Tech Buzz 07/04

A Step Beyond

If you use business computers, odds are you also rely on some of the productivity applications in Microsoft's mammoth Office Suite. But few folks venture past the most popular features in these broad and deep applications, so Microsoft hopes to show you what else it can do for your business through a series of free productivity seminars it's staging nationwide.

The Microsoft TouchPoint Series is far removed from the usual "How to Build a Graph in Excel" lecture. It starts with a fictitious company and the very common business challenges it faces. You're walked through the search for solutions with the help of Microsoft applications and will likely be exposed to tools you never knew existed. A typical starting point: "How many widgets do you need to sell at this price to reach the break-even point?" Before the end of this task, Excel's "Goal Seek" and "Scenarios" tools will have been dusted off-and a few "If only I had known" comments will probably be heard around the auditorium.