Seven steps for deploying unified communications
by Maxine Cheung
IT solutions and services provider says all seven steps are crucial for unified communications deployment
In an effort to educate its customers and to better position itself as an industry leading IT solutions and services provider, Dimension Data Canada has come up with a list of seven key consideration points for successful unified communications (UC) deployment.
While Darryl Wilson, area practice director for Dimension Data Canada says UC uptake across the country is growing, there's still a ways to go before UC solutions become a part of the mainstream market place.
“We're starting to see a lot of interest and UC is really taking off because of the whole mobility and going green aspect. These things are very attractive to organizations,” Wilson said. “Our philosophy is to lead in the marketplace with best practices. The seven considerations for UC that we've listed will be used as an education vehicle for our customers and the other Dimension Data (competitors) of the world,” he added.
With the company's seven key considerations list for UC, Wilson says what has often happened before was that many businesses would often overlook the early planning stages leading into their UC project, which would therefore lead to a rocky implementation. While on the other hand, Wilson said partners would sometimes fail to relay the importance of implementing project management and ongoing support to its customers once the solution was in place.
“The list was made to address some things that people may not consider when it comes to UC deployment,” Wilson said. “You can have a great solution implemented, but if users can't use the technology or support it, it will be a failure.”
1.According to Dimension Data, the first tip to help businesses successfully execute a UC solution is to make sure the company's current and desired communications methods and needs are understood.
2. Secondly, the environment in question also needs to be prepared for UC deployment, which may include the establishment of a single-user identity, a configuration of the PBX or IP PBX and the deployment of client software to desktops. In order to run certain applications, desktops will sometimes have to meet certain hardware and software requirements.
3.Once the environment has been assessed, Dimension Data recommends that the architecture is then defined as being either a distributed or centralized one.
4. From here, security policies and practices also need to be addressed at some point in order to ensure optimal functionality and efficiency.
5.After the initial UC implementation has been completed, Dimension Data says businesses should work on maximizing enterprise integration methods to take better advantage of all of the integration and customization capabilities that UC has to offer.
6.When it's time to choose an implementation partner, Wilson said Dimension Data advises businesses to look for a partner who not only has experience in deploying large and small-scale projects, but to also look for a partner who has a structured project management plan in place. This will ensure that the partner has a set of processes and guidelines to successfully deliver and deploy the project.
7.And lastly, rounding out the seventh consideration point is to make sure ongoing support is implemented even after the UC solution already has been. Ongoing and consistent support is absolutely necessary to help maintain the environment's stability while at the same time reducing the risk of a business's potential downtime, Wilson said.
“Having an upfront plan is important,” Wilson said. “Partners also need to tell customers how to manage the solution once it's in place because the post-support aspect is also very critical for UC.”
While these seven steps are more for the customer's overall consideration when implementing a UC solution, Wilson said following all seven of them is critical for any customer and partner who wants to follow through with UC deployment. He says if even one step is skipped, there's a certain level of risk that then becomes associated with the project.
“If these steps aren't followed,” Wilson says, “then what will happen on day two once the keys are handed over and the client needs to drive that solution in order to keep it going? UC is no longer just IP dial tones anymore. It's really all about integration and collaboration and instant messaging and all of the other complexities that today are making up UC. This list is our spin on the best practices we've come up with on how to implement UC.”
WSIB Amnesty Program: Time is running out!
By Dan Condon, Wilson Vukelich LLP.
With rare exception, most businesses in Ontario must be registered with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (“WSIB”). Nevertheless, many are not. If an unregistered employer engaged in an industry that is covered on a compulsory basis under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act is discovered by the WSIB, they will be liable not only for retroactive premiums, but penalties, interest and possible prosecution under the Provincial Offenses Act (“POA”).
The likelihood that the WSIB will discover an unregistered business has increased significantly since the WSIB entered into an information sharing agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency a few years ago. The two institutions are now sharing information which means that unregistered employers that fall under compulsory categories should not be surprised if they receive an audit letter. Otherwise, unregistered employers can be found through the WSIB's ordinary revenue recovery activities, such as employer audits and investigations, or when an injured worker makes a claim.
The WSIB announced a voluntary registration program in the fall of 2007. Under the program, employers in compulsory categories who voluntarily register before March 31, 2008 will receive full amnesty. A full amnesty means no penalties for not reporting, no reconciliation interest, no retroactive premiums, and no prosecution under the POA at the time of registration. Premium remittance will begin from the date of first contact with the WSIB.
After March 31st, all voluntary registrants will receive partial amnesty, including no penalties, no reconciliation interest on retroactive premiums, or prosecution at the time of registration. However, retroactive premiums will apply for the year of registration and up to one year prior.
For more information on how to take advantage of the Voluntary Registration Policy go to the WSIB's web site: http://www.wsib.on.ca/wsib/wsibsite.nsf/public/home_e
If you have any general questions or concerns about the WSIB or employment matters in general, please contact Dan Condon at (905) 940-5505 or by email at dcondon@wilsonvukelich.com
20 steps to achieve rapid - and remarkable -- success at work
by Stephanie Overby
There are things you can do in just one-third of an hour that can have a decisive and long-term, positive effect on your life, your job and your enterprise. Here are 20 ways you can accomplish lasting change in 20-minute doses.
You have no time. Here are 20 processes you can improve, benefits you can reap and changes you can make in just 20 minutes.
You look at your to-do list and everything seems hard and insanely long-term. Create a five-year strategic plan. Map out the skills your IT organization will need over the next 36 months. Sign that seven-year outsourcing deal.
It's okay. You can admit it. Sometimes it can get a little...overwhelming.
Then there's your schedule. Project updates. Executive team meetings. Vendor visits. Tete-a-tetes with direct reports. E-mail. Presentations. There's just no time to breathe. The thought that you could possibly fit in anything else seems downright laughable.
What you need is a 20-minute miracle.
Of course, most big transformations take a while, but not all changes require a military campaign. There are things you can do in just one-third of an hour that can have a meaningful and, yes, even a long-term, positive effect on your life, your job and your enterprise.
You could call a customer; you could downsize (and revolutionize) your weekly meetings; you could try out some Google Apps. We've gathered 20 of the best ideas we could find: quick yet effective tactics that can improve the IT organization, boost your career, add to your technology knowledge, sharpen your management skills and enhance your relationship with the business.
Now all you have to do is free up that first 20 minutes to read this article. Let us know how these work out for you. And tell us about your own ideas for how to accomplish change in 20-minute doses.
This could be the start of something...short.
1. Counterintelligence 101
Grab the annual 10-K reports that your top competitors have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and read the section called "Management's Discussion and Analysis." That's where the CEO (through corporate lawyers) describes what happened to the company in the past year, good and bad.
By scanning that material, you can immediately get a better understanding of the competition, says Mary Lacity, professor of information systems at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
"CIOs need to enable business strategies and the CIOs' bosses will certainly be developing strategies vis-a-vis their competitors," Lacity notes.
To buttress what should be an ongoing campaign to elevate your IT work in the eyes of your fellow execs, check out how your top competitors position IT. UPS's latest 10-K mentions technology 32 times.
Target, Kohl's, Citigroup and Blockbuster are also known for tech talk in these annual reports. Also, says Lacity, note whether rivals' technology leaders are part of the senior executive team. "If most competitors have their CIO reporting to the CEO," she says, "that might be ammunition for a more prominent role for you."
-Kim S. Nash
2. The Mini-Meeting
If singles have figured out a way to condense that painful first date into eight minutes of intense communication, why not try the same thing with your IT meetings?
Sit down right now and reschedule all your internal IT meetings for just 20 minutes. If that's too radical, do it for the get-togethers happening this week. Or, if you're feeling especially powerful, try it for your interdepartmental meetings.
"There's only about 15 minutes to 30 minutes of true productivity in most meetings, even though meetings are typically set up for an hour," says Michael Hites, CIO of New Mexico State University, who once placed a 30-minute limit on all meetings.
"The idea is that it forces you and your meeting buddies to prepare and focus." Hites found that shorter meetings were more effective and left more time to actually accomplish things.
If you like that idea, consider this even more sweeping suggestion from Direct Energy CIO Kumud Kalia: Cancel all recurring meetings with your subordinate staff. "Ask them to come to you with major issues, not every little decision," Kalia advises.
-Stephanie Overby
3. Business Intelligence 201
take your own company's 10-K and pay attention to the bad stuff that happened in the past year. Think about how technology affects such events, then figure out what you can do about them.
For example, in its latest 10-K, Owens Corning, the US$6.5 billion maker of construction materials, talks about how the decline in U.S. home building hurt sales. Could better business intelligence have predicted how steeply new construction would fall and have helped Owens prepare?
Think also about how IT can mitigate the scary possibilities cited in the "risk factors" section. Blockbuster notes in its latest 10-K that consolidation in the movie rental industry looms and that some video stores will be forced to close.
"If we are unable to capitalize on the store closings of our competitors," the $5.5 billion company's report says, "we may be unable to grow our market share and our financial results may be adversely affected."
You can bet Blockbuster's new CIO, Keith Morrow, is thinking about how he can help the company profit from competitor losses.
This 20-minute exercise educates you about the central business issues that your company faces and fights, and what matters to Wall Street. Remember that what Wall Street thinks about your company affects your future and your paycheck.
-K.S.N.
4. Your Vendor, Revealed
Ask your most important tech vendors to conduct an assessment of their relationship with your organization. "This requires minimal effort on the part of the CIO," says Chris Pattacini, vice president of outsourcing consultancy Nautilus Advisors, "but it can pay big dividends."
Of course, there's a catch. Vendors might not be as honest as you'd like for fear the information could be used against them in future negotiations. Put the vendor reps at ease and make sure to invite them to rate not only their organization's efforts but yours as well.
"The assessment can spark a great dialogue about innovation, relationship issues and other below-the-radar opportunities for improvement," says Pattacini.
To make sure the vendor representative follows through, give him an achievable goal and a deadline. Ask him to share his top three ideas for improving the relationship at the next client-vendor meeting, says Eugene Kublanov, CEO of globalization advisory firm NeoIT.
-S.O.
5. Self-Knowledge Is Power
Twenty minutes is a perfect amount of time for some good, honest introspection.
Gene Bedell, author of Three Steps to Yes: The Gentle Art of Getting Your Way and the upcoming The Millionaire in the Mirror, promotes the merits of structured introspection.
"Sustained changes in behavior can lead to important improvements in things like career, company, work-life balance," says Bedell, a former IT leader at First Boston, among other companies. "A period of serious self-analysis is a good place to start."
Find a quiet room where you won't be disturbed. Ask yourself if you're working toward something or just working. Do you want to be CIO of a Fortune 500 company? Do you want to start a business? Zone in on your passion, says Bedell.
"It doesn't matter what you have your sights set on, but they must be set on something," he says. "If you don't know where you want to go, it's unlikely you'll succeed long-term." This step should take five minutes.
If your goal is vague--grow, get promoted, make more money--spend the next five minutes seeking specificity. Throw out modesty and uncertainty. Someone's got to come up with the next Google or become the new CIO of GE. Why not you?
The last 10 minutes will be the "10 minutes of truth," says Bedell. Ask yourself what you're going to do when you leave this quiet spot in minute 21. Will whatever it is help you achieve the goal you just set? Or will you be just getting a job done, earning a paycheck? If it's the latter, you've still learned something important: You need to change.
-S.O.
6. Call a Customer (Bonus Points If They're Irate)
That's right--volunteer to contact a real, live customer.
"Much of what IT is involved in directly impacts the business product and service and the end consumer/customer," says Jack J. Santos, CIO Executive Strategist at the Burton Group.
"Much of what IT is involved in directly impacts the business product and service and the end consumer/customer," says Jack J. Santos, CIO Executive Strategist at the Burton Group.
Reach out to your closest contact in sales, marketing or customer service. Ask for a customer you can contact who's been outspoken in the past. It wouldn't hurt to pick a high-value or highly visible customer.
"A positive exchange could create great buzz afterward which reaches other parts of the company," says Santos. Want to really wow people? Ask for an unsatisfied customer whose experience IT might have the power to turn around.
The definition of customer will depend on your business. A hospital CIO might talk to a physician who's dealing with electronic records management or, if the organization is technologically sophisticated, a patient. Try a doc who doesn't normally interact with IT or a patient who has.
This dialogue keeps you in touch with the real customer experience, says Santos, and it sends a message to the customer that the company cares. "It's perceived [by the customer] as astounding follow-up customer service."
-S.O.
7. Life Without E-Mail
When it comes to personal communication strategies, IT workers usually follow their CIO's lead. So if the CIO is always forwarding e-mails, adding to the cc line, piling attachments on top of attachments, IT staffers are sure to follow. Or, if the CIO displays greater comfort messaging with her BlackBerry than in interacting with peers, staffers will model that behavior.
To encourage more face-to-face interactions with internal and external customers, and to fight e-mail overload, CIOs should spend 20 minutes explaining to their colleagues and IT staffers why e-mail- free Fridays (or any other day of the week) is a good idea.
And here's why: Companies that swear by "say no to e-mail" days (or even half days) find that it leads to more proactive decision making, better relations among coworkers and increased awareness of customer needs. Instead of an e-mail, staffers will pick up a phone or even drop by a customer or colleague in person.
Intel discovered that its employees were wasting six hours a week on e-mail. So a team has been piloting a range of initiatives, one of which is "Zero e-mail Friday."
According to one of the team leaders, Nathan Zeldes, the goal is to attack a "cube culture" in which engineers, sometimes seated just a few feet from each other, rely on e-mail to exchange ideas. (The pilot finished in February and the team is spending March collecting data, interviewing users and drawing conclusions.)
Other companies, such as Deloitte & Touche and U.S. Cellular, report success switching off e-mail for periods such as weekends. "All it takes," says Zeldes, "is one manager to decide to do something about it." What are you waiting for?
-Thomas Wailgum
8. Say Yes to Staff Training
In 20 minutes, you can authorize a budget line for training or, even more quickly and inexpensively, send an e-mail to your staff to encourage them to pick up on something new. And tell them they are expected to spend one day a month learning. Make it an official day on everyone's calendar.
"A lot of 9 to 5-ers out there don't have the time or interest to expand their horizons," says Julie Lerman, a Vermont-based .Net software consultant who is active in the computer user group community. In 20 minutes, you can take the first step to help those employees find out what they're missing and add critical skills to your organization.
One no-cost way to do this is to encourage participation in computer user group meetings and industry associations. Lerman gives the example of some developers who attended a free, full day MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) training class, which showed off the new features in Visual Studio 2008.
"These guys' eyes opened wide," says Lerman. "So now their interest has been piqued and it will be important for their managers to keep them looking for and wanting new information."
-Esther Schindler
9. And Who Are You?
An impromptu chat with someone on your staff can make that person nervous and can seem contrived if you're not in the habit of doing it. So get in the habit.
"Why are you wandering around?" asks Gerry McCartney, vice president of IT at Purdue University. "Because that's what a good boss does."
Visits with employees let you gather intelligence about what's going on in your organization-as well as help you build relationships that make it more cohesive.
"If you believe that your people are the key to your success, building a personal connection is an important piece of sustaining their commitment," says Tom Murphy, senior vice president and CIO with AmerisourceBergen. "It also gives you a view of organization realities that you don't necessarily get when dealing just with your direct reports."
Just don't ask, How's it going? "Be specific," advises Murphy. And whatever you say, make sure you mean it. "People know if you're genuinely interested in their opinions and observations," Murphy says.
McCartney lays the groundwork for conversations with employees by spending a few minutes getting to know every new hire within his or her first two weeks on the job. "I think those folks are more inclined to talk to me later because when we met [there] wasn't a business agenda," he says. In fact, he makes it a point to engage employees in neutral situations, such as at an office luncheon.
When he brings up work, McCartney asks his staff to suggest ways to make their jobs easier and to make themselves more effective. They might not have much to say the first time, he says. But if they get the idea that he's approachable, they'll feel more comfortable coming to him when they do have something important to say.
-Elana Varon
10. Go for a Walk
You know walking is good for you. A regular, 20-minute jaunt can reduce your risk of heart attack, keep your weight down and help you manage stress.
We're made for it, too. As James A. Levine, a physician and researcher with the Mayo Clinic, writes in a recent issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, "Our bodies evolved to walk," but in the modern world, "we have forsaken our legs as a means of locomotion, work and leisure."
Health experts advise walking at least 30 minutes a day, but "20 minutes is better than nothing," says Maggie Miller, senior vice president and CIO with Warner Music Group.
Miller finds that a short run or a vigorous walk first thing in the morning helps her think more clearly and creatively. She'll also hit the pavement "when I'm mad about something."
Her strategy:"Write the zinger e-mail and park it in my drafts box to simmer while I go for a walk in Central Park or, more likely, Riverside Park, which is quieter. By the time I get back I'll usually have worked out a way to deal with whatever the issue is in a much more constructive and collaborative way." Now, get out of that chair.
-E.V.
11. Knock on a New Door
In order to create an IT organization that provides strategic value, you have to understand how your business operates. "It always starts there," says Michael Jones, CIO of the National Marrow Donor Program.
"I don't mean how IT operates in the business context; I mean how the business functions. What drives profit and revenue. What the business spends money on. Who your customers are. What requirements each person has." To find out, says Jones, "you need to talk to a lot of people, from the C level down to the basement."
Chances are you already check in regularly with a defined group of business executives. Why not use your 20 minutes to venture into uncharted territory and visit someone new?
Don't go in with an agenda. Leave the strategic plan behind. And for goodness' sake, don't give a speech. Have a conversation.
If the topic turns to business, ask questions. What's his or her job like? What's going well? What's not? What might make his or her job easier? Brian Tennant, CIO of Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services says a simple Whatcha workin' on? can do the trick.
"I ask people what they're doing and I gain a tremendous perspective on functions, roles, the work people do and the challenges they face," Tennant says.
If your new friend asks about you, keep it brief but keep it real. That's what friends do.
-S.O.
12. Should You Stay or Should You Go Now?
Good leaders, like good captains, often think their job is to carry on no matter what, even to the point of going down with a sinking ship. But sometimes the best thing to do is to find a lifeboat and paddle to an inviting shore.
"If you find the job no longer excites you, it's time to seek another," says Steve Yates, KeyBank CIO. "When you find it grinding on you, you're done."
It should take less than 20 minutes to see if you've passed the point of no return. Grab a pen and a pad of paper (yes, do it the old-fashioned way; it'll help ground you) and set a timer for 10 or 15 minutes. (Hourglasses are optional, but recommended.)
Draw a line down the middle. On one side write the reasons you should stay; on the other, the reasons you should go. If your go list is longer than your stay list, it's time to go. Finding a new job is no harder than showing up for a bad one, day in and day out.
"The CIO job is demanding," Yates says. "You have to feel good about coming to work to be able to handle all the twists and turns of politics, technology, organization change and more."
If you've burned out, your people will notice sooner or later, and it'll only be a matter of time before the decision of whether to sail for new shores is taken out of your hands.
-Al Sacco
13. What's So Funny About Company Peace, Love and Understanding?
Many I.T. staffers don't have a lot of interaction with other departments. By inviting the head of finance (or marketing,
sales or HR) to give an informal 15-minute presentation at your next staff meeting, your IT department can become familiar with the structure, needs, current initiatives and challenges of other groups within the company.
There shouldn't really be heavy lifting on either side, as department execs tend to have canned presentations about their department and their current needs-presentations they often give to the board of directors or within their own departments.
The benefit to participating execs: The better IT understands their world, the better IT will be at servicing them, says Peter Kretzman, IT executive and author of CIO/CTO Perspectives Blog.
"These presentations may be the only structured opportunity that a lot of people in IT have been given to learn and ask questions about other company areas," says Kretzman. "Through these sessions, the exec in charge of those areas becomes more than just a name and a face, and real understanding and positive working relationships tend to ensue."
He adds that it's often a reciprocal arrangement, one that offers a huge opportunity to evangelize what IT does and why.
-Shawna McAlearney
14. Set Up a Facebook Account
Maybe you don't like Facebook. Maybe you think it's for kids.
But maybe you're wrong and by being wrong you may be missing out on an opportunity to learn a little something about social networking. After all, with 64 million users, Facebook is the fastest-growing social network on the Web. The company claims that its over-25 demographic has grown the most rapidly. So take 20 minutes and set up an account.
Mark A. Lappin, director of IT for Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry-which owns eight retail shops in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi-has maintained an account since the site opened in 2004. "We don't allow access at work," says Lappin, "but [my] people use it on their own time at home frequently."
Lappin believes CIOs can learn from Facebook in order to build successful social network equivalents for employees behind the corporate firewall. "That," he says, "is a goal on our intranet down the line."
-C.G. Lynch
15. Encrypt Now or Regret It Later
When an employee or contractor loses a notebook PC and it turns into a data breach and PR nightmare, what are you going to say when your CEO asks why you hadn't encrypted the company's notebooks? That won't be fun. So start investigating encryption options.
"A lost PC without encryption is truly getting caught with your pants down," says Forrester Research senior analyst Natalie Lambert. "However, you would be surprised at the number of businesses that have not encrypted their mobile devices."
Price used to be a concern, but encryption technology has become practically a commodity item, Lambert says. For advice from CIOs who have encrypted their mobile fleets, see "How to Lock Up Laptop Security."
-Laurianne McLaughlin
16. What Users Want
Are you sure you're making the right IT investments? Here's a novel idea: Why not ask?
According to David Hatch, research director at consultancy Aberdeen Group, IT management spends way too much time researching the latest technologies and virtually no time asking users what they want.
There's a huge disconnect between strategic thinking at the senior management level and real-world usage and adoption among end users, he says. That's why Hatch recommends taking 20 minutes to conduct an informal, anonymous e-mail survey of all company employees that asks the following questions:
Which of our apps are most useful to you? Why? (Be sure to provide a list.)
What app is so critical that you simply couldn't do your job without it?
Which app don't you use at all?
Which app causes you the most problems?
What new business application or capability, currently not provided, would instantly make your job easier and improve your performance?
-Diann Daniel
17. The Kids Are Real Smart
Sure, your seasoned vets have great ideas but why not shake things up and ask the kids on your staff to come up with ideas to improve efficiency, quality or the workplace? Organizational newbies can have a unique perspective, says NeoIT's CEO Eugene Kublanov, but they're rarely tapped effectively.
C-level executives rarely solicit or hear the ideas of their junior team members, says Kublanov. And that's a waste of a valuable resource.
"Many technologies that started in the consumer or peer-to-peer world, such as mobile technologies, video games and wikis, are making their way into the business realm," Kublanov points out. "Who better to provide input on how to apply these technologies to make business more effective than those for whom using these tools is second nature?"
Of course, you don't want to look like you're going around the chain of command to solicit the input, so keep it casual, says Kublanov. Try something like, "Hey, I'd like to get your thoughts on how we might improve efficiency in the organization. Think about it and get back to me with your top three ideas by next Friday."
This isn't pie-in-the-sky, do-gooder, morale-boosting theory. Kublanov and his clients have put it into practice successfully.
"Some of the outcomes have included leveraging wiki tools as a more effective knowledge management system, distributing training videos on iPods and using social networking tools to create internal knowledge hubs," Kublanov says.
Reward your young innovators by involving them in the implementation of their ideas. And "it never hurts to recognize the person for the idea in a group setting," says Kublanov. And a simple thanks from the boss goes a long way, too.
-S.O.
18. Does Your Vendor "Get" You?
Sharing your strategic plan with your vendors can help both of you. Maybe your plan relies on products that are going end of life. Wouldn't that be good to know? Maybe there are products in the pipeline that can better meet your future needs. How would you know that?
First, invite your strategic vendors to an IT strategic plan presentation and allow time for a Q&A. Stephen Guth, executive director of the Vendor Management Office at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, says limiting the number of representatives from each vendor and targeting the key players, such as the account executive, his or her manager and an executive representative, is important.
And the strategic plan should not be e-mailed or handed out to vendors; they may not read it, and copies are difficult to control.
"Having a roomful of vendors listen to an IT strategic plan presentation, even when there is no product or service overlap," says Guth, "creates a sense of competition."
All of them competing to help you. How can you beat that?
-S.M.
19. iPhone Fun
Hugh Scott, VP of IS at Direct Energy, has a team that supports some 500 smartphones, all BlackBerrys. But at home, he's an iPhone convert.
Why? Scott believes it offers lessons for IT people regardless of their chosen mobile theology. "The first thing is the sheer usability of the product," Scott says. "You don't even get a user manual with it. You can just figure out how it works. That's quite an important lesson for CIOs."
Scott also says that Apple extended that usability well beyond the user interface, a fact that became clear when he activated his iPhone for the first time. "I had all my personal e-mail accounts on my [Apple notebook].
And after I set up [the iPhone], all of my e-mail accounts had all been set up. I was used to having to set up the POP [mail] address myself. But this thing figured it out on its own." And users will come to expect the same kind of ease from the technology they find at the office.
Even with its advantages, Scott says he has no plans to migrate employees from the BlackBerry's secure, enterprise-tested RIM platform. But while he's not yet moving his corporate budget to the iPhone, his home budget is another story.
"This Christmas I bought my wife an iPhone," Scott says. "We're a two iPhone family now."
-Christopher Lindquist
20. Take a Google Test Drive
Okay, so it might be another decade before you use a productivity suite other than Microsoft Office. But if you're tired of paying the licensing fee for workers who use just a few Office features, it's worth taking a peek at the consumer version of Google Apps.
By default, when you start a Gmail account, you have Google Apps. Try the docs & spreadsheets, calendar and Gmail chat functions and you might find the lightweight tools to be pretty helpful. Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst with Nucleus Research, says CIOs should have a Google Apps account if only to show their users that they know what's going on in the consumer space.
"It can be a great way to gain credibility with a user base that sometimes sees IT as being all about servers and storage and not about software innovation," she says. For only $50 per user per year for an enterprise version of Google Apps with Postini security for e-mail, you might find it a compelling option for "nonpower users" of productivity applications.
"As Google Apps' functionality grows, CIOs may want to consider migrating some users from Microsoft Office to Google Apps and showing the CFO a nice return on investment," Wettemann says.
-C.G.L.
Data entry is costly. How would you feel if your customers insisted on doing it for you?
It isn’t quite as preposterous as it sounds. Today, more and more customers are demanding that their suppliers offer on-line stores. If you meet this demand with a Web store that integrates to your accounting system; you’ve effectively enlisted your customers to do their own order entry and invoicing. Take these examples into consideration:
A medical supply company in Northern Canada provides its clients with an integrated web store and cuts data entry costs by $100,000 per year.
An integrated web store allowed a Vancouver supplier to increase sales, but decrease inbound phone calls by 40 to 50 percent, because his clients can now find, reprint, and check orders and invoices on-line. Net savings - one salaried employee.
E-commerce has been around for some time—so what’s driving this new trend? According to Ipsos Insight’s, over 72% of all households in North America are now online and want more and better ways to utilize the internet. One way to achieve that is through easier online shopping, which is expected to continue double digit growth through 2011.
E-commerce is making an even bigger impact on the business-to-business world. IDC, a major supplier of market intelligence to the IT industry, has forecast that global business-to-business transactions will exceed one trillion dollars in 2008. So smart businesses are looking to the Web to manage accounts receivable, increase customer service, and reduce the cost of data entry.
How has e-commerce technology changed to meet this new demand? In the early days of the Internet, many companies implemented standalone Web stores that were separate from their accounting system. This meant managing inventory in both locations and hand-keying orders received from their Web store. These Web stores gave customers the ability to place orders online at their convenience, but often the orders were error-ridden in the accounting system because the Web site was out of date or the order was incorrectly re-keyed. The online stores often caused more problems than they solved—and certainly did not show much of an ROI.
In response, a new generation of Web stores has hit the market. These solutions are feature-rich, completely customizable, are fully integrated to the accounting system and support both business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales. All pricing is managed from the inventory module using the appropriate price list for each client. To change pricing on any item, you simply change it in the inventory module and the new price automatically flows to the Web store. The Web store also writes orders directly into the accounting system so there is no re-keying. And you reap the benefits because your customers do your data entry.
In addition, these new Web stores offer many customer self-service options. Accounts receivable and order history is displayed on the Web. Customers can re-order past or existing orders with a single click of their mouse. They can use their credit cards to pay online, too—either during order entry or periodically by viewing all their open invoices.
If you’d like to leverage e-commerce technology to improve customer service, increase customer loyalty, and reduce your data entry, consider a solution that integrates with your Sage Accpac ERPsystem: eCommerce for Sage Accpac ERP, powered by Iciniti. This leading-edge, customizable Web store solution has the sophisticated features your customers demand while being fully integrated with Sage Accpac. For more information, please contact us at BAASS.
A company with 5,000 computers could save almost $47,000 and cut 106 tonnes of carbon emissions with a switch from Windows XP to Vista.
Canadian companies still using Microsoft Windows XP operating system may be sucking more power off the grid than if they were to upgrade to Windows Vista, says a new Microsoft-commissioned study.
Both operating systems use almost identical amounts of power when the PC is in use.
However Vista's default power-saving features could make a big difference to a company's utilities bill and carbon footprint, according to the study by London, Ont.-based analyst firm Info-Tech Research Group.
“Businesses running a fleet of Windows XP desktops and laptops can actually reduce their power consumption costs and carbon dioxide emissions by half,” says Jennifer Colasanti, Info-Tech research consultant and study lead.
The main power savings came from Vista's power management features.
Vista computers are automatically put in low-power Sleep Mode when sitting idle, she said, and network administrators can use Group Policy to manage power saving settings across an entire company.
Savings for companies using Vista equate to an average of $11 savings per system, per year, states the study. It estimates that for a company with 5,000 computers the energy bill savings add up to more than $46,800 a year.
ITBusiness.ca attempted to get a price quoted for a 5,000 user license on a Vista Ultimate upgrade, but Microsoft could not provide one at time of press.
Microsoft commissioned the study to quantify power savings offered by Vista, according to Elliot Katz, senior product manager, Windows client at Microsoft Canada.
Vista, he said, was designed with the goal of having notebook batteries last longer.
“All of the attention to detail we paid in that regard turns into power savings, even when the computer is plugged in.”
Info-Tech used a Hewlett-Packard dc7700 desktop and a nc6400 notebook loaded with XP and Vista in a dual-boot configuration to conduct the study in their London test lab.
The power savings were measured only from the performance of the box, not the monitors connected to them.
The systems were tested in both high-power modes, such as playing an MP3, and low-power modes, such as on “standby.”
The difference in power use was marginal, within a couple of watt-hours.
“Both operating systems consumed relatively the same amount of power,” Colasanti explains.
The savings Vista offers come from its default settings triggering the low-power sleep or standby mode more often.
This means companies can reduce their energy usage while their “users don't have to do anything and neither does IT,” she adds.
Vista is also designed to run on newer computers that tend to be more energy efficient, says Steve Kleynhans, a research vice-president at Gartner Inc. an IT consulting firm based in Stamford, Conn.
He agress Vista's power management functions are improved over XP's.
"The key thing is they've made it easier to implement and use," he says.
Less power consumption also has a positive impact on the environment, according to Deborah Kaplan, executive director of Zerofootprint Inc., an environmental consulting agency in Toronto.
For instance, she says if just one-tenth of the 22 million computers in Canada switched from XP to Vista, it could cut the same amount of emissions in a year as removing 6,500 cars from the road.
The Toronto-based company wants people to recognize that making small changes such as what OS they use can make a difference.
“We're trying to empower individuals and show them small changes will make a difference in the aggregate,” Kaplan says.
Zerofootprint's ecological-living social networking site plans to show users how to cut their emissions with the help of Vista in the near future, she adds.
Companies that use XP are more prone to be wasteful by not taking advantage of its power saving options, according to the study.
It notes that instead of Vista's default power saving features, in XP users must navigate through advanced power management menus on each computer.
Administrators can't access the settings without help from third-party software.
Even when sleep mode is activated, XP doesn't reliably detect when a computer is idle, says Microsoft's Katz.
Vista can do this by paying attention to keyboard usage, processor activity, and what peripheral devices are doing.
Vista also includes a Wake-on-LAN feature. This allows computers to automatically boot up in the middle of the night for regular updates to be installed, then power down afterwards.
Microsoft Canada's Katz says his company is able to deliver its product to customers entirely by digital means. So there's no need to worry about the environmental impact of purchasing thousands of Vista licenses.
