Jeff's Zone 2

New Bill.com Blog

We are starting a blog for Bill.com.... those of you who are interested, check it out and join the conversation!

NIce writeup on off premise vs on premise financial apps

Nice article by Randy Johnston of K2 Enterprises  that discusses Off premise vs. on premise financial applications. 

Upcoming webinar from WebCPA

Check out the upcoming webinar from WebCPA "One Step Closer To Paperless: Online Accounts Payable Solutions", Friday, November 14 at 12pm EST. 

Catching up

OK, It has been too long since my last post. i have been a tad busy. Couple highlights:

1. Moved my family earlier this summer to Palo Alto, California to join Bill.com! Yeah, it's a big move and I am really excited to be here. For those of you who don't know Bill.com, check us out. Simply put... we do online accounts payable and bill payment for small and mid-size businesses. Think bill filing, bill approvals, and bill payment all in a collaborative SaaS model. There you have it. It's a great product and a great marketing challenge to, well, bring an end to paper bills and paper checks in the workplace. Game on. :-) I'll be blogging more about this here and in a new blog we plan to launch. In the mean time, you can also check out Rene Lacerte's blog, Ask Lacerte.

2. I know you all love to hear about my athletic exploits these days. Well, after IM Arizona I figured a move would be happening so I decided to focus on running over the summer and trained for the Longbeach Marathon in October. My previous marathon PR was 3:41 at Chicago in 2004. My new goal was to break 3:20.59 (that's a 7:37 pace or so) to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I was on pace at mile 21 and the wheels fell off the bus. I think I under-hydrated (translation: didn't drink enough) on miles 15-20 and I got light headed. Struggled for a few miles and pulled it back together to finish in...... 3:23.01! A great time but 2 minutes away from qualifying. Honestly, I am a little disappointed, but not much... it was a great run. I'll have another go at it. In the mean time I have decided to focus next season on sprint, olympic, and 1-2 half ironman triathlons. You can't live in Northern California and not get back into the biking scene! 

That's all for now. I've got more to say about my new endeavors at work and in sport. So, stay tuned! 

Great book on WWII (and leadership)

I just finished reading Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace.

This book is fantastic. It is a great read for anyone who enjoys reading about WWII and military history (as I do). But in this case it also explores the key senior relationships in the war. Not just between Marshall and Ike, but between the Allied Joint Chiefs, between Roosevelt and Churchill, and between Ike and his subordinates.

It is fascinating to explore situations where these leaders had to decide which organizational and political battles to fight, when to allow organizational conflict to occur and when to stop it, when to trust and support the decisions of their direct reports without getting in the way, and when to step in and exert their authority. All when the fate of the Allies and millions of lives were in the balance.

There are many lessons in here about how to lead people and teams that apply to business and life as well as to war. I highly recommend it.