What is a user-defined dashboard?
Summary: Typical dashboards are inflexible–displaying a pre-determined set of metrics in a pre-set layout. Learn how user-defined dashboards fix this problem, and could save your IT department hours of time.
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Weekly Recap: 20 great ideas to steal in 2014, and more…
Summary: This week’s top articles focus on 20 great ideas to steal this year, the coming cloud-fueled disruption of business analytics, the benefits of hybrid apps, and the confusion surrounding PaaS.
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Weekly Recap: 20 great ideas to steal in 2014, and more…Read More »
9 critical lessons web developers won’t learn in school
In an article last week, we explored the growing IT “Skills Gap” problem. Employers say they’re having more and more trouble finding qualified workers with modern skills.
Why?
While the reasons vary, one big complaint surrounding the issue is the idea that students aren’t learning the appropriate skills in college. They come out of school completely unprepared for the skills demanded by the business world.
While that might be the case, I believe it’s a two-part problem. On one hand, some schools teach outdated technical skills. But, on the other hand, many of the skills required in business only come with experience.
Take web application development for example. A developer might learn technical skill in college, yet be completely unprepared for the real world. He/she might breeze through school, yet struggle to adapt to development in business. Why?
Web application development in the business world is far more than technical skill. It’s about solving problems. It’s about creating solutions that adapt. It’s about communication. I’d say that the lessons a developer learns outside of school are arguably more important than the technical skills learned in school.
What lessons are those? We posed that question to some experienced developers, who delivered some excellent advice. I’ve outlined their input below, along with some of my own thoughts under each point. Sound good? Okay, here are 9 web development lessons you won’t learn in school, yet are critical to your success:
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How to make your spreadsheet data 100x more useful
Does your company rely heavily on spreadsheets? Would you like to learn how to better secure your spreadsheet data and make it 100x more useful to your business?
How? It’s simple. Move it to a database. Before I show you how, let me explain why this is so important. Moving your spreadsheet data to a database helps in a few specific ways:
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Weekly Recap: The future of on-premise IT, managing legacy apps, and more…
Every week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on the future of on-premise IT, managing legacy apps, and more. I hope you find them useful:
IT shops as roadblocks to data analytics projects
Business groups in a growing number of companies appear to be plowing ahead on data analytics projects with little input or help from their own IT organizations. Rather than leveraging in-house IT skills and technology, many business groups are using their own data and department-level analysts to cobble together analytics strategies, according to a survey by IDC.
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Weekly Recap: The future of on-premise IT, managing legacy apps, and more…Read More »
6 Ways to Bridge the IT Skills Gap
A recent study finds that a whopping 93% of businesses indicate there is an IT skills gap–a substantial shortfall between the supply of qualified IT professionals and the demand for modern IT skills. As technology evolves at breakneck speed, this IT skills gap is widening. Businesses are having more and more trouble finding IT pros with the modern skills they require–and the problem is only growing worse.
The big(ger) problem: The same study finds that the importance of information technology to a company’s overall success is growing. In other words, as technology becomes more important, finding employees with modern technology skills is becoming more challenging.
The real difficulty: Your company must address this skills gap while staying current with the ever-changing tech trends. After all, your business won’t stop and wait while you fix the skills gap. The competition won’t take a timeout while you search for modern skills. You must bridge the IT skills gap while operating at full speed.
How can companies deal with the shortage of qualified IT pros and developers? Outside of outsourcing everything or bringing in high-priced consultants, how can your company bridge this growing skills gap while remaining competitive?
Today, I’d like to focus on a few ways to address this IT skills gap in your company. How can your company stay on the cutting edge of technology in the midst of a skills gap? Here are 6 ways:
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What is event-triggered messaging?
Today, let’s explain another important term in the world of web application development: event-triggered messaging. What is it, why is it important, and how does it help your company? Let me explain.
Event-triggered messaging is a web application feature that involves automated email or sms messages sent on a pre-determined schedule, or based on application events. Messages can be triggered by any event, from customer interactions to changes in data and everything in between.
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Weekly Recap: 10 best practices for legacy modernization, the future of information dashboards, and more…
Every week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on data visualization, best practices for updating legacy applications, and more. I hope you find them useful:
IT Shifting from support function to business strategy
Nearly two out of three CIOs and other technology professionals say there’s a “major IT transformation” underway in their organizations, driven largely by broader efforts to deliver added value, enhance business performance and increase security, according to a new survey.
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5 signs that Shadow IT lurks in your company
A growing trend, “Shadow IT” is a term used to describe IT systems and solutions built and/or used inside organizations without the approval of the IT department. This could include anything from employees emailing spreadsheets back and forth to entire departments licensing third-party, cloud solutions behind IT’s back.
While the usage varies, one thing is certain: Shadow IT is growing.
Why does this happen? Why are employees bypassing the IT department with greater frequency? While this article explains a few reasons why Shadow IT happens, it usually boils down to a simple problem: The demand for IT solutions outweighs the supply. When that happens, employees seek out their own solutions.
Now, why is this a problem? Since Shadow IT usually happens on the sneak, IT departments don’t know where (or how much) it’s happening. This means they can’t monitor the spread of company data, and therefore–cannot secure any data involved in Shadow IT. What risks does this create? Steven Lowe, Founder/CEO of Innovator, LLC, sums it up nicely below:
“There are two risks from shadow IT:
1. Critical company information floating around outside of managed channels risks data inaccuracy, loss, and leaks. ‘Home-grown’ data systems may produce data that is inaccurate, lacking integration with IT reference data sources. Sometimes this may not matter, but sometimes it might. Mis-sending an email with the company payroll data attached as an unprotected spreadsheet may be a big deal, and it may not. It all depends on the data and the organization.2. Critical company information being shared only within a closed group risks missed opportunities and omissions. Data (and software) that IT doesn’t know about cannot be used to enhance organizational knowledge and processes. If IT doesn’t know the data exists, they can’t take advantage of it, and the company may miss strategic opportunities.”
All that being said, here’s the big question: How can businesses know whether or not they even have a Shadow IT problem, considering it’s practiced on the sneak? What signs and signals should IT leaders watch for to identify business users and departments practicing Shadow IT? While I’m sure there are more, I’ve rounded up 5 of the biggest signs that Shadow IT is alive and well in your company.
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