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Interesting piece from InformationWeek. In almost every organization we are working with at Knowledge Infusion, we are being asked to help create roles and job descriptions for HR, Talent Management and IT professionals. This IW article is a must read for anyone thinking about talent and the IT function.

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

Link to article

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As many of you know, Knowledge Infusion has partnered Jive Software as the technology platform provider for the Center of Excellence. One of the questions we get frequently from our clients is to explain our security measures in the Center of Excellence. Instead of providing a full-blown explanation I thought instead I would share the infrastructure behind the scenes.

 

Jive Software

Jive Software is a leader in social software. They have over 2,000 customers using their solutions and have proven

experience with many leading Fortune 500 companies. The Center of Excellence is built on top of the Clearspace Community 2.0 version (we typically run fairly consistent with the latest version release). Jive puts alot of rigor within the security features of their products. Please visit the community architecture, security features, and security enhancements in 2.0 on their site for additional security information.

 

Rackspace

The other key component of our infrastructure is our hosting provider, Rackspace. Rackspace is a 20-year old recognized leader in the hosting market. The company delivers enterprise-level managed services to businesses of all sizes and kinds around the world with over 14,000 customers in eight data centers worldwide.

 

Rackspace security services include:

 

  • Proactive Critical Patching

  • Managed Firewalls

  • Optional Security Audits

  • Managed VPN access

  • Dedicated Network Based IDS

  • DDos Mitigation

  • Rackwatch Port Monitoring Service

  • Automated Server Patching via Distributed Red Hat Satellite Server

 

More information on Rackspace and their infrastructure and security services can be found at their website.

 

Lastly, Knowledge Infusion provisions the site with the strictest levels of security settings. All client-specific areas are permission-controlled as "Private" ensuring highly sensitive information and members are carefully selected. Administrators must add each user directly using the admin console and other users, whether anonymous or registered, will be unable to view or create content.

 

For additional questions please contact our coe@knowledgeinfusion.com.

 

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Welcome to our newest blog, the Community Corner. The goal of the Community Corner is simple -- to provide ideas, best practices, and how-to guides for using and getting the most value out of the Center of Excellence. The Community Corner will feature...

 

  • Video "how-to" guides to ensure you are maximizing the Center of Excellence

  • Answers to key questions relating to the features, content, and products on the Center of Excellence

  • Announcements of new functionality delivered in the web experience

  • Best practices in how members and clients are using the Center of Excellence to drive their strategy

  • A forum for improvement and recommendations to improve the overall user experience

 

I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed today.

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american flag.png

 

After a day of speaking today about the lack of talent found in retailers and service businesses around the United States, this article from the Financial Times caught my eye. Knowledge Infusion works with organizations to put in place strategies to attract, assess, develop and deploy talent; but is there enough? A few exerpts from the article I found interesting:

 

  • Over the coming years, baby-boomers departing from the labour force will have better educational qualifications than the younger workers replacing them. If the ultimate source of an economy's ability to grow and prosper is its human capital, the US is in trouble.
  • Broadly speaking, educational quality has topped out - and on at least one measure, it is actually deteriorating. In 2006, Americans aged 55-59 collectively possessed more masters degrees, professional degrees and doctorates than Americans aged 30-34. This impending loss of educational capital is entirely outside the country's experience.
  • If the US is unable to mend its failing school system, and unwilling to open its doors wider to skilled immigrants, then much of the current gloom about its longer-term economic prospects may, for once, turn out to be justified.

 

For anyone who does not believe that talent management will be a key component of business in the US and Global economies for the next twenty years, all one has to do is read this article. HR departments will be hard-pressed to meet the demands of their business counterparts based on the supply that will be available to them. Talent management is not a HR function, but is a growing, desperately seeking an owner part of every organization worldwide.

 

Link to Financial Times article

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

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Great article by Peter Capelli in today's HR Executive that discusses the relationship between HR policies and stock performance. It summarizes the findings, entitled, "Does the Stock Market Fully Value Intangibles? Employee Satisfaction and Equity Prices ," published by his Wharton colleague, Alex Edmans. The study implies that investments in intangibles that lead to employee satisfaction drive long-term stock performance. He bases much of this stance on an analysis of the long-term stock performance of companies on "Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Places to Work For." For the 7 years between 1998 and 2005, the stock prices of companies on the list generated an average annual rate of return of 14%, which is more than double the 6% average return of the S&P 500 index during that time.

 

As I read both the article and summary of the study's findings, I couldn' help but think of some of the clients with whom we have worked to develop business cases for investing in talent management strategies that call for a shift in the way organizations manage their people.

 

For some, the business case to invest in new HR organizational structures, processes, policies and technologies that enable such a shift is made simply by selling value and the promise of talent management to their executive commitees with the support of studies such as this. Others go a step further by focusing on how the competition is investing in their talent management infrastructure [since they are presumably going after the same talent]. Still others use metrics related to business issues such as engagement, retirement, turnover, headcount forecasts, and bench strength to make their case. And for the very cost-conscious, we've helped some focus on cost savings through automation and Web enablement (e.g., digital delivery of performance forms, self-service, online courses, etc.).

 

My advice is to focus on VALUE citing specific areas of the business where talent management investments in job roles critical to executing on business plans intuitively will drive performance. For example, on-boarding programs for bank tellers to ramp up their productivity and and engagement, which will lead to greater engagement and customer satisfaction while driving down turnover costs. Most HR organizations we work with have sufficient insights into their various lines of business to make sensible value statements like this.

 

I'm curious to hear how others who have successfully made their case. I'd also love to hear from those who are currently leading the charge on a talent management business case at their organization. Are you focused on value? Would data from studies such as this one published by Wharton resonate with the people who hold the purse strings in your organization.

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Myself and others from Knowledge Infusion had the opportunity to attend the OHUG Talent Management Panel at the Oracle HCM Users Group in Las Vegas, NV

 

Moderated by Bill Kutik - HR Executive Magazine and The Bill Kutik Radio Show

 

Zach Thomas - Forrester

Lisa Rowen - IDC

Jason Corsello - Knowledge Infusion

Leighanne Levensaler - Bersin

 

Lisa Rowen - "What are benefits of integrated Talent Management platform either from ERP or Suite vendor?"

  • Definition of talent management - acquisition, development, rewards, retain (processes around talent mgmt)

  • Soapbox - integration from technology perspective, only as good as processes integrated (something we discuss continually with Knowledge Infusion clients)

  • Vendors bringing together different technology functions, still up to the processes

  • Beneftis of integration - provides better way to assess data against other data (ie. quality of hire, where did they work before, etc.

 

Zach Thomas - Talked about how organizations organize themselves to be prepared to support integrated talent management

  • Performance Management - great data in PM, few leverage to make great hires

  • Recruiting / Succession Planning - why not open up to internal and external successors

  • Should have a touch with the financial data within the organizations; ERP are better positioned to do this

  • Until we can integrate TM processes with financial data, just miss the financial impacts

 

 

Leighanne Levensaler - "What do you think about Oracle and PeopleSoft and how they compare?"

  • Research shows that Enterprise 9.0 and Oracle EBS 12.0 have reached parity with suites

  • Most havent had the opportunity to upgrade to take advantage of functionality

  • Vendors offer talent mangement suites are strong in their core products, heritage is where they are strong, (ie. strong in recruiting, weaker in other areas)

  • More revisions will allow the TM suites to continue to

  • Within EBS 12 - compensation capability is second to none; analytics is very strong built on Fusion middleware

  • Enterprise 9.0 - wonderful performance management capability, profile management helps identify job/employee what does success profile look like, etc

  • EBS still ties together with competency management, with Fusion - profile management will be a part of solution

  • Thrilled that Oracle is investing in Succession

  • One of gaps is thinking about processes and white space, Oracle continues to have to improve but Leighanne makes this about all versions

 

Jason Corsello - "How does an HR organization need to be organized to take advantage of integrated talent management?" and "Is separation from HR administration from strategic talent functions a good idea?"

  • HR departments - many HR departments still don't have business accumen; dont know how to read P&L, balance sheets

  • Build level of business accumen

  • Publically traded company; tap into earnings calls, understand strategies of CEO and leadership

  • As looking at TM solutions and building strategy, reach out to the business units themselves

  • Most organizations dont care about the technology, CAN THEY DO THEIR JOB BETTER

  • GET OUT into the field

  • Build governance structures, governance models - executive sponsorship, business models

  • What do roles look like? How are decisions made? What are responsibilities? How do you articulate value?

  • GET buy in from the business

  • Starting to see HR titles change; client in Las Vegas called Talent Center not HR Center - VP Talent

  • Director of Talent Mobility

 

Lisa - just published IDC survey

  • 27% of respondents said they had a talent function up from 18% a year ago (more focus)

 

Zach

  • New definition of HR business partner - seeing HR business analysts - business partner with business accumen and technology (tough person to find)

  • Couple steps down from leader of HR, but becoming a bigger part of overall HR organization

  • Business might own more of the talent processes, not HR

 

Leighanne

  • Case study with American Express - roughly 250k employees, really just manage talent for the top 3000. Built a center of excellence for talent planning, assessment

  • Yes, rebranding HR and becoming more business saavy

 

Zach - "How can we talk about major companies using tricky stuff in Web 2.0"

  • Job boards - failed

  • Company recruiting sites - failed

  • Methodology to look at usability of B to B and Workforce websites

  • Usage of Web 2.0 - get fundamentals down first

    • usable experience - foundation solidly in place

 

Question from audience - "City of Chicago"

  • never heard the term state/local government used

  • are state/local governments using these tools?

  • George Carlin - talent management vs. HR department - is that a negative on what the HR department is doing

    • Jason Corsello refers to a mail carrier

      • huge talent crisis; pain

      • realized over 60% retirement eligible over next 5 years

      • obviously pain in government (demographics); seeing lots of initiatives around talent acquisition

      • Succession Planning - as baby boomers enter into retirement

 

    • Lisa Rowen - naming of HR vs talent

      • talent management not a replacement name for HR

      • looking at parts of business you have to do drive business outcomes

      • nothing to do with HR, payroll, record keeping

      • talent management is different and is not HR by another name

 

Software as a Service (SaaS) - Leighanne - alternative delivery model

    • Only viable for small/mid organizations and what are barriers

    • SaaS - having solution provider host instance

    • Pure SaaS - one line of code, shared resources - lower costs

    • Some problems, but fading fast - data privacy, configuration, providers have worked hard to dispel rumors - SAS 70 certification - there environments are probably more secure then an enterprise client

    • Not just for small/midsize businesses anymore

    • SaaS has been used for years - ATS, Performance Management

    • Option to now think about it for all functions

    • If operate in highly regulated industry - validated environment is needed and in some cases, cannot take advantage of SaaS model

 

    • Bill Kutik - if you get Saas - HRIS (you don't get to screw with it like you have in the on-premise model)

 

    • Question - European privacy laws - SaaS providers are offering enormous amount of configuration to have specific rules/legs per regions

      • SaaS vendors have done a good job of opening up to global needs

      • Not just languages, global configurations

      • PeopleSoft solution, that is what it is made for

 

Jason Corsello - thoughts on SaaS?

    • SaaS is not hosted

    • SaaS is everything maintained by solution provider

    • Hosted - still have to work with hosting provider and solution provider

    • SaaS is not easy to do - SAP has been trying to do with Business By Design and have not been that successful

 

Statement about SaaS

I have had indepth conversations with 20+ CIO's in the last few weeks. Most CIO's are saying "I cant believe I am saying this, last year wouldnt have said this." "SaaS has tremendous value and interest to CIO's and continuing to shift on an ongoing basis."

    • It is real

    • HRIT must shift to do things differently

 

Do you know anything more about Fusion today? - Jason Corsello

    • Strategy for Fusion has been brilliant for Oracle

    • Not that good for the industry

    • Many folks not doing much, waiting for Fusion

    • Lots of hope and anticipation, until we see something - hope it is significant

 

Leighanne

    • Greater integration

    • More enterprise integrations

    • Cant be more excited about middleware

    • Will carryover 9.1 and 12.1 - middleware and architecture will make difference

    • Will make talent management relevant to a business user

    • Fusion middleware means openness, not strapped to application

 

Early audience feedback from people sitting around me

    • Were they paid by Oracle not to say anything

    • Very insightful about talent management

    • Not very good, not at all what expected, leaving without any more knowledge

    • Doesn't help us go back and sell organization on why stay with Oracle like we want to

    • If we need to do something today because our CEO says so, what do we say, wait for Fusion?

    • Great endorsement for Fusion that we are looking for more information on

    • Could Oracle offer its talent management products in a SaaS model?

 

Interesting feedback. Your thoughts if you were at event. Great job by Oracle and OHUG providing insight into industry. A huge positive of this event is to offer this to the community. Oracle continues to lead the pack when it comes to providing industry value about HCM and talent management.

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

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I’ve found that I learn the most in life when I trip and fall. I know I’m not alone in this. It’s these moments in life when we don’t succeed, when we don’t win, when we ultimately fail, that teach us the most. More importantly, it’s these moments in life that show us what we are really made of.

 

It’s easy to succeed. It’s easy to win. It’s easy to accomplish all that we set out to do. It takes hard work to get there. It takes careful planning and calculated moves, but the end result is easy and it feels good. Success is gratifying. Gratification is what makes it all worth it. The long days, the short nights, the time away from family, they all seem worth it when that gratifying feeling surges through you. You want to bottle that feeling and sip from it every chance you get.

 

Failure isn't as easy. It hurts. It burns. It downright stings. It makes us remember for a long time. It’s one of those feelings you want to walk far away from. In reality, failure is a gift. Failure is special. Failure is the opportunity to pick ourselves up, dust off, and get back in the game. Failure is the chance to grow and to change and to be more than we are today. Failure builds character, thickens skin, and it makes us stronger. Failure is necessary. Failure is important. Those that avoid failure at all cost by stopping short are cheating themselves. They will never have the benefit of laying it all on the line, letting it ride, and living and learning from the result.

 

As we work to change the game, let’s celebrate failure. Let’s embrace it and encourage all those around us to take risks, lay it on the line, and go for broke. Let’s also be there to support and encourage each other when we trip and fall.

 

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UBUNTU in Knowledge Infuser

Posted by Jason Averbook Jun 21, 2008

celtics.png

 

At Knowledge Infusion, we have many Boston Celtics fans and congratulations to them and the Celtics for their NBA Championship. Going from one of the worst teams to the best team in the league and winning the championship is a dream many of us have and hope to experience at some point in our lives.

 

Bill Taylor from HBR wrote a great piece that I read this morning during my usual Saturday morning catchup sessions about leadership and how the Celtics captured the title.

 

In essence, UBUNTU - I am because of you, brought this team together. This is very similar to our "I AM KI" theme that lives in all of our employees, customers and community members as we strive to change the space of HR and HR technology forever.

 

Take a read of Bill's article and tell me what you think. If nothing else, try to infuse some of the learnings from the Celtics in your daily life. Leadership is priceless....

 

Link to Bill's article

 

Do they really believe in it? Check out video below

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

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As discussed yesterday, Enterprise 2.0 continues to surge and InfoWorld has more examples of success with Oracle, Best Buy and Serena. From a Knowledge Infusion standpoint, even more reason and validation behind the Digital HR StrategyMap that our customers are continuing to adopt.

 

Take a read of the article and let me know examples of what is happening in your company.

 

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...[Link to InfoWorld Article|http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/18/Web-2-scores-successes-in-the-enterpri se_1.html]

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Over the past three weeks, I have given 5 speeches where either a question or comment has emerged about Enterprise 2.0 and what is it?

 

The slide show below is a great explanatory tool about Enterprise 2.0 and how organizations are using these tools. This very closely follows the Knowledge Infusion Digital HR methodology around the technologies that HR will need to adopt over the next few years to retain and attract the new age workforce and drive more collaboration within its existing workforce.

 

Take a look at slideshow....Very educational. How does it relate to HR? Your thoughts?

 

<div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_330468"><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=enterprise-20-market-study-12 07060923418296-5"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=enterprise-20-market-study-12 07060923418296-5" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/?src=embed"><img src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/logo_embd.png" style="border:0px none;margin-bottom:-5px" alt="SlideShare"/></a> | <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Frappaolo/enterprise-20-market-study?src=embed" title="View Enterprise 2.0 Market Study on SlideShare">View</a> | <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/upload?src=embed">Upload your own</a></div></div>

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

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I wanted to take a second to tip my hat to the leadership of the OHUG, Oracle HCM Users Group organization. Beginning Sunday, the OHUG 2008 conference is in Las Vegas at The Mirage. This organization has done a brilliant job of bringing together content and leaders from around the world to discuss how they are leveraging the Oracle/PeopleSoft platforms to truly change HR.

 

Knowledge Infusion will be presenting two sessions at the event. One on Digital HR and the future direction of HR technologies and another session with a customer of ours, Franklin Templeton who will discuss how they are using HR HelpDesk and future direction for HR Service Delivery.

 

Take a second to let us know if you will be attending the event by clicking on reply to this entry. Also, let us know what you are expecting from the event and WHY you go to an event such as this.

 

Look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!!

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

Link to OHUG website

 

 

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Knowledge Infusion is asked about this every day by organizations worldwide, including during a keynote presentation at an IHRIM event yesterday. CIO has an interesting piece today that I wanted to call to everyone's attention. Will continue to discuss in future posts.

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

Link to article

 

 

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Knowledge Infusion is asked on a DAILY BASIS if not HOURLY BASIS about the future of enterprise software. I wanted to quickly make you aware of two pieces of content that will help you tremendously in understanding the future.

 

1) Gretchen Alarcon, VP of Product Strategy at Oracle, was on The Bill Kutik Show this morning and shed light on her views of Enterprise Software and the direction that Oracle is moving.

 

Click here to listen to the interview!!

 

 

2) SAP's Bill McDermott has a fascinating interview as part of Knowledge@Wharton where he does a great job of explaining the future of Enterprise Software in his view and how "usage of data amassed over the past decade will drive the future of this space."

 

Click here to listen and read the interview!!

 

 

Enterprise Core HR, Payroll and Benefits software integrated to Talent Management tools along with portals and business intelligence continue to power HR's ability to drive business results in the world today. Going forward, look for the next generation of Enterprise Software to truly help HR show its value, not just capture data.

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

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As a big part of the Knowledge Infusion Digital HR practice, collaborative technologies play a huge role. Take a look at this video and see if you agree. Let us know your thoughts and how you are working around this.

 

<embed id="VideoPlayback" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowFullScreen="true" flashvars="fs=true" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8742298064259786908&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed>

 

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

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First off, this isn't a post on the aging of the workforce. Instead, the "graying" of the workforce refers to the notion that the candidate pool in some industries is simply a revolving door of people that have worked for all the other competitors and are now revolving into a new job with a new company. This is the third or forth stop as they make their way through the industry in largely the same position. These individuals bring with them no new ideas and simply do what they do with a new set of business cards. Instead of being a colorful and vibrant place rich with innovation and new thinking, the workplace becomes a repackaged version of what all the other guys are doing and hence "gray."

 

This term was used in a recent interview with a financial services executive as he described one of the talent issues he was facing. As he described it, "we've had the same people coming in here with virtually no new ideas, no new blood." As a solution to this problem, he began to focus on college recruiting and recruiting top notch people from other industries. These programs became the means to infuse new blood and new thinking into workforce. He went on by saying, "I can teach people the job I hire them for, what I can't do is teach them to be innovative and think differently from all the other people here. Now, if only I could get the team at corporate to pay closer attention to success I am having with this approach."

 

This is the perfect example of a business leader "getting it." This financial services executive got deeply involved in the recruiting process and took ownership for the results. Remember, talent management isn't about HR, it's about the business and enabling the business to achieve results through talent.

 

 

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Wow...I have been in 4 airports and 5 states over the last 24 hours and there is NO ONE not talking about the price of Oil and gasoline and possible impacts. Do you think the oil/gas prices will have an impact AT ALL on the HR technology space?

 

Please post your thoughts..Always good to have a group of peers share their thoughts as I am not sure completely how to answer the question

 

I will share my thoughts in 48 hours or so...

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

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Lately, I've been working with several clients who are grappling with the concept of Pay for Contribution, rather than Pay for Performance. Much of this transformation in thinking is coming about as more and more organizations ask the questions, "What do we pay our employees for, really?" Pay for Performance tends to be a historical view, paying employees for what they have accomplished in the past. It is based on the premise that the employee, with his or her manager, has set SMART goals for the performance period, and has been evaluated against how well he or she achieved the goals identified.

 

Pay for Contribution, on the other hand, can be backwards or forwards looking, however, it is based more on the premise that the employee has contributed value to the organization is some form or other - whether by growing critical relationships, developing valuable intellectual property, implementing key infrastructure, etc. Often, Pay for Contribution is intended to reward more "intangibles" - elements that add value to the organization, but are difficult to quantify or establish objectives for up front.

 

And herein lies the rub. Organizations tend to like Pay for Performance because it is based on pre-set goals with specific measures. The employee achieves the goal or doesn't achieve it, and is rewarded based on this fact. Employees like Pay for Performance because it is predictable (assuming goals and performance measures are very clearly laid out.) Pay for Contribution tends to be more fuzzy. Organizations often are not clear on the value of a "contribution" until some time after it has been made. The result is that the criteria in Pay for Contribution are often unclear to the employee, and the resulting reward unpredictable. And if there is one thing that has the potential to frustrate employees, and negatively impact morale, it is when the paycheck is not what is expected.

 

 

Whether an organization pays for Performance or for Contribution, it is critical that the organization define as clearly as possible for itself and employees what "performance" and / or "contribution" look like. Even if contribution is not as easily quantifiable or measurable as some performance goals, it is necessary to at least provide a picture, an example, an anecdote - so that employees have some information in order to better decide how to do their work. And the earlier in the pay cycle these expectations are made clear, the better. That way, everyone has a shared understanding of where everyone is going, what it takes to get there, and how rewards will be distributed.

 

 

Does your organization have a "Pay for Contribution" policy? How is contribution defined? How is it valued? What works well about it, what doesn't? Would love to hear others' thoughts and experiences on this topic.

 

 

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