Casual Articles - Business

Orthopraxy, Not Orthodoxy
A few months ago, author, pastor (and my homeboy) Jim Henderson educated me on the difference between orthoDOXY and orthoPRAXY:The word orthodoxy comes from the Greek ortho ('correct') and doxa ('thought').The correct thoughts.The word orthopraxy comes from the Greek ortho ('correct') and proxis ('action').The correct actions.Traditionally, these two words are used in a religious context.Of course, that’s not what I’m talking about.This is about business. About relationships. About life.SO HERE’S THE QUESTION: What’s better: having the correct thoughts, or the correct actions?It seems to me that theory, information, thoughts, idea

ical universe layout

Clear and friendly naming conventions.

Multiple universes, built around clusters of related data.

Logical, consistent points of interface between universes.

Efficient database joins

Resume Posting: Tips for Jobseekers
Recruiting firms, like most businesses today, must embrace technology in order to prosper. Part of modern recruiting is understanding the value and benefit of internet job boards. They give recruiters and HR professionals the ability to both publicize potential job opportunities and search through large databases of prospective candidates. In order to best serve our clients and maximize our time each day, we employ very bright people called “RA’s”, short for Research Assistants. RA’s spend a considerable amount of time each day scouring the databases of high profile job boards for potential candidate sources. Most of the time their efforts pay off in the end by either leading us to a suitable c

Corporate legal Matter Management systems are implemented through multi-million dollar projects that frequently result in unpopular, underused tools that never provide the expected return on investment. One element, common to many such situations, is the limited utility of the data being captured. The data in the matter management system is either irrelevant or inaccessible to the interested parties. Integrated Matter Management reporting is the solution to this problem.

In the best case, future reporting needs have been considered and included as critical inputs in the design phase of the larger matter management project. In the worst case, reporting was left out of the design entirely, and end users and management are already angry and dissatisfied with what they perceive as a very expensive failure. Once this type of deficiency is identified, Matter Management specialists can correct the design and integrate the key reports into the system that will make it more relevant to day-to-day business and the reporting requirements mandated by management.

The right specialists will be fluent in matter management as well as management reporting and the underlying tools. These subject area experts can upgrade and enhance a successful matter management system, or salvage and improve one that is foundering. Specialty consultants are crucial to a successful matter management implementation because of their unique combination of experience, independence from vendor influence and accountability to the client organization that engages them. The same advantages make them most desirable resources during a project remediation. Skilled resources that rely on the good will of their paying client are highly motivated to comply with customer timelines and expectations.

A good matter management reporting implementation will be flexible, responsive, logical, and user-friendly. The tools most often employed to retrieve and display data from a matter management system are Business Objects (or Crystal Reports), Microsoft Access, Cognos, and Microstrategy. Most of these are Business Intelligence platforms (MS Access is not). Using these tools, a skilled designer creates a metadata layer that interprets complex data for use by end users and report writers (metadata means 'data about data').

In Business Objects, the metadata layer is called a "Universe". Sound universe design is the heart of a successful reporting effort. Poorly designed universes will result in several significant problems, including:

Inaccurate reports
Performance problems (with Reporting, the application and/or the database server)
User dissatisfaction (with usability, results, etc.)

Proper universe design will incorporate the following practices and features:

Custom universes and objects, built to address customer reporting needs.
Consistent, logical universe layout
Clear and friendly naming conventions.
Multiple universes, built around clusters of related data.
Logical, consistent points of interface between universes.
Efficient database joins

Do You Really Need Venture Capital?
Yes to have a pot of money simplifies life and removes a number of complications, but is that the right short term goal? The amount of time that you spend searching for venture capital, may be better utilized working with customers, building a product, figuring out how to get to revenues and getting your business closer to your next big productive milestone.I say this because I have had two different experiences. My first involved spending more than two years looking for elusive VC cash, ignoring real customers who could have supported and carried the business further. End result - death by business plan rewrites and the search for a better valuation.My second experience involved

are already angry and dissatisfied with what they perceive as a very expensive failure. Once this type of deficiency is identified, Matter Management specialists can correct the design and integrate the key reports into the system that will make it more relevant to day-to-day business and the reporting requirements mandated by management.

Inaccurate reports
Performance problems (with Reporting, the application and/or the database server)
User dissatisfaction (with usability, results, etc.)

Proper universe design will incorporate the following practices and features:

Custom universes and objects, built to address customer reporting needs.
Consistent, logical universe layout
Clear and friendly naming conventions.
Multiple universes, built around clusters of related data.
Logical, consistent points of interface between universes.
Efficient database joins

Tips For Advertising Your Restaurant
Gone are the days when glossy printed handouts would suffice in attracting customers to your restaurant. Today, in their quest to catch eyeballs, advertising agencies have created a nonstop marketplace that knows no limits.Restaurant Advertising Gets CustomersWill Rogers, the late entertainer, once said, "All I know is just what I read in the papers". Restaurant advertising generates interest in the papers along with the news coverage. Although, people know them to be mere ads, they start believing in them when they encounter them again and again not only in the print media, but also on the radio and television.So, if you want to promote your restaurant through advertising,

ce, independence from vendor influence and accountability to the client organization that engages them. The same advantages make them most desirable resources during a project remediation. Skilled resources that rely on the good will of their paying client are highly motivated to comply with customer timelines and expectations.

Inaccurate reports
Performance problems (with Reporting, the application and/or the database server)
User dissatisfaction (with usability, results, etc.)

Proper universe design will incorporate the following practices and features:

Custom universes and objects, built to address customer reporting needs.
Consistent, logical universe layout
Clear and friendly naming conventions.
Multiple universes, built around clusters of related data.
Logical, consistent points of interface between universes.
Efficient database joins

How to Be Customer Unfriendly
One of my favorite airlines committed a customer interface blunder. They changed the automated telephone menu system for reservations, removed the 24-hour fast-access option for frequent flyers, set up the menu so it changes at various times of the day, and put long recorded messages on the system to ‘educate’ passengers while they wait.I’ve called this airline many times. My fingers know which buttons to push to get what I need without delay. Now my fingers are lost and my ears are listening to long messages. I am still trying to figure out which menu works at which time of day and which buttons I need to push.A similar experience took place when WordPerfect introduced ‘WordPerfe

reates a metadata layer that interprets complex data for use by end users and report writers (metadata means 'data about data').

Inaccurate reports
Performance problems (with Reporting, the application and/or the database server)
User dissatisfaction (with usability, results, etc.)

Proper universe design will incorporate the following practices and features:

Custom universes and objects, built to address customer reporting needs.
Consistent, logical universe layout
Clear and friendly naming conventions.
Multiple universes, built around clusters of related data.
Logical, consistent points of interface between universes.
Efficient database joins

Complaining Consumers
The salesman’s job is to be well informed; extremely well informed. For this information is how he earns his bread. At a car dealership the commission over the MSRP on some cars would barely be enough to pay rent. A dealer must fight for every penny of the margin in order to receive the best paycheck. On the other hand, the consumer must also fight for every penny in order to receive the best deal.With the tools available to the consumer such as the internet there is literally no reason why anyone should complain that they were treated unfairly or “cheated” by a car salesman. To these people I have a very clear message: get informed. If you are too lazy to do some serious research into t

ical universe layout

Clear and friendly naming conventions.

Multiple universes, built around clusters of related data.

Logical, consistent points of interface between universes.

Efficient database joins

In a Business Objects universe design, multiple universes should be created, according to the complexity of the data and business processes involved. The separation of data into multiple universes improves the usability and performance of the reporting environment. Usability is enhanced as the reporting interface presents fewer choices, with more obvious correlations and interactions between fields, so that a report writer can create more accurate reports more quickly. Performance is enhanced as database communications are simplified and streamlined. A matter management reporting environment will use a Matter (Case) universe to anchor the rest of the data. A Finance universe contains everything about invoices and budgets. The Finance universe can be linked to Matters when a more complex report requires details from both universes. A Contacts universe presents all of the details in the "rolodex", encompassing all of the people and companies that are involved in any way with a legal matter in the system. Other universes will link to it whenever additional contact details are required. A Timekeeping universe will present timesheet data and have links to the Matters and Contacts universes. Other universes may be necessary, depending upon the business processes that are part a firm's Matter Management system. These may include an Intellectual Property universe, a Discovery universe, a Risk Management universe, and others.

Once the universes are in place, reports are created through the collaborative efforts of business experts, analysts and report writers. Specialty consultants are a superior resource during this step because they can fill the latter two roles, while conversing fluently with the business experts to maximize reporting results and minimize delivery time.

Summary
A strong reporting implementation is vital to the overall success of any Matter Management system, in many cases driving the benefits that provide the ROI for the entire project. Experienced specialists can contribute dramatically to the success of the effort. The reporting design should be flexible enough to accommodate its ongoing success, as active users will constantly develop new questions for their reports to answer. Good reporting will improve the user experience and management utility of the system, raising both data quality and participation among the user population.

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Localization means adapting the product or service in such a manner that it is able to successfully sustain itself in a foreign market. Due to the vast diversity between certain markets, merely translating the text from one language to the other is not the solution anymore. A phrase or idiom from English would never carry the same punch when translated to a non-European language.

The goal of most phone answering services is to offer top-notch technology with premier customer service. These services will usually customize their business to fit your needs whether it is basic message taking, service dispatching or medical communications. The staff of the phone answering service must be professional, friendly and able to give and receive accurate information. Phone calls are vital to the success of any business, and when you're not their to take a call, you need to be assured that the answering service you select knows your business inside and out and can make a caller feel that they are dealing with someone within your company. The staff should be highly skilled answering service professionals that can handle the information you provide them to inform customers who call.

We've been trained by the Yellow Page directory to look for a business within its primary category section. But Local Search allows a person to find what they want under many more descriptive terms.

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