Business as usual in the software world is coming to an end. Today's environment is one in which customers want to use a web browser, rather than on-premises software, to meet their needs. Customers want to be able to access applications from almost anywhere; they want low initial costs, painless upgrades, and even seamless integrations. To meet all these demands,...
Software implementations run in virtual machines can help the virtualization of network appliances. By doing this, you can replace proprietary hardware with some more cost-efficient data center solutions. This way, IT costs can be decreased in a substantial manner. In addition, virtualizing more functions allows you to deploy more services and to integrate them quicker in your IT infrastructure. But, can...
My middle school daughter has a new word: Confuzzled. She is confuzzled by her algebra homework, confuzzled as to why I won’t let her have ice cream before dinner, and confuzzled that there was once a time when you had to answer the phone without knowing who was on the other end. Urbandictionary.com says that confuzzled is a merge of...
Finding better ways do things is a standard component of business success. While there are a number of ways to going about this, a common component of continuous improvement programs involves eliminating or at least reducing human error. In fact, well-known engineer Shingeo Shingo, who is considered as being the world's leading expert on manufacturing practices, coined the term "Poka yoke,"...
The first known payment by paper check occurred in the early eleventh century when an Iranian traveler visited the city of Basra and gave a merchant written instruction ordering his bank to make a payment from his account. While the U.S. economy continues to rely on checks as a form of payment , that reliance is steadily decreasing year after...
In nearly 20 years in management, I have learned that it can be extremely difficult to identify a potential leader. As much as many would like to suggest that there is a science to this, I would suggest that they are wrong. Why? Because one person cannot control the thoughts, emotions and actions of another, regardless of how hard they...