Tag Archives: organization

Facebook Use by Organizations During Crises Helps Public Image, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostSeptember 9, 2013Technologybokyung kim, crisis management, facebook posts, facebook use, organization, popular website, public relations, seoyeon hong, social networking site, tool, university of missouri

PR professionals can improve public attitudes by communicating through Facebook during times of crisis

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Social networking sites have become incredibly popular in recent years, with Facebook now ranking as the third most popular website in the U.S. With so many people spending so much time on Facebook, public relations professionals are using the site more and more to communicate to the public. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism have found that posting public relations information on Facebook during a time of crisis can improve the overall image of the organization that is experiencing the crisis.

Seoyeon Hong, a doctoral candidate in the MU School of Journalism, along with co-author Bokyung Kim, a professor at Rowan University and former doctoral student at MU, created two fictional universities and gave participants news stories about organizational crises each university was experiencing. After the participants read the news stories, she measured their attitudes about each university and how severe they thought the crisis was. She then showed the participants Facebook posts from the universities’ main Facebook accounts which gave additional information and messages directly from the universities. Hong then measured the participants’ attitudes a second time and found that following the Facebook posts, attitudes toward the universities were significantly more positive than before participants read the posts. She also found that participants felt the crises were less severe following the Facebook posts. Hong believes these findings show the positive impact Facebook can make in crisis management efforts. (more…)

Study finds more than 52 percent of organizations turning to the cloud for business growth

By Guest PostMay 29, 2013Technology451 research llc, business growth, canada, cloud, cloud based computing, datacenter initiatives, digital infrastructure, france, future businesses, Germany, hosted services, hybrid cloud solutions, it environments, lync, marco limena, michelle bailey, Microsoft, microsoft sql server, new era, organization, sharepoint, uk, united states, US, windows azure, windows platform

Microsoft-commissioned study highlights opportunity for hosting providers as companies look to achieve growth with hybrid cloud solutions.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 29, 2013 — Companies and organizations are increasingly turning to the cloud as a strategy for business growth, according to The New Era of Hosted Services, a Microsoft-commissioned study conducted by 451 Research LLC. As they look ahead to the next two years, more than 52 percent of organizations identify the cloud as beneficial for either growing their business or realigning their organization to a new company strategy. Along with this drive for growth comes significant opportunity for Microsoft hosting partners as customers look to grow their business with a hybrid cloud consumption model.

“The next two years will be the era of hybrid cloud, with 68 percent of customers planning to adopt hybrid cloud models — up from 49 percent today,” said Marco Limena, vice president, Hosting Service Providers Business, Microsoft. “In addition, the survey found that as customers begin to move their IT environments into the cloud, software is sticky and brand is even more important.” (more…)

Caching In: How Some Organizations Are Using Big Data to Change the Way They Do Business

By Guest PostFebruary 12, 2013Technologyanalytics tools, article on forbes, atlanta, bank, bi, big data, big data strategies, bnz, bryson koehler, business, business intelligence, cloud platform, columns of data, crossmark, david selinger, fossils, generate big data, georgia, global scale, Microsoft, microsoft data warehouse, microsoft solutions, microsoft sql server, nctn, nhi, organization, parallel data warehouse, pdw, point of sale, pos data, quantities of data, real-time, risk populations, super 8 worldwide, susan hauser, Technology, therapy, united states, university advancement, va, weather channel, what and why, windows azure

As big data access shifts to the masses, The Weather Company and other top global companies are showing the world how it’s done.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 12, 2012 —Big data is changing the way organizations do business, make discoveries, and interact with each other. In fact, pundits are predicting that 2013 will be the year organizations across a range of industries begin implementing big data strategies, or face obsolescence. As David Selinger wrote in a recent article on Forbes online: “If executives don’t find a way to trap, tame, and train their data monsters, they’ll be extinct in two years—fossils who’ve missed the new world order.”

Microsoft believes that big data has the power to drive practical and theoretical insights that have eluded people to date. In the past, high costs and technology limitations have constrained access to data storage infrastructure and the tools needed to manage and analyze large quantities of data. This is finally starting to change. (more…)

Evolution of Human Resources

By Guest PostJanuary 21, 2013Economybeebe medical center, bejoy philip, catherine halen, clayton hall, employee development, employer relations, empowerment, entrepreneurship, evolution, george irvine, human resources, human resources management, john sawyer, jpmorgan chase, kimberlee krupa, lerner college, lynn sydnor epps, organization, organizational development, personnel department, roundtable topic, siemens corporation, ud, university of delaware

Future of organizational development Employee Development Roundtable topic

Remember the personnel department? It’s an old fashioned concept now with its focus on record-keeping and employee policies, evolving into “human resources management” in the latter half of the 20th century.

But the future of human resources is also changing. Panelists and attendees at the University of Delaware’s Employee Development Roundtable in December discussed how organizations will develop their employees in the future, how local and global business pressures will affect the field, how technology will change employee development and what organizational development professionals should do now to shape the future. (more…)

Spear Phishing: Researchers Work to Counter Email Attacks that Gain Recipients’ Trust

By Guest PostJanuary 13, 2013Technologyandrew howard, attachment, corporate networks, counter, dynamic framework, e newsletter, email attacks, email system, employee, generic emails, georgia tech, gtri, knowledge, malicious attachments, malicious software analysis, malware, marketing plan, open this attachment, organization, password, personal information, phalanx, research institute, sec, spear phishing, titan, user, verify your password, website

The email resembled the organization’s own employee e-newsletter and asked recipients to visit a website to confirm that they wanted to continue receiving the newsletter. Another email carried an attachment that said it contained the marketing plan the recipient had requested at a recent conference. A third email bearing a colleague’s name suggested a useful website to visit.

None of these emails were what they pretended to be. The first directed victims to a website that asked for personal information, including the user’s password. The second included a virus that launched when the “marketing plan” was opened. The third directed users to a website that attempted to install a malicious program. (more…)

IBM Addresses Security Challenges of Big Data, Mobile and Cloud Computing

By Guest PostOctober 18, 2012Technologyaudit data, automate compliance, big data, brendan hannigan, cloud, cloud based, cloud computing, cloud security, cloudera, data security, Environment, flemish government, framework, hadoop, ibm, infosphere biginsights, initiatives, interoperability protocol, it risk, key management, kmip, management, mcbc, mobile, mobile security, multi perimeter, organization, platform, protect data, qradar, relational data, securit, security inhibitor, security intelligence, smartcloud, united states, wim martens

Largest set of security software capabilities announced to date

ARMONK, N.Y. – 18 Oct 2012: In a move designed to reduce the biggest security inhibitors that organizations face in implementing cloud, mobile and big data initiatives, IBM today announced a broad set of security software to help holistically secure data and identities.

IBM’s new software capabilities help clients better maintain security control over mobile devices, mitigate internal and external threats, reduce security risks in cloud environments, extend database security to gain real-time insights into big data environments such as Hadoop, and automate compliance and data security management. Along with IBM Security Services and IBM’s world-class research capabilities, this set of scalable capabilities supports a holistic, proactive approach to security threats spanning people, data, applications and infrastructure. (more…)

IBM and Oxford Survey: Getting Closer to Customers Tops Big Data Agenda

By Guest PostOctober 17, 2012Technologyanalytics, big data, business school, customer experience, data mining, database, Economy, geospatial data, global snapshot, ibm, ibm study, initiative, internal system, it professional, janet smart, michael schroeck, organization, oxford, primary objective, query, reporting, saïd, sensor data, social media, social network, solution, source, structured data, uk, university, unstructured data

Less than half of organizations analyzing external data; only 43 percent looking at social media for deeper understanding about consumer preferences
Lack of advanced analytics skills for tackling unstructured data biggest challenge

ARMONK, N.Y. and OXFORD – 17 Oct 2012: A new global report released today by IBM and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford reveals that most Big Data initiatives currently being deployed by organizations are aimed at improving the customer experience. Yet, despite the strong focus on the customer, less than half of the organizations engaged in active Big Data initiatives are currently collecting and analyzing external sources of data, like social media.

One reason is that many organizations are struggling to address and manage the uncertainty inherent within certain types of data, such as the weather, the economy, or the sentiment and truthfulness of people expressed on social networks. In the survey, respondents questioned their ability to trust comments, reviews, tweets and other forms of freely offered opinions online. While uncertain, social media data still contains valuable information. Organizations need to embrace and manage data uncertainty and determine how to use it to their advantage. (more…)

Belief in God Rises with Age, Even in Atheist Nations

By Guest PostApril 19, 2012Culture, Generalamerican, atheism, austria, belief in god, catholic societies, east germany, existence, god exists, international survey, Israel, mortality, nation, norc, organization, people, Philippines, poland, protestant population, russia, Scandinavia, slovenia, soviet states, tom w smith, united states, william harms

International surveys about the depth of people’s belief in God reveal vast differences among nations, ranging from 94 percent of people in the Philippines who said they always believed in God, compared to only 13 percent of people in the former East Germany. Yet the surveys found one constant—belief in God is higher among older people, regardless of where they live.

A new report on the international surveys, “Belief About God Across Time and Countries,” was issued by the General Social Survey of the social science research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. It is based on a comprehensive, international study of belief in God and includes information from the International Social Survey Program, a consortium of the world’s leading opinion survey organizations. Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey, wrote the report. (more…)