Michael Specht

An imperfect blog from Australia looking at technology, enterprise 2.0, management, Human Resources (HR) and other random thoughts.

Entries from July 2004

Paying for WiFi accessing

July 23rd, 2004 · No Comments · Technology · 1,148 views

An article in the Asia Media states that the Japanese government is looking to introduce a tax on WiFi applicances.  I am not an expert of WiFi, but my understanding was that the spectrum used was designed for unregulated, ie free to use?  May be I am missing the point. If this was to go ahead [...]

Popularity: 9% [?]

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HR Transaction Costs

July 22nd, 2004 · No Comments · HR Management · 1,386 views

One of the questions I am asked over and over again is “what level of return on investment can I expect from the implementation of Employee Self Service (ESS)”. While the answer to that question is as varied as the organisations who deploy ESS, let me try to summarize in broad terms what can be [...]

Popularity: 10% [?]

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Alternate workforce communications

July 15th, 2004 · No Comments · Technology · 2,512 views

Over the last several weeks I have been researching the different alternate communication methods that are available for us to integrate into our HR product. By alternate I am referring to any communication method that is not traditional email or voice; such as 3G, GPRS, instant messaging, SMS, RSS feeds etc.
Currently our product allows [...]

Popularity: 18% [?]

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Telstra down

July 15th, 2004 · No Comments · General · 1,027 views

I find this very amusing, maybe I get need to get a life. I went to research when the Blackberry’s entered the Australian market (see next post), entered www.telstra.com.au into my browser (IE 6) and got redirected to https://telstra.com/siteminderagent/SmMakeCookie.ccc?SMIDENTITY=QUERY&PERSIST=0&TARGET=$SM$http%3a%2f%2ftelstra%2ecom%2f which promptly gave me “The page cannot be displayed” error.
This got me thinking so [...]

Popularity: 8% [?]

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HR BPO growth

July 14th, 2004 · No Comments · HR Management · 1,110 views

An article from Workforce.com about the trend in the US towards BPO of HR, including the associated technology. I find this interesting from all sorts of angles.
Firstly working for a software vendor, does it mean we need to jump into bed with every BPO provider in Australia to stay in business? [...]

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Anti spam success

July 14th, 2004 · No Comments · General, Technology · 996 views

The BBC has a really intriguing article about an “average Joe” who is fighting back at those spamers who promise us riches for “helping” them they will help you out with a few million. The average Job in question is Mike and so far is up $80 on the scammers!
Popularity: 8% [?]

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Workbrain Adds Intelligence to Employee Scheduling

July 13th, 2004 · No Comments · Technology · 1,875 views

The time and attendance market has seen a recent revival in interest. Where vendors are integrating the latest biometrics with their existing products, it is good to Workbrain also looking into adding some intelligence into their scheduling engines.
Popularity: 16% [?]

Popularity: 16% [?]

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Blogs in business?

July 13th, 2004 · No Comments · Blogging · 1,005 views

It seems like every major organisation is now has a blog published by executives, the latest seems to be Sun President Jonathan Schwartz. Will blogs has a long term impact on the way we work? Many (including myself) felt instant messaging would be the next big thing, while it still could be, for [...]

Popularity: 8% [?]

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HRIS trends

July 7th, 2004 · No Comments · HR Management, Technology · 1,345 views

In 2001 I noted a number of trends that I felt would begin to take shape over the next few years. They were publish on my Web Site at the time, which has now been disbanded. Anyway I thought I would re-publish them here, not that they are correct and nor do I [...]

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Home

July 5th, 2004 · No Comments · Personal · 1,276 views

Back in Sydney from my week in Hong Kong. While very hot and humid it was a good trip, with successful outcomes from my meetings.
What was very interesting was being there on the 7th anniversary of the handover. While much has not changed, there were massive protests over Beijing’s handling of Hong Kong [...]

Popularity: 10% [?]

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