economics-software

I was a student in an MBA financial accounting course that used Dan Gode's Financial Accounting Tutor software instead of a textbook. This turned out to be of great benefit. The Tutor presented and explained financial accounting in a straightforward and insightful manner. The interactivity of the software added another dimension to learning, making me more involved in the learning process and making it more enjoyable to solve problems. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn financial accounting on their own and I would highly recommend the Tutor for any introductory/intermediate accounting course in college or business school. Another thing to consider is that the cost of the software package is much less compared to an average accounting book running you upwards of $70 and an average MBA course running you upwards of $2,500.

Do you have an idea ready for the marketplace? Are you eager to be a successful entrepreneur? If so, you will need money to turn your dreams into a reality. Luckily, the answers are close at hand. Robert Brown, Ph.D., an attorney, MBA and law instructor who, for over 25 years, has specialized in guiding developing companies to success, authored "2000 Financing Business Start-Ups: How to Raise Money for Emerging Companies." He and his co-author, Alan Gutterman, Ph.D., have written a highly readable and immediately useful book, offering clear and concise descriptions of all aspects of the fundraising process.

Drs. Brown and Gutterman describe the many funding sources available including: your own funds, family, friends, banks, equipment lessors, government agencies, angels, venture capitalists and, ultimately, the public markets. This book walks you carefully and comprehensively through the process of how to access each of these options.

Of immense value are appendices which include a sample business plan, term sheet, due diligence request and other important documents, forms and checklists along with extensive lists of both venture capital funding sources and bank funding sources. A CD-ROM containing all appendices is packaged with the book, allowing readers to easily personalize these forms and documents.

"2000 Financing Business Start-Ups" helps you avoid the pitfalls that many companies make in their early days which end up limiting their going public in the future. Throughout the text are compelling vignettes by CEOs, CFOs, venture capitalists and others who share their experiences about financing start-ups. In addition to the expert guidance from the authors, these stories amplify the main points of the chapters and add an authentic and personable quality to the content.

Thankfully, and as happens on only rare occasions with business and finance books, the writing is wonderfully clear and easy-to-follow. Drs. Brown and Gutterman use down-to-earth language and address this complex topic with ease and comfort. This book is a "must-read" and will serve as an important and often-used reference for years to come.

This text was VERY helpful. The illustrations and examples were enough to explain the topic without havung to read the entire book.. Also the problems given at the end of each section were very good. Some were tough; however, the author starts you out with easy problems and works up to the more difficult ones. This text definitely is a good learning aid.

This book helped me organize, start, plan and get going an international software export program. Every question I had about anything related to this export program was answered in this book. Anyone who deals with software and manages international operations should read this easily read and well organized book. It is one of the first business books that comes across more like a consultant giving solid advice than a coursebook. Its informative and clear nature, practicality in implementing the ideas; and its cutting edge up to date information make this the one and only book of its kind. If this is something you are interested in and you do not read this book, you will regret it.

As an employment professional and internet novice, I found this book both comprehensive and easy to understand. It offers a thorough education in how to make the internet work for you in your job search by taking the reader through step-by-step instructions on everything from posting resumes on-line to wading through the many search engines to find job postings. One of the most interesting lessons I learned was the vast difference between developing a resume to be seen in hard copy and developing a resume to post on the internet and be sent through email. I successfully used what I learned from this book in my own recent job search, and have since recommended it to all job seekers I work with. A side note, I am not the most sophisticated computer-user. Nevertheless, this book is so well done that I found it neither confusing nor intimidating. The information is presented clearly, logically, simply, but in great and thorough detail. It's worth searching for a copy and I hope it will be reprinted soon.

I've read more than 50 books on project management, and have reviewed a good number of them, but this is the first one that was fun to read. The author manages to keep the tone light and conversational, yet touch all of the important aspects of successfully managing software projects. While I am one of those die hards who doesn't believe in silver bullets--those elusive shortcuts to accomplishing complex tasks--any more than I believe in the tooth fairy, I think that the approach in this book comes close.

Although the tone is light, the techniques are solid. I like the way the author strips away non-essential tasks and focuses on what is essential to successfully managing a project. He starts with visualizing the goal, which is an exercising in defining project objectives, and introduces a key concept that will be used through the book: Probability of Success Indicator (PSI). These indicators are checkpoints for ensuring that all critical success factors are satisfied and are closely tied to risk management. I especially like the common sense way projects are approached - develop a checklist, emphasize leadership and teamwork, carefully plan and manage expectations and communicate. These are the essence of project management, regardless of whether you are using the U.S. standard set forth in the PMBOK or the UK PRINCE2 approach. In fact, all of the techniques, including the 10-step methodology given in the book, will work with both the PMBOK and PRINCE2 approaches.

Chapters I especially liked covered assessing project plans, issue resolution and how to shorten projects using accelerated analysis and design. I found some of the appendices valuable as well, especially Appendix 1 (ISO 9000 Estimating Procedure) and Appendix 2 (Structured Project Management, which summarizes the 10-step approach. If you use MS Project (which I do not), Appendix 6, Learning Microsoft Project 2000, may be useful.

The only shortcoming is the lack of earned value as a project control tool, but for small projects this isn't a major issue. Overall this is an excellent book for new project managers for software development projects and it is also full of tips and techniques that an experienced project manager will appreciate.

The collection of papers in this book represent the collective knowledge of a diverse group of international experts. While this book has wide appeal to academic readers, it is also an invaluable source of material, case studies and approaches for consultants who specialize in IT management and/or strategic planning and operational reengineering.

There are five topic areas, each with two or more papers:

(1) Benefits Realization, which addresses how to assess and quantify IT investment benefits. This topic area will be of interest to program management offices, governance committees, CIOs and anyone who is trying to develop a portfolio-based approach to IT investments that shows a clear ROI.

(2) Evaluation and Research Methods. This is an extension of the previous topic area, and focuses on after-the-fact evaluation of investment decisions.

(3) Alternatives to Traditional Evaluation, which is one of the more interesting topic areas. Each of the four papers are excellent, although I'd been exposed to the mechanics of each of the approaches from previous works.

(4) Evaluation of New Technologies. This topic area's three papers are each worth reading. My favorite was by Murphy and Simon, titled "Using Cost Benefit Analysis for Enterprise Resource Planning Project Evaluation: A Case for Including Intangibles". What made this paper a favorite is the fact that cost-benefit analysis is a questionable technique for defining IS benefit because intangibles are difficult to quantify. The authors tackle this problem and give what appears to be a workable solution.

(5) Evaluation Through Balanced Scorecard. I'll confess that this topic area is why I bought the book in the first place. I wasn't disappointed and felt that the five papers in this topic area justified, in my opinion, the cost of the book.

This isn't a book for the casual reader, nor does it give an end-to-end approach for evaluating IT investments and methods. If you're seeking that kind of book I recommend and of Dan Remenyi's books, especially "The Effective Measurement and Management of IT Costs and Benefits". However, if you are a consultant that works in any of the topic areas you'll find the material within to be thought provoking and informative.

In today's tight economy customers are becoming more and more careful as to whom they'll do business with. It's a lot about impressions - how professional is your staff and how professional are the documents you leave behind. Lawyer's fees being what they are today kept me from insuring the professionalism of many of my agreements. As a small business owner, I felt financially exposed until I used these templates. I know I've saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars in lawyer's fees and have improved how my customers perceive me. I recommend the Instant Attorney to any small business that's "battling the big boys" day in and day out.

Plus the templates really are as flexible and easy to use as they promote.

This is a wonderful review of the legal and legislative matters facing the computer industry. It concisely follows recent developments without editorializing a position. A tremendous amount of research obviously went into this book. It is well organized, creating a flow from one idea to the next. While being very thorough, it is written for both the layman and those with a background in the field. It achieves a seeming impossibility: an entertaining book about complex legal issues. I can only hope to see future books by the authors, Jonathan Band and Masanobu Katoh.

We strived to keep this book simple, current and pertinent to real world Internet marketing scenarios, and I believe we have succeeded. Our on-line book update has proven to be a great way to keep the book current between editions. A link is provided to a Web site which is updated regularly with new tips. Much of our material comes from our industry experience through our Web development company Raydiate (raydiate.com) and through speaking engagements with Silicon Valley executives.

We hope you enjoy this book, and find the tips useful for your Internet marketing endeavors.

Sincerely,

John Nobrega Co-Author and President of Raydiate, Inc.