Strategic planning is a common task for most management teams this time of year.  What's also common, is that strategic planning is not closely connected with the execution of that plan.  But, it could be and should be and you have the tool to allow you to do just that!

ManagePro is perfect for laying out your strategic objectives, then building an action plan, and the metrics or a Balance Scorecard around each one of them... but you still have to execute the plan don't you? 

Cavanaugh Leahy & Co completed a five year study in 1999 that concluded "...the most frequent, but often overlooked cause of implementation problems is ignoring people issues."

We have some great resources to assist you in this area.  One thing to remember is that most people need some help with defining goals or objectives, but even more with:

1) Creating an action plan and measurable milestones to track their progress, and
2) Reinforcement to regularly update their plan and the subtle refocusing upon what's important that goes along with document progress.

We've got a simple graphic available to remind you of the five key steps to practice as you work out your plan through the coming year.  You can view it at www.managepro.com/mindmaps/convertingstrategyintoOperations/index.html

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2.  A "% Complete" field added to all progress notes
Now users are prompted to post a % complete with each progress entry they make.  The latest % complete rating automatically transfers to the Goal field % Complete.  It gets better.  The % Complete field is now displayed in the Goal Status view for a very helpful update, just to the left of the Due Date field.

In the Goal Status - Balanced Scorecard View you get:

The goal title ........................- Increase Profitability
The Target & Results scores.... - 7% vs. 5%
The % complete and Due Date. - 30% and 7/1/2002

3.  Save your document attachments to the WEB!

You can now set up a web folder on your local File Transfer Protocol (ftp) website and store your document on the web for easy sharing.  That means you can access the shared documents from where-ever, as long as you are hooked up to the web.  We've redone this entire module, including making it very easy to attach information and pages from the web. 

1. To set it up you need to first go to the File/Preferences/Web Folder Settings and complete the information on the left, filling it in with your FTP account information.

Here's what the new Document Attachment window looks like. 

• The "Attached" tab displays what documents are currently associated to a goal.  Once documents are in this folder, just highlight them and click on the Launch  button to view the document. 

• The "My Computer" tab allows you to search all connected drives to identify documents to attach. 

• The "Web Folder" displays the current list of documents stored on the web, any of which you may choose to attach to the current goal. 

• The "Internet" tab allows you to search the web and attach pages to the goal.

4.  We improved the display to make it easier to differentiate between goals, action plans and lists.

The Goal Type field determines the display features in the Goal Planners.  If you highlight a goal, right click and select "Goal Type," and then select List, the goal will be displayed in a blue font.  Selecting the Action Plan type displays the goal record in a gray font.  Any other goal type will be displayed in a dark black font.  Oh yes, we also changed the bullets to arrows to create a better visual flow from goals to action plans to lists.  Enjoy!

We  will also have another small update coming out later this month for all the annual maintenance contract users that will upgrade your spell checking to an "auto-check" feature, and new and much improved DDE connection and management.

Look forward to forging a much stronger partnership in pursuit of supporting your success this year.

Have a great month

Rodney Brim,
CEO, Performance Solutions Technology, LLC

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