Saturday, November 16, 2013

Ask the Advisor: Engaging and Involving Customers

Working with a retirement planner can be a challenging process for many clients. After all, this is a relationship that requires a lot of trust on both parts, and a great deal of financial candor from the customer. Scott Hanson, a certified financial planner with Hanson McClain Advisors in Sacramento, shares his thoughts on how a retirement planner can best explain their role, foster mutual trust, and make the relationship work to best advantage. As Hanson notes, the greatest benefits you may provide as a retirement planner are the financial mistakes you help a client avoid.

(Read my complete article at ThinkAdvisor)

Telework as a competitive edge

Even in a populated area like Dallas-Fort Worth, competition for skilled healthcare workers is fierce, and that’s why organizations like Texas Health Resources support remote work and teleworking.

(Read my complete article at HealthcareFinanceNews)

BYOD to make traditional phone systems obsolete, study says

IT managers have been hearing that BYOD practices are rapidly increasing, and that trend was confirmed by a new study released Thursday by RingCentral, a provider of cloud business communications solutions.

(Read my complete article at FierceMobileIT)

CompTIA announces program to certify mobile IT pros

To address the growing need for qualified mobile IT professionals, non-profit IT trade association CompTIA announced a new CompTIA Mobility+ certification program to verify IT professionals have the skills they need to keep pace with mobile market advances.

(Read my complete article at FierceMobileIT)

Friday, November 8, 2013

IT contractor ranks are growing, says OnForce CEO

Impacts of the recession are still being felt dramatically in the IT job market, with large numbers of IT professionals forced to seek work among the contractor ranks.
That is the take of Peter Cannone, CEO of OnForce, the largest workforce-as-a-service company in the country.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Positive, negative signs ahead for IT spending, says IDC

Spending on IT worldwide will accelerate in 2014, according to a new research report from International Data Corp (IDC).

The research firm notes that the growth rate of spending on IT dipped in 2013 to 4 percent. IDC is projecting growth rate to increase to 5 percent in the year ahead, as global markets are able to distance themselves from the world-wide recession, eWEEK reports.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Most companies fail to explain BYOD policies, study finds

IT managers have been deluged with headlines about the security risks that employees pose with Bring Your Own Device programs. Now, it turns out that those same employees may be innocent of the crimes of which they are accused, sort of. It's not that employees aren't causing problems. Some certainly are. But most were never told what their employer's BYOD policies were in the first place.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Most employees don't view taking corporate data as stealing

Security is first and foremost on the minds of most organizations these days. And a continued threat to the company's data comes from within--from employees who feel like they live in a "finder's keepers" environment.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Procurement woes holding state IT initiatives back

State CIOs are being held back in their efforts to deploy new IT services and initiatives by cumbersome and risk-averse procurement processes, according to a new survey by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Cloud could be key to untold riches ... or not

If you want to be the hero in your company, leading the organization to a doubling in revenue potential, then embrace the cloud right away.

Conversely, if you are not already engaged in cloud-based computing, you had better do so immediately. Otherwise, it could cost you your job, since you would be denying your organization that opportunity to double its revenues.

At least that is the sense of new research by IBM: "Under Cloud Cover: How Leaders Are Accelerating Competitive Differentiation".

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Digital investments driving IT's high performers, Accenture says

Companies that invest in digital technologies and enhanced customer experiences are better able to identify new growth opportunities and enhance organizational performance.

That is among the key findings from Accenture's new report "High Performers in IT: Defined by Digital."

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

MegaCloud service apparently goes dark

A month after Nirvanix pulled the plug on its cloud computing service, it appears that another cloud company may have closed up shop.

According to Network World, the web site for MegaCloud, a free and paid consumer cloud storage company, is no longer accessible on the Internet. Any attempt to locate MegaCloud.com on the web results in a notice that the site can't be found. In addition, "none of the other sites associated with MegaCloud work either, such as the features page, pricing information and the contacts links," Network World noted.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Does your industry measure up to the cloud?

There is growing interest in cloud-based computing, but embracing the cloud obviously isn't right for every company, and it may be less desirable in certain industries.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

More companies embracing cloud-based computing

Everything cloud-based seems to be exploding in activity, and no less is true for cloud-based security as a service.

According to Gartner, the cloud-based security as a service market is on track to hit $4.13 billion in value by 2017. This market includes secure email, web gateways, identity access management, remote vulnerability assessment, security information and event management, notes Network World.

(Read my complete article at FierceCIO)

Zombie device ranks are growing

From "The Walking Dead" to "World War Z," it seems that everybody went wild for zombies this year.

Not to be left out of the discussion, zombie devices are also a topic of growing interest. And as Bring Your Own Device programs gain in popularity, the likelihood that you will be doing battle with some of those zombies increases.

(Read my entire article at FierceCIO)

The remote worker debate: Home is where the heart is

The tech media has been quick this week to jump on reports that HP is calling remote-based workers back to the office. It follows similar action by Yahoo earlier this year.

In both cases, according to internal memos that have been publicized, the desire is to foster a closer sense of team and bring everyone back together face-to-face.

(Read my entire article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Cisco reaffirms its support of remote-based workforce

In the midst of reports that some leading technology companies are reining in their remote workers, networking giant Cisco reaffirmed its policy last week that remote workers are a valued and critical part of its workforce.

(Read my entire article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Siemens launches, rebrands itself as Unify

With 170 years of business success under its belt, no one can say that Siemens Enterprise Communications doesn't know how to adapt with the times. And so it did, once again, this week becoming Unify.
(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Spotlight: 10 Comnmandments of BYOD

Nobody ever said managing a bring-your-own-device program was easy, but the good folks at MaaS360 have offered up a bit of advice aimed at helping every organization at least put the right steps in place.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Tangoe goes into BYOD advisory business

Tangoe Inc., a global provider of communications lifecycle management software and services, is going into the business of advising companies on how to successfully implement bring-your-own-device programs.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Amazon Web Services and big data a double winner for cloud pros

IT pros wanting to get in on opportunities with cloud computing had better brush up on Amazon Web Services and get a bit of big data under their belt.

That is the word of advice from Dice.com's Howard Lee, chief architect of the job search and compensation company's Open Web effort. Lee spends a good portion of his time analyzing job search terms used by recruiters on the Dice site and he says nothing else comes close to AWS for desired cloud-based experience or skills.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

Data centers will be engulfed by clouds by 2017

Data center cloud traffic is on track to more than triple over the next four years, according to networking giant Cisco. Furthermore, cloud server workloads will surpass conventional data center workloads by as early as next year.

These are among the findings of Cisco's just-released Cisco Global Cloud Index Forecast 2012-2017, which is based on 40TB of data collected from ten enterprise and service provider data centers and data on server shipments from market research firms.

(Read my complete article at FierceEnterpriseCommunications)

YouTube mobile traffic sees more than 6-fold increase in 2 years

Traffic on YouTube from mobile devices jumped more than six-fold over the past two years, according to Google, which owns the popular social media site.

In 2011, mobile devices accounted for 6 percent of traffic on YouTube. That number is up to 41 percent this year, CEO Larry Page was quoted as saying during Google's quarterly earnings call in a Computerworld article. The 41 percent figure includes traffic from tablets as well as smartphones.

(Read my complete article at FierceMobileIT)

Mobile devices will enhance, not replace, PC-based online shopping this holiday

With the growing attention to m-commerce--online shopping done on mobile devices--it would be tempting to think that mobile devices will replace the laptop as the holiday shopping tool of choice.

Not so, says Tom Leung, former Google exec and current CEO of Yabbly, an online shopping community site. Instead, retailers should expect to see consumers use an "omni-channel" approach to their holiday shopping--laptop, tablet and smartphone all working together.

(Read my complete article at FierceMobileIT)

Making Dollars and Sense Out of Roth IRAs and 401(k)s

One of the unfortunate casualties of the recent economic downturn is distrust in the stock market and investments tied to it. That includes IRAs, Roth IRAs, and 401(k) plans.

But market-related investments are intended for the long-term of course, and consumers need to stay the course when it comes to retirement investing. That is among the best advice you can give clients this year. Especially since the market has largely corrected itself and most stocks have recovered their lost value.

(Read my complete article at Think Advisor)

The Importance of Explaining Medigap

A large number of people wait until near-retirement age to start thinking about retirement planning. That can include Medicare insurance.

While there are some benefits that are best delayed, such as Social Security, others need to be acted on early to ensure reasonable rates and desired coverage. One of those is Medigap insurance. Your clients should be asking about Medigap insurance as soon as they turn age 64. Waiting just a few months can mean the difference in dramatic rate increases and coverage reductions.

(Read my complete article at Think Advisor)

Customer-facing kiosks: Successes and pitfalls

Travelers on commuter rail systems sometimes have to wait long periods of time for the next available train. So it would seem to be the perfect opportunity for them to do some errands -- food shopping, for instance.

It's simple enough. They walk up to a special advertising panel on the train platform, take out their Apple or Android mobile device and download the Peapod mobile app. They can then browse virtual aisles of groceries and produce, scan the barcodes below the images of the items they want and, finally, place and pay for their order -- all online. Their items will be delivered the next day.

Ordering groceries on the way home has never been so easy.

(Read my complete article at Computerworld)

Community Supercomputer Brings Data Analytics to the Masses

Massive supercomputer power is usually reserved for big companies or governments, but now it’s available to the public, small businesses, researchers and startups in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The $3.5 million Tandy Community Supercomputer is considered the first of its kind in the U.S.

(Read my complete article at Go Parallel)

Peregrine Supercomputer Takes Flight in Search for Renewable Energy

The U.S. Department of Energy recently unveiled its innovative warm-water, liquid-cooled supercomputer—Peregrine, which is housed in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) recently inaugurated Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF).  The new data center was designed to be one of the most energy efficient facilities in the world, operating at a power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.06 or better.

(Read my complete article at GoParallel)

Supercomputer Reveals Secrets of Black Holes

Black holes may cause the creation of stars, not their destruction, according to new discoveries by University of Leicester supercomputer “Complexity.”
The supercomputer is one of five supercomputers in the U.K. that are part of a project to explore the universe, according to a recent report by the BBC. Complexity went online in the summer of 2012 with government funding to build a supercomputer capable of doing unprecedented astronomical research.

(Read my complete article at GoParallel)


Predicting the Future with Supercomputers?

Supercomputers can perform amazing analysis, but can they predict the future? Data scientist and one of the foremost proponents in the emerging field of predictive supercomputing Kalev Leetaru predicts they will be able to.

For Leetaru’s 2011 study “Culturomics 2.0: Forecasting large–scale human behavior using global news media tone in time and space,” he applied tone and geographic analysis to a 30–year worldwide news archive using the Nautilus SGI UV supercomputer at the National Institute for Computational Sciences. Nautilus created a network comprised of 10 billion items connected by one hundred trillion relationships.

(Read my complete article at GoParallel)

Supercomputer Boosts Cutting-Edge Stroke Research

Stroke, which happens when a clot blocks an artery or blood vessel and restricts blood flow to the brain, kills nearly 130,000 people each year in the United States and is a leading cause of serious, long-term adult disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  But new research could one day limit the damage caused by the deadly disease.

(Read my complete article at GoParallel)

Shoppers Wish Retailers a Very Mobile Christmas

Every year at this time, each of the nation's retailers writes Santa a lengthy note, telling him how good it has been and how it deserves a really special Christmas. Recently, Saint Nick hasn't been reading those notes closely.

Holiday sales numbers haven't been quite what retailers have hoped to see. This year may prove to be more of the same. But where retailers do seem to find hope is in the notion that online sales, and mobile commerce in particular, will play a big part in this year's festivities.

(Read my complete article at Internet Evolution)

Tackling America's greatest drug problem

America has a major drug problem, but it’s not the one that probably comes immediately to mind. It is a continual and rotating shortage of important drugs needed to treat a variety of legitimate medical conditions impacting patients and the healthcare supply chain.

(Read my complete article at Healthcare Finance News)