Noise Indeed an Occupational Hazard

The term noise is defined as a sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance. Anything that interferes with, slows down, or reduces the clarity or accuracy of a communication is also termed as noise. And noise is indeed an occupational hazard. In almost all occupations or professions, people are exposed to some kind of loud noise but the intensity and duration varies from profession to profession. From education to entertainment, from call centers to concert halls and from agriculture to service sectors noise at work is definitely a serious issue.

Though noise adversely affects the physiological and psychological well being of the people, most workers and employers do not give it the attention that it truly deserves. Work-related hazards are broadly classified into fire, electric, dangerous chemicals, radioactive, and so on as the injury and wounds when exposed to these are visible to the eyes. But noise is seldom considered as an occupational hazard as the effects of high noise level to one’ health takes time and is invisible. Therefore, unlike other occupational hazards where all precautionary measures are taken to avoid accidents of any kind, no hearing protection devices are used for occupational noise hazard.

Noise can be categorized into continuous, variable, intermittent or impulsive noise but any sound that is 85 decibels or higher is definitely dangerous.  And constant exposure to loud noise can obviously lead to hearing loss. According to World Health Organization (WHO), ‘noise-induced hearing loss is insidious, permanent, and irreparable. In a developed country, exposure to excessive noise is at least partially the cause in more than one third of those in the population who have hearing loss. Noise-induced hearing loss is the most prevalent irreversible industrial disease, and noise is the biggest compensable occupational hazard’.

However, the fact of the matter is hearing loss and its associated symptoms such as ear strain, ear pain, ringing ears and so on are not the only effects of noise exposure. Studies have proven that noise exposure can lead to hypertension, fatigue, heart trouble, coronary disease, disturbed serum lipid, triglycerides, platelet count, plasma viscosity, glucose and reduced motor efficiency. It can affect the cardiovascular, endocrine, metabolic, gastrointestinal and neurological systems.

In such a scenario, hearing loss prevention must be undertaken at the workplace. This includes

  • Reducing the noise levels to acceptable levels i.e. below 85 decibels

  • Using engineering methods to modify the noise source or the workplace environment

  • Using hearing protection devices such as noise cancelling ear muffs, ear plugs and so on

Since in most cases it is difficult to reduce the noise levels to acceptable levels, earplugs are the most plausible option since the most advanced earplugs help in making communication compact and easy in high noise environments.

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Get the Advanced Secure Virtual Workspace for Your Mobile Workforce

With the advancements of computer technology and innovative software applications, numerous enterprises are finding it difficult to decide on when to replace the official desktops, workstations and corporate laptops. Today, constant efforts are being taken to bring down the IT expenses, where enterprises are operating in a way to reduce their expenses and corporate laptop fleets. At the same time, business analysts opine that retaining 50 corporate laptops on an average might also make an organization thousands on a single laptop every year on maintenance, licensing and support. In addition to that, there is also the initial buying cost.


Therefore, having all these concerns in mind its not surprising that, certain organizations are providing their employees a new age “one-point” allowance to buy their own laptops. At the same time, companies are also welcoming the concept of secure virtual workspace that is well known. This enables the companies as well as the mobile workers to curb the expenses efficiently.


There are renowned service providers that deal in desktop virtualization that offers advanced secure virtual workspace solutions. Given below are some of the benefits of this system:-

  • It provides the workers with a mode and allowance with which organizations can reduce the cost for provisioning laptops and other allied expenses. In certain cases, it allows workers to choose their own laptop and is taken as a gesture of staff incentive and motivation

  • The deployment is quick and with a lesser entry expense. The secure virtual workspace solutions east to operate and simple to provision and implement. In addition to that, it provides workspaces with TCO savings more than 40 percent. The time-to-centralized desktop management is quick and is light on resource utilization

  • These solutions provide a complete workspace on-demand for local operation on any given end. The workspace provided is in its entirety, comprising profile and applications to the end and implemented on the host Operating System using the local computing resources to provide an ultimate user experience.


Eminent market players dealing in secure virtual workspace possess a unique virtual desktop environment that provides scalable solution enabling organizations to create, secure, streamline and deliver the virtual workspace lifecycle swiftly and efficiently. These operations are easy, simple and cost-efficient mobile workforce solutions.


Also read on - Virtualization solutions, Tablets

Understanding Social Analytics and Utilizing Social Analytics Tools

It started from casual social networking and conversations, but today the social platform has gathered significant importance for enterprises who want to make the most from the social behavior of the customers at large and social networking in general. Today many companies want to increase their effectiveness in the social domain with the help of social analytics.

 

Challenges and Nature of Social Analytics

Social analytics provides an overall new paradigm for optimizing interactive marketing, increasing retention, broadening the reach and generating greater revenue. Any kind of social analytics solutions must address certain challenges. The appropriate tools:

  • Require the horsepower to capture the incredible volumes of information generated by social networks, with the ability to quickly surface valuable insights

  • Require immediate mechanization, to evaluate the information, apply business regulations, and push out fresh campaigns or any updates in near real-time

  • Points users in the desired direction and offers quick insights concerning all aspects of their reach, retention, and revenue campaigns

     

Next Generation Social Analytics Tools

Today there are numerous service providers offering social analytics tools that also deal with engagement analytics and social intelligence. These tools offer a variety of services. Some of these include:

  • Real time data and actionable insights to help users arrive at faster and smarter operating decisions

  • The ability to track consumer behaviors in real-time and access instant data on what is working and what is not so that they can optimize products, campaigns, features, and interactions on the fly

  • An “easy-to-use visualization interface” that offers both trending views and drill-down capacities

  • Quicker insights into the key influences on viral campaigns, and analyses what keeps customers engaged, while uncovering the levers that can most affect revenues.

     

Talking of making the most of social networking platforms, Facebook is a popular social networking portal today. Most business houses are planning to promote themselves through Facebook as it offers a fresh new domain for interactive marketing. Keeping this in mind, service providers of social analytics tool have also forayed into Facebook analytics tools that allows entrepreneurs to measure the success of Facebook campaigns and facilitate them. With various innovative Facebook metrics, users are able to receive immediate feedback on any content and campaign and can carry on their online promotions successfully.

Benefits of New Age Anti-Phishing Software Solutions

Internet data security is of primary concern to most enterprises today. Especially with the ongoing malware and phishing activities, employees are easily being tricked to share their crucial data that results in organizational as well as personal loss. So the next time you get a mail in your inbox that asks for your personal details, beware of it, as it might be a phishing attack on your system.


What is Phishing?


Phishing is a product of social engineering and is a malicious strategy that is devised by the third party intruders in order to steal your financial input, personal information and the like. There are hoax emails that lead people to harmful sites and counterfeit web portals that only cause harm to the system.


Need for Anti-Phishing Software


In the recent past eminent organizations that have faced the attacks of phishing mails. Hence, a solution is needed that is supposed to address both the process and the people, as a well-strategized phishing attack generally suggest these two areas.


However, today there are eminent market players that have introduced groundbreaking anti phishing software that are implemented within an institution. These solutions are customized with data about people, technology as well as the processes at work. Furthermore, social conducts towards the attacks too are evaluated and an in-depth report too is generated.


These solutions also offer statistics on user behavior, estimates safety awareness amidst the employees and recognizes the information leakage. Furthermore, it helps in examining the incident response program and analyses the Data Loss Prevention. Other benefits of the phishing protection solution are as follows:-


1. Helps enterprises in estimating the probable threats associated with phishing

2. Offers flexible reporting capacities and incorporate them back into the enterprises’ main  performance-indicator framework

3. Offers a “road map" solution highlighting on phishing awareness and training within the organization

4. Recognizes weakness within people, process and technology links

5. Helps in prioritizing remediation attempts via effective benchmarking and maturity evaluation

6. Maximizes employee awareness and knowledge to help guard sensitive information


Hence, with these innovative phishing awareness programs and solutions enterprises would be able to diagnose the threats for particular division and the overall business. At the same time, the continuous compliance is monitored within the risk management structure.

Try Out the New Age Desktop as a Service

Virtual desktops have given rise to the concept of anywhere and anytime office. Along with this the Desktop –as-a-Service (Daas) concept too has become prominent. It can be best described as a set of virtualization tools, where the desktop is provided to a user when they are connected, rather have it installed on a physical device. The element of “as a service” refers that the user has admission to a desktop that is configured for then by an internal or external service providers and the cost is on a fixed-price basis.

 

What is DaaS?

DaaS is best defined ad a dedicated equipment whereby the end user has complete authority over a shared server. The crucial point out here is that centrally managed and stored and is offered “on-demand” to customers. With the advent of the cloud computing platforms and the economic growth has increased the demand for workspace and desktop virtualization.

 

Furthermore, gradually as the “pay-per-use” concept became is gaining prominence, services such as Desktop as a service are becoming popular. Even then eminent service provider’s face the following three challenges:-

  • Efficient management

  • Profitability

  • Fast implantation of DaaS


Eminent enterprises dealing in Desktop as a service guarantees flexible desktop delivery without affecting Windows’ application suite that ranges from business productivity, finance and game tools. DaaS over a 3G network on demand is going to be an appropriate extension for offering complementary revenue producing services. Furthermore,   with the broadband networks, DaaS service provider’s provides personalized desktop and the software as per the customer’s choice.


In addition to that, these services are equipped with inbuilt Synching and Caching technology that allows Mobile Operators/ ISP’s to promise delivery of desktops even in unfavorable network conditions. Customers can browse through the file/video share, chat and other high-end applications, where the 3G broadband network gets well utilized.


The concept of fixed-cost desktop virtualization software based on DaaS is gathering great interest amongst firms that are aiming for a cost reduction and simplify operations simultaneously catering to the service demands with minimized resources.

Also read on - WindowsAppStore, Virtual desktop

Fuelling Collaborations for Business Empowerment with Online Meeting Tools

Corporate online meetings are becoming the preferred modes in business communication due to its cost-saving and faster delivery capabilities. Every business has to host meetings and conferences to share information with those directly concerned, impart training to employees to keep them updated and equip them with latest trends and technologies, and also for promotional and marketing activities.


Consistent and reliable communication is the foremost priority in a business which helps in assessing and measuring its progress. Those who adopt the latest technologies have the advantage of moving in pace with the market while the future is bleak for those who are reliant on outdated and forsaken methodologies.


The advent of online meeting tools has helped in the proliferation of mass publicity through virtual events and webinars. The webinars can be hosted from any location with endless number of participants irrespective of their current geographical location at one particular time. These virtual events foster a collaborative spirit amongst the individuals and teams, and it provides a universal platform where the participants can interact live and issues can be resolved easily.  


The online meeting tools help in customizing the virtual events and providing a dynamic environment with the delivery of latest news live and provides full motion video webcast facilities through affordable web conferencing solutions. These tools also provide on-demand access of the live events 24x7 which helps users in searching and accessing content anytime anywhere.


The online meeting tool is a valuable asset that provides admirable full-text searchable video services via a single solution. The live presentations are combined and digitally recorded with synchronized slides and scrolling transcripts. Each word spoken in the event and each note is converted into searchable data which helps the users to find content easily without losing any time.


The Online Conferences also provides the facility of creating a knowledge base for the business to store the content for future use and eliminates the need to publish the content again when required. The same virtual event platform can be reused anytime to train new recruits or update those who were absent. The information can be accessed on demand and delivered to any mobile device. Any posts or updates are automatically updated. It provides detailed reports on the usage of content and the participants.


The online meeting tools are elemental factors that have collaboration boosting and performance enhancing propensities that are extremely vital for the development and growth of business. They help to create a lively and interactive virtual environment where unity and bonding emotions are stoked and encouraged.


Also read on - Technology enabled marketing, video search tools

A Profitable Platform for Electrical Contractors

Electrical contractors face challenges when they try to find the prices of electrical items from the voluminous database for critical bidding and estimating purposes. It becomes a nightmare to sieve through the bulk price lists and find the accurate one. Productivity is adversely affected as it becomes a time consuming job to find relevant and accurate details. Most of the prices are obsolete and it is frustrating as information cannot be found easily. The contractors have to bear financial losses as they cannot provide prompt services to the customer. It is very crucial to have a streamlined system to ensure that all time-consuming procedures are eliminated and efficiency is accelerated resulting in enhanced profits.

The electrical contractors need an expert bidding and estimating software with automated processes. This software ensures an easy and structured bidding and estimating process that saves time and provides accurate results. It is an internet based pricing database with 2 million electrical items from more than 650 manufacturers. It helps in importing the data into the estimating system without any conflicts from any location. It facilitates updating the estimating systems with the latest information. The software provides instant pricing directly from the suppliers.

The electrical estimating software displays the MLU subscription available through NECA. It provides more than 150,000 cross-references for finding alternative products easily. Due to the existing average market pricing column accurate estimates can be derived with ease. It is sufficiently equipped to facilitate the viewing of the history of price changes for each product. It provides complete details of the listed items such as manufacturer’s catalog pages, installation instructions and MSDS sheets.

It provides a direct link to QuickBooks accounting programs. It provides the facility of creating frequently used items. It helps in exporting the details directly on to the excel sheets. The software provides tools for greater efficiency such as calculators, formulas, standards and daily copper pricing reports. It provides a comprehensive compilation of industry news obtained from various sources and produces compelling bidding results.

It provides real time and continuous contractor-specific pricing from preferred suppliers which assist in bidding accurately and quickly. It has the capability to seamlessly integrate with estimating systems. The electrical contractor bidding software helps in enhancing relationships with suppliers and increases the possibility of enhanced profits. The electrical estimating and bidding software is a cost-effective tool with profit boosting capabilities. It is simple, easy and compatible without any contradicting traits. The electrical contractors can expect to garner exceeding profits with accurate and faster bidding processes.

Ensure HIPAA / HITECH Compliance with Compliance Management Software

Healthcare frauds are skyrocketing and the most disturbing aspect of this whole affair is the fact that healthcare providers are mostly involved in healthcare frauds. Studies show that every year around $100 million are pocketed by scammers, fraudsters and organized criminal gangs with the help of healthcare providers. Recently the law enforcement agencies busted a massive Medicare fraud estimated at $295 million. It involved over 100 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

Types of Healthcare Frauds

Healthcare frauds are mainly of three types and these are health insurance fraud, drug fraud and medical fraud.

Health Insurance Fraud

Health insurance fraud, as the name suggests, refers to frauds involving health insurance programs such as Medicare. Medicare is a social insurance program introduced by the US government to provide health insurance coverage to people who are physically disabled and those who are 65 and older. Medicare program is a soft target for fraudsters since Medicare claims are processed quickly and smoothly.

Drug Fraud

Drug frauds are of two types - legal drug fraud and illegal drug fraud. In illegal drug fraud, the seller combines genuine drugs with other substances to reduce its potency. This forces the consumers to buy more. Whereas, in legal drug fraud, healthcare providers prescribe drugs without sufficient cause to patients and in return earn kickbacks from the drug manufacturers. Some healthcare providers either prescribe expensive drugs and profit from the receipts or sell free drug samples to patients at very high rates.

Medical Fraud

Medical fraud refers to endorsement of fraudulent and unproven medical practices for making easy money.

Realizing how bad corruption has seeped into the healthcare system, US government was forced to take a carrot and stick approach. As part of this approach, two laws were enacted- the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). These two acts required all medical practitioners, healthcare providers and business associates that handle Patient Health Information (PHI) to achieve and maintain security and compliance with the regulations proposed by the HIPAA HITECH Acts.

HIPAA /HITECH compliance is a complex and time-consuming process. However, the availability of innovative and unified security monitoring and HIPPA/HITECH compliance management software is making things much easier for healthcare providers, medical practitioners and business associates. It is an automated SaaS based solution that regularlyupdatesthe latest versions and revisions of relevant regulations/standards.

Also read on - Hipaa healthcare, Governance risk

What to Keep in Mind while Choosing a Business Social Software

In the current business environment, choosing business social software is imperative for any company. However, choosing between the different alternatives available could be tricky. It is essential to find answer to the fundamental question of why you need a business social network. This will help you choose the right solution. Establish the objective Understanding the purpose behind the social or collaboration initiative will help answering a lot of questions - the importance and the urgency of the need the company, the budget that the company is willing to spend, etc. The purpose could vary from a very simple one such as having an internal ‘Facebook’ for employees or it can be more sophisticated to meet serious group collaboration needs. For example, if the need is to enable knowledge sharing and facilitate day-to-day collaboration, then it is a good idea to look for software with document and project management capabilities.

  • Consider your mobile workforce

When deciding on a tool for the mobile workforce such as your sales team, it must be kept in mind that most of the your target audience is mobile with occasional access to computers. Then, perhaps the platform that would be ultimately adopted needs to be accessible not just from smart phones, but also from simple mobile phones. If this is the requirement, then opt for a platform that provides such connectivity. There are enterprise social software applications that allow people to interact with their platform even using SMS.

  • Decide between On-demand and On-premise

With an on-demand or a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform there is the inherent flexibility that allows you to scale up or down whenever necessary, with no infrastructure investments. For a quick start to your social revolution, this can be a convenient option. The on-premise deployment is a more practical consideration if you are looking at building your social platform over your current enterprise software applications.

  • Consider the Cost

There are numerous enterprise social platforms that offer different versions of their software. The basic versions usually have only a very limited subset of the overall capabilities, and hence may not be very expensive. The premium versions with full-fledged capabilities are usually charged more. The cost of enterprise collaboration software this is a significant point that needs to be weighed against the expected benefits of the platform.

While consumers can pick up and discard social tools at will, businesses need to be much more careful, as implementing the wrong tool could cost time, effort and money. Hence, it is utmost important that companies choose the platform that is most suited to their defined business needs.

 

Wise Actions to Ensure Successful Innings in Business

Sustenance has become difficult in the present volatile business environment. Businesses that deal in oil and gas engineering services are unable to cope with the growing market demands for quality products and fulfilling the requirements for generation of enhanced revenues. The oil and gas engineering plants need processes with accountable outcomes. The businesses do not have the maturity to handle the advanced technology to their best advantage, and the constantly changing regulatory requirements are creating severe deficiencies in the system resulting in excessive vulnerability and exposure to threats.


As these oil and gas companies ambitiously explore the global markets for expanding their operations they are prone to high levels of security risks due to the lack of efficient, transparent and structured processes. Their dreams of making it big in the global league can be shattered if they are not equipped with powerful, competent and robust tools. An oil and gas engineering company requires meticulous and comprehensive processes for designing, development, testing, and application purposes. These tools have to provide consistent support for optimization of processes and leveraged business opportunities.


Limited resources and budgets can often derail projects. To avoid any disappointing ramifications the oil and gas engineering companies should seek the assistance of professional global engineering services. These professionals are adept in latest technologies, and with their experienced perspective they propose strategies that help in maximizing resources and cutting down costs required for product development. They provide oil and gas engineering services that encompasses the entire lifecycle of product development such as designing, modeling, prototyping, automation, data documentation, instrumentation, controls, embedded systems development, manufacturing  and vendor management.


A well maintained SEZ infrastructure with fully equipped facilities and resourceful operational tools is utilized to provide top notch quality engineering services to the oil and gas engineering companies. These global engineering professionals ensure maintenance of intense security with regular monitoring drills that helps keep the environment within the safety nets. The deployment of eco-friendly practices also ensures a hazard-free industrial environment.


There is a lot at stake for the oil and gas engineering businesses. The risks are high and there are no alternatives for rectification or resurrection. Thus these businesses have to carefully assess the factors and adopt methods that possess the capabilities to deliver healthy and positive results. As time progresses conditions are bound to become tougher and unforgiving. Thus every business must ensure enforcement of processes that are specialized in fulfilling long term goals and objectives.


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