The technology industry is easily one of the fastest moving industries. New advancements in technology frequently bring new time/money saving opportunities for businesses. However, the IT industry as a whole is slow to adopt many of these new technology trends. Why? I could rattle off a number of reasons, but I think this article in Techrepublic really hits the nail on the head.
That being said, those who stay on top of the ever-changing technology industry have a real chance to better their organizations. But what are the latest up-and-coming tech trends? Gartner offered its opinion on the top tech trends of 2010, which you can find on Datamation.com.
I always thought our Crazybikes demo site was pretty self explanatory until a few weeks ago. I was going over the list of features with our marketing guy for one of our Crazybikes demo applications. At one point he stopped me and said, “Whoa, I didn’t know it could do that.”
Maybe it wasn’t a self explanatory as we thought.
So, we created a little help box on every page listing each feature along with a short description. You might not realize some of the time-saving features built into these web applications, and some might even surprise you. Next time you visit Crazybikes, hover over this image 
If I had a dollar for every time I heard about a problem caused by the overuse of spreadsheets, I could retire early. By “overuse of spreadsheets", I’m referring to tasks that spreadsheets were not meant to handle, such as reporting, business intelligence, shipment schedules, etc…
I know many companies are guilty of this, but I doubt that management at those companies know how much time and effort is wasted on spreadsheets. Here’s something to try: If your company uses spreadsheets extensively and you don’t know how long they take to create and manage, find out. You may be surprised.
I wish that a little wasted time was the worst problem associated with spreadsheet overuse, but it’s not. Read this forum post to learn about more potentially serious problems, as well as a solution.
Do you struggle with productivity at work? Here’s a great article on productivity501.com that lists a bunch of tips sent in from many different people.
Here’s a tip taken from the article that I’ve found to be true in my own life: “Focus on three things: diet (including water), exercise, and sleep.” That is so true. It’s a lot easier to be productive when I’m getting good sleep and eating well.
How about you? Do you have any productivity tips to share?
This white paper covers the techniques available for bringing your business applications to the web, pitfalls to avoid, and best practices for making long term technology decisions in today’s market.
It even takes a practical look at the steps we took to modernize the character-based mrc-Productivity Series into the Java-based m-Power and a few tips to help you modernize quickly.
You can download the white paper here.>>
Want to see your m-Power applications on your iPhone? Turning your m-Power app into an iPhone app is not only possible, but very simple. Better yet, you don’t have to go through Apple’s unpredictable approval process.
All it takes is a little formatting in m-Painter. We’ve written up some instructions and placed them in our forum.
It’s a stressful time in the business world, especially in the IT industry. When you combine the bad economy with outsourcing fears, IT professionals deal with a lot of stress.
If you need some help dealing with your stress, check out this great article on Forbes.com entitled, “Six ways to beat executive job stress.” Not an executive? No worries, the information in this article really applies to anyone dealing with stress.
Have a good stress relief tip? Feel free to share it in the comments section.
User adoption is a funny thing. You may have the best, most cutting-edge software in the world, but if people in your organization don’t use it, it's worthless. Many enterprise software purchases focus on features and functionality, while forgetting the most important aspect of all—user adoption.
I recently spoke with a former insurance company employee. Their IT department rolled out some powerful ad-hoc reporting software that required multiple training classes to understand. To make a long story short, people went back to the old method of requesting reports from the IT department because the software was so complicated.
When it comes to applications that non-IT employees must use, such as ad-hoc reporting applications, ease of use is paramount. For instance, take a look at this ranking report example. While you are there, hover over the
Want to create reports like this for your users? Let us know and we’ll build you a free proof of concept application.
I just read an article on CIO.com entitled, “Five Top IT Budget Killers.” The article lists the most common areas that businesses waste money within their IT department. While it was an interesting read, I’ve seen a few others ways that businesses waste money.
For example, many IT organizations waste money purchasing separate software packages for specific tasks, such as shopping carts, business intelligence, order entry, report writing, etc… In other words, they have to pay for, and spend time learning, each individual software package. This becomes even more costly when paying per user or per seat.
How to save: Look for software packages capable of performing a variety of tasks. This is an easy way to save money on licenses, training, and even maintenance costs. If you have any money-saving ideas, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
I love how quickly the tech industry changes. For example, just a few short years ago, mobile applications were rare. Today, mobile apps are a booming business.
If there's an application you need, chances are, it exists. Wading through all the available apps to find the one you want is a different story entirely. If you're an IT professional looking for apps, here's a nice list of Blackberry applications on Eweek.com.
Have you found a great mobile application specific to the IT industry? Feel free to tell me about it in the comments section.
As any of you who follow this blog may know, we recently released m-Power’s new user interface. It provides a more graphical and intuitive experience, while simplifying the web application development process.
A couple months ago I shared some screenshots of the new interface, but today I have something better. We just created a brand new m-Power test drive area where you can see m-Power for yourself!
Try the m-Power test drive to:
I noticed something interesting while looking through the survey results posted in last week’s blog. I noticed that many companies claim to have big needs, but don’t fix them because they are too expensive.
Has anyone stopped to calculate the opportunity cost of doing nothing? Doing nothing does cost money, and can cause you to lose out on more money than you might imagine. Don't be "penny-wise and dollar-foolish".
Want some money-saving ideas? Here are 7 ways that real companies solved real problems with web applications and saved money.
Timing is everything in the tech industry. If your product is behind the times, no one wants it. If it is ahead of the times, no one understands it.
I thought about this fact while reading an article on Datamation.com entitled, “17 Notably Bad Products from Great Tech Companies.” Interestingly enough, while they failed as products, not all of them were “bad”. In my opinion, #10, #13, and #16 were just ahead of their time.
Out of curiosity, did anyone have any experience with any of these products? I would love to hear about it.
We just released a brand new demo with a slick user interface. We combined a drag-and-drop maintenance application with an integrated Google map and gave our fictional bike company, Crazybikes, an order assignment application!
When you drag an order to a different truck, you update the database AND alert the map that it must redraw itself to reflect the most recent changes. While we chose an order assignment application for the demo, this user interface technique could apply to a wide variety of applications, such as:
Congratulations to Chuck Ciali, winner of the 2009 mrc netbook giveaway! Thanks to everyone who took our survey and participated in the 2009 mrc giveaway.
Want to see the survey results? We created a tabbed report with m-Power, displaying the results of each question on a pie chart in separate tabs. Click here to view the survey results.
While the recession is technically over (according to Mr. Bernanke), recovery is a slow process. Like it or not, some cities will recover faster than others.
So, which cities are best for tech jobs in the near future? Here’s an article on usnews.com which lists the 10 best places for technology jobs in 2009. While much of this list is predictable, a couple cities surprised me.
For example, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Washington D.C. is turning into a hotspot for tech jobs thanks to the government’s increased reliance on technology. How about you? Did any of these cities surprise you?
We just created a new order shipment calendar application packed with a couple of time-saving features: Drag-n-drop and hovers. This is just one example. You could create many different types of applications with these features.
At first glance, the application might look like an ordinary shipment calendar, but try this:
Reminder: mrc’s 2009 netbook giveaway ends this Thursday. If you completed our survey, you are eligible to win. If you haven’t yet completed our survey and want to enter the drawing, you can find the survey here.
The winner will be announced via Twitter this Thursday. Are you following us on Twitter yet? If not, you can follow us here.
Thinking back on recent “game-changing” tech ideas, I notice a trend. Most of the game changers weren’t new inventions, but rather improvement on existing concepts. Take the iPod for example: Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player, but they did make the mp3 player better.
I thought about that while reading an interesting article on Techradar.com entitled, “10 game-changing tech ideas that didn't change the game.” Sure, maybe these ideas failed initially, but could any of them succeed with a few improvements? The tablet PC stands out to me as a possibility.
What do you think?
mrc is now on Twitter! To kick off our Twitter arrival, we are announcing the winner of our 2009 giveaway next Thursday (9/17) via Twitter. If you took our survey, you’re already eligible. If you haven’t, you can take the survey here.
What can followers of @mrcproductivity expect? Well, you won’t hear mundane details, like what I ate for breakfast, or complaints about the weather. Rather, we will provide our followers with value, such as:
Our marketing director needed some web applications a while back, so I sat down and gave him a quick 15 minute m-Power tutorial. He picked it up from there, creating and deploying the web applications he needed.
While showing those applications to one of our consultants, the marketing director jokingly mentioned, “We should start up a campaign: So easy, a marketing guy can do it.” Our consultant replied, “No way! No one would ever believe that.”
It was both funny and thought-provoking. Is that so unbelievable? Is it unbelievable that someone with no programming or web application development experience whatsoever now creates web applications faster than a seasoned programmer? On second thought, yeah, I guess so.
Then again, if you don’t believe it, you can always take m-Power for a test drive and see for yourself.
Are you doing more to hurt your career than you’re doing to help it? If the company is downsizing, certain behaviors turn employees into layoff targets. This article on CIO.com entitled, “How to get fired”, lists 5 such behaviors to avoid.
I’ll add one more, specific to the IT industry: Never create an “IT vs. Non-IT” atmosphere. For example: If an IT professional spends all of their time shooting down requests or ideas, other people in the company get the feeling IT is out to thwart them, rather than help.
If you must reject ideas, try to explain why the idea isn’t feasible and suggest a different solution instead (if possible). Become someone who tries to help, rather than someone who only says “no”.
You might notice the blog looks a little different today. So does our web site.
Why, you ask? To improve your browsing experience.
You'll find that we simplified the look, cleaned up the organization, improved navigation, and added a much requested solutions section.
We’re happy with the result and believe the new site is much more user friendly. Feel free to check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.
This whitepaper covers techniques available for bringing your business applications to the web. It covers the pros and cons of 4 popular methods, pitfalls to avoid, and modernization best practices.
If your company is thinking about moving your business applications to the web, this is the whitepaper for you. You can read the entire whitepaper here.>>
There’s a record for everything these days. People do the strangest things just to get in the Guinness Book of World Records. For example, I saw a news story this year about a woman who set a record for living with live scorpions for over a month. My first thought, “Why???”
But what about technology? What technology records are waiting to be broken, or haven’t yet been set? Here’s an interesting article on techradar.com that lists 10 record breaking achievements in tech. Some of them are quite impressive, while a few are very breakable.
Think your company can break any of them, or set a new record? I’d love to hear about it.
Modernization. It sounds like such a daunting task. Just the thought of converting old systems into new, modern systems is enough to make IT executives cringe in fear.
Bimba Manufacturing knew that modernization was a big job, and that their IT staff didn’t have the time or the capabilities to take on a big modernization project. In fact, they even looked into ways to put a “bandaid” on their old solution until more time and resources became available. Then, they discovered m-Power.
m-Power allowed them to modernize their outdated systems with minimal resources while only costing a fraction of what a “bandaid” for their old solution would have cost. All in all, their choice to modernize saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. Find out how.>>
If your company is in the same boat—you don’t think you have the time or resources to modernize--think again. m-Power is a perfect solution for those who need to modernize on a budget or with limited resources. Fill out this short form and tell us about your modernization needs and we’ll tell you how m-Power can help you.
Ordinarily, I talk about the importance of good business intelligence. Up-to-the-second, accurate information is an essential part of the decision making process.
But, good data isn’t the only ingredient in the decision-making process, though many companies these days seem to think so. For example, many companies outsource their customer service department because it looks like a sound financial decision. But, how many customers will they lose as a result of bad service? How many customers will spread negative publicity about them via the internet? How many sales will they lose because of negative publicity?
You see, while that idea looks like a money-saving initiative on paper, it might be a corporate nightmare thanks to factors which can’t initially be measured. So, when making a decision, first make sure it’s based off of real-time data...but don't stop there. Consider all other factors that could affect the outcome before making the decision. You’ll be glad you did.
While I can’t tell you what to do with your business, I can help you see your data clearly. If real-time data is something you need, please fill out this form and tell me about it.
I recently read an interesting article in PCWorld.com entitled, "The 10 Stupidest Tech Company Blunders.” While it’s easy to sit back and laugh at how dumb these decisions look now, I like to look at lists like this and think, “What mistakes did they make and how can I avoid them?”
In a few of these examples, but most notably the RIAA example, I see a valuable business lesson: When the world changes, don’t fight to keep it the same way—you’ll lose every time. Instead, figure out how to adapt to the change and capitalize on it.
How about you? Do you see any valuable business lessons in all of these mistakes? I'd love to hear them.
Within the last couple months, we introduced a new m-Power template with some powerful features: The Web 2.0 Grid Maintenance Template! This new template allows users to update multiple records at one time.
While it is great for a variety of applications, here are a couple ways the Web 2.0 Grid Maintenance template could be used:
I was checking out an online service (which shall remain nameless) the other day, and signed up for their free trial. My expectations were high after reading user reviews and getting a glimpse of their flashy user interface. Long story short—I was disappointed.
I was disappointed because the interface was their best feature. There was little substance behind all the flash. Now, I have no problem with a nice interface, but I’m a firm believer in building a powerful product first, and then putting a nice interface on top of it…not the other way around.
I was reminded of that story as I read a great article on smartertechnology.com entitled, “10 business intelligence apps we need to see in 2009.” In one point, the author mentions that a good BI tool needs to start from the data and not from the graphics. I couldn’t agree more.
But that's not all, there are plenty of other features to look for when searching for a BI solution. If you want to know more about what to look for in a good BI solution, just fill out this short form. We would be glad to help.
Have you ever noticed how some people succeed despite the obstacles in front of them, while others seem to struggle over the smallest hurdles? The same can be said for many companies as well.
It’s no coincidence. Successful companies (and people) generally have certain habits that contribute to their success. I recently ran across a great little article on Techrepublic.com that lists 10 great ideas for success, taken from 5 great bosses over a 30 year period.
While the article is aimed at managers, many of the tips can be applied to just about everyone. You can read it here.>>
Last week, I posted a riddle that went something like this: What do you get when you combine m-Power’s new ranking report with m-Painter’s new import facility? The answer: An instant executive dashboard!
But, it’s no ordinary executive dashboard. It’s a dashboard instantly generated using criteria specified at run-time. What does that mean? It means that you can generate an executive dashboard displaying the information you want to see at that moment…with just a click of a button.
The best part? That same application can be used to generate an unlimited number of executive dashboards.
Want to see an executive dashboard built over your own files in under 24 hours? Fill out this form to get started.
When I first heard about Apple’s blockage of the Google Voice App, I thought, “Why don’t they just make a web app?” As it turns out, according to this article on mashable.com, that’s exactly what they’re doing.
It’s a genius move on Google’s part. Apple can’t very well block a web application without raising some serious eyebrows over at the FCC. Also, a web app is far more flexible than an iPhone app. It’s accessible from any web browser, opening their app up to other phones in the process.
Did you know that you can do the same thing with your business applications? You can turn them into web apps with m-Power and access them on your iPhone, Blackberry, or other smartphone, all while avoiding rigorous application approval procedures. Fill out this short form if you want to know more, or if you want to see a free proof of concept web application.
Learning a new skill or getting a new certification is often a good idea - bad economy or not. But, not all skills and certifications are created equal. Which ones should you focus on?
Here’s a nice list on Datamation.com which lists Hot IT skills and certifications, as well as certifications that are rising or falling in value. The information is gathered from a survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. and Canadian employers.
Before computers, we worried about property theft. When the internet became commonplace, it brought in threats like identity theft, viruses, and thieves that can pillage your bank account from the comfort of their own homes.
Now, as smart-phones take over many of the tasks formerly performed on desktop computers, we inch closer to a mobile security problem. More and more sensitive information is stored on smart-phones today, information that could do great damage to a company if that phone is lost/stolen and the data is compromised.
How do you avoid the problem? Instead of storing information on the phone itself, create web applications designed for mobile browsers and place as much security on them as you would a regular web application. Your users can access those web applications from their smart-phones to see the data they need. That way, if a smart-phone is lost, your company data isn’t at risk.
If you need help getting started, we’ve written up a few tips for creating mobile web applications and placed them in our forums.>>
What happens when you combine m-Power's new ranking report template with m-Painter's new import facility? Click the question mark to find out. (Hint: The link will lead to a page that looks very similar to the ranking report. Select your filtering criteria, click the "run report" button, and you will see the answer to the riddle).
Smart-phones are revolutionizing the way we travel. Are you lost? Just pull up a map on your phone. Bored on the plane? Chances are there’s something on your phone to keep you occupied. Need to find a restaurant in a new city? Again, check your phone.
If you plan on traveling during the remainder of this summer, there are a few applications that might really come in handy. Here’s a nice list on CIO.com of 20 Blackberry and iPhone apps for summer travel.
Be warned: The more we depend on our phones, the more costly losing one can become, especially in business. Check out this week's blog post entitled, "The next big security problem", for a way around those risks.
I just read an interesting article in Infoworld.com, entitled, “Slow IT: Do Less with Less.” It was a very good read, but the title is a bit misleading.
The article is not really focused on doing less so much as it’s focused on working smarter. Sometimes working smarter involves doing less of the menial tasks and more of the business sensitive tasks. It involves finding ways to cut out those things which waste your time, while finding new ways to save time.
Here's a very common example: Many IT departments waste countless hours running ad hoc reports. I’ve known IT professionals who hated their jobs because they were just running ad hoc reports all the time. The solution: Let your users run their own reports and everyone will be happy.
If you’re not quite sure how to let your users run their own reports, or think it would be a long process, we can help. We will show you how to quickly set up reporting solutions for end users like the kind of reports you can find here (or here). Just fill out this short form for more information.
We have recently released a new update which adds Google map integration into m-Power. This enhancement applies to all web application templates in m-Power.
How will this help? There are really many, many ways to use an integrated map in your web apps, but here are a couple that come to mind:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If you are in the IT industry, you must make an effort to keep your skills up to date - or risk unemployment. I know it’s not easy, but a current skill set will drastically improve your chances of employment when times get tough. Even in the worst economic conditions, there are always certain skill sets that are still in demand.
Want to know what they are right now? Check out this list on CIOinsight.com that lists 9 IT jobs that are currently in high demand.
The one IT job this list is missing is m-Power developer - the job that lets you take advantage of and keep current on changing technologies as they are happening.
Did you see the news article last week about the NYPD and their new typewriters? Basically, New York is shelling out nearly $1 million to buy new typewriters for their police force. Stories like this only illustrate just how hard it is to change, especially in IT.
Why is change so hard in IT? Besides the whole issue of time and money, I believe the biggest roadblocks to change in IT are the people themselves. “The old way works just fine”, is the refrain I’m sure many an IT professional has heard in their career. Unfortunately, the old way is usually the more expensive way.
I believe that change is necessary, and can be easy if done right. In fact, if anyone from the NYPD is reading this, we can create web applications for you in one month that will completely eliminate the need for typewriters. Give us a call and we’ll get started.
If your company is hanging onto old technology, I would like to show you just how easy change can be. Just fill out this short form and let us know what old technology your company is holding onto.
As I promised in a post a couple of weeks ago, the new ranking report template is now available to m-Power customers. Just log into the customer portal and download the latest update.
This new ranking report template allows you to run reports with variable rankings while specifying selection criteria at run-time. Check out the live demo area to learn more about its functionality.
You may be surprised to hear that the demo area you just viewed was created in under 5 minutes. Don’t believe me? I’ve written up a step-by-step walkthrough of the build process complete with screenshots, which can be found in our forums.
I heard an unintentionally hilarious commercial on the radio the other day. I won’t try to quote it word for word, but it went something like this: Tired of poor job security and low pay? Take our 6 month training class and you will become a Microsoft certified IT professional. You will be an indispensible employee with great job security and a high salary.
I had to laugh. In 6 months I could have great job security and a high salary? Sign me up! That certainly sounds great, but I’m afraid it’s far from accurate. In fact, this Techrepublic.com article entitled, “10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT” probably describes the industry a little better.
What do you think? Who described the IT industry better: The commercial or the article?
There is no excuse for inefficiency in the enterprise these days. Never before have we had so many tools at our disposable aimed at making us more efficient. And it will only become more important in the coming years.
According to this article in Forbes.com, efficiency will be the theme of the next decade. IT departments will be tasked with making all aspects of the enterprise more efficient in the next few years, but it won't be easy. According to the author, they will run into a few distinct problems ranging from old data to inefficient application development.
If you want to develop applications more efficiently, m-Power will help. Just fill out this short form and let us know what you have on your plate, and we’ll show you how m-Power will make you more efficient.
We have some great new m-Power features coming in the near future that I’m really excited about. I can’t contain my excitement any longer for one in particular: m-Power is getting a new interface!
The new UI will not only look better, but will make it even easier to create web applications. We’ve improved the navigation in a few different ways, upgraded search-ability, added links to resources, and much more.
While I don’t have a demo area to show you, I do have a screenshot if you want to see the future user interface for m-Power. I’ve added the descriptions and the arrows, so don’t think that they are part of the interface. You can see the screenshot here.>>
If you want to see just the screenshot with no descriptions, click here.>>
About 8 months ago, our communication company’s central box went down and much of the area (us included) lost internet service for a couple days. It was difficult to work and made me realize just how much we (and businesses as a whole) rely on the internet.
I was reminded of that story as I was reading an article on techradar.com entitled, “Celebrating 20 years of the world wide web.” The article takes a look back from the beginning of the world wide web until now, and covers the steps taken to get where we are today.
It’s funny to think how just 20 years ago the internet had no place in the business, and now you probably couldn’t even function without it. It kind of makes me wonder what we’ll be remembering fondly 20 years from now.
I've noticed many companies acting like turtles recently. What do I mean by that? When a turtle is scared, they retract into their shells. They shut themselves off to the outside world in hopes that the threat will go away.
It seems as though many companies are doing the same thing. They are hiding and waiting for the economy to get better. While that may be a good strategy for a turtle, it’s not for a business.
This is no time to hide and wait. This is the time to move ahead while everyone else is waiting. Look outside your comfort zone for new ways to help your business. Identify your key weaknesses and try to turn them into advantages. Sure, it might cost a little up front, but you’ll be far better off in the long run.
Take this company for example. Instead of hiding and waiting, they used new technology to turn a big weakness into an area of strength. Not only are they a stronger company because of it, but they opened up a new revenue stream as well.
I’d like to give you a quick preview of a new template we have coming for m-Power that I’m pretty excited about. Basically, this new template lets you write ranking reports - on steroids.
You will be able to create a report that does variable rankings, across multiple dimensions, while specifying whatever selection criteria you want at run-time. That sounds like a mouthful, but it all makes sense when you check it out here.
Imagine the possibilities! In mere seconds, you can run a report detailing your best (or worst) selling products, salespeople, regions, etc… It’s instant information available to end users in an easy to use format.
The best part: It’s really easy to make. In fact, we made the demo in about 5 minutes. If you don’t believe that, we’ll be happy to walk you through the process.
This new feature will be available in the very near future, so stay tuned!
Do you remember back in the dark ages when cell phones were used only for phone calls? We couldn't check our email or even send text messages. How did we ever survive?
It’s funny to think how far cell phone technology has progressed over the last 10 years. Cell phones have gone from being a luxury to a necessity, in both personal and business life. Can you imagine what you would do if you couldn’t check your email or view vital business data from your smartphone these days?
While it’s interesting to look back, I like to look forward to where mobile technology is going and how it might affect the business world. Here’s an article in Computerworld that examines this very topic and details 13 future mobile technologies that will be important.
We’ve recently rolled out some new enhancements to m-Power, and I’m pretty excited about them.
For instance, applications can now be imported directly into one another through m-Painter. What does that mean to you? Well, applications that contain other applications are much easier to develop. For example, creating an executive dashboard is easier than ever!
But that's not all. There are a few more new enhancements to m-Power that you should know about. Check out our latest press release to learn more about them!
Throughout my years in this industry, I have seen countless examples of inefficiencies and waste in IT. While the causes may vary, wasted money is often the direct result of a failed attempt to save money.
For example, many companies decide to outsource development projects without realizing there are always hidden fees and expenses that aren't initially obvious. Unfortunately, the true cost is often discovered only when it’s too late to change directions.
Also, many managers are “Penny wise, pound foolish.” For example, pretend you owned a construction company, and in order to save money you didn’t buy any power tools for your workers. Your attempt to “save money” would produce the opposite effect. In the same way, many companies try to “save money” and not purchase tools to help their developers work more efficiently.
These are just a couple of points made in this Techrepublic.com article entitled, “10 ways IT wastes money on development.” It’s a great read and I highly recommend it for anyone involved in development. It's important to regularly analyze your development process and eliminate any waste, especially in a bad economy.
A few weeks back, I posted a link to an article listing the best places to work if you’re in the IT industry. I recently ran across an article on CIO.com that lists the exact opposite: “The worst U.S. cities to work in IT.”
I don’t think it’s as bad as they (or their depressing picture selection) make it out to be, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Do you work in one of these cities, and if so, what do you think of it?
Should we modernize or stick with what we’ve got until the economy recovers? I know that question has been asked by many companies these days. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?
I recently read a study by Aberdeen which examines the modernization methods used by best-in-class organizations. According to the study, companies that take the right approach to modernization see substantial cost savings and performance improvements over companies that stick with the status quo.
What is the best approach to legacy modernization? The study finds that a tools-based approach to modernization combined with well planned processes leads to the greatest success.
Those findings certainly fall in line with what I’ve seen over the years. Take this company for example. Their tools-based approach to modernization resulted in 6-figure savings.
I’ve been following the latest CSS3 developments for a while now, and must say that I’m pretty excited about what it can do for web applications. CSS3 adds much more functionality while including many time-saving features.
In case you haven’t heard about all the great new features of CSS3 yet, I just read an article in smashingmagazine.com that lists and describes 13 of the best features. You can find the entire article here.>>
In a bad economy, top IT talent is more important than ever. The good news (at least for companies) is that there is plenty of great IT talent available right now. So, if your company has trouble attracting great talent, you need to ask: “Why?”
How do you attract the best talent? Take a lesson from these companies: Computerworld recently published their “100 best places to work in IT 2009.” Not only do they explain why each company made the list, but they list a few ways your company can attract and retain highly skilled IT workers.
Creating powerful enterprise-level Web applications doesn't have to be complicated.
Here, you can create a custom, live, lightning-fast, portable and flexible database-driven Web application in just a few minutes with your current skill set.
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Have you ever noticed how images on some websites flicker when you hover over them? It’s like the image disappears for a split second before the hover image is displayed. That happens because the hover state of the image isn’t loaded into the browser cache until you hover over it.
You can fix this problem when you use CSS sprites in place of the typical methods for creating rollover buttons. We’ve written up a brief tutorial on CSS sprites which can be found in our forums.
The good people at CIO.com have posted another list of Blackberry apps, but this time they’re aimed at the IT professional. Unfortunately, not all of the apps in this list are free.
However, there are some pretty useful apps in there, so I’d recommend you check it out if you’re a Blackberry owner and an IT professional. Click here to see the list>>.
If you asked me and my wife to describe the same event, our descriptions would be so different you might not be able to tell we were even talking about the same thing. It’s not that either of us is dishonest, we just notice different things.
The same thing can happen with business data and reports. If two people are asked to create reports on similar data, the results may be anything but similar. They might emphasize different points, or even use different formats in their reports.
Here’s a company that was dealing with this exact problem, only multiplied by 9. They had 9 separate plants, running on 9 separate databases, with 9 separate managers, who had 9 separate ways of doing things. Comparing business data across the plants was like comparing apples to…mangos.
They managed to fix their problems by creating a web-based executive dashboard, even though no one on staff had experience with web application development. Find out what they did>>.
What is the future of computing? According to Google, it’s web-based applications. At their recent I/O convention, Google showed off a few new features of HTML 5, and explained how web applications will be able to take advantage of these features.
Personally, I think Google is spot on. Web-based apps offer multiple advantages over standalone apps, but I think it all comes down to instant information. Web-based apps can be accessed from anywhere at anytime, allowing businesses to operate faster and more efficiently than ever before.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Companies that operate at anything less than real-time are at an extreme disadvantage in this day and age.
When you look back at the history of computer applications, what stands out to you? Which applications truly affected the way you worked, or even lived?
Once you’ve thought of a few, check out this article on itnews.com, which lists the top 10 industry-changing computer applications. It’s an interesting read, and I think they did a good job overall—most everything on that list is in fact, industry-changing.
I’m sure many may disagree with the list, and I’m curious to hear why. What would you change about this list, and why?
When it comes to failure, there are two types of people in this world: People who learn from their failures and people who won’t admit they have failed. Everybody fails at one point or another, but only some learn from their mistakes. Here’s a great article in CIO.com details real stories of IT failure, and the lessons learned from them.
This reminds me of a manufacturing company we worked with in the past. They had poured over a million dollars into creating a web-based order entry system, only to find the project half done after 2 years. They realized that they needed to do something different, and soon hired an m-Power consultant. Ten weeks later, the project was finished.
This situation turned out well, but can you imagine what would have happened if they had stubbornly pushed forward on that project? It would’ve been a disaster.
Are you stuck in a project that is taking longer and costing more than expected? Maybe we can help. Let us know a little about the lemons you have on your plate, and we’ll show you how to turn them into lemonade.
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