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When it comes to business software solutions, many companies are looking for new ways to stay effective. As more systems are reliant on technology, software becomes increasingly important as the platform to manage these solutions. However, knowing software is needed and creating a custom solution that meets all of the challenges of the organization are two different things.

According to a recent article from Modern Health Care, the state of Connecticut is planning to start selling the technology solution it created to handle its acclaimed insurance exchange website "Access Health CT." This is needed because many states are mulling the complicated task of fixing sites that are crashing.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said that it is time for many individuals to start admitting to mistakes they made and move past them for workable solutions. One way that organizations can answer this is through buying the expertise of other organizations. In this case, Connecticut's website technology solution.

According to the article, Maryland is already partnered with the state and Deloitte to rebuild its online marketplace. The project will cost up to $50 million and is more complicated than just buying a system off the shelf.

"(It's) not a seamless purchase, but these platforms are already built, proven and viable," said Dan Schuyler, the senior director for exchange technology at consultancy Leavitt Partners.

He added that Connecticut's success is based on the fact that the state as a whole is a strong organization with good leadership from the top down.

Creating a custom database software solution is not easy and a quality development firm can help any business design and deploy a custom system.

Every business considering a partnership with a FileMaker developer is going to have questions. In this series we will address the frequently asked questions that our customers have about our services.                                    
 
Answer: Since 1993, electronic mail, or email as it is commonly referred to, has become one of the most popular ways for individuals to communicate with each other. You would be hard pressed to find a business or individual that was not familiar with and using this technology.

Over the last 20 plus years, the solution has evolved dramatically and led to the creation of instant messaging and text messaging. It has become a key tool for marketers and a preferred method of conversation for nearly every business individual. With the rise of mobile devices, email has been taken away from the desktop and is now always at our fingertips.

Because of this, organizations need to make sure that any system they are using can be optimized to work with an email solution.

At Kyo Logic we can help organizations with email distribution through several different solutions. These include:

Constant Contact

Having been in business since 1995, Constant Contact is one of the leading names in email marketing. The toolkit allows organizations to create and distribute targeted email marketing strategies including newsletters, announcements, offers, promotions, online events, registrations, feedback and surveys.

On top of that, the system can be paired with a call-to-actions and detailed reporting to better track purchases, registrations or any other metric that the users wants to follow. It can also help avoid spam blockers to make sure the end user actually receives the email.

MailChimp

With more than six million users, MailChimp allows users to create, send and track email newsletters. The system has been used by organizations of all sizes – from small start-ups to Fortune 500 company's. The features and integrations can suit any email marketing needs.

Around since 2001, users are able to create signup forms that perfectly match the brand's look and feel. It allows organizations to send product updates, event invitations, announcements and editorial content that can be used as part of a campaign to gain customers and inform readers. It is also effective at getting past spamming blocks.

FileMaker mail distribution

Many businesses use FileMaker as a way to create contact databases. through a series of integrated tools, businesses are able to take this list and create distribution lists. From here, companies can send targeted emails only to those customers that need to see them. They can, however be ineffective at bypassing spam blockers.

The Connecticut FileMaker Developer’s Group will be hosting the next meeting on May 21st at 10:00 AM in the Student Center at the Central Connecticut State University. Tim Neudecker from Kyo Logic will demonstrate the synchronization tool Mirror Sync 2.0 from 360works.com We will also start our special project. Rich Austin will present his needs requirements to the group for an inventory tracking system for fire trucks. The group will discuss the possible ways FileMaker can fit into the work flow, and direct Rich in the building of the solution. ——————– Connecticut FileMaker Developer’s Group Meeting Wednesday, May 21st, 2014 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Student Center Central Connecticut State University New Britain, CT 06053 View the e-mail meeting notice. Subscribe to the mailing list.

While New York City is trying to stake a claim as the Silicon Valley of the east, with varying levels of success, there are surrounding areas that want a piece of that title. While Boston has long been the title holder, Connecticut is starting to make some waves.

According to a recent article from The New Haven Courant, despite only being a few months into 2014, Connecticut has already experienced more venture capital poured into the IT landscape than it has in years. So far there have been three major investments that tally $189 million.

The piece cites a MoneyTree Report that found the first quarter of 2014 was more than three times as large as any quarter in the previous two years. While the focal point is on the three major deals, there are several other partnerships that total an additional $12 million.

"The large quarter for tech investments does not necessarily mark a trend, as venture capital deals don't follow a clear pattern from quarter to quarter," the article reads. "But the New York metro region, which includes Fairfield and New Haven counties, has had two straight quarters with deal levels not seen since 2001."

The article adds that so far in 2014, $9.5 billion has been invested in tech firms. That is the highest number since early 2001.

The Connecticut technology landscape is of to a stellar 2014. This is the perfect time for local companies that were considering investing in new hardware and software to start doing so by partnering with a local IT solution provide or specialty companies like a Connecticut FileMaker developer.

The business technology landscape is constantly evolving. For organizations, it is becoming increasingly important to keep an ear to the ground and make sure they are keeping up with the times. Organizations that fail to do that could find themselves outdated and suddenly scrambling to catch-up.

One area of business that has been evolving quickly over the last few years is the database. With more solutions becoming digital, the amount of information that is suddenly available is growing. However, managing all of this data has become increasingly difficult.

A recent article from Database Trends and Applications spoke with Anne Buff, a Thought Leader for SAS Best Practices at SAS Institute. The interview was held in preparation of the upcoming Data Summit that will be held in New York from May 12 through 14. Buff will be one of the keynote speakers delivering a speech called "Oh, Shift! How Big Data Is Calling for an Enterprise Data Rethink."

Her biggest point is that data strategies are evolving and many organizations need to take some time to re-evaluate what they do.

"Big data is still in its early stages. A lot of that is because people don't quite know what they are going to do with it yet," said Buff. "They know what it is, they know where they can get it but they have not quite figured out what they are going to do with it. Right now one of the biggest things is just trying to define what big data means to an organization."

With the help of a managed IT services software provider, any company can start revamping its strategies and improve how it uses data.

The Connecticut FileMaker Developer’s Group will be hosting the next meeting on March 12th at 10:00 AM in the Student Center at the Central Connecticut State University. We will have a round table show and tell about our favorite new things in FileMaker 13. Bring samples of how you have used the new features and see your peers samples. ——————– Connecticut FileMaker Developer’s Group Meeting Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM Student Center Central Connecticut State University New Britain, CT 06053 View the e-mail meeting notice. Subscribe to the mailing list.

Few organizations deal with bigger questions than NASA. While many companies have to deal with concerns about people thousands of miles apart, the distances that NASA is worried about stretch into the light-years. 

It's no surprise, then, that they would turn to Big Data. Custom web application development is a powerful tool, and for issues of the scope that they're dealing with, perhaps the only appropriate one. 

Round the clock, NASA has over 100 devices scattered throughout our solar system (including some here on Earth!), gathering information. They take in a lot of data — so much so, in fact, that at the Jet Propulsion Lab, parsing it, storing it and analyzing it is a full-time job. 

Because it gets so much data, sorting through it all can be a chore. The ultimate question scientists have to ask themselves is "what's signal, and needs to be kept, and what's just noise and can be readily discarded?"

To answer these questions, NASA turns to the use of complex algorithms. These computational shortcuts allow scientists not to have to observe every batch of data by hand, a task that would be literally impossible in the volumes that they're collecting. Instead, once the unmanned rovers, satellites and telescopes transmit their information to the servers, the process of scanning it and sorting it is automated. 

Kiri Wagstaff, who works in the machine learning sector of the propulsion lab, described the process that her division goes through when collecting knowledge. 

"Our software picks it up and makes a decision whether something interesting happened in the past five milliseconds. Our detection algorithm looks for correlations amongst all of the radio telescopes. If [an object is] popping up on all of them and not just one, they come together to make a quick decision whether or not to send it into classification," she told Forbes.

She's even more optimistic for the future of these devices. Wagstaff revealed to Forbes that there was room for improvements in the algorithms, especially in the area of better categorizing false events. As the algorithms get better, they will "learn" how not to prioritize these events. In addition, they will be able to move through this entire process significantly more quickly. 

For most organizations, the sky is the limit with what they can do with Big Data. For NASA, the possibilities stretch far beyond. 

For marketers, being able to use Big Data has long been a valuable skill. Understanding how to segment and describe different sectors of your customer base is the first step in providing them with a customized experience, and it takes a keen awareness of numbers to compete in today's digital marketplace. In fact, research firm Circle Research estimates that more than 80 percent of marketing professionals have turned to analytics in some way.  

Now, those same skills are becoming more and more valuable for executives. 

Big Data is no longer just about how to reach consumers most effectively. Now, it's also suffused throughout every aspect of running a business. In the past, learning how to use FileMaker might have been the domain of a single middle-manager. These days, however, these sorts of skills are becoming more germane to what it means to be a CEO. 

In an interview with Marketing Magazine UK, Drew Nicholson, the chief executive of dnx, describes the importance of these capabilities for top-level executives. 

"CMO's have been given the biggest opportunity they've had in 50 years. Data will give them insights and opportunities that they've never had before, but they have to do it well or they won't gain stature. If they use the wrong data then they'll lose credibility," said Nicholson.

Trying to decide the best person to lead your company? These days, the right candidate will need some facility with programs like FileMaker. If your organization is lacking in these sorts of skills, it's in danger of falling behind the curve.