L’Oreal have moved into the console gaming territory with ‘The Next Level’ XBOX 360 App, a personalised world of beauty, style and entertainment delivered right into the Xbox gaming console, complete with a participation based rewards program. The app includes things like a personal stylist, tips, forums, inspiration and even an educational style academy program… The more you interact with the app, including the more friends you bring into the experience, the more ‘Style Cred’ points you earn, which are in turn redeemed for the latest offers from L’Oreal.
L’Oreal: The Next Level XBOX 360 App
October 10, 2012
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Posted by david ricketts
Big Data – Did You Know?
October 4, 2012Great video highlighting big data, stats and the potential opportunity
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FLASH REPORT: How Does Big Data Affect You?
September 28, 2012On this week’s episode of the Flash Report, Jessica tells us how big data is influencing our everyday lives in ways we don’t even realize.
According to an article published by ITWorld, scientists and experts in the fishing industry are beginning to model big data sets about specific species’ breeding habits and migration patterns in order to keep them off the endangered species lists (so we can continue to consume our favorite fish, without over-consuming them).
Retailers are also beginning to utilize big data in unexpected new ways. Harvard Business Review explains how retailers are using big data to research shoppers’ buying patterns to help improve shopping experiences. For example, when a customer goes to buy an item, they’ll know about a sale on a related item.
Businessweek and IBM published some estimates on how “big” big data really is. Studies show that the world creates approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data every day. That’s 1 followed by 18 zeros.
Next, KSL.com reports that NASA now believes ‘warp drive’ may be possible, and links back to a Wired story on examples of science fiction becoming science fact. We’d like to point out that if warp drive does show up any time soon, you can bet it will come with some pretty big data.
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The 4 Key Requirements for Business Intelligence Reporting
September 26, 2012A recent white paper published by Birst, Inc., a San Francisco based provider of “agile business analytics” software and solutions, points up the four ‘foundational requirements’ of a business intelligence (commonly called “BI”) solution. They remind us that our ERP systems are merely a tool, a means to an end, and that end is to extract intelligent information from the underlying data in order to improve our business management decisions.
The article, available here (you’ll have to provide contact info first) points to four key capabilities (along with our own commentary about them):
1.) Historical analysis and reporting. You want information not just on your business performance, but on the key drivers of that performance as well. You need to know not just your results, but your influencers. This usually involves mapping and understanding data over a long time frame, measured often in years. That’s a lot of data.
2.) Forecasting and future projection. Collecting and understanding your data is one side of the task. Projecting into the future is the other. So for example, once you know something about the progress and flow of past sales deals, the size of your pipeline, the length to close… you’re more able to project the progress of future deals. The goal is to align your resources with your forecast for maximum efficiency.
3.) Ability to integrate information from multiple business functions. Integrating the data you need to make better decisions may require multiple data sources. Obviously, this burden is minimized if you’re operating under, more or less, a single (or limited) silo of information. This is where an integrated ERP solution starts to really shine. Often the data there, give or take the contents of a couple of spreadsheets, is more than enough to provide meaningful insight.
4.) Easily explored reporting and analysis. Decision makers need to understand the big picture. Sometimes, they need a good bit of detail to be able to do so. This speaks to the need for explorable reports, drill down capabilities, ad hoc queries and business dashboards. Flexibility and robustness, without being overly complex, are helpful. Today we find the better ERP systems can provide much of this. More sophisticated BI solutions will boost your reporting capabilities significantly, a feature most appreciated in larger, more diverse organizations.
A solution that provides the above foundation, whether it’s part of an ERP system or an add-in, ensures you’ll have the right analytical tool when it comes time to convert hard data into meaningful information that can inform better decision making.
Ironically Bi24 provides all these elements and much more
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Fans and stadiums, really interesting video on how technology could potentially be adopted in stadium
September 13, 2012Really interesting video….
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Defensible Disposal with Automation
September 13, 2012It’s no secret that the data on corporate servers is growing exponentially. Documents, presentations, media, spreadsheets, and other files are constantly being created and moved onto servers, and after a while, most of it is rarely used, if at all. However, much of this stale data also must be retained in order to comply with regulatory compliance, or to maintain business continuity.
Many IT departments are faced with the reality of having to either continually expand their storage infrastructure or try to accurately determine which data can be safely disposed. The first option is costly and results in basically paying for information you’ll never use, while the latter can be costly in terms of man-hours and brainpower, especially without an automated process in place.
Let’s examine the options a bit closer.
Do Nothing
While it seems like a simpler solution to keep expanding your hardware and try to hold onto every bit just in case it is needed some time in the future, this sort of inaction with regards to defensible disposal is simply not a viable option. Allowing vast amounts of data to accumulate will make it increasingly difficult for users to find relevant data, slow down e-discovery, cause servers to perform poorly, and possibly even crash them, costing your business precious time and money.
Do Anything
Taking the wrong action can be just as damaging. Deleting your CEO’s old email archive might result in a very uncomfortable conversation; disposing of files that you are legally obligated to retain (for HIPAA, HITECH, SOX, etc.) can cost people their jobs, and possibly result in legal action. That’s something no IT professional ever wants to have to deal with.
Do the Right Thing
It should be clear by now exactly why proper defensible disposal techniques are integral to the survival of any business, especially those with sensitive data. Proper disposal techniques can save money and time by streamlining the process of deleting useless data and allowing for admins to focus on other more pressing needs.
If you’re finding the process itself takes quite a bit of planning and/or some sophisticated technology to do most of the heavy lifting, consider automating with technology like the Varonis Data Transport Engine. Varonis DTE simplifies the process of defensible disposal by leveraging our Metadata Framework, allowing admins to automatically and continually delete or migrate data based on a wide array of criteria, such as the content of the file or the date it was last accessed by a human user. This ensures that information that needs to be retained isn’t disposed of by accident and the data that can be safely deleted proceeds safely to bit-heaven, or bit bucket, or /dev/null.
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Posted by david ricketts
Topshop to Debut Interactive, Shoppable Livestream During London Fashion Week
September 13, 2012Imagine watching a fashion show live online, thousands of miles away from the actual event. A look comes down the runway, you click on it, and are able to browse all of its color options and add it to your cart without pausing the livestream. You could even, if you were quick enough, place an order for that look before the show finale began. Sounds pretty futuristic, if not entirely possible, doesn’t it?
This is exactly what global high street retailer Topshop is planning to unveil during the livestream of its S/S 2013 show at London Fashion Week at 3 p.m. GMT on Sunday. Viewers will not only be able to click on clothes and accessories to browse color options in real-time, they’ll also be able to change the music, download the show soundtrack from iTunes, snap screenshots to share instantly on Facebook (a feature that was developed with in-house Facebook engineers), cut and share video clips, and order looks and makeup appearing on the catwalk
Love the technology around this idea, hopefully the conversion rates/interest will see other brands try something similar, even the non fashion businesses.
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Understanding the Technology Hype Cycle
September 3, 2012There are situations in your work life where you are in a meeting – your boss will always talk about cutting edge technologies and throw in few technology jargons like Cloud Computing , Social Media etc and will stress about how the company need to build competency in areas surrounding that.
But the question is how does your boss get to know abt these upcoming trends and start pushing the organisation in a direction so as to plan and leverage these technology in business ?
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Posted by david ricketts
Data Science: Beyond Intuition – The Movie
August 31, 2012Data science is changing the way we look at business, innovation and intuition. It challenges our subconscious decisions, helps us find patterns and empowers us to ask better questions. Hear from thought leaders at the forefront including Growth Science, IBM, Intel, Inside-BigData.com and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. This video is an excellent source of information for those that have struggled trying to understanding data science and its value.
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The Healthcare Market Opportunityy
August 31, 2012Over the past 6 months there have been a number of data breaches within the healthcare market. With data security breaches costing the U.S. healthcare industry about $6.5 billion a year1 and even with the recognition of these breaches, 50% of respondents to RedSpin’s (an IT security audit firm) say nothing is being done to protect data2, the healthcare market represents a huge opportunity for managed service provider’s to provide cloud backup and recovery services to address this growing issue.
Market Opportunity Abound
With the size and frequency of data breaches alarming the health care industry, now is the time to capitalize on these unfortunate security concerns by stressing the benefits that cloud backup services offer in terms of keeping records secure as well as ensuring Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance. With more than 19 million individuals affected by major healthcare information breaches since September 2009 and data breaches from unencrypted devices having increased 525% in 2011, this represents a huge market opportunity for managed services providers already selling services into the healthcare market, or those looking to sell to the healthcare market. Not just every managed service provider can effectively ensure adequate healthcare clinic / hospital data protection so ensure you can speak their vernacular and understand all the compliances and regulations required. As a managed service provider looking to offer or already offering cloud backup services, in order to go after the healthcare market, you need to ensure you have a HIPAA compliant cloud backup platform in place with a FIPS 140-2 certification being a huge bonus.
Why Healthcare Clinics/Hospitals Should Invest in Cloud Backup Services from Managed Service Providers to Protect Patient Privacy?
Investing in cloud backup services ensures a secure backup system for healthcare clinics/hospitals where BYOD is prevalent (as well as those that are not) – as not all backup can protect endpoint devices such as laptops, tablets and smart phones. Investing in newer technologies improves the reliability and speed of recovery for patient data should there be a disaster and minimizes risk of data theft or loss by utilizing the highest encryption security possible ensuring data is encrypted in flight and at rest and only the healthcare clinic/hospital has the ability to decrypt. It also eliminates the shortcomings of tape backup which includes being expensive, vulnerable to obsolescence, potential inability to recover data due to tape failure or being lost/stolen when transported off-site.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to invest in cloud backup services, please visit www.c24.co.uk
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Posted by david ricketts
