EFFECTIVE ETHNIC E-MARKETING SOLUTIONS

Strategic Capital corporation has purchased structured settlement payment from annuitants and has funded them in as little as 18 days. Courts in some states are faster than in other states because different states have different transfer requirements as well as different court processes. Depending on the state the annuitant resides in, the funding process could take anywhere from 18 days to 60 days.

http://strategiccapital.com/blog/index.php/2011/06/03/how-long-will-it-take-for-me-to-receive-my-money/

Sell Your Structured settlement for a lump sum

2011-06-08T10:37:00.000-04:00

Link

Hidden Costs: Is Your Quote As Good As It Looks?

2011-04-18T08:19:00.001-04:00

Link

This blog post was contributed by Cam Mears, Jr., Vice President, Strategic Capital

Hidden Costs: Is Your Quote As Good As It Looks?

2011-04-18T08:19:00.000-04:00

Link

This blog post was contributed by Cam Mears, Jr., Vice President, Strategic Capital

Structured Settlements and the Secondary Market

2011-03-15T11:46:00.000-04:00

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When does it make sense to sell structured Settlement Payments?

2011-03-01T07:47:00.000-05:00

Link as promised... here is our new Blog! a definite must read! http://strategiccapital.com/blog/index.php/2011/03/01/when-does-it-make-sense-to-sell-structured-settlement-payments/

Amendments add more oversight to structured settlement transfers in California

2011-02-11T11:42:00.000-05:00

Linka new Article was featured on Forum Magazine on behalf of Strategic Capital.... Read the full article! http://strategiccapital.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/10/structured-settlement-transfers-in-california/

CAOC suggesting its members use Strategic Capital to purchase Structured Settlements and Attorney fees

2011-01-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

Link http://strategiccapital.com/blog/index.php/2011/01/05/caoc-structured-settlements/

Structured Settlements that need extra special care

2010-12-09T09:46:00.000-05:00

Linkdid you know workers compensation payments and minor structured settlement payments are hard and impossible to transfer to a purchaser? read about it...http://strategiccapital.com/blog/index.php/2010/12/09/workers-comp-structured-settlements/

Selling structured settlement payments process

2010-11-02T13:37:00.000-04:00

Link Selling structured settlement payments is a simple and fairly quick process http://strategiccapital.com/blog/index.php/2010/10/24/selling-structured-settlement-payments-process/

Get the most out of your structured settlement payments

2010-10-05T12:12:00.000-04:00

Linka new blog post from www.strategiccapital.com/blog - Get the most out of your structured settlement payments.

Selling structured settlements awarded from a death of a loved one

2010-09-27T12:53:00.000-04:00

LinkVery interesting Blog post about Selling structured settlements awarded from a death of a loved one -

reasons for selling structured settlements

2010-09-07T12:23:00.000-04:00

Linkunexpected events happen! these are stories of people who had to sell their structured settlements for a lump sum buyouts fast!

How does Exchange of Lottery Winnings For Cash works?

2010-09-07T11:38:00.000-04:00

LinkVery interesting article... focusing on those who have won a lottery in USA and want to exchange their long term payments for cash A.S.A.P....

Sell a Structured Settlement and Get the Money in 18 Days!

2010-09-02T10:35:00.000-04:00

Linkhttp://strategiccapital.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/31/sell-structured-settlement-in-18days/

Senior Web Designer Needed!

2009-09-18T14:36:00.001-04:00

Senior Web Designer Needed!

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How to use Twitter or Facebook without letting them suck up your time and attention!

2009-09-15T14:12:00.002-04:00

As Valuable and amusing Twitter and Facebook can be, it can also be addictive. Many times in I’ve tried to write a blog or work on my client’s projects and I’d lose my focus because I had Twitter and Facebook open and kept getting drawn to it, wanting to tweet or post on Facebook, see what others were tweeting about or who changed their Facebook status or just reply to somebody. Of course, this is a common problem with most social media sites, but I’ve found Twitter and Facebook to be particularly bad, if for no other reason that it’s so simple and use friendly.

It’s now increasingly recognized that multi-tasking, and just generally allowing distractions into your life is a poor way of getting tasks completed. If you are tweeting or facebooking while trying to do your work, that work will take much longer and require more energy to do. If you don’t’ want to waste time like that, try putting into practice these four tips when using Twitter or Facebook:

Set limits

The first, and perhaps most useful measure is to set limits. That could involve having particular days on when to tweet or Facebook, setting time limits or even tweet and Facebook status update limits (how many tweets you will make per day or how many times you update your Facebook status). Rather than dipping in and out of Twitter or Facebook when it calls to you, putting aside perhaps an hour a day or choosing Saturday to use it when you know you’re going to be least busy, means you can really give your tweeting the attention it deserves, and thus shut it out of your mind the rest of the time.

Identify the goal you’re trying to achieve

You like Twitter and Facebook. You use it regularly. Why? Why are you craving all those followers and tweeting and following Groups on Facebook fifty times a day? So many people use Twitter and Facebook without understating what they are trying to get out of it. Are you trying to promote you services and products? Make new friends? Interact with your friends that you rarely talk to on the phone? Identify what you want to get out of your Twitter and Facebook experience so that you can Tweet or post of Facebook with a purpose and focus. Tweeting or posting of Facebook for the sake of it is a very easy-but-bad habit to slip into.

What value do you offer to Facebook or Twitter?

Sorry to say it, but the vast bulk of tweets and Facebook updates are irrelevant. Tweeting or updating your Facebook status with every little thought and activity you have and do is pointless (and it has indeed caused Twitter and Facebook alot of ridicule in the past). If you think a little before each tweet or Facebook update as to whether it has value, meaning and worth, both to yourself, your friends and followers and the wider audience, you will make your overall Twitter and Facebook experience and the time you put into it much more rewarding and significant.

Reduce Interference

Tweekdeck or Facebook Mobile applications are useful but also big distractions. Beeping every time it updated, refreshing every couple of seconds... they are very distracting, and very difficult to not be drawn away from whatever else you’re doing. You must tame them to the point where youc an look at it when you want to. The same goes for whatever app you use, including any email, SMS notifications you might get from Twitter or Facebook. And of course if that doesn’t work, just use the golden rule – close Twitter or Facebook until you’re ready to use it!

How to use Twitter or Facebook without letting them suck up your time and attention!

2009-09-15T14:11:00.001-04:00

How to use Twitter or Facebook without letting them suck up your time and attention!

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The Best Courier Services - Allwaysontario.com

2009-08-20T13:59:00.002-04:00

We had to deliver an urgent order of 40 customized business cards for one of our top clients. The client wanted MG Ethnic marketing to recreate their brand, design their business cards based on the new brands, print and ship their new business cards to 4 different branches all across Greater Toronto area. Our client was in a rush to receive their new cards and we needed a reliable and fast courier company as soon as possible. I called over 20 courier companies in the GTA, looking for that perfect company who was going to be cheap and deliver my client’s cards to them as fast as possible. But every courier company I contacted was either not willing to accommodate us on such short notice or they wanted to charge us extra with the excuse that our order was small and there were too many points of drop offs.

The last company on my list was All-ways Ontario Express. I looked at their website and called them in hopes that they were about to help us out. The person I spoke to, Aidin immediately took down the information and assured me that All-ways Ontario Express was going to take care of our shipping needs and the best part was the price he was giving me, 20% cheaper than most other companies on my list.

I’m now one of All-ways Ontario Express clients and have been spreading the word on their exceptionally reliable, fast and cost effective services as well.

Here is more information about All-ways Ontario Express for anyone who needs courier services in the greater Toronto Area. They provide all types of services from Messenger, Regular, Night and Rush Delivery to Weekends and holiday deliveries.

For more information about Allwaysontario visit http://www.allwaysontario.com , or contact them at support@allwaysontario.com or call them at: (905) 513-9797

The Best Courier Services - Allwaysontario.com

2009-08-20T08:15:00.000-04:00

Link http://www.efor.ca/2009/08/19/allwaysontario

Allwaysontario provides very reliable, fast and cost effective courier services from Messenger, Regular, Night and Rush Delivery to Weekends and holiday deliveries within the greater Toronto area. For more information about Allwaysontario visit http://www.allwaysontario.com , or contact them at support@allwaysontario.com or call them at: (905) 513-9797

The Best Courier Services - Allwaysontario.com

2009-08-19T18:46:00.001-04:00

The Best Courier Services - Allwaysontario.com

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How to Get People to Open Your E-Mails: Subject Lines

2009-08-11T18:00:00.001-04:00

How to Get People to Open Your E-Mails: Subject Lines

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Successful Ethnic Marketing campaigns

2009-07-27T15:35:00.001-04:00

Successful Ethnic Marketing campaigns

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Successful Ethnic Marketing campaigns

2009-07-27T14:00:00.000-04:00

Link http://www.efor.ca/2009/07/24/ethnic-marketing-campaigns

Here are few effective ethnic marketing approaches that guarantee successful Ethnic Marketing campaign...

Prepaid Long distance service

2009-06-25T08:21:00.000-04:00

Linkwww.efor.ca

Prepaid Long distance service - it offers the best international and domestic long distance telephone rates for cell phones.

Prepaid Long distance service

2009-06-24T14:54:00.001-04:00

Prepaid Long distance service - it offers the best international and domestic long distance telephone rates for cell phones.

What is Prepaid Long Distance Service?

Prepaid Long Distance Service means Easy access, rechargeable pre-purchased minutes for you to use while making a long distance call - Most companies requrie you to activate one account on one of your primary phone numbers. Forexample, Dcall allows you to add up to 8 diferent telephone numbers to use the same long distance account from anywhere worldwide to your account. Next step, dial the appropriate access number from any of the 65 countries worldwide that Dcall offers its long distance services; using any of the 8 numbers activated on your long distance account. DCall also allows you to Save money by offering rates as low as $0.02 per minute to canada and USA. Dcall service is also accessible from any non activated phones such as pay phones, Hotel phones or international cell phones. All you need to do is to dial the proper access numbers available for non activated lines and enter your personalized identification number linked to your Dcall account. One of the features Dcall offers rechargeable feature that is accessible online or by calling client care Toll Free phone number from anywhere worldwide. You can review your online detailed billing and payments anytime anywhere. There are no hidden charges, gimmiks, or surcharges associated with using Dcall. You pay for the amount you Talk for! Dcall Prepaid long distance is “portable” long distance service that is available to you at all times!

What do I need to know about prepaid long distance?

Not all prepaid services are the same. You need to know Rates to your calling destination, Your access number to call from, area code for your calling destination, and any additional charges associated with using the long distance service you have in mind.

Rates As Low as:

Canada $0.01/minute
USA $0.01/minute
UK $0.01/minute
Italy $0.02/minute
India $0.03/minute
China $0.02/minute
Haiti $0.20/minute
Iran $0.06/minute
France $0.03/minute
Japan $0.04/minute
Israel $0.03/minute
Hong Kong $0.03/minute
Germany $0.03/minute
Russia $0.06/minute
Jamaica $0.10/minute

Save money on your long distance bills

2009-06-15T22:06:00.004-04:00

Make Calls to Canada, USA, UK, China, Hong Kong, France, Italy, and Germany for as low as 2.5 ¢/ minute

One account for all your long distance needs

Easy Access

Rechargeable account
No hidden charges
Online Monthly Detailed billing
Add your home, cellular, office & up to 8 telephone numbers into one account

Use your long distance prepaid minutes from any of your activated numbers

Stay in touch with your loved ones from over 65 countries worldwide using your prepaid account.

With us you’re assured of the most competitive long distance rates for both domestic and international calls. Activate your phone lines and start saving today!

USA 2.5¢
Canada 2.5¢
France 2.5¢
Australia 3.33¢
Italy 2.99¢
Japan 4.0¢
United Kingdom 2.5¢
South Korea 4.0¢
Germany 2.99¢
Russia 6.0¢
China 2.0¢
Jamaica 12.5¢
Israel 2.5¢
Trinidad and Tobago 9.0¢
Hong Kong 2.5¢

Recharge your account online from anywhere at anytime or call our 24/7 Live multilingual customer service Toll Free Numbers - 1-877-753-9163

Meet Single Seniors Seeking Love

2009-06-09T12:46:00.001-04:00

Meet Single Seniors Seeking Love

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Meet Single Seniors Seeking Love

2009-06-09T10:12:00.000-04:00

Link http://www.efor.ca/2009/06/09/meetsingleseniors

I found this new Online senior Singles dating site called www.goldenlovematch.com and as I was browsing it I read this testimonial from someone named Ms. Walsh. Ms. Walsh said more and more seniors are turning to online dating services because they, too, have a need for seniors dating ads.

Goldenlovematch.com is a dating network for senior singles from USA, Canada, England, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, South America, Europe, and Asia. This site is for sassy seniors and active seniors and baby boomers looking to meet marriage minded senior men and senior women to chat, send anonymous email, and to find quality romance and serious lasting relationships. If you are over the age of 50 and looking to find other singles compatible to you, then you should visitwww.goldenlovematch.com.

Metrics to Measure for any Video Contents streaming Online

2009-05-22T18:11:00.002-04:00

http://www.efor.ca/2009/05/22/video-contents-streaming-online

Here are the main metrics you need to measure video contents streaming online:

Clips by Duration
Clips by Visits
Clips by Country
Countries by Clip
Cities by Clip
Clips by City
Clips by ISP
ISPs by Clip
Visit Duration by Visits
Visits Trend
Area Codes
Visitors
Top Visitors
Visitors by Number of Visits
Visits Trend
Organizations
Authenticated Usernames
Domain Names
Top-Level Domain Types
Regions
Countries
North American States and Provinces
Cities
Designated Marketing Areas
Metropolitan Statistical Areas
Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas
Area Codes
Clips by Plays by Time of Day
Clips by Kbytes
Clips by Duration
Clips by Packets Sent
User Interactions by Clip
Content Groups
Directories
Accessed File Types
First Clips Played
Last Clips Played
Players & Platforms
Players by Visits
Windows Media Player Versions by Visits
QuickTime Player Versions by Visits
RealPlayer Versions by Visits
Detailed Bandwidth by Time of Day
Site Performance
Technical Statistics
Average Wait for Start by Clip
Peak Bandwidth by Clip
Peak Plays by Clip
Peak & Average Concurrent Connections
Packets Sent Trend
Packets Resent Trend
Connection Speed
By Packets Transferred
Packets Resent
Plays Trend
Hits Trend
Bandwidth: Kbytes Transferred Trend
Server Cluster Load Balance
Visits by Number of Clips Played
Visits by Day of the Week
Hits by Day of the Week
Visits by Hour of the Day
Hits by Hour of the Day
Visit Duration by Visits
Visit Duration by Page Views

Watch TV and Movies online

2009-05-13T12:23:00.003-04:00

Here are over 200 IPTV sites that allow you to watch your favourite TV shows and Movies. There’s no need to connect any TV tuner cards; you can start watching your favorite TV shows or any type of movies you want directly from your PC.

Please let me know if I’m missing your favourite site.

New Orleans Jazz Festival with Dave Mathews Band

2009-05-05T17:28:00.000-04:00

Among the hundreds of festivals that span the state of Louisiana, the most anticipated is a culmination of music, food and cultural experience – the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell. It is hosted by the very city that is considered the epicenter of southern hospitality, good times, good food and the birthplace of Jazz. Where can you sing along to familiar tunes, experience new sounds , try boiled crawfish, or even find yourself waving a hankie high above your head in a spontaneous second line? The Big Easy welcomes you for an experience unlike any other.

Rock music with Jazz fusion… the sound of Dave Mathews Band fitted right in the Big Easy. Started in the early nineties, Dave Mathew (band namesake) gathered a group of talented jazz musicians to record some of his songs on tape. DMB has not only become one of the TOP 100 highest selling music acts of all time, but they’ve earned multiple Grammys, the NAACP Chairman’s Award for addressing important issues and a plethora of other impressive honors.

At the end of the concert, there were happy travelers who finally had a reason to think their long journey was worth it after 2 hours of spectacular music, awesome crowd that sang along to every song and lots of booze. Awesome concert!

New Orleans Jazz Festival with Dave Mathews Band

2009-05-05T13:53:00.000-04:00

Link http://www.efor.ca/2009/05/05/jazz-festival

Jensa Collections in Lost in Wonderland Fashion Show

2009-04-29T17:23:00.005-04:00

On Thursday April 16^th, 2009, Efor.ca critics attended the Lost in Wonderland Fashion show, presented by Humber College Fashion Arts and Program, to review JenSa’s latest Alice in Wonderland Collection. JenSa showcased one of their fabulous dreamy collections of enchanted fairy queens.

Trust the talented Jenn Sadzak to come up with the most “out there” collection as seen yet. Between the world of Alice in Wonderland and trendy Torontonian stylish women, the collection can certainly be expected in local retail stores next season. Ms. Sadzak has some very creative and eccentric ideas and her shows are always entertaining. The JenSa Collection designs were flowing, flirty and made for real life. The whole collection is definitely suited for retail.

Opening the show with a series of black looks, JenSa Collection slowly transitioned into a black & red theme of dresses - some with abstract black with blue polka dots. JenSa designs for strong women with a sense of adventure and the need to be daring and eccentric.

The JenSa Collection was definitely the highlight of the fashion show, creating excitement while offering designs that spelled restrained glamour!

Win a US Green Card for you & your Family - 50% Discount on all applications TODAY!

2009-04-21T15:14:00.004-04:00

The diversity visa program, better known as the green card lottery, provides an opportunity for people from countries that have low immigration to the U.S., to live and work permanently in the United States. Millions of people apply for one of the 55,000 visas available each year.For many immigrants, this green card is a doorway toward fulfilling their dreams or better living or job opportunities.

The DV lottery is a great and effective way to help turn people’s dream of living in United States into a reality. Americans are looking forward to having more immigrants going to U.S. because it is immigration that makes the USA the best country in the world. The United States is regarded by many as the land of opportunity and the land of the free, a place where one can achieve their dreams without fear of persecution. To those in the Third World, it might as well be called “Paradise on Earth”. The DV Lottery provides thousands of people from different backgrounds, who otherwise lack the resources to come into this country, with the chance to settle here in hopes of a better life and promising future. It’s fast, effective and most importantly legitimate.

Selection is truly lottery-based, offering a chance to those that don’t necessarily have the strongest applicant profile. If you’re an aspiring immigrant looking to create a flourishing business and live in USA then you must visit USAGCLS .

USAGCLS organization invites you to participate in the USA Green Card Lottery program where you may win Diversity Visa (Green Card) and legally live and work in the United States. If you are not an American resident or citizen, you may submit your lottery application to join the program and take advantage of the opportunity that has been offered to you by a program of the American government.

Currently USAGCLS is offering 50% discount on all their applications for limited time. Apply today and receive 50% off on Lifetime applications. With current season discounts you may apply to a one-year package for as low as $49. This package will include:

Winners Manual
Airline ticket to USA for winners*
Job search assistance
Resume writing assistance
Consulate interview preparation

*Lifetime application duration is valid until you win.

Its time for you to take charge of your life and your future! Visit USAGCLS and register for chance to be one of the green card lottery winners through USAGCLS program.

Title Tags & Meta Description Tags

2009-04-06T17:40:00.002-04:00

Overview

The basic structure of a Web page contains simple HTML tags that are important to optimizing the content for search. These tags include the title tag and the meta description tag. These tags inform search engine spiders about a Web page name, about the targeted keyword phrases for which it is optimized, and they also provide a description.

Title Tag

The title tag creates the snippet that appears in the top bar of the Web browser and is commonly the hyperlinked title in search results. From an SEO standpoint, the title tag is the most important tag you can use to increase your site’s visibility in the major search properties.

For example, the Home Page’s title tag is shown below:

Meta Description Tag

The meta description tag is an HTML element that contains high-level information about a Web page’s content. Usually, the Web browser does not display that information to the visitor. The meta description tag is a meta tag with a “NAME” element specifying a description, which Web developers use to describe what the page is about. The description is invisible to Web page viewers, although Google and other search properties use it as the description in search engine results.

The Home Page’s meta description tag is as follows:

Implications Search Engine Optimization Implications Keyword phrase-centric meta data maximizes a website’s search engine visibility potential, they also affect the click-through rate (CTR) on organic search engine results. According to a recent study titled Examining Searcher Perceptions of and Interactions with Sponsored Results:

Forty-two percent (42%) of searchers surveyed use the description to determine if an organic

search result is relevant. • Forty-one percent (41%) of searchers rely on the title to determine relevancy of the results. The study found that 59% of searchers surveyed use the title as the primary basis for determining that an organic result is not relevant. Based on these statistics, having a relevant and enticing title and meta description is crucial for driving highly qualified traffic to a website. The title tag is particularly important because it is typically the hyperlink shown on the search engine results page of most major search engines. According to iProspect’s research, the title tag is the most important piece of Meta data search engines use to determine the relevancy of a page.

Other Implications The meta description tag is the next most important part of the meta data because, as discussed above, some search engines use it for a Web page’s description on the search engine results page. As such, the title and meta description tags offer the perfect opportunity to differentiate a website from competitor websites that are also visible in the search results on a given query. Compelling and relevant meta data can drive significant prospects to a site once it has achieved high rankings. A website displaying persuasive marketing text with targeted keyword phrases instantly tells the searcher that that Web page will satisfy their intent. In addition to helping increase organic click-through, powerful Meta data effectively reinforces the website’s brand.

Grace in Toronto

2009-04-02T21:53:00.002-04:00

Grace in Toronto

Maryam Golabgir

Toronto, Canada

Toronto is a multicultural city and its Caribbean community is especially large and vibrant. This has given rise to a large number of supermarkets carrying food native to various Caribbean islands. I have been known for being picky when it comes to ethnic food and very selective with my choices as far as food is concerned. I usually like to cook rather than buying frozen food, but last Wednesday after 12 hours of work and having to deal with idiot service providers, I wasn’t in the mood to stand in the kitchen for an hour to make dinner.

I got in the car and drove to local A&P super market on John Street and Highway 7 and headed straight down the frozen food section. I was looking for something authentic, fast and easy to make. As I was looking for the perfect meal, a box of frozen food with the words “Caribbean Traditions Brand Jerk Shrimp” got my attention. After examining the box for a minute and reading all the ingredients, I headed to the checkout line, I found dinner!

It took me less than 10 minutes to have my Jerk Shrimp dinner ready and on the table. The smell of the food was increasing my appetite as I tucked in, every bite was delicious. The spices weren’t overwhelming but yet just enough that you could taste the richly complex blend of spices on the shrimp.

I remember seeing curried chicken and jerk chicken boxes beside the shrimp in the freezer. I think I’m going to dedicated one day of the week to these frozen foods by Grace Caribbean Traditions and try these other dishes they have.

Overall, two thumbs up for the Jerk Shrimp. If you want find out which stores are carrying these delicious and easy to make frozen meals, check http://www.gracefoods.com/frozen-meals/index.html for more details.

Try it!

Tell me what you think. Leave a comment below.

Project Escalation Processes

2009-04-01T12:43:00.001-04:00

What This Is

A guideline with examples for how a team can use “escalation processes” to raise project issues to higher authorities for timely resolution. An escalation process ensures that the next level of management is informed (often within a specific period of time), if an issue cannot be not resolved at the lower level

Why It’s Useful

Although a team should strive to resolve as many issues and conflicts internally as possible, some issues can be serious enough to need attention from people outside the team, including upper management. Defining escalation approaches early on helps everyone knows how big issues will get resolved and what role they will be required to play.

Typical project situations requiring escalation include conflicting resource demands threatening project staffing, group dependencies not being met, scope disagreements, and issues with functionality of the project’s deliverables nearing release time. (See the next page for more on these scenarios.)

How to Use It

Teams use and document escalation procedures with varying degrees of formality depending on the organization’s size and culture and the size of the project.

Read the guidelines starting on the following page to find situations that apply to your projects.
View the examples to determine what formality of processes are most appropriate for your projects
Decide whether to document escalation processes as part of your project plan or in some other form.
Set expectations with your team - what kinds of issues should be escalated by team members to the Project Manager and which issues the PM will raise to the project sponsor

Ensure your team members understand how and when to use escalations, feel comfortable with the process, and are ready to raise issues quickly.

The remaining guideline content starts on the following page. It includes:

Typical Situations Requiring Escalation
Goals, Inputs and Outputs of Project Escalation Processes
Example Escalation Processes

A team can use “escalation processes” to raise project issues to higher authorities for timely resolution. An escalation process ensures that the next level of management is informed (often within a specific period of time) if an issue cannot be not resolved at the lower level.

TYPICAL SITUATIONS REQUIRING ESCALATION

Typical project situations requiring escalation include:

Resource conflicts: During a project, people are pulled off project work to assist with problems in the field, threatening the project’s ability to meet its schedule. The project manager needs to escalate the issue to the project stakeholder - to make sure the project impact is recognized and understood; to lobby for not losing the resource or gaining a replacement; and to help get to a workable solution to protect the goals of the project
Scope disagreement and feature creep: At the beginning of a project, the team cannot reach a workable tradeoff of scope, time, money, people, and quality; or during a project someone requests that the agreed-upon project scope be changed to add a new feature or deliverable and the team can’t find a solution everyone agrees upon. The team needs the project stakeholder(s) or upper management to make the decision or help resolve the issue.
Deliverables issues: Late in a project, there are issues with the project’s main deliverable (product, system, software, document, whatever it may be), and the team believes the issue can’t be corrected within the original time, scope and cost goals of the project. A tough decision must be made as to whether to release with the current problem or shortfall; delay project completion to resolve it, etc. The team will often need to escalate such a major issue to management.
Testing issues: When a user community or a customer is asked to participate in testing prior to a product or system’s release, the tests may be in or close to an operational environment and the customer’s overall perception of the product and of the test team is important. Escalation procedures provide an agreement as to how the user/customer will be able to get critical issues to management’s attention quickly.
Issues among groups: When functional groups owe each other deliverables during a project and one group is running late with what another group needs to stay on schedule, the issue may need to be escalated. Or if contents of one group’s work conflicts with what the other group is developing and the mismatches have to be resolved. The purpose is to highlight the problem to the respective functional management so that priorities can be examined, resource decisions made, technical or content issues worked, and the situation resolved.

GOALS, INPUTS, AND OUTPUTS OF ESCALATION PROCESSES

Goals of an Escalation Process:

Create a mentality that tough issues should be raised quickly enough to the next level of management, not fester without resolution and delay the project.
Define who issues should be raised to and within what timeframe, to ensure and enable quick action.
Keep Management informed about key issues affecting the project and the business. (Sometimes escalation processes are to allow executives to monitor, not necessarily yet take action.)
Set expectations early as to how certain issues will be raised to upper levels of management during a project, so that no one involved in an issue feels that “you went over my head to my management”.

Typical inputs to an Escalation process:

A way of keeping track of project issues, regularly reviewing them and determining their significance, so that teams see which should be escalated. This can be accomplished with mechanisms such as issue logs, project status meetings, bug reviews.
Supporting information that will help those being escalated to understand the context and impact of the issue and make tradeoffs if they are being asked to make a decision or give the team guidance.

Typical outcomes of an Escalation Process:

Issues are resolved by management’s decision - or the team is given direction and parameters/constraints as to how to solve the problem themselves
Decisions are documented so that everyone knows how the issue was resolved.

EXAMPLE ESCALATION PROCESSES

The following are examples of different escalation process for various teams and their project issues.

Example of General Escalation Guidelines

The following guidelines can be documented in one place, as in a project management plan, or can be published as needed or included in separate documents related to the corresponding activities.

(Start of example)

Team Escalation Guidelines:

The following typical and important project issues will be handled as noted when they arise. The purpose of documenting these approaches is to be set to resolve issues quickly.

Resource conflicts: If a functional resource on a sub-team is reassigned part-time to field maintenance:

Person notifies Project Manager immediately and together they determine potential impact on project.
If major milestone dates are threatened by loss of this resource’s time, PM will escalate to functional manager to resolve.
If they cannot find a way for the person to meet both sets of goals, the PM will highlight the issue to the Project Sponsor for resolution, providing info on the potential project impact, and any tradeoffs considered with the functional manager.

Scope deadlock during Initiation Phase: (agreed upon by team at beginning of Initiation Phase)

If the team cannot come to an agreement on project scope, time, cost, and quality, the issue will be escalated to the Project Sponsor.
The sponsor will be invited to a project review to cover alternatives considered to-date and discuss options. The PM will ensure that appropriate functional team members are present to discuss the conflicting project scope demands.
The Project Sponsor will clarify constraints and ask the team for further analysis, or if possible, make the decision on the project scope.

Dependency Issues Among Groups (agreed upon at or soon after team kickoff)

If another group (including an outside development group) owes your sub-team a deliverable and project status monitoring indicates that the deliverable is likely to be late:

Manager of the sub-team raises the issue to the PM in the weekly Project Status meeting, or via email as soon as the issue is perceived.
The PM and sub-team lead assess the potential impact to the project and the latest possible date by which the team can receive the deliverable and stay on track.
The PM and sub-team manager communicate the issue to the responsible functional manager (to head of responsible group at outside firm if that is the situation).
The PM and Functional manager work toward a solution. If Functional Manager cannot commit to his resources meeting the deadline (because of competing commitments, etc.), the PM escalates the issue to the Project Sponsor for resolution. If an outside firm is involved, the person with responsibility for contract oversight must also be involved.

Excerpt from an Escalation Process in a Formal Project Management Plan

This formal escalation process example is an excerpt from a team document covering all aspects of how to monitor and control their project. The context is a large organization with several sub-teams and related systems involved. The document includes sections also on project meeting management, status reports, and other communication. The Issue Management section includes Escalation details.

(Start of example)

Issue Management: As the project evolves, issues will surface and risk will be introduced to the project. To ensure the issues are managed so that risk is appropriately mitigated, control processes must be implemented. The following processes will be deployed for issue management and risk mitigation:

Identifying and Capturing Issues: The project lead is responsible for capturing all issues via a standard issue log document. As issues are raised, the project lead will ensure the issue is clearly named, concisely defined, a priority factor (urgent, high, medium, low) is assessed, a responsible party is assigned resolution responsibility, and an estimated date (not greater than three weeks out) for completion is assigned. Each of these elements will be captured as one row in the issue document. (Editor’s note: See our Issue Resolution Report, page 3, for an example.)

Monitoring Issues: The project lead and the Project Office will monitor the issues to ensure they are worked to closure. The project lead should update the status indicator (Not-Started, In-Progress, Resolved, Canceled) in the “Status” column as the issue progresses. The project lead will query the responsible party for status at least once per week until the issue is successfully closed.

Escalating Issues: Occasionally, issues require escalation to a higher level of management for monitoring or executive decisions. For this project, issues of this nature will be escalated to the Project Stakeholder Team.. First, the project lead will update the issue (record) in the Master Issues List to reference “Stakeholder” in the Escalation Column of the document. Second, the appropriate Group project lead will meet with Project Director at least once per week to review issues.

Issues common to projects across the organization will be identified and escalated to the Project Director. The respective project lead will escalate appropriate issues to the Project Director in two ways. First, the project lead will updated the issue (record) in the Master Issues List to reference “Director” in the Escalation Column of the document. Second, the project lead will meet with the Project Director at least once per week to communicate newly escalated issues and provide/receive status regarding existing issues. The Project Director and project lead will work together to create an escalation document. The escalation document will be saved to the internal project website then distributed to the appropriate recipients for follow-up. Additionally, the project lead will update the issue log by noting the action taken in the appropriate “escalation” columns, and by creating a link to the escalation document in the appropriate escalation link field. The project lead and Project Director are responsible for continually communicating with appropriate parties to ensure escalated issues are managed to effective resolution.

To ensure issues are appropriately escalated and effectively managed to resolution, the following criteria should be used to determine the appropriate escalation action for an issue:

Major feature deficiency issue: Escalated to Overall Project Manager upon occurrence. Escalated to Project Sponsor if team cannot resolve problem within one week of discovery
Conflicting resource issues: Escalated immediately to project lead; Project Manager will escalate to involved functional managers to work the problem. If a resolution cannot be reached within one week, it will be escalated to the overall Project Director and the Project Sponsor.
Scope change decisions: Analyze request within one week. Notify Project Director and Project Sponsor if change can be accommodated with low risk and without impacting schedule and cost. Escalate to both for resolution if the change involves more risk and could impact schedule or cost.
Interface issues with legacy systems: Escalate to involved Technical Leads to work issue. Based on their assessment, keep Project Sponsor and Project Director informed at a minimum; escalate issue to Technology VP and Project Sponsor if issues affect major performance specifications or schedule.

Communicating Issue Status: The project lead is responsible for communicating project issue status to the project teams and stakeholders: verbally at each regularly scheduled project status meeting, and written status on a weekly basis by 5pm each Friday. By 9am Monday, the Project Office will post the updated document to the project website and send electronic copies to the Steering Committee’s office.

(end of example)

Example of Escalation Included in Agreement with a Beta Test Customer

The excerpt below is a portion of a Beta Test agreement signed by a company with a key customer who agreed to test the new factory machine before its formal release to the marketplace. A section on escalation processes was included in the Beta Test Plan, within the section on problem recording and issues resolution.

(Start of Example)

Problem Recording, Issues Management and Escalation, and Resolution

Recording of issues by Company and Customer:

Customer operators will log all machine down time- including reason and duration.
Company Service Manager will review this productivity report daily to be aware of issues and report to Company management.
Company Test Technician will keep his own log of machine issues and downtime. The issues logging format will provide way for Company to record and verify resolution of each issue
The Company Test Technician will also keep an overall log of machine configuration and usage.
Company will provide a form for customer personnel to record their suggestions and recommendations for improvement. This log will be reviewed periodically, at least once a week, as determined by Project Manager and Customer Manager.

Daily issues review and prioritization:

The Company Service Manager and Project Manager will review the log of issues that occurred during that day’s production or testing. Priorities will be established for resulting machine work or further testing that must happen that next day, meshing those requirements with any work previously planned for that next day.
The Company Project Manager will keep a list of parts needed and review it each day with the Company factory point of contact.
The Company Project Manager will be the point of contact for managing materials/ parts needed to get out to the customer.

Escalation of issues to Management:

The following types of issues warrant immediate reporting to both Company and Customer management. The Company test manager, or the Company test technician if the manager is not present, is responsible for escalating such issues to the Customer representative.

Safety issue: any safety incident.
Major machine breakage or part failure or frequent down-time: If down for more than 30 minutes and interfering with production quotas for the day, this will be escalated to both the Company and Customer representatives.
Other serious concerns about machine performance raised by Customer personnel: will be communicated to Company Service Manager and Project Manager for consideration and action.

(End of example)

Example of Simple Escalation Instructions for Users Helping Test a New Application

This example shows a very simple approach to escalations in this situation. Internal users are helping test a new application prior to its release. The project team’s goal is to ensure they get quick support for any questions they have or issues they encounter during the testing. It makes support time frames clear and creates a sense of urgency by using response timeframes - it shows users what to do to get the fast support they need.

(Start of example)

Support Time: Monday - Friday 7:00 am - 5:00 pm ET

1st LEVEL:

User Support group: 1-800-555-5555, option 2

2nd LEVEL

(To be used if you have left a message for the User Support group, you have an emergency and no one has returned your call within 30 minutes.)

Mark Smith, User Services Supervisor for Pre-Release Testing

Office Phone: 1-800-555-5555, option 1, ext. 312
Cell Phone: 333-555-2222.

3rd LEVEL

(To be used if you have left a message for Mark Smith and he has not returned your call within 30 minutes.)

Pamela Johnson, Vice President of Support

Office Phone: 1-800-555-5555, option 1, ext. 309
Cell Phone: 333-555-8888.

Please follow the above escalation path if you have questions during your testing or an issue you need help with to continue testing, or a category 1 ‘crash’ or data integrity problem that the team should see immediately.

You may also use this path if you are dissatisfied with the service you have received or the progress being made on an issue that you have reported to the User Support group as part of this testing.

(End of example)

Example of Escalation of Corporate Database Changes Required

This example escalation applies to the situation where a corporate database is being maintained and affected by new application development projects. The group with overall responsibility for that database needs a process to ensure cooperation and coordination between the groups supplying database information and owning related applications. This escalation process is designed to manage any changes to or deletion of a data structure in the corporate database by showing how to get agreement from all the owners of applications that access that data.

(Start of Example Process Excerpt)

The triggers that will bring data issues and needed changes to light are:

Business Area Analyses
New Applications being developed
Releases of Applications (which include changes in business rules, new legislation, user requested enhancements, etc.)
Information Access

Issue Identification: The Data Administrator and the Data Standards Manager(s) involved in the projects are responsible for identifying the issues. Issues will be identified through data modeling done in the projects. Data issues may also be recognized before the data modeling process identifies them; they should be dealt with when identified by the Data Standards Manager(s) involved. Issues may be also raised outside a project, where a user discovers that some data they require is not available or is not defined as they require it. In this case, the user will refer the issue to the Data Custodian.

Issue Review and Clarification: The Data Standards Managers for all the branches affected by the data issue and the Data Administrator will meet to clarify the requirements, define the issues, assess the impacts, define the alternatives, and finally to produce a recommendation to proceed. The recommendation to proceed goes to the Project Sponsor.

Issue Escalation: If the issue cannot be resolved at the Data Standards Manager level, the issue must be referred to the next level of authority: the Project Sponsor.

Accompanying information: A Data Issue Notice should be developed that describes the issue, the effect to business, and alternatives. The Data Issue Notice could be initiated by a Data Standards Manager or the Data Administrator. The notice will be distributed to the relevant Data Standards Manager(s), Data Custodian(s), Application Custodian(s), and the Project Sponsor. The Project Sponsor and the Data Custodians will resolve the issue with input from the Data Administrator as required. The Project Sponsor will be supported by the Project Manager and the Data Custodians will be supported by the Data Standards Managers.

If the issue cannot be resolved at the Project Sponsor/Data Custodian level it will be escalated to the Executive by the Project Sponsor.

(End of example)

Example of a Management Steering Committee’s Process for Handling Escalated Issues

This example documents the steps a Project Steering Committee will take on each time an issue is escalated to it for decision.

(Start of Example)

1.7 Issues and Problem Resolution

The Steering Committee is responsible for resolving issues brought forward by the Project Manager and Business Lead. If the issue cannot be resolved by the Steering Committee, the chairperson will take the issue forward to the Executive Management Committee.

The committee will follow this process for each issue:

Understand the issue and identify all potential impacts.
Determine the areas affected such as business processes, data, configuration, infrastructure, etc.
Solicit input from committee members for recommended solutions.
Assign additional tasks to committee members if necessary to investigate alternate solutions and schedule a date for follow-up.
Ensure majority of the committee agrees with recommended solution.
Request Project Manager to follow-up on closure and provide status at next meeting.
If issue remains unresolved, chairperson will take forward to the Executive Management Committee as soon as possible, preferably within two business days.
Chairperson will communicate decision reached by Executive Management Committee to Project Manager and Steering Committee members as soon as notification is received.

(End of Example)

Glossary Business and Financial Terms

2009-03-30T13:31:00.001-04:00

Account A separate record showing the increases and decreases in each asset, liability, owner’s equity, revenue and expense item.

Accounting The process by which financial information about a business is recorded, classified, summarized and interpreted by a business.

Accounting professional One who is skilled at keeping business records. Usually, a highly trained professional rather than one who keeps books. An accountant can set up the books needed for a business to operate and help the owner understand them.

Accounts payable A record of what you owe to your creditors for goods or services received.

Accounts receivable A record of what is owed to your business as a result of extending credit to a customer who purchases your products or services. All of the credit accounts taken together are your “accounts receivable.”

Amortization To liquidate on an installment basis: the process of gradually paying off a liability over a period of time.

Analysis Breaking an idea or problem down into its parts: a thorough examination of the parts of anything.

Asset Anything of worth (having cash value) that is owned by your business (i.e. cash on hand, inventory, land, buildings, vehicles and equipment). Accounts receivable, notes receivable and prepaid purchases are also assets.

Articles of Incorporation A legal document filed with the state which sets forth the purposes and regulations for a corporation. Each state has different regulations.

Bad debts Money owed to you that you cannot collect.

Balance The amount of money remaining in an account.

Balance Sheet An itemized statement which lists the total assets and the total liabilities of a given business to portray its net worth at a given moment in time.

Bookkeeping The process of recording business transactions into the accounting records.

Break-even analysis A method used to determine the point at which the business will neither make a profit nor incur a loss. That point is expressed in either the total dollars of revenue exactly offset by total expenses or in total units of production, the cost of which exactly equals the income derived by their sale.

Bottom line A business’s net profit or loss after taxes for a specific accounting period.

Budget A plan expressed in financial terms. A business is then evaluated by measuring its performance in terms of these goals. The budget contains projections for cash inflow and outflow and other balance sheet items.

Business venture Taking financial risks in a commercial enterprise.

Capital Money available to invest or the total of accumulated assets available for production. See “Owner’s Equity.”

Capital equipment Equipment which you use to manufacture a product, provide a service, or use to sell, store, and deliver merchandise. Such equipment will not be sold in the normal course of business, but will be used and worn out or consumed in the course of business.

Capital expenditures An expenditure for a purchase of an item of property, plant or equipment that has a useful life of more than one year. (Fixed assets)

Cash Money in hand or readily available.

Cash discount A deduction that is given for prompt payment of a bill.

Cash flow The actual movement of cash within a business; cash inflow and cash outflow.

Cash receipts The money received by a business from customers.

Collateral Something of value given or held as a pledge that a debt or obligation will be fulfilled.

Contract An agreement regarding mutual responsibilities between two or more parties.

Controllable expenses Those expenses which can be controlled or restrained by the business person. Variable expenses.

Corporation A voluntary organization of persons, either actual individuals or legal entities, legally bound together to form a business enterprise; an artificial legal entity created by government grant and treated by law as an individual.

Co-signers Joint signers of a loan agreement, pledging to meet the obligations in case of default.

Cost of goods sold The cost of inventory sold during an accounting period. It is equal to the beginning inventory for the period plus the cost of purchases made during the period minus the ending inventory for the period.

Creditor A company or individual to whom a business owes money.

Current assets Cash plus any assets that will be converted into cash within one year plus any assets that you plan to use up within one year.

Current liabilities Debts that must be paid within one year.

Current ratio A dependable indication of liquidity computed by dividing current assets by current liabilities. A ratio of 2.0 is acceptable for most businesses.

Depreciable base of an asset The cost of an asset used in the computation of yearly depreciation expense.

Direct expenses Those expenses that relate directly to your product or service.

Debt Capital The part of the investment capital which must be borrowed.

Debt That which is owed.

Debt measures The indication of the amount of other people’s money that is being used to generate profits for a business. The more indebtedness, the greater the risk of failure.

Debt ratio The key financial ratio used by creditors in determining how indebted a business is and how able it is to service the debts. The debt ratio is calculated by dividing total liabilities by total assets. The higher the ratio, the more risk of failure. The acceptable ratio is dependent upon the policies of your creditors and bankers.

Default Failure to pay a debt or meet an obligation.

Depreciation A decrease in value through age, wear or deterioration. Depreciation is a normal expense of doing business which must be taken into account. There are laws and regulations governing the manner and time periods that may be used for depreciation.

Expenses The costs of producing revenue through the sale of goods or services.

Entrepreneur An innovator of business enterprise who recognizes opportunities to introduce a new product, a new process, or an improved organization, and who raises the necessary money, assembles the factors for production, and organizes an operation to exploit the opportunity.

Equity The monetary value of a property or business which exceeds claims and/or liens against it by others.

Financial statements The periodic reports that summarize the financial affairs of a business.

Fixed assets Items purchased for use in a business which are depreciable over a fixed period of time determined by the expected useful life of the purchase. Usually includes land, buildings, vehicles and equipment not intended for resale. Land is not depreciable, but is a fixed asset.

Fixed expenses Those costs which don’t vary from one period to the next. Generally, these expenses are not affected by the volume of business.

Gross Overall total revenues before deductions.

Gross profit on sales The difference between net sales and the cost of goods sold.

Gross profit margin An indicator of the percentage of each sales dollar remaining after a business has paid for its goods. It is computed by dividing the gross profit by the sales.

Horizontal analysis A percentage analysis of the increases and decreases on the items on comparative financial statements. A horizontal financial statement analysis involves comparison of data for the current period with the same data of a company for previous periods. The percentage of increase or decrease is listed.

Income Statement A financial document that shows how much money (revenue) came in and how much money (expense) was paid out.

Interest The cost of borrowing money. The price charged or paid for the use of money or credit.

Inventory The stock of goods that a business has on hand for sale to its customers.

Invest To lay out money for any purpose from which a profit is expected.

Invest measures Ratios used to measure an owner’s earnings for his or her investment in the company. See “Return on investment (ROI).”

Invoice A bill for the sale of goods or services sent by the seller to the purchaser.

Lease A long term rental agreement.

Liabilities Amounts owed by a business to its creditors. The debts of a business.

Liability insurance Risk protection for actions for which a business is liable.

Limited partnership A legal partnership where some owners are allowed to assume responsibility only up to the amount invested.

Liquidate To settle a debt or to convert to cash.

Liquidity The ability of a company to meet its financial obligations. A liquidity analysis focuses on the balance sheet relationships for current assets and current liabilities.

Loan Money or other assets let out temporarily, usually for a specified amount of interest.

Long-term liabilities Liabilities that will not be due for more than a year in the future.

Management The art of conducting and supervising a business.

Marketing All the promotional activities involved in the buying and selling of a product or service.

Merchandise Goods bought and sold in a business. “Merchandise” or stock is a part of inventory.

Net income The amount by which revenue is greater than expenses. On an income statement this is usually expressed as both a pre-tax and after-tax figure.

Net loss The amount by which expenses are greater than revenue. On an income statement this figure is usually listed as both a pre-tax and after-tax figure.

Net profit margin The measure of a business’s success with respect to earnings on sales. It is derived by dividing the net profit by sales. A higher margin means the firm is more profitable.

Net Worth The owner’s equity in a given business represented by the excess of the total assets over the total amounts owing to outside creditors (total liabilities) at a given moment in time. The net worth of an individual is determined by deducting the amount of all personal liabilities from the total of all personal assets.

Nonrecurring One time, not repeating. “Non-recurring” expenses are those involved in starting a business which only have to be paid once and will not occur again.

Note A written promise with terms for payment of a debt.

Operating expenses Normal expenses incurred in the running of a business.

Operating profit margin The ratio representing the pure operations profits, ignoring interest and taxes. It is derived by dividing the income from operations by the sales. The higher the percentage of operating profit margin the better.

Other expenses Expenses that are not directly connected with the operation of a business. The most common is interest income.

Other income Income that is earned from non-operating sources. The most common is interest income.

Owners’ equity The financial interest of the owner of a business. The total of all owner equity is equal to the business’s assets minus its liabilities. The owners’ equity represents total investments in the business plus or minus profits or losses the business has accrued to date.

Partnership A legal business relationship of two or more people who share responsibilities, resources, profits, and liabilities.

Payable Ready to be paid. One of the standard accounts kept by a bookkeeper is “accounts payable.” This is a list of those bills which are current and due to be paid.

Personal financial history A summary of personal financial information about the owner of a business. The personal financial history is often required by a potential lender or investor.

Prepaid expenses Expense items that are paid for prior to their use. Some examples are insurance, rent, prepaid inventory purchases, etc.

Principal The amount shown on the face of a note or a bond. Unpaid principal is the amount remaining at any given time.

Pro Forma A projection or estimate of what may result in the future from actions in the present. A pro forma financial statement is one that shows how the actual operations of the business will turn out if certain assumptions are achieved.

Profit Financial gain; returns over expenditures. The sum remaining after deducting costs.

Profit Margin The difference between your selling price and all of your costs.

Profit and Loss Statement A list of the total amount of sales (revenues) and total costs (expenses). The difference between revenues and expenses is your profit or loss. Income statement.

Quarterly budget analysis A method used to measure actual income and expenditures against projections for the current quarter of the financial year and for the total quarters completed. The difference is expressed as the amount and percentage over or under budget.

Quick ratio A test of liquidity subtracting inventory from current assets and dividing the result by current liabilities. A quick ratio of 1.0 or greater is usually recommended.

Ratio analysis An analysis involving the comparison of two individual items on financial statements. One item is divided by the other and the relationship is expressed as a ratio.

Receivable Ready for payment. When you sell on credit, you keep an “accounts receivable” as a record of what is owed to you and who owes it. In accounting, a “receivable” is an asset.

Retail business A business that sells goods and services directly to individual consumers.

Retained earnings Earnings of a corporation that are kept in the business and not paid out in dividends. This amount represents the accumulated, undistributed profits of the corporation.

Return on investment (ROI) The rate of profit an investment will earn. The ROI is equal to the annual net income divided by total assets. The higher the ROI, the better. Business owners should set a target for the ROI and decide what they want their investments to earn.

Revenue The income that results from the sale of products or services or from the use of investments or property.

Service Business A business that provides services rather than products to its customers.

Share One of the equal parts into which the ownership of a corporation is divided. A “share” represents a part ownership in a corporation.

Sole proprietorship A legal structure of a business having one person as the owner.

Stock Accumulated merchandise.

Stockholders’ equity The stockholders’ shares of stock in a corporation plus any retained earnings.

Takeover The acquisition of one company by another.

Tangible personal property Machinery, equipment, furniture and fixtures not attached to the land.

Target Market The specific individuals, distinguished by socio-economic, demographic, and interest characteristics, who are the most likely potential customers for the goods and services of a business.

Terms of Sale The conditions concerning payment for a purchase.

Three-year projection A pro forma (projected) income statement showing anticipated revenues and expenses for a business.

Trade Credit Permission to buy from suppliers on open account.

Unearned income Revenue received, but not yet earned.

Variable costs Expenses that vary in relationship to the volume of activity of a business

Vertical analysis A percentage analysis used to show the relationship of the components in a single financial statement. In vertical analysis of an income statement each item on the statement is expressed as a percentage of net sales.

Volume An amount or quantity of business; the “volume” of a business is the total it sells over a period of time.

Wholesale Selling for resale.

Wholesale business A business that sells its products to other wholesalers, retailers or volume customers at a discount.

Ten Unique Advertising Opportunities in Newspapers

2009-03-27T14:40:00.002-04:00

ROP: Run of Press advertising means an ad placed on the pages of a newspaper. This best-known newspaper advertising option offers short deadlines and proximity of editorial that enhances visibility.
Preprints: Preprinted inserts offer advertisers the flexibility and control of creating and printing advertising that the newspaper distributes.
Commercial printing: Newspapers offer customers who need major printing the opportunity and cost efficiency of using their presses to print catalogs, inserts and other commercial print needs.
Zoned/Targeted ROP: Advertisers who need to reach a subset of the full run newspaper circulation can often do so in partial circulation editorial products’ slightly smaller distribution for slightly less cost.
Web sites of newspapers: Among the most popular Web sites in any community is the one operated by your local newspaper. Advertising on local newspaper Web sites offers significant targeting opportunities and cost efficiency.
Database marketing: It may come as a surprise but newspapers are typically among the largest mailers in any local market. In addition to managing both subscriber and non-subscriber databases, many newspapers offer an array of database marketing services.
Flyers: Many newspapers offer advertisers a simple and inexpensive opportunity of both printing and distributing single sheet flyers at costs significantly less than printing and handing out, or printing and mailing. These flyers can be inserted into the newspaper in selective distribution methods or into newspaper-produced Total Market Coverage packages.
TV magazines: The television listings magazine that typically comes with your Sunday newspaper offers extended shelf life options and a way to connect with large numbers of TV viewers in your local area.
Comics: One of the newspaper’s most popular features, the color Sunday comics afford advertising opportunities to capitalize both on the color availability and the high family readership of this unique medium within the media.
Niche products/Special sections: Newspapers offer a myriad of opportunities where a special marketplace is created to help in targeting an advertiser’s best prospects. These products may be inserted into the newspaper or may be distributed in other ways needed to best attract the niche audience.

Project Escalation Processes

2009-02-26T15:30:00.001-05:00

What This Is

Why It’s Useful

How to Use It

Teams use and document escalation procedures with varying degrees of formality depending on the organization’s size and culture and the size of the project.

Read the guidelines starting on the following page to find situations that apply to your projects.
View the examples to determine what formality of processes are most appropriate for your projects
Decide whether to document escalation processes as part of your project plan or in some other form.
Set expectations with your team - what kinds of issues should be escalated by team members to the Project Manager and which issues the PM will raise to the project sponsor

Ensure your team members understand how and when to use escalations, feel comfortable with the process, and are ready to raise issues quickly.

The remaining guideline content starts on the following page. It includes:

Typical Situations Requiring Escalation
Goals, Inputs and Outputs of Project Escalation Processes
Example Escalation Processes

TYPICAL SITUATIONS REQUIRING ESCALATION

Typical project situations requiring escalation include:

Resource conflicts: During a project, people are pulled off project work to assist with problems in the field, threatening the project’s ability to meet its schedule. The project manager needs to escalate the issue to the project stakeholder - to make sure the project impact is recognized and understood; to lobby for not losing the resource or gaining a replacement; and to help get to a workable solution to protect the goals of the project
Scope disagreement and feature creep: At the beginning of a project, the team cannot reach a workable tradeoff of scope, time, money, people, and quality; or during a project someone requests that the agreed-upon project scope be changed to add a new feature or deliverable and the team can’t find a solution everyone agrees upon. The team needs the project stakeholder(s) or upper management to make the decision or help resolve the issue.
Deliverables issues: Late in a project, there are issues with the project’s main deliverable (product, system, software, document, whatever it may be), and the team believes the issue can’t be corrected within the original time, scope and cost goals of the project. A tough decision must be made as to whether to release with the current problem or shortfall; delay project completion to resolve it, etc. The team will often need to escalate such a major issue to management.
Testing issues: When a user community or a customer is asked to participate in testing prior to a product or system’s release, the tests may be in or close to an operational environment and the customer’s overall perception of the product and of the test team is important. Escalation procedures provide an agreement as to how the user/customer will be able to get critical issues to management’s attention quickly.
Issues among groups: When functional groups owe each other deliverables during a project and one group is running late with what another group needs to stay on schedule, the issue may need to be escalated. Or if contents of one group’s work conflicts with what the other group is developing and the mismatches have to be resolved. The purpose is to highlight the problem to the respective functional management so that priorities can be examined, resource decisions made, technical or content issues worked, and the situation resolved.

GOALS, INPUTS, AND OUTPUTS OF ESCALATION PROCESSES

Goals of an Escalation Process:

Create a mentality that tough issues should be raised quickly enough to the next level of management, not fester without resolution and delay the project.
Define who issues should be raised to and within what timeframe, to ensure and enable quick action.
Keep Management informed about key issues affecting the project and the business. (Sometimes escalation processes are to allow executives to monitor, not necessarily yet take action.)
Set expectations early as to how certain issues will be raised to upper levels of management during a project, so that no one involved in an issue feels that “you went over my head to my management”.

Typical inputs to an Escalation process:

A way of keeping track of project issues, regularly reviewing them and determining their significance, so that teams see which should be escalated. This can be accomplished with mechanisms such as issue logs, project status meetings, bug reviews.
Supporting information that will help those being escalated to understand the context and impact of the issue and make tradeoffs if they are being asked to make a decision or give the team guidance.

Typical outcomes of an Escalation Process:

Issues are resolved by management’s decision - or the team is given direction and parameters/constraints as to how to solve the problem themselves
Decisions are documented so that everyone knows how the issue was resolved.

EXAMPLE ESCALATION PROCESSES

The following are examples of different escalation process for various teams and their project issues.

Example of General Escalation Guidelines

The following guidelines can be documented in one place, as in a project management plan, or can be published as needed or included in separate documents related to the corresponding activities.

(Start of example)

Team Escalation Guidelines:

The following typical and important project issues will be handled as noted when they arise. The purpose of documenting these approaches is to be set to resolve issues quickly.

Resource conflicts: If a functional resource on a sub-team is reassigned part-time to field maintenance:

Person notifies Project Manager immediately and together they determine potential impact on project.
If major milestone dates are threatened by loss of this resource’s time, PM will escalate to functional manager to resolve.
If they cannot find a way for the person to meet both sets of goals, the PM will highlight the issue to the Project Sponsor for resolution, providing info on the potential project impact, and any tradeoffs considered with the functional manager.

Scope deadlock during Initiation Phase: (agreed upon by team at beginning of Initiation Phase)

If the team cannot come to an agreement on project scope, time, cost, and quality, the issue will be escalated to the Project Sponsor.
The sponsor will be invited to a project review to cover alternatives considered to-date and discuss options. The PM will ensure that appropriate functional team members are present to discuss the conflicting project scope demands.
The Project Sponsor will clarify constraints and ask the team for further analysis, or if possible, make the decision on the project scope.

Dependency Issues Among Groups (agreed upon at or soon after team kickoff)

If another group (including an outside development group) owes your sub-team a deliverable and project status monitoring indicates that the deliverable is likely to be late:

Manager of the sub-team raises the issue to the PM in the weekly Project Status meeting, or via email as soon as the issue is perceived.
The PM and sub-team lead assess the potential impact to the project and the latest possible date by which the team can receive the deliverable and stay on track.
The PM and sub-team manager communicate the issue to the responsible functional manager (to head of responsible group at outside firm if that is the situation).
The PM and Functional manager work toward a solution. If Functional Manager cannot commit to his resources meeting the deadline (because of competing commitments, etc.), the PM escalates the issue to the Project Sponsor for resolution. If an outside firm is involved, the person with responsibility for contract oversight must also be involved.

Excerpt from an Escalation Process in a Formal Project Management Plan

(Start of example)

To ensure issues are appropriately escalated and effectively managed to resolution, the following criteria should be used to determine the appropriate escalation action for an issue:

Major feature deficiency issue: Escalated to Overall Project Manager upon occurrence. Escalated to Project Sponsor if team cannot resolve problem within one week of discovery
Conflicting resource issues: Escalated immediately to project lead; Project Manager will escalate to involved functional managers to work the problem. If a resolution cannot be reached within one week, it will be escalated to the overall Project Director and the Project Sponsor.
Scope change decisions: Analyze request within one week. Notify Project Director and Project Sponsor if change can be accommodated with low risk and without impacting schedule and cost. Escalate to both for resolution if the change involves more risk and could impact schedule or cost.
Interface issues with legacy systems: Escalate to involved Technical Leads to work issue. Based on their assessment, keep Project Sponsor and Project Director informed at a minimum; escalate issue to Technology VP and Project Sponsor if issues affect major performance specifications or schedule.

(end of example)

Example of Escalation Included in Agreement with a Beta Test Customer

(Start of Example)

Problem Recording, Issues Management and Escalation, and Resolution

Recording of issues by Company and Customer:

Customer operators will log all machine down time- including reason and duration.
Company Service Manager will review this productivity report daily to be aware of issues and report to Company management.
Company Test Technician will keep his own log of machine issues and downtime. The issues logging format will provide way for Company to record and verify resolution of each issue
The Company Test Technician will also keep an overall log of machine configuration and usage.
Company will provide a form for customer personnel to record their suggestions and recommendations for improvement. This log will be reviewed periodically, at least once a week, as determined by Project Manager and Customer Manager.

Daily issues review and prioritization:

The Company Service Manager and Project Manager will review the log of issues that occurred during that day’s production or testing. Priorities will be established for resulting machine work or further testing that must happen that next day, meshing those requirements with any work previously planned for that next day.
The Company Project Manager will keep a list of parts needed and review it each day with the Company factory point of contact.
The Company Project Manager will be the point of contact for managing materials/ parts needed to get out to the customer.

Escalation of issues to Management:

Safety issue: any safety incident.
Major machine breakage or part failure or frequent down-time: If down for more than 30 minutes and interfering with production quotas for the day, this will be escalated to both the Company and Customer representatives.
Other serious concerns about machine performance raised by Customer personnel: will be communicated to Company Service Manager and Project Manager for consideration and action.

(End of example)

Example of Simple Escalation Instructions for Users Helping Test a New Application

(Start of example)

Support Time: Monday - Friday 7:00 am - 5:00 pm ET

1st LEVEL:

User Support group: 1-800-555-5555, option 2

2nd LEVEL

(To be used if you have left a message for the User Support group, you have an emergency and no one has returned your call within 30 minutes.)

Mark Smith, User Services Supervisor for Pre-Release Testing

Office Phone: 1-800-555-5555, option 1, ext. 312
Cell Phone: 333-555-2222.

3rd LEVEL

(To be used if you have left a message for Mark Smith and he has not returned your call within 30 minutes.)

Pamela Johnson, Vice President of Support

Office Phone: 1-800-555-5555, option 1, ext. 309
Cell Phone: 333-555-8888.

You may also use this path if you are dissatisfied with the service you have received or the progress being made on an issue that you have reported to the User Support group as part of this testing.

(End of example)

Example of Escalation of Corporate Database Changes Required

(Start of Example Process Excerpt)

The triggers that will bring data issues and needed changes to light are:

Business Area Analyses
New Applications being developed
Releases of Applications (which include changes in business rules, new legislation, user requested enhancements, etc.)
Information Access

Issue Escalation: If the issue cannot be resolved at the Data Standards Manager level, the issue must be referred to the next level of authority: the Project Sponsor.

If the issue cannot be resolved at the Project Sponsor/Data Custodian level it will be escalated to the Executive by the Project Sponsor.

(End of example)

Example of a Management Steering Committee’s Process for Handling Escalated Issues

This example documents the steps a Project Steering Committee will take on each time an issue is escalated to it for decision.

(Start of Example)

1.7 Issues and Problem Resolution

The committee will follow this process for each issue:

Understand the issue and identify all potential impacts.
Determine the areas affected such as business processes, data, configuration, infrastructure, etc.
Solicit input from committee members for recommended solutions.
Assign additional tasks to committee members if necessary to investigate alternate solutions and schedule a date for follow-up.
Ensure majority of the committee agrees with recommended solution.
Request Project Manager to follow-up on closure and provide status at next meeting.
If issue remains unresolved, chairperson will take forward to the Executive Management Committee as soon as possible, preferably within two business days.
Chairperson will communicate decision reached by Executive Management Committee to Project Manager and Steering Committee members as soon as notification is received.

Preliminary Design Review (PDR) Meeting Agenda

2009-02-26T15:28:00.001-05:00

What This Is

An agenda for holding a Preliminary Design Review during a project, with detailed instructions for preparation before and running the meeting, and follow-up.

A Preliminary Design Review (PDR) is a review that happens in the Investigation/Planning phase of a project. A Project Vision or Project Charter has been created and the team is investigating how to meet the Vision requirements through technical or other components that will be designed and implemented during the project. The team must do this investigation to understand how to best meet the project goals for costs, schedule, and feature scope. PDR meetings happen during this phase to allow team members to present the high-level designs they are considering for achieving the project requirements, and the impact of those designs on the project’s cost, schedule, and scope of the project.

Why It’s Useful

It is important to allow the cross-functional team to see what each design team member is considering for their element of the system, product, application, or service being created:

Other team members can have valuable objective input as to whether a particular design will work and whether it will truly meet requirements.
Since other team members are designing elements that must work together as the final project deliverable, they must have insight into other components being designed.
Finally, the entire team must make decisions about how to proceed on the overall project, to meet cost, schedule, and scope goals that are sometimes conflicting. Holding PDR meetings gives the team visibility across all elements of the project early on to aid those decisions.

How to Use It

Use the detailed steps and basic agenda on the following pages for planning and executing your PDR.

Determine the overall purpose of having a Preliminary Design Review at this point in the project. Which high-level early designs needed to be reviewed for their impact on project scope, schedule, costs, and risk?
Determine what pre-cursor deeper reviews may be required. Do any very deep technical reviews of those designs need to be held prior to a team-wide PDR?
Determine who to invite, publish the agenda, and prepare materials, room, and equipment for the meeting.

Hold the meeting, capturing action items, decisions, and open issues. Document particularly key decisions made on project scope, schedule, or costs. Update your related Project Vision, Charter, or Scope document for those decisions.

Steps for Planning and Executing a PDR

Prior to the meeting, consider and handle the following aspects:

Scope/subjects of PDR: Determine with the team which subsystems or project components should be reviewed in the next PDR. The goal is to hold a PDR on a subsystem as soon as enough is known about various design alternatives for that subsystem to

Judge whether an alternative is too risky/ costly/ etc. and whether it will meet requirements;
Make tradeoff decisions that will eliminate one or more alternatives;
Inform other team members of progress on the design that will affect their work.

Detailed technical reviews needed before PDR: Decide whether to hold a separate deeply technical review on any subsystem prior to the full-team PDR. The overall PDR is meant to not only consider whether the design will work, but consider its implication on overall project goals. Some teams choose to have a separate small meeting that is a highly technical review of every detail of the preliminary subsystem design, then bring a design overview and summary of issues to the PDR for the broader cross-functional team.
Invitations: Invite all core cross-functional team members.
Agenda: Publish a full agenda 1 week ahead of the meeting and make sure each person presenting a design understands what they should create and present.
Background materials: Have materials on each subsystem, and other documents such as the overall budget, be published at least 2 days ahead of time to allow off-line review
Food: Consider arranging for snacks or lunch to be brought in during the review.
Equipment: Identify all equipment needed.
Meeting role - Recorder: Decide whether you’ll have someone be “recorder” to capture action items, etc. If so, appoint that person and discuss the role.
Meeting role - Facilitator: Decide whether you’ll have a facilitator. If so, appoint that person and discuss their role. This is highly recommended. The project leader often needs to participate in discussions, and it’s hard to do that AND keep the meeting on track at the same time.

The day of the meeting, do the following:

Prepare the room for the meeting: Hang blank flip chart paper on the walls for recording action items and issues. Write the agenda, with time slots, on one of the papers to keep it visible during the meeting. Include timeslots for breaks at least once every 1.5 hours.
Set up equipment: (LCD projectors, PCs, overhead projectors, etc.).
Introduce the meeting: Review objectives for this PDR and the agenda, check time periods with the team. Set ground rules, such as encouraging any team member to say “process check” if they think the meeting has gotten off-target.
Hold the meeting: If any agenda item starts to require more than it’s time slot allows, pause the meeting and discuss with the team whether this item should be completed by assigning actions to happen after the meeting, or whether the agenda should be adjusted to allow more time for it to continue.
Close out the meeting: At the end of the meeting, review all action items and make sure they have assigned owners and due dates.

Template: PDR Meeting Agenda for [Date]

Start: [Date] [Time]

Objective: [overall objective for this PDR]. E.g., “Review subsystems x, y and z to compare feasible design alternatives, understand whether we are currently on target for meeting our cost and schedule goals, and make design decisions accordingly.”

General Materials required: (distribute materials beforehand as much as possible):

Project Vision document
Action Item list
Open Issues list
Key Decisions list
Phase 1 Deliverables list
Project Overview Test Plan (high level test plan for entire project)
Draft schedule timeline
Budget, including tools and equipment list

Meeting Agenda Items:

ITEM 1) Individual Subsystems Reviews: (30 min to 1.5 hour per subsystem)

Objectives of design discussions: [fill in here specific objectives for reviewing this design]

Cover for each design alternative:

Will the technical design work? Does the team see any flaws in the technical design?
Does it meet applicable feature and performance requirements in the Project Vision?
Is it manufacturable? Serviceable? Appropriate usability for the customer?
What are schedule, resource, budget, risk, and product cost implications of any design alternatives being considered?

a) Subsystem [Name] - [Presenter]

Materials to be provided:

Visuals of conceptual ideas
Technical data on weight, size, performance - i.e., appropriate key specs for this subsystem
Tradeoff table on design alternatives the designer is considering (see Project Alternatives Tradeoff Table template)
Plan for early testing of technical innovations (how will the designer prove viability of the design alternatives as soon as possible?)

b) Subsystem [Name] - [Presenter]

Repeat above for as many subsystems as will be covered in this PDR

ITEM 2) Review project budget (30 min to 1 hour)

Review current estimates for project budget, best and worst case based on design alternatives being considered, and their implications for full project staffing, materials requirements, training and travel, etc.

ITEM 3) Estimated product cost review (30 min to 1 hour)

Review current estimates for product cost, based on design alternatives being proposed.

ITEM 4) Project schedule Review (30 min to 1 hour)

Review current estimate of timeline for entire project, based on designs being reviewed.
Review timeline for finishing the investigation and planning phase - are we on target?

ITEM 5) Overall Project Goals Review ( 1 hour)

Based on preliminary designs presented and alternatives being investigated, discuss overall ramifications for meeting project goals, and specific tradeoffs that should be considered.

ITEM 6) Wrap up (30 min)

Review Key Decisions captured, and ensure all team members understand and agree with how they’ve been recorded.
Review Action Items recorded during this meeting. Ensure all have assigned names and due dates, and are fully understood.

Advertising terminology on the Internet

2009-02-24T15:46:00.001-05:00

Ad: For Web advertising, an ad is almost always a banner, a graphic image or set of animated images (in a file called an animated GIF) of a designated pixel size and byte size limit. An ad or set of ads for a campaign is often referred to as “the creative.” Banners and other special advertising that include an interactive or visual element beyond the usual are known as rich media.
Ad rotation: Ads are often rotated into ad spaces from a list. This is usually done automatically by software on the Web site or at a central site administered by an ad broker or server facility for a network of Web sites.
Ad space: An ad space is a space on a Web page that is reserved for ads. An ad space group is a group of spaces within a Web site that share the same characteristics so that an ad purchase can be made for the group of spaces.
Ad view: An ad view, synonymous with ad impression, is a single ad that appears on a Web page when the page arrives at the viewer’s display. Ad views are what most Web sites sell or prefer to sell. A Web page may offer space for a number of ad views. In general, the term impression is more commonly used.
Affiliate marketing: Affiliate marketing is the use by a Web site that sells products of other Web sites, called affiliates, to help market the products. Amazon.com, the book seller, created the first large-scale affiliate program and hundreds of other companies have followed since.
Banner: A banner is an advertisement in the form of a graphic image that typically runs across a Web page or is positioned in a margin or other space reserved for ads. Banner ads are usually Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images. In addition to adhering to size, many Web sites limit the size of the file to a certain number of bytes so that the file will display quickly. Most ads are animated GIFs since animation has been shown to attract a larger percentage of user clicks. The most common larger banner ad is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. Smaller sizes include 125 by 125 and 120 by 90 pixels. These and other banner sizes have been established as standard sizes by the Internet Advertising Bureau.
Beyond the banner: This is the idea that, in addition to banner ads, there are other ways to use the Internet to communicate a marketing message. These include sponsoring a Web site or a particular feature on it; advertising in e-mail newsletters; co-branding with another company and its Web site; contest promotion; and, in general, finding new ways to engage and interact with the desired audience. “Beyond the banner” approaches can also include the interstitial and streaming video infomercial. The banner itself can be transformed into a small rich media event.
Booked space: This is the number of ad views for an ad space that are currently sold out.
Brand, brand name, and branding: A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service, or concept. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name. Branding can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names. In Web and other media advertising, it is recognized that there is usually some kind of branding value whether or not an immediate, direct response can be measured from an ad or campaign. Companies like Proctor and Gamble have made a science out of creating and evaluating the success of their brand name products.

Brand Marketing Key Metrics

2009-02-20T12:33:00.000-05:00

As you know from my Bio page, one of my roles in the marketing industry was marketing manager of JumpTV Inc. , an international IPTV company. At JumpTV, I was introduced to the world of web analytics and ways for reporting content streaming, user navigation using various online reporting tools.

Here are few KIPs reported on frequently to ensure that targets are exceeded based on pre-determined time frames:Top KPI’s

Unique Visitors - GROW OUR AUDIENCE!
New Subscribers - DRIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS!

All Dashboard Metrics

Subscribers

Existing Subscribers - (Subscribers who signed up in a previous week)
New Subscribers - (# new subscribers added during the week)
Lost Subscribers - (# subscribers who cancelled during the week)
Total Subscribers - (# existing subscribers + new - lost subscribers)
Subscriber Growth (w/w) - (# subscribers this week /# subscribers last week -1) * 100
Subscriber Growth (y/y) - (# subscribers this week / # subscribers in the comperable week last year) * 100
Churn Rate - (# cancellations this week / # subscribers at beginning of the week *100

Subscriptions & Video on Demand

Renewed Subscriptions - (Existing subscriptions)
Canceled Subscriptions - (Subs cancelled during week)
New Subscriptions - (Subs added during week)
Total Subscriptions - (Renewed - Cancelled + New)
Pay Per View Purchases - (PPV’s purchased during the week)
# Subscriptions per Subscriber - (# subscriptions / # subscribers)
Subscription Growth (w/w) - (# start week subs / # end week subs -1) * 100
Subscription Growth (y/y) - (# end week subs / # last years end week subs) * 100
Cancellation Rate (w/w) - (# last week cancelled / # start week subs) *100

Revenue

Subscription Revenue - Renewed - (Total subscription revenue of all renewal subscriptions)
Subscription Revenue - New - (Total subscription revenue of all newly aquired subs)
Pay Per View Purchases - (Total PPV revenue)
Total Revenue - (Subscription + PPV Revenue)
Revenue Growth (w/w) - (Revenue this week / Revenue last week - 1) * 100
Revenue Growth (y/y) - (Revenue this week / Revenue in comprable week last year -1) *100
Revenue per subscriber (APRU) - (Revenue this week / # of subscribers)
Avg. Subscription Price - (Total subscription revenue / total subscriptions)
Avg. PPV Sales Price - (Total Pay Per View revenue / Pay Per View purchases)

Site Traffic

unique Visitors - (Non-duplicated visitors per month)
Page Views Per Viewer - (Number of pages each unique visitor visited this week)
Page Views - (Number of pages viewed on the site)
# Stream Views - (Number of streams served > 30 sec after opening)
Avg. View Time per session - (Avg. # of time in minutes the steam was viewd > 30 sec after opening)
Avg. Streams per user - (Avg. # of times a stream was opened)
Avg. Site Conversion Rate - (New Visitors / New Subscriptions)

Marketing ROI

Direct (Impressions) - (Number of page views from people typing jumptv.com directly)
Natural Search (Impressions) - (Number of page views from SEO activity)
Paid Search Traffic (Impressions) - (Number of page views resulting from our Paid Search campaigns)
Paid Search Conversion Rate - (% of Paid Serch traffic which signs up for a subscription)
Online Marketing Spend - (Online Media $ during the week)
Online Subcriber Acquisition Cost (SAC) - (Online Media $ / New Subscribers)
Online Marketing ROI - (New Subscriber Revenue From Online Aquired Viewers / Online Media $)
Total Marketing Spend - (Total Marketing Spend)
Overall Subscriber Acquision Cost (SAC) - (Total Marketing Spend / New Subscribers)
Overall Marketing ROI - (New Subscriber Revenue / Total Marketing Spend)

Project Sponsor Role Description

2009-02-12T16:19:00.001-05:00

What This Is

A list of characteristics and responsibilities of the Project Sponsor. The Project Sponsor champions executive approval for the project and provides official backing, support for obtaining timely resources, and strategic direction. He or she acts as the focal point for project decisions beyond the project manager’s scope of authority.

Why It’s Useful

Project work often crosses functional and organizational boundaries and areas of responsibilities. A senior management person is often needed to remove obstacles, arbitrate conflict, and mediate negotiations. This person can also support, coach, and mentor the Team Leader or Project Manager.

How to Use It

Read the recommended characteristics and role of a Project Sponsor and consider how it applies to your projects.
If your organization already appoints Project Sponsors, are they currently fulfilling the desired role? Are they consistently bringing the project teams the support and executive clout needed to overcome obstacles and resolve conflicts?
If your organization does not yet assign Project Sponsors to projects, you can try to get the practice started. The simplest way could be to be the first - and ask an executive to play the role of sponsor on your project.
Consider education for your executives as to what it means to be an effective sponsor. Use the checklist in this guideline to introduce them to the role. Use examples from previous projects showing where a Project Sponsor could have played a key role. Highlight current project situations that need executive-level support to resolve.
As your projects go forward, use the “Roles” and “Characteristics” lists in this file to judge whether the Project Sponsor role is being fully executed.

Project Sponsor Role

Why Project Sponsors?

Business projects operate in a constrained environment - organizations have competing demands, all of which (hopefully) have a business case that makes them worth pursuing. Every project undertaken should be defined such that it is aligned with the company’s business strategy. Each should receive the (and keep) resources and funding it deserves based on its business merits and thus its place in the priority list. And each project must stay aligned with the business goals of the company throughout its life, including through the resolution of unforeseen issues that can affect resources, scope and schedule.

The Project Sponsor role is needed so that each project has an executive-level champion to ensure that the project gets what it needs and delivers what it should. The Sponsor is responsible for the overall business benefit delivered to the company - and helping the project team achieve it even in the face of resource constraints, issues, changing environment, and competing demands.

Project Sponsor Role and Responsibilities

Here is a short paragraph describing the Project Sponsor’s role, from an IT group’s project management methodology:

The Project Sponsor is responsible for ensuring that the department understands the value and importance of the project and, ultimately, for realizing the benefits predicted for the project. The project sponsor is typically a senior official in the organization responsible for the business function that the project will support. The project sponsor should have a major say in the release of funds after a review.

Typical, more detailed responsibilities of a Project Sponsor:

Appoint the team leader or project manager and communicate in writing to all groups who may be involved in the project. (See our PM Appointment Letter template.)
Help generate and/or review the business case for the project, and the cost-benefit that various elements of the project will contribute. Provide strategic direction to guide more detailed decisions to be made by the project team.
Promote the project to peer and upper executives.
Define the project management approach with project manager - e.g. what major phases will be followed, what reviews needed, what tracking and status reporting.
Approve project objectives, scope, schedule, and budget.
Lobby for and get resources for the project and approve roles and responsibilities.
Review progress and provide strategic direction along with executive team.
Support project manager and team - help resolve resource issues, other major conflicts, especially those that cross organizational boundaries.
Approve major changes to the project’s goals, budget, or schedule.
Issue executive-level directives as appropriate.

These functions can be delegated to the Project Manager, with the Sponsor intervening upon request:

Approve project changes (specify what level of changes the Project Manager can approve alone).
Obtain resources.
Set priorities and resolve conflicts.

Characteristics of the Most Effective Project Sponsors

Passionate about the project at hand. The sponsor understands and champions the business case. Has strong interest in seeing this project to fruition.
Management-level Problem-solving. The sponsor is capable of resolving cross-functional issues, willing to take the time and energy to work out complex or contentious issues with multiple groups.
Authority and influence: The sponsor must be in management, senior level enough, and have sufficient political savvy to fulfill the above responsibilities for the particular project. If the project is an internal project, such as IT, ideally the sponsor would have key user groups reporting directly.
Time availability: The project sponsor must make time to attend key reviews, talk periodically with the project manager, and help resolve issues.

How the Project Manager Can Work Effectively with the Project Sponsor

Here are ideas for establishing good rapport with your sponsor, and maintaining an effective relationship throughout a project.

Up front education: When the project starts, ask for a meeting with the Sponsor to review business objectives and to discuss the Sponsor’s role on the project. Depending on the organization and your project, a new sponsor may actually have little knowledge of project management specifics, or the company’s detailed management processes. (Often, being line executives, they have much more understanding of daily operational processes than project processes.) Find out the background and project experience of your sponsor and be ready to talk about the role, why it’s important, and how it fits into how your organization manages projects.
Expectation setting: Use our responsibilities list above to see if the sponsor has the same set of expectations you as project manager do. Reach an initial agreement on what kinds of issues you expect to consult the sponsor on; what project status they’d like to get; what reviews you believe they should participate in.
Have the Project Sponsor attend the project kickoff meeting. At this meeting you should be discussing project objectives and the business case with the team so that everyone starts off aligned on project goals. The sponsor can help answer questions from his/her executive perspective, helping underscore the importance of the project and their support of it.
Regular meetings: Ask the sponsor for a regularly scheduled one-on-one-even if just once a month or so-where you have a chance to discuss project progress and issues in a less formal setting. Or ask to tack on a few minutes discussion time before or after specific team or review meetings that the sponsor attends. As a fallback, have a regular conversation with the Sponsor via email. It’s important to maintain informal communication, and thus a stronger relationship, with your sponsor.
Pre-briefing: One typical difficulty is getting enough time or attention from your sponsor. The best sponsors understand their value and make time for it, but they are usually incredibly busy executives and even those with the best intentions can end up flitting in and out of your project. To combat this, determine how you can brief your sponsor effectively for various project assistance. For example, if you really need the sponsor to assist with a major decision, get together background plus recommendation material ahead of time. Make a bottom line summary of the situation, the decision, and your recommendations. Attach back-up material, but don’t sully the bottom line information with too much detail. Send it out and schedule a short meeting or call to discuss. Make it easy for your sponsor to help!
And finally, Do NOT wait to bring the sponsor bad news: The longer you wait to tell the Sponsor about an issue, the less time and ability they may have to resolve the issue before bad repercussions set in. And the sponsor could feel caught off guard, even ambushed, if they learn the bad news some other way and have limited ability to deal with it. Establish the communication mechanisms mentioned above, and then keep the sponsor totally up-to-date.