New Book Release: Springer

Product Lifecycle Management
About this book
In today's manufacturing and service industries PLM - Product Lifecycle Management - is an essential means to cope with the challenges of more demanding global competition.
New, more complex and more configurable products must be introduced to markets faster than ever before.
In order to cope with this, companies form large collaborative networks. In these collaborative networks product information must be transferred between companies in electronic form, smoothly and with high levels of information security.

This is the first English-language book on PLM that introduces the reader to the basic terms and fundamentals of PLM. It provides a solid foundation for starting a PLM development project and further gives ideas and examples of how PLM can be utilized in various industries. In addition, it offers an insight into how PLM can assist in creating new business opportunities and in making real eBusiness possible.

Written for:
Project managers and IT managers, especially in manufacturing industries, PLM consultants

Keywords:
- PLM, PDM
- Product Data Management
- Product Lifecycle Management
- Product Management
- Service Management

Latest Universal McCann social media study released

Universal McCann Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) recently released its latest comparative study on social media trends.

The third in a series, Wave 3 measures consumer usage, attitudes and interests in adopting social media platforms and is the largest exploration of its kind. Wave 3 surveyed 17 000 Internet users in 29 countries.

Wave 3 highlights:

• Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development. If you are online you are using social media
• Asian markets are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region
• All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves
– Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3
• 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content
– 55% of users have uploaded photos
– 22% of users have uploaded videos
• The widget economy is real
– 23% of social network users have installed an application
– 18% of bloggers have installed applications in their blog templates
• Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and as a collective rival any traditional media
– 73% have read a blog
• The blogsphere is becoming increasingly participatory, now 184m bloggers world-wide
– The number one thing to blog about is personal life and family
• China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined
• Social media impacts your brands reputation
– 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog
– 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs

Read the whole report here.

Loerie Awards 2008 - Advertising Online Judges announced

Advertising Online Loeries Judging Panel 2008
- Pete Case, creative director, Gloo, assisting chairman
- Dylan McClean, creative director, Aqua Online
- Dallas Du Toit, art director, Gloo
- Clint Bryce, creative lead, 24.com
- Templar Wales, creative director, Blue Apple
- Allan Kent, creative director, Saatchi/AtPlay
- Adam Whitehouse, creative director, Stonewall
- Justin Gomes, creative director, FOXP2
- Malcolm King, creative director, Proximity#ttp
- Damon Stapleton, executive creative director, TBWA
- Matthew Brink, executive creative director, King James
- Graeme Jenner, creative head, Net#work BBDO

The Loeries' judging will take place in Johannesburg at Vega, The Brand Communications School, from 30 June until 4 July 2008.

The finalists will be announced on 7 July, and the winners will receive their awards at the Festival Weekend, which will take place in Margate on the South Coast from Friday 25 to Monday 28 July.

Entry deadline 31 May 2008.

New issue: AfricaGrowth Agenda

The new issue of AfricaGrowth Agenda (April/Jun 2008) is available via SAePublications.

Scope of the publication :
The Africagrowth Agenda is a quarterly Magazine which publishes high quality articles covering development issues in Africa. Special focus of the magazine is on:
* Investment Climate in Africa
* Intra-African trade
* African capital markets
* Development finance/economics
* Issues surrounding African Development Institutions
* Best practice articles

Here is the table of content for the April/Jun 2008 issue:

1. Oiling the growth engine of Africa : editor's letter Authors: Biekpe, Nicholas, Pages: 4-5
2. Globalization of microfinance markets : some conditions for success Authors: Morales-Nieto, Jairo; Pages: 6-8
3. When Iceland was Ghana Authors: Gylfason, Thorvaldur; / Jun, Pages: 11-13
4. 5th African Finance Journal Conference Pages: 15
5. Interest rate deregulation policy in developing countries - some controversies Authors: Odhiambo, Nicholas M.; Pages: 16-18
6. Reparations for apartheid human rights abuses : the case of Khulumani Authors: Bohler-Muller, Narnia; Pages: 20-22
7. Developing financial architecture for small scale enterprises in Africa : a proposal on formal-informal sector linkages Authors: Tella, Sheriffdeen A.; Pages: 24-27
8. Inward foreign direct investment and Ghana's employment generation Authors: Abor, Joshua; Harvey, Simon K.;Pages: 28-29
9. Characteristics of Kenya's informal ("Jua Kali") economy and the unbanked : a briefing for the banking and financial markets Authors: Owino, Alexander George; Pages: 30-34
10. Africa SMME Conference and Awards 2008 Jun, Pages: 36

11. Success story : Staza cleaning services AuthorsPages: 37-38
12. Success story : House of Tara International Pages: 40

Which part of the CPI publication do you use?

As many of you already know StatsSA is changing the CPI publication effect as from January 2008 and the new CPI index will highlight shifts in the consumer basket.

They would like your input on what parts of the CPI publication you actually use - to make the new CPI publication more user friendly. Please complete the survey on their website.

This June, Stats SA will release the new CPI weights - derived largely, but not exclusively, from the results of the income and expenditure survey released last month. The release of the weights follows the publication last year of the draft CPI basket.

In new CPI basket certain products will move category and new products will be introduced.
New products include:

• minibus taxis, which account for over 60% of public transport. Collection of these prices is now possible as a result of the establishment of a national team of price collectors for CPI;


• funeral costs and funeral insurance enter the basket as expenditure on these items increases;


• restaurants, take-aways and hotels, now appear as a distinct category in the new CPI classification and Stats SA proposes to publish their price change explicitly;


• internet service provider fees and laptops enter the basket as this technology becomes more pervasive;


• DVD and CD players and disks replace VHS and audio tapes and players as a result of changes in technology;


• tickets to sporting events are added to the entertainment basket; and


• the lottery will be included in the basket if it is operational on 1 January 2008.

The CPI will continue to be published on the basis of the current basket and weights until the December 2008 release (in January 2009). The January 2009 CPI (published in February 2009) will be the first to be published on the basis of the new basket and weights.