Friday, January 31, 2014

5 hal sederhana tingkatkan Produktifitas perusahaan Anda

5 Simple Changes That Can Help You Boost Productivity

CEO, Small Business Trends LLC

About 37 percent of you are working more hours per week than you were five years ago. Here's how to work not just harder, but smarter.

AUGUST 19, 2013

The economy is getting better, but are things getting better at your small business? From the average entrepreneur’s perspective in the trenches, life might not look much different than during the depths of the recession—at least in terms of how hard you’re working. In fact, more than one-third of small-business owners are working more hours now than they were in 2008, according to a recent survey by Sage, a business management software company.

The Sage Reinvention of Small Business Survey reports that 37 percent of small-business owners are working an additional 11 or more hours per week than they were five years ago. (That’s up from 24 percent who reported the same in last year’s survey.) Of those, 68 percent report working both longer days and more weekends.

56% of small-business owners polled truly believe they are living the American dream, and 76% say they never once contemplated giving up their business.

In addition, many small-business owners are now taking less vacation time. More than four in 10 (43 percent) say that they are taking significantly or somewhat less vacation compared to five years ago.

In addition to working harder, though, it seems small-business owners are working smarter. Sage asked what changes or improvements entrepreneurs had made to their businesses in the past five years to help them survive and thrive in a challenging economy. The top response was investing in technology (49 percent), followed by better cash flow management (48 percent), more use of mobile technology (44 percent), better inventory management (32 percent), more productive employees (30 percent) and better employee retention (18 percent).

What kinds of changes have you made in your business since the recession began? Take a look at some ideas drawn from the Sage list for inspiration:

Investing in technology: If you're still struggling with outdated computers, or if everyone on your team has different versions of software, now is the time to upgrade. Lagging technology slows you down and makes your business less competitive. Consider cloud software solutions, which simplify updates and often end up costing less than installing software on everyone’s computer.

Better cash flow management: Speaking of outdated, if you’re still using paper-based accounting, it’s time to get with the program. Accounting programs like QuickBooks simplify every aspect of accounting, including easily transferring data from your files to your accountant’s, tax preparer’s or bank’s. But their most useful function is enabling you to quickly see information at a glance, such as which accounts are past due or projected cash flow for the coming month.

More use of mobile technology: Tablets are getting cheaper and there’s a wider range to choose from than ever before. Your team probably already has smartphones, and you know how valuable they can be to your business, but tablets can enable you to do even more, such as making sales presentations on the fly or showing customers your portfolio of work (great for graphic designers, interior decorators, contractors or others with visually oriented businesses). The holiday season always means a raft of new tablet launches, so stay tuned.

Better inventory management: There are more online inventory management options than ever before. Work with your sales team to create sales forecasts that will help you predict demand and needs. But good inventory management isn’t just about tracking numbers—it’s about staying close to your customers (so you know what they’re going to want next) and maintaining good relationships with your suppliers (so you can get the best possible terms).

Greater employee productivity: Can you squeeze even more out of your employees? Yes, if you make sure they’ve got the tools they need to do their jobs (see “technology” above), the training they need to keep on top of changes in your industry and your business, and the support they need to stay energized. That includes listening to your team (they may have better ideas than you about ways to streamline processes and systems) and giving them appropriate flexibility and time off so they don’t get burned out. All of these will help with employee retention too.

There’s good news in the Sage results: Even if many are working longer, more than half (56 percent) of small-business owners polled truly believe they are living the American dream, and more than three-fourths (76 percent) say they never once contemplated giving up their business at any point in the past five years. Maybe small-business owners are working harder not because they’re trying to keep their heads above water, but because they’re re-energized and excited about the future.

Read more articles about the recession.

Photo: Thinkstock

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Anita Campbell

CEO, Small Business Trends LLC

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Open Source GIS untuk Banjir Jakarta

Putting Free and Open Source GIS Software (QGIS 2.0) Under-Stress for producing Jakarta Flood Map

Posted on Friday January 24th, 2014 by emir — 3 Comments ↓

Peta banjir di website BPBD DKI Jakarta

The peak of rain season has arrived, and as usual, Jakarta always got flooded around December until February each year. Information about where flood happen is very important, public need open access to know and understand where the affected areas are. But, of course textual information is not enough. That is why DKI Jakarta Provincial Disaster Agency (Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD) Provinsi DKI Jakarta) with assistance from Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), funded by Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR-DFAT Australian Aid ) is creating Jakarta flood map this year.

Control room in BPBD DKI Jakarta

HOT team + AIFDR staff are creating maps for Jakarta flood response.

Everyone needs to know that all maps that have been published to the public are NOT produced with commercial or paid software. We are using free and open source software, QGIS 2.0 which is available in qgis.org for Windows, OSX, and Linux. We are putting this free software under stress to create good maps with fast and efficiently.

QGIS 2.0 in OSX

During the producing process, there are 3 phases:

Data collection, data processing, and entry data
Symbology setting
Layouting

Phase 1: Data collection, data processing, and entry data

For BPBD flood maps, data are collected from report (where head of villages reporting regularly) through call center, fax, even BBM. All the report goes into BPBD DKI Jakarta Operation Center. Then, BPBD staff are recaping all the data into form like this:

This form showing list which villages and sub-villages affected with flood, including water level information

No data = no maps. Data is important!

That kind of recapitulation is reported every 6 hours (if the flooding is quite intense). So, there will be 4 reports each day: 12am, 6am, 12pm, and 6pm.

Then, we are processing the data by creating class of water level.

Class 1: 10 – 70 cm
Class 2: 71 – 150 cm
Class 3: > 150 cm
Class 4: Reported that the area is affected, but there is no water level information yet.

Next, we are entrying the data using QGIS 2.0. We are using sub-villages boundary from OpenStreetMap. We are pulling the vector file from OpenStreetMap then we set the attributes table like this:

KAB_NAME is District, KEC_NAME is Sub-District, KEL_NAME is Village, and RW is sub-village

We are adding new column, “affected” and “tinggi”. To indicate that a sub-village is affected by flood, we give value 1. And to indicate the water level class, we put value based on water level class inside “tinggi” column. We are putting the value based on the report given by BPBD staff. The longer the report (meaning lot of sub-village affected), the longer the entry data process. It can take 1-2 hours during intense flood, even more.

Phase 2: Symbology setting

After data entry, we are setting up the symbology. QGIS 2.0 layer properties UI is quite simple and easy to understand. We can set the symbology based on value from a column. If we want to show affected sub-villages, we are using “affected” column. But if we want to show water level classification, we are using “tinggi” column. Other symbology such as boundary needs to be set up too, so the map will be easy to understand and anyone can read it

Phase 3: Layouting

Layouting maps in QGIS 2.0

Designing a map layout is setting up a final map so the map will be ready to print and distribute. We are paying attention the maps component such as title, scale, legend, etc. The layout should be designed perfectly, and each component has meaning. The more information that you put into layout, then the map will be more amenable. Since people would know where they have to reach if there is something wrong with the map. So, if you want to display the map, it should be displayed completely with the additional information :)

All final products can be seen at http://bpbd.jakarta.go.id/peta-banjir/

For chronological map animation, actually it’s a group of map that we designed with the same symbology and layout. And we compiled those maps based on time-series. All maps are joined with GIF creator software (GIFFun is good enough for OSX, in case you wondering

)

Want to learn more about OSM and QGIS? We have the guide: http://openstreetmap.or.id/resources/guide/

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Bagaimana sosial media mempengaruhi keputusan beli konsumen

30 statistik bagaimana sosial media pengaruhi keputusan beli

Shortly after we share our foody selfies on Pinterest, we'll be browsing our Facebook and Twitter feed fill to the brim with shopping coupons and discounts. The fact is that social networks have become an ideal medium for businesses to share and promote their products and retail fairy tales. But, the question is how important social channel can be to YOUR business? How you can use social networking sites to drive sales and leads? If you need to prove this point to your clients or even your friends, here's an infographic loaded with 30+ stats on the subject - How Social Media Influences Purchase Decisions. Remember to share them at the dinner table tomorrow.

30+ Reason How Social Media Influence Purchasing Decision - infographic

40 percent of Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook users have purchased something after watching and sharing it.

3 out of 10 consumers think that Facebook influence their purchasing decisions.

Almost 5 out of 10 people follow brands on Pinterest to learn more about products.

Almost 2 out of 10 consumers follow brands on YouTube to make purchases.

Nearly 2 out of 10 Twitter users purchased an item after favoring on their feed.

Pengaruh Social Media terhadap bisnis.

Social Media Influence On Businesses [INFOGRAPHIC]

Image: Social Media Influence On Businesses

Social media has become an important part of business and marketing plans. Both social media users and online consumers are using social media more frequently before making the purchase decisions. According to a study 85% of internet users have Facebook accounts and 49% have Twitter accounts, while 27 % of total online time is spent on social networking and 84 percent of shoppers use social media sites. Check out the infographic by somemto to know how social media influence businesses and to have better understanding of social media impact on your business and on your marketing campaigns.