Ensure Top Performance with Excellent Storage Solutions

With improved performance expectations, growing data and network bandwidth, cost reduction targets, converged architectures and technology innovations, most IT organizations these days are under a lot of pressure to deliver. Data is an important corporate asset that needs to be safeguarded and loss of information can lead to direct financial losses. To minimize the risk in the data center, it is necessary to ensure that data center is more secure, better performing, has lower downtime, is more compliant and makes changes more reliably. The most important thing to note is the requirement for a secure, dependable and flexible IT infrastructure. If your infrastructure is not secure all the critical data will be either lost or manipulated which can cost your business a heavy loss.

Data center solutions that offer with innovative and commendable storage solutions that help increase the quality, reliability and performance of your applications. The data center solutions deploy practices that help in maximizing the IT infrastructure and enhance returns. Servers in the data center  are designed to be reliable, secure, and fault-tolerant, with redundant storage options. If you expect your business to expand, choose a server that’s scalable and can grow with you. The right storage servers can automatically back up your desktop and laptop systems, ensuring that critical data is never lost if one machine fails or is lost or stolen. As it operates as a central repository for all of your documents, images, contacts, and other important files, a storage server make it easy for employees to share data and collaborate. It can host a company intranet, for sharing information with employees quickly and economically.

Your data center infrastructure must have the capacity to filter the relevant information and store them in a secured location so that it can be accessed quickly whenever there is a requirement. If your infrastructure is not flexible you will not be able to make changes as per the changing demands in the market and you will have to suffer losses. For small  business that needs just one or two more-powerful servers, tower servers would be an ideal choice as they don’t take up a lot of floor space, and they don’t require elaborate cooling systems. A flexible infrastructure ensures that all your applications collaborate and integrate producing optimum results and provides you opportunities to earn more revenues.

The results produced by the data center solutions justify its implementation. Study your options well, and choose the method that best suits the needs and budget of your business.

Read More About: unified storage solution, high performance computing cluster, custom computer systems, data centre solutions

Adding value with Software Certifications

As the IT industry becomes more competitive, it has become important for employees hands to have the latest knowledge and skills while performing the jobs in their day today work life. Obtaining a software certification puts you in a position to document your knowledge. Certifications hold a lot of importance in the career growth of software professional and also provide an opportunity to align one’s education with the demands of one’s career. Certifications, besides training are one of the most effective ways of enhancing one’s knowledge base and many software professional of today are recognizing this fact.

 

Certification programs focus on practical skills, thereby offering tremendous scope to learn to do things the practical way. One can be prepared for entry-level jobs in the field of software programming, web development, computer graphics, database management, software development, desktop support, computer networks administration etc. Once the candidate has entered the field, thereafter it offers tremendous opportunities to learn on the job, and with every new project there is a new challenge and new learning for the career aspirants.

 

With software certification boosting one’s career potential, there is great scope to keep growing in this field from strength to strength, depending upon how far he is able to keep himself up to date with the latest technological trends, and upgrade his skills constantly to be on top of the intense competition in the field. Certification helps inspire confidence in technical skills and demonstrates familiarity with and proficiency in a skill area, as well as knowledge of best practices in that area.

 

Some certifications that are opted for are well focused with the main aim of increasing employee productivity. In today's world, there are specific computer training programs that are targeted to the actual applications that are being used in a given workplace environment. Providing the right training and necessary certifications to employees ensures that businesses are taking sufficient actions to ensure that they are well prepared to manage competition in the marketplace. With the growth of any business, potential customers usually demands for changes in the product lifecycle. With latest software solutions enable business requirements to be met.

 

An enterprise can keep up with the competition, and also try and surpass it by updating one’s employees with the latest information technology. To successfully overcome competition, latest technology trainings and more advanced technology information management can put a company a step ahead of its rivals.

 

Also read more  about : Online Digital Library & IEEE computer society

 

Why Should Brands Resort To Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions?

Every organization is sensitive about its brand image, which is much more than just a trademark or name. Simply put, it is an enterprise’s identity that reflects its intrinsic nature and character. Therefore, any dilution in the brand’s image and reputation results in losses, both finite and infinite. Innovations and developments in the internet has been a boon to brand development. Yet with unfavorable practices such as product duplication and counterfeiting results are negative brand image.

 

Most brand protection solutions today do not possess a complete anti-counterfeiting process in it. It merely scans the internet to detect any brand and trademark violation. Product and brand counterfeiting leads to brand erosion along with monetary losses. For instance, for a luxury retail, high-tech or pharmaceutical goods company, where the margin of losses is higher, the visibility of the exact products that are being counterfeited along with the discounts are imperative for being able to combat brand erosion and revenue loss. In order to aid this situation solution providers have come up with anti-counterfeiting solutions that provide 24x7 real time monitoring and enforcement services.

These high-end anti-counterfeiting solutions have advanced search capabilities and are appropriately designed for counterfeit detection in multiple industry verticals. The solution helps in detecting and tracing the brand violators and responding accordingly. However, the suspect criteria differ as per the kind of industry. For example, in case of high-tech industry, products that are usually sold at higher discounts, more than 50 percent are suspects. Similarly, when it comes to the pharmaceutical industry, the main criteria are the volume of goods sold through the unrecognized channels other than the price factor. The modern day pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting solutions helps to detect these suspects and combat them.

Anti-counterfeiting solutions from leading solution providers operate in the following ways:

* Other than proactively scanning the internet for counterfeits, the solution applies human intelligence to ensure complete data integrity

* The solution allows pharmaceutical companies to significantly minimize the percentage of drug distribution by detecting the network and syndicates of high volume counterfeits

* Offers a complete end-to-end brand protection solution that comprises investigation and unique enforcement services

* The processes are less costly and time consuming

Therefore, it is crucial for organizations to realize that their brand requires protection from brand counterfeiting. Innovative anti-counterfeiting solutions apart from detecting counterfeits can successfully shut down illegal operations. Furthermore, the solution can also send, cease, desists DCMA letters automatically and provides automatic auction shutdowns.

Read More About: enterprise risk management, Anti-Fraud, brand management, gray market

Need For Social Media Analytics Tools

What is the best place to find all your lost contacts and to build new contacts, both personal and professional? The answer is social networking. Today the social networking landscape offers interesting networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Friendster and many more. These platforms enable individuals to log in and establish connections and use these contacts for personal and professional benefits. Furthermore, these networking platform in order to establish a personal connect with its audience are coming up with innovative applications and games that helps individuals to expand their contact base. However, that is not all that is there to social networking. Over the past few years it has acquired a new dimension altogether.

 

When you key in any eminent brand name in Twitter and Facebook you will find these companies having their corporate profile with regular updates and post. This suggests that social networking is no more a medium of interacting and making more friends. It has also become a medium for companies to connect with their online audience and carry on with their online branding and PR initiatives. Furthermore, inputs gathered from social monitoring, which is known as social intelligence forms the source of marketing ideas and online publicity campaigns for companies.

 

Today every business needs to concentrate on social media marketing and monitoring, where social analytics are an essential tool for any social media campaign. This helps to evaluate an enterprise’s online effectiveness. Social media analytics today provides a revolutionary way for evaluating interactive marketing by analyzing, integrating and enabling enterprises to the social intelligence attained by extending their reach and generate more revenue.

 

Advanced social media analytics tools help enterprises in the following ways:-

 

  • Provides quick results for companies to track social media behaviors of consumers in real-time and attain instant feedback on what is going to work and what will not on any online product or marketing campaign
  • Provides trending views and drill down capacities
  • Offers perceptive insights for companies to arrive at smarter operating decisions across a vast amount of social data
  • Results in revenue acquisition
  • Offers inputs that helps companies understand what keeps the online audience engaged and discover the levers that can influence revenues

 

Today in this world of Web 2.0 it is essential to stay connected to your audience for most of the time and tap into their mindset, which is changing every second. Innovative social media analytics tools help organizations with online brand monitoring and information sharing that keeps a brand in top recall value.

 

Also read about :  social game monetization          

 

Build the First Line of Defense with Anti-Phishing Software

The data breach incidents that enterprises face can be broadly classified into three namely

 

* Data breaches as a result of computer system failures

* Data breaches as a result of malicious acts by employees or third parties (“hacking”)

* Data breaches as a result of employee mistakes or negligence


Of these, breaches due to employee mistakes or negligence are a real headache for enterprises. As per Ponemon Institute and Symantec’s 2011 Cost of a Data Breach: United States, in 2011, negligence accounted for 39 percent of reported breaches. And employee negligence is a serious concern for all enterprises because a single slip-up is enough to tarnish an enterprise’s hard-earned name and reputation. Besides, the enterprise has to face financial loss, loss of customer trust and decline in shareholder value.


The cyber criminals carry out sophisticated and refined Phishing attacks that are hard to identify and avoid. Since the phishers make use of social engineering tactics, many employees fall easy prey to it. Though the acts of the employees are not intentional, these mistakes lead to the disclosure of sensitive data to malicious outsiders. And the enterprises fail to control it as most of the available products and services actually address the "process and technology" aspect of security, while only few solutions adequately address 'people risk'. Hence, what enterprises require is an effective anti phishing software that protects employees from becoming phishing victims and creates a prioritized action plan to alleviate possible threats.


The anti Phishing software assists organizations in evaluating the readiness of employees against Phishing and social engineering attacks. With this software, enterprises can carry out a simulated Phishing attack or a more targeted spear Phishing attack. The result is an instant behavioral analysis that leverages a "teaching moment" and the creation of a prioritized action plan to reduce possible threats due to such attacks in the future. The following are some of its features.


* Helps understand user behavior and effectiveness of the People controls across the enterprise

* Assists organizations quantify the potential risks of social engineering

* Provides flexible reporting capabilities with integration back into the organization's key performance indicator framework

* Provides a roadmap for building security awareness and training within the organization

* Identifies weakness within People, Process and Technology links, allowing prioritization of remediation efforts through effective benchmarking and maturity analysis

* Generates a “Teaching Moment” that provides a safe, customized learning experience for users – resulting in increased employee awareness and knowledge that helps protect the sensitive information entrusted to them


Thus anti phishing software helps enterprises to build the first line of defense by increasing an employee's awareness to phishing.


Read More About: phishing protection, Simulated phishing attack, protection from phishing

Implications Of Clinical Trial Processes

Clinical trials and research are essential steps to arrive at new treatment modalities for chronic diseases such as breast cancer and the like. It is about finding out new ways to detect, diagnose and bring down the risk of ailments. Clinical trials reveal to the medical researchers what is working and not working for a patient. It also helps them and the doctors to decide whether the side effects of a new medicine or treatment techniques are acceptable when assessed against the advantages they offer.

 

How are clinical trials conducted?


Most clinical trials are carried on in universities, clinics, hospitals, and in bio clinical laboratories of the CRO’s (clinical research organization). There is an exception if in this process a very rare piece of device is needed or in case a trial involves specialized methods that are known by specialized doctors only.


The researchers who are willing to carry on clinical trials generally write a plan on how the trial is supposed to be and what is it that they are trying to find out. The plan is technically termed as protocol. The protocol is a technical document and has various details of the drug dosage levels of every treatment that needs to be given along with how often and how long a treatment needs to be given. This apart, the protocol also jots down all the lab work and the tests that need to be done in order to figure out how every patient in the trial is responding to the treatment. Furthermore, the protocol is assessed by an institutional review board that either sanctions or disapproves of the trial. There are numerous aspects that are considered when making this decision that includes the following:


* Whether it is ethical to ask people to volunteer for an experimental treatment

* Whether the study has been designed to ensure that the people involved will be safe and sound

Is the study designed in a way to ensure that the people involved in it are safe

* Would the participants get a treatment that is good and better than what they have received before when they were not a part of the experiment


Participating in a Clinical Trial


Owing to the fact that researchers want to ensure that whatever happens in a clinical trial is the outcome of new processes and treatments and not just a chance happening, hence there is a well defined eligibility criteria with respect to the indication being studied for people participating in a clinical trial which is elaborated in the protocol.

Hence, the requirement for various clinical trials vary keeping in mind the medical aspect that is being dwelled upon and the probable treatment method that is being arrived at.

 

Read More About:  biometrics,  Bioavailability,  Clinical Pharmacokinetic

FBAR Implications & Efficient Tax Planning

FBAR is a reporting requirement under the Bank Secrecy Act in USA. There are numerous questions pertaining to the fact whether there would be any tax implications in the USA on the foreign sourced income from the accounts under the plan. Under this plan there are certain categories of people who are required to report the income generated from FBAR in his federal tax returns in the USA. The categories include the following:


* US citizen residents in USA


* H1B visa holders who are staying in the USA for more than 183 days in a calendar year


* Green Card holder residents in USA


For the entire above mentioned category, the income generated from the foreign accounts reported in FBAR is considered taxable in the USA as per theIRS Amnesty. The penalty in case of non-filing cases would be according to the US tax laws. The other pertinent question in this regard is that whether the benefit accrued under the DTAA i.e. Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement between the US and other country can be available to the person where their foreign income is taxed in the US. The answer to this is that the credit of the taxes paid in a foreign country concerning the foreign income will be available in US against the tax liability.


In order to systematically report FBAR and avert the penalty chances, it is essential to join hands with an able tax planning agency that would offer individuals an in-depth insight into the tax codes that is applicable to the resident individuals in the US, US citizens and the Green Card Holders. It also helps individuals in with:


* Complete compliance


* Consult and impact analysis


* Analysis and planning to minimize FBAR Penalty


* AMT Strategies and Foreign Tax Credit


* Mutual Fund or PFIC computations


* Preparation of forms required to participate in the OVDP program


* Preparation of Tax Amendments and Delinquent FBAR


* IRS Representation by Enrolled Agents or Affiliated CPAs and Attorneys


Furthermore with regards to the exemption limits for foreign income in India for the US citizen resident in USA, Green Card Holders resident in USA, H1B visa holders resident in USA, US Citizen Resident outside USA depends mostly on the type of tax filing that they pertain to as per the federal tax returns. However it is essential to note that the exemption from tax is available up to USD 70,000/- to the US citizen residents residing out of the USA for the income generated outside USA.


Read More About: Foreign Bank Account

Making Social Network Monitoring Work for You

With social networking increasing its prominence it is essential to understand why we need a social media monitoring. Simply put, the conventional “word of mouth publicity” has shifted to online discussions and conversations today. Your brand and products are already being talked about online, either in mainstream conversations or through passing references.

 

Most companies are capitalizing on this free flowing “social chatter” by engaging people to talk about their brand through polls, online discussions, quizzes, sharing brand FAQ’s and the like. This is technically termed as social media engagement and the information that gains from this is known as social intelligence.

 

Set up a Monitoring Plan

 

This is the most important part and your main objective too. As you gather all the possible and probable keywords you get a clear picture of all that you can monitor. Now it’s all about organizing the same. This will help you not to confuse your brand’s information with your competitor’s news. Few types are monitoring are listed below:-

 

  • Brand/Product Monitoring – Includes all the keywords related to the products and the brand.
  • Competitor Monitoring – Includes all relevant keywords for your brand’s competitors and their latest news and events
  • Market Monitoring – This includes keywords related to the market scenario, for instance, if you brand belongs to the sports apparel section you monitor news such as sports apparel trends, market share, latest designs and the like.

 

What else can you do with Social Media Monitoring?

 

Apart from gathering relevant information pertaining to your brand and competitor social media monitoring has other utilities. It helps you in image management. You must have heard about a PR cell or a Corporate Communication Department managing all public relations affairs of an enterprise. With social media monitoring you can do the same online. As you search through you might come across negative news about your brand having a unfavorable impact. Gathering all the data will enable you to strategize your online reputation management plan.

 

Engaging your online audience in interesting discussions and conversations with the desired value addition, will help you in social media marketing too. If your content is attractive, has news and add value to people’s timeline they will most likely share it with others. As a result, your brand name seamlessly passes from one user id to the other, and reaches its desired end i.e. the audience at large. All this can become seamless and more meaningful when you invest in advanced social analytics tools that help you to understand what campaigns work for you and simplifies the social network monitoring process. 

 

Read more aboutengagement tracking

 

Open Innovation In Entertainment & Music Industry

“Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to do is open the door to just one more good idea” is what American author, entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn has to say about idea management and its significance in the modern day business sphere. This holds true for every enterprise that makes use of open innovation to make the most of their product development strategies, brand launches, new product development, corporate social responsibility initiatives and many more. In the recent past, there has been a significant change in the way the entertainment and music industry has shaped up. Since it’s the mass at large on which their success depends this industry vertical has been resorting to open innovation methods.

 

When it comes to science fiction, Star Wars still remains one of its kinds. It was in 2009 that Starwarsuncut.com, United States resorted to crowdsourcing and requested all Star Wars fans to contribute homemade scenes. This was meant to be included as a crowdsourced version of the 1977 classic ‘Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope’. The contest had specific instructions that were to be followed by the participant. The original film was segmented into 15 second chunks inviting the participants to select any clip they want to and re-film it and submit it within 30 days. Star War fans, aspiring film students and other interested participants submitted several versions of each scene. The film was finally available on internet in August 2010 and even won Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media.

 

Thus we see that the power of innovation does not reside within a seminar room or amidst a chosen group of employees. Everyone is capable of coming with a revolutionary idea that can set benchmark for others. The same holds true for music. Any and everyone has a sense of music. Based on the same idea telecom giant Nokia made use of open innovation to come up with a remix version of its old tune.

 

Working on similar lines Music Hackday, United Kingdom, launched the Music Hack Day Series that was a turbocharged idea generating crowdsourcing and open innovation initiative with an objective to come up with innovative ideas related to the functioning of digital music technologies. The event took place over a weekend with 72 creative idea submissions and prize distributions to the participants who came up with something  exciting and unique.

 

In today’s competitive and fast changing world, the core essence of idea management has transformed. The traditional “brainstorming” process has evolved and is more widespread now. The audience at large value innovation highly and care deeply about it. They count on companies and brands that they see as pioneers, striving to improve their world and takes into account ideas from the common man. On an enterprise level this fosters a culture of knowledge sharing that conveys a brand’s message to the audience in the most appropriate manner.

 

Read More About : idea management system, idea management solutions, capture ideas, innovation products

 

Optimize Supplier Performance with Advanced Supply Base Management Strategies

Developing effective business relationships with suppliers is not easy, particularly when suppliers are situated in various parts of the globe. Purchasing and supply managers who want to reduce costs and leverage value from their supply base are increasingly focusing on a base strategy to determine the optimal number of suppliers. To build customer value and promote profit, critical supply chain capabilities need to be integrated with core business competencies. Making improvements in supplier selection and relationship management can be an advantage in today's competitive marketplace; as such improvements result in better products, reduced costs, stronger supplier partnerships and more efficient business processes.

 
Supplier base management is a systematic, holistic, strategic approach to planning, developing, and managing the supplier base. While the supplier base needs to be carefully and continuously managed, it is more important for the supplier base to be managed strategically, not tactically. It must be managed with the perspective that the supplier base, like the business environment in which it operates, is dynamic and ever changing.  As enterprise must understand that managing a supplier base does not always mean supplier reductions. 

 
Supply base management plays a fundamental part for enterprises since it improves global supply chain liquidity and helps maintain a record. Supply base management allows the identification of new suppliers, evaluation of existing suppliers, improve supplier performance and supplier portfolio. It is possible to measure and develop supplier performance in a proactive way by mixing and collaborating tools. Consequently there is a reduction in risk and also ensuring that the suppliers are in the best in class.

 
While many strategic quality approaches and supply base management tools are positively correlated with firm performance, our results show that quality management and supply base management techniques and tools must be implemented conjointly to achieve superior financial and business performance.

 
Increased focus on supply base management makes sense as the business environment it is increasingly complex and volatile. The right supply chain solutions will assure that your products are always cost competitive, taking complete advantage of global economic trends. In many cases, managing a planning and procurement department and maintaining communication with your suppliers requires a massive commitment of personnel, management time, and money that can drive your production overhead through the roof. Your service provider must be abreast of market changes and be capable of responding rapidly with new options.  

 

Read more about: Rack and stack