Today’s technology and application leaders are pressured to deliver functionality that drives efficiency, innovation, and growth—while reducing costs. As a result, technology and application portfolio management (APM) are top business priorities. Learn about a framework for implementing an APM program that can enable your company to monitor and analyze the impact of application changes and reduce portfolio complexity.
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Acts of cyber aggression could lead to a cyber war or worse. Capitol Hill is giving attention to this security issue, and vendors are creating new offerings and expanding existing programs—creating new opportunities in the defense industry and opening doors for new players. Learn more about the blurring between information security vendors servicing the private sector and those in the defense and intelligence industry.
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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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Knowledge management requires a platform that identifies all data associated with business processes—and the people that participate in or have responsibility for them. A true enterprise information management platform helps capture knowledge: it captures tacit knowledge as workers perform daily tasks and converts it to actionable knowledge items. Learn how knowledge management is vital to the nuclear industry.
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Hirotec has been supplying and caring for the assets of some of Australia’s biggest industries for more than 30 years. In 2003, Hirotec was on a strong growth trajectory and realized its IT system couldn’t support its expansion—but that deploying an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system across the company would require staff buy-in. Now, with PRONTO-Xi, Hirotec has reduced invoice cycle time by 20 percent. Learn more.
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Based in Houston, Texas (US), Commonwealth provides engineering and construction management services for chemical process industries. Aiming to drive operational efficiencies and enable cost-effective growth, the company chose to centralize project management and accounting, and turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, New Vision Consulting Group, to deploy Microsoft® Dynamics® SL. Learn how the company benefited.
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Engineering firm Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon, Inc. needed to collaborate more efficiently across its 11 offices in the eastern United States. The firm chose ProjectWise collaboration software for engineering content management, content publishing, and design review, and integrated it with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007, to manage business processes and documents in a distributed environment. Find out more.
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What makes your enterprise resource planning (ERP) requirements difficult for most vendors to satisfy? As a life sciences company, you have operational processes that set you apart from other manufacturing companies. And, your regulatory requirements, including 21 CFR part 11, aren’t like those of any other industry. The challenge is to manage compliance risks and compliance costs. Learn about an ERP compliance strategy.
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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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To retain the integrity and availability of your key operational data, your server infrastructure must provide effective data backup and recovery. When used with a storage area network (SAN), a data protection manager (DPM) can help increase your storage space, reduce time needed to create backup, and allow for quick recovery of data when disaster strikes. Learn more about this scalable and cost-effective solution.
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Today, all retailers that process, store, or transmit cardholder data have a fiduciary responsibility to protect that data. As such, they must comply with a diverse range of regulations and industry mandates. However, many retailers struggle with the task of implementing the proper policies and controls. Discover how log management and intelligence (LMI) can help you simplify and accelerate the compliance process.
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There’s a war going on, and many companies are fighting it—and losing. It’s a war to attract and retain great talent. While projected economic growth is fueling demand, companies of all sizes are finding it difficult to get and keep skilled employees. What can be done to stop this talent crisis? Organizations must make talent management a top priority. Find out how this simple tactic can lead your organization to victory.
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When it comes to US Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance, safe change actions are critical. But what’s the best approach for file integrity monitoring and change detection? While there are many solutions on the market, continuous file integrity monitoring (CFIM) is winning over the competition worldwide. Find out how CFIM can handle your operational control monitoring requirements.
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If the auditors came knocking, would you be prepared? When they do come, you’ll need to be ready to answer some tough questions regarding your change management processes. Implementing and assessing change management controls for Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance in the US can be a very expensive and time consuming process. Find out how you can reduce the SOX burden by improving the way you manage your change processes.
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Many companies spend an inordinate amount of time and money ensuring their documentation meets regulatory standards. But in order to streamline the document submission process in a cost-effective manner, companies should adopt document management technologies coupled with collaborative document transformation tools. Learn how these tools can help your company accelerate its submission-compliant document workflows.
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As the global marketplace continues to become more competitive, enterprises are struggling with how to retain their competitive edge. While many have transferred their databases to internet protocol (IP) to replace outdated systems, some have yet to upgrade their phone systems as part their strategy. Discover how migrating to voice over IP (VoIP) as part of an overall telecommunications strategy can help your business.
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Managing IT assets is a vital corporate function—and a source of potential liability if not performed properly. By effectively managing IT assets, businesses can be assured that each IT dollar has been well spent. With an asset management solution, your IT staff can monitor application usage and budgets more accurately, and improve in-house IT support and performance—resulting in greater efficiency and reduced costs.
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Eight years ago, architect Kevin Harris, like many other architects, found it difficult to accurately charge clients for his services. But after attending courses to learn the proper methods for tracking time and costs, he realized that what he really needed was an integrated system. Since implementing BillQuick time billing and project management solution, Kevin has been able to easily and accurately manage billing.
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Accounting and enterprise resource planning software are not interchangeable solutions. How do you decide which option is for you? Outlining your business structure and considering four key facets of your selection process will help you determine which software meets all your business needs. You can find the right product for your business, whether you need a bookkeeping or all-encompassing business software.
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Developing a good disaster recovery plan (DRP) in today’s business world is a must. In fact, downplaying the importance of a DRP can be costly—especially if you’re a small to medium business (SMB) that is slow in adopting DRP. Recent studies have shown that 40 percent of businesses that have encountered a disaster close their doors within the following five years. To stay afloat, here are ten steps that should be taken.
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In order for a business to stay on top of compliance requirements required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)—and avoid financial penalties or possible jail time—it must take a good look at its IT environment and financial reporting processes. The collection, management, and analysis of log data are integral to meeting SOX requirements and as such, require a system that automates these processes across the IT infrastructure.
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Today’s extensive use of data collection tools coupled with the easy access to communication networks has woven more devices and systems into the fabric of our daily lives. As the scale of integration and complexity grows, so does the need for the appropriate paradigm to address it. In order to scale, system software architecture must be organized around a common-shared information model that can span multiple systems.
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Aerospace and defense (A&D) has unique security needs. Avoiding the unauthorized sharing of technical information and intellectual property is essential. Product development systems (PDSs) provide the secure, real-time collaboration A&D needs, including extended and secure collaboration of distributed product development processes. PDSs control access to intellectual property, mitigating information sharing risks.
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Improving the content of technical publications is possible with a product development system (PDS). A PDS solution can automate and optimize the technical publishing process and can end publication bottlenecks caused by launch delays due to poor process. A PDS solution allows for concurrent development of products and publications—keeping your engineering and publishing departments in sync.
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Microsoft Dynamics is a business management solution designed to allow your employees to customize and automate their Microsoft Office system user interface according to their preferences and work styles. Microsoft Dynamics helps your employees and your business work more efficiently—giving you a faster return on investment and an effective and profitable business.
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Microsoft development tools will help developers and independent Microsoft software vendors integrate Microsoft Dynamics GP with existing applications. This accounting and business management system includes many features and benefits, as well as guidelines to help developers choose the right tools for various development tasks and create custom applications that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics GP.
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Color printing used to be reserved for only the most important documents, where the high cost was justifiable. As printing technologies have advanced, however, color printing has been added to the everyday office environment. Today, the demand for color printing is growing as more and more organizations discover that they can print in color as easily, quickly, and inexpensively as in black and white.
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Chemical companies struggle with outdated manufacturing and financial systems, often not reaching their profitable goals. How can they give customers high-quality chemical products while improving the bottom line? Industry best practices can help you gain control over every aspect of your business by increasing your visibility into operations, helping production go more smoothly, and reducing costs and lead times.
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For independent software vendors (ISVs), software delivery creates big operational challenges. Integrating an application with the latest operating system and service pack causes headaches for customers and suppliers. However, pre-built server devices or appliances contain one convenient, ready-to-go system, minimizing configuration glitches and letting customers and suppliers step back while the appliance does the work.
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Reducing server management complexity and total cost of ownership (TCO) are key IT goals. There’s a new generation of automated management tools designed to enable provisioning, monitoring, and control of blade systems in infrastructure deployments. This means more work in less time, ensuring IT talent is responding to business needs—resulting in improved TCO metrics rather than time-consuming manual processes.
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There is no single antivirus engine on the market today that is the fastest and most effective at identifying viruses, spam, or other threats. According to a recent survey, 97 percent of organizations have antivirus software installed, yet 65 percent have been infected at one time or another since. One way to reduce the chance of virus infection is to install multiple antivirus scanners at the mail server level.
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Is it beneficial to use multiple types of virtualization software together? The answer: yes. Combining complementary virtualization technologies provides a stronger, more robust solution that reduces costs, maximizes return on investment (ROI), and minimizes the number of servers to manage. By consolidating these technologies, organizations can get the most out of the application, hardware, and operating system (OS).
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Customers, employees, and partners are an integral part of any business—each playing an important role in its success. But how is it possible to share vital information between them? In order to access information, understand trends, and build better processes, a system that enables multi-user collaborative technologies is required. Without these collaboration tools, business process management (BPM) cannot be successful.
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As the digital era evolves, media content companies are faced with a number of new challenges. One such challenge is that they can no longer specialize in one communication format. The advertising market is now a dynamic and complex forum making it difficult to manage multiple channel revenues. A standard, integrated solution, however, can facilitate the management of advertising revenues while increasing customer satisfaction.
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Just when you thought you had all your security measures figured out, along comes the portable storage device to make you question them all over again. With the popularity of portable consumer products—and their ever-increasing storage space—comes a greater risk of losing sensitive corporate data. To secure corporate data, companies must not only focus on perimeter security, but on internal security weaknesses as well.
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Benchmarking is a process where companies compare their performance over time against their competition. In doing so, they can identify where their strengths lie and where improvement may be needed. The point of benchmarking is to focus on areas that will yield the best return. For companies to succeed in their benchmarking efforts and gain a sustained competitive advantage, five key steps should be considered.
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When it comes to disaster recovery (DR) software, companies should think of it as an insurance policy—not just software that recovers lost data. Being prepared for disaster makes good business sense, but oddly enough, few companies are. Because Linux distributions don’t include DR tools, companies must look to a file-based recovery solution that can recover the entire system and eliminate the need to rebuild.
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"Wild West" is a metaphor often used to describe the wireless wide area network (WAN) business. But it s worse than that. In the Old West, everyone had a gun. In this business, customers are defenseless. What s going on? Well, for one, vendors are playing fast and loose with terminology that should mean something. Wireless is compelling, but how do you decide what s right for you—and who do you trust?
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Why do some customer relationship management (CRM) implementations fail? The answer: companies’ lack of understanding of their current CRM environments, and of what areas need modification or improvement. Companies with a clear understanding of what they need from a CRM solution—as well as of what CRM means to their business—are more likely to succeed. To clinch that success, some key elements should be assessed first.
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In business, planning plays a fundamental role in analyzing and forecasting key financial data. While forecasting future events is one benefit of planning, it can also be used to achieve a series of objectives, including regulatory compliance. In order to achieve these objectives, companies should consider implementing a unified customer performance management (CPM) solution—one that takes compliance into consideration.
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For most companies, e-mail is an integral part of the business workflow and a primary channel for communication. For these reasons, e-mails can be considered legal business documents and should be retained for a predefined period to satisfy government regulations. With an e-mail archiving system, message contents and attachments are stored in a read-only format, ensuring they are archived in their original state.
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Over the past few years, vulnerabilities have exploded across all types of platforms—leaving IT security and operations teams scratching their heads. Today, many companies use the scan-and-patch method for managing vulnerabilities—a reactive security process that should be avoided. By combining assessment and remediation, companies create a vulnerability management program that can rapidly respond to emerging threats.
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Although layer-two networks are a viable, cost-effective alternative to traditional wide area network (WAN) services, they have some major security deficiencies. One of the key drawbacks of layer two is its inability to handle identity authentication—which creates serious theft and vulnerability problems. With a layer-two data protection solution, however, you can mitigate these types of security issues.
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Storage area networks (SANs) are complex structures that contain an infinite number of configuration possibilities—making the process of configuring the devices to be installed into the SAN a lengthy one. To simplify the process, QLogic’s configuration wizard provides users with some basic tools to guide them through common SAN tasks, enabling them to easily build stable and secure SAN fabrics for their storage solutions.
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The days of storage area networks (SANs) built with hubs and based on private, arbitrated loops are gone. Today’s fully public switches—which include a variety of switch features—make managing large SANs a lot easier. The key to a flexible SAN is the switch’s ability to create zones, which allows the SAN to be partitioned into various groupings and enables SAN managers to allocate storage where it makes the most sense.
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The first step to a successful storage area network (SAN) implementation is preplanning. Architecting a SAN not only helps solve issues of storage consolidation, it facilitates day-to-day data center support and maintenance. A SAN investment should save support dollars, not require additional support resources. With a sound implementation strategy, costly upgrades—and many headaches—can be avoided.
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Portable document format (PDF) files are used by businesses worldwide to streamline business processes and secure archives. In order to comply with ever-changing government rules and regulations, many companies have come to rely on the security and ease of use that PDF formats provide. With Print2PDF 7.0 Server Edition, documents are easily converted into secure, industry-standard PDF files that can be viewed by anyone.
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With data theft on the rise, many companies are forced to improve their network security. And although they spend millions of dollars every year on securing these networks, the focus has largely been on securing the access to the network rather than protecting the information itself. Secure information sharing (SIS) solutions integrate additional intelligence into the process—and protect your data without added overhead.
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Now that you have planned and assessed your new system, it’s time to explore the next phase of the integration process: design and pre-deployment testing. Part 4 of this 4-part e-book series provides a basis for the exploration of network design. In addition, it includes a report card that will help you select the appropriate design and validation software tools for your Internet protocol telephony (IPT) system.
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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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Chapter 2 of this 4-part e-book explores the Internet protocol telephony (IPT) life cycle, and discusses how understanding the key phases of this packet-based system can increase implementation success. By harnessing your knowledge about this system's natural rhythms, you will begin to establish key concepts that you can put into action—facilitating the management of the system and reaping its long-term benefits.
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As the era of traditional telephony draws to a close, the doors to the next generation in communications open. Chapter 1 of this 4-part e-book discusses electronic human voice communication and its importance in business today. It documents the underlying beliefs, philosophies, and observations of the future of telephony, and provides the basic concepts readers will need to guide them through the rest of the series.
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Data loss can be damaging to a business—hurting short-term stock prices, impacting customer relationships, and reducing revenues. As more companies conduct business via network communication, the need to protect their customer data and intellectual property becomes greater. With a data protection solution, organizations can secure their data in motion—without introducing unmanageable cost and complexity into the network.
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When it comes to security architecture, choosing a system that’s scalable and applicable to a broad set of security needs is a wise move. New security services for Internet protocol (IP) networks are emerging that enable new levels of scalability and manageability—while remaining completely transparent to the network. By applying this type of system, you build an optimal framework for future security applications.
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Spam considerably lowers user productivity, as it delivers unwanted, irrelevant, or anonymous e-mail messages. The best way to manage the incidence of spam is to measure it. The Spam Index—a tool for measuring improvement in spam control systems and for comparing spam control performance with competitors—is a method used by businesses worldwide to achieve lower spam levels and improve business performance.
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In this new era of corporate governance, risk avoidance, and responsibility, organizations are more than ever held accountable if their data is not properly protected. As such, many are finding new ways to address security risks, by developing multiple layers of defense to reduce points of weakness. Deploying data encryption technology is a good place to start—but the key is making the right choice.
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Heightened awareness of vulnerabilities in sensitive stored data has resulted in the increased application of encryption technology. To secure data at rest, a well-defined process for handling the keys used to encrypt data—as well as the keys used to safeguard the data encryption keys—is essential. With the proper key management controls in place, companies can ensure that data is effectively secured and recoverable.
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Imagine this scenario: an infected laptop within your company has accessed the network and is spreading malicious code to thousands of other devices. This incident could cripple any business, but with network access control (NAC) products, companies can rest a little easier. NAC’s ability to measure, enforce, and report on an array of security issues has gained it attention amongst security conscious organizations.
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As proprietary network hardware appliances become obsolete, unified network platforms (UNPs) are slowly gaining momentum. UNPs are the new paradigm for networking and security—operating on a single system that can be implemented on off-the-shelf hardware. With a UNP, organizations can design, build, manage, and maintain secure networks, without the limitations and expense of vendor proprietary hardware and software.
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Malicious hacking and illegal access are just a few of the reasons companies lose precious corporate data every year. As the number of network security breaches increase, companies must find ways to protect data beyond the perimeter of their businesses. But how do they build a data-defensible architecture that will protect data on an ever-evolving network? The answer: by first developing an in-depth defense strategy.
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Small to medium businesses (SMBs) often face the same challenges as large businesses—just on a smaller scale. One such challenge is finding a business solution that manages expansion and addresses complex reporting and compliance issues. Many SMBs are now adopting enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions—complete with tools to help them meet the current and future needs of their growing business.
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Wide area networks (WANs) are essential to the majority of businesses, enabling effective communications within the organization and with customers, partners, and suppliers. As more bandwidth-intensive applications are added to the mix, these networks are expected to handle the extra load—which can decrease its performance. Ensuring WAN usage is well-managed eliminates unwanted traffic and accelerates business activity.
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Small to medium businesses (SMBs) face the same challenges as large businesses when it comes to IT management—they have increasingly complex systems they rely on to drive their businesses and gain a competitive advantage. Operating and maintaining a complex IT infrastructure requires specific skills, but getting the right staff at an affordable price can be a problem. Outsourcing IT management may help to ease the strain.
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How can a budget administrator, burdened with the task of gathering data from hundreds of spreadsheets from all over the organization, manage this monumental undertaking? Additionally, how to avoid using a costly packaged budget application that doesn’t take the organization’s business rules into consideration? The solution: a spreadsheet automation tool that easily adapts to the organization’s unique corporate processes.
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Scanning technology has changed dramatically over the years with new, more powerful, and reliable imaging scan engines now surpassing the laser scan engines of yesterday. Although both laser and imaging technologies continue to improve, there’s a debate on which technology is superior. When researching data capture equipment, you may be asking yourself, “How do I choose the best scanner for my application?” Here’s how.
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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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Choosing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) package that’s right for your business can be difficult and time consuming. Finding a software provider and discovering what doing business with them will be like is as important as the overall functionality of the software itself. Before committing to a long-term relationship with any potential software provider, there are some really tough questions you need to ask them.
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Interactive web sites are event-driven. With each user click, a menu selection or keyboard action initiates a thread of execution that runs many lines of code. Many Web projects start as small code snippets gathered from open source sites, but as the web site grows, new developers are added to the mix. Without design and documentation tools, the project can become unmanageable, unreliable, insecure, and costly to expand.
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For many firms, continually moving people to new projects under different leaders is the only possible way to operate. The formal boss on the org chart may only rarely get a chance to observe employees in work situations. This isn’t normally a problem; direction is provided by whoever is leading the project. Where it is a problem is when it comes to performance appraisal—there is no one person who can do that appraisal.
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Tackling the transformation to lean production is high-priority in the aerospace industry. After all, lean manufacturing eliminates waste from essential manufacturing processes and helps you measure up to your competitors. But how can you attain true lean transformation—and what specific steps does your company need to take? Take a self-rating test and see where your company really stands.
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The most effective project managers know that accounting for the effort, cost, and profitability of each person or project is the best way to succeed—and doing so is not as hard as you might think. The process will take you from where you probably are right now (the state we affectionately term “chaos”) to a prosperous state of order—and will also save your organization financial resources and valuable employee time.
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A customer relationship management (CRM) solution is now a standard business requirement. With origins as a system for sales teams, CRM has clearly evolved into a mandatory tool for providing benefit to the entire organization. However, methodology and training play instrumental roles in successful CRM implementations; if designed well, these critical components will ultimately ensure user buy-in and success.
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Poor customer experiences can happen at any touch point within your company. It could be employees responding to customers requesting information, placing an order, or trying to resolve a problem. It could be the inside sales team. Or it could be the collections department. But by deploying an advanced contact-handling application, you can improve customer satisfaction—at all touch points.
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“Get this to me ASAP. I can’t afford any delays.” Your customer service representatives hear these statements every day. Your clients are demanding speed and quality at every touch point: the days when they’d accept tradeoffs between product quality and timeliness of service are over. Organizations need to adapt to this reality—before their customers defect to the competition.
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The earned value management system (EVMS) is a method of tracking cost and schedule performance using work breakdown structure/earned value (WBS/EV) techniques. Formerly called C/SCSC (Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria) by the contract industry, an understanding of WBS basics is essential for any US contractor wishing to be selected for new major systems contracts over a certain funding threshold.
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Most project-oriented businesses are faced with poorly designed, archaic computer systems that have inadequate project reporting and accounting structures. This can limit the information provided to project managers for project reporting. However, properly designed work breakdown structure (WBS) systems give cost and general accounting the ability to rely on a simpler chart of accounts, while providing more project management flexibility.
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Just as back-office automation became critical for competitive success in the last half of the twentieth century, customer relationship management (CRM) is today’s imperative for success. However, the key to creating business value with CRM is remembering that business strategy and technology strategy are linked. Companies that believe they can implement CRM capabilities based on technology alone will fail.
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The process of implementing a new enterprise solution is incredibly complex. This process can send your organization down a long road of beneficial—and sometimes painful—change. The good news, though, is that if the implementation is done right the first time, you won’t have to travel that road again. The key question: how do you do it right?
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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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.NET technology is a wake-up call, and some people are sleeping through it! Remaining competitive means mission-critical software systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, must be designed from the ground up for connectivity and integration. But software developers don’t advertise their shortcomings, and some ERP vendors—and by association, their customers—are being left behind.
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Customer-facing processes are challenging to manage because they are always changing. Conventional workflow automation and stand-alone business process management (BPM) technologies lack many critical components found in customer relationship management (CRM). However, converging BPM and CRM provides the responsiveness, cost-effectiveness, and manageability to achieve optimal results. The converged approach helps align priorities enterprise-wide, reduce risks, and unblock revenue growth potential.
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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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Choosing the right customer resource management (CRM) application involves looking at its ability to solve many business challenges—both expected and unexpected. Analyzing CRM applications for their problem-solving acumen can help your business successfully select a platform that improves the way you do business, drives profits, and reduces risk, while minimizing IT resource requirements.
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Customers are the lifeblood of any business, and receiving quality customer service is a major factor in their purchasing decisions. There are six key elements that can help distinguish your organization’s product or service from your competitors. By applying these key elements, you can unlock the lifetime value of your customers and build an outstanding referral platform for future growth.
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In the past few years, the number of county employees at the Prince William County Government in Virginia (US) has grown significantly, but with few additions to the administrative staff. Prince William County needed a system that would help its agencies process personnel action forms (PAFs) more efficiently, reduce mistakes, limit paper use, and provide a central repository for PAFs.
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The road to implementing customer relationship management (CRM) systems is fraught with risk and littered with failure. Paradoxically, reams have been written by industry practitioners explaining why CRM projects fail, yet the same patterns and mistakes are repeated—over and over again. While there is no magic bullet, following some simple guidelines can help assure CRM success for your organization.
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Selecting a new enterprise customer relationship management (CRM) solution is an undertaking that requires careful planning and managed execution. And in fact, there are a number of common mistakes that organizations make. Failing to execute the selection process in an objective and structured fashion can be an expensive financial mistake—as well as a fatal hit to your professional reputation.
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We all know that computers, generally speaking, have not been as reliable as phones. And the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) surrounding voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) has been, in some cases, justified. However, for VoIP the question now is not whether reliability can be achieved, but rather how much reliability you can expect from the options available to you.
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The average personal computer (PC) costs an enterprise $10,000 (USD) per year to own and maintain—five times the purchase price of the hardware and software! Is it possible to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of technology platforms? Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) manageability can be a crucial step in self-provisioning users and unburdening valuable network professionals.
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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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La administración de un negocio familiar es más complicada que aquellos negocios cuyos dueños no tienen ningún parentesco, porque la familia dueña del negocio desempeña el rol central y dirige el negocio. La falta de una administración formal y efectiva es la mayor causa para problemas organizacionales.
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Channel partners are money-making sales and service arms for any vendor. Supporting partner leads can increase sales in difficult-to-reach markets, and expand customer bases in existing sectors as well. Greater revenues and larger market shares are vital to survival in today’s business world, but some simple tips can help maximize lead generation and open the door to closing more sales.
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Business strategy execution requires the control and automation of complex processes, and the ability to quickly analyze data relevant to the enterprise. Companies have to address these processes in a responsive, flexible way. However, this cannot be achieved simply by optimizing local activities. Multiple activities from different departments must be synchronized, toward the overall goal of increasing organizational profitability.
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Effective communication uses many senses, but visual communication provides huge amounts of information, and can convey all sorts of meanings. Face to face, we can rely on visual cues; however, the amount of information transmitted via distant communication is limited by cost and complexity. And when the costs of transportation rise, broader use of remote visual communications becomes increasingly practical.
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There is a considerable need to understand how technical performance and the problems within the technical infrastructure impact the capabilities of the business itself. The majority of companies can only measure specific asset and application performance, whereas many issues within the infrastructure lie at the transport level, where packet switching can present both great opportunities and major issues.
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Information management, which includes both data and content management, is an essential element of service-oriented architecture (SOA). Taking a service-oriented approach to information data can thus help you achieve greater value from your information assets. Implementing master data management (MDM) services can provide a multiplier effect, by delivering high-value business services over and above information integration services.
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Predictions of the death of software are overstated. In reality, businesses are becoming more reliant on technology, not less. What’s changing, however, is the number of options available for managing, delivering, and paying for software applications. Many independent software vendors recognize the benefits of offering software as a service--a delivery alternative that can present long-term benefits for all parties.
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In today’s fast-paced, dynamic business environment, organizations need timely, accurate information to make critical decisions about their businesses, and to respond quickly to changes in operations, competition, and customer needs. However, many organizations that have adopted business intelligence (BI) tools to address their informational needs are faced with critical challenges in deriving benefit from these technologies.
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By automating financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics AX links people, processes, and information. This document consolidates the core features and functionality in the solution, and is intended for use as a tool for users to familiarize themselves with the full scope of the solution.
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Organizations that implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system should evaluate software with an eye to the must-have features of the application. However, choosing the right software is just part of the solution. Businesses that intend to grow and compete must create an environment that encourages people at all levels of a company to take customer service seriously.
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Workforce planning allows an organization to determine if it has the right capability to deliver on business objectives, and enables it to maximize return on talent investments. By deploying a structured workforce planning process, organizations gain new insights and metrics about present and future workforce gaps. This will transform the talent management approach from reactive to proactive.
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Performance reviews are an essential and productive use of employee and manager time. A well-defined competency model can discover insights into individual, workgroup, and even entire workforce performance, helping enterprises gain true business advantage in their industries and marketplaces. Employee consultations and reviews, appraisals, and developmental decisions no longer need to exist as isolated business functions.
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The role of human resources (HR) professionals has changed dramatically in recent years, as cost control and compliance measures vie for their time. Self-service intranet applications help employees and managers perform key HR activities themselves, reducing the need for HR professionals to get involved in routine minutiae—and allowing them to play a strategic role in their organizations.
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Traditional business intelligence (BI) software has not been available to line-of-business managers, frontline employees, or external stakeholders, but that is no longer the case. New BI solutions unite transactional and analytical worlds. Knowledge workers and executives can now analyze operational processes in real time. Decisions can be made and entered back into operational systems combining BI and performance management strategies.
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The greatest threat to the security of the modern network is complexity. Threats to network security almost always play on missed details in the design of a network or a piece of software. These overlooked details enable much larger and potentially devastating security breaches to occur. However, this threat can be countered with a well designed network and vigilant safeguards.
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Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) has been adopted as the dynamic protocol of choice for pain-free management of network resources. The integration of the Domain Name System (DNS) and DHCP into a single network helps overcome traditional barriers to effective resource allocation. Indeed, combining DNS and DHCP enhances information security, thus providing a solution your organization can grow with.
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The Domain Name System (DNS) plays an important role in providing the information used by the Windows Domain locator service to connect and authenticate with Active Directory. But how can organizations with existing configurations using the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND)—the international DNS benchmark—be sure that migration to other server solutions will yield a dependable DNS solution?
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Domain name system (DNS) best practices are becoming more standardized. However, DNS services are often overlooked simply because they are so commonplace. The result is poorly configured services that are either not fully functional, or easily compromised. To ensure that the Internet remains a reliable medium for information and commerce, further implementation of secure and efficient DNS will be required.
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Small to medium businesses have typically built their own domain name system (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) services, used Windows DNS/DHCP, or turned to a hosted service provider for these services. This approach may appear to offer tremendous savings, but contains many hidden costs and risks that are not always apparent until a catastrophic loss of service occurs.
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When Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) was created, the Internet was still mainly a vehicle for scientific collaboration. Indeed, the need for security has grown out of the increased use of the Internet as a commercial medium. That’s why new DHCP issues have come to the forefront that were simply not explored in the early days of the Internet.
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To understand the power of cache poisoning and pharming, imagine that you’re logging on to your Internet banking service. The page looks a little odd, but the address is correct, and it has the same fields as usual. You might enter your credentials without thinking twice. Unfortunately, you’ve just provided a criminal syndicate with the contents of your bank account.
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Organizations deploying next-generation business and communications applications are looking for ways to rapidly increase the use of existing Internet and core network resources. These network environments demand new management frameworks to simplify network configuration and deployment changes. However, existing point-based solutions do little to address issues of scale, usability, security, and network availability at the Internet protocol (IP) level.
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Increased complexity, coupled with the adoption of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), demands additional management overhead for enterprise- and carrier-class networks. This management need is compounded by requirement for corporations to implement IP version 6 (IPv6)-compatible networks to ensure capacity and service over the next decade. This transition will require careful planning, and naming systems will play a critical role.
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Today, in addition to their usual reporting and operational duties, human resources (HR) professionals are expected to bring value to the company in a number of significant respects, ranging from launching operational efficiency initiatives to providing strategic leadership. And now, compliance with the US Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act has imposed a new set of responsibilities on the HR organization.
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Wireless technology has become exceedingly popular and convenient in both residences and enterprises. Networks are now expected to aid IT support, government services, and public safety applications. That’s why the architectural strategies used to implement wireless mesh networks can have a profound impact on the performance and financial success of metro-scale and wide area wireless mesh deployments.
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Data entry and error correction are key roadblocks to return on investment (ROI) from customer relationship management (CRM) software. Manual data entry is time-consuming, and reduces staff effectiveness by taking them away from potential sales opportunities. Automating data entry is one way to reduce missed contacts and incorrect details, and to increase the volume and accuracy of contact entry.
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Organizational growth can come in many forms. It can be sheer increases in number of employees, customers, patients, members or constituents; it can involve launching new products, or entering new geographies; it can simply be increasing transaction levels. Regardless of form, managing growth confidently means relying not only on an organization’s people, but also on its business systems.
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Many businesses owe their very survival to improvements that would have been impossible without radical changes to business process systems. However, many of the promises implicit in these systems—dramatic increases in business success, with minimal negative impact—have proven to be overly optimistic for many, and flat-out fantasy for some.
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If you’re like most small to midsized business executives, your primary focus is on growing revenue and controlling company spending. However, you probably use paper-based processes to deal with company expenses. Without an automated system, you have limited ability to actively manage spending—and can only hope that spending decisions remain within budget and in compliance with company policies.
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There are seven core operational measures that can be leveraged to fine-tune a company’s business processes and achieve a higher return on capital employed (RoCE). Even modest gains in these measurements can spur a significant increase in RoCE. If the level of performance against each core operational measure rises by just one percentage point, for example, RoCE can nearly double.
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Finance executives must meet a growing number of challenges if their companies are to continue being profitable. So how can they deliver strong performance in every aspect of their businesses? The answer: by deploying a corporate financial management system that expands the capabilities of their core activities—a system that extends its reach to automate other processes within the enterprise.
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There are several ways to virtualize the front office, with at least four different solution choices available. The soundest advice may be for companies to start the process, and evaluate the alternatives based on their ability to solve real business needs. It’s time that the personal computer (PC) find its place in the data center—not proliferated around the workplace.
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New developments in telephony solutions have left some small businesses reeling; smaller organizations incorrectly assume there’s a steep learning curve for new products. However, there is no real reason for any business to be left behind. One-size-fits-all telephony is a thing of the past, and new flexibility can level the playing field for any size of business.
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Acquiring and retaining customers is crucial to an organization’s long-term success and growth. Finding new customers is more expensive and labor-intensive than maintaining a current client base. Haphazard marketing plans can be costly and ineffective, but customer loyalty solutions don’t have to be expensive. There are customer retention tools that can help your marketing teams hold on to your existing customers.
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Administrative overload is a key problem in managing a human resources (HR) team. Health care rate hikes and not qualifying for high-end benefit packages are two serious concerns. Furthermore, missing filing deadlines can lead to legal fines and penalties. Outsourcing HR can be an effective way of providing high-quality HR services while avoiding risk, saving time, and protecting the bottom line.
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For today’s organizations, Internet access is a must-have. However, when they decide to open the door to the World Wide Web, the good—along with the bad—enters the network. Spyware and viruses can be distributed onto the network from untrustworthy web sites. In order to protect the best interests of the organization, an effective Web content filter is required.
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All organizations require the ability to create portable document format (PDF) files to maintain the interoperability, authenticity, and security of confidential information—while ensuring that the right person has access to this information. However, if your employees do not have an easy and intuitive way to do this, your organization may be at risk of violating compliance requirements.
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It has been estimated that two-thirds of all complex technology solutions, such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and performance management result in less than successful outcomes. Implementing a complex technology-enabled performance management solution is a worthwhile, but significant challenge. That’s why the implementation of technology must be a small part of a larger change effort.
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Setting up a performance management system can deliver immense value to your organization. But in order to successfully execute a performance management system, and to avoid critical missteps, you need to focus on the three important core processes that must be launched and navigated—before you launch the performance improvement process.
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Performance management systems have become an important tool in building an organizational culture of choice, and can deliver tremendous results. However, it’s not very common to have a comprehensive “road map” when embarking on a performance management system implementation—which can lead to serious mistakes in dealing with the people, process, and technology of performance management.
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Executives watch time slip away while they plod through payroll, benefits management, and other human resources (HR) tasks. This time is spent writing paychecks, negotiating with benefits providers, and updating employee records. But instead of squandering resources on "administrivia," executives can transform HR into a competitive advantage by outsourcing or streamlining non-strategic HR—thus providing increased focus on strategic HR.
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Formalized risk management is underused in project management, where the focus is typically on schedule and budget. This affects most aspects of a project, including evaluation, selection, planning, execution, and control. How many project decisions are made without formally evaluating the potential consequences? When budgets are tight and competition is fierce, this question is more relevant than ever.
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We all know about the three monkeys: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. But as project managers, we need to control our projects. In order to do this, we must ignore the advice of the three monkeys. We need to see the potential for cost overruns, hear about the risks, and speak about the likelihood of failure.
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Many companies find that traditional sales training methods have fallen short. The competitive levels of today's business environment demand new educational methods that can deliver advantage quickly and cost effectively. But how to cut through the clutter? Book learning, seminars, and lectures alone are too static! E-learning and web-based training are often irrelevant—or just plain boring. What to do?
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There is an ongoing arms race in the financial services industry to be competitive in electronic trading (e-trading) markets. Significant business risks exist, in terms of organizational reputation as well as the bottom line. The challenge is to minimize end-to-end latencies, and to ensure consistent performance levels, particularly in fast-moving markets—a challenge spanning both application and infrastructure teams.
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Typically, there are two approaches to managing public access and workplace workstations: the lock-down approach, and the reactionary approach. However, despite the variety of public access or corporate computer environments that exist, non-restrictive technology is applicable to all of them. With this technology in place, users can use workstations as they desire, but downtime and technical support costs are eliminated.
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The UN Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC), the global product and services classification standard, has been revolutionizing purchasing and supply management across the world. Whether you’re deliberating on the need for a common product and classification standard for your company, or an advanced UNSPSC adopter, revisiting the basics can help you improve your purchasing and supply management processes.
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The fundamentals of business are fairly simple. Customers have needs, and preferences about the products and services that will fill those needs. Businesses, on the other hand, have products or services with features that offer value. Win–win business transactions provide products or services with the features that best satisfy customer needs. This builds lasting relationships—and long-term organizational success.
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The capacity for service-oriented architecture (SOA) to provide a framework for next-generation enterprise telecommunications services has become a reality through the maturing of Web services technology. Such communications services can now take their rightful place alongside collaborating business processes to allow enterprises to achieve a fully integrated SOA, an architecture that can grow with the business and grow with technology.
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XML gateways, a new class of networking device, manage message-level security, service-level agreements (SLAs), and performance in service-oriented architectures (SOAs). XML gateways specialize in application-level protocols rendered within the XML or Web services message itself. With the ability to rapidly inspect and process XML messages, they can perform security, transformation, routing, and SLA operations at wire speed in the network.
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There’s no universal solution for Web services security. Sometimes, access lists programmed into the Web services themselves are sufficient. Other times, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) may be more than adequate. However, when granular message processing and auditing is essential, dedicated extensible markup language (XML) and Web services security technology will prove necessary. Which options are right for you?
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There are hundreds of anti-spam and anti-virus products designed to defend against unwanted e-mail. These solutions can take the form of software, appliances, or managed services. Managed filtering services are convenient and economical, and are also extremely effective in managing threats. In fact, most managed e-mail defense services block threats before they even reach the internal network.
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Effective correlation and accurate root-cause diagnosis have been key challenges for network and systems management solutions for many years. Indeed, these challenges have increased with the growing complexity of the software applications and services operating on top of the Internet and intranets. But at the same time, customer expectations of service quality and guaranteed performance remain as stringent as ever.
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The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a comprehensive and consistent set of best practices for IT service management (ITSM), promoting a quality approach to achieving business efficiency in the use of information systems. The key paradigm shift that ITIL s ITSM best-practices taxonomy seeks to achieve is the movement away from management of silos, towards management of services spanning multiple silos.
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Monitoring the end-to-end performance of applications and services at all infrastructure tiers is the "holy grail" of IT organizations. But most companies use silo-based monitoring tools incapable of monitoring events and activities occurring elsewhere in the infrastructure. A "collaborative" approach for deploying such tools stands a greater chance of adoption than the typical top-down implementation method commonly used today.
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How can a professional services firm grow profitably while providing clients with the services and project pricing they demand? The firm must rely on best-practice solutions to gain control over every aspect of business—from business development to resource planning to billing. Firms that plan and staff projects by relying on combinations of spreadsheets and management instinct will fall behind.
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There was a time when companies went with one platform, and stuck with it, hiring IT staff with that technology in mind. That time has passed. Today, heterogeneity is the name of the game, with orga¬nizations having combinations of legacy software and distributed systems, across multiple platforms and applications. But while heterogeneity brings multiple benefits, it also involves serious risk.
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Manufacturers and retailers are increasingly expecting more from logistics service providers. As a logistics company, you need to streamline operations and drive costs down. You need to be able to broaden your offerings and provide the services that customers want. Above all, you need to integrate your warehouse with your customers’ operations to provide detailed visibility into inventory and processes.
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Documents provide tangible evidence of decisions and agreements. They contain crucial intellectual capital. And they make key contributions to your brand. As a result, your organization invests significant resources to create processes for protecting critical documents and managing associated business risks. That’s why your document security services need to work within your environment to enhance existing security processes and technologies.
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The source code for mission-critical software products is almost never provided to users by the supplier. All the end-user has is a copy of the compiled source code—in other words, the object code that can only be read and executed by the computers concerned. That’s why professional escrow is becoming an essential component of operational risk management.
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A decline in customer loyalty has put a great deal of pressure on financial institutions of late. Thus, as banks tailor products and services to meet customer demands, they must also boost revenue. That’s why it’s essential to target your most profitable customers with real-time insight that helps you drive revenue, increase profitability, and build long-term relationships with those customers.
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Banks face many challenges in today’s dynamic financial services marketplace. Banks must continuously enhance capabilities for risk and financial management to address market, credit, and regulatory environments that are increasingly complex. Thus, process support for your business strategies is crucial—which is why integrated tools are a must-have for financial accounting, cost controlling, risk management, asset-liability management, and profitability analysis.
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No matter how unique a project may be, project quality is always the top concern for both the software services providers and the clients—on time and within budget. Indeed, there’s a good chance the customer will be satisfied if these fundamental goals are met. Thus, successful projects are fostered through mutual trust and cooperation between outsourcer and client.
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Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a driving force for future functional use within organizations. However, these functions must be viewed as being shared services for all processes. Functional re-use will be the main means of ensuring that organizations can respond rapidly and effectively to market dynamics, and that improvements to specific functions will have the optimum impact across the whole organization.
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Hosted private branch exchange (PBX) phone solutions are changing how small to medium businesses (SMBs) serve their customers, grow their business, and support their employees. Delivering the professional phone system capabilities large businesses use at a lower cost, hosted PBX is helping SMBs save money while putting their customer services on a par with much larger organizations.
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Professional services firms are not like other businesses. They have unique ways of working, unique challenges, and unique opportunities. While progressive project-based businesses have already embraced professional services automation (PSA)—achieving results and return on investment along the way—there are still many firms that have yet to fully automate their key business processes or integrate their knowledge base.
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Bernstein AG, established in 1947 and headquartered in Porta Westfalica (Germany), builds and sells components and systems for industrial automation peripherals. In 2002, it began the task of selecting and implementing a flexible, web-based business process management (BPM) system. One of the most important technical requirements was the universal integration of the BPM suite into its existing IT infrastructure.
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Business process management (BPM) provides adaptability and agility to service-oriented architecture (SOA). The central nervous system in the architecture, it orchestrates the services provided by different applications that excel at what they do. And the more powerful the BPM solution used to manage these processes, the easier and more cost-effective it will be to adapt to unique business requirements.
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An information-rich, well-published web site sells your products and services to potential clients around the world, 24x7. And multilingual content optimizes the effectiveness of your site by communicating with your customers in their language. However, many multilingual web sites are not as effective as they could be, simply because potential customers cannot find them through search engines.
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To function as a business partner, IT must deliver service at predictable levels—and also contribute to enterprise strategy, by planning for services that enable growth. That’s why IT needs end-to-end infrastructure views that reveal issues as they happen, and track trends that predict future needs. But how can IT create unified views of the environment without draining critical resources?
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Application software companies often find themselves in positions where their products and services depend heavily on software that they may not be equipped to optimally engineer. This typically results in misallocated resources, inferior products and services, and ultimately business decline. Companies need to know when to outsource critical integral design, development, and delivery requirements that they cannot effectively meet themselves.
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There is much discussion in the marketplace about outsourcing management and governance (OM/G). Many organizations mistakenly assume they understand the science of effective OM/G, but that’s often not the case. OM/G is a critical discipline enabling companies to achieve the intent of their outsourcing deal. In fact, without it, value leakage of 15 percent or greater is the typical result.
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AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, undertook an initiative to integrate
demand flow technology in logistical operations, leading to a major supply chain management (SCM) project at its packaging plant in Wedel (Germany). With an existing SAP technology platform, AstraZeneca project leaders opted for the mySAP SCM solution and the SAP Advanced Planning & Optimization component.
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If you deal in goods, services, or intellectual property included in the US Munitions List, you must ensure that all related transactions conform to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). To answer this challenge, you need a solution that automates core ITAR processes—a solution that stores all your licenses and related documents where you can keep tabs on them.
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To better understand record management (RM) challenges related to regulatory compliance in the financial services and health care industries, it is important to know why the laws and acts were written and codified. This knowledge will help organizations understand why the RM team is creating and maintaining new records, and how report management can ease RM compliance challenges.
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Most organizations have already taken steps to extend IT access to employees in remote locations. The questions is, should they continue to extend this process—and how? Mobile technology benefits are often difficult to measure, but the costs of hardware, software, and services are often of such a magnitude that the benefits need to be tangible to justify the cost.
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Integration projects that attempt to fuse processes with application and system interfaces are likely to fail. A more pragmatic approach involves service-oriented architecture (SOA), where integration is determined by business requirements rather than technology factors. However, SOA alone is insufficient. Composite adapter services provide a layer of abstraction between service requestors and service providers, enabling cost-effective and versatile enterprise integration.
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All organizations, across all industries, have one thing in common—a deluge of customer data idling somewhere waiting to be monetized. Most likely, the similarities end there. The accuracy, depth, and accessibility of data are as varied as the products and services offered by organizations. The use of this data is what separates successful organizations from those who go bankrupt.
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Remote working is not new, but increasing dependence on instant IT access has led to increasing demands for mobile data services. Certainly, these services can be complex, and it is valuable to be insulated from the effects of rapid change. But ultimately, mobile access should be considered as just one aspect of IT usage, rather than as a separate entity.
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Given the challenges facing governmental human resources (HR) departments, HR organizations need to take a hard look at their operations, and face the realities of what works—and what doesn’t. Shared services are the largely predominant organizational structure for delivering HR, and public sector HR executives must determine what must be done to take their organizations to the next level.
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How you decide to deploy and implement new Internet provider (IP) telephony infrastructure, as well as new applications or services to end users, will vary greatly based on the scope of the project and the degree of complexity involved. However, whether you are deploying to small remote offices or to large core sites, it is vital to establish standardized procedures.
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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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The Internet industry is intensifying day by day as it becomes the basis of communication for businesses. With the introduction of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), communication costs have been greatly reduced, and the Internet industry is thus introducing variant services to consumers that were unthought of before. One of these emerging ideas is direct inward dialing (DID).
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Current enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation methodologies give too much attention to the ”hard core” technical side of the project, and too little to the organizational change needed to complete the project successfully. Because of the complex nature of these projects, different experts are required—not only ERP or IT experts, but also experts in managing organizational change.
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In today’s world, current and future customers are interested to know whether or not you have implemented a quality control system. Some customers will demand International Organization for Standards (ISO) certification, and others may just ask about it. Whatever their requirements, having a quality control system assures your customers that the products and services you offer are of high quality.
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Analysis and reporting services are an important part of the enterprise resource planning process. Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been designed to give users options for optimal analysis and reporting, and to leave room for partners to provide customized solutions. With the correct reporting tools and Microsoft Dynamics NAV, practical analysis and reporting is available and adaptable to individual users’ needs.
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In order to achieve success, all business software projects have to surmount requirements risk, technical risk, and planning risk. Many software developers have thus adopted an iterative delivery methodology, finishing first the essential features, and then those additional features which deliver the most value. Some fundamental insights will provide a better understanding of how to set up iterative delivery projects.
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In order to support the requirements of voice deployments, next-generation networks must be capable of supporting a service equivalent to the existing public switched telephone network (PSTN), in terms of reliability. Furthermore, these networks must be capable of carrying voice services even under heavy load, while maintaining the integrity of the voice calls, under even the most extreme circumstances.
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As Internet and IP technologies are increasing service expectations, the number of resources available to create, deploy, and manage new services have reduced. The result is that expectations for new services are outpacing the ability to deliver them. We explore the limitations of traditional voice service architecture, and propose a new architectural solution to address these shortcomings.
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In the future, companies will partner for competitive advantage, building supply chains excelling in every aspect of their operation. But companies excelling in their own fields may find themselves excluded from these supply chains if their technical foundations are incompatible with popular standards. Technological adaptability is paramount, and Lawson’s M3 Enterprise Management System was developed with this imperative in mind.
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In order to meet new performance targets mandated at the federal and state levels, the Department of Human Services in Chemung County, New York (US), deployed Salient Performance Management, a performance management solution from Salient Corporation. This solution helped streamline operations, allowing caseworkers, units, and entire agencies to meet and exceed the targets.
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Every core business process and strategic initiative requires a human capital management (HMC) business strategy for execution; improvements made in HCM systems and processes can notably impact an organization’s bottom line. Mentoring programs and other models for integrating work and learning are exciting avenues for stimulating professional growth, career development, staff morale, and quality of care within the workplace.
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The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is the world’s largest financial services post-trade infrastructure organization, having cleared and settled more than $1.4 quadrillion (USD) worth of securities in 2005. In the highly competitive financial services industry, the secure processing of transactions is vital to DTCC's success, which is why DTCC integrated security testing into the application development processes.
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Corporations striving to comply with data security laws and regulatory initiatives must implement anti-spyware measures. Businesses who fail to take reasonable physical, administrative, and technical measures to prevent the unauthorized acquisition, alteration, or destruction of valuable information, risk costly and disruptive legal proceedings. And courts and responsible agencies will freely second-guess such decisions in the event of a data breach.
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At first glance, spyware and computer viruses appear to have much in common. But in fact, spyware is a unique challenge. Unlike viruses, the motivation behind spyware is financial, which has driven rapid technical innovation and broad distribution. The first line of defense is education; understanding the unique threat spyware poses is the first step in a plan for protection.
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This Business Engine white paper provides a technical account on the process behind scoring, selecting, and scheduling the technology portfolio. The document offers additional insight into weighting criteria that should be considered as part of the portfolio management and optimization process. The document further provides insight into considerations for alignment, and how to know if the portfolio is in fact properly aligned with business objectives.
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The lifeblood by which executives in professional services organizations (PSO) manage their businesses has traditionally centered on the concept of realization, measured through metrics. Predictive Service Execution enables firms to deliver consistent and timely services while maximizing cash flow, engagement profitability, and customer satisfaction.
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Technology changes have allowed an alternative to the client-server model to emerge, specifically the application service provider (ASP), in which the vendor hosts the software on its server and charges a monthly or annual fee per user. The growing acceptance of ASPs has accelerated the growth of professional services automation. This paper compares the client-server and ASP models and outline ths benefits that companies are realizing from PSAs.
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Many companies strive to effectively measure and analyze their service operations. But while management struggles to measure too many (or too few) metrics, they often overlook the basic measurement question: what to track, and how? By using the concept metric perspectives to define what data provides the most insight, you can move closer to a comprehensive metrics strategy.
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The shift from traditional application design to service-oriented (SOA) principles utilizing XML and Web services promises increased IT agility and reduced technology costs. However, without effective production-caliber infrastructure, the benefits of SOA and Web services will go unrealized. A modular solution that ensures extreme, fine-grained control over XML message handling can deliver the effective performance and policy compliance for every message.
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Upgrading to CRM solution increases value of relationships for financial services firm. ScotiaMcLeod (www.scotiabank.com) is the investment arm of Scotiabank, one of Canada's largest financial organizations with over $280 billion in assets. ScotiaMcLeod's financial advisors specialize in helping individuals and small business customers plan financial solutions for trusts, estate planning, borrowing and banking services. ScotiaMcLeod has more than 800 financial advisors working in 84 branches across the country. According to Chris Carter, Associate Director and Branch Manager for ScotiaMcLeod's North Vancouver office, the financial services sector is a people-driven business where customer service is critical to success.
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A good business intelligence system should allow IT and business users to break through irrelevant data to find what matters. Users should be able to access all data and understand what happened and why. Learn how purpose-built Web services architecture, and Web-based development and deployment is used by Cognos 8 BI.
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ECS Imaging, Inc., the world’s leading authorized value added reseller for LaserFiche, has been designing complex network and imaging systems since 1990. Specializing in LaserFiche’s industry-standard software, hardware, scanning services, on-site training and turnkey document imaging services selected by over 1,400 government agencies and 17,000 sites worldwide, ECS imaging helps organizations reduce costs and improve efficiency through cost-effective and innovative technological solutions.
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Business Bank of California, a subsidiary of Business Bancorp (NasdaqNM: BZBC), has served California businesses since 1984. With assets of more than $620 million, Business Bank of California is ranked fifth of 25 locally based banks in the Inland of Southern California and offers retail banking, commercial, construction, and SBA lending. Business Bank of California operates in 15 locations in California. The branches are strongly focused on providing high-quality, personalized services to small businesses, professionals and consumers.
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Workflows can increase efficiency, standardize processes, reduce costs, and increase return on investment. The key is to understand your customer, your products and services and your business processes. Learn how easy-to-design workflows can help ensure that best practices are carried out consistently and efficiently. Streamline daily tasks and make learning new operations simpler. Workflows help you reduce churn, boost productivity and increase customer satisfaction.
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The transition to IP A wireless carrier s national or regional next generation core network will be an all-IP network in the sense that IP will be the network layer (L3) protocol. MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) will be the transport protocol for all IP-based services, applications, and control and management traffic in the network. Learn more in this white paper.
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Availl, Inc, the leading solution provider of sales, supply chain management, and logistic services for the aviation industry. Learn how it used Click Commerce Service Parts Optimization solutions to extend its inventory planning capabilities, enable comprehensive demand forecasting, and provide Web-based visibility into global inventories.
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Delta is the world’s second largest airline in terms of passengers carried and the leading US carrier across the Atlantic, offering daily flights to 502 destinations in 88 countries. With $1 billion (USD) worth of parts inventory at one time, Delta needed a supply chain system to aid the company’s maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) activities. Learn how Delta implemented a full MRO technology suite from Click Commerce, that focuses on supply chain management, configuration management, technical documentation, planning, and execution.
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Tellabs is a $1.3 billion (US) corporation that designs, manufactures, markets, and services optical networking, broadband access and voice quality enhancement. Tellabs was faced with a high volume and high cost product returns process. Improper documentation, lengthy processing times, and insufficient returns documentation was affecting customer service and limiting profitability. It worked with Click Commerce to implement their product returns application. The solution provides an efficient and transparent process, which allowed the business to be realigned for significant savings and improved customer satisfaction. The savings include reducing in-transit inventory by $1.76 million (USD) per month and reducing spare parts stocking levels from $7.5million to $1.9 million (USD).
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Rapid market fluctuations; changing customer and channel requirements; pressures from shareholders, executives, and partners; and continued competition are forcing high-tech companies to re-examine not only what products and services they sell, but also their processes and tools for developing, deploying, monitoring, and managing products and services. To deal with these challenges, product managers need to leverage product management processes and tools. This white paper introduces the concept of enterprise product management and the process of requirements gathering automation; the product management continuum; and the creation of a collaborative environment.
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A balanced scorecard is a measurement system for management that provides real insight into the status of a business or some part of it. Developed by Kaplan and Norton in the early 1990s, balanced scorecards provide a control system that helps ensure the right balance between different, and often times conflicting, perspectives. For example, an insurance company may increase profitability by offering incentives to claims assessors for taking a tough stance on payout, but will soon find dissatisfaction among its clients that may lead to lost business. Scorecards help ensure this balance and are an improvement over more traditional single dimension approaches that tend to be based purely on expense management and business growth.
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As more business processes exist in an electronic universe, the need to manage the IT services that enable these processes increases. Business service management does this and achieves the IT alignment with the business necessary to ensure service improvement activities are prioritized with business objectives. Business service management applies the adage that if you improve IT, you improve the business. This paper presents an overview of business service management concepts and describes how Proxima Centauri provides a solution for this. It also describes how Six Sigma can be used as an underlying quality improvement process to eliminate the associated costs of poor quality.
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An overview for CIOs of the provision and management of IT services at a level that addresses the risk management issues raised by the Basel Committee's New Capital Accord expected to become effective during 2006. Because of the dependence financial institutions have on IT services, the accord requires adequate provision to assure the availability of these services. Centauri Business Service Manager is presented as the solution: one that allows a CIO to assess current risk levels, measure ongoing risk and support a process of ongoing improvement to reduce this risk. Furthermore, Centauri provides the financial institution with a cost-effective balanced scorecard to improve decision-making.
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The decision to use external resources on a project of any size or focus can be a tough one for a company facing the need to look outside its trusted staff to make something happen. "Can the appropriate skills be found at an acceptable cost?" is the first question. Indeed, defining your service needs, and then developing and maintaining a proper relationship with the provider you've hired is one of the most important things you can do to increase your success potential.
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Application Service Provision (ASP).There has been a trend in recent years towards the use of remote software services through application service providers. These are companies who make software applications available via the
Internet to users who, rather than buying software, pay rental fees for it. The software does not have to be installed locally, the application being available through any web browser, and all support and maintenance is handled by the service provider. CMMS vendors are not the only ones offering these solutions. CAD modelling, engineering design, finance packages, purchasing, ERP
and even your company Intranet can now be rented. This is an expanding sector and the signs are that major growth is about to take place. Earlier problems with slow data
transfer speeds, communication costs and data security have largely been eliminated and this has made ASP a very attractive proposition. This is clearly illustrated by the
proliferation of systems that have become available over the last three or four years with most of the major CMMS vendors now offering an ASP option.
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When The Clientele Group of Epicor Software Corporation was faced with scalability and performance limits in their CRM software, they redesigned their application around the Microsoft® .NET Framework. A server architecture based on SQL Server™ 2000 and XML Web services removes their scalability limits, and supports multiple client applications. A smart client built with Windows® Forms gives customer support personnel a responsive application that is easy to deploy and update. A Web portal built with ASP.NET Web Forms gives authorized customers access to the same records as customer support sees internally. The new architecture can support 500 users on a single dual-CPU server, and offers many ways to scale up and out.
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SKF (AB Svenska Kullagerfabriken) was founded in 1907, with headquarters and a laboratory in Gothenburg, Sweden, and an R&D center in the Netherlands. SKF is the leading global supplier in its field, offering products, customer solutions, and services for rolling bearings, seals and specialty steel, claiming 20% of the world market share. SKF has 80 manufacturing sites employing about 40,000, and an additional 20,000 distributors in 130 countries worldwide. Revenue in 2001 reached 24.6 billion U.S. dollars, and for the first 9 months of 2002, SKF Group’s revenue showed 25.3 billion, grossing 2.04 billion.
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Metro Canada Logistics, a third party provider of warehousing, transporatation, and related logistics services streamlines accounting processes with the help of Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains.
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The process of outsourcing software development offshore has come a long way since the mid-to-late 1990s, the heyday of Y2K remediation. Offshore vendors who cut their teeth on Y2K and legacy applications developed best-in-class quality processes and evolved to look more like the large US-based systems integrators. At the same time, thousands of new services firms entered the market to serve the needs of specific industries, address particular business processes, or offer specialized technical skills.
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Corporate governance concerns, exacerbated by a weak global economy, have driven shareholder value to drop sharply in recent years. Boards of directors have intensified their pressure on CEOs to create execution-centric organizations and restore shareholders’ and analysts’ confidence. In this era, CEOs are looking to their information technology organization (ITO) to strategically and efficiently deploy technology solutions that enable business process innovation, resulting in world-class products and services on planned costs and release dates. Find out how your organization can develop skilled IT architects deliver total business solutions.
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The pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive, regulated, and in a permanent state of change. Customers demand instant attention, while suppliers require comprehensive leading edge services with regard to their products. Regulatory authorities require that the industry keep up to date with regulations, following them to the letter. Competitors are always inventing new ways to gain market share, while e-business presents new opportunities and challenges. All the while the pressure to reduce prices and to shorten order cycles is high. Pharmaceutical wholesalers comprise the lifeline within the pharmaceutical industry, providing continuity of supply and facilities for storage. They also offer a range of supporting services, such as information technology systems and product withdrawal notifications, which form an essential part of the total healthcare package. These companies and institutions all operate in an environment where speed and efficiency may mean the difference between life and death. However, the industry has a number of specific requirements that are critical for achieving success in the distribution sector.
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The task of managing and maintaining today’s IT infrastructure has become vastly more complicated and complex as IT has become more critical to business success. The response from a technology perspective has been the introduction of services oriented architectures that enable IT to be responsive to the business needs but also live within their economic constraints. But the very technologies fueling this success create significant problems. Even small changes can cause major disruptions in today’s highly interactive and interdependent applications. Unfortunately, the pace of change means traditional testing architectures with lengthy development and testing will not work. But the testing must be done. Worksoft’s Certify is discussed as the test management repository and framework solution to this testing problem for XML-based applications.
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In this guide you will find out how to test, purchase, install, and use a thawte Digital Certificate on your Microsoft Internet Information Services (MS IIS) web server. Throughout, best practices for set-up are highlighted to help you ensure efficient ongoing management of your encryption keys and digital certificates. We will also touch on the role of thawte as a trusted third party and how using a thawte digital certificate can benefit your business by addressing unique on-line security issues to build customer confidence.
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In the present context of business, it is becoming essential for the business world to provide electronic commerce in addition to their good old business model. An electronic commerce application adds lot of value to business models and helps overall growth in the different areas of business, business management, tracking, and customer support. Customers find it’s much easier to access the products and services of a corporation through an e-commerce application and corporations find it easier to reach their customers.
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Productization of services is accomplished by associating tangible features with intangible service offerings. Tangible features may take the form of personnel, collateral, methodologies, pricing, facilities, or other attributes. Automation tools like enterprise service automation, database, and project management tools serve as enablers to service productization. By associating tangible features with intangible services, the professional services firm can build client confidence.
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This UltiPro Workforce Management technology white paper offers an overview of UltiPro’s technical architecture, and is primarily intended for information technology executives and professionals who want to better understand UltiPro’s technology advantages. After reading this white paper, the reader should have a clear understanding of the modular design and underlying technology of the UltiPro Workforce Management solution and the key benefits to the information technology (IT) organization.
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This document provides system administrators and technical professionals an overview of how Surado SCM SQL Enterprise CRM Solution can be used in a High Availability Environment. This document assumes that you are planning on installing the Surado SCM SQL System on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 Advanced Server and will be using Microsoft's SQL Server as the primary database.
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National Equipment Services (NES), a leader in the equipment rental industry, experienced the concomitant growing pains associated with 47 acquisitions spanning an 18 month period beginning in 1998. In this case study, learn how NES saved $250,000 annually in payroll and administration costs.
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Wilden began to investigate several customer relationship management (CRM) packages in the market including: Maximizer Enterprise, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Pivotal and Oracle. The Company knew it would require some customization assistance from the vendor but it also wanted the capability to manage the new technology in-house. Maximizer Enterprise was the only one that was flexible enough-it fit their sales channel model and had the knowledgeable Professional Services staff that the Wilden team felt comfortable with - along with the overall package to fit within their budget.
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Since they implemented Maximizer Enterprise, the sales people have found it easy to learn, and the marketing department has taken advantage of its flexibility to customize it to their business and marketing needs. Having recently upgraded to Maximizer Enterprise 7 with the implementation, installation, and training services of Certified Multiactive Business Partner, Wintec Group, the users and administrators have seen increased reliability and speed in the daily use of its customer database.
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Learn how SunGard Treasury Systems, a provider of Internet-based treasury management solutions to global corporate, government, and financial services organizations, consolidated its disparate databases into one centralized database for company and customer information.
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Learn how Boeing Autometric, a software and technical solutions provider for modeling, visualization, simulation, and analysis to customers in the defense, telecommunications, and commercial mapping industries, implemented a solution to manage customer communication and information.
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