Tag Archives: Portland (Oregon)

About 1572 days ago Computer Security

A Breakout Year for OpenID

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Nothing turns off shoppers faster than having to go through the sign-in process every time they jump over to a website where they’re already a customer or subscriber. Once is enough — and that’s the whole idea behind OpenID. OpenID is a portable digital identity that lets someone type in their user name and password once to log onto any website with the application built into its user registration process. OpenID has been around since 2005, initially created so people could leave comments on blog posts without having to sign in again and again as they hopped from one blog to another. It gradually caught on with other types of websites and took off in 2008, when users reached a half billion, the number of websites on it tripled to 30,000 and major players such as AOL, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo threw their weight behind it. OpenID taking off OpenID’s open source is a free open-source protocol is one reason it’s taking off. Because no one owns it, a company’s website developer can download the code from websites such as Vidoop or JanRain and write it into the registration process at their own site. Then, once an Internet user registers at a participating OpenID website with their name, e-mail address, user name, and password, they can visit any other OpenID website and the second site will ping the first to see if the visitor is who they say they are and if verified, forego the sign-in process. Even Facebook — whose 150 million members make it the 800-pound gorilla of social networking — could be getting on board. Facebook has its own digital registration protocol called Facebook Connect, but is contemplating joining the OpenID movement, according to Scott Kveton, a Vidoop vice president and current vice chair of OpenID.net, the non-profit foundation that promotes the standard. Facebook chose a proprietary architecture because at the time it was the only option for adding extra profile data to a digital ID, but now “they’d love to be very open with what they’re doing. I foresee them getting more involved,” Kveton says. Addressing security concerns While Web developers, open-source programmers and social networking experts are big OpenID fans, they don’t expect the average Joe to care much about it — or even know it exists. If companies are doing their jobs right, Internet users will simply realize their identity can follow them anywhere — and that’s good enough, Kveton says. But some small business owners worry about security. “I don’t think I’d use it and I know people who freak out about it because they don’t want all their [passwords] in one place,” says Clyde Lerner, proprietor of In the Moment Computing, a Sunnyvale, Calif., computer services company. Instead, Lerner uses a password manager called Roboform that stores his passwords on his computer’s hard drive. According to Kveton, OpenID is no more or less safe than someone’s e-mail account. If security is a priority, people can choose to get their OpenID account through a provider that adds extra layers of security onto it, such as Vidoop or JanRain. SIDEBAR: OpenID Resources Want to learn more? Here are some resources: OpenID.net — Home of the OpenID Foundation, the non-profit organization promoting the portable digital personal identification. What is OpenID — A 4-minute video explaining how OpenID works produced by Vidoop, a Portland, Ore., OpenID platform vendor and employer of Kveton, the OpenID foundation backer. TheSocialWeb.tv Episode 24 — The Jan. 20 episode of this weekly Web TV show includes a segment highlighting the OpenID platform’s accomplishments in 2008. OpenID Wiki — A library of links to companies that have written OpenID software code in a variety of programming languages including Java, Perl, PHP, ColdFusion, and more. OpenID providers – Individuals who don’t have an OpenID through a blog or other online service can create one at websites such as myVidoop, Verisign’s Verisign Labs, JanRain’sMyOpenID and ClaimID.

About 1695 days ago Business Software

Enterprise Resource Planning: Do You Need It?

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Does your business need an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system? If your company is experiencing rapid growth and the corresponding strain on legacy systems, or if you’re starting a new process — such as manufacturing — from scratch, you may benefit from an ERP system, experts say. Such a system maintains in a single database the information gleaned from a variety of business functions, such as financial, manufacturing, human resources, and customer management. As such, ERP systems offer a bird’s-eye view into the working of the company and allow users to cross-reference business functions. An executive might drill-down into the data, for example, to learn how business financials were affected by installation of a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. When ERP includes manufacturing information, businesses can reduce inventory by closely tracking customer orders and shipments, says Eric Kimberling, president of the Panorama Consulting Group in Denver, which helps companies clarify ERP goals before implementation. Act like a bigger business ERP systems help you behave like a bigger business, says analyst Dan Miklovic, research vice president for the manufacturing industry at Gartner. “By automating finance processes, you can do things like accept online orders and to business-to-business transactions electronically, instead of via e-mail,” he says. Many of smaller players think they’ll have difficulty finding an ERP application. But all major ERP providers — with names like Oracle, SAP, Syspro, Microsoft Dynamics, and Epicor — make specialized offerings for small and mid-sized businesses, Kimberling says. Many other vendors cater exclusively to the small and mid-sized business market. “When ERP is done right, the number one benefit is streamlining your processes and making them more efficient than doing data entry and keeping track of stuff in spreadsheets and digging for data,” Kimberling says. “ERP makes those things more flexible and accessible to employees.” Take Solaicx, which implemented an ERP system in July. The Santa Clara, Calif., based company has been moving from research and development to the manufacturing of ingots and wafers for the solar industry. It recently opened a manufacturing plant in Portland, Ore. “We were running QuickBooks and some miscellaneous packages. In the research and development stage that works fine,” says Jeff Osorio, Solaicx’s chief financial officer. “But in commercial applications, with the volume of transactions that would be going through manufacturing, we needed more.” Solaicx now houses its financial and manufacturing data within the new ERP system, from Syspro. That kind of integration makes for greater visibility into all aspects of the company, Osorio says. The real value to small business Bear in mind, however, that purchasing and implementing an ERP system is no small task, these experts say. Consultant, vendor, or other outside help is often needed here. The real value to small and mid-sized businesses comes in the way they customize and configure the core product to their own particular industry and individual needs, Miklovic says. But ironically, that kind of customization can be harder for small businesses to find. For example, businesses located in areas without a pertinent systems integrator or reseller that can essentially make a house call, could face customization challenges, he says. “The challenge is making sure the domain expertise is available in the geography you’re operating in,” Miklovic says. An automotive supplier in California, for example, will have a tougher time finding a reseller with pertinent automotive expertise than will a similar-sized supplier in the Detroit area. In the same way, a Californian small or mid-sized business serving the wine industry will have an easier time finding an ERP reseller to meet its needs. “But the good news is, ERP systems are affordable and can radically improve your business,” Miklovic says

About 1725 days ago Computer Security

Psst! What’s the Password?

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If your IT manager took off tomorrow, or worse, got hit by a bus, would you know where to look for the administrative-level password he uses to run your company’s computer network? It’s not a trick question. In fact, it’s a question IT security consultants routinely pose to new clients to find out what they’re doing — or not doing — to safeguard their computer networks. The importance of adequately managing high-level IT passwords hit home in July, after a disgruntled network administrator went to jail rather than divulge the password he’d created to lock up a multi-million dollar computer system the city of San Francisco’s technology department used to store payroll files, inmate bookings and other sensitive files. The incident exposed the reality that even large organizations don’t always do what they should when it comes to high-level administrative passwords, which IT managers also call super-user or “God account” passwords. But business owners need to do a better job of managing network passwords because Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and other state and federal regulations as well as credit-card processors have set standards for digital information security that demand it. Keep passwords under lock and key One of the best ways to guard against sabotage or accidental disaster is to avoid using top-level administrative passwords as much as possible, says Irving Popovetsky, principal consultant with ProStructure Consulting, a Portland, Ore., security firm. Choose one high-level person, preferably the IT director, company officer or someone else who’s personally liable for happens in IT, and entrust them with the password. “But it should never be used except in emergencies,” Popovetsky says. Instead, lock it away — in a bank vault if you have to — and have that person use a separate account for daily tasks such as reading e-mail, visiting websites, or using software programs. Popovetsky suggests that any IT staff person who has access to a password for even a portion of a company’s computer network also be required to use a separate, second account for routine daily tasks. Why? For one, it makes it easier to audit activities in accounts used for network administration and maintenance to see who’s making changes to what. Even more importantly, it eliminates the risk of a hacker breaking into one of those high-level administrative accounts and using it to steal company information or launch a Trojan horse or other vicious software program, Popovetsky says. Companies should also practice what IT security professionals call role-based management or the principle of least privilege, where employees have the minimum access to the company’s computer network they need to do their job, says Javed Ikbal, principal at zSquad, an IT security consultant in Boston. Non-knowledge workers such as secretaries or call-center employees don’t need full access to their own workstations, so there’s no reason to give them administrator passwords for the machines. On the other hand, programmers and other knowledge workers need some additional administrative rights in order to do their jobs and their passwords should be tailored accordingly. Other password precautions Other steps companies can take include the following: Change the name of system administrator accounts. Hackers look for default names for administrator accounts, such as “Administrator” on Microsoft systems and “root” on Unix systems. Foil them by changing these names to something hard to guess. Popovetsky’s clients have changed the names of their administrator accounts to “Barney Rubble” or “Fred Flintstone.” “That right away reduces the risk a little,” he says. Use strong passwords. Make passwords for top-level accounts hard to crack by using at least eight characters and including mixed capitalization and at least one character that’s not a letter or number. Be consistent. Companies often use strong security measures around key computer networks but not on other, less critical ones. That’s short-sighted because hackers can use the less critical systems as a way into the more secure ones. It’s like putting a lock on your front door but forgetting to close the window right next to it, Popovetsky says. Use software. Companies that run Microsoft-based networks can use a free program called Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer to scan servers and workstations to see if they’re running under optimum security settings, and if they’re not, get recommendations for what could be changed. According to Ikbal, companies can also use privileged identity management technology to secure, automate and audit passwords for applications, databases, and servers. Companies that make PIM technology include Cyber-Ark, e-DMZ, Quest, and Symark. But don’t rely entirely on software for protection. IT security is a process, and a business owner who uses software but doesn’t change their security procedures usually finds out the hard way that one doesn’t work without the other, Popovetsky says. “The problem with security is it’s hard, it’s really hard. The deeper you get into it, the more complex it is.”

About 1848 days ago Tools on Managing Technology

Let’s Get Visible: Supply Chain Technology

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To understand why small businesses should care about supply chain management software, you could read a bunch of analysts’ reports explaining the good that can come from automating the process of turning raw materials into finished goods and getting them to customers. Or you could just talk to people such as James Van Dyke and Taylor Gordon. Van Dyke is president of Electronics Assemblers Inc., a 60-person custom electronics manufacturer in Hood River, Ore., an hour’s drive east of Portland. Gordon is a supply chain analyst at Myers Container/CMS LLC, a 91-year-old Portland company that makes industrial steel drums and containers. Listen to either long enough and it’s clear how important it is for a small company to manage its supply chain in the most efficient, cost-effective and collaborative way possible. Big corporations have used supply chain management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, for years, as well as newer technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) chips. Not so small businesses, many of which still rely on paper and pencil or outdated software because upgrading would be too costly and time consuming. Supply chain management that works That’s changing, as more small businesses see the value in having a better window into their supply-chain process. In fact, according to a recent AMR Research survey of 336 U.S. and European companies, in 2008 mid-market companies will be “aggressive” in buying supply-chain management software, due to continued pressure to reduce manufacturing costs and to help customers reduce their own costs. Customers “expect their own suppliers, regardless of size, to comply with their demands, which more often than not require investment in supply chain technologies,” AMR Research analysts John Fontanella and Eric Klein write in the report. Van Dyke’s business, Electronic Assemblers Inc., makes electromechanical and cable subassemblies for HP and other local high-tech companies. According to Van Dyke, supply chain management technology can be as basic as using Microsoft Windows programs. EAI relies on four – Windows Explorer, Exchange, Internet Explorer and Excel – for everything from restricting access to proprietary customer documentation to handling purchase orders to scanning websites for deals on electronics components. “Without it we’d be nowhere,” he says. The other part of EAI’s supply-chain management process is a material requirements planning (MRP) system called Alliance Manufacturing from Exact Software Americas. It tracks purchase orders, work orders, inventory levels and all other aspects of a manufacturing job. The software is expensive and it takes time to train people to use it. But it’s been worth every penny, Van Dyke says. “Ultimately where you end up is with a tool that allows you to treat materials planning like you treat your toaster. You don’t need to know how it works, you just use it to toast your toast,” he says. Fixing what’s broken Without good supply chain management, a company may lack access to vital information and the deficit can stop production from being as fast or efficient as possible. That’s the current situation at Myers Container/CMS, which has been limping along on paper-based systems and ERP software purchased in 1999 that wasn’t ever completely implemented, according to Gordon. “It’s not good enough to have the technology. If nobody’s using it, it won’t work,” he says. When new owners acquired Myers in late 2007, they hired Gordon to bring the company’s supply chain into the 21st century. As part of that, Gordon is analyzing existing software to decide if it can be upgraded, or if the company would be better off going with something completely different. The hope is that by upgrading “it’s very likely we’ll see high cost savings,” Gordon says. To learn more about supply-chain technology, Gordon joined the supply-chain management special interest group of an Oregon manufacturers’ consortium. He’s learning about innovations by visiting fellow special-interest group members’ factories to see the problems they’re facing first hand and to help brainstorm solutions. SIDEBAR: Supply Chain Management Technology Resources Some additional resources for learning about small and mid-sized business supply-chain management technology and practices include: Supply-Chain Council — This Washington, D.C., international non-profit publishes supply-chain standards and benchmarks used by more than 1,000 member companies of various sizes and industries. Supply Chain Management Review — The online version of this industry trade magazine has articles, white papers, newsletter, blogs, webcasts, message boards and links to other resources. The Supply Chain Management Research Center — The website for this research center housed at the University of Alabama’s Sam M. Walton College of Business has industry news, white papers and links to other resources. The center also sponsors an annual supply-chain management research conference.

About 1909 days ago Online Marketing

Drive Traffic to Your Business Blog

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It’s one thing to start a company blog. It’s something else entirely to get people to visit. Driving traffic to your small business’ corporate blog takes equal parts old-fashioned marketing and contemporary Web tools. It’s a mix of common sense practices like printing a blog’s URL on company business cards with search engine optimization and blog software plug-ins to come up with the right formula to motivate people to visit, according to corporate bloggers and blog marketing experts. Whatever methods you use, aim for quality, not quantity, says Tac Anderson, a Web 2.0 expert and blogger at the LaserJet business unit of HP in Boise, Idaho. Using lots of Web-based bells and whistles can dramatically increase traffic. But if people don’t make return visits, or all that traffic doesn’t lead to more customers, better bonds with suppliers or other measures of success, it doesn’t mean much. Old school marketing methods No matter what your company’s blog is about or who writes it, start with the basics to spread the word that it’s there: Include the blog’s name and URL on printed materials such business cards, letterhead and brochures. Include it in employees’ email signatures, and prominently display it on the company’s website, either on the front page or another suitable location. MobileDataforce, a 45-person Boise, Idaho, maker of software for mobile devices, has a link to a blog written by CEO Kevin Benedict on the front page of the company’s website. On a recent trip to Australia, Benedict was walking down the street in Sydney and someone called his name “because she’d read my blog and recognized my picture,” he says. Encourage whoever writes the blog to network offline to promote it. At HP, Anderson is frequently invited to speak about Web 2.0 and social media at technology conferences, and uses the occasions to talk to people about his blogs. “Even if they don’t meet you personally, if they just hear you speak, they feel a little more connected, and they’ll be more likely to become regular readers,” Anderson says. Network online. too. Become a frequent visitor of blogs that cover similar topics or industries. Leave comments on those blogs and e-mail the authors. Include those blogs in the list of blogs, or blogroll, on your own blog. MobileDataforce’s software is used on rugged hand-held PCs, so Benedict links his blog to blogs at distributors and manufacturers of that gear. “You get more eyes, and Google ranks you higher if you have connections with other popular sites,” he explains. Search engine optimization and other tools Professional blog marketers suggest using a different bag of tricks to drive traffic to the websites, including: Search engine optimization (SEO) — An entire industry has developed around the science of placing frequently searched words and phrases into the text of blog posts so they’ll appear high in search-engine rankings and get more traffic as a result. Search engine optimization specialists such as Gary Pool, proprietor of White Rose Productions in Portland, Ore., swears by SEO software such as: Niche Bot, a subscription-based software tool that bloggers use to search for commonly used words or phrases. SEO Book, a regularly updated e-book with a variety of SEO tools. Word Tracker, another SEO tool that offers a free trial version. Plugins — Pool prefers to create blogs in WordPress because of the bounty of available plug-in software including: Add Meta Tags, which automatically selects keywords in blog posts that will get picked up by search engines. Share This, software that adds a button to the bottom of every blog post making it easier to subscribe it to a viewer’s RSS news reader. XML Sitemaps, software that produces a sitemap of a blog that makes it easier for Google, Yahoo, and MSN to search a blog. Blog directories — Pool also suggests that companies submit their blogs to blog directories for specific states, industries, or professions. If you use SEO keywords to drive traffic, don’t dwell on the details to the extent that you forget the big picture. If your blog is so crowded with key words people can’t find what they are looking for, you’ve defeated the purpose of bringing them to the blog in the first place, Pool says. And don’t forget to have fun with it. “If it’s personal, people will keep coming back. It doesn’t have to be heavy handed,” he says. In the end, content is still king. Present interesting information visitors want to read, and you never know where it will lead. At MobileDataforce, Benedict had given up ever getting an order from a large New Zealand company that initially expressed interest then stopped returning emails and phone calls. But they didn’t stop reading his blog. After six months of silence they called. “Their employees read my blog every week and they were ready to buy,” Benedict says. The blog “is an ongoing communication with customers that we don’t even know we have.”

About 1909 days ago Online Marketing

Drive Traffic to Your Business Blog

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It’s one thing to start a company blog. It’s something else entirely to get people to visit. Driving traffic to your small business’ corporate blog takes equal parts old-fashioned marketing and contemporary Web tools. It’s a mix of common sense practices like printing a blog’s URL on company business cards with search engine optimization and blog software plug-ins to come up with the right formula to motivate people to visit, according to corporate bloggers and blog marketing experts. Whatever methods you use, aim for quality, not quantity, says Tac Anderson, a Web 2.0 expert and blogger at the LaserJet business unit of HP in Boise, Idaho. Using lots of Web-based bells and whistles can dramatically increase traffic. But if people don’t make return visits, or all that traffic doesn’t lead to more customers, better bonds with suppliers or other measures of success, it doesn’t mean much. Old school marketing methods No matter what your company’s blog is about or who writes it, start with the basics to spread the word that it’s there: Include the blog’s name and URL on printed materials such business cards, letterhead and brochures. Include it in employees’ email signatures, and prominently display it on the company’s website, either on the front page or another suitable location. MobileDataforce, a 45-person Boise, Idaho, maker of software for mobile devices, has a link to a blog written by CEO Kevin Benedict on the front page of the company’s website. On a recent trip to Australia, Benedict was walking down the street in Sydney and someone called his name “because she’d read my blog and recognized my picture,” he says. Encourage whoever writes the blog to network offline to promote it. At HP, Anderson is frequently invited to speak about Web 2.0 and social media at technology conferences, and uses the occasions to talk to people about his blogs. “Even if they don’t meet you personally, if they just hear you speak, they feel a little more connected, and they’ll be more likely to become regular readers,” Anderson says. Network online. too. Become a frequent visitor of blogs that cover similar topics or industries. Leave comments on those blogs and e-mail the authors. Include those blogs in the list of blogs, or blogroll, on your own blog. MobileDataforce’s software is used on rugged hand-held PCs, so Benedict links his blog to blogs at distributors and manufacturers of that gear. “You get more eyes, and Google ranks you higher if you have connections with other popular sites,” he explains. Search engine optimization and other tools Professional blog marketers suggest using a different bag of tricks to drive traffic to the websites, including: Search engine optimization (SEO) — An entire industry has developed around the science of placing frequently searched words and phrases into the text of blog posts so they’ll appear high in search-engine rankings and get more traffic as a result. Search engine optimization specialists such as Gary Pool, proprietor of White Rose Productions in Portland, Ore., swears by SEO software such as: Niche Bot, a subscription-based software tool that bloggers use to search for commonly used words or phrases. SEO Book, a regularly updated e-book with a variety of SEO tools. Word Tracker, another SEO tool that offers a free trial version. Plugins — Pool prefers to create blogs in WordPress because of the bounty of available plug-in software including: Add Meta Tags, which automatically selects keywords in blog posts that will get picked up by search engines. Share This, software that adds a button to the bottom of every blog post making it easier to subscribe it to a viewer’s RSS news reader. XML Sitemaps, software that produces a sitemap of a blog that makes it easier for Google, Yahoo, and MSN to search a blog. Blog directories — Pool also suggests that companies submit their blogs to blog directories for specific states, industries, or professions. If you use SEO keywords to drive traffic, don’t dwell on the details to the extent that you forget the big picture. If your blog is so crowded with key words people can’t find what they are looking for, you’ve defeated the purpose of bringing them to the blog in the first place, Pool says. And don’t forget to have fun with it. “If it’s personal, people will keep coming back. It doesn’t have to be heavy handed,” he says. In the end, content is still king. Present interesting information visitors want to read, and you never know where it will lead. At MobileDataforce, Benedict had given up ever getting an order from a large New Zealand company that initially expressed interest then stopped returning emails and phone calls. But they didn’t stop reading his blog. After six months of silence they called. “Their employees read my blog every week and they were ready to buy,” Benedict says. The blog “is an ongoing communication with customers that we don’t even know we have.”

About 1909 days ago Business Software

Bye Bye Vista

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Hate Vista? Join the club. Computer users have groused about the new Windows operating system ever since Microsoft introduced it last year. Some have taken matters into their own hands by removing Vista and installing XP, the operating system Vista was supposed to replace. Companies without in-house IT support are paying outside technicians to do it for them. Microsoft calls its downgrading. But small business owners like Nancy Masse who claims to be living in “a Vista nightmare,” say switching back to XP is the real upgrade. “I should have just kept my old computer,” Masse says. Tech support businesses expect to stay busy helping Windows users like Masse uninstall Vista at least until July. That’s when Microsoft expects to stop selling OEM and shrink-wrapped versions of XP. After that, computer shops and technicians who build custom machines will steer business customers to Linux or other alternatives. Companies are hanging onto XP as long as possible because of the associated costs of upgrading. Lots of applications  that “just worked on XP do not automatically just work” on Vista, says Chris Benson, president of Geeks a Knockin, a Portland, Ore., computer reseller and service company. As a result, customers pay him to install a manufacturer’s free update, or pay for the Vista version of the software if it’s out, Benson says. For a program like QuickBooks “that might run $150 on the low end to several hundred dollars if you have multiple users or need premium or specialty applications,” he says. Multiply that by a couple applications and it quickly adds up, he says. Vista puts computer reseller in the spotlight A & D Computers, a Milford, N.H., computer reseller and repair shop, got its 15 minutes in the spotlight earlier this year helping business PC users with their Vista frustrations. The shop received national attention after a picture of a sign in the company’s window advertising its Vista removal service was posted on a popular blog about Microsoft. Aaron Kaplan, who runs the 20-year-old business with his dad, Ron Kaplan, says thousands of people looked at the picture online and he got phone calls from businesses as far away as Texas wanting to talk about it. A & D Computers put up the sign last year after Vista debuted and customers started asking how they could remove it. Requests have tapered off lately, but the computer shop is still helping customers switch. A & D builds custom computers for business customers, and as long as XP is available “we’ll give people the option between the two. It’s all up to the customer. We won’t force Vista on anyone,” Aaron Kaplan says. Some small businesses have resigned themselves to living in “Vista hell.” That’s what Masse calls what happened to her after she bought a HP Pavilion PC in July 2007. Masse, owner of a marketing and direct mail business in Tampa, Fla., says Vista looks good and has some nice features. But it makes her PC crash whenever she tries to upload updates for programs like Adobe. Initially Masse thought she’d wipe the PC’s hard drive and install XP. But she quickly realized it would take days to find and upload the XP drivers she’d need for all of the programs she uses, time she couldn’t afford to take away from work. So she’s stuck. “If you can get away with not having to upgrade, do it,” she advises. SIDEBAR: What Businesses Can Do What should businesses do? Here are some suggestions from business PC experts: Upgrade hardware. Vista has higher hardware requirements, so if you’re having problems, it could be because your current system isn’t beefy enough to handle it, says Benson, with Geeks a Knockin. Hang in there. Vista service pack 1, which includes updates that could fix some problems, is expected to be out this month and will be built into new PCs beginning in April. Replace Vista. If you don’t want to use Vista but switching to XP feels like going backwards, consider alternatives such as Ubuntu Linux, some computer resellers suggest. Plan ahead. Talk to your IT vendor. Companies like Geeks a Knockin are contacting business customers to see if they want to upgrade while they can still get new machines with XP. “That way we can get them new hardware with XP and see them through for a few more years,” Benson says. Protest. The momentum against Vista has propelled more than 94,500 Windows users to sign a Save XP.com online petition. Microsoft hasn’t responded to the petition but has publicly stated it is listening to feedback from partners and customers.

About 1909 days ago Blogging and Social Media

Drive Traffic to Your Business Blog

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It’s one thing to start a company blog. It’s something else entirely to get people to visit. Driving traffic to your small business’ corporate blog takes equal parts old-fashioned marketing and contemporary Web tools. It’s a mix of common sense practices like printing a blog’s URL on company business cards with search engine optimization and blog software plug-ins to come up with the right formula to motivate people to visit, according to corporate bloggers and blog marketing experts. Whatever methods you use, aim for quality, not quantity, says Tac Anderson, a Web 2.0 expert and blogger at the LaserJet business unit of HP in Boise, Idaho. Using lots of Web-based bells and whistles can dramatically increase traffic. But if people don’t make return visits, or all that traffic doesn’t lead to more customers, better bonds with suppliers or other measures of success, it doesn’t mean much. Old school marketing methods No matter what your company’s blog is about or who writes it, start with the basics to spread the word that it’s there: Include the blog’s name and URL on printed materials such business cards, letterhead and brochures. Include it in employees’ email signatures, and prominently display it on the company’s website, either on the front page or another suitable location. MobileDataforce, a 45-person Boise, Idaho, maker of software for mobile devices, has a link to a blog written by CEO Kevin Benedict on the front page of the company’s website. On a recent trip to Australia, Benedict was walking down the street in Sydney and someone called his name “because she’d read my blog and recognized my picture,” he says. Encourage whoever writes the blog to network offline to promote it. At HP, Anderson is frequently invited to speak about Web 2.0 and social media at technology conferences, and uses the occasions to talk to people about his blogs. “Even if they don’t meet you personally, if they just hear you speak, they feel a little more connected, and they’ll be more likely to become regular readers,” Anderson says. Network online. too. Become a frequent visitor of blogs that cover similar topics or industries. Leave comments on those blogs and e-mail the authors. Include those blogs in the list of blogs, or blogroll, on your own blog. MobileDataforce’s software is used on rugged hand-held PCs, so Benedict links his blog to blogs at distributors and manufacturers of that gear. “You get more eyes, and Google ranks you higher if you have connections with other popular sites,” he explains. Search engine optimization and other tools Professional blog marketers suggest using a different bag of tricks to drive traffic to the websites, including: Search engine optimization (SEO) — An entire industry has developed around the science of placing frequently searched words and phrases into the text of blog posts so they’ll appear high in search-engine rankings and get more traffic as a result. Search engine optimization specialists such as Gary Pool, proprietor of White Rose Productions in Portland, Ore., swears by SEO software such as: Niche Bot, a subscription-based software tool that bloggers use to search for commonly used words or phrases. SEO Book, a regularly updated e-book with a variety of SEO tools. Word Tracker, another SEO tool that offers a free trial version. Plugins — Pool prefers to create blogs in WordPress because of the bounty of available plug-in software including: Add Meta Tags, which automatically selects keywords in blog posts that will get picked up by search engines. Share This, software that adds a button to the bottom of every blog post making it easier to subscribe it to a viewer’s RSS news reader. XML Sitemaps, software that produces a sitemap of a blog that makes it easier for Google, Yahoo, and MSN to search a blog. Blog directories — Pool also suggests that companies submit their blogs to blog directories for specific states, industries, or professions. If you use SEO keywords to drive traffic, don’t dwell on the details to the extent that you forget the big picture. If your blog is so crowded with key words people can’t find what they are looking for, you’ve defeated the purpose of bringing them to the blog in the first place, Pool says. And don’t forget to have fun with it. “If it’s personal, people will keep coming back. It doesn’t have to be heavy handed,” he says. In the end, content is still king. Present interesting information visitors want to read, and you never know where it will lead. At MobileDataforce, Benedict had given up ever getting an order from a large New Zealand company that initially expressed interest then stopped returning emails and phone calls. But they didn’t stop reading his blog. After six months of silence they called. “Their employees read my blog every week and they were ready to buy,” Benedict says. The blog “is an ongoing communication with customers that we don’t even know we have.”

About 1909 days ago Setting Up a Website

Drive Traffic to Your Business Blog

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It’s one thing to start a company blog. It’s something else entirely to get people to visit. Driving traffic to your small business’ corporate blog takes equal parts old-fashioned marketing and contemporary Web tools. It’s a mix of common sense practices like printing a blog’s URL on company business cards with search engine optimization and blog software plug-ins to come up with the right formula to motivate people to visit, according to corporate bloggers and blog marketing experts. Whatever methods you use, aim for quality, not quantity, says Tac Anderson, a Web 2.0 expert and blogger at the LaserJet business unit of HP in Boise, Idaho. Using lots of Web-based bells and whistles can dramatically increase traffic. But if people don’t make return visits, or all that traffic doesn’t lead to more customers, better bonds with suppliers or other measures of success, it doesn’t mean much. Old school marketing methods No matter what your company’s blog is about or who writes it, start with the basics to spread the word that it’s there: Include the blog’s name and URL on printed materials such business cards, letterhead and brochures. Include it in employees’ email signatures, and prominently display it on the company’s website, either on the front page or another suitable location. MobileDataforce, a 45-person Boise, Idaho, maker of software for mobile devices, has a link to a blog written by CEO Kevin Benedict on the front page of the company’s website. On a recent trip to Australia, Benedict was walking down the street in Sydney and someone called his name “because she’d read my blog and recognized my picture,” he says. Encourage whoever writes the blog to network offline to promote it. At HP, Anderson is frequently invited to speak about Web 2.0 and social media at technology conferences, and uses the occasions to talk to people about his blogs. “Even if they don’t meet you personally, if they just hear you speak, they feel a little more connected, and they’ll be more likely to become regular readers,” Anderson says. Network online. too. Become a frequent visitor of blogs that cover similar topics or industries. Leave comments on those blogs and e-mail the authors. Include those blogs in the list of blogs, or blogroll, on your own blog. MobileDataforce’s software is used on rugged hand-held PCs, so Benedict links his blog to blogs at distributors and manufacturers of that gear. “You get more eyes, and Google ranks you higher if you have connections with other popular sites,” he explains. Search engine optimization and other tools Professional blog marketers suggest using a different bag of tricks to drive traffic to the websites, including: Search engine optimization (SEO) — An entire industry has developed around the science of placing frequently searched words and phrases into the text of blog posts so they’ll appear high in search-engine rankings and get more traffic as a result. Search engine optimization specialists such as Gary Pool, proprietor of White Rose Productions in Portland, Ore., swears by SEO software such as: Niche Bot, a subscription-based software tool that bloggers use to search for commonly used words or phrases. SEO Book, a regularly updated e-book with a variety of SEO tools. Word Tracker, another SEO tool that offers a free trial version. Plugins — Pool prefers to create blogs in WordPress because of the bounty of available plug-in software including: Add Meta Tags, which automatically selects keywords in blog posts that will get picked up by search engines. Share This, software that adds a button to the bottom of every blog post making it easier to subscribe it to a viewer’s RSS news reader. XML Sitemaps, software that produces a sitemap of a blog that makes it easier for Google, Yahoo, and MSN to search a blog. Blog directories — Pool also suggests that companies submit their blogs to blog directories for specific states, industries, or professions. If you use SEO keywords to drive traffic, don’t dwell on the details to the extent that you forget the big picture. If your blog is so crowded with key words people can’t find what they are looking for, you’ve defeated the purpose of bringing them to the blog in the first place, Pool says. And don’t forget to have fun with it. “If it’s personal, people will keep coming back. It doesn’t have to be heavy handed,” he says. In the end, content is still king. Present interesting information visitors want to read, and you never know where it will lead. At MobileDataforce, Benedict had given up ever getting an order from a large New Zealand company that initially expressed interest then stopped returning emails and phone calls. But they didn’t stop reading his blog. After six months of silence they called. “Their employees read my blog every week and they were ready to buy,” Benedict says. The blog “is an ongoing communication with customers that we don’t even know we have.”

About 2000 days ago Telecom and Wireless

Collaboration 101: Why You Need These Tools

Steve Karakas needs to stay in constant touch with his clients. Karakas is strategic branding consultant and partner at marketing firm Nonbox.com. The work they do is very visual, and changes to the design work happen all through the process — from concept to final proof. However, many of Nonbox’s clients are thousands of miles away, from Miami to France and Finland. In fact, his partners’ offices are also spread out. While Karakas is based in Portland, Ore., his Nonbox colleagues are in places as diverse as Wisconsin and Florida. “Often, the ability to meet physically is minimal, if not impossible,” says Karakas. Nonbox has found that the key to managing collective work over long distances is collaboration tools. Almost anything that’s possible in face-to-face meetings can now be done virtually through the various components of a collaboration tool suite. Long-distance communication is made more efficient and effective with the ability for long term teams as well as short-term project groups and outside contractors to work together in real-time. New collaboration tools from vendors Depending on the task at hand, collaborative teams need a matrix of communication tools, including e-mail, IM, forums, wikis, communal whiteboards, video, desktop sharing, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) combined with conferencing, among others. The trick is to find a vendor that offers a suite of tools that fits your business — and your employees’ — needs. “We tried other collaboration systems before we found the one we felt comfortable with, and being an all-Apple company, our choices were more limited,” Karakas says. “We don’t mind the price as long as it does the job.” Karakas expects to lower or even eliminate the cost of their collaboration needs once they upgrade to the newest Apple OS X.5, Leopard, which includes a number of collaborative tools like screen-sharing, video, and slideshows. Apple is not unique. More and more major technology providers, such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Adobe, are joining a number of startups — like Zoho, Vyew, and Yugma — in offering suites of tools meant to increase collaboration between workers. In fact, there seems to be an all-out race happening in the last year or so to create the next great collaboration platform that will juggernaut over the rest of the pack. With the numerous entries available, how can you decide if collaboration tools would benefit your company, and how to choose exactly the right one that will further your business, without draining your available revenue? How to pick collaboration tools for business All too often, companies will choose a collaboration tool based on how easy it is to implement, how much it costs, if it’s compatible with what they already use, and other technical criteria, instead of the actual needs or requirements of the job at hand, and how the end users — the employees — tend to work. If the workers aren’t going to adapt easily and really use the tools to advantage, then all the technical reasoning is meaningless. Better to understand just how your workers tend to collaborate first, and then find the tool that’s right for them. How your workers collaborate in person can provide a clue: Do your in-house brainstorming sessions involve visual work, using whiteboards or printed graphics? Then make sure your team has that ability built into their tools for online collaboration. Do you have documents being worked on by a group? Then perhaps using a sharable online word processor, or even a wiki, will streamline their tasks. Many teams are unofficially using some form of instant messaging, even if their company hasn’t implemented that tool yet. Find out if your workers are, and make sure that’s in the package as well. Does your business tend to use e-mail as the primary means of textual collaboration, through attached files and memos? E-mail was never created to replace face-to-face meetings, and in the rapidly shrinking world of telecommuting and outsourcing, it’s simply not the right tool for the job. Collaboration tools place e-mail in its rightful place as a messaging platform, just one component of successful group-think. For Greg Chambers, of Chambers Product Design, Inc., it took a couple tries with different collaboration tools to find the right fit. Some worked well in one or two aspects, but fell down in others. But through trial and error, he found the right choice for his needs. While his final choice isn’t the cheapest, Chambers has happily used the same collaboration tool suite for three years now. “We needed that ‘in the same room’ feeling on a daily basis, no matter how far away, in order to create just what the customer wants to see,” says Chambers. “It’s worth every penny to make sure I’m going in exactly the right direction for my clients.”