The Blackberry Corpse Twitches

November 6, 2011

A friend of mine said to me that I was “going at RIM a little strong”, maybe I am but they just seem to be lost and floundering.

This week though saw Research in Motion (Blackberry) market cap drop below their total asset value, meaning everything they own is now worth more than their total share value. This may make buying RIM shares sound like a good idea, but considering in some reports they are haemorrhaging 500,000 users in the U.S. per month and heading for large losses their assets could start tumbling as well.

There was some good news for RIM though as they beat Apple last quarter in the UK to take the #1 spot for smartphone sales. Unfortunately this is just the corpse of RIM twitching rather rising from the dead as the iPhone sales slowed on anticipation of an iPhone 5.

I still stand by my estimate of April this year that they have less than 2 years (18 months now) left before they are purchased or merge with someone.

If you’re still looking for which phone for business to buy check out our recommendation here

Posted in CTO stuff - Thomas Jeffs, Mobiles, smart phones and tablets | Leave a comment

Gadgets for the Future…?

October 31, 2011

Whilst visiting the International Technology Show, I came across, what I believe to be some interesting and unique gadgets. There were numerous stands, with information on their products, varying from fun toys, complex computer games and your day-to-day essential products.

I could talk about the mainstream products that were at the Technology Show, but the chances are, you already know about them, so I would like to discuss 3 of the most unique products, which I feel could make a bigger impact on the market in the future.

1. Mobile Phone Watches by Vivifi

The first gadget that stood out for me was the mobile phone watch, from Vivifi. They are a UK based company, established in 2008. Mobile phone watches aren’t something I’ve come across before, so I found it quite fascinating. The two main watches that Vivifi offer are the Titan and the Eclipse.

These mobile phone watches don’t look like phones at all, which is why they’re interesting gadgets to me. Both the Titan and the Eclipse have similar characteristics, offering Bluetooth, touch screen, internet, a camera, multimedia: including an mp3 player, SMS/MMS and Quad Band – meaning that it will work in almost any destination in the world and they are also unlocked, so are suitable for any sim (except for those on the network 3), pretty handy when going abroad.

These mobile phone watches can be used in numerous ways, either by putting it to your ear like a normal phone, by using the included Bluetooth headset, or by using the on-board loud speaker.

There isn’t much of a difference between these two mobile phone watches except for the design. The Eclipse is considered to have a more fashionable style which is why it is slightly more expensive, priced at £249.99 rather than £239.99. However,  in my opinion, they both look fashionable.

I believe that these watches could become more of a trend in the future – especially for those on the go and those who regularly exercise. Vivifi are still new to the market and their unique products are still developing, and so the most interesting aspect about these products is what the future holds for them, is there a place for them?

2. The Powerbank 8000 by Sandberg

The PowerBank 8000, by Sandberg, is a portable battery, which can transfer power to other electronic devices on the go. For people who are always moving, it’s a really useful invention as it can conveniently fit in your bag – this is why it interested me, as my mobile phone always loses battery! This gadget can charge an iPad twice and a mobile phone 9 times before needing to be charged up itself, moreover it can also charge two devices at the same time. Pretty impressive. This is priced at £75.99 – I believe this is a good price for those who are constantly forgetting to charge their phones and other electronic devices or simply for those of us who travel a lot and are always between flights. For those of you who think the PowerBank 8000 is a little too big, or too expensive, Sandberg offers a smaller version, the PowerBank 3000. This has the same features, but is a little smaller and doesn’t have such a long battery life, priced at £43.99.

3. The All in One PC by Wonhe

Wonhe is an organisation that I had never heard of before. They are based in China and the majority of their market is over there. They attended the International Technology Show of London with a number of very professional representatives, glossy brochures and products, such as smartphones, a portable pad and a home multi media centre, that looked pretty close to HTC and Apple items in terms of design. Below shows a comparison between the HTC Radar and the Wonhe W700.

One product in particular that I believe has a lot to offer is their All in One PC. This piece of technology offers 3D TV Play, a multi-media centre, HD video hardware decoding, home theatre, game functions and HD digital TV. They are claimed to be energy efficient, easy to transport, easy to operate and suitable for the home. The price for an All in One PC hasn’t been stated on the company website, but I’m sure a price can be given by contacting Wonhe.

The UK technology market hasn’t seen much from Wonhe, so it will be interesting to see if any of their products take off in the future, as the Chinese market has already welcomed their products with open arms.

 

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HR Software for Small Business

October 26, 2011

This article was written by Kyle Lagunas. Kyle is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. He keeps his audience up to date on important trends, technology and best practices in the world of human resources. Focussed on offering a fresh take on points of interest in his market, he’s not your typical HR guy.

In the past, HR professionals in small businesses had been reduced to relying on a haphazard system of spreadsheets and paper records for managing their core employee information. With the emergence of web-based and software-as-a-service (SaaS), though, small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMB) have a more cost-effective way to access the HR technology that was once only available to big-budget enterprise businesses. Human resources management systems (HRMS), being an example.

The number of vendors offering HRMS solutions to small businesses continues to grow, and many HR people are often left feeling like fish out of water when it comes to these powerful software solutions. Because finding the system that’s right for your organisation can be a serious challenge, I put together a list of a few of the more popular HR systems for small businesses. It’s not an exhaustive list. Rather, think of it as a starting point.

ActionHRM HRMS
ActionHRM delivers a powerful punch for automating a broad range of HR functions in its web-based HRMS. Having served the SMB market for over 10 years, the folks at ActionHRM understand that small businesses have very diverse needs. As such, they offer three different packaged options – ranging from Basic to Enterprise – for scalable functionality. Its intuitive interface is one of its strongest features, as it’s easy to learn and easy to implement.

BambooHR
Fact: HR professionals are better known for their people skills than they are for their technological aptitude. BambooHR’s web-based HRMS is changing this by focusing on a simple solution that automates your most essential HR functions. It also offers scalable functionality for deeper integration via partner programs. It’s straightforward and users rave about how easy it is to use. It’s ideal for organisations with 50 to 1000 employees.

Sage Abra HRMS
Sage Abra is a widely popular solution committed to understanding and responding to the needs of its customers. Their HRMS solution – available as a hosted solution or installed on site – offers a feature rich suite of applications to automate and enhance any number of HR processes. Sage Abra is designed for organizations with 50 to 5,000+ employees. Combined with its scalable functionality, it’s a great choice for organisations planning for growth.

Comparing Systems: From Basic Needs to Bells and Whistles
When comparing HR systems for your small business, there are a few key items that you should take into consideration.

Action HRMBamboo HRSage Abra HMRS
Key Features
Employee Self-ServiceXXX
Custom ReportingXXX
Core HR Applications
PayrollXthrough partner*X
Personnel TrackingXthrough partner*X
Benefits AdministationXXX
Time & AttendenceXXX
Strategic HR Applications
Applicant TrackingXthrough partner*X
Learning ManagementXX
Performance ManagementXthrough partner*X
Compensation ManagementXthrough partner*X
Abence ManagementXXX
On-BoardingXX

Each HRMS offers different applications and modules for varying degrees of process automation. And while some HR systems boast across-the-board functionality, you should focus more on what your organisation really needs, rather than getting lost in all of the bells and whistles. Here are a few of the core functions most small business HR departments are looking for, as well as a breakdown of who offers what.

Action HRM (enterprise)BambooHRSage Abra HMRS
Size1 - 250050 - 100050-5000+
Pricing ModelSubscription fee + Per employeePer employeePer employee + Applications
DeploymentWeb-based SaaSWeb-based SaaSInstalled on site or hosted
Operating SystemMac OS, WindowsMac OS, WindowsWindows

*BambooHR partners with a number of other HR technology providers, integrating their best-of-breed applications to offer extended funtionality to its users.

Of course, this is nowhere near a comprehensive list of HRMS options for the SMB market, but it’s a good start. What other systems are you using? Any pro tips for your fellow HR professionals?

To read this article in full, take a look at Kyle’s HR blog:

http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/hr-software-for-small-businesses-four-solid-solutions-10092211/

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Accounting Software Options for Small Business

October 26, 2011

This blog is written by Derek Singleton. Derek joined Software Advice after graduating from Occidental College with a degree in Political Science. He writes about various topics related to ERP Software, with particular interest in the manufacturing and distribution software markets.

Small businesses need to be vigilant in their accounting practices. A minor misstep can have major repercussions. Accounting software makes doing things like expense tracking, invoicing and billing, and maintaining a general ledger much more manageable. More importantly, most small business owners can manage their accounting needs with a simple software program.

However, choosing an accounting package for your business can be difficult. At Software Advice, I put together a list of my five favorite accounting solutions for small businesses: Sage Simply Accounting, NetSuite Financials, Sage Peachtree, CMS Professional 2011, and (naturally) QuickBooks.

One of the best ways to determine which system is right for your business is to look at a side-by-side table comparison. I built the one below to provide a snapshot of the functionality offered in each.

Beyond the functionality, each product has a few features that makes the solution unique. Here’s a quick rundown of three of the five systems included in the table.

CMS Professional 2011

CMS Professional 2011 is supported by Cougar Mountain software and is their latest product release. The system includes modules for fund, point of sale and standard business accounting. All information in the system is organised into tabs with a sales summary tab that breaks sales down by product and by customer.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is Intuit’s flagship product and is the most well-known small business
accounting program out there. QuickBooks is available in five versions – Online, Pro, Mac, Premier, and Enterprise. Naturally, prices will vary depending on the complexity of the solution that you choose. The Enterprise version is the priciest and most capable version.

Sage Peachtree

Closely trailing QuickBooks is Peachtree. Over 3.2 million users in the US & Canada use this system. Like QuickBooks, Peachtree is offered in 5 versions – First, Pro, Complete, Premium, and Quantum. First and Pro support only offer one user and are good for operations in the home. If you need more than that, look to other versions.

NetSuite

NetSuite is a web-based system that currently has 10,000 users. NetSuite packs in the most functionality of the five solutions. Because it’s web-based, users can access it from anywhere that has an internet connection which is great for mobile workers. Buyers will also appreciate that they will pay a monthly subscription price for the software.

Simply Accounting

Sage Simply Accounting is currently used by more than 500,000 organization and is supported by roughly 10,000 consultant partners. Buyers can chose from five different versions of the software – First Step, Pro, Premium, Enterprise and Accounts’ Edition.

So there’s a look at five accounting solutions geared toward the small business.

To see more detailed reviews of the systems, visit my article at:
Small Business Accounting Systems | 5 Affordable Solutions.

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The Top Ten Gadgets of 2011 so far

October 25, 2011

I had the pleasure to represent Lucidica at the International Technology Show last Friday (21st Oct, 2011) and I wanted to share with you what was considered by iGizmo the top ten gadgets of the year so far. These gadgets are definitely worth being in the ranking – however not everyone will agree on their place. I have decided to count down from 10… keeping you in suspense on getting to No.1!

10: Dyson Fan Heater
“The fastest to heat the room evenly”. This heater doesn’t have fast spinning blades like the usual fans, or look like any other heater you came across in the past. It has a safety feature of switching off automatically if it’s tipped over, differing from other standard heaters, and unlike other heaters, you can direct the airflow to wherever you want it, which could heat you up quicker than other heaters. Not only does this heater offer you hot air, but also has a cool air fan – others have claimed to have this feature too, but some have low airflow and velocity so won’t be effective. These heaters are priced at £269.99, which could be seen as fairly pricey, however it’s an impressive piece of equipment and is more environmentally friendly than other heaters – with up to 33 litres of air per second being drawn in. For those who have trouble keeping warm, this is the perfect invention! Dyson have also given all their customers a 2 year guarantee, so you can’t really lose.

 

9: DMC-FT3 Panasonic Camera

These cameras are absolutely “accident proof” and incredibly child friendly! The iGizmo team proved it by presenting the camera hidden in a box of sand.  The DMC-FT3 is water-proof, freeze-proof and dust-proof. The camera also has a 3D option, a great feature and something that, I believe, will be featured on more and more products in the near future. The quality of the photos are of a high standard with 12mega pixels and it may be pricier than most, at £329, but this camera is one of a kind!

8: iPad2

The iPad2 is slimmer than the original and has a front and a rear camera (great for taking pictures of yourself or using video camera while chatting). I believe that the iPad2 is a great invention: it gives you the ease of carrying it around with you – it’s not as big as a laptop, but bigger than a smartphone, the happy medium I believe. The iPad2 now has iCloud, which allows you to store your music, photos, documents and more and wirelessly push them to all of your devices such as your iPhone. It also has IOS 5, with over 200 new features, which includes making it easier to use Twitter, Safari, your camera and many more that can be found at the Apple website. The iPad2 is priced between £399-£599 depending on memory size without 3G and £499 – £659 with 3G.

7: TiVo

The TiVo, by Virgin Media, allows you to record 3 programmes at a time, it learns what you like to watch and suggests programmes that you may be interested in. The iGizmo team believe that this could be the new Sky+, instead of “SkyPlussing” something you will “TiVo it”. Plus, you are still able to access the Sky channels through your TiVo. It’s reasonably priced, currently with a free activation worth £49.95 and bundles starting from £9.50 a month.

6: Roomba iRobot

The Roomba iRobot is a robot vacuum cleaner. It doesn’t require the efforts of a human! It’s easy to use; you just switch it on, put it on the carpet and let it vacuum away. It will cleverly detect where the dust and dirt is. The iRobot will memorise the shape of the room to become more efficient in its trajectory. Although other companies have attempted this, the Roomba iRobot is the best of the bunch. There are various models available, all priced from around £300.

5: Ford Focus Driver Assistance Pack

Some people may say they don’t need assistance when driving, but this gadget is so clever that it may become part of every car someday. It can detect when other cars are in your blind spot by flashing a light in your wing mirror and has automatic headlight dipping. What I believe is it’s best feature is that it also has the ability to park the car for you! It’s only another £750 extra for those with a Titanium or Titanium X model, a small cost for such a clever piece of technology.

4: HTC Titan

This is the largest screen that Windows offer at 4.7”, and it not only has a large screen but a slim body at 9.9mm. It allows you to balance your work and leisure time with the ability to edit documents with the virtual keyboard and photos & entertainment come to life with the high quality screen. Some may even say Windows are beginning to scare Apple with their smartphones. The HTC Titan is available at £31 per month, on contract; or you can buy it unlocked for £489.99.

 

 

3: Nintendo 3DS

This is the first screen to give a ‘glasses free 3D effect’, and it can be purchased for around £120 – great value. The 3D makes it easier to see the position of characters, which is said to make the gaming experience more enjoyable. For those who want to adjust the level of 3D can, with the 3D depth slider – this allows you to adjust the intensity of 3D, or you can even put the Nintendo 3DS on a 2D setting if preferred. The Nintendo 3DS can also take 3D pictures! A popular gadget with the younger generations and even some of the older ones!

2: OnLive

The OnLive delivers top video games on demand, streamed directly to PCs, Macs and TVs. OnLive considers itself as creating a new way to play, watch and share the latest premium games. You just need a broadband connection and you can connect to the OnLive game service.

 

1: iPhone 4S

I’m sure many of you were wondering if this would be Number 1, and yes you were right. Many people may disagree that it hasn’t evolved massively from the iPhone 4, but iGizmo, believe that it’s a worthy winner – in the first weekend alone, it sold 4 million handsets, which is pretty impressive!! It now has Siri – allowing users to talk to it and voice questions, which it will answer back to. It’s much faster than the iPhone 4 too. I know there are people out there waiting for the iPhone 5 to arrive though – if the 4s has delivered so far, new exciting things are hopefully going happen with the iPhone 5. The iPhone 4s is priced from £499.

…So that’s what iGizmo believe are the Top 10 of this year. However, while being at the International Technology Show of London, we thought we would ask a number of people at stands what their favourite gadget was.

When speaking to the stand at Vivifi, the X Box was the most popular gadget, “I couldn’t live without my X Box”.

Apple products were a hit as well, with three of their products mentioned just from 5 stands.

The Pingmee stand were lovers of the iPhone, which backs up iGizmo’s choice, obviously popular throughout the population. It looks like the iPhone 4s has been a success and maybe not such of a disappointment after many were expecting the iPhone 5.

Plustek, also stands by Apple and said that the iPad is their favourite gadget, “It’s great, you can carry it around with you and it’s so slim you forget it’s even in your bag”, showing the flexibility of the product and the ease of transporting it around.

The iPod was also mentioned by Dial a Phone, with one of the exhibitors stating, “I don’t go anywhere without my iPod, I travel on public transport every day and it just makes my journey better”.

The LaptopFixers.com went with something a little more technical – Alienware Laptops, made by Dell. I had personally never heard of them, but after doing a little research I found out that if you’re into gaming, these laptops are a dream come true. A little higher priced than other standard laptops -starting from £599 to a massive £1699- you’d have to be pretty serious about gaming to get one of these.

 

Posted in Emily's corner, Random Technology | Leave a comment

Top Tips on Social Media for Business

October 19, 2011

Social Media is now the #1 activity on the web overtaking pornography. Nearly every business has an online presence beyond that of it’s website, as WebCreations point out Social Media is not a fad it is a shift in the way we do business. Here we look at our top 6 tips for social media for your business.
To make it easy for the “time sensitive” of you, we’ve summarised each top tip in one sentence and then expanded them below:

  • Tip 1 – Research your market: check out HootSuite to see what people actually like
  • Tip 2 – Define your goals: Always ensure that you know what you’re trying to do, don’t start blindly
  • Tip 3 – Add value: Answer peoples questions and solve their problems
  • Tip 4 – Promote your value: you need to promote your value don’t just expect people to come
  • Tip 5 – Track your time: are you conducting a marketing campaign with limited resources or just having fun?
  • Tip 6 – Reach a balance between work and leisure: make sure you’re having fun and enjoy what you do

Tip 1 – Research your market (Look for the re-tweet)

The most common mistake that people embarking on a social media campaign make is that they head over to Twitter, open an account and start Tweeting.

The first thing you should do is have a look at what else is going on. What are the top ‘tweeters’ in your industry tweeting about? What are the top bloggers writing about? Your first steps in the huge world of social media should be one of research.

Understand where the people are and what they are reading and most importantly what they are engaging with.

Your key metrics should be comments, and retweets. Look what people are engaging with and what they are not. Social media book marks will often show how many times the article has been shared, if it’s zero then think again if you’re going to write an article on the same subject matter.

One of the best places to start is HootSuite, this invaluable tool allows you to manage multiple accounts within the main social media sites and affords searching for keywords so when someone mentions your industry to can check out what was said and how people react.

It is good to have a ‘researcher account’ on things like Twitter. One of the key ways to get followers is to follow someone. Once you choose to follow someone (as long as they are small enough) they should look at your Twitter account and then choose to follow you or not. If you have a new Twitter account or have content in there that’s of little or no value then they’ll have less incentive to follow you. Essentially you only have one chance to make a first impression so make sure it’s a good one.

You should also try to understand key groups’ movements, if you’re trying to get an active twitterer to retweet your content then look at when they tweet. Time your tweets to just before their top points of activity.

Tip 2 – Define Your Goals
The very worst thing you can do is to start social media just thinking ‘you need to be out there’ and have to do something. Ensure that you have at least an idea of what you are trying to achieve.

Your goal can simply be “I want to get 5% of my sales from social media within 6 months”. This is certainly a better goal than “I want to get 5% of my traffic from social media”. You do though have to be careful of last click syndrome, this is where you attribute the lead source to the last action the person did before buying from you. Think of the scenario where a person has been following you on Twitter for a year and then refers you to a friend who types your name into Google finds you and buys from you. Depending on how you record your leads the source of this may be recorded as a referral, or it may be recorded as a Google search, it probably won’t be attributed to the true activity; Twitter.

Our top tip here is to aim for the utopia of tying sales to your social media activity, but also throw in a little bit of vanity stats such as:

  • How many social bookmarks
  • How many re-tweets
  • How many unique viewers
  • How many followers
  • How many incoming links

All of this will tie into your SEO as well, more visitor activity means more links, and more links means a higher ranking in Google. Essentially give the people what they want and set goals that demonstrate you’re giving them what they want.

Tip 3 – Add Value

After you know what people are engaging with, then it’s time to participate, ask yourself the question ‘How can I add value?’

The best way to start here is to address specific problems or questions. So look in the LinkedIN groups. What are people discussing? What issue can you help them with? Then write something and post it in the group.

If you are a HR consultant look for people asking questions on HR, if you offer financial advice look people with questions around finance.

You don’t have to start by writing the content yourself; you can just provide the answer, by directing people to the correct resource does two things:

  • It demonstrates you’re providing value
  • It generates good will with the person you just helped

If you can write the content, even better; one of the best pieces of media we wrote was in response to a LinkedIN group asking “Should I buy PCs or Macs for business?” We knocked up an article on our thoughts and experiences and posted it into the group. We got traffic, links and comments all around a piece that we knew people wanted.

Tip 4 – Promote your value

Often people participate in social media to promote their business; this is totally the wrong way to look at it. People engage socially with your value not your business.

Think about how you can promote the value you are giving away. You can’t simply expect people to come to your site because you’ve written a blog post on the top ten cafes in London. Or follow you on Twitter because you send out the 3 best industry pieces of news each day. What you’re doing maybe great but you need to think how you’re going to get it across to people.

If you do your research you’ll know where people hang out digitally, you can comment in those places and strategically choose when to follow people on Twitter. Offering content and abstracts to key bloggers is a great way to increase connections, here you can include content from newsletters (whether yours or other peoples), even use Google AdWords to drive traffic to that key article.

If what you have written or what you do is of value then the effort you spend promoting your content will be returned to you in spades.

Tip 5 – Record how long it took you and what you got out of it

Social Media has a massive unseen cost; your time. It may be that you got 2 new business leads last month from Twitter, but it could be that if you’d have gone to networking events instead of spending so much time on HootSuite then you’d have 4 new business leads rather than 2.

However, recording your time/effort is essential, otherwise you’re not really undertaking a business strategy you’re just having fun.

If you can aggregate all of your business efforts on social media and look at how much it cost the business in total staff time, you may decide that perhaps that billboard doesn’t look too expensive anymore.

Tip 6 – Reach a balance between business and fun
You have to enjoy what you’re doing. If you approach social media with too much of a regimented fashion then it will lose its fluidity, people will disengage from you (maybe not consciously but they will) if your tweets become too regimented.

People use social media because they like it, if you hate the idea and feel like you’re wasting your time but that you must ‘jump on the bandwagon’ you should find someone else in your organisation to spearhead the company’s efforts.

 

Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media | Leave a comment

Top 5 Blackberry Jokes

October 17, 2011

Over the last week there have been a number of Blackberry jokes floating around the web, and so we thought it was only right to come up with what we think are the top 5.

Now, for you Blackberry users, we did consider you in waiting nearly a week to post this, in the hope that you wouldn’t feel so raw about the epic failure. For everyone else, I’m sure you won’t have a problem in seeing the funny side.

  1. Dear Blackberry, I think it’s nice you’re honouring Steve Jobs with a 3 day silence
  2. Do you know what the iPhone said to the Blackberry? “iWork”
  3. Statistically, 10 out of 10 Blackberry users won’t get this joke
  4. When is a smart phone just a phone?… When it’s a Blackberry
  5. Someone stole my Blackberry yesterday. It has since been returned.

We managed to find a number of jokes from Blackberry users through Twitter. They were Tweeting their frustration through @Blackberry and #BBJokes – there are far more!

Not only are there some hilarious jokes out there, videos have also been made. Take a look at this short video called My Blackberry is not Working by the BBC, it’s bound to give you a laugh or two.

We didn’t want to be too harsh on Blackberry and so thought it was only right to show iPhone 4 users how they can upgrade….

 

 

 

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SEO for Beginners

October 11, 2011

Seeing as I came to Lucidica as an intern, with no experience in SEO, I thought I would write a blog on it and hopefully help other beginners to improve their Google rankings.

I must admit, when I first started learning about SEO, it all seemed very overwhelming and incredibly in depth (which it is). But if you break it down and take it stage by stage, it doesn’t feel quite so complicated.

Where to Start

The first thing I did was read ‘Becoming a Clockwork Pirate’ by Kelvin Newman.

It explains what SEO actually is in a basic level and gives a good insight into the topic. I also listened to a number of podcasts from Sitevisibility. Some are really helpful – if you click on ‘podcasts’ there are over a hundred there, so there’s a lot of choice, depending on what help you need.

Once I had an idea of what SEO is actually about, I attended an SEO seminar, which gave me more of an idea of how to actually do it. I would recommend this; Thomas goes through each stage step by step and shows examples of how it’s done. I would recommend any beginner to attend a seminar on SEO; it’s so in depth and so hearing about it from someone who has a good level of experience does help rather than just reading about it.

Making Connections

Once your website is up and running (if not already), I would recommend getting a Twitter and LinkedIn account. I recently got these and it opens up connections for people and organisations to see news about your company. I am still working on getting more connections and followers, but the more you follow, the more people you open up to. Also, link your accounts together – all my Tweets are connected to LinkedIn, meaning that contacts from both accounts see my news and links I’ve made to our website. This doesn’t only mean more people are seeing what you have to say, but it also saves time!! I have been Tweeting about 3 or 4 times a day – this means that your contacts aren’t likely to forget you. Make sure they’re relevant and interesting though, otherwise they may decide they don’t want to follow you anymore!!

LinkedIn also has an answers section (LinkedIn Answers) – you should use this to answer questions and link back to your page. Don’t just copy the link in though – make sure you answer the question first and show some interest into what has been asked… THEN at the end, suggest reading more information about the topic with a link to your website. Yahoo answers is another website you can use – it’s very similar to LinkedIn Answers, all you need to do is search for the questions that you’re looking to answer.

Getting Technical

Now, this is when it starts to get technical. Anchor text is an important part of effective SEO. I am still learning myself, but there are a number of tutorials out there on how to use it. YouTube, has a number of short videos which are quite handy, one I used is available here and was pretty straightforward and easy to follow. This can be used for LinkedIn too – instead of it saying ‘company website’ on your profile page, you can change it to being keywords about your site, which can help to improve your rankings. So for example, my LinkedIn profile will say ‘IT Support London’, which explains to Google what my site is about and is another vote for my website. In text, it’s not just important to have the hyperlink related to your website or field, but also the text around it – this will also tell Google what your site is about, so keep it as relevant as possible.

Writing blogs on your website about relevant topics and news also helps (like the one I am writing now). You can then promote it via your social media sites and go to LinkedIn answers and Yahoo answers and so forth and link them back to your page.

So far… this is where I have managed to get to and still have a lot to learn on the subject myself, but this is a start. Hopefully I will have more to offer later down the line, but for now, I hope that this is making it easier to understand for other beginners like myself.

If you’re a little more technical than us beginners, go to our SEO section, which goes into a little more detail on

Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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Yahoo! to be sold to private buyers?

October 10, 2011

News has been released that co-founder and former CEO, Jerry Yang wants to sell Yahoo! to private buyers.

Since firing Carol Bartz in September, Yahoo! have been working on a “strategic review” with advisers Allen & Co and Goldman Sachs. (I’m assuming this means selling some of the company and their assets).

A few possible suitors have come to light, in particular, Jack Ma, the boss of Alibaba, who said his company would be “very interested in Yahoo!”. This could be partly because Yahoo! have a 35per cent stake in Alibaba, which I’m sure Ma, would like back (especially after their relationship went sour back in 2005 when Yahoo! first came on board at the Chinese e-commerce firm).

There has been talk about Ma taking on some partners too, with Private Equity firm Silver Lake and Russian internet company Digital Sky, being two of them.

However,  unsurprisingly, there are a number of other parties showing interest, including Mircosoft. But their efforts back in 2008, were rejected, even though they offered a $33 a share.

Financial information is expected to be released this week to the interested organisations, but others have explained that these talks are still very informal and negotiations haven’t begun.

 

 

Posted in Emily's corner | Leave a comment

The Best Smart Phone for Small Business

October 6, 2011

With at least 4 platforms to choose from with a smart phone, we thought it was time to nail our colours to the mast and give our recommendation for the best smart phone platform for small business.

With every platform represented in our office this is going to divide opinion. Your phone is probably the most personal piece of technology you have. You should choose carefully, hopefully this article will help you decide on what’s best for you and your team.

 

#1 Choice – Windows Phone

Price

From £220 + vat (unlocked no contract)

Best Phones

Currently the Samsung Omnia 7, but watch out for the upcoming Nokia’s announced at the at of the month

Pros

  • Best user interface, tightly tied together so all apps follow same style
  • The quickest of all the platforms
  • Syncs perfectly with servers and desktops

Cons

  • Lower App selection, but still decent at over 32,000

Summary

Windows Phone has been on the market for over a year now. Microsoft have managed to tread the line between control and freedom, directing the platform without making people feel they need to ‘break’ their phone to give them the freedom they need.

The App selection while slightly limited is of a high quality, and growing very quickly. The latest update for the platform brings new feature genuinely lacking on the other platforms, while the new hardware from Nokia should be enough to turn the heads of even the Apple dedicated.

Microsoft have come a long way with Windows Phone 7.5. The user experience combined with the cost means it sits as our #1 choice for small business.

What our Engineers Say

Microsoft has reached a great balance between control and freedom. The phone is snappy, hasn’t crashed or frozen in a year of use, and does everything I want it to do. It plugs into my corporate email, serves up web pages, and handles my podcasts better than any other device I’ve used
Thomas Jeffs (Chief Technology Officer)

 

#2 Choice – iPhone

Price

From £420 + vat (unlocked no contract)

Best Phones

It has to be either an iPhone 4 or an iPhone 4S there is no point saving £40 on the 3 if you’re buying Apple

 

 

 

Pros

  • Great User Interface
  • Apps really set it apart, the quality being far superior and they have 500000
  • Syncs very well with nearly everything
  • Best quality screen in the industry full stop
  • Second only in battery life to a Blackberry
  • It’s an Apple

Cons

  • Very expensive, nearly twice the price of the other three
  • Often quite restrictive and will only ‘just work’ if you stick within the ‘Apple World’
  • Often you have to ‘jail break’ (hack) your phone to get around some of the restrictions
  • A little fragile (particularly the back)
  • 16 month old design

Summary

The iPhone is still the best selling smart phone in the world. Even with the 16 month old design it still turns heads.

It has the best screen in the game [though this may change next week]. A great camera, and a superb user interface.

It can be restrictive though, locking you into the Apple eco-system. If you want to synchronise your calendar from Microsoft Outlook on your Mac without the use of a server (for example), you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Most of all its price point just pushes it out of game against Windows Phone. If you’re buying devices for your entire team are you ready to nearly double the budget for the ‘Apple Effect’.

What our engineers say:

“It just works”. No but really, although my iPhone 4 is 16 months old which is a huge figure in mobile phone age, I still find the iPhone to give the best user experience, which sets it apart. It has never crashed or lagged on me once. I remember trying out a high end HTC and scrolling through the pictures, waiting for them to load, was just a nightmare and would never expect the same from an iPhone.
Tom De Avellar (Systems Engineer)

#3 Choice – Android

Price

From £60 + vat (unlocked no contract) (though you should spend at least £200)

Best Phones

Currently the Samsung Galaxy S II, though wait until next week for the new version of Android and new devices

 

Pros

  • Most freedom of any platform, it has almost no restrictions or ‘lock downs’
  • Cheapest smart phones
  • Widest selection of phones, any size, and colour
  • Largest install base
  • Syncs perfectly with servers and desktops

Cons

  • Very diverse market, no two android devices are the same which can lead to confusion
  • Very poor control on devices has led to many sub-standard products
  • Apps are sometimes a lower standard
  • Updates are not universally applied meaning your phone could become outdated
  • Email sync on some devices requires extra software
  • Some Apps don’t run on some Android devices

Summary

Android is the largest platform on the market, now accounting for more smart phones than all the other platforms put together. It is by far the most flexible platform, and has the widest selection of devices at low prices.

Google though has lost control of the platform, pick up two devices from different manufacturers based on Adroid and they may not be anything alike. They may not even run the same Apps or respond in the same way.

It is Androids flexibility that remains it’s achilles heel, it is often confusing for end users and somewhat overwhelming. If you’re of a technical mindset then you’ll certinly love this platform more than iPhone (and probably Windows Phone 7). For the non-power user then there is a more fullfilling experience on Microsoft and Apple.

What our engineers say

The freedom you have with an HTC android device to customise your home screens to make them look how you want it to look is unprecedented. Whether it is app shortcuts, widgets with quick glance info, you can make your home screen your own so 2 people with the same phone will look totally different!  The fact that I can access my exchange account out of the box and sync my contacts, calendar and email and have a flash implementation that allows me to enjoy the web to the fullest whilst being able to work from my phone.
Jamal Smith-Graham (Systems Engineer)

 

#4 Choice – Blackberry

Price

From £120 + vat (unlocked no contract)

Best Phones

The Blackberry Bold 9900, though they have an entirely new operating system predicted in 6 months, so you may want to hold off upgrading.

 

 

 

Pros

  • The cheapest option for email on a handheld device
  • Very tight security if you install ‘Blackberry Enterprise Server’
  • Hardware keyboard is great
  • Robust design
  • Great battery life

Cons

  • Can’t sync contacts, calendars or tasks without a reasonable extra expense
  • Becoming outdated
  • Lowest number of apps
  • Poor multimedia support
  • As a company they (RIM) are floundering
  • Highest backend support rate (they fail to sync far more often than any other smart phone)

Summary

The time of the Blackberry is over. They have lost 85% of their share price since their height 3 years ago. The devices are increasingly looking dated.

Only their ‘Enterprise Server’ and Blackberry Messenger keeps them alive at this stage and this won’t last. I have been predicting since April that they have at most 2 years left before they implode or get acquired, and as I write this post there are rumours of Vodafone sniffing around.

For a choice for a small business it gets even worse, if you want to sync more than just your email, you’ll be looking at a charge of ~£10 per device per month (or a server) to do so. They also go wrong much more having roughly a 10 times higher fault rate across our servcie desk than the other three platforms.

In all it becomes increasingly harder to recommend the platform to our user base.

What our Engineers Say

(unfortunately we had to make this up as there isn’t a single engineer in our entire team that has a Blackberry)
I love my Blackberry, it looks a little dated compared to my peers’ phones, but its keyboard is great for quick work and the battery life is great. Beyond anything else the ‘Blackberry Instant Messenger’ affords me to keep in touch with my friends totally free of charge (as long as they have a Blackberry).
A N Other (Non-Systems Engineer)

 

Posted in CTO stuff - Thomas Jeffs, Mobiles, smart phones and tablets, Products, Small business stuff | Leave a comment