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There is a great need for improved translation technology. Companies can expand globally only as fast as they have the resources to support each new country or language. For many companies large and small, the time and money involved in the localization effort can be a prohibiting factor in choosing to expand.

Continuing our series showing how to use Office 365, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Windows Phone 7.5 technologies to put together a streamlined, standardized project management system, today we will look at how to project documentation can be worked on collaboratively.

One of the more interesting talks I saw at SXSW this year was "HTML5 APIs Will Change the Web: And Your Designs," by Jen Simmons. While she covered many interesting aspects of upcoming browser technology, there was an inescapable conclusion that was not talked about. Apps and the app stores that distribute them have an existential threat on the viewable horizon: The growing capabilities of browsers.

For many years, there has been an unwritten rule in business that while the customer may be king your number one objective should be to turn them into a pauper.

It’s Show and Tell time at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco this week as the world’s leading content management vendors gather to showcase their latest offerings at the AIIM conference.

Mobile devices have infiltrated the workplace, giving executives and employees worldwide the chance to capitalize on the ability to consume and relay business intelligence without being handcuffed to their desktops. But with the new freedoms and possibilities going mobile provides also come new challenges.

This week our experts continued contemplating the customer, both internal and external. While the interactions may be different between the two, we were reminded once again that making things clear, making things simple and providing a clear goal or reward are always appreciated.

A few of our writers were also trying to establish exactly how and where social fits in the enterprise, and if all the beer you drink at SxSWi is a justified business expense (hint: no).

Read on.

2012 has been continually claimed as the “year of mobile.” After four (arguably five if you count the 4S) generations of iPhone, three generations of iPad and numerous generations of Android smartphones and tablets, you would think it’s safe to say this is a trend well worth creating a dedicated content and marketing strategy for.

Last week, I wrote about the different types of agencies and consultancies out there and gave a few hints about how to discern between them and what some of their high-level strengths and weaknesses are. I specifically chose to avoid writing about the RFI/RFP process itself as I'm sure it's been covered before by people more qualified than I. This week I promised to help people understand some of the nuances around the actual selection process and how to avoid some of the biggest pitfalls that plague enterprises of all sizes, including startups.

The argument to provide multi-device and multi-channel support for your website is compelling. Three years ago, desktops made up around 90% of the devices we used to connect to the internet. That percentage has now dropped to around 50%, solely due to the number of smartphones and tablets contented to the internet — a trend that it’s fair to assume will continue to grow.
 

Do you want social business and collaboration to be seen and valued as more than a fad? Well, focus on productivity! Blunt as it may sound, a social collaboration site better be more than “what’s for lunch.”

Providing a successful customer experience is hard enough for many organizations, so it’s no wonder creating an equally rewarding and productive experience for employees can seem almost impossible. 

While we have previously noted that many companies look to SharePoint to manage content, it is also clear that many companies are using a mixture of online and on-premise SharePoint environments. While cloud computing is well rooted now, there is still concern about keeping sensitive data in the cloud. The result is that many are now using hybrid SharePoint environments, which require rigorous governance.

“Hackers Elect Futurama’s Bender to the Washington DC School Board” — posted by PCWorld on March 2, 2012.

“STOLEN NASA LAPTOP HAD SPACE STATION CONTROL CODE” — posted by Discovery News on March 1, 2012.

With headlines like this popping up, it seems a good time to ask the question — how does your company protect itself from direct hacking or hacking through stolen property?

Social media has completely transformed the way we shop, relax, look for jobs, pursue our hobbies and reconnect with old friends and acquaintances. Why hasn't this translated to business?

First the backstory

A cloud of confusion fell upon Documentum enthusiasts last month when EMC Information Infrastructure Products President Pat Gelsinger told UK Technology journal v3 that EMC would be focusing its strategy on Cloud and Big Data rather than Social and Mobile.

If social media — rightly, on occasion — gets it in the neck for being somewhat of an echo chamber, lost in a battle for hearts and minds or stuck in the contrived toil of crowning content creation versus content curation King, it is perhaps inevitable that the Higgs Boson of social media is the annual pilgrimage of flannel and black-rimmed specs to Austin, Texas for SXSWi.

There might be no better way to illustrate how important social media is to marketing than the attention that’s been paid to Facebook Pages’ transition to the Timeline format. For better or worse, it’s hard to hear this talked about by professional communicators without getting the sense that the world is being turned upside-down.

Support communities, indeed social media in general, is how a potential customer finds out what an organization is really like.

This is the second in a series designed to show how to use Office 365, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Windows Phone 7.5 technologies to put together a streamlined, standardized project management system.