Today we are so connected to the office—whether we’re there or not. Companies offer flex time to employees, and even the ability to work from their homes. So, is this a help or a hindrance?

Well, I can speak from experience. At Simplex, we decided to close our physical office a few years ago. We made that decision because our employees are consultants, and are usually working from our clients’ offices or on projects that aren’t tied to a physical location. We moved our training facility to the Engineers’ Society of Western PA, and so now we conduct our training out of shared office space, thanks to our friends at the ESWP. Once we went “virtual,” we all set up offices at our homes.

The Good:  No commute to work; not only does that save on gas money, but it also saves our valuable personal time. I find myself being just as productive; no, more productive than when I worked in a traditional office setting. It truly changed my quality of life for the better. And I know that my staff members agree. They appreciate being able to work from their home offices. They put in more work than they did before—answering customer e-mail messages at night or early in the morning, even before they’ve had a full cup of coffee.

The Bad:  Employees can feel isolated. It isn’t the same, from a social perspective, working from your home. It may not be right for every person or business. Yahoo’s CEO claims that it prohibits collaboration and creativity among teams. There may be something to that claim.

But ultimately I think it’s a win-win for both the employer and the employee—for the right type of business. Or a hybrid solution can work; not closing your office permanently, but downsizing physical space, or just giving people flexibility in their schedules to work at different times.

But what’s important in any mobile approach is that you prepare for what you need to be successful.  This usually means taking a systematic approach for telecommunications, document and information sharing, and accessing other business applications.

The first thing that I had to figure out nearly five years ago was how to receive customer calls while still using our company phone number and phone system. The solution for us was a voiceover Internet protocol phone system. VoIP service means a huge cost savings to an organization, and even offers a PBX system for menu-driven phone systems. But it also allows our employees to receive phone calls on their mobile devices—that “follow me” functionality. So when they aren’t in an office they can still receive calls.

Secondly, I had to figure out what to do with our various servers since we wouldn’t have anywhere to store them. We had servers to manage our e-mail, CRM system, accounting system, and corporate documents. For CRM and accounting, I subscribed to hosted applications like SalesForce and Quickbooks Online. No servers; and Web-browser access to the systems, so we could access them from anywhere.

The final decision I made was to move to Microsoft’s cloud services, now called Office 365. We migrated our old Exchange server to Exchange Online, and implemented SharePoint for file sharing and document management. And importantly, and often overlooked, we implemented Lync Online for instant messaging, video conferencing and desktop sharing. This is one of the most valuable tools available when working from virtually anywhere. It gives employers peace of mind, knowing that they can keep connected with remote workers, and remote workers can keep connected to the home office or to other team members.

So, working from virtually anywhere—good or bad? I say good, with good preparation.

Yes, Rel 8.3 is now available! Here are some of the new features found in P6 EPPM:

1.)    Default Landing Page – You pick the page to start with (Administer, Dashboards, Portfolios, Projects) instead of always starting with Dashboards.

2.)    There have been changes made to customizing a view:

1. Columns can be renamed within each view.
2. You can now sort on up to five different columns instead of just one.

3.)    When you copy/paste an activity, you can now choose what information to copy (for example, Resource Assignments, Activity Codes, etc.)

4.)    You can now select more than one in the assign dialogs (for example, assign more than one resource at a time).

5.)    There is now a single Relationships Tab (as opposed to one for predecessors and one for successors).

6.)    Importing/Exporting with XML has been improved:

1. You can now import/export multiple projects in the XML format.
2. A user can now view data in the incoming XML file during an import and adjust it as necessary. For example, you can now choose not to import resources, codes and UDFs.
3. Import options can now be saved as a template for use in subsequent imports.

7.)    For project, activity and resources codes, the full hierarchical chain is now displayed in the Codes detail window. Previous releases of P6 displayed only the lowest hierarchical level.

8.)    There is a new column in the Codes detail window on the Activities page that indicates whether an assigned activity code is an EPS-, global-, or project-level code.

9.)    You can now print from the EPS or Activities page and include only the Project or Activity Table with no Gantt chart, offering you the flexibility to create a more tabular report. Previous versions of P6 printed both the table and the Gantt chart–even when the Gantt chart was not displayed on the screen.

10.) You can also specify a date range when printing (or previewing) the Gantt chart. On the Activities page, choose dates or use rolling options to define a date range, eliminating the need to repeatedly open the view to set the time frame.

11.)  You now have the ability to do a Find and Replace. In previous versions only Find was available.

First you should upload the Excel file to a document library on the same site. Then on the page where you want the graph to be displayed, add a Web part that is the Excel Web Access.

This is found under More Web Parts under the Insert tab, and is within the Business Category. In the Tool Pane for the Web part, select the spreadsheet URL.

Yes, you can create predecessor or successor relationships using columns in the Activity Table.  Simply add the Predecessor and Successor columns by clicking on Layout Options, and then choosing Columns and expanding the Lists category in the Selected Options. Once your columns are in place you can click directly in the column next to the activity you choose, and then add your relationship activity. Using this method will automatically create a Finish to Start relationship. To edit the relationship you must use the Relationship tab in the Activity Details.

To see this tip in action, or to see the other ways in which relationships can be created, please visit http://www.simplexgroup.com/training/online  and view the sample video from our new Self-paced, On-demand Online Primavera lesson library.

No, that is correct. While in Lync you can start a meeting (Meet Now) and invite people to the meeting. To schedule a meeting for a future date/time, you need to be in Outlook and do the following:

• Open the Calendars portion of Outlook
• From the Ribbon click on the New Online Meeting Icon
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  This will open a Meeting Email message where you can enter the people whom you would like to invite to the meeting. Then enter the start and end date and time of the meeting, as well as a subject for the meeting.  When finished, click the Send button.

The attendees will receive an e-mail message, and once they accept the invitation, the meeting will be added to their calendar. To attend the meeting, they will open the meeting and click the Join online meeting link.

Yes, the Lync tool of Microsoft Office 365 is directly integrated with Outlook, creating an efficient communication solution for all users. 

Lync pulls information from each user’s calendar, and details whether the user is available, busy, out of the office, or offline. By just looking at the Presence feature, a user can determine the best method for making contact. This tool puts a stop to waiting for e-mail responses and return p

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hone calls, and even to making countless trips down the hall to try and connect with another colleague or customer.

Additionally, Lync will detail where any user in your group is currently located. This is particularly helpful if users are mobile, or work from a virtual office. Users simply need to enter their location (Home Office, Coffee Shop, etc.) in the Location field once, and each time the user returns to that location Lync will automatically update the location by recognizing the network connection.

Lync Presence and Location are found in the “Me” section of the Lync toolbar.

To create a group IM conversation in Lync, simply follow these instructions:

1. Hover over one contact name and choose the IM feature on the Lync Action Bar
2. Once the IM dialogue box appears click on the People Options icon (it looks like people standing one in front of the other)
3. Choose the option to Invite Others by Name or Phone Number
4. Highlight and select the appropriate individuals
5. Type your message and press Enter

Using the People Options function allows you to add additional participants not only to an IM message, but also to a Lync phone call or to a Video conference.

It is possible that you have it set such that the users must check in and check out their files.

First turn off that setting by doing the following:

• In the Document Library, under Library Tools, select Library, then Select Library Settings
• Click on Versioning Settings
• Click on No for Require Check Out
• Click OK

If the users have uploaded multiple files, they can now go and check them in. If you would like to do this for the users, do the following:

• In the Document Library, under Library Tools, select Library, then Select Library Settings
• Select Manage files which have no checked in version
• You will be able to see all of the files
• Check the box in front of each file and select Take Ownership of Selection

You will now be able to check in all of the files.

Yes. In today’s mobile and ‘virtual’ working atmosphere it’s important to stay in contact with clients or colleagues who are working remotely. Microsoft Office 365′s Lync product provides an excellent tool for meeting with colleagues and clients who are unable to get together in the same location.

Using Lync’s Online Meeting function, contacts have the ability to view a participant’s desktop. This feature enables a fully collaborative approach to project, document, and workflow management. After joining a meeting, simply click on the Share button and choose Desktop.

Your desktop will be shared with everyone attending the meeting. This function also provides a user with the ability to give control of their desktop to another user. Users can also switch desktops by changing presenters during a meeting. Participants can utilize these functions simply by clicking on the Give Control or Stop Sharing buttons at the top of the screen.

Microsoft Office 365’s Lync is a powerful communication and collaboration tool. Online meetings and desktop sharing are just the tip of the iceberg. Try Lync, and see what it can do for you!

Yes. If you have a need to export a P6 schedule that only consists of activities and activity-related information, while excluding costs and resource data, then the following method will work nicely for you:

1. Make a copy of your project by highlighting the project, right-clicking, and selecting copy
2. Paste your project in a place of your choice by right-clicking and selecting paste
3. Before the file copies, a series of three dialogue boxes will appear on your screen
4. The third dialogue box in the series deals with resources and cost data

5. De-select any fields regarding resources and cost, and they will not appear in the newly pasted project.

6. Click OK and your newly pasted project will be devoid of resources and expense information.