CMS News Desk

Looking for a Good Content Management System?

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:15:00 EST

Content Management Systems (CMSs) help you collaboratively create and edit content such as news articles, manuals, guides, images, videos, and brochures and other publications. There are so many that are available on the web as downloadable apps that I’m certain you’ll find one that fits your needs. This is an open source platform enabling users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Optional modules add interesting features like forums, picture galleries, file uploads and downloads, user blogs, OpenID, profiles and more. Drupal is also free.

Survival Guide for Hard Drive Data Recovery

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:58:42 EST

The procedure of hard disk recovery has risen to the prominence over recent few years, as a huge amount of valuable data is stored on your storage devices. When you perform any action on your computer system, it means some data and information is written on your drive. Even when the stored data is removed from the drive, it remains there only. Data just become inaccessible through normal methods. In such cases, Data Recovery solutions help you out to retrieve lost, missing or inaccessible data.

Developing Strategic Content

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:15:00 EST

I’m going to ask you a few questions. No answers today. Just questions you may want to answer for yourselves. How will you know that the content you are providing is the appropriate content for your prospect base? What skills do you need to have in addition to the ones you already have, to ensure that the [...]

Open Source Content Management Software Company New CEO

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:15:00 EST

eZ Systems, the world´s largest open source content management software company, announced today that former IBM and BEA executive Christoph Rau will join the company as CEO, effective immediately.

Version 3 of SCHEMA ST4 With Significantly Expanded Features

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

The new version of SCHEMA ST4 features several highlights, among them the possibility for unified presentation of technical documentation, a new product information management (PIM) module, and more flexibility for the layout of text and graphical elements. In addition, this XML-based editing and content management system now offers extended reporting functionality, allowing users to uncover hidden potential for content reuse. The fully automated conversion of graphics is another option that has been added to the extended features of the new SCHEMA ST4. The software now supports the new EPUB format for the easy display of documentation on mobile devices. SCHEMA GmbH is presenting the new version of SCHEMA ST4 at the tekom annual conference, November 4-6 2009 in Wiesbaden (hall 1, booth 114).

Beyond Social Business Software

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:30:00 EDT

One of the most hotly debated questions among marketers and company executives is “What does it mean to be a social business?”Today Acquia, Inc., the enterprise guide to the Drupal social publishing system provides the answer and also reveals what Social Business Software vendors aren’t telling you: your investment in Social Business Software is at risk because it is only a one-sided approach to social business. Social publishing is the technology platform for true social businesses.

Amartya Sen: The Idea of Justice

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:30:00 EDT

His latest book, The Idea of Justice, is a serious re-examination of the foundations of justice from a global perspective. He speaks of the two definitions of justice in Sanskrit - niti (institutional justice) and nyaya (realized justice) - and how we are too often misled by the utopian vision of ideal justice, only to allow societal injustice all around us in our everyday lives. For Sen, justice must alleviate suffering.

Drupal Tip to Enable Clean URLs on Mac OS

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:15:00 EDT

Here's a little Drupal Tip O' the Day for our readers. As many of you know, we're platform agnostic here at Orchestra (meaning we run Macs, Linux, Windows and more), so we often end up discovering little tricks and tips about our different OSes. For those of you building a Drupal website from a Mac, this a handy bit of info.

Amazon's VPC Opens the Door for Innovation and Enterprise Cloud Adoption

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:45:00 EDT

The recent announcement from Amazon of the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) represents the next big advance in the evolution chain for cloud computing. Enterprises can now integrate their IT infrastructure with Amazon's vast computing and storage resources, using a VPN connection from their data center to their own virtual private cloud which then looks like part of their internal network.

Until the release of VPC, companies were left to build applications and utilize the cloud as a separate and somewhat siloed portion of their computing environment. In addition to the VPN connection, VPC allows cloud users to control their IP addressing within the Amazon cloud (previously IT addresses were assigned randomly). This may sound trivial, but it solves some tricky problems that made it hard to integrate cloud and internal resources.

Prior to VPC, every time you started a server in Amazon, you would get a new, randomly assigned IP address for that server. This created a lot of issues with how typical applications operate, e.g.: how do you communicate the address of this new server? How do you run authentication/certificate processes with a changing address? How do you deal with identity when IP addresses change at every start? Add to this the fact that cloud servers were separate from internal servers, so internal services that you normally take advantage of (DNS, LDAP, etc.) were not available without a lot of work. VPC provides a way to connect cloud resources to your data center and start to smooth over the differences.

Okay, how does this work? A standard edge networking device in your data center is configured to connect with Amazon's VPC. You can create your own sub-nets within Amazon, and when you launch a server you assign it to one of them. You specify the IP address range for your servers, and VPC performs the "security dance" to build the VPN between the edge device and your private network in Amazon's cloud. All you have to do is update your routing tables so that processes in the data center can reach applications in the cloud and you're off to the races.

By allowing customers to integrate their data center networks with Amazon's cloud, VPC takes the first step in bringing the cloud and the enterprise data center together. While one large hurdle has been removed, there's still work to be done, as indicated in RightScale's blog. As enterprises review the VPC offering, there are things they need to consider as they determine how to deploy and use it.

Networking: VPC provides a layer-3 connection between the data center and the cloud, which means that traffic is based on IP address routing. You'll have some work to do to figure out things like managing addressing in the cloud, and the implication of MAC addresses changing on every server start. In contrast, the holy grail of this integration is based on the Ethernet level (layer-2), where everything "just works" -- allowing seamless migration of applications between the data center and the cloud (and back). Some applications require layer-2 connectivity (for broadcasting for example), which means they would probably need to remain in your data center.

Security: As the name indicates, VPC doesn't provide truly private infrastructure, but a virtually private infrastructure -- servers deployed into your virtual private cloud are allocated from the same shared resources that Amazon uses for all its customers. Thus, you still have to think about possible additional security measures in the cloud, both for networking (VPC doesn't allow for encryption between servers), as well as how to protect data in shared storage.

Management: Developers will have to deal with the "assembly required" aspect of mapping applications to Amazon's infrastructure. There's no simple way to move existing servers to the cloud, which means you'll have to determine how to provision and configure cloud resources, and how much custom work might be needed to interface with Amazon APIs. Deployment is complicated by Amazon specifics -- how to launch an instance, attach storage resources, reset applications to use the proper storage path, etc. You'll also have to address the fact that base servers run on "ephemeral storage", meaning that server outages cause the loss of all data/updates. (There are many blog posts on this topic; this one is typical.)

Flexibility and choice: Finally, while VPC solves some major headaches for companies that are committed to AWS, it is not applicable for those who want the flexibility of multi-cloud offerings. This is important because users have no control of a cloud provider's infrastructure. When a provider decides to upgrade or change anything, users must go along for the ride.

So to sum up, Amazon's VPC represents an exciting step forward along the road to making the cloud truly enterprise-ready. Cloud computing has come a long way over the last two years, and in many ways Amazon has been setting the pace. Their new offering lays the foundation for the next set of solutions for enterprise adoption from other companies in the cloud computing ecosystem. At CloudSwitch, we're excited to take advantage of the ongoing improvements by Amazon to their infrastructure, and working hard to eliminate complexity and make cloud computing simple, seamless and more cost-effective than ever.

Online Advertising on New Media Platforms

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:45:00 EDT

The French subsidiary of Condé Nast S.A., one of the world's largest private communications groups (Advance Magazine Publishers Inc.), has selected Ingres, the leading open source database management company and pioneer of The New Economics of IT, to develop a critical application to manage advertising space for its publications. Condé Nast Publications is home to many of the world’s celebrated magazines and websites and is committed to journalistic integrity, influential reporters, and superior design. Just a few of the publication titles within the Condé Nast family published worldwide include Vogue, Glamour, The New Yorker, Details, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, and Golf Digest. Condé Nast France relies on Ingres Database, the leading open source database for business critical applications, for its advertising space management system. The system helps the French subsidiary of Condé Nast Publications develop the rates it charges advertisers and is a key component in the revenue generation stream.

Data Recovery Post NTFS Boot Sector Corruption

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:54:31 EDT

NTFS boot sector is the first sector of an NTFS-based hard drive that contains vital information needed by your computer system to start the operating system. Although the NTFS boot sector is less prone to corruption or damage, corruption or damage can still occur.

The Content Marketing PlayBook

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:48:00 EDT

42 content marketing tactics, over 50 case studies and hundreds of resources - "The Content Marketing Playbook: 42 Ways to Connect with Customers" is packed with lots of ideas to execute on your content strategy. Read on to get an insider look into the making of "The Content Marketing Playbook" from authors Joe Pulizzi and Jonathan Kranz.

Oracle Enhances Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:06:00 EDT

Extending the enterprise-wide Project Portfolio Management (PPM) capabilities of Oracle's Primavera product suite, Oracle today announced new releases of Oracle's Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management and Oracle's Primavera Contract Management. The new Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management 7.0 and Primavera Contract Management 13 releases provide significant usability, integration and collaboration enhancements.

Healthcare Leaders to Bridge Gaps in Preparation for Obama’s Reform

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:25:28 EDT

A recent poll shows more than 96% of Healthcare professionals are following Obama's Reform debate closely. The President's new ideals for healthcare are clearly a major issue for the industry and many leading professionals are asking the question Is their business prepared for such change? Increased demand and financial strain are pushing all areas of Healthcare, so efficiencies must be found quickly to stabilize the industry in time for the storm.

News Is a River Is a Blog

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:21:00 EDT

WLEX-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, an NBC affiliate, has turned its news site into a blog. It actually contains news produced independently of what goes out on broadcast. Very very interesting. It’s a different way of slicing the news, with much debt to Dave Winer’s river of news idea, and it’ll be fascinating to see how and in what ways it’s useful and how it changes our idea of what news should be.

Zimbra on Ulitzer Topic Launched

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EDT

Zimbra is open source server software for email and collaboration - email, group calendar, contacts, instant messaging, file storage and web document management. The Zimbra email and calendar server is available for Linux, Mac OS X and virtualization platforms. Zimbra syncs to smartphones (iPhone, BlackBerry) and desktop clients like Outlook and Thunderbird. Zimbra also features archiving and discovery for compliance. Zimbra can be deployed on-premise or as a hosted email solution.

Prolifics Offers Easy Transition to IBM Lotus Web Content Management

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:00:00 EDT

Prolifics, an end-to-end systems integrator specializing in IBM technologies, today announced that it continues to offer companies an easy transition to Lotus Web Content Management (WebCM). In today's fast-paced business environment, organizations must have the ability to effectively manage content to applications and business processes. IBM Lotus Web Content Management is a sophisticated Web content management product designed to accelerate development and delivery of critical business information across enterprises.

FatWire Selected by Danish Telco Telmore

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:15:00 EDT

An innovative Internet-based mobile phone services provider, Telmore has been growing rapidly – and so has its online audience. Nearly 50,000 people per day visit the Telmore website, and the company currently has the highest volume of e-commerce transactions in Denmark. Telmore’s content contributors found it an increasing challenge to continue to provide timely and relevant content to meet the needs of its growing online audience. Telmore accordingly sought a web content management (WCM) solution that would enable faster and more efficient content updates, and empower its marketers set up and deliver targeted content and online campaigns with ease.

EMC Buys Kazeon

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:45:00 EDT

In its second purchase in two days EMC said late Tuesday that it was buying eDiscovery shop Kazeon Systems Inc, whose software is used by corporations, law firms, government agencies and legal service providers. Terms were not disclosed and are too immaterial to impact EMC’s results this year. The transaction is expected to close by the end of September.

Carbonite Online Backup Storage Automatically Backs Up Data on Your PC

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:47:00 EDT

Online backup storage from Carbonite is the right tool if you want to automatically back up all the data on your PC. Most importantly, Carbonite is a set-and-forget service. It takes just one minute to download and install and then you're all set. Carbonite is integrated with the Windows file explorer so it has interface already familiar to you. Data is encrypted and secured before it leaves your PC and remains encrypted all the time. Your computer is filled with irreplaceable files: emails, photos, music, business contacts and financials.

Drupal is Hot Topic on Twitter

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Here's a brief look at what people are saying about Drupal in Twitter. It's getting hot in here. I'm using drupal http://drupal.org to build a new paid membership site - andabwa User Wall: A simple "facebook" style wall module. Allows users inside the drupal site to view and post on each o.. http://bit.ly/2FfFpg - drupal_derhasi drupal rocks! It's just so damn brilliant! - Lewismiller is testing the drupal to twitter integration - bookism

Orchestra Featured on SAP Ulitzer Site

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:15:00 EDT

Wow, look at me, I'm famous. Oh wait, what have I done. Are people going to follow me to the grocery store with cameras now? Probably not, unless the world turns it's attention from Jon and Kate to SAP Business One. But in our little world, this is pretty cool. Orchestra and myself are featured on the SAP site at SYS-CON. Check us out on the front page.

Centric Revamps The Motorists Insurance Group Web Portal with Jahia Enterprise Edition

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:15:00 EDT

Centric, a leading management and technology consulting company, today announced completion of the new web presence for Motorists Insurance Group. Jahia, the premier Open Source web content integration software, has been chosen to power all external knowledge sharing solutions of the regional multi-line insurer. Motorists Mutual Insurance Company is the lead company in The Motorists Insurance Group, based in Columbus, Ohio. The group of companies is composed of nine property and casualty, life insurance and brokerage companies that operate in 25 states. At year-end 2008, the group of companies had $641.7 million in net written premium and $541.3 million in policyholder security funds.

Five-Minute IT Outsourcing Survey – Win an iPhone 3GS!

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EDT

Are you a C-level IT executive or IT decision maker? Take this brief eight-question multiple choice survey on IT Outsourcing and you’ll receive a one in 50 chance of winning a new iPhone 3GS! You’ll also be among the first to receive the compelling survey results, offering insight into top C-level executives’ vision for IT Outsourcing.

Three Ways to Get Nervous Prospects off the Fence

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:45:00 EDT

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone personally who uses the company's services. And beyond a few vague testimonials, the company doesn't have any stories of other customers' successes. When prospects are looking for evidence from satisfied customers, are you delivering it? Here are 3 ways to help get buyers off the fence – with customer stories.

‘Antiquated’ Systems Means the Government Is Not Delivering

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:30:00 EDT

‘Antiquated’ systems means the Government is not delivering Claims the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health during an exclusive interview for MeettheBoss.com

Wildfire Social Media Promotions, CEO Victoria Ransom, Exclusive Interview

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:15:00 EDT

Wildfire delivers a social media promotions platform. This is an interview with its CEO Victoria Ransom. We play in 2 categories, we’re in the Social Media Marketing category and we’re also in the promotions space. We've taken promotion formats that have been proven successful and have made them viral and social by tapping into the social networks. From a metrics standpoint, we are also able to see how many people were driven to the campaign, how many people signed up and we can track the viral spread. We can see how many friends make an invite and their overall behavior in relation to the promotion.

Bazaarvoice #1 for Customer Ratings & Reviews Among Internet Retailer 500

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that it serves more retailers on the 2009 Internet Retailer 500 ranking than any other social media competitor. Bazaarvoice dominates the Top 100, where it beats out its nearest competitor by a ratio of 4:1. Bazaarvoice’s market leadership is even more pronounced in the Top 50, where it bests the competition by a ratio of nearly 7:1 with clients like Best Buy, Costco, Dell, Macy’s, Overstock.com, QVC, and others.

Getting Short-Listed & Winning Work: Include Case Studies in Each Proposal

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:30:00 EDT

It’s clear that customer case studies and success stories are integral to the sales process. But how many organizations actually use them in every proposal? How do you bring your customer stories into your sales proposals? Here, Robin Haydon, Australian proposal-writing expert and author of the book "The Shredder Test," shares her tips from years of consulting with organizations on how to create bids, pitches and sales proposals that get results.

Help Nonprofits Sell Better with Stories

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Information in the context of a story is dramatically more compelling than straight facts. Yet, many nonprofits fail to tell stories to illustrate their challenges and successful outcomes. Whether you work for a nonprofit, are an independent writer, or board member or volunteer, here are some tips for helping nonprofits integrate stories more frequently and effectively into communications.

Upstart NZ Telco Launches New Mobile Service

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:03:00 EDT

Two Degrees Mobile (http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/) is New Zealand’s newest mobile company. They’ve spent $250 million constructing a brand new mobile network in New Zealand and have launched their offering this week with extremely aggressive pricing. This upstart telecoms operation is set to shake up the market in New Zealand and hopefully (for the consumers) bring mobile charges down to levels that will encourage a massive growth in mobile communication.

Twitter is Most Linked to Social Media Outlet

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Email Data Source, Inc., the email marketing industry’s original source for email competitive intelligence, has announced that Twitter has officially become the most linked to social media outlet in email marketing campaigns. “In the data Email Data Source has been tracking, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of email marketing campaigns that contain links to Facebook and Twitter,” said Bill McCloskey, chairman and co-founder of Email Data Source. “In fact, starting in 2009 twitter.com and facebook.com have become the two most prominent linked to sites in all of email marketing.”

SoftwareFX Webinar on SharePoint 2007 Charts

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:45:00 EDT

DataParts for SharePoint 2007 is an exciting new family of Web Parts from Software FX that enable you to add business intelligence, data visualization and analysis to your SharePoint portals. With DataParts, it's never been easier to create your SharePoint Reports and Dashboards. With DataParts, visualizing and analyzing data becomes remarkably easy through the use of advanced lists, card views, charts, digital panels and radial, linear and horizontal gauges that can be easily configured to visualize the type of data desired in just minutes.

Bernie Borges' Marketing 2.0 Social Media Book

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EDT

Bernie Borges' new book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing. Bernie's book aims to give a macro view of social media marketing with a focus on "what it is" and "how" small and medium size businesses (SMB) can develop a strategy, implement it and measure results. Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing covers these topics:

Jahia Expands US Headquarters in Washington, DC

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:15:00 EDT

Jahia (www.jahia.com), the first Web Content Integration software to combine all business, collaborative and social application portals into one simple user interface, today announced the expansion of its US headquarters in Washington, DC to serve North American clients. Two years after launching into the US market, Jahia expended the North America presence with the recent inauguration of a new Research, Development and Support facility in Montreal, and a series of strategic partnerships with leading technology-consulting firms such as Quoin, Sapient, Avantia, Computer Associates, who serve several hundred customers in the Americas and abroad. Jahia's offer of global support services and training includes bigger projects within US clients such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Goldman Sachs, Motorist Mutual, Vicor, Virgin America, HomeAway.com and Rockwell Collin or Garmin International.

Selling Conversation as a Strategy

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:45:00 EDT

Over the past couple of months, we at Idiom Strategies have pitched a string of proposals to companies who stated they had an interest in doing something different and wanted to know if they should “get into social media”. When we initially met with these companies and explained our view of Conversation Marketing being the convergence of all aspects of marketing and that some of the biggest thought-leaders in the marketing world have been talking about the importance of conversing with audiences as opposed to talking at them, they all seemed thrilled with the ideas. As you can imagine, not all of these companies chose to work with us.

Eat Your Own Marketing Dog Food

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:45:00 EDT

Well said, Seth! I want to go a step further and challenge marketing and sales professionals to eat their own marketing dog food. Every time you and your company make a decision to post ads, email prospects/customers, send newsletters, cold call, email unsolicited sales pitches, flat out spam people, troll for leads in special intrest groups or forums, create self-serving noise in social media outlets, post ad-style comments on blog posts, etc., etc., etc. first think of all the conversation Locations you use personally (blogs you read, sites you visit, mags you buy, Twitter hashtags you watch, forums you go to, etc.) and consider how you would like it if a company did those “marketing” things to you.

A Small Business Website That Works

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:45:00 EDT

Adventure Training Concepts(ATC) shows us quickly and precisely what they do and why should we should care I met the founders of this company several years ago when they were just getting started. I always loved the idea of what they were attempting to do but had never looked at their website, until I reconnected with one of the principals, Michelle Jones. ATC leverages the Armed Forces skills of its founders to teach leadership to the building of teams within a challenging adventure framework. Of course, I knew what to their company did because I had met them before. But I would have been just as clear about who they are, what they do and how they can help my company from a quick visit to their website. Here's what works so well on their website.

Focus Groups are for Lipstick

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:15:00 EDT

Focus groups work great for markets that are trendy - where buyer behavior follows a herd mentality. Which is mostly in the consumer space. If you want an honest, accurate customer moment - you have to do it 1:1. Mano-a-mano.

CRM Market Grew 12.5 Percent Globally in 2008 - Gartner

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:45:00 EDT

Apparently, companies realize that front office solutions that help capture more buyers and understand their needs are critical to their success regardless of the recession. Hopefully, these companies are focused just as much on the process and training as the technology. CRM is a long term strategic play and should be viewed as part of a shift to a more disciplined approach to revenue management.

Growth Driven by Technology Focused on Customer Retention, Analytics and On-Demand Solutions S…