According to a new report by Forrester Research, Inc. the technology sector will see a recovery in 2010 as businesses and governments in the US and around the world begin spending again on information technology. After declining 8.2 percent in 2009, US IT spending will grow 6.6 percent in 2010 to $568 billion. Global IT spending, which dropped 8.9 percent last year, will rise 8.1 percent in 2010 to more than $1.6 trillion.

photo credit: Ultor83

Try to recall the last talk you had with some friends in the bar or colleagues over lunch? What was it about?

In the case of a group of women I don’t know it. If related to cars I guess you mentioned the nice but, the great look & feel, the rounded shapes, beautiful striping, nice and special color, the safety and the great seat covers.

If not about women or money you and your male friends talked about cars. Especially about horse power, engine size, fuel type, fuel consumption, acceleration, maximum speed, tire size and more technical and impressive specs.

Do you ever have such talks about the software you have just bought?

When you are working with social media you tend to forget that the adoption of social media is still rather low. I recently noticed this when I was requested to provide a presentation about online corporate branding. Still many people are hardly using the possibilities of social media. Meanwhile, it’s becoming obvious that you can improve your competitive advantage. By means of social media the smallest company is able to gain the branding image of a big corporate. Online the differences in between big and small are way smaller than in the offline world. Below I will share with you what social media you could give a try in 2010.

I believe we all agree that 2009 has been a horrible year for many of us. But not necessarily for all of us. Despite or maybe even thanks to the economic downturn the IT outsourcing market didn’t lose that much, or even gained. To save cost companies started to outsource their software development to low-cost nearshore and offshore locations.

Today the future looks brighter, it looks like the economy will recover, although many things are still uncertain. Whatever happens, for sure it will have a big impact on nearshoring and offshoring. Below I will show you my personal forecast. Please don’t blame me in a year time if my forecast tuns out to be either right or wrong.

Just imagine yourself being the world famous painter Rembrandt van Rijn. Somebody hired you to prepare a nice painting of his company. Once you show him your almost finished painting, he requests you to remove a person and to move another one. And of course in his opinion this isn’t a big job.

Are you still there? How would you feel? Who’s the artist here? Who can decide whether something is easy or not?

Last week Dell announced they earned over $6.5 million through Twitter alone. This message gained a lot of (social) media attention. But I doubt the credits of the success should go to Twitter alone. Dell is putting a lot of effort in social media like their blog, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and multiple Twitter accounts. Their social media effort generated this additional turnover not Twitter. Unfortunately till now Dell is the only good example of a successful social media strategy.

You can often read about software development projects that failed. The presented figures vary from about 35% up to 75% of the total amount of projects. There is no need to argue these figures. Let’s better try to fight the causes. So, first we need to find the biggest traps in software development.

[Picture credits: Stock.xchng]

The adoption of social media is increasing at high speed. You only have to watch the impressive increase of Twitter and Facebook accounts. They offer both new opportunities and challenges to stand above the crowd. If you listen to all the advice there is hardly any way to escape from it. On the other hand the group of users is still rather small. Besides many accounts are hardly used and there is a big group of very passive users. Depending on your type of business this means you have to analyze carefully where you can meet your potential clients. Because there is still a big chance you have to meet them offline! The social media area might still be a geek domain.

This week we were unpleasantly surprised when we noticed the appearance of one of our clients in the Google search results had dramatically changed.

Soon the surprise changed into curiosity. It appeared we missed some Google news. Google recently announced showing the site hierarchy within the search results for some sites which offer hierarchical breadcrumbs in their navigation. And it looks like this:

To be honest it is still not clear if this is really what users are looking for. I think most users in general just click the clickable title. Besides not every website user will like that Google lets the user browse away.

Imagine you have an appointment. It’s a blind date. Can you remember such a moment?

You arrive at the agreed time at the agreed place. You look for that folded news paper or red flower.

Then you notice your date. What is the first thing you check?

Be honest what do you do when he or she is not what you were looking for? I know some friends who told me they just walked a way. Some of them fortunately sent an sms message that they wouldn’t manage.

photo credit: eflon

We are facing the same issue when people are visiting our website. Within a split second, to be honest about 4 up to 10 seconds, most people decide what they do, stay or go. But if they go in general they don’t send an sms.

The burning question is of course how to make them stay? The answer is easy: seduce them!