Mediaboss Marketing

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is shuttering offices around the country and forcing many to work from home as a way to help slow the spread of the virus. But many homes are not equipped for potentially longer-term remote working situations. At the same time, some online services, such as delivery services and healthcare organizations, are being bombarded with unprecedented traffic that their networks werent necessarily prepared to handle.

This is where IT vendors are coming to the rescue. Many wireless, application performance, and business continuity providers are giving customers free access to some of their offerings while end users adjust to the new normal.

Here's a handful of free networking products and services that vendors are extending for free, as well as complimentary access to payment deferment plans and educational content being offering right now.

And check out CRN's list of free videoconferencing tools for working remotely.

AppDynamics APM Software, Tech Support

AppDynamics, the application performance monitoring software arm of Cisco Systems, knows that now is not the time for online services to fail as the number of remote employees grow larger by the day, and as essential businesses, such as grocery stores and healthcare organizations, need to stay up and running now more than ever.

To help organizations deal with the brand-new demands they are seeing on their networks, AppDynamics is providing free use of its application performance monitoring software through free AppDynamics SaaS licenses for qualified customers until July 15. The company is also offering free 30-minute one-on-one technical help for new and existing customers.

The firm is also making access to its Premium University content free until May 31.

Cisco Collaboration, Security Solutions

In response to the influx of brand-new home workers, Cisco Systems is giving away some of its collaboration and security solutions for free right now.

Cisco earlier this month expanded the capabilities on its free videoconferencing and collaboration solution, Webex, in all countries where it is available. The new Webex features include unlimited usage or no time restrictions and support for up to 100 participants. Cisco is also providing free 90-day licenses to businesses who are not Webex customers in this time of need through its sales team and Cisco partners.

Cisco Umbrella, the firms cloud-based security platform that protects users from malicious internet destinations while on and off the corporate network, is now available to new customers via a free license. Existing customers can also exceed their user limit to support more remote employees. The same deal goes for both Cisco's Duo Security offering, which offers duel-factor authentication, as well as Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, its secure endpoint access solution, according to the San Jose, Calif.-based company.

Extreme Networks' Cloud Training, Payment Plan

Wireless vendor Extreme Networks wants to help partners and end customers get their home offices up and running quickly, without worrying about cost right now.

Extreme is letting businesses buy the network solutions they need today while preserving working capital by allowing them to defer payment until July 1 with Extreme Capital Solutions, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said. Extreme is also offering its cloud technical certification training through July 20.

Additionally, Extreme announced its Branch Portable Kit, an offering that includes networking capabilities for connection, security, and remote networking management of teleworkers, Extreme said.

Igloo Software

Software-as-a-Service specialist Igloo Software is arming customers with everything they need to keep their businesses going, from any location their employees may be located, and right away.

Specifically, Igloo Software is giving away access to its Business Continuity Bundle. The bundle offers a News Hub for employees, a restricted, Leadership Corner for executives to share updates and communicate, and an Incident Planning Hub.

The bundle, which can be up and running in a matter of hours, will be available to companies until July 6, according to the Ontario-based company.

NGINX Plus

NGINX, the application delivery software arm of F5 Networks, is helping websites and mobile applications handle unexpected surges in traffic related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The company is offering one free year of NGINX Plus, its load balancer, content cache, and web server platform, for those in the education, public government, and nonprofit sectors. NGINX is also opening up its trainings and making the content available at no cost to educational organizations.

At the same time, NGINX employees are being encouraged to spend more of their time at work responding to requests for help and questions that come in from social media platforms, like Twitter, the company said.

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5 Free Networking Products To Help Businesses Survive Working From Home - CRN: Technology news for channel partners and solution providers

If you need to Work from Home for a long duration, its a good idea to get your team ready to use set of tools for accessible communication. If you have a stable internet connection, these Windows software are going to work just fine. In this post, we are sharing a set of Windows Software to work from Home with your Team.

I have categorized the Windows software into three major groups. The first one will help you with video and audio calls; the second is about Task Management, while the last one is about remote assistance, which can come in handy if any of your teammates or customers need assistance.

Zoom a group video meeting software that allows around 40 people to join video meetings without paying anything. If you are running a small team for projects, or plan to plan virtual classes for kids, then it can be one of the feasible tools.

Pros

Works well in low bandwidth if you are ready to compromise on the quality.

Share Desktop, Whiteboard documents and more

Cons

You should know, however, that it is currently facing a lot of privacy and security issues.

Microsofts video calling platform Skype supports calls, chat, and file transfers. The service is not integrated across Microsoft products, including Microsoft Teams. If you are only looking for a simple video calling app which uses Microsoft product, you may pick this one.

Pros

Cons

Incidentally, Skype Meet lets you host free Video Conference Calls; No Download or Sign-Up required!

WhatsApp is the popular messaging app around the world, and apart from regular video calling, they do support group video call. While it is not made for meetings, if you want to make a quick call to 2-3 people, this works at its best.

Pros

Cons

Its not easy to pick up one in this section. Many apps offer these features.Microsoft Teams, Slack, Asana, Timecamp, and more. What depends here is your requirement. As an example, If I compare Microsoft Team and Slack, the former is best if you are already using Microsoft 365 and need something robust for large enterprise companies. On the contrary, Slack is best for those looking for a minimal setup, and integration with third-party apps. So instead of listing tons of apps with pros and cons, evaluate best on these questions

Lastly, make sure to sit with the team, take their feedback and requirement, find all use cases, and then choose the service. That said, here is the list of some simplified task management and team chat applications:

These Remote Assistance software do not need an introduction. While TeamViewer is very popular, AnyDesk has picked up the pace past few years. I have used both, and they work just fine for any kind of remote assistance.

If you are looking for something substantial, and for business, TeamViewer should be your choice, Not only it offers complete login security, but also allows you to add devices to your list for regular support

Pros:

Cons:

If you are looking for a portable, lightweight, and remote assistance that works fast, AnyDesk should be your choice anytime.

Pros:

Cons:

We hope you find the list useful if you are planning to work from Home, and your team needs to stay in constant touch with you. It is always a good idea to use a good Security software as well as a VPN software to stay safe and secure,

I am sure there are many more tools compared to what we have put up the list. Make sure you share your tool, and why you are using it in the comments section.

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Free Windows Software to help you Work from Home with your Team - TWCN Tech News

Apples iWork is one of the best Microsoft Office alternatives out there. Available for macOS, iOS and as a web app, the iWork suite comprises a word processorPages, spreadsheet appNumbers, and presentation builderKeynote. Keep reading our iWork review to learn what makes this one of the best office suites.

iWork is available as an app for macOS and iOS devices, and as a web app. One of Apples great software claims has been, You already know how to use it. For the most part, thats true of iWork. It has a minimalist interface that hides a surprisingly rich set of customizations and settings.

In each app, a row of buttons at the top enables you to show and hide visual elements like rulers or comments, access a collaboration menu, and add objects like charts, text, and shapes. Once on the page, personalizing those objects is quite intuitive. You can click on any chart, shape, or object to bring up a menu for changing its style and layout. Adding colors and gradients, adjusting text wrapping, and changing borders is also straightforward.

We'll run through each app's features one-by-one.

Pages

Pages is a great free word processor. Text formatting is straightforward, enabling you to choose from predefined styles or create your own. We particularly liked how easy it was to create and adjust columns, tabs, and indents, which we found more intuitive than in MS Office. We also liked the wide range of clip art available, all of which can be customized by color, shadow, reflection, and opacity.

Lists are easy to create, but the fact that style changes arent carried through to elements of the same level is regrettable, as is the fact that progressive levels dont cycle through bullet styles. Furthermore, citation management isnt a built-in feature, which is a big let-down for academics and professionals who need to manage and insert bibliographic elements. Finally, Find & Replace is very basic, and its not possible to find and replace special characters or styles.

Numbers

Numbers provides basic spreadsheet functionality, with some features we appreciated. For example, entering formulas is straightforward and made much simpler by the presence of a function glossary with definitions and use examples. Visually, we found the formula brackets style a little unusual, but liked that you could click on values within the formula to preserve the row or column (accomplished with $A$1 in Excel).

Numbers is built to display data, not manipulate it, so data analysis functions were severely limited. Advanced filtering, What-If scenarios, and data validation are all absent. Graphs and charts, however, are simple to create and personalize, as is conditional highlighting.

Keynote

Keynote comes with some great templates, slide styles, and transitions that are easily customizable. Adding slides and elements is easy and intuitive, as is customizing them. Presentation mode was straightforward, and we especially loved that you can personalize the presenter display.

Collaboration features

Invites to collaborate can be sent by mail, iMessage, a pastable link, or AirDrop, with customizable permissions. These are limited to Edit and View Only, with a comments-only setting regrettably absent. Some features are disabled when collaborating, such as editing styles. Overall, however, collaborations are smooth and responsive. Changes appear in real-time, and iWork supports up to 100 collaborators on a single document, which is the same number as Google Docs. Document collaboration in Office 365 is determined by a specified Microsoft Team size, which can be up to 5,000 people.

Unsurprisingly, iWork has some great apps for iOS and iPadOS. With the multitasking improvements made to iPadOS in recent years, the iWork apps help you take full advantage of your iPad or iPhones capabilities. The iPhone app is necessarily less ergonomic, but the iPad app is intuitive and reproduces remarkably well the interface and capabilities of its macOS counterpart. In fact, we failed to find any noteworthy discrepancies.

We were impressed by how easily objects could be added, both advanced ones like dynamic charts and graphs, and simple images and shapes. iWork takes full advantage of your iOS devices camera and microphone, so adding images, audio, and video is easy.

Finally, we were thrilledthough not surprisedto find excellent Apple Pencil integration. Annotating documents and adding drawings is intuitive and enjoyable. The whole range of Pencil capabilities is expressed, including shading with the pencil lain flat, pressure sensitivity, and double-tap to erase. The whole experience was, in our experience, much more responsive and immersive than with the Office 365 mobile apps.

Since 2013, iWork is also available online, so anybody with an iCloud account can access it. The web app works on Safari, Chrome, and Edge (Windows), and is useful in a pinch, but a bit limited overall. First, we were surprised to find that, because we had activated Tracked Changes on the iOS version, changes on iCloud were prohibited, which seems remarkably restrictive for a collaborative app.

In fact, a wide range of features dont work in the online version, notably equations, copying or pasting pages, editing master pages or slides, and many visual elements like gradients or shadows.

iWork has been free since 2013. Anybody with an Mac, iPad, or iPhone can download and use the full software suite, and anybody with an iCloud account can access the web version. It can be installed on an unlimited number of devices.

Overall, we found iWork to be an intuitive office suite. The suite features advanced word processing, dynamic and engaging slideshows, and eye-catching though analytically basic spreadsheets. There are some regrettable lacunae, notably that of a citation manager or an advanced find & replace function. The web app could benefit from improvement, but is acceptable in a pinch.

Nonetheless, for both Mac users and iPad users, who will love the Pencil integration, this is some of the best office software out there, and its totally free.

iWork is a feature-rich suite with deep collaborative functionality. If your business is Mac-based, its hard to do better, especially since its free. If youre looking for greater customizability and more control over your data, OnlyOffices server-based suite is a good option. Price plans are variable, but a lifetime license for one server with 50 simultaneous connections costs just $1200. For a simpler solution that works well on Windows computers, OfficeSuite has a 5-user Group plan for $49.99/month, with spreadsheets that beat out iWork in both usability and power.

FInd out more about iWork's competition in our guide to the Best Microsoft Office alternatives.

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iWork review: A free and feature-rich office suite review - TechRadar

The "Vendor Management Software Market to 2027 - Global Analysis and Forecasts By Deployment Mode; Enterprise Size; Industry Vertical" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global vendor management software market accounted for US$ 4,389.2 Mn in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.4% over the forecast period 2019-2027, to account for US$ 12,295.8 Mn in 2027.

During the forecast period of 2019 to 2027, the positive growth outlook towards the continuous growth in the IT development is expected to drive the vendor management software worldwide. However, the challenges related to data privacy of vendor management solutions may restrain the future growth of the vendor management software market. Despite these limitations, the growing adoption of vendor management software across SMEs is projected to offer ample growth opportunities for the players operating in the vendor management software market during the forecast period.

Some of the leading players in vendor management software market are highly focusing on strategic market initiatives to enrich their production capabilities as well as to expand their geographical presence across the globe. Also, the players are focusing on receiving numerous strategies to focus strongly on the vendor management software market. This, in turn, is contributing to the growth of the vendor management software market.

North America held the largest share of the vendor management software market in 2018, and it is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period of 2019-2027. It has contributed more than 36% to the overall revenue of the vendor management software market in the year 2018.

The APAC and Europe held the second and third position in the global vendor management software market in 2018 with market shares of 26% and 24%, respectively. The market in APAC is anticipated to grow at the highest growth rate from 2019 to 2027. Other developing regions such as the Middle East and Africa and South America are also anticipated to offer ample growth opportunities to the vendor management software market players during 2019-2027.

Companies mentioned

Reasons to Buy

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction

2. Key Takeaways

3. Research Methodology

4. Vendor Management Software Market Landscape

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Ecosystem Analysis

4.3 PEST Analysis

5. Vendor Management Software Market - Key Industry Dynamics

5.1 Key Drivers

5.1.1 High Inclination Toward Adoption of Solutions to Enhance Operational and Supply Chain Efficiencies

5.1.2 Impact of Vendor Management Software on Organization Bottom-Lines

5.2 Key Restraints

5.2.1 Concerns pertaining to data privacy and security

5.3 Key Opportunities

5.3.1 Growing Adoption of Vendor Management Software across SMEs

5.4 Future Trends

5.4.1 Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Vendor Management Softwares

5.5 Impact Analysis of Drivers And Restraints

6. Vendor Management Software Market - Global Market Analysis

6.1 Global Vendor Management Software Market Overview

6.2 Global Vendor Management Software Market Forecast and Analysis

6.3 Market Positioning- Top Five Players

7. Vendor Management Software Market - By Deployment Mode

7.1 Overview

7.2 Cloud

7.3 On-Premises

8. Vendor Management Software Market Analysis - By Enterprise Size

8.1 Overview

8.2 Large Enterprise

8.3 SMEs

9. Vendor Management Software Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2027-Industry Vertical

9.1 Overview

9.2 Global Vendor Management Software Market Breakdown, By Industry Vertical, 2018 & 2027

9.3 BFSI Market

9.4 Retail

9.5 Manufacturing

9.6 IT and Telecom Market

9.7 Others Market

10. Global Vendor Management Software Market - Geographic Analysis

10.1 Overview

10.2 North America Vendor Management Software Market Revenue and Forecast to 2027

10.3 Europe Vendor Management Software Market Revenue and Forecast to 2027

10.4 APAC Vendor Management Software Market Revenue and Forecast to 2027

10.5 MEA Vendor Management Software Market Revenue and Forecast to 2027

10.6 South America Vendor Management Software Market Revenue and Forecast to 2027

11. Vendor Management Software Market - Industry Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Market Initiative

11.3 Merger & Acquisition

11.4 New Product Development

12. Vendor Management Software Market- Company Profiles

13. Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3euw73

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200406005605/en/

Contacts

ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Managerpress@researchandmarkets.com

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Global Vendor Management Software Market (2019 to 2027) - Global Analysis and Forecasts By Deployment Mode, Enterprise Size and Industry Vertical -...

SEATTLE, March 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Altoura announced Monday it will give free licenses for its immersive VR/AR training and collaboration software for use in finding a COVID-19 vaccine or making health care supplies. The virtual and augmented reality startup joins the ranks of companies, big and small, around the country that are jumping to respond the challenge of our time.

The company is offering free licenses for six months to its Altoura Immersive Reality Platform (VR/AR/MR) and at-cost digital twin and training design services to companies or organizations, private or public, that are working on a COVID-19 vaccine or manufacturing supplies, like ventilators, PPE and testing kits, for health care workers. The licenses can be extended, if needed.

Based in Seattle, Altoura builds virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality enterprise solutions for immersive training, layouts and virtual tours. The award-winning solutions run on iOS (iPhone and iPads), Android, Windows PC and the HoloLens 2. It supports multi-user remote collaboration. Hundreds of companies have used Altoura's web-based VR tours and its app-based immersive training and collaboration software.

"We know that we can provide a layer of safety and productivity with our immersive training software," said Jamie Fleming, CEO of Altoura, which is a Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner.

Fleming's offer to provide his company's software licenses for free and to discount their design services is motivated by the very real dangers and pain it has caused in his own backyard. He is reaching out to business leaders to work together to find solutions to the global pandemic and its ensuing havoc.

"I believe there is an imperative for all of us to work together to find solutions," he said. "Coronavirus has struck so many in my community and our loved ones."

Even prior to the global pandemic, Altoura was working with customers like Thermo Fisher, Walgreens and Microsoft and continues to support them as they pivot as part of their emergency response.

Many companies already employ virtual training for the cost savings from reduced travel and the ability for employees to train anywhere, any time. With the Altoura software, environments can be experienced in virtual or augmented reality and training is delivered immersively. This has the benefit of reducing the need for in-person interactions and travel two factors that may be the difference between life and death in the face of this global pandemic.

According to internal research, collaborating and training immersively accelerates learning by raising the learner's engagement, increasing information retention and reducing errors. Plus, companies can safely train their workforce in unsafe environments.

"Altoura allows us to train our people safely in unsafe situations," said Amanda El Bahou, manager of Qantas Group Learning Technology. Altoura recently built an immersive flight simulator for Australian airline giant Qantas.

Contact together@altoura.com to find out more about the free software license offer for the Altoura Immersive Reality Platform (VR/AR/MR).

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Altoura offers VR/AR immersive training software free to companies and organizations fighting Coronavirus - NBC Right Now