When starting out, it's easy for a company to settle on stand-alone software solutions that fill a particular business requirement. Referred to as 'best of breed' in their category, these applications can certainly be an astute option when addressing a specific commercial function, such as accounting, HR management or CRM. While they may present a suitable short-term solution, what happens to these unrelated systems as the company grows? [ + ]

MorCo Fresh is a wholesale food distributor specialising in daily deliveries of fresh produce. The company required a technology solution that would help optimise its day-to-day operations and maximise productivity and efficiency, both on and off the road. [ + ]

Keeping employees engaged is key to keeping loyal customers, yet most companies have not been able to master the matrix of costs vs ROI in the complex push and pull environment of financial obligations and customer satisfaction. But the answer may be right underneath our agile thumbs that happily build farms and defeat angry birds on our smartphones. [ + ]

With strong links to customer satisfaction and retention, achieving first-time fix is now the top business priority for field service organisations, according to a 2014 Insight Report (Transforming Service Delivery). [ + ]

Traditional technologies may work well above ground, but what happens when you need to locate and trace a person or object underground, or in a difficult environment without clear signals? [ + ]

Philips has provided LED pitch lighting for Chelsea Football Club, making Stamford Bridge the first top flight football club stadium to complete an upgrade to pitch lighting. [ + ]

The growth in worldwide fibre-optic communications has led to an increase in demand for economical and convenient fusion-splicing systems for a wide range of deployments including telco backhaul, access networks, FTTH, LAN, sensing and submarine installations. [ + ]

The Italy-headquartered cable manufacturer Prysmian Group recently hired Frederick Persson* as chief executive officer for Australia & New Zealand. ECD Solutions speaks to the new CEO about the current market conditions and future plans. [ + ]

The deployment of multifibre push-on cabling systems is rising as businesses try to address the growing data requirements. This article provides an overview of issues related to testing the cabling for these systems. [ + ]

Potential induced degradation (PID) can reduce the efficiency of a PV module. This article provides insights on PID, including how this degradation process develops, the conditions that make PV systems prone to it, its effects and the methods to correct or prevent it.

One of the challenges when deploying small cells, HD CCTV cameras, digital signage, Wi-Fi hotspots, and other remote devices is finding a local source of power for them. There are two alternatives to addressing this challenge: powered fibre cable and Power over Ethernet (PoE). [ + ]

Cable installers and network technicians are expected to cost-effectively demonstrate that their data cabling is installed correctly and is capable of supporting ethernet applications. With a wide array of testers on the market purporting to do similar things, and some just a fraction of the price of others, it's difficult to determine the best way to test your network. [ + ]

The new customer cabling rules came into effect in July 2013. With the new rules came a new clause, 17.3.1, that sets out requirements for cabling between separate buildings. To some cabling providers, this clause seemingly precludes the use of twisted pair cable for cabling between buildings. However, this is a misinterpretation of the clause.

Electricity customers could be better off in future, if the building momentum for network tariff reform leads to fundamental changes in the way electricity is charged for and used, said John Bradley, chief executive officer of the Energy Networks Association. [ + ]

Researchers at Context Information Security have exposed a security weakness in a Wi-Fi-enabled, energy efficient LED light bulb that can be controlled from a smartphone.