27th May 2010
Free Affiliate Programs – How To Make Money On A Shoestring Budget with an Affilliate Marketing St
By Zornitza Pavlova Mackinnon in E-Marketing
Did you know that you can start making money on the internet even if you don�t have a website? Sound crazy? Well it�s true. On top of that you don�t have to lay out a penny in order to take advantage of this opportunity. I�m talking about an a...
27th May 2010
Obama Grants: Set Up To Encourage Moms to Get a Degree
By Marlon Jackson in Finance
Although the government beneath the popular Obama administration is working hard to assist working mothers to return to college many are still unsure as to what the Obama grant is truly about. Many would like to think that such federal programs which a...
27th May 2010
Obama Grants Will Help Encourage Moms to Get a Degree
By Marlon Jackson in Finance
For many the idea of returning to college as working mothers seems almost a dream. However it need not be with the assistance of the government beneath the Obama administration. However do you know what the Obama grant is all about? Many would like to ...
27th May 2010
Is There An Easy, All Natural Way To Get Rid Of Your Carpal Tunnel Syndrome For Good
By Kathryn Merrow in Health-and-Fitness
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or hand and wrist pain can have several causes. You might have a vitamin or mineral deficiency. Perhaps the muscles in your lower arms are tight. Or, maybe the muscles in your chest or neck are causing you to have pain, tingling or ...
27th May 2010
Tip: How to Buy Quality Art
By Linda Coto in Pets
When was the last time you noticed what you have hanging on your walls? Having blank walls is just as depressing as not having windows through which you get light and a view outside. There's a good chance you have been wanting a piece of original art for ...
26th May 2010
How to Get Your Ex Back with Your Silence
By Teecee Go in Relationships
I’m sure that if you’ve experienced a painful breakup, the last thing you can imagine yourself doing is putting your ex out of your mind and out of your life. After all, the only reason you’re hurting so badly is because you miss him and you want t...
26th May 2010
Do You Really Need To Be Top Rated To Be A Top eBay Seller
By Q Lawrence in Internet
You will have noticed no doubt, that when searching for an item on eBay - things have changed. The listings, which previously were sorted by what was ending soonest are now in a completely different order - and now are sorted by 'Best Match' in a simi...
26th May 2010
4 Things Every Logo Design Should Strive For
By kottke in Business
When coming up with ideas for logos, there are 4 things that every logo should strive to be. I'm going to cover those 4 things today for you. 1. A logo must be describable. Take a look at the McDonald's arches, which are combined to form an M. One can ...
26th May 2010
Is emini futures trading for you? - Are you an emini trader material?
By Waldemar Puszkarz, Ph.D. in Finance
Emini futures that this article is concerned with are very popular trading vehicles among retail traders. There are a few good reasons why this is so, two of which certainly stand out. One is the relatively low deposit needed to open an emini trading acco...
26th May 2010
Reviewing the Martin Yale 62001 Letter Opener
By mybinding in Shopping
Everyone knows that opening hundreds - or thousands - of pieces of mail can be extremely time-consuming. (Not to mention tedious.) If your company needs to frequently process a lot of letters, you should consider investing in a device like the Martin Yale...
26th May 2010
Sony Vivaz Pro – the new name for excitement
By john brown in Technology
For people who are in love with the Sony Vivaz, the Sony Vivaz PRO is a new gadget that they can fall in love with. It offers a chance to record HD videos along with a host of other features. These new features take the amazing phone to new heights of exc...
26th May 2010
Trace a cell phone number today
By Arthur Clement in Technology
If you have ever tried to trace a cell phone number before, There is a good chance you have been cheated on before or suspicions have aroused that you are being cheating on now. I'm sure that you will agree that most of the planning and scheming that is d...
26th May 2010
Proven Debt Relief Tips - Legally Never Pay Back Your Credit Card Debt
By Otis in Finance
You might not be able to digest how not paying bills can help you with eliminating debt. Ironically it is quite true and can really boost your chances for being eligible for negotiation with the credit providers. To understand this concept better, her...
26th May 2010
When Does Debt Settlement Make Financial Sense? - Personal Debt Relief Tips
By Otis in Finance
The idea of debt settlement gives the debt ridden the much needed assistance to eliminate debt and overcome their financial difficulties. We have seen a lot of ups and downs in the last year and we are yet to settle over the problems. Not only the...
25th May 2010
Apartment Rental Advice for Those Who Have Recently Been Foreclosed
By Clivir Team in Home-and-Family
The first thing you will need to do if you have just lost your home is figure out where to stay. Having been a home owner, going back to renting can be a challenge for many. Some bigger apartment buildings may not accept you with a foreclosure on your ...
25th May 2010
Obama Grants: Encouraging Moms to Get a Degree
By Marlon Jackson in Finance
For many single moms the mentioning of the Obama grant may not be fully understood however it is being given emphasis by the government under the popular Obama administration in support of working mother's returning to college. Many would like to think...
25th May 2010
Ways To Earn A Residual Income And Build Financial Security
By Chris in E-Marketing
To be able to earn a residual income from a profitable online business requires hard work and commitment. The Internet now provides the perfect vehicle for literally anybody to succeed if they have the desire. If you are the sort of person who is prepared...
25th May 2010
Mr. Ticket Advises on How to Beat a Red Light Ticket in California
By Mr. Ticket in Legal
Southern California motorists facing red light violation charges are discovering that with the help of the law offices of Amir Soleimanian and Associates, they can fight and completely beat a red light ticket. Amir Soleimanian, who's earned the nickname �...
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Articles, tagged with "prospective client"
26th May 2010
The Different Types of Insurance Careers you Could Get Into
By GoogleKid in Career
If you are looking to start a new career than you might be interested to know that the insurance industry can offer you a broad spectrum of career opportunities. If you have a strong background in math and great people skills than pursuing a job as an ins...
25th May 2010
Tips To Convert Online Visitors to Buyers
By Lisa Mills in Sales and Marketing
The internet is a challenging and highly competitive market, so even if you have a fantastic product you could find it difficult to sell. However, keep learning tips to convert visitors to buyers and you will overcome this problem and make progress. It...
24th May 2010
Home Stagers Should Never Waive Their Consultation Fee
By Debra Gould in Business
As a professional home stager, you’re making a living selling your time, your talent and the accumulation of your experiences. Yet, many home stagers waive their consultation fee when they’re dealing with a vacant home. I do not agree with that pr...
21st May 2010
Drug Rehab Center
By Tom Thompson in Health & Healthcare
When addiction hits, the entire family is confronted with chaos and crisis. Most, having no previous experience, do not know where to turn for counsel and recommendations. Those who seek the services of a drug rehab center are most likely to find the an...
20th May 2010
Leveraging your Online Business Effectively with Online Classified Advertising
By Buy Wise Marketing in Home Business
As compared to offline classified advertising posted through printed media like journals, newspapers, magazines etc, online classified advertising helps in providing global exposure of your business in the cheapest manner. If you wish to post your ads onl...
20th May 2010
The Best DJ?
By Mark in Wedding & Marriage
The Best DJ? If you claim on being the best, you better back it. When searching for a DJ on-line for your reception or event, you may see claims made by many DJ's. Talk is cheap and in the mobile Disc Jockey industry DJ's can sure talk the talk...
20th May 2010
How To Build Self Confidence In Salespeople
By Richard Stone in Business
Every first contact with a potential client is a journey into the unknown: no salesperson knows what reception they will get and whether the visit will be successful or not. The natural reaction to this uncertainty is fear. Therefore to help overcome this...
20th May 2010
How to Write for More Money
By arfasaira in Writing & Speaking
It's not enough to just post your profile on a job auction site. You must also learn the art of bidding. This is extremely important because there are literally hundreds of other writers out there who will also bid on the same projects as you. So how do y...
20th May 2010
Letterheads: Front Liner in Communication
By lovelyuthara in Business
Expanding your client base doesn’t only involve offering the finest and exclusive products at cost effective prices, presenting yourself and your company in the best possible manner is equally essential to lure them towards a never ending and beneficial...
29th March 2010
Working Smarter Not Harder is Old-School for us!
By Jaimie VanSickle in Business
The old saying “work smarter not harder” is old-school to us entrepreneurs today. Entrepreneurs are among the elite of business professionals, in my opinion. You have to understand what drives us to take the risks we take to excel ourselves to the f...
29th March 2010
Kinds Of Work From Home Opportunities
By daisywilson in Home Business
There are no dearth of work from home opportunities for those people who are really serious to begin a home based business. A simple search on the internet search engines will land one with millions of work at home jobs. This is also called 'telecommuting...
29th March 2010
Cape Coral Web Marketing Company Real Estate Marketing Plans
By realestatemark in Sales and Marketing
There is a web marketing company in Cape Coral that makes use of video presentation as a major ingredient in aiding area to generate new leads. When using a video on a customer's site, it really sets them apart from their competitors. Videos should be ...
29th March 2010
Choosing the Right Letterhead for You
By charen in Business
Your company’s print letterhead is an important visual representation of your company. Just like your business card or catalog printing, it is one of the very first marketing tools that give your prospective client an opportunity to glimpse what your c...
29th March 2010
Life Coach Courses - What You Should Know Before You Go
By Nicole Bezchi in Home-and-Family
If you’re interested in becoming a life coach and deliberating between life coaching courses, here are three things you better know before you start to any life coaching training program. 1. What type of life coach are you striving to become? Life...
29th March 2010
MLM Lead Generation – Fish Don't Chew on Hooks They Chew upon the Bait
By teamdynasty in Business
You have a great business opportunity and but whenever you present it to people they don't enroll, now is that disheartening or what? Within this document I'm about to offer you a few thoughts on exactly how to improve your own sign-up ratio by as high as...
26th March 2010
Do not you think that conversion rates are taking place with CTR?
By Jared Burt in Pay Per Click
In web promoting, translation rate is that the ratio of guests who convert unpremeditated content views or web site visits into actions by the customers based mostly on delicate or direct requests from buyer/seller, advertisers, and the creators of the co...
24th March 2010
Use business card templates for redesigning your professional cards
By Edgar in Business
A business card plays a crucial role in reflecting the image of an organization in an exquisite and distinct manner. A marketer uses a well-designed professional card for the purpose of creating a desirable and memorable impression on the customers’ min...
24th March 2010
How Gift Baskets Are Good For Business
By Alonzo Green in Food-and-Drink
Gift baskets in the middle of no-holiday month are not uncommon these days especially with the business community recognizing the potential gift baskets have to impress clients or prospective suppliers. According to statistics, gift basket sales have incr...
24th March 2010
Steps to a Better Logo Design!
By logo mojo in Sales and Marketing
Steps to a Better Logo Design! Know your audience Know Your Customer In order to design a good logo, you need to know your customer and your customer's customer, as well. Many customers may come to you and request a particular style of logo...
22nd March 2010
Versatile PPC Management Services
By gilbert in Pay Per Click
The idea of online businesses is to generate revenues and we all understand the importance of great ads. This is where the use of revenue generating PPC management services step in. In order to survive well as an online business entrepreneur you simply...
19th March 2010
Give your business profits new heights with lead management software
By Anne Pastor Cissel in Business
For any business the importance of leads is undeniable. And therefore it is most essential to have a proper management system for the leads. The lead management for any website plays a very important role. One the proper functioning of the lead management...
18th March 2010
Are you embarking on a new way to advertise your recruitment agency? If so, you will need to add rec
By Steve Sinclair in Career
Have you ever priced the cost of a good recruitment website design? The price varies from one company to the next. When you decide how much you want to spend on your project you will need to find a company that can create a recruitment web design that wil...
18th March 2010
Video Conferences Save Alot of Company Resources
By Linda Latham in Business
what if you could spend more time with your loved ones and less time at perform. What if you can invest less time working. That is usually the promise created by new technologies. However what I've seen in many cases is that the opposite occurs. You are n...
18th March 2010
Business Cards: Captivating Prospective Clients
By lovelyuthara in Business
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. In order to be lucky and make the most out of the opportunity you have to be well prepared to convert in into a milestone. Business card provides that perfect opportunity to transform your luc...
17th March 2010
Make your Business contacts database work for you
By BarcaTech in Business
“‘If I’d get a dollar for every time my team members complain about incorrect & inefficient sales database, I’d be a rich man” jokes Mr. Ellefson, a Sales manager at a telecom company catering to the service industry. A light hearted comment add...
17th March 2010
Compliment Slips: Building Everlasting Relationships
By lovelyuthara in Business
A successful and flourishing business venture always requires excellent skills, management techniques, creating a harmonious ambience in the office, dedicated employees and perfect communication with your business associates, prospective client and your e...
15th March 2010
Get your business noticed with promotional pens
By JessicaThomson in Business
Pens are something that is used by almost everybody. Professionals, students, executives, and housewives everyone uses them even in this computer age. Almost every type of job requires you to use them. And hence, if you are planning of getting a a href="...
12th March 2010
Business Card Marketing Ideas to Generate Leads
By Merlina Palencia in Sales and Marketing
We are in an economic crunch right now and your car dealership may have been among the many small businesses affected by low profit margins. In this kind of situation, buying new cars (or even used one for that matter) may not be among the top priorities ...
11th March 2010
Video Marketing Suggestions - The Reason of Video Promoting Businesses
By bjmin in Business
Should you wish to know much more about video promoting suggestions, then this article will facilitate in giving you information and ideas regarding why movie marketing is used as a tool of reaching the people. It will also discuss the cause of movie prom...
10th March 2010
5 Negotiating Mistakes
By Joan in Self-Improvement
"You've been in business for a few years (or 20) and have earned a certain degree of respect from your customers and colleagues. While some people struggle, getting new business is as easy for you as breathing. Yet you sometimes find yourself beholden to ...
09th March 2010
Flash Animation Design- Bringing Life to the Cyberspace
By Arun Kumar in Web Design
Flash animation is certainly the in-thing today as it has enhanced the visual appeal of websites in the contemporary times. Once the website looks more attractive to the visitor, it automatically helps in baiting the prospective client and increasing the ...
05th March 2010
Expert in company appointment setting globally,appointment setting service,set appointments,best and
By appointmentsetting in Business
Appointment Setting: The Best Method for Lead Generation This article describes the advantage of appointment setting method over other methods of lead generation. Thinking about the usability of appointment setting activity that may transform your busin...
04th March 2010
Interior Design, Style and Color Use for the Standard Office Cubicles
By miteshparmar in Shopping
When we say Interior Design we only think of it in terms of home decorations. But that is not the case anymore as many interior designers have started taking interest in business for business. Designing for office space is much more challenging than it is...
03rd March 2010
Designing Professional Business Cards Made Easy
By Vickie Lexom in Sales and Marketing
In this competitive business environment it is important to pay attention to details when marketing yourself or a business. Often, tremendous creative energy and large portions of a promotional budget and is allotted to high priced advertising mediums, wh...
01st March 2010
Less Trips means Less Carbon
By Tam Sweetwater in Business
Increase Bottom LineHave you thought about maximizing your bottom line? This line of thought applies to both business owners and individuals alike. The reason I say individuals is because you could be a salesperson. As a salesperson you will want to step-...
The Different Types of Insurance Careers you Could Get Into
By GoogleKid in Career
If you are looking to start a new career than you might be interested to know that the insurance industry can offer you a broad spectrum of career opportunities. If you have a strong background in math and great people skills than pursuing a job as an ins...
25th May 2010
Tips To Convert Online Visitors to Buyers
By Lisa Mills in Sales and Marketing
The internet is a challenging and highly competitive market, so even if you have a fantastic product you could find it difficult to sell. However, keep learning tips to convert visitors to buyers and you will overcome this problem and make progress. It...
24th May 2010
Home Stagers Should Never Waive Their Consultation Fee
By Debra Gould in Business
As a professional home stager, you’re making a living selling your time, your talent and the accumulation of your experiences. Yet, many home stagers waive their consultation fee when they’re dealing with a vacant home. I do not agree with that pr...
21st May 2010
Drug Rehab Center
By Tom Thompson in Health & Healthcare
When addiction hits, the entire family is confronted with chaos and crisis. Most, having no previous experience, do not know where to turn for counsel and recommendations. Those who seek the services of a drug rehab center are most likely to find the an...
20th May 2010
Leveraging your Online Business Effectively with Online Classified Advertising
By Buy Wise Marketing in Home Business
As compared to offline classified advertising posted through printed media like journals, newspapers, magazines etc, online classified advertising helps in providing global exposure of your business in the cheapest manner. If you wish to post your ads onl...
20th May 2010
The Best DJ?
By Mark in Wedding & Marriage
The Best DJ? If you claim on being the best, you better back it. When searching for a DJ on-line for your reception or event, you may see claims made by many DJ's. Talk is cheap and in the mobile Disc Jockey industry DJ's can sure talk the talk...
20th May 2010
How To Build Self Confidence In Salespeople
By Richard Stone in Business
Every first contact with a potential client is a journey into the unknown: no salesperson knows what reception they will get and whether the visit will be successful or not. The natural reaction to this uncertainty is fear. Therefore to help overcome this...
20th May 2010
How to Write for More Money
By arfasaira in Writing & Speaking
It's not enough to just post your profile on a job auction site. You must also learn the art of bidding. This is extremely important because there are literally hundreds of other writers out there who will also bid on the same projects as you. So how do y...
20th May 2010
Letterheads: Front Liner in Communication
By lovelyuthara in Business
Expanding your client base doesn’t only involve offering the finest and exclusive products at cost effective prices, presenting yourself and your company in the best possible manner is equally essential to lure them towards a never ending and beneficial...
29th March 2010
Working Smarter Not Harder is Old-School for us!
By Jaimie VanSickle in Business
The old saying “work smarter not harder” is old-school to us entrepreneurs today. Entrepreneurs are among the elite of business professionals, in my opinion. You have to understand what drives us to take the risks we take to excel ourselves to the f...
29th March 2010
Kinds Of Work From Home Opportunities
By daisywilson in Home Business
There are no dearth of work from home opportunities for those people who are really serious to begin a home based business. A simple search on the internet search engines will land one with millions of work at home jobs. This is also called 'telecommuting...
29th March 2010
Cape Coral Web Marketing Company Real Estate Marketing Plans
By realestatemark in Sales and Marketing
There is a web marketing company in Cape Coral that makes use of video presentation as a major ingredient in aiding area to generate new leads. When using a video on a customer's site, it really sets them apart from their competitors. Videos should be ...
29th March 2010
Choosing the Right Letterhead for You
By charen in Business
Your company’s print letterhead is an important visual representation of your company. Just like your business card or catalog printing, it is one of the very first marketing tools that give your prospective client an opportunity to glimpse what your c...
29th March 2010
Life Coach Courses - What You Should Know Before You Go
By Nicole Bezchi in Home-and-Family
If you’re interested in becoming a life coach and deliberating between life coaching courses, here are three things you better know before you start to any life coaching training program. 1. What type of life coach are you striving to become? Life...
29th March 2010
MLM Lead Generation – Fish Don't Chew on Hooks They Chew upon the Bait
By teamdynasty in Business
You have a great business opportunity and but whenever you present it to people they don't enroll, now is that disheartening or what? Within this document I'm about to offer you a few thoughts on exactly how to improve your own sign-up ratio by as high as...
26th March 2010
Do not you think that conversion rates are taking place with CTR?
By Jared Burt in Pay Per Click
In web promoting, translation rate is that the ratio of guests who convert unpremeditated content views or web site visits into actions by the customers based mostly on delicate or direct requests from buyer/seller, advertisers, and the creators of the co...
24th March 2010
Use business card templates for redesigning your professional cards
By Edgar in Business
A business card plays a crucial role in reflecting the image of an organization in an exquisite and distinct manner. A marketer uses a well-designed professional card for the purpose of creating a desirable and memorable impression on the customers’ min...
24th March 2010
How Gift Baskets Are Good For Business
By Alonzo Green in Food-and-Drink
Gift baskets in the middle of no-holiday month are not uncommon these days especially with the business community recognizing the potential gift baskets have to impress clients or prospective suppliers. According to statistics, gift basket sales have incr...
24th March 2010
Steps to a Better Logo Design!
By logo mojo in Sales and Marketing
Steps to a Better Logo Design! Know your audience Know Your Customer In order to design a good logo, you need to know your customer and your customer's customer, as well. Many customers may come to you and request a particular style of logo...
22nd March 2010
Versatile PPC Management Services
By gilbert in Pay Per Click
The idea of online businesses is to generate revenues and we all understand the importance of great ads. This is where the use of revenue generating PPC management services step in. In order to survive well as an online business entrepreneur you simply...
19th March 2010
Give your business profits new heights with lead management software
By Anne Pastor Cissel in Business
For any business the importance of leads is undeniable. And therefore it is most essential to have a proper management system for the leads. The lead management for any website plays a very important role. One the proper functioning of the lead management...
18th March 2010
Are you embarking on a new way to advertise your recruitment agency? If so, you will need to add rec
By Steve Sinclair in Career
Have you ever priced the cost of a good recruitment website design? The price varies from one company to the next. When you decide how much you want to spend on your project you will need to find a company that can create a recruitment web design that wil...
18th March 2010
Video Conferences Save Alot of Company Resources
By Linda Latham in Business
what if you could spend more time with your loved ones and less time at perform. What if you can invest less time working. That is usually the promise created by new technologies. However what I've seen in many cases is that the opposite occurs. You are n...
18th March 2010
Business Cards: Captivating Prospective Clients
By lovelyuthara in Business
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. In order to be lucky and make the most out of the opportunity you have to be well prepared to convert in into a milestone. Business card provides that perfect opportunity to transform your luc...
17th March 2010
Make your Business contacts database work for you
By BarcaTech in Business
“‘If I’d get a dollar for every time my team members complain about incorrect & inefficient sales database, I’d be a rich man” jokes Mr. Ellefson, a Sales manager at a telecom company catering to the service industry. A light hearted comment add...
17th March 2010
Compliment Slips: Building Everlasting Relationships
By lovelyuthara in Business
A successful and flourishing business venture always requires excellent skills, management techniques, creating a harmonious ambience in the office, dedicated employees and perfect communication with your business associates, prospective client and your e...
15th March 2010
Get your business noticed with promotional pens
By JessicaThomson in Business
Pens are something that is used by almost everybody. Professionals, students, executives, and housewives everyone uses them even in this computer age. Almost every type of job requires you to use them. And hence, if you are planning of getting a a href="...
12th March 2010
Business Card Marketing Ideas to Generate Leads
By Merlina Palencia in Sales and Marketing
We are in an economic crunch right now and your car dealership may have been among the many small businesses affected by low profit margins. In this kind of situation, buying new cars (or even used one for that matter) may not be among the top priorities ...
11th March 2010
Video Marketing Suggestions - The Reason of Video Promoting Businesses
By bjmin in Business
Should you wish to know much more about video promoting suggestions, then this article will facilitate in giving you information and ideas regarding why movie marketing is used as a tool of reaching the people. It will also discuss the cause of movie prom...
10th March 2010
5 Negotiating Mistakes
By Joan in Self-Improvement
"You've been in business for a few years (or 20) and have earned a certain degree of respect from your customers and colleagues. While some people struggle, getting new business is as easy for you as breathing. Yet you sometimes find yourself beholden to ...
09th March 2010
Flash Animation Design- Bringing Life to the Cyberspace
By Arun Kumar in Web Design
Flash animation is certainly the in-thing today as it has enhanced the visual appeal of websites in the contemporary times. Once the website looks more attractive to the visitor, it automatically helps in baiting the prospective client and increasing the ...
05th March 2010
Expert in company appointment setting globally,appointment setting service,set appointments,best and
By appointmentsetting in Business
Appointment Setting: The Best Method for Lead Generation This article describes the advantage of appointment setting method over other methods of lead generation. Thinking about the usability of appointment setting activity that may transform your busin...
04th March 2010
Interior Design, Style and Color Use for the Standard Office Cubicles
By miteshparmar in Shopping
When we say Interior Design we only think of it in terms of home decorations. But that is not the case anymore as many interior designers have started taking interest in business for business. Designing for office space is much more challenging than it is...
03rd March 2010
Designing Professional Business Cards Made Easy
By Vickie Lexom in Sales and Marketing
In this competitive business environment it is important to pay attention to details when marketing yourself or a business. Often, tremendous creative energy and large portions of a promotional budget and is allotted to high priced advertising mediums, wh...
01st March 2010
Less Trips means Less Carbon
By Tam Sweetwater in Business
Increase Bottom LineHave you thought about maximizing your bottom line? This line of thought applies to both business owners and individuals alike. The reason I say individuals is because you could be a salesperson. As a salesperson you will want to step-...
Your Business Letterhead
What is a business letterhead, and why is it important to your present and future success? A business letterhead is stationary that has been printed with identifying information about you and your business, plus your business logo
, if you have one. Generally, a business letterhead lists your business name and mailing address, telephone numbers, including fax numbers, email address, and web site address. All of these can be listed, some as a page header, and some as a footer. The design and placement of this information is, of course, up to the person who owns the company or the person who is responsible for the marketing of a company.
All businesses should have an attractive letterhead, along with matching envelopes. Even if you think your own business would never have need of a letterhead, you never know when you may need to write a letter to a customer or supplier. There are times when an email just won’t do the job, and these are the times when a letter that has been typed or handwritten on an attractive business letterhead can get the job done with a touch of class.
Your business letterhead is your business image. A well-designed letterhead that is neat, yet eyecatching says good things about your business as well as your products. All of the information a potential or repeat customer should need is right in front of them when you make use of a letterhead. The fact that your business even has a letterhead will mightily impress some people, too. A letter written to a customer or supplier on plain paper says nothing about the quality of your products or services, whereas a letterhead can just ooze quality, depending on the type of paper used and the attention that is paid to the design detail.
Suppose you have never designed a business letterhead, and are a little unsure as to where you should start. This is when you call upon one of the letterhead printing services that can be found online. These printing services are business oriented, since they are a business themselves. They have ample experience in the best way to lay out a business letterhead and logo in order to help you make the best impression possible on the people and businesses you will be corresponding with by regular mail. Letterhead printing services also can supply you with envelope printing to match your business stationary.
Some people may tell you that you can print your own business letterhead stationary with your computer. Unless you are a graphic designer with a lot of time to spare, you will be much better off hiring a professional to do this work for you. Letterhead stationary that is homemade often looks homemade, and this is not the image that you want your business to have.
You must use a thicker paper stock in order to print a letterhead that looks and feels like something a business would use, and this paper is notorious for jamming up your printer, especially when you are printing a quantity of sheets.
Do a little research and select an online printer to handle all of your business printing needs. You will be very glad you did!
Dark Horse Print & Design has uniquely combined the skills of experienced Graphic design
staff, with expert printing machinery and staff. For a free sample pack, please visit Printing.
, if you have one. Generally, a business letterhead lists your business name and mailing address, telephone numbers, including fax numbers, email address, and web site address. All of these can be listed, some as a page header, and some as a footer. The design and placement of this information is, of course, up to the person who owns the company or the person who is responsible for the marketing of a company.
All businesses should have an attractive letterhead, along with matching envelopes. Even if you think your own business would never have need of a letterhead, you never know when you may need to write a letter to a customer or supplier. There are times when an email just won’t do the job, and these are the times when a letter that has been typed or handwritten on an attractive business letterhead can get the job done with a touch of class.
Your business letterhead is your business image. A well-designed letterhead that is neat, yet eyecatching says good things about your business as well as your products. All of the information a potential or repeat customer should need is right in front of them when you make use of a letterhead. The fact that your business even has a letterhead will mightily impress some people, too. A letter written to a customer or supplier on plain paper says nothing about the quality of your products or services, whereas a letterhead can just ooze quality, depending on the type of paper used and the attention that is paid to the design detail.
Suppose you have never designed a business letterhead, and are a little unsure as to where you should start. This is when you call upon one of the letterhead printing services that can be found online. These printing services are business oriented, since they are a business themselves. They have ample experience in the best way to lay out a business letterhead and logo in order to help you make the best impression possible on the people and businesses you will be corresponding with by regular mail. Letterhead printing services also can supply you with envelope printing to match your business stationary.
Some people may tell you that you can print your own business letterhead stationary with your computer. Unless you are a graphic designer with a lot of time to spare, you will be much better off hiring a professional to do this work for you. Letterhead stationary that is homemade often looks homemade, and this is not the image that you want your business to have.
You must use a thicker paper stock in order to print a letterhead that looks and feels like something a business would use, and this paper is notorious for jamming up your printer, especially when you are printing a quantity of sheets.
Do a little research and select an online printer to handle all of your business printing needs. You will be very glad you did!
Dark Horse Print & Design has uniquely combined the skills of experienced Graphic design
staff, with expert printing machinery and staff. For a free sample pack, please visit Printing.
Crafting RFPs for Systems Furniture
When doing the homework prior to furnishing new, renovated or expanded workplaces with systems furniture, office designers and facility managers find they are both blessed and cursed with vendor choices.
“Doing a ‘systems furniture’ search will yield a daunting number of returns,” says Mark Bassil, vice president and co-founder of MAiSPACE, a Mt. Olive NJ-based manufacturer of modular office furniture systems. “On the blessing side there is the cornucopia of choice, but on the curse side is choosing the right vendor from this abundance.”
Office furniture dealers may represent one or more manufacturers. While a dealer should work toward the best interest of a client, dealers are human and may tend to favor a certain manufacturer, letting that influence a recommendation, Bassil says. “That’s why systems furniture purchases should be made based on a sound knowledge of manufacturers.”
By reviewing manufacturers’ websites and studying literature, purchasers can educate themselves on the many details that go into constructing modular office furniture systems as well as the support services manufacturers and dealers provide the customer. “Coupling this knowledge with the objectives of the workplace project will help to define the project in detail,” Bassil says. “This information will guide the crafting of the RFP (request for proposals) to send to dealers and distributors.”
Having done their homework buyers are in a position to negotiate on virtually every aspect of the job. “An informed buyer is a buyer in the driver’s seat,” Bassil says.
Points to Consider for the RFP
Every project has a budget and meeting the budget bogey has high priority. “While RFPs will contain details on what is expected of the vendor, purchasers should know at the outset that high quality does not automatically mean high costs,” Bassil says. “For example, MAiSPACE was established in 1993 based on a new approach to designing, manufacturing and delivering modular office furniture systems. Because of this our prices are as much as 40% below those of some of the best-known names in the contract furniture industry. This,” he says, “represents the first cost of the system, and in our case is not conditioned on the number of units purchased.”
Armed with this knowledge, buyers can turn their attention to other buying criteria. “Many of these criteria will determine the lifetime cost of the installation,” Bassil says, offering the following checkpoints.
Construction
“Industry statistics prove that office floor plans and requirements change over time,” Bassil says. “Moves, adds and changes (MACs) call for modular products that do it easily without sacrificing structural soundness or having to buy new parts after modifications are made.”
Look for a 3 ½ inch wide frame constructed of 16-gauge cold-rolled steel to provide strength and rigidity, allowing it to remain distortion-free during installation and later MACs. Load-bearing panel frames should be capable of handling walls from 30 inches to 14 feet in height. Increasing or decreasing the height should be accomplished without removing existing panel frames or disturbing power, voice and data cabling.
Knockdown and ready-to-assemble (RTA) framing components equipped with self-leveling connections simplify moving elements into and throughout the building. This reduces assembly costs and the number of framing components required. Panel segments should be constructed from 24-gauge steel for exceptional durability and effective sound dampening.
Voice, Data and Power Cabling
Be clear on what you need in terms of bringing information to the workstation and supporting a collaborative work environment. Complex or poorly designed cabling systems provide an unwanted and unnecessary impediment to new installations and reconfigurations.
A point of comparison is the MAiSPACE patented zone distribution system, which includes plug-and-play connectors and the largest cable capacity in the industry. Cable runs are laid in behind lift-off panel segments, not bundled and fished through structural elements. This reduces office reconfiguration time from days to hours without disrupting the entire network, and can be accomplished by in-house personnel with a minimum of training.
Ergonomics
Workstations must be ergonomically correct for worker comfort. Furniture should allow users to create a comfortable personal environment through panel-hung components adjustable at 1- inch increments, flexible orientation for the workstation, height adjustable keyboard trays, ergonomically correct seating and curvilinear work surfaces with cascade edges.
Design Services
Vendors should provide a professional design team to produce the best and most cost-effective layout. MAiSPACE designers understand facility issues and use AutoCAD and GIZA specifying software to achieve furniture and floor plans that are virtually fault free. Related to this are accurate detailed specifications, product lists and installation drawings.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a necessity if companies are to attract and retain qualified personnel. Look for a broad range of colors, textures and finishes that add class and a pleasant ambiance to the entire office. Examples are panel segment options such as laminate, Coverseal, wood grain, painted metal, embossed and brushed stainless steel, airflow, glass and fabrics in several options, tackable/acoustical tiles, power/data tiles, marker board and paper management. Seating, tables, shelving and storage systems should complement the overall office design.
“Doing a ‘systems furniture’ search will yield a daunting number of returns,” says Mark Bassil, vice president and co-founder of MAiSPACE, a Mt. Olive NJ-based manufacturer of modular office furniture systems. “On the blessing side there is the cornucopia of choice, but on the curse side is choosing the right vendor from this abundance.”
Office furniture dealers may represent one or more manufacturers. While a dealer should work toward the best interest of a client, dealers are human and may tend to favor a certain manufacturer, letting that influence a recommendation, Bassil says. “That’s why systems furniture purchases should be made based on a sound knowledge of manufacturers.”
By reviewing manufacturers’ websites and studying literature, purchasers can educate themselves on the many details that go into constructing modular office furniture systems as well as the support services manufacturers and dealers provide the customer. “Coupling this knowledge with the objectives of the workplace project will help to define the project in detail,” Bassil says. “This information will guide the crafting of the RFP (request for proposals) to send to dealers and distributors.”
Having done their homework buyers are in a position to negotiate on virtually every aspect of the job. “An informed buyer is a buyer in the driver’s seat,” Bassil says.
Points to Consider for the RFP
Every project has a budget and meeting the budget bogey has high priority. “While RFPs will contain details on what is expected of the vendor, purchasers should know at the outset that high quality does not automatically mean high costs,” Bassil says. “For example, MAiSPACE was established in 1993 based on a new approach to designing, manufacturing and delivering modular office furniture systems. Because of this our prices are as much as 40% below those of some of the best-known names in the contract furniture industry. This,” he says, “represents the first cost of the system, and in our case is not conditioned on the number of units purchased.”
Armed with this knowledge, buyers can turn their attention to other buying criteria. “Many of these criteria will determine the lifetime cost of the installation,” Bassil says, offering the following checkpoints.
Construction
“Industry statistics prove that office floor plans and requirements change over time,” Bassil says. “Moves, adds and changes (MACs) call for modular products that do it easily without sacrificing structural soundness or having to buy new parts after modifications are made.”
Look for a 3 ½ inch wide frame constructed of 16-gauge cold-rolled steel to provide strength and rigidity, allowing it to remain distortion-free during installation and later MACs. Load-bearing panel frames should be capable of handling walls from 30 inches to 14 feet in height. Increasing or decreasing the height should be accomplished without removing existing panel frames or disturbing power, voice and data cabling.
Knockdown and ready-to-assemble (RTA) framing components equipped with self-leveling connections simplify moving elements into and throughout the building. This reduces assembly costs and the number of framing components required. Panel segments should be constructed from 24-gauge steel for exceptional durability and effective sound dampening.
Voice, Data and Power Cabling
Be clear on what you need in terms of bringing information to the workstation and supporting a collaborative work environment. Complex or poorly designed cabling systems provide an unwanted and unnecessary impediment to new installations and reconfigurations.
A point of comparison is the MAiSPACE patented zone distribution system, which includes plug-and-play connectors and the largest cable capacity in the industry. Cable runs are laid in behind lift-off panel segments, not bundled and fished through structural elements. This reduces office reconfiguration time from days to hours without disrupting the entire network, and can be accomplished by in-house personnel with a minimum of training.
Ergonomics
Workstations must be ergonomically correct for worker comfort. Furniture should allow users to create a comfortable personal environment through panel-hung components adjustable at 1- inch increments, flexible orientation for the workstation, height adjustable keyboard trays, ergonomically correct seating and curvilinear work surfaces with cascade edges.
Design Services
Vendors should provide a professional design team to produce the best and most cost-effective layout. MAiSPACE designers understand facility issues and use AutoCAD and GIZA specifying software to achieve furniture and floor plans that are virtually fault free. Related to this are accurate detailed specifications, product lists and installation drawings.
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a necessity if companies are to attract and retain qualified personnel. Look for a broad range of colors, textures and finishes that add class and a pleasant ambiance to the entire office. Examples are panel segment options such as laminate, Coverseal, wood grain, painted metal, embossed and brushed stainless steel, airflow, glass and fabrics in several options, tackable/acoustical tiles, power/data tiles, marker board and paper management. Seating, tables, shelving and storage systems should complement the overall office design.
10 Tips For Writing an e-Learning RFP / RFQ
When evaluating many types of products and services, companies or organizations sometimes use an RFP (Request For Proposal) / RFQ (Request For Quotation) process. There are challenges associated with the RFP / RFQ process, such as the length of time it can take, its complexity, and more. Many companies steer clear of using RFP / RFQ processes precisely for the reasons mentioned above, and a whole host of other issues that are not the subjects of this article.
Just writing an e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ can be a pretty daunting job. The task of putting together a good e-Learning RFP / RFQ is exacerbated because Learning Management Systems software and e-Learning Solutions can possess many layers of complexity, especially when they are developed to integrate with and meet the needs of your organization's information technology backbone.
Communicating your company's needs is often difficult. The tips below are by no means exhaustive, as they are designed to give you some suggestions and information to help you with writing an e-Learning / Learning Management System software RFP / RFQ.
1. You and your company should perform a thorough internal and external needs assessment, research, and planning long before you sit down to write your e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ. A whitepaper I wrote a few years back, called 'e-Learning Best Practices' has a section on 'Scoping Out your e-Learning Needs', and other information, which will provide you some information and guidelines for this part of the process.
2. If at all possible, try to write it within the context of a team or at the very least, get a colleague, your supervisor, or you assistant to be another set of eyeballs on the document. RFP / RFQs can have a tendency to be long, complicated, and involved documents, so having someone else to review your work, can be very beneficial. It's even better when one or more of the principle stakeholders help with the writing of the e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ.
3. Provide a company background statement that is specific and gives potential vendor companies information that is useful. It's fine to pull your company background statement from your marketing material, but don't stop there. If your e-Learning initiative will serve several departments, it might be a good idea to provide some sort of an organizational framework in your RFP / RFQ with a little history to help fill in the pieces of the puzzle.
4. Supply a statement of work that is specific and gives potential vendor companies information they will need. Sometimes a company will cut and paste their training department's goals and objectives into the statement of work. While this is helpful information to a point, too much information of this type may throw a potential vendor off course, which may result in you receiving proposals that do not meet your needs.
The problem is that people can have the tendency to lump goals, objectives, and tactics in the same category, but ultimately, they are not the same. There is a difference between a set of tactics verses a set of objectives verses a set of goals. A group of tactics can be the mechanism by which an objective is achieved. Objectives can monetize, quantify, and delineate desired outcomes to achieve a stated goal or goals.
Its important to remember that an e-Learning solution / Learning Management System is a tool used to achieve and / or promote a various set tactics as part of an entire training strategy which ideally, should be in line with company or department goals. Since it is a tool that is executed and used as part of a tactic, be sure to provide enough detailed information that is specific to your desired uses of an e-Learning solution along with your department's goals and objectives.
5. Develop a set of user personas so potential vendor companies will be given framework as to how their system will be used by every person that will touch it at your organization. Provide a breakdown of technical skill required for each user persona, including the technical requirements of any other IT systems they would use and need to be integrated into the e-Learning Solution / Learning Management System technology.
For example, a Human Resources Manager may work with an HRIS (Human Resources Information System) that would need to integrated with the Learning Management System. Be sure to provide the platform type, version, underlying database technology, the file structure, and any other information that is useful to the potential vendor company.
6. Prioritize features and functionality into a hierarchy based on the concepts of absolutely must have (priority 1), would like to have (priority 2), nice to have but not necessary (priority 3), or something along these lines to demonstrate level of importance to the vendor companies that will submit proposals for your RFP / RFQ.
Be sure to explain the features and functionality you require in concise and complete sentences. Features and functionality displayed in lists of three or four word bullet points often falls short of really explaining what your requirements are and can cost you more time further down the road.
7. Ask for and include sections for 'RFP / RFQ boilerplate' type of information. Some are listed below:
Vendor Information-Your RFP / RFQ should contain a vendor information section that details all contact information, company size, public or private, the number of years in business, etc. You may also want to ask for financial information. *
*It's important to remember that company financials can be relevant information for your firm to have when evaluating a vendor; but they are not a consistent indicator of a company or product's longevity or market staying power, especially in technology industries. Venture funded or publicly traded firms are often bought and sold to pay off investors, eliminate competing technology platforms, and for other reasons.
The e-Learning / Learning Management Systems industry continues to experience lots of consolidation and many industry analysts predict this trend will continue. For example in the last twelve months, Saba bought Centra Software and Blackboard acquired Web CT.
General Product/Service Information-This section should include general information on the proposed system such as the release date, version, total number of users, the number of years in service, server platform, database technology, java clients, browser compatibility, any licensing, support, and maintenance agreements, and more. It's also good to ask how the potential vendor company differentiates itself from its competitors and to include a list of any URLs, user names, and passwords to the demonstration version of their product.
Reference Information-This section is an area for the potential vendor company to list three or more reference customers and a partial list of clients.
8. Provide a place for the prospective vendor company to detail their proposed solution. It should cover in detail the product; pricing; its implementation; IT platform requirements; licensing or hosting requirements; system configuration; testing; user loading; HRIS data loading; interfaces between software applications that need to be developed; acceptance testing; general functionality; priority 1, 2, and 3 features and functionality (as discussed in #6); user hierarchies; localization; course and curriculum administration; system administration; authoring tools; system and authoring tool training; project plan and timelines; maintenance; support; and more.
9. Create a question and answer section for the prospective vendor company. The question and answer section contain questions about the technology; system requirements; project implementation; time needed for implementation; testing acceptance period; or another types of questions that are specific and germane to e-Learning solutions / Learning Management Systems implementation initiative.
10. Clearly identify the number of copies, formats, submission dates, locations where the proposal should be sent, and next steps. Be sure to include a date as to when you will be choosing your shortlist for the next round of evaluation.
About the Author:
Dave Boggs is the founder and CEO of SyberWorks, Inc (www.syberworks.com). He has been involved with computer-based and web-based training for more than twelve years. Before founding SyberWorks, Dave was the VP of Sales and Business Development for Relational Courseware. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle
Dave Boggs also writes the Boggs e-Learning Chronicle, which reports on trends, provides observations, and information about e-learning and web-based training.
Tags: length of time, colleague, backbone, best practices, principle, complexity, tendency, eyeballs, information technology, request for proposal, learning management systems, learning management system, needs assessment, learning solutions, whitepaper
Just writing an e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ can be a pretty daunting job. The task of putting together a good e-Learning RFP / RFQ is exacerbated because Learning Management Systems software and e-Learning Solutions can possess many layers of complexity, especially when they are developed to integrate with and meet the needs of your organization's information technology backbone.
Communicating your company's needs is often difficult. The tips below are by no means exhaustive, as they are designed to give you some suggestions and information to help you with writing an e-Learning / Learning Management System software RFP / RFQ.
1. You and your company should perform a thorough internal and external needs assessment, research, and planning long before you sit down to write your e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ. A whitepaper I wrote a few years back, called 'e-Learning Best Practices' has a section on 'Scoping Out your e-Learning Needs', and other information, which will provide you some information and guidelines for this part of the process.
2. If at all possible, try to write it within the context of a team or at the very least, get a colleague, your supervisor, or you assistant to be another set of eyeballs on the document. RFP / RFQs can have a tendency to be long, complicated, and involved documents, so having someone else to review your work, can be very beneficial. It's even better when one or more of the principle stakeholders help with the writing of the e-Learning / Learning Management Systems RFP / RFQ.
3. Provide a company background statement that is specific and gives potential vendor companies information that is useful. It's fine to pull your company background statement from your marketing material, but don't stop there. If your e-Learning initiative will serve several departments, it might be a good idea to provide some sort of an organizational framework in your RFP / RFQ with a little history to help fill in the pieces of the puzzle.
4. Supply a statement of work that is specific and gives potential vendor companies information they will need. Sometimes a company will cut and paste their training department's goals and objectives into the statement of work. While this is helpful information to a point, too much information of this type may throw a potential vendor off course, which may result in you receiving proposals that do not meet your needs.
The problem is that people can have the tendency to lump goals, objectives, and tactics in the same category, but ultimately, they are not the same. There is a difference between a set of tactics verses a set of objectives verses a set of goals. A group of tactics can be the mechanism by which an objective is achieved. Objectives can monetize, quantify, and delineate desired outcomes to achieve a stated goal or goals.
Its important to remember that an e-Learning solution / Learning Management System is a tool used to achieve and / or promote a various set tactics as part of an entire training strategy which ideally, should be in line with company or department goals. Since it is a tool that is executed and used as part of a tactic, be sure to provide enough detailed information that is specific to your desired uses of an e-Learning solution along with your department's goals and objectives.
5. Develop a set of user personas so potential vendor companies will be given framework as to how their system will be used by every person that will touch it at your organization. Provide a breakdown of technical skill required for each user persona, including the technical requirements of any other IT systems they would use and need to be integrated into the e-Learning Solution / Learning Management System technology.
For example, a Human Resources Manager may work with an HRIS (Human Resources Information System) that would need to integrated with the Learning Management System. Be sure to provide the platform type, version, underlying database technology, the file structure, and any other information that is useful to the potential vendor company.
6. Prioritize features and functionality into a hierarchy based on the concepts of absolutely must have (priority 1), would like to have (priority 2), nice to have but not necessary (priority 3), or something along these lines to demonstrate level of importance to the vendor companies that will submit proposals for your RFP / RFQ.
Be sure to explain the features and functionality you require in concise and complete sentences. Features and functionality displayed in lists of three or four word bullet points often falls short of really explaining what your requirements are and can cost you more time further down the road.
7. Ask for and include sections for 'RFP / RFQ boilerplate' type of information. Some are listed below:
Vendor Information-Your RFP / RFQ should contain a vendor information section that details all contact information, company size, public or private, the number of years in business, etc. You may also want to ask for financial information. *
*It's important to remember that company financials can be relevant information for your firm to have when evaluating a vendor; but they are not a consistent indicator of a company or product's longevity or market staying power, especially in technology industries. Venture funded or publicly traded firms are often bought and sold to pay off investors, eliminate competing technology platforms, and for other reasons.
The e-Learning / Learning Management Systems industry continues to experience lots of consolidation and many industry analysts predict this trend will continue. For example in the last twelve months, Saba bought Centra Software and Blackboard acquired Web CT.
General Product/Service Information-This section should include general information on the proposed system such as the release date, version, total number of users, the number of years in service, server platform, database technology, java clients, browser compatibility, any licensing, support, and maintenance agreements, and more. It's also good to ask how the potential vendor company differentiates itself from its competitors and to include a list of any URLs, user names, and passwords to the demonstration version of their product.
Reference Information-This section is an area for the potential vendor company to list three or more reference customers and a partial list of clients.
8. Provide a place for the prospective vendor company to detail their proposed solution. It should cover in detail the product; pricing; its implementation; IT platform requirements; licensing or hosting requirements; system configuration; testing; user loading; HRIS data loading; interfaces between software applications that need to be developed; acceptance testing; general functionality; priority 1, 2, and 3 features and functionality (as discussed in #6); user hierarchies; localization; course and curriculum administration; system administration; authoring tools; system and authoring tool training; project plan and timelines; maintenance; support; and more.
9. Create a question and answer section for the prospective vendor company. The question and answer section contain questions about the technology; system requirements; project implementation; time needed for implementation; testing acceptance period; or another types of questions that are specific and germane to e-Learning solutions / Learning Management Systems implementation initiative.
10. Clearly identify the number of copies, formats, submission dates, locations where the proposal should be sent, and next steps. Be sure to include a date as to when you will be choosing your shortlist for the next round of evaluation.
About the Author:
Dave Boggs is the founder and CEO of SyberWorks, Inc (www.syberworks.com). He has been involved with computer-based and web-based training for more than twelve years. Before founding SyberWorks, Dave was the VP of Sales and Business Development for Relational Courseware. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle
Dave Boggs also writes the Boggs e-Learning Chronicle, which reports on trends, provides observations, and information about e-learning and web-based training.
Tags: length of time, colleague, backbone, best practices, principle, complexity, tendency, eyeballs, information technology, request for proposal, learning management systems, learning management system, needs assessment, learning solutions, whitepaper
Sunday, April 11, 2010
What Does the “M” in PLM Really Mean?
In the two previous blog posts (What Does the “P” in PLM Really Mean? and What Does the “L” in PLM Really Mean?) I discussed the object being managed within the product lifecycle management (PLM) methodology. Now, it is the time to move on to the last word—“management.” Management is such a general term nowadays, that simply looking at it won’t give you much idea of what it is about in the PLM context. If your organization is looking for a PLM solution, investigating the functionality that various PLM solutions can provide will help you better understand what a PLM system should be handling. However, I’d suggest establishing some high-level ideas about what a PLM system should be able to manage before you are overwhelmed by the functionality flood.
Improving the Productivity Related to Product Definition
Product definition information determines what your offerings to your customers are, and how you will accomplish those offerings. As such, productivity in generating, distributing, and consuming product definition information is critical to today’s businesses. PLM tools such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) are the most direct contributors to the productivity of generating product definition information. However, these are not enough. It is not rare to see a manufacturer send part drawings to a supplier through e-mails and for the latter have a hard time loading the files, or for a design engineer to spend one hour to find an existing drawing that he can simply re-create in half an hour. These two situations are examples demonstrating that the distribution and consumption processes of product definition information should be improved—especially when the generation has become so high-speed. Hence, one of the top priorities that a PLM system should have is making sure not only that product can be designed and developed in an efficient manner but also that product information can be retrieved whenever and wherever needed.
Maintaining the Integrity of Product Definition Information
If you have ever worked in an organization that relies on shared folders to store electronic documents, you may have experienced a situation where you were working on an old version of a document without noticing that it had been updated by one of your colleagues. Inconsistency issues can become unmanageable when an organization is working on a product with thousands of parts, hundreds of people, and many suppliers involved. Thus, maintaining a high-level integrity of product definition information is another priority of a PLM system. I am in favor of the slogan used by a product data management (PDM, generally considered to be the predecessor of PLM) vendor I worked for. The slogan says “we make sure that your product data are consistent, up-to-date, and secure.” Ten years later, I still believe that this should be the bottom line of a PLM system—in terms of the integrity of product definition information.
Facilitating Collaboration Throughout the Entire Product Lifecycle
In my earlier post about the “L” (lifecycle) in PLM, I discussed that the beauty of the PLM approach is the holistic view of the entire lifecycle. Today’s market requirements demand a shortened product lifecycle, but also a more complicated work distribution in order to bring a product to the market and serve the customers successfully. This means that high-quality collaboration amongst different parties becomes a winning factor. Certainly, the productivity and integrity factors I just mentioned are components of high-quality collaboration. Besides these, visibility and interoperability are also critical in facilitating collaboration. Simply speaking, visibility allows different parties to retrieve product information in the same interpretation as the creators’, and interoperability allows users to not only see the information but also operate it for collaboration purposes. Considering the complicated IT landscape that many enterprises have (e.g., multiple CAx [CAD/CAM/CAE] tools and management systems in use), global operation, and various IT systems on the partner side), achieving high visibility and interoperability is quite challenging.
Providing an Environment for Product Sustainability
Sustainability is now a big word in companies’ strategic planning. A simple rule: if a company wants to be in business forever, the products (and/or services) it provides should be accepted by the market forever. The PLM approach can support product sustainability in two ways. On the one hand, the development and delivery of a product should be history-conscious, which means all activities within a product lifecycle should be traceable in order to achieve continuous product improvement. On the other hand, the development and delivery of a product should be future-oriented, which means that the impact that a product imposes to the environment and the long-term profitability of a company should be taken into consideration as early as possible. For more information about PLM and sustainability, please read the blog post What Can PLM Do for Green?
The above four components are what I believe should be the top four considerations while writing this last issue of the “What Does…” series. However, I’m sure that you will discover more on your own. In fact, every organization has its specificities. While you are planning, implementing, or improving your PLM system, you should have a more precise understanding of what the “P”, “L,” and “M” really mean—specifically to your organization.
Improving the Productivity Related to Product Definition
Product definition information determines what your offerings to your customers are, and how you will accomplish those offerings. As such, productivity in generating, distributing, and consuming product definition information is critical to today’s businesses. PLM tools such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) are the most direct contributors to the productivity of generating product definition information. However, these are not enough. It is not rare to see a manufacturer send part drawings to a supplier through e-mails and for the latter have a hard time loading the files, or for a design engineer to spend one hour to find an existing drawing that he can simply re-create in half an hour. These two situations are examples demonstrating that the distribution and consumption processes of product definition information should be improved—especially when the generation has become so high-speed. Hence, one of the top priorities that a PLM system should have is making sure not only that product can be designed and developed in an efficient manner but also that product information can be retrieved whenever and wherever needed.
Maintaining the Integrity of Product Definition Information
If you have ever worked in an organization that relies on shared folders to store electronic documents, you may have experienced a situation where you were working on an old version of a document without noticing that it had been updated by one of your colleagues. Inconsistency issues can become unmanageable when an organization is working on a product with thousands of parts, hundreds of people, and many suppliers involved. Thus, maintaining a high-level integrity of product definition information is another priority of a PLM system. I am in favor of the slogan used by a product data management (PDM, generally considered to be the predecessor of PLM) vendor I worked for. The slogan says “we make sure that your product data are consistent, up-to-date, and secure.” Ten years later, I still believe that this should be the bottom line of a PLM system—in terms of the integrity of product definition information.
Facilitating Collaboration Throughout the Entire Product Lifecycle
In my earlier post about the “L” (lifecycle) in PLM, I discussed that the beauty of the PLM approach is the holistic view of the entire lifecycle. Today’s market requirements demand a shortened product lifecycle, but also a more complicated work distribution in order to bring a product to the market and serve the customers successfully. This means that high-quality collaboration amongst different parties becomes a winning factor. Certainly, the productivity and integrity factors I just mentioned are components of high-quality collaboration. Besides these, visibility and interoperability are also critical in facilitating collaboration. Simply speaking, visibility allows different parties to retrieve product information in the same interpretation as the creators’, and interoperability allows users to not only see the information but also operate it for collaboration purposes. Considering the complicated IT landscape that many enterprises have (e.g., multiple CAx [CAD/CAM/CAE] tools and management systems in use), global operation, and various IT systems on the partner side), achieving high visibility and interoperability is quite challenging.
Providing an Environment for Product Sustainability
Sustainability is now a big word in companies’ strategic planning. A simple rule: if a company wants to be in business forever, the products (and/or services) it provides should be accepted by the market forever. The PLM approach can support product sustainability in two ways. On the one hand, the development and delivery of a product should be history-conscious, which means all activities within a product lifecycle should be traceable in order to achieve continuous product improvement. On the other hand, the development and delivery of a product should be future-oriented, which means that the impact that a product imposes to the environment and the long-term profitability of a company should be taken into consideration as early as possible. For more information about PLM and sustainability, please read the blog post What Can PLM Do for Green?
The above four components are what I believe should be the top four considerations while writing this last issue of the “What Does…” series. However, I’m sure that you will discover more on your own. In fact, every organization has its specificities. While you are planning, implementing, or improving your PLM system, you should have a more precise understanding of what the “P”, “L,” and “M” really mean—specifically to your organization.
What Does the “L” in PLM Really Mean?
In an earlier post, What Does the “P” in PLM Really Mean?, I discussed what the word “product” means in product lifecycle management (PLM). In this post, I am going to move onto the next letter, “L” for lifecycle.
According to Merriam-Webster, one definition of lifecycle is “a series of stages through which something (as an individual, culture, or manufactured product) passes during its lifetime.” In a typical manufacturing environment, these stages include conception, design and development, manufacture, and service. Ideally, a PLM system should manage the entire lifecycle that covers all the stages. Originally, however, the concept of PLM was designed to address product definition authoring and, later on, define data management issues for the design department. Not every stage receives equal attention under the PLM umbrella, and the application maturity of each stage is not yet at the same level.
Conception is the earliest stage of a product lifecycle. Within this stage, ideas are the raw input and development projects or tasks are the output. New ideas for product development come from different sources such as research work, through newly available technologies, brainstorming sessions, customer requirements, and more. Some of the ideas might be incorporated into existing products as new features; some might not be feasible at the moment; a large amount might simply be eliminated; the rest (grouped or alone) might become new concepts, and some of them might finally reach the development level after evaluation. Briefly, the conception stage is a process of idea attrition—only the good ones get to the next step. In this area, management applications are not quite mature and the adoption rate is relatively low. Part of the reason might be that conception is strongly associated with creativity, and people are not yet convinced that this can be handled well by machines.
Product design and development is the main stage where abundant product definition information is generated. When a concept becomes a development project, people need tools to define not only what a product should be (product design), but also how it should be manufactured (engineering design). Computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) are all well-recognized PLM tools that support the definition, as well as some execution processes. The adoption of PLM tools increases engineers’ individual productivity tremendously—but they also need a platform to collaborate internally (with peers and other departments inside the organization) and externally (with development partners, suppliers, and customers). The application of PLM for the design and development stage is the most mature. It is an exemplary approach for most organizations to start their PLM initiatives from this stage because it produces the majority of product definition information.
Manufacture is a joint task performed by enterprise resource planning (ERP), PLM, and other systems such as manufacturing execution systems (MES). ERP takes the lead from the planning and control angles, and MES manages and monitors the production processes on the shop floor. The reasons for having a PLM system in place at this stage are:
1. PLM provides information for what and how to produce.
2. Tight connection between PLM and ERP also helps companies develop better products that are produced in a better way.
Service includes marketing, sales, distribution, repair and maintenance, retirement, and disposal processes related to a product. The quality of these services relies on the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of the product information that is provided. In general, the more complicated a product is, the more important it is to have the product information available for the mentioned service activities. Another reason for having a PLM system is increasing environmental compliance requirements. For example, at the time when a product enters into the last stage of its lifecycle, the manufacturer has to make sure that the disposal procedure can be handled properly so that the disposition has minimum impact to the environment—especially when it is an asset type of product that lasts years or even decades. Instead of hoping that the user will keep the manual shipped with the product, the disposal instruction has to be stored and managed securely somewhere within the manufacturer’s PLM system.
Above, I discussed product lifecycle stage by stage. However, the PLM methodology won’t reach its full potential unless you take a holistic view of all the stages. Although some stages mainly generate product definition information and others mainly consume this information, it is more appropriate to think of every stage as both the consumer and provider of product definition information. The reason for having a PLM system is to facilitate information-sharing. Thus, in theory, a comprehensive PLM must cover all these stages. In practice, the reality is that not all PLM solutions support the entire product lifecycle, and the priorities of managing different lifecycle stages are different. Nevertheless, managing the entire product lifecycle should at least be a long-term vision.
According to Merriam-Webster, one definition of lifecycle is “a series of stages through which something (as an individual, culture, or manufactured product) passes during its lifetime.” In a typical manufacturing environment, these stages include conception, design and development, manufacture, and service. Ideally, a PLM system should manage the entire lifecycle that covers all the stages. Originally, however, the concept of PLM was designed to address product definition authoring and, later on, define data management issues for the design department. Not every stage receives equal attention under the PLM umbrella, and the application maturity of each stage is not yet at the same level.
Conception is the earliest stage of a product lifecycle. Within this stage, ideas are the raw input and development projects or tasks are the output. New ideas for product development come from different sources such as research work, through newly available technologies, brainstorming sessions, customer requirements, and more. Some of the ideas might be incorporated into existing products as new features; some might not be feasible at the moment; a large amount might simply be eliminated; the rest (grouped or alone) might become new concepts, and some of them might finally reach the development level after evaluation. Briefly, the conception stage is a process of idea attrition—only the good ones get to the next step. In this area, management applications are not quite mature and the adoption rate is relatively low. Part of the reason might be that conception is strongly associated with creativity, and people are not yet convinced that this can be handled well by machines.
Product design and development is the main stage where abundant product definition information is generated. When a concept becomes a development project, people need tools to define not only what a product should be (product design), but also how it should be manufactured (engineering design). Computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) are all well-recognized PLM tools that support the definition, as well as some execution processes. The adoption of PLM tools increases engineers’ individual productivity tremendously—but they also need a platform to collaborate internally (with peers and other departments inside the organization) and externally (with development partners, suppliers, and customers). The application of PLM for the design and development stage is the most mature. It is an exemplary approach for most organizations to start their PLM initiatives from this stage because it produces the majority of product definition information.
Manufacture is a joint task performed by enterprise resource planning (ERP), PLM, and other systems such as manufacturing execution systems (MES). ERP takes the lead from the planning and control angles, and MES manages and monitors the production processes on the shop floor. The reasons for having a PLM system in place at this stage are:
1. PLM provides information for what and how to produce.
2. Tight connection between PLM and ERP also helps companies develop better products that are produced in a better way.
Service includes marketing, sales, distribution, repair and maintenance, retirement, and disposal processes related to a product. The quality of these services relies on the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of the product information that is provided. In general, the more complicated a product is, the more important it is to have the product information available for the mentioned service activities. Another reason for having a PLM system is increasing environmental compliance requirements. For example, at the time when a product enters into the last stage of its lifecycle, the manufacturer has to make sure that the disposal procedure can be handled properly so that the disposition has minimum impact to the environment—especially when it is an asset type of product that lasts years or even decades. Instead of hoping that the user will keep the manual shipped with the product, the disposal instruction has to be stored and managed securely somewhere within the manufacturer’s PLM system.
Above, I discussed product lifecycle stage by stage. However, the PLM methodology won’t reach its full potential unless you take a holistic view of all the stages. Although some stages mainly generate product definition information and others mainly consume this information, it is more appropriate to think of every stage as both the consumer and provider of product definition information. The reason for having a PLM system is to facilitate information-sharing. Thus, in theory, a comprehensive PLM must cover all these stages. In practice, the reality is that not all PLM solutions support the entire product lifecycle, and the priorities of managing different lifecycle stages are different. Nevertheless, managing the entire product lifecycle should at least be a long-term vision.
The CyberAngel: Laptop Recovery and File Encryption All-in-One
Background
According to the Computer Security Institute's 2003 Computer Crime and Security Survey, theft of private or proprietary information created the greatest financial losses for the survey respondents. If you are a medical institution, government agency, or financial institution, information theft can result in violation of patient privacy regulations, loss of customer credit card numbers, unauthorized financial transactions, or disclosure of national security secrets.
While all computers are vulnerable to information theft, laptops are particularly vulnerable due to their portability and ease of theft. Most servers are locked in racks in data centers, however laptops are typically left out on desks where access is easy. If an office visitor walked out of the office with a laptop under his or her arm, an unknowing receptionist would likely expect that it was the visitor's own laptop and not question it. If your laptop was stolen, you'd want it back. The CyberAngel, made by CyberAngel Security Solutions (CSS), is a product that claims to locate stolen laptops and return them to you. Their recovery rate on returning stolen and lost laptops to folks who have licensed their software is 88 percent. Relevant Technologies took the CyberAngel into our labs to see if version 3.0 qualified for our acceptability rating.
Installation and Use
The CyberAngel was easy to install, and the entire installation took less than ten minutes, including the time it took to reboot the test system. With version 3.0, the CyberAngel includes a new stealthy, secure drive that is protected by strong encryption. The secure drive is a logical drive protected by strong encryption where you can put all your confidential and classified information. During the installation process, you are prompted to select an encryption algorithm to use to protect your secure drive. The choices available are:
* Rijndael 128 bit
* Rijndael 256 bit
* Blowfish 128 bit
* Blowfish 448 bit
* Twofish 128 bit
* Twofish 256 bit
* DES 128
* DES 56
The nice thing about the installation program is that it provides you with background information on each of the encryption algorithms to better assist you in making your decision on which one to select. Government agencies will like the fact that the NIST AES standard is supported.
Figure 1. Selecting Your Encryption Algorithm During Installation
After the CyberAngel finished installing, we began testing the secure protected drive by inserting some would-be confidential information (a spreadsheet called PatientRecords.xls), to see if an unauthorized user could access it. To pose as an unauthorized user, we rebooted the system, and failed to provide the correct logon password after reboot. The secure drive was not visible in any way, and when we poked around on the laptop to try to find it, we couldn't find any signs of it, or the spreadsheet dubbed PatientRecords.xls. We then rebooted the system and inserted the correct password, and voila, our secure drive and spreadsheet was back. Between when we inserted the wrong password, rebooted, and inserted the right password, an alert had already been e-mailed to us notifying us that someone had attempted to use the test laptop without proper authorization. We were sent the 24 x 7, 800 number to call at the CyberAngel Security Monitoring Center if we suspected that the laptop had been stolen.
When the alert e-mail was mailed to us, it included a "Created" timestamp, but not a "Sent" timestamp. We're not sure why the CyberAngel monitoring server did not register a "Sent" timestamp with the messaging server, however, in the body of the e-mail, it did include a correct timestamp of the unauthorized access. This seems to be a problem that is trivial at best, though we'd like to see it fixed in the next version.
When using the secure drive, you need to actually "move" your files into the drive to make them secure. Leaving a copy of the file on your insecure drive will defeat the purpose of using the secure drive. For documents that you'd like to keep secret, you'll have to be sure that temporary and recovery files are also kept in the secure
drive. For Microsoft Word or Excel, this is easy enough to do by going into the Tools ? Options menu and modifying the default path for the AutoRecover and Documents directories.
Table 1. Corporate Information
Vendor CyberAngel Security Solutions, Inc.
Headquarters 475 Metroplex Drive, Suite 104, Nashville, TN 37211
Product The CyberAngel
Customer Scope Financial, Government Agencies, Medical Establishments
Industry Focus Security for laptops and confidential information
Key Features Laptop recovery software, secure encrypted drive, 24 x 7 unauthorized access alert service, configuration manager
Web site http://www.thecyberangel.com
Contact Information 800-501-4344
The user documentation also provides instructions on how to modify your Outlook preferences so that you can move all of your e-mail to the secure drive. Even if you don't anticipate your laptop getting stolen, it's sure nice to know that your email is secure, encrypted, and not accessible unless you know the password to unlock the secure drive. Securing e-mail encrypted was a pleasant surprise since it was not a feature we were expecting to see.
You can secure applications, such as a VPN client, by moving them into the secure drive. By moving applications into the secure drive, if an unauthorized user fails to authenticate properly, they do not even see that the application exists on that computer. Applications can also be installed directly on the secure drive.
Figure 2. The CyberAngel Configuration Manager
Though it's not possible for you to configure the alerts to be sent to a second e-mail address yourself, we were advised by CSS, Inc. that this can be setup by calling the CyberAngel Security Monitoring Center. Users may want to setup the alerts to be sent to a cell phone as well as a traditional e-mail account, additional notification paths can be added or changed by calling the CyberAngel Security Monitoring Center. If the laptop contains classified information, the alert could be sent to a U.S. Federal Agency's Computer Security Incident Response Center (CSIRC). We tested the port locking feature by inserting a wrong password into the password authentication box and then proceeded to try to HotSync some data to a Palm Pilot. The password violation blocked all the COM ports preventing the HotSync from taking place. The port locking feature also prevented us from initiating outgoing communications lines. However, in stealth mode, the CyberAngel initiated a call back to the recovery server to alert it of the laptop's geographic location verifying that COM ports are locked to unauthorized users, but not to the CyberAngel recovery software.
Recommendations
The CyberAngel has evolved into much more than laptop recovery software and works as advertised. You can secure documents, applications, and even your e-mail. You can prevent unauthorized remote access to servers or accounts, and restrict information transfer to PDAs or handhelds. Medical establishments that need to protect patient information as required by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) will find the CyberAngel to be an easy HIPAA compliance solution to deploy on laptops. U.S. Federal Agencies can prevent embarrassing losses of laptops by deploying the CyberAngel, and can also develop new security policies around this product by articulating that confidential data be stored on the secure drive. Agencies working on complying with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) will find the CyberAngel potentially useful. Financial institutions also have the capability to comply with the privacy regulations related to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) using the CyberAngel.
It would be great if in the next version, the CyberAngel came with documentation targeted specifically for HIPAA, FISMA, and GLBA end-users with specific examples on what information to put on the secure drive. It seems that there is a lot of potential to use the CyberAngel to comply with these information security laws, however without focused documentation on HIPAA, FISMA, and GLBA, some users may not see the potential at first glance.
One license will cost you $59.95, and volume discounts apply for packages of multiple licenses. CyberAngel Security Solutions, Inc. will also apply a 10 percent discount for U.S. government agencies and 20 percent discount for educational institutions and non-profit organizations.
According to the Computer Security Institute's 2003 Computer Crime and Security Survey, theft of private or proprietary information created the greatest financial losses for the survey respondents. If you are a medical institution, government agency, or financial institution, information theft can result in violation of patient privacy regulations, loss of customer credit card numbers, unauthorized financial transactions, or disclosure of national security secrets.
While all computers are vulnerable to information theft, laptops are particularly vulnerable due to their portability and ease of theft. Most servers are locked in racks in data centers, however laptops are typically left out on desks where access is easy. If an office visitor walked out of the office with a laptop under his or her arm, an unknowing receptionist would likely expect that it was the visitor's own laptop and not question it. If your laptop was stolen, you'd want it back. The CyberAngel, made by CyberAngel Security Solutions (CSS), is a product that claims to locate stolen laptops and return them to you. Their recovery rate on returning stolen and lost laptops to folks who have licensed their software is 88 percent. Relevant Technologies took the CyberAngel into our labs to see if version 3.0 qualified for our acceptability rating.
Installation and Use
The CyberAngel was easy to install, and the entire installation took less than ten minutes, including the time it took to reboot the test system. With version 3.0, the CyberAngel includes a new stealthy, secure drive that is protected by strong encryption. The secure drive is a logical drive protected by strong encryption where you can put all your confidential and classified information. During the installation process, you are prompted to select an encryption algorithm to use to protect your secure drive. The choices available are:
* Rijndael 128 bit
* Rijndael 256 bit
* Blowfish 128 bit
* Blowfish 448 bit
* Twofish 128 bit
* Twofish 256 bit
* DES 128
* DES 56
The nice thing about the installation program is that it provides you with background information on each of the encryption algorithms to better assist you in making your decision on which one to select. Government agencies will like the fact that the NIST AES standard is supported.
Figure 1. Selecting Your Encryption Algorithm During Installation
After the CyberAngel finished installing, we began testing the secure protected drive by inserting some would-be confidential information (a spreadsheet called PatientRecords.xls), to see if an unauthorized user could access it. To pose as an unauthorized user, we rebooted the system, and failed to provide the correct logon password after reboot. The secure drive was not visible in any way, and when we poked around on the laptop to try to find it, we couldn't find any signs of it, or the spreadsheet dubbed PatientRecords.xls. We then rebooted the system and inserted the correct password, and voila, our secure drive and spreadsheet was back. Between when we inserted the wrong password, rebooted, and inserted the right password, an alert had already been e-mailed to us notifying us that someone had attempted to use the test laptop without proper authorization. We were sent the 24 x 7, 800 number to call at the CyberAngel Security Monitoring Center if we suspected that the laptop had been stolen.
When the alert e-mail was mailed to us, it included a "Created" timestamp, but not a "Sent" timestamp. We're not sure why the CyberAngel monitoring server did not register a "Sent" timestamp with the messaging server, however, in the body of the e-mail, it did include a correct timestamp of the unauthorized access. This seems to be a problem that is trivial at best, though we'd like to see it fixed in the next version.
When using the secure drive, you need to actually "move" your files into the drive to make them secure. Leaving a copy of the file on your insecure drive will defeat the purpose of using the secure drive. For documents that you'd like to keep secret, you'll have to be sure that temporary and recovery files are also kept in the secure
drive. For Microsoft Word or Excel, this is easy enough to do by going into the Tools ? Options menu and modifying the default path for the AutoRecover and Documents directories.
Table 1. Corporate Information
Vendor CyberAngel Security Solutions, Inc.
Headquarters 475 Metroplex Drive, Suite 104, Nashville, TN 37211
Product The CyberAngel
Customer Scope Financial, Government Agencies, Medical Establishments
Industry Focus Security for laptops and confidential information
Key Features Laptop recovery software, secure encrypted drive, 24 x 7 unauthorized access alert service, configuration manager
Web site http://www.thecyberangel.com
Contact Information 800-501-4344
The user documentation also provides instructions on how to modify your Outlook preferences so that you can move all of your e-mail to the secure drive. Even if you don't anticipate your laptop getting stolen, it's sure nice to know that your email is secure, encrypted, and not accessible unless you know the password to unlock the secure drive. Securing e-mail encrypted was a pleasant surprise since it was not a feature we were expecting to see.
You can secure applications, such as a VPN client, by moving them into the secure drive. By moving applications into the secure drive, if an unauthorized user fails to authenticate properly, they do not even see that the application exists on that computer. Applications can also be installed directly on the secure drive.
Figure 2. The CyberAngel Configuration Manager
Though it's not possible for you to configure the alerts to be sent to a second e-mail address yourself, we were advised by CSS, Inc. that this can be setup by calling the CyberAngel Security Monitoring Center. Users may want to setup the alerts to be sent to a cell phone as well as a traditional e-mail account, additional notification paths can be added or changed by calling the CyberAngel Security Monitoring Center. If the laptop contains classified information, the alert could be sent to a U.S. Federal Agency's Computer Security Incident Response Center (CSIRC). We tested the port locking feature by inserting a wrong password into the password authentication box and then proceeded to try to HotSync some data to a Palm Pilot. The password violation blocked all the COM ports preventing the HotSync from taking place. The port locking feature also prevented us from initiating outgoing communications lines. However, in stealth mode, the CyberAngel initiated a call back to the recovery server to alert it of the laptop's geographic location verifying that COM ports are locked to unauthorized users, but not to the CyberAngel recovery software.
Recommendations
The CyberAngel has evolved into much more than laptop recovery software and works as advertised. You can secure documents, applications, and even your e-mail. You can prevent unauthorized remote access to servers or accounts, and restrict information transfer to PDAs or handhelds. Medical establishments that need to protect patient information as required by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) will find the CyberAngel to be an easy HIPAA compliance solution to deploy on laptops. U.S. Federal Agencies can prevent embarrassing losses of laptops by deploying the CyberAngel, and can also develop new security policies around this product by articulating that confidential data be stored on the secure drive. Agencies working on complying with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) will find the CyberAngel potentially useful. Financial institutions also have the capability to comply with the privacy regulations related to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) using the CyberAngel.
It would be great if in the next version, the CyberAngel came with documentation targeted specifically for HIPAA, FISMA, and GLBA end-users with specific examples on what information to put on the secure drive. It seems that there is a lot of potential to use the CyberAngel to comply with these information security laws, however without focused documentation on HIPAA, FISMA, and GLBA, some users may not see the potential at first glance.
One license will cost you $59.95, and volume discounts apply for packages of multiple licenses. CyberAngel Security Solutions, Inc. will also apply a 10 percent discount for U.S. government agencies and 20 percent discount for educational institutions and non-profit organizations.
Program Testing Methodology Part One: Preparing for Testing
ntroduction
Before any system can be completely implemented on a production computer, the analysts and programmers working on the system must be able to state unequivocally that the programs work exactly as they were designed to work and that any errors or mistakes found in any of the data to be processed by the system will be handled properly. Since testing is quite unpredictable in terms of the results and, in some cases, the availability of the hardware required for testing, it is difficult to establish a day-to-day detailed testing schedule in advance. It should be possible, however, to estimate with some accuracy the time which will be required to test any given program. The most likely area for the "slipping" of deadlines in the implementation falls within the area of program and systems testing. When testing schedules are established, there should be adequate time allocated for testing.
To effectively test a program, the systems analyst should establish procedures which are to be followed. Basic rules for program testing and debugging that should be followed are summarized below.
1. Individual programs should be compiled and all diagnostics removed prior to using test data.
2. Test data should be created by the programmer that first tests all main routines.
3. Additional test data should be created to assure that every routine and every instruction has been executed correctly at least once.
4. Program testing should include testing with as many types of invalid data as is likely to occur when the system is in production.
5. After each program has been individually tested and debugged, related programs in the system should be tested as a unified group. This is called "link" or "string" testing.
6. A final "systems test" should be performed using data prepared by the systems analyst and, in some cases, data which has been previously processed through the "old" system.
This is Part One of a two-part note.
Part One will discuss the roles of programmers and analysts during testing; how to test individual programs; and what type of test data should be created to ensure a successful system implementation.
Part Two will discuss the modes of testing and management and user approval.
Testing Individual Programs
The testing of each individual program, called unit testing, should be handled by the programmer who has written the program. The amount of testing which is required to certify that a program is ready for production and the amount of reliability which can be given to a program can be controversial. However, from a programmer's standpoint, a program should never enter systems testing and be put into production if the programmer has any doubt that the program will work.
Programs should first be compiled without using test data in order to eliminate all diagnostics in the program due to programming errors.
After a "clean" compilation is obtained, that is, one without any compilation diagnostics, the programmer should then desk check his or her program. Desk-checking refers to the process of "playing computer" with the source code/listing, that is, following every step in the program and analyzing what will take place as the routine is processed. Desk-checking is probably the most useful tool in debugging a program and it is the most neglected and abused. Many programmers, immediately upon obtaining a compilation with no diagnostics, resubmit the program for a test run with test data. This is not a good testing technique as time should be taken to review the source listing.
Desk-checking has an added benefit of re-familiarizing the programmer with the program. In a complex program, there may be a period of ten or more weeks between the time the program is started and the time it is compiled. During this time the programmer could forget some of the routines or other portions of the program which were written. When desk-checking, however, the programmer must go completely through these routines again. Thus, the routines will be refreshed in the programmer's mind. This can be of great aid if the program fails because the programmer is more likely to be able to isolate the problem faster and with more accuracy than if he or she had not reviewed the program in detail.
Creating Test Data
After the program has been desk-checked, it must be tested on the computer using test data. To properly test the program there must be good test data available. In all applications, the programmer should use data to test the program which has been designed specifically to test the routines within the program. Test data should be designed to test main routines first. When it is found that the main routines produce the desired output, additional test data should be created that tests all other routines. This data should contain both valid and invalid data to test both the normal processing routines and the error routines of the program. In addition, the test data should be designed so that limits within the program are tested. For example, data should contain both minimum and maximum values which can be contained within a field. The data should be designed to allow maximum values and minimum values to occur in any intermediate fields which are to contain totals. There should be variations in the various formats which the program can process so that all possibilities can be covered. All of the codes which can be used in records should be contained in the test data so that the various routines which are called based upon different codes can be tested.
Another important area which must be tested is the files which are to be used in the program. If an indexed file is used, the file must be loaded and, in addition, must be tested using data to add records and delete and change the records within the file. When a direct file is used, the algorithm used to determine record addresses must be tested and also the routine which handles synonyms must be heavily tested. Any time data is stored on a file, such as disk, CD, or cartridge, whether it is relational, sequential, indexed sequential, or direct, the data should be "dumped" by using a utility program so that the file contents can be examined in detail. A programmer cannot assume that the data is correct because the file was built or that the data on the file was used successfully as input to another program. The data must be closely examined.
Most of the responsibility for program testing rests with the programmer who wrote the program. The programmer should design the test data, conduct the tests, and check the output from the tests. The analyst, however, can play an important role in program testing by first attempting to ensure that good testing techniques are followed and then reviewing and making suggestions to the programmer concerning data to be tested. The analyst can look at on-line screens, reports, and file dumps to ensure, early in the program testing, that the results correspond to what is expected. If there are variances, they can be corrected. The analyst should look at the test data which is being used to determine if he or she sees any areas which should be tested and which have been overlooked by the programmer. The analyst should not dictate to the programmer what data should be used to test the program. The analyst serves in an advisory capacity. The only time this may not be true is if the programmer is having difficulty with the program.
Summary
To effectively test a program, the systems analyst should establish procedures for testing and debugging. The programmer who wrote the program should then be responsible for conducting unit tests, desk-checking, and creating the test data. With clearly defined roles, this critical aspect of implementation can be handled successfully.
This is Part One of a two-part note.
Part One will discuss the roles of programmers and analysts during testing, how to test individual programs, and what type of test data should be created to ensure a successful system implementation.
Before any system can be completely implemented on a production computer, the analysts and programmers working on the system must be able to state unequivocally that the programs work exactly as they were designed to work and that any errors or mistakes found in any of the data to be processed by the system will be handled properly. Since testing is quite unpredictable in terms of the results and, in some cases, the availability of the hardware required for testing, it is difficult to establish a day-to-day detailed testing schedule in advance. It should be possible, however, to estimate with some accuracy the time which will be required to test any given program. The most likely area for the "slipping" of deadlines in the implementation falls within the area of program and systems testing. When testing schedules are established, there should be adequate time allocated for testing.
To effectively test a program, the systems analyst should establish procedures which are to be followed. Basic rules for program testing and debugging that should be followed are summarized below.
1. Individual programs should be compiled and all diagnostics removed prior to using test data.
2. Test data should be created by the programmer that first tests all main routines.
3. Additional test data should be created to assure that every routine and every instruction has been executed correctly at least once.
4. Program testing should include testing with as many types of invalid data as is likely to occur when the system is in production.
5. After each program has been individually tested and debugged, related programs in the system should be tested as a unified group. This is called "link" or "string" testing.
6. A final "systems test" should be performed using data prepared by the systems analyst and, in some cases, data which has been previously processed through the "old" system.
This is Part One of a two-part note.
Part One will discuss the roles of programmers and analysts during testing; how to test individual programs; and what type of test data should be created to ensure a successful system implementation.
Part Two will discuss the modes of testing and management and user approval.
Testing Individual Programs
The testing of each individual program, called unit testing, should be handled by the programmer who has written the program. The amount of testing which is required to certify that a program is ready for production and the amount of reliability which can be given to a program can be controversial. However, from a programmer's standpoint, a program should never enter systems testing and be put into production if the programmer has any doubt that the program will work.
Programs should first be compiled without using test data in order to eliminate all diagnostics in the program due to programming errors.
After a "clean" compilation is obtained, that is, one without any compilation diagnostics, the programmer should then desk check his or her program. Desk-checking refers to the process of "playing computer" with the source code/listing, that is, following every step in the program and analyzing what will take place as the routine is processed. Desk-checking is probably the most useful tool in debugging a program and it is the most neglected and abused. Many programmers, immediately upon obtaining a compilation with no diagnostics, resubmit the program for a test run with test data. This is not a good testing technique as time should be taken to review the source listing.
Desk-checking has an added benefit of re-familiarizing the programmer with the program. In a complex program, there may be a period of ten or more weeks between the time the program is started and the time it is compiled. During this time the programmer could forget some of the routines or other portions of the program which were written. When desk-checking, however, the programmer must go completely through these routines again. Thus, the routines will be refreshed in the programmer's mind. This can be of great aid if the program fails because the programmer is more likely to be able to isolate the problem faster and with more accuracy than if he or she had not reviewed the program in detail.
Creating Test Data
After the program has been desk-checked, it must be tested on the computer using test data. To properly test the program there must be good test data available. In all applications, the programmer should use data to test the program which has been designed specifically to test the routines within the program. Test data should be designed to test main routines first. When it is found that the main routines produce the desired output, additional test data should be created that tests all other routines. This data should contain both valid and invalid data to test both the normal processing routines and the error routines of the program. In addition, the test data should be designed so that limits within the program are tested. For example, data should contain both minimum and maximum values which can be contained within a field. The data should be designed to allow maximum values and minimum values to occur in any intermediate fields which are to contain totals. There should be variations in the various formats which the program can process so that all possibilities can be covered. All of the codes which can be used in records should be contained in the test data so that the various routines which are called based upon different codes can be tested.
Another important area which must be tested is the files which are to be used in the program. If an indexed file is used, the file must be loaded and, in addition, must be tested using data to add records and delete and change the records within the file. When a direct file is used, the algorithm used to determine record addresses must be tested and also the routine which handles synonyms must be heavily tested. Any time data is stored on a file, such as disk, CD, or cartridge, whether it is relational, sequential, indexed sequential, or direct, the data should be "dumped" by using a utility program so that the file contents can be examined in detail. A programmer cannot assume that the data is correct because the file was built or that the data on the file was used successfully as input to another program. The data must be closely examined.
Most of the responsibility for program testing rests with the programmer who wrote the program. The programmer should design the test data, conduct the tests, and check the output from the tests. The analyst, however, can play an important role in program testing by first attempting to ensure that good testing techniques are followed and then reviewing and making suggestions to the programmer concerning data to be tested. The analyst can look at on-line screens, reports, and file dumps to ensure, early in the program testing, that the results correspond to what is expected. If there are variances, they can be corrected. The analyst should look at the test data which is being used to determine if he or she sees any areas which should be tested and which have been overlooked by the programmer. The analyst should not dictate to the programmer what data should be used to test the program. The analyst serves in an advisory capacity. The only time this may not be true is if the programmer is having difficulty with the program.
Summary
To effectively test a program, the systems analyst should establish procedures for testing and debugging. The programmer who wrote the program should then be responsible for conducting unit tests, desk-checking, and creating the test data. With clearly defined roles, this critical aspect of implementation can be handled successfully.
This is Part One of a two-part note.
Part One will discuss the roles of programmers and analysts during testing, how to test individual programs, and what type of test data should be created to ensure a successful system implementation.
Point of Sale: To Stand Alone or Not?
Introduction
When evaluating a point of sale (POS) solution, there are generally two approaches: best-of-breed solutions, and integrated solutions. Both have strengths and weaknesses, according to the information technology (IT) infrastructure. Retailers that have an existing back-office system should evaluate whether it is better to replace their legacy system or to choose a best-of breed solution.
For retailers that have neither a back-office system nor a legacy POS system, the question is, should they purchase a stand-alone POS system or not? In deciding between a POS system that is stand-alone, and one that is not, the organization must first understand what a POS system is. A POS system, also known as a point-of-purchase system, is composed of two main parts: software, and hardware.
It will be helpful to first provide an overview of the core and non-core areas of a POS software system, as well as a brief definition of the POS hardware component. This will help to determine whether a stand-alone POS solution should or should not be purchased.
Core Areas of POS Systems Software
Due to the diversity of the retail industry, different POS system features are required for different types of retailers. In assessing these features, the following have emerged as the six best practices core components, or must-have features, regardless of the intended application of the POS system.
1. Transaction management: The transaction management component includes all the information required to complete a transaction. This component should capture key transaction data, such as sales, sales cancellations, voids, refunds, purchase of gift certificates, layaways, service transactions, creation of special orders, and the like. The transaction management component should validate item information, automatically calculate the total purchase amount, and process the payments. This enables sales associates to give their full attention to properly serving the customer, since processing a sale would then only require them to scan in the barcode and to ask the method of payment.
2. Price management: The price management component allows a store manager or store employee to modify the retail price of an item. POS systems should allow modification of a retail price for different reasons, such as discounts on damaged items, discounts after negotiations, or competitive price matching. The price management module should track these retail price changes, by assigning a code to the reason, or total discount, or employee number, and so on. This module should have the capacity to generate a report for auditing purposes.
3. Register management: The register management component includes processes for cash opening procedures, cash closing procedures, and cash balancing procedures. Moreover, this module consists of the management of register opening funds, paid-in transactions, paid-out transactions, tenders, currencies, and taxes. Register management should track the cash flow within the business day, and should flag any unusual events. This enables a store manager to monitor and reduce employee theft.
4. Inventory management: The inventory management component includes item localization tools, physical inventory procedures, and inventory adjustments. This ensures that the store's inventory is up to date. It also helps employees to locate items at the store or corporate level. In other words, by knowing where the inventory is located and by having accurate information about the quantity on hand, this component allows employees to close sales and to increase customer service and satisfaction.
5. Customer relationship management: The customer relationship management (CRM) component has the functionality to manage customer interactions, customer sales histories, customer contact information, customer preferences, customer characteristics, customer loyalty programs, and so forth. For a retailer, customer purchases are the most important avenue of revenue. To make things more challenging, today's customers are more educated, more skeptical, and more demanding than before. With the advent of the Internet, price transparency has become a major threat to retailers. Thus, offering a personalized service to customers is crucial. Having a good CRM module which tracks customer behavior and preferences will ensure healthy relationships. For more information about CRM, see Comparing On Demand Customer Relationship Management Service Alternatives.
6. Reports and inquiries: Store employees use this component daily, to extract information on inventory, sales summaries, or commissions (if applicable). Reports and inquiries enable organizations to analyze the performance of the store by day, by week, by month, or even by year. It also shows the performance of items on numerous levels (such as color, dimension, size, characteristics, or attributes). Reports and inquiries also allow store managers to identify anomalies and to take corrective action if necessary. Reports and inquiries are widely used to obtain loss and prevention information.
Non-core Areas of POS Systems
Now that we have determined the components of a POS system that are essential regardless of the type and size of the retailer, let's continue by exploring the available features that are not essential to every system.
1. Purchase orders: The purchase order feature enables buyers to communicate a purchase to vendors, and to receive the goods ordered. A merchandise management system (MMS) or stand-alone POS system, however, requires the ability to order and receive purchase orders (POs). POS systems which are integrated with a retail merchandising system only need the capability to process a receipt. The purchase order module from an MMS offers more functionality, such as different types of POs, automatic creation of POs, or the ability to add vendor discounts at an item level. On the other hand, the PO component from a POS system will allow simple ordering and receiving functionalities.
2. Price changes: The price change feature is used to manage the retail (selling) price of goods. This feature can offer tools for lowering or raising the retail price. A POS price change component allows permanent or temporary markdowns and markups. The price change module included in the retail merchandising system, on the other hand, offers multipricing capabilities, markdown and markup cancellations, or price changes at location, department class, and vendor levels. Due to the increase of awareness among customers, prices on products must be equitable; they cannot be higher than the competitor, but they cannot be lower than the cost. Moreover, to lessen the loss, markdowns allow retailers to liquidate discontinued or out of fashion products.
3. Financials: The financials component is not considered a core element of POS systems. However, all vendors must at least have the means to communicate with a third-party financial system. This component includes general ledger, fixed assets, cost accounting, cash management, budgeting, accounts payable, reporting, and other bookkeeping requirements. For more information about financials, see Customer Choices for Achieving Growth.
In addition to the non-core components mentioned above, other features such as replenishment and e-commerce capabilities can be offered in certain POS Systems, but are usually found in a merchandising solution. Note once again that when replenishment is offered in a POS system, the capabilities are not as extensive as when the same module is found in a retail system. Moreover, other components such as planning and forecasting, allocation and distribution, open-to-buy, and stock optimization can be included within a retail system. These are all features that ease merchandise process analysis, increase return on investment (ROI), and increase employee productivity. For more information about merchandising systems, see Retail Systems: A Primer.
POS Hardware
As mentioned earlier, a POS System is composed of software and hardware components. There are two types of POS systems that are available on the market: electronic cash registers (ECR), and computer-based POS systems. An ECR will only have the capability to accumulate the total sales transaction amounts, whereas a computer based POS system allows more extensive features, due to its software. The devices in a computer based POS hardware system typically include a monitor, a cash drawer, a keyboard, a mouse, a receipt printer, and sometimes a barcode scanner. Compared to the cash register, a computer based POS system allows retailers to compute more extensive sales analysis, track "hot items," or track customer preferences, all with only a few clicks.
In addition to the typical computer based POS system, other hardware components are available, such as magnetic stripe readers, conveyor belts, personal shopping assistant (PSA) devices, pole displays, or in-counter scanner or weight scales. These optional devices reduce the time spent in serving a customer. For example, a pole display informs customers of the total amount, to encourage them to quickly have payment ready. Moreover, recent technologies also include devices which use biometric identification. In the near future, customers will be able to pay for purchases with literally one touch. All these hardware devices are tools used to increase customer satisfaction and to ensure their loyalty.
When evaluating a point of sale (POS) solution, there are generally two approaches: best-of-breed solutions, and integrated solutions. Both have strengths and weaknesses, according to the information technology (IT) infrastructure. Retailers that have an existing back-office system should evaluate whether it is better to replace their legacy system or to choose a best-of breed solution.
For retailers that have neither a back-office system nor a legacy POS system, the question is, should they purchase a stand-alone POS system or not? In deciding between a POS system that is stand-alone, and one that is not, the organization must first understand what a POS system is. A POS system, also known as a point-of-purchase system, is composed of two main parts: software, and hardware.
It will be helpful to first provide an overview of the core and non-core areas of a POS software system, as well as a brief definition of the POS hardware component. This will help to determine whether a stand-alone POS solution should or should not be purchased.
Core Areas of POS Systems Software
Due to the diversity of the retail industry, different POS system features are required for different types of retailers. In assessing these features, the following have emerged as the six best practices core components, or must-have features, regardless of the intended application of the POS system.
1. Transaction management: The transaction management component includes all the information required to complete a transaction. This component should capture key transaction data, such as sales, sales cancellations, voids, refunds, purchase of gift certificates, layaways, service transactions, creation of special orders, and the like. The transaction management component should validate item information, automatically calculate the total purchase amount, and process the payments. This enables sales associates to give their full attention to properly serving the customer, since processing a sale would then only require them to scan in the barcode and to ask the method of payment.
2. Price management: The price management component allows a store manager or store employee to modify the retail price of an item. POS systems should allow modification of a retail price for different reasons, such as discounts on damaged items, discounts after negotiations, or competitive price matching. The price management module should track these retail price changes, by assigning a code to the reason, or total discount, or employee number, and so on. This module should have the capacity to generate a report for auditing purposes.
3. Register management: The register management component includes processes for cash opening procedures, cash closing procedures, and cash balancing procedures. Moreover, this module consists of the management of register opening funds, paid-in transactions, paid-out transactions, tenders, currencies, and taxes. Register management should track the cash flow within the business day, and should flag any unusual events. This enables a store manager to monitor and reduce employee theft.
4. Inventory management: The inventory management component includes item localization tools, physical inventory procedures, and inventory adjustments. This ensures that the store's inventory is up to date. It also helps employees to locate items at the store or corporate level. In other words, by knowing where the inventory is located and by having accurate information about the quantity on hand, this component allows employees to close sales and to increase customer service and satisfaction.
5. Customer relationship management: The customer relationship management (CRM) component has the functionality to manage customer interactions, customer sales histories, customer contact information, customer preferences, customer characteristics, customer loyalty programs, and so forth. For a retailer, customer purchases are the most important avenue of revenue. To make things more challenging, today's customers are more educated, more skeptical, and more demanding than before. With the advent of the Internet, price transparency has become a major threat to retailers. Thus, offering a personalized service to customers is crucial. Having a good CRM module which tracks customer behavior and preferences will ensure healthy relationships. For more information about CRM, see Comparing On Demand Customer Relationship Management Service Alternatives.
6. Reports and inquiries: Store employees use this component daily, to extract information on inventory, sales summaries, or commissions (if applicable). Reports and inquiries enable organizations to analyze the performance of the store by day, by week, by month, or even by year. It also shows the performance of items on numerous levels (such as color, dimension, size, characteristics, or attributes). Reports and inquiries also allow store managers to identify anomalies and to take corrective action if necessary. Reports and inquiries are widely used to obtain loss and prevention information.
Non-core Areas of POS Systems
Now that we have determined the components of a POS system that are essential regardless of the type and size of the retailer, let's continue by exploring the available features that are not essential to every system.
1. Purchase orders: The purchase order feature enables buyers to communicate a purchase to vendors, and to receive the goods ordered. A merchandise management system (MMS) or stand-alone POS system, however, requires the ability to order and receive purchase orders (POs). POS systems which are integrated with a retail merchandising system only need the capability to process a receipt. The purchase order module from an MMS offers more functionality, such as different types of POs, automatic creation of POs, or the ability to add vendor discounts at an item level. On the other hand, the PO component from a POS system will allow simple ordering and receiving functionalities.
2. Price changes: The price change feature is used to manage the retail (selling) price of goods. This feature can offer tools for lowering or raising the retail price. A POS price change component allows permanent or temporary markdowns and markups. The price change module included in the retail merchandising system, on the other hand, offers multipricing capabilities, markdown and markup cancellations, or price changes at location, department class, and vendor levels. Due to the increase of awareness among customers, prices on products must be equitable; they cannot be higher than the competitor, but they cannot be lower than the cost. Moreover, to lessen the loss, markdowns allow retailers to liquidate discontinued or out of fashion products.
3. Financials: The financials component is not considered a core element of POS systems. However, all vendors must at least have the means to communicate with a third-party financial system. This component includes general ledger, fixed assets, cost accounting, cash management, budgeting, accounts payable, reporting, and other bookkeeping requirements. For more information about financials, see Customer Choices for Achieving Growth.
In addition to the non-core components mentioned above, other features such as replenishment and e-commerce capabilities can be offered in certain POS Systems, but are usually found in a merchandising solution. Note once again that when replenishment is offered in a POS system, the capabilities are not as extensive as when the same module is found in a retail system. Moreover, other components such as planning and forecasting, allocation and distribution, open-to-buy, and stock optimization can be included within a retail system. These are all features that ease merchandise process analysis, increase return on investment (ROI), and increase employee productivity. For more information about merchandising systems, see Retail Systems: A Primer.
POS Hardware
As mentioned earlier, a POS System is composed of software and hardware components. There are two types of POS systems that are available on the market: electronic cash registers (ECR), and computer-based POS systems. An ECR will only have the capability to accumulate the total sales transaction amounts, whereas a computer based POS system allows more extensive features, due to its software. The devices in a computer based POS hardware system typically include a monitor, a cash drawer, a keyboard, a mouse, a receipt printer, and sometimes a barcode scanner. Compared to the cash register, a computer based POS system allows retailers to compute more extensive sales analysis, track "hot items," or track customer preferences, all with only a few clicks.
In addition to the typical computer based POS system, other hardware components are available, such as magnetic stripe readers, conveyor belts, personal shopping assistant (PSA) devices, pole displays, or in-counter scanner or weight scales. These optional devices reduce the time spent in serving a customer. For example, a pole display informs customers of the total amount, to encourage them to quickly have payment ready. Moreover, recent technologies also include devices which use biometric identification. In the near future, customers will be able to pay for purchases with literally one touch. All these hardware devices are tools used to increase customer satisfaction and to ensure their loyalty.
Salary.com Wins Talent Management Shootout at
This year, I had the honor of attending the 12th Annual Human Resources (HR) Technology Conference held at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois (US). While many of the events at the three-day conference piqued my interest, none did so more than the 2nd Annual Talent Management Shootout. This shootout reminded me of TEC’s very own shootouts and showdowns, done several times throughout the year. While our shootouts are a little less “extravagant” (in the sense that we don’t have the players live on stage), we still find them to be highly effective in allowing our readers make better-informed decisions about the software they choose.
The 13th shootout—one of the Conference’s signature events—took place in the Grand Ballroom and was witnessed by approximately 600 attendees who had the opportunity to vote on the vendors’ performances. Interestingly, employees of the participating vendors who entered the ballroom were corralled into a separate seating area at the front of the stage where they were prohibited from voting.
Participants in the 2nd Annual Talent Management Shootout
At this year’s Talent Management Shootout, two enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendors—Lawson and SAP—went up against two talent management suite vendors—Plateau and Salary.com.
Each vendor was given three scripted scenarios of problems—challenges that many HR managers face today. The demo scripts were authored by HR Technology Conference co-chair Bill Kutik, and co-authored by Leighanne Levensaler, director of talent management research for Bersin & Associates.
Prior to the event, an e-mail was sent out to each of approximately 30 vendors. This particular event was organized and hosted by Bill Kutik. Vendors had an opportunity to participate in the event (if they chose to do so). While eight vendors were ultimately eligible to be candidates, the final four shootout contestants were chosen at random.
Some of the areas that were covered in the demonstrations were:
• employee profile
• competency management
• employee development
• goal management
• career planning
• performance management
• compensation planning
• succession planning
Vendor Overview
Lawson
Shootout scenarios lead by Larry Dunivan, senior vice president (SVP) Global HCM Products, Lawson
Lawson Human Capital Management (HCM) helps HR contribute to organizational excellence with applications that support business operations. By automating administrative processes, the solution helps HR increase efficiency, allowing focus to be placed on more critical initiatives. Lawson offers a stand-alone HCM suite or an integrated ERP system, so HR organizations can align people and processes, all with a low total cost of ownership (TCO).
Plateau
Shootout scenarios lead by Paul Sparta, chief executive officer (CEO), Plateau
Plateau Talent Management helps HR leaders develop, manage, reward, and optimize organizational talent. Its Talent Management Suite includes learning, performance, compensation, and career and succession planning modules which can be deployed independently or together as an integrated talent management solution.
Salary.com
Shootout scenarios lead by Kent Plunkett, CEO, Salary.com
Salary.com is a provider of on-demand talent management, compensation, and payroll solutions. Its software applications, proprietary data, and consulting services help HR and compensation professionals automate, streamline, and optimize critical core HR process such as payroll, benefits, and HR administration as well as talent management processes such as learning and development, compensation planning, performance management, competency management, and succession planning.
SAP
Shootout scenarios lead by David Ludlow, vice president (VP) Suite Solution Management, SAP
The SAP ERP Human Capital Management solution is a integrated human resources management solution that automates all core processes, such as employee administration, including talent management, workforce process management and deployment, and legal reporting.
And the Winner Is…
Niche player Salary.com was the clear winner in all three scenarios—winning out over tier-one vendors Lawson and SAP, as well as fellow niche player Plateau.
Final Note
Industry experts agree that Salary.com will be the vendor to watch out for over the next few years. When asked which vendors had the most complete and integrated offering, Naomi Lee Bloom, managing partner at Bloom & Wallace, mentioned that along with Softscape and Success Factors, Salary.com was a good stand-alone solution for managing talent. From my point of view as a TEC research analyst, based on the demonstration of the product during the shootout, Salary.com’s HR solution was very user-friendly and highly configurable to the organization’s needs, and made it very easy for HR administrators to align employee objectives with the company’s goals.
The 13th shootout—one of the Conference’s signature events—took place in the Grand Ballroom and was witnessed by approximately 600 attendees who had the opportunity to vote on the vendors’ performances. Interestingly, employees of the participating vendors who entered the ballroom were corralled into a separate seating area at the front of the stage where they were prohibited from voting.
Participants in the 2nd Annual Talent Management Shootout
At this year’s Talent Management Shootout, two enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendors—Lawson and SAP—went up against two talent management suite vendors—Plateau and Salary.com.
Each vendor was given three scripted scenarios of problems—challenges that many HR managers face today. The demo scripts were authored by HR Technology Conference co-chair Bill Kutik, and co-authored by Leighanne Levensaler, director of talent management research for Bersin & Associates.
Prior to the event, an e-mail was sent out to each of approximately 30 vendors. This particular event was organized and hosted by Bill Kutik. Vendors had an opportunity to participate in the event (if they chose to do so). While eight vendors were ultimately eligible to be candidates, the final four shootout contestants were chosen at random.
Some of the areas that were covered in the demonstrations were:
• employee profile
• competency management
• employee development
• goal management
• career planning
• performance management
• compensation planning
• succession planning
Vendor Overview
Lawson
Shootout scenarios lead by Larry Dunivan, senior vice president (SVP) Global HCM Products, Lawson
Lawson Human Capital Management (HCM) helps HR contribute to organizational excellence with applications that support business operations. By automating administrative processes, the solution helps HR increase efficiency, allowing focus to be placed on more critical initiatives. Lawson offers a stand-alone HCM suite or an integrated ERP system, so HR organizations can align people and processes, all with a low total cost of ownership (TCO).
Plateau
Shootout scenarios lead by Paul Sparta, chief executive officer (CEO), Plateau
Plateau Talent Management helps HR leaders develop, manage, reward, and optimize organizational talent. Its Talent Management Suite includes learning, performance, compensation, and career and succession planning modules which can be deployed independently or together as an integrated talent management solution.
Salary.com
Shootout scenarios lead by Kent Plunkett, CEO, Salary.com
Salary.com is a provider of on-demand talent management, compensation, and payroll solutions. Its software applications, proprietary data, and consulting services help HR and compensation professionals automate, streamline, and optimize critical core HR process such as payroll, benefits, and HR administration as well as talent management processes such as learning and development, compensation planning, performance management, competency management, and succession planning.
SAP
Shootout scenarios lead by David Ludlow, vice president (VP) Suite Solution Management, SAP
The SAP ERP Human Capital Management solution is a integrated human resources management solution that automates all core processes, such as employee administration, including talent management, workforce process management and deployment, and legal reporting.
And the Winner Is…
Niche player Salary.com was the clear winner in all three scenarios—winning out over tier-one vendors Lawson and SAP, as well as fellow niche player Plateau.
Final Note
Industry experts agree that Salary.com will be the vendor to watch out for over the next few years. When asked which vendors had the most complete and integrated offering, Naomi Lee Bloom, managing partner at Bloom & Wallace, mentioned that along with Softscape and Success Factors, Salary.com was a good stand-alone solution for managing talent. From my point of view as a TEC research analyst, based on the demonstration of the product during the shootout, Salary.com’s HR solution was very user-friendly and highly configurable to the organization’s needs, and made it very easy for HR administrators to align employee objectives with the company’s goals.
SAP's New Level of e-Commerce: mySAP.com
On the buy side: The mySAP.com buying solution, using SAP's Business-to-Business Procurement component, supports multiparty transactions directly or via the mySAP.com Marketplace. SAP Business-to-Business Procurement also supports multiple back-office systems - SAP and non-SAP - as well as catalog content management services.
The buying solution will include e-business products that allow real-time integration with legacy systems and non-SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. SAP has also partnered with Requisite Technology to provide a catalog-finding engine and related content management services. This coupled with an open catalog interface (OCI), will provide customers access to third-party catalogs. The buying solution is also linked via the mySAP.com Marketplace, an online trading community with a business directory of more than 2,500 companies.
On the sell side: The mySAP.com selling solution is designed to support multiple sales channels, including selling to consumers, business partners and resellers. Customers are linked to customers using sell-side solutions based on mySAP.com and other vendors leveraging the XML-based SAP Business Connector. This connection enables buyers and sellers to transmit orders, invoices and other documents through their personalized mySAP.com Workplace portals.
The design of mySAP.com is based on the Internet Business Framework. That means the mySAP.com buying and selling solutions are web-enabled, allowing buyers, sellers, customers and business partners to collaborate in real time.
Market Impact
SAP's announcement represents a crafted approach to the Internet market. By aligning with service providers, establishing an implementation plan, and developing a rich feature set, it stands to distance itself from vendors like PeopleSoft or Baan, both of whom have yet to publish an information rich strategy document.
Recent announcements detail SAP's initiatives with service providers (See TEC News Analysis article: "The First Step in mySAP.com" Janauary 7th, 2000), data and hardware solutions (See TEC News Analysis article: "Oracle gets SAPed by IBM" December 8th, 1999), and partnerships to enhance the development of web based solutions.
Thus the small to midsize ERP market is exposed to a competitive web based solution threaded together by SAP. SAP is clearly on the move to capture market share in the burgeoning business to business industry. We expect further customer partnership and technology announcements within the next 4 to 6 months.
Additionally, companies such as Ariba, Concur and Commerce One continue to shape the market with unique partnerships and solution strategies. Between the pursuit of ERP companies and the digital market place vendors, the goal of highly efficient web integrated solutions is in the future. Both sides have considerable resources to offer and much to gain. Ariba and Concur offer web based HR and procurement functionality but lack the resources, installed base and robust back end integration with the major ERP products, while major ERP players have a large base, but nascent, as yet untested, web products. As a result, we expect significant advances in end to end web integrated ERP solutions within the next 9-12 months.
The buying solution will include e-business products that allow real-time integration with legacy systems and non-SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. SAP has also partnered with Requisite Technology to provide a catalog-finding engine and related content management services. This coupled with an open catalog interface (OCI), will provide customers access to third-party catalogs. The buying solution is also linked via the mySAP.com Marketplace, an online trading community with a business directory of more than 2,500 companies.
On the sell side: The mySAP.com selling solution is designed to support multiple sales channels, including selling to consumers, business partners and resellers. Customers are linked to customers using sell-side solutions based on mySAP.com and other vendors leveraging the XML-based SAP Business Connector. This connection enables buyers and sellers to transmit orders, invoices and other documents through their personalized mySAP.com Workplace portals.
The design of mySAP.com is based on the Internet Business Framework. That means the mySAP.com buying and selling solutions are web-enabled, allowing buyers, sellers, customers and business partners to collaborate in real time.
Market Impact
SAP's announcement represents a crafted approach to the Internet market. By aligning with service providers, establishing an implementation plan, and developing a rich feature set, it stands to distance itself from vendors like PeopleSoft or Baan, both of whom have yet to publish an information rich strategy document.
Recent announcements detail SAP's initiatives with service providers (See TEC News Analysis article: "The First Step in mySAP.com" Janauary 7th, 2000), data and hardware solutions (See TEC News Analysis article: "Oracle gets SAPed by IBM" December 8th, 1999), and partnerships to enhance the development of web based solutions.
Thus the small to midsize ERP market is exposed to a competitive web based solution threaded together by SAP. SAP is clearly on the move to capture market share in the burgeoning business to business industry. We expect further customer partnership and technology announcements within the next 4 to 6 months.
Additionally, companies such as Ariba, Concur and Commerce One continue to shape the market with unique partnerships and solution strategies. Between the pursuit of ERP companies and the digital market place vendors, the goal of highly efficient web integrated solutions is in the future. Both sides have considerable resources to offer and much to gain. Ariba and Concur offer web based HR and procurement functionality but lack the resources, installed base and robust back end integration with the major ERP products, while major ERP players have a large base, but nascent, as yet untested, web products. As a result, we expect significant advances in end to end web integrated ERP solutions within the next 9-12 months.
Is SCT And Logistics.com Partnership A Déjà vu?
The partnership combines SCT's iProcess.sct collaborative planning, network optimization, supply chain planning and execution (SCP&E) capabilities with Logistics.com's OptiManage transportation management and execution solution. The companies believe the integrated offering will enable significant manufacturing and logistics cost reductions and improved customer service for process manufacturers and distributors. Logistics.com's OptiManage will be used in the integrated solution to handle load consolidation, optimal carrier selection, routing optimization, tendering and real-time tracking and tracing of road-based shipments in North America. SCT's iProcess.sct solution will provide all other required supply chain planning, execution and Relationship Network Management.
As the announcement happened not that long after a very similar alliance (and with almost identical PR rhetoric) with another prominent transportation procurement provider, G-Log (see SCT and G-Log Form Alliance For Collaborative Logistics in the Process Industries), many have wondered whether the partnerships with both vendors with an expertise in logistics were indeed necessary.
Market Impact
At first sight, this is a win-win situation for two companies that have been ebullient lately in their respective complementary strongholds (see SCT Corporation Means (e)Business For Process Manufacturing and Logistics.com Might Prove An Internet Success Story After All). The growth of industry specific, vertical solutions continues with concurrent internal development, acquisitions and partnerships, and the notion of an "end-to-end" solution continues to evolve. When it comes to transportation procurement and execution, most ERP vendors, even those with strong native transportation planning capabilities (e.g., J.D. Edwards), have had to turn to the partnership option.
With this partnership, the process industries should have a broadened definition of what is achievable, as any software vendor that strives to offer its clients an end-to-end supply chain management (SCM) solution should also provide logistics capabilities, especially considering the payback potential of these solutions. The partnership in case should enhance the value proposition of SCT's product suite, while providing Logistics.com with an opportunity to gain additional traction in the process industries.
Within the process manufacturing and distribution segment, the alliance seems to be a good fit, as both companies have sound customer lists, particularly within the food and retail segments. For example, Logistics .com touts names like Kraft, Colgate, Georgia Pacific, PPG and Schreiber Cheese, while SCT has Cargill, SmithKline Beecham, Godiva Chocolate, Akzo Nobel Organon, and Smithfields.
SCT continues to execute well in the operational level-centric applications, unlike most of the other process ERP wannabes who are still selling generic 'white collar' applications (e.g., HR, financial accounting, procurement) into the process industries.
Logistics.com, on the other hand, needs to tie its execution modules into the plant-level applications in order to give a customer a full solution. In process industries, the control of material extends further into the supply chain (owing for example to recalls, product shelf life and/or aging repercussions, etc.). Therefore, tying these two products together should be beneficial, as Logistics.com cannot provide the execution without a backbone system that does its part of the business, while SCT cannot deliver the full job without the transportation part.
As for the SCT's G-Log and Logistics.com alliances conflict, it is less than meets the eye. While G-Log and Logistics.com can be seen as competitors in a very broad sense, they specialize in different things. G-Log mastery is in global and multi-modal transportation (truck, rail, air, and ocean - and any combination of these), while Logistics.com excels at North America-only and truck-only transportation. Logistics.com also has a strong offering in the transportation e-procurement side (with its OptiBid product), while G-Log does not really target that market. Furthermore, the partnerships also seem to be complementary marketwise, considering G-Log's experience in the chemicals industry, with customers like Dupont and ShipChem, whereas Logistics.com has stronger penetration in the food market segment.
User Recommendations
Key to process manufacturing and distribution companies is that this partnership addresses major bases of operational efficiency, cost, and customer service. The combination allows these companies to address the extended supply chain with the added bonus of process industry specific solutions. Process industry companies should consider the combined SCT - Logistics.com solution if they are looking for a supply chain planning solution that includes a transportation planning component. Also, installed base clients of either Logistics.com or SCT should consider the possible cross selling of products of the other company, bearing in mind the availability of standard interfaces between the products. The key tenets of success are the tight integration and a single point of contact, which points to having an immaculate channel with expertise in both product lines.
Existing SCT iProcess.sct customers should evaluate the Logistics.com applications as a way to both add value to their existing iProcess.sct applications and resolve their logistics requirements. Existing process industry Logistics.com customers looking for added functionality of the related areas of SCM, e-business, CRM or ERP should evaluate SCT regardless of their incumbent vendor relationships. Process companies considering new solutions in the supply chain, e-business, or ERP areas should place SCT on their short list. These companies should consider the added functionality from this partnership for an addition to their requirements list.
As the announcement happened not that long after a very similar alliance (and with almost identical PR rhetoric) with another prominent transportation procurement provider, G-Log (see SCT and G-Log Form Alliance For Collaborative Logistics in the Process Industries), many have wondered whether the partnerships with both vendors with an expertise in logistics were indeed necessary.
Market Impact
At first sight, this is a win-win situation for two companies that have been ebullient lately in their respective complementary strongholds (see SCT Corporation Means (e)Business For Process Manufacturing and Logistics.com Might Prove An Internet Success Story After All). The growth of industry specific, vertical solutions continues with concurrent internal development, acquisitions and partnerships, and the notion of an "end-to-end" solution continues to evolve. When it comes to transportation procurement and execution, most ERP vendors, even those with strong native transportation planning capabilities (e.g., J.D. Edwards), have had to turn to the partnership option.
With this partnership, the process industries should have a broadened definition of what is achievable, as any software vendor that strives to offer its clients an end-to-end supply chain management (SCM) solution should also provide logistics capabilities, especially considering the payback potential of these solutions. The partnership in case should enhance the value proposition of SCT's product suite, while providing Logistics.com with an opportunity to gain additional traction in the process industries.
Within the process manufacturing and distribution segment, the alliance seems to be a good fit, as both companies have sound customer lists, particularly within the food and retail segments. For example, Logistics .com touts names like Kraft, Colgate, Georgia Pacific, PPG and Schreiber Cheese, while SCT has Cargill, SmithKline Beecham, Godiva Chocolate, Akzo Nobel Organon, and Smithfields.
SCT continues to execute well in the operational level-centric applications, unlike most of the other process ERP wannabes who are still selling generic 'white collar' applications (e.g., HR, financial accounting, procurement) into the process industries.
Logistics.com, on the other hand, needs to tie its execution modules into the plant-level applications in order to give a customer a full solution. In process industries, the control of material extends further into the supply chain (owing for example to recalls, product shelf life and/or aging repercussions, etc.). Therefore, tying these two products together should be beneficial, as Logistics.com cannot provide the execution without a backbone system that does its part of the business, while SCT cannot deliver the full job without the transportation part.
As for the SCT's G-Log and Logistics.com alliances conflict, it is less than meets the eye. While G-Log and Logistics.com can be seen as competitors in a very broad sense, they specialize in different things. G-Log mastery is in global and multi-modal transportation (truck, rail, air, and ocean - and any combination of these), while Logistics.com excels at North America-only and truck-only transportation. Logistics.com also has a strong offering in the transportation e-procurement side (with its OptiBid product), while G-Log does not really target that market. Furthermore, the partnerships also seem to be complementary marketwise, considering G-Log's experience in the chemicals industry, with customers like Dupont and ShipChem, whereas Logistics.com has stronger penetration in the food market segment.
User Recommendations
Key to process manufacturing and distribution companies is that this partnership addresses major bases of operational efficiency, cost, and customer service. The combination allows these companies to address the extended supply chain with the added bonus of process industry specific solutions. Process industry companies should consider the combined SCT - Logistics.com solution if they are looking for a supply chain planning solution that includes a transportation planning component. Also, installed base clients of either Logistics.com or SCT should consider the possible cross selling of products of the other company, bearing in mind the availability of standard interfaces between the products. The key tenets of success are the tight integration and a single point of contact, which points to having an immaculate channel with expertise in both product lines.
Existing SCT iProcess.sct customers should evaluate the Logistics.com applications as a way to both add value to their existing iProcess.sct applications and resolve their logistics requirements. Existing process industry Logistics.com customers looking for added functionality of the related areas of SCM, e-business, CRM or ERP should evaluate SCT regardless of their incumbent vendor relationships. Process companies considering new solutions in the supply chain, e-business, or ERP areas should place SCT on their short list. These companies should consider the added functionality from this partnership for an addition to their requirements list.
BUY.COM Called "911" For Help
Market Impact
Recently AT&T announced development plans for a network architecture to support Application Service Providers (See our article: "AT&T's Ecosphere"). To develop the "Ecosphere" AT&T has partnered with industry giants such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, and Hewlett-Packard. The move is indicative of an emerging trend: Companies partnering with "like" technology to create market synergy.
The big players are not the only ones coming together. On January 27, 2000 Breakaway Technology announced its purchase of Eggrock Partners for $250 million in stock. The deal unites a technology systems integrator with an Application Service Provider model. Service911.com and BUY.COM's relationship is another example of how companies are using ASP models to support business needs.
In August of 1999, IDC reported spending in the ASP space could reach 2 billion by 2003. In October 1999, Dataquest predicted the entire ASP market would reach 22.7 billion by 2003. While groups attempt to define the size and evolution of the market, one message is clear; the Application Service Provider market is growing. As a result we expect to see increased alliances and partnerships as companies discover cost effective means to support their businesses.
User Recommendations
ASP's:
The Service911.com announcement represents another positive endorsement for the ASP model. Similar solution providers could use the release as an additional "arrow in the quiver." By leveraging the Service911.com/BUY.COM deal as a success story, ASPs might show potential clients how remotely hosted applications can benefit their businesses.
Companies Considering ASP solutions:
If you are considering outsourcing services or applications via the Internet, shop around. It seems there are ASP solutions for everything. From e-mail to Human Resources to complete Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, there are ASPs willing to help.
Avoid the hype by asking critical questions. Evaluate how the ASP will benefit your organization. Investigate the depth of application and hosting knowledge they report. Obtain the number of "in-house" representatives available to you. Be sure to clarify how and when these "expert" resources are available to you and your customers. Also, keep in mind current bandwidth issues in relation to your future traffic estimates.
If the Application Service Provider model suits your needs, use the information it provides to compare and identify unique offerings. The result may be a strong ASP partnership that adds synergy to your business .
Recently AT&T announced development plans for a network architecture to support Application Service Providers (See our article: "AT&T's Ecosphere"). To develop the "Ecosphere" AT&T has partnered with industry giants such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, and Hewlett-Packard. The move is indicative of an emerging trend: Companies partnering with "like" technology to create market synergy.
The big players are not the only ones coming together. On January 27, 2000 Breakaway Technology announced its purchase of Eggrock Partners for $250 million in stock. The deal unites a technology systems integrator with an Application Service Provider model. Service911.com and BUY.COM's relationship is another example of how companies are using ASP models to support business needs.
In August of 1999, IDC reported spending in the ASP space could reach 2 billion by 2003. In October 1999, Dataquest predicted the entire ASP market would reach 22.7 billion by 2003. While groups attempt to define the size and evolution of the market, one message is clear; the Application Service Provider market is growing. As a result we expect to see increased alliances and partnerships as companies discover cost effective means to support their businesses.
User Recommendations
ASP's:
The Service911.com announcement represents another positive endorsement for the ASP model. Similar solution providers could use the release as an additional "arrow in the quiver." By leveraging the Service911.com/BUY.COM deal as a success story, ASPs might show potential clients how remotely hosted applications can benefit their businesses.
Companies Considering ASP solutions:
If you are considering outsourcing services or applications via the Internet, shop around. It seems there are ASP solutions for everything. From e-mail to Human Resources to complete Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, there are ASPs willing to help.
Avoid the hype by asking critical questions. Evaluate how the ASP will benefit your organization. Investigate the depth of application and hosting knowledge they report. Obtain the number of "in-house" representatives available to you. Be sure to clarify how and when these "expert" resources are available to you and your customers. Also, keep in mind current bandwidth issues in relation to your future traffic estimates.
If the Application Service Provider model suits your needs, use the information it provides to compare and identify unique offerings. The result may be a strong ASP partnership that adds synergy to your business .
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Other Planning and Database Issues RPF2
D. Synchronization of Usage
GIS datasets employed in government or by utilities will have many users. One portion of the dataset may be in demand simultaneously by several users as well as by staff charged with updating and adding new information. Making sure that all users have access to current data whenever they need it can be a difficult challenge for GIS design. Uncontrolled usage may be confusing to all users, but the greatest danger is that users may actually find themselves interfering with the project workflow or even undoing one another's work.
E. Update Responsibility
Some GIS datasets will never be "complete." Cities and utility territories keep growing and changing and the database must be constantly updated to reflect these changes. But these changes occur on varying schedules and at varying speeds. Procedures must be developed to record, check, and enter these changes in the GIS database. Furthermore, it may be important to maintain a record of the original data. In large GIS projects, updating the database may be the responsibility of a full-time staff.
F. Minimization of Redundancy
In large GIS projects, every byte counts. If a database is maintained for 30-50 years, every blank field and every duplicated byte of information will incur storage costs for the full length of the project. Not only will wasted storage space waste money, it will also slow performance. This is why in large, long-term GIS projects, great attention to devoted to packing data as economically as possible and reducing duplication of information.
G. Data Independence and Upgrade Paths
A GIS database will almost always outlive the hardware and software that is used to create it. Computer hardware has a useable life of 2-5 years, software is sometimes upgraded several times a year. If a GIS database is totally dependent on a single hardware platform or a single software system, it too will have to be upgraded just as often. Therefore, it is best to create a database that is as independent as possible of hardware and software. Through careful planning and design, data can be transferred as ASCII files or in some metadata or exchange format from system to system. There is nothing worse than having data held in a proprietary vendor-supported format and then finding that the vendor has changed or abandoned that format.
In this way, GIS designers should think ahead to possible upgrade paths for their database. It is notoriously difficult to predict what will happen next in the world of computers and information technology. To minimize possible problems, thought should be given to making the GIS database as independent as possible of the underlying software and hardware.
GIS datasets employed in government or by utilities will have many users. One portion of the dataset may be in demand simultaneously by several users as well as by staff charged with updating and adding new information. Making sure that all users have access to current data whenever they need it can be a difficult challenge for GIS design. Uncontrolled usage may be confusing to all users, but the greatest danger is that users may actually find themselves interfering with the project workflow or even undoing one another's work.
E. Update Responsibility
Some GIS datasets will never be "complete." Cities and utility territories keep growing and changing and the database must be constantly updated to reflect these changes. But these changes occur on varying schedules and at varying speeds. Procedures must be developed to record, check, and enter these changes in the GIS database. Furthermore, it may be important to maintain a record of the original data. In large GIS projects, updating the database may be the responsibility of a full-time staff.
F. Minimization of Redundancy
In large GIS projects, every byte counts. If a database is maintained for 30-50 years, every blank field and every duplicated byte of information will incur storage costs for the full length of the project. Not only will wasted storage space waste money, it will also slow performance. This is why in large, long-term GIS projects, great attention to devoted to packing data as economically as possible and reducing duplication of information.
G. Data Independence and Upgrade Paths
A GIS database will almost always outlive the hardware and software that is used to create it. Computer hardware has a useable life of 2-5 years, software is sometimes upgraded several times a year. If a GIS database is totally dependent on a single hardware platform or a single software system, it too will have to be upgraded just as often. Therefore, it is best to create a database that is as independent as possible of hardware and software. Through careful planning and design, data can be transferred as ASCII files or in some metadata or exchange format from system to system. There is nothing worse than having data held in a proprietary vendor-supported format and then finding that the vendor has changed or abandoned that format.
In this way, GIS designers should think ahead to possible upgrade paths for their database. It is notoriously difficult to predict what will happen next in the world of computers and information technology. To minimize possible problems, thought should be given to making the GIS database as independent as possible of the underlying software and hardware.
Other Planning and Database Issues on RPF1
The project planning cycle outlines a process, but the issues that must be addessed at each stage of this process will vary considerably from organization to organization. Some topics are of critical importance to large municipal, state, and private AM/FM applications, but less so for research applications of limited scope. Among the issues that must be addressed in large GIS projects are:
A. Security
The security of data is always a concern in large GIS projects. But there is more to security than protecting data from malicious tampering or theft. Security also means that data is protected from system crashes, major catastrophes, and inappropriate uses. As a result, security must be considered at many levels and must anticipate many potential problems. GIS data maintained by government agencies often presents difficult challenges for security. While some sorts of data must be made publicly accessible under open records laws, other types are protected from scrutiny. If both types are maintained within a single system, managing appropriate access can be difficult. Distribution of data across open networks is always a matter of concern.
B. Documentation
Most major GIS datasets will outlive the people who create them. Unless all the steps involved in coding and creating a dataset are documented, this information will be lost as staff retire or move to new positions. Documentation must begin at the very start of GIS project and continue through its life. It is best, perhaps, to actually assign a permanent staff to documentation to make sure that the necessary information is saved and revised in a timely fashion.
C. Data Integrity and Accuracy
When mistakes are discovered in a GIS database, there must be a well-defined procedure for their correction (and for documenting these corrections). Furthermore, although many users may have to use the information stored in a GIS database, not all of these users should be permitted to make changes. Maintaining the integrity of the different layers of data in a comprehensive GIS database can be a challenging task. A city's water utility may need to look at GIS data about right-of-ways for power and cable utilities, but it should not be allowed to change this data. Responsibility for changing and correcting data in the different layers must be clearly demarcated among different agencies and offices.
A. Security
The security of data is always a concern in large GIS projects. But there is more to security than protecting data from malicious tampering or theft. Security also means that data is protected from system crashes, major catastrophes, and inappropriate uses. As a result, security must be considered at many levels and must anticipate many potential problems. GIS data maintained by government agencies often presents difficult challenges for security. While some sorts of data must be made publicly accessible under open records laws, other types are protected from scrutiny. If both types are maintained within a single system, managing appropriate access can be difficult. Distribution of data across open networks is always a matter of concern.
B. Documentation
Most major GIS datasets will outlive the people who create them. Unless all the steps involved in coding and creating a dataset are documented, this information will be lost as staff retire or move to new positions. Documentation must begin at the very start of GIS project and continue through its life. It is best, perhaps, to actually assign a permanent staff to documentation to make sure that the necessary information is saved and revised in a timely fashion.
C. Data Integrity and Accuracy
When mistakes are discovered in a GIS database, there must be a well-defined procedure for their correction (and for documenting these corrections). Furthermore, although many users may have to use the information stored in a GIS database, not all of these users should be permitted to make changes. Maintaining the integrity of the different layers of data in a comprehensive GIS database can be a challenging task. A city's water utility may need to look at GIS data about right-of-ways for power and cable utilities, but it should not be allowed to change this data. Responsibility for changing and correcting data in the different layers must be clearly demarcated among different agencies and offices.
Applying the Insights of Project Lifecycle to Research Projects
The concepts of lifecycle planning can be applied to projects of lesser scale and scope, particularly to those pursued in undergraduate and graduate research. This does not mean that every project will move through every step outlined above. Some steps such as benchmarking and system selection may be irrelevant in a setting where the researcher must make do with whatever equipment and software is on hand. But lifecycle planning should not be viewed as a series of boxes on a checklist, it is a process of careful planning and problem solving. It is this process of careful planning that should be emulated regardless of the scope or scale of a project.
This point is not always understood. Some researchers reject the methodology of project planning because it seems overly formal and stringent given their modest research goals. Instead, they improvise a GIS solution. But improvised solutions are always a risk. Attention to the process of careful planning can waylay such risks. Perhaps the essence of this process can be summarized in three points.
1. Think ahead to how the GIS will be used, but keep in mind what sources are available.
Designing an effective GIS involves setting clear goals. The temptation is to rush ahead and begin digitizing and converting data without establishing how the system will be used. Even for small GIS projects, it is wise to engage in a modest functional requirements study. This allows the user to gain an idea of exactly what data sources are required, how they will be processed, and what final products are expected. Without clear-cut goals, there is too great a danger that a project will omit key features or include some that are irrelevant to the final use.
2. Exert special care in designing and creating the database.
Again, it is easy to rush ahead with the creation of a database, and then find later that it has to be reorganized or altered extensively. It is far more economical to get things right the first time. This means that the researcher should chart out exactly how the database is to be organized and to what levels of accuracy and precision. Attention to (and testing) of symbolization and generalization will also pay off handsomely.
3. Always develop a prototype or sample database to test the key features of the system.
No matter the size of a project, the researcher should aim to create a prototype first before moving toward full implementation of a GIS. This allows the researcher move through all of the steps of creating and using the system to see that all procedures and algorithms work as expected. The prototype can be a small area or may be confined to one or two of the most critical layers. In either case, testing a prototype is one step that should not be overlooked.
This point is not always understood. Some researchers reject the methodology of project planning because it seems overly formal and stringent given their modest research goals. Instead, they improvise a GIS solution. But improvised solutions are always a risk. Attention to the process of careful planning can waylay such risks. Perhaps the essence of this process can be summarized in three points.
1. Think ahead to how the GIS will be used, but keep in mind what sources are available.
Designing an effective GIS involves setting clear goals. The temptation is to rush ahead and begin digitizing and converting data without establishing how the system will be used. Even for small GIS projects, it is wise to engage in a modest functional requirements study. This allows the user to gain an idea of exactly what data sources are required, how they will be processed, and what final products are expected. Without clear-cut goals, there is too great a danger that a project will omit key features or include some that are irrelevant to the final use.
2. Exert special care in designing and creating the database.
Again, it is easy to rush ahead with the creation of a database, and then find later that it has to be reorganized or altered extensively. It is far more economical to get things right the first time. This means that the researcher should chart out exactly how the database is to be organized and to what levels of accuracy and precision. Attention to (and testing) of symbolization and generalization will also pay off handsomely.
3. Always develop a prototype or sample database to test the key features of the system.
No matter the size of a project, the researcher should aim to create a prototype first before moving toward full implementation of a GIS. This allows the researcher move through all of the steps of creating and using the system to see that all procedures and algorithms work as expected. The prototype can be a small area or may be confined to one or two of the most critical layers. In either case, testing a prototype is one step that should not be overlooked.
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