By John Walker on December 2, 2011
Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top predictions for IT organizations and users for 2012 and beyond. Analysts said that the predictions herald changes in control for IT organizations as budgets, technologies and costs become more fluid and distributed.
This year’s selection process included evaluating several criteria that define a top prediction. The issues examined included relevance, [...]
Posted in Accounts, Business Culture, Business Software, Contact Management, Cost Management, Customer Support, Down sizing / Retraction, E-commerce, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Information Security, Information Technology, Market Research, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Outsourcing, Payment Processing and Remittance, People and Players, Procurement, Product Research and Development, Production, Project Management, Regulation, Skills and Training, Standards, Technology, The Work Place | Tagged CIOs, client-side applications, cloud, Cloud Computing, Cloud Security Certification, customer-sensitive data, Daryl Plummer, economies of scale, enterprise social software, Gartner, Global 1000 companies, Google, IBM, Inc., Industrialized low-cost IT services (ILCS), market consolidation, megavendors, Microsoft, mobile, mobile application, operational costs, Oracle, smartphones, tablets, VMware |
By John Walker on August 22, 2011
Running her business for five years Clare Muir, from Hampshire, took up a new OSCAR marketing initiative that has helped her to see the bigger picture on how to promote and refocus the image of her business.
“Even after running a successful OSCAR business for five years I still needed to know more and a new [...]
Posted in Brands, Business Support Services, Customer Retention, Customer Support, Food, Drink and Tobacco Retail, Franchises, Franchising Out, Hampshire, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Pet Services | Tagged OSCAR, think outside the box |
By John Walker on August 19, 2011
As an alternative loyalty scheme to rival supermarkets signs up more than 500 businesses in just six months, a local business owner under the scheme, Heather Copley talks about her experience running a small business in today’s climate.
A shopping loyalty scheme set up to get people out of supermarkets and into farm shops is gathering [...]
Posted in Advertising and Marketing Services, Agriculture, Farming and Farming Support Services, Contact Management, Customer Retention, Customer Reward Programmes, Deals and Agreements, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Food, Drink and Tobacco Retail, Food, Drink and Tobacco Wholesale, Goodwill, Ideas and Innovation, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Outsourcing, Product Launches, Sales, Startups, UK, West Yorkshire | Tagged audio podcast, Farm shop, Farmer Copleys Farm Shop, Heather Copley, Ice scheme, loyalty points, loyalty scheme, start-up advice, take on the big boys |
By Hazel Prive on August 5, 2011
As a small business there is very little money in the budget for PR, marketing and communications, so why not do it yourself?
There are many things that you need to consider when you start a new business, but one of the most important things you need to think about is both your communications and PR. [...]
Posted in Advertising and Marketing Services, Brands, Business Software, Computer Services, Contact Management, Cost Management, Customer Support, Ideas and Innovation, Information Technology, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Publishing, Reputation, Technology, Telecommunications, Telecommunications Services, UK | Tagged Powwownow.co.uk, social networks |
By John Walker on January 31, 2011
Is Social Media the key to growing your business?
UK Small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMB’s) can grow and boost their business if they become more IT (Information Technology) savvy.
So says a recent survey of IT decision-makers of SMB’s, which shows that 96% of them consider IT to be crucial to business growth. And yet surprisingly, over a quarter [...]
Posted in Business Software, E-commerce, Fashion, Trends and Memes, IT and Telecommunications Services, Ideas and Innovation, Marketing, Technology, UK | Tagged HP, IT, LinkedIn, SMB |
By Ruben Kostucki on January 26, 2011
As the founder of an organisation that helps small businesses grow, one of the key challenges often faced by owners is how to increase my productivity.
At a basic level, increasing productivity starts with developing an optimised, streamlined workflow for day-to-day company administration. Thankfully, there are literally dozens of tools that can help you do just [...]
Posted in Business Continuity Planning, Business Services, Products and Solutions, Business Software, Contact Management, Customer Support, Ideas and Innovation, Information Technology, Marketing, Procurement, Project Management, Technology, Telecommunications, Worldwide | Tagged Dropbox, Echosign, Evernote, Highrise, Hootsuite, MessageBase, Paymo, Teambox |
By John Walker on July 1, 2010
Some interesting results from a survey by Insurantz.com showing Small businesses are still not catching on to social networking.
Just 16% of UK SMEs embrace sites like Facebook or Twitter as essential tools for business
56% of businesses put off by lack of understanding
65% have yet to see any benefit from social networking
Leisure and tourism industry most [...]
Posted in Brands, Critical Infrastructure, Customer Support, Distribution Channels, Equipment & Operational Resources, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Ideas and Innovation, Information Technology, Internet Services, Market Research, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Product Research and Development, Recruitment, Reputation, Sales, Surveys, Technology, Telecommunications Services, UK |
By John Walker on December 6, 2009
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that the MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team won the $40,000 cash prize in the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that required participants to locate 10 large, red balloons that had been placed at undisclosed locations across the United States. The MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) team [...]
Posted in Advertising and Marketing Services, Awards and Accreditations, Fashion, Trends and Memes, Human Resources, Ideas and Innovation, Marketing, Marketing Facilities, Multi-Level Marketing, North America, Sales, Technology | Tagged ARPANet, DARPA, MLM, Multi-Level Marketing, Network Marketing |