ECBeez

Glittering prospects in the gold trade

2012-02-11T22:17:00.000+08:00

Pic 2:
Golden attraction: Customers and agents looking at the gold bullion showcased at Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd's new office.
Pic 1:
At the ribbon: MCA Youth Federal Territory chairman senator Chiew Lian Keng (centre) with Genneva's chief executive officer Datuk Tan Liang Keat (second from left) during the ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the new office premises.

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=%2F2012%2F2%2F10%2Fcentral%2F10680197&sec=central

Friday February 10, 2012

Glittering prospects in the gold trade
By S.PUSPADEVI
puspa@thestar.com.my

IN A bid to provide better services to its customers and consultants, Genneva Malaysia Sdn Bhd recently launched its new office premises as part of an extension to its headquarters here in Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuala Lumpur.

Chief executive officer Datuk Tan Liang Keat said the opening of the new 1,800 sq ft office space at a ground floor shop lot was timely to meet the increasing number of customers and consultants as the current office lot was not big enough.

"This marks another successful milestone for Genneva Malaysia as part of its plan to set up at least a branch office in every state in the country," said Tan.

Federal Territory MCA Youth chairman Senator Chiew Lian Keng was invited to join in the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the launch, alongside Genneva Malaysia international group marketing director Datuk Philip Lim and chief marketing officer Kelvin Lee.

To mark the launch, customers and consultants were given a special price of RM215 per gramme of gold bullion on that day.

"Genneva's objective is to enable more Malaysians to own gold and the platform for consumers to purchase this item is either from goldsmiths or banks.

"Our business model is based on the Syariah principle of Al-Bai (sale and purchase).

"To make the transaction more attractive, Genneva awards its customers with discretionary payments pursuant to the Syariah principle of hibah (gift).

"This trading based on the principle provides an equal opportunity for both Muslims and non-Muslims to own gold," said Tan, adding that he hoped the Government would look into regulating the gold trading business.

Genneva Group of Companies is a gold bullion dealer specialising in trading and retailing gold bullion. Incorporated in March 2007, the Genneva Group of companies was set up with the intention of bringing gold trading to a new level in Malaysia by breaking away from traditional models.

The company's core mission is to encourage people to trade and increase their income capacity through gold.

Today, the company is represented in nine states — Selangor, Perak, Johor, Sarawak, Penang, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Sabah, and Kedah — with seven branch and four representative offices.

It also has a strong international presence within the Asian region through outlets in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

Genneva's Syariah products were launched by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Dec 15, 2010.

Why More Companies Are Banning Sitting During Meetings

2012-02-09T19:50:00.000+08:00

Paul J. Hart A large stand-up meeting at Grand Rapids, Mich., tech firm Atomic Object.

Wall Street Journal

February 2, 2012

No More Angling for the Best Seat; More Meetings Are Stand-Up Jobs

Stand-up meetings are part of a fast-moving tech culture in which sitting has become synonymous with sloth.

By Rachel Emma Silverman

Atomic Object, a Grand Rapids, Mich., software-development firm, holds company meetings first thing in the morning.

Employees follow strict rules: Attendance is mandatory, nonwork chitchat is kept to a minimum and, above all, everyone has to stand up.

Stand-up meetings are part of a fast-moving tech culture in which sitting has become synonymous with sloth. The object is to eliminate long-winded confabs where participants pontificate, play Angry Birds on their cellphones or tune out.

Atomic Object even frowns upon tables during meetings. "They make it too easy to lean or rest laptops," explains Michael Marsiglia, vice president. At the end of the meetings, which rarely last more than five minutes, employees typically do a quick stretch and then "go on with their day," he says.

Holding meetings standing up isn't new. Some military leaders did it during World War I, according to Allen Bluedorn, a business professor at the University of Missouri. A number of companies have adopted stand-up meetings over the years. Mr. Bluedorn did a study back in 1998 that found that standing meetings were about a third shorter than sitting meetings and the quality of decision-making was about the same.

The current wave of stand-up meeting is being fueled by the growing use of "Agile," an approach to software development, crystallized in a manifesto published by 17 software professionals in 2001. The method calls for compressing development projects into short pieces. It also involves daily stand-up meetings where participants are supposed to quickly update their peers with three things: What they have done since yesterday's meeting; what they are doing today; and any obstacles that stand in the way of getting work done.

If employees are late to this meeting, often called a "daily scrum," they sometimes must sing a song like "I'm a Little Teapot," do a lap around the office building or pay a small fine, says Mike Cohn, president of Mountain Goat Software, Lafayette, Colo., an Agile consultant and trainer. If someone is rambling on for too long, an employee may hold up a rubber rat indicating it is time to move on. Companies make exceptions to their no-sitting rules if a worker is sick, injured or pregnant—but usually not for workers outside the office telecommuting on Skype.

One Microsoft Corp. development group holds daily meeting in which participants toss around a rubber chicken named Ralph to determine who gets to speak next, says group member Aaron Bjork.

As Agile has become more widely adopted, stand-ups have spread along with it. VersionOne, which makes Agile-development software, polled 6,042 tech employees around the world in a 2011 survey and found that 78% held daily stand-up-meetings.

Office outfitters are responding by designing work spaces with standing sessions in mind. Furniture maker Steelcase Inc.'s Turnstone division, for example, recently introduced the "Big Table," a large standing-height table designed for quick meetings.

Mitch Lacey, a Bellevue, Wash., tech consultant and a former Microsoft employee says that some of his former colleagues used to hold stand-ups in an unheated stairwell to keep meetings brief.

Holding meetings before lunch also speeds things up. Mark Tonkelowitz, an engineering manager for Facebook Inc.'s News Feed feature, holds 15-minute stand-ups at noon, sharp. The proximity to lunch serves "as motivation to keep updates short," he says.

Sometimes people cheat a bit. "We have some very good slouchers and leaners," says T.A. McCann, founder of Gist, a Seattle contact-organization tool acquired last year by Research In Motion, which holds a 10 a.m. stand-up three days a week.

Obie Fernandez, founder of Hashrocket, a Jacksonville, Fla., software design firm, says his team passes around a 10-pound medicine ball during stand-ups. For newcomers unaware of the practice, "it's pretty mean," he says, "but really the main thing you want is to avoid people pontificating."

Participants frown upon late arrivals, and some data-obsessed engineers have even computed the costs of tardiness. Ian Witucki, a program manager at software firm Adobe Systems Inc., calculated the cumulative cost over the course of a typical 18-month product release cycle of starting the stand-up just a little bit late every day.

The total—about six weeks of work for two employees—equaled the amount of time the firm could spend building one major feature on each product, he says.

Soon after, the team imposed a $1 fine for latecomers. Now staffers run down the hall to make it on time, says Mr. Witucki.

Jason Yip, a principal consultant at ThoughtWorks in Sydney, Australia, plays music such as Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up," to round up colleagues. "It acts like a Pavlovian bell," he says.

Meanwhile, the Starr Conspiracy, a Fort Worth, Texas, advertising, marketing and branding agency, signals its daily stand-up—which it calls "the huddle"—with a few bars of the song, "Whoomp! (There It Is)," says partner Steve Smith.

"I'll be at a football game, hear the song and all of a sudden I have the urge to huddle up," says Mr. Smith.

Steelcase's Turnstone unit, which has been doing stand-up meetings for about a decade, for years played Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," to begin meetings. It recently switched to Elvis's "A Little Less Conversation"—a reminder to keep meetings brief, says general manager Kevin Kuske.

There are occasions when even a stand-up takes too much time.

At Freshbooks.com, a Toronto-based company that makes online accounting software, teams try to do daily 10 a.m. stand-ups. But on days when everyone is too swamped to gather around the company Ping-Pong table, team members will shout out their status updates from their desks, which are arranged in a circle.

They call those meetings "sit-downs."

Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.com
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Seven Secrets of Self-Made Multimillionaires

2012-02-09T16:19:00.001+08:00

Seven Secrets of Self-Made Multimillionaires
By Grant Cardone | Entrepreneur – Thu, Feb 2, 2012 10:00 PM SGT

First, understand that you no longer want to be just a millionaire. You want to become a multimillionaire.

While you may think a million dollars will give you financial security, it will not. Given the volatility in economies, governments and financial markets around the world, it's no longer safe to assume a million dollars will provide you and your family with true security. In fact, a Fidelity Investments' study of millionaires last year found that 42 percent of them don't feel wealthy and they would need $7.5 million of investable assets to start feeling rich.

This isn't a how-to on the accumulation of wealth from a lifetime of saving and pinching pennies. This is about generating multimillion-dollar wealth and enjoying it during the creation process. To get started, consider these seven secrets of multimillionaires.

No. 1: Decide to Be a Multimillionaire -- You first have to decide you want to be a self-made millionaire. I went from nothing—no money, just ideas and a lot of hard work—to create a net worth that probably cannot be destroyed in my lifetime. The first step was making a decision and setting a target. Every day for years, I wrote down this statement: "I am worth over $100,000,000!"

Related: Seven Rules for Coping with Sales Rejection

No. 2: Get Rid of Poverty Thinking - There's no shortage of money on planet Earth, only a shortage of people who think correctly about it. To become a millionaire from scratch, you must end the poverty thinking. I know because I had to. I was raised by a single mother who did everything possible to put three boys through school and make ends meets. Many of the lessons she taught me encouraged a sense of scarcity and fear: "Eat all your food; there are people starving," "Don't waste anything," "Money doesn't grow on trees." Real wealth and abundance aren't created from such thinking.

No. 3: Treat it Like a Duty - Self-made multimillionaires are motivated not just by money, but by a need for the marketplace to validate their contributions. While I have always wanted wealth, I was driven more by my need to contribute consistent with my potential. Multimillionaires don't lower their targets when things get tough. Rather, they raise expectations for themselves because they see the difference they can make with their families, company, community and charities.

Related Video: Grant Cardone on Closing the Sale

No. 4: Surround Yourself with Multimillionaires - I have been studying wealthy people since I was 10 years old. I read their stories and see what they went through. These are my mentors and teachers who inspire me. You can't learn how to make money from someone who doesn't have much. Who says, "Money won't make you happy"? People without money. Who says, "All rich people are greedy"? People who aren't rich. Wealthy people don't talk like that. You need to know what people are doing to create wealth and follow their example: What do they read? How do they invest? What drives them? How do they stay motivated and excited?

No. 5: Work Like a Millionaire - Rich people treat time differently. They buy it, while poor people sell it. The wealthy know time is more valuable than money itself, so they hire people for things they're not good at or aren't a productive use of their time, such as household chores. But don't kid yourself that those who hit it big don't work hard. Financially successful people are consumed by their hunt for success and work to the point that they feel they are winning and not just working.

Related: How to Conquer Your Sales Fears

No. 6: Shift Focus from Spending to Investing - The rich don't spend money; they invest. They know the U.S. tax laws favor investing over spending. You buy a house and can't write it off. The rich, in contrast, buy an apartment building that produces cash flow, appreciates and offers write-offs year after year. You buy cars for comfort and style. The rich buy cars for their company that are deductible because they are used to produce revenue.

No. 7: Create Multiple Flows of Income - The really rich never depend on one flow of income but instead create a number of revenue streams. My first business had been generating a seven-figure income for years when I started investing cash in multifamily real estate. Once my real estate and my consulting business were churning, I went into a third business developing software to help retailers improve the customer experience.
Lastly, you may be surprised to learn that wealthy people wish you were wealthy, too. It's a mystery to them why others don't get rich. They know they aren't special and that wealth is available to anyone who wants to focus and persist. Rich people want others to be rich for two reasons: first, so you can buy their products and services, and second, because they want to hang out with other rich people. Get rich -- it's American.

Related: Inside the Mind of Your Buyers

This article originally posted on Entrepreneur.com

How to Survive When the Internet Crashes at the Office

2012-02-09T16:01:00.001+08:00

How to Survive When the Internet Crashes at the Office

Adrian Foong January 13, 2012 5

Nowadays, we're always connected it almost seems like we'd be in limbo if we were to be disconnected. When this happens in the office, all hell breaks lose. We feel your pain. To help prevent a public display of wrinkles, frizzled hair and unsightly blemishes from breaking out, we have put together a guide to help you find your inner peace when times call for such measures.

1. Scream at the IT guy

Logical move, obviously. Who else can you put the blame on when you're trying to source for ideas and your online music playlist stops playing all of a sudden? Go right up to him and question his motives on disconnecting you from Facebook, shout across the room, whatever it takes get the bad qi out in the open. In the long run though, this could be bad karma. Use sparingly. We advise the silent scream, with all the body language, sans the voice.

2. Freak out about everything

Especially the printer not being able to print, even though you don't really need the internet connection to make that happen. Freaking out releases tension that would otherwise make blood pressure rise, and lowered efficiency in your immune system. Other possible options are the water cooler not dispensing cold water, and the door not opening automatically. Watch out for that coffee maker.

3. Listen to music

When your online music is compromised, the next best thing you can listen to is the tune from your Internet Service Provider when your IT guy is put on hold. If you hold for 10 minutes, they might put him back on the line and grant you access to the internet. If they don't, please hold, and be assured that they will attend to him shortly. In the meantime, you get to enjoy the hold tune for much longer, and allow the soothing calm to envelop you.

4. Go out for lunch

Might as well do something productive during work hours. Go out for a breather with your team in the name of Disconnection. Vent about the situation. Start gossiping about what's hot or not in the office, the clothes, the nails, and the movie posters your colleague just brought back to the office. This way you won't become the grandma of the office because you missed out on a few hours' worth of tweets and updates.

5. Rejoice when your page loads

Tell your team that you're back online. Jump for joy; cheer for the IT guy. Then slump back into your seat when you realize that it was only a momentary success. Positive energy does wonders for your skin.

This is how we stay youthful at Venusbuzz.

How do you survive when the internet connection at your office crashes?

Can you trust data-recovery service providers? - Computerworld

2012-02-09T00:20:00.000+08:00

http://m.computerworld.com/s/article/9223364/Can_you_trust_data_recovery_service_providers_?source=CTWNLE_nlt_disrecovery_2012-02-08

Can you trust data-recovery service providers?

By Ellen Messmer
January 11, 2012 03:25 PM ET

Network World - Data-recovery service providers are supposed to be saving important data for you when something goes wrong -- a drive crashes or storage device is dropped, and no backup is available. But do you trust them with the important data you let them recover or could they actually be a source for a data breach?

A survey of 769 IT professionals published this week finds those surveyed need to find out more about the third-party data-recovery services their organizations use. For example, according to the survey, 67% felt that encryption they had in place protected their organizations from data loss or theft during the data recovery process. But encryption keys are often handed over to the third-party data recovery service provider as part of the process, according to the study done by Ponemon Institute.

Ponemon's "Trends in Security of Data Recovery Operations" report says of the 87% of survey respondents who said their organization had at least one data breach in the past two years, "21% say the breach occurred when a drive was in the possession of a third-party data service provider."

The Ponemon survey suggests IT professionals may be a little in the dark. Thirty-two percent of the IR professionals admitted they were unclear about the vetting process for selecting the data-recovery service provider, and 11% outright declared it to be "poor." Another 25% judged it "fair," and only 32% deemed it "excellent" or "good." The speed and success of the provider were the most important factors for the survey's respondents, but little consideration was given to confidentiality and security.

The IT desktop and helpdesk managers were the most responsible for selecting the data-recovery service providers, but only about half of the survey's respondents said IT security is involved. Final selection of the vendor is often based on a background check of the vendor and analyzing the vendor's storage-device disposal procedures.

In the survey, less than half said they do ask the data-recovery service provider to adhere to some sort of security guidelines. The most requested security was encryption for data files in transmit mentioned by 28%, a Certified ISO (Class 100) "cleanroom" by 23%, as well as a demand of evidence of safe handling of devices by 23%. But only 16% said they demanded proof-of-custody documentation, though 80% said they should require it. Less than a third were confident they'd be notified if a data breach resulted from errors or mistakes.

Cloud service providers also figured into the survey, with the Ponemon Institute asking survey respondents how much was known about their cloud-service provider's data-recovery practices, if any. Fifty-five percent said their organization does use a cloud-service provider, but only 19% expressed any degree of confidence that if the cloud-service provider engaged a third-party data-recovery vendor, it would let them know.

Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG publication and website, where she covers news and technology trends related to information security.

Facebook's IPO: Real deal or internet bubble?

2012-02-08T11:16:00.001+08:00

Video Clip: http://aje.me/wUR2BF

Facebook's IPO: Real deal or internet bubble?

As Facebook goes public, we look at the challenges facing the social media giant and its users.

Counting the Cost Last Modified: 04 Feb 2012 15:40

It is the biggest tech listing in history, but is it the real deal or just an internet bubble?

After all the speculation, the social network Facebook finally announced it was going public to raise at least $5bn -sparking all sorts of frenzy and hyperbole over 'the mother of all tech listings'. And to be fair, it is a pretty big deal not least of all because Facebook makes a lot of money.

Last year, Facebook had revenues of $3.71bn, an increase of 88 per cent from 2010. An early investor like Accel Partners could see its initial $2.5mn investment in Facebook increase to $10bn. But it was not that long ago that 'dot com' seemed like a great investment, and that particular bubble ended up bursting.

As a public company Facebook will find itself in new territory. The constant pressure from shareholders to bolster the bottom line, but pressure too to do it without alienating users. Is it the next Google? Or the next AOL?

Also on Counting the Cost: East meets West - Angela Merkel's hard sell on her trip to China as she looks for some euro-saving cash.

The German chancellor tried to persuade China to buy more eurozone debt, to give more money to the IMF and to back Europe's oil sanctions on Iran.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer to all three questions was 'no', because although China is the world's second-biggest economy, it is still - all told - a poor nation.

But it also understands Europe needs help, and the money is there: one-quarter of China's $3.2tn of currency reserves are already euro-denominated. So, is Europe actually an attractive option for China these days?

___________________________________________________________________________________________
Sceptics sure need for profit will burst Facebook's bubble By Paul Harris

5:30 AM Monday Feb 6, 2012

Expand

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo / AP

Management consultant and business expert Peter Cohan does not plan on investing in Facebook stock any time soon.

The author of 10 business books, including Capital Rising and Export Now, took a look at the social media network's filings for its coming share sale, which could value it as high as US$100 billion ($120 billion), and knew he would take a pass. "Everything is so hyped. They are tapping a bubble," he said.

That sort of scepticism has not been the dominant tone of what must rank as one of the most remarkable weeks in the history of the internet. It saw Facebook complete its journey from its birth in a Harvard dorm room to going public, in a move that will create hundreds of new millionaires among its employees and turn its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, into one of the richest and most powerful people in the world - on paper, at least.

Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission claimed that it had a staggering 845 million active monthly users, half of whom sign in every day, US$3.7 billion ($4.4 billion) in annual revenue and a rocketing growth rate.

It also has a very healthy profit margin of 27 per cent.

Yet amid all the merited praise of Facebook's astonishing rise, it is possible to find sceptics about the future.

Facebook is entering a very different world from the one in which it grew up in as a brash Silicon Valley startup. It will face different pressures now it has come of age. Even among those who reacted positively to Facebook's move last week it was possible to detect a change of mood.

"It is a very valuable company. But there will be bumps on the road ahead," said David Sherman, professor of accounting at Northeastern University in Boston.

Facebook is unusual in that its biggest asset is not really something it makes. It is not a product in the traditional sense of the word and there is not a single service that it provides. Instead, Facebook's true value lies with its vast user base and the myriad, ever-shifting ways in which its members use the website.

That mother lode of personal profiles is what advertisers prize above all. The information that Facebook harvests and stores on its users is a goldmine for marketers and any company serious about selling its products.

But one problem Facebook faces is how to expand that already enormous user base. What started out as a networking site for Harvard students now encompasses almost one in eight people on the planet. Thus the sort of exponential growth that has marked Facebook's astonishing rise is simply not going to be possible for much longer.

Coupled with that are problems in areas of the world where Facebook has yet to make its mark, notably parts of Asia where local social media websites have a strong market share, and most particularly China.

There are more than half a billion Chinese online, but China's Government is less keen on being infiltrated by a Western social media giant and Facebook may not be able to negotiate a way in.

But Facebook has to find growth somewhere. Now that it plans to go public it will gain shareholders who will demand ever-rising profits each three months.

In SEC papers Zuckerberg wrote: "Simply put, we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services ... and I think more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximising profits."

Zuckerberg's sentiment will be news to most Wall Street investors, as Facebook is likely to discover soon after its first shares hit the open market. If profits or sales disappoint, then Facebook's shares will plummet just like those of any other company.

- Observer

By Paul Harris

Was your email account hacked? PwnedList can tell you

2012-02-07T11:49:00.000+08:00

http://www.computerworld.com.my/print-article/17738/

Was your email account hacked? PwnedList can tell you

Alex Wawro | Feb. 6, 2012

If you have an account with a company whose servers have been hacked, it's nerve-wracking to wonder whether or not your private data has been leaked onto the Internet. Thankfully, a new Web service seeks to aggregate all the leaked account data on the Internet and make it easy for you to check and see if you're on the list.

PwnedList (pwnedlist.com) is the brainchild of Alan Puzic, a professional security intelligence researcher partial to a bit of "white-hat" (good-guy) hacker work. PwnedList was born in July 2011 as a public service to help privacy-minded people verify the security of their online accounts.

"Our goal was to design a simple-to-use online portal where an average user could check to see if his or her account credentials were leaked," said Puzic in an interview with PCWorld. Within a week, Puzic and his team (including security researchers Stephen Thomas and Jasiel Spelman) had gathered more than a million hacked accounts from websites like The Pirate Bay and PasteBin, social networks like Twitter, and even hacker forums and chatrooms. At the time of the interview, PwnedList had been operating for almost six months, with its database approaching 10 million entries.

But don't worry: Even though the folks at PwnedList are constantly seeking out compromised usernames, email addresses, and passwords, they don't store all that information in the PwnedList database. Instead, they take all the compromised account data they find (or that anonymous users submit to them) and use an algorithm to create a unique string of alphanumeric characters for every username and email address. They then save the strings in the PwnedList database before deleting the actual login information. This procedure means that no hacker can crack the PwnedList database and gain access to a single list of the hundreds of thousands of compromised accounts that the PwnedList team is aggregating.

So every time you type a username or email address into the PwnedList search engine, the server runs your request through the same algorithm used to hash the compromised accounts, compares the string generated against the strings in the database, and alerts you if there's a match. For extra security, you can even avoid typing your email or username into the PwnedList website by hashing it yourself and copying the string. PwnedList uses a 512-bit Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) hash, so you can just use an online hash generator to convert your favorite email or username into a string of gibberish.

Of course, since the PwnedList database is just a giant list of alphanumeric strings without relevant data like passwords or domain names, the service can tell you only whether or not a particular name or email is on the list; at the time of our interview, PwnedList offered no way for you to know exactly how your email was compromised or which site was hacked. That will probably change with the next version, though.

"We're working hard to make more metadata available on our site...including the name of the site/company that hosts the account, the number of accounts contained in the leak, the date we found the leak, and (if possible) the name of the hacker/group that we believe published the data," says Puzic.

But ultimately that extra data, while helpful, doesn't really matter; what matters is that sites like PwnedList help you take an active role in verifying whether your private data has been compromised. If you're unlucky enough to find your favorite username or email address on the list, don't panic! Chances are your data hasn't been compromised yet, but to be safe, you should assume that you're the victim of a data breach and take a few common-sense steps to recover from it. Update all your accounts with better passwords, put a fraud alert on your credit report, and monitor your financial statements for a few months for signs of tampering. For more tips, check out our guide to recovering from a data breach, and keep an eye on PwnedList as it continues to roll out more privacy protection services.

BLOG: Billing – a driver of growth

2012-02-07T11:44:00.000+08:00

http://www.computerworld.com.sg/print-article/17764/

BLOG: Billing – a driver of growth
Bob Lento | Feb. 6, 2012
Tremendous challenges are on the horizon for the mobile industry. Revenue growth is falling, with many predicting it will stand at zero percent in Western Europe before 2015. The traditional drivers of voice and text no longer generate the profits they used to and average revenues per user, the supposed benchmark of the industry's health, are falling.

To add to this situation, handset manufacturers and content providers are increasingly offering products and services direct to customers, rather than via the operators. These industry interlopers, with their bandwidth hungry offerings, are paying minimal, if any, compensation to operators for access to customer bases built up over decades, as well as use of networks that have cost billions to implement.

So what is to be done? Service providers rightly expect some return on their investment; thinking, as they did, it would safeguard revenues by offering customers superior experiences. However, the way in which they expect to go about it, by demanding taxes on bandwidth-hungry services, such as video streaming, is unlikely to go ahead, thanks in part to the issue of net neutrality.

Potential source

There is another way. Operators spend significant amounts on attracting new users, when their existing customers offer a potential source of renewed profitability. A recent survey we conducted in 2011 found that nearly two-thirds (61 per cent) of UK consumers would spend more with their service provider if operators gave them the flexibility to choose the options that fit their needs. In order to do this, operators need to develop customer intelligence and they have the means to do this. They interact with them on a daily basis, through a variety of channels, and can understand their preferences, their creditworthiness, and how they use their phones. Billing holds the key to saving the mobile operator by unlocking new revenue streams.

In a system where payment is made on a regular basis for services rendered, billing has always been crucial in collecting the correct amounts from customers. At first, where the services provided were relatively straightforward, such as voice and text, mobile billing mechanisms were not hugely complex, relatively speaking. As new services were introduced, such as mobile Internet, music and mobile TV, new software designed to capture payment for these offerings were added to existing billing infrastructures. As with anything that grows organically, the result is a highly information silo system, which holds huge amounts of data on customers, without providing any big picture understanding of what they are actually doing.

To hear this, one could understandably assume that billing is far from the silver bullet for the mobile industry's ills. However, it is in this mass of separate data banks that the potential lies to build a complete picture of a customer's behaviour, background, and habits. With this intelligence, operators could very quickly predict their needs, avoiding misdirected offers and provide a more rounded, positive customer experience. However, in order to do this, operators need to combine an efficient, connected billing infrastructure, with a highly tuned engine for revenue growth. This must quickly build offers and react to the fluctuating demands of the market place.

This fully joined up package should be able to extract raw data, build profiles, and feed into sales, marketing and inventory management, providing real-time actionable intelligence that can be used to rapidly turn out targeted offers and bundled services. A start to an intuitive customer relationship based on understanding needs without the customer needing to make contact. This could take the form of registering that a customer is close to their limit of texts, for instance, and being able to offer an add on for a nominal amount in a non-intrusive way.

Benefitting both parties

This use of billing as sales tool is not new in the industry, but it has rarely been used effectively. Boosting user revenues is not about the hard sell or aggressive persuasion. It is about profiting from established relationships, exploiting a position of trust in a way that benefits both parties. Operators secure revenues beyond the term of contracts and customers have their lives enhanced through superior communication services.

By showing a deeper empathy with their customers by respecting their personal situations, operators can foster a sense of loyalty that can help protect them against handset-driven churn - the changing of service providers based on exclusive handsets. On a more basic level, effective billing can also provide customers with accurate information about their own spending, developing trust in the service providers' operation, and avoiding the misguided estimated bill headlines commonly associated with utility companies.

We have seen increasing evidence service providers are in a position of becoming a consumer's technology partner. In an age of converged digital media, no other industry has this level of trust. PC manufacturers build products; customers buy them in one-off payments, and use them autonomously. Games console manufacturers have a similar role. Updates and upgrades can encourage a customer to buy, depending on the customer's experience of the technology, but no one other than the service provider has the consistent regular contact with consumers over a prolonged period of time. Billing is at the heart of this contact. As operators look to profit from existing relationships, they need to have the infrastructure in place that allows them to offer a meaningful customer experience based on real-time actionable intelligence. Without this, declining revenue growth will quickly turn into declining revenues.

Bob Lento is president of information management, Convergys.

Legal firm Clifford Chance implements software blade to boost security

2012-02-07T11:41:00.000+08:00

http://www.computerworld.com.sg/print-article/17755/

Legal firm Clifford Chance implements software blade to boost security
T.C. Seow | Feb. 6, 2012

Clifford Chance, a leading international law firm, has deployed Check Point R75 software blades to manage and enforce multiple layers of protection with a single, integrated network security solution.

The law firm employs over 3,200 legal advisors, and has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Europe and the U.S. It has large volumes of confidential data flowing through the network daily, and as such, the law firm requires a robust and multi-functional security gateway that protects against emerging security threats, while safeguarding client data and simplifying management.

According to Bill Leung, senior security analyst at Clifford Chance, one of the biggest benefits of deploying the Check Point solution is its easy integration which eliminated the need for separate appliances and disparate management systems.

"We only need one user interface to control multiple security protections across our entire global network," he said. With Check Point R75, the firm is able to take a unified approach to security by quickly deploying the specific software blade protections which are critical to their business, including data loss prevention, application control and intrusion prevention (IPS).

A core element of Clifford Chance's security strategy is data loss prevention. Enforcing effective data loss prevention is essential but instead of deploying a separate point product, the firm integrated Check Point's DLP Software Blade into its existing gateway to reduce hardware expenses by as much as 50 percent, said Leung.

The software blade also alerts and educates users when data is at risk -- significantly reducing the number of potential security incidents and preserving limited IT resources. "Our employees often work on multiple cases at one time so it's important to ensure our clients' documents remain confidential at all times," Leung added. "Our solution preemptively protects sensitive data before unintentional loss can occur."

The firm also found a growing need to protect its business from the latest threats and vulnerabilities. It deployed Check Point's IPS and software blades to protect the network against malicious and unwanted network traffic, while blocking or limiting access to social media, personal email, cloud drives and other unsafe Web apps.

"We have a lean IT security team of five members. Being able to centrally manage multiple protections, while enforcing consistent security policies on a global level, has given us a huge boost in security and productivity," said Leung.

Clifford Chance also worked with Dimension Data, Check Point's global gold partner, to select and architect a fully integrated and robust network security solution tailored to fit their business needs.

Mobility to drive productivity in the year ahead

2012-02-07T11:36:00.000+08:00

http://www.mis-asia.com/print-article/17722/

BLOG: Mobility to drive productivity in the year ahead

Phey Teck Moh | Feb. 3, 2012

According to research firm IDC, spending on enterprise network equipment will grow by 8.7 percent in 2012 to reach US$39.4 billion, as companies increasingly turn to enterprise mobility. Today's retailers, healthcare service providers and government agencies need to cater to the intelligent consumers, who demand immediate information access to help them make informed decisions. This requires businesses and agencies to focus on connectivity and sharing of information intelligence. Enterprise mobility will be a critical part of this strategy.

Phey Teck Moh is Corporate Vice President, Asia Pacific, Motorola Solutions., shares how enterprise mobility will change future operations and service delivery across key industries in the year ahead.

Retail

The shopping experience will get more personal and even more interactive in the year ahead. As online shopping gains wallet share, stores need new and innovative methods to enhance and personalize the shopping experience for today's consumers. According to the annual Holiday Shopping survey in the United States conducted by Motorola Solutions, 63 percent of surveyed shoppers with smartphones downloaded some type of shopping application while 67 percent of shoppers cited a better experience in-store with associates and managers using the latest mobile technologies. Mobile computing devices are thus an ideal platform to share product and price information with in-store shoppers. With the new technologies, loyal customers can now be differentiated, recognized and rewarded as soon as they walk into the store. The year ahead will see greater adoption of retail mobility solutions, helping retailers manage sales and inventory from the warehouse to the shop floors. Store managers will desire to have real-time information on products and deliveries in their hands, empowering them to serve customers better. Likewise, the use of mobile point-of-sale solutions provides shoppers with the option of a flexible and secure self-checkout, ensuring a smooth and fuss-free shopping experience.

Healthcare

Mobility is also making headway in the healthcare sector. The ageing population in Asia means that there is a need to ensure tighter cooperation between acute care and community care. Placing accurate and timely information on the palms of healthcare workers, through mobile point-of-care solutions, will help accelerate the shift towards smoother healthcare service delivery in all stages of patient care. Management consultancy Accenture also reported recently that more than two-thirds of Singapore physicians surveyed believe that healthcare technology will reduce the number of unnecessary interventions or procedures, improving diagnostic decisions. In tandem with the move towards digitized health records, the use of mobile computers is expected to be a standard among healthcare institutions across Asia.

Government

E-government services are not new, but the year ahead will see these services moving on to the mobile platform, as the use of smart phones becomes more pervasive and mobile data becomes more affordable. Another prevalent trend is the rise of social network platforms and how they could transform citizen engagements for the government. At the back-end, mobile technology allows governments to capture information that can enhance citizen relationship, while facilitating accountability and recourse. In 2012, more government agencies are expected to leverage mobile applications that can help employees access information at any time and from anywhere, increase overall productivity and reduce costs of government operations.

2012 will see CIOs increasingly realizing the value of utilizing mobile-centric applications, interfaces and tools to elevate their business and service capabilities. As enterprises and governments continue to invest in solutions that increase revenue, reduce costs and improve operating efficiency, Motorola Solutions will continue to innovate and expand our offerings to meet the growing needs of today's organizations.

German gov't endorses Chrome as most secure browser

2012-02-07T11:24:00.000+08:00

http://www.computerworld.com.my/print-article/17742/

German gov't endorses Chrome as most secure browser

Gregg Keizer | Feb. 6, 2012

Germany's cyber security agency today recommended that Windows 7 users run Google's Chrome browser, citing the application's sandbox and auto-update features.

In a security best practices guideline, Germany's Federal Office for Information Security, known by its German initials of BSI, said Chrome was the best browser.

"Your internet browser is the key component for the use of services on the Web and thus represents the main target for cyber-attacks," said BSI in its published advice. "By using Google Chrome in conjunction with the other measures outlined above, you can significantly reduce the risk of a successful IT attack."

BSI ticked off Chrome's anti-exploit sandbox technology, which isolates the browser from the operating system and the rest of the computer; its silent update mechanism and Chrome's habit of bundling Adobe Flash, as its reasons for the recommendation.

"This [sandbox] protection is implemented most consistently in Chrome...[and] similar mechanisms in other browsers are currently either weaker or non-existent," explained BSI.

BSI, for "Bundesamt fuer Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik," has a habit of making software recommendations, particularly about browsers, unlike U.S. agencies. Two years ago, for example, BSI urged Germans to stop using Internet Explorer (IE) until Microsoft patched a vulnerability that had allegedly been used by Chinese hackers to break into networks owned by Google and dozens of other Western companies.

Unlike in the U.S., where Windows 7 users are automatically handed IE as the default browser, Germans are shown a browser ballot screen when they first run Windows. The ballot screen lets users choose which browser they want to set as the default, and if necessary, download and install it.

That selection process stems from a settlement Microsoft reached with European Union antitrust regulators in 2009, two years after Opera Software officially complained that IE's bundling with Windows and the browser's default status stifled competition.

Not surprisingly, Google was happy about the recommendation. "We're particularly honored to see several of [Chrome's] security benefits recognized in the report," wrote Wieland Holfelder, who heads Google's engineering efforts in Germany, in a Friday post to Chrome's official blog .

BSI also recommended Adobe Reader X -- the version of the popular PDF reader that, like Chrome, relies on a sandbox to protect users from exploits -- and urged citizens to use Windows' Auto Update feature to keep their PCs abreast of all OS security fixes.

To update applications, BSI gave a nod to Secunia's Personal Software Inspector (PSI), a free utility that scan a computer for outdated software and point users to appropriate downloads.

Chrome currently accounts for just 14.3% of all browsers used in Germany, according to Irish Web measurement company StatCounter. Mozilla's Firefox has 51% of the German market, while IE accounts for 24.8%.

While Mozilla is making progress on silent updates for Firefox, the company won't wrap up the project until June at the earliest. Nor does Firefox include a Chrome-esque sandbox, although developers have been working on separating each tab's process, something Chrome also offers, to make its browser more resilient to crashes.

Worldwide, Chrome is more popular: StatCounter's data shows that Chrome's 28.4% share put it in second place behind IE's 37.5% but ahead of Firefox's 24.8%.

The BSI best practice guides for consumers and small businesses can be found on the agency's website. Both documents are in German.

Credit Suisse traders 'manipulated IT systems' to hide losses

2012-02-07T11:21:00.000+08:00

http://www.computerworld.com.my/print-article/17737/

Credit Suisse traders 'manipulated IT systems' to hide losses

Leo King | Feb. 6, 2012

Two traders at Credit Suisse have pleaded guilty to wire fraud and falsifying data after authorities said they had manipulated the bank's record systems, as the credit crunch approached, in order to help conceal over half a billion dollars' worth of losses.

The traders admitted to circumventing a mandatory real time reporting system introduced by Credit Suisse, manually entering false profit and loss (P&L) figures as the products they handled collapsed in value. They did so, according to the accusations, under heavy pressure from their manager, who has also been charged.

The pleas come after a four-year investigation that involved the FBI trawling through thousands of financial records, emails and recorded phone calls - some of which provide potentially devastating evidence. The FBI and US Attorney have insisted they are determined to hold individuals responsible for any possible part they played in the economic crisis.

The traders, David Higgs, 42, and Salmaan Siddiqui, 36, pleaded guilty to attempting to manipulate around $3 billion in subprime mortgage-backed securities on order to reduce how bad losses looked. A large amount of the alleged activities took place in Credit Suisse's London offices in Canary Wharf, as well as in New York.

Their line manager, Kareem Serageldin, 38, has been charged with falsifying records and with wire fraud. Serageldin, who was the managing director of structured credit at the bank, lives in the UK, and will be expected to travel to the US to face the charges. It is understood he may contest the charges.

The three are also facing civil charges from US financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission. Credit Suisse itself has not been charged by the FBI or SEC.

Subprime mortgages are essentially loans issued to customers whom the banks expect to have more difficulty paying - and are charged at a higher interest rate. Those mortgages and the complex investment vehicles attached to them were widely blamed as playing a key role in triggering the current economic crisis.

In 2008, Credit Suisse took a $2.65 billion writedown from the credit crunch, much from complex products, known as collateralised debt obligations and linked to subprime mortgages. It blamed a number of its traders for mispricing the products, but also admitted internal control failures.

The traders and their manager in the FBI and SEC cases are accused of contributing over $500 million to this writedown.

The SEC said in a statement that the traders "deliberately ignored specific market information showing a sharp decline in the price of subprime bonds ... They instead priced them in a way that allowed Credit Suisse to achieve fictional profits.

"Serageldin and Higgs periodically directed the traders to change the bond prices in order to hit daily and monthly profit targets, cover up losses in other trading books, and send a message to senior management about their group's profitability."

Credit Suisse had implemented a system in August 2007, whereby the firm's trading desks were required to produce "flash" reports of P&L movements on real time systems. "In light of this enhanced scrutiny of their bonds, Defendants Serageldin and Higgs were placed under intense pressure to avoid showing negative P&L," said the SEC in its complaint, filed in a Lower Manhattan court.

A month later, during a phone conversation a trading assistant in the team said to Serageldin: "If you want [profit and loss] to be a big number let me know what you want, then I'll just go through it with [Higgs] because obviously I can move things back to where they were ... if you're looking for a big number today...".

The conversation was easily retrieved by lawyers and investigators because Credit Suisse recorded UK trader phone conversations to a system as part of its business policy.

"While the residential housing market was in free fall, and shock waves were reverberating throughout the economy, these defendants decided they were above the rules of the market and above the law," said Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara - who famously put Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam behind bars - as he filed the charges.

"As alleged, they papered over more than a half billion dollars in subprime mortgage-related losses, to secure for themselves a big payday at the same time that many people were losing their homes and their jobs."

The bonuses and share incentives were potentially worth millions of dollars for each individual.

Higgs and Siddiqui face up to five years in prison. Serageldin, if convicted, faces five years in prison on the conspiracy count, and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the books and records and the wire fraud counts, as well as a $5 million fine.

Tokyo Stock Exchange trading floored after server outage

2012-02-07T11:13:00.000+08:00

http://www.computerworld.com.my/resource/networking/tokyo-stock-exchange-trading-floored-after-server-outage/

Tokyo Stock Exchange trading floored after server outage
Michael Pooler | Feb. 6, 2012

Trading was floored on Thursday at the Tokyo Stock Exchange when a server broke down, causing the worst disruption to activities since 2008.
The Arrowhead server went down for three hours, affecting 241 stocks listed on TSE and sparking outrage among investors who were unable to trade shares in companies including Sony, Toyko Electric Power and Komatsu.
The Arrowhead trading platform, developed in collaboration with Fujitsu, was billed as a 'next-generation trading system' on its implementation and within three months was credited with cutting trading costs by more than a third. Designers of the system cite its 'high reliability' owing to the protection of trading information by synchronized 3-node data back-up memory and rapid order response and information distribution speeds.
Fujitsu declined to comment.
The server outage was the second time in four years that a technical malfunction has caused trading to grind to a halt on the bourse. In July 2008, technical problems under the former trading system forced trading to be halted for a day. Issues with the electronic system provoked a similar perturbation in 2005.
Computer-driven traders that are based on algorithms, comprising 35 to 40 per cent of all trades on the exchange, were among those that felt the impact the most.
Exchange authorities said the problem was caused by a glitch in one of eight sets of system servers that comprise three devices. When a problem occurs in one device it should be automatically switched with the other two. However in this instance the automatic changeover did not happen, leading to the outage.
"We are investigating the reason why the [automatic] changeover didn't work," Hiroaki Uji, director for TSE's IT development section, said in a news conference.
A decision by the regulator to prevent trading of shares on rival exchanges frustrated investors wishing to trade shares in Sony following the resignation announcement of its Chief Executive.
Yesterday's incident was the first disruption since the new system, which permits rapid transaction responses of as little as 5 milliseconds, was introduced in January 2010. This brought about an increase in speed of around 600 times on the previous system, where trades took two to three seconds.
TSE is currently planning a merger with the Osaka Stock Exchange in a deal that would create the country's largest exchange group, as Japan seeks to claw back business from rival regional equity markets that have prospered at its expense in recent years. However there are now concerns that this latest glitch will cast a shadow over the reputation of the planned exchange.

Four hit with 796 charges

2012-02-04T01:11:00.000+08:00

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/15/courts/7229157&sec=courts

Friday October 15, 2010

Four hit with 796 charges

KUALA LUMPUR: Three directors and a former director of a gold invest ment scheme company have pleaded not guilty to 796 money laundering charges involving millions of ringgit.

The directors of Genneva Sdn Bhd – Ng Poh Weng, 60, face 263 charges involving RM185mil while Marcus Yee Yuen Seng, 58, faces 234 charges amounting to RM153mil and Chin Wai Leong, 34, face 210 charges involving RM212mil.

Former director Liew Chee Wah, 56, faces 89 charges involving RM31mil.

The four men had allegedly issued and cashed 364 cheques from illegal proceeds at a bank in Jalan Ampang between July 20, 2007, and Dec 6 last year.

DPP Mohd Haziq Razali asked the court to set bail at RM4mil each although it was a non-bailable offence, adding that the amount involved was huge.

However, counsel K.K. Wong, acting for Ng, Yee and Chin, said his clients were willing to report to the Bank Negara investigating officer every month pending disposal of the case.

Wong said that since Bank Negara had frozen their personal and company bank accounts and their asset of gold bars since July last year, there was no risk of them absconding.

"The company has business dealings in Singapore, Hong Kong and China," he said, adding that the men, who were first offenders, could only afford to raise RM100,000 for bail and were willing to surrender two land grants as surety.

Wong also said failure to post bail would only result in the "death" of the three companies overseas, affecting some 2,000 clients.

Liew's counsel Keppy Wong said his client, who resigned from his post last March, had no previous convictions and that he had cooperated with Bank Negara.

Sessions Court judge Rozana Ali Yusoff then set bail at RM1mil in two sureties for Ng, Yee and Chin, and RM800,000 for Liew, and fixed Nov 16 for mention.

She also ordered the four to surrender their passports.

Later, a Bank Negara senior official said the cheques were used for various purposes, including buying gold, paying investors and remitting cash to their company's branches abroad.

He said Bank Negara had frozen some RM20mil in cash and RM3mil in gold assets belonging to the company.

Beware of Gold Scams | Jonathan Quek - Asia's Youngest Wealth Coach

2012-02-04T01:05:00.000+08:00

http://www.jonathan-quek.com/?p=6798

(Article Source: Business Times – 19 Feb 2011)

Golden fleece

Two companies that offered gold investment schemes are currently under investigation by the authorities.

By Genevieve Cua

IN THE last few months, netizens and investors have puzzled over a number of so- called gold investment schemes that aim to pay you regular returns. Are they scams? Gold, after all, does not pay any income, so how are the firms able to pay out as much as 24 per cent per annum?

Two firms with such schemes have been put on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) Investor Alert list. The latest on the list is Genneva Pte Ltd.

Late last year, The Gold Label Pte Ltd was put on the list. The company has filed to wind up its operations, reportedly due to cash flow problems. MAS' Investor Alert list reflects persons who are unregulated, and 'may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or authorised by MAS'.

There are similarities in The Gold Label and Genneva. They appear to be Malaysian in origin, or at least have Malaysian directors. Both were investigated by Bank Negara on suspicions of illegal deposit taking and money laundering.

Genneva Sdn Bhd was investigated in 2009. Three of its directors – who are also directors in the Singapore company – will stand trial in April in Kuala Lumpur on charges of alleged money laundering.

Bank Negara's investigation of The Gold Label started last year, and is ongoing, based on information on Bank Negara's website.
What exactly is the firms' investment proposition? Information on The Gold Label isn't widely available; its Singapore website has been taken down. The firms straddle a fine line between investment and a retail business.

Genneva, for example, has a police licence that enables it to sell second-hand jewellery, gold, and white gold. The fact that customers take home physical gold in the form of bars or coins suggests that the firm isn't taking a deposit or acting as investment manager.

Here's how the scheme appears to work: Customers buy gold from Genneva at a fairly substantial premium to the market of about 22 to 25 per cent. This is based on a comparison of prices quoted by Genneva of roughly $75 to $76.50 per gram against the price quoted by UOB and other retail gold dealers of roughly $61.

Genneva tells customers that it sells the gold to them at a so-called 'discount' of between 1.5 and 2 per cent. It extends an option to customers: it will buy back the gold after 30 to 36 days or after 90 days depending on the scheme, at the original full purchase price. Those who exercise this get to keep the 'discount' of 1.5 to 2 per cent.

Customers may rollover the purchase, and hence they could potentially pocket as much as 18 to 24 per cent a year, from an asset that actually doesn't pay any yield.

How is this done? Genneva has declined to answer questions for now, citing the pending court case in Malaysia. It adds in an e-mail that it expects a 'positive outcome' from the court case.

There are a number of aspects that should cause scepticism. First, the firm illustrates its buyback option on its website in a rather disingenuous fashion. It says customers buy gold at a 'discounted market price'.

But the truth is customers buy gold at a sizeable premium to the market. The firm also does not explain what it does with the premium that it pockets. Presumably commissions are paid to the sales people.

Its website says it has a 'proprietary trading platform' which enables it to 'adopt an active hedging and leveraging strategy' that makes the buy-back option possible.

On whether the scheme is Ponzi in nature, The firm's Malaysian counterpart told a Malaysian paper in 2009 that it is 'obvious' that it is not a Ponzi scheme.

What is likely to transpire is that the firm takes the 22 to 25 per cent premium that it gets from customers' purchases, and after paying off costs and commissions, it could buy and sell options on gold, through which it hedges its exposure.

As long as the gold price rises or is steady, it can continue, and even thrive, as it sources for gold at substantially lower prices on the open market. If gold however drops on a sustained basis, it could face a cash crunch if investors rush to sell back their gold in substantial numbers. This is because it is obligated to buy back the gold from clients at a high price.

Those who enter the scheme are likely to be enamoured of the so-called return, but they face two major risks – price and counterparty risk. As long as gold rises enough to cover their cost, they could sell their Genneva gold in the open market. Over the last year, gold has risen some 26 per cent, based on spot prices.

If gold falls substantially, however, the counterparty risk becomes a material one, as you can recover your cost only if Genneva stays solvent. Those who roll over their purchases must reckon that the potential return far outweighs the risk of loss. Genneva agents tell investors that the worst loss they may suffer is about 20 to 22 per cent, roughly the premium they have paid.

Effectively, Genneva has sold investors a put option along with gold, charging them a premium for it, and sweetening that by sharing some of that premium at the end of the contract period of a month or three months. As the put option writer, Genneva's risk is potentially unlimited if it has not hedged its exposure.

Rollovers, by the way, incur price risk – that is, you re-purchase the gold at the price Genneva quotes you which is presumably pegged to the market price. If gold rises, as it has over the last year, you end up investing larger amounts.

So, who is Genneva? According to filings with Acra (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority), it was registered as a business in 2008 dealing in gold bullion. It has an issued and paid-up capital of $500,000.

Three shareholders are Malaysian, and they are the same ones who will have to fight money laundering charges in Malaysian court. There is one Singapore shareholder. Attempts to contact him were unsuccessful as he was reportedly travelling or in meetings.
There are clearly more transparent ways to invest in gold, without dealing with a counterparty which could shutter its operations as The Gold Label did.

UOB offers a gold investment account, for instance, where you can hold physical gold and re-sell it to the bank. Those who need not buy physical gold but want a piece of its price action can get it through the SPDR Gold ETF. The latter is exchange listed and is easily traded through a broker.

gen@sph.com.sg

Genneva Pte Ltd Placed In MAS Investor Alert List | Financial Planning Central

2012-02-04T01:01:00.000+08:00

http://www.ifa-sg.com/genneva-pte-ltd-placed-in-mas-investor-alert-list/

Genneva Pte Ltd Placed In MAS Investor Alert List
WRITTEN BY: TIANG CHUAN ON FEBRUARY 19, 2011 NO

Genneva Pte Ltd has been placed into the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) Investor Alert List. Click the link here and search for Genneva. The news was reported in the 19th February 2011 edition of The Business Times – Golden fleece. Readers can access the article here. According to the article, other than Genneva, another company that offers gold investment schemes , The Gold Label Pte Ltd, was placed in the Investor Alert List late last year. The Gold Label Pte Ltd 'has filed to wind up its operations, reportedly due to cash flow problems'.
The article also pointed out that 'There are a number of aspects that should cause skepticism. First, the firm illustrates its buyback option on its website in a rather disingenuous fashion. It says customers buy gold at a 'discounted market price'. But the truth is customers buy gold at a fairly hefty premium to the market.'

Genneva Gold Placed on MAS Alert List

2012-02-04T00:47:00.000+08:00

http://www.martinlee.sg/genneva-gold-placed-on-mas-alert-list/

Genneva Gold Placed on MAS Alert List
Published on February 22nd, 2011
Written by: Martin Lee
Genneva Gold has been recently placed on MAS Investors' Alert List.

This comes a few months after another company operating under a similar business model, The Gold Label, was also placed on the list.

Business Times has covered a story on this last weekend. You can read it here:

Golden Fleece

Extracted from the article:

"Effectively, Genneva has sold investors a put option along with gold, charging them a premium for it, and sweetening that by sharing some of that premium at the end of the contract period of a month or three months."

Some people may think along the same line. But actually, this put option thing will never work out.

Assume spot gold is at $1000 and Genneva quotes you a selling price of $1200. Factoring in a discount, you only pay $1180 and have the option of selling it back to them at $1200 in one month's time.

What has happened is that you have paid $1000 for spot gold, and $180 for a one-month put option with an exercise price of $1200. Charging $180 for an option that has an intrinsic value of $200 just doesn't make any sense. The price of this option should be more than $200 if you factor in the time value of the option.

If you can understand the logic of this, then you will know that the deal is too good to be true.

Because if it is feasible for Genneva (due to whatever trading strategy they have in the backend), then they would have sold a similar put option to financial institutions at a price much higher than $180. Why would they want to sell it to you and get only $180?

Mark Cuban's 12 Rules for Startups

2012-02-03T12:41:00.001+08:00

BY Mark Cuban | January 10, 2012|

Photo courtesy ABC.

Anyone who has started a business has his or her own rules and guidelines, so I thought I would add to the memo with my own. My "rules" below aren't just for those founding the companies, but for those who are considering going to work for them, as well.

1. Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but aren't as expensive to pay.

Related: Mark Cuban on Why You Should Never Listen to Your Customers

6. An espresso machine? Are you kidding me? Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keep everyone in tune with what is going on and keep the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show him or her how to use the lock on the bathroom. There is nothing private in a startup. This is also a good way to keep from hiring executives who cannot operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over a personal secretary, run away. If an exec won't go on sales calls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the most inexpensive way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista, ask yourself why, then use it. It's a startup so there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. Never buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo-embroidered polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, it's okay to buy for your own employees, but if you really think people are going to wear your branded polo when they're out and about, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money.

11. Never hire a PR firm. A public relations firm will call or email people in the publications you already read, on the shows you already watch and at the websites you already surf. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them a message introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communication with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out $100 bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. The Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or ten for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab. Vendors always love a good party.

This article is an edited excerpt from How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It (Diversion Books, 2011) by Mark Cuban.

Here's The Desk Where Mark Zuckerberg Sits Every Day

2012-02-03T12:40:00.001+08:00

Dylan Love | 15 hours ago | 8,174 |

Here's a picture of Mark Zuckerberg's desk at Facebook headquarters, which he posted to his profile. It looks like the desk got its graffiti job when artist David Choe stopped by to help paint the new office.

Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook

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23 Successful People Who Wake Up Really Early

2012-02-03T12:31:00.001+08:00

Eric Goldschein and Gus Lubin | Jan. 11, 2012, 4:10 AM | 2,536,783 |

AP Images

Most business leaders get up early.

This trait was common to 17 CEOs surveyed by Jim Citrin at Yahoo! Finance a few years ago. And it's a trait we expect from CEOs.

They are go-getters who want to start the day before their peers and competitors, who want to work long hours and have enough time for their personal life too.

Many function unbelievably well on little sleep. Others may not function well but are driven by the stress of running a company to get up anyway.

We identified a bunch of successful people who get up early. Let us know who we missed.

General Motors' CEO Dan Akerson

GM website

Akerson told the AP he will "rarely sleep past 4:30 or 5," waking up so he can talk to GM Asia before it gets too late. He calls it the best job he's ever had: "It's complex and interesting and exciting."

Sadly, he also describes having "a lot of sleepless nights." At least they aren't long sleepless nights.

Virgin America CEO David Cush

Getty Images

Cush described his morning routine to the AP: Wakes up at 4:15 a.m., sends emails, calls business associates on the East Coast, and that's before listening to Dallas sports radio, reading the paper and hitting the bike at the gym.

Apple CEO Tim Cook

AP Images

Cook is known for getting up and sending out company emails at 4:30 in the morning, according to Gawker's Ryan Tate. By 5 AM he can be found in the gym. And he works late too, priding himself on being the first in the office and the last out.

Disney CEO Robert Iger

Business Insider

Iger told the New York Times he gets up at "4:30 every morning." He takes the quiet time to do a number of things, claiming to read the papers, exercise, listen to music, look at email and watch TV all at once. Even though it's quiet time, he's "already multitasking."

Hain Celestial Group CEO Irwin Simon

AP Images

Simon accomplishes more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day. He wakes up 5 a.m., going through emails and calling operations in Europe and Asia. He also prays, walks the dog and exercises before his kids wake up. He arrives at his office in Long Island usually after squeezing in a breakfast meeting in Manhattan as well.

Former Peugeot GM Jean-Martin Folz

AP Images

Now headed to the board of Eutelsat Communications, the former head of Peugeot was said to catch the 4 a.m. train from Dijon to Paris, and would finish up a briefing paper within minutes of arriving to his office at 7 a.m. According to The Observer, Folz also had his Renault Espace converted into an office so he could work while commuting.

Former Oxygen Channel CEO Gerry Laybourne

Getty Images

The founder of Oxygen is awake by 6 a.m. and out of the house a half hour later. If you get up early enough she might even take you under her wing, she tells Yahoo! Finance:

"Once or twice a week, I go for a walk in Central Park with a young person seeking my advice. This is my way of helping bring along the next generation. And if someone is up early in the morning then they are serious about life. I can't take time at the office to do this, but doing it in the morning allows me to get exercise and stay connected with young people at the same time."

Aurora Fashions CEO Mike Shearwood

just-style

As head of one of the UK's trendiest fashion companies, Shearwood's day starts early. Shearwood wakes up at 5 a.m. in order to travel from Nottingham to London in time for a 7:45 arrival. He loves the long commute both ways: "I catch up on emails and work, as well as speaking to teams on the phone."

Christie's CEO Steve Murphy

AP Images

The former head of publishing company Rodale turns to poet William Blake for inspiration on how to start his day: "'Think in the morning, act in the noon, read in the evening, and sleep at night.' This has made a huge difference in my life."

Thinking and planning in the morning makes Murphy — in his words — strategic and proactive, rather than reactive.

New Jersey Nets CEO Brett Yormark

Crains

The youngest CEO in the NBA told SellingPower that he gets up at 3:30 in the morning in order to get to the office by 4:30. From there, he works out and sends motivational emails to his team.

He takes it easy on the weekends, arriving at the office by 7 a.m. instead.

Brooklyn Industries CEO Lexy Funk

Brooklyn Industries

The artistic co-founder of the Brooklyn-based clothing and bag shop told the Huffington Post that her routine starts early: "I usually wake up around 4 a.m." From there, the dilemma of whether to read and bore herself back to sleep or get on her BlackBerry begins. Once online, she's answering emails and talking to people from Brooklyn Industries.

Cedar Fair Entertainment CEO Matt Ouimet

Getty Images

The former president of Starwood Hotels and CFO of Disney just became the CEO of a company that runs amusement parks. Referring to work as "game time," according to Yahoo Finance, Ouimet likes to get to the office early, waking up at 5:30 in order to get out of the house by 6 a.m.

Saban Capital CEO Haim Saban

Getty Images

As head of the Saban Capital Group, this Egyptian-born Israeli-American billionaire has his first cup of coffee at 6:02 a.m. and begins work from there. He works for an hour before exercising for 75 minutes to really start his day, according to Yahoo Finance.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman

Getty Images

In order to stay competitive mentally and physically, the Dutch-born Polman gets up at 6 a.m. so he can run on the treadmill in his office. This also gives him time to "reflect on the work day ahead," which is probably pretty hectic at a multinational food and detergent company.

Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior

Getty Images

Although she doesn't run right to the office upon waking up at 4:30 a.m., Warrior spends an hour on email, reads the news, works out and gets her son ready for school. And she is still in the office by 8:30 at the latest, according to Yahoo Finance.

She was formerly the CTO of Motorola, and has been one of the most highly acclaimed women in business over the course of her career.

Former PepsiCo CEO Steve Reinemund

AP Images

Now the dean of Schools of Business at Wake Forest University, the long-time head of Pepsi told Yahoo Finance that he would be out of bed at 5:30, already reading the papers. He would go through The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and The Dallas Morning News before heading to work.

Avon Products CEO Andrea Jung

Getty Images

Jung wakes up at 5 in the morning and goes to the gym before getting to her desk at 8, says Forbes.

Former Goldman Sachs and MF Global CEO Jon Corzine

Wikipedia

Colleagues recalled to The New York Times that he would be in the office by 6 a.m., even after taking a five mile run in the morning. Yet he was still the last person to leave in the evenings.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

Robert Holmgren

Schultz starts his day with a workout, which is usually a bike ride with his wife, but still gets to the office by 6 a.m., according to Portfolio.com.

There must be something about Starbucks that makes people want to do this, as president Michelle Gass wakes up at 4:30 every morning to go running, and has done so for 15 years.

Must be all the coffee.

Former PayPal and OpenTable head Jeff Jordan

AP Images

The recently-resigned CEO of OpenTable, Jordan told The New York Times that he is in the office by 5 a.m., and doesn't leave until after 7 p.m. However, as Jordan admits, these long hours played a role in his departure from PayPal.

Former presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush

The first Bush would get up at 4 a.m., go running, be in the office by 6 a.m. and stay up until 2 a.m. "He was a horror," said a former White House nurse who had to try to keep up with him.

The second Bush kept a similar schedule, going to the office by 6:45 a.m. and often holding meetings at this ripe hour, according to The NYT.

So did W. Bush's cabinet. Colin Powell put in "perfectly appalling" hours, arriving to the office at 6 a.m., and not leaving until after 7 p.m., according to his former students. Condoleeza Rice woke up every day at 4:30 in the morning in order to get to the gym before work.

Benjamin Franklin

Wikimedia

A major figure of the American Enlightenment and a Founding Father of the United States, Franklin is credited with the saying that perhaps started this whole trend in the first place: "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." He planned his routine around waking up at 5 a.m. and asking himself "What good shall I do this day?"

Take a look at other means of self-improvement

Ed Andrieski, AP

14 Ways To Make Better Decisions And Strengthen Your Willpower >

Cutting off the arms | The Economist

2012-02-02T00:32:00.000+08:00

http://www.economist.com/node/16507758

Cutting off the arms
Slot machines are becoming mobile
Jul 8th 2010 | from the print edition

Something for everyone
SOMETIMES the old games are the best. Take, for instance, the "reward-paying punching bag", one of the earliest attempts at machine-based gambling. For a nickel a punch, punters could pound out their frustrations. If they hit hard enough to move a pointer to the right spot on the dial, they won a prize. Or there was the "manila", in which hopefuls could win a prize by shooting a nickel from a pistol into a slot. These days most casinos will not even let you smoke, much less punch or shoot your way to a prize.

The first machine to dispense coins as prizes was the three-reeled Card Bell, built by Charles Fey in 1898. Slot machines thrived in San Francisco. By the time the city outlawed them in 1909, it was collecting $200,000 a year in taxes from 3,200 slot machines. By 1931 Frank Costello, a mobster in New York, raked in $25m a year from his 25,000 slots. Today, betting machines—slots in America, fruit machines in Britain, pokies in Australia—account for more than one-fifth of the global gambling market. Their one arm may be vestigial, but they still make out like bandits.

Their appeal lies in their utter simplicity. You do not need to understand a complex system of betting, as in craps. You will not hold up the action if you make a mistake, as you might at a table game. You will not get skinned alive by people who understand the game better, as novices often do when playing poker at a casino. You do not have to interact with a dealer or remember which hand is higher.

Slots are largely passive: feed them money (or cards, these days), press a button, watch the wheels spin or objects align on a screen and see whether you have won, and how much. They demand nothing but cash and often promise payouts of 95% or better. Las Vegas has around 200,000 of them and America as a whole about 1m, taking in an average of $1 billion a day. Australia has around 200,000 pokies, mainly in pubs and clubs, and Britain has at least 250,000 fruit machines.

Alas, that 95% figure does not mean that you personally will get back 95 cents for every dollar you feed in; rather, it means that 95% of the money taken in will be returned to players over the course of the machine's lifetime. So you could have a lucky streak and get back much more than you put in, or you could lose the lot. To keep the game interesting, most of it is paid out in dribs and drabs: a machine that returned $95,000 of every $100,000 in one huge jackpot once in a blue moon would be too disheartening to play.

When it comes down to it, over the longer term slot machines keep 5% of your money in return for a light show and a slimmish chance to win. But people keep playing. Slots pit humans against maths, and the maths always win. But successful slot machines get players to "like the feel of the maths", explains Chris Satchell, chief technology officer for International Game Technology. IGT, along with Bally Technologies, Aristocrat and Novomatic, is one of the world's leading slot-machine makers. Many people like the older, mechanical machines on which the reels are set in motion by pulling a lever rather than pressing a button, which is why many casinos have retained them. Where video machines are used, they sometimes feature displays that allow the video reels to align imperfectly, as on an old spinning-wheel machine.

Whether the machine pays out lots of little prizes or a few big ones, the payout level is generally set by law. And despite all the myths that slots players like to perpetuate—coins need to be warmed up because machines hate cold ones; coins should never be overhandled because machines hate warm ones; machines are more likely to pay if you use a card rather than cash—it is determined by random draw. Over time the amount the machine pays back to the customer will approach its average rate, but, at least in regulated markets, each spin is independent of the previous one. Yet slot-machine development, assisted by advances in networking technology, involves more than simply tinkering with payout algorithms.

Killer heels

Slot developers understand the power of branding. The most popular machine in IGT's history is "Wheel of Fortune", based on a long-running television game show. Coming hot on its heels is the "Sex and the City" machine. Its reels depict diamonds, chocolates and strappy shoes. Since its launch in November 2009 it has proved popular, earning up to five times as much as the average slot machine on some floors. Like the television show it appeals to women, which indirectly makes it attractive to men too. In January IGT launched a machine based on "Amazing Race", a TV show. "American Idol" and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", based on another TV show and a film of the famous children's book respectively, are on the way.

These games involve more than simply pressing a button and waiting to see whether the reels align. The "Wheel of Fortune" machines have a spinning wheel on top of the play area; another version features an immense wheel used for bonus spins. The "Sex and the City" machine offers video clips. "Amazing Race" will have the show's host guiding players through bonus rounds. "American Idol" will allow players to judge performances shown on a video screen. Many of these highlight a shift towards what Mr Satchell calls "community-based" slots playing, designed to appeal to the Facebook generation.

Pick your app

Increasingly slots are linked not just to each other but also to servers, which makes them far more flexible. Traditional slot machines offer only one game. If that happens to "go cold" (ie, become unpopular), they sit around uselessly or have to be taken away. With server-based games the hardware on the casino floor is governed by software on a remote server. If a game goes cold the casino manager can change it to a different one in seconds. Separating the hardware and the software also speeds development, making it much easier and cheaper to introduce new games. The boss of Inspired Gaming Group (INGG), Luke Alvarez, calls his company "the iPhone of slots". Instead of developing games in-house, it offers an open-source code and works with around 30 game developers.

Server-based slots are still in a minority but growing fast. ARIA, the flagship casino at CityCenter, on the Las Vegas Strip, opened last December with 980 such machines. IGT's server-based games can also be found in casinos in Italy, Finland and France. INGG operates 25,000 of them across Britain and in smaller networks in Cyprus, Italy, Australia, the Czech Republic, Cambodia and Laos.

Yet moves towards faster play, bigger jackpots and more enticing machines are not without their critics. Natasha Dow Schull, a professor of anthropology at MIT, whose book "Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas" is due out later this year, found that 90% of people attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings in Las Vegas played only machines. Ms Schull says the trend towards video slots that allow gamblers to bet on as many as 100 lines at once increase the frequency of small payouts, making the experience seem more rewarding. That encourages "a slow and gradual bleeding off of your funds". Leslie Bernal, who heads an organisation called Stop Predatory Gambling, describes slots as "a huge part of our debt culture" and "the biggest something-for-nothing scheme ever invented".

Yet slots spin on. In the past year IGT's share price has risen by 40% to take its market cap to over $5 billion. Gideon Bierer, the company's vice-president in charge of developing slots for online and mobile play, says this market has "brought a lot of new customers in who weren't interested before and didn't have access". That is clearly good news for companies such as his. Traditional betting hubs like Las Vegas take a more sceptical view.

Inspired Gaming scores Asian sales success with Multi-Win Roulette Sabre terminals

2012-02-02T00:19:00.000+08:00

http://www.asgam.com/news/item/1510-inspired-gaming-scores-asian-sales-success-with-multi-win-roulette-sabre-terminals.html

Monday, 16 January 2012

Inspired Gaming Group has sold more than 1,000 of its electronic Multi-Win Roulette Sabre terminals during 2011, the company said in a release ahead of the ICE Totally Gaming 2012 show in London.

In Asia Inspired Gaming won orders from Macau-based Sanum Investments, a partner in the Savan Vegas gaming resort in Laos, and also from Silver Heritage Limited—an operator and manager of slot operations across East and Southeast Asia. Savan Vegas, which has 90 gaming tables and 450 machines, is described as Laos' first five-star resort and entertainment complex. It is 280 miles southeast of the capital Vientiane and has road and rail links to Thailand, from where many of its customers come.

Inspired also sold Sabre terminals to Genting Casinos—a United Kingdom-based casino operation recently spun off from Genting Singapore—and to Gala Casinos in the UK. Sabre recently gained official certification from Gaming Laboratories International (GLI).

Inspired says the Sabre Multi-Win Roulette will be a key feature on its stand at ICE, with a range of new cabinet finishes.

The company describes Sabre Multi-Win Roulette as the "sharpest and fastest electronic roulette available", because of its HD Gaming™ graphics, 26-inch primary 'Panoramic Bet' screen and the ability to play on four wheels simultaneously—including live wheels.

"We have been confident of Sabre's success because of the detailed market research that went into its development," says Lee Gregory, the company's Managing Director for Casino and Bingo

"Successful trials, income uplift and significant demand from operators have signalled a successful launch year for Sabre. In 2012, we look forward especially to capitalising on the product's recent GLI certification and taking the product into new markets," he added.

At the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas in October, Inspired Gaming announced a major US distribution deal for Sabre with DigiDeal and TCSJOHNHUXLEY.

During ICE 2012, in London, Inspired Gaming will be at Stand 4075

About Inspired Gaming Group

Inspired Gaming Group (Inspired / INGG) is the leading supplier worldwide of server-based gaming (SBG) systems and games for a range of land based gaming markets, including casino, VLT, bingo and sports betting.

Inspired is the leading gaming machine operator in the UK for the gaming and leisure markets, and also provides its unique Open SBG CORE™ software systems, terminals and Virtual Sports products in over 30 other countries. It is one of the three leading VLT suppliers to Italian casinos and betting shops. Its virtual sports products are the leading online and land-based games in their category worldwide. The Group operates approximately 50,000 machines on a participation basis, of which in excess of 35,000 are on the Inspired Open SBG CORE™ platform.

The Group's customer base includes regulated operators of casinos, licensed betting offices, gaming halls, bingo halls and regulated online sportsbooks and casinos. Key customers include major regulated gaming companies such as Sisal, B Plus, William Hill, Gala Coral Group, Betfred, Ladbrokes, Genting, Paddy Power, Codere, Sky Vegas, PartyGaming, Fortuna, bet365 and Caliente.

Inspired Gaming was acquired and refinanced last year by leading London investment firm Vitruvian Partners, the largest new private equity fund in Europe, Inspired is focused on the expansion of its SBG leadership into new international markets.

Inspired Gaming agrees £74.4 million takeover

2012-02-02T00:16:00.000+08:00

http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE64310F20100504?irpc=932

Inspired Gaming agrees £74.4 million takeover
Tue, May 04 08:24 AM BST
LONDON (Reuters) - British gaming software company Inspired Gaming Group INGG.L agreed to a 74.4 million pound takeover from UK private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, bringing eight months of offer talks to a close.

The offer of 60 pence in cash per Inspired share on Tuesday represents a 21 percent premium to the closing price on Apr. 30, the last business day prior to the announcement of the takeover deal.

"We believe that the acquisition fairly reflects both Inspired's future growth prospects and the challenges of executing its business plan as a publicly listed company," said Inspired's senior non-executive director Julian Paul in a statement.

Inspired Gaming, whose customers include Betfred, Paddy Power (PAP.I) and Gala Bingo said it had received a preliminary approach in July last year, after terminating previous talks relating to a sale.

Vitruvian Partners made the offer for Inspired Gaming through Gaming Acquisitions Ltd and the offer which Inspired's board intends to recommend to shareholders, will see the management of Inspired Gaming invest in the new company as part of a management buyout deal.

Inspired Gaming said shareholders would be offered shares in the new company as an alternative to a cash consideration for their shares in Inspired under a Holdco Group Securities Alternative.

Shares in Inspired close at 49.5 pence on Friday, valuing the company at 61.4 million pounds.

($1=.6556 Pound)

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Matt Scuffham)

Inspired updates all B3 machines | Business news

2012-02-02T00:09:00.000+08:00

http://calvinayre.com/2011/07/20/business/inspired-updates-machines/

Inspired updates machines; Scotbet announces two appointments

Eric Bianchi - July 20, 2011
0 Comments and 0 Reactions
Inspired Gaming Group (INGG) has updated an entire fleet of machines following a change in legislation announced by the government last week. The specialist server based gaming (SBG) company reacted to the government's choice to change the maximum stake on category B3 gaming machines from £1 to £2.

The update has been installed remotely and means that the 14,000 B3 Gaming Machines incorporating INGG's SBG CORE system will have the new functionality immediately. INGG also has the largest number of £2 stake B3 games of any manufacturer. Among the customers using INGG's machines that will see the benefits are Betfred, Paddy Power and William Hill.

Following yesterday's announcement that Scotbet was sold, the company has revealed two of those who will be in charge of the newly acquired group. Former Probability chairman Graham Martin has been appointed as the company's new CEO whereas former Tote CEO John Heaton signs up as non-executive chairman.

Upon his appointment, Martin quipped, "Over the last ten years Scotbet has established itself as the largest independent Scottish bookmaker by concentrating on its shop outlets. We plan to maximise on these strong foundations by providing a range of new leisure and gaming opportunities throughout the world."

Heaton, who worked at the Tote for 21 years, mused, "Scotbet has traditionally been shop-led but we are seeing a real growth in online gaming, plus an increase in demand for betting opportunities of Scottish interest. We are delighted to be expanding the existing Scotbet business by drawing on our wide experience in all forms of international gaming to promote products to our Scottish consumers worldwide."

Views and opinions expressed are those of the Author and do not necessarily reflect those of CalvinAyre.com

Inspired Gaming Group Plc Upgrades and Expands Astea Alliance Solution Footprint » Astea

2012-02-01T23:59:00.000+08:00

Inspired Gaming Group Plc Upgrades and Expands Astea Alliance Solution Footprint

Inspired Gaming Group plans to take full advantage of robust capabilities in Astea's latest software release.

HORSHAM, PA (February 23, 2009) - Astea International Inc. (NASDAQ:ATEA), the leader in service lifecycle management and mobility solutions announces that Inspired Gaming Group Plc (INGG), a leading supplier of Open Server-Based Gaming (Open SBG™) technology, is planning to upgrade and deploy Astea Alliance version 8.

With Astea's latest release, Inspired Gaming Group is looking to streamline and enhance business processes which they believe will result in more effective customer service and reduced maintenance costs. Astea Alliance will be deployed in both the Remote Fix and Field Service groups.
There are many capabilities which they will be leveraging with this new release. Of particular interest will be that of Inventory Management. This will give their National Service Control Center visibility of technician boot stock, thereby significantly reducing customer response and fix time whilst simultaneously maximising investment in inventory and reverse logistics. Additionally, Alliance Mobile, which leverages the latest advances in wireless and workflow technology to optimise field service processes, will help in reducing delays with new call assignments as well as providing service technicians with the information they need to do their job 'right the first time'.

"Astea and Inspired Gaming Group have an excellent relationship," said Alex MacGregor-Devlin, Enterprise IT Director, Inspired Gaming Group Plc. "Today we are faced with a tough balancing act, the pressure to deliver world class service whilst optimising investment and more effectively managing our cost base. Astea's software is helping our business gain agility, providing greater returns for both our customers and ourselves from our service operation."

Clive Zeida, CRM Director EMEA, Astea International added, "Astea and Inspired Gaming Group have a long standing partnership. We are proud to work with them to deliver enhanced business benefits to their service operation."

Astea is unique in its offerings because it provides the total end-to-end service management and mobility solutions that can support a company's entire service business. Astea offers service management, mobile workforce management, parts and inventory management, reverse logistics management and customer management solutions all on a single central repository.

###

About Inspired Gaming Group Plc
Inspired Gaming Group Plc (INGG) is the leading player worldwide in the Open Server-Based Gaming (Open SBG™) market and is also the leading provider of analogue and Open SBG™ machines in the UK for the leisure and gaming markets. The Group provides Open SBG™ software systems and Open SBG™ digital and networked terminals in 10 countries today. The Group manages over 50,000 machines across the UK, of which in excess of 24,000 are already on the Open SBG™ platform. The Group's customer base includes bars, casinos, bingo halls, licensed betting offices, holiday parks and other out of home leisure venues. Key customers include the major gaming companies such as William Hill and Gala Coral Group. The Group is also the leading provider of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, itbox skill gaming terminals, and other Open SBG™ variants.
www.inspiredgaminggroup.com

About Astea International
Astea International (NASDAQ: ATEA) is a global provider of service management software that addresses the unique needs of companies who manage capital equipment, mission critical assets and human capital. With the acquisition of FieldCentrix, Astea complements its existing portfolio with the industry's leading mobile field service execution solutions. Astea is helping companies drive even higher levels of customer satisfaction with faster response times and proactive communication, creating a seamless, consistent and highly personalized experience at every customer relationship touch point. Since its inception in 1979, Astea has licensed applications to companies, around the world, in a wide range of sectors including information technology, telecommunications, instruments and controls, business systems, HVAC, gaming/leisure, imaging, industrial equipment, and medical devices.
www.astea.com. Service Smart. Enterprise Proven.
© 2009 Astea International Inc. Astea and Astea Alliance are trademarks of Astea International Inc. All other company and product names contained herein are trademarks of the respective holders.

Company Contact:
Debbie Geiger
Vice President, Marketing
Astea International
215-682-2500
dgeiger@astea.com
___________________________________
http://www.astea.com/en/news-events/press-releases/02-23-09-inspired-gaming-group-plc-upgrades-and-expands-astea-alliance-solution-footprint-/page.aspx

Inspired launches Virtual Sports in China with Ladbrokes and AGTech | Inspired Gaming

2012-02-01T23:38:00.000+08:00

01 September 2011

Inspired launches Virtual Sports in China with Ladbrokes and AGTech

Inspired Gaming Group (Inspired), the world's leading supplier of Virtual Sports products to the betting and gaming industry, celebrates the launch of its Virtual Sports in China through a joint venture between Ladbrokes PLC and AGTech Holdings Limited. The "Lucky Racing" game is a rapid-draw fixed-odds game delivered on the National Sports Lottery platform, using random number generation to allow customers to bet on a 12 car virtual race over two laps of an oval race track. The game is supported by a bet management system developed with OpenBet. The game was approved by the PRC lottery regulator (Ministry of Finance of the PRC) earlier this year and has been successfully operating in a small number of shops since June. As of this week, the product launches in 1,000 shops throughout the Hunan province. Fixed-odds virtual sports betting is one of the fastest growing gaming market segments worldwide. Inspired's Virtual Sports already generate in excess of US$ 7 billion in turnover worldwide. Lucky Racing is pioneering in China and is expected to be a key growth driver for China's lottery industry. "The launch of Lucky Racing is an extremely important milestone for Inspired in China and we're excited to be exploring a new territory with Ladbrokes and AGTech. We will be looking to develop new content tailored specifically to the Chinese customer and remain committed to providing the most diverse range of sports at the highest quality in all of the 22 countries we currently serve", commented Steve Rogers, Managing Director for Virtual Sports at Inspired Gaming Group. Inspired's suite of Virtual Sports includes soccer, horse racing, tennis, greyhound racing, speedway, roulette, lotto and cycling. Already available in 22 countries worldwide and in 16 different languages, the innovative product is fully configurable and customisable, providing Virtual Sports customers with bespoke content, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. David Loveday, CEO of OpenBet, commented: "This is yet another project that demonstrates how OpenBet works in partnership with its customers and other providers to deliver an all round successful sportsbook solution. Lottery businesses are at the forefront of what we do and where we are going as a business and being able to bring our product to China, with Inspired Gaming and Ladbrokes, is very exciting for OpenBet and marks yet another milestone in our international expansion and expertise."

For further information please contact: Ian Fiddeman or Lucy Buckley Inspired Gaming Group Tel: 020 7438 5800 Ian.Fiddeman@ingg.com Lucy.Buckley@ingg.com
_____________________________________
http://www.inspiredgaminggroup.com/news/inspired-launches-virtual-sports-china-ladbrokes-and-agtech

MERKUR INSPIRED. (inspired Gaming Group APPOINTS GIACOMO BOZZINI AS GENERAL MANAGER

2012-02-01T23:33:00.000+08:00

19.10.10 00:00 Age: 1 year

MERKUR INSPIRED APPOINTS GIACOMO BOZZINI AS GENERAL MANAGER

Merkur Inspired is pleased to announce the appointment of Giacomo Bozzini as General Manager in Italy~

October 2010: Merkur Inspired, the partnership created specifically for the Italian gaming market by Inspired Gaming Group (Inspired) and Merkur Gaming, announces the appointment of Giacomo Bozzini as General Manager of Merkur Inspired in Italy. Mr Bozzini brings to the partnership a vast wealth of experience from the European Casino Industry and Italian AWP (Comma 6a) market, as former Sales and Marketing Director of UNIDESA "Circa Corp.", and the multinational Italian company Magic Dreams. Merkur Inspired is delighted to have him as an integral part of its team and values the importance of having Italian employees at the forefront of the strategic partnership for this special market. The company is convinced that Mr. Bozzini will support significantly its ambitious growth plans.

The Merkur Inspired VLT partnership was recently launched in Italy by Merkur Gaming, a subsidiary of the well-known German Gauselmann Group, and Inspired, the world's largest supplier of Server-Based Gaming terminals. It brings together Inspired's trusted Open VLT™ platform, cabinets and games - including the only HD cabinet and games in the marketplace - with Merkur Gaming's extensive experience in creating top performing slots games and high quality cabinets "made in Germany".

Merkur Inspired has already made a strong impact in Italy since the launch of the partnership in September, and recently announced a deal to supply Italy's largest concessionaire, Betplus, with a minimum of 1,000 of its VLTs. The partnership is setting a new benchmark for suppliers of Italian VLTs, by offering the most successful and flexible VLT platform, combined with the widest choice of VLT cabinets and the most top-performing games. Merkur Inspired exhibited its compelling VLT range at the recent ENADA show in Rome with much success and plans to announce further exciting developments in the coming weeks.

Giacomo Bozzini, General Manager at Merkur Inspired, states: "Merkur Inspired is an exciting new supplier for an exciting new market and I am proud to be a part of driving the industry forward in Italy. I am sure of the success of VLTs and believe we, as a supplier, have an important role to play by providing concessionaires with the best possible VLT solution that is flexible enough to be tailored to different venue and customer needs. The days of limited game content and one product for all operators are gone. I look forward to introducing Merkur Inspired's more customised approach to more operators in Italy and demonstrating the power of the Open VLT™ platform alongside Merkur Gaming's top quality games and cabinets."  

- ENDS -

For more information about this release, please contact:
HYPERLINK "mailto:Ian.Fiddeman@ingg.com/" Ian.Fiddeman@ingg.com/ 020 7438 5850
Lucy.Buckley@ingg.com / 020 7438 5886

About Merkur Inspired
Merkur Inspired is a special partnership - only available for the Italian VLT market - between Merkur Gaming, a subsidiary of the well-known German Gauselmann Group, and Inspired Gaming Group (Inspired), the world's largest supplier of Server-Based Gaming (SBG) terminals.

About Merkur Gaming
Merkur Gaming is a member of the German Gauselmann Group with over 6,000 employees worldwide. The company is responsible for the development and international sales of AWP and Casino machines as well as VLT products with the focus on multi-games. All the games are customised to meet the individual requirements of the particular market. Market researching and thoroughly analysing the gaming culture of every market precede the development of Merkur's games and ensure their success. Quality at the highest level and innovative game systems, this is what Merkur Gaming represents.

The Gauselmann Group's Merkur Sun is the world-wide recognized symbol of quality, experience and innovation. More than 50 years of experience and the German high-class quality ensure first-class entertainment. The ISO certifications of adp Gauselmann GmbH for development, production and sales as well as the development area of Merkur Gaming guarantee the highest quality made in Germany.
www.merkur-gaming.com

Inspired Gaming Group  Inspired Gaming Group (INGG) is a leading supplier worldwide of Server-Based Gaming (SBG) solutions for a range of gaming markets, including casino, bingo and sports betting. Recently acquired and refinanced by leading London private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, Inspired is backed by one of the largest private investment funds in Europe and is focused on growing its international footprint.

Inspired is the leading provider of analogue and SBG machines in the UK for the leisure and gaming markets, but also provides its unique Open SBG™ software systems and Open SBG™ digital and networked terminals in seven other countries. The Group owns and/or manages approximately 46,000 machines, of which in excess of 25,000 are already on the Inspired Open SBG™ platform.

Key customers include major gaming companies such as Sisal, Codere, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Betfred, Gala Coral Group and Bet365.

www.inspiredgaminggroup.com
www.vitruvianpartners.com
----------------------------
http://www.merkur-inspired.it/index.php?id=234&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=43&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=233&cHash=c0e3dfad89877303ecea44a27f26d97b

Inspired Gaming INGG Partners with NextGen Gaming - Entertainment/Gambling - Mantra PR

2012-02-01T23:10:00.000+08:00

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/43999/

Inspired Gaming INGG Partners with NextGen Gaming

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - London, West End, United Kingdom, 12/12/2008 - Asian Casinos to benefit from slots and etable games on the same terminal for the first time.

Inspired Gaming Group plc (INGG), the leading player worldwide in the Open Server-Based Gaming (Open SBG™) market, today announces a strategic partnership with Australia-based NextGen Gaming, the world's leading independent supplier of innovative games to the gambling industry. The partnership will allow Inspired Gaming (INGG) to roll out NextGen's industry leading slot product across its Asian casino estate as well as UK LBOs. For the first time, Asian casinos will be able to offer etable gaming and slots on the same terminal, providing their customers with more variety and the casinos with greater flexibility on floor lay out.

Inspired Gaming (INGG) will introduce NextGen's first game onto its wide range of electronic table gaming terminals across its entire Asian casino estate, which encompasses 15 locations in the region. Inspired Gaming (INGG) will also be rolling out the first of many NextGen slot products to over 10,000 gaming machines across its UK LBO estate.

Norman Crowley, co-CEO of Inspired Gaming (INGG), commented: "Partnering with NextGen Gaming allows us to introduce more competition and variety into the UK LBO market. More importantly, it also allows us to continue to revolutionise the Asian casino market by introducing slots onto gaming machines which, to date, have only offered table games."

Matt Davey, CEO of NextGen, added: "As a fellow innovator in the market, partnering with Inspired Gaming (INGG) is a natural step for NextGen. Their established presence in the UK and aggressive expansion plans for the Asian market mean that we can get our industry leading slot product out to an even wider audience."

About Inspired Gaming Group (INGG)
Inspired Gaming Group plc (inspiredgaminggroup.com) is the leading player worldwide in the Open Server-Based Gaming (Open SBG™) market and is also the leading provider of analogue and Open SBG™ machines in the UK for the leisure and gaming markets.

Inspired Gaming (INGG) provides Open SBG™ software systems and Open SBG™ digital and networked terminals in 10 countries today. The Group manages over 50,000 machines across the UK, of which in excess of 24,000 are already on the Open SBG™ platform.

Inspired Gaming's (INGG) customer base includes bars, casinos, bingo halls, licensed betting offices, holiday parks and other out of home leisure venues. Key customers include the major gaming companies such as William Hill and Gala Coral Group.

Inspired Gaming (INGG) is also the leading provider of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, itbox skill gaming terminals, and other Open SBG™ variants.

Inspired continues to grow in south-east Asia

2012-02-01T22:53:00.000+08:00

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/09/23/inspired-continues-to-grow-in-south-east-asia/

Inspired continues to grow in south-east Asia

Posted on23 September 2008.

Tags: INGG, INGG share price, Inspired Dublin share price, Inspired Gaming, Inspired Gaming Group, Inspired Gaming Group share price, Inspired Gaming share price, Inspired share price, Norman Crowley

Part of Inspired Gaming Group, Inspired Gaming International (Inspired), today announced its first shared-revenue partnership deal where it will invest in the total development of the "Club 19" resort in South-East Asia, and share all revenues in the venue with its partner, Silver Heritage Limited (SHL).

Inspired will offer Club 19 customers a variety of casino games, including Electronic Roulette, Virtual Sports, Electronic Card Games and Slots, all on one terminal. Inspired and SHL currently supply terminals to Club 19's sister venue, which generates some of the highest incomes in Asia, and this 10 year deal looks set to produce similar returns.

As part of the deal, Inspired will provide Club 19 with its range of Open SBG terminals. Inspired and SHL will also jointly be responsible for the non-gaming entertainment, as well as the design, development and operation of what will be a world class entertainment venue. This breakthrough deal will be the first time that Inspired not only supplies its Open SBG system, but will also be involved in the complete resort development.

Together, Inspired and SHL have designed Club 19 as a comprehensive entertainment venue; situated in a luxury golf, entertainment and leisure resort, Club 19 will also offer a host of non-gaming entertainment from floorshows to sushi chefs. As part of the deal, Inspired and SHL will share the revenues of all entertainment income.

Norman Crowley, Co-CEO at Inspired, commented: "Sharing in the revenue of all entertainment products at Club 19 represents a significant opportunity for Inspired. This 10 year contract forms part of our long-term, international strategy to transform the landscape of the Asian casino market."

"As the fastest growing operator of slots and sports bars in licensed gaming premises in the Asia-Pacific region, this deal represents a significant step forward for SHL", said Mike Bolsover, CEO of SHL. He added: "We are excited about partnering with Inspired once more and believe that Club 19 will soon be generating some of the highest incomes in Asia."

Visit the Inspired Gaming Group's website for more information on the deal and the current Inspired Gaming share price.

Developing iPad Applications: Lecture 1

2012-01-31T18:18:00.000+08:00

Carnegie Mellon University presents the first lecture from the Human-Computer Interaction course "Developing iPad Applications for Visualization and Insight."

Watch all of the course lectures and access course materials on iTunesU or on any iOS device with the free iTunesU app - https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/audit/499050344

3PL vs 4PL Explained

2012-01-31T15:10:00.000+08:00

OUTSOURCING - 3PL VERSUS 4PL

By THOMAS CRAIG
President
LTD Management
www.ltdmgmt.com

Outsourcing is a viable option for companies. Businesses outsource for many and varied reasons-increase shareholder value, reduce costs, business transformation, improve operations, overcome lack of internal capabilities, keep up with competitors, gain competitive advantage, improve capabilities, increase sales, improve service, reduce inventory, increase inventory velocity and turns, mitigate capital investment, improve cash flow, turn fixed costs into variable costs and other benefits, both tangible and intangible. To the maximum, and if done correctly, outsourcing and business process outsourcing can be used to create a viable virtual corporation.

3PLs. 3PLs have led the way in logistics outsourcing. Drawing on its core business, whether it be forwarding, trucking or warehousing, they moved into providing other services for customers. Creation of a 3PL presented a way for a commodity-service logistics provider to move into higher margin, bundled services.

Customers, anxious to reduce costs, want what 3PLs have to offer. The potential market opportunity for outsourced logistics service providers, whether domestic, international and/or global is huge.

But something has happened on the yellow-brick road. The reasons are varied, but the bottom line is many have failed at their own business transformation. Some 3PLs have not moved past their core commodity service to become true multi-service providers. Or international 3PLs have not understood how to provide domestic services; or domestic ones have not succeeded at venturing into international logistics services.

Others have failed to differentiate themselves against the competition. Certain 3PLs have not done a good job positioning and defining themselves in the marketplace. Or the parent company has not given them the resources, especially sales and sales leads, to penetrate even their existing customers. And, sundry have commoditized their 3PL service, as a result undoing the very purpose of their 3PL. These setbacks have slowed down the growth of some 3PLs in terms of both customer retention, especially, and new customers. Fragmentation of the 3PL sector reflects both the uncertainty of how 3PLs view themselves and the diversity of customer needs.

As a result, customers have had to compare apples and oranges in their RFP replies. Shippers share some accountability with an overemphasis on cost reduction as the key metric and without a clear definition of their requirements for services they need and how it will all work within their company. They looked for silver bullets and quick answers to complex needs.

4PLs. Into the service vacuum created by 3PLs, the 4PL has emerged. Using a 4PL, fourth party logistics service provider, is different than the traditional 3PL. Much on 4PLs discusses technology. Technology is not THE answer; it is part of the answer. It is one element of success of process, people and technology. 4PLs see the process and what is required to make it succeed.

4PL's combine process, technology and process to manage. The 4PL is a Business Process Outsourcing, BPO, provider. This lead logistics provider will bring value and a reengineered approach to the customer's need. A 4PL is neutral and will manage the logistics process, regardless of what carriers, forwarders or warehouses are used. The 4PL can and will even manage 3PLs that a customer uses.

Business process outsourcing is traditional outsourcing and more. Outsourcing is often taking a set of work, tasks, responsibilities or functions and transferring them to an outside service provider. Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) involves that and more. A BPO service provider brings a different perspective, knowledge, experience and technology to the existing function and can and will work with the firm to reengineer it into an improved or new process. It is an outcome-based result, not just a pure cost reduction issue. The new process will interact or be integrated into the company in a way that can bring value, even bottom line and shareholder benefits, to the client.

A good 4PL will have the shipper perspective and experience in what he does and offers to prospective customers. That means a better understanding of the complexity of the customer's requirements, present viable solutions and to have customer satisfaction and retention.

The firm sees the relationship, not a chunk of freight. Instead the BPO provider seeks incentives and metrics to define the relationship and collaborates with each customer as to goals and outcomes. A 4PL wants to position itself as an extension of and part of its customer. This BPO provider recognizes the role of and need for information technology in managing the process.

A successful 4PL should have both the strategic and tactical capabilities. He should have real world logistics experience, especially on the "shipper"/customer side. Experience lets you see real issues and hidden agendas that are present. They also give you the ability to develop the process, people and technology that are needed because they have "been there, done that". They understand meeting the needs of their clients because they have managed and been responsible for logistics.

A 4PL, with real world supply chain experience, can present a way for customers to take control of their supply chains. They can structure the relationship and the process in a way that best meets the requirements of the customer, rather than the customer having to accept what the outsourcing provider has to offer.

3PL vs 4PL. When it comes to outsourcing, there are three questions and underlying issues. One, do you outsource a function versus outsource a process? 3PLs target the function. They want to handle containers/shipments/freight, not the transport management process, for example. The true need is the process, which is what the 4PL targets. Is there really a process in place--or a series of standalone transactions? What is the present process? How does it work? Where does it fail? Where are there gaps? Where are there redundancies? The supply chain process crosses organizational lines. It runs horizontal in a vertical organization.

Two, do you outsource work/tasks or do you outsource managing? Much outsourcing is work related. Handle warehousing. Handle shipments. Not manage them. This matter is part of the next evolution of outsourcing and where the 3PL will have to migrate-and where the 4PL is already positioned.

Three, the outsource service provider, to truly meet the needs of his customer, should be neutral. 4PLs should be neutral if they are to manage the process. 3PLs, especially those which are asset-based struggle to be neutral. 3PLs which seek to push shipments through their transport contracts or through their warehouses are not neutral.

Conclusion. Some 3PLs have not fully stepped up to meet the exact needs of customers. Some have become too focused on "managing" tasks, not processes and on serving the parent company's core business, and have missed opportunities to present value.

The 4PL opportunity exists because 3PLs failed to meet the real logistics/supply chain requirements of customers. There will not be a "model" (or cookie cutter) for the 4PL. After all, he knows to customize to the needs of each customer.

As a result, 4PLs have become alternatives for business process outsourcing. These new BPO logistics service providers enable firms to manage a critical part of their supply chain by providing visibility and integration across multiple enterprises. They manage with the three key elements of process, people and technology. Users of a 4PL can focus on core competencies and better manage and utilize company assets and resources, as to inventory and personnel.
_____________________________________________________
Brooke Anderson from XM Developments talks about the difference between the 3pl and 4pl models. Video courtesy of http://www.globallogisticsmedia.com/

What is 4PL?

8/4/2003 by ITtoolbox Popular Q&A Team for ITtoolbox as adapted from SCM-SELECT discussion group

Summary:
What does the term 4PL mean? How would a 4PL service or organization be defined?

Full Article:
Disclaimer: Contents are not reviewed for correctness and are not endorsed or recommended by ITtoolbox or any vendor. Popular Q&A contents include summarized information from SCM-SELECT discussion unless otherwise noted.

Adapted from response by Jeffrey on Thursday, July 17, 2003

The term "4PL" was actually coined by the consulting group Accenture. In fact, they also hold the trademark to the name 4PL.

Accenture defines a 4PL in the following manner:
"A 4PL is an integrator that assembles the resources, capabilities, and technology of its own organization and other organizations to design, build and run comprehensive supply chain solutions."

The term 4PL is something that every organization has their own interpretation of and ideas on what exactly a 4PL should offer. To add more complexity to the interpretation, the following groups of service providers actually provide "4PL type" services:

- Consultants
- IT Service Providers
- "E" Marketplaces
- Financial institutions
- Private Organizations
- Logistics Service Providers (traditionally only known for 3PL activities)

A true 4PL organization would then build a set of activities focused around a specific set of supply chain initiatives and goals, generally with the following attributes:

- 4PL Common Services (invoice management, call centers, warehouse/distribution facilities, etc.
- Implementation Center (the business process analysis/scoping, and development of all activities into an open systems framework)
- Product/Skill Centers (supply chain engineering)
- IT System Center (the pure IT selection for design and implementation/connectivity)
- 4PL Back Office (administration, quality, finance, legal, etc.)

Sitting above these functions would be a Controlling Interface, monitored by the hired 4PL party. This group would manage all the "blocking & tackling issues" related to daily business. The Controlling Interface would provide the customer-facing visibility, control, KPI/Metrics management, reporting, daily problem solving, etc.

Additonally, surrounding these activity sets would be the following:
+ Knowledge Transfer
+ Business Development
+ Functional Support

So, to give you a visual field, picture a dartboard. From the center outward, there would be a series of concentric circles. In the center would be the 4PL. The next outer circle would be the strategic partners. The next outer circle would be the preferred service providers, following by the larges outward circle which covers the project partners.

The Business Ethics of a 4PL would contain the following ethos:
- The 4PL organizaton focuses on the customer supply chain
- All 4PL organization decisions are made towards managing the myriad of service providers, which are based on business rules.
- All service providers are measured on a master single set of KPI's.

Lastly, a recap of a 4PL Products, Services & Capabilities (visualize a triangle):
Relationship: CRM
Know-How: Knowledge Management industry/supply chain
Consulting: Supply chain reengineering, Process consulting (3PL), IT analysis/implementation
Visibility: Supply chain visibility, communication and IT integration
Operational: Accounting/invoice management, Event monitoring/exception
management, RFP/RFQ management/execution, Carrier/3PL management.

StartupSmart Awards 2011 - 15. OzHut

2012-01-27T23:59:00.000+08:00

http://www.startupsmart.com.au/startupsmart-awards-2011/15.-ozhut.html

Video Clip: http://bit.ly/z2AD9B

15. OzHut
Founder: Wai Hong Fong
Revenue: $1.8 million
Started: 2008
Head Office: Victoria
Employees: 10
Industry: Retail
Website: http://www.ozhut.com.au/

"I grew up as a geek," OzHut founder Wai Hong Fong happily admits. At nine years old, he told his mother that he wanted to marry his computer and soon afterwards nearly lost a government scholarship in Singapore after a spot of hacking ensured that students didn't have to pay $5 an hour to use the computers.

Originally from Malaysia, Fong arrived in Australia to study at Melbourne University. He realised that he wanted to strike out on his own, rather than follow the same corporate career path as his parents.

With the help of an uncle, Wai Hong started OzHut, establishing a niche for building online retail sites for specific products. The company started out with dancing shoes, ladies boots, telescopes, watches and gadgets. Soon, OzHut was the largest telescope and optics online store in Australia.

A focus on niche areas, backed up with a strong knowledge of SEO has propelled OzHut to healthy levels of sales – from $300,000 in its first year to a predicted $3.1 million in its third year.

With a team that has an average age of 25, half of whom who are recent graduates, OzHut is a proposition that is very much of its time.

That throws up challenges too, as Wai Hong admits: "The biggest challenge we faced was actually convincing people to give us product to sell. As a small player, we had no big names to throw around, neither did we have a lot of cash."

"As such, stronger brand name suppliers were highly reluctant to provide us with anything at all. However, we learnt that if we got on board some of the smaller suppliers and built up some traffic by leveraging their products, over time, we can rope the other bigger suppliers one at a time."

"Once we've got one big player on board, it was a lot easier to convince the rest to jump on the same bandwagon."

"The biggest lesson learnt in this was definitely not to be discouraged by being turned down and to not despise humble beginnings. Eventually, all that needs to happen is one small piece after another coming together and soon enough the bigger chunks of the puzzle will want to join the party."

What is Excellence?

2012-01-27T22:28:00.000+08:00

via masterwordsmith-unplugged by (masterwordsmith) on 1/26/12

A tourist once visted a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making, an idol of God.

Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby.

Surprised, he aked the sculptor Do you need two statues of the same idol ?

"No said the sculptor without looking up, We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage.

The gentleman examined the idol and found, no apparent damage.

Where is the damage? he asked.

"There is a scratch on the nose of the idol, said the sculptor still busy with his work.

".Where are you going to install the idol ?"

The sculptor replied that would be installed on, a pillar twenty feet high.

"If the idol is that far who is going to know, that there is a scratch on the nose"? the genleman asked....

The sculptor stopped his work, look up at the, gentleman smiled and said I will know it"

The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not.

"Excellence " is a drive from inside not outside...

Excellence is not for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction and efficency...

-Author Unknown-

Malaysian whiz kid wows Oz

2012-01-26T14:49:00.000+08:00

Malaysian whiz kid wows Oz
By MARTIN CARVALHO
mart3@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: He left Malaysia when he was 12 to study in Singapore on an Asean scholarship. Then, it was off to Trinity College in Australia.

Today, at the age of 25, Petaling Jaya lad Fong Wai Hong has found fame Down Under as The Age Melbourne Magazine's top 100 most influential people 2012. However, no matter how rich or famous he gets, home is where the heart is for the Malaysian-born lad.

Wong founded the successful online retail business OzHut, whose revenue currently stands at RM8.4mil following its establishment in 2007.

"I may have been abroad since I was 12 but I still consider myself a Malaysian. There are many Malay- sians who feel the same way despite being away from the country in search of a new life," he said.

Go-getter: Fong enjoying his Chinese New Year in Petaling Jaya. He shared the secret of his success as a businessman in Australia.

Full story in The Star today.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/1/26/nation/20120126071153&sec=nation

Making the dragon year work for businesses

2012-01-26T12:24:00.000+08:00

By SMBWorld Asia Editors | Jan 25, 2012

A symbol of success, power and good luck, the dragon is the most distinguished animal in the Chinese Zodiac. True to the spirit of the dragon, 2012 promises great intensity and room for companies to lead and grow. At the annual Avaya Connect Asia Pacific Channel Partner Conference in October 2011, 90% Avaya's channel partners predicted a stronger year for their businesses in 2012 with 47% forecasting strong single or double digit growth.

In looking at the top communication trends of the coming year, Avaya highlights 5 tips for companies that can help businesses stay ahead of the curve in the competitive year of the dragon:

Rising to the social network
According to Frost & Sullivan, 2012 will see social media being widely integrated into businesses. More and more companies are looking for clear and reliable quantification of the value of their social media activities.

Common social media tools not only bridge business processes, but complement consumer-to-business interaction and vice versa. It is therefore essential for companies to be adept at navigating through the social media noise by developing and delivering a clear and comprehensive message.

To make this possible, companies must ensure that social media becomes a channel that is tightly integrated to its communications architecture. One tool that can help companies with this is the Avaya Social Media Manager (SMM), which scans and analyzes events from various social media channels using intelligent engines efficiently and automatically processes them to further integrate interactions with customers into the existing Avaya contact center framework.

The BYOD phenomenon
With the planned release of more smartphones, and with tablets and mobile devices now being made available on intelligent operating systems like iOS, Windows Phone, and Android, we see a greater influx of tools and consumer devices in 2012. Businesses will see a rise in the Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) trend.

The bottleneck for businesses is no longer access to information, but the ability to connect people together with the right information at the right time. It is all about driving faster collaboration, smarter decision making and achieving better business results.

With the explosion of devices, tools and communication channels it is essential for organizations to be able to manage and channelize communications in a manner that can help achieve real-time business collaboration in a single user friendly platform. Desktop video devices available today are equipped with real-time office collaboration tools that deliver context-sensitive mash-ups of chat, email, social network and video communications — all tied with a common look and feel regardless of device. Enabling consumer devices with the same business application is key to driving productivity and employee engagement.

Prioritizing customer service
From a market perspective, we are seeing a more demanding customer base. Business owners should expect a more demanding customer service experience for their organizations, especially when customers insist on a complex cross-touchpoint service – that is, as Forrester puts it, the ability to start an interaction in one channel, and complete it in another. Furthermore, customers are craving a greater alignment of service, sales, marketing and brand in order to interact with the company in an unbroken manner.

The Avaya 2011 Contact Center Consumer Index survey showed that consumers today are less forgiving with as many as 87% of respondents likely to tell their friends and switch to competitors on receiving poor customer center service.

Customer service now requires a horizon of devices and communication support to fulfill an evolving end-user experience. Many current contact centre solutions which have proven useful in the past are unable to provide a consistent experience for customers across communications channels let alone support the kind of multi-modal, simultaneous voice/multimedia interactions.

There is a need for a change in the architecture to one that is designed from the ground up to support multimedia, multi-modal communications – a solution that is media agnostic and easily able to adapt to new contact types as they emerge. In order to be able to catch up with newer technologies, Avaya believes that technologies that support multimedia and multi-modal communications using a wrap and embrace methodology will be beneficial as companies plan for 2012.

Ascend to the Cloud
Cloud computing brings to the table a new dynamic standard that removes technological complexities by enabling on-demand, self-managed virtual infrastructure that can be used as a service. As more businesses embrace the broadening spectrum of cloud resources, they will have to adapt to working with different cloud solutions and providers – opening a floodgate of opportunities for service providers to leverage on a fluid and integrated management of the cloud resources with greater business agility and lower costs.

Whether it is your existing data centre or a new one, cloud based data centre solutions should take full advantage of the available solutions from a multitude of vendors, integrating with traditional IT systems whether it be hardware, software or virtualization seamlessly.
A cloud-based system should also be able to shield the backend complexities from an enterprise user. End users of a cloud-based service should be able to manage their own data centre, create and use its own templates as well as access and store information on its own.

Big Opportunities unravel with Big Data
Skyrocketing data consumption continues to drive industry headlines as both consumers and businesses are discovering new ways to develop, store and use data. To remain ahead of the curve, providers must also consider ways to improve network stability, security and performance while reducing costs.

Taking the network virtualization across the enterprise from the data center to the enterprise campus network is going to be very important to help relies the power of Cloud. Open Standards like SPB or Shortest Path Bridging 802.1aq have added virtualization capabilities and an enhanced version of IEEE Shortest Path Bridging gives enterprises the option of extending their enterprise applications and services across the network — from the data center to the network edge.

http://www.smbworldasia.com/en/print/8923

When everybody is a CIO

2012-01-24T02:24:00.000+08:00

CHRISTOPHER O'MALLEY
End of IT as we know it

January 19, 2012 - 6:00 A.M.

When everybody is a CIO

It's always been tough for IT organizations to find the right people with the right skills at the right time. One minute, you need a crew that knows Flash and JavaScript. The next, you need experts in JBoss and Hadoop.
Unfortunately, things are about to get a lot worse.
It's not just that the relentless pace of innovation is forcing IT to successfully find, recruit and engage professionals with solid skills in a whole new range of technologies. That would be hard enough.
The new hiring challenge is finding people who have both strong technical skills and CIO-like aptitudes for negotiation, relationship management and comparison of value.
This transformation in the skills and aptitudes IT requires is coming about because IT is increasingly brokering technical capabilities and services, rather than building and running everything itself. To be effective in its new brokerage role, IT has to negotiate and manage relationships with a growing range of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS partners, as well as sundry MSPs, contractors and conventional vendor partners.
IT organizations also have to start being smarter about when to drop one brokered service in favor of another, since it is in large part by dynamically optimizing this brokered resourcing that IT can continuously increase the value it returns to the business.
Historically, this kind of relationship management was the purview of a relatively limited number of IT managers. And IT typically received a reasonable amount of assistance in its vendor relationship management from the folks in purchasing and procurement.
But, as both the number and the intensity of IT's vendor relationships keep growing, the responsibility for making those relationships work will have to be spread around. After all, it's one thing to renegotiate licensing deals with your database or CRM software vendors once a year. It's another thing to make sure your PaaS vendor is meeting 25 different service level parameters for the dozen or so different applications you have running at its facility day in and day out.
I am not even sure exactly where we're going to find these mini-CIOs. It has been hard enough to find and retain technically skilled employees. It's not easy to find people with the business smarts and emotional intelligence to know how to get the most out of a vendor while still maintaining an amicable working relationship. Now we're going to need people who can do both.
This should give the entire industry pause. It should also motivate us to re-think the way we train IT professionals-both while they're in school and once they are in our employ. There's no way around it. IT professionals are going to need a set of business skills that they never really needed before. And we're going to have to help them acquire and develop those skills. Otherwise, our companies will never be able to fully realize the tremendous potential benefits of the brokered, virtualized IT service delivery model -- making us more than likely lose out to competitors who do.
Is your company doing anything to help develop your IT staff's vendor management skills? Are you encountering any vendor relationship management issue as you engage with a growing number of XaaS partners and MSPs? Feel free to share your experiences and insights below.
Chris O'Malley is CEO of Nimsoft. He has devoted 25 years to innovation in the IT industry -- most recently growing businesses in cloud and IT Management as a Service solutions. Contact Chris via the comments below or via Twitter at @chris_t_omalley.
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http://m.blogs.computerworld.com/19579/when_everybody_is_a_cio?source=CTWNLE_nlt_mgmt_2012-01-23

RIM co-CEOs stepped down

2012-01-23T18:12:00.000+08:00

WATERLOO, Ontario: Research In Motion's (RIM) Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have bowed to investor pressure and resigned as co-CEOs, handing the top job to an insider with four years at the struggling BlackBerry maker.
http://m.thesundaily.my/node/82495

Setting Realistic Goals by Limiting Expectations

2012-01-21T09:22:00.000+08:00

by Leo Sun on December 22nd, 2011

Agreeing to realistic goals is the first lesson a fledgling business should learn. Realistic goals should form the backbone of your company and are the most important part of your annual business plan. The most common goals for a business are revenue, profit, sales volume and growth goals. Failing to set realistic goals by being too conservative or ambitious can have disastrous results on your company. How should you plan realistic goals?

Conservative vs. Ambitious Goals
If you have the choice between conservative goals and ambitious ones, always initially choose the latter. For example, your company can either set a conservative revenue goals of $100,000 for the year with a profit margin target of 5% ($5,000) or a revenue target of $1,000,000 with a profit margin target of 25%. While the first choice might be the safer, more realistic one, take a moment to entertain the notion of the second, more ambitious plan. Taking an ambitious plan and trimming it down to more realistic proportions is far more productive than starting with a conservative plan and failing to push it to its true limits. To trim down the ambitious goals to realistic specifications, you should hold a meeting with all your departments to brainstorm and gauge the feasibility of your projected goals.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/article/582/setting-realistic-goals-by-limiting-expectations/

U Mobile opens centre in Penang

2012-01-17T16:17:00.000+08:00

AvantiKumar | Jan. 16, 2012

(From left) Kevin Yip, U Mobile's head of device and branch operations; Ismail Othman, Suruhanjaya Komunikasi & Multimedia Malaysia (SKMM also known as MCMC)'s operation director; Faizal Azizan, SKMM's deputy director and Michael Mah, U Mobile's head of sales officiating the opening of the new store in a unique 'golden egg'-breaking ceremony.

Malaysian telco U Mobile has strengthened its presence in the northern region of Malaysia with the opening of a new one-stop service centre in Penang.
During the opening on 16 December 2011 of the latest U Mobile store at Seberang Jaya, Penang, U Mobile chief executive officer Dr. Kaizad Heerjee said the store is a "one-stop service centre," a concept inherited from its flagship store in Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur.
The store is the second in the region following the recent opening of the U Mobile Store in Queensbay Mall, Penang, said Dr Kaizad.
"U Mobile has been working to establish its footprint in Penang, a strategic location for the company's fastest mobile Internet offering with speeds of 42Mbps [megabits per second]," he said. "To date, U Mobile has completed approximately 80 percent of its HSPA+ site rollout on the island and the mainland, and is planning to reach its capacity of 150 sites by early 2012."
"We will continue to focus on increasing our network coverage and strive to increase our presence in key locations to bring us closer to our consumers and make our products and services more accessible," added Dr Kaizad.

http://www.computerworld.com.my/resource/mobile-and-wireless/u-mobile-opens-centre-in-penang/

10 less-than-ethical ways to get ahead

2012-01-17T02:39:00.000+08:00

By Alan Norton | January 13, 2012, 7:23 AM PST

It's a new year and a good time to strategize ways to get that long-overlooked promotion you deserve. Admittedly, there are risks involved with the 10 strategies listed below, but where has playing it safe gotten you thus far?

1: Gift your boss
A gift to your boss can go a long way toward your advancement. Don't waste your efforts on lower management who have no say in your future. And don't give money — that's bribery! Instead, cater to your boss's vices. And don't skimp on the gift. No doubt your boss has expensive tastes and you want the gift to be remembered, so get the best. The ROI will be well worth the money spent when you consider the future income stream from your soon-to-be-received raise. Gifting works only with naïve, shallow bosses, so be judicious about where you fling the bling.

2: Suck up to your boss
Being the Yes Man is a time-honored tradition for those who lack the highest valued skill sets. You will likely lose a few friends in the process, but hey, it's a small price to pay to get that bigger paycheck. Besides, if you don't take the role of manager's pet, someone else will.

3: Lie about your nonexistent virtues
There is no need to lead a virtuous life. It is so much work and so tedious! All you need to do is tell others about your charity work in the community, your acts of kindness toward animals and the lesser hominoids, and all those old ladies you have helped across the street. The fact that you haven't actually done any of these is totally irrelevant. They will never know the difference.

4: Exaggerate your work
Chances are that your managers don't really know what you do, so it's easy to make your work sound like it should be nominated for the Turing Award. Drop a few buzzwords whenever the opportunity arises and snow your boss with a blizzard of technical jargon. The more obscure your area of expertise, the better. Of course, you will have to restrict access to your actual work to successfully carry out the ruse. But that can easily be accomplished by leaking only a few bits and pieces when details are requested.

5: Talk down the competition
It is so easy to hurt the image of the competition. A few words here and a few negative rumors there will raise your status as surely as it will lower theirs. Nevermind the patent leather shoe marks on your co-worker's backs; they will eventually heal. Climbing the corporate ladder is a contact sport.

6: Sabotage
One way to bring down those rising stars in your group a peg or two is to throw a virtual shoe into their work. You have to be creative enough to point the finger at the right person without being caught and without doing damage to your group or company. Good luck with that.

7: Cheat the numbers
A few extra hours added to the "hours worked" column on your timesheet here or there will rarely be noticed, but it may be just enough to show that you work harder than your peers. Besides, it's not really cheating if you take your work home with you. During performance appraisal time, don't forget to inflate the numbers that show how much money you saved the company. There is a teeny tiny catch: It may be illegal where you work. But it's only fraud if you get caught.

8: Hack the system
Remember when you learned about the classmate who hacked into the school computer and changed his grades? You were angry — not because he got away with it, but because you didn't think of it first. It is so easy to deceive those who rely on "system data" at work. Just hack into the HR system and nudge your performance rating up a point or two. If you're really ambitious, slip a few letters of commendation into your personnel file when no one is looking. You know you deserve them. Don't worry about getting caught. If your rewriting of history is discovered, you can always work for USCYBERCOM or the FBI Cyber Crime unit. Well, then again, maybe not.

9: Blackmail
Blackmail is such an ugly word. Consider it coerced behavioral modification for the stubborn. If you have a co-worker who is impossible to work with, you can always leave. But why give up a good job in tough times when an alternate strategy can get rid of that pesky peer? Present your boss with an "either he goes or I go" ultimatum. You can simply refuse to work with the bad egg. It's risky business, though. You better be awfully good at what you do. If your boss decides that you are the bad egg, you might be the one to go.

10: Incite mutiny
If all else fails, it is time to bring out the heavy guns. A little bit of discontent sown amongst your crewmates can lead to a change of captains. Managers are moved on to greener pastures all the time and who knows, you might be doing them a big favor. You only have to whisper the right words to the right people to tilt the decision in your direction. It's a crapshoot, assuming it does work. You might get a new manager who's more favorable to you and your future advancement — or you might wind up with the manager from Hades.

The bottom line
We like to think of ourselves as "civilized" beings. After all, we have a conscience that guides our behavior. But when we want something, the human mind seems to have an endless capacity to rationalize the most unethical of acts. In many ways, our bad behavior is not all that dissimilar from the bad behavior of animals. There are numerous examples of "unethical" behavior in the animal kingdom, from ravens that steal and gorillas that lie to the cuckoo bird that tricks another bird species into raising their young and the cuckoo chicks that murder their non-cuckoo nest mates. Like it or not, humans deceive, cheat, steal, and lie to get ahead and probably always will.

If you do decide to employ any of these strategies of advancement, don't blame me if they do not work out well for you. You are completely on your own. I've got you sussed if you try any of these on my watch. I'm not gonna take it.

http://m.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-less-than-ethical-ways-to-get-ahead/2988?tag=nl.e101

How to Use Social Media for Research and Development

2012-01-13T16:44:00.003+08:00

BY Jason Falls and Erik Deckers | December 7, 2011|

Have you ever wished you could use social media to conduct a focus group on your product or service offerings? No, you can't just open a Twitter account and say, "Hey, what do you think of our new recipe for pie?" But you can approach social media and use it for research and development two different ways: social media monitoring and directly seeking customer feedback. This is feasible even for a small business or one without a research-and-development budget.

The first approach is to use social media monitoring to gather intelligence about your company, product or service, competitors or industry. By listening to online conversations about certain topics your customers might be talking about, you can gather competitive intelligence that can inform your decision making and produce a better offering.

Let's say you make custom handbags and sell them from your brick-and-mortar location in San Francisco that and they sell fairly well. But you need some R&D or at least some market research to know if what you're planning to produce makes sense for the new spring line you intend to roll out in the coming weeks.

So you go to a free monitoring service like SocialMention.com or even invest in something a bit more sophisticated, like uberVu, for about $40 per month. You enter some keywords and tinker with a search until you start to see some relevant results for conversations occurring from users in or around Northern California. For instance, "My handbag needs more dividers. I can't keep my stuff organized," is a phrase you might see pop up a couple of times.

Then you might notice that when people are talking about what their handbag or purse needs, they say the purse needs to be big enough to hold an iPad inconspicuously. And there's your new product idea harvested from raw data on the Web.

A second approach is to openly participate in social media and build purposeful relationships and connection with your actual customers so you can turn to them into your focus group. As an active social media participant -- building followers on Twitter, fans and likes on Facebook, readers of your blog or even subscribers to your email newsletter -- you're essentially growing your potential focus group every day.

There are four general steps to conducting research:

Set the goals for the research.
Establish the important questions to ask.
Research and collect answers to the important questions.
Analyze the answers to make decisions.

How does that translate to practical application? Make a list of the product or service feedback items you might want to ask customers about. Then make a list of the information you'd like to know about your customers or prospective customers. Look at that list and pick the one or two major areas you wish you could solve with a little customer input or feedback.

Let's say your top priority is to get new product feature suggestions. Start identifying the important questions that you need to ask your customers. Is the handle sturdy enough? Would you change anything about the colors?

You don't need to be a market researcher to ask questions, but you should probably try to ask questions that allow your audience to give the most unaided feedback. For example, asking "Is the handle sturdy enough?" might be better asked by saying, "On a scale of 1–10 with 10 being most sturdy and 1 being least sturdy, how sturdy would you rate the handle?"

After you've listed the questions you want to ask, you just need to deliver them to an audience to answer. For instance, when it's time to find out what folks like or dislike about last year's line of handbags, or what they'd find useful in new versions for the spring season, you might post this question on your Facebook page: "What about your handbag could be better? Any need for more/bigger/smaller pockets? Are you carrying more accessories that we should account for?"

Chances are, you won't get a lot of responses the first time you ask, but you can keep asking. Also, you can ask fans to subscribe to an email list specifically for "New Product Ideas & Feedback," or even offer incentives for participation with discounts to anyone who answers.

These two scenarios don't require big budgets, lots of scientific testing, or even geeks in lab coats. But they are legitimate research-and-development practices any business can use by implementing social media for R&D purposes.

This article is an edited excerpt from No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing (Que Publishing, 2011) by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers.

Mark Cuban's 12 Rules for Startups

2012-01-13T16:44:00.001+08:00

BY Mark Cuban | January 10, 2012|

Photo courtesy ABC.

1. Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

This article is an edited excerpt from How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It (Diversion Books, 2011) by Mark Cuban.

What FACEBOOK and GOOGLE are Hiding from world.

2012-01-13T16:36:00.000+08:00

CIO-Asia - Louis Vuitton’s technological ‘savoir-faire’

2012-01-11T18:36:00.000+08:00

Louis Vuitton's technological 'savoir-faire'
Anushkar Mohinani | Jan. 6, 2012

In the following interview, Louis Vuitton's chief information officer (CIO) for the Asia Pacific, Loic Buelens, describes his role; the luxury conglomerate's IT strategies, including its approach to leveraging new technology to raise the quality of its customer service; and what it means to be a CIO in the fashion industry.

Can you describe Louis Vuitton's philosophy and how this translates into its approach to IT?

Louis Vuitton's key focus is the customer. The company is dedicated to providing its customers the most thrilling experience while shopping, or even simply discovering our stores and exhibition area. As part of its customer centric philosophy, Louis Vuitton's IT approach is thus designed to ultimately improve the customer experience. IT is a fully integrated component of Louis Vuitton's overall operations designed to adapt to its business needs and provide solutions to improve its business processes.

How is the company integrating technology successfully into its business processes?

Our main strategy is integrating technology that reduces the complexity of business processes and provides easy exchange of information to increase transparency.

One example is our fully integrated replenishment system, which enables timely and uncomplicated replacement of products. For instance, if a bag is purchased at any Louis Vuitton store worldwide, the purchase information will be integrated in our systems. The warehouses will then be informed of the need to stock up on the particular product. This system also gives the sales associates in the stores complete information visibility of products pertaining to their availability and quality.

Another example is our internal social network that was deployed to enable the different departments in Louis Vuitton to share information and exchange ideas easily and speedily.

How is Louis Vuitton embracing new technologies and strategies effectively?

We are fully embracing new technologies and strategies to effectively enhance the customer experience.

For instance, Louis Vuitton has launched a new website, which includes an application that allows customers to personalise some of the products on their tablet devices. This interactive application has resonated very well with our customers.

We also use Facebook, Twitter, and permanently interact with bloggers around the world. We use social media to engage our customers, and inform them about new products, events and store openings, as well as a platform to receive feedback.

How do you define your role as the CIO of Louis Vuitton in the Asia Pacific? What does it mean to be a CIO in the industry?

As a regional CIO, my role involves being the link between the head office and the regional corporate offices. My role is essentially like a facilitator – bridging the communication between the main headquarters and the Asia Pacific departments. It involves informing the headquarters of the requirements and the constraints pertaining to the region's IT capabilities, as well as identifying processes where technology can be integrated to improve efficiency for the divisions across the region.

It is not a job that allows you to sit behind the desk and just deliver projects and support. It requires responsibility for overseeing multiple departments. This means going to the various departments across the region and understanding what systems work best for them and implementing solutions accordingly. Sometimes, this means having to challenge and counter the existing business processes, and propose alternative methods.

More importantly, being a CIO is this industry requires passion for the job and the brand.

Can you describe your leadership style? What qualities do you look for in aspiring IT protégés?

You better ask my team!

On a serious note, I believe I'm a very demanding and challenging leader. I am also very fast-paced and appreciate when things are done on time. I want to stay aware of everything pertaining to my job as well as the industry. At the same time, I expect strong autonomy from the team and to be challenged by them too.

Some of the important qualities for me are business awareness, the ability to listen to others, autonomy, and more than anything else, common sense.

What are the top challenges and opportunities on the horizon?

The top challenge will be to face the growth pace requirements without disrupting the business. Due to our growth and determination to improve our systems, we have deployed multiple projects at the same time, thus we have to make sure that we have enough resources too. So the challenge will also be to find and recruit the right talent.

As for the opportunities, the centralisation of support activities in Singapore, which started a year ago, should now give us more flexibility and allow us to be more efficient. More importantly, this will give the local team more time on their hands to focus on aligning new technology with business needs.

What key IT priorities are shaping your agenda for 2012 and beyond?

The key focus is on mobility and integrating new technology. We will continue to find the best combination of technology such as tablets and NFC (near field communication) to enhance service and the customer experience. It's what we call Innovative Retail.

http://www.cio-asia.com/print-article/17139/

Gandhi on the Power of One

2012-01-09T21:10:00.000+08:00

--by Eknath Easwaran ,

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world—that is the myth of the "atomic age"—as in being able to remake ourselves.
—Mahatma Gandhi

[...] [Some] people tell me I am being idealistic about human nature. "It would be nice," they say, "if we human beings could override impulses like fear, greed, and violence when we see that they threaten the welfare of the whole. But that's just not realistic. Whenever there is a conflict between reason and biology, biology is bound to win."

Arguing like this, some observers feel that we have passed the point of no return. Like lemmings, they seem to say, we must race to a destruction we ourselves shall have caused. I differ categorically—and for proof I have the living example of Mahatma Gandhi, who not only transformed fear, greed, and violence in himself but inspired hundreds of thousands of ordinary men, women, and even children in India to do the same.

When I was a student in my twenties India had been under British domination for two hundred years. It's difficult to imagine what that means if you haven't lived through it. It's not just economic exploitation; generations grow up with a foreign culture superimposed on their own. When I went to college, I never questioned the axiom that everything worthwhile, everything that could fulfill my dreams, came from the West. The science, the wealth, the military power, all demonstrated unequivocally the superiority of Western civilization. It never occurred to most of us to look anywhere else for answers.

But then along came Gandhi, who was shaking India from the Himalayas in the north to Cape Kanniyakumari in the south. Everyone in the country was talking about Gandhi the statesman, Gandhi the politician, Gandhi the economist, Gandhi the educator. But I wanted to know about Gandhi the man. I wanted to know the secret of his power.

In his youth, I knew, Gandhi had been a timid, ineffectual lawyer whose only extraordinary characteristic was his big ears. By the time he came back to India from South Africa in 1915, he had transformed himself into such a mighty force for love and non-violence that he would become a lighthouse to the whole world. And I had just one driving question: What was the secret of his transformation?

My university was in Nagpur, a strategic location at the geographic center of India where all the major railways connecting north and south, east and west, came together like spokes in a wheel. Nearby lay the town of Wardha, a dot on the map thrown into international recognition as the last railway junction before Gandhi's ashram. The rest of the way one had to travel on one's own. I walked the few miles down the hot, dusty road to the little settlement that Gandhi called Sevagram, "the village of service."

At Sevagram I found myself among young people from around the world—Americans, Japanese, Africans, Europeans, even Britons—who had come to see Gandhi and to help in his work. Whether a person's skin was white, brown, or black, whether he or she supported or opposed him, seemed to make no difference to Gandhi: he related to all with ease and respect. Almost immediately, he made us feel we were part of his own family.

Indeed, I think that, in a private corner of our hearts, we all saw ourselves in him. I did. It was as if a precious element common to all of us had been extracted and purified to shine forth brightly as the Mahatma, the Great Soul. That very commonness was what moved us most—the feeling that in spite of all our fears and resentments and petty faults we too were made of such stuff. The Great Soul was our soul.

At that time, of course, there were many observers who said Gandhi was extraordinary, an exception to the limitations that hold back the rest of the human race. Others dismissed him—some with great respect, others with less—as just another great man who was leaving his mark on history. Yet, according to him, there was no one more ordinary. "I claim to be an average man of less than average ability," he often repeated. "I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith."

The fact is, while most people think of ordinariness as a fault or limitation, Gandhi had discovered in it the very meaning of life—and of history. For him, it was not the famous or the rich or the powerful who would change the course of history. If the future is to differ from the past, he taught, if we are to leave a peaceful and healthy earth for our children, it will be the ordinary man and woman who do it: not by becoming extraordinary, but by discovering that our greatest strength lies not in how much we differ from each other but in how much—how very much—we are the same.

This faith in the power of the individual formed the foundation for Gandhi's extremely compassionate view of the industrial era's large-scale problems, as well as of the smaller but no less urgent troubles we found in our own lives. Our problems, he would say, are not inevitable; they are not, as some historians and biologists have suggested, a necessary side effect of civilization.

On the contrary, war, economic injustice, and pollution arise because we have not yet learned to make use of our most civilizing capacities: the creativity and wisdom we all have as our birthright. When even one person comes into full possession of these capacities, our problems are shown in their true light: they are simply the results of avoidable—though deadly—errors of judgment.

From The Compassionate Universe by Eknath Easwaran, copyright 1993; reprinted by permission of Nilgiri Press, P. O. Box 256, Tomales, CA 94971. The late spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran founded the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in 1961. His many books include Gandhi the Man: How One Man Changed Himself to Change the World.

http://m.dailygood.org//view.php?sid=152

Hardware store franchises – True Value and Ace Hardware

2012-01-08T10:52:00.000+08:00

Hardware store franchises – True Value and Ace Hardware

10/15/2007 - by: Acquireo Team - Director of Marketing, Acquireo.com

Almost every household in the country will visit a hardware store at least once a year. This potential for business is one of the reasons that a hardware store has always been one of the more popular businesses that an owner can start or buy.

The generic hardware store exists in the mind's eye as a retail store that a person can go to and buy just the right nut and bolt or the odd sized screw. This mythical store is run by knowledgeable people who can answer almost anything that has to do with home repair. This is what the public has come to expect when visiting a hardware store. Some chain store outlets have gotten away from the help side of hardware stores and just sale products off the shelf. Getting answers to questions in these stores is not what the hardware store visit is about. The great help of the old type hardware store is missing. Except in those stores that are run the old fashion way and continue to prosper as their customers are repeat customers and would not think about going somewhere else to shop. Two franchises that carry on this tradition are True Value and Ace Hardware associated stores.

True Value stores
True Value is the third largest co-op in the hardware business. True Value is a cooperative that allows the store owner who is a member to buy merchandise at reduced prices since this group can make large wholesale purchases. The store owners can also enjoy the advantage of group advertising buys. Being able to buy at the large volume prices makes the advantage a significant profit maker. Group advertising can also reduce the cost of getting customers into the store.

The average True Value store investment
The average investment in a True Value store works out to about $35 a square foot for inventory. The fixtures or equipment will come in at about $8 a square foot. The start up cost can vary by area of the country, but the average is about $4 a square foot. The additional cost to become a True Value store can be found by contacting True Value corporate.

Ace Hardware stores
Ace Hardware is the largest hardware co-op Like True Value it offers members the capability to buy merchandise through the co-op at reduced prices and thereby make more profit from sales. They also offer the advantage of group advertising which reduces the cost of getting customers through the doors.

Group buying of the co-op saves all of the member's money as the co-op gets better pricing due to large volume buying. This savings is then passed on to the members and allows them to make more money.

Ace Hardware Investment Structure
The Ace membership application is about $5000 Initial stock ownership is another $5000. Liquid capital needed to start a store is $250,000 with a loan from Ace of an additional amount of $390,000 to $740,000, which depends on the store size. The total investment is between $650,000 and one million dollars.Land and building cost are not included in this pricing.

The Ace investment numbers are based on a 12,000 square foot store. Dollar amounts are for fixtures, inventory, office equipment, computer system and operating costs.

Other factors that will help the owner
Both of these hardware operations offer the owner training and seminars, which are designed to help the store grow. Suggestions for operating the store more efficiently can be taken in and used to good effect. Special purchases that include a targeted advertising campaign will attract customers into the store. The staff's helpful attitude will impress the customers and insure they will come again.

Buying a local hardware store
Local stores that are affiliated or not do come to market every now and then for purchase. The owner may be willing to deal very favorably in order to make the sale. Contact a business broker or look up businesses that are for sale listed on the Internet. A good business broker may be wise to contact, as these pros are very good sources of current information. If an existing business is for sale, the price may be excellent due to the store being established. A store with cash flow is always a business to be considered. Customer habits are in the favor of the new owner as long as the service stays the same or gets better. If you are going to make some significant changes, make sure they are well thought out before putting them into practice. If there is a strong benefit to the customers, they will probably be met with enthusiasm.
An old owner may be willing to help with the financing of the business. In most cases the price of the business will increase some and will have to be negotiated as part of the sales contract. The other way to get the needed money is to see if a business lender would be willing to give you the needed loan. Many of these money lenders are easily found on the Internet.

Conclusions
The hardware business is one business that has a variety to customers that need what the store is offering. Every person of age is a possible customer. This large potential customer base is what will make a new hardware store quickly grow and in the right location become profitable. . As with all retail stores location is important. Name recognition is also very helpful which is why the two co-ops have so many members. Customers will come to a store with a familiar name.

Friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff is critical if you want to stand out from the box stores. Their pricing will be competitive to yours, so you have to beat them by having better help. If you try to compete on price alone, you will be fighting a losing battle. Store hours are also important in this business. Early openings are almost a necessity of the business. People like to get up and get started on projects.

author: Acquireo Team

http://www.acquireo.com/businesses-for-sale-resources/franchise-articles/hardware-store-franchises-true-value-and-ace-hardware.aspx

English Pronunciation | The Poke:

2012-01-06T01:18:00.000+08:00

English Pronunciation
Dec 23rd, 2011

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.
After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!
English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/12/23/english-pronunciation/

8 Customer Service Issues That Impede Loyalty

2012-01-04T00:33:00.000+08:00

8 Customer Service Issues That Impede Loyalty
Posted on March 30, 2011 by Alyson

You might think that loyalty to a product or company would be driven by something positive like a low price point or a delightful service experience. But no, it appears that the presence or absence of barriers and friction during service and support encounters are the barometers of customer loyalty. As it turns out, effort—how much effort your customer must expend to resolve an issue with you—is the primary driver for customer loyalty.

It may seem like an odd leap to connect customer loyalty with the amount of effort it takes to do business with your company, but apparently it is possible to correlate loyalty on just such a metric—the Customer Effort Score.

An authoritative study by the Customer Contact Council contends that customer loyalty—that Holy Grail—is no longer driven entirely by customer delight, if it ever was. Customer loyalty, it seems, also rises when you reduce the effort the customer must expend in order to meet their need. In other words, the easier you make it for customers to solve their problems, the more loyal they will be to your organization and brand.

The Council developed the Customer Effort Score (CES) in 2008 to measure (on a 1-5 scale) the customer's answer to this question: "How much effort did you personally put forth to handle your request?"

There is lots of debate about how to word this question in the most effective way, but the idea is to find out if your customer feels that the amount of effort they had to put out to resolve their issue matched their expectations.

Lowering the CES score even by one percentage point can mean huge revenue benefits. In addition, the probability that a negative experience will drive disloyalty is FOUR TIMES greater than a positive one. Let's think about that another way: Customers who indicate more effort (4 or 5 on the CES scale) are 61% less likely to repurchase – as compared to the average customer.

Friction points can be predicted. One of the most interesting ways to smooth a path for customers is to research what future service issues can be headed off with simple re-messaging or additions to your knowledge base. Look for customer-reported patterns so you can prevent future friction.

The takeaway is this: Having a delightful experience is only one part of why customers remain loyal. Empires may be built on requiring less effort. Some postulate that Facebook pulled ahead of other similar sites and established itself as the leader because the site required less effort.

People are most interested in a hassle-free, friction-free experience. So removing barriers to resolution of your customers' service and support issues not only makes for Customer Wow—it also makes for customer loyalty.

The strongest predictor of loyalty is a low-effort customer experience. Do you know your score?

8 Things That Drive Customers to Your Competitors:
1. It takes too long to resolve an issue.
2. Promises that aren't kept (over promising, under delivering).
3. Being treated rudely or with suspicion.
4. Being transferred over and over from person to person, and having to repeat the issue each time.
5. Having to check several times to see if an issue is resolved.
6. Being left in the dark, in "support limbo," not knowing what, if anything, has been done to resolve the issue.
7. Being pushed to buy something—even before a support issue is resolved.
8. Finding the FAQ (and support center information) unhelpful, incomplete, or outdated.

Counteract these challenges with:

Assistly's 12 Commandments of Customer Contentment
1. Listen to your customers and take action based on what they tell you.
2. Over deliver on promises, reliably and consistently
3. Hire the right people and empower them with great tools.
4. Educate, train, and inspire your staff.
5. Connect every person in your company to the customer.
6. Be aware of customer touchpoints and remove friction from them.
7. Treat service as a disruptive gamechanger and strategic imperative
8. Share useful knowledge. Solve problems and educate.
9. Build a visible brand presence on all the channels.
10. Deliver service fast, and anticipate future needs.
11. Remember, customer service is a human activity requiring empathy.
12. Market actively to existing customers to retain them for life.

http://www.assistly.com/blog/8-customer-service-issues-impede-loyalty-2/

Today’s Customer Service Challenges

2012-01-04T00:27:00.000+08:00

We are operating in a business world that has shifted off its axis. Credit markets have tightened and we have entered into a "New Normal" where doing more with less is the rule. Delivering on profit and revenue targets requires improving business practices and performance, and optimizing employee productivity.

Organizations must manage an array of customer service systems, touch points and related tasks — often with little insight into the business value of a given activity. This raises issues for business leaders across a range of departments — from customer care, to human capital management, to training. Some specific challenges facing business heads include:

A more diverse and distributed employee base. Gone are the days when all customer support functions took place inside the contact center. Today, teams in both the front and back office — as well as remote and distributed employees such as home workers — need to connect and better engage with customers. Companies also need to align the competencies and skills with customer needs, regardless of location.
A proliferation of customer-facing channels. Companies need to differentiate how they approach and interact with both customers and employees. For example, the rising popularity of Web and e-mail channels, chat, and text, as well as social networking, means that companies have to evaluate and develop new employee competencies and skills within the workforce.
An incomplete assessment of employee talent. Just because an employee is hired with a certain level of skill and knowledge doesn't mean he or she will — or should — remain at that level indefinitely. Products and services change; job roles transition; and the types of customer interactions shift as technology evolves. Unless skills and knowledge are constantly assessed and updated — with the right training reaching the right people at the right time — organizations will be unable to use their talent pool effectively. The result of this would be duplications of skills in some areas, skills gaps in others, and an overall lack of engagement with customers. It's immensely costly to hire new customer service employees, yet this cost can be reduced with the proper coaching and training.
Misalignment of people and tasks. When there's no centralized view into employee skill sets and no centralized way of managing the talent, processes and people become misaligned. With one department owning workforce planning, another owning quality assurance, and still another responsible for training, many organizations lack the holistic view they need to streamline processes and improve employee performance.
High turnover of customer-facing employees and compromised quality. The turnover rate among contact center employees — widely reported to be between 40-50% annually — is among the highest in any category of workers. Although this is less the case for back-office employees, companies face an equally large challenge: some of the highest-paid employees in the company work there, and frequently there is no accountability for the quality or response times of customer-related tasks.
These are complex issues that inevitably have an impact on organizational performance and the bottom line. For businesses, this translates into an urgent need to focus on new and more effective ways to improve employee efficiency, training, and retention to ensure a more engaged workforce. Training can often be expensive, however, and replacing a highly trained employee even more so.

The question becomes: How do you make sure that employees possess the right skills and information to provide excellent service to your customers, while also effectively leveraging existing corporate systems and resources? And, how do you boost employee engagement to ensure that what employees do aligns with company objectives, increases profitability, and provides a competitive advantage?

The answer: By implementing an Employee Effectiveness Model that aligns training, job assignment, job scheduling, quality assurance, and career development to ensure your workforce has the right skills to provide stellar service to customers.

An Employee Effectiveness Model brings together a host of capabilities under a single umbrella. Organizations may already have legacy systems in place to handle critical functions like quality assurance, workforce management, coaching, e-learning and customer feedback.

However, such systems provide a "passive" approach and often remain silo'ed, creating latency delays, errors and overhead. As a result, executives are not getting the high-level view of workforce capabilities they need to identify and develop the talent their organizations require to keep pace with customer demands.

The best way to obtain such a view is by deploying a more "active" approach that brings together all these disparate systems in a more dynamic way to manage customer-impacting resources.

A model built on the following steps will ensure a more engaged, efficient, and effective organization — one with happier employees, more satisfied customers, and a much healthier corporate balance sheet.

     ·         STEP 1: PLAN staffing levels enterprise wide
·         STEP 2: DELIVER the right work using intelligent routing
·         STEP 3: CONTROL performance issues by taking corrective action in real-time
·         STEP 4: ANALYZE data and correlate skill and performance gaps
·         STEP 5: DEVELOP talent pools based on exact training needs and accurate schedules

http://www.genesyslab.com/FiveStepts_Explainer_Module

Key Steps And Major Challenges in Improving Customer Satisfaction

2012-01-04T00:20:00.000+08:00

Key Steps And Major Challenges in Improving Customer Satisfaction
By Mark Smith, Ph.D., Quadstone
In spring 2004, Quadstone commissioned a study of the approach that large consumer enterprises are taking to improve customer service experiences. The research mainly consisted of in-depth interviews with executives in the financial services and telecommunications sectors, but it also included an e-mail questionnaire with consumers and a "mystery shopping" investigation into customer service centers.
The study finds that improving customers' satisfaction with service is a rapidly rising corporate priority and companies are increasing investment in tracking customer satisfaction and what drives it. While the majority of companies are beginning to understand aggregate-level trends in customer satisfaction, only a few companies are able to systematically identify how to change service delivery processes for the better — yet this is what all of the interviewed companies most want to do.
Only a few leading companies are able to systematically identify how to change service delivery processes for the better, yet this is what all the interviewed companies most want to do.
Additionally, the study defines a success model for embracing and driving change based on customer satisfaction metrics, and it lays out the capabilities that companies must develop to fully leverage customer satisfaction data in driving change across the organization. The survey finds that telecommunications companies are, in general, more committed and sophisticated in their approach to customer satisfaction than financial services companies. Fundamentally, organizations are striving for a level of understanding that is deeper and more specific than general customer feedback (which is typically that the customers would like service to be delivered faster and more courteously).
Business Context
It is not surprising that executives have recently focused much more attention on the issue of customer experience. In the 1990s, the main priority in customer service was increased efficiency. Companies have now found that the customer experience must also be effective. Customers' opinions matter, and sometimes those opinions directly drive loyalty and other behavior. Many factors are pushing this change in strategy: consumer financial services and telecommunications markets have become increasingly saturated and commoditized and, as a result, the majority of companies are seeking to maintain value by delivering differentiated customer service. Customers have become more demanding and savvy in the way they deal with large organizations. It has become easier for them to vote with their feet and switch suppliers, thanks to the Internet and intensified regulation.
Organizations are also aware that the wholesale shift from retail outlets to call centers (which are now being offshored) has been alienating for customers; CRM automation and other customer-hostile systems have, in many cases, made this situation worse.
As a result, internal investment has swung from market share-led initiatives to driving profit from existing customers through retention and cross-selling. While some money has long gone into surveying customer opinion, activity has stepped up significantly and organizations are getting more serious about actually using the survey data (along with the mountains of data available internally) as a key driver of change. Improving the customer service experience is thus the new frontier of customer value exploitation and differentiation.
Key Findings In The Survey
Between March and May 2004, Collaborative Insight, a research company based in Boston, conducted in-depth interviews with executives from large consumer businesses in the U.S. and the UK about their approach to improving customer satisfaction. There was an even split between financial services and telecommunications, as well as between territories.
The research was not intended to be comprehensive or statistically robust; it has, however, revealed the following suggestive results about how progress is being made in a world that is increasingly focused on the customer experience. Key findings in the survey include the following:
Customer satisfaction is a rapidly rising and high-ranking corporate priority: 8 out of 10 organizations reported that customer satisfaction is a top-three business issue.
All interviewed companies set out to understand more about the service experiences they deliver by doing customer satisfaction surveys: 7 out of 10 companies survey customers on a non-anonymous basis and as frequently as every month.
Six out of 10 companies have two years' worth or more of survey history.
Nearly all interviewed companies use survey data to calculate their own customer service satisfaction metrics to focus and motivate staff: 9 out of 10 have a formal, established metric for satisfaction with service; 8 out of 10 have specific companywide targets for this metric over time; and 8 out of 10 linked the performance of this metric to senior management's compensation.
Most organizations are interested in the extremes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction — the general belief is that only the most delighted customers buy more or become advocates, and only the most disappointed customers leave, usually following a catastrophic experience: 8 out of 10 companies talked about improving overall scores or the numbers of extremely or very satisfied customers (either driven by revenue/profit per customer or the effect of advocacy).
The area of analyzing current trends and the causes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction is an area where the survey found a much broader spread of practice: 8 out of 10 companies use a balanced scorecard to observe trends over time; 6 out of 10 perform analysis that links survey responses to segment behavior data; 2 out of 10 match service delivery process data with the corresponding surveys — these two companies were noticeably more able to identify specific changes that will improve the customer experience.
All interviewees saw multiple challenges on their horizons, and the survey recorded the top issues that each company mentioned and then classified them broadly into organizational challenges and technical challenges: only 2 out of 10 expressed a need to improve the survey process or clarify metric definition (technical); 4 out of 10 were focused on gaining management sponsorship or companywide understanding of the importance of satisfaction with service (organizational); 7 out of 10, the mainstream, wanted to enhance their analysis approach so that they could clearly identify what changes to make to service delivery processes (technical); only the 4 out of 10 that were beginning to surmount the analysis challenge were concerned with the practicalities of getting the organization to implement the recommended changes (organizational); and 4 out of 10 talked about the challenge of measuring ROI on the changes (technical).
The Capability Model: Building On Experience
The study draws three key conclusions for large, customer-centric organizations:
There is a wide spectrum of sophistication among companies in their capability to understand and leverage customer satisfaction data. This spectrum spans three equally divided groupings, which we have labeled "laggards," "followers" and "leaders."
The majority of companies are beginning to understand aggregate-level trends in customer satisfaction. Only a few leading companies are able to systematically identify how to change service delivery processes for the better, yet this is what all the interviewed companies most want to do.
Companies face a definable sequence of challenges to increase the sophistication and efficacy of their approach in utilizing customer satisfaction metrics to drive change through their organizations. That set of challenges divides into five categories of increasing difficulty and complexity: 1) improving surveys and clarifying metrics; 2) gaining management sponsorship or company understanding; 3) better identifying changes through in-depth analysis; 4) getting the organization to carry out the recommended changes; and 5) measuring ROI on the changes delivered. Laggards generally were focused on challenges 1 through 3; followers, on 2 through 4; and leaders, on 3 through 5.
The study defines a capability model for companies to understand these stages, to identify the stage they are at and to build a plan for how to increase their own capabilities based on what more advanced organizations have already done.
Figure 1 is a schematic of the capability model — the major barriers to progress. Although there is some degree of overlap in the way companies address the sequential challenges, we generally found that companies are particularly preoccupied with one challenge at a time.
Implications For Large Consumer Businesses
The findings from the Quadstone study have clearly highlighted that customer satisfaction is of rising importance and that, not surprisingly, significant resources are being invested in trying to improve the experience customers receive. Once engaged in the quest to improve satisfaction, organizations must focus on how to turn the investment in tracking satisfaction into decisions on what to change.
Companies are constantly making changes to service delivery processes, but they clearly need to be able to prioritize them based on evidence.
Many organizations conclude that only by identifying linkages at an individual level between surveys and operational data can they identify the processes that are the root cause for dissatisfaction. One interview revealed, "We are moving on to connect specific customer responses with source data on a systematic basis," the objective being to identify broken processes that, with an understanding of the customer view, can then be fixed.
The level of interest in identifying broken processes that companies are not aware of is high — "We're particularly interested if something fails" was one pertinent comment. Comparing what the customer thought happened with what the company thought happened reveals the root cause for dissatisfaction, allowing it to be addressed. The cost of customer dissatisfaction at broken processes is acknowledged to be huge. The combined cost of replacing customers lost through churn, providing services that are not valued and resolving complaints — especially if they get to the regulator — is the driver for change. What companies are seeking is prioritization for these change programs; it appears that exploring the cause-and-effect linkages between survey data and operational data is considered the most effective way of doing this.

http://www.tmcnet.com/call-center/1104/crm2.htm

Top Customer Service Challenges of 2011

2012-01-04T00:12:00.000+08:00

Posted by Omar Zaibak on October 27, 2010

Contact centers and support organizations are struggling to keep pace with rapidly increasing consumer expectations. High agent turnover, new communication channels, and budget cuts make it increasingly difficult to satisfy the customer. Here are the leading customer service challenges in the contact center today.

1. Agent Turnover

Contact centers have always struggled with high agent turnover rates, with many in North America reaching over 30% annually. The cost of frequently hiring and training new agents strains budgets that are already tight. It also limits the amount of highly experienced agents in the contact center which can impact service levels.

Research by customer service agent recruiting expert Hays Contact Centres reveals 67% of contact center managers say retention will be more difficult in the coming years.

According to another report by Sodexo Motivation Solutions, there is a negative perception of contact centers with only 5% of Generation Y considering it as an exciting place to work and 55% viewing it negatively overall. A third of those surveyed currently seeking work would rather claim unemployment than work in a contact center. The appeal of working in a contact center is on the decline for younger demographics, making it harder to find great support staff in the years to come.

2. Budget Cuts

Not being viewed as a cost center has always been a challenge for customer service organizations and contact centers. When companies are looking to cut costs, customer support and contact centers are usually one of the first areas on the chopping block.

A survey by analyst firm Ovum shows that only 20% of North American, Western European, Australian, and New Zealand contact center managers say their budget has grown in the last year. As a result contact centers must be more efficient and productive just to maintain current customer service levels, let alone improve them.

3. Rising Customer Expectations

According to results released by Accenture, companies are not keeping pace with rising consumer expectations for service. The major driver of this change is the increased competition between organizations on the quality of service provided. Another factor is the increased online connectivity of consumers, according to a study published by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by DHL.

Customer expectations will continue to rise, and only the most customer-centric organizations will be able to keep pace with the growth.

4. Multichannel Communications

New communication channels for customer service are constantly appearing and evolving. According to an Ovum survey of consumers in 16 countries, consumers are adopting these channels faster than companies can react. "Less than 10 percent of companies are prepared today for cross channel conversations," stated Daniel Hong, lead analyst of customer interaction at Ovum.

A seamless customer experience across multiple communication channels is a standard customer expectation that few companies get right. One of the biggest challenges is bridging and aligning silos within an organization to produce one view of the customer across all channels. Getting corporate buy in and implementing such an initiative can be a time consuming and difficult process.

5. Finding Quality Customer Service Representatives

Customer service agents are the most critical asset to a support organization. Despite whatever technology and processes are put in place, they ultimately have the biggest impact on the customer experience.

Hiring qualified support representatives has become more difficult. Combining this with budget cuts for employee salaries and a high agent attrition rate makes filling a contact center with highly skilled agents a significant hurdle.

6. Shared Services – Distributed and Virtual Environments

Globalization and changing dynamics in the market are changing corporate structures. The expansion of shared service centers means more customer support operations and processes are distributed across multiple locations and environments.

Although shared service centers can increase productivity and reduce operating costs, several challenges are apparent. With the advent of virtual environments, it is harder to manage staff that cannot be physically seen. Establishing consistent processes and rolling up reports across all various contact center locations and cultures is another challenge facing the support organization.

Strong change management, key performance indicator selection, and a culture of iterative measurement and optimization can help alleviate these issues.

http://www.customer1.com/blog/customer-service-challenges

Credit Insurance Explained: How Does It Work?

2012-01-03T12:30:00.002+08:00

This two-minute video explains what credit insurance is and demonstrates the relationship between the supplier, buyer and the credit insurer.

Credit insurance is an invaluable aid to successful national and international business-to-business trade. It covers the risk of financial loss that can occur when trade credit is offered by a business to its corporate customers – thus providing a set period of credit after provision of products or services before payment is due. In these circumstances, there is always a risk of non-payment, either because the customer may be unable or unwilling to pay, or because an unforeseen event prevents successful completion of the sales: for instance, a shortage of the currency of the contract in the customer’s country, or government intervention, or a natural disaster.

A war no boss can afford to lose

2012-01-02T18:31:00.000+08:00

<http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/1STAD/Article/>

via Business Times : nation
<http://www.btimes.com.my>
on 1/1/12

It is the beginning of a new year and there are employees, executives and managers who are waiting to start new jobs this week. These people could be among the high-performers who had helped drive the bottom lines of the companies they left behind. Besides "seeking greener pastures", reasons given by people who leave a company for another include uninspiring leadership, lack of career development, inflexible work options and inadequate work-life balance. Human resource services firm Randstad found that major factors that push employees in Malaysia to look outside their company for career moves include lack of opportunities for growth and advancement as well as uncompetitive remuneration. "A significant number, or 35 per cent, of those surveyed said their current role lacked opportunity for growth and development," Randstad regional director Karin Clarke said. Randstad 2011/12 World of Work Report - a survey of 8,200 employers and 4,500 employees across the Asia Pacific - found that within Asia, about one-third of managers and one half of employees surveyed intended to leave their job in the next 12 months. These figures jumped to 44 per cent of managers and 61 per cent of employees in China. The report revealed several striking external factors that drive employee turnover in Malaysia. About 70 per cent of employees surveyed in Malaysia cited inspirational leadership, 66 per cent rate workplace culture and 60 per cent a strong reputation when they consider which employer to work for. This indicates that Malaysian companies with strong leaders are more likely to win the fierce war for talent. As the country strives to achieve developed status by 2020, employers in Malaysia cannot afford to lose skilled and high-performing staff. The Ranstad report, which covered 720 employers and 404 employees in Malaysia, found that almost all, or 97 per cent, of the employers surveyed in the country saw filling critical vacancies as a significant productivity challenge. Clarke said there are various strategies that employers can adopt to retain their staff. "But the key to using these strategies effectively is understanding why staff are moving on in the first place," she emphasised. While it is true that an improved job market influences job turnover, the Randstad report indicates that the top factors that drive employee turnover are lack of career advancement and unsatisfactory salary. Therefore, Clarke reckons employers need to look at strategies to improve career growth and development opportunities by putting in place a talent management strategy and developing leadership potential from within to encourage key employees to stay. "Employers must also look at their business culture to see if it promotes good work-life balance. "This is a major influencing factor in the current market, and 27 per cent of managers who intend to stay on with their company over the next 12 months said they would leave for another company if they are offered better work-life balance," she added. When dealing with a younger generation, Clarke said companies could incorporate some level of flexibility into their job scopes. She said nearly all, or 99 per cent, of employers surveyed agreed that the merging of work and life meant a rise in demand for job security and flexibility. "The report revealed that employers are aware of the situation and intend to make changes to improve retention," she added.

Illiterate Fisherman at 90, Literary Star at 98!

2011-12-28T21:47:00.000+08:00

Retired Stonington lobsterman, 98, pens best-seller
By Joe Wojtas

Publication: The Day
Published 12/12/2011 12:00 AMUpdated 12/12/2011 12:29 AM
Tim Martin/The Day

In this Nov. 16 photo, Mark Hogan, left, of Mystic, a volunteer with Literacy Volunteers of Eastern Connecticut, examines a book called "In a Fisherman's Language" written by Jim Henry, right, of Mystic. Hogan tutored Henry, now 98, for two years, teaching him how to read and write.

Jim Henry's story sells out first printing, attracts interest as far away as Greece, Germany
Mystic - He may not have learned to read and write until he was 91, but Jim Henry is becoming a literary star.
Since the 98-year-old Academy Point resident released his first book, "In a Fisherman's Language" last month, he and his family have found themselves immersed in a world of book printings, agents, publicity and film rights.
The book's first printing of 780 copies sold out in just two weeks and a new shipment of 1,000 more arrived last week. A New York City film producer has contacted Henry and his family, they now have a book agent and a textbook publisher wants to feature his story in one of its books. A German television station and Greek newspaper are doing stories about him, there's a offer for an audio book and Kindle and Amazon want to offer an e-version.
And people from not just around the country but the world have called and emailed wanting a book.
"Everyone seems to have a story to share about why they want to give someone the book," said Henry's oldest grandchild, Marlisa McLaughlin, who's found herself working as his agent.
"It's been the most amazing, unifying experience I've ever had," she said.
McLaughlin added that family members have helped answer emails and send out books to those who order them.
"I've had to have a crash course in running a small business," she said. "But we can't handle the distribution of all these books. It's way too big for us."
So they have hired a New York City agent and McLaughlin said they are talking with a large publishing house about a second edition that would include a hardcover book.
But before Henry gets too famous, the retired Stonington lobsterman will hold a public book signing on Sunday, Dec. 18, at the senior housing project where he lives.
Quit school in third grade
Henry's story is almost made for the movies.
When he was a third-grade student, his father made him and his brother quit school so they could work odd jobs.
When he was 18 he moved to Stonington Borough, and he went on to not only captain a lobster boat, but also work at Electric Boat and serve in the National Guard. He became a skilled carpenter and plumber and even designed and built his own home in Stonington. He helped found the annual Blessing of the Fleet ceremony and ran it for years.
Over the years, he hid his illiteracy from friends and relatives by employing a variety of tricks, such as ordering what he heard someone else ask for when he went to a restaurant. He could write his name just well enough get by.
Learning to read at 91
Then, seven years ago, at 91, Henry was inspired after learning about the story of George Dawson, the grandson of a slave who wanted to earn his high school diploma by learning how to read and write at 98. Dawson went on to write the book "Life is So Good."
Henry began by reading books designed for first-graders and spent countless hours practicing how to write, first the alphabet and his name, then small words.
Mark Hogan, a retired East Lyme English teacher who is a volunteer with Literary Volunteers of Eastern Connecticut, spent many hours with Henry helping him read and write and the editing the book.
"In a Fishermen's Language" is a collection of short stories such as the time he was unable to save a fellow fisherman who fell overboard, his time as professional boxer and his arrival by boat from Portugal with his parents. Many of the stories involve his career on the ocean.
j.wojtas@theday.com

http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4834

10 Buzzwords to Take Off Your LinkedIn Profile Now

2011-12-27T00:55:00.000+08:00

10 Buzzwords to Take Off Your LinkedIn Profile Now
December 13, 2011 10:21 am

LinkedIn, the social-networking site for people with business cards, has released its list of the year's most overused professional buzzwords, culled from the profiles of its 135 million members. As one might expect, they're terms that sound awfully nice but say almost nothing specific about a person. They're the type of terms that are roughly the equivalent of listing "showing up to work" in your skills section. (Note: this might be rough to read if you are one of the people using these words, but we all need tough love sometimes.)

For example, dynamic is at No. 10. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its primary meaning is "of or pertaining to force producing motion: often opposed to static." So by using this word, you have literally told your potential employer that you are adept at not being stationary. You are the type of person who does things and moves from place to place.

At No. 9 is communication skills, and at No. 8 we have problem solving. Both of these guarantee nothing more than the person not being paralyzed by the prospect of a conversation or an empty stapler. Innovative is No. 7 and motivated is No. 6 — two more generic adjectives suggesting attributes that an employer would probably like to take for granted.

Track record is at No. 5. Note that it is not specified whether this track record is good or bad, though this person definitely has a track record of some kind. More important, a curriculum vitae is a track record in and of itself. Listing "track record" on a résumé is the equivalent of putting "reasons you should date me" on your OkCupid profile. Or tacking "things I need to buy" onto your shopping list.

At No. 4, we have extensive experience. (Please see above paragraph.)

At No. 3 is effective, a promise that when you are being dynamic, you're really making the most of it. And in second place, we have organizational — which may be important if you are, say, applying to be an accountant. But in most cases, it is not the most striking skill to be championing — it's like saying one is punctual or has neat handwriting.

And the No. one most overused professional buzzword is creative. This attribute, like many of the others, is one that is better shown than told. As LinkedIn's connection director put it in a release, "Use language that illustrates your unique professional accomplishments and experiences. Give concrete examples of results you've achieved whenever possible and reference attributes that are specific to you." And please, never use the word synergy without your tongue firmly pressed into your cheek.

Posted by Katy Steinmetz

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/13/ten-buzzwords-to-take-off-your-linkedin-profile-now/?xid=newsletter-weekly

A marriage of convenience

2011-12-26T12:04:00.000+08:00

Saturday December 24, 2011

A marriage of convenience

ON YOUR OWN
By TAN THIAM HOCK

HAVE you ever tried shopping for a 24 carat diamond? No? Never? Me neither.

Ever since I wrote about replacing the diamond with 24 roses to celebrate my wedding anniversary, my wife's sisters-in-arms have bombarded me with messages of disbelief calling me stingy, kedekut and unloving. They could not understand how her sacrifice of staying married to a guy like me was not worth at least a carat a year. I was stumped.

How do you value a relationship? From our marriage, my wife already owns 50% of everything that I own. Well... almost. In addition, she claims that her money is her money and my money is also her money. By the rule of the law and not by choice, I am actually generous to my wife to the point of being broke.

How do you value a business relationship? As an entrepreneur, you are always in partnership with somebody. Different valuations for different partnerships.

Partnership of convenience. Partnership of necessity. Partnership of greed.

Partnership is like marriage. Exciting moments of romance. Virgin wedding nights. Painful mutual discoveries. Then zombie existence. Partners till death do you part. In heavy losses or in share of heavenly profits.

Married partnerships are basically husband and wife teams or couples of the same sex. Like Batman and Robin, one personality should be more dominating than the other. Even better if their personalities complement each other. In my case, I do all the talking and my better half do all the work. That's great team work.

There are great debates over the merits of husband and wife working together in the same company. It's a no no if both are employees. It is just too complicated for everyone in the company.

However, as owners and entrepreneurs, a husband and wife team can be quite successful. As long as the wife can soothe the guy's ego and the husband can patiently listen to the day's woes. If it works, it is just good chemistry. That's all there is to it. No magic formulas and no marriage counselling required. I have seen some entrepreneur couples end up in divorce. Great teamwork, high profile and very successful in building their business. They just drift apart as individuals or because of mid-life infidelity. When the couple becomes successful, the wife will tend to spend lavishly on herself, to keep herself looking young and well accessorised. The husband will spend lavishly on the other younger women to keep himself feeling young and well satisfied. Broken business and broken families.

Friends in partnerships brings back fond memories. Back in the 80s, it was trendy for a group of 10 friends to invest RM10,000 each to open a pub. Since everyone loves to drink, it makes sense to open their own pub where everyone knows your name. Business was good as all the partners brought in their friends and acted like proud owners, bought drinks for everyone. Only problem was, payment was signed on 555 notebook, not on credit card slips. Soon, the pub ran out of cash and the poor hired manager was blamed for weak and irresponsible management by all the partners.

Doing business with friends have probably given me the most difficult moments. Over the years, I have lost a friend or two when I had to make a tough call. It is even more difficult when family members are involved.

On hind sight, I should have been more transparent with them. The gweilo approach of being upfront with your expectations and having clear defined roles and responsibilities will prevent any misunderstanding in the future. Nothing personal. Strictly business.

As an entrepreneur, you are always evaluating options on partnership issues. Is it better to have partners or to go it alone? If you go public, you will have to answer to hundreds or thousands of partner shareholders. Are you up to it?

If you are on your own, you only answer to yourself. This is my ideal entrepreneurship model.

But if you need financing or certain set skills, then you will have to engage in a partnership of necessity. There will be an increased element of uncertainty as now you not only have to grow the business but you have to learn how to manage other shareholder expectations. Learn to leave your ego outside when you walk into the meeting room. You are only as good as your last financial year.

Partnership of convenience is normally short term in nature. Team up, make money then split up. Until the next opportunity comes along. This partnership works particularly well if all partners have mutual trust and are contented with their fair share of spoils. In times of global and political uncertainty, this approach reduces risk in addition to a quicker turnaround return on investment.

Who would have thought that PAS and DAP will engage in a partnership of convenience? With ideologies poles apart, they have mutual distrust and like all politicians, are never contented with their fair share of spoils.

Sniffing the possibility of more success, they are now engaged in a partnership of necessity. Which makes them look like an odd couple. Throw in PKR and we now have a mish mash offering of rojak to the poor suffering voters.

With a GE 13 menu of either rojak or Barisan's nasi campur minus the beef, voters will have to make a choice. Chances are, the poor rakyat will go hungry for another 5 years. While the partners of greed continue to feast upon the wealth of the nation. Santa Claus is indeed coming to town. The season of giving has just started.

To all entrepreneurs, Merry Christmas.

The writer is an entrepreneur who hopes to shares his experience and insights with readers who want to take that giant leap into business but are not sure if they should. Email him at thtan@alliancecosmetics.com

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/12/24/business/10154286&sec=business

10 biggest ERP software failures of 2011

2011-12-24T00:39:00.000+08:00

10 biggest ERP software failures of 2011

It was another year filled with high-profile problem ERP projects

By Chris Kanaracus
December 20, 2011 09:43 AM ET

IDG News Service - With the year drawing to a close, one thing seems abundantly clear: There are still an awful lot of ERP and other software projects running off the rails out there.
Software project failures are no fun for anyone involved. They lead to piles of wasted money and effort, heaps of accusations and recriminations, and even to lawsuits.

Here's a look at some of the highest-profile problem projects to surface this year.

UK government scraps the 12 billion National program for IT in the NHS
In September, U.K. officials pulled the plug on what is considered to be the largest public IT project of all time, an attempt to provide electronic health records for all of the country's citizens.
The sprawling effort was begun in 2002 but failed to produce a workable system, despite massive spending outlays that have been estimated at about 12 billion (US$18.7 billion).

The U.K.'s Major Projects Authority concluded the project was "not fit to provide the modern IT services that the NHS needs."

"The higher they fly the farther they fall," said Michael Krigsman, CEO of the consulting firm Asuret, which helps companies run successful IT projects. "They tried to impose a centralized solution onto just an enormous geographic and political base. It was a massive undertaking filled with political differences and technical failures, and in the end it serves as an example of what not to do."

New York City's CityTime project
Fallout continued this year over New York's massive CityTime payroll system project, which has been wracked by cost overruns and a criminal probe into an alleged kickback scheme involving former employees of systems integrator SAIC and a subcontractor, TechnoDyne.

CityTime originally had a $63 million budget, but costs since skyrocketed astonishingly, with total estimates reportedly reaching $760 million.

In June, officials indicted TechnoDyne executives Reddy and Padma Allen. Others, including a number of former SAIC employees, have also been charged.

New York officials are seeking to recover money paid to SAIC. Earlier this month, SAIC said it had set aside a $232 million loss provision in connection with the case.

SAP project woes impact Ingram Micro's profits -- twice
In April, massive technology distributor Ingram Micro announced that problems with an SAP project in Australia had made a significant dent in its first-quarter profits.

Net income stood at $56.3 million, a drop from $70.3 million in the same quarter the previous year, Ingram Micro said at the time. The shortfall was "primarily attributable to difficulties transitioning to a new enterprise system in Australia," it said.
Ingram Micro went on to stress that the system would provide a great deal of value and efficiency once in place. However, it also warned that its financial results may yet again be impacted by the project's issues, a premonition that proved true.

In the second quarter, net income stood at $59.7 million, down from $67.7 million in the same period last year, Ingram Micro reported in July.

However, the SAP project's issues had been largely resolved, it said.
Montclair State University sues Oracle over a PeopleSoft project, but Oracle returns fire

In May, Montclair State University in New Jersey filed suit against Oracle, claiming the vendor had completely botched a PeopleSoft project that was supposed to replace the school's aging legacy systems.

Because of Oracle's alleged misdeeds, it might cost up to $20 million to finish the project, Montclair has claimed.

But Oracle quickly fired back, claiming that the problems were the school's fault.

"When issues arose during the course of the project, it became clear that MSU's leadership did not adequately understand the technology and the steps necessary to complete the project," Oracle said in a court filing. "Instead of cooperating with Oracle and resolving issues through discussions and collaboration, MSU's project leadership, motivated by their own agenda and fearful of being blamed for delays, escalated manageable differences into major disputes."

Montclair recently filed an amended complaint that adds a wealth of detail to its claims, including an allegation that Oracle ran a "rigged" software demo during the sales process and was also guilty of extortion.
Oracle hasn't commented on Montclair's latest claims.

Epicor sued by customer over ERP project that turned into a 'big mess'
Some ERP failures are bigger than others with respect to scope and cost, but they all can have a serious impact on a company's operations.

Commercial outdoor furniture seller ParknPool took Epicor to court in late November over a "big mess" of an ERP project that it says will results in it taking a loss this year.

ParknPool was looking to move up from its QuickBooks system, which it was outgrowing, Jim Fonner, administrative manager of the Lexington, Virginia, company, told IDG News Service in a previous interview.

It chose Epicor over a Sage system because Epicor's product seemed more tightly integrated, Fonner said. But nothing seemed to go right once the contract was signed, according to ParknPool, which has about 20 employees.

"Epicor said they could do it in seven weeks. We gave them seven months, and we got zero," he said in the interview. "I couldn't even look at a profit-and-loss statement. We couldn't process orders. We were saying, 'QuickBooks is so much better than this' and we were paying $3,500 a year for it."

In a previous statement, Epicor denied wrongdoing: "Our products, consulting personnel and partner performed well, all of which Epicor believes will be borne out as we defend our position in any proceedings."

Marin County accuses SAP, Deloitte Consulting of a racketeering scheme
In February, the government of Marin County, California, sued Deloitte Consulting and SAP in federal court, claiming they had "engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity" aiming at bilking the county out of more than $20 million in connection with a failed ERP project.

Marin County had originally sued Deloitte in a lower court last year, claiming that the systems integrator had dumped inexperienced workers on the project, which led to the problems.

The county has decided to rip out the SAP software and replace it with something else, in the belief that doing so would be a lower-cost option to finishing the job.

Its suit alleges that SAP and Deloitte are in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act (RICO). Under the statute, the county's desired $35 million in damages would be tripled.
Marin County later said that SAP enticed it into joining a "Ramp-Up" early adopter program for the software suite, a move it claims ended up contributing to the project's failure since the software was new and risky.

SAP and Deloitte have both denied any culpability. Deloitte has called Marin County's federal suit a "frivolous" tactic and an attempt to get a more favorable legal forum for its claims, while SAP has questioned why it would want to collude with Deloitte on a project that was doomed to fail, among other defenses.

The lawsuit has yet to go to trial. A case management conference is set for Jan. 27.

Epicor customer sues after allegedly wild cost overruns

It's common, and the cynical might say expected, for ERP projects to end up costing more than originally expected. But five times as much?
That's the claim of Whaley Foodservice Repairs of South Carolina, which sued Epicor in August.

Whaley, which sells and fixes equipment used by commercial kitchens, first started talking to Epicor about an ERP project in 2006. The system was supposed to be implemented and live in Whaley's home office as well as a dozen branches by March 2007, but that goal was never met and the software has never worked as it was supposed to, according to Whaley's lawsuit.

The project's implementation topped $1 million, or more than five times the original estimate of $190,000, according to the suit. Epicor has denied wrongdoing, and says that under the terms of the companies' agreement, Whaley still owes it more than $283,000.

Auditors: ERP software woes could cost Idaho millions

In March, an Idaho state auditor released a report that found that problems with a new system developed by Unisys for processing Medicaid claims could end up leading to the loss of millions of dollars.

The system is supposed to handle claims from health care organizations that treat patients who receive Medicaid. But design defects and other issues led to many payment delays and faulty processing of claims, according to the auditor. The state ended up sending more than $100 million in advance payments to providers while figuring out the problems.

It since began attempting to get that money back, but some $2 million was "at risk of not being recouped at all," the report said.

The auditor's report also pinpointed a potential root cause for the problems, noting that the system went live before certain testing milestones had been reached.

Lawson, CareSource Management head to court

Health care plan administrator CareSource Management Group sued Lawson Software in September, claiming that an ERP system from the company hadn't been able to get beyond the testing phase and wasn't the fully integrated suite Lawson promised.

The system instead was two modules, including the then-new Lawson Talent Management, according to the organization's suit. CareSource was in fact one of the first companies to install the new application, it added.

As the project went on, severe data-transfer issues between the talent management module and a financial application occurred, to the degree that at one point CareSource had 20 open tech-support cases with Lawson, it states. CareSource is demanding at least $1.5 million in damages.

In response, Lawson acknowledged that "certain issues" occurred with the modules' integration, but they were resolved. In addition, while the project did remain in a testing phase, CareSource "halted" it before filing the lawsuit, according to Lawson, which is seeking more than $335,000 in unpaid fees.

SAP-IBM payroll system woes fouled up nurses' pay

Nurses in Nova Scotia reportedly suffered through at least six months of faulty paychecks this year due to problems with an SAP system project led by IBM.

After the Victorian Order of Nurses flipped the switch on the SAP system in January, some nurses got shortchanged while others got double their expected pay, said Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses Union, in a July interview.

"My concern is with the nurses that got $100 more," Hazelton said. "They may not have noticed it. Our pay is never the same."

SAP's payroll software is solid technology, but tricky to implement given all the variables with worker pay, as well as the job of mapping over details from the legacy system, consultant Jarret Pazahanick previously told IDG News Service.

Most problematic SAP payroll project failures have the same characteristics, according to Pazahanick: "The common thread is junior consultants and weak testing."

Despite the above roll-call of ERP horrors, there's reason to be hopeful, said consultant Krigsman.

While the number of high-profile failures was about the same this year as last, Krigsman thinks the industry "is waking up to the fact that customers find this situation abhorrent and unacceptable." And many of the major vendors are taking steps to address the problem.

But, "ERP vendors are only one step in a broader ecosystem that includes the customers and the system integrators," Krigsman said.

"Ultimately solving the problem requires coordination among these three groups, but certainly the ERP vendors should take strong leadership."

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com

http://m.computerworld.com/s/article/9222864/10_biggest_ERP_software_failures_of_2011?source=CTWNLE_nlt_entsoft_2011-12-22&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+computerworld%2Fs%2Ffeed%2Ftopic%2F18+%28Computerworld+Applications+News%29

Plans to migrate LAPD to Google's cloud apps dropped

2011-12-22T22:19:00.000+08:00

Service is incompatible with FBI's security requirements, city says

By Jaikumar Vijayan
December 22, 2011 06:00 AM ET

Computerworld - After more than two years of trying, the City of Los Angeles has abandoned plans to migrate its police department to Google's hosted email and office application platform saying the service cannot meet certain FBI security requirements.

As a result, close to 13,000 law-enforcement employees will remain indefinitely on the LAPD's existing Novell GroupWise applications, while other city departments will use the Google Apps for Government cloud platform.

Council members last week amended a November 2009 contract the city has with systems integrator Computer Science Corp. (CSC) under which CSC was supposed to have replaced LA's GroupWise e-mail system with Google's email and collaboration system. Under the amended contract, the LAPD will no longer move its email applications to Google.

Instead, Google will pay up to $350,000 per year for the LAPD to maintain its GroupWise licenses for the entire term of the CSC contract and any extensions beyond that. Google will also substantially reduce the amount it charges for the rest of the city's use of Google Apps. Under the amendment, CSC too will reduce its initial integration fee for the project by $250,000.

Earlier this month, LA's chief legislative analyst, Gerry Miller, and its chief administrative officer, Miguel Santana, said the contract amendment was necessary because the Google service could not be brought into compliance with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) requirements.

"Although CSC does not have the technical ability to comply with the City's security requirements, it should be noted that the DOJ requirements are not currently compatible with cloud computing," the two wrote in a memo to council members.

The CJIS database is maintained by the FBI and is one of the world's largest repositories of criminal history records and fingerprints. The records are accessible to law enforcement officials around the country, but all entities authorized to access the database are required to comply with a strict set of security requirements pertaining to the manner in which the data is accessed, shared, transmitted, stored and destroyed. The security requirements include encryption of all data, both in transit and at rest, and FBI background checks on anyone who accesses the database. The policy applies to anyone with access to the database, including contractors.
The contract amendment proposal recommended by Miller and Santana does not make it clear how Google and CSC failed to comply with those requirements.

In the past however, city officials have not minced words in expressing their frustration over the issue. In a strongly worded notice of deficiencies to CSC last December, LA CTO Randi Levin blasted Google and CSC for repeatedly committing to deadlines for implementing the security requirements but then failing to meet them. At the time, Levin noted that the delays had forced the LAPD to move about 1,900 users who had migrated to Google's new email system back to the old GroupWise platform. The delay also caused the LAPD to postpone its planned migration of 4,000 more users to the new system last October, Levin said.

In April, the Los Angeles Times reported that the city was considering suing Google and CSC over their delay in implementing the CJIS security requirements, despite assuring city officials that they would do so.
Google maintains that the LAPD's security requirements were never part of the original contract. The company claims that the security requirements were introduced only after the migration to Google Apps was well underway at LA. According to the company, CJIS requirements are incompatible with cloud computing environments, and therefore present a unique challenge not just for Google but any cloud vendor attempting to migrate a law enforcement system to the cloud.

On Tuesday, the company reiterated those claims in an emailed statement: "We're disappointed that the City introduced requirements for the LAPD after the contract was signed that are, in its own words, 'currently incompatible with cloud computing,' the Google statement said. "We realize this means the LAPD may not be joining the 17,000 other City employees successfully using Google Apps. Even so, Los Angeles taxpayers have already saved more than two million dollars and the City expects to save millions more in the years ahead."

Jeff Gould, CEO of IT consulting firm Peerstone Research, said that Google's problems may have to do with an FBI requirement that all IT contractor personnel pass a criminal background check and sign a document known as the FBI Security Addendum. Levin's notice of deficiency says that the LAPD embarked on its migration to Google Apps based on the understanding that Google and CSC employees, who were required to sign the addendum, would do so by October 2010.

However, some of Google's support staff with access to Google Apps for Government servers, are based in Europe and will likely be unwilling to sign such an addendum, said Gould, who belongs to a group called Safegov.org that is focused on promoting a set of best practices for cloud deployment in the government. The FBI does not mandate that support personnel be based in the U.S, he said.
However, EU law might make it difficult for Google and others to get European employees to submit to FBI screening and fingerprinting, he said.

Gould added that it is disingenuous for Google or others to claim that CJIS requirements are incompatible with cloud environments. Google and CSC should have known what the requirements were because the CJIS policy document at the time the contract was signed clearly spells them out.

Going forward, the LAPD has the option of upgrading GroupWise, switching to a competing on-premise technology, or moving to cloud email services such as Microsoft's Exchange Online, which complies with CJIS, he said.

The lesson here for other city governments looking to move their police departments to cloud apps is not to get scared off by LA's experience, Gould said. Rather what it highlights is the need for them to do their due diligence better before embarking on it, he said.

"I see CJIS compliance requirements posing a problem for all large-scale cloud vendors, which are having difficulty getting U.S. nationals to perform all cloud-related work," said Matthew Cain, an analyst with Gartner.
"Most mega-vendors utilize some off-shore resources for development and operational reasons."

An LA City spokeswoman directed questions about the city's decision to Levin and to an LAPD spokeswoman. Neither one could be reached immediately.

Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at @jaivijayan or subscribe to Jaikumar's RSS feed . His e-mail address is jvijayan@computerworld.com.

http://m.computerworld.com/s/article/9222932/Plans_to_migrate_LAPD_to_Google_s_cloud_apps_dropped?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2011-12-22

Firefox - Different by Design

2011-12-22T10:45:00.000+08:00

Firefox = Speed, Flexibility and Security.
As a non-profit, Firefox is free to innovate on your behalf without any pressure to compromise. That means a better experience for you and a brighter future for the Web.

Best Practices in Implementing Self-Checkout

2011-12-22T01:57:00.000+08:00

Dec 01, 2011
Best Practices in Implementing Self-Checkout

By Rick Chavie, NCR Corp.
Introducing self-service technology can reap enormous benefits for retailers if implemented strategically, keeping in mind the store's current business model, culture, clientele and goals. For convenience stores, incorporating self-checkout systems can dramatically improve store operations, revenue generation and customer satisfaction. According to research conducted by The NPD Group for NCR Corp., two out of three consumers would prefer to have self-checkout available when they shop in a physical store. And, for the most part, the "convenience store culture" is uniquely suited to embrace and benefit from self-service technologies, like self-checkout.

Caters to On-the-Go Environment/Customers

First, convenience stores are already equipped with "serve yourself" features like ATMs, pay-at-the-pump gas, and self-serve coffee and food stations. Not only do customers enter convenience stores expecting to serve themselves, many prefer it. In fact, that same research study by The NPD Group found that more than half of consumers find having the option to use self-service kiosks and/or self-checkout is important for creating a positive experience, and one out of five find it to be extremely important.

By nature, convenience store customers are on the go, looking to pick up a few items quickly and get on their way. Technologies, like self-checkout, that support and maximize this expedited business model are good solutions for convenience store retailers looking to optimize customer satisfaction and create a positive "serve yourself" experience.

Short lines, quick transaction times and efficient staff assistance when requested are critical to securing repeat customers. If the typical on-the-go convenience store customer finds that they are frequently slowed down by waiting for a parking space and then standing in line to check out, they will find a convenience store that better caters to their needs.

Allows Redeployment of Resources
The typical convenience store customer does not want to wait for service. Most convenience stores operate with very limited staff -- often just one employee working at a time -- and limited time for customer related tasks such as checkout, restocking refrigerators and shelves, brewing coffee and replenishing fountain modules and hot/prepared food. This doesn't include other duties, including cleaning the store, handling vendor orders and correspondence, emptying trash containers and checking on gas delivery.

With self-checkout systems in place, busy convenience store staffs will have more free time to offer personal assistance when requested, delivering better customer service as needed.

Drives Repeat Customers & Long-Term Gains
Offering self-checkout has a wide-ranging, positive impact on the customer experience. Introducing self-checkout systems not only improves store operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, but also increases revenue generation. C-stores experience peaks in customer flow, and must keep checkout lines moving to maximize the number of transactions and decrease the number of walkaways.

When customers in a rush see a long, stagnant line, they will leave. Fifty percent of c-store customers admitted that they became so frustrated waiting in a retailer line that they walked out without completing their purchase, according to the 2008 Maritz Poll, "Are Checkout Lines Affecting Retailers' Bottom Lines?"

Delivering a fast checkout process is critical to fostering repeat customers who know they can expect a quick stop at the store. Selecting reliable, state-of-the-art self-service technology that has minimal disruptions and fewer equipment failures will facilitate quick transactions, keep lines moving and reduce parking lot and in-store congestion. Overall, customer flow is improved by speeding up point-of-sale transactions. Self-checkout allows for more customers per hour and therefore, the opportunity for increased sales.

In the May 2010 issue of Convenience Store News, Maria Fidelibus, vice president of technology for c-store chain Quick Chek, said "self-checkout has allowed the stores to handle more customers during peak periods, while reducing checkout lines and parking lot congestion; increased the number of transactions completed hourly … allowed store employees to complete tasks in the store rather than having to stop and assist during the checkout process."

Retailers can redeploy staffs who would have previously worked at checkout stations during peak rush to assist customers as they shop, improving the customer's experience while in the store.

One Size Does Not Fit All
Once each retailer determines that self-service technologies are appropriate, creative integration based on each store's unique needs will be important to success -- one size does not fit all.

C-stores should closely review their POS transaction logs (T-logs) and evaluate analytics to determine if self-checkout is an appropriate addition to the store's infrastructure. Analytics include volume of transactions, average amount of each purchase and purchase methods. This data helps determine which self-service hardware and software best fits the store's needs and how many systems will offer the best return on investment.

Implementation is also an important consideration when adopting self-checkout systems. Placement, front-end integration, and aesthetics like color and size have a significant impact on how the technology is received by customers and how valuable the systems are for revenue generation. For example, c-stores are small and space must be maximized. Effective integration of self-checkout systems makes the best use of limited real estate and positions the hardware in a manner that increases sales. The latter can include arranging smaller, last-minute purchase items like candy and gum around the machines.

Quick Chek demonstrates a successful model of a store that effectively implemented self-checkout and has benefitted from the investment. Working with its technology provider, Quick Chek selected self-checkout systems with a sleek, "saw-tooth alignment" to match the look and feel of their stores. With candy racks placed around the machines to make the best use of space, the POS station offers a welcoming, visually pleasing transaction point.

In sum, c-stores have the potential to see great benefits from the implementation of self-service technologies. Self-checkout systems are well-suited to fit consumer demands, business operations and the existing "culture" of a typical c-store. However, retailers must understand and consider their business analytics and clientele preferences when selecting and incorporating self-checkout systems to ensure the greatest return on investment.

Rick Chavie is vice president, marketing, retail and hospitality solutions, for NCR Corp. He brings extensive experience in global retail industry roles with major service providers and retailers. He has served as senior vice president for Industry Solution Management at SAP where he created a new vision for SAP's retail industry leadership and global innovation; led Strategy and International for The Home Depot including responsibility for Home Depot's China entry, and played a key role in developing Accenture's retail consulting practices in Germany and Japan. A Fulbright Scholar in International Trade, Chavie holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) and a master's of business administration degree from the Harvard Business School.

http://www.retailtechnology.csnews.com/top-story-best_practices_in_implementing_self_checkout-354.html

Kum & Go Adds Radiant Technology to Portfolio

2011-12-22T01:29:00.000+08:00

Dec 14, 2011
Kum & Go Adds Radiant Technology to Portfolio

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- Kum & Go and NCR Corp. reached an agreement to bring the Duluth, Ga.-based supplier's Radiant convenience store technology into the locally based retailer's stores, which number over 400.

Kum & Go chose the Radiant solution to manage a wide range of its business operations from one system, including fuel island, foodservice and multichannel marketing initiatives. The full breadth of the solution includes point-of-sale software and hardware terminals, fuel controllers and electronic payment controllers. The integration of the solution will enable Kum & Go to deliver an exceptional customer experience, helping the company connect with consumers both inside and outside the store, according to NCR.

"We were looking for a technology solution that could easily scale with us and support future growth initiatives," stated Kum & Go CFO Craig Bergstrom. "NCR was able to meet our needs and provides a strong, feature-rich technology that decreases our overall technology costs."

NCR acquired Radiant Systems, a point-of-sale solution provider to convenience stores and other specialty retail markets, through a cash tender offer of $28 per Radiant Systems share this summer. The equity purchase price totaled $1.2 billion, as CSNews Online previously reported.

"As the leading technology provider for the c-store industry, NCR is focused on delivering innovative and reliable solutions that drive profitable growth and simplify c-store operations," said Jimmy Frangis, vice president, NCR Hospitality and Specialty Retail. "We value our new relationship with Kum & Go and are proud to work with a company that shares our vision of providing industry-leading customer service."

http://www.retailtechnology.csnews.com/top-story-kum___go_adds_radiant_technology_to_portfolio-362.html

KB14320-How to Maximize Battery Life and Free Memory on the BlackBerry smartphone

2011-12-21T02:43:00.000+08:00

http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB14320

BlackBerry - Battery Power Saving Tips

2011-12-21T02:38:00.000+08:00

Battery Power Saving Tips

Charging
Charge BlackBerry® smartphone as much as possible
Use wall chargers as the preferred charging method

Media
Reduce volume
Use headphones
Load media using the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager (Avoids resizing)
Turn off equalizer settings (Media – Options)

Browsing
Visit mobile sites where applicable
Turn Repeat Animations to a lower setting (Browser – Options – General Properties)
Close browser when finished using (close with ESC key, not red End key)

Screen/Keyboard
Reduce Backlight Timeout (Options – Screen/Keyboard)
Reduce Backlight Brightness (Options – Screen/Keyboard)
Holster smartphone (turns off LCD automatically)
Set Audible Roll to mute (Options – Screen/Keyboard)
Key Tone Off (Options – Screen/Keyboard)
Use a sleeve when storing the smartphone in a pocket

Network Connections
Turn off unused connections when not in use, i.e. GPS, Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth®
Use Auto On/Off
Use single mode only (1XEV, 2G only, 3G only)

Shortcuts
Use shortcuts instead of activating Java® menus (Browser – Options – Browser Configuration)

Camera
Turn off flash (Camera – Options)
Set picture size to Small (Camera – Options)
Set Color Effect to Normal (Camera – Options)
Set Picture Quality to Normal (Camera – Options)

Applications
When exiting, be sure to close the app, not leave it running in the background (close with ESC key, not red End key)
Log out of third-party applications when they are not needed (Instant Messaging, etc.)

Indicators
Set Audible notification to Off (Profiles)
Turn off coverage LED (Profiles)

GPS
Use the zoom out function to get the largest viewable area that you can still use usefully

To learn more about making the most of your BlackBerry smartphone, view an interactive demo.

http://us.blackberry.com/support/blackberry101/tips/saving.jsp

Mobile device management: More than just software

2011-12-20T20:09:00.000+08:00

Tablets in the Enterprise

Mobile device management: More than just software

By Joshua Burke | December 19, 2011, 7:52 AM PST

Mobile device management (MDM) solutions for the enterprise are exploding into the market, and selecting an MDM solution has never been more difficult. The industry is far from mature, the client bases for most vendors are small, track records specifically around mobile are short, and costs are all over the board.

MDM generally enters organizations as a tactical need; there's some point of pain that must be resolved immediately. The important steps of planning, evaluation, trial runs, and functional requirement documents get swept aside or severely truncated. I've heard stories of organizations purchasing MDM solutions based on as little as one phone call to an existing vendor purporting to have a "mobile solution." Organizations are often disappointed with even the medium-term functionality of short-run solutions but are pressed to make it work for budgetary reasons.

Conscientious businesses take a more proactive approach to mobile device management and seek to mitigate the emergent tactical needs with solutions that will serve in the longer term. Discussions around mobility usually go through three stages:
Features
Devices
People

In general terms, discussions surrounding mobility shouldn't be considered complete until the "people" stage is reached. This is an important distinction that differs from the standard IT decision matrix. Most IT decisions are based on features and service, and they answer the question, "Will hardware, software, or service X meet the following functional requirements?" After this, the discussion moves to price and service levels. IT likes it this way because it's easy to spot the winners and make logical, data-driven decisions.

Mobility doesn't quite fit this logical model. There are other factors involved that IT isn't used to handling. For example, take the fundamental decision around purchasing corporate-liable devices or allowing personally-owned devices. Is the company willing to pay for corporate-owned devices for staff and implement support structures around mobility? Can the help desk provide the additional support for a "foreign" mobile device platform?

If this sounds quasi-normal, let's upset the apple cart with a true people-focused question: Do staff want to carry around two devices? Is anyone outside of IT keen to wearing the "bat-belt" of high availability to home and office? It's questions like these that we get to grapple with around mobility. And these kinds of questions drive IT nuts.

Let's try a similar scenario around BYOD. If the company says no to corporate-liable devices, are they ready to reasonably relax controls and have some give and take with staff? Is the support desk ready to start taking a shot at fixing whatever walks through the door instead of having known device types? Now, here's the people question: How will staff respond to giving IT a relatively high level of control over their personal devices? These are just a few of the myriad challenges that surround mobile management that IT isn't used to looking at.

I'm going to boil the argument down to its most fundamental point. Tablets and smartphones are emotionally charged tools. Human beings get attached to these devices in a peculiar way that's not shared with other digital productivity tools, and mobile management strikes at the heart of this strange affection.

I point this out because mobile management isn't like any other IT initiative you've ever launched — it's far more personal in the eyes of your end users. Because of the strange relationship that people have with their smartphones and tablets, your mobility management solution needs to take this into account. Here's how one should begin.

Start your selection process as you normally would, look at the offerings, build your functional requirements and narrow your vendor list. You are likely to be surprised how widely the feature implementations vary as you evaluate solutions, no matter what the sales reps tell you about market parity.

Once that feature level discussion is over, it's time to talk devices. Some of your device options will be constrained by the solution provider. Most MDM solutions cover a wide variety of devices, but many are more specialized to a particular platform. The device discussion isn't so much about what devices are supported as it is about finding out whether the supported devices sufficiently meet the business needs.

Items to consider in the device discussion include the need for device level encryption and whether you require regulatory oversight of the device data for things like legal holds and e-discovery requests. Think about these things up front, because they are very uncomfortable when they sneak up from behind. When you're fairly confident that you've got the right mix of features and devices to meet the business needs, then it's time to move to the final stage.

The process above is where IT usually quits and moves into procurement and implementation. With mobile, this is not an adequate departure point — that is, not if you want anyone to use the provided solutions. In the words of Monty Python, "Now for something completely different." The conversation should begin to look something like this, "We have the following capabilities on these devices, but what's reasonable to expect of the staff?"

If you are provisioning corporate-owned devices, this can be a far shorter conversation — after all, the company is paying for the devices and the monthly service. There's an expectation that the organization can do what it wishes with a device it owns. However, the conversation still needs to happen.

For corporate-liable devices, the conversation revolves around getting the right mix of control and functionality so that end users aren't frustrated by the discrepancy in usable features between personal and business devices. If your company wants PIN codes, passwords enforced, or hardware encryption, then do it. But when discussions start postulating about restricting apps, denying access to web sites, and so forth, it's time to re-focus on the business need. The temptation with these tools is to do some things because you can without asking whether or not you should.

With mobile, it's a critical distinction. A small handful of draconian policies will ruin your mobility initiative and color it forevermore.

On the personal device end of the spectrum, focus your attention on defining the absolute minimum to meet requirements. Your end users will thank you, and your organization will reap the benefits in the form of reduced costs and more productive employees. In the personal device space, less is more.

Consider these questions surrounding your employee-owned devices: Is it necessary to enforce measures like PIN codes on personal devices? How would your client base respond to using a dedicated mail and calendar app for work? What would the acceptance level be of some "self-service" tools for mobility, like a web portal giving limited management capabilities over personal devices in the event that a device is lost or stolen? The answers to these questions should give you a good framework for the decision points around personal devices in the workplace.

The most important thing to remember about implementing MDM in your organization is that a mobile device is not another computer.

Tablets and phones become personal — we humans just can't help it. MDM can help your enterprise corral the flood of mobile madness, but it can also turn the perception of IT into the control-freak-nerd-herd if things don't roll out quite right. Do the work up front to make the policies and their enforcement something that everyone can live with, and your MDM implementation will be a success.

MDM isn't just a software solution. In the end, it's both an art and a science. The artistry of mobile device management comes when you are able to look through the lens of corporate requirements and see the person and their mobile devices on the other end, using the devices in a way that makes sense to them, not to you.

http://m.techrepublic.com/blog/tablets/mobile-device-management-more-than-just-software/542?tag=nl.e101

IT's winning (and losing) job titles

2011-12-19T22:20:00.000+08:00

In the intense new battle for IT jobs, those with multiple skills and broad knowledge of technologies will prevail.

By Julia King

December 19, 2011 06:00 AM ET
Computerworld

Sure, there are still some Cobol systems on their last legs in the deep recesses of just about every large IT organization. But they are most assuredly on their way out -- as are the programmers who coded them.

Also due to disappear, CIOs say, are virtually all other single-purpose IT job titles. Unix administrators? Forget them. Today's trend toward services-based software, mobile apps, cloud and consumer technologies means it is the breadth, not the depth, of knowledge and experience that wins -- or keeps -- the IT job.

And the job itself most likely won't be based in an IT department, but embedded in another business function such as sales, marketing, manufacturing, or supply chain, with the employee working alongside tech-savvy business colleagues.

"It's very unusual for us to have folks who only have one skill," says Norm Fjeldheim, CIO at Qualcomm in San Diego. "There are folks who I was forced to let go because they only wanted to retain one skill set. It's very career-limiting for people to be so specialized that they can't work in multiple environments and multiple technologies."

Unlike the traditional IT environment, which consisted of a portfolio or inventory of discrete applications and technologies tended by in-house technical specialists, the emerging environment is a tightly-woven fabric of on-premises and off-premises services offered to an increasingly mobile workforce and customer base on an ever-widening range of consumer devices, like smartphones and iPads.

These services are designed, assembled and continually enhanced by professionals with a broad knowledge of what the technologies can do and how they fit together, plus a deeper, more specialized knowledge of how they can be applied to a particular set of steps or tasks in an overall business process, such as order to cash or procure to pay. The ultimate goal is to build and assemble a combination of technical capabilities and business services that enables a company to distinguish itself from its competitors in terms of price, customer service, operational efficiency and other key business metrics.

Enterprise Architects
At General Mills, a regular on Computerworld's Best Places to Work in IT list, CIO Mike Martiny says he has organized these various capabilities into centers of excellence where the mission is to "stitch a number of technologies together to create a solution or capability that didn't exist before."

New job titles to emerge in the centers of excellence range from solutions developer to enterprise architect.
"Expertise in a technical area is an entry in the door," Martiny says. After that, General Mills will focus on building skills in four key domains: security, mobility, integrated digital marketing, and enterprise data and governance. "These are four areas that have a broad reach," he notes.

Winner
Jeff Stachowski
Information architect, user experience lead (consultant)
Current assignment: American Airlines, Dallas

As an information architect, Jeff Stachowski describes himself as both a translator and an ambassador.
"It's up to the information architect to work with the business or project manager and understand all of their requirements, then communicate to developers how to build what they want," he says.

In his current assignment as a user experience lead on a Web development project at American Airlines, Stachowski says, "Communication is my No. 1 strongest point."

Stachowski built his first Web page on a lark back in 1996. He and a graphic designer friend bought a modem, started checking out early Web pages built in straight HTML and were hooked. "It was the most amazing thing I ever saw in my life," he says.
Over the past 15 years, Stachowski, who is largely self-taught, has worked as a Web developer, information architect and user experience expert, on both a permanent and contract basis. He keeps his knowledge current by attending seminars, reading blogs and gaining on-the-job experience.

In the course of a day, Stachowski says, he works with programmers, business managers, art directors, designers and clients. "The information architect is like a real-life architect who figures out where to put the restrooms in a building or how much parking is needed and where it will go," he says. "You have to understand everything that is going on and organize the information in a logical manner," he explains. That includes figuring out where to place various buttons, tabs and the logical progression of links to other information.

"In my job, I don't need to know every trick in Photoshop, but I need to be able to communicate visually an idea. You also need an understanding of a browser's capabilities and how to store information in a database. I don't know how to do all of those things, but I must know if it's possible and what the requirements are," he says.

Because technology is changing constantly, Stachowski says anyone considering a job like his "has to be fluid and willing and able to change."
"With HTML3, everything is in tables, then HTML4 has Cascading Style Sheets, and now there is HTML5. It's not like it was with mainframe programmers who had a specialty. We don't have that luxury anymore. Systems change every four to five years and you either learn or you're always going to have that college kid coming out of school who knows all the new stuff," he says.

The payoff is steady work, even in a stumbling economy.
"There is absolutely a demand for my skills," he says, noting that he typically receives three to four calls and three to four emails a day from recruiters with jobs paying between $80,000 and $90,000 per year.
"I turned off my resume on Dice and Monster," he says, referring to the popular job sites. But he also cautions that demand for his skills is cyclical.
"When the Internet bubble burst, guys like me were the first to go," he says, again adding, "You have to be fluid and willing and able to change."
— Julia King

Martiny says the company hires people to pursue careers, not to do a job or assume a specific title. "We always have specific technology roles open," he says, "but we're looking for very specific skill sets for a period of time" -- not forever. "That's why we look for people with continuous curiosity and a demonstrated history of continuous learning."

At Qualcomm, Fjeldheim considers the role of the enterprise architect to be among the most difficult to fill, especially by newcomers. That's why he is "cherry-picking" the best and brightest from his existing IT staff to transition into the role of enterprise architect. "IT still has architecture responsibility, but we're also charged with creating and deploying some of the new and innovative technologies coming in. That's not an easy role to fill from outside, partly because the role needs to understand the business and what the business is trying to accomplish," he says.

BI Analysts
A second key trend driving a shift in IT jobs is the proliferation of so-called big data -- the massive volumes of bits and bytes collected by hundreds of thousands of transaction-based systems, sensors and RFID systems and, increasingly, social networks.

"IT's main role since the 1970s was to reduce inefficiencies in manual processes and create productivity gains through automation," notes Tim Sarvis, manager of IT plant operations and services at Eastman Chemical in Kingsport, Tenn. "The next big thing is trying to gain insight from all of this data -- terabytes and terabytes of data. [We need] a way to model the data and put it in the hands of knowledge workers and decision-makers to make better, faster decisions," he says.

At Eastman, "we're structuring our talent pool around this mega-trend," adds Sarvis. "Data modelers, scrum masters, data architects, corporate architects are all titles that we'll be focusing on to beef up business intelligence."

Guy Peri, director of business intelligence at Procter & Gamble, says the consumer goods giant regards BI analysts as "trusted advisers" to the business. The company is investing heavily in both BI tools and BI analysts; Peri estimates that BI will account for as much as 20% of the company's IT organization and budget.

What's more, P&G is setting up BI universities to train its supply chain partners in the company's processes and analytics. "We want to drive continual BI at the operational level, right down to consumers," Peri says. P&G is also tracking "chatter" on various social networks, incorporating the customer feedback it gathers into its overall analytics-based business decisions.

Mobile App Developers
Another huge trend driving the current demand for very specific skills is the ever-increasing mobility of workers, customers, suppliers and partners, experts say. Simply stated, mobile applications have exploded. In 2010, sales of Apple iOS apps totaled nearly $1.8 billion. This year, global mobile app sales are projected to hit $4 billion, according to market researcher IHS.

But as Woodson Martin, senior vice president of employee success at Salesforce.com, sees it, mobility can't be separated from cloud computing and social networking. "When I think of IT today and in the future, social, mobile and cloud are the three words that matter, whether you're in the consumer or enterprise space or a small or large business," Martin says.

"Customers want mobile applications that have a social networking component and that run in the cloud. So what I need are people who can embrace all of these things, and not in little pockets, either," he emphasizes. "I need everybody on my team to be oriented around all of these technologies."

Specifically, Martin says, "skill sets like HTML5, Ruby and Java allow us to design applications in a run-anywhere world, so they can be social, mobile and cloud," he says. As for titles, Martin says he's seeing fewer technology-specific titles and more titles like "technical staff member."

"The work done by members on these teams changes based on what the organization needs," he says. "They may be working on Web architecture one day and a mobile architecture the next day. What we're seeing are the traditional silos melting away as everyone is racing to produce social, mobile and cloud [applications]."

The need for individuals with knowledge of and experience using a wide range of technologies, coupled with a thorough understanding of how a business operates, is profoundly shifting IT's overall role in the enterprise, according to several veteran CIOs and industry watchers.

Rather than acting as implementers of technologies that can make the business run cheaper and faster, IT staffers are moving into leadership and innovation roles, informing and advising executive management about how technology can, for example, help set prices and mix product offerings to improve profits or market share.

"IT is leading the business, especially from an enterprise perspective," says Doug Beebe, who recently moved from an executive role in enterprise IT to a financial strategy and technology executive position at Toyota Motor Sales.

"Most business divisions are very much siloed. They've got a set of things they need to do on a daily basis and they aren't afforded the opportunity to look across the organization," Beebe notes. "When IT understands the [business] vision, it can recommend things that technology can do to fulfill that vision."

At Chicago-based Kraft Foods, the IT function is centralized, but CIO Mark Dajani has purposely embedded his staffers into business units so they can thoroughly understand the company's mission and drive results.

"I don't want IT to influence, but to lead the business," Dajani says. "IT is about driving business results and ownership of business results."

Winner
Yin Nawady
Director of analytics and process management
Diamond Resorts International, North Las Vegas

Here's how Yin Nawady, a Harvard graduate with a degree in government and politics, describes what she does for a living: "I look at a lot of numbers and data all day long, and I draw conclusions and help the business to make their decisions using that information." She believes her career outlook is exceptionally bright.
"It's a self-serving statement, I know, but I think there is no limit to the opportunities," she says. "Companies need people who can connect the dots between data, technology and the business, and communicate those relationships."

Nawady began her career as a financial analyst, planning and managing budgets. "That's where I started to understand the guts of business," she says. From there, "I started applying analysis to forward thinking, which established the link between analytics and business."
Nawady moved through various management positions at online companies where she was continually embedded in technical teams. "Between the financial analysis experience and my experience in the online sector, I had the technical foundation I need for BI and analytics," she says.

Her current work focuses on constructing a 360-degree view of Diamond Resorts' customers; this involves analyzing both structured and unstructured data from social media, various online sites and customer information. But the biggest part of her job is communication, she says. "I spend a lot of time on external communication with stakeholders, with our chairman, CEO, our president and our CFO. A lot of that communication is to make sure that what we're doing is directly tied to the strategic direction of the company," she explains.

Skills needed for Nawady's role include "excellent analytical and critical thinking skills," she says. "A financial, marketing or strategic analyst role could be the foundation as long as it's digital. That's the new frontier."

Other required skills include a solid grasp of social media, Google analytics and online metrics, Nawady says. "You must also be familiar with data mining and databases. You don't need to be a SQL coder or developer. On the other hand, there are many technical concepts with regard to data mining that are incredibly helpful."

Whereas more technical IT professionals focus inward and drill down into data, Nawady equates her role to "looking at an inverted triangle where you're constantly looking upward and outward to all the different disciplines," and adds, "It's all about critical thinking."
— Julia King

RIM's CEO tandem: Portrait of pathetic

2011-12-17T01:26:00.000+08:00

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/btl/rims-ceo-tandem-portrait-of-pathetic/65586?tag=nl.e539

RIM's CEO tandem: Portrait of pathetic
By Larry Dignan | December 16, 2011, 3:46am PST
Research in Motion's two CEOs have to go. The company has lost investor—and increasingly customer—confidence over the last year, its latest greatest savior OS is behind schedule, the PlayBook is a disaster and RIM could be circling the porcelain rim if it isn't careful.

Worth every penny

Nevertheless, RIM carries on with its current management. Co-CEOs James Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are taking $1 in salary a year. This token gesture inspires instant cynicism. The two may only be worth $1 a year at this point. You get what you pay for.

RIM's earnings conference call after a disappointing fourth quarter outlook was another romp through bizarro world. In this world, RIM is always on the cusp of a massive transformation and a product home run. If you've been paying attention you already know the punchline. RIM strikes out more than the Phillies' Ryan Howard in a playoff series.

Also: RIM's Q4 outlook: BlackBerry shipment projections tank | RIM expected to cut BlackBerry sales targets | RIM CEOs respond about poor U.S. sales, BlackBerry 10 delay | CNET: Want a BlackBerry 10 phone? Don't hold your breath

But why listen to me. Let's have RIM's dynamic duo tell the story in their own words.

Balsillie:

The last few quarters have been some of the most trying in the recent history of this Company. As you know, we are in the process of completing the largest platform and organizational transition in the Company's history, and while we have remained a solidly profitable — remain solidly profitable and delivered significant unit volume during this transition, we recognize that our shareholders may feel we have fallen short, in terms of product execution, market share, and financial performance. That being said, we continue to believe that our transition will better position us to deliver enhanced value to shareholders, and enhance our leading position in the mobile communication space. It is important for you to know that Mike and I, as two of RIM's largest shareholders, understand investor sentiment, and we are more committed than ever, to addressing the issues at hand.

To further demonstrate our passion, alignment and commitment to RIM's long-term success, both Mike and I have asked the compensation committee to make a change to our cash compensation, such that our salaries will be reduced to $1.00 per year, effective immediately.

Translation: Hopefully this weak board of ours will keep us around. Here's a token salary cut for keeping us around.

From there, Balsillie talks about launching new devices and tablets as evaluating products, operations and manufacturing. In other words, hang on folks RIM will get this right sometime.

Balsillie continues:

We are leaving no stone unturned, and are evaluating a number of areas including product management and the number of SKUs offered, supplychain and bill of material cost efficiency, marketing and advertising, partnership and licensing opportunities, organizational and management structure, opportunities to leverage the BlackBerry infrastructure. While the proposed transformation may take some time, we believe that the steps we are taking will improve our performance, and better enable us to deliver on what we expect of ourselves, what our stakeholders want us to achieve, and what the 75 million loyal and passionate BlackBerry subscribers expect from us.

Translation: Yes folks, we think we still have a lot of times.

And there's more. Balsillie continues:

RIM's US business is particularly weak, and the positive trends we are seeing in several markets around the world including the UK, France, South Africa, Mexico and Argentina are being offset by high churn, and decreasing subscriber base in the United States.We are not satisfied with the performance of the business in the United States. In order to drive increasing demand for BlackBerry products and services in this key market, we are planning to undertake a comprehensive advertising and promotional program in 2012.This is expected to have an impact on earnings, as we invest to maintain and grow the BlackBerry brand and awareness in the high-performance BlackBerry 7 product family.

Translation: We have to cut prices because the U.S. isn't sold on our products. We'll market our way out of this mess. Yeah, that sounds good right Mikey?

After a thousand more words of babble, Balsillie hands the mike to his other half. Lazaridis is just as delusional but from an engineering perspective.

Lazaridis says:

We are committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook, and it's an important aspect of our longer term smartphone and mobile computing strategy. While we would have preferred the initial launch to have been smoother, I firmly believe that the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet remains the most secure and most advanced tablet platform on the market today, with true, real-time multi-tasking, flash-enabled browsing, uncompromised video streaming for both HTML 5 and flash video, which constitutes the majority of premium video content on the internet today, as well as a flexible platform based on open standards. These attributes will be further enhanced by the PlayBook 2.0 software when it becomes available.

The competitive dynamics of the tablet market are shifting rapidly, with a number of new entrants and pricing moves in the industry. As we await the launch of PlayBook 2.0, we expect to continue to run promotions to stimulate the market for PlayBook, both in the enterprise and consumer segments. While all PlayBook users will benefit from the new PlayBook 2.0 features such as native e-mail, contacts and calendar integration and the Android player, enterprise customers will benefit even further. New enterprise-focused features include enhanced device manageability, enterprise application deployment, and BlackBerry Balance.

Translation: We're going to lose money on every PlayBook we sell. You could argue I should be committed for being committed to that turd tablet. And yes we expect RIM customers to wait indefinitely until we figure out this native email thing.

Lazaridis then talks about why the latest superphones on BlackBerry 10 will be delayed.

We need a highly integrated dual core LTE platform.The processor we selected offers industry-leading power and efficiency, and also allows us to deliver the industrial design, that we believe is critical to the success in this market segment.This chipset will not be available until mid 2012. And as a result of this and certain other factors, we now expect our first BlackBerry 10 smartphones to reach markets in the latter part of calendar 2012. In the meantime, we believe that our strong BlackBerry 7 portfolio will continue to drive adoption of BlackBerry around the world.

Translation: The superphone is right around the corner. Really it is.

After a series of semi-painful questions Lazaridis says:

This is absolutely, not business as usual at RIM. We are going to do what it takes to get the value for shareholders and the Company, and we are totally redoubling our efforts on execution here.

How To Build A Beautiful Company

2011-12-16T22:09:00.000+08:00

http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4738

How to Build a Beautiful Company
Employing open-book management and leadership by consensus, the Sky Factory's Bill Witherspoon has set out to create the perfect business.

As Told to Leigh Buchanan | Jun 8, 2010
Andy Ryan

Blue-Sky Thinking Bill Witherspoon's company manufactures high-tech illusions. Its virtual windows and skylights use backlit images and high-definition LCDs to replicate clouds drifting across perfect skies.

In the early 1970s, Bill Witherspoon lived for months in a school bus parked in the Oregon desert. A hundred miles from the nearest town, he spent day after day painting the sky and the clouds. He later sold his work for tidy sums. Witherspoon would spend the rest of his life alternating between painting and launching companies. His first company experimented with new methods of agricultural management. In 1982, he co-founded Westbridge Research Group, a developer of ecologically friendly agricultural products that boasted Jonas Salk as a board member. In 1990 came a brush with notoriety when Witherspoon carved the Hindu symbol for the forces of nature into a dry lakebed in the desert. The design spanned a square quarter-mile. Aerial photos from a National Guard reconnaissance plane sparked a panic over aliens.

During one of his peckish artistic periods, Witherspoon offered to tear out the ceiling in an orthodontist's office and replace it with a skyscape made from painted tiles in exchange for braces for his children. That act of creative barter provided the idea for The Sky Factory, a $3.9 million, 34-employee company in Fairfield, Iowa. The business makes backlit images of sea and sky that are installed on ceilings and walls. Its products are popular in hotels, spas, restaurants, and hospitals.

When Witherspoon, then 60, launched The Sky Factory in 2002, he wondered, Was it possible to create a company as beautiful as a work of art? A beautiful company, in Witherspoon's mind, starts with the elimination of hierarchies that impede and repress the expression of people's natural curiosity and creativity. The Sky Factory's organizational structure is as flat as its creator's beloved desert. There are no employees, just owners, and everyone cares deeply about doing what is best for the group.

Both painting and company building start with a blank canvas. In a painting you create beauty with the addition of each brush stroke. In a company you create it with the addition of each talented, engaged person and with each thoughtful act. I thought about how satisfying it would be to build a beautiful company, and how much better for the people who work there.

I am an optimist and an idealist. In shaping The Sky Factory, I started with the assumption that people are naturally curious and creative. I wanted to craft an environment in which they would act like entrepreneurs, not like robots. My first decision was to give people the opportunity to purchase discounted ownership, and 100 percent of employees have participated. The responsibility for revenue and profit belongs to everyone. From that foundation, I derived five principles.

1. Share information

As a company of owners, everyone who works here is naturally motivated to participate in important decisions. To do so, people have to know everything. All information about The Sky Factory is right out on the table -- with the exception of HR issues and salaries. And not to reveal compensation was the decision of the group.

On Fridays, we have a two-hour meeting. For the first 30 minutes, we go over all the metrics. In addition to the critical numbers, people will raise questions about how many problems we've had that week or how many architects our marketers visited. We track all of that and maintain a historical record of the data that anyone can see at any time. Everyone is trained in financial literacy so he or she can make the best use of the information.

Secrets corrupt cultures. Secrets cause backstabbing and power plays. They signify disrespect. Secrets can't survive in an environment of total openness. It cuts off their air.

2. Give everyone equal footing

Leadership should arise innately from the drive to do well for the company, exercise creativity, and serve others. It should not be vested in titles and cascading organizational charts. There is no hierarchy at The Sky Factory -- no managers or supervisors. Leaders are those who, in a given situation, lead. We use facilitators for the sake of coordination, and those roles rotate every week. Every week, a different person runs our general meeting -- we go alphabetically. People who see a job do the job, because they don't feel constrained by their perceived place in the company.

I believe great ideas come from everyone, and a flat organization ensures that all ideas are heard and given equal consideration. By the end of last year, we had accumulated a substantial amount of cash, and we discussed how to make the best use of it. We decided to pay off the mortgage on our new factory -- the idea of our newest and youngest employee, who is primarily responsible for data entry and international shipping.

Where there is no authority, there is no fear, and people rise to what is required of them.

3. Make decisions as a group

Most people believe the quest for consensus inevitably ends in frustration. That's true in an organization in which upper management, middle management, and the workers have different agendas and access to information. In a company in which there are no levels and everybody knows everything, most people are already on the same page. When an issue arises, someone presents the new information and gives people a few moments to digest it. That's followed by some back and forth, and we usually come to agreement in record time. No decisions are made behind closed doors. Everyone is part of the process. Everyone's intelligence is brought to bear. And by definition, at the end, everybody buys in.

When we don't achieve consensus, we don't go forward. We let it die. Maybe it will come up later, when circumstances are different or we have new information. At a meeting in November, I brought up the notion of establishing a Sky Factory in Europe. The others did not like that. I argued my case for 15 minutes and then said, "Clearly we don't have consensus, so we'll forget about it." And we have. One codicil: This works only if the person objecting offers an alternative solution or reasoned point of view. You are always welcome to say no. But you cannot just say no.

4. Serve each other

I think of our factory as a community, and service is the core of community. There are two kinds of service. One is: I do this for you, and I expect a return. For example, I provide good customer service, and I expect loyalty. The other kind of service is selfless. I do something for you without thought of a return. I help you spontaneously and without thinking about it. That second kind of service is powerful. When someone has a moment of free time, how wonderful if she automatically thinks, Now, what can I do to help someone else? At the start of our Friday meetings, the leader for that week tells an appreciative story about someone at the company and presents the person with $25. Often, the story involves an unselfish, unsolicited offer of help.

This leads to one of my more idealistic notions: that everyone in the company should not only know everything, but everyone should also be able to do everything. At most companies, people take courses because new skills make them more valuable, so they can get ahead. At this company, we value people learning new skills so they can help others. So if someone gets sick or goes on vacation or falls behind, no problem. Another person can step in. For example, our accounting guy is great on the lamination machine, which is a very expensive, sensitive piece of equipment. The idea is that the more I can do, the more people I can help.

5. Share the rewards

We reward based on performance -- of the individual, of the group, and of the business. Every month, we distribute 50 percent of net profit to everyone, providing there have been no late shipments since the last bonus, cash does not drop below six months' operating expenses, and we have experienced positive cash flow for the previous 12 weeks. The formula for the bonuses is salary divided by total salaries. Needless to say, those criteria were arrived at by consensus.

The Sky Factory is an experiment and an admittedly imperfect one. In the quest for collaboration and lacking lines of authority, we can sometimes be inefficient. It takes time to hear and consider so many ideas. Not everyone is equally comfortable with the lack of constraints and the emphasis on stretching outside one's accustomed terrain. I want this business to actualize every need that people have, and that is not possible.

Most Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, we turn off the phones and do an hour of training on subjects as diverse as photography, ecology, and business grammar. Recently, we devoted a number of weeks to a course I prepared in partnership with an art historian called "What Is Fine Art: Building a Beautiful Company." We all viewed hundreds of images and discussed how every brush stroke, every chisel mark, every pixel is linked to every other -- nothing stands in isolation. Then we talked about how at our company the rotation of leadership and familiarity with one another's jobs give everyone a deeper understanding of the product, the ability to see it as more than the sum of its parts.

That appreciation of what we are doing is what keeps great people here, and great people will ensure that The Sky Factory endures. After all, that's what great art does. Endures.

7 Spiritual Perspectives on Personal Leadership

2011-12-16T21:52:00.000+08:00

http://m.dailygood.org//view.php?sid=138

7 Spiritual Perspectives on Personal Leadership

--by Swami Chidananda and Prasad Kaipa

Life is like a game of cards.
The hand that is dealt you is determinism;
The way you play it is free will.
– Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st Prime Minister of India (1889-1964)

How do you deal with change? How comfortable are you with what is on your plate? Are you creating or are you resisting? The quality of your leadership depends on how you deal with the cards that you draw and how you succeed using what you got! In this brief article, we present an approach to increase your personal mastery and leadership effectiveness drawing from ancient spiritual wisdom from around the world.

Integrity: Integrity, at its best, is alignment between thought, word and deed. When we have integrity, the fragrance we enjoy is the state of no inner conflict. Others around us also sense certain strength about us. We say what we mean and we mean what we say. And our actions are not at variance with our words. When there are gaps between our words, thought/felts, deeds and our state of being, those gaps impact our credibility, commitment and courage. When we walk the talk, demonstrate our commitment to what we have taken on through our actions and have courage to listen to our inner voice, we demonstrate integrity and that builds our character and confidence.

Confidence: When we feel good about our own capacity and the position we have taken in particular situations, we exude a great sense of well-being and the vibrations that emanate from us make others feel our positive state of mind. They, then, are more likely to extend their cooperation and play their roles in complementary ways. This is also related to our faith in what our company stands for. The feeling then is: My organization is doing something great, and I am indeed in a position to contribute significantly towards the fulfillment of the organization's goals. When we have self-confidence, our ability to resist temptations goes up and our self-restraint leads to further increase in our self-confidence.

Restraint: Our life would be happier if we handle difficult situations with thoughtful reflection and identify noble (win-win) responses wherever possible. When we cannot, at least, we should keep under check negative emotions. Expressing displeasure is one thing but giving vent to our anger in destructive ways is quite another. It is important to become conscious and hold back inappropriate thoughts and words – in public and in private. They
harm us even if we indulge in them in secrecy because our attitude gets picked up by others no matter what we do and don't do. It is as important to restrain our tongue as much as our actions – if not more – because in the name of 'telling the truth' and in the name of advice – we lose our self-restraint and that results in loss of energy and enthusiasm in both parties.

Energy: It is important to find ways to keep our energy – physical and emotional – high on important occasions. A diabetic friend once confessed that she would eat some sweets, knowing well it would cause early fatigue to her, and would then feel low in energy, leading to a lot of procrastination. 200-300 minutes a week of physical exercise, experts say, is needed typically for us to stay fit and energetic. In addition to physical and emotional, intellectual and spiritual energy would help us translate our creativity into innovative offerings and engage regularly in reflective and meditative practices. In these days of complexity and uncertainty, managing energy is as important as managing time. When we are aware and alert about opportunities to contribute our energy and time to what is important, we become effective leaders.

Alertness: This is again a state of mind where we rise above our mechanical ways and conditioned mind. When we shake off old conclusions and look at things with a fresh, open mind, we ignite new ideas and see new patterns and learn something fresh. We need to take note that everyday new opportunities emerge and if we have our eyes open, we could seize those opportunities. People change their mindsets and behaviors and when those changes are noticed and appreciated, they will continue to move in the same direction and that requires alertness on our part as a leader. In a similar vein, yesterday's enemy could extend a hand of help to us today; the friend of yesterday could betray us today. Alertness and trust in right information and right experts in addition to our own intuition would help us become better leaders in the long run.

Trust in Self and in Right Experts: As a leader, we have to know when to trust our intuition; and when to trust external data and information. In doing so, we have to consult right experts. For example, Google has become a valuable source of information and many of us make the mistake of trusting whatever we find online more than we should. We need to validate the source of advice and information whether it is coming from experts or from other sources. We need to actively seek out experts whom we trust -- people who can give timely and valuable advice. We have to learn, over a period of time, to balance advice received externally and intuition developed internally. Second part of trust is about timing. It is absolutely important to consult experts at the right time, well in time. One right input coming to us at the right time can help us execute our projects effectively and successfully.

Execution Effectiveness: Every time we do something that we had promised to somebody, our credibility/reputation/trust grows. When we procrastinate, our image in others' eyes suffers, even if we give the best explanation or justification. Effective execution means we have to pay attention to four things: completion/time, resources (people/ finances etc.), quality (excellence) and satisfaction (customer and self). Efficiency allows us to complete the project on time but effectiveness means working with our team with emotional intelligence and that increases quality of work that they bring to the project resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

The seven principles (start with the letters I CREATE) listed above help us increase our personal mastery and lead wisely in turbulent times.

Swami Chidananda is the director of Raj Ghat Education Center, Krishnamurti Foundation India, Varanasi and can be reached at chidananda9 (at) yahoo.com.

Dr. Prasad Kaipa is a CEO Coach and Adviser with the Kaipa Group and a senior fellow at the Indian School of Business's CLIC . He is integrating business, science/technology and spirituality and is writing a book on wisdom leadership with Navi Radjou. He can be reached at Prasad (at) kaipagroup.com.

What is ERP?

2011-12-16T15:48:00.000+08:00

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/ERP.html

ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning

Short for enterprise resource planning, ERP is business management software that allows an organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business. ERP software integrates all facets of an operation, including development, manufacturing, sales and marketing.

ERP Modules
ERP software consists of many enterprise software modules that an enterprise would purchase, based on what best meets its specific needs and technical capabilities. Each ERP module is focused on one area of business processes, such as product development or marketing. Some of the more common ERP modules include those for product planning, material purchasing, inventory control, distribution, accounting, marketing, finance and HR.

As the ERP methodology has become more popular, software applications have emerged to help business managers implement ERP in other business activities and may also incorporate modules such as CRM and business intelligence and present them as a single unified package.

The basic goal is provide one central repository for all information that is shared by all the various ERP facets in order to smooth the flow of data across the organization.

ERP Vendors
Depending on your organization's size and needs there are a number of ERP software vendors to choose from.

Large Enterprise ERP (ERP Tier I): The ERP market for large enterprises is dominated by three companies: SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. (Source: EnterpriseAppsToday; Enterprise ERP Buyer's Guide: SAP, Oracle and Microsoft; Drew Robb)

Midmarket ERP (ERP Tier II): For the midmarket vendors include Infor, QAD, Lawson, Epicor, Sage and IFS. (Source: EnterpriseAppsToday; Midmarket ERP
Buyer's Guide; Drew Robb)

Small Business ERP (ERP Tier III): Exact Globe, Syspro, NetSuite, Visibility, Consona, CDC Software and Activant Solutions round out the ERP vendors for small businesses. (Source: EnterpriseAppsToday; ERP Buyer's Guide for Small Businesses; Drew Robb)