Books by Phil Simon

Residents in Boston, Massachusetts are automatically reporting potholes and road hazards via their smartphones. Progressive Insurance tracks real-time customer driving patterns and uses that information to offer rates truly commensurate with individual safety.

Stay connected despite the distanceFace-to-face meetings no longer require participants to be in the same room. Thanks to apps like Zoom, it's easy to connect one-on-one or in groups from your desk, your home office, or even the comfort of your own couch. Zoom For Dummies provides a comprehensive guide to the application, including the steps for setting up meetings and advice on how to make those meetings work best. This book will get you up-to-speed with Zoom's many capabilities and show you how to best utilize Zoom for your professional and personal needs.

Buoyed by the success of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, thousands of companies of all sizes are fundamentally rethinking how they do business. They are creating vibrant ecosystems and, in the process, reaping big rewards. In the tradition of The Long Tail, The Age of the Platform demonstrates how the world of business today is vastly different from that of even ten years ago. Today, the most successful companies are operating under an entirely different business model-one predicated on collaboration, emerging technologies, externally driven innovation, different types of partnerships, and vibrant ecosystems. Rife with examples, The Age of the Platform is nothing less than essential reading to understand business today--and where it is going.

A small seafood restaurant attracts new customers with virtually no marketing budget. An iPad case manufacturer generates more than $1M in revenue in four months with only four employees. A voiceover company is able to connect thousands of artists with opportunities, all without expensive hardware and software. A law firm increases access to key information while dramatically reducing technology-related costs and risks. And these four companies are hardly unique. A new breed of small businesses is using Software as a Service (SaaS), free and open source software, social media and networks, mobility, cloud computing, and other emerging technologies to do things simply not possible even five years ago. In The New Small, you'll discover how these companies creatively and intelligently use technology to:Reach new customersReduce costsIncrease internal collaboration and communicationCreate flexible work environments Rife with profiles from a wide variety of industries, The New Small offers pragmatic advice and lessons about how small businesses are harnessing the power of emerging technologies. It's a must-read for small business owners-and those thinking about starting their own shops.

For years, organizations have struggled to make sense out their data. IT projects designed to provide employees with dashboards, KPIs, and business-intelligence tools often take a year or more to reach the finish line. if they get there at all. This has always been a problem. Today, though, it's downright unacceptable.

Get your message across the right way with clear communication Message Not Received provides the tools and techniques that make an effective writer and public speaker. Particularly on topics related to data and technology, effective communication can present a challenge in business settings.

The era of Big Data as arrived, and most organizations are woefully unprepared. Slowly, many are discovering that stalwarts like Excel spreadsheets, KPIs, standard reports, and even traditional business intelligence tools aren't sufficient. These old standbys can't begin to handle today's increasing streams, volumes, and types of data.

* Opportunities in Chaos will serve to help organizations better understand new technologies and their potential impact. * It will help them determine if, and at what level they should be implemented, and ensure that they avoid making the IT and management mistakes of the last 25 years.