In every business, there are repetitive processes that take valuable time away from supporting growth or, worse, lead to burned out IT staff, frustrated employees and unhappy customers. The first step is to identify where these repetitive processes live in IT, which could be: Deploying new devices, operating systems or patches Tracking or managing software licenses … [More]
Rewiring Hiring: The AI, Tech Takeover of HR
Hiring the right people is one of the most important decisions a business can make. Regardless of industry, most companies require the following attributes of future hires: necessary hard skills, soft skills and experience to fill a given position. Hard skills and experience are, for the most part, quantifiable. Soft skills are more difficult to capture. Research suggests … [More]
Local Motors’ Autonomous Shuttle
Phoenix-based Local Motors — a ground mobility company that, in the decade since its founding in 2007 has debuted the world’s first 3-D-printed car, the world’s first co-created vehicle and the world’s first co-created self-driving, electric vehicle — is now close to deploying a fleet of autonomous shuttles in the Phoenix area as part of a global fleet challenge it launched in … [More]
JDA’s Brave New World of Retail
JDA Software’s supply chain software is changing, if not the face of retail, then its behind-the-face. Seeing is believing, as the saying goes, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, how much more is a physical, in-person demonstration worth? JDA recently unveiled a world-class JDA Customer Experience Center, located at its global headquarters in Scottsdale, that will … [More]
Product Marketing Platform Disrupts
It’s estimated that 94 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have yet to adopt product information management systems. Product information management tools (PIMs) act as an umbrella, enabling businesses to manage information required to market and sell products through numerous distribution channels; a huge number of small retailers are still relying on Excel to … [More]
Personal Assistant App Launches in Phoenix
On-demand personal assistant app ZINKN launched last August, providing Valley residents an easy-to-use tool to request on-demand or scheduled help with a wide range of personal services such as errands, household tasks, transportation and family care. The app also provides contract jobs for workers, called “People Share™ Providers,” looking to supplement their income. ZINKN … [More]
Arizona on the Threshold with FinTech Blockchain
Blockchain, if used to its potential, allows communities and innovators to create economic games that no one controls or commands through incentive design that rewards good actions. In financial services, that can allow decentralized networks to create protocols or tools to enable low-cost, low-overhead loans, settlement, peer-to-peer payments and even alternatives to debt or … [More]
Online Shopping Serves the Disabled
Alexandra Connell, her own experience making her keenly aware of how disabilities and looking or acting differently can impact a person’s life, launched PATTI + RICKY LLC, offering an online shopping destination that caters to people with special needs due to disability, disease or stage of life. “Most people with physical disabilities have no choice but to tailor clothing … [More]
Actionable Workforce Insights
ADP recently launched Executive and Manager Insights on its ADP® Mobile Solutions app. This solution uses artificial intelligence and machine learning, continually sifting through wage, time, location, industry and many other types of data to provide actionable workforce insights directly to business leaders and front-line mangers in real time. Powered by ADP DataCloud, … [More]
Will Blockchain Uplevel the Arizona Real Estate Market?
Love it or hate it, blockchain is disrupting nearly every industry. And while most associate blockchain with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, it really refers to its underlying technology — and that technology holds a tremendous amount of promise to a range of industries and uses, including real estate. What exactly is blockchain? In a nutshell, it’s a decentralized, distributed … [More]
Local Businesses Take to Podcasting
Podcasts have become a popular medium for businesses to connect with their customers and target market. Here’s a sampling from our local entrepreneurs. “Relentless Mentality” is a new podcast launched by Bayless Healthcare CEO and community leader Justin Bayless. It features conversations with change agents, leaders and individuals of achievement. Says Bayless, “My podcast … [More]
Engaging Video Training Content on a Budget
A young, tech-based workforce has pushed the demand for online training and eLearning courses to unprecedented heights. Perhaps the biggest driver of this workplace demand is video content. Video training is such an effective means to facilitate learning, appealing to multiple brain functions at once and drastically improving retention. For a staff gearing more toward a … [More]
Facing the Big Data Tsunami
An estimated 40 zettabytes (43 trillion gigabytes) of data will be created by 2020 (an increase of 300 times the amount of data in circulation in 2005), at a rate of 2.5 quintillion bytes per day. “The explosion in big data is both good news and bad news,” says James D’Arezzo, CEO of Condusiv Technologies. “It will make possible advances in dozens of fields, but it will also … [More]
Cryptocurrency Transactions in Real Time
In a new study published in March 2018, Transparency Market Research predicts a compound annual growth rate of 31 percent for cryptocurrency hardware and software from 2017 through 2025. The report estimates that the hardware and software business in this industry will soar from $574 million in 2017 to $6.7 billion in 2025. In introducing the Global Cryptocurrency … [More]
Add Tap, Swipe, Pinch and Zoom Functions to Devices
“Capacitive touch has become mainstream, and we’re continuing to see growth in the number of applications that require low-power, gesture-enabled touch surfaces,” says Fanie Duvenhage, vice president of Microchip Technology’s touch and gesture business unit. “The 2D Touch Surface library makes the realization of small touch pads and screens easier and more … [More]
Audio Technology to Hit Pause on Poor Acoustics
Imagine being at your industry’s most relevant conference of the year. Whether in a large auditorium or a hotel ballroom with just two loudspeakers set up at the front, the acoustics are anything but ideal. Add hundreds of people in the room talking to each other, coughing, doors slamming, and the person next to you eating potato chips right by your ear — it’s likely that you … [More]
Emojis Do Real Estate
HomeSmart International recently released an app that adds real estate-themed text messaging stickers to users’ smartphone keyboards. The idea for developing the emojis grew out of feedback from the company’s real estate agents that homebuyers appreciate appointment reminders, deadlines and other purchase-related messages by text — which can be expressed as an emoji icon — over … [More]
Broadband Carriers: Making Smart Connections?
Today’s consumer is increasingly connected. Credible analysts report that there are now an average of 10 connected devices per home — and there will be more than 50 by 2020. It’s not just smartphones that are connected: it’s tablets, TVs, smart locks, smart lights, Web cams, environment sensors, security systems, fitness bands, smart thermostats, robotic floor cleaners, video … [More]
