Technology


Archive for January, 2010

Web Conferencing

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Web conferencing is basically a web meeting which is interactive not only in terms of audio and video but also by allowing the sharing of documents and files and viewing them online. It is a means that brings people together from multiple locations to share information in an interactive environment with other users over the Internet. Web conferencing increases productivity by having decision makers located in a single place to discuss strategic topics pertaining to business.

Web technology has replaced face-to-face meetings among sales teams and executive boards because it saves travel costs and increases productivity. Web conferencing is a technology that places crucial information in a visually appealing way at the fingertips of professionals. How you choose to use web conferencing will very much depend upon your line of work. Web conferencing is relatively a new communications phenomenon that offers numerous benefits and advantages.

Efficiency – Nowadays, it is very essential to get your view across in a clear way. Quality communication can help to move your business forward and boost its success. By using web conferencing to connect with peers and clients, you will be able to deliver messages effectively and efficiently.

Builds Relationships – Web conferencing helps you to create strong bonds with others by allowing you to communicate with them in a personal way, even when you are sitting at different locations. It can also help meeting participants residing in different locations to work together in an interactive and dynamic way.

Eliminates Geographical Distances – Web conferencing can bridges the geographical distances by allowing for virtual meeting experiences that are same as face-to-face meeting. No matter where the meeting participants may be located, this type of conferencing brings everyone together into a single working environment, allowing for more fulfilling and productive discussions.

Saves Time and Money – Web conferencing helps you to streamline your work, which leads to significantly reducing your travel time allowing you to conduct productive and engaging meetings without ever leaving your office. Online conferencing makes collaborating with colleagues and clients highly convenient by reducing the need to travel. Web conferencing also allows you to save money.

Versatility and Flexibility – Web conferencing provides you the benefit from its high level of versatility and flexibility. From team collaborations to providing training and orientation to new employees, web conferences have multiple uses and can meet numerous communications requirements.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solutions

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

ERP or Enterprise resource planning is a term used in conjunction with Enterprise Resource Planning software which is used to manage and coordinate all functions, resources and information of a business, available on a shared data source. ERP is a strategic tool, which helps the company to gain a competitive edge by integrating all business processes and optimizing the resources available so as to manage the enterprise as a whole.

ERP has many advantages which can benefit the company in the long run.  ERP helps in faster processing of information and reduces the burden of paperwork. It gives customer satisfaction in terms of prompt responses and follow ups. It helps in having a say over your competitor and adapting to the ups and downs of the market and business fluctuations. ERP is suitable for global operations as it encompasses all the domestic jargons, currency conversions, diverse accounting standards, and multilingual facilities. ERP helps to control the data and facilitates the necessary contacts to acquire the same. It helps in streamlining of financial and administrative systems.

One of the greatest benefits of incorporating ERP as a key business strategy is its ability to fundamentally eliminate multiple systems with no more redundancy. Individual agencies can hereby share important information in a standardized way, proving for a reduction in time spent doing this and a resulting improvement in productivity. All-in-all costs are reduced by implementing ERP for discovering only the best practices for all the business processes needed to be carried out.

ERP is a technology formed with the fusion of small, separate segments of an enterprise to form a larger, interactive unit. The atmosphere of ERP is inevitable and the architecture is robust. You can analyze data across all departments and interpret most important information. Information flow across boundaries experiences least viscosity, providing customized business solutions.

Modern businesses run systems, IT networks and corporate applications and manage business processes that often become unwieldy, complex and difficult to manage. An ERP solution with its business process transformation capabilities is generally favored by enterprise IT managers, chief information officers and chief technology officers to integrate and better manage business operations and ever-increasing business applications and network systems. The solution in its early deployment stages integrates key business processes and functions such as finance, manufacturing, purchase, production planning, human resources, sales and marketing.

A successful implementation of ERP software can result in medium-term business benefits. Top management are able to get real-time insight into business activities and operations across locations and can adjust short-term strategic objectives and goals. Employees can access and manage enterprise applications on demand. Over time, businesses learn to be more quick, competitive and productive.

Agile Development

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Agile methodology is an approach to project management. It helps team respond to the unpredictability of building software through incremental, iterative work cadences, known as sprints. Agile software development is a framework utilized for software development projects. It was born out of frustration within traditional project management activities. An Agile methodology minimizes risk in software development.

Some of the principles behind the Agile manifesto are:

• Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software.

• Working software is delivered frequently.

• Working software is the principal measure of progress.

• Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers.

• Simplicity.

• Self-organizing teams.

• Regular adaptation to changing circumstances.

Agile software development is a framework for software engineering that promotes development processes throughout the life-cycle of the project. Agile allows your team to identify the most critical features of the software that can be completed within a short time frame and it delivers a complete build with this set of limited features as the first iteration. Once that is done, you can move those features to production or continue on to the next iteration. Agile projects are released to production months where Waterfall projects normally span a year or more before they are released to production.

Agile methods emphasize real time communication, preferably face-to-face, over written documents. Most agile teams are located in a bullpen and include all the people necessary to finish the software. At a minimum, this includes programmers and the people who define the product such as product managers, business analysts, or actual customers. The bullpen may also include testers, interface designers, technical writers, and management. Agile software development focuses on keeping code simple, testing often, and delivering functional bits of the application as soon as they’re ready. The goal of agile software development is to build upon small client-approved parts as the project progresses, as opposed to delivering one large application at the end of the project.

Advantages of Agile

• Agile methodology has an adaptive team which is able to respond to the changing requirements.

• The team does not have to invest time and effort in delivering the product.

• Face to face communication and continuous inputs from customer representative.

• The documentation is the crisp and to the point to save time.

• The end result is the high quality software in least possible time duration and satisfied customer.

 
Customer Speaks
 
 
Our Team Lead from Q3 was in Chicago with AMB this week. We have been involved in many demonstrations and meetings with customers and partners including Microsoft. We have been asking a lot of the Q3 AMB Team and they have surpassed my expectations on deliverables and efforts to deliver new features and functions, such as the new Address Correction, Cross Database, the e-commerce website, new data sources, testing - this product is near impossible to break, and more. These have been important for all of our prospects, customers and business partnerships.

I truly thank the team for their professionalism, efforts beyond most others and retaining a great and excited attitude and work ethic. Though I must say they have worked with these ethics and strength from their first days on this project.

For these reasons AMB has very long plans for utilizing Q3 and this team for years to come. Thank you, Q3 AMB Team !!
Steven Meister
CEO, AMB Dataminers Inc.
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