But are these companies doing enough to ensure the quality and performance of their software? In the past, appliance manufacturers ultimately paid the penalty for shipping faulty washing machines or refrigerators, clothing producers wouldn’t last long selling low-quality fabrics and stitching, and so on.

Now that everyone is in the software business, is there enough attention being paid to this prime product? Unfortunately, not yet, the survey, sponsored by QASymphony, finds. While the survey’s sponsor has a horse in this race (they offer quality assurance automation tools), it’s worth noting that the results point to a pressing need — organizations have changed their business models over the past decade, but are not paying enough attention to their emerging digital sides.

Perhaps there are lessons that need to be learned from the technology industry in designing, producing and securing software. At least 63% say that software companies have their own way of operating, which needs to be examined and emulated where appropriate.

For example, concepts such as Agile development and DevOps are a big deal in the native software industry. That means lots of time and investment in versioning, fixing bugs, and updates. It means more emphasis on shipping software as quickly as possible to achieve time to market, while ensuring quality and usability. IT means automating as much of the software development and release process as possible.

It’s not that companies aren’t working on the challenges. Close to nine in 10 (88%) now employ DevOps methodologies, and 42% strongly agree that DevOps is a top priority for their organizations. However, only 24% express strong satisfaction in the current state of their DevOps programs.

Two-thirds say there are gaps in their software testing, and that as much as half of all time spent by their companies on software development time is consumed by ensuring code quality and/or fixing software bugs. A similar number agree that their testing processes are slowing their time to market.

There are some other traits seen with software companies not covered in the survey that also should be studied. On the plus side, the tech culture that exists within vendors is often very open to innovation, and new approaches to solving problems. For every issue, there is a workaround, most often involving technology — and industry leaders are never afraid to try new things. At the same time, a tech-driven company won’t succeed without solid marketing to help it elevate its products above the noise. But a tech culture isn’t necessarily conducive to marketing, and it’s often a challenge to bring these two sides together.

Source=: www.zdnet.com/article…………….

Everyone knows that technology can help raise your business to the next level. The use of cloud computing and the availability of supporting softwares are making businesses – from small startups to large corporations – strive in the face of evolution. There are so many solutions to choose from as well, particular when it comes to its enterprise-level ERP softwares

These ERP systems can do so much to improve your internal workflows. And if you are wondering how, check out a few reasons why ERP softwares can improve productivity.

Enhanced Clarity

A lot of important business decisions must be made with good, clear information in hand. In the old days, getting the necessary information to make strategic decisions meant gathering paper documents and conduct arduous meetings. Today, however, you can access all the information you need from any internet-enabled device.

ERP systems, paired with cloud computing, allow business operations and key decision makers to stay in sync. You can monitor everything in real-time, keep up with the latest changes, and have all the data you need to solve problems.

Zero Downtime

It’s amazing to see just how reliable ERP systems are. You no longer have to worry about downtime and interruptions with systems running at the heart of your startup. In fact, available ERP systems can warn you about possible problems, which means you can react to them much earlier.

In a production line, for instance, you can see potential problems with raw materials or human resources even before they become serious problems. You can then make adjustments directly into the system and the rest of the business will react accordingly.

Keeping the system running is just as easy. You can have a team of experienced support specialists on stand-by for a relatively low cost.

Narrowed Focus

It’s not uncommon for businesses to face challenges, especially in today’s competitive market. The best thing about having an ERP system running is that you can always tackle the existing challenges in a timely manner. More importantly, you can keep your business lean and cost-efficient.

Cost efficiency is critically important. In order to stay competitive, you need to keep your overhead costs at a minimum while maintaining production costs at a healthy rate. Both of these things can be done with ERP at the core of your business.

While the system handles production management and reporting, you can actively seek new, cheaper sources of materials. As you make the switch, the system will automatically calculate the average cost of production, allowing you to always have a narrow focus on the aspects that matter.

Author: Boris Dzhingarov

You’ve at least been exposed to it through:

• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Search engine optimization
• Email autoresponders
• White papers
• Copywriting
• Social media
• Landing pages

But what exactly is content marketing? Glad you asked, because I’ve got answers for you. One short answer, and one really long. Here’s our official definition:

Content marketing means creating and sharing valuable content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.

Which brings us to another question: how do you actually use content marketing?

Well, even if you consider yourself a seasoned practitioner or you’re a fresh-out-of-the-box beginner, this handy, systematic, and exhaustive guide — loaded with 100 articles that cover content marketing essentials for building a viable money-making platform — is at your finger tips.

How to use this content marketing reference library

Content marketing can be simplified into the convergence of three spheres: your audience’s interests, your brand story, and your unique perspective or content medium. Combine these three to achieve content greatness.

The 100-article list below reaches back to November 2008 and goes all the way up to the present. It contains 10 categories:

• Content essentials
• Content strategy
• Content research
• Idea creation
• Content creation
• Content promotion
• Traffic generation
• Content marketing case studies
• Content auditing
• Content business building

Yes, I read all 100 articles. It took me 15 hours over six days. I recommend you do the same — but work through it at a pace that’s right for you!

First, bookmark it. That way, it’ll be easy to find when you need to answer a question or reference one of our articles in your own content.

Then, you could:

• Study one of the 10 categories each week, creating your own 10-week content marketing course
• Read one-to-three articles each day
• Identify the categories you need to brush up on the most, and make a note on your calendar to review them when you have free time

Of course, you can’t just throw a bunch of words on a page and expect people to come running. Pro SEO article writing services know that if you build it, they will come…but only if you build it the right way.

Here are the 7 secrets of professional SEO article writers:

1. Get your keyword research on. If you’re going to post content on your site anyway, you might as well take the time to make sure Google takes notice of your effort. Find out which keywords and phrases people are searching for (as well as what you can be competitive in), and make yourself a spreadsheet. Keep track of how many times you work the keywords into your web content writing, and use the right tools to track where you rank for the keywords you target. Don’t know where to get started? Check out our comprehensive guide to keyword research for SEO.
2. Put the keywords to work. It’s not enough to just use the keywords in 2-3% of the copy. You need to put the primary keyword in the title of the blog/article, as well as in the first and last sentence. By doing this, the keywords stand out to the search engine crawlers, as well as the eyes of the readers. Remember, the people using search engines are searching for that particular phrase because they want to know more about it/buy it, so it makes sense to give them what they’re looking for. You’ll get more clicks if you do — it’s one of the tricks of the trade for professional SEO article writers.
3. Write about something people care about. Nobody knows your business like you do — so what kind of expert advice or tips do you have that you can share? If not, you can at least discuss news relating to your business. When in doubt, look at your list of SEO keywords and see what kind of list, link bait or in-depth posts you can work those keywords into. Don’t be afraid to interview some experts, either (if you quote them and feature their expertise in your post, they’ll be likely to share your content via their social channels — this way, you can leverage larger networks to increase the size of your own).
4. Make it long enough to count. Sure, 100 words of fresh content is better than no new content at all. Still, search engines tend to give preference to longer blogs and articles. Try to shoot for at least 300 words, but if you can get to 500 or more, go for it. There has been a lot of research that shows that search engines tend to favor “in-depth” content of at least 2,000 words — we’ve seen this work for ourselves and our clients, and many of TCF’s most popular blog posts are at least 1,500 words.
5. Optimize the optimization of your web content writing. If you use WordPress as your blogging platform, there are lots of free online PR tools (in the form of plugins) you can take advantage of. At The Content Factory, we use Yoast and Shareaholic, along with several others. Free and easy web PR is as simple as hitting the “install now” link.
6. Edit your work. The only difference between professional SEO article writers and regular people is an eye for self editing. Programs like OpenOffice, Google Docs and Microsoft Word make it easy — the red and green squiggleys give most of it away. Having an eye for aesthetically pleasing formatting is also important. Stay away from super long paragraphs and sentences that go on for miles.
7. Become your own online PR agency. Once you’ve written and posted the fresh content, the work is only half complete. The final step of all web content writing is acting as your own online PR agency — link to your content all over the place. Comment on blogs and link back to your site. Submit your content to Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Social media management and web content writing go hand-in-hand, and as soon as you hit the “Publish” button on your fresh article or blog, you should tweet your heart out. Want more tips?

Source: www dot contentfac dot com/