Archive for January, 2009

ERP Software Success for Encompix Executive Vice President Chuck Stewart

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Encompix (www.encompix.com) has filled the manufacturing software requirements of Engineer-to-Order companies since 1992. Starting with the NCR Corporation in 1985, Chuck Stewart has built a career based on product innovations and marketing successes in the computer software industry. In 1989, Stewart founded Computer Applications to resell an integrated manufacturing and accounting application. Stewart, also an implementation consultant, founded ShopPro Software in 1991 to develop an integrated solution for job-based manufacturing companies. When ShopPro merged with Paradigm Integrators in 1996, and eventually became Encompix, Inc., Stewart focused on the marketing and successful implementation of the software application to job and project-based manufacturing companies. Stewart played a vital role in the development of many of the product’s key differentiating factors. Today, Stewart holds the position of Executive Vice President, responsible for sales and marketing. The company name, Encompix, reflects the commitment to developing business application solutions that encompass the complex areas of project-based and job-based manufacturing. Encompix provides ETO manufacturers with a competitive advantage by improving bottom line results.

According to Thomas R. Cutler, spokesperson for the ETO Institute (www.etoinstitute.org), “Encompix continues to capture significant marketshare in the ETO environment because few other ERP vendors truly understand the nuances and significant distinctions of the ETO process versus the repetitive manufacturing process. Encompix now has more than 200 of the leading ETO manufacturing firms in North America using their ERP Software solution.”

Encompix www.encompix.com Roger Meloy rmeloy@encompix.com 513-733-0066

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Sunday, January 25th, 2009

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It can also be doubled up for use with a computer of any kind. Read on more about Ibm 92P6744 Laptop Samsung Lcd Screen 14.1 Xga, or explore more about Samsung LN52A540. Best quality steel brackets are good choice as they are durable as well as rust free.

A key question being asked is whether they should buy an LCD monitor (also called LCD information display panel) or an LCD TV. Sometimes the whole unit has to be replaced, so get more info on Ibm 92P6744 Laptop Samsung Lcd Screen 14.1 Xga. Take note of the shipping expenses and the taxes that you have to pay. See more details on Ibm 92P6744 Laptop Samsung Lcd Screen 14.1 Xga below. Meaning the light is not produced by the LCD crystal but rather from a light source behind the panel. Meaning the light is not produced by the LCD crystal but rather from a light source behind the panel. See more about Samsung LN52A540 below!

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Publicise Your Businesses Products & Services with Videos Online

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Short format videos are an outstanding way to market your firm. For certain there are many other kinds of marketing techniques around from article writing to blogging, from press releases to podcasting. But nothing says “cool, connection, and creativity” like a video commercial. Vidify provides clear strategic insight into managing online video as an effective part your video marketing mix.

Each month more and more firms of all sizes are generating videos about their services. They’re not only posting them on their business websites, but they are adding them to their official blogs. To gain worldwide twenty four seven publicity, commercial videos are being published to various video-sharing websites like YouTube & Google Videos. And why not ? it is free, easy-to-do, & can have a large difference, in some cases, on the traffic it drives to your website.

There are a lot more reasons why videos are an outstanding way to publicise your company.

Commercial videos benefit from a large circulation: Videos by their very nature are straightforward to “package” which means they are suitable to go into a choice of different distribution circulations. You can add them on your website or blog, alternatively you can save them onto your desktop computer & show them over & over again at a selected company show. You can post them to scores of online video-sharing social media websites. You can burn them onto DVDs and give them away or sell them. You can even send them via email.

Videos are a marvellous way to communicate. As our use of technology evolves, so do the techniques in which firms like to interact with others. Most individuals are visually oriented meaning that is how they best understand and cooperate with their world. This makes video commercials the perfect advertise strategy to communicate to today’s clients.

These are just some of the countless reasons why online videos might be an amazing way to promote your businesses services. Discover more about this area to see how you may well use your precious time, budget, & energy to speak with your target industry in a new and interesting way.

Optimize Websites Without Changing a Thing

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

If you are satisfied with your website, look again. Chances are there are several things that will help optimize your website while keeping the overall look and functionality the same. In particular, one of the biggest trends is a Content Management System which makes updating your site as easy as filling out a few form fields and typing some text into the form. Unfortunately, most tools that make it ‘easier’ lack when it comes to making it ‘better’.

This is no big surprise as the same system that makes it easy to manage your site must fit all possible scenarios and may not be the best way to handle YOUR situation. This is where website optimization services like Comptrio.com come in to help improve your site according to your specific needs. A professional service will be able to assess your specific website and make optimization recommendations based on your usage and requirements.

One of the biggest downfalls of the ‘owner friendly’ CMS systems is a very ’server un-friendly’ navigation system. What could be easier for the owner than to enter a new category name and have the database store the category name, link, and ID# and just call them on every page load? With one additional step while updating your categories, the same code that is called 10 times (assuming you have 10 categories) every time the page is loaded can be run once when you update the navigation and write a file with all of the navigation in a static or unchanging file.

This static navigation can be called every time a page on your site is requested and may cut down on the number of queries to the database by double digit numbers. I recently optimized a website and removed MORE THAN 95% of the database queries by using this method. The website went from nearly 1,000 database queries to only 20 each time the page is loaded into a users browser.

This required changing 2 sets of navigation with new code, but had an amazing effect on the server load during high-traffic and allowed an incredible amount of users to connect all at once that was not possible before.

Another change that can be made is to ensure that your server is ‘properly’ using Apache’s built-in cache. While caches can also be setup within the HEAD section of your pages, using Apache itself to setup the ‘rules’ will cut down on the code used on your page. The trick to getting mod_expires setup correctly is trial and error. Eventually you will find settings that work best for your site.

Typically, images can be cached the longest as they don’t change very often on most sites. HTML pages generally don’t update change very often, but dynamic pages can be a little tougher to tune. I generally begin with 1 day from first access for php files and then adjust how long the cache lasts from there. The length of cache will depend on your actual needs on a ‘per website’ basis.

The beauty of using the cache is that common files (where all pages use the same header image) are stored in the users browser and not downloaded when they visit the next few pages of your site. For many websites, especially graphic-heavy sites, this can mean a serious reduction in the bandwidth and resources used in transferring the same layout images page after page after page.

In almost every case that I’ve seen, websites created by a wysiwyg editor (FrontPage, DreamWeaver, etc.) can benefit from good, old handcoding. Many HTML tags are unnecessary or are used to help the wysiwyg editor to remember it’s place on the page, but wysiwyg editors don’t concern themselves with optimizing your code. Once again, this is a case of needing to work in every scenario, but not needing to work with the best optimization. Often times I will gain an 80% reduction in filesize by hand coding websites and removing extraneous ‘fluff’ from the code.

Reduction in image sizes (filesize, not space on a page) is perhaps one of the easiest optimization targets to pinpoint, but also one of the easiest ways to make your site look goofy. The best way to optimize images is to start with the original image files at full size with no compression. Fortunately, aside from a professional logo, this is usually what you are working with on your website already. With a 20% reduction in size (80% compression in the world of images), more size can be saved here than anywhere else. There are many tools to compress images and my personal favorites are the gifcruncher and jpeg wizard.

Making several passes over your website once it’s completed should point to several areas where improvement is possible without changing the look, feel, and functionality of your website. As newer technologies are being adopted by a growing number of websites, optimization is more important than ever.

Do Something Smart And Unique: Earth-Friendly Wedding Decorations

Saturday, January 24th, 2009

It might seem wasteful to you to decorate and use all of these cut flowers in order to make a big room beautiful for one night. Are there any environmentally friendly options?

Change the setting

The easiest way to keep from using cut flowers and dried petals is to have your reception and ceremony outside. This sounds like trouble in the making, but it’s a lot easier than it sounds. If you have a large space in someone’s yard or in a park(with everyone’s permission), you can set up a large tent for the reception hall and even the ceremony if you’d like.

Since guests will be under a roof, there is little need for worrying about the weather and they can still see the beauty of the outside as they eat. Find a beautiful setting and light some lanterns around the tent, it creates a soft glow well into the evening.

New ingredients

Of course, if you’re looking for the most earth friendly eating options, you will want to select the buffet option with a limited portion of food. Any additional food can be donated to the local shelter if you’d like.

You will not be using any plastic forks or cups, so you will need a lot of glasses and silverware to make sure that you don’t run out. Napkins can be cloth and washed instead of thrown out.

As decorations, you can spread lavender along the tops of the tables and then include small tea lights as well as larger candles as needed. Find candles that burn clean (as soy ones do), and these are quite friendly to use.

If you’re looking for a centerpiece, you can choose to have tall silver or gold vases in the middle (metal) and fill them with ice and a bottle of champagne for the table. This looks great, plus it serves a function. You can then give away the vases for planters at the end of the night.

Using kegs instead of individual beer cans is a great way to cut back on waste–even if it can be recycled. Recycling tends to be more and more difficult to do as the night goes on.

Let the conversation and the happiness decorate the night, not things that you will only throw away the next day. Being earth friendly isn’t difficult when you think of other ways that you can use things after the wedding is over.

Celebrating with Sand: An Alternative to the Unity Candle

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

On your special day, when you are celebrating the combining of your lives together, you may want a special ritual to symbolize your new unity. Many couples opt for the Unity Candle, which has become very common in recent years.

But here is another idea, which would be perfect for a garden, park, or beach wedding: Have a sand ceremony.

The ceremony is very simple, and very beautiful. Get three nicely shaped clear glass bowls or vases. Buy either black and white sand or two other complementary colors, perhaps those you are using in your wedding. (Colored sand is readily available at craft stores, garden shops, and stores which sell aquariums.) Set the bowls or vases side by side. The groom then pours one color of sand into one of the vessels, while the bride pours the other color into another one. Then, together, they pour sand into the center bowl, creating a beautiful design. The side bowls or vases can then be filled with flowers or topped with colored stones and become part of the reception decoration, while the center container becomes a wonderful keepsake for the bride and groom.

For ceremonies in which either the bride or groom or both have children, the children can also be given bowls of colored sand, which they may add to the center vessel along with that of the bride and groom.

I hope this lovely, inexpensive ceremony can add an extra touch of sweetness to your day.

Rhetta Akamatsu is a wedding planner, independent travel agent, and freelance writer in Marietta, GA. She is the owner of Rose and Star Wedding Planning. Please visit the Rose and Star website at http://www.roseandstar.com for more information, articles, and advice.

Keeping your brochures simple

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Did you know that brochure printing has played an important and realistic role in increasing marketing’s strategy in campaign? Well, increase in their sales and name sound is quite a convincing proof. Although many business marketing companies thought that in keeping up with brochures, they are entitled to a big expense which is not friendly to their budget, they are wrong. Almost everything is expensive these days but surely it pays off to some satisfying reward in return.

In a business company who makes brochures for their client’s reference, it is never that hard for them to keep up and cooperate with what’s new and hot. Making a way to provide their customers with satisfaction can completely be referenced to brochures. It is true that brochure printing may cost a bit higher than the usual strategy companies use but there are ways to minimize your expenses. Looking for a printing company that offers affordable and efficient service does it all. A good printing company understands customer’s needs and keeps up with their standards which are their first priority.

Brochures varies from different sizes so if you want to cut down a little with your budget, you can adjust with the sizes which adapts to your budget. Larger brochures may cost a bit higher because of increased materials like paper and ink. But larger brochures are better and most accepted by the customers. A well managed brochure will definitely make up a great deal with your customers.

Brochures are offered in sizes such as 8-1/2 inch x 11 inches to 9 x 12 inches. They said that the bigger is better but brochure printing really doesn’t require being big. As long as it keeps up with the quality and your clients continuously appreciate your brochures, size doesn’t really matter at all.

Your brochures need not to have very good and colorful designs on it. Of course you will match it with the type of design you wish to elaborate. Having your own unique theme sets it on top. You need not overdo your brochures with designs and colorful prints. As long as it informs and attracts the people, your brochures will definitely be appealing and revealing. Remember that keeping it simple but great is what matters.

Most brochures are printed with varieties of color because it makes it attractive and inviting. Choosing the right quality for your brochures is economical and cost-effective.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.losangelesprintingservice.com

Good Web Design – What is it?

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

There is unlimited possibilities when it comes to designing a website. Flash, Database, content management, Client Login, etc,etc. A question to ask yourself when deciding how to do your website is:

How can I most effectively present my information to my visitors

Of course there are several things to consider like budget but I feel that when talking strictly design it is important to put your visitors as first priority as they are the reason you are building the website.

  • Flash – Flash I find is normally over done. It can do wonders to a site if used right, but it can also make a site look awful if not used correctly. To simply put it: If you have multimedia content on your website consider flash, if you don’t: stay away from it altogether. Flash is more time consuming to develop, and it can take away a lot of important aspects from your sites like Search Engine Optimization.
  • Database – Adding a database back end to your site can be very useful if you are going to be storing a lot of data, or if you are going to be changing information often. If you are just simply putting a page with your contacts online, I wouldn’t recommend using a database backend, again for the time that it costs to develop and especially for the minor benefit that you will see. On the other hand if you are storing all of your products online and you need the ability to update/add/delete products often I wouldn’t recommend not using a database and some type of content management.
  • Content Management – Content management is most likely used with a database back end in which you will have a control panel that you can use to “Manage Content”. Content that can be managed is anything and everything. Sample uses for Content Management are:
  • Managing Products – Add new and delete/edit existing
  • News/Journals – If you want the ability to constantly update your site with current news items or journals
  • Page Layout – Some more advanced Content Management systems will all you to manage all aspects of your site from the layout to the colors!

    Again I stress the importance of putting your visitors first. Although you might think it would be cool to have a flashy intro and design, your visitors might find it annoying and distracting.

    Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the following caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

    Ryan Fyfe is the owner and operator of Web Design Which is a great web directory and information center on Web Design and related topics like Flash animation and Search Engine Optimization.

  • Sales Marketing: 10 Sales Marketing Tricks To Explode Your Profits

    Monday, January 19th, 2009

    Sales marketing online is an art that you must
    keep revising, refining and polishing to keep pace with
    all the changes happening on the Internet.

    1. Publish testimonials for your free stuff. It would
    increase their value and if they’re viral marketing
    tools, you’ll have more people giving them away.

    2. Give your visitors a good time so they will visit
    your web site again. Use a few jokes, humorous
    graphics and funny stories.

    3. Make money from web sites that don’t have an
    affiliate program, by doing a joint venture. Set up
    the affiliate program through a third party for them.

    4. Build rapport with your potential customers by
    teaching them something new. Provide them with
    free ebooks, articles, tips, courses, etc.

    5. Allow your visitors to collect things from your
    web site so they will stop back again and again.
    It could be a series of software, ebooks or articles.

    6. Keep each page of your web site consistent or
    similar. Use similar text fonts, colors, graphics
    and background on every page.

    7. Build a popular directory of freebies. It will draw
    tons of traffic to your web site and you can request
    that submitters place your link on their web site.

    8. Create traffic generators that people can add to
    their site without doing all the work. It can be an
    article directory, freebie directory, web tool, etc.

    9. Challenge your visitors to buy your product or
    service. People love a good challenge. Tell them
    if they can find a flaw you’ll give them a refund.

    10. Form a strategic alliance with other related but
    non-competing businesses. You’ll be able to beat
    your competition by selling to a larger audience.

    May you succeed in your sales marketing and make a lot
    of money.

    Warmly,

    I-key Benney, CEO

    I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”, (work from home) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

    Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free “cash”…

    Blogs: The New E-Tool

    Friday, January 16th, 2009

    What are blogs?

    Blogs are frequently updated web pages on which authors post articles about news items, interesting websites, and their thoughts and just about anything that interests the author. Blogs are the newest information age revolution that allows individuals to express themselves to the world.

    Blogs operate using a content management system, where the blog owner can add, edit, and delete content from the blog to keep it updated as quickly and efficiently as possible.

    They were originally used as online journals, or diaries, which were the mainstay of teenagers who love to write down their most private thoughts. However, given the Internet is a public information space and anyone with an Internet connecion can read your online journal it is not a good place to be posting those private thoughts.

    Who should use blogs?

    Blogging first came on the seen during the 2004 election, now has exploded as a marketing tool for companies, such as Sun Microsystems, StonyField Farms, and Kowabunga Technologies with the intent on bypassing traditional media of reaching customers. With more people finding companies by searching the Internet, and with 32 million Americans reading blogs, this makes blogging a cost effective tool for marketing.

    Blogs would be perfect for college students. Many college professors require that their students keep a journal of their activities so that they can see how the student is progressing and if the student is learning the material. Some college professors even advise students to set time immediately after class to do their writing activity in their journal.

    This journal activity can be done using blogs, where the professor can go to the website and view the blogs of his or her students. The professor can see first hand who is actively doing the activity, and contribute to a discussion with the student by posting a comment, thus creating a two-way dialogue.

    Let’s assume that the student is taking a course on Organization Behavior and is reading an interesting chapter on Interpersonal Communications in Organizations. At the beginning of the lecture, the professor hands out the lecture notes, usually as PowerPoint slides so the student can follow along. The first slide lists the learning objectives that the professor expects the student to be able to do upon completion of the lecture. Here is an example of a learning objective:

    Describe the process of communication and its role in organizations

    After class, the student can go to the computer center on campus and login to his blog, and attempt to explain what the process of communication based on the lecture. Being able to write about something in your own words immediately after hearing it can help in the learning process.

    The Downsides of Blogging

    Fear of negative comments
    Blogs invite negative comments because there are a lot of people out there that just love to trash people and don’t have anything nice to say. Companies should not be deterred. Blogs have a feature where you can moderate each and every comment that is made by a visitor, and the blog owner can choose to accept it or reject it at his discretion.

    The comments made by visitors reading a blog creates a two-way dialogue between the writer and the readers creating an opportunity for acquiring new knowledge which can lead to learning. However, for learning to take place, action is required to be taken on that knowledge, for learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior produced by experience and the acquisition of knowledge.

    Inappropriate content written by employees
    Two employees were fired from their respective companies for what they posted on their blogs. Mark Jen was fired from Google for writing about the companies health care plan. A Delta Airlines flight attendant was also fired for writing about her escapades, some of which were sexual in nature.

    There needs to be policies in place regulating what employees can and cannot write about in their blogs. However, the blog must be company owned, such as within a company website. If an employee of a company starts a blog on his own time for his own engagement, the company cannot regulate what that employee writes about in his blog. If the employer attempts to regulate that employee’s behavior, that would be a violation of his first amendment rights.

    Employers need to thread carefully so that they do not intrude in their employees personal lives. What an employee does on his or her own time is the employee’s own business and not the employer.

    What can a business use a blog for?

    Implement a newsletter
    Blogs come with an archiving function where posts that are published are archived on a monthly bases. This is about the same frequency as a regular email newsletter. Visitors to your blog can view past issues to see what was written in past months.

    Newsletters are published documents describing information of interest to customers, employees, or anyone that is interested in learning more about that company regarding the array of business and nonbusiness issues. Blogs can be used as a delivery method for bringing these same news and announcements about a company, products/services and the online industry in general that the company is in. Whereas newsletters tend to be a one-way communication tool and are more impersonal, using blogs as newsletters can make it more personal by creating a two-way dialogue.

    Blogs can be a huge opportunity for small businesses and be a very real threat for email newsletter companies, such as Vertical Response and Constant Contact. These companies help small businesses build their email lists, publish their newsletters, and manage their email marketing campaigns. Small business owners only pay for the number of email newsletters that they send. The cost can range from as low as $15 for 1,000 to &750 for as much as 100,000 email newsletters.

    By using a blog to publish a newsletter, the small business owner can save this money. The money saved can then be allocated to investing in the training and development of their employees, another critical aspect of running a business.

    Improve a web presence
    Search engines want to provide high quality search results for their visitors. Search engines love blogs and favor sites that are updated frequently.

    Websites can get indexed almost instantaneously. Everytime you publish an article to your blog, it pings other websites. Pinging lets dozens of services know your website has been updated, thus increases traffic to your blog.

    Become a published author
    Everyone has an area of expertise, or core competency. Usually this area of expertise is based on a strong interest of the owner. You could haved owned a web design company and handled all of the Human Resources activities for your company because you had a strong interest in that field. Perhaps within this field you developed a strong interest in attracting and selecting the best candidates for your company. Maybe you tweaked the employment interview and turned it into an oral examination for the job applicant.

    By writing articles, you will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition as you demonstrate your expertise.

    To get started blogging, small businesses can save money by purchasing a reseller webhosting account, such as that from HostGator. A reseller hosting account is a tad more pricey, but cheaper in the long term. You have the ability to host unlimited number of websites without having to contact your web hosting provider and set up new account. You have to pay for every new hosting account, which can be a strain on your budget. With a reseller hosting account you will be able to create a hosting account for no additional cost (except for the domain registration).

    Blogs are here to stay. As more people continue to learn what a blog is, it will continue to evolve with many new uses.
    About the Author

    Nick Roy is an HR Researcher, Consultant, and freelance business writer. He currently holds a Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts in Human Resources Management from Hawaii Pacific University, and a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from Florida Metropolitan University, Fort Lauderdale<