Tasos Christidis

I recently had the opportunity to work in a couple of projects that evolved around “alternative means” of User Interface, other than the screen and keyboard of a typical PC. Also, the use of tablet PCs and PDAs was not the answer to the questions at hand. The level of computer literacy of the users was one issue: There was a number of people that a) were mobile and b) had no or little knowledge and skills of modern user interfaces. The actions that needed to be performed by them were relatively simple, meaning that the User Interface was to be quite simple. In fact, they were required to provide simple “yes/no” answers to a number of questions. For those people the solution of simple text (SMS) messaging was selected. Here is the list of advantages that SMS messaging has: Not everybody has a smart phone or PDA, but everybody has even the simplest mobile phone which can send and receive SMS. Texting a message can be a real pain but when you have to simply answer Yes/No type of questions...

For all of us working in the software services sector in Greece, it is clear that the effort of computerizing the Enterprise does not end with the installation of the software. After the software has been “sold and purchased” (either in the traditional delivery model or in the SaaS model) there is, or can be, a series of actions that take place, in the form of Professional Services . These services typically include: Start-up services for the initial parameterization of the business application (standard packaged products such as office suites are excluded from this category). During this cycle, some very basic questions need to be answered, like what are the geographical locations of the serviced entity, what are the cost centers, what are the taxation schemes that are going to be used in purchasing and selling goods and services etc. One very common misunderstanding on behalf of the end-user is that – because these issues, given time, have become trivial for them – they are also tri...