First Android Build Shown to Mobile Phone Developers

By Andy Adams

This past week Google's developer's conference was one of the first demos of the Android mobile phone operating system. Announced last year by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of mobile phone manufacturers and software houses who want to have one unilateral platform for all mobile phones to run on Android looks to be one of the most interesting revolutions in the Mobile phones market.

Being developed by Google the phones are highly likely to blend well with other Google-ware like the popular Maps service and Google Mail service. The stand out feature is that the operating system is being designed to run on a wide range of mobile phones regardless of their feature set. In a similar way to how PC operating systems are made to work on a wide range of computers with varying specifications Android will take advantage of specific phone features such as built in GPS and touch screen interfaces.

This past week had the operating system running on a touch screen unnamed handset and it was sporting a number of new features since it was last shown off earlier in the year. One exciting feature was how the handset was unlocked; the user had to draw a specific shape on the touch screen to unlock the keypad. Another feature took advantage of the GPS function by having an on screen compass which had been tried on other handsets such as the GPS enabled S60 phones offered by Nokia but attendees said the example shown by Google seemed to work much more fluidly than other attempts.

The decision to show off the software at their developers conference was obviously to entice the collective minds into coming up with some ideas for possible applications for their operating system, with it being open-source software, a factor popular with the programming masses, it looks promising that any mobile phones sporting Android's operating system would have a lot to offer the stale mobile phones market.

Obviously a lot of comparisons were made between the software and Apple's stand out mobile phone the iPhone, the interface seemed to bear some of the Apple hallmarks such as saving Youtube links as icons on the main screen and a touch based interface.

The Android operating system is currently nearing completion with handset manufacturers Motorola, HTC and Samsung all volunteering to use Android on their forth-coming mobile phones in the next year.

If you're looking for cheap mobile phones then check out some of the new mobile phone deals for both contract and PAYG mobile phones

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_Adams

Basic Accounting Software - What You Need But Not More

By Al Bullington

Basic accounting software is often all a small business or a household needs. Let's face it, powerful accounting software is often difficult to learn and hard to use. If you need a lot of accounting power, that's a price you must pay. But there's no reason to struggle with complex packages if you don't need the power. Here are some things to consider.

Free might work for you.

Free software may be good enough. For example Microsoft offers free accounting software. Now true it's quite limited, but it may be just what you need. Then you can upgrade later if you need more power. But be wary of no-name software that's cheap. You sometimes get what you pay for or less.

The first step before choosing?

The best first step in choosing basic accounting software is deciding what you want to do. See the free software will mostly just let you track your transactions. A fully functioning system with integrated general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable and cash journals will probably cost you, but not much. Just make sure to think through what you need.

It's in the box.

The major software houses like Microsoft, QuickBooks or Peachtree all offer powerful basic accounting packages. It's shocking how little a full featured basic software package costs. You can choose a ready-to-go package that probably includes every feature that your small business needs. The huge advantage of choosing a product from one of these major companies is it's sold in volume and proven by many users. That's good for you.

Plus there's support.

You'll likely have questions. Who can you call? Maybe you have to purchase a support contract. Best find out up front since you will have questions. That's another reason to choose brand name software. Those companies will be there when those questions arise. A cheapy, no-name package may leave you with a locked up system and no way out.

Upgrades when you grow?

Upgrades within the same brand are often easy. Switch brands to get more power and it's start all over with the learning. Never doubt that learning a new system is a big part of the cost of an accounting system. You'll pay for learning no matter what the software purchase price.

An easy accounting system is all many people need. Just spend a little time to decide what you need from an accounting system. Buy enough system to do the job. But more accounting system than you need will cost you extra not only in the initial cost. It'll also cost you extra learning time. You don't need that.

To learn much more about basic accounting software, visit http://AccountingSoftwareTrends.com where you'll find help for choosing a basic system for you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Al_Bullington

Home Maintenance Software

By Richard Romando

Home maintenance software schedule duties and helps people to keep track of their inventories. Most people store emergency items. The home maintenance software helps in maintaining a clear, detailed and up-to-date list of all the items in the house and makes shopping more comfortable. Maintenance software is a tool providing full-featured maintenance solution that includes work order tracking, preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, asset management, procedure libraries, inventory tracking, purchasing, scheduling, and service requests.

Through home maintenance software, people can enter all the data about household items into spreadsheet databases, which in turn can become a part of usual shopping program. When any of the essential items run out of stock, the software notifies them to the user. Using home maintenance software, people can keep track and make sure that their cleaning items such as glass cleaners, laundry detergent, dishwasher fluid, and several essential items do not run out of stock. The home maintenance software not only tracks scheduled maintenance of mechanical systems in the home but also checks for the total maintenance costs for any work performed and the vendor warranties.

Home maintenance software is a very helpful tool for real estate investors. Some people lease their property to make profit. For such people, the home maintenance software is an essential one. Because, they can make sure their appliances in the rented home are working properly, and can schedule regular check up on the conditions of their homes and equipments.

Home maintenance software packages are easily available in the market. This software can be even bought from the Internet. There are many online websites offering easy to use software and they also provide free trial versions. You can download these packages from the Internet with no trouble as they will perform well in almost all the platforms. Before selecting the suitable software, be cautious enough to make sure that the package matches with all your necessities.

Maintenance Software provides detailed information on Maintenance Software, Maintenance Management Software, Fleet Maintenance Software, Preventative Maintenance Software and more. Maintenance Software is affiliated with Facility Maintenance Management Software.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Romando

Partner Relationship Management (PRM) - Hype Or Hope?

By Royston Morgan

Anything that reduces the sales cycle and/or increases revenue in the context of a joint go-to-market activity by two or more companies can be said to be a form of partner relationship management.

We can define PRM thus: an alliance management approach, supported by tooling to manage the process of information exchange between the partners in a joint sales cycle.

Going to market with partners is a very common phenomena (which even works sometime) - provided the partnership is well thought out. Within the concept the normal rules apply in terms of managing a formal alliance: such as complementarity, agreed and shared objectives and clear rules of engagement with the client to name but three. Provided a good basis for partnership is agreed benefits can accrue to the parties in areas such as:

• Completion of a total package for the client - an System Integrator with a major software house can provide a credible total solution for the client (Partners bring complementary assets to the table).
• Faster time to market - particularly for software vendor's new releases or extensions.
• Maximising sales productivity and potentially faster closure cycles - in general an enhancement of the sales channel effectiveness can be expected.
• To obtain access to new verticals, for example a partner who may lack vertical experience in say, finance, can piggyback on a partner's expertise and credibility in this area.
• Better reach and access to the installed base of the partners. This latter point seems to be one of the main reasons for partnership in some software houses, indeed the sole raison d'etre for their partnership - and is a risky approach if this is the only reason for working together.

Some issues to consider:

• How to manage multiple partners/suppliers. There is a need for a transparent sales pipeline process from lead to bid/win that is fair to all parties.
• Rules of engagement need to be clear up front. For example if there is an agreement to go into a certain client no introduction of competitors or cross selling of alternative products may be a precondition. This is difficult if the client demands an alternative - do you as a partner turn down the sale?
• Playing fair rules on sharing opportunities. Partnering must be win-win. If only the installed base of an SI is the objective and no new leads are brought to the table the partnership will not go very far - similarly access must be given and active selling in by the SI attempted. My own research into alliances shows that both sides must bring (i.e. deliver) clear value to the table and not just feed off the other.

Supporting Technology

It is difficult to see how just giving access to the lead company's CRM or core ERP is sufficient in terms of tooling to support the sales and marketing cycle. For one thing we must remember that there may be many 'partnerships' on the go at any one time. Making it critically important to wall-off two-way partnerships information rights to only access that piece of the client base that the two have agreed to pursue. An interesting point is who 'owns' the PRM system and information - who is the lead? (Not forgetting we are talking many to many relationships). Are all companies to set-up PRM's communicating with each other?

Several of your partners will be keen competitors and protection and control of access to information which they are entitled to, will be critical. Furthermore, the type of information that supports the sales cycle is often required in quite different ways and formats to that held to cover more issue based needs, such as in a CRM. Last but not least careful monitoring of the success of a sales pipeline, including partner performance, across many partners, sectors and clients demand different approaches to information management and there is a lack of functionality in this area.

In the US there has been some work in developing specific software tooling to support partner based sales cycles but as yet there is little penetration in Europe/UK. And there is little evidence that anyone is using PRM in any substantial way beyond simple lead registration.

The Bottom Line

Basically it all boils down to developing a process to manage partners in a joint go-to-market initiative. These types of process are well known (at least in theory) but are only practiced sporadically. Accordingly many 'partnerships' are not strategic but sales based having limited objectives such as the right to gain channel access. The bottom line is we cannot really talk of strategic partnerships that mean anything - find me a major system or consulting house that doesn't have 'strategic partnership' with any of the top ten software vendors. Joint marketing, true partnership, going together in a sales way to market is very rare and as long as it remains so the potential for PRM will remain stunted.

http://www.bizface.co.uk/bizfaceforum/business-planning-quality-operations/23856-partner-relationship-management-hype-hope.html

Original Article at the Business Forum: http://www.bizface.co.uk/bizfaceforum

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Royston_Morgan

Setting File Permissions On A Unix Server

By Charlie Cory

File permissions are one of the strengths that the Unix world has had over it's Windows contemporaries. Permissions are a means to control access to information on a computer, on a file by file basis. There are several layers of control, and these will be discussed below.

For the purpose of this series of tutorials, I have been using a free FTP program called Core FTP Lite to upload files to my server. I am using this program to describe my examples.

Ok, to begin, let's say that we have uploaded some files to a server.

We are discussing uploading scripts in general here, and certainly for many scripts, the creators may well specify certain 'permissions' that need to be set in order for the scripts to operate correctly. Let's take a look at a set of files on a server. In Core FTP Lite, the server files are shown in the right hand pane. Select one and then right click on the highlighted file.If you use a different FTP client, I expect that the layout will be very similar.

Run the mouse down to the bottom of the menu and select the item marked 'Properties'. Click on this option, and another dialog will appear.

You will see that the file in question (in this case a directory) is being shown in the 'File' field at the top of the screen.

What we are really interested in, is the tick boxes in the bottom half of the screen. These hold the file 'privileges' or 'permissions' for this file or directory.

There are three types of 'permissions' available.

* User - which means the person signed on who is setting the permissions

* Group - which means a specific group of users for whom access to the file has been granted

* World - which means everyone.

Within these groups of users, there are 3 distinct types of permissions

* Read - which means that permission to read a file, but not alter it or run it

* Write - which means permission to write to a file and change it

* Execute - which means permission to execute a file, which is important in the case of scripts for example.

Permissions are sometimes called by these names (read, write, execute) but are more commonly referred to using letters 'rwx'. In addition, permissions are sometimes referred to by a single
number '755' for example. In the picture above, you will see a value box. This is the number being referred to. How is this number made up? Well let me explain.

Read

User 400

Group 40

World 4

Write

User 200

Group 20

World 2

Execute

User 100

Group 10

World 1

Each value for each setting is shown. Try them out by ticking them, and see the number in the 'Value' field change accordingly.

So, lets look at a real example

Can you see how the number 755 is made up? Add up the individual values from the value table and see.

So hopefully you can see, that setting file permissions with the right tool is not hard at all.

Charlie Cory worked or many years running a HelpDesk for a software house, and has experience in many operatng systems and technologies. The online aticle contains many pictures which help bring this tutorial to life.

Setting file permissons

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charlie_Cory

Winning Strategies In Texas Holdem Poker

By Zulfiqar Dodhia

The following tips and strategies will be helpful in playing Texas Holdem poker and winning online poker.

More Hole Cards

Most expert players agree that more hole cards should be played in late position rather than in early position. This is more profitable. Any hole cards that win in early position is bound to
win even more money in late position. Although, hole cards who loose money in early position are
generally not worth playing at all.

Strategy Manipulations

You should always try different strategies in your play to confuse your opponents. If you keep
playing the same way, you are more than likely to be mocked by your fellow players and loose
respect. Further, you are likely to face many poker articles and remarks on how predictable and
easy you are to beat.

Keeping Your Records

A very useful tip is to keep records of your poker playing. If you don't do this already, start
doing this now. You can make a form on the computer and print copies. If you are using software,
you can also set up a database on your computer. Alternatively, you should at the very least get
a calculator and a notebook. While you are in the casino, you can write on the back side of a
keno ticket and later on copy this to your records at home. Accurate records can really help you
learn a lot about yourself, strategies and opponents.

Play Slowly and Tightly

One winning strategy is that if all the players at the table loose, then no one will win. They
will continue to trade pots back and forth while the casino slowly sucks all the money.
Naturally better players will loose less but at the end of the day no one can win. Also, no one
can win if all the players play tight. The tight players will be trading smaller pots back and
forth and in the process the casino takes all the money. Again, the better players will loose
less but there will be no winners at the end.

Casino Overhead

Casinos as well as poker rooms usually charge players on time basis or rake each individual pot.
It's considered part of the overhead for players. Usually, this money is collected in two ways.
The first method is that the casino rakes from the pot. Secondly, the money might be collected
from the players in equal amounts as a so-called time charge or something else.

Toking by Dealers

Tokes are overhead costs charged to the players by the dealer and are considered an important
part of his income. Make sure your toking, charged by your dealer, is affordable.

The Sincere Advice

The most sincere advice anyone can give you is to play on a regular basis. You must practice
extensively to increase your chances of winning. Poker is an extremely competitive game and
practicing new and old strategies is the way to go.

I'm working in a software house as a writer and student of Karachi University. These days working in a casino related website and my writing topic is Winning Strategies in Texas Holdem Poker

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Zulfiqar_Dodhia

Choosing A Career In The Video Gaming Industry

By Richard Heaney

If you really enjoy playing video games and you find them a challenging form of entertainment why not consider a career in the video gaming industry. If you are going to be working at something for 40 years or so don't you think it sounds like a good idea to choose something you enjoy doing?

There are plenty of opportunities out there in the gaming market, it is a truly huge industry with a turnover of billions of dollars worldwide. There are lots of different aspects to the industry so most people with an interest in video games should be able to find something to suit them.

Working as a video game programmer can be a challenging but well paid job. To be successful in this area you would require some form of training, most likely a degree in programming. This may not be an easy career to pursue but if you have the ability then you should always be able to find work.

Another job in the industry which may be of interest is that of a video game animator. To do well here you will need skills in design and you will also have to be creative. Imagine the buzz from seeing a piece of work you created being included in a video game which sells worldwide.

The audio aspect of game design is often overlooked but there are plenty of opportunities for sound effect and background music composers. In order to do well here a good knowledge of digital music is essential and having some game playing time under your belt is going to help as well.

Once video games have been designed the software developers need to have them tested. Video game testers fall into two categories. The developers do hire testers to play the games in house, if you were interested in this role you would need some programming skills. Also the developers use average game players to test there new titles, no special skills of qualifications are required. This can be a really good way to start out in the industry, they send you the games to test in the post along with what they want you to look at and report on. You send your report back to them, you get paid for your time and get to keep the game!

Building up experience in this way is useful if you would like to work for a major software house, you can do it at home in your spare time and once you become established you can do it full time. All you need to do is find out the right people to contact and how to get in touch with them, other than that becoming a video game tester is quite straightforward.

Rich Heaney is the webmaster at Game Tester Guide. Find out how to become a game tester today at http://rjheaney.com/gametesterguide

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Heaney

Music for Nothing and Your Tracks for Free

By Blake Hamilton

Around the globe, the record industry has gone on the offensive and who can blame them? Faced with numerous peer-to-peer networks and bit torrent clients, it has never been easier for individuals to obtain music for free. Having given birth to the term “illegal downloading”, the record industry claims the activity seriously threatens the development of music and artists. But does this argument have any validity or is it a clever corporate spin?

Whilst the record industry have not published any factual information to support this claim, there is certainly information to show that, those “illegally downloading” music actually spend, on average, some 27% more on music than those who exclusively confine their activity to the ‘legal’ download sites and pay for every track in advance.

Recent research by the UK software house, Remlap Software, themselves a publisher of a music download application, suggests that, “illegal” downloaders are anything but the thieves the record industry labels them as.

The term ‘illegal download’ is in itself an interesting phrase. While most people would define ‘illegal’ as an activity which is outlawed under Criminal Law, the Oxford Dictionary merely states, ‘contrary to law’. The difference between public perception of the definition and the officially recognised version may only be a subtle, but it is powerful enough for the record industry to exploit.

Certainly they would have you believe that, ‘illegal’ downloading of music is ‘theft’. In doing this, the record industry further re-enforces the public perception that such activities are in contrary to CRIMINAL law; with all the serious consequences such an offence implies. The truth of the matter is, there is no criminal offence in either the EU or USA of downloading music without paying for it.

At best, the record industry could claim that, ‘illegal downloads’ are in violation of Civil Law, but even this would be spurious. Indeed if such a legal prospect were a reality, every YouTube visitor who has watched (and in doing so, downloaded) a video which violates someone’s copyright could be prosecuted. And so the whole notion of ‘illegal downloads’ is a total nonsense.

In desperation, the record industry has scraped the bottom of the barrel, several times and now resorts to suing its own customers. But to date they have not been able to prosecute one case of ‘illegal downloading’. In every case they have sued on the allegation that the defendant has ‘distributed’ music in violation of copyright. They have been able to do this, because the whole basis of peer-to-peer networks is that each user shares their music collection with the rest of the network. It is the act of ‘sharing’ or distribution which is the offence, not what they have downloaded.

Their eternal effort to force the world to only use pay-for music download sites, the record industry has already ‘persuaded’ a number of universities and ISP’s to turn-off Bit Torrent and Peer-to-Peer traffic. So could this be the end of downloading music for free?

In response to this situation UK software developers, Remlap Software considered that there were probably more mp3 files sitting on web servers, than there are on all the peer-to-peer networks put together…and they were right.

Their freeware application Clickster gives access to over 25 million individual tracks; all found on Internet web servers and available for download. With no ‘sharing’ of the end-users own mp3 collection, Clickster is being hailed as the first legal mp3 downloads.

One of the great things about Clickster is that, because mp3’s are being downloaded from a web-server and not from some guy on a dial-up connection 6000 miles away, the download speeds are much quicker. With an integral media player, tracks can be previewed/played without having to first download the file.

With Clickster clearly navigating around the latest attempts of the record industry to stamp out what they call ‘illegal downloading’, the future remains bright. And to paraphrase the Eighties rock-band, Dire Straits…’get your music for nothing and your tracks for free’.

Further information:

Clickster – Remlap Software http://www.remlapsoftware.com Record Industry – RIAA http://www.riaa.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Blake_Hamilton

Live Your Dreams - Gain Practical Experience Early (Part 3)

By Victor-Andreas Marz

Why do employers value "practical experience" as their number one criterion when selecting the candidates for the job? Do you wonder how people know exactly what they want to work even before they graduate? Or how they get a top job they want without jumping through hoops?

Don't wait for an employer to offer you just any job - position yourself so you can choose your job and employer!

If you still believe that it's just your degree that is going to get you a great job, it's high time to wake up. Today knowledge of foreign languages, computer applications, the internet, and good grades on your transcript are just filtering criteria for employers offering good jobs. If you want more than an average employer can offer, you have to give more than the average graduate. Experience of working/ or studying abroad, a third or fourth language and extracurricular activities (AISEC, Student Government, Volunteering, Social Engagements, etc.) are a nice pluses. However, in the end, the most decisive argument for any employer will be how much job experience you have gained throughout your studies and what specific kind. Ideally by the time you finish a 3-year degree you would have worked professionally for nine to twelve months across companies and their departments (i.e. 3 internships with three months time each).

The more experience you gain in the real world, the more you will get to know what you like and don't like to do once you finish your studies. This will give you the focus which most people lack during their studies and enable you to weigh the pros and cons of an industry/ company and department. With each internship or work experience you will gain practical exposure to how the world ticks and on top of this you will build up your ability to appreciate job roles and tasks associated with the job. Most importantly, though, you will build up a repository of basic skills required for any professional job and potentially develop a first expertise. This will give you the edge recruiters are after when hiring graduates into top jobs.

For example, in my case, I did not do anything during the first four months of vacation I had after my first year of studies - what a big waste of time it was, judging retrospectively. Finishing the second year at WSB-NLU, a lucky coincidence allowed me to do some "mini"-internships starting at a German waste management company with 100 employees, followed by a international retail bank and then a Polish utility company. Each of the internships had a duration of about 2-3 weeks in total. I quickly learned one thing about each of the internships - I don't want to have anything to do with banking, utilities or waste management. That knowledge alone was enough reason for me to start applying for a longer term internship in another industry - trying out something new. After applying blindly for more than 60 internships across Europe, I finally managed to get two interviews, one of which resulted in a six months contract assisting the CEO of a management consultancy in Germany. As I learnt on my arrival and first day there, it turned out to be the largest human resource management consultancy in Germany (note: the lesson learned here is that I should have targeted my job hunt a lot more during my research of the company I wanted to work for - this way I could have avoided some 40 out of the 60 applications).

This internship, and another one at a global software house in Germany, gave me close to one-year's professional experience by the time I had finished my bachelor degree; I knew of several industries I didn't want to work in; and I found one that was appealing and interesting to me - professional services, specifically management consulting. The opportunity to write my bachelor thesis in a professional context and increasing my overall grade was an additional bonus I received from the work experience.

I continued to study in Australia and completed a Masters from Melbourne-based Monash University, the country's largest University and Asia-wide top-ranking in International Business. During my studies I worked part-time for the very same software house I completed my last internship in. I confirmed my interest to work in this country for this company and in the role as Business Consultant.

So you see that trying out until you find something good is essential. The earlier you start the better for you in the long-term. Doing internships throughout your studies minimises the stress you might experience after you complete your degree when looking for a job. It's important to utilise the time you have at university and particularly in between semesters to find out about yourself, find a profession you would like doing and that you would be good in. Experiencing the pros and cons of a particular job/ industry/ place of work first hand is always better than being told and finding out retrospectively. The more diverse work experience you collect throughout your studies, the more you'll be able to appreciate different job roles and descriptions, which in turn will help you to avoid the wrong employer or job in the first place when you apply for employment.

- Try various Industries - there is many industries - try to get to know them

- Different Departments - try to work in different divisions of a company with different people to get a taste of what people do differently and what say they have in the organization

- Start early - the earlier throughout your studies you start the more experience you can gain before you finish your studies - this will benefit yourself in the long-run, i.e. you become more attractive to potential employers

- Pay - most internships don't pay well, some don't pay at all. Some will pay you if you do a good job. Remember, it's not the money that counts here, but the experience you gain from doing the job and the ability to position yourself better in the future

In the next article we will look into the topic of how to read and interpret diverse job roles/ descriptions and their requirements towards you. This will help you to focus your job hunt and avoid the common pitfalls that lead to disappointment and frustration.

About the Author: Victor-Andreas Marz is a graduate of the School of Business - National-Louis University in Nowy Sacz (Bachelor of Business Administration, 2004) and Monash University in Melbourne (Master of International Business, 2005). He grew up in Germany, went to High School in the United States of America, lived in and traveled Europe, Asia and America. Today he's a Value Engineer working for SAP Australia and is based in Melbourne, Australia. Contact information can be found on his personal homepage: http://www.victor-marz.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor-Andreas_Marz

Learn How Video Conferencing Can Save You Money

By Charlie Cory

Depending on the tools that you use, video conferencing allows large numbers (and small numbers too) of people to communicate at the same time and share information, ideas and generally collaborate, irrespective of their location. It is possible to share computer desktops and view whiteboards, much as you would in a normal business conference. This without the cost of hosting one in the real world of course!

Here are some of the main advantages of video conferencing over face to face conferencing:

* Cost. The overheads when running video conferencing are miniscule compared to the actual cost of physically delivering people from all sorts of locations to a specific destination. Taking into account the cost of travel itself, accommodation for those from out of town, meals etc should be enough to convince you. When you actually include the cost of lost man hours travelling then there is no contest in my mind.

* In this day and age, people keep most of their work information on the computer. Obviously, if you are at home in a video conference, all of this information is readily to hand. There is no danger of leaving an important document at and airport if you never have to leave home for the meeting.

* Should you need to call upon people outside of your organisation; experts in various matters for example, it is far easier (and cheaper) to organise as a video conference than in a face to face meeting. Especially if the people involved have to travel any distance.

* It is possible to record video conferences, so that they can be re-run at a later date. This kind of thing can be an invaluable training aid as well, so that your staff can improve presentation skills for example.

* Things can happen much more quickly with video conferences. What I mean by this is that you can action things quickly and save project time by doing things with video conferences.

Communication via video conferencing is certainly better than shared telephone calls for example. Watching and studying other people in the same meeting can be quite an eye opener. It is certainly something that is not possible via a phone conference.

As technology improves, then prices come down. You get better quality video conference for less money. Now is definitely the time to consider moving to video conferencing for your meetings.

Learn the advantages of video conferencing, and how business voip can save your business money.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charlie_Cory

Search Engine Optimisation - The Most Powerful Marketing Tool For a Small Business

By K Singh

SEO is an effective and proven method to market a small business. A small business has budgetary constraints in marketing hence search engine optimisation is particularly beneficial. It has lower costs than traditional advertising mediums and as such can be used effectively by small businesses. It offers a cost effective method for small businesses to make their website known to a vast audience. Search engine optimisation commonly known as SEO has become crucial in the success of small businesses today. Many marketing studies have shown that online marketing is replacing traditional mediums as the primary source for customers to obtain information on a company's products and services. Recent changes in consumer behaviour have made E-Commerce more important than traditional high street retail in many industries.

Search engine marketing has a special significance for small businesses as it allows a business to reduce its marketing and operating costs. The cost benefits and return on investment is significant compared to traditional methods of marketing such as TV, radio or print mediums. Search engine marketing also has a wider reach and can be equally effective whether you wish to market to a local or international customer base.

Search engines provide small businesses with an opportunity to compete with established businesses and they are not limited by a smaller bricks and mortar presence. Small businesses with an effective online marketing strategy have continued to grow and gain competitive advantage over others in their industry. This would not be possible using traditional marketing mediums which have much higher costs associated with it.

The ultimate goal of Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is to drive targeted traffic form search engines to the company's website. Websites that receive a high rank on search engines are able to grow and expand due to increased sales and leads achieved as a direct result of increased visibility on search results. A majority of the internet users use search engines to find products and services. Websites that rank high on search engines are able to receive highly targeted traffic from potential customers.

There is tough competition to rank high on search engines as only 10 websites can appear on the first page for a given search phrase. Research shows that if a Web site does not rank on the first page of a search result, chances of generating any traffic to the website is reduced manifold. Therefore it is important for a business to have an ongoing strategy that can help it achieve a first page rank on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Here are some search engine optimisation tips that a small business or company can use to improve its rank on search engines

• A search engine friendly Web site. A website that has been designed with search engines in mind tends to rank higher on search engines. A search engine friendly website can get indexed by search engines with ease and as such it promotes better ranking of its pages. A professional web designer will always ensure that the website is designed with search engine guidelines. A number of techniques can ensure this. Any professional web designer should take these factors into account.
• Well Organised structure of the website. The information on the website should be organised properly. Information should be categorised meaningfully and content should be appropriately categorised into different sub pages of the website. If users fail to find what they want immediately, they are likely to go to another site.
• Positioning of keywords. One of the first steps of an effective SEO campaign is to identify the right keywords. Once this is done the keywords should be positioned strategically within the content of the website. The main keywords should be in the title, description and within the body, ideally once in the first sentence.
• Strategic distribution of keywords on the website. This is a basic SEO technique. Position keywords or key phrases at the start and the end of the document as the beginning and end of a page are given more weight by search engines while searching.
• Keyword relevancy and density within the web page content. It is important that the website relevancy to keywords is good. The overall website should be related to the main keywords the site is targeting. Keyword density refers to the number of times the keyword appears in the content of a particular web page. E.g. a density of around 2-5% is considered appropriate.
• Keywords in anchor text of links. Including your main keywords in anchor text of links is a very effective search engine optimisation technique. Keywords should form a part of the link text where possible. Link text is the clickable word that is used to get to a page. Instead of using "Click here for more info" as your link text, use the main keywords instead. This improves the chances of the destination page ranking high for the keyword.

The Website design and marketing ebook discusses additional techniques that a website owner can use to market their website on the internet.

Author K.Singh is Technology Consultant for Website Design Company. Kronik Media. Kronik Media are the London based New media and Software house specialisng in Internet development including Website design, Joomla, Ecommerce, Search engine optimisation and Social media marketing.

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Custom Software Development

By Siarhei Yermak

The Offshore companies in modern business the offshore companies and offshore business - the important component of modern economic. The offshore company opens to its owner practically unlimited opportunities of access on the international financial and investment markets. You have an opportunity opening through the company of bank accounts in any banks of the world and reception of corporate credit and debit bank cards.

You have an opportunity opening through the company of bank accounts in any banks of the world and reception of corporate credit and debit bank cards. On your order will render various services on management of the capital, formation of a package of securities, direct investments.

Today wide enough spectrum of the offshore services satisfying various needs of business was generated. The foreign trade and financial operations, investments, broker operations, currency dealing, confidential management of foreign property, transfer operations, outsourcing software development and offshore web application development.

Software development is a highly technical job. To develop software in-house requires time, skilled manpower, and expensive programs and equipment. Offshore development is a cost effective alternative to developing software in-house. Offshore development and Offshore Programming at DANA Consitling Inc safeguards the client's intellectual property, proprietary software and new development specifications with very high levels of security. Clients retain full ownership of all intellectual property rights and software source code at the completion of the project.

Offshore software development has an extra benefit for other software developing companies, who by sub contracting out some of their most routine tasks to our company would be able to concentrate their workforce on the different tasks, which need their specific expertise. We would insure that perhaps unpleasant and perhaps more routine tasks still get done, saving their time for something of higher priority and importance.

My name is Serio Ermaks. I work for DANA Consulting Inc as marketing specialist. Our company offers outsourcing software development and web application development.

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The Secrets You Wish Steve Irwin Had Told You About Pet Cages

By Charlie Cory

Ok, if Steve Irwin had offered you advice about pets cages, what do you think it would have been? In the first instance, I think he would have told you to consider the specific animal, because they all have different characteristics and they all have different requirements.

Obviously a pets cage needs to fit in your house ok, so that always needs to be a consideration. By the same token though, the animal the pets cage houses also needs to be comfortable as well. Beyond the aspects of comfort, the animal needs to have enough to keep it occupied. Some animals need more stimulus than others, but the critical think hear is understanding. Do some research before you get the pet and find out what it's ideal requirements are, then go from there.

You might have restrictions on room perhaps, but that doesn't mean that you cannot use some imagination to make the pets habitat as interesting as possible. Some animals like to run around a lot, so exercise facilities would be great. Others are just plain inquisitive and like to chew and gnaw, so their requirements would be a little different. Remember that chewing animals sometimes need to be protected from themselves, so make sure that whatever they do chew is safe for them.

You also want to ensure that your pets are prevented from escaping. Fun though it might be for them initially, they are in peril if people do not realise that they are out and about. Sometimes, smaller pets can have more than one in a cage. So how many should you have? It depends on the size of the cage of course, but the answer again is to do some research and find out what the animal's requirements are.

I have heard, for example, that you can access software that tells you how many rats you should house per square foot! I expect that if you looked hard enough, you could find similar assistance for other creatures. Don't forget cleaning either. Pets cages will need rigorous cleaning, so please make sure that the cage you get is up to rough treatment from you as well as the animal in question.

Do you really need to advice of a superstar naturalist to help you decide how and when to cage your pet in pets cages? Just in case one isn't available, here's all you need to know about pets cages.

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Developing a Restaurant Business

By Federica Costamagna

Managing a restaurant requires dedication, patient, hours and hours of labor. In particular, if you are running a small business, you have to do the proper chooses in order to not waste money.

Deciding how many employers hire: such as, waiters and waitresses work often part time, so you hire more employers than you really need and wages are expensive.

Besides to improve your business and get popularity, you probably need a manager. But it could not be the right decision, above all you are starting your activity.

Nowadays you can solve your budget problem, computerizing your business to run a restaurant too. So you could you use a software, that can help to built a real business restaurant: increasing gains, reducing time service and making guests happier as well. As a consequence, you save money.

For example,

This kind of program use as a support hardware: touch screen, wireless printer and handheld.

The most important quality for the software is usability and intuitive graphics interface, whoever can use it easily. Functioning is simple: for example, the waiter picks up orders with handheld and system delivers data to the kitchen and counter at once. Ticket can be printed on a shared receipt printer or on a separate printer in the kitchen or bar.

Moreover with a point of sale you are able to recorder everything: order entry, track and how much food you have in the warehouse.

The point of sale can tracks customers, reservations, status of table, previous order history, stores restaurant entire product list and ordering menu. You can update also data, adding new plates, beverages, prices, etc.

Computerizing the business restaurant means to check automatically profit, sale and employers too.

The most recent software is QuickOrder. It is the first one professional solution freeware for ordering management restaurant, works on Ubuntu (Linux), Mac and soon Windows.

The program is open source: so whoever vendors, software house, hardware manufacturer can get for free the software and develop their business as well.

Federica Costamagna journalist, communication and marketing Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Federica_Costamagna

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Web Based Accounting Software - The Equalizer

By Al Bullington

Competing as a small business requires adopting advantages quickly. Web based accounting software is such an advantage for many companies. It isn't just about cost savings either.

Though saving money is one advantage. In effect moving to online accounting lets a small business out source parts of the accounting function at very low cost. For example, payroll can be handled at low cost by online service while either eliminating the need for company staff or freeing staff for more productive tasks.

Another savings may result from reducing computer hardware required. That means lower computer support and training costs too. Also reduced software needs may save money. Less software in house also means less training and support.

Having real time information easily available at all times is the big plus for Internet accounting systems. Imagine the advantage of keeping inventory levels always current. That lets sales people know exactly what they can promise for delivery with no delays required for some kind of unreliable checking. Also order taking can be tied right to the inventory and accuracy can improve and mistakes can be reduced, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.

It isn't just inventories and sales and orders that benefit from real time information. Payroll updates can be just right all the time. That applies to tax updates as well as just changes to update hours worked or overtime, virtually any changes required to payrolls are done in real time.

Online accounting is no longer just for bigger businesses. Very small companies can join in this revolutionary change since the barriers to entry are so small. The major accounting software brands are all over this technology as are several smaller brands. Maybe the biggest challenge for most companies is deciding how to use this Internet technology. Networking computer systems requires some planning and investment, but the investment required is dropping. Help is available too to get you where you want to be.

Al Bullington is a CPA(retired) who also spent 15 years as a project manager with Fortune 500 companies. His main work focus now is small business start-ups.

To learn much more about web based accounting software, visit http://AccountingSoftwareTrends.com where you'll find help for choosing systems and more.

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Web Designing - Not Just About Good Looking Web Pages ?

By Kin Lee Say

Spent more than a year doing web maintenance, web designing, software development and SEO in Singapore. I have came to a realization that web design is no longer just about nice stunning photos with a good blend of colours. It has to include Branding, Marketing, Content Re-Creation, Web Strategic Alignment, and Search Engine Optimization.

With the abundance of affordable ready-made nice web design templates available 24 hours a day and the immediate availability of desktop software applications that can generate elegant web pages, the scope of a web designer may have to change.

Branding

This is one area, where there is a need for creativity. Branding is an art, it is also about establishing a unique presence on the web and defining a business operating culture. The web presence has to support the company vision and mission statement. Branding help sales.

Marketing

Marketing, in my opinion, is about business strategies. The web presence must be able to support the company marketing strategies to reach it's target segment customers on the web. A fair understanding of Internet Marketing is slowly becoming a must-have.

Content Re-Creation - Localise & Globalise

In the virtual world of Internet - content is king. As the world get smaller, there will be a need to localise and globalise websites. Generating content with speed is crucial to market penetration. Specialises in local native languages will be in demand in the near future - I believe.

Web Strategic Alignment

It is important to accurately measure the current web positioning strategies ( and resources ) with the market trends ( and web objective ). If necessary, fine tune the websites over a period of time to stay focus on the defined objective. Usually this is performed after the web pages development process.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is about implementing a series of guidelines defined by the search engines on websites. It is crucial for website to be able to draw traffic from search engines. A vast number of Internet users do perform a search FIRST using the search engines about the services or products they are seeking. A website which only looks good, may not serve any purpose.

Say Kin Lee is a web strategist for a web services company in Singapore, BizEngine Private Limited. Kin Lee graduated with a degree in Information Technology, major in Computing Science, from QUT Australia. He has the experience of developing enterprise level application while working for one of the largest software house in Singapore in the past. During the initial phase of starting his IT business, together with his team, he was involved in website maintenance using CMS, lightweight web design and flash web design. He then moved into J2EE out source development work, php development, Internet Business & Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization.

BizEngine website: http://www.bizengine.com.sg
BizEngine blog: http://businessengine.blogspot.com
Kin Lee is also available at http://www.ryze.com/go/klsay

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Costing At No Cost

By Luca Vignando

Cost estimation is always a crucial topic in many industries. For converters, it may be one of the keys to success… or to failure.

The estimation comes into play for several reasons: to prepare production budgets, for cost management and to define the prices and to make offers to customers.

Here we want to concentrate our attention on the problem of cost estimation in the cutting business.

We must make distinct considerations according to the material type to be cut.

Materials can be divided into two big categories, man-made and natural. It would be possible to make further classifications but these two are enough for our purposes.

The problem with man-made materials

As a first case, we deal with man-made materials, for which apparently the cost estimate of cutting is easy: the material is usually defect-free and comes in regular shapes, typically sheets or rolls of a standard size.

It may be simple to make a rough estimate of the quantity (and therefore the cost) of material needed to fulfil an order but it is important to consider a couple of factors:

• The final products (the cut parts) are hardly differentiated, so, for a given material, the distinguishing points of an offer for a cutting job can only be price and delivery time. Delivery time can be managed, since each company has a known average throughput and on the market there are many software products that can manage the production schedule to provide in time the parts to be shipped to the customers.
• Price is a much harder question since it is often the point on which the customer’s decisions are based. For this reason it is extremely important to have a sound basis to make a price, knowing exactly which is the cost of the material needed.

The problem with natural materials

Natural materials, such as leather or wood, are a completely different story. They come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and can have defects and holes. Moreover, the parts to be cut often have placing constraints (orientation, quality and so on) that make much harder to figure out how they can fit on the available piece of material.

There is no way to make a reliable estimate of the quantities to be used on natural materials.

All the available methods are based on mid- and long-term statistics, that can be helpful only as far as the main features of the material are similar across different batches and the parts to be cut are similar across different articles.

But in a real production environment these conditions are rarely respected and the estimates are always prone to errors and, of course, the offers based on these estimates are wrong.

The only way to obtain a perfect estimate is to place the parts on the actual material to be cut and then calculate the actual consumption.

The ultimate question

How to make an accurate and reliable estimate, quickly and at a reasonable cost?

We propose the ultimate answer to this question: do not estimate the material consumption: get the actual cost before cutting!

And the only way to get the data of the actual placements of parts is to perform the nesting for the whole order on the actual material batch to be cut.

This was almost impossible in the recent past, because it was a time-consuming process and required the availability of a high-performance computer with a (expensive) nesting software. In a few words, the automatic nesting for costing purposes was too expensive to be an option.

This is no more true for those companies who use the innovative technology of CUTWEB.

CUTWEB is a web-based application that allows the management and sharing of all the data related to nesting and cutting and provides the access to an on-line nesting service that uses high-performance nesting strategies, fine-tuned for different scenarios.

A web-based application like Cutweb can be used from any (cheap) internet-connected PC and a nesting server deals with all the calculations, getting rid of the need of a in-house dedicated workstation and of the need to buy a software license for each PC that access to nesting and cutting data.

Costing with CUTWEB becomes a breeze:

1. upload the parts and the material data
2. upload the order
3. start the nesting.
4. See the actual material cost

All this can be done quickly and at a negligible cost, just a few eurocents for each test so it becomes possible to run as many tests as you need.

In a few minutes the layouts will be calculated, and you will see exactly how and where the parts will be eventually cut and get a detailed (and of course customisable) report about the nesting.

You can keep the nesting on CUTWEB as long as you wish, and when the order is confirmed by the customer, then (and only then) you download it and cut at once, since the CUTWEB setup ensures that the downloaded data are compatible with your cutting machine.

The nesting cost is just a few Eurocents, you actually pay the nesting service when you download the data needed for the cutting.

There are many benefits that you can achieve organising the work on this way can be summarised in some key points:

• you pay for the nesting service only when the order is confirmed and you download the data for actual cutting
• there is no risk to waste your money on nestings that you will not use in production
• you can prepare precise offers based upon actual material cost not estimations
• you will spend less time and money in the costing and offering process
• higher chance to gain orders owing to the more accurate offerings
• improved overall production efficiency and throughput

The advantages for the control over the material cost

The cost of material plays a capital role in the cutting business and it is crucial to keep it under strict control.

This is especially difficult when dealing with natural and irregular materials, because even the basic operations such as the measurement of the area are subject to errors.

The use of an automatic nesting service requires a tool to digitise the materials. These tools are usually a table with one or more digital cameras placed upon it. A specialised software application automatically recognises the contour points and the holes in the material and calculates the actual area and uses the data collected to feed the automatic nesting system.

The advantages of this technology are several:

• It is possible to check if the material billed by the supplier matches the supplied one
• The data of placement yield are accurate
• It is possible to keep under control the material used to cut the orders.
• The advantages for a company with cutting subcontractors.

A company that delegates the cutting to subcontractors can greatly benefit from the CUTWEB technology for many reasons:

• It is possible to have a single interface to manage the communication and data transmission
• The control over the material quantities to be used for cutting is accurate and therefore it is possible to supply to the subcontractors with exactly the materials needed for the parts they must cut and there is no need to rely (or bet) on the efficiency that they can achieve: everything is clear and precise.

About The Author

I work for a small and dynamic Italian software house whose mission is to provide innovative and efficient solutions for the nesting and cutting business leveraging the power of the Internet.

Contact information:

String Srl
p.za Sraffa, 4
20136 Milano - Italy
tel: +39 02 58327335
fax: +39 02 58309890
mail: info@string.it
Web: http://www.string.it

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A Brief Overview of Software Outsourcing

By Ali Morakabi

The word outsourcing and offshore are normally considered as the same entity but they do have distinct differences. Outsourcing can be done within a country but offshore outsourcing means to give projects and accept projects from another foreign country. Software outsourcing means to give out software for development to companies other than one's own.

The advantages of outsourcing are tremendous although it also depends on the nature of work being outsourced. One of them is lesser costs as compared to taking on the work in house. Outsourcing is like a temporary contract meaning that an individual or a company would be under the contract until the certain project is complete. They may be hired later if a need arises but the buyers are not bound to choose only a particular service provider.

Another advantage that outsourcing can have is related to offshore as well. A buyer can give their demands offshore and outsource it. Offshore outsourcing also has a beneficial effect on the overall costs of the project. Some countries have a higher labor cost and when the work is outsourced to countries where labor is cheaper it could help save a fortune. Companies outsourcing work also scout for countries known for a particular talent or expertise. A software development company for example would like to target companies is a specific geographical region which are reputed and known to produce quality work at reasonable costs.

Software outsourcing is not limited to the development of new software alone. There is also the option to develop the software in house and later outsource the software for testing and debugging. Software development is one part of the software market and testing the prepared software and fixing its problems is another aspect. There may also be an option to add some new features if the necessity arises during testing. So even if the software has not been outsourced for development, it can still be outsourced for testing and debugging which can help save a few precious dollars.

Countries whose software related talent pool is limited or expensive can benefit greatly from outsourcing projects to countries which boast of cheap yet qualified software professionals. This not only helps them economize and divert funds elsewhere but also ensures that quality of work is not compromised in any way. They get professional services at lower costs and get to provide the same standard of service to their customers.

If you have any questions, or need to outsource web design & development project, wedesign4all.com offers a variety of IT solutions and will customize a solution to fit your needs.

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How Self Aware Is Your Interview Candidate? Seven Questions To Test Self Awareness

By Jawwad Farid

I recently went through a batch of new and year old graduates and after parsing (testing, interviewing) 40 odd prospects only made two offers. How do you improve your chances as a candidate. What are some of the questions I would/should ask?

The key attribute that distinguishes an outstanding small business employee is self awareness. In the last 13 years I have found self aware candidates to be more productive, more loyal, more resourceful and far easier to manage than candidates who were not.

Here is my first installment of interview questions that I wish candidates would review before walking in for an interview and more technology business owners should ask. The looks that you get as well as the answers will tell you much about the self awareness potential of the person you are interviewing:

1. A small business is a small business. Which means that if you have like structure and clarity you should stay away. If you like chaos and ambiguity, you should apply. Define structure, clarity, chaos and ambiguity?

2. A product focused company is different from a custom software development shop. A product focused company is not a software house. What do you think you will do here that you would not be doing at a software house?

3. Why not some one or some place else? Why us? Why now?

4. How much of a premium are you willing to pay for working with a group that is smarter than you are? How smart are you?

5. What is important to you? When was the last time you compromised on something that was important to you?

6. Are you self aware? Define self aware?

7. Have you had a life changing experience as yet? If not, why not?

Jawwad Ahmed Farid DesiStartup, Blue Screen of Death, Alchemy http://blog.alchemya.com http://bluescreen.alchemya.com http://www.alchemya.com

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Prompt and Persuasive Promotions

By Guy Smith

I'm rarely impressed by other people's promotions, but this one I have to share.

When introducing your company, products or services you must rapidly communicate what it is, what makes it different, and why the prospect should be interested. The more abstract the product or service, the more difficult this becomes.

When I came upon an online intro by NearSoft, I found a case study in how to do web promotions right.

NearSoft is a near-by outsourcing software development house ... in Mexico (not a country one normally has on a short list of offshore opportunities). Their value propositions are that (a) they are closer than India - same time zone as Phoenix - and (b) they eliminate many of the common offshore headaches (such as the cost of flying to India to manage project details).

The folks at NearSoft knew they had to communicate their unique value propositions in a short amount of time and make the message stick. They also knew that buzz marketing was the most effective means of spreading the word that outsourcing to Mexico was possible and sane.

So they made a video.

My initial reaction was "Well who in the Sam Hell hasn't made a video?" Getting your video noticed in the flood of online content has been classified by the American Psychiatric Association as a form of auto-masochism. Yet another self-serving promo video, from a Mexican software house none-the-less, sounded like a model for failure.

Here is what NearSoft did right. Use it as a "how to" model for promotions in general and web intros in particular.

Guarantee of brevity: They flatly state the intro lasts a mere 53 seconds. Anyone will invest under a minute is they know the time limit is real (which it wasn't, but that doesn't matter).

Selling the benefits: The speaker reads the benefits and the video animations drive home the points. This technique takes advantage of a subtle quirk of the human brain whereby it can absorb more information per unit of time if the information comes from multiple sensory input and it tightly related (this is the way we learn languages, by matching visual input with spoken words). I cannot tell you exactly what the speaker said, but after one viewing I got the idea that NearSoft was a $500 plane trip within one time zone, and that this saves me time, money and headaches.

Humor: Being funny makes even a software outsourcing company, in a relatively unknown town in Mexico, seem approachable. Humor can be tricky, so NearSoft uses visuals that are universally understood (or understandable) and tight synchronization with the spoken word (in fact, an early slide admits that the video is actually 85 seconds long while making the promise that it is 53 seconds). They juxtapose the announcer listing serious off-shoring issues (such as the "excessive rework") with unrelated images (Michael Jackson's nose).

The net effect (pun intended) is that the video successfully gets you to visit, listen, communicate why NearSoft is important, and give you a reason to spread the word (like I am doing now) even if you do not need their services. And they did it for very little money. All in all, great promotional effort.

Silicon Valley could learn a lesson or two from Hermosillo.

nearsoft.com/nearsoft-quick-intro.php

Guy Smith is the chief consultant for Silicon Strategies Marketing (http://www.SiliconStrat.com). Guy brings a combination of technical, managerial and marketing experience to Silicon Strategies projects. Directly and as a consultant, Guy has worked with a variety of technology-producing organizations. A partial list of these technology firms include ORBiT Group (high-availability backup software), Telamon (wireless middleware), Wink Communications (interactive television), LogMeIn (remote desktop), FundNET (SaaS), Open-Xchange (groupware), VA Software (enterprise software), Virtual Iron (server virtualization), SUSE (Linux distributions and applications), BrainWave (application prototyping) and Novell.

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Selecting Business Names and Intellectual Property Law

By L Ellis

Whether a software license agreement is properly constructed for a transaction depends on a range of factors. Of course, management of intellectual property rights for the copyright owner is a key area for close consideration. This entails defining the territory – usually countries - for the use of the software.

Software Development Contracts

A key indicator for complexity is whether the software licence is or will be part of a larger agreement to develop software from scratch – that old-fashioned word bespoke may ring a few bells. When computer software is developed under a contract, the proper advice is that a document specifying what the software will do at the end of the day should be incorporated into the agreement. Whether it is referred to as the functional specification, functional requirements or the requirements document is immaterial. What is important is that it defines with reasonable clarity what the software will do; and of course on a functional level.

Packaged Software Contracts

On the other end of the spectrum is a software licence for packaged software. In this case, the software is not to be built to any person’s particular specification, but rather the software supplier has gone to trouble of identifying a need in a market and constructed the software to fill the gap in the market. Sometimes – and more frequently – niche software is built with configuration options to deal with a broad array of configurations to suit different flavours of businesses. So, an accountancy package may be tailored to businesses from 10 people to 1,000 people. The point is this: software of this nature is fundamentally packaged and is sold as it is. There may be a requirement for extended configuration to suit the particular client’s needs, but in the end it is packaged and not software built to anyone’s particular specification, as is the case with software development contracts.

The difference may be obvious in this regard, but time and time again the wrong contract is used due to misconception as to the fundamental nature of what is being delivered.

After determining the fundamental nature of the software, some of the other matters that are frequently dealt with in so called software license agreements are:

1. The provision of maintenance and support service

2. Installation and testing

3. Service level agreements, delivery of improvements (whether they are updates or upgrades, rather than hot fixes). The software related services may be agreed in a separate document or they may be incorporated into the same agreement as the software licence. We return to these below.

Intellectual Property Rights

Terms of License

Assuming that the software supplier does not intend to assign the copyright in the software to the licensee, the terms of the licence are of crucial importance to software suppliers’ further exploitation of the software.

On the most generic level, there are 3 types of licences that may be granted: non-exclusive licences, sole licences and exclusive licences. Licences though, as they are only ‘permissions’ may be framed in anyway the parties wish. A software supplier will often wish to licence their software to a number of clients. In this case, the licence will be a non-exclusive licence as the software supplier grants a non-exclusive right to the licensee to use the software. Sole licences do not appear too often, and they simply mean that the licensor (the software supplier) grants a single licence to a party to use the software, and they retain the right to use the software themselves. On the other end of the licensing spectrum is the exclusive licence. In the event that a software supplier wishes to grant the licensee the right to use the software to the exclusion of all others, an exclusive licence is granted. Some care needs to be taken when granting exclusive licences, as courts will look at the terms of the exclusive licence and decide whether it is in substance an assignment. If it is, then a court will order that the licence term was not at law a licence at all, but rather an assignment and thus divesting the software supplier of all rights in the software.
Here is a brief example of the complexity that can be introduced in granting licences.

Suppose a supplier designs and constructs software that manages couriering of documents from office to office of business. It is possible for the software supplier to grant non-exclusive licences to businesses in a particular trade, say banking to use the software. Those licences may be restricted to use in a particular geographic region such as the City of London. The software supplier may then grant non-exclusive licences to businesses in the financial sector in Manchester to use the software. Further, the software supplier may grant an exclusive licence to a person to develop the source code to perform additional functions. This exclusive licence would deprive the software supplier from further developing the source code himself. So licensors of software are able to flexibly grant permissions to use the software, and restrict its use geographically, by industry and any other basis that appeals to them.

Extensions of these types of licensing are non-transferable and non-assignable licences, which effectively prevent licensors from selling or licensing others to use the software. One of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner is the distribution right – the right to licence others to distribute software. This is the foundation of the reseller agreements, whereby third parties are authorised to licence software on the software suppliers’ behalf. Most software licences do not grant the licensee the right exercise the distribution right as it would allow them to sell licences for the software.

Furthermore licences may be set for a fixed term or the grant of licence may be perpetual – allowing the licensee to use the software forever subject to any other conditions imposed by the licensor.

Tracking Licences

When the software is licensed on a per use basis, it is a good idea to provide that a register be maintained of copies made of the software, in addition to monitoring software use by Active Directory on Windows systems. Such implementations facilitate denying software use by electronic means. If this is to be done however, the licensor must be informed in the contract document.
Intellectual Property Rights Indemnities

In software licence agreements, these indemnities are geared to protect the licensee from primary liability for infringement where their use of the developed software would infringe patent rights or copyright. As innocence is no defence to infringement, a user of the software infringes intellectual property rights simply by using it. It is worthwhile to note however that the innocence may be taken into account in the assessment of damages. These indemnities are becoming more important to licensees as an incidental effect of the popularity in obtaining patent rights. Patented inventions may be combined with other inventions, and although in patent cases infringement may be difficult to prove in the absence of great expense, the existence of patent rights in software is the best form of protection, because there is no defence that the software was independently created. That defence is only available in copyright infringement cases.

In order to claim the benefit of an indemnity, the indemnifier should require that they have conduct of the defence of the infringement defence proceedings and insist on the cooperation and assistance of the indemnified party in defending the claim. This to some extent allows the indemnifier to control their costs and run the defence in their best interests. The software supplier is in the best position to run the defence in any event due to their knowledge of the development of the software and the sources drawn on in developing it.

Usually accompanying intellectual property indemnities are provisions requiring the software supplier to replace infringing aspects of the source code and failing this, pay the expenses of the licensee in doing so.

Payment for Licences

Owing to the nature of the rights of the licensor in granting software licenses, the licensor is able to structure the payment for licences to build in flexibility to payment structures.
Restrictions may also be placed on the use of software over a network, per machine, single use, on specified equipment, per user, per site, worldwide, by territory or any combination of these.
The most basic form of licence seems to be a fixed sum for an organisation. Extensions of this form of licence may be for a set number of users with additional licences incurring an additional fee for a fixed period. For multifaceted software, different fees may be applied for different the types of licences required. For instance, an organisation may require additional administration licences or data processing licences each of which would attract a different price point.

Where licences granted are not intended to be perpetual, the timing of renewal payments should be set out and the method of calculation of the sum falling due. Properly drafted contracts should allow for price rises over the course of the licensing period together with price rises in materials and human resources. Also, the parties should consider whether they want the licence to renew automatically, or to automatically lapse.

It is worthwhile providing for interest rates where payments are late, but failing that the Late Payments of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 will apply for those late payments.

Other Payments

Where software has been commissioned, there may well be hardware requirements to host the software or other expenses such as staff costs, other materials and travel expenses that should be dealt with in the agreement. For clarity, whether the prices are inclusive or exclusive of VAT it should be made clear to avoid doubt as to who will be liable for the tax in the event it becomes payable in unexpected circumstances.

Additional Services and Improvements (Upgrade Services)

Provision may be made in software license agreements for further development and/or customisations by the software supplier. These are commonly dealt with in two ways. Firstly, the supplier may be required to provide a quote for the development services requested by the licensee or alternatively the software supplier may be granted entitlement to charge time and materials at published rates. It is rare in this day and age for suppliers to be given a blank cheque to perform further services for licensors wishing to improve the functionality of the software.
In packaged software and commissioned software licence agreements, especially in the case where the software is licensed on a non-exclusive basis and constantly improved and developed, licences often entitle the licensee to improvements for a fixed period. In the case that a licensor has uniquely funded the development but receives the software at a reduced price, more favourable rights to receive improvements are commonly encountered.

Change Control

Effective change control provisions are imperative to prevent scope creep, but in order to be effective, a functional specification or other document must be incorporated into the agreement to provide a point of reference for change control. Change Control provisions also allow an elegant mechanism for the software supplier to extend the delivery time scales. Where scope creep occurs, the supplier may not have a problem performing the additional work, but to perform the work in the same timeframe as original work is unrealistic. The focus in this sense is contract management: managing the deliverables, and when they are to be delivered. Change control is not to be underestimated.

Factory Acceptance Testing

In order for a software supplier to ensure their products are fit for purpose, factory acceptance testing must take place before a software product is released.

For off the shelf products the onus is solely on the software supplier to ensure the product meets the functional requirements and is bug free to avoid having to patch copies of software already released to market.

However, in more bespoke or customisable solutions the responsibility for successful factory acceptance testing prior to release falls on both parties. The majority of the responsibility falls on the software supplier to ensure that the product is tested in house prior to release.

Time pressure to deliver often reduces the actual time spent on this phase of software development to a minimum. This is a cause of a far greater number of faults being reported in the user acceptance testing phase which is a more costly exercise for both parties.

To ensure factory acceptance testing occurs and is performed adequately obligations must be placed upon the software supplier to deliver test documentation to the customer for review prior to the customer signing off to receive a release. The test results should contain certain numbers of test iterations across the whole software suite.

Obligations must also be placed upon the customer to deliver in a timely manner items such as a suite of test data and test scripts to the software supplier. Forcing this co-operation through contractual agreement creates a balance in the contract to focus the parties minds on the job in hand thereby reducing the time spent user acceptance testing on a customer’s site thereby reducing cost.

User Acceptance Testing

Released software invariably involves some degree of acceptance testing and the methods of conducting it are more or less onerous on the software supplier. To properly conduct acceptance testing, the purchaser should be given the opportunity to prepare their own test data and test scripts. The acceptance testing should be conducted in the presence of the software supplier so that instances of apparent defects may be dealt with immediately, and if the tests are successful obtain the acceptance certificate immediately, as acceptance certificates are the precursor to payment. Provision for retesting should be set out to allow a speedy process in the event that a genuine defect is identified during acceptance testing process. Warranty periods for software maintenance arising from defects should run from the acceptance date and not before.

Documentation Requirements

As businesses become more sophisticated in respect to the delivery of computer software, so does the requirement for cogent user documentation.

This is a minimum requirement for packaged and commissioned software. In the event that the intellectual property rights are to be assigned to the commissioner of the software, delivery of design documents, project management documents and user requirements documents are likely to be required to be delivered at the conclusion of the development project, to enable the commissioner of the software to develop the software in its own right.

Usually there is no commercial reason to grant rights to access these development documents where the software is subject to a package licence, or where the licensee is simply entitled to use the software.

Training

Training may take a variety of forms. In the case of commissioned software, the software supplier may need to ‘train the trainer’ of the licensee as a minimum requirement, or for additional fees, conduct formal training sessions for end users. Much depends on the complexity of the software and computer literacy of the intended user base.

Escrow Arrangements

Escrow agreements are geared to protect the licensee paying a software supplier to design and construct software that meets their particular needs. These agreements are relied upon when the software house loses the means to continue to support the software whether through liquidation or lack of will. Escrow contracts are premised on the state of affairs that the licensee is never in possession of the source code, and to that extent, the licensee is exposed to the risk that if the software supplier or software house fails, they have recourse to the source to maintain and develop that source code. The conditions for release of the software to the licensee may be made as particular as the parties wish to make them. The more formal flavour of escrow agreements involves an independent trusted third party who specialise in providing escrow services. They take possession of the source code for the software, and undertake by contract to release the source code to the licensee only in the specified circumstances. The licensee gains some comfort in managing their risk in investing in the software development in the first instance.

Penalty Payments for Failure to Deliver

Rather than be forced to commence litigation in order to recover damages and to reduce the administrative cost of contract management, incorporation of penalty payments (liquidated damages) clauses into software license agreements is increasingly commonplace. Already, liquidated damages clauses are frequently used as the means for recovery for failure to meet agreed service levels. These liquidated damages payments come in the form of service level credits. The difficulty with liquidated damages clauses to setting the damages to be paid in the event of breach or non-performance to a level that does not qualify as a penalty or a forfeiture, which are unenforceable in the English legal system. The linchpin in determining whether a liquidated damages clause will be considered a penalty or forfeiture is whether the sum of liquidated damage is a genuine pre-estimate of the loss that will be suffered as a result of the breach that leads to the right for liquidated damages to be paid. Agreeing sums to be paid by way of liquidated damages however does not limit the payee to accept the specified or calculated sum in the event of a breach, as they may still sue for damages at large.

Termination

The two provisions that cater for termination in practically every professionally prepared document – where the parties have near equal bargaining power - are that either party may terminate in the event of a material breach or where one party enters liquidation or is otherwise insolvent.
Incorporating other rights to terminate largely relies on the nature of the services to be provided. Having right to terminate the contractual obligations assumes that there are continuing obligations under the contract. If the contract simply grants a perpetual software licence for a fixed fee, then it stands to reason that there is little need for rights to terminate. The modern style of contract drafting, even for packaged software (which are commonly instances of a perpetual licence grant ion) commonly exist in software licence agreements, and generally relate to the failure of the provider to meet specified minimum service levels.

Consequences of Termination

In the case of outsourced software services, exit management provisions are essential to ensuring a timely and professional handover of the outsourced services. In the context of software developed and subsequently licensed, it may be that it is appropriate for the licensor to

1. Hand back user documentation

2. Delete all copies of the software residing on servers and workstations

3. Deliver up copies of the software on backup media and

4. Destroy confidential information.

Certificates of compliance may be used to obtain confirmation that the post-termination requirements of the contract have been adhered to.

On a related issue, this is where managing software licensing by electronic means is a useful tool to prevent use of the software. This is an under utilised measure by licensors to ensure that the computer software cannot be used.

Limitations of Liability

Limiting liability can be one of the most contentious issues in negotiating licence terms. The purpose of limitations of liability is to exclude or otherwise limit liability that arises in a party in the event of a breach of contract or negligence in performing the contract. Liability that cannot be excluded should be insured and there is a good case for employing other means to manage corporate liability and protect the assets of a company, which naturally includes intellectual property assets. Liability arising from negligence that causes personal injury or death cannot be limited or excluded in any case. The types of liability that may be excluded include property damage; loss of profits, business or revenue; consequential or incidental loss; loss of goodwill and the damage caused by the loss and destruction of data.

In technology contracts that use facilities such as the Internet that are outside the control of the parties, force majeure clauses may be used to absolve the parties of liability when something goes wrong. Force majeure clauses may refer to named events as well as a general type of event. The effect is to avoid the instance of a party being in breach where the events are outside their control.

The basic checklist for some of the provisions that are often sensibly incorporated into software license agreements is:

1. The Parties

2. The Price

3. Obligations of the Software Supplier

4. Obligations of the Licensee

5. User Acceptance Testing Procedures leading to Acceptance, including warranty periods that will apply thereafter

6. Additional Services

7. Change Control

8. Training Requirements

9. Escrow Agreement

10. Service Levels

11. Service Level Compensation

12. Liquidated Damages

13. User Documentation

14. Rights to Improvements

15. Confidentiality obligations

16. Intellectual Property Rights

a. Branding rights

b. Terms of licence
17. Confidentiality obligations

18. Termination clauses

19. Consequences of Termination

20. Limitations of Liability

Leigh Ellis is an IPR lawyer at Gillhams Solicitors in London. As a specialist intellectual property lawyer, he provides legal advice on licensing, selling and acquiring software and software disputes

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=L_Ellis

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