ERP for Large Corporation – New Selling Strategy

Writen by Andrew Karasev

Our opinion is based on our Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Microsoft CRM sales and marketing campaign to large businesses in the following industries: Aerospace, Furniture, Beverages, Placement, Distribution & Logistics, Textile, Services, Food, Manufacturing. With the new economy recovery we see signs on the market, signaling selling strategy change. On the other hand this is normal process and each time you sell different, probably keeping your personal passion to sell and help your customers. Let’s look at the trends:

IT Director new role. If you remember old-days sales techniques bestsellers, Joe Seemore was the guy in IT department, who wanted to see more. These folks were actually the problem to make sales through. Nowadays, due to the fact of open information, including all the features, bells and whistles of the specific ERP system, CEO or business owner, after making his own decision on purchasing a new ERP – delegates selection research to IT director, who in turn, selects project manager and this guy contacts analyzes the information on the internet and then contacts ERP VAR/reseller/integrator. Again, this would be difficult in 1970th or 1980th when internet was not yet in place and the access to the newest systems information was not available through public libraries

No pushing sale. IT people usually have to stick to their budgets and propose the solution to their CIO/CEO. This means that you can not push this people to make sales happen – so – all the sales tricks would not work, except you expertise in the ERP system you sell

Prove your expertise on your website. Again, as you see – information is free and open today and you have to provide this information to your potential clientele to have them call you. IT folks are doing their duties and searching on google, yahoo, msn, altavista.

No face-to-face meetings. When you do sales, based on your expertise, you can expect going beyond the regional market borders and have nation-wide calls. You should be ready to do presentation over the web session, and close the deal over the phone or skype.

We believe that future ERP system sales will be mostly done to the specialists, not to the top and so, the selling strategy should be adjusted.

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), serving Microsoft Great Plains, CRM, Navision to mid-size and large clients in California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan

Learn Management With Desktop Wallpapers

Writen by CD Mohatta

Learning over the ages has undergone many changes. In recent years many rapid changes have taken place, from classroom teaching to online education. Could you ever think that management could be taught with the help of Desktop wallpapers? Here is how it is being done now days.

Learning – Let us look at learning. How do we learn? By reading, reflecting and thinking and then remembering what we have been taught. Mere remembering will not be sufficient because unless we reflect and think, we don’t get the meaning of the message.

How do we learn? How do we reflect? We reflect by thinking about something over a period of time. That is why students look at their textbooks from time to time. At this stage of learning, desktop wallpapers play a big role in teaching. Management sciences can be taught with small headings, quotes and messages. If you wish to learn management with the help of desktop wallpapers, download them on your desktop. The text will always be in front of you. As the text is on the right side of the wallpaper, it will not clutter your screen.

Desktop wallpapers and learning – As the text always remains on the screen, the eyes take the information both consciously and unconsciously. Our mind keeps pondering over what is written and i estimate that it should take about two days for an average student to learn the lesson. Download few desktop types of wallpaper and find out your own speed of learning. This learning has many benefits. It is free. It is effortless. You don’t have to devote extra time to it. It is easy.

The author, C.D.Mohatta writes for screen savers and desktop wallpapers at http://www.screene.com/ on topics like nature, spirituality, motivation, love, holidays, animals, etc. He also writes fun quizzes and fun tests at http://www.funquizcards.com/ on topics like love, personality, dating, relationships, friendship, movies, tv, music, business, etc. The third site, the author writes for, is http://www.ecarduniverse.com/ – it has free ecards on holidays, birthday, love, friendship, family, expressions, celebrations and all events and occasions.

Windows Vista – An Overview

Writen by Lucy Bartlett

After a gap of nearly 5 years, Microsoft released the latest version of Windows which is named as Vista. With a name change from Longhorn to Vista, the stable version of Windows is expected to be released during November 2006. The beta version of this software is already available as a free download. If you have a lot of patience or a very high speed internet connection then you can download Vista which is nearly 2.5 GB in size.

Microsoft promises that Vista will have plenty of new features which includes updated graphical user interface (GUI), Windows DVD Maker – a new creation tool for multimedia – and totally revamped audio, print and networking sub-systems. Vista will make use of peer-to-peer technology to make file sharing between networked computers easier. With the inclusion of Virtual PC in Vista, Microsoft claims that running previous versions of Windows simultaneously on the same machine will not be a problem. Find more info at www.allaboutwindowsvista.info

The developers can make use of the Net Framework version 3.0 introduced in Vista. This version is claimed to be easier to work with than the traditional Windows API.

The most common criticism of Windows XP is its unstable security and its inability to protect the system from buffer overflows, viruses and malware. The stated goal of Vista is to improve the security considerably and make the system protected from the invasion of malwares and virus threats.

Vista comes with improved performance of Windows Shell, easier and faster search functions, a sidebar resembling Apple’s Spotlight, desktop gadgets for applets, the latest version of Internet Explorer – the controversial web browser of Microsoft -, Windows Media Player 11, specialized User Account Control, built in Firewall to control and monitor outgoing and incoming traffic, Windows Defender, a Windows version of anti-spyware and Windows mail which will replace the existing Outlook Express.

Microsoft claims Vista will help in improving the performance of the PC in certain key areas which includes starting up, response to user actions, and waking up. The start up is going to be very quick and while background processing of scripts and applications are executed, the other desired tasks can be performed by the users.

The new sleep state provision in Vista has combined features for standby mode, data protection and low power usage during hibernation.

If you want to try Vista on your desktop computer then your system should have a processor which should be at least 800MHZ speed, 512 MB RAM and have the latest version of any good graphic card capable of executing DirectX version 9 or above. This is only a minimum requirement. For optimum results a better processor – above 1.2GHZ is needed.

The Best Way to Reinstall Windows Without Losing Data

Writen by Gary Hendricks

At some point during the course of your computer’s use, you will find yourself in the unenviable position of having to reinstall Windows. There are many reasons for this. Perhaps important system files got corrupted or disk errors or viruses caused your system to become unstable.

This is all a result of wear and tear on your PC. When that time comes, you will have to not only know how to reinstall windows, but how to reinstall windows without losing data. Here we refer to a fresh install of Windows and not simply an attempt to repair a few files.

1. Your Vendor’s Restore CD

The first step in knowing how to reinstall windows is to locate your vendor’s restore CDotherwise known appropriately enough as a rescue or boot disk. Windows comes with its own rescue CD as well. If that’s the only one you have at your disposal then locate your operating system’s instructions below.

Rescue CDs are not all alike. Some give you rescue functions as well as important software drivers for your computer. Others are more basic, only allowing you the ability to reformat your hard drive. Don’t reformat your hard drive without backing up your personal files to another medium first! Your personal files are those located under ‘My Documents’ in Windows. The exact location of your personal files and folders varies from one operating system to another.

In Windows XP, for example, you will backup everything in C:Documents and Settings. In Windows 98 and ME, you will backup C:My Documents. More instructions follow below for your particular system. If you have any other folders where you’ve stored personal stuff back those up as well.

2. Windows 98 and ME CDs

With Windows 98 and ME you don’t want to just reinstall windows without backing up important system information. This information can be found in your Windows folders.

First create a new folder on your C: drive and name it oldWindows. Then use Windows explorer to navigate to your Windows folder. Once there, locate the following subfolders: All Users, Application Data, Desktop, Favorites, Local Settings, Profiles, SendTo, and Start Menu. Copy these folders to the oldWindows folder you created.

Now it’s time to reboot. Restart Windows with your boot disk Upon startup select Start computer with CD-ROM support. Drivers will begin loading so go ahead and insert your Windows CD-ROM.

To reinstall windows properly you will need to delete your directory tree so type c:windowscommanddeltree /y c:windows and press the Enter key. After that you need to invoke the Windows setup installation procedure located on your Windows CD. Type your CD drive letter and then type setup.

Next get into the DOS prompt from Windows and type

xcopy c:oldWindows*.* c:windows /s /h /r /c.

This will restore all important system information.

3. Windows 2000 and XP CDs

If you have Windows 2000 and XP you need to know how to reinstall windows properly as well. Insert your Windows CD and boot your computer. Upon startup you will see Press any key to boot from CD.

After clicking you will come to the welcome screen. Press Enter, then press Escape to start a restore. From the menu options select C as your current partition and then l to delete the Windows folder. Enter temp as your user name when prompted. Reboot and you will be logged in as temp.

Next you will restore your personal files. Windows 2000 users should login as temp, then Administrator and then back to temp again. Then navigate to C:Documents and Settings and you will see an Administrator folder and one with Administrator: computername.

From DOS type cd documents and settings and then press Enter. Type xcopy administrator*.* administrator.computername /s /h /r /c, substituting for computername your folder that was appended to Administrator earlier. Your personal files will be restored.

4. For Both Windows XP and 2000

Windows XP and 2000 users need one extra step to know how to reinstall windows correctly. Create a new folder on your C: drive and label it oldData. Then go to My Documents and Settings and copy all of the folders for each username to oldData.

In Control Panel go to User Accounts and create a new account for each of these usersuse their names as spelled out under their Documents and Settings folders. If you’re using XP ensure that at least one account has Administrator privileges.

For each user on your computer, log off and log in with that user’s name. Then login as Temp and drop down into the DOS command prompt interpreter. Now type

xcopy c:oldData*.* “c:documents and settings” /s /h /r /c

Then press Enter. Go ahead and confirm that you want to overwrite files. When you’re done, log off and then login as each user. Each user’s Documents and Settings should be restored.

5. Finishing Up

After you install windows you need to install other software too, like drivers and Windows Updates from Microsoft’s web site. Check for any graphics drivers that you may need to install from a vendor CD.

Look for all of your old personal files and make sure that they are all there. If not, check the C:oldData folder and move the files to the correct location. Once you are absolutely sure that you have everything you can delete both the oldData folder and the Administrator folder.

Conclusion

It may have come as a surprise to you to learn that you can reinstall windows without having to wipe out your hard drive. With a fresh install of Windows you can restore to your computer the speed and efficiency which it had when you first bought it.

A fresh install will do wonders for your computer’s performance and will be better for your system than a simple repair. In order to save your personal files you simply need to create temporary folders as we outlined in this article and restore them back into the new installation.

Gary Hendricks runs a hobby site on building computers. Visit his website at http://www.build-your-own-computers.com for tips and tricks on assembling a PC, as well as buying good computer components.

The Email Alternative: Using An Extranet For Online Document Sharing

Writen by Rick Mosenkis

Why is an extranet better than email for sharing documents? The answer is simple: email is perfect for one-to-one communication, but not ideally suited for groups engaged in project collaboration.

Most e-mail programs provide little – if any – effective way to prioritize your messages and attachments. Everything arrives in the same place, in the order in which it was sent.

With an extranet, all project related documents are automatically captured within a folder dedicated to a project.

Not mixed in with the latest joke circulating around the office.

In addition, an extranet can handle any size document. With e-mail, you run the risk of large attachments not passing through the company firewall.

Sharing a power point presentation with a group is a perfect example. With email, you have to break the presentations into small parts, with each section attached to a separate email. The sections don’t arrive at the same time, and it can be quite confusing for everyone involved. Imagine sharing three presentations, each in 3 parts, to six people. That would be nine emails to six people. Fifty-four messages!

Using an extranet, the presentations can be sent at the same time, all intact, automatically filed into a single project folder along with all the other related materials.

And everyone has access at the same time.

Many extranets make it even easier, using automatic email alerts that inform the recipients that the presentations are available, and providing a comment function that allows each user to share their point-of-view.

An extranet assures that important documents get to the right place, ready for instant response. And it puts related documents and messages together. The budget, schedule, strategic plan, power point presentation, everyone’s notes and comments — they all appear on the same page. No sorting through a long list of unrelated emails.

One final point. Many extranets are secured with 128 bit encryption, the same protection used for protecting financial transactions. Email, on the other hand, can land in anybody’s hands, which is OK if you’re sending the latest joke, but not at all funny when it comes to the confidentiality of your most important documents.

Rick Mosenkis is the President and CEO of Trichys, the creators of WorkZone hosted intranet and extranet software. With customers around the world, among large and small companies, Trichys develops easy-to-use web-based software that allows non-technical business professionals to leverage the power of the Internet without IT support.