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Technology (31)
Tuesday, 27 March 2012 05:36
Payback Power: ROI Drives Unified Communications Implementation
Written by Brian Kopf, manager of unified communications practice, CDW
As businesses consider their IT budgets, a growing number of organizations are deploying unified communications (UC) solutions – integrated voice, data, messaging, conferencing, and collaboration services over converged networks. The reason? Return on investment. In fact, a recent CDW report found that UC implementation rates doubled from 2010 to 2011, with 16 percent of organizations fully implemented today. Meanwhile, 76 percent of organizations that have fully implemented UC and track return on investment (ROI) say that ROI has met or exceeded their expectations – up five percent since 2010.
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Thursday, 08 September 2011 05:40
To Build or to Buy ? That is the Question
Written by Jon Vander Hill, CDW Product and Service Development Manager
As many small and medium-sized businesses move to the cloud, is it smart to pass up data center colocation?
For years, organizations of all sizes have debated the question of whether to build or buy data centers, and small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) also have several cost-saving outsourcing options from which to choose, not least among them cloud computing.
For years, organizations of all sizes have debated the question of whether to build or buy data centers, and small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) also have several cost-saving outsourcing options from which to choose, not least among them cloud computing.
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Sunday, 25 March 2012 02:22
Avoid common Drupal hosting mistakes for a reliable and secure site
Written by Jason Burnett
It seems everyone has fallen for Drupal, the open-source website content management system. Behind some of the most powerful people on the planet -- from the leader of the free world and WhiteHouse.gov to teen sensation Justin at bieberfever.com – you’ll find Drupal, one of the most durable, feature-rich and customizable applications in use.
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Tuesday, 12 July 2011 02:49
Open Source Web Development-An Ideal Solution For Companies
Written by Kabir Bedi
Importance of Open Source Web Development
Open Source Web Development is used by most of the companies today to ease the task of web development. It encompasses the usage of web applications and easy to distribute codes that are developed by the web developers belonging to open source community. Some of the open source web development platforms available in the market are OSCommerce, Joomla, WordPress, X-Cart, Magento and so on and so forth. The kind of open source web development that should be brought to use depends entirely on the nature of a website and the technology that fits the website perfectly. The indispensable aspect of using open source is its free availability. The website owners are facilitated to customize web applications and carry out changes in other online processes as per their requirements.
Open Source Web Development is used by most of the companies today to ease the task of web development. It encompasses the usage of web applications and easy to distribute codes that are developed by the web developers belonging to open source community. Some of the open source web development platforms available in the market are OSCommerce, Joomla, WordPress, X-Cart, Magento and so on and so forth. The kind of open source web development that should be brought to use depends entirely on the nature of a website and the technology that fits the website perfectly. The indispensable aspect of using open source is its free availability. The website owners are facilitated to customize web applications and carry out changes in other online processes as per their requirements.
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Owning a website in today’s scenario where most of the business owners prefer to promote their business online is significant. Most of the business organizations, be it small or big have fathom the impact a website creates on the potential user. And this is the reason that many web designing companies have come to the battleground to give a tough competition to companies with expertise in print media field. However, many people think that their job is over after they have got their website designed and launched it on WWW. But the idea is to make it as presentable, attractive, informative and as attractive as possible to drive maximum business and thus boost the sales eventually.
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A typical corporate email system might contain some users who have upwards of 20,000 messages, which contain massive amounts of important files that might not be backed up on the user’s CPU or on company servers. In addition, each user has calendar items, tasks, and hundreds of contacts which can be the lifeblood of the organization. Over time, most email platforms reach a point where the users require more features or become increasingly frustrated with slow system degradation.
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The idea of outsourcing has gained significant momentum due to the reason that it helps in driving down business costs. And the most common aspects is offshore web development that has become an important part of big organizations because it doesn’t involve management of in-house team. However, with the upsurge of Internet usage , all organizations irrespective of their size have acknowledged the need of establishing an effective online presence. Outmaneuvering business horses by getting designed an effective website at reduced rates is the demand of most of the business owners these days.
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Wednesday, 01 June 2011 05:26
Offshore Dedicated Team For Web Design And Development Projects
Written by Kabir Bedi
You own a business with a pool of professional resources, but the cost you incur to get the project completed is hefty. So what do you think is the best solution for you? Hiring a fledging software developer or a PHP developer or a web designer? Or cutting down the costs by hiring an offshore dedicated team? By Offshore Dedicated Team, we mean that hiring a team of professionals who work sincerely for your company.
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Saturday, 21 May 2011 00:32
Shield Your Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Plan with SPF 50
Written by CDW
With the summer months looming, you’re probably day dreaming about white sandy beaches or a mountain escape. No matter where your destination may be, sunscreen is a must if you want to protect yourself from the summer sun, and reduce your chances of being burned.
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Thursday, 31 March 2011 07:16
Product review: AceProject - Project Management Toolbox and more
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The ComputerUser Evaluation team has reviewed a new product “AceProject Management” Free Hosted Version.
The product that was evaluated is a project management solution. It is available in both a hosted and a local application Windows based versions. The hosted version has a no cost solution unlimited time version.
The documentation on the website is excellent. One may choose from PDF, HTML or video versions of the help files. We would have preferred having a link on the welcome page after the creation of our first project. The documentation is located under help menu area. The product has all the functional modules needed to track and report on projects, document, time, and expense that one would expect in a project management application.
We reviewed the free Basic hosted package which allows a maximum of five (5) users, five (5) projects and a total of fifty (50) tasks. The sign up process required only a few items to be entered (no credit card requested). That is a great plus. Too many ‘freemium’ products ask for a credit card.
When you sign up an email is sent to the address used while registering and includes the name and password (least you forget to save your password). You may further secure web access to your project by using a subdomain i.e. yourname.AceProject.com. AceProject works with any of the popular browsers and is OS independent. While we did not test it, it will also work with mobile devices.
Many contractors may want to use this for their client’s projects. AceProject has a great feature which allows you to brand the interface with your logo. It would be even better and user friendly if there we could use our own domain i.e. projects.computeruser.com. This, with branding allows a company to keep their domain and brand unified. We would also like to see further branding by allowing customer menu items, so that it will be seamless with corporate sites.
AceProject offers multiple package levels, which allow for increasing or decreasing the number of users, number of tasks, and amount of storage space. Support is included in all package levels via email, telephone and live chat at no extra charge.
Each account has a sample projects for you to review. We find this much better than walking through a wizard. They also include a step by step guide in Video, PDF and online media.
When you select the paid access hosted version you may access the Database, which means you can build a bridge with other applications or a web services.
Further extending the service will be available in the future via an API. That will be interesting to see.
One feature we found to be very appealing, was the ability to obtain back-ups of data and documents via FTP.
When creating a new project some set-up is needed. Users and other defaults may be defined using the admin tab. Creating the first project was a little confusing as the on-line help page for getting started indicated goes to 'Admin', 'Project'. We found the 'Add Project' button under 'Portfolio: All Projects'. To create our first project we had to answer only a few items, as most could be re-edited. As with anything some pre-planning was needed to be completed prior to entering tasks as the numbering is sequential. System Development Life Cycle [SDLC] Phase level (analysis, design, etc) can be accomplished by linking projects (create a project template first to enable project linking).
We also found task assignment seems to be tricky, as a user must be ‘active’ to have task assignments and the ‘Show Assignment Grid’ is blank until one navigates to ‘Project’, ‘Assignment’, ‘Add a new user’ and select users for a specific project. Then, the project assigned users may be assigned tasks.
After a task is assigned to a user, time entry is accomplished using the ‘IN/OUT’ time entry function. Once a user has entered their time sheet, the admin can approve it. The same holds true for expenses.
Ratings
Documentation - ***** (5 stars)
Usability - ****
Price - ***
Learning Curve – 4 (scale 1 to 10, where 10 is Guru Level and 1 is Newbie)
Recommendation: Worth using
This is recommended for:
Sys Admin, Marketing People, Website Development (without the need for version control), Household Planning
For more information on the product please visit: http://www.AceProject.com
About our team: Our team consists of IT professionals with each having over 20+ years’ experience in software development. Our evaluation is meant to help better products and services and to advise our users. If you want independent product evaluation please send your queries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will get back to you shortly.
The product that was evaluated is a project management solution. It is available in both a hosted and a local application Windows based versions. The hosted version has a no cost solution unlimited time version.
The documentation on the website is excellent. One may choose from PDF, HTML or video versions of the help files. We would have preferred having a link on the welcome page after the creation of our first project. The documentation is located under help menu area. The product has all the functional modules needed to track and report on projects, document, time, and expense that one would expect in a project management application.
We reviewed the free Basic hosted package which allows a maximum of five (5) users, five (5) projects and a total of fifty (50) tasks. The sign up process required only a few items to be entered (no credit card requested). That is a great plus. Too many ‘freemium’ products ask for a credit card.
When you sign up an email is sent to the address used while registering and includes the name and password (least you forget to save your password). You may further secure web access to your project by using a subdomain i.e. yourname.AceProject.com. AceProject works with any of the popular browsers and is OS independent. While we did not test it, it will also work with mobile devices.
Many contractors may want to use this for their client’s projects. AceProject has a great feature which allows you to brand the interface with your logo. It would be even better and user friendly if there we could use our own domain i.e. projects.computeruser.com. This, with branding allows a company to keep their domain and brand unified. We would also like to see further branding by allowing customer menu items, so that it will be seamless with corporate sites.
AceProject offers multiple package levels, which allow for increasing or decreasing the number of users, number of tasks, and amount of storage space. Support is included in all package levels via email, telephone and live chat at no extra charge.
Each account has a sample projects for you to review. We find this much better than walking through a wizard. They also include a step by step guide in Video, PDF and online media.
When you select the paid access hosted version you may access the Database, which means you can build a bridge with other applications or a web services.
Further extending the service will be available in the future via an API. That will be interesting to see.
One feature we found to be very appealing, was the ability to obtain back-ups of data and documents via FTP.
When creating a new project some set-up is needed. Users and other defaults may be defined using the admin tab. Creating the first project was a little confusing as the on-line help page for getting started indicated goes to 'Admin', 'Project'. We found the 'Add Project' button under 'Portfolio: All Projects'. To create our first project we had to answer only a few items, as most could be re-edited. As with anything some pre-planning was needed to be completed prior to entering tasks as the numbering is sequential. System Development Life Cycle [SDLC] Phase level (analysis, design, etc) can be accomplished by linking projects (create a project template first to enable project linking).
We also found task assignment seems to be tricky, as a user must be ‘active’ to have task assignments and the ‘Show Assignment Grid’ is blank until one navigates to ‘Project’, ‘Assignment’, ‘Add a new user’ and select users for a specific project. Then, the project assigned users may be assigned tasks.
After a task is assigned to a user, time entry is accomplished using the ‘IN/OUT’ time entry function. Once a user has entered their time sheet, the admin can approve it. The same holds true for expenses.
Ratings
Documentation - ***** (5 stars)
Usability - ****
Price - ***
Learning Curve – 4 (scale 1 to 10, where 10 is Guru Level and 1 is Newbie)
Recommendation: Worth using
This is recommended for:
Sys Admin, Marketing People, Website Development (without the need for version control), Household Planning
For more information on the product please visit: http://www.AceProject.com
About our team: Our team consists of IT professionals with each having over 20+ years’ experience in software development. Our evaluation is meant to help better products and services and to advise our users. If you want independent product evaluation please send your queries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will get back to you shortly.
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