Archivo de la categoría: Business Processes

Big Data, BigData, Business Processes

New Updates For HP’s Big Data Platform Haven

HP has updated its big data platform Haven to include new analytics and predictive capabilities. This platform is geared towards enterprises with lots of data of various types, and the new update expands the type of data that can be analyzed through a new connector framework. A new Knowledge Graphing feature will be implemented along with better speech recognition and language identification features.

 

The Haven big data platform is made up of analytics, hardware and services with some of this available on-demand. HP’s big data platform was begun in 2013 with Haven being the umbrella for various technologies. The update brings together analytics for structured and unstructured data by combining context-aware unstructured data service analytics of HP IDOL with SQL-based capabilities of HP Vertica.

 

haven-dev-haven-gird-diagram_tcm_245_1529621

 

Examples of this type of service include Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Oracle, and SAP enterprise applications and cloud services such as Box, Salesforce and Google Drive.

 

The knowledge-graphing feature mentioned above could analyze connections in data, enabling advanced and contextually aware research within assorted data sources. The enhanced speech and language capabilities of the update are able to work with 20 languages. This part of Haven is powered by advanced deep neural technology and stems from thousands of hours of audio sampling via this neural network.

 

Other enhancements include targeted query response and IDOL search optimizer. The targeted query response helps customize and improve search results based on specific criteria. The IDOL search optimizer is used for understanding the types of searches being done by users and then gauging the quality of results.

 

The goal of HP’s Haven platform is to not have big companies relying on specialized data scientists or costly, complex integration projects in order to benefit from big data computing across almost any data type.

The post New Updates For HP’s Big Data Platform Haven appeared first on Cloud News Daily.

Business Processes, Customer Relationship Management, Customer service, Field service management, Human Resources

Essential Features of Field Service Management Software

Field management software is a system that helps in the running of the business. It takes complete charge of dispatching activities. With this system one can ensure that his material will reach its destination on time.

A dispatcher needs to a keep tab with the driver on where the vehicle is and when will it reach. Constant phone calls connect them. But with this technology, the dispatcher does not have to worry. He can access the vehicle’s information as and when needed. The system helps in field service management and makes the administrator’s task simpler and stress-free. Some of the most important features to look for while buying field management software are:

Client Management

This feature helps you maintain records of your clients including your client’s contact details, purchase history and choices for a lifetime. Any feedback or note can also be stored. You can access the data anytime you want. This will help you to stay informed even on old client related matters thus helping you build strengthened relationships with your client.

Scheduling

This feature is the most vital part of the system. It helps you track the exact location of your vehicle. It also suggests which route to take while travelling. This saves the fuel costs and time taken for hunting the place. You can inform the customer about the exact time your representative will take to reach. This ensures that your delivery is made on time. Also, you can keep proper track of the schedule, work processes, breaks, and completion of any projects. The scheduling system helps you provide your customer with the best of service, thus building on the trust factor.

Billing

Your accounting team can relax as this feature in the system keeps an accurate record of your transactions and is capable of preparing instant bills. It helps to abolish the cumbersome paperwork. The system can take electronic signatures and work orders with an assurance that the data won’t be lost. Papers can be lost or damaged, but electronic data gets stored for a lifetime. Moreover, the customer can also pay your bills through electronic means. Time taken to complete a certain task and the amount of hours that a particular employee dedicates to the office are also evaluated.

Task Management

It is a feature that acts as a planner for your employees’ tasks which provides workforce management solutions. Employees can have their whole planner ready and inform you regarding the progress of each task. You can give them a deadline to inform when a specific task is expected to be complete. They can notify you once a particular task is completed while you can update them about the task that needs to be done on priority. Thus, all the tasks carried out by the employees can be easily monitored using the Task Management system.

Business Intelligence

This feature helps you to develop your business by giving analytic reports of your activities. It will help you identify your shortcomings and work on it beforehand. You can understand your own business better, which will help you to progress and keep abreast with consumer demands and expectations. You can also keep a check on your cash intake and expenditures on a regular basis.

Good field management software will help your business in many ways. It helps you to do away with unwanted tasks by acting as a waste management software too. The efficiency will boost customer satisfaction, and a happier customer is sure to bring more customers, more business and more profits to you.

Click here to get more information on Field Service Management.

Business Processes, Cloud & IT Management, Enterprise resource planning, ERP

Cloud computing for improved business efficiency

A continued drive for optimum efficiency should be at the very heart of the business strategy of any organization wishing to stay relevant, profitable and competitive in their chosen field. Only by ensuring that operations are being carried out in the most effective and efficient way possible, with regard to all factors of the company, such as staff time and overhead investments, can it be sure it is achieving the best possible outcomes and therefore laying the foundations for ongoing success and continued growth.

In recent years, through the rapid development of technology and the opportunities it provides businesses, IT has been at the heart of identifying such efficiencies and the most forward thinking companies in all fields are now looking towards cloud based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to help them achieve exactly that and thereby guarantee ongoing and future success.

The advantages

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the term used to describe complex database systems introduced within organizations that enable employees, at all corporate levels, to access in a secure and appropriate way, real-time data. The advantages of doing so are all about efficiency, as access provides significantly greater scope for collaboration and streamlining. Everyone within the business is given a new kind of visibility of the relevant data and is therefore empowered and encouraged to identify ways of improving business operations to improve efficiency and reduce overheads as a result.

Cloud ERP is the term used to describe ERP software hosted on a platform maintained remotely, over the Internet, thus removing the necessity for individual companies to invest in expensive computer systems.

ERP software therefore has the potential to be a hugely helpful tool with regard to business support and planning and is perfect for creating an efficient, ordered and scalable backbone for any project within this area.

The right approach

ERP and cloud computing is employed across almost the entire range of industries, from heavy engineering to architecture. The most appropriate system depends very much on the business in question and its specific requirements.

Things to consider when deciding on the right approach include the following.

  • The size of the business in question, including projections and ambitions for growth and development.
  • The operational systems that are already in place, which could be replaced, streamlined or evolved through the introduction of cloud computing.
  • The fundamental vision and values of the business, what it is trying to achieve and how the introduction of such software could potentially contribute to future growth and development.

Staying relevant

Very few organizations are able to operate today without the application of technology in at least its most basic form. Ensuring that a company has the right systems in place to support the delivery of its goals and aspirations is a fundamental consideration.

Most analysts and expert commentators agree that the role technology plays in business is only going to increase, so installing the most appropriate solutions in place is the best way to ensure that a company does not get left behind.

Advertising, Business Processes, Collaboration, Content marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Document Management, Social, Software as a service, Workflow

Use a Shared Technology Platform to Reorganize your Digital Media Activities

“Digital marketing” is now a familiar term across age groups spending time on online and mobile interfaces. The digital media space can no longer be ignored and companies in varying fields, from pharmaceutical to telecom have started to take it seriously, and invest in it for the long term.

Large companies would need a strong presence in the digital arena. This means that many stakeholders would be involved in handling different kinds of digital media. For example, one agency might be in charge of the website creation and social media content, while another might handle email campaigns and banner ads. Add the technology service provider to this mix, and you could be headed for confusion. It is prudent to address this situation before it gets out of hand.

To implement a collaborative platform for one of its clients in business information services, HCL Tech used the following main 7 components:

Shared Technology Platform

The platform that was implemented had to be common across all the digital agencies and the technology service provider. It would form the foundation of the solution, and had to be capable enough to handle all the common assets, activities and reporting mechanisms.

Common Understanding of Objectives

The big picture is very important in such a collaborative scenario, and each digital agency and technology provider should have an idea of the objective to be achieved. This would help them understand the importance of their individual responsibilities clearly.

Definition of Roles

When multiple stakeholders are involved, the interfaces between them play an important role. This means that a single point of contact should be defined in each digital agency, as well as at the technology service provider and at the client’s end. The team structure within each team should also be uniformly and clearly defined, including special role definitions such as BIS digitization services.

Clear Definition of Responsibilities

In most situations, the final accountability might lie with the client’s business team, but it is important to define a responsibility matrix for all the stakeholders involved. This would help to identify the points of success, as well as to pinpoint any issues at an early stage.

Training Requirements

It is essential that the service provider provides the required training about the platform to the digital agencies, and also is available for guidance after the participants have started using it. Some of the aspects to be covered by the training include features of the platform, storage and access of digital assets, managing information, workflows and reporting mechanisms.

What are Workflows?

A common platform is effective only if used in a collaborative and uniform manner by all the stakeholders. The creation and review of workflows need to be performed by the end users of the platform from the client’s team, but in close discussion with the digital agencies.

Why are Reporting Mechanisms Important?

Reporting is an important step for tracking progress, and requires a common template to be established for use by all agencies.

Why are Reporting Mechanisms Important?

Reporting is an important step for tracking progress, and requires a common template to be established for use by all agencies.

Opting for a shared technology platform at an early stage of digital marketing would improve efficiency and brand image. It would also ensure that your digital marketing campaigns reach the required audience within an optimal period of time.

To know more about the topic please refer to the whitepaper written by HCL Technologies

Business Processes, HCL Technologies, Manufacturing, Supply chain, Supply Chain Management, Tools

Achieving Business Transformation by Aligning i-SCM with a Robust IT Strategy

Can adapting to the new best practices actually help you gain the business benefits that you are looking for? With the implementation of tools such as the Intelligent Supply Chain Management (iSCM), there are possibilities of ensuring the realization of business goals that reduce the risk of time and costs, overrunning. So, when it comes to the iSCM approach, there are several ways in which companies can succeed with its implementation:

i-SCM

How does iSCM impact overall business benefits?

As a business owner, there may be several instances when meeting customer demands, overcoming uncertainties and reducing costs for manufacturing is virtually impossible. The inclusion of better practices such as the iSCM would help improve the overall situation such as improving real-time visibility of supply chain extensions and the manufacturing operations. Regardless, of the time and effort taken to implement these management system, one can see that it is possible to implement seamless synchrony between the demand and its actual fulfillment. All this will be immediately implementable with the help of real-time analytics and rapid decision-making.

Facilitating your own iSCM solutions can only be done with the help of external advisors such as technological consultants like HCL Tech amongst others offer the following solutions:

  • Offering an opportunity assessment within the iSCM solutions offerings

  • Touchstone, an HCL Tech trademark offers KPI measurement and better benchmarking solution

  • iVision, an HCL Tech trademark offers solutions towards supply chain visibility and collaboration

How can functionalities improve the solution?

Here’s a look at the way in which functionalities can improve the following:

  • Capturing customer demand with the ability to accurately forecast demands

  • Incorporating operations such as collaborative supply chain planning and execution

  • Ensuring supply chain operations are monitored in real-time and highlighting bottlenecks with the supply chain impact

  • Creating visibility on end-to-end supply chain data and its processes

  • Collaborating with the various stakeholders through various communication platforms such as e-mail, text, portal alerts and other forms

  • Improving visibility of partners involved across multi-tiers of supply chain and cloud platforms

What remains to be seen, is whether the implementation of the iSCM systems will improve the overall business performance in the form of successfully integrating with business goals with the expected outcome of the performance.

To know more about the article you can read the case study written by experts at HCL Technologies.

Business Processes, Human-Computer Interaction, Tools, User experience, User interface

Implementing Better UI Experience in the Logistics Domain

How does an enhanced user interface (UI) impact user experience? When it comes to eliminating inconsistencies from a UI, there are only a few applications that can successfully do that. One of the critical aspects of any logistics application is to ensure that there is seamless front and back office synergy, and by simplifying the integration of various technological aspects of the logistics process, you can reduce on time and money for a unique strategy implementation.

Is improving the UI experience always so expensive?

There are ways in which one can built a responsive UI that is adaptable on several devices. One can also control the cost of UI development. Eliminating UI inconsistencies can enable better collaboration between internal and external applications. Several global logistics players have a similar requirement to improve the overall user experience. With the help of technological experts in the field of UI strategy implementation, one can jump-start the process cost effectively. Here’s how some players have improved their logistics UI experience with HCL’s Tech approach:

LogisticsUI2

 

  • Enhance usability by improving the overall UI experience

  • Optimize the use of common UI controls, standards, templates, tools, code generators, and other sample applications

  • Optimize the design and development of the overall process

  • Derive a quality code by adhering to best practices

  • Devise a strategy to optimize applications for various platforms such as the mobile, desktop, and other UI centric applications

  • Develop a framework for updating and governing the overall platform

By improving the UI (whether at the client side or internal), one can derive several business benefits. In other words, it’s possible to achieve a great overall experience with the help of technological consultants in the field.

To know more about the article you can read the case study written by experts at HCL Technologies.HCL Technologies.

 

 

Business Intelligence, Business Processes, CDN, Cloud & IT Management, Content delivery network, Leftronic, NetDNA, Partnerships, Y Combinator

NetDNA, YC’s Leftronic Partner on Real-Time CDN Monitoring

Content delivery network provider NetDNA today announced its partnership with Y-Combinator-funded Leftronic, to develop high-performance, secure and real-time data visualization dashboards for its CDN services.

Now, NetDNA or MaxCDN customers can get a bird’s-eye view of their traffic, including daily, weekly or monthly statistics on popular files, popular file types, status codes, cache hit percentage, statistics by location and more.  All of which are presented in a Web browser using Leftronic’s real-time, large screen metric dashboard platform.

The companies also worked together to provide dashboards measuring traffic on NetDNA’s Bootstrap CDN project, samples of which are available online.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Leftronic because monitoring traffic is a critical step to receiving the full benefits of our CDN service.  Now they can do that in a big and beautiful way using only a browser,” said Justin Dorfman, NetDNA’s Developer Advocate.

“We could see an immediate synergy between our two companies when NetDNA shared with us the demand for better CDN reporting it saw in its customer base,” said Rajiv Ghanta, CEO of Leftronic. “The company is truly developer friendly with its well-supported API and fast customer support.  We’re looking forward to a lasting relationship with the company.”

Leftronic has created a data visualization platform that helps companies monitor and track their business metrics. The platform has no software to download, instead everything is shown in a Web browser for easy accessibility and organization. The technology is combined with a simple-to-use front-end interface for visualizing the data and has an API for integrating custom company data.

With more than 10,000 customers trusting its content delivery services, NetDNA provides simple, efficient and affordable web performance optimization solutions that help customers to increase and improve their website speed. Most recently, NetDNA’s MaxCDN service has been its leading, popular solution among businesses because of its easy sign up system and versatile web performance acceleration.

 

Business Processes, Cloud & IT Management, COBOL, IBM, Mainframe computer

BluePhoenix Moves Mainframe COBOL, Batch Processing to the Cloud

BluePhoenix has released their Cloud Transaction Engine and Batch In The Cloud Service. The Cloud Transaction Engine (CTE) is a module of the company’s soon-to-be-released ATLAS Platform.    CTE is a proprietary codebase that enables mainframe processes to be run from off- mainframe infrastructure. BluePhoenix’s Batch In The Cloud service is the first formal offering leveraging CTE capabilities.

“Batch In The Cloud uses off-mainframe, cloud-based processing power to reduce mainframe MIPS and total cost of ownership,” explains Rick Oppedisano, BluePhoenix’s Vice President of Marketing. “The huge array of virtual machines in the cloud brings greater performance and scalability than the mainframe. Jobs can be processed quicker at a lower cost. It’s a great way for customers to save money immediately and explore options for an eventual mainframe transition.”

The Batch In The Cloud service is supported on private or public clouds, including Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon’s EC2. This service is designed to enable COBOL, CA GEN and Natural/ADABAS mainframe environments.

“In a typical scenario, workloads continue to grow while the mainframe’s processing power and batch window stays the same,” says BluePhoenix’s VP of Engineering, Florin Sunel. “Our technology acts as a bridge between the mainframe and cloud. With Batch In The Cloud, all business logic is preserved. Customers can reduce usage cost by running jobs like reporting from the cloud platform rather than the mainframe. In that scenario, they can also add business value by using modern business intelligence tools that aren’t compatible with the mainframe to gain insight from their data.”
Adds Oppedisano, “Beyond the immediate cost savings, this technology creates a competitive advantage. Exposing data in an off-mainframe location empowers the customer to become more agile. Not only can they process reports faster, but they can slice and dice their data to get a broader perspective than competitors who keep data on the mainframe.”

“By moving batch workloads to Windows Azure or a Microsoft Private Cloud, companies are able to take advantage of cloud economics,” said Bob Ellsworth, Microsoft Worldwide Director of Platform Modernization. “Combined with the advanced analytics included in SQL Server, the customer not only realizes great savings, scale and flexibility but increased business value through self-service BI.”

BluePhoenix is offering a free Proof of Concept for the Batch In The Cloud service. “To manage the scale and demand, we’re going to start with a complimentary assessment of the customer environment to identify the most appropriate applications for this service,” says Oppedisano. “Once those applications are identified, we will build the roadmap and execute the Proof of Concept on the cloud platform of the customer’s choice.”

Additional details on the Batch In The Cloud service and Proof of Concept can be found here.

Business Processes, Consulting, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise resource planning, NetSuite

A Beginner’s Guide to Netsuite

As a mid-tier ERP and CRM solution, NetSuite is an affordable software-as-a-service platform for small to mid-sized businesses. The cloud-based interface makes the platform available from anywhere with Internet access. Some of the many business tasks covered by NetSuite include sales and service tracking, order fulfillment management, project collaboration and lead tracking.

NetSuite Benefits

The benefits offered by NetSuite will differ between businesses. However, there are a number of service tiers and pre-configured options from which to choose that can help to provide maximum benefit with minimal start-up and implementation times. Benefits offered across most business types and sizes include:

  • Improved efficiency
  • Reduced maintenance
  • Improved collaboration
  • Greater accountability
  • Faster communication
  • Global access to data, reports and processes

How NetSuite Works

NetSuite is most often provided as a hosted service. This means that the platform is accessed and used through a web interface. Every person within the business uses the same interfaces and databases. This allows for real-time updates, instant access to information and improved interaction between departments and business segments. Setting access rights and roles by account or tier provides simple data management, user accountability and security.

Things to Consider before Choosing NetSuite

Though NetSuite offers many ways to customize and personalize the ERP experience, it is, at its core, a pre-configured product. This means that in-depth customization is often a highly involved process. Many NetSuite service providers will offer demonstrations or free trials to see if the product’s interface and features are a good fit for your business.

To help determine if NetSuite is a proper fit for your business, consider NetSuite consulting services. Professionals can help explain what to expect and provide an in-depth look in how your business can utilize the platform without the worry of service contracts, costly set up fees or time intensive research and training.

More Food for Thought…

As a cloud-based service, NetSuite offers a unified platform that is accessed using a high-speed Internet connection. However, with lack of local back up or local server solutions, any interruption in Internet service will result in an inability to access your NetSuite services.

NetSuite is a modular solution. This means that features can be added or removed on-demand to suit the needs of your business. Unfortunately, this also means that updating the platform can be tricky. Since modules are updated independently, you may find that you are forced to wait to implement an update due to conflicting module configurations and other issues.

The most common way of signing up for NetSuite service is through a value-added reseller. Comparing resellers and service providers is an essential part of finding the best NetSuite configuration. Phone and email support directly through NetSuite require recurring subscription costs as well. By finding a reseller that offers support, you can avoid unforeseen fees and service issues.

NetSuite is a proven platform for businesses of nearly any size. However, like any software suite, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the platform is essential to maximizing benefits.