Jewelry Catalog & Order Entry on iPad - A smarter approach

Jewelry industry will see big transformation in Sales-Client relationship with the innovative application on iPad that gives richer and smarter experience to the clients.
This iPad application from the makers of Diaspark Jewel ERP, is first of its kind enterprise application which is very handy and useful. People neither have to carry their laptops nor worry about typing by one hand. The intuitive interface of iPad and its touch screen, allows the sales person to reduce the time for showcasing jewelry styles from their catalog as its supports keyword search on parameters like type of jewelry, diamond size, value etc. The bigger screen of iPad is very attractive for showing the Jewelry images. The on-screen keyboard provides ease in navigating through catalogue and making order entries.
The rich Graphical User Interface that can be implemented on iPad gives an extra edge in showing catalogs. A sales person can expand or contract the images just by using fingers. This device is easy to carry, facilitates order entry, inventory checking, pending order details and order submission to make the entire process faster.

Transforming Healthcare with Information Technology

“Transforming health with IT”, a conference of its unique type in the International Healthcare industry held from March 8-10, 2010. Attending any conference is obviously a great opportunity to get aligned with the latest trends, technologies and challenges of the relevant market, but this one was different.

For the first time in Healthcare history, Doctors and IT professionals came together on a common platform to discuss the opportunities and challenges. This made the conference a complete different and revolutionary event. The concern and contribution of each speaker regarding implementation of IT in Healthcare was highly appreciated by the audience. The common focus was not to leverage technology for commercial benefit instead transforms the healthcare services delivery and make sure that quality healthcare services reach across the globe.

Looking at the enormous need of HealthCare providers’ worldwide, technology will play a crucial role in reaching out to people. That implies we require “Data”. So what is needed is Data. Well, everybody speaks about collecting data, but I was really impressed with the statement by Dr. Ashish Joshi (Research Assistant Professor, Dept. of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Maryland, USA) that we don’t need Data, we need information. Until and unless the data is put to use for creating information and analysis, there is no point in just collecting data and more so just for transactional details. The focus should be more on clinical data collection and analysis.

Most of the people are busy making IT products revolving around patient accounting viz. admin, accounts, and HR related data in hospitals. But the real need is of making solutions that capture clinical data relating to medication or treatment. This will provide an opportunity to analyze data from clinical research perspective.
Another major role of IT would be to bridge the gap between people living in remote rural areas and the HealthCare Specialists sitting in Urban Areas. This can be very well addressed via telemedicine. With the technology providing platform for live connectivity and document collaboration, sharing, this usage is poised to see tremendous growth.

After attending this conference I strongly believe that “IT is THE path”, and using this innovative path in HealthCare industry we can maximize the reach and certainly cater to the people who are in NEED. And when people start talking about mHealth, it’s even more encouraging because mobile devices have a deeper penetration as compared to laptops or desktops and connectivity to the remotest location (specifically in India). A rural place where there is no power for hours, no internet connectivity, does this make sense to develop desktop or web based application. The most feasible option is to use mobile for enterprise class applications in healthcare because that’s the only platform which provides connectivity almost throughout India.

Imagine an accident happens in a village where a patient is lying on the road and seeking help. What a village doctor will do? Will he carry his briefcase of medical equipments or his laptop with accessories to connect via internet and webcam etc; obviously his briefcase. Now he has to send information about the patient to a specialist in urban area seeking second opinion, so does he come back to his hospital and take his laptop with him? No, he should be able to take out his phone and send information right then and there to the doctor. Today’s feature and Smartphones are all capable to share any form of information text, picture, and multimedia.

Now imagine the other side. A doctor sitting in a car receives this request. He need to see the photograph to analyze the severity, will he wait till he reaches his office? No, he should be able to take out his phone and read the data right then and there. Imagine the level of information sharing and the speed at which this is happening.

To summarize, IT is an undoubtedly integral part of today’s healthcare system. It is very difficult to imagine quality and timely healthcare services without right use of Technology. Currently we have to work together to overcome the challenges of implementing IT in Healthcare. At last I would like to re-quote what Mrs. Sangeeta Reddy (Executive Director, Apollo Hospital Group, Hyderabad, India) said at the conference and I am very much convinced with it, “Let’s not compete, Lets Collaborate”.

Data modeling

Data modeling is the process of designing and validating a database that will be used to meet a business challenge. Data modelers use terms and symbols to identify and represent all of the data objects needed for a business operation to function.

Data models document entities (the persons, places and things [product, warehouse, partner etc.] an organization encounters in the course of business); the relationships of entities (e.g. employee WORKS in warehouse, MANAGES product and SHIPS to partner); and the attributes of entities (description, order number, address, account balance etc).

There are three common types of data models. Conceptual data models define and describe business concepts at a high level for stakeholders addressing a business challenge. Logical data models are more detailed and describe entities, attributes and relationships in business terms. Physical data models define database objects, schema and the actual columns and tables of data that will be created in the database.

Like the blueprint of a building, a data model is the design specification for a database. Data modeling can be helped by off the shelf data models that can be adapted to a specific use. But data architects warn that without proper time and attention to "design before you build," organizations face inaccurate reporting, incorrect data, costly remediation and difficulty in meeting new user requirements.

Print Media Gearing up for Mobile

With 275 Million subscribers and 89% penetration, Mobile market has emerged as one of the fastest growing industry in the US. It’s the time where every single business entity is planning to improve their reach to a new level and introduce mobile as a way of communication. May it be text messaging, applications or simple voice communication.

Companies are already using Mobile as a tool for branding and marketing strategies and now with launching of iPhone, Android and additionally iPad, we will soon be witnessing a big chunk of Print going on mobile. The process has already started and about to gain its speed.

Now, what concerns media and publishing companies today is how to get there without losing their bearings, sanity and faith along the way. Poor support, lack of any real sense of direction and counting on the murky "intelligence" of so called "business intelligence" companies, might have already burnt the figures of some of them by now.

The good news is that - with the right help and approach one can push their business very firmly in the right direction by creating a better user experience. All it takes is two things. The first is to realize that running into mobile space can only work for you by building it into your business strategy, not just by bolting it on. Educate yourself about the subject. We are there to share facts and figures! The second is to find industry experts to implement your business strategies in Mobile world. Fortunately, we can help you evolve your digital strategy step by step - whether you`re completely new to the concept or already half way there.

Our client testimonies would certainly help you build your faith in us. So do not feel lost .Find out more and decide exactly where it can take your business.

The Next Generation of Information Worker Practice is SharePoint 2010

All under one umbrella hood, but making most from the Enterprise Collaboration and Document Management, Microsoft has been quite successful in making the SharePoint 2007 as the choice of 17,000 customers all over the world. For those, who actually realized the importance and the need of such a cohesive environment, the next generation platform for SharePoint, is focusing even more on making it a Unified Infrastructure – from Community & Business Collaboration, to Web Content Management, to Enterprise Search.

“Office Suite”, being a personal and close affair for the Information workers, it becomes even better as we see a very tight integration of Microsoft office 2010 products, acting as a client for SharePoint. If the “Ribbon Style” over the web has still not excited you enough, there is a great enhancement from the Core Platform Services to APIs to developer tools. Tight Integration with Visual Studio 2010 which comes as a part of SharePoint tools available out Of the Box is something I am sure the developer community will really cherish.

“LINQ provider for SharePoint Silverlight Webpart, Client Object model for building Rich Internet Applications, REST support, Sandbox solution support, which allows the developers to deploy without being administrators are few to make developers happy. On the other hand, enhancements like Business Connectivity Services, SharePoint Designer, Visio Workflow Visualization and Integration, Word Services, Access Services and few more to add to the list.”

Needless to say, those who are thinking to upgrade from previous version to the SharePoint 2010, there is a seamless upgrade path available for all of us. Since the Service Pack 2 – SharePoint 2007, we had a neat utility – Upgrade Checker, which identify issues and can be taken care of. If you have fall in love with SharePoint 2007 user interface and what to still upgrade – use Visual Upgrade, which allows you to use 2010 features.

What’s store for you in the SharePoint 2010 bag:

Developers
• Visual Studio 2010 ships with SharePoint
• LINQ Provider
• Silverlight Webpart
• Business Connectivity Services

Administrators
• Visual upgrade allows 2007 interface to be maintained
• Upgrade Checker
• Backward Compatibility

End Users
• SharePoint Workspace Client
• Ribbon user interface
• Cross-browser capability
• Support for mobile devices

If you think you were in the SharePoint Lifecycle already and want to be part of it in this Generation release, then welcome to SharePoint 2010.

Why choose a CMMI Certified Company as your IT services partner?

The Standish Group just released the summary version of their 2009 CHAOS Report that tracks project failure rates across a broad range of companies and industries. From their press release:

“This year’s results show a marked decrease in project success rates, with 32% of all projects succeeding which are delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions” says Jim Johnson, chairman of The Standish Group, “44% were challenged which are late, over budget, and/or with less than the required features and functions and 24% failed which are cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used.”

When are companies going to stop wasting billions of dollars on failed projects? The vast majority of this waste is completely avoidable; simply get the right business needs (requirements) understood early in the process.

In tough times, it is all the more necessary not to lose money on project failure. With a CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) Certified company, it all starts with the proper requirement gathering and requirement specifications documents, which makes a strong platform to build upon and compare the project progress.

A CMMI certified company has standard processes (defined as per CMMI Guidelines) for all types of projects, and a long experience in following processes. They ensure high quality products within committed schedule and budget. CMMI guidelines help in maintaining consistency of the quality and services.

Non CMMI certified companies can also make good quality commitments but their processes are usually ad hoc and chaotic. The organization usually does not provide a stable environment to support the processes. In spite of this chaos, if organizations often produce products and services that work; however, they frequently exceed their budgets and do not meet their schedules. Also such organizations are characterized by a tendency to over commit, abandonment of processes in a time of crisis, and an inability to repeat their successes.

Lets look at the key benefits of outsourcing to CMMI certified company:

• Higher quality of a product due to constant quality control on each of the development steps
• Lower costs due to a more productive and efficient way of creating a product /providing services
• Better communication between client and development team along with all stakeholders due to established rules and procedures
• Better visibility of the product life cycle and development activities due to better organized documentation
• Higher quality and lower costs due to use of the newest technologies and tools

A CMMI company adopts an institutionalized quality management system, confirmed by an accredited CMMI Certifier, to ensure that they provide quality at any phase of product, service delivery.

Complete client involvement requires applying quality assured methods – including (but not limited to) Proper project planning, requirements traceability, risk management, scientific project management approach (based on historical and current project data collected and analyzed), quality control during the entire project lifecycle (in the form of peer reviews, testing, and work product validation, regular process audits.), Complete visibility to all stakeholders during all phase of the development.

So whenever you or your company is looking for an IT Partner then take their process standardization as the first consideration to qualify.

Hard Workers or Smart Information Workers

Technologies have evolved, and so did the techniques, to work with tons and tons of information and extract critical, meaningful and useful data out of it using the tools available with the workers. They did the mining manually and presented the data in the desired format. Today CIOs, Product Managers, Quality In charge, Marketing Head, Sales Executive or anyone in the business who in some or the other way responsible for generating either more business or cutting down the cost prefers to know about the “Numbers – Sales Crossed, Clients Met, Products Sold, Revenue Earned or Lost, New Clients etc. Thanks to the competition, that at least people started capturing their day to day happenings (data).

“A Worker, from a leading Health Care Industry, claimed that with the entire arrangement of information flowing around and documents moving with a prescribed and scheduled workflow, Now I can concentrate more on the outcome of the result from the data and not only invest my maximum time in collecting the data. I saved 35% of my time every week now.”

People within the organizations have deployed and got accustomed to their own way of capturing information. Various tools and techniques have been introduced over the years and even a medium to large sized organization land up extracting information from more than 2-3 LOB applications, or sometimes it is just couple of Worksheets and Documents or may be dozen of Emails. So What? At least we have the scattered data – it’s only a matter of collecting it at one place – re organizing it and then making a final presentable report.

The point I am trying to bring here is that we tend to become the hard workers instead of smart workers. We work around the Management Information System (MIS) only instead of making it a Functional and Operational System or Portal. The shortcoming could be clearly seen in the making of a single sharable and interactive platform based system itself.

One of the major reasons I think is the behavioral aspect in adopting new things. An information collector has been using the same format (almost that the column and rows keep changing) over the years and now suddenly if he is asked to enter data in a List Library running over the extranet SharePoint portal – will surely show a reluctance. But the designer and the manager understands that if all the 70 people from different locations enter the data on the portal, the real time information is available to the concerned people immediately and reports can be presented, modified, printed etc.

Most of our efforts while creating a LOB application go in organizing the Database, Designing the Roles & Security and Permissions, writing a file upload, check in-out, mechanism, creating a Document Management system, Generating a Content Management System for our own Website, Exposing our application to the partners – Clients, managing Internal as well as external milestones etc. Fortunately for an Information Worker, it does take very less time to achieve all this mentioned above and do more.

This is possible because the Information Worker has adapted to the new and innovative way of working with Microsoft Office System. For a layman, it won’t be very wrong to state that – you still get to work with your choice of tools like word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, PDF etc but you get all these over the web and now it can be shared very conveniently.