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It’s official! We’re in the news again!

A little over a week ago, Nathan Boomey from The Michigan Business Review came in to meet with Bruce about Fixed IT, a new service we released to customers on January 1, 2009. The photographer will be in today, doing his photographer thing, and the article will be published this Thursday… so look for it online and in your local coffeeshop’s magazine rack!

As soon as it goes live on their website, I’ll post a link.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever sent a text to 466453. If you’ve done it, you already know that Google SMS is one the most helpful inventions of all time. At least in my humble, understated opinion.

4-6-6-4-5-3 = G-O-O-G-L-E on most cell phones. Text Google if you need anything (within reason) and you’ll get it. Here are some examples:

• Text “Pizza 48104″ and you’ll get a list complete with address and phone number for Pizza House, Cottage Inn Pizza (3 locations), Papa John’s, Domino’s and “reply: more for more listings.”
• Text “USA 97″ and get “23 Jan 2009 US 97 DTW Depart: 6:20 AM Departed LAS Arrive: 8:01 AM Landed Gate: T1/A12″ and then some… WOW!
• Text “CBOU” and get “Stock: CBOU (Caribou Coffee Company, Inc.) 1.61(+0.00.0.17%) Jan 23 11:44am ET Real-time price data for NASDAQ.”

I learned about Google SMS this week, on the road, in a last-ditch effort to get dinner on the table before my out-of-town guests arrived. When our shopping trip went over its time budget, my sisters and I determined it necessary to order gourmet pizza as opposed to making lasagna.

“Give me your cell phone,” my younger sister said, reaching into my purse before I could respond.

“Can you text from this thing?” she inquired, carefully examining my ancient, hand-decorated, beat up old Razr phone. I could understand the skepticism in her tone.

“Of course!” I grumbled. “Why?”

“I’m getting the number for Pizza House?”

Cringing at the thought of the extra $2.75 directory assistance charge that would be tacked onto my already-high cellular bill, I muttered “oh” and continued to drive.

The next thing I knew she was talking to the pizza people. What? No directory assistance? Quickly, I fired “Why on earth did you memorize that number?!?”

“I didn’t,” she said, turning the phone toward me (on hold). “Yes, I’d like to make an order for delivery…”

By the time she had explained how she got the number, and shown me a few funny examples of how Google SMS can help you find what you’re looking for, we were home. We pulled into my driveway 25 minutes later, right behind the delivery car.

Saved by Google. Guests arrived 10 minutes later — just enough time to make the salad!

Wow! The last 6 months have been insane over here with Custom Programming projects galore! I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that our programmers at Dynamic Edge are beyond awesome. (In the same breath, we’re looking for one right now, so if you’re a power programmer who likes video games and Mountain Dew, drop us a line!)

One of our biggest projects in the pipeline just got some major press from our Nashville office. The gang has been running on all six cylinders since January, 2008 with a group called DisastersNet, Inc., a Nashville-based company that implements fully automated, web-based emergency management systems for hospital environments.

Our Mission: to create an integrated online emergency platform that can be used to manage and expedite response time during real-time emergencies or during training exercises. The original concept, originated with a group of hospital safety officers, physicians and emergency management coordinators, and is now in full-scale production.

Click here to read the full article about DisastersNet’s big project. I won’ t spoil the news!

Being a non-Excel user, I never really understood the value of a Pivot Table. I read on the Web that, despite its simplicity and convenience, only about 60% of Excel users actually utilize the feature on a regular basis. It wasn’t until someone tried explaining it to me that I realized why. They should have given it a better name: like EasyTable or QuickTable… at the very least, it would have given people a reason to try it out!

I went through an online tutorial that explained exactly what you’d have to do if you wanted to accomplish the same results that you get using pivot tables, and was more confused AFTER READING than I was before. So, naturally, I was more than a little concerned that the whole concept of the Pivot Table was way over my head; and that it would be impossible for me to learn how to do, let alone explain to anyone.

Then I asked Kristina from our DECon team for a quick demo, and much to my amazement, creating Pivot Tables is SO much easier than trying your luck at formulas (oh, how I love doing math!), and yet produces exactly the same results!

Before I get started about how to make a Pivot Table, you may want to know why you’d use it. Here are some a few of the most common reasons people use the Pivot Table:

• It’s easier than working with complicated formulas.
• You can turn rows of unreadable data into a chart you can use
• Perfect for tracking product sales by location, customer demographics, etc.
• You can impress your boss, co-workers, or statistically-inclined friends with a informative and efficient reports.

Now, what you’ve been waiting for! Here’s how you make and use Excel’s Pivot Table function. (Click on any of the images to view in detail!)

1. Open your spreadsheet and start by removing any blank rows or columns.
2. Make sure each column has a heading, because they’ll be carried over to the Field List.
3. Make sure your cells are formatted the right way for their data type.
4. Highlight your data range.
5. Click the Insert tab.

Insert the Pivot Table

6. Select the PivotTable button from the Tables group.
7. Select PivotTable from the list.
The Create PivotTable dialog will appear.

Pivot Table Dialog Box

8. Double-check your Table/Range: value.
9. Select the radio button for New Worksheet.
10. Click OK.
A new worksheet opens with a blank pivot table. You’ll see that the fields from our source spreadsheet were carried over to the PivotTable Field List.

11. Drag an item such as PRECINCT from the PivotTable Field List down to the Row Labels quadrant. The left side of your Excel spreadsheet should show a row for each precinct value. You should also see a checkmark appear next to PRECINCT.

12. The next step is to ask what you would like to know about each precinct. I’ll drag the PARTY field from the PivotTable Field List to the Column Labels quadrant. This will provide an additional column for each party. Note that you won’t see any numerical data.

13. To see the count for each party, I need to drag the same field to the Values quadrant. In this case, Excel determines I want a Count of PARTY. I could double-click the entry and choose another Field Setting. Excel has also added Grand Totals.

And there it is folks, your introduction to the Pivot Table. Get practicing, as this may be on our next exam ;)