IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (Techradar) 2/16/2015

Industry Voice: Fall in love with productivity

"I want to improve my team's productivity."
Does this phrase sound familiar? Have you found yourself repeating this over and over, without knowing how to start? You're not alone.
Increasing team productivity often sounds like a full-time chore. It's time to change that by proving to your employees that they can increase their productivity while still keeping it fun.
This Valentine's Day, give the gift that really matters to your team: the tools they need to fall in love with productivity. Thanks to the cloud, it's now easier than ever to find the right apps you need to easily and effectively increase your team's productivity.
With the following suggestions, you'll be ready to surprise your team with a bouquet of the best cloud apps available for improving productivity.

Adore Your Projects

It can be difficult to love certain projects. Even when a team is motivated and the work is exciting, extended deadlines and increasing costs can put a damper on morale. Sometimes the biggest problem behind a struggling project isn't the motivation or lack of resources, but the simple fact that the team may have bitten off a bigger chunk than they can handle.
Having a great cloud project management app can bring the love back to the project. Tools like Earliz makes project management easier by breaking down larger projects into more manageable chunks.
Earliz lets you choose between Agile and Gantt management styles, so you can manage your team however you see fit. Simply list the top-level deliverables and then break them down into smaller tasks.
You'll be able to monitor these tasks on a day-to-day basis, making the larger project much more manageable and the goal easily attainable. With custom reporting, email notifications, and full collaboration capabilities nothing falls through the cracks. Once your team is proud of their work and eager to do more, you'll watch your productivity increase and learn to adore your projects.

Make Communication Endearing

Communication is the most important aspect of business, yet taking the time to nurture communication is rarely a priority for most organizations. The best way to do so is to start with a professionally branded email.
Many small businesses have chosen to use free email accounts in order to save time and money, which can hurt their brand recognition when first starting out. However, with so many affordable options available for a branded, business-class email, it makes little sense to ask your customers to email you @gmail.com.
For those that love Gmail, Google offers business email as a part of their Google Apps for Business bundle. With this package, you can connect your company domain to your Gmail account, allowing you to send out company-branded emails that build brand recognition.
No matter which type of email you choose, be good to your company and those that you communicate with by making communication more endearing with your own branded email.

Dote on Your Clients

Of course you love your clients, but do they know how much you love them? How do they know? When was the last time you reached out to your biggest customer? How about your smallest?
If you weren't able to answer these questions, then you need to look into a customer relationship management (CRM) cloud app. The beauty of a CRM app is that it allows you to keep all your customer information in one easy-to-access location.
Keep track of client names, companies, contact information, birthdays, and important dates along with notes on each conversation you have with clients so your team always has a running history to access when needed. Keeping all of that information in one area also has an extra benefit; you'll get to know your clients better.
Have a really great customer who loves cats? Send them a cat e-card for their birthday! CRMs also allow you to set reminders to check in with your customers and see how they like your new product or updates. With a simple click of a button, you can take your customer service to the next level.
These three examples are just some of the many cloud apps available to companies looking to fall in love with productivity.
What apps have helped your team's productivity? Tell us below in the comments!

Margaret Quin Lyons is the Director of Customer Success at InfoStreet

Disable EastEnders, this requires my full attention

For a few hours, though, before Samsung said it was all a case of poorly-worded terms and conditions, everyone was (only pretending to be) up in arms about the possibility that Samsung might be building the mother of all personal data mines.
Over on the Daily Mail, where people tend to think everything is true no matter how bizarre it might seem, the raging would've made North Korea proud.
Reader Bill Loni thinks it's banking data for use against us on the future, suggesting: "For most people none of this private information will ever surface. But, if one day you rise to prominence and become a thorn in the side to powerful people then all of a sudden they can go back and find all of this private information on you and it will somehow be leaked, and your most private views or deviances suddenly are there for the whole world to see."
Everyone will know you had to ask your partner what was going on in the middle of a film. You will be ruined.
Tony, meanwhile, is more worried about supposed Google, posting: "Google can track your activities across 80% of websites, and it ONLY makes money from using your information to sell advertisers better placed adverts. Worry about that."
Which didn't worry commenter Karts, who must be a tech industry stooge, who replied: "What terrible thing do you envisage happening because of that? Targeted adverts? Oh no, I might get adverts for things I might actually want!"
There's no such thing as a nice advert. They'll end up driving us away from all technology - in fact, just look at how unwelcoming ad-packed mobile games are these days.

Wrap modem in foil

Over on The Register, talk turned to how you might block such activities in a future world in which the internet of things is real and not just a marketing term to help sell 4G contacts.
Reader Anonymous Coward asked: "The key is if all of this data collection can be opt-in/out. Will there ever come a time when it's illegal or impossible for me to block the connections to the Net? Heaven forbid that they ever use safety as an excuse to mandate the use of IoT data collection. For example smart smoke alarms or cooking appliances that notify when there is a fire."
He's well up for a bit of surveillance conspiracy too, outlining this nightmare scenario: "Imagine a TV in a conference room that leaks juicy corporate secrets.. Or mistrials from breach of attorney / client privilege... Or just imagine all the juicy titbits that could be gleaned from TV Tapping the homes of executives, politicians, diplomats, journalists and whistleblowers etc..."
Except it's probably not actually happening. At least not yet.

Press red to hate

The Independent's coverage went down the predictable 1984 route, comparing the possible listening TV to the vision of George Orwell's privacy-banning future.
Reader Timestar is this week's voice of reason, asking: "To an extent this article misses the point. What about the hundreds of CCTV cameras in towns, cities across the world? Every time you use your credit/debit/loyalty card? And so on and so on..."
Yeah but that doesn't affect our EastEnders viewing time, Timestar.
Reader CXXL hopes this might be the latest infraction that finally gets the public interested in security issues, saying: "You either become some shut in survivalist or you learn about what is going on and carry on living your life with such knowledge and try to pass on the information to those who don't know and rally round to support privacy rights."
While Squidapedoyt is actually quite impressed by the bravado in such mass surveillance, saying: "If there had been a proposal that everyone should be compelled to carry a device which constantly reported their position to the authorities, there would have been howls of outrage. But as it is, we have not only consented to do so, we pay for the privilege."
And will continue to do so, especially when they make one that's a bit thinner.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

IT News Head Lines (Techradar) 2/16/2015