productivity - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Informal ‘teleworking’ on the rise: study

  Teleworking is now mainstream, but organisations do not necessarily have structures and policies around it, according to a new trans-Tasman survey.
  

• Mobile Apps require a CIO mind shift

  It's time to get started on smartphone apps that will make employees more productive and customers more loyal, say Forrester Research analysts Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler.

• What IT leaders can learn from hostage negotiators

  A leadership expert and former hostage negotiator says that business leaders who show that they care about employees will create a safe haven that fosters productivity and creativity.

• Social networking: Friend or foe?

  Social media can be extremely disruptive. Even in the short time since Facebook grew into a global phenomenon, it has already had a profound effect on the way we communicate with our friends, families and like-minded communities.
  Excited by the possibility of engaging with potentially hundreds of millions of users through sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the corporate sector is looking for ways to find its voice in this brave new world.

• A virtual call

  It's a truism, perhaps, that vendors sell unified communications but their customers buy cheaper phone calls. The start-up costs associated with moving to internet protocol (IP)-based telephony have long been a stumbling block. This has meant that the move is often delayed until a new private automated branch exchange (PABX) is needed for a new office, or an end-of-life PABX system needs to be replaced.
  But as travel costs increase, the prospect of connecting teams across multiple locations or supporting a mobile workforce may prove to be new drivers for unified communications technology. Australia has been tipped to spend $27.2 billion on communications technology in 2008, says research firm IDC. Interestingly, although vendors have, for some time, been touting the productivity benefits of IP-telephony features such as presence or click-to-talk, an IDC survey of Australian broadband and IP services usage released in February suggested that macro-economic growth inhibitors, including skills shortages, low unemployment and the increasing cost of travel, could be shifting the usage model for unified communications (UC) technology.

• 10 technologies to work better

  The right technology can encourage strong business growth and cut
  costs. Here are the applications that are driving innovation: