Preparing for a keynote presentation to an audience of telecommunications vendors and their channel partners on the anatomy of the software industry, I took an inventory of all the software products and services that my company uses.

Three things surprised me.

1. The list of software products/services is very long (read the rest of this post).
2. Only one out of the over 20 products/services is Danish.
3. Software consumes 21% of our operational expenses.

Many different products/services

TBK Consult is a consulting, training and publishing company exclusively working with information technology professionals. We provide individual consulting, develop and facilitate workshops and write and publish books, eBooks, whitepapers, articles, and videos. In January 2017 we launched a podcast channel.

We use many different software products/services because we perform many different jobs and because our processes are extremely digitized.

A day in the life of a TBK Consult consultant

Delivering a keynote presentation using Prezi

Wake up at 07:00, brew a cup of coffee and check the schedule for the day (listed on Producteev).

The first job is to write the synopsis for a chapter to a new B2B book on marketing. Use Mindjet to toss around the ideas for the content. Export the synopsis to PDF and submit it by email (Apple Mail and Google Apps as the mail server) to the editor.

Take a break and make a bowl of fresh fruit and a glass of fresh OJ.

Next job is completing the weekly post. Open WordPress and start writing. Grammarly keeps an eye on and suggests improvement with the English grammar. Send off a task request to our illustrator Jelena in Tallinn. Fire up PowerPoint, pull in and arrange some illustrations. Use SnagIt to cut out the final composition and add it to the post. Mark post “pending” so that Emma in Portugal knows it is ready for proofing.

Take a break and brew a cappuccino (there is also software in my Jura E80 espresso machine).

Writing books requires using many software tools

Skype conference call with a client who briefs me on the script for an animated video I am making for the client’s upcoming partner conference. I am recording the conversation for later reference (using Call Recorder).

Make the first synopsis in MindJet and upload to the client’s Dropbox (we have iCloud and OneDrive too!).

Break. Go for a run in the forest. Endomondo and Fitbit keep track of my efforts here. Then a shower and lunch.

Work two hours on a chapter for my coming book. Check sources from previous research in Endnote. Write a section of the chapter in Scrivener.

Break and another cappuccino.

Work on the speaker’s script for a coming keynote. I write using Apple Pages just for the fun of it. A nice variation to Microsoft Word. Add a few more illustration jobs for Jelena in Tallinn for the Prezi.

With Internet access, we can work everywhere. Here from a Starbucks in Istanbul.

Check-in on voice mails received during the day and on eMails. Nothing serious in the main Inbox. I will check messages from people I don’t know tomorrow. SaneBox is doing a good job keeping my Mailbox clean. Update Producteev and Tyme (I normally don’t bill by the hour, but I like to keep track of my time).

Break and go for dinner. My wife is rehearsing with her choir tonight, so I go back to my study with a pot of tea.

Check Feedly for interesting posts. Drop some of them to Hootsuite with personal comments. Check LinkedIn and find a recommendation for a new book. Leave checking inMails and messages for tomorrow. Go to Amazon and buy the book for my Kindle. Upload the invoice to Uniconta.

FaceTime with Grandkids. Oliver lost a tooth and has saved it for a special price to be paid by the Tooth Fairy next time he and his siblings are staying over.

Read a couple of chapters in The Science of Selling, that I will review when finished.

My wife is back from the choir rehearsal and wants to discuss some weekend coordination.

End of the day.

Conclusion

The only Danish product that we use is Uniconta. Endomondo is made in Denmark but was acquired by Under Armor in 2015. All the others are made somewhere else and I am really not concerned with their country of origin. While Uniconta has features for local VAT reporting all the other apps do not need features related to where I am working.

The software industry is truly global.