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In this quick video interview, Brett shares with Ramon his thoughts on what small businesses might be doing right, what they might be doing wrong and tips on how they can move forward to grow their business. Brett also shares his thoughts on the best way to start using tech in your business. Â Check out this video:
In this quick video interview, Brett shares with Ramon his thoughts on what small businesses might be doing right, what they might be doing wrong and tips on how they can move forward to grow their business. Brett also shares his thoughts on the best way to start using tech in your business. Â Check out this video:
Visitors searching navigation sites via mobile devices has increased 25 percent in the last nine months and nearly 86 million people are now seeking local business information on their mobile devices in the United States alone. Of that 86 million, more than half are using their mobile devices because they are on the move. What does this mean for the local small business Two things:  1) Consumers are most likely looking for you right now and 2) You’d better make sure your local listing is accurate and optimized to get people to your door.
“What we can clearly see is that the local search market is maturing - what we previously described as a Social, Local and Mobile (SoLoMo) revolution is now embedded in consumer behavior,†said Jeff Beard, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Neustar Localeze. “Tablet adoption is growing at a blistering pace: It took smartphones nearly a decade to reach 40 million users, while that number was crossed only two years after the iPad arrived. This market is set to keep growing, and businesses need to fundamentally rethink the way local customers are going to find them.â€
Here is an infographic that shares additional results from the survey:
As you can see, consumers are searching for a variety of business types. While pharmacies, doctors and hospitals lead the pack, close behind are restaurants and various other retail operations, including clothing. Furthermore, the survey revealed that successful local business searches conducted via mobile phones are most likely to result in an in-store visit when compared to the outcomes of searches conducted on other devices ( PC’s, for instance). While those searching via mobile phone or tablet had a tendency to conduct multiple searches as opposed to those using PC’s, they were also more likely to make a purchase as a result of their last search; 78 percent for mobile phone users and 77% for those using a tablet.
“The greatest impact of the Internet is to offer access to information on a global scale, yet it’s equally important in driving business at the neighborhood level,†said Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles. “Consumers now expect accurate, easy-to-absorb information on local businesses on a variety of computing platforms, and those companies that can adapt to this new world have the most to gain.â€
Another very interesting discovery in the data was the fact that application-based local search nearly doubled in just the past two years, which significantly outpaced the growth of the SMS and browser markets. 35 percent of those using applications to search use Google Maps. Turning to the social media side, a staggering 92 percent of those searching for local business information on social networking sites from all devices used Facebook for that purpose in 2012.
It’s quite clear that if you are a small business with a brick and mortar location or a small business that services a local region or area, you NEED to ensure that your business is listed on the local search sites.  This may not be enough, though.  Due to the rapid increase of mobile searches and expected increase in use of applications to search, you may need to up your game and invest in a service, such as Neustar Localeze or 15 Miles, to help you optimize the way your business is listed to ensure that you appear to those searching in an effort to get them in the door and spending dollars!
Is your business currently listed to be found in local searches If so, what kind of impact has it had on your business  If not…what are you waiting for Much like that ‘internet’ thing, this ‘mobile’ thing has caught on and it’s only going to increase in popularity until it becomes the ‘norm’.
According to a report by the Auto Blog, 90% of the average car’s lifespan is spent in a parking lot. Added to that, on average, 30% of a city’s traffic consists of people looking for parking spots. That’s one hassle that every person has to go through in daily life, and one hassle you can take off their shoulders by displaying parking information on your website. Besides convenience, helping your customers find parking spaces near your business also helps the environment by reducing emissions that would have otherwise been spent undertaking such a task. If you’re into environmental friendliness, this is one way to greatly contribute to your cause.
Meet Parker Map, a product by Streetline that lets you display a mini map of the area surrounding your establishment right on your website. All you have to do is type in the name of your business and its address, and then select the dimensions with which you’d like to display the map. Once you’ve done that, a code appears at the bottom of the page that you can paste anywhere on your site. Once you save the code onto your site, you can visit the page and see the map there.
This method is the best way to keep potential and current customers happy without paying a dime, while achieving re-visits to your site by returning customers that want to come over to buy something. Nothing says “welcome†better than telling them where they can park their big machines and minimize the amount of time spent walking to your place. The map also inadvertently shows customers what mass transit stations are nearby in case they do not have vehicles. It’s also the best way to say “I’m green†without having to invest a small fortune to do so!
According to a report by the Auto Blog, 90% of the average car’s lifespan is spent in a parking lot. Added to that, on average, 30% of a city’s traffic consists of people looking for parking spots. That’s one hassle that every person has to go through in daily life, and one hassle you can take off their shoulders by displaying parking information on your website. Besides convenience, helping your customers find parking spaces near your business also helps the environment by reducing emissions that would have otherwise been spent undertaking such a task. If you’re into environmental friendliness, this is one way to greatly contribute to your cause.
Meet Parker Map, a product by Streetline that lets you display a mini map of the area surrounding your establishment right on your website. All you have to do is type in the name of your business and its address, and then select the dimensions with which you’d like to display the map. Once you’ve done that, a code appears at the bottom of the page that you can paste anywhere on your site. Once you save the code onto your site, you can visit the page and see the map there.
This method is the best way to keep potential and current customers happy without paying a dime, while achieving re-visits to your site by returning customers that want to come over to buy something. Nothing says “welcome†better than telling them where they can park their big machines and minimize the amount of time spent walking to your place. The map also inadvertently shows customers what mass transit stations are nearby in case they do not have vehicles. It’s also the best way to say “I’m green†without having to invest a small fortune to do so!
Does the name of a business affect that business’s success In most cases, absolutely it does. So how do you name a business
While the right name can make your business popular within a short time, the wrong one can doom your prospects. The right name can create a unique business identity, but the wrong one can mar it, along with your chances of success.
Do you go with something descriptive or something creative Do you include a location in the name Do you decide this on your own or get expert help You need to find answers to a number of questions before you make a final decision to name a business.
It’s not  easy to name a business. The name has to convey the right message and generate interest. Trademark issues must be considered and most importantly, you need to develop the right marketing strategy for the name you’ve chosen. If this is not particularly your field of expertise, hiring an expert may make sense.
If you’re in a sector where the name of your new venture is sure to affect its success, you need to involve an expert in the selection process. But don’t depend blindly on the expert. Instead, work with them to find the best name for your business.
Professional naming firms know what works and what doesn’t. You may come up with a name that seems good to you, however, they have the expertise to identify a name’s potential and evaluate its possibilities. They also know how to prevent legal hassles over trademarks.
Don’t think that hiring a professional is just a waste of money. The identity of your business depends on its name, at least initially. When you name a business, mistakes can lead to long term consequences that are costly in terms of time and money.
Descriptive or creative Real words or fabricated ones Location-based or general The questions are numerous. However, all of them are intertwined. Everything boils down to the basics - whether you need to choose a name that informs people about your business or a name that generates people’s interest, making them want to find out more.
There are no hard and fast rules to name a business. What works for one business may not work for another. This makes it even more important to think hard about the type of name that will be good for your endeavor.
You also need to decide whether to include a location in the name. While a location may define the proximity of your business for your target customers, it may become a problem if you expand your business to other locations later on. Just because your new business is small today doesn’t mean it will remain so in the future. The ideal name for your business should be the one that conveys the uniqueness of what you bring to your customers. But, the ideal may not always work for every business.
Here are a few tips to name a business that do work for all businesses:
Professional firms often use a simple trick to come up with business namesâ€"morphemes. These small, meaningful units of words provide a good base for an interesting, yet informative business name.
Trademark infringement may lead to legal battles where you lose precious time and money. Therefore, it’s important that you research the names you think will be suitable for your business. You may also find it helpful to hire a trademark attorney to help you avoid legal issues.
Don’t take trademark issues lightly: These conflicts can completely annihilate your financial resources. An ounce of legal prevention is worth a pound of cure in terms of time and money.
Now that you have three to five names as contenders, whether you came up with them yourself or had experts contribute them, it’s time to finally pick one. Here are a few ideas that may help you find the best one for your business:
The last decision rests with you: Follow your intuition, go with the expert recommendation.
Whatever your method to name a business, make sure you start to market the name as soon as you have decided to use it.
Internet Cafe Photo via Shutterstock
Visitors searching navigation sites via mobile devices has increased 25 percent in the last nine months and nearly 86 million people are now seeking local business information on their mobile devices in the United States alone. Of that 86 million, more than half are using their mobile devices because they are on the move. What does this mean for the local small business Two things:  1) Consumers are most likely looking for you right now and 2) You’d better make sure your local listing is accurate and optimized to get people to your door.
“What we can clearly see is that the local search market is maturing - what we previously described as a Social, Local and Mobile (SoLoMo) revolution is now embedded in consumer behavior,†said Jeff Beard, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Neustar Localeze. “Tablet adoption is growing at a blistering pace: It took smartphones nearly a decade to reach 40 million users, while that number was crossed only two years after the iPad arrived. This market is set to keep growing, and businesses need to fundamentally rethink the way local customers are going to find them.â€
Here is an infographic that shares additional results from the survey:
As you can see, consumers are searching for a variety of business types. While pharmacies, doctors and hospitals lead the pack, close behind are restaurants and various other retail operations, including clothing. Furthermore, the survey revealed that successful local business searches conducted via mobile phones are most likely to result in an in-store visit when compared to the outcomes of searches conducted on other devices ( PC’s, for instance). While those searching via mobile phone or tablet had a tendency to conduct multiple searches as opposed to those using PC’s, they were also more likely to make a purchase as a result of their last search; 78 percent for mobile phone users and 77% for those using a tablet.
“The greatest impact of the Internet is to offer access to information on a global scale, yet it’s equally important in driving business at the neighborhood level,†said Gregg Stewart, President, 15miles. “Consumers now expect accurate, easy-to-absorb information on local businesses on a variety of computing platforms, and those companies that can adapt to this new world have the most to gain.â€
Another very interesting discovery in the data was the fact that application-based local search nearly doubled in just the past two years, which significantly outpaced the growth of the SMS and browser markets. 35 percent of those using applications to search use Google Maps. Turning to the social media side, a staggering 92 percent of those searching for local business information on social networking sites from all devices used Facebook for that purpose in 2012.
It’s quite clear that if you are a small business with a brick and mortar location or a small business that services a local region or area, you NEED to ensure that your business is listed on the local search sites.  This may not be enough, though.  Due to the rapid increase of mobile searches and expected increase in use of applications to search, you may need to up your game and invest in a service, such as Neustar Localeze or 15 Miles, to help you optimize the way your business is listed to ensure that you appear to those searching in an effort to get them in the door and spending dollars!
Is your business currently listed to be found in local searches If so, what kind of impact has it had on your business  If not…what are you waiting for Much like that ‘internet’ thing, this ‘mobile’ thing has caught on and it’s only going to increase in popularity until it becomes the ‘norm’.
According to a report by the Auto Blog, 90% of the average car’s lifespan is spent in a parking lot. Added to that, on average, 30% of a city’s traffic consists of people looking for parking spots. That’s one hassle that every person has to go through in daily life, and one hassle you can take off their shoulders by displaying parking information on your website. Besides convenience, helping your customers find parking spaces near your business also helps the environment by reducing emissions that would have otherwise been spent undertaking such a task. If you’re into environmental friendliness, this is one way to greatly contribute to your cause.
Meet Parker Map, a product by Streetline that lets you display a mini map of the area surrounding your establishment right on your website. All you have to do is type in the name of your business and its address, and then select the dimensions with which you’d like to display the map. Once you’ve done that, a code appears at the bottom of the page that you can paste anywhere on your site. Once you save the code onto your site, you can visit the page and see the map there.
This method is the best way to keep potential and current customers happy without paying a dime, while achieving re-visits to your site by returning customers that want to come over to buy something. Nothing says “welcome†better than telling them where they can park their big machines and minimize the amount of time spent walking to your place. The map also inadvertently shows customers what mass transit stations are nearby in case they do not have vehicles. It’s also the best way to say “I’m green†without having to invest a small fortune to do so!
Smartphones earn their name by their ability to run programmes or apps. There are literally hundreds of thousands of these available for every possible purpose. Most of these are perfectly legitimate and safe, unfortunately a few are not.
Those most at risk are users of the Android platform, which has now overtaken iOS to become the leading smartphone operating system with over 50% market share. Recent research by MWR Labs, Â the research arm of MWR InfoSecurity, indicates that there is a serious and significant problem with security vulnerabilities in Android handsets. In particular the research suggests that manufacturer-added software could lead to compromises, with as much as 64% of manufacturer-added applications being identified as a potential cause of security issues in some handsets. This means that the flaws are actually built in to the handsets and so users can not avoid them simply by being cautious with their downloads on Google play.
These security issues are of even more concern in the light of the fact that small businesses are turning to the phone as an alternative to traditional POS (Point of Sale) technology. Many small businesses have traditionally been cash-only as standard POS terminals are both an extra expense and an extra piece of equipment to keep safe. This causes obvious security issues, making small businesses an attractive (and often easy) target for thieves. It can also be a source of friction in terms of accounting. As well as the challenges of keeping track of cash being paid in and out (particularly for small amounts where receipts may not be given), there is also an increasingly negative view of cash payments by government authorities. Tax offices have always viewed them with suspicion and the hostility towards them is growing. Consumers, too, are being encouraged to view electronic payments as a safe, convenient and attractive way of making payment. Chip and Pn has long been accepted as a key breakthrough in terms of consumer safety. Contactless payments, or Virtual Wallets, are a more recent innovation. Showcased at the London 2012 Olympics, they are already gaining substantial ground. Both Visa and MasterCard are now moving to phone-based payments using NFC (Near-Field Communication). There is simply less need for consumers to carry cash on a day-to-day basis.
The reality is that phones are now indispensable for both consumers and small businesses and both phone manufacturers and networks will try to do everything they can to make them continually more attractive. This has many advantages in terms of convenience and cost savings; however it does mean that small businesses need to be fully-aware of related security issues and make sure they are addressed.
Smartphones earn their name by their ability to run programmes or apps. There are literally hundreds of thousands of these available for every possible purpose. Most of these are perfectly legitimate and safe, unfortunately a few are not.
Those most at risk are users of the Android platform, which has now overtaken iOS to become the leading smartphone operating system with over 50% market share. Recent research by MWR Labs, Â the research arm of MWR InfoSecurity, indicates that there is a serious and significant problem with security vulnerabilities in Android handsets. In particular the research suggests that manufacturer-added software could lead to compromises, with as much as 64% of manufacturer-added applications being identified as a potential cause of security issues in some handsets. This means that the flaws are actually built in to the handsets and so users can not avoid them simply by being cautious with their downloads on Google play.
These security issues are of even more concern in the light of the fact that small businesses are turning to the phone as an alternative to traditional POS (Point of Sale) technology. Many small businesses have traditionally been cash-only as standard POS terminals are both an extra expense and an extra piece of equipment to keep safe. This causes obvious security issues, making small businesses an attractive (and often easy) target for thieves. It can also be a source of friction in terms of accounting. As well as the challenges of keeping track of cash being paid in and out (particularly for small amounts where receipts may not be given), there is also an increasingly negative view of cash payments by government authorities. Tax offices have always viewed them with suspicion and the hostility towards them is growing. Consumers, too, are being encouraged to view electronic payments as a safe, convenient and attractive way of making payment. Chip and Pn has long been accepted as a key breakthrough in terms of consumer safety. Contactless payments, or Virtual Wallets, are a more recent innovation. Showcased at the London 2012 Olympics, they are already gaining substantial ground. Both Visa and MasterCard are now moving to phone-based payments using NFC (Near-Field Communication). There is simply less need for consumers to carry cash on a day-to-day basis.
The reality is that phones are now indispensable for both consumers and small businesses and both phone manufacturers and networks will try to do everything they can to make them continually more attractive. This has many advantages in terms of convenience and cost savings; however it does mean that small businesses need to be fully-aware of related security issues and make sure they are addressed.
WASHINGTON -- As if it's not hard enough to discover, analyze and deliver reliable cyberthreat intelligence, industry analysts said a harder task is getting organizations to utilize actionable intelligence to protect their networks against increasingly sophisticated attacks, including those from nation-state adversaries.
What's the point of collecting intelligence if you're not going to use it
Chris Sperry,
cybersecurity analyst, Lockheed Martin
Threat analysts from General Electric Co., Google Inc. and Lockheed Martin Corp. provided a look inside their cyber-intelligence operations last week during the 2013 Cyber Threat Intelligence Summit, sponsored by the SANS Institute. The panel discussion explored a range of issues faced by both producers and users of cyberthreat intelligence, including the advisability of letting a network attack proceed in order to gain more intelligence about attackers.
Underscoring the issues of dissemination and use, summit moderator Michael Cloppert, chief analyst of Lockheed Martin's computer incident response team, polled the audience to see how many actually "digest" threat analyses. A scattering of hands were raised.
"Computer security is not a computer problem," Cloppert said. "Computer security is a people problem."
Aaron Wade, senior team leader for General Electric's (GE) cyber-intelligence unit, said users are often faced with the problem of prioritizing cyber-intelligence from different sources. In the process, they may overlook that "they are their own best source" because they "know the threat profiles."
For a multinational holding company like GE, a key question is deciding what company assets require the greatest protection from cyberattacks. Hence, Wade said users must identify their "crown jewels"; those products and processes that underpin a company's existence. The next step is to "hit [corporate] decision makers where they live and make the threat of cyberattacks real."
While GE makes everything from jet engines to appliances, data-driven Google relies on secure networks to deliver a growing range of services on the Web. Shane Huntley of Google's threat analysis group told the summit that the Internet ad giant treats cyberthreat intelligence as another data set it uses to defend against attacks and protect its more than 1 billion global users.
Huntley said his unit analyzes the "kill chain" or succession of targets attackers attempt to compromise in the wake of unsuccessful attacks to help block future attacks. He stressed that Google seeks to leverage actionable intelligence to ensure its vital networks aren't crippled by attacks.
"There's no point to sitting on this treasure trove of information" about cyberthreats, Huntley said. "You need to take the initiative and block attacks and defend users."
"What's the point of collecting intelligence if you're not going to use it" said Chris Sperry, a Lockheed Martin cybersecurity analyst who also participated in the panel discussion. Users should be "trying to take the fight back to the adversary." That approach, he added, includes creating threat profiles on each attack to gain a better understanding of how attackers operate.
Sperry also advocated for a "pivot analyst approach" that would allow users to leverage threat intelligence to shift gears as new threats emerge. Quickly evaluating sources is critical as deployment of cyberthreat intelligence becomes more automated. "Timeliness," Sperry stressed, "is really important."
"What is your appetite for risk" moderator Cloppert asked the panelists. Google's Huntley said his unit considers how long to let an attack play out to collect more intelligence about individual attacks. But the Internet giant stops short of placing users at risk.
Wade said GE zeroes in on each threat and how to defend against it. Most organizations are risk-averse, he added, though they may not be willing to admit it.
Sperry said avoiding a knee-jerk reaction to a cyberattack might allow analysts to determine if an individual threat is "just the tip of the iceberg."
Putting actionable threat intelligence to good use also means placing it in the proper context. Wade said consumers of cyberthreat intelligence must identify trusted sources facing similar types of attacks. Users need to "reach back and get context" to effectively block increasingly sophisticated threats, he continued. "Intelligence without context is just data."
For those of you who don’t know anything about Google Now, it’s meant to be a feature that gives you “just the right information at just the right time.†Using location data and your Google search history, your calendar data, and Gmail inbox information, Google Now predicts the information you need, whether it be restaurants nearby, the best route home during rush hour or the big game’s score. All without you ever asking.
It goes without saying that Google Now has been described by all the big gadget blogs and many, many users as “creepy,†but also often delightful.
You’ll be able to use same analytics to look at your customers â€" find out what segment of the population you really need to focus in on and how to reach them, or have an alert set up that tells you when a customer is at risk of jumping ship.
Eric Siegel’s book, Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, reveals the power and perils of prediction: predicting which people will drop out of school, cancel a subscription, or get divorced before they are even aware of it themselves. Why early retirement decreases life expectancy and vegetarians miss fewer flights. How Target figures out you’re pregnant and Hewlett-Packard deduces you’re about to quit your job.
Siegel has been been kind enough to sent us an excerpt from the book. Check it out:
The Future of Prediction: Predictive Analytics in 2020
By Eric Siegel, Ph.D.
Ten Predictions for the First Hour of 2020
Good morning. It’s January 2, 2020, the first workday of the year. As you drive to the office, the only thing predictive analytics doesn’t do for you is steer the car (yet that’s coming soon as well).
1. Anti-theft. As you enter your car, a predictive model establishes your identity based on several biometric readings, rendering it virtually impossible for an imposter to start the engine.
2. Entertainment. Pandora plays new music it predicts you will like.
3. Traffic. Your navigator pipes up and suggests alternative routing due to predicted traffic delays. Because the new route has hills and your car’s battery â€" its only energy source â€" is low, your maximum acceleration is decreased.
4. Breakfast. An en-route drive-through restaurant is suggested by a recommendation system that knows its daily food preference predictions must be accurate or you will disable it.
5. Social. Your Social Techretary offers to read you select Facebook feeds and Match.com responses it predicts will be of greatest interest. Inappropriate comments are accurately filtered out. CareerBuilder offers to read job postings to which you’re predicted to apply. When playing your voicemail, solicitations such as robo call messages are screened by predictive models just like email spam.
6. Deals. You accept your smartphone’s offer to read to you a text message from your wireless carrier. Apparently, they’ve predicted you’re going to switch to a competitor, because they are offering a huge discount on the iPhone 13.
7. Internet search. As it’s your colleague’s kid’s birthday, you query for a toy store that’s en route. Siri, available through your car’s audio, has been greatly improved â€" better speech recognition and proficiently tailored interaction.
8. Driver inattention. Your seat vibrates as internal sensors predict your attention has wavered â€" perhaps you were distracted by a personalized billboard a bit too long.
9. Collision avoidance. A stronger vibration plus a warning sound alert you to a potential imminent collision â€" possibly with a child running toward the curb or another car threatening to run a red light.
10. Reliability. Your car says to you, “Please take me in for service soon, as I have predicted my carburetor will fail within the next three weeks.â€
Predictive analytics not only enhances your commute â€" it was instrumental to making this drive possible in the first place:
Tomorrow’s Just a Day Away
All the preceding capabilities are available now or have similar incarnations actively under development. Many are delayed more by the (now imminent) integration of your smartphone with your car than by the development of predictive technology itself. The advent of mobile devices built into your glasses, such as Google Glass, will provide yet another multiplicative effect on the moment-to-moment integration of prediction, as well as further accelerating the accumulation of data with which to develop predictive models.
Today, predictive analytics’ all-encompassing scope already reaches the very heart of a functioning society. Organizations â€" be they companies, governments, law-enforcement, charities, hospitals or universities â€" undertake many millions of operational decisions in order to enact services. Prediction is key to guiding these decisions. It is the means with which to improve the efficiency of massive operations.
Several mounting ingredients promise to spread prediction even more pervasively: bigger data, better computers, wider familiarity, and advancing science. A growing majority of interactions between the organization and the individual will be driven by prediction.
The Future of Prediction
Of course, the details and timing of these developments are up to conjecture; predictive analytics has not conquered itself. But we can confidently predict more prediction. Every few months another big story about predictive analytics rolls off the presses. We’re sure to see the opportunities continue to grow and surprise. Come what may, only time will tell what we’ll tell of time to come.
Excerpted with permission of the publisher, Wiley, from Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (February 2013) by Eric Siegel. Copyright (c) 2013 by Eric Siegel. This book is available at all bookstores and online booksellers. Dr. Siegel is the founder of Predictive Analytics World, coming in 2013 to Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, Berlin, and London. For more information about predictive analytics, see the Predictive Analytics Guide.
For those of you who don’t know anything about Google Now, it’s meant to be a feature that gives you “just the right information at just the right time.†Using location data and your Google search history, your calendar data, and Gmail inbox information, Google Now predicts the information you need, whether it be restaurants nearby, the best route home during rush hour or the big game’s score. All without you ever asking.
It goes without saying that Google Now has been described by all the big gadget blogs and many, many users as “creepy,†but also often delightful.
You’ll be able to use same analytics to look at your customers â€" find out what segment of the population you really need to focus in on and how to reach them, or have an alert set up that tells you when a customer is at risk of jumping ship.
Eric Siegel’s book, Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, reveals the power and perils of prediction: predicting which people will drop out of school, cancel a subscription, or get divorced before they are even aware of it themselves. Why early retirement decreases life expectancy and vegetarians miss fewer flights. How Target figures out you’re pregnant and Hewlett-Packard deduces you’re about to quit your job.
Siegel has been been kind enough to sent us an excerpt from the book. Check it out:
The Future of Prediction: Predictive Analytics in 2020
By Eric Siegel, Ph.D.
Ten Predictions for the First Hour of 2020
Good morning. It’s January 2, 2020, the first workday of the year. As you drive to the office, the only thing predictive analytics doesn’t do for you is steer the car (yet that’s coming soon as well).
1. Anti-theft. As you enter your car, a predictive model establishes your identity based on several biometric readings, rendering it virtually impossible for an imposter to start the engine.
2. Entertainment. Pandora plays new music it predicts you will like.
3. Traffic. Your navigator pipes up and suggests alternative routing due to predicted traffic delays. Because the new route has hills and your car’s battery â€" its only energy source â€" is low, your maximum acceleration is decreased.
4. Breakfast. An en-route drive-through restaurant is suggested by a recommendation system that knows its daily food preference predictions must be accurate or you will disable it.
5. Social. Your Social Techretary offers to read you select Facebook feeds and Match.com responses it predicts will be of greatest interest. Inappropriate comments are accurately filtered out. CareerBuilder offers to read job postings to which you’re predicted to apply. When playing your voicemail, solicitations such as robo call messages are screened by predictive models just like email spam.
6. Deals. You accept your smartphone’s offer to read to you a text message from your wireless carrier. Apparently, they’ve predicted you’re going to switch to a competitor, because they are offering a huge discount on the iPhone 13.
7. Internet search. As it’s your colleague’s kid’s birthday, you query for a toy store that’s en route. Siri, available through your car’s audio, has been greatly improved â€" better speech recognition and proficiently tailored interaction.
8. Driver inattention. Your seat vibrates as internal sensors predict your attention has wavered â€" perhaps you were distracted by a personalized billboard a bit too long.
9. Collision avoidance. A stronger vibration plus a warning sound alert you to a potential imminent collision â€" possibly with a child running toward the curb or another car threatening to run a red light.
10. Reliability. Your car says to you, “Please take me in for service soon, as I have predicted my carburetor will fail within the next three weeks.â€
Predictive analytics not only enhances your commute â€" it was instrumental to making this drive possible in the first place:
Tomorrow’s Just a Day Away
All the preceding capabilities are available now or have similar incarnations actively under development. Many are delayed more by the (now imminent) integration of your smartphone with your car than by the development of predictive technology itself. The advent of mobile devices built into your glasses, such as Google Glass, will provide yet another multiplicative effect on the moment-to-moment integration of prediction, as well as further accelerating the accumulation of data with which to develop predictive models.
Today, predictive analytics’ all-encompassing scope already reaches the very heart of a functioning society. Organizations â€" be they companies, governments, law-enforcement, charities, hospitals or universities â€" undertake many millions of operational decisions in order to enact services. Prediction is key to guiding these decisions. It is the means with which to improve the efficiency of massive operations.
Several mounting ingredients promise to spread prediction even more pervasively: bigger data, better computers, wider familiarity, and advancing science. A growing majority of interactions between the organization and the individual will be driven by prediction.
The Future of Prediction
Of course, the details and timing of these developments are up to conjecture; predictive analytics has not conquered itself. But we can confidently predict more prediction. Every few months another big story about predictive analytics rolls off the presses. We’re sure to see the opportunities continue to grow and surprise. Come what may, only time will tell what we’ll tell of time to come.
Excerpted with permission of the publisher, Wiley, from Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (February 2013) by Eric Siegel. Copyright (c) 2013 by Eric Siegel. This book is available at all bookstores and online booksellers. Dr. Siegel is the founder of Predictive Analytics World, coming in 2013 to Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, Berlin, and London. For more information about predictive analytics, see the Predictive Analytics Guide.
Recently, I had a conversation with a business owner who was keen to make some changes to his business. These changes involved the sales mix of his service offerings and focusing more aggressively on a specific subset of his current customers. He realized that his true passion was for providing one of his current services to a very particular group of his current customers. This focus also had the bonus of being a much better tool to improve his financial results in addition to aligning more closely with his dream lifestyle.
The problem was that if he simply “got rid of†all those customers who didn’t fit his newfound target, he would face a short-term reduction in sales and cash flow. His passion for this particular target segment would eventually generate financial results that would eclipse what he had been creating with his current customers. But the time lag between now and that point in the future would drain cash from his bank account.
Painful frustration!
Having realized that he wasn’t able to comfortably sustain the temporary reduction in cash flow he became predictably frustrated. He expressed that he felt he would probably never be able to create his dream business. He felt he missed his chance because he should have done it “the right way†when he first started out. He felt that he had “built a monster†that he could no longer control.
Most business owners can relate that situation and those natural feelings of frustration. But those feelings are completely unwarranted if you understand how to overcome fear via a path to bridging the chasm that seems too wide to cross. The keys to bridging that chasm are to follow a proven series of steps that make it crystal clear what you need to do and how to do it, without suffering a reduction in financial results. Below are the steps to follow.
Calculate how much profit you would make from this target combination of product/service and customer segment. Then calculate how much you anticipate making from a single unit (target product/service and target customer segment combined make one unit).
Calculate how much profit you are making right now from all the other combinations of product/service and customer segments that do not fall into your new target. Then calculate how much profit you earn, on average, from one of these units.
Divide the profit you calculated in step 1 by the profit calculated in step 2.
This is the number of “old customers†(from the non-ideal product/service and customer universe you looked at in step 2) you can get rid of every time you acquire one of your new target customer units from Step 1.
Start working hard to attract your new target customers.
Have the intestinal fortitude to jettison the number of “non-ideal†customers from step 4 every time you acquire one of your new target customer units.
Determine your target date to have this transition completed and back-calculate the rate you must acquire new target profile customers in order to achieve your goal.
You now have concrete targets for acquiring these ideal customer units that you can use to establish your goals and targets for lead generation and conversion.
The result of this approach is a set of clearly defined targets that will allow you to migrate toward the ideal outcome you identified, a clear timeline for accomplishing it and certainty that you are moving toward your ultimate goal as you hit the intermediate targets along the way.
You will accomplish all these things with no reduction in your current financial results and with the confidence to release those non-ideal customers according to your plan. Ultimately, you can overcome fear and achieve your target that may have initially seemed impossible.
You will be able to do it with a clear plan, minimal risk and no reduction in your financial results.
Scared Businessman Photo via Shutterstock
One of the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks occurred after a spam-fighting group blacklisted web hosting company CyberBunker.
According to a report by the New York Times, the spam-fighting group Spamhaus added the Dutch company CyberBunker to its blocked list, that led to the Dutch company saying that Spamhaus was abusing its position, and should not be allowed to decide "what goes and does not go on the internet".
This has led to a series of counter-attacks, with the largest DDoS ever spotted being used.
According to statistics from Arbor Networks, the attack traffic was recorded at 100Gbps, five times the size of the standard size as deemed by its Annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security Report in January.
The problem began last week, when Spamhaus suffered a large-scale DDoS attack that knocked its website and mail offline, its data systems continued to work normally throughout the attack. CloudFlare, who hosted Spamhaus during the attack after Spamhaus reached out for help, said in a blog that the attack was "large enough that the Spamhaus team wasn't sure of its size when they contacted us".
Matthew Prince, co-founder of CloudFlare, said: “It was sufficiently large to fully saturate their connection to the rest of the internet and knock their site offline. These very large attacks, which are known as Layer 3 attacks, are difficult to stop with any on-premise solution.
“Put simply: if you have a router with a 10Gbps port, and someone sends you 11Gbps of traffic, it doesn't matter what intelligent software you have to stop the attack because your network link is completely saturated.â€
In the case today, Spamhaus's Domain Name System (DNS) servers were targeted. According to the New York Times article, the level of attacks have slowed traffic across the internet, with internet users experiencing delays in accessing online services.
Prince said in a separate blog that while it does not have direct visibility into the traffic loads, it had been told by one major Tier 1 provider that more than 300Gbps of attack traffic related to this attack.
He said: “The challenge with attacks at this scale is they risk overwhelming the systems that link together the internet itself. The largest routers that you can buy have, at most, 100Gbps ports. It is possible to bond more than one of these ports together to create capacity that is greater than 100Gbps however, at some point, there are limits to how much these routers can handle. If that limit is exceeded then the network becomes congested and slows down.
“Over the last few days, as these attacks have increased, we've seen congestion across several major Tier 1s, primarily in Europe where most of the attacks were concentrated, that would have affected hundreds of millions of people even as they surfed sites unrelated to Spamhaus or CloudFlare. If the internet felt a bit more sluggish for you over the last few days in Europe, this may be part of the reason why.â€
Raj Samani, CTO EMEA at McAfee, said: “While DDoS attacks are not new, we are currently seeing an increase in both volume and sophistication of these types of attacks stemming from all parts of the world.
“Due to the connected nature of digital citizens, a dispute between key parties will impact everyone from consumers to small businesses to large enterprises. Security will need to evolve so that there is more cooperation between businesses, governments and individuals to ensure attacks like these are minimised.â€
There has to be an easier way, right
MediaGraph has an option. Launched by David Batey eight months ago in Dubai, MediaGraph connects small business owners with the journalists and bloggers interested in writing about that subject. MediaGraph collects information about a business, along with the subjects that pertain to that business. This allows small businesses to make connections in the industry without going through an expensive firm, while also providing journalists the experts they need to improve their content.
Many small businesses now use Help a Reporter Out (HARO), a free service that lets journalists post queries. Small businesses offer quotes and insight in response to those queries in exchange for free publicity if their response is chosen. As Batey points out, however, HARO has its limitations.
“The downside to only doing responsive PR if you’re an SME is that you can wait six months for something mildy relevant if your space and target audience and then you’re competing with lots of other similar companies,†Batey says. “To do PR effectively you should be looking to leverage both a proactive approach and a reactive approach.â€
Batey also addresses the other option for small businesses-contacting various journalists and taking them to lunch. This, of course, costs money and time-time many small business owners simply don’t have. Batey also points out that publicity often has a global reach these days, so the ability to introduce a small business owner in a small town to a reporter across the world is invaluable. MediaGraph provides that initial introduction without the need to hop a plane and wine and dine journalists.
MediaGraph can connect small business owners with some of the most impressive media outlets in the world, including CNET and Forbes. But the site also works with “influencersâ€-bloggers and social media members who have large numbers of followers. Having a mention on one of these blogs can help small businesses reach hundreds of thousands of consumers.
MediaGraph prices start at only $19.99 a month, which includes access to the journalist/blogger directory, a list of the for the best journalists/bloggers for your organization, 20 pitches per month, analytics, and a campaign organizer. More advanced plans include “competitor intelligence,†providing information on a business’s competitors, including which media outlets are writing about those competitors.
Each plan comes with a 30-day free trial to give businesses an opportunity to try the service out. No credit card is required during the trial period. To sign up for MediaGraph’s 30-day trial, visit the company’s website.
There has to be an easier way, right
MediaGraph has an option. Launched by David Batey eight months ago in Dubai, MediaGraph connects small business owners with the journalists and bloggers interested in writing about that subject. MediaGraph collects information about a business, along with the subjects that pertain to that business. This allows small businesses to make connections in the industry without going through an expensive firm, while also providing journalists the experts they need to improve their content.
Many small businesses now use Help a Reporter Out (HARO), a free service that lets journalists post queries. Small businesses offer quotes and insight in response to those queries in exchange for free publicity if their response is chosen. As Batey points out, however, HARO has its limitations.
“The downside to only doing responsive PR if you’re an SME is that you can wait six months for something mildy relevant if your space and target audience and then you’re competing with lots of other similar companies,†Batey says. “To do PR effectively you should be looking to leverage both a proactive approach and a reactive approach.â€
Batey also addresses the other option for small businesses-contacting various journalists and taking them to lunch. This, of course, costs money and time-time many small business owners simply don’t have. Batey also points out that publicity often has a global reach these days, so the ability to introduce a small business owner in a small town to a reporter across the world is invaluable. MediaGraph provides that initial introduction without the need to hop a plane and wine and dine journalists.
MediaGraph can connect small business owners with some of the most impressive media outlets in the world, including CNET and Forbes. But the site also works with “influencersâ€-bloggers and social media members who have large numbers of followers. Having a mention on one of these blogs can help small businesses reach hundreds of thousands of consumers.
MediaGraph prices start at only $19.99 a month, which includes access to the journalist/blogger directory, a list of the for the best journalists/bloggers for your organization, 20 pitches per month, analytics, and a campaign organizer. More advanced plans include “competitor intelligence,†providing information on a business’s competitors, including which media outlets are writing about those competitors.
Each plan comes with a 30-day free trial to give businesses an opportunity to try the service out. No credit card is required during the trial period. To sign up for MediaGraph’s 30-day trial, visit the company’s website.
Police, private sector, MI5 and GCHQ are to form a joint Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP) to allow access to shared information.
Allowing all to better coordinate responses to modern cyber threats, the concept is to encourage firms to share information. This follows a successful pilot scheme that included over 160 companies across a range of UK sectors.
Launching the CISP, Francis Maude, cabinet office minister responsible for the Cyber Security Strategy, said: “This innovative partnership is breaking new ground through a truly collaborative partnership for sharing information on threats and to protect UK interests in cyber space.
“The initiative meets a key aim of our Cyber Security Strategy - to make the UK one of the safest places to do business in cyber space. As part of our investment in a transformative National Cyber Security Programme; we are pleased to provide a trusted platform to facilitate this project.â€Â
The concept is a secure virtual ‘collaboration environment' where information can be exchanged on threats and vulnerabilities in real-time, which will be complemented by a ‘fusion cell' that will be supported on the government side by the Security Service, GCHQ and the National Crime Agency, and by industry analysts from a variety of sectors.
The fusion cell will be cyber attack monitoring operations room at an undisclosed location in London.
Welcoming the announcement, former White House cyber security adviser Howard Schmidt, said that the launch of the CISP was an important step in forging an ongoing partnership between industry and government, promoting information sharing by providing the ability to analyse and redistribute information in a timely, actionable and relevant manner.
“In the US, we have seen the emphasis that President Obama has placed on cyber security and in particular steps to protect our critical infrastructure. Many senior leaders in private sector companies are supporting it and recognising it is not only a security issue but a business imperative,†he said.
Terry Greer-King, UK managing director at Check Point, said: “This is a key step forward for both governments and business in fighting web attacks, and reducing their impact. It's essential that organisations collaborate and share intelligence with each other to track emerging threats, mitigate their severity or block them before they cause damage. Fighting threats together is much more effective than fighting alone."
Graeme Stewart, director of public sector strategy at McAfee, said: “Information sharing is imperative to countering cyber threats. As cyber crime itself is global in nature, the need for a strong public-private partnership is critical, and McAfee is broadly supportive of such initiatives.Â
“We would however like to see the scheme provide outreach to include smaller and SME organisations. This sector makes up the supply chains of large corporate and government organisations and therefore a substantial portion of their risk comes from this supply chain failing to understand the threat posed by nefarious cyber activity.â€
Neil Thacker, information security and security officer EMEA at Websense, said: “The collaboration between businesses and government to fight cyber crime can only be commended. Companies need to put aside the stigma associated with being targeted by cyber criminals and understand that its reality. It's not a case of if, but a case of when.
“Only when companies shift away from relying on basic security controls that can be bypassed, can we say that we are making real advances in fighting cyber crime.â€
Questions have been asked on how secure GCHQ is, especially when it comes to password security.
According to a blog by Dan Farrall, a forgotten password request in January saw the password delivered in plain text. He said that he contacted GCHQ and having heard nothing back, saw that nothing had been corrected two months later.
He said: “Not really sure how we can trust somebody like that to protect us, when they are still doing stupid things like this. For those that don't think this matters, bear in mind the type of information you're submitting to these online applications: names, dates, family members information, passport numbers, housing information. With this type of information identity theft is a major concern.â€
A statement issued to the Register by GCHQ, said: “The current applicant tracking system used by GCHQ is a legacy system and we are currently in the process of changing it. Only the very small percentage of applicants (who need their accounts reset) are sent a new password. This comes with clear instructions of how to protect their data.â€
Rob Sobers, technical director at Varonis, said: “Now, there are plenty of reasons why this is a ridiculously bad practice and can expose very sensitive information to the wrong people.
“It's certainly not the case that password encryption is beyond the grasp of the partner of an intelligence agency like GCHQ. In fact, in the majority of cases, there is a known solution for the security challenges we face. But the volume of data we manage, the interconnectedness of our systems, organisational bureaucracy, and frankly, people, make security much harder than it seems.
“This case in particular highlights the need to do a thorough check of your third party providers and their business practices, especially in the area of security. We have to focus on the basic 'blocking and tackling' if we stand a chance at becoming a culture of data security and privacy.â€
In recent years, crowdsourcing has opened up possibilities for businesses interested in testing ideas and technology. No longer just a way to “outsource†work like web design and software development, crowdsourcing connects businesses to global networks of workers for a variety of tasks. Everything from commenting on blogs to picking up dry cleaning can be accomplished for a price, all thanks to the worldwide web.
Using crowdsourcing, small businesses can employ large numbers of beta testers for a price that doesn’t break the budget. In fact, the very concept of crowdsourcing allows businesses to post a project and choose from posted proposals, choosing only those testers that are right for a particular concept. Beta testers aren’t just for software and hardware anymore, however. Businesses have found they can pass ideas, business plans, and even websites through a large number of consumers to receive valuable feedback and insight.
“By tapping into the ‘crowd,’ SMBs can actually spur business innovation and solve tough problems and difficult issues by bringing together customers, vendors and employees or even an “unknown†online community (like the crowd) when preparing to launch new products and services,†Dieter Speidel, president and CEO of passbrains, says.
If your small business is considering crowdsourcing as a way to obtain feedback on your next project, here are a few sites that can help connect you with the testers you need.
Beta testing has extended far past usability of an app or website to include ideas, business concepts, and beyond. With a world of testers easily accessible through the internet, small businesses have never been closer to getting the extensive feedback they need to make a product succeed.
But before you do, here are three important aspects of selling your product or service online:
An e-commerce website does not mean that you will make money as you sleep -Â Firstly, you still have to offer a product that is compelling (be it price, convenience or novelty), which will make your customers come back for more and even talk about it to their friends and family. And secondly before you consider jumping onto the e-commerce bandwagon your business needs to be operationally prepared to meet the challenges of handling online orders.
Concerned about accepting online payments Start small -Â Perhaps a big concern for small businesses looking to start an e-commerce website is being able to accept payments online. You can start accepting online orders for your business using a PayPal account and as the volumes build up you can open a merchant account.
Continue to market your product on social media - Social media is a great way to engage customers by sharing discount codes and coupons, posting news about your business or maybe even sharing photos of your office. It’s important for small businesses to continue to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter in addition to their e-commerce websites.
Go Online with the help of E-commerce Hosting Websites
Till about six to seven years ago it was a challenge for businesses to start an e-commerce website, often waiting several years to gain critical mass before investing a substantial amount in developing online sales capability. Today small businesses with little or no experience in managing a website can do so in a matter of days with the help of e-commerce hosting websites. Not only do these websites help create an e-commerce portal in the name of the business, they also provide online ordering features such as  order catalogue, customer check-out-cart, link between the website and social media page and ability to accept on-line paymentsÂ
In terms of overall features Volusion, Shopify and Shopping Cart Elite have been rated as the top three e-commerce software. A fourth player worth your consideration is Bigcommerce which hosts more than 30,000 small and medium sized businesses. Here is a quick round-up of their individual pricing plans:
Volusion: The stalwart among the other players, their monthly plans vary from $15 for listing 25 products with online support to $299.95 for listing unlimited products with priority support. They don’t levy a transaction fee.
Shopify: Their starter plan is for as little as $14 a month. Although they do levy a transaction fee varying from 2% to 1% in all plans, except for the $179 a month plan.
Shopping Cart Elite: Known for its customer service, their standard monthly charges are $99.  Robust website customization and inventory management features sets it apart from its competition.
Bigcommerce: Their monthly plans vary from $24.95 for listing 100 products with 3 staff logins to $299.95 for listing unlimited products and 100 staff logins. They offer a 10 percent discount on yearly pricing. Bigcommerce also helps its customers in obtaining a merchant account, which can be difficult at times for small businesses in absence of good business credit.
All these companies also provide a free trial period of about 2 weeks so you have some leeway for evaluating which company’s platform is ideal for your business.Â
We all want our businesses to be lean and mean. But efficiency can be like heat inside a building that has tiny cracks around windows and doors. Heat leaks out here and there - you don’t even realize it.  Here are some things that can steal efficiency from your business through your information technology systems, that you may not even realize:
Lack of IT policies and procedures, or not following them
According to a Ponemon Institute study in 2012, “negligent insiders are the top cause of data breaches.†Internal negligence accounts for 39% of data breaches. Probably most of those people involved in breaches were horrified at what happened, but human error was still at the heart of it.
There are many ways human error can happen:Â not controlling system administrator access when roles change or people leave; employees losing laptops or having them stolen; easily cracked user passwords. Too often a breach sends a business into a crisis tailspin. It may lead to financial losses, public relations repercussions and legal problems.
Maintaining physical IT resources
Maintaining information technology hardware can be expensive as well as time consuming for small businesses already having a tough time meeting the growing demands of their operations. Common issues include slow or outdated servers, and physical loss in the event of a disaster. Then there’s the capital expense of buying and scaling IT equipment, implementing upgrades, as well as the sheer number of servers needed and the operating expense.
Failing to schedule system backups or incomplete backups Â
Even in this day and age, studies still show erratic backup practices among small businesses. The causes are many: human error, backup solution failure, budget restrictions. The headaches and costs of trying to recover - and perhaps not being able to recover completely â€" can threaten a smaller business’s very existence.
Not requiring employees to update passwords regularly
Using the same password multiple times, and using easy passwords are two common practices making your entire system potentially vulnerable. Chinese hackers were able to breach the New York Times website in January simply by getting email login credentials of a writer.
Not treating mobile devices as an integral part of your IT systems
In a 2012 honeypot study, 50 mobile devices were intentionally lost. In the vast majority of cases the person finding it accessed information on the device (intentionally or unintentionally). The costs of mobility-related incidents were  $247,000 on average, per incident, according to that same study.
Slow network and Internet connections, and downtime
You may not realize just how much time employees spend waiting for large files to transfer and slowness caused by bandwidth limitations and other issues. The last thing you want is business-critical computing to be interrupted. Other systems can be disrupted, too. A VOIP phone system that’s down for a half a day can mean tremendous lost business and inconvenience for employees and customers alike.
Not identifying and tackling the biggest problems areas first
Systems and networks get more complex all the time. Complexity makes it harder to troubleshoot issues. You don’t want to spend hours or days solving minor issues while the biggest issues continue to plague the business.
In summary, technology issues involve hundreds of details and can be interrelated. When problems arise they take  mindshare away from running the business. Important revenue-generating IT projects get delayed. The company can be thrown into crisis mode. None of us enjoy spending large sums to fix issues because we’re forced to in order to avoid disaster.
One other piece of advice we’ve learned the hard way:  don’t continue doing things one way just because you’ve always done it that way and never had a problem. Make a point to educate yourself  and your team on the possibilities. Many more options exist today compared with even a couple of years ago.  Today’s solutions could be â€" and often are â€" more efficient in terms of staff time and money.
In recent years, crowdsourcing has opened up possibilities for businesses interested in testing ideas and technology. No longer just a way to “outsource†work like web design and software development, crowdsourcing connects businesses to global networks of workers for a variety of tasks. Everything from commenting on blogs to picking up dry cleaning can be accomplished for a price, all thanks to the worldwide web.
Using crowdsourcing, small businesses can employ large numbers of beta testers for a price that doesn’t break the budget. In fact, the very concept of crowdsourcing allows businesses to post a project and choose from posted proposals, choosing only those testers that are right for a particular concept. Beta testers aren’t just for software and hardware anymore, however. Businesses have found they can pass ideas, business plans, and even websites through a large number of consumers to receive valuable feedback and insight.
“By tapping into the ‘crowd,’ SMBs can actually spur business innovation and solve tough problems and difficult issues by bringing together customers, vendors and employees or even an “unknown†online community (like the crowd) when preparing to launch new products and services,†Dieter Speidel, president and CEO of passbrains, says.
If your small business is considering crowdsourcing as a way to obtain feedback on your next project, here are a few sites that can help connect you with the testers you need.
Beta testing has extended far past usability of an app or website to include ideas, business concepts, and beyond. With a world of testers easily accessible through the internet, small businesses have never been closer to getting the extensive feedback they need to make a product succeed.
