Old tools; New capabilities

On my current project, we had a problem where access requests to our dashboards were getting lost.

Basically, the owner of the dashboard would get the e-mail, and then it would get lost in his inbox.

This means that the customer would get delayed access.

So I set up a simple system for the data visualization team using Outlook rules that would forward all permissions requests to a shared inbox, and then another rule that would send it to a "permissions request" folder.

I then set up a "watch" schedule where each week, a team member is responsible for managing the permissions requests.

It's simple, but it works.

I used an old tool (Outlook rules) to get a new capability (effective permissions management).

--

In any organization, you are going to find lots of problems.

As a 1099, if you can solve them, you will be valuable to the client.

While I encourage you to incorporate new tools to solve some of these problems, it's also valuable to leverage existing tools to solve problems.

This has a few benefits:

• The customer is already familiar with the tool
• You don't have to get special IT permission or whatever to incorporate it
• You can get results faster because you can just implement the process and not have to train everyone on something brand new

So go ahead and try it. See if you can't milk an existing tool set to get new benefits. Your clients will love you for it.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.