mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

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

Author name: Joe Stangarone

Joe Stangarone is a 40+ year veteran of the IT industry and president of mrc—the software company behind the award winning development platform, m-Power. Joe shares his leadership and technology insights through the Cup of Joe Blog, focusing primarily on ways businesses can save time, money, and increase productivity using technology.

Weekly recap: 10 business apps for the iPhone, roadblocks to cloud computing, and more…

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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 roadblocks to cloud computing, the best iPhone business apps, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Lessons from a big iPad Enterprise Adopter
Is your company thinking about adopting tablets? If so, here’s an article you’ll want to read. It’s an interview with the manager of mobility at one of the biggest corporate iPad adopters in the world. Find out what he learned in the process, as well as why their company has switched their focus from native apps to mobile web apps. …

Weekly recap: 10 business apps for the iPhone, roadblocks to cloud computing, and more…Read More »

What do your web apps look like on a smartphone?

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EducationWith 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.

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EducationAre 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.

Weekly recap: 10 technologies shaping IT, BYOD best practices, and more…

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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 BYOD best practices, IT tech skills, upcoming technologies, and more. I hope you find them useful:

For BYOD best practices, secure data not devices.
The key to BYOD success lies in the data, not the device. The companies that will struggle with BYOD are those that haven’t yet figured out how to control their data. …

Weekly recap: 10 technologies shaping IT, BYOD best practices, and more…Read More »

8 must-have features of a good Business Intelligence application

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EducationIf 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

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Save TimeHere’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

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EducationBusiness 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 »

Application modernization comparison chart

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EducationHere’s a million dollar question: What’s the best application modernization method for your company?

Here’s the answer: It depends.

If your company needs to modernize existing legacy applications, choosing the best method varies largely on your needs, goals, and resources. You’ll need to answer a few questions before you begin, such as:

  • Why are you modernizing in the first place?
  • What’s your budget?
  • When do you need the job completed?
  • What do you hope to accomplish?

If you need help choosing the best modernization solution for your company, here are a couple of things that could help: First, here’s a free whitepaper entitled “Crash course in modernization,” that takes an in-depth look at the modernization basics. We’ve also created a handy little comparison chart, which compares 5 different modernization methods.

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Application modernization comparison chartRead More »

7 reasons why mobile web apps are better for business than native apps

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EducationIf your business is planning to build native mobile apps, ask yourself this question: Are you building native mobile apps because you need to, or because you think you have to? While native apps are popular with consumers, they’re quite impractical for most businesses.

To understand why, let’s first look at why native apps are popular with consumers. Native apps do a couple of things very well: They deliver highly graphical interfaces and they’re easy to find and download. While these are important factors for consumers, are they really important to your business?

For most businesses, the answer is a resounding “No”. Unless your business needs highly graphical applications, mobile web apps simply make more business sense. How so? Here are 7 reasons why mobile web apps make more sense from a business standpoint: …

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Even small IT staffs can accomplish big things

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ProductivityFill in the blank: “Our company needs to _____________, but our IT staff is too small.” Based on feedback I received from a tech conference we recently attended, this is one of the biggest problems facing IT departments these days. IT professionals know how to help their companies, they just lack the time and resources to do anything about it.

It’s a depressing thought–knowing how to help your company but realizing that you can’t. You feel stuck. But don’t worry…if you’re facing this problem, you’re not alone and you’re definitely not stuck. Here are two stories of small IT staffs that found ways to complete urgent projects despite their limited staff. I hope you find them useful:

1. This 2-person IT staff found a way to quickly modernize their green-screen interface and replace their order entry system without bringing in any outside help.

2. This 3-person IT staff built a brand new, custom extranet, and did it faster than it would’ve taken to deploy an off-the-shelf option.

See? Even small IT staffs can accomplish big things! …

Even small IT staffs can accomplish big thingsRead More »