Why Web Based Project Management Systems Are Better?

Project management software tools have one aim: to get the job done. They are extremely essential in setting projects on the course and getting things done on time and within budget. In the past, companies refused to employ web-based management tools because of the internet's open nature. Thanks to today's advancements and the enhancement of security over the web, more and more companies are embracing and transitioning to web-based systems, and they cannot be more pleased with the results: more efficient, better management, and overall organization of business tasks. These systems truly make managing functions a lot easier, which is why many businesses now prefer commencing operations through a web-based project management software. Here are the advantages of web-based systems:

1. Web-based systems allow you to use most, if not all the same tools available offline, in the cloud, which then enhances project functions. Integrating file-sharing functions into the management platform, for instance, allows all other team members to access templates, along with other important documents anywhere. RSS feeds can also be used to track projects and keep current with all changes. Project administration is much easier when you maximize the power of the cloud.

2. Instant communication is also one of the best advantages of web-based project management tools over their offline counterparts. Project managers and team members can interact with each other instantly, and real-time communication can also be used when making changes to projects, ranging from schedules to budget requirements and other important project details. Additionally, clients can provide their input while the project is ongoing, which saves a great deal of time and money from project revisions€"something that is rarely a possibility when doing projects offline. Managers and personnel can also meet and discuss important aspects of the projects without requiring physical presence, which speeds up work and implementation of changes. This way, projects can move forward faster, and team members can learn how to act independently.

3. Web-based management systems are also more cost-effective solutions compared to offline systems that require costly maintenance and long-term contracts. System-wise, companies also get to save a good deal of their budget by uploading documents to the system, instead of paying to ship them to people working in different areas. Additionally, these systems also have effective tools for monitoring monetary flow for each project, which can help managers prevent wasteful spending and stay within budget all the time.

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There Are Many Cloud Computing Services

These days, IT industry is implementing new technologies in their organizations to enhance the business requirements. There are many IT organizations, which are developing new and innovative applications, technologies, software programs and many more. Cloud technology is the one, which offers the business services and solutions online. Cloud computing Singapore is the latest trend in the IT industry that offers the computing services to meet the entire organizational needs. Many organizations are implementing this technology to enhance the storage space. This computing also helps in increasing the processing power to deliver faster service. It can meet entire industrial needs to develop new business strategies. Cloud is not a device; it is just a computing service to maintain your organizational data online.

Cloud computing has many services to augment the organizational growth across all business aspects. These services can help the enterprises to increase their efficiency, reliability, scalability and other aspects within the time and budget. These cloud computing services are of three types; these are infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). 

Software as a service (SaaS) provides single application through the browser. Basically, it delivers software applications through internet to thousands of customers to avail many business benefits. These services can run on multiple computers and provide access to the several users, who are connected in cloud computing. Most of the IT enterprises are implementing this service to get more software applications online.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the most useful service for all kinds of organizations. IaaS can provide computer resources such as networking, storage, servers, data center and many more to enhance the data storage in an organization. These services are cost effective. This type of service can maintain the large amount of data online and also protect the data from several internet threats. IaaS can augment the industrial performance with several hardware resources by providing them online. 

Platform as a service (PaaS) is another variation for SaaS computing. It can provide the computing environment to endorse management lifecycle services and cloud application deployment. It can provide the platform services to develop web based applications for many organizations. You can develop your own applications with this platform services. 

In short, these are highly innovative and new trendy technologies to enhance the business requirements and efficiency. Most of the organizations are using this technology as it is cost effective and meet all the business needs.

Solutions for Small and Medium Enterprises: Microsoft Dynamics Nav

Microsoft products are very useful for all enterprises, allowing them to improve their performances, no matter the sector they belong to.

One of the most used Microsoft instruments, above all by small and medium enterprises, is the Microsift Dynamics Nav software (the old Navision): presented in 2008, this software has achieved a great success and is now widespread in over 50 countries. The software is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and of the ERP subcategory (this is an acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning): this means that it can definitely be very useful to all those who have an enterprise of any kind. Microsoft has issued different versions of the software, and each one is specifically aimed for a given field, thus characterized by peculiarities that make it fit to be used in a specific sector. 

Those who work in the sector of retail-trade, for example, which is a very complex field, always on the move, can use a specific tool that allows them to manage each aspect of their activity, from entering orders to purchasing, from warehouse management to delivery. In the same way, the Microsoft Dynamics version which has been conceived for the production sector provides all the instruments to automate and improve financial management, customer relationship and supply chain. These are only some examples of the possible application fields of the Microsoft Dynamics Software, which offers specific versions also for the graphics and publishing industry, for schools and educational institutions, for public administration, for the sectors of health and building.

The Microsoft Dynamics Nav has immediately achieved a great success as a software for the business process management also because it is very easy to use: it is completely integrated with Windows products, as a consequence the employees that begin to use it find themselves in a familiar context, and they can use the software in a very intuitive way. This means that you do not need to waste your time trying to understand how the software works, and everybody knows that saving time most of the time means sparing money as well. 

One of the strengths of this software is that it is very versatile, not only in the sense that it can be applied to many different sectors, but also because it can be used in different contexts inside the same enterprise. All the employees and members of a company can use this software, even if they have different roles and tasks. The Microsoft Dynamics Nav, indeed, lets you share corporate information using only one database that all the employees can use, but without running the risk of a dispersion of that information. Each user, indeed, according to the role he has inside the company, can have a customized homepage to have access to the information he needs, with no waste of time. In this way each employee can see the details that are more useful to him, to prioritize, optimize time and become more efficient. 

If you are looking for an instrument to help you managing your enterprise, ask a specialized agency and begin to use the Microsoft Dynamics Nav.

Business Intelligence and Analytics in Financial Services

Business Intelligence and Analytics in Financial Services

Data is a source of significant competitive advantage for any organization. Financial institutions need to support business activities and decision making in a fashion that is timely, relevant, verifiable, and personalized to meet a variety of stakeholder requirements. However, it is easy for financial services firms to become overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of unstructured data.

The reality is that, in the digital banking model of the future, data is a financial institution’s most important asset. Banks and credit unions that are able to combine their internal and external data sources to create value will find themselves well placed to thrive in what some have called ‘Banking 3.0′. There is no question that this banking reality is as true today as it was years ago. The difference is that today’s technology is making the task a bit easier.

. Customer analytics has been a good idea for some time, despite being implemented by a minority of banks. Advances in processing, memory, database design, and analytic methods can dramatically improve performance and lower costs for financial institutions. It’s time for banks to take the idea more seriously.

Data analytics is a complex subject and a complex undertaking. In the report,Customer Analytics in Retail Banking: Why Here? Why Now? Senior management examines the growing role of customer analytics (that is, predictive analytics applied to customer data) in retail banking and why it should be a priority for banks. Financial institutions with no customer analytics experience should take the idea more seriously. Institutions with customer analytics initiatives should revisit how things are being done.

There are at least three reasons developed in the report:

1. The new normal in retail banking economics.
2. The imperative for customer centricity in an increasingly self-service interaction environment.
3. Technology advancements in data analytics.

Over the next five years, these factors will advance customer analytics from a project undertaken by a minority of banks to a core competency among the majority of financial institutions.

Integration - SAP Business One

Cloud computing is triggering a stunning shift in how businesses operate. Modern SaaS applications for marketing, HR, and ERP are allowing companies to accelerate operations and engage more intimately with their customers thanks to heretofore unseen heroes in their ranks.

In the course of just a few years, this new generation of social/mobile SaaS applications with built-in analytics is redefining mission-critical business priorities while erasing the traditional distinctions between front-office and back-office activities.

These changes are essential for companies striving to remake themselves into smarter and faster-paced organizations that can move in lockstep with customers’ rapidly shifting requirements. And at the center of these dramatic transformations are SaaS applications that are easier to procure and install, that are upgraded more frequently, and that mirror the work styles of today’s businesspeople as well as consumers.

Until just a few years ago, CEOs would tell me that while they were eager to move functions such as marketing and HR to the cloud, they were planning to keep all mission-critical systems on-premises for reasons of security and risk management.

At the time, that was a perfectly rational and well-considered strategy. Marketing, HR, and sometimes ERP were seen as vital but not mission-critical processes that could serve as test cases for the new cloud computing model. If all went well, the business would gain some savings and other benefits. If there was a problem with the new approach, no production systems would be involved.

But since then, many CEOs have dramatically changed their outlook about the cloud and how widely it can and should be deployed within their businesses—and with very few exceptions, those executives are becoming much more bullish on the cloud. So in 2015, I predict we’ll see some profound manifestations of that revised C-suite outlook, particularly in these four areas:

1. The rise of the end-to-end cloud. The sweeping successes many businesses have experienced with marketing clouds and HCM clouds are causing CEOs to take a fresh look at moving all of their business processes—not just the ones traditionally thought of as non-“mission-critical”—to the cloud.
2. Redefining “mission critical.” As modern SaaS application suites for HCM and marketing have generated huge new levels of business value via their enhanced capabilities and social/mobile optimization, CEOs are reclassifying marketing and HCM as mission-critical because of their specific and quantifiable links to revenue, customer engagement, and strategic execution.
3. Driving transformation. CEOs are embracing the cloud as a primary lever for end-to-end business transformation both internally and externally. Inside the company, CEOs realize that SaaS apps can be deployed enterprisewide rather than in isolated pockets, and externally, marketing cloud applications are transforming how companies connect with buyers, execute transactions, and develop long-lasting two-way engagements with them.
4. Unleashing financial insights. The venerable world of ERP is shifting rapidly from a complex back-office realm run by a small set of specialists who created a history book of financial information into a forward-looking tool for strategic analysis and opportunity.

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What about the testing process of an extension running against a new release of SAP Business One?

When we start to consider all of potential impacts you may decide that you are going to need to introduce some level of governance to control which extensions you deploy in your SAP Business One Cloud landscape. There is no right or wrong answer in how strict or otherwise you want to be in deciding the level of control, the trade off is between flexibility and cost/efficiency in running a SAP Business One Cloud. Ultimately it is for each partner to decide what is the best policy for their cloud however in order to try to create some guidelines you may want to consider the following aspects for your policy:

• Decide what type of extensions you are willing to consider deploying in your landscape, e.g. only SAP Business One Cloud certified add-ons, add-ons for lightweight deployment or compatible add-ons(I make no mention here of SBO Script add-ons as these designed specifically to avoid many of the deployment pitfalls we face in the lifecycle management and resource consumption of an extension)
• Define the categories you want for extensions and decide on the pricing of each band, e.g.:
  • Level 1 extensions - Up to 150MB RAM consumption per user
  • Level 2 extensions - From 150MB - 500MB consumption per user
  • Level 3 extensions - More than 500MB consumption per user
• Decide how a customer, consultant, sales person etc. can request the deployment of a new extension to the SAP Business One Cloud landscape.
• Collect information from the provider regarding compatibility with cloud, cloud commercial agreements (e.g. subscription pricing) etc.
• Ensure that your are satisfied with the development approach taken for extension updates, compatibility with new releases of SAP Business One etc.
• Define your own testing procedure for each new extension, to include:
  • Deployment
  • Operation
  • Resource consumption
  • Compliance with your cloud infrastructure (interaction with the resources in your cloud landscape - especially important if an extension has not been adapted for the cloud fully and doesn’t conform to the SAP Business One Cloud guidelines for extensions.)
• Based on the outcome of your testing use the metrics to classify your extension into levels you have decided on.
• Publish the pricing to your sales team so that they can quote effectively for new customers.

I’m sure that you will think of many other things and that your approach and policies will evolve and change over time, as your experience of running customers in the cloud grows. This post isn’t meant to be an “must do” list of working with SAP Business One Extensions, it is instead meant to provide some food for thought when you start working with them.

We are work with partners all the time to share best practice for different aspects of SAP Business One Cloud landscapes, so if you have any thoughts on the above or any related topic please let us know.

What is Driving Business Intelligence and Analytics in 2015?

Q: What are the key areas in BI that CIOs should focus on in 2015 and why?

A: Putting the right team together. CIOs need to make sure there is a cross functional team of technical and business skills, and an organizational structure that serves both the centralized needs of the enterprise and the decentralized needs of local domains.

CIO’s also must create a more realistic plan for technology standardizations, for example, logical data warehouse vs. enterprise data warehouse, data discovery as an augmentation to traditional BI and provision capabilities for the big data era.

Q: The Summit theme is “Crossing the Analytical Divide: New Technologies, New Skills”. What is meant by this, and how can organizations ensure they’re on the right side of the analytical divide?

A: Last year’s conference was very much focused on creating a very innovative, data driven business model (transparent, decisive, and personalized). We painted a picture of a digital business, and the advanced analytical capabilities it would require. This year’s theme discusses how to cross the analytical divide to achieve this vision to create a more data driven company, but to do it in a way that doesn’t abandon the old ways.

Organizations are being told they need to invest in all this cool, innovative technology, such as predictive, content, and real time analytics; however, they still need to deliver the traditional management reports and dashboards that run the company. So the theme, “Crossing the Analytical Divide”, is very much from the perspective of the analytics leader who needs to deliver on an innovative vision, while keeping the day to day analytic operations up and running. It’s not an easy task.

Q: How do analytics drive digital business?

A: In some businesses, providing information will become the business. The business model will be about selling data/information. In these cases, analytics is an explicit part of the business model. However, this will the minority.

In most companies, a digital business doesn’t mean directly monetizing (selling data). An insurance company will sell insurance. A retailer will still sell consumer packaged goods, etc., However, to be an insurance company, a retailer, or any company in the private and public sector delivering goods and services, will be required to be wrapped in an information context. For example, that insurance company will collect more granular data than ever to personalize the insurance experience. The same will be true in all industries. Making sense of this information through analytics will be a key aspect of how well one competes.

Q: In what ways do mobile, social and cloud continue to impact BI and analytics?

A: All three have become expected aspects of how Business Intelligence and Analytics projects are delivered. A key focus at this year’s Summit will be cloud and its impact because virtually every new BI and analytics offering that hits the market will be designed to work in the cloud first. The growth of cloud-based business applications will only accelerate this trend.