What many of these IT leaders do wrong is to focus on cost-cutting rather than focus on ways of growing the business. The CEO and other executives are interested in growth and will be more that willing to hear ideas on how IT can help them achieve that goal.

Here are some ideas on how you can help grow the business and, at the same time, bring transform the business.

• Seek to grow revenue, not cut costs. Think about how additional revenue can come into the business using IT. Can you help marketing better analyze sales data to improve their efforts? Can adding automated workflows reduce turnaround times from sale to delivery?
• Find ways to do more with what you have and not necessarily reducing what you already have. How can you optimize space used? How about increasing the efficiency of the sales team? Using chain management software, one company was able to increase the output of their plant by optimizing orders of raw materials to better utilize the existing storage space.
• Introduce e-collaboration throughout the company. Studies have shown that collaboration with both direct and indirect ties improves productivity and innovation in firms. Some companies already have such infrastructure in place, such as Microsoft SharePoint, but fail to utilise the software to its maximum potential, settling for a nice intranet web site rather than a real collaborative platform for Wikis, forums and information sharing.
• Increase value to other decision-makers by making data available in a more friendly way. Instead of having reports generated in usual spreadsheets, consider using visuals instead of tables for example, or automate trending to see the ups and downs. Data in a more visualised display is always more easily understood, which explains the popularity with infographics.

This is list is not exhaustive, but it’s just to get you started.

You won’t find success overnight, but formulate a strategy with one goal, perhaps two, and execute the relevant tasks to reach that goal. You will find that IT would be much more valued than before.

Original article: ... and add greater value to the business'">4 Ideas that IT Leaders can use to bring Transformational Change ... and add greater value to the business

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.

I reviewed my program and implemented some new processes to help me, and by the end of March (within three months) I lost the final 20 lbs that I needed, and currently maintaining that weight.

This experience has taught me a few things that can be used by businesses to improve and help them reach their goals. Here are some of the lessons I learned.

1. Measuring progress is critical.

You can decide that you are going to lose weight by eating less and exercising more, but by how much of each do you mean? You need to note how many calories you intake by eating and expend by exercise, otherwise you are just making wild guesses and will not go far. Yes, you might lose weight, but not nearly as much as if you were accounting for those calories.

The same with business; if you decide on making certain changes, ensure that you determine how much you are going to change it by and then measure those changes as you go along.

2. What you measure is important.

Most people trying to lose weight look at only one measurement: how much weight they lose. The problem with that is that you cannot directly control your weight loss. You cannot will yourself to lose 10lbs. But you can control other things that your weight depends on – namely how many calories you eat and how much you burn by exercise. By looking primarily at those figures, you will start to see results. You will still look at your weight, but only as a secondary measure to determine if you are on the right track.

It is the same with business. You cannot will more profits, but you can control things like how much you spend on services or other expenses, and how many customers you speak to on a daily basis. By keeping track of those activities that you can directly control, you will have the type of profits you want.

3. The right activities matter.

When I first tried to lose weight I was doing a lot of cardio exercises and not merely eating as well as I should have. What I later learned is that I needed to improve my diet and include more weight training exercises and less cardio. With that my weight loss was far more dramatic.

What activities are your business following that may be outdated or just plain wrong? Read up on new and emerging business management research. Just like health, new findings may render the ways you thought you should follow as unbeneficial.

4. Be consistent.

We are hardwired for instant gratification, and we would often keep changing tactics when we don’t see results soon enough. I was doing a little of this, and when I didn’t get results I did a little of that. Exercised one week, dieted the next, then exercised two weeks later. As expected, I didn’t lose much during that time. Then I set a consistent routine of diet and exercise, which had a significant impact.

In your business, you can’t try one thing, then another and another without any type of structure and expect to see the results you want. Do your research, choose your method, give it serious effort and after some time determine if it’s been working or whether you need to improve it or change it altogether.

5. Determine your motivation.

Just wanting something is not enough! You must have a very good reason for wanting something, which resonates to cause real change. I wanted to lose weight, but it was not until I had a real reason that I got serious and lost most of my weight.

What is your reason for wanting to improve and grow your business? You might be motivated, but do you employees feel the same? You must have a reason that resonates with them as well; a rallying cry that everyone can agree with and want just as badly. Find that out and you will be unstoppable.

6. Sometimes you need help.

I got a lot of help in order to lose weight. I did research on the internet, read books, joined online forums and, one that really helped me, a mobile app for my phone. That app helped me keep track of my meals, exercise and weight and also gave me lots of excellent tips.

What help does your business need? Do you need information, support or tools? Ensure that you get the help you need to achieve the goals you want.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

There is a saying that weight loss is a marathon and not a sprint, which is to say, that it’s really a slow and steady effort to get where you’re going, otherwise you can burn out and never reach there. I understand that many businesses have shareholders and investors to report to, but you must also decide if you want a company that will last. While I know that nothing is guaranteed in business, continuous improvement is a proven way to keep a business going and growing.

May your hard work pay off, whether it’s in business or losing weight.

Original article: and you should learn them too!'">6 Business lessons that I learned from losing weight and you should learn them too!

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.

In an address to the audience during a recently concluded seminar entitled “Cloud Vision”, the Honourable Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education (MSTTE), Fazal Karim, said that technology services should take into consideration our mobile penetration. The seminar was held by the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Service Industries (TTCSI) and the Trinidad and Tobago Information and Communications Technology Society.

In the Caribbean, there is an average mobile penetration of 62%, compare that to Trinidad and Tobago with a penetration of 141%, which means that many people have more that one phone. This is quite high, but the question is what type of phones; unfortunately we don’t have an answer for that. Based on data gathered from Asymco, 70% of worldwide phone are non-smartphones. See Chart 1.

The US is not much different, with about 65% of phones being non-smartphones (see Chart 2). My guess is that the landscape is no different here.

So if we are to develop applications to take advantage of our mobile penetration, what platform should we develop on? The answer, all depends on who our market is.

If you are building for a niche, with graphic user interfaces (GUI) then you should develop in one of the other OS platforms. I think that Android will have a higher penetration among smartphone users, since many low cost manufacturers are porting the OS onto their hardware as it is free and open source. This may mean though that the OS may become heavily fragmented with developers having a difficult time coding their application to support the many versions out there. iPhone has less fragmentation, but the price premium may keep it out of reach of lower income households. See Chart 3 on the current US OS share and installed base for smartphones.

HTML5 has a lot of promise, but this is dependent on web services being available on mobile phones. This usually comes at a price and may not be available wherever there is cell service. Additionally, not all mobile platforms may natively support HTML5 in the phone’s browser, essentially rendering the application unusable.

If you are building an application for the masses, then the application should be SMS (Short Message Service) based. SMS will work on both smart and non-smart phones, is a familiar interface for many users, and will work reliably once there is cell service.

In conclusion, mobile applications being built for citizens at large, should still operate on the SMS platform. In the foreseeable future, I think it is unlikely that smartphone penetration would overtake non-smartphone penetration. However, skills should be kept up-to-date to take advantage of any changes in policy or technology that allows smartphone use to increase dramatically.

Original article: Mobile Applications for the Mobile Phone Market

©2025 Interxect Services Limited. All Rights Reserved.