Business Intelligence on the cheap

Business intelligence (BI) is extremely important to any successful business. It provides valuable real-time information in a visually appealing dashboard environment. It allows company leaders to see how their business is doing instantly and base decisions off of this data.

So, why doesn’t everyone have BI in place?

Many companies hold off due to pricing. BI applications are very expensive, most with 6-figure price tags. I just read an interesting CIO.com article on this very subject. A company saw the need for BI but couldn’t afford even the cheapest of options. Their solution involved pivot tables in Excel spreadsheets. This cost roughly 25k, took a year to deploy, and came with limitations. Still, the article outlines the solution as a great success considering the budget the company was working with.

I disagree.

m-Power could have done the job better, faster, and for nearly the same price. They could have had a much more powerful java-based BI solution without all the limitations that come with Excel.

If you’re interested in BI for your business, but find the prices are too high, fill out this form and let us know what you need. We’ll be happy to provide a free, no-obligation demonstration of m-Power’s capabilities.

Web Design Tip: Optimize your images

One of the most important tips that anyone designing a Web page or application should take into account is Image usage and optimization.

Images can take up a lot of bandwidth and your users need their critical business applications to be lightning fast and efficient in order to be productive. And if you're working on B2C applications, your external users will lose patience with slow load times, and you will lose their sale.

So, how do you incorporate images and still maintain that speed? Simple. Optimize them!

Here's how»

The Top 10 Tech Trends

Can you guess what the hot tech trends are? Five well known venture capitalists shared their opinions on the top ten at the recent "Annual Top Ten Tech Trends Debate".

Not surprisingly, 4 out of the 10 trends are mobile-device related. I believe we are only beginning to understand the impact mobile devices will have on the business world. Real-time information, while important now, will become a necessity in order to stay competitive. As the world becomes increasingly “instant”, companies will be forced to keep up or shut down.

m-Power makes staying up to speed simple, by generating secure java servlets which can be accessed through your mobile device. Imagine the advantages of having real-time company information in the palm of your hand. Now imagine that it’s secure, easy to create, and inexpensive.

Click here to find out how this is possible, or fill out this short form if you would like a no-obligation demonstration of m-Power’s capabilities.

5 Tips for Creating Cross-Browser Compatible Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Have you ever used Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) while designing a web page only to realize later that it looks different in Internet Explorer than it did in Firefox, or vice versa? CSS has been limited by poor browser implementation more than any other web-related technology. Because of this problem, certain pages that look fine in one browser will look completely different in another. If unaware of the browser differences, web design with CSS can be extremely frustrating and take far more time than necessary.

We have put a list in our forum of helpful tips to easily create cross-browser compatible CSS, which can be found here.>>

Scratching your head? Not sure of your next big IT step?

This Technology Buyer's Kit might help»

This short, lighthearted, and informative assessment packet is designed to help you gauge your current technology and software requirements and begin making the right technological choices to meet your needs.

10 IT Problems You Might Not Know You Have

Do you find that your company has an overall lack of business intelligence? Are you sure your applications are secure? Are consultants creating more problems than solutions? According to a recent eWeek.com article, these are just 3 of 10 IT problems you might not know you have.

Fortunately, m-Power can resolve each of these 3 problems, faster and cheaper than you might think possible.

If you've held off on purchasing BI software for price reasons, m-Power can provide these tools for a fraction of the normal price. If you've worried about software security, m-Power will take care of that for you, by generating java applications with all the security features built in.

If you'd like to learn how m-Power can best fit your business needs, or if you would like us to build a live custom app over your own files to demonstrate m-Power’s capabilities, simply fill out this short form.

Adding a speedometer to your dashboard

With the increased popularity of executive dashboards and portals and the constant demand for better BI (Business Intelligence) one of the most useful at-a-glance tools available is the dashboard "speedometer." You can see three examples along the bottom of this dashboard.

With one quick glance, a manager can grasp what is really going on in his or her business and react quickly.

If you'd like to use this metric monitor in your dashboard, this short article tells you how.

Four Secrets to Becoming a Rising IT Star

With a weakened economy, job security has become a major concern. It’s more important than ever to stand out and demonstrate worth to your current employer.

If you’re in IT, then you will enjoy this article entitled, “Four Secrets to Becoming a Rising IT Star”. The article lays out 4 ways to not only succeed in your current position, but to also advance.

Besides those 4 methods, I’d like to add a fifth: Save your company time and/or money. How can you do that? Well, if you or your company has a need for application modernization, BI, reporting, executive dashboards, wireless applications, or web applications in general, then m-Power can accomplish this proposed “fifth method” for you.

If you would like to see how m-Power can save you time and money, please fill out this short form. We will build you a live custom web app using your own files, absolutely free.

Avoiding the pitfalls of rigged software pricing

Software vendors are not in business to give away their software for free, or virtually free. And recently there have been a rash of companies who seem to be doing just that. The problem? Their software isn't even close to free, but the bulk of their pricing is hidden.

So, it is important to keep your eyes open and ask the right questions. For example:

• Is the software on a per-seat or per-developer licensing basis? If so, how many seats will you need?
• Is it all-in-one, or do they offer modules. If they offer modules, how many of those will you need to be effective?
• Is there a "mandatory" annual maintenance cost for these "free" pieces or "low-cost" modules?
• How much of a performance-hog is the solution? Low-cost software that requires you to purchase $50,000 in hardware is not low-cost

Click here for m-Power's unique pricing structure as well as a few more pricing considerations you should consider.

Instant Data--Step 1: Remove the spreadsheets

Here's a fun game to play next time you're at the grocery store. Count how many labels you see that read "Instant", "Ready in Minutes", or even "Ready in Seconds". You'll be surprised how many there are.

We live in a very instant world, a world where demands must be met on the spot.

That being said, I’m always shocked by the number of times I run across companies that keep and/or distribute their data on Excel spreadsheets. This data may be comprised of prospect lists, sales numbers, or other important information that may be needed instantly. When that data changes, a spreadsheet must be manually updated and re-distributed. Not only is this method unsecure, it's a completely unnecessary waste of time which can hurt a company's chances of staying competitive.

Wouldn’t it be much easier if all the data was stored in one secure place? What if all the data was sorted and displayed as graphs and dashboards at the push of a button? What if all the data was instantly accessible via the web?

Not only would this solve the security problems, it would make the company more competitive in an "instant" world.

Click here to see how an automotive manufacturer solved this very problem using m-Power.

Why a wiki?

This article states that there are two areas that can be greatly improved by establishing enterprise wikis. The first is reducing occupational SPAM aka "reply-to-all" emails that make up 30% of all email.

The second has to do with the implementation and modernization of Enterprise software. To paraphrase, when you go and buy an ERP, let's say, and implement the same 15,000 business processes that it provides to everyone, you don't gain any real competitive advantage. The advantage opportunity lies in how your business handles the exceptions to these business processes and creates solutions custom to your user needs.

One way to track these needs and the solutions that are established is by establishing an enterprise wiki. Here are some tips for getting started»

If you'd like to learn more about creating custom solutions for your enterprise software, just fill out this form.

Six (More) Free BlackBerry Apps You Don't Want to Miss

A couple months back, I wrote a blog linking to a CIO.com article that listed 6 free BlackBerry downloads. Well, the good folks at CIO.com have just published another article outlining 6 more free BlackBerry apps that you're sure to love.

Does your company have business applications that you wish could be accessed wirelessly through your BlackBerry or handheld device? m-Power allows you to create custom business applications tied to your ERP, MRP, CRM, or whatever software package you use...that can all be accessed wirelessly. Click here to learn more about the benefits of wireless applications.