mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

Month: January 2013

4 common productivity bottlenecks (and how you can fix them)

ProductivityHow would you like to walk into your boss’s office today and say, “I know a way to improve productivity by 50%.” Of course you would! Who wouldn’t?

Of course, that only works if you actually know a way to improve productivity by 50%. Sound impossible? It’s not that hard…you just have to know where to look.

So, where do you look? For starters, let me share one prime area that’s ripe for productivity improvements: In many businesses, productivity bottlenecks revolve around data. Even in the year 2013, we’re just not that efficient with our data. Every day, businesses waste time entering, collecting, sorting, filtering, combining, and manipulating data. The fact is, many businesses could vastly improve productivity if they only addressed some of these data inefficiencies.

If you want to dramatically improve productivity in your company, here’s a good place to start: I’ve listed 4 of the most common productivity bottlenecks caused by data. How many of these do you see in your company?

Weekly recap: The future of IT, omni-channel mobile development, and more…

EducationEvery 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 the future of IT, the need for ‘omni-channel’ mobile development, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Forrester: Mobile app dev needs ‘omni-channel’ perspective
Rather than simply devising a mobile strategy, mobile apps must be part of a larger “omni-channel” application architecture. Businesses must understand that mobile devices are just one method for accessing their applications. Applications must be accessible across all devices.

How to control BYOD without going insane

EducationThe shift from company-controlled devices to employee-controlled devices is one of the biggest IT trends in recent history. According to a study from Logicalis, 57.1% of employees already use their own devices for work-related tasks in some form or another. Another survey puts that number at 80%.

Can IT ignore BYOD?

What are IT departments doing about this Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend? The study listed above answers that question with some interesting statistics: 46.1% of employees who use their devices for work claim their IT departments are either unaware of or ignore BYOD. Is this a viable approach? Not at all. Let me give you two reasons why your IT department needs a BYOD strategy:

Native apps: The wrong choice for business?

EducationNative mobile applications are popular among consumers, but how do their advantages translate to the business world? Not as well as you might think.

If you’re considering mobile apps for your business, here’s a new white paper that you’ll want to read. It explores each mobile app option, and explains why businesses should think twice before taking the native approach. You can access the white paper right here.

Weekly recap: Digital technologies a top CIO priority, do you need a custom app, and more…

EducationEvery 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 a recent CIO survey, the need for custom mobile apps, and more. I hope you find them useful:

5 new smartphone OS’s bet on HTML5 and improved UIs
Did you know that 5 new smartphone operating systems are scheduled for release this year? Will any of them become the next iOS or Android? Perhaps a better question: If your business is building native mobile apps, how many of these new operating systems do you plan to support?

What happens when you combine machine translation with human translation?

EducationIf your company operates in multiple countries and currently translates your web sites and/or apps into multiple languages, let me ask you a question: What if you could combine the speed of machine translation with the accuracy of human translation?

If that sounds intriguing, here’s a video you’ll want to watch. It outlines the growing need for translation, and explains a unique translation method that nearly automates web application translation. I hope you find it informative.

Weekly recap: How IT can keep its strategic role in 2013, Ubuntu on smartphones, and more…

EducationEvery 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 how IT can keep its strategic role in 2013, linux on smartphones, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Ubuntu on smartphones: What you need to know
The popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu, recently announced that they’re creating a smartphone OS, which should be released this year. Mozilla also recently made news with the announcement that they are also working on a smartphone OS. What does this mean for business? If your company has built mobile web apps, you’re in the clear. Mobile web apps work across all operating systems, both now and in the future.

Weekly recap: Best IT resolutions for 2013, design tips for developers, and more…

EducationEvery 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 IT resolutions for 2013, design tips for developers, and more. I hope you find them useful:

2012: The year in application development
In 2012, application development experienced some notable shifts. HTML5 became even more popular, mobile app development finally went mainstream in the business world, and much more.

Top 8 tech stories of 2012 for IT pros and developers

EducationWhen you look back at 2012, what stands out in your mind? As an IT professional, what are you going to remember the most about the past year? As I think back on 2012, several stories and events really stand out as shaping the year (and possibly beyond) from a business technology perspective.

While there are too many stories to list, I looked back over the past year and pulled out the news, stories, and events that were of significant importance to IT pros and developers in 2012. Feel free to add anything I missed in the comments, but here’s my list of the top IT stories of 2012: