I'm tired of the debate on telecommuting. I’ve seen the data, and the answer is clear: Work-from-home employees are less efficient. It isn’t even close. Here are just some of the things we found at Enkata when we analyzed worforce performance data: Higher Productivity: People who come into the office just get more done.  In one data set, office based workers were 50% more productive than people at home. Maybe they’re learning from their peers. Or maybe they just have a better idea of what is expected of them. Bottom line is more output per work hour. Lower idle time: Don’t blame water ... READ MORE

With the explosion of social sharing through sites like Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram countless new opportunities have sprung up that allow IT departments from a variety of industries to supplement, in some cases even eliminate, many of the customer support techniques of the past. The consumers of today are some of the most tech savvy individuals to date.  When these same consumers come to a business or company seeking tech support or needing to voice an inquiry they expect the same turn-around times and speeds that they enjoy when they are engaged in similar activities with peers or other branches ... READ MORE

I recently had a talk with a guy who claimed that he knew exactly what social media can do for companies. The funny thing is that he knew this without even using social media himself as he did not believe in this as a way to get his work done. His claim was based on lots of observations related to investment opportunities. I was a bit surprised by his position and claims. Even though, I spend several hours a day using social media tools such as LinkedIn and Twitter, I do not have a clear-cut answer on how to extract value ... READ MORE

People underestimate the handheld cheese grater. The usefulness of the cheese grater goes far beyond its intended purpose of grating cheese. Indeed, it can also serve a number of other critical food preparation functions: flour sifter, zester, garlic smasher, an easy way to get a nice, even dusting of powdered sugar on pancakes. Instead of buying a kitchen tool for each of those activities, the cheese grater is “just fine” and saves money. However, what about when someone wants to take their culinary talent to the next level and open a bakery or restaurant? Suddenly, the cheese grater won’t be able to ... READ MORE

The Challenge: Brands are struggling to stay relevant online. Per a study by Forrester, only 3 percent of websites earn a passing score in terms of user experience. Consumers cited three reasons why websites are generally failing to live up to customer expectations: Content and website functionality aren't based on deep customer research. Menu names are vague and typically do not provide visitors with a clear next action Text is illegible and privacy statements are not clear enough Poor website usability is not the only shortcoming. Per findings from Marketing Sherpa: among 1,100 online retailers evaluated, the study found a near 60 percent average shopping ... READ MORE

If you're a developer, you're probably aware of the schism between developer platforms. European and US-based Typesafe seeks to provide the next generation of developers with the tools to build reactive applications. We spoke with Typesafe CTO and creator of Akka Jonas Bonér to learn how Typesafe sees the future of enterprise development.   What is your company's mission? To provide developers with the technologies, tools and experience to build reactive applications. While leveraging existing skill sets, tools and infrastructure software on the JVM, Typesafe enables enterprise developers to build next generation applications. How was your company founded? Typesafe was founded by the creators of ... READ MORE

The thirty years I have spent in software have bridged a period of remarkable and ever accelerating change. Mercifully, coding an online system on a black and white CRT that accesses an IMS database is mostly a quaint memory. Technology, tools, and processes have all evolved. Why is it, then, that we continue to have the same problems we experienced in the Information Technology Dark Ages? Here are the symptoms: Software projects that continue to overshoot their schedules Quality problems neither disappeared nor lessened to an acceptable level Budgets are regularly exceeded: sometimes wildly Project estimates are inaccurate I see two principal reasons. I’m certain ... READ MORE

There’s no way around it- there’s no such thing as the perfect CRM. What works well for one company might be disastrous for another, and what feels fresh to one manager might seem stale and bloated for another. But jumping from one CRM to another isn’t always an option, and sometimes you don’t need a complete overhaul, just a few new perks to liven up your CRM! The sales-focus for CRM is trending towards automation right now; taking care of the menial tasks of finding, entering and managing information and items to free up your sales team to do more of ... READ MORE

In a world where virtual assets often capture more of our attention than the infrastructure and machines that surround us, it can be easy to forget the importance of the buildings, vehicles, and other parts of the built environment that enable us to develop the products and services that we love and depend upon. Despite that architecture, and by association its maintenance, were among the first innovations of early civilization, the need for dedicated facilities management was not officially recognized in the modern era until the early 1980s. As the International Facility Management Association explains, “[facilities management] was truly a ... READ MORE

The Challenge: Businesses know mobile apps offer tremendous customer engagement opportunities--if done correctly. Unfortunately, businesses can also eat up marketing budgets--without the customer engagement payoff--if mobile apps are not planned out with customer needs in mind. According to Forbes, the world has gone from 0 to 60 billion mobile app downloads in just the last four years. However, in a Nielsen Research Study, of the 82% of U.S. adults who are now active cellphone users, 43% now have apps on their phones. But, 56% said they delete the apps they don't use, most within two weeks of downloading them. Don't be "another" app. ... READ MORE