Tanasuk Technologies

Over the past year we have been customizing our [Sitecore] Digital Marketing Suite for our internal use. What we’ve been able to do blew us away.At one of the more basic levels, we were able to create detailed personas that reflect who our website was designed for. Not only did we identify their job titles and key responsibilities, but also personal interests, hobbies, family and a typical day[...]

When I was customizing the Tanasuk website using the Sitecore E-Mail Campaign Manager, I found myself needing more information beyond what was given in the Sitecore 6.5 Administrator and Developer Guide. So I did a bit of digging and found this great post as well as some further research that allowed the module to receive the DSN (Delivery Status Notification) from Gmail for Analytics. Here is[...]

Last week Twitter launched versions in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu. This is the first time that people will be able to tweet in languages written from right-to-left. As social media continues to grow it begs the question is it actually increasing our ability to communicate and connect with others? Or are we just isolating ourselves and causing confusion by avoiding face-to-face[...]

Wilfred and Anderson are Tanasuk’s new programming interns from Kenya. They’ll be contributing posts about their experience living and working in Jordan. First of all, we’re so grateful and humbled to have had this opportunity to come to Tanasuk in Jordan. It’s been a month here in Amman and it’s already starting to feel like home. We’ve become pretty[...]

Huddled up next to my fire watching the snow fall was not what I expected to be doing in Jordan. Obviously my assumption that the Middle East is always warm and sunny was slightly optimistic. It also made me think about the other assumptions I had made concerning how I would spend my time here.It has been fascinating to learn about running a business abroad and what makes Jordan in particular a[...]

As a Junior Drupal developer at Tanasuk, there are some issues that take me a bit to figure out (but that’s all part of the fun isn’t it?) Organic Groups” is a pretty big module in Drupal that allows users to create groups, like the ones in Facebook, where they can post and discuss various matters. Having moved from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7, I have come across a great amount of[...]

Last night I was watching the Oscars, of course, and it occurred to me how much teamwork goes into making a movie. You have production, editors, sound, the cast, directors and the list goes on. All of these people have to find some way to come together and work seamlessly to create a visual masterpiece.Along those lines, the other week we had everyone at Tanasuk complete a questionnaire to[...]

It is safe to say that English is the lingua-franca of the business world. Globally there are 380 million native English speakers and 80% of the information stored on our computers is in English.Does this mean a native English speaker can run a business abroad without making any effort to study the language and culture of the country they are in? Can those of us who count English as our mother[...]

The days when successful start-ups only came from Europe and the US are long gone. Entrepreneurs all over the world are launching game-changing businesses and organizations. They have high aspirations and ready to compete on the global stage. In the past, the educated and successful from emerging economies would leave their own countries to pursue opportunities abroad that were not[...]

Say we're cooking up a web start-up, first we need the following ingredients: Great Minds, Development Resources, Access to Capital, and a stellar Management team. Amman has all of the above but with some extras. The first extra is the sheer number of great developers. When I place a job ad here in Amman, I always get more than 100 applications (in one case it was close to 500). This is[...]

I recently attended the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Istanbul. While enjoyable on many fronts, what I was most struck by is the great equalizing taking place in the global technology/start-up scene and how I feel other industries will start to follow. Joe Biden, in his keynote address at the forum, rightly declared, "The next Steve Jobs could be a Turk or possibly come from the UAE." [...]

The borders, walls, and silos of the world are quickly disappearing in favor of connected, “flat” global markets. This is incredibly apparent in the software services sector. Recently, we worked on a project where the client was in Geneva, the project consultant in California, the graphic designer in Mexico, the project manager in the UK, and the development team in Amman. What made this[...]

I really enjoy management parables.  I feel like stories are a powerful way to communicate truth.  This is a story of failed leadership. Most mornings I go for an early morning jog in my neighborhood on the outskirts of Amman.  I'm a little overweight so I try to go really early while the streets are still empty.  On a recent morning, a large bus pulled into my neighborhood[...]

First some admissions: I am a total Apple fanboy.  I love my MacBook Pro and I love my iPhone 3G.  If you have spent any time around me, I've tried to convince you to buy one of these two products.  Depite my love of Apple,  I have yet to jump onto the iPhone application development band wagon.  As a company lately, we've been considering getting into the mobile development market and[...]