Why You\'re Smart To Leverage PayPal For Your Business

Millions of us use PayPal to send and receive payments but for some reason many business owners also fear Paypal and think they'll get scammed or lose their money if they use PayPal. PayPal is one of the most secure payment networks around with some of the most in-depth anti-fraud and security solutions on the market.

With the launch of PayPal Here â€" it's mobile payment solution (competing with Intuit's GoPayments and Square) â€" PayPal gives business owners a reason they should look at Paypal as a serious component of their payment solutions.

Nothing more to say â€" but just wanted to give you a heads up.

  • If you do not have a PayPal account â€" get one
  • If you are not accepting PayPal start
  • If you don't know what PayPal is â€" learn

The more options you can offer customers, the more pleased they'll be and the more revenue you'll get.



Microsoft reports first loss as public company

Microsoft said that an accounting adjustment to reflect a weak online ad business led to its first quarterly loss in its 26 years as a public company.

The software company had warned that it was taking a $US6.2 billion charge because its 2007 purchase of online ad service aQuantive hasn't yielded the returns envisioned by management. The non-cash adjustment is something companies do when the value of their assets decline. Microsoft paid $6.3 billion for aQuantive, only to see rival Google expand its share of the online ad market.

The charge led to a $492 million loss in the April-June quarter, or 6 cents a share. That compares with earnings of $5.9 billion, or 69 cents, a year ago.

Revenue rose 4 per cent to $18.06 billion.

Excluding the adjustment and the deferral of some revenue into the current quarter related to its launch of Windows 8, earnings came to 73 cents per share, beating the 62 cents per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Although the earnings were higher than expected, analysts were looking for higher revenue at $18.15 billion.

Shares were up 65 cents, or 2.1 per cent, at $31.32 in after-hours trading following the release of earnings results.

Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, has never previously reported a quarterly loss since the company's initial public offering in March 1986. The aQuantive-driven setback isn't likely to faze investors, who usually focus on what lies ahead for a company instead of dwelling on past mistakes.

Microsoft's fortunes are tied to the October release of Windows 8, the most extreme redesign of the company's flagship operating system since 1995.

Windows 8 will feature a new look that will show applications in a mosaic of tiles and boast new technology that will enable the operating system to work on touch-controlled tablet computers, as well as its traditional stronghold on desktop and laptop computers. In conjunction with Windows 8, Microsoft is planning to release its own tablet, the Surface.

A revamped version of another lucrative franchise, Microsoft's Office software that bundles word processing, spreadsheet and email programs, is also in the works. Earlier this week, Microsoft previewed how the next version of Office, expected to be released next year, will work on tablet computers running on Windows 8.

With Windows 8-powered devices still a few months away, some prospective PC buyers have been postponing their purchases so they can buy the latest technology from Microsoft this fall. That's contributed to a slowdown in PC sales, and revenue in Microsoft's Windows division has now dropped in five of the past seven quarters.

The pressure won't be on Microsoft until Windows 8 is released on October 26. Investors will then be closely watching to see if the new operating system delivers on its goal of making Microsoft a significant player in the rapidly growing tablet computer market currently dominated by Apple's iPad, while also helping boost PC sales.

The high hopes for Windows 8 are the main reason Microsoft's stock has climbed about 18 per cent this year as of Thursday's closing price of $30.67.

-AP



Free Snap Payroll App Now Available for Small Businesses

Intuit, one of the largest payroll processing services for small businesses in the US, has announced a new payroll app available to employers who don't necessarily need full-fledged accounting software, but still want some help managing their payroll.

Snap Payroll App

Snap Payroll, which is now available in Apple's App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, does not currently tie into Intuit's other payroll processing systems such as Intuit Payroll or QuickBooks. But instead, the app is intended for those small business owners who are just starting out or who have just a few employees and want help calculating wages and taxes quickly and accurately.

According to Intuit, 31% of small business owners process payroll manually with spreadsheets or similar systems. The new Snap Payroll app will calculate employees' net pay based on their hourly wages, hours worked, and withholding for both state and federal income taxes. Though minimal, the app can help employers who process payroll by hand or without in-depth software to simplify payroll calculations and make sure tax information is accurate so as to avoid any IRS penalties.

In order to better serve such small companies, Intuit is offering its Snap Payroll app for free, in the hopes that small businesses will continue to think of Intuit for more advanced payroll products as their businesses grow. Currently, Intuit's line of payroll software ranges from the free Snap Payroll app to $25 per month for basic online payroll to $395 for QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll software. Intuit also offers a variety of other free apps, many of which work in tandem with QuickBooks or other Intuit products.

Currently, Snap Payroll only supports businesses in Alaska, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. However, Intuit plans to add more states to the list in the near future. You can download the Snap Payroll app from the App Store, or learn more about the company's other products at Intuit.com.




CRM Should Be Added To Every Service Your Company Uses. Make Support Your Sales Team.

Freshdesk, a social help desk service, recently announced integration with SugarCRM and Salesforce.com. I think this integration is important for two reasons.

1. The help desk software can now tie into the customer and sales knowledge base of a company

2. The support team can be enlisted to help more with customer service, and upsells.

Sounds simple, but when you have disjointed company services (sales, marketing, development, support, etc), you have disjointed offerings to customers and your company loses â€" in the long run.

The Freshdesk announcement reads:

Freshdesk is integrating with Salesforce and SugarCRM, giving sales and support teams the ability to seamlessly collaborate, manage and interact with all of their customers.
Now, when a customer submits a support query, support agents are able to see which sales person closed the deal and who is currently working with them, giving support teams more information to prioritize issues and determine the amount of attention needed for each request. Furthermore, the sales managers can see if their customers are already in the process of receiving customer support, or have support questions before picking up the phone to follow up on a lead.
In addition to viewing all a customer's support and sales history from Salesforce and SugarCRM, businesses can instantly respond to their customers directly from the Freshdesk platform.


Apple must say Samsung did not copy

Apple was ordered by a judge to publish a notice on its UK website and in British newspapers alerting people to a ruling that Samsung Electronics did not copy designs for the iPad.

The notice should outline the July 9 London court decision that Samsung's Galaxy tablets don't infringe Apple's registered designs, Judge Colin Birss said.

It should be posted on Apple's UK home page for six months and published in several newspapers.

- Bloomberg



Spend Your Time Doing The Right Work

It's not that answering the phone is wrong and creating a company outline is right. I mean, if you don't answer the phone you can't get new business.  And it's not that sales and marketing is the right work and customer service is the wrong work. It all impacts your bottom line.

annoyed restaurant

But when it comes to leadership, when it comes to the owner of the business, it's about consistently doing what needs to be done for the long term health of the company.  It's about starting that work - today.

But, what are you spending your time doing?

Are you answering the phone all day, when a smart and friendly receptionist could do it better? Are you waiting the tables when an attentive waitress could have greater impact?

I've seen small business owners with creative and effective solutions doing the wrong job and running potential clients away. And I bet you have too:

  1. What about the distracted owner at the front desk who  tries to do so many things, too many things at once, and they end up leaving potential clients on the phone a little too long?
  2. Or the hoverer, the owner who lingers. When they're around, you can't shop in peace or get a little privacy at the restaurant table. They are in the middle of your entire conversation and you find yourself going their less and less?

Don't get me wrong, you need to come face to face with your clients so that you can understand what they really need and want from you. But then you have to make room for the rest of it.

The owner holds the business in their heart.

They identify and develop the big picture strategy. They attract and lead the team. They give a deeper meaning to the daily grind and details of the business. It's the work that can't be handed off without loosing some of the essence of the company and that's what makes it the right work for the small business owner.

To be effective for the long haul, you have to make room for the strategy work. There has to be time to be still and think some things through. Time to rework the way you do what you do. Time to retest the status quo and make changes when necessary.

The right work for the leader is the strategy work.

And when you consistently do strategy work â€" it's easier for innovation to become an ongoing part of your business.

Annoyed Photo via Shutterstock




Tech Thursday (7/19): OfficeDrop Improves Desktop Sync and Search for Windows, Dell\'s New Laser Printers Improve Productivity, Verizon Teams with Best Buy\'s Geek Squad

OfficeDrop Dramatically Improves Desktop Sync and Search for Windows

 

Dell's New Laser Printers Can Improve Productivity, Offer Uncompromising Reliability

 

Verizon Teams with Best Buy's Geek Squad to Offer New IT Help Desk Services

 

 

 

OfficeDrop Dramatically Improves Desktop Sync and Search for Windows


 Scouring the Cloud for Your Files is Simple with OfficeDrop


CAMBRIDGE, MA â€" OfficeDrop announced a major upgrade for its Windows apps and online cloud storage platform, which now makes syncing files and searching the cloud as easy as it should be. Users can now instantly sync any folder with a simple right-click, as well as use OfficeDrop's powerful search engine to find files by filename, words contained in the file, and upload date, among other data. This includes scanning to synced folders from mobile devices, which instantly places documents on a Windows PC.

“We want Windows users to know that there are app makers like OfficeDrop out there who are still building solutions for them,” said Prasad Thammineni, Co-Founder and CEO of OfficeDrop. “We know that 91% of small businesses operate on Windows, so this update will make our customers' lives easier, right away. OfficeDrop has always been built specifically for the small business user, and this is no exception. Just wait until you see what we have planned for Windows 8!”

OfficeDrop believes that search results shouldn't be ugly or hard to sort through, either. Their unique interface lets users search documents better than if they had the original paper, using thumbnail or thumbnail plus text result views that highlight the search term in the file, depending on their preference. This is more than just an aesthetic upgrade. Research shows that people remember their paper documents visually, so OfficeDrop lets them search that way, too.

And, what good is the cloud if it's not easily shared? With OfficeDrop, users create a unique URL from any synced file. This makes it sharable with anyone, anywhere with internet access. We call it Sync2Link(tm) File Sharing. Simply right-click a synced file, choose “share as a link,” and use the URL to spread that file and spread on Twitter, Facebook, through email, however you like! Those with the link can view or download the file as they please. For security, users can revoke access, or remove links, as desirable.

As an added bonus, OfficeDrop has increased the size of its free cloud storage plans to 5 GB for new free users who sign up before the end of June!

OfficeDrop is a complete cloud solution for businesses, from digitizing documents for the cloud to storage accounts that are sharable with teams. To learn how OfficeDrop makes digital life simple with its scan-and-capture apps and services, visit www.officedrop.com.

 

Dell's New Laser Printers Can Improve Productivity, Offer Uncompromising Reliability


Dell has announced a portfolio of new laser printers designed to improve productivity and enable innovation in diverse, complex printing environments. The powerful color and monochrome single function and multi-function printers are the latest in a series of enhancements to Dell's 
imaging portfolio, and comprise a set of compelling and competitive end-to-end imaging solutions for home offices and small and medium businesses. 

“Dell's imaging solutions offer reliable print management, the ability to digitize content for sharing throughout an enterprise, and integrated document processes for an efficient work environment,” said Hui Li Lee, general manager, Global Imaging, and executive director, Dell Software & Peripherals. “The new laser printers are the first of a series of imaging portfolio updates offering simple, easy-to-use products that deliver unsurpassed user experiences.”

The two new color laser printers and three new monochrome laser printers will help maximize user productivity and office efficiency by offering an ideal combination of performance and value. The systems are feature-rich, affordable, and easy-to-use, allowing customers to create a flexible and collaborative digital document ecosystem. Users can also enjoy simple, fast and direct printing via the Dell Mobile Print application for Android™ devices.

“Our new portfolio of laser printers underscores our commitment to delivering end-to-end solutions that drive business outcomes and allow our diverse customer base to do more in pursuit of their personal and professional dreams,” said PaulHenri Ferrand, vice president and general manager of Dell's Software & Peripherals division. “Our line of imaging equipment allows customers to gain efficiency and realize a lower total-cost-of ownership with a ‘print right' approach and digital document ecosystems powered by Dell.”

Color Laser Printers
The C3760n, C3760dn and C3765dnf color laser printers can empower businesses to do more by driving an efficient and reliable print environment. The easy-to-use, feature-rich and versatile range of color printers will transform documents into vibrant and professional color prints while offering long-term savings. 

Monochrome Laser Printers
The B1160, B1160w, B1260dn, and B1265dnf monochrome laser printers are perfect for small businesses looking to enhance their productivity and do more with less. Customers can manage print reliably and affordably with the new monochrome systems, and create an efficient work environment conducive to the growth of their businesses. Robust connectivity options are great for mobile users, while low upfront costs contribute to an affordable total cost of ownership. 

Pricing and Availability
The B1160 (US$99), B1160w (US$119), B1260dn (US$149) and B1265dnf (US$249) monochrome laser printers are available worldwide today. The C3760n (US$549), C3760dn (US$649) and C3765dnf (US$1,099) color laser printers are also available worldwide today.

Additionally, Dell has updated its popular 2355dn multifunction monochrome laser printer with pre-install menu shortcuts and other productivity features, offering small and medium businesses and larger workgroups efficient print management. The enhanced 2355dn (US$599) is available for order today. For existing 2355dn owners, the new features are available for download via a firmware update.

 

Verizon Teams with Best Buy's Geek Squad to Offer New IT Help Desk Services for Small and Medium-Size Businesses

 

Remote IT Administration Support Also Available for Supporting a Company's IT Infrastructure

 

 

NEW YORK, July 18, 2012  - Verizon has enlisted Best Buy's Geek Squad to provide a new set of services to meet the increasingly complex information technology requirements of small and mid-size businesses across the country.  Verizon designed the solution, IT Help Desk, to help small and medium-sized companies, which often cannot support in-house staffing resources, keep the focus on their business by leaving technology challenges and opportunities to a dedicated team of specialists.

Geek Squad Agents are available round-the-clock to assist with implementing new technologies or trouble-shooting any end-user issues that may arise.  Examples include assisting a medical practice with maintaining the connectivity of its tablets so it can quickly and securely transmit medical records for quality patient care; working with a local retailer in need of malware removal and up to date security patches; or helping a business that needs to synch files from various devices to keep the most up to date customer database.

“Technology innovation continues to unlock value and create revenue opportunities for small and medium businesses, which are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy,” said Janet Schijns, vice president of vertical solutions and channels for Verizon Enterprise Solutions.  ”Our new offering allows business owners to tap into today's sophisticated wireless and advanced technologies with the peace of mind that trusted tech support is readily available anytime the need arises.”

The new offering adds Geek Squad support to Verizon's leading IT platforms such as mobility and security to give customers the tools they need to enable the most up-to-date technology to compete and grow their businesses.  Whether assisting a customer with synching mobile devices to network resources for increased agility, or adding virus protection for device security, IT Help Desk allows Verizon's small and mid-size business customers to focus on the myriad of other daily activities required in running a business and serving customers.

“Customers are searching for support solutions that provide a consistent level of service and flexibility,” said Rob Brothers, program director, software and hardware support services at IDC.  “Verizon's services, with their Best Buy alliance, create a compelling offer to the SMB.”

All Help Desk levels of service include 24/7 phone and online support, where Geek Squad Agents can be engaged for services such as wireless connectivity, virus definition updates,  malware removal and software updates.  Advanced support adds services for mobilizing a workforce with tablets and smartphones, and virtual private network connectivity and support. Premier goes even further, with proactive support such as device monitoring and system maintenance in addition to application maintenance.  Onsite dispatch is also available if the issue cannot be resolved via phone or online assistance.

“The relationship we've established with Verizon is a good example of how Geek Squad is taking things deeper with customers, and finding new ways to reach them,” said George Sherman, senior vice president of Best Buy Services.  “Verizon will use Geek Squad's expanding remote support capability along with our other support channels to ensure that customers receive trusted IT guidance whenever and wherever they need it.”

In addition, Verizon offers IT administrative support to businesses for their day-to-day IT operations such as managing user rights and access; remote monitoring of routers, switches and firewalls; server management and monitoring; and, most up-to-date security protection.

Watch a video detailing Verizon's new IT Help Desk solution.

IT Help Desk has launched nationally and is available for purchase.  Customers interested in adding IT support can place orders online or speak to a sales representative by accessing the information on the following page: http://www.verizonbusiness.com/Medium/products/itinfrastructure/helpdesk/

 



Which Office Suite Is Best For Small Businesses? Microsoft Office (365) or Google Apps

It's clear that Microsoft Office no longer has a LOCK on businesses â€" small businesses or big businesses. It's clear that the online world of collaboration and communication has challenged traditional software, where Microsoft has been a leader, in favor of nimble and low cost online services. Hence the explosion of Dropbox, Carbonite, Quickbooks Online, Google and a range of other online services.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Microsoft has a team dedicated to combating Google, it's not an easy fight.

With the launch of Office 2013, and the growth of Office 364 (Microsoft's online offering for small businesses) and the release of Windows 8 coming soon the fight is even more intense.

So, if I'm a small business owner, which one do I choose?

Do I keep Microsoft Office as my core collaboration suite and use Office 365 for online productivity (or just Office 365) or do I use Google Apps.

Let's take costs first as that's easy. Google Apps (the paid version with no advertising, with support and more) is $50 per person per year. Office 365 is from $50 to $100 per person per year â€" depending on the features you want.

The decision is not easy and should not just be made on price.

Many businesses rely on the rich features of Microsoft Office (software) that really can only be found in a software version. They'd be best to stick with Office 365 which has the most seamless integration of Office for the software and online services.

For those small businesses who are starting from scratch or really need only email, chat, file sharing, and basic office software (word processor, spreadsheet) Google Apps is just fine for you and gives you everything you'd need and more. Also keep in mind tools like Sliderocket or Prezi make online presentations quite powerful and there are SO MANY MORE tools you can use to fill in the holes â€" many are free, most are low cost and all are easily available in your web browser.

The deciding factor for small businesses is WHICH type of business are you and what type WILL YOU BE.

Once you figure that out, with your tech advisor you can make the right decision.



Woosh writes down assets by $5.9m in sale

Woosh Wireless, a local wireless internet service provider, wrote down the value of its assets by $5.9 million in its sale to Californian company Craig Wireless.

The Auckland-based company was sold to Craig for US$5.5 million last year in a deal that was structured to satisfy $20.6 million of debt owed to then-investor Kuwait Finance House.

Woosh's financial statements show a loss of $2.9 million in the year ended June 30 last year which the company blames on one-off items including the impairment it wore on the sale to Craig, a $2.6 million insurance bill for earthquake damage to its Christchurch network and a $1.8 million foreign exchange gain.

Woosh made an operating loss of $477,000 in the latest year.

- BusinessDesk



Kiwi entrepreneurs: In Google we trust

If it's potential customers you want, Google has a lot to offer. Anthony Doesburg talks to four entrepreneurs about how the search giant has changed their business

When Google turned 13 last year there was concern in some quarters that it might become a truculent teen and stop answering our questions.

But any disquiet that we were set for a spell of bad behaviour from the internet's king of search seems to have been unfounded. Google can still be relied on to give straight answers to search queries, which is what millions - if not billions - of users count on it to do.

But while Google has become the standard for information-seekers, for many businesses it has become much, much more.

For many companies, especially those serving a niche market, Google has become the primary way in which they connect with potential customers - even if they happen to be on the other side of the world.

Here are four firms which have made Google an indispensable part of their business.

BOOKABACH - HOLIDAYS ONLINE
Any online venture that denied depending on Google to bring in new business would be lying, reckons Peter Miles, head of holiday home listing site Bookabach.

Bookabach.co.nz has been online since 2000, and now gets about half its visitors from Google searches. Nearly 6000 properties are listed and the site handles thousands of booking requests a month.

The business' reliance on Google goes well beyond search, says Miles, whose original online foray was BachClub, which came along two months after Bookabach. The two sites were soon merged, and in 2007 the AA bought half the business.

"Google brings visitors to Bookabach via natural and paid search; we use Google maps; we use Google's DoubleClick display ad-serving technology; we use its Analytics website analysis tools; and we even use Google code repositories to keep files so we don't need to store our own versions."

"Book a bach" and "Bookabach" are the two top searches that land people on the site. Miles says that highlights a striking fact: that for many people Google is not just a search engine, but has become the interface to the internet.

"People searching for 'Bookabach' know they want to go to www.bookabach.co.nz, but it's faster, easier and more natural for them to type 'Bookabach' into Google and then click on the link Google provides."

Google's dominance is corroborated by the vastly greater number of site visitors it delivers than the next-ranked search engines: Bookabach gets 30 times more Google-generated traffic than it does from Bing and Yahoo!

Miles says during the peak summer months and the winter ski season, the business spends up to 12 per cent of revenue on Google AdWords. Search engine marketing (SEM) is a "bottomless pit", but still worth spending on.

"SEM does work; it's highly measurable and converts to bookings," argues Miles

He doesn't fret about the business' dependence on Google, although he is wary of the US company's ambitions.

"I think where every purely online businesses loses a little sleep is in not knowing 'where will they go next?'. Google can be highly disruptive - and accidentally or intentionally carve whole new paths across industries.

"The obvious example is in the business directory space. Where in the past business directory portals like a Yellow or Finda were strong in restaurant and retail listings, now Google Search bypasses the portals and brings up that information directly."

Google's move into real estate listings, abandoned at the start of last year, is another example of its adventurousness.

"It had to backtrack on direct-listing real estate on Google Maps when it realised how much advertising business it would lose from all the real estate portals," Miles says.

Bookabach calculates it is relatively safe from a similar Google foray because the holiday rental market is tiny. "When it comes to 'owner-managed properties', most owners would have no interest in having their property and contact details show up directly in a Google Search result.

"Also, we're somewhat buffered by the major tourism portals, which spend significantly with Google. So we doubt that Google will ever take on the baches and holiday homes market directly and compete with Bookabach."

And there's an upside to Google's dominance, Miles says: it means Bookabach has just one search provider to deal with.

PONOKO - MAKING MADE EASIER
Wellington internet-based venture Ponoko would still be in business if Google disappeared overnight. However it would be much diminished.

"Do we rely on Google for almost half of the traffic to our site? Yes," says Ponoko co-founder Derek Elley. "Do we spend marketing dollars on our optimisation for Google? Absolutely, yes."

However over the past six months the company has stopped using paid Google AdWords to bring visitors to ponoko.com, as the site is revised to maximise the return on the US$2 ($2.50) each click-through costs the business.

AdWords will again be part of Ponoko's marketing, Elley says, but for now the company is putting money into optimising its site for Google searches.

That effort, for which it pays a consultant, works out at about 0.5USc a click.

It's paying off. In May, 44 per cent of site traffic came from web searches. Of that, 96.4 per cent was Google searches, with Bing, Yahoo! and others fighting for the scraps.

Over the past 12 months web traffic has risen nearly 200 per cent, Elley says.

A good deal of that can be attributed to Ponoko being a pioneer in a fast-growing market. The company, which was launched in 2007, describes itself as having "the world's easiest making system".

Ponoko.com is a service that allows customers to order the manufacture of one-off items by a variety of computer-controlled processes. Users of the service, 85 per cent of whom are in the US, come up with their own designs, or download them from a range of free or commercial sources.

It's a business that was born on the internet, set up with chief executive Dave ten Have after Elley had run and then sold internet marketing agency First Rate. A blog, links on partner websites and PR are also important marketing tools, Elley says, but reliance on Google is greater than ever.

The cost of AdWords soon mounts up for a site with 150,000 visitors a month, making it crucial to turn a good proportion of AdWord-generated traffic into paying customers. But using ponoko.com is not an impulse purchase.

"This is not classic shopping - our business is about people creating and making things. They come to our website and learn about things like 3D printing, then have an idea about what they want to make and go about designing it, then upload the design.

"The sales process between first visit and close is between two and three months long."

From past experience, with AdWords on full throttle, user numbers can be expected to double within three months.

"So the traffic is certainly there, but you pay a hefty price for it," Elley says.

AdWords has the advantage, however, of landing the clicker on the part of the site that is most likely to result in a sale, whereas search traffic arrives randomly.

Having learned that, Elley says, Ponoko is now looking for a designer to fine-tune the site to get the most from AdWords.

BURGIN GUITARS - NICHE MARKET
If it wasn't for Google, Wellington musician Paddy Burgin would be busking for a living.

Burgin is also a luthier, or maker of stringed instruments. Until his first website went up in 2000, he was lucky if he took a single order a year from a New Zealand customer wanting one of the Weissenborn slide guitars or mandolin-like bouzoukis he specialises in.

That was despite his efforts at direct marketing.

"I had a brochure featuring the four or five instruments I had made and I would wander around town until I saw someone with a guitar case, then pass them this flyer." He would also go to see bands and press his card on them during a break.

The clincher was playing one of his own instruments in a band five nights a week, which he thought would have people approaching him to demand to know where he'd got his "really cool guitar".

"I stood there for a year, man, and no one said boo."

A dozen years later, the burginguitars.co.nz website is at version three and the orders, comparatively speaking, are flooding in, mostly from the US.

"My demographic is a 45-year-old man with three or four nice guitars and he's looking for number five," Burgin says. "I know I'm usually number five or six because these people often send me pictures of their guitar collections. They're all lined up on the sofa and there's mine on the far right because it's just arrived."

They stumble across his Wellington workshop by one of two methods: either through a chance Google search for "Weissenborn", or a more deliberate search sparked by a word-of-mouth recommendation.

"The only thing that's out there is my website - I've never advertised." Yet within a fortnight of being online, Burgin had a new customer.

Burgin's prize piece of marketing collateral is a connection with guitarist David Lindley, "right-hand man" of American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. Burgin says Lindley tours with two of his instruments, which lends the Burgin name credibility among other guitarists.

While many websites go to great lengths to ensure high rankings in search results, he professes a "low-tech" approach to drawing attention to his site. Weissenborn guitars are a sufficiently rare commodity that any search using those words places burginguitars.co.nz in the first few pages of results.

That natural advantage, and an apparently instinctive understanding of e-commerce, are providing Burgin with the 20 or so orders he can cope with a year.

His other tactics to bring visitors to the site - and once there, to turn browsers into buyers - could have come straight out of an online marketing manual. But Burgin has never sought outside help.

He occasionally posts to guitar forums, where he will link to his site, and does the same in video clips of him playing that he uploads to YouTube and tags with the names of slide guitarists such as Lindley and Ry Cooder.

"People who are fans of that kind of music might watch the clip, even for just five seconds, and see my name. I'm just trying to promote myself in a soft-sell kind of way."

He also makes a point of pricing his instruments in US dollars.

"I figure my customer is sitting there on the other side of the world surfing the net with a bourbon in his hand and, when he comes across one of those 'Burgin twangers', he doesn't want to click twice to find the price."

Burgin has no hesitation in crediting Google with keeping him in business.

"If there was a sunspot and the internet collapsed for six months, I would be busking."

COMPUTER FOOD - E-COMMERCE VETERAN
When Pukekohe online printer cartridge shop Computer Food got going, print advertising and flyers were its main promotional tools.

Today, after more than a decade in business, Google brings the business many of its customers and accounts for a large chunk of sales.

"I think we're one of the longest surviving e-commerce sites in the country," says owner Richard Barnett, who bought the company and took it online in 1999.

"All my competitors at the time have since gone. I'm sure there are people who've been around longer but we've certainly been online a long time."

Computer Food, which uses the web address consumables.co.nz, began the shift from print to internet marketing via online directories such as Yellow Pages. But Google has since conquered all.

"Google is the main focus of advertising for most businesses of our sort these days - you have to have a Google presence."

The company uses both AdWords and Google search to bring traffic - and hopefully customers - to its site. But getting a high ranking in Google searches is a challenge, Barnett says.

About half the company's marketing spending ends up in Google's coffers, although flyers haven't been abandoned.

Google dominates not just because it is an efficient way of reaching shoppers for the wide range of consumables - ink, paper, storage media - that Computer Food sells. Barnett says AdWords has built-in power for analysing buyer behaviour that old media can't match.

"You put out a flyer or an ad in the paper and you really don't know how much business you're getting from it, but with AdWords you do. You can see how many people go to your site and how many make a purchase, which is a key difference from more traditional forms of advertising."

Next month, what began life as Google Product Search will turn into Google Shopping, a new service that Barnett says looks like cost comparison site PriceSpy. That spells more trouble for bricks and mortar retailers such as Dick Smith Electronics.

"That model of company will really struggle when more and more people search online; not necessarily buying online, but finding the cheapest prices near where they are, and if that Google service does that it will change New Zealand retail."

About a third of Computer Food's revenue of less than $10 million makes its way to the company courtesy of Google. Microsoft's Bing doesn't register as a significant competitor, and Barnett hasn't considered advertising on it.

He admires Google's "don't be evil" slogan, although he says it's a matter of debate whether it can always claim to have stuck to it.

"I think it's a brilliant slogan - it's a dig at Microsoft, I think. But you need to maintain trust."

By Anthony Doesburg | Email Anthony

Cartoon: Justin Bieber - out!

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3 Reasons Digg Failed. 4 Reasons This Won\'t Happen To Your Business.

Digg was, for a season, one of the most popular sites on the Internet. I personally never was much into it, as it was geared towards tech heads â€" I'm sort of one, but I'm more of a business guy who happens to be interested in tech.

The Wall Street Journal writes that Digg sold for $500,000 to a NY based company, and it was worth $160 million in 2008 â€" big loss in valuation for sure.

This happened for a few reasons:

  • It attempted to relaunch itself but responded slow to criticism. In an interview I had with Scott Hintz, founder of TripIt, he said always listen to your customers.
  • Digg's competitors Facebook and Twitter evolved and Digg never did â€" at least not fast enough. Not enabling people to easily SHARE the news they read about.
  • Digg was not able to migrate from one database to another without some serious problems.

How can you insulate your business from failure:

  • Listen to your customers.
  • Listen to your competition
  • Do tech upgrades or any changes slowly and with lots of testing
  • Innovate (or die)

Of course it's VERY easy to speak about something in HIND SIGHT. Kevin Rose, founder of Digg is a smart guy â€" can't wait to see what he does next.



Bright Spot in the Small Business Credit Sector

Yes, I've read them.  The stories are everywhere.  The economy is struggling and so are small businesses.  Perhaps The Great Recession is over but the economy is soft to say the least.  Bank loans are tough to come by.  Non-bank finance lending is way down â€" actually they are at their lowest levels since 1998 as Scott Shane reported here.

economic perfect storm

In fact, right now there is a lot of talk about Dr. Doom's “perfect storm scenario” that Nouriel Roubini says is beginning to play out.  Months ago, Roubini talked about the combination of stalling U.S. growth, debt troubles in Europe, the slowdown in several emerging markets (led by China), and military conflict in Iran causing a “perfect storm” that would impact the global economy.

The recent reports of softer than expected job growth in the U.S. and the inflation report from China are fueling speculation that Roubini may once again be onto something.

We also know how important it is for small business owners to be able to access loans and lines of credit as they start, build, and grow their businesses.  Studies have shown that small business owners are hesitant to do things like hire additional employees and increase benefits to their employees when they cannot access capital.  They go into “survival” mode and do not expand and grow because the risk is too great.

According to the Keybridge Research study, the impact of credit card usage and specifically business credit cards on small business growth is very real and quantifiable.  According to this study they found that for every $1,000 of credit card use for small business owners there is an average of $5,500 in increased firm revenue.  Additionally, from the years 2003 to 2008, they estimate that the expansion of credit card lending in the U.S. contributed to the creation of 1.6 million U.S. jobs.

Don't underestimate the impact of these numbers â€" credit card borrowing is by far the #1 source of financing for small business owners.

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 79% of small business owners use credit cards to run their business.  It's actually down from 2008 when that number was 85%.  So it's not only true that credit cards are a vital part of the overall funding strategy for small business owners, but in some cases, it's the only form of credit they really have.

That's why the recent news about credit card delinquencies is a bright spot in an otherwise dim economic forecast for small business owners.  According to a recent Reuters report, credit card delinquencies are down significantly â€" to the tune of being at low's we haven't seen in over 20 years.  This is surprising since it's previously been believed that there was a correlation between unemployment and credit card delinquencies.

Despite the unemployment numbers still not being very encouraging, the percentage of credit card delinquencies has continued to get lower and lower.  Unemployment was at 10.0% at its recession-peak in October 2009.  Through the first 6 months of 2012 the rate has bounced back and forth between 8.1% â€" 8.3% so no real progress this year.

So what does all of this mean?  Well, I agree with the concerns shared by most about the state of small business today.  There are concerns galore.  However, with credit cards, we're talking about the #1 form of financing that is used by nearly 4 out of 5 small business owners.

The banks are back to making nice profits in their credit card divisions and the write-offs are at historic lows so you're going to see some slight adjustments made by lenders to extend more credit.  But here's the key â€" they are going to do it to the “credit-worthy” consumers and small business owners.

Unfortunately the CARD Act has hurt small business owners so keep in mind that lenders are beginning to slowly get more generous with their credit lines on credit cards but you'll still continue to see higher rates after the 0% introductory offers end.  Most of the people who seem to defend the CARD Act were the people who lobbied and pushed for it in the first place but here's a good article from Forbes for those of you who aren't clear on it's negative impacts.

Fundamentally, the CARD Act brought regulation at a time when the market and our economy needed liquidity, the equivalent of going on a pasta diet when you need to reduce carbs!

Credit cards are a great financing tool for small business owners and sometimes it's actually their only option.  I realize there's an army of people out there who don't like credit cards and that's okay but they are like anything else â€" they can be used the right way or the wrong way as you build your business.

Where else can you find low-cost financing (0% intro offers are as good as it get's and there are millions who have maintained very reasonable interest rates on their credit cards despite what CARD Act proponents may claim), not need collateral, have quite reasonable monthly payments, along with flexibility of monthly payments that is invaluable to a small business owner who is managing cash flow?

We don't have time here to talk about the involved process of choosing the correct small business credit card but it's clear that the prospect of some very slight loosening of the underwriting criteria has already happened in the credit card space and with the state of the overall economy let's celebrate a small victory that will have a very positive ripple effect for small businesses everywhere!

Perfect Storm Photo via Shutterstock




In The Market For A New Server? Here Are Some You Should Consider

If your business relies on locally hosted resources like websites and cloud applications, you're probably not going to offer such a good platform for your customers if you're using the same computer you read your emails with to host them.

This often happens because, while you're using your own memory and CPU resources for your own work, you're also sharing it with the online applications you're hosting. At any moment when you have a larger amount of traffic, your site or application could become completely unresponsive for a period of time while you're using Photoshop or other resource-hogging programs. In fact, the computer can freeze completely for several minutes, depending on what technologies are implemented in it.

While it might be expensive to add a dedicated fiber optic line to your site of operations, you still can opt for another addition that can definitely enhance your customers' experience on the web: A dedicated server built to host websites. If you've got lots of flashy scripting on your site, you'll definitely appreciate the power of having an added computer that hosts it. You might not even realize it, but your customers might experience serious delays when trying to load a website that's shared with a computer that already has a ton of applications running on it.

So, let's have a look at some servers that have come out recently:

  • Dell PowerEdge 11th & 12th Generation - Dell's PowerEdge servers have made a huge impact in the IT industry and now the company has released tower servers specifically designed for small business environments that need a bit of extra power behind their IT infrastructures. The PowerEdge T110 II server â€" a part of Dell's 11th generation â€" offers small businesses an ideal first server, with low power consumption and great stable hardware. Prices for this server start at just under $400 and go up as you add more hardware.
  • Lenovo ThinkServer RD530 & 630 - Not impressed by the PowerEdge T110 II? Let's try for something a with a little more spark for speed demons. Lenovo's new RD530 and RD630 ThinkServers offer a complete rack-mountable solution with superior scalability for those with future endeavors in mind. The RD530 starts out at $2,530 and for a bit over $100 more, you can have the RD630, which supports a lot more hardware. The main difference between both servers is that the RD630 has twice as many hard drive bays. Both servers can sport up to 256 GB or DDR3 memory, making them extremely powerful options for those with virtualization environments that hog up some serious resources. If you're craving an enormous amount of computing power, these servers will make your day!

While choosing between these options, remember not to pay for stuff you don't need. For example, a small business hosting a simple shopping site doesn't need the behemoth that Lenovo offers. However, if you're planning on selling your own hosting options and want to put out a ton of juice, you're better off with Lenovo's servers. Either way, each company offers its own impressive contribution to the small- and medium-sized businesses around the nation.



Confused On How To Use Technology In Your Business? Check Out These Tips To Help You Get It Right

Our very own Ramon Ray shares a few tips in this video on what every small business should know about technology and what they should be focusing on in order to grow their business.

Check out his tips in the video below and hopefully you'll be sparked to take a look at how you are using technology in your business!

 



The Push To Get Military Veterans Into Franchising

Franchise industry advocates, franchise company executives, and business publications, both online and offline, have been engaged in some serious target marketing as of late. The focus of this seemingly industry-wide lead-generation effort is on the thousands upon thousands of our military men and women who are returning from two wars.

military

As you'll see, this isn't the first time that franchising as an industry has done this. Check out the Top Franchise Trends For 2012.

It all started in 1991, when a strategic initiative called VetFran was launched. It was led by Don Dwyer, Sr. (USAF, Ret.), Founder of The Dwyer Group, to support veterans returning from the Gulf War transition to the civilian economy.

Since then, more than 2000 military men and women have become franchise business owners, which is a pretty impressive number. But, that number is being challenged…to increase even more.

Operation Enduring Opportunity

In November of last year, First Lady Michelle Obama, as part of the White House Joining Forces Initiative, announced the Operation Enduring Opportunity campaign. This program has some pretty lofty goals; the hiring and recruiting of 75,000 veterans and 5,000 wounded warriors by the year 2014. All 825,000 franchise businesses in the U.S. have been asked to help reach this goal, which happens to be the largest franchise industry hiring and recruiting commitment ever.

A Heavy Duty Effort

I've never seen this many franchisors get into the (marketing to potential military veteran franchise owners) mix than I have during the past year or so. Today's veterans have some great opportunities available, if they have the financial capabilities along with the desire to be their own franchise business owners.

Here are some examples:

TeamLogicIt:  This technology-related franchise is waiving their $40k initial franchise fee for up to 10 qualified U.S. military veterans through December 31, 2012.

7-Eleven:  This huge retail franchise system is offering military veterans 10% off the franchise fee â€" a savings of up to $35,000 â€" and up to 65% financing.

ValPak:  This Florida-based direct mail franchise is waiving its start-up fees, (up to $32k) for veterans that become franchisees until December of 2013.

The UPS Store:  This packing and shipping franchise offers veterans a $10,000 franchise fee discount.

Maaco:  This established auto body repair and painting franchise is discounting its $40k franchisee fee 25% for all eligible military veterans

CiCi's Pizza:  They're waiving the entire franchise fee for the first restaurant and also offer a 50 percent royalty fee reduction for the first full year in operation for all qualified, honorably discharged U.S. veterans.

Instant Imprints:  This embroidery franchise is discounting their franchise fee by $10,000 along with a 0%, 48-month loan for the balance of the fee.

Kahala Franchising:  This 12-brand strong franchise company is offering a 50% discount on franchise fees for all of its brands which include Cold Stone Creamery, Blimpie, and Cereality.

CruiseOne:  This home-based travel franchise has a contest going on, (until September 14th, 2012) that eligible military veterans can enter. Up to 5 winners will have their franchise fee waived. Details can be found on this website.

Snap-on Tools: This military-friendly franchise offers a $20,000 discount on the initial franchise inventory purchase for honorably discharged veterans.

400 Franchises

The franchises listed above are only a sampling.  There are over 400 different franchisors participating in VetFran.

Today's military veterans-especially the ones who are starting to return home from overseas are faced with many choices, with their choice of career being top of mind.  Most veterans will choose the more traditional career route; they'll get a job. Others will focus their efforts on more entrepreneurial endeavors.

For those that do choose to explore opportunities in small business ownership, and are leaning towards franchise business ownership, they're certainly going to feel the current push by the franchise industry to become franchisees.

Just like anyone else who's looking into franchise ownership, they'll need to assess their budget, and do their homework on the opportunities they're interested in.

Our military men and women are used to being pushed. They can handle it.

Military Photo via Shutterstock




Accellion launches mobile apps for collaboration access

Accellion has announced the launch of a technology to allow secure mobile access to cloud services.

According to the company, Accellion Mobile Apps allow business users to collaborate and view more than 200 different file types and to edit and share files from a secure, encrypted location using smartphones and tablets. 

With support offered for Apple iOS, BlackBerry and Android devices, users log in and begin browsing their workspace to find and view relevant content. With the right privileges, users have the flexibility to edit a file either online or to download the encrypted file for offline use and then upload the edited file back to the Accellion Secure Workspace, the company said.

Reza Nabavi, director of mobile product marketing at Accellion, told SC Magazine that this created a private network environment via an application on the mobile device.

He said: “What we have done today is launch a brand new version of this technology with new capabilities. Accellion Mobile Apps is about access to an enterprise file sharing platform where the user can access content.

“This is enterprise-grade access for services such as Dropbox. We offer the engine that is needed for IT environments to develop and provide security for the ‘shadow IT environment'.”

Accellion also announced that Mobile Apps will be integrated with Good Technology's Good Dynamics secure platform to offer an enterprise mobility solution with email, messaging, device mobile apps and content made compliant with industry regulations and secured.



AlienVault launches next version of unified security management

AlienVault has launched the latest version of its unified security management (USM) platform to include over 200 enhancements. 

The company said that the USM 4.0 platform's new features include a web interface that centralises configuration, monitoring and management of all AlienVault security tools and components, as well as offering asset detection, vulnerability assessment, threat detection, behavioural monitoring and security intelligence capabilities.

A community-sourced threat database and intelligence feed named AlienVault Open Threat Exchange is built in that provides users with real-time collaborative defence, according to AlienVault. The company has also launched a new community forum to provide users with an online resource for technical support, product guides and interactive discussion on relevant security threats and trends.

Russell Spitler, vice president of product management at AlienVault, said: “Our USM platform brings together all of the necessary components for deep visibility across the enterprise.

“In conjunction with our threat intelligence service, we've made it easy for any organisation to establish a sophisticated and comprehensive security program without the overhead and deployment challenges that come with multiple complicated, disconnected tools.”



Dropbox calls in third party to investigate spam outbreak

Dropbox has enlisted external security professionals to examine why users have begun receiving spam.

More than 100 posts emerged from users who reported that spam was hitting their dormant Dropbox email accounts.

Users insisted their accounts had not been used for other registrations, to send email or linked to other applications. Others denied the possibility that their machines that they used to access Dropbox had been compromised, while others speculated that the company had been hacked.

The spam appeared to be sent from European domains and was mainly Casino scams.

Dropbox engineer Joe Gross said that the company's security team was investigating and had drafted in a team of outside experts.

Gross said: “While we haven't had any reports of unauthorised activity on Dropbox accounts, we've taken a number of precautionary steps and continue to work around the clock to make sure your information is safe."

However he denied concerns that a brief overnight outage was indicative of a data breach, noting it was "incidental and not caused by any external factor or third party".

Eric Chiu, president and founder of HyTrust, said: “Dropbox is a great example of an application that has infiltrated the enterprise, which can have serious security consequences since employees are hosting corporate confidential data without any enterprise security controls.

“With external and internal breaches happening daily, this is a perfect formula for major disasters to happen. The need for consistent configuration, and controls for access, management and visibility are critical.”



Research uncovers secret actions of iOS apps

A survey has found that 41 per cent of iOS applications are able to access a user's location and a third store unencrypted data.

A study of more than 65,000 applications on the Apple App Store revealed tens of thousands tap contact information and access data without explicit user permission. The research also found that 18 per cent of the apps can access a user's address book.

According to Bitdefender, who completed the study, while many apps use these privileges to function, others have no obvious use for the data they may be collecting.

Catalin Cosoi, chief security researcher at Bitdefender, said: “It is worrying that stored data encryption on iOS apps is low and location tracking is so prevalent.

“Without notification of what an app accesses, it is difficult to control what information users give up. We see a worrying landscape of poor user data encryption, prevalent location tracking and silent unjustified address book access.”



Google Nexus 7 Posts Strong Sales After Less Than a Week

There's a new sheriff in town, and it's name is Google Nexus 7. The new device is already posting strong sales and could be a real alternative for your business, if you are looking for a more cost effective tablet than Apple's iPad. The question, at this point, may be how quickly you can get your hands on one.

Flying off the shelves. After arriving in retail stores less than a week ago, the 7-inch Nexus 7 co-developed by Google and Taiwanese company Asustek starts at $199 and is selling so well that some stores are already out. The new device features Android mobile software and is intended to compete with the more expensive Apple iPad that already dominates the tablet market. Reuters

Heading into hardware. The Nexus 7 may be the first step for Google into more hardware products. In a recent preview of devices, a company representative also showed off the Google Nexus Q, a home entertainment device and the company also recently acquired Motorola another sign of hardware ambitions. The question is whether the company may become a viable supplier of other business hardware too. DealBook

Images via Instagram. If your business requires sharing images on a regular basis, there's good news about some basic Nexus 7 features. The device already boasts support for Instagram and the latest update allows users to share those images via Flickr once filtered using an easy menu option. More features are almost certainly on the way, so watch for updates. AndroidCentral

Delivered to your door. Some lucky users who pre-ordered the Nexus 7 will have their devices soon or may have them already. Google has announced it began shipping the tablets on Friday and estimated two to three business days for delivery. Other retailers are also taking orders for the device so your business may want to look for the opportunity to get on a list. Los Angeles Times

Smaller, cheaper iPad coming. We've reported before that Apple is likely working on smaller less expensive version of its own device as what some are calling the “tablet race” heats up. The new Apple device will likely have a 7.85 inch screen and sell at a price significantly lower than the $499 price tag of the iPad. Whatever the outcome, it seems clear businesses seeking less expensive tablets will be the winners. The New York Times

Samsung offers Galaxy of options. Google certainly isn't alone in offering tablet options. Samsung's Galaxy tablet is another example of what could be in store in the tablet market. Apple recently lost a case against Samsung after claiming the company infringed on the iPad's design. The Samsung device offers one more option for business and other tablet users. Bloomberg

Judging when you get your tablet. Determining when you might get your tablet remains a question, if you've selected a device whose manufacturer is still immersed in patent disputes. Another upcoming court ruling in the US may soon decide what tablet devices business users and other have available to them. But almost certainly more options are on the horizon. The Washington Post



Dotcom\'s team seeks to dismiss charges

Kim Dotcom's legal team has filed a motion calling for charges against his file storage company Megaupload to be thrown out.

His lawyers have asked the United States courts to dismiss charges against the company, saying there is no ability for the courts to remotely charge the Hong Kong-registered company with a crime.

Dotcom's San Francisco-based lawyer Ira Rothken today confirmed the papers had been filed.

Copies of the motion were posted on Dotcom's and Mr Rothken's twitter feeds.

They allege: "It seems beyond dispute that Megaupload has been deprived of its property, has had its reputation tarnished, and has had its business destroyed by the Government's actions in this case''.

The action follows original papers, filed in the United States Eastern District Court of Virginia in May, stating that the FBI had acted outside the law when it inspired raids across the globe which led to the company being shut down and its assets seized.

The FBI has since filed a response, defending the case.

The next stage in the case is a hearing on July 27 where the motion to dismiss is heard.

"We believe the law and logic are on our side,'' said Mr Rothken.

It was the first time lawyers acting for Kim Dotcom and his co-accused filed a formal defence against the US Megaupload charges.

The defence came four months after New Zealand police arrested Dotcom and his three co-accused in a dawn raid.

They are facing an extradition hearing in August over claims of criminal copyright violation, money-laundering and racketeering through Megaupload, which was the world's biggest file-sharing website.

If accepted by the court, it could lead to charges against Megaupload being thrown out and the collapse of freezing orders over company assets.

If the court rejects the argument of tossing out charges against Megaupload, other papers ask the court to release money from the company so it can fund a defence. The papers stated that even if the FBI were right - and it asserts it is not - then the amount of money lost is out of proportion to the NZ$88 million in ready cash which had been seized.

- APNZ



Cyberoam CR1000ia

The Cyberoam CR1000ia is a full-feature network security gateway that provides solid protection from a multitude of threats. This appliance includes features such as a firewall, intrusion prevention system, gateway-based anti-virus, anti-spam, SSL VPN and web content filtering, along with application control and flexible configuration options.

Installation and deployment of this solution is simple and takes only a few minutes to get a running base configuration in place. The initial set-up is done by connecting the appliance to the network and accessing the web-based set-up wizard. The appliance can be configured to run in bridge mode as a primary gateway or transparent mode to run behind an existing router. The set-up wizard is easy to follow. When complete, a base configuration is put in place that could run well without much need for tweaking. However, this appliance is highly customisable and can be configured to meet the needs of any environment.

Aside from the base policy, this tool features many configurable controls, including a plethora of application control options. These include instant messaging (IM) controls, which allow for logging and customised security control over public IMs for communi-cation modes, including chat, file transfer and audio-video. As well, the appliance comes pre-loaded with quite a few security templates, including web security and a solid general-use policy, which can be customised. We found it to be less intuitive in certain areas, requiring us to click around a bit to learn how to create custom policies and rules.

Documentation includes a short quick-start guide along with a PDF user guide and several other supplementary documents. The quick-start guide provides the steps necessary to get the product up and running, while the user guide focuses on in-depth configuration and use of the product features.

Cyberoam includes technical support as part of the ongoing subscription cost of the appliance features. Customers can choose from many subscription options, including ongoing updates, phone and email technical assistance, hardware warranty and replacement services. In addition to phone- and email-based technical support, Cyberoam also offers online chat-based technical support. As well, customers can access no-cost support resources via the support area on the website. This area includes a knowledge base, FAQ section and other resources.

At a price just shy of c£12,000 for the fully loaded appliance with subscriptions to anti-malware, anti-spam, web and application filter and intrusion prevention system, eight-hours-a-day/five-days-a-week support, hardware warranty and returns policy for one year, we find this product to be of good value for the outlay.

The Cyberoam CR1000ia includes a lot of built-in functionality for solid gateway security at a reasonable price. Customers also can purchase specific modules à la carte to further customise cost and appliance options.
Peter Stephenson



Google takes aim at Mexico\'s drug cartels

Google, so far, has won the search engine wars. Now it wants to target international crime, including Mexico's powerful drug cartels.

Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.'s executive chairman, has taken a keen interest in Mexico, where more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against the cartels in 2006. Schmidt recently visited most of Mexico's most violent cities, Ciudad Juarez, where civic leaders asked if he could help.

"Defeated, helpless, these people have been so hardened in their experience with cartels that they have lost battles and they have lost hope," Schmidt told a conference on international crime this week. "They were looking for a universal hammer to protect them. For me the answer was obvious. It was technology."

Experts told the conference that Mexico's cartels often use more sophisticated technology than law enforcement. Cartel assets include mapping software that tracks the location of police from high-tech control rooms; remote control submarines; and military grade rocket launchers.

Drug-dealing organizations can intercept satellite feeds, including images broadcast by intelligence agency drones.

They run money laundering networks that handle an estimated $25 billion a year in drug profits.

"It's a technological arms race, and at this moment they're winning," said Marc Goodman, founder of Future Crimes, who studies the nexus of technology and transnational crime. "But there's never been an operating system that hasn't been hacked."

Google's immense intelligence assets can be brought to bear on the cartels, Schmidt suggested.

Google's ideas include creating a network so citizens can safely report cartel activity without fear of retribution. It wants to make sharing real-time intelligence easier among police in different regions. It can identify how individuals are connected to each other, to bank accounts and even to corrupt government officials. It can create community Web platforms for citizens to share information and name and shame criminals.

Talk also addressed human and arms trafficking, exploitation of child soldiers, and airport and seaport security.

Just 20 per cent of crimes in Mexico are reported because victims fear retaliation and don't trust the authorities, said Mexico's interior minister, Alejandro Poire. He challenged technology experts in the crowd to develop an application that would allow Mexican citizens, 80 per cent of whom have cellphones, to report crimes anonymously to a call center that would direct officers to respond. Ideally, the system would allow watchdog groups to monitor police responses, he said.

Mexico's undersecretary of information technology, Francisco Niembro, said the government has been developing a Web platform where law enforcement can get a national look at crimes and investigations. Today, he said, 8,500 of Mexico's 36,000 federal police are dedicated to gathering intelligence but analyzing that intelligence takes sophisticated staffing.

Nancy Roberts, a defence analysis professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California, noted that in Mexico, police officials can tap phones, use tracking devices and tap into computer networks. But that does little unless someone can sort through the evidence.

"Our jobs are making sense of all the data so law enforcement knows how, when and where to strike," she said.

Eduardo Guerrero, a Mexico City-based security consultant, wasn't optimistic that technology alone can disrupt narcotraffickers.

"You should never underestimate the power of these guys," Guerrero said. "They're probably even aware of what's going on here, and will figure out a way to use it to their advantage."

Even Google's Schmidt conceded that better use of information isn't enough.

"I think at the end of the day, there really are bad people, and you have to go in and arrest them and kill them," he said.

The conference in Westlake Village, California, was organized by Google's think tank, Google Ideas, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Participants included Ian Biddle, an arms broker; former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff; Ron Noble, secretary general of Interpol, the international police agency; Anthoney DeChellis, CEO of Credit Suisse private banking; and Juan Pablo Escobar, son of the slain Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Juan Pablo Escobar talked about the challenges of quitting a drug cartel.

- AP



IBM sustains earning streak despite weak economy

IBM sustained its nearly decade-long streak of earnings growth as it shook off the economic jitters that have undercut several other technology companies.

Earnings rose 6 per cent in the April-June period, despite a 3 per cent decline in revenue, to mark the 38th consecutive quarter that IBM's net income has climbed from the previous year.

The achievement comes after tech companies such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Informatica Corp. and Lexmark International Inc. have blamed rising fears about a recession, particularly in Europe, for disappointing performance in their most recent quarters. Intel Corp. also warned that the weak global economy is slowing its growth for the current quarter.

IBM's earnings triumph doesn't necessarily mean it won't suffer from the global economic woes, but it is more insulated than many other technology companies.

IBM Corp. has been able to boost its earnings even in periods when revenue has been falling by focusing more on sales of software and technology services, two businesses with higher profit margins than the computer equipment that had provided the company's financial backbone through most of its 101-year history.

By 2015, IBM expects software services to account for more than half its total revenue, up from about 42 per cent now.

True to form, software was the only part of IBM's business that didn't register a decline in the latest quarter. Software revenue remained level at $6.2 billion. To keep things rolling, IBM plans to hire about 200 to 300 software sales specialists per month through the remainder of the year, according to Mark Loughridge, the company's chief financial officer. About half of that expansion will occur in the U.S.

On the flip side, IBM plans to trim jobs from other parts of its business, mostly outside the U.S., as part of its effort to ensure the company's earnings continue to climb. Loughridge didn't specify how many people might lose their jobs during the final half of the year, although he stressed most of the cuts will be outside the U.S.

The company's emphasis on selling software and services to corporate and government customers is now being copied by other hardware specialists such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.

IBM's weak spot during the second quarter was in the region that includes Europe, where worries about unwieldy government debt have heightened uncertainty about the economy's direction. IBM's revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell by 9 per cent from last year.

The turmoil in Europe also hurt IBM's results as currencies there weakened, translating into fewer US dollars.

IBM earned $3.9 billion, or $3.34 per share, for the second quarter. That compares with net income of $3.7 billion, or $3 per share, at the same time last year.

Without accounting charges for past acquisitions and the company's pension, IBM said it would have earned $3.51 per share. On that basis, IBM exceeded the average estimate of $3.43 per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue totaled $25.8 billion for the latest quarter, down from $26.7 billion a year ago. The latest quarter's revenue fell about $500 million below analyst forecasts.

Some analysts may have underestimated how much currency fluctuations would affect IBM's revenue.

IBM said currency changes in the second quarter trimmed about $1 billion from its revenue. If currency exchange rates had remained the same as last year, the company said its revenue in the latest quarter would have been slightly higher, and flat for the region covering Europe.

In a sign of confidence, IBM raised its adjusted-earnings forecast for the full year to $15.10 a share. That's a dime above management's last guidance in April. IBM has promised to produce annual earnings per share of $20 by 2015.

The company, which is based in Armonk, New York, has been able to reliably predict its earnings partly because it locks many of its customers into contracts that guarantee regular payments even in tough economic times. IBM ended with about $136 billion in contract "backlog," which is expected to convert into revenue in future quarters. That includes $13.7 billion worth signed during the most recent quarter.

Analysts suspect management sets IBM's earnings hurdle low to reduce the chances of upsetting investors. IBM's earnings have topped analyst estimates in every quarter for the past seven years a period that has seen its stock price more than double.

IBM shares gained $5.40, or nearly 3 per cent, to $193.65 in Wednesday's extended trading, after the release of results.

- AP



Dotcom to Hollywood: I\'m not your enemy\'

Kim Dotcom says he is not Hollywood's "enemy" and he has solutions to help them cope in the internet age.

The internet mogul believes Hollywood film bosses lobbied the White House to have his filesharing website Megaupload taken down.

The Motion Picture Association of America has denied the accusation.

In a letter addressed to "Hollywood" published in the Hollywood Reporter, Dotcom said he is not their enemy.

"I am at the forefront of creating the cool stuff that will allow creative works to thrive in an Internet age. I have the solutions to your problems. I am not your enemy."

Dotcom said the internet "frightens" Hollywood.

"You get so comfortable with your ways of doing business that any change is perceived as a threat," he wrote.

"The problem is, we as a society don't have a choice: The law of human nature is to communicate more efficiently. And the economic benefits of high-speed Internet and unlimited cloud storage are so great that we need to plan for the day when the transfer of terabytes of data will be measured in seconds."

He said the "people of the Internet will unite" and will "prevail in the war for Internet freedom and innovation that you have launched".

"We have logic, human nature and the invisible hand on our side."

"Regardless of the issues you have with new technologies, you can't just engage armed forces halfway around the world, rip a peaceful man from his family, throw him in jail, terminate his business without a trial, take everything he owns without a hearing, deprive him of a fair chance to defend himself and do all that while your propaganda machine is destroying him in the media. Is that who you want to be?"

"There can still be a happy ending. I am working on solutions. Just call me or my lawyers. You know where to find me. Unfortunately I can only do lunch in New Zealand."

A High Court hearing next month will hear evidence of the January raid during which Dotcom and Megaload associates Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk were arrested.

The FBI has accused Dotcom and his co-accused of the world's biggest case of criminal copyright violation.

Dotcom's comments come as Judge David Harvey surrendered his role in the case suggesting the United States was the "enemy" in comments during a copyright discussion at an internet conference.

By Paul Harper | Email Paul