Archive by Author

Hedgehogs and Foxes: what Big Data still lacks when it comes to HR software

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing, the philosopher Isiah Berlin wrote in 1953, inspired by the Archilochus’ telling observation in the Ancient Greek.  If big data applications promise analysis of anything and everything that might possibly impact historic, ongoing and potential staff recruitment, retention and development, HR teams’ demand [...]

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5 Internet Security Threats you Won’t want to Ignore

Whether you run a site as a hobby or a business, there are threats that could severely damage your productivity. It is in your best interest to be proactive versus waiting for the moment that causes you to be reactive. The only way to prepare for potential attacks is to understand the possibilities. Let’s break down a few of [...]

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Tips and tricks for monitoring employee overtime

Overtime is often seen as that ‘you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’ thing because it helps the employees get some extra cash and helps the firm too. However, in house office jobs are plagued with problems when it comes to overtime. Are you paying your employee for the extra work or are you actually [...]

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Internal Threats: Employees More Dangerous Than Hackers

One of the biggest responsibilities of any IT department is to maintain a high level of security and ensure that the company’s data is properly protected. The dangers of breaches in security are very real and the effects can be crippling to a business. Many IT departments tend to direct their focus and attention towards [...]

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LITIGATION in INFORMATION MANAGEMENT: SOFTWARE EXPERT OFFERS PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR MODERN BUSINESS

An inspector general’s report issued last week blames Internal Revenue Service management in the failure to stop employees from singling out conservative groups  -  a complicated case with stakes at the highest levels. Information Technology experts at Pittsburgh-based Sherpa Software offer insights into information governance practical for today’s business leaders, IT managers and information officers [...]

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Here’s Why You Need DNS Failover

For sites that rely on visitors to generate revenue, downtime is always unwanted but its occurrence that is inevitable over a long enough timeframe. Forward thinking system administrators and site owners know that at some point the worst will happen, and hardware failure, denial of service attacks, or simple administrative errors will take a site [...]

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Why Phones and Tablets Cannot Beat Laptops When it comes To Work?

New word in: tablets and mobiles are the new workhorses. Apparently, it’s touted that you can get a lot of work done through mobile devices and that laptops will slowly be phased out. Here’s the news: laptops will never phase out – certainly not because everyone is bound to use tablets and mobiles for work. [...]

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What’s a Successful PRM Really All About?

A lot of times, the best way to understand what something’s all about, is to first realize what it is not. Such is the case with partner relationship management (PRM). While building a channel partner program can be one of the most rewarding aspects to a business organization, it can also be one of the [...]

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Business Analytics and Process Optimization- Why You Can’t Do One without the Other

Without business analytics, it is virtually impossible to successfully optimize the business process management structures of a company, whatever the size or industry. Taking the time to get the full range of information about your business’ performance, and using it toward the ultimate goal of optimizing your business processes, is much more advantageous than trying [...]

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Important Security Questions a Hosted CRM Provider Should Be Able to Answer

CRM applications help organizations track sales activities, generate leads and land new business opportunities. Organizations leveraging on-demand CRM services—which offer a managed IT environment on a pay-as-you-go basis—are seeing significant reductions in their infrastructure and operating (I&O) costs, saving on pricey upfront license and maintenance fees of client-server software and IT personnel. However, not all [...]

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Cloud Chivalry – The Self-Rescuing Company

While responsibility for protection in the cloud starts with a trusted provider, companies can’t ignore their role in keeping data safe. Much like the princess, smart and savvy enough to rescue herself, IT professionals need to take control of their own cloud environment to maximize tech security. Consider the Kingdom By accessing either software-as-a-service (SaaS) [...]

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The Impact BYOD Has on Your Backup & Recovery Strategy

For years, mobile devices have increasingly helped employees around the globe access important documents and emails while sitting in cab, standing on line for coffee or waiting in an airport. Most recently the trend has turned towards Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for businesses of all sizes.  As the name implies, BYOD gives employees the [...]

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6 Important Stages in the Data Processing Cycle

Much of data management is essentially about extracting useful information from data. To do this, data must go through a data mining process to be able to get meaning out of it. There is a wide range of approaches, tools and techniques to do this, and it is important to start with the most basic [...]

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What Are The Benefits Of SIP Trunks?

By using trunks from a reputable SIP provider, modern businesses can benefit from lower telephony costs, improved flexibility and the opportunity to enhance communications both within the company and with partners, customers, and clients. If you’re still hesitating, consider the major benefits SIP trunks deliver. Lower telephony costs are the primary reason to switch to [...]

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Four Tips For Successful Data Consolidation

Successful data consolidation can bring about a number of benefits to an organisation, and many go-getting firms are seeing consolidation as standard practice.  But the complexities of consolidation and the bringing together of the appropriate resources and people can require careful thought and consideration.  Here are four tips to make sure your data consolidation is [...]

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Tips for choosing a CRM supplier

In the past, the majority of organizations developed their own contact management systems by using databases, spreadsheets and emails. By the 1990s the concept of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) had struck a chord and this is an area in which there has been continual growth. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this is only [...]

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Top 5 Common Reasons Why CRM Fails

Many business organizations will invest in CRM software with the presumptions that they will stimulate the levels of their growth rate and overall success. Generally, great intentions are anticipated prior to the installation process, from saving money, increased productivity, enhanced efficiency, winning of customers to customer retention and so forth. This explains why organizations all [...]

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Reasons why you wouldn’t want a POS System

Maybe you’re a retail maverick that likes to think out of the box. Way out. Or perhaps you consider yourself old school and are proud of it. However you picture yourself, if you are the kind of person that thrives on confusion, inconsistency, and the unknown in your business, you probably wouldn’t benefit from a [...]

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The Danger Of Open Recursive DNS Resolvers

Last week we issued a call for the DNS, ISP and hosting industries to redouble their efforts to close down open DNS resolvers. They present a clear danger to our mission of providing fast, stable, and reliable data services to our clients. Anyone following the tech news in recent days can’t have failed to notice [...]

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Network Attached Storage for Startups

Networked attached storage (NAS) is becoming more and more common in small businesses that still require an effective file server. There are a number of options currently available, and companies could opt for cloud solutions or even direct attached storage solutions. However, due to the dedicated storage functionality and specific data management tools inherent to [...]

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Information in Chains – The Rise of Online Censorship

Whether you think it is largely a source for good or bad, one thing that cannot be disputed is that the internet is the most free community on the planet, where people can pursue their interests at will and anonymously. Yet increasingly the freedom of the World Wide Web is finding itself under threat from [...]

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Seven Common Power Disturbances and How to Protect Against Them

Commercial power enables today’s modern world to function at its busy pace. Everything from traffic signals and street lights to home air conditioning units and heaters depend on the continuous availability of electrical power. As a result of the widespread use of and dependence on electronics, businesses’ susceptibility to power-related downtime has increased dramatically. Take [...]

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6 Lessons to Learn from Getting Burned in the Enterprise Software Search

Most of us have at one time or another been disappointed with a purchase and left feeing “cheated” by a salesperson.  But when the purchase involves thousands of dollars in enterprise software, this feeling becomes significantly magnified.  Getting burned by a past vendor can leave you feeling hopeless, but it should not prevent you from [...]

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How Digital Formats Have Complicated The Document Lifecycle of Business Records

Computerized communications have done a lot to increase the productivity of business, and to improve the value that organizations can provide to their customers. But the same traits which make electronic documents so incredibly useful have also created some interesting business challenges when it comes to legal compliance and document management. In the past, companies [...]

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Could Cloud-Based Virtual Desktops Infrastructure Die Before It Ever Takes Off?

Virtual Desktops Infrastructure (VDI) is the one of the hottest trends in the enterprise computing space. By replacing physical machines with virtual desktops, you greatly reduce maintenance costs and security risks, while also extending the useful life of existing hardware and enabling employees to access their workplace desktop from home or from any device. And [...]

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IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. What’s the difference and why are they important?

These days, it’s almost impossible to read any kind of technology publication without coming across the word “cloud computing” multiple times. Often, these cloud discussions come mixed up with strange acronyms such as IaaS, SaaS, PaaS and others. My aim in this piece is to clarify some of the leading “aaS” acronyms you may come [...]

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How to Leverage WAN Optimization for High-Performance Cloud Services

Driven by agility and convenience benefits, companies around the world and across all market sectors are in some phase of moving their business applications to the cloud. Many of those that have taken the plunge have experienced significant cost savings and productivity gains; however, some have also experienced the performance and availability issues inherent in [...]

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Stanford University Experiment: Does “Opting Out” Really Opt You Out Of Online Tracking?

It should be of no surprise to our readers that massive amounts of personal, technical, social and behavioural data are being secretly tracked about us by embedded scripts in the background of the web sites we visit. This is usually done by embedding cookies into your browser which can be tracked as you move around [...]

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Start Your Cloud Journey with a Cloud Readiness Assessment

As a CIO, you’re probably in the early throes of determining how best to move to the cloud.  You may have taken some preliminary steps such as using some SaaS offerings, done a small proof of concept, maybe even moved a function like test/dev to the cloud – but now you’re feeling the heat to [...]

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Email Archiving with Integrity: Your Goal or Your Best Guess?

Yes, you need to archive your email. I can quote you chapter and verse (and statute and writ and international law) that show why you really should have your organization’s emails archived. Given the necessity of archiving, your organization is likely to have some form of archiving in place. The question is whether the archiving [...]

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