Infusionsoft Gmail Integration is Now Available

The use of Customer Relationship Management software, also known as CRM, has been on the rise for small businesses over the past few years. But we’ve also seen some issues for small business owners.

If you’ve got your contacts in your CRM or similar software, where’s the connection between that platform and your email, which is where most of us do the bulk of our daily interactions with customers?

Infusionsoft, an online marketing software provider,  just announced the arrival of Infusionsoft Sync for Gmail to address the connection between CRM and employees’ daily email usage to interact with customers.

Richard Tripp, chief product officer at Infusionsoft, said the problem the company wanted to help marketers and marketing staff in small businesses with, was that disconnect between CRM and their email:

Many of our customers who use Gmail have encountered a roadblock when trying to streamline processes between their email and calendar management, and Infusionsoft. They’ve been asking to have access to contact information, calendar syncing and the ability to trigger sales automation from inside Gmail.

The free Gmail integration, which was acquired from an Infusionsoft Marketplace Partner, Benji Rabhan and the team at AutomationCore, provides immediate visibility into appointments, centralized contacts and communications within Gmail, and better interactions with clients.  It works with Firefox and Chrome browsers.

Streamlined Customer Communications

Here’s an example of how the Infusionsoft Gmail integration works.

Let’s say a marketer didn’t use this integration. She’s got her CRM with all her client data and contact information, which she manually transferred to the CRM platform. If she has a task to complete for the client, she opens her project management platform, like Basecamp, and sets up the task and due date. She knows she needs to follow up to an email by the end of the week, so she makes an item on her Google Calendar. And because she has a quick question best addressed by phone, she has to open her CRM program to get the client’s phone number (it’s not in an email).

You can see in this example, this process involves a lot of switching between programs and wasting a lot of time.

The Infusionsoft Gmail integration aims to deal with that.  Here’s an example with the integration to illustrate how it works:

Ms. Marketer logs into her Infusionsoft account directly from her Gmail sidebar. She opens an email from a client, and up pops the corresponding profile from the CRM software. She can add or review tasks that relate to this client, as well as see what opportunities she may be able to work on. She can see what tasks or appointments are pending, and do any followup that the CRM alerts her is needed. She’s got all of the client’s contact info there too, so she doesn’t have to hunt for that phone number. It is all in one place.

Tapping into the Small Business Mindset

A year and a half ago, when I covered Infusionsoft’s social media components, the company was servicing just over 8,000 small businesses. That number has grown to 50,000 small business users spread across 70 countries.

I Killed A Rabid Fox With A Croquet Mallet: Storytelling In Business

I’m going to call it, right here, right now. Best title for a business book ever. I’ve never heard a better one. Please, if you have, let me know in the comments below.

I Killed A Rabid Fox With A Croquet Mallet, written by Nicolas Boillot, the CEO of HB Agency, is subtitled Making Your Business Stories Compelling And Memorable, and that’s exactly what the book outlines. Stories, and the importance of storytelling in business and marketing.

In my other life, I write fiction, so I’ve read quite a lot of books and articles on story structure and writing. This book takes storytelling theory and lessons, distills them and shows you how you can use them to benefit your business. You want to create a narrative in the minds of your customers, and this book shows you how.

I’ve been thumbing through the book (not literally, I got a PDF copy), and there’s a lot of cool stuff in here (including the story that inspired the title. Spoilers: The author says he truly did kill a rabid fox with a croquet mallet). It’s full of case studies, “from a small Canadian folk band, to a medium-sized environmental consulting group, our examples help you to see that it’s not such a stretch to get from here to there, using your own best stories as the catalyst. You can do it, and this book will show you how.”

The author was kind enough to allow us to post an excerpt. Here’s part of chapter one:

WHAT’S A STORY?

Search online or ask friends and colleagues, “What’s in a story?” and each friend, each source, will give you a different answer.

In HB Agency’s PR practice, when we reach out to journalists, they often ask right away if we’re calling about a first, best or only. In other words, they want to know if our scoop will provide them with knowledge about a product, service or even an event that no one has ever heard about. Or something that’s more impressive than anything else. If we can’t say “yes” (and most of the time we can’t), they ask, “Why would my audience care?”

Novelist Jim Hines says he was taught that a story shows us “interesting people in interesting places solving interesting problems in interesting ways.” He goes on to ask, “What qualifies as interesting, anyway?” And, “How can you tell if your stuff will be interesting to others?”

Great past and contemporary storytellers will refer to Shakespeare as the master of all storytellers, yet after in-depth study, none of them can devise any sort of recipe for telling a great story based on Shakespeare. Some Shakespearean scholars claim that he relied on surprise and incongruity for much of his storytelling - that those elements, surprise and incongruity, keep us hooked as his plots unfold.

Surprise and incongruity, what am I supposed to do with that?

Roughly 400 years after Shakespeare, Robert McKee, consultant to the film industry and mentor to screenwriters, novelists and playwrights, often says “story happens when there’s a gap between expectation and result.” That’s a little more helpful than “surprise and incongruity.” In fact, that nugget is so helpful that it bears repeating:

STORY HAPPENS WHEN THERE’S A GAP BETWEEN EXPECTATION AND RESULT.

Let’s dig deeper.

Suppose you run into an old friend at a business meeting and you say, “Hey, have I got a story for you!” She perks up, and you start off:

“I went to work late yesterday evening to finish up a project, and my business partner was already in his office. I could tell by the light under the door. Wow, I thought, he’s not usually in that late. I knocked on the door, he told me to come in, and then he had this situation going on which made me want to help him right away…”

Very quickly, you notice that your old friend has that sleepy look in her eye that you recognize from somewhere. Oh, that’s it: the same look a two-year-old gets when her mother reads Goodnight Moon.

Try again:

“I went to work late yesterday evening and my business partner was in his office. I knocked on the door, walked in, and noticed that things weren’t right. I had had some suspicion about this because he’s not usually in his office. He was actually lying on the floor…”

She perks up. What? Lying on the floor? Try once more:

“I went to work late last night and found my business partner lying on the floor naked with scratch marks all over his body. I heard a noise and looked up to see an orangutan in the corner, glaring at me while chewing one of its fingernails…”

Your colleague interrupts you. “Whoooa…” she says, “slow down. I want to hear it from the beginning… so you’re walking into the office and… did you even notice anything on your way in?”

You didn’t even have to get loud or intense.

The widening gap between expectation and result, and/or the surprise and incongruity that Shakespeare relies on, absorbs us into the story. At this point you might be thinking: Makes sense. But my company doesn’t have stories about naked business partners recently mauled by orangutans!

NEWS FLASH: YOU HAVE STORIES, MANY OF THEM COMPELLING.

Your stories exist. They’re told and repeated every day:

-     By directors, to management
-     By management, to employees
-     By salespeople, to customers
-     By customers, to prospects

Some people might not even think of them as stories, but you have them in droves and they survive and propagate, with or without your assistance. Unfortunately, they’re most often forgotten, wasted or poorly used.

LEVERAGE - MAKING MORE FROM WHAT YOU’VE GOT.

Remember your first experience of leverage. Maybe you had to move a rock and someone showed you how you could put your weight on one end of a stick, use a log or a boulder as a fulcrum, and move a heavy object on the other end. You didn’t have to change your weight or your strength. You didn’t have to buy any additional equipment. But suddenly you could leverage your own weight to move something much bigger.

Stories are like that. You’ve got them and you’ve already paid for them. They can do the heavy lifting for you and your business. The question is how to make the most of them, to leverage them, in order to move your audiences the way you want.

NEWS FLASH - YOU ABSORB OTHER BUSINESSES’ STORIES EVERY DAY.

From billboards to the Internet, businesses compete to inform, interact, transact and create strong relationships with prospects and customers. L.L.Bean rose to fame through its ironclad satisfaction guarantee:

“Guaranteed to Last. Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at anytime if it proves otherwise. We do not want you to have anything from L.L.Bean that is not completely satisfactory.”

When we were in college, students boasted about returning an item they had abused over several months or years and getting a new one for free. Such stories spread quickly. We believe L.L.Bean banked on the fact that most people who heard these stories had one reaction: That person’s abusing the system. But what an amazing company to have such a return policy!

The return policy doesn’t make the story interesting - it’s the story about someone abusing the system that captures our attention. Did L.L.Bean executives plan on such stories becoming the catalyst to its phenomenal growth and longevity? Maybe they knew that some bargain-hunters and system abusers would be the first to spread tales about the return policy. If so, they must also have known that such tales would reach and influence millions of shoppers who would be more scrupulous about their returns.

OUTSIDE BUSINESS, WE RECOGNIZE STORIES EVERYWHERE.

Great stories live in movies, theatres, magazine pages, YouTube, books, company websites and, most of all, in our minds.

Great stories stick out and stick around. We retell them. We reread them. We watch them repeated. We share them over and over again. In fact, we like them so much that we rely on other people to point out, you’ve told me that one already. To which we answer, “I know. But Joe hasn’t heard it - I’ll tell it again.” Sometimes we even say, “I know, but I like telling it.”

COMPELLING AND MEMORABLE

These terms will crop up repeatedly throughout this book. Most people talk about stories and describe them as good, great, cool, fun, etc. Qualifiers like these are completely subjective. And while almost everything qualifies as “subjective” to some degree, using the words compelling and memorable is more helpful to helping us understand what makes a story valuable for your business.

Compelling: This means that the story grabs your attention. You are compelled to listen, read, and watch. We’re not naïve enough to think that many business stories will provide edge-of-your-seat gripping intensity… But compelling, yes. Even captivating. The right business stories grab the audience’s attention, just like the right salesperson hooks a prospect.

But who’s the “you” when we say grab your attention? It’s not you! You’re the storyteller. While your story should seem compelling to you, it’s more important to make it compelling for your audience.

Remember that - we’ll be talking about audience later.

Memorable: As business owners and employees, we attribute special meaning to some of our stories. They color the fabric of our time together, the ups and downs of our business life, the solidarity of being “in it together.” They often provide reasons for getting up each day and going to work - reasons we tell friends and loved ones on a regular basis. This book is about stories designed especially for your professional communities, inside and outside your business, and we want them memorable for two primary reasons.

-     First, we need our audiences, especially our customers and prospects, to maintain great reasons to work with us. In a fiercely competitive landscape, it’s tough to get a new customer. Keeping that customer happy is even tougher. What we call brand loyalty involves getting customers to remember compelling stories about our business and their interactions with it. For our internal audiences, the same reasoning applies: Memorable stories solidify an employee’s reasons to go back to work, to talk to other potentially good employees about the company, and to value the memories he or she makes in the workplace.

-     Second, one of the best ways to market ourselves is when other people market for us - in other words, word of mouth marketing. If our audiences remember the great stories about our business, they will much more easily share them with their friends. In a time when the networked world makes sharing easier than ever, it pays to have plenty of good stories to share.

-

You can buy I Killed A Rabid Fox With A Croquet Mallet here.

Tell us your business’s story in the comments!

Case Study: US supermarket chain solves security challenge virtually

A large US supermarket chain has implemented an innovative endpoint security technology to secure point of sales systems running legacy applications to save additional development or patching costs.

Bromium’s vSentry endpoint security software applies virtualisation expertise to isolate and secure every untrusted network task within its own tiny virtual machine or microVM.

According to Bromium, it is impossible to detect all the possible attacks or monitor all the possible forms of suspicious behaviour.

However, the firm maintains it is possible to protect endpoints using highly granular virtualisation in combination with hardware-enforced isolation.

In this proactive approach to security, vSentry assumes all internet tasks are untrusted and automatically puts each task into its own microVM, which is destroyed when the task is completed.

If an attack occurs within any of these tasks, the malware remains contained and isolated inside the microVM, unable to escape and access any system or network resource.

Because vSentry is completely transparent to the user - even during a malware attack - there is no affect on user experience or performance, according to Bromium.

This approach, the security firm claims, de-couples protection for the first time and provides 100% protection against all malware attacks as it does not use any “detection” technologies.

To validate this claim, research organisation NSS Labs completed an independent security validation exercise on vSentry.

The results, published in February 2013, stated that vSentry protected endpoints from every attack, including 166 embedded exploits delivered through email and drive-by attacks.

VSentry also protected targets against 15 advance attacks using the Metasploit penetration testing toolset that incorporated advanced obfuscation and evasion techniques in an attempt to bypass protection.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the director of information security for a large US-based supermarket chain said the company implemented vSentry in the face of malware designed to avoid detection.

“This compelled us to examine solutions with novel approaches to solving the problem,” he said.

According to the supermarket chain, network-based detection tools would not be able to provide the adequate visibility or control to deal with this type of malware.

Similarly, there were certain attack types that the other endpoint security controls could not mitigate or were operationally burdensome. 

“We were also looking for technology that would prevent the most sophisticated, targeted attacks, not just produce forensic data after they were successful and eventually detected,” the director of security said.

The threat intelligence provided by Bromium’s Live Attack Visualisation and Analysis (LAVA) system is one of the pillars of an improved security framework that the company is implementing to achieve greater visibility and alerting for malicious activity.

“The exceptional benefit that vSentry provides is that their isolation-based approach first protects the systems from targeted attacks, then alerts us of the threat - after it has already been mitigated,” he said.

This reduces the noise and number of alerts to investigate as well as having a measurable savings around the operational cost incurred to remediate those machines and associated lost productivity.

There are three main business benefits of vSentry, according to the director of security.

First, the systems running legacy applications could be secured with no additional development or patching cost.

Second, the number of malware infections and the associated time it takes to remediate them has been almost non-existent.

Third, the intelligence gained from malware captured with LAVA on only a small number of vSentry hosts protects the entire environment. 

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I Killed A Rabid Fox With A Croquet Mallet: Storytelling In Business

I’m going to call it, right here, right now. Best title for a business book ever. I’ve never heard a better one. Please, if you have, let me know in the comments below.

I Killed A Rabid Fox With A Croquet Mallet, written by Nicolas Boillot, the CEO of HB Agency, is subtitled Making Your Business Stories Compelling And Memorable, and that’s exactly what the book outlines. Stories, and the importance of storytelling in business and marketing.

In my other life, I write fiction, so I’ve read quite a lot of books and articles on story structure and writing. This book takes storytelling theory and lessons, distills them and shows you how you can use them to benefit your business. You want to create a narrative in the minds of your customers, and this book shows you how.

I’ve been thumbing through the book (not literally, I got a PDF copy), and there’s a lot of cool stuff in here (including the story that inspired the title. Spoilers: The author says he truly did kill a rabid fox with a croquet mallet). It’s full of case studies, “from a small Canadian folk band, to a medium-sized environmental consulting group, our examples help you to see that it’s not such a stretch to get from here to there, using your own best stories as the catalyst. You can do it, and this book will show you how.”

The author was kind enough to allow us to post an excerpt. Here’s part of chapter one:

WHAT’S A STORY?

Search online or ask friends and colleagues, “What’s in a story?” and each friend, each source, will give you a different answer.

In HB Agency’s PR practice, when we reach out to journalists, they often ask right away if we’re calling about a first, best or only. In other words, they want to know if our scoop will provide them with knowledge about a product, service or even an event that no one has ever heard about. Or something that’s more impressive than anything else. If we can’t say “yes” (and most of the time we can’t), they ask, “Why would my audience care?”

Novelist Jim Hines says he was taught that a story shows us “interesting people in interesting places solving interesting problems in interesting ways.” He goes on to ask, “What qualifies as interesting, anyway?” And, “How can you tell if your stuff will be interesting to others?”

Great past and contemporary storytellers will refer to Shakespeare as the master of all storytellers, yet after in-depth study, none of them can devise any sort of recipe for telling a great story based on Shakespeare. Some Shakespearean scholars claim that he relied on surprise and incongruity for much of his storytelling - that those elements, surprise and incongruity, keep us hooked as his plots unfold.

Surprise and incongruity, what am I supposed to do with that?

Roughly 400 years after Shakespeare, Robert McKee, consultant to the film industry and mentor to screenwriters, novelists and playwrights, often says “story happens when there’s a gap between expectation and result.” That’s a little more helpful than “surprise and incongruity.” In fact, that nugget is so helpful that it bears repeating:

STORY HAPPENS WHEN THERE’S A GAP BETWEEN EXPECTATION AND RESULT.

Let’s dig deeper.

Suppose you run into an old friend at a business meeting and you say, “Hey, have I got a story for you!” She perks up, and you start off:

“I went to work late yesterday evening to finish up a project, and my business partner was already in his office. I could tell by the light under the door. Wow, I thought, he’s not usually in that late. I knocked on the door, he told me to come in, and then he had this situation going on which made me want to help him right away…”

Very quickly, you notice that your old friend has that sleepy look in her eye that you recognize from somewhere. Oh, that’s it: the same look a two-year-old gets when her mother reads Goodnight Moon.

Try again:

“I went to work late yesterday evening and my business partner was in his office. I knocked on the door, walked in, and noticed that things weren’t right. I had had some suspicion about this because he’s not usually in his office. He was actually lying on the floor…”

She perks up. What? Lying on the floor? Try once more:

“I went to work late last night and found my business partner lying on the floor naked with scratch marks all over his body. I heard a noise and looked up to see an orangutan in the corner, glaring at me while chewing one of its fingernails…”

Your colleague interrupts you. “Whoooa…” she says, “slow down. I want to hear it from the beginning… so you’re walking into the office and… did you even notice anything on your way in?”

You didn’t even have to get loud or intense.

The widening gap between expectation and result, and/or the surprise and incongruity that Shakespeare relies on, absorbs us into the story. At this point you might be thinking: Makes sense. But my company doesn’t have stories about naked business partners recently mauled by orangutans!

NEWS FLASH: YOU HAVE STORIES, MANY OF THEM COMPELLING.

Your stories exist. They’re told and repeated every day:

-     By directors, to management
-     By management, to employees
-     By salespeople, to customers
-     By customers, to prospects

Some people might not even think of them as stories, but you have them in droves and they survive and propagate, with or without your assistance. Unfortunately, they’re most often forgotten, wasted or poorly used.

LEVERAGE - MAKING MORE FROM WHAT YOU’VE GOT.

Remember your first experience of leverage. Maybe you had to move a rock and someone showed you how you could put your weight on one end of a stick, use a log or a boulder as a fulcrum, and move a heavy object on the other end. You didn’t have to change your weight or your strength. You didn’t have to buy any additional equipment. But suddenly you could leverage your own weight to move something much bigger.

Stories are like that. You’ve got them and you’ve already paid for them. They can do the heavy lifting for you and your business. The question is how to make the most of them, to leverage them, in order to move your audiences the way you want.

NEWS FLASH - YOU ABSORB OTHER BUSINESSES’ STORIES EVERY DAY.

From billboards to the Internet, businesses compete to inform, interact, transact and create strong relationships with prospects and customers. L.L.Bean rose to fame through its ironclad satisfaction guarantee:

“Guaranteed to Last. Our products are guaranteed to give 100% satisfaction in every way. Return anything purchased from us at anytime if it proves otherwise. We do not want you to have anything from L.L.Bean that is not completely satisfactory.”

When we were in college, students boasted about returning an item they had abused over several months or years and getting a new one for free. Such stories spread quickly. We believe L.L.Bean banked on the fact that most people who heard these stories had one reaction: That person’s abusing the system. But what an amazing company to have such a return policy!

The return policy doesn’t make the story interesting - it’s the story about someone abusing the system that captures our attention. Did L.L.Bean executives plan on such stories becoming the catalyst to its phenomenal growth and longevity? Maybe they knew that some bargain-hunters and system abusers would be the first to spread tales about the return policy. If so, they must also have known that such tales would reach and influence millions of shoppers who would be more scrupulous about their returns.

OUTSIDE BUSINESS, WE RECOGNIZE STORIES EVERYWHERE.

Great stories live in movies, theatres, magazine pages, YouTube, books, company websites and, most of all, in our minds.

Great stories stick out and stick around. We retell them. We reread them. We watch them repeated. We share them over and over again. In fact, we like them so much that we rely on other people to point out, you’ve told me that one already. To which we answer, “I know. But Joe hasn’t heard it - I’ll tell it again.” Sometimes we even say, “I know, but I like telling it.”

COMPELLING AND MEMORABLE

These terms will crop up repeatedly throughout this book. Most people talk about stories and describe them as good, great, cool, fun, etc. Qualifiers like these are completely subjective. And while almost everything qualifies as “subjective” to some degree, using the words compelling and memorable is more helpful to helping us understand what makes a story valuable for your business.

Compelling: This means that the story grabs your attention. You are compelled to listen, read, and watch. We’re not naïve enough to think that many business stories will provide edge-of-your-seat gripping intensity… But compelling, yes. Even captivating. The right business stories grab the audience’s attention, just like the right salesperson hooks a prospect.

But who’s the “you” when we say grab your attention? It’s not you! You’re the storyteller. While your story should seem compelling to you, it’s more important to make it compelling for your audience.

Remember that - we’ll be talking about audience later.

Memorable: As business owners and employees, we attribute special meaning to some of our stories. They color the fabric of our time together, the ups and downs of our business life, the solidarity of being “in it together.” They often provide reasons for getting up each day and going to work - reasons we tell friends and loved ones on a regular basis. This book is about stories designed especially for your professional communities, inside and outside your business, and we want them memorable for two primary reasons.

-     First, we need our audiences, especially our customers and prospects, to maintain great reasons to work with us. In a fiercely competitive landscape, it’s tough to get a new customer. Keeping that customer happy is even tougher. What we call brand loyalty involves getting customers to remember compelling stories about our business and their interactions with it. For our internal audiences, the same reasoning applies: Memorable stories solidify an employee’s reasons to go back to work, to talk to other potentially good employees about the company, and to value the memories he or she makes in the workplace.

-     Second, one of the best ways to market ourselves is when other people market for us - in other words, word of mouth marketing. If our audiences remember the great stories about our business, they will much more easily share them with their friends. In a time when the networked world makes sharing easier than ever, it pays to have plenty of good stories to share.

-

You can buy I Killed A Rabid Fox With A Croquet Mallet here.

Tell us your business’s story in the comments!

Tech Thursday (5/30): News From Chase, HP, Insightly, and Sage

It’s Tech Thursday from Smallbiztechnology.com. Each week we take a quick look at business and technology news and updates for the small business community and share them with you in a quick and simple round-up.

Ink from Chase Enhances Jot Mobile Application with Receipt Capture Capability

New Feature Allows Small Business Cardholders to Capture and File Receipts On the Go

Ink from Chase, the business card portfolio from Chase Card Services, announced a new receipt capture capability exclusively for Jot(SM) , a free mobile application and online tool designed to meet the needs of small business owners who are often on the go. Jot saves small business owners time in the back office by enabling them to easily track, categorize and organize business expenses â€" including actual receipts â€" in real-time from their iPhone(R) and Android(TM) mobile devices.

Jot sends small business owners a push alert within seconds of making a purchase with their Ink card. Customers can immediately tag these purchases to custom categories on a mobile device or online. With the receipt capture feature, customers simply take a photo of a receipt with their mobile device camera and attach it to purchases made with an Ink card. Customers can then sort transactions, download and print receipts online and create and download reports containing purchases and receipts into accounting software, including QuickBooks(R) and Excel(R) .

For all the feature on this app, click here.

 

HP Gives SMBs Increased Mobility and Performance with New PC and Print Solutions

New products, technology and tools designed to help small and medium-size businesses improve productivity and increase their connectivity.

When it comes to IT purchasing decisions, many SMBs struggle to meet all of their needs in balancing performance, quality and design. HP understands this and is helping SMBs achieve this balance with high-performance notebook PCs that offer cutting-edge design and features, and reliable print solutions that are easily integrated into business environments. Furthermore, HP’s offerings are designed to meet the budgets of SMBs while providing an increased focus on productivity and manageability.

HP’s new SMB offerings include:

• HP ProBook 400 Series
• HP 200 Series
• HP Scanjet Sheet-feed Scanner and HP LaserJet and HP Officejet

For all the details, click here.

 

Insightly Brings CRM, Project Management to Android Devices

Free application for small-business users extends mobile connectivity to Android tablets, smartphones

Insightly, the leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) applications for small businesses, announced the immediate availability of the free Insightly app for Android devices. The app is available for download on Google Play. Users can access Insightly’s CRM and project management solution at anytime from anywhere, allowing for collaboration while working remotely or in the field and giving small businesses competitive advantage through better customer experiences.

Small businesses rely on mobile apps to help run their businesses and they need a simple, intuitive app that allows them to focus on running their company, not training employees on new technology. Insightly’s Android app was designed specifically with this in mind and users can immediately pull up customer information to respond to inquiries at any time. With the Android app, small businesses with mobile connectivity can be more accessible and responsive to customers, enabling them to build strong relationships.

For more information, click here. 

 

Sage Introduces Bank Integration

Simpler Interface to Sage One as Customer Feedback Continues to Drive Enhancements

Sage North America unveiled several new time-saving features for Sage One. Developed on a global technology platform that can be efficiently and effectively tailored to local market needs in the U.S,  Sage One combines accounting with invoicing, project, task, and time management functionality to address the unique needs of entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses. The new features announced today were developed in response to customer feedback and enable Sage One to meet market demands while delivering a positive user experience.

One of the main new features, bank integration, works with more than 10,000 banks and financial institutions. Users can select and link as many bank accounts and credit cards with Sage One as they wish and may reconcile transactions and apply payments against customer invoices in Sage One. Bank integration eliminates the time-consuming task of manually entering or updating payment information.

For all the features, click here. 

Tech Thursday (5/30): News From Chase, HP, Insightly, and Sage

It’s Tech Thursday from Smallbiztechnology.com. Each week we take a quick look at business and technology news and updates for the small business community and share them with you in a quick and simple round-up.

Ink from Chase Enhances Jot Mobile Application with Receipt Capture Capability

New Feature Allows Small Business Cardholders to Capture and File Receipts On the Go

Ink from Chase, the business card portfolio from Chase Card Services, announced a new receipt capture capability exclusively for Jot(SM) , a free mobile application and online tool designed to meet the needs of small business owners who are often on the go. Jot saves small business owners time in the back office by enabling them to easily track, categorize and organize business expenses â€" including actual receipts â€" in real-time from their iPhone(R) and Android(TM) mobile devices.

Jot sends small business owners a push alert within seconds of making a purchase with their Ink card. Customers can immediately tag these purchases to custom categories on a mobile device or online. With the receipt capture feature, customers simply take a photo of a receipt with their mobile device camera and attach it to purchases made with an Ink card. Customers can then sort transactions, download and print receipts online and create and download reports containing purchases and receipts into accounting software, including QuickBooks(R) and Excel(R) .

For all the feature on this app, click here.

 

HP Gives SMBs Increased Mobility and Performance with New PC and Print Solutions

New products, technology and tools designed to help small and medium-size businesses improve productivity and increase their connectivity.

When it comes to IT purchasing decisions, many SMBs struggle to meet all of their needs in balancing performance, quality and design. HP understands this and is helping SMBs achieve this balance with high-performance notebook PCs that offer cutting-edge design and features, and reliable print solutions that are easily integrated into business environments. Furthermore, HP’s offerings are designed to meet the budgets of SMBs while providing an increased focus on productivity and manageability.

HP’s new SMB offerings include:

• HP ProBook 400 Series
• HP 200 Series
• HP Scanjet Sheet-feed Scanner and HP LaserJet and HP Officejet

For all the details, click here.

 

Insightly Brings CRM, Project Management to Android Devices

Free application for small-business users extends mobile connectivity to Android tablets, smartphones

Insightly, the leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) applications for small businesses, announced the immediate availability of the free Insightly app for Android devices. The app is available for download on Google Play. Users can access Insightly’s CRM and project management solution at anytime from anywhere, allowing for collaboration while working remotely or in the field and giving small businesses competitive advantage through better customer experiences.

Small businesses rely on mobile apps to help run their businesses and they need a simple, intuitive app that allows them to focus on running their company, not training employees on new technology. Insightly’s Android app was designed specifically with this in mind and users can immediately pull up customer information to respond to inquiries at any time. With the Android app, small businesses with mobile connectivity can be more accessible and responsive to customers, enabling them to build strong relationships.

For more information, click here. 

 

Sage Introduces Bank Integration

Simpler Interface to Sage One as Customer Feedback Continues to Drive Enhancements

Sage North America unveiled several new time-saving features for Sage One. Developed on a global technology platform that can be efficiently and effectively tailored to local market needs in the U.S,  Sage One combines accounting with invoicing, project, task, and time management functionality to address the unique needs of entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses. The new features announced today were developed in response to customer feedback and enable Sage One to meet market demands while delivering a positive user experience.

One of the main new features, bank integration, works with more than 10,000 banks and financial institutions. Users can select and link as many bank accounts and credit cards with Sage One as they wish and may reconcile transactions and apply payments against customer invoices in Sage One. Bank integration eliminates the time-consuming task of manually entering or updating payment information.

For all the features, click here. 

Why Made In America Still Matters

Does your retail or ecommerce business sell American-made products? Then you might have an edge with consumersâ€"if you know how to market these products right. A recent Harris Interactive study shows Americans of both genders, all political parties and all ages care about buying American (PDF).

These days, “Made in America” isn’t as clear-cut as it used to be. Most Americans are aware that products branded with American labels may be made in overseas factories or assembled here with parts made overseas. Three-fourths of consumers say being manufactured in the U.S. is crucial for them to consider it “made in America.” Half say being made by an American company or having parts manufactured in the U.S. is what matters. Only one-fourth cared whether a product was designed by an American.

Although buying American matters to all age groups, older respondents (age 48-plus) were the most likely to say it’s important to do so. Women also placed greater importance on buying American than men do. Perhaps surprisingly, three-fourths of both Republicans and Democrats say buying American is important, compared to just 60 percent of independents.

Keeping jobs in the U.S. is the biggest reason respondents give for wanting to buy American-made products as cited by 66 percent of respondents. Supporting U.S. companies was cited by 56 percent, and patriotism by 45 percent.

There were also some fear-based reasons for buying American. Nearly half buy American because they’re worried about the safety of products made overseas, while 45 percent worry about the quality. In addition, 39 percent are concerned about the human rights of the foreign workers who make these products, while 32 percent worry about the environmental impact of products made outside the U.S.

The bigger the purchase, it seems, the more importance people attach to buying American. So if you sell American-made appliances, furniture or cars, know that between 70 and 75 percent of people believe buying those products is important or very important. Seventy-two percent say the same about apparel.

Clearly, if you sell anything made in America, you need to let your customers know:

Be Specific

Your marketing should explain to what degree the product is made in America (assembled in the U.S.? Made with parts manufactured in the U.S.?).

Appeal to Emotion

What will customers accomplish by buying your products?  Protecting U.S. jobs? Helping the environment? Feeling confident their new clothing wasn’t made by child labor?

Tell Your Story

Share why you think it’s important to buy American. If you actually manufacture your own product here, even better. You’re not only a Made in America story, but an entrepreneurial success story to boot.

America Photo via Shutterstock

Why Made In America Still Matters

Does your retail or ecommerce business sell American-made products? Then you might have an edge with consumersâ€"if you know how to market these products right. A recent Harris Interactive study shows Americans of both genders, all political parties and all ages care about buying American (PDF).

These days, “Made in America” isn’t as clear-cut as it used to be. Most Americans are aware that products branded with American labels may be made in overseas factories or assembled here with parts made overseas. Three-fourths of consumers say being manufactured in the U.S. is crucial for them to consider it “made in America.” Half say being made by an American company or having parts manufactured in the U.S. is what matters. Only one-fourth cared whether a product was designed by an American.

Although buying American matters to all age groups, older respondents (age 48-plus) were the most likely to say it’s important to do so. Women also placed greater importance on buying American than men do. Perhaps surprisingly, three-fourths of both Republicans and Democrats say buying American is important, compared to just 60 percent of independents.

Keeping jobs in the U.S. is the biggest reason respondents give for wanting to buy American-made products as cited by 66 percent of respondents. Supporting U.S. companies was cited by 56 percent, and patriotism by 45 percent.

There were also some fear-based reasons for buying American. Nearly half buy American because they’re worried about the safety of products made overseas, while 45 percent worry about the quality. In addition, 39 percent are concerned about the human rights of the foreign workers who make these products, while 32 percent worry about the environmental impact of products made outside the U.S.

The bigger the purchase, it seems, the more importance people attach to buying American. So if you sell American-made appliances, furniture or cars, know that between 70 and 75 percent of people believe buying those products is important or very important. Seventy-two percent say the same about apparel.

Clearly, if you sell anything made in America, you need to let your customers know:

Be Specific

Your marketing should explain to what degree the product is made in America (assembled in the U.S.? Made with parts manufactured in the U.S.?).

Appeal to Emotion

What will customers accomplish by buying your products?  Protecting U.S. jobs? Helping the environment? Feeling confident their new clothing wasn’t made by child labor?

Tell Your Story

Share why you think it’s important to buy American. If you actually manufacture your own product here, even better. You’re not only a Made in America story, but an entrepreneurial success story to boot.

America Photo via Shutterstock

Five Ways To Keep Your Business Safe From Cyber Attacks

It might seem like no one is safe anymore from malicious browser-based cyber-attacks. Even the U.S. Department of Labor announced this month that they too, suffered a malware attack through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. But it’s not just the big businesses and organizations being targeted, according to the U.S. House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology, about 20% of the cyber-attacks currently happening are impacting companies with less than 250 employees.

So how can a small business expect to keep themselves safe from these irritating and costly attacks? Is it as easy as simply changing your company’s browser?

Corey Nachreiner, CISSP and Director of Security Strategy from WatchGuard Technologies says the solution is a bit more complex than that. It’s about pairing a good browser with a few additional precautionary steps.

1.)   Update your browsers on a regular basis. These updates can be the first line of defense against a cyber-attack. Running out-of-date versions of browsers can increase the potential risks of a browser-based cyber attack.

2.)   Block active scripting like Javascript, ActiveX, Flash and Java. These programs can be dangerous if they run automatically.

3.)   Have your IT manager make a whitelist for sites that have risky programming languages. This will prevent a user from being able to visit a site that could potentially cause a cyber attack.

4.)   Don’t just update your browser, remember that Java, Flash, Shockwave and Reader require updates to prevent attacks as well. Some of these programs can even be set so that updates are automatically installed, but it’s a good practice to periodically check for updates as well.

5.)   Check for the acronym “HTTPS.” These letters at the top of the address bar paired with an image of a lock means it’s a protected connection.

Last but not least, choose a browser that makes securing your information a priority. Both Firefox and Google Chrome have launched recent updates that will address critical safety flaws found in previous versions of their browsers.

NYC Events: Upcoming NYC Business and Technology Events (5/31 - 6/6)

Here is a listing of NYC Business and Technology Events for the upcoming week (5/31 - 6/6) that we thought would be beneficial to our small business community in the Greater NYC area.

Have a business and/or technology event coming up in the New York City area that you’d like us to add to our weekly post? If so, email us at eve...@smallbiztechnology.com.

 

Business Development Workshop

May 31, 2013, - 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM, 733 Third Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10017

Sandler Training Cordially Invites You to Attend: A Business Development Workshop for Business Owners, Company Presidents & Professional Service Firms You should consider attending if you (or your team) are… Concerned that you’re marketing and prospecting activities are not putting you in front of enough qualified prospects. Experiencing longer and longer sales cycles. Frustrated by spending a lot of time providing unpaid consulting with quotes, presentations and ideas, and then not getting the business. Unsure how to uncover the reasons that motivate your prospect to buy (from you). Eroding profits because you are not successful in negotiating for your price. Uncomfortable not having a selling system that will help you take control of the sales process, identify what you are doing well, where you can improve. In two short hours you’ll learn how to: - Establish trust with your prospects - Prospect more effectively - Shorten the sales cycle - Eliminate stalls and objections -Take control of thesales process -Differentiate your company

 

Writing Your Business Plan: A Roadmap To Success

May 31, 2013 - 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Science Industry and Business Library, 188 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Developing a business plan can be a challenge. This seminar is designed to guide you through the process, from identifying your customers to financing your business. It will cover why you need a plan, how to think about marketing, setting your business goals and assessing your financial needs. A business plan is a must, whether or not you are seeking financing, and this seminar is a must for entrepreneurs.

 

Public Relations Bootcamp

June 1, 2013, - 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Unique Photo, 123 US Highway 46, Fairfield, NJ 07004

What You Will Learn:

• The New Social PR
• Why PR Is the best form of Content Marketing
• How to connect with Journalists seeking Experts Like You
• How to pitch Journalists
• How to Create a PR Strategy
• How to use PR for Lead Generation
• PR for Search Engine Ranking
• How to Outsource some or all of your PR
• and much more

QuickBooks Boot-Camp

June 4, 2013, - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, New York City College of Technology, 25 Chapel St. 11th Floor, Room 1111, Brooklyn, NY 11201

This is a hands-on workshop with laptops and sample data provided to introduce the useful and flexible QuickBooks accounting and bookkeeping application.

During the morning session, attendees will be walked through the steps of proper data entry techniques. Attendees will practice creating invoices, receiving customer payments, and entering vendor bills and credit card statements. Attendees will also learn how to balance a checkbook, and to generate financial reports. The instructor will go over how to appropriately classify expenses, and much more.

During the afternoon session, the instructor will guide attendees through hands on practices in topics such as advanced customer setup and 1099 vendor setup, 1099 preparation, and the setup and use of memorized transactions and other lists. The session will also focus on analyzing financial reports, discussing prepaid expenses, and the importance of bookkeeping data security.

 

10 Ways Google Apps is Changing Business IT Forever (Breakfast Seminar)

June 5, 2013, - 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM, In Good Company, 16 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010

It’s no secret that the Cloud is revolutionizing the world of business IT, and at the forefront of that movement is Google Apps, the quickly growing e-mail and collaboration suite powered by one of the most successful companies on the planet. Whether you’re a dynamic startup team looking for cost-effective ways to collaborate, or an established industry leader looking to remain nimble and cost-efficient, it would be wise to have Google Apps on your radar. Join us for this intimate, information-packed breakfast seminar and come away with a solid understanding of the Google Apps platform, including:

• Why the shift towards Google Apps is a growing and important trend in IT
• How Google Apps reduces the burden on IT employees (or reduces outsourced IT costs)
• How organizations are cutting e-mail costs and vastly improving worker productivity
• How Google Apps can replace costly in-house server infrastructure
• Best practices for getting started with Google Apps

Brother’s Smart Printers Rival the Local Copy Center

Brother USA has introduced a new line of printers aimed at the small business market. They are designed to offer a high quality, inexpensive printing option. According to a study by Brother last year, businesses can save up to 60% on costs otherwise spent making trips to the local copy center, by printing in-house.

The new MFC-9000 series of desktop printers has a compact size at around 2-feet square. Depending on the model, it can print from 19 to 23 color pages per minute, at a high resolution of 600 x 2400 dpi.

The printers are also all-in-ones offering fax, scan and copying, in addition to printing.  They can hold up to 250 sheets of paper at a time.

One of the most interesting things is how much smarter printers are getting these days. These new smart printers include a 3.7” color touchscreen display. From it you can access social media and file-sharing accounts to print directly from Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Evernote, Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Drive and Box â€" saving time because you don’t have to convert or move files first. The printers also have wireless printing capabilities, including the ability to print directly from a smartphone.

Brother touts the toner in this line as “high capacity” for less money. The company says it will reduce the cost per color copy by 7.5 percent compared with the cost of using standard toner. Inasmuch as the major cost of printing is the materials, especially toner, a machine that uses lower cost toner could over the long run cut costs considerably.

The printer line starts at $399 and tops out at under $450 MSRP.

The pricing and features may make the machines attractive to small businesses that do a lot of printing of catalogs, booklets and other marketing materials where capacity, speed, cost and appearance matter.

The printers use less than two watts of power when not in use and automatically power off. Such energy-saving features have become important for green-minded businesses besides saving on operating costs.

Brother International Corporation is a provider of productivity products for offices. The company has had a presence as Brother USA in the United States since 1954.

Image: Brother video still

Brother’s Smart Printers Rival the Local Copy Center

Brother USA has introduced a new line of printers aimed at the small business market. They are designed to offer a high quality, inexpensive printing option. According to a study by Brother last year, businesses can save up to 60% on costs otherwise spent making trips to the local copy center, by printing in-house.

The new MFC-9000 series of desktop printers has a compact size at around 2-feet square. Depending on the model, it can print from 19 to 23 color pages per minute, at a high resolution of 600 x 2400 dpi.

The printers are also all-in-ones offering fax, scan and copying, in addition to printing.  They can hold up to 250 sheets of paper at a time.

One of the most interesting things is how much smarter printers are getting these days. These new smart printers include a 3.7” color touchscreen display. From it you can access social media and file-sharing accounts to print directly from Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Evernote, Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Drive and Box â€" saving time because you don’t have to convert or move files first. The printers also have wireless printing capabilities, including the ability to print directly from a smartphone.

Brother touts the toner in this line as “high capacity” for less money. The company says it will reduce the cost per color copy by 7.5 percent compared with the cost of using standard toner. Inasmuch as the major cost of printing is the materials, especially toner, a machine that uses lower cost toner could over the long run cut costs considerably.

The printer line starts at $399 and tops out at under $450 MSRP.

The pricing and features may make the machines attractive to small businesses that do a lot of printing of catalogs, booklets and other marketing materials where capacity, speed, cost and appearance matter.

The printers use less than two watts of power when not in use and automatically power off. Such energy-saving features have become important for green-minded businesses besides saving on operating costs.

Brother International Corporation is a provider of productivity products for offices. The company has had a presence as Brother USA in the United States since 1954.

Image: Brother video still

Minimum education requirements are needed for an IT security career

If the IT security industry is going to be recognised as a profession, we must learn lessons from more established industries.

According to Ian Glover, chairman of CREST, the entry point for other professions is in the region of 2,500 hours regular and frequent experience coupled with pathway qualifications which demonstrate progress. He said that the IT security industry should look to provide the same level of entry into our industry.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Glover said that there needs to be a consistent definition of what the requirements are for entry into the profession, and clearly defined career paths for areas of specialism.

He said: “We need to understand that those entering the industry at a professional level need to have an understanding of all aspects of the industry and have a broad range of skills drawn from multiple disciplines.

“Most existing recognised qualifications provide an element of this, but do not go into sufficient detail to provide a level of confidence in the capability of the individual. They require the candidate to have undertaken a limited amount of face to face training and some individual research.

“In isolation they are useful but combined in a logical way can provide evidence of a good understanding of the subject areas and for those aspiring to enter they can provide a defined pathway.

He said that to make the IT security industry an attractive career choice, we must have in place more specialist examinations designed to assess individuals' progression and pathways to allow them to realise their potential.

“Other professions have qualifications that measure people at approximately 6,000 hours (three years regular and frequent experience) competent professional level and then at an expert level 10,000 hours (five years regular and frequent experience) to enter,” Glover said.

“These are the levels the CREST qualifications in penetration testing, intrusion analysis, malware reverse engineering and security architecture are aimed at and are viewed as being of real value to those who have them and an aspiration to those looking at these areas as a career.”

Glover also said that where people entering the industry needs to be looked at, and provide them support to enter and progress through the profession.

He said: “We need to understand what a relevant degree course provides in terms of knowledge and provide a pathway from graduation to their entry into the profession. Each degree is different and even within the same course students opt for different modules.

“If it is clear what the industry expects, graduates can understand what else they need to do following graduation to be considered as professional. We also need to provide greater opportunities for students and graduates to gain essential work experience through a greater provision of internships.

“For those that are looking to make a career change into the industry they need to be able to assess their existing skill set and have a personalised pathway that they can follow to meet the industry requirements.”

Glover said that for those entering the industry from schools and colleges, higher apprenticeship schemes can be derived based on the entry point to the profession, as this will provide a focal point for employers and apprentices. He said that this would also provide a framework for training providers allowing them to adapt existing material, and create new material where there are gaps to meet the industry requirements.

Asked who should be offering this, Glover said that there are training providers and certification bodies who are doing a good job in this area, but what is missing is a national framework and coordinated strategy for delivery.

He said: “Setting this up is the responsibility of industry and the professional bodies. Working together with a single clear purpose and common objectives will allow us to make real progress and to make us look as though we are a joined up industry willing to work collaboratively.

“This is the type of industry I would like to enter if I was a young person looking for an exciting career where I could progress and make a difference.”

This is an updated version of an earlier story

NYC Events: Upcoming NYC Business and Technology Events (5/31 - 6/6)

Here is a listing of NYC Business and Technology Events for the upcoming week (5/31 - 6/6) that we thought would be beneficial to our small business community in the Greater NYC area.

Have a business and/or technology event coming up in the New York City area that you’d like us to add to our weekly post? If so, email us at eve...@smallbiztechnology.com.

 

Business Development Workshop

May 31, 2013, - 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM, 733 Third Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10017

Sandler Training Cordially Invites You to Attend: A Business Development Workshop for Business Owners, Company Presidents & Professional Service Firms You should consider attending if you (or your team) are… Concerned that you’re marketing and prospecting activities are not putting you in front of enough qualified prospects. Experiencing longer and longer sales cycles. Frustrated by spending a lot of time providing unpaid consulting with quotes, presentations and ideas, and then not getting the business. Unsure how to uncover the reasons that motivate your prospect to buy (from you). Eroding profits because you are not successful in negotiating for your price. Uncomfortable not having a selling system that will help you take control of the sales process, identify what you are doing well, where you can improve. In two short hours you’ll learn how to: - Establish trust with your prospects - Prospect more effectively - Shorten the sales cycle - Eliminate stalls and objections -Take control of thesales process -Differentiate your company

 

Writing Your Business Plan: A Roadmap To Success

May 31, 2013 - 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Science Industry and Business Library, 188 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Developing a business plan can be a challenge. This seminar is designed to guide you through the process, from identifying your customers to financing your business. It will cover why you need a plan, how to think about marketing, setting your business goals and assessing your financial needs. A business plan is a must, whether or not you are seeking financing, and this seminar is a must for entrepreneurs.

 

Public Relations Bootcamp

June 1, 2013, - 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Unique Photo, 123 US Highway 46, Fairfield, NJ 07004

What You Will Learn:

• The New Social PR
• Why PR Is the best form of Content Marketing
• How to connect with Journalists seeking Experts Like You
• How to pitch Journalists
• How to Create a PR Strategy
• How to use PR for Lead Generation
• PR for Search Engine Ranking
• How to Outsource some or all of your PR
• and much more

QuickBooks Boot-Camp

June 4, 2013, - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, New York City College of Technology, 25 Chapel St. 11th Floor, Room 1111, Brooklyn, NY 11201

This is a hands-on workshop with laptops and sample data provided to introduce the useful and flexible QuickBooks accounting and bookkeeping application.

During the morning session, attendees will be walked through the steps of proper data entry techniques. Attendees will practice creating invoices, receiving customer payments, and entering vendor bills and credit card statements. Attendees will also learn how to balance a checkbook, and to generate financial reports. The instructor will go over how to appropriately classify expenses, and much more.

During the afternoon session, the instructor will guide attendees through hands on practices in topics such as advanced customer setup and 1099 vendor setup, 1099 preparation, and the setup and use of memorized transactions and other lists. The session will also focus on analyzing financial reports, discussing prepaid expenses, and the importance of bookkeeping data security.

 

10 Ways Google Apps is Changing Business IT Forever (Breakfast Seminar)

June 5, 2013, - 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM, In Good Company, 16 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010

It’s no secret that the Cloud is revolutionizing the world of business IT, and at the forefront of that movement is Google Apps, the quickly growing e-mail and collaboration suite powered by one of the most successful companies on the planet. Whether you’re a dynamic startup team looking for cost-effective ways to collaborate, or an established industry leader looking to remain nimble and cost-efficient, it would be wise to have Google Apps on your radar. Join us for this intimate, information-packed breakfast seminar and come away with a solid understanding of the Google Apps platform, including:

• Why the shift towards Google Apps is a growing and important trend in IT
• How Google Apps reduces the burden on IT employees (or reduces outsourced IT costs)
• How organizations are cutting e-mail costs and vastly improving worker productivity
• How Google Apps can replace costly in-house server infrastructure
• Best practices for getting started with Google Apps

Five Ways To Keep Your Business Safe From Cyber Attacks

It might seem like no one is safe anymore from malicious browser-based cyber-attacks. Even the U.S. Department of Labor announced this month that they too, suffered a malware attack through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. But it’s not just the big businesses and organizations being targeted, according to the U.S. House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology, about 20% of the cyber-attacks currently happening are impacting companies with less than 250 employees.

So how can a small business expect to keep themselves safe from these irritating and costly attacks? Is it as easy as simply changing your company’s browser?

Corey Nachreiner, CISSP and Director of Security Strategy from WatchGuard Technologies says the solution is a bit more complex than that. It’s about pairing a good browser with a few additional precautionary steps.

1.)   Update your browsers on a regular basis. These updates can be the first line of defense against a cyber-attack. Running out-of-date versions of browsers can increase the potential risks of a browser-based cyber attack.

2.)   Block active scripting like Javascript, ActiveX, Flash and Java. These programs can be dangerous if they run automatically.

3.)   Have your IT manager make a whitelist for sites that have risky programming languages. This will prevent a user from being able to visit a site that could potentially cause a cyber attack.

4.)   Don’t just update your browser, remember that Java, Flash, Shockwave and Reader require updates to prevent attacks as well. Some of these programs can even be set so that updates are automatically installed, but it’s a good practice to periodically check for updates as well.

5.)   Check for the acronym “HTTPS.” These letters at the top of the address bar paired with an image of a lock means it’s a protected connection.

Last but not least, choose a browser that makes securing your information a priority. Both Firefox and Google Chrome have launched recent updates that will address critical safety flaws found in previous versions of their browsers.

Five Ways To Keep Your Business Safe From Cyber Attacks

It might seem like no one is safe anymore from malicious browser-based cyber-attacks. Even the U.S. Department of Labor announced this month that they too, suffered a malware attack through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. But it’s not just the big businesses and organizations being targeted, according to the U.S. House Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology, about 20% of the cyber-attacks currently happening are impacting companies with less than 250 employees.

So how can a small business expect to keep themselves safe from these irritating and costly attacks? Is it as easy as simply changing your company’s browser?

Corey Nachreiner, CISSP and Director of Security Strategy from WatchGuard Technologies says the solution is a bit more complex than that. It’s about pairing a good browser with a few additional precautionary steps.

1.)   Update your browsers on a regular basis. These updates can be the first line of defense against a cyber-attack. Running out-of-date versions of browsers can increase the potential risks of a browser-based cyber attack.

2.)   Block active scripting like Javascript, ActiveX, Flash and Java. These programs can be dangerous if they run automatically.

3.)   Have your IT manager make a whitelist for sites that have risky programming languages. This will prevent a user from being able to visit a site that could potentially cause a cyber attack.

4.)   Don’t just update your browser, remember that Java, Flash, Shockwave and Reader require updates to prevent attacks as well. Some of these programs can even be set so that updates are automatically installed, but it’s a good practice to periodically check for updates as well.

5.)   Check for the acronym “HTTPS.” These letters at the top of the address bar paired with an image of a lock means it’s a protected connection.

Last but not least, choose a browser that makes securing your information a priority. Both Firefox and Google Chrome have launched recent updates that will address critical safety flaws found in previous versions of their browsers.

Microsoft to offer threat data in \'near real-time\' to Certs and ISPs

Microsoft has announced a new initiative aimed at sharing information about botnets, malware and other threat data.

TJ Campana, director of security at the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, wrote in a blog post that Microsoft has been actively sharing information from its botnet operations with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Computer Emergency Response Teams (Certs) worldwide as part of its Project Mars (Microsoft Active Response for Security) program and it was now sharing that information on known botnet malware infections in near real-time.

Campana said: “The new Windows Azure-based Cyber Threat Intelligence Program (C-TIP) will allow these organisations to have better situational awareness of cyber threats, and more quickly and efficiently notify people of potential security issues with their computers.

“All the information is uploaded directly to each organisation's private cloud through Windows Azure. Participation in this system allows these organisations almost instant access to threat data generated from previous as well as future Mars operations.”

Campana said that sinkholed botnets offer data and currently 44 organisations in 38 countries receive these threat intelligence emails and momentum is building for the newer, more advanced cloud-based program. “ISPs, Certs and the security community in general have played a vital role in our proactive fight against cyber crime to date,” Campana said.

“We look forward to continuing our partnerships with these organisations in order to make life more difficult for the cyber criminals and protect innocent people around the world.”

Commenting, Paul Henry, security and forensic analyst for Lumension, called this a "step in the right direction in our fight against the bad guys", as it will offer intelligence in near real-time. He said: “Today's announcement of cloud-based threat data means organisations may now respond to threats quicker and more effectively. This is good news but long overdue.

“This new effort by Microsoft will go a long way in reining in infected PC's and thereby reducing the size of botnets overall and is likely to have a significant impact on cyber crime overall. At least for now.”

Underground talk on large DDoS threats increases following Spamhaus attack

There has been online chat around large scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) threats following the Spamhaus attack in March.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Darren Anstee, solutions architect team manager for Arbor Networks, said that after the attack, which he said was measured "to within a couple of per cent of 300Gbps", Arbor had seen more talk about the possibilities of launching such an attack but he expected most to standardise to 80-100Gbps. Arbor's January 2013 Annual Worldwide Infrastructure Security report said that DDoS attacks had standardised at 60Gbps, but post Spamhaus this was expected to rise.

Anstee said: “The attack on Spamhaus used DNS reflection amplification and while this is nothing new, the capability is out there; 100Gbps of traffic can be created that way and we have seen more like that, but the capability is out there to be even bigger than Spamhaus.

“It is unlikely to happen though as the attacker would not want to attract attention, as it will be the biggest attack ever seen. Since Spamhaus we have listened into the attacker community on DNS amplification reflection and research has seen more chatter and talk about it, and there are more examples of using DNS servers rather than a botnet..”

A man was arrested in Barcelona in late April in relation to the Spamhaus attack.

Anstee said that of all the attacks seen over the course of 2012, it had seen the same amount in the first quarter of 2013 and that there were more attacks going on generally. Anstee said that following a series of attacks on US banks, there is a realisation that a lot of web servers can be compromised and these were better than a botnet for purposes of performance and speed, as well as connectivity. “Here you can be connected at a faster rate, be more agile and be more effective,” he said.

Become a Better Blogger and Writer in 7 Easy Steps

If you don’t create it, there’s nothing to be found. And you do want to be found right?

This is a follow up from The Emergence and Explosion of Blogs, Blogging and Bloggers. The numbers don’t lie and they tell an even more compelling story for the future.

Consider these current insights about the blogosphere from Blogging.org:

• Primary content marketing tool.
• Major revenue producer for key online blog companies.
• Key part of corporate online branding and culture.
• Vehicle of self expression for anyone with a passion or niche.
• Social media allows blogs and bloggers to build bridges and reach.

We’ve come a long way baby, in a short time, with the blogosphere and it will continue to be an unfolding and enduring communication activity.  It’s not an option any more, it’s a best practice and a content linchpin in today’s sales, marketing and branding process. Blogging is not only for companies, but the leaders that run them and the independent bloggers who represent various content niches, products and services.

More compelling 2012 data, which should make blogging more of a commitment and priority:

• 60% of businesses have a blog.
• 77% of internet users read blogs.
• 61% of consumers made a purchase off a blog recommendation.
• 71% report better visibility.
• 329 million people view  a blog monthly.

In working with small businesses, entrepreneurs and professional consultants, on starting, developing and upgrading their blog activities, many tell me they just don’t think they can’t do it. What they really need is a better outline, plan and process they can follow.

If you can have a conversation with someone, then you can write a blog. Blogging is a more personal take on a subject that welcomes the personality of it’s writer. That is actually why people not only like blogs, but follow the bloggers who write them.

Be a better blogger and writer with these 7 easy steps that can help you get focused, write better and deliver your blog to stand out, get noticed and be remembered more.

1. Make a Decision and a Commitment to Blog

Invest in and create a branded WordPress blogsite or add a blog page to your existing WordPress website. There are sites that offer free options, but make sure you hire a professional to customize them, so they look good. WordPress.com, Blogger.com and Wix.com all offer lot’s of templates and options to fit your style and industry.

2. Schedule Time Into Your Day and Week to Write

Part of the commitment must be to set aside time to write daily if possible, or at least 2-3 times per week if you can in the best place and time of day where you are most inspired and focused. Go to your place, muse, think and write.

3. Brainstorm Yourself

What are your 5 key areas of expertise and 10 more that compliment those key ones? Who is your target audience and who are you writing for and speaking to? What expertise can you share with them?

Start and keep a blog idea journal and notebook with you at all times. Use your daily and real life experiences to generate ideas. Here are 16 tools To help you come up with blog ideas.

4. Create an Outline for Titles and Topics Based on Your Top Content Categories

Research your topics via Google, Bing or your industry using specific keywords and always use the most current studies and research. Write a 5-7-9-12 word, branded keyword title that has some snap and alliteration to it. Develop 3-5 content bullet points for your post so it flows with a beginning, middle and end. Study the blog posts you enjoy reading and notice their outline and process.

5. Develop the Outline and Content Points

Find the heart, soul and sweet spot of the topic content, so that it fulfills the promise of the title. Develop the content of your outline with your take, knowledge and expertise. What do you want your readers to remember and get out of the post?

It’s your expertise so feature it. By following your outline, you take people through a process of thought.

6. Accessorize Your Post So That it Snaps, Pops and Engages

Using visual enhancements, great quotes and compelling statistics can increase opens and engagement by 65%. Accessorizing your blog posts with memorable titles, trending  topics, videos, images, podcasts links, infographics, case studies and white papers can all add major value to the readers experience and retention.

7. Deliver, Ship, Publish and Promote

Create an integrated marketing approach using all the top delivery tactics you are currently using: Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest, Google+, podcasting, eMarketing, video. Check out the top content marketing tactics and don’t forget to Google yourself to see how you are doing.

Practice, practice, practice. Be consistent and stay true to your point of view and your authenticity.

People are hungry for good blogs, bloggers and content and are willing to share them and promote them. If you have something to say and offer, there is an audience for it and people will find you. Build your blog fans by being consistent.

Start, continue or take it up a notch and remember to use your blog to educate, inform, inspire and yes - sell.

Where’s your favorite place to muse and write?

Blog Photo via Shutterstock

Minibox Touts Faster Uploads Than Dropbox in Cloud Storage

If you are frustrated by slow file uploads to the cloud or find them slowing down your business, Minibox believes it has a solution that will have you saying it’s “freaking fast.”

Last week, Minibox.com was launched as a free app available for Mac devices. The new so-called “lightweight” service for your mobile devices allows you to upload files to your cloud on Minibox from your Mac.

At launch, Minibox claims to be #freakingfast and up to twice as fast at file uploads as its competitor, Dropbox, and any other cloud service.

“With all due respect to sync services like Dropbox, the industry needs a lightweight alternative for direct transfer. Minbox gets it done at groundbreaking speeds,” Minibox founder and CEO Alexander Mimran said last week.

Minibox will import your Contacts lists stored on your Mac or Google account. When sending files, the built-in contact list saves time.

Minibox offers unlimited file upload, i.e., there are no limits on the size of the file you’re uploading to the cloud or the number of files. However, for some there is a drawback:  files in the Minibox cloud are purged after 30 days.

Minibox in the beginning is targeting professionals who work with images and videos - such as photographers, videographers and designers â€" who need to send them to clients, co-workers  and partners for review or one-time download.  For them, speed is a real issue.  The app allows users to leaf through the uploaded files that are presented in a gallery optimized for viewing on mobile devices (pictured above). Minibox says it is geared to a “creative professional who sends large files on a daily basis.”

A “Pro” version of Minibox is expected to launch in the coming months. The Pro version will store files permanently.

Until the Pro version is launched, Minibox will be of limited value if you need permanent storage.

But creative professionals who need fast and unlimited file upload, and place files online only for a short time until they are picked up, will get value from the current version.  For everyone else it’s a solution to watch for the future.  The company’s website has more information.

Minibox, based in San Francisco, recently raised $800,000 in angel investment, reports The Next Web.

Image: Minibox