November 20th, 2008 by businessconsultant

Everyone’s a winner when simplified business technology is launched, and the tactips.com team have found a winner in the simplified business technology stakes in the new browser that has been launched by Google named Crome.

In bucking the trend for bigger, bloated feature loaded web browsers, Crome has targeted a more minimalist approach and realised on the way that it would win if its performance was super fast.

Gone are the address and tool bars, which many people used only rarely, but it has retained tabbing and multiple page instances. It does follow the crowd in making the code open source, and I expect a flurry of add-ons to be available for download shortly. But it is squarely aimed at mature markets where simplified business technology will gain a few extra brownie points.

I applaud its more minimalist appearance, because, at last , more of the screen is there to display web content. Gone is the irritating download manager of Firefox, a feature I tired of instantly, to be replaced with a progress icon at the bottom of the status bar.

Provided that it doesn’t become a casualty of the bloated app brigade, then this browser has a great deal to offer.

November 19th, 2008 by technicalconsultant

Continuing the tactips.com software consultant investigation into the Kema power project this post considers the technical aspects of the project. Our software consultant opinion considers the effect of flooding a man-made basin with seawater to generate power and then using pumps to expel the water.

What is not clear from the literature is the reasons why it isn’t planned to scavenge seawater from the island basin. Consider the seawater pouring into the centre of the island and driving turbines, thus offering a net gain in electricity. If the water is then pumped back out into the sea, then it would appear that the project is almost energy neutral, or at best slightly energy positive.

The only gain that our software consultant can see is where there is a differential between the costs of the former against the latter. Although Holland is flat, it is still tidal, and in order to scavenge the seawater it is reasonable to assume that a sophisticated software application would be needed to capitalise on the tide and lower costs of energy at certain times of the day.

A tightrope balance of costs versus power generation would be essential to ensure that the local economy saw some benefit. In reality the initiative is at best energy neutral.

November 19th, 2008 by smallbusinessconsultant

Innovators in Holland have been evaluated by the tactips.com small business consulting team. The small business consulting team are reviewing the plan by the Dutch company Kema who have a plan to generate energy islands that would be used to supplement wind power in Holland.

It’s believed that this energy would be available to supplement power demands at peak times and when there is no wind.

The idea is that man-made islands would have a huge basin in the centre into which seawater would pour through pipes. The dynamics of the water over embedded turbines would be enough to generate electric energy to supplement the wind turbines that the Dutch already use.

It is not clear exactly how much energy would be gained from the project since, in its current form, the seawater would fill up the basin whilst generating power, but then when full, it would need to be emptied using pumps. Evidently the pumps will consume power themselves thus drawing into question the amount of overall gain that might be achieved.

Our small business consulting experts believe that there will be a measurable gain, which will be mainly as a result of the difference in electricity cost between power generated at peak times and off peak pumping.

November 18th, 2008 by marketingconsultant

With the introduction of a niche market consulting solution from Mozilla data privacy is brought to the for. The niche market consulting specialist at tactips.com has taken a look at the upcoming Ubiquity product, and found that it does raise a question about the use of the data that it stores.

Whilst I can see the advantage of having a technological man-Friday solution that will link up a set of products that will solve problems that a PA would usually undertake really efficiently, it does beg the question about what would happen to all of the data it produces.

Note that Ubiquity will keep and build a profile that allows it to decide how to solve certain day-to-day tasks, such as ordering flowers, booking tickets and so on. However, in doing this it is building up information streams that have to be stored somewhere, and that somewhere is someone else’s server!

As each of us use this niche market consulting solution, so we are exposing our living habits to scrutiny, and although I am sure there will be the usual assurances with respect to data security, too much data has been lost in the past, and the individual loses control of its sensitive information.

November 18th, 2008 by marketingconsultant

It took Mozilla labs to come up with a niche software solution that integrates web services. The tactips.com experts have reviewed many niche software solutions that attempt to provide the glue for the web, but Ubiquity is a new product from the Firefox stable that attempts to do just that.

Like many other web applications it uses software to work out individual characteristics, behaviour and habits and uses this to provide an across the board solution for businesses and individuals. This niche software solution will bind together a set of products that will interpret your natural language text and understand how to fulfil your request.

You get an instruction from your boss that means you have to travel, and Ubiquity will understand what you need to do. Breaking down the task, it will know where to go to buy your airline tickets and will have learned what criteria you place on buying them. This new product will put together the itinerary and provide the map at the end that puts you in command of the business or personal travel.

But what happens if it gets it wrong? If you’re visiting a church then there’s no guarantee of success. We had occasion to want to visit “St john the Baptist church at Boldre”, but Google maps didn’t even get close!

November 17th, 2008 by informationconsultant

In the past decade an information technology climate has grown where technology solves everything. The tactips.com specialist are concerned that this information technology climate encourages people to believe that no matter what problem arises both now and in the future that there will be a technologist who will rise to the challenge and provide a solution.

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth, and our concern is that the emerging information technology climate will result in specialists carrying the can for over-optimistic expectations.

An example of this is the expectation that technology will be the saviour for carbon emissions. Surely they cry, we can reduce our emissions by introducing hybrid, or electric cars. But in taking this narrow view it ignores the dynamics of cause and effect.

Take one small component of the electric car, the battery and consider the environmental impact of an explosion of these components on the market. Millions of electric cars would need millions of batteries, which in turn place a demand on the earth’s resources. Batteries are created from rare elements, such as lithium, which can only be extracted using plant that creates noxious gases!

We may just shift the problem out of our backyard!

November 17th, 2008 by businessconsultant

Business technology consulting firm tactips.com considers world trade to be flawed. In business, technology consulting may offer a panacea to many governments seeking a world solution, but it will be impossible for any technical solution to succeed if the concept of world trade is fundamentally flawed.

In any closed system the components of which it is constructed can do nothing more than be redistributed within the enclosing envelope. Matter may be lost from the system and replenished by adding it from alternative sources, but in effect nothing is ever lost it is only converted into something else.

Taking the components that drive the earth, we have natural resources, such as minerals and materials, and of course we have people who provide effort. In addition there are ‘free resources’ such as the sun. When one economy makes something they rely on some other economy to reward them for doing so.

There is consequentially, a flow of wealth, which is a bit like a tide that washes first one way, and then another. But that wealth relies on consuming materiel and people’s effort.

Resources become consumed and economies rely on that consumption. When the resources dry up, then all economies will fail and cannot be saved by business technology consulting.

November 16th, 2008 by businessconsultant

It’s claimed that the current deflationary recession is a threat to software consultants. In contrast to 1990s the tactips.com experts believe that software consultants were barely affected then, but are more at risk in the current recession.

It may not be entirely obvious why this should be, but this economic climate differs from any in the past in that it has affected the banking and finance industries first and hardest. In previous recessions banking has stood aloof, and insulated itself by raising interest rates and riding out the storm.

In this economic downturn, they are centre stage, and with prices deflating there is a big risk that the buyers will hold back on spending, anticipating even lower prices. If this were to happen, then the deflationary cycle will tighten as fewer businesses spend and prices are forced even further down.

With the financial sector in the lead, it is well recognised that specialists are in the vanguard of redundancies with software consultants to the fore. With governments talking up the need to spend, it remains to be seen whether inflationary measures will stimulate the enterprise into more inflationary measures.
Strange that we look to inflation as a panacea to economic woes.

November 16th, 2008 by nichebusinessconsultant

If you are caught speeding you might be forgiven for thinking that at the heart of it is a niche software solution. The tactips.com consulting team have taken a look at what might have happened before niche software solutions gave the Law an edge.

Surprisingly, in the UK, as far back as 1912 the unsuspecting motorist could be fined for speeding, although the limit as set in 1903 was a modest 20mph. In an effort to propel itself to the fore, the Automobile Association took its own radical steps to help its members.

This fledgling organisation was proud of the fact that its members had their badge affixed to the front of their car, and apart from the practical expedient if finding one that was broken down it was the norm for AA patrolmen to come to attention and salute whenever they saw a member. This was an act I remember as a child, but an act that died in the 60’s.

But the AA was to use this act to further assist their members. No niche software solution in 1912, however, but if a patrolman didn’t salute you would know that a speed trap was near!

November 15th, 2008 by smallbusinessconsultant

As the lights go out in 2016 the small business challenge will be one of survival. A tactips.com review of the short-term small business challenge in the next 10 years will be one of vying for position in the energy stakes.

With governments concerned about ensuring that the general populace are provided with energy, so that they are voted in, it becomes more likely that businesses will be left to their own devices to secure their share. With coal fired and ageing nuclear stations being closed in the next decade the large enterprise has the persuasive power to be able to control the residual energy market.

The small business challenge will be to voice its concerns loud enough to ensure that it has enough of the energy resources to continue providing services of value.

Although there is a gulf between the efficiency each of these business cultures, the price of energy is likely to rise for those who do not have the negotiating clout.
With this business sector being already under pressure from the economic crisis and the government beurocracy the financial weight that small business has to bear will swamp their competitive edge.