Saturday, August 18, 2012

OIS Announces Economical Small Company Sales Force Automation Software

If you own a small or even medium size business, you know that sales are always a top priority. After all, without sales how could one hope to make profit or even come close to breaking even? In short, how could he make money at all? Getting sales means putting people in the field, having them make calls, send out emails, or even go door-to-door marketing the company or product. With any outside sales force, it’s key to keep communication and by automating the process, communication is made ten times easier. OIS iMobile sales software solves this issue and many others, as well.

OIS iMobile was professionally developed by Orders In Seconds to make tracking sales and customers easy and efficient. Customer orders are instantly processed and stored simply by making a few entries into the system. These entries can be done on essentially any Apple or Android platform that has internet connectivity. It works in conjunction with Google Maps to store customer location as well, helping boost sales force efficiency.

OIS iMobile is an application currently being used by companies with one sales representative to hundreds of sales reps, and is available in the Apple Store and Android Market. The application helps automate the sales process by keeping open database connectivity. Essentially, anything that happens in the field can be immediately documented and seen from headquarters. This is essential in terms of getting a mobile sales force up and running. Not only does this save time – and time is money, after all – but it also makes other key elements of business like merchandising much, much easier to keep track of.

The software makes the accounting process much more effective by tracking not only field sales, but also in-store audits. This will allow your business the ability to cut down personnel numbers and will even save time in the process. No longer does your business need to hire someone to track every sale – it’s done for you and with 100% accuracy.

Orders In Seconds also provides training and support for the application. So, you can easily train your sales force in the use of the application and any problems can be quickly rectified. They also have a team of experts that will help you easily integrate the application.

If you aren’t sure whether the software is what you need for your business, there’s a 30-day free trial available. So, you can take a look at it yourself and make sure that it really is as useful and effective as promised.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Writing The Ideal Maid Of Honor Speech

Maid of honor speech or that for the matron of honor is one of the most significant events in a wedding. If you are donning the responsibilities of a maid of honor speech or a matron of honor speech then you certainly would want to get the speech right. First, there is a need to understand the subtle difference between maid of honor and a matron of honor. A maid of honor is the best friend or a sister of the bride who is unmarried. A matron of honor is a close friend, sister or a relative of the bride who has been married. Almost every bride would have a maid of honor but it is often seen that a maid of honor is also accompanied by a matron of honor. The reason to know the difference is to get the ideal speech for the couple and what would perfectly suit you. Since there is a difference in the marital status, there are a few things that can be penned down in a maid of honor speech but not in that of the matron of honor and vice versa.

Writing the ideal maid of honor speech or that of matron of honor requires four important steps.

• The moment you get to know that you would have to prepare the maid of honor speech, you must start working on it. A matron of honor or maid of honor speech must never be left for the last minute. If you think you can be spontaneous on the big day or night and pull things off then it’s a different story otherwise you have to start working.

• A maid of honor speech or that of matron of honor has the sole purpose of honoring the couple and talking about good things. You must make a list of everything that you may or may not want to include. Details such as how the couple met, what they like in each other, what their collective wishes are and things like that would certainly make it to the final maid of honor speech.

• Speaking with the bride is a great idea. She might have some suggestions or reservations and knowing that would ensure that the maid of honor speech makes the most special person happy on her day.

• It is not unwise for the matron of honor to speak with the best mate on his speech. If a maid of honor speech complements that of the best mate’s, the collective impact will be profuse.
There are numerous maid of honor duties that have to be catered to and if you thought being a matron of honor or a bridesmaid is only about having fun then you would be pleasantly surprised. In many cases, maid of honor duties make a maid of honor or matron of honor busier than the bride herself. The maid of honor duties can be classified into pre-wedding, wedding and post wedding stages. Here we shall take a look at all the maid of honor duties during the pre wedding phase.

• Maid of honor duties commence from the moment one gets a confirmation from the bride that she is going to be the maid of honor or matron of honor. The first few maid of honor duties would be to work with the bride and her family to get the list of invitees’ right. Making suggestions, pinpointing those who have been missed and also trying to organize the entire exercise are integral to maid of honor duties.

• Shopping with the bride is mandatory for a matron of honor. Not only would shopping for the bride or herself be one of the maid of honor duties but also ensuring that the dresses, jewelry and all accessories are in place for all the bridesmaids and the entire bridal gang.

• Playing an active role during the phases when the cake is being ordered, the cards are being selected, the invitations are being sent out and all such activities are significant maid of honor duties.

• One of the most important maid of honor duties is to organize a bridal shower. Now, a matron of honor can organize it herself or one can team up with a few bridesmaids to do the same. The latter is less hassle and most maids of honor opt for that.

• Throwing a bachelorette party is also one of the maid of honor duties. A matron of honor may or may not be obligated to do the same but if one has a perception that because of being married, a matron of honor cannot organize a bachelorette party then you can rest assured that it is perfectly alright.

• Handling logistics is often a part of maid of honor duties. A matron of honor may have to be completely available during the pre wedding days when guests are arriving and putting up at hotels or at the house of the bride and attending to all of them are also among the maid of honor duties.

• Attending all pre wedding parties are also integral to maid of honor duties.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Electronic Cigarette Review: E-Cigarettes are here to stay

A recent electronic cigarette review by the web site WebMD asks the rhetorical question, “Are E-Cigarettes Here to Stay?” The author makes a rather clever point that “Electronic cigarettes are picking up steam...” She refers to a recent study in the American Journal of Public Health” that highlights a growing public awareness of electronic cigarettes among the American public (about 40%, according to their survey).
Stating the obvious
Who are more likely to use e-cigarettes? Wouldn’t that be existing smokers? That is what the study found, and yet the piece seems to express a surprised curiosity over that fact. Of course existing smokers would want to use electronic cigarettes, which contain about 3,998 fewer ingredients than burning tobacco. A novice smoker (say a teenager) doing an impromptu electronic cigarette review, would probably rather light up and blow real smoke than the wimpy steam e-cigarettes emit and would probably not “graduate” to e-cigarettes until hooked on nicotine.
Perhaps the author has never smoked and gone through the difficult withdrawal from nicotine, and like so many antismoking advocates just does not understand how difficult it is to stop puffing on toxic cancer sticks. Now that e-cigarettes are on the market to throw a lifeline to both the poor smokers and nonsmokers harmed by secondhand smoke, it seems that antismoking forces are (ironically) opposing a product that doesn’t foul the air and has proven to be a smoking cessation tool.
Not marketed that way, though
The article says that e-cigarettes aren’t regulated by the FDA “as a drug delivery device because they are not marketed as quit-smoking aids.” That is a somewhat misleading statement. The FDA actually tried to regulate e-cigarettes as a drug delivery device but lost their case in court. It wasn’t the FDA who decided that e-cigarettes are not marketed as quit-smoking aids. The court ruled that e-cigarettes were, similar to cigarettes, nicotine delivery devices and should be regulated like cigarettes. The FDA still has not come out with definitive regulations on electronic cigarettes – perhaps because they should not be regulated exactly like real cigarettes?
Specious “unknowns”
Then the article cites several "unanswered questions" about the safety of e-cigarettes, which any smoker could readily answer:
Do e-cigarettes encourage former smokers to take up smoking again and “re-ignite their nicotine addiction?” Any ex-smoker knows the danger and undesirability of resurrecting a habit that was so very tough to defeat. The existence of electronic cigarettes would not factor into a decision to get re-addicted to a drug they worked so hard to kick.
Are people who smoke now using electronic cigarettes to quit or to get around indoor smoking laws? So what? Whichever reason applies, quitting or keeping the air free of harmful cigarette smoke would both be good things. If the smoker is not interested in quitting but wants to keep smoke out of the air, that’s one less cigarette inhaled into the lungs and one less butt discharged into the environment. Besides, strictly speaking, electronic cigarette reviews need to take into account something very important about their nature: e-cigarettes are harm reduction devices that, at the very least, mitigate the harm of smoking, and, at best, could be used to stop altogether.
Finally, how are electronic cigarettes affecting nonsmokers who have never smoked? Are they “gateway products?” The answers are undoubtedly: (1) not at all, given the minute traces of stuff in the steam exhaled by e-cigarette smokers, and (2) the “gateway” to cigarette smoking would more likely be the single cigarette from the $5.00 cigarette pack and not the costlier electronic cigarette kit or disposable kind.
FDA, et. al, want a perfect world with lousy options.
So antismoking advocates continue to urge “greater regulation of these products until these questions are answered.” In the meantime, the FDA continues to urge people wanting to quit use approved “smoking cessation tools” (nicotine gum, patches, lozenges), which, unfortunately have about a 90% failure rate.
One voice of reason
The article ends on a more balanced note citing one voice of reason: physician, Michael Siegel (associate chairman of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health) who points out the obvious fact that if electronic cigarettes were taken off the market “smokers would be forced to go back to cigarette smoking.”
The real question about FDA's electronic cigarette review
Do the FDA and their antismoking colleagues really want smokers to go back to blowing smoke? Or is the "smoke blowing" being done on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies who market "approved" smoking cessation devices?