Real Times

We hope you enjoyed reading the second edition of Real Times.

is our quarterly customer communication bringing you real issues, real comments and real solutions from around the business world.

It is also possible to access a pdf version of the previous issues of NExT TIMES (former name for Real Times) via the “Archive” section

Below are some links relating to the articles in the current edition which provide additional information in the form of either downloadable pdf documents or links to other web content.

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IT budget adjust for credit crunch

Since the gathering storm of the credit crisis broke in late summer, fears of financial collapse and worldwide recession have been dominating headlines and the minds of politicians and business leaders. With the volatile markets as a backdrop, enterprises are starting to rein in spending. How will this downturn affect IT departments and the industries that provide services to them? Danny Bradbury, a regular contributor to The Independent, The Financial Times, The Guardian and many technology trade magazines investigates.

To read more about the impact of the credit crunch please click on the links below

In this issue...

Play to win as virtual worlds enter corporate thinking

Virtual worlds are already beginning to make an impression on some companies, such as those that have taken real estate in Second
Life. Now virtual worlds are poised to enter a second phase of development as enterprises look to virtual environments in a bid to boost collaboration and team working.
The idea of constant access to communities of networked people is common. Web 2.0 has flourished over the past few years, thanks to the combination of simpler user interfaces and always-on access. The next phase in Web 2.0 development may well be in the business sphere where virtual worlds could be used to motivate sales teams, identify unrecognized talents in the mailroom and maybe even spawn the
next big idea.
To read more about virtual worlds please click on the links below

The New Tigers: exploring the world's fastest growing economies

India at your service

India has experienced an unprecedented economic turnaround in the last 15 years.
The country’s middle class is set to explode thanks to a surge of wealth created by a vibrant services and skill-intensive manufacturing sector.
As recently as two decades ago, India was languishing in the backwaters of the global economy. Now it is a poster child for the emerging markets and proudly sits alongside Brazil, China and Russia on Goldman Sachs’ BRIC list of economies to watch.

To find our more about India, please click on the links below

Guest Writer

In the second edition of Real Times, we welcome back Richard Cree, editor of Director. As any gambler will tell you, making predictions is a difficult business. The past is no guarantee of the future and, however well informed you are, there’s always the possibility that something totally unexpected might occur. The sort of thing Donald Rumsfeld might call “things we didn’t know we didn’t know.”

And so to the global banking crisis. Who would have predicted even at the start of September that two of the U.K.’s biggest banks would be allowed to merge?

to find out more about Director magazine, click here

Customer Case Study

Paper trail leads to global mobility solution

One of the world’s largest wood, pulp and paper producers was struggling to put the right tools into its mobile workers’ hands. But now with Business Everywhere deployed across its mobile workforce, costs have been cut, productivity has been improved and employees are making critical decisions faster.
Metsäliitto Group is one of the world’s largest wood, pulp and paper producers.
Most of the company’s 20,000 employees work in mills and factories, but about 3,700 are fully mobile or work from home. These include the account managers with global footprints and senior executives with roaming remits.
To work effectively, mobile Metsäliitto workers need to have real-time access to order and production data wherever they are in the world. They also need to file their expenses remotely, have access to messaging and so on.

To read the full case study please click here

Future Technologies

The Internet of Things
The story of the Internet so far has been one of digitizing content and transactions. The future will be a convergence of the virtual and real. In this future world, all “things” which are addressable and connectable will interact to provide a multitude of business and consumer services. Physical things, such as mobile phones, sensors and telemetry devices and virtual things, such as intelligent agents and avatars, will work seamlessly to create ubiquitous and pervasive contextual services in real time.
Last year, Kevin Kelly, doyen of technology futures and one time editor of Wired magazine, observed that the Web as we know is just 5,000 days old. It is a little surprising just how far we have come in such a short space of time. All of our lives are now online: films, books, grocery shopping, timetables, maps, work, our social life, our holiday photos, our birth certificates, our vote.
To find out more about the Internet of Things, please click on the links below:
EU
Vint Cerf Blog
Bruce Sterling’s
IPSO Alliance

Connect to Flickr in a flicker with smart lighting?
The era of Wi-Fi networks in every home could soon be at an end if scientists at the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Centre (ERC) succeed in developing wireless communications technology that is based on visible light instead of radio waves.
They plan to use flickering lights – specifically light emitting diodes (LED) – to transmit data, initially at speeds of one to ten megabits per second. The good news for migraine sufferers is that this flickering will be undetectable to the human eye.
To find out more about smart lighting please click here

Communications services play an important role in supporting business processes and even in creating new business opportunities. Building on ubiquitous IP network services, Orange Business Services has launched realtime business, which brings together real-time communications and real-time applications to deliver real-time services for employees, customers and business processes.
The business world is a dynamic place, where companies are continually looking for opportunities in new markets, dealing with the challenges new competitors pose in their own market and meeting fresh demands from existing customers.
To find out more about real-time business please click on the links below

Worldwide Web conference and team collaboration software market to grow by
22% in 2008
To read more about this topic, click here

Forrester says that spending on IT security is continuing to rise
To read more about this topic, click here

Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way enterprises think about IT
To read more about this topic, click here

India will have five hundred million mobile subscriptions in 2010
To read more about this topic, click here

335,000 cellular base stations to include solar power by 2013
To read more about this topic, click here

sustainable solutions to climate challenge

Never has the need to reduce energy consumption been so important. Rising fuel prices, global population growth and the threat of climate change means that all
companies need to look to ICTs to make serious changes to the way they work. Real Times talks to green IT expert Jean-Manuel Canet.

Jean-Manuel Canet is the Senior Manager leading the new offers team within Consulting Services France. Jean-Manuel has developed an expertise in how ICT can help organizations progress towards sustainable development. He has previously
worked with Air France, Hewlett Packard Labs in Bristol and several entities within the France Telecom Group. He holds degrees from Telecom ParisTech and from the Collège des Ingénieurs MBA Programme.

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