Application Development, Project Management/Business Management

Does My Business Really Need A Mobile App?

by ArturoLeave a Comment on Does My Business Really Need A Mobile App?

JohnIf you’re looking for the short answer, here it is: yes.

Even your big business, the one you created before the internet even existed and already has a loyal customer base, needs a mobile application.

Mobile internet traffic grew 63% in 2016, surpassing desktop internet usage for the first time ever, and this trend is only expected to continue in the coming years.

Giving your customers the option to utilize your products/services on-the-go and to access functionality with only a few taps of their finger is essential to growing and maintaining your business. We live in age where speed and convenience are two key drivers in our decisions, and mobile apps meet both of these requirements.

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Microsoft, Office 365, Tech News

Introducing Microsoft Stream

by Duane OdumLeave a Comment on Introducing Microsoft Stream

Duane OdumOffice 365 has introduced a new application to its suite in preview for First Release tenants: Microsoft Stream, a video service that effectively replaces Office 365 Video (the two services will coexist temporarily, but you should learn how to transition your videos to Stream).

Stream provides a secure, centralized location for businesses to create, upload, store, manage, and view videos to share with other users in their organization to encourage faster and easier collaboration. You can also connect Stream with other Office 365 applications, such as Yammer, SharePoint, and OneNote.

Other features include:

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Consultant Tips, Professional Development

Prepping Your Social Media Presence for Successful Job Searching

by ArturoLeave a Comment on Prepping Your Social Media Presence for Successful Job Searching

JohnA lot goes into looking for a job: crafting a perfect resume, scouring job boards, reaching out to old colleagues and professors, attending community networking events, just to name a few.

But you also need to Google yourself—because potential employers sure are.

A study conducted by Career Builder found that:

  • 57% of employers are less likely to interview a candidate they can’t find online
  • 54% have not hired a candidate based on their social media profiles
  • 70% use social media to screen candidates

Cultivating a professional online presence is crucial to successfully snagging the perfect job opportunity. College toga party pictures, drunk tweets, political rants, badmouthing former employers, and insensitive jokes that we thought nothing of at the time can now put a job offer in jeopardy.

Here are some strategies to clean up your digital presence as you prepare to seek out your next job opportunity:

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Microsoft, SharePoint, Webinars

Recap: Collab365 Live Show #9 “Should I Build or Buy My Next Intranet?”

by ArturoLeave a Comment on Recap: Collab365 Live Show #9 “Should I Build or Buy My Next Intranet?”

JohnIn this Collab365 live show, host Nick Brattoli was joined by SharePoint experts Sam Marshall, Paul Gallagher, and Matthew Bailey to discuss building your own intranet solution versus buying an “intranet-in-a-box” solution.

Sam defined “intranet-in-a-box” as a set of code libraries that can be installed quickly and are immediately ready-to-go. These solutions have standardized requirements and the vendor takes care of implementation and maintenance.

Here are some highlights from the webcast:

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Angular, Angular 4

Custom Validators for Angular 4

by Rick HerrmannLeave a Comment on Custom Validators for Angular 4

Rick HerrmannOn a recent Angular 4 project I had the need to use some custom form validations.  Out of the box, Angular 4 contains validators for required, email, pattern, and min/max length, and it is possible to write your own validators as well.  In particular, the custom validation I needed to do was verify that two fields were equal.  For example, a form where the user enters a phone number, and then confirms the phone number in a second form field.  The custom validation would verify that the two text inputs had the same value.

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Office 365, SharePoint, Webinars

Recap: Collab365 Live Show “SharePoint User Adoption Tips”

by ArturoLeave a Comment on Recap: Collab365 Live Show “SharePoint User Adoption Tips”

JohnHow many times have you conducted a SharePoint training session and were met with groans and eye rolls? Many users don’t like SharePoint and the Office 365 suite when they first use it because the services are so extremely complex. They can be hard to navigate unless a users knows exactly what they’re looking to accomplish.

In this Collab365 Live Show, hosts Nick Brattoli and Andy Talbot were joined by fellow SharePoint experts Dux Raymond, Kate Forgione, and Asif Rehmani to share some best practices when it comes to getting your users to fall in love with SharePoint.

Here are some of the main takeaways from the webinar:

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NodeJS, Redis, SockJS

Scalable Sockets with SockJS and Redis

by Joseph DotsonLeave a Comment on Scalable Sockets with SockJS and Redis

Joseph DotsonOne of the biggest issues with socket servers is that traditionally they do not scale. The requirement to have a consistent TCP connection makes things very difficult when you want to scale. If one connection sends a message to Server A, how does that message get to a user on Server B?

The solution is to integrate with some centralized pub/sub system that is external to the socket connection system. Unfortunately, this means that if your socket layer is already heavily based on pub/sub, you will end up duplicating efforts.

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