From Boomer to Bloomer - A New Life Phase for Baby Boomers

From Boomer to Bloomer - A New Life Phase for Baby Boomers

Field hockey was for many years my sport. I played at the top level, trained hard and enjoyed the battle of mind and body. As I got older I started to feel the pressures, the harsh training and the fitness demands. I didn't want to quit and moved to playing in the Veteran Grades.

I still played to win and enjoyed using my talents and street-wise skills to beat my opponent. Instead of pushing my body to the limits, I used cunning. I didn't chase the play but anticipated its direction and ‘drifted' into position. I continued enjoying the game for many more years. In many ways, playing veterans hockey was more satisfying because all the good elements of sport come to the fore, with less of the unsavory aspects.

Life's a bit like that.

You are no doubt proud of the fact that you are ‘at the top of your game'. You have worked hard all your adult life, taken the big risks, accepted the challenges and relished the rewards of going the extra mile. You have earned your success. You want to keep ‘playing the game' as long as you can, so long as you can continue to enjoy the reasons why you play.

The economic benefits have of course always been a prime reason for working but also there are many emotional benefits. These can include developing and maintaining strong links with like-minded people, being respected, recognized and valued by your peers, enjoying an enviable professional status, with high social standing. These have generated high self esteem, self confidence, self belief and your sense of self worth.

Perhaps you will continue to get economic benefits from working but the emotional benefits are going to become increasingly important in your life. In fact it's the fear of losing the emotional benefits of work that will concern you than any reduction in the economic benefits. The fact that work-generated self esteem flows through into personal life adds to those fears.

Yet, for all of this, you know there needs to be more to valuing the rest of your life than just through work. Perhaps there are other things you want to do, interests you have had on the backburner and pleasures you want to experience while you are young enough to still enjoy them.

The good news is that, being a baby boomer, you are especially well-placed to deal with this issue. Your generation has thrived on creating social change, accepting challenges and discovering different ways of doing things. They decided there is more to life than simply fading away from age 60 onwards. You feel as good as ever, your mind is still active and alert and you look forward to many more years of healthy, active living. You still enjoy the thrill of the chase and the sniff of corporate battle. You would like to continue enjoying the mental and emotional benefits of your long experience, your street-wise cunning and your zest for challenges.

It's time to start a new lifecycle, seeing yourself less as a Baby Boomer and more as a Baby Bloomer.

What should you do? I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to advise you on how best to resolve your unique personal situation. But I can give you a few practical considerations to bear in mind:

1. Stay in control. This is a stage of life where you are deciding what you want to do, instead of what you have to do. Employers may have the right to decide whether or not you get to keep your job but you are totally in charge of the decisions you make about your future.

2. Look at my earlier examples of the emotional benefits of working and make up your own list. Write down every emotional reason you can think of about why you work. Your partner can probably add some. Which brings me to the next consideration.

3. Use this article as a discussion paper to talk through the whole issue with the your partner and any other person whose life is going to be directly affected by your decisions and with whom you are going to share the rest of your days. This is more than a consideration…it is crucially important advice.

4. Follow your passions. You probably know your work-related passions all too well but what about other passions in your life? Chances are you haven't given them much attention for many years while you concentrate on work and providing for your family. Now more than ever in your life you need to think about yourself, your passions and your unique dreams in life.

5. Having trouble thinking of a passion? Take your mind back to your earliest memories, as far back as childhood, adolescence, the years before marriage, any experiences you thoroughly enjoyed to the extent that you temporarily forgot where you were and where the time went. Remember that when you lose yourself in an interest you love, you find yourself.

6. One of your emotional reasons for working was to make a contribution to others. Create your own dream job - don't worry if it doesn't pay much. Adapt all the skills, talents and interests you always loved using in your paid job and become your own chief executive. Just aim to help others gain some benefit from your unique abilities and potential.

7. Think about mentoring others in the work you have been doing. Don't let all that experience and knowledge you've gathered over your working career die with you. Future generations desperately need the benefit of your unique and priceless wisdom and insight.

8. The word recreation actually means a great deal more than simply having fun or filling in time. Drop the re and you have the word creation. Think about ways in which you passionately enjoy creatively expressing your inner self, the person you really are and whom only you know really well.

You still have unique untapped potential. Once you have decided that your priority is to follow your passions, you can create a new, positive, satisfactory and passionate lifestyle, irrespective of the extent to which you continue being paid to work. No matter how passionate you have been about your work, you may well be embarking now on the best years of your life.

Recruiting America's Military Elite to Lead Your Organization

Recruiting America's Military Elite to Lead Your Organization

America's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan's unconventional conflicts has resulted in an unintended consequence - elite military professionals that are experienced in independent and adaptive thinking and leadership. In a recent article, Time magazine charted how this war has created a new generation of elite military leaders, the same men and women who return ready to apply this knowledge to business situations. These former or still transitioning military leaders come home from Iraq or Afghanistan with a distinct brand of knowledge and skills, better prepared to transition from the military to the corporate world. Unlike many of their business contemporaries, America's military elite have already headed up a team comprised of their fellow soldiers, responsible for making sure everyone succeeds together as a team and the mission is successful. These battle tested leadership qualities, unavailable in academic or civilian learning environments, are engrained into America's military elite from day one.

Major organizations across the U.S. have focused on recruiting former military leaders for years, well aware of their unique abilities to lead a company to success. These recruiting programs are uniquely targeted at former or transitioning military leaders, who are placed into these companies based on specific individual competencies as well as the hiring company's desire to integrate forward thinking leaders into their organization. Sourcing candidates has proven to be a popular approach to placing these skilled leaders into organizations after their military duties have been fulfilled.

Companies recruiting former military men and women have an ally when it comes to finding capable transitioning military personnel - a small number of military-to-business transition training programs exist to help make the transition smoother. What can the right type of recruiting program do besides source jobs for transitioning military personnel? Whether you are a former military man or woman or an organization looking at recruiting transitioning military leaders, these programs provide significant value.

Transitioning Military Candidates Acquire the Tools Required to Take Businesses to the Next Level

1. Translating and Re-Defining Skills: The benefit of transition programs is that they provide transitioning military candidates with a methodology or system by which to translate military vernacular to business vernacular and any other business acumen that may be lacking, allowing the candidate to seamlessly transition into their new roles at major organizations. This blending of military skills with business skills and acumen not only makes these proven leaders well-rounded in bringing value to your company, but it helps maintain a results-driven business environment. These transition programs focus on processes to align the skills these military leaders already possess, though how these processes are addressed is drastically different. A methodology with roots in the world of military fighter aviation, such as Flawless Execution, has been proven time and time again. This process has enabled some of the best teams in the world to thrive in the business of combat and has proven itself just as valuable in the world of business.

2. Human Capital: This March, General David Petraeus told Fortune magazine, "Tell me anywhere in the business world where a 22 or 23-year-old is responsible for 35 or 40 other individuals in missions that involve life or death." Imagine that kind of experience in the leadership arena at that level of operational capacity coming to your organization! Developing human capital, and understanding its impact on business, not only accelerates team and company performance, but teamwork, collaboration, and communication also organically evolve as a by-product of the organizational effectiveness. These are just a few of the value proposition components that fostering human capital present to companies invested in recruiting former military men and women.

3. Existing Business Knowledge: Many of these former or transitioning military candidates have pre-existing business knowledge, having acquired their MBA during or immediately after their service and then applying this knowledge to their latest role. The right type of 'combat to business' transition program teaches candidates that leadership roles at organizations are no different from their past military leadership roles. The same proactive leadership skills are still a prerequisite, and these are the skills their civilian counterparts often cannot match. Upon arrival, these candidates immediately begin to positively impact your business, accelerating performance and affecting change within individuals, teams and the overall organization itself.

Recruiting Former Military Fuses Value with Success

This draw to recruiting America's military elite, which includes a number of Senior Military Officers, such as colonels, admirals and generals, is a growing trend that global corporations are taking an especially keen interest in. Pepsi and GE, for instance, have defined their own processes for recruiting former military leaders and created programs that are dedicated to finding the best former or transitioning military candidates to work in leadership roles. These men and women are regarded as stars waiting to happen, due to their independent, adaptive philosophies. For businesses requiring 'out-of-the-box' thinkers who have gained invaluable experience leading teams under intense pressure in the most hostile operational environments, recruiting transitioning military leaders is a sure step on the path to business success.

Executive Search for IT Positions

Executive Search for IT Positions

An executive in a firm refers to a member of the professional body, who in turn is responsible for the firm's actions, policies, and regulations, along with other members of the body. Executives usually take up such positions as president or vice president, secretary, chairperson, director, treasurer, and committee member or board member.

In other words, executives are visionaries who form the back bone or driving force for the success of a business organization. From the above mentioned discussion, it is evident that how much important is an executive position for the success of a business firm. It is therefore vital to seek assistance of an expert while making executive search.

Here comes the importance of executive search firms, which are alternatively known as headhunters, recruiters, and third party staffing firms. Executive search firms are simply job search consultants who are hired by large companies and corporations to find most suitable candidates to fill the executive positions within the industry.

With a team of expert as well as world-class team, these firms render a variety of services that go with the specific needs of the client companies. Mostly, executive search companies assist in recruiting multi lingual, senior level, and multi cultural executive for the following areas like, Finance, Sales and Marketing, General Management, Manufacturing and Engineering, and Operations and Human Resources. Nowadays, it is seen that, executive search firms are also widely hired to fill the MIS (Management Information System) and IT positions, apart from these areas.

Executive search for IT positions usually include finding top-level personnel such as Managing Director, Director, Manager, Sales Director, and Marketing VP, for industrial sectors such as Information Technology (IT) and software firms engaged in developing software including Shrink Wrap Software, Business Intelligence Software, Multimedia and Graphics Software, Accounting and Financial Software, Handwriting and Speech Recognition Software, Language Learning and Machine Translation Software, Engineering and CAD Software, E-commerce and faxing software, Sales and Marketing Software, Network Management Software, and Business Management Software.

This category of executive search firms also sometimes provide services to IT-Enabled Sectors, which include searching candidates to fill positions like voice and sales coach, technical specialist, site director, operations manager, inbound and outbound sales manager, team leaders, transition manager, technical and customer support personnel, and area manager.

One of the salient features of IT Executive Search firms is that they have extensive domain knowledge, covering industrial and embedded automation, mobile computing, networking, telecom, and storage and security. Also, a prime feature of these executive search firms is that their management team excels in almost all areas of IT, such as, databases, operating systems, ERP, IT infrastructure, data warehousing, and business intelligence and reporting.

Further, they also possess vivid knowledge in Microsoft and Application Servers, including windows programming and web services, Framework, DCOM, Apache and Tomcat, WebLogic, Lotus Domino, Notes Application server, WebSphere, and Application Server Administration.

Now we will discuss some of the services these firms offer in connection with executive search for IT positions. Assessment of clients' requirements, understanding the culture and business of the clients, determination of search strategy, identification of suitable candidates, preliminary evaluation, short listing or benchmarking, conducting interviews, performing referral checks, and follow up with clients as well as candidates, are among the services with regard to executive search for IT positions.

Hiring an executive search firm to fill an IT executive position can fetch you a continuum of benefits. Executive search firms are usually adept in performing a discreet job search, which in turn is advantageous to large business firms who do not want to reveal their requirement for a position.

In addition, utilizing the service of an expert executive search firm will enable a business organization to concentrate on their core business activities. Another great benefit of these firms is that since they have thorough knowledge on recent market trends, executive search firms can effectively assess requirements of a job.

However, the aforesaid benefits can be derived only if you are successful in selecting the most competent IT executive search firm. Hence, it is important to make a thorough analysis, prior to the selection of an executive search firm.

Primarily, it must be checked whether the executive search firm you have chosen possesses a professional team that are able to understand your requirements as well as able to identify exceptionally talented executives that match your company's needs. In case, if you require executive personnel for a start-up venture, then it must be ensured whether your executive search consultant can deliver executives in stipulated time and location...

Drug and Alcohol Tests at Work

Drug and Alcohol Tests at Work


The term "mandatory drug and alcohol test," when used in the workplace, has become a debatable issue among employees. People instantly conclude that these procedures are conducted for no reason at all, and have issues that some employees are being suspected of using high amounts of illegal substances.

The issue of ordering drug and alcohol tests at work is controversial, with opponents saying that this is a gross violation of people's privacy, which are conducted solely at the discretion of the employer. It is for that reason that people are able to freely protest having to undergo a blood alcohol test or any other form of drug testing to prove that they are fit to work.

However, there is sometimes indeed a need to check people's drug and alcohol use. In some cases, it could impair their judgment and affect their work and productivity, and at worst pose a danger to the workplace and to other workers. Additionally, because most companies have policies related to drug and alcohol use in the workplace, the company is well-positioned to enforce this policy in order to ensure a safe environment for its employees and ensure that optimum performance is achieved.

It has been argued that the drug and alcohol test at work may not prevent users. It will however, create awareness of company policy and where companies stand on drugs in the workplace. If employees know they will be tested for drugs, the likelihood that they continue drug use decreases significantly.

In some organizations, it is a requirement for those in public service to take regular, mandatory drug and alcohol tests; such people can include train operators, bus drivers, and anyone who serves the public and must be in good condition to ensure that people are kept safe at all times.

Conclusion has yet to be made regarding this matter, employers are free to implement blood alcohol tests and drug tests as they see fit. The only guideline they need to consider is to be fair about the procedure and order them only when there is a clear cause for concern about an employee's behavior...

How to Select the Right Person for the Right Position

How to Select the Right Person for the Right Position

Critical to business success is selecting the right people, especially executives, managers and supervisors, for leading and managing the work that needs to be done. Selecting someone ill-suited can cost tens of thousands of dollars and much wasted time.

Mistakes are made when a rigorous selection process is not used.

Often, the selection process consists of a relatively few questions sometimes thought up in the moment and conducted by one interviewer over a relatively short time. Likeability, rapport, interviewee expressed interest in the work convince the interviewer that this person should work out.

A shortage of qualified people doesn't make the selection process any easier. How can this process be improved?

Here are some ideas:

Written Job Description

Take time to write a detailed job description. Include specifics on required and desired education, work experience, specific skills, intellectual characteristics, personal characteristics, interpersonal relations, additional personal specifications, and physical requirements.

Writing crystallizes thought!

Determine Person Specifications

Extract between 20 and 30 of the most important person specifications from the job description and create a written list. For each specification, determine the desired competency level using a scale of 1=poor to 10=excellent.

Written Interview Guide

Create a detailed written interview guide using behavioral based questions to gather data about the person specifications. Include questions on culture and character compatibility with the company.

This guide should have space for writing interviewee answers. The number of questions should ensure that the interview is two hours long (you want to 'know' the interviewee when the interview is over).

Now you are ready for the interview. After appropriate candidate screening, the hiring interview can be held.

Here are a few ideas to enhance that interaction:

Interviewers

Hold the interview with no less than two interviewers (one to ask questions and one or more to observe and write answers or collect data).

The person asking questions will be focusing both on the process and collecting data and therefore may miss important clues.

Rate on Person Specifications

Immediately after the interview, individually and silently the interviewers review their data and rate the candidate for each of the person specifications listed in item 2 above using the scale of 1=poor to 10=excellent. A note on each item could be valuable in comparing ratings and developing averages.

Determine Qualification

Discuss and average or set the interviewee competency level for each person specification. Then compare to the desired competency level to see if the candidate is a good match for the job position.

A few low ratings do not necessarily disqualify the candidate but employee development and coaching areas have been identified.

The ideas presented here turn the interview process into a more objective way of matching the person to the desired work requirements. It ensures that emotions and likeability are not the prime hiring motives.

Could these enhancements to your hiring process lead to better decisions and matches to your work? Try it, you'll like it!

Creating an Industry Award to Recognise Hard Work

Creating an Industry Award to Recognise Hard Work

In these tough times of lay-offs and intense competition, existing employees need to be kept away from losing their motivation and slithering down the chute of monotony. Industry awards are a wonderful way of bringing back that spring in their step and motivating them to work harder. These awards are given to appreciate one common attribute - hard work.

Most company employees nowadays are busy chasing targets or trying to retain their jobs and by the end of each day are totally drained, mentally and physically. When this process is multiplied several times over then monotony sets in and the employee fails to understand why he or she is working so hard and no one seems to be noticing the extra efforts put in by him or her. In such a case, an industry award can help motivate and reignite that passion for hard work and creativity that was present when that employee joined the company for the very first day.

Industry awards are excellent motivators not only for the person that holds it proudly in his or her hand but also to all of the other employees who have contributed to helping the company win the industry award, not to mention all those working for other companies who want to win it next time.

Industry awards can be made at a very reasonable cost, but it is important that they don't look it. They should be as innovative and impressive as the candidates they are recognising, so as to impress all those involved in giving and receiving such awards.

They can now be designed using cutting edge 3D CAD programmes that use sophisticated computers and other equipment so as to quickly display a suitable design and also produce a prototype at short notice. Such awards can be industry-specific in design so as to give out the message that they are indeed special for the company and the employee too. Industry awards can be made in different shapes, sizes and materials. Awards are usually made using various metals, wood, acrylic, plastic, and model board among other materials.

There are also different manufacturing methods employed to create these eye-catching awards. CNC machining, laser cutting, vacuum forming, vacuum casting, and RIM moulding are some of the methods used to manufacture awards that have a very high level of detail. These awards can also be finished with chrome, gold, silver, paint or even be anodized to perfection. It is easiest to choose an award-manufacturing company that has all designing, prototyping and manufacturing facilities in-house.

An industry award made with the right material and accorded the perfect finish is sure to please anyone that receives it. It will justify the hard work that he or she has put in and acknowledge innovation and creativity...

Why Starting An Ecommerce Business Is Smarter Than Ever

Why Starting An Ecommerce Business Is Smarter Than Ever

According to U.S. Government reports ecommerce continues to improve dramatically, "Total e-commerce sales for 2006 were estimated at $108.7 billion, an increase of 23.5 percent (plus or minus 3.3%) from 2005."

This is not surprising when you consider that 60% of all new small businesses have an online presence. This is further enhanced when you take into account the meteoric rise of online users. In 2001 there were approximately 142 million online users. By 2006 there were approximately 211 million online users (many of whom enjoy not fighting traffic to find the products they want).

Online spending increased among all user groups from 2001-2005. It is anticipated that an online consumer will spend in excess of $800 with an ecommerce business this year.

What makes this statistic all the more remarkable is that if you have an online business presence you gain access to a marketplace with 211 million potential customers who may be willing to spend money with your online business.

It may be that you are looking at $800 per online consumer and thinking, "That's not nearly as much as I thought." It is true that at the present time individuals will spend more in traditional brick and mortar stores than they will online, but the bigger picture has to do with a potential customer base that is global in scale. Each individual customer may spend less with you than they might in a traditional store environment, but you have so many more potential customers to market to.

Long story short, you have the capability of tapping into a revenue stream that is unavailable in more brick and mortar stores.

Why do you think some of the largest box stores develop an online presence? It is a cost effective way to manage a global customer base. It allows these large retailers to fill in the gaps where their retail presence is not available.

In essence these larger stores are finding their online stores to function as a high tech catalogue. Where once catalogues were rushed to homes throughout the US, now they are often sent only on request with a large portion of their customers perusing their online offerings for the most recent offerings, size and price.

It's clear to see the growth of online sales can level the playing field for ecommerce stores. Your location on the web is only limited to your willingness to work at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies and other marketing efforts.

In the end, the use of an online store is an effective way to manage business in a competitive and global environment.

Choosing a Merchant Account Provider to Accept Credit Cards Online

Choosing a Merchant Account Provider to Accept Credit Cards Online

One can find a lot of online business today. A large portion of these stores have the capability to accept online payment through cash delivery methods and money transfers. But these methods of payment can be risky. There are a lot of fraud transactions happening and many people have been at the losing end. Fortunately, merchant account providers have paved the way for a safer and fast online payments. Verifying the credit cards before processing the transaction is their main function. This account also allows one to deposit the money directly to the bank account. Of course, there's a fee involved. A minimal amount is required from those who will apply.

If you are a businessman online, having the ability to accept payments online through credit cards is a must if you don't want to be left behind. Continue reading this article if you really want to have a merchant account so that you can start accepting credit cards. Initially, you need to select an internet provider that can make all transactions online secure. Remember that your customers enter their private information the moment they decide to buy from you.

The second step is to evaluate your options. There are a lot of merchant account providers these days. These providers vary when it comes to the rates and the services offered. Its function in the entire operation is to serve as a voucher. The great thing about these accounts is that there is an option where in the marketer can refund the customer in case the customer has a dispute over the transaction. Accepting credit cards online should be safe for all customers, therefore, there should be an anti-fraud measure.

When you choose to accept credit cards online, you need to choose a merchant account provider. Aside from the services mentioned above, another important factor to take into consideration is the participating bank. This is because some providers may not be compatible with other banks and some providers may not be available in other countries. It may be inexpensive and easy to use but how will you be able to get your money if it is not affiliated with any banks in which the fund transfers can occur? Remember these steps when you choose your merchant account provider.

Understanding How a Payment Gateway Works

Understanding How a Payment Gateway Works

Setting up an online business is never an easy task to complete. There are so many things you need to consider in order for the business to prosper, and taking things easy will never help. That is why; to maintain your business' stability, make sure that you have everything in place. Take for example your online payment transaction. Conducting a business online needs the right payment procedure as well. Therefore, make sure to set up the right payment gateway for your online business.

Unlike with the traditional method of doing business where securing payment from the customer is just a matter of exchanging tab with the cash. An Online business on the other hand requires customer to pay you through credit card or ACH/eCheck. To generate sales, you must have the right payment gateway system to secure payment from your site's customers. For that reason, you must need to tap a reliable merchant payment processing company. They will be the one to provide you with the appropriate software in order to enable online payment methods in your website.

There are various companies offering payment gateway services in the internet today, and searching for the most trust-worthy one will be your focal point. You need to know if the company will provide you with the right security and protective measures to avoid fraudulent incidents. Also, your client must know for sure that your site is verified by the right agencies in order for them to trust you with their payment. Trust is one word that must be adhered to always when doing business over the internet.

And so if you want to enjoy financial prosperity with the help of your virtual store, then make sure to secure your site with the right merchant payment procedure. It is not only convenient for you, but most of all for your client. The reason why they buy stuff online is because it is the easiest thing to do now, and you don't want to be left behind on these development now do you?

Internet Banking is Becoming a Need-to-Have Service

Internet Banking is Becoming a Need-to-Have Service

Internet banking also known as Online banking or e-banking is one of the most recent technological innovations, which is becoming a need for every common man. It uses Internet as a medium for delivery banking services. Today, banking is not limited to branches, where a person goes to bank for withdrawal of cash or request a statement of accounts or to deposit a check. An inquiry or transaction can be handled online without any reference to the branch any time through Internet Banking. Secure website on which online transactions are carried out is managed by virtual bank (no branch network).

Mainly, there are three types of Internet banking.

· Informational banking: This is primary (basic) level of Internet Banking used to know the information of bank's products and services.
· Communicative banking: In this type of Internet banking some communication (interaction) is possible between bank's system and customer through email to know account details (statements), loan applications and to update static files (name and address changes).
· Transactional banking: This level of Internet banking helps in performing transactions like accessing account, paying bills, transferring funds, etc.

Benefits of Internet banking:
Internet Banking provides benefits to both banking systems and customers
· Fast: Normal banking is slow and time consuming, as customer needs to wait in tiresome queue for request of statement or transaction. But in Internet banking transfer of money (funds) from one account and other can be done in minutes.
· Convenient: Customers can access many accounts in a bank efficiently. They can carry out financial transactions comfortably from home, if they have Internet.
· Cost effective: Bank can handle thousands of customers at a time through Internet Banking. The administrative (official) work of bank can be reduced highly as bank operations can be performed by less number of cashiers and clerks.
· All time accessibility: Bank account can be accessed any time (24 hours of a day and 7 days of a week) and from anywhere (at any location). Customers can easily transfer money from their accounts or receive money in their accounts electronically. Acceptability of digital signatures in all banks is of great advantage.
· Flexibility: Customers can easily apply for loan and get it without going to local bank. Bank accounts can be used to buy or sell stocks and securities through Internet banking. Without any paper work and without visiting bank, new accounts can be created and old accounts can be closed through Online.

Disadvantages of Internet banking:
Though Internet banking is very helpful for users, it has certain disadvantages.
· Security: If customers are not careful, then computer hackers can easily hack the account information for unauthorized use.
· Identification: It is an inconvenience for customers if asked for photo identification.
· Customer service: As there is no face-to-face interaction with bank employee and account holder, when problem arises, often there may be slow response as mail is used to discuss about the problem.
· Internet accessibility: If the Internet goes down at the customers end or at the banking office, then account cannot be accessed.

In order to have safe and secure Internet banking, customers should maintain their computers high secured and should not reveal any personal information like password, user name and pin number to anyone. This can avoid risk of scams and fraud to a large extent. When security procedures are taken care, Internet banking is easier, faster, and pleasant to both customers and bankers.

Cut Costs with Professional HR Outsource Services

Cut Costs with Professional HR Outsource Services

Do you lack experts and time in your company to get the job done? If you do, then you need to outsource human resource tasks to an outside company. This means that you need to hire a company to do some of the job your company has to do in order for profit to grow.

It is a fact that some of the jobs that you need to do require professionals. However, if you hire a professional in your company, it will usually be too expensive and will take a lot of time. If you outsource it to outsourcing companies and freelancers, you will be saving a lot of money in terms of salaries.

Human resource tasks, such as payrolls, benefits administration, business processes and employee management are now outsourced to other companies, usually offshore, in order to save on business expenses. Human resource outsourcing is now becoming a booming business in other countries, such as China, Philippines, India and other developing countries. They offer cheap and quality services for companies who are outsourcing human resources.

Since outsourcing saves a lot of money, your company will be able to cut costs in human resource jobs. Also, there are a lot of professionals in these developing countries that are competent and are qualified to do your human resources jobs. They will be able to provide you with quality services at a very competitive price.

Another great thing about outsourcing your human resources jobs is that it will allow your company to focus on more important factors than human resources. It will effectively let you manage your company's priorities more efficiently.

Your company will also be able to save a lot of money on building your own in-house human resource department. This is because the outsourcing companies already have the technology and you don't have to invest a lot of money by developing your own in-house human resources department. The outsourcing company will be the one to provide the technology for you. They will only charge you with the services they do.

However, with all the advantages that human resource outsourcing can provide you, there will always be some disadvantages.

Since you will be letting other companies handle your human resources jobs, you will be providing sensitive information to them. Make sure that the outsourcing services you hire has a strong organization that will be able to keep your company's information, whatever it is, confidential.

Another disadvantage is that when you outsource your human resource department, you will be directing your clients to the outsourcing company. This means that you will be losing direct communication with your clients and it might weaken your relationship with your clients and potential clients. Because of this, you have to make sure that the quality of the outsourcing company's services remains at par with your standards.

These are the things you should remember when you are considering to outsource your human resources department. Keeping all of these in mind will ensure quality in the services of the outsourcing company.

So, if you need outsourcing as a growth engine or a way to access human resource technology without spending a lot of money on technology or reduce administrative overheads in order for your company to focus on more important issues, you should consider outsourcing as a great tool for your company. Always remember that strategic roles of your company should always be kept in-house.

Benefits of Using a Business Credit Card Machines

Benefits of Using a Business Credit Card Machines

or a business owner, being accept credit card payment from buying customers is a must. Not offering this mode of payment can actually discourage an interested customer from making a purchase. However, in order accept credit card transactions, a company must first apply for a merchant account. As soon as approved, the merchant must use a business credit card machine to start processing each transaction.

In this article, let us talk about tips on how you can choose the right business credit card processing machine seller. Listed below are essential factors that business owners must consider:

Make sure it's PCI Compliant. Does the credit card machine meet the qualifications set by the PCI (Payment Card Industry compliant)? Be sure to purchase your credit card machine from a company that strictly observes the guidelines required by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission).

Check with your business credit card processing service provider. Your credit card processing company may offer to sell or lease credit card machines as part of the deal. Be sure to request for a discount or a low rate from your merchant account provider. Remember, a merchant account company will not volunteer to give you a discount unless you make the request.

Installation and use. Will your merchant account provider give assistance with the installation of your credit card processing machine? It is very important that you know the correct steps in using the equipment as improper usage may cause you to incur extra charges or cause your credit card transaction to get declined.

Check with the BBB. Make sure that your chosen business credit card processing company has clear records with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Sometimes, even with legitimate companies, getting complaints from clients may be unavoidable. In case you discover complaints filed against the merchant provider from previous clients, see to it that those cases have been well resolved.

To lease or not to lease. If you have a limited budget and purchasing a credit card machine right away is not an option, you may consider leasing equipment instead. Nevertheless, if your budget allows and purchasing is possible, it may be more practical to make a one-time payment rather than lease a machine or pay in monthly installments.

Check for Warranty. If you are going to purchase a business credit card machine, be sure to check the Warranty conditions of the seller. Never purchase if no Warranty Service is provided. See to it that you understand the terms of use and the warranty condition.

Buy your own supplies. You can find credit card machine merchants that offer bundle packages at fixed monthly rate. For example, your merchant account service provider may also offer to supply you with credit card machine and other accessories like paper rolls or printing heads on a regular basis. While at first glance, this offer may seem like a good deal, you may be able to save more money if you buy your credit card machine supplies from a separate office supply wholesaler.

Why You Need a Business Process Improvement Consultant

Why You Need a Business Process Improvement Consultant

Every company, big or small, can use a business process improvement consultant. For entrepreneurs who are too concerned over cutting costs, this may seem like an expense they can live without. If you think about it though, you may be able to save a lot by getting expert help.

In reality, you may actually be losing potential income without you even knowing it. The reason for this is because you may have a bad system running your company affairs. One of the first components that can take a hit is your customer stream. You may initially have a lot of interested prospects but your income isn't anywhere close to break even. This may be because of the lack of business process change. You may be losing customers to convoluted order procedures, poor support service, badly trained personnel and defective delivery procedures.

It's not just the loss of interested clients that can give you a hit. You might also lose out because of wasteful processes. It's possible for example that you may be following a long and difficult procedure or a highly disorganized one. This implies having to spend cash on steps, tools, forms and positions that may not even be necessary.

A consultant can help first of all by making sure your company focuses on customers. Although it is every entrepreneur's intention to sell, it may take comprehensive business process development to create loyal customers that will build a strong income stream. A specialist can help you determine who your real target market is, what its needs are and how you can best respond to those needs promptly and efficiently.

Consulting experts can also give a hand when it comes to streamlining and reducing procedures to essentials. Part of this involves making sure the processes of different sections flow smoothly into each other and work in a supportive way. The end result is a seamless working system that can help you save operational costs. You might find that paying a consultant a hefty fee may help you save more in the long run because of the establishment of an effective system.

Consultants working on business process improvement can give you even more by looking into your business goals. Aside from helping you clearly define them, they can also point you to the right direction when it comes to aligning them with your procedures. In other words, whatever it is that you do on a daily basis should be geared towards getting you closer to where you want to be.

Finally, you need a consultant because a good one can help lay the groundwork for continuous improvement. Even with a sound system in place, you need to realize that there are always better ways of doing things. An expert can give you the heads up on just what to look out for.

You can't afford not to pay attention to business process development. Even if you are little more than a legitimate backyard operation, you can do a great deal of things in so many better ways. Taking the best paths can give your company the boost it needs to grow. You may just need a specialist to show you where to begin...

Other Benefits of Outsourcing Bookkeeping

Other Benefits of Outsourcing Bookkeeping

For a company who wants to reduce costs, outsource bookkeeping companies are heaven-sent. Outsourcing bookkeeping has become the trend for small and medium sized businesses. Such practice guarantees great savings in accounting costs. Outsourcing bookkeeping allows the company to pay either an hourly rate, or a one-time fee as the service is required instead of paying for a fixed cost for salaries and wages. It has become the best solution for small and medium business as well as large companies who wants to reduce cost.

But cost reduction is not the only benefit of outsourcing bookkeeping. There are also many other benefits that make outsourcing bookkeeping very reasonable. Here are the added benefits of outsourcing bookkeeping:

1. Focus on core activities. - This is considered to be the most important reason why outsourcing is popular among small and medium businesses. Business owners will have all their time to focus on developing the business and not be bothered by the things that are not in their line of expertise like bookkeeping. Without having to worry about the financial records, they will havesome mental relaxation hereby conditioning their minds to innovate and make better decisions.

2. Expert services. - Outsource bookkeepers give expert and more professional service than in-house bookkeepers. It is believed that the reason for this is that in-house bookkeepers have the security of tenure unlike outsource bookkeeping companies who have a lot of competitors. Thus, in terms of performance, outsource bookkeeping companies is always motivated with the goal to maintain a competitive edge to stay and be popular in the business.

3. Less paper work. - This is in the aspect of corporate social responsibility. Outsourcing means more computerized works thereby contributing in saving paper. Reports are not presented in printed format at all times for they usually communicate reports and do the work online.

4. Reduced administrative burdens. - In terms of employee issues, this is the greatest benefit in outsourcing. There will be no need to spend revenues in hiring and training potential employees. There is no worry about succession plan, retention plans and employee work descriptions. In addition, no compliance to government authorities relating to employees. The bookkeeping service company is the one responsible for the bookkeepers they provide or assigned to their client.

5. Better use of office space. - Without having to maintain an accounting department means more office space. The business owner can either use this area for more revenue generation or h can save on the rent.

6. Less year-end issues. - Outsource companies guarantee a no-delay presentation or submission of reports. There will be no need of over-time and last hour rush during deadlines or tax season. Outsource bookkeepers work on a daily basis eliminating pending work issues.

7. More employee motivation. - Outsourcing bookkeeping eliminates disputes between accounting department and other departments. There will be no issues on salaries and overtimes which are being handled by the accounting department and which is often a big issue. If the payroll is being handled by a more professional firm rather than by the few in-house bookkeepers, there is an increased transparency - an effective way to motivate employees.

With all the added benefits, outsourcing bookkeeping NY function is more effective than having one permanently in the office. Ponder on this and start searching bookkeepers Manhattan in the web to find trusted and reliable bookkeeping outsource companies like NYC Bookkeepers.

Top 7 Best Practices When Outsourcing Teleprospecting

Top 7 Best Practices When Outsourcing Teleprospecting

Outsourcing the teleprospecting function provides B2B sales organizations with a high-touch, low-cost alternative to building an in-house team. The objective of any good teleprospecting campaign is to generate live conversations.

To ensure that your outsourced teleprospecting project functions efficiently, companies must provision a 3rd party team as thoroughly as they would their own. Here are the top 7 outsourced teleprospecting best practices.

1. Start with a Complete List

Prior to starting any teleprospecting campaign, you must start with a substantial list of contacts (at least 200 contacts, but 500 is better) with complete company and contact information--ideally including direct phone or extension and email address.

Making cold calls into organizations for the purpose of first finding the right person with which to speak is counter-productive and wastes time and money. If the caller has good contact information she can focus on connecting live. The connect rate is more important than the number of dials.

There are 3 main sources of data suitable for building teleprospecting campaign lists:

1. Existing CRM data. Sources could include trade show leads, inbound inquiries, webinar attendees, former customers and current customers. Before you turn the teleprospectors loose on this kind of data, scrub it for completeness (company, name, title, direct phone, email and lead source) and organize it into lists so that the callers can focus on dialing, not navigating your CRM.

Additionally you should run reports in the CRM so that all the contacts are readily visible and the caller can dial down without being forced to stop and find the next one. Group the contacts according to the lead source in order to get a feel for connect rates and meetings from different sources.

Rank the contacts according to Born on Date and either start calling oldest to newest or vice versa. If you have a ton of inquiries older than 1-2 years, group those together and focus on dispensing with them until exhausted.

2. Business data vendors. Companies like Jigsaw, OneSource, Hoovers and InsideView specialize in providing B2B contact info, albeit differently.

In deciding where to source 3rd party data it's important to understand your ideal prospect profile. If company size, employee counts and industry categories are the most important, OneSource and Hoovers will provide you with the tools to build those lists and will include top executives.

If you know your prospect profile and having deeper contact levels and complete information including email addresses, Jigsaw and InsideView will serve you better (InsideView licenses Jigsaw data for some its contacts).

Jigsaw is a community of members that share their contact information, but members may also search, build, purchase and export lists with complete contact info including email addresses.

InsideView scours the Internet for data and organizes it into searchable information. Subscribers may find contacts in real time or build lists. IV also posts company financials, ownership, employee counts, news, jobs and trigger events.

IV pulls from a variety of sources, including NetProspex, a Jigsaw competitor. Netprospex claims that it scrubs its data by validating all contact info, a monumental task considering the millions of names they have stored.

OneSource and Hoovers are best known for their business data, including financials, employee counts, parents, SIC, NAICS and corporate executives, but not always email addresses.

3. 3rd Party Role-based Discovery Providers. What if you're targeting roles versus titles? Many contacts wear a lot of hats, or their primary responsibilities are obscured.

One example of this is the "Business Development" title. In some organizations this title's role is to negotiate licenses or deals with 3rd party companies to create new products and services for its company. But Business Development may also mean that the position role is to find new customers or new markets.

Lacking this nuanced differentiation will waste the caller's time. If you need to build a list of contacts with their roles defined, then you should consider outsourcing the process of role discovery to firms like Salesify and ReadyContacts. Either of these firms will work from your role-based profiles and dial into companies until they find the right person(s).

All contact information is gathered and cataloged. This presents a huge productivity gain for callers when they are not forced to "find the person in charge of...". Providing the teleprospecting team with the role-based contact list may incur an fairly substantial up front cost, but will pay off in the end because the callers will going directly after the right person.

2. Provide Access to Your CRM

The teleprospecting team must have access to your CRM. The callers need read/write access in order to update or create new lead contact information, assign hand-off tasks, send emails and track activities. The data created in a teleprospecting campaign becomes a valuable company asset.

3. Provide Email and Calendar Access

The most efficient way to schedule appointments and increase the odds that all parties (prospect and sales team) have the meeting in their calendars is to allow the teleprospecting team to email the invite to both prospect and sales rep. The teleprospectors also need to receive email so they can monitor responses and meeting confirmations.

4. Decide on a Scheduling Plan

Companies that hire teleprospecting firms to set appointments must make their sales personnel available for these meetings. There are desktop sharing meetings (Webex, GoToMeeting), conference calls (no slides or demos) and onsite meetings.

Most onsite meetings require advance logistics management. A common scenario is when the sales rep will be visiting her territory and wants the caller to arrange more meetings around the anchor appointment.

Generating new prospects and appointments generally means a phone call or online presentation, so the sales team must decide how they want the caller to schedule these appointments.

* Caller is free to schedule the meeting according the prospect's availability. The meeting request is handed off to the sales lead (manager) who then delegates the meeting invitation task to one of the available reps.

* Sales reps who will be the beneficiaries of scheduled meetings set aside blocks of time in their weekly calendars. This method works well with desktop sharing and conference call meetings.

* Caller has access to the sales reps' calendars and has been given guidance on best days and times. This is the ideal method for scheduling as it allows the teleprospector to create the meeting and email invitations to the rep and the prospect, ensuring they both have it in their calendars, and providing monitoring on acceptances. But it also means the reps must keep their calendars up to date.

5. Make Key Personnel Available

Those that are making the calls and qualifying contacts need access to the recipients of the meetings--the sales team. Email, cell phone, direct line and Instant Messaging are all important communication channels for the teleprospector to use to loop in the rep on a hot prospect. Many times a hot call can be mitigated on the spot if the caller can quickly run down the rep.

6. Measure What is Important

Measure what's important. The number of outbound dials is a key indicator, but only when juxtaposed with the number of connects. Connect rate is a productivity number. Dial volume is an activity number.

Connectivity is heavily influenced by the quality and completeness of contact information, so when you're seeing a low number of connects and a high number of dials, the problem is typically the contact info. Teleprospecting cannot be wholly dependent on phone calls either. Email is a potent augmentation tool for reaching contacts that screen their calls or hide behind voicemail.

7. Report on What is Relevant

CRM reports should track caller activities, lead status and dispensation. This means that the CRM must be customized so that their are fields that can capture key inputs. For leads those inputs would describe the prospect reaction: Send info first, Not Interested, Hang Up, Already a Customer, Disconnected, Wrong Person, No Longer Employed, etc.

Activities should be automatically logged as they occur: Completed calls, Assigned Tasks for follow up, Emails sent, etc. Reporting on this data gives a clear picture on the project progress and provides real numbers for analysis.

If your CRM allows dial tracking, that's fine. Otherwise I wouldn't log every dial--only the connected calls.

These 7 best practices can't overcome bad timing or market-readiness, but will ensure that the outsourced teleprospecting team wastes little time on bad info and maximum time talking with live prospects...

The Solution of Current ERP Programs

The Solution of Current ERP Programs
The architecture of most ERP systems may be termed the “total package approach”. All customer-specific functionality must be included in the “main” single-layer package. A “customizer” is provided to “tailor” the package to the customer’s needs out of the massive “main” package. However, the “customizer” is limited in the scope and type of modifications that can be offered. Any functionality that requires “add-ons” of tables, columns and -- more importantly -- logic, has to be incorporated by the vendor’s development team into the “main” package.
Obviously, meshing the specific needs of thousands of customers into a single coherent package is a nightmare even for the most talented system analyst. That scarce resource of system analysts who can do the job becomes a real bottleneck for customer requests. Implementation processes could drag on for months and years as customers “wait their turn” for their own modifications to “clear” the vendor’s development team.
Complexity also prevails during the implementation process at a customer site. It takes a top quality expert to sift through a mature “main” package incorporating a massive volume of functionality so as to “tailor” processes as required by the customer. Although some vendors have invested heavily in trying to simplify that process, it still takes a large amount of time and effort to do the job.

The Problem of ERP Implementation

The Problem of ERP Implementation
Because of the need to adapt the generic software to the specific needs of the firm, ERP vendors were required to provide tools and utilities that will allow the firm’s in house IT personnel or independent consulting firms to customize the software. Actually, customization and implementation of ERP software became an industry on its own. AMR Research Inc. estimates that 75% of the ERP market size relates to programming and consulting services for the implementation of ERP in the organization. The customers also spend several times more money on ERP associated services compared to the purchase of the software license. The industry standard is 3 to 5 between amount spend on software purchase versus amount spent on software customization and implementation services.
With the evolution of the “Active ERP” systems, the customization issue becomes even more critical. Active ERP systems incorporate workflow, triggers and alerts as an integral part of their logic. These processes are more susceptible to be customer specific and dynamic over time (and within the same organization). The current ERP programs do not provide an adequate solution to this problem.

Active ERP

Active ERP
“Active ERP” refers to the incorporation of triggers, alerts and workflow procedures into the logic of the ERP system. These differ significantly from one customer to another, and even among different departments of the same customer. Therefore, their effective incorporation into the ERP program is critical in a true customization of the software to the customer’s needs.
However, eventhough workflow and business rules have become almost mandatory for ERP systems, yet, all ERP systems on the market today require users to hard code (in the source code) triggers, alerts and workflow procedures that are not predefined. This forces them to recode the triggers and procedures when installing the next release (upgrade).
The unique architecture of Eshbel’s SUPERset technology (see below) enables this customization to be carried out in a most cost-efficient manner, and to preserve such triggers from one version to the next.

ERP The Customization Issue

ERP The Customization Issue
ERP vendors are well aware of the need to tailor (or retrofit) their packages to the specific requirements of industries and customers. A single vendor who wishes to serve many vertical markets (industries) has three options: * To support different brands of the package – a costly and cumbersome option which was abandoned by most ERP vendors. * To mesh all brands into a single package, where “branding” for a specific industry or customer is done by parameters which are selectively flagged to adjust for their “unique” needs. This option is used by most ERP vendors. However because the vendors need to mesh the needs of different industries within a single, tightly integrated SW package, this “flagging process” makes the customization process complex and expensive. Furthermore, tailoring to a specific customer that is not answered for within the given parameters is harder still. * To provide an integrated package that permits on-site tailoring which meets specific needs. Only Priority, with its SUPERset technology, provides this option.

Virtual Lead Generation: CRM in Virtual Events

With the recession eroding travel budgets, the traditional trade show is in trouble. The trend started five years ago, as the expense of events caused cost-conscious managers to eliminate attendees from their companies who didn’t have a well-defined reason for attending shows. In the last two years, even tighter purse-strings have tamped down attendance even further — and as the events’ attendees dwindle, the number of exhibitors also begins to fall, precipitating a vicious death spiral that has already claimed a number of big-name events.

Of course, the need to meet, learn and engage with others in the same industry still exists. Stepping in to fill that void are companies like Unisfair that provide services to create and host virtual events. Arslaner understands the various aspects of trade events, from the information gathering at booths to the lead-hunting by sales reps; he was vice president of product strategy at Kana Software and held a management role at PeopleSoft before coming to Jamcracker as vice president of marketing. Now, in a similar role at Unisfair, a full-service provider of virtual events, he’s working to show that a virtual show has the same virtues for everyone involved — including sales staff — as a real-world event.

Arslaner talked to Inside CRM about virtual events’ adoption, what they mean for sales reps, and how far a sale can progress in virtual space.

Siemens Announces OpenScape Voice V4

Siemens Enterprise Communications Announces OpenScape Voice V4 with OpenScape Branch for Seamless Voice Across Branch Offices -- Latest version of standards-based voice offering also includes OpenScape Concierge, the industry's first UC-enabled attendant console application

Boca Raton, Fla., February 3, 2010 -- Siemens Enterprise Communications Group (SEN Group), a premier provider of enterprise Relevant Products/Services communications Relevant Products/Services solutions, today announced the availability of OpenScape Voice V4, the next release of SEN Group's award-winning software-based voice solution. The new version features OpenScape Branch and OpenScape Concierge, two capabilities designed to provide new flexible deployment Relevant Products/Services options and improve the customer Relevant Products/Services experience. The complete unified voice solution is designed to lower the total cost of ownership and increase efficiencies across the enterprise by leveraging its data Relevant Products/Services center approach to ease administration and increase scalability.

OpenScape Branch helps deliver scalable, feature-rich communications for cost-conscious customers with multiple branch offices. It allows customers to streamline business communications by extending seamless voice services across all company offices with a SIP Proxy for survivability and a Session Border Controller (SBC) for local SIP trunking connections. It provides for management integration Relevant Products/Services on a common portal for faster and easier installation and integration, and can help reduce audio conferencing costs, call charges and power Relevant Products/Services consumption.

OpenScape Concierge is the industry's first true unified communications (UC) Attendant Console application Relevant Products/Services. OpenScape Concierge extends the benefits of UC beyond desktop users to also support telephone attendants, such as switchboard operators, with real-time UC-based presence status information for contacts across both OpenScape Voice and HiPath 4000 systems. It also supports call queue and corporate directory integration, allowing telephone attendants to more easily direct incoming calls to anyone in the organization.

"Customers such as those in the financial and retail verticals, with multiple branch offices, are looking for ways to upgrade legacy systems to enterprise class, open, IP-based software solutions to improve business processes and stay competitive in the marketplace," said Eve Aretakis, executive vice president of voice and application platforms. "And as enterprises also work within limited budgets, a data center approach like the one offered with OpenScape makes perfect sense. As an open, pure IP solution, it protects the customer's existing investments by overlaying onto existing architecture. It not only takes advantage of industry standards such as SIP and SOA to provide the most innovative voice solutions in the market today, but with almost one million users world-wide, it has been field proven in real customer deployments."

Noble Systems Shows Expanded Market Position

Noble Systems on Track to Double Revenue in Five-Year Span -- Contact center solution provider's growth driven by innovation, acquisitions

Atlanta, GA, February 4, 2010 -- Noble Systems Corporation, a global leader in innovative contact center technology solutions, today announced a projected 2010 revenue total marking a 100 percent increase over 2006 levels. The landmark five-year period points to the company's continued financial stability and expanding market position.

"Our success in recent years has paced the industry and positioned Noble as a true market leader," says Chris Hodges, Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Noble Systems. "Noble's focus on customer Relevant Products/Services-specific solutions has earned long-term relationships with SMB Relevant Products/Services and enterprise Relevant Products/Services customers. At the same time, our investment in technological innovation such as SIPhony, Noble's newest generation SIP platform, has acted as a catalyst for growth."

The announcement comes at a time when analysts and experts look to the contact center industry as a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy economic landscape. Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan says United States contact center revenue could exceed $29 billion by 2014 while the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts the customer service Relevant Products/Services representative sector will account for the third-highest number of jobs in the country by 2018.

While the revenue statistic reflects Noble's robust financial growth, the company has also recorded significant gains in market share through organic expansion and the recent acquisition of assets and intellectual property from former competitors Touchstar and TDI/Teledirect.

About Noble Systems

Noble Systems Corporation (NSC) is a global leader in contact center technology solutions, providing innovative products since 1989. Every day, millions of customer contacts are made by agents at 4,000+ client installations worldwide using the award-winning Noble platform for inbound/outbound/blended communications Relevant Products/Services. The scalable, integrated Noble Solution includes advanced ACD and predictive dialing; unified contact processing; and integrated IVR, recording, messaging, quality/monitoring systems, scripting, and real-time reporting and management tools. Based in Atlanta, GA, Noble Systems was the first vendor to offer an open, scalable, fully-distributed platform.

What is CRM (customer relationship management)?

CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth.

According to one industry view, CRM consists of:

* Helping an enterprise to enable its marketing departments to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns and generate quality leads for the sales team.
* Assisting the organization to improve telesales, account, and sales management by optimizing information shared by multiple employees, and streamlining existing processes (for example, taking orders using mobile devices)
* Allowing the formation of individualized relationships with customers, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits; identifying the most profitable customers and providing them the highest level of service.
* Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand and identify customer needs and effectively build relationships between the company, its customer base, and distribution partners.

Many organizations turn to CRM software to help them manage their customer relationships. CRM technology is offered on-premise, on-demand or through Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM, depending on the vendor. Recently, mobile CRM and the open source CRM software model have also become more popular.

The supplier of chain of Morphs

The supplier of chain of Morphs provisioning in SCEM with the vision of management of answer
The market of applications of the planning of chain of provisioning (SCP) clearly cooled its nail of activity towards end of the year 90. While the suppliers of software of SCP like technologies i2, Manugistics, Adexa, Synquest (maintaining part of Viewlocity), and Logility launched the advantages of the integrated continuations of product, only one minority of the line one, the companies of leading edge bought in the concept and the found successful results. Integrated SCP treats tests to match supply and demand through operations of a company of 'manufacture and of distribution of S. In an environment of make-with-actions, assemble-with-order, and manufacture of configure-with-order, a supplier of application 'the module of planning of S is typically accustomed to support the integrated planning of chain of provisioning, usually of a centralized fashion. In other environments of manufacture, like the make-with-order and the scenarios of build-with-order, integrated SCP is supported by modules of planning of a supplier 'of manufacture of S and establishment of the program of production.

The suppliers of SCP have tried to develop applications to envisage each functional field, and to synchronize planning, so that multiple plans through the company could be simultaneously developed. At the same time, integration with the legacy and the compromise systems of the planning of entrepreneurial resource (ERP) proved to be an advantage with the suppliers of ERP like SAP and Oracle which built their continuations of SCP outside. In spite of the appetite limited for applications of SCP, the suppliers of ERP always find the market to attract because of the differentiation of integration with the execution of chain of provisioning (SCE), the purchase, and the functions of logistics through an architecture of platform established around the compromise treatment.

However, even in today 'world of businesses of S the majority of planning is made independently by each functional organization, having for result of the separate and often contradictory plans for manufacture, the purchase, and the distribution. For an integrated SCP, via an approach of centralized planning, to be most effective, a company needs plans on the level of the company; however, the suppliers of SCP noted that the centralized services of planning are rare, and the majority of the companies miss existing processes or of capacity to adapt new processes of planning to fully benefit from planning integrated from chain from provisioning.

A better approach with centralized and integrated planning is an intermediate way where planning is carried out by entities having of the operations inter-- and will intra particular of company. However, a process of collaboration and a plan of collaboration are established when each organization shares its constraints of resource and suitable information of planning with others. In order to support this type of planning of collaboration, suppliers of SCP openning to the top of their applications to a series of users via the Intranets, Extranet, and the Web. The information flow in an environment of collaboration and division of information SCP is more in conformity with users 'the structures of organization wants and company of real-world.

Now, the suppliers of SCP moved beyond the planning of company to surround the chain of provisioning of totality including/understanding the external business partners. The suppliers of application of SCP developed the functionality to prolong applications beyond the company while allowing business partners to share information and to collaborate. Examples of these possibilities were seen in the developed products of SCP like I2 produced of planner, Logility ' 's Voyager of collaboration of RATE/RHYTHM of S, management of paragon 'continuation of iCollaborate of S, and produced of eSupply-Chain of WebPlan 'of S.

These products were designed to make it possible companies to synchronize their chains of provisioning among business partners of collaboration, rather than by a central model of planning.

Management at present defines final success

Refroidissement of the market of SCP during these last years is seen like identification of imbalance between the investment of company in long-term technologies for the strategic planning of company, the forecasts of product, the approvisonnement strategic one, and the planning of chain of provisioning, against and the execution of go concern. In the future, the companies will depend on Excel, always send, telephone by fax, and metric ad hoc of execution to lead operations of day in day. In a world where the businesses races like the wheel of clock with little volatility above intermediary at the temporal horizons in the long run, integrated SCP can be effective.

Many would discuss, however, that we put 't of phase in a world of businesses which functions like the wheel of clock, and the majority of the companies quickly lack a strategic solution to the answer to volatilities of real-world. Supply and demand of management must be looked with the reality of the inevitable and unforeseeable volatility of chain of provisioning. The ruptures of provisioning and the delays, the changes of order, the changes of forecast, the constraints of new capacity, the dynamic changes of the prices, and much of other variables of real-world can have like consequence the erosion of customer, the preparings of inventory or depreciations, and even the erosion of margin if the operations cannot answer the immediate stimuli of point-of-action of real-world. Unfortunately, these events cannot be established in no outline programme, nor to be addressed by no integrated and centralized solution SCP.

SAP for the industry of chemicals: Challenges and recommendations of user

As much front time said, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) ordered during some time in the higher line of the kingdom of chemicals, but competition in the semi-market of chemicals far from non-existent, is given the strong offers of the suppliers such as Oracle, the software of Ross Systems/CDC, Infor, 3i-Infotech, SSI-World, and total ASS. They are only the traditional suppliers of the planning of entrepreneurial resource (ERP) concentrating on the industry of chemicals. There is also a certain number of suppliers of solution of point who supply with several needs suitable for industry. For a course of instruction detailed on the industry of chemicals see thus what 's the business with chemicals?.

Part three of the SAP series for chemicals: A solution packed for companies of Semi-market.

The application software of company of offers of SAP conceived in function the industry of chemicals. For an examination of the approach of SAP to the solutions packed to see the solutions of industry of SAP for companies of Semi-market. For a discussion which is directly concerned with SAP and the industry of chemicals, to see SAP for chemicals: A solution packed for companies of Semi-market, and SAP for the functionality of chemicals.

SAP as a whole, including chemicals IBU from SAP, obviously was fight some hard-with-kill the belief about its complexity, price, rigidity, and so into before-equal with these prconfigures solutions. Recently, the supplier had lodged the following complaints, which slowly gain the credibility (although the prospect customers should continue to dispute SAP for the real validation of principle, and speak to the similar customers of reference):

* Some solutions of industry packed by SAP are children of poster for the success of semi-market: 65 percent of existing customers have less than 1.000 employees, but the belief is that it is only for really large standard.
* SAP packed up returns of high values of drive of solutions often for their customers, with the sale value-based included like critical stage in the process of sales.
* These solutions provide to the customers the expertise and the possibilities of industry (such as the support of process of businesses of industry, the practices, the width of the solutions, and so on) this often greater value of drive than of the competing offers.

But to refute the so-called myths of its cost, complexity, and inflexibility, SAP will have to continue by documenting successful case studies. Without could these well documented and justified positive returns on investment (Kings) or favorable full costs of metric of property (operating burnup), the market still be carried out to believe that this SAP tries to avoid the perception of the market while accentuating has much-speech-with the subject of complaint of an increase of 32 percent of profitability for much of customers of high profile (with the complaint which the operation of SAP was the main cause in (see what are your competitors indicating to you? A case study: SAP 'new publicity campaign of S).

To be right, it appears that in the industry of chemicals, it is probably SAP which made the best efforts not fall into the usual trap from simplification exaggerated from product from semi-market (see that gained solutions of Biscuit-cutter 't cut it with the Semi-market). SAP 'technology flexible of block constitutive of S allows companies of intermediate size to apply and to adapt their solutions and incrmentalement to exploit the potentials of the ERP of mySAP, mySAP CRM, mySAP SCM, biological war of mySAP, and mySAP SRM. The gauge currently covers fifty four constitutive blocks suitable for industry, on the blocks constitutive of many base line. Always, in spite of a choice impressing of possibilities for the industry of chemicals, needs for SAP to fill much more functional gaps, and it is where it can try to convert the independent suppliers of software (suppliers independent of software) into rather allied than leaving them like competitors.

This could be an advantageous occasion for the two parts for the two sides: while the suppliers independent of software can work with SAP rather than being distracted by competition with the giant (where it is difficult to gain in the long run), SAP obtains an aggressive external support of its efforts to quickly fill the gaps in its charts of industry. In this way, its internal resources can be directed to orientated architecture towards the services massive (SOA) - rewriting based of the existing functionality in a nimbler platform of process of businesses. The xApps of SAP combine services and data of Web of the multiple systems, with the platform of technology of SAP NetWeaver providing interworking. They are composed of the software which combines new logical businesses (the packed part) with the functionality borrowed from the preexistent components (the made up part). In practice, a xApp of SAP is an application layer which rests on other applications, which can thus provide a cross-functional process which is of collaboration and integrator.

Since there are almost customers hundred grounds communal between SAP and Lighthammer (before acquisition), and approximately twenties divided customers with Vendavo, is obvious that the customers are favorable to a solution rather narrowly integrated of associated waiting without end the functionality with SAP. Chemicals IBU wants thus to develop and raise an ecosystem for the industry of chemicals which should provide the value to its customers, associates, and SAP. Indeed, the unit of chemicals is one of the first in SAP to control SAP program of the network of value of industry of S ('IVN).

An example of the critical needs for industry that SAP satisfied via association is management of analysis and price of benefit (significance how to control changes of the contract prices with the central order and the direction). The compression of margin and (recently) the comparative analysis of the relative profitability of customer are true exits for the industry of chemicals, and of the tools of analytics of evaluation and support can be used to control the evaluation best and to improve of the margins. For this purpose, SAP partnered with Vendavo, a supplier of the solutions of management software of the prices, to offer a xApp of SAP or a request made up packed of price of SAP of management of evaluation and management of margin called (SAP PMM) by Vendavo which runs on SAP 's NetWeaver (see the Giants applications to support their possibilities of management of evaluation). There are other suppliers with routines of optimization of evaluation, but it is not the current functionality of Vendavo. SAP strongly believes that all the producers of the products (and much of producers of speciality) should start with the management of the prices, whereas only the more complex producers of chemicals of speciality should start with optimization.

On the one hand, Technidata had helped the environmental functionality of health and safety of form (EH&S) during several years, as well as to provide the xApp of SAP for the management of emissions (xEM of SAP), a xApp concerned of SAP for the industry of chemicals. Payments such as the act of fresh air of the USA require companies to reduce emissions, and SAP now provides of this fact a tool which evolves/moves around the processes in real-time to help of the companies of chemicals with conformity. Technidata had also helped to develop a content waiter for SAP EH&S which includes data for more than 200.000 substances.

The continuation of the maintenance of factory of SAP (TOKEN ENTRY) includes modules such as the preventive maintenance, the maintenance of breakdown, and the technical systems structuring, in order to carry out and record activities envisaged and not planned maintenance, including tasks of maintenance and orders of maintenance. SAP will also work towards the true reliability-centered possibilities of maintenance (RCM), which become standard among the manufacturers capital-intensives (see the maintenance led by reliability--By closing the CMMS evaluate Gap ?). The nature connected of nimble manufacture will probably raise possibilities of management of inheritance to one moreover high level, by which the united probes monitor the equipment and to provide the data which can be employed with more exactly envisaged the operation or the ineffective failure, by reducing the possibility of the time of breakdown and the lost production. It is particularly true in the light of Infor 'of recent acquisition of S of the Datastream specialist in management in inheritance of company (EAM). Still, partnering with the tastes of Ivara could come in handy, as with AspenTech or systems of memory to direct access by window for some functional nuggets crafty ones of the chemicals SCM (see the solution packed by planning of chain of provisioning of offers of systems of memory with direct access by window for chemicals), or with a product-focused possible associate of logistics such as the logistics of odyssey.

Technology's Role in Strategic Human Resources

Most chief executive officers (CEOs) are challenging their human resources (HR) departments to make more strategic contributions to the organization. With HR traditionally viewed as a cost center, it is often difficult to know precisely what that means. CEOs, who are focused on growth, earnings, and shareholder returns, want HR to support corporate business objectives and to have the necessary data to support business decisions. These roles are necessarily integrated with HR's responsibility to ensure that there are qualified and satisfied workers when and where they are needed. The way to fulfill these roles is through process excellence, integrated HR systems, and accurate and actionable data from all HR departments. When these elements come together, HR can have a tremendous and meaningful impact on the bottom line.

It sounds like a lot to ask, but these demands are achievable today. And the HR department doesn't have to go it alone. There are technologies and service providers that can help move HR from the administrative rut, free up manpower for strategic tasks, and employ business intelligence capability to align HR with desired business outcomes.

The Role of Outsourcing

Human resources outsourcers play a critical role. Companies often choose to work with outsourcers to gain access to the latest technologies without having to make the associated capital investment. At most enterprises where HR functions have been outsourced, the initial tier of value is well-established. Processes are standardized and employee interactions are professionalized. Transactions are faster, more user-friendly, and less costly. As employee programs continually become more complex and difficult to administer, outsourcing consistently delivers high levels of service.

But it's that next critical tier where advanced HR outsourcing technologies are delivering strategic leverage by gathering and combining fragmented data from discrete vertical HR systems. When data from various departments is integrated into a reliable, consistent source of centralized information, HR can make better-informed and more strategic business decisions daily. The impacts of HR programs and practices can be assessed, and critical insights into the workforce revealed.

Sophisticated analytics can measure how HR systems and programs affect employee behavior and influence customer behavior (for example), ultimately impacting financial results and corporate growth. Companies are beginning to see that reducing HR administrative costs is only the tip of the iceberg. A new priority is to employ the technologies that provide data and analysis, in order to realize the savings that lie in HR.
For example, your time and attendance program tracks worker hours and absences, and is the entry process for generating payroll. A separate program handles short-term and long-term disability payments. Both of these systems are important. But viewed separately, they reinforce HR's traditional administrative role. An outsourcing solution that combines information from both systems and employs business intelligence functionality delivers a human asset management program that tracks absenteeism, peak work periods, and turnover. Now your data shows impacts on labor costs, overtime, and the amount of money spent on temps and employee replacement. This business intelligence can be used to closely align the workforce with long-term labor needs, manage absence and labor utilization, and thereby reduce operating costs.

Training, staffing, and recruiting programs can be linked in beneficial ways, too. There are lots of technology tools that enable prospective employees to submit resums online. But does your HR department use that information beyond the recruiting process? By integrating prospective employee data and skill sets against the company's development plan and training programs, qualified individuals can be "pipelined" into the organization over time, and existing staff can be educated. This ensures more strategic hiring decisions from the outside, and better use of existing personnel.

Succession planning is another key area where HR outsourcing can provide strategic value. For example, if a company has a 10 percent turnover rate, and it typically takes 30 days to fill a job, what does that mean for its staffing at any given point in time? It means the company is nearly one percent understaffed at all times. In an organization of 50,000 employees, that's 400 workers not meeting deadlines or producing, which negatively impacts customer satisfaction.

In that same scenario, add in the ramp-up time required for new hires to fill the open slots, and the "downtime" could be as much as sixty days per opening. Factor in absenteeism, short- and long-term disability, sabbaticals, maternity and paternity leave, job sharing, and other benefits, and the staffing levels are likely to be much lower than imagined. Using business intelligence technologies and analytics allows HR departments to better see and manage what is really happening with staffing levels, and predictive measurements can help plan more accurately for the normal ebbs and flows of business.

Selecting the Right Outsourcing Provider

As important as deciding to outsource HR functions, however, is selecting the right partner. Partnering with an HR provider is a critical business decision, and should be considered with the same due diligence as a merger or joint venture. Companies should be culturally compatible and share a common vision.

An outsourcing partner's service framework and delivery model should be engineered to meet your requirements, and there should be a clear definition of the scope of services and defined service levels. The objectives of outsourcing should be translated into service-level agreements so performance can be measured against stated expectations. Most large enterprises will want a full-service provider rather than one that handles just one element (such as payroll). References should be checked, and the provider should demonstrate capabilities in full-spectrum HR outsourcing (and have the financial backing to be around for the long term).

Remember, working with an outsourcer is not about giving up control. Rather, it is about finding the best ways to deliver quality service, impact organization economics, and provide the data that aligns the HR department with business outcomes.

ERP: When Transparency Becomes Tunnel Vision

The idea behind an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is to give organizations the transparency and visibility they need to have into their business activities. But what if the ERP system in fact creates a "blind spot" for the business? How could this happen, you might ask? Well, before we answer this question, a little history is needed.

In developed nations, many manufacturing activities have moved offshore. Manufacturers have done this because the cost of labor is cheaper in developing nations. But offshore manufacturing has led to some key concerns:


How do you measure quality assurance?
Is it really cheaper to outsource production, given rising energy prices?

From an economic and an IT perspective, several negative factors about moving manufacturing offshore have become apparent:

Negative economic factors:

The manufacturer is subject to the stability of the local economy where their facilities are located, meaning that labor may be tougher to acquire.

The speed at which components and parts are acquired is subject to global—and potentially faulty—supply chains.

Offshore currency instability may make components more expensive to acquire or sell.

Tracking the cost of resources and reverse logistics can prove to be difficult.

Negative IT factors:

Access to critical, real-time data may be impeded by disparate enterprise applications in different regions.

Tracking components may be more difficult due to a low-quality IT infrastructure or minimal IT resources. Or perhaps the ERP software is too inflexible to service the entire organization.

Financial tracking can be difficult to maintain, due to the factors listed above.

Traditionally, ERP systems come with financials and human resources modules to track all costs throughout the organization. The system controls these processes through a manufacturing management module. The manufacturing management module of a typical ERP solution includes multi-level bills of materials (BOMs), advanced plant scheduling, shop floor control, field service and repair, production planning, project management, product data management, inventory management, purchasing management, quality management, and sales management.

This range of traditional functionality can be sufficient for most manufacturers, giving them the ability to manage their operations very well within the four walls of the manufacturing plant. However, if a manufacturer's business is carried out in multiple locations across continents, and if its supply chain involves complex activities, then a more robust ERP system is needed. This is because such a manufacturer is faced with changing economic, quality, and logistical problems, and its traditional ERP system can actually impede its growth and flexibility by not delivering what this manufacturer needs most: transparency and visibility into all manufacturing and supply chain activities. The manufacturer can develop a sort of "tunnel vision" with respect to their operations if nothing is done.

So what can a manufacturer do if the ERP system provides faulty vision? Can an ERP system really adapt to a fluctuating manufacturing environment?