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Recession, competition, and fast-growing demand have made call centre operations more expensive by the year. Although, by arranging business phone lines with a company like Talk Talk means you can take advantage of  their money saving broadband and calls only packages that will help you save tons of money. Many companies have coped by delegating a large part of their tasks to call centre software. Besides saving manpower and overhead costs, these programs allow companies to devote resources to other operations, such as training employees, and do business over larger areas with relatively small investments.

Most operations use hosted call centre programs. This means that information is hosted, or stored, in a remote network managed by the software provider.  This information includes customer, company, and agent details, as well as transaction and call histories. A call centre accumulates a good deal of data over the course of a year, and would normally need lots of hardware to keep it all. Hosted call centre software takes care of this problem by storing the information elsewhere.

Another advantage of hosted call centre software is that it doesn’t limit operations to a physical location. The data can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection (although preferably a secure one) any time of the day, unlike traditional businesses where office hours are fixed. While a brick-and-mortar office will still be necessary, employees will have the option to work from home and work on their own schedules, something that has been shown in many studies to improve employee productivity. The company itself can even hire people from a larger area, even overseas.

Updating is a common issue in hosted call centre software, as with most other business applications. Fortunately, many of the programs available today are automatically updated by the vendor without affecting the data; some will do it for free and others will charge a monthly fee. Users are simply informed of new features as needed. And since the program itself isn’t on an office hard drive, there’s no need to worry about installing and uninstalling—the only issue is usually training the employees to use the program.

Nonetheless, call centre software is no small investment in terms of time and money. Transferring data from one service to another can be costly, not to mention risky as much of the information is confidential. Few companies can afford to change programs every other week. Make sure to choose the right program for your operations and type of business. Some of them work well for small companies while others are designed for multinationals; some fit well in the retail industry while others are better for technology or media.

A few weeks ago, news broke out that a Mac virus had finally been detected, ending a longstanding reputation for Apple’s famous operating system. But ‘finally’ is the wrong qualifier—Mac viruses have been popping up here and there as far back as ten years ago. Although they’re much more secure, and the competition would be hard put to catch up, Macs aren’t immune to attacks. That’s why security software is still essential after you’ve made the switch.

The Mac’s virus-free reputation isn’t entirely ungrounded. Viruses are much harder to create for the Mac than for Windows. But other security issues leave it open to forms of attack other than viruses, and that’s where most Mac users fall for the trap. They forgo the antivirus program thinking they’re safe, but they’re vulnerable to all other attacks: phishing, adware, spyware, you name it. Most of today’s antivirus programs also protect against all these, so that’s one reason to get one.

Reason number two is that the market for Macs has increased dramatically in the last few years, thanks to the popularity of the iPhone and iPad. This means that it’s now worth a hacker’s time to work out an attack for these systems, which wasn’t the case when only 5% of users were on Macs. Today, with prices having gone down—the cheapest Macbook is more affordable than some high-end ultrabook PCs—there are more users to target. Mac-specific viruses may still be in their infancy, but cross-platform viruses, which affect all operating systems, are already on the rise.

Another good reason to get an antivirus is to protect your emails, or more specifically, the people receiving your emails. If your Mac is affected by malware (which is different from a virus), you may unknowingly be sending out emails to Windows users who would then be affected if they don’t have the protection. In other words, even if the virus doesn’t manage to affect your Mac, you can spread it to colleagues who would feel the damage.

The market for Mac antivirus programs isn’t as big as its PC counterpart, but there are a good number to choose from. Last year’s top-ranked Mac antivirus was Intego VirusBarrier, according to the 2011 Antivirus Readers’ Choice Awards. Also worth checking out are Sophos Antivirus for Mac Home Edition, made by the world’s top security software firm, and BitDefender Antivirus for Mac, whose publisher has a good track record for detecting malware.

There can be a real risk for employers having to deal with a sexual harassment case if their employees are not properly trained. This risk can be mitigated by having strategies for sexual harassment training for supervisors and the managers in your team.

But what constitutes sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment can be any action of a sexual nature that makes a person feel humiliated, offended or imtimidated. If it is reasonable to expect a person to feel offended in the situation, then it is unlawful and an offence.

Examples of Sexual harassment can be ay of the following:

• Ogle or stare
• unwelcomed kisses or hugs
• Showing sexually explicit posters or pictures in the workplace
• Making suggestive jokes
• Brushing up against people
• sexually explicit SMS messages
• Asking for dates or making sexual advances including the use of social networking sites

 Are employers legaly responsible for their employees actions?

In short, yes they can be. It falls under the term vicarious liability. Unless an employer can prove they have taken all the steps to prevent the harassment, then they are liable.

Following are some guidlines that you can follow:

1. If sexual harassment has taken place, make sure you take action to remedy the situation
2. Have a sexual harassment policy in place that is communiated to all employees and carefully monitored.

Employess that have a clearly outlined Policy and Procedure for preventing harassment have a more positive attitude to relationships and have increased motivation and performance.

Knowing that you need a well defined policy and that it has to be communicated is only the start. You need to make sure your staff has the proper training that complies with your local legislation. Start with senior management and then look at training managers and floor supervisors. You can find more information about workplace training at here.

A reverse mortgage is a type of loan available in the United States for people aged 60 and older. In a reverse mortgage, one borrows back money that has already been put into the home; that is, they are borrowing off their equity. The money can be released in monthly payments or a single lump sum, and can be used for anything from vacations to medical treatments.

Payments in a reverse mortgage do not usually become due while the borrower is still living in the home; rather, the amount plus interest is paid back when the home is sold, or if the owner passes away or moves to a new home. Borrowers are allowed to live elsewhere for up to a year, usually to stay in a retirement facility.

The amount you can borrow varies depending on several factors, including your age and the equity that you’ve built up over the years. One can only borrow from the debt-free part of the home, so you may have to clear all other debts on the property (such as liens and second mortgages) before you can take out the loan. A reverse calculator such as All Reverse Mortgage Company (allrmc.com) can give you an idea of how much you’re entitled to.

AllRMC is a family-owned outfit run by experienced mortgage banking professionals. It has long advocated the benefits of reverse mortgages to seniors and takes pride in finding no less than the best terms for every borrower, as well as ensuring a hassle-free process all the way to closing. Unlike other firms, they do not pressure borrowers into settling for specific deals—they always try to find the best fit depending on your circumstances. This practice has earned them hundreds of positive reviews and an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Funds received from a reverse mortgage are tax-free, but the interest is usually higher than that of a regular mortgage. Some loans even cost as much as a credit card or other line of credit. Lenders may also require you to pay for a home appraisal (to determine how much you can borrow), legal fees, and a variety of closing costs. Needless to say, taking out a reverse mortgage isn’t cheap—but in some situations it’s more than worth it. Working with an experienced company such as AllRMC can help you make smart decisions and make your money work for you.

A configuration management database (CMDB) is a collection of information on the parts that make up an information system. Similar programs have been used by companies’ IT departments for several years, but what makes CMDBs different is that they are put forth by the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), the largest and most widely accepted framework for best practices in IT management.

According to the ITIL, a CMBD is a representation of acceptable configurations for each component in the IT environment. Its main purpose is to help companies better understand how these components work together, and allow them to monitor each component for quality and performance.

There are many CMDB programs in the market, but most are costly due to their highly specialized nature. They also tend to be complicated and require an expert, usually from the publisher itself, to provide on-site support and customize the program to the organization’s needs. This adds further to the cost, making CMDBs too costly especially for small and startup businesses. A good alternative for such businesses is an open source CMDB—one that’s created by a public  community of developers rather than a single firm. This not only makes it cheaper, but allows for more accessible support.

One of the more popular open source CMDBs is Itop, short for IT Operations Portal. Besides a fully customizable CMDB, it offers a variety of web services and import tools that make it easy to integrate the program into your IT system. It also includes tools for document management, various management modules, error database, a helpdesk system, and a simple dashboard interface that provides a quick summary of the system.

Another excellent free CMDB is OneCMDB, designed mostly for small and medium businesses. Although it can be used on its own to monitor software and hardware, it can also be used in configuration management and related tasks. You can import data from existing sources or input them by hand, and uses a custom data model that can be tweaked without using code.

CMDB.info is a fairly popular resource for IT managers. Although it doesn’t have a product of its own, it offers free expert advice on using CMDBs from theoretical concepts to practical use. They also provide solutions for common problems specific to large and small businesses. The pages are updated regularly, so you can be sure the tips are all up to date and take into account the newest developments.