Philosophies Behind Google Rank

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/introduction-to-google-ranking.html

Technologies Behind Google Ranking:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/technologies-behind-google-ranking.html

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	Take some time to think about how you will respond. Write it out if you have to and practice it in front of a mirror. You want to make it sound exciting, or at least interesting, not bland and boring. Be specific about your sevices so you paint a clear picture of what it is you do. Who knows, the person you are talking to may be looking for just the service you perform.

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http://regentpress.typepad.com/mlmwoman/2008/04/the-accidental.html

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Applied Innoviations Blog

With the assistance of my hosting provider, I am now able to use “Pretty” Permalinks on this blog.

Special thanks to Jess.

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All to often organizations large and small believe that software design “Architecture” is a waste of time. It’s so much easier to hire some developers, give them a brief description of what you want and throw them in a room to start coding. Oh, and we can’t forget the age old question “How long is this going to take?”. I love this question.

If you build DVD players, do you think you could tell me how long it is going to take to build one. What if I told you I wanted it to have fast forward, fast rewind and a remote control? Still no? Why? Because you don’t know what your building because I have only told you the most basic, and obvious features. So we clarify some and I want language choice, parental lock, random play and I want it to play my audio CD. So let’s get started and I’ll see you next week to check on your progress.

Next week, we meet and you show me your progress. You have the major components in place and should have it finished by the end of the week. Great news! And then I ask “So, where is the digital video and surround sound output?”. Your heart sinks and you exclaim “You didn’t ask for that!”. But isn’t that a normal feature? Maybe, maybe not. It’s easy to understand that a change to digital video and surround sound will not be easy and cause you to change hardware components. It’s not so easy to understand when the same scenario happens with software. It’s just not as evident.

More often than not, custom software projects are late, over budget and do not meet the requirements. In the DVD example, who is at fault? Did I not tell you what I wanted or did you, as the knowledge expert, not ask enough questions? Usually, it’s some of both, but mostly the developer for not leading the process and managing expectations.

Good design begins with good communication. To “Architect” a successful software solution, everyone must agree upon what is being created. We accomplish this by a few simple steps.

1. Scope of Work - What is the problem to be solved and, at a high level, how do we plan on solving it. What is the purpose of the application. What are the high level goals. What general features need to be included.

2. Requirements - This is a detailed breakdown of the solution including form designs, reports and business rules. What internal business processes and calculations are required. What steps are required to complete a specific process. Architecture provides a well thought out design.

3. Project plan- This is a critical piece of the puzzle which defines responsibilities, Use Cases, deliverables and delivery dates. It will also define procedures for tracking issues during development and testing as well as change control procedures.

You will not get all the questions answered. The users will not be able to think of everything they need, but if you can define 70% of the project up front, your chances of success are greatly increased.

Looking at it from the point of view of someone considering custom development as a solution, how important is design to you?

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Carter Software solutions provides custom technology solutions to solve business problems.

www.carterss.com

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In many cases, commercial software lacks critical features, does not meet your requirements, would require you to change your business processes and can be extremely difficult to integrate with other systems or existing infrastructure.

A professionally developed custom software solution can be a cost efficient way to meet your business needs and provide a long-term solution.

Custom Software has many advantages:

• Will be specifically designed to meet your exact business needs and follow your existing work-flow.
• Can potentially expose deficiencies in current business processes and provide a solution.
• Will reduce personnel costs
• Improve integration with other systems
• Fees are usually paid once and you own the solution so there are no ongoing licensing fees.

If your “Off the shelf” software is not solving your problems, then consider the advantage of a custom designed solution.

Upcoming articles: Software Development Life-cycle: Building Real Solutions

Carter Software Solutions is a Custom Solutions provider in Little Rock, Arkansas providing Application Design and Development to leading local and national companies. if you are looking for a custom solution for your business, contact us at info@carterss.com or visit our website at www.carterss.com.

We also provide customized solutions for contact management, ecommerce, website design, search engine optimization and traffic generation.

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You want some good advice. Rise early. Be abstemious. Be frugal.
Attend to your own business and never trust it to another. Be not
afraid to work, and diligently, too, with your own hands. Treat every
one with civility and respect. Good manners insure success. Accomplish
what you undertake. Decide, then persevere. Diligence and industry
overcome all difficulties. Never be mean–rather give than take the
odd shilling. Never postpone till to-morrow what can be done to-day.
Never anticipate wealth from any source but labor. Honesty is not only
the best policy, but the only policy. Commence at the first round and
keep climbing. Make your word as good as your bond. Seek knowledge to
plan, enterprise to execute, honesty to govern all. Never overtrade.
Never give too large credit. Time is money. Reckon the hours of
the day as so many dollars, the minutes as so many cents. Make few
promises. Keep your secrets. Live within your income. Sobriety above
all things. Luck is a word that does not apply to a successful
man. Not too much caution–slow but sure is the thing. The highest
monuments are built piece by piece. Step by step we mount the
pyramids. Be bold–be resolute when the clouds gather, difficulties
are surmounted by opposition. Self-confidence, self-reliance is your
capital. Your conscience the best monitor. Never be over-sanguine,
but do not underrate your own abilities. Don’t be discouraged.
Ninety-nine may say no, the hundredth, yes: take off your coat: roll up your sleeves, don’t be afraid of manual labor! America is large enough for all–strike out for the west. The best letter of introduction is your own energy. Lean on yourself when you walk. Keep good company. Keep out of politics unless you are sure to win–you are never sure to win, so look out.

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So your thinking about taking your business online. Maybe you have a website and now you want to sell some of your products online but you don’t really know how to do it. Before making this move there are five questions you should ask yourself.

What advantages can a retail website give me? You should be able to identify some concrete advantages you will get from this move such as increased sales, increased exposure, increased traffic in my real world store.

Can this move negatively impact my business? You have to determine if you have the time or staff to effectively manage and market your new website.

Can I handle the increase in Business I will receive? Online orders will create new opportunities but they can cause you problems. Evaluate your system of distribution to make sure you are prepared. If you run a retail business, you may not be setup to handle the shipping requirements of online orders. Prepare your company for order processing, shipping, returns, etc.

Will I sell products or just provide information?Some businesses just do not work on the web. Yes, It’s true. A perfect example is the automobile industry. Several years ago one manufacturer tried to sell the public on the idea of buying a car online. You may have seen the commercial where the customer is picking the color of his car online, then the guy shows up to deliver it while his buddies eat pizza and watch tv. Well, it was a bust. Nobody wanted to buy a car online. Car shopping is personal and much of the time an emotional decision. You want to feel how the car drives, are the seats comfortable, is there enough leg room, how big is the trunk. You want to know what zero to sixty in a nanosecond feels like. So, rather than sell cars online, they changed their strategy from selling to providing as much information as possible to the consumer.

Can my products be delivered economically and easily? It’s quite different selling MP3’s online than it is toilet paper. MP3’s are easy to deliver. They are simply downloaded. Toilet paper though is bulky, hard to package and cost more just because of it’s size. Oh, and let’s not forget that you can buy toilet paper in almost any merchandise, grocery, convenience, bait and tackle…..well you get the point.

I firmly believe that all business should have some presence online. I don’t care what you do. The public today assumes that they can hop online and within one minute find your website and get hours of operation, location, phone numbers, etc. So, to answer the question, Yes, you should.

Part two will discuss the steps required to get started online.

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With broadband Internet access becoming the standard and connected 24/7, Hosted applications are expanding rapidly due to a number of advantages they provide.

Hosted applications are not suitable for every situation, but this model does provide a number benefits.

Since the application is hosted on the service providers equipment, there is no cost for equipment and support. High priced network administration is handled by the hosting provider. Hosting providers also provide higher up-time than most in-house operations can attain. Hosted applications can usually be securely accessed from any computer with an Internet connection providing great flexibility for remote users or access to systems from your customer’s location. Disaster recovery is the responsibility of the hosting provider who have implemented robust and redundant backup and recovery systems. Growth is easily handled by upgrading bandwidth, disk space, memory and many other resources which are handled by the Hosting provider. Many of these applications are offered with no long term commitment and can even be tested in a free trial environment.

The two main concerns with the hosted model are internet access and security. If your connection is down so are you. A good provider will enforce strict authentication processes and data integrity and, in most cases, data on a hosted environment is more secure than that hosted on a private network with less sophisticated security systems.

Examples of hosted Applications

• SAFARI - Sales Fulfillment and Accounts Receivable
• QuickBooks Online - Business Accounting software
• PaceTracer - Contact Management Solutions available at www.carterss.com/pacetracer.aspx

There are many more ranging from simple hosted email to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems.

If your in the market for a software solution, I would urge you to take a long look at hosted solutions.

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