Kaizen – Just Do It!

Kaizen means continuous improvement

Moreover, Kaizen means continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life. When applied to the workplace Kaizen means continuing improvement involving everyone – managers and workers alike. Japanese word meaning -Kai - gradual and orderly change, Zen  - for the better. Involves everyone in the organization in small improvements using conventional knowledge and tools

Without large capital investments.

A culture  - way of life

Focusing on eliminating waste

Begins and ends with people

Total system focus – not just one department

Kaizen Extends to Individual Life

Everybody deserves to and should be willing to improve himself/herself for the better continually.

“If a man has not been seen for three days, his friends should take a good look at him to see what changes have befallen him”  - an old Japanese saying that 

describes how natural Kaizen is

Kaizen Key Concepts

SDCA to PDCA – standardized work

Quality first

–If something can be improved, a measure must exist by which improvement can be quantified – quality characteristics

Upstream management

Speak with data

Variability control and recurrence prevention

Seven Deadly Wastes

Over-production

Waiting

Transportation

Over-processing

Inventory

Motion

Defects

THE Kaizen WET BLANKET LIST

I am too busy to study it.

It's a good idea, but the timing is premature

It is not in the budget

Theory is different from practice

Isn't there something else for you to do ?

I think it doesn't match corporate policy

It isn't our business; let someone else think about it

Are you dissatisfied with your work ?

It's not improvement, it's common sense

I know the result, even if we don't do it

I will not be held accountable for it

Can't you think of a better idea ?

BASIC TIPS FOR KAIZEN ACTIVITIES

Discard conventional fixed ideas.

Think of how to do it, not why it cannot be done.

Do not make excuses. Start by questioning current practices.

Do not seek perfection. Do it right away even if for only 50% of target.

Correct it right away, if you make mistake.

Do not spend money for KAIZEN, use your wisdom.

Wisdom is brought out when faced with hardship.

Ask 'WHY?" five times and seek root causes.

Seek the wisdom of ten people rather than the knowledge of one.

KAIZEN ideas are infinite.

Maintenance

Innovation

–Major improvements in technology/equipment

–Requires substantial investment

–Best suited to a good economy

nKaizen 

Will Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Merge Into One Service?

Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp have the same parent company now. But they remain two different applications serving similar functions of communication, even after an effort to converge. Does their independency signify a ‘sibling rivalry’ or does their similarity call ahead for a future merging? This ambiguity does not seem to worry their users who seem to avail benefits from either or both, neglecting the boredom of similarity.

Facebook’s buyout of WhatsApp, for a staggering $19 Billion, dominated tech news for weeks. But Facebook’s prior introduction of Messenger and its upgradation with voice calling (similar to that of WhatsApp) makes the situation ironical. It does indicate that Facebook wants to provide its users wide range of experiences with two similar applications. This is confirmed by its decision to keep WhatsApp independent. According to researchers, the profit is titled towards WhatsApp in terms of distribution. With its world-wide reach, Facebook could colour more number of gadgets green. Besides surveys have proven that people who have mingled up with WhatsApp were reluctant to disown it even if they have downloaded Messenger app. They gave credits to WhatsApp for its simplicity and less complicated User Interface (UI) which determines user friendliness. Thus Messenger and WhatsApp are separated only by shadow lines.

But Facebook seems to be aiming for competition with WhatsApp itself. This is apparent with the increased focus Messenger is getting – the service was recently converted to a platform in itself, allowing developers to build services and apps for it. Messenger itself is becoming independent, and can now be accessed directly on Messenger.com. Facebook however, denies any plans to merge WhatsApp and Messenger.

Question the supporters of Facebook Messenger and you’ll get an elaborate list of advantages on the platform – more systematic and attractive appearance, sophisticated UI, and so on. WhatsApp loyalists would counter with things like better privacy, simpl UI, faster performance. If the virtue of one is the vice of another, then a wholesome good could be created from the combination of virtues and erasure of vices.
Even if the parent company exhibits no sign of integration, the merging may challenge similar application softwares like Line, WeChat, etc. Pondering on the reason for Facebook’s segregation of Messenger as a separate chatting facility will lead us to its competitive strategy. Its competitors are strong with social gaming and Facebook is likely to incline more towards this arena. Besides WeChat has a platform with apps for sending money, shopping, ordering take-away delicacies, etc. Another strategy Facebook has adopted with the segregation of Messenger is the introduction of ‘Business on Messenger’ in the app. Facebook claims that this portal could aggregate infinite number of retailers for the shoppers.

Therefore the ability of Messenger to become a platform could also strike up ideas on merging with WhatsApp. WhatsApp is a modified and enhanced version of text messaging whereas Messenger provides provision for financial transaction. If simplicity and sophistication integrates, it could steal much more number of eye balls. Messenger’s new voice calling facility, emoticons etc may seem redundant for a fusion. But a selective upgradation of facilities may promote a novel experience with a reduced operating cost.
With an extremely high number of downloads on the Play Store, WhatsApp remains in the gadgets of many. With enhanced facility, Messenger would top the rating of most downloaded app in the near future (compared to the previous year it has a growth of about 200 million monthly users).

With the heat of competition on its rise, one of the wise business strategies that could be adopted in need is fusion. With Instagram already under its wings, Facebook is looking forward with Messenger and WhatsApp. In the near future, if it would surprise us with an integration of the two, then it is doubtless that the new app would keep Facebook top in the business ratings-far from its competitors.

Qualities of Good Software Developer

By Envis Solutions

1.       Perspective. Ability to look from business perspective apart from (typical) code-level perspective. Understanding why all the coding is done and where are the fruits for the customer/user whoever it is.

2.      Questions. Asking why something is done that way. Discussing answers. Showing own point of view. Trying to be objective in the whole thing.

3.      Communication. It doesn’t have to be great but you should be able to talk with non-developers in a way which is understandable by the other side.

4.      Fallibility. Actually everyone is fallible, but not everyone is able to admit that.

5.      Experience. From different situation, different systems, different issues, different architectures, different teams, different technologies, different environments. The more the better.

6.      Learning. Will and ability to self-develop, learn (quickly) new things and adapt to new environments.

7.      Digging. Understanding a problem to the very bottom. Trying to find out what’s happening under the hood. Rejecting easy trial-and-error explanations.

8.     Reason. Every thing which is developed serves some purpose and using common sense one can easily decide which actions are justified and which are not.

9.      Hobby. Treating development as at least something more than just a job. Will to do develop something just for yourself, not because you were forced to.

10.  Quality. Just remember the quality is a weak point of software development and be willing to do something about your little piece of that crap.

None of them are actually about any particular technology. None of them is about any particular softwaredevelopment methodology. There’s no answer to specialization versus versatility question.

Things which differentiate good developers aren’t those which used to be considered as their core qualities.

Express Invoice Invoicing Software

Express Invoice Invoicing Software
The easiest and most complete invoicing system
Easy invoicing software to manage and track your billing on Mac or Windows.

 Create invoices, quotes and orders quickly
 Automate recurring invoices and templates
 Easily add multiple users and enable remote access

Express Invoice lets you create invoices you can print, email or fax directly to clients for faster payment. The reporting functionality allows you to keep track of payments, overdue accounts, sales team performance and more.

Apply a payment
Apply partial or full payments toward recorded invoices when payments are received.
Download Invoice Creation Software
Keep track of customers
You can keep an up-to-date record of all your customers, including contact details, payment and sales history.
Download Invoice Tracking Software
View & print reports
Generate, view and print reports for unpaid invoices, payments, item sales, accounting, and more.


Keep track of customers
You can keep an up-to-date record of all your customers, including contact details, payment and sales history.


View & print reports
Generate, view and print reports for unpaid invoices, payments, item sales, accounting, and more.


Invoicing Software Features

    Easily create invoices, quotes and orders
    Customize invoices including logo, heading text, notes and more
    Save or send invoices as PDF files
    Email or fax directly from the application
    Schedule recurring invoices
    Automatically send statements to customers with overdue payments
    Supports multiple tax rates for countries where required (e.g., Canada)
    Supports invoicing for multiple businesses
    Web access lets multiple users within the organization securely log in and use over the network or even the Internet
    Secure, mobile access through the web interface (e.g., iPhone, Android)
    Reporting includes accounting, salesperson performance, unpaid invoices and more
    Integrates with Inventoria to maintain inventory data across all aspects of your business


Invoice Program System Requirements

    Works on Windows 8.1, XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10
    Works on 64 bit Windows
    Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
    iPad version runs on iOS 3.2 or higher
    Android version runs on 2.3.3 or higher


For Any type of Purchase Please contact Envis Solutions

Visit our Facebook Page For More Details Envis Solutions

How to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking on Google

When I first started as a webmaster, there were numerous search engines around. Nowadays, though, we are, for the most part, left with only Google and Bing, with Google providing the majority of visitors to most websites, including www.envissolutions.com. This article provides some tips on how you can improve the position of your site in the search engine results on Google.

Improving Your Site's Placement on Google's Search Engine Results

Google ranks a page according to a large number of factors. Exactly what these factors are is apparently a trade secret, although there are number of well-known things that contribute to the ranking of a page

Links Pointing to Your Website

One of the factors that contribute to a web page being considered "important" is the number of links pointing to that page. For example, if your page has 100 quality links leading to it, it will be ranked higher (in Google's estimation) than one that only has 20.
But what are "quality" links"? These are links from other popular pages, that is, pages that have, themselves, many (quality) links pointing to them. (Yeah, I know. My definition is circular. And it's possible that the search engine has other factors that determine the quality of a link.)
Anyway, in general, since Google ranks your pages according to the number of links pointing at your page, your site will do better if it has more links pointing to it.

Your Title Tag

Google seems to give weight to the title of your page. By title, I mean the text that is sandwiched between the HTML <TITLE> tags in the <HEAD> section of your web page. If you use a Web editor that automatically inserts a title like "New Document", remember to change it to some meaningful text with your keywords inside to reap the benefit of this feature. Otherwise, your site will only feature in the search results when someone looks for "New Document".
Note: by "keywords", I mean the words people will use when searching for your site. For example, if your site sells bicycles, then one keyword for it would be "bicycles", since that's the word you'd expect people to use when searching for bicycles.

Your Page Must Have the Words You Think People Will Search For

Besides the title tag, if you want your website to feature in Google's results when someone searches for a set of words, say "Widget X", those words must actually occur on your page. Think about it from the point of view of a search engine. If you don't put the words "Widget X" somewhere on the page, how is the search engine supposed to know that the page deals with that topic? The search engine is not a human being who can draw inferences from the general tone and content of the page. Even if it can handle some synonyms, you're going to compete with other sites who have specifically placed those words on their site.
I know this point seems self-evident (once you've come across it). However, from experience, many webmasters (me included) don't seem to realise ("realize" in US English) that when they are first starting out.

Keyword-laden Links

According to apaper publishedby one of Google's founders, if the links pointing to your page has some words in them, those words will be regarded by Google as an additional indication of the content of your page. For example, a link with the text "Cheap Shoe Store" pointing at your page will cause Google to think that your page is relevant when someone searches for "cheap shoe store".
However, my recommendation is that if you think a particular set of words is relevant to your site, don't rely on some random site on the Internet to link to you with those words. Put them directly on your page.

Other Google Tips

1. Use a Search Engine Site Map

   Although not strictly necessary, if you find that Google (or Bing, for that matter) is not able to discover some pages on your website, create a site map. I don't mean the type of user site map that you see on www.envissolutions.com (which is primarily meant for human beings), but a site map that is specially designed for search engines. While such a site map does not guarantee that Google will index and list every page, it will at least help it discover those missing pages if your site design is such that it has impeded the search engine from finding them before.

2. Check Your Robots.txt File

   Like all respectable search engines, Google will read and obey a special text file on your website called the "robots.txt" file. You can control where search engines are allowed to go with this file. A corollary of this is that you can also inadvertantly block the search engine from going to certain parts of your site. It's generally a good idea to create a robots.txt file for your website, even if it's an empty file with zero bytes (which means that search engines are allowed to index everything on your site).

3. ALT text on Images

   If you have been placing images on your website without bothering to place ALT text, now is a good time to add them. An "ALT text" (or alternate text) is just a way of putting a brief description (using words) of what your picture shows. They are needed by the software used by the blind so that they know what's in the picture. Since all search engines, including Google, are essentially blind, relying on words, they also need the ALT text. The description you give in the ALT text is treated like the words occurring on your web page, although I don't know if they are regarded as being of equal importance.

4. Be Careful Whom You Hire

   Google's use of links to rank a website has at least 2 side effects on the Internet. Firstly, people seeking to rank higher have engaged companies to furnish them with zillions of links. Those companies presumably set up a whole bunch of sites for the sole purpose of linking to their clients. Secondly, as a response to this, the Google programmers have retaliated (and continue to do so) by discrediting links from such "link networks" as well as penalising the sites that pay them for the service.
   It's apparently possible to run afoul of this even if you have no intention of buying links. For example, if you are not careful, and have engaged a search engine optimisation ("SEO") company to improve your site's performance on Google, and they use a link network, your site may inadvertantly get caught in the crossfire of this ongoing war between the link networks and Google.

5. The META Keywords Tag is Ignored

   The Google search engine ignores the META keywords tag, and has always done so. If you have received spam from some wannabe search engine optimization "specialist" telling you that you need to add this to your site, think twice about hiring him/her, since this recommendation already gives you a hint of the extent of his/her knowledge.

6. Dynamic Pages and Google

   Like all modern search engines (yeah, all 2 of them), Google is able to index dynamically generated pages, so long as a link to those pages exists somewhere. For example, a page like "http://example.com/showstuff.php?page=19" can be indexed by Google, so you don't really need to rewrite your URLs if you can't be bothered.
   If you have a dynamically generated page that you think should be indexed, just make sure you put a link to it somewhere on your site. This applies to all web pages that you want indexed anyway, so even if you don't understand what I mean by "dynamic page", it doesn't matter. Make sure that all the pages of your site can be found through at least one link on your site. If they are not linked to from somewhere, no one will be able to find it, neither Google nor your visitors (unless they are psychic).

7. Disabling the Caching of Your Page Will Not Affect Your Page Rank

   In ancient history, it was claimed that Google would penalise pages that forbade it from caching their pages. As you know, the Google search engine caches the pages it indexes unless otherwise instructed. To avoid problems with people who dislike this, they allow sites to instruct Google not to cache those pages.
   Google have ("has" in US English) apparently publicly denied that disabling caching would affect the page's ranking in any way. I tend to believe their claim.

8. Don't Waste Your Time With The Google Toolbar's Page Rank

   In prehistoric times, you could add something known as the Google Toolbar to your web browser, and get something known as the "Page Rank" shown for any site you visit. In those days, the "Page Rank" would give you an idea of how important Google thought your site was.
   Nowadays, the Page Rank is only one of apparently zillions of factors used by Google in ranking a website. They also discourage people from focusing on the Page Rank, and as a result, do not actually update the rank displayed on the toolbar in a timely fashion. (That is, the rank shown is often many months out of date.) In fact, I'm not sure if the page rank is even shown on the toolbar anymore.
   In other words, it's not worth your time to install the toolbar. 

How important is responsive website design today?

Well, let's put your question in context.

How many people today use cell phones to check their e-mail, pay their bills, and navigate the web? Something approaching 91% if not higher in the US.

So if more people today use cell phones to get online then have laptops or PCs it should stand to reason that you'd want a website that would work on such devices wouldn't it? This is called responsive design.

And yet, statistically, most small business owners do not have responsive websites. It's not their fault. In most cases they get suckered into trying to get websites for free, or going with some dropout selling recycled templates out of a coffee shop for the cost of a meal out. The business owner thinks they're getting a great bargain...until six months later they realize they spent that little bit of money on an online brochure that most people can't read using their cell phones.

So to answer your question very directly, responsive design in professional level website design is vital if your site is going to be found and used by modern consumers, and anyone who tells you anything to the contrary is just flat wrong. It would be like performing a root canal with paperclips and tacks over modern dental tools or trying to build a car using tin cans and wooden wheels. Responsive design means the website "responds" to changing monitor sizes, i.e. mobile devices of all kinds. If everybody on earth now uses cell phones to access the internet and every company in the world wants their sites to work on mobile you'd be a fool not to care about responsive design and let it go unnecessarily.

At Sudden Impact, we build every website first for mobile, and make them "backward compatible" that is, they work on laptops and PCs after we test them out first on mobile. And that's just because we believe in doing things right the first time and not doing cheap hackwork.

How can you tell if a site is responsive? Easy! Go to the big "X" in the upper right hand corner of the browser window. Next to that "X" is a box within a box icon. Click on it and use it shrink and enlarge the browser window. If the site you're looking at can adapt in front of your eyes to the changing screen window sizes, it's responsive. If it remains static or "stuck" then it ain't modern and most modern consumers out there using cell phones won't waste their time trying to figure out why some clunky old site won't work correctly when they can just go to Amazon or Google and get it done without the drama.

When so many people (I mean, really, just go to any mall in America and just sit there for ten minutes, or any high school, any college, any food court, any bus station, any public library) have cell phones with browsers and internet capability, any business owner who does not make sure they are getting a fully responsive site (with SEO, too, and social media integration while we're at it) is wasting time, money, and emotional energy.

9 Reasons Social Media Marketing Should Top Your To-Do List

These days, it isn’t enough to have a website for your business – your digital storefront extends to social media marketing sites like Facebook and Twitter, and it’s time to start capitalizing on it. If your company still doesn’t have a Twitter account or a Facebook fan page, it’s time to get with the program and bring yourself up to speed (or risk falling behind your competition).

Still not convinced? Here are nine reasons social media marketing should top your to-do list:

1.)   You get to see your target market, up close and personal. Part of what makes marketing with Facebook and Twitter so cool is the interaction you get to have with your customer base – you can read their tweets and status updates to get insights into their daily lives (and maybe adjust your marketing strategy as a result).

    2.)   You can respond to problems immediately. If there’s a problem with your product or service, you want to know about it immediately. With the feedback you get in the process of social media marketing, you’ll be the first to know when there are issues – and you can take steps to resolve them right away. Study after study has shown that consumers appreciate companies that respond to customer complaints (and don’t hesitate to rant online to anyone who will listen when companies don’t take the time to make things right).

    3.)   Your competition is Tweeting and Facebooking like crazy. The early bird gets the worm, and the sooner you start up Facebook and Twitter pages, the sooner you can start amassing a ton of fans and followers. This isn’t something you want to fall behind the competition on, because it’s much harder (and more expensive) to play catch up than it is to get in on the game early. Truth be told, your competition is probably already marketing with Facebook, and maybe even Twitter and LinkedIn, too.

    4.)   People are receptive to your messages. People view Twitter and Facebook as social networks, not marketing machines. As a result, they’re less likely to see what you post as an advertisement and will be more likely to hear what you have to say.

    5.)   It will get you more sales. Not surprisingly, when you stay in front of your customer base, they’re more likely to buy from you when they need the products you sell. Social media marketing doesn’t just keep your company’s name in front of potential buyers, but it also gives you the opportunity to constantly give them incentives to buy. Try Tweeting or posting coupon codes, good only to those who are your Facebook fans or Twitter followers (around The Content Factory, we call them “Tweeps”). You’ll be surprised at how many people make purchases using the code!

    6.)   You will find customers you didn’t know existed. If you follow specific keywords in Twitter, you can find people who are looking for the products you sell (and then direct them to your site). Using Twitter for marketing is great that way – telling people who want your products how to get them from your company is just an @ sign away.

    7.)   Customers you didn’t know existed will find (and buy from) you. In the process of marketing with Facebook, you’ll probably join a ton of groups related to your products, industry and customer base. By posting links in these groups, you’ll help influence customers to check out your site. Post a link today, and two weeks later you might see a sale from it.

    8.)   It’s free. How can you argue with that? If you handle your own social media management, running a social networking campaign is as cheap as it gets. If you hire a social media management or online PR agency, it will cost around $3,000-$7,000 per month, but it’ll be an investment that you’ll be likely to see a return on. If you’re intimidated by interacting with people online or your writing skills leave something to be desired, hiring an online PR agency is definitely the way to go. Posting poorly written content or conveying the wrong kind of messages on social networking sites can seriously affect your digital PR presence.

    9.)   The social media marketing arena is a (fairly) level playing field. Unlike the brick and mortar world where you need to have millions of dollars to run traditional ad campaigns, all companies start off on pretty equal footing when it comes to social media marketing. The people who thrive and go viral in cyberspace are the people with the most clever, attention grabbing tactics and the most useful, link worthy content. If you want to get lots of traffic and really increase your sales online, you’re going to have to outwit, outnetwork and outwrite your competition while offering superior products and customer service. Isn’t that what business is all about, anyway?

Simply put, social media marketing is part of doing business in the new millennium. Marketing with Facebook has been hot for quite a while now, but recently more and more companies have been using Twitter for marketing. If your business isn’t already active on social networking sites, now is the time to start. Who knows, you could be missing out on sales opportunities right now.