Starter Project: 2010

Agile reporting methods for project managers

Posted by Sinlung

By Rick Freedman, Special to ZDNet Asia

Rick Freedman describes the four reports that PMs typically create at the end of each iteration of Scrum agile projects.

Before we explore specific agile reporting methods, it's important to return to fundamental principles and refresh our motivations for project status reporting.

No project manager (PM), agile or traditional, denies that stakeholders deserve visibility into the project for which they are paying and on which they are relying for added business value. Any disagreement is one of degree and focus.

In traditional project management, we often spend a significant amount of our development time either trying to predict our development path or trying to track our path against these predictions. We frequently find ourselves pitted against our own predictions as we report to our customers ("You said you'd be 56 percent complete, but you're only 42 percent complete...what went wrong?").

One of the unspoken misfortunes of traditional project methods is that the PM and the team typically start out behind and in trouble and get progressively deeper and deeper into "task debt", destroying the team morale and diverting the PM from productive leadership activities to justification and detail obsession.

The new world of risk management for PMs

Posted by Sinlung

By Rick Freedman, Special to ZDNet Asia
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:22 PM

Read suggestions about how IT PMs should change their approach to risk in this new environment where everyone is more conscious of risk management.

After a long risk management session, in which the project manager (PM) tries to get the team to consider all reasonable risks and opportunities, the PM will ask the wrap-up question, "Are there any other risks we haven't captured?"

Some sarcastic wag will inevitably respond with what he considers to be an out-there scenario: "The building could blow up!" or "The next great depression might start!" The point of these remarks is usually to chide the PM to stop taking everyone's time spinning improbable scenarios of disaster and just let the engineers get on with their work.

If the twenty-first century has taught us anything, it's that these out-there predictions have a nasty habit of occurring. In fact, the incidence of these improbable events, and their obvious impact, has inspired a theory that is described in the best-selling book "The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb.

The author's proposition, in short, is that the human brain is wired for pattern recognition and so it sees patterns and narratives where none exist. This gives rise to the fallacy that we can accurately predict the future from the past and that events will follow the patterns that we have recently observed.

Have a global change project? Start by understanding remote offices

Posted by Sinlung

Successfully implementing global change projects, whether they involve a massive worldwide software package or "soft" changes like a new process or policy, involve a unique set of challenges.
Not only are you faced with the usual gauntlets of scope, timeline and budget, but unique additions like language, culture and the "headquarters dynamic" rear their heads, derailing the most well-intentioned efforts if they are ignored. The headquarters dynamic is one of the more interesting of these challenges and represents the relationship between corporate headquarters, which generally initiates a change project, and the field offices, which are usually on the receiving end of these efforts.
Sir, yes, sir!
Traditionally, most companies implementing large-scale global projects assume a command-and-control model, with headquarters marshaling resources, setting schedules and essentially dictating orders to field offices.
You don't need an advanced degree in international relations to imagine that this usually breeds discord and resentment; field offices see the initiative as yet another grand scheme cooked up in the "ivory towers" at headquarters, with little regard to local operating, legal and resource constraints.
At best, regional offices begrudgingly comply with headquarters' fiat and promptly look for the best way to modify, work around, or altogether disregard the results of the change effort.
The opposite model is to issue what amounts to "suggestions" to local operating entities and hope that they follow through. Like the hundreds of e-mails we each receive offering advice and mild threats if some new policy or procedure is not obeyed, most of these end up promptly filed in the nearest rubbish bin.
What is needed is a model that takes into account the unique assets of field offices and leverages the operational and administrative powers of the home office as an asset rather than an overbearing administrative headache.
Understanding the remote office
Using the headquarters dynamic as an asset rather than a liability requires some understanding of the conditions in the field office.
Most field offices have less staff than headquarters and are more tightly focused on core operational activities like sales, marketing, manufacturing and logistics. Since these offices are usually established as a beachhead in an attractive market, they are generally lean and mean and focused tightly on getting the maximum results with the minimum amount of resources. As such, creative ways of doing business are often developed, and models that could benefit the company as a whole may be lying about undiscovered.
Many remote offices take pride in the success they have achieved, without the additional perceived overhead that exists at headquarters. Key to leveraging the headquarters dynamic is to acknowledge the good work frequently done in the field and seek out any best practices that can be incorporated into a global model.
In addition, rather than trying to deploy a "one-size-fits-all" solution to every global problem, consider two or three "standard" processes that accommodate a wide variety of statutory requirements, volumes of business, and varying staff levels. Usually what works at headquarters or a major regional hub is vast overkill for a local office that works in dozens of transactions rather than thousands.
The obvious way to ensure regional voices are heard is to incorporate regional personnel on the planning and deployment teams. Not only will their thoughts and field experience prove invaluable, but seeing multinational faces rather than yet another team of "drones from HQ" on the next change project will instantly instill confidence and credibility that local concerns are being aired and accounted for.
Making a friend of HQ
Perhaps the best role of headquarters in a global project is to serve as a global clearinghouse of knowledge, people and dispute resolution. Most failed global projects are rooted in a poor understanding of the headquarters dynamic, usually with the home office underestimating the complexities of field operations or simply turning a blind eye to their requirements and attempting to implement an overly complex solution in the name of "global standardization".
When headquarters is seen as having an open ear and working to transparently resolve disputes that are bound to arise in the course of a global project, the field will eventually see headquarters as a trustworthy asset to the change effort, rather than a monolith bent on implementing ill-conceived projects that get in the way of local operational activities.
For more on the role headquarters should play in a successful global change project and other tips on global projects, please download the free white paper: "Conquering the World--Delivering Globally".
Patrick Gray is the founder and president of Prevoyance Group, and author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology. Prevoyance Group provides strategic IT consulting services to Fortune 500 and 1000 companies.

via zdnetasia

RIM: Carriers want users on Wi-Fi

Posted by Sinlung

ORLANDO, FLORIDA--The ability to route calls over Wi-Fi to the company PBX (private branch exchange) on BlackBerry phones will not alienate carrier partners, but be a welcome feature for the latter, says Research in Motion (RIM).
The new platform, called BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS) 5, was announced Monday in a press briefing at the WES 2010 show. One of the highlighted features is the ability to allow users to make calls over their company PBX systems via any Wi-Fi network. Prior to this update, the phones were able to perform this function only over 3G.
This allows BlackBerrys to bypass a carrier's data network, and also costly roaming services whether it be voice or data, by connecting a user directly to the company's PBX. This is so long as there is a Wi-Fi network available.
Alan Brenner, senior vice president for the BlackBerry platform, said this move will not alienate carriers.
In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Brenner emphasized the phone maker's relationship with operators: "We do all of our business through carriers."
The cost savings from the new feature, he said, will present another reason for companies to get BlackBerrys, resulting in more business for carriers.
Wi-Fi offloading has also become an increasing aspect that carriers are looking into, as their networks feel the load strain of data-hungry smartphone users, Brenner added.
"Carriers will benefit from offloading of their networks to corporate networks. Call quality is also clearer over Wi-Fi," he said.
The update will be available to users mid this year.
Native apps more compelling
Irvin Nio, U.K.-based infrastructure architect with CapGemini, said his company is looking into enabling native access to its internal enterprise apps on BlackBerry phones. However, he added that the development tools available to his staff are behind in comparison to what is available for other platforms such as Windows Mobile.
Nio, who spoke to ZDNet Asia on the sidelines of the WES conference, said his users are asking for BlackBerry devices, but he is still "looking into how to make BlackBerrys more than just e-mail devices".
With native support for the company's ERP (enterprise resource planning) system available on other mobile platforms, Nio's team needs to get its BlackBerry support to catch up, he said.
Push e-mail--once synonymous with BlackBerrys--is now "commoditized" and available on other mobile platforms, so tight enterprise app integration is the next differentiator, he said.
Brenner said RIM offers developers three ways to make apps for BlackBerrys. Java apps are native and able to tap the phone's native functions through APIs, allowing the most control for developers, he said. Web-based apps are allowed, although these are not permitted to access APIs and are therefore more limited in function.
The third app type is the widget, which is based on Web apps, but which have some APIs available and can call up native device functions, he said.
Brenner said a number of RIM's customers have built BlackBerry apps for their SAP ERP systems, but these are Web-based. He could not say for certain if any have built native Java ERP apps, though these tools are available to developers.
Victoria Ho of ZDNet Asia reported from the WES 2010 show in Orlando, Florida.

Exploits not needed to attack via PDF files

Posted by Sinlung

Portable Document Format (PDF) files could be used to spread malware to clean PDF files stored on a target computer running Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader PDF software, a security researcher warned on Monday.
Jeremy Conway, product manager at NitroSecurity, created a proof of concept for an attack in which malicious code is injected into a file on a computer as part of an incremental update, but which could be used to inject malicious code into any or all PDF files on a computer.
The attack requires the user of the computer to allow the code to be executed by agreeing to it via a dialog box. However, the attacker could at least partially control the content of the dialog box that appears to prompt the user to launch the executable and thus use social engineering to entice the computer user to agree to execute the malware, said Conway.
Turning off JavaScript would not prevent the attack. It also does not require that the attacker exploit a vulnerability in the PDF reader itself.
The PDF reader incremental update capability "can be used as an infection vector", said Conway. The attack "does not exploit a vulnerability. No crazy Zero-Day (exploit) is needed to make this work."
Conway's proof of concept attack takes advantage of the same weakness in PDF readers that security researcher Didier Stevens of Belgium discovered a week ago and explained on his blog.
Stevens was able to launch a command and run an executable within a PDF file using a multi-part scripting process. As a result of that research and blog post, researchers at Adobe and Foxit Software are investigating ways to mitigate the risks from such attacks, according to ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet.
An Adobe spokeswoman did not have a comment on Conway's hack, but ZDNet posted Adobe's comment on Stevens':
"Didier Stevens' demo relies on functionality defined in the PDF specification, which is an ISO standard (ISO PDF 32000-1:2008)," the statement said. "Section 12.6.4.5 of the specification defines the /launch command. This is an example of powerful functionality relied on by some users that also carries potential risks when used incorrectly. The warning message provided in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat includes strong wording advising users to only open and execute the file if it comes from a trusted source. Adobe takes the security of our products and technologies very seriously; we are always evaluating ways to allow end-users and administrators to better manage and configure features like this one to mitigate potential associated risks."
Foxit provided ZDNet this comment:
"Foxit takes every security concern seriously and we focus our engineering resources at determining the cause of the problem and coming up with a complete and safe solution. Upon hearing of a possible security concern, our development team went to work and a resolution was determined in less than 24 hours and an updated version of the Foxit Reader will be made public in the next 72 hours."
The problem results from the PDF reader software allowing executable files to be opened or launched from within the program, according to Conway. "Most users don't use that additional functionality," he said.
He suggested that PDF software firms could provide a "minimalistic" version of the PDF readers that do not allow other types of programs to be launched and allow users to decide which specific types of executables they want to be able to open within the program.
This article was first published as a blog post on CNET News.

APAC personal PCs see double-digit growth

Posted by Sinlung

Following a down in the first three quarters of 2009, the Asia-Pacific branded personal workstation (PWS) market finally grew 14 percent year-on-year in unit shipments, with gains driven mainly by key markets such as China and Australia, says a new IDC report.
PWS shipments in the region had suffered double-digit declines over three consecutive quarters, but beat the analyst firm's forecast for Q4 2009 by growing 11 percent sequentially.
Mujin Kang, IDC senior market analyst of Asia-Pacific enterprise hardware research, described China as a "pivotal" driver in the regional market, accounting for 42 percent of total shipments in the quarter.
Kang pointed to education as the fastest-growing vertical at 59 percent year-on-year due to the strong uptake of computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) and digital content creation (DCC) solutions. Although manufacturing held on as the region's largest vertical for branded PWS, he noted in the report.
Rajnish Arora, IDC research director of Asia-Pacific enterprise servers and workstations research, said vendors are now trying different tricks to boost sales and revenue in a changing landscape. "The key competitive differentiator for vendors is their ability to quickly bring to market highly optimized hardware platforms that seamlessly run a broad selection of packaged applications," he said.
IDC also listed HP, Dell and Lenovo as the top three branded PWS vendors in the region. For 2009, HP had a market share of 52.2 percent similar to a year ago, although this registered a 12.5 percent drop in year-on-year unit growth.
In second place was Dell with 38.6 percent, a decrease of 41.7 percent market share in 2008 and a 19 percent decline in year-on-year unit growth.
Lenovo's market share rose 8.1 percent from 4.5 percent from the previous year, and was the only one among the trio to enjoy a 51 percent year-on-year unit growth.

Mass market 4G handsets only in 2012

Posted by Sinlung

4G long term evolution (LTE) mobile phones are unlikely to hit markets within this year or next, even as carriers rush to set up their LTE networks, according to market analysts.
One primary barrier is the lack of support for legacy voice services within LTE, limiting the 4G network to data use for initial implementations, said Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum.
In a report he sent to ZDNet Asia, Leach said the lack of consensus within the industry regarding voice over LTE will likely result in early4G handset models being deployed over existing 2G and 3G network for voice, while data will be routed over LTE.
Voice can be delivered over LTE's IP-based network natively via IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), the older method of circuit switching that is currently used by 2G and 3G networks. Alternatively, operators can implement a VoIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) application to tunnel voice traffic over LTE.
Daryl Chiam, Canalys senior analyst, said in a phone interview with ZDNet Asia that operators will also prioritize mobile broadband data usage with early LTE rollouts via devices, such as external modems.
"Several operators are prepping their LTE networks for initial rollout by the end of this year, but realistically we'd still have to wait another 12 to 14 months for commercial LTE network availability," Chiam said.
Leach said early adoption of LTE devices will likely come in the form of external modems such as dongles and PC cards, before users move to LTE-embedded devices such as laptops and mobile Internet devices (MIDs).
Ovum predicts voice-enabled LTE handsets will be a market reality only in the first half of 2012.
Once these handsets are available, Leach said shipments will grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 163 percent between 2010 and 2014 to hit 75 million devices in 2014.
Chiam noted that it is "too early to tell" when 4G handsets would eclipse 3G handsets in sales.
Operators already on trial
Some telcos in the Asia-Pacific region have embarked on LTE pilots.
Singapore's three telcos MobileOne (M1), StarHub and SingTel announced their LTE trial networks earlier this year. M1 said last month it would be ready to unveil commercial services on its network by early 2011, according to reports.
Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom announced in December last year it had embarked on a plan to set up a trial LTE network.
When contacted, two manufacturers--Nokia and HTC--preferred to keep mum on their LTE handset plans.
Last week, Samsung said it would release an LTE handset for trial in some U.S. cities by the end of the year.
According to a report posted in May last year, LTE chipset manufacturers will launch their first chips designed for portable modems and PCs. This means handset manufacturers will get dedicated chips only later--and certainly not in time for this year, it added.

Does the best IT job exist?

Posted by Sinlung

Even though being a systems engineer nets you what has been deemed the best job in the United States, recruitment experts in Singapore point to the ups and downs of being an IT professional.
Earlier this month, a study conducted by Focus.com ranked being a systems engineer as the best job in the U.S., ahead of other professions including physician assistant, college professor and nurse practitioner.
While local experts ZDNet Asia contacted were unable to pin down a specific IT role that should be the most sought after in Asia, they did offer some thoughts as to the pull and push of various industry positions, based on indicators such as remuneration, work hours and job security.
Demand for role and job security
The good: Tay Kok Choon, head of strategic sales development at JobStreet.com Singapore, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail that the general demand for IT skills remains "very high". This, he explained, is because aside from traditional application development, many industries such as healthcare depend on IT professionals to improve their customer care and services.
Brian Richards, who heads Kelly Services' IT resources business unit, also noted that those in "hard-core" technical roles or who have specialized skills tend to be recession-proof. "For example, deploying top talent [to develop] efficient applications and provide effective support for systems would be even more important during a downturn when dollars and cents and productivity are closely scrutinized," he said in an e-mail.
The ugly: The more "generic" skills, such as project management, tend to be vulnerable during an economic downturn, added Richards.
Pay, perks and progression
The good: According to Richards, IT jobs within the financial services and IT consulting sectors tend to accord higher salaries, even though bonuses in these verticals saw a "noticeable dip" in 2009 due to the economic slowdown.
Perks and incentives, he said, tend to be higher in specialist areas such as information security, as skill sets are not readily available but nonetheless critical. Another group that receives better perks is senior project or program managers whose roles have a direct impact on business operations.
IT candidates, Richards added, can "pursue careers purely along the technical path, eventually moving into middle- to higher-level positions such as IT director, CIO and CTO, regardless of whether they come from support, infrastructure or application development backgrounds". They may also broaden their experience by taking on "hybrid" roles that require technical skills as well as functional, domain or business experience. Such expertise could eventually lead them to assume senior positions such as COO.
According to Robert Walters' Global Salary Survey 2010 released in February, there will be upward salary adjustments for several IT positions in Singapore this year. The designations include IT risk and compliance director whose salary range is expected to be from S$160,000 (US$113,840) to S$280,000 (US$199,220), up from S$150,000 (US$106,725) to S$250,000 (US$177,875) in 2009. Service delivery managers can also look forward to remuneration of S$130,000 (US$92,495) to S$160,000 (US$113,840) in 2010, an improvement over S$120,000 (US$85,380) to S$140,000 (US$99,610) last year.
When it comes to contract positions, Axer Goh, Robert Walters' manager for IT contract division, said IT specialist roles are the most highly paid in Asia. Those in these roles also have the luxury of selecting projects and working in a new environment with every assignment.
JobStreet.com's Tay noted that many IT roles have a regional responsibility which allow employees to develop softer skills, such as managing cultural and solutions diversity.
The ugly: Robert Walters' Global Salary Survey 2010 stated that roles including director for service delivery, EAI (enterprise application integration) middleware specialist and software engineer can expect to see their maximum salary dip by about S$10,000 to S$20,000. No reasons were given for this forecast decline.
Working hours
The good: Kelly Services' Richards said non-IT support roles tend to operate within office hours, even though the average number of hours worked a day is around 10 to 12.
The ugly: "Occupational hazards" of IT professionals, he noted, revolve around work hours. Firstly, tight timelines and thin budgets typically call for IT professionals to clock longer hours and face tighter timelines than their counterparts in business roles. Major IT systems implementations also typically happen during non-working hours over weekdays, weekends and public holidays so as to minimize business downtime.
IT support jobs also tend to incorporate shifts due to the "follow the sun" nature of system support roles in global organizations, added Richards.
JobStreet.com's Tay pointed out that IT professionals need to be not only fast, but also thorough in their work. "The QA (qualitative analysis) process that was deemed applicable traditionally may no longer be sufficient in today's context. An IT professional needs to stay alert [and] be passionate about his role to reduce incidents of mishap," he said.

Five features of a good password manager

Posted by Sinlung

Given the number of different sets of login credentials we need, especially online, managing strong password policy for your entire computing life may feel like an insurmountable challenge. But there are some tips and tricks that may be used to ease the procedures of secure password management.

A rough approach that many use involves nothing more than maintaining a text file full of passwords that is kept encrypted, so that none of the passwords stored in the file ever really needs to be memorized. They are all accessible by way of a single password, which is used to decrypt the file’s contents when a password is needed.

Such an approach is a bit clunky for many, however. Smoother methods of managing passwords securely exist, most commonly in the form of a type of program known as a "password manager".

Numerous examples of such tools exist, of varying quality and effectiveness. Different people have different needs, and the plethora of options ensures that something "close enough" to one's needs is almost certainly available. Even failing that, there is always the option of just using an encrypted file.

Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the importance of using strong passwords that are unique in each context where a password is needed. Even if they are aware of these measures to protect their private data and login credentials, many of them do not see much value in further protecting such passwords when storing them locally.

Finally, even among those who are aware of all the above considerations, many people do not consciously think through all the implications of the design and feature set of a given password manager when they select it, beyond the basics of ensuring that it encrypts stored passwords.

A number of key characteristics of a password manager are very important for securely managing passwords:

* Encryption: Stored login credentials should always be stored in an encrypted form, using peer reviewed, heavily tested, strong encryption, so that even if the device used to store the passwords is stolen the thief is unlikely to be able to recover passwords.
* Secure resource usage: A number of possible vulnerabilities involving unsecured resource usage are possible. For instance, using secure memory that will not be written to a pagefile or swap partition on disk guards against the danger of a decrypted password being dumped onto the disk where it can be recovered later by a malicious security cracker.
* Self-contained functionality: A lot of software is not written with absolute data security in mind, and it often should not be written that way if the intended functionality of the application presents no need for such security. This does mean, however, that any password management software should not trust the security of outside applications. What good is using secure memory if the decrypted passwords will just be passed directly through another application that stores everything in tempfiles that may never be explicitly deleted?
* Usability: Quick, simple, and easy use of the day-to-day functionality of the password manager is important for ensuring that the password manager actually gets used regularly. If it is not at least nearly as easy to use for all of a user's common password needs, it may get neglected in favor of less secure options.
* Verifiable design: Just as encryption that does not trust the user is not trustworthy, the same is true of software that handles any part of one's secure data management needs. This is especially true of something like a password manager, which manages the data used to access other applications that also need to manage data securely. To ensure that the software is trustworthy, it should be verifiable--which means that the source code is not only available for scrutiny, but verifiably the same as the source code used to produce the actual executable program itself. Security through visibility requires open source software. Ideally, security software should use copyfree licensing policy.

These five criteria are of fairly universal value for a general purpose password manager, and should probably be considered by everyone designing a password manager or selecting one for personal use. Other features may also be desirable, many of which involve suitability for a particular user's workflow, and the specific uses to which a password manager may be put, as contrasted with the specific uses to which another person might put a password manager.

For your particular needs, this short list of considerations will surely not be the only things worth considering, but it should offer a good start.

Chad Perrin is an IT consultant, developer and freelance professional writer. He holds both Microsoft and CompTIA certifications and is a graduate of two IT industry trade schools.

Sneak peek at the (totally awesome) new Photoshop

Posted by Sinlung

News just in that Adobe Creative Suite 5 will be released on April 12th, with shipping expected to start a month later.
As usual, CS5 will combine the very best features in graphics, video and Web design for professionals, for an extortionate price.
That said, have a watch of this video of just one of the new Photoshop’s capabilities. You will be blown away. This makes light work of what previous would have taken hours, maybe even days of work.
If you’re low on time, skip through to 2.50.
[Note: YouTube is Down which is why you might not be able to play this video.]

via John Nack on Adobe via Techmeme

Legacy keeping IE6 in enterprises

Posted by Sinlung

Some big Internet properties are dropping support for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 6, but a "don't fix it if it ain't broke" mentality continues to keep the aged Web browser in enterprises, says analyst.
Hydrasight's research analyst, Vu Long Tran, said in an e-mail interview that IT departments need a solid business case to justify upgrading Web browsers enterprise-wide, as well as to deal with the risks of making changes deemed unnecessary.
"Despite many of the benefits of later versions of Web browsers, change management and regression testing issues still consume the majority of thoughts and concerns of enterprise IT departments," said Tran.
Web browsers are also often tied to enterprise upgrade cycles, he said, adding that businesses are likely to upgrade to newer browsers that come with new OSes. He noted that Hydrasight estimates 80 percent of enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region are still running Windows XP, and IE6 numbers are tied to that OS.
According to Net Applications data from February this year, IE6 had a 21 percent share of the global market, ranked almost on par with the latest version, IE8. IE7 stood at 14 percent, with Microsoft browsers taking a 61 percent share of the overall market.
Tran said a primary reason for companies to continue using IE6 is to maintain support and stability of existing corporate systems.
Financial institutions ZDNet Asia contacted agreed, noting that this was the primary reason they were still running IE6. Alluding to the need to support legacy systems, these sources, who declined to be named, said they would be sticking to IE6 until their companies are forced to make an upgrade through vendor initiatives.
Upgrade by app requirements
Jason Yeh, regional IT manager for Kellogg Company, said in an e-mail that the company upgraded to IE7 a year ago, prompted by requirements of its Web applications.
Kellogg's global IT policy does not allow its users to download other browsers, said Yeh, who is based in Taiwan.
Paul Loke, senior assistant director of computing and information systems at the National Heritage Board, said the Singapore statutory board had also moved to IE7 as part of the country's government-wide initiative to operate within standardized environment, dubbed SOEasy.
Employees are also not permitted to download their own browsers, said Loke. "This is to reduce our manageability issues [such as] increased testing, and the standardized environment will allow us to roll out patches quickly and easily, in cases where urgent fixes are needed," he explained.
IE and Firefox browsers are supported internally, he added.
Tan Teik Guan, CTO and CEO of Singapore-based Data Security Systems Solutions (DSSS) Asia, said the company does not enforce browser choices on its staff.
Its employees also run multiple browser versions to test the company's Web-based products, Tan said, adding that most of the company's users prefer Mozilla Firefox.
According to Tran, organizations should not rush into upgrading Web browsers but must instead, concentrate on maintaining systems and ensure they are fully patched.
"We do not recommend a major wholesale upgrade of the Web browsers inside organizations, where upgrades are not linked to a complete desktop upgrade or overhaul," he said.
Lack of ongoing support
But, there has been pressure by the Web community to kill off IE6.
Google in January announced it would drop support for IE6 on its Google Apps and YouTube Web properties. Earlier this month, a group of Web designers also held a mock funeral for IE6.
However, Tran noted that Google's announcement will have minimal and gradual impact on enterprise users since enterprise vendors will ensure support for the most common denominator--the Microsoft family of browsers.
Furthermore, the main priority for IT organizations is in maintaining the overall computing environment, and not about managing benefits of individual applications such as the Web browser, the analyst explained.
Microsoft has been actively pushing the latest version of its browser IE8, since its launch in March last year.
In an e-mail to ZDNet Asia, Richard Francis, Microsoft's Asia-Pacific general manager for Windows Client business, said IE8's features offer "significant productivity gain" over the competition.
Its security features will also defend PCs against Web attacks, said Francis, quoting NSS lab study data that showed IE8 blocked 80 of all "socially-engineered" malware and phishing sites.
Nonetheless, he noted that the browser also comes with a "Compatibility View" feature to support pages on older versions of IE.

via zdnetasia

CiviCRM: Open Source Nonprofit CRM

Posted by Sinlung

While dealing with salesforce.com I came across a lot of experts comparing it with another open source (customer) relationship management solution, CiviCRM. I had CiviCRM on my list of Top 10 CRM software. It is a web-based CRM tool basically designed to meet the needs of advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups. CiviCRM allows organizations to use a for-profit sales tool on nonprofit CRM purposes. The CiviCRM is also used by many NGOs including Amnesty International , Creative Commons and the Wikimedia Foundation. Let's get into the CiviCRM to delve more into it.
Here are some of the important features that should be considered before evaluating CIviCRM

Easy customization

CiviCRM forms allows the organizations flexibility to choose the information they gather from the constituents. The user can configure custom forms using data fields according to the configuration they require.

Custom fields

The users can set up their own custom data fields apart from the fields provided in standard constituent record.

Custom code

With CIviCRM the users can create their custom code that will initiate actions, calculations etc within the fields.

CRM integration

CiviCRM can be deployed on Drupal and Joomla! content management systems. This allows integration with other CRM systems.

Task Management

The organization using CiviCRM can chalk out new tasks and get them completed. Specific tasks can be assigned to each staff members. The task will appear on the dashboard of the employee.

Geocoding

CiviCRM offers a native integration for Google or Yahoo! It Maps API to geocode for all the contacts as they are created.

Pros

CiviCRM is one the perfect set ups when it comes to non-profit organizations. It is really intuitive to provide out of the box service for such organizations. CiviCRM offers in-built donation pages as well as event registration. It shows better opportunities for extending relationships. It is easy to create groups and smart groups easily in CiviCRM.

Cons

CiviCRM is not too adept with data management. This can be a hindrance for organization looking for extensive data management requirements. Reporting is a concern with CiviCRM. It doesn't integrate membership and payment information with Quickbooks. It also lacks use an external report-writing package that allows easy creation of custom reports.

Competitors

Salesforce.com is one of core competitors. CiviCRM is no comparison to the much more sleek and polished salesforece.com.Further, Salesforce.com thrives with huge ecosystem add-on that are missing in CiviCRM. Mot significant difference between the two software seems the member management out of the box. But, for a nonprofit set up that has a different approach to data management, CiviCRM could be a better selection.

Conclusion

Despites it's shortcomings CiviCRM has a core nonprofit design that makes it perfect for nonprofit organizations. If you have something more to provide, give in. .

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs. Salesforce.com : An Unbiased Review‏

Posted by Sinlung

Salesforce.com:

Salesforce.com is a leading company in Contact Management Software. They provide customer relationship management by allowing companies to organize and get reports that is going to streamline the business and makes the business more profitable.

Advantages:

It provides customers with host of solutions like customer analytics, document application, marketing automation etc
The software offers the most flexible CRM solutions that serves almost all business needs. On- demand application is made easier because of the range of services it provides. You can consider it as the backbone of on - demand application and that is the reason for its huge number of users.
The tool can be installed easily across a wide range of departments and in turn achieve customer satisfaction. You can integrate it with other customer solutions.
You can easily assess your business data using Sales force's sales force automation . For the sales department, it allows them to clearly study the sales data and provides them the idea to effectively manage sales activities with the result like more sales deals are closed, costs are reduced and time and effort is saved.
Sales force's tightly integrated solutions helps users work more efficiently and add some value of every part of the customer lifecycle.
Sales force provides the advantage of multi channel service with easy usage, customization etc. Using this software company can handle from inquiries to lead management.

Disadvantages:

No on-site CRM capability (on-demand only).
It has no vertical functionality and few vertical add-ons available for customers
The integration capabilities are limited with existing productivity software and line-of-business applications
The price is twice compared to Microsoft Dynamics on line solution.

Microsoft Dynamics:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM online, an on-demand customer relationship management service which is hosted and managed by Microsoft. The software provides marketing, sales and service through a web browser or directly into Office or Outlook.

Advantages:

5 GB of storage versus 1 GB in Salesforce.com Professional Edition
100 workflows versus none in Salesforce.com Professional Edition
Total cost of ownership is $44 per user, per month versus $65 per user per month for Salesforce.com Professional Edition
Your choice of a hosted CRM, on-premise CRM, or hybrid CRM deployment model
Web Browser Interface
Unlimited users vs five users allowed in the SalesForce.com Group Edition.
Mass email capabilities.
Microsoft Excel integration which is not available in Salesforce.com CRM
Easy integration with Microsoft tools whereas salesforce.com is difficult to integrate with Microsoft tools.
Capable of accessing data offline.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed to allow customers to easily customize data types, workflows, role-based views through solution capabilities and standard Web services.

Disadvantages:

It does not provide support for power dialing and voice messaging.
The feature to record sales message and to track a customer through sales message is not available.
This is windows only application
There is a restriction for web interface
There is basic hardware requirements (3 servers) to run the software

Handy Tools to manage projects

Posted by Sinlung

Events are indeed projects or at least they should be managed as such.
Here is yet another free list that will help you to be more productive.
Remember to save it in your del.icio.us for future reference and to let others know through StumbleUpon.

Too Many Ideas-Not Enough Action? Time to Use Actionmethod

Posted by Sinlung

Actionmethod is another Project Management related...

ACTION STEPS: Creating

Action Steps are tasks that need to be completed. Each Action Step should start with a verb: "Call Y," "Follow up with X," "Buy a gift for Z."

Create an Action Step with the click of a button.

ACTION STEPS: Delegating

The Delegate feature allows you to use Action Steps to keep others accountable. Create, delegate and track progress.

When you create an Action Step you can delegate it to anyone with an email address.

Once an Action Step is delegated, you can monitor progress to ensure completion.

When someone delegates an Action Step to you, it appears in your Inbox where you can accept or reject it.

ACTION STEPS: Managing

Filters and dragging allow you to organize and manage your action steps by priority, due date or any system that works for you.

When you check-off an Action Step (once you complete the task), it moves to "completed."

You can quickly view all Action Steps, or view by project or group of projects, color, target, or search term.

You can drag and drop to reorganize and prioritize.

PROJECTS

All of your items in Action Method Online are organized by project. A project could be a client, a specific project at work, a party you're planning -- anything.

If you are within "Action Steps," "References," "Backburners," "Discussions," or "Events" you can view each of those items by project.

Or you can view all of the elements in a project at once.

REFERENCES

References are notes, links, files, sketches - any information related to a project that gives context to your Action Steps.

References can store notes, links, and files

With the Introductory Plan, you can create References by entering or pasting key information into the text box, or adding a link to a website or shared document.

With a Premium Plan, you can upload and share files and attachments

BACKBURNERS

Backburners are the brilliant ideas that you want to come back to later, but are not yet actionable.

You can quickly create Backburners

Then assign them to a specific project.

DISCUSSIONS

Discussions enable you to manage ongoing conversations across all of your projects with anyone that works with you. All relevant communications (shared documents, solutions to problems, feedback, decisions) are in one place, for optimal project management.

Discussions are organized by project and can involve any number of people.

Discussions are fully searchable

With a Premium Account, you can attach files to a discussion. They appear within your post, and in this attachment list.

EVENTS

Events are the key occasions/meetings/milestones/etc toward which you (and your team) are working. Events can be used to coordinate deadlines for Action Steps, aiding project management.

After you create an Event, you can then assign Action Steps to the Event (all the things that need to be accomplished by the time of the Event).

INBOX

Your Inbox receives all Action Steps that people delegate to you as well as any References, Backburners, Discussions, and Events that are shared with you.

When someone delegates an Action Step to you, it appears in your inbox.

ACTIVITY FEED

The Activity Feed records everything you do on Action Method Online. You can also view others' activity if they choose to share it with you.

Everything within the Activity Feed is fully searchable by keyword.

You can change your preferences to only see certain activity (e.g. Action Steps)

You can share selected projects in your Activity Feed with other users of Action Method Online.

You can see the Activity Feeds of those who choose to share it with you.

NAGGING AND APPRECIATING

Communication is the key to action, so use the simple Nag and Appreciate features to let other users know what you have to say.

Nagging allows you to send a quick reminder to another user of Action Method Online. It's a friendly way to push projects forward.

The opposite of a nag! Spread the love.

ACTION STEPS: Target Date (optional)

When necessary, you can add a "target targdate" to Action Steps (due date), to ensure timely completion.

ACTION STEPS: Time Tracking (optional)

Time Tracking allows you to assign to an Action Step the amount of time necessary for completion.

You can view how much time the Action Steps in a specific project will take.

By Rick Freedman, Special to ZDNet Asia

By Rick Freedman, Special to ZDNet Asia Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:22 PM

Easy customization

Custom fields

Custom code

CRM integration

Task Management

Geocoding

Pros

Cons

Competitors

Conclusion

Salesforce.com:

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Microsoft Dynamics:

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Project Management Software

To do lists

Mind Mapping

Paper

Blogs

Presentations

Books

iPhone

Blackberry

Online Communities

Blog Archive

Blogs We Like

By Rick Freedman, Special to ZDNet Asia
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:22 PM