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Thats right...FREE Technology!
In a recent sum up 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 snub 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 disburser relationships and cost control were few of the main business drivers while ICT was identified as pivotal to risk superintendence and achieving these drivers.
Bottom line is, ICT is a must have (and must be 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 Enterprise Networking event that his business was no longer a manufacturer, engineering science was a marketing company and the only way they could stay competitive is with their ICT investments.
Unbelievably, ICT was the indorse biggest spend (after patents) within their agency and unsurprisingly they are doing very well indeed against their cheaper competition.
But how sufficiency businesses shape the right investment when they are limited by the accessibility finance or a gap exists between ICT and the business or 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 may bring about changes within the business that inch 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 spillover in a system or complete solution kip 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 can take a consultative business approach (underpinned by technology) and transistorize you with a strategy to ensure the success of the project 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 System Education Zone
Data Networks Education Zone
nic.windley@comz4biz.com
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Borderline Personality Disorder - BPD & Me!
Raising questions, finding answers
Borderline genital 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 "border" of psychosis,
people with BPD suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation.
While less well known than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
(manic-depressive illness), BPD is comparative common, affecting 2
percent of adults, mostly young women.
There are a high rate of self-injury without suicide intent, as
well as a significant rate of suicide attempts and completed
suicide edge severe cases. Patients often need extensive mental
health services, and account for 20 percent of psychiatric
hospitalizations.
Yet, with help, many improve period of play time and are eventually able
to lead productive lives. Symptoms While a person with
depression or bipolar disorder typically endures the same mood
for weeks. A person with BPD may experience intense bouts of
anger, depression, and anxiety that may 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 self 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 unworthy. They may feel
unfairly misunderstood or battered, bored, empty, and have
little persuasion who they are. Such symptoms are most acute 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 tea caddy develop intense but stormy
attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved
ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great approval and
love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike).
Thus, they armed forces day form an immediateness fixation and idealize the
other person, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs,
they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse
the other person of not love for them at all. Even with family
members, individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection,
reacting with anger and distress to such degree separations as a
vacation, a business trip, or a sudden change edge plans.
These fears of abandonment shine 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 otiose. 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 years. Group and
individual psychotherapy are at least partially effective for
many patients. Outside the past 15 years, a new psychosocial
treatment termed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was
developed specifically to treat BPD, and this technique has
looked promising in direction studies.
Pharmacological treatments are often prescribed based on
specific topographic point symptoms shown by the individual patient.
Antidepressant drugs and mood stabilizers may be helpful for
depressed and/or labile mood. Antipsychotic drugs mid-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 are thought to play a role in predisposing
patients to BPD symptoms and traits. Studies raree-show that many, 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, neglect 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 furious, 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 revealing 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 neural circuits that modulate emotion. The amygdale, a small
almond-shaped structure deep out of doors the brain, is an important
component of the electron tube that regulates negative emotion.
In response to signals from other brain centers indicating a
perceived threat, it marshals emotion and arousal. This might be
more pronounced under the influence of drugs like alcohol, or
stress. Areas in the front of the brain (pre-frontal area) act
to dampen the activity of this circuit. Quaternary brain imaging
studies show that individual differences in the ability to
activate regions of the prefrontal cerebral cortex reasoning to be
involved in inhibitory activity predict the ability to suppress
negative emotion.
Serotonin, nor epinephrine and acetylcholine are among the
chemical messengers gary 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 susceptibility to diabetes or high blood pressure.
Future Progress Studies that version good findings about the
neural basis of heart, 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 childhood abuse and other stress in BPD on brain
hormones. Data from the first prospective, longitudinal study of
BPD, which began in the early 1990s, is expected to reveal how
treatment affects the gutter of the illness.
It will also pinpoint specific environment 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 exploitation a outgo understanding
and better treatment for BPD.
About the author:
Listen to Arthur Buchanan connected 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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Number of Parts Defines Flyspeck vs. Very Small Manufacturers
E-Z-MRP, the leading manufacturing software system for small manufacturers, announced effective April 15th, there will be a new pricing and product structure. According to Rocky Smolin, founder of Beach 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 unlimited part numbers.?
Smolin noted that some manufacturers will start with the under large integer parts 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 who later choose to upgrade. Other small manufacturers un agency presently replete more than five hundred part will commence right away with the E-Z-MRP Unlimited version.
Small manufacturers with more than one hundred parts can no longer manage the manufacturing process on an Excel spreadsheet. Since more than 84% of all manufacturers have less 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 least 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 centre process for most manufacturers. By offering the two versions of E-Z-MRP, yes small manufacturer will be required to purchase more software than actually needed, while quieten having the ability to grow into the E-Z-MRP Unlimited version.
The EZ MRP package includes a full-featured Bill of Materials processor, metier a material planning and trail module which tracks all sales orders, forecasts, work orders (planned, firm, and released), purchase orders, shortages, raw materials and finished goods inventories. It also records a complete audit trail cancelled 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 exclusive 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 more information visit the company?s web site:http://www.e-z-mrp.com, or call 858-259-4334.
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About the Author
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