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2DNext.com - Following the trends in 2DBarcodes
comScore, one leading researcher, just published a report showing nearly 15,000,000 people use 2-D barcodes every week. Such explosive growth has not been seen since early in the spread of the Internet in this country. This trend lies on the back of a similar one taking place in Japan where nearly 50% of all cell phone users scan a 2-D barcode each week. There can be no doubt that these interactive barcodes will become an important aspect of any one of a number of industries in the very near future. It's the ability to turn the print word interactive that is such a powerful concept. Launch Capacity has launched two new websites, 2DNext.com and Blog.2DNext.com to allow businesses to track this new exciting trend.
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Logistics: Vested Outsourcing & True Partnerships  

For a number of years we have been proponents of achieving positive outcomes in logistics through partnerships. Rather than merely using the word for its own sake the idea was to build true relationships where equal partners come together and do what they each do best. The idea is to drive the bottom line and not a case of squeezing the last nickel from a supplier. By bringing the Òsupplier-partnerÓ in-house we gain significant knowledge to take market-share away from competitors and to grow as a team!

This concept has always been one more of ÒfeelÓ than being able to espouse all of the dynamics of how such a relationship happens. Now definitive work is being done at the University of Tennessee by Kate Vitasek. Her work in the practice of supply chain management and outsourcing has made her the lead researcher in the award-winning concept called Vested Outsourcing. Vitasek is co-author of two must-read books based on the concept: Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules That Will Transform Outsourcing and Vested Outsourcing Manual: A Guide for Creating Successful Business and Outsourcing Agreements.

Vested Outsourcing is built on five basic rules that guide its implementation. Rule # 2, ÒFocus on What not HowÓ starts to give you an understanding of the work. It says that you must define what you need from the relationship and leave the implementation to your supplier-partner. An example might be that we need next day delivery of our products at the lowest possible cost. The next step means forgoing the typical highly detailed RFP directing the supplier-partner in ever greater minutia on how that is to be done complete with penalties for Ònon-performanceÓ. Rather you turn to your supplier-partner and ask how they would suggest that the task be accomplished. It is after all their industry and they are the experts.

Another example involved an educational publisher where we approached a printer and simply asked how we could produce a workbook at a particular unit price to beat competitors. Rather than handing the printer details about how to produce the book we asked how they would do it! In return we promised not to bid it out to a hundred other printers. The upside was if we sold a lot of books they would print a lot of books. We were partners and the other publishers were the competition. The outcome was better than we expected or hoped.

No doubt, someone in traditional procurement will ask why not squeeze every last nickel out of the printer, search for ever cheaper ink, paper and binding. The answer is three-part. First if we were not fair with the printer they would never again choose to work with us to find great ideas. Second, that energy could be better placed into developing additional new products which after all is the real job. But most importantly, if our profit only comes from wringing out a few nickels here and there, we have a strategic disconnect. A sustained effort by the company and their supplier-partners should be to drive ever larger market share in the industry. If the combined knowledge of your supplier-partners in concert with your company to produce new products is not the best use of your time then such bidding is the very least of your problems.


Images on the Internet – Guarding your Intellectual Property on the web!   From the beginning of the Internet, everyone has valued information on the web; the saying goes “content is king.” Whether you believe such a concept or not, it can be said that product images are crucial for e-commerce. More and more companies are beginning to realize that their product images are a crucial “placeholder” when selling products online. If you've spent a small fortune producing those images, you better make sure that such value is not walking out the back door. Any online sales initiative should be built on a strong image database and those images should be watermarked or protected before they hit the web. Manufacturers, marketers and advertising agencies will want to investigate such new technologies and make sure that their clients are protected before rather than after the images have been “borrowed.” One company found more than 11,000 entries for their products on Google Shopping – the only problem was: not a single one of those listings belonged to the company!

Open Mobile Alliance facilitates global user adoption of mobile data services
What started in 1973 as a strange new two-way radio has blossomed to over 4.5 billion cellphones world-wide. Beyond communications, today’s cellphone provides services such as SMS (or text) messages, email, Internet access, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera, MMS messaging, MP3 player, radio, GPS and computing power driven by thousands of apps. Any company striving for success that does not have a mobile phone strategy is at a distinct disadvantage.
You need to pose the question: how does a device that’s in the hands of 2 out every three persons on earth affect your company. What is your answer?

Microsoft TAG – Connecting Real Life with the Digital World!
A 2-D barcode is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) originally created by the Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. They added the term "QR" derived from "Quick Response" to what became QR-code. Others picked up on this technology: Microsoft moved into this area and called it Microsoft TAG. A Microsoft Tag is essentially a machine readable web link, analogous to a TinyURL link: when read, the Tag application sends the HCCB data to a Microsoft server, which then returns the publisher's intended URL. The Tag reader then directs the user's mobile browser to the appropriate website. This technology has far-ranging possibilities in the business world. 2-D barcodes can do for newspapers and other publications just what Microsoft says: it can connect traditional print to the Digital World! New barcodes such as these can also ensure that information printed on a box can never be out of date. This brings all kinds of new opportunities to the world of Logistics. Just imagine a haz-mat situation at 3:00 am when a load of boxes spill out of an overturned semi-truck. Old barcodes at best gave you a manufacturer’s name, Microsoft TAGS can allow a first responder to see just exactly what is at hand. How could this technology help your company?

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives
The Project Management Institute serves practitioners and organizations with standards that describe good practices, globally recognized credentials that certify project management expertise, and resources for professional development, networking and community. Like many professionals, we believe that project management has become the basis of all business activities. Sometimes it is beneficial to bring in outside resources to confront major projects. This is not an indication of a lack of internal skills as much as an understanding that a new perspective is incredible helpful. Over time, organizations build up entire constructs of “that’s not the way we do things” which make it very difficult for a new project to bring anything other than the same old results. As project management professionals we know how to separate corporate knowledge from corporate “culture.” Would a new perspective help on your new project large or small? 
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