Several years ago I attending a marketing conference and the speaker talked about Lumpy mail.  Getting your message to clients is getting harder and harder so I am rethinking this idea for my own marketing tasks. Ever get an envelope that felt like it had something other than just paper inside?  What did you do?  You opened it, right? Of course you did.  We all love surprises and an envelope that is lumpy - meaning it holds something of interest inside - spurs us to find out

I asked a question on Linkedin about whether people were moving to Windows 8. Got some interesting answers and thought I would share this link here: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/information-technology/computers-software/TCH_ITS_CMP/1065938-459965

Today's blog is about using SQL commands directly in Excel.  I am going after data in Sage ACT, but you can use the same technique to go after a wide variety of data sources that are SQL based. First off, open Excel.  I am showing you screen shots from Excel 2010.  You want to click on the data tab and pick "from other data sources". After choosing From other data sources choose From Data Connection wizard which brings up the following dialog box.  Choose Other

First off, let me say that asking and ANSWERING questions on Linkedin is a very good thing. I asked a question a few days ago about whether or not people were moving to Windows 8. Got interesting and great answers. I thought I would share them with you. http://www.linkedin.com/answers/technology/information-technology/computers-software/TCH_ITS_CMP/1065938-459965

I kept getting this error after upgrading my Lotus Notes to 8.5. Here's how I resolved it - thanks to a search on Google.

There are two options for resolving this issue.

Option A: 1. Open the mail file in Lotus® Domino® Designer. 2. Select Shared Code. 3. Select Script Libraries. 4. Select CSEventNotes and delete it. 5. Replace the design on the mail file.

Option B: 1. Open the user's mail file in Domino Designer. 2. Select Tools. 3. Select Recompile All LotusScript.

Several years ago I wrote this blog article and after working with a client recently I figured it was time to post it again.  We went over exactly what was in the post and I thought that would be great to blog about. And I went, duh, I already did. Here it is. Time to ACT. What does that say to you? Time to do what you need to do? Now’s the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country? You get the idea. It means time to do what needs to be done. Ok, Let’s take it to

I love Sage ACT's eMarketing feature.  It is a plugin that allows me to use the Swiftpage email blast and survey service. I can send out mass emails and ensure that none get delivered to people who have opted out of my emails AND (this is the good part) know that they have indeed received, opened, and clicked on links in my emails. The best part is the data gets written back to my ACT database and I now have information that I can search and act upon. In a previous life I used Constant

A while ago, I posted a blog article about building CSV's from SQL tables.  It was a very popular post, so I'm submitting it again.  I decided to go research if there were any things to do differently with the new SQL Server 2008. Turns out what I wrote before still applies. What drove me to write the original post was an email from another consultant who wanted to know a way to export SQL queries to CSV files. After I formulated my response to him, I decided it would make a good and