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For Immediate Release:
Managed Solution Announces New CEO and Implements Long- Term Growth Strategy
February 10, 2017- Sean Ferrel, Founder and Chairman of Managed Solution, announces that he has named Susan Kuruvilla as CEO. Managed Solution is a Technology as a Service (TaaS) company which obtained tremendous growth in 2016 and is poised for continued gains in 2017. Kuruvilla brings a customer-centric, collaborative approach to Managed Solution. She is the former President of CLARK Security Products, An Anixter Company, where she served as CFO for 12 years before becoming President. Sean Ferrel will continue to drive Managed Solution’s vision as Chairman & Founder. Ferrel announced a renewed focus on culture, collaboration, and staff development.
About Managed Solution:
Managed Solution offers hardware, software and premium service tiers and specializes in forecasting technology infrastructure for small to enterprise sized businesses. Managed Solution provides a full spectrum of managed and professional services with an award-winning US-based 24/7 Help Desk headquartered in Southern California. Managed Solution was founded in 2002 and was quickly recognized as one of San Diego’s 40 fastest growing companies and the 27th fastest growing IT company in Southern California. Managed Solution provides IT services nationwide and is recognized as one of the top 10 National Cloud Service Providers.
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Analytics 50: How big data innovators reap results
Five winners of the 2016 CIO.com and Drexel University Analytics 50 awards share details of their projects, lessons learned and advice.
By Thor Olavsrud as written on cio.com
Data and analytics are reshaping organizations and business processes, giving organizations the capability to interrogate internal and external data to better understand their customers and drive transformative efficiencies.
Worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics clocked in at nearly $122 billion in 2015 and will grow to $187 billion in 2019, according to a five-year forecast from research firm IDC.
“Organizations able to take advantage of the new generation of business analytics solutions can leverage digital transformation to adapt to disruptive changes and create competitive differentiation in their markets,” said IDC analyst Dan Vesset in a statement issued in conjunction with the release of IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide earlier this year. “These organizations don’t just automate existing processes — they treat data as they would any valued asset by using a focused approach to extracting and developing the value of information.”
Additionally, a recent Forrester Research study, commissioned by the global data and analytics team at KPMG, found that 50 percent of businesses now use data and analytics tools to analyze their existing customers, while 48 percent use them to find new customers and 47 percent use them to develop new products and services.
The picture isn’t entirely rosy, however. That same Forrester study found that many organizations are struggling to adjust their cultures to a world in which data and analytics play a central role, and many business executives mistrust the insights generated by data and analytics.
Other organizations, however, have taken naturally to data and analytics and are using new tools to better understand customers, develop new products and optimize business processes.
To honor those organizations, CIO.com and Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business recently announced the first Analytics 50 awards. The winners represent a broad spectrum of industries, from pharmaceuticals and healthcare to sports and media.
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By Fitz Tepper as written on techcrunch.com
Bumble will soon release BumbleVID, which will allow users from across the dating platform to create a story with unlimited 10-second videos, which will each delete after 24 hours.
Here’s how it will work. Users record 10-second videos from directly within Bumble. These videos then post to their profile, and can be viewed by anyone who comes across their profile while swiping. You can also draw on these video, and eventually the dating app will introduce features to add additional depth to your video – like filters, location tagging, etc.
You can also add pre-recorded videos, but only ones taken in the last 24 hours, and they will be marked with an indicator saying they weren’t added “live”. And just like on Instagram and Snapchat, you’ll be able to see how many people saw your videos and who the people were.
In addition to being shown on each person’s profile when you’re swiping, the videos will be shown on the connections and conversations page – so you can see the video stories of anyone you are talking to, as well as the stories of people who you’ve connected with but haven’t started talking to.
The feature will launch in the next few weeks, and be available for everyone who is photo verified on the platform. The company had a bit of a setback with photo verification, mainly due to a response that exceeded their ability to verify every picture by hand. But they are now re-rolling out the feature on a limited scale, and expect it to be fully available soon.
Whitney Wolfe, cofounder and CEO of Bumble, explained that video had been on the company’s radar for a long time – but that the foray into video is much riskier for a company that connects strangers, instead of a company that connects friends (like Instagram and Snapchat). Nevertheless, Wolfe explained that after 2 years it was time for Bumble to add video, especially when video has become a part of every other major social platform.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Pioneered by Snapchat, a video story consisting of 10-second clips that delete in 24 hours is now the de-facto way to share stories on the internet. Even Instagram’s CEO admitted that their hot new feature was inspired by Snapchat, saying “they deserve all the credit”. And in a similar vein, Wolfe explained that there’s no need to have an ego and try to reinvent the way short-form video is done on mobile. She said Bumble’s main focus is providing value to users, and making them relearn a new way of sharing video instead of adopting the hyper popular “story” method would just be a disservice.
A Stronger Incentive to Create Content
Swipe-based dating apps are currently pretty static. You work hard to create a profile, then essentially sit around (and swipe) while waiting for someone to swipe on you. There’s just not much more you can do to make your profile more interesting. Until now.
What’s a better incentive to create content than an opportunity to score a date with a guy or girl that you wouldn’t have otherwise matched with?
Take this example: You’re out with your friends on Friday night and want to share a short clip on one of your stories, but the moment won’t last to capture video in each platform individually. So which one do you pick? Instagram, Snapchat, or….Bumble?
Typically you’d just pick the platform where you have the biggest following or group of friends – for me that’s Instagram. But what if there’s a girl or guy you just matched with on Bumble who hasn’t started a conversation yet, and you really want to get their attention. It’s a no brainer that you’re going to eschew your friends on Instagram for the chance to impress a potential date.
BumbleVID will also help engagement – more people will spend more time on the platform, since they now will want to watch a video on each profile they swipe.
Adds Reality to Dating
A side effect of being static is that profiles on dating apps are still pretty perfect. Notice I’m not saying fake – it’s hard to succeed long term on Bumble or Tinder if you have straight-up fake pictures and information, especially with Bumble’s new photo verification features.
However, there is certainly a tightly-curated aesthetic that most people try to maintain on social platforms. And this isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sure it’s important to look pretty and sound cool, but you don’t want to come off as a person that is totally different from who you will be in person.
So BumbleVID could fix this. If enough people start creating video content on a regular basis, it could actually become weird to not have un-polished, ephemeral video always on your profile.
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The latest Windows Insider build will help you sleep better
By Frederic Lardinois as written on techcrunch.com
Launch of Microsoft's Windows 10 in Sydney on July 29, 2015 in Sydney, Australia.
Microsoft launched one of its larger Insider Builds for Windows 10 today. The new version (15002) includes a plethora of new features that touch everything from the Start menu to the Edge browser, Windows Ink, Cortana, Defender and Windows’ built-in accessibility features. All of those are great, but the one new feature that may make the biggest difference in your day-to-day use of Windows 10 (and the night after) may be the new blue light settings that allow you to automatically show warmer colors at night (and reduce the amount of blue light).
If you’re already using f.lux, Night Light on Android Nougat (probably not), Night Shift on iOS, or a similar tool, then this isn’t anything new for you, but the vast majority of Windows 10 users are probably unaware of these third-party tools. The idea here is to reduce eye strain and to help you sleep better if you do have to work on your desktop at night. Blue light, research has shown, inhibits the release of melatonin and hence makes it harder to fall asleep after you’ve been sitting in front of a screen.
Microsoft is also making another change related to the color blue: the good old Blue Screen of Death is turning green in the Insider builds. Microsoft says it made this change “in an effort to more easily distinguish Windows Insider reports vs the reports of those on production builds.”
As for other new features, the new tab preview bar for the Edge browser looks very useful (though it’s something that other browsers have also long offered as a built-in feature). Edge now also lets you set tabs aside for later use, which should be useful for those of us who often have 20+ tabs open. With this update, Edge now also features a preview of Microsoft’s previously announced payment API.
In the Start menu, Windows 10 is finally getting support for folders to help you organize your tiles. In addition, users with 4k+ screens will surely appreciate the improved support for their monitors thanks to improved high-DPI support for desktop apps (which is still a bit of an issue for Windows users).
This is only a very small sample of what’s new in this build. You can find a full rundown of all of the new features in Microsoft’s announcement.
