Digital Poster Being Employed by Property Managers
Commercial property owners have observed how powerful a digital poster is, so let us think about how an lcd poster is employed by property managers.
One primary objective for a property management company has to do is to provide current information on space and tenants in real time, this is when an lcd advertising screen comes into its own, as these dynamic marketing gadgets can be updated remotely using a wireless connection.
Lcd advertising displays were originally used to swap static printed posters, but now these are growing in need as fast as the digital signage industry itself.
How a digital poster will help the Property Manager.
These can be situated at strategic points throughout the development and can be used to advertise current available space, recycling facilities for the tenants, cost per square metre and even local activities.
On the flip side of advertising the benefits of your development to potential new tenants as well as guests, there is an opportunity for current tenants to sell their services or showcase the contracts they have won on the digital poster providing they pay a monthly fee, this will increase their business exposure up to the visitors and at the same time generate a residual income stream for the property management business.
Digital Poster Concierge.
If you have been priviledged to visit a hotel and used the concierge service you will know they are the font of all knowledge, now an lcd poster can be programmed to do a related job, but will certainly not have the connections of a real concierge service.
The digital poster can exhibit the leisure choices available from theatre shows, to live comedians on stage, to dinner reservations at exclusive restaurants, these digital posters can be residing in the guest services section and when the customer selects the leisure choice, for example a reservation for 4 at an exclusive eatery the next page will present the different types of food available with pricing so that you can make an informed selection based on precisely what you want and the price you are comfortable with, then you can make the reservation and enter your cell telephone number and within 5 minutes you receive a confirmation text for your booking.
But sadly there are disadvantages and no digital sign will have the network of contacts the concierge has, so if you are looking for the hard to get tickets for a certain theatre show, you are best talking to the concierge but I am sure if you are at such a exclusive class of hotel you will inevitably face digital posters.
About the Author
The author supplies a range of indoor digital signage hardware including a range of digital poster and digital menu board that range in size from 19″ to 80″ and can be used in either portriat or landscape.
Motivating Staff – (Empty) Words Are Not Enough!
In the course of my somewhat chequered career in marketing and sales, I worked for a range of small – medium businesses. One of the oft quoted platitudes from business owners was “we’re family here” – mostly said to entice employees to work enormous hours for no extra cash, to make unreasonable demands rather than requests and to create a general sense of guilt – as in: ‘we gave you a job…you owe us everything’. This approach is often coupled with vague promises of future rewards.
It makes you wonder what type of family these people had!! As an employee, working conditions like that generally bring the response: ” If that’s how you treat your family, I’d rather be an orphan!”
So let’s ask the multimillion dollar question that most business owners are really wanting to answer when they behave like this: “What does it take to have employees do their best work and for everyone to profit?”
Well, integrity is a good start. In western countries slave labour has been abolished for quite some time. So if you truly intend to create a workplace that feels like home in the best possible sense then it’s time to get creative!
Carmen’s Fine Foods in Australia provides an inspiring example of what’s possible. Ever had the pleasure of an office nanny… your car washed every fortnight… or a boss who actually asks ‘on a scale of one to ten, how stressed are you?’ each week and then does something about it? Hmmm I didn’t think so!! (And for the scrooges out there… Carmen’s has virtually NO staff turnover… ) wouldn’t you rather invest in keeping your team loving their work, than hating you and leaving as a result??
Just a thought… as someone who has sat on both sides of the fence… (maybe its time to dismantle the fence too!!).
About the Author
Lisa Murray is an experienced business mentor and peak performance coach who helps business owners live more authentically by discovering their bliss and exploring creative ways of living and working. By using Lisa’s creative systems, her clients discover the secrets to living blissful lives and building profitable businesses with ease. She offers Playshops, events, and free resources on creating business bliss at http://www.ReviveCoaching.com.au and living your bliss at http://www.BlissTribe.com.au
Online Faxing Is a Normal Part of Communications Convergence
It is amazing how digital technology has changed the world in the last couple of decades. One of the major paradigm shifts in technology, of course, was the transition from analog devices (based on electromagnetic and electromechanical processes) to digital ones (based on, essentially, ones and zeroes). When all forms of data, from voice and sound to text and images, can be reduced to one common format, or a set of formats that can be handled in the same way, they are easier to handle, faster to transmit, simpler to work with and straightforward to store. The reduction of media to these common formats is a large part of what we call the new communications paradigm, and online faxing is a normal part of communications convergence such as we are seeing today.
A fax machine is a combination of several technologies, actually. For outgoing messages, there is a scanning step followed by a transmission step, while for incoming messages there is a translation step followed by a printing step. So, as you can see, there are scanning, transmission and print technologies all working together to make the communication possible. The fax machine shares operational characteristics with scanners, copiers, printers and telephones. In fact, the fax machine itself is a convergence of (mostly) analog technologies. With the advent of online faxing, this mature technology becomes part of the ongoing digital communications convergence, too.
One format used many ways
Computers, of course, are digital devices. Once these became widespread, it was essential to translate things (text, sound, etc.) into a form that the computer’s digital circuitry could work with, and that meant converting to binary languages with ones and zeroes. This is called analog-to-digital, or A/D, conversion. One digital file could represent an annual report while another file, in the same directory list on the same computer, could be digitized music. Both will be translated back in to the analog form of printed characters and sound waves in the reverse process, digital-to-analog or D/A conversion. We can then read the words and hear the music once again. The major job that computer chips do is to perform these conversions and present us with words, images, sounds and motion graphics that we can then edit, add to, delete, change and distribute.
To send an online fax to a fax machine, your computer will convert a word processing document into an analog pattern of signals that can be received and reproduced by the telephonic circuits in the receiving machine. In the other direction, a fax machine will send an analog file that the computer (or, in some cases, a fax server or other setup) will convert to a digital file that you computer can access, edit, display or print. The A/D and D/A conversions happen millions, even trillions, of times a day around the world, with every kind of media imaginable.
Convergence and miniaturization
Convergence means that similar digital formats, for words and music and images, can be accessed today by a single device. The original analog cell phones could handle only analog signals, meaning voice calls. There was no way to receive or display a text message or a photo, much less a video clip with a soundtrack. Now that all of these kinds of media can be digitized, a single device with support for sound (as in speakers/headphones) and images (a color screen) can easily receive, store, display and even forward the media, quickly and cheaply. In addition, connecting the cell phone, wirelessly or otherwise, to a computer allows you to copy those files and then use them immediately with powerful editing and presentation programs.
Digital technology has provided a way to bring all media to common platforms, and in doing so it has resulted in both convergence and miniaturization. The image file may print out at 8 x 11 inches in full color, but to your digital device it is still just a file being stored on a PC hard drive, a cell phone’s flash memory or a CD/DVD disc. The 45 minutes of music on your favorite new album can be compressed into mp3 files totaling only about 45MB in size, and you can save thousands of albums on the average iPod or other music player. Fax messages are now the same kind of animal if you go the online fax route, which has no downside to speak of but a lot of potential to help you in your day-to-day work.
Bottom line
Apple’s iPhone is a great example of digital convergence. It is the most modern of modern devices, and integrates digital files of all kinds into a single device. It is a phone, a movie player, a music machine, a note-taker, a videoconferencing device and an all-around gauge of where the digital road is taking us. And, yes, you can use it for faxing, too. Now that’s convergence!
About the Author
Metro Hi Speed is a leader in internet fax solutions for any sized business. Less expensive and more reliable than traditional fax services – you’ll enjoy the convenience and well as the cost. Visit us today for more information on our small business and corporate fax solutions.
4G is Great for Business
Staying highly connected to the Internet for business means having a super fast Internet connection that will keep you within reach without delays or dropped signals. In order to be dependable, you must be consistent in your Internet connection. The only way to do that is to choose an Internet access method that gives you super fasts service all the time that is not dependant on other people.
Using wireless Internet networks at the nearby café, bookstore, or office building means that you are relying on a third party for your Internet connection. This is alright if you are not regularly online or browse the Internet as a hobby or way to pass time. If you are working on your Internet connection, that is no way to run a business or lead a career. You must be competitive with your Internet connection. That starts with broadband Internet speeds. However, it should not stop there.
With 4G Internet you take your connection to the highest level. It’s a relatively brand new form of wireless Internet connection but is sure to take the country by storm. The same idea that propelled 3G wireless Internet into the cell phones of just about everyone on the move is behind 4G. The cell phone or laptop connects to a wireless Internet network that covers the entire city in which you live. By using the same telephone towers to transmit and receive the necessary Internet signals, you can access high speed, mobile Internet on your cell phone or laptop. The signal travels as far as the tower network allows it, but it generally means your entire city falls within the network.
This is nothing like the café hotspot you are used to. With that wireless Internet network, the signal varies as you move tables within the restaurant. With 4G, the signal is strong as you move throughout the city streets. You can literally access the Internet with super fast speeds as you travel. This is great news for businessmen for several reasons.
First, as mentioned above you can take your cell phone all around town and still access high speed Internet, which will allow you to perform all the more complex Internet functions.
Second, you can also access 4G on your laptop, which means all those projects and important documents are accessible to you as you move freely across the city.
Third, if you travel often for work you will not miss a beat. If the city to which you are traveling has a 4G network as well, you can instantly access it when your plane lands. That means you will eliminate the period of time between landing and finding a wireless network in order to provide you the connection necessary to talk to the boss or important clients.
That’s just a peak into what life is like for businessmen with 4G. It makes business easier and keeps you highly connected and competitive. You need an Internet connection that will maintain your connection to the boss, business associates, and clients. With 4G, you can receive that connection.
About the Author
With 4G by clear internet you will improve your competitiveness and increase business by staying highly connected to clients. Visit www.clearwirelessinternet.net/clear-4g-coverage.html right away so you can give yourself that competitive edge you’ve been looking for.
Politely Does It: How To Make Effective Requests In Business Situations
When dealing with people in business situations it is, of course, essential to be as polite as necessary. English has a rather unique, diplomatic style when spoken – it is important to not sound too direct when you are making requests as this can sound impolite and more like a demand. Modifying your language is a very effective tactic in business dealings when you are trying to establish a friendly and cooperative atmosphere, especially when negotiating in meetings or asking for assistance from colleagues. Polite use of language will take you far. However, there are different levels of politeness and how you use them depends on three things:
1) Your relationship with your listener. Is he or she your boss or a counterpart or a colleague you consider a good friend?
2) How important you consider your request to be. If something is very important and/or urgent you may need to be more polite than usual.
3) How much inconvenience your request could cause the listener. For example, if you are asking a colleague to work your shift, you are more likely to get a positive response from them if you are more polite than usual and appreciate the hassle it may cause them.
So, what are these different levels of politeness? Well, you can scale them from 1 to 5 in terms of directness, ranging from very direct (not so polite) to very indirect (very polite):
1) “Help me file these papers (please).”
This is very direct and sounds more like a demand.
2) “(Please) will you help me file these papers?”
This is less direct and perhaps more suitable if you are asking a friend for help.
3) “Could you help me file these papers (please)?”
This is neutral and therefore the most suitable for the majority of business situations.
4) “Do you think you could possibly help me file these papers?”
This is indirect and therefore much more polite. This phrase is suitable for people you don’t know very well.
5) “I was wondering if you could possibly help me file these papers.”
This is very indirect and the most polite request of the bunch. This phrase is best kept for situations where the task is urgent and/or inconvenient to the listener.
Generally, the more indirect the phrase, the more polite you will appear and the more words you will use! It might seem that the indirect phrases are overly polite and in many cases that is true, but bear in mind that they are still effective tactics in gaining help from colleagues or business associates. Everyone likes to be spoken to with respect and courtesy and what are a few extra words if it means you get the assistance you want and need?
About the Author
For more information on business English and how you can make your English documents the very best they can be, visit http://www.kjlanguageservices.com/
Logos to Inspire Confidence
Logos to Inspire Confidence
Logos are definitely not a new concept born out of the 20th Century but can be traced back through all ages of human civilisation. Many different cultures throughout time have used images as a vital form of communication. From cavemen scratching marks into the stone. The Egyptians with their unique Hieroglyphics or early Roman coins bearing monograms of rulers or cities.Logos have the ability to inspire confidence, trust, admiration and loyalty. The Logo is the ‘keystone’ to a successful brand and therefore must be well thought about and planned. In our world of ever growing visual stimuli, a logo can be used to represent pretty much any modern entity.Logos to inspire confidence share these key elements:
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Easily recognisable and relevant to its cause, entity or sector. Invariably a strong logo will instantly tell the viewer its purpose and meaning. Many modern day logos such as the Nike tick or the BMW propeller are instantly recognised without the company name attached.
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Bring about past and present associations of power and presence. Many logos will use well known images or icons of past times to re-affirm and strengthen its modern day meaning. A logo using a flag or city symbol within its logo will instantly be associated and will add weight to the logos interpretation.
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Simplicity and Clarity, the most successful logos tend to be the most simple. These logos are to be seen everywhere today. The apple logo is a clear example of this in action for over 30 years or the Shell logo which has remained pretty much the same throughout the 1900′s.
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Complementary colours, although generally no more than 3 colours. Colours have the power to summon emotions within us. Red for danger or excitement. Green, a colour associated with nature and healing. In regards to a strong colour for a logo to inspire confidence it would have to be blue. Blue is a stable and dependable colour. As with the sky and seas that are always constant. Blue inspires confidence, commitment and a sense of calm.
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Use of Natural shapes and curves. I make reference to the Fibonacci sequence that can be seen throughout the natural world and as Da Vinci believed could be used to paint the perfect picture. The golden ratio can be seen within the famous Fibonacci spiral.
A well thought out combination of these elements hold the key to creating a logo its user can engage with, feel part of and ultimately inspire confidence. Logos are key to designing brand identity.
About the Author
Original Article written by Rob Playford, Web Branding, Sheffield
Web Branding providing logos to inspire confidence, the best website designs and Search Engine Optimisation for all types of business.
Healthier Workplace Leads to Healthy Returns
You know that the key to a long and happy life is good health, but it also makes good business sense. Consider this: Physically fit employees not only take fewer sick days, they also are more productive, and that helps to keep your bottom line healthy too. While you can’t push your employees to adopt a healthier lifestyle, you can encourage and provide them with opportunities to get and stay fit, such as:
Take stock of your office vending machine. Replace high-fat and high-calorie items like pop and chips with more healthy and nutritious snacks. Do you have an office cafeteria? Look at adding health-smart items to the menu. When it comes time for a team-building retreat or exercise, why not choose a program or location with physical activity opportunities? Reward employees who make healthy choices. For example, sponsor your company’s softball team. Office events and parties are great opportunities to promote healthy living while having fun, like a skating party. Create a team of executives and employees to look at and promote the benefits of good health in your business. Install a water cooler.
Drinking more water is essential to losing weight and staying healthy. Offer a weekly lunchtime program where employees can learn how to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Make it fun and interactive; have cooking classes with a local chef where employees can learn how to prepare more nutritious meals, and then sample them for lunch. Make your office more exercise friendly. Install a shower for employees who bike to work or jog at lunch. Because fitness club fees can be expensive, look into corporate rates to give your employees added incentive to get fit. Make physical fitness a contest between departments. This is a great way to build team spirit in your company. Start a walking or running club and keep a weekly tally of weight lost or kilometers walked and offer a monthly prize to the team with the best overall performance.
When it comes to changing your employees’ lifestyles and habits, think of it as an investment. It takes considerable time, effort and dedication, but it’s one that will result in significant returns for your employees (an improved quality of life) and for you (improved profitability and profits).
If you enjoyed this article, please pass it along to others who would find it useful and sign up for our Organize Anything newsletter on our homepage at http://www.organizeanything.com
About the Author
Colette Robicheau is a productivity and organizing consultant, life Coach and international speaker. She is a well sought after organizing expert who appears regularly in various media including her own radio show. Colette is the first certified professional organizer in Canada
Why Your Company Should Use CRM Software
It is vital that you are efficient and effective in your business strategy when you attempt to make an impact in the business world. There are several different ways that you can achieve this and one of those ways is through the use of CRM software.
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management and effectively it does exactly what it says on the tin, it allows you to manage the relationships between your business and your customers quickly, easily and efficiently, which is vital in the battle to retain your clients. One of the key aspects of working with clients is all about communication. If you can’t communicate efficiently with your clients then there is every possibility that they will look to move their business to a different company who can communicate efficiently.
Never underestimate the power of communication can have for a company. Just picking up the phone and initiating contact with your clients can be the difference between a happy client and a disgruntled client. We all like to feel important and if someone contacts us to inform us about some work that they are performing for us, then we feel loved and generally we will feel satisfied with the service that we are provided with.
CRM software allows you to manage your communication with your clients in a more professional structure and manner. This is because the layout of the CRM software lends itself to providing your company with an online/digital version of an address book. All client information including telephone number, email address, location and much more can be stored, accessed and edited within seconds. You can also create, edit and modify a number of custom fields that you can utilise to personalise the software to your own personal preference.
If you ask around then you will find that most of the large companies and organisations use some form of CRM software to manage the relationship between them and their clients. But it doesn’t just need to be restricted to large organisations. Small businesses could stand to benefit just as much through this useful product.
Another handy aspect of the software is that you can obtain a handy plug-in that allows you to connect the software to your office phones. This means that whenever a phone call comes in the clients details are automatically displayed on your computer screen, enabling you to save time and effort and maintain the upmost levels of professionalism in front of your clients on the telephone.
If you want to find out more about CRM software in 2010, then you should be able to find a number of suitable companies that supply suitable products simple by searching within Google.
About the Author
Dominic Donaldson is a business analyst with many years of experience in the financial industry. Find out more about CRM software at http://www.e1business.com/crm-systems-e1.php
Distributed by Content Crooner
Business Broadband: Find a Deal to Suit your Company
The days of dial-up internet access seems like a lifetime ago. Whilst it was acceptable in the early days of the World Wide Web, when it was still a bit of a novelty, people are simply used to high-speed internet access on tap.
Indeed, many mobile phones are now capable of faster internet access than the early dial-up connections, but most people wouldn’t use their phones for much more than casual browsing. Nobody would dare consider running a profitable enterprise from a handheld device.
High-speed broadband is the norm now and dawdling dial-up can happily be consigned to the history books. The UK government has even formed Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), an initiative that strives to meet a target of at least 2Mbps broadband in all homes and businesses across the UK by 2012.
Additionally, BDUK will direct a £1 billion ‘Next Generation Fund’, which will help subsidise the cost of rolling out even faster broadband to the vast majority of the UK by 2017.
Until then, what can British businesses expect from their cyberspace connections? Well, regardless of the plans for the next few years, broadband is still very much widespread across the country, and in 2009 alone the average broadband speed in the UK increased from 3.667Mbps at the start, to 4.478Mbps by the end. So good news all round for those dependent on the internet.
That doesn’t mean businesses should sign up to the first deal they come across just because it uses the magic ‘broadband’ word. There is an array of packages available with different levels of service offerings.
A small home-based e-business with a lone-soldier at the helm will probably be fine with a simple 1Mbps deal, with some free phone calls thrown in to help sweeten the deal.
On the other hand, a 20 person ‘bricks and mortar’ business will need more bandwidth to handle the increased usage. Depending on your location, you can get as much as 20Mb, high-speed internet, unlimited calls and a free wireless router thrown in for good measure.
At a time when many businesses will be seeking to keep their spending to a minimum, it’s understandable that you don’t want to be faced with costly IT call-out costs, so you may want to check that 24/7 support is available too, should you experience any disruptions to your internet or telephone connections. Any time spent ‘offline’ can cost you valuable business.
With plenty of broadband deals to choose from, you can be certain that you’ll find something to suit your needs. High-speed internet is the future, and it seems the future is already here.
About the Author
Adam Singleton writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.
Is Employee Disengagement Killing Your Profits? Financial Numbers You Can’t Ignore!
The New Year hasn’t even begun-but the factors that will drive your company’s success or failure during the next year have already moved in and put their feet up on the furniture.
The big one, as you know (PLEASE tell me you know) is employee engagement. The landmark 2006 study by the Gallup Management Journal estimated that a typical organization loses $3,400 in productivity for every $10,000 of payroll due to “disengaged employees.” Not all that surprising when you realize that engaged employees account for just 29 percent of the average company’s workforce, leaving a startling 71 percent “not engaged” or “actively disengaged.”
Employee engagement scores regularly account for 45-50 percent of the variance in customer service scores. Eighty-four percent of employees who are highly engaged believe they can positively impact the company, while only 31 percent of disengaged employees think so.
But that was 2006. Surely that study woke everyone up, and things are better now…right?
From bad to worse
Here’s a rude awakening: The 2009/2010 U.S. Strategic Rewards Survey found that employee engagement levels have dropped nine percent since 2008 and close to 25 percent for top performers. It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.
The survey also found that top-performing employees are 29 percent less confident in management’s ability to grow the business, and 41 percent believe that pay and benefit changes made by their employer in the past year have had a negative effect on work quality and customer service. A full 72 percent of U.S. employers have gone through a restructuring or made layoffs since the economic downturn began last year.
It all adds up to an employee engagement nightmare worthy of Stephen King.
And it goes on and on. A study of 40 global companies by Towers Perrin found that firms with the highest percentage of engaged employees collectively increased operating income 19 percent and earnings per share 28 percent year-to-year. But the companies with the lowest percentage of engaged employees showed year-to-year declines of 33 percent in operating income and 11 percent in earnings per share.
Engaged employees are also more likely to see a direct connection between what they do and the company’s results, according to the study. More than 80 percent of engaged employees believe they can and do contribute to the quality of products and to customer satisfaction. Only half as many of the disengaged share that view. In short, disengaged employees in 2010 are even more disengaged than those in 2006.
In addition, engagement has a direct impact on retaining employees. Half of the engaged employees had no plans to leave their company, compared with just 15 percent of the disengaged employees and roughly a third of the workforce overall. Less than five percent of engaged employees said they were actively looking for another job compared with more than 25 percent of the disengaged employees.
The Towers Perrin study also debunks a widely-held view that engagement is an innate trait that people either have or don’t. No dice. Turns out the organization itself, particularly its senior leadership, has the biggest impact on engagement levels, not the employees themselves.
“One of the study’s key findings is that the organization itself is the most powerful influencer of employee engagement,” said Towers Perrin managing director Julie Gebauer. “Personal values and work experience factors have less of an impact on engagement than what the company does, particularly the extent to which employees believe senior management is sincerely interested in their well-being. This was the number one element driving engagement on a global basis and also in the U.S.”
And mere cost-cutting isn’t the way to improve this critical variable. The cost-cutting that employers have been doing to deal with the economic crisis has contributed to a sharp decline in the morale and commitment of their workers, especially top performers, according to an annual survey by Watson Wyatt and WorldatWork.
Tackling low performers-for everyone’s sake
Sixty two percent of managers said that current job candidates are of medium to low quality, and that this is an overriding challenge. High performing companies are 150 percent more likely to tackle low performer issues than lower performing companies. Only 14 percent of senior execs believe their organization does a good job of quickly and effectively managing low performers.
Eighty-seven percent of employees say that working with a low performer has decreased their productivity, hampered their development, and made them at some point want to leave their job. Ninety-six percent of employees would be thrilled if their company more aggressively managed low performers.
Who wouldn’t want to thrill 96 percent of their workforce? Imagine the increased engagement!
And if the carrot isn’t convincing enough, here’s a stick: Fortune magazine shows that the number one reason behind the downfall of CEOs is their failure to effectively manage low performers.
Ponder THAT as you create your strategy for next year!
About the Author
Roxanne Emmerich’s Thank God It’s Monday!-How to Create a Workplace You and Your Customers Love is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon bestseller. Roxanne is renowned for her ability to transform “ho-hum” workplaces into dynamic, results-oriented, “bring-it-on” cultures in a day. Listen to the free 60-second audio with teammates each Monday to clean up the craziness in your workplace. Sign up today at http://www.ThankGoditsMonday.com or call 952-820-0360.