This article from Harvard Business Review describes the design and implementation of a system for strategic planning, operational execution, and feedback and learning. It also presents a range of tools that managers can apply at the different stages, and options for integrating them in a system that links the management of strategy and operations.
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Most organisations are sitting on IT equipment that is not supporting the business optimally, yet the received wisdom is to sweat the assets to gain as much perceived lifetime value from them as possible. However, IT assets have inherent value which can change significantly through each asset’s lifecycle—whether this is through its hard resale value or just through its scrap value. By applying a full IT lifecycle management (ITLM) approach to the complete IT platform, a business-optimised platform can be created—one where business value overrides the embedded concept of sweating assets.
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This paper highlights the environmental impact of printing and discusses how a managed print service can support an organization's sustainability goals, while also lowering costs and driving business efficiency.
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With mobile device use fast growing, 2012 seems to be the ‘year of the mobile.’ As companies embrace mobility, a key issue is the mobile versus app debate, and whether there is an argument for producing a mobile application over a mobile site. This white paper looks at the pros and cons of both native apps and mobile Web, and dives into the things that companies should consider before making a choice between mobile app and Web.
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Finance departments are uniquely qualified to lead the effort to optimize profitability because of their neutrality, numbers orientation, and analytical abilities. However, as finance departments move to implement profitability management they need to recognize the challenges they may face. This white paper discusses how to manage profitability more effectively.
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To realize a competitive advantage, small-business leaders must address five common obstacles: inefficient operations, inability to support rapid growth or new markets, disjointed business processes, lack of visibility into daily operations, and limited resources. Read this white paper to learn how to overcoming these challenges and gain valuable insights into your business.
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Learn why analytics-driven organizations outperform their peers.
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While new technology trends are invading the business intelligence (BI) space, technology shifts and hype do not necessarily equate to the ability to exploit the best tools for enhancing business performance. To select a best-fit BI solution, an organization needs to be able to realistically assess the maturity of its BI infrastructure. This allows them to discover where they are, what their BI requirements are, and how to determine the best BI solution or strategy. Download the full report now.
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Outsourcing of developmental activities is not new. However, the outsourcing of research activities remains relatively unexplored. Recent trends indicate greater research and development (R&D) outsourcing, with customers open to handing over complete product lifecycle responsibilities to vendors. The chief reason for this change is that companies are realizing that the benefits of R&D outsourcing extend beyond cost arbitration. Rather, it facilitates the creation of global collaborative development skills of both the provider’s and buyer’s employees through exposure to new research tools, methodologies and best practices. Learn more now.
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Organizations usually rely on historical data and transactions to determine their pricing strategy. However, this data is typically insufficient to arrive at a competitive price. Moreover, customers these days are well informed about the value of products they want to purchase. That's why organizations need to arrive at their pricing strategy only after taking into consideration external intelligence and competitive data. E-procurement systems and price comparison websites have put customers in the bargaining position with the availability of real-time information. This is the type and speed of data organizations need to obtain. Leveraging such information can help an organization counter the threats of new entrants, competitive rivalry, and substitutes with a strong pricing strategy.
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The Toyota production system has been on one of the most important schools of thought in operations, and has spawned several spin-offs. All these approaches are based on similar principles that are collectively referred to as “lean” ideas. While a lean approach to manufacturing and services is straightforward, applying lean to knowledge work can be challenging. Find out why, and what you can do about it.
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The scope of business process outsourcing (BPO) has moved beyond back-office functions. Outsourcing is increasingly being seen as a partnering tool for the generation of revenue and not just cost savings. In this white paper, Manish Dugar, Senior Vice President, Wipro BPO, talks to Outsourcing Center about how BPOs can transform themselves into revenue enablers and help organizations do business better.
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As a company in the financial sector, you place extremely high demands on your call center. The complicated and sensitive nature of the calls requires an agent who is highly trained and experienced. This leads to a high cost per call. At the same time, sacrificing caller satisfaction is not an option. This creates a tough challenge: How do you decrease the cost per call, while improving the customer experience? Download this white paper to find out.
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The Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the first hotel in the US to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the platinum level from the U.S. Green Building Council. Combining luxury with energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, the hotel places the highest priority on guest comfort. The owner's goal is a sustainable, energy-efficient hotel that never compromises guest comfort. Learn more now.
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Most manufacturing businesses have invested in technology to combat some of their challenges, but primarily to increase efficiency and productivity. However, many have not yet discovered the value of a Web presence—or they use the Web in a very limited way. More than simply serving a marketing role, a Web presence can boost internal efficiency, enhance customer service, and increase sales. Download this white paper to learn more.
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When you know that a new content management system (CMS) is needed for your organization, how do you decide which one to implement? Do you decide based on size, price, ease of use, or something else? Finding the best CMS for your needs can be a challenging task. In this white paper, you'll get an inside look into the CMS selection process, including an overview of the CMS landscape, the proper approach to selecting a CMS, how to narrow and define your selection process, and additional CMS features to consider.
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Over the past decade, the art of doing business has changed. Companies are re-shaping strategies to innovate and compete globally. “Growth Strategies for 2012 and Beyond”, a survey research by Forbes Insights, in association with Wipro Technologies, analyzes changing growth strategies through an exclusive survey of more than 300 CEOs and other C-level executives at global enterprises. Download now to see the results.
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Oil and gas companies have numerous information systems, each churning through vast amounts of data to support business decisions. Successful management of these information systems is not simply a case of keeping the systems running and providing suitable backup mechanisms. It also includes the adoption of professional data management practices. Download this report to learn about effective practices for addressing data management challenges.
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The growing adoption of laptops and other portable devices is changing the foundation of traveling and telecommuting. Laptops have overtaken desktops as the computer of choice for business users. While endpoint protection has been traditionally associated with solutions like antivirus and firewalls, these technologies don’t adequately protect data against theft, loss or unauthorized access. Learn more. Download this white paper now.
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There is an increasing trend among employees toward using their personal mobile device for fulfilment of their work commitments. While this appears to bring many benefits for the employee while, on the face of it, reducing upfront costs for employers, it does introduce significant on-going costs and risks for the organisation. However, with many appealing mobile consumer devices being offered, the trend is likely to increase. Organizations need to work out suitable strategies and policies to manage this complex and hybrid situation in the best interests of both themselves and their employees.
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In this white paper, you’ll learn the ten most important things to consider before you embark on organizational alignment project, how to position HR in the process and what role HR professionals should play and best practices for avoiding common pitfalls, such as planning a multi-tiered rollout to help goals work their way down an organization.
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Growing businesses run into some classic difficulties that can be avoided with some foresight and the right technology. Learn about the three major problems you're likely to run into if your company is expanding--and how you can head them off before they cause serious damage.
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The perception of most small to midsized business (SMB) executives is that most of the data they need to make decisions is available “in the computer system,” or at least locked away until the moment is right for it to be accessed and used. But what if your enterprise system has not been structured to track and report this information? What if this information or metric is not even defined? Download this TEC report to find out about the three keys to better data-driven decisions—and discover how an integrated enterprise system can help you jump-start a plan for accessing the right information at the right time.
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Freight costs can represent a significant component of your supply chain—often around 5-7 percent of sales for manufacturing, retail, and wholesale/distribution companies. For many firms, this responsibility is not managed as well as it could be. This white paper shares 10 best practices in transportation management, with valuable insights from industry professionals.
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When buying a new business phone system you are faced with a wide variety of phone features to choose from. Before you buy, make sure you don’t overlook these commonly forgotten features. This guide details such features as conferencing, auto attendant, mobile extensions, and many other valuable features.
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Promoting band image, improving overall business performance, and keeping customers happy is a main concern of many businesses. This paper demonstrates how the Extended Enterprise platform can help specific verticals to promote and sell their products to external audiences. Know the value of the Extended Enterprise solution in financial services, insurance, government, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and associations.
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The administration and management of printing can be time-consuming, often relying on manual processes. Many businesses are rethinking their approach to managing the print environment, by either adopting a managed service or implementing centralized print management tools. This can ensure the high availability, reliability and manageability of printing resources, while leaving IT staff free to focus on core activities.
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Computing infrastructure today though versatile must be used wisely. Intelligent workload management (IWM) allows for efficient consumption of computing resources while ensuring business tasks are supported by all needed resources—and that this is all done securely. IWM tools support the building, management, monitoring, and securing of workloads. See how to run your cloud computing system with leading-edge technology.
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Whether starting a business, setting up new office locations, or supporting employees while on the road, hosted voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) can help each situation by setting up “virtual offices.” This white paper will show examples of how a business can lower costs and increase flexibility with a new hosted VoIP solution by creating a virtual office environment.
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To effectively transform succession planning from a manual, paper-based process to one that is systematic and technology-enabled, CEOs must focus on laying a solid foundation supported by strong executive leadership. Read this CEO guide to get five key tips to jump-start your succession planning efforts to better manage risk and ensure business continuity and to know how a strong succession strategy can impact your company.
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This report focuses on how cloud infrastructures are being used by sales and marketing, finance, and operations in professional service organizations (PSOs). It outlines the benefits of using a cloud infrastructure to manage enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other enterprise systems. With the right solutions in place, globally dispersed project teams have unlimited accessibility to secure and reliable information.
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Successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployment demands a focused examination of the professional services provided by your organization, and the most efficient infrastructure required to support them. You must provide your most important asset—your people—with effective tools that can be accessed remotely, securely, and immediately. Professional service organizations that understand this will be in a strong position to determine the best cloud-based solution for their needs.
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Universities and other higher education establishments have to address the need for savings across the board. One area is expenses from faculty members and other associated with faculty. The complex mix of expense types needs a flexible yet solid means of managing spend as close as possible to the point of expense that encourages the individual to participate in the process without it being seen as an imposition. Know how.
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Balancing employee requests for keeping mobile channels open, while getting the right level of work and commitment from them, should not be left to chance. All organizations need to fully understand their employees’ mobile usage and behaviors to be able to put appropriate policies in place to ensure business requirements are met while acceptable personal use is still enabled. Read this white paper to know how to do this.
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The managed print services (MPS) market continues to evolve as vendors expand their service offerings beyond the office print environment. Today the business agenda is broader, and MPS must provide a route to business transformation as well as cost efficiency. Businesses thus must place their transformational goals on the agenda at the start of an MPS engagement. See what major MPS providers have to offer to your business.
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Leveraging integrated human capital processes to optimize organizational success. Having a complete view of the entire employee lifecycle—enabled with a centralized, integrated HCM platform—provides executives the information and the tools they need to ensure that they have the most efficient teams in place to achieve success.
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Operations executives are closest to the processes along the value chain, and as a result are best positioned to drive operational excellence initiatives. Collaboration with other functions is essential, but ultimately, it is the operations function that needs to be responsible for implementation. Find out what senior executives from around the world think about how to achieve operational excellence.
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Spurred on by the increased availability of high-speed data services and wide array of smartphones, many organizations see mobile applications as a way to improve organizational efficiency, increase collaboration, and raise the speed at which business gets done. To get the most out of mobility, organizations need to rethink the technologies, the people, and the processes involved in creating a truly mobile enterprise.
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IT is feeling the pressure to allow users to access sensitive corporate data via their personal mobile phones. Employees want the flexibility to use applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), e-mail and instant messaging not only from within the workplace, but at any time from any device. Yet, with network security and customer privacy at stake, IT has been slow to bow.
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According to The Nielsen Company, some 150 million people in the US will be using smartphones by mid-2011 to view twitter feeds, conduct searches, consult maps and more. People are increasingly using smartphones to get work done too. As long as it’s governed appropriately, workplace use of consumer-oriented smartphones can lower spending, heighten morale and help employees get more done.
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Not too long ago, business support of mobile workers centered on managing the use of a limited number of Windows-based laptops and BlackBerry smartphones. Today mobile phones are ubiquitous for most employees, and IT departments are being asked to provide broad access to networks, databases and critical enterprise applications while they manage, support and figure out how to protect data from theft and security breaches.
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This paper presents a more holistic approach to software quality management. It advocates systematic monitoring and ongoing analysis with an efficient business intelligence (BI) tool instead of occasional audits, which are time-consuming and selective by nature.
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Rich internet application (RIA) technologies in general and Adobe Flex in particular promise richness, usability and productivity exceeding those of today’s Web applications. However, little public information is available on measured results and savings achieved. This paper fills this much needed gap by providing results achieved by Verax Systems in real-life projects and is intended to provide real data.
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Mature sales and operations planning (S&OP) is more than a sales forecasting or tactical planning tool. S&OP is a decision-making mechanism for aligning strategic plans with sales, operational, and financial plans. Download this TEC executive brief for pointers on selecting an S&OP system, information about how mature S&OP processes can help tackle critical business issues, and key S&OP system capabilities to look for.
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Evaluating software solutions usually starts out as an assessment of architecture, features and functionality, business processes and IT fit. This makes perfect sense—until business stakeholders begin assessing the vendor as a potential business partner. Learn about the risks of entering into an agreement with a vendor, and how to find out if that vendor can deliver solution that will deliver the expected results.
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Digital Britain is the UK government’s strategic plan for the UK’s digital economy. While social inclusion and rights protection are major themes, the plan will also have a significant impact on businesses—encouraging the distribution and virtualization of business functions, and interconnectivity between companies, customers, suppliers, and employees. Learn how to minimize any harmful impact on your business.
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For managed services providers (MSPs) aiming to serve small and medium-sized businesses, the ability to capture and retain lasting customer relationships is a determining factor for long-term profitability. Only by clearly and consistently communicating your value to your customer can you hope to attain the role of trusted advisor—a position that will help protect you from losing business to lower-priced competitors. Learn how an integrated, offline reporting solution can help ensure that your customers perceive your value in the ways that matter most to all managers within the customer organization.
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A business' success delivering managed services depends on its ability to improve the delivery of effective and efficient services to its customer base. Learn about ways that managed services providers (MSPs) can develop a higher-value business by improving their ability to attract and retain high-quality customers and provide IT services in an effective manner.
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Service companies that want to thrive need to find a better way to deliver services and run their business. Automating IT services is the answer, and it should be the immediate goal of any company that aims to stay in business as market pressures increase. Looking beyond basic automation, becoming a managed services provider (MSP) should be the long-term goal. Discover ways to ensure your service company's survival in today’s competitive IT services market.
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For IT departments drowning in complex and expensive software maintenance chores, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model can ease the burden. SaaS reduces complexity by outsourcing most of the infrastructure needed to run software applications, and reduces costs by charging only for what is consumed. But you can also adopt a hybrid SaaS model, in which some systems are outsourced and others are kept in-house. Learn more.
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As you begin a customer relationship management (CRM) initiative, software selection is only one facet of a successful project. You may consider implementing your new CRM system with internal resources. But even in providing a simple CRM solution in your company, a number of steps need to take place, including requirements gathering, configuration, and more. Discover the benefits of selecting a CRM implementation partner.
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Most companies want to use customer relationship management (CRM) applications to “supercharge” their sales forces. They want to gain some advantage with customer retention and acquisition, to manage the sales pipeline, and to have better market insight. But few companies realize these goals, often because of the way CRM is implemented. Find out where a CRM implementation can get off track—and how to ensure CRM success.
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International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are the reporting standards developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). IFRS is now required or permitted in nearly 100 countries, while others plan to adopt or align with IFRS soon. In the US, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) will soon be aligned with IFRS. Find out how this will affect your company, and what you can do about it.
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Sole-sourcing business intelligence (BI) software from enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors is an alluring option for many companies. But in addition to the benefits, there are drawbacks. A study of 100 enterprises from the United States and the European Union that have deployed BI and ERP from the same vendor investigates whether customers are experiencing what sole-sourcing promised to deliver. Learn more.
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The small to midsize market for enterprise applications is already growing. Small to midsize businesses (SMBs) are looking for practical solutions that offer full capabilities at a quick return on investment (ROI). Vendors responding to SMB requirements now offer solutions with rapid implementation, Microsoft Office integration, and mobile support. Find out more about what enterprise application vendors are offering—and what you should be looking for.
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The global march toward making products and services more sustainable is gaining breadth and speed. No manufacturer will be left untouched by this phenomenon. To thrive in this new low-carbon world, you need to have a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of your products’ environmental footprint—from raw materials to manufacturing to distribution to end of life. Learn about life cycle methodologies that can help.
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To reduce time to market and realize the full value of its intellectual property, Cadbury plc needed to ensure compliance with government regulations. The company launched a long-term data management strategy, which included storing all data in a central repository—a product lifecycle management (PLM) system. Find out how Cadbury not only ensured compliance but also improved its response to consumer and customer queries.
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Process manufacturers can no longer rely on purely reactive strategies to product safety. Now, reactive strategies such as lot tracking need to be incorporated into holistic strategies that include proactive measures to assess risk and prevent costly quality assurance (QA) events like product recalls. Learn how you can develop a product safety master plan that reduces risk, protects products, and improves profitability.
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Financial pressures can strain even the most efficient and lean company. So forward-thinking companies should now turn to the chief financial officer (CFO). The strategic CFO is equipped with the tools, plans, and fiscal philosophy that can transform the CFO’s role into a strategic business asset. Discover the processes that allow the CFO to break away from the old paradigm toward better financial and risk management.
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Most document security companies concern themselves solely with the prevention of unauthorized access to content. Online publishers, on the other hand, struggle to find a balance between document security and a satisfactory reader experience. A new approach to document security can give online content publishers the ability to protect their content without adding unnecessary complexity to document access. Learn more.
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Sales and use tax compliance is serious business. To reduce your risk of facing a costly audit, you need to invest time and effort up-front by formulating a transaction tax policy. Responding effectively to audits involves knowing about your company, your operations, and your resources. Find out why a tax policy is important to your organization and how to make it part of your business process and procedures.
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IT departments rarely have the luxury of spare capacity or sufficient knowledge of all the products and technologies that the rest of the organization expects. However, IT is an integral part of most companies, and supporting diverse or specialized technologies and understanding their impact on the business is necessary. Organizations not only need third parties—they need them to be focused and cost-effective. Learn more.
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To survive in today’s ever-changing business environment, you need to make decisions and act quickly. To thrive, you need to do so more quickly than your competitors. Business intelligence (BI) solutions can support your ability to identify business opportunities and challenges, and to address them fast. Learn about a BI product that can help you identify challenges and opportunities and take action to capitalize on them.
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Do you understand the differences between open source and closed source (proprietary) software? To make an informed decision when choosing between them, you need to know the advantages and disadvantages of each. The main issues in the debate include cost, service and support, innovation, usability, and security. Get a closer look at open source and closed source software solutions so you know what’s right for your needs.
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Retaining good IT staff for clients is no easy task. They face issues regarding competitive rates, contracts, benefits, liabilities, and more. So how do companies determine if they have the right model of retained staff? Or how much of a firm’s IT should be outsourced? What are the typical billing models used by service providers? Get help with these and other questions, addressed from the service provider’s perspective.
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Currently, India’s population is approximately 1.0009 billion. The middle class is large and still growing; wages were low, but now are some of the best in various industries; many workers are well educated and speak English; and investors are optimistic and local stocks are up. Despite political turmoil, the country presses on with economic reforms. But for potential investors, there’s still cause for worry—find out why.
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Pronto Software—Australian vendor of software meeting the needs of a range of vertical industries such as retail and food and beverage—wants to ensure it sustains profitable growth. To find partnerships with value-added resellers (VARs) in North America and in other markets, Pronto relies on Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC’s) software industry programs. Learn about the other ways Pronto benefits from using TEC.
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The debate over climate change is quickly coming to a close and will soon be replaced by a new debate about policy alternatives. These policies will affect business in striking ways, through end-use efficiency standards, increased energy costs, and increased prices of raw materials and components. Take the most important action: analyze and understand your direct and supply chain emissions of greenhouse gases. Learn more.
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You can take two approaches to inventory management: assume it’s a necessary evil and implement an inventory reduction program when cash gets tight, or put an active inventory management process in place, and continually improve the business results. Learn how to view inventory as cash that can be invested in other ways: move from reactive inventory management to lean and active inventory management in six easy steps.
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Automation of human resources (HR) processes and integration across various functions can provide visibility into and analysis of the workforce. Having a single reliable source of information is key to enabling this visibility, which in turn can enable your company to align skills with business objectives. Learn more about how you can optimize your HR systems to meet your current—and future—human capital management needs.
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Strong evidence supports the notion that a well-groomed insider is a key to sustained company performance. In an analysis of 1,800 successions, company performance was significantly better when insiders succeeded to the job of chief executive officer (CEO). Learn why CEO choice matters—and how you can work toward better corporate succession planning by choosing a high-potential executive from within your company.
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The concepts of return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) have been used for decades in enterprise evaluations of IT investments, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, with the emergence of important new technological advances, executives are now expanding these traditional formulas to account for new opportunities. Learn more about their new methods for measuring ERP value.
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Survey data shows that companies want to improve their strategic business partnerships. Reflecting on lessons learned from past business relationships, 60 percent of respondents say that in future they’ll place more emphasis on developing personal relationships and setting expectations with business partners. Find out how these companies are creating collaborative networks that include business partners and consumers.
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IT has long been one of the best ways to address business challenges. Yet significant obstacles at the level of IT infrastructure stand in the way. Siloed IT operations and rigid IT management processes can impede business agility. When IT partners with the business to act less as a technology provider and more as a service provider, business objectives can be achieved more efficiently and cost-effectively. Find out how.
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During a downturn economy, the IT department is often among the first to be hit with senior executives’ cost-cutting initiatives. Yet in some instances, IT investments deliver more value to a company’s top and bottom lines—by creating new efficiencies and increasing revenues—than any savings gained from traditional IT cost-cutting. Discover the other reasons why your IT spending can actually save money in the long run.
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Business process management (BPM) software implementations are now moving into the mainstream. Many early adopters are already using BPM to foster business innovation. You can benefit from the knowledge gained by BPM leaders and innovators, and their prerequisites for BPM success. These findings can serve as best-practice guidelines for your BPM initiative, so you can derive maximum value from your BPM investment.
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For years, utilities have seen a growing need to enable a smarter electric grid, promote cleaner power sources, and replace aging structures. These issues came into sharper focus when US President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This legislation provides funding for many energy initiatives—however, strict compliance guidelines come with the stimulus plan. Find out more.
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You needn’t be a seer or sage to perceive risk—it’s as predictable and devastating as a Florida hurricane and as far-reaching as a corporate scandal. But you do need to be a visionary to see the underside of the risk coin. This side represents opportunity, competitiveness, and growth. Find out why insight into managing two types of risk, rewarded and unrewarded, can help you explore opportunities for growth and profit.
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The old approaches for collecting, assimilating, and delivering business intelligence (BI) data have not kept pace with today’s increasing demand for rapid decision making. Many companies use static reports and ad hoc queries, but fewer companies use dashboards and portals—which often lack the interactivity required for navigation and visualization of business data. Learn how a next-generation dashboard solution can help.
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Given the dramatic events in the capital markets, everyone is wondering what will happen next—and what the implications are for the wider economy. Learn about the crisis both in the capital markets and the wider economy; explore likely future economic scenarios and the challenges facing companies outside the financial sector—and discover the actions your company should take in order to respond to these challenges.
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Driving sustainable growth requires profitability-focused planning and performance management. Most companies have some type of profitability reporting—but many are investing a lot of effort to produce this information. And the limitations to the information companies currently compile may have a significant impact on decision making. Learn how automating profitability reporting can help your company improve decisions.
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The current global economic instability means firms have to quickly adapt to business conditions. This uncertainty may increase companies’ reliance on business alliances to provide as-needed skills, services, and products. To optimize these alliances, finance should enter the discussion as early as possible. Find out where finance’s true value lies when realigning strategic objectives to include business collaboration.
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Do you know what evaluation criteria you should consider when making a customer relationship management (CRM) purchase? Before embarking on the process of making this critical business decision, learn more about the 10 fundamental functional areas to consider, including acquiring new sales, improving customer satisfaction, getting a consistent view of the customer, and improving renewal, up-sell, and cross-sell.
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Often, enterprise applications such as document management software (DMS) don’t gain wide use within a company or provide full return on investment. For these elements to be realized, you must complete the puzzle by integrating with third-party applications such as accounting, personnel management, or other software products. Discover some integration points and the value-add of integrating business applications with DMS.
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Many business intelligence (BI) tools are designed for professional analysts and not business users. As a result, executives find they still don’t have the information they need to make decisions quickly and effectively. In order to maximize your potential in BI, you must embed it into the daily routine of your entire company. Find out about a BI solution that can help you, with functionality like interactive reporting.
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The key to enterprise performance management is to identity a company’s value drivers, focus on them, and align the company to drive results. But there are many management methodologies—such as the balanced scorecard, performance prism, and five forces. What is the right framework for your business? Find out about six management processes and the tools that can help you asses which metrics framework will work for you.
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IT spending is often an issue for companies, but in difficult economic times it’s even more important to see what benefit IT can bring to the business. But IT investments are most effective when they improve business performance. Find out the degree to which organizations in the United Kingdom (UK) understand what IT is doing for their businesses, and in particular how some companies measure this and benefit from it.
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Monitoring, measuring, and reporting on the financial health of a company is a basic need that requires effective tools and processes to optimize the end result. Underpinning this is the requirement for planning capabilities, using scenario and what-if analysis with simulations and other forward-looking capabilities. The new primary research presented in this report shows that most organizations still have much to do.
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The automation of traditional paper-based processes with technology can lead to unnecessary complexity. This leads to increased costs and other challenges which can be avoided if solutions are simple and fit closely to the business task in hand.
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As global economies become more uncertain, companies face increasing pressure to remain competitive. While an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can help, it’s only as effective as the effort placed in the implementation. By being aware of the reasons implementations fail and knowing what best practices to use to help ensure success, you can save valuable time and money—and have a higher return on investment (ROI).
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For a company that has grown to the point where an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is the logical next step, there are enormous benefits to be realized, such as centralizing key business data. ERP helps to alleviate pressures on the company by integrating all data and processes. Find out about the critical components of selecting and implementing an ERP system, so you can get the data management tools you need.
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In hard economic times, IT organizations can maintain operational excellence and sustain service quality while still reducing costs. Achieving this objective involves at least three aspects of application management: managing change, managing technical performance, and managing user performance. Learn more about managing the change process in your PeopleSoft environment, and the value of an integrated change solution.
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) should provide all employees with information that helps them perform their jobs. But process manufacturing is very complicated, so your ERP software must be robust enough to support your information needs. While no packaged ERP can meet everyone’s needs perfectly, finding the best fit for your needs is key. Learn seven things not to do during your ERP software selection project.
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Automating finance processes—such as closing the books, reporting, and other labor-intensive processes—reduces finance costs. By streamlining financial processes, you can spend more time on higher-value responsibilities and help ensure your company has a competitive advantage. Find out about the financial solutions many financial managers are implementing to automate their financial processes and financial transactions.
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Despite the consensus that warehouse management systems (WMS) offer many benefits, getting approval for a new system is challenging. You need to get key decision makers in operations, IT, and finance—as well as the executive team and the board of directors—to see value in the proposed WMS. But how can you improve your chances of getting management approval? Discover five strategies for information-gathering and approval.
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Server-based computing has been seen at best as a way to provide those within highly task-based environments with a controlled desktop environment. However, changes in software, hardware, security, and management systems are driving the shift toward server-based computing being suitable for a larger proportion of a company’s user base. Learn how client-side computing can be more tightly controlled yet provide flexibility.
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Network-centric operations (NCO) provide the ability to leverage information networks to generate a more dynamic and agile decision-making space. A fundamental enabler is service-orientated architecture (SOA). The use of industry-standard IT architectures helps ensure that systems can be provisioned rapidly, shared as appropriate, and give the flexibility and response times needed within such challenging environments.
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Given today’s economic climate, companies are looking to create more value by reducing risk and saving costs. As companies increasingly rely on data networks encompassing an ever-growing range and number of internet protocol (IP)-enabled devices and applications, they need to more effectively administer and manage these assets—they can no longer take the management of their IP networks for granted.
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The question constantly being asked by Microsoft® customers is, “How can Microsoft® help our company save money?” Customers want an integrated, adaptable business management solution that works well with, and is similar to, familiar Microsoft® software. Find out about the solutions Microsoft® believes are the best for helping its customers save money, to gain a competitive advantage and fuel business productivity.
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Data center electrical efficiency is rarely planned or managed. The unfortunate result is that most data centers waste substantial amounts of electricity. Today, it is both possible and prudent to plan and measure data center efficiency. In addition to reducing electrical consumption, efficiency improvements can bring higher IT power densities. Learn how to describe, measure, and evaluate data center efficiency.
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In today’s Web-connected era of business, the quest for new ideas that boost competitive edge and deliver new sources of profitability is no longer a solitary activity. The Web has become a source of breakthrough innovation—enterprises no longer have to invest in expensive tools and skills to spark and manage innovation. Get tips on how you can best deploy the Web for better innovation management and profit enhancement.
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Swiss financial services company Global Refund needed to replace its antiquated customer relationship management (CRM) system. To find a mobile-enabled, user-friendly solution that could handle the company’s 15 million yearly transactions, Global Refund turned to TEC. Learn how TEC helped Global Refund turn its long-list of 40 vendors into a short-list of four, and shave two months off the selection process.
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Today’s rigorous reporting requirements suggest there’s a crisis of trust among companies’ stakeholders. But scrambling reactively to implement one-off responses to each new set of compliance regulations won’t rebuild stakeholder trust—such short-sighted solutions just cost a lot of money. An integrated approach to governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) offers a path to better decision making. Learn how.
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Chief financial officers (CFOs) are under greater pressure, scrutiny, and accountability at companies large and small. An ideal CFO is a steward of decision-support information, cost controller, and more. With data supplied by some of the world’s most successful CFOs, get insight into what CFO responsibilities should be today to achieve extraordinary results, and how they should change to meet future challenges.
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Decision making is at the core of all business activity, as executives set strategy and manage operations by weighing a vast array of factors to arrive at the desired balance of risk and reward. But enormous growth in a company’s size and operations adds complexity to decision-making processes. Learn about the five ingredients of good decision making, according to the responses of 154 executives in a global survey.
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Because sustaining a strong relationship with customers is essential for future growth, the most successful companies work hard to ensure that their customers don’t feel shortchanged. But the benefits of customer satisfaction extend beyond gaining more business with a single account. Find out how to get a better understanding of your customer information, such as customer spending, for more reliable sales growth.
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In a global survey of senior managers in various functions from 17 industries, 61 percent say IT’s primary mission today is that of reducing costs and boosting productivity. But the IT mission is changing: nearly 70 percent of the same executives say that within three years IT’s main role will be to enable revenue growth. Learn more about how this shift is expected to happen, and how to manage it in your organization.
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Best practices in technology can help manufacturers of complex products and equipment get their offerings to market more quickly and profitably by enabling them to become more cost effective and efficient. But there are still challenges to be overcome, due to product life cycle complexity. Discover the best practices that can help you make the product and make it right, on time, and within budget—while making a profit.
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Because business processes are often communicated in an ad hoc and unregulated manner, it can be difficult to standardize processes across organizations, particularly larger ones. TEC analyst PJ Jakovljevic takes you on a guided tour through workflow automation—or business process management (BPM)—and shows how these solutions can help ensure standardized adoption of processes, with highlights on several key BPM vendors.
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In the corporate world, the word “excellence” is used a lot, but what does it really mean? One way to answer that question is to examine what companies that are considered to be excellent have in common. Learn the common characteristics that allow excellent companies to lead in their markets while continuing to innovate, and find out how your company can measure, achieve, and sustain organizational excellence.
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In today's market, companies need to make investments that really count. In this webcast, you will learn why investing in the right technologies and gaining more value out of IT assets already in place should be an important focus for small and midsized companies.
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By automating and optimizing business processes, companies gain the efficiency, clarity, and flexibility they need to support the creative development of products and services. Employees in such an environment spend less time on mundane business tasks, focusing instead on generating new ideas and innovative products. Learn how integrated software solutions can help you invest and innovate to sustain your company’s growth.
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Many organizations do a poor job of measuring the business value of their IT investments. Simple financial metrics are not good enough. But there are a number of consistent, repeatable, and credible measurement methodologies that hold both business users and IT departments accountable. Compare four methodologies, and learn how adding one of them to your overall governance framework can improve your IT investment returns.
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No doubt you’ve heard of such tongue-in-cheek expressions as "Keep it simple, stupid!" and "It’s the economy, stupid!" However, today, the appropriate mantra for those who belong to social networks should be, "Virtual organize it, stupid!" Find out how you can apply the principles and best practices of virtual organization management to any level of organizational structure, in combination with social networking tools.
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Data center commissioning requires tight coordination between vendors, facilities, IT departments, engineers, the commissioning agent, and others. Managed properly, commissioning can deliver an unbiased evaluation of whether a new data center will succeed or not. Managed poorly, it can lead to problematic data center performance issues. Learn 10 common data center commissioning mistakes, and find out how to avoid them.
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The need to share information is greater than ever, with increasingly complex company-wide processes. The movement of digital data, both within a company and across its porous boundaries, carries more and more risk as regulations for data protection and personal privacy are tightened. Discover how to stay ahead of the competition by putting the technology in place that allows you to share content widely, but safely.
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Companies initiating layoffs in response to market problems tend to focus on retaining “high-potential” people. Unfortunately, human resources (HR) departments’ definition of “high-potential” often leaves out a company’s best problem solvers. A better approach is to put your most talented employees to work solving the problems facing your company. Find out how to identify your best problem solvers and help them thrive.
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This white paper highlights the key challenges facing the financial services industry, and discusses how the 2007 Microsoft® Office system can help financial institutions affect business performance with innovative and powerful enterprise capabilities that extend far beyond improving personal productivity.
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When Microsoft researched nearly 200 companies with more than 250 PCs using applications in the Microsoft Dynamics line of business management solutions, the common issue was the need for modern systems. These companies wanted to avoid mistakes caused by manual processes, integration problems with other systems, and more. Explore these companies’ experience with using Microsoft Dynamics to update business processes.
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IT groups aspire to standardize on common integration platforms, but the pressure to integrate with business partners quickly often forces companies to favor expediency over strategy. With so many technology choices, it’s important to understand the role each can play when building an overall business-to-business (B2B) strategy. Learn about the four points you should consider when evaluating vendors and service providers.
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E-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways of reaching audiences. But it’s only effective if it reaches inboxes. As Internet service providers (ISPs) develop increasingly stringent rules to fight spam, spoofing, and phishing, many legitimate messages are getting blocked. Find out how to cope with the constantly changing deliverability landscape and learn key strategies for improving e-mail marketing results.
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Midsize companies seeking high annual growth rates rarely have the resources to pursue risky new businesses or markets. Instead, they must start by protecting their existing businesses and further penetrating existing markets, while keeping an eye out for possible product diversification or extension into new markets. Find out how your company can avoid disaster by properly preparing for new products and markets.
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Organizations preparing to meet globalization head on face a complex set of business and technology challenges—from the supply chain complexity of entering new markets to the need for global visibility and standardized business processes. Learn how globally implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and integrated business processes are helping companies exploit new markets and lower manufacturing costs.
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With products increasingly becoming commodities, chief executive officers (CEOs) recognize that first-rate customer service is key to enhancing customer satisfaction. While revenue is flattening for many product businesses, service income is increasing. Find out how integrating business processes and customer relationship management (CRM) data can help you deliver new service offerings and improve the customer experience.
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The practice of human resources (HR) management has evolved dramatically over the past 10 years. Some might argue that those changes are sufficient to satisfy today’s business requirements. But will they be enough to meet the critical challenges of tomorrow? Find out how effectively first-generation HR initiatives dealt with strategic issues, and what you’ll need to focus on for a successful response to future changes.
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Chief financial officers (CFOs) are moving beyond administrative and transactional tasks and becoming catalysts to improve business performance. In collaboration with business units, they are developing the metrics and data required to track and meet business goals. Find out how they’re capturing and disseminating the information needed to make operating and management decisions, and provide decision support to finance.
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Some executives say the greatest risk to any large company is IT failure. IT applications routinely support critical processes throughout a business: customer service, invoicing, payroll, regulatory compliance, and more. With so much depending on IT, any disruption can be ruinous. But amazingly, many companies don’t have sound IT risk management processes in place. Find out how investing in IT reduces your security risk.
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As financial resources become scarcer, maximizing return on assets (ROA) is becoming a key corporate strategy. Unfortunately, metrics governing asset performance are not always available in real time, and are often of low or mixed reliability. Improving visibility into asset performance can help management streamline processes and make better decisions that can ultimately deliver superior corporate results. Find out more.
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With the frenetic pace of global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) showing no sign of abating, nearly every chief information officer (CIO) today must at some point grapple with the enormous challenges of integrating acquired companies. But too often success eludes the merged companies—with IT getting part of the blame. Find out how to avoid common M&A pitfalls and achieve rapid, highly effective post-merger integration.
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In today’s economy, competitive advantage can be short-lived. Companies recognize that continued investments in IT infrastructure are required to stay ahead. Executives in all industries must understand how IT drives value and competitive advantage. Explore the relationship between IT investment and gains in performance and productivity, and find out how leading companies are maximizing their returns on IT investments.
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One of the riskiest moves company stakeholders can make is to acquire and merge with another company or to divest themselves of company assets. Despite the best of intentions, many mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures produce results far below expectations. Learn why failure happens, and how to prevent it by following the overriding best practice in successful acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures: preparedness.
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Companies can reduce operating costs and improve the ways they do business by using customer relationship management (CRM) systems that support real-time decision making. But you must ensure you deploy applications that can leverage industry best practices while retaining the competitive differentiation from a well-honed business process and strategy. Learn about the benefits of using CRM with industry best practices.
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Designed to improve consumer financial services, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) includes security provisions for protecting confidential electronic financial information. For the approximately 9,500 financial institutions affected, compliance can be complex and process-intensive. Learn about network security auditing and vulnerability management solutions that can make GLBA compliance faster and more cost-effective.
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Since the last recession in 2001, customer relationship management (CRM) systems have gained greater acceptance. Though CRM systems haven’t been widely tested under adverse business conditions, results achieved by CRM strategies indicate that businesses with an effective CRM approach will have a vital competitive advantage in recessionary conditions. Discover three key strategies to using CRM as a tool against a recession.
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As companies come to grips with current fiscal realities, choices may result more from reaction than the use of sound judgment. Removing vital resources and reducing services can create an even lower return on investment (ROI) than existed before downsizing. Outsourcing may offer a solution. Learn about the effects that the present financial situation will have on the outsourcing community, including buyers and suppliers.
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Whatever you offer as a service provider, success depends on how well you manage key accounts to ensure long-term relationships and the highest possible margins. But with today’s challenges, it’s difficult to maintain market share, let alone grow. SAP’s All-in-One fast-start program offers a solution that can help you maximize client and service-line profitability by supporting industry best practices. Learn more.
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A failed software implementation can cost companies millions in wasted time and money. To ensure your software selection project isn’t a sorry statistic, use the right metrics to gauge your success. Time, budget, and functionality aren’t enough--focus your efforts on requirements analysis and definition. Take measures to ensure your software meets your needs, and discover how to perform accurate requirements analysis.
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Many companies consider customer relationship management (CRM) the new frontier in marketing. But many are also trying to adapt new CRM applications, or to choose systems that best align with their business needs. But some companies have stumbled and been forced to re-evaluate their strategies to avoid repeat mistakes. Read about six problem areas in CRM software strategy and learn from others’ mistakes, not your own.
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Recent EquaTerra market research finds a consensus among western business leaders that increased globalization is inevitable—and that it will generally be beneficial. Quickly and efficiently leveraging opportunities created by globalization is the best way to avoid being overwhelmed by its challenges. Learn how to compare buyer and service provider data and get insight into developing a responsive global strategy.
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For many companies, the second largest cost after people is facilities. Solutions have evolved from traditional out-tasking and outsourcing to the more recent strategy of integrating facilities management and real estate under a single service provider. But first, understand marketplace realities: provider capabilities don’t always line up with buyer expectations. Learn about the challenges of integrating these services.
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Chief financial officers (CFOs) and procurement directors want to speed up and simplify the outsourcing provider selection process, to reduce costs and gain benefits sooner. Here are key issues you should consider when fast-tracking the process of scoping and negotiating a sourcing transaction. Collaboration and interaction are key to shortening the process while still achieving your end goal. Find out more.
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Here's an all-too typical scenario. Management at a multinational company decides to implement a standardized enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Everyone expects to cut costs and improve core end-to-end processes. But 13 months later, vital key performance indicators (KPIs) don’t improve as planned. Discover how a company focused on user performance to bring its ERP reality back into alignment with its vision.
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The constant launch of new telecommunications products creates stiff competition, and to manage increasingly complex product portfolios, you should ensure your processes are optimized, your data is accurate, and your solutions are integrated. The first business area you should focus on is order management. Find out how you can better address the challenges of the order-to-cash cycle, decomposition, provisioning, and more.
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Ping Identity provides software for the computer security and identity management industry. Ping wanted to facilitate rapid, high-end development and accelerate time to market for its leading Web security product. When its first outsourcing choice didn’t offer enough Agile development expertise, Ping found another solution that helped reduce costs by 46 percent and doubled in-house performance in key areas. Learn more.
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The one thing you can count on today in business is change, whether it’s customers, business models, or the pace of business. To manage change, companies rely on technology. But the most effective management control and optimization of company performance can be achieved only if you have the right systems. Discover how an integrated system can help you manage data and make better decisions, for a more successful company.
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Making a robust business case to convince management how a software solution can make a valuable contribution to your business isn’t easy. To build a successful case, you need a set of practical examples of what the software does and the benefits it can provide. Examine the strategies and problems associated with achieving your manufacturing objectives, and what the Lighthouse Systems’ solution can do to address them.
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Before you talk to a payroll services provider, you need to ask yourself several important questions about the current situation of your organization, and to consider its budget, expected growth, and more. Here’s a checklist of some of those questions so you can make the most of your consultation with potential services providers. Get organized and know your requirements before you commit to buying a payroll solution.
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Emerging technologies promise the possibility of big benefits. But real success comes only when a technology’s strengths outweigh its limitations. In the field of learning management, this often means user support must be among the solution’s strengths if it is to thrive. Discover how users have influenced today’s top five e-learning learning trends, and how you can use them to unlock your organization’s full potential.
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In today’s changing, competitive world, companies must adopt a continuous improvement methodology to support sustainable and profitable business models. Processes must be seen as a lever for analyzing and optimizing the way firms works. Before you initiate any project involving process automation and management, discover five key points that can help you make continuous improvements in the life cycles of your processes.
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IT organizations struggle with the challenges of shrinking budgets, ever-changing technology, compliance pressures, and more. For greater efficiency, many IT organizations are turning to information technology service management (ITSM) to help improve processes. But there’s still too much focus on technology and not enough on business outcomes. Learn key strategies for changing your approach to delivering IT services.
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In 2007, IT GRCM (governance, risk, and compliance management) became a hot new segment in the IT industry. Many vendors began offering solutions for policy mapping, advanced computer controls collection, and more. Now, IT GRCM providers are revamping their products for increased efficiency and usability. Get ratings for the overall market as well as market segments, and learn from a vendor product and service analysis.
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The latest Pulse surveys reflect business process outsourcing (BPO) and information technology outsourcing (ITO) market activity during the first quarter of 2008 and projections for the future. If you’re considering BPO or ITO, the surveys’ results can inform you on demand and buying patterns, deal scope, sales cycles and ramp-up time, as well as outsourcing’s role in making human resources more strategic. Learn more.
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In a world with few constants, sustaining growth and outpacing competition are key concerns for just about every company, regardless of industry, geography, or size. Globalization puts pressure on companies to find the best talent and use best practices. Discover the corporate attitudes to the risks and opportunities of global competition—and how you can overcome the challenges of outsourcing your business processes.
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Corporate leaders must look carefully at how their companies are organized and staffed, and keep the “right” people. But who must be kept and who can you afford to let go? If you don’t know how to re-engineer your staff, you might not be saving as much as you think. Discover methods and technologies that can help you avoid the pitfalls inherent in any reduction in workforce—to save money while you retain the best talent.
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Managers of learning and talent already know a learning management system (LMS) can help companies cut costs or improve profits. But how do you show that return on investment (ROI) to others? Learn more about the benefits, as well as how to assess the ways an LMS can positively effect your business and to calculate an LMS’s real cost of ownership, whether as a software-as-a-service solution or a traditional purchase model.
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Nucleus Research reports that NetSuite, a leading integrated Web-based business software suite, can deliver a positive return on investment (ROI) in fewer than nine months, by automating processes, boosting sales, increasing productivity, reducing or avoiding headcount, increasing data visibility, and retiring costly legacy systems. Learn how NetSuite business management software provides a positive ROI to businesses.
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Many companies don’t place a high enough value on the importance of learning and development. How can you convince the rest of your organization to get on board? You need to build a business case that involves more than a return on investment (ROI) document or static business plan. Find out ten steps that can help you address immediate problems, build alliances throughout the company, and make a successful business case.
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Small and medium businesses (SMBs) often don’t know how to engage and manage outsourcing initiatives. Both outsourcing provider and seeker should together address several questions when starting a project to outsource business or technology processes. What’s the cost benefit? What are the risks involved? Find out the customer and the vendor perspectives, and how to achieve cost savings and service-level improvements.
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Software-as-a-service (SaaS), also called on-demand software, can be a convenient and profitable business model for vendors. And for clients, SaaS can provide greater processing efficiencies than a company’s own internal systems. As a result, human resources, customer relationship management, or accounting process costs decrease when handled by an SaaS vendor. Learn about the benefits—but also the challenges—of SaaS.
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For many companies, a challenging business event or critical business pain precipitates a conversation about business intelligence (BI). But don’t wait until you introduce new products, upgrade your IT environment, or notice that your inventory is increasing but not your sales. Find out how to build a return on investment (ROI) for your BI applications and projects, so you can leverage your own data before it’s too late.
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Why bother measuring your recruiting performance? The simple answer is, if you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Unfortunately, human resources (HR) is great at working with people, but not always so successful at driving strategic value. Turn touchy-feely comments like “our hiring managers are very happy” into hard metrics, and accurately measure your recruiting performance by following a simple six-step process.
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Internet protocol (IP) and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) systems allow inexpensive transport, cheap phone calls, and simple management of a single network. But the true value is in the new applications IP enables, such as unified communications (UC). How can you use UC to further decrease costs, enhance productivity, and improve customer service? Learn how to go beyond messaging for real-time call control and more.
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To stay ahead of the competition, medical device manufacturers must find ways to speed product development, create manufacturing efficiencies, and increase the effectiveness of sales and marketing investments—while addressing product safety and regulatory compliance. Read about a solution that incorporates best practices while maintaining the flexibility to support the evolving needs of your growing medical device company.
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Efficient procurement and sourcing. Storing and moving inventories. Attracting and retaining customers. Such challenges have an impact on wholesale distributors’ revenues, competitiveness, and profits. To make timely and informed decisions that can impact your business, you need answers to questions like “How can I offer value-added services to improve customer loyalty?” Get the answers to this and other key questions.
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Web 2.0 and social networking tools and trends are having a huge impact on business today. But to realize the benefits of social networking, you need to understand the roles and expectations of your customers, and how to use those tools to position your company appropriately. Get tips on how to empower your customer engagement with Web 2.0 and customer relationship management (CRM) 2.0 social networking tools.
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Statistics show that nearly one-fifth of IT projects make it to the finish line—so project planners need to be aware of the primary factors that can ruin a project, and how to prevent them from happening. One of the biggest obstacles is poor team communication, even when you have the best talent and a good work environment. Learn about the top three techniques that can help you get your people working together as a team.
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According to a major IT research firm, less than 20 percent of IT projects are completed on time and on budget. Project management (PM) experts agree that internal resistance is one of the factors that can ruin a project. What does it take to get your people to say “yea” instead of “nay”? Find out other common causes of project failure, and how to encourage your team members to embrace change and communicate better.
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Simulation software can give you valuable insights into the forecasted outcomes of your business processes and decision making. But if you don’t have the type of simulation software than can develop and analyze the types of models made for your particular industry or service offering, you won’t get insights that really help. With this concise list, learn about the functions of three types of computer simulation software.
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Three problems are common to most complex environmental modeling efforts: they’re uncertain, multifaceted, and hard to communicate. Overcoming these challenges is especially important when modeling the performance of proposed and existing radioactive waste management facilities. Graphical simulation tools can help represent uncertainties, integrate all aspects of the system, and ease the presentation of complex models.
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Identifying and managing the risks associated with water resource projects is a challenge due to the variables of water systems. To overcome this challenge, you need to compile all available information into a framework that can be used to predict the outcome of alternatives. Find out how a computer simulation model can help water resource engineers improve the financial and environmental performance of their operations.
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According to an IAG survey, 70 percent of companies lack the fundamental competencies within business requirements discovery to consistently bring in projects on time and on budget. Why do so many fall short in properly diagnosing their requirements failures? Discover how placing a greater focus on the combined aspects of business requirements—people, process, and tools—can provide better project outcomes.
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Some managers have concluded that strategic planning is nothing more than an exercise in futility, to be taken out and dusted off at annual meetings. However, strategic planning can still help direct your company and improve earnings. The trick is strategizing well—which means having all the information you need, when you need it. Find out how to hone your competitive edge with integrated business planning capabilities.
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Over 80 percent of consultants in service organizations consider spreadsheet-based business plan modeling inadequate. Weak client–partner relationships reflect this inadequacy. An integrated business planning and modeling platform can provide deeper insight into a range of strategic and operational issues. Find out how this can result in enhanced decision making and optimized long-term client engagement and satisfaction.
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Although information technology service management (ITSM) is not a new discipline, many organizations have yet to adopt it as a part of their IT service improvement strategy. To be successful, businesses must start by building a custom road map. Read about how focusing on long-term, strategic objectives—including a realized return on investment (ROI)—can greatly improve your IT service delivery and support.
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In the public sector, where it’s often more about process than the business case, recompeting a current outsourcing relationship doesn’t always make the most sense for ensuring continued value. Due to the cost and time investment in the recompete process, it can often cause more problems than solutions. In many cases, outsourcing agreements simply need to be updated to meet changing business requirements. Find out how.
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In the past 10 years, business process and IT outsourcing markets have become globalized, raising some key issues for outsourcing buyers. How can you develop a service delivery model for your business that fully exploits global sourcing opportunities while supporting overall corporate strategies, goals, and principles? By developing a set of integrated capabilities and processes as part of your core competency.
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Empirical evidence demonstrates that the benefits of a distributed IT services model are considerable—yet many companies still resist the change. If IT professionals took the time to fully understand the positive impact of distributed services models on both cost and value, they’d be better equipped to fight organizational resistance and develop a road map for successful change. Find out how you can build yours today.
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A contact center is a mission-critical component of any organization’s operations—regardless of who they service. Yet stakeholders often remain dissatisfied with its performance. In the past, contact centers benefited from advances in information and technologies, yet many companies struggled to determine how they could take advantage of these benefits. Find out how embracing both old and new technologies today can work.
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For many organizations, undertaking IT and business process outsourcing involves everything from finding and assessing providers, to selecting locations, to determining which services are required. But the hardest part of outsourcing occurs after the deal is done. To help businesses ensure consistency in outsourcing governance, there are nine critical factors to keep in mind that can help guarantee its success.
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Senior finance executives in all industries recognize the long-term benefits of transaction-processing automation on resource allocation. Transaction automation frees time and resources that can be allocated for decision support and financial planning and analysis. The result: sustained, profitable top-line growth and risk reduction. Find out other benefits of improving your back-office processes through automation.
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With the number of vehicles worldwide expected to triple in the next few decades, the toll collection market will need to adapt to meet demand. Increasing traffic will make the use of conventional toll plazas unfeasible. Electronic toll collection (ETC) systems can help by supporting multilane, free-flow tolling that can be tailored to specific standards and processes. Find out what you need to know, before ETC passes you by.
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In today’s Internet-connected global economy, the market doesn’t allow for companies to sit back and relax into a comfortable niche. Customer loyalty is ever harder to maintain, and you risk losing your business to competition if you can’t respond quickly to market change. Before you lose any more ground, find out how to replace your disconnected, redundant business processes with flexible and efficient ones integrated by IT.
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To make timely, well-informed decisions, you need just that: time and information. This means having fast access to accurate information from every department in your company, and time away from fighting fires to focus on priorities, problem solving, and marketing strategy. We examine how you can gain reliable, accessible information from efficient, integrated IT systems—and use that information to make faster, smarter decisions.
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Developing business acumen isn’t easy, but it is fundamental to business alignment. What does that mean exactly? It means understanding what it takes for a business to make money, and it involves the financial literacy of how strategies, decisions, and actions impact the bottom line. Through classroom-based training, your managers and employees can learn how these connections are made to the business. Find out more.
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The rules for success in today’s fiercely competitive market are constantly changing. Through service delivery innovation, a company can differentiate itself. But how do you change your service delivery methods to keep existing clients and entice new ones? A networked organization is one of six characteristics of successful service delivery innovation. Find out how you can put them into practice and attain the benefits.
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Although enterprise resource planning (ERP) software industry consolidation is nothing new, the constantly changing market dynamic affects product lifecycles, supportability, and ERP return on investment. In fact, you could say that it both creates new potential and contributes to old problems. Get a handle on what this changing market means for you, with this overview of industry consolidation pros and cons.
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Getting CFO or CEO approval to purchase a new software system is often a challenge—but more so if that system is for human resources (HR), as HR is not traditionally considered a profit center. You need a business plan to gain management buy-in for your proposed HR project. Not sure what your plan should address? Find out the key components of a persuasive and detailed business case, so you can get support for your initiative.
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The US energy sector has experienced recent loss of counterparty confidence. To offset this, managing credit risk has become paramount. Knowing what the risks are is just the start—risk mitigation methods must be used to reduce overall credit risk exposure and to free up capital resources. Find out three key ways to mitigate risk, and how a clearing, novation, and release agreement (CNRA) can help guarantee collateral.
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In today’s business environment, companies that used to compete with each other routinely form alliances to attain their business objectives. Find out how PMOLink, a business consulting firm, managed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) selection project for a client by joining forces with Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC). The end result: a best-match ERP system for the client—nine months ahead of schedule.
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Kelly-Moore Paints, the largest employee-owned paint company in the US, was looking to consolidate all business activities into one company-wide platform. The challenge: it had only 10 months in which to complete the project—including requirements-gathering, evaluation and selection, and implementation. Find out how Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) helped Kelly-Moore take control of its software selection project.
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Businesses today are increasingly committed to Web-enabled applications as a cost-effective way of delivering critical business solutions. But as more and more businesses follow suit, it becomes increasingly apparent that better performance and availability across the Internet must be realized by the early movers in order to maintain their lead. With the deployment of advanced products and services, this can be achieved.
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Blade computing is a new computing architecture that provides a highly dense, scalable, and powerful flexible platform to support businesses’ software needs. Blade architecture was once used for simple server consolidation, but it has now become a way of managing IT assets, which provides significant business benefits. Find out how a blade system can benefit your company while optimizing your existing infrastructure.
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To keep your growing business competitive, your data center must be secure, protected against disaster, and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But if managing IT is not your core competence, what are your options? A managed service provider (MSP) can help. Learn about the benefits of outsourcing data center management, and make sure your crucial business applications are always available when you need them.
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Today’s IT professionals are often challenged by unrelenting changes in the enterprise, increased data growth and compliance regulations, and geographic distribution of assets, to name a few. Keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) over Internet protocol (IP) can help by providing an effective tool that can remotely manage servers—regardless of their physical location. When looking for a KVM over IP solution, you should consider some basic requirements first.
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Is it possible to easily migrate from legacy tape devices to encrypting tape drives and still keep costs to a minimum? The answer is yes. With a comprehensive key management storage security system, a manageable and affordable migration process is achievable with a simple 3-step process. This process includes many benefits, such as a complete feature set that enhances system auditability and minimizes operational costs.
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Creating a give-and-take relationship with a software vendor will help you get the most from any application. If your organization does not use a request for proposal (RFP) tool, use this checklist to help you with your software selection process. Make this solution-provider checklist work for you: your best-fit vendor and the software tailored to your business needs are easier to find than you think.
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Why is Vyatta’s open source networking approach so successful? Because it is in touch with today’s users needs. By eliminating the reliance on specialized hardware, Vyatta’s open source, Linux-based approach to networking is changing the way networks are being purchased and deployed. With its strong community of users, Vyatta is challenging even proprietary networking vendors like Cisco. We challenge you to find out more.
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Environmental concerns are a focal point for businesses wanting to “go green,” and they are looking at every aspect of their operations, including their printers. Replacing even a portion of energy-inefficient printers with environmentally friendly ones will have a positive impact on the environment, helping to conserve energy and reduce waste. Saving energy is not only good for the planet; it’s also good for business.
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Joshen Paper & Packaging needed to update its enterprise resource planning (ERP) distribution system. Joshen partnered with Vormittag Associates Inc. (VAI) and found a solution that consolidates its financial reporting and provides its sales team with real-time inventory information access. The result: faster inventory turnaround and order fulfillment—and to date, about 100 new clients in its customer base.
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If you base your selection of an outsourcing partner on a service provider’s strengths, it can be difficult to make an apples-to-apples comparison among the various models. The best way to make a comparison in a thoughtful and effective manner is to develop individual specifications matching buyer needs with service provider strengths in order to make an enduring match. Find out how.
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Out of 100 IT projects, 94 will start over again at least once. Before your company launches its next package implementation or upgrade, make sure you don’t cripple the project from the start. Make sure your company has a clear understanding of how important the requirements definition stage is, and carries it out properly. Most importantly, find out about tools and ideas you can put into practice immediately.
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There is a high demand for economical and efficient enterprise applications. The Internet and open source software are creating opportunities for software vendors to deliver their software as a service. By transforming your own applications, you give your clients access to your solutions on the Web, on a per-use, per-project, or subscription basis—giving them the inexpensive, accessible service they want.
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Implementing IT solutions that fulfill all corporate requirements requires exhaustive research and analysis. But the reality is that most organizations have neither the time nor the resources to do all this. Indeed, such an approach is largely impractical, since by the time you’ve built your perfect solution, it may already be out of date. So what are your real options? Three words: Business. Process. Integration.
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Many small companies have limited resources to devote to the implementation and maintenance of enterprise resource planning (ERP). Fortunately, the price performance of ERP and the underlying infrastructure supporting it have improved steadily and significantly over the past two decades. In fact, solutions that were once beyond the reach of these small companies are now well within their grasp.
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Today more than ever, retailers are faced with the challenges of selling locally while competing globally. To be successful, they must provide a shopping experience that inspires customer loyalty. Retailers that understand their customers’ shopping habits can build strategic global supply chains that anticipate demand. One way to achieve this is with a scalable technology platform based on industry standards.
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When deploying any new system, preparation is key—and Internet protocol telephony (IPT) systems are no exception. Part 3 of this 4-part e-book series provides some basic steps you can take to successfully deploy voice and data network services. A complete capabilities inventory has been included to help you ensure that every feature of your current system will be considered for inclusion in your new system.
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By some estimates, there are over 8,000 sales taxing jurisdictions in the US—and they implement from 900 to more than 3,000 rate and tax-rule changes every year. Understandably, the accountants who try to guide small to medium businesses (SMBs) through the intricacies of tax compliance are having a hard time of it. However, solutions are emerging that are uniquely suited to SMB needs for sales tax compliance.
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Many companies believe their employees are their most important asset—and spend significant amounts of money every year on their training and development. But how can these companies quantify what this investment will do to their bottom line? With the right tools, decision makers can gain the critical business intelligence they’ll need to confidently invest in their human capital, and measure and report on its impact.
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For a lot of companies, making the decision to replace an existing business software system can be a difficult one. The process can be so unpleasant that many organizations may be reluctant to even get started, coming up with a number of reasons why they could probably get by with the systems they already have. If your company is struggling with this tough decision, you may want to ask yourself these ten basic questions.
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Small to medium businesses (SMBs) need technology to survive in a competitive business environment. However, regardless of the business type, size, or industry, incorporating technology into existing frameworks involves risk—to productivity, customer service, operations, and the bottom line! The key to reducing risk and increasing productivity is thus the selection of technologies that will accommodate change in your business.
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Keeping track of your key business indicators is the difference between a thriving business concern and a business on life support. But even with this knowledge, one-third of chief executive officers (CEOs) feel they don’t spend enough time reviewing financial and operating numbers. But is spending more time agonizing over piles of data really the best solution?
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When businesses commit to implementing customer relationship management (CRM), they commit to realigning their entire organizations around the customer. More specifically, they commit to collecting the right data—and using it the right way at the right time. But if you’re the manager championing CRM in your organization, how do you create the CRM buzz and obtain executive buy-in?
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It can be a real problem keeping prices competitive when manufacturing costs are soaring. Over-pack and giveaway can be a huge drain on company profits. However, real-time weight control software can pay tremendous dividends if implemented properly. Integrating a weight control database into an existing system can reduce errors, “fool-proof” data collection, and shift the system from reactive to proactive.
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Understanding process variation is vital—not only in manufacturing industries, but in transactional environments as well. That’s why the tools you use to understand the root cause of common cause variations need to be both powerful and easy to use, whether you’re measuring variations in sales performance, wait times in hospital emergency rooms, or cycle times for order fulfillment.
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Most people recognize that a robust control phase is the key practice separating Six Sigma from other process control methodologies. Unfortunately, many Six Sigma programs do not practice a robust control phase—with the result that old habits take over, and improvements gradually degrade. Worse, nobody even knows it happened! Why would well-intentioned people allow this to happen?
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How can you ensure that you make the right choice when purchasing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software? The answer: take all the critical components into consideration. ERP selection is not just about what different people in your organization want or don't want, it's about getting what you need for now and the future. Remember, you're not just buying software; you're buying into a vendor and its company culture.
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The benefits of e-learning have been amply demonstrated and extensively documented. However, less attention has been paid to the business benefits of implementing learning management systems (LMS). The misconception is that LMS and e-learning are irrevocably linked. But that isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, an LMS can provide real benefits, in the broadest—and most critical—business sense.
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A single view into the health of the IT infrastructure is essential to efficiency. However, comprehensive monitoring is inaccessible to many IT organizations, thanks to limited resources: not only must they deliver performance and availability at service-level agreements, but they must find efficient ways to do it, to address other priorities such as innovation, training, development speed, and revenue support.
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La abstracción es el ejercicio de comprender una serie de problemas a la vista heterogéneos y darles comprensión homogénea. Una de las principales abstracciones del mercado actual de las entidades es la administración, motivo por el cual se anunció el Microsoft Business Framework, el cual afectará el ERP clásico de las supuestas Best Practices.
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The importance of resource selection is undervalued in the software industry. But in fact, the resource selection process is directly related to software development mission success. The in-house interview process typically fails to achieve comprehensive in-depth skills assessment, and is not cost-effective. However, you can improve matters by integrating external technical skills assessment expertise into the hiring process.
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To simplify and greatly improve their BI shortlist selection processes, companies should focus on the business value and ongoing expenses that different solutions create—measured across a few key variables. This paper outlines key criteria that companies should consider when creating their business intelligence shortlists—and when making their ultimate selections.
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NexPress, a mid-sized company specializing in print solutions and services, needed to integrate its business processes across its supply chain. It also wanted to increase inventory visibility, and control and eliminate redundant data maintenance. By implementing mySAP and SAP SI s MaxValu, it reduced its operating costs by more than $1 million (USD) in just sixteen weeks.
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Universal Instruments Corporation, a leading capital equipment manufacturer, needed a flexible business solution to meet the challenges of globalization, and had to replace its legacy system. It used SAP for Industrial Machinery and Component, which is an integrated scalable solution and was able to enable global processes consistently throughout its geographical locations.
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