Articles

Man, machine and the productivity story

Technology has increased productivity and emancipated humankind from day-to day tasks, enabling automation over drudgery, hasn’t it? As the march of the machine continues into the digital age Chris Bell explores economist Robert Solow’s famous quip that you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics…

Gartner: Top technology trends you cannot afford to ignore

Gartner has published its annual list of the top strategic technology trends, which includes software-defined anything (SDx), 3D printing, mobile apps, cloud/client architecture, hybrid cloud and IT-as-service-broker and smart machines… The list covers the technologies that Gartner analysts deem as having the most potential to have significant

How technology managers are tackling transformation

With the industry abuzz with transformation, the role of the IT department itself is coming under increased scrutiny… More than ever before, the opportunities and risks which are presented by effective use of technology are falling to IT leaders to decipher – and much rests on their

Automation, Workflow and Alerts for SMEs

One way to significantly reduce costs for SME businesses is to automate internal processes. This includes automated workflow, alerts and the like. Examples of these include: * Automating tedious processes, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly recurring sales and purchase invoices and general ledger accounting entries.

The rise of the customer journey map

Gartner analyst Olive Huang explores how businesses can use customer journey mapping to better understand the customer and enrich their experience… Gartner’s 2015 CEO survey identified customer experience management as the top priority for technology investments over the next five years. Customer journey mapping is a common

Four Software Applications for your Professional Service Firm

In a recent Webinar, Software Shortlist explored key factors that make Professional Service Firms unique. What distinguishes service firms from any other business? What is unique about professional services? And what software is really critical for an owner of a service firm? Out of this analysis came a concise

Encourage and Enforce Time Reporting System Use

The roots of time reporting lie in the timecard systems for manufacturing facilities. These systems tracked hours using a time card stamp. Employees checked in and out and were paid based on the hours worked. As business time tracking evolved, organizations were forced to create spreadsheets or

Mindmaps Saved My Head from Exploding

I am an idea person, I have them all the time, and I also have a lot of “lists”. After finally re-writing my list for the 1000th time, I thought, there must be a better way. There must be a way to organize my thoughts (like I

Project success comes from the top

Approximately half of all significant ICT projects fail in terms of delivering what the business expected. Marg Roberts considers what needs to be done to improve the success rate… When businesses invest in ICT they are expecting to be able to do business better – that is to say

Benefits of a Learning Management System (LMS)

Learning management systems (also known as LMS software) are important for mid-sized organizations and above who are looking to systematically manage the learning and development of their staff. Manage and track staff training with an LMS Training administration can be time-consuming and difficult, particularly in medium to large