The coin-operated machine is a common sight these days. Located in almost any public area, they dispense refreshments to passerby for a small fee. These machines offer many different types of items. The hot coffee machine is one popular example. These are machines dispense a variety of coffees, as well as similar drinks like hot chocolate. They are designed to pour and mix the cover based on the choices that you indicate, all by a press of the button.

Water machines are very popular in places like health clubs and athletic associations. These machines will also often include sports drinks as part of their selection. Machines that dispense water and sports drinks are some of the most popular varieties. Snack machines are another type of common vending machine. These typically dispense snacks like gum, candy, crackers, and related items. These machines are very common in office buildings and other places where people take breaks from work. Some machines are only sold at specific locations. For example, you will only find machines that dispense women's products in women's rest rooms.

Today, most individuals and organizations purchase product dispensing machines from sites they find on the Internet. A good place to look for these machines is at VendingOnDemand.com. They sell all kinds of machines, ranging from candy dispensers to toy vendors. The site is extremely easy to navigate and understand. The company will match any lower price that you find, making it a one-stop shopping site for people interested in buying a vending machine.

Water machines are very popular in places like health clubs and athletic associations. These machines will also often include sports drinks as part of their selection. Machines that dispense water and sports drinks are some of the most popular varieties. Snack machines are another type of common vending machine. These typically dispense snacks like gum, candy, crackers, and related items. These machines are very common in office buildings and other places where people take breaks from work. Some machines are only sold at specific locations. For example, you will only find machines that dispense women's products in women's rest rooms.

Today, most individuals and organizations purchase product dispensing machines from sites they find on the Internet. A good place to look for these machines is at VendingOnDemand.com They sell all kinds of machines, ranging from candy dispensers to toy vendors. The site is extremely easy to navigate and understand. The company will match any lower price that you find, making it a one-stop shopping site for people interested in buying a vending machine.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jack_M_Patterson

In April TPI, the world's largest sourcing data and advisory firm, announced the findings from its quarterly analysis of the global commercial outsourcing industry for the first quarter of 2008 and the previous six months. Worldwide it was the second-best first-quarter performance ever for annualised contract value, with most "new scope" contracts every for a single quarter.
Now we've caught up with TPI partner and managing director, Peter Allen, to discuss the significance of the report's findings and to get Allen's perspective on the state of the industry - and it's clear that the R-word is dominating industry thinking...

Q: Can you start by giving us a quick overview of the index and what it's saying about the industry at the moment?

A: I think to give that stance we have to put it in the context of the world's economic climate, and it's clear certainly in the US and among most Western economies there's a current slowdown or drag in economic growth if not an outright recession. So the prevailing question we hear is, what role does outsourcing play in the survival and competitive strategies of major corporations in the face of an economic downturn. And that's really the question we tried to answer in our Q1 report which covered the commercial outsourcing contract awards that were let in the first quarter of 2008, and for contrast we put those in the context of prior periods as well.
And what we saw was the rather healthy record of outsourcing awards in Q1 and when taken together with Q4 to form a most recent 6-month view it is an unprecedented volume of contract awards. And most of it represented what we call "new scope", so it's not renegotiating or realigning existing agreements: it's truly incremental demand coming to the marketplace.

Q: Now you've highlighted the regional differences here: for example, "EMEA's percentage of the global contract TCV [total contract value] and ACV [annualized contract value] is more of an indication of softness in the Americas than any absolute increase in EMEA". Do you think that's something that's going to trend for a while and is indicative of America leading the economic way, whether up or down?

A: Well, what that says is that on an absolute basis EMEA is holding its own; its record was neither significantly higher nor lower than its historical level. It's the Americas that really had fallen off in terms of award-values, and our sense here speaking from an American-economy participant's point of view is that especially in the more mature outsourcing sectors such as banking or manufacturing there has been a pause in the most recent quarters as corporate executives took stock of just how deep the recession was likely to be, how deeply they needed to restructure their operations, to cut their costs, and what role their existing outsourcing relationships were likely to play in their sourcing strategies.
So the thing to keep in mind here is, the TPI index generally reports on new contract awards. And by our account there are well over 2,900 active outsourcing agreements in place among corporations and service providers today in the market. And when you need to pull the trigger fast, and you need to get costs down fast, and restructure operations fast, often the first place to turn is your existing service provider relationship, not go through the laborious time-consuming process of structuring a new relationship. So what we are showing here is that in the Americas, where there seems to be perhaps a more acute and instantaneous reaction to the recessionary impact corporate executives have either deferred decisions to start new initiatives, or they are leveraging more actively their existing outsourcing relationships.

Q: Is there any relationship between that and the fact that this is an election year in the US and people are uncertain as to what the outcome is going to be?

A: No, I really don't. Having been in this industry for longer than I care to remember we've gone through several election-year periods in which occasionally the outsourcing and offshoring words are used by either the media or the candidates to strike a hot iron. We find that it has very little play in the corporate boardrooms; whether we have a Democratic or a Republican president might matter to some level of financial planning but in terms of structure of companies to succeed in global markets it's trivial.

Q: There has been a little bit of anti-outsourcing rhetoric coming from both Democrat contenders at the moment...

A: You know, it's a popular topic to appeal to the masses. Our dialogues are among the senior-most executives among global firms, and they recognize that their survival and their ability to win in their markets depends upon having the right products at the right prices in the right markets. So they're really not concerned about which party the US president is affiliated with.

Q: Let's move away from the outgoing side and look at some of the countries receiving the deals that you're measuring. Have you noticed any change in target destination: is India still holding its own, is China finally moving ahead?

A: India has a very strong lead here in terms of existing award-worth: I'll tell you that many companies are now looking to second-tier cities in India and getting away from the historical top-tier locations like Bangalore.

Q: Why do you think that is?

A: The two reasons that we hear most often are: access to a less competitive workforce - it's not a workforce that's being fought over by so many other potential hiring companies - and the relaxation of the demands upon the infrastructure of those top-tier cities. We're seeing the government in India strongly encourage the corporations to go to the smaller cities because the infrastructure within the top-tier cities is simply not able to sustain continued growth.

Q: And what about China?

A: In China we're actually seeing the first real sign of tangible expansion into China principally being led by the corporations that are the buyers of outsourcing. So there's been a lot of talk about China for many many years and certainly in aspects of software development China has a place. But when you get into the BPO domains -especially those that may have complex transactions and/or voice-related processes -China has not been very prominent. We're now seeing many companies engage the outsourcing industry because those buyers have aspirations to be participants in the Chinese economy, and they want to establish operations there so they're looking at outsourcing as a way to get in.

Q: That almost sounds like - if you want to talk in traditional terms - a "loss-leader" to get into a new market; like they're prepared to deal with the slightly less advantageous situation of being in China for the benefits that a presence in China can convey.

A: That's a very good observation. We look at sourcing strategies through three lenses: cost, capability and capacity, and the rationale for going to China has to be built around the dimensions of capacity and capability - because getting there takes some real effort in terms of cost and work to establish operations. There should be some cost savings but it may not be as immediate as going to India.

Q: OK. What about smaller destinations like the Philippines, or maybe Egypt: have you seen any serious moves towards those?

A: The Philippines, absolutely - especially for voice-based processes, and there's been a bit of a resurgence in the Philippines as a destination for not only contact-centre operations but other BPO processes that demand voice interaction. And the voice may be with consumers, and external party, or just simply internal operations. So I think that the social and cultural affiliation between the Philippines and the West in terms of products, in terms of lifestyle, really is boding well for the increased demand for operations in the Philippines.

Q: What about any other notable locations?

A: We've seen some rather notable traction in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Mexico, in addition to Brazil. To us the southern Western Hemisphere nations have always appealed intellectually because of the time-zone factor, but it's taken a while for those countries to really get organized. The case is the governments are strongly encouraging the tax holidays, the favorable relationships with universities and the like, to draw the jobs to those destinations.

Q: Is that more nearshoring from the States than offshoring from Europe and other destinations?

A: Yes. The exception might be in banking, in which there are many global banks especially in the capital markets world that have operations in South America, although they may be headquartered in the Netherlands or the UK, or Germany or Switzerland for that matter, and those organizations may very well be driving Latin American operations as well.

Q: Finally, and moving away from locations towards sectors: do you still see BPO being the dominant outsourcing model or is there a rise in KPO, LPO and the like? And has there been any shift in the type of industry that's outsourcing, from traditional big markets like banking and pharma to less prominent outsourcing industries?

A: We had a surprising dip in financial services in Q1, and we think that's largely because of the [global economic] situation that's distracting senior management from really making long-term commitments. We sense that we're coming out of that. It's interesting that we're perceiving an interest among many companies that have established offshore operations of their own, captive centers, in either expanding or divesting those operations. And that's true across manufacturing, financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals and the like. It's an interesting point that your readership might care about that most companies of size have some captive offshore operations and what we're seeing is a question being posed: should we expand those operations drastically, or should we divest them? It's a bit of a fork in the road in this recessionary period.

Q: Well certainly for a lot of shared services practitioners that would suggest some sort of crunch time: do we outsource or do we bring even more stuff in-house?

A: Exactly. In the shared service side of the world - and most shared service organizations have some flavor of offshore operations, maybe not in India but some place with lower-cost geography for service delivery - what we're seeing is many of those organizations, those shared services leaders, asking themselves how fast and how big can they expand those operations, and if the answer isn't fast enough or big enough then we need to divest it. It's a stranded asset that we need to release, and not so much monetize but leverage a third party to help expand it.

Q: That answer's going to give a few people a few sleepless nights...

A: Well, it's happening in companies across industries.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jamie_Liddell

Q: OK Cliff: how's the sourcing space developed over the last few years?

A: I think most people - myself included - view a shift around 2005-6 in terms of where the drivers are and some of that may be economy-related or fears over the economy, and some of it may be the maturity at the end of stream - a lot of things have changed. The industry has become more mature. From 2000 to, say, 2005, there was a big focus on outsourcing and offshoring as a way to reduce cost, and access low-cost markets for the purpose of reducing direct labour costs. Since then there has been a renewed focus on not only reducing costs but on improving quality and the effectiveness of the organization - on implementing technology, and leveraging the maturity of the service providers to improve effectiveness. That's become an equally important driver.

In the past year or so we've seen a downturn in the economy which obviously keeps cost at the forefront, but there is an equally strong focus on accessing the capabilities and the maturity, the Six Sigma processes, that a service provider can bring into the organization to drive ongoing productivity and improvement. The issue that companies saw when just going after the labor arbitrage was that it's a one-time benefit. If you're not accessing the markets that produce high-quality talent, sustainable talent and sustainable improvements then you're back where you started a year or two later. So we are putting an increased focus on putting the right resources in the right location with the right service providers that have the capabilities for ongoing sustainable productivity gains, and clients are looking for that.

Q: Presumably a lot of the shift that took place was as a result of key locations becoming able to provide that sort of element?

A: In the past we had predominantly India providing 90-95% of the low-cost labor market. Over the past three years or so we've seen, for example, the Philippines emerge as a destination to provide high-quality low-cost voice support as well as F&A BPO support, and for various reasons: synergies with the American educational system and American culture, that provide an advantage that India doesn't; going a level deeper, the Philippine accounting standards are very similar to American accounting standards; their accent is much more of a western, American accent than you find in India. For call centers, for F&A BPO activity we're seeing a lot of capability in the Philippines, which is providing some relief - or competition - for India depending on how you look at it.

Q: What about China?

A: Well, China has a role as well. China has a role in technology; a role in very transactional BPO; they've been doing well with embedded software; they've been providing capabilities in certain types of software development - the coding aspect. But the relationship between Chinese companies and their western counterparts and services really hasn't matured as well as, I think, some of the predictions would have led you to believe five years ago. It's still a very small market in terms of directly outsourcing services into China. Service providers providing that as part of their overall solution and having a Chinese component in the back doing data entry or some technology-related work, but providing a western or Indian front end to the client: that's something we're seeing a little of. But in terms of the market potential and where it is now, the English language is a big hindrance to China. The ability to communicate right now is an issue.

Q: Those locations are providing things demanded by external firms. Let's change the focus a little: how have the requirements of those firms changed over the past few years, in terms of what they've been asking of Equaterra?

A: Client requirements have become a little more related to the long view. They're looking a little more at the overall strategy and how sourcing fits into that. Clients maybe five or six years ago were perhaps CIO or even line management. Today the CFO is much more involved in every engagement. So looking at how sourcing ties in with the overall company strategy and will drive and help execute in the long term: client requirements have changed in that sense. We're looking at how sourcing globally can help a client focus on meeting their long-term needs and their long-term strategic vision and not just the tactical cost-reduction.

Q: Has the nature of your clients changed in terms of either size or the industry they come from?

A: Well it's still predominantly large companies that are doing this, and it has been for a long time; but we are seeing more mid-market companies having an interest in this. So I think the mix of clients is expanding from large Global 2000 companies to mid-market companies with an interest in global sourcing: how they can access talent that you just can't access ordinarily. The competition for talent is just too tight in western countries. So for mid-market companies to grow they're looking at accessing global markets to tap into research and design, into analytics capabilities that exist in other countries. You just can't find the resources here. It's not necessarily a cost play for mid-market companies as much as it is a growth issue.

Q: Presumably that can only be exacerbated over time: the talent gap's not going to get any smaller.

A: No. As other countries come online and become more mature - for example, you see companies getting into Vietnam now; Intel has established a large presence in Vietnam, and other companies are establishing sourcing capabilities there. So other countries like that are tapping into the engineering talent that's available. It is getting costly in India. Comparatively with the US or the UK or Europe it's still very competitive, but it's a matter of finding the right talent, and there's a lot of capability in Latin America, in Russia, in Central and Eastern Europe: these markets have a long way to go before they're fully mature and there's a lot of capacity that's out there. It's just a matter of that capacity becoming mature in a way that can be marketed globally and to western companies. English is a factor.

Q: To what extent over the next few years are the big emerging economies going to become outsourcers themselves?

A: That's another big issue. We're now competing for the same talent in India as Indian companies are. The Indian market is growing. We've known that the Chinese market has had a large domestic demand for quite some time, but now a lot of the major supply markets have big demands on their own internal resources. So it's not just exporting the skill-set. That's absolutely a difference today from five years ago. Those companies are going global, and they're accessing and going after the same skills as we are, but within their own countries.

Q: So how important do you think that's going to be in the rise of second-tier locations? You mentioned Vietnam, which is of course perfectly placed near both India and China...

A: It's important. We're already seeing Chinese companies that have had skill shortages in the big cities in China look at Cambodia, and other countries like that. We're going to see companies from every developing country - and every developed country - going after resources not just within traditional markets but in emerging countries as well.

Q: It sounds like outsourcing could save the world...

A: It's definitely a long-term business issue. It's certainly not a panacea. There's still a ways to go in terms of maturing the governance of outsourcing, and reaching standards on how complex multi-provider sourcing relationships are managed within organizations. But yes, this is not something that's going to be going away in the next 20 years. It's going to be important for any company to be competitive.

Q: Let's shift the focus onto shared services. What proportion of shared services leaders have outsourcing strategies?

A: OK: let's start with captive centers, with shared services that have put captive centers in other countries. We've seen a major trend towards leveraging the mature outsourcing providers to improve the shared services organizations that have been established around the world. So as shared service centers have globalised - and we tend to call these captive when they're located in places like India or Latin America - those centers have in general not met the expectations. Operating a shared service center remotely presents its own challenges. The expertise and the infrastructure capabilities needed to manage an offshore SSC are different. So we're seeing a trend towards SSCs outsourcing components of the internal organization.

There are various names for it - virtual captive, hybrid, internal/external delivery organizations - where outsourcing service providers will provide some infrastructure, and some process capabilities, and they may even share the management and jointly manage components of the operation. Service providers may bring some process maturity that they have, or some training capabilities into the SSC - or HR initiatives, HR capability to go out and hire and recruit and train and retain the personnel. If India has let's say 300-500 captive centers, a good portion of those will be exploring the third-party-type relationships at one level or another. A large number already are. Large-name companies at some level have partnerships or sourcing agreements with third parties to help manage and improve their SSCs.

Q: Presumably you're seeing this as something that's accelerating?

A: It is accelerating. What that means for us is that our market is not just western: it's also companies in the domestic Indian or Chinese or Latin American markets that have the SSCs in place, so we can advise them through outsourcing parts of them.

Q: How far do you think the business has changed as a result of the credit crunch?

A: You know, outsourcing - especially global outsourcing - is counter-cyclical: when the economy's good the outsourcing business is good; when the economy is bad, the business gets actually a little bit better! So we've seen companies move a bit more aggressively towards outsourcing as a result of the credit crunch; companies that need to stretch their dollar more than they have are looking at how they can maintain the level of service that they have, at lower cost. So they are looking at how outsourcing can help them reduce their cost.

Q: Do you see this as being adjacent to the process that has already been ongoing in recent years, or are certain types of companies and certain sectors becoming - specifically as a result of the crunch - forced to adopt outsourcing as part of their strategies?

A: Yes - or maybe they're being more aggressive when before they could afford to be a little more conservative when the priority was maybe focused on keeping more resources domestically, to manage relationships. Maybe the credit crunch and economic hardship pushes them to move resources to the most efficient area they can. Many times that means a lower-cost country. So it forces them to expand what they were already doing.

The financial services industry is probably the most mature outsourcing industry - they've been outsourcing long before anyone else - and the market was pretty penetrated. This now just forces them to become more aggressive in their global sourcing strategy: their captive centers in India expand; everything we were talking about in terms of the Indian or offshore providers working within their SSOs. The financial services industry has to maintain a lot more control and visibility just because it's such a regulated industry, so their relationships with third parties have to be well documented, well structured, agreements have to meet their governance and liability requirements. I think they're getting more aggressive.

It certainly hasn't slowed. Some predictions were that companies that were heavily leveraged in the financial services sector were at risk: unless you're with a company that completely went out of business, or the business was reduced dramatically, the outsourcing business has really benefited from the credit crunch. It forces a lot more companies to look at outsourcing or an alternative sourcing strategy.

Q: Let's put you on the spot: what's going to happen in the next five years and which will be the big locations and sectors that will be driving outsourcing?

A: That's not putting me on the spot: I think about this a lot! The next five years, we'll see more sectors getting involved and becoming more mature in outsourcing: pharmaceutical, healthcare, will be major. Pharma was a little bit late to the outsourcing game, so they'll be expanding that dramatically, and you'll see a lot of resources in pharmacovigilance, and some of the analytic areas associated with pharma being outsourced and offshored. It'll drive tremendous savings in that area. We're seeing continuing outsourcing in manufacturing. From those verticals, I think we'll see the most growth.

In terms of the complexion of the market, what we know of as "offshore" and "domestic" today, those lines will be completely blurred. It will just be global sourcing. There's not going to be a discernable difference. Companies like Accenture and IBM are truly global service providers. When you outsource applications you may have your business requirements done onsite but your coding done in India, your transactions processed in Prague, your calls taken in the Philippines. Traditional Indian service providers are moving more towards the west and developing more of an onsite capability, and the traditional onsite domestic outsourcing service providers are moving towards having the right resources in global locations. And those will adjust and shift as the market changes.

You won't have a company that's overcommitted in one market: they'll have reach in a lot of markets, and as politics change and economies change you may see one market reduce in size and another market expand depending on the skill sets that are available. So more of a supply chain for services, much like manufacturing did, will become more mature. It's there today, but it'll become more mature and there'll be more of a requirement to be competitive in the mainstream climate. You won't know if your software's been coded out of India or Russia or China depending on where the requirements are being met, and those requirements will be political stability, transparency, security; all of those requirements will be standard regardless of location.

You'll see less scrutiny over location as long as that location meets the minimum standard. We're seeing security standards like BS7799 or ISO27001 setting security standards for international locations, and as long as those standards are audited and maintained then it gives clients, regulators and customers a level of comfort knowing that security measures are met, whether it's in the US or in India.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jamie_Liddell

How do Business Banners Dress for a Camping Trip?

Do business banners throw on some old shorts a t shirt with holes, throw fishing rods and the family dog into the back of an SUV, and drive off into the wilderness with a 10 man tent and a portable camp stove? Well, no. But business banners can be found on tents. Many festivals, outdoor activities and even events like craft festivals are set up with tents. This is an easy way to give protection from weather, etc. to businesses who are participating. The problem is, vendors still need to catch the attention of their potential clients. So how do they do it? With a business banner displayed on the outside of the tent.

A business banner that will be hung on a tent is going to have people much closer to it than many other vinyl banners. this means that you must take some things into consideration. The lettering or graphics on the banner will not need to be as large as one that will be seen from 20 feet away. You want to choose colors that work well together and choose the right material. Making the right choices for your business banner will
give it a professional look that will draw customers into your tent.

What material should I choose for business banners?

The material you choose for your business banners is always important, but especially when it will be on a tent. Why is that? There are actually two reasons. A digital banner on a tent is in much closer proximity to the viewer than normal. Quite often it is close to eye level and they will be walking directly up to it. The second reason is that everyone will be in a tent that will probably look exactly the same. More than likely everyone will have a banner on the front of their tent trying to attract potential customers. Standing out in a group that is virtually all the same can be difficult.

That is why the choice of material is so important. The material we recommend is the Super Smooth banner material. While everyone else is using the same type of material, you can wow people with your business banner. The simple fact that it looks different from anyone else will create interest. The super smooth material makes colors "pop" which will attract additional attention. When you combine the those two you have a tent banner that is a virtual magnet. It will pull in your potential customers even from a distance.

Now that you know the best material to use you can design a business banner that will project the image that you want for your company on a very corporate looking banner. When it is time for you to display your digital banner be sure to hang it so that it is taut and doesn't look "sloppy". By taking care in the display of your vinyl banner you complete the image of success that you want to project to your potential clients.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

First up is to register your business name, either sole proprietorship or company, and then get a bank account for your new business. Keep things seperate, and track your expenditures and incomes separately, so you know how much the business is making. It will also help you at tax time, since you get extra deductions for a business. Get an accounting system started - either single entry (U.S.) or double entry for other countries. Don't be afraid to retain an accountant if the number crunching isn't your thing.

Day 2: Choose Something To Sell.

On day 2, you will choose something to sell, and then make sure you can find a market that is looking for it, and confirm a way that you can easily reach that market. If you pick something you are really passionate about, it will make the whole task of setting up an online business a whole lot easier.

On day 2, you should choose to either develop a product, choose an affiliate program to promote, or pick a group of related offers that pay you.

Day 3: Design Your Unique Proposition.

To be successful, you need to differentiate yourself from your competitors - offer something uniquely different from the rest that your potential customers truly value. This will bring in sales more than anything else you can do.

While creating your unique offer, you should create a profile of your perfect client, including their age, gender, income, likes, and habits. When you do this, and tailor your offer to this individual, you will make a powerful bond with your typical buyer.

Knowing how to differentiate yourself is a key step that requires you to know your customer well, and that's why I recommend you choose something you are passionate about, so you can leverage your life experience to create something that truly offers value to your potential customers.

Day 4: Get Your Website Up And Running.

Putting a website online is a little challenging the first time around, but easy once you know the basics, and what you will want to focus on is the infrastructure you use to publish - either a blog, or a shopping cart, or a sales page. A critical step here is to pick the keywords you will design your site around, since these keywords is what will attract potential buyers to you.

During day 4, you will pick either a product-based website or a content-based website. Product websites are good for things you sell, and content sites are good for affiliate programs you are promoting. In either case, you will need to choose the keywords you will use to design your content and descriptions, since these keywords are what your buyers will use to find you.

Day 5: Design Your Marketing System.

After you publish your website and get it working, start on your marketing. How will you get your prospect's attention? How will you reach them? Which websites will recommend you, and which will discuss your product and site? You will also need to choose the systems and processes you will use to do your marketing.

Day 6: Website Advertising.

Once you decide how to market your site, you will need to get the advertising materials prepared, so you can get them out working for you. One key piece of technology you will want to invest in is testing and tracking systems, so you can find out which of your many ads, banners, and headlines create the most response and profit.

Day 7: Enter Daily Operation Mode.

Once you have your market, your product, your ideal customer profile, your unique offer, your website and sales and marketing systems, then you can enter operations mode. This is where you might want to consider outsourcing - letting someone else do some mandatory work, while you do the stuff that makes the biggest improvement in profits.

A normal split of activities is 30% for product development, 60% in marketing and advertising initiatives, and 10% for support and customer relations.

It doesn't matter what you decide to sell, just as long as their is a hungry market looking for it. If you get that part right, then it's just marketing you can focus on, and you can start an online business that earns you a fortune. Simply follow the outline above, and make it happen starting today.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Dennison, who starts Monday, comes to The Capital-Journal from The Sun Herald, of Gulfport, Miss., where she was circulation retention and marketing manager. She worked for nearly four years at The Sun Herald, which has a daily circulation of 46,000 and a Sunday circulation of 52,000.

She was a key member of the circulation management team at The Sun Herald, working with sales, account management, supervision of sales coordinators, vendor relations, and developing and coordinating business strategies.

Dennison has a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's of business administration in human resource management from American Intercontinental University.

From 1998 to 2000, she was division training manager at Mirage Resorts. From 1994 to 1998, she was an instructor for the city of Henderson Parks and Recreation in Henderson, Nev.

Dennison said she was excited about moving to northeast Kansas with her husband, Harry, and daughters Darria, 8, and Elizabeth, 6. They are moving into temporary housing, but they hope to find a home in a rural area or small town near Topeka.

"We hope to raise our children in the country," she said. "Everything I've seen so far has been extremely wonderful."

Dennison said her goal is to increase circulation at The Capital- Journal and partner with other departments at the newspaper and get involved in the community.

"Synergy produces a lot more productivity," she said.

She said community involvement is important to her. She has been a volunteer for Junior Achievement and the United Way of Southern Mississippi. She was honored as a Woman of Distinction by the March of Dimes.

If Sharon Northcutt gets a little drowsy at work, she has just the place for a nap. But she is counting on Chez Boudoir being far too busy for such relaxation during the day. The Topeka interior designer opened her specialty shop just last week in the row of shops in the 700 block of S.W. Gage. The shop offers bedroom furniture and accessories, bedding and more. And Northcutt's design services come with the package. "At the end of the day, the bedroom should reflect you," says Northcutt, who opened Chez Boudoir so she could focus on the room she likes designing best.

The proposed ordinance being considered by the Orem City Council would allow the following businesses to locate in historic homes:

-- Legal services

-- Engineering and architectural

-- Educational and scientific research

-- Accounting, auditing and bookkeeping

-- Urban planning

-- Family and behavioral counseling

-- Genealogical