Top Skill New IT Pros Need: Go with the Flow

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Tracy Orlick

As technologists make their predictions about the next wave of IT trends or the top ten tech strategies for 2012, we should think about the next generation of IT employees, too.   With the rapid pace of technological change, how should aspiring techies prepare for the world of work?  Think tanks like the Institute for the Future (IFTF) believe graduates should not prepare for specific jobs, but should focus on core “skills” that apply across industries.  It’s also hard to know how to prepare for the future when your job hasn’t been invented yet.

Rather than name the “hot careers” for the next decade, the Institute for the Future recently released a report, the “Re-working of Work”, that identifies the “skills” one needs for the world of work in 2020.  IFTF identified some key “drivers” behind this skill shift: globally connected world, rise of smart technologies, and a computational world.  Given our history at the forefront of electronic communication, global networking, and e-commerce, we couldn’t agree more.  So how does this translate into skills for our IT leaders of tomorrow?

Of the skills listed in this infographic, I think “novel and adaptive thinking” is one of the most important.  IT needs employees that are as resilient and adaptable as the technologies we use.  We may be designing services that help our clients achieve greater efficiency in the supply chain, but as technologists, we need the kind of resiliency necessary to make it through major shifts.  In other words, IT pros need to grow and change with technology.

Forecasting trends of the future has been popular since people have been living long enough to worry about the future.  The hope is that if we can predict what’s next, we can be prepared.   You can build a storm shelter or set up a 401K plan, but still not be prepared for a natural disaster or economic slump.

Perhaps our focus in the IT industry should be less about being able to predict new technologies and more about being able to adapt.  That’s a skill we need in our employees and as part of our corporate identities.  It is, after all, what our clients expect of us in the rapidly evolving digital age.  At EasyLink, we continue to listen – to tweak our services to meet the needs of our clients and to create a culture that appreciates “novel and adaptive thinking.”  Whether we’re greening our fax services, moving to the cloud, or helping businesses automate document flow, we’re working everyday to ensure that we’re evolving along with our technologies.

The next generation of IT pros should be ready to embrace rapid change and willing to adopt “novel and adaptive thinking.”  Go with the flow.

 

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How Social Media Makes Us Smarter

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Pam Bernardino

One of the main arguments for social media is its ability to connect people around the world in real time.   Tech luminaries like Tim O’Reilly say it’s the internet – and its “free flow of information” that is responsible for global economic growth.  As a new blogger and tweeter, I’m learning just how powerful the concept of social sharing really is. 

On Twitter I mostly share updates in the tech industry, with a particular focus on Green IT and the cloud.  A few days ago, I shared an article that included yet another attempt to get at defining the cloud – this time through NIST, or the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  It wasn’t long before another blogger responded with a revised definition.  Given that so many of our clients use our cloud services, but don’t really know how it works, we tried to explain it in a blog post, too.  This is social media at its best: people working together to come up with definitions and solutions.  Social media also keeps us all fact-checked. 

As the tech industry continues to float up into the cloud, it’ll become more critical that we keep this conversation going.  What does the cloud mean and how can consumers and businesses ensure they are getting the service they actually need?

Trying to put together a standard or a common language makes sense – that’s how  EDI got its start.  EDI helped establish an industry standard of communication throughout the B2B supply chain.  EDI became the common language between trading partners around the world and radically transformed global commerce.

Of course one of the best ways to learn a new language is through immersion or practicing conversations with native speakers.   I’m happy to keep the conversation going and to work together to make sure what we say has meaning.  Our blog post “Clearing the Cloud” says something about what happens when you hear a word repeated too often – it loses meaning.

We’ve blogged about how electronic technologies helped start the communication revolution, how it disrupted certain industries and helped other industries grow, and how we can continue to evolve in a landscape that’s changing so rapidly.  As we move forward, we hope to keep the conversation in social media – or whatever new platform may arise – going.  But most importantly, we’d like to listen, too.  Tweet me  your best definition of the “cloud” using #definecloud and let’s see if we can come up with a common “cloud” language.

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Top 3 Ways B2B Supply Chain Integration has Radically Transformed Global Commerce

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Tim Frischholz

We’ve talked about how EDI formed the bedrock of e-commerce though as a behind the scenes technology, few are aware just how EDI has impacted global commerce. 

Here are the top three ways B2B Integration, such as EDI, has radically transformed business around the world.

 1.  EDI enabled more Global Trading Partners
In the 17th century the East India Company established – and monopolized – trade routes around the world in what some historians consider the first wave of globalization.  Politics aside, the company and its fleet of ships faced huge risks along the open seas to trade spices and goods across borders Often the only means of communication was a letter by boat and trading partners could not always accurately predict what customers wanted and what merchants needed.  We can also imagine the early challenges of doing business across borders without standardized measurements, currency, or a common language.

Some 400 years later, global trading partners communicate through B2B supply chain technology like EDI.  Documents are transmitted within seconds to any location around the globe and in a common language everyone can understand.  This real-time processing not only keeps customers and suppliers happy, but it’s also led to greater:

 2.  Trading Efficiency
Rather than packing a ship with goods and hoping merchants will buy, the precision of EDI communication allows manufacturers to keep a reduced inventory supply.  EDI implementation also cuts down or replaces the amount of paper documents exchanged between businesses.  And because purchase orders, shipping invoices, packing slips, and other documents transmit electronically from computer to computer rather than person to person, it reduces errors in transcription.  Saving paper, people, and time adds up to the third – and perhaps most compelling way that EDI has transformed global business:

 3.   Reduced Cost of Doing Business
Any businessman knows that saving money helps the bottom line and having a positive balance sheet means greater return for investors and the potential to expand operations.  Replacing old systems – like paper – with B2B supply chain cloud technology (like EDI) has dramatically increased speed, accuracy, and customer satisfaction.  Customer satisfaction equals more business and that means more products travel the supply chain to all four corners of our globe. 

EDI may not be as monumental a cultural shift as early trading routes, but EDI and the B2B supply chain has expanded the work of those early adventurers.  With EDI technology, businesses can trade globally in a common language, ensure efficiency within the supply chain, and save money for everyone along the route.  This helps our clients – from retail, finance, automotive, and health industries – expand their operations and services around the world.  And for that reason, we think EDI continues to help transform the world of business.

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Clearing the “Cloud”

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Tracy Orlick

Have you ever heard a word repeated so often that it loses meaning?  To revisit that feeling try saying a word out loud a dozen times. Or you can watch this clever video where 172 movie characters shout the one word to stop words.  If after watching that clip the word “silence” sounded foreign, you can credit your brain’s natural response to tune out repetition and in the process, what once seemed familiar now seems strange.  In the 1960’s researchers named that neural process semantic satiation, but the French also have a phrase to describe this feeling of something that is both unfamiliar and familiar: jamais vu. 

If you follow any tech news today you’re likely to encounter a word that itself describes something foggy: Cloud.  Seeing and hearing the word repeated every day across mediums has left many consumers – and IT pros – with a case of jamais vu. What does cloud computing really mean? 

At a recent tech conference even these IT luminaries had a hard time defining the “cloud,” but as a cloud vendor, it’s important that we at EasyLink help our clients understand what the cloud does and how it serves their business processes. 

Part of the problem in defining the cloud is that it’s really a metaphor that describes how the process works.  First, if you’re reading this, you’re using the cloud.  The Internet itself has been described as the “cloud” though that’s only one part of what it means to be in the cloud.  To use the industry standard analogy, cloud computing shares similarities with your local power company.

Before we were plugged into the power grid, households supplied their own energy.  People gathered wood or coal for the stove or gas for the lamps.  You knew where to go for your materials and how to fire up the lights.  When electricity arrived and companies fueled power, you only needed to flip a switch to turn on your lights or heat up dinner.  By outsourcing energy to the local power company, people could spend less time gathering wood and more time on other pursuits.  Also, the power company could centralize power in one place and provide it to many people at once, which made operations cheaper and more efficient. 

As consumers we don’t see the magic behind the energy we use every day, but behind every light switch is a complex network of cables that connects to a physical facility where energy is made and distributed.  In other words, we use and access energy without having to understand the complexities of how it works and we trust that process to the experts.

Cloud computing works in essentially the same way.  You can log into something like Google Docs, a cloud-based program, and access files from anywhere with an Internet connection.  By moving documents to the cloud, it frees up space on local drives, allows access from virtually anywhere, and has the ability to immediately share across networks.  Like power companies, cloud service providers can offer a more efficient use of resources.  This is especially important for large businesses that needs to maintain files or communication services without having to spend more time and money on IT infrastructure.  EasyLink’s cloud-based solutions are another example of how a business can outsource the technical know-how and maintenance without having to maintain an internal IT infrastructure.

It may also be helpful to think of the “cloud” as another platform.  Just like the PC enabled us to run programs and store files onto one machine, the cloud connects us to a network of applications and files that can be accessed across multiple devices.  When you update a file on one device, it’s immediately synced across devices.  The new music application, Spotify, is just such one example of a cloud-based service that lets you access your files across devices – your phone, computer, or any machine you can log in to with your account information.

You see, the reason why the phrase “cloud computing” also works is because, like the sky, you can access your files from nearly any place you go.  Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, defines it by saying, “Everything that we think of as a computer today is really just a device that connects us to the big computer that we’re all collectively building.”  These MIT students do a better job at simplifying the cloud in this animated short.

Cloud computing isn’t exactly new – we’ve been in the game for over 20 years – but trends suggest it’s the next wave of computing – especially as we continue to move to an age of greater connectivity.  More individuals and businesses will use the Internet to store data, apps, transact business, and collaborate.

As the tech forecast gets more “cloud-y”,  don’t get lost trying to figure out what it means.  Focus on what the cloud can do, not what it is.   And if a company brands itself as a cloud-based service provider, you can use this checklist of “key cloud service attributes” to see if it stacks up.

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Technology Helps Recover Missing Children

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Pam Bernardino

Many still cling to nostalgic notions of a safe, idyllic past where children roamed free and nobody locked their doors.  Now parents worry not only about their children’s safety in the outside world, but also on the virtual playground.

The US Department of Justice estimates an average of 797,500 children are reported missing each year.  Before the dawn of online social networks, parents relied on flyers and community search teams to locate missing children.  Unfortunately, neither had significant impact in recovering lost children largely because these “low tech” options could not spread to enough people during the first few critical hours a child goes missing.

The digital age has created many innovative business opportunities, but perhaps one of the most important innovations includes a new model for applying technology to help save kids’ lives.

After the tragic deaths of two young girls, the 1993 murder of Polly Klauss in California and the 1996 kidnapping and death of nine-year old Amber Hagerman in Texas, two grieving fathers lobbied for stronger child protection laws.  They also suggested there could be a better way to immediately notify the law and media.  In 1996, the Amber Alert was born out of that collaboration.

The Amber Alert was one of the first tools deployed in the technology age in the fight to keep children safe.  The nonprofit Critical Response was launched to develop TRAK (Technology to Recover Abducted Kids) software that would help law enforcement create and distribute photo bulletins to networks within the law and media.  This tool allowed law enforcement to transmit alerts immediately and harness new technologies to aid search efforts.

The rise of electronic communication technologies has had a profound and positive impact on our ability to locate kids who have been kidnapped.  The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that 542 children have been safely recovered since the 1997 release of the Amber Alert program. 

At EasyLink, we’re proud to say that since 2002, we provide the technology that makes sure the Amber Alerts information gets out immediately since the first three hours are critical in safe recovery. EasyLink’s Production Messaging Service ensures the safe, secure, accurate and reliable transmission of the Amber Alert.

We’re proud to be a part of the technology industry’s focus on using the connectivity power of social networks for social good. The recent Facebook partnership with the Department of Justice to distribute the alerts through social media is just one other such example.

We blog about the power and value of electronic communications in the supply chain, but we believe in technology’s power for social good, too.  EasyLink moves data that matters.

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Why EasyLink May Be All the “Security Blanket” You Need for Your Data Transportation Needs.

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Pam Bernardino

As head of the marketing team for EasyLink, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to connect our clients with the services they need.  It requires staying a step ahead of the market and analyzing trends, which is a tall task in the digital age.  With the rapid evolution of technology, it’s a challenge to know what “hot new trend” will catch and which one will disappear into the void.  It’s an exciting time in the tech industry, but for our clients who rely on IT to run their businesses, change can be scary, too.

It’s my role to understand what our clients need and what keeps them up at night.

After a recent chat with some of our sales and product team members, I had a new insight about why EasyLink continues to be deeply relevant in today’s hyper-tech business world.  The “aha” moment came after listening to sales guys tell story after story of customers’ distress about integrating new technologies into old paradigms.  Customers want to know how they can acclimate to the accelerated rate of change in cloud computing technology, customer information and supply chain information – a theme we have all heard before.

EasyLink’s role in this changing landscape may be easy to overlook. We have been a leader in efficiently and reliably moving data since, essentially, the advent of messaging and the backbone of our company’s offerings; however, Telex, EDI, FAX, and email, is not the stuff of “Gee Whiz” headlines.

But this time, I heard a new idea. This time, the link between our core value as a rock solid service provider with a track record of ease of deployment took on more importance than ever to our customers. It seemed that precisely because all other technologies are changing so fast, customers valued EasyLink at a human level. They appreciate the fact that EasyLink gets on with the business of data transportation efficiently – first time – every time.

That shed new light on how to speak to our customers in the financial, retail, energy, transportation and manufacturing sectors. It suggested that many customers thought of EasyLink as their security blanket; reassuring them that as technology races ahead, EasyLink’s data transportation services provide peace of mind. In that moment, our remarkably low churn rate (number of customers who leave us), the envy of other technology companies in this space, became a measure of our very human ability to help our customers deal with all this change.

A brave new, data centric world is evolving so quickly around us.  In fact, just recently, I happened to catch this article: “Terminator-Style Contact Lenses On Their Way” that goes to explain how: “A contact lens has been developed that could one day allow the wearer to read emails, news reports and other digitized information.”

Remarkable isn’t it? And yet as remarkable as this is – at a business level it begins to reflect the pervasive nature of how companies have to grapple with the creation, management and transportation of data.

And in the business of data transportation, this is where you can think of EasyLink as your reliable, security blanket. We’ve got you covered.

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Data Goes Auto-Drip

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Pam Bernardino

While even Plato used an alarm clock to get up before sunrise, until just a few generations ago, most people still relied on morning light or the rooster’s crow to start the workday.  Now urbanites or people who haven’t been on a farm outside of a field trip, can download a crowing iPhone app to wake up.  Just like the old days.

Mobile phones are the new time-keepers, replacing both alarm clocks and watches.  According to this study by a global wireless network and phone provider – and plenty of anecdotal evidence – most people use their phone to check email, social media, and send messages before they leave their bed or have their very first cup of coffee.

While we continue to speculate about the long-term effects of this hyperconnectivity, it’s clear that we’ve entered a new age of communication. No time period before now saw such rapid innovations in communications technology.  It was only during the end of the 19th century that people began talking through wires via the telegraph or the telephone.  Those electronic communications have evolved into our modern communications systems.  Tech guys cite Moore’s Law to explain the pace of this technology evolution, but it still leaves some wondering, how can we keep up?  Now that oft-cited law is meeting its limits too as the digital world intersects with the analog world.  Chips may be smaller and more powerful, but we still need the energy to power technology.  In other words, we humans still have a role in deciding how best to harness these new technologies.

Scholars – and science-fiction fans – have long worried that the rise of technology will cause the fall of humans.  Even Plato worried that books would reduce our capacity for memory.  But it’s exactly these disruptive technologies that have enabled human evolution.  When the codex was introduced in the 1st century, information became more portable and accessible.  Knowledge was no longer limited to scholars with scrolls; books could reach more people and literacy migrated outward.

If this sounds analogous to recent technological trends, you’re right.  We like looking at the history of communication – especially because those grandfather technologies make our services possible.  Where would we be without the telegraph – the very first e-communication tool?

Santayana, often misquoted, said something wise about understanding history so one doesn’t repeat it.  As we move forward into new technology terrain, we keep sight of the old faithfuls that form the bedrock of electronic communication.

Each of these new technologies has enabled faster and wider communication, a feedback loop that has stimulated the growth of new ideas.  Technologies like fax, EDI, and SMS are part of the digital revolution and we’re excited to be on the frontline.

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How EDI Replaced the Sears Catalog

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Pam Bernardino

When the Sears mail order catalog was introduced in 1888, it opened up trade and commerce beyond towns and cities.  Mail order catalogs reached people in rural places without general stores or close neighbors.  From house kits to eyeglasses, folks could order goods from the “Book of Bargains” without leaving their home on the farm.  Cars and the highway system soon connected people to cities and department stores, but it was the catalog that first paved the way for the global marketplace.  Today we can travel the information highway to shop for goods worldwide.  The “wish books” of the past have been replaced with Amazon wish lists and online registries.  With a few keystrokes, e-commerce delivers holiday gifts to your doorstep, a convenience that originated with peddlers, traveling salesmen, and the mail order catalog.

In those earlier days, commerce depended on paper documents and the postal service.  Once a customer placed an order, documents traveled through the supply chain between trading partners and shipping companies.  Purchase orders, shipping documents, and invoices traced a trail across states from door to door.  Decades after electronic data interchange (EDI) was introduced in the rail industry, other industries realized the cost-savings of reducing paper and transmitting documents electronically thus, the birth of e-commerce.  In the recent decade as more businesses have reduced their brick and mortar operations for the virtual world, according to Internet Retailer online sales have increased to a nearly $60 billion industry.  Forrester Research reports a 15% increase from last year!

EDI is the original e-commerce.  The old technology enabled new technologies for transmission of documents between businesses and trading partners.  In fact, many large corporations like Walmart, Walgreens, and the strictly online retailer Amazon still rely on this “old standard” for business transactions.

It’s not only the economic climate that has customers surfing for online bargains, consumers also appreciate the convenience of shopping from home, much like generations past.  We may not be isolated on the farm, but we place a premium on our time.

E-commerce, like mail order catalogs of the bygone era, brings shopping direct to you.  EDI is the technology that helps turn your keystrokes into data that travels the supply chain from business to business to door to door.

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Doctors Ditch the Prescription Pad and Go Digital

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Pam Bernardino

If someone says you write like a doctor, it means they can’t read what you wrote.  Since the advent of modern medicine, doctors have gained a reputation for messy penmanship.  While some suggest that illegible writing is a sign of intelligence or influenced by gender, and others say it’s mere haste, more recent studies (peer-reviewed in journals!) have determined that doctors are no more likely than the rest of us to have bad writing.  Bad handwriting has few serious consequences if you’re a baker, but for doctors, getting it right is not only critical, it can mean life or death.   If the pharmacist can’t decipher what the doctor jotted down, you could end up with the wrong pill or dose.  A 2006 study by the Institute of Medicine found that an estimated 7,000 deaths from medication errors occur each year.

The problem was serious enough that in 2007 a coalition of technology companies and healthcare providers banded together to launch an e-prescription initiative:  the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative or NEPSI for short.  With support from the US government, NEPSI has made free software available to physicians to transition to e-prescriptions.  What’s listed as the number one reason for the shift?  Handwriting.

If a doctor can transmit your prescription directly to the pharmacy, it reduces the chance of error.  Creating an electronic health record (EHR) also helps healthcare providers keep track of potential drug interactions and patient history.  Allergies and risk factors can be automatically cross-referenced to ensure the patient gets the safest drug.

Of course none of this would be possible without the behind the scenes work of electronic messaging and transaction services.  We’ve talked about how EDI, or electronic data interchange, has helped increase the efficiency and accuracy of business communication. Desktop faxing delivers documents direct to computers, saving time, money, and the planet. Production Messaging is yet another way our technology helps industries stay connected.  You want your medical data to travel safely, securely, and accurately.  Our Production Messaging service allows healthcare providers, doctors and hospitals to quickly, accurately, and securely submit prescriptions to pharmacies.

The prescription is the coda of most doctor visits – it’s the last movement after waiting, examination, and diagnosis.  In the analog world, the doctor rips off a sheet from a prescription pad and gives it to you to carry to the pharmacist.  In the digital world, Production Messaging carries the prescription for you, which pharmacies access online.

The pharmacist may view the information on-screen or receive it as a fax and the information is also extracted into the pharmacy’s existing application/database, etc.  Using this automated process, patient records are more compliant, prescription errors are reduced, and operating costs are decreased.

And like magic, your prescription awaits you.

 

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IT Looks Good in Green

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Pam Bernardino

Last week, we outlined one way businesses could go green and make green.  By ditching those old fax dinosaurs and switching to desktop faxing, companies eliminate paper and its associated environmental costs.  From the invention of the wheel to today’s rapid evolution in the digital age, developing new technology has always been motivated by saving time and resources.  We want to get places faster so we can have more time.  And we want to use less and spend less to get there.  That’s where the green movement and IT intersect:  Green IT.  Save paper, space, energy, time, and connect people across the world to save the world.  Now that green has become a fashionable color in the business industry, more companies are being judged by their triple bottom line: people, planet, and profits.  Investors and consumers want to feel good about the products and services they use.  Since 2009, Newsweek has been tracking the world’s 500 greenest companies across industries.  With a corporate environmental policy since 1971, IBM continues to lead the tech pack.  From aggressive recycling programs to harvesting rays from the sun, other tech giants like Apple and Google are doing their part, too.  Here’s Newsweek’s 2011 list of the 30 greenest tech companies.  And, of course, we’d like to help more companies get on the list.

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