Virtual Events Software to Facilitate Corporate Knowledge Sharing

Business conferences and presentations are no longer limited to a select group of attendees. These conferences contain vital information for the suppliers, partners, customers and employees. Thus it is imperative to ensure ready availability of information at any time. As opposed to the traditional methods of conducting these business conferences, now these events can be easily conducted virtually with the help of cloud technology.

Businesses have encountered profound savings through these virtual events due to the feasibility of searching for on demand content of live presentations. The users can easily access the information when they need it. They are also provided with productive material such as group chats, sales leader boards and ratings. These virtual events have been made possible with the help of the virtual event software. This software is a dynamic solution that delivers the latest information live via full motion video webcasts or web conferencing tools like Go-To-Meeting and WebEx. The contents of the live events can be provided to the users anytime anywhere with the help of this tool.

The virtual event software is a powerful online meeting tool that facilitates organizers and presenters with customer feedback through surveys and polls to determine the response quotient. The users are provided with video that are digitally recorded with synchronized slides and scrolling transcripts. Every word and note that is documented is searchable and eliminates any wastage of time as users can easily find the information they need through topic or sentence based search criteria. There is no need to republish the content of the live events as the content is already published as searchable and on-demand content.

The published content can be easily delivered on the computer or a mobile device thus enabling the users to watch any video, download it as mp3 radio, mp4 video or powerpoint with embedded transcripts. The software provides the facility of automatic receipt of updates through the RSS system. This tool also helps in customizing the interface for creation of theme based events. Valuable time is saved as less time is needed for searching the information.

The events encourage interactive participation through the chat sessions. It also provides a detailed report on the usage of content and the participation of users. Corporate knowledge sharing is not a costly requirement any more as the virtual event software provides best practices for searching and accessing on demand content with live interactivity and full text video search capabilities.

Also read on - Enterprise video, Searchable video

Virtualization Solutions – Upgrading The Personal Desktop

A technological innovation has changed the way people work. With more and more workforce being globally connected, virtualization of the workspace is the need of the hour in a business environment. The virtual desktop solutions have thus become more of a necessity than a competitive factor. The virtual desktop solutions comprise of server hosted and client hosted desktops. Though the existing virtual desktops, which are accessed through a network, are server hosted, the infrastructure requirements and long turnaround time has made organizations opt for client-hosted virtualization.

The advent of Dynamic Virtual Desktop is a boon to the organizations. This high performance solution delivers a centralized desktop management platform along with client computing to deliver personalized desktop execution experience on any device. The enterprises through the use of DVD’s can create, manage, streamline, and deliver virtual workspaces in a cost effective, efficient and secure manner. This DVD platform with the flexibility of a web application and the agility of the Windows App Store provides the users the facility of running Windows based productivity applications on demand or as a service.

The use of dynamic virtual desktop as a service facilitates using Windows desktop or applications to be available on the cloud. Through such a platform, the windows applications are made available on the client machine on a temporary basis. The customers can work on these applications as if they are individually installed on their systems. This facilitates easy application management, reduction and overhead expenses pertaining to training and installation of various application delivery solutions.

Such virtualization solutions are user centric, independent of the Operating System and devices from which it is accessed. This facilitates mobility of the workforce both online and offline, leverages template technology with a single copy of applications accessible to multiple users through mass deployment. The caching and synching mechanisms ensures desktop delivery services even under poor network conditions. The various areas where this dynamic virtual desktops are used are Disaster recovery system, Mobile and online and offline computing, outsourcing, and thin client computing.

Also read on - Work at home call center, Virtual desktop thin client

Understanding the Intricacies of an Agile ALM

ALM includes all of the practices, processes and tools that facilitate managing of an application's lifecycle from both a business and development perspective right from the initial development to final release. It mainly involves three aspects that are governance, development, and operations. To manage an application during a specific age it is necessary to look at the intricacies of processes, methods and tooling practices which collectively called as ALM. The main areas of ALM include

·         Requirements Management - Refers to requirement analysis, consolidation and management

·         Architecture & Design – Refers to application architecture, functional/non-function specification, technical design and solution structuring practices or patterns

·         Software Development Process – Various methodologies to develop the core application including Agile/ MSF/ Iterative Development

·         Project Management & Governance – Includes schedule/cost control, Project Management, Reporting and Risk Management

·         Database Management - Includes database tools/ processes to implement better design/operations/builds around Database

·         Code Quality -  Includes tools/methods to improve code quality and stability of application

·         Quality Assurance - Includes software testing processes and planning

·         Configuration & Deployment - Release and change management combined with build procedures

There is an inherent risk in all software development, as software development is based on innovation and discovery. In a manufacturing system the processes can be automated, on the contrary, the software development process cannot be turned into a one-size-fits-all.

The Agile ALM

Software development teams are continually looking for ways to enhance both the process and technology of software development, to cut down the possibility of a project failure. As no software system is so simple that the complete development can be scripted from beginning to end in a linear fashion, many are looking at a shift in the market towards the Agile ALM. Agile and ALM, once two distinct market segments, are now beginning to consolidate. As a result we now have what we call Agile ALM platforms. Both the ALM and Agile communities concentrate on enhancing the current state of software development. The ALM uses the technology point of view to approach a challenge while agile looks at improving the process itself. The mutual goals and synergies of ALM and Agile are resulting in a number of Agile ALM vendors in the market. Scrum, the most popular implementation of the Agile movement, has seen exponential growth in the past and teams using Scrum enjoy the advantage of accelerated product innovation, and minimal project rework.

Agile Application Lifecycle Management Software helps to manage application development distributed among various teams in a quick and efficient manner.

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Making the Correct Decision for the Safety of Employees’ Hearing

The hazards of working in a noisy environment are fatal and can render permanent hearing loss in individuals. Those who work in such critical conditions are highly vulnerable to accidents due to hearing loss and may cost them their livelihood. When they lose their hearing capability they are unaware of the dangers and can become easy victims of death. Thus it is the responsibility of the employers to ensure that the employees are provided sufficient protection measures and gears when exposed to extreme levels of noise pollution.

With the initiation of laws by the government to protect the employees from any freak accidents due to the negligence and ignorance of the employers, employers have to provide their staff with ear protection devices such as ear muffs and ear plugs at work to prevent any adverse effects on their hearing. These ear muffs are convenient and light. They do not pose any problem to the users while at work. The workers can work in any noisy condition with these protection devices.

The ear muffs facilitate easy and face to face communication between individuals. It has a two way radio interface and allows communication up to a distance of 50 meters with the devices on. It provides more than 12 hours of continuous talk time. This device provides the facility of wireless communication to cell phones with the help of Bluetooth. The user can comfortably work with this device on. The headband is durable with adjustable settings and extra soft ear cushions.

The ear muffs are designed to look smart and available in extremely visible colors. They are long lasting with a warranty of 12 months. The ear plugs perform the same functions as the ear muffs. They are extremely handy, smart and have replaceable ear tips. These ear hearing protection devices have been designed to enhance speech and suppress any background noise. They are rugged and can be used for longer periods.

An employer that does not provide the noise protection facilities to the employees is committing a serious offence and can be penalized for his actions. Besides, the chances of losing experienced, dedicated and qualified staff are high if he does not take this issue into consideration. Providing ear muffs and ear plugs not only ensures the healthy well-being of the staff but also leverages efficiency and productivity. It makes sense to invest wisely rather than ignore the warnings and suffer major losses.

Know more on : hearing loss preventionhearing loss prevention

 

Agile ALM- Facilitating Change and Adaptability

The global economic upheaval and the changing demand from globalized business customers and clients make the priorities, requirements and resources of every business, an ever-changing factor. However, no matter what, every business expects an on-time delivery as per schedule, meet customer’s expectation, and achieve company goals without any compromise on the quality of products or services. In a technology oriented global business world, a number of software applications are placed at various stages of a product lifecycle to control the vital factors.

Application lifecycle management (ALM) is a collection of processes, roles and deliverables, which can be controlled and improved with successive iteration of the project life cycle. The Application Lifecycle management includes issue tracking, which would assist in creating, updating and resolving reported issues. With a knowledge base of customer information, and resolutions to common problems, this is a valuable asset for quality assurance. Analysis of the project helps to ward off quality issues, scalability problems and resistance to modification. The other phases of application lifecycle development include development and coding of software, version control practices, software build, quality assurance, approval and deployment.

A group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, and collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams is Agile Application lifecycle management. Further, Agile ALM supports the development team at each stage of the development process and facilitates change. The agile developments methods promote development, teamwork, collaboration and adaptability throughout the project’s life cycle. Agile ALM is a process that helps an organization, adopt certain beneficial practices well within the organizational goals and constraints. This supports both management practices as well as engineering practices thereby facilitating a total management of a production lifecycle irrespective of the industry.

Being a cross-platform web-based solution, it combines continuous integration and life cycle management to support the complexity of service-oriented architectures and highly distributed systems. The tech savvy world today provides customers with direct access to company’s core business applications. Loss of confidence on part of the customer will only create problems.  Automating application life cycle management process protects application availability and provides time to market advantages that might result in an increased market share and the opening of new revenue outlets.

Agile ALM provides an extensive set of control parameters to accommodate the requirements of any organization. The solution is armed with a consistent set of methods and terminology to migrate, test, approve and install applications independently irrespective of the technology or the platforms on which they are developed or deployed. It also provides a flexible solution to optimize the development environment, depending on the needs of the development teams.

Know more on:  1) Requirement management software. 2) Release Management

Reverse Logistics to Manage Returned Merchandise

Product returns are a nightmare for any company or organization. It is a situation requiring careful attention since a lot is at stake. Customers buy products only when they are assured of easy returns and refunds. Every customer favors an easy, clear-cut and convenient return policy.  Most companies and organizations give into it since in today’ hypercompetitive business environment, customer satisfaction is essential in order to stay in business, to earn customer loyalty and to retain customers. The result of which is boxes of returns dumped in a pile in company warehouses.
Companies receive product returns from two sources-suppliers and customers. Hence, there would be heaps upon heaps of boxes of returned merchandise in the warehouses waiting to be refurbished. Most companies do have a system in place to manage returned goods but the reality of the situation is that the systems are not proper and effective enough to handle the vast array of returned products. As a result, the returned merchandise remains in the warehouses gathering dirt and dust. And it will continue to remain there unless and until the management gets time to test, sort, refurbish and dispose the goods. In certain cases, because of lack of implementation of proper processes, the products are ‘discovered or rather rediscovered’ during a physical inventory or while cleaning up the warehouses making it impossible to refurbish the products. This means not only profit and revenue loss but also sales loss. Hence, what is required is an effective returns management system that helps in managing returned products in a logical and efficient manner.
Another important factor that makes returns management all the more important is the new disposition requirements enforced by the government. Until recently, companies have been focusing on forward supply chains alone where the customer was at the end of the process. But the outcome of such narrow focus has been damaging since the improper management of returned goods and its disposal had far-reaching implications for the environment. This forced the governments to enact tougher laws to protect the environment from further degradation. As a result, companies and organizations had no other choice but to shift their focus from forward supply chains to closed-loop supply chains. Thus apart from manufacturing, sourcing, and delivery, reverse logistics, which includes activities like returns management, remanufacturing, and refurbishing, became an essential part of the supply chain.  
However, lack of a proper system is what that makes reverse logistics cumbersome and unmanageable for companies and organizations. This can be easily solved with the help of a good reverse logistics and returns management system.
Learn more about: - fulfillment solutions , Systems Integration & supply chain solutions

Natural Back Pain Remedies-to strengthen your back

Back Pain one of the most frequent complaints in all age groups. This pain is felt in the back, originating from the muscles, nerves, bones or joints, characterised as dull ache, a sharp pain or burning sensation. As the spine is a network of interconnected nerves, muscles and tendons, any pain, which originates here, tends to spread out to other areas too. Back pain relief exercises or back relief products can be used after a proper understanding of the reasons for back pain.

Generally caused by three main reasons or a combination of these, the most common one is tight muscles or highly weakened muscles. Besides these, muscle imbalance, trigger points and joints imbalance also cause back pain. With a number of back relief products available in the market, dedicating a few minutes every day, will not only provide relief from back pain, but will also help loosen tight muscles, aid in getting a better posture, leading to a worry free and healthy lifestyle. These back pain relief products are made up of a network curves with a firm structure to support and gradually condition all the three regions of the back. These curves help one to gently stretch and relax the back.

The back pain relief products alleviate pain and discomfort within a few minutes. Working to open the vertebra of the spine, it relaxes and stretches the apex, T4 vertebra and the bottom of the rib cage. Some simple back pain relief exercises with a few repetitions will help improve the back condition. This not only improves the flexibility of the backbone but also increases speed and motion. These natural remedy exercises include vertical arcs, horizontal arcs and arm circles and mini crunches.

Certain back relief products can complement to other natural holistic practices you may be utilizing for your back pain or overall fitness. Yoga exercises such as the Fish pose or, Matsyasana provide a backward stretch to the cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions. This stretches the upper body by opening the lung, heart and the abdomen. It stretches the muscles and ligaments of the spine and neck while increasing flexibility. By practicing other holistic exercises such as Pilates, a low impact exercise that focuses on flexibility of the spine and core postural muscles, you can alleviate back pain. This exercise helps to strengthen the back, improve spinal alignment and spinal range of motion. Another natural back pain relief mechanism is Acupressure wherein the pressure points located throughout the human body is massaged or pressed to provide relief from pain.

Know more on : Natural back pain remedies, Natural back pain relief

A Complete Performance Delivery with Retail Management Solutions

A retail business involves a myriad of independent processes that have to integrate and collaborate to achieve the final result. Everyday there are endless issues that could slow down the efficiency and make negative impacts on your business. Without an efficient and centralized management system your business can go haywire. So to avoid any adverse reactions and disappointing results you have to employ the retail fulfillment solutions that deliver promising results.
The secret to a successful retail business is cost management while meeting the retail fulfillment requirements promptly without any compromises in quality. The contemporary customers are sure what they want and they will not tolerate compromises nor overlook any negligence. Many businesses have faced bitter experiences due to the spiraling costs in maintenance of the warehouse, inventory, logistics, distribution and transportation. The solutions deployed for achieving best results provide a simplified, cohesive and compact management process that encompasses all the vital processes.
These solutions are extremely flexible and ensure optimization of resources. They invariably handle all issues related to warehouse and inventory control, order management and custom labeling, serialization and serial number tracking, freight management and freight tracking, returns management, online inquiry and reporting,retail packaging and distribution as well as delivery of goods directly to stores or distribution centers.
The solutions that you employ for your retail business enforce appropriate measures to ensure deadlines are met during the packaging process. The packaging solutions provide customized services and ensure prevention of loss caused due to shipping errors, outdated products and inventory overheads. They are equipped with facilities for on-site custom label printing, automated source tagging and bar coding purposes. The solutions help in implementing the packaging process as per your choice or the requirements of your business – be it eco-friendly or shrink wrapped or hand assembled. These solutions help in reduction of obsolete inventory also and provide high value IP protection measures.
The fulfillment solutions take care of all your retail distribution procedures and ensure timely delivery of the items to the correct destination.  High visibility and real-time information is provided. The solutions have been designed to assess the specifics of your business and deliver best practices to ensure maximum mileage for your business. They possess encouraging integration capabilities that provide your business with positive results. The high-quality, cost-effective, secure, productive and flexible retail fulfillment solutions provides unlimited scope for leveraging your business prospects.
Learn more about :- evaluation system, Systems Integration

Benefits of Noise Cancelling Hearing Protection Devices

Owing to the high noise environment generated from heavy industrial works, hearing protection is of paramount importance today. This also ensures a secure and safe auditory health for the workers who have to deal everyday with loud noise surrounding.

However, today well known companies and service providers in hearing solutions have introduced noise cancelling hearing protection devices that offer an overall high-noise communication solutions, where the users are able to interact with others face-to-face and even at short and long distance. Furthermore, the communication process is facilitated with the usage of a Bluetooth cell phone and two-way radio.

These devices go beyond the domain of noise cancelling equipments. They are designed keeping in mind the approach to Occupational Hearing Conserving by putting together advanced noise cancelling technology with innovative speech enhancement technology. This ensures that workers can hear and remain protected in a high noise environment. Furthermore, the in-built tools are able to detect the excess background noise, suppress it so that the speech quality is unaffected.

These devices are available in the form of noise cancelling earmuffs and noise cancelling earplugs.

The noise cancelling earmuffs combines the noise suppression and speech enhancement technology that helps in delivering communication solutions amidst noisy backgrounds. This revolutionary speech improvement technology enhances and isolates speech in real-time, and enable users to hear the sound safely and clearly, which sometime back was impossible. The background noise is minimized to comfortable levels, retaining its original character. This makes it possible for the wearer to be aware of the location.

The noise cancelling earplugs are designed in a similar fashion like the earmuffs. They too help in offering a complete solution to interact seamlessly in a noisy surrounding. However, owing to the fact that industrial workers would use most of these products they have a rugged body and a tough exterior. The devices are user friendly, with easy buttons for adjustments and soft cushions for comfort.

Other features of these devices would include the following :-

  • Mp3 Interface

  • Offers a talk time for over 12 hours

  • Comes with a 12 month warranty

  • Durable adjustable headband

  • High Visibility Color

  • Binaural capability

Today, most entrepreneurs are resorting to noise cancelling hearing protection devices for their workers. Any kind of loud noise apart from causing hearing problems gives rise to other nerve and auditory problems too. These devices help protects an individual from the harsh effects of sound while they carry on with their work.

Know more on : noise protection, hearing loss prevention.

 

Sharing of Corporate Content Made Easy with Online Meeting Tools

In today’s competitive markets, it is no longer possible for companies to rely on conventional methods like centralized creation, publications to share corporate content with their employees. Global organizations with extensive undertaking face challenges in providing a universal platform for the exchange of ideas and corporate content among various dispersed employee groups. There is a lot of time and resources that are invested in circulating the latest knowledge among these employees. However companies fall short in matters of collaboration for effective sharing of knowledge within the organization. It is essential for companies to take proactive steps to effectively share the requisite knowledge content. There are many organizations that are looking at different decentralized approaches for collecting and circulating corporate knowledge. Organizations spend a large amount on content management, other knowledge management systems set out to build a culture of collaboration and sharing of knowledge. The best content management systems too cannot capture corporate content that is verbally conveyed.

To ensure that any specific piece of knowledge is immediately available when and where it is needed, companies must effectively capture, share and make easily available the unending flow of wisdom. With knowledge sharing amongst the employees of an organization becoming a priority, companies are using video based online training tools to educate and update their employees with the latest information. With the wonders of technology having a tremendous benefit for business, training sessions through online videos have become a necessity, even in small organizations. These tools help the new employees by giving them detailed information about the company including their roles and responsibilities. With online meeting tools management authorities can easily be in touch with their staff even if they cannot attend the sessions personally. It is a very effectual way to tackle concerns and have the same resolved on a single platform. The online meeting tools initiate and stir interactions amongst the people within the organization nurturing elevated levels of coordination and integration. As a result there is a complete understanding concerning the goals and objectives of the business. With online meeting software, all the employees who geographically distributed can be address from any from any remote location.

By using video or audio recording, verbal knowledge can easily be captured and shared and made available to everyone in the organization. Investing in online meeting software in the organization, has many benefits in terms of productivity and profitability. With higher level of knowledge, there are long-term dividends for both the enterprise as well as the employees.

Also read on - Video search, virtual event software