Finding Phone Answers For The Very Small Business

Finding Phone Answers For The Very Small Business

by: Chris Brennan

Startups, small growing firms and even homebased businesses are underserved by the telecommunications industry. But there are telephone systems that fit if you know where to look.

Telephone systems have grown in sophistication by leaps and bounds in recent years, but for the most part, very small businesses have been on the outside looking in. And with the recent evolution in Voice over IP telephony (VoIP), the gap between what small business needs and what the market is offering is only getting wider.

While galloping technological advancements have ushered in amazing new features and inversely lower prices for most office equipment, fullfeatured phone systems have remained largely out of reach for small companies. You can afford a photorealistic slimline desktop color printer now for a fraction of what it cost just a few years ago, and you can beam your appointment book back and forth from your wristwatch to your laptop for under a hundred bucks, but the prices of telephone systems have not decreased at the same rate. Most small companies are forced to cobble together telephone solutions with a combination of multiline telephones, answering machines and costly monthly telephone company services.

True phone systems are far more powerful, offering flexible automated call answering features, call messaging and call routing that can improve a company’s professional image, control communication costs and increase connectivity and responsiveness.

It is widely acknowledged that small business is the engine of job creation and economic health today. With a sophisticated, mobile workforce and limited resources for dedicated phone answering staff, small business needs advanced phone systems as much as its larger counterparts do. Yet according to a recent Yankee Group study, 58 per cent of small firms in the United States don’t have a phone system at all. More than 5 million businesses have fewer than 20 employees, so there’s a big market for phone systems, but the leaders in the phone industry have never been able to produce products to fit the bill.

Why? The answer lies in the size; small business is too small for the big traditional telephone systems, and the scaleddown solutions that the industry has produced so far still have price tags that are too big for small business budgets. Big phone systems just don’t work for very small companies, and the fewer the phone users, the more difficult the fit.

Private Branch Exchanges

Large corporations use Private Branch Exchanges, or PBXs, which allow many phone users to share a system with fewer telephone company lines, based on the idea that not everybody uses their local phone extension at the same time.

PBXs inherently offer the best telephone system functionality available. As anyone who has ever worked in a corporation knows, PBXs handle calls impressively with features such as ring groups, call cascades, auto attendants, voicemail and more. But PBXs have traditionally been massive systems for thousands of users. When PBX manufacturers started to turn their attention to small companies, they found it difficult to scale the concept down. The big companies that make PBXs are not focused on very small business, so they don’t fully understand the space.

The result has been a little like a major auto manufacturer stripping a car of two of its wheels and most of its body and then trying to enter the bicycle market; the results are ungainly and overly expensive. Small business phone systems from the major PBX manufacturers tend to be intimidating and difficult to use, difficult to install and usually require technical staff or consultants and expensive, proprietary phones.

Limited Small Business Solutions

So where are small companies without phone systems getting their voicemail? How are they handling incoming calls? How do they integrate teleworkers and mobile workers? They may use Centrex services; telephone company voicemail and separate lines for each phone user, which add a big boost to the monthly phone bills. While telephone companies all over the country are all too happy to offer increasingly complex business services, the additional billing can add up over time to prohibitive levels.

And there’s no real integration with offsite workers other than simple call forwarding. The proliferation of cell phones in the majority of small businesses has, paradoxically, made staying in touch with customers and collaborators even more difficult. Businesses have to give customers and coworkers different phone numbers for the office and mobile phones, each with separate voicemail systems, both of which are costing the company extra money every month.

Finding Phone Systems that Fit Small Business

Not all of the news is bad, though. A select few companies have realized that the very small business is underserved, and they’ve been producing small business systems that make sense. There are excellent systems to be had in the market, if you know what to look for. The smart new generation of small business phone systems have all of the features of their larger counterparts without the big business prices.

When shopping for a system, look for the ability to easily install and configure it on your own. Installation can cost a significant percentage of the total cost of traditional phone systems. Userconfigurable systems allow you to control the way your phone system works without having to pay the manufacturer or a thirdparty technician to do it for you. The best of the new small business phone systems enable you to do it yourself and save.

Another important feature to look for is cell phone and remote phone integration. If you have teleworkers and mobile workers, you need to be able to collaborate smoothly without giving out dozens of different numbers to your clients. There are small business systems on the market that can connect all of your phones through one central system with one number.

Expandability is crucial too. Make sure that the system you buy today can grow to accommodate the changes in your company tomorrow. And the changes in the industry — with the emergence of Voice over IP technology and new advanced Internet telephony services, your phone system needs to be ready to connect to the IP network while maintaining your connections to the traditional telephone network. Look for hybrid systems that are built with SIP standards to ensure compatibility and avoid obsolescence.

One promising entry in the field is the TalkSwitch system by Centrepoint Technologies. TalkSwitch is a hybrid phone system that offers IP and traditional telephony, and it’s designed specifically for businesses with as few as one and as many as 32 phone users per location. Available online and through resellers, system integrators and interconnects, the compact, userfriendly TalkSwitch is a prime example of the next wave of systems that provide the power of PBX at prices that small business can afford.

Copyright 2004 Chris Brennan

About The Author

Chris Brennan is a communication specialist focusing on small business issues.

http://www.ctrpoint.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 20, 2004

by Chris Brennan

Search Technologies

Search Technologies

by: Max Maglias

Each of us has been faced with the problem of searching for information more than once. Irregardless of the data source we are using (Internet, file system on our hard drive, data base or a global information system of a big company) the problems can be multiple and include the physical volume of the data base searched, the information being unstructured, different file types and also the complexity of accurately wording the search query. We have already reached the stage when the amount of data on one single PC is comparable to the amount of text data stored in a proper library. And as to the unstructured data flows, in future they are only going to increase, and at a very rapid tempo. If for an average user this might be just a minor misfortune, for a big company absence of control over information can mean significant problems. So the necessity to create search systems and technologies simplifying and accelerating access to the necessary information, originated long ago. Such systems are numerous and moreover not every one of them is based on a unique technology. And the task of choosing the right one depends directly on the specific tasks to be solved in the future. While the demand for the perfect data searching and processing tools is steadily growing let’s consider the state of affairs with the supply side.

Not going deeply into the various peculiarities of the technology, all the searching programs and systems can be divided into three groups. These are: global Internet systems, turnkey business solutions (corporate data searching and processing technologies) and simple phrasal or file search on a local computer. Different directions presumably mean different solutions.

Local search

Everything is clear about search on a local PC. It’s not remarkable for any particular functionality features accept for the choice of file type (media, text etc.) and the search destination. Just enter the name of the searched file (or part of text, for example in the Word format) and that’s it. The speed and result depend fully on the text entered into the query line. There is zero intellectuality in this: simply looking through the available files to define their relevance. This is in its sense explicable: what’s the use of creating a sophisticated system for such uncomplicated needs.

Global search technologies

Matters stand totally different with the search systems operating in the global network. One can’t rely simply on looking through the available data. Huge volume (Yandex for instance can boast the indexing capacity of more than 11 terabyte of data) of the global chaos of unstructured information will make the simple search not only ineffective but also long and laborconsuming. That’s why lately the focus has shifted towards optimizing and improving quality characteristics of search. But the scheme is still very simple (except for the secret innovations of every separate system) the phrasal search through the indexed data base with proper consideration for morphology and synonyms. Undoubtedly, such an approach works but doesn’t solve the problem completely. Reading dozens of various articles dedicated to improving search with the help of Google or Yandex, one can drive at the conclusion that without knowing the hidden opportunities of these systems finding a relevant document by the query is a matter of more than a minute, and sometimes more than an hour. The problem is that such a realization of search is very dependent on the query word or phrase, entered by the user. The more indistinct the query the worse is the search. This has become an axiom, or dogma, whichever you prefer.

Of course, intelligently using the key functions of the search systems and properly defining the phrase by which the documents and sites are searched, it is possible to get acceptable results. But this would be the result of painstaking mental work and time wasted on looking through irrelevant information with a hope to at least find some clues on how to upgrade the search query. In general, the scheme is the following: enter the phrase, look through several results, making sure that the query was not the right one, enter a new phrase and the stages are repeated till the relevancy of results achieves the highest possible level. But even in that case the chances to find the right document are still few. No average user will voluntary go for the sophistication of ขadvanced searchข (although it is equipped with a number of very useful functions such as the choice of language, file format etc.). The best would be to simply insert the word or phrase and get a ready answer, without particular concern for the means of getting it. Let the horse think – it has a big head. Maybe this is not exactly up to the point, but one of the Google search functions is called ขI am feeling lucky!ข characterizes very well the existent searching technologies. Nevertheless, the technology works, not ideally and not always justifying the hopes, but if you allow for the complexity of searching through the chaos of Internet data volume, it could be acceptable.

Corporate systems

The third on the list are the turnkey solutions based on the searching technologies. They are meant for serious companies and corporations, possessing really large data bases and staffed with all sorts of information systems and documents. In principle, the technologies themselves can also be used for home needs. For example, a programmer working remotely from the office will make good use of the search to access randomly located on his hard drive program source codes. But these are particulars. The main application of the technology is still solving the problem of quickly and accurately searching through large data volumes and working with various information sources. Such systems usually operate by a very simple scheme (although there are undoubtedly numerous unique methods of indexing and processing queries underneath the surface): phrasal search, with proper consideration for all the stem forms, synonyms etc. which once again leads us to the problem of human resource. When using such technology the user should first word the query phrases which are going to be the search criteria and presumably met in the necessary documents to be retrieved. But there is no guarantee that the user will be able to independently choose or remember the correct phrase and furthermore, that the search by this phrase will be satisfactory.

One more key moment is the speed of processing a query. Of course, when using the whole document instead of a couple of words, the accuracy of search increases manifold. But up to date, such an opportunity has not been used because of the high capacity drain of such a process. The point is that search by words or phrases will not provide us with a highly relevant similarity of results. And the search by phrase equal in its length the whole document consumes much time and computer resources. Here is an example: while processing the query by one word there is no considerable difference in speed: whether it’s 0,1 or 0,001 second is not of crucial importance to the user. But when you take an average size document which contains about 2000 unique words, then the search with consideration for morphology (stem forms) and thesaurus (synonyms), as well as generating a relevant list of results in case of search by key words will take several dozens of minutes (which is unacceptable for a user).

The interim summary

As we can see, currently existing systems and search technologies, although properly functioning, don’t solve the problem of search completely. Where speed is acceptable the relevancy leaves more to be desired. If the search is accurate and adequate, it consumes lots of time and resources. It is of course possible to solve the problem by a very obvious manner – by increasing the computer capacity. But equipping the office with dozens of ultrafast computers which will continuously process phrasal queries consisting of thousands of unique words, struggling through gigabytes of incoming correspondence, technical literature, final reports and other information is more than irrational and disadvantageous. There is a better way.

The unique similar content search

At present many companies are intensively working on developing full text search. The calculation speeds allow creating technologies that enable queries in different exponents and wide array of supplementary conditions. The experience in creating phrasal search provides these companies with an expertise to further develop and perfect the search technology. In particular, one of the most popular searches is the Google, and namely one of its functions called the ขsimilar pagesข. Using this function enables the user to view the pages of maximum similarity in their content to the sample one. Functioning in principle, this function does not yet allow getting relevant results – they are mostly vague and of low relevancy and furthermore, sometimes utilizing this function shows complete absence of similar pages as a result. Most probably, this is the result of the chaotic and unstructured nature of information in the Internet. But once the precedent has been created, the advent of the perfect search without a hitch is just a matter of time.

What concerns the corporate data processing and knowledge retrieval systems, here the matters stand much worse. The functioning (not existing on paper) technologies are very few. And no giant or the so called search technology guru has so far succeeded in creating a real similar content search. Maybe, the reason is that it’s not desperately needed, maybe – too hard to implement. But there is a functioning one though.

SoftInform Search Technology, developed by SoftInform, is the technology of searching for documents similar in their content to the sample. It enables fast and accurate search for documents of similar content in any volume of data. The technology is based on the mathematical model of analyzing the document structure and selecting the words, word combinations and text arrays, which results in forming a list of documents of maximum similarity the sample text abstract with the relevancy percent defined. In contrast to the standard phrasal search by the similar content search there is no need to determine the key words beforehand – the search is conducted through the whole document. The technology works with several sources of information that can be stored both in text files of txt, doc, rtf, pdf, htm, html formats, and the information systems of the most popular data bases (Access, MS SQL, Oracle, as well as any SQLsupporting data bases). It also additionally supports the synonyms and important words functions that enable to carry out a more specific search.

The similar search technology enables to significantly cut time wasted on searching and reviewing the same or very similar documents, diminish the processing time at the stage of entering data into the archive by avoiding the duplicate documents and forming sets of data by a certain subject. Another advantage of the SoftInform technology is that it’s not so sensitive to the computer capacity and allows processing data at a very high speed even on ordinary office computers.

This technology is not just a theoretic development. It has been tested and successfully implemented in a project of giving legal advice via phone, where the speed of information retrieval is of crucial importance. And it will undoubtedly be more than useful in any knowledge base, analytical service and support department of any large firm. Universality and effectiveness of the SoftInform Search Technology allows solving a wide spectrum of problems, arising while processing information. These include the fuzziness of information (at the document entering stage it is possible to immediately define whether such a document already belongs to the data base or not) and the similarity analysis of the documents which are already entered into the data base, and the search for semantically similar documents which saves time spent on selecting the appropriate key words and viewing the irrelevant documents.

Perspectives

Besides its primary assignment (fast and high quality search for information in huge volume such as texts, archives, data bases) an Internet direction could also be defined. For example, it is possible to work out an expert system to process incoming correspondence and news which will become an important tool for analysts from different companies. Mainly, this will be possible due to the unique similar content search technology, absent from any of the existent systems so far except for the SearchInform. The problem of spamming search engines with the so called doorways (hidden pages with key words redirecting to the site’s main pages and used to increase the page rating with the search engines) and the email spam problem (a more intellectual analysis would ensure higher level of security) would also be solved with the help of this technology. But the most interesting perspective of the SoftInform Search technology is creating a new Internet search engine, the main competitive advantage of which would be ability to search not just by key words, but also for similar web pages, which will add to the flexibility of search making it more comfortable and efficient.

To draw a conclusion, it could be stated with confidence that the future belongs to the full text search technologies, both in the Internet and the corporate search systems. Unlimited development potential, adequacy of the results and processing speed of any size of query make this technology much more comfortable and in high demand. SoftInform Search technology might not be the pioneer, but it’s a functioning, stable and unique one with no existent analogues (which can be proved by the active Eurasian patent). To my mind, even with the help of the ขsimilar searchข it will be difficult to find a similar technology.

About The Author

Max Maglias

[Phone] 2197964

[Email] [email protected]

[Website] http://www.searchinform.com

This article was posted on August 17, 2005

by Max Maglias

IT Inhouse support: Microsoft Great Plains and CR

IT Inhouse support: Microsoft Great Plains and CRM

by: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions is promoting Microsoft Great Plains and MS CRM combination for US and International markets. Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as Client Relation Management system is very robust combination and could serve midsize to large corporation as Business System. Being VP IT or IT Director you need to foresee the positions to have in your IT department to do internal MS Great Plains and MS CRM support.

Let us give you the directions, based on our research and consulting practice.

1. Microsoft SQL Server Specialist – we specially do not name this position as MS SQL DBA, because both Great Plains and MS CRM are not very complex from the database administration side, they do not use indexes optimization, referential integrity, probably do not require complex transaction log backup/recovery scenarios. On the other hand this position requires Great Plains and Microsoft CRM tables structure analysis and some primary Great Plains data fixing skills via SQL queries, described in MBS Customer source techknowledge database. The best candidate should have some accounting background to be able to address ongoing issues to MBS technical support.

2. Network Administrator with good Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory skills. Microsoft CRM uses all the newest Microsoft technologies, and Exchange is a workhorse here. In order to install and upgrade MS CRM this guy needs to understand the underlaying Microsoft technology. In the best case she/he should know Exchange security structure and probably program Exchange handlers, due to the fact that CRM/Exchange connector is not a perfect tool yet.

3. C# or VB.Net programmer with excellent SQL Skills– if you are midsize or large company you should have this position you will need web publishing and MS CRM customization and its support. Currently Microsoft CRM SDK has C# examples so C# programmer would be the best fit, it may have more VB code in the future, so the C# VB balance maybe restored.

4. Crystal Reports Designer/Programmer Crystal Reports is the best tool available on the market to address both Great Plains and MS CRM reporting needs. This position maybe merged with one of the above.

These people should be probably crosstrained in both Great Plains, Microsoft CRM, Crystal Reports, SQL and C# programming, so you do not depend on the unique skills of one person. In our opinion, which is based on our long term consulting practice these skills will allow you to keep the cost of IT support reasonably low and avoid paying high consulting price to your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner.

Happy hiring and training! But in any case you need to select Microsoft Business Solutions Partner/Var/Reseller to be your official representative. This is how MBS has its channel working it assures that Microsoft Business Solutions products are properly implemented. If you want us to be your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner give us a call 16309615918 or 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains implementation and customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Minneapolis, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 14

by Andrew Karasev

An Embarrassment of Riches Part II

An Embarrassment of Riches Part II

by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

http://www.doi.org/

The DOI Foundation has unveiled the DOIEB (EB stands for ebooks) Initiative in the Book Expo America Show 2001, to, in their words:

กDetermine requirements with respect to the application of unique identifiers to eBooks

Develop proofsofconcept for the use of DOIs with eBooks

Develop technical demonstrations, possibly including a prototype eBook Registration Agency.ก

It is backed by a few major publishers, such as McGrawHill, Random House, Pearson, and Wiley.

This ostensibly modest agenda conceals a revolutionary and ambitious attempt to unambiguously identify the origin of digital content (in this case, ebooks) and link a universe of information to each and every ID number. Aware of competing efforts underway, the DOI Foundation is actively courting the likes of กindecsก (Interoperability of Data in ECommerce System) and OeBF (Open eBook). Companies ,like Enpia Systems of South Korea (a DOI Registration Agency), have already implemented a DOIcumindecs system. On November 2000, the APAกs (American Publishersก Association) Open Ebook Publishing Standards Initiative has recommended to use DOI as the primary identification system for ebooksก metadata. The MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) is said to be considering DOI seriously in its efforts to come up with numbering and metadata standards for digital videos. A DOI can be expressed as a URN (Universal Resource Name IETFกs syntax for generic resources) and is compatible with OpenURL (a syntax for embedding parameters such as identifiers and metadata in links). Shortly, a กNamespace Dictionaryก is to be published. It will encompass 800 metadata elements and will tackle ebooks, journals, audio, and video. A working group was started to develop a กservices definitionก interface (i.e., to allow webenabled systems, especially ecommerce and mcommerce systems, to deploy DOI).

The DOI, in other words, is designed to be allinclusive and allpervasive. Each DOI number is made of a prefix, specific to a publisher, and a suffix, which could end up painlessly assimilating the ISBN and ISSN (or any other numbering and database) system.

Thus, a DOI can be assigned to every ebook based on its ISBN and to every part (chapter, section, or page) of every ebook. This flexibility could support Pay Per View models (such as Questiaกs or Fathomกs), POD (Print On Demand), and academic กcourse packsก, which comprise material from many textbooks, whether on digital media or downloadable. The DOI, in other words, can underlie DCMS (Digital Content Management Systems) and Electronic Catalogue ID Management Systems.

Moreover, the DOI is a paradigm shift (though, conceptually, it was preceded by the likes of the UPC code and the ISOกs HyTime multimedia standard). It blurs the borders between types of digital content. Imagine an enovel with the video version of the novel, the sound track, still photographs, a tourist guide, an audio book, and other digital content embedded in it. Each content type and each segment of each content type can be identified and tagged separately and, thus, sold separately yet all under the umbrella of the same DOI! The nightmare of DRM (digital rights management) may be finally over.

But the DOI is much more than a sophisticated tagging technology. It comes with multiple resolution (see กEmbarrassment of Riches Part Iก). In other words, as opposed to the URL (Universal Resource Locator) it is generated dynamically, กon the flyก, by the user, and is not กhard codedก into the web page. This is because the DOI identifies content not its location. And while the URL resolves to a single web page the DOI resolves to a lot more in the form of publishercontrolled (ONIXXML) กmetadataก in a popup (Javascript or other) screen. The metadata include everything from the authorกs name through the bookกs title, edition, blurbs, sample chapters, other promotional material, links to related products, a rights and permissions profile, email contacts, and active links to retailersก web pages. Thus, every bookrelated web page becomes a full fledged book retailing gateway. The กanchor documentก (in which the DOI is embedded) remains uncluttered. ONIX 2.0 may contain standard metadata fields and extensions specific to epublishing and ebooks.

This latter feature the ability to link to the systems of retailers, distributors, and other types of vendors is the กbarcodeก function of the DOI. Like barcode technology, it helps to automate the supply chain, and update the inventory, ordering, billing and invoicing, accounting, and reordering databases and functions. Besides tracking content use and distribution, the DOI allows to seamlessly integrate hitherto disparate ecommerce technologies and facilitate interoperability among DRM systems.

The resolution itself can take place in the clientกs browser (using a software plugin), in a proxy server, or in a central, dynamic server. Resolving from the clientกs PC, ebook reader, or PDA has the advantage of being able to respond to the userกs specific condition (location, time of day, etc.). No plugin is required when a proxy server HTTP is used but then the DOI becomes just another URL, embedded in the page when it is created and not resolved when the user clicks on it. The most userfriendly solution is, probably, for a central server to look up values in response to a userกs prompt and serve her with cascading menus or links. Admittedly, in this option, the resolution tables (what DOI links to what URLกs and to what content) is not really dynamic. It changes only with every server update and is static between updates. But this is a minor inconvenience. As it is, users are likely to respond with some trepidation to the need to install plugins and to the avalanche of information their single, innocuous, mouse click generates.

The DOI Foundation has compiled this impressive list of benefits and beneficiaries:

กPublishers to enable cross referencing to related information, control over metadata, viral distribution and sales, easy access to content, sale of granular content

Consumers to increase value for time and money, and purchase options

Distributors to facilitate sale and distribution of materials as well as user needs

Retailers to build related materials on their sites, heighten consumer usability and copyright protection

Conversion Houses/Wholesaler Repositories to increase access to and use of metadata

DRM Vendors/Rights Clearing Houses to enable interoperability and use of standards

Data Aggregators to enable compilation of primary and secondary content and print on demand

Trade Associations facilitate dialog on social level and attend to legal and technical perspectives pertaining to multiple versions of electronic content

eBbook software Developers to enable management of personal collections of eBooks including purchase receipt information as reference for quick return to retailer

Content Management System Vendors to enable internal synching with external usage

Syndicators to drive sales to retailers, add value to retail online store/sales, and increase sales for publishersก

The DOI is assigned to publishers by Registration Agencies (of which there are currently three CrossRef and Content Directions in the States and the aforementioned Enpia Systems in Asia). It is already widely used to cross reference almost 5,000 periodicals with a database of 3,000,000 citations. The price is steep it costs a publisher $200 to get a prefix and submit DOIกs to the registry. But as Registration Agencies proliferate, competition is bound to slash these prices precipitously.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of กMalignant Self Love Narcissism Revisitedก and กAfter the Rain How the West Lost the Eastก. He is a columnist in กCentral Europe Reviewก, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

This article was posted on February 2, 2002

by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

The Dangers of PeertoPeer Systems

The Dangers of PeertoPeer Systems

by: Dee Scrip

PeertoPeer (P2P) systems do not operate on secure lines, thus providing a conduit for hackers to enter a network or computer, access personal and confidential information, as well as deploy viruses or worms. Users of P2P systems are prime targets and/or launching points for malicious hacker attacks simply because it requires downloading and sharing electronic files or programs, not to mention usage on publicly open and interpretable industry standard protocols and industry standard codec.

A Staff Report submitted by the Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives (May 2003), entitled ขFileSharing Programs and PeertoPeer Networks – Privacy and Security Risksข, stated that users of these programs have inadvertently made their personal information available to other users. ขA search of one P2P network found at least 2,500 Microsoft Money backup files, which stores the users’ personal financial records, available for download.ข

Personal information includes tax returns containing you name, address, and social security numbers of not only you, but your spouse and dependents, financial information such as income and investments, medical records, business files such as contracts and personnel evaluations, and attorneyclient communications, to name a few.

Spyware and adware programs are frequently bundled into P2P filesharing software. These programs collect personal information for marketers and provide access to your computer by malicious hackers. In an article located on Vnunet.com entitled ขUsers Fume at Grokster ‘Driveby Download’ข, these two programs ข…can redirect a user’s homepage to a different website, install a new browser toolbar, insert entries into the users’ browser bookmark list, reinstall itself after uninstallation, and ultimately crash a user’s system.ข

Another grave concern for both individuals and businesses when using P2P software is unknowingly having your computer used as a supernode. A supernode occurs when your computer is arbitrarily assigned as a hub.

When you are running the software for P2P services, your computer’s disk space, bandwidth, and processing power are used to help other users on the same system operate their software more efficiently because of their own network or firewall constraints.

Not only can this overload systems or networks with excessive data, disk space, and network bandwidth, unscrupulous hackers can also insert arbitrary code in each supernode’s address space or crash all supernodes.

PeertoPeer (P2P) systems such as Skype operate by taking bandwidth (information carrying capacity) from customers on their service to assist other customers using their service analogous to a symbiotic relationship. The tools that enable them to accomplish this are bundled in the software their customers download to access their VoIP service.

The above information is an excerpt taken from an indepth and exclusive Report entitled ขWhy Hackers Love Computer Phones – A Shocking Report You Must Read!ข by Dee Scrip available only at http://www.whypay4calls.com/gtp/to.pl?l=ART02

**Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.

By Dee Scrip

© All rights reserved.

About The Author

Dee Scrip

The above information is an excerpt taken from an indepth and exclusive Report entitled ขWhy Hackers Love Computer Phones – A Shocking Report You Must Read!ข by Dee Scrip available only at http://www.whypay4calls.com/gtp/to.pl?l=ART02

This article was posted on February 05

by Dee Scrip

Choosing The Right Phone and Voice Mail System

Choosing The Right Phone and Voice Mail System

by: Jason Morris

Phone and voice mail systems can be pretty costly, even for companies with a low number phones. Before investing in any type of phone system or voice mail system, you need to estimate how much your company is likely to expand over the next few years and if possible how many phones you may require. Failure to do this could cost you or your company a lot of money in upgrade and restructuring costs further down the road. It is better and cheaper to plan and allow for expansion at an early stage, than wait until it is too late.

If you plan to remain under ten phones then I would recommend you invest in a KSUless phone system. Basically these look like normal phones that carry all the technology and software needed to run a small phone system of up to four lines and eight to twelve extensions. These systems incorporate many of the features that full PBX phone systems offer (though not voice mail). So be sure to check with your supplier what features are available on these types of phone systems. These systems are relatively cheap compared to other types of phone systems. They are also easy to install, so can be quickly relocated to another office or building. This type of phone systems usually arrive as a boxed product that is installed by you, and carries a manufacturer’s warranty. You will have to make enquiries with your vendor as to the level of after sales support that is available. You may find it is much less than if you had purchased a larger more expensive phone and voice mail system. One major disadvantage of KSUless phone systems, is that they cannot integrate separate voice mail systems. If you do choose to purchase one of these KSUless phone systems, then you will have to use a voice mail service that is offered by your telephone company.

If you decide that you must have a fully featured voice mail system, and can confidently predict your company will expand beyond ten phones within next few short years, then you will be better off investing in one of the fully featured KSU phone systems on the market. These phone systems are typical in companies with around ten to forty users. Some suppliers may recommend installing something called a Hybrid phone system. These systems are ideal for small to mid sized companies of about fifty to a hundred employees, and offer many of the features much larger PBX phone systems offer.

Below is a check list for when you are selecting a new phone and voice mail system and supplier:

1. Try to estimate how much your company will grow in the next three to five years. Look at how many lines and extensions you have at the moment and decide how many your company may require in the future.

2. Contact potential phone systems suppliers, and arrange an appointment with them for a full demonstration. A number of these can be sourced off the internet or through your local business pages. This will also give them a good opportunity to have a look at you and evaluate your potential requirements. Remember to ask them about their experience and if necessary ask for referrals. You could even ask to see a phone and voice mail system they have recently installed.

3. Make sure you decide on a rough budget for your proposed new telephone and voice mail system. Ask around other businesses of similar size, what amount they have invested in their phone systems.

4. When potential suppliers provide you with a quote for your new phone and voice mail system, go through them carefully, ensuring they include all of the requirements your business will need. These may include extras like; Full voice mail capability, additional handsets, call handling software, automated attendants, service level agreements (SLA’s) and any other additional features.

5. Once you have decided on one or two suppliers, it is time to get them back round. Remember, they want your business. Bearing in mind the budget you decided earlier, make your decision based upon not only price, but which supplier you think can provide your company with the best service before, during and after the installation of your new phone and voice mail system. Any good potential supplier will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about the phone system they intend to supply and install for you.

Thanks for reading.

About The Author

Jason Morris is coauthor, search engine optimization and marketing consultant of http://www.businessphonesystemsdirect.co.uk Specialists in the supply and installation of business phone systems and accessories. Visit our site now and get a free quotation on a quality Business Phone System.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 06

by Jason Morris

Is Your Marketing Full of Holes?

Is Your Marketing Full of Holes?

by: Charlie Cook

You wouldn’t try to collect water in a bucket that leaked or catch fish with a torn net, but that is what many service professionals and small businesses do. They work hard to attract clients and customers but too often their marketing is full of holes.

The biggest holes in small businesses’ marketing efforts are in lead generation. For those that don’t know it already, identifying, attracting and building a steady stream of prospects is the number one marketing task for growing a service business. You need to know who is interested in your products and services in order to market to them, again and again.

Every small business has some sort of lead generation strategy, whether its just handing out business cards, sending out press releases, writing articles, asking for referrals or, in more recent years, putting up a web site. The problem is that many of these approaches are used sporadically not systematically, and techniques aren’t in place to capture the contacts made.

Interested prospects are missed, or if contact is made, are pushed away by your materials, web site or phone system. The result is that hundreds and thousands of potential prospects fall through cracks in your marketing and you can’t profit from their business. If your lead generation strategy and systems aren’t generating dozens or hundreds of new leads each week then your marketing strategy has a big gap in it. Four common holes in marketing are:

1. The Lack of Compelling Content

Whether itกs the title of your web site and the description shown in the search engines, or the title of your article and the first paragraph, your content needs to pull in prospects. Too often marketing materials are written from the sellers’ point of view instead of the prospects’. Compelling content captures prospects’ attention by focusing on their problems. Without good copy prospects won’t be moved to become clients.

Is your marketing content compelling from prospects’ perspective?

Does it lead with information about prospects’ problems and concerns?

2. Limited Reach

If you could contact all the people who need and want your services, you might want to. Using advertising, direct mail or cold calling to do this is in most cases cost prohibitive. PR, writing articles and having a web site are some low cost ways of getting attention. The objective with any of these is to reach as many people as possible in order to find qualified leads.

Despite effort put into creating marketing materials, building web sites and writing articles, independent professionals rarely get the visibility they want. Articles are only read by a handful of people and web sites are hard to find.

To leverage the time and money you put into your marketing materials, articles, and web sites, you need to do everything you can to help people find them. This sounds obvious, but most service professionals write an article and just post it on their web site or send it to a few clients. With hundreds of online ezines and offline publications looking for content, you could be putting an article in front of tens of thousands of people instead of just a few.

The same is true of search engine listings. Most people can’t even find their own sites in the search engines. Help the search engines put your web site on the first page or two for your keywords and youกll increase your exposure and reach hundreds of new prospects each week. Depending on your business, this is easier then most people realize and will extend the reach of your marketing dramatically.

How many people per week see the marketing copy or articles that are meant to get them to make contact?

What are you doing to increase this number?

3. Missing Motivators

Grabbing prospects’ attention is the first step in lead generation; moving them to make contact, visit your web site or call your company and add themselves to your target list is the next step. When you write an article or send out a mailing, provide an incentive for prospects to take action. Offer a workshop or free report.

Does your marketing motivate prospects to come to you and give you their contact information?

4. Malfunctioning or NonExistent Systems

If your marketing is working, prospects will call your office or stop by your web site. You want to make it is as easy as possible for prospects to get in touch with you, and you want to collect their contact information. Again, this sounds obvious, but how many times have you been frustrated by menu driven answering systems that didn’t list the item you called about? (Or made you go through too many steps to find it?) Or a web site with no name, email address or phone number of a person who could answer your questions. And many phone systems and web sites aren’t set up to capture visitors’ contact information.

Do you have automated systems that make it easy for prospects to contact your company?

Do you have automated systems that make it easy for prospects to give you their contact information?

Marketing involves generating leads, converting them to clients and reselling to clients. If you’re not attracting the number of customers and clients you want, make sure your marketing strategy isn’t full of holes.

2003 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

About The Author

The author, Marketing Coach, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners who are struggling to attract more clients. He can be contacted at In Mind Marketing via [email protected] or visit www.charliecook.net to get a copy of the free marketing guide, ก7 Steps to Get More Clients and Grow Your Businessก.

This article was posted on September 17, 2003

by Charlie Cook

Marketing Magic: More Money in Less Time

Marketing Magic: More Money in Less Time

by: Christopher Enders

Which is more precious: time or money? If you could have an ample supply of either, but not both, which would you choose? Itกs a tough question. If you choose money, you may not have the time to enjoy it. If you choose time, how will you get along financially?

Since the dawn of the Internet, people have been looking for ways to have BOTH lots of time on their hands and lots money in their wallets. It seems like very few of us have broken that secret code that allows us to make a great living without giving up all of our precious spare time.

Like a great magician, a great marketer never reveals the real tricks of the trade…those methods he or she uses to make a great living without sitting at the computer for 16 hours a day. Of course they want to keep their techniques a secret; theyกd like to keep all the money to themselves, right? Just like magicians like David Copperfield want a monopoly on magic, Internet millionaires want a monopoly on success.

So what about the rest of us? What are we supposed to do? Every day we’re bombarded with business opportunities that either rip us off or simply don’t work. But we continue to work at it, trying to find that one golden key to easy street.

If you have found something that works for you, more power to you. If, like the rest of us, you’re still struggling to make your big break, keep looking. Success is out there for people who take the time to sniff it out.

Believe it or not, there are moneymaking systems out there that you really cannot lose with. Even if you fail at the system, you still make money. Best of all, these systems can be worked without huge time or financial commitments. True success systems are complete and turnkey. They bring you website traffic (even if you don’t have a site yet), residual income, and lasting success without backbreaking work.

Income systems really do exist that allow you to: 1) make a fulltime income in one hour per day, and 2) completely eliminate the cost of online advertising and promotions. And, did you know that virtually all successful Internet marketers use the same powerful billing technique?

There really is no complicated Internet success bible. If you can harness the power of a few very powerful, yet closely guarded techniques, you can succeed in almost any Internet business. Dig deep, travel far, and do some serious homework, and youกll find the goldmine you’re looking for.

As a free gift for reading my article you can now read my online book titled, กHow to Get 10 PayChecks Online Bookก with resale rights, by clicking the following link:

http://www.doublepayment.com/toc.html

Since this ebook is available online you do not have to wait to read it. Immediately after you click on the link or copy and paste it into your web browser, youกll be sent to a confidential website address where you can immediately read this exciting new ebook. Be sure to bookmark this website so you can find your way back.

About The Author

Christopher Enders is founder of http://www.doublepayment.com and provides marketing advice and copywriting. Learn the closelyguarded secrets of the Internet success gurus to make a fulltime income in just a few hours a week! Visit the website to find out more! Email Chris Enders at mail to: [email protected], or call (813)2738910.

This article was posted on December 14, 2004

by Christopher Enders

Why a Project Manager Manages More Than Just The P

Why a Project Manager Manages More Than Just The Project

by: Blair Ballard

So your Project Manager is responsible for getting your Project whatever it may be, completed. This is going to involve more than just managing time and resources. Above all it requires good people management, in particular managing You, the Client!

Let me give an example from กHistoryก. We were engaged in the development of a large (several million dollar) project. It required development of software, building of a company intranet, a web presence, a big database and overcoming lots of security issues.

The กClientก was actually represented by 4 parties.

An IT Manager, who is in overall control of the budget, but doesn’t actually have any involvement in the hardware or software.

The Systems Manager, who looks after the operating of the Clientกs hardware and software.

The Sales Team, for whom this product is being built.

The boss, who pays the bills, but doesn’t appear to understand what all the money is being spent on.

It is important to appreciate the characters and dynamics involved. I won’t go into too much detail to protect their identities. The IT Manager is extremely demanding. The IT and Systems Managers are best of buddies. There appears to be a power struggle between the IT Manager and the Boss. As will become apparent, we don’t know about the Sales team. By the time I am involved, the IT Manager has already fired 2 project managers, supposedly on technical grounds, but realistically more because the two sides didn’t get on.

Part of project management involves soliciting information from the Client what do you want? How are you going to use it? So far, are we on the right track? As I said this system was to help the Sales Team and to a degree, the Accounts Department. The IT Manager explicitly refused to let us talk to anyone else in the Clientกs company except himself or the Systems Manager. He is the one approving our pay, so what he says goes. He feels that he alone is capable of determining the result of the project and therefore can manage all aspects on behalf of the Client. Unfortunately, project management is all about collaboration.

The Systems Manager, before any coding has started or even the system processes are worked out, decides to spend $300,000 on hardware and some specialized software for this new system. It may be the best, fastest, biggest, most powerful, most prestigious, newest on the market, but at this stage we had no idea whether we really needed something that powerful. As Project Manager, you determine the technical specifications of the project and advise the Client. But at the end of the day, itกs the Clientกs money!

Not surprisingly, with the size of project and the many skill sets required, there were several different people involved on the กSupplierกs sideก. We were in charge of the project management and a substantial amount of the coding. We had 4 people full time working on the project management team. One of our number could probably have been described as fulltime Liaison/Buffer to the Client, while the rest of us got on with the job.

In addition there were yet 4 other parties working under the direction of our project management team.

Party ก1ก was involved in designing the database.

Party ก2ก was involved in building that database and doing the required coding.

Party ก3ก had to provide communications between the several applications we were building.

Party ก4ก had to look after security measures, review code and do final testing (and keep an eye on us).

The project was is to be built in phases. Party ก4ก has just lost the contract to look after the project. It is therefore in their best interests to see us fail. As I mentioned they are to review our work. They have tasks to do for the project and naturally itกs the responsibility of the project management team to ensure it happens properly and on time. So due to the obvious conflict of interest, requiring them to do their part in the project, is always an issue to be handled with care.

Another case of kid gloves: We need the $300,000 worth of hardware and software to be configured in order to set up the environments for our work. Without it, we are spinning wheels, กitกs a Milestone on the Critical Pathก. It transpires that the Systems Manager is in over his head. As a result we have to delay the project. Given that the last Project Manager was fired when she voiced her view that several delays were due to the Systems Manager, we accept responsibility. Unfortunately though, we are not able to address the root cause.

However the environment has all been set up by the Client, since they chose the development teams and had already purchased the hardware and a substantial amount of กOff the Shelfก software. As a Project Manager you cannot really tell what the issues will be until you get into it. Sure, we knew what was needed to do to make the product, but we also needed information from the Client and support from the whole development team. Add to the mix, the fact that we are all working out of the Clientกs offices and that half the team speak English and half French as their first language, communication takes on an even greater significance.

We end up expending significant energy (and hence Client money) on trying to extract this information and keeping the Client happy that work was progressing. All the while knowing that the real end users are yet to have any input into the product.

When we finally finish the product (really just a phase of development) and give a demonstration, we are finally allowed to present it to the Sales Team. They duly watch the demonstration กLooks nice, getting there, but doesn’t exactly do what we need, we have a few questions . . .ก Interesting feedback to receive after supposed completion.

About The Author

Blair Ballard is founder of the MARKET YOUR WEB group. His experience spans from that of Corporate Project Manager to Webmaster for a Non Profit organisation. http://www.marketyourweb.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 22

by Blair Ballard

Internet Marketers: How To Solve Any Problem In Th

Internet Marketers: How To Solve Any Problem In Three Minutes Flat

by: Rick Miller

Being an Internet entrepreneur running your own business comes with a whole list of problems: How do I get my sales page to convert? How do I get traffic to my site? How do I optimize my site for the search engines? How do I convince joint venture partners to work with me?

Then you have life’s problems on top of that: How do I keep my spouse or lover happy? How do I meet the bills? How do I keep healthy and fit with all the demands on me? How do I keep my employers happy while I try to break free by starting my own business?

Well, good news! You can begin to reduce the negative effects of stress and live a happier, more enjoyable life by using a revolutionary new problemsolving technique.

Can you solve any problem in three minutes? Is it possible?

According to John Harricharan, awardwinning bestselling author of กWhen You Can Walk on Water, Take the Boat,ก the answer is ขAbsolutely, yes!ข

John recently spoke with Tellman Knudson, as part of the List Crusade program, a series of audio lessons from over 52 leading Internet marketing and selfhelp experts. In the interview, he revealed a few of the secrets from ขPower Pauseข, a groundbreaking course that has changed the lives of thousands.

The program is a simple quick 3step formula to solve any problem in your life. Amazingly, the entire process only takes about three minutes.

(Note: To access John Harricharan’s complete audio interview for fre^e, see end of article)

As a successful businessman and speaker, John studied many selfhelp systems, and he made an amazing discovery. Even though most systems produced astounding results for some individuals, he found that most selfhelp systems rarely work for the majority of users.

Why?

These systems are often complicated and timeconsuming.

John says, ขWe have to get back to simplicity. We don’t have time to sit under a tree and meditate for hours, or ‘Om’ until the cows come home, or go through every 15step and 40step program.ข

So John decided to distill the core principles of all his success training …

He took ขancient truths and combined them with modern psychological principlesข to produce a system that is simple, quick, and powerful.

According to John, there are only three basic problems in life … Money, Health, and Relationships. Every problem relates to these three areas or a combination of them.

By understanding this, we get a much clearer picture of what we must do to solve the problem.

Here’s a summary of the three steps, which are covered in greater detail in the interview and the ebook ขPower Pause.ข

1) Break your focus on the problem—Oftentimes, we are so caught up in the emotions of the problem that we overlook simple solutions. Disconnecting from the problem also allows the most powerful part of our mind, the subconscious, to begin a massive search for answers. We need to let our conscious mind get out of the way. Many of the geniuses in the past made great discoveries when they took a break from the problem, some even by taking naps.

2) Imagine how you would feel if the desired outcome really happened—By projecting yourself into the future and actually feeling the emotions of success, you point your brain into focusing on the solution and not the problem. It has been said that what your mind attends to … it eventually achieves—so if you constantly dwell on your problems, you’ll get really good at getting more problems.

3) Say thank you and let the problem go—Your act of gratitude signals a conclusion and release. You’ve let go of the problem and all the worries along with it. When you no longer struggle with the problem, the things you want seem to come to you effortlessly. You’ll see answers you’ve never seen before. Things will fall into place.

I urge you to listen to John Harricharan’s interview and get his complete Power Pause ebook.

John’s book is entertaining and thoughtprovoking, presented in story form telling the story of his mysterious mentor who revealed the secret 3step formula to him.

Use these three simple steps today to immediately begin to improve your health, wealth, and happiness.

Copyright 2005 Rick Miller

About The Author

Rick Miller is a Certified Master of Web Copywriting and cofounder of List Crusade. For fre^e access to John Harricharan’s entire interview, along with 51 other audio lessons from top Internet Marketing and Self Help Gurusgo to: ==> http://www.ListCrusade.com/rickm.html

This article was posted on March 03

by Rick Miller

At Your Service: The Ten Commandments of Great Cus

At Your Service: The Ten Commandments of Great Customer Service!

by: Susan Freidmann

Customer service is an integral part of our job and should not be seen as an extension of it. A company’s most vital asset is its customers. Without them, we would not and could not exist in business. When you satisfy our customers, they not only help us grow by continuing to do business with you, but recommend you to friends and associates.

The practice of customer service should be as present on the show floor as it is in any other sales environment.

The Ten Commandments of Customer Service

1. Know who is boss. You are in business to service customer needs, and you can only do that if you know what it is your customers want. When you truly listen to your customers, they let you know what they want and how you can provide good service. Never forget that the customer pays our salary and makes your job possible.

2. Be a good listener. Take the time to identify customer needs by asking questions and concentrating on what the customer is really saying. Listen to their words, tone of voice, body language, and most importantly, how they feel. Beware of making assumptions thinking you intuitively know what the customer wants. Do you know what three things are most important to your customer?

Effective listening and undivided attention are particularly important on the show floor where there is a great danger of preoccupation looking around to see to whom else we could be selling to.

3. Identify and anticipate needs. Customers don’t buy products or services. They buy good feelings and solutions to problems. Most customer needs are emotional rather than logical. The more you know your customers, the better you become at anticipating their needs. Communicate regularly so that you are aware of problems or upcoming needs.

4. Make customers feel important and appreciated. Treat them as individuals. Always use their name and find ways to compliment them, but be sincere. People value sincerity. It creates good feeling and trust. Think about ways to generate good feelings about doing business with you. Customers are very sensitive and know whether or not you really care about them. Thank them every time you get a chance.

On the show floor be sure that your body language conveys sincerity. Your words and actions should be congruent.

5. Help customers understand your systems. Your organization may have the worldกs best systems for getting things done, but if customers don’t understand them, they can get confused, impatient and angry. Take time to explain how your systems work and how they simplify transactions. Be careful that your systems don’t reduce the human element of your organization.

6. Appreciate the power of กYesก. Always look for ways to help your customers. When they have a request (as long as it is reasonable) tell them that you can do it. Figure out how afterwards. Look for ways to make doing business with you easy. Always do what you say you are going to do.

7. Know how to apologize. When something goes wrong, apologize. Itกs easy and customers like it. The customer may not always be right, but the customer must always win. Deal with problems immediately and let customers know what you have done. Make it simple for customers to complain. Value their complaints. As much as we dislike it, it gives us an opportunity to improve. Even if customers are having a bad day, go out of your way to make them feel comfortable.

8. Give more than expected. Since the future of all companies lies in keeping customers happy, think of ways to elevate yourself above the competition. Consider the following:

What can you give customers that they cannot get elsewhere?

What can you do to followup and thank people even when they don’t buy?

What can you give customers that is totally unexpected?

9. Get regular feedback. Encourage and welcome suggestions about how you could improve. There are several ways in which you can find out what customers think and feel about your services.

Listen carefully to what they say.

Check back regularly to see how things are going.

Provide a method that invites constructive criticism, comments and suggestions.

10. Treat employees well. Employees are your internal customers and need a regular dose of appreciation. Thank them and find ways to let them know how important they are. Treat your employees with respect and chances are they will have a higher regard for customers. Appreciation stems from the top. Treating customers and employees well is equally important.

About The Author

Written by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: ขMeeting & Event Planning for Dummies,ข working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. Go to http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com to sign up for a free copy of ExhibitSmart Tips of the Week.

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 16, 2004

by Susan Freidmann

Search Technologies

Search Technologies

by: Max Maglias

Each of us has been faced with the problem of searching for information more than once. Irregardless of the data source we are using (Internet, file system on our hard drive, data base or a global information system of a big company) the problems can be multiple and include the physical volume of the data base searched, the information being unstructured, different file types and also the complexity of accurately wording the search query. We have already reached the stage when the amount of data on one single PC is comparable to the amount of text data stored in a proper library. And as to the unstructured data flows, in future they are only going to increase, and at a very rapid tempo. If for an average user this might be just a minor misfortune, for a big company absence of control over information can mean significant problems. So the necessity to create search systems and technologies simplifying and accelerating access to the necessary information, originated long ago. Such systems are numerous and moreover not every one of them is based on a unique technology. And the task of choosing the right one depends directly on the specific tasks to be solved in the future. While the demand for the perfect data searching and processing tools is steadily growing let’s consider the state of affairs with the supply side.

Not going deeply into the various peculiarities of the technology, all the searching programs and systems can be divided into three groups. These are: global Internet systems, turnkey business solutions (corporate data searching and processing technologies) and simple phrasal or file search on a local computer. Different directions presumably mean different solutions.

Local search

Everything is clear about search on a local PC. It’s not remarkable for any particular functionality features accept for the choice of file type (media, text etc.) and the search destination. Just enter the name of the searched file (or part of text, for example in the Word format) and that’s it. The speed and result depend fully on the text entered into the query line. There is zero intellectuality in this: simply looking through the available files to define their relevance. This is in its sense explicable: what’s the use of creating a sophisticated system for such uncomplicated needs.

Global search technologies

Matters stand totally different with the search systems operating in the global network. One can’t rely simply on looking through the available data. Huge volume (Yandex for instance can boast the indexing capacity of more than 11 terabyte of data) of the global chaos of unstructured information will make the simple search not only ineffective but also long and laborconsuming. That’s why lately the focus has shifted towards optimizing and improving quality characteristics of search. But the scheme is still very simple (except for the secret innovations of every separate system) the phrasal search through the indexed data base with proper consideration for morphology and synonyms. Undoubtedly, such an approach works but doesn’t solve the problem completely. Reading dozens of various articles dedicated to improving search with the help of Google or Yandex, one can drive at the conclusion that without knowing the hidden opportunities of these systems finding a relevant document by the query is a matter of more than a minute, and sometimes more than an hour. The problem is that such a realization of search is very dependent on the query word or phrase, entered by the user. The more indistinct the query the worse is the search. This has become an axiom, or dogma, whichever you prefer.

Of course, intelligently using the key functions of the search systems and properly defining the phrase by which the documents and sites are searched, it is possible to get acceptable results. But this would be the result of painstaking mental work and time wasted on looking through irrelevant information with a hope to at least find some clues on how to upgrade the search query. In general, the scheme is the following: enter the phrase, look through several results, making sure that the query was not the right one, enter a new phrase and the stages are repeated till the relevancy of results achieves the highest possible level. But even in that case the chances to find the right document are still few. No average user will voluntary go for the sophistication of ขadvanced searchข (although it is equipped with a number of very useful functions such as the choice of language, file format etc.). The best would be to simply insert the word or phrase and get a ready answer, without particular concern for the means of getting it. Let the horse think – it has a big head. Maybe this is not exactly up to the point, but one of the Google search functions is called ขI am feeling lucky!ข characterizes very well the existent searching technologies. Nevertheless, the technology works, not ideally and not always justifying the hopes, but if you allow for the complexity of searching through the chaos of Internet data volume, it could be acceptable.

Corporate systems

The third on the list are the turnkey solutions based on the searching technologies. They are meant for serious companies and corporations, possessing really large data bases and staffed with all sorts of information systems and documents. In principle, the technologies themselves can also be used for home needs. For example, a programmer working remotely from the office will make good use of the search to access randomly located on his hard drive program source codes. But these are particulars. The main application of the technology is still solving the problem of quickly and accurately searching through large data volumes and working with various information sources. Such systems usually operate by a very simple scheme (although there are undoubtedly numerous unique methods of indexing and processing queries underneath the surface): phrasal search, with proper consideration for all the stem forms, synonyms etc. which once again leads us to the problem of human resource. When using such technology the user should first word the query phrases which are going to be the search criteria and presumably met in the necessary documents to be retrieved. But there is no guarantee that the user will be able to independently choose or remember the correct phrase and furthermore, that the search by this phrase will be satisfactory.

One more key moment is the speed of processing a query. Of course, when using the whole document instead of a couple of words, the accuracy of search increases manifold. But up to date, such an opportunity has not been used because of the high capacity drain of such a process. The point is that search by words or phrases will not provide us with a highly relevant similarity of results. And the search by phrase equal in its length the whole document consumes much time and computer resources. Here is an example: while processing the query by one word there is no considerable difference in speed: whether it’s 0,1 or 0,001 second is not of crucial importance to the user. But when you take an average size document which contains about 2000 unique words, then the search with consideration for morphology (stem forms) and thesaurus (synonyms), as well as generating a relevant list of results in case of search by key words will take several dozens of minutes (which is unacceptable for a user).

The interim summary

As we can see, currently existing systems and search technologies, although properly functioning, don’t solve the problem of search completely. Where speed is acceptable the relevancy leaves more to be desired. If the search is accurate and adequate, it consumes lots of time and resources. It is of course possible to solve the problem by a very obvious manner – by increasing the computer capacity. But equipping the office with dozens of ultrafast computers which will continuously process phrasal queries consisting of thousands of unique words, struggling through gigabytes of incoming correspondence, technical literature, final reports and other information is more than irrational and disadvantageous. There is a better way.

The unique similar content search

At present many companies are intensively working on developing full text search. The calculation speeds allow creating technologies that enable queries in different exponents and wide array of supplementary conditions. The experience in creating phrasal search provides these companies with an expertise to further develop and perfect the search technology. In particular, one of the most popular searches is the Google, and namely one of its functions called the ขsimilar pagesข. Using this function enables the user to view the pages of maximum similarity in their content to the sample one. Functioning in principle, this function does not yet allow getting relevant results – they are mostly vague and of low relevancy and furthermore, sometimes utilizing this function shows complete absence of similar pages as a result. Most probably, this is the result of the chaotic and unstructured nature of information in the Internet. But once the precedent has been created, the advent of the perfect search without a hitch is just a matter of time.

What concerns the corporate data processing and knowledge retrieval systems, here the matters stand much worse. The functioning (not existing on paper) technologies are very few. And no giant or the so called search technology guru has so far succeeded in creating a real similar content search. Maybe, the reason is that it’s not desperately needed, maybe – too hard to implement. But there is a functioning one though.

SoftInform Search Technology, developed by SoftInform, is the technology of searching for documents similar in their content to the sample. It enables fast and accurate search for documents of similar content in any volume of data. The technology is based on the mathematical model of analyzing the document structure and selecting the words, word combinations and text arrays, which results in forming a list of documents of maximum similarity the sample text abstract with the relevancy percent defined. In contrast to the standard phrasal search by the similar content search there is no need to determine the key words beforehand – the search is conducted through the whole document. The technology works with several sources of information that can be stored both in text files of txt, doc, rtf, pdf, htm, html formats, and the information systems of the most popular data bases (Access, MS SQL, Oracle, as well as any SQLsupporting data bases). It also additionally supports the synonyms and important words functions that enable to carry out a more specific search.

The similar search technology enables to significantly cut time wasted on searching and reviewing the same or very similar documents, diminish the processing time at the stage of entering data into the archive by avoiding the duplicate documents and forming sets of data by a certain subject. Another advantage of the SoftInform technology is that it’s not so sensitive to the computer capacity and allows processing data at a very high speed even on ordinary office computers.

This technology is not just a theoretic development. It has been tested and successfully implemented in a project of giving legal advice via phone, where the speed of information retrieval is of crucial importance. And it will undoubtedly be more than useful in any knowledge base, analytical service and support department of any large firm. Universality and effectiveness of the SoftInform Search Technology allows solving a wide spectrum of problems, arising while processing information. These include the fuzziness of information (at the document entering stage it is possible to immediately define whether such a document already belongs to the data base or not) and the similarity analysis of the documents which are already entered into the data base, and the search for semantically similar documents which saves time spent on selecting the appropriate key words and viewing the irrelevant documents.

Perspectives

Besides its primary assignment (fast and high quality search for information in huge volume such as texts, archives, data bases) an Internet direction could also be defined. For example, it is possible to work out an expert system to process incoming correspondence and news which will become an important tool for analysts from different companies. Mainly, this will be possible due to the unique similar content search technology, absent from any of the existent systems so far except for the SearchInform. The problem of spamming search engines with the so called doorways (hidden pages with key words redirecting to the site’s main pages and used to increase the page rating with the search engines) and the email spam problem (a more intellectual analysis would ensure higher level of security) would also be solved with the help of this technology. But the most interesting perspective of the SoftInform Search technology is creating a new Internet search engine, the main competitive advantage of which would be ability to search not just by key words, but also for similar web pages, which will add to the flexibility of search making it more comfortable and efficient.

To draw a conclusion, it could be stated with confidence that the future belongs to the full text search technologies, both in the Internet and the corporate search systems. Unlimited development potential, adequacy of the results and processing speed of any size of query make this technology much more comfortable and in high demand. SoftInform Search technology might not be the pioneer, but it’s a functioning, stable and unique one with no existent analogues (which can be proved by the active Eurasian patent). To my mind, even with the help of the ขsimilar searchข it will be difficult to find a similar technology.

About The Author

Max Maglias

Contact information:

[Phone] 2197964

[Fax]

[Email] [email protected]

[Website] http://www.searchinform.com

This article was posted on September 08, 2005

by Max Maglias