Funding is often an ongoing struggle for a number of organisations. Therefore, writing grants and funding applications becomes a necessary part of business.

Intended Future Consultancy Groups  principal consultant Lisa Thomas provides some valuble tips to maximise your success.

Eligibility Tips

1. 1. Always make sure you are eligible for the funding you are applying, otherwise you are wasting your valuable time.
   2. If there is a contact you can ring, make the phone call. You will quickly be able to realise whether your project is what they are looking for and you might even obtain some information that will set you apart from the rest of the applications.

Writing Tips

1. 1. All funding applications ask questions – always make sure you answer all the questions. If you don’t know the answers- do research.
   2. Use language that is not industry specific, the person reading your application may not have an in depth understanding of what your organisation or sector does – keep it simple. If there is a word limit keep to it.
   3. Use current examples of your success. If you have a project that has been a success in past use this as an example of what your organisations has been able to achieve in the past.
   4. Don’t forget to include letters of support, collaboration and strategic partners. This also shows you have a vast knowledge base and capacity to draw on.
   5. If you have relevant diagrams or pictures use them. A picture speaks a thousand words they say.
   6. Make you budget realistic, seek help putting this together if you are unsure.
   7. Be clear and concise state your case for the funding convincingly.
   8. Make sure your application is submitted on time and in the format required.

About the writer

Lisa Thomas is the principal consultant with Intended Future Consultancy Group. Lisa is a business development consultant and provides government grant and strategic business planning advice to SME’s, Corporates and not for profit organisations. Lisa has a broad range of experience working with health and community services organisations, agriculture, adult education and manufacturers.

The types of Grants that Lisa has been involved in are philanthropic trusts, Fashion TCF small business fund, Regional Development Victoria programs, EPA projects, Commercialisation Australia, Enterprise Connect and most recently Investing in Manufacturing Technology.

It’s history now, what was touted as the greatest online shopping bonanza Australia has ever seen has become the latest spectacular technical failure. Why?

It’s easy for us in the IT world to breath a collective “I told you so” it was not unexpected, however I do personally have experience in this type of technical failure, having been brought in to determine why in 2001 on the night of the launch of Big Brother the voting website melted down in similar fashion.

Since the meltdown we have be bombarded with “spin” as to what went wrong, but just like in 2001 the bottom line will simply be “poor planning” which as we all know leads to poor execution.

At this stage exactly what “technically failed” is anyone’s guess, but again I can’t emphasise enough that poor planning will be the underlying root cause.

Google, Facebook, Twitter and countless other online companies manage millions of hits per hour and they don’t fall over. Why, because technology isn’t 100% reliable, we all know this things break. However the difference is they plan for this and have systems and procedures in place to ensure they don't fall victim to a technical issue.

I don’t care if you're a ten seat network or Google, the result will be exactly the same if you rely on technology and don’t plan for its failure then I’m sorry but you are going to look foolish in the eyes of your clients when something inevitably goes wrong.

We all have clients and we all strive to provide the best for them, however when you fail to deliver they have very long memories.

Will click frenzy rise from the ashes of this debacle? I don’t know, what I do know however is there’s a lesson to be learnt for every single one of us in business today.

When it comes to technology you can be certain it will have failures large and small at some stage, and whilst in our personal business worlds it may not affect the masses or be as well publicised as click frenzy. We can all be certain that one way or another it will affect our productivity at the very least and therefore affect our clients who are relying on us to deliver.

So the lesson to be learnt is don't take technology for granted, it will fail you at some stage, the size and impact of that failure and the affect it has on your clients all comes down to your prior planning.

Windows 8 is a totally new version of Windows that, in addition to the traditional desktop, also includes a new-style interface for use with touchscreens - whether that's on a touchscreen laptop, all-in-one PC or tablet.

Windows 7 was a big hit for Microsoft, turning things around from the troublesome Windows Vista and reminding people that the Redmond giant was not quite ready to hang up its hat just yet.

Here are 8 key differences that Windows 8 brings.

Windows 8 touch

Obviously the most obvious difference between Windows 8 and its popular predecessor is the user interface. Windows 7 supported touch, but it wasn't ideal - the controls simply weren't good enough.

However, things have improved immeasurably in terms of the touch support in Windows 8. First of all, touch support on the Desktop is far, far better and you can even close windows and select menu items without issue - Windows has built-in intelligence to tell it what you are trying to do.

Secondly, the new Start Screen is an interface that's built for touch. That means tiles instead of menus and much quicker ways to get to the programs you want. There's also greatly improved on-screen keyboard and handwriting recognition.

You don't need to have a Windows 8 touch PC - the interface still works on non touch machines, and many trackpads have support for new Windows 8 gestures. There are also peripherals such as touch mice and trackpads from Microsoft and Logitech (among others) that support Windows 8 gestures.

Windows 8 Start screen

The familiar Start menu is a Start screen which features the same kind of live tiles and data as Windows Phone's home screen,

When you open an app that needs the desktop you still get the familiar Recycle Bin and Taskbar, but the Start button - which now only appears when you hover in the bottom left corner with your mouse - takes you back to the Start screen.

The Start Screen can be used as an application launcher for desktop apps, or Windows 8 Modern UI apps (that's what Microsoft is currently calling the new interface).

Better multiple monitor support

Microsoft has decided that, with more of us using multiple monitors on our PCs, that it needed to overhaul its desktop management.

That means you can now have the Start Screen on one monitor and the desktop in another, or choose to have the Windows 8 Desktop and taskbar on both screens.

You can also put a different background on each screen if you have multiple monitors. Windows 8 also enables you to split screen between Modern UI Windows 8 apps, so you can have both your Windows Messenger on a third of the screen alongside your Desktop. This takes a bit of getting used to!

Windows 8 charms

A key arrival for Windows 8 is what Microsoft is calling Charms. These appear when you mouse to the right-hand side of the screen or swipe in from the right on a touchscreen.

They enable you to access the Start Screen on a touch device (although many touch devices will also have a physical Windows 8 button on the bezel of the screen or a Windows key on the keyboard).

The other buttons are Search, Share, Devices and Settings and provide quick access to these functions on touch and pointer-driven displays alike.

As well as searching your apps and folders, charms work across different apps, so for example a social app can tap into the Share charm so you can share files to that app quickly and easily - it's contextual to the app you are using.

The Settings charm gives you quick access to basics such as volume and brightness controls, as well as putting your PC to sleep or restarting it.

The search and devices charms are fairly self explanatory, but the share charm is interesting.

WIndows 8 Search and Social

With the Start menu gone, search is available not only through the Search charm but also through the Start Screen - just start typing and the results on screen are for programs and files.

As with Share, the Search charm is contextual, so you can search inside any app - for example you can do a web search from here, or look for a destination using the Travel app. Doing a web search is powerful and quick, it's a simple way to launch a browser and search speedily.

As for social, WIndows 8 supports Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter natively, so you can browse social updates within the People app and elsewhere.

Windows 8 ARM support

Until now, Windows has only supported x86-based Intel and AMD PCs but that is all changing with Windows 8, which will support devices running on ARM architecture.

British company ARM's chip designs are being used in a growing number of devices, and Microsoft is keen to make Windows as widely available as possible especially on cheaper Windows 8 tablets to compete with the iPad and Android tablets.

While ARM produce the original so-called 'instruction set' for the processors used in these devices, other people manufacture the chips. So expect to see Windows 8 tablet devices based on Nvidia's Tegra 3 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon to start with.

The version of Windows 8 used on ARM-based devices is actually referred to as Windows RT - this stands for runtime. You can't buy this separately, only with a device.

Windows Store

Microsoft's Windows Store is a key part of Windows 8, offering both desktop and Modern UI apps, both free and paid. You can search the Store using the Search charm, as well as browse through the top free or top paid apps as well as look through apps by category. When apps are updated, you can also download these updates very easily, just as you would on iOS or Android.

Windows 8 cloud integration

While Microsoft may not agree with Apple's Steve Jobs that we are in a post-PC era, it is clear that they are keen to make cloud integration central to Windows 8. That means the potential to sync data to SkyDrive - there's a SkyDrive app as well as the ability to save data to and from your cloud storage. Office 2013 apps have SkyDrive capabilities included, too. Microsoft also syncs settings your Windows 8 PCs - including your browsing history in IE, for instance. Photos can also be shared across multiple PCs.

I'll tell you a story of fright and frey

One that happened last Halloween day

A day not to dissimilar to this, only a little less bathed in bliss.

The players are not one but two, and should be heeded by the lucky few.  

We open with young Mary-Loo, sitting at her desk with a job to do.

Upon her computer a document lay, that had to be delivered by 2:00 that day.

As she finished the document and thought of her pay, her computer just went away.

Not a flicker a splutter or even a tick, Mary thought it’s Halloween is this a trick.

On to the phone as quick as a flash, Mary called the IT guy to help with her crash.

However a quick response was not to be, all Mary got was a message you see…

“Oh hi you’ve called lucky Turtle IT; I’m not available as you can see.

So leave a message I’ll call you back and once I do I’ll try to get you on track”.

On track was where Mary needed to be, but it wasn’t going to happen without IT.

Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc the minutes flew by, and still no call back from that IT guy,

Finally after 3 hours had past the call that Mary needed came at last.

But good news for Mary was not to be, you see he couldn’t get there till after 3:00.

Mary pleaded and begged and threatened too.

However there’s only so much one man can do,

you simply can’t be in places times two, when as one all the work you must do.

As the hour of 2:00 came and went, and that document was never sent, Mary was left to lament the IT decision she’d made, to save a cent.

This horror story is true, you shouldn’t rely on numbers of one or two,

you need a company that answers your call, otherwise like Mary you’re going to take a fall

There is one company I know it’s true, there called MSP Blueshift and they always come through…

So when next a decision about changing IT Company you stew,

Remember their name or the next horror story may involve you!

Unless you've been living under a rock you know the NBN is coming. But like most of us, I'm interested in specifically when my business, not to mention my home can be connected.

The answer is, it all depends on where you're located....

The NBN website provides a roll-out map available here: NBN Rollout Maps

You can enter your address and see approximately when the service is available in your area.

For example, our company is located in Brunswick. So according to the map results work will commence within one year.

What about pricing?

For the home there are various plans on offer from a number of providers. As with all current Internet services in Australia the cost is based on speed 12, 25, 50 or 100Mbps, contract term, and included monthly download, starting at 50GB up to 1TB (1000GB).

You can compare pricing from a number of ISP's here: Wistleout NBN Pricing Plans

What about the costs for business connections?  

After an extensive search for business NBN pricing, I have a headache, no wait I think it’s officially become a migraine! I couldn’t find a single website like wistleout, where you can review multiple business grade connection offers.  However by typing various combinations of "NBN and business pricing" into Google I did find Optus and Internode business pricing.

Download here:  Optus NBN Small Business Plans

                         Internode NBN Pricing Plans

All in all given the time frame of the roll-out and the limited areas where the service is currently available it’s not surprising that the vast majority of ISP’s haven’t yet got their business offers sorted.

If your business is in a connected area or soon will be, my advice is have your IT provider contact your current ISP and ask them for pricing.

You can also keep up to date with all things NBN at their website www.nbnco.com.au and even view a short video presentation on some of the business benefits promised.