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Technology News Today

Don’t Sabotage Your Business With Bad Data

In April 2009, the bailout was going to cost U.S. taxpayers $356 billion, according to congressional budget analysts. A year later that figure was revised down to $89 billion. When the health-care reform bill was being debated, some put the cost at more than a trillion dollars, while others indicated it would actually reduce the deficit. About a month ago, the European Commission reported that Greece’s public-sector deficit for 2009 was 13.6 percent of GDP, significantly higher than the 12.7 percent the Greek government had previously estimated. Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou was quoted as saying the revision “may spark fresh market concerns.” Kind of an understatement. Since then, stock markets have fluctuated wildly and the euro dropped to a 14-month low as European nations increased their bailout from $139 billion to nearly $1 trillion.
Imagine running your business on unreliable numbers. You’d get crushed. Most business owners can’t afford to operate that way. Like a good baseball manager, the smart ones I know frequently pore through their data. Sure, it’s boring as hell. But so was watching the finale of Lost. But in this case, it’s worth it. Every month, sometimes more, they print out a detail of their general ledger transactions and read through them. They make sure they understand who’s getting paid and what they’re getting paid for. They highlight and investigate those transactions that raise an eyebrow. By participating in this exercise, they get comfortable that the underlying data supporting their financial statements are consistent and reliable. Good data need a human review once in a while.
Daily “Flash” Reports
Smart business owners know the value of having reliable data. That’s why they analyze them frequently. They don’t wait for a crisis to occur. They don’t suddenly create numbers out of the blue a few days before a big decision needs to be made. They don’t wait until the end of the year to see how things went over the past 12 months. Many guys I know have a daily “flash” report. On this one-page report, they see key metrics that impact their business. There are common numbers like open receivables, payables, and cash. And then there are numbers that are more specific to their business, such as backlog, overtime, productivity per employee, or complaints recorded. These numbers are pulled from the same financial system with the underlying general ledger data that they’re taking the time to read every month.
And over and above this “flash” information, smart business owners I know invest in key reports. They’re putting information into databases which can then be extracted and used to focus assets. A few years ago, I hired someone to write a couple of custom reports. These reports tell me how many sales I make vs. the quotes I produce and how billable and productive my service people are. A friend of mine is more interested in gross profit per item produced-she also hired a consultant to create a custom report to give her that data. Having good data is crucial for making good decisions.
A trend I’m seeing now is alerts. Most business software applications allow users to set rules so that they can be warned when something falls above or below a certain threshold. Smart business owners are taking advantage of these features. One guy I know gets an e-mail every time a key raw material is close to being out of stock. Another guy I know gets a text when a significant customer’s receivables balance goes over 90 days. Does your software do this? If not, maybe you can hire a consultant to create “triggers” in your underlying database to do the same. (Full disclosure, I do this for a living, so it’s in my interest to tell you this.) Most common databases, like Microsoft’s (MSFT) popular SQL Server, have this feature available.
Monthly Bank Reconciliations
Another thing smart business owners do to get reliable data? They reconcile their bank accounts. Duh! Most of them can’t afford two tickets to a Major League Baseball game nowadays, let alone having those complex internal controls that big companies have. But that’s O.K. They have cable TV. And they make sure their cash is tracked accurately. Many owners I know hire an outsider, with no control over their cash, to do a monthly bank reconciliation. A separate set of eyes sometimes sees things that they don’t-questionable signatures, strange withdrawals, funny-looking transactions. Doing a bank “rec” isn’t hard. And paying someone by the hour to do it isn’t very expensive. But the consequences of not doing this could be devastating for their decision-making.
Bad decisions are often made because of bad data. Governments vote on huge legislative initiatives based on iffy information. Investors lose their shirts buying stocks in the dark. The Greeks overpay for their weddings. But …

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Latest Technology Updates

4 Strategies to Achieving Success in Your Business

There is no need of reinventing the wheel, if you desire success in your business. The best bet is to find out what other successful businesses did and adopt it.
Here are 4 business strategies and keys to a multinational’s business success for your own success.
(1). TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY.
Do not be afraid to use cutting-edge technology and never ever oppose it. Take advantage of cutting-edge technology and find out how it can help you and your business to achieve you goals fast, easier and costless. Alex Bill, the founder of AT&T took advantage of electricity. Many businesses were raised up directly or indirectly from the use of electricity.
Today in the age of information communication technology, internet is the cutting-edge technology and you need to take advantage of it to push your business up the ladder. For instance, a web store keeps your store open even while you are asleep.
(2). CONTINUE TO INNOVATE:
Innovation will keep you on top of your industry because it allows you to keep on creating new and increasing values and it enables you to improve what you offer your customers/clients. A company that innovates frequently is very difficult to beat in competition. This is so because innovation makes them to be fresh and relevant. The priority concern in your business should be research and development that lets you innovate.
(3). BE READY FOR COMPETITION:
There will always be competition in whatever business you find yourself or you are planning to go into. Other business will be there to offer the same thing as yours in the same market. Even if you do not have a competitor for now, a time will come when will spring up from different angles to overtake you. The best way to prepare for competition is to develop your business to the level of giving the customers nothing but the best at every point in time. Remember, the customer is always right.
(4). UPGRADE YOUR FACILITIES/PROCESSES
The only permanent thing is change and technology changes almost everyday, providing new, effective and efficient ways of running a business. If you fail to upgrade your operations, you may be out of business before you realize it.…

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Articles On Technology

Remote Backup – The Latest Data Backup Information For Business Owners

In today’s world, many things are uncertain; how your company will fair after a disaster occurs does not have to be. The numbers are in and the research has been conducted. Over 90% of businesses that lose their data for ten days or more end up filing for bankruptcy within the subsequent year. Initial response to that statement is, “It will not happen to us.” Yet, the research contradicts that because 20% of small to midsized business will encounter some sort of disaster, every five years, which causes data loss. This can be anything from a fire or a flood, to a power outage or a leaking pipe or air-conditioning duct that drips on to your servers, to a glitch in your software that causes your servers to malfunction.
So now the question becomes, what is the best way to ensure that our data is being properly backed up, and is it easily accessible to the organization in an emergency? Currently, the common practice is to backup servers and other important information to tapes. Then, the tapes are taken to an off-site location and stored. (Hopefully at a minimum you are at least doing this. If not, you are putting your entire organization at risk.) Every organization that does this has its own processes put in place and a schedule for backups that meet their business needs, but the overall goal is the same: making sure you are prepared for all issues that may occur.
Today, a new and improved way of data backup is becoming the norm: Remote Backups. It allows an organization to schedule their backups to take place just like they would with a tape backup system; however, the major difference is that there is no tape. This means there is no tape to be shipped off site or shipped back after the new tape is sent out. Instead, the data is backed up directly to a server in a remote location.
Remote backups offer many of the same features as tape backups, at a fraction of the cost, because tape drives and tapes no longer have to be purchased or setup. Plus you don’t have to worry if your off-site storage is safe enough. Most online backup solutions offer backups in different locations. So if you have a backup on the east coast and a backup on the west – the likelihood of anything happening to your data is slim to none. In the situation of a massive flood, those who take their tapes off-site a mile or so away, still wind up being ruined.
In addition to added security and the cost benefits, if your company still has internet access after the server goes down or the information is lost, the data can be instantly downloaded from the remote site and loaded on to that server or another backup server. In a case where there is an internet outage, just like you would with a tape, the information can be burned on to a DVD and shipped overnight to your local site. This is a huge bonus considering that with the tapes, you would have to wait for them to be mailed no matter what the circumstance. Having the ability to possibly decrease your downtime by a full day or more is extremely significant and could possibly be the factor that allows you to stay open.
If you aren’t backing up you should. If you haven’t thought about remote backup, you might want to look into it for the added security, cost savings, and its reliability.…

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Current Technology News

Using YouTube for Wholesale Business Marketing

When individuals think about YouTube, the first purpose that comes to their mind is “entertainment”. Hardly very few can think about its professional use in promoting your business and that includes a wholesale business.
YouTube can be used quite effectively for the marketing purpose of wholesale business. It is because videos can represent your products and services better than the images and content. YouTube is a new source of advertising your wholesale products in the most appealing way when customers can see the product live and then make buying decision. There are several reasons that makes YouTube the most effective and popular advertising medium nowadays.
In the beginning of online advertising, only words were used in different ways to market wholesale products. Then later on, images were used to represent products. A good image is better than thousand words as it creates a long lasting impact in customers’ minds. Moving pictures (videos) are far better than still images when embellished with good words. These images create a better impact.
YouTube application is available on most of the cell phones nowadays that is why your clients can view the videos anytime anywhere. That is why your customers are free from the use of desktops and computers to see your wholesale products.
When you upload a video on YouTube you can count how many times it is viewed. You can perceive your customers’ interest in a particular product.
A video can educate your customers quite well about your products and services in a detailed manner. It helps you in understanding the product line and what kind of changes you can bring in different products. You can hold a conversation with your manufacturer and talk about changes you want to bring in your existing product line.
YouTube is much helpful for wholesale electronics business. Whenever a wholesaler will introduce a new product, he can give a demonstration on video so the customers will understand the usage in a better way. It will create a direct and long lasting relation of your customers with your business.
In TV commercials it is mostly necessary to shoot video with celebrities but on YouTube there is no such restriction. You can shoot the video using common people and upload it for your customers. It keeps your marketing budget quite low.
The video marketing on YouTube is best source to create authenticity of your wholesale business. It is great to advertise and create good words of mouth at such low budget.
The conclusion can be just that YouTube is proved to be an effective way to reach your target market using the best technology available right now.…

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Technology Updates

The Stage of Business – Making a Plan for Change – Get Creative and Be Flexible

While identifying areas of change is not difficult, organizing an approach to deal with change may take a little work. Organization becomes very important because of the sheer magnitude. It can be overwhelming. To prioritize areas of change, businesses should look to their specific business activity to discover that which changes with the greatest frequency and has the biggest impact. Most businesses can organize change into 4 primary categories or arms:
1. Technology
2. Economy
3. Business
4. Industry
They are at least 4 other areas of change that are certain to have an impact, but the impacts tend to be more indirect.
5. Political
6. Social
7. Environmental
8. Cultural
These indirect change areas, tend to have influence across the primary impact areas. They can have even a bigger impact than the primary change areas but are more difficult to deal with on a project basis.
Let’s roll up our sleeves and get creative.
How do businesses implement change without interruption of operations? It can be a big challenge figuring out how to do it. It certainly starts with a plan. Managing change has always been difficult, but it is becoming increasing problematic. The pace is astounding.
Change is happening much faster than many big businesses can handle. Small businesses have an advantage in this arena. Small businesses can be nimble. They can adapt much quicker. Trying to implement change can be crippling for big companies. If you have ever worked in or around a big company of more than 1000 employees, you have come to realize it is very difficult to get things accomplished quickly. This is due, in part, to a love affair with meetings, committees and levels of approval. That is not good if you are trying to keep up. It is like racing a boat with the anchor down.
“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti
Because the trend is in the opposite direction, big companies better move quickly to establish a change management plan or they will fall back into the wake. They should become fluid. Becoming fluid means having a system in place to identify, assess, conceptualize and execute a solution to effectively respond to the imposing change. How do you do this? One thing you will have to do is train your people well and trust them to make business decisions. Keep in mind, changes made today, have a much shorter life cycle than changes five years ago did.
Make a plan for change. Get creative and be flexible.…

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Technological 

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Technological 

IT Information, Careers, Business Expertise, Critiques

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