Connect with clients,
brainstorm with colleagues, and manage your online work presence with the
aid of these proven tools. Start 2013
off right.
1. IFTTT.com [If THIS then THAT]
For the Life Science professional you can utilize IFTTT to
scan all of your on-line news sources for any keywords or phrases and then it will
move that information to the destination of your choice whether it be to an email
address, blog, Evernote, Dropbox, etc. Further, This is the ONE Tool that will
make your entire social network existence easier. Example:
You write a great article for a LinkedIn Update. IFTTT can get it automatically posted to your
Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, and Blog (and nearly all of your other social
media apps). So no longer are you
logging in and out and re-posting. Invaluable.
And it’s FREE and it’s EASY
to use. www.ifttt.com
2. FiercePharma/Biotech/MedicalDevice/CRO
The “Fierce” family is a valuable news aggregator in the
form a newsletter. Fierce is also available as a newsfeed. Reading the headlines is a daily must for the
Life Science professional. Pipeline
information, mergers, acqusitions, warning letters: all of the big industry
news is contained within Fierce. This is free and you can get a daily
subscription straight to your in-box.
www.fiercepharma.com
3. Dropbox/ 4. Google
Drive/ 5. SkyDrive
If you have not used Dropbox then you are probably still
using USB jump drives. Move your files
to Dropbox and have access to them on any mobile or desktop platform. The famous Adam McFarlin says” Since Dropbox
I have stopped using a jump drive altogether.”
He was right. I now only use a jump
drive when I am using a computer that doesn’t have an internet connection. 2 GB FREE.
www.dropbox.com
Similar story with Google Drive [5 GB Free] and SkyDrive [7
GB Free] . All of these cloud plans
provide expanded space for additional monies.
Life Science Warning: Your regulatory affairs department (or individual)
or IT Departments may have restricted policies to use off-site e-data [cloud]
storage as data security risks. I am not
aware of security validation studies for any cloud storage services.
For the business traveler, and while these apps are not particular
pointed to a particular industry, I have found them most useful for business
travel.
6. FlightBoard. Select
any airport and Flightboard will show you all flights departing/arriving with
gate information and flight status.
While I have tried the airline-specific apps, this one is clear and to the point. Free [for now]. Itunes App Store.
7. Expensify. One big waste of a day is after a trip you sit
at your desk and wade through a crinkled pile of receiptes. With Expensify you scan them into your
phone. It takes care of a lot of
categorizing and data entry. Back on
Monday when you are entering the info into your company’s inflexible
excel-format expense report, at least you can cut the time down and with the
organized info inside Expensify. I
suggest that you talk to the head of accounting and convince them to adopt
Expensify as the corporate standard. Got
a small company? Your odds are even
better. Free. www.expensify.com
Onward
8. NIH RePORTer. The
NIH Reporter is a portfolio of all federally funded NIH projects. The data goes back for at least a couple of
decades and shows which projects were run, who ran them, where they were
conducted, what the results were and how much money was spent on them. There is also section which shows projected
dollars budgeted to be spent based on disease/affliction. You will become
hooked on this well organized database. Free,
thanks to your tax dollars. Report.nih.gov
9. Basecamp. An excellent project management tool, very
useful for on-line collaboration of projects. This software is very
flexible. It is not as robust as
Microsoft Project but the on-line collaboration aspect is a huge plus. A 60
day free trial and then pricing starts at $20/month. www.basecamp.com
10. Constant Contact.
Among some other aspects this
application is most commonly used for on-line surveys. I recently organized a Life Science
Information Exchange event and used Constant Contact to electronically survey
the attendees about their experience and recommendations. Rather than use a paper-based survey where
the responses are hurriedly scrawled as the attendees rush out the door, this
survey was emailed and then they could take their time with thoughtful
replies. One of the best parts is the
myriad ways to report the results. This
is an excellent tool. Use it for
brainstorming ideas too! Free (I
have only used the free version). www.constantcontact.com
11. About.Me The
fact is, it isn’t about me OR you, but it is, sort of. What I mean to say is that About.Me is a
personal webpage where an individual can put a brief (preferred) resume that
talks about them. What it really does
is provide a company the opportunity to boast about their people and this gives
potential customers a personal connection with the staff. While LinkedIn will give a lengthy resume,
About.Me helps make the individuals (and thus the organization)
approachable. Free. www.about.me
12. Mind Jet MindManager.
Brainstorming software. Throw
every thought and idea onto the page.
Use MindManager to organize them into related (or not) connections. Much like a brown paper process map exercise,
this is a digital approach, (and your post-it notes won’t fall off). $15/Month/user
Alternative: FreeMind (free). My friend Gary Dean prefers to use Visio over
MindJet.
13. GoToMeeting. Tried and true. GoToMeeting is the adjustable
wrench of your on-line toolbox. It is indispensable
and the best of the on-line meeting applications. 30 day free trial or $49/month.
www.gotomeeting.com
