Posts Tagged Mediums

Email in the enterprise: entering its twilight at 40?

Posted by on Saturday, 3 December, 2011

Death of EmailEarlier this year, European IT services giant Atos Origin declared its intentions to completely phase email out of their internal operations within the next three years. This perhaps the most compelling case to date that suggests the declining necessity of email in the enterprise. While it’s certainly premature to declare email — which turned 40 years old in 2011 — “dead” as a technology, it’s fair to acknowledge that a new generation of communication tools is gaining traction as a more effective means of communication for the enterprise.

Email is without a doubt the most tried and true technology for both enterprise and personal communication, but it’s not without its shortcomings. Specifically, Atos CEO Thierry Breton cited email’s spam-like nature as one of the biggest contributors to “information  pollution” that’s bogging down management. His goal is for Atos — which has nearly 50,000 employees worldwide — to be a “zero-email company” within the next three years. In place of email, Breton says that Atos will increasingly encourage its employees to collaborate on instant messaging and social networking platforms.

This marks the first time an organization of this size has made such a definitive statement on email, but it almost certainly won’t be the last. In truth, the gradual shift from email to messaging and social networking platforms began some years ago, but it’s only recently that this phenomenon has penetrated the enterprise from the consumer side.

Over the past several years, the rise of social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken a lot of the conversations that once occurred on email to other channels on the consumer side. While email is still a central repository for tracking updates from various networking sites, it has become decidedly less useful for interacting with friends and colleagues on a daily basis compared to mediums like instant messaging and streaming content feeds.

As is often the case, the consumer side embraced these platforms well in advance of the enterprise. Instant messaging, Facebook and Twitter have all been in use for years for personal computing purposes. As the “internet generation” has come of age, entrepreneurs have increasingly put effort behind enterprise-friendly communication and automation tools. The rapid rise of platforms like Yammer and Salesforce’s Chatter - which are exclusively geared towards the enterprise — suggest the larger rise of the “social enterprise.”

The social enterprise refers to a premium on enhanced collaboration and real-time communication in the name of greater organizational efficiency. As such, there’s no single be-all, end-all tool that will ultimately replace email. Rather, a suite of complementary tools are gradually emerging as more effective mediums for enterprise collaboration.

Some other noteworthy technologies that are emerging in place of email include:

  • Process automation tools: Automating processes via business process management (BPM) tools enables automated responses and actions via automated emails, instant messages, etc. that prompted actionable messages (I.e., a “yes/no” button). This can eliminate the tedious back-and-forth associated with corporate functions like employee on-boarding/off-boarding, invoicing and employee requests. BPM has seen a spike in interest in recent years, with mega-vendors like Oracle and IBM  putting more effort into their BPM offerings, and smaller vendors like BonitaSoft (my company), Intalio and BizAgi also offering BPM suites.
  • Enterprise portals: While enterprise portals have existed for some time, they’ve recently begun integrating more social features to increase collaboration between employees — often via real-time, streaming feeds with more accessible user interfaces. More and more, these portals are including plug-ins for other features like process automation and instant messaging to create a wider social intranet in which employees can collaborate. eXo and Liferay are two examples of enterprise portal vendors that have successfully incorporated a social aspect into their respective offerings.
  • Semantic web technologies: This is a still-evolving area that, while it has yet to make a significant mark in the enterprise, is poised to emerge as a critical technology in the near future. As organizations continue to struggle to manage the massive volumes of unstructured data generated by internal communication, it’s important to have tools capable of properly sorting and analyzing the information it generates. Examples of this can be seen today from the likes of Microsoft (Powerset/Bing), Apple (Siri/Apple 4S) and Google (FreeBase), among others.

This is not to say that email is not still a necessary component of enterprise communication; it’s still a vital cog for many core organizational processes. However, with the rise of tools such as those mentioned above, it’s undoubtedly seeing a decline in overall  usage — particularly in terms of internal collaboration. Atos’ decision to phase out email is perhaps the most ringing endorsement yet for the notion that email is being gradually phased out of the enterprise, and it will be interesting to see how many other large scale organizations will follow in its footsteps over the next several years as collaborative technologies continue to evolve.

Miguel Valdés Faura is the CEO and co-founder of BonitaSoft, a France-based company that produces business process management (BPM) software and provides commercial services and support for the open source Bonita project, of which he is also co-founder. Follow Miguel on Twitter @MiguelValdes.

For more information about the future of collaboration tools, check out GigaOM’s Net:Work event on Dec. 8, 2011.

Image courtesy of Flickr user cambodia4kidsorg.

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Ways To Play A Guitar Quite Simply

Posted by on Monday, 28 March, 2011

When it comes to playing with his guitar, what most people do indeed miss will be a chance on how to play a guitar. The truth is that there are many resources out there that would help those people who are amateurs. In order to genuinely understand an instrument, you need to always dig into its history. Getting to know this issue is as important as understanding how to play a nylon string guitar. Of course the preferred resource is right there close at hand. All you need to undertake is to refer most of the free sites that would allow you to be able to know about the nylon string guitar. If you want to learn to play the guitar song rocketeer, then you’ll need some help

Furthermore, when it goes to knowing how to participate in a guitar, ensure for you to do get a good instructor. This can become imperative. The fact of the matter is there exists many ways in that you can learn how to play a guitar whether it’s articles or videos. Tips to understand is what exactly immediately is. You must be aware that one social mediums such since YouTube are truly great in the case of learn about how to play a guitar. Still for a lot of, while you do get other players who write about their interest online, you also are able to tap into many videos that will be like instructional ones.

These will certainly be ideal for you especially if you prefer to play and see whether here is the instrument that is ideal. There are those who do analyze how to play your guitar merely through head. This is of course people who are gifted in that one manner. However, if you really do want to learn to really play a guitar you have to get hold of a good instructor. This can the reality is make or break your wish to learn. If you think that you really do have to have a learning environment that is normally physically present, there are enough chances to buy classes within your neighborhood. The fact is there exists many classified and advertorials that could offer you this possibility.Far east Movement is my favorite band. Check out this version of an awesome rocketeer cover

Once again, all this is dependent upon what your requirements can be. Based on this you have to make a decision. Another aspect that you undoubtedly do need to consider would be the issue of finances. There are those that would demand a reasonable amount whilst there are as well free services. How you end up picking depends on you. However, it would be prudent to state there exists many cases where the best tutors or instructors are individuals who do get good feedback. Ideally, these are the people you should try and tap. After many, it is very essential that you get the best in the case of learning.


Making Use Of A Video Footage Library

Posted by on Monday, 21 February, 2011

There is a ton of benefits that are able to be had when it comes to getting the results that you are attempting to attain from the use of a video footage library. These is a tool that you may not think will come in handy but in the end will be one of the best assets that you will have in your corner. It is due to these that many people are able to get the results that they are seeking out.

People use this all the time and many of us never realize that we are watching this unless someone points it out to us and lets us know about it. This is usually the most obvious during the news when a story is running in the background. This is for times when a live shot or recent footage is not able to be obtained.

In corporate America it can be a great boon to have access to such a library when you are preparing presentations, reports, and customer materials. This makes a statement and gets a point across in a way that few other mediums can. If you want to make a memorable statement then you must use this. Having access to a wide variety of top quality and licensed this is key to making your next presentation the best they have ever seen. The right type of choice may make the difference between success and failure of your presentation.

Researchers can benefit from the use of this type of library to gain deeper insight into the things that they are working on. News footage, interviews, tours and more are all available with the major footage sourcing houses. If you are among those who need to know more about people or places on a regular basis then a video library can be of great help.

Independent journalist that are in need of footage will make use of this on a regular basis as this in the long run will have a positive impact on the overall quality of the person’s report.  This can be the difference between a good story and a great one. The thing is that this needs to be looked at carefully to get the best results.

The most important thing that you need to keep in mind about your footage is that it be of top quality and that you have the proper licensure to use this. This is important since having the content licensed means that you can use it without fear of copyright laws being inadvertently violated. Having Content that is top quality means that you will be making the best impression that you possibly can. If you do not have an in house library, either by not having the capacity to build one or if you do not need an in house library for your particular type of business you can always use an outside content house as the source for your footage.

An independent journalist will also be a wonderful person that can make the most out of the efforts that are placed into their journalistic piece. This is a common thing that many of these take the liberty to ensure that they use on a regular basis.

video footage library is the best way to get the item that you need without all of the drama that is many times associated with this. In the end, if you are stuck with the need for a way to get something for a report or presentation, then make sure you are using this incredible tool.


Ecommerce Marketing Is Around the Rise

Posted by on Monday, 7 February, 2011

Ecommerce Online marketing is the rapidly increasing and developing popularity. The true reason for ecommerce internet marketing to acquire popularity is always that the transactions tend to be done online but it allows corporations to take advantage of interaction. For those who have started you online businesses, you do really need to advertise and market your goods thus ecommerce internet marketing sometimes appears as the medium.

Your website will not have for you to extravagant although simple desirable features will do the job for people. There are remedies of receiving things accomplished through ecommerce internet marketing which could generate traffic for yourself. Here tend to be some tips spend money on how you can do it through ecommerce internet marketing.

The first means of ecommerce internet marketing that could generate traffic is usually to do a website article. This could let consumers be familiar with your company as well as the goods offered. A great research software is micro niche finder. You do not have to lavishly dedicate to advertising; there are actually so lots of mediums which will take your organization to your consumers.

Product feeds are another kind of technique you can use in ecommerce internet marketing. This will allow consumers to allow feedback within the products applied. You can create product feeds as being a blog by using information, prices and descriptions so that people understand. These product or service feeds could be sent for you to blogs, shopping sites or search engines like google. A great seo software can help also.

Sharing expertise can be another knack of ecommerce internet marketing technique. You can host online sessions, develop forums, carry workshops or perhaps seminars. This would be seen to be a step for you to educate your consumer’s familiarity with your product or service. You can also use content articles as an integral part of ecommerce internet marketing. Article directories don’t cost people much and attracts large number of people.

Another type of ecommerce internet marketing is to support website distribution. This ensures that owners with websites publish their websites searching engines including Yahoo or perhaps Google. However with regards to submission with websites it’s not about publishing and causing it searching engines to create traffic. Website, you can easily link articles for a websites. This would definitely develop traffic.

Personalized commercials are also a means of ecommerce internet marketing. You can easily upload video clips which markets your organization to a bigger audience. This does not mean you’ll want to spend huge amounts to get it done. A distinctive advertisement will cause many followers for a site.

Social network is entry to ecommerce internet marketing. Social social networking sites including MySpace, Zynga etc get contributed for you to generating targeted visitors. They target a bigger audience consequently you will automatically get far more consumers. Blogs very generate traffic also , you can offered promotions, offers etc so that people can easily visit your website.

Ecommerce internet marketing is a fairly easy and less expensive way with marketing and advertising your organization. As mentioned previously there are a great number of in which in turn sales could be generated.


How To Repair Scratched Disc

Posted by on Friday, 17 December, 2010

Discs, CDs and DVDs are mediums by which we store our precious data. It might be movies, songs, pictures or important document files. We sometimes come across situations where we are unable to run a disc, since there are scratches on the surface. It might prove frustrating particularly if you have vital data related to your work or memories which would like to cherish for a long time.

Do not worry in this situation. First check the surface of your CD or DVD. In case the scratches are running from the middle of the disc to the outside rim, chances are that you’ll be able to use the disc after using a quick cleaning process. Take a lens cleaning cloth and clean up the surface of the disc. Many a times, dust is responsible for temporary damage which could be repaired by cleaning.

However, be sure that you clean starting from the middle of the disc to the outside edge in a straight line. Do not use circular motion. In case this technique does not work for you, toothpaste or peanut butter could repair a scratched disc. Rub an extremely small amount gradually on the whole surface of the scratched disc. Leave it for 5 minutes with the scratched side facing upwards. Wash this with lukewarm water and then carefully clean with a lens cloth.

Alternatively, you could clean the surface with alcohol. The peanut butter & toothpaste fill in the scratches to repair a scratched disc. Auto wax and furniture polish are also good alternatives. Auto wax could repair moderate scratches whereas furniture polish is used for deep scratches. To use auto wax, rub it in the same manner as you would have done with toothpaste. Wait for the wax to dry and then remove the extra layer using cotton balls.

Furniture polish is quite rough and should be used just when the other ways to repair a scratched disc haven’t worked. A safe technique to repair a scratched CD is to use a repairing machine. These types of machines are easily available on the web. Instead of repairing scratches they can help in preventing them by keeping the disc clean. They generally clean & repair within seconds to give a nearly new disc.


Being An Independent Musician: You Will Obtain Control And You Can Monitor The Distribution Of Your Music

Posted by on Wednesday, 2 June, 2010

If you want to get a contract with a regular record label then you will not be in control of how your music is distributed. But you can control this if you are an independent musician, which is your goal. IMRadio is an online radio that lets you upload songs and music videos to be heard on the Internet. They can listen and judge if they like it or not.

It doesn’t have to be just music either, it can be any type of audio. So if you are a poet, a comedians or a group of comedians, even someone gifted at the spoken word, you now have a platform. Using IMRadio, you are in control of your music and not the record labels. When you have this control, you will receive these benefits.

People will directly purchase the music from you and not from anywhere else. The only way they will is if you authorize it to be sold in other online mediums or offline. People will expect for more if they like your music after hearing it or watching your videos. You can sell your music to whomever you want, and the only way it can be resold is if you authorize it. Independent musicians who have their own cds made will be able to control what platforms they are sold on.

You can profit more money by controlling the way your music is circulated. You are only paid in pennies for each record you sell in the offline world, which is not a good thing. You receive very little money per sale of your music when you work with record companies. But you will still earn more even if you sell less if you are an independent musician. IMRadio can boost your career as a recording artist to the next level. Online radio stations give you the capability to gain exposure, which you did not experience in the past.

You can offer whatever tracks people like when they purchase your music. If you were with an offline record company they would determine what tracks got put onto your CD and what tracks did not. They will not include all songs you want to be heard when dealing with record companies. They decide on what to take and feel are the best, which limits you as an artist. You can control which tracks get heard and when they get heard through an Internet radio station. So you will be able to create brand awareness for yourself based on the type of artist you are.

You can offer bonus material to people who have showed themselves to be good customers. A bonus album comes out but is sold separately or as a B-side of tracks in the offline world. You can reward those deserving people who have been appreciative customers with additional material from you. You can do this via online radio as your platform for people to know more about you. And you can prevent having some record label give them your material. You can now control all of these without being dependent on the music industry.