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  • Manipulating Exchange 2003 shared contacts folder remotely

    - by andybak
    I've got a CRM web app running on a remote server that needs to synchronise it's contacts with the in-house Exchange 2003 shared contacts. I know very little about Exchange - we are pricing a job for a new client so I'm really just getting a sense of the scope at this stage. Exchange 2003 doesn't seem to support web-services. What would the typical approach to this problem be? My initial instinct would be to open port 80 in the Exchange server, run a simple webserver and POST to it and then talk to exchange via OLE automation scripting (if that's what people are still calling it!) Any other suggestions?

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  • designing multi module J2EE application

    - by user728947
    Might be my question is abstract or out of context, but i am asking here since i have little idea how this happens. I am wondering how big application/ platform break down there application in to multiple module and how they able to manage modules dependencies. For example in some E-commerce application they tend to break down it in various modules like pricing,promotions,shipping.import/export and many more. when we develop those application we hardly think about the underlying modules and how they have been designed to provides functionalists. Most of those module are not web-applications but are standalone module and not deployed in the web-app as jar files. can any one help me to understand how they break up things or is there any standard way to do this.any help/resources to get insight will really be helpful

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  • Adding animation to my images with JQuery

    - by slandau
    Here is my home page: <%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Home/Home.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage" %> <asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="IndicationContentPlaceHolder" runat="server"> <table id="home" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right:auto;"> <td id="homeLinks"> <div style="padding-left:35px;" id="homeListing" class="containerMid"> <div id="homeView"> <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right:auto;"> <tr> <tr> <td id="btnIcOld" style="text-align:center;cursor:pointer;"> <img src="<%= VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/img/chic/Load.png")%>" /> </td> <td id="btnIc" style="text-align:center;cursor:pointer;"> <img src="<%= VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/img/chic/Bar_Chart.png")%>" /> </td> <td id="btnPricing" style="text-align:center;cursor:pointer;"> <img src="<%= VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/img/chic/Pie_Chart_disabled.png")%>" /> </td> <td id="btnSheets" style="text-align:center;cursor:pointer;"> <img src="<%= VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/img/chic/Line_Chart_disabled.png")%>" /> </td> <td id="btnPort" style="text-align:center;cursor:pointer;"> <img src="<%= VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/img/chic/Modify_disabled.png")%>" /> </td> <td id="btnAdmin" style="text-align:center;cursor:pointer;"> <img src="<%= VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/img/chic/Profile_disabled.png")%>" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td id="Td1"> <b>Indications Calculator | </b> </td> <td id="lblIc"> <b>Indications Calculator - Beta | </b> </td> <td id="lblPricing"> <b>Managing Pricing Triggers | </b> </td> <td id="lblSheets"> <b>Creating Pricing Sheets | </b> </td> <td id="lblPort"> <b>Portfolio Analysis | </b> </td> <td id="lblAdmin"> <b>Administration</b> </td> </tr> </tr> </table> </div> </div> </td> </table> <div id="pageMessage"></div> <script> $(document).ready(function () { $('#btnIc').live('click', function () { window.location.href = "<%=Url.Action("Indications") %>"; }); $('#btnIcOld').live('click', function () { window.location.href = 'https://extranetint/swap'; }); $('#btnPricing').live('click', function () { //window.location.href = "<%=Url.Action("Triggers") %>"; }); $('#btnSheets').live('click', function () { //window.location.href = "<%=Url.Action("Sheets") %>"; }); $('#btnPort').live('click', function () { //window.location.href = "<%=Url.Action("Analysis") %>"; }); $('#btnAdmin').live('click', function () { //window.location.href = "<%=Url.Action("Admin") %>"; }); }); </script> </asp:Content> How can I, with JQuery (or really anything), achieve a mouse-over effect on my images where they will grow a little bit as you hover over them? I tried using JQuery animate but for some reason I couldn't get it to work. Thanks!

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  • MVC way of handling data input

    - by korki
    I have a data input module where I add the information of my product and its sub information like: product basic info product price info product price details price info and price details are related to product and are lists In my web forms approach I would store my main product object on the view state and I would populate it's pricing info and details while doing ajax postbacks. This way I can create a compact module that is very user friendly in terms of defining a lot of data from one place without the need to enter these data from seperate modules. And when I am done I would do one product.save() and that would persist all the data to the respective tables on db. Now I am building similar app on .net mvc framework and pondering on what would be the good way of handling this on mvc. I don't resonate towards storing all this on client side till I click save. And saving to the db after each action makes me remember the days I was coding on asp. Will appreciate your inputs on ways to approach this on mvc framework

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  • Free US sales-tax lookup (per zip etc.)?

    - by Shimmy
    I am creating a pricing program. I need to calculate the amounts according to the current tax list in the US (in various places). I want to have a button 'Update taxes' in the administrative settings of the application, so when the user clicks it, it should download from somewhere the active tax amounts. So I actually want to have a function decimal GetTax(string zip). Does anyone knows about a free downloadable xml, or RSS accessible or even a website that I can crawle in and get this info from?

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  • Is there an off the shelf CMS that can be used as a back end for smartphone travel guide apps?

    - by eamonncarey
    I'm wondering if there's an off the shelf CMS available that is similar to something like Mobile Roadie - ie: it will allow you to create multiple versions of one application? I'm looking to develop some mobile travel guides for iPhone/Android/Blackberry etc, and rather than get a CMS built, I'd like to see if there's something out there is similar to Wordpress in that it will allow us to input text, images, Google Maps details, phone numbers, email addresses and potentially some audio/video content. If anyone knows of anything, I'd love to hear about it. Also, if you have any ideas regarding pricing, that would be extremely helpful! Thanks in advance for your assistance.

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  • How to configure Transparent IP Address Sharing (TAS) on a Mediatrix 4102 with DGW 2.0 firmware?

    - by Pascal Bourque
    I am making the switch to VoIP. I chose voip.ms as my service provider and Mediatrix 4102 as my ATA. One reason why I chose the Mediatrix over other popular consumer ATAs is that it's supposed to be easy to place it in front of the router, so it can give priority to its own upstream traffic over the home network's upstream traffic. This is supposed to work transparently, with the ATA and router sharing the same public IP address (the one obtained from the modem). They call this feaure Transparent IP Address Sharing, or TAS. Their promotional brochure describes it like this: The Mediatrix 4102 also uses its innovative TAS (Transparent IP Address Sharing) technology and an embedded PPPoE client to allow the PC (or router) connected to the second Ethernet port to have the same public IP address, eliminating the need for private IP addresses or address translations. I am interested by this feature because my router, an Apple Time Capsule, doesn't support QoS and cannot give priority to the voice packets if the ATA is behind the router. However, after hours of searching the web, reading the documentation, and good ol' trial and error, I haven't been able to configure the Mediatrix to run in this mode. Then I found a version of the manual that looks like it was for a previous version of the firmware (SIP), where there is an entire section dedicated to configuring TAS (starting at page 209). But my Mediatrix comes with the DGW 2.0 firmware, whose documentation does not mention TAS at all. So I tried to follow the TAS setup instructions from the SIP documentation and apply them to my DGW firmware, using the Variable Mapping Between SIP v5.0 and DGW v2.0 document as a reference, but no success. Some required SIP variables don't have an equivalent in DGW. So it looks like the DGW firmware does not support TAS at all, or if it does they are not doing anything to help us set it up. So right now, the Mediatrix is behind the router and VoIP works perfectly except when my upstream bandwidth is saturated. My questions are: Is downgrading to SIP firmware the only way to have my Mediatrix 4102 run in TAS mode? If not, anybody knows how to setup TAS on the DGW firmware? Is TAS mode the only way to give priority to the voice packets if I want to keep my current router (Apple Time Capsule)? Thanks!

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  • How to configure Transparent IP Address Sharing (TAS) on a Mediatrix 4102 with DGW 2.0 firmware?

    - by Pascal Bourque
    I am making the switch to VoIP. I chose voip.ms as my service provider and Mediatrix 4102 as my ATA. One reason why I chose the Mediatrix over other popular consumer ATAs is that it's supposed to be easy to place it in front of the router, so it can give priority to its own upstream traffic over the home network's upstream traffic. This is supposed to work transparently, with the ATA and router sharing the same public IP address (the one obtained from the modem). They call this feaure Transparent IP Address Sharing, or TAS. Their promotional brochure describes it like this: The Mediatrix 4102 also uses its innovative TAS (Transparent IP Address Sharing) technology and an embedded PPPoE client to allow the PC (or router) connected to the second Ethernet port to have the same public IP address, eliminating the need for private IP addresses or address translations. I am interested by this feature because my router, an Apple Time Capsule, doesn't support QoS and cannot give priority to the voice packets if the ATA is behind the router. However, after hours of searching the web, reading the documentation, and good ol' trial and error, I haven't been able to configure the Mediatrix to run in this mode. Then I found a version of the manual that looks like it was for a previous version of the firmware (SIP), where there is an entire section dedicated to configuring TAS (starting at page 209). But my Mediatrix comes with the DGW 2.0 firmware, whose documentation does not mention TAS at all. So I tried to follow the TAS setup instructions from the SIP documentation and apply them to my DGW firmware, using the Variable Mapping Between SIP v5.0 and DGW v2.0 document as a reference, but no success. Some required SIP variables don't have an equivalent in DGW. So it looks like the DGW firmware does not support TAS at all, or if it does they are not doing anything to help us set it up. So right now, the Mediatrix is behind the router and VoIP works perfectly except when my upstream bandwidth is saturated. My questions are: Is downgrading to SIP firmware the only way to have my Mediatrix 4102 run in TAS mode? If not, anybody knows how to setup TAS on the DGW firmware? Is TAS mode the only way to give priority to the voice packets if I want to keep my current router (Apple Time Capsule)? Thanks!

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  • Create an iTunes Account without a credit card

    - by Matthew Guay
    iTunes Store offers a large variety of free content, but to download it you have to have an account. Usually you have to enter your credit card information to sign up, but here’s an easy way to get an iTunes account for free downloads without entering any payment info. Although iTunes Store is known for paid downloads of movies, music, and more, it also has a treasure trove of free media.  Some of it, including Podcasts and iTunes U educational content do not require an account to download.  However, any other free content, including free iPhone/iPod Touch apps and free or promotional music, videos, and TV Shows all require an account to download.  If you try to download a free movie or music download, you will be required to enter payment information. Even though your card will not be charged, it will be kept on file so you can be charged if you download a for-pay item.  However, if you only plan to download free items, it may be preferable to not have your account linked to a credit card. The following steps will get you an account without entering your credit card info. Getting Started First, make sure you have iTunes installed.  If you don’t already have it, download and install it (link below) with the default settings. Now open iTunes, and click the iTunes Store link on the left. Click the App Store link on the top of this page. Select a free app to download.  A simple way to do this is to scroll down to the Top Free Apps box on the right side, hover your mouse over the first item, and click on the Free button that appears when you hover over it. A popup will open asking you to sign in with your Apple ID.  Click “Create New Account”. Click Continue to create your account. Check the box to accept the Store Terms and Conditions, and click Continue.   Enter your email address, password, security question, and date of birth, and uncheck the boxes to get email if you don’t want it…then click Continue. Now, you will be asked to provide a payment method.  Notice now that the last option says None!  Click that bullet option… Then enter your billing address.  Simply enter your normal billing address, even though you are not entering a payment method.  Click Continue and your account will be created! If you get the Address Verification screen just verify your county and click Done. An email will be sent to you to verify your account… Click on the link in your email to verify your account, iTunes will launch and you’re prompted to enter in the Apple ID and Password you just created. Your account is successfully created! Now you can easily download any free media from iTunes.  Keep an eye on the Free on iTunes box on the bottom of the iTunes Store page for interesting downloads, or if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, watch the popular Free downloads on the Apps page. And of course there is always great content on iTunes U to grab free as well. Purchasing for-pay media If you want to purchase an item on the iTunes store later, simply click on the item to download as normal.  Click Buy to proceed with the purchase. iTunes will prompt you that you need to enter payment information to complete the purchase.  Enter your Apple ID email and password, and then add the payment information as prompted.   Remove Payment Information from an iTunes Account If you’ve already entered payment information into your iTunes account, and would like to remove it, click Store in the top iTunes menu, and select View My Account. Enter your Apple ID email and password, and click View Account.   This will open your account information.  Click the Edit Payment Information button.   Now, click the None button to remove your payment information.  Click Done to save the changes. Your account will now prompt you to enter payment information if you try to make a purchase.  You could repeat these steps after making a purchase if you do not want iTunes to keep your payment info on file. Conclusion This is a great way to make an iTunes account without entering your credit card, or to remove your credit card info from your account.  Parents may especially enjoy this tip, as they can have an iTunes account on their kids computer or iPod Touch without worrying about them spending money with it. Links Download iTunes Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Quick Tip: Switch Between Signatures in Outlook 2007 the Easy WayRedeem Pre-paid Zune Card Points for Zune Marketplace MediaCreate An Electronic Business Card In Outlook 2007Understanding Windows Vista Aero Glass RequirementsSpeed up Your Windows Vista Computer with ReadyBoost TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Draw Online using Harmony How to Browse Privately in Firefox Kill Processes Quickly with Process Assassin Need to Come Up with a Good Name? Try Wordoid StockFox puts a Lightweight Stock Ticker in your Statusbar Explore Google Public Data Visually

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  • Force.com presents Database.com SQL Azure/Amazon RDS unfazed

    - by Sarang
    At the DreamForce 2010 event in San Francisco Force.com unveiled their next big thing in the Fat SaaS portfolio "Database.com".  I am still wondering how would they would've shelled out for that domain name. Now why would a already established SaaS player foray into a key building block like Database? Potentially allowing enterprises to build apps that do not utilize the Force.com stack! One key reason is being seen as the Fat SaaS player with evey trick in the SaaS space under his belt. You want CRM come hither, want a custom development PaaS like solution welcome home (VMForce), want all your apps to talk to a cloud DB and minimize latency by having it reside closer to you cloud apps? You've come to the right place sire! Other is potentially killing foray of smaller DB players like Oracle (Not surprisingly, the Database.com offering is a highly customized and scalable Oracle database) from entering the lucrative SaaS db marketplace. The feature set promised looks great out of the box for someone who likes to visualize cool new architectures. The ground realities are certainly going to be a lot different considering the SOAP/REST style access patterns in lieu of the comfortable old shoe of SQL. Microsoft suffered heavily with SDS (SQL Data Services) offering in early 2009 and had to pull the plug on the product only to reintroduce as a simple SQL Server in the cloud, SQL Windows Azure. Though MSFT is playing cool by providing OData semantics to work with SQL Windows Azure satisfying atleast some needs of the Web-Style to a DB. The other features like Social data models including Profiles, Status updates, feeds seem interesting as well. (Although I beleive social is just one of the aspects of large scale collaborative computing). All these features start "Free" for devs its a good news but the good news stops here. The overall pricing model of $ per Users per Transactions / Month is highly disproportionate compared to Amazon RDS (Based on MySQL) or SQL Windows Azure (Based on MSSQL). Roger Jennigs of Oakleaf did an interesting comparo based on 3, 10, 100, 500 users and it turns out that Database.com going by current understanding is way too expensive for the services on offer. The offering may not impact the decision for DotNet shops mulling their cloud stategy or even some Java/MySQL shops thinking about Amazon RDS, however for enterprises having already invested in other force.com offerings this could be a very important piece in the cloud strategy jigsaw. One which would address a key cloud DB issue of "Latency" for them at least it will help having the DB in the neighborhood. The tooling and "SQL like" access provider drivers (Think ODBC/JDBC) will be available later this year. Progress Software has already announced their JDBC driver stack for Database.com. It remains to be seen how effective the overall solutions proves to be in the longer run but for starts its a important decision towards consolidating Force.com's already strong positioning in the SaaS space. As always contrasting views are welcome! :)

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  • Stackify Aims to Put More ‘Dev’ in ‘DevOps’

    - by Matt Watson
    Originally published on VisualStudioMagazine.com on 8/22/2012 by Keith Ward.The Kansas City-based startup wants to make it easier for developers to examine the network stack and find problems in code.The first part of “DevOps” is “Dev”. But according to Matt Watson, Devs aren’t connected enough with Ops, and it’s time that changed.He founded the startup company Stackify earlier this year to do something about it. Stackify gives developers unprecedented access to the IT side of the equation, Watson says, without putting additional burden on the system and network administrators who ultimately ensure the health of the environment.“We need a product designed for developers, with the goal of getting them more involved in operations and app support. Now, there’s next to nothing designed for developers,” Watson says. Stackify allows developers to search the network stack to troubleshoot problems in their software that might otherwise take days of coordination between development and IT teams to solve.Stackify allows developers to search log files, configuration files, databases and other infrastructure to locate errors. A key to this is that the developers are normally granted read-only access, soothing admin fears that developers will upload bad code to their servers.Implementation starts with data collection on the servers. Among the information gleaned is application discovery, server monitoring, file access, and other data collection, according to Stackify’s Web site. Watson confirmed that Stackify works seamlessly with virtualized environments as well.Although the data collection software must be installed on Windows servers, it can monitor both Windows and Linux servers. Once collection’s finished, developers have the kind of information they need, without causing heartburn for the IT staff.Stackify is a 100 percent cloud-based service. The company uses Windows Azure for hosting, a decision Watson’s happy with. With Azure, he says, “It’s nice to have all the dev tools like cache and table storage.” Although there have been a few glitches here and there with the service, it’s run very smoothly for the most part, he adds.Stackify is currently in a closed beta, with a public release scheduled for October. Watson says that pricing is expected to be $25 per month, per server, with volume discounts available. He adds that the target audience is companies with at least five developers.Watson founded Stackify after selling his last company, VinSolutions, to AutoTrader.com for “close to $150 million”, according to press accounts. Watson has since  founded the Watson Technology Group, which focuses on angel investing.About the Author: Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.

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  • Network Solutions Gold VIP Program

    - by GGBlogger
    Today I received an email advising me “Congratulations! You have been selected for the Network Solutions Gold VIP Program” Now I get a bunch of messages from Network Solutions because a long time ago I chose them as my registrar. I usually just save these to my Outlook Network Solutions folder and move on. This time my wife was in the room and I chuckled and said something about “Network Solutions has made me a Gold VIP member.” She said “So what does that mean?” Prompted by that I scrolled down the page to look at my “perks". Let’s see – Special pricing, 1 year free Web Forwarding, 1 hour of free support… etc etc until I hit “Enrollment in SafeRenew* SafeRenew* simplifies your renewal process. It protects your domain name registrations and corresponding services in the event you forget or are unable to renew on time. I’m thinking “Now ain’t that neat” I don’t use auto renew anyway and never have. Then I continued reading: Beginning June 24th, 2012 your domains* (that’s 10 days away) will automatically renew. To ensure continuation of service, please be certain you have a valid credit card on file. If you do not wish for your services to be automatically renewed, please click here to log into account manager and opt out of the SafeRenew™ service. Whoa Network Solutions is going to start spending my money without so much as a by your leave sir!!! I don’t bloody think so and how truly magnanimous of them I can “click here” to opt out of what I didn’t opt in for. Talk about furious! I still am. Now the kicker is: if my wife hadn’t been curious and if I’d had a working credit card on file I wouldn’t have know this until one of my unwanted domain names auto renewed. Of course I was told “Oh – we’d have refunded your money” to which I say bull. In my view Networks Solutions is guilty of a crime of some sort. They DO NOT have a right to spend my money without asking!!!!! So watch out folks.

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  • A New Home for E-Business Suite Customer Adoption Information

    - by linda.fishman.hoyle
    Phew! I made it! A new home with my name. Let's talk about E-Business Suite. So much is going on and more and more customers are upgrading and implementing the latest release. I think I will highlight in this blog entry the most recent press release we issued 2 weeks ago about our Applications Unlimited success but in the release, we name several customers who are live on E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and then have a fabulous quote from a customer who is doing great things with our product.   Here is a link to the press release To make it easy for you, I am pulling out just the E-Business Suite information Oracle E-Business Suite: Oracle® E-Business Suite Release 12.1 provides organizations of all sizes, across all industries and regions, with a global business foundation that helps them reduce costs and increase productivity through a portfolio of rapid value solutions, integrated business processes and industry-focused solutions. The latest version of the Oracle E-Business Suite was designed to help organizations make better decisions and be more competitive by providing a global or holistic view of their operations. Abu Dhabi Media Company, Agilysis, C3 Business Solutions, Chicago Public Schools, Datacard Group, Guidance Software, Leviton Manufacturing, McDonald's, MINOR International, Usana Health Sciences, Zamil Plastic Industries Ltd. and Zebra Technologies are just a few of the organizations that have deployed the latest release of the Oracle E-Business Suite to help them make better decisions and be more competitive, while lowering costs and increasing performance. Customer Speaks "Leviton Manufacturing makes a very diverse line of products including electrical devices and data center products that we sell globally. We upgraded to the latest version of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 to support our service business with change management, purchasing, accounts payable, and our internal IT help desk," said Bob MacTaggart, CIO of Leviton Manufacturing. "We consolidated seven Web sites that we used to host individually onto iStore. In addition, we run a site, using the Oracle E-Business Suite configurator, pricing and quoting for our sales agents to do configuration work. This site can now generate a complete sales proposal using Oracle functionality; we actually generate CAD drawings - the actual drawings themselves - based on configuration results. It used to take six to eight weeks to generate these drawings and now it's all done online in an hour to two hours by our sales agents themselves, totally self-service. It does everything they need. From our point of view that is a major business success. Not only is it a very cool, innovative application, but it also puts us about two years ahead of our competition."

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  • A brief introduction to BRM and architecture

    - by Yani Miguel
    Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (Oracle BRM) is the telcos industry´s leading solution intended for communications service providers. This post encourages to know BRM starting with the basics. History Portal was a billing and revenue managament solution to communications industry created by Portal Software. In 2006 Oracle acquired Portal Software and the solution was renamed BRM. Today Oracle BRM is the first end-to-end packaged enterprise software suite for the communications industry, however BRM is just one more product in the catalog of OSS solutions that Oracle offers. BRM can bill and manage all communications services including wireline, wireless, broadband, cable, voice over IP, IPTV, music, and video. BRM Architecture BRM´s architecture consists of 4 layers or tiers. Through these layers are the data, bussines logic and interfaces to connect graphical client tools.Application tier This layer provides GUI client tools enabling communication to other layers through open APIs. Some BRM client applications are: Customer Center Pricing Center Universal Event Loader Web Server BRM Billing Application Collections Center Permissioning Center Furthermore, this layer is where are provided real-time external events. Bussines Process Tier Although all layers are equally important, I think it deserves more atention because in this tier BRM functionality is implemented. All functions that give life to BRM are in this layer coded in C language called Opcodes (System Processes in the image). Any changes or additional functionality should be made here, so when we try to customize the product, we will most of the time programming in this layer (Business Policies in the image).Bussines Process Tier Features: Implements Portal system functionalityValidates data from the application tierModifies Portal behavior through business policies. Business policies can by customized.Triggers external systems using event notification. Object Tier This layer is responsible for transfer the BRM requests into database language and translate BRM requests into external system requests. Without it, the business logic (data from Bussines Process Tier) could not be understood by the relational database. Data tier Data tier is responsable for the storage of BRM database and other external systems databases. External systems include credit card, tax, and directory servers. Finally, It's important to note that BRM is designed to easily integrate with the following solutions:AIA 2.4 Siebel CRM E-Business Suite - G/L onlyCommunications Services Gatekeeper Oracle BI Publisher. Personally, I think that BRM could improve migrating client-server architecture to a fully web platform that works with Oracle Middleware like any product of the Fusion Middleware family. Hopefully there are already initiatives in this area.

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  • How far is too far?

    - by David Dorf
    Previously I've talked about Safeway's personalized pricing as well as Target's use of analytics to learn about customers.  Then last week I read about Orbitz tailoring their hotel offers based on the browser used.  (Orbitz claims that Mac users are 40% more likely than PC users to book four- or five-star hotels.)  So just how far is too far when tailoring the retail experience? When most consumers read about these types of tactics, they tend to feel violated, as if someone was reading their personal diary.  Nobody wants to be tricked into buying things.  Walking into a grocery store and seeing crates of apples stacked high looks enticing, but the crates are just for display and the apples may be over a year old.  Even though its much cheaper to print markdown tags, many retailers manually write the price tags because consumers think they deal is better if the price is hand-written. The technology already exists to personalize prices and experiences for consumers.  People get upset thinking they paid more for something than a neighbor, but it already happens all the time with cars, flights, and the use of loyalty programs and coupons. There are many variables at play for any purchase.  They only difference is that the customer segments are getting smaller, sometimes reaching a size of one. There's two ways to look at this.  Retailers have always manipulated the environment to get consumers to buy more -- or -- Retailers are getting better at tuning the shopping experience for consumers.  I choose the latter, and so do most consumers by spending their money in the stores they like.  Consumers like to see fresh flowers at the entrance to the grocery store, and they like to see specials scrawled on chalkboards. The key is making sure that consumers benefit from the experience as well.  I'm willing to give up some personal information in exchange for discounts and more relevant marketing, and the next-generation of shoppers are even less concerned about privacy.  Retailers need to use all the tools available to differentiate their offers and connect with their customers. So if Orbitz wants to put three-star hotels at the top of the list for me because I'm using a PC, that's fine by me.

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  • JavaOne 2011: Content review process and Tips for submissions

    - by arungupta
    The Technical Sessions, Birds of Feather, Panels, and Hands-on labs (basically all the content delivered at JavaOne) forms the backbone of the conference. At this year's JavaOne conference you'll have access to the rock star speakers, the ability to engage with luminaries in the hallways, and have beer (or 2) with community peers in designated areas. Even though the conference is Oct 2-6, 2011, and will be bigger and better than last year's conference, the Call for Paper submission and review/selection evaluation started much earlier.In previous years, I've participated in the review process and this year I was honored to serve as co-lead for the "Enterprise Service Architecture and Cloud" track with Ludovic Champenois. We had a stellar review team with an equal mix of Oracle and external community reviewers. The review process is very overwhelming with the reviewers going through multiple voting iterations on each submission in order to ensure that the selected content is the BEST of the submitted lot. Our ultimate goal was to ensure that the content best represented the track, and most importantly would draw interest and excitement from attendees. As always, the number and quality of submissions were just superb, making for a truly challenging (and rewarding) experience for the reviewers. As co-lead I tried to ensure that I applied a fair and balanced process in the evaluation of content in my track. . Here are some key steps followed by all track leads: Vote on sessions - Each reviewer is required to vote on the sessions on a scale of 1-5 - and also provide a justifying comment. Create buckets - Divide the submissions into different buckets to ensure a fair representation of different topics within a track. This ensures that if a particular bucket got higher votes then the track is not exclusively skewed towards it. Top 7 - The review committee provides a list of the top 7 talks that can be used in the promotional material by the JavaOne team. Generally these talks are easy to identify and a consensus is reached upon them fairly quickly. First cut - Each track is allocated a total number of sessions (including panels), BoFs, and Hands-on labs that can be approved. The track leads then start creating the first cut of the approvals using the casted votes coupled with their prior experience in the subject matter. In our case, Ludo and I have been attending/speaking at JavaOne (and other popular Java-focused conferences) for double digit years. The Grind - The first cut is then refined and refined and refined using multiple selection criteria such as sorting on the bucket, speaker quality, topic popularity, cumulative vote total, and individual vote scale. The sessions that don't make the cut are reviewed again as well to ensure if they need to replace one of the selected one as a potential alternate. I would like to thank the entire Java community for all the submissions and many thanks to the reviewers who spent countless hours reading each abstract, voting on them, and helping us refine the list. I think approximately 3-4 hours cumulative were spent on each submission to reach an evaluation, specifically the border line cases. We gave our recommendations to the JavaOne Program Committee Chairperson (Sharat Chander) and accept/decline notifications should show up in submitter inboxes in the next few weeks. Here are some points to keep in mind when submitting a session to JavaOne next time: JavaOne is a technology-focused conference so any product, marketing or seemingly marketish talk are put at the bottom of the list.Oracle Open World and Oracle Develop are better options for submitting product specific talks. Make your title catchy. Remember the attendees are more likely to read the abstract if they like the title. We try our best to recategorize the talk to a different track if it needs to but please ensure that you are filing in the right track to have all the right eyeballs looking at it. Also, it does not hurt marking an alternate track if your talk meets the criteria. Make sure to coordinate within your team before the submission - multiple sessions from the same team or company does not ensure that the best speaker is picked. In such case we rely upon your "google presence" and/or review committee's prior knowledge of the speaker. The reviewers may not know you or your product at all and you get 750 characters to pitch your idea. Make sure to use all of them, to the last 750th character. Make sure to read your abstract multiple times to ensure that you are giving all the relevant information ? Think through your presentation and see if you are leaving out any important aspects.Also look if the abstract has any redundant information that will not required by the reviewers. There are additional sections that allow you to share information about the speaker and the presentation summary. Use them to blow the horn about yourself and any other relevant details. Please don't say "call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx to find out the details" :-) The review committee enjoyed reviewing the submissions and we certainly hope you'll have a great time attending them. Happy JavaOne!

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  • JavaOne 2011: Content review process and Tips for submissions

    - by arungupta
    The Technical Sessions, Birds of Feather, Panels, and Hands-on labs (basically all the content delivered at JavaOne) forms the backbone of the conference. At this year's JavaOne conference you'll have access to the rock star speakers, the ability to engage with luminaries in the hallways, and have beer (or 2) with community peers in designated areas. Even though the conference is Oct 2-6, 2011, and will be bigger and better than last year's conference, the Call for Paper submission and review/selection evaluation started much earlier.In previous years, I've participated in the review process and this year I was honored to serve as co-lead for the "Enterprise Service Architecture and Cloud" track with Ludovic Champenois. We had a stellar review team with an equal mix of Oracle and external community reviewers. The review process is very overwhelming with the reviewers going through multiple voting iterations on each submission in order to ensure that the selected content is the BEST of the submitted lot. Our ultimate goal was to ensure that the content best represented the track, and most importantly would draw interest and excitement from attendees. As always, the number and quality of submissions were just superb, making for a truly challenging (and rewarding) experience for the reviewers. As co-lead I tried to ensure that I applied a fair and balanced process in the evaluation of content in my track. . Here are some key steps followed by all track leads: Vote on sessions - Each reviewer is required to vote on the sessions on a scale of 1-5 - and also provide a justifying comment. Create buckets - Divide the submissions into different buckets to ensure a fair representation of different topics within a track. This ensures that if a particular bucket got higher votes then the track is not exclusively skewed towards it. Top 7 - The review committee provides a list of the top 7 talks that can be used in the promotional material by the JavaOne team. Generally these talks are easy to identify and a consensus is reached upon them fairly quickly. First cut - Each track is allocated a total number of sessions (including panels), BoFs, and Hands-on labs that can be approved. The track leads then start creating the first cut of the approvals using the casted votes coupled with their prior experience in the subject matter. In our case, Ludo and I have been attending/speaking at JavaOne (and other popular Java-focused conferences) for double digit years. The Grind - The first cut is then refined and refined and refined using multiple selection criteria such as sorting on the bucket, speaker quality, topic popularity, cumulative vote total, and individual vote scale. The sessions that don't make the cut are reviewed again as well to ensure if they need to replace one of the selected one as a potential alternate. I would like to thank the entire Java community for all the submissions and many thanks to the reviewers who spent countless hours reading each abstract, voting on them, and helping us refine the list. I think approximately 3-4 hours cumulative were spent on each submission to reach an evaluation, specifically the border line cases. We gave our recommendations to the JavaOne Program Committee Chairperson (Sharat Chander) and accept/decline notifications should show up in submitter inboxes in the next few weeks. Here are some points to keep in mind when submitting a session to JavaOne next time: JavaOne is a technology-focused conference so any product, marketing or seemingly marketish talk are put at the bottom of the list.Oracle Open World and Oracle Develop are better options for submitting product specific talks. Make your title catchy. Remember the attendees are more likely to read the abstract if they like the title. We try our best to recategorize the talk to a different track if it needs to but please ensure that you are filing in the right track to have all the right eyeballs looking at it. Also, it does not hurt marking an alternate track if your talk meets the criteria. Make sure to coordinate within your team before the submission - multiple sessions from the same team or company does not ensure that the best speaker is picked. In such case we rely upon your "google presence" and/or review committee's prior knowledge of the speaker. The reviewers may not know you or your product at all and you get 750 characters to pitch your idea. Make sure to use all of them, to the last 750th character. Make sure to read your abstract multiple times to ensure that you are giving all the relevant information ? Think through your presentation and see if you are leaving out any important aspects.Also look if the abstract has any redundant information that will not required by the reviewers. There are additional sections that allow you to share information about the speaker and the presentation summary. Use them to blow the horn about yourself and any other relevant details. Please don't say "call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx to find out the details" :-) The review committee enjoyed reviewing the submissions and we certainly hope you'll have a great time attending them. Happy JavaOne!

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  • Repository and Ticket management in a Windows Environment

    - by saifkhan
    I’ve been using AxoSoft’s bug tracking application for a while, although and excellent piece of software I had some issues with it ·         It was SLOOOW (both desktop and web). I don’t care what Axosoft says, I tired multiple servers etc. I’ve been long enough in this field to tell you when something is not right with an app. ·         The cost! It’s not feasible for a small team.   I must say though, that they have some nice features which are not commonly found on other bug tracking software. I wouldn’t go on to list any here. I would prefer you download and try their app and see for yourself. In my quest to find a replacement, I tried a few. The successor had to satisfy the following ·         A 99.99% Windows Environment. ·         Bug Tracking. ·         Ticket Management (power users and project managers can open tickets on projects). ·         Repository (I decided to merge bug tracking and repository to get my team to be more productive). ·         Unlimited users. ·         Cost. Being the head of IT security for the firm I work for, making the decision to move data offsite was a hard decision to make, but turned out to be one I am not regretting so far. My choice was down to Altassian JIRA and codebaseHQ. I ended up going with the latter… (I still love the greenhopper from Altassian…its freaking cool!) CodebaseHQ is nice and simple and has all the features I needed. I’ve been using them for a few months now and very happy. Their pricing…well, see for yourself. I was also able to get our SVN data… (Yes, SVN! I don’t go near the Visual Sourcesafe thing…it’s not that safe (pardon the pun). I am hearing some nice things about TFS 2010) over to codebaseHQ. We use VisualSVN to access repositories. …so if you are a Windows developer (or team) codebaseHQ is worth checking out!

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  • Java EE 7 turns one today!

    - by delabassee
    "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." (Benjamin Franklin) Today marks the first year anniversary of Java EE 7. The JSR 342 specification was finalised on May 28, 2013 with the official launch taking place on June 12, 2013 (original press release). As of today, there are already 3 Java EE 7 compatible Application Servers, coming from different 'vendors' (Oracle, TmaxSoft and Red Hat). Two of those Java EE 7 Application Servers are free and open source. We expect the list of Java EE 7 compatible Application Servers to grow over the coming months. Source: RebelLabs - 'Java Tools and Technologies Landscape for 2014' According to a recent independent survey, one third of the Java EE users who participated in that survey is already using Java EE 7. This is a good sign but it also means that a lot of people are not yet on Java EE 7. So if you haven't yet embarked on Java EE 7, now is really the time to do so! There are various ways to learn Java EE 7, in no particular order ... Continue to read The Aquarium. Through this blog, we are relaying Java EE news but we are also doing our best to highlight relevant technical contents such as articles, community tutorials, etc. Watch the GlassFish YouTube channel. Amongst others, it contains the different videos of the Java EE 7 launch, those videos will give you good technical update on Java EE and its different components specifications (JMS 2.0, JAX-RS 2.0, EJB 3.2, etc.) Take a formal training. Oracle University is starting to roll-out Java EE 7 trainings like the 'Java EE 7: New Features' class.  Attend conferences and JUGs sessions. On that note, we have spent a lot of time to create a strong JavaOne 'Server-Side Java' track. It's still possible to benefit from the early bird JavaOne pricing but don't wait too much! Read books. There are more than 25 (!) books related to Java EE 7 or to one of the Java EE 7 component specification.  There are many more ways to learn Java EE but if I have to suggest one and only one way, I would recommend the Java EE 7 Tutorial. It's exhaustive and clear, it's free and it continues to evolve. And finally as the introductory quote suggest, participation is key to learning. Participate in JUGs,  participate in Adopt-a-JSR, get involved in the different open source communities evolving around Java EE, participate in the JCP... in one word, participate!

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  • Business Strategy - Google Case Study

    Business strategy defined by SMBTN.com is a term used in business planning that implies a careful selection and application of resources to obtain a competitive advantage in anticipation of future events or trends. In more general terms business strategy is positioning a company so that it has the greatest competitive advantage over others in the markets and industries that they participate in. This process involves making corporate decisions regarding which markets to provide goods and services, pricing, acceptable quality levels, and how to interact with others in the marketplace. The primary objective of business strategy is to create and increase value for all of its shareholders and stakeholders through the creation of customer value. According to InformationWeek.com, Google has a distinctive technology advantage over its competitors like Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo. Google utilizes custom high-performance systems which are cost efficient because they can scale to extreme workloads. This hardware allows for a huge cost advantage over its competitors. In addition, InformationWeek.com interviewed Stephen Arnold who stated that Google’s programmers are 50%-100% more productive compared to programmers working for their competitors.  He based this theory on Google’s competitors having to spend up to four times as much just to keep up. In addition to Google’s technological advantage, they also have developed a decentralized management schema where employees report directly to multiple managers and team project leaders. This allows for the responsibility of the technology department to be shared amongst multiple senior level engineers and removes the need for a singular department head to oversee the activities of the department.  This is a unique approach from the standard management style. Typically a department head like a CIO or CTO would oversee the department’s global initiatives and business functionality.  This would then be passed down and administered through middle management and implemented by programmers, business analyst, network administrators and Database administrators. It goes without saying that an IT professional’s responsibilities would be directed by Google’s technological advantage and management strategy.  Simply because they work within the department, and would have to design, develop, and support the high-performance systems and would have to report multiple managers and project leaders on a regular basis. Since Google was established and driven by new and immerging technology, all other departments would be directly impacted by the technology department.  In fact, they would have to cater to the technology department since it is a huge driving for in the success of Google. Reference: http://www.smbtn.com/smallbusinessdictionary/#b http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192300292&pgno=1&queryText=&isPrev=

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  • Stop Saying "Multi-Channel!"

    - by David Dorf
    I keep hearing the term "multi-channel" in our industry, but its time to move on. It kinda reminds me of the term "ECR" or electronic cash register. Long ago ECR was a leading-edge term, but nowadays its rarely used because its table-stakes. After all, what cash register today isn't electronic? The same logic applies to multi-channel, at least when we're talking about tier-1 and tier-2 retailers. If you're still talking about multi-channel retailing, you're in big trouble. Some have switched over to the term "cross-channel," and that's a step in the right direction but still falls short. Its kinda like saying, "I upgraded my ECR to accept debit cards!" Yawn. Who hasn't? Today's retailers need to focus on omni-channel, which I first heard from my friends over at RSR but was originally coined at IDC. First retailers added e-commerce to their store and catalog channels yielding multi-channel retailing. Consumers could use the channel that worked best for them. Then some consumers wanted to combine channels with features like buy-on-the-Web, pickup-in-the-store. Thus began the cross-channel initiatives to breakdown the silos and enable the channels to communicate with each other. But the multi-channel architecture is full of duplication that thwarts efforts of providing a consistent experience. Each has its own cart, its own pricing, and often its own CRM. This was an outcrop of trying to bring the independent channels to market quickly. Rather than reusing and rebuilding existing components to meet the new demands, silos were created that continue to exist today. Today's consumers want omni-channel retailing. They want to interact with brands in a consistent manner that is channel transparent, yet optimized for that particular interaction. The diagram below, from the soon-to-be-released NRF Mobile Blueprint v2, shows this progression. For retailers to provide an omni-channel experience, there needs to be one logical representation of products, prices, promotions, and customers across all channels. The only thing that varies is the presentation of the content based on the delivery mechanism (e.g. shelf labels, mobile phone, web site, print, etc.) and often these mechanisms can be combined in various ways. I'm looking forward to the day in which I can use my phone to scan QR-codes in a catalog to create a shopping cart of items. Then do some further research on the retailer's Web site and be told about related items that might interest me. Be able to easily solicit opinions and reviews from social sites, and finally enter the store to pickup my items, knowing that any applicable coupons have been applied. In this scenario, I the consumer are dealing with a single brand that is aware of me and my needs throughout the entire transaction. Nirvana.

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  • links for 2011-03-17

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Siba Prasad: Oracle Database on Amazon RDSg Siba Prasad share an analysis of the pros and cons. (tags: oracle database cloud amazon) LIVE WEBCAST March 24 2pm PT- Why Switch from Red Hat and SUSE Linux to Oracle Linux? (Oracle's Linux Blog) Featuring Oracle's Monica Kumar, Sr.Director of Linux, Oracle VM and MySQL and Avi Miller, Principal Sales Consultant, Linux and Virtualization. (tags: oracle linux) Webcast: IBM SOA vs. Oracle SOA, March 24, 1pm ET / 10am PT Maneesh Joshi and Bruce Tierney guide you to a solid understanding of the differences between the Oracle and IBM approach to comprehensive SOA. (tags: oracle soa bpm) Finding the Right Solution to Source and Manage Your Contractors (PeopleSoft Apps Strategy) "Talent has become a primary competitive advantage for most organizations. Contingent labor offers talent on flexible terms; it offers the ability to scale up operations, close skill gaps, and manage risk in the process of delivering services." - Mark Rosenberg (tags: oracle peoplesoft enterprisearchitecture) Oracle Business Intelligence Customers: Have Your Voice Heard in the "2011Wisdom of the Crowds Business Intelligence Market Survey" (BI & Analytics Pulse) "The Wisdom of the Crowds survey combines social media, crowd sourcing, and good old fashioned market research to provide vendors and customers alike an unvarnished and insightful snap shot of what's top of mind with business intelligence professionals." (tags: oracle businessintelligence) Martin Bach: Troubleshooting Grid Infrastructure startup Martin Bach hunts down the problem that caused one of his blades to reboot after an EXT3 journal error. (tags: oracle grid rac) Oracle WebCenter: Social Networking & Collaboration (Oracle Enterprise 2.0 Blog) Kelley Ruppel with information on "how the new release of Oracle WebCenter provides unprecedented Social Networking and Collaboration." (tags: oracle webcenter enterprise2.0 collaboration) VirtaThon: 100% Virtual Java/Oracle/MySQL Conference! | Bex Huff "The goal is simple," says Oracle ACE Director Bex Huff. "Because it's all online, the conference is very cheap. Pricing is not yet announced... but it should be around $300. Also, unlike other conferences, every speaker gets paid a small fee depending on the popularity of his or her session." (tags: oracle oracleace java mysqql) Griffiths Waite Blog: BPM 11g PS3 GW's Ian Heathcock shares a link to "a most interesting article on Oracle's recent release discussing the new features and how PS3 adds value  to the whole SOA message." (tags: oracle soa) The Buttso Blathers: Tutorial: JSF 2.0 and JPA 2.0 with WebLogic Server using NetBeans Should you take application architecture advice from a man named Buttso? In this case, yes. (tags: oracle jsf jpa weblogic) Setting-up a High Available Tuned SOA Environment Middleware Magic (tags: ping.fm) How to Configure Weblogic Messaging Bridge with JBoss Middleware Magic (tags: ping.fm Weblogic JBoss) Richard Veryard on Architecture: Emergent Architecture (tags: ping.fm entarch emergence)

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  • Highlights From Interact '12 - Healthcare Industry User Group

    - by John Webb
    Last week the Oracle team traveled to Orlando for the 18th annual Healthcare Industry User Group (HIUG) conference, Interact '12.   HIUG has over 3,000 members representing 180 organizations.  While we now know the result on the SCOTUS ruling yesterday, the consensus at the conference last week was summed up well in the welcome note from HIUG President, Chris Ryzewski:    "Regardless of the legal ruling on this administration's  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act we will undoubtedly be called upon to further reduce costs and be more efficient in every aspect of our business processes."    Well put!   Attendance exceeded previous years with several hundred attendees, over 100 sessions, and a trade show that numbered 40 booths.    Most of the HIUG members use PeopleSoft applications and they tend to be full suite customers who use PeopleSoft broadly from HCM to Financials and Supply Chain. For many customers who have licensed PeopleSoft in the last year, it was their first experience with a very strong and collaborative user group.   I had dinner with a provider who is rolling out PeopleSoft HCM and ERP to a nationwide system of forty hospitals.  A key driver for this organization and others is how to leverage PeopleSoft applications to meet the cost reduction goals mentioned above.   In the area of procurement, the topic of Supplier Contract Management attracted a lot of attention.  Contract pricing and adherence to contracts throughout the procure to pay life cycle are key to meeting cost containment objectives.  Customers were excited to see the new faceted search capabilities and usability of  the upcoming PeopleSoft eProcurement release.     The new Work Center concept was discussed in several areas including the Cost Reconciliation Work Center and the Supply Demand Work Center which enables healthcare specific functions around PAR counts and related replenishment activities.  The latest Feature Pack of HCM 9.1 was demonstrated with the Talent Summary and Manager Dashboard.   Customers were excited to see the major advances in self service available today.    The Grants Special Interest Group focused quite a bit on the usage of PeopleSoft's Project Costing "Funds Distribution" feature, which can be used to manage capital projects funded by multiple agencies and sources.  Along with the latest release of the Mobile Inventory solution that several hospitals have now implemented, a preview of new mobile applications for expenses and approvals drew a lot of attention.   The PeopleSoft focus on assisting these companies in their goals to contain costs and create new efficiencies continues forward.   We look foward to Interact '13!     

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  • Contract Lifecycle Management for Public Sector

    - by jeffrey.waterman
    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-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-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} One thing Oracle never seems to get enough credit for is its consistent quest to improve its products, even the ones as established as its back-office solutions. Here is another example of one of the latest improvements: Contract Lifecycle Management for Public Sector, or CLM. The latest EBS module geared specifically for the Federal acquisition community. Our existing customers have been asking Oracle for years to upgrade its Advanced Procurement Suite to meet the complex procurement processes of the Federal Government. You asked; we listened. Oracle, with direct input from Federal agencies, subject matter experts, integration partners, and the Federal acquisition community, has expanded and deepened its procurement suite to meet the unique demands of the Federal acquisition community. New benefits/features include: Contract Line Item/Sub-Line Item (CLIN/SLIN) structures Configurable Document Numbering Complex Pricing Contract Types ( as per FAR Part 16) Option lines and exercising of options Incremental Funding capability Support for multiple document types (delivery orders, BPA call orders, awards, agreements, IDIQ contracts) Requisition lines to fund modifications Workload assignment and milestones Contract Action Reporting to FPDS-NG I’ve been conducting many tests over the past few months and have been quite impressed with the depth of features and the seamless integration to Federal Financials, specifically the funds control within the financials. Again, thank you for reading. If you have suggestions for future posts, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll take it from there.

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  • Social Engagement: One Size Doesn't Fit Anyone

    - by Mike Stiles
    The key to achieving meaningful social engagement is to know who you’re talking to, know what they like, and consistently deliver that kind of material to them. Every magazine for women knows this. When you read the article titles promoted on their covers, there’s no mistaking for whom that magazine is intended. And yet, confusion still reigns at many brands as to exactly whom they want to talk to, what those people want to hear, and what kind of content they should be creating for them. In most instances, the root problem is brands want to be all things to all people. Their target audience…the world! Good luck with that. It’s 2012, the age of aggregation and custom content delivery. To cope with the modern day barrage of information, people have constructed technological filters so that content they regard as being “for them” is mostly what gets through. Even if your brand is for men and women, young and old, you may want to consider social properties that divide men from women, and young from old. Yes, a man might find something in a women’s magazine that interests him. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to subscribe to it, or buy even one issue. In fact he’ll probably never see the article he’d otherwise be interested in, because in his mind, “This isn’t for me.” It wasn’t packaged for him. News Flash: men and women are different. So it’s a tall order to craft your Facebook Page or Twitter handle to simultaneously exude the motivators for both. The Harris Interactive study “2012 Connecting and Communicating Online: State of Social Media” sheds light on the differing social behaviors and drivers. -65% of women (vs. 59% of men) stay glued to social because they don’t want to miss anything. -25% of women check social when they wake up, before they check email. Only 18% of men check social before e-mail. -95% of women surveyed belong to Facebook vs. 86% of men. -67% of women log in to Facebook once a day or more vs. 54% of men. -Conventional wisdom is Pinterest is mostly a woman-thing, right? That may be true for viewing, but not true for sharing. Men are actually more likely to share on Pinterest than women, 23% to 10%. -The sharing divide extends to YouTube. 68% of women use it mainly for consumption, as opposed to 52% of men. -Women are as likely to have a Twitter account as men, but they’re much less likely to check it often. 54% of women check it once a week compared to 2/3 of men. Obviously, there are some takeaways from this depending on your target. Women don’t want to miss out on anything, so serialized content might be a good idea, right? Promotional posts that lead to a big payoff could keep them hooked. Posts for women might be better served first thing in the morning. If sharing is your goal, maybe male-targeted content is more likely to get those desired shares. And maybe Twitter is a better place to aim your male-targeted content than Facebook. Some grocery stores started experimenting with male-only aisles. The results have been impressive. Why? Because while it’s true men were finding those same items in the store just fine before, now something has been created just for them. They have a place in the store where they belong. Each brand’s strategy and targets are going to differ. The point is…know who you’re talking to, know how they behave, know what they like, and deliver content using any number of social relationship management targeting tools that meets their expectations. If, however, you’re committed to a one-size-fits-all, “our content is for everybody” strategy (or even worse, a “this is what we want to put out and we expect everybody to love it” strategy), your content will miss the mark for more often than it hits. @mikestilesPhoto via stock.schng

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