Sep282015 by adminNo Comments

SAML — what is it ?

Home Page, O365, Strategy
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an XML-based framework used to authorize, authenticate and communicate attributes and privileges of a user. It provides numerous benefits to enterprises, organizations and governments. However, SAML has been widely adopted for three primary reasons: SAML is standardized, secure, and provides an excellent user experience. Three Benefits of Using SAML 1. Standardized The SAML standardized format is designed to interoperate with any system independent of implementation. This enables a more open approach to architecture and identity federation without the interoperability issues associated with vendor-specific approaches. White Paper: Introduction to SAML Learn how SAML is used by enterprise organizations for SSO Download 2. Security In the modern era of computing, security is of the utmost importance when it comes to enterprise applications. SAML is used to…
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Sep232015 by adminNo Comments

5 Business Benefits you can measure from new CRM/ERP systems

CRM, Home Page, Projects, Strategy
ERP-Capabilities Every organization has a different reason to implement a new ERP system. But the most successful ERP implementations are those that coincide with the desire to improve their tangible business benefits. Unfortunately, most organizations have trouble realizing the potential of their new ERP systems and most organizations fail to realize at least half of the business benefits that they expect. The good news? In general, most successful implementations deliver some common benefits. Below are five tangible business benefits that you can achieve with the right focus and expertise: Increased revenues. Top-line revenue growth is the name of the game in today’s relatively weak global economy. Unfortunately, too many organizations leverage ERP software to minimize costs and neglect to capitalize on the opportunities to increase revenue growth. Modules such as CRM…
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Sep172015 by adminNo Comments

What is a Digital Strategy

Home Page, Me, Strategy
I have often wondered what a digital strategy means, mostly as the people who use this terminology are not based in IT, so I googled it, and this is one of the many explanations that were found, but one that I think I and most other technical people would understand. (more…)
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Sep42015 by adminNo Comments

Why Power BI is the future of Excel

Home Page, O365, Strategy
Excel isn't going away, but it's going to stop accumulating extra tools like barnacles. Instead Power BI Desktop will become the self-service analytics hub.   In recent years, some of the most significant improvements to Microsoft Excel haven't been part of the familiar spreadsheet software directly. Instead, the new analysis and visualization tools that turn Excel into a hugely business intelligence (BI) platform arrived as add-ons –available only if you have a separately installed Office ProPlus license (or an Office 365 E3 tenant) -- that live on their tabs in the Excel ribbon, but launch separate apps. Excel formulas and pivot tables might arguably be the most popular programming language in the world and these new tools – Power Query, Power Pivot, Power Map and Power View – are even…
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Aug262015 by adminNo Comments

Cut the Cord: How Print From Anywhere Is Changing The Way We Work

Home Page, O365, Strategy
 Print drivers. Remember those? Just the words are enough to send a shiver up the spine of nearly any office worker who survived the early days of office printing. Sure, it wasn’t exactly a stone and chisel, but once upon a time, office printing wasn’t very easy or convenient, either. How many times did you find yourself in a position where printing your project was even more difficult or complicated than writing it? Or find that a simple, “print and sign” task was harder than closing the deal to begin with? With Xerox Mobile Print, those days are over. Workers have been released from their printer cord tether, free to work – and print – from anywhere. Xerox Mobile Print combines convenience, options and security (three of our favorite words)…
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Aug262015 by adminNo Comments

How agile project management can save time and money

Home Page, Me, Projects, Strategy
A lack of focus on business objectives from the start of a project can make them drag on, costing both time and money. Applying agile project management is one way to mitigate the risk, argues Chris Maund. Current approaches to project management are often thought to slow down business change. As a result, a high percentage of projects are seen as failures. However, it is often not the project management methodology that is slowing down the delivery; it is a lack of focus on business objectives or outcomes from the start of the project. A while ago, I was brought into a project which had become so caught up in the definition of requirements that a year after starting it had still not benefited the business; in fact, the requirements…
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Aug252015 by adminNo Comments

Microsoft Gamifies CRM

CRM, Home Page, Strategy
Microsoft is integrating the sales gamification platform of its recent acquisition, Incent Games, into its customer relationship management (CRM) software. In other words, it’s turning its sales process into one big game, with the goal that making the work more fun will improve outcomes. But how well does this actually work? Gamification is the idea of applying game theory and mechanics in non-game settings.  It plays on the psychology of games — the drive to compete and win, the behavior associated with certain small rewards like power ups — to make work tasks more enjoyable. Microsoft’s latest acquisition and integration applies game theory to the sales department. Lots of companies use contests to try to boost sales and revenues, but they’re often designed poorly, focusing on results rather than the…
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Aug202015 by adminNo Comments

A Nudge to Innovation

Home Page, Strategy, Uncategorized
Change initiatives can be mentally and physically taxing because it is more challenging to be in a “mindful” state of learning something new than in a “mindless” state of doing the familiar. Physical or cognitive “nudges” help — not by forcing adoption of new ideas, but by creatively eliminating obstacles so that it happens naturally.   In 2011, Pelle G. Hansen and his students from Roskilde University came up with a litter-reducing nudge that they tested in Copenhagen. The team handed out 1000 candies to pedestrians. All the nearby streets, including garbage cans, ashtrays, and bike baskets were examined for the distinctive empty wrappers, and the wrappers discovered there were counted. Then the process was repeated, but in the second trial, a trail of green footsteps leading to nearby bins…
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Aug182015 by adminNo Comments

Legacy Application Refactoring

Home Page, Strategy
There's a problem with desktop virtualization on smartphones and tablets: Desktop applications were never meant for mobile use. Legacy applications, built for a PC with a physical keyboard and mouse, are still critical to today's businesses. The experience of using them on a touchscreen device, however tends to be extremely clunky. Application refactoring attempts to solve that problem by reformatting and optimizing desktop apps for mobile. Refactoring should be a familiar term to those in the developer community; it refers to the process of improving software coding and design without changing its intended functions. The new stock of application refactoring vendors -- which includes Capriza, PowWow, Reddo Mobility and StarMobile -- takes that concept and applies it to legacy software running on modern endpoints. As an added bonus, application refactoring…
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