Thursday, September 29, 2011

How Best to Use Social Media

For small business in particular, social media presents a challenge. It's there and seemingly accessible and available as a sales vehicle. But this is the wrong way to approach it. Instead it needs to be approached as an electronic form of social engagement. The selling must come after the social presence is established and flow from it. This takes time - every day - honest interaction. And many small business owners have trouble finding the time. But if they don't approach it this way, but rather as just another sales vehicle, they may be wasting their time. Check out these tips for using social media in a small business.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Mastercard Moving Ahead With Google Wallet

Mastercard has announced that their new application using Google Wallet will shortly be available. The application will allow payment to be made by tapping a mobile phone on a terminal, such as a Paypass terminal.  Currently, this can be done with cards containing a special embedded chip but with this new approach, a chip would be embedded in a mobile phone. It would be constructed to self-destruct if it is compromised.

The advent of payments by using mobile phones, already a reality in Europe and Asia for several years, has been eagerly awaited in North America. It is likely to be very popular, if it can be demonstrated to be readily available and secure.

Here's an article on the Mastercard announcement.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Catering to Customer 2.0

Use of social media in implementing CRM - Social CRM - is now a necessity. Today's customer expects to be able to use social media to interact with vendors and those who do not provide this capability are at a disadvantage. This article outlines some of the key ingedients of implementing Social CRM in an enterprise. A useful and timely article.

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Data Centric Security Works for the Cloud

We live in a data centric world, where data is everywhere and very mobile. The mobility expends through the use of all connected devices to the cloud. Mobility and Cloud computing pose certain risks to data integrity. So the concept of data centric security was born.

Central to data centric security is the idea of encryption. Only encryption can protect individual data elements from being read by unauthorized people. In a world where data is being freed, through technologies like XBRL, data integrity becomes more important.

CIO has recently released a white paper How Data-Centric Protection Increases Security in Cloud Computing and Virtualization.

Also, the CICA released a white paper a couple of years ago which gives a good overview of the subject.

Both white papers are useful in understanding how to approach this issue.

Thursday, September 01, 2011

Electronic Health Care

One significant initiative presently being carried out by the governments of Canada is the implementation of electronic health care. Despite extensive advertising over the past two years, many Canadians are not aware of what is being done in this area and what progress has been made.

The advent of electronic health care has been a reality in some other countries for several years, particularly those with socialized medicine. It has enabled health care people to gain access to a patient's medical records quickly when needed. Without it, when a person is in an accident and their next of kin cannot be found, the emergency responders have to initiate treatment without knowing what other medication the victim takes, and therefore run the risk of giving medication that conflicts and causes further problems, perhaps seizures, illness or even death.

Access to medical records electronically can reduce the likelihood of this happening.

Or suppose you live in a rural community 200 kilometers from the nearest significant medical center. Suppose you go to the local doctor with pains in your legs. Your doctor suspects blood clots, which can be the harbinger of numerous serious conditions. To confirm this and determine the root cause, however, the doctor needs access to a specialist. So you need to travel that 200 kilometers to get the tests and have them analyzed by a specialist.

An electronic system can enable the local doctor to connect with the specialist, have tests conducted, transmitted and analyzed, all online. The result is a faster and more convenient and also constitutes a cost effective resolution of the issue.

The introduction of all aspects of electronic medicine has been in progess in Canada under the umbrella of Canada Health Infoway, a not for profit organization created by the federal and provincial governments to initiate electronic health care in Canada. Many projects have been underway in the various jurisdictions. Canada Health Infoway has an excellent website which provides detailed information on the progress being made across the country in this important area.

Electronic Health Care is not the panacea for fixing all the issues around health care in Canada. it will, however, result in better and safer health care for everyone, not to mention reduced wait times. Interestingly, it also is showing itself to be generating millions of dollars in savings, because health care can be delivered so much more efficiently and effectively.

Better health care at less cost. Who can say no to that?

Check out the Infoway Website for more information.