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Boring home video of Cousin Dan’s trip to the Grand Canyon….tedious shots of Susie’s first piano recital….shaky footage of a poorly lit 1970s Christmas….We’ve all suffered through terrible home movies.

To help families avoid common pitfalls and take better home movies, iMemories has prepared its list of “12 Tips for Home Movie Success”:

1. Invest in a good digital video camera and use digital tape. The new camcorders on the market are excellent and extremely affordable, often starting at $200. Buy a high definition video camera for the best quality, but be sure to use digital tape, not the hard drive. The reason is that if you’re taking video on vacation, your hard drive will fill up and you won’t have an easy way to offload the video.

2. Avoid zoom controls at all costs. Zooming in and out while shooting is extremely distracting to viewers. If you must zoom – first put the camcorder on pause, zoom in, turn the camcorder on, and turn it off again when you switch to another scene.

3. Panning should be done in sloooow motion. New videographers are tempted to pan because they now have a 360-degree view of the room, rather than a limited still picture format. But they tend to pan much too quickly. If you must pan – go at a pace 10x slower than you think normal.

4. Eliminate ‘shaky camera syndrome’ – treat your body like a tripod, and use two hands to keep the camcorder steady. Otherwise, your home movies will look as if you shot them during an earthquake.

5. Pay attention to lighting. Camcorders have a notoriously difficult time in poor lighting, so if you’re taking a shot of the kids opening their Christmas presents in the early morning, turn on more lights. A common error is to shoot the Christmas tree against the living room window, without realizing until it’s too late that the incoming light puts all subjects in silhouette.

6. Keep track of the audio track.

You’ll have good audio if you’re never more than 2-3 feet away from your subject. Help yourself out – don’t talk while you’re shooting, as your voice will be much too loud for the microphone on the video camera, and get in closer to Grandma Mildred so you capture her voice perfectly.

7. Create a story. Set up what’s called an “establishing shot” before you launch into the main activity. Show the family members arriving and coming up the walkway for a special occasion. Shoot your main footage, then end with a powerful “coda,” such as the guests leaving or the kids sleeping peacefully in their beds after a long day.

8. Catch people in action. The beauty of video is that it adds two things that still pictures cannot: motion and sound. The best home videos show family members engaged in self-absorbing activity. Save the artificial posing for the still camera.

9. Realize there can be too much of a good thing. Don’t focus on any one activity or subject for more than 10 minutes. All you need of the kids opening presents is 30-60 seconds at most – viewing that simple short clip later will resurrect in your mind the entire morning. Capture the essence of the experience by filming in short bursts, rather than the fixed, unedited C-SPAN tripod approach.

10. Remember the rule of “thirds.” In Hollywood, cinematographers speak of “thirds,” their method of dividing a screen into three vertical columns. Rather than putting your subject dead center in your viewing screen every shot, mix it up. Have the subject in one of the left or right thirds. This adds character and variety to your shots.

11. Watch your home movies right away. People often shoot video for several years without ever viewing it, thus replicating the same mistakes. If you watch your footage immediately, you can catch and correct your bad habits.

12. Don’t forget to share what you’ve shot. With the power of digital media in the form of DVDs and online video, now everyone can enjoy the footage, whether it’s Uncle Bob in Boston or Aunt Cathy in California. So make it memorable.

“While consumers have mastered the art of digital still photography, motion pictures and sound still represent a new concept to many,” syas Mark Rukavina, founder & CEO of iMemories. “With just a few changes, however, novice videographers can create a mini production that everyone will enjoy. And with the power of DVD and online video sharing, it’s no longer relegated to viewing just on the family TV. Family members and friends anywhere can view it. With that level of exposure, now there’s even more pressure to make it interesting!”

About iMemories

iMemories is a leader in the dynamic Web 2.0-generation of Internet services. The company transforms old-media memories into crystal-clear digital files that consumers can enjoy and share—whenever and wherever they like.

In iMemories’ 8,500-square foot fiber-optic studio, production professionals use state-of-the-art technology and techniques to convert old home-movie films, videotapes, photographs and slides into organized archives and full-length digital productions. Memories that were deteriorating in the dark are preserved forever on optical disc—and easy to edit, organize, store and share worldwide through iMemories’ private, secure user experience.

In a market crowded with audiovisual houses and small firms offering basic video-transfer services, iMemories’ technology and expertise enable it to deliver a premium product efficiently and affordably. Founded and led by new-media entrepreneur Mark Rukavina, iMemories is privately held and based in Scottsdale, Ariz. To learn more, visit imemories.com or call 480-767-2510.

©1998-2006 iMemories. iMemories name and iMemories mark are trademarks of iMemories, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

One of the hottest trends in social media today is online home videos, which often involve an extra step up front to first transform the older physical media (reels and tapes) to digital format before posting and sharing online. In order to understand both the scope and future directions of this trend, it is helpful to define the term “social media.”

As explained on www.wikipedia.com, social media are the online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many forms, including text, images, audio and video. Examples include blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs (video logs).

As testament to the popularity of social media, Time magazine designated “You” in their Dec. 25th, 2006 issue as their Person of the Year, noting that “the new Web is a very different thing. It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it’s really a revolution.” The Internet has become a tool that facilitates the contributions of millions of individuals in a way never before seen.

Several Elements Converging

How did this occur? Several technological, economic and cultural developments have converged to create this phenomenon. First, there was the availability of inexpensive broadband capability to individual homes, a veritable “last mile” of Internet highway to facilitate digital video with the appropriate fidelity and resolution. Instead of 15 frames per second, the new cost-effective broadband now permits the broadcast television standard, 30 frames per second.

Second, computers continue to become faster and cheaper, with high performance processors that facilitate online video. Older computers in contrast struggled to keep up.

And third, the audience has increased both in their Internet savviness and age range, with users now including anyone from pre-teens to seniors.

Popularity with Teenagers

Journalists are divided on their opinions regarding the worth of such social media, but they do agree that it enables mass consumers to claim their 15 minutes of fame. As Gary Nelson of the Arizona Republic described it, YouTube, for example, is one of the sites “devoted to the postmodern world’s insatiable narcissism. MySpace.com is an online temple of self-adulation, a bottomless well of hopelessly average people desperately seeking attention, deluding themselves into the idea that having a Web profile somehow equates to genuine accomplishment.” [Arizona Republic, Dec, 2006]. As the Time article pointed out, “Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom.”

Statistically, the majority of users of mass social sites are younger and often seeking their 15 minutes of fame. They represent the so-called Generations X, Y, and the Millenniums. A Parks Associates study on the digital media activities of Internet users ages 13 and over, for example, shows that approximately 1 in 3 (33%) play online video games and watch online videos (31%), while 1 in 4 (25%) use a social networking website and upload digital photos to websites (23%). [“Digital Media Habits,” Parks Associates, Q3/2006].

Lack of Filters Levels the Playing Field

For the first time, the lack of “editorial” filters has leveled the playing ground so that anyone who has a digital camera or cell phone camera and access to the Internet can participate. PR guru Richard Edelman noted in his blog on Dec. 8, 2006 (http://edelman.com/speak_up/blog/ ) that the older, more traditional form of media was the “top down model of communications, where the news agenda was determined by elite media (the TV network news, the top newspapers, newsmagazines, and business magazines). It [was] a one way flow of information, from the top of the pyramid of influence down to the mass audience….” Today, however, anyone can be the first to “break” the news, and on a global scale. Connecting with others and generating content on one’s own have clearly become easier.

Older, Mature Users Have Different Needs

It is tempting to categorize all social media video into the same niche as well-known sites such as YouTube, Grouper, or Jumpcut. But there are very clear and distinct differentiators between the users of these sites and those who seek private sharing of home videos online. In contrast to the YouTube audience, which is made up of teens and twenty-somethings, there is another group of older yet still Internet-savvy users who are motivated by completely different goals.

These Baby Boomers seek a digital environment in which they can share old home movies with a secure, private, and most important, self-filtered network of family and friends. They want to convert and post longer-form videos that were originally captured in older “physical” media such as 8mm and16mm films and VHS tapes.

The subject matter of these old reels and tapes, particularly the films from the 1930s – 1970s (videotape became popular in the 1980s), is most often of sentimental moments: a birthday, an anniversary, a family gathering, or a special trip. During those years, the cost of film materials was prohibitive, thus videographers had to choose very carefully which moments to film. Their motivation was primarily to record for posterity, as opposed to pure narcissism. Similarly, when it comes to digitally mastering and posting these older home movies online, videographers want to share them privately with family and friends as a testament to the enduring family legacy.

iMemories Customers Are Microcosm of this New Market

The feedback from iMemories’ customers reflects this focus on sentiment and posterity. Many customers found themselves with old reels of 8mm or 16mm film taken by their parents in the 1930s and 40s, and no projector on which to view the footage in the 21st century. Many of the old reels weren’t even labeled, so customers had no clue as to what treasures might reside within the frames.

Stumped by the problem of getting the movies into a format that could be viewed easily by family members spread across the country, they put off the task and filed the reels away in boxes in basements, attics, closets and garages. It would often take a precipitating event, such as a reunion, relocation, or illness in the family, to spur them to look further for a solution like iMemories. Suddenly, it became important to find a way to digitally master their old physical media into a form that would halt further degradation as well as promote widespread sharing.

Mark D., for example, became the administrator for a relative’s estate, and discovered many reels of 60-year-old home movies that he never knew existed. He came to iMemories to have the reels transferred to DVD so that he could both share and preserve family history that he thought had been lost forever. “My children and I were excited to view family gatherings and the good times that our relatives experienced before we were even born.”

For Marge R., the illness of her father was a wakeup call to find a solution. She happened to attend an event near the iMemories headquarters, and found her solution that way. Her goal was to convert old family movies into a format that her entire family could watch. She had initial fears that the old 8mm film might have been damaged to the extent that a final transfer wasn’t possible, but with sophisticated equipment and specialized software, the miracle of digital is undeniable. And unlike the videos posted on popular sites like YouTube, the home movies converted to digital format are meant to last another 100-200 years.

Jay M., another customer, had several old 16mm film of high school sports from the 1970s in his possession. Jay was motivated to get the conversion completed in time for a reunion of his high school buddies, and used iMemories’ services. “The last time I had viewed the footage was in 1971,” says Jay. “I found it fun to view it again in 2006. Back in the 70s, we had prided ourselves on being so athletic. Looking back now, however, sometimes we looked like pro’s and sometimes we looked like a Pop Warner team.”

It is the passing of time that motivates home movie users, who appreciate the value of these extraordinary moments more as they grow older. They want to capture the images and preserve them in a format that halts further degradation. And they want to ensure that future generations within their family as well have access to these memories as part of their heritage. The sense of their own mortality is heightened by the existence of older home movies with images of older relatives, many of whom are now long gone.

The next generation or iteration of online video is consequently expanding from a preoccupation with the comparatively frivolous and transient content of younger users to encompass the more enduring content of the older users. In other words, as older users become more comfortable with the Internet model and take the reins of online videos from their younger counterparts, the scope and dignity of the Web content are being re-asserted. While perhaps a less-flashy version of the popular social sites, online home videos nonetheless promise to bring the respectability and wisdom that are too often lacking in the younger generations’ rush to their 15 minutes of fame.

Future Trends in Online Home Video

Given how rapidly home movie editing and sharing online has exploded in growth in 2006 within the larger context of social media, what more can we expect technologically, economically, and culturally in the next few years?

We know that consumer electronics typically draft behind the entertainment business, as movie studios go digital and companies build rich experiences for the home theaters, the distribution channels become more ubiquitous. Families can view videos anywhere now. And with new developments such as Apple’s iPhone, multiple technological devices are consolidating into one portable device. Pretty soon, every home will be down to just a few simple devices: a handheld for every individual family member for its portability; a high definition TV/DVD player for its clarity, and a PC or Mac for its powerful processing. Next generation gaming devices will also continue to contribute to the market for high end audio and visual quality.

The comfort level with using video to record a moment has increased dramatically. It is interesting to consider what the outcome would have been had the JFK assassination occurred in this age of consumer-generated content, rather than in 1963. It has taken experts years to piece together from different photos and film taken what actually happened in Dallas, Texas. In the technological transition from physical film to digital cameras in the 90s however, there has been a corresponding social effect on picture-taking. Today, there is almost nothing that occurs in the world that isn’t caught on camera from every angle, and subsequently uploaded to the Internet and shared.

Technology has also created an environment where people regardless of their generation connect more frequently with each other, and in a multitude of ways that are all designed to be instantaneous and cost-effective – instant messaging, text, e-mail, cell phone. The addition of video makes the communication that much more powerful – a picture says a thousand words. iMemories will facilitate that trend to an audience who wants it to be fast and easy to connect with others by sharing home movies.

Conclusion

Social media, by which people share their insights, experiences and perspectives with each other over the Internet, has exploded and is represented by the growth of online video sites as YouTube and myspace.com. An important market within this category is home movie archiving and sharing online. While benefiting from the same technological advances that helped companies like YouTube grow, online home movies have a different purpose, and are designed to last for the next 100 years, not the next 15 minutes. Their content is meant to be more enduring. Consumers want their content on DVD as well as on online, so that it is not only preserved, but able to be shared at home on their TVs in the highest fidelity format. Future generations will rejoice that there is so much information documented in digital format for generations to come.

About iMemories

iMemories is a leader in the dynamic Web 2.0-generation of Internet services. The company transforms old-media memories into crystal-clear digital files that consumers can enjoy and share—whenever and wherever they like.

In iMemories’ 8,500-square foot fiber-optic studio, production professionals use state-of-the-art technology and techniques to convert old home-movie films, videotapes, photographs and slides into organized archives and full-length digital productions. Memories that were deteriorating in the dark are preserved forever on optical disc—and easy to edit, organize, store and share worldwide through iMemories’ private, secure online user experience.

In a market crowded with audiovisual houses and small firms offering basic video-transfer services, iMemories’ technology and expertise enable it to deliver a premium product efficiently and affordably. Founded and led by new-media entrepreneur Mark Rukavina, iMemories is privately held and based in Scottsdale, Ariz. To learn more, visit imemories.com or call 480-767-2510.

©1998-2007 iMemories. iMemories name and iMemories mark are trademarks of iMemories, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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We have all heard about job applicants that falsify information on their resumes. There are myriad surveys and statistics that point to the excessive abuse of resume fraud. What about , however, the percentage of applicants that falsify personal identifiers on their job applications? This piece will review the ramifications from a possibly overlooked and increasing trend of job applicants falsifying personal identifiable information on job applications to circumvent the identification of criminal records.

Consider this, a recent survey by Morgan & Banks found that seventeen percent of male and seven percent of female respondents admitted to lying on their resume, and eighty percent of Silicon Valley employees admit to having lied on their resumes. Nevertheless, eighty-two percent of responding job seekers say they think companies are aware of resume padding and believe that companies perform background checks on the following: Resumes, however, are not legal documents. There is not much an employer can do if an applicant embellishes their resume. Moreover, if the employer does not discover the job seeker has lied on their resume, then it is highly likely the job seeker will follow suit on their job application too.

Comparatively, employment applications are legal documents. If it comes out later that an applicant lied on their job application, the employer has the right to terminate the employee. While an employer may expect applicants to embellish their resume a bit and tailor it for specific jobs, employers may not be cognizant that applicants are falsifying personal identifiers such as social security numbers and date of birth.

The implications of a job applicant falsifying their social security number are likely to first appear straightforward to an employer. False or inaccurate social security numbers may impose criminal and civil liability to an employer from a work eligibility and tax reporting perspective. What employers may not realize, however, is that false or inaccurate social security numbers may indirectly subject an employer to risk from a pre-employment screening perspective.

From a pre-employment screening perspective, an incorrect social security number may lead to erroneous results or prohibit the request from processing altogether and obtaining accurate completion. If a pre-employment screening service is prohibited from completion, then the results should be evident to the employer and pre-employment screening company immediately. The employer and pre-employment screening company can simply ask the applicant to verify their social security number against what the applicant previously provided on the employment application. After, the pre-employment screening services can simply be re-run based on the updated social security number from the job applicant. This type of scenario may arise when an employer is performing work history verifications (where the social security number is usually required), education verifications, credit history reports, and similar services requiring a social security number. Additionally, pre-employment screening companies can typically provide a social security verification services. The social security verification service can determine whether the social security number is valid, the state of issuance, and year of issuance. Nevertheless, verifying the social security number does not necessarily indicate whether the social security number belongs to the applicant.

The real paramount issue and the focus of this document’s next section though, is the verification or reasonable identification of the applicant’s date of birth. Why is the date of birth so important? Obtaining the job applicants correct date of birth is imperative because there are State and Federal laws in place regarding when an individual’s Social Security number may or may not be used, stored, or saved by a government agency.

More specifically, government agencies such as State and Federal Courts, Criminal Repositories, and Department of Corrections have made policy decisions for the “non-use” of the Social Security numbers. These policy decisions were made based on best business practices suggestions from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other criminal justice agencies with expertise in criminal history record information systems. Without the ability to match criminal records against social security numbers, pre-employment screening firms are forced to rely on two personal identifiers to search, locate, and confirm whether a job applicant has a criminal past.

The two primary personal identifiers that criminal record research specialists rely on to search, locate, and confirm criminal records belonging to a job applicant are name and date of birth. Understanding the importance of obtaining the correct date of birth is paramount to properly and accurately identifying criminal records. With the two aforementioned pieces of information disclosed, importance of collecting correct socials security number an date of birth, we can now address the primary question posed by this piece.

What if, for example, a job applicant understands how criminal records are searched ahead of applying for a job with an employer? There is no common or credible means of determining whether a job applicant is providing a correct date of birth on a job application. One may think that a driver’s license would be a good source to determine an applicant’s date of birth. The driver’s license, however, obtains the date of birth information directly from an applicant. When obtaining a driver’s license an applicant needs only to provide proof of their social security number, nothing else. The only perfected method of verifying a job applicant’s date of birth, from this author’s opinion, is to obtain a certified copy of a birth certificate. Obtaining a certified copy of a job applicant’s birth certificate, however, is unreasonable, costly, and potentially discriminatory.

Some employers are reluctant to obtain additional documentation relative to the confirmation of a job applicant’s date of birth, and rightfully so. For example, an employer may obtain a job applicant’s driver’s license or government ID before running a background check. Most employers do not want to obtain this information at a pre-hire stage though, because the documents may reveal information that is considered discriminatory against age, sex, or national origin. Therefore, the trend is for employers to obtain documentation at a post-hire stage and after the background check has been performed.

Now consider this, if we know that a majority of job applicants falsify their resumes, then how many applicants falsify their personal identifiable information to potentially alter the outcome of a pre-employment criminal background check too? If there is no positive benefit for a job applicant, without prior criminal history, to falsify their name or date of birth, then logically there is a much higher benefit for a job applicant, with criminal history, to falsify their name and date of birth on a job application. Moreover, if job applicants, without criminal histories, who perceive a benefit in falsifying their resume, occur more often than not, then any correlation to this human behavior would surely apply to a job applicant’s motivation in falsifying their name and date of birth to cover up their criminal history too. Unfortunately, there are no reliable statistics to show the number of job applicants that falsify their name and date of birth in effort to manipulate the outcome of a pre-employment criminal background check. Nevertheless, this author has observed numerous instances where it appears job applicants provide erroneous name and date of birth information on job applications.

Applicants supplying date of birth information on a job application or background release form may not be providing incorrect information intentionally. Job applicants that are accustom to Hispanic, European, and Military date formats will instinctively enter date of birth information as MM/DD/YR, not DD/MM/YR. While this seems trivial, an applicant could easily enter the date of birth information in a different format than what is normally processed by the pre-employment screening firm. Thus, throwing-off a criminal record background check and showing the applicant as having a clean criminal history.

In an effort to combat the abovementioned intentional and unintentional behavior from happening, preventive measures should potentially be considered when performing background checks. As with any new course of action in performing background checks the relevant risks and rewards need to be considered. One such preventive measure is to consider using screening services that can reasonably provide additional personal identifiable information on the applicant. Many pre-employment screening firms and employers, however, tend to veer away from this particular practice.

The pre-employment screening firms and employers are veering from this practice because it is becoming more and more important to protect job applicant’s personal identifiers (socials security number, name, date of birth, address), which are revealed on a job application and final background check report. Employers in particular have noticed a trend in job applicants disfavoring filling out job application forms that require the dissemination of personal identifiable information. With identity fraud and computer hackers on the rise, employers and responsible business entities alike that are requesting the personal identifiable information cannot blame a job applicant for their concerns. Hence, the risk of requesting personal identifiable information from job applicants must be weighed accordingly with the potential reward an employer receives in obtaining a more accurate pre-employment criminal background check.

For the employer willing to take on the additional risk and reward of collecting and utilizing more invasive measures to reasonably obtain verification of name and date of birth, there are processes that can be integrated into the pre-employment background check services.

One such processes is to expand the personal identifiable information that is returned on proprietary background check services to retrieve additional verification of the name and date of birth provided by the job applicant. Another means is to perform additional types of background check services. Additional background check services such as credit reports may return confirmation of name and date of birth information. For companies not wanting to divest a job applicant’s credit history report, however, the first option mentioned here within, expanding the personal identifiers within a specific background check processes, may be a better option. One such service that may have been overlooked by many employers as standard practice, but not used to its full potential is the social security verification service. Most employers are familiar with the social security verification service returning results relative to a job applicant’s name variations (aka Aliases) and address history reports. Recently, changes in the social security verification service have enabled pre-employment screening companies to provide expanded results to this service, which include date of birth information that is associated with the social security number. While the addition of this information may appear trivial, the use of it may be vital to diminishing the risk associated with job applicants providing false date of birth information.

Employers seeking to utilize the additional date of birth information within the social security verification service should review the process with their pre-employment screening firm. Employers should determine if the pre-employment screening firm has access to this additional information. Moreover, the employer should determine if the pre-employment screening firm is utilizing this information prior to running a criminal investigation on a job applicant. Just because the information is obtained does not necessarily mean that the information is being used to its maximum effectiveness.

By incorporating the usage of the date of birth information in the social security verification service employers may find job applicants are falsifying more than simply their work history and resume. Additionally, employers may find that the percentage of job applicants containing criminal histories is higher than what the employer once perceived. Regardless of the outcome, employers need to be aware that new trends in falsifying of job applications may be abound and are potentially beginning to trend higher.

A major issue that is affecting many industries is the lack of affordable childcare options for working parents. Having worked in many different aspects of the automotive industry, most currently the retail automotive aspect I have seen this issue cause conflict in the lives of many of my coworkers and employees. While this may be more prevalent an issue in single parent families, due to the rising cost of living many two parent families are facing the fact that they must choose between making ends meet or working to pay for child care. An example of this is at my current place of employment where a colleague of mine was facing the choice of having his wife work so they had health benefits or having her not work so she could stay home and watch the kids, as they could not afford the cost of day care. I think that there are a number of issues contributing to this problem, all of them are not the fault of the employer, or could be solved by a government agency.

California (where I live and work) is one of the most expensive regions in the country to live. Currently families in California are paying an average of $375 per month out-of-pocket (that is an average of 10 percent of family earnings). Low-income families are affected even more dramatically with an average of 24 percent of their earnings being spent on childcare. Access to childcare programs varies by each family’s ethnicity and socioeconomic status. For example, Latino children are much less likely than white children to attend center-based programs in the year prior to kindergarten. In terms of access based on socioeconomic status, 49 percent of low-income children are enrolled in center-based childcare versus more than 80 percent of upper-middle class children. (Children Now, 2005)

In the case of my coworker, he ended up having to drive his kids over two hours out of the way at a family member’s home as he could not afford to lose his health coverage, or afford the almost $400 per month for day care for each of his two children. It was taking a toll on his professional and personal life. He would often be late to work, he would have a four-hour commute every day having to shuttle his kids to family and friends who could watch them while he and his wife worked. This is living only seven miles from work. This type of extra stress makes for employees that are less productive and dissatisfied with their work environment as they are torn between providing for the family, and being able to function.  Some companies have taken notice of the affects on employees that are able to feel comfortable about their children security. “Alcott recognizes that its employees spend more time at work in a given week than they do at home. When employees cannot accomplish life’s tasks because of their jobs, they become resentful and unmotivated” (Kitchen, 2008).

I contrast the current company I work for to another company that I had worked with in the past. They were a major retail outlet and had about the same number of employees as my current employer. They decided that the most effective way to attract and retain the best employees was by offering a childcare center on site. It served two proposes one it gave employees with young children a zero cost (to employee) place to have their kids taken care of, but it also would allow shoppers to drop their kids off while the shopped. The center was staffed by three people, and was outfitted with a mini movie theater, education center, and nap room. While the average employee was only making minimum wage the onsite childcare allowed them to keep more experienced employees, and created a true family environment. The cost of the center was minimal when compared to the cost associated with having higher turnover from employees leaving to seek new positions.  Among parent employees in California, 31% report they have considered leaving their employers due to childcare issues. 85% percent of these employees report that a work-site center would affect their decision to stay, with more than 50% reporting it would have a significant impact. While 45% of parents miss, at least one day of work every six months and 65% of parents are late to work or are forced to leave work early due to childcare breakdowns. (City of Santa Barbara, 2002)

Major corporations like Intel have realized that the cost of having employees not performing at their peak is more costly than onsite childcare centers. “Childcare issues can cost millions of dollars each year in lost productivity and turnover when parents are disrupted at work because their childcare is unreliable or poor quality. Intel found through employee surveys that working parents are in need of childcare help, and traditional childcare solutions do not adequately address the needs of many employees. Intel has had a pretax childcare benefit and relationships with national childcare providers for some years, but is taking greater steps to provide more support for parents and guardian. To best address the unique childcare needs of our employees, Intel takes a site-based approach to childcare. For example, in Israel, Intel has partnered with the community to support childcare centers located near Intel facilities providing services that match the needs of our employees. In Ireland, Intel has implemented an on-site resource and referral service to help employees locate childcare. In Malaysia, Intel offers an on-site preschool (Intel , 2008).”

Many of these types of programs are considered perks by many, and are provided by what many would consider white-collar companies. However, some have put forth the idea that in today’s much more demanding world where people are working more hours than ever, it should be a basic benefit provided by most employers. Many European countries such as Sweden have very liberal policies supporting family and childcare. In Sweden, childcare is considered a necessity for the economic and social survival of the country, with a national regulatory agency overseeing the neighborhood childcare centers. The government even pays parents up to 80 per cent of their yearly salary for up to a year after the birth of the child, so that the parent may take the time off to bond with their child. The Swedish government has even made vacation pay mandatory “based on the concept that family recreation is very important” (Polk, 1997). It is not just Sweden, many other nations that have started to look at the affect a good work/life balance has on its citizens. Countries including, France, Holland, the Dominican Republic, Canada,  and even Cuba have all received high marks for their level of childcare services from the International Child Resource Instituted (Polk, 1997).

But while many may believe that Universal Childcare should be offered by the United States (U.S.) government, for every successful program around the world, there are stunning failures. Canada’s program has been described as “woefully inadequate” and “an insult to working class mothers” according to a spokes person for a Vancouver based grassroots women’s movement.  This was in response to the Canadian government’s budget announcement that would in effect would offer $100 a month for stay at home moms and women with children in a recognized childcare facility (Rosen, 2006). The state of Hawaii recently was forced to end its Universal Child Health Care system after only seven months. The program was started with the same ideal of providing a service to low income and immigrant families, however, once the program became available, families started to drop private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan. While health care and childcare are slightly different, the same mentality would cause the same strain on a childcare system. While advocates for the program believe it should be spared at all costs, the cost is the very issue that caused the program to shut down, and until the state government can find a way out of its $900 million budget shortfall all social programs will be put on hold ( Associated Press, 2008).

Currently the U.S. department of labor does not require a company to provide for childcare, however in 1990 after considering over 100 bills with child-care components, the 101st Congress enacted laws intended to make child care more affordable. The focus of this legislation was targeted at low-income or single parent families.  However, this only provides temporary childcare assistance during periods of unemployment. Once the subject is employed, this benefit is no longer offered and the strain and stress of balancing childcare and work is once again an onus placed upon the shoulders of our struggling citizens. (Cattan, 1991)

There must be a solution that does not burden the taxpaying citizens, does not unfairly burden employers, and has built in protections to prevent abuse, all while not creating a monstrous bureaucracy. It is a tall order to attempt to please all sides, the parent, the taxpayers, the business owners, and the politicians. However, I believe with the amount of taxes being collected people would like to see their taxes going to better lives of U.S. citizens, instead of being poured into rebuilding foreign governments. In the U.S. we are working more hours per-year than ever before, in a sampling from my local region of California the average worker working more than 55 hours per-week rose by over 87% in less than two years. There was not a significant increase in the population sample to justify such a spike (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). At my store the average sales person works over 2,400 hours per-year, and some work even more. With statistics like this, it is amazing that the people are not clamoring for a solution from our legislators.

There have been many solutions from creating a government agency and requiring pre-school to increasing tax refunds for parents. “One solution could be as simple as simplifying the process of getting already available benefits such as food stamps, low cost childcare, health care, and transportation so that the pore are both aware of and able to get the help they need” (Lauer, 2008).

The solution I would propose would involve a tax benefit from the federal government for corporations that offer childcare options for employees. Requiring companies to meet specific standards such as the number of employees to qualify and hiring licensed childcare providers for either on or off site childcare. This would allow for a rapid growth, as both the employer and employee would have an instant benefit.  However, for companies not able to put in place their own childcare system that would meet national standard; a system could be put in place to create a privet or government company that would offer childcare in the same way health insurance is offered. It would need some form of government subsidization with an employee and employer matching contribution. The main issue would be to make sure it was actionable and had some form of local control, as the needs of urban area workers would vary vastly from the needs of more rural workers. Centers would need to be put into the areas that are most accessible to the communities that need them. The quickest and most effective way to bring this form of childcare into reality would be to attach it to an existing agency that could administer it, perhaps the Department of Labor. A four-year review of JPMorgan Chase’s back-up care program showed that 98% of parents who use the program would have taken unscheduled time off from work to care for their children had the back-up program not been available. In just one year, the back-up program generated more than a 100% return on investment (City of Santa Barbara, 2002). Adding a government tax benefit to companies would prompt more companies to perhaps follow the example of that offering childcare solutions to employees will in the long run save money, and increase productive.

Works Cited

Associated Press. (2008, October 17). FoxNews.com. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from FoxNews.com: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,439607,00.html

Cattan, P. (1991, October). Child-care problems: an obstacle to work. Monthly Labor Review Vol. 114, No. 10 .

Children Now. (2005). Child Care in California. Oakland: Children Now.

City of Santa Barbara. (2002). Child Care Impact on the Work Place. Santa Barbara: City of Santa Barbara.

Intel . (2008, November 13). Intel Work Life. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from Intel.com: http://www.intel.com/jobs/workplace/worklife/childcare.htm

Kitchen, P. (2008, November 10). Workplace Flexibility . McClatchy -Tribune Business News .

Lauer, R. &. (2008). Social problems and the quality of life 11th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Polk, D. (1997). Check out the (International) Neighbors. Children’s Advocate , 4-6.

Rosen, R. (2006). “Universal” Child Care Benefit is an Insult to Millions of Women in Canada. Grassroots Women Newsletter .

U.S. Census Bureau. (2001). Hours Worked per Week by Residence, Riverside CA. Washington D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau.

Variable, Full Color, Digital Printing

To develop a successful dental marketing approach in this modern, hyperactive consumer market, it is imperative for general dental and specialty offices to move beyond a generic current occupant presentation. Even the personalized “address label” and/or black and white personalization of letter mailings to current dental patients has its limitations. Variable digital full color printing has significant potential to achieve the internal and external communication goals of many dental practice types including cosmetic, family, and orthodontic.

Dental and orthodontic practices not in a healthy growth mode or that have seen shrinkage in recent months or years require more advanced marketing methods. These practices are not going to be able to compete successfully for the consumer’s attention and dollar without adding to their marketing repertoire.

Overcoming the economic, insurance or consumer issues like denial, procrastination, and oral ignorance requires a higher level of interaction, intensity, and creativity. Variable digital printing puts increased emphasis on the recipient. By putting the recipient “in the concept” rather than as an “adjunct” to the concept, has a stunning effect compared to traditional direct mail.

CONSUMER EFFECT

The personalization inherent in variable printing creates a very unique connection with the consumer recipient – current or prospective dental/orthodontic patient:

• It completely envelopes the dental consumer’s experience

• They are an integral part of the communication not just an afterthought

• It has a connective emotional impact not just a visual impact

• Their name “inside the design” reflects the communicative effect back to them

– The effect is, therefore, much more about them than about you (the dentist or orthodontist)

PERSONALIZATION DIAGRAMMED

View Diagram of concept

COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS

While initial cost should be considered when choosing a marketing concept, it is really potential results being purchased. If the lower priced product is ineffective, the initial cost becomes irrelevant. Paying 100 percent more for something that actually works benefits the purchaser much more.

As discussed and presented above, variable printing provides the ability to place text throughout the dentistry and orthodontic marketing piece. This unique printing technology and its personalization capability requires a complex and individualized process. Offset printing (thousands of versions of the same exact piece) is cheaper for this reason. While variable printing costs more, it offers much more.

Offset printing offers you savings today – Variable printing offers you more patients tomorrow. Gaining and holding the attention of the 21st century dental consumer requires the use of the best communication repertoire available. Variable printing offers the dentist and the orthodontist the level of intensity needed to overpower the current marketing din.

To avoid the pitfalls of dental marketing mediocrity, put cost in its place. More importantly, don’t give this benefit away to your dental or orthodontic competitors.

RESULTS DETAILED

Response rates are dramatically improved with the personalization of variable digital printing. Dental and orthodontic postcards become signature pieces rather than stacks of printed paper. Offset printing – thousands of printed pieces without personalization – cannot achieve this level of response because of its generic and detached connection with the recipient.

Traditional response rates for Black and White, offset printing, and current occupant mailings are .03% to 1% across most industries. Below are the improvement levels seen once more data, full color and personalization are implemented.

• 44% Response Improvement by adding recipient’s name to the printed page (not current occupant)*

• 135% Response Improvement by adding full color to a printed piece*

• 500% Response Improvement by adding recipient’s name, color, and customizing content to interests of recipient*

*Variable Digital Printing – Industry Results

OFFSET COMPARISON

Offset printing often has a cheaper cost of entry. This elixir of cheaper initial cost is very powerful. Yet, a successful response (and more patients) is what dentists and orthodontists demand. Variable printing of orthodontic or dental postcards requires more initial investment, but if the value of a better response is entered into the equation, cost of entry becomes irrelevant.

For example:

Dental Practice #1: 10,000 postcards for $6,000 is fairly common for offset printing**

Dental Practice #2: 10,000 postcards for $8,000 is fairly common for variable printing**

** These averages include all fees: postage, mailing, full color both sides printing, design, and lead list

A somewhat positive response rate of 0.75% with offset printing/mailing of 10,000 postcards would produce 75 calls. (This response rate takes into account an offset printer/marketer including full color and placing the recipient’s name in the addressing).

In contrast, the variable printing personalization capability creates the potential for 125 to 150 calls. While this level of increased response is an estimate, variable printing only has to increase actual patient numbers by a few more to pay back the initial cost benefit offset printed dental and orthodontic postcards provide. Just a few additional patients would add 7-25 thousand dollars in future income

However, there is another major caveat in this offset printing and variable printing comparison. What if the local dental or orthodontic competition is already doing an offset printed direct mailing? Competition will drive down response rates – variable printing offers the dentist or orthodontist an obvious advantage in this competitive environment.

CONCLUSION

Dental or orthodontic direct mail marketing is always evolving. Orthodontists and dentists need to continue to innovate, not only to stay ahead of their local competition, but also to effectively engage the consumer in this hyper active environment. Most consumers are not aware of the value in modern dentistry and orthodontics.

Breaking through the marketing clutter requires more than what was done yesterday. Variable digital printing will not solve every dental marketing dilemma, but it provides the leg up many orthodontia and family/cosmetic dentistry practices can use to get to the next level.

Sincerely, Dick Chwalek – Niche Dental

Apple vs. Amazon: an e-gadget death match
Black letters on white paper-like backgrounds will always play a major role in our culture, writes Froma Harrop, talking about the looming Amazon Kindle vs. Apple iPad battle of e-readers.

Read more on Seattle Times

Jerald terHorst, Ford’s former press secretary, dies at 87
Associated Press WASHINGTON — Jerald terHorst, who resigned as White House press secretary rather than defend President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, is dead at age 87.

Read more on New Haven Register

 

INTRODUCTION

Would you rather buy a product from a company with a reputation for having a great Support organization or a great Sales organization?

Join the crowd if you answered Support; survey after survey shows that it is one of the strongest factors influencing sales, and every company has strong self-interest in doing it right.

It’s no secret that software is a necessary component of an efficiently run Support organization. There are dozens of different solutions out there; taking the time to choose one that gives you the flexibility you need and the power to automate business processes will not only save you time and money, but allow you to shift your focus to improving your quality of service.

So why is Support so often perceived as broken?

The answer is that effectively managing a Support organization for even a simple product is difficult, and managing support for a complex product or service is as tough as it gets. This paper discusses the challenges involved in managing a sophisticated support organization and the key strategies for dealing with those challenges.

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1. BE ADAPTABLE

If you are going to win games, you had better be ready to adapt.
– Scotty Bowman, Winningest coach in NHL history

If history has proven anything, it’s that winners are adapters. Evolution itself is rooted in this idea, and companies, like creatures in nature, must adapt to thrive. There are countless success stories of companies bucking expectations and making real profit from adaptation.

The Solution

Over time, your business will grow or shrink, shift focus, adapt new technologies, meet new challenges, and discover new opportunities to reduce costs and improve performance through automation. A system that adapts as you do will save your organization money, time, and a good deal of frustration.

Life would be easier if you knew what changes were coming nine months in advance, but new challenges can surface almost overnight, so you need a system that will adapt quickly, under your control, and at a reasonable cost. The following paragraphs explore this issue in more depth, with an emphasis on support systems.

Configurability

The ideal product starts as a good fit, adapts to your requirements, and gives you freedom to automate new business processes as needed. It doesn’t force you to change your business processes to live inside hard-coded functions.

Probe the limitations of each potential software solution. Good questions to ask include: Can you define custom fields, tables and table relationships? Can you create custom business rules, workflows, charts and reports? Can you define custom access permissions or are you limited to a set of pre-defined roles? Do custom tables and workflows behave like the native ones? Does the product provide an API for customization and integration with other systems? It’s impossible to predict future requirements, but adaptable software will handle the changes as they come.

Adaptation Time

After choosing an appropriately configurable solution, determine the ease of modification. If it takes assistance from dedicated IT staff to modify the product or you need to depend on the “common sense” of programmers to make your desired changes, you may end up waiting for a long time and paying a lot of money for a disappointing result.

The easiest way to find out how long it takes to adapt software to meet your challenges is by observing it firsthand during the demo – keep some of your requirements in reserve so that you can tell the vendor about them during the demo itself. Ask that they be implemented while you watch and then request access to the resulting system so that you can test the result. A good question to ask is “Could I or my staff have made such changes, or will we be dependent on expensive consultants?”
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2. MAKE IT PERSONAL

People want to feel that suppliers give care and attention to their individual needs. So high-worth individuals are assigned “personal bankers”, doctors at HMO’s are taught “bedside-manner” and marketers at Apple strive to make the entire company seem “personal”. This section describes how you can provide personal service without raising costs.

The Basics

Find out the customer’s name during the first 10 seconds of a call, then use it immediately and thereafter. This technique is obvious and basic, but highly effective. For example a call might start: “Hi, what is your name…”, “John, how can I help you?”

Take responsibility and follow up. Customers care that you care and are much happier if they get a follow up – even if it is just to say “John, I am sorry, but I followed up with Kathy and we just cannot do what you want.” You can automate this by setting a flag such as “Follow-Up Required” that automatically reminds your staff to follow up with the customer and escalates the issue if they fail to do so.

Listen with an open mind. Ask open-ended questions and get the facts before offering a solution. In many cases, the customer needs to vent a bit before they will even be willing to listen to a solution, especially if the problem is their fault.

Remember What You’re Told

Your customer may communicate with multiple individuals from multiple departments through voice, email, chat or online forms. Whatever the format, the information they convey should be captured and available during the next interaction so that they do not have to repeat themselves.

You can achieve this through web-forms tailored for each interaction type, integrated with email and online chat, by capturing these interactions in a central database, with access controlled through precise security permissions.

Acknowledge Immediately

By configuring your system to generate an immediate response to incoming emails, together with a tracking number that can be used in future communications, you are letting the customer know “I hear you”. It costs nothing and improves the efficiency of future communications.

Satisfy SLAs

The only way to ensure that your company keeps its Service Level Agreement promises is by automating the process. The software infrastructure needs to monitor activity, notify the appropriate individuals to ensure that SLA requirements are met and escalate issues before you are out of compliance. Automatically ensuring that promises are kept not only burnishes your reputation, it saves you time and money.
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3. MEASURE THE RIGHT THINGS

“There are lies, damn lies, and statistics”
– Benjamin Disraeli

Statistics that reflect the wrong metrics can drive the very worst decisions. The peril is illustrated by the following real-life example.

Joe was consistently closing 15 issues per day while Mary only managed 7. Who should get promoted?

Happily, Mary got promoted and Joe got fired. Although he was closing over twice as many tickets, he was not actually solving the customer problems and over 80% of them had to submit a new request. This came to light when the helpdesk manager put in place a CRM system that tracked customer satisfaction for each support representative.

Incidentally, it was later estimated that Joe had cost the company $250,000 in lost customers.
It is not enough to measure; you must measure the right things.
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4. HIRE THE RIGHT EMPLOYEES

By far, the most effective way to be a great manager is to hire great employees. Of course, the problem is finding the few great candidates in a sea of resumes, so that is what this section is all about: a process for finding employees that is more effective and takes less time than the traditional process. But first, let’s clear up a couple of myths.

Myth 1: Interviews are effective.

The exact number depends on the interviewer, but researchers have found that typical interview accuracy rates are only 30% better than random selection. Further, there is almost no correlation between how good someone thinks they are at interviewing and how effective they are. If you have never hired a dud employee, congratulations! If you have, read on.

Myth 2: Talking to references and evaluating past experience can ensure you make the right decision.

Not only are many employers too afraid of lawsuits to give bad references, some will even give excellent references to help rid themselves of problem employees. In general the only thing harder than finding a good employee is finding a bad reference.

Prior experience is an excellent indicator of how much money employees will want, but a poor indicator of how well they will actually perform.

Of course, interviews, reference and background checks are an essential part of the hiring process, but they should not be the sole criteria. Here is a more efficient process:

• Create custom web forms for each job opening and set up business rules to prioritize and/or auto-reject candidates based upon information provided in the form. For example, you can ask them to take a quick online test and include the result in their application. Appropriate rules can eliminate 70-90% of the candidates without any effort on your part.

• Conduct a ten minute telephone interview with the remaining candidates and ask them to take an online aptitude test for that specific position. Only consider candidates who score in the top 10-20%, depending on the position.

• By this point, you will have eliminated about 95% of the applicants and can afford to schedule in-person interviews for the remainder with each member of the team.

• Only hire candidates who achieve unanimous buy-in from team members. Immediately make a job offer, contingent upon reference, credit and criminal background checks. Do not keep them waiting or another employer may step in.

A disciplined, automated hiring process can not only free up your time and ensure you find the best possible candidate, it is objective and can be audited to demonstrate an absence of bias.
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5. BE PROACTIVE

To provide proactive support you need to recognize and resolve issues before they become problems. This section describes how you can obtain early warning signs of pending issues and either resolve them in advance or reduce the severity from a disaster to a minor blip.

Answer Before Asked

Once a question has been asked and answered by one customer, why not make it available to all the others?

Provide an FAQ at your website so that customers can get answers to common questions 24/7 without even asking your staff. The FAQ should be tightly integrated with the ticketing system so that you can publish the best answer to a new question with just a mouse click.

Plan for the Unexpected

Even with redundant power supplies, RAID hard drives, and ECC memory, any given server will eventually fail.

If you are hosting your support system, deploy hotswap redundant servers so that service is automatically transferred to the other server. If you are using a SaaS service, check that their SLA guarantees 99.5+% uptime, backed by a money back warranty. An SLA that just provides a pro-rata refund is worthless.

No matter how carefully you test, your own product and infrastructure will have problems.

Set up automatic monitoring and notify your customers of critical problems in other areas of your product infrastructure, before they call. When possible, include the resolution ETA.

Early Alerts of Changes

You need to have the right number of staff to handle an ever changing flow of new issues.
Do not just track the number of open issues, track the rate of new arrivals with a weekly trend chart.

Plan for a flood of new problems when a new product is released.

Handle Issues in Order

Service reps may try to inflate their closure rates by picking the easy issues to work on. This hurts both customers and other staff.

Use round-robin assignment or skill-based assignment of each issue to an individual rather than simply leaving it in a pool.

Make it easy for staff to open and work on the next issue in their queue.

Improve Staff Morale

Customer support is a tough job at the best of times and it is made even more frustrating by having to answer the same questions time and again.

Allow customers to self-register and submit problem reports or requests over the web 24/7, thus freeing your staff from manual data entry.

For customers who do call or submit problems, create a library of standard solutions that your staff can import into the ticket. This not only saves time, it helps prevent mistakes.

Anticipate Staff Changes

Staff vacations, sick-leaves and changes should be transparent to customers.

Make sure that your support system supports the rapid re-assignment of issues and can automatically re-assign issues that have been dormant for too long.

Survey Your Customers

Seek feedback on your support interactions.
Implement surveys that go out to the customers based on “types of issues” to stratify your data. You can find out what about a product the customer doesn’t like, why they cancelled, etc.
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6. BECOME A PROFIT CENTER

The easiest way to justify a bigger budget is to generate more revenue, and Support is superbly positioned to do exactly that – customers call Support far more often than they call Sales. Here are some simple steps you can take to exploit that opportunity.

• Review tickets and consider which of them might be addressed by other goods and services that your company offers.

• Gather information in ticket submission forms that will indicate which customers are good prospects for other products.

• Train your staff on how to up-sell customers and incentivize them to do so, just like salespeople.

• Coordinate with Sales. You want their active assistance, not a turf war.

• Directly measure the monetary value of Support staff up-sells and assign value to new leads and other intangibles. Use these numbers to make a stronger case for the Support organization.

• Don’t let Support staff forget the bottom line! First priority should be to respond promptly and thoroughly to customer concerns before thinking about sales.

• Use live chat for quick turn-around of common billing issues, such as credit card updates, address changes, and shipping questions. Live chat can decrease checkout abandonment and up-sell other products.

• Use specific hyperlinks or any distinct identification in your communications with customers to identify when Support staff generate an up-sale.
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7. UTILIZE THE WISDOM OF YOUR USERS

Facilitating communication between your users can significantly offset the burden placed on first responders.

An effective Support organization utilizes all resources at its disposal and seeks to balance the support load as efficiently as possible. To most organizations this means appropriately assigning tasks to staff, but many forget to use the enormous pool of knowledge and labor that exists in the user base.

• Provide a centrally located, public, and prominently featured forum for discussion and communication between users. Integrate it as much as possible with your existing infrastructure to streamline the user experience.

• Encourage users to refer to the forums as an additional line of support. Users can post issues and collaborate online 24/7, even outside of business hours.

• Have your staff scan the forums regularly to get an idea of common problems, post quick solutions, and see what workarounds customers devise.

Utilizing the wisdom of your users reinforces the core message of the Seven Secrets, urging you to make the most of what you have. Each secret you employ provides real benefits: Be Adaptable, Make it Personal to increase customer satisfaction, Measure the Right Things to accurately reflect how well your organization is doing, save time by automating and monitoring the process of Hiring the Right Employees, Be Proactive to stay one step ahead of surprises, Become a Profit Center to increase resources, and tap the mental energy of the crowds when you Utilize the Wisdom of Your Users.

Have your own ideas for how to better manage a support organization? Let us know at the EnterpriseWizard forums!
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Complete product information, as well as demos and free CRM software trial downloads, are available at http://www.enterprisewizard.com.

Please peruse our case studies at http://www.enterprisewizard.com/success.htm to read about our customers’ success with customer relationship management software.

 

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ABOUT ENTERPRISEWIZARD INC.:

With headquarters in Silicon Valley and resellers worldwide, EnterpriseWizard, Inc. is the leading provider of powerful, affordable, and easily deployed 100% web-based business process automation (BPA) solutions for organizations of all sizes.

Our company has attracted customers from industries with vastly different needs, ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies such as Chevron, Merrill Lynch, and NEC since we were founded in 1991.

Based on its award-winning predecessor product SupportWizard, EnterpriseWizard CRM is a top-rated, out-of-the-box J2EE solution for issue tracking, helpdesk, customer support, sales, email, and marketing automation. Organizations can get up and running quickly with its default templates, and easily enhance and extend the application through an intuitive browser-based interface. Clients have adapted the system for Sarbanes-Oxley and Government Regulation, Project and Time Management, Change Management, and other specialized applications.