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There is no doubt that these are tough economic times. Unemployment is high and credit is tight. Key indicates show that is the worse economy in a generation. Many technology transfer offices have seen potential business partners reduce their innovation portfolios and expenditures. This coupled with a reduction in funding sources, from grants and investors to university sources are blowing the technology transfer research commercialization efforts into the perfect storm.

There are difficulties and challenges, but these times also create opportunities. Here are seven tips to help your technology transfer office succeed in these tough economic times.

1. Maintain a list of problems that are relevant to the research and technologies in the pipeline.

Technology transfer offices typically get involved in research commercialization efforts late in the research and testing process. Get involved earlier in the process and start developing a list of problems of which the research can be applied.

This is really an early brainstorming exercise. Don’t just talk to the researchers. Get business input from those who are not involved with the research or the research teams. Independent ideas can be worth their weight in gold.

2. Develop long-term business relationships.

”Dig the well before you are thirsty.”
-Chinese Proverb

Start developing business relationships with business leaders from a wide range of industries. Do this even before you have any applicable research or solutions for them. These relationships will pay off in two ways.

? You will have a better understanding of the types of challenges that these businesses face.
? When you do have promising research technologies and solutions you already have a relationship with the business or their contacts.

3. Pair researchers with business mentors.

Researchers think like researchers. Business people think like business people. Getting the two to communicate with each other versus talking to each other is a common technology transfer office challenge.

Providing a business mentor to promising research leaders will help alleviate this common problem. This continuous conduit will go a lot further than a long forgotten entrepreneurial seminar.

4. Develop alternative commercialization strategies early.

Good business people know that there is always a chance that their efforts may fail. Technology transfer officers know this too. Unfortunately, many researchers and inventors do not think about this, much less plan for it.

Most inventors think that their invention is world changing and worth millions. They have visions of establishing a company based on their research or technology, selling it for millions, and retiring in the lap of luxury.

The truth of the matter is that nine out of ten spin offs and startups will fail. You, can as the technology transfer officer can improve these odds.

I sit on the advisory board for some start up focused investment funds. One of the strategies that we have developed recently is to go for the big distribution partnering deal with large companies. When that doesn’t work – we find out why and have alternative proposals available.

This alternative could be limited distribution agreements on licensing deals. It really doesn’t matter what the alternative is. What does matter is that you get to stay in the game and get a return on the sunk costs.

5. Reduce risks for all involved.

It wasn’t that long ago that many universities shunned the entire technology transfer process. They wanted their faculty teaching and doing research, not commercializing their intellectual property. My, how times have changed.

Now universities love the revenue that comes from royalties and equity distributions and sales that are associated with intellectual property commercialization. Businesses are always looking for a competitive advantage and right now innovation is the soup de jour, except for one thing …RISK!

In order to get more businesses interested in potential technology look for new ways to reduce their potential risks. Right now cash is king. Instead of negotiating a lower royalty percentage, offer your potential licensor a deferred royalty agreement at a higher percentage. This is the business innovator’s version of “no interest payments for 3 years”.

This approach allows the business to conserve cash today and the university to reap more money in the long run. It’s better than the technology sitting on the shelf waiting to become obsolete.

6. Teach bootstrapping to your startups.

All technology startups need money. That is a known fact. The truth is that many could get by with less money than they think that they need. There in lies the art of bootstrapping. Bootstrapping basically means to start and operate a business without lots of investment funds. It requires the entrepreneur to focus on sales and to hold fixed costs to an absolute minimum.

Bootstrapping requires a unique mindset that few lead researchers turned entrepreneurs can relate to. It takes a special entrepreneur to be able to successfully bootstrap a business.
Help your lead researchers and startup teams. Get some experienced bootstrappers on your advisory and consulting teams and pass the knowledge on to your startups.

7. Partner with other technology transfer offices.

Technology transfer offices provide a valuable service to both the university and their research communities. They play a vital role in the economic development of their respective communities and states. Unlike many organizations involved in the invention commercialization process they do not compete.

Some technology transfer offices such as Stanford and MIT are the envy of their peers, however most technology transfer offices do not reside in a geographic area that harbors entrepreneurship in its DNA.

Partnering with other technology transfer offices offers many unique benefits that cannot be found though other means. It opens up dialogue and support for represented research and technologies to new areas and new commercialization ideas. It develops relationships with other potential business partners and fosters potential research synergies.

Targeted TTO partnerships can lead to specific research pairing with higher degrees of commercialization potential. This focused effort will, in the long run, yield a high degree of return on investment.

These 7 technology transfer officer tips can help you reduce your operating costs and increase your revenue generation success rate. It’s a win for society, the researcher, the business community, the university, and YOU!

The vacation season is on us and the way people celebrate the season has changed enormously over time. Even kids’ vacation wish lists have developed from the tried and tested favorites like action figures and dolls to new and modern tech gadgets and digital products with a wide variety of functions and features many have not even imagined already possible with today.

Consumer groups and market mavens are noting the rising share of tech contraption sales lately and has become the top pick for gift requests of children and teenagers. Percentages keep inflating year on year with PDAs, DVD drives, mp3 players, smartphones, and other computer accessories overreaching the clamor for core computers. This can be attributed to the tighter economy with people choosing less expensive but still technology-based items.

This makes tech gadgets hot items to sell on your web store and resellers would certainly make big profits this vacation season promoting these contraptions and gadgets. The following lists practical tips for selling tech gadgets to help get the maximum from the vacation season.

Tips for Resellers of Tech Gadgets

Selling any product involves three major elements : Sales, promoting, and client support. You need to address all aspects of these three elements to help achieve good results from your sales efforts and the following will show exactly how.

Selling :

* Offer offers for the vacation period.
* Obviously state that your vacation sale is limited only to a fixed period or simply before the vacation starts.
* Bundle related tech products together and offer the package with tempting discounts . It is better to sell 2 tech gadgets at discounted prices than selling just one at regular prices.
* Offer free or discounted shipping should they make orders that goes beyond a certain fixed value .
* Be creative with your discount schemes and use the vacation timing to your benefit. One nice example is to supply discount vouchers for each gift purchases made before the vacations which they can use after the vacation period is over.

Promoting :
* Highlight concern about the products you are selling or the rebates you are offering for the vacation season by conducting e-mail campaigns to your contacts, egroups, and networks.
* Make good use of social networks by making notes, pages, and standing updates of your new products or offers at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other similar sites.
* Write about your new releases and offers in your own blogs or as guest writer in other people’s blogs.
* Write articles and publicity releases and publish them on the internet. These strategies are free and easy to do but would effectively steer traffic to your sales page.

Consumer Support :

* Know your courier’s vacation schedule so you could have a good idea in setting last order dates for your customers so you can let them know well in advance.
* Avoid Problems for your customers by reminding them to double check their own states customs procedures for certain tech gadgets like those concerning tech lasers. These products might create possible difficulties with clearance and delivery particularly when customs become stricter during the vacation season.
* Ensure that you or your wholesalers have enough stock to meet projects consumer orders even before the vacation season starts.
* It would be smart to load up on additional accessories before the vacation period starts. It is anticipated that consumers will need more of these accessories after the vacations.
* Avoid potential delivery issues and delays by reminding your customers to provide accurate delivery addresses to avoid difficulties for couriers to find their precise location.

Tech gadgets are hot items that people from all areas of life would like to have during the vacation season. Milk this very hot trend by squirreling away these hot items on your internet store and see your sales figures shoot up with these practical sales tips.

It is no secret that technology has its flaws. When you buy cool tech gadgets they are not guaranteed to be 100% perfect.

But sometimes the problem can be misuse of the product due to the buyer not reading the instructions carefully.

Hi tech gadgets can present all sorts of problems from having a small glitch to having absolutely no power at all.

I’m sure you like everyone else has bought Cool new tech gadgets only to get home to find something wrong with them, not a nice feeling.

Here is a check list you should follow after buying tech gadgets:

1) Always read the user manual, this will often show you something you’ve done wrong. Never assume you know everything about it.

2) Check and double check that everything that is supposed to be in the box is actually in the box. People throw away cables or small things because they don’t look thoroughly through the packaging.

3) Be sure you check that all the appropriate accessories have been supplied, these can sometimes be excluded in the factory.

4) If you have bought a device from a foreign country you will need to check the voltage as this may vary. Failure do so could cause a shortage in your house and the destruction of your new high tech gadget.

5) Always check to see if the LED indicator is active, this lets you know that your new tech gadgets are receiving power.

6) Double check the battery is inserted properly; it should fit in nicely and not be loose. Most batteries will have an indicator on them as to which way they should fit.

7) Check the manual to see if all your cables are connected in the correct way.

Ensure that your cable is not the problem. You can check a cable by using it in another device that is similar.

9) Make sure that the side of a SIM card with the chip showing is face down in the device and connected.

10) Turning a device on and off can sometime create a power surge that gives a new device the necessary power it need on an initial boot up. This is the reason most Microsoft engineers will ask someone to do this first.

11) It is important to calibrate touch screen devices so that the device can adjust to your unique style of handling it.

13) When connecting to a PC make sure your device is connectable with your operating system whether it’s 32-bit or 64-bit. A 64-bit system is faster than a 32-bit system.

14) When using an SD card or a GSM card make sure it is compatible with your device. Otherwise it simply will not work.

15) When you put media files on a GPS navigator or car DVD players it can confuse the device and it will not know what information to read.

16) Always get reviews from Google on apps or files types you have not tried before to see if there are any issues with them.

17) Always check that your device supports the file format you are trying to use. AVI and DIVX differ at times as AVI is a container and DIVX is a codec.

18) Only perform a factory reset a last resort because you will lose all data and setting previously stored.

19) Don’t flash your firmware unless you’re ready for the full responsibility of repairing it. Most ecommerce stores and electronics retailers treat this as a warranty voiding issue because it is most frequently done incorrectly.

20) Anything extra that you sue on a device uses more power. So, if you’re having a problem with short battery life, it’s a good idea to turn off things like wifi, Bluetooth and screen luminosity.

21) Sellers keep batteries in remotes fresh by changing them or by using a high quality brand.

22) Is your device performing slower, or more choppily than it did the previous day? Perhaps you haven’t given it enough time to ‘boot up’. Always give a device some time to start up. This is because if there are many programs they might take a few moments to boot.

There you have it, you now have enough information to be your friends’ and family’s ‘go to guy’ for tech gadgets problems.

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One of the most interesting aspects of nature is the broad range of diversity and unusual interactions that we find. One of these is the boxer crab, a small crab which earns its name from the fact that it forms a partnership with sea anemones (in biology, the relationship is called mutualism), which grow on the crab’s claws and act as a defense mechanism. Also known as the “pom-pom crab,” this relationship between the anemone and the crab help both to survive and thrive in an ever-challenging environment.

In nature, it takes a lot to find the right relationship that benefits both parties equally. In business, finding that kind of partnership can be equally challenging, but also equally rewarding.

Finding the Right Technology Partner:

In business, finding the right technology partner can be somewhat challenging, but very rewarding. We’ve assembled some tips and characteristics that can help you evaluate potential partners as you begin your search.

Reputation

What have other companies and individuals said about the company? Can they give you references and show clear examples of projects that they have completed that are similar to what you need? If you search for this company online, what do you find? Also, has this company won any awards or received any recognition for its work?

Experience

Along with their reputation as a company, does this company have experience in the specific areas and with the specific technologies that you need? Can they prove this experience through past projects, certifications, or anything else?

Communication

Make sure that you can quickly and easily communicate with the company. During any project, there will be some amount of collaboration so it is important that you feel able to speak to them. Also, make sure that the company is able to communicate complex technology terms in ways that relate to you.

Mutual Benefit

There is more to a business partnership than “you pay money, so you get our services.” The right technology partner will be invested in helping your company succeed with your project.

In other words, the right partner will seek to understand how you intend to benefit as a business from the technology, and work to make sure the technology solution helps accomplish that goal, rather than just checking off a list of requirements. The company should understand that in order to “win” you both need to benefit.

Long Term vs. Short Term

Technology partnerships can be short term, such as a single project, or long term over the course of multiple projects.

Ideally, you want to find someone that you can use as a long term technology partner, even if you don’t expect to ever need technology services in the foreseeable future. Why? Because you will almost inevitably need a technology partner again in the future. This can also benefit you on future projects as the company will already understand your business and be able to better meet your needs, and it can be helpful to have someone that you can go to for quick technology advice or assistance.

Services and Resources

Does the company have a depth of internal and external resources, and are they able to offer an extended range of technologies or solutions? The ability to provide a broad range of services often means that they can help you find the best solution using the best technologies, rather than being stuck trying to use one technology to solve all challenges.

Also, look at companies that have depth. These resources indicate their ability to recruit talented individuals in many fields as well as the ability to work with other companies in their sector to achieve the best results.

Support

Does the company provide full service and/or extended support for the products it creates? Also, does it assist with the implementation and installation of the solution, and are its developers able to help train your staff to use the new technology?

Support, Warranty, and other service guarantees are vital to understanding the level of commitment the company has towards your project. While extended support services are usually an optional addition to your, general warranties and implementation support should be included as a part of the basic project package, whenever applicable.

The Final Word

Ultimately the best choice may be one that leaves you with few (or zero) doubts and concerns about their ability to work with you and accomplish your project.

At Amadeus Consulting, we deal extensively in helping clients find and build the right custom software solutions for businesses, governments and non-profits. If you are looking for software solutions for the web, mobile devices, or traditional platforms, we may be the right fit for you, and we encourage you to check us out.

Choosing the best for someone who is a gadget geek is the most difficult thing in the world. If you have someone in your friends or family who is crazy for gadgets, surely he will be having all different kinds of gadgets. Now imagine when you have to buy a gift for the same person nothing except gadgets will come to your mind. However, it is problematic to buy a gadget for someone who has all kinds of gadgets. well few ways are there that can help you in dealing with this problem in an efficient manner.in the following text you can find some useful tips that can make your journey of shopping a gadget easy and interesting too.

Firstly, do not waste your time in checking out old gadgets. It is obvious that a gadget geek would own gadgets at the earliest after their launch. Thus, it would be better if you look around at latest gadgets that have introduced in the market. Now to check out these gadgets you do not to move back and forth between different shops. Simply switch on your system and start hunting for various gadgets available at online stores. Searching the shelves of these stores is less time consuming and does not make you tire at all.

Try to look out for something that can be used in routine life. Wait you should not get confused with common gadgets and a gadget that can be used in routine life. These days, it is not difficult to find items that might sound weird but make your difficult tasks easier. Keeping in mind the interests and likes of the person you can buy a gift accordingly. For instance, someone who has interest in computers, you can buy some gadget related to computers. In this way, you can buy latest things without overlooking the interest of other person.

Now once your search for the best gadget is over it is time to place an order for it. When you are placing an order on online stores, it is important to keep in mind the reputation of the store. You would never like that the gift you give to someone else is of inferior quality or does not function properly.