Articles on Business and Industry
Even grocery store can be innovative
I came across this interview that was done by McKinsey with Coop Centrale CEO, Massimo Bongiovanni, as he explained IT’s role in the future of retailing. Cooperative Consumers Coop, better known as Coop, was Italy’s first retailer to embrace hypermarkets, in the 1980s, and then began opening even bigger superstore venues while expanding its offerings to include insurance and banking services, electricity, and prescription drugs. Throughout this expansion, Coop sought innovative ways to support its strategy with technology. The original interview can be found at Mckinsey Quarterly website.
Business technology: Is it your secret weapon or baggage?
Doing business in today’s rapid change and globalized environment, we no longer can just depend on ordinary business principles. We need to constantly innovate to change the way we do business or face rivals who do so to offer superior value to their customers. Technology is an enabler for business innovation, and it’s probably the most accessible strategy to innovate the way how your business works. It’s a common myth that only large corporations and businesses that sell technologies need to innovate. In fact, in today’s marketplace, whether you are selling printers or flowers, you need to leverage on technology for honing your competitive edge, even more so for small businesses. But the question is: What technology is applicable to you? Which one is the best? Will they create more work and headaches for me?
Coconect’s Quest For Nurturing Thriving Customer Relationships
After months of hard work, Coconect.com was unveiled on 28 May 2011, launching their premier online services for helping their customers in building thriving customer relationships beyond the business transaction. Their vision was articulated clearly in their tagline, Putting the :) back in business. They had devised an innovative process to help their clients in nurturing sustainable customer relationship. Unlike those CRM software in the market, Coconect’s process was meticulously crafted to focus on the heart of customer relationship management, making sure that their services are smart yet simple, systemized yet flexible; and delivered with a lot of heart and fun!
Building The Smarter Way
The construction industry has substantial socio-economic impact, both nationally and internationally. Yet, given the obvious importance of the industry, it is surprising that the general view of the industry is one that is resistant to change, inefficient and lagging behind most industries in terms of technology implementation. This is largely due to the nature of how the industry operates, and the relatively low awareness of technology capability among industry players. With globalization happening at such an immense pace, operational costs on the rise, and increasing demand for more quality and sophisticated buildings, we need better ways of doing business now. As already proven in other industries, technology can help small companies to act “big”, and help big companies to act “small”. Small construction firms can leverage on technologies to acquire some of the capabilities and market access of larger organizations, while large construction firms can use technologies to achieve some of the agility and responsiveness of small organizations.
Tips To Choose The Right Software Consultant
The importance of software and technology in the course of business operations can never be put aside today. Technologies can make tasks easier and done more efficiently if implemented properly. However, hiring a software consultant can be a daunting task for many small and medium business owners, especially if they are not very familiar with technology or for those who do not have technical background.
How Geeks Screw Up Startup: Top 10 techie traits that kill your business
It has been exciting time for engineers and technologist, where we have been witnessing mushrooming numbers of young potential technology companies that are founded by engineers in these recent decades. Equipped with cutting edge technical know‐how, they are preparing to create the next big innovation with the dream of turning them into “Entrepreneur of the Year” or “Most Promising Start-Up of the Year” featured in BusinessWeek in the next 6 months. Little that they realize some personalities or “traits” that they possessed or are trained over the years as good engineers might put their business at stake.
Open Source Software: Facts and Myths
Open Source Software has risen to prominence lately. Briefly, Open Source Software (or OSS) are programs whose licenses permit users the freedom to run the program for any purpose, to modify the program, and to redistribute the original or modified program (without payment or restriction on who they can redistribute the program to). This article’s target is project managers who had heard about OSS but do not have an in depth idea about it. It will help them to decide whether or not OSS will prove useful in their upcoming project. This article begins by giving a brief introduction about Open Source Software, and some basic idea and concept about it. Then, it follows by an evaluation on a system based on OSS compare to proprietary software. Note that this article’s goal is not to show that all OSS is better than all proprietary software. Instead, it will simply compare commonly used OSS with commonly used proprietary software, to show that at least in certain situations and by certain measures, OSS is at least as good or better than its proprietary competition. At the end of this article, there will be a brief discussion and speculation on how Open Source Software and its development process may influence the architecture, management, processes, and atmosphere of the project.
Digital Cash: Bleak or Bright?
Digital Cash (or Electronic Money) refers to money that is exchanged only electronically via computer networks, such as the Internet. With the burgeoning e-commerce industry on the Internet, the implementation of digital cash has gained traction into a viable means of making transactions on the Internet. At the same time, the financial and Internet community were also facing several controversial issues arise from digital transaction over the Internet. I believe the benefits and convenience of digital cash should be obvious to anyone who has experienced any financial and business transaction over the Internet. Therefore, in this article, I will intend to open your eyes (or make some logical predictions) on the problems of digital cash system, such as fraud, theft, privacy and criminal issues. Some comments are made regarding the resolution of the flaws and loopholes found in digital cash implementation and the regulations implied.
Microsoft’s Monopoly: What’s the big deal?
Pervasive as PC’s are now, Microsoft has made clear that they are only the beginning. The company is working toward wallet computers that carry digital signatures, money and theatre or air plane tickets; toward new generations of fax machines, telephones with screens, and car navigation systems; toward Microsoft-run interactive television boxes, office networks and wireless networks, and most potently, toward an aggressive Microsoft role in the Internet itself.The entrepreneurial spirit has long valued by all of us. This is getting more apparent today in the burgeoning computer industry. Many of today’s most successful computer industry leaders started their own businesses. Bill Gates and a handful of other entrepreneurs have achieved spectacular fame and fortune, but there are countless of other software engineers and hardware manufacturers who have developed successful small and mid-sized businesses. Competition among these businesses is the spark that ignites innovation in the computer industry, and it is innovation that brings real choice to consumers in the marketplace. There is one company – Bill Gates’ Microsoft Corporation – has achieved such a dominant role in the global computer industry that it presents a serious threat to further competition, innovation, and entrepreneurship.