MDL Technology, KC Technology & Managed Service Company, Reviews KCnext IT Networking Event at the College Basketball Experience
Thursday, December 6th, 2012
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology
Thanks to KCnext for creating and distributing this video of the IT Networking Event that took place at the College Basketball Experience. The video features the thoughts and ideas of the following social media and IT professionals of the Kansas City area: Perry Puccetti, Triple-I Corporation; Sara Davidson, Sara Davidson Consulting; Justin Ruby, Centriq Training; Valerie Jennings, Jennings Social Media Marketing; Albert Tong, Onelouder; Steve Timperley, Solomon Consulting Group; Graeme Gibson, KC NAP; Rob Didlake, Dataedge; Patrick Kohnle, Airmass Technologies.
KCnext | Fall IT Networking Event @ The College Basketball Experience from KCADC on Vimeo.
MDL Technology, KC Technology & Managed Service Company, Reviews Big News at Coal Vines During Silicon Prairie News’ Event
Friday, November 16th, 2012
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology
Kansas City has been positioned as the hot, epicenter for tech startups in the Midwest and nationally. Not only do we have tremendous talent, but we have the right mix of programmers, software developers, innovative minds and investors. Go KANSAS CITY!
Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing and Viral Bolt Media, Perry Puccetti, president of Triple i and Steve Roatch, CEO of Twentyseven Global, were in attendance during the BIG announcement which included new staff at Silicon Prairie News and the Think KC event in the spring of 2013.
Silicon Prairie News previewed the article in “Join us tonight at 6 for a BIG Global Entrepreneurship Week shindig.”
If you caught the Startup@Kauffman Demo Day or helped break a world record for speed networking, your Global Entrepreneurship Week fun has only just begun. Silicon Prairie News added to the mix of GEW events in Kansas City with a shindig Tuesday night at Coal Vines.
The company hosted a BIG party, and — as the event’s name suggests — had some sizable news to share. We can’t promise a private screening of The Big Lebowski, a Bigfoot sighting or any unearthed tracks from Biggie Smalls, but we can promise quality camaraderie and some new information regarding our plans for the Silicon Prairie.
Left Photo: Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM and VBM, Perry Puccetti, president of Triple i; Right Photo: Jennings and Steve Roatch, CEO of Twentyseven Global
MDL Technology, KC Technology & Manages Services Company, Profiles Lincoln Startup Week
Friday, August 24th, 2012
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology
Kansas City has become a hot spot for technological innovation, entrepreneurs and modernization. This emerging energy continues to grow due in large part to community engagement and entrepreneurial events. This fall, entrepreneurial and technology driven events will continue to be taking center stage in Kansas City.
Lincoln Startup Week will be taking place, September 7th through the 13th. Lincoln startups will have a chance to showcase their work and meet the community with this weeklong celebration.
Silicon Prairie highlighted this event.
Read the article.
Lincoln startups will have a chance to showcase their endeavors and meet the community with a weeklong celebration of startups at the upcoming Lincoln Startup Week Sept. 7-13.
The event will kick off with the inaugural Startup Weekend Lincoln from the Sept. 7-9. There, as at other Startup Weekends, teams will work to turn ideas into the foundations of viable businesses over the course of 54 hours.
Four days of events to showcase the entrepreneurial activity in Lincoln will follow on the heels of Startup Weekend. Startup Week, from Sept. 10-13, will feature speakers, a pitch competition with a $1,000 prize, “Office Hours,” in which entrepreneurs can speak one-on-one with service professionals, and a Tech Crawl led by the AIM Institute and NUtech Ventures.
MDL Technology, KC Technology & Manages Services Company, Showcases The Olympics and Technology
Thursday, August 16th, 2012
The 2012 London Olympics have come to a close but now another task starts. Analyzing the data and technological information that came along with the Olympic games. The Olympic athletes moved at a fast pace but the data and technology surrounding the games moved even faster.
London2012.com was the most popular sports website viewed in the world. The page had over 38.8 billion hits. 1.2 petabytes of data were transferred over the website. Computer Weekly highlighted all of the technology information that the London 2012 games created.
Read the key findings from the article here.
Computer Weekly takes a look at how we experienced “the most Games ever” with our round-up of technology stats.
The technology behind the Olympics largely went unnoticed, which is an indication of its success. “Delivering the technology for the Games requires the organising committee and all of our partners to work together as one team to deliver an incredibly complex technology solution,” said Gerry Pennell, CIO for Olympics organiser Locog.
Here are some of the key stats, which chart how technology enabled us to enjoy the historic event:
Apple’s iPhone 4S Becomes Best-Selling iPhone Ever: 4 Million Sold During First Week
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology, LLC.
Apple introduced the world to the original iPhone in 2007 and since then people have been scrambling to get the latest and greatest versions of the smartphone. So is it surprising that in less than a week, Apple’s iPhone 4S has become Apple’s best-selling iPhone ever? Here is an article from www.pcmag.com about how the 4 million iPhone 4Ses have made Apple history.
How the iPhone 4S Became Apple’s Best-Selling iPhone Ever
Apple’s iPhone 4S has been unleashed, and it’s already a bona fide hit. We all knew this was going to happen (it’s an iPhone for crying out loud), but the magnitude of the success is unexpected, especially to those who were hoping for a full-fledged, completely redesigned iPhone 5.
Since its launch at 8 a.m. Friday, Apple has sold 4 million iPhone 4Ses (including preorders). That’s more than double the 1.7 million iPhone 4s Apple sold during the its first weekend that phone was available last year. The 95,000 Kindle Fires that Amazon is said to have sold on the first day of preorders looks like a pathetic drop in the bucket when put up against the iPhone 4S. Apple’s Phil Schiller is already calling it the best-selling phone ever, and he’s probably right.
Clearly, demand for the iPhone 4S is extremely high. But why? At launch, more than a few people called it a letdown (including me), since the form factor is almost identical to the iPhone 4, and many of the rumored features—like a bigger screen, NFC, and a tapered design—failed to appear. The new AT&T model doesn’t even have the HSPA+ 21 connection that was predicted.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think everybody’s running for the iPhone 4S because they want to get to know Siri, the much-buzzed-about voice-control app. As with most complicated events, the causes aren’t as simple as anyone one thing. Here’s how the iPhone 4S became one of the fastest-selling pieces of technology in history:
Carriers Matter: For the first time, an iPhone launched on no less than three U.S. carriers. Importantly, it was a new iPhone, with AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all getting it at the same time. When Verizon iPhone 4 appeared earlier this year, it came mid-cycle, blunting its impact since everyone interested in buying one knew they could get something better if they just waited a little longer. Now that time has come, and the dam’s been burst. Getting the iPhone at the beginning of the product cycle is key to anyone who cares about upgrading year over year, and for the first time they can do it without shackling themselves to AT&T.
On top of that, we have the new species of Sprint iPhone. Sprint may be the third-tier carrier in the U.S., but it still has 52 million customers, and it’s the only carrier to offer true unlimited data for phones (we’ll see how long that lasts now that it has the iPhone, however). Sprint also came in first place when we asked readers which carrier they were choosing for the iPhone 4S. It’s pretty clear that Sprint’s contribution to those numbers was significant.
InformationWeek.com Reviews Mobile App Development for SMBs: 98 Billion Mobile Apps by 2015
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology, LLC.
Mobile app development has played a critical role in how companies reach out and connect with consumers. A recent study by Berg Insight estimated that by the end of 2015, there will be 98 billion mobile apps available, so making an app that stands out is a necessity, especially for small to midsize businesses (SMBs). Here is an article from InformationWeek.com that provides SMBs with tips on entering the mobile app development industry.
5 Mobile App Development Tips For SMBs
The apparently insatiable appetite for mobile apps presents small and midsize businesses (SMBs) with a big opportunity to connect with prospects and customers. But it’s far from an if-you-build-it-they-will-come proposition.
If you’re developing an app for smartphones and tablets, your potential audience is certainly huge. The world will have downloaded 98 billion mobile apps by the end of 2015, according to a recent estimate by telecom researcher Berg Insight. So how will your app stand out?
I turned to Appsbar founder Scott Hirsch for his thoughts on what goes into a good app. Appsbar is a free Web-based tool that enables SMBs to create mobile apps with no development know-how and publish them on the major marketplaces. Since its April launch, the service has signed up 35,000 users and launched 5,000 apps. Here is his advice for SMBs taking the app plunge for the first time–a leap he said should generate organizational excitement rather than fear.
1. Give it away. Unless you’re actually in the mobile development business, give your apps away for free. Treat them as a way to augment your business model rather than a business model itself.
“If you want to make the next Angry Birds or some unbelievable app that can coach a surgeon through brain surgery–absolutely, that should be charged for,” Hirsch said in an interview. “If you’re like most [companies] and you’re just looking to enhance your business and get into this app revolution, you’re better off not charging.”
2. Think beyond marketing. Marketing might be the most obvious business case to offer an app, but it’s far from the only one. Hirsch recommends SMBs consider functions such as market research, customer service, and customer relationship management (CRM), too. He also mentioned forms–as in mobile versions of the various forms that businesses use online or on paper–as a growing use case.
“Utilize it to its fullest,” Hirsch said, adding that SMBs should consider their particular business and specific goals and then develop an app strategy that actually supports those goals.
3. Get the word out. Just like websites, apps don’t just magically find an audience. They need to be marketed like any other customer-facing aspect of your business. This could be as simple as a sign in a physical retail location, links from an email or your website, or a mention at the end of a TV or radio spot.
“Apps are cool, apps are new, apps are fun,” Hirsch said. “At this point, it’s a very easy transition to get people to use your app–it’s just a matter of letting them know it’s available.”
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook Reviews the New iPhone 4S
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Technology, LLC.
Yesterday, Apple’s Tim Cook took the stage for his first product launch since he was named CEO. The Apple’s Let’s Talk iPhone event brought in much anticipated news of the new iPhone 4S. I wanted to share an article from Mashable.com about the history of the iPhone in lieu of the launch.
iPhone History: The Story So Far [INFOGRAPHIC]
In a scant few hours now, we’ll dive into chapter five in one of the most compelling stories of our digital-dominated era: The Life And Times of the iPhone. So for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, and even those of you who have (hands up if you remember the ROKR iTunes phone), here’s a recap — courtesy of Thinglink, a startup that makes interactive photos and ads.
Hover over the infographic to reveal pictures, videos and links from iPhone history. (The launch date of each phone is at the top of its screen.) Take note of the chips used in each iteration, and find out more about the real genius behind the iPhone’s design. Wax nostalgic in the comments about your favorite moments. And get ready for a whole new chapter Tuesday morning, whether it’s the iPhone 5, the 4S or both.
United States Ranks #1 in Information Technology:Leads Categories for Research and Development, Human Capital & Support for IT Industry Development
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL, LLC.
The United States has always prided itself on being a leader in information technology. According to a study done by the Business Software Alliance and the Economist Intelligence Unit, the United States once again ranked number one for IT, making it the world’s most competitive nation. Here is an article from Businessweek.com on the study and the United States’ information technology position.
U.S. Holds Spot as Most Competitive Country for Technology
The U.S. remains the world’s most competitive nation for information technology companies, while the country’s IT infrastructure still ranks behind other nations, according to a study.
“Countries that have seen continued investment in key competitiveness enablers such as the R&D environment, talent and skills are notable gainers” in the global comparison, according to a study released today by the Washington-based Business Software Alliance and the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research unit of The Economist magazine.
Countries at the top of the list had “sustained investment” in IT from industry and their national governments during “the leanest financial times IT producers have known in a decade, and for many governments in at least a generation,” according to the study, which is conducted every two years.
With an overall score of 80.5 out of 100, the U.S. placed 12.5 points ahead of second-ranked Finland, to maintain the top spot it held in 2009. Singapore, Sweden and the U.K. rounded out the top five.
The U.S. led in three of the five categories, including research and development environment; human capital such as the education system’s capacity to train technologists; and support for IT industry development, which includes government policies that support the technology sector as a whole, rather than specific technologies.
White House Aimes at Using Innovative Technologies to Transform Education in the United States with Digital Promise
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011
Posted by T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Tech, LLC.
Merging technology into education has become a hot topic as of late, with many people discussing the pro’s and con’s of the matter. This article from CIO.com discusses Digital Promise, the new nonprofit orginization created by the government in collaboration with private breakthrough technologies to transform and improve students’ education.
White House Targets Innovative Education Technologies
Digital Promise, a collaboration between the government and the private sector, will identify breakthrough technologies to improve student performance.
The White House has formed a nonprofit organization aimed at creating innovative learning technologies to transform education in the United States.
The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, aka Digital Promise, will engage exclusively in research and development (R&D) to use the most advanced technology to improve learning at all educational levels, according to the organization’s website.
The organization’s ultimate goal is to equip American students better to compete in the global economy, already a key focus of the Obama administration through the Educate to Innovate Campaign. That campaign–also a partnership between the federal government and private sector– is specifically aimed at increasing the competitiveness of American students in science and math.
“If America is going to continue to succeed in the global economy, it is vital that we transform the use of educational technology,” said U.S. secretary of education Arne Duncan in a White House blog post. “With technology, we can more rapidly increase opportunities for excellence and equity, as well as provide a world-class education for America’s students. And that’s a promise we need to keep.”
Social Customer Relationship Management Spending to Increase: CRM Market to Reach $1 Billion by 2012
Friday, September 16th, 2011
Posted by: T.J. Bloom, COO of MDL Tech, LLC
Customer relationship management (CRM) has and always will be a focus for the majority of businesses, and now its become even more important with the emergence of social media. This article from CIO.com explains how CRM will become more of a priority as it becomes integrated with social media.
Social CRM spend set to surge
Business-to-business spending on social CRM is growing fast
The worldwide social customer relationship management (CRM) market is forecast to reach over $US1 billion in revenue by year-end 2012, up from $US625 million in 2010.
According to Gartner analysts, spending on social software for marketing, customer service and sales increased by 40 per cent in 2010, but social CRM remained less than 5 per cent of the total CRM application market.
“Spending on business-to-business CRM use is growing fast and will account for 30 per cent of total CRM spending by 2015,” said Gartner research director, Adam Sarner.
“The market will continue its rapid consolidation throughout 2011.
“Until recently, many companies have treated social CRM as a series of experiments and tactical purchases. Few have a social CRM policy or established metrics to measure its effect on hard business results. Different departments, employees and managers implement different types of applications for different purposes.”
Gartner said research and development in social CRM will centre on five main areas: Deeper integration with traditional CRM processes; tools to measure ROI; deeper integration with social network services — especially Facebook and Twitter; increased use of analytics; and new use cases for CRM.