Thursday, October 31, 2013

Posted by lelyholida
No comments | 8:05 PM
Technology & HR-Leverage one for the other: "Technology and HR are enabler of business. Integration of the two would mean not only harmonious co-existence but also leveraging one for the other. Leveraging of technology for HR would mean digitizing the mundane HR activities and automating the back office and transactional activities related to recruitment, performance management, career planning, and succession planning, training and knowledge management. Leveraging HR for technology implies managing change associated with technology by way of communication, training, hiring, retraining, stakeholder analysis and conscious keeping. Thus they can play complementary roles."

Technology and HR both have one thing common i.e., both these are enabler of business.

In recent times, technology has become synonymous with information technology, as hardly any other technological development of the past would have impacted all spectrum of business as information technology has impacted. Irrespective of the kind of business you are in i.e., services or goods, commodity or branded, trading or manufacturing, contemporary or traditional deployment of information technology in one form or the other is a foregone conclusion. To manage and deploy technology in an effective way, all business Organizations would need knowledge workers. Managing of these knowledge workers is the responsibility of HR function. Hence the integration of technology and HR is an absolute must.

Having understood technology and HR in the present context we must understand integration in this context. Integration would not only mean harmonious co-existing but would also mean one enhancing and complementing the other i.e., technology is used to enhance effectiveness of HR and HR functions helps in adopting and managing change which technology deployment brings in.

Leveraging technology for HR

HR management as a function is responsible for deliverables like business strategy execution, administrative efficiency, employee contribution and capacity for change. All these are accomplished through what HR people do i.e., staffing, development, compensation, benefits, communicate organization design, high performing teams and so on. In majority of these areas technology is being deployed.

e-Recruitment

Recruitment is one area where all the companies worth their name leverage IT. There are two different models of e-recruitment, which are in vogue. One is recruitment through company's own sites and the other is hosting your requirement on the other sites e.g., monster .com, jobsdb.com, jobsahead.com, naukri.com, and jobstreet.com and so on so forth. The first models is more popular with the larger companies who have a brand pull for potential employees e.g., GE, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, CL, ICC, Reliance, Mind tree consulting etc. Other companies prefer to go to the job sites. Some are adopting both.

E-recruitment has gone a long way since its start. Now these sites have gone global. Sites like jobsahead.com and monster.com have established global network, which encompasses separate sites for jobs in Australia, Denmark, Belgium, and Canada etc. Job seekers are able to search job by region or country and employers target potential employees in specific countries. For example, 3 Com recently posted a company profile on the Ireland site that highlights the contributions of 3 com's Irish design team in its global projects.

In the early days e-recruitment was plagued with flooding the employers with low-quality bio-data's. Again technology has come as a savior. Now pre-employment testing like the one introduced by Capital One, a US based financial company, help in filtering the applicants. These tools test online e.g., applicants for call centers. 'Profile International' a Texas based provider of employment assessments, has developed tools that allow instant translation of assessment tests between languages. Further developments like video- conference specialized sites, online executives recruitment and combining online and offline methods are leading to more and more companies adopting e-recruitment at least as a secondary recruitment method. Arena Knights Bridge, a US based IT company conducts video based interview of its prospective employees and only short listed employees are met in person. Even Cisco was to launch the same.

Employee Self Service

Employee self-service is perhaps one utility of IT, which has relieved HR of most of mundane tasks and helped it to improve employee satisfaction. Employee self services is a plethora of small activities, which were earlier carried out by employee through administration wing of HR. These are travel bookings, travel rules information, travel bills, leave rules, leave administration, perk administration, etc. Earlier all these rules and information were in the custody of HR. Every user employee was expected to reach out to HR and get it done. Now with deployment of LESS in most of the companies, employee can request for travel related booking online, fill his/her P.E. bills, apply for leave, log time sheet and see his perks value disbursed and due etc. E.g., in Ballard Industries Ltd. leave administration is completely digitized in its corporate office. It is working towards digitizing travel related activities, perks and even compensation management and performance management administration. 'Digitize or outsource all the mundane and routine focus only on core and value add' - Viet Chambray V.P. -DC BLT.

Communication

Communication which is most talked about management tool has always been a gray area in HR management. In large companies with vast geographical spread communicating with all employees had really posed formidable challenge to HR professionals. Technology has again come for rescue. Starting with telephones, faxes, e-mails and maturing into video conferencing, net cast, web cast etc. communication is one area of HR, which has been greatly benefited by technology. Mouse & click companies like Oracle, IBM has an intranet which caters to most of the information needs of its employees. Brick & Mortar companies like BLT also have made a foray into deploying intranet for internal communication, which has corporate notice board, media coverage, and knowledge corners.

Knowledge Management

Another area of HR, which is leveraging technology, is employee development. Programmed learning (PL) i.e. learning at its own pace is one of the most effective ways of adult learning. Use of technology for this purpose can't be over emphasized. Optec Online University and 'The Manage mentor' are some of the Indian sites, which are in this business knowledge management, which is an integral part of any learning organization, which cannot become a reality without technology. Companies can harness the knowledge of its employees by cataloging and hosting it on the intranet. Talk to 'Big-5' or not 'so big' consulting companies you will find that main stay of their business is the knowledge repository. Technology has enabled them to retrieve it swiftly. In the competitive environment where speed is the name of game technology driven Knowledge Management constantly provides a strategic advantage.

If you look at HR module of ERP solutions like people soft, SAP, Oracle and Armco they provide you with a comprehensive package which helps in man-power planning, recruitment, performance management, training and development, career planning, succession planning, separation and grievance handling. A transaction happening in all these areas are digitized and form a closed loop ensuring employee database is always updated. E.g. a joining letter of a new employee is system generated. It will be printed only when all mandatory fields of information are entered. Similarly a transfer order or a separation letter is issued from the system only if that transaction has been carried out in the system.

For career planning, success planning, skill and competencies matrix methods are used by most of these systems. They search an employee with the required skills first in the in-house database of employees. Once put in practice in letter & spirit, this system not only enhances business results by matching the right candidate for right job but also improves retention of employees.

Processing payroll, churning out time office reports, providing HR-MIS are some other routine activities of HR which have been off-loaded to technology.

Leveraging HR for Technology

All HR professionals, preaching or practicing, learning or experimenting, teaching or studying have experienced leveraging technology for HR. But most of us come across a situation where we need to leverage HR for technology. Let us understand what do we mean by this.

Whenever technology is deployed afresh or upgraded it involves a change. The change may be at the activity level e.g., applying for leave through the intranet or at the mental model level e.g., digitizing the process succession planning which have been HR professionals forte. The people have always registered adopting change. This is one area where HR professionals are to deliver i.e., become change agents and lead the process of technology and change adoption. The resistance to change is directly proportional to speed of change. Now speed of change has increased and hence resistance.

Just to take an example, most of ERP implementation in the world have not been able to deliver all the expectations. Some of these have failed to deliver at all. While analyzing the cause of failure it has been observed that 96% of failures are because of people related issues and only 4% are because of technology.

It is the people who make the difference; hence HR should exploit its expertise to facilitate the adoption of technology. I would like to put together some of the thoughts on what HR should do for this.

At the time of recruitment, stop hiring for skills rather hire for attitude and a learning mind. Skills of today are no longer valid tomorrow. Managing ever changing change is the only criteria for success.

Functional or technical skills can be acquired during the job. Hence recruitment in the technology era needs to undergo a paradigm shift i.e., from a skill/competency based it needs to be attitude and learning mind/ ability based interview. That would translate into hiring for skills for future. In IBM every employee has to fill in his/her individual development plan where the employee commits its learning one/two new skills every year thus remaining competitive every time.

If we look at the chemistry of resistance to change it is either a skill issue or a will issue. To address the will issue we need to work at a comprehensive solution starting from recruitment (as discussed earlier), reward, compensation and leading to organization culture which promotes change. A living example is 3M, a US based company, where innovation is way of life, where 10% of revenue must come from new products every year. For them change becomes way of life.

To address the will issue further organization need to prepare a communication strategy which creates a 'pull' for the technology. For example, in Granary, when they went for SAP implementation they anticipated resistance. To address this they started a house journal, which was aimed at educating the employees on the benefits, which will result from adoption of ERP, SAP. This created a need rather a potential need or a latent need was brought out. Adoption of ERP did not become much of a problem.

At times adoption of technologies is perceived as a threat by the employees e.g., automation leading to reduction in workers, office automation leading to retrenchment of clerks etc. HR needs to be associated with the technical adoption right from the beginning till the end. At the selection of technical stage if HR is associated, it can map the skills required and create a pull during implementation and adoption. Post adoption it can release the excess non-re-allocatable employees.

To understand this process more clearly we can take example of ERP implementation. ERP is taken as an example as this is one technology adoption which effects employees across the org. irrespective of function and position. Any other automation may have affected only a segment of organization. ERP implementation in any organization goes through the following stages.

1. Selection of package

2. Business analysis

3. Solution design

4. Configuration and customization

5. Conference room piloting (CRP)

6. Go-live and production

At each stage HR has to play a role, which will help in mitigating resistance to change.

During selection process, the change agent can understand the business benefit ERP would bring. This would help him to draw a comprehensive communication plant aimed at creating a 'pull' for the change. The communication plan may use its various weapons from the armory. The obvious examples are Newsletters, News flash. In-house journal, addressing by the top management, web cast, open house sessions, meetings formal and informal.

During the business analysis phase implementation team is supposed to analyze the existing business processes. At times this leads to surfacing of some data which is not very desirable by the process owners, leading to resistance at this stage, HR has to be again proactive and carry out a detailed stake-holder analysis. Such an analysis should give a lead to potential areas of problem and potential champions of change.

Solution design involves defining 'To-be processes' i.e., the way business would be carried out in future. At this stage HR has to play the role of catalyst to turn the heat on. The idea is to ensure to make maximum out of an opportunity of package enabled business transformation. HR can play a role by arranging to educate and train the right people on best business practices, just before this phase.

During the configuration and customization HR has to keep on beating the drum, the customization of a standard package is a big no-no. Similarly, during the conference room plotting (CRP) it should help in identifying the right persons to be involved in CRP. A thorough testing at this stage would result in lesser pain at the time of going live. This is also time to focus on training of end users, the employees who are going to use the system once implemented. Training- retraining -training to ensure all the prospective users are comfortable with usage of software before the system goes live.

During the go-live stage HR has to work over time to keep the motivation levels high. This is the time when management starts losing patience as one glitch after the other keeps appearing and virtually bringing the business to halt. At this stage, HR has to play 'conscious keeper' for the top management once into product relocating the surplus is a challenge for which it has to be prepared before it.

This examples makes it clear that involvement of HR during the entire life cycle of technology is valuable. ERP is not an isolated case. It is true for any other technology adoption only finer details may vary. Hence HR must play a proactive role rather than being just a silent spectator or mere executes of the wishes of business or chief technology officer in case of technological changes.

Having set the case in different perspective, it seems only logical to leverage technology for HR and vice-versa.

Mr. Tamarind B. Hiram is a frequent speaker at internationally renowned global events, CEO/CTO/CIO Roundtables, Technology Conferences and Symposiums. He hosted and organized the Executive Technology Leadership Forum. He specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. His strategic and practical insights have guided leaders of large and small organizations worldwide.

Tamarind Bushman has been named to lists of the European Management Guru and is named as Europe's youngest management Guru and one of the Top most influential business thinkers in the world. http://www.theerce.com, http://www.indogreek.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tamarind_Bushman_Hiram

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/265210

Friday, October 25, 2013

Posted by lelyholida
No comments | 1:39 AM
Only a week ago I was watching the movie Ironman on television. The billionaire entrepreneur Tony Stark was down in his lab building and modifying his new Ironman suit. As his aides, Tony had a host of machines that he commanded and told what to do using nothing but his voice. As I watched this I thought to myself, this is more Hollywood fantasy, technology hasn't come this far. However upon thinking about this, I realized we weren't that far away and that voice technology is something we are embracing more and more. You don't have to look past your iPhone equipped with Sir or Samsung using S voice to see that speaking to machines is not confined to a Hollywood studio. Upon looking into this more, I discovered that voice technology isn't just used occasionally in phones to find the nearest restaurant, but instead is incorporated in the running of entire factories and vastly improves productivity through the use of applications such as Speakeasy.

The application Speakeasy by Wave link allows pickers in large warehouses to know where to go, how much of which item to pick and where to take it. Traditionally, pickers would carry around a piece of paper with the items required for picking written upon it and would have to attempt to drive a forklift whilst not losing their place on the paper. Once finished, a picker would have to individually mark off the items they have picked. Already from this it becomes evident that the picker does not have his hands free throughout this process and it becomes very easy for them to lose their place or make a mistake as well as even on occasion hit something whilst reading where to go. For this reason, Wave link's Speakeasy voice technology has been implemented into some warehouses with great all round success

With this technology, all pickers wear a headset and have a small computer screen with a barcode scanner attached to their forearm thus leaving both hands free for driving the forklift and picking up items. In the headset, they can choose the language they want the voice to speak in and they will be able to interact with it making it much easier to multitask and thus improving efficiency. The Speakeasy application will inform the picker of where they need to go to get the next item via a voice in the earpiece. The picker has many options such as asking to hear the location again, asking to speak slower or louder and so forth. Once at the location, the picker will then scan a barcode and Speakeasy will confirm whether or not they are at the right location, thus eliminating any error of picking the wrong item. It will then tell them how much of the item they should pick. Once the picker has successfully loaded these onto the forklift, a process that is made easier by the fact that they aren't holding around a paper and pen, they will simply ask for the next item. Upon reaching the final item, Speakeasy will inform them that they have picked everything in this batch and tell them where to deliver it to.

The use of voice technology is something we are embracing more as improvements to it are made. With the progression of technology, machines are able to understand language with a greater degree of accuracy making voice technology a viable option for the future. As more people turn towards voice technology, we will see greater improvements and innovations made in this field. Who knows, one day in the future you may be having a deep philosophical discussion with your television - only time will tell.

For more information, please visit http://www.gammasolutions.com

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Posted by lelyholida
No comments | 12:14 AM
For house safety diagram methods, Infrared night vision cameras are swiftly becoming the most well-known sort of cameras. These cameras may be located in indoor or outdoor types, and will give very clear color online video throughout the day, and black and white footage during the night, even in no-light conditions.

There are numerous things to think about if you are picking infrared evening eyesight cameras. Initial, figure out the place the camera is going to be mounted. When inserting an infrared camera, it really is usually a good concept to make sure there are no obstructions between the diagram and the main spot for being considered. Infrared cameras aren't in a position to view by means of glass, because of the fact which the infrared mild will reflect back with the camera and wash out the picture. Also make sure that the camera is not straight viewing a mirror, which might mirror CIR gentle again in the camera, washing the picture out also. Following, you need to take into account the space amongst the place the diagram is going to be attached along with the main watching location.

By way of example, if a diagram is currently being mounted on your own front porch to watch people coming into and leaving your home, then measure among exactly where the camera will be situated as well as the entryway from the door. This distance will likely be employed in deciding the correct CIR assortment to pick out. After you know the space among your diagram as well as the spot to get viewed, decide on a digital camera which has about two moments the range for CIR evening eyesight. The explanation to the increase in night time vision length is a number of-collapse. The CIR night eyesight length of CIR Camcorders is normally rated in indoor weather controlled circumstances. the actual distance will more than likely lessen due to elevated humidity, lowered temperature, and so on, Specially when positioning the cameras exterior.

Although setting up your camera, make sure that the camera and any uncovered wires is outside of get to, this can support to forestall vandals from disabling or moving the camera. In case you stick to these guidelines for selection and set up of the Infra-red Night Eyesight diagram, then you certainly must be capable to supply excellent movie quality for day time and nighttime use and supply movie to the VCR, Stand-alone DVR or Laptop or computer-Based DVR for excellent property security looking at in no-light-weight problems.
Posted by lelyholida
No comments | 12:07 AM
Samsung Electronics has launched two new Android-based smartphones the GALAXY Trend (GT-S.A.) and the GALAXY Star Pro (GT-S.A.).

These devices can offer smartphone experience in nine Indian regional languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarat, Canada, Malaya, Tel and Tamil. Both Samsung GALAXY Trend and GALAXY Star Pro are equipped with Android's 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system and I GHz single core processor.

Viet Tania, Country Head, Samsung Mobiles & IT, said, "At Samsung, we are committed to listening to our consumers and providing innovative, yet affordable technology to them. GALAXY Trend and GALAXY Star Pro will provide our consumers an exceptionally rich mobile experience in the regional languages with the ability to access an array of apps in their preferred language. We believe these new devices coupled with the innovative language capability will help us address a larger set of consumers."

Samsung GALAXY Trend comes with a 4.0-inch VGA display with Y'ALL--800 pixels resolution. The smartphone is coupled with I'M RAM. It also offers GB internal memory that is expandable via micros card to 3G and is equipped with a 3M rear camera.

The GALAXY Trend will be available in black, red and white colors at an attractive price of Rs.8,290/-.

GALAXY Star Pro is a Dual-SIAM handset, GALAXY Star Pro has I'M RAM along with GB internal storage which can be supplemented with a 3G micros card. It also features 4-inch VGA touch screen and MP rear camera.

GALAXY Star Pro would be available for Rs.6,750/-.

Two of Samsung's budget Android smartphones, the Galaxy Trend and Galaxy Star Pro, have finally been officially launched for the Indian market. The Samsung Galaxy Trend comes at a price of RS. 8,290, while the Samsung Galaxy Star Pro has been priced at RS. 6,750. Both the Galaxy Trend and Galaxy Star Pro smartphones were listed recently on company's India online store.

The Samsung Galaxy Trend features a 4-inch VGA (3D pixel) TAFT display, and is powered by a GHz processor (unspecified chipset). It is a dual-SIAM (GSM+GSM) smartphone, and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, (according to the official Samsung India restore) with Touch 4.0 UI on top. The device has dimensions 121.5x63.1x10.85mm and weighs 126 grams. The Galaxy Trend sports a 3-megapixel rear camera with no flash. Some camera features included in the device are single shot, panorama, smile shot, share shot, photo effects, white balance and timer.

The Galaxy Trend comes with I'M of RAM and GB of unbuilt storage, out of which only 2.05GB is user-accessible. It also supports expandable storage up to 3G via micros card. Connectivity features on the device include WI-Fib, Bluetooth, EDGE, GPS and 3G. There is a 3D battery backing the device which the company claims can deliver up to 8 hours of talk time and up to 350 hours of standby time.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Posted by lelyholida
No comments | 10:38 PM

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems serve as a way for clients to connect with a business without the need for live human interaction. This is achieved by connecting a company's computer database to their telephone system in order to provide clients with the info they seek.

These systems have been around for years and big as well as small companies use them to: better their client service, display a professional brand identity, and even sell their products.

Traditionally if a client phones a business with an IVR system, they are greeted by a pre-recorded voice instructing them to push a certain number on their phone in order to access a specific menu option. It is simple and easy to use. For example: the system asks the caller to press one for account enquiries, and the caller responds by pressing the number one on the keypad of their phone.

Developers looking to take Interactive Voice Systems to the next level came up with the idea of using voice prompts instead of push selections. Naturally, this provided an array of challenges, but it was not all that impossible.

But why would a business want a speech-enabled system instead of one with touch prompts?

Voice-enabled IVR gives way to more flexibility. Companies are able to get more creative with their presentation and offer their clients options that an ordinary touch-prompt system doesn't lend itself to. It gives clients the feeling of a more natural type of interaction, even if it is limited. It might even help a brand appear a little more "human."

Voice-enabled systems that are currently available are pretty basic. It is due to problems with speech recognition. Because people have different accents and don't always pronounce words the same way, systems are limited to very basic voice commands that closely resembled that of a touch tone. Usually it is limited to a single word or a very short phrase.

For example:
System: "If you wish to access your account, say One."
User: "One."

However, voice-enabled systems are rapidly evolving as the software developers are overcoming the various challenges associated with speech recognition. Very soon clients will be able to use phrases or even whole sentences to voice their instructions. This will open up an amazing array of possibilities for a business and will give birth to services that haven't existed before.

The future of IVR systems are very bright - all thanks to the constant evolvement of technology!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Posted by lelyholida
No comments | 12:35 PM
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by us. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content. The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.

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