We hear about Big Data all the time now;
transactional data, behavioral data, data from devices and
applications, and the list goes on. Not to mention all the
"intelligence" we can find out about consumers' buying habits; down to a
granularity that, frankly, take us places many of us would prefer not
to go.
But what about the data that is
sitting right in front of you? In your zeal to look at the big picture
are you ignoring all that "tiny" data that has been available to us all
along? And are you using it to your advantage?
Here four types of "tiny" data you should be taking a second look at:
Call data: If you are
collecting data from the various communications devices throughout your
office, when was the last time you took a good look at it? Call data
can tell you a lot about how your employees are using their phones
(landline an d mobile) and can help you spot areas where you can
consolidate, eliminate and streamline your communications systems.
Website statistics:
Are you really using all the data available through programs like
Google Analytics? For those who take the time to sift through it, there
are huge rewards. The data can tell a story about how visitors are
engaging with your site. And Google keeps adding things to make it
richer and even more meaningful. If you haven't tuned in to your
analytics recently, you might want to take a look around. A lot has
changed!
Business intelligence: These systems can help
you identify market trends and connect the dots between your company
and your competitors. By integrating this data with other systems, a
more robust picture of your organization will begin to emerge, which
wil l make it easier to spot areas where improvements can be made to
give you a competitive advantage.
Spreadsheet pivot tables:
Not as tricky as they appear, creating pivot tables to connect all that
data you have in those Excel spreadsheets can add an amazing level of
clarity. Think your marketing programs are working, but not positive?
What do the numbers say? Taking time on the front end to create pivot
tables will pay off in the form of more accurate intelligence to work
with. If you're interested, there's a cool little app called PivotPal. Check it out.
CDR Data has partnered with Chuck Borso of SDT, Inc.,
a company offering a robust platform to integrate traditional call data
and myriad types of business data, incorporating useful data-analytic
to ols needed in the new and exciting world of self-service business
intelligence (BI).
Armed
with a variety of features that have been available in Excel for over a
decade together with the Apogee BI Call Accounting suite, it will be
relatively easy to pinpoint hidden relationships and take a deeper look
at all the data that is sitting right in front of you.
You can acquire an entirely new
perspective by utilizing the graphical tools within Excel's powerful new
features - Power View, Power Map, and Power Pivots. Armed with new
visualization techniques, you can go a long way towards understanding
what is working and where you need to make changes. Apogee has been the
OEM backbone of many major call accounting systems for over thirty
years and, continually being on the technological forefront of
telemanagement software, has created a simple path for customers
desiring to model call data in novel, insightful ways.
Want to learn more? Contact us for more ideas on how to make all that tiny data work big time for your bottom line!
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times points to some pretty outlandish "wearable" stuff, but furniture? Really?
You can read the full article in the L.A. Times here.
About CDR-DATA
CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide you with all the resources needed to
effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources.
eCDR®:
All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage
and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.
eBill-Back®:
Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers,
shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end
users.
Lose
weight...stop smoking...get in shape....The list goes on. Now that
we're well into the New Year, how many of your resolutions have you
already broken? I won't tell you how many I have.
With over thirty years in business under
my belt I have been in a position to hear a lot of resolutions, many of
them from fellow business owners. Some are specific to their companies,
but there are others that we can all relate to.
And, given the speed at which technology
and the workplace are changing we need to, as Steve Jobs so aptly put
it, "think different" to survive, let alone thrive.
Here are four resolutions that will breathe new life into your organization. Let me know what you would add!
Embrace the Future:
The old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" has never been more
apropos than in today's age of mobile phones, social media and instant
access to just about anything. For those of you "of a certain age" who
may find yourself leery of exploring new technology and new management
styles, it may be time to re-calibrate your thinking. Encourage your
team to bring new ideas to the table; especially younger employees.
There is some real untapped pote ntial out there; time to tap into it.
Update and Automate:
Still hanging on to those old laptops? If it "ain't broke", don't fix
it. Instead, consider replacing it! Make a check list of all your
equipment, software, and other applications you have been using. Put
someone in charge of checking with suppliers and service providers as to
what it would take to upgrade. Once you start, it will get easier.
Build More Relationships:
When a business is young, its owners tend to do a lot of reaching out
to friends and colleagues for advice and referral business. Once they
have a few years (or decades!) under their belts, the tendency is to
become more self-contained and less inclined to go outside their four
walls to form new partnerships and alliances. Make this the year you and
your team rekindle old relationships and build new ones. Make it a goal
to add at least one new business relationship per quarter. It will not
only pump new life into your business, but add some new revenue streams as well.
Spend Less Time in the Office:
Speaking of those four walls, it's time to spend less time at your desk
and more time out talking with clients, colleagues and friends; or even
attending local business meetings and conferences. The best ideas don't
come from inside your business; they come from outside your business.
But you have to work at it. Start by booking a single client or
colleague visit, then another. Build a new habit of collecting fresh
input from outside your office. It's a healthy habit you can start
today.
So, along with
that cool looking Fitbit, the Nicorette gum and your newly minted gym
membership, get these resolutions going. Be sure to let us know how it goes. We'll do a follow up in our July newsletter!
"Technology is not only fueling major business transformation across
industries, it's also changing how technology enterprises sell their
products and services, operate and plan for future growth," says Paul
Sallomi, vice chairman and the Global Technology, Media &
Telecommunications Industry leader for Deloitte LLP.
than Josh Mayfield, the developer who created GWX Control Panel.
CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide you with all the resources needed to
effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources.
eCDR®:
All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage
and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.
eBill-Back®:
Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers,
shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end
users.
When evaluating the network for your IP Telephony
deployment, you need to be aware of some of the differences between a
hosted PBX and an onsite-PBX.
In order to simplify this, we will break the network down into two
separate concepts: The Local, onsite network (or LAN), and the
wide-area, external network (or WAN, typically provided across the
Internet).
Hosted PBX
Hosted PBX
In the case of a hosted PBX, all of the PBX intelligence will be located offsite.
The only things located at the site will be the telephone sets, and the
network components required to connect those sets through the internet
to the hosted system.
Advantages of a Hosted PBX
No server onsite to maintain
Higher-quality server environment (redundant power, HVAC, internet, etc)
Software updates usually included
OPEX generally more popular with C-level execs
Onsite requirements can usually be handled by network team
Disadvantages of a Hosted PBX
Recurring costs – more expensive in the long term
Bandwidth requirements – desk-to-desk calls still have to pass through data center
On-site PBX
An on-site PBX provides all the services to the phone sets from the premises.
Sets do not even require internet access, as all their requirements
(provisioning files, time and date, firmware updates, security) can be
handled through the PBX system.
Advantages of an On-site PBX
Once it’s paid for, it only needs to be maintained
Physical control of hardware
Easier termination of legacy PSTN circuits
Typically lower long-term costs
Lower bandwidth requirements
Disadvantages of an On-site PBX
Requires available technical team to maintain system
Server environment may require construction and other costs
CAPEX not always an easy sell to C-level execs
Decision time: Hosted or On-site?
In both cases—Hosted or On-site—the underlying technologies are
essentially the same. We use the LAN to replace the traditional
telephone wiring, and the WAN to replace the traditional carrier circuit
(PRI, POTS lines, etc). For hosted, we additionally handle PBX
connections from the sets in the WAN as well.
If you have any questions about making sense of IP Telephony, please feel free to reach out and speak to us.
The next blog in this series will look at the onsite network
environment, and the considerations for a Converged versus Dedicated
LAN.
CDR-Data
Corporation adds features to their Inventory Model
Telecommunications and IT Managers need to be able to pin
point the costs and inventory of all items within an organizations. These assets
provides the user with exactly what they see is what they charge for and can then
be merged into a CSV file for Human Capital Management systems like PeopleSoft
®.
CDR-Data’s new feature displays an inventory of any services,
line or
device as well as their billing component. Expenses and units can be shown by
individual accounting center, specific centers or combined.
About
CDR-Data Corporation
CDR-Data
Corporation, based in Pasadena CA, www.cdrdata.com
consists of a group of professionals with decades of experience in the
telemanagement, call accounting and IT industry. By using an ASP environment,
this team has consistently delivered proven products and services that provide
answers to management's questions of telecommunications usage and billing.
CDR-Data has gained its market share by consistently delivering high quality
and flexible solutions to each and every CDR-Data client.
The Microsoft HoloLens sits on display at a media event for
new Microsoft products on October 6, 2015 in New York City.
Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
2016 is set to be a huge year for Microsoft. Its
first HoloLens kits will hit the market, Build 2016 will provide more
evidence of the company's shift to the cloud and mobile, and a new
Microsoft phone may surface. Following on from the first full calendar
year with CEO Satya Nadella at the helm, Redmond is moving on from a
year where it revamped almost all of its major business lines.
Windows, Surface, Lumia and Office all made the headlines with huge
launches. Column after column has been written about Microsoft's
newfound confidence, redefining both hardware and software
categories. "Microsoft definitely seems to have found its mojo, with a
solid OS release, innovative hardware, and growing cloud business," said
Avi Greengart, research director of consumer platforms and devices at
Current Analysis.
Below are six big events that could dominate headlines in the coming year.
Q1 2016 — HoloLens Developer Kit
We predict this will be the biggest event of Microsoft's entire year. For the price of $3,000,
developers will be able to get their hands on an actual,
fully functional, HoloLens mixed-reality headset. The device has already
made some waves in the industry, with a partnership between Microsoft and NASA
resulting in a HoloLens going on a space mission. Astronauts can follow
instructions on how to carry out repairs, with the headset overlaying
the details over the actual components.
"The use cases for HoloLens are so compelling – particularly in the
enterprise – that HoloLens may be the rare product that is actually
under-hyped," said Greengart.
"Assuming no production problems with the hardware, it will be a
huge, runaway hit; there are so many enterprise applications for the
device, and the technology is so stunning, that 2016 will be the year of
enterprise HoloLens piloting – and even deployment," said J.P. Gownder,
vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.
March 30 — Build Conference
The San Francisco meetup is expected to be a big one. Expect the
event to cover "the future of Microsoft and technology," said
Microsoft's vice president of developer experience and evangelism Steven
Guggenheimer. It's not without precedent.
At the 2015 conference
Microsoft announced Windows Holographic, Continuum, Edge, Android and
iOS support for Windows, a goal to get 1 billion devices running Windows
10, and an interesting website that could guess how old you are. The
bar's set pretty high.
Summer (unconfirmed) - Windows 10 "Redstone" Sources disagree
on whether Redstone is one big Windows 10 update or a "wave" of
updates, but what is clear is that it's on the way. Microsoft has
made known it intends to update Windows online rather than launch a
whole new version, and developer builds have surfaced with the Redstone
codename. WinBeta reported in October that Redstone will arrive summer
next year.
What it will include is the big question. Reports suggest a "Continuity-like"
feature that would let consumers move back and forth between devices
instantly, much like Apple's system. This jibes with an October report
from Brad Sams, which said Redstone will transform Windows 10 into a
"technology hub," further integrating various consumer electronics.
Redstone may prove crucial to the launch of one phone set to surface
around the same time.
H2 2016 (unconfirmed) - Surface Phone A long-rumored Surface Phone could be the kick the mobile division
needs to make serious headway. Microsoft has languished in the mobile
space, claiming less than 3 percent of the market according to IDC, while Microsoft's Surface tablet revenue increased 117 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter 2015.
In an October profile by The Verge,
Microsoft vice president Panos Panay was asked about the device. He
didn't confirm it, but he did say he wanted a "consistent thread between
the products," in terms of design and craftsmanship. Rumors kicked up
again when a Surface phone was spotted in HTML5 device benchmarks in November. Windows Central, citing sources, claimed in December that the phone would launch in the second half of 2016.
But it may not be as simple as launching a Surface phone to revive
the division. The phones also need apps, which Microsoft can get by
encouraging developers to make universal apps for Windows 10. These apps
can run on both desktop and mobile, but even that isn't a sure-fire way
to build up the catalog. "Until Microsoft has a huge number of Windows
10 machines out there (like a billion), its fortunes will suffer in
phone," said Gownder, in an email.
Greengart agreed that an all-singing, all-dancing Surface phone won't
be the division's savior. "If Microsoft can’t get developers to write
universal Windows 10 apps, it won’t matter how good the next round of
Windows Phones are, whether they are Surface-branded or not," he said. Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella: Windows 10 is the first version to launch under his
leadership, and is also predicted to become the biggest selling version
of Windows to date.Photo: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya July 29 - Windows 10 no longer free
Happy first birthday, Windows 10! After this date, users who haven't
upgraded for free from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will be out of luck.
That's unless Microsoft changes its mind and extends the Windows 10
free-upgrade offer beyond the first year of availability. Those users
will have to pay $119.99 for the home edition or $199.99 for the
professional edition.
Expect think pieces galore as analysts weigh in on whether Windows 10
has been a success so far. Gartner predicted in November that Windows
10 will become the biggest version of all time -- a bold claim, and one that may see some revision if adoption doesn't quite pan out as expected.
"The barometer for true success -- getting 1 billion users onto
Windows 10 -- will continue to be the measure, so expectations are
high," said Gownder. "We predict continued success and growth -- but not
to the point of reaching that ultimate goal in the next year."
Unconfirmed - Surface Pro 5 and Surface Book 2
With the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book having just hit the shelves,
it's not surprising that any news about a follow-up is thin on the
ground. However, the company has launched a new Surface Pro every year
since its inception, and there's little reason to believe that it won't
continue the trend.
Microsoft stole the headlines in October when its bumper Surface launch event
stunned spectators. Commentators will be watching to see if Microsoft
can top itself. There's always the chance the company could skip
upgrades for a year, like how Apple didn't update the iPad Air this year, but that would be an unexpected turn in a product line the company seems to be focusing on more intently.
The Surface Book wowed attendees, but reviewers found plenty of ways
Microsoft could improve. The hinge, which leaves a gap between the
display and the keyboard, was described by The Verge writer Tom Warren
as "the main weakness of the Surface Book." Joanna Stern, writing for
the Wall Street Journal, slammed the Book for numerous software and
hardware problems. Gizmodo writer Mario Aguilar called out the device's
lacklustre trackpad. The Surface Book may have stolen the October show,
but Microsoft has a long list of reasons why it needs to make a Surface
Book 2.
With
the holidays around the corner, we can’t help thinking back to the good
ol’ years.
The holiday season makes us nostalgic and I can’t help but
think of all my techy Christmas
gifts that I’d be hoping and praying
were under that Christmas tree. Needless to say,
technology has come far
and thinking back at some of my favorite gifts also makes
me think
about how far we’ve come. So without further ado, and in no particular
order,
here are some Outdated Devices That Make Us Feel Nostalgic.
Motorola RAZR Flip Phone
First developed in 2004, this cellular flip phone dominated the market
for four years.
With a flashy sleek design and a wide array of colors,
this phone was a prime example
of how technology became a fashion. You
couldn’t wait for someone to text you
so you could nonchalantly whip out
this phone and slyly text back so everyone
could see you were in the in
with fashionable technology. What said “I love you”
more than knowing
exactly which color Motorola RAZR that person wanted?
Corded Phones
Can you believe there was a time before the cell phone? Mind blowing
right?
How about before cordless phones? How did we survive that era?
You wanted
to talk to someone on the phone? Try being tethered to a
wall, usually in the most
public part of the house. What better gift
than your own personal corded phone
in your own personal bedroom,
possibly with your own personal phone line.
Mom, Dad, you shouldn’t
have!
Not to be confused for the Discman that was later developed in the
1990s, the
Walkman was a portable audio cassette player. Do you remember
cassettes?
They were those little analog devices that recorded music.
No track bookmarking?
Cool, just let me push the fast-forward button and
magically hope I got to the track
that I wanted. But hey, at least I
can play music anywhere anytime; just have to
make sure I have an
endless supply of AA batteries.
Mp3 Players
Skipping over the Walkman generation, the portable mp3 player
symbolized
an exciting turn for portable music-playing technology.
Holding a whopping
(/sarcasm) 32 MB – 128 MB of data when they first
came to market, they
were more portable than the Walkmans and Diskmans
and with way more
functionality. Commence the era of pirated file
sharing.
Computer Games via Floppy Disk
If you think a 32 MB was a limited amount of data, try the floppy disk
with
its groundbreaking 1.2 MB of data. To put this in perspective, a
single
song (at an average of 3 MB) would require 3 floppy disks to
store it. We use
to fit whole games on there (*cough* Oregon Trail). At
least the floppy disk shall
be immortalized forever as an iconic symbol,
more commonly known as the
“save icon”.
Symbolic of retro gaming, the NES was Nintendo’s first home video game
console
in North America. Retailing at US$89.99 for the console, and an
average of
US$50 a game, its 8-bit graphics along with its 8-bit music
are still iconic today
sparking the popular franchised games like Super
Mario Bros. and Zelda.
Nothing is more reminiscent of old school gaming
like blowing out a video game cartridge.
Pager
That thing that all the doctors in our favorite dramas carry around?
Yes, that was
actually used as a pretty standard communication device
back in the day.
Whether it was the one-way pager or the two-way pager,
this was the start of
commercial SMS (short message service). *Beep beep
beep* “CALL ME”,
and then you ran to the nearest payphone (you know,
that booth that Superman
used as a dressing room).
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
Wow, a computer in my hand? That is exciting! Granted it had a tenth of
the
processing power of the average smartphone of today and were
primarily
used by the business elite, it spurred the movement for the
innovation of mobile
business devices.
Well that’s my list of outdated devices that sent me careening down memory lane.
Which outdated devices make you feel nostalgic?
lp
you identify market trends and connect the dots between your company
and your competitors. By integrating this data with other systems, a
more robust picture of your organization will begin to emerge, which
wil l make it easier to spot areas where improvements can be made to
give you a competitive advantage. 
treams as well.
An on-site PBX provides all the services to the phone sets from the premises.
Sets do not even require internet access, as all their requirements
(provisioning files, time and date, firmware updates, security) can be
handled through the PBX system.
