Author: Justin Hesser

The New York County District Attorney's office has announced that New York Police Department officers and vehicles will begin to receive high-tech devices as part of the NYPD Mobility Initiative. Each of the approximately 35,000 officers in the nation's largest police force will receive a smartphone, and 6,000 rugged tablets, designed to sustain tough field conditions, will be installed in police vehicles. The $160 million investment will be covered entirely by a financial settlement from French bank BNP Paribas.

The devices will be loaded with several apps to make the officers' jobs easier, including a mobile version of the Domain Awareness System, a surveillance platform that was first instituted by the NYPD, which will soon begin licensing it to other law enforcement forces. Officers will be able to access 911 data such as location and even notes from the call-taker, and future planned functionality includes fingerprint scanning and GPS.

Besides modernizing the police force, some observers believe the high-tech solutions could also increase accountability and help prevent abuses. To that end, both Los Angeles and New York City have recently begun equipping officers with personal cameras.

Six thousand NYPD vehicles will be equipped with rugged tablets.

"We must have 21st-century tools to deal with 21st-century threats, and this infusion of new resources will arm our officers with the technology and information they need to fight crime and protect the city against terrorism more efficiently and more effectively," said mayor Bill de Blasio at a press conference.

The modernization of law enforcement also opens up new possibilities for software developing companies. Police departments can't afford to lag behind in technology, and they could benefit greatly from the use of apps designed specifically for their purposes.

Relational database application FileMaker is helping businesses greatly reduce costs by allowing them to closely track and streamline their operations. British management services company Eversfield Consultants reports that its system development expenses were slashed by half by hiring a FileMaker developer. Eversfield specializes in providing cost and strategy support to construction and property management organizations, and uses databases to gather information about each building in its portfolio.

Eversfield attempted to create a FileMaker solution to enhance its property lifecycle management services by categorizing buildings by type, making it easier for employees to search through available assets.

"As we haven't got a lot of experience with FileMaker, it was very time-consuming for us to prepare our application," said Eversfield director Nick Woolcot of the process. "For this reason we couldn't focus on our core business. What's worse, we weren't happy with the performance of the app we created. Because of all that we began to consider hiring for this work a company specializing in FileMaker custom business solutions."

By turning to a certified FileMaker developer, Eversfield received expert services and an app that fulfills all of the company's needs, and they are already reaping the benefits. As well as being able to focus on core business processes rather than software development, it was of vital importance that the app be accessible from mobile devices, since many of Eversfield's business is done in the field during meetings with clients.

Custom database software can help companies in any industry by organizing all the information they need in a manner that is easily accessible. Developers can also provide instruction in how to use FileMaker so that IT managers can expand and update their own databases in the future as their business evolves.

Big data is becoming increasingly accessible and is no longer the exclusive purview of multinational corporations. An article in Entrepreneur magazine gives a few tips on how small businesses can also gather and analyze data to achieve better business results. Naturally, big data tools for small businesses cannot be identical to those used by major enterprises, because they have to account for the fact that small companies don't have IT departments or, in many cases, any employees with extensive IT knowledge. But with the right tools, small companies can use data to succeed nevertheless.

Here are a few things small businesses should look for in their data gathering tools:

• Ease of use: For small business managers or employees to be able to take advantage of big data, they need tools that are intuitive to use and, as the Entrepreneur article says, "can turn anyone into a data analyst."
• Adaptability: Small businesses, especially in their early stages, are very changeable: they grow quickly in size, they adjust their business strategies as they gain more insights into their industry, etc. Therefore, they need a database system that can be adapted to suit their evolving needs.
• Cloud functionality: Cloud or hybrid cloud-based solutions have a number of advantages over strictly on-site data systems. They are easier to adapt and allow for more flexibility when it comes to working remotely or allowing employees to access databases from their own mobile devices.

FileMaker covers all of these requirements and is perfectly suited for small businesses. With the help of a certified FileMaker developer, companies can create their own customized databases that will give them a clear overview of all the information they need to make better business decisions.

The City of New York launched a website on Wednesday aimed at promoting and aiding startup companies in their early stages. The site is called Digital.NYC and is the Big Apple's latest step toward becoming a hub for the tech industry like it is for so many other businesses. In March, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority awarded the generic top-level domain .nyc, which the city has been distributing to local organizations for a few weeks.

Digital.NYC was built on the Bluemix cloud platform as a service with support from the not-for-profit New York City Economic Development Corporation. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio publicly introduced the site at a press conference held in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo, home to a number of successful tech companies including e-marketplaces Etsy and Maker's Row.

"This is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, a public-private partnership to really bring all of the aspects of the industry together," he said. "We love and respect our brothers and sisters in Silicon Valley, but people here can find each other."

The website will feature an extensive database of more than 6,000 names, both companies and investors, to help promising startups find venture capital. Tech professionals will also be able to search job listings, and all interested parties can find information on upcoming courses and events, incubators and workspaces where entrepreneurs can meet to exchange ideas and business contacts.

De Blasio hopes that New York City will soon become a tech hub on par with California's Silicon Valley, producing its own software developing companies and attracting enterprising talent from around the United States and abroad.

Government Technology magazine published the findings of its biennial Digital States Survey last week, showing very positive results for Connecticut. The survey evaluated all 50 states on the degree to which their governments' adoption of technology helps serve their citizens. Connecticut was the most improved state, rising from a C to an A- grade in the two years since the last survey. Only Michigan, Missouri and Utah obtained an A grade, and there were four others with an A-.

According to the survey's official criteria, states that are rated A "are trending sharply up. They show results across all survey categories. Modernization is used to realize operational efficiencies and strategic priorities. There is evidence of meaningful collaboration, and performance measures and metrics are widely adopted."

The survey also details advances in particular areas, with some interesting conclusions for the data sector. According to the results, open data is one of the hot topics for states, who rank it as their fourth biggest priority for the next two years, behind cyber security, cloud migration and shared services. Already, it is second only to mobile-enabled websites in terms of implementation.

Conversely, the report reads, "only a quarter of states report having mechanisms in place to manage and secure big data." This will undoubtedly change in the coming years, as big data is poised to become a significant point of emphasis for governments and private companies alike. As the amount of available data grows exponentially, it will become increasingly important to have the means to process and analyze all that information.

Connecticut FileMaker developer Kyo Logic can furnish local organizations with custom database software, allowing them to gather and sift through as much data as they deem necessary. This can help any business streamline and focus its operations, gaining a significant edge on the competition.

Three major North American publications have begun the week with looks at where big data usage currently stands and where it is likely to go in the future. Tech news website Business Insider recaps two recent reports on the intersection of big data and social media, and how the information gathered from both can boost business. Among the cited statistics is that Facebook processes 500 times more data daily than the New York Stock Exchange.

Both the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and International Data Corporation have predicted up to a 50-fold increase in data generation by 2020. Similarly, a Fortune column cites dramatic increases in cloud computing, data center storage space and device connectivity. But both articles conclude that there is much work to be done before the business world is ready to handle all the information that is coming its way. More available data, says Fortune, "means hiring people with the right skills to make sense of it all."

Business Insider has the results of a Strategy& survey by which 61 percent of data professionals believe big data will change marketing for the better, but according to IBM, 71 percent of marketing officers admit their companies are not prepared to make the most of that data.

Which is where education comes in. The Toronto Star says that demand for business analytics MBA programs is rising fast in both Canada and the United States, where the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects there to be 1.5 million jobs for data analytics experts in the business sector in 2018.

Already small and medium-sized businesses have tools at their disposal to get ahead of the curve. Custom database software is available for companies who want to easily access and analyze all the information that will help them improve business, from production to sales numbers.

Several dozen Connecticut entrepreneurs gathered at the headquarters of Applied Physical Sciences in Groton to discuss the state’s startups, and the possibility of a tech community centered on New London County. Groton is already home to a Pfizer campus, and the pharmaceutical corporation is set to open up a new lab space as part of a project in conjunction with Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE). Pfizer will donate a 24,000-square-foot building for CURE to establish an incubator, which will have room for science and technology startups to work in.

CURE, Pfizer and several business networks, including the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, organized the meeting in order to attract emerging science and tech firms. The plan is to have several startups sharing the same space, with the hope that that openness will lead to greater advances than they could achieve by working in isolation from each other.

As reported on this blog, small businesses are thriving recently in Connecticut thanks to government-sponsored programs. Private efforts such as this can also go a long way toward further improving the prospects of the state’s SMBs and opening Connecticut up to new sectors. For startups to thrive in this newly competitive market, they can turn to business software solutions, which are available from locally based providers.

A certified Connecticut FileMaker developer can create customized databases that will help run an SMB’s operations smoothly. FileMaker is a versatile piece of software that allows companies to gather and analyze all their data, from financial information to production numbers. Its ease of use enables employees to focus on the research and development that will lead a tech startup to continued success.

While custom application development is on the rise, it is sometimes easy to forget about the apps that never reach the public. Now, with mobile operating system iOS 8 already in the hands of developers and, due to reach consumers with the iPhone 6 later this month, Apple has listed the top 10 reasons why app submissions are turned away. The information does not include details on what percentage of apps are rejected.

At 14 percent of all rejections, by far the number one reason for denial during the week of August 21-28 was simply a lack of sufficient information on iTunes Connect, the platform where apps are uploaded and described. A few of the most common causes for rejection are related to apps not being ready for release, because they still have bugs (8 percent), feature placeholder text (4 percent) or are labeled as beta, demo or trial versions (2 percent). Most of the top reasons are specific violations of Apple's guidelines, such as having excessively complex interfaces, irrelevant or false information or incorrect audience ratings.

The top ten reasons account for 58 percent of all rejections, and Apple has not detailed the remaining 42 percent. But for fledgling application development companies, this information can serve as a useful checklist of mistakes to avoid and actions to take before submitting an app. The company has made it clear that the screening process is quite stringent, and developers should not expect to be able to get away with a flawed or unfinished product. Indeed, the post states that the main motivation for its publication was "to help you better prepare your apps before submitting them for review."

Developers would do well to take heed, and ensure that they are putting out quality products that will succeed in the age of iOS 8.

The 2014 edition of IT research company Gartner's hype cycle, published this week, shows an overwhelmingly positive outlook for custom database development, database management, data science and big data over the next decade. The cycle is a graphic representation of where emerging technologies stand in terms of industry perception and their permeation with their potential audience, and it also predicts when said technologies will have reached enough exposure to no longer be considered emerging.

Big data, which last year was classified as the most hyped technology, has now moved past the "Peak of Inflated Expectations". According to the cycle's progression, the next step will be supplier consolidation, followed by a second and third wave of venture capital influx, which will set big data well on the path to the so-called "Plateau of Productivity", the final stage, which it will reach, according to Gartner, within the next five to 10 years.

By that time, data science will already be a productive technology — in fact, it is projected to be the fastest mover in the coming months and years. Now only at the beginning of the mass media hype stage, Gartner nevertheless predicts that data science will quickly proceed on to the subsequent waves of investment that eventually lead to consolidation. Also plateauing in less than five years will in-memory database management systems.

Given this positive outlook, it's clear that data management, already an important part of any business, is only going to become more relevant with time. Business managers would be wise to engage the services of database consultants, who can provide custom database software which will not only assist in the running of the business's operations but also help them keep up with the current trend.

A series of webinars and training sessions designed to boost the use of database application FileMaker will be hosted by St. Louis-based technology consultant Skeleton Key, a FileMaker Academy partner of Kyo Logic, between August and October. The training series was presented at the FileMaker STL meet-up on August 5, fresh off the 2014 FileMaker Developer Conference, which was held in July in San Antonio and saw Skeleton Key honored with two awards. The company received the Business Alliance Excellence Award for Leads, and in the DevCon Developer Cup Challenge, Christopher Schmitz took first place just ahead of Kyo Logic’s chief technology officer Tim Neudecker.

Neudecker himself kicked things off with a free hour-long FileMaker Academy Webinar for developers and IT and project managers on August 19, which served as a prelude to Skeleton Key’s two St. Louis training courses. Skeleton Key has spearheaded the effort to promote FileMaker among local businesses in the St. Louis area.

The Developer Essentials three-day course will be held August 26-28 with a second session October 21-23. Attendees will have a one-on-one interview before immersing themselves in learning the basic tools of FileMaker development, including data modeling, layouts, scripts and security. A final individual review will help would-be developers apply what they’ve learned to their specific area of business.

Path to Certification is a more in-depth five-day course, designed to prepare developers who already have an understanding of FileMaker development for the FileMaker Certification exam. Like the Developer Essentials program, this training series is book-ended by one-on-one meetings, where the conversation will be tailored to the needs of each aspirant, in order to address specific areas which may require polishing ahead of the Certification exam.