Software Quality

Will Windows Vista put an end to Microsoft dominance of Operating systems?

If we look back at the early days of windows based operating systems we can see the huge enhancement Microsoft made to the Desk top operating systems, from DOS to windows 3.1 to win95 to win2000 and finally Win XP.

For many users, win XP was (end still) the best operating system Microsoft ever written, with SP1 and SP2, Microsoft fixed major bugs in the system and the users community was content with winXP.

Only when everything seemed to be working great with winXP, Microsoft released windows Vista, I personally, and I am sure as millions of users, was not ready to let go of winXP and start the journey to learn new operating system with its all new features.

Recently, I had to replace my company’s computer systems with new systems, I wanted to get new systems with XP, but the vendor told me they only can provide us systems with windows Visa. I was not very happy to migrate to Vista yet.

The transition from windows XP to windows vista is not as smooth as it should be, for the average user windows XP is more user friendly than windows Vista. One feature of windows Vista that I particularly find hard to understand for the average user is the Network and file sharing properties in windows Vista.
In its attempt to make windows Vista more secure, Microsoft made setting up network and resource sharing in windows Vista a bit hard to configure, there are many security features the user have to configure.

From a historical point of view, I can tell that Microsoft reached its full potential with windows XP, there was no need to release a new operating system at the time when windows XP was performing real well with the users.

What is an ERP?

ERP stand for Enterprise Resource Planing, ERP is software-based solution for your business management needs. Most businesses have separate software for accounting, for Human resource, and for various services that they offer. An ERP system is software that consists of various modules designed for particular business setup, various business software can be combined in a single ERP system.

ERP solutions vary from vendor to vendor; however, most solutions provide several common features and functionality that can be tightly integrated. Financial reporting and analysis are often the core to most ERP systems since financial reporting is almost required by every business, from there you can add modules as you need them, so for example, if your business needs grow in the future, you can add more modules to your existing ERP system instead of buying new software (solution).

Once an ERP system is implemented in your company, adding new functionality to the system will not require a new training for your employees, you ERP system can grow with your company.

The advantage of ERP system is that you can have a single software that streamline all your business reporting needs in a single software interface.

As a manager, you can get reporting from various departments in one single screen.

HP offer a really nice online introductory course in understanding ERP system, you can check the course at this link: http://h30187.www3.hp.com/sessions/overview/p/courseSessionId/62136?courseId=18829

You will have to create a free online account to access the course.

==== Some of the text used in this article were excerpt from HP ERP course listed in the above link=======

Fleet management tips needed

At my current job, I am facing a bit of a challenge managing our company’s fleet of about 70 cars. I have searched the internet for good fleet management software and I found few good software but I am not sure about the quality of these software.

Does anyone know of a good fleet management software?

Challenges that we are facing with our fleet of cars:

1- Rental history
2- Accident history
3- Maintenance history
4- Mileage
5- Cost of ownership
6- Warranty information
7- Checkout and check records

Of course we have some type of records for our fleet, but I like to have a complete control of our fleet where no part of fleet management is over looked.

Does anyone know of good software for fleet management and also any tips in this subject are welcome