Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Will QR codes top the list of tech ideas that never caught on?

A QR (quick response) code is a bar code that can be read by a smartphone. The square of smaller black and white boxes is read by an app that reveals content or directs the uses to a website.

The aim is to simply allow would-be customers to click the image on their smartphone without having the need to take down contact details or urls.

Sounds good. But where are they? How often do you see QR codes and how often have you actually used one?

By Daniel Hunter

Nearly half of UK small firms admit that they regularly buy substantial purchases of new technology without being certain they fully need them, according to research by Fasthosts Internet.

It is perhaps unsurprising then that data from 788 UK small firms also finds a huge divide in terms of success with using technology in the workplace. For one in three firms, implementing new business technology such as smartphones, notepads and computer software, has failed to improve efficiencies.

It was a simple enough question…: “What is an IT strategy and what does it achieve?,” asked Kevin Howe-Patterson on this forum. “How do you know you’ve got a good IT strategy?”

Simple it may be, but it prompted a fierce debate. “One that completely supports the strategic goals of the business, bearing in mind also that the strategic goals could in themselves change in light of the possibilities that IT brings to the table”, said Mike Briercliffe. “A proactive approach to how the business is able to get the best use of its technology,” added Oli Rhys.

A few decades ago, any self-respecting middle-ranking company executive had two phones on their desk.

No one was really sure why, but it symbolised the incumbent as an important key-worker, a status enhanced by access to the executive washroom or a seat in the directors’ dining room.

Times have changed, of course. We now have flatter, faster and more responsive organisations.

Two-phone Freddie may have left the building, but his modern-day counterpart is thriving. Desk phone, mobile, smart phone, tablet, laptop, email, twitter, texts, instant messages, Skype… the list goes on.

By Vivian Yeo, ZDNet Asia

While organisations are dipping their toes into newer technologies such as social networking as a means to communicate with consumers, traditional tools particularly SMS (short message service) is still proving to be an integral outreach tool.

According to Shalini Verma, principal analyst at Gartner, SMS, MMS (multimedia messaging) and voice-related technologies are perceived as traditional, and newer tools such as social media have “come up and taken over”.

“There are traditional tools that have been perceived as outdated because when we come from a smartphone standpoint–the high-end devices–definitely some of these [older communication] tools are not a big focus,” Verma noted in a phone interview.