New Technology Driving a New Philosophy for Service Management Systems

Research shows that Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, which accounted for little more than 6% of the total Enterprise Software market in 2008, will represent more than double that percentage by the end of 2011 - and the growth is likely to remain exponentially impressive. As a result, over the last 4 years these applications have been seen to have a significant impact on the whole service management solution marketplace.
A shift towards hosted solutions has been driven by a number of factors, in particular the flexibility afforded to the user by these types of solutions - given the imperative imposed on businesses to adapt or suffer the consequences in these cost-conscious times. The value of these solutions is most obvious for companies trying to increase the speed of adaptation and transformation of their service operation from simple break/fix into brand-and-people-driven operations, providing customers with high-value knowledge input. The role of the service management solution consequently becomes more than just an efficiency engine supporting productivity, and instead provides real-time, instantaneous data transfer, providing usable information immediately and creating a highly effective operation.
A challenge for many companies is to have their service management system on a single platform; currently systems are rarely fully integrated despite the claims of providers, instead being comprised of a number of systems coming from different sources, and most solution providers currently do not provide a complete solution. This is despite the fact that a single platform provides the basis for total visibility and gives a significant advantage.
For a successful service transformation, as the operation develops, businesses have to deal with significant change, including a complete overhaul of their measurement and process dashboards. Once the measures and processes start to be questioned, the obvious uncertainty is how fast and how radical the changes should be. It would appear that one reason for the phenomenal growth in SaaS is its ability to provide a rapid speed of change, allowing adaption to become significantly faster and cheaper to execute.
Some software providers are now extremely agile and able to assume a new role in the implementation process, supporting the customer with continuous improvement as well as ensuring that the software develops effectively in line with the changing needs of the customer, and no gap is permitted between the latest product and what the customer is using. This shift of role and responsibility has encouraged some suppliers to focus heavily on providing the highest quality of service to their customers during and after implementation, guaranteeing fast results and, most importantly, continuous improvement and support throughout the lifetime of the solution.
If the effective lifetime of the system can be extended, then the benefits are obvious. Many solutions comprise a modular structure - which can be fine as long as they can be fully integrated, but the opportunity for adaption is often more illusory than real. The key to future-proofing is to configure systems to maintain alignment with changing requirements, giving the advantage that the system evolves as the business transforms, therefore training and staff development can continually be worked on - with the benefit of continuous improvement and positive demonstrable outcomes. Future-proofing also means that the disadvantages of upgrades or changes taking time and incurring cost can be avoided as the software remains fully up-to-date, thereby increasing its value to the customer and ultimately the customer's customer. A supplier able to continually align each solution to the customer's own requirements gains control over common problems such as diverse customers operating with different versions, or the customer unable or refusing to upgrade - so the solution accrues greater value.
The philosophy change is there to see, as customers become more demanding of their technology providers and are no longer prepared to "dumb-down" when they come into the work place. Customers are also expecting service management system providers to support them with sustainable solutions which can be utilised over a number of years, without high-cost upgrades or replacements every couple of years - in other words a relatively low life-time cost, commensurate with other technology providers.

How Do You Make an iPod App?

The first thing to look at when embarking on any product development or entrepreneurial venture is your goals for the project. Having a vision of what you want to achieve at the outset is an important barometer that will confirm whether the development process is heading in the right direction. When I consult with people who have ideas for iPhone and iPad apps, the question they most frequently ask is, "How much can I expect to make?" Unfortunately, this is difficult to answer. The following factors are unique for each application: Cost to produce, Popularity, People responsible for managing its success. All of these factors contribute to the financial success of your app. Base your expectations on this knowledge and on the documented proof that a wide variety of people are making profitable apps every day: Non-technical "idea people" and entrepreneurs such as the Gabi founders; Independent developers such as Lima Sky and Drift lab; Educators such as Montessori um; Writers such as Sarah Young; Mid-size entertainment companies such as Electronic Arts and Zynga; Large sports and entertainment companies such as MLB and Disney. Good advice on where to start is different today than it was two years ago, when you could launch an app without much promotion and still have a fair shot at getting seen. Today, App Store competition is fierce, and dozens of new high-quality apps are being launched every day. This competitive environment means that ideas must be evaluated and refined to achieve maximum success in the App Store. Have your idea evaluated. Evaluating anything in which you are not an expert is difficult. For example, if someone had an idea for an innovative design for a child's car seat, would that person be qualified to evaluate their own idea? Probably not. They would need to seek out the advice of someone who knows the child car seat niche. That expert would shed light on how to make the idea even better based on their specialized knowledge of the industry. Does your app solve a unique problem? People want to be able to do a lot of things while on the go. Successful apps often solve a problem that is unique to the mobile context. Does the app serve a niche? Find a niche with ardent fans (pet lovers, for example), and create an app that caters to it. Does it make people laugh? This is a no-brainer. What happens with funny apps? They get shared - a lot. Are you building a better wheel? Are there existing successful apps that lack important features or design elements? This is tricky because those developers might already be working on such enhancements. But if you get to market first, you have a good shot.

Amazing Tablet by Microsoft

It seems like there are tables all around, when the world is already talking about iPad mini there is yet another news from the software giant Microsoft. It is fresh from a source that Microsoft is all geared to launch its own tablet called the Surface. This tablet will run on the latest OS the Windows 8. Surface is a sleek and stylish tablet that is going to come out in two versions. First version is Surface RT, this will be supportive of ARM chip and as the name suggests it will run on Windows RT. The second version of Surface is that of Surface Pro, this version will run on the latest OS version namely the Windows8. There are speculations about the exact launch date of this tablet. It is said that Microsoft has already scheduled the launch of this product on 25th October. Reportedly, Microsoft wants to stay ahead of its competitors especially in the technology market of tablet, this could be the reason why it has chosen this date as its product launch. The news sources are still speculating about the possible inclusion of the features about this tab as for now. Nonetheless, let us find out what is this tablet all about including the specs and the features. Display and Screen Tablets as we know are manufactured to have a good display quality and a glass that is often scratch proof. Keeping these things in mind, both Pro and RT Surface will have HD quality display and Gorilla Glass. While RT will have 10 inches of HD screen display by Clear Type and 1280 x 720 resolution, Pro will sport comparatively larger screen that of 10.6 inch and a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and the display will be widescreen (16:9). All the above specifications about the screen clearly indicate that Surface stands ahead with big screen display in the tablet market. Other players like Samsung and Apple have only managed to equip their tablets with that of 10-inch display. Surface comes out as a refreshing change in the category and is rather impressive too. So, for all those who are looking for something new that is other than Android or iOS can go with this. Camera It is almost a technology trend in the tablet industry to have two cameras. Microsoft too has introduced front and back mounted cameras. The front mounted camera is called the Life Cam by Microsoft but the camera resolutions still remains a mystery. Additionally, using Skype will be a better experience as the product is already owned by Microsoft and video chat experience on Surface will add to it. Touch Keyboards If you are looking for indulging in work that involves text input then you can easily do so by adding a touch keyboards to it. This way you can transform your tablet into a portable notebook. Make it look trendy by choosing from various cover options. The Touch covers are different from the ones that are designed for protecting the keyboards, as these covers include the functionality of intuitive touch interface. This way a user will not face any errors while typing and the sensitivity and intuitive typing functionality of the Touch Keyboard is retained. Additionally when you look at it, you will find it attractive in the first glance, sleek and stylish as ever. These are available in numerous colors to your taste and they are as light as feather with a thickness of mere 3mm. Touch cover can be easily connected to the tablet through magnetic click. Now you can easily create a document and compose an e-mail comfortably. Kickstand In case you are wondering of viewing pictures, videos or even utilizing it for viewing slide show then it is made easy with the kickstand. This stand is in inbuilt and helps to prop the device up straight while supporting the tablet. Now you can easily prop it up and view any content at an easy to view adjustable viewing angle. Memory Options If you are the one who likes storing files, images, videos and music on their tab then Surface is the one for you. You will never run out of space constrain with this tab as you are offered three options; 32GB, 64GB and the best 128GB storage capacity. If you are still keen on loading on more content then you have the option to expand the memory via card slot (microSD) option. Price A lot of speculation is still going on in the technology market about Surface including the price range. Some sources say that it may cost around the price bracket of 300-800 USD. Again, some believe the price around $199, however, the official announcement about the same is yet to be out in the media. Until the time this tablet is officially launched, let us wait and watch. She is a Technology writer who is keen on any new emerging technology updates. She is working with Qresolve as a Technical Support Engineer. Semeli Karen McPherson has been offering online tech support to global customers for issues related to laptops, desktops, Mac and devices including iPods, tablets, iPhones, computer support and more. She caters to the segment of core technology and provides viable solutions to any issues related to technology and software. Her expertise and skills in handling key technology issues is immaculate and quick result bearing. Through her articles and postings she aims to provide knowledge and solutions to common technology issues that a user faces.