Synergy Computer Consulting Blog - Vancouver

Low interest loans for software, web and technology services now available

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:25:34 -0600

What do I need to improve in my business to stay competitive:

Online presence with the latest tools and technologies to increase sales.

Purchase software tailored to my business to run more effectively.

Upgrade my aging database.

Synergy continues to bring the best available options and solutions to businesses owners and office managers to help them grow sales and expand their operation.

Low interest rate loans for technology solutions to help your business grow and bring it to the next level.

Canadian business owners can benefit with $5,000 to $ 50,000 CAD low interest loan to expand their business with software, internet solutions and consulting to enhance sales and to run the business more effectively:

Capital can be applied to:

Internet Solutions (online sales and marketing, e-commerce, social media, web design)
Software (ERP, CRM, HR, supply chain, finance & accounting, custom software, etc.)
Hardware (servers, network, system upgrades)
Services (IT planning, strategy, management, security, database)

Only $200 million available across Canada.

WHO CAN APPLY?

Canadian companies, including small businesses, may apply for a low interest loan of $5,000 - $50,000+ to finance your technology improvements.

Respects for Former Synergy Employee

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:59:42 -0600

Our respects go out today to former long time employee Ellen Woolverton. Last night Ellen passed away after a long health struggle.

She will be missed. She was very helpful as my executive assistant and bookkeeper in the early years of the Synergy and SoftSearch businesses.

For me, Ellen will be particularly missed, since she became family when I married her wonderful son Stew.

For any who would like to know, we will let you know where the service is.
- Kathy Woolverton, President of Synergy

Virtually Possible: How to Monetize Online Platforms & Boost ROI

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:58:31 -0600

Membership? Daily deals? Online retail stores with good and services that arrive at your door? Everything is virtually possible these days! Explore how different businesses have been operating online and what their strategies are for increasing sales.You, too, can leverage these opportunities for your product or service-based business.

Learn from leading business representatives, and participate in group discussion on best practices.

Discuss the tough questions with entrepreneurs and business influencers in a small group environment.

Connect and network at the reception featuring local wine and fantastic food.

Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Time: 4:30-7:30pm
Location: Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver

Address: 791 West Georgia St.

Register Here

Slow Economy? Online Sales Still Increasing! Are Yours?

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:44:25 -0500

Interesting trends in online sales. For many businesses this has been a challenging year. Yet stats compiled by the US Dept of Commerce, IDC and Channel Advisor show that online sales are still steadily increasing. 24% in 2010, 19% in 2011, 17% in 2012. Are yours?

For most businesses, there should be a way for your customers to order online - whether buying products, events, subscriptions. retail or wholesale. If you don't enable customers to purchase from your site any time, your competitors will!

Can your customers order outside of your normal business hours from your website?
How many sales are you loosing because customers need to remember to call you back during your working hours?
This is especially challenging for potential customers in different time zones who may have to remember to call you back in the middle of the night! Having a store that works 24/7 is extremely powerful.

As you can see from the chart, global online sales growth rates are continuing to outperform local economic growth rates.

The world is increasingly becoming within reach. If you were to try physically expanding sales to multiple cities and countries, there would be a significant cost to set up each location, with rent, inventory, staff, and other overhead costs at each location. At $20,000+ to set up a new store, and $10,000+ per month for each location, this extra overhead can quickly add up.

Do you sell products or services that customers in different parts of the world may not otherwise have the ability to purchase locally? This same question applies whether Chile, Romania, or small town Canada/US.

Enabling customers to purchase on line dramatically increases your sales reach, without the significant additional cost.
How much would this enable you to increase sales?

Other factors and thoughts worth considering:

Does your online ordering link to the rest of your systems? Or are you having to do double entry?
Are you having to update products and prices in both your in-house and online system?
Then are you having to re-enter online orders into your accounting system?
Saves a lot of time, saves a lot of cost, and prevents a lot of missed changes if both online and in-house sales are connected.
It's crazy how many web developers are hooking e-commerce into businesses, where the 2 systems can't be connected.

One interesting ecommerce update and enhancement project currently starting is for SoftSearch. SoftSearch has over 60,000 products, with a complex mix of physical, special order, referral commission, download, and pay per month web/cloud based products. Because SoftSearch sells online, customers are buying from around the world.

SoftSearch also tap into affiliate marketing, drop shopping, and advanced search engine optimization to increase sales. These are strategies that may be helpful for your business as well. Give us a call to chat to learn more about how the best strategies for your business. We'd love to hear your goals.

Quite the Week for Apple

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:03:18 -0500

It has been quite the week for Apple!

Yesterday, a lot of the buzz was about Apple releasing a newly anticipated iPhone.

Then sadly, Steve Jobs passing away today.

Steve and the team at Apple have contributed impensely to both design and esthetics in computer hardware and software. They have also pushing this from being "hardware and software" to useful items that people love, and become a part of their everyday lives. From the iPod - I fit all my music in my pocket, and take it with me anywhere, and everywhere, to the iPhone and iPad. Apple has developed a cult like following of loyal fans.

Funny, a lot of the discussion yesterday was from people disappointed the new iPhone was called 4S, when everyone was expecting "5".

Many people wondering if they should hold off buying a new iPhone, since there has been substantial talk about the iPhone 5, maybe it will be hear soon.

Since people didn't know what features would be in 5, did it matter what they called it?

There are many brilliant marketing people at Apple. So, I am sure they had numerous intense discussions on the strategy behind this. What would you have called it?

Technology is only a tool. For many people, such as Steve Jobs and the team at Apple, the goal is to improve things, inspire and creatively push the boundary.

For the team at Synergy, for the past 22 years, our goal is to help our clients with software and web solutions to help make it easier to run your business. New ideas. A fresh set of eyes on solutions to the old software that frustrates your staff. A fresh set of eyes on your website - the old, ugly one that makes your company look small and almost out of business.

We also love it when we can help our clients take that extra step to inpire and creatively improve how customers can interact with their business to achieve their goals.

Steve's time was cut short. But during his life, he strove for improvement and innovation.

What inspiration do you have to improve your business? We would love to talk with you.

Complimentary IT Reduction Cost Session

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:23:03 -0500

What's bugging you most about your web site and software to run your business?

Has it been a while since you had an independent check of your web, software and computer systems to see what changes will help you save money or, increase your revenues and profits?

Understanding the current economic situation is not easy, new information is available every day creating stress but also opportunity.
Synergy works with business owners and managers in all industries aiming to identify opportunities impacting their bottom line.
We become a strategic partner providing both internet and software expertise and resources.

We have over 22 years of experience delivering software and internet solutions to our clients.
Our suite of services is designed to put you in control of internet technologies allowing you to concentrate your efforts in growing your businesss.

We invite you to schedule your visit and take advantage of the complimentary 1 hour session strategy.
Call us at (604) 681-0516 e-mail: info@synergycc.com

May we suggest the following areas:

Review of your current systems
Project Management
Advanced E-commerce
Implementation, modification, maintenance of your databases
Web and Graphic Design
Content Management Systems

What's bugging you most about your web site and software to run your business?

Top Five Business Website Mistakes

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:18:00 -0500

A business website is an online ambassador for your business. It takes more than just having a website to make your online business profitable. A user-friendly and search-engine friendly website design has become an area of concern to businesses that want to use the Internet to the fullest.

So many times you see sites that were clearly designed by someone who understood programming, but not branding and visual elements.

Or the site looks beautifully visually, but the site is done in a way that your content can't be found by the search engines. Or it can't be viewed on a iPad or mobile phone for your customers on the go.

Many times, there is no ability to order their products online. Or the e-commerce is not connected to your accounting - frustrating when products, prices and orders have to be manually double entered in each system.

Solving these challenges can have a significant improvement in your sales results.

Below are five common Web site errors:

1. Poor Functionality

Why have a Web site with content if no one can access it? Good design is largely based on consistency. Menus should appear in the same place on every page, links should all be the same color/typeface, and a logo of some sort should be clearly visible at all times.

2. Too complicated

Although flash animation may look amazing, it may be too complex for casual Internet users. Though aesthetics certainly matter, it must be in balance with functionality and ease of use for the typical user. Also, a more complex design takes longer to load on many computers.

3. Broken links

Make sure every link on your site works. You’ll lose users quickly if they see a “404 file not found” error message or find broken or incorrectly labeled links.

4. Not hiring a professional

Web site implementation is a complex yet interesting blend between business strategy, programming, graphic design, search engine optimization and marketing. It is hard to find all those skills in one person.

5. Ignoring statistics

Detailed reports of visitor traffic are available for your Web site. By monitoring your statistics (such as visitors-turned-customers, users on broadband, etc.) you can tailor your marketing and design toward those who visit most or find weak spots based on who you are not attracting.

Would you like a personalized evaluation of your web site and how your can enable you to better achieve your goals? Just contact us. We look forward to talking soon.

What is your favorite website and why? And your least favorite website?

CEO of Carlson Wagonlit talks about one of the key differences of successful businesses

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:23:49 -0500

Douglas Anderson is chief executive of the global travel management company Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

He argues that successful companies are those which continually innovate.

The video can be seen here.

Carlson Wagonlit New Westminster, one of our clients, is part of the Carlson Wagonlit group. You can check out their website at http://holidaytrips.ca They are great for planning awesome vacations.

What technology innovations would be useful to improve your business?

Have an idea you want to discuss? Or need some fresh new ideas? Just give us a call, and we can talk over coffee or lunch.

Share below. What innovations have you implemented in your business? How did they work?

8 Questions to Ask an IT, Web or Software Firm

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:03:35 -0500

8 Tips for Success

When time and quality matter, how do I shop for computer services?

What are the questions I should ask when hiring a web or software development firm?

Choosing the right web or software development firm is a big decision and commitment. Before you give the go-ahead, it’s important to know several important factors, such as whether they can work within your time frame, if the staff is qualified to handle the type of projects your company requires, and the cost.

The following 8 Tips for success in selecting a web or software development, and IT support firm are gleaned from over 25 successful years in this industry. Kathy Woolverton, Synergy's President was also Vice President and Manager of the Independent Computer Consultants Association in Vancouver, BC. For years, we managed the hotline where firms could report challenges they were encountering, and helped facilitate resolution.

Asking the following eight questions during your initial discussion will give you a clear idea of the working relationship and will help you decide if the firm is right for your company.

1. How long have you been in business?

This lets you know the company’s experience in dealing with your specific operations. Having an experienced firm on board will save you time. Chances are they have worked on similar projects to yours and will quickly understand your requirements.

Synergy has been in business for over 22 years with an established clientele ranging from growing entrepreneurial businesses up to large corporations including:

Alcan (Rio Tinto)
University of BC (UBC)
Pacific Coastal Health, Vancouver General Hospital
Alliance Mercantle

2. Is the success of your project critical?

The answer to this question should always be “Yes”. You need to be certain that your project will be treated with the priority it deserves. If you are dealing with a large house, is your project important to their success? Will you get a senior consultant who understands business strategy first, then the appropriate technology tools to achieving that business goal?

At Synergy, we are not a large company. Therefore, the success of your project is critical to us because we can’t afford to have you say anything otherwise.

3. Should I outsource or hire?

There are three key factors in this decision:

Do you really need this person full time, or would they just expand the task to fit a full time job?
Do you have expertise managing technology projects alone?
Do you need a mix of both senior strategic information technology input as well as the ability to execute on the necessary coding?

The firm should be able to review your situation, help you decide on the right service and make the most cost effective choice.

With our strong team we bring this mix of skill sets as you require. We are there for you on an as needed basis.

4. What is your approach to a project?

You want a realistic deadline. Find out if the consultant has a clear idea of how to go about planning your project, from start to finish. It is incredible how many times Synergy has been called in to rescue other’s projects which were months behind estimate. Have you ever had a project where there weren’t written specifications and exact milestones defined prior to the start of development?

This is a big red flag like building construction without a blueprint. At Synergy we will not engage on a project until we know for certain that we can deliver what you need.

5. Will support be available when I need it?

No one wants to be left stranded halfway through a project, or lose the ability to continue with daily operations. If you are dealing with an individual, what guarantees do you have that he/she might not leave for a better opportunity half way through the project? Can they provide a guarantee they will return your call, trouble shoot promptly and provide follow up support?

A significant portion of our business is with companies who weren't receiving the critical support they needed.
We have taken over numerous projects which had stalled out at "nearly done", but after months, the system being developed by other firms still hadn't been successfully completed.
With our strong and long track record you are assured that we will be with you from beginning to end. In retaining a consultant, this is a critical question.

6. How are project costs estimated and managed?

Can the firm provide a realistic and fair budget and schedule, so that there are no surprise costs?

At Synergy, we will do a complimentary one hour consultation with you to assess your desired goals and specific needs. Prior to any development coding, we do a two-phase scope, then blueprint to provide both parties a solid framework confirming the successful completion of the project. For desired scope changes, we can provide estimates to help your decision.

7. Our business already has an IT department, why should we outsource?

Many times the internal IT department has a huge backlog of project requests, on top of ongoing support. Synergy has been called in by IT department managers to help supplement the team as required, and by department managers that require projects sooner and when they need personalized IT strategy.

8. Can you provide references of comparable clients and projects?

This gives you an idea of how successful the relationships have been with the firm’s past clients. It also helps you see what can be accomplished from looking at companies with similar needs to your own.

At Synergy we realize that success is critical and you need to do your homework before making such an important decision. Therefore we can provide you with contact information for clients and invite you to ask them questions.

These 8 questions make a big difference in selecting a quality firm.

Want a second opinion on projects that aren't going the way you want, or support that isn't quite meeting your needs - just give us a call at 604-681-0516. Let's chat over coffee. We'll share some tips that may help you turn around your current situation, and give you a second opinion if you want to change.

If you have hired web and software firms in the past, and didn't get the result you expected, feel free to share below any other questions you think are important. Things you learned the hard way ;-)

Facebook adds Skype video chat feature

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:54:39 -0500

Mark Zuckerberg: "This type of thing is only possible because of the social infrastructure that already exists"

Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to add video chat to the social networking site.

The move is likely to be seen as a shot across the bow of Google, which recently launched a Facebook rival, Google+, also featuring video calling.

This is not the first time Facebook and Skype have teamed up - they already share some instant messaging tools.

Skype is in the process of being bought by Microsoft, which is a major shareholder in Facebook.

The new video-call service was launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who also revealed that the site now had more than 750 million users.

You can read the full story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14054860

Supporting Entrepreneurship - and Great PR Presentation

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:58:46 -0500

At Synergy, we work with entrepreneurs, business owners and senior managers who are focused on growing their businesses.

As a serial entrepreneur myself, I connect immediately with the ideas that inspire our clients to grow their businesses. We love being part of their team focused on always improving the technology to help grow their business and taking it to the next level.

So, when we come across something worthwhile sharing, it is great to be able to pass it on.

Come listen to Cameron Herold live in Vancouver tommorow on how to Generate FREE P.R. for your business... Still a few tickets left. http://ow.ly/5yfzT

You coming? Say hello to Juan Carlos!

There is a series of conferences called TED - Ideas worth spreading. They have an incredible mix of speakers, all focused on sharing ideas, provoking thought and discussion. They have an incredible site www.Ted.com, where they have put up videos of these presentations.

One that was shared with me was Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is usually not taught much at an early age. It touches on whether entrepreneurship is nature or nurture. How to recognize, nurture and teach entrepreurial attributes at an early stage.

More about Cameron Herold from his TED Talk: Let’s raise kids to be entrepreneurs http://bit.ly/supp_entrepreneurs

What are your thoughts? It is interesting to see the varying perspectives. And Are you an entrepreneur or not?

Google+

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:11:38 -0500

Last night, you may have heard talk of a mysterious black bar appearing on the top of Google.com. Or you may have even seen it yourself. No, you weren’t hallucinating. It was a sign of something about to show itself. Something big. Google+.

What is Google+? It’s the super top-secret social project that Google has been working on for the past year. You know, the one being led by General Patton (Vic Gundotra) and General MacArthur (Bradley Horowitz). Yes, the one Google has tried to downplay as much as humanly possible — even as we got leak after leak after leak of what they were working on. Yes, the one they weren’t going to make a big deal about with pomp and circumstance. It’s real. And it’s here.

Currently Google+ is available by invitation only. Let us know if you would like a Google+ invite.

Business Productivity Tools from A-Z

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:29:18 -0500

Who has too much time on their hands? Are using business productivity tools that help you run effectively? Feel like you are using out of date software? Too many manual work arounds?

Today, the BC Human Resources Management Association (BC HRMA) held an interesting Round Table workshop to share some of your favourite business development tools, tools that bring ease, efficiency and effectiveness to you and your work.

Here are some of the tips we shared with those attending. We look forward to hearing about your favorite tools.

Business Development Tools from A-Z

Google Alerts – get automatic notification of any Google updates on specific items you are tracking. You can put in any key words you want to track, then get immediate, daily or weekly summaries. Useful for when your business is mentioned, tracking when competitors are mentioned, or tracking trends you are watching. www.google.ca/alerts

Hootsuite - for managing Twitter and Facebook postings, especially if multiple accounts and/or multiple users www.hootsuite.com

Internet Seer – monitors your website from and if your site is down, sends you an email, cell phone or pager alert to notify you of the problem. www.internetseer.com

Intervals– web based time tracking, project tracking, billing www.intervals.com

Magento – powerful open source ecommerce system, with advanced options www.magento.com and www.synergycc.com/advanced-e-commerce

Meet-up – great site for finding events and groups of people with like interests www.meetup.com

Silverstripe – powerful content management system, with advanced options. www.silverstripe.org and www.synergycc.com/content-management-system-cms

SoftSearch – a great for finding business and specialty software. Over 50,000 products- software and web-based solutions. www.softsearch.com

Synergy Connect – enables you to add customer social media community to your website. Your own brand, on your own website. Includes discussions, tips, photo sharing, events, polls, blogs, discussion forums, and more. Can also use as a private company communication platform. www.synergy-connect.com

Zimbra – web based email system, with awesome spam filter option

This workshop was facilitated by Lee-Anne Ragan, President, Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. so I look forward to sharing her resources and tips as well, when I receive a copy.

What are your favorite time saving and productivity tools you use in your business? Share them here...

Facebook Aiming For $100 Billion IPO in Early 2012: Report

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:50:16 -0500

Facebook, the dominant internet social networking company, is making plans to go public early next year at a vertigo-inducing valuation of over $100 billion, CNBC reported Monday. The Palo Alto-based web phenom could file registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission as early as October.

Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, which managed a $1.5 billion dollar private placement in Facebook shares for non-U.S. investors earlier this year, is “leading the chase” to manage the offering.

Goldman Sachs, the premier investment bank on Wall Street, is accustomed to taking the lead slot on such pricey offerings, which usually involve as many as half-a-dozen banks or more. As underwriters, Goldman and the other banks are allocated chunks of pre-IPO shares for their hedge fund and institutional clients, many of which sell their shares at the open for a tidy gain.

In January, Facebook said it expected to cross the critical 500-shareholder mark this year, and if it finishes 2011 over the line, it must file quarterly and annual reports with the SEC within 120 days after the end of the year. At the time, Goldman, which had invested $450 million in Facebook, said the company was worth $50 billion.

Read the rest of the article and more from Wired at Facebook Aiming For $100 Billion IPO in Early 2012: Report

Structured data for Website

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:31:09 -0500

Getting started with schema.org

Most webmasters are familiar with HTML tags on their pages. Usually, HTML tags tell the browser how to display the information included in the tag. For example, <h1>Avatar</h1> tells the browser to display the text string "Avatar" in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn't give any information about what that text string means—"Avatar" could refer to the a hugely successful 3D movie, or it could refer to a type of profile picture—and this can make it more difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.

Schema.org provides a collection of shared vocabularies webmasters can use to mark up their pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!

You use the schema.org vocabulary, along with the microdata format, to add information to your HTML content. While the long term goal is to support a wider range of formats, the initial focus is on Microdata. This guide will help get you up to speed with microdata and schema.org, so that you can start adding markup to your web pages.

Source : http://schema.org/

New Twitter picture service

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:45:55 -0500

Twitter Has Begun Rolling Out New Photo Service To Users

According to Twitter PR representative Carolyn Penner, Twitter has started rolling out its new photo feature to a small subset of users outside of employees. The feature was live for employees as of last week, but it is hitting the rest of Twitter users starting this week. Our own @Alexia is one of the lucky users to get the service first.

As they reported last week, the new feature allows users to upload photos, which show up in your actually Tweets and timeline. Because some users now has the service, we now know more details on how it works. For example, the camera feature is located next to “add your location” in the Tweet UI (see screenshot below) and from there you’ll be able to upload a photo as you Tweet on Twitter.com and eventually via mobile clients.

Twitter is partnering with Photobucket to host these photos but you don’t need a Photobucket account to use it. And photos are only visible on Twitter, and not on Photobucket’s image sharing site. Beneath every photo is a “powered by Photobucket” note.

And if you click on a photo in a user’s stream who you are not following, Twitter will show you this message, “This Tweet is from someone you’re not following. The media they’re mentioning could be anything, even something you might find offensive” with an option to display the photo. You can also choose to always display photos from users who you are not following or following. You can also turn off auto-display in Settings as well.

Twitter just announced a pretty in-depth integration with Apple’s iOS 5, which also leverages the new photo service. Here’s what the iOS/Twitter integration looks like.

Source : TechCrunch

Twitter Has Begun Rolling Out New Photo Service To Users

Insane new campus at Apple

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:26:14 -0500

Jobs To Cupertino: We Want A Spaceship-Shaped, 12K Capacity Building As Our New Apple Campus After having a banner WWDC start yesterday, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs humbly presented his idea for a new Apple campus at the Cupertino City Council today. Jobs wants to build one building that will hold 12,000 Apple employees on a former Hewlett-Packard property in the area between Tantau North Wolfe, Homestead and the 280 freeway.”It’s a little like a spaceship landed,” Jobs says. No kidding. For full story on TechCrunch.com click the link below Jobs To Cupertino: We Want A Spaceship-Shaped, 12K Capacity Building As Our New Apple Campus

Twitter even faster to use for busy business owners

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:44:33 -0500

Twitter is now automatically shortening Links making it even easier to use for busy business owners. Before twitter users had to use a seperate service like bit.ly to get there links shortened. Now take a big link like http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=social+media+revolution+2011&aq=2&oq=social+media+re and twitter will shorten the link to 19 characters.

For the full story read the TechCrunch article Twitter Now Automatically Shortens Links .

Timeline feature for Linkedin

Fri, 27 May 2011 01:29:40 -0500

LinkedIn has launched a new tool to visualize your career.

"Looking for a “This Is Your Life” type experience when it comes to your professional career? Well, LinkedIn has released a tool that visualizes your connections in a handy timeline.

The LinkedIn Connection Timeline, created by LinkedIn web developer Gordon Koo, was designed to highlight a “unique characteristic [of Linkedin] which others lack — it is three-dimensional,” Koo said in a blog post.

“The first dimension is the actual connection. The second is the implicit grouping of connections which tie the social graph together. Many social networks have these first two dimensions, but what makes LinkedIn’s network special is its third dimension: time,” he said.

Simply log into the app with your LinkedIn information for your own, personalized timeline, which you can see unfold either slowly or rapidly."

http://timeline.linkedinlabs.com/

Source : Mashable

Visualize Your Career With LinkedIn’s Connection Timeline

People widget for GMail

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:09:01 -0500

" Email is just as much about the people you communicate with as it is what you communicate about. We think it can be helpful to view relevant information in context, which is why over the next two weeks we’re rolling out a new people widget located on the right hand side of your messages. The people widget surfaces content from friends, family and colleagues that is already available to you but may be hard to find and makes it easier to connect with them.

Next to every email message you can now see contextual information about the people in that conversation including recent emails you received from them, relevant Buzz posts, shared documents and calendar events. You also have quick access to a variety of ways to communicate with individuals, start a group chat or schedule a meeting with groups of people.

We hope the people widget will improve your Gmail experience and we’re eager for you to try it out. "

Source : Google