“Change is good,” an adage Google seems to have adopted and implemented with relish. One of the latest changes made was to the layout of Google+, Google’s social network. The new layout is a dramatic change that’s been met with general applause from the tech community. If your company has a Google+ profile, it should have already been implemented.

When you first log into the updated Google+ the amount of white space will jump out at you. It’s a startling contrast to the other social networks. After you adjust to it, you’ll notice four main aspects of the new look:

1. To the left. On the left is a bar, or ribbon as Google calls it, with icons for the main features. This ribbon is reminiscent of the Windows Task Bar and works much the same way. Simply click on an icon to open the related function. If you have an icon you don’t use, simply click and drag it out of the bar and it will be moved to More.
2. In the center. In the center of the page you’ll see all your updates along with a bar above them with your top two circles. To the right of your updates you’ll see what’s trending on Google+, the Invite friends to Google+ button and a suggestions box.
3. To the right. On the far right is a very prominent chat bar with all your chat contacts. Above that is the Start a hangout button which allows you to quickly begin a hangout session.
4. Up top. At the top of the page you’ll see the search bar, from which you can search Google+ for posts, topics, friends, etc.

Are you in love with the cover photo on your Facebook profile? Do you like having a picture spread across top of your profile? If yes, Google+ now has the option to set a cover photo at the top of your profile. Not a fan of one picture across the top of your profile? You can also pick and choose multiple pictures. Your profile picture and information have been moved to the right side of the picture with your circles below.

New features There are three new useful features:

1. Explore. On the left ribbon is a compass icon. Clicking this will open Explore, a page that displays what’s currently trending on Google+. The content shown on this page is viewable by all users, and this gives businesses a great marketing opportunity if they can capitalize on current trends.
2. Block. On your social network profiles there may be a user who is leaving rude comments or spam messages on your posts. On Google+ you can block the user from posting. Simply go to their profile and select block under their profile picture.
3. New hangout page. If you click on the hangouts icon on the left hand ribbon, you’ll be taken to the hangouts page. On the page you’ll see current hangouts that you can join or you can start a new one based on any post. To start a public hangout click the camera icon at the bottom of the post.

It looks like Google has taken a big gamble with the new layout, and only time will tell if it will attract more users. If you would like know more about Google+ and how your business can capitalize on what it offers, we’re ready to talk.

With each new version of Android, Google has improved the mobile OS to the point where it’s now one of the most popular mobile systems. When the new version of Android was announced, users couldn’t wait to get their hands on it. Now that many Android devices have been upgraded there’s a growing number of users enjoying Ice Cream Sandwich.

Here are some great tips and tricks to help you get the most out of Ice Cream Sandwich:

• Settings. There’s a quick and easy way to access settings. Simply swipe down from the top of your screen and the Notifications menu will open. Press the blue icon (sliders) beside the date to access your settings.
• Uninstall apps. This used to be one of the more complicated actions of Android, but with 4.0, it’s easy. On the home screen press the Apps icon (white circle with 6 squares) and find the app you would like to uninstall. Press and hold the app, drag it up to Uninstall which will be in the top left of the screen and let go.
• Swipe away. A neat feature of 4.0 is that you can swipe away apps and messages in some locations. If you have lots of notifications, open the Notifications menu and swipe the message to the right to dismiss it. You can also do the same with recent programs (double rectangles in the bottom right of your screen) and browser tabs.
• Disable app icons. When you download and install programs from Google Play, a shortcut will be automatically placed on your home screen. You can turn this off by opening Google Play and selecting the icon with three vertical grey squares followed by Settings. Tap Auto-add widgets and app shortcuts won’t be added to your home screen after they’re installed.
• Send text response when you can’t answer. If you’re in a meeting and can’t answer a call, simply drag the call selector button up to be given a number of text responses you can send to the caller.
• Quick browser control. You can streamline the browser controls in the stock Android browser. Open the browser and select the three grey squares in the top right of the screen and tap Settings. Select Labs followed by Quick Controls. You’ll notice that your URL bar and tabs are gone. To see them, press and hold anywhere on the right side of your screen to bring up a selection wheel.

Ice Cream Sandwich is by far the best version of OS and offers users some great features. If you’d like to learn more about Ice Cream Sandwich, or other Android products please let us know. We’re happy to help.

The key to patient-centered care - a concept that continues to evolve - is the relationship between physician and patient. Finding the balance between patient engagement and information technology, however, can be challenging.

IT has benefited healthcare practices in many ways. For example, it allows patients to service themselves when it comes to transactional exchanges, such as scheduling appointments and reviewing bills.

There are fears, however, that IT can also create distance between the practitioner and patient, reducing face-to-face contact. Here are three tips to ensure that doesn’t happen:

1. Accept that patient-centered IT initiatives help the physician. Small practices need to adopt the same features as their competitors, including large practices as well as low-cost primary care providers such as CVS and Walgreens.

2. Determine your needs. Patient-centered IT practices vary. Some practices use patient portals to optimize patient input. Others use email, text, video and mobile apps to create an impact across a broader spectrum of their patients' health. You’ll need to find what works best for your patient. Younger patients, for example, might prefer text messaging; older patients might prefer email.

3. Reconsider your reimbursement model. IT advancements have patients emailing, text messaging and video conferencing their doctors without payment. That puts pressure on the physician to do more for less. This is a problem with your business model, not your IT. You can't offer services that eradicate half of your service visits or you'll bankrupt your practice.

For details, please see “Five Keys to IT and the Physician-Patient Relationship.”

One business tool that’s been slow to keep up with technology is the business card. If you were to look around your office there’s a high probability you have an abundance of them. A problem starts to arise when we get too many, it becomes easy to lose an important card. Users of Microsoft Office 365 have a solution: they can use Outlook to store and create electronic business cards.

Here’s how to create and share an electronic business card:

Create an Electronic Business Card

1. Open Outlook and select Contacts followed by Home. Click on New Contact.
2. When the Contact window opens, press Business Card and the Edit Business Card window will open.
3. You will be able to enter contact information into the relevant areas under the Fields box.
4. If you want to add an image or change the layout of the business card, press the Layout button located in the right side of the screen.
5. When you have entered the information, press Ok and the business card will be saved as a .vcf file which is readable by most email clients.

Add an Electronic Business Card to an Email If you have saved a contact’s information as a business card, you can easily attach the card to an email.

1. In a message select the Contacts pane and search for the business card you would like to attach. When you find it, click it.
2. Select the Home tab, followed by Forward Contact. A drop-down menu will open, select As a Business Card.
3. You will see the business card as an attachment in the email.

Add a Business Card as a Signature You can add a business card to your signature in any email.

1. When you create an email message click Signature and select Add signature.
2. Select the signature you would like to use, if you have one. If not, press anywhere in the white space below Edit signature.
3. Click Business Card beside the paragraph alignment buttons in the Edit signature field.
4. Select the contact name you use and press Ok. Your contact information will show up at the bottom of the email as a downloadable .vcf file.

If you’re a user of Office 365 and would like to learn more, or would like more information on Office 365 or other products, please give us a call.

One issue that’s sparked a large amount of debate is whether or not companies should allow their employees to access social media while at work. One thing's for certain, the number of employees who actually use social media on a regular basis is large, and growing. There will come a time when companies that block social media can no longer afford to do so.

There are four distinct advantages to allowing social media:

• Increased productivity. There have been a number of studies that have found that judicious use of social media in the workplace will actually increase productivity. A study conducted by the University of Melbourne found that employees with access to social media are 9% more productive than those without.
• Increased buy-in. Employees like to feel trusted and empowered. If they don’t you can expect to experience higher turnover and lower morale. A good way to gain trust is to allow employees to use social media in the workplace. If an employee feels like they are trusted, they’ll be more likely to stay with the company.
• Recruiting. Small businesses have started to use social media for recruitment, but limit efforts to one account. If you have 10 employees in your organization, each with a social media account with 100 friends, you have the potential to reach 1,000 people. This is achievable if employees are allowed to access social media at work and are encouraged to share posts.
• Identification of business opportunities. Through the use of social media, employees in charge of sales and business development can source new clients and build fruitful relationships.

There are many advantages to allowing access to social networks at the office. If you‘re hesitant to completely open the social media floodgates, try doing so in short periods, like the final three hours of the working day.

No matter what you decide, allowing access to social media is a good practice for your business. If you would like to learn more about social media and how you can leverage it in your business, we are happy to talk with you.

Every industry has their jargon. Acronyms can be confusing, and common terms can take on entirely different meanings when you venture outside your field. When it comes to evaluating ERP or CRM software, you’ll be well equipped with the following primer.

Start with the basics

ERP. Enterprise Resource Planning is a software system that manages the transactions and flow of data between all the business functions in an organization, including: financial management, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain management and project accounting.

CRM. Customer Relationship Management is a software system that manages the flow of data for a business’s sales, marketing and customer service functions.

XRM. A term used to describe the functionality of CRM to manage more than customer activity. XRM can be used to manage the flow of data for any definable entity. For example, XRM could be used to track and schedule the use of company equipment.

LOB. Line of Business applications are software systems that deliver functionality for a specific industry business requirement. LOB applications are often integrated with the ERP system, for example: an engineering firm uses a computer aided drawing application to calculate material requirements, which are then integrated into ERP for costing.

BI. Business Intelligence is the reporting of data from the ERP, CRM and LOB applications in a form that is useful to business decisions makers. BI applications can include dashboards and reports as well as charting and analysis tools.

Add-on Products. Most ERP applications manage the high level functionality that most organizations need, and depend on an ecosystem of development partners (see ISVs below) to create applications that manage special requirements. For example, an ISV might develop a warehouse management system specifically built for the beverage industry.

Service Providers

VAR. Value Added Resellers are professional service companies that specialize in the installation, configuration and training services supporting the implementation of ERP, LOB and CRM systems.

ISV. Independent Software Vendors are application development companies that create software to address specific industry or niche market requirements.

SI. System Integrators are professional services companies that help businesses integrate all of the systems in their organizations for a more holistic approach. SIs often have the capability to create custom applications that will integrate into enterprise ERP systems.

Partner. Includes VARs, ISVs, SIs and other service organizations that support a software vendor’s products. For example, Microsoft partners are members of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN). The MPN program provides training and certification to their network of 640,000 partners.

MSP. Managed Service Providers are professional service companies that provide outsourced management of technical services for organizations. For example, an MSP may remotely manage a company’s in-house computer servers.

Next week, we’ll define common technical terms, including the latest “cloud” jargon.  If you would like a deeper understanding of any of these terms, give us a call. Let’s talk about what ERP or CRM could mean for your business.

Google is a company well known for their innovative online products. Their first foray into the physical world with Android has been met with wild success. Google has now introduced the next evolution in physical products that combine all of Google’s services into one system that you can take and interact with anywhere.

On April 4, 2012 Google revealed a project called Google Glass, their take on augmented reality glasses, through a video on YouTube. This announcement was made by a team that’s part of the Google[x] lab. Google[x] is an almost covert division, focused on developing technology for the future.

It looks like the glasses will take the main functions of your smartphone - Call, Social Media, Pictures, Day-Planner and GPS - and display them on a glass lens that covers your right eye. Think of a pair of glasses missing the left lens, and you’ll get the picture. This seems like something right out of sci-fi movies from the 80s, but numerous sources, including some from Google, have stated that the first version will be released sometime in the next couple of years.

Undoubtedly the glasses will run on a new version of Android, and from the video one can determine that they will use a hybrid of voice and vision to operate. Most of the functionality of your smartphone will be on the lens. Want to know what the weather will be like for the rest of the day? Look up and the lens will present with the temperature and forecast. The video also showed the wearer come across some graffiti he thought was cool, and with his voice he instructed the taking of a picture to be shared with his circles on Google+.

What does this mean for businesses? As the glasses are still in development it’s hard to say conclusively, but businesses who already have a Google + or Google Places profile will benefit as it appears both services are heavily integrated with the platform. The possibilities on how companies could use this technology are endless. We’ve all seen movies with characters using a similar technology and now Google is bringing it one step closer to reality.

If you’re as interested in Google Glass as we are, or have questions regarding Google’s other products please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll be more than happy to talk with you.

When we try to think of useful business applications we can normally come up with a long list, but one of the most underappreciated apps is the calendar. Managers and employees alike rely on the calendar to see what needs to be done and by when. One thing we’d like to do is to view all our calendars on our smartphone. On the iPhone you can do just that.

The three most popular calendar programs are Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar and iCal. Here are the steps you can take to sync your different calendars with the iPhone. These calendars will all be viewable using the Calendar App on your iPhone.

Sync with Outlook Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email program in use, making the accompanying calendar just as prevalent. To sync your Outlook calendar with your iPhone:

1. Open Outlook
   1. Click Tools and select Trust Centre.
   2. Click Add-ins, followed by Details.
   3. Select iTunes Add-in, followed by Manage.
   4. Select Com Add-ins, Go and finally iTunes sync add-in.
   5. Click Ok.
2. Plug your iPhone into your computer using the USB cable. iTunes should open automatically.
3. In iTunes, select your iPhone. It will be located in the left hand bar, under devices.
4. Navigate to the Info tab and check Sync calendars with.
5. Choose Outlook. You’ll be able to select which Outlook calendars you want to view using your iPhone.
6. Press Sync.

Sync with Google Calendar If you use Google Calendar, syncing with the iPhone takes a few more steps, but it’s still fairly straightforward.

1. On your iPhone select Settings followed by Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
2. Press Add Account.
3. Select Microsoft Exchange. Note: Devices running iOS 4.0 can sync with more than one Exchange account. If you’re using a version that’s earlier than 4.0 you’ll only be able to sync with one Exchange account.
4. In the Email and Username fields, enter your full email address e.g., name@gmail.com. If you use a @googlemail.com account you’ll most likely get an Unable to Verify Certificate error message. If you do, press Cancel when the error message is displayed.
5. In the Password field enter the password you use to log into your Gmail account.
6. When you have entered the information, press Next in the top right of your screen.
7. In the Server field enter “m.google.com” (without the quotations).
8. Tap Next.
9. Select Calendar if you only want to sync with your calendar. If your company uses Google Calendar to setup meetings, you’ll also need to turn on Mail.

The calendar should sync automatically and show up on your iPhone within a few minutes.

Sync with iCal If you use iCal you can sync with your iPhone by:

1. Plugging your iPhone into the computer using the USB cable. iTunes should open automatically.
2. Select your iPhone. It will be located in the left hand bar, under devices.
3. Click the Info tab, followed by Sync iCal Calendars. You’ll be able to choose what calendars you would like your iPhone to sync with.
4. Press Sync.

No matter which calendar app you use, you can view it on your iPhone. There’s no need to carry around a day planner or appointment book with you anymore, just carry your phone. If you would like to know more about how to capitalize on the features of the iPhone we’re only a call away.

Customers have high expectations and they’re getting higher all the time. They expect quick responses and accurate answers. Whether chatting online, sending an email, or calling you on your phone, customers don’t expect to wait, or to get passed on to someone else. It’s not easy to meet those expectations if your employees have to go to more than one place to find the information or documents they need to answer queries.

Connect Departmental Silos If your organization has silos of sales, service, operations and accounting data, it’s time to connect those systems. A fully integrated system with shared data will:

• Allow salespeople to see where orders are in the fulfillment process
• Let customer service reps know where the item is in the supply chain
• Help accounting bill service tickets more quickly
• Provide access to actual in-stock inventory and price information

Sales and Service Teams Can Add Value In addition to added customer service, your sales and service teams can build sales with connected systems. With instant access to information across the organization, they can cross sell and upsell to build order value:

• “Model 365 is in stock and priced at $45. However, Model 367 with the automatic turn-off is only $50. That’s quite a deal.”
• “We just received a shipment of gilded cases for that violin. That makes a beautiful set.”
• “The technician is on his way out to fix the printer.  We are having a sale on cartridges, would you like him to bring you out your usual order?”

With connected information, customer satisfaction and the opportunity to enhance order value go hand in hand. Is it time to break down the silos of information in your organization? Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions are built to work together for unified business management. Let’s talk.

Collaboration is all around us. We see it on a daily basis in both our personal and professional lives. At work we cooperate with colleagues, managers, suppliers, customers and almost everyone we come in contact with at the office. It’s become so important that if businesses have employees who don’t mesh, their chances of success are almost non-existent.

Here are seven tips on how to improve collaboration within the office environment.

1. Open communication. One of the keys to successful teams is the adoption and encouragement of an open communication culture. With this, teams are better able to grasp what’s going on within the company, and be more efficient contributors and team players.
2. Use the right technology. It seems like there are a million different software and technology options out there. Some of the tools available offer some fantastic features and it’s easy to get sucked in by a flashy component. It’s important that when choosing a tool you pick one that meets your company’s needs and is easy to use.
3. Collaboration tools must play well with others. It’s beneficial to select systems that can be seamlessly integrated with other tools and software used by your employees. If your solutions don’t work together, all parties won’t be able to work together.
4. Employee learning is key. When you find the perfect tool to use, be careful to take time and learn how to effectively use it. Training for the users of the tool is equally important.
5. Work hard, play harder. Teams and departments should step away from their computers and actually have face-to-face meetings at least once a week. These meetings should be a mixture of formal and informal, and offer employees a chance to come together as a team, unwind and share ideas. A team that can interact well will always work together with greater efficiency.
6. Mobilize. The smartphone is here to stay and with each passing year the number of users grows exponentially. It’s beneficial to encourage the use of these devices, and look for mobile solutions that allow users to be a part of the group while out of the office. If you do allow mobile devices, be sure to establish a clear usage policy so employees know how and when they should be using their phones.
7. Don’t just focus on internal collaboration. One of the most common mistakes companies make is that they focus on group participation within the business, but don’t provide adequate support for external interactions. Be sure you integrate tools that provide stakeholders with a way to connect and work with teams within the company.

With a team that interacts effectively you’ll see happier employees and higher profits: a win-win situation. If you have any questions regarding collaboration tools, or other ways to increase business value please don’t hesitate to contact us.