CDR-Data
Corporation adds features to their Inventory Model
Telecommunications and IT Managers need to be able to pin
point the costs and inventory of all items within an organizations. These assets
provides the user with exactly what they see is what they charge for and can then
be merged into a CSV file for Human Capital Management systems like PeopleSoft
®.
CDR-Data’s new feature displays an inventory of any services,
line or
device as well as their billing component. Expenses and units can be shown by
individual accounting center, specific centers or combined.
About
CDR-Data Corporation
CDR-Data
Corporation, based in Pasadena CA, www.cdrdata.com consists of a group of professionals with decades of experience in the
telemanagement, call accounting and IT industry. By using an ASP environment,
this team has consistently delivered proven products and services that provide
answers to management's questions of telecommunications usage and billing.
CDR-Data has gained its market share by consistently delivering high quality
and flexible solutions to each and every CDR-Data client.
The Microsoft HoloLens sits on display at a media event for
new Microsoft products on October 6, 2015 in New York City.
Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
2016 is set to be a huge year for Microsoft. Its
first HoloLens kits will hit the market, Build 2016 will provide more
evidence of the company's shift to the cloud and mobile, and a new
Microsoft phone may surface. Following on from the first full calendar
year with CEO Satya Nadella at the helm, Redmond is moving on from a
year where it revamped almost all of its major business lines.
Windows, Surface, Lumia and Office all made the headlines with huge
launches. Column after column has been written about Microsoft's
newfound confidence, redefining both hardware and software
categories. "Microsoft definitely seems to have found its mojo, with a
solid OS release, innovative hardware, and growing cloud business," said
Avi Greengart, research director of consumer platforms and devices at
Current Analysis.
Below are six big events that could dominate headlines in the coming year.
Q1 2016 — HoloLens Developer Kit
We predict this will be the biggest event of Microsoft's entire year. For the price of $3,000,
developers will be able to get their hands on an actual,
fully functional, HoloLens mixed-reality headset. The device has already
made some waves in the industry, with a partnership between Microsoft and NASA
resulting in a HoloLens going on a space mission. Astronauts can follow
instructions on how to carry out repairs, with the headset overlaying
the details over the actual components.
"The use cases for HoloLens are so compelling – particularly in the
enterprise – that HoloLens may be the rare product that is actually
under-hyped," said Greengart.
"Assuming no production problems with the hardware, it will be a
huge, runaway hit; there are so many enterprise applications for the
device, and the technology is so stunning, that 2016 will be the year of
enterprise HoloLens piloting – and even deployment," said J.P. Gownder,
vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
March 30 — Build Conference
The San Francisco meetup is expected to be a big one. Expect the
event to cover "the future of Microsoft and technology," said
Microsoft's vice president of developer experience and evangelism Steven
Guggenheimer. It's not without precedent.
At the 2015 conference
Microsoft announced Windows Holographic, Continuum, Edge, Android and
iOS support for Windows, a goal to get 1 billion devices running Windows
10, and an interesting website that could guess how old you are. The
bar's set pretty high.
Summer (unconfirmed) - Windows 10 "Redstone" Sources disagree
on whether Redstone is one big Windows 10 update or a "wave" of
updates, but what is clear is that it's on the way. Microsoft has
made known it intends to update Windows online rather than launch a
whole new version, and developer builds have surfaced with the Redstone
codename. WinBeta reported in October that Redstone will arrive summer
next year.
What it will include is the big question. Reports suggest a "Continuity-like"
feature that would let consumers move back and forth between devices
instantly, much like Apple's system. This jibes with an October report
from Brad Sams, which said Redstone will transform Windows 10 into a
"technology hub," further integrating various consumer electronics.
Redstone may prove crucial to the launch of one phone set to surface
around the same time. H2 2016 (unconfirmed) - Surface Phone
A long-rumored Surface Phone could be the kick the mobile division
needs to make serious headway. Microsoft has languished in the mobile
space, claiming less than 3 percent of the market according to IDC, while Microsoft's Surface tablet revenue increased 117 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter 2015.
In an October profile by The Verge,
Microsoft vice president Panos Panay was asked about the device. He
didn't confirm it, but he did say he wanted a "consistent thread between
the products," in terms of design and craftsmanship. Rumors kicked up
again when a Surface phone was spotted in HTML5 device benchmarks in November. Windows Central, citing sources, claimed in December that the phone would launch in the second half of 2016.
But it may not be as simple as launching a Surface phone to revive
the division. The phones also need apps, which Microsoft can get by
encouraging developers to make universal apps for Windows 10. These apps
can run on both desktop and mobile, but even that isn't a sure-fire way
to build up the catalog. "Until Microsoft has a huge number of Windows
10 machines out there (like a billion), its fortunes will suffer in
phone," said Gownder, in an email.
Greengart agreed that an all-singing, all-dancing Surface phone won't
be the division's savior. "If Microsoft can’t get developers to write
universal Windows 10 apps, it won’t matter how good the next round of
Windows Phones are, whether they are Surface-branded or not," he said. Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella: Windows 10 is the first version to launch under his
leadership, and is also predicted to become the biggest selling version
of Windows to date.Photo: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya July 29 - Windows 10 no longer free
Happy first birthday, Windows 10! After this date, users who haven't
upgraded for free from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will be out of luck.
That's unless Microsoft changes its mind and extends the Windows 10
free-upgrade offer beyond the first year of availability. Those users
will have to pay $119.99 for the home edition or $199.99 for the
professional edition.
Expect think pieces galore as analysts weigh in on whether Windows 10
has been a success so far. Gartner predicted in November that Windows
10 will become the biggest version of all time -- a bold claim, and one that may see some revision if adoption doesn't quite pan out as expected.
"The barometer for true success -- getting 1 billion users onto
Windows 10 -- will continue to be the measure, so expectations are
high," said Gownder. "We predict continued success and growth -- but not
to the point of reaching that ultimate goal in the next year."
Unconfirmed - Surface Pro 5 and Surface Book 2
With the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book having just hit the shelves,
it's not surprising that any news about a follow-up is thin on the
ground. However, the company has launched a new Surface Pro every year
since its inception, and there's little reason to believe that it won't
continue the trend.
Microsoft stole the headlines in October when its bumper Surface launch event
stunned spectators. Commentators will be watching to see if Microsoft
can top itself. There's always the chance the company could skip
upgrades for a year, like how Apple didn't update the iPad Air this year, but that would be an unexpected turn in a product line the company seems to be focusing on more intently.
The Surface Book wowed attendees, but reviewers found plenty of ways
Microsoft could improve. The hinge, which leaves a gap between the
display and the keyboard, was described by The Verge writer Tom Warren
as "the main weakness of the Surface Book." Joanna Stern, writing for
the Wall Street Journal, slammed the Book for numerous software and
hardware problems. Gizmodo writer Mario Aguilar called out the device's
lacklustre trackpad. The Surface Book may have stolen the October show,
but Microsoft has a long list of reasons why it needs to make a Surface
Book 2.
With
the holidays around the corner, we can’t help thinking back to the good
ol’ years.
The holiday season makes us nostalgic and I can’t help but
think of all my techy Christmas
gifts that I’d be hoping and praying
were under that Christmas tree. Needless to say,
technology has come far
and thinking back at some of my favorite gifts also makes
me think
about how far we’ve come. So without further ado, and in no particular
order,
here are some Outdated Devices That Make Us Feel Nostalgic.
Motorola RAZR Flip Phone
First developed in 2004, this cellular flip phone dominated the market
for four years.
With a flashy sleek design and a wide array of colors,
this phone was a prime example
of how technology became a fashion. You
couldn’t wait for someone to text you
so you could nonchalantly whip out
this phone and slyly text back so everyone
could see you were in the in
with fashionable technology. What said “I love you”
more than knowing
exactly which color Motorola RAZR that person wanted?
Corded Phones
Can you believe there was a time before the cell phone? Mind blowing
right?
How about before cordless phones? How did we survive that era?
You wanted
to talk to someone on the phone? Try being tethered to a
wall, usually in the most
public part of the house. What better gift
than your own personal corded phone
in your own personal bedroom,
possibly with your own personal phone line.
Mom, Dad, you shouldn’t
have!
Not to be confused for the Discman that was later developed in the
1990s, the
Walkman was a portable audio cassette player. Do you remember
cassettes?
They were those little analog devices that recorded music.
No track bookmarking?
Cool, just let me push the fast-forward button and
magically hope I got to the track
that I wanted. But hey, at least I
can play music anywhere anytime; just have to
make sure I have an
endless supply of AA batteries.
Mp3 Players
Skipping over the Walkman generation, the portable mp3 player
symbolized
an exciting turn for portable music-playing technology.
Holding a whopping
(/sarcasm) 32 MB – 128 MB of data when they first
came to market, they
were more portable than the Walkmans and Diskmans
and with way more
functionality. Commence the era of pirated file
sharing.
Computer Games via Floppy Disk
If you think a 32 MB was a limited amount of data, try the floppy disk
with
its groundbreaking 1.2 MB of data. To put this in perspective, a
single
song (at an average of 3 MB) would require 3 floppy disks to
store it. We use
to fit whole games on there (*cough* Oregon Trail). At
least the floppy disk shall
be immortalized forever as an iconic symbol,
more commonly known as the
“save icon”.
Symbolic of retro gaming, the NES was Nintendo’s first home video game
console
in North America. Retailing at US$89.99 for the console, and an
average of
US$50 a game, its 8-bit graphics along with its 8-bit music
are still iconic today
sparking the popular franchised games like Super
Mario Bros. and Zelda.
Nothing is more reminiscent of old school gaming
like blowing out a video game cartridge.
Pager
That thing that all the doctors in our favorite dramas carry around?
Yes, that was
actually used as a pretty standard communication device
back in the day.
Whether it was the one-way pager or the two-way pager,
this was the start of
commercial SMS (short message service). *Beep beep
beep* “CALL ME”,
and then you ran to the nearest payphone (you know,
that booth that Superman
used as a dressing room).
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
Wow, a computer in my hand? That is exciting! Granted it had a tenth of
the
processing power of the average smartphone of today and were
primarily
used by the business elite, it spurred the movement for the
innovation of mobile
business devices.
Well that’s my list of outdated devices that sent me careening down memory lane.
Which outdated devices make you feel nostalgic?
Friday, December 11, 2015
December 2015 Issue
Great Article! But No One is Reading It!
The
end of the year is a great time to take stock of all the things you are
doing and set yourself up to do them better in the New Year. One of the
key elements is all that content you have; your blog site, your
website, social media, brochures, white papers, etc.
But wait. Before you forward this over to your marketing department, see if you can answer this question:
Out
of all the content you produce throughout your company, which pieces
are grabbing the most attention; and which are pulling in more leads?
Why
should you care? Because throughout your organization one of the most
consistent efforts comes in the form of content. Yes, that means ads and blogs and other promotional pieces. But it also means Q&As, white papers, technical documents and so on.
Wouldn't you be surprised if some of those technical "how to"
articles were pulling in more leads than all your ads put together?
We came across an interesting article in Fortune
about Highspot, a 3 year old startup founded by an ex-Microsoft
executive that is using something called "machine learning" to help
companies find out which of their content is actually selling and to
help them churn out more of the "right stuff".
What
they're doing is pretty interesting. They use technology to interface to
popular document patforms such as DropBox, Box, WebEx and Google Drive.
They track documents and changes made to presentations and campaign
content to identify which are the most successful in terms of converting
into leads. After all it would be nice to know if that article you may
have spent hours on was on or off the mark, wouldn't it?
The
point is that content takes time and effort to produce. Taking a little
extra time to organize your content in a way that makes it easier to
track from a readership, sharing and lead conversion standpoint, can
help you better target your content to maximize exposure and lead
conversion.
Whether you use technology such as
Highspot or you do this yourself, it's becoming more important to track,
analyze and optimize content to work harder in today's content rich,
competitive, data driven world. You work too hard not to!
Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas and a healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!
-Kevin Young and the team at CDR-DATA
Stay Connected
Windows 10: Full Steam Ahead...But Are You Ready?
Microsoft is setting the stage for a pretty massive upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users.
And
no one knows the inner workings of the upgrade strategy better than
Josh Mayfield, the developer who created GWX Control Panel.
You can read the full article from ComputerWorld here.
About CDR-DATA
CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide you with all the resources needed to
effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources.
eCDR®:
All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage
and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.
eBill-Back®:
Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers,
shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end
users.
Jamba,
Inc. (NASDAQ:JMBA) a leading health and wellness brand and leading
retailer of freshly squeezed juice announced today its plans to offer
consumers in Pasadena a truly different retail experience with the
pending launch of a state-of-the-art Jamba Juice concept store. The
store will be unlike any of the Company’s other 850+ retail outlets in
that it will feature a sleek interactive bar area, a modern test
kitchen, a spacious wifi-enabled seating area, and other innovative
concepts.
Set in the heart of the historic Old Town section of Pasadena, the
Jamba Concept Store will serve as a learning lab in which Jamba will
create and test new food and beverage concepts with the ability to
obtain real-time feedback from the store’s customers. In addition to
culinary exploration, the Concept Store will be used to pilot innovative
solutions that will benefit Jamba stores across the system.
“The Jamba Concept Store will allow us to push the boundaries of the
brand and enable us to innovate in three key areas: product development,
technology and the customer experience,” said James D. White, chairman,
president and CEO, Jamba Juice. “The key to capturing today’s consumers
is to provide them with unique and memorable retail experiences. The
Concept Store’s interactive bar, test kitchen and other innovative
elements will be unique to anything customers have experienced in the
industry.”
The Jamba Concept Store will be located at 8798 64 East Colorado
Boulevard, a high-traffic area in Pasadena’s historic Old Town district.
The Grand Opening is set for late January, 2016.
About Jamba
Founded in 1990, Jamba, Inc. is a leading restaurant retailer of
better-for-you, specialty beverage and food offerings, which include
great tasting, whole fruit smoothies, fresh squeezed juices and juice
blends, hot teas, and a variety of food items including hot oatmeal,
breakfast wraps, sandwiches, Artisan Flatbreads™, baked goods, and
snacks. As of September 29, 2015, there were 814 Jamba® stores
system-wide in the United States, of which 720 are franchise-operated
stores, and 94 are Company-owned. Jamba is a proud sponsor of “Team Up
for a Healthy America” in the fight against childhood obesity and
encourages fans to join the Team Up community of celebrities, athletes,
and other leaders committed to getting kids active and involved at
www.myhealthpledge.com. Fans of Jamba Juice can find out more about
Jamba Juice’s locations as well as specific offerings and promotions by
visiting the Jamba Juice website at www.JambaJuice.com or by contacting Jamba’s Guest Services team at 1-866-4R-FRUIT (473-7848).
Monday, November 9, 2015
November 2015 Issue
I Have a Dog in This Fight (Albeit an "Older" Dog)
As a boomer, I admit that articles about older workers tend to get my attention. I read an interesting one the other day on bbc.com that spoke to the "secret strengths" of older workers. I wondered why these strengths should be considered such a secret!
I do know that there is a certain amount of reluctance in the
workplace that continues to hamper the efforts of older workers...and
worry younger managers. And that's a shame because there is some
amazing talent out there that can and should be tapped.
The article references Shawn VanDerziel, a 40-ish chief of human resources for the Field Museum in Chicago, and Dirk van Dierendonck, professor of human resource management at Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands. Both had some great insight to share.
Here are some of the benefits of hiring older workers and some words of advice to bring out the best in them.
They
have good ideas. There is an advantage to having been around awhile.
You can accumulate some good ideas that are just as fresh as those
coming from younger workers, but with a dose of reality that comes from
more years of experience.
They are more technologically
adept than you think. This is one of the stubborn myths about many older
workers. If they are still working, they are using plenty of
technology. According to Dirk van Dierendonck, older workers complete assignments faster than many younger workers.
They are loyal. "If
you're building your company or department for the long run, it may be
more profitable to invest in people who are invested in the
organization," van Dierendonck said. "You're more likely to see that
investment from older workers. They don't need hand holding.
They are more independent, VanDerziel said, and they don't need
constant feedback about how they're doing. More than anything, he said
he's learned about when to back off.
One last benefit that VanDerziel shares with us. "They're
also not going to take that criticism personally," he said. "With
millennials, you might want to put feedback in context, to give them
compliments first."
What have your experiences been working with older employees? We'd like to share your stories. Let us know what you think about old stereotypes and how you have adapted to older workers.
CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide you with all the resources needed to
effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources.
eCDR®:
All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage
and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.
eBill-Back®:
Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers,
shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end
users.
First, a definition of IoT, courtesy of Officing Today, for those who may not yet know what IoT stands for:
"The Internet of Things is a vast collection of physical
objects connected through an online network. "Things," in this sense,
is virtually anything with the ability to connect to the Internet:
smartphones, smart TVs, monitoring implants, fitness bracelets, cars
with built-in bluetooth, tracking sensors...the list is endless."
The 6 Startup Expenses You Need and the 6 You Don’t
Money is not funny. Especially when it
comes to your own company. It’s no news that after the bootstrapping
stage, startups often fall in the trap of spending their preciously raised funds on things that are not that important – to the point at which they run out of runway and eventually find themselves as another failed startup.
However, don’t rush into choosing the
cheapest options possible and cutting down the costs to the barely
survivable minimum for the sake of impressing your investors. In fact,
some expenses are not only unavoidable, but necessarily.
6 Important Startup Expenses
Market research. Never cash out until you precisely know what your customers are ready to buy. Knowing the ins and outs of your target market
and having a clear vision of your ideal buyer persona is a must for any
startup. Understanding what the market needs, how tough is the
competition and what pricing strategy will work best is an essential
component of success.
CFO or accountant. As
we are talking about optimizing expenses here, you need a person to keep
a close eye on your business finance. A good CFO will save you more
money than you pay them by holding you accountable for spending and
analyzing your current ROI and ways to increase them.
Legal counseling. Paying
for professional legal advice can save you heaps of money in the
perspective in terms of potential legal settlements later on. Have
doubts about certain legal procedure? Do splurge on a lawyer.
Marketing and branding. The
biggest nightmare of most startups is when no one comes on the big
launch day. That can be a real life scenario if you invest poorly in
your marketing. Certainly, you should not waste more money than you can
afford (ask your CFO about that), but consider hiring a reputable company or stashing creating an in-house team with the best professionals.
Customer Support. How
do you plan to retain and assist the customers you’ve spent time and
money acquiring if you have zero people to cater them in a timely
manner? Doesn’t sound really clever, right?
Technical Support. Never
play it cheap when it comes to choosing your hosting provider and
creating a stable website. There’s nothing worth than losing customers
because your payment form glitches or your website is down during a
particularly high traffic peak.
6 Startup Expenses You Should Avoid
Expensive software solutions. Most
tools and software these days have cheaper, free or heavily discounted
alternatives. Don’t rush into buying yet another trendy product until
you are 100 percent sure it is essential for your company’s further
growth.
Fancy office space.
Sure, you’d love to move to a bigger, brighter space and stock it up
with loads of cool furniture, art prints, and elements of Scandi design.
However, the moving and furnishing costs can quickly add-up. Don’t rush
into building an office of your dream until your company has a proven
traction record.
Non-measurable outreach efforts. Whether it is influencer marketing
or personal branding, once you see that the strategy is not bringing
any consistent measurable results, stop spending money on it. Instead,
invest in those marketing channels that already gained you some feasible
outcome.
Hiring staff before you are ready. Sure
you’d love to have more people on board to share the joys of building a
company together, but if your business isn’t ready, you’ll just waste
the money. Outsource and hire out-staff freelancers to work on permanent
basis till your business advances steadily.
Expensive equipment. Yes
you’d love to have an ultra-tech office, but now may not be the best
idea to heavily invest into new gadgets. Purchase things you actually need, rather than those you want.
Spending money before you’re even sure you’ll make some money. Don’t
rush into spending large sums before you are making enough to cover it.
Live according to your means is a golden rule both for personal and
business finances.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
October 2015 Issue
Apple Getting Ready to Disrupt Again! And Carriers Won't Like It!
Talk about disruptive. And, for consumers and Apple, it's all good.
With the recent release of iPhone 6s comes an influx of new features
rolling out, and one of them stands ready to change the way we deal
with our wireless carriers forever.
If that sounds good to you, think about how it sounds to
Apple! It started off slowly with the marketing and selling of content
direct to the consumer, leaving the carriers scurrying to create more
inviting and less expensive (at least perceptively) options to
consumers. But Apple's winning with their new $32 per month deal, which
gives you a new unlocked iPhone every year. Who are you bypassing? The
carriers!
While they will not go quietly --- we can expect
all sorts of special deals and rebates in the months to come --- the
experts are predicting a very different world to emerge over the next
year or so.
The "P.S" here is what's
happening with Apple SIMs. You know, those little chips that allow users
to pay for data traffic via iTunes. Experts predict that the SIM will
be extended to the iPhone. And you can connect the dots from here.
Will
carriers eventually begin selling both voice and data services to their
customers? And the add-on question is: What does this mean for
traditional telecom management?
The bottom line: Be ready. Because Apple does not move slowly.
What do you think about Apple's next move? We'd like to hear from you. Feel free to contact us to learn more about how CDR-Data can help you with the right tools to allocate, manage and control your telecom costs.
CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide you with all the resources needed to
effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources.
eCDR®:
All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage
and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.
eBill-Back®:
Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers,
shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end
users.
Microsoft has announced
ExpressRoute, a new service to incorporate private high-speed connection
through the Azure Government cloud.
What does this mean for the public sector? Here's the link to the details from govtech.
When is a Box not a Box?
Box recently announced that they are out to cover the business universe with content access.
Their
Box platform will be providing ways for businesses to share content,
connect it to processes, and basically connect seamlessly to other cloud
services.
Is this cool? What do you think? You can read the entire article here.
One Fall Conference Left; but it's a Good One
Are you headed to GWA? Better make your plans now!
and blogs and other promotional pieces. But it also means Q&As, white papers, technical documents and so on.
