UND-Pilsa Blog

Many companies think that, by offering each member of staff some instruction in occupational health & safety, they are adequately equipped for an emergency. Realistically though, a basic education in health & safety legislation and risk asessment simply isn’t enough. You must provide your employees with competent supervision, not to mention provide the right safety gear and give them the opportunity to practice.

Your employees need a capable supervisor to keep an eye on staff performance, however this person must also perform an even greater role. Your choice of supervisor needs to see their health & safety training as crucial and have the ability to share their enthusiasm about it.

On top of enforcing all of the rules and regulations, the supervisor furthermore should ensure that each employee works efficiently. This isn’t a easy task. Up-to-date industry knowledge is important for a supervisory role in addition to a very high level of understanding of up-to-date regulations regarding safety, risk assessment and first aid.

Please visit our incredible site for health safety training instructions

Supplying health & safety training is not sufficient for your employees. They need to acquire practical experience of risk assessment and the identification of hazards. They need to understand the best way of dealing with problems not to mention knowing what to do when anything unexpected happens. Workers are only totally prepared when their training and procedures have become a habit.

Education is by all accounts not enough without the necessary safety supplies. If they are without apparatus they require, or learn that they’re damaged only after a crisis has occurred, then all the training your staff have already completed is basically of no benefit.

Maintaining your equipment on a regular basis is a necessity. If an item doesn’t come up to the pertinent legislation, be sure to get it fixed as rapidly as you can and put it back in the appropriate place.

Your employees need to get proper health and safety instruction, but in addition they must have the proper equipment, the chance to practise, and an educated supervisor who can get the workforce excited about working safely. If you take this advice you will find that health & safety legislation will soon become a natural component of life in the workplace not something that staff have to make an effort to remember constantly.

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The current economy is such that it’s most effective to ramp up profits by minimizing expenses, not a growth of income. This brings us on to the many benefits of performance appraisal software.

It is well known that a smart business customizes its routines to the abilities of each staff member in order to get the most from them. Pinpointing and making this information ready for use is often where things can become tough, however.

Defining and tracking development through employee appraisal on its own can be a significant task. You first put employee performance appraisal techniques in place so that you can evaluate all work carried out by each member of staff. And if you’re using traditional approaches, you now need to study all of this data by hand just to define objectives, goals, and track future development.

When using performance appraisal software you know that this assessment is done for you and you need only study the different metrics to determine what an appropriate set of targets for this worker would be. It also renders keeping track of the worker’s progress much easier. This removes the need to spend time on analysis and may even be more accurate. If you wish to it’s possible instead to carry out your own analysis, simply employing the software to produce and keep up a full record to use as a basis. performance management software doesn’t only help staff. It can also be valuable to study suppliers and clients to better pace your ordering and conserve money. Knowing the suppliers that stock the higher grade or best priced products can be a great help.

When it comes to clients performance management software can help there showing you just who your best seller is, their loss percentage and similar negatives, and serving as a reminder of any payment issues. You can then adapt your orders and stock handling to increase your profits while cutting spending. As well as all this, marketing campaigns become much easier to plan because you’ll have a clearer understanding of your ideal demographic.

You can analyze your sources to minimize costs and keep up with your market so that you can make more money using performance appraisal software. It renders staff performance management quicker and more effective when motivating staff using demonstrable goals decidedly. How much can be achieved almost seems unlimited with performance management software backing you up.

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A prosperous business depends on the competent management of individuals. These skills may be acquired and learned. Having a innate skill for getting along with people and forming relationships may be an advantage, however there are numerous things you can learn that will simplify the process. Relationship Building: Start by memorizing staff’s names. Encourage conversation; get eye contact during a conversation. Do be respectful, and be attentive to the other person’s point of view, even if you don’t agree or have another viewpoint. Developing listening skills is one of the most effective things you can do to better your talent management skills. Welcome any comments from your co-workers. Keep your promises: Keeping your word is key. If a promise is not kept, it will ruin trust, and no-one will offer you their best efforts without trusting you. Each time you give a commitment or make a promise, ensure you can deliver or it would really be more sensible not to give your word at all. To be honest, if your people can’t depend on your word, you can be certain they will behave in the same fashion. Encourage feedback: Feedback should be a reciprocal process. Talent management skills mean having an open mind to all feedback. Being accessible and open shows that other people’s opinions matter to you, your ideas will be appreciated in return. Promoting open discussion in addition encourages fresh ways of thinking, new methods of achieving the goals of the business, and strengthens the company dynamic. By giving the team some input, the outcome will become important to every member.

Promote communication: Managing individuals boils down to one concept - communication. Maintaining an open door policy, use good listening techniques, remember to welcome all sorts of feedback, and encourage all your team to express themselves. Staff must be encouraged to speak with each other not only with you. The growth of any business depends heavily on the open exchange of ideas, and in listening to each other, it is much simpler to discover any issues before they present problems, and measures may be applied before things get out of hand. Developing these skills can take some effort, yet the payoff is worthwhile. By building the bonds of a good team and listening to your team’s suggestions, you can easily accomplish the best in business success.

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A significant number of companies think that, if each member of staff has enough health and safety training, they are adequately prepared to manage an emergency. Realistically though, an education in health and safety legislation and risk asessment simply is not enough. Equipping staff, choosing good supervision and encouraging frequent safety practise sessions are fundamental to the safety at work.

A supervisor has a bigger purpose to fulfill than simply general supervision. A supervisor must understand the importance of health and safety training and have the ability to encourage other people to share their excitement.

On top of enforcing all of the rules and regulations, a supervisory role also includes maintaining staff performance. Naturally it’s difficult to achieve all this at once. It means that the supervisor is expected to have a comprehensive knowledge of the business and the product not to mention a high level of experience with the latest regulations with regard to safety, risk appraisal and CPR.

It just isn’t enough to send any employees to a health and safety training program. To effectively identify a hazard they need to put their training into practise. Staff additionally must have insights into the required precautions that they will need to take as well as understanding what to do if the worst happens. Your workers are only completely protected when everything has become routine. The right safety gear is just as necessary to the your staff’s safety as any training. When they are missing apparatus that is required, or notice that they’re not functioning properly in a crisis, then all the training in the world can’t help them. Regularly scheduled maintenance of your apparatus is a good idea. If your apparatus will not meet the pertinent legislation, ensure that it is repaired promptly and put it back in the appropriate place.

Your workforce need to get the right health and safety education, but in addition they need the right apparatus, scheduled practise drills, and an educated supervisor who can get employees to feel enthusiastic about being safe at work. When you follow this advice you will see that health and safety legislation will before long be established in the culture of your business instead of an inconvenience that staff have to try to think about constantly.

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Oil rates are soaring and this causes business cash holdings are pressed thin worse than ever before. With an global economy sputters and capital remains scarce, wise executives know extraneous accounts have to be reduced. Company directors throughout the nation need to make a few weighty decisions to reduce unnecessary spending. One of the obvious plan to cut company expenditures is to cut down on frivolous travel expenses, and the easiest way is web conferencing.

Internet conferencing calls permit anyone to communicate with stakeholders virtually in a meeting in another city, on a distant coast or most definitely in a distant shore. The usual web conference calls employ new networking technology. Due to the fact that they usually conducted on almost any computer, they merely utilize sunk organizational overhead. By looking to web video conferencing, may an executive conduct a international meeting from just about anywhere offering Internet access. Its more than just convenient, it can slash travel expenses by more than five digits.

Advancements in communications technology make web conferencing possible for businesses to share information and presentations simultaneously. Web conference attendees feel as though they were in the same room, even if theyre really on the other side of the planet earth. The look and sound of the audio, video and presentation should be impeccable through the best in web architecture.

Dont miss how just about any business should save money by utilizing Internet conference calls in place of spending thousands dispatching an employee on a long-distance trip. A business doesnt have to throw away money on hotels, meals or even transportation. These trimmings cannot be dismissed. Any cost savings is increased profit for your organization. Most everyone knows that many companies are opting for Internet conferencing to slash budgets on needless business trips.

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Debt Management - Help With Your Debts

If you need help with your debts, you’re not alone. In the second quarter of 2008 (April - June), almost 25,000 people were declared insolvent in England and Wales alone.

On the plus side, this was actually a 2% decrease on the first quarter, and an 8.3% decrease on the second quarter of 2007. However, these seemingly optimistic figures may be hiding bad news in the months and years ahead. Experts point out that many of the negative effects of the credit crunch and the problems in the housing market have simply not ‘trickled through’ yet.

After all, in recent years, homeowners throughout the UK have grown used to rising property values, and the possibility of using their steadily increasing equity to consolidate their debts. Now that house prices are on the way down, many have turned instead to credit cards and other forms of unsecured borrowing to make up any shortfall in their budgets.

Plus, the Bank of England’s Q2 2008 Credit Conditions Survey has revealed that lenders had reduced the availability of secured and unsecured credit alike, and that they expected further reductions in the near future. In other words, debt consolidation (both secured and unsecured) may no longer be an option for some of those in financial trouble - but that doesn’t mean insolvency is the only way forward. The right debt advice can help them find the debt solution that’s right for them.

Debt management is one form of debt help that doesn’t rely on any access to further credit. It works like this: the individual in debt asks a debt management company for help, and the debt management company talks to their creditors on their behalf. Depending on the individual’s circumstances, these debt management professionals may be able to negotiate some really meaningful concessions. For example, the creditors may agree to accept lower monthly payments, reduce / cancel interest charges and waive fees.

So debt management can help people with both short-term and long-term debt problems. Reducing the cost of their monthly repayments, it brings their expenditure back in line with their income, meaning they don’t need to take out more credit each month. It can also help them make headway on their debt: when interest charges are reduced or stopped, it means more of their payments go towards the debt itself, rather than the interest. Finally, many people find that talking to creditors about their money worries isn’t easy. On a debt management plan, they can just make the payments - and leave the negotiations to the professionals.

For more information on debt management and debt consolidation and to get further debt help, visit http://www.gregorypennington.com/debt-consolidation-loan.asp.

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As a designer I find it hard to sometimes take on new projects like web development. I’m great at designing sites, but not so well at building them. I guess I’m just not familiar with all the nuances of the web. Ask me to design a logo or a web page and I can do it in a heartbeat. What I need is a web broker of sorts that I can take a web design project and have them code the website, but use my original design and still have my name attached to it. I did finally found this graphic web design conversion company that does the job really well.

What’s great about using this company is that you don’t have to worry about all the fuss and trouble about web standards. You can also markup the cost of using their service in your quote to your client and make some extra cash as well. The process is painless and the price is very reasonable. If you have specific needs from your client, they have options that you can add on for a specific amount. You pretty much fill out a form of what you need on the site and that’s it.

Overall I’m happy with this company. They were fast and got the job done right and offered online payment. If you are in a need of website that needs to be build out with your design and don’t want the hassle of coding it. Use this company.

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There are many benefits to offering team building sessions and corporate retreats. At the end of a particularly successful corporate retreat that I recently facilitated, I overheard employees making comments the following comments:

“It’s because of sessions like this that this is one of the best places to work.”

“This company must really value its employees to invest so much time and money in us.”

Here are some tips to help you ensure that your next team building session or executive retreat is just as successful.

Clarify Your Objectives

Before you plan your team building session or corporate retreat, it is important to be clear about your objectives. Far too often, companies end up disappointed in the results because expectations were not clearly identified and articulated. Ideally, outcomes should pinpoint the desired impact on the business and be stated in measurable terms. Unfortunately, many organizations treat team building as a discretionary event and don’t attempt to link it to the needs of the business:

Examples of Team Building Objectives

• Improve customer satisfaction by 15%
• Improve employee satisfaction by 10%
• Reduce churn by 5%
• Improve the closing ratio of the sales team by 12%

Even “softer” outcomes like these could be stated in measurable terms if one takes the time to think through the specific impact on the business:

• Forge stronger alliances between geographically dispersed teams
• Fine-tune your marketing and sales strategy
• Reduce friction and “turf wars” between organizational levels and departments.
• Improve communication between teams and departments
• Improve your decision making process
• Identify strategies to reduce red tape and duplication of effort
• Brainstorm and generate new strategies to resolve business issues and overcome challenges
• Manage projects more effectively even within tight time frames

Planning Considerations for Team Building

Once you are clear about your objectives, it is important to determine:

• number of participants
• positions and levels of participants in organization
• physical disabilities and constraints
• budget
• time frame

If you are using an external team building consultant for your corporate retreat, identify a clear decision making process and decision making criteria. Ideally, you should be in a position to make a decision no more than 2 weeks after contacting prospective vendors. You should allow at least a month, preferably 2 months for adequate planning of your session. It amazes me how often we are contacted with companies who want to pull together a complex team building session in a two week or less than one week time frame.

Select the Right Locations for Team Building and Corporate Retreats

Your choice of location can make or break your team building session or corporate retreat. Let your objectives and theme drive the location selection decision and not vice versa. I recall a time when a prospective client had blown most of the budget on a high end conference facility. The result? There was little left in the budget for a facilitator.

Determine if you will require assistance with location scouting and be fair about it. An experienced team building firm should be able to help you find a location to fit your budget. However, it does take time to call around, check availability and come up with just the right fit. For foreign locations, long distance charges are often incurred. It is not kosher to expect consultants to do your location scouting for free. It is also not appropriate to do the event on your own and use the location suggested by a team building service provider.

If your budget is limited, scout around. You may be able to find some unique and cost effective locations for your events. You can stretch your budget by using summer camps during off-peak season, amusement parks, acting studios. the catering department of community colleges to save on the cost of refreshments, movie theatres, camp sites, and conservation areas. 3 looking to save money on location, it is important to book your session WELL in advance…..3 - 4 months in advance. To book a group camp site and shelter, you would need a 5 - 6 month lead time.

Select Your Theme

One of the best strategies for “spicing up” your team building sessions and corporate retreats is to come up with a theme. Based on your theme, you can select an appropriate venue, energizers, session starters, music, video clips, graphics for slides and handouts, and menu items. The key is to let your objectives and content drive the theme. To come up with your theme, create a mind map. Put your content and topics in the centre and come up with as many themes as possible that relate to your topics. If you want to fine-tune your sales and marketing strategy or prepare your team for “uncharted territory” and change, a Survivor team building sessions would be the most appropriate choice. If you want to hone project management and leadership skills or help them improve their effectiveness in pulling projects together within tight time frames, a team building session based on the TV show the Apprentice would be a perfect fit. If your team needs to improve its ability to cope with a fast paced environment, a surprisingly affordable polo team building sessions would fit the bill.

Set a Realistic Time Frame

Sometimes, companies are totally unrealistic about the time frame for a retreat. It is surprising how many people think that they can do a full blown simulation with debriefing, application exercises, and a presentation by a member of the senior management team in half a day. Let me stress this in bold. A half day simulation with adequate time for debriefing and business application exercises is just not doable. The only way that it can work is if the simulation or activity is very simple or short and you have one very clear and specific objective or core message that you want to convey. Of course, you can always find team building companies that will take your money and promise you the moon within a half day or even 2 hour time frame. Buyer beware. You have been warned. Of course, if your goal is strictly recreational, that is doable in half a day or two hours.

When determining an appropriate time frame, consider if there are items other than team building that you need to include in your agenda. A number of the companies with which we work have included vendor and client presentations, departmental presentations, and presentations about plans for the upcoming year into their corporate retreats and team building sessions. The key is to determine the content THEN select the appropriate time frame, not the reverse. So, what are some realistic time frames and formats for team building. Here are some ideas:

Half Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation

1 Hour - Mini-Simulation or Recreational Activity

1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise

1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels

1/2 Hour - Preparation for Application Exercise

1/2 Hour - Breakout Group Presentations ( Maximum 2 - 3 Groups - 10 - 15 minutes each)

TOTAL = 4 Hours

1 Day Team Building Format

1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
3 Hours - Simulation
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour - Preparation for Application Exercise
1 Hour - Breakout Group Presentations ( Maximum 4 - 5 Groups - 10 - 15 minutes each)
1/2 Hour - Breaks
1 Hour - Recreational Activity (Optional)
1 Hour - Evening BBQ (Optional)

TOTAL = 8 1/2 - 10 Hours

These formats are very basic. You will get feedback from some team members that they felt rushed during some of the exercises. Be prepared for this and don’t blame the facilitator. An evening BBQ or dinner buys you a bit more time and ends the session on a high note.

Here is a better format that can include an overnight stay at your location or a briefing a week before your team building session:

Pre-Briefing + 1 Day Team Format

Evening
1 Hour - Pre-briefing for Simulation Team Leaders
Dinner - 1 Hour
1 Hour - Preparation/ Briefing Session Including Senior Management Presentation
1 Hour - Simulation
Flexible - Team Recreational Activity or Competition Related to Simulation Theme
Day 2
3 Hours - Simulation (Continued)
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1 Hour - Lunch
1/2 Hour - Debriefing Preparation Exercise
1 Hour - Debriefing Panels
1 Hour - Preparation for Application Exercise
1 Hour - Breakout Group Presentations ( Maximum 4 - 5 Groups - 10 - 15 minutes each)
1/2 Hour - Breaks

If you want to lengthen the time for the simulation or give people more time to prepare for their business application exercises, devote more time for outdoor recreational activities, vendor, client or departmental presentations, or other agenda items, we suggest a 2 1/2 - 3 day format. Remember, the briefing session can be done in advance and you can cut your session down to 2 - 2 1/2 days

Select Your Teams

There are a number of factors that you should take into account when you select your teams. Ensure that you:

• mix departments
• mix geographical regions
• mix organizational levels
• form team based on learning styles
• give team members who don’t get along with each other an opportunity to work together
• give the newer or more junior members of your team an opportunity to serve as team leaders

Analyze your group and assess their learning styles so that you can make decisions about team composition and a number of other key elements for your session.

Team Building: The Bottom Line

Team building sessions and corporate retreats can be rewarding experiences that pull your team together and bring you closer to achieving your goals and objectives. Careful attention to planning can help you avoid a session that people perceive as “a waste of time” and ensure that you get the results that you desire.

© 2006 Executive Oasis International - All Rights Reserved

Anne Thornley-Brown is the founder and President of Executive Oasis International, a Toronto based firm that helps executive teams in Canada, Jamaica, Asia, and Dubai design strategies to survive, thrive and grow in our turbulent economy. Their services include executive retreats, meeting facilitation, executive team building, and executive coaching.

Some of their executive team building building services include:

• Visexecutaries: Apprentice Simulation for Executive Retreats
• Survivor Team Building: Desert Survival
• Survivor Team Building: Wilderness Survival
• Executive Inc: Breaking Down Silos

For information about our executive retreats, please visit our web site:

Corporate Team Building for Executive Retreats by Executive Oasis International:
http://www.executiveoasis.com/executiveretreats.html

For more articles by Anne Thornley-Brown, check out the Spice of the Month Accelerated Learning Ezine:
http://www.thetrainingoasis.com/ezine.html

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Which sounds more appealing, getting up in front of a group of strangers and talking, while they all sit there looking at you like a dog watching a ceiling fan…or gargling with Drano? It’s no surprise how many would choose the Drano.

Public Speaking has been ranked as the “number one fear” among thousands of us. The anxiety is overwhelming, you start to sweat profusely, your knees are knocking so hard you might break a kneecap, hands tremble like you dipped them in a fryer full of hot oil, voice starts quivering like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on your head and you can’t remember what it is you are supposed to be talking about. Why? Because you are scared to death.

I want to share with you some tips on overcoming this fear of Public Speaking.

1. Picture yourself doing it, go ahead picture yourself standing in front of all these people saying what it is you are going to be talking about. Picture yourself from start to finish. Begin with walking up to the microphone or podium, all the way thru your speech, and then finally wrapping it up to a successful outcome.

2. Practice, practice, practice…do your speech ‘out loud’ over and over again. Now, do the same thing to a real live person..(just make sure they will be honest with you about your presentation).

It’s been said: “Repetition is the mother of all skill”…it really is and you do it everyday in your real life, because you have done the same thing over and over again. You can just about overcome any fear you have by doing it over and over again. Sports are a good example…you see NBA players almost never miss a free throw, PGA players make 20 foot putts, NFL kickers put it thru the uprights. It’s not because they were born with some special skill…it’s because they practiced and practiced and practiced some more. The same holds true for Public Speaking.

3. Whip out the camcorder and tape yourself giving your speech. That way you will be able to see what the audience will be watching and listening to.

4. Get a grip…just before you give your speech, RELAX. Take some slow deep breaths and remind yourself that all these people are here to listen to what you have to say. They don’t know (or really care) what your personal life is like. Honestly, they could care less about anything going on in your personal life that YOU feel is adding to this anxiety.

The more prepared you are, the less anxiety you’ll experience, which in turn, will boost your confidence sky high. Then after you are all “said and done”…you will never look at a can of drano the same way again.

Mark Kessler is a 26 year radio broadcasting veteran and the current stadium voice of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, continues to have numerous Public Speaking engagements across America and is the owner of Public Speaking 411 - a comprehensive free resource on Public Speaking, offering tips and techniques and a wealth of information to help you overcome your fear of Public Speaking.

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Being a good trainer requires experience and skill. Experience comes from practice and skill from learning the theories, applying them, getting feedback and consciously improving.

Some things that will help you improve are:

1. Know your target audience - what’s in it for them? What do they expect? Why are they attending your training?
2. Sometimes go back to basics - it’s a good chance to reevaluate your performance
3. Find ways to generate interaction and get your participants doing something
4. Provide as much variety as practicable
5. Demonstrate where possible - it will save many words
6. Use humour wherever possible. If associated with analogies, this can help participants recall specifics
7. Consider your training as a marketing exercise

When you prepare your session (you DO prepare don’t you?) think of it in terms of you having to make a sale. I know this sounds odd, but when you think about it, you are trying to ’sell’ someone the ideas you are putting across. So there’s much we can learn from the art of salesmanship or marketing.

Think along the lines of the acronym A - I - D - A which stands for Attention - Interest - Desire - Action. Get attention by making a statement that is bold or give an example of what could happen if they don’t do what it is you are about to suggest. For example, if you were about to deliver a road safety talk, you could start off by saying something like, ‘560 people died on Queensland Roads last year … what’s going to keep you from adding to that statistic?’ You may then give them some ‘Interesting’ statistics about how many of those people were drivers who committed traffic offences. Desire is aroused when we want something - in this case, the solution to NOT becoming a statistic. Then, the Action part might relate to a commitment from them to put into effect what you have taught them.

The best scenario I have found is to present a problem or predicament, state how the problem can be solved or the predicament can be avoided, present a preferred option and then ask for the action (buying, adopting etc depending on circumstances).

When planning your session, think about how you can weave AIDA into: Explain, Demonstrate, Question, Practise, Review. It won’t be appropriate to every session, but if it can be used, it’s a sound option. And remember, if you have a large volume of content, you may need to break it (it’s called chunking) into separate chunks each of which has an E-D-Q-P-R.

Questioning is two-way. You need to question your participants to find out if they understand what you have delivered; they need an opportunity to clear up any doubts they have by questioning you. Your review can be a summary (which also includes Q) or it can be a review at the commencement of a later presentation about a continuing topic.

When next you are about to prepare a ‘chalk and talk’ session or perhaps a ’show and tell’, think about how you could make it a little more interesting and interactive by using AIDA and EDQPR strategies. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what good ideas you come up with. And it will show in your session evaluation.

Copyright Robin Henry 2005

Robin Henry is a human resources and development specialist and Internet marketer. He operates his business, Desert Wave Enteprises, from his home in Central Australia.

He has written numerous articles, many of which are found at Ezinearticles.com. Others are accessible from his site at http://www.dwave.com.au.

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