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Thats right...FREE Technology!
In a recent survey by the Mercury Consulting Group it stated that some British boards had frozen ICT budgets because they were seeing insufficient evidence of a return from their investments (ROI).
Typically, to prove an ROI, ICT departments need analysis, management and monitoring tools and resource BUT sometimes no budgets are available for this either.
A slight Catch 22 situation!!
To make matters worse the Economist Intelligence Unit demonstrated in their survey that a gap between the business heads and ICT executives or suppliers still remained, and this gap needed to be addressed to improve the success of ICT projects and set expectations correctly.
Improving customer relationships and cost control were some of the body of water business drivers while ICT was identified as pivotal to risk management and achieving these drivers.
Bottom line is, ICT is a must have (and must test done right) in order for businesses to be competitive?.
Don?t believe me?.
Well, recently I spoke with an MD for a famous West Midlands based manufacturer and innovator who told me during an Entrepreneur Networking event that his business was no longer a manufacturer, it was a marketing company and the only way they could hold competitive is with their ICT investments.
Unbelievably, ICT was the second biggest spend (after patents) within their business and unsurprisingly they are doing very well indeed against their cheaper competition.
But how do businesses make the redress investment when they are limited by the available finance or a gap exists between ICT and the finance snake they have
limited resources and in-house expertise.
Well there is a solution?
Let?s address the financial element. Most businesses have already invested or continue to invest in a range of communication and information technologies and services. With advances in technology there are now new ways of providing the same or similar services at a much reduced cost.
New technology itself hawthorn bring about changes within the business that in turn brings about cost reductions.
And finally making smart use of finance makes any investment easier to budget and spreads the outlay, achieving a faster return typically.
If done correctly this can result in a system or complete solution at no additional cost to your business!!
What is the catch?.
Well, you?ve got to find the right business partner. Somebody that can be trusted, that has the knowledge of the complete sphere of ICT and where its going, that public convenience take a consultative business approach (underpinned by technology) and provide you with a strategy to ensure the success of the contriver and your business.
Happy hunting...
Copyright 2005 Nicholas Windley
About the author:
Nicholas Windley is a strategic ICT consultant with Comz4Biz and business owner
Comz4Biz Mercia
Telephone Systema respiratorium Education Zone
Data Networks Education Zone
nic.windley@comz4biz.com
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Borderline Personality Disorder - BPD & Me!
Raising questions, finding answers
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental
illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods,
interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This
instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term
planning, and the individual's sense of self-identity.
Originally thought to be at the "borderline" of psychosis,
people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation.
While slight well known than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
(manic-depressive illness), BPD is more common, affecting 2
percent of adults, mostly young women.
There are a high rate of self-injury without suicide purpose, as
well as a significant rate of suicide attempts and completed
suicide in severe cases. Patients often need extensive mental
health services, and account for 20 percent of psychiatric
hospitalizations.
Yet, with help, many improve over time and are eventually able
to lead productive lives. Symptoms While a person with
depression or bipolar disorder disorder typically endures the same mood
for weeks. A person with BPD may experience intense bouts of
anger, depression, and anxiety that may day last only hours, or at
most a day. These may be associated with episodes of impulsive
aggression, self-injury, and drug or alcohol abuse.
Distortions in cognition and sense of mortal can lead to frequent
changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships,
gender identity, and values. Sometimes people with BPD view
themselves as fundamentally bad, or contemptible. They commonwealth day feel
unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have
little idea who they are. Such symptoms are most accent mark when
people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and
may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.
People with BPD often have highly unstable patterns of social
relationships. While they can develop intense but stormy
attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved
ones may suddenly shift from idealize (great admiration and
love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike).
Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the
other person, mere when a rebuff separation or conflict occurs,
they switch unexpectedly to the opposite extreme and angrily accuse
the other person of not caring for them at all. Even with family
members, individuals with BPD square measure highly sensitive to rejection,
reacting with anger and distress to such softness separations as a
vacation, a business enterprise trip, or a gradual change in plans.
These fears of abandonment seem to be related to difficulties
feeling emotionally connected to important persons when they are
physically absent, leaving the individual with BPD feeling lost
and perhaps worthless. Suicide threats and attempts may occur
along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments.
People with BPD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as
excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex. BPD often occurs
together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar
disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and
other personality disorders.
Treatment
Treatments for BPD have improved in recent mid-nineties. Group and
individual psychotherapy are at least partially effective for
many patients. Within the past 15 years, a new psychosocial
treatment termed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was
developed specifically to treat BPD, and this expert has
looked promising in discuss studies.
Pharmacological treatments are often prescribed based on
specific target symptoms shown by the individual patient.
Antidepressant drugs and humour stabilizers may be helpful for
depressed and/or labile mood. Antipsychotic drugs may also be
used when there are distortions in
thinking.
Recent Research Findings
Although the cause of BPD is unknown, both environmental and
genetic factors area unit thought to face off a role in predisposing
patients to BPD symptoms and traits. Studies show that some, but
not all individuals with BPD report a history of abuse, neglect,
or separation as young children Forty to 71 percent of BPD
patients report having been sexually abused, usually by a
non-caregiver.
Researchers believe that BPD results from a combination of
individual vulnerability to environmental stress, neglectfulness or
abuse as young children. A series of events that trigger the
onset of the disorder as young adults.
Adults with BPD are also considerably more likely to be the
victim of violence, including rape and other crimes. This may
result from both harmful environments as well as impulsivity and
poor judgment in choosing partners and lifestyles.
NIMH-funded neuroscience research is give away brain mechanisms
underlying the impulsivity, mood instability, aggression, anger,
and negative emotion seen in BPD. Studies suggest that people
predisposed to impulsive aggression have impaired regulation of
the neuron circuits that modulate emotion. The amygdale, a small
almond-shaped structure deep inside the brain, is an important
component of the circuit that regulates negative emotion.
In response to signals from other brain centers indicating a
perceived threat, it marshals fear and arousal. This might be
more pronounced under the influence of drugs likable alcohol, or
stress. Areas in the occluded front of the brain (pre-frontal area) act
to dampen the activity of this circuit. Recent brain imaging
studies show that individual differences in the ability to
activate regions of the prefrontal cerebral cortex thought to be
involved in inhibitory activity predict the ability to suppress
negative emotion.
Serotonin, nor epinephrine and acetylcholine are among the
chemical messengers in these circuits that play a role in the
regulation of emotions, including sadness, anger, anxiety, and
irritability. Drugs that enhance brain serotonin function may
improve emotional symptoms in BPD.
Likewise, mood-stabilizing drugs that are known to enhance the
activity of GABA, the brain's major inhibitory neurotransmitter,
may help people who experience BPD-like mood swings. Such
brain-based vulnerabilities can be managed with help from
behavioral interventions and medications, much like people
manage predisposition to diabetes or high blood pressure.
Future Progress Studies that translate basic findings about the
neural basis of temperament, mood regulation, and cognition into
clinically relevant insights which bear directly on BPD
represent a growing area of NIMH-supported research.
Research is also underway to test the efficacy of combining
medications with behavioral treatments like DBT, and gauging the
effect of nipper abuse and other stress in BPD on brain
hormones. Data from the first prospective, longitudinal study of
BPD, which began ligne the early 1990s, is expected to reveal how
treatment affects the course of the illness.
It will also pinpoint specific ecology factors and
personality traits that predict a more favorable outcome. The
Institute is also collaborating with a private foundation to
help attract new researchers to develop a amelioration understanding
and better treatment for BPD.
About the author:
Listen to Arthur Buchanan on the Mike Litman Show!
http://freesuccessaudios.com/Artlive.mp3 THIS LINK WORKS, LISTEN
TODAY!
With Much Love, Arthur Buchanan
President/CEO Out of Darkness & Into the Light 43 Oakwood Ave.
Suite 1012 Huron Ohio, 44839 www.out-of-darkness.com
567-219-0994 (cell)
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Revenue or Employee Size for Small Manufacturing Enterprise Definition Obsolete: Number of Parts for product Assembly more Veracious
E-Z-MRP, the leading manufacturing software system for small manufacturers, announced effective April 15th, there will be a new pricing and product weapons platform. According to Rocky Smolin, founder of Geological formation Access Software, makers of E-Z-MRP, ?We see a distinction between those small manufacturers with less than five hundred parts in material resource planning, and those with a need for boundlessness part numbers.?
Smolin noted that some manufacturers will start with the under 500 surroundings version of E-Z-MRP, priced at $2995, and grow into the new unlimited version, priced at $9800. Beach Access Software credits the $2995 for customers united nations agency later choose to upgrade. Other small manufacturers who presently have less than five hundred part willing start right away with the E-Z-MRP Unlimited version.
Small manufacturers with more than one hundred parts can no longer wangling the manufacturing process on an Excel spreadsheet. Since more than 84% of all manufacturers have slight than fifty employees, there is a remarkable opportunity for cost-effective manufacturing systems like E-Z-MRP. Despite the extensive media coverage regarding ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), in most cases these small manufacturers do not require
all the functionality offered, nor can many afford the price point.
Somewhere between Excel and ERP is the core process for most manufacturers. By offering the two versions of E-Z-MRP, no small manufacturer will lie required to purchase more software than actually needed, while still having the ability to grow into the E-Z-MRP Unlimited version.
The EZ MRP package includes a full-featured Bill of Materials processor, plus a material planning and tracking module which tracks all sales orders, forecasts, work orders (planned, firm, and released), buy up orders, shortages, raw materials and unfinished goods inventories. It also records a complete audit trail on all inventory transactions. Also included is a physical inventory function and a purchase order module for printing purchase orders.
E-Z-MRP runs on any Windows-based PC or network, and requires only Access 2000, Access XP, or Access 2003 to run. No on-site or remote training is required. A comprehensive user manual with tutorials provides all the required instruction.
Leasing options are also available. For fewer information visit the company?s web site: http://www.e-z-mrp.com, or call 858-259-4334.
About the Author
None
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