The concept of getting business requirements right sounds straightforward. However, flawed requirements trigger 70 percent of project failures. The larger the number of stakeholder groups involved, and the more complex the processes, the more likely a project will fail. Success in large projects is not just about completeness, but also about getting complete requirements information early in the development process.
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Almost everything you know about human resources (HR) outsourcing is about to change. The future is about single-source integration, and there are key new technologies that herald this era: unified service for HR, time, payroll, and expense tracking; management dashboards; streamlined employee interfaces; synchronous data with a single database; and empowered reporting.
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An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is your information backbone, reaching into all areas of your business and value chain. That’s why replacing it can open unlimited business opportunities. The cornerstone of this effort is finding the right partner. And since your long-term business strategy will shape your selection, it’s critical that your ERP provider be part of your vision.
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Aligning your business plans with your method of execution requires more than a peek at financial metrics. Initiatives, tasks, people, and metrics must be aligned with corporate goals. Find out how strategy management software, alone or as part of a performance management solution, can provide clear visual links between individual initiatives and broader goals, and ultimately enhance your business’s overall performance.
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The Internet creates new opportunities for mischief—and new challenges for managers. How do you balance individual access with the overall good of the business? What’s the right balance between monitoring and blocking? Learn about a Web security solution that can allow you to monitor and enforce your Internet usage policies, bringing site monitoring and filtering together with anti-virus and anti-spyware protection.
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As management visionary and author Peter Drucker once said, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” No statement rings truer—especially when it comes to security risk reduction. By having an accurate depiction of your network, however, you can identify real-world security threats and learn how to evaluate your organization’s ability to respond to them. Find out how, with these seven essential steps.
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A dashboard is a vital tool for monitoring the daily health of your organization. From a single interface, decision makers have access to key performance indicators (KPI)—actionable information that can be used to effectively guide and track business performance. Successful implementation of a dashboard is complex and requires a step-by-step process using a methodology that considers all aspects of the project life cycle.
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The ability to extract and present information meaningfully is vital for business management. Indeed, business intelligence tools enable companies to make better decisions, by providing the right information to the right people at the right time. Moreover, employees increasingly suffer from information overload, and require solutions that make informed decisions a more natural part of the everyday work experience.
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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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Before adopting any applications for key business functions, executives should perform a thorough total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis. Unfortunately, apples-to-apples comparisons can prove challenging. While it may be tempting to compare the initial license price of on-premises software to the annual subscription fees for cloud computing, this methodology fails to account for the ongoing internal operating costs for the on-premises software. Beyond direct software and hardware purchase and implementation costs, it’s also important for organizations to consider additional business drivers, including infrastructure and resource overhead, maintenance costs, ongoing operations, flexibility, and risk. Download this paper to learn more about how you can estimate the true TCO of cloud applications versus traditional on-premise software.
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In a 2006 SAP survey, 93 percent of respondents experienced data management issues during their most recent projects. The problem: many organizations believe that they are using master data, when in fact what they are relying on is data that is dispersed throughout the enterprise. Discover the importance of master data and how the ideal master data management (MDM) solution can help your business get it under control.
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Over 90 percent of human resources (HR) professionals rate employee performance management (EPM) as a top priority. Yet considerably fewer have EPM systems deployed within their organizations, mostly because of concerns about presenting a persuasive case for such projects to executive management. However, a structured approach to selecting, planning for, and implementing an EPM solution can help alleviate those concerns.
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A hosted Internet protocol private branch exchange (IP PBX) system can provide an easy way for small to medium businesses (SMBs) to move to voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and get a new range of features and capabilities. While there are several IP PBX options, hosted applications are usually quicker and cheaper to install. Discover the critical features and services your SMB needs in a new hosted phone system.
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As businesses adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to give their departments accurate and accessible shared data, human resources (HR) isn’t being left out of the loop. In fact, most major ERP vendors now offer their customers HR modules that help automate an array of tasks while generating crucial data for enterprise planning and optimization. Get Focus Research’s take on the top 5 HR modules for ERP systems.
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Given the complexity of today’s dynamic IT infrastructures and the broad range of management disciplines necessary to support them, choosing a lifecycle management solution can be a difficult and bewildering project. Simplify your project by downloading this side-by-side functional and financial comparison of solution suites from four of the leading vendors in this market space: Dell KACE, LANDesk, Microsoft, and Symantec.
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Enterprises of all sizes are adopting Internet protocol (IP) telephony for cost savings and productivity gains—but high quality voice service takes more than just buying the latest equipment. Is IP telephony right for your organization and your network? Get the straight facts from an industry leader—along with a 7-step assessment and deployment checklist for a successful implementation.
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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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How can you get the most out of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution while reducing operating costs and increasing overall profitability? By purchasing a hosted CRM solution that’ll provide the benefits of an on-premise CRM solution without the need for a complex implementation or the assistance of an in-house IT team. Hosted CRM is a cost-effective solution that promises a quick return on investment (ROI).
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Talent management is just a matter of anticipating the need for human capital and then creating a plan to meet it. But many approaches to talent management fail, as they’re based on outdated forecasting models. But you can anticipate and meet demand in an uncertain environment by borrowing lessons from operations and supply chain research—and forge a new way of looking at succession planning and talent management.
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Two forces are driving organizations to consider succession planning as a component of overall strategy: the aging workforce and a shortfall in labor skills. Both factors will only become more pressing as time goes on. That’s why succession planning requires a long-term strategic commitment rather than a short-term (and sometimes panic-driven) effort to fill vacancies as they occur.
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