It seems that as soon as a piece of IT equipment or software has been installed it’s immediately superseded by a faster sexier version. So what was an ideal IT solution soon becomes out of date. Built-in-Obsolescence is a fact of life and even affects us at a basic level with our home computers. As new power hungry versions of software are introduced we are encouraged (forced) to upgrade our existing hardware to enable us to work normally again.
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Many IT analysts have reported that the number one concern that keeps company CEO’s awake at night is security. The IT security industry supplies many and varied IT security products and services and yet still the breaches occur. You only have to look at recent news bulletins about lost government data and the customer banking details that were mislaid, as well as the recent example of the American hacker, Albert Gonzalez, who, along with a Russian gang of criminals, stole data from more than 130 million bank accounts from Heartland Payment Systems. This New Jersey company processes payments for retailers including 7-Eleven Stores and Hannaford supermarkets.
The term ‘Till’ takes many forms; it’s used to describe unstratified soil deposited by a glacier consisting of sand, clay, gravel and boulders mixed together. Also, a public treasury for government funds is referred to as a till and of course you can till the soil. Let’s also not forget the good old fashioned cash box or, as it is today, the POS terminals, which are electronic devices for calculating and recording sales transactions with attached cash drawers for storing money.
As the cost of rugged handhelds has reduced and mobile communications have improved, you see them deployed in more and more applications across different industries. By giving the worker direct access to pertinent information and allowing them to conduct business at the point of a transaction or information capture, you increase efficiency and liberate your staff.
Studying how people work and how we can improve efficiency reminds me of the old time and motion studies that were so popular in the mid 1950’s. These white coated figures would roam factories with their stop watches. The purpose of a time and motion study would be used to reduce the number of motions in performing a task in order to increase productivity and even reduce staff numbers. No wonder they were viewed as the enemy by the employees. It conjures up the image of Peter Sellers as the shop steward in the British comedy called I’m Alright Jack.
Thankfully things have moved on since then. However, I remember that during the recession of the 1990’s a new business buzzword appeared on the landscape of best practice - ‘downsizing’. I think this meant different things to different businesses, but ultimately it was about reducing a company’s head count. To add a positive spin on it came ‘rightsizing’ which is in fact downsizing, but no doubt made the companies feel better.
Picture this scenario, a small business that makes things, takes orders, packs them and ships them; usually starts out with quite basic processes and for a while, they fulfil the purpose albeit just adequately.
The owner manager feels in control as he oversees the orders, adjusts his stock position and then coordinates delivery to the customer; he instructs his dedicated staff every step of the way. But what happens as his company grows? Enter technology.
Not so long ago charity shops tended to be no more than glorified jumble sale outlets, so the fact that they have survived so long was more to do with the efforts of the persistent bargain hunter and charity supporter rather than smart merchandising. To think that the first charity shop or second hand clothing shop was set up by the Salvation Army in the 19th century. However, modern charity shops did not appear until after world war two with the first of these being operated by Oxfam in 1947.
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Today the mobile computing device seems to be the ubiquitous end point for so many applications, from carrying out transactions to downloading business software. Now it’s reaching across many vertical sectors such as healthcare. Nurses, for instance, can use iphone applications to find out what to do about patient symptoms, measure and record blood glucose, insulin and medication etc.
Some markets and companies have remained fairly unaffected by the crisis and are even expanding their operations while others have been forced to scale down their activities. This has meant that many businesses have been forced to consider outsourcing their logistics and distribution functions in order to cut costs. The challenge here is who do you outsource to? First off it is important to carry out in depth due diligence before choosing your warehousing and distribution partner. Get a feel for their experience both good and bad. A potential warehouse and distribution partner needs to be able to demonstrate real knowledge and experience.
The economic storm battering our economy is placing UK IT suppliers under increasing strain to prove their worth. Irrespective of the downturn our roles stay the same to provide fit-for-purpose EPOS solutions, deliver measurable results and superior service. With hard times ahead staying the same is not an option - now is the time to innovate.
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