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.

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Can you really build a shopping cart in 10 minutes?

EducationSummary: Would you like to add online ordering capabilities to your current systems? Would you like to learn how to create custom shopping carts that integrate with your existing ERP system, and work across any device (PC/tablet/smartphone)? A project like this typically requires 3-12 months, depending on the company and complexity. But, what if you could do it in 10 minutes?

On-Demand Webinar: Real-time analytics and self-service reporting across multiple devices

EducationSummary: While the importance of analytics is increasing, many businesses still struggle to give their employees access to the data and reports they need. Would you like to deliver real-time, self-service reporting to your business? Watch this on-demand webinar and learn how one company addressed this very problem.

4 essential questions to ask before building a mobile business app (part 1)

EducationSummary: As businesses rush to build mobile apps, they often dive into the project without proper planning, or without an adequate understanding of their mobile app options. As you might imagine, this causes problems. It produces the wrong type of mobile app, or mobile apps that the company doesn’t really need–wasting time and money in the process. Learn the questions you should ask to avoid these problems.

Learn how one company improved data access across their entire organization

EducationSummary: Businesses collect more data than ever before. The problem is, many cannot easily access the data stored in their systems. By the time reports are created, the information is already outdated. Learn how one company dealt with this problem, and how you can do the same.

How can web apps improve the voting process?

EducationSummary: The next presidential election is just around the corner. Soon, voters will file through polling locations–waiting in long lines for their chance to cast their vote. But, what if there were a way to simplify the process? What if there was a way to streamline the voting process, and reduce the inefficiencies? Learn how one county government accomplished this very task–simplifying the voter check-in process and eliminating long wait times.

Citizen Development: 5 keys to success

EducationSummary: As defined by Gartner, “A citizen developer is a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT.” A growing trend, citizen development has become a key tool in the fight against Shadow IT. With citizen development tools, businesses can now give users the ability to create solutions on their own, without the need to bypass the IT department. In this article, we explore a few steps your business must take if you hope to capitalize on this trend.

The danger of departmental silos (and one way to fix it)

EducationSummary: More than ever, data plays a critical role in the success of your business. Your ability to turn your data into meaningful management information and make it easily accessible across your organization can easily be a competitive advantage. The problem is, data still lives in silos across many businesses. Learn more about this problem, and one way to address it.

Webinar Replay: Create custom reporting over your enterprise system

EducationSummary: Enterprise systems (like ERPs) pose something of a “Catch-22.” If you don’t customize the system, it won’t perfectly fit your needs. If you do customize it, you’re locked into that system. If you’re facing this challenge, check out this webinar replay and learn how one company delivered custom reporting over their ERP system–without altering the system at all.

5 tips to improve IT/business alignment

EducationSummary: Business and IT leaders have talked about the need for IT/business alignment for well over a decade. They all want the benefits that successful alignment brings, like improved business efficiency, reduced costs, increased agility, etc… Who wouldn’t want that? Yet, despite understanding the importance of IT/business alignment…it’s still an issue in many companies. In this article, we explore a few ways to improve your IT/business alignment.

5 common digital transformation myths

EducationSummary: Digital transformation has really picked up steam over the past few years. But, while it’s a growing trend, it’s still surrounded by a lot of myths. Many businesses go into digital transformation projects with false beliefs that can ruin the entire project. In this article, we’ve rounded up some common myths about the topic and explained why they’re false.

5 huge benefits of low-code development

EducationSummary: For the modern IT department, speed is the name of the game. The business demands new solutions faster than ever. The problem is, IT is already overworked. How can they quickly deliver the applications the business needs, without expanding their team? Today, we explore the concept of low-code development, and explain how it helps businesses solve this problem (and more).