Communication issue 6

Not For Sale

Magazine

/CommunicationMagazine

The First Technology Magazine In Egypt

Issue 6 sept - Oct 2015

3 STEPS

TO MAKING THE INTERNET YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Interview with Ahmed Ellithy CEO of Smart Integrated Solution

SPATIAL BIG DATA

MULTIMEDIA CONTACT CENTER & SPEECH ANALYTICS

The rise and rise of

IoT throughout the world

CLOUD ERP

Communication

3

4

Communication

Rise and Rise of IoT 34 The Throughout The World Interview with Ahmed Ellithy CEO of Smart Integrated Solution

12 Spatial Big Data

20 5 smart and simple steps to improve email management and productivity

50 8

News

16

ICT Minister Attends Meetings of Arab Telecommunications Information Council of Ministers 57

Art Director Amir Khaled

6

Communication

Directory

6FLHQWL多F Multimedia Contact Center & Speech Analytics

63

Conversion Factors

News Egypt Participates in ITU Telecom World 2015

«Designing ICT Applications for Youth Inclusive Employment» Workshop to hold

Egypt, represented by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), will participate in the ITU Telecom World 2015, taking place on October 12 – 15 in Budapest, Hungary with a central theme of “Accelerating Innovation for Social Good”.

The Forum program at the event will explore three main tracks: accelerating digital transformation, expanding access to digital opportunities and building trust for a connected future.

From the current state of 5G to international standards in the Internet of Things, from new connectivity solutions to consumer trust in big data and the regulatory hurdles to innovation, the discussions will embrace the key issues of moment in the ICT sector – and address how to move forward on creating a better future for all, as soon as possible.

“Designing ICT Applications for Youth Inclusive Employment” Workshop will be held on October 13 -15 in Bibliotheca Alexandria, Egypt in line with the activities of the joint project titled “jobs and skills for persons with disabilities with a focus on ICT solutions” which was launched, in September 2014, by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), ICT Trust Fund and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The 18-month project targets youth with visual and physical impairments aged 18 to 35 years and its main purpose is to support private labor market inclusion for People with Disabilities (PwDs) in the ICT and tourism sectors in six governorates (Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Read Sea, Dakahliya, and Minia) through ICT solutions.

«Save Me» and «Genius» Applications Win in ICT-Trust Fund Open Source Software Camp

ICT Minister Attends Meetings of Arab Telecommunications Information Council of Ministers, Executive Bureau in Cairo

In the Open Code Camp for Sustainable Development Hackathon organized on October 8, the health service project “Save Me” won the first prize, which aims to implement software of mobile phones and cloud computing to link emergency rooms and intensive care rooms in hospitals via an electronic network, allowing the provision of services to citizens using smart phones.

The second winner project was “Genius” that introduces the basics of programming and computer science using Gamification techniques to children which are advanced game applications for educational purposes.ICT Trust Fund, jointly established by MCIT and the UNDP, supported the event technically following the “Free Open Source Software Camp for Sustainable Development” it organized in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme and Open iT Company.

10 Communication

Egypt hosts the meetings of the Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers and its Executive Bureau on October 45- where round 38 of the Executive Bureau meeting is held, while round 19 of the Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers meeting will be held later.

These meetings are set to witness extensive discussions for a number of Arab issues of common concern in order to coordinate efforts and promote cooperation among Member States to achieve the development of the ICT community in the Arab countries. Being the host country, Egypt chairs the events of the current round of the Council of Ministers, while Saudi Arabia presides the Executive Bureau of the Arab Telecommunications and Information Council of Ministers.

GITEX Technology Week Edition 35

Cairo ICT 2015 Edition 19th

Edition 35 of GITEX Technology Week will be held on 1822- October 2015 in Dubai World Trade Center, UAE. It touches on topics like technology, technology management, computer, information technology, software, mobile applications and digital marketing.

GITEX is internationally recognized as the largest and most important business-to-business IT trade event for corporate, enterprise and small and medium businesses that exists in the Middle Eastern, African and South Asian markets.

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Cairo ICT Conference and Exhibition 19th will be held during the period 1316 December 2015, at Cairo International Conference Center (CICC). Cairo ICT is one of the top events in the MENA region covering fields of Telecom, Information Technology, Electronics, Mobile Applications, Integrated systems, Satellite and Broadcasting, Hardware and Software, Internet and related sectors.

TIEC Announces Opening Registration for FabCat Service

ITIDA Announces New US ICT Investments in Egypt

TIEC has announced the opening of the registration for the new round of fabrication catalyst service (FabCat) that aims to enable the electronics industry as a current strategic goal for Egypt and in particular for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).

It also targets supporting the fabrication of electronic chips designed by Egyptian micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and academic university projects.

The project serves MSEs and the fabrication of innovative designs is supported to provide MSEs a better opportunity to showcase their products in the market, helping them to grow.

The projects also attend to academic university projects where the project advisor is encouraged to propose realworld industrial projects for students. This enhances match making between student capacity and industry needs and hence improves employment opportunities in local and multinational companies working in the field of integrated circuit manufacturing.

The Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) announced on October 1 injecting US investments in the Egyptian ICT market, through sponsoring the acquisition of Synopsys Inc. the world›s leading company in the field of electronic design automation software and acquiring and purchasing the assets of Silicon Vision the leading Egyptian company in the field of designing wireless communications and electronics circuits.

ITIDA provided all facilities and support necessary for the success of the negotiations and the completion of the US Synopsys’ acquisition the company owns about 93 sales offices, customer service and development centers at the world level. The acquisition deal followed the success of the Egyptian Silicon Vision in developing Bluetooth® Smart wireless IP solution, a unique technology related to Bluetooth Smart IP applications, which represents a great achievement in the field of designing wireless communications and electronics circuits.

Communication

11

News Hackers steal millions from UK banks Hackers have stolen millions of pounds from UK bank accounts, the media have reported.

A total of £20 million was stolen, and the authorities believe it was done using a computer virus called Dridex.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned that thousands of UK computers may have been affected by the malware, which is also known as Bugat and Cridex.

It is believed that the malware was used before and has “earned” its creators more than £65 million so far. The malware infects computers and grabs user’s credentials, including passwords and sends it to the hackers, who then gain access to bank accounts.

The virus is spreading over email, IB Times wrote in a report ,in what looksasa completely legitimate attachment.

India proposes rules to regulate ride sharing apps

India has proposed a set of rules aimed at regulating ridesharing apps such as Uber. The rules will see the tech companies operate more like traditional taxi fleets, a move which will probably please other taxi companies in the country. India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways released the guidelines proposal, which suggests all cars run by these companies should have an emergency button and an in-app feature to call the police.

Oracle to allow cloud customers to ‘rent’ its IT staff

Information technology salaries to grow by 4 per cent in 2016

Oracle is set to offer its customers an entirely new service that lies somewhere between contracting IT staff and cloud computing, according to Business Insider.Reports suggest that Oracle will allow customers to rent its IT staff alongside its cloud services – essentially offering an entire IT department as a service.

Although a number of businesses already use Oracle’s cloud offerings, finding staff that are trained in the use of these applications can prove tricky. Of course, Oracle itself has these staff in place already and currently offers consulting services to help businesses use their products more effectively. Now it seems the company is taking this a step further and implementing a longer-term outsourcing service.

However, it remains to be seen when this so-called “service-as-a-service”will actually be launched,ifi ndeeditprovestobegenuine–so far noting has been officially announcedby Oracle.

Starting salaries for professional occupations including finance and accounting, financial services, information technology and administration will grow by an average of 3 per cent over the next 12 months, according to the Robert Half 2016 Salary Guide. This is a higher increase than predicted in last year’s guide, which identified a 2.6 per cent rise.

It is also slightly higher than the average annual salary rise of 2.9 per cent announced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in September 2015 and well ahead of the current inflation rate of 0 per cent. The roles that are the most difficult to fill are predicted to see salaries rising the most quickly in 2016, including those in the risk and compliance function within financial services firms (4.9 per cent) and information technology (IT) roles (4.0 per cent on average), particularly digital and IT security roles.

12 Communication

Interview with CEO of Smart Integrated Solution

Ahmed Ellithy : «smart schools» is an integrated project for education technology development So welcome Ahmed, thank you for taking the time today.

Ahmed: Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Ahmed is just 31 years old and is the founder of Smart Schools Network Project, one of the most Famous Project in educational sector in MENA. Smart School offers news on social networking and social software in educational sector and attracts thousands of members every year.

Todays interview is with one of the top young Entrepreneur– Ahmed Ellithy just 31 years old!

Interview by: Hany Ibrahim

Hany: Absolutely. So, I checked out your personal Account in the Linkedin.com and it looks like you build a lot of like really unique products for unique market places almost like Your International Certification. So the first question would be, what’s your process for idea generation and then testing for market viability.

Ahmed: Sure. I used to just sit down and literally try to have ideas, like as weird as it sounds, almost like trying to practice it and then like know what it’s just like, it’s always on my mind.

Looking for different problems that you know may have a solution but isn’t very elegant or with the bedding thing, like it was just personal frustration and like productizing a solution. So yeah, it’s all good place nowadays it’s just like more of like day to day like a natural thing. I don’t know which thought process starts to go in that direction when I have free time. So yeah, I don’t know it all, a good place.

Hany: Cool. So now it’s like you solve the old problems and bring that to the market place?

Ahmed: Yeah, I think so. Sometimes it’s our own

14

Communication

problems, sometimes it’s others, there’s a gap in the marketplace and this could be really cool. I think the best solutions like Smart Schools is one of my favorite and like that one of course like a personal frustration and I understand the problem so I could figure best one to design a solution for it.

Hany: Tell us about your main project, Smart Schools? Why did you launch Smart Schools?

Where are you at now with Smart Schools?

Ahmed : I launched Smart Schools in 2009 to get up to speed with all the new services launching on the web. I wanted to launch my own startup and needed to conduct research; very soon, Smart Schools itself became my startup.

Hany: I think Smart Schools is a great name.what are the origins of the name? What does it mean to you?

Ahmed: “Smart Schools” comes from the “SMART” trend. In recent years, people have been combining pieces of the web in interesting and educating ways; you might want to plot photos from your Flickr account on Google Maps, for instance. You might also want to combine music, videos and text from different services.

Whenever you combine parts of the web like this, it’s called a “SMART”. These days, virtually everything Communication

15

on the Life is Smart, and in education …Smart Schools.

Hany: Have you had any particular challenges running such a successful website like Smart Schools so young?

Ahmed: Not really. The biggest challenge for an educational solutions with all this services is finding the energy to keep going – luckily, young people have plenty of that. .

Hany: So then on that note, right now and in the near future do you run all of the companies with yourself and your business partner or all of the projects and products or do you guys find operator CEOs for the individual subsets or companies?

Ahmed: Yeah. So with Smart Schools it’s definitely myself. Basically what I’m trying to say is that you can automate a lot. It’s really worthless bringing in a CEO type for each product unless they’re much, much bigger.

Hany: If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what business related advice would you give yourself?

Ahmed: Work smarter, not harder.

Hany :Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

Ahmed :I’m sure it can be learned, but for a lot of entrepreneurs it seems to come from their character or early, early experiences. Personally, I’m just not good at obeying authority figures.

16 Communication

Hany: Do you have any favorite business related, webmaster or personal development related books that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs?

Ahmed : No, I never remember what I read; I remember experiences. I find it best to dive right in and learn the hard way.

Hany: If the Internet had not existed – what do you think you would be doing?

Ahmed :I’d possibly be studying law or politics.

Hany: What do you like best about the Internet?

Ahmed :The unlimited opportunities.

Hany: What do you like least about the Internet?

Ahmed: Spam.

Hany: Have you any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us about your future plans / goals / lifetime goals?

Ahmed : Oh, I’m not plotting a lifelong course just yet; there are too many opportunities right now to take just one path.

Hany: Awesome. That’s perfect. Alright, well, I think we’re all set for the day. This is really, really great content. I actually got some good notes myself. It’s really inspiring, what you’re doing at this age so far, and it’s exciting to see what you’ll do the next 5 years and beyond. And it’s clear that you’re gonna keep tinkering and building new stuff and I’m really excited to watch.

Multimedia Contact Center & Speech Analytics By:Eng.Hesham Abdelsalam General Manager, Main Telecom, Egypt Hesham@maintelecom.com

18

Communication

Communication

19

Your customers get in touch with you by telephone, email, chat and SMS, so your business needs a flexible contact center that can adapt to the demands of varying traffic and business conditions.

Multimedia customer contact solutions give you the power to deliver high-quality, consistent customer service across all channels, in all circumstances.

This comprehensive, easy-to-use solution targets medium-sized businesses where operational simplicity is key.

Speech analytics is one of the fastest growing technologies in contact centers. In the past few years, the implementation of speech analytics has become essential, and in the future, we expect this trend to accelerate.

Benefits of our Multimedia Contact Center Solutions • Simple, one-stop processing of voice, email and SMS queries through a single server and interface • Continued performance thanks to support for peaks in activity associated with advertising campaigns, emergency situations and seasonal demand effects • Improved customer service as a result of increased first-time resolution of queries and consistent 20 Communication

experience across all interaction channels • Resource optimization through easy interaction between contact center agents and skilled backoffice experts throughout the organization Speech Analytics in Workforce Optimization Speech analytics also represents an integral component of workforce optimization (WFO) solutions. (WFO also encompasses communications recording, quality monitoring, eLearning and workforce management.) This technology, in tandem with speech analytics, improves multiple contact center KPIs including first call resolution (FCR) and average handle time as well as identifying knowledge gaps and training needs for call center agents. As a result, agent performance and customer satisfaction improve significantly.

Workforce optimization solutions use keyword spotting or phonetic indexing. The latter technology provides greater flexibility for variable search terms, while keyword spotting offers a greater matching accuracy.

Multimedia Contact Center Solution Features • All-in-one visual interface: easy-to-use interface,

routing and real-time monitoring • Overrun capabilities: handle unexpected peaks in business • Real-time collaboration: facilitate contact between agents and experts • Instant presence awareness: access instant messaging and presence awareness capabilities from the agent’s desktop interface Speech analytics identifies real business challenges and opportunities, delivers measurable benefits and improves the customer experience. Furthermore, this new technology delivers great value to multiple corporate departments including marketing, sales, product development and manufacturing. By using speech analytics, the marketing department, for example, can evaluate the success of a campaign while product management gains new ideas for product improvements.

Contact centers must handle a vast quantity of unstructured data making it time-consuming and cost-intensive to extract relevant information.

Speech analytics technologies, however, enable the automatic search for critical keywords within a huge mass of data, thus making previously hidden information accessible on a near real-time basis.

Corporate decision-makers can use informative voice

data and interaction trends to facilitate customer services, streamline processes and reduce costs, thus boosting revenues in both their contact center and other business areas.

The growth of speech analytics can also be attributed to technical improvements of the technology itself.

While quality was around 50%, today these systems actually offer an 80-to-90% accuracy. Moreover, the speed of the results has also increased, enabling realtime information for company decision makers.

Speech analytics combined with emotion detection provides unique capabilities. Emotion detection is based on analytics of typical voice characteristics and is used for identifying calls, which contain specific acoustic signals, e.g. high volume.

Conclusion Thanks to its transformation of unstructured data, the ability to boost revenue and customer loyalty, as well as offering enterprise-wide feedback, multimedia contact centers, and speech analytics will continue its expansion in contact centers for the foreseeable future.

Communication

21

Spatial Big Data Spatial Big Data is the type of data used nowadays in big data warehouses to add the location dimension thus paving the way for new methods of in depth multi layered analysis; examples include locationbased service requests, social media, sensormeasurements, greenhouse gas emissions, etc….

Spatial Big data technology can make important contributions to National Projects development, offering cost-effective opportunities to improve decision-making in a variety of sectors such as

economic productivity, healthcare, crime analysis, security measurements, disaster control and natural resource management.

Challenges that come along with big data include inadequate technological infrastructure, economic and human resource scarcity in addition to typical data issues such as privacy, imperfect methodology, and interoperability issues which should not hinder by any means the normal evolution of Spatial Big Data usage.

“By visualizing and analyzing it, Big data reveals info that reports don,t, eventually helping in exposing geographic patterns, finding spatial relationships, performing predictive modeling, and getting geographic insights from social media”

Spatial Big Data By: Eman ElAmir, PhD, Technical Consultant, ESRI Northeast Africa Eman.elamir@esrinea.com

Looking at data without location most of the time seems like looking at just a part of the story.

Including location and geography in analysis reveals patterns and associations that otherwise are missed. As big data emerges as a new frontier for analysis including location in big data is becoming significantly important.

The term “Big Data” is used to describe mega sized 22 Communication

data sets that come in petabytes and zeta bytes, such sizes are beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process, therefore new and innovative methods are being used to process, store and analyze such large volumes of data which size exceed by far the normally known megabytes and terabytes.

The Types of Data Data types fall into three defined categories; structured, semi-structured and unstructured, Structured data is the easy going type knowing in advance what fields of data will be stored, how will they be stored, what are their types (numeric, currency, alphabetic, name, date, address) and any restrictions on data input, Structured Data fits easily in relational database to be processed and analyzed using structured query language (SQL).

Unstructured data is more difficult to handle due to the absence of a defined pattern, files like audio /

video, images, text, presentations and web pages could not be categorized into fixed length rows and columns. The third type, Semi-structured data, is a mix of structured and un-structured data usually analyzed using Markup Languages such as XML, HTML, etc.

Though «big data» is closely associated with unstructured data with extremely large datasets difficult to analyze with traditional tools, it is rather conceived to include both structured and unstructured data.

Communication

23

3Vs of Spatial Big Data

The Value of Spatial Big Data Analytics

Volume The grand scale and rise of size of data makes it difficult to store and analyze it using traditional tools.

Facebook ingests 500 terabytes of data every day. Amazon.com handles millions of back-end operations daily, as well as queries from more than half a million third-party sellers.

Since everything is happening somewhere, even in E-commerce transactions you are living in a location and the product you are seeking lays at other physical location.Using Spatial big data is about how to do work smarter than doing it harder.

Its tools and techniques are now a necessarily tools to support projects planning and monitoring for better performance and achievements.

With the right big data analytics platforms in place, an enterprise can boost sales, increase efficiency, and improve operations, customer service and risk management. Everyday life activities can be mapped

Velocity Big Data is designed to handle continues rapid growth of data. Walmart handles more than 1 million customer transactions every hour, which are imported into databases estimated to contain more than 2.5 petabytes.

and analyzed for better values using Spatial Big Data.

• Pattern Recognition and Predictive Modeling • Timely insights from vast amount of data • Real time monitoring and forecasting of events • Performing risk analysis and mitigating threats • Identifying significant info that can improve decision quality • Ability to find/acquire/extract/connect and analyze and visualize data with tools of choice • Offering enterprise-wide insights • Offering tailored services and applications • Creating new revenue streams.

Variety Big data comes from a variety of sources. Traditional database systems were designed to address smaller volumes of structured data, fewer updates or a predictable, consistent data structure whereas Big Data is also geospatial data, 3D data, audio and video, and unstructured text, including log files and social media

Spatial Big Data and Geo-Social Media The geo-social activities can be used to induce desired favorable patterns of behavior, like promoting healthy lifestyles, initiating volunteering campaigns for community service.

In disaster scenarios, geosocial networking can develop a collective situational awareness (on-site tweets, timely info. live images, etc,.).

Furthermore, geolocated messages could assist automated tools to detect and track potential dangers.

Online Applications Check- ins Analyzing the huge amount of data resulting from people,s online applications check-ins executed 24 Communication

during their daily life routine errands, helps sending targeted advertisements based upon defining all patterns of the detected consumer behavior.

Tweets Enabling the location options on twitter can help classifying people of the same region with common interests and similar opinions which eventually helps in market researches done by analyzing the performed data.

Text Messages with Locations Smart phones enabling location text messages can reveal a lot about users and their communities.

Communication

25

Cloud ERP By: Eng. Mohamed Ibrahim Elbagoury Pre Sales Manager at Delta Software Dr.elbagoury@hotmail.com

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) systems are enterprise-wide information system packages, which consist of a comprehensive set of software modules that aim to support and integrate all key business processes across various functional divisions of an organization by using a single data repository , Ever since its emergence in the early 1990s, ERPs have been widely implemented by thousands of knowledge-intensive organizations, with any size (e.g. including not just large companies, but also small and medium enterprises or SMEs), in many sectors (e.g. manufacturing firms, banks, universities, and hospitals), and in many countries (e.g. Western countries like the USA and Europe as well as Asian countries like China and India and African countrieslike Egypt ).

Traditionally, ERP resources (including data, module applications, and database servers) are internally hosted and maintained by user organizations (this is so called onpremise ERPs). This on-premise approach, which is still prevalently adopted by modern organizations to host and deploy ERPs, has certain inherent disadvantages, such as 26 Communication

high initial investment and being too time-consuming to upgrade ERP installed on different user PCs. These disadvantages embedded in on-premise ERPs are expected to be significantly improved with the support of cloud computing technologies.

In the new cloud environment, ERP packages and related data will be hosted on a third party vendor-managed and controlled infrastructure. Companies can use their ERP applications and data as on-demand services through a web browser, without physically installing the system in local PCs or storing the data in local servers.

This new ERP deployment model will require less hardware investments, as well as less fees and internal hazard for system maintenance and upgrade.

These attractive cloud features therefore result in an increasing trend for companies to consider migrating their hitherto internal ERP applications and databases into the cloud. Current literature and studies on ERP are very rich, but the vast majority of them focus merely on on-premise ERPs.

In contrast, research on cloud ERP has been very limited.

Furthermore, the benefits of cloud technologies in general and cloud ERP in particular seem to be frequently and even over emphasised by cloud providers, whilst potential barriers and challenges related to this new ERP deployment method have not been fully explored and discussed in either the industry or the academia. The study reported in this paper therefore attempts to fill this knowledge gap.

Specifically, it aims to seek in-depth insights from highly experienced IT professionals to identify and investigate potential benefits and barriers for migrating ERP systems to the cloud, as well as to provide useful lessons to help companies better prepare themselves for such crucial ERP and IT transformation. This paper is structured as follows: the next section presents a brief review of current ERP and cloud literature.

The research methodology is then discussed and justified.

Subsequently, the findings derived from the study are presented and discussed, followed by a discussion of the key lessons learned and recommendations, with conclusions drawn, Unlike applications that focus merely on a single business area or a particular organizational level, ERP systems contain a very comprehensive set of functions aimed at supporting all business processes across the whole organization.

With these unique features, ERP has been widely perceived as the most important development in the corporate use of information technology in the 1990s. The adoption and use of ERPs can reshape an organization’s culture, structure and processes, as well as change the distributions of power, autonomy, rights and obligations of people inside the organization.

Given its value, importance and potential organizational implications, ERP has attracted very substantial attention from both the industry and the academia during the last two decades. Research on ERP has covered a wide range of interesting issues and topics, including ERP adoption benefits , ERP selection criteria ,ERP critical success factors and risks and barriers affecting ERP implementation and post-implementation.

On the other hand, cloud computing is an advanced IT outsourcing model, which allows organizations to use a pool of third-party hosting IT resources and applications as services virtually through the web, without physically holding these computing resources internally.

Since its emergence in the late 2000s, cloud computing has been widely perceived as an important strategic technology, which has the potential to change traditional

IT usage in organizations and even transform the global IT industry. The strong interest of researchers on cloud computing can be observed from the rapidly increased number of conference and journal papers being published in recent years.

The topics covered in these cloud computing studies can be broadly divided into three areas, namely cloud computing features and benefits, conceptual and technical cloud frameworks/models ,and issues and risks related to the adoption and organizational use of cloud services .However, an extensive review of the literature identified a number of issues and gaps in current ERP and cloud research.

In particular, studies reported in the existing literature mainly treated ERP and cloud computing as two separate research areas. On the one hand, the vast majority of ERP studies focus solely on issues related to on-premise systems and are now getting somehow overly abundant.

Studies of ERP in the new cloud environment are rarely found in the literature.

On the other hand, cloud researchers just looked at issues of cloud computing in general, but neglected the variances and unique features embedded in different types of cloud applications and services, such as cloud ERPs. In fact, cloud applications, also known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, can take many different forms, ranging from simple personal document storage tools, to corporate email systems (e.g. Google Apps Email), to enterprise-wide applications.

Given the inherent complexity and importance of ERP systems, cloud ERP is arguably one of the most valuable and influential SaaS applications available in the market.

We therefore consider that cloud ERP should be the next wave of ERP and cloud research. By linking and building on existing ERP and cloud literature.

Communication

27

Each time a major incident such as a payroll crash happens, the IT team gets into a fire-fighting mode and takes the resolution process to a whole new level.

This doesn’t have to be the norm, if you follow these 10 best-practice steps. In no time, you can resolve the major incident with no panic.

10

best practice processes for dealing with major IT incidents

By: Prithiv RajKumar, Marketing Analyst at ManageEngine 28 Communication

1

2

When an issue causes a huge business impact on several users, you can categorise it as a major incident. It is one that forces an organisation to deviate from existing incident management processes. Usually, high-priority incidents are wrongly perceived as major incidents. This is probably due to the absence of clear ITIL guidelines.

Therefore, to avoid any confusion, you must define a major incident clearly based on factors such as urgency, impact and severity.

Implementing a robust workflow helps you restore a disrupted service quickly. Separate workflows for major incidents help in seamless resolution. Focus on automating and simplifying the following when you formulate a workflow for major incidents: • Identifying the major incident • Communicating to the impacted stakeholders • Assigning the right people • Tracking the major incident throughout its lifecycle

Clearly define a major incident

Have exclusive workflows

Communication

29

In addition, follow a manual escalation process if the assigned technician lacks the expertise to resolve the incident. Moreover, ensure that a backup technician is always available.

6

Keep your stakeholders informed Throughout the life cycle of major incidents, send announcements, notifications, and status updates to the stakeholders. Announcements in the selfservice portal will prevent end users from raising duplicate tickets and overloading the help desk.

Also, send hourly or bi-hourly updates during a service downtime caused by major incidents.

Have a dedicated line to respond to major incidents immediately and offer support to stakeholders.

• Escalation upon breach of SLAs • Resolution and closure • Generation and analyses of reports Have a no-approval process for resolving major incidents.

3

Reel in the right resources Ensure that your best resources are working on major incidents. Also, clearly define their roles and responsibilities because of the high impact these incidents have on business. You could have a dedicated or a temporary team depending on how often major incidents occur.

Some organisations have a dedicated major incident team headed by a major incident manager, whereas others have a dynamic, ad hoc team that has experts from various departments. Your primary objective must be to keep your resources engaged and avoid conflict of time and priorities.

4

Train your personnel and equip 30 Communication

them with the right tools You don’t know when a major incident will strike your IT but the first step to handling it is by being prepared. Divide your major incident management team into sub teams and train them in major incident management. Assign responsibilities by mapping skills with requirements.

Run simulation tests on a regular basis to identify strengths, evaluate performance and address gaps as needed. This will also help your team to cope with stress and be prepared when facing real time scenarios.

Equip your team with the right tools such as smart phones, phablets and tablets with seamless connectivity for them to work from anywhere during an emergency.

5

Configure stringent SLAs and hierarchical escalations Define stringent SLAs for major incidents. Set up separate response and resolution SLAs with clear escalation points for any breach of the process.

Use the fastest means of communication, such as telephone calls, direct walk-ins, live chat, and remote control desktop, instead of relying on email.

7

of the article and the resources that would be needed to implement the solution.

Create and track solutions separately for major incidents so that you can access them quickly with very little effort.

9

Review and report on major incidents Document and analyse all major incidents so that you can identify areas of improvement. This will help your team efficiently handle similar issues in the future.

Also, generate major incident-specific reports for analysis, evaluation and decision-making. You could generate the following reports to help in efficient decision-making: • Number of major incidents raised and closed each month • Average resolution time for major incidents • Percentage of downtime cause of major incidents • Problems and changes linked to major incidents

10

Tie major incidents with other Document major incident ITIL processes processes for continual After a major incident is resolved, perform a root service improvement cause analysis by using problem management methods. Then, implement organisation-wide changes to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in the future by following the change management process.

Speed up the entire incident, problem and change management process by providing detailed information about the assets involved using asset management.

8

Improvise your knowledge base Formulate simple knowledge base article templates that capture critical details such as the type of major incident the article relates to, the latest issue resolved using the article, the owner

It is a best practice to document major incident processes and workflows for ready reference. This could capture details like number of personnel involved, their roles and responsibilities, communication channels, tools used for the fix, approval and escalation workflows and the overall strategy along with baseline metrics for response and resolution.

The top management must evaluate processes on a regular basis to check if targeted performance levels in major incident management are met.

This can help rectify flaws and serve for continual service improvement.

Major incidents are unavoidable and each one is a learning experience for your team. Adhering to these practices could be your first step towards mastering the art of handling major incidents.

Communication

31

“Data/mobile Internet has today become a full-fledged revenue stream for telecom operators and a source of entertainment and connectivity-on-the-go for consumers.” Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel

Role of Data and Devices in the

Evolving Telecom Landscape By: Anupam Vasudev, Chief Markting Officer, Aircel The evolution of the Indian telecom sector is quite a fascinating story in itself. It seems like only yesterday when we graduated from making trunk calls to using mobile phones. Back then you could, perhaps, see almost everyone walking on the road talking on the mobile phone placed right next to his/her ear. Today, the same people can be seen looking down on their phones while walking around, fiddling with them.

This is a clear example of transition that our industry has made from voice to data.

Studies have shown that globally average time spent 32 Communication

on mobile (non-voice) has grown to 82 minutes per day. This means that across the world people with mobile phones are spending a considerable time every day on not just talking, but also using their phones for texting, instant messaging, watching videos online, playing games, or downloading songs.

Data/mobile Internet has today become a fullfledged revenue stream for telecom operators and a source of entertainment and connectivity-on-the-go for consumers. This data explosion was a conscious effort made on the part of telecom operators who

realized the infrastructural limitations existed in India.

As a result of innovative initiatives such as Aircel’s Pocket Internet, a market with a size of less than 1 million mobile Internet users in 2009 reached 200 million users in 2013. While 200 million mobile Internet users may look like a huge number, we have the potential to at least reach around 500 million users in the next 57- years provided the right ecosystem is created. If this seems to be an impossible task, then we can easily draw some inspiration from our neighboring country China which already has over 400 million mobile Internet users.

Undoubtedly there are many enablers to further drive the exploding Internet adoption in India but the key factor is evolution of devices and the supporting ecosystem. Let’s take a look at some of the aspects

of the device ecosystem that will further fuel the mobile Internet growth in the country: Quality of handsets. With the rise of the Internet, the consumers have become more aware than ever about their choices. While devices remain paramount in driving data usage, the quality of the device needs to be superior for a consumer to opt for it. The quality also extends to other features of a device such as its screen size, operating system and technology access.

We have seen how consumers have migrated to bigger screens, high definition resolution and improved sturdiness for better Internet experience.

The early smartphones post 2007 era started with 3.53.7 inch screen. From there we have now progressed to phablet space. At about 6 inch screens these phablets are just below the start of next category of tablets. In addition, with the availability of high Communication

33

speed access via mobile technology, now phones have started becoming a mass consumption medium leading to a shift in behavior of consumers who are on the move.

Aside, for an operator, when a consumer migrates from a feature phone to smart phone, 34- times more data is consumed. Even when the same user upgrades to a better technology, for example from 2G to 3G with higher speeds, the increase in consumption is upto 45- times ensuring a dedicated revenue stream for telcos.

App ecosystem. While technology, screen size, and user experience aid in changing the user behavior, the key for any consumption medium is the availability of content at the right time, price, and with ease. It is important for a user to be able to do something relevant and as per his liking with his mobile phone at all times. Therefore, as a service provider, the onus of providing this content lies with me as the availability of rich content, customized to a consumer’s liking, is tremendously responsible for the adoption of Internet on mobile.

Right from the time when high speed mobile networks (3G) came into existence around 2002, the entire industry was searching for killer applications to exploit 3G speeds and thereby ignoring the already available applications and content on the Internet.

Adaptation of entire suite of applications from simple 34 Communication

messaging to complex location and video streaming services, exploiting power of native operating system has changed the scenario completely. Today, higher speed hosting of these services over cloud for an end user has become a reality.

Device bundling. While rapid proliferation of mobile Internet in India has happened in a very short span of time, say the last 34- years, we are still behind the curve due to the kind of devices available in the ecosystem. To put this in perspective, in India we have roughly about 10 percent 3G enabled phones in whole user base of about 800 million. While Internet-enabled devices in our base would be close to 55 percent, most of them are older generation feature phones impeding quicker and easier adoption of Internet on mobile.

Current business models that prevail in our country are one of the major obstructive factors. While in the United States or Europe, the devices are subsidized by operators with bundled minutes on monthly plans. With the prevalence of prepaid and no credit verification systems in India, telecom operators are unable to subsidize the devices. The Reverse Handset Bundling (RBHO) or Forward Handset Bundling (FHBO), where operators bundle SIM cards with pre-loaded benefits along with devices in device retail channels or operators own channels, does not provide a direct subsidy on the devices. Due to lesser

options for subsidy, the device price itself acts as a barrier leading to slower addition of quality devices on to the network.

However, with the introduction of new EMI-based models through various tie-ups with the distribution and payment backbone, some part of the problem has been alleviated. Having said that, we will not be able to replicate the kind of device replacement cycles we see in the United States or Europe until new models for device subsidy are built and hence, we must channelize our energy toward solving this issue as well.

Average selling price. Affordability and value for money dictates the consumption habits of a majority of consumers in India.

Over the years 200913-, we have seen that entry price points for mobile phones have been declining steadily and quickly. During this time, many affordable phones with great features have

come into the market across various price bands, courtesy Indian and International original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Today, the entry price for a 3.54.1- inch phone is Rs. 4000 which was previously around Rs. 7000.

Similarly the middle market between Rs. 7000-Rs. 14,000 has witnessed huge change as well. With constant reduction in average selling price, we can expect a quicker adoption by end consumers.

With the ecosystem in place, the possibilities of innovating with devices are definitely endless.

Needless to say that devices will continue to remain our entry and exit points to the vast world of Internet and telecom service providers, along with device manufacturers will come up with new ways to delight their customers.

The beginning has already been made especially in the fields of e-commerce and m-commerce but what remains to be seen is how this saga unfolds.

Communication

35

IoT throughout the world

and then shut off so that other critical systems are taxed or drained.

The next area is that of data. The internet of data is huge. It isn’t just the concept of big data or the concept of data analytics. It is the production, consumption, storage and movement of massive amounts of information. There are more than 10b (billion) IoT devices today and that number is

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) are a nomenclature used to define the world beyond IoT devices. CPS includes the robotic and automation systems that interact with the IoT devices. Based on that changing landscape I have come to realise that CPS and by default IoT devices actually have three distinct concerns.

The three areas outside of the CPS/IoT that have great bearing are Access, Power and Data. Power in that each of the CPS devices will require some sort of power supply. Be it a human changed battery,

growing. In fact from 2014 to 2015 alone the total number of devices deployed increased by 13 per cent according to analysts.

IoT devices produced 113Zb (Zeta bytes) of data in 2013. There are two interesting things about information, it is normally produced for a reason and often someone consumes it.

The rate and amount of the data produced is staggering.

One of the concepts that is intriguing is the broad concept.

This brings us to the last part of this puzzle Access.

Access represents more than simply what is the interface or connection type you use to connect to the IoT or CPS device.

The rise and rise of

36 Communication

a rechargeable battery or a direct connection to a power supply.

The supply may be a wind turbine, solar power, a physical power generator or for that matter a direct connection to the power grid. The device has to be smart enough to understand its power supply.

For example if it is a life supporting sensor for an elderly person the only thing that should have more importance in the home for power consumption is the heating and cooling system.

It should however be smart enough to contact help

Access refers to the security of the device, the data produced and as much as possible the data through the lifecycle of use.

Not all data can be protected throughout its entire lifecycle. The minute part of that half-life is spent on a mobile device the reality is you can’t manage it as effectively as you would be able to otherwise.

Remote wipe signals require a network connection to the device.

Data on a cellular device may also cause a different problem in that they may not be refreshed at the same rate as other devices.

That potentially causes risks with the data being out of date.

The three comprise the out core of what CPS will Communication

37

become. We could argue that the three wouldn’t be proportional rather data would be by far the largest with power most likely being the smallest. But for now we will represent them as equal conspirators.

We could also argue that bandwidth will be critical going forward.

We can also argue that the very IoT devices and the automation and other components that make up the broader CPS infrastructure will get smarter as well.

Those two issues would certainly shape and modify the impact of the three core concerns.

But as we head into the IoT futures it is important that we build systems that meet all three of the 38 Communication

core areas.

• Smart power use and smart power consumption • Data caching and data storage local and remote • Access that supports users taking and using data where they need to, without compromising the overall security of the information.

• Data caching and data storage local and remote • Access that supports users taking and using data where they need to, without compromising the overall security of the information.

I have to go for now I have to change the batteries in all my IoT devices.

What is Third-Party Data?

Third-party data is information collected about unspecified consumers who are not necessarily a company’s own customers. Businesses purchase this information from data brokers who scour disparate and unrelated sources, such as government lists, voter documentation, questionnaires and surveys to compile data sets. Typically, third-party data is aggregated from online tracking cookies, email lists and data marketplaces.

Here are some examples of third-party data points collected by data brokers: • Employment information • Credit score • Allergies and ailments • Home address • Birth date • Voter registration information Evidently, companies can access a lot of information just by purchasing third-party data from data brokers.

But how accurate is this data and how does it impact marketing campaigns? Third-party data is prone to three major inaccuracies:

The three major inaccuracies of third-party data By: Richard Lack, Director of Sales EMEA,Gigya

40 Communication

With consumer data pouring in across mobile, social, email and wearables – just to name a few of today’s consumer channels – it can be excruciatingly difficult for marketers to navigate the Big Data landscape.

First and third-party data are two distinctly different classes of information that are traditionally juxtaposed against each other. So how are marketers to decide which of these two data types will best serve their respective businesses?

Let’s explore the differences between the two, how they’re collected and why marketers should be using first-party data to improve their campaigns.

1. Lack of Relation First, data brokers create inaccurate consumer profiles by piecing together data from unrelated and unaffiliated sources. It’s like trying to complete a customer puzzle with a bunch of different pieces from different sets: there’s no way to flawlessly and fully complete it.

This lack of relatedness among various sources can lead to some stretched and inaccurate conclusions. For example, just because an individual types “cute dog photos” into a search engine doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she is a dog owner.

2. Out-of-Date Second, third-party data can be severely out-dated, as it can be bought and sold for many years without any real updating. This means major life-changing events, such as moving or getting married, can go overlooked by companies using third-party data. Consequently, brands relying on third-party information risk exposing their customers to irrelevant experiences, and no one likes irrelevant experiences.

In fact, in a recent survey, when asked about their reactions after receiving irrelevant information or Communication

41

product recommendations from a company, 47 per cent of US respondents and 44 per cent of UK respondents claimed that they ignored all future communications from the business.

3. No Cross-Device Accuracy Lastly, traditional third-party tracking cookies, one of the most well-known and widely-used forms of thirdparty data, only monitor device-specific behaviours.

Heavy reliance on tracking cookies results in an inability to understand users’ cross-device activities, which is especially vital to grasp as the average US consumer owns four devices (Nielsen), more than 20 per cent of consumers between the ages of 1849- visit websites from four different devices each week (Experian) and 46 per cent of consumers use multiple devices to accomplish a single task (MarketingLand).

With so much room for error, marketers who rely heavily on third-party data to understand and reach their customers are setting themselves up to deliver ineffective campaigns and waste marketing spend. The inability to know exactly who they’re reaching prohibits them from adequately measuring and optimising their campaigns.

So, how should businesses move beyond third-party data to improve the success of their marketing efforts?

Leverage first-party customer data.

42 Communication

What is First-Party Data?

First-party data is data collected by companies directly from their customers. It’s collected from interactions and behaviours across devices, websites, mobile apps, registration fields, subscription data, social networks and more.

Here are some first-party data points about an individual that can easily be obtained by companies via permission-based methods such as traditional registration forms, progressive profiling or third-party identity authentication: • Relationship status • Purchase behaviour • Favourite brands and companies • Favourite TV shows, musical artists, etc.

• On-site actions and activities With such a large quantity and extraordinary quality of accurate, rich information, marketers can create personalised and relevant marketing campaigns to better appeal to their current and potential customers and see conversion rates skyrocket.

Marketers, ask yourselves, when creating your marketing programs, would you rather use anonymous data collected from various sources, or permissionbased, first-hand data gathered directly from your actual and potential customers?

Communication

43

3 reasons customised software is better for your business By: Erika Carney is CMO at custom software design and development firm Skookum

44

Communication

In her must-watch TEDx talk, Nadya Zhexembayeva explains that product life cycles are declining at an unprecedented rate. Not so long ago, products remained relevant for up to 75 years, but since the turn of the new millennium, the window has shrunk all the way down to seven years.

With that in mind, Zhexembayeva surmises that companies must now reinvent their revenue streams every three and a half years in order to start new cycles by the time their current ones end.

This concept is amazing, and it flies in the face of what’s been considered conventional business wisdom for hundreds of years. Staying the course is not a viable business model anymore. In fact, companies who don’t actively seek to adapt and change will inevitably fall by the wayside.

If speed is everything and the ability to adapt is paramount, locking yourself in to cumbersome technology is not just risky — it’s self-destructive.

Business management software normally comes straight off of the shelf, especially those addressing hot topics like ERP, SFA, and CRM. Unfortunately, business needs vary dramatically from one company to the next, and unless you’re extraordinarily lucky, no product off of the shelf will be perfect for your unique company in the long run.

The Shortcomings of Prepackaged Software Off-the-shelf software attempts to solve too many problems for too many people — and it ultimately solves none of them. Companies are forced to jerryrig their software products, and even when they do, they’re only achieving a “close enough” level of functionality.

Here are the three main drawbacks to purchasing software that isn’t fully optimised for your business: 1. It’s too firm or too soft: That workflow you finally ironed out that makes everything run smoothly? Toss it out the window; your off-theshelf software’s rigid structure won’t allow for it.

Paying extra for new features or creating manual workarounds (export this data here, manipulate it like this, send it to Janet in accounting, Janet reloads it here, etc.) can get you close, but it won’t be optimal.

And if your software isn’t too rigid, then it’ll be so open-ended that it feels like you’re building it yourself. Some software companies recognise they

can’t define a single workflow for thousands of customers, so they just leave it up to the consumer to create their own. Too much choice is demotivating and stressful and it makes you wonder why you’re spending all of this time building the ready-made product you thought you paid for.

2. It’s too hard to integrate: Something off of the shelf just adds more noise to your already busy workflow. It’s one more thing people need training on, one more place people have to go in order to do their jobs, and one more step in your overall process. You wanted the faster, cheaper option instead of customised software, and now you have to pay for it with time that could be better spent growing your business. And, more than likely, those legacy systems you use that are vital to your business weren’t designed with integration in mind.

3. There’s no competitive advantage: When it comes to critical business processes, how do you propose to get ahead of your competitors when you use the exact same software as they do? Technology is crucial to competition, and not having proprietary systems that complement your processes forces you to hand over control of your destiny to someone else. Want a new feature? You have to call the company everyone else uses.

Your best bet is to work with a company that can design unique, flexible software that perfectly fits your specific business. Customised software will maximise your potential future earnings, streamline Communication

45

Twitter Brings Your Beloved Communities to the Virtual World

your workflow, and help you stand out from the competition. Costs for customised software can be on the heftier side. However, in some cases, it can be less expensive because only a few key features are needed, not the entire pre-packaged system.

The Benefits of Personalisation Your business processes should dictate your technology — not the other way around. Here are the three primary perks of customised software: 1. Increased business agility: Remember when we talked about the importance of adaptation?

Premade software only allows you to adapt when the software company decides it’s time for you to adapt. In today’s environment, that’s too slow — especially if your competitors are adapting on their own terms.

New companies are always entering the market, technology is constantly evolving, and customers are forever wanting new things. Custom software gives you the flexibility to respond to these changes when you want to.

2. Higher employee satisfaction: Modern workers expect tech to be easy, fast, and intuitive. They want the software at work to be similar to the software they use at home. But with the complexity of business processes, it’s hard to find a solution 46 Communication

that “just works” like the apps and systems that are in our everyday lives.

Because it’s designed to fit within the processes they already know and understand, giving employees custom software provides them with something that actually makes them more productive and more efficient. When your employees don’t spend half of the day on the phone with tech support or huddled in groups trying to figure out why this won’t do that, you’ll realise the return on your technology investment much sooner.

3. A more efficient machine: When you add something new to the system that isn’t designed to integrate with what already exists, you add weight.

Custom software lets you develop something that fits seamlessly into your ecosystem because it’s designed for your specific needs and unique processes. It doesn’t weigh you down; it lifts you up and makes your whole operation more efficient.

It frees up time to pursue more strategic endeavors rather than bogging you down with manual workarounds and frustrating redundancies.

While it’s true that some off-the-shelf purchases are actually decent ones, clear-cut advantages exist when you work with something tailored to your needs. Look to demand more from your software, when the market requires agility, your company will be poised and ready to pounce.

We as humans always need to secure our sense of belonging and fulfill our social needs. For example, uniforms were introduced to create a standard look for a group and raise the members’ sense of solidarity.

However, these needs keep expanding throughout our lifespan.

Social media refers to the means of interactions amongst people, where they can create and share information and ideas in virtual communities. It connects people from all over the world to share their thoughts and interests in a more advanced manner.

Twitter is one of the leading social media platforms, as new communities are built every day through the simple use of hashtags. The Twitter communities not only provide a platform for those who share similar interests, but also it provides an exceptional opportunity to share information and raise awareness.

A good example of successful Twitter communities is #Fitness, as it is a vibrant topic that keeps members globally connected. By hashtaging the word fitness, you give people with the same passion a chance to benefit from any motivational quotes, exercise tips, or nutrition plans you post. The hashtag #Fitness is usually used by athletes and sport/health enthusiasts, as well as gyms and fitness

centres like @Samiaallouba and @bodyshapers_ eg. These accounts make regular announcements and promotions online to engage Twitter users and inspire them. #Moms is also another Twitter community that ensures all mothers going through similar experiences that they’re not alone. It’s a place where they can ask questions and share their concerns with other experienced mothers on. For example, accounts like @supermamame and @familymoms discuss regular mother issues and share useful tips. #Fashion is another big Twitter community with millions of daily engagements. Members share their latest fashion trends and matching ideas, as well as post pictures of their daily outfits and fashion critiques. Egyptian fashion bloggers such as @ fashionoutcasts, @HadiaGhaleb and @MayRostom usually use #Fashion to communicate with their followers. Egyptian fashion designers like @ DeanaShaaban also have the opportunity to share their newest masterpieces on Twitter.

As Twitter communities continue to grow in size and magnitude, members and followers start to create more interactive ways to engage in their circles. Q&A, setting chat hours, and informative sessions are some of the ways to connect with community topics on a regular basis, taking interaction to a new level.

Communication

47

3 steps

to making the Internet your competitive advantage By: Paul Heywood, Managing Director and VP of EMEA, Dyn 48 Communication

Competitive advantage in business comes in many forms, and your business has likely executed a number of tactics to secure a few.

Your company may have developed a first-mover advantage; beat out competitors on price, features or service; or have the benefit of a strong brand reputation built over years of heritage.

As more businesses migrate to the cloud and international business and trade become the norm, ensuring your customers have an authentic two-way experience is becoming a business imperative.

Customers no longer will wait for slow Web pages.

Within a few seconds sites are abandoned and competitors win business and brand loyalty. Brands are the extension of an individual’s identity. Knowing how well your customers reach you across the Internet is a critical part of managing the end-user experience – and measuring and managing speed, security, reachability and availability. It is also the key to winning and keeping customers in the Internet Age. The following steps are key in making the Internet Communication

49

your organisation’s competitive advantage.

1. Monitor and control the Internet Many companies today have reduced cost while improving flexibility, reliability and scale of their Internet infrastructure by employing cloud service providers, content delivery services and hosting companies. This is now the standard. The sky is the limit for market expansion, reduced time to market and revenue growth. Even smaller companies are still using relatively sophisticated data flow tools to manage their information and connectivity across the Web. Yet, how many of these companies have a comprehensive, end-to-end view into the speed and availability of their information across the Internet?

And how many companies understand how latencies, quality, outages or redirects are impacting their customers’ ability to access their Web offerings? How many companies put their brands online and then just hope for the best?

Each day there are an average of 3,000 Internet outages around the world on the Web. And while many are relatively harmless, major disruptions happen fairly often. This summer alone saw a number of high profile outages and network failures from Apple Music, ISP 50 Communication

X, Amazon Web Services and Netflix. Monitoring your company’s Internet connections is half the battle; having the control to reroute and avoid disruptions to your customers is the other half that gives you the control to mitigate these risks, protecting sales and customer confidence. We are yet to improve the speed of light as data traverses the globe. Therefore placing your content close to your users is the only solution.

2. Deliver availability and reachability The ability for customers to access and have full performance to any desired market cannot be understated as a core business goal. The first step in having strong availability and reachability is knowing the constant state of your own Internet Performance to key regions.

There are important questions to ask to determine availability. Is my service available to my customers?

Are my partners able to connect to my services? What does the connection performance look like amongst my selected cloud providers? Do my CDNs meet my needs? What and where are my single points of failure?

Service outages from availability issues can be significant. A recent Google cloud outage, which lasted for almost two hours, was caused by an internal

software issue related to its virtual network traffic routing. If your business was using a single cloud instance and you were not monitoring for networkwide availability, you would have experienced this outage and your availability would have been impacted.

Reachability similarly affects your customers’ ability to access your website and services. How accessible are you in the target markets around the world? Again, in cases where a business is using a single cloud instance, an outage or failure will have a detrimental impact on reachability – and unless your business is monitoring your reachability and mitigating for failures, you are open to disruptions and have little choices for rerouting in the event of a disruptive event.

In the event of our outage, smart availability and reachability strategies will give your business an edge over competitors that are down, providing the end user experience that your customers expect, driving sales and building brand loyalty.

3. Optimise performance Slow services are just as bad as downtime. The global proliferation of high speed Internet and the shift to mobile means that the expectations for performance

are higher than ever. Amazon recently calculated that a page load slowdown of just one second could cost it $1.6 billion in sales each year. Even a large Internet business could face huge penalties for Internet Performance deficiencies.

Most businesses are investing in performance tools but few are looking outside their firewalls to understand how the Internet affects each and every customer connection. For example, where does Amazon’s symbolic 1 second delay come from? More often than not it stems from Internet Performance. What does optimised performance really mean? In a nutshell, greater speed, network flexibility and the ability to predict and prevent disruptions affect your business.

Any business that generates revenues online has the potential to be a global business and should consider the tools available to make the Internet a competitive advantage. Successful IT executives understand that there is money to be saved by mitigating risk, but also by harnessing the power of the global Web to streamline performance and make cloud, CDN and data decisions based on the performance – or lack thereof – of these providers.

Knowledge is power. Monitor and control your Internet assets to gain the insights your company needs to make the Internet your competitive advantage.

Communication

51

people working in business environments have a natural propensity towards staying late, implicitly equating hours and value.

3. Switch off to stay fresh As handheld devices become increasingly powerful and versatile, employees face a growing challenge to rein in digital working hours. Workflows were once overwhelmingly office-based, but with more and more people using their work devices out of normal hours, this is no longer the case.

In some countries, governments have even sought to legislate to protect employees from business cultures where responding to work emails outside working hours is seen as normal and, significantly, expected.

This kind of 247/, ‘always on’ culture isn’t just bad for employees; by reducing concentration and focus, it can chip away at a company’s competitive advantage, ultimately affecting the bottom line.

5 smart and simple steps to improve email management and productivity By: George Foot, Vice President Europe & Global Marketing, Kensington

In a short space of time, email has changed almost beyond recognition, with communication tools and software transforming the way we work and communicate.

Cloud computing and the arrival of increasingly powerful tablets and smartphones together facilitate a more fluid, multi-device workflow. Whether we’re at the office or the airport, synced and secure email accounts make it easy for us to pick up where we left off, helping us to squeeze every bit of productivity out of the working day.

And yet email management can still eat up valuable time for employees and businesses. While successful communication is vital to the smooth operation of any business, inefficient use of email and other messaging tools can have a negative effect on productivity. And, with its potential to affect work-life balance, employee morale and even attention span, the misuse of emails can have other, more significant effects.

A study conducted by Microsoft estimated that the average attention in 2000 was 12 seconds and that, in part due to our digital lifestyles, this figure had fallen to around 8 seconds by 2010. Email and time management matter for businesses and their employees, and the ever-increasing supply of time management and team communication apps suggests 52 Communication

that this is big business. But even though the problem is one of technology, some of the most effective solutions are still human ones.Here are five simple principles that could help you to harness your email, time and attention more productively.

1. Think first, read second For an employee to manage emails successfully, she/ he has to know which ones are more important than others, and this comes down to real priorities. With the big picture in view, it is easier to stay focused on your

goals and to be clear about why you’re reading and what you need to take from it.

Clarity of this kind is not easily achieved and requires a good deal of rigorous thinking and decisiveness. Once you identify the most important emails, you’ll be able to read them more quickly and respond more effectively.

2. Focus on output, not input With the variety of devices and communication tools at the our disposal, it’s all too easy to confuse sending off dozens of emails for productivity. Moreover, many

4. Give employees control The proliferation of time management and data gathering apps has equipped businesses and employees with an array of different tools designed to help them work more productively. But there can be a difficult and important balance to strike when using apps ATracker, Timely or iDoneThis.

On the one hand, bosses and employees alike want to get every drop of output from the working day; yet, on the other, it’s important to avoid intrusive policies that could have unintended consequences. If employees are conscious that their work data are being tracked and monitored, the temptation to appear productive could undermine their focus on other, more important tasks.

5. Keep things short and simple The keep-it-simple rule might seem obvious and banal, but it’s easy to forget when we find ourselves dragged in to never-ending email chains.

Unnecessary emails and digital messaging waste time and effort and can be serial productivity killers.Avoid sending short emails to colleagues in the same building when an issue could be addressed more effectively in a quick chat or face-to-face meeting.

If it is necessary to send an email to discuss issues and formulate coordinated plans, they should be as concise and simple as possible to maximise productivity.A recipient of a long and discursive email is very unlikely to absorb all of the points covered: to get your message across, keep it smart, clear and simple.

Communication

53

The story so far By:James Rosewell, SOFTWARE ANALYSIS, founder and CEO of 51Degrees

Windows 10 launched globally on 29 July, with Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users, as well as Windows insiders, all receiving free upgrades to the new OS. Microsoft suggests that Windows 10 has had great initial success with 75 million devices installing the upgrade just four weeks after it was released.

The company’s marketing chief, Yusuf Mehdi, said “the operating system is being downloaded and installed faster than any previous version of the platform”.

Mehdi also said that more than 90,000 unique PCs and tablet models had been upgraded in 192 countries, Xbox One users had streamed 122 years of gameplay to Windows 10-enabled PCs and the Windows 10 store had experienced six times as many downloads per device compared to Windows 8. This number of initial installs is a far cry from Windows 8 which led to a desperately rushed released of Windows 8.1.

To build a more realistic image of Windows 10 success, 51Degrees, a device detection company, took a look at Windows 10 web usage data alongside its former operating systems; Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP and 2000. 51Degrees data supports Microsoft’s notion that a large number of installs have taken place in the first month but sheds light on the journey it has ahead to encourage Windows 7 users to upgrade.

Following initial release a mere 0.26 per cent of global web usage on Windows desktop’s took place on Windows 10 in July (see above) – arguably expected due to its release date and the cautious nature of savvy Windows users.

Following a number of tweaks and debug attempts 54

Communication

from Microsoft, 3.92 per cent of web usage was recorded on Windows 10 devices in August (see above).

Popular gaming service, Steam, has also tracked Windows 10 usage over the last month and seen a significant increase of gamers using the system – up 13.68 per cent since July, bringing total usage to over 17 per cent. In comparison, usage of Windows 7 and 8.1 is down a collective 12.8 per cent. It could be argued that the gaming community make up a large proportion of the 75 million installs.

51Degrees’ data proves that there has been a large increase in a matter of four weeks but whether the increase echoes 75 million installs is debatable.

What is interesting is the level of web traffic that is still recorded from the likes of Windows 7, XP and Windows 8 – even the unpopular Windows 8 still facilitates 4.94 per cent of traffic.

Windows 7, the age old favourite, monopolises web usage with 58.29 per cent, only decreasing by 1.29 per cent since the introduction of Windows 10. Although Windows 10 has had an influx of installs over the past four weeks, this could be due to curiosity, not necessarily a story of dedicated Microsoft users who adopt each and every upgrade.

Windows 10’s issues around privacy and disclosure remains and with the Threshold 2 update in the pipeline, giving users more control over what information the operating system shares and the need for increased transparency of patches and updates could be the defining factor in Windows 10’s ongoing success.

75 million installs is a fantastic achievement – I guess 3.92 per cent web usage doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Communication

55

Dealing with risk in

the digital revolution Risk, governance and compliance – three simple words that carry astounding weight and meaning for any business, anywhere in the world. Many businesses recognise the challenge of having risk management, governance policies and compliance procedures in place yet five years ago few would have foreseen the latest requirement on the horizon.

Digital risk management.

56 Communication

As our worlds of BYOD, IT, IoT and an always on, always connected society permeates every corner of the globe the risk for any business and multinationals in particular has grown exponentially. So much so that Gartner predicts that by 2017, one third of large enterprises engaging in digital business models and activities will have a digital risk officer or an equivalent

So what does that mean exactly? With the superset of technology now available to businesses and consumers alike, organisations have strived to share information, branding, content via multiple social channels and much more online. Paper and print is diminishing as we place more and more online, in the digital sphere. What this does is create an enormous bank of digital content and in all likelihood, a disparate bank of digital assets depending upon the geography of an organisation’s offices. What might be deemed appropriate content and branding in the US and UK, for example, may be entirely different for Asia Pacific or South America.

So how do senior executives, responsible for meeting multiple legislative and regulatory requirements monitor and manage their digital assets?

As Paul Proctor, vice president and analyst at Gartner says, “Digital risk officers (DRO) will require a mix of business acumen and understanding with sufficient technical knowledge to assess and make recommendations for appropriately addressing digital business risk.” Creating a role or responsibility for digital assets within an organisation is a smart approach but how does one individual or perhaps a team monitor these assets across a multinational organisation?

Businesses need to consider the variety of different regulations across different regions, for example, the forthcoming amends to the data protection act across different countries, the assessment of technological risk of systems used to manage digital engagement or even the representation of a brand. All of these and more require regular assessment and monitoring so that if or when a DRO or risk management team is questioned about the organisation’s digital assets they can easily report back to the regulatory body or auditors, demonstrating that the organisation complies appropriately.The other major benefit a DRO role brings to an organisation is the ability to drive value from digital asset spend. Multinationals, in particular, will often have countries or regions producing duplicate or overlapping content. With an accurate understanding of the global digital estate the DRO will enable decisions based upon not only the risk profile of assets, but also the value they deliver. Avoiding unnecessary spend where value maybe sub-optimal or where assets have become stale due to lack of updates.

The accurate understanding of the entire digital estate through effective data capture and governance will then provide insights for better and more impactful

decisions but also create savings and drive savvier purchasing decisions. Ultimately ensuring the DRO role pays for itself.

So while the predictions of the new DRO role abound what can businesses who’ve not yet made the hire do now?

Empower your knowledge base The majority of businesses, especially multinationals, will be blessed with a group of knowledgeable employees (or consultants) such as lawyers, security executives, risk officers and senior executives. When combined these individuals can and should provide a cohesive view of the organisation’s digital assets and legislative/regulatory requirements in each location.

Think global, act local By auditing the businesses across every location and recording the different digital assets produced and stored the risk management team can start to gain a clear view of any challenges or areas for concern as well as flagging future challenges in a reliable risk management system.

Set realistic expectations Regulatory and legislative organisations will expect organisations to recognise the importance of their digital assets but the acknowledgement that digital risk management is still in its infancy means that you could be ahead of the curve.

Be proactive Proactively prevent issues – don’t wait for the proverbial to hit the fan. By having a robust risk management policy and procedures in place you’ll be able to detect, report and address issues that are important. After all prevention is better than having to continually firefight problems.

By creating a clear data collection process in your business you’ll be able to profile the risk of assets and use the information to compare value – therefore optimising the risk and reward balance.

Overall remember those producing digital assets never envisioned that they would one day have to comply to the growing regulatory demands that modern businesses now face. If you want to be successful in motivating your entire organisation into being compliant remember to keep things simple, educate and collaborate.

Communication

57

Communication

59

60 Communication

Communication

61

62 Communication

Communication

63

64 Communication

Communication

65

Thuraya XT-LITE Simple. Reliable. Affordable.

Call 19081 www.alkancit.com