How To Play Time Management Games Online For Free

1. First a warning, playing games can be addicting so remember to manage your playing time. Also be sure to download time management games from sites that you trust and always keep your anti-virus program up to date.

2. Check your browser some time management games require the Internet Explorer browser and will not work with Firefox and some other browsers.

3. Decide if you want to play time management games online or download them and then play. Please check our "Times Management Games" section for resources that is updated regularly.

4. Let us look at some of the games that you can play for free online. As you will see there are many time management games to choose from so take the time and try several of them, you will soon find out which one you like the most.

Belle's Beauty Boutique:

'Belle's Beauty Boutique' you must help run a beauty parlor single-handedly. The owner, Belle, needs your help to give all of her customers the treatments they want. Help her wash, cut, shampoo and color a crazy cast of characters. Watch them gossip, flirt, and help Belle realize her dream of creating the ultimate beauty salon.

Big Island Blends:

After arriving on Big Island you discover that the "fortune" you've just inherited is an orchard? Well, what better way to turn your fields into a real fortune than opening a smoothie stand Serve your delicious fruit concoctions to the thirsty inhabitants of Big Island in level after level of fast-paced fun. Then, use your hard-earned money to purchase a wide variety of sparkling upgrades to make your smoothie stand the best on Big Island! Colorful, fast, and fun, try Big Island Blends for a unique taste of the tropics.

Burger Island:

Help our heroine Patty turn around a run-down burger stand located on deserted Mount Tikikola Beach in 'Burger Island'. Juggle orders from demanding customers, purchase over 30 exotic mouth-watering recipes, unlock more than 40 delicious ingredients, combining up to 9 per order, all while keeping an ever-watchful eye on the clock. With 60 increasingly challenging levels, see if you have what it takes to help Patty build the best burger stand on the island!

Burger Shop:

After receiving a set of strange blueprints in the mail, you build an extraordinary food-making contraption and open a restaurant. Your goal? Make food and satisfy customers until you discover the truth behind the mysterious blueprints. Burger Shop is a fun and addicting time-management game with several play modes including: Story Mode, Challenge Mode, Relax Mode and Expert Story Mode, each with different trophies you can collect. Utilize unique food making devices to make over fifty different food items during your quest. With four play modes, over sixty upgrade items and ninety-six trophies, you can play Burger Shop forever!

Cake Mania:

Baking runs in Jill's family. Help Jill upgrade her kitchen with state-of-the-art baking tools, while serving her ever-increasingly difficult customers. Help Jill earn enough to reopen her grandparents' bakery in this fast-paced culinary crisis.

Cake Mania 2:

After re-opening the Evans Bakery, and sending her grandparents on an exotic Hawaiian cruise, Jill is back in an all-new, out-of-this-world adventure! Explore six far-flung bakery locations; serve up deliciously original creations to 18 quirky customers, ranging from Federal Agents to mysterious Aliens, and choose the path Jill will take in 'Cake Mania 22!

Delicious 2:

Uncle Antonio needs Emily's help to get out of a financial fix. Help Emily rescue her family's finances in five all-new restaurants, each with a unique menu and theme. Use your earnings to purchase decorations sure to make your customers smile. Emily's friends and family are on hand to help, but it's going to take your serving savvy to get Uncle Antonio back on track. Featuring two game modes, all-new customers, and hours of fast family fun, 'Delicious 2 Deluxe' is just the thing to satisfy your craving for fun.

Features:

* Two Game Modes

* Five All-New Restaurants

* 60 Challenging Levels Featuring New Customers

* Decorate Your Restaurant Your Way

Delicious Deluxe:

Join Emily on her quest to make her dreams come true in two game modes and seven different restaurants. Success means more tables, bigger restaurants, and a menu full of uniquely delectable items. Tasty treats may keep your customers happy, but it's going to take quick clicks and careful timing to get Emily's ambitions off the ground. Take a bite out of Delicious today!

Features:

* Two Game Modes

* Seven Different Restaurants

* Bonuses Like Bigger Trays, Chocolate, and Stars

* Five Types of Customer

Diner Dash:

Diner Dash is the action-puzzle that brings out the entrepreneur in all of us. Poor Flo! Sick and tired of pushing paper in the world of finance, she ditched her desk job and is setting out to build her very own restaurant empire. Flo's on her own now and heading for the top! It won't be easy, though. To get there she'll have to start on the ground floor and she needs your help to survive and thrive. Diner Dash combines fast-paced puzzle action with a build-your-restaurant-empire theme. You'll start with a run-of-the-mill greasy spoon and end up in a dream restaurant that will take your breath away!

Features:

* 40 challenging levels of addictive, skill-based game play that allows you to grow your restaurant through 4 complete re-models

* Five different types of customers, each with different behaviors

* Two modes of play: Career and Endless Shift

* Fun sounds, cool visual style, flashy effects, and humorous animations

* High score tracking and automatic game save

Diner Dash®: Flo on the Go:

Flo trades in her apron for a passport to paradise! But will our hard-working waitress get a chance to relax? Seat customers, take orders, collect tips and dress up Flo in hundreds of vacation outfits in the all-new Flo's Closet".

Wedding Dash":

Help Quinn, a hopeful wedding planner, make wedding bells ring! Featuring the hilarious ups and downs of wedding day drama, 'Wedding Dash"' incorporates the plate-spinning fun from the 'Diner Dash®' series with the added challenge of pulling off the perfect wedding reception. Can you keep the bride and groom happy and Quinn's business afloat? Help couples select all the details - from tasty cakes to gorgeous flowers - but once they've tied the knot, lookout for obstacles preventing the perfect party, such as tipsy guests, falling cakes, and catty bridesmaids. When the going gets tough, keep an eye out for extra help from everyone's favorite server, Flo! It's a fast-paced challenge to execute a flawless event, but for the determined Quinn, it's all in a day's work!

5. There are several types of games available, some give you resources that you have use or spend to advance to the next level. Some time management games you must complete a number of tasks within a fixed period of time while in other games you have a certain number of lives, when you have lost them the games are over. Also there are games where you can continue to play until you figure out how to advance to the next level.

6. By now you have decided what time management game you want to play. Before you start the game check the game options, select the easiest level or story mode (where available) first time so you time to become familiar with the game.

7. As you become more experienced move through the different levels or game modes. Remember one of the advantages of playing time management games online is that you can communicate with other people playing the same game, so you can always ask for help.

8. Have fun but remember playing time management games can be addictive so take a break away from your PC every now and then.

Shortly we will look at time management games that you can download and play for free, so please re-visit or subscribe to our blog.

Warm regards,

Henrik

PS. Where can you find the games mentioned above? Please go to: http://games.aol.com/browse-games/arcade/time-management/

Tips For Good Money Management

Learning how to effectively manage your money enables people to live comfortably within their means. Money management tips also allow people to increase their wealth, and the following money management tips can allow you to stay steadily in control of your finances!

First of all, you should set yourself a money management goal. A good money management tip like this is a means to an end. You must make your goal practically, however, and ensure that the end something that is in clear sight. Whilst your money management goal could be the prospect of having a comfortable retirement - you should begin with smaller objectives, like paying off a debt within a certain amount of months, or saving a particular amount of money within a chosen period of time. The satisfaction that comes with achieving a money management goal, motivates you to do more and more, possibly allowing yourself to have a comfortable retirement - and that's what makes this money management tip such a good one.

Secondly, it can be wise for you to know precisely what you have. You need to live within your means, and you must also understand exactly what your means are! Out of all the money management tips, this tip allows you to steadily monitor your cash flow, and allow you to see exactly how rich you actually are.

You should look specifically at any disposable income you have, in your pocket or wallet, or in any bank accounts. You must not include any sources of finance like overdrafts or loans, as extremely, that money is always owed to a creditor! Sometimes you have old bank accounts you have not used, or stashes of money left for a rainy day. Find these sums of money and include them in your calculations of how much money you really do have available to spend.

The third tip in a long line of money management tips would be to track any arm of income that you have. If there is at least one month's worth of old cheque stubs - you should add them up and divide them to see what your average incomes accounts to.

Even better, you could add them for a quarter of the year and divide this amount by the number of weeks in a quarter (13) - giving you a completely accurate view of your perception power. Perhaps you have not saved cheque stubs - so try it for four weeks. And do not just multiply your weekly wage by four, as you could well be forgetting sick days, or any other days you have not been able to make it to work, and even omitting extra income from any holidays.

Another in the long line of money management tips would be to track your overall spending. As soon as you know what money you have and what income you should expect you should be looking at where exactly your money goes. You could take one month as an example, and watch what you spend down to the very last penny. After a few weeks of doing this, you could well find yourself reconsidering some purchases, and wondering whether or not you actually need to waste your money on such things!

BOTS Companion of a Modern Revenue Manager

Bots have become an important part of human life both, at the personal and professional front and their involvement is climbing new peaks with every passing day. They surround us in our daily life in the form of Artificial Intelligence, Search Engines, and Software. Part of it has also paved way for smarter and efficient revenue management for hotels fueling the debt that if humans should be irrevocably replaced with bots for this complex round the clock function. Although the practice may be at a nascent stage to draw concluding, it has certainly made a mark in the real of the hospitality industry and has become an indispensable part of any hotel revenue management.

Artificial Intelligence powered robots can analyze and synthesize large chunks of hotel data collected at various touch points in a fraction of seconds to present meaningful insights about the booking pattern, demand, guest behavior which is impossible to be grouped or processed by any amount of human workforce with the same efficiency as bots. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the Artificial Intelligence has sort of revolutionized the hospitality industry across the globe, enabling every business to improve on multiple fronts like hotel pricing, price optimization, revenue management, guest experience management, booking management, demand and even capacity optimization of properties.

Furthermore, these bots are also capable of analyzing trends and trace upcoming events in the town to estimate the rise in demand, providing enough room for revenue managers to tweak the pricing and availability instead of fire fighting the situation at the last minute.

Leading hotels have already started betting big on AI powered bots and poised to explore new ways to make bots a part of their business operations. One significant advantage bots have over humans is that they can work tirelessly 24X7 with the same precision. Hotel industry requires attention 24X7 and is one of the most dynamic industries with continuous fluctuations in trends, demand, and prices. That is where these robust machines have huge value to add to the revenue management realm. These invisible machines can not only quickly determine the best rates at a particular time for your property, (room rate optimization) but also advise the revenue managers on which segment to target and the kind of promotional offers to be run to maximize the revenue.

Another major area where hotels continue to hustle is direct bookings. Hotels have been continuously trying to improve booking numbers on their own website since OTA missions are touching skies, eating up a major revenue share of hotels. Hotels would be surprised to know that even in this area, bots can improve their game and help increase the number of bookings by a decent percentage. With advanced learning capabilities and rigorous analysis of visitor's purchasing behavior, AI powered bots can refine the visitor experience and personalize every visitor's journey to their needs and interests. This increments visitor engagement and reduces the cycle time of purchase leading to conversion on the hotel website itself.

This again brings us to the joke that wherever revenue managers can be gradually replaced by bots completely risking their roles and jobs in the industry altogether. The answer is obviously NO since these micro machines can only process and analyze only a set number of parameters in their decision and often neglect external market implications that may not be considered by such bots but are easily identifiable only by human revenue managers and this acumen is gained by experience.

Therefore, the ideal mix should be machine results mediated and supervised by human revenue managers. For eg, Pricing is one area which could have been automated with a reasonable amount of diligence and control of the revenue manager. Similarly, online reputation management can also be monitored with technology; however, a personalized approach will take you a long way. The key is to automate the processes that require minimum human intervention and involve human where necessary. This will help revenue managers to don more hats at the same time like exploring more avenues to maximize per guest audience and focus on other revenue increasing strategies.

Thus, witnessing the scenarios discussed above, we can conclude that the status of the bots is of a companion to revenue managers instead of a successor who will complement them at every step with razor fast information and analysis of the market and competition, enabling revenue managers to take informed decisions in no time and help them optimize revenues and drive the hotel towards new millions of success.

A Guide To Vehicle Tracking With Fleet Management Software

Maintaining and organizing fleet vehicles, field personnel or other assets is impossible without a reliable centralized system accessible at all levels of the business. Luckily these systems do exist and are referred to as fleet management software or vehicle tracking systems. There are a number of solutions available and these have been developed to handle all aspects of managing and maintaining a fleet as well as personnel and job dispatching. Each comes with a raft of features and capabilities making it difficult to choose a solution.

There are many companies providing vehicle tracking and fleet management software solutions. These fall into two types of system, online or locally installed software.

Online systems are usually a web-based or "in the cloud". They are accessed via a web interface or web browser where as a locally installed system is installed on a local computer. The pros and cons to these two systems are minimal and come down to IT infrastructure already in use by the business. If a business has an existing database to manage parts of the business then this data may need to be accessed by fleet management software and this may need a locally installed solution.

What features or capabilities make fleet management software a good investment for a business?

Centralized Data Storage

Having all information in one place is a must for organization of all aspects of a business. All good solutions enable the input and storage of vehicle information like service, MOT and road tax records. Driver records such as driving qualifications, medical requirements and endorsements can also be entered on to the system. Important vehicle and driver documents can be scanned and easily retrieved when required.

Vehicle Service Reminders, Alerts and Management

One really useful aspect of fleet management is the ability to set reminders or alerts for vehicle servicing, MOT or road tax due dates. Personnel can update the status of vehicle repairs and drivers can record any vehicle faults when completing daily checks.

Vehicle Tracking with GPS

An important feature when deciding on a fleet management solution is the ability to know where vehicles or personnel are located or where they have been. Vehicle tracking is usually achieved with the installation of a small device in the vehicle or in the case of personnel or assets a small device can be carried in a pocket or attached. Once setup it is possible to see vehicles, people and assets in real-time on maps. Knowing where all the business assets are allowed the fleet manager or transport dispatcher to assign the right asset to the correct location.

Job Assignment and Dispatch

This is a very useful feature but not all fleet management systems feature it. The ability to assign jobs via the system is a really useful function. Mobile personnel, drivers or field engineers can update the job status, upload images and signatures enabling back office staff to immediately see and inform a customer of progress. These systems can be installed on existing devices such as smart iPhones, Android and Blackberry handsets.

History Trails and Reports

When all of a business's data is stored in a centrally managed system it is easy to compile reports that can improve efficiency and even save money.

Detailed reports on individual assets such as vehicles can show total running costs for that vehicle. Vehicle tracking information can show how much fuel has been used and help to suggest cheaper alternative routes. This combined data from personnel can help a business to see where efficiencies can be achieved.

To summarize, fleet management software and vehicle tracking solutions should enhance a business and if used correctly and should improve the operating and efficiency of a business's mobile resources. The savings that can be achieved may be out-weighed by the costs of the systems but that should also be balanced against the increased productivity and the ability to offer a better service to clients.

Online Brand Management - Use It to Increase Sales

Experienced marketers assert that brand management is one of the ways to increase sales because strong brand recall helps customers insist upon a particular product or service in place of any other one. Strong brands are a great asset to a company because they help to increase demand. Marketers will also be able to reduce the cost of doing business if they own very powerful brands. The rules of online brand management have to be followed by marketers in order to increase sales and build their business.

As a person who owns an online business, you should be able to attract and retain the attention of your potential customers. This requires certain specific resources and you should be able to use them correctly in order to make the best use of your budget. This is not a one-time expense and effective brand management requires constant efforts because your competitors will also be trying to make inroads into your customer base.

You should also connect with your customer base in a wide variety of ways because this helps to build brand loyalty and recall. The easiest way you can do this online is through the help of blogs as well as social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Naymz, Flickr. You need to build a lot of links from these pages to your site in order to increase traffic. However, you can not just create a blog or accounts on these sites without updating them frequently because you need to have a regular supply of fresh content.

Another aspect of online brand management is the monitoring of your competitor's online activities. You should always ensure that allegations of competitor brands are matched by complaints of your own brand. This will help you influence potential users who are undecided about which brand to select.

Online reputation management is another feature of brand management. There are bound to be negative mentions about your company on the internet and they may come to the attention of potential users who are searching for the product or service you are dealing in. This has a very negative impact on your sales and should be managed so that only positive claims of your company feature on the first couple of pages of search engine results. You will be able to expand your business very effectively if you take these steps to enhance the image and strength of your brand.

Understanding GLBA Compliance

When an individual or an enterprise employs the services, or uses the products of any financial institution, they are protected by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or GLBA. This act is applicable to all financial institutions and has been enforced to protect customers' confidential information. The FTC or Federal Trade Commission presides over all institutions that provide loans, advice related to finance and investments or insurance. All loan brokers, debt collectors, entities who prepare tax returns, banks, real estate settlement service providers, non-bank mortgage lenders and real estate appraisers come under the purview of this act.

As per the GLBA compliance financial institutions have to implement security standards to protect the customer's information from unforeseen threats. The act mainly provides cover for collecting, disclosing and protecting customer's personal information. Thus it is extremely necessary for all financial institutions to implement a compliance management procedure that takes care of the security policies.

Importance of GLBA

It is not a simple job to handle a financial institution. Simply providing attractive offers is not enough to acquire and retain customers. It is also extremely important to safeguard customer information and ensure their security. Financial issues are highly sensitive and critical. Therefore organizations in this sector have stringent security measures to adopt. Effective compliance management software can be helpful in ensuring GLBA compliance to a large extent. Here are the features common to most GLBA compliance solutions in the market:

GLBA Compliance Management Software Features

1. Cloud based program using on-premise deployment procedures to help reduce large investments. With easily available cloud based services the returns are very high.

2. They reduce the time typically wasted on individual compliance processes, and therefore reduce management costs.

3. A centralized repository procedures handle the data efficiently by storing documents, evidences and processes in one place. Accessibility to this data is possible from any location and at any time.

4. With the help of centralized dashboards, institutions can have clear visibility of the compliance status that is being enforced across multiple units located globally.

5. They provide a web based secure interface for easy accessibility, management of workflow, inventory control and document management.

6. They conduct intranet scanning of information and integrate all information related to compliance from several sources and match them against compliance signatures.

7. They handle all activities that are relevant to compliance and compliance compliance regulation optimization by sending reminders.

8. They monitor and track movements to detect any loopholes and immediately set remediation processes in action.

9.They provide an exhaustive audit trail.

GLBA compliance has been beneficial to both customers and financial institutions. While the mandatory regulations of GLBA ensure a high degree of IT security, making financial institutions safer for customers, by ensuring compliance with GLBA financial institutions can win people's trust and attract more prospects.

Freight Management Solutions

Business models of all sizes have complications. The goal of businesses in terms of logistics basically narrows down to having what the consumer desires, at a price they are willing to pay, in the quantity they wish for when they want it. That is not too much to ask right? Companies with issues in logistics are continuously searching for freight management solutions often times turning to companies that specialize in providing this service for companies big and small.

This is done in one of two different ways; third party logistics or fourth party logistics. Third party logistics uses outside companies to carry out the various logistic operations that have been accredited to being done internally. An example of this is when a company that has its own storage facility decided that it will now use an outside transporter to carry out distribution. Distribution was previously done by the company but in evaluating it was determined to be more cost effective to bring in a third party for this sector of the supply chain. This was determined to be an effective freight management solution.

Fourth party logistics is somewhat of a new concept. This is when a company determines that the freight management solution that desire is one in which the whole logistics procedure is outsourced to another party. This company has a sole purpose of providing logistic solutions to companies. They bring together their companies resources and technology and pair it with other organizations to plan out, operate and maintain a fully functioning supply chain.

The main difference between the two; third party logistics and fourth party logistics, is that the third party is specifically targeting one function of the supply chain solution where as with fourth party they manage the entire process from beginning to end. In general a fourth party logistics provider is a contractor serving the entire logistic needs for a company.

Fourth party logistic providers are the future of freight management solutions. Consulting companies are now offering so much in the way of cost savings and services to companies that they are becoming hard to live without. It is easy to see how needed a fourth party logistics company is when examining inbound logistics and outbound logistics. In smaller companies especially it is important to have support that specializes in all aspects of logistics. To pay specialized logistic personal to be on staff would not be nearly as cost effective as hiring companies, with a system already in place to help manage that piece of the business puzzle.

Inbound logistics is a basic process in the business equation which includes purchasing, arranging the movement of materials coming in, parts and finished inventory from suppliers to manufacturers, assembly plants and stores. Outbound logistics is related to storing and moving the end goods and information from the end of production to the end user.

The field of logistics is complex and absolutely integral to a business's success. Without the proper logistics in place a company could be losing money with increased shipping costs or improper communication through the supply chain. In order to give the client what they want, when they want it, at an acceptable price and time a highly functioning freight management solution should be maximized.

Global Business? Speak the Language and Content of Your Client

According to many sociologists, in the last decades we have been experiencing a "sea change" in several fields of humanity, from technology, science, economy to politics. This huge shift they talk about is called "Globalization" and it has seriously affected our lifestyle, our habits, the entire social structure and hence the way we deal with the contemporary world.

As a matter of fact, our world seems to have been experiencing a sort of time-space compression since 1972, as a famous anthropologist and geographer, namely David Harvey, affirmed in his famous book The condition of Postmodernity: An inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (HARVEY, David, The condition of Postmodernity: An inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Blackwell, 1992). Think out to the rapid flow of information triggered by the ICT revolution that nowdays enables us to send a message to the other side of the world in real time through "a click on the palm of our hand". Think out to the increased flexibility of the means of transports thanks to the technological advances that enable us to move through the world in a matter of hours. All these improvements have made the world get smaller and smaller in a metaphorical sense so that today in the business field organizations are no longer bounded by their geographical location.

All of a sudden, their markets have no limits at all and they can start looking at new opportunities overseas where they could not even imagine going only some years ago. In other words, what happens is that they become global and, as they achieve this new status, their new customer targets are no longer exclusively composed of local clients. New global segments emerge that share more or less the same lifestyle thanks to globalization. For instance, the Chinese women of the emerging middle-class act like and identify themselves with the American women.

Companies willing to internationalize have a desperate need to start off from internationalizing their communication ... but, would not it be enough to use English for their foreign communication ?? Perhaps, the jury is still out on this issue but No ! We definitely think No and we are going to show you why below.

Multilingual communication: fundamental for going global in business

In today's global economy multilingual communication is an essential tool to succeed in business because:

• Buyers in every country are increasingly demanding products or services described in their own language
• companies that realize the point above too late inevitably lose market shares and 33% reduction in long-term profitability of the product life cycle on average, according to McKinsey & Co
• companies' global brands decline in value if they speak a non-local language

Unfortunately, it seems that many organizations are failing to address their efforts towards localization and translations along with creating relevant and valuable multilingual digital content. If they do it, most of the time is just an accidental process without yet a carefully considered plan nor relying on a well-conceivable strategy behind it.

Redefining the value of content management: towards multilingual global content management

The user, potentially interested in a product or service just just Googles it on the Internet and guess what? Among the Google's list of results, he picks out and clicks only on those delivered in his own language. This action will be repeated in any touch point of its online journey before ending up purchasing the searched product or service.

Therefore, what a business would better do is to start redefining the value of its content management and upgrade it to a multilingual global content management. The later drives the global customer experience, increases the customer satisfaction, promotes the brand awareness, its consistency and supports the time to market goals. Moreover, since the content is a significant corporate asset, it must be managed as any other corporate asset, since it is imperative to turn it into a multilingual one and working relentlessly on its translation to the client / user's idiom.

As the former German Chancellor Willy Brandt once said:

If I'm selling to you, I speak your language. If I'm buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.

(Then we must speak German)

Although one might be induced to think that simply embedding a Google Translator plugin into his business website would do the trick, it would soon find out how short sighted this choice is. Not only would translations turn out to be of poor quality but this would also heavily affect the reputation of its business and brand.

Furthermore, a global economy is more and more requiring not only a multilingual content but also a content which is appropriate to the targeted population. In other words, a business must meet the expectations in terms of localization and translation processes of a targeted country, otherwise even a perfectly translated message may sound weird for a native speaker.

For instance, a Spanish firm could use in its website an expression such as

llevar el gato al agua - to take the cat to the water

to highlight that they have fulfilled a very complex task in a particular job, a feat.

Clearly, the English translation does not convey the same meaning of the original Spanish one and a web user would feel puzzled when reading this expression. As a consequence, that business would not be perceived as professional and its reputation would soon break down into pieces. It goes without saying that the user / potential customer would dash off to another business website and, sometimes, buy a product or service from the competitor.

The Evolution of Marketing Automation

While aiming to promote products and services successfully in the market, businesses had realized the importance of adopting marketing strategies early on. Due to the intense competition, marketing strategies got infused with the technological innovations in order to evolve out as the modern marketing, which is now embedded in the customer's lives and affecting it at a rapid pace.

Fortunately, from radio to internet and smart-phones, nowdays technology has revolutionized the ways marketers can reach their potential customers. But, back then in the late 50's, with almost no effective marketing channel, companies were finding it challenging to approach a huge customer base.

This is how automation technology came into existence. It has traced its origins back from a Customer Relationship Management or CRM that came out of Rolodexes and a pack of business cards. It acted as a rescuer for the companies who were endeavoring to maintain their employees and client's records into a central knowledge group. But, in no course of time, it became the fundamental business element and started finding its applications in professional business services as well.

During the late 1980s, CRM platforms had gained more power in terms of customer support servicing, sales management, and forecasting. But, the high price tag kept it limited to few multinational corporations.

In 1999, Mark Benioff, the founder of Salesforce, invented the Monthly License (MLC) fee model, with aiming to offer cost-effective and agile business model, that further introduced SaaS or Software as a Service. And in contrast, this technology evolved out as an amalgam of email capability, web analytics, and the Marketing Resource Management (MRM). With the advent of the internet, marketers were seeking potential ways to reach their customers. The pioneer of this space Eloqua came in 1999 and developed a product, later renamed as automated marketing service in 2003.

Soon, the success of this trend led to the arrival of more players in the market such as Pardot, HubSpot, WhatsNexx etc, and industry started gaining momentum while shifting marketing automation services to cloud platforms.

By 2008, new platforms such as HubSpot, Act-On, rule the market, and the advent of social media marketing, content management, search engine optimization made marketers incorporating a variety of automation tools.

In the period 2013-2014, the automation industry witnessed a huge growth financially through acquisitions when a giant marketing software company ExactTarget acquired a marketing automation company Pardot for $ 95.5 million and in turn, salesforce.com spent $ 2.5 billion to acquire ExactTarget, This is recorded as its largest acquisition ever.

I found people wondering if CRM and marketing automation co-exists. In fact, few consider the later as a subset of the CRM industry which follows one of the marketing laws proposed by Al Ries and Jack Trout. To clarify, CRM is sales focused software while the other is user-centric software that completely focuses on marketing strategy. Where a CRM manages company's interactions with their customers, a automation software streamlines company's marketing tasks, and work-flows. However, these two, together, go hands in hand and reinforce company's insights and efficiencies. A good CRM-marketing automation integration unleashes an opportunity to handle data management and strategies marketing plans.

It can filter relevant data and required fields to standardize tagging and data, and ideal processes. Also, it can run auto-cleaning processes to clean the dumped data in a CRM system. Businesses utilizing automation software have witnessed an incredible growth of 451% in qualified leads and 14.5% in sales productivity as well as 12.2% marketing overhead reduction. We can conclude by saying that the future of marketing completely belongs to Marketing Automation.

Human Resources Diplomacy

Human resource management is not always or solely the presentation of gifts. Sometimes bad news has to be delivered. We are not thinking here of bad news as in, "You're fired," in which the relationship is ended. Think instead of "You did not get the promotion" or "We will not fund that training in your case." It sometimes helps to be able to layoff at least some of the blame in such instances. Doing so can help preserve cordial relations between a superior and subordinate. In addition, hearing bad news from a third person may help the person getting the bad news to save face, a psychological fact of life that has a lot to do with the persistence of management consulting as an industry.

As for objectivity, it is sadly the case that some general managers are less than paragons of objectivity and virtue. Some are susceptible to corruption, some attend to private agendas, some are prejudiced, and some are simply capricious. To place the administration of human resources practices solely in the hands of such a manager is unlawfully to produce good outcomes. Moreover, to place the administration of human resources practices solely in the hands of a virtuous paragon can lead to (incorrect) feelings of caprice, corruption, prejudice, and so forth. Not all paragons have had the time and track record needed to develop the untarnished reputation that deserve, and an employee who is denied a promotion or rise by a paragon can be forgiven for sometimes confusing his own unhappy exit with managerial discretion exercised unfairly. And when an individual manager is given a lot of authority, even if she is incorruptible, the temptation to try to corrupt her might prove too strong for those who futures she will influence.

Even a line manager who is a veritable paragon of merit and who is recognized as such has a lot of concerns to balance. When some of those concerns involve measures of performance that can be affected quickly (such as product shipping date) and others involve noisier, long-delayed outputs (such as the manager's and firm's reputation with the work), line managers may make compromises that are not in the organization's long-term interests.

Individual line managers may not fully understand or appreciate the organization's human resources strategy and policies, and the long-term reputation sent with employees. This can be a particular problem in settings characterized by relatively high rates of managerial mobility, which can impede stability, consistency, and "memory" as far as human resources management is concerned. Simplicity, consistency, and clarity must be traded off against the complexities of real life.

For all these reasons, human resources experts in particular special areas can play an important role in advising and educating line managers; helping sustain a coherent and consistent human resources philosophy through the organization; and even, in some cases, acting as independent authorities or appealing officers, in case employees feel aggrieved by line management decisions.

In-the-field human resources specialists can also help in evaluating and improving the performance of line managers. It is perhaps difficult to evaluate performance in the area of ​​human resources strategy and policy formation, but even evaluating how well policies are implemented is difficult. General Managers have a lot of things to attend to, and it is therefore expected and natural that human resources will be pushed toward the back burner.

Promoting a culture that elevates the management of human resources, relying on intrinsic motivation of line managers to some extent. But some accountability - some measurement of performance - will support the desired culture. Specialists are likely to have the best training and widest range of evidence for conducting comparative evaluations of human resources performance. Hence, they are well positioned to provide measures of performance on which line manager accountability can be based and to counsel line managers regarding how to improve their effectiveness in formulating and implementing policies for their units.

6 Steps to Effective Customer Relationship Management

Nurture Your Customer Relationships

Simply put, customer relationship management is a way of tracking and nurturing your customer relationships throughout the customer's life-cycle, as they move from prospect to customer, to repeat-buyer. Once a customer buys from you, it is much more profitable to make efforts to keep that customer, than it is to acquire a new one, because there is now trust between you. If your customer is happy with your product, then that customer is much more likely to buy from you again in the future, much more likely than a new prospect would be. That's why customer relationship management is so crucial.

Don't badger your customers to death with every product and affiliate offer you come across, especially if the products are unrelated to the product the customer originally purchased. Email your customers ONLY when you have something good to give them, some really helpful information, or when you have a really good, high-quality offer that would interest that particular customer. For instance, don't email your Internet Marketing customer a "Free Gift Certificate" to your gift store.

Automate Your Customer Relationship Management

Well, how do you automate customer relationship management in your e-business? You use email, and a dynamic database. You use auto-responders to stay in touch. I'm not talking about your regular auto-responders that deliver a vacation or "out of office" messages while you're away, either. I'm talking about sequential auto-responders.

Use Sequential Auto-Responders In Your e-Business

Sequential auto-responders allow you to pre-format and load a series of pre-typed messages to your prospects and customers. You benefit by not having to follow-up with these customers manually each time. Instead, your auto-responder delivers your messages on a timed interval set by you. To your customer, it looks as if you sent out each message yourself. This way, you stay in touch with your customer and not let them forget about you. When they have a need for one your products or services, your business will hopefully come to mind first and they will re-visit your site directly or by clicking a link in one of your emails, as a loyal repeat customer.

Personalize Your Messages for a Warm Feel! (Mail Merge)

Most decent auto-responders have mail-merge capabilities. This is the ability to merge personal information into your emails, like your customer's first and/or last name or their email address, etc. This personalizes your email messages even further and gives your customer some "warm and fuzzies". What's more you set all this up just one time, and any new prospects or customers will get the same message series without you having to lift a finger.

If the sequential auto-responder you're using has mail-merge capabilities, then it will automatically take that customers name and incorporate it into the email series you have set up. Usually the auto-responder service you're using will have some sort of tokens set up for this purpose. Look at the example below. Let's say your customer or prospect's name is Bob.

Hello, $firstname, - That translates into: Hello, Bob.

You could also do this with a customers email address too, like "$email". The token would be replaced with the customer's email: bob@bob.tld













Do you see the power of mail-merge?

Use Lead Capture and Subscription Boxes

For instance, you could set up a simple box on your sales or download page that asks the customer for his/her name and email address in return for some free product, or simply just to subscribe to your newsletter. If you set up a page specifically for this purpose this is called a "lead capture page". The information entered by the customer into your subscription box can be mail merged into the follow-up messages sent by your auto-responder.

Stay In Touch

Keep in contact with your prospects and customers. Set your auto-responder series to deliver your messages over an extended interval. There are several e-books and articles dedicated to this topic; however, if you want the first, most informative and still the king of auto-responder help, get "AutoResponder Magic". This e-book once sold for about $17, but you should be able to find it free many places on the 'Net. It has a plethora of information regarding auto-responders, as well as many examples you can build from.

Life Success Learning to Create Positive Habitual Behavior & Overcoming Negativity

The first and sometimes most important success habit that must be formed is one of positive thinking. Dwell on the positive exit that's desired and avoid thinking about anything that's not wanted. Nothing will ensure failure faster than the very thought that the failure will occur. People say that it's absolutely normal for negativity to creep into our thoughts. Be that as it may, any negative thought has to be banished immediately and replaced with a positive one. This simple, yet effective technique, practiced regularly can help you move towards success like nothing else.

Forget about the past, it's gone and there's no going back. Regardless of what's happened before, today is a new day. Holding onto the past ensures that you'll stay right where you are in life. Letting go of past failures allows you to see the potential for future success and to move towards it. Realize that any past failures, real or imagined, were purely lessons that you thought to this moment in time. Appreciate the education you received and bravely move towards success with the knowledge you've gained.

Overcome the desire to put things off until another time. For most people that procrastinate, another time never comes. Things pile up over time and there's no way to catch up, adding to frustrations and even more procrastination. Whether it's taking out the trash or calling a client, get to it right away. Only by getting straight to work and finishing tasks can success really be accomplished. Practice this non-procrastinating lifestyle and you'll soon find not only that things are being accomplished, but that you have time left at the end of the day too.

Another important aspect of success is the ability to manage time. It can be very easy to lose track of time and difficult to get back on track. Keep track of everything you do during an average day and how much time it took to do it. Go through an entire week of this. Now evaluate and see what should be adjusted or eliminated for optimal time management. Continue to develop a schedule that allows maximum time for every activity. Include all your business and personal time in this and you'll soon find a workable and even profitable schedule for yourself.

Develop the confidence to go forth and conquer. Knowing a thing can be done and believing you can do it are two entirely different things. It's vital to your success and the success of all of your endeavors that you are confident in your self. Confidence shows through everything you do and it affects your ultimate success more than you think. Carry yourself importantly, speak with authority, be secure with yourself and walk tall. Believe in yourself and your ideas and present them with passion. Do these things and others will recognize your confidence and want to be associated with you.

Success is not a matter of predestination, it depends upon the will of the seeker. With the will to succeed, it's possible to do anything you desire. It really is as simple as that, despite the general tendency to believe otherwise. Over and over again, success stories appear that portrait down and out individuals that executed their own free will to rise above. Exert your will over the situations in your life, change them to suit you and your goals and success will follow.

What is success? Is it money, power, health or spirituality? Success means different things to different people. For some, success can only be seen in the form of financial gain and power. For others, success means a happy, healthy family with only the basics of life. Regardless of how it's defined, success is possible with the proper application of some basic habits and the development of key character traits.

Block Spam with An Easy Behavioral Change

E-mails now have a connection back to their servers. I will
leave the technical aspects out of this article. Instead, I
will walk you through how information from your computer is
getting back to them.

You have probably already experienced this, an e-mail lands
in your box with many symbols in the subject line created
with the Shift Key plus a Number Key. This is the most
common one. For example, it may look like this:
& *) (* & ^% $ #! Exception the length of the symbols are longer.

When you click on it to delete it, any further action,
including the deletion of the e-mail looks to go into la-la
land. In other words, you can do anything else. This may
last up to a minute or two depending on your computer speed.
You have just been pinged and information is going back to
their server saying there is a live connection.

In addition, because the symbols change all the time, it's
difficult to block them without you use a program like Spam
Arrest.

Here is an easy way and excellent way to protect from this
and all you have to do is change the way you dial in and
out.

If you have a DSL line or any other type Internet connection
that is open all the time. Control how frequently you allow
e-mails to upload into your system. If you use Outlook, you
go into Tools, Options, select the Mail Delivery tab and
change "check messages every" 30, 60 or 90 minutes. This
also helps on time management if e-mails are eating up too
much of your time.

Next, after all your e-mails are uploaded into your
software, whether you set the time management feature above,
close off the Internet connection. It will not stop the
lost 30 or 60 seconds these e-mail lock up your computer but
you have cut off any possible pinging.

After you close the Internet connection, read, review and
delete the e-mails. After completing this, you can go ahead
and reopen the Internet connection, and send your responses.

If you have a dial-up connection, you can do this same
method, except you will ignore the Mail Delivery option
mentioned earlier.

This actually is not just happening on e-mails with these
symbols. There are other programmed e-mails dumping cookies
on your computer. I will not address how to remove cookies
in this article. To find out how your software can remove
your cookies use F1 (help) on your keypad in your e-mail
software to find the answer before. WindowsXP also has
additional information for removing cookies under: Start,
Help and Support.

How I Become A Football Manager With No Previous Experience

I was always the last player to be picked for football as a child, so I never considered myself a good footballer. I dabbled in amateur football when I was in my late teens, but a spate of unforced emergencies including two broken wrists, a compound break to my arm and a sprained ankle saw me leave football and try other activities. I reached the age of thirty feeling I had never gotten involved in a sport in the way I would have liked.

I am a big fan of a well-known football management simulation where I have spent hour after hour trying to lead my favorite team to virtual glory. Notifying my aptitude for organization, planning and attention to detail I set about contacting local Sunday league football teams, asking if anyone needed help with running their club. After a short time I was contacted by a team who asked to meet me and discuss this further.

After meeting the manager I was installed as his assistant manager and my job was to fill in the team sheet, fill the water bottles before the game, help pick the team and ensure we collected all of our equipment at the end of the match. It was not glamorous, but I eagerly grasped the opportunity and thought to prove myself as a reliable helper.

The team manager left our club in the summer and rather than choose a new manager the players asked me to take over. I am now manager and in charge of the whole club. I was recently contacted by a team who play at a slightly higher level on a Saturday and asked to discuss joining their club in a management capacity. Their club chairman had noticed how I had improved the organizational structure of the club and this led to him getting in touch.

For those of you who may think that there is no chance of getting involved in football management if you have not had a strong professional or amateur football career then think again. It is possible and I would suggest it can be straightforward if you find out who the right people are to approach in your nearby league and offer your assistance to anyone who might be interested.

Running a grassroots football team is a time consuming task. Most clubs will be happy to accept your help. Always be punctual and reliable as this will be a huge asset to any club. You will be surprised at how difficult it is for managers to get their players to turn up to play on occasion, so having reliable management assistance will be very valuable to your new club.

You will find that these qualities are in demand right across the sport, so expect other offers to follow once word spreads that you are an asset to your club.

What Travel Agents Need to Know About Corporate Travel Today

This is rightly named as the age of traveler-centricity and with the evolution of the new era of personalized travel; it is leading to research and development of a host of new so-called intelligent services. The command-and-control perspectives of traveling have changed a lot from the past and the focus has shifted more on the traveler and the productivity of each trip. It has become essential to maintain that the travelers have the greatest return on investment on each trip. New generations of young employees and managers, who have been growing up and dwelling in a digital age, are moving up the ranks as travelers. It has become essential to recognize the need for greater flexibility acknowledging that the employees who travel on corporate trips also consider a percentage of their trip to be a leisure outlet. With increasing globalization and rise in companies sending their staff overseas to network and connect with their offshore prospects/customers/suppliers, corporate travel is a highly profitable tourism segment. Before we talk about how tourism companies can better cater to business travelers, let us first look at why they prefer to use specialized corporate agencies over traditional agents

Why do businesses use Corporate Travel Agencies?

This might be the most basic question for a travel agency as to why they need to use agencies specializing in corporate travel when there are plenty of regular travel agents in the market. Here is the importance of corporate travel agencies who have online systems which allow business travelers access to their complete itinerary.

The following information is at the fingertips of the CTAs:-

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  full business itinerary details














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  currency requirement and conversion rates

What do corporate clients expect from Corporate Travel Agencies?

Negotiated Fares

The Corporate Agencies tend to have tie-ups with hotels, car rentals, flights etc. giving them access to lower fares which can be used only by the frequent business travelers. Discounted prices are not the only advantage though as they also offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP check-in lines as required.

In-depth information about the travel industry

Corporate travel agents have access to many travel resources and most importantly, quickly, than any other leisure travel agent. Additional information helps to make the business trips convenient and comfortable.

Changes in Itinerary

When an airline ticket needs to get rescheduled or cancelled, chances are the airline or the online service provider will charge lofty fees. When booking with a corporate travel agent, most of the times schedule changes can be done at zero or minimal extra charges.

Viable emergency contacts

It is important for the business travelers to reach the correct person at the need of trouble. Corporate travel agents have the experience and professionalism to relieve stress for both the traveler and the company.

What you need to consider as corporate travel increases?

Business Travel Barometer reported that corporate travel is witnessing an accelerated growth. However, when poorly managed, it may be no longer an advantage to companies and may, in fact become a burden. There are some factors which the corporations and CTAs must consider to get the best out of the time spent traveling.

Adopting a travel policy

The corporate must define a travel policy which is applicable to and respected by travelers at all levels. This policy should be used to establish the standards which will help to track the improvement of business travel. It will eventually help to reduce the costs of the entire package.

Do not limit the traveler's autonomy

The management is responsible for budgeting the travel policy which helps to improve cost management however, it is also essential to give a degree of autonomy to the traveler. The policy should be flexible enough to allow the employee to adapt the trip as per the situation.

Traveler's security should be a major concern

Business travelers need to have security in place. The company needs to stick to its definition of standards to ensure the employee's integrity. The CTAs should have reliable partners (travel insurance, airlines, hotel chains etc.).

Mobility and automation

To optimize time and ease the processes, the administration of management platforms should have automated processes. This means they should adopt mobile solutions where search options, travel alerts, ticket reservations etc. can be accessed quickly, easily and on the go.

Corporate Travel Trends in 2016

Corporate travel trends tend to change regularly. 2016 has also not been any different and the travel management companies (TMCs) and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) are quite focused to provide steady if not strong axis all over. A growing MICE sector, investments in mobile and big data and enhanced focus on duty of care are some of their areas of focus.

Rising prices

The consolidated buzzword among global suppliers, airfares, hotel rates etc. is the rising fares. It is sometimes the move of the suppliers to generate discounts which encourage travel if there is a strong decline in demand. A positive 2016 world economy has been bringing an increase in air fares of a few percentage points, hotels are expected to see 4%-6% rise in average global rates and the competition will remain moderate in the car rental services.

Duty of care

Risk management is one of the major points of emphasis for corporations. Corporate customers are allowing new policies and improved technologies to monitor employees' location in case of an emergency, especially when they are travelling to foreign destinations. For instance, Concur Risk Messaging helps to identify the travelers moving around in the world and alerts them with alternate travel arrangement as and when needed.

Focusing on MICE

Meetings industry is a major growing sector and the corporate travel trend is developing on it. The corporate travel agencies should better start aligning the various meeting procurement methodologies with its transient travel sourcing. One of the ways could be to broaden the variety of meeting services by incorporating incentive trips within it.

Investing in technology

A sharper focus on increasing value and becoming more traveler-centric can be done by bringing in mobile friendly technologies. Mobile and big data are definitely the two most significant technological investments which any corporate travel agency must focus to make their platform more appealing.

Business travel analysis after Brexit

Following Brexit, ACTE and CAPA shared their speculations. According to them, the greatest short-term effects on the travel industry will come from the weakening of the pound against other world currencies. Greeley Koch, executive director for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said that the business travel industry will trend on currency fluctuations; with some companies taking advantage of the weaker pound and traveling more, while others may withhold business travel until world markets find their own level.

Impact of terrorism on corporate travelers

Travel policy makers and administrators need to be guided by rising terrorism scare. For executives and staff undertaking travel on behalf of businesses, the travel agents and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) should prove the reassurance for their safety through the travel policies. It is more than likely that the surveys conducted over corporate travelers reflect the general concern of the global business travelers about the spate of terrorism. However, there is no denying the fact that terrorist threat is changing the patterns of business travel. The key impact of this is to keep in mind that the companies providing travel services for business travelers need to enhance their focus on security and the associated risks in delivering the services to corporate clients. According to a recent finding, travel managers have higher estimation of their policy's effectiveness in addressing risk compared to skeptical business travelers.

Concluding

Although the corporate travel sector has continued to progress, there are a plethora of challenges faced by the industry. A rapidly changing consumer market, the emergence of new business models, the impact of technology, man-made and natural crises are some of the fulcrum points that need to be considered before planning corporate trips.

How to Successfully Manage Bad Press

Too many cooks will always spoil your broth, and try as you might, teaching new tricks to old dogs is an entirely futile enterprise. However, in spite of the wisdom of some old adages, the idea that "All Publicity is good Publicity" can definitely be tossed into the "ignore" pile by anyone pursuing a serious career in PR. If you're working for any substantial length of time in public relations, there will be occasions when you have to deal with bad press, so reputation management is a skill which you need to learn. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy, since bad press can come in all shapes and sizes, but these four pointers will help you to remain calm and give you time to focus on next steps...

1. Make sure key players are informed

No matter what the size of your company, or your client's company, you should have a PR plan. This should include a crisis management section which will detail the procedures which are taken whenever there is a risk of bad press. Top item on the plan ought to be who needs to be kept informed. Typically, this will be all senior management, and often it will include all members on the communications/marketing team. If this is a lot of individuals, it might even be worth setting up an email group, so that when you do have a crisis you can alert everyone quickly. As press officer, it is your responsibility not only to inform them at the onset of a crisis, but also any key developments and also further press coverage as it occurs.

2. Ensure that employees direct journalist calls to the correct spokespeople

Depending on the number of employees and the amount of clout your company has, journalists may try a number of different methods to speak to an insider about what is going on. This could be sketchy, since other members of the team may not know the ins and outs of the story, or your official company line, and it is easy even for media trained personnel to be flustered by questions. As a part of your day to day strategy, every member of staff should be aware who the press officer is, so that they are able to field any press enquiries. However, when a crisis occurs, it is essential to remind everyone that media enquiries should be directed to the appropriate team member. Having said this, it is important that all members of staff are kept up to date with key developments in any crisis. A successful internal communications strategy will send out updates to all members of staff which give them the information they need.

3. Have a statement ready to go

If the phone starts ringing and emails are flying, even the most experienced of PROs can become flustered. That is why it is useful to have a written statement ready to go to media. The benefits of a written quote are twofold. Firstly, having a written documentation of all of the media you have spoken to will make it easier to track who you have been dealing with. This will be important when the crisis is over since you may want to let those people know some good news, and the journalists will appreciate being kept in the loop as developments happen. Secondly, it avoids a lengthy or difficult telephone conversation which may see you having to deal with awkward questions.

4. Balance it with some good PR

Here's a maxim to believe in: "All Good Publicity is Good Publicity". It's not rocket science, and maybe you can think of it as the yin and yang of PR, but after you've had a crisis it's a good idea to sit down and think about what is great about your company. Unearth the charity work that staff have been involved in, find a real life story about how your product has really made someone's day, or if you're really stuck, just write a press release about how the crisis has been resolved and what procedures have been put into place to protect you and your customers from a similar crisis. If you can get some senior spokespeople to lend their voice to this good news, then it is even better, as it gives more credibility to the story.

Whatever type of PR you are in, you will have to handle bad press at some point in your career. It can be unpleasant, although for some people, this type of reputation management can be one of the highlights of the job. Each case is different, and you learn as you go along, but by remembering those four points, you are well on the way to handling bad press in a professional way.

The Importance of Quality Banking Software

Perhaps as never before, the necessity for excellent banking software has become evident. Retail banking requires a client-focused approach that will attract new customers and maintain them in a long term business relationship. One way to ensure customer satisfaction has been to guarantee rapid response to questions as well as information-gathering for business transactions.

New banking software technology can provide broad retail functionality while it supports various multi-channel models simultaneously. Scalability and resilience are also important features in quality software for banking needs. New core banking applications need to be able to address and support merger and acquisitions activities.

A new concern has been raised by the recent financial collapses within the banking industry. Astute attention to collateral management may have played a positive role in averting some of the humiliating losses that occurred and adversely affected so many smaller banks and loan institutions as well as the customers they represented. Quality banking software is being developed to include systems that monitor contractual descriptions and types. It will have the capacity of maintaining customer information, contractual data, and credit count relationships. This will be a significant part of any core banking application program.

Excellent financial software is also available for corporate and correspondent banking requirements. This banking software can introduce new business models as it responds speedily to ever-changing market conditions. It can reduce costs and identify and manage the risk factors at work, as well. In contractual management, this feature will assist in recognizing contractual shifts in value before they can cause significant damage. An excellent banking computer program will be flexible enough to include new products as they become available and should improve the overall efficiency of the banking business. All of these improvements should add value to the customer relationship which, of course, is paramount.

When one thinks in terms of universal banking, the amount of information that must be collected, processed, re-calculated regularly, and stored is mind-boggling. More and more banks have chosen to simply out source some of this mass of data collections, including information in contractual management, rather than handle it in-house. New technology will allow for broader functionality in the banking service. Various different kinds of banking products will be able to move across all kinds of channels, especially on the international level. This agility will enable banks to compete with the large international financial institutions that venture into their markets.

When considering the best in banking software, one must look at its "functional richness" as well as its scalability and flexibility. It must be adaptable to the latest in open technology, and it should include a system- connectivity with bilateral management. Customers today want as close to real-time views as possible. They want quick access to their counter-party's collateral and exposures. The ability to function with broad and sweeping informational strokes will strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of banking operations for the approaching years.

Make Money Online - Starting Your Internet Business

Making money online by starting your own internet business is a big draw with economic conditions the way they are, many are trying to make extra or replace their income. Although the need and want are there, knowing where to start and what to market, gets many beginners very confused. Having a plan will help the confusion.

Time management is where many go wrong, they may have a regular job, or family to deal with and feel they just don't have time to start a business online. However having a plan with an effective system in place will allow even the beginner to run their business with less time.

Evaluate business opportunities When deciding what business you should set up, be sure they fit your needs and desires. Choose wisely, because by planning ahead you will be able to find many things that can be marketed by using the same type of system.

Choose one thing to market and learn the marketing techniques that it will take to make money online, by doing this before jumping to market a lot of different things at the same time, you will understand what it will take to make your business a success. Then you can take what techniques you know are successful and apply them to other markets.

By learning and improving your marketing skills, testing what works and fine tune it, you will be successful at starting your internet business. As an example: Many begin with affiliate marketing because it is easier to do, it can even be done without a web site or advertising budget.

However, as they learn an apply what the learn they soon realize that they can make more money online by having the proper tools in place, such as a domain name, web site and auto responder. These tools are used to build a list of potential buyers instead of sending them to someone else who will put them on their list and profit from you.

Another example is many start out writing articles to promote the products that they are selling because of budget restraints, but once they make enough they want to move on to pay per click or other ways to bring even more traffic, so take the time to learn and improve your skills and profit from them.

If you want to making money online by starting your own internet business, take action, make a plan so time can be managed, and you will have a system to follow. Evaluate business opportunities, and of course learn an improve as this needs to be done.

Top and Best-Selling Magento Extensions of 2018

In today's tech-savvy era, new technologies are emerging and Magento is undoubtedly one of the top entries in that list. This is an undeniable fact that since the time of its invention, Magento successfully paved new opportunities in the eCommerce development field with its time and cost-effectiveness, with its arrays of templates, themes, profit-driven functionalities, plugins and extensions. Here, in this article, you can get a detailed idea of the most popular Magento plugins of 2018.

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  Delivery Date Scheduler
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Keeping the aspect customer satisfaction in mind, if you are looking for options that will help you to make product delivery on the date mentioned by your buyer, Delivery Date Scheduler is just the perfect choice for you.

Once you get this extension on your e-store, you can offer your buyers with convenient product delivery dates among which they can choose their most preferred time. Adding the calendar view also becomes easier using it.

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Want to build a customised mobile application for your Magento-built store? Here is the extension you would need!

Today, mobile apps are a vital part of eCommerce business. Making your business mobile would not only give you huge market but would increase your profit margin as well. Build native apps effortlessly and swiftly for both iOS and Android using MageMob App Builder and offer your online buyers an impressive and user-friendly buying experience.

Also, you can get your hands on the useful features such as Product Reviews, Product Scratch, admin and customer Notifications etc.

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  Language Translator
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Want to make your e-store multilingual? Without any second thought, opt for Language Translator. How can this extension help you to make your online store more effective and more user-engaging?

Well, suppose that your target audiences are not very comfortable with English. Now, with this plugin, you can easily translate as well as edit any part of the e-store making sure it can reach a broader customer base. You can effortlessly translate CMS page details, product details, store reviews etc. without any headache! Get Language Translator and say goodbye to language blues!

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  SEO Hub
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

An online store won't get the success it deserves until you apply some smart SEO strategies. The Magento extension SEO Hub can help you out in this case. With the effective help of it, you can manage data feeds, meta tags, canonical URLs along with many other things.

Moreover, this plugin offers a few remarkable value-added features such as giving notifications when anything goes wrong in execution, setting a limit for the metadata etc. Maintain a higher rank on most of the search engines with SEO Hub.

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  MageMob Inventory
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

As an online store owner, it is really troublesome and difficult to keep proper track of the detailed product stocks physically! MageMob Inventory is such a Magento extension that can rescue you from this burden by making the entire inventory management process smooth and transparent.

The different modules like supplier management, purchase order creation, inventory logs etc. offered by this inventory management plugin make the entire process easier and both time as well as cost-efficient. More interestingly, it is available in the mobile app format as well. You can get both the Android and the iOS version in the market.

Listing all the important plugins in this short span is really not possible. Hence, here is a list of some other business-driven plugins and extensions that you might like to check out.













→ Advance Product Designer













→ Fedex Smart Shipping













→ Quotation Manager













→ Shop By Brand













→ MageMob POS













→ MageMob Admin













→ Advance Search with Solr

Additionally, Australia Post Shipping and Australia Post eParcel are two smart Magento extensions available for Australia-based eCommerce businesses.

10 Advantages Of Field Data Collection With Mobile Devices

Field Data Collection can be a very difficult and time-consuming process. Collecting field data manually requires a great supply of money, materials, staff and other resources. With such an investment comes the great responsibility of collecting the right data in the short amount of time, as the data collected on the field affects the productivity of the company.

All thanks to the ever-evolving technology, with the help of mobile devices seems to be the only solution to the challenges faced by the field data collection teams. This not only replaces the age-old obsolete Pen-Paper method of data collection but also provides new ways of utilizing the time of the workforce available on the field. The field data collection app is built suitable for all devices be it data collection app for Android or be it data collection app for iOS.

The mobile device based tools have been established in almost all developed as well as developing countries. It is but obvious that the companies which adopt this online method prosper more than the ones who are still stuck in the age-old methodologies.

Let's take a look at the advantages to executives and workers who have specialization in this area.

1. Supercharged Productivity













Mobile forms based platforms allow systematic and efficient organization of the data collected thanks to its real-time indicators. This allows a lot of time to be saved in collecting data and reporting it back to the head office. All the employee has to do is simply fill the form on his/her mobile device and submit them instantly for analysis.

2. Never Lose Data













Data, mostly old data is always required to verify or sometimes even to compare with the new data allowing a company to set new benchmarks and define long-term goals. The data collected on the mobile form is saved directly to the cloud. This helps in enabling the user to access the data whenever and wherever the user wants without the fear of ever losing the data.

3. Allows Collection Of Rich Data













Collection of just numbers and text is just like some other methods. But the collection of rich data is now possible all because of mobile data collection forms. Rich data includes things like images, location, audio, video and also scanning a barcode. This enables one to determine authenticities of the collected product or information.

4. Huge Cost Savings













Saving idle time and resources lead to the savings of huge amounts of money. Mobile forms do the same thing and cut costs in the processes like transportation or even cutting the use of paper and many more such things. As it also saves data to the cloud the losses occurring due to loss of data is also eliminated.

5. Works Even Offline













Mobile forms can be filled both online and in offline mode. This works very well as there are a lot of areas in the world which still do not have mobile network coverage. All the worker needs to do is fill in the form and save it to upload later whenever the device gets internet access.

6. Comparing With Other Data













It is very easy to compare data on field apps rather than comparing it manually. Data collected on the App can be easily compared with the already existing data. This allows the management to take important decisions that can further add to the productivity of the company in near future.

7. High Service Quality













Mobile forms do the evaluation of work in a faster and efficient way with great accuracy, This adds to the satisfaction of both the service provider and the customer.

8. Workflow Automation













Zero or minimum human interference minimizes the time required to do work and also eliminates errors made by humans. The workflow is made smooth as it is being automated and hence follow every step as set by the form builder at the start and is followed again and again without the actual involvement of the user.

9. Accelerated Process













Instant email of collected data is sent to the customers, colleagues, and partners instantly. The dispatch feature allows to assign jobs quickly and handle approvals with mobile workflows.

10. The Ease Of Use













Perhaps the best advantage of field data collection is its Ease of use. Mobile forms are prepared easily using drag and drop method on their websites. These data collection mobile forms are then distributed on the mobile devices of the field worker to fill up and provide necessary details.