUYqYS_ONjc_KJbQfd6GGw6QCLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tuhund ERP Email opening directly from action task" border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="1000" height="226" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nn1Tj0gRrmo/W-vNJY7x8hI/AAAAAAAAAIU/dyOxJ8BCfyUYqYS_ONjc_KJbQfd6GGw6QCLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder05.png" title="Tuhund ERP Email opening directly from action task" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ldEjpnWCTWM/W-vNKX8IsHI/AAAAAAAAAIY/9OGIAswIfksJXLWWcN752MxFF-bDBkL2QCLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder06.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ldEjpnWCTWM/W-vNKX8IsHI/AAAAAAAAAIY/9OGIAswIfksJXLWWcN752MxFF-bDBkL2QCLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder06.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uy0HZ9J9E4U/W-vNKU-rM9I/AAAAAAAAAIc/gBfrR9-bERMmESChD6w9XMYZuiQizA4_QCLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder07.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uy0HZ9J9E4U/W-vNKU-rM9I/AAAAAAAAAIc/gBfrR9-bERMmESChD6w9XMYZuiQizA4_QCLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder07.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8V2dM16wcR0/W-vNLEDeRJI/AAAAAAAAAIg/LdkEKqAGwpsF26PnGRCTRGngXcUpnmNkQCLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder08.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8V2dM16wcR0/W-vNLEDeRJI/AAAAAAAAAIg/LdkEKqAGwpsF26PnGRCTRGngXcUpnmNkQCLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder08.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-97J1LYwb5i4/W-vNMX-oejI/AAAAAAAAAIo/uNSGZ9UMYvYWk74a_mGcFEiYMG-tT4eqgCLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder09.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-97J1LYwb5i4/W-vNMX-oejI/AAAAAAAAAIo/uNSGZ9UMYvYWk74a_mGcFEiYMG-tT4eqgCLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder09.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8ZGzqhyoGKU/W-vNMB-G5rI/AAAAAAAAAIk/w0mZO49X96o42Y-qa_dE3z1umlRcevQzgCLcBGAs/s1600/TuhundEmailReminder10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tuhund ERP Changing user notifications" border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1000" height="388" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8ZGzqhyoGKU/W-vNMB-G5rI/AAAAAAAAAIk/w0mZO49X96o42Y-qa_dE3z1umlRcevQzgCLcBGAs/s640/TuhundEmailReminder10.png" title="Tuhund ERP Changing user notifications" width="640" /></a></div>
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For those of you who are not Tuhund Users and want to know more, please get in touch with us at <a href="https://www.tuhund.com/erp/eng/schedule-demo-for-erp-crm-tuhund" target="_blank">https://www.tuhund.com/erp/eng/schedule-demo-for-erp-crm-tuhund</a></div>
Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-33896517154424166322018-11-03T00:15:00.001+05:302018-11-03T00:15:51.618+05:30Tuhund Crisis Management Module <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.tuhund.com/">Tuhund</a> Crisis Management Module is one of the least used modules in <a href="https://www.tuhund.com/">Tuhund </a>and less known to customers. This is probably because risk management is not a priority for many. It is quite a strong and a very useful module, if business continuity is your priority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have not come across any other ERP that has a Crisis Management Module inbuilt. That could be the reason why many customers are not using it. We intend to promote it in a big way together with several other modules that are unique to Tuhund or at least are not available in common ERP systems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The purpose of Tuhund Crisis Management Module is to plan and program action in advance for different types of risks so that action is rapid, ordered, controlled and coordinated. Above all, so that response is planned in advance, team is assign and ownership is clearly delegated. Finally, so that major part of the response is automated, saving time and cost and entire process is documented.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tuhund Crisis Management Module is not enabled by default. If you do not see it, please raise a request to get it turned on. Depending on the type of your Tuhund License it might be free or there might be some extra cost involved.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where is Tuhund Crisis Management Module in Tuhund ERP?</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1BeWYg4ky_E/W9yVWl7Lf9I/AAAAAAAAAHM/EXwhDUfrZT8VdeT90OTeQ5k7Ga7jk0gCgCLcBGAs/s1600/Image1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="1014" height="272" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1BeWYg4ky_E/W9yVWl7Lf9I/AAAAAAAAAHM/EXwhDUfrZT8VdeT90OTeQ5k7Ga7jk0gCgCLcBGAs/s640/Image1.png" title="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The entry to Tuhund Crisis Management Module is right through your mail box. This is because, from the management perspective, any risk mitigation is less of work and more of coordination, communication and delegation.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Getting started with Tuhund Crisis Management Module in Tuhund ERP</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To get started, you will need to identify various anticipated crisis types and create one record for each type. To create a crisis type, click on the manage button in the crisis alerts screen. You will see this button only if you the rights to manage crisis alerts (Security code ADM012).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let us take the example of our own company ECS Business Software Solutions. We use a number of dedicated internet leased lines from two service providers, Airtel and TelexAir. Most of these lines are hosting Tuhund deployments of different customers for several countries including India, UAE, KSA, Oman, Tanzania, China, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. If a line goes down, at least one customer goes offline. Hundreds of users who do all their work in ERP are rendered virtually jobless. Our response is very quick. We immediately take up the issue with respective ISP and in most cases their response has also been quick. Occasionally, if we are not able to get the line restored immediately, we switch the line to a backup line. Though, very rare, sometimes there could be a problem with a server hardware or network. So we have identified three types of issues :</span></div>
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<li>Airtel Line down</li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TelexAir Line down</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Server down</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You might be wondering why we do not combine Airtel Line down and TelexAir line down into a single type, line down. The reason is that the responses as well as the response teams are different. For our examples, we will add Airtel support in team for Airtel line down, TelexAir support in team for TelexAir line down and our hardware team in server down.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To add a type, click on the add button. A form, with following fields, will pop up:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Level. Level refers to the criticality of the crisis. By default there are three levels; Low, Medium and High. For all our examples level is high. Please avoid the temptation of selecting high for every type. You might end up focusing more on less important issues and ignore other type of issues that are more important.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Group name. A unique identifiable name for the type. For our example we will use the names Airtel Line Problems, Telex Air Line Problems and Server Down.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Email . This option lets you select the number of email addresses for each team member on which the alert must be sent. There are a number of factors, outside the system, that can result in failure of email delivery. To ensure delivery, for critical resources, multiple email addresses are encouraged.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SMS. This option let you select if the SMS should be sent and to how many mobile number for each team member. Even if a person uses a single number, which is almost always the case, you might add mobile number of spouse or other family member for highly critical issues like fire in the building, etc.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First Escalation. After how long (minutes, hours or days) must be issue escalated to higher level if it is not resolved by then.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Final Escalation. After how long (minutes, hours or days) must be issue re-escalated to higher level if it is not resolved by then.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Senders. This option lets you specify who can enter the record. For our examples we will let just anybody and everybody to create an alert.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Details. Any instructions</span>.</li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To add a type, click on the add button. A form, with following fields, will pop up:</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LZ0VwSQ6blg/W9yWyf0oaXI/AAAAAAAAAHc/PrYtxlDcHgwLXATGXH2opEmXXJMIgynAACEwYBhgL/s1600/Image2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1020" height="312" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LZ0VwSQ6blg/W9yWyf0oaXI/AAAAAAAAAHc/PrYtxlDcHgwLXATGXH2opEmXXJMIgynAACEwYBhgL/s640/Image2.png" title="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once data has been filled and form submitted, a record is created with other data set to defaults. Next step is to add the response team. You can choose from persons database. That means you can choose any person including ERP users, employees, customers, vendors, service provider or even outsiders as long as they exist in the database. After response team has been set, you can add custom fields as different data fields will be required for different types of issues. Custom fields added to a specific type of issue will be available for only issues of that type. You can add documents that might be needed, helpful or just have record value specific to that crisis type. Finally you might want to customize email and SMS messages.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4H2kXzAsXBQ/W9yXXuhKTiI/AAAAAAAAAHg/LLaj_S9JGkEg5LVjFl2jTJYf4wCy-jv0ACLcBGAs/s1600/Image3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="1028" height="206" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4H2kXzAsXBQ/W9yXXuhKTiI/AAAAAAAAAHg/LLaj_S9JGkEg5LVjFl2jTJYf4wCy-jv0ACLcBGAs/s640/Image3.png" title="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r7fUXd9aCwk/W9yXXtCWYoI/AAAAAAAAAHk/EcvkBg-0-ogDZ_6dyL53BxaT8guPxZWxACEwYBhgL/s1600/Image4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="1028" height="382" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r7fUXd9aCwk/W9yXXtCWYoI/AAAAAAAAAHk/EcvkBg-0-ogDZ_6dyL53BxaT8guPxZWxACEwYBhgL/s640/Image4.png" title="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Working with actual issues.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let us start from the beginning. Go to your mail box and click on the Crisis Alerts button. You will reach Crisis Alerts screen. Click on add button to raise a new issue. Select type, enter a name, enter details and submit. Team will be auto-populated from the type and alerts will be sent based on the preset rules explained above. Specific assignments can also be created manually. These assignments will create their own notification alerts and will also show in users home page in the task list as well as in the Tuhund Mobile App. There is a comments section inside the crisis alert screen which can be used as a discussion board or just to keep track of developments. There is a communication section that keeps track of all the email exchanged (incoming and outgoing) that is specific or related to the issue. There is also a documents section to store all related documents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the issue is resolved, it can be closed.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PE25E2u9glw/W9yXXu8X79I/AAAAAAAAAHo/GXH1q-9NsNAGAceLcqxZ8QXzDAfIhwaFACEwYBhgL/s1600/Image6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="1028" height="178" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PE25E2u9glw/W9yXXu8X79I/AAAAAAAAAHo/GXH1q-9NsNAGAceLcqxZ8QXzDAfIhwaFACEwYBhgL/s640/Image6.png" title="Tuhund Crisis Management Module " width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More to come</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There will be two additions to Tuhund Crisis Management Module that are already in our schedule.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Detailed reports including reports tied to resource performance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Expenses incurred on fixing the issue including human resource cost and intangible costs.</span></div>
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Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-16086526553020872922016-09-12T09:46:00.001+05:302016-09-12T09:46:27.133+05:30Using TUHUND POS system to simplify across the counter sales<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND </a>POS is currently one of the best software programs available on the market, for billing, order taking, accounting, and to analyze inventory levels on an item-by-item basis.<br />
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TUHUND POS is a front end interface, for counter sales, of the main TUHUND ERP. It is totally integrated with ERP. The moment there is a transaction recorded in the POS, it is reflected everywhere till the balance sheet. As of now there are two distinct interfaces available; one is ideally suited for the retail industry like a supermarket chain or a small shop and the second for touch screen counters like restaurants and fast food joints. The software automatically takes the correct interface depending on the business that the branch is into. Same organization may have different businesses for different companies and branches. TUHUND POS will take the correct interface for each branch.<br />
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TUHUND POS is not affected by the connection problems as it keeps working seamlessly even when the connection is down.<br />
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You can even control inventory right at the cash register with point-of-sale (POS) software systems. <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s </a>POS software records each sale when it happens, so your inventory records are always up-to-date. You get much more information about the sale than you could gather with a manual system. By running reports based on this information, you can make better decisions about ordering and merchandising.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZU6l83Y_uTY/V9FUI-IPAlI/AAAAAAAALsU/9thOvDFst2sjAOonJb9NbPMV3V0CFHk-wCLcB/s1600/TuhundRetailPOS1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZU6l83Y_uTY/V9FUI-IPAlI/AAAAAAAALsU/9thOvDFst2sjAOonJb9NbPMV3V0CFHk-wCLcB/s1600/TuhundRetailPOS1.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Retail POS</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s </a>POS systems enable you to use multiple devices at your checkout stations, including EDC machine, bar-code scanners, and receipt or invoice printers. It is integrated with the ERP which leads to manage accounting modules, including general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, purchasing, and inventory control systems. To put it in simple words <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s </a>POS system is an all-in-one Solution to keep track of your day to day business.</div>
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Why? <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s </a>POS:</h4>
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify;">User-friendly, simple and more effective graphical interface with easy functionalities.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">TUHUND POS works in both online and offline mode. When there is no connectivity, TUHUND POS will just keep working. When the connection is restored, it will synchronize the data automatically.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Product could be entered manually, automatically or by using bar – code scanner.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Once the product information is entered system will compute the price at multiple quantities and provide a grand total.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">It is linked with <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND </a>ERP, which makes it easier to keep track on accounting and invoicing.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">You can set discounts based on the hierarchy like staff -10%, Managers 20 % etc…</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">You can analyze Business Reports, which will help your business improve day to day</li>
</ol>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Po1p9ZbjhQs/V9FWqnsBiAI/AAAAAAAALsg/gR_JTlDDRDk6XwxM8Yiv9E1NU553QA6HQCLcB/s1600/TuhundRetailPOS3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Po1p9ZbjhQs/V9FWqnsBiAI/AAAAAAAALsg/gR_JTlDDRDk6XwxM8Yiv9E1NU553QA6HQCLcB/s1600/TuhundRetailPOS3.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Retail POS</td></tr>
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Reports available on POS also include sales, costs, and profits by individual inventory items, by salesperson, or by category for the day, month and year to date. You can also create invoices, accounting statements and price tags. You can add n numbers of price maps, and select branch applicability. </span><br />
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How does it work?</h4>
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<a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s </a>POS works in a smart way, when you do installation in your system It will prompt that server has not been set, and ask if you would like to set it now. Click on yes and enter URL of the customers <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND </a>deployment along with protocol https:// for instance <a href="https://erp.e-centric.net/">https://erp.e-centric.net</a></div>
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After server has been set, software will prompt "Before using the software you need to configure settings. Do you want to configure now?"</div>
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Say YES!!!</div>
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It will popup login screen, Login with your user account. Next, if the customer has multiple branches, means system will ask you to select the branch where the software is being installed. Click on the correct branch. Next the system will ask to select the station number. Click on 1 if no station has been installed in the same branch. Otherwise click on the next number. Once number is assigned. Software will close. Launch it again and work normally.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tOBEovNGqyE/V9FW7O_hFnI/AAAAAAAALsk/dn52iqcfxs8nywoPSLMH_Hpt-x3rBB8nwCLcB/s1600/TuhundTouchScreenPOS1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tOBEovNGqyE/V9FW7O_hFnI/AAAAAAAALsk/dn52iqcfxs8nywoPSLMH_Hpt-x3rBB8nwCLcB/s1600/TuhundTouchScreenPOS1.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Restaurant POS</td></tr>
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Auto Invoicing and Auto Completion of Commercial Invoices is one more super cool feature comes along with the <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND </a>ERP system. <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s </a>Integrated POS system is a powerful tool for kind of retails and restaurants to manage day to day sales hassle free.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-40906277632907323532016-08-26T19:10:00.002+05:302016-08-26T19:10:30.579+05:30Embedding TUHUND Contact Forms in other Portals and Third Party Websites<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
For any business, it is important to handle inbound contact queries is a seamless yet structured way. These queries could be trade enquiries or offers that could translate to business. Having a “contact us” page or form on company website is very common and there already is a way to handle it. Your website developer does not charge anything extra for this form. It is already very simple and there seems to be little scope of improving it further. The trouble starts after receiving a query. Normally these queries are forwarded to the organization through an email and emails are not that simple to manage inherently. Who should receive this email? What would be the action or actions that he would be required to take? What is the time limit? How should he respond? Who will approve the response? What if he does not handle it as required? Who is tracking these queries and how? What data is available for analysis and how? These are just a few concerns that will always be there.<br />
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Like most other issues, <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">Tuhund</a> has a solution for this too. <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">Tuhund</a> lets you create any number of contact forms which can be embedded in any website. There are several ways of embedding. Once embedded, the form opens in the website where it has been embedded and once a visitor fills in a form and submits, it is automatically recorded in <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">Tuhund</a>. Every form can be assigned to any user, employee or designation for handling and the users handling it as well as the managers have the option to choose how they would like to be notified. They can choose one or any combination from Notifier, Email, SMS or message in their <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">Tuhund ERP</a> home page. From there on it will be handled in most structured way like every other module in Tuhund. In the list page you can search, sort, filter in lot of ways besides there are BI reports for analysis. You may also choose to auto-notify the sender through email and/or SMS.<br />
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So, how does it Work?<br />
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It works in a simple way. All you need to do is to create a form and specify the fields that are required in two easy steps. Contact forms sub-module is inside the CRM module.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mrT-N4iwhdw/V77kq9y52GI/AAAAAAAALRU/EbUR5dwruSMZBc_Gbmo_1hGDl-Taa9p6wCLcB/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mrT-N4iwhdw/V77kq9y52GI/AAAAAAAALRU/EbUR5dwruSMZBc_Gbmo_1hGDl-Taa9p6wCLcB/s1600/1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - CRM Module</td></tr>
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When you click on contact forms icon, system will display main page where you can see the list of messages received so far. On the right top right corner you will find a Manage Button, you must click on the button, and then it will take you to the next page where you can manage the contact forms. To create a new form, click on the “Add” button. Specify a distinct, easily identifiable name for the form which will be used for internal reference. Specify the form heading. Form heading will be displayed on top of the contact form created. Finally choose the fields from the pre-specified list, Name, Company, Email, Mobile, Phone and Subject to specify which fields are required and which ones are mandatory to be filled in. Finally specify width and height of the form in pixels and save. System will automatically generate embedding code of contact form based on the attributes and information you gave before saving it.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3xJ-m_9txrA/V77lbjDffwI/AAAAAAAALRc/ez0v8tynw0sXL0DcTpoW1SCYv80DpdMlgCLcB/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3xJ-m_9txrA/V77lbjDffwI/AAAAAAAALRc/ez0v8tynw0sXL0DcTpoW1SCYv80DpdMlgCLcB/s1600/2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Contact Form</td></tr>
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You can find the HTML embed code at the bottom of the page below the preview of the form. Preview form is fully functional. That means, you can use it for testing. You can also edit the details of the fields if something is wrong. Any number and types of custom fields can be added. Some might have multiple portals you can use the same contact form or you can create the new one. Also, you can embed it to the third party website; if you have a blog or something hosted by some other site you can use the contact form code to display it there. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-26PBtyguw-E/V77meJqoi8I/AAAAAAAALRo/PmZCJjjaoJ84OOmVVkojIcv2ssarng3TACLcB/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-26PBtyguw-E/V77meJqoi8I/AAAAAAAALRo/PmZCJjjaoJ84OOmVVkojIcv2ssarng3TACLcB/s1600/3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Contact Form HTML Code</td></tr>
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Now, where can I find the messages?</div>
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All the messages that you receive will be stored in the CONTACT FORM MESSAGES, when you click on the icon, it will take you to the main page where you can see the list of messages that have come. You can see the Contact details and read the subject line of the message from the main page itself, if you click on the message it will show complete details of the message and also you will see more options, you can compose a mail directly from the same page, you can see the past history below. And on the right top, you will see CLOSE button if you click on that, system will close the message, it will not show on the page unless you filter your search. You can search previous messages by refining your search filter.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KVHxjc-TNF8/V77m5qPi-PI/AAAAAAAALRs/aKZ96Je0eHslDSIJm28GbIIhvVOpWBWNACLcB/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KVHxjc-TNF8/V77m5qPi-PI/AAAAAAAALRs/aKZ96Je0eHslDSIJm28GbIIhvVOpWBWNACLcB/s1600/4.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Contact Form Messages</td></tr>
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The best thing about TUHUND's Contact form messages is, it could be linked with your mobile number also to your mailbox via ERP, so that every time you get a new message you will receive an alert to your mobile number and to your mailbox. You can do this settings in admin control panel by changing the security functions.<br />
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Isn’t so cool? If you are really focused on the growth of your business <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s</a> Contact Form is an extraordinary tool for you to build a good customer relationship to your business.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-4411519087079645822016-08-25T12:01:00.000+05:302016-08-25T12:02:30.622+05:30Implementation Procedure - Support For TUHUND Implementation Partners <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This post comprises a few selected parts of the <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> deployment and implementation methodology document. Though, implementation partners are given a full detailed guide along with formal training and maximum real time support, this post is to just give a brief idea of the process to the prospective partners. <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> deployment and implementation is very simple and quick. It assures high returns for the partners.<br />
Lifecycle phases of <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> deployment and implementation methodology are as follows:<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Technical deployment</li>
<li>Data entry</li>
<li>System configuration and tuning</li>
<li>Training</li>
<li>Signoff</li>
</ol>
<span style="color: red;">Please note</span>: Technical lifetime support to all direct and indirect customers is provided by <a href="http://www.ecsbss.com/">ECS Business Software Solutions</a> through inbuilt support ticket system.<br />
Normally only the first phase is accomplished in one go. Phases 2 to 5 go through several iterations.<br />
Technical deployment steps are as follows:<br />
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Project formal start</li>
<li>Procurement of <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> License for the buyer</li>
<li>Hardware deployment</li>
<li>Installation of RHEL 5.4 or higher (or Solaris)</li>
<li>Network configuration</li>
<li>Procurement and configuration of domains. Domain for ERP is mandatory while domains for customer sub-portal and <a href="http://www.ecsjobs.com/">recruitment sub-portal</a> are optional</li>
<li>Procurement and installation of secure server certificate (SSL)</li>
<li>Install of Database Software</li>
<li>Import blank <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> database</li>
<li>Install JAVA and Apache Tomcat application server</li>
<li>Install <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> License and scripts</li>
<li>Run <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> auto update script</li>
<li>Configure schedulers (crontab)</li>
</ol>
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That’s it. System is up and running with latest <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> software. Sign off from the Technical Deployment.http://www.tuhund.com/<a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">http://www.tuhund.com/</a><br />
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Two users with administrative access will be auto-created by the system and the credentials of one will be given along with the license. Other user access will be reserved for <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> support team access till deployment is complete. These two users will not be counted in <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> user licenses.<br />
For data entry <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> recommends two diverse methodologies for the implementation.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QhcHl0ManCU/V76HzXpjzWI/AAAAAAAALQk/Q1TKvIvVd2sGGKftjAoKqyafuEQVSxQUACLcB/s1600/Technical%2Bdeployment%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QhcHl0ManCU/V76HzXpjzWI/AAAAAAAALQk/Q1TKvIvVd2sGGKftjAoKqyafuEQVSxQUACLcB/s1600/Technical%2Bdeployment%2B%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></div>
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The partner will have to select the correct methodology first, which can be any one or a combination of the two. The partner must then go through it thoroughly and explain the pros and cons of both the methodologies while negotiating the same with the customer. The selection must be made in real time considering the factors including but not limited to the following:<br />
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Nature of the organization and its geographic diversity.</li>
<li>Current processes and maturity of the current processes.</li>
<li>Current system or systems being used by the customer.</li>
<li>Data export capability of the current systems to excel, CSV, xml formats.</li>
<li>Involvement of the top management for leadership role.</li>
<li>Number and authority level of the customer’s resources dedicated for the implementation project.</li>
<li>Level of customization required that is mandatory before go live.</li>
</ol>
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The partner is advised to put the methodology on paper and sign off with the customer so that customer expectations can be managed.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">IMPORTANT</span>: Please be advised, there can be a major problem with turnkey implementation due to the fact that all the departments in the customer's organization are highly inter-dependent on each other. If any department withholds the approval and / or their part of work, entire system comes to a halt.<br />
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For both types of implementation latest versions of sets of data templates, instructions and sample files together with pre-requisites can be downloaded through the implementer control panel and the populated files can also be uploaded in the same panel for population of data.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TVejRALmRIc/V76I9iJJWWI/AAAAAAAALQw/0mGHj99BGTspYZ7sYnuPO1RMCswQb3DEQCLcB/s1600/Image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TVejRALmRIc/V76I9iJJWWI/AAAAAAAALQw/0mGHj99BGTspYZ7sYnuPO1RMCswQb3DEQCLcB/s1600/Image1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Implementer Control Panel</td></tr>
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Now, let’s have a look at the Implementation Workflow, in both the methodologies recommended sequence of data entry is as follows:<br />
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You can start with the Data Entry as follow, however the data entry is quite a long procedure but kind of interesting when you start doing it. You can start by entering:<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Entity and branch data</li>
<li>Departments and positions data</li>
<li>Employee and ERP user data</li>
</ul>
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Once you enter the ERP user data Next step is to configure the user’s access rights, so you will start with creation of security groups with appropriate security rights in each group. Neither groups nor rights are mutually exclusive. Which mean, one user can be in any number of security groups and one access right can also be in any number of security groups. Thus any given user can have multiple roles and responsibilities. Assign security groups and branch level access to each user. To make it simple you can work both ways; that is for a particular user you can choose the branches or you can go to a branch and choose users who have access to that branch. Similarly you can select security groups for a user or go to a security group and select the users in that group.<br />
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<li>Configure email servers and accounts</li>
<li>Configure SMS API</li>
<li>Configure user alerts and notifications</li>
<li>Configure approval rules and workflows</li>
<li>Notify users about their login ids and passwords</li>
</ul>
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After configuration of users next procedure is to<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Create customer groups</li>
<li>Create marketing zones</li>
<li>Enter Customers, vendors and partners data</li>
</ul>
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Then the next big thing is to set up accounting and finance module, so you will start with<br />
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<li>General ledgers tuning</li>
<li>Entry of sub-ledgers and opening balances</li>
<li>Configure smart accounts</li>
<li>Create and configure transaction vouchers</li>
<li>Create and configure accounting forms</li>
<li>Configure currencies and exchange rates or exchange rate auto-update correction factors</li>
<li>Create sales tax, service tax, GST, excise duty, secondary tax, add on tax (like nation building tax, suspended vat and zakat, etc) groups, whichever required.</li>
<li>After accounting, Next step is to:</li>
<li>Create product categories</li>
<li>Configure sales units</li>
<li>Products data entry</li>
<li>Create service types</li>
<li>Configure service units</li>
<li>Services data entry</li>
<li>Once all the product and services data is entered you can start with</li>
<li>Creating quotation types and rules</li>
<li>Create proforma invoice types and rules</li>
<li>Create commercial invoice types and rules</li>
<li>Create and configure price maps, price lists and rules</li>
<li>Create lead referrers and categories</li>
<li>Enter existing business leads</li>
<li>Create event types and required fields</li>
<li>Enter customer and lead events</li>
<li>Enter open customer and lead reminders</li>
</ul>
<br />
After this, you can move on to Inventory module and start<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Creating stores</li>
<li>Enter inventory</li>
<li>Configure purchase order types</li>
<li>Enter purchase orders</li>
<li>Enter invoices</li>
</ul>
<br />
Then you can set up this rest of the requirement in phases:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Configure project types</li>
<li>Enter projects, tasks and resources</li>
<li>Enter other tasks</li>
<li>Create enquiry types</li>
<li>Enter open enquiries</li>
<li>Create service request categories</li>
<li>Configure service rules</li>
<li>Configure GRN types</li>
<li>Configure Delivery note types</li>
<li>Create and configure claim types</li>
<li>Create and configure cost centers</li>
<li>Configure financial statements</li>
<li>Configure finance dashboard</li>
<li>Re-configure all custom labels</li>
<li>Re-configure all PDF templates</li>
<li>Create new BI charts (if required)</li>
<li>Test all backup scripts</li>
</ul>
<br />
Then Sign off from the Data entry and the Configuration.<br />
<br />
But in both the methodologies, adding of ERP users will be followed by the following process:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Create User Security Groups based on the roles as employees</li>
<li>Assign security roles to users as per their job roles</li>
<li>Print out roles map and discuss with the customer</li>
<li>Re-configure and fine-tune security access.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="color: red;">FYI</span>: Implementation partners are encouraged to use the system of <a href="http://www.ecsbss.com/">ECS</a> for implementation project management. Various task / milestone templates are available for quick use.<br />
<span style="color: red;">IMPORTANT</span>: things you should know before you choose which methodology is best for you,<br />
<br />
<b>Incremental Implementation</b>: In this method data is populated on incremental basis and the customer starts working on the system with minimal data. This is lengthy method and takes more time of partner's resources. However, this is more dependable method and ultimately the customer gets to use the full power of the system sooner.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-knZR5HosnEE/V76KZlp8ZXI/AAAAAAAALQ8/MiCVdX3jeCUh2DcIqnBfYtapLg0-ZJyTACEw/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-knZR5HosnEE/V76KZlp8ZXI/AAAAAAAALQ8/MiCVdX3jeCUh2DcIqnBfYtapLg0-ZJyTACEw/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Incremental Implementation work flow</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In two steps login ids of users can be created and users can log in. Thereafter, the sequence of data entry, training and signoff can be rearranged based on the priority and readiness after every stage.<br />
The process can be roughly split into eight phases and can be completed within eight weeks.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Turnkey Implementation</b>: In this method data is populated in one go and users can login to fully populated system and start working. The process can be repeated over several iterations after deleting data from the earlier iteration till the customer decides to keep the data and close the project as completed. The purpose of iterations is to provide a real time trial to the customer's resources with their own real time data. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MhMZEL-idLg/V76LADaByMI/AAAAAAAALRA/Lg7TKptMdvA9W4xlFj1LOpPrFhvUW3nlwCLcB/s1600/22.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MhMZEL-idLg/V76LADaByMI/AAAAAAAALRA/Lg7TKptMdvA9W4xlFj1LOpPrFhvUW3nlwCLcB/s400/22.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND - Turnkey Implementation work flow</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Clearing of partial data is possible but should be discouraged as there can be inter-dependencies which, if not resolved, will cause errors at the production time. Leaving partial data on the server for repeated iteration does not save time but prolongs it. Templates are available for all data in excel format and uploading each template auto-enters data correctly in virtually no time.<br />
<br />
The final phase implementation is the training. Training too is almost never done in one go even of it is for a single location. It is done over several sessions with planned breaks to allow the users to understand, practice and perfect themselves.<br />
For training too, entire methodology, workflow and training material is provided by <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a>. However, it is again recommended to use <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> training module for the same.<br />
Having said all that, even after providing detailed implementation guide and training, <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> team from <a href="http://www.ecsbss.com/">ECS Business Software Solutions</a> will be their throughout the process to support you. You may also offload some or all of your data processing work to our back-office and we will be glad to assist.<br />
<br />
<b>Concluding word of caution</b> : Time and effort will hardly depend on your technical capability or on the software. It will primarily depend upon the cooperation of your customer and the leadership of their executive management. Please quote accordingly.<br />
Detailed lessons learned will be shared at the time of training.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-61937181761022908222016-08-23T19:21:00.000+05:302016-08-23T19:21:46.515+05:30Working with Email Newsletters in TUHUND<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND’s</a> Newsletters and Announcements help you to send
mails in bulk to the specified mailing list, when you have to send greeting,
send invitation for an event or if you want to notify your customers about the
new updates or changes, it is just few clicks away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To send Newsletters you must create your mailing list first.
Mailing lists are reusable and once created, same mailing list can be used for
any number of newsletters. Mailing list is also not actually a list but a rule.
It is a rule with combination of several parameters to generate the actual list
on run time, each time you create a newsletter. You can create as many as
mailing lists as you want. All you have do is click on the Newsletters icon in
the <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/ERP/eng/crm-Customer-Relationship-Management-Vendor-Management">CRM module</a>, click on the mailing list button and Add new mailing list. Once
you click on the Add new button system will ask you to give a name for the
mailing list. You can enter any name that will help you identify the mailing
list in future. In the description box you can enter detailed description of
the mailing list and then click on the save button. After saving, it will take
you to the page where you can edit all the details required for the mailing
list. You can edit <b>sender details</b> by
clicking on the edit button. You will need to enter SMTP Host, SMTP Port,
Sender name, Sender Email and password. You can select and deselect
combinations of rules like <b>Companies
& Organizations, Customer, Vendors and Leads</b> which should be under the
mailing list. Also you can select and deselect from <b>Persons, Employees, Contact Persons, ERP users and other persons</b>
whom you would like to send Newsletter from this mailing list. Please note, you
will not be selecting actual companies or persons here, but just select which
types of entities to select from in the actual Newsletter. Finally you can edit
<b>Branch applicability</b> for which
branch or branches this mailing list should be applicable. Once done, your
mailing list ready to send out the newsletter.<sub><o:p></o:p></sub></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rl29mM6lpnU/V7xQJbtqkII/AAAAAAAALMs/ozksenMzFHIDwqbvDMRNuOmgDc1VijQpgCLcB/s1600/3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rl29mM6lpnU/V7xQJbtqkII/AAAAAAAALMs/ozksenMzFHIDwqbvDMRNuOmgDc1VijQpgCLcB/s320/3.png" title="TUHUND Newsletter Mailing List" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND Newsletter Mailing List</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once the mailing list is ready, you can go back and create
Newsletter by clicking on the <b>Create
Newsletter</b> button. When you click on the button system will ask you to
write a description for the newsletter. Create a new newsletter with a good
name that can be easily identified in future. Then it will ask you to choose
mailing list from the dropdown. The dropdown will show all the mailing lists
you have created so far. You can select an appropriate mailing list and click
on the save button. Make sure while creating the newsletter you will select the
correct mailing list.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AYsZUtZQL6o/V7xQolJFCuI/AAAAAAAALMw/BMrvyg0330ESnALua5lw1HElSVLYRShDQCLcB/s1600/Number2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AYsZUtZQL6o/V7xQolJFCuI/AAAAAAAALMw/BMrvyg0330ESnALua5lw1HElSVLYRShDQCLcB/s320/Number2.png" title="Creating Newsletter with TUHUND" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creating Newsletter with TUHUND</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what Next? You are
almost there. Suppose if you are sending an invitation or a greeting make sure
you have catchy cool content with good images that would attract viewer’s eye,
when they receive your newsletter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Upload good quality images that would be used in HTML. All
such images can be uploaded in the upload image section. Once images are
uploaded, click on the content button and create content. Your content is what
matters a lot, so write a good content to deliver the message in a simple form,
and use images uploaded in HTML. Once the content is set, go back and click on
the recipient’s button. Click on the finalize button. System will select all
recipients, based on the rules in the mailing list, by default. In case you
would like to remove any recipients you do not want to send email to, just
click on the respective icon on the absolute left. Once it’s done, just click
on the Lock Button and then go back to the main page.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-83m2aNw7xVM/V7xQ6L4SNWI/AAAAAAAALM4/l_8nIIb6i1YpiIyIXi4BqVAVlW09yHIrQCLcB/s1600/NewsLetterMain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-83m2aNw7xVM/V7xQ6L4SNWI/AAAAAAAALM4/l_8nIIb6i1YpiIyIXi4BqVAVlW09yHIrQCLcB/s320/NewsLetterMain.png" title="TUHUND Newsletter" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TUHUND Newsletter</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now click on the test button to test the newsletter first so
that you can ensure you are going to deliver newsletter without any mistakes. Tuhund
will send test newsletter to your email address the same way it would later
send to all the recipients. Check the email that you have received. If it is good
to go, click on the start button to start sending emails. System will start
sending newsletter to the intended recipients at highly random internals one by
one. Please be assured, all the emails or almost all the emails will land in
the Inbox of the recipients. You can keep checking the status of emails sent in
the main page of Newsletter and you can also check history by refining your
filter.</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-23725362824959432302016-08-23T00:22:00.000+05:302016-08-23T00:22:15.178+05:30Publishing open job positions created in TUHUND on public portals and third party websites<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Publishing of job positions created in TUHUND is very simple and flexible. We will assume you do not know how to create job positions. Therefore, we will start with instructions for creating job positions. <br />
<strong>Creation of new job position on TUHUND</strong><br />
Please go to human resource management module by clicking on the HR button in the top ribbon. Look for icon "Recruitment" and click on it. You will find "Job Positions" button on the top right corner. Please click on that. In the next page, which is erp >> hr >>recruitment >> job positions, you will find add button on the top right corner. Clicking that button will open "Add new job position form." In case you have access to more than one branch or entity, you will first see the select branch screen. Please click on the branch/entity for which you want to create the record. Fill the required details in the form and submit. You new job position is created.<br />
<strong>Publishing of new job position to TUHUND recruitment sub-portal</strong><br />
New job positions created do not automatically become public in any way. You will need to select the positions that you wish to make public, even on TUHUND recruitment sub-portal. To do so, please go to recruitment sub-module under human resource module once again. You will find "publish" button on the top right corner of the page. Please click it. In the next page, you will see the preview of the content that will be published on the TUHUND recruitment sub-portal. If the content looks alright, please click on "Save" button. <br />
<strong>Publishing on other portals</strong><br />
For publishing on other portals and third party websites, three APIs are available. Please click on "API" button on the top right corner of the same page. You will see all three API and you can choose the best suited API for integration.<br />
<strong>1. XML API</strong><br />
XML API gives you maximum flexibility of parsing the content in any way you like. It gives you all the content associated with the job positions made public and you can choose as per your requirement. <br />
<strong>2. HTML API</strong><br />
Though HTML API is slightly rigid compared to XML API, it still lets you add your own styles. You can open the API in browser, check the class names of different elements and create the css accordingly.<br />
<strong>3. I-Frame</strong><br />
I-Frame is easiest to integrate. It is just a line of text that you need to copy and paste on the other website. <br />
Please note, integration on each portal is one time job. The content is fetched from your TUHUND on runtime. Therefore, whatever changes you make in TUHUND will reflect in all portals and websites where you have placed any of the three APIs</div>
Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-35815417246722836222012-05-14T13:31:00.000+05:302012-05-14T13:33:24.039+05:30Group Discount module in TUHUND<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a>’s Discount group module helps you to set discount groups and offer discounts dynamically. You can have en-number of discount groups based on the customers and based on the sales you make. They can be Cash Discounts, Credit Customers and Special Discount for example. Cash Discount allows the users to give the customers cash discounts based on the quantity and the customers with whom you deal with. Credit customers are those customers to whom you give credit sales and a discount on the purchases they make from you. This discount depends on the credit limit. If the credit limits is more, then the discount rate is calculated at the lower mark and if the credit limit is less, you can give the customer higher rate of discount. Special discounts are given where there is a special occasion, introduction of a new product in the market or during the stock clearance sales. <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">Discounts</a> can be applied to your existing customers by selecting them from the list of customers and then click on the check-box next to the customers. You can create a new discount group from the discount page in sales module and add more customers to the discount group. The discount group home page displays the list of discounts you have already set for the customers in your organization. You have options to Edit, Delete and Add a New Group in the discount Group <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">home page</a>.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-30196585940464298692012-05-14T12:44:00.002+05:302012-05-14T12:53:51.110+05:30Marketing Campaign module in TUHUND ERP<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
TUHUND’s marketing campaign module helps you to organize, manage and execute your e-mail marketing campaigns by providing a user interface where you can manage campaigns and select the periodicity and number of e- mails to be sent. Whatever you need to do for running an effective campaign is there in the marketing campaign module. Be it an HTML editor, calendar to choose the days to start or to enter the specific number e-mails to be sent per day, it’s all there in <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a>. Enter the description for the E-Mail, set the content and select the day to start the campaign, servers will automatically start sending the mails on selected day as per your instructions and send exactly the same number of e-mails on a regular interval.<br />
<br />
All you need to do is go to the<a href="http://www.tuhund.com/"> Sales module</a>, select the Marketing campaign option. A user interface with the fields to enter the name of the campaign, description, campaign start date, and a field to enter the number of E- Mails to be sent on a day is displayed. Enter all the details in the specific fields and click Save. The E-mail is ready to be fired now. Once you are ready, you can go to the main page and test fire the mail and see whether the mail is appearing as desired. If everything is fine click the Activate button to activate the <a href="http://www.tuhund.com/">Marketing Campaign</a> and send the mails to the desired recipients.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-16807487917353918762012-03-22T18:17:00.001+05:302012-03-22T18:20:16.753+05:30Cost Centers in TUHUND – Cost Accounting Made Easy<p>Just like rest of the modules in <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a>, cost center accounting is very simple and you do not have to be a finance expert to work with it. Typically cost center accounting is more basic than management accounting and it does not have to be directly linked to the financial statements. However, some companies do link them. While most of the ERP systems available provide one of the two methods, <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a> gives you both the options. You may use any one or a combination of both. </p> <br /><p>Traditional definitions of cost centers use technical jargon while we always try and avoid that. In plain English cost center management has two purposes. On one hand it helps an organization with optimum utilization of funds and to eventually cut down on the costs and on the other it helps determine actual cost of products thus giving an input for the planning of selling price. With <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a>, at any point of time, users authenticated to work with cost centers can get the reports that can be elaborated and expanded along various axes. You can check the actual transactions, costs under various heads or periodic reports like yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily. You can even generate reports for groups of cost centers and categorize cost centers. You can even set warnings and triggers.</p> <br /><p><a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> Financial cost accounting reports are generated at run time. That means if you remove a particular account from a cost center, all previous transactions will also be removed as they will shift under new cost center or not considered a cost big enough to be monitored. Therefore, it is not necessary to create cost centers before transactions are made. This is better way of managing cost centers but has a drawback. You will eventually end up creating too many accounts, your trial balance will have more number of records and the schedules for your balance sheets will be longer. Otherwise, this method gives you reports that have legal validity and match cent to cent with your financial reports. If you are into a business where number of customers and vendors is not very large, you should go for this approach. Once again, if this approach suits only a part of the organization like a business entity, few entities, a branch or few branches, you may adopt it for such entities or branches only. Even for a particular branch you can close to adopt a mix of both approaches.</p> <br /><p>In the management cost accounting approach, cost centers will have to be defined first and accounts attributing to the cost assigned to each cost center. Percentage of transaction under an account for each cost center can be defined in advance and the respective value will be pre-populated at run time. However, the value can be changed. Let me explain that with an example. </p> <br /><p>Suppose you have a factory defined as a branch under <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> and there are two CNC machines in the factory. Your average monthly electric bill has been $1000 so far and you know that out of $1000 machine A consumes power worth $600, machine B consumes $300 and remaining $100 is consumed by lighting and other electric appliances. You have a cost center named cost of running A and other cost center named cost of running B. Besides other accounts attributing to the two cost centers, Electric bill attributes 60% and 30% to the two cost centers respectively. Suppose for a particular month you receive a bill of $2000. When you select the electric expense account under the debit side in the form, all the cost centers affected by the transaction will automatically appear below the transaction. In this case we have defined only two cost centers so only two will appear. These will be pre-populated with values $1200 and $600 respectively. You will be free to correct the values. Suppose you know that you had a big order to deliver and that only machine A had to run 20 hours a day while machine B continued to run only 8 hours a day for the entire month. You will have to change the values accordingly, which in this case will be $1500 and $300 respectively. </p> <br /><p>Though normally you can create as many cost centers as you like and under as many categories as you like, several modules like Project Management module auto create cost centers automatically. It might sound "not so big" but it actually saves a lot of time. </p> <br /><p>So for those who say cost accounting is complicated, expensive and unnecessary, there is a news. With <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a>, cost accounting is neither complicated nor expensive. As far as being necessary or unnecessary is concerned, you can decide that. After all, whether you make a profit or not is a matter of choice. Your Choice! :)</p>Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-15901435977140184162012-03-18T11:32:00.002+05:302012-03-18T11:48:21.062+05:30The best way of entering opening balances in TUHUND – ERP<p>At the onset I would like to clarify that entering opening balances is a one time job for those companies or their legal business entities or branches that have been doing business prior to the implementation of <a href="http://tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a>. It does not have to be repeated ever again. I would also like to clarify that normally <a href="http://e-centric.net/">ECS</a> helps the customer with entering previous data including opening balances as part of the <a href="http://tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> implementation. The customer may choose to enter the data for any business entity, entities, branch or branches of the enterprise only if that is needed. </p><br /><br /><p><a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a> does not allow single point entry as that would result in error in the trial balance, correcting which is a cumbersome process. <a href="http://tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> has been built in such a way that even a person with minimal accounting knowledge can manage accounting. Therefore, accounting errors are prevented rather than just providing ways to correct them. In <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a> trial balance would always match and the purpose of proving trial balance in <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a> is to make those users comfortable who are used to derive information from trial balance. With <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a> that is not actually required as it gives you financial and management accounting reports including balance sheets, profit and loss statements and trading accounts in real time and with drill down capability. It also gives you accounts receivable and accounts payable with age warning and reminders. </p><br /><br /><p>There are two equally good ways of entering opening balances in <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a>. The right choice depends on the availability of balance sheets for the financial years prior to the implementation of <a href="http://tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a>. The two methods are explained as follows:</p><br /><br /><p><strong>Method 1 : One time entry</strong></p><br /><br /><p>This method is suited if you have audited balance sheets along with the schedules of the financial year prior to the implementation of TUHUND available at the time of entering the opening balances. You can enter entire balance sheet through a single form as <a href="http://tuhund.com/ERP/eng/accounts~Accounting-and-Finance-Balance-Sheet-Cost-Centers">TUHUND Accounting and Finance module</a> offers you unlimited debits and credits in the same transaction as long as the transaction is balanced. As this entry cannot be shown under any of the traditional accounting vouchers, you will need to create a new voucher. You may call this voucher "opening balances" or whatever you like. You will then need to create a new accounting form with any name, but calling it something like "opening balances entry form" will avoid any confusion later. After the form is created, you will have to enter all the ledger groups on debit side or credit side respectively. It is better to add all the groups on both sides as this form will anyway not be used in future. You also do not need to allow access to this form to any other user as nobody will need access to it. After the form is created, you are free to enter entire balance sheet in one go. Once the entries are made, you can deactivate the form.</p><br /><br /><p>You will have to repeat the process for each branch or legal business entity. It is neither necessary to use this method for all the branches if you are using it for a few nor is it necessary that one person or one office does this job. It is all in the hands of the management whom they will assign this task to. </p><br /><br /><p><strong>Method 2: Balancing method.</strong></p><br /><br /><p>This method is suited if you do not have the audited balance sheet of the financial year prior to the implementation of <a href="http://tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a> available in time. In this method you can keep entering the data as and when it is available. If you have not been using an ERP prior to <a href="http://tuhund.com/">TUHUND</a>, the previous financial data might take several months to come and you do not need to wait till then. You will need to create an account called "Balancing Account" under your assets or liabilities. It is alright to create it under any of the two but would be better to create it under assets if you think the branch or entity has made a profit in the previous financial year and under liabilities otherwise. You can base this decision on a guess if you are not sure. You can then go on entering the data as and when available till all the data is entered. This can be completed even when you actually have a balance sheet made for the previous financial year. Though trial balance will show good right from the beginning, the check for the correctness is the balancing account itself. As long as the net balance in the balancing account is not nil, you can be sure that all the entries from the previous closing balances have not been entered as the opening balances. </p><br /><p> </p><br /><p>In both the methods above, once you have entered all the opening balances, you can tally the balance sheets and confirm the correctness of the data entered and make any corrections if required.</p><br /><br /><p>I would suggest you not to give auto-approval rights to the person or persons entering opening balances. This would ensure that another person has to approve the transactions before they are recorded. You may assign the task of entering to junior resources as it involves more of manual work and finally a senior manager, CFO or auditor can approve in one go after comparing against the previous balance sheets. </p>Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-37020947912284804712011-08-21T10:33:00.000+05:302011-08-21T11:03:59.411+05:30TUHUND - ERP tailor made for you.<p style="text-align: justify;">After more than one year of hard work by a team of twenty and a number of freelance consultants from time to time, <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> is getting ready for limited release and in a month we will be ready for demos. In another couple of months we will also start aggressive marketing. From tomorrow we will start the process of recruiting a dedicated graphic designer and a dedicated technical writer for <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> marketing team to work on collaterals to start with.</p>
<br /><p style="font-weight: bold;">What is <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a>?</p>
<br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> is one of the most comprehensive ERP systems and yet one of the simplest to use and manage. The system comes as a core backend with security, user management, CRM, employee management, payroll, accounting and task management modules inbuilt. Numerous other modules are deployed on top of the core backend exactly matching the unique business requirements of the customers. Thus <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> combines the advantages of traditional ERP system and the specially tailored systems which cannot be met with other ERP systems even after customization. </p>
<br /><p style="text-align: justify;">The system can be deployed on Internet or on Intranet with access on internal network or through VPN. The system can also be deployed in mixed mode where access over Internet can be controlled and given to pre-specified IP addresses. The IP addresses can be added or removed any time by administrator. </p>
<br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> is truly an Enterprise solution. Normally, ERP systems are built to support a business entity and its branches but with <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> Groups of Companies with their branches and departments are served by a single system. While, with other ERP systems, at least one deployment of ERP is required for each business entity or company, <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> needs only one deployment.</p>
<br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> is probably the only ERP System that allows you to delegate the administrative tasks too. A super admin can add, remove or manage administrators any time. Any administrator can be given access rights to administer any functions or groups of functions. These access rights can also be managed across business entities and branches.</p>
<br /><p style="text-align: justify;">Some ERP Systems allow access to outside persons for a limited functionality. The typical examples would be suppliers to a mall being able to check the inventory position online and being able to supply just in time without the mall having to place a purchase order everytime. <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> goes much beyond this and the access can be given to any stakeholder with foolproof user access control. The board of directors can have their high level reports as charts and presentations available online or delivered to them through email. Vendors check new requirements, submit quotations, raise invoices, update their account details, check their statements and request payments.</p>
<br /><p style="text-align: justify;">With <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> you can be sure of multiplying your productivity and cutting down the costs. Go for <a href="http://tuhund.com">TUHUND</a> and it will pay back for itself within a year.</p>Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-60038061561676966212010-05-26T13:24:00.000+05:302010-05-26T13:25:43.374+05:30Out of every hundred bucks worth effort that we put in, 75 bucks go to government.Out of every hundred bucks worth effort that we put in, 75 bucks go to government. Even before we get our salaries, they deduct 35%. When we spend the remaining 65% we have to pay for the sales tax, education cess, higher education cess, import duty, service tax on import duty, tax on transportation, tax on the fuel for transportation, toll tax, tax on water, electricity and consumables used all along the production line and supply chain, professional tax and income tax of the persons involved and other taxes attached with various products like road tax on vehicles and so on. <br />I am glad that 5% of my 75% is spent on development and on "comman man" in some way or the other and it pains to see where the rest goes.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-91725753322921158922010-05-24T10:40:00.000+05:302010-05-24T10:42:33.217+05:30Change Control Board or Change Management BoardWhen I heard the term "Change Control Board" for the first time, the immediate impression that it made on my mind was of a group of few old and head strong people standing with a stick, ready to beat anybody who tried to change or bring about any change. In my imagination, at least one of them would look like George Bush in his bad mood. <br /><br />It has been almost twenty years. I have not just learnt a bit of change management but also taught change management besides leading few considerably big change efforts. However, I still have the same feeling about the name, "Change Control Board."<br /><br />Control is a process group within the perimeter of management. Whatever methodology you consider, three groups are invariably there, though with different names. The groups are: Planning, Execution and Control. The name change control board either suggests that the board has no say in planning and execution or that planning and execution are subsets of control. Though in very rare cases former could be true, by and large both are wrong. The why not name it "Change Management Board?"Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-45268616174304865452010-03-11T15:57:00.000+05:302010-03-11T16:03:54.514+05:30Do you need a website?Over past two decades world has changed in a lot of ways and one of the most significant changes is how we think which in turn influences each and every aspect of our lives. <br /><br />Our buying methodology has changed. We do more research, compare a number of attributes, seek advice from friends and family, accept advice and prefer to buy our trusted brands and products from our trusted place. Interestingly there is no gauge or bench mark for this trust. Neither do we have a well defined list of people, products, brands or companies that we trust. Instead it has got embedded in our subconscious mind and it comes out instantaneously and influences our behavior. <br /><br />These days, people spend more time online than they do offline. They use internet for communication, collaboration, information, publication, recreation and so many other things. They spend a lot of time on Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn and a number of similar sites. Your competitors are reaching out to them right where they are and pulling them to their websites. They trust your competitors … Hey! hold on.. you might be wondering why I am presuming you don't have a web presence.. that is because this post is specifically for people who ask, "Do I need a web site?" Sorry for the interruption.. let us continue. Shoppers trust your competitors because they feel that they know them. They have heard about them and they have seen them somewhere on the internet. When they Google for them, they find them. And Google is the biggest advisor that anybody has ever had in the history. (By the way, just try and Google "e-centric" and see what it returns.) Customers trust internet more than they trust themselves. If you don't have an online presence, you do not exist for them. (If you have no passport in Bangkok, you are officially dead!)<br /><br />People do lot of shopping online and people who make their products available online are either minting money or they are in the incubation phase that precedes the phase where your ecommerce portal becomes your cash cow. Those who say, "Our product is different, it won't sell online," are badly mistaken. The fact is that even those things that could never sell offline find customers online. Right from an aero plane to a safety pin everything is available and everything sells. <br /><br />Eventually nearly half of the retail market will shift online and rest half will shift to megamalls and retail chains. Half of the commodities and services will sell online and for the rest there will be a fierce competition. By the way do you have any idea how many colleges are offering MBA in Bangalore city alone? Though, every MBA is not going to be a great business man, we have an army of entrepreneurs in the making. At least the retail industry is going to turn into one hell. <br /><br />Now the bottom line is:<br /><br />1. Offline you are just not going to have a lot of customers partly because most of them are going to turn online and partly because there are thousands of vendors who are selling exactly what you are. Many of them, very likely, much cheaper than that you are. <br /><br />2. Online might be too late to start if you do not make a start now. Suppose I can make a website like Facebook and even better than Facebook. Suppose I even have a few million for marketing. Does that guarantee I will even come any close to Facebook. Most likely not, because Facebook has captured the market already and in addition to Facebook there are at least a dozen of sites that are somewhat similar. I am simply too late. I am warning you, "Don't be late." One of my "not so close" friends had the idea of matrimonial sites when there was no Shaadi.com and SimplyMarry.com. But she wasted time thinking "God knows what" and when she finally discovered that the idea was great, she also discovered that the time had gone.<br /><br />Coming back to the trust part, those who have a strong web presence and online shops are going to see increase in offline sales as well. One of our customers got a lot of wholesale orders from the retail site. Being convinced with their retail site people concluded that they would be equally good in wholesale and bulk orders too. Though they were into distribution too, they had no where mentioned that on the site. It turned out that they did not even need to mention that as they had instead built the trust. Besides wholesale enquiries lot of customers who walked into their retail outlets made it a point to mention that they had found out about then from their website. So, online presence does have a big impact on the offline sales as well.<br /><br />Today a lot of customers are highly cost conscious. Sometimes they end up wasting dollars attempting to save a penny, but generally they do save money. Though the cost of raw material, labour and everything that goes into manufacturing goods is ever increasing, the retail price of the end products is coming down or at least not increasing proportionally. On one hand we have more efficient and effective processes that save cost an on the other, without any doubts, the margin is shrinking. If a retailer has to make money from his thin margin, he too has to find ways to cut cost. One of the easiest and fastest way is to sell online as the overhead cost goes down, warehouse cost goes down and the human cost goes down. <br /><br />Your website makes it easier and convenient for you to network. You can link to your principals, suppliers and even customers and get paid for the trust people have in them. If you are selling some leading brand, linking to their site, having their name and logos in your site will go a long way in building your own image. If you can get them to link back to you, nothing like that.<br /><br />People like to get involved, they like the feeling of being part of something, they like being heard and they love when they see they matter. Your website gives you more chances to make them do that. Besides you can provide a better customer support at much lower cost.<br /><br />One of the most attractive things about online business is that it a shop that is open 24 hours. 24/7 you are doing sales.<br /><br />In the end I would warn you against three sets of people:<br /><br />Set one, the pessimist generalizes, who would give you twenty examples of people who tired online business and failed. Of course if you think you will succeed in the first attempt in everything you do, then online business might be a bit risky. If you are not willing to make another attempt if you fail once, then every business is risky. If you think the only cost is the cost of development and you leave no money for marketing, then too online business is not for you. If you are serious about online business, hire the people who know in and out about the domain. <br /><br />Set two, the eternal lingers, who would ask you to wait and watch. But.. If you wait, you will never realize when you overstep that threshold that separates those who make it from those who miss it. <br /><br />Set three, super pessimists. I won't define them, but I will explain with an example. It is a school reunion and Ravi is excited to meet his classmates after a gap of fifteen years. They are discussing what they have achieved or not achieved in their lives. A black Mercedes stops and a gentleman steps out. He is wearing an expensive suit, best known glasses and everything to suggest that he is a very rich man. It takes them more than just a glimpse to realize that it is Sham, their close pal. Later that night Ravi finds an opportunity to ask Sham, "You seem to be doing very well. What is it that you do?" Sham replies, "Are you joking? I am rich because of your brilliant idea. Remember we met three years back on a local train and you told me there was lot of money in Milk business. You told me if I bought one Buffalo and with the money that I earned from selling milk in just one month I could get another. So at the end of one month I would have two, at the end of two months I would have four and so on. That is what I did, I sold my scooter and bought two Buffaloes and after that there was no stopping." Ravi is astonished; he does not utter a word. Sham goes on and asks, "What about you, how many buffaloes did you buy?" Now Ravi was caught between the devil and deep sea, he had to reply. So he said, "I did not but even one. We figured out that the business was too risky and we did not do it." Sham again asked, "But why did you think it was too risky." Ravi replied, "Because my wife asked me a single question. She asked me, what if the first buffalo we buy dies. I had no answer so we concluded it was too risky." Now, online your buffalo won't die, but the super pessimists will find a way to discourage you. <br /><br />My advice is, make a start ASAP. Hire a consultant and together with him make a roadmap for your online portfolio. Do not expect to win a long drawn war in a single battle. It will take a sustained effort to establish yourself and elevate yourself to a level where the money just keeps gushing in from every side. It is the best choice and there is no second best.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-9965866191370822442009-10-20T16:54:00.000+05:302009-10-20T16:58:20.921+05:30Why did we take a cake?Sometimes what we say is immediately contradicted. Probably the reason is that often what we say is completely out of the box. It takes people more than just a second to understand us. <br /><br />A decade back I wrote an article supporting child labor in Kashmir and, as one would have expected, I was ridiculed. However, those who read through saw sense in what I was talking about and I soon found hundreds of supporters. This topic might be similar and it would be nice to try and understand my point of view.<br /><br />Last month we went to greet a friend on starting new business. When we left home, we intended to pick a bouquet of flowers on the way. Though we passed a few florists, I did not stop. Rather I could not stop because somewhere in my subconscious mind I dislike the idea of taking flowers. Finally we ended up buying a cake that easily cost three times more than what flowers would have, but I did get my satisfaction for not having done something that I would consider unethical. <br /><br />I considered taking flowers unethical because I found it very similar to buying stolen goods. If one is aware that the goods that one is buying are stolen, then one becomes party to the theft. As I am convinced that commercialization of floriculture at a magnitude it is in India is very bad particularly for the poor, I consider consumption unethical.<br /><br />Who cares for the government statistics and the bench marks? On one hand we have 30,000 top executives in India drawing more than 10 million a year and on the other I think 90% of the population is still poor. Starvation deaths and suicides triggered by problems due to poverty have become so common that such news no more make headlines. They don’t even get a place in the cover page, do they? I doubt if these people are even acknowledged to be below poverty line as per the Indian standards. I would say every such family whose net worth drops to zero any time in a month few times in a row should be considered poor. <br /><br />In India more than 90% of the population is affected by the rising prices. Even people with decent salaries have to spend rather too wisely. Average monthly household income in India is less than 1500 Rupees. When we look at the cost of commodities, 1500 Rupees can fetch you 6 kg of mutton or 50 kg of rice or 93 liter of milk. If a family of 4 dines at a small average hotel, probably 1500 Rupees will buy 2 meals. You could buy one leg of jeans if that were an option so at the most you can buy an average quality branded shirt. In Bangalore city you can probably find a six feet by six feet room in a slum for that kind of rent. Let us not talk about other stuff but try and stick to Roti, Kapda aur Makan (Food, Clothing and Shelter). Let us assume people never fall sick and never meet with an accident. <br />Coming back to the food, if one third of household income is spent on food, that would leave us with a small amount of 500 Rupees for an average family size of 4 persons who are not considered to be below poverty line by the government of India. One packet of dog biscuits costs more than 1000.<br /><br />What has all this got to do with flowers? I am sure you are still wondering that are you might be thinking what is wrong with this guy. Commercial floriculture is definitely not responsible for the poverty of this nation but it is one of factors that make the matter worse. There might be dozens of issues, if we remove one or two we can definitely expect a reduction in the number of suicides and poverty deaths. How?<br /><br />The agricultural as well as the forest land is shrinking at an alarming rate. It is already a bit smaller than what the mankind needs to survive and conserve flora and fauna. Being a human being a farmer, rather the land owner, wants to derive the maximum out of his land. Some sell their land at exorbitant rates. Such land is mostly converted to non-productive land. Some opt for higher paying crops like flowers and palm for palm oil. This results is drop in the supply of food items thus increasing the price. The high demand in the commercial land for buildings and roads, flowers and oil for fuel have made the food so scarce that people are willing to pay whatever they have just to survive another day. <br /><br />Nobody is going to even care for such a small issue. After all who cares for human lives? We actually did not need to care if the governments did. <br /><br />I believe there is a single root cause for problems like inflation, food shortage, depletion of fuel, global warming and disappearing forests. Nature has the power to heal everything up to a certain limit. If we exceed the velocity with which the nature can mend, we will see destruction. We have precisely been doing that for past hundred years or so. The development has been so fast that nature has not been able to keep up the pace. All we need to do is to allow it to catch up. We cannot stop development and neither should we. The only and sufficient thing to do would be to utilize the resources very wisely till the balance returns.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-81004924628217797892009-09-22T15:26:00.000+05:302009-09-22T15:29:48.916+05:30PMPC 2009 was a waste of time.It has been a week since I attended this PMPC (Project Management Practitioners Conference) 2009 organized by PMI, Bangalore chapter. I would say it needs lot of improvement. Actually it needs much more. It needs a life first. There were several good things that were planned and managed very well. But overall, the event was ……… dead!<br /><br />Many of the presenters were brilliant. Their knowledge and maturity level was sky high and yet they were so down to earth, humble and sincere. I plan to meet and be in touch with each one of them. <br /><br />However, calling PMPC 2009 a conference would be something like calling the isolated half a dozen coconut trees on the beach a forest. It was a collection of a few very good presentations and a few bad presentations. Between the presentations, there was a vacuum.<br />Interaction was probably not welcome. Any questions had to be written down on the chits of paper and passed to the presenter through a moderator. Out of dozens of questions, one or two were answered. Probably the organizers were under an impression that people attend the conferences so that they do not have to read books. They probably saw the relation between the presenters and the audience as that of teachers and students. How badly mistaken they were.<br /><br />The food was horrible. Some vegetarian stuff was served in a way that looked very similar to high school hostel mess. The worst part was that people had to stand in long queues under the hot sun for that terrible stuff that was served in an undignified way. Oh did I mention that there was a separate arrangement for the organizers and a chosen few. Probably something that is acceptable in Indian culture. After all it is very similar to caste system that still prevails. <br /><br />There was absolutely no representation from PMI. There were no international figures. In fact for a while I thought the organizer was Prime Minister of India (PMI) and not the Project Management Institute (PMI). <br /><br />I was looking forward to attend the conference at Hyderabad in November. I saw it an opportunity to meet Fredrick Harren once again. However after the experience from PMPC 2009, I suppose I should not take that risk. <br /><br />And for PMPC 2010; Thanks but no thanks!Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-39734280694787234162009-08-04T22:23:00.000+05:302009-08-04T22:27:06.612+05:30Bangalore Metro - A project management disaster.As a child, I used to accompany my father to market, holding his finger. Few hundred meters from my house there used to be a river known as "Nallah Mar." Nallah Mar was full of silt and the water moved at a snail's pace. As it passed through the heart of the city, there were bridges after every few hundred meters. The nearest bridge to my house was Saraf Kadal and we always used to cross Saraf Kadal on foot and buy bread and cakes from a bakery on the other side. <br /><br /><br />I must have been four or five, but I clearly remember the day when while walking across the bridge we saw people all along the side watching something with excitement. Though, we did not stop, I did have a glimpse. I saw cranes and dozers at a distance rolling loads of soil into the river, filling it up. For several months we did not pass that way. I was told that the bridge was gone and there was no way to cross over, besides the area had been sealed off. Then one day we went again and not over the bridge called "Saraf Kadal" on the river known as "Nallah Mar" but over the road known as "Nallah Mar Road" at a place known as "Saraf Kadal." The road was still not asphalted and was not open to traffic. <br /><br /><br />Because of my insistence out of my curiosity, my father walked me almost a kilometer up to the place where they had reached filling up and I could see the giant machines again. It was a painful sight because as a kid I did not give a damn to the roads. Rivers and houseboats in them were much preferred sight. It took many years after that for the full length of the road to complete and get ready for traffic. Entire length of the river from its origin in Dal Lake up to the point where it merged with River Jhelum was filled up and turned into this magnificent road.<br /><br /><br />Since the topic of filling up of the river was most happening topic of discussion those days, I must have heard dozens of times from my elders the stories of Nallah Mar. I learnt that just a decade before it was filled, that would be a few years before I was born, Nallah Mar used have to have crystal clear water flowing considerably fast. There used to be houseboats on both sides and boats all over. The main mode of transportation, particularly goods, used to be the rivers and Nallah Mar was the second most important after Jhelum. There used to be several varieties of fish in the river and in summer one could see children swimming and playing on the banks. Though all this made it an important river that should have been preserved, the most important is yet to come. <br /><br /><br />After Nallah Mar was turned into a road, the city had to face something new. Jhelum started flooding every year in rainy season and few areas including some uptown posh localities stayed submerged in water for several weeks, if not months, after floods. The floods were mainly because something that our great grandfathers had created to prevent them was removed. Let me rephrase it, "Some unnecessary and unwanted nonsense that our idiotic grandfathers had created, these geniuses got rid of that."<br /><br /><br />Jhelum originates almost a hundred kilometers from the city and by the time it enters city, in rainy season, it is swollen after it has collected rain water from thousands of square kilometers. Dal Lake, with its total area of 24 square kilometer and with a mountain range, Zabarwan Range, on one side also has a cashment area of several thousand square kilometers. When the waters of Dal Lake flow into Jhelum, floods are imminent. Nallah Mar was similar to the outer ring road. It used to drain the waters of Dal Lake and pour it into Jhelum after it had left the city. The point where the rivers merged was a big basin that could contain the water, thus saving the city from floods. <br /><br /><br />When we analyze what was achieved and compare it with the cost, the project seems to be a disaster. It was one of those projects which are designed to fail and due to the magnitude the failure could be catastrophic. The purpose of Nallah Mar Road was to gear the city up to accommodate the traffic growth of then and future. It miserably failed to do that. Since all the bridges on the river, which were there after every few hundred meter, were all main roads, the new road looked like millipede with hundreds of legs. There were intersections after every few hundred meters and there were countless unmanaged and unmanageable traffic signals. It did not ease the traffic, if at all it did not worsen it. <br /><br /><br />As project managers we learn that projects do not exist in isolation but are parts of larger systems. Just like a project is affected by a number of factors, it affects a number of things in addition to the main purpose of the project. The project has results, secondary results and tertiary results. While for small projects we only consider primary and probably secondary results, for large projects we have to consider several levels. Just as we consider political, economic, geographic, environmental, human, social, cultural and a number of other factors to influence our large projects, we have to consider the effects of the project on all the mentioned factors plus many more. The most challenging but most important aspect of large projects is to foresee the future and be able to figure out how the project would influence the future given that the entire environment too would have changed. A project manager needs to have a clear point of view on how the world is going to change without and with the project. To put it in simple words, let us consider the example of building a flyover that would take five years to build. To consider today's traffic conditions is only important to plan how to build, but whether the flyover is going to serve the purpose is not dependent on today's traffic. What if after five years couple of super highways are also going to come up in parallel and there is no need for this fly over. On the other hand, what if the situation was something like the Richmond road flyover, which looks more like a joke now. Probably it is the only flyover in the world that has a traffic signal on the top. It does not even serve half the purpose that it was intended for. <br /><br /><br />Richmond road flyover was quite fine when it was commissioned but just within a couple of years Richmond road as well as the Residency road were made one way for traffic. The authorities then overlooked the fact that sooner or later these two roads would have to be made one way. In fact making of the flyover was one of the reasons it had to be done so soon.<br /><br /><br />Bangalore metro is being built with the intention of providing faster and cheaper public transport that would ease traffic on the roads of Bangalore city. In next few years it will be ready and put to use. The traffic growth on the roads will not slowdown but would continue to grow at the same pace. Traffic jams would be so bad that many people would run away from the city. Even after that traffic would continue to grow. Building of flyovers and tunnels will be impossible on most of the high traffic routes because of the metro. Widening of roads will be difficult and building new roads will be too costly. <br /><br /><br />Long back I happened to watch an ad spot of "IBM - On Demand Business," which I must have mentioned at least in ten conferences, seminars or workshops. The ad starts with the outside view of an airplane and immediately the next shot is inside view. An old man, depicted as owner of the aircraft is shown in bed and there is chaos in the plane. A person comes to the old man and informs him that the plane was going down. Their subsequent conversation is as follows:<br />Old man: But why is the plane going down?<br />Person: Because an engine has failed. <br />Old man: Is there only one engine?<br />Person: No there are two.<br />Old man: Why don't they start another engine?<br />Person: The other engine is running but the plane is still going down. The plane is too heavy for a single engine.<br />Old man: Then why don't they make the plane lighter?<br />Person: How do they do that?<br />Old man: Perhaps they can throw out things like furniture.<br />Person: But the furniture is fixed.<br />Old man: Then throw out what is not fixed.<br />Person: Everything is fixed.<br /><br /><br />Similarly ten years from now they will say that nothing new can be built because everything is fixed. Bangalore metro will make Bangalore so rigid that Bangalore will go down.<br /><br /><br />I am not suggesting that the persons, particularly the project managers working on the project are not competent. Some people at the top of the hierarchy who have the power to override always mess up and that is not going to change.<br /><br /><br />Bangalore Metro might one day prove to be an engineering marvel but it is a project management disaster.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-85629843503982233382009-06-24T15:36:00.000+05:302009-06-24T15:40:02.845+05:30Extra pair of eyes"If you were given an extra pair of eyes, where would you like them to be?" This was the question Fredrik Haren, author of the idea book asked the audience. Almost all replied instantaneously, "At the back of my head!" This sounded like the best answer, as then one could look in all directions without having to turn around. "This is probably the worst answer," said the author. <br /><br />By the way this was on Feb 9, 2009 at Kuala Lumpur where Fredrik was the keynote speaker at PMI Asia-Pacific Global Congress. I would not go into details of what else he said as I have already discussed that in an earlier blog. However, if I was given a choice to choose where I would like this extra pair of eyes, I would say "on the person next to me." I do not see much use of this extra pair of eyes when my brain is not capable of processing two different views at the same time. I do not mind turning my head for another view, as I do not want to mess my brains up.<br /><br />If the two eyes came with the brain too, that would change the situation. If the two eyes and brain came with rest of the body parts and everything that makes a person, that would be perfect. Yes, there was an easy way to say all this, I need another person, but the story says something more than that. It says that the two persons would still be working on the same task. Contrary to the hypothetical scenario where we expect two pairs of eyes to look at two different views, here the situation is realistic and needs two pairs of eyes and the two brains behind them look at the same view from two perspectives. That would give us something closely resembling a 3d view.<br /><br />Much earlier in my career I worked for a company for fifteen days when I was between jobs. On the first day the company was faced with a situation where we had to decide in a minute whether we would take up the job of digitizing a few thousand key-value pairs from handwritten hard copies. We could refuse the job but if we accepted we had to deliver the soft copy in six hours with absolutely no mistakes. My bosses were not even discussing it as they were pretty sure the target was out of reach. They were particularly scared of errors that would have landed us into trouble. However, on my insistence they decided to give me a chance. <br /><br />It was 4 pm in India and we were required to deliver by 10 pm Indian time, an hour before our counterparts in US were supposed to demonstrate a particular solution. It was a simple, clear cut, well defined and a pretty critical job. I, first of all, assembled the whole team and explained to them how important the task was for us and how it could shape their careers. In just a few minutes I got 20 volunteers who were willing to stay back till 10pm and were well motivated and energized. Instead of splitting the data into twenty I paired up the team and distributed the sheets among 10 teams. The target given to them was 9 pm but I received all 10 files before 9. Then I interchanged the files between teams and they once again verified each other's work. It took me hardly 10 minutes in the end to combine the 10 excel worksheets into one and the file was sent by email before 9:45. <br /><br />Next morning we had a friendly chat session with the management and it was acknowledged by all that the best thing that we had done was working in pairs. In a way we used only 10 people with an extra pair of eyes for each and the value we got in return was much more than just 20 pairs of eyes. Probably this is what happens in extreme programming. <br /><br />Basically when we do a code review or even otherwise analyze the root cause of bugs going into the code, we realize that most of the bugs are not due to inability but due to oversight. My experience as programmer has also taught me that it is more time consuming to detect and fix an issue if it is small and difficult to reproduce. Generally such issues are detected much later and cost an arm and a leg in terms of money and somewhat similar in terms of time. Sometimes it is just a typing mistake, where a programmer thinks something but his fingers have typed something else and sometimes a programmer just overlooks a reasonably evident potential issue. Even in the unit testing most of the defects that a programmer detects are very simple mistakes. Most of the times when we write a piece of code, it does not even compile for the first time. We discover that we have missed a semicolon somewhere, we have also missed to import some class and we have missed to declare some method correctly. Very small and simple mistakes that we fix in less than a minute. We compile again and it works. But what about other such small mistakes that the compiler does not tell us about?<br /><br />Before I move on I would like to sincerely apologize to the non technical people as there was no way I could have explained my next point with simpler language.<br /><br />Suppose we are required to code a java method that updates the last name of a member. The programmer writes the query in two lines appending the second to the first and both are inside a try-catch block. <br /><br />String query = null;<br />Try<br />{<br />query = "UPDATE ACCOUNT_TABLE SET LASTNAME = " + newName;<br />....... some code .........<br />query += " WHERE MEMBERID LIKE " + memberID;<br />}<br />Catch (exception exp) <br />{<br />//do nothing<br />}<br />updateQuery(query);<br /><br />I suppose most of you already know what is wrong with the above code, but for those who do not, let me tell you what it is. This is a perfect recipe for disaster. This method will be called hundreds of times every day if the website has millions of users and there are good chances that due to whatever reason on some value of memberID an exception will be thrown or there might be an exception thrown due to a bug in the code between line one and two. With the result the second part will not be appended and the query that is executed will change the last name of all the users, probably millions of users to the new name. What are the chances that a programmer will write the code as above without realizing what's wrong? It will be a small and simple mistake with catastrophic impact. The recovery will be somewhere between very difficult and next to impossible if not detected within a few hours, unless there is a backup. <br /><br />An extra pair of eyes makes it almost impossible for a programmer to make such mistakes. <br /><br />An extra pair of eyes can also be a savior in management. Often the c-Suite executives face the challenge of being lone decision makers. They find lot of people who nod their heads in affirmation of whatever they do or say but very few to show them the reality. This is not just done by the reports to get themselves in good books but also by the friends and family. The impact is again often catastrophic. Few years back one of my friends who was the CEO of a well established company came up with some weird idea. He wanted to build a product that did not seem to have a good revenue model. The problem was that, even though being an MBA from a reputed university in US, he thought less about the risks and was more interested in listening to his friends who told him:<br />"What a wonderful idea!"<br />"Nobody has done this before, you will be the first."<br />"People are going to love it."<br />"That is so innovative."<br /><br />Nobody told him that since he was making a loss per piece, the more he sold more he would loose. It was just not an idea worth considering but he was able to see it from a single perspective and from that perspective it looked wonderful. Had somebody shown him the reality, he would still be the CEO and more important the company would still be functioning. This is precisely the reason many management gurus advocate employing a mentor, an advisor, a coach or a consultant (whatever the name). It is definitely not because the extra help is better in any way but only to show the reality as and when required. <br /><br />The extra pair of eyes can do wonders.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-16417079963494778682009-06-06T21:05:00.000+05:302009-06-06T21:07:26.490+05:30A leader without followersTechnically speaking, a person is a leader if and only if he has followers. However, there is nothing technical about leadership. The definition of leadership neither needs to be logically correct as it is not purely science nor does it need to be centuries old definition found in dictionaries as it is not an art that somebody created and it stays as it is till eternity. In fact these definitions are misleading. <br /><br />According to wikipedia.org, "A leader is someone who has the authority to tell a group of people what do to. A leader can also represent a group of people." I disagree. Mahatma Gandhi was a leader and when he became a leader, he had absolutely no authority. He proved to be even greater a leader by choosing not to accept the position of authority but continuing as a leader. Leadership and authority are two different things. They have a small area of intersection but the bottom line is one can be a leader without any authority and one can have all the authority and no leadership.<br /><br />Another definition that I have come across is, "Leader is a person who has followers." I disagree. Firstly, a person can be a self leader. Leading self is the first rung on the leadership ladder, followed by one on one leadership, group leadership and finally organizational leadership. A person who can lead himself well is a leader without followers. It is possible that a leader has no followers because people around him either fail to see the leader within them or they are just not the follower type. Sometimes the leaders are so great that they lead without making other realize and without making others their followers. <br /><br />A child who consoles another child and comforts him when he is hurt is a leader. A child who offers to lend his notebook to another child who has missed a lesson or two is also a leader. A driver who stops by to offer help to a person standing besides his car with a flat tyre waiting for help is a leader too. I am not saying doing other persons work is leadership. <br /><br />Some other definitions define leader as the top guy in the organization. I again disagree. For being a leader you neither need to be a CEO nor you need to have that prime corner office. Leadership can be done from anywhere in an organization and a real leader is a 360 degree leader. He leads his bosses, his peers and his reports. He even leads the people who are not his direct reports. He does not need a leadership tag or a position. He does not even need any followers or recognition. <br /><br />The best definition of leadership that I have known so far is, "A leader is a person who with his deliberate effort unleashes the capabilities and inner strengths of himself and that of others for a greater good." <br /><br />This definition neither talks about followers nor any authority because both are irrelevant. It does not talk about accomplishment because leadership is not about results. Leadership is an open ended journey and a choice that people make, sometimes deliberately and sometimes without realizing when they do it.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-85398683295529413302009-05-21T20:24:00.001+05:302009-05-21T20:27:27.928+05:30Are most of the bosses idiots?<span xmlns=''><p>Speak to any middle level manager and the changes are good that he will tell you how his wonderful ideas are always turned down by his boss. Probability of this is far greater if you are speaking to technical person like a project manager or an accounting person. He will also give you a pretty good (apparently) explanation why the latest plan of his boss that they are already working on is going to be a disaster. He will convince you that it is he who is the genius with very little authority and his boss is an idiot with all the authority. <br /></p><p>I am sure since you do not know the boss you will not try and contradict this self styled genius. That is what happens most of the times. Suppose you did, the conversation could be something like this:<br /></p><p>Him: xxx xxxx Blah Blah Blah<br /></p><p>You: It sounds like your boss is an absolute idiot.<br /></p><p>Him: Absolutely. He is.<br /></p><p>You: I wonder who made him boss then.<br /></p><p>Him: I know …<br /></p><p>You: What do you know? I am asking you, who made him the boss.<br /></p><p>Him: Probably himself. He made himself the boss.<br /></p><p>You: You mean not his ability, talent, knowledge or experience, but just he himself made himself a boss?<br /></p><p>Him: Looks like.<br /></p><p>(By now the guy is pissed off with you already. But he is pretending to be a good guy by still continuing the conversation.)<br /></p><p>You: With what authority did he make himself a boss and who gave him this authority?<br /></p><p>Him: How should I know all this?<br /></p><p>(There is a small pause. You are probably giving him some breathing time)<br /></p><p>You: So it looks like you are saying the only different thing that he did was appointing you?<br /></p><p>Him: Different?<br /></p><p>You: Yes since you are saying everything he does is wrong and I am sure you would say appointing you was a right thing that he did for himself. <br /></p><p>Him: I am not saying thaaaaat …. But….. yes somehow.<br /></p><p>You: No be clear about what you say. You are saying that everything he does is wrong and only appointing you was right.<br /></p><p>(Half of his steam is already out. Do not give up now.)<br /></p><p>Him: No I am not saying everything he does is wrong, but many of the things he does are wrong.<br /></p><p>You: You are retracting.<br /></p><p>Him: No I am not. I never said everything he does was wrong.<br /></p><p>You: Now you are making it sound so normal. It is just human to do a few things wrong. Why did you say you boss was an idiot then? I am sure even you don't do everything right. You would be an angel then.<br /></p><p>Him: No I am not claiming everything I do was right, I make mistakes sometimes.<br /></p><p>You: Five minutes back you were telling me that your boss was an idiot and everything he did was wrong and now you are telling me that you are very much like him. What do you want me conclude?<br /></p><p>Him: I don't want to talk about this. <br /></p><p>The above was a purely a hypothetical situation and we won't normally be in such a situation in real life. The reason is when others are portraying their bosses as idiots we would derive pleasure out of it without realizing that we would be in their position too. The funniest part is that these employees are themselves on the path of becoming idiots and are striving hard to get there as soon as they can.<br /></p><p>I agree that not all bosses are alike, however in most of the cases it is the employees who are not even capable of understanding the bosses. I have never heard a boss saying his all his employees are idiots and he runs the show all alone. Have you? <br /></p><p>Why this difference? Why do employees feel that their boss who is in a better position, with more experience and often with more skills and knowledge is an idiot while the boss would seldom feel the same for his employees?<br /></p><p>In my opinion there are a few reasons. Employees do not think they need the boss, they just need the job. To acknowledge a leader one needs to have some leadership qualities himself. Since these employees are not mature leaders (yet) they do not understand the importance of the leader. On the other hand the boss knows very well that he needs to delegate the authority and well as the work to get it done. He knows he needs his people and his existing employees are more valuable to him that anybody else.<br /></p><p>In the above hypothetical conversation I have also attempted to depict that the employee is confused when confronted. This is also very normal. If we put a leader in such a situation, there are very little chances that he will react that way. The reason is that leaders have clear "Teachable Point Of View" (TPOV). If a leader says his employee is an idiot he most likely have a pretty good explanation for that that he would be able to present as a convincing story. On the other hand generally employees in lower position lack the clarity and do not have a well defined point of view. They have a blurred idea. They think there boss is somewhere near 5 on a scale of ten, when they like they will portray him as idiot and when they like they will portray him as a genius. <br /></p><p>Being somewhere near 5 does not apply to judging their boss alone. It applies to every second opinion that they have. Hand them a survey form and they will tick the option in the middle for every question. On the other hand, hand over the same form to your boss, he will choose the extremes. His assessment is very clear.<br /></p><p>I have made an attempt to write this post in a different way as you must have realized above. Please leave a comment on the writing style. <br /></p></span>Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-24989093952536147062009-05-21T15:53:00.001+05:302009-05-21T17:59:16.217+05:30Is a penny saved a penny earned?Not always! Often a penny saved is a penny not wisely invested resulting is a loss. As soon as the news of economic slowdown started spreading people started talking about cost cuts and head count reduction, etc. I am pretty sure most of the companies started downsizing and taking other so called cost saving measures much before they started feeling the impact of the global credit crunch, if they at all did.<br /><br />Last year I happened to attend a conference that was followed by a panel discussion. In response to how his company was dealing with the issue, a senior executive of KPMG Malaysia said that they had no plans of mass layoffs. They had already started cost cutting in various other ways. They were flying economy class and were avoiding unnecessary expenditure.<br /><br />This kind of a penny saved is a penny earned.<br /><br />Every year major companies of the world publish their net profit per employee. Even if they do not the calculation is pretty simple. Every company does publish the net profit and the number of employees too is no secret. The point is employees are there in the company to make profit. An employee adds value which is far greater than his cost to company. If that is not the case, then that employee should not even be employed. If we ignore other factors for the sake of discussion for while, laying off employees would mean saying no to profit.<br /><br />On the other hand, if the company is not able to create enough work for the employees to do, keeping the employees would be a loss. Which means it should be alright to lay off people for whom a company does not have work. However, this argument changes the equation. It is the failure of the company to create enough work and no fault of the employees. Due to this very reason an employee laid off is not equated with an employee who has been fired.<br /><br />This kind of a penny saved is also a penny earned.<br /><br />However, most of the times the scene is quite different. The moment one company announces a mass layoff, a layoff competition starts. Suppose a company lays off 1000 employees, the competitor lays off 2000. Yet another competitor lays off 5000 and so on. The explanation, which is usually not made public, is that they would loose competitive advantage as the competators have cut down cost. Is it not analogous to somebody cutting his arms because the competitor, the poor competitor, had to chop off his finger tips due to frost bite? The poor guy was helpless; he had a good reason to get rid of a small body part. But no! Competition is competition; competitive advantage has to be maintained even if that means giving off the legs too.<br /><br />We realize that doing anything for the sake of doing it without any good reason is bad. For instance making a change for the sake of making a change is bad. There should be a good reason for making a change. But this is the extreme, cutting off your arms and legs (otherwise what would you equate the employees with, hair and nails?) for the sake of doing it?<br /><br />A penny spent on this employee was supposed to get me a million, so is this penny saved a penny earned?<br /><br />P.S: I am not saying the above is true in every case. There are a number of good reason that companies sometimes have to lay off employees.<br /><br /><img src="http://e-centric.net/images/blog/profit_per_employee.png">Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-72257531713117500862009-05-20T14:51:00.000+05:302009-05-20T14:56:04.395+05:30A small tip on passing PMPThe best tip on passing PMP exam is probably the simplest one too. To pass the exam one has to understand what this exam is all about. PMP is an attempt to find out if the candidate has actually been there working on these projects, using the right methodology, processes and tools and how capable he is of solving the problems in real time. If one does not understand that, there are easily 30% questions in the exam that might not even make sense, might have no best answer within the choices provided or might have more than one best answer. On the extreme out of four choices all four might be right.<br /><br />More than knowledge PMP exam can be passed by visualizing yourself in the position as described in the situational questions and then take the decision that you would take. When I did my PMP I realized there were few questions which actually had different best answers if it were a math paper. In math when the information is inadequate, the best choice is usually number 4; cannot say or something with same meaning. In management you do not say cannot say. It is very normal and best to try and get as much information as possible about the problem before taking a decision, but when the decision has to be taken it has to be taken with whatever information is available. Once one understands that, one would at least answer 10% of the questions differently and that would make all the difference.<br /><br />To elaborate a little further, imagine yourself in the situation as described in the question. Imagine yourself a project manager of a multi-million project even if you have never worked on a project exceeding a few hundred thousand.<br /><br />I would conclude this post with another useful tip. Do not assume that you can do the paper in one linear flow. Even at the best, no matter how confident you are, please revisit the answers at least once and plan your time to accommodate that. You will realize that some of the questions have different best answers on the second look. On first look more of your concentration was on reading the question and understanding the situation. You still needed some time to think over it and let your subconscious mind to some work. On the second look, you have had that opportunity and you concentrate more on the solution.<br /><br />It is quite easy to pass PMP exam, but very difficult to pass it if we treat it like other exams that we have passed so far.Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-35949729450850219132009-05-13T20:45:00.000+05:302009-05-15T15:01:03.074+05:30What should be put on WBS?<div align="justify">I am writing this post in response to a discussion on LinkedIn titled "Do you incorporate the PM processes into your WBS?"</div><div align="justify"><br />Technically speaking everything that is being done, has already been done or has to be done on a project must go to WBS. In other words anything that is not on WBS must either not be done or added to WBS. </div><div align="justify"><br />Please excuse me if it does not sound very polite but there is no scope for what you think and what I think here. What is right is right. WBS must contain no less than 100% and no more than 100% work on the project. It is a living document and is updated very frequently until the closing stage. </div><div align="justify"><br />It might not always be possible to have a perfect and complete WBS in the beginning. Very often, and particularly in the crisis situation, we might need to call emergency meetings or work on work around plans that were not there in the WBS. In such a situation, the new tasks are added to WBS and the task of adding the tasks on WBS, which is itself a task is also added to WBS. </div><div align="justify"><br />I am not adverse to the idea of avoiding putting very minor tasks to save time and effort. However, we must acknowledge that that would be a compromise and not the correct way. That might also be the best way in certain situations, but again that will not be the correct way. After all sometimes the correct way is not the best way.</div><div align="justify"><br />Some of the project tasks that are apparently small in nature can be grouped together into a task of visible magnitude. For instance the "secretary's time to send your package to a vendor" might be grouped with an adjacent task or a few. If it is not, then where else do you show it in the plan? We cannot put it in the schedule if it is not in WBS.</div><div align="justify"><br />On the other hand meetings are not considered small tasks and must go to WBS without fail. </div><div align="justify"><br />Coming back to WBS, what is WBS after all? Is it just a planning tool? The fact is that it is more a communication tool. It is used to communicate scope of the project or all the tasks that would need to be done to realize the scope of the products (derivable) of the project, to the stakeholders. After the WBS, supported by the WBS dictionary, is approved by the stake holders, particularly by the customer, the sponsor and the project team, the same document is processed and elaborated to make more than half of the project documents. The cost estimates, budget, final costing and invoices, etc everything is based on WBS.</div><div align="justify"><br />However, there is a catch. Customer will never be happy to see "secretary's time to send your package to a vendor" on his cost breakdown statement. Customer is interested in how much it totally costs him to send the package. Customer wants to drill down, but does not want to go beyond a certain level of granularity. Therefore, the WBS presented to customer along with the cost estimates or cost break down statement looks a bit different. We do not have to prepare two WBS, but just roll up the activities to the control point level. </div><div align="justify"><br />Another thing to consider is the two groups of tasks namely value adding tasks and non value adding tasks. What if the customer says, "I will not pay for the secretary's time, why can't the manager spare two minutes to send the package?" What if the customer says, "I won't pay for the project manager, let the programmers manage the project themselves." How do we handle such a situation? The solution is simple; we do not show any task on the cost plan that can be attributed to a single person. We instead show groups of tasks which together are value adding, a derivable or a tangible part of the derivative. Now the question is, is schedule a derivable? Of course it is. Then who says the tasks involved to create a schedule, pure project management tasks, are not shown on the WBS? Is CPI within some range and SPI within some range not a requirement? Then who says the tasks required to be done to achieve that are not shown on WBS?</div><div align="justify"><br />To conclude, the 100% rule which states that WBS includes 100% of the work defined by the project scope and captures all deliverables - internal, external, interim - in terms of the work to be completed, including project management is no non-sense. It is simple and accurate. </div>Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-867134812994959434.post-41771775730862383512009-05-04T09:26:00.000+05:302009-05-04T17:01:26.957+05:30Contingency reserve planning<div align="justify">Not only are the risks identified or sometimes discovered at various phases and stages, the risks are also pertinent to various levels. There are risks to a task, to a work package, to a set of tasks, to a module, to a phase, to a few modules, to a few phases or to the whole project, etc. The best approach to plan the contingency reserve is the bottom up approach, calculate it at the stage where it can occur, base it on the actual probability and roll it up to get the project or phase buffer.<br /><br />Before I write any further I would like to make it very clear that I do not advocate using this approach on each and every task or each and every project. Often it is not a challenge to identify what can be done, but the real challenge is to know what not to do and then not to do that. It is rather very difficult to resist the temptation of doing something that we can do. Particularly for the less experienced people, it is painfully difficult. For instance a new web designer wants to show all his creativity in the first web page that he is designing and makes a mess out of it. Although he thinks he has done a great job, it takes his team a great deal of effort to teach him what not to do rather than what to do. Therefore, please do only as much as adds value compared to the cost.<br /><br />I would also like to say loud and clear that all risks are not mitigated. Further there is a tendency of taking negative risks or threats into account and ignoring the positive risks or opportunities. So much so that many people would argue that opportunity is not a risk. They would say it is a risk only if the affect is bad. That is not the case. There are positive risks called opportunities and not taking opportunities into account will result in loss of opportunity and would attract opportunity cost.<br /><br />Therefore, our job is to decide whether to avoid, transfer, minimize or accept the threats and how to exploit, attract and maximize the opportunities. Cost is a big factor that very often makes it most viable to do nothing.<br /><br />I would restrict this post to the risks at the work package level and the same approach can be extended to all levels.<br /><br />For the risks at the work package level, contingency requirement must also be calculated at the work package level after the risk mitigation planning. However, the reserve is added to whole project or a phase. This reserve is directly proportional to the root of the sum of individual standard deviations and proportional to the function of confidence level required and normal distribution curve. Confidence level is a requirement that has to be defined. So next time when you are asked to prepare a schedule, please seek agreement on the confidence level, if you are not already doing so.<br /><br /><strong>Most of the projects fail to meet the schedule because most of the schedules are based on 50% confidence level. Therefore, 50% projects are scheduled to fail.</strong><br /><br />Adding buffers in lump sum is a wrong approach. Though it might seem to work in some cases, it is very similar to the approach of "take your best guess and multiply it by two." I am denying the fact that, that approach might also be acceptable sometimes. </div><p></p><p align="justify">Coming back to the topic, this approach uses pert balanced average like most of the scheduling methodologies. However it does not use the weights of 1:4:1 that most of us are familiar with. It does not even use the same weights for all the tasks. That does not mean that MS project can't be used, though I will not cover that part in this post.</p><p align="justify">By the way, using the weights 1:4:1 is an assumption and taking the sixth part of the difference of optimistic value and pessimistic value as standard deviation is an approximation. The correct way is to base the weights on the actual probability and calculate the standard deviation using the formula that we were taught in school.<br /><br /><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/8/5/3/853c79575bd7e5a9fdbc480844b76337.png" /><br /><br />In this approach we do not consider the most optimistic, most likely and most pessimistic estimates, but we consider every possibility individually. After estimating duration for all the possibilities a task would take to complete, we find the actual balanced average based on the probability of each possibility and the actual standard deviation. We then find the project standard deviation and the sum of the balanced averages of the critical path tasks. Finally we can calculate the total duration and the contingency reserve based on the confidence level required. I think everybody knows that 100% confidence is neither mathematically possible nor logically. Generally 95% confidence is taken as acceptable, though it is highly industry, domain, organization and individual specific. By the way, we can do most of this work in MS Excel. </p><p align="justify">Although, only tasks on the critical path need to be considered, we must also check the near critical paths as sometimes after risk mitigation planning, critical paths change. Therefore, non-critical tasks can become critical tasks and vice versa.<br /><br />Let me use an example to explain:<br />Let us assume we are working on a project with three tasks, say A, B and C with finish to start dependency. Which also means that all three tasks are on the critical path. Task A can be completed in 10 days. However there is 10% likelihood that a friend might lend his machine free of cost and the task can then be completed in just 5 days. There is also a 25% probability that another machine that we are supposed to receive might come late and might delay the task by another 10 days.<br /><br />Based on the figures so far:<br />The correct balanced average is<br />m1 = ((10 * 5) + (65 * 10) + (25 * 20)) / 100 = 12 days<br />And the standard deviation<br />s1 = 4.87<br /><br /><br />Now suppose there is another risk that might happen and has a probability of 5% of happening. If this happens, it will take twenty days extra to fix the issue. Then:<br />Balanced average<br />m1 = 13<br />And standard deviation<br />s1 = 6.23<br /><br /><img src="http://e-centric.net/images/tblTask.png" /><br /><br />Suppose for task B:<br />Balanced mean, m2 = 15<br />Standard deviation, s2 = 5<br /><br /><br />And for task C:<br />Balanced mean, m3 = 20<br />Standard deviation, s3 = 2<br /><br /><br />From above figures, if the confidence level needed is 50% then<br />The total duration<br />D = m1 + m2 + m3 = 13 + 15 + 20 = 48 days<br /><br /><br />If we need a different confidence level then we need to calculate the project standard deviation:<br />Project standard deviation S = SQRT (s1<sup>2</sup> + s2<sup>2</sup> + s3<sup>2</sup>) = 8.23<br /><br /><br />Suppose we need a confidence level of 90%, then from the cumulative (single tail) probabilities of the normal probability distribution we have<br />Z = 1.29<br />Buffer = 8.23 * 1.29 = 11 days<br />Total duration with 90% confidence = 59 days<br /><br /><br />Similarly we can calculate the buffer and total duration for other values of confidence level.<br /><br /><img src="http://e-centric.net/images/tblBuffer.png" /><br /><br /><img src="http://e-centric.net/images/confvsdur.png" /><br /><br />In conclusion I would like to remind that contingency reserve is not a piece of cake to be eaten at will; it has to be managed well and utilized only when needed. The whole idea of this approach as well as recommended by PMI is to remove the buffer from task or work package level and roll it up into a contingency reserve.</p>Qazi Irfan Mustafa (BE, PMP)http://www.blogger.com/profile/04109451202392446655noreply@blogger.com0