Search Results

Search found 3329 results on 134 pages for 'adam sales'.

Page 116/134 | < Previous Page | 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123  | Next Page >

• Catching people up

  - by Randy Walker

  It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.  I suppose sometimes when one’s personal life gets busy, there are some things that fall by the wayside.  So what all has happened since I last blogged? Business has been good with lots of lessons learned.  I had hoped I would have had an important announcement several months ago concerning the business I own, but that simply hasn’t materialized yet. Will keep everyone posted.  Ensuring your business has a good sales pipeline and stays ahead in the technology curve is extremely important. I eventually resigned my INETA Board of Directors position.  Never one to mince words, frankly I had several issues with how things are run at INETA.  Mostly centered around some ethical issues compounded by higher expectations and what I felt was a lack of support.  I had put my hat into the ring in order to help change things, but eventually I didn’t really see change a possibility, and so all things must come to an end. I have started writing up a new business plan for a new startup, details to be forthcoming.  It’s new name will be Linker CRM.  I have some aggressive game changing plans ahead for it.  Ping me if you’re interested in finding out more information and don’t mind signing a non-compete and confidentiality agreement. ;) My personal life, has been hectic.  A 4 year old will do that to you.  As well as being divorced and the headaches associated with that.  If you’ve been divorced, I feel your pain, if you haven’t been, I would never wish the emotional roller coaster ride on anyone.  Dating has been interesting.  It’s a lot different at age 35 than your early 20s and relationships are far more complicated. Ethan is an absolutely fantastic adorable charmer of a kid.  He’s definitely going to be a heartbreaker.  His personality is really shining through and he’s taken onto my appreciation of music (and yes I’ll admit dance too).  We watched America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC) together for the first time, he really loved it and I think he’ll probably start his own break dancing crew eventually.  I’ve posted a few videos on Facebook for those interested.  I’m extremely proud of him, but please say a little prayer for us as we try and continue to curb some behavior issues, as well as his mother and I try to settle some differences. This year’s travel plans have already included Dallas, Seattle, and a trip to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics (a huge thanks to the Washington State Police for the nice souvenir they gave me).  Future travel plans include a trip to Korea in the 2nd half of May, Nashville again in the summer, and hopefully New Orleans for the Microsoft TechEd 2010 Conference. Look for some new blog posts soon …

  Read the article

• Best of "The Moth" 2010

  - by Daniel Moth

  It is the time again (like in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) to look back at my blog for the past year and identify areas of interest that seem to be more prominent than others. After doing so, representative posts follow in my top 5 list (in random order). 1. This was the year where I had to move for the first time since 2004 my blog engine (blogger.com –> dasBlog), host provider (zen –> godaddy), web server technology and OS (apache on Linux –> IIS on Windows Server). My goal was not to break any permalinks or the look and feel of this website. A series of posts covered how I achieved that goal, culminating in a tool for others to use if they wanted to do the same: Tool to convert blogger.com content to dasBlog. Going forward I aim to be sharing more small code utilities like that one… 2. At work I am known for being fairly responsive on email, and more importantly never dropping email balls on the floor. This is due to my email processing system, which I shared here: Processing Email in Outlook. I will be sharing more tips with regards to making the best of the Office products. 3. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the year people will remember as the one where Microsoft finally fights back in the mobile space. Even though the new platform means my Windows Mobile book sales will dwindle :-), I am ecstatic about Windows Phone 7 both as a consumer and as a developer. On the release day, to get you started I shared the top 10 Windows Phone 7 developer resources. I will be sharing my tips from my experience in writing code for and consuming this new platform… 4. For my HPC developer friends using Visual Studio, I shared Slides and code for MPI Cluster Debugger and also gave you all the links you need for getting started with Dryad and DryadLINQ from MSR. Expect more from me on cluster development in the coming year… 5. Still in the HPC space, but actually also in the game and even mainstream development, the big disruption and opportunity comes in the form of GPGPU and, on the Microsoft platform, (currently) DirectCompute. Expect more from me on gpgpu development in the coming year… Subscribe via the link on the left to stay tuned for 2011… I wish you a very Happy New Year (with whatever definition of happiness works for you)! Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

  Read the article

• A Few Words from Oracle’s Channel Chief

  - by Meghan Fritz-Oracle

  As Oracle enters a new fiscal year, I want to take a moment and reflect on my time at Oracle thus far. The technology industry is currently at an inflection point trying to figure out where growth will come from. When you look at Oracle’s portfolio of products, it's a complete stack from applications to disc, offering differentiation in the marketplace. I was initially drawn to Oracle’s leadership, strategy, and world-class technology. Since joining the Oracle team in October 2013, I’ve had the privilege of traveling around the globe visiting our partners and customers, and wanted to share several common themes that came up during these meetings. Cloud: Many partners are trying to figure out how to build a business around the cloud. Oracle partners can currently resell or refer our cloud services. We saw over 300 percent growth from cloud resale last quarter. Engineered Systems: Hardware and software integrated together to simplify IT allows our joint customers to focus on the innovation they need to compete in a complex marketplace. We're seeing great success in a several areas, with more partners saying, “Let’s start with Oracle on Oracle.” The Internet of Things: This is the next big opportunity for device manufacturers and ISV‘s to capture market share in what is projected to be a mulit-trillion-dollar opportunity, according to Gartner.  Competition: We've got a tremendous middleware platform and a tremendous database install base. We’re not just a database company; we are a complete provider. So looking ahead, what are my priorities for fiscal 2015? Oracle PartnerNetwork has some very exciting plans on the horizon. There’s a lot more leadership and announcements to unfold, especially at this year’s Global Partner Kickoff taking place on June 25 + 26 depending on your region and time zone. I along with several other Oracle executives will be shedding light on Oracle’s strategy for the upcoming year, the latest opportunities within the OPN Specialized Program and sales strategies that will help you to continue to grow and profit with Oracle. Stay tuned for registration information next week.We also have Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne to look forward to. These conferences are taking place in San Francisco from September 28 – October 2. We’ll have a variety of partner-specific activities for you at OPN Central @ OpenWorld including the OPN keynote, the famed AfterDark networking reception, access to the OPN Lounge and more.In the meantime, I hope that everyone has a great end to fiscal 2014.Best regards,Rich Geraffo Senior Vice President, Worldwide Alliances and Channels

  Read the article

• Software Architecture and Software Architecture Evaluation

  How many of us have worked at places where the concept of software architecture was ridiculed for wasting time and money? Even more ridiculous to them was the concept of evaluating software architecture. I think the next time that I am in this situation again, and I hope that I never am I will have to push for this methodology in the software development life cycle. I have spent way too many hours/days/months/years working poorly architected systems or systems that were just built ADHOC. This in software development must stop. I can understand why systems get like this due to overzealous sales staff, demanding management that wants everything yesterday, and project managers asking if things are done yet before the project has even started. But seriously, some time must be spent designing the applications that we write along with evaluating the architecture so that it will integrate will within the existing systems of an origination. If placed in this situation again, I will strive to gain buying from key players within the business, for example: Senior Software Engineers\Developers, Software Architects, Project Managers, Software Quality Assurance, Technical Services, Operations, and Finance in order for this idea to succeed with upper management. In order to convince these key players I will have to show them the benefits of architecture and even more benefits of evaluating software architecture on a system wide level. Benefits of Software Architecture Evaluation Places Stakeholders in the Same Room to Communicate Ensures Delivery of Detailed Quality Goals Prioritizes Conflicting Goals Requires Clear Explication Improves the Quality of Documentation Discovers Opportunities for Cross-Project Reuse Improves Architecture Practices Once I had key player buy in then and only then would I approach upper management about my plan regarding implementing the concept of software architecture and using evaluation to ensure that the software being designed is the proper architecture for the project. In addition to the benefits listed above I would also show upper management how much time is being wasted by not doing these evaluations. For example, if project X cost us Y amount, then why do we have several implementations in various forms of X and how much money and time could we have saved if we just reused the existing code base to give each system the same functionality that was already created? After this, I would mention what would happen if we had 50 instances of this situation? Then I would show them how the software architecture evaluation process would have prevented this and that the optimization could have leveraged its existing code base to increase the speed and quality of its development. References:Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (2011). Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method from http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/tools/evaluate/atam.cfm

  Read the article

• Demonstration VM BIC2g 2013-10 Partner Edition for Download

  - by Mike.Hallett(at)Oracle-BI&EPM

  Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 UPDATED ! The “BIC2g” demo VM (now version 2013-10) is downloadable from our BIC2g Beehive Online Workspace portal for OPN member partners. Compared to the prior version, Bic2g 2013-04, the new Bic2g 2013-10 has: OBIEE was upgraded from 11.1.1.7.0 to 11.1.1.7.1. with BI Mobile Application Designer (BIMAD) added. TimesTen was upgraded from 11.2.2.3.0 to 11.2.2.5.0 ODI Client 11.1.1.7.0 was installed, including a Standalone agent and empty repositories, and the BI Applications 11g ODI Repositories were included (BIAPPS_11g) Informatica and DAC were removed from image There are additional demos for BI-Apps and for Endeca. The compact deployment of EPM is installed and configured, including: Hyperion Foundation, Essbase, Essbase Studio, Essbase Administration Services, Provider Services, Calculation Manager, Planning, Reporting and Analysis, Financial Reporting, Web Analysis, and Workspace. The access details, for OPN member partners only, to get added to the BIC2G Beehive Online Workspace portal are shown from this page @ BI Solutions Engineering Partner Portal. This Oracle Business Intelligence Linux VM virtual appliance (“BIC2g”) was developed to support Oracle OBI, BI-Apps and EPM Hyperion sales and Oracle partners in product demonstrations, training activities and POC activities.  If you do not need BI-Apps, then there is a slightly smaller VM OBI Sample-App you can get from OTN: see @ Oracle BI and EPM Demonstration SampleApp V309 on OTN. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

  Read the article

• Taking AIIM at Social

  - by Christie Flanagan

  Today we are pleased to have a guest post from Christian Finn (@cfinn).  Christian is Senior Director of Product Management for Oracle WebCenter and heads up the WebCenter evangelist team.Last week I had the privilege of speaking at AIIM’s new conference in San Francisco.  AIIM, for those of you not familiar with it, is a global community of information professionals and got its start with ECM and imaging long ago. With 65,000+ members, AIIM has now set about broadening its scope to focus more on the intersection between systems of record (think traditional ECM) and systems of engagement (think social solutions).  So AIIM’s conference is a natural place to be for WebCenter types like me, who have a foot in both of those worlds.AIIM used to have their name on a very large tradeshow, but have changed direction now to run a small, intimate conference.  The lineup of keynotes was terrific, including David Pogue of The New York Times, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, and Ted Schadler, author of Empowered among many thought-provoking and engaging speakers. (Note: Ted will soon be featured in our Social Business webcast series. Stay tuned.)John Mancini and his team at AIIM did a fabulous job running the event and the engagement from the 450 attendees was sustained over the two and a half days.  Our proudest moment was having three finalists up for AIIM awards including: San Joaquin County, CA, for a justice case management system using WebCenter Content and Oracle BPM; Medtronic and Fishbowl Solutions for their innovative iPad solutions on WebCenter Content, and the government of Louisville, Kentucky/Jefferson County for their accounts payable solution using WebCenter Content’s Image & Process Management.  The highlight of the awards night was San Joaquin winning the small organization award against some tough competition.In addition to the conversations sparked at the show, AIIM promoted the whitepapers their industry task forces have produced on the impact and opportunities created by systems of engagement and systems of record. The task forces were led by: Geoffrey Moore, the renowned high tech marketing guru and author of Crossing The Chasm; and Andrew McAfee, who coined the term and wrote the book, Enterprise 2.0. (Note: Andy will also be featured soon on the Social Business webcast series.)  These free papers make short, excellent reading and you can download them on the AIIM website: Moore highlights the changes to Enterprise IT that the social revolution will engender, and McAfee covers where and how organizations are finding value in using social techniques to foster innovation, to scale Q&A across the organization, and to connect sales and marketing for greater efficiency and effectiveness. Moore’s whitepaper is here and McAfee’s whitepapers are available here. For the benefit of those who did not get a chance to attend the AIIM conference, I’ll be posting the topics of my AIIM presentation, “Three Principles for Fixing Your Broken Organization,” here on the WebCenter blog over the rest of this week and next in a series of posts.  

  Read the article

• Introducing the Oracle MDM Blog - Why All MDM Solutions Aren't Equal

  - by ken.pulverman

  Welcome to the Oracle MDM Blog.  Dave Butler, Tony Ouk, and myself - Ken Pulverman, will be bringing you news and information from the world of MDM at Oracle.  Dave is our resident expert with more than 30 years of experience in data and information management. Tony has deep expertise in our Exadata product line which provides a strong hardware synergy with MDM.  I come from Siebel Systems where I helped found the team that built our integration product line and then our Universal Customer Master with is part of our MDM offering at Oracle. I thought I'd hit the ground running with a topic we are going to want to continue to bend your ear about.  We had a recent meeting with Ford Goodman, our head of MDM commercial sales in the US and he was very fired up about and important topic.  He's irked that all MDM solutions get painted with the same brush even though they aren't the same at all. There are companies out there trying to represent frameworks and toolkits as out of the box solutions.  They give you the pleasure (read pain) of doing things like developing your own multi-application data model, building your own web services, or creating your own APIs.  Huh?  What gets sold as flexibility in reality is a barrier to ever going live.  At Siebel Systems we obsessed over the notion of a customer.  Our data model took over 10 years to perfect as defining a customer is a very complex task indeed.  There are divisions, subsidiaries, branches, acquisitions, sites etc., etc., etc..  You'll want to do your homework, but trust me - you aren't going to want to take the time or resource to build these canonical data structures yourself.  And what about APIs?  Again, it sounds flexible.  In reality it's a lot of work. Our DNA at Oracle is to reduce the cost of information technology so we pre-integrate our technology with all of our major applications and pre-build integrations and connectors for all the major systems you work with.  This is tedious work that requires detailed knowledge of the interfaces of all the applications involved.  It is also version specific as the interface features and technology are always changing.  We have a substantial organization to manage this complexity so you don't have to.  Suffice to say, we'd like to help our customers peel back the rhetoric of companies that fly the MDM flag without a real offering that you can quickly benefit from. Please watch this space for more information on this storyline as well as news and information around Oracle MDM.

  Read the article

• Ad-hoc taxonomy: owning the chess set doesn't mean you decide how the little horsey moves

  - by Roger Hart

  There was one of those little laugh-or-cry moments recently when I heard an anecdote about content strategy failings at a major online retailer. The story goes a bit like this: successful company in a highly commoditized marketplace succeeds on price and largely ignores its content team. Being relatively entrepreneurial, the founders are still knocking around, and occasionally like to "take an interest". One day, they decree that clothing sold on the site can no longer be described as "unisex", because this sounds old fashioned. Sad now. Let me just reiterate for the folks at the back: large retailer, commoditized market place, differentiating on price. That's inherently unstable. Sooner or later, they're going to need one or both of competitive differentiation and significant optimization. I can't speak for the latter, since I'm hypothesizing off a raft of rumour, but one of the simpler paths to the former is to become - or rather acknowledge that they are - a content business. Regardless, they need highly-searchable terminology. Even in the face of tooth and claw resistance to noticing the fundamental position content occupies in driving sales (and SEO) on the web, there's a clear information problem here. Dilettante taxonomy is a disaster. Ok, so this is a small example, but that kind of makes it a good one. Unisex probably is the best way of describing clothing designed to suit either men or women interchangeably. It certainly takes less time to type (and read). It's established terminology, and as a single word, it's significantly better for web readability than a phrasal workaround. Something like "fits men or women" is short, by could fall foul of clause-level discard in web scanning. It's not an adjective, so for intuitive reading it's never going to be near the start of a title or description. It would also clutter up search results, and impose cognitive load in list scanning. Sorry kids, it's just worse. Even if "unisex" were an archaism (which it isn't), the only thing that would weigh against its being more usable and concise terminology would be evidence that this archaism were hurting conversions. Good luck with that. We once - briefly - called one of our products a "Can of worms". It was a bundle in a bug-tracking suite, and we thought it sounded terribly cool. Guess how well that sold. We have information and content professionals for a reason: to make sure that whatever we put in front of users is optimised to meet user and business goals. If that thinking doesn't inform style guides, taxonomy, messaging, title structure, and so forth, you might as well be finger painting.

  Read the article

• Partition Wise Joins II

  - by jean-pierre.dijcks

  One of the things that I did not talk about in the initial partition wise join post was the effect it has on resource allocation on the database server. When Oracle applies a different join method - e.g. not PWJ - what you will see in SQL Monitor (in Enterprise Manager) or in an Explain Plan is a set of producers and a set of consumers. The producers scan the tables in the the join. If there are two tables the producers first scan one table, then the other. The producers thus provide data to the consumers, and when the consumers have the data from both scans they do the join and give the data to the query coordinator. Now that behavior means that if you choose a degree of parallelism of 4 to run such query with, Oracle will allocate 8 parallel processes. Of these 8 processes 4 are producers and 4 are consumers. The consumers only actually do work once the producers are fully done with scanning both sides of the join. In the plan above you can see that the producers access table SALES [line 11] and then do a PX SEND [line 9]. That is the producer set of processes working. The consumers receive that data [line 8] and twiddle their thumbs while the producers go on and scan CUSTOMERS. The producers send that data to the consumer indicated by PX SEND [line 5]. After receiving that data [line 4] the consumers do the actual join [line 3] and give the data to the QC [line 2]. BTW, the myth that you see twice the number of processes due to the setting PARALLEL_THREADS_PER_CPU=2 is obviously not true. The above is why you will see 2 times the processes of the DOP. In a PWJ plan the consumers are not present. Instead of producing rows and giving those to different processes, a PWJ only uses a single set of processes. Each process reads its piece of the join across the two tables and performs the join. The plan here is notably different from the initial plan. First of all the hash join is done right on top of both table scans [line 8]. This query is a little more complex than the previous so there is a bit of noise above that bit of info, but for this post, lets ignore that (sort stuff). The important piece here is that the PWJ plan typically will be faster and from a PX process number / resources typically cheaper. You may want to look out for those plans and try to get those to appear a lot... CREDITS: credits for the plans and some of the info on the plans go to Maria, as she actually produced these plans and is the expert on plans in general... You can see her talk about explaining the explain plan and other optimizer stuff over here: ODTUG in Washington DC, June 27 - July 1 On the Optimizer blog At OpenWorld in San Francisco, September 19 - 23 Happy joining and hope to see you all at ODTUG and OOW...

  Read the article

• User Experience Highlights in Siebel: Direct from George Jacob

  - by mvaughan

  By Misha Vaughan and Kathy Miedema, Oracle Applications User Experience This is the first in a series of blog posts on the user experience (UX) highlights coming in various Oracle product families. You’ll see themes around productivity and efficiency, as well as a thoughtful approach to pushing UX capabilities into the underlying tooling. Of course, you can also expect to get an early look at the latest mobile offerings coming through these product lines.Today’s post is on Siebel. To learn more about what’s ahead, attend Siebel OpenWorld presentations. Our first interview is with George Jacob, the Group Vice President for CRM Applications. George Jacob Q: How would you describe the vision you have for the user experience of Siebel? A: Contemporary: Siebel runs in all browsers and all browser-capable devices using the latest web technology standards, such as Javascript, CSS, and HTML 5.Productive: Siebel is designed for a user experience that reduces clutter and user keystrokes.User-sensitive: The user experience enables Siebel to adapt easily to site and user preferences.Q: How are the UX features you have delivered so far resonating with customers? A:  Customers are very excited about our refresh of the Siebel user interface framework; the Siebel roadmap and user interface sessions at Oracle OpenWorld last year overflowed. We have had to turn back customer requests to participate in the early adopter program because we had more than we could handle. Customers are calling this a game-changer for Siebel.Q: So the UX highlights are popular? A: Yes, the UX highlights are very popular, although to a certain extent we expected this!  Q: What’s coming in Siebel on a mobile platform? A: Our current mobile offering is based on Windows Mobile (native application), and is fairly mature (over 5 years). The new Siebel Open User Interface Framework, by virtue of working on all browsers, will run – when it is released this year – on tablets and smartphones. This is one of the reasons a number of customers are most excited about our UX changes. Views of Siebel data on mobile devices Q: What are you working on now that you think is going to be exciting to customers at OOW? A: We are working on the Siebel Open User Interface Framework, to be released this year in the Siebel 2012 8.1.1.9 & 8.2.2.2 innovation packs. We are also working on Connected Mobile applications for Sales, Service, Consumer Goods and Pharmaceuticals, and Disconnected Mobile applications for Pharmaceuticals in the same release. We are building specialized applications that exploit the new UI framework for Telco Order Capture and for Life Sciences healthcare professional visits. Our 2012 delivery will be the foundation for further user experience enhancements, next year and beyond.Q: What do you want Siebel customers to know? A:  We are excited to be focused on improving the user experience of Siebel applications, and it is encouraging to see the positive feedback from Siebel customers and partners.If you would like to see more in the Siebel user experience, be sure to check out these sessions at OpenWorld: CON9700 - Siebel CRM Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap CON9703 - User Interface Innovations with the New Siebel “Open UI” CON9705 - Unleash the Power of “Open UI” CON9697 - Mobile Solutions for Siebel CRM

  Read the article

• Oracle Customer Hub - Directions, Roadmap and Customer Success

  - by Mala Narasimharajan

   By Gurinder Bahl With less than a week from OOW 2012, I would like to introduce you all to the core Oracle Customer MDM Strategy sessions. Fragmentation of customer data across disparate systems prohibits companies from achieving a complete and accurate view of their customers. Oracle Customer Hub provide a comprehensive set of services, utilities and applications to create and maintain a trusted master customer system of record across the enterprise. Customer Hub centralizes customer data from disparate systems across your enterprise into a master repository. Existing systems are integrated in real-time or via batch with the Hub, allowing you to leverage legacy platform investments while capitalizing on the benefits of a single customer identity. Don’t miss out on two sessions geared towards Oracle Customer Hub:   1) Attend session CON9747 - Turn Customer Data into an Enterprise Asset with Oracle Fusion Customer Hub Applications at Oracle Open World 2012 on Monday, Oct 1st, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM @ Moscone West – 2008. Manouj Tahiliani, Sr. Director MDM Product Management will provide insight into the vision of Oracle Fusion Customer Hub solutions, and review the roadmap. You will discover how Fusion Customer MDM can help your enterprise improve data quality, create accurate and complete customer information,  manage governance and help create great customer experiences. You will also understand how to leverage data quality capabilities and create a sophisticated customer foundation within Oracle Fusion Applications. You will also hear Danette Patterson, Group Lead, Church Pension Group talk about how Oracle Fusion Customer Hub applications provide a modern, next-generation, multi-domain foundation for managing customer information in a private cloud. 2)  Don't miss session  CON9692 - Customer MDM is key to Strategic Business Success and Customer Experience Management at Oracle Open World 2012 on Wednesday, October 3rd 2012 from 3:30-4:30pm @ Westin San Francisco Metropolitan 1. JP Hurtado, Director, Customer Systems, will provide insight on how RCCL overcame challenges of data quality, guest recognition & centralized customer view to provide consolidated customer view to multiple reservation, CRM, marketing, service, sales, data warehouse and loyalty systems. You will learn how Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL), which has over 30 million customer and maintain multiple brands, leveraged Oracle Customer Hub (Siebel UCM) as backbone to customer data management strategy for past 5 years. Gurinder Bahl from MDM Product Management will provide an update on Oracle Customer Hub strategy, what we have achieved since last Open World and our future plans for the Oracle Customer Hub. You will learn about Customer Hub Data Quality capabilities around data analysis, cleansing, matching, address validation as well as reporting and monitoring capabilities. The MDM track at Oracle Open World covers variety of topics related to MDM. In addition to the product management team presenting product updates and roadmap, we have several Customer Panels, and Conference sessions. You can see an overview of MDM sessions here.  Looking forward to see you at Open World, the perfect opportunity to learn about cutting edge Oracle technologies. 

  Read the article

• Does Scrum turn active developers into passive developers?

  - by Saeed Neamati

  I'm a web developer working in a team of three developers and one designer. It's now about five months that we've implemented the agile scrum software development methodology. But I have a weird feeling I just wanted to share in this site. One important factor in human life is decision-making process. However, there is a big difference in decisions you make. Some decisions are just the outcome of an internal or external force, while other decisions are completely based on your free will, and some decisions are simply something in between. The more freedom you have in making decisions, the more self-driven your work would become. This seems to be a rule. Because we tend to shape our lives ourselves. There is a big difference between you deciding what to do, or being told what to do. Before scrum, I felt like having more freedom in making the decisions which were related to development, analysis, prioritizing implementation, etc. I had more feeling like I'm deciding what I'm doing. However, due to the scrum methodology, now many decisions simply come from the product owner. He prioritizes PBIs, he analyzes how the software should work, even sometimes how the UI and functionality should be implemented. I know that this is part of the scrum methodology, and I also know that this may result in better sales of product in future. However, I now feel like I'm always getting told to do something, instead of deciding to do something. This syndrome now has made me more passive towards the work. I tend to search less to find a better solution, approach, or technique I don't wake up in the morning expecting to get to an enjoyable work. Rather, I feel like being forced to work in order to live I have more hunger to work on my own hobby projects after work I won't push the team anymore to get to the higher technological levels I spend more time now on dinner, or tea-times and have less enthusiasm to get back to work I'm now willing more for the work to finish sooner, so that I can get home The big problem is, I see and diagnose this behavior in my colleagues too. Is it the outcome of scrum? Does scrum really makes the development team feel like they have no part in forming the overall software, thus making the passive to the project? How can I overcome this feeling?

  Read the article

• Who Are the BI Users in Your Neighborhood?

  - by Brian Dayton

  Forrester's Boris Evelson recently wrote a blog titled "Who are the BI Personas?" that I enjoyed for a number of reasons. It's a quick read, easy to grasp and (refreshingly) focuses on the users of technology VS the technology. As Evelson admits, he meant to keep the reference chart at a high-level because there are too many different permutations and additional sub-categories to make such a chart useful. For me, I wouldn't head into the technical permutations but more the contextual use of BI and the issues that users experience.  My thoughts brought up more questions than answers such as: Context: -          HOW: With the exception of the "Power User" persona--likely some sort of business or operations analyst? -          WHEN: Are they using the information to make real-time decisions on the front lines (a customer service manager or shipping/logistics VP) or are they using this information for cumulative analysis and business planning? Or both? -          WHERE: What areas of the business are more or less likely to rely on BI across an organization? Human Resources, Operations, Facilities, Finance--- and why are some more prone to use data-driven analysis than others? Issues: -          DELAYS & DRAG ON IT?: One of the persona characteristics Evelson calls out is a reliance on IT. Every persona except for the "Power User" has a heavy reliance on IT for support. What business issues or delays does that cause to users? What is the drag on IT resources who could potentially be creating instead of reporting? -          HOW MANY CLICKS: If BI is being used within the context of a transaction (sales manager looking for upsell opportunities as an example) is that person getting the information within the context of that action or transaction? Or are they minimizing screens, logging into another application or reporting tool, running queries, etc.?   Who are the BI Users in your neighborhood or line of business? Do Evelson's personas resonate--and do the tools that he calls out (he refers to it as "BI Style") resonate with what your personas have or need? Finally, I'm very interested if BI use is viewed as  a bolt-on...or an integrated part of your daily enterprise processes?

  Read the article

• Eggnog and Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Updates

  - by Kristin Rose

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Looks like the holiday’s came early this year! You may remember this snazzy blog that posted a couple months back,  “Keepin’ It Simple with Storage Tek SL150”, that was based on the benefits around Oracle’s StorageTek SL150. Well, in addition to these great benefits, OPN is pleased to provide you with a complete StorageTek SL150 winter wish list that is about to come true! 1. SL150 is the only product in the Oracle portfolio, for which OPN Members can become authorized to create and provide support.  2. OPN Members can qualify for the OPN Incentive Program Rebates, without Oracle Support Attach, (provided all other criteria is met). The requirement of Premier Support Attach has been exempted for this product. 3. OPN Members who become authorized under this model will be eligible for an additional discount on parts.  4. As always Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 is Simple, Scalable and will help you Save! To add just a bit more cheer to your cup of hot coco, watch this video on why Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Tape Library is for you! So if you haven’t done so already, contact your Oracle Channel Sales representative — let them know if you’ve been nice this year, and tell them you want to learn more! Cheers! The OPN Communications Team

  Read the article

• Spotlight on a career path: Paul, Business Development Consultant

  - by Maria Sandu

  I came to work for Oracle in November 2012 as a Customer Intelligence Representative and since then I was promoted to a Business Development Consultant, for Commercial Industries in the UK, based in Dublin. My background was primarily in Logistics, working for such companies as Indaver Ireland, Wincanton and P&O. I spent 10 years working in this industry and gained experience in negotiating with customers and suppliers in order to meet the needs of both, monitoring the quality and quantity of goods as well as the efficiency and organisation of the movement and storage of products. I decided to move from my logistics career in 2009 to study Information Technology in D.I.T. This was a challenge for me to move my career path; however the lectures at the college helped me significantly with the ability to understand how IT can have an effect on how businesses operate. Following on from college I came to work for Oracle. This also presented challenges but the training I received and the encouragement from management helped me understand that the same business rules apply no matter what background you come from. I have also learnt that using my past experience in working with customers and suppliers in Logistics has helped me understand how to meet customer’s needs. Oracle has offered me excellent training such as Sandler Sales Techniques and John Costigan. I continue to get all the training that I need to develop my career. If you’re interested in joining the Business Development Group visit http://bit.ly/oracledirectcareers or follow our CareersatOracle Facebook Community! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

  Read the article

• Summit Old, Summit New, Summit Borrowed...

  - by Rob Farley

  PASS Summit is coming up, and I thought I’d post a few things. Summit Old... At the PASS Summit, you will get the chance to hear presentations by the SQL Server establishment. Just about every big name in the SQL Server world is a regular at the PASS Summit, so you will get to hear and meet people like Kalen Delaney (@sqlqueen) (who just recently got awarded MVP status for the 20th year running), and from all around the world such as the UK’s Chris Webb (@technitrain) or Pinal Dave (@pinaldave) from India. Almost all the household names in SQL Server will be there, including a large contingent from Microsoft. The PASS Summit is by far the best place to meet the legends of SQL Server. And they’re not all old. Some are, but most of them are younger than you might think. ...Summit New... The hottest topics are often about the newest technologies (such as SQL Server 2012). But you will almost certainly learn new stuff about older versions too. But that’s not what I wanted to pick on for this point. There are many new speakers at every PASS Summit, and content that has not been covered in other places. This year, for example, LobsterPot’s Roger Noble (@roger_noble) is giving a presentation for the first time. He’s a regular around the Australian circuit, but this is his first time presenting to a US audience. New Zealand’s Paul White (@sql_kiwi) is attending his first PASS Summit, and will be giving over four hours of incredibly deep stuff that has never been presented anywhere in the US before (I can’t say the world, because he did present similar material in Adelaide earlier in the year). ...Summit Borrowed... No, I’m not talking about plagiarism – the talks you’ll hear are all their own work. But you will get a lot of stuff you’ll be able to take back and apply at work. The PASS Summit sessions are not full of sales-pitches, telling you about how great things could be if only you’d buy some third-party vendor product. It’s simply not that kind of conference, and PASS doesn’t allow that kind of talk to take place. Instead, you’ll be taught techniques, and be able to download scripts and slides to let you perform that magic back at work when you get home. You will definitely find plenty of ideas to borrow at the PASS Summit. ...Summit Blue Yeah – and there’s karaoke. Blue - Jason - SQL Karaoke - YouTube

  Read the article

• Post Crosstalk 2012

  - by David Dorf

  This year the Oracle Retail users conference, Crosstalk, had a 20% increase in attendees, which was driven by both new customers and those acquired via Endeca.  As the product assets of Oracle have grown, so has the completeness of the solution set.  This year was marked by the breadth of omni-channel stories. Rose Spicer and her marketing team (see photo on left) always strive for an equal balance of retailer presentations, networking opportunities, and unique experiences -- this year was no exception.  We had 41 different retailers from China, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, US, Canada and the UK sharing their insights with one another. In all there were 251 executives from 120 iconic brands such as Daphne, Kohl's, Morrisons, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hot Topic, Talbots, Petco, Deckers, Sportmaster, Mr. Price, Falabella, and Disney to name a few. From a product perspective, there were a few new developments from Oracle Retail: Endeca's search engine has been integrated into the ATG commerce platform. The latest Retail Analytics application, Oracle Retail Customer Analytics, is generally available. Oracle Retail previewed a new fully-integrated mobile POS. But the real benefit of attending Crosstalk was hearing about the experiences of retailers and partners.  Here are are a few interesting facts I picked up: At Kohl's, the most popular website accessed by customers within their stores is Facebook.  With all the buzz about showrooming, I was really expecting it to be Amazon. Daphne, a Chinese shoe retailer, is opening 3 new stores per day.  Being located near the factories allows them to have a very agile supply chain as well. Disney Stores have increased sales by 25% at stores upgraded to include Mobile POS.  They continue to lead the pack with excellent customer experiences. Quicksilver reported that 1 in 5 visits to their website comes from a tablet.  More evidence that tablets are replacing traditional PCs in households. By tagging shoes with RFID, Saks is able to ensure all shoe models are on display.  If a model is not being displayed, it has no chance of being sold. Additionally, there were awards, store tours on Michigan Avenue, fireworks at Navy Pier, and the Oracle Retail house band, Bolo313, performing at Solider Field.  Speaking of which, a few retailers got on stage and jammed with band -- possible rival to Rock & Roll Retail? You can always find the latest info from us at the Retail Rack. The next events on tap are the Partner Summit followed by OpenWorld.

  Read the article

• Going Inside the Store

  - by David Dorf

  Location was the first "killer-tech" for smartphones, and innovators have found several ways to use it. For retail, apps exist to find nearby stores, provide coupons, and give directions to the front door. But once you enter the store, location-finding ceases to work. That's because your location is usually found by finding GPS satellites in they sky, and the store's roof blocks the signal. But it won't take technology long to solve that problem. The first problem to solve is a lack of indoor maps. Navteq and others provide very accurate maps of the outdoors, enabling navigation for cars and pedestrians. Micello is building a business creating digital maps of indoor locations like malls, convention centers, office buildings. They have over 500 live maps, including maps of IKEA stores. They claim it took them only four hours to create a map of the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto with its 1.4 million square feet and 140 retail stores. And within stores, retailers are producing more accurate plan-o-grams. I'm always impressed watching demos of our space planning from AVT. It uses CAD software to allow you to walk the virtual store and see products on the shelves. The second problem is being able to determine location inside the store so it can be overlayed on the map. There are several goals for this endeavor. Your smartphone might direct you straight to particular products, it might summon a sales associate to your location for immediate assistance, and it might send you coupons based on the aisle you're viewing. Companies like Nearbuy, ZuluTime, and Skyhook are working to master indoor location using a combination of GPS signals, WiFi, and cell tower positioning to calculate a location. (Skyhook calls this WPS, as depicted in the chart.) Today they can usually hit 10 meters accuracy, but that number is improving all the time. When it gets inside 3 meters some the goals mentioned earlier will be in easy reach. I for one can't wait until the time my iPhone leads me directly to the sprinkler heads in Lowes and Home Depot.

  Read the article

• Go Big or Go Special

  - by Ajarn Mark Caldwell

  Watching Shark Tank tonight and the first presentation was by Mango Mango Preserves and it highlighted an interesting contrast in business trends today and how to capitalize on opportunities.  <Spoiler Alert> Even though every one of the sharks was raving about the product samples they tried, with two of them going for second and third servings, none of them made a deal to invest in the company.</Spoiler>  In fact, one of the sharks, Kevin O’Leary, kept ripping into the owners with statements to the effect that he thinks they are headed over a financial cliff because he felt their costs were way out of line and would be their downfall if they didn’t take action to radically cut costs. He said that he had previously owned a jams and jellies business and knew the cost ratios that you had to have to make it work.  I don’t doubt he knows exactly what he’s talking about and is 100% accurate…for doing business his way, which I’ll call “Go Big”.  But there’s a whole other way to do business today that would be ideal for these ladies to pursue. As I understand it, based on his level of success in various businesses and the fact that he is even in a position to be investing in other companies, Kevin’s approach is to go mass market (Go Big) and make hundreds of millions of dollars in sales (or something along that scale) while squeezing out every ounce of cost that you can to produce an acceptable margin.  But there is a very different way of making a very successful business these days, which is all about building a passionate and loyal community of customers that are rooting for your success and even actively trying to help you succeed by promoting your product or company (Go Special).  This capitalizes on the power of social media, niche marketing, and The Long Tail.  One of the most prolific writers about capitalizing on this trend is Seth Godin, and I hope that the founders of Mango Mango pick up a couple of his books (probably Purple Cow and Tribes would be good starts) or at least read his blog.  I think the adoration expressed by all of the sharks for the product is the biggest hint that they have a remarkable product and that they are perfect for this type of business approach. Both are completely valid business models, and it may certainly be that the scale at which Kevin O’Leary wants to conduct business where he invests his money is well beyond the long tail, but that doesn’t mean that there is not still a lot of money to be made there.  I wish them the best of luck with their endeavors!

  Read the article

• What's new in the RightNow November 2012 release?

  - by Richard Lefebvre

  What new in the RightNow November 2012? In order to find out, please watch this tutorial with imbedded demonstration or read the November 2012 Release notes.   News Facts The November 2012 release of     Oracle’s RightNow CX Cloud Service marks the completion of development efforts for 2012 and continues Oracle’s commitment to enhancing the Oracle RightNow offering following the acquisition. New release delivers key capabilities designed to help organizations improve customer experiences in order to increase customer acquisition and retention, while reducing total cost of ownership. Part of the Oracle Cloud, Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service now integrates Oracle RightNow Chat Cloud Service with Oracle Engagement Engine Cloud Service, helping organizations intelligently and proactively engage with customers through the right channel at the right time. Chat solutions have emerged as an important component of a cross-channel customer experience strategy. According to Forrester Research, Inc., chat adoption has risen dramatically between 2009 and 2011 from 19% to 37%, and it has the highest satisfaction level of all customer service channels at 62% satisfaction. (*) To help companies deliver enhanced customer experiences, Oracle has made significant investments in Oracle RightNow Chat Cloud Service throughout 2012. With the addition of rules-based engagement to existing capabilities such as co-browse, mobile chat, and cross-channel knowledge integration with the contact center, all delivered via the cloud, Oracle RightNow Chat Cloud Service is differentiated as the industry-leading chat solution. The Oracle Cloud offers a broad portfolio of software as-a-service applications, including Oracle Customer Service and Support Cloud Service, which is based on the Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service. New Capabilities Key Oracle RightNow Chat Cloud Service and other cross-channel capabilities include: Chat Business Rules, with over 70 built-in rule conditions, leverage the Oracle Engagement Engine to help enable organizations capture rich visitor data and invoke complex actions and triggers. Chat Business Rules allow granular control over when to engage a customer via the chat channel based on customer behavior, customer profile information and operational information. Click-to-Call provides the option for a customer to engage with a live agent over the phone during the Web browsing experience. Chat Availability Controls provide organizations with the ability to throttle volume through the chat channel based on real-time agent availability and wait time thresholds. This ability to manage the channel more efficiently allows organizations to provide a better experience to customers using the chat channel. Strategic and Operational Chat Channel Analytics provide better insight into channel and agent productivity and utilization and effectiveness with both out-of-the-box reports and ad hoc reports. New chat channel analytics provide comprehensive metrics with full data transparency. Background Service Updates improve high availability metrics for Oracle RightNow Chat Cloud Service during service update periods, setting the industry leading standard for sales and service delivery to customers via the chat channel. Additional Capabilities include: Improved Web developer tools for more efficient self-service user interface design Improved administration for enhanced user sessions management Increased cross-channel community collaboration Enhanced extensibility widgets and syndication management Streamlined content management and analytics capabilities Read the full announcement here

  Read the article

• SSAS deployment error: Internal error: Invalid enumeration value. Please call customer support! is not a valid value for this element.

  - by Kevin Shyr

  The first search on this error yielded some blog posts that says to check SQL server version.  It suggested that I couldn't deploy a SSAS project originally set for SSAS 2008 to a SSAS 2008 R2, which didn't make sense to me.  Combined with the fact that the error message was telling me to call customer support.  Why do I need to call customer support unless something catastrophic happened?Turns out that one of the file on the SQL server is corrupt.  I could simply delete the database on the SSAS server and re-run deployment.  Problem solved.SSAS errors in visual studio: Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Error      10           Internal error: Invalid enumeration value. Please call customer support! is not a valid value for this element.                                0              0              Error      11           An error occurred while parsing the 'StorageMode' element at line 1, column 10523 ('http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine' namespace) under Load/ObjectDefinition/Dimension/StorageMode.                            0              0              Error      12           Errors in the metadata manager. An error occurred when instantiating a metadata object from the file, '\\?\E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSAS10_50.MSSQLSERVER\OLAP\Data\DWH Sales Facts.0.db\Competitor.48.dim.xml'.                        0              0

  Read the article

• Should I be looking for an alternative to Zen Cart as my business grows?

  - by MarkS

  I created a business website for a family business which is growing. It's my family, and I'm a software developer, but I don't want to rebuild the wheels or be a shopping cart programmer. For this business, I need the web store to "just work", but... it gets complicated... There are two parts of this business website. One of them is driven by Wordpress and I use the awesome Thesis theme. This is modern, flexible, and saves me a lot of time from doing custom coding and styling. I couldn't be more pleased with this arrangement. The other part of the site is a Zen Cart store. It's administration and it's flexibility is frustrating and archaic Web 1.0. For the past few years, I keep hearing that the developers are working on a 2.0 version of Zen Cart, but they haven't communicated anything significant in the past few years other than to say, "When it's ready, we'll let you know." What I'm looking for in a cart, I would need to install 6-10 additional mods, and would need to do a lot of custom coding. I'm now willing to pay for a top-notch e-commerce solution for a small business that we can grow up into a larger business over time. Requirements: Extremely flexible shipping that let's us set up rules per product/category, tables of rates, calculated rates, max package weighs, etc. (flexibility like that available with CEON Advance Shipping Module for Zen Cart Coupons and gift certificates Manual order entry for phone orders Multi-channel support (We also sell on Amazon, eBay, use Google Base and we want to maintain one set of inventory and have it kept current) Decent SEO features Reviews and star-ratings on products Easy social networking features for sharing, following, liking, etc) Easy integration with AdWords and analytics tracking Modern and very usable product and store administration (Like I was saying, I'm spoiled by Wordpress and Thesis) At the end of the day, I don't care if it's a hosted solution or if I have to host it myself. I just want something that is going to stay up-to-date, regularly be maintained and improved, and if I have to update it, things like the one-click update present in Wordpress is something it has to have. Professional Webmasters, if you had to run a store / website, but you had to spend your time focusing on your sales and marketing efforts rather than diffing php files and copying and tweaking them to change even the slightest details of your site, what would you choose?

  Read the article

• Managing Social Relationships for the Enterprise – Part 1

  - by Michael Hylton

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Reggie Bradford, Senior Vice President, Oracle Today, Mark Hurd, President of Oracle, Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President of Oracle and I discussed the strategic importance of how social media is impacting the enterprise and how it is changing the way customers, prospects employees and investors interact with brands worldwide. Oracle understands that the consumer is in control and as such, brands must evolve and change to meet growing needs. In addition, according to social media thought leader and Analyst from Altimeter Group, Jeremiah Owyang, companies now average 178 corporate-owned social media accounts. When Oracle added leading social marketing, listening analytics and development tools from Vitrue, Collective Intellect and Involver to its Oracle’s Cloud Services Suite we went beyond providing a single set of tools. We developed an entire framework to include a comprehensive social relationship management suite to help companies move beyond the social enterprise and achieve the social-enabled enterprise. The fundamental shift from transaction to engagement means that enterprises need not only a social strategy, but should also ensure that the information and data received from social initiatives flow back to marketing, sales, support and service. Doing so enables companies to deliver a proactive and compelling experience and provides analytics to turn engagement into opportunity – and ultimately that opportunity into revenue. On September 13, 2012, I am delighted to sit down with Jeremiah to further the discussion about how enterprises are addressing social media strategies and managing content. In addition, we will be taking your questions after the webinar via Twitter (@Oracle, @ReggieBradford, @cwfinn, @jowyang). Use #oracle and #socbiz to submit questions and follow the conversation. I look forward to speaking with you and answering your questions online. For more information about becoming a social-enabled enterprise, visit www.oracle.com/social. And don’t miss the insights of other social business thought leaders at www.oracle.com/goto/socialbusiness. Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;}

  Read the article

• Why All The Hype Around Live Help?

  - by ruth.donohue

  I am pleased to introduce guest blogger, Damien Acheson today. Based in Cambridge, MA, Damien is the Product Marketing Manager for ATG’s Live Help products. Welcome, Damien!! BY DAMIEN ACHESON Why all the hype around live help? An eCommerce professional recently asked me: “Why all the hype around live chat and click to call?” I already have a customer service phone number that’s available to my online visitors. Why would I want to add live help? If anything, I want my website to reduce the number of calls to my contact center, not increase it!” The effect of adding live help to a website is counter-intuitive. Done right, live help doesn’t increase your call volume; it optimizes it by replacing traditional telephone calls with smarter, more productive, live voice and live chat interactions. This generates instant cost savings, and a measurable lift in sales and customer retention. A live help interaction differs from a traditional telephone call in six radical ways: Targeting. With live help you can target specific visitors at just the exact right time with a live call or live chat invitation based on hundreds of different parameters. For example, visitors who appear to hesitate before making a large purchase may receive a live help invitation, while others may not. Productivity. By reserving live voice to visitors with complex questions, and offering self-service and live chat for more simple interactions, agents with the right domain expertise can handle simultaneous queries and achieve substantial productivity gains. Routing. Live help interactions take into account visitors’ web context to intelligently route queries to the best available agent, thereby lifting first contact resolution. Context. Traditional telephone numbers force online customers to “change channels” and “start over” with a phone agent. With Live help, agents get the context of the web session and can instantly access the customer’s transaction details and account information, substantially reducing handle times. Interaction. Agents can solve a customer’s problem more effectively co-browsing and collaborating with the visitor in real-time to complete online forms and transactions. Analytics. Unlike traditional telephone numbers, live help allows you to tie Web analytics to customer satisfaction and agent performance indicators. To better understand these differences and advantages over traditional customer service, watch this demo on optimizing customer interactions with Live Help. Technorati Tags: ATG,Live Help,Commerce

  Read the article

• Izenda Reports 6.3 Top 10 Features

  - by gt0084e1

  Izenda 6.3 Top 10 New Features and Capabilities 1. Izenda Maps Add-On The Izenda Maps add-on allows rapid visualization of geographic or geo-spacial data.  It is fully integrated with the the rest of Izenda report package and adds a Maps tab which allows users to add interactive maps to their reports. Contact your representative or [email protected] for limited time discounts. Izenda Maps even has rich drill-down capabilities that allow you to dive deeper with a simple hover (also requires dashboards). 2. Streamlined Pie Charts with "Other" Slices The advanced properties of the Pie Chart now allows you to combine the smaller slices into a single "Other" slice. This reduces the visual complexity without throwing off the scale of the chart. Compare the difference below. 3. Combined Bar + Line Charts The Bar chart now allows dual visualization of multiple metrics simultaneously by adding a line for secondary data. Enabled via AdHocSettings.AllowLineOnBar = true; 4. Stacked Bar Charts The stacked bar chart lets you see a breakdown of a measure based on categorical data.  It is enabled with the following code. AdHocSettings.AllowStackedBarChart = true; 5. Self-Joining Data Sources The self-join features allows for parent-child relationships to be accessed from the Data Sources tab. The same table can be used as a secondary child table within the Report Designer. 6. Report Design From Dashboard View Dashboards now sport both view and design icons to allow quick access to both. 7. Field Arithmetic on Dates Differences between dates can now be used as measures with the arithmetic feature. 8. Simplified Multi-Tenancy Integrating with multi-tenant systems is now easier than ever. The following APIs have been added to facilitate common scenarios. AdHocSettings.CurrentUserTenantId = value; AdHocSettings.SchedulerTenantID = value; AdHocSettings.SchedulerTenantField = "AccountID"; 9. Support For SQL 2008 R2 and SQL Azure Izenda now supports the latest version of Microsoft's database as well as the SQL Azure service. 10. Enhanced Performance and Compatibility for Stored Procedures Izenda now supports more stored procedures than ever and runs them faster too.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123  | Next Page >