Issue N0: 12


Ms reveals Consumer Preview version of Windows 8

Software giant, Microsoft has revealed the Consumer Preview version of its new Windows 8 operating system on Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

 

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WordPress Vs Joomla Vs Drupal

Joomla, WordPress or Drupal CMS? Confuse to determine what you’ll choose? There are many applications to make website. Some of them are Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal. They are three major CMS (Content Management System).

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Apple launches third generation iPad tablet

Technology giant, Apple has announced the launch of the third generation of its tablet computer at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to revive the most poplar line of tablets in the world.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook released the new tablet with faster processing speeds and a higher resolution touch screen. The new version of the tablet will feature a more impressive screen and offer faster video graphics and Long Term Evolutionary (4G) capabilities and others.

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10 biggest ERP software failures of 2011

With the year drawing to a close, one thing seems abundantly clear: There are still an awful lot of ERP and other software projects running off the rails out there.

Software project failures are no fun for anyone involved. They lead to piles of wasted money and effort, heaps of accusations and recriminations.

read more...

Four Tips on Working Together More Efficiently at the Office

Anyone who’s ever worked in an office setting knows how overwhelming it can sometimes be; there’s office politics, difficult personalities, and deadlines, among other stressful elements. Teamwork is considered a pillar of corporate culture.

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Detailed Articles

Microsoft reveals Consumer Preview version of Windows 8

Software giant, Microsoft has revealed the Consumer Preview version of its new Windows 8 operating system on Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Many believe that the new Windows 8 is the biggest upgrade from the company since Windows 95 and it might help the company maintain its lead in the PC market. The new version is designed to work well on touch-sensitive tablets besides computers and laptops.

Microsoft had announced the general design and direction of Windows 8 in June 2011. The company had announced details of the yet to be released Windows 8 in a blog post claiming it will come with built-in support for mobile broadband devices and will allow users to better manage their Wi-Fi and mobile broadband networks. The new operating system will allow users to easily connect to mobile broadband networks and also manage connections and monitor their data usages for controlling Internet costs.

The company understands that providing only Wi-Fi support would not be enough so the team decided to add support for integrated mobile broadband. The newer version will come with a common mobile-broadband class driver that is compatible with devices from a variety of mobile operators and vendors. This will eliminate the need for the users to find separate drivers.

Windows 8 will have a Metro interface, which is designed for touchscreen computers and tablets and includes use HTML5 and CSS3. Analysts are evaluating the developer preview release and it is to be seen if the platform is able to attract users in the smartphone and tablet market dominated by Google's Android and Apple.

 

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WordPress Vs Joomla Vs Drupal

Joomla, WordPress or Drupal CMS? Confuse to determine what you’ll choose? There are many applications to make website. Some of them are Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal. They are three major CMS (Content Management System). Many bloggers have made comparisons of these three major CMS. From that comparison, we can see the best one. However, all of them have superiorities and weakness. Let’s us make some comparisons of these three CMS, that may help you to choose the best one for your purposes.

Firstly, we see the Joomla. Joomla is CMS that is more powerful for full-blown CMS. Joomla CMS is a piece of cake or very easy to install. It is also fairly easy and straightforward in using it. About the administration, Joomla has very graphical and intuitive administration and the selections of themes also good. Joomla requires openSEF or SEO (Search Engine Optimizations) extension and it may offer security risks due to SEO changes. However, you can create blog easily with Joomla. Web 2.0 of Joomla still has the older content driven aspects and less community focus. It is lack of permissions control, decent scalability, and has no multisite. The categorization is limited and its SSL requires some programming. The speed of Joomla is very fast with rendering pages but also can slow down when features are added. The download size is 878 kb.

Secondly, we talk about WordPress. WordPress CMS is an application to build blog with various selections of themes. Like Joomla, WordPress is easy to install and to use. Everybody can do it. Moreover, it is very easy to administer the site. Comparing with Joomla, WordPress has excellent and large theme selections. The SEO is very fantastic. All contents have unique page with an SEO friendly and title and URL.

WordPress is the best blogging software. It is very web. 2.0 and has permissions control. It has limited scalability, no multisite and SSL. The download size is 802 kb. The last is Drupal which is great for blogs. It is easy to install. The theme is lacking when we compare with those two. The SEO is fantastic. It has pure web. 2, built in SSL, very granural permissions, and great scalability. The speed is very efficient and the size of download is 728 kb.

They are some comparisons of the three CMS that may help you in choosing the best one for you. You can also choose them based on your purposes. However, if you are challenged to try the difficult one, you can choose Drupal.

 

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Apple launches third generation iPad tablet

Technology giant, Apple has announced the launch of the third generation of its tablet computer at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to revive the most poplar line of tablets in the world.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook released the new tablet with faster processing speeds and a higher resolution touch screen. The new version of the tablet will feature a more impressive screen and offer faster video graphics and Long Term Evolutionary (4G) capabilities and others.

The new version of the tablet will feature a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution display and offer faster video graphics.

According to experts the company will redice the price of existing model from $499. The newest model is expected to have the same price tag as the iPad 2 as Apple usually launched the new version at the same price and then reduces the price of the earlier version.

A cheaper iPad 2 will pose a stiff competition other tablet makers in the market like Amazon and Samsung. The move will undercut manufactures who are trying to compete with Apple on the basis of lower prices.

Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple did not comment on the announcement for the day.

 

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10 biggest ERP software failures of 2011

With the year drawing to a close, one thing seems abundantly clear: There are still an awful lot of ERP and other software projects running off the rails out there.

Software project failures are no fun for anyone involved. They lead to piles of wasted money and effort, heaps of accusations and recriminations, and even to lawsuits. Here's a look at some of the highest-profile problem projects to surface this year.

UK government scraps the 12 billion National program for IT in the NHS

In September, U.K. officials pulled the plug on what is considered to be the largest public IT project of all time, an attempt to provide electronic health records for all of the country's citizens.

The sprawling effort was begun in 2002 but failed to produce a workable system, despite massive spending outlays that have been estimated at about 12 billion (US$18.7 billion).

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

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

New York City's CityTime project

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

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

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

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

SAP project woes impact Ingram Micro's profits -- twice

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

Net income stood at $56.3 million, a drop from $70.3 million in the same quarter the previous year, Ingram Micro said at the time. The shortfall was "primarily attributable to difficulties transitioning to a new enterprise system in Australia," it said.

Ingram Micro went on to stress that the system would provide a great deal of value and efficiency once in place. However, it also warned that its financial results may yet again be impacted by the project's issues, a premonition that proved true.

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Four Tips on Working Together More Efficiently at the Office

Anyone who’s ever worked in an office setting knows how overwhelming it can sometimes be; there’s office politics, difficult personalities, and deadlines, among other stressful elements. Teamwork is considered a pillar of corporate culture, but sometimes working together efficiently at the office can feel like an assignment of its own.

Have you seen The Office?…Who hasn’t! Whether you watch the British or American version of the show doesn’t matter; the dysfunction remains the same in both series. So what is the likelihood of encountering difficult personalities in the office much of the way it occurs in those TV programs? It’s probably not that far-fetched in most cases. Can you imagine having a boss as inappropriate and inept as David Brent (Michael Scott) or a co-worker as irritating and bizarre as Gareth Keenan (Dwight Schrute)? It seems as if being efficient and productive are the last things on their mind.

The Office makes for good television, but the chances of a company branch like that surviving in the real world are slim to none. Even if your office currently runs smoothly, something can always be done to increase productivity; that’s why these tips will be useful to everyone. So now, without further ado, here are four tips for working together more efficient at the office:

You could quickly shuffle through various applications and open windows in a manner that looks somewhat like a fusion of "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Tron" (not to mention "Minority Report"). A camera captures head motion to provide a sense of depth and accurate viewing angles, as well. The project is on display at Microsoft TechForum 2012 in Redmond, Wash.

1. Web Conferencing

Utilizing web conferencing in your office has countless benefits, but the most important is its ability to help people work together more efficiently at the office. Thanks to new technology, web conferencing goes well beyond the conference calls of years past. Now, offices can setup meetings with employees or clients quickly and easily, share desktops, and create online presentations that can be sent to one or many. Essentially, web conferencing allows employees to collaborate on a project without actually having to physically be in a room with one another and in a busy world where some colleagues are on a business trip, some telecommute, and others are at a meeting, web conferencing can prove to be invaluable to an office in need of efficiency.

Huddle actually offers free web conferencing now, along with a multitude of other communication collaboration and project management tools sure to get your colleagues working together more efficiently at the office. Huddle’s web conferencing is even fully integrated into Huddle meetings, which now allows you to set up meetings, schedule events, and share your desktop with your colleagues. Conferencing minutes are included in a monthly package or can be upgraded to unlimited conferencing and multiple concurrent rooms for the lowest price available anywhere. This is tip number one because frankly, if web conferencing doesn’t get your office on track to working efficiently nothing will.

2. Emphasize Group Recognition

If you want the office to work together more efficiently, one of the best ways to do that is by emphasizing group recognition. After all, everyone contributes to the office in their own important way and by including them, you’re illustrating to everyone that you understand the importance of each individual and how each and every employee contributes not only to their specific “team” or department, but to the entire office’s progress and efficiency.

The best way to emphasize group recognition is by giving the various segments of the office a task they must complete efficiently and if done well, they’ll receive some kind of reward. For example, break the sales department into teams of three or four and depending on which team gets the highest sales figures for the month, they’ll be rewarded with an extra 30 minutes at lunch, gift cards, or a catered lunch. The reward doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate; it simply has to get the office motivated to work together to be more efficient. Keep in mind that switching up the teams regularly is a crucial element to this tips success. This will help illustrate to the employees that each of their co-workers is a teammate. It will also ensure that no one grows resentful for being lumped in with a team not performing well at the task at hand.

3. Alleviate Any Tension

One of the biggest hindrances to the Scranton branch working efficiently on the American version of The Office is that Michael Scott, the boss, tries to be everyone’s best friend as opposed to their boss. This, of course, is problematic because when tension or conflict arises in the office, it’s his job to alleviate it and remain impartial to both sides. He’s unable to do this because he’s afraid of being an authority figure or having anyone dislike him. Hopefully, no major problems exist in your office that would hinder efficiency to this degree, but it’s been known to happen sometimes.

So what do you do if workers aren’t getting along? Definitely don’t ignore the problem; this could make it worse. As a supervisor or authority figure in the office, you–or someone of similar ranking–should help mediate any issues impartially and help to resolve the issue. In the rare instance that the conflict has something to do with happenings outside of work, ask both employees if they’re willing and capable of putting aside their issues for the sake of professionalism and more importantly their job. You don’t want to force people to be friends because obviously, not everyone is meant to become best friends. So never mind everlasting friendship, your goal as a supervisor is helping them establish a functioning work relationship because if even two people in the workplace are at odds, it can greatly hinder the chances of everyone working together more efficiently at the office.

4. Create a Formal Performance Appraisal Process

This last tip may not be helpful for some offices because many already have a formal appraisal process in place. For those offices that don’t have performance expectations “written in stone”, this could be the key missing to getting employees to work together more efficiently at the office. This process allows you to clearly communicate your expectations to employees in terms of how productive, efficient, successful (etc.) you need them to be. If your expectations for office efficiency aren’t met, you can then make them aware of how a poor performance may eventually affect their salary or opportunities for advancement.

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