Ideaca Dynamics AX Tips & Tricks - Security in AX 2012

Ideaca's AX experts provide answers to common AX 2012 questions, helping you leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. This video discusses security in AX 2012. For more information or to contact us, visit www.ideaca.com

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An Introduction to PerformancePoint Services Part 1 of 2: OLAP Design

An Introduction to PerformancePoint Services Part 1 of 2: OLAP Design

Introduction

SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) and PerformancePoint Services are tools in the Microsoft BI stack used for displaying data. Analysis Services allows analysts to investigate data quickly and dynamically without IT having to write queries. PerformancePoint Services displays high level Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to executives to be viewed at a glance. These tools leverage the data warehouse to users who may not have technical expertise.

The first part of my two part article will focus on the creation of an Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube as well overview of what is required for the delivery of the solution as a whole. The second part will focus on the aesthetic side of displaying data via the dashboard.

What is required?

In order to get a PerformancePoint dashboard up and running off an Analysis Services Cube (using a relational database instead of a cube is an option but the advantages of using a cube include: faster aggregation of measure values, hierarchies of members, and KPIs) a cube will need to be created. SharePoint 2010 is required in order to create a dashboard using Dashboard Designer. Creating a Business Intelligence site in SharePoint will allow for the download of the Dashboard Designer and the ability to deploy the web parts created in the designer to the SharePoint site. Having SharePoint is also a great way to expose Business Intelligence to users; whether it is reports, PowerPivot models, or complicated Excel files. These components of business intelligence all would benefit by being viewed by analysts.

Ideaca Dynamics AX Tips and Tricks - Workflow

Ideaca's AX experts provide answers to common AX 2012 questions, helping you leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. This video discusses 4 new workflow features in AX 2012. For more information or to contact us, visit www.ideaca.com

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Beginning with the End in Mind: The Solution Design Document

Imagine for a moment that you are building a house. You know you want 3 bedrooms, a functional kitchen, and extensive entertainment technology incorporated into every room. Go! Those are nice ideas, but they really don’t narrow it down much, and they certainly aren’t enough to communicate to the myriad of contractors, sub-contractors and trades. What would this house look like? Could your general contractor estimate on these requirements?

You wouldn’t expect such enigmatic ideas to be good enough for a construction project, so why would we expect IT projects to be any different? Most IT projects begin with similar vague ideas. Statements like “central information repository”, “seamless integration with the enterprise systems”, “easy to use graphical user interfaces”, and “improved business processes” are common high-level requirements. These types of statements are traditionally present in project charters and speak to the business goals. But just like that house you want to build, these are not enough to provide the required clarity to all of the stakeholders.

Enter the Solution Design Document

Sandwiched between the project charter and detail technical design documentation, the solution design document fulfills a critically important role in any IT project. Why do we need pretty pictures? What’s all this non-technical stuff good for? What does WebDAV mean? These are the types of questions I’ve received over the years and here is my response;

• It provides the big picture to a broad audience.
• It communicates what the outcome will look like and how it will be achieved.
• It provides sufficient detail to allow project sponsors to make informed decisions.
• It uses language that is not exclusionary or overly technical while at the same time contains detail to be of value to technical resources.

Want a career not a "job"?!

In 2012 Ideaca ranked at #17 on Great Place to Work Canada. Want a "Great Place to Work"? Want to learn about the perks of being an Ideacan? Check out our extended version of our company video which features what it's like to work here!



Visit our careers page for more details!

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Ideaca Wins Business Intelligence Partner of the Year at 2012 Microsoft Partner Network IMPACT Awards!

 

Ideaca has been selected as the winner in the Business Intelligence Partner of the Year category at the 2012 Microsoft Partner Network IMPACT Awards! Ideaca was also named a finalist in the Dynamics ERP Partner of the Year category. We are extremely excited for this win and cannot wait to continue to compete next year! For more details read here: http://bit.ly/W9TP7P

 

For more finalist read here: http://goo.gl/cFk11

 

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Ideaca's Company Video

Ideaca is proud to be launching our first ever company overview video! Designed with clients, prospects, and employees in mind, we have built something that truely reflects what Ideaca is all about...
 

We would love to hear what you think...leave us a comment!

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A crossover into MS Dynamics AX

This article is a personal and subjective story on what to expect when switching from other ERP systems into AX. My specific experience is with some smaller scale project-centric ERP systems and might be different from experiences of other users/consultants.

After working with AX for a couple of months and after attending a boot camp training on AX in Fargo, ND I thought it was time to reflect on the overall differences between AX and other ERP systems that I have been working with over time.

First of all I have to state that all of the ERP systems I have been working with were smaller than AX, both in functionality, breadth and complexity so I will sometimes compare apples and oranges here but this is part of the experience as well.

Targeted markets

Dynamics AX is Microsoft’s ERP flagship and is positioned with the likes of SAP and Oracle. And that’s the market, Microsoft is targeting: medium to large size businesses with multiple locations, multiple legal entities, dealing with multiple currencies and governments.

This in itself differentiates AX from previous ERP that I worked with. Most of them claimed to be multi-company and multi-currency but they really were not. The software packages were initially written for a specific vertical for small to mid-sized businesses and they grew with the companies that initially bought it. So all the features feel like they were tagged onto the solution and never really as integral part of it. AX on the other hand was designed from the ground up to handle these environments and transactions. So I found it especially easy to handle these things in AX whereas in other ERP solutions you had to jump through several hoops to get it working for the client.

Ideaca Dynamics AX Tips and Tricks - Turning off unwanted functionality in AX 2012

Ideaca's AX experts provide answers to common AX 2012 questions, helping you leverage your Microsoft Dynamics AX investment. This video helps users learn how to turn off unwanted functionality in AX 2012. For more information or to contact us, visit www.ideaca.com

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Creativity in Leadership

 

Creativity is the individual way in which our mind generates our views, ideas, style…or any other facet of the imagination. Through this comes expression which is the product of creativity and exists in many forms… one of which is leadership.

Being a leader is an immeasurable opportunity for growth.  You are being given the chance to influence and be influenced, learn as well as teach, and guide in your own unique way.  Of course there are some basic guidelines, but each individual will bring their own flare to leading a team to a successful finale.  What you choose to do and say will inevitably create an experience for everyone on the team, including yourself, and give you the capacity to profoundly shape a project and the people who are a part of it.  Your creative abilities may come as new strategies to tackling a tight schedule, your technical understanding, or sheer ability to make people feel important.  Wherever your inherent virtues lie, being put into a lead role will assure they have the chance to develop and shine.

It’s important to have a foundation to build upon, so consider these points the canvas for your creative endeavor:

Be confident  -  You must believe if you want others to believe in you. Carry yourself in a manner that exhibits strength, encourages excitement, and gives a sense of stability.  The way you step forward as a leader permeates the air around you, and has a profound effect on how people see you.  Their belief in your ability to guide instills confidence in them as well, and inspires great performance.  In the midst of this exchange of recognition is the creation of trust, which in the aspect of a project will go a long way.

Know your team - Just as you have your own way of being in the world, so do your team members and recognizing the exceptional qualities that each team member brings to the table will tremendously further your ability to attain success.  Pinpointing a person’s strengths in the beginning will allow you a broader insight down the road into delegating appropriately to utilize the team’s greatest powers when and where they are needed.  In doing this you are aligning with efficiency by pushing forward peoples talents. It gives people a sense of purpose when they know they are essential and why, it drives ambition and productivity and a sense of self. This is a great form of expression.

Know where you are headed – Visualize the end result, or final product.  Know in your mind that you will achieve the best final result possible and exceed expectations and how it will look when you’re there. If you can imagine it, you can make it and this is a force to be reckoned with.  Every project is susceptible to encountering obstacles along the way, but having a vision will help you navigate around roadblocks thus maintaining a clear path to success.

Keep in touch – Communication is vastly key to so much in life and especially in a collaborative situation.  The ebb and flow of a project is directly associated with straight up talking to and amongst one another.  The individual components that each team member is responsible for will amalgamate to form the final, tangible result and in order for that to happen there needs to be a streamline of conversation.  It is vital to not only deliver project updates to the team but to exchange thoughts and ideas. In doing so you are creating an environment of constant awareness of the state of the project as well as combining the team’s brainpower to solution any challenges that may arise. Not to mention it unifies the group socially, which can create an immensely dynamic team when they are called to duty.

When you consider these concepts and ignite them with a passion to do great work and do it with your own style, you can come through the other side having not only delivered an intended product, but having done it with the rare qualities only you possess.  Your character and personality make you a leader unlike any other seen before, or that will be seen.  It is the chance for you to leave a mark that will impact others in a positive way, and hopefully make a difference in some way…somehow.  Because once the project is over what people have left (besides a fantastic new…….[insert your project delivery here]) is the memory of how it came together and the people who made it happen.

- Joelle Thrasher, Portals & Collaboration Consultant

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Ideaca Sustainment: Our Commitment to Quality

Get More from your Technology Investments

One of the greatest differentiators of Ideaca from our competitors is our ability and willingness to support your software throughout its lifetime. While other consultant firms might come in, deliver, and go, Ideaca stands by our work and will work with you for years.

Make no mistake, our delivery teams are second to none - and we strive to do the best work possible - but large software is very complex. Moreover, your business will change over the years and that’s where Ideaca Sustainment can help you.

Why do we call ourselves “Sustainment”? It’s because we don’t just do support calls. We have a full complement of subject matter experts who can help you - even with your most complex problems. But it goes far beyond simply fixing problems that arise. We also do business process consultations, training sessions, and “best practices” knowledge transfer. We also do proactive health checks and we can customize your software as your company grows.

This is our long-term competitive edge. We have the enduring ability to keep your complex systems relevant and fully operational. If you don’t already have a Sustainment agreement with us, and would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Coffee’s on us! 

Visit us online at: http://www.ideaca.com/solutions/support.aspx

Or give us a call directly at: 1-866-816-4332

-  Ideaca Sustainment Team

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IDC Executive Brief

The Current reality of Analytics in Large Canadian Enterprises: IDC Canada Maturity Model

How do you measure up?

July 2012

Sponsored by Ideaca

Adapted from Canadian Business Analytics Landscape, 2012, by Nigel Wallis  

IDC #CA0ECA12

In 2011, more than a trillion gigabytes of information was created and replicated globally, which means it grew by a factor of nine in just five years. Being able to deal with this onslaught and successfully deliver the right information to the right people at the right time is a competitive business advantage. That's why the market for analytics software is bigger than one might imagine. In Canada, organizations spent $923 million in 2011, 12% more than the previous year. IDC anticipates that by 2015 the Canadian analytics market will be north of $1,200 million, meaning the analytics sector is growing much faster than the software market as a whole.

In spring of 2012, IDC surveyed 100 business and 100 IT leaders from Canadian firms with $100 million or more in revenue. IDC spoke with director, VP, and C-level executives to better understand how businesses were integrating analytics into their competitive strategies.

IDC Canada Business Analytics Maturity Model

In order to better understand how analytics is moving from hype to reality, IDC developed a maturity model from the data in the study. Our aim was to identify which cultural and technological choices and decisions determine analytical competency.

To Download a copy of the entire Executive Brief please click here.



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BYO...laptop?

BYOD..."Bring-Your-Own-Device" seems to be the biggest strategy that companies are now trying to master. Employees expect to be able to bring their own mobile phones, laptops and tablets into the office setting without having a "company device" to also manage but having the convenience of using their own device from home. Sure this seems quite convenient, and maybe cuts some costs here and there, but what does this really mean for companies?

We have outlined some new challenges that will come with this policy from The Globe and Mail's article that provides some more insight on how BYOD will change your business:

 Some issues that IT may run into:

- Employees expect the same degree of advanced technology and services integration in the workplace that they already experience in their personal life

- Employees may threaten you "give me the advanced technology that I know I can have, or I will do it myself"

Aberdeen Group found that the top 20% of performers (defined as Best-in-Class organizations):

- provide mobile access to almost all employees

- recover all but 5% of lost or stolen mobile devices
- improved their personal speed of decision-making by 14% over the prior 12 months, 3.5 times the improvement of Industry Average

Is your company in this top 20%?

If your business has not thought about BYOD or even a mobile strategy as a plan for the next coming months, you are sure to face some struggle with the new demands of the "tech savvy" employee.

To find out some more benefits and reasons to Go-Mobile, check out our previous posts on mobility and our event slides from a previous event we held in Waterloo based on building a mobile strategy NOW!

 

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Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2012: Toronto

Last week, the City of Toronto was flooded with more than 16, 000 people representing Microsoft Partners from all over the world! Partners from coast to coast took  part in the biggest ever Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). 
WPC travels the globe to take place in a new city every year giving Microsoft Partners a chance to discover the latest technology and trends to come in the year ahead. It also provides a valuable forum to gain industry knowledge, and learn new strategies to ensure Microsoft Partners, like Ideaca, can continuously deliver the highest standards of care and information to our customers.


This year, the conference was held in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre and the Air Canada Centre. The conference was said to bring in the most traffic throughout the GTA that Toronto has ever seen for a conference, and even brought in a whooping $500 million to the City of Toronto! 

Each day Ideacans experienced  dozens of sessions and key note speakers that helped us to learn new strategies and product knowledge. There were even a few ground-breaking announcements, such as a demonstration shown on Kinnect that scanned a person to virtually produce them in 3D, then their 3D image was printed out into a 3D mold!  Truly a thing to see!  We also spotted new laptops that can convert into a tablet; which will be beneficial to all those stubborn people who cannot part without their keyboards. There was also a great deal of hype around the new Windows 8 phone and operating system that is sure to make many smartphone and Windows 7 users change their mind about what they currently have. Windows CMO and CFO Tami Reller announced at the conference that the new Windows 8 operating system will be launch in 231 markets worldwide, starting in October 2012.

The 5-day conference kicked off with a stunning performance by Cirque du Soleil and wrapped up Thursday night with a packed concert by the Grammy Award winning band Train. What a week! Ideaca is proud to have been apart of it and we look forward to sharing our new learning with our customers in the year to come.

Were you at WPC this year? What was your favourite part?
 

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How Will Auto Manufacturers Respond to Environmental Regulations?

Automotive manufacturers feel immense pressure from environmental groups who continue to emphasise on the need to instil emission reduction targets as part of their long term growth strategies. For manufacturers, it appears that the biggest challenge is to gain a picture of the entire scope of their business to see where reductions in emissions can be made and how they can look to re-purpose their existing resources in order to reduce emissions further.

Since automotive manufacturers operate in an industry impacted heavily by environmental regulations, they must look into innovative ways to brighten their environmental record. Some manufacturers may investigate the development of alternative powered vehicles; some may investigate ways to reduce operational costs in the development of an auto-mobile; and others may consider a unique strategy that looks to capture the best aspects of both of the aforementioned strategies.

 

An Aberdeen article entitled ERP in Automotive Suppliers seems to indicate that auto manufacturers should consider the implementation of an ERP platform since it is responsive to their changing business landscape. An ERP solution is designed to offer manufacturers a single view into all of their IT systems, delivering the control and insight that they would need to effectively reduce their carbon footprint. According to Aberdeen, the benefits achieved through the use of ERP include a reduction in operational, administrative, and inventory costs; a reduction in waste; and increased profits and revenue.

Click here now to review the Aberdeen article for further insight!
 

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2012 Canadian BI Maturity Results from IDC

Next week, Ideaca will once again be travelling across the country to bring IT Directors, CIOs and the like, all together for another one of our National Executive Series Events!

Presenters Richard Hines from Ideaca in the West, and Brian Lee from Ideaca in the East, will be bringing you the latest results in Canadian BI Maturity Research. Be the first in line to benchmark your company against the Canadian landscape.

Canadian companies from coast to coast participated in a survey conducted by IDC designed to extract information on where organizations sit currently, and how they should move forward on the BI Maturity model.

When you’re investing in BI, what research are you falling back on to make your decision? We’ve got all the answers you need to help you make the right ones.

Register NOW to attend a complimentary breakfast session in a city near you to hear the results before they are released to the rest of the country.
 
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SharePoint Saturday Toronto - July 7th

The 2012 SharePoint Saturday North American tour is on and will be hitting Toronto on Saturday, July 7th. This year Ideaca will be a sponsor!

SharePoint Saturday Toronto will be an educational, informative & lunch hour filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!

Come out and join Ideaca in this fun-filled day of SharePoint...We look forward to seeing you there!

Click here for more information and to register for free!

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Ideaca is proud to sponsor this year's Calgary International Children's Festival

The Calgary International Children's Festival collaborates with like-minded companies to celebrate creativity, education and family. Ideaca has chosen to sponsor the festival this year in order to help the Festival provide an educational experience that improves student's critical thinking skills. Students gain a unique awareness of their place in the world around them. These experiences inspire innovative thinking, which is the driving force of tomorrow's leaders.

"With the help of companies such as Ideaca, we are able to ensure that economic circumstances are not a barrier to a family’s ability to attend Festival performances and workshops,” said David Anderson, Executive Director at the Calgary International Children’s Festival. “Our sponsors help us achieve our goal, which is to bring children and families to an inclusive community event that sparks imagination, inspires creative thought, encourages cultural understanding, and fosters a lifelong passion for the arts.”

“Ideaca is dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of Canadians by investing in our communities,” said Mike Alkier, Managing Partner, Ideaca. “We strive to be strong corporate citizens, and be involved in ways that benefit the regions in which we operate.”

The festival runs from May 22-May 26. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Ideaca named 2011 Top 100 Solution Provider

Last night, at the CDN Top 100 Solution Providers Gala, Ideaca was named #32 for 2011 in the Top 100 in Canada. We have moved up 17 spots from 2010 as last year's ranking of #49!

To be eligible for the CDN Top 100 Solution Providers ranking, companies must meet the following criteria.

• Be registered and conducting business in the country of Canada.
• Source products from a leading distributor in Canada.
• Possess a minimum of one certification or authorization from an IT vendor.
• Ranking is based on total 2011 Canadian revenue - revenue generated in Canada and shipped to a Canadian address. Imputed revenue* is not to be included.
• Revenue will be stated in Canadian currency.
• Complete the online Top 100 Solution Providers application form

To see some of the other companies Ideaca went up against, have a look at the rest of the list here.

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Hang up on the past...dial into mobility NOW!

Last Wednesday evening in Waterloo, Ontario, Ideaca hosted a cocktail event "Mobility...Canada's most overlooked priority & why it is crucial to business success!".

This event focused on the urgent need for Canadian businesses to step up their initiaves in creating a mobile platform for both their employees and for their customers.

Brad Blaskavitch, Sales Director at Ideaca, touched on the many ways a company can develop different mobile strategies to better their customers experience, as well as satisfying the everchanging needs of their employees.

Christa Nesbitt, Sales Director at Ideaca,  also wowed the audience with a few demos showcasing submitting expenses on the go, tracking store productivity and sales in real-time and a virtual tracking program to discover and maintain issues in the field.

If you missed out on this event, it will be hosted again in Fall 2012 in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Stay up-to-date for event details in your city!

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SC Magazine Feature Article - Canada's Cloud Opportunity

Gord Smith, Partner at Ideaca, was recently quoted in an SC Magazine feature article called Canada's Cloud Opportunity. 

Although Canada has traditionally been considered a follower in the computing space, there is growing evidence that suggests our cloud computing industry may be different due to rising concerns over privacy and government scrutiny in the United States. 

Gord was quoted in the article stating, "If you operate in the U.S., there's a legal right to have access to that data, and there's a precedent around that. The data is accessible if you operate in the U.S., period."

Could Canada become a new storage haven for international companies fearful about cloud storage in the U.S.? 

Read the full article here.

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York Technology Alliance New Member

Ideaca has recently become a member of the York Technology Alliance.

The YTA is represents the York Region's tech cluster - supporting business developers, innovators, suppliers, and providers. Every month the YTA hosts Peer 2 Peer sessions like "Women in Technology", "Marketing Leadership" and "Leaders in Emerging Companies" just to name a few. These sessions are catered to people in the technology industry to come together from different sectors and discuss hot topics of the month in groups of about 20 people.

Check out the YTA for more details!

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Ideaca one of Canada’s top ICT Companies in the 2012 Branham300 Rankings

Ideaca have been listed in the 2012 Branham300 ranking of top Canadian ICT companies.  The Branham300 highlights the top Canadian and Multinational ICT companies operating in Canada, as ranked by revenues. 

“Ideaca managed to weather the difficult economic times by building and maintaining trusted relationships with our customers,” said Mike Alkier, Managing Partner, Ideaca.  “With the market rebound, we were able to grow our organization in 2011 and are poised for continued success in 2012 and beyond.” 

Check out the news release!

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Best Workplaces in Canada Second Year in a Row!

Today it was announced that Ideaca was recognized for the second year in a row as 2012's Best Workplaces in Canada - Medium organizations. Best Workplaces in Canada is ranked using the results from employee surveys and comments. This year, we ranked at number 17 surpassing last year's number of 69! What an amazing accomplishment and an outstanding achievement for Ideaca and our employees!

The full list of companies will be posted in today's Globe and Mail and also can be viewed here.

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Moving Towards the Cloud: Ideaca Profile with Terry Bradshaw

Ideaca is featured on television show Profiles hosted by Terry Bradshaw, 4-time Super Bowl Champion, broadcaster and successful business man. This episode of Profiles is a feature on "Leading Developments in Business Application Consulting".

Ideaca chose to focus on Cloud Computing for this segment and its role as a highly disruptive and revolutionary technology that is quickly gaining momentum in today's marketplace. We describe why this computing methodology is changing the landscape of information technology and Cloud's capabilities in revolutionizing internal IT systems in any organization.

Look out for this segment on your local news network!

Check out the clip here.

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Virtual Shopping, the future is here!

After a day of hard, excruciating work, most people are just interested in going to their homes and doing what they do best - relaxing. However, for many people, a hard day’s work isn’t completely over until you make a visit to your local grocer.

Imagine, having to push your way through a large crowd to try and get to a relatively available check out, only to be forced to wait for an extensive period of time in a long, endless lineup. That thought has propelled the latest development in mobile technology – Virtual shopping! According to the Globe and Mail's article Virtual shopping gets real at Toronto subway station, these mobile devices are increasingly becoming more elaborate and intuitive to a point that they can also do our daily shopping, as proven by Tesco (a multi-national supermarket) and Samsung.

Adapted in South Korea by Tesco and Samsung, ‘virtual 3D’ stores were installed in subway stations across Seoul, South Korea which allowed commuters to simply scan the QR code of the item that they desire with a mobile device. When those customers arrived at their homes, their items would have been shipped – and possibly even delivered - to them within the same day. This technology has been recently adapted by the online retailer well.ca, who has launched their version of ‘virtual 3D’ stores amongst Toronto subway stations, forecasting a possible change in retail marketing as we know it.
 

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Ideaca Renews Multiple Microsoft Gold Competencies in the Microsoft Partner Network

We have renewed our gold competencies in Business Intelligence (BI), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Portals and Collaboration and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as well as silver competencies in Virtualization, Web Development, Application Integration and Data Platform.

"These Microsoft competencies showcase our expertise and commitment in today’s technology market and demonstrates our deep knowledge of Microsoft and its products,” said Mike Alkier, Managing Partner, Ideaca.  “Our plan is to accelerate our customers’ success by serving as advisors for their business technology needs.”

“By achieving a portfolio of competencies, partners demonstrate deep expertise and consistent capability on the latest Microsoft technology,” said Jon Roskill, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. “These partners show true commitment to meeting customer technology needs today and into the future.”

Check out the full story here.
 

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RIS Reveals 2012 Mobile App Award Finalists

Mobile apps have become huge in retail and are continuing to grow in popularity at a rapid rate. They are becoming ubiquitous in the retail landscape from both a consumer and corporate standpoint.

Retail Info Systems News (RIS) has just revealed their 2012 Mobile App Award Finalists, categories include: Enterprise Excellence, Innovation, Shopping, and Store Operations.

A few facts based on recent RIS research were also included in the article:

• More than half (a total of 57.2%) of responding retailers update their mobile apps every three months, or more frequently, 42.9% every two to three months, and 14.3% every month
• 50% of consumers return to the retailer's app at least once a week
• Mobile app budgets are on the rise among nearly three-quarters of surveyed retailers
• Among those with growing budgets, the average increase is 50%

The finalists, and the above facts, speak to the advancement and innovation occurring in the retail mobile app space. Retailers are starting to pick up on this so the next year should be interesting...

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Corporate Mobile Application Strategy

In the March/April edition of Exchange Magazine, Ideaca's Brad Blaskavitch wrote an article around creating a Corporate Mobile Application Strategy for your business.

In this article Brad outlines five essential technology components for a successful mobile strategy:

1. Mobile Devices: Smartphones and new generation tablets are more powerful and capable than ever before, and keep evolving at a rapid rate. Their power allows for more advanced applications. The ability to store data when network connectivity is lost, has been critical to corporate mobile application initiatives.

2. Mobile Applications & Platforms: Previously, organizations delayed investment in mobility for fear of tying themselves to a single hardware vendor, causing paralysis. Today's mobile computing platforms and development tools have advanced to the point that device OS/manufacturer is no longer significantly relevant. Mobile applications can be developed once to run on Android, Apple iOS and Blackberry.

3. Network/Carrier Infrastructure: Wireless telecom companies have made tremendous investments to improve the speeds of data transfer and expand their geographic coverage. We have seen the transition from 2G to 4G networks. These improvements allow mobile applications to have more capability and perform at acceptable speeds.

4. Corporate Technology: Many companies have invested heavily in corporate systems and line of business applications to improve operational efficiencies in administrative functions, systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning, Financial, Customer Relationship Management and Business Intelligence. Organizations now have the key internal infrastructure to support a true corporate mobility strategy and extend these capabilities to their mobile workers in an integrated solution.

5. Cloud Computing: While many will argue that it isn't a core requirement, cloud computing has allowed many organizations to scale their technology footprint without incurring the significant capital costs of a more traditional on-premise hardware strategy. The ability to scale up or down the computing power of an organization, eliminating hardware and IT resource constraints, has freed up capital and IT resources to focus on value add solutions to increasing the organizations competitiveness.

For the rest of the article, click the link below to check it out on page 32-33. http://www.exchangemagazine.com/currentissue/ExchangeVol29No4/

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