ADAPT Takes Off
For the
last few years, our client Hanley-Wood, along with Chenault Systems, has been
introducing a database product named ADAPT.
Hanley-Wood is the proprietor of ADAPT and, along with Chenault Systems,
a joint developer. This system applies
to organizations connected to events (trade shows, conferences, seminars, fund
raiser organizations, non-profit associations, etc.) and improves, streamlines
and lower costs for their direct marketing campaigns. There are now about 8 ADAPT installations
around the world.
ADAPT gives you access to historical and
up-to-the-minute registration and prospect information. The system takes registration data from all
kinds of formats and aggregates it into one central database. This comprehensive system provides the tools
needed to manage an event database for maximum results.
·
Quickly
and easily analyze comprehensive attendee and prospect data.
·
Know
your attendees and prospects.
·
Develop
demographic and geographic profiles.
·
Fine-tune
your promotional strategies for more effective results—at less cost.
·
Create
targeted lists—mail, fax, phone and e-mail—for segmented promotion. Track
prospects before and after events. Remove duplication automatically.
·
Save
money on mailings by eliminating duplicates and automatically removing current
registrants.
·
Generate
additional revenue by renting targeted lists to clients.
·
Access
real-time reports in seconds—no waiting for a new list from your registration
company or IT department.
·
Streamline the
fulfillment of prospect brochures.
Below is a
demonstration of ADAPT developed during 2001-2002 and won one of four “Trade
Show Innovation of the Year” awards in 2003.
The link
to the 6-minute demo is www.adaptdb.com/adapt_demo2.html1. The narrator is Shawn Pierce with
Hanley-Wood.
The system is comprised of two front-end interfaces both tied to the
same Microsoft SQL Server database. One
front-end is for entering prospects, looking up attendees and list rental
requests. This front-end is a web-based
application that can be accessed by your Internet browser. The other front end is in Microsoft
Access. This front-end allows for
setting up events, printing labels and pulling list requests.
Encryption Policy / Export
Controls / Wiretapping / Cyber-Surveillance
By Adam Thierer
Entrepreneurs have developed state-of-the-art encryption software to
ensure maximum digital security and privacy for encoded communication. Encryption software is obviously essential as
electronic communication grows and as more and more personal and
business-related activity is carried on over electronic networks.
Encryption
helps individuals and organizations strengthen the security of routine daily
activities such as the transmission of electronic mail, facsimile, or voice
communications, as well as the transmission of more sensitive forms of digital
property such as medical records, business information and financial records
and transactions.
Many
law enforcement officials have argued, however, that encryption software could
be used to protect secret communications between parties who wish to undermine
American national security interests.
Consequently, until recently, the production and exportation of
encryption software was tightly controlled by federal officials.
Luckily,
federal encryption regulations were relaxed in September of 1999, but only
after all previous attempts to control these technologies had met with
failure. Hopefully, federal officials
will continue to take steps to liberalize the export control process and not
look to return to the days of policing America's encryption industry. Before policy makers consider re-introducing
controls on encryption regulations, they should appreciate the numerous
problems with restrictions on the development or trade of encryption products:
- Encryption products are almost impossible to
control in the absence of a full-blown police state being that encryption
software is little more than lines of code that can be easily transmitted
around the world at the click of a button.
- Encryption regulation poses serious First
Amendment free speech concerns since it restricts the ability of individuals
to communicate privately as well as the right of software developers to
freely publish and discuss their code.
- Encryption controls pose Fourth Amendment
concerns regarding unlawful government search and seizure.
- Encryption regulation would have an adverse
effect on the continued vitality and security of the entire free-market
system as the United States enters the Information Age since many
individuals and companies would be reluctant to engage in e-commerce
without strong encryption technologies safeguarding their activities.
- American encryption restrictions would serve only
diminish the global competitiveness of American software developers since
many foreign countries allow unrestricted encryption development.
- America's national security interests are actually better served by allowing strong encryption technologies to be developed and marketed since it will provide U.S. officials to gain important first-hand knowledge of the latest encryption systems and techniques available in the marketplace.
Reprinted with
permission of the Cato Institute copyright 2003.
To learn more about the Cato Institute, visit www.cato.org.
Special Days
By Tom Chenault
We all
celebrate many special days during the year.
We have Mother's Day, Father’s Day, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day,
“Take a Kid to Work Day”, etc. When I
was a kid, I could not figure out why they called it “Labor Day” since no one
went to work.
How about a few technology days where we do without things
we somehow did without not too long ago?
We have always been in favor of technology, but we sometimes wonder if
we not use it the right way. Here goes:
Voice Mail Day - for one full day the world turns off all voice mail
systems. Imagine placing a call and you
either get a human being or you just hang up after four or five rings. Since you cannot leave a message, you go back
to work without having to worry if your phone message ever gets returned,
which, in all probability, will not. On
the other end, less people call you unless it’s important.
E-Mail Day - no problem with this one.
According to a report by Clearswift
Limited, almost 40% of workers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany
spend at least one hour a day on personal e-mail; nearly 60% spend at least a
half hour every day on personal e-mail.
In a typical 100 person company this translates to almost 1,700 lost
working days. On E-mail Day, people get
caught up with work instead of deleting hundreds of e-mails or sending a
message to the person in the cubicle next to them about the football betting
pool.
PowerPoint™ Day – this means, for one full day, no one gets talked into something
they don't need, like spending millions on enterprise resource planning (ERP)
systems that will not fit or work. How
about doing this for one full month?
Cell Phone Day – this is the best one of all.
All day long, the entire planet leaves their cell phones at home or the
glove compartment of their cars.
Productivity booms because no one makes telephone calls, unless they
really need to. This would be like a day
with no formal meetings. People are
actually getting real work done. Imagine
talking to somebody and knowing they are in their office and not who knows
where.
Combination Cell Phone/Voice Mail Lunch – this is where one time zone at a time
enjoys lunch outside the office without interruptions. Meanwhile, back at the office, phones are
ringing off the wall because the few receptionists we have left in the world
are also out-to-lunch. When the
population finally gets back to the office, there are no messages (they will
call back if it’s important) and everyone gets back to work immediately.
As with
President’s Day, we could combine all the above days into one. As we all know, too much of anything cannot
be good, including technology. One day
off can improve productivity, help us understand how to use technology
properly, and help restore long lost courtesy to the business world. All we are asking for is just one day.
If you would rather
receive this newsletter by e-mail, please e-mail us at tom@chenaultsystems.com
Quote Worth
Noting
“The worst thing about new books is that they
keep us from reading the old ones.” -- John
Wooden