Tech Trends e-Newsletter

Motivating the Masses

Eight simple tips to keep your employees working hard and feeling good about their jobs.

Your company is only as strong as the sum of its parts.

You’ve no doubt heard that phrase countless times. As overworked as it is, however, it’s also undeniably true. Whether you’re running a 10-person service company or a 500-person manufacturing operation, a team of highly motivated, hard-working employees is essential to your organization’s success. If your people aren’t adequately motivated, productivity will plummet.

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News, notes, and information from all over.

What are the hot IT trends for 2006? Stamford, Conn.-based IT research firm Gartner Inc. recently unveiled six IT trends it says that will make an impact in 2006 and beyond. They are:

1. By 2008, 10 percent of companies will require employee-purchased notebooks.
2. By 2010, 30 percent of U.S. homes will use only cellular or Internet telephony.
3. The job market for IT specialists will shrink 40 percent by 2010.
4. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service providers will capture $11 billion of insurance revenue by 2008.
5. A 50 percent growth in healthcare software investment could enable clinicians to cut the level of preventable deaths in half by 2013.
6. Through 2008, investigation of new technologies will slow as discretionary budgets divert to regulatory compliance.

You can check out the full report at www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=487286.

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A monthly roundup of tips, data, and ideas from around the state.

China-related I.P. and General Export Operations Advice Available
The SME China IPR Advisory Program is a new offering from the Department of Commerce that allows small and medium-sized U.S. enterprises to request free one-hour consultations with an experienced volunteer attorney to learn how to protect and enforce I.P. rights, such as trademarks, patents or copyrights, in China. The Department of Commerce developed the program in coordination with the American Bar Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Chamber of Commerce in China. For more information, check out the following Department of Commerce Web sites: www.export.gov/China and www.Stopfakes.gov. There are also links to both sites on the homepage of the MEP public Web site, www.mep.nist.gov.

The Commerce Department also offers companies legal advice on starting export operations. Created through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Federal Bar Association, the Export Legal Assistance Network (ELAN) allows companies to consult with an international trade attorney from the Federal Bar Association. You can reach an ELAN attorney at 202-778-3080, or check out www.export-legal-assistance.org for more information.

Cover your data
Nervous about strangers hacking into your Wi-Fi connection? You might want to check out the iOpus Private Internet Gateway (iPIG), from iOpus Software. The freeware Windows application prevents strangers from monitoring your e-mail exchanges or gaining unauthorized access to your computer—which is a consideration any time you’re working in, say, a hotel room, an Internet cafe, or any public location. The iPIG uses 256-bit AES encryption technology to protect e-mail, Web traffic, instant messaging, VOIP, FTP, and all inbound and outbound communications at any Wi-Fi hotspot or wired network. It also works with Wi-Fi, WLAN, 802.11 a/b/g, wired Ethernet, all major firewall software, and any kind of Internet connection. Find out more at www.iopus.com.

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