NetSuds Monthly Report

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You can use our online calendar by clicking here for NetSuds and here for MedSuds. The calendars are free to use for both tracking events and for posting your own events. To post events, login as "guest" with a password of "guest". Non-Minnesota companies conducting events in Minnesota will not be allowed to post events for free. Events posted to either of these calendars are not immediately available for viewing. All events will be marked "pending" and will be reviewed for content prior to public viewing. The Calendars are accessed at

4.4 NetSuds CTO Roundtable

I've had several requests to start a NetSuds CTO Roundtable to complement the successful NetSuds CEO Roundtable. An introductory session for the first NetSuds CTO Roundtable was held on Wednesday, January 28 in Eden Prairie. The next CTO Roundtable will be held on the last Wednesday in the coming month. If you are a CTO, Chief Scientist, VP of Engineering, CIO or Technical Director (reporting to one of the VP levels at a large corporation), please send an email to me at matt@netsuds.com to request an invitation to this CTO Roundtable.

4.5 NetSuds Executive Search

See the following URL for more information on our executive search service - www.netsuds.com/search/

4.6 Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest Draws 300+ Entries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (February 4, 2004), Contact: Tom Still or Liz Katz at 608-442-7557

Web site: www.govsbizplancontest.com

MADISON – From innovative ways to improve business processes to ideas for enhancing everyday life, the first Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest has attracted more than 300 ideas from 234 individuals in more than 100 communities, it was announced Wednesday.

The deadline for entering the contest was 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31. Entries received since mid-November were spread over four contest categories aimed at capturing Wisconsin’s best technology-based ideas: Business services (approximately 31 percent of the total), information technology and e-Commerce (approx. 27 percent), advanced manufacturing (approx. 29 percent) and life sciences (approx. 13 percent).

The number of entries in the inaugural contest exceeded the estimates of contest organizers at the Wisconsin Technology Council and sent an encouraging message about the state’s untapped entrepreneurial talent.

“My ‘Grow Wisconsin’ plan called for the establishment of a positive entrepreneurial climate so that great ideas could turn into high-growth businesses for Wisconsin," Gov. Jim Doyle said. "Therefore, I am pleased that we have had a tremendous response to my Governor's Business Plan Contest.”

Wisconsin’s business plan contest is believed to be the only statewide contest in the United States. Major prize sponsors so far include the state Department of Commerce; Mason Wells, the private equity firm; American Transmission Co., which serves Wisconsin’s energy transmission needs; and J.P. Cullen & Sons, the construction firm.

Entries came from 101 communities, which contest organizers took as evidence that Wisconsin’s technology innovation and entrepreneurial spirit are not confined to a few high-tech hot spots. A breakdown of entries by community is attached.

“Entrepreneurs live everywhere in Wisconsin, and they are building businesses where they live,” said Mark Bugher, chairman of the Wisconsin Technology Council and director of the University Research Park in Madison. “Our goal at the Tech Council is to help them bring their ideas to the marketplace.”

The mission of the first-ever statewide contest is to encourage entrepreneurs in the creation, start-up and early-growth stages of high-growth businesses in Wisconsin. Participants have the chance to win seed capital and valuable services that will help them launch their businesses, as well as enhance the state’s economic development.

Wisconsin residents 18 years old and older were eligible, as were teams from Wisconsin-based businesses and organizations.

First-phase entries were 200-word abstracts submitted via the contest web site, www.govsbizplancontest.com. In this phase and throughout the contest, judges will pay special attention to innovation, relevant expertise, competitive advantage and market opportunity. Phases two and three will be completed in the spring, with winners announced in June.

The Governor’s Business Plan Contest is the result of thinking by members of the Tech Council, other tech-based organizations, individual entrepreneurs and even Gov. Jim Doyle himself, who talked about the importance of a statewide business plan competition during his 2002 campaign for governor. The idea was unveiled by Doyle with an announcement at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in June 2003.

The contest includes four categories that match up with Wisconsin’s core technology competencies, as well as technology “clusters” identified by the Tech Council in its report, “Vision 2020: A Model Wisconsin Economy.” Those categories are information technology and e-Commerce, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and business services. The common thread in all four categories is the use of cutting-edge technology to leverage the idea.

Here’s how the process will work:

n Initial entries, called “IDEA Abstracts,” will be graded on a scale of 1-10 (10 highest) by our judges. The top 50 IDEA Abstract presenters will be asked to write a Summary Business Plan. All 50 receive a congratulatory letter from the governor and the Tech Council.

n In the “Summary Business Plan” phase, which runs from late February through mid-March, the top 50 IDEA Abstract presenters post their five-page summaries online for comments by the judges. The top 20 plan summaries are selected for the final round. All 20 receive a congratulatory award.

n In the “Final Business Plan” phase, which runs from early April to May, 2004, the top 20 Summary Plan presenters prepare final plans for judging. Limited comments and mentoring continues. Judges will review the plans and pick three place winners in each category.

n The top four category winners will present their plans at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference, and a grand prize winner will be announced there.

The contest is seeking mentors to help advise contestants. To volunteer, call 608-442-7557 or register at www.govsbizplancontest.com.

4.7 Venture Capital Funding Accelerating

From the February 2, 2004 Potomac Tech Wire - http://www.potomactechwire.com

VC Fundraising Picks Up for First Time in Two Years

Arlington, Va. -- The Arlington-based National Venture Capital Association on Monday released the results of a new survey that indicates venture capital firms during the most recent quarter reversed a "two-year drought" in attracting investors. A total of $10.8 billion was raised by 113 venture capital firms in 2003 -- nearly half of which was raised during the last three months of the year. "The uptick in fundraising in the fourth quarter validates the buzz that many venture capital funds are looking to the future and starting to raise new funds again," said a joint release from NVCA and Thomson Venture Economics, which combined to produce the survey. Still, the $10.8 billion total is slightly more than 10% of the $105.4 billion total raised three years earlier, in 2000. http://www.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=Cqb3zubWbmdmZCdCXmJq

http://www.nvca.org/

4.8 SPAM filters - The New SCAM

No one will dispute that SPAM is one of the bigger problems on the Internet. I, for one, content that a much bigger problem is SPAM filtering. Consider two analogies. You get snail mail every day or at least most days except Sunday. Do you allow someone to rifle through your incoming mailbox and apply some "scientific" rules on which mail you should then receive after they've picked through it? Of course not! But that is what a SPAM filter does. And in some cases you pay to have someone pick through your mail. The second analogy is very similar. As you read your newspaper looking for an article on subject you know should be present, e.g. a sports score, an election results, etc. you can't find the article. Meanwhile, you had to wade through tons of display ads - those inline (not online!) beasts that consume 90% of newspaper print in the "news" section. Well, it turns out the editor (SPAM filter) removed the important article of interest by mistake when he decided what you should or shouldn't read.

The long and short of it is most SPAM filters catch alot of SPAM but they also filter out important email! We want SPAM removed but we depend on things like electronic bank and brokerage statements, eBay confirmations, etc. I hope some user sues an ISP or some SPAM filter vendor for removing important email that should have made it to the "Inbox".

The moral of the story is this. Run SPAM filters at your own risk. You won't know what you'll be missing!

4.9 UofM New Venture Challenge Announced

New Carlson School of Management Business Plan Competition
Do you have an idea for a product or service and need help writing a business plan? Are you starting your own business? Free help and professional review of your plan is available by partnering with a university student and entering the University of Minnesota New Venture Challenge sponsored by the Carlson School of Management.

Previously called the Gopher the Gold Business Plan Competition, the competition has been reformatted to build ties with community businesses and give students an opportunity to gain valuable experience by writing a business plan for a new or growing venture. In its seventh year, about 75 students are expected to submit plans and compete for more than $40,000 in cash prizes. Five categories include best business plan using university-related technology, best startup plan with positive social impact, best growth plan from an existing company, best startup needing over $1 million, and best startup needing under $1 million. Within the last two categories there will be separate prizes for both graduate/alumni and undergraduate business plans. All entrants, graduate/alumni and undergraduate, will be eligible to win prizes in the first three categories and can win in more than one category.

Business plan submissions are due by Monday, March 22. Presentations will be held Wednesday, April 21, at the 3M Auditorium, Carlson School of Management, 321 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis. Up to 25 teams will present to five panels of local judges that include venture capitalists, bankers and entrepreneurs. Plans will be judged on expected return to investors and company founders, growth opportunity, social impact and quality of plan. For a complete list of rules, visit www.newventurechallenge.com.

The competition is free and open to the public and each team must contain one active University of Minnesota student or alumnus. Businesses interested in partnering with a Carlson School of Management MBA or undergraduate student can contact Elaine Nissen at (612) 624-2046 or enissen@csom.umn.edu.

For more information, visit www.newventurechallenge.com.

4.10 CAN-SPAM Still Failing To Slow Junk Mail

A month after the federal CAN-SPAM Act went into effect, most anti-spam vendors say that the new legislation hasn't cut down on the glut of junk mail in users' mailboxes. http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/efAe0BiHaO0V30CMCN0Ay

4.11 46 E-mail Tools Reviewed

[From a Ziff Davis email newsletter] The beleaguered communications industry has been taking it on the chin. Spam has reached epic proportions, worms like MyDoom now routinely take e-mail servers offline for days, and there's just too much mail to read most of the time.

Feel like you're drowning in e-mail? We're here to help, with an exhaustive look at the best e-mail tools -- from eight great e-mail front-ends to five Web-mail clients, along with servers, mail utilities, spam blockers, and more.

If you use e-mail, you'll find something useful in our roundup.

Great E-mail Tools: http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-121-1-1-527686-5500-1

Click here for a chart of the personal anti-spam tools mentioned in this article.

From PC Magazine Review.

4.12 MinnesotaVotes.org

The Center for the American Experiment has released a new web tool for tracking bills, legislator votes, etc. Check it out at www.minnesotavotes.org.

4.13 Old Vendors In New Tech Niches

3M [via HighJump Software] sells supply-chain-execution apps. Boeing, satellite-network access. International Paper is an RFID vendor. And FedEx is into digital documents. http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/efDO0Bcgog04e0CMWI0AF

4.14 NanoTech Day at the UofM

Are you a legitimate angel investor, investment banker or venture capitalist? A technologist with technical interests in nanotechnology? If you are a member of either of these two interest groups, the UofM has a free program to introduce you to nanotechnology research at the UofM.

Date:    May 14, 2004
Where: UofM Walter Library
What:   8 am, Technical sessions conducted by the 32 faculty members working on nanotechnology
What:   1 pm, Investment Community Workshop for investors only conducted by select nanotechnology faculty.
What:   4 pm, Tours of nanotechnology facilities on campus
What:   5 pm, Reception for all involved in any of the above.
How:    RSVP to Marie at marie007@umn.edu.

If you have any questions, contact Dick Sommerstad at 612.625.8352.

4.15 ChinaSoft 2004

Want to reach the Chinese market with your software products? Check out www.sinominn.com.

The Cost of Failure

If your company is like most others, 72% of your technology projects will fail this year. Failure is usually defined by studies in project success as being late or behind schedule, over budget, or delivered with wrong or insufficient features. Is your organization willing to lose over $2 million this year due to failed projects? That’s the average amount one study found that companies lose through not managing their projects effectively. Can you really afford that?

It’s true that large project failures get most of the headlines, but projects of all sizes can and do fail. The net cost of small project failures would probably equal or exceed the waste of large ones if anyone bothered to measure them.

Most small projects suffer from some common ailments:

1) Not enough time to think and plan, which results in higher costs due to:

Rework from doing things wrong,
Wasted efforts doing the wrong things,
Missed requirements.

2) Deadlines get missed due to:

Underestimating the effort needed,
Not setting expectations accordingly,
Lack of rigor, including ignoring risks that could be costly.

3) Not communicating project status and results, which lead to:

The “forget” factor by project sponsors,
Sponsor disengagement from the project.

4) Tendency to not formally end projects

Inability to celebrate milestones and completion,

Missed opportunities to capture learning from successes/failures

Research Report

Dr. Paul Dorsey, writing in the InterNETalia Forum, Top 10 Reasons Why Systems Projects Fail, says “There do seem to be three factors that all successful projects have in common. Each of these factors is key to any project’s success. Each project can be viewed as a tripod. All three legs must be in place for the tripod to stand sturdily. In a systems project, these “legs” or critical success factors consist of the following:

· Top management support

· A sound methodology

· Solid technical leadership by someone who has successfully completed a similar project

Without each of these solidly in place, the tripod will topple and the project will fail."

Getting Started

First, it helps to distinguish what constitutes a project, because not all work should be managed as projects. Unless the effort 1) needs stakeholder requirements, 2) involves something new or unique, or 3) has an element of risk, it may not need to be handled like a project. But, if any of these three are part of the picture, then you should manage it as a project. An example may help to clarify.

We mishandled an endeavor partly because we didn’t recognize it as a project. A while back our Internet Service Provider (ISP) informed us they were canceling our service in a month because they were bankrupt. We went into major react mode. We quickly tried to find a new ISP and didn’t plan enough. It had high risks for us, and was definitely something unique to handle; two out of the three guidelines for a project.