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LeadMi.io
LeadMi.io
www.leadmi.io
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Leadmi.io is a new age marketing automation platform which enables businesses to manage social media platforms and generate highly accurate leads leveraging social media activity and buyer persona.
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ODMS - Operational Database Management System
PaaS - Platform as a service
MDM - master data management
CAD for mechanical engineering - Computer-Aided Design
SCADA - Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition
GIS - Geographic information system
CAM - Computer Aided Manufacturing
CAE - Computer-aided engineering
PDM - Product Data Management
PLM - Product Lifecycle Management
BPM - Business Process Management
WMS - Warehouse Management System
OLAP - online analytical processing
LMS - Learning Management System
BRMS - Business Rule Management System
CPM - Corporate Performance Management
Unified Communications
ECM - Enterprise Content Management
Enterprise Portal
Workforce Performance Management
Contact Center
TMS - Transport Management System
FMS - Fleet Management System
Core Banking System
Online Banking
OSS/BSS Operations Support Systems/Business Support Systems
Billing
MES - Manufacturing Execution System
EAM - Enterprise Asset Management
APS - Advanced Planning and Scheduling
E-government
Office Suites
CMS - Content management system
OCR - Optical character recognition
VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol
EDI - Electronic Data Interchange
IPTV - Internet Protocol television
Business-to-Business Middleware
Event-Driven Middleware
Process Automation Middleware
End-User Query, Reporting, and Analysis
Advanced Analytics Software
Spatial Information Management Software
Deployment-Centric Application Platforms
Transaction Processing Monitors
Relational Database Management Systems
Non-relational Database Management Systems
Database Development and Management Tools
Data Integration and Access Software
Development Languages, Environments, and Tools
Software Construction Components
Modeling and Architecture Tools
Web Design and Development Tools
Automated Software Quality Tools
Software Configuration Management Tools
IDE - Integrated Development Environment
Messaging Applications
Team Collaborative Applications
Enterprise Social Networks
Content Analytics, Discovery, and Cognitive Software
Collaborative Product Data Management
Sales
Marketing
Customer Service
Production Planning
Payroll Accounting
Order Management
Financial Performance and Strategy Management Applications
Web Conferencing Applications
File Synchronization and Sharing Software
Compensation Management
Workforce Management
Model-Driven Application Platforms
Managed File Transfer Software, MFT
Cloud Testing/ASQ PaaS
Embedded Database Management Systems
Agile Application Life-Cycle Management Software
Mobile Testing
Requirements Visualization, Definition, and Management
Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services
Software Quality Analysis and Measurement
Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms
Communities
Content Collaboration
Enterprise Cloud Content Collaboration
eDiscovery
Mobile Enterprise Applications
Product Life-Cycle Management Applications
Services Resource Planning Applications
Digital Commerce Applications
EDA-Electronic Design Automation
Translation Memory
Machine Translation
Electronic dictionaries
Spelling Check Systems
Enterprise Service Bus Middleware
Instant Communications Applications
SEO & SEM
Voice Recognition
CAD for architecture and construction - Computer-Aided Design
Functional testing tools
Bug tracking systems
Web analytics
SMM
Landing pages
Online surveys
Content Marketing
Marketing Automation
PR & Outreach
Data access
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","companyTypes":["vendor"],"products":{},"vendoredProductsCount":0,"suppliedProductsCount":0,"supplierImplementations":[],"vendorImplementations":[],"userImplementations":[],"userImplementationsCount":0,"supplierImplementationsCount":0,"vendorImplementationsCount":0,"vendorPartnersCount":0,"supplierPartnersCount":0,"b4r":1,"categories":{"27":{"id":27,"title":"ODMS - Operational Database Management System","description":"Operational database management systems (also referred to as OLTP On-Line Transaction Processing databases) are used to update data in real-time. These types of databases allow users to do more than simply view archived data. Operational databases allow you to modify that data (add, change or delete data), doing it in real-time. OLTP databases provide transactions as the main abstraction to guarantee data consistency that guarantees the so-called ACID properties. Basically, the consistency of the data is guaranteed in the case of failures and/or concurrent access to the data.\r\nSince the early 90s, the operational database software market has been largely taken over by SQL engines. Today, the operational DBMS market (formerly OLTP) is evolving dramatically, with new, innovative entrants and incumbents supporting the growing use of unstructured data and NoSQL DBMS engines, as well as XML databases and NewSQL databases. NoSQL databases typically have focused on scalability and have renounced to data consistency by not providing transactions as OLTP systems do. 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An operational database stores information about the activities of an organization, for example, customer relationship management transactions or financial operations, in a computer database.\r\nOperational databases allow a business to enter, gather, and retrieve large quantities of specific information, such as company legal data, financial data, call data records, personal employee information, sales data, customer data, data on assets and much other information. An important feature of storing information in an operational database is the ability to share information across the company and over the Internet. Operational databases can be used to manage mission-critical business data, to monitor activities, to audit suspicious transactions, or to review the history of dealings with a particular customer. They can also be part of the actual process of making and fulfilling a purchase, for example in e-commerce.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is DBMS used for?</span>\r\nDBMS, commonly known as Database Management System, is an application system whose main purpose revolves around the data. This is a system that allows its users to store the data, define it, retrieve it and update the information about the data inside the database.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is meant by a Database?</span>\r\nIn simple terms, Database is a collection of data in some organized way to facilitate its user’s to easily access, manage and upload the data.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why is the use of DBMS recommended? Explain by listing some of its major advantages.</span>\r\nSome of the major advantages of DBMS are as follows:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Controlled Redundancy:</span></span> DBMS supports a mechanism to control the redundancy of data inside the database by integrating all the data into a single database and as data is stored at only one place, the duplicity of data does not happen.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data Sharing:</span></span> Sharing of data among multiple users simultaneously can also be done in DBMS as the same database will be shared among all the users and by different application programs.</li><li> Backup and Recovery Facility: DBMS minimizes the pain of creating the backup of data again and again by providing a feature of ‘backup and recovery’ which automatically creates the data backup and restores the data whenever required.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Enforcement of Integrity Constraints:</span></span> Integrity Constraints are very important to be enforced on the data so that the refined data after putting some constraints are stored in the database and this is followed by DBMS.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Independence of Data:</span></span> It simply means that you can change the structure of the data without affecting the structure of any of the application programs.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the purpose of normalization in DBMS?</span>\r\nNormalization is the process of analyzing the relational schemas which are based on their respective functional dependencies and the primary keys in order to fulfill certain properties.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The properties include:</span></span>\r\n<ul><li>To minimize the redundancy of the Data.</li><li>To minimize the Insert, Delete and Update Anomalies.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_ODMS.png","alias":"odms-operational-database-management-system"},"51":{"id":51,"title":"PaaS - Platform as a service","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Platform as a Service (PaaS)</span> or <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS)</span> or <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">platform-based service</span> is a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">PaaS can be delivered in three ways:</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">As a public cloud service</span> from a provider, where the consumer controls software deployment with minimal configuration options, and the provider provides the networks, servers, storage, operating system (OS), middleware (e.g. Java runtime, .NET runtime, integration, etc.), database and other services to host the consumer's application.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">As a private service</span> (software or appliance) behind a firewall.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">As software</span> deployed on a public infrastructure as a service.\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">The original intent of PaaS technology was to simplify the code-writing process for developers, with the infrastructure and operations handled by the PaaS provider. Originally, all PaaSes were in the public cloud. Because many companies did not want to have everything in the public cloud, private and hybrid PaaS options (managed by internal IT departments) were created.</span>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">PaaS provides an environment for developers and companies to create, host and deploy applications, saving developers from the complexities of the infrastructure side (setting up, configuring and managing elements such as servers and databases).</span>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">PaaS products can improve the speed of developing an app, and allow the consumer to focus on the application itself. With PaaS, the consumer manages applications and data, while the provider (in public PaaS) or IT department (in private PaaS) manages runtime, middleware, operating system, virtualization, servers, storage and networking.</span>\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">PaaS offerings may also include facilities for application design, application development, testing and deployment, as well as services such as team collaboration, web service integration, and marshalling, database integration, security, scalability, storage, persistence, state management, application versioning, application instrumentation, and developer community facilitation. Besides the service engineering aspects, PaaS solutions include mechanisms for service management, such as monitoring, workflow management, discovery and reservation.</span>\r\nThere are various types of PaaS providers. All offer application hosting and a deployment environment, along with various integrated services. Services offer varying levels of scalability and maintenance. Developers can write an application and upload it to a PaaS platform that supports their software language of choice, and the application runs on that PaaS.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">How PaaS works</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">PaaS does not replace a company's entire IT infrastructure for software development. It is provided through a cloud service provider's hosted infrastructure with users most frequently accessing the offerings through a web browser. PaaS can be delivered through public, private and hybrid clouds to deliver services such as application hosting and Java development.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Other PaaS services include:</span></p>\r\n<ul><li>Development team collaboration</li><li>Application design and development</li><li>Application testing and deployment</li><li>Web service integration</li><li>Information security</li><li>Database integration</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Users pay for PaaS on a per-use basis. However, different platform as a service providers charge a flat monthly fee for access to the platform and its applications.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">What are the types of PaaS?</h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Public PaaS</span></li></ul>\r\nA public PaaS allows the user to control software deployment while the cloud provider manages the delivery of all other major IT components necessary to the hosting of applications, including operating systems, databases, servers and storage system networks. \r\nPublic PaaS vendors offer middleware that enables developers to set up, configure and control servers and databases without the necessity of setting up the infrastructure side of things. As a result, public PaaS and IaaS (infrastructure as a service) run together, with PaaS operating on top of a vendor's IaaS infrastructure while leveraging the public cloud. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Private PaaS</span></li></ul>\r\nA private PaaS is usually delivered as an appliance or software within the user's firewall which is frequently maintained in the company's on-premises data center. A private PaaS software can be developed on any type of infrastructure and can work within the company's specific private cloud. Private PaaS allows an organization to better serve developers, improve the use of internal resources and reduce the costly cloud sprawl that many companies face.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Hybrid PaaS </span></li></ul>\r\nCombines public PaaS and private PaaS to provide companies with the flexibility of infinite capacity provided by a public PaaS model and the cost efficiencies of owning an internal infrastructure in private PaaS. Hybrid PaaS utilizes a hybrid cloud.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Communication PaaS </span></li></ul>\r\nCPaaS is a cloud-based platform that allows developers to add real-time communications to their apps without the need for back-end infrastructure and interfaces. Normally, real-time communications occur in apps that are built specifically for these functions. Examples include Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp and the traditional phone. CPaaS provides a complete development framework for the creation of real-time communications features without the necessity of a developer building their own framework.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Mobile PaaS</span> </li></ul>\r\nMPaaS is the use of a paid integrated development environment for the configuration of mobile apps. In an mPaaS, coding skills are not required. MPaaS is delivered through a web browser and typically supports public cloud, private cloud and on-premises storage. The service is usually leased with pricing per month, varying according to the number of included devices and supported features.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Open PaaS</span></li></ul>\r\nIt is a free, open source, business-oriented collaboration platform that is attractive on all devices and provides useful web apps, including calendar, contacts and mail applications. OpenPaaS was designed to allow users to quickly deploy new applications with the goal of developing a PaaS technology that is committed to enterprise collaborative applications, specifically those deployed on hybrid clouds.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PaaS_-_Platform_as_a_service.png","alias":"paas-platform-as-a-service"},"54":{"id":54,"title":"MDM - master data management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Master data management (MDM)</span> is the core process used to manage, centralize, organize, categorize, localize, synchronize and enrich master data according to the business rules of the sales, marketing and operational strategies of your company. \r\nIt is a technology-enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of the enterprise’s official shared master data assets. Master data is the consistent and uniform set of identifiers and extended attributes that describes the core entities of the enterprise including customers, prospects, citizens, suppliers, sites, hierarchies and chart of accounts.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Essential Master Data Management Capabilities</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Flexible and multi-domain.</span>An extensible master data repository with flexible data modeling features provides a centralized view of all relationships between data types, clarifying complex cross-domain relationships, providing a flexible and multi-domain master data software.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Multi-style MDM.</span> Master Data Management platform should support all four main styles of MDM:\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Centrally authored:</span> In this style data is authored in the MDM, other systems subscribe to the MDM for master data (or the MDM pushes the data into downstream applications).\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Consolidation:</span> Source systems feed data into the MDM for consolidation into golden records\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Coexistence:</span> A mashup of centrally authored and consolidation that allows for creation of data in multiple systems.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Registry:</span> Rather than consolidating records, joining/aligning unique identifiers from across all the systems into join tables.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Real-time, secure data.</span> The top MDM software today allow you to publish and subscribe to data on demand, providing accurate master data to systems when and how you need it without compromising security. With real-time data, users can better react to the data and make faster decisions based on the insights discovered.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Data and Workflow visualization.</span> Master Data Management software provides a data visualization component that allows you to identify and easily fix quality issues. The capability can also helps users collaborate to constantly make improvements, monitor processes, and create dashboards for actionable data analysis.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">A customizable, business-friendly user interface.</span> A zero coding visual design time environment allows you to develop custom UIs using simple drag and drop actions. You can design cleaner, simpler, and more flexible role-based user interfaces for your Master Database Management system.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Things to Look for in MDM Management Software</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Because MDM is such a major task, you need the right software solution to assist you. The good news is that you have plenty of selections to choose from. The hard part is deciding on one. Here are a handful of features to look for:</p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Flexibility.</span> MDM isn’t a static issue. MDM software vendors continually updating products, so solutions will change rather dramatically over the course of a few months or years. With that being said, it’s smart to look at flexibility when it comes to master data management tools list. You may have a very specific need now, but will your solution allow you to address a future need that looks considerably different? \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Modeling.</span> Can you leverage the data model(s) of the member applications and eliminate the need to model? It could save you time, money, and help your master data be readily consumed without requiring additional transformation from an abstract data model to the data model in the member application(s). \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cost.</span> While it shouldn’t be the only factor, money is obviously something that must be considered in the context of budgeting. This may be one of the first factors you use to narrow your choices. If you know you can only spend X dollars, then there’s no point in evaluating selections that cost more.\r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Scalability.</span> How well does the solution scale? Your business is a fluid entity that will grow, contract, stagnate, grow again, etc. There’s no point in investing in thebest master data management tools that can only be used at your current size. Find one that easily grows and contracts in a cost-effective manner.\r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration.</span> The final thing to think about is integration. Since the point of MDM software is to create a centralized destination for data, you need to carefully ensure that it will work with your current setup.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/MDM_-_master_data_management1.png","alias":"mdm-master-data-management"},"58":{"id":58,"title":"CAD for mechanical engineering - Computer-Aided Design","description":"The term "CAD in engineering" usually refers to packages that perform the functions of CAD/CAM/CAE/PDM, that is, computer-aided design, preproduction and design, and engineering data management.\r\nThe first CAD-systems appeared at the stage of computing technology - in the 60s. It was at General Motors that an interactive graphic production preparation system was created, and its creator, Dr. Patrick Henretti (the founder of CAD), was a manufacturing and consulting company (MCS), which had a huge impact on the development of this industry. industry. According to analysts, MCS ideas are based on almost 70% of modern CAD systems. In the early 80s, when the computing power of computers grew significantly, the first CAM packages appeared on the scene, which partially automate the production process using CNC programs and CAE products designed to analyze complex structures. Thus, by the mid-80s, the CAD system in mechanical engineering has a form that still exists. This year there were new players of the "middle weight category". Increased competition has stimulated product development: thanks to a convenient graphical user interface, their use has increased significantly, new solid state modeling mechanisms ACIS and Parasolid have appeared, which are currently used in many modern CAD systems, and the functionality has been significantly expanded.\r\nAccording to the analytical company Daratech, in 1999 the sales of CAD/CAM systems increased by 11.1% over the year, in 2000 by 4.7%, in 2001 by 3.5%, and in 2002 - by 1.3% (preliminary estimate). We can say that the transition to the new century has become a turning point for the CAD market. In this situation, two main trends emerged in the foreground. A striking example of the first trend is the purchase of EDS in 2001 by two well-known developers representing CAD systems - Unigraphics and SDRC, the second is the actively promoted PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) concept, which provides access to information throughout its life cycle.\r\nTraditionally, CAD products in mechanical engineering are divided into four classes: the heavy, medium, light and mature market. Such a classification has developed historically, and although there has long been talk that the boundaries between classes are about to be erased, they remain, since the systems still differ in price and functionality. As a result, now in this area there are several powerful systems, a kind of "oligarchs" of the CAD world, stably developing products of the middle class and inexpensive, easy-to-use programs that are widely distributed. There is also the so-called "non-class stratum of society", the role of which is performed by various specialized solutions.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why implement CAD?</span>\r\nAt present, computer-aided design (CAD) systems of various types are commonly used at machine-building enterprises. Over the long history of use, they have proven their effectiveness and economic feasibility. However, most system manufacturers cannot give a clear and unambiguous answer, what economic effect will the purchase of their software bring?\r\nWhen choosing one or another system, it is difficult to unambiguously understand which solution will be the most suitable for an organization and why the introduction of CAD is generally necessary? To answer these questions, it is necessary, first of all, to determine the factors by which the economic efficiency of the implementation and use of the system is achieved, as well as refer to the world experience of using CAD systems.\r\nOne of the leaders conducting research in this area is the international research agency Aberdeen Group, which, together with Autodesk, since 2007, has issued a number of reports on this topic:\r\n<ul><li>Additional strategies for building digital and physical prototypes: how to avoid a crisis situation when developing products?</li><li>System design: Development of new products for mechatronics.</li><li>Technical Change Management 2.0: Intelligent Change Management to optimize business solutions.</li><li>Design without borders. Revenue growth through the use of 3D technology.</li></ul>\r\nThe organizations participating in the research were divided into three groups according to how they fulfill their calendar and budget: 20% are best-in-class companies (leading companies), 50% are companies with industry averages and 30% are companies with results below average. Then a comparative analysis was conducted to understand which processes, ways of organizing work and technology were more often used by the best-in-class companies.\r\nAccording to the results of research, the main economic factors affecting the economic efficiency of using CAD are time and money spent on developing prototypes of products of machine-building organizations, as well as time and costs of making changes to prototypes and manufactured products.\r\nThe participating companies were also interviewed about the main factors that, in their opinion, are the most significant prerequisites for the use of computer-aided design tools.\r\n<ul><li>91% of respondents put in the first place a reduction in product design time,</li><li>in second place with 38% - reducing the cost of design,</li><li>further follow: increase in manufacturability of designed products (30%), acceleration of product modifications in accordance with the requirements of Customers (product customization) - 15%.</li></ul>\r\nAn interesting feature is that, despite the great opportunities to reduce costs, as in previous studies, the key factor is the possibility of reducing the design time.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why use CAD the best engineering companies?</span>\r\nThe functionality of CAD, which is used by machine-building enterprises to achieve the above effects, can be divided into the following main areas:\r\n<ul><li>Development of the project concept in digital format.</li><li>Creation, optimization and approval of projects.</li><li>Design of electrical and mechanical parts.</li><li>Product data management.</li><li>Visualization of product solutions, reviews, sales and marketing.</li></ul>\r\nIt should be noted that the product data management functionality relates more to PDM / PLM solutions, however, computer-aided design systems are an integral part of them.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/CAD_for_mechanical_engineering_-_Computer-Aided_Design.png","alias":"cad-for-mechanical-engineering-computer-aided-design"},"59":{"id":59,"title":"SCADA - Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">SCADA</span> stands for <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition</span>, a term which describes the basic functions of a SCADA system. Companies use SCADA systems to control equipment across their sites and to collect and record data about their operations. SCADA is not a specific technology, but a type of application. Any application that gets operating data about a system in order to control and optimise that system is a SCADA application. That application may be a petrochemical distillation process, a water filtration system, a pipeline compressor, or just about anything else.\r\nSCADA solutions typically come in a combination of software and hardware elements, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and remote terminal units (RTUs). Data acquisition in SCADA starts with PLCs and RTUs, which communicate with plant floor equipment such as factory machinery and sensors. Data gathered from the equipment is then sent to the next level, such as a control room, where operators can supervise the PLC and RTU controls using human-machine interfaces (HMIs). HMIs are an important element of SCADA systems. They are the screens that operators use to communicate with the SCADA system.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The major components of a SCADA technology include:</span></p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Master Terminal Unit (MTU).</span> It comprises a computer, PLC and a network server that helps MTU to communicate with the RTUs. MTU begins communication, collects and saves data, helps to interface with operators and to communicate data to other systems.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Remote Terminal Unit (RTU).</span> RTU is used to collect information from these sensors and further sends the data to MTU. RTUs have the storage capacity facility. So, it stores the data and transmits the data when MTU sends the corresponding command.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Communication Network (defined by its network topology).</span> In general, network means connection. When you tell a SCADA communication network, it is defined as a link between RTU in the field to MTU in the central location. The bidirectional wired or wireless communication channel is used for the networking purpose. Various other communication mediums like fiber optic cables, twisted pair cables, etc. are also used.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Objectives of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system</span></p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Monitor:</span> SCADA control system continuously monitors the physical parameters</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Measure:</span> It measures the parameter for processing</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data Acquisition:</span> It acquires data from RTU, data loggers, etc</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data Communication:</span> It helps to communicate and transmit a large amount of data between MTU and RTU units</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Controlling:</span> Online real-time monitoring and controlling of the process</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Automation:</span> It helps for automatic transmission and functionality</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Who Uses SCADA?</h1>\r\nSCADA systems are used by industrial organizations and companies in the public and private sectors to control and maintain efficiency, distribute data for smarter decisions, and communicate system issues to help mitigate downtime. Supervisory control systems work well in many different types of enterprises because they can range from simple configurations to large, complex installations. They are the backbone of many modern industries, including:\r\n<ul><li>Energy</li><li>Food and beverage</li><li>Manufacturing</li><li>Oil and gas</li><li>Power</li><li>Recycling</li><li>Transportation</li><li>Water and waste water</li><li>And many more</li></ul>\r\nVirtually anywhere you look in today's world, there is some type of SCADA monitoring system running behind the scenes: maintaining the refrigeration systems at the local supermarket, ensuring production and safety at a refinery, achieving quality standards at a waste water treatment plant, or even tracking your energy use at home, to give a few examples. Effective SCADA systems can result in significant savings of time and money. Numerous case studies have been published highlighting the benefits and savings of using a modern SCADA software.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of using SCADA software</h1>\r\nUsing modern SCADA software provides numerous benefits to businesses, and helps companies make the most of those benefits. Some of these advantages include:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Easier engineering:</span> An advanced supervisory control application such provides easy-to-locate tools, wizards, graphic templates and other pre-configured elements, so engineers can create automation projects and set parameters quickly, even if they don't have programming experience. In addition, you can also easily maintain and expand existing applications as needed. The ability to automate the engineering process allows users, particularly system integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM), to set up complex projects much more efficiently and accurately.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Improved data management:</span> A high-quality SCADA system makes it easier to collect, manage, access and analyze your operational data. It can enable automatic data recording and provide a central location for data storage. Additionally, it can transfer data to other systems such as MES and ERP as needed. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Greater visibility:</span> One of the main advantages of using SCADA software is the improvement in visibility into your operations. It provides you with real-time information about your operations and enables you to conveniently view that information via an HMI. SCADA monitoring can also help in generating reports and analyzing data.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enhanced efficiency:</span> A SCADA system allows you to streamline processes through automated actions and user-friendly tools. The data that SCADA provides allows you to uncover opportunities for improving the efficiency of the operations, which can be used to make long-term changes to processes or even respond to real-time changes in conditions.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Increased usability:</span> SCADA systems enable workers to control equipment more quickly, easily and safely through an HMI. Rather than having to control each piece of machinery manually, workers can manage them remotely and often control many pieces of equipment from a single location. Managers, even those who are not currently on the floor, also gain this capability.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Reduced downtime:</span> A SCADA system can detect faults at an early stage and push instant alerts to the responsible personnel. Powered by predictive analytics, a SCADA system can also inform you of a potential issue of the machinery before it fails and causes larger problems. These features can help improve the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and reduce the amount of time and cost on troubleshooting and maintenance.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Easy integration:</span> Connectivity to existing machine environments is key to removing data silos and maximizing productivity. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Unified platform:</span>All of your data is also available in one platform, which helps you to get a clear overview of your operations and take full advantage of your data. All users also get real-time updates locally or remotely, ensuring everyone on your team is on the same page.<br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/SCADA__-_Supervisory_Control_And_Data_Acquisition.png","alias":"scada-supervisory-control-and-data-acquisition"},"60":{"id":60,"title":"GIS - Geographic information system","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">A geographic information system (GIS)</span> is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data. Rooted in the science of geography, GIS integrates many types of data. It analyzes spatial location and organizes layers of information into visualizations using maps and 3D scenes. With this unique capability, GIS reveals deeper insights into data, such as patterns, relationships, and situations — helping users make smarter decisions.\r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">GIS applications</span> are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations. GIS (more commonly GIScience) sometimes refers to geographic information science (GIScience), the science underlying geographic concepts, applications, and systems. Since the mid-1980s, geographic information systems have become valuable tool used to support a variety of city and regional planning functions.\r\nGIS can refer to a number of different technologies, processes, techniques and methods. It is attached to many operations and has many applications related to engineering, planning, management, transport/logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and business. For that reason, GIS and location intelligence applications can be the foundation for many location-enabled services that rely on analysis and visualization.\r\nGIS can relate unrelated information by using location as the key index variable. Locations or extents in the Earth space–time may be recorded as dates/times of occurrence, and x, y, and z coordinates representing, longitude, latitude, and elevation, respectively. All Earth-based spatial–temporal location and extent references should be relatable to one another and ultimately to a "real" physical location or extent. This key characteristic of GIS has begun to open new avenues of scientific inquiry.\r\nGeographic Information Systems are powerful decision-making tools for any business or industry since it allows the analyzation of environmental, demographic, and topographic data. Data intelligence compiled from gis software applications help companies and various industries, and consumers, make informed decisions.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Mapping.</span> GIS can be used to provide a visual interpretation of data. Google Maps is an excellent example of a web-based GIS mapping solution that people use for everyday navigation purposes.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Telecom and Network Services.</span> Organizations can incorporate geographic data into their complex network design, optimization, planning, and maintenance activities. This data enhances telecom processes through better customer-relationship management and location services.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Environmental Impact Analysis.</span> Data gathered via GIS program is vital for conserving natural resources and protecting the environment. Impact statements assess the magnitude of human impact on the environment, which GIS integration helps indicate.\r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Agricultural Applications.</span> Geo informatic system data helps create more efficient farming techniques, alongside analyzing soil data in an advanced fashion. This can increase food production in different parts of the world.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Navigation. </span>Web-based navigation maps use geo info systemsdata to provide the public with useful information. Web maps are regularly updated per GIS information and are used consistently in everyday life.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Banking.</span> Banking has evolved to become market-driven, and a bank’s success depends mainly on its ability to provide customer-driven services. GIS data plays an essential role in planning, organizing, and decision making in the banking industry.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Planning and Community Development. </span>GIS data helps us understand and meet global challenges. As GIS technology rapidly advances, there are various innovative applications in the planning sector. GIS tools can be used to integrate geographic intelligence into planning processes, and have the potential to change how we think and behave.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">How does GIS work? </h1>\r\nGIS technology applies geographic science with tools for understanding and collaboration. It helps people reach a common goal: to gain actionable intelligence from all types of data.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Maps: </span>maps are the geographic container for the data layers and analytics you want to work with. GIS maps are easily shared and embedded in apps, and accessible by virtually everyone, everywhere.<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><br /></span></li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Data:</span> GIS integrates many different kinds of data layers using spatial location. Most data has a geographic component. GIS data includes imagery, features, and basemaps linked to spreadsheets and tables.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Analysis:</span> spatial analysis lets you evaluate suitability and capability, estimate and predict, interpret and understand, and much more, lending new perspectives to your insight and decision-making.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Apps:</span> apps provide focused user experiences for getting work done and bringing GIS to life for everyone. GIS apps work virtually everywhere: on your mobile phones, tablets, in web browsers, and on desktops.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">What are the benefits benefits of Geographic Information Systems?</h1>\r\nMany different types of information can be compared and contrasted using GIS. The geo information services can include data about people, such as population, income, or education level. It can include information about the landscape, such as the location of streams, different kinds of vegetation, and different kinds of soil. It can include information about the sites of factories, farms, and schools, or storm drains, roads, and electric power lines.\r\nWith GIS technology, people can compare the locations of different things in order to discover how they relate to each other. For example, using GIS, a single map could include sites that produce pollution, such as factories, and sites that are sensitive to pollution, such as wetlands and rivers. Such a map would help people determine where water supplies are most at risk.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">What is GIS Mapping Software?</h1>\r\nGeographic information software lets you produce maps and other graphic displays of geographic information for analysis and presentation. With these capabilities a GIS is a valuable tool to visualize spatial data or to build decision support systems for use in your organization.\r\nA GIS stores data on geographical features and their characteristics. The features are typically classified as points, lines, or areas, or as raster images. On a map city data could be stored as points, road data could be stored as lines, and boundaries could be stored as areas, while aerial photos or scanned maps could be stored as raster images.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Application of Geographic Information Systems</h1>\r\nGIS can be used as tool in both problem solving and decision making processes, as well as for visualization of data in a spatial environment. Geospatial data can be analyzed to determine (1) the location of features and relationships to other features, (2) where the most and/or least of some feature exists, (3) the density of features in a given space, (4) what is happening inside an area of interest , (5) what is happening nearby some feature or phenomenon, and (6) and how a specific area has changed over time (and in what way).\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/GIS_-_Geographic_information_system.png","alias":"gis-geographic-information-system"},"61":{"id":61,"title":"CAM - Computer Aided Manufacturing","description":"Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is an application technology that uses computer software and machinery to facilitate and automate manufacturing processes. CAM is the successor of computer-aided engineering (CAE) and is often used in tandem with computer-aided design (CAD).\r\nIn addition to materials requirements, modern CAM systems include real-time controls and robotics.\r\nCAM reduces waste and energy for enhanced manufacturing and production efficiency via increased production speeds, raw material consistency and more precise tooling accuracy.\r\nCAM uses computer-driven manufacturing processes for additional automation of management, material tracking, planning and transportation. CAM also implements advanced productivity tools like simulation and optimization to leverage professional skills.\r\nDepending on enterprise solution and manufacturer, CAM may present inadequacies in the following areas:\r\n<ul><li>Manufacturing process and usage complexity</li><li>Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and modern enterprise integration</li><li>Machine process automation</li></ul>\r\nModern CAM solutions are scalable and range from discrete systems to multi-CAD 3D integration.\r\nCAM is often linked with CAD for more enhanced and streamlined manufacturing, efficient design and superior machinery automation.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How does CAM work?</span>\r\nComputer-aided manufacturing typically uses software to translate drawings and data into detailed instructions that can drive some sort of automated tool. As an example, a 2D digital drawing can be used to guide a laser or physical cutting tool to cut cladding or other components to fit an architect’s design.\r\nThe programming language generated from the drawing or another data set that is then used to control the machine tool is referred to within the industry as the G Code. This G-code tells the tool how to make something by telling the motors where to move, how fast to move, and what path to follow.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the relationship between CAM, CAD, and BIM?</span>\r\nCAM tends to go hand-in-hand with computer-aided design (CAD) and building information modeling (BIM), at least as far as its application in the construction industry goes. CAD allows architects and members of the design team to make drawings in 2D or create entire 3D models using computer software. This has a number of advantages over traditional pen and paper drawings, including the ability to redraw and redesign easily, to save component parts in databases and (in the case of 3D CAD) the ability to rotate and fly into or through the model.<br />BIM utilizes CAD but allows for collaboration between different design and construction stakeholders, who can work on their own models while accessing and combining with other parties’ models to create a central ‘federated’ BIM model. Additional data relating to elements such as cost and time can also be added.<br />The data from CAD and BIM drawings and models can be extracted and used to create the G Code used in computer-aided manufacturing. That closes the gap existing between the design and manufacturing stages and allows for the accurate realization of drawings, models and designs.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How is CAM being used in the construction industry?</span>\r\nCAM is being used onsite all around the world, although as of yet, it is still far from commonplace. CAM generally falls into two broad types: reductive and additive.\r\nReductive processes involve getting rid of material, and this includes the previous example of guiding a cutting tool to cut out a section of cladding. These cutting and shaping processes are currently the more commonly used types of CAM, and the laser cutting of sheet metal is certainly becoming more common. CNC (computer numerical control) routing uses a spinning component to carve materials into the desired shape while laser and water cutting can be used on relatively thin panels and pieces.\r\nAdditive processes involve adding material. They are far less common at present, but the arrival of 3D printers makes this a very exciting area. We could see walls and whole structures being ‘printed’, while robotics open up another avenue. Robot bricklayers and saws have already been trialed, and in some cases, deployed on construction sites.\r\nModular construction is another area where the potential for CAM is huge. In this method, buildings and other structures are assembled from components that are prefabricated offsite in manufacturing plants before being transported to the construction site for assembly. Sweden is a world leader in modular construction, with 84% of detached homes in the country using some prefabricated elements. Modular construction is also taking off in Germany and, while it’s not quite as popular in the UK and the USA, advances in CAM technology can be used to greatly enhance the efficiency of the offsite modular building, speeding up and improving the accuracy of the component construction.\r\nOne example of modular building is GSK’s ‘factory in a box’. Created using CAD and BIM systems, this provides a color-coded pharmaceutical factory that can be shipped to developing areas in crates and put together like an altogether more impressive set of flat-pack furniture.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The benefits of CAM</span>\r\nUsing CAM has a number of benefits when it comes to creating components used in building construction. Compared to manually operated machines, CAM generally offers:\r\n<ul><li>Greater speed in producing components</li><li>Greater accuracy and consistency, with each component or finished product exactly the same</li><li>Greater efficiency as computer controlled machines do not need to take breaks</li><li>High sophistication in terms of following complex patterns like tracks on circuit boards</li></ul>\r\nThere are some limitations. CAM-enabled machines are generally designed for a particular task and are not incredibly versatile, although new systems and designs are emerging all the time.\r\nThey also need upfront investment and skilled operators and programmers. Once in place, however, they could potentially bring large savings in time and efficiency, thereby reducing costs and saving companies thousands.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/CAM_-_Computer_Aided_Manufacturing.png","alias":"cam-computer-aided-manufacturing"},"62":{"id":62,"title":"CAE - Computer-aided engineering","description":"Computer-aided engineering (CAE) is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering analysis tasks. It includes finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), multibody dynamics (MBD), durability and optimization.\r\nComputer Software used to analyse CAD geometry tools that have been developed to support these activities are considered CAE tools. CAE tools are being used, for example, to analyse the robustness and performance of components and assemblies. The term encompasses simulation, validation, and optimisation of products and manufacturing tools. In the future, CAE systems will be major providers of information to help support design teams in decision making. Computer-aided engineering is used in many fields such as automotive, aviation, space, and shipbuilding industries.\r\nIn regard to information networks, CAE systems are individually considered a single node on a total information network and each node may interact with other nodes on the network.\r\nCAE systems can provide support to businesses. This is achieved by the use of reference architectures and their ability to place information views on the business process. Reference architecture is the basis from which information model, especially product and manufacturing models.\r\nThe term CAE has also been used by some in the past to describe the use of computer technology within engineering in a broader sense than just engineering analysis. It was in this context that the term was coined by Jason Lemon, founder of SDRC in the late 1970s. This definition is however better known today by the terms CAx and PLM.\r\nCAE areas covered include:\r\n<ul><li>Stress analysis on components and assemblies using Finite Element Analysis (FEA);</li><li>Thermal and fluid flow analysis Computational fluid dynamics (CFD);</li><li>Multibody dynamics (MBD) and Kinematics;</li><li>Analysis tools for process simulation for operations such as casting, molding, and die press forming.</li><li>Optimization of the product or process.</li></ul>\r\nIn general, there are three phases in any computer-aided engineering task:\r\n<ul><li>Pre-processing – defining the model and environmental factors to be applied to it. (typically a finite element model, but facet, voxel and thin sheet methods are also used)</li><li>Analysis solver (usually performed on high powered computers)</li><li>Post-processing of results (using visualization tools)</li></ul>\r\nThis cycle is iterated, often many times, either manually or with the use of commercial optimization software.\r\nEven though CAE has built a strong reputation as a verification, troubleshooting and analysis tool, there is still a perception that sufficiently accurate results come rather late in the design cycle to really drive the design. This can be expected to become a problem as modern products become ever more complex. They include smart systems, which leads to an increased need for multi-physics analysis including controls, and contain new lightweight materials, to which engineers are often less familiar. CAE software companies and manufacturers are constantly looking for tools and process improvements to change this situation. On the software side, they are constantly looking to develop more powerful solvers, better use computer resources and include engineering knowledge in pre- and post-processing. On the process side, they try to achieve a better alignment between 3D CAE, 1D System Simulation and physical testing. This should increase modeling realism and calculation speed. On top of that, they try to better integrate CAE in the overall product lifecycle management. In this way, they can connect product design with product use, which is an absolute must for smart products. Such an enhanced engineering process is also referred to as predictive engineering analytics.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What does Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) mean?</span>\r\nComputer-aided engineering (CAE) is the process of solving engineering problems through the use of sophisticated, interactive graphical software.\r\nCAE is one of the leading softwares employed by manufacturing organizations to mass produce products in a factory-based environment. It allows for more computations than is possible by hand, especially when it is coupled with optimization systems.\r\nA CAE program is a mathematical model written in a programming language using a set of algortihms that define the manufacturing processes.\r\nThe process starts by first defining the analysis of the mathematical phenomenon. Next, the equations have to be defined. Finally, a model of physical configuration is created.This model may consist of 2-D or 3-D figures/shapes/curves/surfaces. This model is than applied to an actual production mechanism to design and develop the product.\r\nComputer aided engineering is complemented by computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/CAE_-_Computer-aided_engineering.png","alias":"cae-computer-aided-engineering"},"63":{"id":63,"title":"PDM - Product Data Management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Product data management (PDM)</span> is a system for managing design data and engineering processes in one central location. Engineering teams use PDM software to organize product-related information, track revisions, collaborate, manage change orders, generate Bills of Materials (BOMs), and more. With a single source for project data, engineers save time and avoid mistakes.\r\nThe product means, as a rule, some kind of high-tech products (automobiles, ships, airplanes, etc.) in the design, production, operation and utilization of which it is necessary to process and control large volumes of engineering and technical data.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">PDM system uses several technologies:</span>\r\n<ul><li>EDM (engineering data management).</li><li>PIM (product information management).</li><li>TDM (technical data management).</li><li>TIM (technical information management).</li><li>Managing images and documents, manipulating information related to the product.</li></ul>\r\nPDM systems provide the data necessary for the correct operation of MRP (material requirements planning) and CRP systems (capacity requirements planning). Unlike traditional databases, product data management system can accumulate data of any format and type: text documents, geometric models, the data needed for automatic production lines, CNC machines, etc. There can be so much data that it can be used as a "digital layout" of the product.\r\nThe PDM integration with existing CAD systems at the enterprise can significantly increase the efficiency of their use. This happens due to the fact that after integration, it becomes possible to organize work on the project in multi-user mode, to exchange information between developers (possibly in different places) in real time. At the same time, in order to avoid unauthorized modification of documents, different access modes are provided to different users.\r\nEnterprise PDM software can help you create better designs, reduce errors, and build a more efficient development cycle with <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">features </span>including:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">CAD file management.</span> Take control of your valuable design files with PDM. Direct CAD-integration keeps your data in sync in real time.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Revision control.</span> Automatically capture the revision history on documents as you work. Never lose track of changes.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Business system integration.</span> Integrate design data with systems like MRPs and ERPs.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Access control.</span> Strengthen data security by controlling access with permissions for version control and retrieval.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Engineering change orders.</span> Easily manage engineering change orders (ECOs) with a workflows that help automate the process.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">External collaboration.</span> Share 2D or 3D views of your work with others and get comments and feedback directly inside your product.</li></ul>\r\n<br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">What is PDM or PLM software?</h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">PLM </span>stands for <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Product Lifecycle Management.</span> It’s a tool that guides products through the product development lifecycle. And as products and supply chains get more complex, a way to manage the development process becomes more and more important. PLMs usually give organizations:\r\n<ul><li>Workflows</li><li>Milestones or stage gates</li><li>CAD/BOM syncing</li><li>Change management processes.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">PDM </span>stands for <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Product Data Management.</span> Product data management tools manage data as it moves through the product lifecycle. Specifically, product data management solutions keep CAD files organized and version controlled. This is usually achieved with a check-in/check-out file structure and a centralized storage solution, either in an on-premise server, a privately managed network or, increasingly, a cloud server.\r\nIn a nutshell, PLM is responsible for the process and the system that product development happens in. PDM is responsible for managing the actual digital product files that move through that PLM process.\r\nData management system software is focused on capturing and maintaining information on products and/or services through its development and useful life. Typical information managed in the PDM module include:\r\n<ul><li>Brand name;</li><li>Part number;</li><li>Part description;</li><li>Supplier/vendor;</li><li>Vendor part number and description;</li><li>Unit of measure;</li><li>Cost/price;</li><li>Schematic or CAD drawing;</li><li>Material data-sheets.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Why you need a PDM</h1>\r\nThe problem is that engineering data is clunky and complex. Engineering teams manage enormous assemblies that can only be manipulated by specific programs. Maintaining consistency across versions, especially for companies with global design offices, is difficult. PDM data management software makes this easier by:\r\n<ul><li>Ensuring there’s a single version of every file</li><li>Tracking each change as new versions come in</li><li>Creating unique part numbers for every individual part/file that make up the overall assembly</li><li>Check-in/check-out file formats.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PDM_-_Product_Data_Management1.png","alias":"pdm-product-data-management"},"64":{"id":64,"title":"PLM - Product Lifecycle Management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Product lifecycle management,</span> sometimes "product life cycle management", PLM, represents an all-encompassing vision for managing all data relating to the design, production, support and ultimate disposal of manufactured goods. Product life management concepts were first introduced where safety and control have been extremely important, notably the aerospace, medical device, military and nuclear industries. These industries originated the discipline of configuration management (CM), which evolved into electronic data management systems (EDMS), which then further evolved to product data management (PDM).\r\nOver the last ten years, manufacturers of instrumentation, industrial machinery, consumer electronics, packaged goods and other complex engineered products have discovered the benefits of PLM management and are adopting efficient PLM software in increasing numbers.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The PLM Stages</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Beginning of Life (BOL):</span> The beginning of life phase includes all of the design and manufacturing, which consists of the initial conceptualization and development, and any prototypes built. Initial development has multiple sub-actions that identify all the requirements, concepts, and necessary testing. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Middle of Life (MOL):</span> The middle of life phase is post-manufacturing, when your product is distributed, used, and serviced. At this point, your product is in the hands of the end user. You can collect data on any failures, maintenance rates, and user experience to get information for immediate fixes and future development.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">End of Life (EOL):</span> The end of life phase is the retiring, recycling, or disposing of your product. At this point, the reverse logistics happen for the company. EOL starts when users no longer have a need for the product. At this stage, companies collect information about what parts and materials are still valuable.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Product lifecycle management software</span> is used to deliver all kinds of products to market, which means there are a lot of different providers out there. Its purpose today is to help organizations: \r\n<ol><li>Develop new products using CAD software</li><li>Produce and manufacture new products</li><li>Bring those products to market</li></ol>\r\nAnd increasingly, product life management software has to process the feedback from the market back to the design and production processes. To achieve these goals, product lifecycle management solutions have to do four things:\r\n<ul><li>Link together CAD metadata with a bill of materials</li><li>Manage workflows for organizations needed to bring products to market</li><li>Manage product data as they move through the product development lifecycle stages</li><li> Hook in auxiliary suppliers and business stakeholders to a shared version of truth or single source of truth.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Top PLM System Software Requirements</h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Bill of Materials.</span> Having a common source of information across your company is incredibly important during product development. That’s why a bill of materials (BOM) is key to include in your list of product lifecycle management requirements. At the very least, your system should provide a single definition of a particular product and its components. More advanced options include features specifically designed for different team members such as designers, engineers and other professionals who frequently collaborate.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Computer-Aided Design Management.</span> Managing your CAD activities and documents is more than useful when it comes to PLM. Your solution should be able to manage changes to product configurations while maintaining the functional and physical attributes of a product throughout its lifecycle. Production engineering changes should proliferate throughout your processes, with the changes evident in the subsequent BOMs and plans.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Manufacturing Product Management.</span> During a product’s lifecycle, you want to keep an eye on your portfolio. With portfolio management, users can determine the proper investment balance to maximize their research and development investment returns. Some systems provide strategy tools to spotlight priorities and support planning. Top PLM software can even determine the best possible investment scenario. Users can also track project progress to completion, which is automatically documented in the product record. This allows greater insight into your processes, facilitating better resource management and allocation.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Product Regulation and Governance.</span> Failing to follow regulation and compliance standards is one of the quickest ways to earn your business a bad reputation. But having the right tools built into your product life management system can make staying compliant much easier than it would be otherwise. Your solution should be able to centralize relevant information and documentation, making it easier for enterprise organizations to achieve and maintain compliance. You also may choose a system that can comply with medical, environmental, safety, FSA and ISO standards depending on your industry.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Project and Component Maintenance.</span> Project management tools are vital for providing users visibility into daily processes and progress. These features include tracking and scheduling capabilities, which enable you to manage product development along with resource allocation in real time. Users can also see upcoming milestones and constraints for further planning.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Quote Process Management.</span> Data from many different sources is often needed during the quote process. PLM’s inherent coordination capabilities gather and organize data pertaining to product design to support your engineering teams. This includes teams developing engineer-to-order and configure-to-order products. The system only shares the necessary data, meaning your team members can spend more time focusing on their work and less on hunting down information. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Risk Management. </span>This feature brings risks to users’ attention, allowing them to manage, report and mitigate those instabilities. Reducing risks early on prevents issues from growing as they move through product development unseen, reducing the overall cost of development. Some systems do this by “detecting” or “highlighting” risks, whereas some systems simply offer full visibility through PM tools.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Workflow and Change Management.</span> Plainly said, this suite of PLM software tools gives users insight into product activities. Users can determine phases for a project, as well as assign milestones to keep projects on track. Some systems allow users to see all pending and implemented changes, as well as all items that endure the subsequent effects. This visibility extends to portfolio and resource management, also.\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PLM_-_Product_Lifecycle_Management.png","alias":"plm-product-lifecycle-management"},"66":{"id":66,"title":"BPM - Business Process Management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Business process management (BPM)</span> is a discipline in operations management in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. BPM focuses on improving corporate performance by managing business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company's business processes is BPM. Processes can be structured and repeatable or unstructured and variable.\r\nAs an approach, BPM sees processes as important assets of an organization that must be understood, managed, and developed to announce and deliver value-added products and services to clients or customers. This approach closely resembles other total quality management or continuous improvement process methodologies. ISO 9000 promotes the process approach to managing an organization.<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"></span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Successfully employing BPM usually involves the following:</span>\r\nOrganizing around outcomes not tasks to ensure the proper focus is maintained\r\nCorrecting and improving processes before (potentially) automating them; otherwise all you’ve done is make the mess run faster\r\nEstablishing processes and assigning ownership lest the work and improvements simply drift away – and they will, as human nature takes over and the momentum peters out\r\nStandardizing processes across the enterprise so they can be more readily understood and managed, errors reduced, and risks mitigated\r\nEnabling continuous change so the improvements can be extended and propagated over time\r\nImproving existing processes, rather than building radically new or “perfect” ones, because that can take so long as to erode or negate any gains achieved\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Business Process Management Software (BPMS)</span> is a process automation tool. It helps you map out your everyday processes to identify and eliminate bottlenecks, control your company’s costs, make your day-to-day processes as efficient as possible, and ensure the effectiveness of the people involved in your processes. A business process management solution to a company’s needs begins with the alignment of business goals with an eye toward creating value through process change initiatives. This alignment leads to a thorough understanding and design of representative processes typically following an industry standard framework \r\nA BPM based foundation provides for complete lifecycle management of business processes, integration across technologies, and imbeds efficiency among people, processes, and technologies.\r\nCommercial business process management tools tend to center on the automation of business processes, essentially moving them from manual pen-and-paper endeavors to effortless automated transactions. BPM software products track how business information is used and then maps the relevant business process and ensure that transactions are done accordingly. This effectively shows where data and process bottlenecks occur and highlights various deficiencies in business processes, including areas where resources are wasted, allowing managers streamline and optimize those processes.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">There are three key types of BPMS:</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Efficiency Monitors:</span>Monitors every system of the enterprise for inefficiency in the processes by following it from start to finish. BPM program accurately pinpoints weakness and bottlenecks where customers might get frustrated and discontinue transactions and processes.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Workflow Software:</span> Uses detailed maps of an existing processes and tries to streamline them by optimizing certain steps. BPM workflow software cannot suggest improvements to the process, only optimize it, so this software is only as good as the process itself.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enterprise Application Integration Tools:</span> A mixture of efficiency monitors, process and workflow management, EAI software is used to integrate legacy systems into new systems. This software can be used to map points for integrating old and new systems, optimizing their information-gathering characteristics and increasing the efficiency of system communications.<br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">What Are the Types of Business Process Management Software?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\">There are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">three basic kinds</span> of BPM frameworks:</p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Horizontal frameworks.</span>They deal with design and development of business processes. They are generally focused on technology and reuse.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Vertical BPM frameworks.</span> This focuses on specific sets of coordinated tasks, using pre-built templates which can be easily deployed and configured.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Full-service BPM suites.</span> They have five basic components: Process discovery and project scoping; Process modeling and design; Business rules engine; Workflow engine; Simulation and testing.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\">There are <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">two types of BPM software</span> as it pertains to deployment:<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">On-premise</span> business process management (BPM). This has been the norm for most enterprises.</p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software as a Service (SaaS).</span> Advances in cloud computing have led to an increased interest in various “software-on-demand” offerings.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">What are BPM Tools?</h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Business Process Management (BPM) tools</span> are used for automating, measuring and optimizing business processes. BPM automation tools use workflow and collaboration to provide meaningful metrics to business leaders.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Misconceptions about BPM Tools.</span> There’s a common misconception that BPM tools do not easily demonstrate their benefit to the organization. While the benefit from using BPM tools can be hard to quantify, it can be expressed more effectively in terms of business value.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Process Management Tools.</span> Tools that allow process managers (those that are responsible for organizing the process or activity) to secure the resources needed to execute it, and measure the results of the activity, providing rewards or corrective feedback when necessary. Process manager tools also allows process managers to change and improve the process whenever possible.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Process Modeling Tools.</span> Software tools that let managers or analysts create business process diagrams. Simple tools only support diagramming. Professional Process Modeling Tools store each model element in a database so that they can be reused on other diagrams or updated. Many business process improvement software supports simulation or code generation.<br /><br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/BPM_-_Business_Process_Management.png","alias":"bpm-business-process-management"},"67":{"id":67,"title":"WMS - Warehouse Management System","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">A warehouse management system (WMS)</span> is software and processes that allow organizations to control and administer warehouse operations from the time goods or materials enter a warehouse until they move out. \r\nA WMS handles the orchestration of <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">tasks </span>involved with:<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"></span>\r\n- Inbound and outbound operations\r\n- Inventory tracking\r\n- Processing orders and shipments\r\n- Inventory cycle counts\r\n- Order processing and shipping\r\nUsing a database that has been configured to support the operation of a warehouse, a warehouse system is a powerful tool to drive efficiency and accuracy across the business.The warehouse management software provides the means of warehouse control, enabling facility managers to have visibility into processes, labor resource activity, and much more.\r\nData involving operational processes flows into the warehouse system software from automated data capture methods such as barcode scanners, mobile computers and RFID enabled devices. The data is then used throughout the system to track inventory through the progression of warehouse processes.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Types of warehouse management systems</span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">WMS come in a variety of types and implementation methods, and the type typically depends on the size and nature of the organization. They can be <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">stand-alone systems</span> or <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">modules </span>in a larger enterprise resource planning (ERP) system or supply chain execution suite.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">They can also <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">vary</span> widely <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">in complexity.</span> Some small organizations may use a simple series of hard copy documents or spreadsheet files, but most larger organizations - from small to medium-sized businesses to enterprise companies - use complex and smart warehouse system. Some warehouse management solutions are designed specifically for the size of the organization, and many vendors have versions of WMS products that can scale to different organizational sizes. Some organizations build their own warehouse software from scratch, but it's more common to implement a WMS from an established vendor.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">A WMS can also be designed or configured for the <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">organization's specific requirements</span>; for example, an e-commerce vendor might use a WMS that has different functions than a brick-and-mortar retailer. Additionally, an enterprise WMS may also be designed or configured specifically for the types of goods the organization sells; for example, a sporting goods retailer would have different requirements than a grocery chain.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"> </p>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">How does using a Warehouse Management System help a business be more competitive?</h1>\r\nToday, businesses across the supply chain use warehouses to store goods on their way to customers. Whether the goods are destined for consumers, retailers, manufacturers or other business entities, it is important that whatever goods are ordered, shipped and delivered are processed properly, quickly, reliably and accurately.\r\nThe speed at which operational processes are performed, whether in a fulfillment center, third party logistics warehouse or distribution center is often a critical factor. \r\nUsing a WMS products that is appropriate for the needs of your operation can help you optimize operational processes for greater efficiency, enhance labor productivity, provide valuable insight into your operation and enable you to compete for, win and retain clients.\r\nHere are some other reasons why using a management warehouse system gives your business a competitive edge:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enables stringent inventory management and inventory control capabilities.</span></li></ul>\r\n Helps ensure optimal handling, storage, processing and tracking of inventory. Increased operational efficiency helps keep costs and errors down, critical in attracting and retaining clients.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Real time information visibility.</span></li></ul>\r\nThese days, data is seamlessly transmitted across the warehouse and along the supply chain. Using warehouse software solutions with automated data collection such as barcode scanners, mobile computers or RFID enables the capture and use of vital information for quick decision making and planning.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Automated operations reduce errors, wasted time and inefficiency from manual operations and workarounds.</span></li></ul>\r\nMany warehousing management solutions are now workflow-based or workflow-driven. This means that the WMS can automate the execution of work, step-by-step to ensure greater accuracy. Not only is this important for efficiency and error reduction but also for ensuring that quality control and quality assurance processes are carried out in conjunction with established SOPs. This can prove especially critical when dealing with temperature-sensitive products, fragile inventory and perishable goods.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Speed, agility and reliability of warehouse operations.</span></li></ul>\r\nSpeed and agility are critical factors in warehouse operations and provide keen competitive advantage, especially if you are competing against a rival that is still using a legacy WMS or no system at all. A cutting-edge warehouse management software solutions make use of data to plan, execute and report on operations reliably, quickly and efficiently and can adapt to changing business conditions.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enhanced workforce productivity, essential to daily operations.</span></li></ul>\r\nUsing a WMS helps provide your business with key metrics to use to properly manage, train and engage with your workforce. Getting the most work done in less time with fewer errors means that there will be less work done researching and correcting errors and billing. This lowers the burden on customer service representatives so that they can focus on providing top quality support.<br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/WMS_-_Warehouse_Management_System.png","alias":"wms-warehouse-management-system"},"70":{"id":70,"title":"OLAP - online analytical processing","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">OLAP (online analytical processing)</span> is a computing method that enables users to easily and selectively extract and query data in order to analyze it from different points of view. OLAP business intelligence queries often aid in trends analysis, financial reporting, sales forecasting, budgeting and other planning purposes.\r\nTo facilitate this kind of analysis, data is collected from multiple data sources and stored in data warehouses then cleansed and organized into <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">data cubes.</span> Each OLAP cube contains data categorized by dimensions (such as customers, geographic sales region and time period) derived by dimensional tables in the data warehouses. Dimensions are then populated by members (such as customer names, countries and months) that are organized hierarchically.\r\nAnalysts can then perform five types of online analytical processing system operations against these multidimensional databases: \r\n<ol><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Roll-up.</span> Also known as consolidation, or drill-up, this operation summarizes the data along the dimension.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Drill-down.</span> This allows analysts to navigate deeper among the dimensions of data, for example drilling down from "time period" to "years" and "months" to chart sales growth for a product.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Slice. </span>This enables an analyst to take one level of information for display</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Dice. </span>This allows an analyst to select data from multiple dimensions to analyze</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Pivot.</span> Analysts can gain a new view of data by rotating the data axes of the cube.</li></ol>\r\nOLAP software then locates the intersection of dimensions, such as all products sold in the Eastern region above a certain price during a certain time period, and displays them. The result is the "measure"; each OLAP cube has at least one to perhaps hundreds of measures, which are derived from information stored in fact tables in the data warehouse.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Types of OLAP: </span></p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Relational online analytical processing (ROLAP):</span> ROLAP is an extended RDBMS along with multidimensional data mapping to perform the standard relational operation.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP):</span> MOLAP Implementes operation in multidimensional data.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Hybrid OnlineAnalytical Processing (HOLAP):</span> In HOLAP approach the aggregated totals are stored in a multidimensional database while the detailed data is stored in the relational database. This offers both data efficiency of the ROLAP model and the performance of the MOLAP model.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Desktop OLAP (DOLAP):</span> In Desktop OLAP system, a user downloads a part of the data from the database locally, or on their desktop and analyze it. DOLAP is relatively cheaper to deploy as it offers very few functionalities compares to other OLAP tools.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web based OLAP (WOLAP):</span> Web OLAP which is OLAP system accessible via the web browser. WOLAP is a three-tiered architecture. It consists of three components: client, middleware, and a database server.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Mobile OLAP:</span> Mobile OLAP process helps users to access and analyze OLAP data using their mobile devices</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Spatial OLAP:</span> SOLAP is created to facilitate management of both spatial and non-spatial data in a Geographic Information system (GIS) </li></ul>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Implementing an OLAP Solution</h1>\r\nImplementation of OLAP depends not only on the type of software, but also on underlying data sources and the intended business objective(s). Each industry or business area is specific and requires some degree of customized modeling to create multidimensional “cubes” for data loading and reporting building, at minimum. An OLAP program might be intended for dynamic reporting for finance professionals, with source data originating in an ERP system. Or a solution might address a medical institution’s activities as concerns patient analysis. All of which is to say that customers need to have clear objectives in mind for an intended solution, and start to consider product selection on that basis. Another factor to consider in an OLAP implementation is the delivery to end users: does the initial user base want to adopt a new front end, or is there a preference for utilizing a dashboard? Or perhaps users are better served by a dynamic spreadsheet “delivery” system to achieve, for example, a collaborative budgeting and forecasting solution.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Advantages and Disadvantages of OLAP</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Advantages</span></p>\r\n<ul><li>OLAP is a platform for all type of business includes planning, budgeting, reporting, and analysis.</li><li>Information and calculations are consistent in an OLAP cube. This is a crucial benefit.</li><li>Quickly create and analyze "What if" scenarios</li><li>Easily search OLAP database for broad or specific terms.</li><li>OLAP provides the building blocks for business modeling tools, Data mining tools, performance reporting tools.</li><li>Allows users to do slice and dice cube data all by various dimensions, measures, and filters.</li><li>It is good for analyzing time series.</li><li>Finding some clusters and outliers is easy with OLAP.</li><li> It is a powerful visualization online analytical process system which provides faster response times</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Disadvantages</span></p>\r\n<ul><li>OLAP requires organizing data into a star or snowflake schema. These schemas are complicated to implement and administer.</li><li>You cannot have large number of dimensions in a single OLAP cube.</li><li>Transactional data cannot be accessed with OLAP system.</li><li>Any modification in an OLAP cube needs a full update of the cube. This is a time-consuming process.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/OLAP_-__online_analytical_processing.png","alias":"olap-online-analytical-processing"},"72":{"id":72,"title":"LMS - Learning Management System","description":"A<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"> learning management system (LMS</span>) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">L — Learning. </span>With an LMS, you can create a single source of online courses and training materials. This will become a unique source of knowledge in your area so that you can keep and increase the in-house expertise of your company.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">M — Management.</span> You can manage courses and learners, and even improve your own efficiency. Unlike file-sharing services, an LMS is not just a heap of files; it’s a well-organized system where you manage the training process. To start training, simply add employees and assign courses.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">S — System.</span> A computer system, to be exact. An LMS automates the most boring and tedious work such as grading, processing statistics, and preparing reports. Plus, you can train your employees without leaving the office, managing all the processes right from your work computer.</li></ul>\r\nThe learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning. Although the first LMS appeared in the higher education sector, the majority of the LMSs today focus on the corporate market. Learning Management Systems make up the largest segment of the learning system market. \r\nLearning management systems were designed to identify training and learning gaps, utilizing analytical data and reporting. LMSs are focused on online learning delivery but support a range of uses, acting as a platform for online content, including courses, both asynchronous based and synchronous based. Learning management solutions may offer classroom management for instructor-led training or a flipped classroom, used in higher education, but not in the corporate space. \r\nMost modern learning management systems are web-based. There are a variety of integration strategies for embedding content into LMSs, including AICC, xAPI (also called 'Tin Can'), SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) and LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability). LMSs were originally designed to be locally hosted on-premises, where the organization purchases a license to a version of the software, and installs it on their own servers and network. Many LMSs are now offered as SaaS (software as a service), with hosting provided by the vendors.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Features Of An LMS</span></p>\r\nAll modern LMSs are loaded with many features. Some of the common features are:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Course content authoring and upload.</span> An LMS lets you author course content and upload course content in a wide variety of formats including audio, video, multimedia, documents, etc.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">User and course management.</span> An LMS offers user management and course management. User enrollment, tagging, course administration, order management, pre-registration and assigning courses can be done semi-automatically.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Communication management.</span> An LMS can handle all course communications and notifications to concerned users. For example, an LMS can automatically send a notification to all enrolled users when a new assignment is uploaded by the teacher. There is no need to copy and paste contact data or switch between two digital services.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Report management. </span>An LMS can generate a wide variety of reports, including student progress, score, student engagement, etc. The data can be utilized to gain valuable insight into the effectiveness of the course content.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Assessment creation and management.</span> Assessments are a key part of any course. An LMS makes it easy to create and manage these assessments, both system evaluated and tutor evaluated. You can get a result in a single click for all students.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Types of Learning Management Systems</span></h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Free vs. Commercial.</span> This is typically one of the first dilemmas organizations face when choosing an LMS.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Free, open-source software</span> has a pretty clear upside: It’s free. Also, because the source code is open, it can be modified to be highly customizable for each organization. However, most free LMS products tend to be more complicated than commercial products — typically they are utilized by more sophisticated users. \r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Commercial software</span>, on the other hand, offers users a support staff, and tends to be much easier to deploy, and use. But of course it costs money. Among commercial LMS products, there are typically two main forms: Installed, or the service-based cloud option.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Installed vs. SaaS.</span> One of the most important elements of an LMS is the ability to scale up or down quickly and easily. Commercial LMS software solutions are typically sold as either a locally hosted enterprise product, which is hosted on an organization’s own servers, or as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, which is hosted on the vendor’s servers and is accessible from anywhere (the data is stored in “the cloud”).\r\nGenerally,<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"> cloud-based</span> LMS products offer trainers more flexibility when it comes to scaling up or down. Because the product is sold as a “service” (usually monthly), the burden of making systems upgrades, freeing up bandwidth, and providing IT support falls on the vendor. Because data does not have to be stored on local servers, scalability isn’t a concern; most SaaS LMSs can ramp up or down by thousands of users with ease.\r\nA <span style=\"font-style: italic; \">locally installed LMS</span> offers users the ability to individualize and customize their LMS. So if an organization already has an IT staff in place that can administer the system, handle support and customization and scalability concerns, a locally hosted LMS can be powerful.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Course-creating or not. </span>Another thing to look for in an LMS is whether it comes with the ability to create training content. In some cases, an LMS is simply a tool to distribute course content, which must be created in a Learning Content Management System elsewhere.\r\nSome LMS systems, however, do come with some authoring tools that allow trainers and designers to develop their own unique content. Other LMS vendors offer separate course-creation tools for purchase, while some offer no authoring tools whatsoever, and instead rely on third-party course materials.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Integrated. </span>As LMS systems become more sophisticated, one of the most exciting developments is the ability for the system to integrate with other applications your organization already uses — whether that’s internal calendars, email, or social networks. \r\nOther LMS products may also integrate closely with <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">talent management systems</span>, which tend to focus on providing support to Human Resource staff functions like recruiting, performance management, and payroll. Depending on your organization’s needs, you may keep an eye out for an LMS that features this sort of app integration.<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"></span>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Choosing a Learning Management System</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Choosing the right LMS is crucial to the success of your eLearning strategy. The selection process may seem overly complicated and stressful, but it doesn’t have to be! With these steps to choosing an LMS, you’ll discover a simple and straightforward technique to help you choose perfect LMS for your business needs. </p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Identify your audience.</span> Identify exactly what you need from your LMS and who your learning content is aimed towards. This will vary depending on your learner audience and the type of training you wish to deliver.\r\nIf you’re<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"> </span><span style=\"font-style: italic; \">training your employees,</span> you’ll need an LMS tools to formalize learning processes, like employee onboarding, and improve employee retention.\r\nIf <span style=\"font-style: italic; \">compliance training </span>is your focus, you’ll need an LMS that makes it easy to achieve, maintain, and track compliance.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Customer training</span> delivered through an LMS optimizes onboarding, increases retention and presents opportunities for upselling thanks to customers who complete training having a more thorough understanding of your product or service.\r\nIf you need an LMS for <span style=\"font-style: italic; \">partner training,</span> your priorities will be scaling your partner business while building and protecting your brand. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Focus on important features. </span>There are many basic LMS’s out there, but your LMS has to support your “need to have” features to ensure it’s fit for purpose. Some examples of invaluable LMS features include:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Ease of use</span> - A platform that’s easy to use ensures your learners and admins can use the LMS without needing training on how to do so. This makes the process of using the LMS a positive experience, increasing engagement.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Reporting</span> - LMS reporting makes it easy to accurately track learner progression, course status and completion rate, exam results, etc.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Integrations</span> - By integrating applications you already use in your organization, you’ll get the most efficiency out of your LMS. LMS integration can help increase learner and admin engagement, and delivers a better user experience.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">SCORM and xAPI compliant </span>- Ensuring your LMS is SCORM and xAPI compliant is a pretty essential feature. If the LMS you’re considering isn’t compliant, it’s likely it’s a very basic system.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Portals</span> - Learning portals offer your learners a great user experience, but also make it possible to manage multiple training audiences in one system.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Evaluate each LMS. </span></span><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Start evaluating potential contenders by doing an initial round of high-level research to identify systems that appear to meet both your training audience and features list needs. This will become your LMS longlist. Once compiled you can then evaluate each one individually to rule it in or out of the next stage of selection.</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Look beyond the LMS.</span> Go online and research LMS vendors on your shortlist. Find out as much as you can about each company. Once you’re satisfied with the company’s reputation, peer reviews, and support services, sign yourself up for a free trial and demo so that you can see the LMS in action and understand how the system will meet your audience and feature requirements. You could also submit support tickets to each vendor during your free trial to compare the responsiveness and attentiveness of each support team. \r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the advantages and disadvantages?</span><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"></span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Advantages:</span></span> </p>\r\nThere are six major advantages of LMS: interoperability, accessibility, reusability, durability, maintenance ability and adaptability, which in themselves constitute the concept of LMS.\r\nOther advantages include:\r\n<ul><li>An LMS supports content in various formats: text, video, audio, etc.</li><li>One can access materials anytime, from everywhere, teachers can modify the content, and students can see the updated material.</li><li>The evaluation of students is easier and fair, based on student attendance and online quizzes.</li><li>Students and teachers can re-use the material every time they need.</li><li>Students can learn collaboratively by setting up a School website with the LMS software and helps "Keeps organizations up-to-date with compliance regulations. If your organization must stay up-to-date with current compliance regulations, then a Learning Management System can be an invaluable tool. Compliance laws change on a regular basis, and updating a traditional course to reflect these changes can be a time-consuming chore.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Disadvantages:</span></span></p>\r\nAlthough there are many advantages of LMSs, authors have identified some disadvantages of using these systems.\r\n<ul><li>Implementing an LMS requires a well-built technology infrastructure. Teachers have to be willing to adapt their curricula from face to face lectures to online lectures.</li><li>Expense.</li><li>Difficulty of learning to use authoring software.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/LMS_-_Learning_Management_System1.png","alias":"lms-learning-management-system"},"74":{"id":74,"title":"BRMS - Business Rule Management System","description":"A<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"> BRMS (Business Rule Management System)</span> is an operating principle, practice or policy of an organisation. It has to be adhered to in order to satisfy either a required common approach to a particular event or regulatory requirements for the industry that the organisation is part of. It is a statement of truth about an organisation and is an attempt to describe the operations of an organisation, not an attempt to prescribe how an organisation should operate.\r\nBusiness Rules Management Software is a software component that is used to define, register, verify consistency, deploy, execute, monitor and manage the variety and complexity of decision logic that is used by operational systems within an organisation or enterprise. This logic, also referred to as business rules, includes policies, requirements, and conditional statements that are used to determine the tactical actions that take place in applications and systems. The BRMS software also provides the ability to define the relationships between different rules, and relate some of these rules to IT applications that are affected or need to enforce one or more of the rules.\r\nA Business Rules Management System Software acts as a central repository for business rules. Decision owners and IT employees can collaborate to develop, version, and edit rules in a single-sourced environment. A BRMS helps businesses automate tasks, improve consistency, and shorten turnaround on policy changes. BRMS vendors provide tools for developing, tracking, and editing business rules. Often, these tools support both programmers and non-programmers. Vendors also provide an engine to simulate and validate business rules before they are implemented. \r\n<p class=\"align-center\">Business Rule Management System includes, at minimum:</p>\r\n<ul><li>A repository, allowing the defined rules to be managed in terms of versions and variants and be available for reuse;</li><li>A development environment, which provides tools for both technical developers and business experts to define and manage the business rules;</li><li>A runtime environment, allowing applications to invoke business rules management and execute it using a business rules engine;</li><li>A management environment that provides the ability to not only monitor the development and runtime environments, but also manage them both.</li></ul>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">What are the business rules?</h1>\r\n<div>Business rules are statements that will guide the proper functioning of your business. BRMS rules may be simple, or more complex, even involving rules of logic. But they have the function of basically defining what, where, when, why, and how something must be done within an organization.\r\nBusiness rule management system <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">example:</span> if your company provides 10% discounts on purchases made through your website on a customer’s birthday, that’s a business rule.\r\nThis benefit (what) should be applied on the customer’s birthday (when), needs to happen in purchases through the site (where), with a value of 10% (how) to please the customer on their day – and, who knows, maybe persuade them (why).\r\nBut you must understand that the rules are as varied as possible and must always be in accordance with the policies, objectives, and specificities of each company.\r\nThey may create advantages associated with:</div>\r\n<ul><li>Reducing costs</li><li>Making company strategies stronger;</li><li>Assisting in decision-making processes;</li><li>Providing greater process control;</li><li>Providing benefits to customers in a controlled and well-planned manner;</li><li>Increasing process agility;</li><li>Reducing problems with customer defaults.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Why use a Business Rules Management System?</span></h1>\r\nA BRMS empowers companies to define and maintain the rules guiding a system’s decision workflow to determine what actions are enabled in any given circumstance. With logic outside the programming code, these systems deliver a profound boost to business agility, productivity and logic accuracy—and in so doing, deliver reliable cost savings and faster rules changes when necessary.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/BRMS_-_Business_Rule_Management_System__1_.png","alias":"brms-business-rule-management-system"},"76":{"id":76,"title":"CPM - Corporate Performance Management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Corporate performance management (CPM)</span> is an umbrella term that describes the methodologies, metrics, processes and systems used to monitor and manage the business performance of an enterprise. Applications that enable CPM translate strategically focused information to operational plans and send aggregated results. These applications are also integrated into many elements of the planning and control cycle, or they address BAM or customer relationship optimization needs.\r\nCPM must be supported by a suite of analytical applications that provide the functionality to support these processes, methodologies and metrics.\r\n A CPM system is software that monitors and manages an organization's performance, according to key performance indicators. These can be revenue, return on investment, or other corporate strategic goals, such as increasing operational efficiency or improving corporate strategy.\r\nCorporate performance management system supports financial budgeting, planning and forecasting, and help leaders manage strategy and track the company’s financial health against goals. Corporate performance management tools are commonly used by the finance department, but are increasingly designed to be used across the enterprise. All in all, financial corporate performance management helps CFOs and other leaders maintain a clear picture of organizational performance.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">CPM Software Comparison</span></p>\r\nTo compare different CPM tools, you might want to consider evaluating options based on these factors:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Finance vs Strategy:</span> Do you care more about strategic planning or financials (such as consolidation and close, reporting, etc)? Financial corporate performance management products rarely do both of these well, so depending on which is your priority, compare tools based on both capabilities. Look at feature ratings for budgeting, planning and forecasting, versus consolidation and close and reporting.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Deployment type:</span> Corporate performance management solutions may be cloud-based, on-premise, or offer both deployment types.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Usability:</span> Ease of use is an important factor, even more so if your use of the CPM software will extend beyond the Finance team. Look for comments about usability in pros & cons sections of reviews, and compare how the products rate for usability.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Reporting:</span> Corporate performance management software is very centered on reporting and the ability to build custom reports. Reviewers often comment on the quality of reporting, and are asked to rate products based on reporting features.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Why is CPM important and who is CPM important for?</h1>\r\nRecent studies have shown that strategy execution is the number one area of focus for senior executives today and CPM performance management is a way to help ensure your strategies get executed. By integrating organizational goals, metrics, and projects, your company is aligned around strategic priorities and can focus on the key drivers of the business.\r\nCPM is important for every company, but especially those looking to:\r\n<ul><li>Remodel their budget</li><li>Reduce costs</li><li>Better align KPIs</li><li>Upgrade their organizational strategy</li><li>Improve the financial planning process<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"></span></li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Importance of Corporate Performance Management Software</h1>\r\nIn the era of business management intelligence, it’s important that corporations embrace processes automation. Here are some of the benefits of adopting an enterprise and corporate performance management solution.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">1. Real-time feedback.</span> Performance management software has smart dashboards which contain every measurable metric a management team may need to use in its decision-making. However, the detail is not in the variety. It’s in the ability to read and use data as changes happen in real-time across all parts of the organization. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">2. Data consolidation for easy management.</span> The tools have the intelligence to gather, group, and combine data from multiple sources, be it departments, spreadsheets, or even companies. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">3. Provide ease of risk management.</span> One significant advantage of CPM is the integration of tools like what-if models. For instance, the model empowers managers to mitigate risks and make informed decisions based on the simulation of the best-worst case scenarios. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">4. Provide simple data feedback and access.</span> Performance management tools enable managers to have ease of access to information while still fostering accuracy and quality. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">5. Ease of collaboration.</span> CPM tools are not only locally integrated but also cloud connected to allows all users to stay in sync across all departments.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/CPM_-_Corporate_Performance_Management.png","alias":"cpm-corporate-performance-management"},"82":{"id":82,"title":"Unified Communications","description":"Unified communications (UC) is a framework for integrating various asynchronous and real-time communication tools. The goal of UC is to enhance business communication, collaboration and productivity. Unified communications do not represent a singular technology; rather, it describes a strategy for integrating interconnected systems of enterprise communication devices and applications that can be used in concert or successively.\r\nSome business communication tools - like Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and video conferencing - facilitate real-time communication, also called synchronous communication. Other enterprise communication tools, like email, facilitate asynchronous communication, which takes place at a person's convenience.\r\nIncreasingly, team collaboration tools have emerged to offer messaging-centric workflows and near-real-time communication. These tools also offer voice and video capabilities, API integrations and, ultimately, expound on instant messaging services by providing better UC features.\r\nThe goal of unified communications is to integrate the software that supports synchronous and asynchronous communication, so the end user has easy access to all tools from whatever device is in use.\r\nA unified communications environment is typically supported by one or more back-end systems, often referred to as UC platforms, that facilitate integration among services, as well as the front-end clients that provide access. For example, a web conferencing system would make use of an audio conferencing system - which, in turn, would be built on an underlying IP telephony platform - and a unified messaging client would allow click-to-talk (CTC), click-to-chat or click-to-video functionality.\r\nUC also supports users moving from one mode of communication to another within the same session. For example, a user may start communicating via email but then decide to escalate the interaction to real-time communication, transitioning the session to a voice call with one click and then to a video conference with another click without any disruption.\r\nUnified communications systems and their components can be deployed on premises, in a public or private cloud, or a combination of all three. Cloud-based unified communications is also called UC as a service (UCaaS). An open source project called WebRTC, for example, enables real-time communications to be embedded into web browsers.\r\nHistorically, single-vendor UC environments have demonstrated the tightest integration and compatibility. Interoperability among vendors remains an ongoing challenge in UC, but it has also been mitigated, in part, by partnerships, common protocols and open APIs.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What technology do unified communications have?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Contrasting unified messaging</span></span>\r\nUnified communications are sometimes confused with unified messaging, but it is distinct. Unified communications refer to both real-time and non-real-time delivery of communications based on the preferred method and location of the recipient; unified messaging culls messages from several sources (such as e-mail, voice mail and faxes), but holds those messages only for retrieval at a later time. Unified communications allow for an individual to check and retrieve an e-mail or voice mail from any communication device at any time. It expands beyond voice mail services to data communications and video services.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Components</span></span>\r\nWith unified communications, multiple modes of business communications are integrated. Unified communications is not a single product but a collection of elements that include:\r\n<ul><li>Call control and multimodal communications</li><li>Presence</li><li>Instant messaging</li><li>Unified messaging</li><li>Speech access and personal assistant</li><li>Conferencing (audio, Web and video)</li><li>Collaboration tools</li><li>Mobility</li><li>Business process integration (BPI)</li><li>Software to enable business process integration</li></ul>\r\nPresence — knowing where intended recipients are, and if they are available, in real-time — is a key component of unified communications. Unified communications integrate all systems a user might already use, and helps those systems work together in real-time. For example, unified communications technology could allow a user to seamlessly collaborate with another person on a project, even if the two users are in separate locations. The user could quickly locate the necessary person by accessing an interactive directory, engage in a text messaging session, and then escalate the session to a voice call or even a video call.\r\nIn another example, an employee receives a call from a customer who wants answers. Unified communications enable that employee to call an expert colleague from a real-time list. This way, the employee can answer the customer faster by eliminating rounds of back-and-forth e-mails and phone-tag.\r\nThe examples in the previous paragraph primarily describe "personal productivity" enhancements that tend to benefit the individual user. While such benefits can be important, enterprises are finding that they can achieve even greater impact by using unified communications capabilities to transform business processes. This is achieved by integrating UC functionality directly into the business applications using development tools provided by many of the suppliers. Instead of the individual user invoking the UC functionality to, say, find an appropriate resource, the workflow or process application automatically identifies the resource at the point in the business activity where one is needed.\r\nWhen used in this manner, the concept of presence often changes. Most people associate presence with instant messaging (IM "buddy lists") the status of individuals is identified. But, in many business process applications, what is important is finding someone with a certain skill. In these environments, presence identifies available skills or capabilities.\r\nThis "business process" approach to integrating UC functionality can result in bottom-line benefits that are an order of magnitude greater than those achievable by personal productivity methods alone.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Related concepts</span>\r\nUnified communications & collaboration (UCC) is the integration of various communications methods with collaboration tools such as virtual white boards, real-time audio and video conferencing, and enhanced call control capabilities. Before this fusion of communications and collaboration tools into a single platform, enterprise collaboration service vendors and enterprise communications service vendors offered distinctly different solutions. Now, collaboration service vendors also offer communications services, and communications service providers have developed collaboration tools.\r\nUnified communications & collaboration as a service (UCCaaS) is cloud-based UCC platforms. Compared to premises-based UCC solutions, UCCaaS platforms offer enhanced flexibility and scalability due to the SaaS subscription model.\r\nUnified communications provisioning is the act of entering and configuring the settings for users of phone systems, instant messaging, telepresence, and other collaboration channels. Provisioners refer to this process as making moves, adds, changes, and deletes or MAC-Ds.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Unified_Communications.png","alias":"unified-communications"},"146":{"id":146,"title":"ECM - Enterprise Content Management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enterprise content management (ECM)</span> extends the concept of content management by adding a time line for each content item and possibly enforcing processes for the creation, approval and distribution of them. Systems that implement ECM generally provide a secure repository for managed items, be they analog or digital, that indexes them. They also include one or more methods for importing content to bring new items under management and several presentation methods to make items available for use. The key feature of ECM that distinguishes it from "simple" content management is that an ECM is at least cognizant of the processes and procedures of the enterprise it is created for, and as such is particular to it. \r\nECM as an umbrella term covers enterprise document management system, Web content management, search, collaboration, records management, digital asset management (DAM), workflow management, capture and scanning. ECM is primarily aimed at managing the life-cycle of information from initial publication or creation all the way through archival and eventual disposal. ECM enterprise content management software is delivered in four ways:\r\n- on-premises software (installed on an organization's own network)\r\n- software as a service (SaaS) (Web access to information that is stored on a software manufacturer's system)\r\n- a hybrid composed of both on-premises and SaaS components\r\n- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) (which refers to online services that abstract the user from the details of infrastructure like physical computing resources, location, data partitioning, scaling, security, backup etc.)\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">ECM provides</span> a centralized platform where content can be held and disseminated in a manner that meets regulatory compliance requirements and risk management guidelines. An ECM achieves the latter two benefits by eliminating ad hoc processes that can expose an enterprise to regulatory compliance risks and other potential problems. Full-function enterprise content management solutions include features such as content taxonomies, auditing capabilities, check-in/check-out and other workflow controls and security mechanisms.\r\nAn <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">effective ECM </span>can streamline access and business processes, eliminate bottlenecks by reducing storage, as well as paper and mailing needs, optimize security, maintain integrity and minimize overhead. All of these can lead to increased productivity. The first step is to document all the types of content that the organization deals with, the business processes its part of and who handles the content. \r\nECM software can be used to identify duplicate and near-duplicate content, allowing the organization to keep a few copies of a particular piece of content instead of hundreds. The best ECM software extends the reach of traditional ECM capabilities into previously isolated applications and information silos, such as ERP, CRM, SCM and HCM, to take the shape of a content services platform. Information can now flow across the enterprise to the people and processes—when, where and in whatever context it is needed.\r\nTo understand more specific ways it could help your company, consider these <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">three types of ECM</span> software solutions.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Web Content Management.</span> WCM puts control over the look and feel of a website in the hands of specific, key people. It’s used by organizations with relatively complex websites and strict brand guidelines, giving those key personnel the means to easily update, modify and publish content for the sites while adhering to the guidelines.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Collaborative Content Management.</span> CCM enables multiple people to access and modify a single document, such as a legal document. It’s ideal for organizations that must manage projects involving multiple stakeholders. CCM makes it easy to work together while keeping track of, and updating, the most-current version of the document.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Transactional Content Management.</span> This type of ECM document management is designed for organizations that repeatedly use varied types of content, including records, paper documents, and digital files. TCM solutions capture content from various channels, classify it, store it, create an automated workflow to ensure the right user receives the content at the right time, and even deletes documents when they’re no longer needed, all while working seamlessly with other apps and databases, ensuring all of that content is available throughout the company.<br /><br /><br />\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?</span></h1>\r\nEnterprise Content Management is the organization of structured and unstructured documents using technology and software that allows your organization to “work smarter, not harder.” As technology advanced and everything became digital, organizations needed a new way to store and access files, leading to the creation of ECM. \r\nECM document management system consists of four main points:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Capture:</span> Capturing information from hardcopy documents or online forms and transferring it into the system</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Manage:</span> Managing the captured data in a structured format that allows quick and easy retrieval</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Storing:</span> Securely storing files in a central repository that can be accessed from multiple locations</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Delivery:</span> Implementation of business process workflows to automatically move documents from one step to the next</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Five ways ECM software can benefit your organization</span></h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Basic file sharing and library services.</span> At its core, enterprise document management software begins with basic file sharing and library services managed within a networked repository. Individuals and groups with predefined access rights and permissions can access the repository and then create, read, update and delete files stored within it.\r\nMany ECM applications support Content Management Interoperability Services, an industry standard that allows different vendors' products to interoperate; this is an essential capability within large enterprises that maintain content management tools from multiple vendors.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Content governance, compliance and records management.</span> For many organizations, managing business documents or other content types is a critical use case for ECM. Companies subject to compliance or other industry regulations need document content management system software to capture, manage, archive and ultimately dispose of files after a predefined period.\r\nECM can ensure that only individuals with predefined permissions - determined by access controls - can update or view documents stored within a repository. An organization can thus manage document modification.\r\nIn addition, enterprise content management tools can log all actions, providing an organization with the capabilities to maintain an auditable record of all the changes to documents within the repository.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Business process management.</span> Companies also use ECM to establish workflows that span departments and geographies to support extended enterprise and inter-enterprise business processes.\r\nMost ECM software provides tools to help both technical and non-technical business users define business processes. Most applications provide audit controls to track each step of the process and analytic capabilities to help identify inefficiencies and streamline business procedures.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Content repositories linked to other enterprise applications.</span> Some companies use electronic content management software as a repository for documents created by other enterprise applications, including CRM, ERP, HR and financial systems. These enterprise systems can seamlessly access, view or modify content managed by the ECM.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enabling mobile and remote workforces.</span> Content management tools often include functionality to allow remote workers to access content from mobile devices. This is an increasingly important feature for many companies.\r\nMobile capabilities also enable new kinds of data capture and presentation functionalities. By combining content management capabilities with other data, for example, a political canvasser can use a tablet to enter new information about a political donor without having to start from scratch, as some of that information is already stored in a content management system. \r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/ECM_-_Enterprise_Content_Management.png","alias":"ecm-enterprise-content-management"},"148":{"id":148,"title":"Enterprise Portal","description":"An enterprise portal, also known as an enterprise information portal (EIP), is a framework for integrating information, people and processes across organizational boundaries in a manner similar to the more general web portals. Enterprise portals provide a secure unified access point, often in the form of a web-based user interface, and are designed to aggregate and personalize information through application-specific portlets.\r\nOne hallmark of enterprise portals is the de-centralized content contribution and content management, which keeps the information always updated. Another distinguishing characteristic is that they cater for customers, vendors and others beyond an organization's boundaries. This contrasts with a corporate portal which is structured for roles within an organization.\r\nAn enterprise portal has two main functions; integration and presentation. It must be able to access information from multiple and varied sources and manipulate that information through the portal.\r\nOther common features include;\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Single sign-on</span> — enterprise portals can provide single sign-on capabilities between their users and various other systems. This requires a user to authenticate only once.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Integration</span> — the connection of functions and data from multiple systems into new components/portlets/web parts with an integrated navigation between these components.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Federation</span> — the integration of content provided by other portals, typically through the use of WSRP or similar technologies.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Customization</span> — Users can customize the look and feel of their environment. Customers who are using EIPs can edit and design their own web sites which are full of their own personality and own style; they can also choose the specific content and services they prefer. Also refers to the ability to prioritize most appropriate content based on attributes of the user and metadata of the available content.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Personalization</span> — Personalization is more about matching content with the user. Based on a user profile, personalization uses rules to match the "services", or content, to the specific user. To some degree, you can think of the two like this: customization is in hands of the end user, personalization is not. Of course actual personalization is often based on your role or job function within the portal context.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Access control</span> — the ability for portal to limit specific types of content and services users have access to. For example, a company's proprietary information can be entitled for only company employee access. This access rights may be provided by a portal administrator or by a provisioning process. Access control lists manage the mapping between portal content and services over the portal user base.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Enterprise search</span> — search enterprise content using enterprise search.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Omni channel enablement</span> — present the pages optimally on all channels and devices.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Analytics</span> — track and monitor user behaviour on portal pages (such as navigation, clicks, downloads, page exits and such) and generate reports.</li></ul>","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is an Enterprise Portal?</span>\r\nAbbreviated as EPS, Enterprise Portal Software is a prepackaged software kit used by the enterprise to integrate its information and processes. Organizations use portals primarily to aggregate information from a number of different sources, including disparate systems, and provide this information to authorized users in a neatly managed single screen or system.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Typical Enterprise Portal's Interface</span>\r\nEPS usually offers a Web-based interface to provide a secure unified access point through which information is aggregated to application-specific portlets. Enterprise Portal Software lets authorized users access Web services, and portals can be combined to form portal networks that can cover an organization's entire enterprise system.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Enterprise_Portal.png","alias":"enterprise-portal"},"150":{"id":150,"title":"Workforce Performance Management","description":"","materialsDescription":"","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Workforce_Performance_Management.png","alias":"workforce-performance-management"},"152":{"id":152,"title":"Contact Center","description":"A contact center is a central point from where you can contact.\r\nThe contact center typically includes one or more call centers but may include other types of customer contact, as well. A contact center is generally part of an enterprise's overall customer relationship management (CRM) strategy.<br />Contact centers and call centers are both centers for customer service, and the two terms are often used interchangeably, but a contact center supports more services than a typical call center.\r\nContact centers offer omnichannel customer support, including email, chat, voice over IP (VoIP) and website support. A call center typically uses phones as the main channel of communication and can handle a mass volume of calls.<br />Contact centers are used for inbound communication, outbound communication or a hybrid of both. Contact center agents also interact with customers via web chat, phone, email or other communication channels.\r\nThe contact center infrastructure that is necessary to support communications may be located on the same premises as the contact center, or it can be located externally.\r\nIn an on-premises scenario, the company that owns the contact center also owns and manages its own hardware and software. This requires staffing and IT investments that some companies choose to forgo by outsourcing those tasks to cloud providers or hosting companies.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is a Call Center?</span>\r\nTraditionally, a call center is an office where a large number of call center agents provide customer service over the telephone. Inbound call centers receive calls for customer support and often serve as a knowledge base for tech support, billing questions, and other customer service issues. These call centers focus on quick call resolution times and agent productivity. In outbound call centers, agents make calls rather than receive them. These could be sales calls, marketing offers, surveys, fundraising requests, or debt collection, for example.\r\nThe term “call center” conjures an image for many people of waiting on perpetual hold or being routed through an endless IVR that never gives them what they need. Because so many consumers have had a dreadful customer service experience along these lines, call centers have developed a bad rap. But as legacy phone systems give way to newer digital technologies, call centers are evolving.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is a Contact Center?</span>\r\nThe term "contact center" (or “contact centre”) reflects the modern reality that there are many other ways to connect with a customer these days besides by telephone. The combined trends of increased customer expectations and newer technologies that allow for many channels of communication are creating a shift in the traditional call center model which has existed for decades. Consumers want more ways to reach businesses, and businesses are looking for new ways to improve customer experience.\r\nWhile call center agents generally focus on inbound and outbound calls, either on traditional phone lines or over VoIP, contact center agents handle a wide variety of communications. In a modern multichannel contact center, technical support might be delivered over in-app chat or video, while order status updates are delivered via SMS, event promotions are sent as push notifications, surveys are deployed over Facebook Messenger, and sales inquiries received by email are sent directly to an agent to connect by phone. Call centers handle voice communications, contact centers handle all communications.\r\nA company’s contact center is usually integrated with their customer relationship management (CRM) system, where all interactions between the organization and the public are tracked, coordinated, and managed. Depending on the infrastructure and ecosystem, it could be comprised of an alphabet soup of complex components. Many companies have purchased off-the-shelf systems or a highly customized network of technologies from multiple vendors. Some companies have adopted a cloud-based solution or two, but they remain siloed from the rest of their systems and can’t talk to each other.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Contact_Center1.png","alias":"contact-center"},"154":{"id":154,"title":"TMS - Transport Management System","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">TMS </span>(Transportation Management System)</span> is specialized software for planning, executing and optimizing the shipment of goods. Users perform three main tasks on a TMS: 1) find and compare the rates (prices) and services of carriers available to ship a customer's order, 2) book the shipment, then - 3) track its movement to delivery. The broader goals of using a TMS are to improve shipping efficiency, reduce costs, gain real-time supply chain visibility and ensure customer satisfaction.\r\nTMSes are one of the core technologies used in supply chain management (SCM), a discipline sometimes divided into supply chain execution (SCE) and supply chain planning (SCP). They are available as stand-alone software or as modules within enterprise resource planning (ERP) and SCM suites. Typically, a transportation management solutions serves both shippers, carriers and other logistics providers. Manufacturers, distributors, e-commerce organizations, wholesalers, retailers and third-party logistics providers (3PLs) are major users of TMS software.\r\nWhile some TMS, transport management solutions, focus on a single mode of transportation, most support multimodal (where at least two of the various modes of transportation -- truck, rail, air and sea -- are used in a single contract) and intermodal (in which a cargo container is carried by at least two modes of transportation).\r\nLike most enterprise software systems, TMSes started as on-premises systems but have increasingly been deployed in the cloud either hosted or as SaaS. There are also TMS managed services. Cloud transportation management system has obvious advantages in easing connectivity between TMS users, carriers, customers and supply chain partners. Some TMS vendors try to differentiate themselves by offering single-instance multi-tenant SaaS, which they say has cost and integration advantages over single-tenant SaaS and private-cloud options. \r\nIn fact, according to Gartner, most of the growth in the TMS market comes from cloud offerings that companies bought to replace on-premises TMS, a trend that is likely to persist. Meanwhile, TMS vendors continue to migrate their products to SaaS, in large part to fend off competition from fast-growing "cloud native" vendors who started with SaaS transportation management system. \r\nVendors of TMS software fall into four categories: ERP suites, SCM suites, niche TMS and TMS services. Microsoft, Oracle and SAP are prominent TMS ERP system vendors. Most other ERP vendors rely on TMS vendors with which they have integration. Smaller ERP vendors also have distribution modules that handle some TMS tasks but aren't true TMSes.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Functions of TMS</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Planning.</span> A transportation data management system helps the business select the optimal mode of shipment and the best carrier, based on cost, efficiency, and distance, including optimizing multi-leg carrier routes. A strong transport manager system can provide visibility into every stage of the supply chain, and together with global trade management functionality, it can also provide information on trade and tariffs, and if there are any potential delays that may happen because of customs and other trade regulations.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Execution.</span> The execution features of TMSes vary widely but can include matching loads and communicating with carriers, documenting and tracking shipments, and assisting with freight billing and settlement. Some advanced TMS supply chain management solutions also provide track and trace services—enabling real-time information exchange among carriers, distributors, warehouses, and customers. Such advanced systems may also have the functionality to handle complex international logistics, including providing proper import and export documentation making sure shipments are trade compliant.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Optimization.</span> TMS optimization capacities usually include the ability to measure and track performance with reports, dashboards, analytics, and transportation intelligence.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">The Benefits of a TMS</h1>\r\nA TMS—and modern integrated transportation management in general—provides many benefits to businesses. Some of the top benefits are:\r\n<ul><li>Reduced costs for the business and the end customer</li><li>Simplification of supply chain processes across geographies, modes, and carriers</li><li>Automation of business operations for faster and more accurate billing and documentation</li><li>Improvement in visibility and security, especially in transit</li><li>Time savings—fewer manual steps result in fewer delays and faster delivery times</li><li>The ability to track freight, both locally and globally, on a single platform</li><li>Better import and export compliance minimizing penalties and shipment delays</li><li>New business insights as better reporting leads to faster action and process improvement</li><li>Improvements in customer service and customer satisfaction with real-time updates and fewer shipment delays</li><li>The ability to scale the business by meeting and exceeding customer demands for fast, on-time shipments</li></ul>\r\n<br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/TMS_-_Transport_Management_System.png","alias":"tms-transport-management-system"},"156":{"id":156,"title":"FMS - Fleet Management System","description":"The Fleet Management Systems Interface (FMS) is a standard interface to vehicle data of commercial vehicles. The six European manufacturers Daimler AG, MAN AG, Scania, Volvo (including Renault), DAF Trucks and IVECO developed the so-called FMS-Standard in 2002 to make manufacturer-independent applications for telematics possible.\r\nThe following data are broadcast at the FMS interface:\r\n<ul><li>Vehicle improvement (all round)</li><li>Vehicle speed (wheel based)</li><li>Vehicle speed (from tachograph)</li><li>Clutch switch (on/off)</li><li>Brake switch (on/off)</li><li>Cruise control (on/off)</li><li>PTO (Status/Mode)</li><li>Accelerator pedal position (0–100%)</li><li>Total fuel used (litres since lifetime)</li><li>Fuel level (0–100%)</li><li>Engine speed</li><li>Gross axle weight rating (kg)</li><li>Total engine hours (h)</li><li>FMS-Standard software version (supported modes)</li><li>Vehicle identification number (ASCII)</li><li>Tachograph information</li><li>High-resolution vehicle distance</li><li>Service distance</li><li>Engine coolant temperature</li></ul>\r\nThe data are coded according to SAE J1939. The repetition rate of the data is between 20 ms (e.g. engine speed) and 10 seconds (e.g. vehicle identification number).\r\nWith the FMS standard it is now possible to have manufacturer independent applications and evaluations of the data.\r\nAccording to a note from the truck manufacturers, the FMS standard is seen as a worldwide standard. A direct connection to the internal vehicle bus system is not permitted by the truck manufacturers and could lead to the loss of warranty. Meanwhile, some manufacturers are quite restrictive in their workshops and cut all unknown connections to the internal bus system.\r\nAccording to ACEA ca. 160,000 vehicles were fitted with an FMS standard interface in 2007. The FMS-Standard was as well the base for the Bus-FMS-Standard for buses and coaches which was published in the year 2004. ","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Is the Purpose of Fleet Management in a Business?</span>\r\nThe purpose of Fleet Management in business is to ensure the work vehicles of business are operating smoothly, are constantly seeking ways to improve performance, are able to keep operating costs at a minimum, and maintain compliance with government regulations.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Is Fleet Management?</span>\r\nFleet Management refers to the applications, tools, technologies and practices that help businesses maintain optimal use of their work vehicles from a central platform. In its current form, Fleet Management entails the use of:\r\n<ul><li>database information software</li><li>telematics and GPS tracking software</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Are the Benefits of Using Fleet Management?</span>\r\nCompanies who have been using Fleet Management agree that it generally allows businesses using it to:\r\n<ul><li>Acquire more control over drivers and vehicles.</li><li>Less time spent on predicting the time of departure and arrival, getting hold of traffic updates and road conditions improves productivity.</li><li>Save on fuel consumption.</li><li>Prevent delays in deliveries.</li><li>Reduce road accidents.</li><li>Improve driving habits.</li><li>Prevent dubious reporting.</li><li>Prevent unauthorized use of vehicles.</li><li>Track and recover lost vehicles.</li><li>Customer gets better service having real-time access to the location of their assets.</li><li>Lessen driver frustration while on the road, increasing employee satisfaction all around.</li><li>Reduce cost of insurance.</li><li>Lessen maintenance costs.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why Should You Use Fleet Management System?</span>\r\nThe use of Fleet Management System ensures that the operation of company vehicles totally aligns with company goals rather than a source of headache, which typically happens in its absence. The improper use of business vehicles can easily add substantial losses to your business operation, not to mention the time wasted by managers to drivers looking over the issues in search of meaningful ways to address those losses. If your business is directly involved with providing transportation to the public, it may mean the difference between continuing operations or shutting down if you have accumulated enough grave offenses to compliance regulations.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How Does Software Tools Optimize Fleet Management?</span>\r\nFleet Management Software that stores all the vehicles your organization has purchased or leased, their specifications, details of maintenance, service and part histories, drivers and related compliance documents including licenses and tax, fleet insurance, fuel transactions, operating expenses reduces all involved administrative process and makes sense of everything to do with your fleet in terms of operating costs, overall cost of ownership, and all things pertaining to compliance and whether you are still on the legal side of things. The software’s capability to generate reports, alerts and emails, things simply get better and faster for your organization, a thing that is not possible in the fast.\r\nTelematics software gives your company unprecedented real-time tracking of all your vehicles, making it more efficient and easier to dispatch the involved workforce as well. It enables you to determine precisely when vehicle and driver will get to their destination, and how the vehicles are driven and handled by the driver.\r\nIntegrating the functions of both software hands any organization a degree of control unheard of in the past, a way to optimally run and manage their fleet of vehicles no matter what size.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/FMS_-_Fleet_Management_System1.png","alias":"fms-fleet-management-system"},"158":{"id":158,"title":"Core Banking System","description":"Core (centralized online real-time exchange) banking is a banking service provided by a group of networked bank branches where customers may access their bank account and perform basic transactions from any of the member branch offices.\r\nCore banking system is often associated with retail banking and many banks treat the retail customers as their core banking customers. Businesses are usually managed via the corporate banking division of the institution. Core banking covers basic depositing and lending of money.\r\nCore banking functions will include transaction accounts, loans, mortgages and payments. Banks make these services available across multiple channels like automated teller machines, Internet banking, mobile banking and branches.\r\nBanking software and network technology allow a bank to centralise its record keeping and allow access from any location.\r\nAdvancements in Internet and information technology reduced manual work in banks and increasing efficiency. Computer software is developed to perform core operations of banking like recording of transactions, passbook maintenance, interest calculations on loans and deposits, customer records, balance of payments and withdrawal. This software is installed at different branches of bank and then interconnected by means of computer networks based on telephones, satellite and the Internet.\r\nGartner defines a core banking system as a back-end system that processes daily banking transactions, and posts updates to accounts and other financial records. Core banking solutions typically include deposit, loan and credit-processing capabilities, with interfaces to general ledger systems and reporting tools. Core banking applications are often one of the largest single expense for banks and legacy software are a major issue in terms of allocating resources. Spending on these systems is based on a combination of service-oriented architecture and supporting technologies.\r\nMany banks implement custom applications for core banking. Others implement or customize commercial independent software vendor packages. Systems integrators like Cognizant, EdgeVerve Systems Limited, Capgemini, Accenture, IBM and Tata Consultancy Services implement these core banking packages at banks. More recently, entrants such as Probanx (since 2000) and Temenos (late 1990's) have also provided entry level core banking software, focussing on neo-banks and electronic money institutions.\r\nOpen source Technology in core banking products or software can help banks to maintain their productivity and profitability at the same time. ","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is core banking solution (CBS)?</span></h1>\r\nToday Banking as a business has grown tremendously and transformed itself from only a deposits taking and loan providing system to an institution which provides an entire gamut of products and services under a wide umbrella. All such activities commenced by a bank is called Core Banking.\r\nCORE is an acronym for "Centralized Online Real-time Exchange", thus the bank’s branches can access applications from centralized data centers.\r\nOther than retail banking customers, core banking is now also being extended to address the requirements of corporate clients and provide for a comprehensive banking solution.<br />Digital core banking offer the following advantages to the bank:\r\n<ul><li>Improved operations which address customer demands and industry consolidation;</li><li>Errors due to multiple entries eradicated;</li><li>Easy ability to introduce new financial products and manage changes in existing products;</li><li>Seamless merging of back office data and self-service operations.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Minimum features of Core Banking Solution:</span>\r\n<ol><li>Customer-On Boarding.</li><li>Managing deposits and withdrawals.</li><li>Transactions management.</li><li>Calculation and management.</li><li>Payments processing (cash, cheques /checks, mandates, NEFT, RTGS etc.).</li><li>Customer relationship management (CRM) activities.</li><li>Designing new banking products.</li><li>Loans disbursal and management.</li><li>Accounts management</li><li>Establishing criteria for minimum balances, interest rates, number of withdrawals allowed and so on.</li></ol>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Choosing the best core banking system software</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Today, there are four primary core banking providers, FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry and D+H, that have managed to eat up 96 percent of the market share (90 percent for banks under $1 billion in assets and 98 percent for banks over $1 billion in assets). But there are also some strong players rounding out the remaining 4 percent.<br />Deciding on a core banking software solutions is the first key task for banks and credit unions looking to make the switch. But the decision is not one to be taken lightly, as pointed out by Forbes “Core technologies are evolving into highly agile architectures, and the implications for making the wrong decision will be lasting — and could put banks at competitive risk.”</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">To help your bank and credit union make the best use of your resources, Gartner identified the eight key criteria that have the most impact on CBS banking system decisions:<br /><br /></p>\r\n<ul><li> Functionality</li><li> Flexibility</li><li> Cost</li><li> Viability</li><li> Operational Performance</li><li> Program Management</li><li> Partner Management</li><li> Customer References</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><br /><br /><br /></p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Core_Banking_System1.png","alias":"core-banking-system"},"160":{"id":160,"title":"Online Banking","description":"Online banking allows a user to conduct financial transactions via the Internet. Online banking is also known as internet banking or web banking.\r\nOnline banking offers customers almost every service traditionally available through a local branch including deposits, transfers, and online bill payments. Virtually every banking institution has some form of online banking, available both on desktop versions and through mobile apps.\r\nWith online banking, consumers aren't required to visit a bank branch to complete most of their basic banking transactions. They can do all of this at their own convenience, wherever they want—at home, at work, or on the go.\r\nOnline banking requires a computer or other device, an internet connection, and a bank or debit card. In order to access the service, clients need to register for their bank's online banking service. In order to register, they need to create a password. Once that's done, they can use the service to do all their banking.\r\nBanking transactions offered online vary by the institution. Most banks generally offer basic services such as transfers and bill payments. Some banks also allow customers to open up new accounts and apply for credit through online banking portals. Other functions may include ordering checks, putting stop payments on checks, or reporting a change of address.\r\nChecks can now be deposited online through a mobile app. The customer simply enters the amount before taking a photo of the front and back of the check to complete the deposit.\r\nOnline banking does not permit the purchase of traveler's checks, bank drafts, certain wire transfers, or the completion of certain credit applications like mortgages. These transactions still need to take place face-to-face with a bank representative.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the advantages of online banking?</span>\r\nConvenience is a major advantage of online banking. Basic banking transactions such as paying bills and transferring funds between accounts can easily be done 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wherever a consumer wishes.\r\nOnline banking is fast and efficient. Funds can be transferred between accounts almost instantly, especially if the two accounts are held at the same institution. Consumers can open and close a number of different accounts online, from fixed deposits to recurring deposit accounts that typically offer higher rates of interest.\r\nConsumers can also monitor their accounts regularly closely, allowing them to keep their accounts safe. Around-the-clock access to banking information provides early detection of fraudulent activity, thereby acting as a guardrail against financial damage or loss.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the disadvantages of Online Banking?</span>\r\nFor a novice online banking customer, using systems for the first time may present challenges that prevent transactions from being processed, which is why some consumers prefer face-to-face transactions with a teller.\r\nOnline banking doesn't help if a customer needs access to large amounts of cash. While he may be able to take a certain amount at the ATM — most cards come with a limit—he will still have to visit a branch to get the rest.\r\nAlthough online banking security is continually improving, such accounts are still vulnerable when it comes to hacking. Consumers are advised to use their own data plans, rather than public Wi-Fi networks when using online banking, to prevent unauthorized access.\r\nAdditionally, online banking is dependent on a reliable Internet connection. Connectivity issues from time to time may make it difficult to determine if banking transactions have been successfully processed.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Online_Banking.png","alias":"online-banking"},"162":{"id":162,"title":"OSS/BSS Operations Support Systems/Business Support Systems","description":"Operations support systems (OSS), or operational support systems in British usage, are computer systems used by telecommunications service providers to manage their networks (e.g., telephone networks). They support management functions such as network inventory, service provisioning, network configuration and fault management.\r\nTogether with business support systems (BSS), they are used to support various end-to-end telecommunication services. BSS and OSS have their own data and service responsibilities. The two systems together are often abbreviated OSS/BSS, BSS/OSS or simply B/OSS.\r\nThe acronym OSS is also used in a singular form to refer to all the Operations Support Systems viewed as a whole system.\r\nDifferent subdivisions of OSS have been proposed by the TM Forum, industrial research labs or OSS vendors. In general, an OSS covers at least the following five functions:\r\n<ul><li>Network management systems</li><li>Service delivery</li><li>Service fulfillment, including the network inventory, activation and provisioning</li><li>Service assurance</li><li>Customer care</li></ul>","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is OSS/BSS?</span>\r\nThe Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) or most often referred to as OSS/BSS, BSS/OSS or simply B/OSS provide network and customer data for back-office activities. While the mechanism by which both systems work are similar, their end usage and user groups may vary significantly, depending on the information management setup within an organization. The OSS systems support internal network requirements such as network planning, maintaining network inventory, provisioning services, configuring network components and managing faults - facilitating and automating the operations, administrations, maintenance and provisioning (OAM&P). The BSS, on the other hand, provides the capability for dealing with customers, supporting processes such as taking orders, processing bills and collecting payments.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why OSS and BSS?</span>\r\nOSS and BSS both evolved from the need for operational data relating to infrastructure and subscribers respectively. The OSS provides data such as network availability and network performance information, allowing operators to proactively manage networks and systems to deliver positive user experience on any connection. BSS, on the other hand, provides subscription information such as new sign-ups, churn and user demographics as well as information relating to customer relationship management. The data provided by both OSS and BSS are critical inputs for overall CAPEX and OPEX planning and are necessary for the formulation of budgets that cover infrastructure expenditure.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Trends</span>\r\nThe changing landscape of CSPs forces the service providers to transform the traditional OSS/BSS systems to meet emerging areas within the organization, respond to new technologies and meet higher standards of service delivery. To this end, there is an increasing trend towards an integrated OSS/BSS platform to support a wide range of user groups. This can be witnessed in the area of service assurance, whereby an integrated OSS/BSS is required to provide higher SLA by tracking the service performance, pro-actively identifying network failures, initiating resolution action and notifying high-priority customers. Service Management is also another area which requires greater interaction between OSS and BSS processes whereby the service order and fulfillment involves multiple network resources. An integrated service management system orchestrates the end-to-end fulfillment process and keep the customer-facing team informed about progress, changes or delivery issues.<br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/OSS_BSS_Operations_Support_Systems.png","alias":"ossbss-operations-support-systemsbusiness-support-systems"},"164":{"id":164,"title":"Billing","description":"Billing is a complex set of programs that allows you to calculate the number of services provided, while the calculations are carried out in a variety of units of measurement. Services are charged and as a result, the client receives a ready invoice, which additionally takes into account all promotions and discounts. The billing covers three main functions: settlement operations, provision of information, financial services.\r\nTypes of billing:\r\n<ul><li>Convergent billing is a carrier-class subsystem that provides mutual settlements with the customer of any network and an arbitrary informative application.</li><li>Automatic billing is a broad definition, including a variety of phenomena: from bank statements to making a payment with a plastic card.</li><li>Deferred billing is called billing, in which the calculation is made on the basis of the calls made.</li><li>Using hot billing reduces the delay in debiting funds, i.e. the speed of interaction with the service provider increases.</li><li>Mobile billing (SMS billing) is a method of electronic payment, in which payment for services is made using a telephone.</li></ul>\r\nCurrency calculation unit between the bank and the world payment system is called the billing currency. When the billing currency is different from the currency of the account, automatic conversion of funds occurs at the bank exchange rate.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Billing tasks:</span>\r\nThe main task of the billing is to provide a full account to the subscriber, information about which is available in this billing network. The billing system is responsible for the transfer of funds from the client’s account to the organization’s account for the services provided.\r\nBilling systems allow complete accounting of each consumer’s account.\r\n<ul><li>revenues;</li><li>costs;</li><li>used services;</li><li>personal tariff plans;</li><li>the amount of funds on the balance sheet;</li><li>discounts and promotions;</li><li>other information of an informative plan.</li></ul>\r\nEffective billing is needed to save time for both operators and consumers. With all this, the billing system should be as transparent as possible, that is, the client must know exactly what services he uses and how much he pays for it. The billing system should be as simple and understandable as possible to consumers, but it should take into account all the parameters set by the service.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Customer billing options:</span>\r\n<ul><li>automated calculation of the cost of services;</li><li>the ability to quickly receive services;</li><li>automatic debiting of funds (monthly fee and/or payment for services);</li><li> instant receipt of bill details;</li><li>the ability to receive timely information about new services, discounts and so on;</li><li>automatic crediting of bonuses and calculation of discounts.</li></ul>\r\nA properly functioning billing system provides an opportunity for employees of an organization using it to quickly receive information about the use of services and automatically invoice consumers. With the help of billing, it becomes easy to serve customers with bills and coupons, get a quick payment for services. The billing also produces an estimate of consumption, based on this information, the organization can draw conclusions about the demand for various types of services. Thanks to billing, providing clients with advertising information about new promotions, services, and tariffs is automated.\r\nMembers of the billing process:\r\n<ul><li>organizations that produce the necessary resources for the billing process - billing providers;</li><li>organizations that are the primary consumer of billing - cellular operators, Internet telephony operators, Internet providers, providers of digital television and so on;</li><li>ordinary users.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Billing1.png","alias":"billing"},"166":{"id":166,"title":"MES - Manufacturing Execution System","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Manufacturing execution systems (MES) </span> are computerized systems used in manufacturing, to track and document the transformation of raw materials to finished goods. MES software provides information that helps manufacturing decision makers understand how current conditions on the plant floor can be optimized to improve production output. Manufacturing execution solutions work in real time to enable the control of multiple elements of the production process (e.g. inputs, personnel, machines and support services).\r\nThe idea of Execution System might be seen as an intermediate step between, on the one hand, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) or process control system on the other; although historically, exact boundaries have fluctuated. Industry groups such as MESA International— Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association were created in the early 1990s in order to address the complexity, and advise on execution, of MES Systems.\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Manufacturing execution software comes with a whole bunch of concepts and terms that help provide a better understanding of what they actually are. Here are some of the more common terms and concepts associated with MES:</span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system</span>— strategic business process management tools that integrate all facets of an enterprise into one comprehensive information system that can be accessed by individuals across an entire organization.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">MESA-11</span>— published in 1997, this model — created by the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA)— indicated the 11 core functions of a standard MES.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">ANSI/ISA-95 standard </span>— created for global manufacturers by the International Society of Automation, this is a standard set of guidelines for developers to follow when creating software that automatically links enterprise systems—like ERP—and control systems.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)</span> — a general unit of measure that evaluates how well a machine works compared to its full potential.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) </span>— a system of software and hardware elements that allows manufacturers to maintain efficiency, process data for smarter decisions, and communicate system issues to help reduce downtime.</span></li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">Core MES Functionality</span></span></p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Operations management.</span> Offer employees a global view of planned production orders and their production routing. <br /></span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Dispatching production units.</span> Manage the bidirectional flow of production data in real time between the ERP and the workshop. This ensures production data is always accurate, consistent, and up to date.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Product tracking and genealogy.</span> Group final parts or batches with all their corresponding manufacturing data—from the raw material to the component assembly. This data is especially useful for manufa</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Labor management.</span> Manages people, products, and/or operations and track any skills or authorizations they require.<br /></span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Quality management.</span> Manages the quality of manufacturing process and units. This function can be integrated directly into the Manufacturing execution system software or can use external software.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Maintenance management.</span> More easily and accurately plans preventative machine maintenance to reduce downtime and production interruptions.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Data collection and acquisition.</span> Tracks and gathers essential data and easily recall that data when needed.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Process management.</span> Provides process routing and operational sequencing—including full production traceability.</span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Performance analysis.</span> Consolidates data to calculate key performance indicators (KPIs) like rework, scrap, process capability, OEE, and more. <br /></span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Document control.</span> Provides a simple way for operators to access important documents—including instructions, drawings, notes, and more—when they need them. <br /></span></li><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Resource allocation and status.</span> Defines and tracks the status of resources and how they are used in the production process.</span></li></ul>\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Is an MES right for my business?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">There are plenty of benefits—including increased productivity, improved data capture, real-time visibility into your operations, an optimized workforce, and more. MES manufacturing software provides materials traceability, which is invaluable for manufacturers that must adhere to strict regulations. Manufacturers in the food and beverage, medical device, aeronautics and aerospace, and defense industries require this traceability to ensure they are compliant with regulations.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">However, manufacturing enterprise system isn’t for everyone. Smaller manufacturers may find that their production operations aren’t large enough to justify an additional software system like an MES. Additionally, they may feel that their profit margins don’t allow for this type of investment. Like any piece of technology, you have to weigh your options and decide if an MES is worth it for your manufacturing enterprise.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">How do MES and ERP systems work together?</h1>\r\n ERP and MES systems play separate but complementary roles in manufacturing operations. ERP systems integrate all facets of an enterprise into one comprehensive information system. For example, employees in planning and scheduling have access to the same data as the staff in financial management. All the data is also available in real time, which enables production managers to make faster, more informed business decisions.Meanwhile, MES is the layer between your manufacturing shop floor systems—like machines and supervisory systems—and your business, planning, and logistics systems—basically, your ERP solution. \r\nMES and ERP integrate with each other to provide a single source of truth throughout your organization. ERP systems can show you that you might need to improve your production output—MES management shows you how.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">What should I be careful about as I pursue my MES strategy? </h1>\r\nKnow what you need. Know your own best-practices requirements. Know your production hardware and equipment inside out so you can be sure that it can be monitored and controlled by a prospective MES vendor's products. Don't believe every claim you hear from an MES software vendor. Ask them to prove their claims by checking with clients who've installed their applications and are seeing them work every day.\r\nKnow the vendor's responsibilities to uptime, production needs, tech support, training, and every other conceivable detail before you sign a contract. Know the answer to your question before you even ask the vendor, because you already did the research and know it from every angle. Be sure your prospective vendors value your critical business processes as much as their own before you put your factories and production into their hands.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/MES_-_Manufacturing_Execution_System1.png","alias":"mes-manufacturing-execution-system"},"168":{"id":168,"title":"EAM - Enterprise Asset Management","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">EAM</span> (Enterprise asset management)</span> involves the management of the maintenance of physical assets of an organization throughout each asset's lifecycle. EAM management system is used to plan, optimize, execute, and track the needed maintenance activities with the associated priorities, skills, materials, tools, and information. This covers the design, construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance and decommissioning or replacement of plant, equipment and facilities.\r\n"Enterprise" refers to the scope of the assets in an Enterprise across departments, locations, facilities and, potentially, supporting business functions eg; Finance & GL, Human Resources and Payroll. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enterprise asset management software </span>is a computer software that handles every aspect of running a public works or asset-intensive organization. Maintenance management software collects and analyzes data for physical assets during all phases of the asset lifecycle, including the acquisition, maintenance, and disposal phase. EAM software is used by large organizations that have outgrown basic CMMS software. These organizations have hundreds of physical assets (machinery, equipment, etc) and employees that are responsible for managing the asset lifecycle. These employees, referred to as asset managers, are also responsible for making decisions that require them to track warranties, depreciation, and downtime.\r\nIn terms of features, the lines are becoming blurred between CMMS and EAM solutions as some CMMS products allow asset managers to track these items. But true EAM program gives asset managers the ability to track every phase of an asset’s lifecycle and provide full transparency about its historical and present state to other departments. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enterprise asset management system includes</span> elements of design perspectives centered on the idea that by creating digital models, companies can optimize how they utilize each asset that they invest money in according to its build and the greater context around its use. This helps companies better predict asset depreciation and never be surprised by unexpected asset failure.\r\nEAM asset management tools also include insurance and warranty information. They look at things like the environmental performance of an asset or piece of machinery to assist with audit trails and environmental impact reports. They also integrate with inventory and supply chain software to reduce menial data entry tasks and perform inventory management tasks. Another way to describe the key use of EAM solutions is they ensure change never affects the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an asset.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> What is EAM?</h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">EAM (Enterprise Asset Management)</span> system is the management of the assets of an enterprise across departments, facilities, business units and geographical locations. Enterprise asset management market integrates techniques for holistic control and optimization throughout asset life cycles, including design, commissioning, operations and replacement:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">EAM definition allows to categorize it as follows</span>:\r\n<ul><li>Physical asset and infrastructure management</li><li>IT service management</li><li>Digital asset (electronic media and content) management</li><li>Fixed asset management and accounting</li><li>Emerging asset management</li></ul>\r\nThe EAM framework optimizes and extends asset life cycles and reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while maximizing Overall Asset Productivity (OAP) and Return on Assets (ROA), which is key for manufacturing and similar industries with high-value equipment. EAM arose as an extension of the <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">computerized maintenance management system </span>(CMMS) which is usually defined as a system for the computerisation of the maintenance of physical assets.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Asset Management is geared toward the following results:</span> </p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Asset lifecycle management.</span> Keep all asset data and documentation at your fingertips, so it’s there when you need it — regardless of where you are in the asset’s lifecycle.</span></li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Work order management.</span> Diagnose a problem, and quickly assign specific technicians to the job. Schedule and organize work orders for employees and contractors, and keep track of upcoming work.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">MRO materials management.</span> Control costs with full oversight into inventory procurement and management. Understand the demand for materials at your facility and manage parts accordingly.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Labor management. </span>Manage assessment, training, and certification for employees and contractors responsible for asset management in your organization.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Service contract management. </span>Control compliance and spending at every step of the contract lifecycle. Create and manage contracts and service agreements with customers, vendors, partners, and employees.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Financial management.</span> Gather data on work order costs, and integrate with finance software to manage accounting and project spending.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Reporting and analytics. </span>Analyze asset performance to spot issues before they become bigger problems. Collect key performance indicators for your entire facility to make better business decisions. </li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Some of popular EAM software features include:</h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Downtime tracking and </span><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">asset tracking system.</span> When equipment breaks down, asset managers can manually log downtime in the EAM software based on the timestamps on fault codes or work requests. Also, when equipment is marked as non-operational by technicians during repairs and PMs, downtime is automatically tracked by the software. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Lockout-tagout.</span> This is a safety feature that documents and enforces the physical lockout-tagout devices that are used during maintenance on dangerous machinery. By tracking lockout-tagout and check in/out procedures in the EAM software, everyone in a facility knows when an asset is unavailable. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Maintenance reports. </span>Data that’s logged in maintenance software solutions shows the performance of assets in terms of reliability rather than production output. Seeing how reliable a machine is over time informs asset managers and procurement whether that machine model should be purchased again. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Financial audits.</span> Asset managers can connect their software to financial software to align their efforts with the organization’s financial department. This data-sync streamlines financial audits and helps organizations manage the complete asset lifecycle without requiring financial departments to learn how to navigate the EAM software.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">What’s the difference between EAM and CMMS software? EAM vs CMMS comparison</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">At first glance, the differences between EAM and CMMS software are minimal—both help organizations move from a reactive to a preventive maintenance strategy by automating maintenance activities, inventory management, and work orders.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">But as the name indicates, a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)</span> is used primarily to manage maintenance during the operational part of an asset’s life—the time when it’s up and running and working as a productive part of a facility.</p>\r\nEAM asset management software, on the other hand, manages the entire lifecycle of an asset, from creation or procurement through to disposal. It is often used by organizations with a larger number of users across multiple sites and includes capabilities like lifecycle planning.\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Basically, <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">EAM lets you see a much bigger picture.</span> It gives you an overview of priorities and lets you see what tools—including finances, skills, materials, and information—are at your disposal to meet those priorities.</p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/EAM_-_Enterprise_Asset_Management.png","alias":"eam-enterprise-asset-management"},"170":{"id":170,"title":"APS - Advanced Planning and Scheduling","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Advanced planning and scheduling</span> (APS, also known as advanced manufacturing) refers to a manufacturing management process by which raw materials and production capacity are optimally allocated to meet demand. \r\nAdvanced planning and scheduling system is especially well-suited to environments where simpler planning methods cannot adequately address complex trade-offs between competing priorities. Production scheduling is intrinsically very difficult due to the (approximately) factorial dependence of the size of the solution space on the number of items/products to be manufactured.\r\nAdvanced planning and scheduling software is offered as an extension of your ERP and when the two systems operate together, production is enhanced dramatically. Advanced planning system has been utilized by large production facilities since they were available. Large operations have always been in need of APS software, which has allowed for the misconception that small manufacturing operations do not necessarily need it. \r\nNot only does advanced scheduling software consider material, but it has the ability to perform bill of material explosions which net on hand inventory and net projected inventory receipts through purchase orders and manufacturing orders. Once inventory is netted, advanced production planning and scheduling software creates purchase orders and manufacturing orders to satisfy demand based on safety stock levels and lot sizing logic. When scheduling, advanced planning software dynamically allocates inventory and projected inventory receipts to production orders. If material is made constraining, the software then delays production based on the available of inventory generated by allocated orders.\r\nImplementation of an advanced scheduling system can allow your operation to be able to adequately compete against much larger size manufacturing operations through schedule optimization, market analysis, order anticipation, and many more capabilities. This is how you can separate yourself from other small manufacturing competitors and optimize your production facility quickly and efficiently.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">APS Advanced Planning and Scheduling Software’s enhanced functionality helps you:</span>\r\n<ul><li>extend the planning and scheduling horizon for as long as there is demand to drive it. Since demand includes sales orders and forecasts, the only practical limits are forecast accuracy and computer processing speeds.</li><li>quickly make accurate deliver commitments to customers. Called Capable-to-Promise (CTP), this feature often replaces the inaccurate, infinite scheduling based Available-to-Promise (ATP) features in ERP systems.</li><li>dynamically allocate and re-allocate inventory to upper level demand.</li><li>perform multi-plant planning and scheduling which answers questions such as “in which plant should this production be sited?”</li><li>plan throughout the supply chain.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Why use APS Advanced Planning System?</span></h1>\r\nFor planners, APS systems quickly analyse the implications of alternative decisions, highlight consequences and problems, and generate optimal or near-optimal plans and schedules.\r\nAPS systems provide better information (and recommendations) on which planners and managers can base their decisions. They are tools and techniques to help manage complexity. Fast-moving environments with large numbers of items, orders, machines and people are difficult to plan effectively, as are environments with complex constraints. In such industries (High tech, CPG, Third party logistics, and capacity constrained industries such as Process manufacturing) APS provides significant assistance.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Advanced Planning and Scheduling Benefits and Capabilities</h1>\r\nWith various capabilities such as multi-plant operation integration, Superplant, real-time operational visibility and overall throughput enhancement, APS is becoming a top choice for manufacturing operations and supply chains around the globe. These attributes are allowing production facilities to be able to efficiently optimize production and enhance their operation thoroughly. Various other benefits of advanced planning & scheduling software include:\r\n<ul><li> Improved delivery performance</li><li>Boosts in Profit</li><li>Reduction in inventory and cost</li><li>Six-month ROI</li></ul>\r\nImplementation of an advanced planning and scheduling system (APS) will take you and your manufacturing operation toward the next step of production efficiency and allow you to separate yourself from the competition and to widely increase capacity.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/APS_-_Advanced_Planning_and_Scheduling.png","alias":"aps-advanced-planning-and-scheduling"},"176":{"id":176,"title":"E-government","description":"E-government (short for electronic government) is the use of electronic communications devices, such as computers and the Internet to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. According to Jeong, 2007 the term consists of the digital interactions between a citizen and their government (C2G), between governments and other government agencies (G2G), between government and citizens (G2C), between government and employees (G2E), and between government and businesses/commerces (G2B). E-government delivery models can be broken down into the following categories: This interaction consists of citizens communicating with all levels of government (city, state/province, national, and international), facilitating citizen involvement in governance using information and communication technology (ICT) (such as computers and websites) and business process re-engineering (BPR). Brabham and Guth (2017) interviewed the third party designers of e-government tools in North America about the ideals of user interaction that they build into their technologies, which include progressive values, ubiquitous participation, geolocation, and education of the public.\r\nOther definitions are more away from technology as an object, to see them simply as facilitators or instruments and focus on specific changes in Public Administration issues, and in the internal transformation of a Government, is the case of the definition that established the specialist technologist Mauro D. Ríos in the paper "In search of a definition of Electronic Government", he says: "Digital Government is a new way of organization and management of public affairs, introducing positive transformational processes in management and the structure itself of the organization chart, adding value to the procedures and services provided, all through the introduction and continued appropriation of information and communication technologies as a facilitator of these transformations."","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is e-government?</span>\r\nE-government refers to the use of information technology by government agencies (such as global networks, the Internet, and mobile computers) to transform relationships with citizens, businesses, visitors, and the government for:\r\n<ul><li>expanding the provision of public services to citizens;</li><li>improve interaction with the business community;</li><li>empowering citizens through access to information;</li><li>more effective public administration</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is open data?</span>\r\nOpen data - information about the activities of state bodies and local governments, placed on the Internet in the form of data files in a format that ensures their automatic processing for reuse without a prior change by a person (machine-readable format), and on the terms of its free (free) use.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/E-government.png","alias":"e-government"},"180":{"id":180,"title":"Office Suites","description":"An office suite is a collection of applications bundled together, intended to be used by knowledge workers in an organization. It is used to simplify the tasks and processes of office workers and increase their productivity.\r\nAn office suite is also known as an office application suite or office productivity software.\r\nAn office suite is a collection of software created by the same vendor and designed to be used for routine tasks within an organization. Typically an office suite includes applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, email, note-taking, database, collaboration and other related types of software. In most cases, each application in the office suite can be installed separately and all applications within the suite support interoperability between each other.\r\nExisting office suites contain wide range of various components. Most typically, the base components include:\r\n<ul><li>Word processor</li><li>Spreadsheet</li><li>Presentation program</li></ul>\r\nOther components of office suites include:\r\n<ul><li>Database software</li><li>Graphics suite (raster graphics editor, vector graphics editor, image viewer)</li><li>Desktop publishing software</li><li>Formula editor</li><li>Diagramming software</li><li>Email client</li><li>Communication software</li><li>Personal information manager</li><li>Notetaking software</li><li>Groupware</li><li>Project management software</li><li>Web log analysis software</li></ul>","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is Office Suites Software?</span>\r\nOffice Suites Software are suites of personal productivity products for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations and other similar capabilities. The trend in this area in recent years has been to move away from installed, licensed software products towards online products that are accessed over the Internet and are paid via a monthly or annual subscription.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Office_Suites.png","alias":"office-suites"},"182":{"id":182,"title":"CMS - Content management system","description":"A content management system (CMS) manages the creation and modification of digital content. It typically supports multiple users in a collaborative environment.\r\nCMS features vary widely. Most CMSs include Web-based publishing, format management, history editing and version control, indexing, search and retrieval. By their nature, content management systems support the separation of content and presentation.\r\nContent management software solutions are typically used for enterprise content management systems (ECM) and web site content management systems (WCM). An ECM facilitates collaboration in the workplace by integrating document management, digital asset management and records retention functionalities, and providing end users with role-based access to the organization's digital assets. A WCM facilitates collaborative authoring for websites. ECM software often includes a WCM publishing functionality, but ECM webpages typically remain behind the organization's firewall.\r\nBoth enterprise content management and web content management systems have two components: a content management application (CMA) and a content delivery application (CDA). The CMA is a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows the user to control the design, creation, modification and removal of content from a website without needing to know anything about HTML. The CDA component provides the back-end services that support management and delivery of the content once it has been created in the CMA.\r\nDigital asset management systems are another type of CMS. They manage content with a clearly defined author or ownership, such as documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, and scientific data. Companies also use CMSs to store, control, revise, and publish documentation.\r\nBased on market share statistics, the most popular CMS is WordPress, used by more than 28% of all websites on the Internet, and by 59% of all websites using a known content management system, followed by Joomla and Drupal.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Content management systems typically provide the following features:</span>\r\n<ul><li>Search engine optimization</li><li>Integrated and online documentation</li><li>Modularity and extensibility</li><li>User and group functionality</li><li>Templating support for changing designs</li><li>Installation and upgrade wizards</li><li>Integrated audit logs</li><li>Compliance with various accessibility frameworks and standards, such as WAI-ARIA</li><li>Reduced need to code from scratch</li><li>Unified user experience</li><li>Version control</li><li>Edit permission management</li></ul>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is a CMS?</span></h1>\r\nAnswer: CMS is an acronym for "Content Management System". You may see some variations on this term, but they all refer to the same concept. Variations include:\r\n<ul><li>Content Management System</li><li>Web CMS</li><li>Web Content Management System</li><li>CMS Platform</li><li>Content Management Platform</li><li>CMS System</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What does a CMS do?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">In it's simplest terms, Content Management Systems are designed to help users create and manage their websites. Content management solutions help webmasters manage the many different resources, content types and various data that make up modern web sites.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">At a minimum, modern websites make use of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images (jpeg, gif, png, etc) to create web content for visitors to read. At the core of every CMS is the ability to organize these resources and generate valid content that can be read by web browsers. </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">More advanced websites have interactive components (comment sections, forums, e-commerce...) that requires server software to validate and save user submitted content.<br />All of the top CMS platforms have features built-in or available for download as addons for all of these features.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the main types of CMS?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Simple CMS.</span> This system is used to create simple websites that contain several pages using simple control systems. Simple content management systems consist of several modules that are set one time. These CMSs are free and are available on the internet. Among their disadvantages are the inability to change settings, low transmission capacity, inability to create pages dynamically and the inability of ato delegateion of administrator’s credentials to others.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"> </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Template CMS.</span> It consists of modules as well, but its structure is more complex if compared to a simple CMS. Template CMS has high transmission capacity, around 50,000 inquiries. Also, it has the support of dynamic pages and the ability to delegate the administrator’s credentials. Many template systems are used to create website content because they are easy to use.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"> </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Professional CMS</span>. This type of CMS has a higher level of complexity. You may change the structure of internet resources. Additional modules can be attached to these systems. These systems are used to create information portals or massive projects. As a rule, these CMSs are a paid resource.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"> </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Universal CMS</span>. Universal systems have wide functionality and ample opportunities to develope websites of any complexity. They support the functions of changing the structure, creating dynamic pages, modification of settings and credential distribution. Universal CMS is quite expensive. These CMSs are used for work with large portals and web-projects that require high functionality and dynamics.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/CMS_-_content_management_system.png","alias":"cms-content-management-system"},"184":{"id":184,"title":"OCR - Optical character recognition","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Optical character recognition</span> (optical character reader, OCR) is the mechanical or electronic conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a scene-photo (for example the text on signs and billboards in a landscape photo) or from subtitle text superimposed on an image (for example from a television broadcast). The basic process of OCR involves examining the text of a document and translating the characters into code that can be used for data processing. OCR is sometimes also referred to as <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">text recognition.</span>\r\nIt is widely used as a form of data entry from printed paper data records, whether passport documents, invoices, bank statements, computerised receipts, business cards, mail, printouts of static-data, or any suitable documentation. OCR program works best on text that has already been typed, either in cases where an original printout has been lost, or in scanning sheets typed on a typewriter. Good OCR software may also be able to translate handwritten text, however, although the error rate on this sort of conversion tends to be much higher.\r\nThe actual term OCR software is a bit misleading, as most modern versions do not in fact use optical character recognition, but actually use digital character recognition. This is because some years ago the fields effectively merged, and both fields adopted the more attractive term optical character recognition. Character recognition software has advanced a great deal in recent years, with modern programs substantially better than their predecessors at identifying text.\r\n<span style=\"color: rgb(97, 97, 97); \">OCR systems are made up of a combination of hardware and software that is used to convert physical documents into machine-readable text. Hardware, such as an optical scanner or specialized circuit board is used to copy or read text while optical recognition software typically handles the advanced processing. OCR technology software can also take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to implement more advanced methods of intelligent character recognition (ICR), like identifying languages or styles of handwriting.</span> \r\nThe process of OCR is most commonly used to turn hard copy legal or historic documents into PDFs. Once placed in this soft copy, users can edit, format and search the document as if it was created with a word processor.\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">first step of OCR</span> is using a scanner to process the physical form of a document. Once all pages are copied, optical character recognition software converts the document into a two-color, or black and white, version. The scanned-in image or bitmap is analyzed for light and dark areas, where the dark areas are identified as characters that need to be recognized and light areas are identified as background.\r\nThe dark areas are then processed further to find alphabetic letters or numeric digits. OCR products can vary in their techniques, but typically involve targeting one character, word or block of text at a time. Characters are then identified using one of two algorithms:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Pattern recognition</span> - OCR<span style=\"font-size:10pt; font-family:Arial; font-style:normal; \">recognition</span>programs are fed examples of text in various fonts and formats which are then used to compare, and recognize, characters in the scanned document.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Feature detection</span> - OCR programs apply rules regarding the features of a specific letter or number to recognize characters in the scanned document. Features could include the number of angled lines, crossed lines or curves in a character for comparison. For example, the capital letter “A” may be stored as two diagonal lines that meet with a horizontal line across the middle.\r\nWhen a character is identified, it is <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">converted into an ASCII code</span> that can be used by computer systems to handle further manipulations. Users should correct basic errors, proofread and make sure complex layouts were handled properly before saving the document for future use.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> OCR (Optical Character Recognition) use cases</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\">Uses of OCR have a variety of applications, including:</p>\r\n<ul><li>Scanning printed documents into versions that can be edited with word processors, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs.</li><li>Indexing print material for search engines.</li><li>Automating data entry, extraction and processing.</li><li>Deciphering documents into text that can be read aloud to visually-impaired or blind users.</li><li>Archiving historic information, such as newspapers, magazines or phonebooks, into searchable formats.</li><li>Electronically depositing checks without the need for a bank teller.</li><li>Placing important, signed legal documents into an electronic database.</li><li>Recognizing text, such as license plates, with a camera or software.</li><li>Sorting letters for mail delivery.</li><li>Translating words within an image into a specified language.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Choosing the Right Character Recognition Solution: OCR and ICR</h1>\r\nThough recent technology advancements improved data recognition, many offices continue to rely on manual entry and sorting processes. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition or Intelligent Document Recognition software) are essential components of Advanced Data Capture that digitally capture images and text. Both technologies provide companies with enhanced images and critical business information. So, what are the differences between OCR and ICR, and how do these differences pertain to your documents? \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Optical Character Recognition</span> refers to the process where documents are captured and digitally converted into searchable text that you can edit. OCR is primarily used to read machine-generated documents with typed or printed text. The technology reads brightness and text font of these documents, recognizing characters with utmost accuracy. OCR is a perfect solution for companies that need information from paper documents and PDF files, and is great for translating longer documents. For example, if you need to pull quotes from a document for another project, OCR will allow you to easily search, retrieve and extract text.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Intelligent Character Recognition</span>, takes OCR a step further with more intensive character recognition. While OCR mainly encompasses machine-printed characters, the best of best intelligent character recognition software can recognize handwritten text, and translate them into searchable files. Like OCR, ICR scans, reviews and translates the text. ICR is a compatible solution for offices with many checks, timesheets and other handwritten documents.<br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/OCR_-_Optical_character_recognition.png","alias":"ocr-optical-character-recognition"},"186":{"id":186,"title":"VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Voice over Internet Protocol </span>(Voice over IP, VoIP) is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. Other terms commonly associated with VoIP solutions are IP telephony, Internet telephony, broadband telephony, and broadband phone service.\r\nThe term Internet telephony specifically refers to the provisioning of communications services (voice, fax, SMS, voice-messaging) over the public Internet, rather than via the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The steps and principles involved in originating VoIP telephone calls are similar to traditional digital telephony and involve signaling, channel setup, digitization of the analog voice signals, and encoding.\r\nInstead of being transmitted over a circuit-switched network, however, the digital information is packetized, and transmission occurs as IP packets over a packet-switched network. Such transmission entails careful considerations about resource management different from time-division multiplexing (TDM) networks.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> What are the benefits of VoIP?</h1>\r\n VoIP technology can facilitate tasks and deliver services that might be cumbersome or costly to implement when using traditional PSTN: \r\n<ul><li>More than one phone call can be transmitted on the same broadband phone line. This way, VoIP system can facilitate the addition of telephone lines to businesses without the need for additional physical lines.</li><li>Features that are usually charged extra by telecommunication companies, such as call forwarding, caller ID or automatic redialing, are simple with voice over internet technology.</li><li>Unified Communications are secured with VoIP technology, as it allows integration with other services available on the internet such as video conversation, messaging, etc. </li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">VoIP programs </h1>\r\nThere are four main types of VoIP technology. Each option has varying levels of complexity which can impact ease of implementation and maintenance.\r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integrated Access</span>\r\nIntegrated access is the VoIP service that most mimics the traditional phone line. With integrated access VoIP, businesses integrate VoIP software and existing, legacy phone systems. This approach lets the business keep its old number and equipment while also gaining access to advanced telecommunications features. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">SIP Trunks</span>\r\n Session Initial Protocol (SIP) transmits voice and video information across a data network, letting VoIP users take advantage of shared lines and increase their communications flexibility. Because all data is sent over a network, businesses can use SIP trunks to replace traditional analog phone networks or use a VoIP gateway to integrate SIP trunking with legacy phone systems. \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Hosted IP PBX</span>\r\n What most people envision when they think of VoIP, this VoIP solution sees a vendor host and operate the private branch exchange, offering unified communications solutions. The business connects to a hosted cloud-based PBX network via its IP network. Phone system hardware is maintained off-site by the hosted IP PBX vendor, and all responsibility for the hardware, software, maintenance, security and upgrades all falls on the hosted PBX provider. \r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Managed IP PBX </span>\r\nSimilar to Hosted IP PBX, this version of the unified communication solution is outsourced to a third party that takes care of all management requirements, but instead of phone hardware being off-site, the equipment is housed on-premise by the business. \r\nUnderstanding these different services of VoIP communication can help a business determine the system that best suits its needs. SIP Trunks, for instance, are more attractive to those who want to install their own technology and manage it themselves, while still connecting to VoIP features.\r\n On the other hand, managed IP PBX is a good option for those who don’t have the resources to buy and operate their own VoIP systems. The Hosted IP PBX solution frees the business to select the VoIP management software that works for them and liberates them from the cost and administrative headache of maintaining both voice and data lines and the related carrier partnerships. ","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/VoIP_-_Voice_over_Internet_Protocol.png","alias":"voip-voice-over-internet-protocol"},"188":{"id":188,"title":"EDI - Electronic Data Interchange","description":"Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the electronic interchange of business information using a standardized format; a process which allows one company to send information to another company electronically rather than with paper. Business entities conducting business electronically are called trading partners.\r\nMany business documents can be exchanged using EDI, but the two most common are purchase orders and invoices. At a minimum, EDI replaces the mail preparation and handling associated with traditional business communication. However, the real power of EDI is that it standardizes the information communicated in business documents, which makes possible a "paperless" exchange.\r\nThe traditional invoice illustrates what this can mean. Most companies create invoices using a computer system, print a paper copy of the invoice and mail it to the customer. Upon receipt, the customer frequently marks up the invoice and enters it into its own computer system. The entire process is nothing more than the transfer of information from the seller's computer to the customer's computer. EDI makes it possible to minimize or even eliminate the manual steps involved in this transfer.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What does Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) mean?</span>\r\nElectronic data interchange (EDI) is the electronic transmission of structured data by agreed message standards from one computer system to another without human intervention. It is a system for exchanging business documents with external entities.\r\nEDI refers to a family of standards and does not specify transmission methods, which are freely agreed upon by the trading partners.\r\nThe wide adoption of EDI in the business world facilitates efficiency and cost reduction. EDI is used in such diverse business-to-business relationships as:\r\n<ul><li>Interchanges between health care providers and insurers</li><li>Travel and hotel bookings</li><li>Education</li><li>Supply chain management</li><li>Administration</li><li>Tax reporting</li></ul>\r\nEDI is a sequence of messages between two trading partners, either of which may serve as the originator or recipient. The messages are transmitted and received without human intervention. Each message is composed according to a standardized syntax from a sequence of standardized data elements. It is this standardization that makes message assembling, disassembling and processing by the computer possible.\r\nEDI is considered to be a technical representation of a business conversation between two entities, either internal or external. The EDI standards were designed to be independent of communication and software technologies. EDI can be transmitted using any methodology agreed to by the sender and recipient. ","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/EDI__-_Electronic_Data_Interchange.png","alias":"edi-electronic-data-interchange"},"190":{"id":190,"title":"IPTV - Internet Protocol television","description":"Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the content (such as a TV channel) almost immediately. This is known as streaming media.\r\nAlthough IPTV uses the Internet protocol it is not limited to television streamed from the Internet (Internet television). IPTV is widely deployed in subscriber-based telecommunications networks with high-speed access channels into end-user premises via set-top boxes or other customer-premises equipment. IPTV is also used for media delivery around corporate and private networks. IPTV in the telecommunications arena is notable for its ongoing standardisation process (e.g., European Telecommunications Standards Institute).\r\nIPTV services may be classified into three main groups:\r\n<ul><li>Live television and live media, with or without related interactivity;</li><li>Time-shifted media: e.g. catch-up TV (replays a TV show that was broadcast hours or days ago), start-over TV (replays the current TV show from its beginning);</li><li>Video on demand (VOD): browse and view items in a stored media catalogue.</li></ul>\r\nHistorically, many different definitions of IPTV have appeared, including elementary streams over IP networks, MPEG transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems. One official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union focus group on IPTV (ITU-T FG IPTV) is:\r\n<blockquote><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security, interactivity and reliability.</span></blockquote>\r\n\r\nAnother definition of IPTV, relating to the telecommunications industry, is the one given by Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) IPTV Exploratory Group in 2005:\r\n<blockquote><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">IPTV is defined as the secure and reliable delivery to subscribers of entertainment video and related services. These services may include, for example, Live TV, Video On Demand (VOD) and Interactive TV (iTV). These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the IP protocol to transport the audio, video and control signals. In contrast to video over the public Internet, with IPTV deployments, network security and performance are tightly managed to ensure a superior entertainment experience, resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers, advertisers and customers alike.</span></blockquote>","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is IPTV?</span>\r\nIPTV refers to Internet-based Protocol Television where the internet is used to deliver TV programs & Videos that are either live or on-demand. IPTV is a system where digital television service is delivered to the subscriber through Internet protocol technology via the medium of broadband or internet connection.\r\nIt is slightly different from a digital video that is accessed by millions of users on sites or apps like YouTube or Netflix, but it shares quite a bit of the same ubiquitous, pervasive nature. Also unlike standard cable or satellite connection, in IPTV multiple TV sets can use a single subscription within a home.\r\nIPTV gives the viewers the added advantage and convenience of being able to pick the program they want to watch whenever and wherever they feel like watching it apart from tuning into any Live TV shows that are being aired currently.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">How does IPTV work?</span>\r\nIPTV is much similar like browsing the internet than traditional channel surfing. It merely uses IP (Internet Protocol), a transport protocol that is a delivery mechanism to deliver the videos to the viewer. When the viewer clicks on any TV program or requests the video, video from different sources (servers) is divided into data packets and sent over the internet. Video servers transmit programs through fiber-optic cable to existing households via internet connection and requests are sent out and shows are sent back.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is IPTV architecture?</span>\r\nDepending on the network architecture of the service provider, there are two main types of IPTV architecture that can be considered for IPTV deployment: centralized and distributed.\r\nThe centralized architecture model is a relatively simple and easy to manage solution. Because all media content is stored on centralized servers, it does not require a comprehensive content distribution system. Centralized architecture is generally good for a network that provides relatively small VOD service deployment, has an adequate core and edge bandwidth and has an efficient content delivery network (CDN).\r\nDistributed architecture is just as scalable as the centralized model, however, it has bandwidth usage advantages and inherent system management features that are essential for managing a larger server network. Operators who plan to deploy a relatively large system should, therefore, consider implementing a distributed architecture model right from the start. Distributed architecture requires intelligent and sophisticated content distribution technologies to augment the effective delivery of multimedia content over the service provider’s network.\r\nBroadcast content from Satellites and Local Antennas are received by the central unit. The central unit is where live TV channels and AV sources are encoded, encrypted and delivered in the form of IP multicast streams. The Central unit will also contain the Advertising Servers, Live TV Streaming Servers, Video on Demand (VOD) servers & platform and is where on-demand video assets are stored and served as IP unicast streams when a user makes a request. The VOD platform may sometimes be located with and considered part of, the IPTV’s central unit.\r\nThe requested videos and TV Channels are delivered to the viewer via the delivery network which consists of a robust internet uplink via Fiber Optics from the IPTV broadcasters end.\r\nThe viewer will receive this signal at their end via their local or preferred internet service provider which can vary from a range of options like broadband, fiber optics, DSL, etc..\r\nWhen the viewer subscribers to a particular IPTV service they are provided with the service’s specific Set Top Box (STB). A set-top box is the piece of endpoint equipment that decodes and decrypts TV and VOD streams for display on the TV screen. This STB is connected to the viewers’ internet connection (router) and uses the internet to deliver the video and TV content to the viewer.\r\nThe viewer requests the videos or TV Channels via an interactive portal in the STB, that allows the viewer to navigate within the different IPTV services, such as the VOD catalog.\r\nWhile this is a typical example of an IPTV architecture model, due to a wide variety of service providers in the market today and the IT options available in the market, each service provider may decide to implement a slightly different architecture that suits their needs, geographic area, endpoint internet connectivity, local market conditions & requirements, and business model.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the types of IPTV services?</span>\r\nApart from transmitting classic TV channels, the following interactive services are also provided by IPTV:\r\n<ol><li>Video on Demand: Individual delivery of video content to a subscriber. It allows users to watch any movie from the VoD server’s media library.</li><li>Near Video on Demand: It is a pay-per-view video service intended for multiple users subscribed to nVoD service. The content broadcasting schedule is compiled beforehand and subscribers can look at the schedule and watch content according to their interest.</li><li>Time-shifted TV: Time-shifted TV lets subscribers view live broadcasts later so they can playback and resume at their convenience. Rewind option is also provided for TV programs.</li><li>TV on Demand (TVoD): Selected TV channels are recorded so they can be viewed whenever convenient.</li><li>Live Television: with or without interactivity added to currently broadcasted TV shows.</li></ol>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/IPTV_-_Internet_Protocol_television.png","alias":"iptv-internet-protocol-television"},"217":{"id":217,"title":"Business-to-Business Middleware","description":" Middleware is a very broad term that can be defined as a translation layer between different applications and encompasses a number of different technologies, such as message-oriented middleware and database middleware. B2B middleware though has a narrower definition and is concerned first and foremost with routing data from a firm’s business applications to the applications of business partners such as customer, suppliers or banks.\r\nData must be extracted from the source system, which might be an ERP system or securities trading platform or an HR system whether it is an installed system or, as is increasingly the case, a cloud-based system. Data can be extracted using an API or specialized middleware supplied by the enterprise application.\r\nOnce the data has been extracted, it must be correctly formatted so that it can be shared by a completely different system. Typical standard formats are EDI or XML. However, each of these formats has specific variants specific to particular vertical industries. When the data has been formatted, it must then be transmitted to the business partner and, once again, there are a number of different network protocols such as HTTP-baaed AS1 and AS2, or FTP to support B2B integration.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is Middleware?</span>\r\nMiddleware is the software that connects network-based requests generated by a client to the back-end data the client is requesting. It is a general term for software that serves to "glue together" separate, often complex and already existing programs.\r\nMiddleware programs come in on-premises software and cloud services, and they can be used independently or together, depending upon the use case. While cloud providers bundle middleware into cloud services suites, such as middleware as a service (MWaaS) or integration PaaS (iPaaS), industry researchers note that many businesses still choose independent middleware products that fit their specific needs.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">How middleware works</span>\r\nAll network-based requests are essentially attempts to interact with back-end data. That data might be something as simple as an image to display or a video to play, or it could be as complex as a history of banking transactions.\r\nThe requested data can take on many different forms and may be stored in a variety of ways, such as coming from a file server, fetched from a message queue or persisted in a database. The role of middleware is to enable and ease access to those back-end resources.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Middleware categories</span>\r\nIn general, IT industry analysts -- such as Gartner Inc. and Forrester Research -- put middleware into two categories: enterprise integration middleware and platform middleware.\r\n<ul><li>Enterprise application integration middleware enables programmers to create business applications without having to custom-craft integrations for each new application. Here, middleware helps software and services components work together, providing a layer of functionality for data consistency and multi-enterprise or B2B integration. Typically, integration middleware provides messaging services, so different applications can communicate using messaging frameworks like Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), web services, Representational State Transfer (REST) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). Other middleware technologies used in this category include Object Request Brokers (ORBs), data representation technologies like XML and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and more.</li></ul>\r\nBusinesses can purchase individual middleware products or on-premises or cloud-based application integration suites.\r\n<ul><li>Platform middleware supports software development and delivery by providing a runtime hosting environment, such as a container, for application program logic. Its primary components are in-memory and enterprise application servers, as well as web servers and content management. Middleware includes web servers, application servers, content management systems and similar tools that support application development and delivery. Generally, embedded or external communications middleware allows different communications tools to work together. These communications tools enable application and service interaction. Resource management services, such as Microsoft Azure Resource Manager, host application program logic at runtime, another key function in platform middleware. Other components include Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) and in-memory data grids (IMDGs).</li></ul>\r\nPlatform middleware products are also available as specific on-premises or cloud service tools, as well as multitool suites. On a cloud suite site, middleware as a service offers an integrated set of platform tools and the runtime environment.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Business-to-Business_Middleware.png","alias":"business-to-business-middleware"},"219":{"id":219,"title":"Event-Driven Middleware","description":" Event management software is the generic term for a wide range of software products that are used in the management of professional and academic conferences, trade exhibitions, conventions and smaller events such as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) meetings.\r\nThe most common event management applications are:\r\n<ul><li>Event schedule planning</li><li>Customized event website creation</li><li>Online event registration, ticketing and delegate management including online payment</li><li>Event budgeting</li><li>Lead retrieval</li><li>Venue selection</li><li>Event Marketing</li><li>Event Networking for attendee engagement</li><li>Procurement, sourcing and RFPs</li><li>Content management including abstract and/or paper management, reviewing, programme development and publishing</li><li>Exhibition management including floor planning, booking and billing</li><li>On-site operations including registration, badges and networking</li><li>Audience response solutions, live slide sharing and second screen tools as live polls, Q+A, etc.</li></ul>","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the event-driven architecture?</span>\r\nThe event-driven architecture is a software architecture and model for application design. With an event-driven system, the capture, communication, processing, and persistence of events are the core structure of the solution. This differs from a traditional request-driven model.\r\nAn event is any significant occurrence or change in state for system hardware or software. An event is not the same as an event notification, which is a message or notification sent by the system to notify another part of the system that an event has taken place. \r\nThe source of an event can be from internal or external inputs. Events can generate from a user, like a mouse click or keystroke, an external source, such as a sensor output, or come from the system, like loading a program.\r\nMany modern application designs are event-driven. Event-driven apps can be created in any programming language because event-driven is a programming approach, not a language. The event-driven architecture enables minimal coupling, which makes it a good option for modern, distributed application architectures.\r\nAn event-driven architecture is loosely coupled because event producers don’t know which event consumers are listening for an event, and the event doesn’t know what the consequences are of its occurrence.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How does event-driven architecture work?</span>\r\nThe event-driven architecture is made up of event producers and event consumers. An event producer detects or senses an event and represents the event as a message. It does not know the consumer of the event or the outcome of an event.\r\nAfter an event has been detected, it is transmitted from the event producer to the event consumers through event channels, where an event processing platform processes the event asynchronously. Event consumers need to be informed when an event has occurred. They might process the event or may only be impacted by it.\r\nThe event processing platform will execute the correct response to an event and send the activity downstream to the right consumers. This downstream activity is where the outcome of an event is seen.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the benefits of event-driven architecture?</span>\r\nAn event-driven architecture can help organizations achieve a flexible system that can adapt to changes and make decisions in real-time. Real-time situational awareness means that business decisions, whether manual or automated, can be made using all of the available data that reflects the current state of your systems.\r\nEvents are captured as they occur from event sources such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, applications, and networks, allowing event producers and event consumers to share status and response information in real-time.\r\nOrganizations can add event-driven architecture to their systems and applications to improve the scalability and responsiveness of applications and access to the data and context needed for better business decisions.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Event-Driven_Middleware.png","alias":"event-driven-middleware"},"221":{"id":221,"title":"Process Automation Middleware","description":" At the current level of development, process automation is one of the approaches to process management based on the use of information technology. This approach allows the management of operations, data, information and resources through the use of computers and software that reduce the degree of human participation in the process, or completely eliminate it.\r\nThe main goal of automation is to improve the quality of the process. An automated process has more stable characteristics than a manual process. In many cases, process automation can increase productivity, reduce process execution time, reduce cost, increase accuracy and stability of operations.\r\nTo date, process automation has covered many industries and areas of activity: from manufacturing processes to shopping in stores. Regardless of the size and scope of the organization, almost every company has automated processes. The process approach provides for all processes the same principles of automation.\r\nDespite the fact that process automation can be performed at various levels, the principles of automation for all levels and all types of processes will remain the same. These are general principles that set the conditions for the efficient execution of processes in automatic mode and establish rules for automatic process control.\r\nThe basic principles of process automation are: the principle of consistency, the principle of integration, the principle of independence of execution. These general principles are detailed depending on the level of automation under consideration and specific processes. For example, automation of production processes includes principles such as the principle of specialization, the principle of proportionality, the principle of continuity, etc.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the levels of process automation?</span>\r\nProcess automation is needed to support management at all levels of the company hierarchy. In this regard, the levels of automation are determined depending on the level of control at which the automation of processes is performed.\r\nManagement levels are usually divided into operational, tactical and strategic.\r\nIn accordance with these levels, automation levels are also distinguished:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Lower level of automation or level of performers.</span></span> At this level, automation of regularly running processes is carried out. Automation of processes is aimed at performing operational tasks (for example, executing a production process), maintaining established parameters (for example, autopilot operation), and maintaining certain operating modes (for example, temperature conditions in a gas boiler).</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Production management level or tactical level.</span></span> Automation of processes of this level ensures the distribution of tasks between various processes of the lower level. Examples of such processes are production management processes (production planning, service planning), processes of managing resources, documents, etc.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Enterprise management level or strategic level.</span></span> Automation of the processes of the enterprise management level provides the solution of analytical and forecast tasks. This level of automation is necessary to support the work of top management of the organization. It is aimed at financial, economic and strategic management.</li></ul>\r\nAutomation of processes at each of these levels is provided through the use of various automation systems (CRM systems, ERP systems, OLAP systems, etc.). All automation systems can be divided into three basic types.\r\nTypes of automation systems include:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">immutable systems.</span></span> These are systems in which the sequence of actions is determined by the configuration of the equipment or process conditions and cannot be changed during the process.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">programmable systems.</span></span> These are systems in which the sequence of actions may vary depending on a given program and process configuration. The selection of the necessary sequence of actions is carried out through a set of instructions that can be read and interpreted by the system.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">flexible (self-adjusting) systems.</span></span> These are systems that are able to carry out the selection of necessary actions in the process of work. Changing the configuration of the process (sequence and conditions of operations) is based on information about the process.</li></ul>\r\nThese types of systems can be applied at all levels of process automation individually or as part of a combined system.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the types of automated processes?</span>\r\nIn each sector of the economy, there are enterprises and organizations that produce products or provide services. All these enterprises can be divided into three groups, depending on their “remoteness” in the natural resource processing chain.\r\nThe first group of enterprises is enterprises that extract or produce natural resources. Such enterprises include, for example, agricultural producers, oil and gas companies.\r\nThe second group of enterprises is enterprises that process natural raw materials. They make products from raw materials mined or produced by enterprises of the first group. Such enterprises include, for example, automobile industry enterprises, steel enterprises, electronic industry enterprises, power plants, etc.\r\nThe third group is service enterprises. Such organizations include, for example, banks, educational institutions, medical institutions, restaurants, etc.\r\nFor all enterprises, we can distinguish common groups of processes associated with the production of products or the provision of services.\r\nThese processes include:\r\n<ul><li>business processes;</li><li>design and development processes;</li><li>production processes;</li><li>control and analysis processes.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the benefits of process automation?</span>\r\nProcess automation can significantly improve the quality of management and product quality. With the implementation of the QMS, automation gives a significant effect and enables the organization to significantly improve its work. However, before deciding on process automation, it is necessary to evaluate the benefits of running processes in an automatic mode.\r\nTypically, process automation provides the following benefits:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">the speed of completing repetitive tasks increases.</span></span> Due to the automatic mode, the same tasks can be completed faster because automated systems are more accurate in operations and are not prone to a decrease in performance from the time of work.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">quality of work increases.</span></span> The exclusion of the human factor significantly reduces variations in the execution of the process, which leads to a decrease in the number of errors and, accordingly, increases the stability and quality of the process.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">increases control accuracy.</span></span> Due to the use of information technology in automated systems, it becomes possible to save and take into account a greater amount of process data than with manual control.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">parallel tasks.</span></span> Automated systems allow you to perform several actions at the same time without loss of quality and accuracy. This speeds up the process and improves the quality of the results.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">quick decision making in typical situations.</span></span> In automated systems, decisions related to typical situations are made much faster than with manual control. This improves the performance of the process and avoids inconsistencies in subsequent stages.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Process_Automation_Middleware.png","alias":"process-automation-middleware"},"225":{"id":225,"title":"End-User Query, Reporting, and Analysis","description":" Class systems of Query & Reporting are designed to form queries to information systems in user terms, as well as their execution, integration of data from different sources, viewing data with the possibilities of detailing and summarizing and building full-fledged reports, both on-screen and printed. Visualization of query results can be presented to the user in various forms - flat or multidimensional tables, graphs, charts, various specialized interfaces.\r\nEnd-user tools for querying and building reports are delivered in two ways:\r\n<ul><li>as part of OLAP-systems</li><li>in the form of specialized Query & Reporting</li></ul>\r\nVirtually every OLAP class system is equipped with Query & Reporting. These funds can be either embedded in the main product or separated into a separate product.\r\nThere are also specialized systems for generating and distributing reports. At the same time, these systems incorporate their own OLAP-means. Therefore, to draw a clear line between OLAP-systems and systems of class Query & Reporting is almost impossible.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the reporting tools?</span>\r\nReporting tools are widely used to support decision making and to measure organizational and team performance. Companies use them for financial consolidation, for evaluation of strategies and policies and often just for plain reporting. Today most of these tools are integrated with Business Intelligence tools.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the advantages of these tools for your organization?</span>\r\nReporting tools allow companies to create attractive reports easily. In tabular or graphical format. With data from Excel, a data warehouse or the organization’s ERP system. With the reports containing the right information, people are able to manage and improve the business processes more easily.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Which reporting tools are available in the market?</span>\r\nThere are many Business Intelligence Reporting tools in the market available. This list of reporting tools shows you a complete overview of all the major tools currently available and thoroughly studied by our industry analysts. To name a few: Cognos Query and reporting, Oracle Enterprise Reporting, Crystal Reports, Microsoft Reporting Services (SSRS), etc.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Is there a difference between reporting tools and BI tools?</span>\r\nAlmost every company, large or small, needs a reporting tool or they have already one in place. But, what is the difference between reporting software and Business Intelligence tools? They are not the same. In general reporting tools tell us where we have been but are not very good at analyzing data (at real time) and telling us where we are going (predictive).\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the difference between a query and a report?</span>\r\nA query is a way to create a list of accounts or journal entries that match your criteria. Requests serve as an advanced search engine that finds and groups accounts or journal entries and can only create a list.\r\nA report is a detailed report of a group of accounts or journal entries. Reports analyze data and are designed to calculate and present data in a more formal form.\r\nTypically, a query finds information in the database for you, and a report is a more powerful way to display and analyze information about the accounts or log entries you want to view.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/End-User_Query__Reporting__and_Analysis.png","alias":"end-user-query-reporting-and-analysis"},"227":{"id":227,"title":"Advanced Analytics Software","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Advanced analytics</span> is a part of data science that uses high-level methods and tools to focus on projecting future trends, events, and behaviors. This gives organizations the ability to perform advanced statistical models such as ‘what-if’ calculations, as well as future-proof various aspects of their operations.\r\nThe term is an umbrella for several sub-fields of analytics that work together in their predictive capabilities.\r\nThe major areas that make up advanced analytics are predictive data analytics, big data, and data mining. The process of advanced analytics includes all three areas at various times.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data mining</span> is a key aspect of advanced analytics, providing the raw data that will be used by both big data and predictive analytics. <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Big data analytics</span> are useful in finding existing insights and creating connections between data points and sets, as well as cleaning data.\r\nFinally, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">predictive analytics</span> can use these clean sets and existing insights to extrapolate and make predictions and projections about future activity, trends, and consumer behaviors.\r\nAdvanced analytics also include newer technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, semantic analysis, visualizations, and even neural networks. Taken together, they help advanced analytics software create an accurate enough canvas to make reliable predictions and generate actionable BI insights on a deeper level.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">A list of tips on how to manage the process of building an advanced analytics program</h1>\r\n<ul><li>Start with a proof-of-concept project to demonstrate the potential business value of analytics applications.</li><li>Take training seriously. New data management and analytics skills likely will be needed, especially if big data platforms and tools like SAS advanced analytics tools are involved.</li><li>Develop processes to ensure that business units are ready to act on analytical findings so the work of data scientists and other analysts doesn't go to waste.</li><li>Monitor and assess advanced and predictive analytics software on a regular basis to make sure the data being analyzed is still relevant and the analytical models being run against it are still valid.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Advanced analytics tools</h1>\r\nThere are a variety of advanced analytics tools to choose from that offer different advantages based on the use case. They generally break down into two categories: open source and proprietary.\r\nOpen source tools have become a go-to option for many data scientists doing machine learning and prescriptive analytics. They include programming languages, as well as computing environments, including Hadoop and Spark. Users typically say they like open source advanced analytics tools because they are generally inexpensive to operate, offer strong functionality and are backed by a user community that continually innovates the tools.\r\nOn the proprietary side, vendors including Microsoft, IBM and the SAS Institute all offer advanced analytics tools. Most require a deep technical background and understanding of mathematical techniques.\r\nIn recent years, however, a crop of self-service analytics tools has matured to make functionality more accessible to business users. Tableau, in particular, has become a common tool. While its functionality is more limited than deeper technical tools, it does enable users to conduct cluster analyses and other advanced analyses.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Advanced_Analytics_Software.png","alias":"advanced-analytics-software"},"229":{"id":229,"title":"Spatial Information Management Software","description":" A spatial database is a database that is optimized for storing and querying data that represents objects defined in a geometric space. Most spatial databases allow the representation of simple geometric objects such as points, lines and polygons. Some spatial databases handle more complex structures such as 3D objects, topological coverages, linear networks, and TINs. While typical databases have developed to manage various numeric and character types of data, such databases require additional functionality to process spatial data types efficiently, and developers have often added geometry or feature data types. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) developed the Simple Features specification (first released in 1997) and sets standards for adding spatial functionality to database systems. The SQL/MM Spatial ISO/IEC standard is a part the SQL/MM multimedia standard and extends the Simple Features standard with data types that support circular interpolations.\r\nA geodatabase (also geographical database and geospatial database) is a database of geographic data, such as countries, administrative divisions, cities, and related information. Such databases can be useful for websites that wish to identify the locations of their visitors for customization purposes.\r\nDatabase systems use indexes to quickly look up values; however, this way of indexing data is not optimal for spatial queries. Instead, spatial databases use a spatial index to speed up database operations.\r\nIn addition to typical SQL queries such as SELECT statements, spatial databases can perform a wide variety of spatial operations. The following operations and many more are specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium standard:\r\n<ul><li>Spatial Measurements: Computes line length, polygon area, the distance between geometries, etc.</li><li>Spatial Functions: Modify existing features to create new ones, for example by providing a buffer around them, intersecting features, etc.</li><li>Spatial Predicates: Allows true/false queries about spatial relationships between geometries. Examples include "do two polygons overlap" or 'is there a residence located within a mile of the area we are planning to build the landfill?'</li><li>Geometry Constructors: Creates new geometries, usually by specifying the vertices (points or nodes) which define the shape.</li><li>Observer Functions: Queries which return specific information about a feature such as the location of the center of a circle.</li></ul>\r\nSome databases support only simplified or modified sets of these operations, especially in cases of NoSQL systems like MongoDB and CouchDB.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the spatial index?</span>\r\nSpatial indices are used by spatial databases (databases which store information related to objects in space) to optimize spatial queries. Conventional index types do not efficiently handle spatial queries such as how far two points differ, or whether points fall within a spatial area of interest. Common spatial index methods include:\r\n<ul><li>Geohash</li><li>HHCode</li><li>Grid (spatial index)</li><li>Z-order (curve)</li><li>Quadtree</li><li>Octree</li><li>UB-tree</li><li>R-tree: Typically the preferred method for indexing spatial data.[citation needed] Objects (shapes, lines and points) are grouped using the minimum bounding rectangle (MBR). Objects are added to an MBR within the index that will lead to the smallest increase in its size.</li><li>R+ tree</li><li>R* tree</li><li>Hilbert R-tree</li><li>X-tree</li><li>kd-tree</li><li>m-tree – an m-tree index can be used for the efficient resolution of similarity queries on complex objects as compared using an arbitrary metric.</li><li>Binary space partitioning (BSP-Tree): Subdividing space by hyperplanes.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Spatial_Information_Management_Software.png","alias":"spatial-information-management-software"},"231":{"id":231,"title":"Deployment-Centric Application Platforms","description":" Deployment-centric application platforms are driving benefits for organizations embarking on their digital transformation journey.\r\nAs demand for applications increases, businesses need to make sure they have an effective application development platform in place to help them continue to capitalize on the benefits they can provide and meet customer demand. This platform has an integrated development environment that provides tools that allow the developer to program, test and implement applications.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is software deployment?</span>\r\nSoftware deployment is all of the activities that make a software system available for use.\r\nThe general deployment process consists of several interrelated activities with possible transitions between them. These activities can occur at the producer side or on the consumer side or both. Because every software system is unique, the precise processes or procedures within each activity can hardly be defined. Therefore, "deployment" should be interpreted as a general process that has to be customized according to specific requirements or characteristics.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Deployment-Centric_Application_Platforms.png","alias":"deployment-centric-application-platforms"},"233":{"id":233,"title":"Transaction Processing Monitors","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">A transaction processing monitor (TPM)</span> is a program that monitors transactions from one stage to the next, ensuring that each one completes successfully; if not, or if an error occurs, the TM Monitor takes the appropriate action. A transaction processing monitor’s main purpose/objective is to allow resource sharing and assure optimal use of the resources by applications. This term is sometimes shortened to TP monitor.\r\nA transaction processing monitor is critical in multi-tier architectures. With processes running on different platforms, a given transaction may be forwarded to any one of several servers. Generally, the TP monitor handles all load balancing. After completing each transaction, the TPM can process another transaction without being influenced by the prior transaction. In other words the TPM model essentially is stateless.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Transaction Processing Monitor architecture</span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">In the TP Monitor Architecture, ACID transactions are initiated by a Begin-Transaction call and terminated by either a Commit-Transaction or an Abort-Transaction call. When initiated, each transaction is assigned a unique identiier and entered into a transaction table managed by the Transaction Manager. Each entry in the transaction table contains the transaction identiier (TRID), the transaction status, and other information. When a transaction calls a transaction control operation, such as Commit-Transaction, the Transaction Manager is responsible for carrying out the execution of the command and recording information in the transaction table. </p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Process per client model</span> - instead of individual login session per terminal, server process communicates with the terminal, handles authentication, and executes actions.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Single process model</span> - all remote terminals connect to a single server process. Used in client-server environments.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Many-server single-router model</span> - multiple application server processes access a common database; clients communicate with the application through a single communication process that routes requests.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Many server many-router model</span> - multiple processes communicate with clients.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">In general, a TPM provides the following functionality:</span></p>\r\n<ul><li>Coordinating resources</li><li>Balancing loads</li><li>Creating new processes as/when needed</li><li>Providing secure access to services</li><li>Routing services</li><li>Wrapping data messages into messages</li><li>Unwrapping messages into data packets/structures</li><li>Monitoring operations/transactions</li><li>Managing queues</li><li>Handling errors through such actions as process restarting</li><li>Hiding interprocess communications details from programmers</li></ul>\r\n<br /><br /><br />\r\n\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Advantages of TP Monitors </h1>\r\nComplex applications are often built on top of several resource managers (such as DBMSs, operating systems, user interfaces, and messaging software). A TPM is a middleware component that provides access to the services of a number of resource managers and provides a uniform interface for programmers who are developing transactional software. \r\n<ul><li>Transaction routing the TP Monitor can increase scalability by directing transactions to specific DBMSs. </li><li> Managing distributed transactions the TP Monitor can manage transactions that require access to data held in multiple, possibly heterogeneous, DBMSs. For example, a transaction my require to update data items held in an Oracle DBMS at site 1, an Informix DBMS at site 2,and an IMS DBMS at site 3. TP Monitors normally control transactions using the X/Open Distributed Transactions Processing (DTP) standard. A DBMS that supports this standard can function as a resource manager under the control of a TP Monitor acting as a transaction manager.</li><li> Load balancing the TP Monitor can balance client requests across multiple DBMSs on one or more computers by directing client service calls to the least loaded server. In addition, it can dynamically bring in additional DBMSs as required to provide the necessary performance.</li><li>Funnelling in environments with a large number of users, it may sometimes be difficult for all users to be logged on simultaneously to the DBMS. In many cases, we would find that users generally do not need continuous access to the DBMS. Instead of each user connecting to the DBMS, the TP Monitor can establish connections with the DBMSs as and when required, and can funnel user requests through these connections. This allows a larger number of users to access the available DBMSs with a potentially much smaller number of connections, which in turn would mean less resource usage. </li><li> Increased reliability the TP Monitor acts as a transaction manager, performing the necessary actions to maintain the consistency of the database, with the DBMS acting as a resource manager. If the DBMS fails, the TP Monitor may be able to resubmit the transaction to another DBMS or can hold the transaction until the DBMS becomes available again.</li></ul>\r\nTP Monitors are typically used in environments with a very high volume of transactions, where the TP Monitor can be used to offload processes from the DBMS server. Prominent examples of TP Monitors include CICS and Encina from IBM (which are primarily used on IBM AIX or Windows NT and bundled now in the IBM TXSeries) and Tuxedo from BEA Systems.\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Transaction_Processing_Monitors.png","alias":"transaction-processing-monitors"},"239":{"id":239,"title":"Relational Database Management Systems","description":" Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a DBMS designed specifically for relational databases. Therefore, RDBMSes are a subset of DBMSes.\r\nA relational database refers to a database that stores data in a structured format, using rows and columns. This makes it easy to locate and access specific values within the database. It is "relational" because the values within each table are related to each other. Tables may also be related to other tables. The relational structure makes it possible to run queries across multiple tables at once.\r\nWhile a relational database describes the type of database an RDMBS manages, the RDBMS refers to the database program itself. It is the software that executes queries on the data, including adding, updating, and searching for values.\r\nAn RDBMS may also provide a visual representation of the data. For example, it may display data in a tables like a spreadsheet, allowing you to view and even edit individual values in the table. Some relational database softwareallow you to create forms that can streamline entering, editing, and deleting data.\r\nMost well known DBMS applications fall into the RDBMS category. Examples include Oracle Database, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM DB2. Some of these programs support non-relational databases, but they are primarily used for relational database management.\r\nExamples of non-relational databases include Apache HBase, IBM Domino, and Oracle NoSQL Database. These type of databases are managed by other DMBS programs that support NoSQL, which do not fall into the RDBMS category.\r\nElements of the relational DBMS that overarch the basic relational database are so intrinsic to operations that it is hard to dissociate the two in practice.\r\nThe most basic features of RDBMS are related to create, read, update and delete operations, collectively known as CRUD. They form the foundation of a well-organized system that promotes consistent treatment of data.\r\nThe RDBMS typically provides data dictionaries and metadata collections useful in data handling. These programmatically support well-defined data structures and relationships. Data storage management is a common capability of the RDBMS, and this has come to be defined by data objects that range from binary large object (blob) strings to stored procedures. Data objects like this extend the scope of basic relational database operations and can be handled in a variety of ways in different RDBMSes.\r\nThe most common means of data access for the RDBMS is via SQL. Its main language components comprise data manipulation language (DML) and data definition language (DDL) statements. Extensions are available for development efforts that pair SQL use with common programming languages, such as COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language), Java and .NET.\r\nRDBMSes use complex algorithms that support multiple concurrent user access to the database, while maintaining data integrity. Security management, which enforces policy-based access, is yet another overlay service that the RDBMS provides for the basic database as it is used in enterprise settings.\r\nRDBMSes support the work of database administrators (DBAs) who must manage and monitor database activity. Utilities help automate data loading and database backup. RDBMS systems manage log files that track system performance based on selected operational parameters. This enables measurement of database usage, capacity and performance, particularly query performance. RDBMSes provide graphical interfaces that help DBAs visualize database activity.\r\nRelational database management systems are central to key applications, such as banking ledgers, travel reservation systems and online retailing. As RDBMSes have matured, they have achieved increasingly higher levels of query optimization, and they have become key parts of reporting, analytics and data warehousing applications for businesses as well. \r\nRDBMSes are intrinsic to operations of a variety of enterprise applications and are at the center of most master data management (MDM) systems.<br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the advantages of a Relational Database Management System?</span></h1>\r\nA Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a software system that provides access to a relational database. The software system is a collection of software applications that can be used to create, maintain, manage and use the database. A "relational database" is a database structured on the "relational" model. Data are stored and presented in a tabular format, organized in rows and columns with one record per row.\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Data Structure.</span> The table format is simple and easy for database users to understand and use. Relational database management software provide data access using a natural structure and organization of the data. Database queries can search any column for matching entries.</li></ul>\r\n<dl></dl>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Multi-User Access.</span> RDBMS database program allow multiple database users to access a database simultaneously. Built-in locking and transactions management functionality allow users to access data as it is being changed, prevents collisions between two users updating the data, and keeps users from accessing partially updated records.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Privileges. </span>Authorization and privilege control features in an RDBMS allow the database administrator to restrict access to authorized users, and grant privileges to individual users based on the types of database tasks they need to perform. Authorization can be defined based on the remote client IP address in combination with user authorization, restricting access to specific external computer systems.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Network Access.</span> RDBMSs provide access to the database through a server daemon, a specialized software program that listens for requests on a network, and allows database clients to connect to and use the database. Users do not need to be able to log in to the physical computer system to use the database, providing convenience for the users and a layer of security for the database. Network access allows developers to build desktop tools and Web applications to interact with databases.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Speed.</span> The relational database model is not the fastest data structure. RDBMS software advantages, such as simplicity, make the slower speed a fair trade-off. Optimizations built into an RDBMS, and the design of the databases, enhance performance, allowing RDBMSs to perform more than fast enough for most applications and data sets. Improvements in technology, increasing processor speeds and decreasing memory and storage costs allow systems administrators to build incredibly fast systems that can overcome any database performance shortcomings.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Maintenance. </span>RDBMSs feature maintenance utilities that provide database administrators with tools to easily maintain, test, repair and back up the databases housed in the system. Many of the functions can be automated using built-in automation in the RDBMS, or automation tools available on the operating system.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Language.</span> RDBMSs support a generic language called "Structured Query Language" (SQL). The SQL syntax is simple, and the language uses standard English language keywords and phrasing, making it fairly intuitive and easy to learn. Many RDBMSs add non-SQL, database-specific keywords, functions and features to the SQL language.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Relational_Database_Management_Systems.png","alias":"relational-database-management-systems"},"240":{"id":240,"title":"Non-relational Database Management Systems","description":" A non-relational database is a database that does not incorporate the table/key model that relational database management systems (RDBMS) promote. These kinds of databases require data manipulation techniques and processes designed to provide solutions to big data problems that big companies face. The most popular emerging non-relational database is called NoSQL (Not Only SQL).\r\nMost non-relational databases are incorporated into websites such as Google, Yahoo!, Amazon and Facebook. These websites introduce a slew of new applications every single day with millions and millions of users, so they would not be able to handle large traffic spikes with existing RDBMS solutions. Since RDBMS cannot handle the problem, they’ve switched to a new kind of DBMS that is capable of handling Web-scale data in a non-relational way.<br /><br />An interesting aspect of a non-relational database such as NoSQL is scalability. NoSQL uses the BASE system (basically available, soft-state, eventually consistent). Non-relational databases forgo the table form of rows and columns relational databases use in favor of specialized frameworks to store data, which can be accessed by special query APIs. Persistence is an important element in these databases. To enable fast throughput of vast amounts of data the best option for performance is "in memory," rather than reading and writing from disks.<br /><br />Relational databases use the ACID system, which ensures consistency of data in all situations of data management but obviously takes longer to process because of all those relations and its branching nature. However, the BASE system loosened up the requirements on consistency to achieve better availability and partitioning for better scalability.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are NoSQL databases?</span>\r\nNoSQL databases are purpose built for specific data models and have flexible schemas for building modern applications. NoSQL databases are widely recognized for their ease of development, functionality, and performance at scale. They use a variety of data models, including document, graph, key-value, in-memory, and search. This page includes resources to help you better understand NoSQL databases and to get started.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">How Does a NoSQL (nonrelational) Database Work?</span>\r\nNoSQL databases use a variety of data models for accessing and managing data, such as document, graph, key-value, in-memory, and search. These types of databases are optimized specifically for applications that require large data volume, low latency, and flexible data models, which are achieved by relaxing some of the data consistency restrictions of other databases.\r\nConsider the example of modeling the schema for a simple book database:\r\n<ul><li>In a relational database, a book record is often dissembled (or “normalized”) and stored in separate tables, and relationships are defined by primary and foreign key constraints. In this example, the Books table has columns for ISBN, Book Title, and Edition Number, the Authors table has columns for AuthorID and Author Name, and finally the Author-ISBN table has columns for AuthorID and ISBN. The relational model is designed to enable the database to enforce referential integrity between tables in the database, normalized to reduce the redundancy, and generally optimized for storage.</li><li>In a NoSQL database, a book record is usually stored as a JSON document. For each book, the item, ISBN, Book Title, Edition Number, Author Name, and AuthorID are stored as attributes in a single document. In this model, data is optimized for intuitive development and horizontal scalability.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Why should you use a NoSQL database?</span>\r\nNoSQL databases are a great fit for many modern applications such as mobile, web, and gaming that require flexible, scalable, high-performance, and highly functional databases to provide great user experiences.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Flexibility:</span> NoSQL databases generally provide flexible schemas that enable faster and more iterative development. The flexible data model makes NoSQL databases ideal for semi-structured and unstructured data.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Scalability:</span> NoSQL databases are generally designed to scale out by using distributed clusters of hardware instead of scaling up by adding expensive and robust servers. Some cloud providers handle these operations behind-the-scenes as a fully managed service.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">High-performance:</span> NoSQL database are optimized for specific data models (such as document, key-value, and graph) and access patterns that enable higher performance than trying to accomplish similar functionality with relational databases.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Highly functional:</span> NoSQL databases provide highly functional APIs and data types that are purpose built for each of their respective data models.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the types of NoSQL Databases?</span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Key-value:</span> Key-value databases are highly partitionable and allow horizontal scaling at scales that other types of databases cannot achieve. Use cases such as gaming, ad tech, and IoT lend themselves particularly well to the key-value data model.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Document:</span> In application code, data is represented often as an object or JSON-like document because it is an efficient and intuitive data model for developers. Document databases make it easier for developers to store and query data in a database by using the same document model format that they use in their application code. The flexible, semistructured, and hierarchical nature of documents and document databases allows them to evolve with applications’ needs. The document model works well with catalogs, user profiles, and content management systems where each document is unique and evolves over time.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Graph:</span> A graph database’s purpose is to make it easy to build and run applications that work with highly connected datasets. Typical use cases for a graph database include social networking, recommendation engines, fraud detection, and knowledge graphs.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">In-memory:</span> Gaming and ad-tech applications have use cases such as leaderboards, session stores, and real-time analytics that require microsecond response times and can have large spikes in traffic coming at any time. Amazon ElastiCache offers Memcached and Redis, to serve low-latency, high-throughput workloads, such as McDonald’s, that cannot be served with disk-based data stores.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Search:</span> Many applications output logs to help developers troubleshoot issues.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Nonrelational_Database_Management_Systems1.png","alias":"non-relational-database-management-systems"},"243":{"id":243,"title":"Database Development and Management Tools","description":" Many companies create various multi-functional applications to facilitate the management, development and administration of databases.\r\nMost relational databases consist of two separate components: a “back-end” where data is stored and a “front-end” —a user interface for interacting with data. This type of design is smart enough, as it parallels a two-level programming model that separates the data layer from the user interface and allows you to concentrate the software market directly on improving its products. This model opens doors for third parties who create their own applications for interacting with various databases.\r\nDatabase development tools can be used to create varieties of the following programs:\r\n<ul><li>client programs;</li><li>database servers and their individual components;</li><li>custom applications.</li></ul>\r\nThe programs of the first and second types are rather small since they are intended mainly for system programmers. The third type packages are much larger, but smaller than full-featured DBMS.\r\nThe development tools for custom applications include programming systems, various program libraries for various programming languages, and development automation packages (including client-server systems).<br />Database management system, abbr. DBMS (Eng. Database Management System, abbr. DBMS) - a set of software and linguistic tools for general or special purposes, providing management of the creation and use of databases.\r\nDBMS - a set of programs that allow you to create a database (DB) and manipulate data (insert, update, delete and select). The system ensures the safety, reliability of storage and data integrity, as well as provides the means to administer the database.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The main functions of the DBMS:</span>\r\n<ul><li>data management in external memory (on disk);</li><li>data management in RAM using disk cache;</li><li>change logging, backup and recovery of databases after failures;</li><li>support for database languages (data definition language, data manipulation language).</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">The composition of the DBMS:</span>\r\nUsually, a modern DBMS contains the following components:\r\n<ul><li>the core, which is responsible for managing data in external and RAM and logging;</li><li>database language processor, which provides the optimization of requests for the extraction and modification of data and the creation, as a rule, of a machine-independent executable internal code;</li><li>a run-time support subsystem that interprets data manipulation programs that create a user interface with a DBMS;<br />service programs (external utilities) that provide a number of additional capabilities for maintaining an information system.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Database_Development_and_Management_Tools.png","alias":"database-development-and-management-tools"},"245":{"id":245,"title":"Data Integration and Access Software","description":" Data integration involves combining data residing in different sources and providing users with a unified view of them. This process becomes significant in a variety of situations, which include both commercial (such as when two similar companies need to merge their databases) and scientific (combining research results from different bioinformatics repositories, for example) domains. Data integration appears with increasing frequency as the volume (that is, big data) and the need to share existing data explodes. It has become the focus of extensive theoretical work, and numerous open problems remain unsolved. Data integration encourages collaboration between internal as well as external users.\r\nData integration is the process of combining data from different sources into a single, unified view. Integration begins with the ingestion process, and includes steps such as cleansing, ETL mapping, and transformation. Data integration ultimately enables analytics tools to produce effective, actionable business intelligence.\r\nThere is no universal approach to data integration. However, data integration solutions typically involve a few common elements, including a network of data sources, a master server, and clients accessing data from the master server.\r\nIn a typical data integration process, the client sends a request to the master server for data. The master server then intakes the needed data from internal and external sources. The data is extracted from the sources, then consolidated into a single, cohesive data set. This is served back to the client for use.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integration helps businesses succeed</span>\r\nEven if a company is receiving all the data it needs, that data often resides in a number of separate data sources. For example, for a typical customer 360 view use case, the data that must be combined may include data from their CRM systems, web traffic, marketing operations software, customer — facing applications, sales and customer success systems, and even partner data, just to name a few. Information from all of those different sources often needs to be pulled together for analytical needs or operational actions, and that can be no small task for data engineers or developers to bring them all together.\r\nLet’s take a look at a typical analytical use case. Without unified data, a single report typically involves logging into multiple accounts, on multiple sites, accessing data within native apps, copying over the data, reformatting, and cleansing, all before analysis can happen.\r\nConducting all these operations as efficiently as possible highlights the importance of data integration. It also showcases the major benefits of a well thought-out approach to data integration:\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Improves collaboration and unification of systems</span></span>\r\nEmployees in every department — and sometimes in disparate physical locations — increasingly need access to the company's data for shared and individual projects. IT needs a secure solution for delivering data via self-service access across all lines of business.\r\nAdditionally, employees in almost every department are generating and improving data that the rest of the business needs. Data integration needs to be collaborative and unified in order to improve collaboration and unification across the organization.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Saves time and boosts efficiency</span></span>\r\nWhen a company takes measures to integrate its data properly, it cuts down significantly on the time it takes to prepare and analyze that data. The automation of unified views cuts out the need for manually gathering data, and employees no longer need to build connections from scratch whenever they need to run a report or build an application.\r\nAdditionally, using the right tools, rather than hand-coding the integration, returns even more time (and resources overall) to the dev team.\r\nAll the time saved on these tasks can be put to other, better uses, with more hours earmarked for analysis and execution to make an organization more productive and competitive.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduces errors (and rework)</span></span>\r\nThere’s a lot to keep up with when it comes to a company’s data resources. To manually gather data, employees must know every location and account that they might need to explore — and have all necessary software installed before they begin — to ensure their data sets will be complete and accurate. If a data repository is added, and that employee is unaware, they will have an incomplete data set.\r\nAdditionally, without a data integration solution that synchronizes data, reporting must be periodically redone to account for any changes. With automated updates, however, reports can be run easily in real time, whenever they’re needed.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Delivers more valuable data</span></span>\r\nData integration efforts actually improve the value of a business’ data over time. As data is integrated into a centralized system, quality issues are identified and necessary improvements are implemented, which ultimately results in more accurate data — the foundation for quality analysis.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Data_Integration_and_Access_Software.png","alias":"data-integration-and-access-software"},"249":{"id":249,"title":"Development Languages, Environments, and Tools","description":" Free software development environments have different purposes: educational, developmental, educational, and the like. Their students can be schoolchildren, students, novice programmers.\r\nScientists propose the following classification of free software development environments:\r\n<ul><li>Environments that support one programming language;</li><li>Environments with support for multiple programming languages;</li><li>Development environments for web systems and applications;</li><li>Environments aimed at a children's audience.</li></ul>\r\nOf the free environments focused on a single programming language, the following tools should be highlighted: Lazarus, PyScripter, DrPython, Wing IDE.\r\nAmong the free software development tools designed for several programming languages, the following should be noted: CodeLite, Dev-C, Anjuta, Eric, Eclipse, HiAsm, Kylix, MonoDevelop, NetBeans, SharpDevelop, Xcode, etc.\r\nFrom the list of free environments for creating web applications, you can select the following: AJAX.OOP, MooTools Code :: Blocks, Codelobster PHP Edition, Geany, Ultimate, Symfony, Grails. With their help, experts also produce the creation of websites and Internet interfaces.\r\nAmong the development tools intended for children's audiences, the following environments can be singled out: Algo, Alice, EToys, Scratch, Squeak, etc. The main purpose of their use is to encourage children to learn to program.\r\nAn integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger. Some IDEs, such as NetBeans and Eclipse, contain the necessary compiler, interpreter, or both; others, such as SharpDevelop and Lazarus, do not.\r\nThe boundary between an IDE and other parts of the broader software development environment is not well-defined; sometimes a version control system or various tools to simplify the construction of a graphical user interface (GUI) are integrated. Many modern IDEs also have a class browser, an object browser, and a class hierarchy diagram for use in object-oriented software development.\r\nIntegrated development environments are designed to maximize programmer productivity by providing tight-knit components with similar user interfaces. IDEs present a single program in which all development is done. This program typically provides many features for authoring, modifying, compiling, deploying and debugging software. This contrasts with software development using unrelated tools, such as vi, GCC or make.\r\nOne aim of the IDE is to reduce the configuration necessary to piece together multiple development utilities, instead it provides the same set of capabilities as one cohesive unit. Reducing setup time can increase developer productivity, especially in cases where learning to use the IDE is faster than manually integrating and learning all of the individual tools. Tighter integration of all development tasks has the potential to improve overall productivity beyond just helping with setup tasks. For example, code can be continuously parsed while it is being edited, providing instant feedback when syntax errors are introduced. Allowing developers to debug code much faster and easier with an IDE.\r\nSome IDEs are dedicated to a specific programming language, allowing a feature set that most closely matches the programming paradigms of the language. However, there are many multiple-language IDEs.\r\nWhile most modern IDEs are graphical, text-based IDEs such as Turbo Pascal were in popular use before the widespread availability of windowing systems like Microsoft Windows and the X Window System (X11). They commonly use function keys or hotkeys to execute frequently used commands or macros.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is "software development tools"?</span>\r\nSoftware development tools - a set of techniques, methods, techniques, as well as a set of tool programs (compilers, application/system libraries, etc.) used by the developer to create program code for the program that meets the specified requirements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What does "program development" mean?</span>\r\nProgram development is a complex process, the main purpose of which is to create and maintain a program code that provides the necessary level of reliability and quality. To achieve the main goal of software development, software development tools are used.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Development_Languages_Environments_and_Tools.png","alias":"development-languages-environments-and-tools"},"251":{"id":251,"title":"Software Construction Components","description":" The software construction components market, which is ruled by client experience and representation software components, is relied upon to keep on growing. Software construction components allude to the inexactly coupled individual components which are merged into a bigger software framework. As far as engineering disciplines, software construction with the divided components is known as component-based software engineering (CBSE). These components might be as a software bundle, a web administration, asset or a module that contains related information or capacities.\r\nComponents from a pre-built software are autonomously removed and sold independently by the software designers themselves or through outsiders to help in building another software framework. The primary reason for component-based software construction is re ease of use in other software frameworks for construction and redesigning of existing software frameworks.\r\nSoftware Construction Components Market is rendered by expanding interest for new applications with enlarged highlights and customization capacities. The requirement for decreasing many-sided quality and expanding efficiency is fortifying the development of the software construction components market. The coming of the internet of things (IoT) has made software advancement a bigger and complex process.\r\nThe consequence of data analytics to the operation and functioning of a business has risen to a large extent in the last few years. With the rising spread of the internet, huge volumes of data are being generated on a regular basis, which creates the need for advanced tools for data management. With the increasing popularity of smart technology these days, global Software Construction Components Market has thus become prominent creators of digital information. These systems let users collate, collect, and analyze the generated data, which subsequently has triggered the rapid development of the global market in the last few years.","materialsDescription":" \r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is software construction?</span>\r\nSoftware construction is a software engineering discipline. It is the detailed creation of working meaningful software through a combination of coding, verification, unit testing, integration testing, and debugging. It is linked to all the other software engineering disciplines, most strongly to software design and software testing.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software construction fundamentals</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Minimizing complexity</span></span>\r\nThe need to reduce complexity is mainly driven by limited ability of most people to hold complex structures and information in their working memories. Reduced complexity is achieved through emphasizing the creation of code that is simple and readable rather than clever. Minimizing complexity is accomplished through making use of standards, and through numerous specific techniques in coding. It is also supported by the construction-focused quality techniques.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Anticipating change</span></span>\r\nAnticipating change helps software engineers build extensible software, which means they can enhance a software product without disrupting the underlying structure. Research over 25 years showed that the cost of rework can be 10 to 100 times (5 to 10 times for smaller projects) more expensive than getting the requirements right the first time. Given that 25% of the requirements change during development on average project, the need to reduce the cost of rework elucidates the need for anticipating change.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Constructing for verification</span></span>\r\nConstructing for verification means building software in such a way that faults can be ferreted out readily by the software engineers writing the software, as well as during independent testing and operational activities. Specific techniques that support constructing for verification include following coding standards to support code reviews, unit testing, organizing code to support automated testing, and restricted use of complex or hard-to-understand language structures, among others.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reuse</span></span>\r\nSystematic reuse can enable significant software productivity, quality, and cost improvements. Reuse has two closely related facets:\r\n<ul><li>Construction for reuse: Create reusable software assets.</li><li>Construction with reuse: Reuse software assets in the construction of a new solution.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Standards in construction</span></span>\r\nStandards, whether external (created by international organizations) or internal (created at the corporate level), that directly affect construction issues include:\r\n<ul><li>Communication methods: Such as standards for document formats and contents.</li><li>Programming languages</li><li>Coding standards</li><li>Platforms</li><li>Tools: Such as diagrammatic standards for notations like UML.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Software_Construction_Components.png","alias":"software-construction-components"},"255":{"id":255,"title":"Modeling and Architecture Tools","description":" Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a discipline that has gained and will continue to gain huge importance to master enterprise organization and its IT support.\r\nEnterprise Architecture is a complete expression of the enterprise, a master plan which “acts as a collaboration force” between aspects of business planning (such as goals, visions, strategies and governance principles), aspects of business operations (such as business terms, organization structures, processes, and data), aspects of automation (such as information systems and databases) and the enabling technological infrastructure of the business (such as computers, operating systems, and networks).\r\nEnterprise architects use various business methods, analytical techniques and conceptual tools to understand and document the structure and dynamics of an enterprise. In doing so, they produce lists, drawings, documents, and models, together called "artifacts". These artifacts describe the logical organization of business functions, business capabilities, business processes, people, information resources, business systems, software applications, computing capabilities, information exchange and communications infrastructure within the enterprise.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is enterprise architecture?</span>\r\nEnterprise architecture (EA) is "a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation, using a comprehensive approach at all times, for the successful development and execution of strategy. Enterprise architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute their strategies. These practices utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and achieve these changes."\r\nPractitioners of enterprise architecture, enterprise architects, are responsible for performing the analysis of business structure and processes and are often called upon to draw conclusions from the information collected to address the goals of enterprise architecture: effectiveness, efficiency, agility, and continuity of complex business operations.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the terms "enterprise" and "architecture"?</span>\r\nThe term enterprise can be defined as describing an organizational unit, organization, or collection of organizations that share a set of common goals and collaborate to provide specific products or services to customers.\r\nIn that sense, the term enterprise covers various types of organizations, regardless of their size, ownership model, operational model, or geographical distribution. It includes those organizations' complete socio-technical systems, including people, information, processes, and technologies.\r\nThe term architecture refers to fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment, embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution.\r\nUnderstood as a socio-technical system, the term enterprise defines the scope of enterprise architecture.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the benefits?</span>\r\nThe benefits of enterprise architecture are achieved through its direct and indirect contributions to organizational goals. It has been found that the most notable benefits of enterprise architecture can be observed in the following areas:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Organizational design</span> - Enterprise architecture provides support in the areas related to design and re-design of the organizational structures during mergers, acquisitions or during general organizational change.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Organizational processes and process standards</span> - Enterprise architecture helps enforce discipline and standardization of business processes, and enable process consolidation, reuse, and integration.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Project portfolio management</span> - Enterprise architecture supports investment decision-making and work prioritization.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Project management</span> - Enterprise architecture enhances the collaboration and communication between project stakeholders. Enterprise architecture contributes to efficient project scoping and defining more complete and consistent project deliverables.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Requirements Engineering</span> - Enterprise architecture increases the speed of requirement elicitation and the accuracy of requirement definitions, through the publishing of the enterprise architecture documentation.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">System development</span> - Enterprise architecture contributes to optimal system designs and efficient resource allocation during system development and testing.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">IT management and decision making</span> - Enterprise architecture is found to help enforce discipline and standardization of IT planning activities and to contribute to a reduction in time for technology-related decision making.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">IT value</span> - Enterprise architecture helps reduce the system's implementation and operational costs and minimize the replication of IT infrastructure services across business units.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">IT complexity</span> - Enterprise architecture contributes to a reduction in IT complexity, consolidation of data and applications, and to better interoperability of the systems.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">IT openness</span> - Enterprise architecture contributes to more open and responsive IT as reflected through increased accessibility of data for regulatory compliance, and increased transparency of infrastructure changes.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">IT risk management</span> - Enterprise architecture contributes to the reduction of business risks from system failures and security breaches. Enterprise architecture helps reduce risks of project delivery.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Modeling_and_Architecture_Tools.png","alias":"modeling-and-architecture-tools"},"257":{"id":257,"title":"Web Design and Development Tools","description":" If your business is not active on the internet, then you can miss the great opportunity to get the various benefits. A website of a business is a must for gaining popularity and profits. Through a business website, you can easily sell your products and services. In the present, every single person is active on the internet and searches the services through the internet or Google search engine. If you would like to build a website, then you have to hire the best web design and development services. Web design is collecting ideas and implementing them, guided by certain principles for specific purposes. Web design contains various parameters such as layout, color, graphics, fonts, and contents.\r\nWeb development is different than web design, but the main task of web development is maintaining and building the website. It gives actual life to design files. If you want to get the best web design and development services to create the perfect and unique website of your business, then you have to hire a professional company. If you don’t want to hire a professional, then you can get the help of tools. On the internet, several web design and development tools are available which helps to build your effective business website at a reasonable cost. With the help of the designing tool, you can easily save your money and time.\r\nWeb designers use a variety of different tools depending on what part of the production process they are involved in. These tools are updated over time by newer standards and software but the principles behind them remain the same. Web designers use both vector and raster graphics editors to create web-formatted imagery or design prototypes. Technologies used to create websites include W3C standards like HTML and CSS, which can be hand-coded or generated by WYSIWYG editing software. Other tools web designers might use include mark up validators and other testing tools for usability and accessibility to ensure their websites meet web accessibility guidelines.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> What is included in a creation of website design?</span>\r\nWeb design has very big differences from ordinary printing design. Creating a website design is usually a certain process, which takes into account various requirements of not only artistic but also technical nature. Such a process may include several stages:\r\n<ul><li>development of an attractive, easily perceived design of the start page, as well as other sections and subsequent levels (including various forms of registrations, baskets, etc.);</li><li>development and coordination of a well-designed structure of the entire site;</li><li>designing a convenient, fairly simple site navigation;</li><li>correctly positioned text on the pages;</li><li>availability of opportunities for simple support and expansion of the site.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What design to choose when creating a site?</span>\r\nWhen creating a website design, you must take into account its theme.\r\nSo, a commercial website should attract visitors with its memorable look and corporate identity that is specific to your company. And, at the same time, be convenient and contain all the information necessary for the user about you and your goods, services. Not to mention the fact that various forms of receiving on-line consultations, placing orders, etc. are welcome on such a site. The presence of such functions and their intuitiveness and accessibility for the site user significantly increases what is commonly called the "site conversion". Those. how much your site will be "selling", and whether it can not only be an analogue of your company's business card on the Internet, but also attract new, by no means virtual clients for your business. Therefore, the creation of a website design of this kind should be carried out very carefully in order to fully reflect the individuality of the image of the company.\r\nSometimes it is recommended to adhere to a concise style, which is able to emphasize your uniqueness and stability as a company. In other cases (for example, if we are talking about the sites of wedding agencies), a certain tone is considered to be a certain romance and tenderness of the color scheme, combined with joyful, bright elements. And sites that appeal to potential customers with unusual requests are simply obliged to have a unique, sometimes very extravagant design (while maintaining, however, the basic principles of good usability - the simplicity and convenience of using your Internet resource).\r\nIf you plan, for example, to launch an information site, then its design should be designed in a strict style, without flashy colors, since in this case it is the content that is more important than the design.\r\nHowever, the last statement is true for any site. Indeed, sometimes it doesn’t matter how beautiful the wrapper is, if instead of candy inside the user finds a dummy. The content of the site, its content and how convenient it is for the user to receive the information he needs on your site is the most important thing! Alas, in the Russian Internet zone, so far, 9 out of 10 sites (even with an excellent initial design) are simply “killed” by inappropriate or uninteresting user content. And then, simply, its absence.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Web design when creating sites: beauty or functionality?</span>\r\nWhen creating the design of the future site, it is important to remember, first of all, the functionality and the tasks that the future site will have to solve. And, therefore, remember about those for whom you are creating it - about future users. An overly elaborate design or an inconvenient menu, the difficulty of finding the necessary information on the site - this can lead to the fact that your visitor will go to other sites. Those. to your competitors.\r\nThe user of the Internet network often does not care about designer delights or the “coolness” of a programmer who has implemented non-standard site navigation, which you can’t even figure out without additional instructions. A site visitor came to you for information. And it is important, first of all, how quickly he found her, how much she met his needs, how much she helped in solving him, the user of the problem.\r\nThen the site will be remembered, and the visitor will not only return to you himself, but also, perhaps, will bring friends.\r\nA good web designer is not only, and not so much an artist, as a very thoughtful and experienced Internet resource designer who will attract attention, while remaining convenient and in demand within the framework of your marketing policy.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Web_Design_and_Development_Tools.png","alias":"web-design-and-development-tools"},"261":{"id":261,"title":"Automated Software Quality Tools","description":" Some software testing tasks, such as extensive low-level interface regression testing, can be laborious and time-consuming to do manually. In addition, a manual approach might not always be effective in finding certain classes of defects. Test automation offers a possibility to perform these types of testing effectively. Once automated tests have been developed, they can be run quickly and repeatedly. Many times, this can be a cost-effective method for regression testing of software products that have a long maintenance life. Even minor patches over the lifetime of the application can cause existing features to break which were working at an earlier point in time.\r\nThere are many approaches to test automation, however below are the general approaches used widely:\r\n<ul><li>Graphical user interface testing. A testing framework that generates user interface events such as keystrokes and mouse clicks, and observes the changes that result in the user interface, to validate that the observable behavior of the program is correct.</li><li>API driven testing. A testing framework that uses a programming interface to the application to validate the behaviour under test. Typically API driven testing bypasses application user interface altogether. It can also be testing public (usually) interfaces to classes, modules or libraries are tested with a variety of input arguments to validate that the results that are returned are correct.</li></ul>\r\nTest automation tools can be expensive, and are usually employed in combination with manual testing. Test automation can be made cost-effective in the long term, especially when used repeatedly in regression testing. A good candidate for test automation is a test case for common flow of an application, as it is required to be executed (regression testing) every time an enhancement is made in the application. Test automation reduces the effort associated with manual testing. Manual effort is needed to develop and maintain automated checks, as well as reviewing test results.\r\nIn automated testing the test engineer or software quality assurance person must have software coding ability, since the test cases are written in the form of source code which, when run, produce output according to the assertions that are a part of it. Some test automation tools allow for test authoring to be done by keywords instead of coding, which do not require programming.\r\nOne way to generate test cases automatically is model-based testing through use of a model of the system for test case generation, but research continues into a variety of alternative methodologies for doing so. In some cases, the model-based approach enables non-technical users to create automated business test cases in plain English so that no programming of any kind is needed in order to configure them for multiple operating systems, browsers, and smart devices.\r\nWhat to automate, when to automate, or even whether one really needs automation are crucial decisions which the testing (or development) team must make. A multi-vocal literature review of 52 practitioner and 26 academic sources found that five main factors to consider in test automation decision are: 1) System Under Test (SUT), 2) the types and numbers of tests, 3) test-tool, 4) human and organizational topics, and 5) cross-cutting factors. The most frequent individual factors identified in the study were: need for regression testing, economic factors, and maturity of SUT.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Unit testing</span>\r\nA growing trend in software development is the use of unit testing frameworks such as the xUnit frameworks (for example, JUnit and NUnit) that allow the execution of unit tests to determine whether various sections of the code are acting as expected under various circumstances. Test cases describe tests that need to be run on the program to verify that the program runs as expected.\r\nTest automation mostly using unit testing is a key feature of extreme programming and agile software development, where it is known as test-driven development (TDD) or test-first development. Unit tests can be written to define the functionality before the code is written. However, these unit tests evolve and are extended as coding progresses, issues are discovered and the code is subjected to refactoring. Only when all the tests for all the demanded features pass is the code considered complete. Proponents argue that it produces software that is both more reliable and less costly than code that is tested by manual exploration. It is considered more reliable because the code coverage is better, and because it is run constantly during development rather than once at the end of a waterfall development cycle. The developer discovers defects immediately upon making a change, when it is least expensive to fix. Finally, code refactoring is safer when unit testing is used; transforming the code into a simpler form with less code duplication, but equivalent behavior, is much less likely to introduce new defects when the refactored code is covered by unit tests.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Graphical User Interface (GUI) testing</span>\r\nMany test automation tools provide record and playback features that allow users to interactively record user actions and replay them back any number of times, comparing actual results to those expected. The advantage of this approach is that it requires little or no software development. This approach can be applied to any application that has a graphical user interface. However, reliance on these features poses major reliability and maintainability problems. Relabelling a button or moving it to another part of the window may require the test to be re-recorded. Record and playback also often adds irrelevant activities or incorrectly records some activities.\r\nA variation on this type of tool is for testing of web sites. Here, the "interface" is the web page. However, such a framework utilizes entirely different techniques because it is rendering HTML and listening to DOM Events instead of operating system events. Headless browsers or solutions based on Selenium Web Driver are normally used for this purpose.\r\nAnother variation of this type of test automation tool is for testing mobile applications. This is very useful given the number of different sizes, resolutions, and operating systems used on mobile phones. For this variation, a framework is used in order to instantiate actions on the mobile device and to gather results of the actions.\r\nAnother variation is script-less test automation that does not use record and playback, but instead builds a model of the application and then enables the tester to create test cases by simply inserting test parameters and conditions, which requires no scripting skills.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">API driven testing</span>\r\nAPI testing is also being widely used by software testers due to the difficulty of creating and maintaining GUI-based automation testing. It involves directly testing APIs as part of integration testing, to determine if they meet expectations for functionality, reliability, performance, and security. Since APIs lack a GUI, API testing is performed at the message layer. API testing is considered critical when an API serves as the primary interface to application logic since GUI tests can be difficult to maintain with the short release cycles and frequent changes commonly used with agile software development and DevOps.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Continuous testing</span>\r\nContinuous testing is the process of executing automated tests as part of the software delivery pipeline to obtain immediate feedback on the business risks associated with a software release candidate. For Continuous Testing, the scope of testing extends from validating bottom-up requirements or user stories to assessing the system requirements associated with overarching business goals.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Automated_Software_Quality_Tools1.png","alias":"automated-software-quality-tools"},"263":{"id":263,"title":"Software Configuration Management Tools","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Software configuration management</span> (SCM) is a set of processes, policies, and tools that organizes the development process. It simultaneously maintains the current state of the software (called the “baseline”), while enabling developers to work on new versions for features or fixes.\r\nIn software engineering, <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software configuration management process</span> is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger cross-disciplinary field of configuration management. SCM practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines. If something goes wrong, SCM can determine what was changed and who changed it. If a configuration is working well, SCM can determine how to replicate it across many hosts. \r\nThe acronym "SCM" is also expanded as <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">source configuration management process</span> and <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">software change and configuration management.</span> However, "configuration" is generally understood to cover changes typically made by a system administrator. \r\nSoftware configuration control usually includes the updates and the versions that have been applied to software packages, as well as locations and network addresses of hardware devices. When a system needs a software or hardware upgrade, the user can access the configuration management program and database to see what is currently installed and then make a more informed decision about the upgradation needed. Configuration management tools list have been divided into three categories: <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">tracking</span>, <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">version management</span>, and r<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">elease tools.</span>\r\nThe SCM configuration management traces changes and verifies that the software has all of the planned changes that are supposed to be included in a new release. It includes four procedures that should be defined for each software project to ensure that a reliable software configuration management process is utilized. The four procedures typically found in a reliable system configuration management tools are:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Configuration identification. </span>It is the procedure by which attributes are identified that defines all the properties of a configuration item. A configuration item referred to as an object is a product (hardware and/or software) that supports use by an end user. These attributes are recorded in configuration documents or database tables and baselined. A baseline is an approved configuration object, such as a project plan, that has been authorized for implementation.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Configuration control.</span> It is a set of processes and approval stages required to change a configuration object’s attributes and to rebaseline them.<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \"><br /></span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Configuration status documentation. </span>Configuration status accounting is the ability to record and report on the configuration baselines associated with each configuration object at any point in time.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Configuration audits. </span>Configuration audits are divided into functional and physical configuration audits. An audit occurs at the time of delivery of a project or at the time a change is made. A functional configuration audit is intended to make sure that functional and performance attributes of a configuration object are achieved. A physical configuration audit attempts to ensure that a configuration object is installed based on the requirements of its design specifications.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The advantages of software configuration management system are:</span>\r\n<ul><li>It reduces redundant work</li><li>It effectively manages simultaneous updates</li><li>It avoids configuration related problems</li><li>It simplifies coordination between team members</li><li>It is helpful in tracking defects</li></ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> What are the outcomes of well-implemented configuration management?</h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Disaster Recovery<br /></span></li></ul>\r\nIf the worst does happen, automated configuration management tools ensures that our assets are easily recoverable. The same applies to rollbacks. Configuration management makes it so that when we’ve put out bad code, we can go back to the state of our software before the change.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Uptime and Site Reliability</span></li></ul>\r\nThe term “site reliability” refers to how often your service is up. A frequent cause of downtime is bad deployments, which can be caused by differences in running production servers to test servers. With our configuration managed properly, our test environments can mimic production, so there’s less chance of a nasty surprise.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Easier Scaling</span></li></ul>\r\nProvisioning is the act of adding more resources (usually servers) to our running application. Сonfiguration automation tools ensure that we know what a good state of our service is. That way, when we want to increase the number of servers that we run, it’s simply a case of clicking a button or running a script. The goal is really to make provisioning a non-event.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Software_Configuration_Management_Tools.png","alias":"software-configuration-management-tools"},"269":{"id":269,"title":"IDE - Integrated Development Environment","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">An integrated development environment (IDE)</span> software is a suite that consolidates basic tools required to write and test software.\r\nDevelopers use numerous tools throughout software code creation, building and testing. Development tools often include text editors, code libraries, compilers and test platforms. Without an IDE, a developer must select, deploy, integrate and manage all of these tools separately. An IDE brings many of those development-related tools together as a single framework, application or service. The integrated toolset is designed to simplify software development and can identify and minimize coding mistakes and typos.\r\nSome IDEs are open source, while others are commercial offerings. An IDE can be a standalone application or it can be part of a larger package.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Common features of Integrated Development Environment</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Text editor.</span> Virtually every integrated programming environment will have a text editor designed to write and manipulate source code. Some tools may have visual components to drag and drop front-end components, but most have a simple interface with language-specific syntax highlighting.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Debugger</span>. Debugging tools assist users in identifying and remedying errors within source code. They often simulate real-world scenarios to test functionality and performance. Programmers and software engineers can usually test the various segments of code and identify errors before the application is released.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Compiler.</span> Compilers are components that translate programming language into a form machines can process, such as binary code. The machine code is analyzed to ensure its accuracy. The compiler then parses and optimizes the code to optimize performance.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Code completion.</span> Code complete features assist programmers by intelligently identifying and inserting common code components. These features save developers time writing code and reduce the likelihood of typos and bugs.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Programming language support.</span> IDE tools are typically specific to a single programming language, though several also offer multi-language support. As such, the first step is to figure out which languages you will be coding in and narrow your prospective IDE list down accordingly. Examples include Ruby, Python, and Java IDE tools.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Integrations and plugins.</span> With the name integrated development environment software, it is no surprise that integrations need to be considered when looking at IDEs. Your integrated software environment is your development portal, so being able to incorporate all your other development tools will improve development workflows and productivity. Poor integrations can cause numerous issues and lead to many headaches, so make sure you understand how well a potential IDE fits into your ecosystem of existing tools.\r\n\r\n","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Benefits of using IDEs</h1>\r\nAn integrated development environment can improve the productivity of software developers thanks to fast setup and standardization across tools. Without an IDE, developers spend time deciding what tools to use for various tasks, configuring the tools and learning how to use them. Many or even all of the necessary dev-test tools are included in one integrated development environment. IDEs are also designed with all their tools under one user interface.\r\nCentralizing these tools also makes it easier to navigate the source code in question. Many include additional capabilities to test, organize and refactor code. Additional features such as autocomplete, along with build and deployment capabilities, significantly expand a developer’s capabilities and improve their development speed.\r\nImproved organization and source code management can reduce errors as well as development time. Users can fine-tune applications after builds are completed. They can often save versions of a project in case they need to revert a program.\r\nEventually, teams use their integrated version control system to check in and out components of the program from their code repository. At the end, once all programs are fine-tuned and the application performs its desired functions, the project can be packaged and deployed from either the IDE or another integrated tool.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Types of integrated development environment and available tools</h1>\r\nDevelopers must match the IDE they use with the type of application they want to produce. For example, if a developer wants to create an application on iOS, then they need an IDE that supports Apple's Swift programming language. Types of IDEs range from web-based and cloud-based to mobile, language-specific or multi-language.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Web development</span> IDE suits web-based application development in HTML, JavaScript or similar programming languages. Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is an example of a web-based IDE with features such as a code editor, syntax highlighting, code completion and debugging.\r\nIncreasingly, IDEs are offered on a <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">platform as a service</span> (PaaS) delivery model. The benefits of this cloud-based integrated development platform include accessibility to software development tools from anywhere in the world, from any compatible device; minimal to nonexistent download and installation requirements; and ease of collaboration among geographically dispersed developers. Cloud9 is an IDE from AWS that supports up to 40 languages including C, C++, Python, Ruby and JavaScript. Cloud9 gives users code completion, an image editor and a debugger, as well as other features such as support for deployment to Microsoft Azure and Heroku (which is a cloud-based PaaS IDE).\r\nAn IDE for <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">mobile development</span> normally works with code that runs on iOS or Android devices. Xamarin is an example of a cross-platform mobile IDE, which means it can create code for multiple mobile platform types. For example, a developer can write a feature in C and Xamarin translates it into Swift for iOS and Java for Android. Additionally, Xamarin offers UI tests and it can distribute beta tests to users.\r\nIDEs such as C-Free -- which supports a code editor, debugger and an environment to run C and C++ code -- are language specific. Other IDEs support multiple languages, such as previously mentioned Cloud9 and Visual Studio Code. More popular IDE tools include NetBeans, Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/IDE_-__integrated_development_environment.png","alias":"ide-integrated-development-environment"},"271":{"id":271,"title":"Messaging Applications","description":" Messaging apps (a.k.a. "Social messaging" or "chat applications") are apps and platforms that enable messaging, many of which started around social networking platforms, but many of which have now developed into broad platforms enabling status updates, chatbots, payments and conversational commerce (e-commerce via chat).\r\nSome examples of popular messaging apps include WhatsApp, China's WeChat and QQ Messenger, Viber, Line, Snapchat, Korea's KakaoTalk, Google Hangouts, Blackberry Messenger, Telegram, and Vietnam's Zalo. Slack focuses on messaging and file sharing for work teams. Some social networking services offer messaging services as a component of their overall platform, such as Facebook's Facebook Messenger, along with Instagram and Twitter's direct messaging functions.\r\nMessaging apps are the most widely used smartphone apps with in 2018 over 1.3 billion monthly users of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, 980 million monthly active users of WeChat and 843 million monthly active users of QQ Mobile.\r\nOnline chatting apps differ from the previous generation of instant messaging platforms like the defunct AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, and Windows Live Messenger, in that they are primarily used via mobile apps on smartphones as opposed to personal computers, although some messaging apps offer web-based versions or software for PC operating systems.\r\nAs people upgraded in the 2010s from feature phones to smartphones, they moved from traditional calling and SMS (which are paid services) to messaging apps which are free or only incur small data charges.\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"> </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Messaging apps each have some of the following features:</span></p>\r\n<ul><li>Chat</li></ul>\r\n<ol><li>One-on-one chat</li><li>Group chat</li><li> Broadcast lists</li><li>Chatbots (including "bot in group chats")</li><li>"Smart replies" (suggested replies to incoming messages provided by Google's Reply platform )</li></ol>\r\n<ul><li>Calls</li></ul>\r\n<ol><li>Voice calls</li><li> Video calls</li></ol>\r\n<ul><li>Audio alerts (on Line)</li><li>File sharing</li><li>Games</li><li>"Mini Programs" (e.g. WeChat Mini Program)</li><li>News discovery (e.g. Snapchat Discover)</li><li>Payments or mobile wallet, e.g. WeChat Pay which processes much of the Chinese mobile payment volume of US$5 trillion (2016)</li><li>Personal (cloud) storage</li><li>Push notifications</li><li>Status updates (WhatsApp Status, WeChat Moments)</li><li>Stickers</li><li>Virtual assistant, e.g. Google Assistant in Google Allo</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Unlike chat rooms with many users engaging in multiple and overlapping conversations, instant messaging application sessions usually take place between two users in a private, back-and-forth style of communication.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">One of the core features of different messaging apps is the ability to see whether a friend or co-worker is online and connected through the selected service -- a capability known as presence. As the technology has evolved, many online messaging apps have added support for exchanging more than just text-based messages, allowing actions like file transfers and image sharing within the instant messaging session.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Instant messaging also differs from email in the immediacy of the message exchange. It also tends to be session-based, having a start and an end. Because application message is intended to mimic in-person conversations, individual messages are often brief. Email, on the other hand, usually reflects a longer-form, letter-writing style.<br /><br /><br /></p>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">What is instant messaging software?</span></h1>\r\nCompanies use instant messaging software to facilitate communication between their staff members who may be located in different places and countries. Popular websites such as Facebook offer instant chat services for free. Good quality messenger application solutions provide useful features such as video calling, web conferencing, and VoIP. Advanced platforms offer IP radio, IPTV, and desktop sharing tools. Large enterprises have greater communication needs and therefore they typically invest in installing an internal IM server to serve their thousands of employees.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">Why people use Messaging Apps?</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li>Real-time text transmission</li><li>Conveniency</li><li>Records of a chat history</li><li>Easy for multitasking</li><li>Operating anytime anywhere using the WiFi or Mobile Network operators</li><li>Stickers</li></ul>\r\nCommunication is an essential component of any business: interaction with external or internal customers, end users, employees. A good communication platform is vital to stay connected with the employees and broadcast information fast and efficiently. Thousands of people support the escalation from IM to other ways of communication, such as group chat, voice calls or video conferencing.<br />Depending on the purpose of use we can separate popular messenger nto those with business needs or for corporate use, such as Slack, Hangouts, Flock, Stride and those for everyday communications like WhatsApp, FB Messenger, WeChat, Telegram, and others.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">How messaging apps can benefit your business?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"></p>\r\nHeads bowed, shoulders hunched over glowing screens—we all might be a little guilty of smartphone addiction, and mobile usage is only increasing. We’re in constant communication with one another, and over the past few years messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WeChat have become commonplace. Of the 10 most globally used apps, messaging apps account for 6.\r\nWith consumer messaging apps on the rise, businesses have begun to connect with customers on yet another channel. According to Gartner, “By 2019, requests for customer support through consumer mobile messaging apps will exceed requests for customer support through traditional social media.”\r\nServing up customer support through customer messaging software can deepen your brand’s relationship with customers. On the customer side, messaging apps provide an immediate way to connect with your business and get a response.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Here are three ways your business can benefit from connecting with customers over consumer messaging apps:</span></p>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Unrestricted communication.</span> No matter where they are in the world, messaging apps offer your customers unrestricted communication options. Unlike SMS, which often incurs charges, your customers can still reach out privately via messaging apps and receive a timely response without worrying about cost. That means happier customers, and happy customers mean a happy bottom line for your business.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Move customer queries from public to private. </span>Giving your customers an easy option to reach your business privately not only decreases their likelihood of publicly tweeting a complaint, it also offers a space to exchange sensitive information, like delivery details. With a more private outlet for customer interactions, your business can thoroughly help customers while simultaneously saving brand face.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Increase first contact resolution with chatbot integrations.</span> According to Gartner, artificial intelligence is a top trend for 2017. With the help of chatbots, your business can better manage workflows and automatically respond to customer requests via messaging. Chatbots can help point customers to the right information, helping them self-serve and ultimately allowing your support agents to focus on the issues that require a human touch. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Messaging_Applications.png","alias":"messaging-applications"},"273":{"id":273,"title":"Team Collaborative Applications","description":" Collaborative software or groupware is application software designed to help people working on a common task to attain their goals. One of the earliest definitions of groupware is "intentional group processes plus software to support them".\r\nThe worldwide team collaborative applications market continues to accelerate as collaboration becomes a key component of the future of work in a digital enterprise. The market is growing in revenue, leveraging IT integrations to both bridge functions and the enterprise. The market continues to move to the cloud and emphasizes usage across devices.\r\nThe total worldwide team collaborative applications market grew at 24.7% year over year, up from 21.5% growth the previous year. Growth was powered by the adoption of solutions that made working together more agile and seamless and favored solutions with integrations that centralize work, assets, and communications, including messaging and chat. In short, applications that made it easier to get work done by bringing content, context, and communications in a single place.\r\nFeeling the pinch to produce more with less, organizations have turned to collaborative applications to streamline workflow and engage employees, partners and, increasingly, customers. They are discovering new paths to productivity, a better digital user experience (UX), and loyalty. Companies are developing a new way to work together and across their workforce and the sales continuum. A more technology-savvy and digitally connected workforce is empowering and accelerating this trend. Artificial intelligence (AI) is more common across collaborative solutions and almost expected by employees to automate repetitive tasks. Increasingly, machine learning (ML) and AI will generate new forms of value from conversations, meetings, and other content assets.\r\nMake no mistake, the majority of the lead vendors in this space are heavily invested in the future of work and want to be either your future workspace — where work actually is done — or an application that integrates to facilitate better and more productive results with a better-engaged workforce.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is groupware?</span>\r\nCollaborative software was originally designated as groupware and this term can be traced as far back as the late 1980s, when Richman and Slovak (1987) wrote: "Like an electronic sinew that binds teams together, the new groupware aims to place the computer squarely in the middle of communications among managers, technicians, and anyone else who interacts in groups, revolutionizing the way they work."\r\nEven further back, in 1978 Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz coined the term groupware; their initial 1978 definition of groupware was, "intentional group processes plus software to support them." Later in their article they went on to explain groupware as "computer-mediated culture... an embodiment of social organization in hyperspace." Groupware integrates co-evolving human and tool systems, yet is simply a single system.\r\nIn the early 1990s the first commercial groupware products were delivered, and big companies such as Boeing and IBM started using electronic meeting systems for key internal projects. Lotus Notes appeared as a major example of that product category, allowing remote group collaboration when the internet was still in its infancy. Kirkpatrick and Losee (1992) wrote then: "If GROUPWARE really makes a difference in productivity long term, the very definition of an office may change. You will be able to work efficiently as a member of a group wherever you have your computer. As computers become smaller and more powerful, that will mean anywhere." In 1999, Achacoso created and introduced the first wireless groupware.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the levels of groupware?</span>\r\nGroupware can be divided into three categories depending on the level of collaboration:\r\n<ul><li>Communication can be thought of as unstructured interchange of information. A phone call or an IM Chat discussion are examples of this.</li><li>Conferencing (or collaboration level, as it is called in the academic papers that discuss these levels) refers to interactive work toward a shared goal. Brainstorming or voting are examples of this.</li><li>Co-ordination refers to complex interdependent work toward a shared goal. A good metaphor for understanding this is to think about a sports team; everyone has to contribute the right play at the right time as well as adjust their play to the unfolding situation - but everyone is doing something different - in order for the team to win. That is complex interdependent work toward a shared goal: collaborative management.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Team_Collaborative_Applications.png","alias":"team-collaborative-applications"},"277":{"id":277,"title":"Enterprise Social Networks","description":" Enterprise social networking focuses on the use of online social networks or social relations among people who share business interests and/or activities. Enterprise social networking is often a facility of enterprise social software (regarded as a primary component of Enterprise 2.0), which is essentially social software used in "enterprise" (business/commercial) contexts. It encompasses modifications to corporate intranets (referred to as social intranets) and other classic software platforms used by large companies to organize their communication, collaboration and other aspects of their intranets. Enterprise social networking is also generally thought to include the use of a standard external social networking service to generate visibility for an enterprise.\r\nSocial networking sites started to form in the 1990s; an example of these websites is Theglobe.com, which began in 1995. As other websites such as GeoCities and Tripod.com started to form online communities, they encouraged their users to interact with each other via chat rooms and other tools. They also provided easy-to-use publishing tools along with free web space. Classmates.com’s approach was to link people together via their emails, the website was like a friends search engine.\r\nBusinesses eventually realized that social networking websites could provide a fast and efficient way of marketing. Social media websites are great places for businesses to reach their customers, and the environment can provide a means for growing a business. In 2005, as social networking websites were becoming more and more popular, Myspace had more page views than Google. Myspace was followed by Facebook which started in February 2004. When Facebook began, users were limited to college students in the United States, who had to use a college email with a .edu extension to join the network. In September 2005 some high schools were allowed to join the network, but they needed an invitation to join. On September 26 of 2006, Facebook announced that anyone around the world older than 13 years old with a valid email would be able to join Facebook’s online community. In October 2007, Microsoft purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook. That gave them the right to place international ads on Facebook. In July 2010 it was reported that Facebook had more than 500 million active users. This means that one out of fourteen people around the world is a Facebook user. The growth of Facebook was a boom in the social networking space. Facebook became a huge corporation that had 1400 employees in 2009; their estimated revenue was US$800 million in 2009. In 2010, it was reported that there were more than 200 social networking websites on the web.\r\nMany companies are starting to implement social networks to promote collaboration amongst their employees. Vendors are now starting to use this as a way to help out the different companies. Some companies are starting to teach their employees about cloud computing and SaaS. These new technologies are being added to the enterprise social networks. These networks are being implemented to get employees collaborating and sharing tips and ideas about how to improve the workplace. Some social networks are homegrown systems that are built internally. Companies are using social networks to trade information amongst team members or other people who are part of the company. Sometimes this might also mean trading documents in real time. Based on research by Gartner (2010), 50% of enterprises will be using some sort of social network by 2012.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is an enterprise social network?</span>\r\nSocial networks are inherently open, public spaces, available to anyone who wishes to sign up. Now imagine a private social network, only accessible by members of an organization, business or club. This is essentially what an enterprise social network is, kept private to that particular organization. This can be extremely useful for businesses that require all the collaborative features and efficiency of a modern social network, without the public, potentially unsecured nature of them.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why use an enterprise social network?</span>\r\nWe’re inherently social beings, and so the modern enterprise workplace contains an abundance of varying formats of communication, both online and off. Talking to co-workers, making phone calls, sending emails – the list goes on. By compiling all of these channels of connectivity together into one interactive, easily accessible digital environment, you can reap the many rewards of enhanced, community-driven workspaces, helping to move your business forward through better connectivity, collaboration and productivity.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What form do corporate social networks take?</span>\r\nOrganizations can utilize a range of different social platforms, such as discussion forums and intranets. Whatever works for your company, team or department, can become a social network.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Enerprise_Social_Networks.png","alias":"enterprise-social-networks"},"283":{"id":283,"title":"Content Analytics, Discovery, and Cognitive Software","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Content Analytics</span> comprises of range of search and reporting technologies which can provide identical levels of business intelligence and strategic value for unstructured data. Content analytics for unstructured information includes social media monitoring, reputation monitoring, and sentiment analysis. <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Content analytics software</span> uses natural language queries, trends analysis, predictive analytics and contextual discovery to reveal trends and patterns for the company's unstructured data.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Discovery tools</span> are the search tools that analyse contents for its likely relevancy to a process, by linking names, time periods or terms used. Discovery tools can also extend to legal hold and partitioning of content for further scrutiny. Various types of discovery tools include search engines, auto-categorization, and information visualization tools.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Cognitive computing software</span> makes context computable by identifying and extracting context features such as hour, location, task, history or profile in structured way for an individual or an application engaged in a specific process at definite time and place. Cognitive computing technologies and platforms includes expert assistance software.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Content Analytics, Discovery and Cognitive Systems,</span> collectively covers the market and technologies that access, analyse, organize, and provides advisory services related to a range of unstructured data. Cognitive systems leverages large amounts of structured and unstructured data and content analytics tools, along with several infrastructure technologies to answer questions, provide recommendations and directions. ","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">What are Content Analytics?</h1>\r\nContent analytics is one way that brands can measure the success of their digital content; it involves analyzing data from both inbound and outbound collateral to figure out what’s working and what’s not. After all, no one wants to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on content that isn’t resonating.\r\nIt should come as no surprise, then, that 75 percent of enterprises think content analytics can provide real business insight: What are your customers most interested in reading about? What format generates the most engagement? You can use answers to these questions to help you decide what content you should be producing, how to present it (quiz, paid ad, slideshow, blog post, etc.), and where/when to post it for the best results. If utilized correctly, content analytics can offer brands a way to build customer loyalty and boost revenue.\r\nAdvanced content analytics strategies should help you to look beyond the numbers and to focus on taking action. Content analytics is not a mirror reflecting how your company’s content is performing; rather, it is but one tool that can help steer you towards actionable solutions and more effective content choices.\r\nMetrics provided by content analytics, and the actions you take based off that data, can help you optimize conversion rates. In addition to tweaking your content strategy, you can also build a conversion optimization strategy by testing calls-to-action (CTAs), headlines, subscription forms, etc.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the features of a cognitive computing solution?</span></h1>\r\nWith the present state of cognitive function computing, basic solution can play an excellent role of an assistant or virtual advisor. Siri, Google assistant, Cortana, and Alexa are good examples of personal assistants. Virtual advisor such as Dr. AI by HealthTap is a cognitive solution. It relies on individual patients’ medical profiles and knowledge gleaned from 105,000 physicians. It compiles a prioritized list of the symptoms and connects to a doctor if required. Now, experts are working on implementing cognitive solutions in enterprise systems. Some use cases are fraud detection using machine learning, predictive analytics solution, predicting oil spills in Oil and Gas production cycle etc.\r\nThe purpose of cognitive computing is the creation of computing frameworks that can solve complicated problems without constant human intervention. In order to implement cognitive function computing in commercial and widespread applications, Cognitive Computing consortium has recommended the following features for the computing systems:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Adaptive.</span>This is the first step in making a machine learning based cognitive system. The solutions should mimic the ability of the human brain to learn and adapt from the surroundings. The systems can’t be programmed for an isolated task. It needs to be dynamic in data gathering, understanding goals, and requirements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Interactive.</span>Similar to brain the cognitive solution must interact with all elements in the system – processor, devices, cloud services and user. Cognitive systems should interact bi-directionally. It should understand human input and provide relevant results using natural language processing and deep learning. Some skilled intelligent chatbots such as Mitsuku have already achieved this feature.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Iterative and stateful.</span>The system should “remember” previous interactions in a process and return information that is suitable for the specific application at that point in time. It should be able to define the problem by asking questions or finding an additional source. This feature needs a careful application of the data quality and validation methodologies in order to ensure that the system is always provided with enough information and that the data sources it operates on to deliver reliable and up-to-date input.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Contextual.</span>They must understand, identify, and extract contextual elements such as meaning, syntax, time, location, appropriate domain, regulations, user’s profile, process, task, and goal. They may draw on multiple sources of information, including both structured and unstructured digital information, as well as sensory inputs (visual, gestural, auditory, or sensor-provided). ","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Content_Analytics_Discovery_and_Cognitive_Software.png","alias":"content-analytics-discovery-and-cognitive-software"},"333":{"id":333,"title":"Collaborative Product Data Management","description":" Collaborative Product Data Management (cPDM) is software that is used to manage and integrate product data into a centralized system for better tracking and enhanced collaboration among business units. cPDM software solutions help enterprises streamline manufacturing and production processes by applying a consistent set of business solutions that collaboratively provide efficient methods to manage the functions of product lifecycle management (PLM). These solutions also help organizations to boost efficient business operations and launch innovative and profitable products in the evolving e-business web-enabled environment. The cPDM software packages also help in sharing data among supply chain partners, thereby enhancing the capability, efficiency, and effectiveness of an enterprise.\r\nPLM is a strategic business approach that applies a consistent set of business solutions to help the collaborative creation, management, and dissemination across the extended enterprise from the concept to end of life. CPDM also allows the organization to maintain system architecture, deployment of security mechanism, and prototype development and enables them in forming a collaborative architecture, shared resources and shared team spaces to work together as virtual teams.\r\nCPDM help in effective product data management, collaborative product commerce, collaborative product visualization, effective integration of CPDM with enterprise applications and supplier relationship management. Its solutions assist in manufacturing and production processes for efficient business operations. Ultimately, it helps in bringing innovative and profitable products that enables in evolving the e business web based environment.\r\nThese software solutions are adopted by industries such as electronics, automotive, industrial machinery, aerospace, defense, petrochemical, and process packaged goods. Automotive manufactures face product recalls across wide ranging categories due to which PLM software such as CPDM, CAD, CAE and CAM help them in reducing defects which eventually help them in catering maximum demand.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the technologies and methods used?</span>\r\nClearly, general collaborative software such as email and chat (instant messaging) is used within the CPD process. One important technology is application and desktop sharing, allowing one person to view what another person is doing on a remote machine. For CAD and product visualization applications an ‘appshare’ product that supports OpenGL graphics is required. Another common application is Data sharing via Web-based portals.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Specific to product data</span></span>\r\nWith product data, an important addition is the handling of high volumes of geometry and metadata. Exactly what techniques and technology are required depends on the level of collaboration being carried out and the commonality (or lack thereof) of the partner sites’ systems.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Specific to PLM and CAx collaboration</span></span>\r\nCollaboration using PLM and CAx tools requires technology to support the needs of:\r\n<ol><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">People:</span> Personnel of different disciplines and skill levels;</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Organizations:</span> Organizations throughout an enterprise or extended enterprise with different rules, processes and objectives;</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Data:</span> Data from different sources in different formats.</li></ol>\r\nAppropriate technologies are required to support collaboration across these boundaries.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">People</span>\r\nEffective PLM collaboration will typically require the participation of people who do not have high-level CAD skills. This requires improved user interfaces including tailorable user interfaces that can be tailored to the skill level and specialty of the user.\r\nImproved visualization capabilities, especially those that provide a meaningful view of complex information such as the results of a fluid flow analysis will leverage the value of all participants in the collaboration process. Effective collaboration requires that a participant is freed from the burden of knowing the intent history typically embedded within and constricting the use of parametric models.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Organizations</span>\r\nCommunity collaboration requires that companies, suppliers, and customers share information in a secure environment, ensure compliance with enterprise and regulatory rules and enforce the process management rules of the community as well as the individual organizations.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Data</span>\r\nThe most basic collaboration data need is the ability to operate in a MultiCAD environment. That is, however, only the beginning. Models from multiple CAD sources must be assembled into an active digital mockup allowing change and/or design in context.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Real-time collaborative product design</span></span>\r\nProduct design is typically a highly iterative and interactive activity involving a group of designers who are geographically dispersed. A neutral modeling command (NMC) based method is proposed to construct a real-time collaborative product design platform within heterogeneous CAD systems.[1] Different from the visualization-based approaches, models can be constructed and modified synchronously from various sites in the proposed collaborative design environment. Based on a translation mechanism between system modeling operations (SMO) and neutral modeling commands (NMC), every operation given by a user on one site will be translated into an NMC and be sent to all the other sites through the network. When the other sites receive this command, it is converted into the corresponding SMOs on the local system. In this way, the real-time collaborative product design with heterogeneous CAD systems is achieved.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Different levels of collaboration</span></span>\r\nIf the collaborating parties have the same PDM and CAD systems the task usually involves the direct access and transfer of data between sites. The PDM system will have data storage at more than one site for the large graphics files, a file may be copied between sites, how they are synchronized being controlled by the server(s). For the management server and metadata, there are a number of options. There could be a single server that is accessed from all locations or multiple PDM servers that communicate with one another. In both cases, the PDM software controls access for groups defining what data they can see and edit.\r\nWith different CAD systems, the approach varies slightly depending on whether the ownership and therefore authorship, of components changes or not. If geometry only has to be viewed then a Product visualization neutral file format (e.g.JT) can be used for tasks such as viewing, markup (redlining) or multi-cad digital mock-up (DMU). It may be that authorship does not change but components from one group need to be placed in the assembly of another group so that they can construct their parts, so-called work in context. This requires the transfer of geometry from one format to another by means of a visualization format or full data translation. Between some systems, there is the possibility of ‘data interoperability’ where geometry from one format can be associatively copied to another. If the ownership of a particular file is being transferred, then full data translation is required using some form of CAD data exchange technology. For the translation process Product Data Quality (PDQ) checkers are often employed to reduce problems in transferring the work. If different PDM/EDM systems are in use, then either data structures or metadata can be transferred using STEP or communication between databases can be achieved with tools based around XML data transfer.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Collaborative_Product_Data_Management.png","alias":"collaborative-product-data-management"},"337":{"id":337,"title":"Sales","description":" Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods or services sold in a given targeted time period.\r\nThe seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in response to an acquisition, appropriation, requisition, or a direct interaction with the buyer at the point of sale. There is a passing of title (property or ownership) of the item, and the settlement of a price, in which agreement is reached on a price for which transfer of ownership of the item will occur. The seller, not the purchaser, typically executes the sale and it may be completed prior to the obligation of payment. In the case of indirect interaction, a person who sells goods or service on behalf of the owner is known as a salesman or saleswoman or salesperson, but this often refers to someone selling goods in a store/shop, in which case other terms are also common, including salesclerk, shop assistant, and retail clerk.\r\nIn common law countries, sales are governed generally by the common law and commercial codes. In the United States, the laws governing sales of goods are somewhat uniform to the extent that most jurisdictions have adopted Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, albeit with some non-uniform variations.\r\nA person or organization expressing an interest in acquiring the offered item of value is referred to as a potential buyer, prospective customer, or prospect. Buying and selling are understood to be two sides of the same "coin" or transaction. Both seller and buyer engage in a process of negotiation to consummate the exchange of values. The exchange, or selling, process has implied rules and identifiable stages. It is implied that the selling process will proceed fairly and ethically so that the parties end up nearly equally rewarded. The stages of selling, and buying, involve getting acquainted, assessing each party's need for the other's item of value, and determining if the values to be exchanged are equivalent or nearly so, or, in buyer's terms, "worth the price". Sometimes, sellers have to use their own experiences when selling products with appropriate discounts.\r\nAlthough the skills required are different, from a management viewpoint, sales is a part of marketing. Sales often form a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salespersons (singular: salesperson). Selling is considered by many to be a sort of persuading "art". Contrary to popular belief, the methodological approach of selling refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesman relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What's the Difference Between Sales and Marketing?</span>\r\nSales and Marketing: two terms we often hear together when working with mid-size companies. In some ways, this is logical because the two need to work together. But in fact, Sales and Marketing are two very different functions and require very different skills.\r\nBusiness leaders know what Operations are; they make stuff. They know what Accounting is; they record and control the money. And they know what Sales do; they sell stuff. So if you are not making stuff, selling stuff, or recording the money—what is marketing and why do you need it?\r\nWhat's the difference between Sales and Marketing? To answer this question, let's define what Sales and Marketing are separately and how they support one another.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is Marketing? Aligning with Customers, Now and for the Future</span></span>\r\nA key job of Marketing is to understand the marketplace from the perspective of the customer looking back towards the company and helping lead the company where it should be in the future. Marketing’s job is to direct the organization toward the segments, or groups of customers and channels where the company can profitably compete. It should help the organization see how it needs to modify its product offerings, pricing, and communication so that it meets the needs of the distribution channel or end customers.\r\nMarketing also needs to convert the market understanding into tools and tactics to attract the market, build (often digital) relationships, and develop leads. Without Sales, Marketing efforts run short. Marketing directs Sales as to where they should be hunting and what ammo to use. Note, however, that if Marketing becomes a sales support function focused only on the now, the future can become lost.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Without Marketing, Sales Suffers</span></span>\r\nNot even the best hunter can bring home dinner if they are shooting blanks at decoys. Markets are constantly changing. The job of marketing is to stay ahead of the changes and help the hunters see where they should be hunting and provide them with the right ammunition. If Marketing is only focused on delivering the ammunition for today, nobody will see where the industry is moving or where the company needs to hunt next. This limits growth not only for Sales and Marketing but also for your entire organization.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Can You be Both Sales and Marketing?</span></span>\r\nIn all my years, working for companies that ranged from Fortune 100 to mid-size companies I have never met anyone who was really good at both sales and marketing. I have held the title of VP of Sales and Marketing, managing a 500 person sales and merchandising force. I was really a marketing person with sales authority. The skills required to focus on the now and the push of sales are different. In many ways, they are contrary to the skills of looking to the future and the customer perspective of marketing.\r\nEvery Sales organization feels they have a good understanding of their customers. But every Sales conversation with a customer has a sales transaction lurking in the background. Therefore, customers can never be completely open about their needs and want when talking to a sales person.\r\nFor a company to really grow, someone must have the job of looking out the window towards where the company needs to go in the future. For many companies, this is the job of the CEO and Sales hires someone to do some sales support and gives them a marketing title. But as companies grow, the job of CEO starts to become a full-time job in itself and the strategic role of Marketing gets short-changed. A study of mid-size companies by the University of Texas showed that companies that separated the roles of Marketing and Sales were much more likely to grow faster than the industry average.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Sales and Marketing: Today and the Future</span></span>\r\nSales need to be focused on the now. You can’t run a company unless your sales team is focused on bringing in today’s business. But you can’t really ask your Sales leaders where the company should go next and to develop the 18-month plan to get there without losing focus on today’s revenue. Besides, if your sales executive was really good at developing future-focused business strategies and tying that strategy to the plans and tools of marketing to make it happen, they would be a marketing person and not a now-focused sales person.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Sales.png","alias":"sales"},"339":{"id":339,"title":"Marketing","description":" Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships. It is the business process of creating relationships with and satisfying customers. Because marketing is used to attract customers, it is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. Marketers can direct product to other businesses (B2B marketing) or directly to consumers (B2C marketing).\r\nRegardless of who is being marketed to, several factors, including the perspective the marketers will use. These market orientations determine how marketers will approach the planning stage of marketing. This leads into the marketing mix, which outlines the specifics of the product and how it will be sold. This can in turn, be affected by the environment surrounding the product, the results of marketing research and market research, and the characteristics of the product's target market.\r\nOnce these factors are determined, marketers must then decide what methods will be used to market the product. This decision is based on the factors analyzed in the planning stage as well as where the product is in the product life cycle.\r\nMarketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large". The term developed from the original meaning which referred literally to going to market with goods for sale. From a sales process engineering perspective, marketing is "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions of a business aimed at achieving customer interest and satisfaction".\r\nPhilip Kotler defined marketing as "Satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process", and a decade later defines it as “a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they want and need through creating, offering and exchanging products of value with others.”\r\nThe Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably". A similar concept is the value-based marketing which states the role of marketing to contribute to increasing shareholder value. In this context, marketing can be defined as "the management process that seeks to maximise returns to shareholders by developing relationships with valued customers and creating a competitive advantage".\r\nIn the past, marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry, which included advertising, distribution and selling. However, because the academic study of marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science, allowing numerous universities to offer Master-of-Science (MSc) programs.\r\nThe process of marketing is that of bringing a product to market, which includes these steps: broad market research; market targeting and market segmentation; determining distribution, pricing and promotion strategies; developing a communications strategy; budgeting; and visioning long-term market development goals. Many parts of the marketing process (e.g. product design, art director, brand management, advertising, inbound marketing, copywriting etc.) involve use of the creative arts.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What the differences between B2B and B2C Marketing?</span>\r\nThe different goals of B2B and B2C marketing lead to differences in the B2B and B2C markets. The main differences in these markets are demand, purchasing volume, amount of customers, customer concentration, distribution, buying nature, buying influences, negotiations, reciprocity, leasing and promotional methods.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Demand:</span> B2B demand is derived because businesses buy products based on how much demand there is for the final consumer product. Businesses buy products based on customer's wants and needs. B2C demand is primarily because customers buy products based on their own wants and needs.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Purchasing Volume:</span> Businesses buy products in large volumes to distribute to consumers. Consumers buy products in smaller volumes suitable for personal use.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Amount of Customers:</span> There are relatively fewer businesses to market to than direct consumers.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Customer Concentration:</span> Businesses that specialize in a particular market tend to be geographically concentrated while customers that buy products from these businesses are not concentrated.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Distribution:</span> B2B products pass directly from the producer of the product to the business while B2C products must additionally go through a wholesaler or retailer.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Buying Nature:</span> B2B purchasing is a formal process done by professional buyers and sellers while B2C purchasing is informal.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Buying Influences:</span> B2B purchasing is influenced by multiple people in various departments such as quality control, accounting, and logistics while B2C marketing is only influenced by the person making the purchase and possibly a few others.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Negotiations:</span> In B2B marketing, negotiating for lower prices or added benefits is commonly accepted while in B2C marketing (particularly in Western cultures) prices are fixed.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Reciprocity:</span> Businesses tend to buy from businesses they sell to. For example, a business that sells printer ink is more likely to buy office chairs from a supplier that buys the business's printer ink. In B2C marketing, this does not occur because consumers are not also selling products.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Leasing:</span> Businesses tend to lease expensive items while consumers tend to save up to buy expensive items.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Promotional Methods:</span> In B2B marketing, the most common promotional method is personal selling. B2C marketing mostly uses sales promotion, public relations, advertising, and social media.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are marketing orientations?</span>\r\nA marketing orientation has been defined as a "philosophy of business management." or "a corporate state of mind" or as an "organization[al] culture". Although scholars continue to debate the precise nature of specific orientations that inform marketing practice, the most commonly cited orientations are as follows:\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Product</span></span>\r\nA firm employing a product orientation is mainly concerned with the quality of its product. A product orientation is based on the assumption that all things being equal, consumers will purchase products of superior quality. The approach is most effective when the firm has deep insights into customer needs and desires as derived from research and/or intuition and understands consumer's quality expectations and price consumers are willing to pay. Although the product orientation has largely been supplanted by the marketing orientation, firms practicing a product orientation can still be found in haute couture and arts marketing.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Sales</span></span>\r\nA sales orientation focuses on the selling/promotion of the firm's existing products, rather than developing new products to satisfy unmet needs or wants. This orientation seeks to attain the highest possible sales through promotion and direct sales techniques. The sales orientation "is typically practiced with unsought goods." One study found that industrial companies are more likely to hold a sales orientation than consumer goods companies. The approach may also suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a product that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer tastes diminishing demand.\r\nA 2011 meta-analyses found that the factors with the greatest impact on sales performance are a salesperson's sales-related knowledge (knowledge of market segments, sales presentation skills, conflict resolution, and products), degree of adaptiveness (changing behavior based on the aforementioned knowledge), role clarity (salesperson's role is to expressly to sell), cognitive aptitude (intelligence) and work engagement (motivation and interest in a sales role).\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Production</span></span>\r\nA firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as possible of a given product or service in order to achieve economies of scale or economies of scope. A production orientation may be deployed when a high demand for a product or service exists, coupled with certainty that consumer tastes and preferences remain relatively constant (similar to the sales orientation). The so-called production era is thought to have dominated marketing practice from the 1860s to the 1930s, but other theorists argue that evidence of the production orientation can still be found in some companies or industries. Specifically, Kotler and Armstrong note that the production philosophy is "one of the oldest philosophies that guides sellers... [and] is still useful in some situations."\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Marketing</span></span>\r\nThe marketing orientation is the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing. It is a customer-centric approach that involves a firm basing its marketing program around products that suit new consumer tastes. Firms adopting a marketing orientation typically engage in extensive market research to gauge consumer desires, use R&D (Research & Development) to develop a product attuned to the revealed information, and then utilize promotion techniques to ensure consumers are aware of the product's existence and the benefits it can deliver. Scales designed to measure a firm's overall market orientation have been developed and found to be robust in a variety of contexts.\r\nThe marketing orientation has three prime facets, which are:\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Customer orientation:</span> A firm in the market economy can survive by producing goods that people are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's future viability and even existence as a going concern.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \">Organizational orientation:</span> The marketing department is of prime importance within the functional level of an organization. Information from the marketing department is used to guide the actions of a company's other departments.\r\nAs an example, a marketing department could ascertain (via marketing research) that consumers desired a new type of product or a new usage for an existing product. With this in mind, the marketing department would inform the R&D department to create a prototype of a product/service based on consumers' new desires.\r\nThe production department would then start to manufacture the product, while the marketing department would focus on the promotion, distribution, pricing, etc. of the product. Additionally, a firm's finance department would be consulted, with respect to securing appropriate funding for the development, production, and promotion of the product. Finance may oppose the required capital expenditure since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organization.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Mutually beneficial exchange:</span> In a transaction in the market economy, a firm gains revenue, which thus leads to more profits, market shares, and/or sales. A consumer, on the other hand, gains the satisfaction of a need/want, utility, reliability and value for money from the purchase of a product or service.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Societal marketing</span></span>\r\nA number of scholars and practitioners have argued that marketers have a greater social responsibility than simply satisfying customers and providing them with superior value. Marketing organizations that have embraced the societal marketing concept typically identify key stakeholder groups such as employees, customers, and local communities. Companies that adopt a societal marketing perspective typically practice triple bottom line reporting whereby they publish social impact and environmental impact reports alongside financial performance reports. Sustainable marketing or green marketing is an extension of societal marketing.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Marketing.png","alias":"marketing"},"341":{"id":341,"title":"Customer Service","description":" Customer service is the process of ensuring customer satisfaction with a product or service. Often, customer service takes place while performing a transaction for the customer, such as making a sale or returning an item. Customer service can take the form of in-person interaction, a phone call, self-service systems, or by other means.\r\nCustomer service is an important part of maintaining ongoing client relationships, which is key to continuing revenue. For this reason, many companies have worked hard to increase their customer satisfaction levels.\r\nMost successful businesses recognize the importance of providing outstanding customer service. Courteous and empathetic interaction with a trained customer service representative can mean the difference between losing or retaining a customer.\r\nWhen problems arise, customers should receive timely attention to the issue. Prompt attention to emails and phone calls is critical to maintaining good relations. Requiring customers to stand in long lines or sit on hold can sour an interaction before it begins.\r\nIdeally, customer service should be a one-stop endeavor for the consumer. For example, if a customer calls a helpline regarding a problem with a product, the customer service representative should follow through with the customer until the issue is fully resolved.\r\nThis may entail scheduling appointments with in-person repair personnel if the problem cannot be resolved on the phone, or transferring a call to skilled technicians in another department. Proactively following up with the customer to ensure that he or she is fully satisfied is another smart move.","materialsDescription":" What are customer service standards?\r\nCustomer service standards are an internal corporate set of rules governing the company's customer service activities, an algorithm for communicating with customers, and general standards for responding to unusual situations. The standard of customer service is an integral part of the corporate standard of the company.\r\nFunctions of customer service standards:\r\n<ol><li>To order. The client does not encounter problems, does not see them, which means that he is confident that all the staff without exception are professionals who know their business.</li><li>To control. It is difficult to assess and monitor the work of each manager if there are no clear criteria for evaluation. At the same time, the implementation of the sales plan cannot be the only parameter of the assessment; you need to know whether the manager of customer service standards adopted in this company adheres.</li><li>To adapt. Among other things, the availability of customer service standards simplifies the procedure.</li></ol>\r\nCustomer service standards are effective if the customer does not see the difference between the work of two (or more) managers, and sees only “proprietary” service, always the same, regardless of any external factors or circumstances. The customer service standard, which has been tested in practice, backed up by experience (perhaps even someone else's), created on the basis of analytical studies and recognized methods, can be called "gold". It allows you to increase profits, improve the image of the company, attract new customers.\r\nCustomer service standards are an important part of the company's brand. But, in addition, the standards are necessary and other units, in particular, the department to work with staff. Therefore, their development must take into account the needs of all interested services of the company.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is the purpose of introducing customer service standards in the company?</span>\r\nThe objectives of implementing the standards are as follows:\r\n<ul><li>For employees with experience: minimize the number of erroneous and unnecessary actions. The result of this will be saving time of each employee (no errors - no need to spend time correcting them). And, as a result, increased productivity.</li><li>For novice employees: customer service standards allow you to transfer the necessary knowledge in the most concise manner and in a short time.</li><li>For the company: the abolition of dependence on the old-timers. Not all employees who have worked in the company for many years (or even since the day of foundation) are able to resist the so-called star disease. Having knowledge and experience, a person loses the ability to objectively evaluate his work, he begins to think that he is the best manager in the company. It can end very badly - in the event of dismissal, such an employee will take the base, and turn clients against the company. Standards for customer service are needed to ensure that all employees can be assessed on a single scale, based on the actual benefits they bring to the company, as well as the attitude of the employee to the company.</li><li>For the company: the uniformity of control activities of managers. Standards are unequivocal, exclude double interpretations, and therefore cannot cause controversy about the rightness of an employee or employer.</li><li>For managers: the standards of uniform customer service are the same for all managers, and this makes it possible to make the pay of each manager absolutely transparent and intelligible. Realizing that there will be no double interpretations, the manager may not be afraid that he will be paid less than expected - all his mistakes and achievements are immediately visible and understandable.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The application of service standards allows you:</span>\r\n<ul><li>to develop a company style in dealing with clients;</li><li>to increase the effectiveness of the work of managers with new customers;</li><li>to bring the quality of communication with customers to a higher level;</li><li>to create a positive opinion of the company about the company, so that it can be recommended to its acquaintances, thus increasing the number of potential and then real customers;</li><li>to minimize conflicts between the manager and the customer;</li><li>to develop a technology for training newcomers;</li><li>to transfer the assessment of the work of the manager from the subjective to the objective, transparent and understandable to everyone;</li><li>to establish a procedure for controlling the work of personnel;</li><li>to increase the motivation of managers to work.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Benefits of applying service standards</span>\r\n<ul><li>The accumulation of experience: the entire base focuses on the company, and not on the hands of managers, "old-timers." Thus, the departure of one or several “old” employees does not become a “natural disaster” for the company.</li><li>Motivation, analysis and control: customer service standards make it possible to develop a transparent scheme of managers' motivation based on a clear, almost mathematical analysis of their work. The sales process is optimized.</li><li>Setting goals. With the help of standards, the company has the ability to set clear, reasonable plans. This allows you to keep the atmosphere in the team friendly and stable, and the lack of "muffled" tasks - to increase the loyalty of managers to the company.</li><li>Standards of customer service is a fairly mobile system that allows you to immediately detect errors in working with clients and quickly eliminate them. In addition, at any stage of working with a client, the head of the sales department can intervene in the process, noticing an error in the work of the manager, and even be proactive in order to prevent an error to which the manager is heading.</li><li>Quick and easy start for beginners. Customer service standards are actually a knowledge base, collected, analyzed, and streamlined. Such information is easily transmitted and assimilated by beginners, which means that the beginner quickly gets to work and starts to make a profit. In addition, a newbie will not spoil relations with a client by awkward actions, since he already knows what to do in any conflict and problem situations.</li><li>Customer confidence. Customer service standards allow the latter to feel confident in the company - no matter where the customer is, he will always easily recognize “his” company by brand features and can be absolutely sure that in a small town they will be served as qualitatively as in a million-plus city, because that the company is well aware of their work. So, such a company can be trusted.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Customer_Service.png","alias":"customer-service"},"347":{"id":347,"title":"Production Planning","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Production planning</span> is the planning of production and manufacturing modules in a company or industry. It utilizes the resource allocation of activities of employees, materials and production capacity, in order to serve different customers.<br />Different types of production methods, such as single item manufacturing, batch production, mass production, continuous production etc. have their own type of production planning. Production planning can be combined with production control into production planning and control, or it can be combined with <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">enterprise resource planning (ERP)</span>. \r\nProduction planning can help in efficient manufacturing or setting up of a production site by facilitating required needs.A production plan is made periodically for a specific time period, called the <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">planning horizon.</span>\r\nIn order to develop production plans, the <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">production planner</span> or <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">production planning department</span> needs to work closely together with the marketing department and sales department. They can provide sales forecasts, or a listing of customer orders.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Production scheduling</span> is the process of syncing and planning the steps in the manufacturing process to ensure that production runs smoothly and customers receive what they ordered on schedule.\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Areas of production scheduling</span></p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Procurement</span>: Production can't proceed if you don't have the materials necessary for manufacturing. Procurement scheduling is an art and a science that involves keeping enough on hand without carrying a bloated inventory. You can tighten procurement systems by using digital or manual spreadsheets to track inventory and by developing relationships with suppliers who can get you what you need consistently and quickly.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Personnel</span>: Planning and scheduling employee time is critical to developing a successful production work flow plan. There should be enough workers on hand to finish projects within the promised time frame but not enough to bloat your payroll or create inefficiencies by crowding your work space. It helps to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each staff member so you can leverage employee skills and circumvent potential difficulties.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Machinery</span>: Like your employees, your equipment has a limited number of capacity hours that should be scheduled thoughtfully. Machines should be well maintained according to a schedule that doesn't take them out of production any longer than necessary.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Tools for Scheduling Production </span></p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software</span>: Once the logistics of your production schedule become complex enough to bog you down, there is a range of software options available to help you manage the details. Programs help you to set priorities, coordinate processes and manage staffing.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Written documents</span>: If your production processes are relatively simple, you may be able to effectively create useful and meaningful lists so team members and managers have a clear idea of what needs to happen and in what order. Timelines and flow charts can help to provide useful visuals to help staff understand how processes interface.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Custom spreadsheet</span>s: You can also design your own spreadsheets to plan and communicate work flow. Custom spreadsheets offer the advantage of being tailored specifically to your company and your processes. They pose the disadvantage of potentially being less robust or nimble than a software system designed by professionals drawing on a deeper and broader database of scheduling tools and knowledge.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><br /><br /></p>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is production planning?</span></h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Production planning</span> – a systematic approach, which helps to calculate and estimate goals and stages of manufacturing process during the constant changes of multiple factors. Some of these factors might include an increase of product range, introduction of new manufacturing equipment, changing inventory stock and others.<br /><br />For a manufacturers it is very important to be able to make calculations and estimates of these factors as precisely, as possible. As a result they want to be able to answer all of the following questions:\r\n<ul><li>What are we planning to produce?</li><li>What do we need for that?</li><li>What do we have?</li><li>What else is needed?</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the types of production planning software?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">The development of technology has made production-planning process very easy to perform. While there are still manufacturing companies, utilizing pen and paper, when doing their MRP estimates, most manufacturing companies using one or the other type of software solution.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Spreadsheet based software </span>– Excel, Open Office or Google Documents. For example Microsoft Excel comes with a standard Microsoft Office package already preinstalled on every Windows PC, thus baring no additional expenses for business.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">In addition, Excel is a very easy tool to work with, it has a big user database worldwide, so any question that might occur will be answered. However, no matter how good of a tool Excel is, it has its limitations. One of these limitations is speed – the more different tables and individual files are being interlinked between each other, the slower is the performance of an Excel work file.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Custom made planning software </span>– this includes solutions done in-house. Companies that decide to go this route, most often than not have experience working with Excel or similar spreadsheet based software. By creating solution in-house manufacturer is thinking of increasing the productivity and reliability of its planning department. While idea of using some sort of software instead of a complex spreadsheet is a good one, creating a totally new planning software from scratch could be very challenging. <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Specialized production planning software</span> – a professionally developed production planning software for small business offers the best of two worlds – it provides all the production planning features that a small business needs and unlike spreadsheet software it is fast and reliable.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is project management software?</span></h1>\r\nProject management software is a suite of tools that helps improve production teams’ efficiency. They usually come as cloud-based, multi-user platforms that host features such project planning and scheduling, collaboration, advanced reporting, and project budgeting, among many others. They are meant to ensure that all project stakeholders are constantly in the know and that every project is delivered on time.<br /> \r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What does project management software do?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Some of the best features revolve around the generation of repetitive and unique tasks and projects, team collaboration, project completion, proper tracking for the purposes of budgeting and due diligence, and effective documentation. But that’s par for the course for most applications in the market. </p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Project tracking.</span> This is the most basic function of a project management software: tracking your projects. This includes being able to track who worked on which task last, the general overview of the entire project, identifying bottlenecks, and identifying performers.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Easier collaboration.</span> It makes it easier for coworkers to check on the latest changes to a project, pick up where they left off, or pick up from where their colleagues left off.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></li></ul>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Better communication. </span>Part of the collaborative effort involves better communication, and the best project management software should make person-to-person and department-to-department communication easier and more efficient.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></li></ul>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Documentation. </span>Since tracking a project involves documenting the knowledge gained throughout the entire endeavor, proper documentation is key. This means your app should be able to help you and your team simplify the process of documenting changes, technology, project updates, and new intelligence.</li></ul>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Accurate dashboards for reporting. </span>This is an important purpose of productivity planner app and software. Accurate reporting is a key component of identifying your company’s KPI, and project management software should help you in generating the best reports for your business. </li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the factors to consider when getting a project management software?</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Task and project creation.</span> Most of the time, you’ll be using your project management software as a task calendar to create cyclical, templated projects. But once in a while, you’ll want to create unique tasks and projects for your company’s needs. The flexibility between creating unique tasks and projects and setting up templated ones is integral in ensuring that you are able to tackle projects of different shapes and sizes.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Simple and efficient reporting.</span> If you’re going to be working with a project management system, you’ll need accurate report creation powers. This feature is found in all of the best organiser apps in the market. And for good reason: when you’re working on a project that blew up in terms of man-hours and budget, you will want to be able to pinpoint just how much you spent on the project, and what caused the problem. A good reporting feature in a productivity calendar will go a long way in helping with this.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">File sharing options</span>. It’s always awesome whenever a project management solution offers decent storage space for all the files you’ll be sharing. But sometimes, having the option to use a third-party storage solution like Box or Dropbox can be helpful too, especially if you’re more familiar with another cloud storage provider.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Intuitive and clean UI. </span>A good user interface can make or break a good project management team. Sometimes, having an easy time using the application can be more important than what the application can do.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reliable support.</span> Who are you going to call when something breaks in your project management software? Knowing that you’re working with people who are willing and able to help you come up with a solution to your app’s issues is a treasure</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"> </p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Production_Planning.png","alias":"production-planning"},"355":{"id":355,"title":"Payroll Accounting","description":"The accounting for payroll involves all aspects of paying compensation and benefits to employees. The outcome of this process is precise records regarding the expenses associated with all types of compensation, as well as timely payments to employees.\r\nThough some systems that incorporate more or less automatic payroll systems may not include all of these steps, the general process flow will apply to most payroll systems:\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Set up new employees.</span> Have new employees fill out payroll-specific information as part of the hiring process, such as the W-4 form and medical insurance forms that may require payroll deductions. Set aside copies of this information in order to include it in the next payroll.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Collect timecard information.</span> Salaried employees require no change in wages paid for each payroll, but you must collect and summarize information about the hours worked by non-exempt employees. This may involve having employees scan a badge through a computerized time clock.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Verify timecard information.</span> Summarize the payroll information just collected and have supervisors verify that employees have correctly recorded their time.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Summarize wages due.</span> Multiply the number of hours worked by the pay rate for each employee, also factoring in any overtime or shift differentials.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Enter employee changes.</span> Employees may ask to have changes made to their paychecks, usually to the number of tax exemptions or pension withholdings. You may need to record much of this prior to calculating taxes, since it impacts the amount of wages to which taxes are applied.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Calculate taxes.</span> Use tax tables to determine the amount of taxes to be withheld from employee gross pay.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Calculate wage deductions.</span> There may be a number of additional deductions to take away from employee net income, including deductions for medical insurance, life insurance, garnishments, and union dues. You must also track the goal amounts for these deductions, so that you stop deducting once the goal totals are reached.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Deduct manual payments.</span> If manual payments have already been made to employees, such as advances, then deduct these amounts from the remaining net pay.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Create a payroll register. </span>Summarize the wage and deduction information for each employee in a payroll register, which you can then summarize to also create a journal entry to record the payroll. This document is automatically created by all payroll software packages.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Print paychecks.</span> Print employee paychecks using the information in the payroll register. You normally itemize gross wages, deductions, and net pay in a remittance advice that accompanies the paycheck.\r\n <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pay by direct deposit.</span> Notify your direct deposit processor of the amount of any direct deposit payments, and issue remittance advices to employees for these payments.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Issue paychecks.</span> Have a paymaster issue paychecks to employees, requiring employee identification if there are a large number of employees.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Deposit withheld taxes.</span> Deposit all withheld payroll taxes and employer matched taxes at a bank that is authorized to handle these transactions.\r\nPayroll administration is one of the most important business processes your company performs, yet one of the most cumbersome and time-consuming daily activities. It doesn’t generate direct revenues, so keeping this process to a bare minimum in time and cost means savings and more efficiency to your business. This is why you need <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">payroll software</span>, so you can focus on income-generating strategies and daily core tasks.\r\nPayroll management software can be classified by: deployment (cloud vs. enterprise), business size (small business vs. enterprise) and target market (general vs. industry-specific). There is another way to distinctly classify payroll software, one that may impact on your workflows.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integrated payroll management system.</span> Payroll, accounting and HRM have overlapping processes.; thus, often, payroll management is integrated as a module in accounting software, HRM or an organization-wide business system like ERP. It can be a standard feature or separately charged as an add-on. Integrated payroll management covers the core tasks like payroll processing, income tax calculations and paycheck printing.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Dedicated payroll management.</span> These are standalone apps that go beyond core features of payroll and tax software with specialized functions as time-tracking & attendance, customized reporting, benefits management and even a tax planner. A good dedicated payroll application should easily integrate with other HRM and accounting systems. This type of payroll system is popular among payroll services and small businesses.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the must have features for a payroll software?</span></h1>\r\nThe essential part of any organisation is payroll. Every worker’s salary compensation is based on the payroll system. Now the features of payroll software are used to streamline and handle the payments of the employees. From automating several tasks such as depositing the salaries, to taking care of taxes, a payroll management software is highly helpful. \r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Integrated Accounting.</span> The human resources team and the accounting department can save time for managing every payroll detail manually. Thus, payroll programs can eliminate the scope of miscalculation and placement of the critical data in a wrong file. </li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Recording Files and Payslips.</span> The software can generate reports including leave summary, salary benefits, and salary statements. By using the digital platform, the software can print payslip. Moreover, you can even download and print the regulatory payroll. Acting as the sole repository of employment record and document, this software can be handy for any business. This software includes essential features like experience letter, organisational chart, employees profile, occupational safety and tax, and offer letter.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reporting in Payroll Processing Software. </span>Through the software, you can customise the report criteria and follow the reporting tasks taken care of:<br /><ul><li>Timesheet reports</li><li>Balancing audit reports</li><li>Wage and liability audit-related reports</li><li>Unemployment wage reports</li></ul>Several reports and inquiry output formats which include email, XML, text file and printed report. As different teams use the reports, the software can restrict the allocation of essential resources. The features make the best out of the reporting operation. Before purchasing the software, you need to make sure that the essential reporting functions are available in your software.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Keeping Track of Earning.</span> One of the best payroll software features is that it manages the earnings of the employees. </li></ul>\r\n<br /> \r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Tax Management Done Easily.</span> The features of the payroll software solutions execute the task of tax filing and computing. With the features the employee taxes are filed within the deadline. This way, the chances of facing penalties are avoided. The payroll program software stores pay calculating records every hour. It also pays attention to tax benefit purposes.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Depositing Directly to Account.</span> One of the best features of payroll soft is that the payroll is deposited to the bank account directly. The software saves huge expense on the annual supplies and processing. It can also take care of any fraudulent activities related to the employee’s salary. The funds are transferred within no time directly from the company account to the employee account.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Customisation at its best.</span> Among all the key features personalisation plays an integral role. Through customising every check and form, the whole system of payroll software is managed. You can customise the tables and menus here. You can also customise the reports, screens, and fields to offer the best kind of service. The software can print logos of the organisation for attaching them to the reports and checks.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">High Level of Security.</span> The primary security feature required in the software is that the database encryption. For restricting the highly valued resources like the tax files, employee personal details, and payroll information, the software has password protection. With the comprehensive audit trails, the security feature also focuses on the control access. This takes care of sensitive information to the highest degree. The addition of record level security can save the company form fraud cases at an optimal level.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Know about Streamlining.</span> The worker can get access to the records or printed pay stubs through the automatic generation of the payroll system. There is an option for getting in touch with the third-party administrator and track in-house bookkeeping.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Zero Error, High Level of Accuracy.</span> The best thing about payroll automation software is that every work is carried out by following a high level of skill. By installing the latest updates on the application, the features of payroll software remain upgraded. And the system does not have to pay the price of manual error. With the help of soft, there is less chance of human error. Also, the tax forms are pre-filled following the worker’s payroll details. The unbiased third-party app can keep the records up-to-date every hour even if you outsource the operations.</li></ul>\r\n<br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Payroll_Accounting.png","alias":"payroll-accounting"},"359":{"id":359,"title":"Order Management","description":" Order management is the administration of business processes related to orders for goods or services. Order management is the order-to-cash sales process that sits at the heart of any goods-based B2C and B2B company. Put simply, it’s the end-to-end cycle of receiving and processing a customer order through to fulfillment. \r\nOrder management is not conducted in isolation; it relies upon almost every department in a company: from a customer service team to the warehouse staff, the accounting department through to delivery partners. When mastered effectively, order management ensures a business’s workflow runs smoothly by establishing efficient processes to keep it moving forward; maintaining customer satisfaction and protecting a company’s reputation.\r\nOrder management involves a series of interconnected touchpoints and stakeholders who work collaboratively together to enable customers to order the right products, for the right price and receive them at the right time. The order fulfillment system (as it is also known) not only secures that order-to-cash (O2C) processes run smoothly, but also gives businesses the opportunity to build customer profiles and keep track of inventory volume and sales records.\r\nWhen scaling your business, it’s important to automate and streamline this process — otherwise, you’ll eventually be overwhelmed by the sheer number of orders coming in. An ordering system gives you a one-stop shop to view and manage all customer orders in one place.\r\nSome systems offer a two-way sync that makes sure order information is passed between your order management system and your ecommerce platform while providing you with visibility into the entire process. This can help automate the flow of sales order information to every piece of the supply chain. That means you can track the entire journey of a customer order, from the “Buy” button to delivery — and even returns.\r\nOrder processing is the process or work flow from order placement to delivery. This is a key element of order fulfillment, where reliability and accuracy lead to customer satisfaction. Steps in order processing include picking, sorting, tracking and shipping. Order processing can range from manual (hand written on an order log sheet) to highly technological and data driven (through online orders and order processing software) depending on the operation.\r\nIn order to establish a fast-moving, cost-effective and accurate order management cycle, both B2C and B2B companies are choosing to use an integrated and responsive order management system (OMS). The OMS integrates directly with a business’s ERP and is set up to work alongside the human workforce in order to obtain the most productive and profitable order management cycle possible.\r\nAn integrated order management system may encompass these modules:\r\n<ul><li>Product information (descriptions, attributes, locations, quantities)</li><li>Inventory available to promise (ATP) and sourcing</li><li>Vendors, purchasing, and receiving</li><li>Marketing (catalogs, promotions, pricing)</li><li>Customers and prospects</li><li>Order entry and customer service (including returns and refunds)</li><li>Financial processing (credit cards, billing, payment on account)</li><li>Order processing (selection, printing, picking, packing, shipping) </li></ul>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is OMS software?</span></h1>\r\nAn order management system is a software system that facilitates and manages the execution of trade orders. An order management system is any tool or platform that tracks sales, orders, inventory, and fulfillment as well as enables the people, processes, and partnerships necessary for products to find their way to the customers who bought them. \r\nAn order processing system software should provide one centralized place to manage orders from all sales channels. Centralizing this in one system is critical to delivering a superior customer experience by providing order status, on-time deliveries and meeting customer expectations for buy, fulfill and return anywhere. \r\nThe right solution gives you a foundation for consistent and seamless execution across all customer, financial, inventory and supply chain touch points that drives customer satisfaction, repeat business and long-term loyalty. Additionally, order management systems can improve sales visibility and reduce delays and back orders by giving you a single view of demand, inventory and supply.\r\nAn effective order management system software lets you seamlessly orchestrate the fulfillment of products and services across virtually all your customer touch points. Without a centralized order management system, realizing a comprehensive view of demand, transactions and customers across all channels and fulfillment locations can be extremely difficult.\r\nOrder management software equips you to think beyond the inventory on hand to focus on what's available to promise to your customers. It eliminates costly and rigid inventory segmentation across channels and business units with a single, real-time, consolidated view of inventory across the enterprise, from your suppliers and manufacturing facilities to your warehouse and stores.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">How to choose the right OMS software?</span></h1>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Define your system objectives and priorities of each.</span> By doing so and discussing with your internal stakeholders, you’ll clearly understand features that are “absolute requirements” vs. ones that are “nice to have.” Don’t forget to factor in scalability and future thinking.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Draft a request for proposal (RFP)</span>. This will help your team get organized and both you and the vendor(s) understand the technical requirements and limitations of the system you’re hoping to implement. Don’t forget to include order volumes, number of SKUs, current vendor landscape, existing software, hardware, and networks, a timeline for the systems acquisition process, and details on training & enablement.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Research systems options</span>. It’s unlikely that you’ll find an ideal fit for your business with your first contact (but how amazing would that be), so compile a list of 4-6 vendors to evaluate and reach out to for demos or trails. </li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Review trade-offs.</span> It’s unlikely you’ll find a vendor that is a 100% fit and your final selection will be based on a number of trade-off criteria. Feature & function alone shouldn’t be your sole selection criteria as you’ll want to take into account the entirety of the business relationship you’re getting into.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">How do your customers benefit from an online order management system?</span></h1>\r\nAn online ordering software doesn’t just benefit you, though. It also benefits your customers. The system will give them a quick, convenient, and 24/7 way to place orders without having to call or email your staff, or fill out old-fashioned Excel or Word order forms. They'll have instant, online updates on the status of their orders, and they’ll have greater confidence that their orders will arrive on-time and with the correct items. An online order management system also makes your company look more professional in the eyes of your customers.Here are three ways they benefit:\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">They can place orders on their schedule.</span> Between managing employees, servicing customers, and marketing their business, most business owners are working on a very tight schedule. Taking the time to call or email your sales staff or meet with a sales rep can be challenging. Using an online product ordering system that allows customers to log on at their convenience and quickly choose the items they want to order goes a long way for customer service. If they place the same order on a regular basis, they can use a reorder feature which duplicates previous orders. The whole process takes a matter of seconds. So alleviate this challenge by implementing a system that allows your customers to place an order anytime.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">They can check their order status at any time.</span> One of the biggest challenges a business faces is managing their inventory. On one hand, they want to have enough inventory available to service their customers. On the other hand, they don’t want to have inventory piling up on their shelves. There’s a critical need to know with confidence when inventory will arrive.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li> <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">They have a higher probability of receiving the correct order in a timely manner. </span>Nothing will erode your customers' trust more than making errors on their shipments and invoices. If it happens once, that may be forgiven as a simple mistake. However, if it happens repeatedly, your customer is likely to start looking for alternative options. An online order management system with warehouse integration can send the order directly to your third party warehouse. This reduces the probability that an error will be made. The less people who handle the order information, the lower the likelihood for human error.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Order_Management.png","alias":"order-management"},"361":{"id":361,"title":"Financial Performance and Strategy Management Applications","description":" Strategic financial management means not only managing a company's finances but managing them with the intention to succeed—that is, to attain the company's goals and objectives and maximize shareholder value over time. However, before a company can manage itself strategically, it first needs to define its objectives precisely, identify and quantify its available and potential resources, and devise a specific plan to use its finances and other capital resources toward achieving its goals.\r\nStrategic financial management is about creating profit for the business and ensuring an acceptable return on investment (ROI). Financial management is accomplished through business financial plans, setting up financial controls, and financial decision making.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is financial performance management?</span>\r\nAlso known as corporate performance management, financial performance management refers to the ways that a company manages and monitors financial results across an organization. The primary purpose of financial performance management is to compare actual results to budgets and forecasts and make adjustments accordingly. The result? Companies are better equipped to meet their business goals.\r\nVentana Research describes financial performance management as a specific set of capabilities that includes "defining their company's key performance indicators, formulating strategic plans and forecasts, handling performance reporting, and increasing finance operational efficiency and execution company-wide.”\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is financial performance management software?</span>\r\nFinancial performance management software, also known as corporate performance management software, streamlines financial management processes. This software connects budgeting, planning, close, consolidation, reporting, and disclosure to a single data source. It enables users to complete these tasks in one software system, as opposed to many separate systems.\r\nIn essence, financial performance management software consolidates information, formats it to meet compliance requirements, and provides automated tools that enable finance to create regulatory reports and disclosures. In addition to a central data repository and workflow tools, financial performance management software has features to create, manage, validate, and publish financial statements and reports. Best-in-class financial performance management software even has a robust suite of communication tools that foster collaboration and improve audit controls.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the benefits of corporate performance management?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Corporate performance management helps companies become more agile when faced with unexpected business events.</span> With features like KPI dashboards, real-time data, and responsive plans that change as actuals do, CFOs and finance executives can understand what’s happening and take action faster.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Corporate performance management helps companies make better decisions.</span> CPM systems often have automated features like scenario modeling, rolling forecasts, and what-if scenarios analysis. Using these in combination with a single version of automated data, executives can better analyze performance, respond to change, and make more informed decisions.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Corporate performance management helps companies focus on analysis.</span> Using corporate performance software, users spend less time on manual tasks like data collection and data entry. Instead, they can focus their time on value-added activities like analyzing profitability, reducing costs, business partnering with executive decision-makers, and developing a strategy.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Corporate performance management helps companies interpret large amounts of data quickly.</span> CPM as we know it is evolving. Once CPM was purely financial management. Today, organizations are sitting on a treasure trove of information, that if adequately managed, could provide telling insights about the state of business and the direction decision-makers should take next. Modernized CPM solutions help financial users identify these underlying trends, unearth insights, and interpret large amounts of data quickly.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Corporate performance management aligns the entire organization, from corporate to subsidiaries to divisions to LoBs, departments, and individual contributors all in a single solution.</span> CPM software aligns every part of the organization to a central data source, so collaborators make all decisions, create reports, and perform analysis with financial truth top of mind and with finance at the heart of every decision.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Financial_Performance_and_Strategy_Management_Applications.png","alias":"financial-performance-and-strategy-management-applications"},"367":{"id":367,"title":"Web Conferencing Applications","description":" Web conferencing is the common name for technology and tools for online meetings and real-time collaboration. Web conferencing allows you to conduct online presentations, collaborate on documents and applications, view websites, videos, images.\r\nWeb conferences, as a rule, are Internet services that require the installation of a client program on each participant’s computer. Some services also provide access to a web conference via a browser using flash, java or a special plug-in.\r\nServices for web conferencing can include features and tools such as screen sharing (screen sharing or individual applications), whiteboard (interactive whiteboard), the ability to show web presentations, co-browsing (the ability to synchronously browse web pages), tools for annotations, monitoring the presence of participants, text chat, integrated VoIP communication, video communication, the ability to change the leader, the ability to give control over the mouse and keyboard, meeting moderation tools, feedback collection tools (on example, polls), tools for scheduling and inviting participants, the ability to record the progress of a web conference.\r\nOften, web conferencing is used with Internet services for audio and video calls (for example, Skype) or they provide conference calling via a regular telephone.","materialsDescription":" What is the first thing that strikes you when we look at businessmen who are trying to establish communication with each other online? All of them require: “Give more opportunities for web conferencing!”. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the WebRTC technology is gaining the favor of an increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses.\r\nA recent study conducted by Software Advice showed that more than half of employees in small businesses prefer web conferences, noting their efficiency and usability. The advantages are especially noticeable in comparison with communications via telephone or the use of special applications. However, the benefits of web conferencing do not end there - according to the study, they not only increase the speed and quality of online meetings, but also provide a lot of opportunities for collaboration. In addition, and this is obvious, they reduce travel costs.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Speed and quality come first.</span>\r\nIt is worth noting that now small and medium businesses are almost gone from the use of communication hardware and use desktop computers and mobile devices. Despite the fact that audio and video conferences are still very popular (they are used by 45% and 50% of users, respectively), web conferences are actively replacing them. Judge for yourself - according to statistics, every third user selects them as a means of communication after the first experience of use.\r\nThe main reason for such a rapid growth in popularity is the speed and quality that web conferencing users provide. According to respondents, the main advantage of web conferences is the ability to organize a meeting much faster than before. Now there is no need to spend time on installing special applications like Skype or similar - any communication systems using any third-party programs are a thing of the past. Also worth noting is the ability to connect to the web conference literally in one click.\r\nMore than 40% of the people surveyed showed dissatisfaction with the tedious procedure of entering authorization data, noting the simplicity and convenience of connecting to the WebRTC web conference. All you need is access to the Internet!\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">We work in a team</span>\r\nIt is no secret that the use of web conferencing significantly reduces the company's travel expenses. After all, booking tickets, searching for hotels and meeting places can result in a decent amount, which will seriously hurt the company's income. Using web conferences, you get the opportunity to arrange business meetings, even with overseas partners, without leaving your office. But that's not all! Web conferencing offers a range of tools to overcome language barriers. For example, in the field of healthcare, videoconferencing has been used to establish consultations between doctors and patients from completely different countries. With the help of online translators and other special features of web conferences, people can get the necessary help from qualified foreign specialists.\r\nDo not forget that web conferencing is not only a convenient way to hold a video call. You can arrange trainings for your team using file transfer and document display functions, as well as conduct job interviews without wasting time.\r\nIt is interesting to note that small and medium-sized businesses share their product samples with prospective clients using web conferences, turning them into a powerful marketing tool. This brings the business to a fundamentally new level, allowing the company to take a leading position in its industry!","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Web_Conferencing_Applications.png","alias":"web-conferencing-applications"},"369":{"id":369,"title":"File Synchronization and Sharing Software","description":" Enterprise file synchronization and sharing (also known as EFSS and enterprise file sync and share) refer to software services that enable organizations to securely synchronize and share documents, photos, videos and files from multiple devices with employees, and external customers and partners. Organizations often adopt these technologies to prevent employees from using consumer-based file sharing apps to store, access and manage corporate data that is outside of the IT department’s control and visibility.\r\nEFSS applications are often characterized by having most or all of the following features and capabilities:\r\n<ul><li>Sync files stored incorporate storage to user desktops and devices</li><li>Send links to large files with support for multiple file extensions and protocols</li><li>Integration to existing business applications via APIs, plugins and mobile apps</li><li>Built-in file creation, editing and previewing</li><li>User access permissions to files and folders</li><li>Protection of files stored and transferred by encryption, antivirus scanning, and DLP (data loss prevention)</li><li>Publish links to files with the ability to set a login requirement to access data</li><li>Authentication options for Active Directory, SAML, Azure Active Directory, etc.</li><li>Schedule and automate file transfers from automated systems and repositories</li><li>Audit and report file activities and system actions</li></ul>\r\nDepending on what an EFSS provider offers, services can be deployed using cloud computing, on-premises, or hybrid. According to Forrester Research, some EFSS providers can provide the ability to lock down data in certain geographies for companies that have requirements to store content/metadata in specific jurisdictions.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is File Synchronization and Sharing Software?</span>\r\nFile synchronization and sharing software enable companies to securely synchronize and share photos, documents, videos, and files from multiple sources with their customers, partners, and employees.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the benefits of File Synchronization and Sharing Software?</span>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Better Protection.</span> Cloud-based file-sharing services are limited in their ability to protect your sensitive business documents. As high profile service providers, they are under an increased threat of attack by hackers, as seen in recent headlines regarding security concerns and data breaches.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Efficiency and Control.</span> Sending email attachments can be problematic due to file size restrictions or their vulnerability to interception during transmission.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Convenience.</span> File Synchronization and Sharing Software eliminate the need for memory sticks to transport data and the risk associated with using them. Your files can be securely accessed anywhere, anytime with a secure Internet connection and browser.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Easy Sharing.</span> Network drives can be found in nearly every office for sharing files within your department. However, it's not so convenient if you want to share files between remote office locations or when working offsite. EFSS enables you to connect and share simply and easily without boundaries.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_File_Synchronization_and_Sharing_Software.png","alias":"file-synchronization-and-sharing-software"},"371":{"id":371,"title":"Compensation Management","description":" Compensation management is a critical part of talent management and employee retention. It uses financial and nonmonetary benefits to attract recruits, reduce turnover, spur performance and boost employee engagement. It is responsible for ensuring that salary and bonuses remain competitive and benefit programs change with the needs of the workforce. The people in this role not only work with data but are also keen to understand the complexity of benefits administration.\r\nCompensation management software is standard in human capital management software suites. It is used to budget employee salaries and provides information about how salary changes with a job role. Although HR has charge of compensation management systems, it can be accessed by managers in a firm.\r\nThe software is typically configured to give supervisors a departmental view of the employee data they need to make salary offers, the issue raises and grant bonuses. An employee's performance management data may be displayed along with compensation information.\r\nEnsuring that salaries are competitive is a major benefit of compensation management systems. Compensation data that's in tune with the market gives hiring managers critical data they need when making an offer to a candidate. This applies as well to raises and bonuses to the incumbent workforce. Employees today have opportunities to find out about their peers' salaries and benefits. A good compensation management system is alert to the market, and this can help motivate employees and reduce turnover.\r\nCompensation management requires the use of external data. Managers gather salary market data by industry, company size, job role and geography. They can use government data, information from publicly available sites that gather user reported salary data, as well as purchase data from third-party firms that conduct ongoing surveys of salary and benefits.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Why is Compensation Management so important?</span>\r\n<ol><li>Compensation management makes a company vigilant. It drives managers to be on the lookout for star performers who must be given rewards for their efforts, which ultimately decreases the risk of losing a valuable employee.</li><li>It is positive reinforcement. Yes, money doesn’t make the world go round and if line managers are not friendly, helpful and supportive retention is difficult. But cash prizes and consistent monetary perks in conjunction with a great work environment allow companies to grow by leaps and bounds through motivated, hard-working employees.</li><li>Compensation management enhances the company’s reputation. When workers are satisfied with their monetary and intangible rewards, they attract better prospects for vacant positions, bringing new, fresh talent to the organization.</li></ol>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Benefits of Compensation Management for your Organization</span>\r\n<ul><li>One of the most significant benefits associated with compensation management is that it helps the organization achieve employee satisfaction. A happy employee will be more productive while contributing to the overall profit of the business. This makes employees realize that they are getting equal returns for the time and effort they are dedicating to the organization. The practice of compensation management exerts a positive impact on the employees by influencing them to perform better and increasing their overall efficiency.</li><li>This stabilizes the labor turnover rate as employees get compensated for their work at a competitive market rate. They do not feel the need of leaving the organization. It can then be concluded that compensation management helps to increase the loyalty of the employees towards the organization.</li><li>Compensation management is an important aspect of the job evaluation process. It augments the whole process by setting up standards for the company that are realistic as well as achievable, as far as the compensation practices of the organization are concerned.</li><li>It is a practice which helps to improve the relationship of the company with the labor union, as it allows the compliance of different labor laws and acts. If the organization is following the compensation practices same as that of the market, there will be no dispute to settle between them and the labor union.</li><li>It helps the professional growth of employees, as their efficiency increases, when there is a reward present for achieving a certain level of production. This also means that the deserving employees are fairly compensated for the efforts they are putting into their work, thus helping the organization to retain the best talent.</li><li>Compensation Management is the practice that if followed properly, will turn the organization into a hub of talent. This means that more human capital will get attracted to the company when they will view the compensation package that it will be offering. Also, the organization must keep in mind that monetary rewards are not something that only derives the motivation of the workforce. The overall compensation package must also include the non-monetary rewards, where the employees should be appreciated for the effort they are putting in their work. Therefore, the organization must ensure that its compensation package is based on monetary as well as non-monetary rewards.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How to Manage Compensation</span>\r\nVery small businesses may use multiple spreadsheets to track and calculate different aspects of their employees’ compensation. This isn’t an efficient system, but when you only have a few employees, it may suit your needs. However, as your business grows and you hire more staff, your old spreadsheets just won’t do the job anymore.\r\nSpreadsheets take a lot of time to update. For a growing workforce, they can become unmanageable. When employee data is spread between multiple sheets, finding and tracking information is time-consuming and you could misplace important data.\r\nIn some cases, the compensation data that gets misplaced can have serious, negative impacts on your business. For example, if your new employee is mistakenly not added to your benefits plan and then they become seriously injured, they won’t have any coverage. This is devastating for the affected employee and can damage morale for the rest of the team.\r\nThis is why businesses turn to compensation management software as they grow. With this software, all the information your HR department needs are in one place. Since the information is in one place, you can quickly and efficiently analyze your employees’ compensation and make any necessary changes.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Compensation_Management.png","alias":"compensation-management"},"373":{"id":373,"title":"Workforce Management","description":"","materialsDescription":"","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Workforce_Management.png","alias":"workforce-management"},"385":{"id":385,"title":"Model-Driven Application Platforms","description":"A model-driven application is a software application that the functions or behaviors are based on, or in control of, some evolutionary applied models of the target things to the application. The applied models are served as a part of the application system in which it can be changed at runtime. The target things are what the application deals with, such as the objects and affairs in business for a business application. Follows the definition of application in TOGAF, a model-driven business application could be described as an IT system that supports business functions and services running on the models of the (things in) business.\r\nThe ideal of the architecture for a model-driven application was first put forward by Tong-Ying Yu on the Enterprise Engineering Forum in 1999, which have been studied and spread through some internet media for a long time. It had influence on the field of enterprise application development in China; there were successful cases of commercial development of enterprise/business applications in the architectural style of a model-driven application. Gartner Group carried out some studies into the subject in 2008; they defined the model-driven packaged applications as "enterprise applications that have explicit metadata-driven models of the supported processes, data and relationships, and that generate runtime components through metadata models, either dynamically interpreted or compiled, rather than hardcoded." The model-driven application architecture is one of few technology trends to driven the next generation of application modernization, that claimed by some industrial researchers in 2012.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is Model-driven development?</span>\r\nModel-driven development (MDD) is a format to write and implement software quickly, effectively and at minimum cost. The methodology is also known as model-driven software development (MDSD), model-driven engineering (MDE) and model-driven architecture (MDA).\r\nThe MDD approach focuses on the construction of a software model. The model is a diagram that specifies how the software system should work before the code is generated. Once the software is created, it can be tested using model-based testing (MBT) and then deployed.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the benefits of model-driven development?</span>\r\nThe MDD approach provides advantages in productivity over other development methods because the model simplifies the engineering process. It represents the intended behaviors or actions of a software product before coding begins.\r\nThe individuals and teams that work on the software construct models collaboratively. Communication between developers and a product manager, for example, provides clear definitions of what the software is and how it works. Tests, rebuilds and redeployments can be faster when developing multiple applications with MDD than with traditional development.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the core concepts of model-driven development?</span>\r\nModel-driven development is more in-depth than just having a model of the software in development, which makes it different from model-based development. Abstraction and automation are key concepts of MDD. Abstraction means to organize complex software systems. In MDD, complex software gets abstracted, which then extracts the easy-to-define code.\r\nOnce developers transform the abstraction, a working version of the software model gets automated. This automation stage uses a domain-specific language (DSL), such as HTML, and scripting languages, like ColdFusion, which can integrate other programming languages and services -- .NET, C++, FTP and more -- for use in websites. DSL is a language specialized to an application domain. A model is written in a DSL language and is utilized for transformation in coding language from the model to working software.\r\nAgile software development methods are often paired with MDD. The Agile development approach enables short sprints where the project scope can change. Agile model-driven development (AMDD) establishes short development iterations, while changes can be redesigned and shown on the model. In AMDD, design efforts are split between modeling in both sprints and coding.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Model_Driven_Application_Platforms.png","alias":"model-driven-application-platforms"},"387":{"id":387,"title":"Managed File Transfer Software, MFT","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Managed file transfer (MFT)</span> is a technology platform that allows organizations to reliably exchange electronic data between systems and people in a secure way to meet compliance needs. These data movements can be both internal and external to an enterprise and include various types, including sensitive, compliance-protected or high-volume data. It can be offered as software or as a service and may include a single pane for visibility and governance.\r\nManaged file transfer software is a more reliable and efficient means for secure data and file transfer, outpacing and outperforming applications such as file transfer protocol (FTP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) and other methods.\r\nOrganizations increasingly rely on managed file transfer tools to support their business needs and goals in a way that FTP cannot. FTP presents many challenges(PDF, 571 KB) such as data security gaps, lack of visibility when a problem occurs, timely manual recovery from failures and costly SLA fees due to poor performance.\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Key capabilities of effective managed file transfer</span></p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Security.</span> Encrypt internal and external transfers, in motion and at rest. Secure file transfers with advanced capabilities like session breaks and protocol inspection maximize the protection of sensitive data at multiple layers.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Simplified file transfer.</span> Offers timely and flexible data transfer across a range of file transfer activities and support for multiple file types, including multimedia, PDFs, email, XML, EDI and more.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Full visibility.</span> Provides a 360-degree view in near-real time. Companies can see who is transferring files, what is being shared and the volume passing through the system. Potential issues like delays and failed transfers are visible before they impact downstream business processes or become missed SLAs.</li><li> <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Compliance standards.</span> Strong encryption helps companies avoid compliance failures which can lead to hefty fines. Thorough audit trails confirm regulatory compliance.</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"> </p>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">What are the benefits of managed file transfer?</h1>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Data security.</span> High-profile data breaches and failed transfers can drastically impact a company’s bottom line and reputation. MFT offers a preemptive security strategy with real-time monitoring, and validation security policies and controls to protect data in transit or at rest.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Data growth.</span> Data is everywhere, and companies face larger and more varied files than in the past. The number of users sharing files has grown as have the number of end-points and devices. And as files get larger, the time to move them over global distances becomes longer. MFT brings reliable, automated governance to the movement of files inside and outside the business and can accelerate big data movements around the globe.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Regulatory compliance.</span> Legislative and industry requirements such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), Basel II, Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and others — typically have stringent data security standards. Using a properly-configured MFT system to encrypt, transmit, monitor and store sensitive data empowers organizations to meet security mandates.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Technology megatrends.</span> Moving files has become more complex with the adoption of transformational technologies. The growth of big data, cloud applications, artificial intelligence, data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) place a premium on the speed and bulk of file transfers. MFT offers advanced capabilities and support for multiple platforms, mobile devices, applications and other existing IT infrastructure.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Visibility.</span> Companies need to anticipate risk factors to mitigate damages. Operational visibility over file movements leads to proactive issue resolution, like failed transfers and improved compliance with SLA commitments.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Secure File Transfer vs Managed File Transfer software comparison</h1>\r\nMFT is a platform. This may make it seem more advanced than other protocols, and arguably it is. It offers administration capabilities coupled with automation and popular security protocols like HTTPS, SFTP, and FTPS. Often, the interface of MFT is designed for transparency and visibility. Generally, it’s a more secure transfer protocol than most others.\r\nMFT beats secure file transfers in complexity and nuance and crushes the competition when it comes to security. If we had to find some drawbacks to implementing a MFT strategy, it’s complexity may mean a learning curve is required for some users. Also, managed file transfer implies management is required. The introduction of visibility and transparency of the process offers no benefit if the processes aren’t being monitored.\r\nFTP (File Transfer Protocol) and SFT (Secure File Transfer) are both network protocols for “put” and “get” functions. With regards to billing data, data recovery files and other sensitive information that enterprise businesses need to hold and share, SFT offers encryption, whereas FTP does not. SFT was designed for the purposes of securely transmitting data.\r\nTo that point, SFT uses Secure Shell or SSH network protocol to transfer data across a channel. Data is protected as long as it’s in moving across the channel. Once it hits a secured server, it’s no longer protected. For additional encryption, senders would need to ensure encryption occurs in advance of sending.\r\nThe main benefit of Secure File Transfer is it is enhanced with encryption during the sending process, whereas regular FTP does not have such protection. It’s still second to an MFT platform, but SFT could be a less expensive alternative, depending on how much impact data transfer has on your business.\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Managed_File_Transfer_Software.png","alias":"managed-file-transfer-software-mft"},"391":{"id":391,"title":"Cloud Testing/ASQ PaaS","description":" With the growing technological advancements, there is a requirement of continuous testing of an application. The conventional mode of application testing is very time consuming, and cost associated with such kind of testing solution is also high. That is why demand for a solution to test application on the cloud and for the cloud is rising significantly as high quality, well-performing software across platforms drive business innovation and competitive positioning. Software vendors across the globe are investing a huge amount of money in research and development of software that can provide more software-centric IT infrastructure to their customer. These software vendors are looking for automated software testing (ASQ), software as a Service (SaaS) and adaptive infrastructure support in the cloud.\r\nCloud testing and ASQ software facilitates quick access to both superiority solution and support infrastructure to sustain complex software sourcing and dynamic development. Cloud testing solutions require fewer resources and less infrastructure investment than on-premise ASQ solutions.\r\nThe continuous development in cloud computing space is driving the growth of the global cloud testing and ASQ software market. Cloud computing is creating a new shift in IT model. Cloud computing facilitates organizations to adopt software as a Service at a very low cost. Software as a Service providers business organization a more agile framework and increase their efficiency, at the same time, software as a service is a complex phenomenon and requires continuous monitoring. As an organization is deploying more enterprise mobility solution and mobile application, cloud testing and ASQ software vendors are seeing a huge opportunity in the market.\r\nHowever, business organizations’ software needs are changing very frequently, and to cope with these rapidly changing software advancements is very difficult for cloud testing ASQ software vendors, and this is the biggest challenge cloud testing and ASQ software market is facing.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is Cloud testing?</span>\r\nCloud testing is a form of software testing in which web applications use cloud computing environments (a "cloud") to simulate real-world user traffic.\r\nCloud testing uses cloud infrastructure for software testing. Organizations pursuing testing in general and load, performance testing and production service monitoring, in particular, are challenged by several problems like limited test budget, meeting deadlines, high costs per test, a large number of test cases, and little or no reuse of tests and geographical distribution of users add to the challenges. Moreover, ensuring high-quality service delivery and avoiding outages requires testing in one's datacenter, outside the data-center, or both. Cloud Testing is the solution to all these problems. Effective unlimited storage, quick availability of the infrastructure with scalability, flexibility and availability of a distributed testing environment reduce the execution time of testing of large applications and lead to cost-effective solutions.\r\nTraditional approaches to test a software incurs a high cost to simulate user activity from different geographic locations. Testing firewalls and load balancers involve expenditure on hardware, software and its maintenance. In the case of applications where the rate of increase in a number of users is unpredictable or there is variation in deployment environment depending on client requirements, cloud testing is more effective.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the types of testing?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Stress</span></span>\r\nStress Test is used to determine the ability of the application to maintain a certain level of effectiveness beyond the breaking point. It is essential for any application to work even under excessive stress and maintain stability. Stress testing assures this by creating peak loads using simulators. But the cost of creating such scenarios is enormous. Instead of investing capital in building on-premises testing environments, cloud testing offers an affordable and scalable alternative.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Load</span></span>\r\nLoad testing of an application involves the creation of heavy user traffic and measuring its response. There is also a need to tune the performance of any application to meet certain standards. However, a number of tools are available for that purpose.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Performance</span></span>\r\nFinding out thresholds, bottlenecks & limitations is a part of performance testing. For this, testing performance under a particular workload is necessary. By using cloud testing, it is easy to create such an environment and vary the nature of traffic on-demand. This effectively reduces cost and time by simulating thousands of geographically targeted users.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Functional</span></span>\r\nFunctional testing of both internet and non-internet applications can be performed using cloud testing. The process of verification against specifications or system requirements is carried out in the cloud instead of on-site software testing.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Compatibility</span></span>\r\nUsing a cloud environment, instances of different Operating Systems can be created on demand, making compatibility testing effortless.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Browser performance</span></span>\r\nTo verify the application's support for various browser types and performance in each type can be accomplished with ease. Various tools enable automated website testing from the cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Latency</span></span>\r\nCloud testing is utilized to measure the latency between the action and the corresponding response for any application after deploying it on the cloud.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the keys to successful testing?</span>\r\n<ol><li>Understanding a platform provider's elasticity model/dynamic configuration method</li><li>Staying abreast of the provider's evolving monitoring services and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)</li><li>Potentially engaging the service provider as an ongoing operations partner if producing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software</li><li>Being willing to be used as a case study by the cloud service provider. The latter may lead to cost reductions.</li></ol>\r\nCloud testing is often seen as only performance or load tests, however, as discussed earlier it covers many other types of testing. Cloud computing itself is often referred to as the marriage of software as a service (SaaS) and utility computing. In regard to test execution, the software offered as a service may be a transaction generator and the cloud provider's infrastructure software, or may just be the latter. Distributed Systems and Parallel Systems mainly use this approach for testing, because of their inherent complex nature. D-Cloud is an example of such a software testing environment.\r\nFor testing non-internet applications, virtual instances of testing environment can be quickly set up to do automated testing of the application. The cloud testing service providers provide an essential testing environment as per the requirement of the application under test. The actual testing of applications is performed by the testing team of the organization which owns the application or third-party testing vendors.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the benefits?</span>\r\nThe ability and cost to simulate web traffic for software testing purposes have been an inhibitor to overall web reliability. The low cost and accessibility of the cloud's extremely large computing resources provide the ability to replicate real-world usage of these systems by geographically distributed users, executing wide varieties of user scenarios, at scales previously unattainable in traditional testing environments. Minimal start-up time along with quality assurance can be achieved by cloud testing.\r\nFollowing are some of the key benefits:\r\n<ul><li>Reduction in capital expenditure</li><li>Highly scalable</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the issues?</span>\r\nThe initial setup cost for migrating testing to a cloud is very high as it involves modifying some of the test cases to suit the cloud environment. This makes the decision of migration crucial. Therefore, cloud testing is not necessarily the best solution to all testing problems.\r\nLegacy systems & services need to be modified in order to be tested on the cloud. Usage of robust interfaces with these legacy systems may solve this problem. Also like any other cloud services, cloud testing is vulnerable to security issues.\r\nThe test results may not be accurate due to the varying performance of the service providers’ network and the internet. In many cases, service virtualization can be applied to simulate the specific performance and behaviors required for accurate and thorough testing.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Cloud_Testing.png","alias":"cloud-testingasq-paas"},"393":{"id":393,"title":"Embedded Database Management Systems","description":" An embedded database is a database technology in which database management solutions are built into an application rather than provided as standalone tools. In many cases, this effectively "hides" the database management tools from the end user.\r\nAn embedded database system can be set up in many ways. It can include traditional relational database designs or other kinds of storage formats. It can utilize different solutions as well; for example, a popular type of embedded architecture uses MS Access for storage and relies on VBA forms to handle data requests. Many of these systems also use various APIs and SQL tools to perform data-related tasks.\r\nEmbedded database designs are used for various purposes. Embedded database tools, for example, can be used for email archive searches, for presentation of gaming statistics or other stored game data, and for industry-specific tools like tax-preparation software packages.\r\nIT professionals also sometimes use the term embedded database to refer to database solutions that run on mobile devices.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What do "Embedded Database Management Systems" mean?</span>\r\nAn embedded database system is a database management system (DBMS) which is tightly integrated with an application software that requires access to stored data, such that the database system is "hidden" from the application’s end-user and requires little or no ongoing maintenance.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What does it include?</span>\r\nIt is actually a broad technology category that includes\r\n<ul><li>database systems with differing application programming interfaces (SQL as well as proprietary, native APIs),</li><li>database architectures (client-server and in-process),</li><li>storage modes (on-disk, in-memory, and combined),</li><li>database models (relational, object-oriented, entity–attribute–value model, network/CODASYL),</li><li>target markets.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Embedded_Database_Management_Systems.png","alias":"embedded-database-management-systems"},"395":{"id":395,"title":"Agile Application Life-Cycle Management Software","description":" Agile software development is an approach to software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer(s)/end user(s). It advocates adaptive planning, evolutionary development, empirical knowledge, and continual improvement, and it encourages rapid and flexible response to change.\r\nThe term agile (sometimes written Agile) was popularized, in this context, by the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. The values and principles espoused in this manifesto were derived from and underpin a broad range of software development frameworks, including Scrum and Kanban.\r\nThere is significant anecdotal evidence that adopting agile practices and values improves the agility of software professionals, teams and organizations; however, some empirical studies have found no scientific evidence.\r\nAgile application lifecycle management (Agile ALM) is all the tools and processes that are used to manage software development projects based on flexible methodology. The traditional cascade design model uses a phase approach to the development life cycle. This approach means that no project phase starts earlier than the previous one ends. For example, the design does not begin before the collection of requirements ends. Development does not begin until the design is completed. Testing does not begin until development is fully completed. There are many tools to manage what is in the input and output of each phase.","materialsDescription":" Agile ALM brings together two seemingly contradictory development strategies. Agile promotes flexibility, rapid release cycles and quick response to change. Application lifecycle management (ALM) emphasizes tracking and documenting changes in an application -- from inception to retirement. Its processes are more controlled and less adaptive than the Agile methodology. That said, when put together, Agile and ALM act as complements, rending ALM more flexible and Agile more disciplined.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is Agile ALM?</span>\r\nDevelopment expert Yvette Francino described Agile ALM as ALM tools and processes that are used to manage Agile software development projects. For example, rather than using Waterfall's phased approach, Agile ALM offers an approach to software development in which design, code and requirements are all handled by the same team.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How do you integrate Agile into an ALM framework?</span>\r\nAccording to Gerie Owen's article on Agile and ALM, adopting Agile means both a change to the ALM approach and a change to an organization's mind-set. An Agile ALM strategy will focus on the customer and will have the ability to adapt to shifting requirements -- from project planning to release management. For example, instead of just implementing controls to force early feedback from testers and business analysts, an organization would also foster a culture of collaboration.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Are there tools that can help me achieve this?</span>\r\nALM tools are widely available but must be chosen with care, according to Yvette Francino, SearchSoftwareQuality contributor. Organizations should look for tools that facilitate the process without impeding acceptance of changing requirements. They would also need to integrate throughout the application lifecycle and be easy to maintain. In other words, the tool should manage the development process in an Agile way. In an article for SearchSoftwareQuality.com, Amy Reichert provides a list of Agile ALM tools and identifies their strengths and weaknesses. Rally Software, for example, offers a product that works well with Agile but, according to Reichert, does not provide an intuitive workflow. VersionOne, on the other hand, offers a tool that is more user-friendly but less compatible with Agile. Which one is best will depend on the company's needs.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Are there challenges to Agile ALM that I should be aware of?</span>\r\nThe primary challenge to Agile ALM is in finding a balance between the two methodologies. A common pitfall is to over-ALM the development process. In other words, when developers and testers start to find workarounds to the software rules -- as they often do -- some react by creating more rules in order to more strictly enforce them. Meanwhile, processes lose their agility.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How can I overcome these challenges?</span>\r\nTesting expert Amy Reichert cautions development teams to keep track of how many rules they add and how those rules are communicated. She also suggests having a discussion with the team, asking them why they are circumventing the process. Once everyone's role has been clarified, project managers can then decide which rules, if any, to add.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Is Agile ALM a good approach for mobile development?</span>\r\nMobile development is faster and more competitive than traditional software development. It has newer technologies and higher-speed application cycles. These qualities could make mobile an excellent candidate for Agile ALM, but only if the methodology is amended to accommodate the challenges inherent in a more restrictive development process. In an article on mobile ALM, site editor James Denman suggested an ALM approach that focuses on smaller pieces of software and authenticates results as each part is finished. That way, teams can quickly discern whether the app will effectively serve its purpose or if it needs to be taken in a different direction.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Agile_Application_Life_Cycle_Management_Software.png","alias":"agile-application-life-cycle-management-software"},"397":{"id":397,"title":"Mobile Testing","description":" Mobile application testing is the process through which applications are tested for required quality, functionality, compatibility, usability, performance and other characteristics.\r\nIt includes a broad range of application testing and evaluation techniques that encompasses both standard software testing and mobile-platform-specific testing procedures.\r\nMobile application testing is typically performed by mobile application developers after a mobile application is developed or before it is released to consumers. Typically, the key objectives of mobile application testing are:\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Hardware compatibility and functionality</span> - The mobile application’s response to a mobile device's physical input and interaction with components. This includes a touch screen, keyboard, display, sensors, network and more.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">OS compatibility</span> - Evaluates and ensures that the application is completely compatible with different OS platforms.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Source code evaluation</span> - Identifies and resolves any code errors and bugs within the application.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Usability and Functionality</span> - The application is easy to use and provides all desired functionalities.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How is mobile application testing different from mobile testing?</span>\r\nWhen you are asked to do mobile testing, you must test the mobile phone itself. It may include protocol testing, battery testing, network connectivity testing, software compatibility testing and more.\r\nOn the other hand, mobile application testing is to test applications and software built for mobile phones. In this case, the application needs to be tested to verify whether it meets the specified functional and non-functional requirements.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the different types of mobile application testing?</span>\r\n<ol><li>Functional Testing</li><li>User Interface Testing</li><li>Usability Testing</li><li>Performance Testing</li><li>Stress Testing</li><li>Compatibility Testing</li><li>Interruption Testing</li></ol>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the most important type of mobile application testing?</span>\r\nWhile you cannot neglect any of the above testing types; some of them definitely deserve more attention than the others. For example, user interface testing must be done extensively to make sure that the application’s color schemes, consistency, menu styles, navigation, etc. are perfect.\r\nApart from the listed ones, it is also important to carry out monkey testing of the application to examine the stability of application when continuous invalid user inputs are provided.\r\nAnother important aspect of mobile application testing is to examine how the application reacts when there is no or little network coverage.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the best ways to carry out mobile application testing?</span>\r\nMobile application testing is not just about writing test cases and executing them. Below are some pointers that can help a tester test mobile applications in the most effective manner.\r\n<ul><li>Explore and learn about mobile phones and their attributes. Domain knowledge will really help you see beyond the obvious.</li><li>Understand when, how and where the application will be used and then create test cases.</li><li>Study the mobile phones on which the applications will run and write appropriate test cases.</li><li>Use simulators as often as possible to execute the test cases.</li><li>Use remote device services (RDA) as well.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Can mobile application testing be automated?</span>\r\nYes, it can. The fact that mobile application testing is gradually grasping the attention of the IT industry may be the reason why mobile test automation tools are being released into the market. It is best to keep your options open and explore all forms of mobile application testing and choose the ones that best suit your needs.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Mobile_Testing.png","alias":"mobile-testing"},"399":{"id":399,"title":"Requirements Visualization, Definition, and Management","description":" Requirements management is the process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing and agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project. A requirement is a capability to which a project outcome (product or service) should conform.\r\nThe purpose of requirements management is to ensure that an organization documents, verifies, and meets the needs and expectations of its customers and internal or external stakeholders. Requirements management begins with the analysis and elicitation of the objectives and constraints of the organization. Requirements management further includes supporting planning for requirements, integrating requirements and the organization for working with them (attributes for requirements), as well as relationships with other information delivering against requirements, and changes for these.\r\nThe traceability thus established is used in managing requirements to report back fulfilment of company and stakeholder interests in terms of compliance, completeness, coverage, and consistency. Traceabilities also support change management as part of requirements management in understanding the impacts of changes through requirements or other related elements (e.g., functional impacts through relations to functional architecture), and facilitating introducing these changes.\r\nRequirements management involves communication between the project team members and stakeholders, and adjustment to requirements changes throughout the course of the project. To prevent one class of requirements from overriding another, constant communication among members of the development team is critical. For example, in software development for internal applications, the business has such strong needs that it may ignore user requirements, or believe that in creating use cases, the user requirements are being taken care of.\r\nRequirements traceability is concerned with documenting the life of a requirement. It should be possible to trace back to the origin of each requirement and every change made to the requirement should therefore be documented in order to achieve traceability. Even the use of the requirement after the implemented features have been deployed and used should be traceable.\r\nRequirements come from different sources, like the business person ordering the product, the marketing manager and the actual user. These people all have different requirements for the product. Using requirements traceability, an implemented feature can be traced back to the person or group that wanted it during the requirements elicitation. This can, for example, be used during the development process to prioritize the requirement, determining how valuable the requirement is to a specific user. It can also be used after the deployment when user studies show that a feature is not used, to see why it was required in the first place.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Requirements activities</span>\r\nAt each stage in a development process, there are key requirements management activities and methods. To illustrate, consider a standard five-phase development process with Investigation, Feasibility, Design, Construction, and Test, and Release stages.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Investigation</span></span>\r\nIn Investigation, the first three classes of requirements are gathered from the users, from the business, and from the development team. In each area, similar questions are asked; what are the goals, what are the constraints, what are the current tools or processes in place, and so on. Only when these requirements are well understood can functional requirements be developed.\r\nIn the common case, requirements cannot be fully defined at the beginning of the project. Some requirements will change, either because they simply weren’t extracted, or because internal or external forces at work affect the project in mid-cycle.\r\nThe deliverable from the Investigation stage is a requirements document that has been approved by all members of the team. Later, in the thick of development, this document will be critical in preventing scope creep or unnecessary changes. As the system develops, each new feature opens a world of new possibilities, so the requirements specification anchors the team to the original vision and permits a controlled discussion of scope change.\r\nWhile many organizations still use only documents to manage requirements, others manage their requirements baselines using software tools. These tools allow requirements to be managed in a database, and usually have functions to automate traceability (e.g., by allowing electronic links to be created between parent and child requirements, or between test cases and requirements), electronic baseline creation, version control, and change management. Usually, such tools contain an export function that allows a specification document to be created by exporting the requirements data into a standard document application.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Feasibility</span></span>\r\nIn the Feasibility stage, the costs of the requirements are determined. For user requirements, the current cost of work is compared to the future projected costs once the new system is in place. Questions such as these are asked: “What are data entry errors costing us now?” Or “What is the cost of scrap due to operator error with the current interface?” Actually, the need for the new tool is often recognized as these questions come to the attention of financial people in the organization.\r\nBusiness costs would include, “What department has the budget for this?” “What is the expected rate of return on the new product in the marketplace?” “What’s the internal rate of return in reducing the costs of training and support if we make a new, easier-to-use system?”\r\nTechnical costs are related to software development costs and hardware costs. “Do we have the right people to create the tool?” “Do we need new equipment to support expanded software roles?” This last question is an important type. The team must inquire into whether the newest automated tools will add sufficient processing power to shift some of the burdens from the user to the system in order to save people time.\r\nThe question also points out a fundamental point about requirements management. A human and a tool form a system, and this realization is especially important if the tool is a computer or a new application on a computer. The human mind excels in parallel processing and interpretation of trends with insufficient data. The CPU excels in serial processing and accurate mathematical computation. The overarching goal of the requirements management effort for a software project would thus be to make sure the work being automated gets assigned to the proper processor. For instance, “Don’t make the human remember where she is in the interface. Make the interface report the human’s location in the system at all times.” Or “Don’t make the human enter the same data in two screens. Make the system store the data and fill in the second screen as needed.”\r\nThe deliverable from the Feasibility stage is the budget and schedule for the project.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Design</span></span>\r\nAssuming that costs are accurately determined and benefits to be gained are sufficiently large, the project can proceed to the Design stage. In Design, the main requirements management activity is comparing the results of the design against the requirements document to make sure that work is staying in scope.\r\nAgain, flexibility is paramount to success. Here’s a classic story of scope change in mid-stream that actually worked well. Ford auto designers in the early ‘80s were expecting gasoline prices to hit $3.18 per gallon by the end of the decade. Midway through the design of the Ford Taurus, prices had centered to around $1.50 a gallon. The design team decided they could build a larger, more comfortable, and more powerful car if the gas prices stayed low, so they redesigned the car. The Taurus launch set nationwide sales records when the new car came out, primarily because it was so roomy and comfortable to drive.\r\nIn most cases, however, departing from the original requirements to that degree does not work. So the requirements document becomes a critical tool that helps the team make decisions about design changes.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Construction and test</span></span>\r\nIn the construction and testing stage, the main activity of requirements management is to make sure that work and cost stay within schedule and budget, and that the emerging tool does, in fact, meet requirements. A main tool used in this stage is prototype construction and iterative testing. For a software application, the user interface can be created on paper and tested with potential users while the framework of the software is being built. The results of these tests are recorded in a user interface design guide and handed off to the design team when they are ready to develop the interface. This saves time and makes their jobs much easier.\r\nVerification: This effort verifies that the requirement has been implemented correctly. There are 4 methods of verification: analysis, inspection, testing, and demonstration. Numerical software execution results or through-put on a network test, for example, provides analytical evidence that the requirement has been met. Inspection of vendor documentation or spec sheets also verifies requirements. Actually testing or demonstrating the software in a lab environment also verifies the requirements: a test type of verification will occur when test equipment not normally part of the lab (or system under test) is used. Comprehensive test procedures which outline the steps and their expected results clearly identify what is to be seen as a result of performing the step. After the step or set of steps is completed the last step's expected result will call out what has been seen and then identify what requirements or requirements have been verified (identified by number). The requirement number, title, and verbiage are tied together in another location in the test document.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Requirements change management</span></span>\r\nHardly would any software development project be completed without some changes being asked of the project. The changes can stem from changes in the environment in which the finished product is envisaged to be used, business changes, regulation changes, errors in the original definition of requirements, limitations in technology, changes in the security environment and so on. The activities of requirements change management include receiving the change requests from the stakeholders, recording the received change requests, analyzing and determining the desirability and process of implementation, implementation of the change request, quality assurance for the implementation and closing the change request. Then the data of change requests be compiled, analyzed and appropriate metrics are derived and dovetailed into the organizational knowledge repository.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Release</span></span>\r\nRequirements management does not end with product release. From that point on, the data coming in about the application’s acceptability is gathered and fed into the Investigation phase of the next generation or release. Thus the process begins again.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Requirements_Visualization.png","alias":"requirements-visualization-definition-and-management"},"401":{"id":401,"title":"Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services","description":" Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a style of software design where services are provided to the other components by application components, through a communication protocol over a network. An SOA service is a discrete unit of functionality that can be accessed remotely and acted upon and updated independently, such as retrieving a credit card statement online. SOA is also intended to be independent of vendors, products and technologies.\r\nA service has four properties according to one of many definitions of SOA:\r\n<ul><li>It logically represents a business activity with a specified outcome.</li><li>It is self-contained.</li><li>It is a black box for its consumers, meaning the consumer does not have to be aware of the service's inner workings.</li><li>It may consist of other underlying services.</li></ul>\r\nDifferent services can be used in conjunction to provide the functionality of a large software application,[4] a principle SOA shares with modular programming. Service-oriented architecture integrates distributed, separately maintained and deployed software components. It is enabled by technologies and standards that facilitate components' communication and cooperation over a network, especially over an IP network.\r\nSOA is related to the idea of an application programming interface (API), an interface or communication protocol between different parts of a computer program intended to simplify the implementation and maintenance of software. An API can be thought of as the service, and the SOA the architecture that allows the service to operate.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is Service-Oriented Architecture?</span>\r\nService-oriented architecture (SOA) is a software architecture style that supports and distributes application components that incorporates discovery, data mapping, security and more. Service-oriented architecture has two main functions:\r\n<ol><li>Create an architectural model that defines goals of applications and methods that will help achieve those goals.</li><li>Define implementations specifications linked through WSDL (Web Services Description Language) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) specifications.</li></ol>\r\nService-oriented architecture principles are made up of nine main elements:\r\n<ol><li>Standardized Service Contract where services are defined making it easier for client applications to understand the purpose of the service.</li><li>Loose Coupling is a way to interconnecting components within the system or network so that the components can depend on one another to the least extent acceptable. When a service functionality or setting changes there is no downtime or breakage of the application running.</li><li>Service Abstraction hides the logic behind what the application is doing. It only relays to the client application what it is doing, not how it executes the action.</li><li>Service Reusability divides the services with the intent of reusing as much as possible to avoid spending resources on building the same code and configurations.</li><li>Service Autonomy ensures the logic of a task or a request is completed within the code.</li><li>Service Statelessness whereby services do not withhold information from one state to another in the client application.</li><li>Service Discoverability allows services to be discovered via a service registry.</li><li>Service Composability breaks down larger problems into smaller elements, segmenting the service into modules, making it more manageable.</li><li>Service Interoperability governs the use of standards (e.g. XML) to ensure larger usability and compatibility.</li></ol>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How Does Service-Oriented Architecture Work?</span>\r\nA service-oriented architecture (SOA) works as a components provider of application services to other components over a network. Service-oriented architecture makes it easier for software components to work with each other over multiple networks.\r\nA service-oriented architecture is implemented with web services (based on WSDL and SOAP), to be more accessible over standard internet protocols that are on independent platforms and programming languages.\r\nService-oriented architecture has 3 major objectives all of which focus on parts of the application cycle:\r\n<ol><li>Structure process and software components as services – making it easier for software developers to create applications in a consistent way.</li><li>Provide a way to publish available services (functionality and input/output requirements) – allowing developers to easily incorporate them into applications.</li><li>Control the usage of these services for security purposes – mainly around the components within the architecture, and securing the connections between those components.</li></ol>\r\nMicroservices architecture software is largely an updated implementation of service-oriented architecture (SOA). The software components are created as services to be used via APIs ensuring security and best practices, just as in traditional service-oriented architectures.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the benefits of Service-Oriented Architecture?</span>\r\nThe main benefits of service-oriented architecture solutions are:\r\n<ul><li>Extensibility – easily able to expand or add to it.</li><li>Reusability – opportunity to reuse multi-purpose logic.</li><li>Maintainability – the ability to keep it up to date without having to remake and build the architecture again with the same configurations.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Service_Oriented_Architecture_and_Web_Services.png","alias":"service-oriented-architecture-and-web-services"},"403":{"id":403,"title":"Software Quality Analysis and Measurement","description":" Software quality measures whether the software satisfies its requirements. Software requirements are classified as either functional or non-functional.\r\nFunctional requirements specify what the software should do. Functional requirements could be calculations, technical details, data manipulation, and processing, or any other specific function that defines what an application is meant to accomplish.\r\nNon-functional requirements specify how the system should work. Also known as “quality attributes” non-functional requirements include things like disaster recovery, portability, privacy, security, supportability, and usability.\r\nNote that most factors indicating software quality fit into the non-functional requirements category. And, while it’s obviously important that software does what it’s built to do, this is the bare minimum you would expect from any application.\r\nBelow are some examples of test metrics and methods for measuring the important aspects of software quality. Efficient measuring and testing of your software for quality is the only way to maximize the chances of releasing high-quality software in today’s fast-paced development environments.\r\nYou can measure reliability by counting the number of high priority bugs found in production. You can also use load testing, which assesses how well the software functions under ordinary conditions of use. It’s important to note that “ordinary conditions of use” can vary between low loads and high loads—the point is that such environments are expected.\r\nLoad testing is also useful for measuring performance efficiency. Stress testing is an important variation on load testing used to determine the maximum operating capacity of an application.\r\nStress testing is conducted by inundating software with requests far exceeding its normal and expected patterns of use to determine how far a system can be pushed before it breaks. With stress testing, you get insight into the recoverability of the software when it breaks—ideally, a system that fails should have a smooth recovery.\r\nYou can measure security by assessing how long it takes to patch or fix software vulnerabilities. You can also check actual security incidents from previous software versions, including whether the system was breached and if any breaches caused downtime for users. All previous security issues should, of course, be addressed in future releases.\r\nCounting the number of lines of code is a simple measure of maintainability—software with more lines of code is harder to maintain, meaning changes are more likely to lead to errors.\r\nThere are several detailed test metrics used to check the complexity of code, such as cyclomatic complexity, which counts the amount of linearly independent paths through a program’s source code.\r\nYou can check the rate of delivery by counting the number of software releases. Another measure is the number of “stories” or user requirements shipped to the user.\r\nYou can test the GUI to make sure it’s simple and not frustrating for end-users. The problem is that GUI testing is complex and time-consuming – there are many possible GUI operations and sequences that require testing in most software. And that means it takes a long time to design test cases.\r\nThe complexity of GUI testing competes with the objective of releasing software quickly, which has necessitated the implementation of automated testing. Several test suites that completely simulate user behavior are available.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is Software Quality Metrics?</span>\r\nThe word 'metrics' refers to standards for measurements. Software Quality Metrics means a measurement of attributes, pertaining to software quality along with its process of development.\r\nThe term "software quality metrics" illustrate the picture of measuring the software qualities by recording the number of defects or security loopholes present in the software. However, quality measurement is not restricted to the counting defects or vulnerabilities but also covers other aspects of qualities such as maintainability, reliability, integrity, usability, customer satisfaction, etc.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why Software Quality Metrics?</span>\r\n<ol><li>To define and categorize elements in order to have a better understanding of each and every process and attribute.</li><li>To evaluate and assess each of these processes and attribute against the given requirements and specifications.</li><li>Predicting and planning the next move w.r.t software and business requirements.</li><li>Improving the Overall quality of the process and product, and subsequently of project.</li></ol>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Software Quality Metrics: a sub-category of Software Metrics</span>\r\nIt is basically, a subclass of software metrics that mainly emphasizes on quality assets of the software product, process and project. A software metric is a broader concept that incorporates software quality metrics in it, and mainly consists of three types of metrics:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Product Metrics:</span> it includes size, design, complexity, performance and other parameters that are associated with the product's quality.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Process Metrics:</span> it involves parameters like time-duration in locating and removing defects, response time for resolving issues, etc.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Project Metrics:</span> it may include a number of teams, developers involved, cost and duration for the project, etc.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Features of good Software Quality Metrics:</span>\r\n<ul><li>Should be specific to measure the particular attribute or an attribute of greater importance.</li><li>Comprehensive for a wide variety of scenarios.</li><li>Should not consider attributes that have already been measured by some other metric.</li><li>Reliable to work similarly in all conditions.</li><li>Should be easy and simple to understand and operate.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Software_Quality_Analysis_and_Measurement.png","alias":"software-quality-analysis-and-measurement"},"405":{"id":405,"title":"Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">A mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP)</span> is a development environment that provides tools and middleware to develop, test, deploy and manage corporate software running on mobile devices.\r\nEnterprise mobile application development addresses the difficulties of developing mobile software by managing the diversity of devices, networks and user groups at the time of deployment and throughout the mobile computing technology lifecycle. Unlike standalone apps, an enterprise mobile app development services a comprehensive, long-term approach to deploying mobility. Cross-platform considerations are one big driver behind using MEAPs. For example, a company can use an enterprise mobile app development to develop the mobile application once and deploy it to a variety of mobile devices (including smart phones, tablets, notebooks and ruggedized handhelds) with no changes to the underlying business logic.\r\nPlatform applications are best for companies that wish to deploy multiple applications on a single infrastructure, scaled to the size of their current mobile field force and available in an online and offline mode. Enterprise mobile app platform provides higher level languages and easy development templates to simplify and speed the mobile application development timeframe, requiring less programming knowledge for mobile business application deployment.\r\nThere are many advantages associated with enterprise mobile application development platform. First of all, it can be run on the cloud. Without maintaining separate sets of code, mobile enterprise application platforms can support multiple types of operating systems and mobile devices. This means a company can deploy a mobile application to different mobile devices with the help of mobile enterprise application platforms without having to worry about compatibility. As most enterprise mobile development platforms have a tool set for modifications, creation of custom app extensions is quite easy and convenient. Enterprise mobile application platforms can centrally manage mobile applications and can also help in integration with multiple server data sources.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">What are the benefits of enterprise mobile app platform? </h1>\r\n<ul><li>Create apps and complex forms for any type of mobile device and OS without having to maintain separate sets of code.</li><li>Create tailor-made apps for specific user groups, giving them exactly what they need; usually, a mash-up of reading/writing access to your backend systems, publicly available web services and device features such as camera, GPS, sign-on screen, etc.</li><li>Requires basic and limited coding skills e.g. HTML and CSS.</li><li>Allows a high degree of re-use of the code and interactions developed.</li><li>Provide the offline capability for mobile users in areas without WiFi or cellular coverage.</li><li>Once the platform is integrated into the important back-end systems, creating new apps and forms can be done in hours rather than weeks or months.</li><li>Enterprise mobile application development services can be run on the cloud and purchased on a subscription basis.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Pros and cons of MEAP</h1>\r\nAlong with the benefits described above, a mobile enterprise application platform extends beyond fourth-generation language (4GL) tools for app development to use a graphical environment and dedicated script language. The tool makes business apps accessible to users from any location at any time. For ease of IT management, some MEAP products can run as a cloud service.\r\nA MEAP, like any technology, comes with challenges. The initial investment is high - it's expensive to begin with, though the total cost of ownership (TCO) goes down with use over time - and it requires IT to perform additional tasks such as updating content, securing data, maintaining applications with updates and managing user authentication.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Important features</h1>\r\nIn general, a MEAP has two important features:\r\n<ul><li>A mobile application development environment and back-end web services to manage those mobile applications and link them to enterprise applications and databases.</li><li>A centralized management component that enables an administrator to control which users can access an application and what enterprise databases that application can pull data from.</li></ul>\r\nSometimes, organizations will use a mobile enterprise application platform in conjunction with enterprise mobility management (EMM) or mobile device management (MDM). MDM manages mobile devices, while MEAP products manage the enterprise applications running on those devices - although there is sometimes overlap between the functionalities of these two technologies.\r\n<br /><br /> ","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Mobile_Enterprise_Application_Platforms.png","alias":"mobile-enterprise-application-platforms"},"407":{"id":407,"title":"Communities","description":" An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a virtual community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. For many, online communities may feel like home, consisting of a "family of invisible friends". Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a member via a specific site and thereby gain access to specific content or links. An online community can act as an information system where members can post, comment on discussions, give advice or collaborate. Commonly, people communicate through social networking sites, chat rooms, forums, e-mail lists and discussion boards. People may also join online communities through video games, blogs and virtual worlds. The rise in popularity of Web 2.0 websites has allowed for easier real-time communication and ability to connect to others as well as producing new ways for information to be exchanged.\r\nThe idea of a community is not a new concept. On the telephone, in ham radio and in the online world, social interactions no longer have to be based on proximity; instead they can literally be with anyone anywhere. The study of communities has had to adapt along with the new technologies. Many researchers have used ethnography to attempt to understand what people do in online spaces, how they express themselves, what motivates them, how they govern themselves, what attracts them, and why some people prefer to observe rather than participate. Online communities can congregate around a shared interest and can be spread across multiple websites.\r\nSome signs of community are:\r\n<ul><li>Content: articles, information, and news about a topic of interest to a group of people.</li><li>Forums or newsgroups and email: so that community members can communicate in delayed fashion.</li><li>Chat and instant messaging: so that community members can communicate more immediately.</li></ul>","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are Community Platforms?</span>\r\nCommunity Platforms manage the process of creating and maintaining a space for productive discussion among community members. Members can share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns. This process is sometimes referred to as "community engagement."\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Key Use Cases for Community Platforms</span>\r\n<ul><li>Support community for self-help and peer or expert advice</li><li>Ideation</li><li>Private social networking</li><li>Gauge customer satisfaction</li><li>Identify customer advocates</li><li>Increase customer/employee engagement</li><li>Distribute community news and updates</li><li>Generate content with programs like community blogging</li></ul>\r\nMature communities deliver business value in a variety of ways. They increase engagement, address support issues and pain points, measure satisfaction, and build stronger relationships. Platforms may support external communities, internal communities, or both. These benefits apply to both customer and employee communities.\r\nThere are different types of community platforms, including open source options for community managers who want to develop their own platform. Some SMB-focused community platforms focus on one aspect of community, like Q&A, ideation, or link sharing. Enterprise-grade community platforms are more feature-rich. They might include complex, hierarchal capabilities like multi-tiered advocacy programs with moderator permissions.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Factors to Consider When Selecting a Community Platform</span>\r\nIt is important to consider whether membership will be explicit and exclusive so that the community is open to registered members only.\r\nIn order to determine how employees or customers are likely to engage with a community platform, some community managers set up a free community platform or private social network group to run a testing phase.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Community Platforms vs. Help Desk Software, CMS, and Collaboration Tools</span>\r\nCommunity management tools have some overlap with help desk software, which often includes community features like Q&A for self-help. Some community platforms integrate with help desk systems.\r\nThere is also overlap with content management systems (CMS), especially in heavily moderated external communities, where posts/articles by advocates and experts might be promoted and shared elsewhere.\r\nSome community platforms, especially for internal communities, may overlap with collaboration tools as well. Collaboration tools tend to be more focused on one-on-one interactions between users, and on getting projects done (via file sharing, etc.). Community interactions are more often one-to-many and focused on help, general engagement, feedback, and ideation.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Gamification</span>\r\nGamification is a strategy in which points, rules, and competition are used to increase engagement. Some community platforms use game dynamics to incentivize and reward member participation.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Community Moderation</span>\r\nModeration is a system for controlling potential abuse of the community platform. Moderation is important because fear of defamation is one of the biggest obstacles to creating an external community. For some companies promoting the voice of the customer feels risky.\r\nThere are two approaches to moderation: curating users (like restricting membership or blocking/reporting certain members) or curating content.\r\nMost community platforms allow administrators to act as moderators. Some have more advanced hierarchical systems for moderation. These allow administrators to grant certain members moderator permissions.\r\nContent curation includes restricting content access, removing content, editing content, or responding to content. This is often a top-down reaction to member contributions. It can also involve broader community participation such as voting on, rating and reporting content.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Pricing Information</span>\r\nThere are many providers of collaboration software spanning a wide range of capabilities from very inexpensive products designed for small teams, to highly sophisticated enterprise products. Enterprise-level systems cost in the region of $100 per user per month, with price breaks for high numbers of users.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Communities.png","alias":"communities"},"409":{"id":409,"title":"Content Collaboration","description":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Content collaboration</span> software makes it easy for your users to securely create, access, share and manage business content.\r\nThe content collaboration platform (CCP) market covers a range of products and services that enable content productivity and collaboration. CCPs are aimed at individuals and teams, inside or outside an organization. Additionally, CCPs increasingly support lightweight content management and workflow use cases. <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Core user functionalities include: </span>\r\n<ul><li>Mobile access to content repositories.</li><li> File synchronization across devices and cloud repositories.</li><li>File sharing with people and applications, inside or outside an organization. </li><li>Team collaboration, with dedicated folders.</li><li>A content repository. This can be cloud based collaboration software or on-premises program, native to the CCP platform or based on other file servers or repositories.</li></ul>\r\nCommon <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">features </span>of collaboration software include messaging, audio and video conferencing, task management, document management, calendars, and time tracking.\r\nFrom employees and decision-makers to partners, vendors, regulators and customers, your users benefit from easy, secure access to valuable business content. Rather than keeping files locked up in silos, content collaboration software enables information to flow safely and freely within your organization and across your firewall to external contacts.\r\nSecuring those documents is the challenge. Unless your content collaboration software maintains the highest standards of performance, security, auditing and reliability, cross-enterprise document sharing may lead to inadvertent data leaks or malicious security breaches.","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">Types of collaboration software tools</h1>\r\nGenerally, collaboration software can be divided into synchronous (or real-time) and asynchronous. Using synchronous software, teammates can work together at the same time, for example with apps that allow several users to edit the same document in real time. Asynchronous software enables users to work on the same task at different times.\r\nBased on their key features, collaboration software can be classified into:\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Communication software</span></p>\r\nTo solve communication problems, communication software offers chat and audio or video collaboration platform so people can communicate within teams without having to travel. As a result, communication software saves time, helps solve problems faster, and allows remote teams to connect, which otherwise would be difficult and time-consuming.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Key features include:</span>\r\n<ul><li>Chat and messaging to enable real-time text conversations using direct messages or group chats</li><li>Audio and video conferencing to let people make calls and hold meetings regardless of their location</li><li>Discussion threads to allow users to reply to one particular message in a group chat or channel without distracting other teammate</li><li>File sharing or file collaboration software to make it fast and easy to upload and send files</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Task management software</span></p>\r\nTask management is an important part of collaboration. Teams use task management software to prioritize and track tasks, which helps to keep track of deadlines. To make collaboration more transparent and effective, task management software often provides boards, timelines, and calendars.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Key features include:</span>\r\n<ul><li>Boards to create and manage tasks</li><li>Task assignment to appoint people to a task</li><li>Task prioritization to move tasks and set the project schedule</li><li>Planning and scheduling to create plans and meet deadlines using timelines and calendars</li><li>File management to attach and arrange file</li></ul>\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Document and content management software</span></p>\r\nDocument and content management software allows users to store, share, and work together on different files. Most of these tools track history of changes that different users make. Some collaboration apps and platforms also have features like chat and video conferencing, allowing users to collaborate on a document and communicate at the same time.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Key features include:</span>\r\n<ul><li>Document and content management to store and track documents and other files</li><li>Cooperative writing to let several people write content together</li><li>Synchronous editing to let several people edit the same document at the same time and see changes in real time</li><li> Ready-made templates to create documents faster</li></ul>\r\n<br /><br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Content_Collaboration.png","alias":"content-collaboration"},"411":{"id":411,"title":"Enterprise Cloud Content Collaboration","description":" Cloud collaboration is a way of sharing and co-authoring computer files through the use of cloud computing, whereby documents are uploaded to a central "cloud" for storage, where they can then be accessed by others. Cloud collaboration technologies allow users to upload, comment and collaborate on documents and even amend the document itself, evolving the document. Businesses in the last few years have increasingly been switching to the use of cloud collaboration.\r\nCloud computing is a marketing term for technologies that provide software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. A parallel to this concept can be drawn with the electricity grid, where end-users consume power without needing to understand the component devices or infrastructure required to utilize the technology.\r\nCollaboration refers to the ability of workers to work together simultaneously on a particular task. Document collaboration can be completed face to face. However, collaboration has become more complex, with the need to work with people all over the world in real-time on a variety of different types of documents, using different devices.\r\nEnterprise cloud content collaboration software works as dedicated cloud storage for documents, spreadsheets, images, videos, and other files created by a business.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is Enterprise Cloud Content Collaboration?</span>\r\nCloud collaboration enables people to work simultaneously on documents that live ‘in the cloud’ – so you can access files from anywhere with an internet connection.\r\nThe start of a cloud collaboration process involves one user creating a file or document and giving access to other members of the team. Anyone who has access can make changes to the document at any time, including when other people are editing or viewing it. Any changes that you make save and sync – so every user sees the same version of the project whenever (and wherever) they view it.\r\nThis means that teams in different locations can collaborate on documents together. And there are other benefits too:\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Say goodbye to email attachments</span></span>\r\nIt used to be the case that you’d have to email separate attachments to each person participating in a project if they were working remotely. This makes version control hard. People end up with several different versions of the same document which complicates things – parts of the project can get missed or people duplicate the same work.\r\nCloud collaboration tools simplify the process by keeping files in a central location. Employees can edit and review the same document without having to send an updated version to everyone in the team.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Equal Participation with other team members</span></span>\r\nSome remote employees can feel left out of the conversation. All too often they think they don’t have the same opportunities as others to share their input, which isn’t good for team morale.\r\nWith cloud collaboration tools, every employee has access to projects and can offer their viewpoint and creativity. They can also share ideas in informal online meetings.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Work as a team in real-time</span></span>\r\nWith the rise in flexible working, employees are no longer expected to stick to the traditional 9-5 Monday-Friday. Teams can work on projects at any time of the day and don’t even have to be in the same country. Edits and updates appear in real-time and everyone who has access to the document can read them.\r\nUsing the right collaboration platforms is also important. It’s particularly useful if your platforms integrate with the tools you already use. Existing cloud-based tools such as Jira and BlueJeans can be paired with platforms like Workplace, for example. This helps speed up collaboration among your teams and helps you get the very best out of the various tools your organization uses every day.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Brainstorm ideas better</span></span>\r\nWhen your teams are disparate and far-flung, it can be difficult to get everyone together to discuss ideas. The cloud can be a valuable brainstorming facility – enabling you to share thoughts and have productive interactions. The cloud is an ideal medium to develop innovative ideas and facilitate better communication between staff, project managers, and other contributors.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Access large files easily</span></span>\r\nSending and receiving large files can slow you down. Most email servers can’t handle documents bigger than a few megabytes. With a cloud-based collaboration platform, you can share audio, video and other large files with ease. Because you’re simply storing them in the cloud, there’s no need to ‘send’ them. People can go directly to the cloud storage service to find the file they need.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Enterprise_Cloud_Content_Collaboration.png","alias":"enterprise-cloud-content-collaboration"},"413":{"id":413,"title":"eDiscovery","description":" Electronic discovery (also e-discovery or ediscovery) refers to discovery in legal proceedings such as litigation, government investigations, or Freedom of Information Act requests, where the information sought is in electronic format (often referred to as electronically stored information or ESI). Electronic discovery is subject to rules of civil procedure and agreed-upon processes, often involving review for privilege and relevance before data are turned over to the requesting party.\r\nElectronic information is considered different from paper information because of its intangible form, volume, transience and persistence. Electronic information is usually accompanied by metadata that is not found in paper documents and that can play an important part as evidence (e.g. the date and time a document was written could be useful in a copyright case). The preservation of metadata from electronic documents creates special challenges to prevent spoliation. In the United States, electronic discovery was the subject of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), effective December 1, 2006, as amended on December 1, 2015. In addition, state law now frequently also addresses issues relating to electronic discovery. Other jurisdictions around the world also have rules relating to electronic discovery, including Part 31 of the Civil Procedure Rules in England and Wales.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is eDiscovery?</span>\r\neDiscovery, or electronic discovery, is the process used by organizations to find, preserve, analyze, and package electronic content (often referred to as electronically stored information or ESI) for a legal request or investigation.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How does eDiscovery work in Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync?</span>\r\nThe eDiscovery Center is a SharePoint site collection where cases are defined, sources to be tracked are identified, holds on content are placed or removed, queries are issued, and results reviewed and exported.\r\nSome key features of the SharePoint eDiscovery Center are:\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Manage Cases</span> - An eDiscovery administrator or user creates, manages and uses eDiscovery cases through the eDiscovery Center (EDC).</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Work with Multiple Types of Content:</span> Preserve, search, and export documents, email messages, OneNote files, webpages, community posts, microblogs, Lync IMs, and more, providing they are crawled indexed by search.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Identify Content Sources:</span> Content sources that might be relevant, such as e-mail messages and documents, are added to one or more collections of source content called eDiscovery Sets.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Perform In-Place Hold:</span> A copy of the content can be preserved in-place and in real time, while people continue to work on the original content.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Create and Run Queries:</span> Enable you to get relevant content and statistics quickly to help you answer questions fast.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Export Content:</span> After you review your results, relevant content can be transferred out of the system into an offline and portable format.</li></ul>\r\nExchange In-Place holds enable you to place mailboxes content on hold indefinitely, based on a query, or based on a time period. Key features include:\r\n<ul><li>Place user mailboxes on hold and preserve mailbox items immutably Jump.</li><li>Preserve mailbox items deleted by users or automatic deletion processes such as messaging records management (MRM).</li><li>Use query-based In-Place Hold to search for and retain items matching specified criteria.</li><li>Preserve items indefinitely or for a specific duration.</li><li>Place a user on multiple holds for different cases or investigations.</li><li>No user impact – In-Place Hold is transparent to users.</li><li>In-Place eDiscovery searches include items placed on hold.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_eDiscovery_.png","alias":"ediscovery"},"415":{"id":415,"title":"Mobile Enterprise Applications","description":"The term <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">enterprise mobile application</span> is used in context of mobile apps created/brought by individual organizations for their workers to carry out functions required to run the organization.\r\nAn enterprise mobile app belonging to an organization is expected to be used by only the workers of that organization. The definition of enterprise mobility apps do not include the mobile apps that an organization create for its customers or consumers of the products or services generated by the organization. \r\nProviders of mobile enterprise application solutions create and develop apps for individual organizations that can buy instead of creating the apps themselves. Reasons for Organizations buying the apps include time and cost savings, technical expertise. Today Enterprise Mobility is playing track role for enterprise transformation.\r\nCompanies are rapidly incorporating mobile applications into their larger IT strategies, allowing them to grow their mobile presence further. Big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning are all propelling this growth.\r\nNeed for enterprise mobility applications arose with mobile devices becoming essential in the day to day life and with employees using mobile devices for business purposes. This lead companies to adapt to either Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) approach for Enterprise Mobility. BYOD is making significant progress in the business world, with employees using their own technology at work.\r\nOrganizations having their internal mobile teams develop the apps internally and deploy them. However, some organizations go for enterprise mobile app development company with wide experience in creating Mobile strategies and deploying the apps for Medium to Large Scale Enterprises. These companies provide options for Pre built and custom built turn-key suite of apps. ","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are corporate mobile apps?</span></h1>\r\nConventionally, corporate mobile applications can be divided into several groups.\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The first group</span></span> is applications designed only for work. Their main goal is to reduce company costs, optimize business processes, and, as a result, increase profits. Another option is an application to increase the efficiency of the analytical department, giving its users the opportunity to improve monitoring of the market, competitors, quickly collect and process data on prices, points of sale of goods, etc.</li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The second group</span></span> is applications that integrate work and communication. These include corporate social networks, so popular recently. Created in the image and likeness of social networks familiar to everyone, they successfully combine work functionality and allow employees to communicate with each other, create personal pages, workgroups, communities, keep blogs, receive news about the company, share important files, create a common information base and use it at any time. </li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The third group</span></span> is applications for monitoring remote employees. Office workers are easy to control: most of the day they are at their workplace, and if necessary, you can organize a system of electronic passes. Remote employees are left to their own devices - it’s very difficult to check whether they arrived at the site on time and reached at all, how many points they visited in a day, and whether they used company materials and equipment to fulfill “left” orders. </li><li><span style=\"font-style: italic; \"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">The fourth group</span></span> is Service Desk and Help Desk, designed to automate the processing of client requests while providing technical support to users of IT departments. Most of these systems are online, because it is important for the user to solve the problem as quickly as possible. With their help, you can provide customer support directly from your mobile device. Applications provide an opportunity in the background to access the list of applications, view in detail individual applications, make changes to them, respond and work with comments.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\">Top 5 enterprise mobility app features you must know</h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Centrally Moderated and Strongly Secured Data Infrastructure.</span> Security must never be at bay when it comes to enterprise mobility apps. In the age of information, data is undoubtedly the most valuable commodity, losing which can result in a massive loss for business enterprises. Data sharing done via enterprise mobility apps or solutions need to be monitored. Construct a centrally moderated and highly secure (multi-level security) infrastructure for enterprise mobility solutions. This approach enhances trust and ensures that critical business data remains safe always.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Automation of Processes.</span> Automation is the main factor behind the adoption of enterprise mobility in the core business processes by the organizations. Businesses aim to streamline their operations with minimal human intervention and cut back on time/cost. The number of device usage in the enterprise domain is increasing year-after-year. The growth showcases the seriousness of organizations to adopt top enterprise mobile apps for enhancing automation and processes for better efficiency. </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Real-Time Analytics and Connectivity.</span> The integration of enterprise mobility applications in the existing system leverages the technology benefits for seeking better insights into the ongoing processes. Every enterprise app must have cognitive analytical capabilities to succeed. Modern organizations have to manage thousands of procedures, offerings and deal with hundreds of stakeholders at any point in time. In case of such massive data overloads, every enterprise aims to have a real-time data analysis to make better decisions for growth in the future.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Incredible User Experience. </span>An enterprise mobility app must deliver an intuitive user experience. Not only should it focus on making the functionality better, but also on offering the best experience to the users. This step, in turn, will boost app adoption within the enterprise, fulfilling the organization’s aim for automation. The app must contain futuristic features such as in-app notifications, multi-platform support, offline functionality, etc., to offer an incredible user experience. <br /><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Event-Driven Approach. </span>Event-driven approach and architecture is the main differentiator, which fuels digital business transformation. This approach mainly revolves around the delivery of solutions that fulfill organizational objectives by offering rapid response to specific events. Moreover, the event-driven approach aims to transform the task flow based on particular circumstances. Businesses would be able to leverage dynamic opportunities to the maximum potential and provide real-time solutions by choosing the event-driven approach for their enterprise mobility applications. </p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Mobile_Enterprise_Applications.jpg","alias":"mobile-enterprise-applications"},"417":{"id":417,"title":"Product Life-Cycle Management Applications","description":"","materialsDescription":"","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Product_Life_Cycle_Management_Applications.png","alias":"product-life-cycle-management-applications"},"419":{"id":419,"title":"Services Resource Planning Applications","description":" The world economy has become service- and project-driven. Global businesses have realized the new playing field is not based solely on competing with products and price, but rather through client-driven projects that require unique consulting knowledge, skills and experience.\r\nThis project-driven service economy depends on accurately capturing knowledge-worker productivity—how much time, skill, materials, and intellectual property are required to produce favorable client outcomes? New cloud-based services resource planning (SRP) applications have emerged to manage the entire project lifecycle from requirements to quoting, time and expense capture and billing.\r\nSRP provides the systems basis for the initiation, planning, resource management, execution, close and control of projects and services. An SRP solution combines the best elements of previous standalone business applications for accounting (ERP), client relationship management (CRM) and professional services automation (PSA) to support the entire bid-to-bill lifecycle of a project- and service-driven organizations.\r\nA complete SRP solution provides all aspects of project-based finance and accounting to generate invoices based on a variety of methods (time and materials, milestone-based, fixed price, etc.), ensuring accurate invoicing, timely cash collection and revenue recognition.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Six Reasons Services Resource Planning is a Game-Changer for Services Organizations</span>\r\nIn the 1970s and ‘80s, materials requirements planning helped to transform the manufacturing industry.\r\nNow, three decades later, Services resource planning (SRP) is poised to be just as transformative for software and professional services. SRP provides a consistent and comprehensive platform for services organizations to manage the entire client lifecycle, from lead to project to cash. Simply put, services organizations can't afford to ignore the potential of Service Resource Planning. Here are six reasons why:\r\n<ol><li>Integration -- Integrating project management, resource optimization, project accounting, and client management is an idea whose time has come. It is virtually impossible to provide real-time insights to all stakeholders when dozens or even hundreds of simultaneous projects are being managed on spreadsheets, email, and stand-alone systems.</li><li>Decision making -- Until accounting, sales, human resources, project management and field professionals all speak the same languages of planning and execution, it is impossible to make coordinated decisions that lead to better client outcomes and increased efficiencies.</li><li>Globalization -- MRP brought centralized and consistent controls to every step of the manufacturing process at a time when globalization was shrinking the industrial world. American, Asian and European businesses vied with one another for the same customers with the same product lines. MRP sorted the winners from the losers by giving the winners tremendous cost and efficiency advantages. This should sound familiar. The market for professional services and other knowledge-based businesses has become global, and competitive pressures are coming from all corners of the world. SRP delivers the same edge to services businesses today that manufacturers needed in order to succeed three decades ago.</li><li>Coordination -- In the past, it was possible for many organizations to use professional services as a loss-leader to secure a larger piece of business, such as a long-term software contract. Now that the market for professional services is so competitive, this loss-leader mentality is a business-killing dead end. Becoming a profit center requires coordination, and that means SRP.</li><li>Growth -- Accounting and sales departments need to understand future revenue and profit opportunities, which is difficult to do when information about professional services projects and resource utilization is not readily available. SRP gives sales the information they need to understand resource availability when pitching new business, and provides accounting with the insight they need to produce more accurate forecasts and timely invoices.</li><li>Profitability -- The disciplines of Services Resource Planning expose the profitability of every resource and every project. That's the kind of granularity professional services organizations need in order to make competitive strategic decisions in the face of global competition.</li></ol>\r\nSoftware, consulting, advertising and accounting service organizations are already transforming their business with cloud SRP solutions. Here are some of the SRP success stories and take the first steps towards modernizing your own practice.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Services_Resource_Planning_Applications.png","alias":"services-resource-planning-applications"},"421":{"id":421,"title":"Digital Commerce Applications","description":"E-commerce is the activity of buying or selling products on online services or over the Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.\r\nModern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction's life cycle although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail. Typical e-commerce transactions include the purchase of online books (such as Amazon) and music purchases (music download in the form of digital distribution such as iTunes Store), and to a less extent, customized/personalized online liquor store inventory services. There are three areas of e-commerce: online retailing, electric markets, and online auctions. E-commerce is supported by electronic business.\r\nE-commerce businesses may also employ some or all of the followings:\r\n<ul><li>Online shopping for retail sales direct to consumers via Web sites and mobile apps, and conversational commerce via live chat, chatbots, and voice assistants;</li><li>Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer sales;</li><li>Business-to-business buying and selling;</li><li>Gathering and using demographic data through web contacts and social media;</li><li>Business-to-business (B2B) electronic data interchange;</li><li>Marketing to prospective and established customers by e-mail or fax (for example, with newsletters);</li><li>Engaging in pre-retail for launching new products and services;</li><li>Online financial exchanges for currency exchanges or trading purposes.</li></ul>","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">5 Reasons Why E-commerce Is So Important For Your Business</span>\r\nFrom startups to small businesses right through to huge brands, there are a huge number of companies that can benefit from their own e-commerce website, where they can sell their own products or services. In today's competitive and convenience-focused society, no longer do consumers want to venture to the high street in order to buy items, instead, consumers want to shop from their own homes, making e-commerce a flexible solution for both businesses and buyers.\r\nIf you’re still on the fence about launching an e-commerce store then look no further, here are the top 5 reasons e-commerce is so important for your business and just how you can benefit from moving online this year!\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Can Broaden Your Brand</span>\r\nE-commerce is an ideal way you can take your brand from a traditional brick and mortar store to an innovative, well-loved brand. By offering great products 24 hours a day along with online customer service, blogs and social media, no longer is your business one singular store, with an online presence your business can be the home of your products and the general home of your business, allowing you to fully expand your product ranges without having to worry about moving locations or worrying about not being able to expand your business.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">It’s More Convenient</span>\r\nAn online store is available all day, every day meaning your customers can visit your store at all times, no matter what their schedule might be. These days people don’t always have the time to physically go shopping, instead more and more people are choosing to shop online to find the items they want or need and if your business can offer this for your customers there’s no you shouldn't appeal to a wider range of customers all looking for a convenient and flexible experience.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Increase Your Reach</span>\r\nDue to the internet’s accessibility, millions of people across the world can view your website at any time, meaning that for those looking to expand their businesses and reach out to a larger audience, you have many more opportunities to do so. Compare the number of people you can reach through a website to the amount you can reach through a high street store or local advertising, there’s no reason you shouldn’t look at taking your business online if you’re looking to improve your reach.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Gives You Marketing Opportunities</span>\r\nYour website is one of the best marketing tools your business has, not only can the use of SEO when building your site lead to more chances of your business getting found in search engines, but a huge number of marketing techniques can also work alongside your website, including pay per click advertising, your social media marketing, and your email marketing, all of which can include links back to your website.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Scalable</span>\r\nAs your business grows it’s very likely you’ll want to grow your product range and your target audience, as well as develop your business for customer requirements and consumer demand. An e-commerce site lets you scale your business accordingly, allowing you to add more lines, add more payment options and even grow when you choose to ship to, without having to worry about changing your location or moving to larger premises as you might with a brick and mortar store.\r\nE-commerce offers the business a whole range of opportunities, from marketing opportunities to increase your products ranges to generating more sales and with an optimized and well-developed website, you can not only achieve these goals but also offer your customers around the clock, convenient service, that can boost your business.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Digital_Commerce_Applications.png","alias":"digital-commerce-applications"},"423":{"id":423,"title":"EDA-Electronic Design Automation","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Electronic design automation (EDA)</span> is a term for a category of software products and processes that help to design electronic systems with the aid of computers. These tools are often used to design circuit boards, processors and other types of complex electronics. Electronic design automation is also known as <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">electronic computer-aided design.</span>\r\nElectronic design automation tools have largely replaced manual methods for circuit board and semiconductor design techniques. In the past, technicians used tools like a photoplotter to render drawings of circuit boards and electronic components. Many engineers and others would say that EDA automation has really improved the construction of electronic components, mainly through universal design techniques that eliminate different kinds of bugs or defects in chips, circuit boards, etc. However, there are still trade-offs – and some experts point to situations where a circuit board might work despite not being transparent to modeling in an EDA software. In general, these tools have standardized and streamlined the creation of circuit boards and chips through automation processes.\r\nThe electronic design automation market is divided up into a number of segments:\r\n<ul><li>Chip Design and Verification</li><li>Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and Multi-Chip Modules (MCM)</li><li>Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP)</li><li>Services</li></ul>\r\nThe EDA industry is closely related to the semiconductor manufacturing industry, the embedded software industry and increasingly to industries such as photonics and micro-mechanical that are seeing continued miniaturization and integrations into electronic systems.\r\nWhile the bulk of electronic design automation software is still primarily utilized within the semiconductor industry, the emergence of several trends associated with digital transformation has brought IC and complex PCB design to a much broader market. \r\nIn the automotive industry, original equipment manufacturers are investing in EDA design automation to develop the next generation of electrified, autonomous vehicles. In aerospace & defense, powerful EDA capabilities are becoming more and more important as avionic systems grow in complexity.\r\nAcross all industries, technologies such as 5G telecommunication, machine leaning, cloud computing, edge computing, and cybersecurity have become key components of strategic roadmaps. This is putting further pressure on semiconductor and high-tech electronics suppliers to innovate, which in turn drives the EDA electronics software market. ","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\">EDA Electronic Design Automation : What’s Next?</h1>\r\nElectronic Design Automation Industry has been a crucial driving force behind the growth of the Semiconductor Industry. EDA electronic design automation companies deliver software products, tools, and platforms which assist in designing and verifying Integrated Circuits(ICs) and Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). Today, computers have billions of transistors and manual design and layout are not a feasible option anymore. EDA electronic design drastically reduces the cost and time as the chips can be tested, verified and simulated before the actual manufacturing.\r\nTo explore this industry from the lens of first design principles, we need to know a high-level overview of the chip design process. The process starts by writing the specifications for a chip using a Hardware Description Language. Chips can have millions of lines of specifications. The next step is to generate gates from these specifications and make the chips testable by using techniques like adding special gates to send signals to the chip. This is followed by simulations and several rounds of verification of the schematic. Next, we have the blueprint and actual layout of all the gates and their connections. As we can imagine, the sheer number of components have made it mandatory to use software automation for most if not all of these steps. EDA tools are also used in further steps for optimizing and making the layout ready for manufacturing.\r\nDespite being at the heart of innovation, the electrical design automation industry faces its own set of challenges which it needs to overcome in order to increase its growth rate. One of the major challenges that restrict the growth of the EDA industry is its limited customer base. The primary customers of EDA are big semiconductor companies, and with acquisitions happening inside the semiconductor industry EDA consumer base is further declining. While EDA companies try to solve complex design automation challenges of ever-evolving semiconductor technologies, it also needs to attempt to make software tools more powerful. \r\nEDA should attempt to leverage the power of open source software, crowd-sourced developments, and standard platforms. Some computation intensive tools could be made available as web services to users. Another interesting future perspective is the design and verification of IoT devices. IoT consists of several connected devices that gather information from the environment and possibly performing some actuation. Majority of these individual devices are less complex and current EDA tools can be used for their design. However, a lot of these devices will be created by individuals, communities and small companies. \r\nEDA attempts to solve a really complex problem and requires knowledge from various other domains like physics, manufacturing processes, application software, etc. EDA tools have to support increasing chip design complexity, new semiconductor technologies, enhanced debugging and verification techniques while improving the performance of their tools and maintaining ease of use. ","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_EDA_Electronic_Design_Automation.png","alias":"eda-electronic-design-automation"},"427":{"id":427,"title":"Translation Memory","description":" A translation memory (TM) is a database that stores "segments", which can be sentences, paragraphs or sentence-like units (headings, titles or elements in a list) that have previously been translated, in order to aid human translators. The translation memory stores the source text and its corresponding translation in language pairs called “translation units”. Individual words are handled by terminology bases and are not within the domain of TM.\r\nSoftware programs that use translation memories are sometimes known as translation memory managers (TMM) or translation memory systems (TM systems, not to be confused with a Translation management system (TMS), which is another type of software focused on managing process of translation).\r\nTranslation memories are typically used in conjunction with a dedicated computer assisted translation (CAT) tool, word processing program, terminology management systems, multilingual dictionary, or even raw machine translation output.\r\nResearch indicates that many companies producing multilingual documentation are using translation memory software. In a survey of language professionals in 2006, 82.5% out of 874 replies confirmed the use of a TM. Usage of TM correlated with text type characterised by technical terms and simple sentence structure (technical, to a lesser degree marketing and financial), computing skills, and repetitiveness of content.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Types of translation-memory systems</span></p>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Desktop:</span> Desktop translation memory tools are typically what individual translators use to complete translations. They are machine translation software that a freelance translator downloads and installs on his/her desktop computer.<br /><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Server-based or Centralised:</span> Centralized translation memory systems store TM on a central server. They work together with desktop TM and can increase TM match rates by 30–60% more than the TM leverage attained by desktop TM alone.<br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">How does translation memory works?</span></h1>\r\nTranslation memory works in the background of your translation software programsl, offering sentence suggestions as you translate. Its memory consists of your previous translations and only identical or similar sentences are suggested.\r\nThe similarity between the source and target segments is indicated with percentages (100% is the perfect match) while differences are highlighted with colors. This means that somebody in the past had already translated that exact segment. There are also 101% and 102% matches, which means that not only the current segment, but also one or both of those before and/or after it are the same as stored in this TM entry.\r\nMatches below 100% are called fuzzy matches. These are ranked from 0% to 99%. A 99% match means that the segments differ by at least one character. Matches below 70% are often considered useless and might not show up, depending on the settings.\r\n“Repetitions” are identical segments within one document that have no translation in the translation memory yet. Most automated translation software scan for repetitions before the translator starts working. After the translator is done with the first occurrence of these, all others will get filled in automatically. \r\nBesides matches as such, you can use your existing translation memories for concordance searches — where you investigate if the translation memory has a certain term was translated before, if the segment as a whole wasn’t.<br />\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the benefits of translation memory?</span><br /></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Speeds up Translation: </span>A TM offers previously translated sentences that are identical to the current translation, with differences only in numbers, tags, formatting, punctuation or spacing.<br /><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Reduces Translation Costs:</span> Translation memory is usually the most effective with texts that include many repetitions, such as website content, games, contracts and product manuals.<br /><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Increases Translation Quality: </span>Proactively prevent inconsistencies by storing correct phrases and sentences. It can be extremely useful when several people are working on the same text.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Translation_Memory.png","alias":"translation-memory"},"429":{"id":429,"title":"Machine Translation","description":" Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT (not to be confused with computer-aided translation, machine-aided human translation (MAHT) or interactive translation) is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of software to translate text or speech from one language to another.\r\nOn a basic level, MT performs simple substitution of words in one language for words in another, but that alone usually cannot produce a good translation of a text because recognition of whole phrases and their closest counterparts in the target language is needed. Solving this problem with corpus statistical, and neural techniques is a rapidly growing field that is leading to better translations, handling differences in linguistic typology, translation of idioms, and the isolation of anomalies.\r\nCurrent machine translation software often allows for customization by domain or profession (such as weather reports), improving output by limiting the scope of allowable substitutions. This technique is particularly effective in domains where formal or formulaic language is used. It follows that machine translation of government and legal documents more readily produces usable output than conversation or less standardised text.\r\nImproved output quality can also be achieved by human intervention: for example, some systems are able to translate more accurately if the user has unambiguously identified which words in the text are proper names. With the assistance of these techniques, MT has proven useful as a tool to assist human translators and, in a very limited number of cases, can even produce output that can be used as is (e.g., weather reports).\r\nThe progress and potential of machine translation have been debated much through its history. Since the 1950s, a number of scholars have questioned the possibility of achieving fully automatic machine translation of high quality, first and most notably by Yehoshua Bar-Hillel. Some critics claim that there are in-principle obstacles to automating the translation process.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is Machine Translation?</span>\r\nMachine translation (MT) is an automated translation by computer software. MT can be used to translate entire texts without any human input or can be used alongside human translators. The concept of MT started gaining traction in the early 50s and has come a long way since. Many used to consider MT an inadequate alternative to human translators, but as the technology has advanced, more and more companies are turning to MT to aid human translators and optimize the localization process.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">How Does Machine Translation Work?</span>\r\nWell, that depends on the type of machine translation engine. There are several different kinds of MT software which work in different ways. We will introduce Rule-based, Statistical, and Neural.\r\nRule-based machine translation (RBMT) is the forefather of MT software. It is based on sets of grammatical and syntactical rules and phraseology of a language. RBMT links the structure of the source segment to the target segment, producing a result based on analysis of the rules of the source and target languages. The rules are developed by linguists and users can add terminology to override the MT and improve the translation quality.\r\nStatistical MT (SMT) started in the age of big data and uses large amounts of existing translated texts and statistical models and algorithms to generate translations. This system relies heavily on available multilingual corpora and an average of two millions words are needed to train the engine for a specific domain – which can be time and resource-intensive. When using domain-specific data, SMT can produce good quality translations, especially in the technical, medical, and financial fields.\r\nNeural MT (NMT) is a new approach that is built on deep neural networks. There are a variety of network architectures used in NMT but typically, the network can be divided into two components: an encoder which reads the input sentence and generates a representation suitable for translation, and a decoder which generates the actual translation. Words and even whole sentences are represented as vectors of real numbers in NMT. Compared to the previous generation of MT, NMT generates outputs which tend to be more fluent and grammatically accurate. Overall, NMT is a major step in MT quality. However, NMT may slightly lack previous approaches when it comes to translating rare words and terminology. Long and/or complex sentences are still an issue even for state-of-the-art NMT systems.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the Pros and Cons of Machine Translation?</span>\r\n<ul><li>MT is incredibly fast and can translate thousands of words per minute.</li><li>It can translate into multiple languages at once which drastically reduces the amount of manpower needed.</li><li>Implementing MT into your localization process can do the heavy lifting for translators and free up their valuable time, allowing them to focus on the more intricate aspects of translation.</li><li>MT technology is developing rapidly and is constantly advancing towards producing higher quality translations and reducing the need for post-editing.</li></ul>\r\nThere are many advantages of using MT but we can’t ignore the disadvantages. MT does not always produce perfect translations. Unlike human translators, computers can’t understand context and culture, therefore MT can’t be used to translate anything and everything. Sometimes MT alone is suitable, while others a combination of MT and human translation is best. Sometimes it is not suitable at all. MT is not a one-size-fits-all translation solution.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">When Should You Use Machine Translation?</span>\r\nWhen translating creative or literary content, MT is not a suitable choice. This can also be the case when translating culturally specific-texts. A good rule of thumb is the more complex your content is, the less suitable it is for MT.\r\nFor large volumes of content, especially if it has a short turnaround time, MT is very effective. If accuracy is not vital, MT can produce suitable translations at a fraction of the cost. Customer reviews, news monitoring, internal documents, and product descriptions are all good candidates.\r\nUsing a combination of MT along with a human translator post-editor opens the doors to a wider variety of suitable content.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Which MT Engine Should You Use?</span>\r\nNot all MT engines are created equal, but there is no specific MT engine for a specific kind of content. Publicly available MT engines are designed to be able to translate most types of content, however, with custom MT engines the training data can be tailored to a specific domain or content type.\r\nUltimately, choosing an MT engine is a process. You need to choose the kind of content you wish to translate, review security and privacy policies, run tests on text samples, choose post-editors, and several other considerations. The key is to do your research before making a decision. And, if you are using a translation management system (TMS) be sure it is able to support your chosen MT engine.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Using Machine Translation and a Translation Management System</span>\r\nYou can use MT on its own, but to get the maximum benefits we suggest integrating it with a TMS. With these technologies integrated, you will be able to leverage additional tools such as translation memories, termbases, and project management features to help streamline and optimize your localization strategy. You will have greater control over your translations, and be able to analyze the effectiveness of your MT engine.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Machine_Translation.png","alias":"machine-translation"},"431":{"id":431,"title":"Electronic dictionaries","description":" An electronic dictionary is a dictionary whose data exists in digital form and can be accessed through a number of different media. Electronic dictionaries can be found in several forms, including software installed on tablet or desktop computers, mobile apps, web applications, and as a built-in function of E-readers. They may be free or require payment.\r\nMost of the early electronic dictionaries were, in effect, print dictionaries made available in digital form: the content was identical, but the electronic editions provided users with more powerful search functions. But soon the opportunities offered by digital media began to be exploited. Two obvious advantages are that limitations of space (and the need to optimize its use) become less pressing, so additional content can be provided; and the possibility arises of including multimedia content, such as audio pronunciations and video clips.\r\nElectronic dictionary databases, especially those included with software dictionaries are often extensive and can contain up to 500,000 headwords and definitions, verb conjugation tables, and a grammar reference section. Bilingual electronic dictionaries and monolingual dictionaries of inflected languages often include an interactive verb conjugator, and are capable of word stemming and lemmatization.\r\nPublishers and developers of electronic dictionaries may offer native content from their own lexicographers, licensed data from print publications, or both, as in the case of Babylon offering premium content from Merriam Webster, and Ultralingua offering additional premium content from Collins, Masson, and Simon & Schuster, and Paragon Software offering original content from Duden, Britannica, Harrap, Merriam-Webster and Oxford. ","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the capabilities of electronic dictionaries?</span>\r\nCompared with printed analogues, computer dictionaries provide the user with many additional features:\r\n<ul><li>multiple increase in search speed;</li><li>a set of entries in the dictionary: vocabulary, alphabetical index, entering words and phrases from the keyboard, from a text editor;</li><li>search for words with insufficient spelling;</li><li>full-text search (not only in the vocabulary, but also in the texts of all dictionary entries);</li><li>the use of multimedia tools for vocabulary semantization;</li><li>the presence of a hyperlink system;</li><li>the presence of cross-references to all words in the dictionary;</li><li>the ability to store a large amount of information;</li><li>in bilingual dictionaries - the possibility of direct and reverse translation;</li><li>the inclusion in the structure of a computer dictionary of several dictionaries of different types and genres;</li><li>simultaneous search in several dictionaries;</li><li>restriction of the search area by keywords, thematic groups, parts of speech, etc.;</li><li> replenishing the dictionary by the user, or creating a custom dictionary;</li><li>preservation of the search sequence during the session (the so-called chronology/search history);</li><li>saving "bookmarks" in the dictionary;</li><li> compatibility with text editors, the ability to copy dictionary entries and access to the dictionary from the editor;</li><li>compatibility with machine translation programs;</li><li>compatibility with web browsers and other types of programs (application, training, gaming);</li><li>providing additional background information on phonetics, grammar, style and other aspects of the language;</li><li>the possibility of using dictionaries in local and global networks, etc.</li></ul>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Electronic_dictionaries.png","alias":"electronic-dictionaries"},"433":{"id":433,"title":"Spelling Check Systems","description":" In software, a spell checker (or spell check) is a software feature that checks for misspellings in a text. Spell-checking features are often embedded in software or services, such as a word processor, email client, electronic dictionary, or search engine.\r\nA basic spell checker carries out the following processes:\r\n<ul><li>It scans the text and extracts the words contained in it.</li><li>It then compares each word with a known list of correctly spelled words (i.e. a dictionary). This might contain just a list of words, or it might also contain additional information, such as hyphenation points or lexical and grammatical attributes.</li><li>An additional step is a language-dependent algorithm for handling morphology. Even for a lightly inflected language like English, the spell-checker will need to consider different forms of the same word, such as plurals, verbal forms, contractions, and possessives. For many other languages, such as those featuring agglutination and more complex declension and conjugation, this part of the process is more complicated.</li></ul>\r\nIt is unclear whether morphological analysis — allowing for many different forms of a word depending on its grammatical role—provides a significant benefit for English, though its benefits for highly synthetic languages such as German, Hungarian or Turkish are clear.\r\nAs an adjunct to these components, the program's user interface will allow users to approve or reject replacements and modify the program's operation.\r\nAn alternative type of spell checker uses solely statistical information, such as n-grams, to recognize errors instead of correctly-spelled words. This approach usually requires a lot of effort to obtain sufficient statistical information. Key advantages include needing less runtime storage and the ability to correct errors in words that are not included in a dictionary.\r\nIn some cases spell checkers use a fixed list of misspellings and suggestions for those misspellings; this less flexible approach is often used in paper-based correction methods, such as the see also entries of encyclopedias.\r\nClustering algorithms have also been used for spell checking combined with phonetic information.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the functionality of spelling check systems?</span>\r\nThe first spell checkers were "verifiers" instead of "correctors." They offered no suggestions for incorrectly spelled words. This was helpful for typos but it was not so helpful for logical or phonetic errors. The challenge the developers faced was the difficulty in offering useful suggestions for misspelled words. This requires reducing words to a skeletal form and applying pattern-matching algorithms.\r\nIt might seem logical that where spell-checking dictionaries are concerned, "the bigger, the better," so that correct words are not marked as incorrect. In practice, however, an optimal size for English appears to be around 90,000 entries. If there are more than this, incorrectly spelled words may be skipped because they are mistaken for others. For example, a linguist might determine on the basis of corpus linguistics that the word baht is more frequently a misspelling of bath or bat than a reference to the Thai currency. Hence, it would typically be more useful if a few people who write about Thai currency were slightly inconvenienced than if the spelling errors of the many more people who discuss baths were overlooked.\r\nThe first MS-DOS spell checkers were mostly used in proofing mode from within word processing packages. After preparing a document, a user scanned the text looking for misspellings. Later, however, batch processing was offered in such packages as Oracle's short-lived CoAuthor and allowed a user to view the results after a document was processed and correct only the words that were known to be wrong. When memory and processing power became abundant, spell checking was performed in the background in an interactive way, such as has been the case with the Sector Software produced Spellbound program released in 1987 and Microsoft Word since Word 95.\r\nIn recent years, spell checkers have become increasingly sophisticated; some are now capable of recognizing simple grammatical errors. However, even at their best, they rarely catch all the errors in a text (such as homophone errors) and will flag neologisms and foreign words as misspellings. Nonetheless, spell checkers can be considered as a type of foreign language writing aid that non-native language learners can rely on to detect and correct their misspellings in the target language.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Spell-checking non-English languages</span>\r\nEnglish is unusual in that most words used in formal writing have a single spelling that can be found in a typical dictionary, with the exception of some jargon and modified words. In many languages, words are often concatenated into new combinations of words. In German, compound nouns are frequently coined from other existing nouns. Some scripts do not clearly separate one word from another, requiring word-splitting algorithms. Each of these presents unique challenges to non-English language spell checkers.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Context-sensitive spell checkers</span>\r\nThere has been researched on developing algorithms that are capable of recognizing a misspelled word, even if the word itself is in the vocabulary, based on the context of the surrounding words. Not only does this allow words such as those in the poem above to be caught, but it mitigates the detrimental effect of enlarging dictionaries, allowing more words to be recognized. For example, baht in the same paragraph as Thai or Thailand would not be recognized as a misspelling of a bath. The most common example of errors caught by such a system are homophone errors, such as the bold words in the following sentence:\r\n\r\n<blockquote><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Their</span> coming <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">too sea</span> if <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">its reel</span>.\r\n</blockquote>\r\nThe most successful algorithm to date is Andrew Golding and Dan Roth's "Winnow-based spelling correction algorithm", published in 1999, which is able to recognize about 96% of context-sensitive spelling errors, in addition to ordinary non-word spelling errors. A context-sensitive spell checker appears in Microsoft Office 2007 and also appeared in the now-defunct Google Wave.\r\nGrammar checkers attempt to fix problems with grammar beyond spelling errors, including incorrect choice of words.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Spelling_Check_Systems.png","alias":"spelling-check-systems"},"492":{"id":492,"title":"Enterprise Service Bus Middleware","description":" An enterprise service bus (ESB) implements a communication system between mutually interacting software applications in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It represents a software architecture for distributed computing, and is a special variant of the more general client-server model, wherein any application may behave as server or client. ESB promotes agility and flexibility with regard to high-level protocol communication between applications. Its primary use is in enterprise application integration (EAI) of heterogeneous and complex service landscapes.\r\nThe concept of the enterprise service bus is analogous to the bus concept found in computer hardware architecture combined with the modular and concurrent design of high-performance computer operating systems. The motivation for the development of the architecture was to find a standard, structured, and general purpose concept for describing implementation of loosely coupled software components (called services) that are expected to be independently deployed, running, heterogeneous, and disparate within a network. ESB is also a common implementation pattern for service-oriented architecture, including the intrinsically adopted network design of the World Wide Web.\r\nNo global standards exist for enterprise service bus concepts or implementations. Most providers of message-oriented middleware have adopted the enterprise service bus concept as de facto standard for a service-oriented architecture. The implementations of ESB use event-driven and standards-based message-oriented middleware in combination with message queues as technology frameworks. However, some software manufacturers relabel existing middleware and communication solutions as ESB without adopting the crucial aspect of a bus concept.\r\nThe ESB is implemented in software that operates between the business applications, and enables communication among them. Ideally, the ESB should be able to replace all direct contact with the applications on the bus, so that all communication takes place via the ESB. To achieve this objective, the ESB must encapsulate the functionality offered by its component applications in a meaningful way. This typically occurs through the use of an enterprise message model. The message model defines a standard set of messages that the ESB transmits and receives. When the ESB receives a message, it routes the message to the appropriate application. Often, because that application evolved without the same message model, the ESB has to transform the message into a format that the application can interpret. A software adapter fulfills the task of effecting these transformations, analogously to a physical adapter.\r\nESBs rely on accurately constructing the enterprise message model and properly designing the functionality offered by applications. If the message model does not completely encapsulate the application functionality, then other applications that desire that functionality may have to bypass the bus, and invoke the mismatched applications directly. Doing so violates the principles of the ESB model, and negates many of the advantages of using this architecture.\r\nThe beauty of the ESB lies in its platform-agnostic nature and the ability to integrate with anything at any condition. It is important that Application Lifecycle Management vendors truly apply all the ESB capabilities in their integration products while adopting SOA. Therefore, the challenges and opportunities for EAI vendors are to provide an integration solution that is low-cost, easily configurable, intuitive, user-friendly, and open to any tools customers choose.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)?</span>\r\nAn Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is a type of software platform known as middleware, which works behind the scenes to aid application-to-application communication. Think of an ESB as a “bus” that picks up information from one system and delivers it to another.\r\nThe term ESB first appeared in 2002, but the technology continues to evolve, driven by the need for ever-emerging internet applications to communicate and interact with one another.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Why would I want an ESB?</span>\r\nImagine that there are two systems in an organization that needs to exchange data. The technical teams that represent each system plan and implement a solution that allows these systems to communicate. A year or two later, the organization deploys several more systems that need to interact with each other as well as the existing two systems. How can all teams develop and reach an agreement on the best solution?\r\nIt becomes very complicated to manage and maintain one solution as an organization’s IT systems expand. With just 10 systems, there could be 100 different interfaces and scores of disparate technical requirements.\r\nAn ESB provides a secure, scalable and cost-effective infrastructure that enables real-time data exchange among many systems. Data from one system, known as a service provider, can be put on the enterprise service bus as a message, which is sent immediately to a service consumer of the data. If a new system wants to consume this same data, all it has to do is plug into the bus in the same manner.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Enterprise_Service_Bus_Middleware.png","alias":"enterprise-service-bus-middleware"},"495":{"id":495,"title":"Instant Communications Applications","description":" Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat that offers real-time text transmission over the Internet. A LAN messenger operates in a similar way over a local area network. Short messages are typically transmitted between two parties, when each user chooses to complete a thought and select "send". Some IM applications can use push technology to provide real-time text, which transmits messages character by character, as they are composed. More advanced instant messaging can add file transfer, clickable hyperlinks, Voice over IP, or video chat.\r\nNon-IM types of chat include multicast transmission, usually referred to as "chat rooms", where participants might be anonymous or might be previously known to each other (for example collaborators on a project that is using chat to facilitate communication). Instant messaging systems tend to facilitate connections between specified known users (often using a contact list also known as a "buddy list" or "friend list"). Depending on the IM protocol, the technical architecture can be peer-to-peer (direct point-to-point transmission) or client-server (an Instant message service center retransmits messages from the sender to the communication device).\r\nBy 2010, instant messaging over the Web was already in sharp decline, in favor of messaging features on social networks. The most popular IM platforms, such as AIM, closed in 2017, and Windows Live Messenger was merged into Skype. Today, most instant messaging takes place on messaging apps which by 2014 had more users than social networks.\r\nInstant messaging is a set of communication technologies used for text-based communication between two or more participants over the Internet or other types of networks. IM–chat happens in real-time. Of importance is that online chat and instant messaging differ from other technologies such as email due to the perceived quasi-synchrony of the communications by the users. Some systems permit messages to be sent to users not then 'logged on' (offline messages), thus removing some differences between IM and email (often done by sending the message to the associated email account).\r\nIM allows effective and efficient communication, allowing immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. However IM is basically not necessarily supported by transaction control. In many cases, instant messaging includes added features which can make it even more popular. For example, users may see each other via webcams, or talk directly for free over the Internet using a microphone and headphones or loudspeakers. Many applications allow file transfers, although they are usually limited in the permissible file-size.\r\nIt is usually possible to save a text conversation for later reference. Instant messages are often logged in a local message history, making it similar to the persistent nature of emails. ","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is instant messaging used for?</span>\r\nInstant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat that offers real-time text transmission over the Internet. A LAN messenger operates in a similar way over a local area network. Short messages are typically transmitted between two parties when each user chooses to complete a thought and select "send".\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What kind of protocols are used in instant messaging applications?</span>\r\nTwo of the main protocols used for instant messaging in the market today are WebSocket and XMPP.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the difference between texting and instant messaging?</span>\r\nText messaging, or simply "texting," is a cellular phone service typically limited to 160 characters, whereas instant messaging is usually a computer session with longer message size. Both text messaging and instant messaging are often called just plain "messaging."\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the key features of instant messaging?</span>\r\nThe exchange of text has long been the chief function of instant messaging, but it is now one feature of many. The ability to insert images and emojis into messages is now standard in many clients, as are file transfers. Facebook Messenger even enables users to send money via IM.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Instant_Communications_Applications.png","alias":"instant-communications-applications"},"705":{"id":705,"title":"SEO & SEM","description":"SEO is a key part of your digital marketing strategy and some knowledge is essential no matter what area of digital marketing you specialize in.\r\nSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the process by which search engines “crawl” content to see how effective it will be to attract traffic. Search engines will assess a number of things in a website (such as keywords, tags, and link titles) and rank it for its capacity to attract organic traffic based on a variety of factors.\r\nSearch Engine Marketing (SEM) is a descriptor that incorporates various types of paid search advertising. This is the type of thing that you’ll see as Google ad and usually ends up on the top of a page list. Usually, this has a to do with keyword placement and usage and that’s one reason why doing it well can require some extra knowledge and strategy.\r\nHow are SEO and SEM Complementary?\r\nSEO and SEM both rely heavily on keywords to drive traffic to business websites and web pages. Though the marketing techniques used for each are different, they are both focused on traffic flows and how these relate to marketing activities. People will use search engines to search for something that they’re looking for, and they’ll be able to find it by the organic results (SEO) or by the paid results (SEM).\r\nMost people search online before buying anything, so having a strong presence in search is crucial and using a strategic combination of both can boost your visibility in the long term.\r\nSEO is for organic traffic – so that’s unpaid or free listings, and SEM is for targeted ads that you pay for. They can be complementary but only if the website itself is SEO-friendly first, then SEM has a greater chance of being successful.\r\nSEO is the foundation for good SEM and when you have each set up properly, you have a better chance of getting high-quality traffic and improving conversion rates. Once you have an SEO-friendly site and sponsored ads that are targeted properly using the right keywords, you have more chance of showing up at the top of paid searches. But you have to have your SEO in place in order for Google to see you as a credible website.\r\nIf your website is on the newer side, you can prioritize your PPC campaign first as it can take a while for SEO rankings to become established, but don’t ignore your SEO during this process.<br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is SEO?</span>\r\nSEO is essentially a component of the larger category, SEM. According to Google’s Knowledge Graph, search engine optimization is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.”\r\nThe SEO industry is continually changing due to the frequent changes made to Google’s algorithm. But, there is one aspect of SEO that stays constant: SEO is made up of On-Page and Off-Page activities.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Components Does SEO Include?</span>\r\nAs stated above, SEO is comprised of two different activities:\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">On-Page SEO</span> includes incorporating selective keyword naturally into title tags, meta descriptions, heading tags, alt text, etc.; blog posts and page copy that is written and optimized with quality; clean and formatting page URLS; optimized page load speed; Google authorship incorporated; social sharing integration within your content and much more.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Off-Page SEO</span> includes creating a high quality, natural backlink profile (aka having other high-quality/authoritative sites link to your site naturally); social sharing signals; social bookmarking (Stumbleupon, Reddit), and so on.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Is search Engine Marketing (SEM)?</span>\r\nAccording to Wikipedia, “Search engine marketing is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPS) through optimization and advertising.” SEM includes SEO tactics, as well as several other search marketing tactics.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Components Does SEM Include?</span>\r\nOther than search engine optimization, SEM includes the use of paid search, such as pay per click (PPC) listings and advertisements. Most of the time, SEM strictly includes PPC campaigns and activities, but if you use SEO and paid search, that falls under SEM efforts.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Is the Main Difference Between SEO and SEM?</span>\r\nThe main difference between these two terms is that search engine optimization is simply a component of search engine marketing. As mentioned above, SEM includes components of paid search, such as PPC and also SMM (social media marketing).\r\nIt is important to note that you should never use the terms SEO and SEM interchangeably because although they work hand in hand, they are not the same term.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_SEO_SEM.png","alias":"seo-sem"},"752":{"id":752,"title":"Voice Recognition","description":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Voice</span> or <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">speaker recognition </span>is the ability of a machine or program to receive and interpret dictation or to understand and carry out spoken commands. Voice recognition has gained prominence and use with the rise of AI and intelligent assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana.<br />Voice recognition systems enable consumers to interact with technology simply by speaking to it, enabling hands-free requests, reminders and other simple tasks.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Voice recognition technology on computers</span> requires that analog audio be converted into digital signals, known as analog-to-digital conversion. For a computer to decipher a signal, it must have a digital database, or vocabulary, of words or syllables, as well as a speedy means for comparing this data to signals. The speech patterns are stored on the hard drive and loaded into memory when the program is run. A comparator checks these stored patterns against the output of the A/D converter - an action called pattern recognition.\r\nIn practice, the size of a speech recognition system effective vocabulary is directly related to the random access memory capacity of the computer in which it is installed. A voice recognition program runs many times faster if the entire vocabulary can be loaded into RAM, as compared with searching the hard drive for some of the matches. \r\nWhile <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">voice recognition technology </span>originated on PCs, it has gained acceptance in both business and consumer spaces <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">on mobile devices and in home assistant products</span>. The popularity of smartphones opened up the opportunity to add voice recognition technology into consumer pockets, while home devices, like Google Home and Amazon Echo, brought voice recognition technology into living rooms and kitchens. Voice recognition, combined with the growing stable of internet of things sensors, has added a technological layer to many consumer products that previously lacked any smart capabilities.\r\nAs<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> uses for voice recognition technology</span> grow and more users interact with it, the companies implementing speak recognition software will have more data and information to feed into the neural networks that power voice recognition systems, thus improving the capabilities and accuracy of the automatic speech recognition products.<br />The uses for voice recognition have grown quickly as AI, machine learning and consumer acceptance have matured. In-home digital assistants from Google to Amazon to Apple have all implemented voice recognition software to interact with users. The way <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">consumers use voice recognition technology</span> varies depending on the product, but it can include transcribing speech to text converter, setting up reminders, searching the internet, and responding to simple questions and requests, such as playing music or sharing weather or traffic information.\r\nThe government is also looking for ways to use voice recognition technology and voice identification for security purposes. The National Security Agency (the official U.S. cryptologic organization of the United States Intelligence Community under the Department of Defense) has used voice recognition systems dating back to 2004.<br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is voice recognition?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Voice recognition is an alternative to typing on a keyboard. Put simply, you talk to the computer and your words appear on the screen. The software has been developed to provide a fast method of writing on a computer and can help people with a variety of disabilities. It is useful for people with physical disabilities who often find typing difficult, painful or impossible. Voice-recognition software can also help those with spelling difficulties, including users with dyslexia, because recognised words are almost always correctly spelled.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is voice recognition software?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Voice-recognition software programmes work by analysing sounds and converting them to text. Once correctly set up, the systems should recognise around 95% of what is said if you speak clearly. Several programmes are available that provide computer speech recognition. These systems have mostly been designed for Windows operating systems, however programmes are also available for Mac OS X. In addition to third-party software, there are also voice-recognition programmes built in to the operating systems of Windows Vista and Windows 7, 8, 10. Most specialist voice applications include the software, a microphone headset, a manual and a quick reference card. You connect the microphone to the computer, either into the soundcard or via a USB or similar connection.</p>\r\n<header><h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the types of speech recognition?</span></h1></header>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">There are two types of speech recognition.</span> One is called speaker–dependent and the other is speaker–independent. Speaker–dependent software is commonly used for dictation software, while speaker–independent software is more commonly found in telephone applications.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Speaker–dependent</span> software works by learning the unique characteristics of a single person's voice, in a way similar to voice recognition. New users must first "train" the voice recognition systems product by speaking to it, so the computer can analyze how the person talks. This often means users have to read a few pages of text to the computer before they can use the voice recogniser.<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"></span></p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Speaker–independent</span> software is designed to recognize anyone's voice, so no training is involved. This means it is the only real option for applications such as interactive voice response systems — where businesses can't ask callers to read pages of text before using the system. The downside is that speaker–independent software is generally less accurate than speaker–dependent software.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Voice recognition engines that are speaker independent generally deal with this fact by limiting the grammars they use. By using a smaller list of recognized words, the speech engine is more likely to correctly recognize what a speaker said.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">This makes speaker–independent software ideal for most IVR systems, and any application where a large number of people will be using the same system. Speaker dependent software is used more widely in dictation software, where only one person will use the system and there is a need for a large grammar.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the voice recognition applications?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">The technology is gaining popularity in many areas and has been successful in the following:</p>\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Device control. </span>Just saying "OK Google" to an Android phone fires up a system that is all ears to your voice commands.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Car Bluetooth systems.</span> Many cars are equipped with a system that connects its radio mechanism to your smartphone through Bluetooth. You can then make and receive calls without touching your smartphone, and can even dial numbers by just saying them.</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Voice to speech transcription.</span> In areas where people have to type a lot, some intelligent software captures their spoken words and transcribe them into text. This is current in the certain word processing software. Voice transcription also works with visual voicemail.</li></ul>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is dictation software?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"></p>\r\nWith the best dictation software, you can compose memos, emails, speeches, and other writing using voice translator speech to text. Some dictation apps also give you the power to control your computer or mobile device with spoken words, too, letting you open apps and navigate the web when you aren't able to or don't want to with your fingers. \r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Dictation apps have a variety of use cases. They're well known among the accessibility community, as not everyone has full and dexterous use of their fingers and hands for typing, moving a mouse, or tapping a touchscreen. They're also quite popular with productivity enthusiasts because once you get comfortable dictating, it's typically faster than typing. Dictating also enables multitasking. You can write while walking, cooking, or even breastfeeding.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Some people also find that writing by dictating silences their internal editor. You might be more inclined to get all your thoughts out first and review them later, rather than revising ideas as you form them.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">In the last few years, dictation software has become more readily available, easier to use, and much less expensive. Also sometimes called voice-to-text apps or voice recognition apps, these tools turn your spoken words into writing on the screen quickly and accurately. </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Some best voice recognition software are standalone software programs while others are features that come inside other apps or operating systems. Take Google Docs Voice Typing, for example. It's a feature inside Google Docs, rather than a standalone app. You can use it to write in Google Docs as well as edit and format your text.<br /><br /><br /></p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Voice_Recognition.png","alias":"voice-recognition"},"780":{"id":780,"title":"CAD for architecture and construction - Computer-Aided Design","description":"Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or workstations) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis or optimization of a design. CAD software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation and to create a database for manufacturing. CAD output is often in the form of electronic files for print, machining or other manufacturing operations. The term CADD (for Computer Aided Design and Drafting) is also used.\r\nCAD may be used to design curves and figures in two-dimensional (2D) space or curves, surfaces and solids in three-dimensional (3D) space.\r\nCAD is an important industrial art extensively used in many applications, including architectural design, prosthetics and many more.\r\nSoftware for architecture - systems designed specifically for architects, whose tools allow you to build drawings and models from familiar objects (walls, columns, floors, etc.), to design buildings and facilities for industrial and civil construction. These programs have the tools to build three-dimensional models and obtain all the necessary working documentation and support modern technology of information modeling of buildings.<br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"> <span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is a CAD drafter or CAD Designer?</span></h1>\r\nEverything around us that is manufactured begins with an idea in a written plan. When these plans require illustrations or drawings to convey meaning, a CAD drafter is needed to prepare these ideas in graphic forms of communication. Drafters translate ideas and rough sketches of other professionals, such as architects and engineers, into scaled detail (or working) drawings. A CAD designer often prepares the plans and rough sketches for an architect or engineer. The designer has more education and thus more responsibility than the drafter but less than an architect or engineer.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What software do architects use?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Before computer-aided design software, architects relied solely on hand drawings and handmade architecture models to communicate their designs. With the evolution of technology and the architecture industry, architectural drafting software has changed the way architects plan and design buildings. Implementing 2D and 3D architecture software allows designers to draft at greater speed, test ideas and determine consistent project workflows. Advancements in rendering software provide architects and their clients with the ability to visually experience designs before a project is realized.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">Is CAD 2D or 3D?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">A common misconception surrounding CAD is that it is a 3D architecture software modeling tool only. However, CAD can be used as a 2D drawing tool as well. Construction designers might use a CAD tool that only works in 2D while architects might work in a 3D software architecture tools that has a 2D converter. It is highly dependent upon the actual platform used. This can be convenient because a company might only use a 2D tool and can pay for that tool alone. However, as construction centers around 3D modeling software for architecture and informational models, it will be harder for companies who only to use a 2D tool.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is CAD used for in construction?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">There are a lot of uses for CAD in construction. Subcontractor’s designers can take the drawings made by the architect and add in additional necessary details to ensure constructability. From there they have a plan that they can work off of and check their work against. Companies have already done this to a degree of success. Some companies were able to use a combination of drones and 3D models to notice issues with the construction. Specifically, a company can overlay their live drone footage with the model. They could note that the foundation would be off and make corrections.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Architecture planning software benefits contractors because the drawings and plans can be easily stored in the cloud. This allows for contractors to use their plans at any location. Also, if they are included in a shared file for the project, they can easily see changes to the plans. So, a subcontractor could quickly determine which changes were made, by who, and how it will impact construction.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Another benefit of professional architecture software is it is more accurate than manual drawings. It’s easier for construction design software than it is when it’s manual. And it’s easier for subcontractors to add details than it is in manual drawings.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What architects’ tools have been transformed by technology?</span></h1>\r\nWorking methods that previously resulted in only the documentation of an idea are now moving toward the realization of a full virtual copy of a building and all its complex components before a single nail is hammered. As such, architects’ tools that used to be physical, like pens and pencils, are now mere basics in a virtual toolbox with capabilities an analog architect couldn’t even fathom. The breakneck pace of this change is good reason to reflect on the history of these architect software virtual tools by comparing them to their physical forebears.\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Drafting Arm vs. Dynamic Input. </span>Appearing like an alien appendage affixed to a drawing board, a drafting arm originally consolidated a variety of tasks completed with separate rulers, straightedges and protractors into a single versatile tool. AutoCAD’s crosshair reticle, for example, once relied on manual input with compass-style designations before it featured point-and-click functionality with real-time metrics following it around the screen.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Tape Measure vs. Surveying App.</span> Documenting an existing building in order to plan its transformation is likely one of the most frequent tasks architects complete. Until recently, the only way to correctly do this was by hand, with a tape measure, pen and paper. Since the advent of infrared scanners, depth-sensing cameras and software that can communicate with them, the time-intensive process of surveying an existing space has been cut to a fraction of what it once was.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Drafting Template vs. Premade 3-D Models.</span> In the days of hand-drafting, adding furniture to a drawing meant choosing an appropriately scaled object from a stencil and tracing it. Today’s sophisticated equivalent that architecture software programs offer allows an infinite number of premade models to be brought into a wide range of design software with a single click. Despite technological advances in this practice, the old method may actually be advantageous due to its reliance on abstraction because choosing realistically detailed furnishings for an early design scheme often prompts cosmetic decisions long before they need to be made.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Electric Eraser vs. Undo.</span> The most simple, and, for this reason, the most underappreciated, transformation an architect’s tools have undergone between physical and virtual methods is the ease with which one can now reverse the work they’ve done. Allowing what essentially amounts to time travel, the Undo function is universal to almost all software programs and as such is often taken for granted. Prior to this wonderful invention, the savviest architects wielded handheld electric erasers allowing them to salvage large drawing sets in the event of a drafting mistake or last-minute design change.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Blueprint Machine vs. Inkjet Plotter. </span>If you hang around an architecture firm long enough, you might hear older designers talk about using a blueprint machine. Originally the premier method for producing copies of drawings, blueprint machines involved rolling an original drawing through a chemical mixture that reproduced the image on a special type of paper. For some time now, digital plotters have removed manual labor from the equation, being fed information directly from a virtual drawing file.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Digitizer Tablet vs. Touchscreen Workstation.</span> Early iterations of digital drafting were often paired with a digitizer: a special keyboard that could choose commands or be directly drawn on. Software used in architecture eventually got better at incorporating a keyboard and mouse, but nowadays the tide might be turning back to a hands-on approach as devices like Microsoft’s Surface Studio are pushing an interface with touch-heavy tools just for architects. Though currently limited to apps for sketching and drawing review, the way architects work could be changed forever if a large influential company like Autodesk or Graphisoft were to fully embrace touchscreen capabilities.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /></p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_CAD.png","alias":"cad-for-architecture-and-construction-computer-aided-design"},"806":{"id":806,"title":"Functional testing tools","description":"Functional testing is the stage of product development when software is tested for compliance. Functional testing can be manual or automatic. Functional testing software usually provides some input so that you can evaluate the output to see how the software works.\r\nFunctional testing is one of the types of testing aimed at checking the compliance of the functional requirements of the software with its actual characteristics. The main objective of functional testing is to confirm that the developed software product has all the functionality required by the customer.\r\nDepending on the purpose, functional testing may be conducted:\r\nBased on the functional requirements specified in the requirements specification. At the same time, test cases are created for testing (test cases), the compilation of which takes into account the priority of software functions that must be covered by tests. Thus, we can make sure that all the functions of the developed product work correctly with different types of input data, their combinations, quantities, etc.\r\nBased on the business processes that the application must provide. In this case, we are not interested in the performance of individual software functions, as we are the correctness of the operations performed, in terms of system usage scenarios. Thus, testing in this case will be based on options for using the system (use cases).\r\nThe aspects described above are implemented using the following types and levels of testing:\r\n<ul><li>Modular (component).</li><li>Integration.</li><li>Systemic.</li><li>Regression.</li><li>Acceptance.</li></ul>\r\nAss well, there are many other types that provide complete and comprehensive testing of functional requirements for software.\r\nChoosing the right functional testing tool for projects is key. Highly qualified testing professionals constantly update the set of tools used, as well as develop their own.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is functional testing?</span>\r\nFunctional testing is a segment of security testing. The security mechanisms of the system are tested, under operational conditions, for correct operation.\r\nFunctional testing verifies that the end user gets what they want from the application. It involves testing to ensure that the tasks or the steps required for complete functionality work well. Functional testing involves testing of functional requirements as per the specification.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the differences between system and functional testing?</span>\r\nSystem testing has classifications like functional and non-functional testing. Hence the functional testing is a part of system testing.\r\nSystem testing allows the testers to test the typical end product. Every single module, interface and every minute detail are needed to be tested in system testing.\r\nFunctional testing is aimed at testing the functionalities of the product being tested. These functionalities include volume, stress, load, security, scalability, performance, etc. Hardware and software are not concerned with functional testing.\r\nFunctional testing involves testing of functional requirements as per the specification. On the other hand, system testing involves testing the system as a whole. This may involve testing of proper installation and uninstalling of the application. System testing tests for all internal and external components that make the system.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_functional_testing_tools.png","alias":"functional-testing-tools"},"808":{"id":808,"title":"Bug tracking systems","description":" A bug tracking system or defect tracking system is a software application that keeps track of reported software bugs in software development projects. It may be regarded as a type of issue tracking system.\r\nMany bug tracking systems, such as those used by most open-source software projects, allow end-users to enter bug reports directly. Other systems are used only internally in a company or organization doing software development. Typically bug tracking systems are integrated with other project management software.\r\nA bug tracking system is usually a necessary component of a good software development infrastructure, and consistent use of a bug or issue tracking system is considered one of the "hallmarks of a good software team".\r\nA major component of a bug tracking system is a database that records facts about known bugs. Facts may include the time a bug was reported, its severity, the erroneous program behavior, and details on how to reproduce the bug; as well as the identity of the person who reported it and any programmers who may be working on fixing it.\r\nTypical bug tracking systems support the concept of the life cycle for a bug which is tracked through the status assigned to the bug. A bug tracking system should allow administrators to configure permissions based on status, move the bug to another status, or delete the bug. The system should also allow administrators to configure the bug statuses and to what extent a bug in a particular status can be moved. Some systems will e-mail interested parties, such as the submitter and assigned programmers, when new records are added or the status changes.\r\nThe main benefit of a bug-tracking system is to provide a clear centralized overview of development requests (including both bugs and improvements, the boundary is often fuzzy), and their state. The prioritized list of pending items (often called backlog) provides valuable input when defining the product road map, or maybe just "the next release".\r\nIn a corporate environment, a bug-tracking system may be used to generate reports on the productivity of programmers at fixing bugs. However, this may sometimes yield inaccurate results because different bugs may have different levels of severity and complexity. The severity of a bug may not be directly related to the complexity of fixing the bug. There may be different opinions among the managers and architects.\r\nA local bug tracker (LBT) is usually a computer program used by a team of application support professionals (often a help desk) to keep track of issues communicated to software developers. Using an LBT allows support professionals to track bugs in their "own language" and not the "language of the developers." In addition, an LBT allows a team of support professionals to track specific information about users who have called to complain — this information may not always be needed in the actual development queue. Thus, there are two tracking systems when an LBT is in place.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What does Bug Tracking mean?</span>\r\nBug tracking is a process used by quality assurance personnel and programmers to keep track of software problems and resolutions. A bug tracking system is normally put in place to store information about reported bugs. This type of issue-tracking system provides a clear, centralized overview of development requests and their corresponding states.\r\nBug tracking enables users to enter bug reports directly into a system that logs and tracks them. Diligent use of a bug tracking system provides a record of a software team's effectiveness. Local bug trackers are often used by teams of application support professionals to keep track of issues communicated to software developers.\r\nBug tracking systems include a database, which keeps track of facts pertaining to each bug. These facts might include the time a bug was reported, its severity, incorrect program behavior, details on how to recreate the bug,who reported the bug and what the programmers did to fix it. Bug tracking systems are associated with a bug's life cycle, which is tracked through the status assigned to each bug. This allows administrators to set permissions based on a bug's status, move bugs to other statuses or delete them.<br /><br />","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-bug-tracking-systems.png","alias":"bug-tracking-systems"},"810":{"id":810,"title":"Web analytics","description":" Web analytics is a generic term meaning the study of the impact of a website on its users. Ecommerce companies and other website publishers often use Web analytics software to measure such concrete details as how many people visited their site, how many of those visitors were unique visitors, how they came to the site (i.e., if they followed a link to get to the site or came there directly), what keywords they searched with on the site's search engine, how long they stayed on a given page or on the entire site and what links they clicked on and when they left the site.\r\nWeb analytic software can also be used to monitor whether or not a site's pages are working properly. With this information, Web site administrators can determine which areas of the site are popular and which areas of the site do not get traffic. Web analytics provides these site administrators and publishers with data that can be used to streamline a website to create a better user experience.\r\nWeb analytics is a powerful resource for any business with a website or online presence. By monitoring the way that potential customers interact with your website online, you can tailor their experiences to increase your sales, clicks, and conversions.\r\nWebsite analytics provides both quantitative and qualitative results after analyzing the KPIs of your website. It is critical for the website analytics service you pick to abide by the best practices of website analytics to provide you with the most accurate results.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Backing up reports and conclusions with enough data.</span> The website analytics service you choose should not only be able to tell you if you have met your website goals and sales target, but they should also be able to help you work on your KPIs. A website analytics team should be able to point out if your site has value-adding content that is not getting enough traffic, or how you can change the layout of the page to improve visibility and UX. It is necessary for the team to engage multiple tools like engagement analysis and user path analysis to find the correct answers to engagement or traffic flow problems your site might be facing.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">There should be no superficial reports containing only data.</span> New website owners often make the mistake of believing that pageview, visits, and top source reports are enough. However, you need something more in-depth and specific to learn about the reasons for the decrease in organic traffic. A report with only numbers is definitely not what an enterprise needs to boost its organic traffic flow and conversion rates.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">The data on every report should be coupled with insights.</span> Apart from providing you with the numbers on the traffic reports and top view reports, your website analytics team should provide you with relevant data that shows which parts of your website is highly successful, which areas are losing traffic and what points require immediate attention. Without the expert insights, data remains useless irrespective of its accuracy.\r\n<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Use of individual tools for assessment of different KPIs.</span> Any website analytics service you pick should know the importance of pan-session KPIs for assessing the performance of a site. For example, comparing the user-lifetime value and new visitors acquired over the last couple of months can help you understand if your site performance has improved over a previous couple of months.\r\nWorking with a website analytics service can provide you with a simpler report that compiles the KPIs from your website. It is easier to understand a single report with reduced complexities as compared to perusing tens of different reports coming from individual website analytics tools you might be using on your own.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is web analytics?</span>\r\nWeb analytics monitor the way that users interact with your website through their behaviors and activities. It is the entire process of collection, analysis, and reporting of data generated from the interaction of the users with your website.\r\nThe reports from the analytics tools allow webmasters and marketers to understand user interactions such as the length of time they were on the site, which pages they visited, and if they clicked on links or filled out forms.\r\nIn general, you’ll see these types of raw data in your web analytics reports –\r\n<ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Web Traffic:</span> The number of incoming and outgoing website visitors you receive within a given time-period</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Views:</span> The number of times a page has been viewed</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Clicks:</span> The number of times a link has been clicked</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Unique visitors:</span> First-time visitors to your website per day, per week or month</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Bounce rate:</span> Seen often in Google Analytics, the percentage of visitors that leave the site quickly without interacting contribute to the bounce rate</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Conversion rate:</span> The rate of visitors making purchases from your site, signing up for newsletters or subscribing to a service</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Organic traffic:</span> Visitors that arrive at your website directly from a search engine and not from social media or other blogs</li><li><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Direct traffic:</span> Visitors that come to your website by going to your address directly and not from a search engine</li></ul>\r\nWeb analytics allow webmasters or marketers to set key performance indicators (KPIs) or benchmarks to measure the level of success of the various elements of the website, including calls to action (CTA), subscription options or form sign-ups.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">How do I use website analytics tools?</span>\r\nA web analytics tool lets you see visualizations of user interactions with your website. At a base level, they report on simple website usages like visits and pages viewed. Beyond this, many of these services offer data analysis tools to better understand and interpret the information. You are able to use the tool as a data manager, where you can analyze numbers from different data sources and date ranges.\r\nYour website typically has goals, such as obtaining email addresses or converting a visitor to a purchaser. You can define key metrics (or key performance indicators) to track interactions that are important to your website. Funnels can also be used to watch a customer's path through a website and see where they may lose interest or stray from the intended course.\r\nFinally, behavior maps allow you to see a visual representation of where people view and click on individual pages. It can show you which links are successful and which areas are causing trouble or distractions for the user.\r\nOne website can have more than one KPI, and each KPI can demand a distinct tool for monitoring and reporting. Therefore, how you will use the tool will depend significantly on its purpose and suggested use. Moreover, the choice of web analytics tools might also rely on the bulk of your business data, and your market reach.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are web analytics services?</span>\r\nA web analytics service is an application or agency that performs data collection, then lets you view and analyze the information. Most services will allow the marketer or webmaster to see detailed charts, graphs, and visualizations of the data about their web users, often in real time.\r\nA majority of website analytics tools focus on consumer insights and customer behavior. However, web analytics services can also monitor other aspects of your online presence like social media discussions and posts. They can help you distinguish the traffic coming from different social media channels and give you enough information to make the right decisions.\r\nSome web analytics services provide a custom analysis of your data to assist with pages that suffer from low conversion rates and create custom visitor profiles. You can get a detailed assessment of page quality directly. It can tell you how the data on individual pages are performing and whether potential consumers are traveling down the sales funnel from those particular pages.\r\nFinally, a web analytics service can help you monitor A/B testing that you implement to improve your site performance, ensuring the changes only become permanent if they work well. Website analytics gives you insight into the changes that will work best for enhancing the performance of your website.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Do I need web analytics software for my website?</span>\r\nIf your website is for a business, it’s a good idea to use web analytics software. In fact, if you have a website that generates revenue for your business, you need website analytics.\r\nIt’s essential to understand who is visiting your website, how they use it, and what they are looking for. Analytics allows you to understand customers that you would typically not know existed. The visitors that come to your site don’t provide information and don’t interact often have an apparent reason they left your website empty-handed.\r\nJust like you would perform market research to understand why customers say no to your business in person or leave your retail store without making a purchase, you need to hear what your online customers have to say. Their feedbacks and actions can be more insightful than you can imagine. All the hints for website improvement and UX enhancement lie in their actions.\r\nWebsites that focus primarily on e-commerce or lead generation will see the most benefit from using web analytics software. Website analytics enables each website owner and webmaster to understand their consumers. It will allow them to monitor their customers, change the trouble spots on their website, and improve the conversion rate of new customers.\r\nHowever, even small business websites can benefit from seeing how their customers interact. A website is one of the initial investments of a small business. It only makes sense to want to know how your investment is performing after a couple of weeks or months after its launch. Website analytics can tell you precisely how every page, CTA, and element on your website is engaging the consumers, and which parts require immediate attention.\r\nAlso, if you do not have a form or cart on your website, you can still seek out traffic to learn about your business or act on contacting you. Actions like time spent on your site and bounce rates of organic traffic can be monitored, and their user experience can be improved using web analytics software.\r\nWebsite analytics is vital for every website, especially when Google is rolling out new updates, to ensure that you are keeping your eyes on the right metrics at the right time. Investing in website analytics can pinpoint at the factors responsible for reduced traffic and low sales. It can highlight the traffic and conversion trends for your site, and it can tell you precisely what changes your site might need to improve its performance.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-web-analytics.png","alias":"web-analytics"},"812":{"id":812,"title":"SMM","description":" Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, which enable companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope (e.g. more active or passive use) and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone."\r\nWhen using social media marketing, firms can allow customers and Internet users to post user-generated content (e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc.), also known as "earned media," rather than use marketer-prepared advertising copy.\r\nSocial media marketing involves the use of social networks, consumer's online brand-related activities (COBRA) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) to successfully advertise online. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with information about the likes and dislikes of their consumers. This technique is crucial, as it provides the businesses with a "target audience". With social networks, information relevant to the user's likes is available to businesses; who then advertise accordingly. Activities such as uploading a picture of your "new Converse sneakers to Facebook" is an example of a COBRA. Electronic recommendations and appraisals are a convenient manner to have a product promoted via "consumer-to-consumer interactions. An example of eWOM would be an online hotel review; the hotel company can have two possible outcomes based on their service. A good service would result in a positive review which gets the hotel free advertising via social media. However, a poor service will result in a negative consumer review which can potentially harm the company's reputation.\r\nSocial networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, MySpace etc. have all influenced the buzz of word of mouth marketing. In 1999, Misner said that word-of mouth marketing is, "the world's most effective, yet least understood marketing strategy" (Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels, 2009, p. 3). Through the influence of opinion leaders, the increased online "buzz" of "word-of-mouth" marketing that a product, service or companies are experiencing is due to the rise in use of social media and smartphones. Businesses and marketers have noticed that, "a persons behaviour is influenced by many small groups" (Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown, & Armstrong, 2013, p. 189). These small groups rotate around social networking accounts that are run by influential people (opinion leaders or "thought leaders") who have followers of groups. The types of groups (followers) are called: reference groups (people who know each other either face-to-face or have an indirect influence on a persons attitude or behaviour); membership groups (a person has a direct influence on a person's attitude or behaviour); and aspirational groups (groups which an individual wishes to belong to).","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What is social media marketing?</span>\r\nSocial media marketing is the new trend for online businesses and a new angle on the role of word-of-mouth marketing. By harnessing the growing popularity and usage of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, social media marketing can be used to develop networks and business leads through the sharing of information and contacts. However, it’s also a difficult medium to make work effectively, since social media sites are used differently to other types of website – such as search engines or online shopping sites – so that companies need to commit time and have a clearly planned strategy in place for using these tools.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Which are the most popular social media sites?</span>\r\nSocial media websites are usually defined by their ability for interaction, so that users can add comments and reviews, or interact in the form of an online community. The original social media sites were discussion forums and community sites, and these were then followed by blogs for online content publication and discussion. Social bookmarking sites (such as Delicious) and news publication sites (such as Digg) have enjoyed periods of popularity, but the enormous growth in the use of social networking sites in the last few years has been focused around Facebook, Twitter and, for the business community, LinkedIn.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">What are the advantages of social media for businesses?</span>\r\nThe best strategy for social media is to build an audience of people that are receptive to purchasing your products and services – locally and globally – in a quick and highly effective way. By communicating with this audience it can ensure that your business remains ‘front of mind’ and creates a channel for new business leads. Social media also facilitates rapid feedback for businesses to improve their products and services and some companies are using this as listening platforms to monitor the conversations about their brands. They realise that a personal touch brings benefits, so that customer service and interaction with businesses is becoming social.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the disadvantages of social media for businesses?</span>\r\nSocial media marketing can be time-consuming and it can sometimes be hard to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the effort that needs to be put into it. Any social media marketing campaign requires a clear strategy from the outset, an allocated resource to manage it, and a policy for every eventuality. There are numerous stories of large companies that have mishandled the social media platform and created a PR disaster, but there are also many companies that are now using this medium extremely effectively as a communication and marketing channel. Whatever approach your business takes, social media can’t be ignored and the importance of monitoring and managing your online reputation is now an essential element of an overall marketing approach.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the core elements of a social media marketing strategy?</span>\r\nAs noted above, the importance of having a clear strategy from the outset can’t be over-emphasised – who is your target market, what do you want to achieve, and how are you going to do it. Building a network is the first stage, and a relevant community is more important than a high number of followers for the sake of it. You need to develop an integrated marketing approach to attract followers and to sustain these with relevant content – such as news, advice, product updates or offers. Participating in social media is also a two-way conversation and so you need to monitor comments and discussions and to respond appropriately. It’s also important to know the different tools available, how people use them, and what are the various options available to get the most from your marketing efforts.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How can Facebook be used effectively?</span>\r\nFacebook helps businesses to develop relationships with their customers and raise the visibility of their company by helping it to connect and grow. It’s more effective for building quality relationships with potential customers rather than generating immediate sales and this can be done by setting up a business page and/or by creating groups. Good, or interesting, news travels fast, so it can be an extremely effective medium for spreading the word and improving the ‘buzz’ about a business if you can get the “word-of-mouth” process to work. Facebook advertising is also available which can be used to target users by location and interests, and is charged on a Cost-Per-Click or Cost-Per-Thousand basis.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-SMM.png","alias":"smm"},"814":{"id":814,"title":"Landing pages","description":"In online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page", "static page", or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result, marketing promotion, marketing email, or an online advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement, search result or link. Landing pages are used for lead generation. The actions that a visitor takes on a landing page is what determines an advertiser's conversion rate. A landing page may be part of a microsite or a single page within an organization's main web site.\r\nLanding pages are often linked to social media, e-mail campaigns or search engine marketing campaigns in order to enhance the effectiveness of the advertisements. The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales or leads. If the goal is to obtain a lead, the landing page will include some method for the visitor to get into contact with the company, usually a phone number, or an inquiry form. If a sale is required, the landing page will usually have a link for the visitor to click, which will then send them to a shopping cart or a checkout area. By analyzing activity generated by the linked URL, marketers can use click-through rates and conversion rate to determine the success of an advertisement.","materialsDescription":"<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is a landing page?</span>\r\nLanding pages are selling pages. Ideally - ONE page that:\r\n<ul><li>first introduces the proposal,</li><li>then describes the “goodies” and benefits of YOUR offer,</li><li>and finally, allows you to “skim the cream” - get a subscription, letter or call from a potential client.</li></ul>\r\nAnd if you have a store or a catalog of goods (services), then get the transition to the store for purchase.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Should the landing page be located on a separate resource or on my website?</span>\r\nIt is possible but not necessary. It is important to understand: a landing page in the perception of the Internet user is a separate page with a special offer. It can be physically located on the other side of the world. Or lie literally next to them. In any case, it is one click from your store. But its perception by the visitor - as well as the result - does not change in any way.\r\nThe only caveat: if the landing page is created on a reputable and specialized service with a high rating, then the likelihood of visiting it and triggering increases. And the availability of technical support for the service allows you to count on its round-the-clock availability.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Landing against the site - a real contradiction or myth?</span>\r\nIn fact, the problem is far-fetched, and there is no contradiction. The landing page (selling page) and the regular site differ in many ways, but they don’t “fight” at all, and in many cases, they successfully complement each other. You can own and use productively:\r\n<ul><li>Separate landing (one or more),</li><li>A separate site (corporate office, storefront, catalog, store, online magazine or online school),</li><li>A site with an unlimited number of landings.</li></ul>\r\nAnd you can actively use a bunch of landing sites (your own or others), extracting the maximum benefit from this.<br />It all depends on the specific tasks that you set for each element of this scheme and their successful combination.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the main differences between a landing page and a site?</span>\r\n<ul><li>The "purity" of the idea and its visual display,</li><li>Refusal of all superfluous, doubtful and "passing" elements,</li><li>Maximum emphasis on the main thing, use of the most effective means and formulations for this,</li><li>As a rule, the solution of one single task: to convince or inform about something, sell something, attract customers to the store or participants for some specific event.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is necessary to create a good landing?</span>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">1. Clear and detailed information about who and why the landing page is created.</span> A full description, actual and digital characteristics and a sufficient selection of illustrations. Approximately the same as you would surely introduce to a future partner, investor or buyer in order to arouse trust and desire to cooperate and buy.\r\nFor what? To arouse trust and desire to cooperate or buy. And, so that there is no room for silly questions. Smart ones are welcome.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">2. An idea of how the landing page will "work".</span> In other words, the script. Where to start, what to talk about next, then to complete a "conversation" with a landing visitor. Where and what accents to place. What to say (or keep silent). And how to bring a potential customer to the most important thing - the formed desire to buy.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-landing-pages.png","alias":"landing-pages"},"816":{"id":816,"title":"Online surveys","description":" Online (Internet) surveys are becoming an essential research tool for a variety of research fields, including marketing, social and official statistics research. According to ESOMAR online survey research accounted for 20% of global data-collection expenditure in 2006. They offer capabilities beyond those available for any other type of self-administered questionnaire. Online consumer panels are also used extensively for carrying out surveys but the quality is considered inferior because the panelists are regular contributors and tend to be fatigued. However, when estimating the measurement quality (defined as product of reliability and validity) using a multitrait-mutlimethod approach (MTMM), some studies found a quite reasonable quality and even that the quality of a series of questions in an online opt-in panel (Netquest) was very similar to the measurement quality for the same questions asked in the European Social Survey (ESS), which is a face-to-face survey.\r\nSome studies have compared the quality of face-to-face surveys and/or telephone surveys with that of online surveys, for single questions, but also for more complex concepts measured with more than one question (also called Composite Scores or Index). Focusing only on probability-based surveys (also for the online ones), they found overall that the face-to-face (using show-cards) and web surveys have quite similar levels of measurement quality, whereas the telephone surveys were performing worse. Other studies comparing paper-and-pencil questionnaires with web-based questionnaires showed that employees preferred online survey approaches to the paper-and-pencil format. There are also concerns about what has been called "ballot stuffing" in which employees make repeated responses to the same survey. Some employees are also concerned about privacy. Even if they do not provide their names when responding to a company survey, can they be certain that their anonymity is protected? Such fears prevent some employees from expressing an opinion.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What does Online Survey mean?</span>\r\nAn online survey is a questionnaire that the target audience can complete over the Internet. Online surveys are usually created as Web forms with a database to store the answers and statistical software to provide analytics. People are often encouraged to complete online surveys by an incentive such as being entered to win a prize.\r\nCompanies often use online surveys to gain a deeper understanding of their customers’ tastes and opinions. Like traditional surveys, online surveys can be used in two basic ways: To provide more data on customers, including everything from basic demographic information (age, education level and so on) to social data (causes, clubs or activities the customer supports) To create a survey about a specific product, service or brand in order to find out how consumers are reacting to it. In contrast to traditional surveys, online surveys offer companies a way to sample a broader audience at a lower cost.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-online-surveys.png","alias":"online-surveys"},"818":{"id":818,"title":"Content Marketing","description":" Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used by businesses in order to:\r\n<ul><li>Attract attention and generate leads</li><li>Expand their customer base</li><li>Generate or increase online sales</li><li>Increase brand awareness or credibility</li><li>Engage an online community of users</li></ul>\r\nContent marketing attracts prospects and transforms prospects into customers by creating and sharing valuable free content. Content marketing helps companies create sustainable brand loyalty, provides valuable information to consumers, and creates a willingness to purchase products from the company in the future. This relatively new form of marketing does not involve direct sales. Instead, it builds trust and rapport with the audience.\r\nUnlike other forms of online marketing, content marketing relies on anticipating and meeting an existing customer need for information, as opposed to creating demand for a new need. As James O'Brien of Contently wrote on Mashable, "The idea central to content marketing is that a brand must give something valuable to get something valuable in return. Instead of the commercial, be the show. Instead of the banner ad, be the feature story." Content marketing requires continuous delivery of large amounts of content, preferably within a content marketing strategy.\r\nWhen businesses pursue content marketing, the main focus should be the needs of the prospect or customer. Once a business has identified the customer's need, information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, email newsletters, case studies, podcasts, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, blogs, etc. Most of these formats belong to the digital channel.\r\nDigital content marketing is a management process that uses electronic channels to identify, forecast, and satisfy the content requirements of a particular audience. It must be consistently updated and added to in order to influence the behavior of customers.","materialsDescription":" What Types of Businesses Can Content Marketing Help?\r\nSmall and large businesses in virtually every industry use content marketing to their advantage. From major consumer brands and retail stores to tech companies and service-oriented businesses, content marketing can help you reach out to your target audience.\r\nBoth business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) companies have developed successful content marketing strategies. The techniques and goals vary between B2B and B2C companies, but that doesn’t make content marketing any less effective.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How Can Content Marketing Benefit My Business?</span>\r\nThe beauty of content marketing is that it serves multiple purposes. Depending on your goals and the type of content you create, it could boost your brand in several different ways.\r\nFirst, content marketing can increase awareness of your brand, especially if the material you produce has an educational angle. As customers get to know your brand and the value that it provides through high-quality content, you can also increase customer loyalty. As you grow your brand’s base, you can also generate website traffic and drive sales.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Can Content Marketing Generate Leads for My Business?</span>\r\nWith the right strategy in place, you can use content marketing to generate a steady stream of new leads for your business. While most brands offer content like blog posts, articles, and videos free of charge, they also create high-level content, such as white papers, case studies, and eBooks to serve as lead magnets. Then they require readers to opt into a mailing list before gaining access to the high-level content.\r\nOnce you’ve gained permission to email interested customers, you can introduce your leads to your sales funnel. As your leads discover and engage with your other content marketing efforts, they may convert from potential to current customers.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What’s the Most Common Content Marketing Mistake?</span>\r\nFor most businesses, the biggest content marketing mistake is jumping in without a coherent strategy. Like any type of marketing, you need a plan to get the results you want from content marketing. Launching a blog and producing posts regularly may never help you achieve your objectives if you don’t know what you want to accomplish or how to get there.\r\nTo develop an effective content marketing strategy, you’ll need to understand who your target audience is, what kinds of content they want, and how your brand can offer the greatest value to your audience. Many businesses opt to create buyer personas so they can get to know their target audience and design content that’s sure to resonate.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What Type of Content Should My Business Create?</span>\r\nWhile the right content balance varies from business to business, most brands consider a few essential types. Blog posts and articles tend to top out around 1,000 words and usually help readers understand how and why to use your product or service. Case studies, white papers, and eBooks are substantially longer and typically feature original research related to your industry. Infographics and videos generally explain and illustrate concepts that you simply can’t convey via text. Depending on your brand’s goals, you might include one, two, or all types of content in your strategy.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How Much Content Should My Business Produce?</span>\r\nJust as content type depends on your unique brand, so does content frequency. A lifestyle brand may benefit from developing and sharing short snippets of content daily, while others may get more value out of creating long-form content once a week or twice a month.\r\nNo matter what type of frequency works best for your business, however, strive for a consistent schedule. A regular schedule will boost your reliability and ensure that your audience anticipates your content.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Is Content Marketing the Same as Social Media Marketing?</span>\r\nThese two branches of marketing aren’t the same, but many businesses integrate their content marketing and social media marketing strategies. This synthesis helps brands ensure that they’re optimizing their marketing efforts.\r\nWhile content marketing encompasses written, graphic, and video material that can live on your company’s website or any number of other places online, social media marketing takes place strictly on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Many social media marketers build their editorial calendars around sharing links to content that their brands have created, as this practice can drive views and value.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">How Can You Measure the Results of Content Marketing?</span>\r\nWhen you invest in a content marketing strategy, it’s essential to track the results and determine your return on investment (ROI). As a general rule, your goals determine the metrics you’ll track as you assess results.\r\nFor example, if you want to increase brand awareness, you might track website traffic, bounce rate, or social shares. If you want to generate leads, you’ll track the number of leads, conversion rates, and an average time to close.","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-content-marketing.png","alias":"content-marketing"},"820":{"id":820,"title":"Marketing Automation","description":"Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks.\r\nMarketing departments, consultants and part-time marketing employees benefit by specifying criteria and outcomes for tasks and processes which are then interpreted, stored and executed by digital marketing software, which increases efficiency and reduces human error. Originally focused on email marketing automation, marketing automation now refers to a broad range of automation and analytic tools for marketing, especially inbound marketing. Marketing Automation platforms are used as a hosted or web-based solution, and no software installation is required by the customer.\r\nThe reason for using a marketing automation platform is to streamline sales and marketing organizations by replacing high-touch, repetitive manual processes with automated solutions.\r\nMarketing automation is a platform that marketers use to plan, coordinate, manage and measure all of their marketing campaigns, both online and offline. It is often used along with lifecycle marketing strategy to closely manage and nurture generated leads, aiming to convert leads into customers.\r\nMarketing automation is a type of software that allows companies to effectively target customers with automated marketing messages across channels including email, websites, social media and text messages to generate sales leads. The technology is a segment of customer relationship management, or CRM, and is typically used by marketing departments as a way to remove repetitive tasks from staff workflows and increase overall marketing efficiency.\r\nOften, a brand will use multiple marketing automation tools, referred to as the marketing technology or martech — stack. These automation platforms assist in lead generation via email marketing, chatbots hosted on social media or websites, and other channels such as short message service (SMS) text. Marketing automation tools extend the reach of marketing campaigns, creating inbound marketing, a term some vendors use to refer to the strategy of finding prospects for top- to mid-funnel via personalization of pitches derived through analytics tools, which segment customers into different groups for different approaches.\r\n<p class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Marketing automation features</span></p>\r\nDigital marketing automation software manages the online element of a marketing campaign, including data analytics that can create more precise personalization of content to individual customers to drive engagement and revenue.\r\nArtificial intelligence (AI) applications such as chatbots can help automate the delivery of that information or direct potential customers to webpages, online documents or forms that help create sales or gauge a potential customer's current or future interest in purchasing a company's goods or services. Marketing manager tools can also administer customer satisfaction and product usage surveys and then collect, measure and segment the response data.\r\nThe main features of marketing automation software typically include:\r\n<ul><li>Account-based marketing</li><li>Analytics for CRM</li><li>Campaign management</li><li>Inbound marketing</li><li>Lead management</li><li>Marketing ROI</li><li>Targeting and segmentation</li><li>Social marketing</li></ul>","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">Who should use marketing automation?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">The beauty of a marketing automation system is that it can help your business maximize on efforts that have already proven successful. Attracting new audiences through the use of effective marketing strategies is step one, but if you want to do more to nurture those people so that they become customers, marketing automation is a good bet.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">How can marketing automation benefit my business?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Marketing software solutions removes the hassle from your marketing strategy and allows you to streamline, automate and evaluate tasks and workflows. Your business will be able to scale its efforts and improve how you target customers.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">What is marketing automation software?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">In essence, it’s a set of solutions that automates, streamlines and analyzes marketing-related workflows and engagement to get more leads and qualify them for sales. The idea is the more qualified leads you get the higher the conversion rate and the more revenue you generate. </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Marketing software programs differ from CRM in that the purpose of marketing automation software is to get top-of-funnel leads, while the latter nurtures middle- and bottom-of-funnel leads. In short, marketing automation qualifies leads to feed into the CRM sales funnel for nurturing prospects to conversion.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Marketing automation plugs into a company's CRM system, which, typically, has its own native marketing automation cloud service (such as Salesforce Pardot and Oracle Eloqua). Eloqua will work with other CRM platforms that compete with Oracle's, and Marketo, an independent marketing automation platform, will work with Salesforce, Oracle, Microsoft and other CRM systems. HubSpot also is a popular marketing automation platform that has its own CRM backbone.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">This becomes important when a company's marketing operations rely on a survey, email, social media or chatbot app for inbound lead-generation efforts that plug into Marketo or Eloqua, which, in turn, allows those marketing processes to continue regardless of which CRM the company uses. In effect, they act as middleware connecting the thousands of niche marketing automation tools and large CRM systems, where a company's customer data resides.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">What are the types of marketing automation software?<br /></span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">CRM integrated</span>. Many CRM solutions today have multi-channel marketing tools to make lead generation a seamless experience from top-of-funnel to conversion. If not fully packaged, at least the marketing automation and CRM are modularized and have native integration.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Email marketing</span>. Marketing automation has its beginnings with email marketing software. Many mailers are established and have maintained their email marketing UI as their core functionality, but they now offer newer marketing automation features like lead scoring, landing page integration and analytics beyond the open-click metric.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Marketing automation.</span> This is the primary category featuring the standard tools, such as: forms, landing pages, lead scoring, lead database, reporting and analytics and pre-built or integrated email marketing and CRM functions.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Marketing analytics software</span>. They can be standalone apps or modules to a bigger marketing automation system. They lend more powerful analytics to the base system and cross over to the business intelligence category.<br />Social marketing. These are marketing software solutions with focus on social media functionalities such as Twitter and LinkedIn prospecting, brand mention tracking on Facebook and triggered posts on your pages based on your rules for keywords, hashtags or mentions.</p>\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; \">What does marketing automation software do?</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\">Here are the main features of marketing automation technology, which you should look for when subscribing to one.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Lead scoring. </span>Allows you to automatically grade leads based on specific criteria you set, including demographics, prospect behaviors and historical interactions. You assign a weight to each criterion and the system aggregates them to calculate the prospect’s lead score. The lead scores can be segregated by range and automatically funneled to their respective workflows. </p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Lead database</span>. The lead database captures a qualified prospect’s details and other marketing activities like web visits, email clicks and downloads. This database funnels leads to your CRM sales pipeline and, once converted, into your main customer database. The lead database may also allow for segmentation to help you target groups.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Lead nurturing.</span> Generally runs workflows designed to filter or shortlist prospects, which include managing the processes in email marketing and other channels and capturing data that helps in further qualifying leads.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Email marketing.</span> Business email marketing software allows email drip campaigns and features newsletter and email templates or an editor that lets you design your layout with ease. It allows for mass emails to targeted lists with a tracking tool to view number of opens and click-throughs. It may also feature an advanced tool for triggered emails, which send the right response in real time to specific customer actions.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">CRM integration</span>. Once the leads are qualified at the top-of-funnel, they are sent to the sales team; hence, marketing automation software should have seamless CRM integration. The integration can be with a third-party solution or as an add-on to the marketing automation software.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Forms and landing pages.</span> A form is embedded on the landing page to collect lead data, where it is funneled into your database for lead scoring. The landing page can also include dynamic content, where images, texts and calls-to-action are customized to the lead based on profiling like geolocation, industry, job title, previous interactions with you, etc.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Progressive profiling.</span> This is a smart form that delivers the right fields to different leads. A web visitor is analyzed for key details (for example: IP address, source page, Y/N customer) and is led to a series of unique short forms to capture specific data. This feature may also require social credentials for deeper profiling.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Reporting & analytics. </span>You can calculate an individual campaign’s cost and ROI and, generally, your marketing activities, by running analytics on key metrics that are sliced and diced in different ways that include open emails, downloads, lead volume, etc. In conjunction with CRM, you can associate these values against sales metrics like conversion rate, win-loss rate and total sales.</p>\r\n<p class=\"align-left\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold; \">Mobile-optimized. </span>Mobile-optimized landing pages and emails help you target users who access the Internet from their smartphones or tablets. Mobile-optimized also means you can access the system and your data on the go.<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-marketing-automation.png","alias":"marketing-automation"},"822":{"id":822,"title":"PR & Outreach","description":" Outreach - is building relationships with the audience outside the formal channels of communication. Contact can be both online and offline. That is, if usually, a person deals with a company at an official level - on a website, in a representative office, etc., then in outreach information is conveyed through external sources.\r\nThe main goal of the outreach project is to create valuable backlinks from sites to the client’s website. These links improve organic ranking and attract new audiences. Outreach often has secondary goals of enhancing brand awareness and building trust.\r\nClassic PR forms an idea of the object. Outreach is needed at the next stage when people have gaps in information or there are difficulties in communicating with representatives of the brand.\r\nOutreach can be targeted at various target groups or their segments. For example, for fans of some brand, users of a particular service. In the broad sense of the word, outreach is propaganda, expanding the reach of a loyal audience. This term also means work with opinion leaders, educational and missionary activities.","materialsDescription":" <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is outreach?</span>\r\nOutreach is one of the directions in crowd marketing, which implies an agreement personally with the owner of the site, a blogger, in order to place banner ads on their resource, mentioning the promotion of a company or brand.\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What are the main tasks of outreach?</span>\r\n<ul><li>Backlinks are still the strongest ranking indicator in the Google search sequence.</li><li>As the Google algorithm has improved its ability to detect, ignore, and punish unethical methods of link building, companies must earn links by creating and advertising high-quality content that requires complex communications and processes.</li><li>The specialist competently approaches the project, finds trust sites, forums, blogs for advertising, agrees with the owner of the donor site - this is the key to the quality of building the link mass.</li><li>The result of effective outreach work: product visibility in search engines and high site traffic.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Who needs outreach?</span>\r\nOutreach is a new direction in link building, but he has already managed to make himself known on the Internet. Who needs this promotion method:\r\n<ul><li>SEO specialists;</li><li>Web studios;</li><li>PR managers;</li><li>Marketers;</li><li>Online stores;</li><li>Media.</li></ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">What is the outreach algorithm?</span>\r\nWork in the framework of the direction takes place in several stages:\r\n<ol><li>Search for sites that are popular and relevant to your audience.</li><li>Definition of opinion leaders on a selected topic.</li><li>Search for contacts of resource representatives.</li><li>Choosing a format: press release, interview, article, mention with a link.</li><li>Preparation of a press release with details and terms of cooperation.</li><li>Writing a welcome letter.</li><li>Communication with representatives and negotiations.</li><li>Content preparation.</li><li>Publication and control.</li></ol>","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon-pr-outreach.png","alias":"pr-outreach"},"844":{"id":844,"title":"Data access","description":"Data access is a generic term referring to a process which has both an IT-specific meaning and other connotations involving access rights in a broader legal and/or political sense. Two fundamental categories of data access exist:\r\n<ul><li>sequential access (as in magnetic tape, for example)</li><li>random access (as in indexed media)</li></ul>\r\nThe <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">sequential method</span> requires information to be moved within the disk using a seek operation until the data is located. Each segment of data has to be read one after another until the requested data is found. Reading data <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">randomly </span>allows users to store or retrieve data anywhere on the disk, and the data is accessed in constant time.\r\nOftentimes when using random access, the data is split into multiple parts or pieces and located anywhere randomly on a disk. Sequential files are usually faster to load and retrieve because they require fewer seek operations.\r\nAccess data management crucially involves authorization to access different data repositories. Data access solutions can help distinguish the abilities of administrators and users. For example, administrators may have the ability to remove, edit and add data, while general users may not even have "read" rights if they lack access to particular information.\r\nA <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">data access right</span> (DAR) is a permission that has been granted that allows a person or computer program to locate and read digital information at rest. Digital access rights play and important role in information security and compliance.\r\nIn compliance, DARs are often granted to data subjects by law. For example, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, a data subject has the right to access their own personal data and request a correction or erasure.\r\nTo avoid losing or corrupting corporate data, organizations should grant only the necessary required access to each user, a concept known as the <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">principle of least privilege</span> (POLP). To ensure confidentiality, information should be used by authorized personnel only. To maintain data integrity, data should not be modified accidentally or voluntarily. Additionally, to provide data availability, the system should operate within the required levels of service.\r\nHistorically, each repository (including each different database, file system, etc.), might require the use of different methods and languages, and many of these repositories stored their content in different and incompatible formats.\r\nOver the years standardized languages, methods, and formats, have developed to serve as interfaces between the often proprietary, and always idiosyncratic, specific languages and methods. Such standards include SQL (1974- ), ODBC (ca 1990- ), JDBC, XQJ, ADO.NET, XML, XQuery, XPath (1999- ), and Web Services.\r\nSome of these standards enable translation of data from unstructured (such as HTML or free-text files) to structured (such as XML or SQL). Structures such as connection strings and DBURLs can attempt to standardise methods of connecting to databases.<br /><br /><br />","materialsDescription":"<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is a database?</span></h1>\r\nA database is a collection of related data which represents some aspect of the real world. A database system is designed to be built and populated with data for a certain task.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What is DBMS?</span></h1>\r\nDatabase Management System (also known as DBMS) is a access database software for storing and retrieving users' data by considering appropriate security measures. It allows users to create their own databases as per their requirement.\r\nIt consists of a group of programs which manipulate the database and provide an interface between the database. It includes the user of the database and other application programs.\r\nThe DBMS accepts the request for data from an application and instructs the operating system to provide the specific data. In large systems, a DBMS helps users and other third-party software to store and retrieve data.\r\n<h1 class=\"align-center\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal;\">What are the best data access rights practices?</span></h1>\r\nTo keep data access control issues from arising, the following practices are recommended:\r\n<ul><li>Company security policies should specify what employees can and cannot do on their computers. For example, will individual user data access to allow personal emails, file downloads, software installation, information ownership and authorized or unauthorized website access.</li><li>Data should be classified based on its degree of confidentiality (and the risks associated with being leaked) and criticality (the integrity and the risk of alteration or destruction).</li><li>Control to data should be established using required authorization or authentication and by employing traceability (which consists of tracking access to sensitive IT resources).</li><li>Regular detailed audits should be performed to help set up controls surrounding identity management, privileged users and access to resources.</li><li>The rights of users should be limited. For example, Windows 10 offers standard and administrator accounts, but most users should just have standard accounts to complete their daily tasks.</li></ul>\r\n\r\n","iconURL":"https://roi4cio.com/fileadmin/user_upload/icon_Data_access.png","alias":"data-access"}},"companyUrl":"www.leadmi.io","countryCodes":["IND","USA"],"certifications":[],"isSeller":true,"isSupplier":false,"isVendor":true,"presenterCodeLng":"","seo":{"title":"LeadMi.io","keywords":"","description":"Leadmi.io is a new age marketing automation platform which enables businesses to manage social media platforms and generate highly accurate leads leveraging social media activity and buyer persona. ","og:title":"LeadMi.io","og:description":"Leadmi.io is a new age marketing automation platform which enables businesses to manage social media platforms and generate highly accurate leads leveraging social media activity and buyer persona. 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