Software : Interview: How to accelerate migrations and transformation within the enterprise |
- Interview: How to accelerate migrations and transformation within the enterprise
- Updated: 10 tips for removing a program that won't uninstall
- Download of the day: Sketchup
- Downloads: Christmas crackers: CookDiary
- Interview: Recruitment software: changing the way your company hires
- Taylor Swift's Spotify exodus might actually change something, sort of
- Pebble's new Android notifications let you take action from your watch
| Interview: How to accelerate migrations and transformation within the enterprise Posted:  Internationally he is considered an industry expert on datacentre migrations, and has developed a unique set of tools and processes from practical experience. At Xceed, Simon Johnson runs the migration practice, with Xceed's mX - Migration Accelerator platform, specialising in datacentre and desktop migrations. Simon Johnson has been quoted as saying "IT migrations are some of the most complicated events an organisation will face" and yet he is also seeing so many organisations taking it on. Techradar Pro: If IT migrations are problematic, why is it that organisations do them at all? Simon Johnson: Technology changes daily and the best solution to a problem is rarely in the past. The demands & opportunities of the mobile-cloud era, or as Gartner prefers the Third Era of IT, mean that legacy systems and infrastructure have to be updated to continue to support business needs. It is not so much a choice as a necessity to be able to provide the best services to internal and external customers in a cost effective way. Whether migrating to embrace technology advancements, or migrating to control costs, they will always be complicated events, but the benefits are significant and migrating is worth the short term pain. TRP: How much do you think costs play a part in this, when considered against technology and performance? SJ: Cost will always be an important factor and is directly linked to technology and performance. The opportunities presented by new technologies mean companies can achieve two things – they can increase efficiency and drive down the cost of 'BAU' services. However, they can also increase revenue and sales through providing smarter services to customers, bringing products to market faster across multiple devices and geographies. TRP: Gartner research has recently reported that 70 per cent of datacentre migrations will incur significant time delays or cause unplanned downtime, what do you think the main cause for this is? SJ: I read that paper with interest and they point to one of the main reasons – the planning stage. We've also found that a little more time spent up front defining the scope and how to communicate strategy and change to the business results in a faster, smoother and most importantly more successful programme overall. TRP: What role do legacy applications sitting in the datacentre play? SJ: Legacy applications are one of the prime reasons that businesses struggle with datacentre migrations. Legacy applications and the infrastructure they sit on can be many years old and the knowledge about how they are configured walks out the door when employees leave. During datacentre migrations, limited knowledge of the legacy estate can slow the migration process as SME's get caught up defining how to move the more modern estate and not enough time planning the legacy migration. TRP: What are the three biggest concerns that your clients have highlighted when it comes to datacentre migrations? SJ: Communication, discovering configuration items and planning. Poor communication between the business and the project team results in limited buy in from the BAU team. If people feel that they are being included in the migration process and that their concerns are addressed, they are much more likely to embrace change and play active roles. As a result of better communication, an easier and more accurate discovery programme can be achieved. Automated discovery tools are great at getting information about the well-known and the easy to reach items. Knowledge that is stored in employees heads and privately held spreadsheets is often the most important as it answers the questions about the complicated legacy equipment. Ensuring that all information sources are combined effectively is one of the best ways to improve migration results, as is meticulous planning. Adapting to business as usual change and cascading the results into the project plan are important to ensure migration success. Clients often mention that the project team cannot adapt quickly enough to the day to day activities and as a result they can find themselves working with out of date information. TRP: What type of migrations are the most common or complex? SJ: Most common are those resulting from mergers or acquisitions where companies want to rationalise their infrastructure footprint by closing premises. Interestingly these are often the most complex as they often require technical changes to be made as part of a migration, so that the company being acquired ends up in the right technical infrastructure environment. Making significant changes to the technical infrastructure adds a risk to success of the migration process. Complex migrations are often characterised by latency impact – moving a datacentre which is located close to the user community to far away, resulting in poor end-user experience which requires resolution. TRP: Which organisations typically have the biggest migration challenges? SJ: Organisations that have a significant amount of technical debt and / or lack of investment to maintain their systems to a reasonably current level usually have the biggest challenge. This is because the systems may have application versions which are no longer supportable, or which do not run on more recent versions of operating systems. Those which have a great number of interdependencies between systems are challenged as there is a need to balance the logical migration group with the size of infrastructure to move at once. Finally those where the risk appetite of the organisation is low and the available budget for the migration is below what is needed to support a low-risk approach. TRP: For all of those IT leaders reading who are about to commence a datacentre migration what piece of advice would you give? SJ: I'd go back to the planning stage being the most important success factor. I'd advise them to work with a combination of internal experts and external datacentre migration specialists. |
| Updated: 10 tips for removing a program that won't uninstall Posted:  There are many reasons why you may need to remove programs from your PC from time to time. Some programs may not work properly, or you may simply want to remove some old programs in order to free up some extra space on your hard disk. Windows includes a number of straightforward options for removing programs, and we'll look at those here. However, some programs can be a bit tricky to fully remove properly, so we've also chosen some useful tools that you can download to help you out as well. 1. Use System RestoreAll versions of Windows going right back to XP include an option called System Restore that allows your PC to revert back to an earlier state. Windows XP hides this deep inside the Start menu – All Programs/Accessories/System Tools – but in later versions of Windows you can quickly locate it just by typing 'restore' into the Search tool in the Start Menu or the Windows 8 Start Screen. Before you install any new piece of software you can use System Restore to create a new 'restore point'. If anything subsequently goes wrong with your PC you can use System Restore to turn back time and return your PC to the state it was in before you installed that new program. 2. Check Your Control PanelWhen you install any new piece of software onto your PC, that program is added to a list that is stored in the Windows Control Panel. It's called Add or Remove Programs in Windows XP. In Windows Vista and Windows 7 and 8, you have to open Control Panel and then select View: Category. You will then see Uninstall A Program listed under the Programs heading. You can then just double-click any program in that list to remove it from your PC. Most programs will be deleted automatically, although some may also provide options to repair or modify the program if it isn't working properly. If your first attempt to uninstall a program doesn't work, Microsoft suggests trying again for a second time. Another option is to restart your PC using its special Safe Mode, which is often used for diagnosing and troubleshooting various problems with Windows. You can normally do this by holding down the F8 key while you restart your PC, and then selecting 'Safe Mode' from the screen that appears. You can then try removing the program using the Control Panel again while still in Safe Mode. 3. Searching For FilesSome programs may not show up in that list in Control Panel, but they may have a separate uninstaller program tucked away somewhere else. In Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 you can click on All Programs in the Start menu, and then look inside the program folder (if it has one – some programs may just show as a single file on their own). Windows 8 does things slightly differently. Open the Charms bar by moving your mouse to the top-right corner of the screen. Click on the Search button and then type in the name of the program you want to remove. If the program shows up in the search list you can right-click on it and you'll see a menu with an Uninstall command that you can use. 4. Windows 8 UninstallWindows 8 also introduced another option that allows you to quickly uninstall programs that are listed on the new Start screen. Windows 8 displays programs as a series of rectangular 'tiles' on the Start screen, and you can just right-click on a program's tile to display a special toolbar at the bottom of the screen. This toolbar includes an option for uninstalling the program, as well as showing the location of the file on your hard disk so that you can see if it has its own uninstaller program or help files. 5. Reinstall To UninstallIf none of those options works then – believe it or not – reinstalling the program might do the trick. If you still have the original disk or the original download file for the program, you can use that to run the installer program again. Some installers include an option to repair or modify the program, which may solve your problem if the program is not working properly. Running the installer again may also give you the option to completely remove the program as well. You can also check the support forums on the developer's web site to see if there are instructions for uninstalling the program. 6. Microsoft OfficeThe Microsoft Office suite includes many different programs and associated files, and it can sometimes be quite tricky to completely remove the entire suite. Fortunately, Microsoft provides its own Uninstall Troubleshooter program that can help here. You can run the Troubleshooter directly from Microsoft's website (support.microsoft.com/kb/290301) and the website also has additional hints and tips on how to remove old versions of Office. However, the Troubleshooter isn't quite so effective when it comes to removing other types of programs. 7. IObit UninstallerIf you're still having trouble then there are a number of free software tools that can help you remove troublesome programs. A good general-purpose tool that works with most types of programs is IObit Uninstaller. This is a good tool for beginners, as it provides convenient lists of all recently installed programs, as well as large programs that are taking up a lot of space, or old programs that you don't use very often. For more advanced users there's also a Forced Uninstall option that allows you to locate individual programs or files and completely wipe them out. 8. Modern AppsWindows 8 introduced a new type of software that Microsoft refers to as 'modern apps', which are designed to take advantage of new technologies such as touch-sensitive screens. There are several modern apps included as part of Windows 8, and they can take up a lot of space on your hard disk, so the latest version of IObit Uninstaller also includes a special option specifically designed for uninstalling modern apps. Click the 'Windows Apps' tab in IObit Uninstaller and you'll see a list of all the Microsoft apps that are included with Windows 8, and a second list of apps from other software companies. You can then delete these just like any other app, simply by clicking the Uninstall button. 9. Windows App RemoverSome modern apps occasionally resist the standard uninstall options that we've mentioned here, so there is another heavy-duty option for dealing with modern apps that won't uninstall properly. Windows includes a tool called the Powershell, which allows you to delve more deeply into the Windows system. It's a bit complicated for beginners, but Microsoft provides a 'script' that can launch Powershell and help you to uninstall modern apps. Just download the script (from https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Remove-Windows-Store-Apps-a00ef4a4) and unzip it. The script file is called RemoveWindowsStoreApp, and you can right-click on it and select Run With Powershell. The Powershell window will then display a numbered list of all your modern apps – for instance, the Amazon app is number 32 in the screenshot above. You can then uninstall multiple apps simply by entering the number for each app. 10. Security SoftwareAntivirus software and other types of security software can be quite difficult to remove as these programs are designed to resist attacks from viruses and other malware that might stop them from working properly. If the normal options for uninstalling programs don't work then you can try AppRemover, which is specifically designed for removing various security tools and all their associated files. AppRemover can automatically detect any antivirus or security software installed on your PC and then delete that program and any other files that are associated with it. |
| Posted:  Sketchup is a free design program that's perfect if you want to work on architectural designs with none of the hassle. Why you need itWorking with design applications can be a complicated and burdensome task, but not when it comes to Sketchup. This free software allows you to create designs for architecture, mechanics, video games and much more while remaining intuitive and simple to use. The software's creators say they aimed to recreate the freedom of working with a pen and paper in a computer design package, and it comes loaded with tools for drawing, modifying, rotating, scaling and moving geometry. Whether you want to create a new home or design your dream car, Sketchup has the tools to get you on your way. It's got an unbelievable number of features for a free program. It's stacked with free resources to add into your work like trees, cars, doors and textures, while you can import all manner of 2D images and 3D models. It's great for visualising your work, too, allowing you to create walk-throughs, presentation tours and simulate camera placements. And if you're looking for more, Sketchup has an extensive plugin library in its Extension Warehouse, containing plugins that expand the range of files you can work with, check your designs for errors, provide near photo-realistic rendering and more. Key features
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| Downloads: Christmas crackers: CookDiary Posted:  For many people Christmas is about food – often too much of it. If you're in search of something new to try, or just want to make sure that your traditional Christmas dinner goes as smoothly as possible, you can use CookDiary to keep all of the recipes you need in one place. You can enter recipes by hand, or use the integrated web browser to import them from your favourite websites. After building up a database of recipes, you can then use the search function to track down meals that match the ingredients you have in the fridge and cupboards. A handy scaling feature makes light work of doubling or tripling up on quantities for those occasions when you end up with a few more guests than normal – neatly avoiding the risk of mistakes when making manual calculations. But the application goes beyond simply making it easy to manage your recipes. There's the option to plan your menu for the days and weeks ahead, then CookDiary can help you create shopping lists so you can be sure that you won't forget to buy those all-important ingredients. This low-cost app covers all the bases, and the demo version lets you get started at no cost. |
| Interview: Recruitment software: changing the way your company hires Posted:  Amy Wilson is vice president at Workday and sets the strategic direction for Workday's Human Capital Management solutions. Prior to Workday, Amy spent more than a decade focused on the intersection of people, business, and technology. The current recruitment software market is full of bolt-on applicant tracking systems (ATS) surrounded by high value edge applications in the areas of social sourcing, candidate relationship management, referrals and analytics. but companies are looking for a more unified solution. Tech Radar Pro: How is the recruitment software market changing? Amy Wilson: There is a high degree of churn as organisations are becoming more dissatisfied with their compliance-based ATS and companies begin to experiment with various edge applications, hoping to gain a strategic advantage. The move away from compliance-based ATS means that companies are now looking towards a more unified solution. This does not just mean HR and recruiting, but also includes the high value edge applications like analytics. It used to be unusual if you could see jobs and search on mobile devices, and completing a full application on a mobile device was almost unheard of. What we're seeing with the recruitment software market is that as people become comfortable with typing on smartphones, mobile recruiting applications are becoming more important than ever. Now you can apply for jobs on mobile sites simply with a LinkedIn log-in for example, making things quicker and easier for the candidate. TRP: Why is it important to develop a recruiting platform from a "blank sheet of paper" as opposed to acquiring an Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)? AW: Organisations have been telling us for some time that their ATS were not meeting their needs. They were clunky and feature-laden, but didn't fulfill the daily needs of the business. They were designed for recruiters to track applicants in a compliant manner, but were disconnected from other important people practices such as internal mobility programmes, new hire onboarding, headcount and workforce planning. And forget about having anyone but a recruiter use the system – they are simply not designed for full participation and collaboration across the hiring team. It's essential that recruitment software is not built in the same way as the old ATS. Businesses want to make the most of the newest technologies, and be offered a solution that solves all their sourcing and recruiting needs. TRP: Why has participation and collaboration become so important in the modern recruitment process? AW: Recruiting is a "team sport", with every employee playing the role of recruiter, which means that sourcing is a collaborative process. Hiring managers need to share prospects and referrals with the recruiter, and recruiters need employees to use their social networks to identify prospects. Hiring managers need early feedback from their team on upcoming candidates. Fundamentally, the entire hiring team needs to collaborate on interviews and final conclusions. The software must be dynamic, with flexibility and collaboration at its core. Hiring teams need the freedom adjust steps in the recruiting process. The demands of businesses change at different rates, so it's important that modifications are in line with the pace of change in the organisation. Armed with many devices in different locations, the hiring team needs to collaborate throughout the application process. It's vital that any silos are eliminated to ensure the team can work together easily and quickly. TRP: Clearly mobile accessibility is another key factor if software is to be a success with a mobile-enabled workforce. But why has it become such a significant part of the end-to-end recruitment process? AW: As engagement with mobile devices in the workplace grows, we are moving towards a world of touch screens. Decisions are made 'on the move', with recent figures showing that 72 per cent of active candidates view company careers sites on their mobile device. This is the preferred way for candidates to search for jobs, so it will come as no surprise when I say that recruitment software must now be designed with a "mobile first" mentality. Mobility isn't just important for the candidate applying on-the-go, it is just as important on the recruiter side. When we started researching the space and uncovered the need for mobile recruiting, we realised how quickly recruiters need to connect with candidates and hiring teams. The recruiter may be on the road, at a conference or waiting outside an interview room, and in these situations, having a phone number of a candidate isn't necessarily enough. The software now needs to be designed to give recruiters the ability to put a suitable candidate forward at the touch of a button. It's important to remember how mobile the hiring team is in the modern workplace. With the latest mobile recruiting software, they can request information, collaborate quickly with the recruiter and check the status of an application, wherever they are. TRP: Who benefits most from a mobile recruiting app? Is it the hiring manager, the interview team, the candidate or the recruiter? AW: The importance of mobile stretches across all aspects of the recruiting process – from candidate relationship management, to referral management, career sites and interview management. Recruiters can share candidate CVs with hiring managers, while interview teams can communicate about next steps instead of relying on disjointed email that lives outside the system. The shift from desk-based working, to mobile working is transforming not only how we access information, but also how we make decisions and interact with colleagues. As such, it is necessary to change how applications and content are delivered to employees – a 'mobile first' mantra is needed. TRP: How important are social channels in the modern recruitment process? Should these be integrated into a recruiting platform? AW: Employee networks are a top source for talent. Posting a job to an organisation's social site is one thing and may drive some traffic, but encouraging employees to post jobs to their own network is much more effective. The posts are more targeted and people viewing the information will find it more credible and compelling. People are looking for jobs on mobile devices in high numbers, and much of this is driven by social sites – whether that be LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Figures revealed by LinkedIn show 64 percent of active candidates browse their social networks on mobile devices looking for career opportunities. When following a link from one of these social sites, applicants then expect be taken to a recruiting site that is mobile-friendly as well. It's vital that any software or recruitment site is optimised for these mobile candidates. Applying for a role using a LinkedIn profile has also become a key part of the mobile application process. Sites should have an "Apply with LinkedIn" option to accelerate the process, with the candidate being able to make quick edits if necessary. This integration has changed the way we apply for jobs on the go and made it incredibly easy to complete applications on a variety of devices. TRP: Are recruiting platforms set to change the way organisations approach internal mobility? AW: New recruiting platforms shouldn't just be built for external candidates but should play a key role for current employees. New recruiting apps should give employees in any region the ability to apply for an internal role easily with a tailored application process. This should take into account what the system already knows about the individual and provide contextual information available internally. If a solution combines recruiting, HR and talent, it allows for a more comprehensive view of candidates and opportunities. From a succession planning perspective this means that leaders can include both internal and external candidates in their pools. From a recruiting perspective, it allows recruiters to source and select external and internal candidates together in a unified search. Many of our customers tell us that they have ambitious goals to fill positions internally – especially leadership positions – yet they are cramped by their existing systems. TRP: What does the future look like for recruitment apps? AW: It won't be long before all parties involved in the recruitment process will expect mobile capabilities as standard. What's key is that unified systems will allow for a level of data insight which was not previously attainable. The future is all about leveraging this data across sourcing, selection, performance and retention to be predictive and proactive. |
| Taylor Swift's Spotify exodus might actually change something, sort of Posted:  The war between Taylor Swift and Spotify, which saw a mass exodus of Swift's songs from the service and the company responding by pointing out all the money she's missed out on because of that, may have elicited some change on Spotify's end. Sort of. As anyone might have predicted, it's Spotify, not the singer, who's eating crow on this one, though this probably isn't the shift Swift was hoping for. "What it has highlighted for us is we need to do a better job explaining to artists how streaming benefits them," Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek told Billboard. Um, OK. So you're not actually going to change anything, you're just going to explain it better? But wait, there's more. No pressure"The point that's been lost is that Spotify's the fastest-growing revenue source the industry has," Ek continued. "There are many artists to whom, through the labels, we're paying out millions a year already. Those check sizes will just keep increasing. I'm certain that if we can get the billion-people-plus that are consuming music online and move them into a model like Spotify, the industry would be considerably bigger than it is today." He's clearly pulling numbers out of a hat when he says that "there's a billion people doing [piracy]," but his point that those people should be catered to with legal services, and not simply discounted, is still valid. He added that despite this debate, Spotify will still not allow artists or labels to determine what's available on which Spotify subscription tiers. He also said that - contrary to certain rumors about Apple putting pressure on the whole music industry to lower streaming subscription prices - Spotify hasn't felt any pressure from labels in that area.
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| Pebble's new Android notifications let you take action from your watch Posted:  The major limitation of many smartwatches is that users still need to have their phones on them despite the impressive tech on their wrists, but the wearables are slowly becoming more independent. Case in point: Pebble smartwatch users with Android phones just gained the ability to take action directly on the watch in response to certain notifications from the phone. For example, if you receive a text message, you can reply with an emoji directly from the Pebble on your wrist. Or, if you get a Square Cash request, you can send money from the watch's tiny screen. Anything you can do, I can do alsoThis functionality arrives in the version 2.3 update of Pebble's Android app. Here's a video of the emoji feature in action. Pebble smartwatches have always been cute, and it's nice to see their feature set jacked up, even though their inferiority complex is showing through. Pebble Community Manager Joseph Kristoffer says "it's Android Wear notification compatibility on Pebble," though he also points out that actual Android Wear watches don't have some of these features. But "if you can do it with Android Wear, you can do it with Pebble," Kristoffer wrote in a blog post. Users with Android 4.0 or higher can join the Pebble beta testing program to get access to the 2.3 app now.
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