Today I did a search on Google Trends for the keyword Cloud Computing and the search volume looks to be heading upwards since year 2007.

From the above graph, it tells us that the term cloud computing emerged sometime late 2007 and from then on more and more people knew about it and began searching for more information about cloud computing.

Cloud computing, the way I understand it is a method which allows computing resources to be shared and utilized over the Internet.

At the moment, whenever the term cloud computing is mentioned, some would think about it being Software as a Service (SaaS) web applications while someone else might think of grid computing.

What exactly is cloud computing all about? photo credit: h.koppdelaney Continue Reading »Cloud computing resources, training and certification

Whenever someone ask me to help format and reinstall their machine, I would request him or her for two items. photo credit: jesus_leon

1. The operating system installer CD and

2. The CD which contains all drivers for the machine.

Problem arises when they tell me that they don’t have the CD containing drivers for the machine.

This doesn’t indicate that their machine cannot be installed to its original state, but rather I need to find, download and update the machine with its latest drivers using the manual way.

The manual way here means having to find out the model of the devices and downloading the latest drivers from the Internet.

After I complete reinstalling the OS for the machine, the first driver that I’ll install is the wifi or the lan ethernet driver. This is so I could get access to the Internet. I usually get this driver by using another computer with Internet access to download, then transfer the installer to the new machine.

Once the machine has Internet access, this is what I’ll do. I’ll install this neat little application - Driver Robot.

Driver Robot basically helps us to automatically find and update our drivers. So instead of spending time trying to locate the right driver for your machine devices, driver robot does it for you, at a COST!

The following is my version of a Driver Robot Review: Continue Reading »How to easily find, download and update latest drivers

Lately we see the emergence of many web based Internet applications built specifically to serve various computing and automation purposes. photo credit: Saginaw Future

In the past, if you need capabilities from an ERP system to automate and streamline your business processes, you’ll need to purchase an ERP system, either as a package solution or built from ground up and implement it on premise / in-house.

If your systems are deployed within your office network, then it’s very important for the systems to be monitored and managed well to ensure business continuity.

The following are some important aspects to look into after deploying in-house systems:

• Network monitoring
• Backup
• Application management
• Server management
• etc…

To manage all those above, it’s crucial to have a good team of IT personnel to ensure that the base IT infrastructure which supports all systems work perfectly.

Sometimes, organizations struggle to manage IT systems especially after a system has been handed over by a 3rd party implementation team.

For example, an organization which is in the machine fabrication industry may not have the right IT staffs to management their ERP system, which is vital to the success of their business.

This scenario has prompted ERP system vendors to develop systems which are hosted and managed by the vendors rather than by the client. Continue Reading »List of Online On Demand SaaS based ERP System

Most organizations that provide services to their clients would breakdown their service charges either by the hour or by the day. photo credit: roland

Because of this, it is important to know exactly what each employee has worked on every single hour of the workday in order to calculate costs and earnings made for a particular project.

The best way for the accounts department to find out exactly what each employee has been working on every day is through TimeSheets – a method for recording the amount of worker’s time spent on each project / job.

With my previous employments, I’ve had several experiences submitting timesheets.

With one organization, we were required to submit a timesheet every month and with another, every 2 weeks.

Personally, I felt that it’s better if we’re require to submit every fortnight so that we won’t have much trouble remembering what we’ve done in within this shorter period.

The best practice for every employee is to record down what he has accomplished by the end of each day. But sometimes, we tend to procrastinate and leave things to the next day and so on.

If you’re like me, you would have difficulty in remembering what you’ve done in the last 30 days.

There are times when you would be working on the same project for 3 months. Your timesheet would be very easy to fill up. But if you’re working on different projects every single day, then it’s really important to log that down at the end of each day.

Some organizations would just provide a timesheet template in Excel format for all staffs to key in and submit by month end. The problem with this is the reconciliation by the accounts personnel becomes a hassle. Imagine having to open up 50 Excel sheets and summing up the total number of hours spent for a particular project. This process itself could take days to complete, depending on the number of employee and projects you have.

If your organization is still managing worker timesheets using Excel, then you might want to consider implementing a web based online TimeSheet Software. Continue Reading »Open source web based online Timesheet Software