In
this issue:
Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year from all of us at Media II.
The
Google Viewer – Better Surfing
Google
is known for the wide range of features it offers, such
as cached links that let you "resurrect" dead pages or
see older versions of recently changed ones. It offers
excellent spell checking, easy access to dictionary definitions,
integration of stock quotes, street maps, telephone numbers
and more. See Google's help page for an entire rundown
on some of these features. The Google Toolbar has also
won a popular following for the easy access it provides
to Google and its features directly from the Internet
Explorer browser.
Google
Labs has just released the Google Viewer and has asked
folks to kick its tires and report back. The viewer displays
the pages found as a result of your Google search as a
continuous scrolling slide show. You can view your search
results without using your keyboard or mouse and you can
adjust the speed with which the images move across your
screen. Each image of a page's contents is accompanied
by a short "snippet" describing that page.
Check
out the Google Viewer:
http://labs.google.com/gviewer.html
Thanks
to Jim Pinto for this timely information.
Give
Employees Self-Service HR
If
your company is large enough to have a Human Resources
(HR) department, then it's probably large enough to have
frustrated HR workers spending much of their time inefficiently
as "information getters". The solution? Empower your employees,
and let your HR staff focus on adding value to your organization
by implementing a Web-based, self-service HR system.
This
is one IT project that is truly a win-win-win initiative.
Your HR staff wins because they get to spend less time
responding to simple information requests and more time
on high-value activities for your company (such as identifying
the training needs of your employees to maintain your
competitiveness and negotiating with providers to supply
that training). Your employees win because they can get
answers to simple queries (e.g. how many exemptions have
I claimed on my W-4? How much vacation time do I have
left this year?) in a matter of seconds instead of waiting
hours or even days. And your company wins because everyone
is spending their time more efficiently, because a self-service
lookup is much less expensive than a human reply, and
because the enforced data integrity of the system helps
prevent costly errors (such as commission checks that
are too large, too small, or just late).
Web-based
HR systems also dramatically reduce paperwork; pay stubs
can be viewed online instead of being printed and distributed,
and many paper forms can be replaced by online forms (with
input directly into your database rather than having an
HR employee try to decipher a hurried employee's handwriting
and manually re-enter the data). Overall, companies who
have moved from paper-based to online HR systems have
reported savings of 20% to 50% on their HR services costs,
according to IndustryWeek magazine.
These
systems also streamline the recruiting/hiring/review process
for managers, and help keep employees aware of internal
job postings. A final benefit is that for those companies
who are considering offering customer- or supplier-facing
Web applications, a Web-based HR portal lets them try
out self-service on their own employees – and learn
from the experience - before opening up their company
data to the outside world.
Need
help in setting up a Web-based HR system? Let us know.
Survey
Says…
In
our last issue we asked you to participate in a poll regarding
pop-up ads. Here’s the response:
- Pop-up
windows are informative and helpful, 0%
- Pop-up windows are annoying, 73%
- Designers
of pop-up windows should be flogged, 27%
We
had other comments too:
- Designers
of pop-up windows should be flogged on public square.
- I
won’t buy from a company that uses pop-up windows.
- They ought to be outlawed, especially the multiple pop-ups.
- I
really don’t mind banner ads, or email ads that
much, but those pop-up ads in a business setting really
can cause some heartburn.
Quote
of the Month
You
can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on
it for long.
–
Boris Yeltsin
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