We’ve had some iPads here for a little while now, so we’re probably in as good a position as anyone to comment on their usefulness. The hype has been huge and has also been matched by the resulting sales, with Apple initially targeting consumers rather than companies.
As a consumer device, there’s clearly a lot to like with an iPad, particularly if you’re a gadget collector. Whilst it’s not a replacement for a laptop it has some key features that make it very useful:
• it’s instantly on when you need it – no waiting for it to boot up;
• a great battery life;
• it’s intuitive and simple to use and the tactile nature of it appeals to most people.
So for something that’s just there for quickly dealing with your email (without resorting to a smartphone’s keypad), browsing the internet, accessing your social networks, playing games or using the countless available apps it is, without doubt, better than a laptop. I suspect that many iPads will end up as quick to use devices that are shared and used when you’re sat in front of the TV. In a word, iPads are convenient. However, I can’t imagine many people will get one and say they no longer need a PC, at least not in their current incarnation.
So what about business use? For many businesses the iPad will be an executive productivity tool (or status symbol – perhaps it’s this decade’s Filofax). As a productivity tool, the iPad is actually quite useful. As well as the obvious benefit of providing email, calendaring and contacts in a reasonably easy to use form, with the addition of some suitable apps it can also be a great way to organise to-do lists and your thoughts (try the “Things” app, not cheap but certainly useful).
Many people are hoping it will replace the pad of paper or notebook for meetings, but I’m not sure it’s quite there yet. It can be done with perseverance and some will no doubt do this but it’s not quite fast or intuitive enough. Perhaps the apps in this area will improve over time.
However, there are some instances, for some companies where the iPad could really shine. At the moment the iPad provides a real “wow factor” and people are looking to use it at the point of sale with their customers. This is typically using custom apps for activities like form filling and showing pictures and documents. There are also many specialist applications for areas such as graphic design, chart creation and screen design that professionals can use with their clients. Innovative organisations are already developing applications that can help them get an edge with the iPad and it’s certainly worth thinking about whether it can help your business too.
Now we have to wait for the competition to appear and I’m sure they’ll be a plethora of different form factors and user interfaces appearing in the next year to rival the iPad. However, Apple seems to have done a good enough job (as they did with the iPhone) to hold off competitors for a little while at least. For this reason, at Perfect Image we’re investing in iPad development skills and expect it to be a viable development platform for specialised commercial use (as well as consumer applications) for the next few years.
Virtualisation has been one of the hot topics in IT over the last couple of years with key players such as VMware, Citrix and Microsoft pushing their products and associated benefits very hard. The benefits of virtualising servers and, to a lesser extent, desktops are well proven, resulting in significant usage by organisations of all sizes. Server virtualisation has made IT management simpler in many cases and there are quantifiable cost savings around hardware and power usage as well as the associated “green” benefits.
Less well known and much less common is the concept of Application Virtualisation. Application Virtualisation tools typically provide a way to package up a specific application so that it can be installed in an isolated, virtual environment on one or more servers. When a user wants to run the application from their PC, the application is ‘streamed’ to their PC so that it runs locally on their machine but in a contained, virtual environment. This means that the application doesn’t interfere or change anything on the PC itself and all its data and configuration information are kept on the servers.
So the obvious question is why would you want to do this? First of all, this is not usually a way to save money; although there may be possible benefits around application licencing or some management costs these are nearly always going to outweighed by the additional installation and management costs of the Application Virtualisation software itself. However, there are certain scenarios where Application Virtualisation can be an ideal solution, for example where:
• You have applications which are not compatible with each other and cannot co-exist on the same PC;
• Quick and frequent deployments/updates of an application to large numbers of clients are required;
• Application availability needs to be easily linked to users’ roaming profiles as they move from one PC to another;
• A poorly written application needs to be isolated so it doesn’t cause problems on client PCs;
• Security control around an application’s usage needs to be tightly controlled and monitored;
It’s unlikely that Application Virtualisation will ever achieve the same level of widespread use as its better known virtualisation technology siblings, but in the right circumstances it’s certainly worth considering.
For many years companies have tried to avoid the need to invest in an email archive solution, but as more and more information is transferred by email (often nearly 75% of your information), it is very difficult to ignore the importance and value of an appropriate solution.
Why should we archive our email, I hear you ask? Well, there are three key areas of your business that typically have an interest. The first is your legal or HR department, as email can be used and submitted in tribunals and legal instances. It is also often the fastest and best way to prove a case and may be the only way certain information was communicated. Just as importantly, your IT manager will be tasked with making your data readily and efficiently accessible. Problematic storage devices, corrupt PST files and overloaded email servers are just some of the headaches which they must overcome. The final person is your Operations Manager, as they will want staff to access historic information to improve the performance and productivity of their teams.
Each of the above stakeholders will have quite different requirements, many of which will probably start to make you head spin. My advice would be to step away from the products for a moment and address these requirements from a business perspective first. Once you have a clear picture, you can then start to objectively review the technology. It could be that you need an online service such as that provided by Message Labs or a local installed product as provided by Symantec. It might even be that you already have a solution by using functionality in products such as Microsoft Exchange 2010.
Whichever solution you choose and deploy, you will almost certainly feel like you have just spent money on something that has absolutely no visible benefit to your business. However, like every good and well-chosen insurance policy, you will be delighted the day you need to use it.
It’s a fact that the majority of companies that invest in email archiving solutions do so because they have already experienced some pain that that could so easily have been avoided.
The media love to feed us lots of statistics, from exam results and crime figures to the number of hours the nation spends watching the television. Recently they’ve been able to provide us with a deluge of numbers and charts about the economy, climate change and the election. Most of us like to read these; it gives us something to base our views on, even if we are all familiar with the phrase about lies, damned lies and statistics.
Given our love affair with statistics away from work, it’s amazing how many organisations still collect lots of data without trying to analyse it in ways that will improve their performance. All companies do the obvious, mandatory stuff like accounts and management reporting, but few try to extract the information that might lead them to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Of course, there are IT systems to help you do this and, of course, there’s an acronym for the whole concept – BI – Business Intelligence. The good news is that BI software is getting easier to use and cheaper to buy and, yes, there is an app for that with plenty of BI tools available for iPhones and other smartphones.
It’s important to understand that BI isn’t just another name for report writing. It’s about being able to join up all of your different sets of data and look at them in new and different ways, not just the way that somebody decided was right years ago. It’s this flexibility, coupled with some compelling presentation options, that allows BI to help us reach valuable decisions about our organisations.
Apparently 75% of all BI users are of above average intelligence. Also, according to Vic Reeves, 88.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
At the heart of every business is data. Whether it is a bank, a shop or a dentist, the things important to that business must be recorded in some way, to track a customer’s balance, stock levels or dentist appointments.
The systems used to store this information need to be pragmatic in nature: ideally they allow employees to enter and edit data in an efficient manner, and give them the information they need to carry out their work now, today. A dentist appointment system, for example, would likely show a calendar of appointments, where a secretary can efficiently book people into slots.
There may be another system, again a pragmatic input system, for the dentist to input results for each appointment.
These systems, by design, do not give any deeper insight into the business data recorded beyond that needed to carry out immediate actions.
But there is great benefit in creating a deeper, analytical view of your data. Instead of day to day concerns, when a longer-term view is taken, trends and patterns can be identified, and actions taken to change those trends to the advantage of the business. This is an extremely valuable tool for any business to have. Like driving a car, the further a driver looks ahead down the road, the more intelligent the driver can be about how they drive, avoiding obstacles and identifying the best lane to be in.
Because of it’s ability to allow intelligent decisions, this type of data analysis is generally called Business Intelligence (BI). It is a huge and thriving industry, due to it’s potential for improving profitability and providing a competitive advantage.
The approach that BI analysis takes is to identify important measures, and to ‘slice and dice’ measures by dimensions. For a dentist, an important measure may be the average number of appointments. This measure could be sliced by the day of week:
| Day of week | Avg. number of appointments |
| Monday | 21 |
| Tuesday | 20 |
| Wednesday | 19 |
| Thursday | 20 |
| Friday | 16 |
| Saturday | 31 |
This is a simple analysis which does not tell the dentist much beyond the fact that more customers are seen on Saturday. But if we dice the measure using a second dimension, age of customer:
| Day of week | Under 18 | 18-60 | Over 60 |
| Monday | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Tuesday | 7 | 6 | 7 |
| Wednesday | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| Thursday | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Friday | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Saturday | 15 | 9 | 7 |
We discover that most of the extra customers seen on Saturdays are under 18s. This may be valuable information to the dental practice, which could guide decisions about the content of their next advertising campaign to target this demographic.
This is a simplistic, contrived example to demonstrate a principle. In practice, the following factors make BI implementation technically challenging:
A solution to these difficulties, which has been implemented in a number of ways by different BI technology vendors, involves having a consolidated, pre-processed repository of data from all sources, clearly arranged into measures and dimensions ready for analysis. This solves many of the problems facing BI: by pre-processing and consolidating data into one place (often called a data warehouse), we can enable fast and efficient ad-hoc multi-dimensional analysis.
Traditionally, the process of creating a data warehouse is an intensive process, resulting in a warehouse which physically resides somewhere.
However newer technologies are emerging, such as QlikView, and Microsoft’s PowerPivot. These new technologies are changing the way BI can be implemented by taking advantage of the memory and processing power available on today’s desktop PC to erode the concept of a traditional data warehouse residing on a central server, and instead relying on in-memory processing of data on the fly. BI solutions are now easier than ever to implement, which means that you can benefit by having more relevant data upon which to base your decisions.
Building software is not like building a house. Houses have been constructed for thousands of years in relatively the same way. We know that they have foundations, walls, doors and windows and are constructed from these component parts. Software is different as it is not tangible and therefore progress is not always apparent. Software development is often about realising ideas, and providing solutions to unique business problems. The building of software can uncover new challenges but also new opportunities for improvement along the way. To embrace and nurture a project in order to realise its full potential requires us to evolve our processes, and the way we co-operate. Therefore customer interaction and the forming of strong, adaptive teams are now central to project success.
Agile processes deliver software in a number of short bursts called iterations. These iterations are planned in close collaboration with the customer, and regularly reviewed and prioritised as the software evolves. Each iteration aims to end with a deployable software release which not only allows the customer to visualise and validate the product as it develops, but it also encourages new ideas about the direction the product is taking. The process ensures that high value software is delivered first, with a focus on providing the earliest Return on Investment (ROI) to the customer.
Project success is not only measured by delivering on time and to budget, but also by how successful the end product is in addressing the customer needs. An agile approach accepts that we should, if possible, uncover better ways of doing things, and encourages the unearthing of additional value to the product. To ensure that teams can learn, adapt and improve, the process has taken lessons learned from the cycle of continuous improvement so successfully implemented within the manufacturing sector. This approach shows that by working in smaller increments, keeping the processes lean, and reviewing regularly we can gain even greater control over the project schedule and budget.
Openness is also an important aspect of agile projects as the rate of delivery, ongoing cost and planned software releases are available to customers at all times. As the aim is to release software throughout the delivery process, we believe that this encourages closer customer collaboration, shared goals and allows us to provide high value software solutions. Whilst software isn’t like construction, agility allows earlier insight into how the software is progressing, and allows greater customer involvement in shaping the finished product.
Perfect Image has adopted this system and we are strong advocates of theagile, iterative project approach.We have our own project methodology, BlueWave, which is based on proven, agile standards and which covers the entire project lifecycle. Experience tells us that our methodology has a very positive impact on the success of our projects and many of our customers have adopted similar, agile processes as a result.
Andy Rumfitt
We've got a brand new series of video tutorials available to view. In this series, our very own Niall Brophy takes you through some of the key features of QlikView by QlikTech. For those of you who aren't aware, QlikView is one of the Business Intelligence products Perfect Image specialise around. QlikView is one of a number of business intelligence solutions designed to drive better decision making, increase sales, unlock your greatest potential and highlight unnecessary spend.
QlikView is aimed at all users, not just power users with a colour coded point and click interface. At the same time the product is scaleable and is applicable to organisations of all sizes. QlikView 9 is the latest version of the product. It is totally self contained with all the required components of a BI solution built in, allowing for quicker and easier deployment. The product also truly supports mobile workers with clients for the all the major mobile platforms including the Apple iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry. Cloud, laptop and on-premises deployments are also supported.
In the first two videos of the series, Niall will walk you through a number of key highlights from the product, show you some real-world examples of how QlikView can be of benefit your business, and help avoid pains in the future with advanced, flexible performance forecasting.
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In the first in our new series of QlikView video tutorials, Niall will help you learn some of the basic ideas and principles that make up the core of QlikView. These simple yet powerful features enable an incredible amount of flexibility and drilldown capability. Niall will show you how some of these capabilities can enhance your ability to review and interpret your business data quickly and easily.
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QlikTech Financial Director Dashboard Overview In the second in our series of video tutorials, Niall will walk you through some real-world examples of how QlikView can be of benefit your business, and help avoid pains in the future with advanced, flexible performance forecasting. |
You have invested heavily in IT; you have a financial system, a HR system, a website, a customer database or CRM system, and maybe a core operational system which drives your core business. But you are frustrated; by the complexity of managing disparate systems, by the lack of integration between systems, and by the manual effort required to keep the systems in step - effort which could be redirected at more value enhancing activity. Unless you have invested very heavily in one fully integrated system that fulfils all of your IT needs, some of this is likely to be familiar.
Another article about the benefits of systems integration? Not quite, it is aiming a little higher than that; true business integration. Imagine for a moment that there is some "magic glue" that can receive a message from one of your systems, translate it into something meaningful to another of your systems, and transmits that message to the destination system - repeatedly and without fail. This is great as far as it goes, but business processes require people making decisions as well as systems. So imagine that additionally you can configure the "magic glue" not only to integrate systems together, but also to integrate people together with systems and people together with people. This can also include the systems and people belonging to your suppliers and clients. In this way all of the components required to conduct your key business processes can be made to work seamlessly together.
So, for example, if a customer makes a large order via your website and a credit authorisation is required before goods are dispatched and invoiced, the "magic glue" would detect the order on the website, send an authorisation request by e-mail or SMS to the appropriate person and, once authorised, extract the order details from the website and posts it in the correct format to the financial system for picking, dispatch and invoicing.
There are, of course, many more complicated business processes that incorporate both people and systems that the "magic glue" could handle, including both core operations and non-core processes such as HR and finance.
You’ve probably guessed that the "magic glue" is not so magic or elusive. This kind of translation and orchestration software is becoming well established, and many of our clients are taking the fundamental decision to use it as the central hub of their systems architecture. If you’d like to find out more about this, and particularly Microsoft BizTalk, then please feel free to get in touch.
William Morris
Windows 7 was released late 2009 as a replacement for Windows Vista. Here are 7 new features.
Snap
Snap is a quick way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen. Depending on which edge you choose - top or bottom, left or right - the window will expand vertically, fill the screen, or you can even position windows side by side.
Pin
A lot of us have a fairly small group of programs and files we use a lot. So it makes sense to be able to keep them handy all the time. With Windows Vista, you can pin your favourite programs to your start menu.
In Windows 7, you can use pinning to make your PC work even more the way you want. One big improvement is the ability to control where your programs appear on your taskbar. Always want your web browser right next to the start button? Drag the icon where you want it, and it'll stay there till you move it. You can also pin your program icon to the taskbar, so it's there all the time. You can even pin specific documents and web sites to Jump Lists on your taskbar.
Shake
Just click on a window, hold down, and give your mouse a shake. Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again - and your windows are back.
Peek
New in Windows 7, Peek lets you peer past all your open windows straight to the Windows 7desktop. Simply move your mouse over the little transparent rectangle in the lower right corner of your screen - and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your hidden icons and gadgets.
Sticky Notes
Like their real world counterparts, these colourful notes are a great way to stick a reminder on your desktop.
Windows 7 improves Sticky Notes in several useful ways: you can format sticky note text, change its colour with a click, and speedily resize, collapse, and flip through notes.
Calculator
Calculator has new features, including new Programmer and Statistics modes. Unit conversion translates Celsius to Fahrenheit, ounces to grams, and joules to BTUs. Handy calculation templates can help you compute stuff like fuel economy and auto lease payments.
Libraries
Libraries make it easier to find, work with, and organize files scattered across your PC or network. A library makes it easy to search one place - no matter where files are actually stored
In Windows 7, you simply create a library, name it something (perhaps, "Family Photos"), and then tell Windows which folders your new library should include. Your photos are still physically located in different spots - but now they show up in a single window.
Steve Douglas
We're currently recruiting for a 2nd Line Service Desk Applications Engineer, with a view to someone starting within the next month or so. The position is a great opportunity for someone with fantastic customer communication and interpersonal skills.
You would be working with our full range of clients to advise and support them on a range of applications, with a specific focus on accounting and business software. You would be joining our dedicated team of Managed Services support staff in interacting directly with our most important clients to help troubleshoot and resolve issues in an efficient and professional manner. Fundamental to the role is the ability to offer exceptional customer service, through excellent written, oral and organisational skills, whilst delivering accurate technical resolutions to problems.
Full details of the position and how to apply can be found here.
Why Work For Us?
At Perfect Image we offer a range of benefits but we offer a lot more too. We want to provide an environment where everyone who works with us is fulfilled, engaged and rewarded by the work they do and by the people they work with. We want people to have the freedom to take control of their work and to bring their initiative, creativity and enthusiasm to Perfect Image.
Perfect Image’s success relies on the commitment and dedication of our team and we are immensely proud of their performance and their achievements. We invest significant time and money to ensure staff have the right skills and the ongoing development opportunities they need.
We focus very strongly on career development; the vast majority of our team have progressed from within, gaining qualifications and promotions during their time at Perfect Image.
We'll make every effort to support and develop you within your role. Our appraisal system is central to staff development and appraisals are carried out twice a year. To complement the appraisal system, Perfect Image has its own Career Progression Plan which underpins professional development within the company.
In short we are committed to our employees’ development! We spend a considerable amount of time and money encouraging staff to achieve their potential. This can be through a variety of channels; challenging projects, courses, training and qualifications e.g. MCAD, Prince 2, ITIL and MCP. Training and development will be a fundamental part of your time with Perfect Image and we will take your career progression and development as seriously as you.
If you are successful in joining our team your contribution will be valued from day one and we will reward your contribution, commitment and development accordingly.
