Exchange vs. Domino

Here’s a simple comparison chart between lotus domino 8 and exchange ‘07

How do these products support knowledge workers and managers?

Knowledge workers in today's workforce are individuals who are valued for their ability to interpret information within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research skills to define problems and to identify alternatives. Fueled by their expertise and insight, they work to solve those problems, in an effort to influence company decisions, priorities and strategies. As businesses increase their dependence on information technology, the number of fields in which knowledge workers must operate has expanded dramatically. As we move ahead , we see an on-going linkage between knowledge workers and innovation, but the pace and manner of interaction have become more advanced.There is an abundance of social media tools on the internet that now drive more powerful forms of collaboration.Knowledge workers engage in ‘’peer-to-peer’’ knowledge sharing across organizational and company boundaries, forming networks of expertise. Some of these are open to the public.

These softwares facilitate Knowledge management, which is providing a repository for unstructured information within your corporation and the ability to be able to search and use that information when you need it.

Knowledge, however, is usually not well suited for rows and columns. Knowledge is usually stored, if at all, in the filing cabinets, letters, memos, and reports that are in your office. Typically these reports and memos are each individually written in a word processor and the files are stored one-at-a-time in the file system on your computer. Although most of the documents you originate are captured in a machine-readable format, they are not really managed. Of course, you probably know where to find all your own documents. But if you wanted to find all the reports and memos for your whole department, organization, or company that have been written on a particular topic, could you do it?

If you could, great, but if your company is like most, the files are scattered across a network, on individual computer hard disks and stored in paper form in filing cabinets. No, it would probably take a lot of manual effort to retrieve all the information about a particular topic within your complete organization.knowledge management really means converting all those individual documents into documents that are stored in databases on your server. When these documents are stored on a server, they are accessible for searching, sorting, and sifting. In other words, your documents are managed and you will actually be able to find something. Management of your knowledge involves storing your documents in databases, not word-processing files. It involves the ability to categorize and retrieve information that other people have written. To be able to share the collective knowledge of the organization is what can give you a competitive advantage. By making useful information available to the knowledge workforce,it enables them to –

§ analyze data to establish relationships

§ assess input in order to evaluate complex or conflicting priorities

§ identify and understanding trends

§ make connections

§ understand cause and effect

5.3

Polycom

Polycom (NASDAQ: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, HD video conferencing, and audio conferencing solutions — a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. It is a multinational corporation with more than 2,700 employees worldwide and an annual revenue of approximately $967 million in 2009. The company manufactures and sells telepresence and voice communications solutions.it has been the clear leader in this field since its conception in 1990. Its progress occurred both organically but is mainly attributed to the acquisition of smaller promising enterprises.

Polycom started off with audio conferencing speakerphones. Soon after, the company added content sharing, video conferencing, and video network/bridging products to its portfolio. Now their products cover Teleconference, Telecommunications, Telepresence and Infrastructure equipment.

Aastra Technologies

Aastra Technologies Limited (TSX: AAH) based in Canada, makes products and systems for accessing communication networks including the Internet. Its products include residential and business telephone terminals, screen telephones, Enterprise Private branch exchanges (PBX), network access terminals and high quality digital video encoders, decoders and gateways.. Aastra is focused on meeting our customers’ communication technology needs while exceeding their expectations for value and performance through the development and implementation of open standard VoIP products and systems, mobility solutions and software applications. Astra’s intuitive and effective solutions consist of a full range of both traditional and open standard IP-based networking solutions including; PBX and IP-PBX communications systems, gateways, telephone terminals, VoIP endpoints, wireless products, as well as a full suite of advanced productivity software applications that includes Unified Communications, Web and Audio Conferencing, and Contact Center solutions. Residential telephone equipment is sold in the US as Bell equipment by Sonecor brand, , who originally licensed the rights to the Bell trademark to Astra. In 2000 Astra acquired the rights to manufacture phones under the Nortel name

75% of Aastra Technologies' 2005 sales were made in Europe, having purchased that year the DeTeWe firm in Berlin, with 17% in the United States, and only 5% in Canada.

Aastra received Internet Telephony's Best of Show Award for 2007 for Best Large Enterprise Solution.On the 18 February 2008, Aastra acquired the enterprise PBX division of Ericsson.

ClearOne Communications

ClearOne (NASDAQ (CM):CLRO) is the leading global provider of audio conferencing solutions. The reliability, flexibility and performance of our comprehensive solutions save organizations time and money by creating natural environments for effective and efficient personal and group communication. Our products enhance collaboration, presentation, distance communications and multimedia applications.

In business for more than 20 years, ClearOne products are used by thousands of organizations worldwide from small enterprises to the Fortune 1000, as well as domestic and international governments and educational institutions. Our customers include a diverse group of market verticals such as education, enterprise, government/legal, healthcare, finance and houses of worship.

ClearOne dominates the professional conferencing space with over 54% global market share and is a pioneer in audio conferencing technologies. We have developed a broad portfolio of award-winning products that benefit from our innovative leadership in areas such as distributed echo cancellation, automatic microphone mixing, signal routing, equalization, automatic level control, compression, and other advanced audio processing functions.

The company provides audio conferencing systems to small and large enterprises, educational institutions, churches, and government agencies largely in the US. It also sells related products including microphones and equipment carts. ClearOne's conferencing systems connect large venues such as auditoriums and board rooms, as well as desktops and small conference rooms. The company markets its products worldwide, selling primarily through distributors who in turn sell to systems integrators and resellers.

What is video commerce?

It's no secret that video is the most engaging medium on the web. Every month, nearly 152 million US Internet users watch an average of 111 videos per viewer. Video enhances the online customer experience and has enormous potential to drive conversion and realize significant, tangible ROI thus video commerce is already slated as the next big thing in e-commerce. With Video commerce we can tag and create hyperlinks on videos advertising products or services taking us to another web page or a transaction process . Video Commerce is going to be is the best way to let your potential customers really get a good feel for your product. They can see color, size and fit. It's even possible to get an idea of weight

Why conferencing products are considered part of video commerce?

Video commerce can take place over any Internet-enabled communications device – a Personal Computer, a laptop, a PDA, a mobile phone, or a smart phone. Videoconferencing can enable individuals in faraway places to have meetings on short notice. Time and money that used to be spent in travelling can be used to have short meetings. Technology such as VOIP can be used in conjunction with desktop videoconferencing to enable low-cost face-to-face business meetings without leaving the desk, especially for businesses with wide-spread offices.

The selling of these conference products are directly dependant on their ability to use video as a medium of communication .thus here we are using video as an advertisement for communication. This constitutes video-commerce.

5.4

Our college website is located at url: www.msrit.edu . It serves as a simple yet informative board to reach out to the general population of the college(staff and students).

some of the key functions of the site can be summarized as follows-

-serves as a common board for notifications,circulars,announcements & other college related news.

-holds a comprehensive database of each student in the college with details like marks, assignments, schedule, attendance...etc which is updated on an almost daily basis.

-faculty and other staff are given exclusive privelages to add/update data.

-the whole site bears a common look & feel since it is built on drupal,an open source CMS. using a CMS also facilitates more people to publish content as it doesn’t require in depth knowledge of HTML.

Yes the site fulfils most of the students needs with clear and accurate information but there is always room for improvement .some suggestions are –

-a news scroller, ticker at the top of each page showing the latest alerts.

-exam results and course registration are still done manually. Digitalizing these processes will provide flexibility and transparency

-introduction of a student forum where students can freely address various issues of the college

-mobile alerts/e-mail alerts of urgent news and announcements.

this website is definitely special because of its simplicity and functionality. No other college provides as much information which is diverse, accurate and most importantly up-to-date.the student information system is one of its kind which as any student would agree, extremely helpful in keeping track of his semester progress. No other college (none that i know of) provides such a facility . owing to the afore mentioned think any college aspirant will definitely be impressed and leave with a good feeling about the college. Added features like an alumni page and a virtual tour of the campus can only add conviction to his feeling.

Samarth Manu (1MSO6IS070)