2012 – Page 6 – mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

The small IT staff that’s making a big difference

Does IT matter anymore? I’ve seen that question cropping up around the web in the last month or so. Some people believe that the rise of SaaS options eliminates the need for a traditional IT department. They view IT departments as an added expense that doesn’t help the bottom line.

If you work in IT, that question must infuriate you. IT departments put in countless hours keeping the business up and running. The idea that a business would be just fine without an IT department is ridiculous.

Now, I could spend all day explaining why that question is absurd, but instead, let’s ask a better question: If the business views your IT department as an added expense, what can you do to change that perception?

While the answer to that question varies by company, let’s look at a real-life example of an IT staff that’s making a big (positive) impact on their company. This small IT department recently came up with an inexpensive way to improve employee productivity using smartphones and mobile apps. To find out how, you can read the whole story over at IBM Systems Magazine.

Weekly recap: 9 endangered species in IT, what to consider in a BI solution, and more…

By Joe Stangarone / Application Development, Business Intelligence

Every week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on things to consider before investing in BI, endangered IT species, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Beyond the smartphone: Emerging platforms developers should target
Smartphone and tablet apps may get all the press these days, but they are just the beginning of the “app age”. Apps are slowly spreading to other devices, like cars, clothes, and appliances to name a few. …

Weekly recap: 9 endangered species in IT, what to consider in a BI solution, and more…Read More »

Are legacy applications holding you back?

By Joe Stangarone / Modernization

Cloud computing and mobile are getting all the press these days, and with good reason. These two trends really offer businesses some great benefits: Mobile devices can improve employee productivity and let businesses reach more people than ever before. Cloud computing promises to cut costs and improve business flexibility.

What company wouldn’t want all of that?

Unfortunately, many companies are in no position to take advantage of these trends and the benefits they offer. These companies are still stuck using outdated architecture and legacy applications. Before they can even consider the latest trends, they must first address their outdated systems.

If your company is stuck in that situation, here are a couple of things that will help: First, here’s a free white paper that outlines the modernization basics and explains your modernization options. If you’re considering modernization, it will get you started in the right direction.

Secondly, if you’d like to learn how to replace your legacy applications with cloud-ready web (and mobile web) applications, we can help. Our development platform, m-Power, will let you create modern web (and mobile web) apps that can be deployed to the cloud, or hosted in-house. To get started, just fill out this short form and let us know what’s on your plate.

What do your web apps look like on a smartphone?

By Joe Stangarone / Mobile, Mobile apps

With smartphone adoption rates setting records, it’s time that you asked yourself one question: What do our web apps or web sites look like on a smartphone? After all, the probability that your users will access your apps/site on a mobile device is growing daily.

Now, the best way to address the growing mobile trend: Create intelligent web apps that automatically adapt to each device. But, while that may be the best option, what if your company doesn’t want (or isn’t ready) to create mobile apps yet? Can you just ignore mobile users? Of course not. At the very least, you must ensure that your web apps aren’t completely unusable on a smartphone.

Why is that important? Because some common web design elements don’t translate over to mobile, and will negatively impact usability for smartphone users. What are they? While I’m sure there are more, here are 4 common web design elements that will cause problems for smartphone users: …

What do your web apps look like on a smartphone?Read More »

Struggling to manage your data? Read this story.

By Joe Stangarone / web reporting

Are you struggling to manage your data? Is reporting a complicated job? If so, I have a story you’ll want to read. It’s about a business that was comprised of 15 different companies representing 8 different industries spread out over 50 locations across the United States. Sound complicated? It was. As you might imagine, managing the steady stream of data was time consuming and difficult.

What did they do? They found a flexible reporting option that brought all of their data together, turning their complex data management into a simple task. To learn how they did it, you can read the whole story right here.

8 must-have features of a good Business Intelligence application

By Joe Stangarone / Business Intelligence

If you’re looking around for Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, you’ll certainly find plenty of options. Some are flashy. Others are plain. Some are expensive. Others are free.

How do you know which one is best for your business?

To answer that question, let’s get down to the absolute basics of BI. A good BI solution will provide simple access to any aspect of your data whenever necessary–ultimately leading to well-informed business decisions.

Now, that’s easy to say, but what does that look like in real-life? How can you know whether or not a BI solution will fit that description before you buy? What features or elements do you look for?

To help you answer that question, let’s take a look at a full-featured BI application, and then highlight each feature and explain why it’s important. Sound good? Okay, let’s get started. Click the image below to view the demo BI app.

…

8 must-have features of a good Business Intelligence applicationRead More »

How one IT department completed a 1,000-hour project in 300 hours

By Joe Stangarone / Web Development

Here’s an inspirational story for any IT department facing impossible project deadlines. It’s about an IT department that had a huge web development project with an immovable deadline…but faced one big problem.

They weren’t sure how they were going to do it.

They estimated that it would take 1,000 hours, but with only one web developer on staff, completing the project on time seemed impossible.

What did they do? They found a way to let the rest of their staff develop web applications, and managed to complete the project in just 300 hours. To learn how, you can read the whole story right here.

6 big Business Intelligence trends of the near future

By Joe Stangarone / Business Intelligence, Tech trends

Business Intelligence (BI) is changing. In the past, BI was used mainly by company executives, providing them with monthly/yearly reports on various aspects of the company. Using this data, executives could formulate company plans and strategies.

While BI is still a vital piece of the planning and decision making process, this idea of “traditional BI” is quickly fading. As the workforce becomes more mobile, BI is moving outside the confines of the office. Modern business leaders demand real-time BI that’s always accessible–from anywhere at any time using any device. They demand BI that gets the right information into the right hands precisely when it’s needed.

So, what trends are driving this new approach to BI? Here are 6 key trends that I believe will dramatically alter the BI landscape in the very near future. …

6 big Business Intelligence trends of the near futureRead More »

Year: 2012