Chinese Furniture E Commerce Success

E Commerce systems are becoming one of the most important tools for business in China, predominantly in the export business. We all no that every year China will export Billions of Dollars of merchandise round the world. Now manufactures are turning to using E commerce systems to promote their product to more people that are generally at the end of the chain. It is being looked upon as a way of generating more sales. For example, if a shop in the UK sells Chinese Furniture then they have a couple of options on how to stock their shop. They can go and visit china and travel round finding contacts and visiting suppliers. Now with the implementation of B2B e commerce systems it now means that you can check out more potential suppliers before you make that trip, I don’t think E commerce could replace the human eye, having furniture imported will cost serious money and spending money without seeing the product with a human eye is risky indeed, however the new e commerce system will allow you to see the products from a far before you travel out their, they will give you prices and much more information. For the Importer this is priceless, it could save on wasted trips to China to find stock, it can open up competition between all the exporters. From an exporter point of view it opens up their customer base. I am personally suprised that this has not been done on a more large scale in the past as E commerce is nothing new, However a recent drop in exports in china would no doubt make a few people buck up their ideas and in the long run improve their business and how it is run with a view to expand in a time of downturn.

Flame Proof Trophies

I thought i would make a break from direct IT industry news today and reflect on the amount of trophies are everywhere and a funny video which isnt in the slightest bit funny for the people involved but does point out why the UK has health and safety policy that would have benefit these people! At this time of year the football seasons draw to an end all around the world. Teams are celebrating and Trophies are won. Manchester United won in the UK, Barcelona won in Spain and in Europe And in South America a team called Corinthians won the leage. Nothing special i hear you say, Well no but the celebration was one to look out for. As the teams were handed their trophies the captain went to collect what looked like the worlds largest trophy! Innocently minding his own business the captain in a buoyant mood found a cherry picker (hydrolic rising platform). This was obviously all planned for his to use it so in he gets with some other very excited people, and as the platform rises up from the ground he raises the trophie, the crowds go wilde ticker tape gets fired from a cannon streaming over the players, then the fireworks go off and all is idyllic in the world of a champion. That is until the ticker tape gets caught round the trophy then the fireworks set the ticker tape on fire! Personally i couldn’t think of anything worse than being in a confided space raised in the air and being on fire! Take a look for yourself.

Office Cleaning

I decided to take a look at the fine art that is office cleaning. You might be wondering how this relates to the IT theme of the website, but seeing as the majority of IT is run from offices and in London no less I am going to base the theme of this article on that simple theory.

Keeping a clean office is good for a number of reasons. Below I take a look at some of these:

Hygiene

One of the most obvious reasons for keeping a clean work area is for health and safety reasons. Keeping things organised and tidy reduces the chances of slips and trips. Keeping it clean can reduce health problems.

Professional

Nothing looks less professional than a scruffy, disorganised office. It looks like no-one knows where anything is. Keeping your office neat is essential, especially if you tend to show clients around often.

Morale

Unsurprisingly, an orderly office is a happy office. Keep yourself and staff feeling optimistic simply by tidying up the rooms.

Protect Equipment

Another import reason for keeping things clean is to ensure the security of your equipment. IT equipment is often sensitive to dirt particles, such as dust. Hiring professional office and carpet cleaning in London and similar big cities is easy so there’s no excuse. Carpets are a key area where dust sits so keep them spick and span.

Employer inflexibility forcing women to quit IT jobs

Inflexibility on the part of employers is compelling thousands of women employees to quit their jobs, according to a report by the British Computer Society (BCS).

BCS revealed that during past 6 years to 2007, more than 37,000 female computing professionals had to leave the IT industry due to a lack of flexibility shown by the employers in granting breaks to women employees to take care of their ailing parents or for raising a family or travel abroad.

According to IT-sector Skills Council UK, the strength of female employees which was 229,440 – almost 33% of the UK’s computing professionals in 2001, fell by 6% to 192,580 in 2007.

The women employee number fell in spite of increase in strength of professionals’ strength from 989,120 to above one million in the UK’s IT industry.

According to BCS, it would take long to regain lost pool of female IT talent to overcome IT-skills crisis in the UK.

According to Dr. Jan Peters, Manager BCS Womens’ Forum, employers needed to show more flexibility, particularly for women employees, in granting career breaks to carry out their important and essential personal activities.

Very thin presence of female employees in the IT teams could hamper ability of companies in securing public-sector contracts which stipulate very strict balance of gender in employee strength.

Vodafone increasing shops and staff to improve customer service

Vodafone wants to improve its face-to-face customer service by adding 50 shops and 200 extra staff to its existing strength of 500 in the next 12 months. Vodafone already has a 350-strong retail network in the UK.

The first new shops will arrive in London, Bristol and Liverpool this autumn. The remaining shops would be opened in spring 2009.

Vodafone’s director of consumer sales UK, Tom Devine, informs that the company is trying to deliver its best services by enabling face to face dialogue between existing and prospective customers with a retail adviser, closest to their location.

Vodafone has initiated this multi-million pound expansion at a time when its revenues are dwindling due to the decline in consumer spending.

According to analyst James Barford at Enders Analysis, it is worth noting that although the rate is slow, Vodafone is still pushing for growth in the market, which is not the case with most other markets. It is offering cheaper tariffs and rolling out new outlets to remain in competition with its rivals.
Vodafone has the highest number of customers in the government and corporate sector; a push in the consumer market is the right option for its further growth.

It is less costly for a large mobile phone company to expand its network and the gains in terms of brand awareness and customer proximity are significant. According to Barford, Vodafone saves on commission if the customer goes to its shop directly, instead of purchasing through Carphone Warehouse.

Mint.com out with new design, loans and savings

Mint.com, the personal finance service launched last year in September, has further enhanced its feature when it unveiled its new design on August 18. There have been improvements in the budgeting tools and the addition of investment and brokerage accounts recently. Critical money management issues are being covered by the new online resources that are also highlighted by Mint. The issues include credit card debts, paying–off study loans and saving for retirement.

The new design is more efficient in correctly directing users from the first time that they arrive there, which is important since most of the features that have been added in the past year are related to personal money management. The new design allows users to find the tools that fit their needs as quickly as possible. They have also tried to increase the appeal to users of varied age and demographics.

In regards to the new design, Mint says it has immediately helped bring forth a double-digit rise in the number of website visitors that get converted into registered members. Keeping in mind that Mint is already a Webby award winner, improvements with the look should only enhance its standing in the online world.

HP and Thames Valley University develop IT degree course to meet UK’s skill needs

A part-time Computer System Management foundation degree course is being launched at England’s colleges this autumn. Jointly developed by the computer manufacturer HP and Thames Valley University (TVU), the launch is aimed at addressing acute shortage of IT skills, which the UK industry is facing today and is likely to aggravate in the coming years with further growth of the industry.

Students passing the degree course would be awarded HP Certified Professional accreditation. The course will offer degrees in 14 disciplines including design, sales and planning. According to a HP spokesperson, the course will impart IT skills and commercial awareness, much more than what is currently being offered by the standard degree courses.

The course is specifically designed for people in full-time work. They can attend college in the evening every week or alternate Saturdays. In addition, students would be required to attend four three-day residential courses every year. The duration of the entire course would be 2 years. After completion of both years, students will have the option of continuing for a final year to secure a BSc Honours degree.

According to the dean at TVU, Professor Andy Smith, more jobs would be lost to outsourcing if necessary steps are not initiated to enhance the IT skills of the local population.

Yahoo looks to improve competitiveness through a major staff reorganisation

Yahoo is all set to go for a major staff reorganisation, reports The Guardian. The move is part of an effort from the embattled internet company to reassure investors and its staff that it is keen on improving its competitiveness and performance.

The reorganisation exercise is to create web services aimed at different international audiences as well as improve internal accounting for those services. Led by its president Susan Decker, Yahoo is expected to combine search, homepage and mail divisions in one single global product department. Ash Patel, the long-serving Yahoo executive, is likely to be in charge of the new global product division.

He is presently the executive vice-president of the web firm’s platforms and infrastructure. Decker is also expected to put executive vice-president (platforms and infrastructure) Hilary Schneider in charge of the media division.

Combined with lingering uncertainty about the firm’s future caused by Microsoft’s attempts to buy out the company and the vesting of stock owned by its long-term employees, the proposed reorganisation has triggered an exodus, the report mentions.

What is hurting the productivity of contact centres?

A recent research by Siemens Enterprise Communications has revealed the reasons for the productivity loss in contact centres. It points out that data entry task consumes more time and slows down the operations. About 63 per cent of the respondents hold inefficient IT-related operations responsible for low output.
Multiple applications and massive data entry tasks are major contributors to low productivity in contact centres, as per the findings of the survey. The findings showed that contact workers use up to 5 separate applications on an average for a call and that the actual conversation with customer is just 29 per cent of each call. Five per cent of groups even used 15 systems in the call process.

As per the survey report, 40 per cent respondents would like to be trained on ways to deal with a tricky customer while 41 per cent sought more training in IT and systems, such as simple timesheet software and call logging. About 37 per cent of agents had no desired knowledge of IT technology, whereas only 42 per cent conceded to have a sketchy knowledge. A meagre 5 per cent reported wider knowledge of the technology in use.

Public sector becoming IT savvy

The public sector seems to be becoming more IT savvy with the news of UK police getting BlackBerry smart phones, Lancashire County Council upgrading networks and NHS being asked to use more IT to cut down carbon emission. Thames Valley Police will be given 1,100 BlackBerry smartphones to remotely access Police National Computer. It will also simplify and expedite checking of vehicles. Looking up for the names of suspects and accessing numerous applications will be now possible at the click of a button.

According to Keith Gough, mobile information project manager at Thames Valley, officers will able to render improved service to local communities since they will be updated with minute-to-minute information via BlackBerry smartphones. In another move for improvement of services, the Lancashire Country Council extended its contract with network vendor to upgrade its Ethernet services and to interconnect over 50 sites for the voice and data traffic. Council’s field employees will also be equipped with mobile broadband. Dave Dickens, assistant director ICT, mentions that the corporate network provided by Thus will create a platform to take care of needs of the remote workforce.

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