unit 1: problems within a business (1.3)

Regulatory Compliance

Organisations are under an ever increasing amount of scrutiny. Today, there are countless government regulations, industry standards and company procedures that have to be met. In fact, industry experts suggest that a global organisation can face up to 15,000 separate regulations that mandate the specific handling of information.

While the high profile failures of companies such as Enron and Lehman Brothers has led to more stringent financial and data protection regulations worldwide, regulatory compliance laws and regulations such as Dodd-Frank Act, HIPAA, ISO and FISMA all impose their own approaches to record keeping and auditing.

Companies are aware that poor information management and non-compliance carry heavy penalties and can lead to lost business and reputation, financial penalties and even prison sentences.

In some industries, failing an auditor’s inspection can lead to an organisation’s operations being suspended until corrective action is taken. Today, an organisation doesn’t just need to comply, it must be seen to comply.

Achieving compliance requires the execution of best practices without error as well as proving that the organisation has done this through accurate information.

Information Governance and Regulatory Compliance

Although different in strategic outcome and content, regulations – whether government, financial or industry – share common elements:

Governance structure
Assured and audited delivery
Ongoing measurement of compliance effectiveness
Internal audits and corrective measures
Records keeping
Process management tools
Compliance reporting

Given the over-arching nature of many regulations, it is not enough to simply implement policies and procedures. An Information Governance programme is required to overcome organisational, functional and process ‘silos’ in order to reduce risks and facilitate effective tracking, monitoring, reporting and auditing.

While often seen as a cost to the business, Information Governance should really be thought of as providing organisations with the opportunity to utilise regulatory compliance on order to drive their competitive advantage.

The Benefits of ‘Active Compliance’

The concept of Active Compliance has arisen from the understanding that the process of compliance means an organisation is already committing to industry best practices. Committing to continuous improvement, granularity and transparency enables an organisation to quickly identify areas for improvement and determine where investments can yield the best return.

The processes of automation and standardisation inherent in a Information Governance programme do not just drive down costs, they can also identify areas of compliance where small gains in business performance can deliver stronger market performance.

Key Areas to Consider

Archiving

Traditionally archiving has involved offloading data and documents from online systems to offline storage such as tape warehouses. This can make it difficult to search and retrieve information. Information Governance – combined with suitable technology solutions – enables consistent archiving strategies that make archived information much more accessible. Content can be searchable from a single system for discovery and audit.

Retention Management

Retention Management ensures that information is not retained indefinitely and that a lifecycle is enforced for a piece of information. Many organisational regulations – such as accounting and book keeping – have document retention requirements that must be adhered to. A retention policy should always dictate how long information must be retained for and what to do with that information when the period expires. The general rule of thumb is that information should be removed at the earliest allowable point.

Records Management

Records Management has always included management of unstructured data within an organisation. Today, this includes content in emails, online messaging and social media as well, all of which need to be classified and managed from creation to deletion. Within Information Governance, Records Management establishes the records policy and practices that are applied according to the business value of the content to that organisation.

Search

Many regulations – such as FOIA legislation in the US – compel organisations to produce information in very short timescales. In combination with archiving and retention, your organisation will need to establish how information can be searched and retrieved wherever it is stored. A workflow should be established in order to automate the review of returned information as well as packaging and delivering relevant search results packaged to requesting parties.

Business Process Management

Both Information Governance and Compliance requires some amount of business process management. Effective compliance requires overcoming the many organisational and process silos where relevant information resides. Information Governance helps here by installing centralised management of all information within the organisation.

Remember that your staff will require training and support in order to implement the required process changes. Best practice recommends making new processes and information access mechanisms as close to the employee’s natural work process to keep pace in the organisation and help to overcome any cultural resistance to change.

Regulatory compliance can take on different definitions according to the industry in which you are applying the policies. Since compliance means incorporating standards that conform to specific requirements, regulatory compliance is the regulations a company must follow to meet specific requirements.

When you apply regulatory compliance to IT, the regulations apply to two different aspects of company operations which include the internal requirements for IT and compliance standards that are set forth by external entities. Both types of regulatory compliance affect IT company operations and can potentially restrict what a company can and cannot do.

Company Concerns with Regulatory Compliance

When it comes to information technology and security, regulatory compliance for IT can impose added costs on company operations depending upon the industry. At the same token, the cost of not complying with regulations both internally and externally can be significantly higher in terms of fines and time invested following up on a security breach.

One of the primary issues with regulatory compliance is information security and the potential for data leaks. Although there may be policies in place, it is necessary to ensure that employees follow the policies as well as the entire staff within a company. This is an ongoing process and one that can lead to a high profile data breach if companies become too lax on policy enforcement. A primary example of this is the Sony breach earlier this year which can undermine a company reputation and end up costing more in fines than it would if you followed the compliance policies.

When it comes to regulatory compliance for IT on the external level, companies that follow the regulations set forth by external organizations are more likely to survive a potential investigation than companies that neglect regulatory compliance. Additionally, there are many benefits that come with following regulatory compliance policies which include protection of company reputation.

Issues Associated with Regulatory Compliance

In order to ensure that the proper steps are taken to meet regulatory compliance policies, it is first important to understand where the weaknesses in IT are so you know exactly what practices should be applied. If you skip this step and then try to meet regulations and policies, it is highly likely it will cost more over the long term since the practices were not implemented correctly.

The main issue that surrounds regulatory compliance is that many companies face multiple policies and regulations with regard to IT and data storage. This presents a challenge for most businesses, especially if the IT personnel changes frequently or over a number of years. Some compliance regulations require companies to archive data for a specified period of time. If IT staff changes over a period of time it is easy to lose sight of data storage and retrieval processes.

How to Make Regulatory Compliance Work

The number one priority for making regulatory compliance work is assessment and evaluation. If you do not know where the company weaknesses are in terms of IT then this makes it nearly impossible to put the best practices into action.

Once you know where the best practices should be applied there are many new tools that assist with simplifying the processes for regulatory compliance. These are automation tools that save time and perform the necessary requirements according to schedule. Tools for regulatory compliance are also capable of monitoring IT processes and providing reports to be used for analysis and future modifications.

The other alternative that ensures policies and procedures are carried out according to requirements is to consider using a virtualization solutions provider. A professional solutions provider such as Thrive Networks can help your company design strategies that guarantee your business will remain in compliance both within the company and with the external organizations that audit your

Reference:

https://www.infogovbasics.com/challenges/regulation-compliance/

https://www.thrivenetworks.com/blog/regulatory-compliance/

Monitoring Performance

The Right Way to Monitor & Measure Performance Targets

Published on January 22, 2015

Monitoring and measurement of performance is the longest phase in the performance management cycle. During this phase the manager/ elevator is supposed to keep an eye on the performance related to the set targets and constantly monitor it in order to be able to keep it on the right track. In that direction the purpose of this phase is not only to measure and evaluate the end results but to control the overall performance throughout the whole period between target setting and evaluation. This gives the true meaning to the performance management system for it is a system for management and not just for evaluation of the performance.

Performance management system is a tool for management not for evaluation of performance

Unfortunately, many organisations neglect this part of the cycle and simply do nothing or very little in the period between the target setting and target evaluation. Excuses vary from not having time to do it, to leaving it to the managers to do it in their own way and time etc. In any case they are just excuses. Not monitoring the evaluation will lose the whole meaning of the performance management since then you are not managing the performance throughout the year but only evaluating the end result.

Reasons for Performance Measurement

Aside of the very obvious reason that it is a part of any performance management system and that without it we cannot evaluate the achievement of the targets, there are also other reasons why we need to measure the performance.

From company side

The whole performance management system including the monitoring and measurement process is designed to support the company strategy and achievement of corporate goals
If we don’t monitor the performance of the targets we will not be able to see if we will achieve the company strategy
Monitoring and measurement gives us valuable inputs for any further development and adjustment of the strategy as well as for the targets of the years to follow

From employees and managers side

If we don’t measure the performance we won’t be able to show if we are doing a good job
If we don’t measure the performance we won’t be able to make difference between successful and unsuccessful execution, between outstanding performance and underachievement
By not making difference between outstanding performance and underachievement we won’t be able to recognize and reward the overachievement, nor to correct and develop the underachievement
This can lead to rewarding and recognizing the wrong people and not rewarding the ones who really deserve it which will ultimately create dissatisfaction and drop of motivation
The managers who don’t measure the performance cannot see where they should improve the work of their teams etc.

Setting Targets and Making Monitoring and Measurement Plan

Performance measurement starts with the target setting! Although many may think that the monitoring and measurement phase starts after the targets are set, it actually starts with the setting of the targets because this is the phase when the KPIs are set and when the measurement methods and tools are foreseen.

When setting the goals and the specific targets (KPIs) for each goal it is important to foresee how the achievement of the target will be monitored and measured. If a certain target cannot be measured, or is very difficult to measure, then such target shouldn’t be set.

The next step in the monitoring and measurement process would be to define a monitoring and measurement plan. But let’s go step by step.

What is Monitoring?

Technically performance monitoring is systematical gathering and analysis of information in parallel with the accomplishment of the task or job. In other words it means that as the work is being done, someone has the task to gather information and make the necessary analysis from which we can get a clear picture on the actual performance and make necessary decisions. This means that in order to be able to monitor the performance first we need to know what are the goal and the KPI for that goal. Then we need to establish monitoring and measurement tools and methods. At the end we need to foresee the needed resources as well as the people that will be assigned to monitor the performance.

The goal of the monitoring is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance through constantly keeping track on the actual performance. It also helps keep performance on the right track.

Planning the Monitoring and Measurement

It is difficult to go back and establish the monitoring and measurement systems, methods and measures once the achievement of a certain target has started. For example, try to measure and evaluate the achievement of a certain task or project without defining a monitoring and evaluation plan prior to the start of that task or project. What will you measure? What will you evaluate? How will you do it? Based on what?

It is difficult to go back and establish the monitoring and measurement systems, methods and measures once the achievement of a certain target has started

Monitoring and measurement should be part of the performance management system and should be well planned at the time of target setting. This plan should comprise the following:

1. Defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs are measurable, traceable and visible signs / indicators that something has been achieved or not. They are an important part of any performance management system because they are what you actually monitor and measure. In order to be measured the KPIs are set at the beginning of the process, i.e. during the target setting so that assigned employees can immediately start with gathering information.

A simple guidance on how to set KPIs is to see if the ones that we have set justify the term Key Performance Indicator. This means that it should be a key contributor to the success of the goal. The contributors are key only when they make significant impact on the goal. The indicator should be a performance measure that can be measured, quantified, adjusted and controlled. The measure must be controllable in order to be able to adjust and improve the performance if needed. And finally it should be an indicator, a pointer of what we have defined to be successful accomplishment of the specific goal.

Some examples of KPIs are revenue ($), income ($), market share (%), number of new products on market (number), customer churn (%), employee fluctuation (%), employee satisfaction (index) etc.

2. Defining Tools and Methods for Monitoring, Measuring and Evaluation

Next step after the definition of the KPIs is to define the methods, measures and tools for gathering the necessary information for the analysis. These directly depend on the nature of the goal and the KPI.

For example, information can be gathered from activities reports, meeting notes, financial reports, or by surveys, interviews etc.

3. Defining Activities Plan

Now it’s time to define the activities plan and schedule for monitoring. Again it will depend on the nature of the goal and the KPI how often we will need to gather information and make analysis. The achievement of some goals may be measured monthly or quarterly, while other goals may require daily measuring and monitoring.

4. Defining Resources

After the methods and tools have been defined and the activities plan has been set we need to foresee the resources that we’ll need to perform the monitoring and measurement. This includes material, financial resources and people.

5. Assigning People

The last step is to assign people who will perform the measurement and monitoring.

Elements of Monitoring

The whole monitoring and measurement process is consisted of the following elements:

Setting KPIs
Setting up monitoring and measurement systems
Collecting and recording data
Data analysis
Use of information for reporting, improvement and adjustment

Monitoring performance

Benchmarking is an excellent way to gain feedback about your business’s performance. Benchmarking compares the measures such as cost, cycle time, productivity, or quality of a specific process or method to what is widely considered to be an industry standard or best practice.

Benchmarking provides a snapshot of the performance of your business and helps you understand where you are in relation to a particular standard. The results should be used to inform actions for improvement.

Financial benchmarks are available for many industries.

Innovation measures

How do you know whether your investment in innovation has been worthwhile? Measuring innovation performance through the use of a handful of carefully chosen measures will help focus and ultimately increase the return on your innovation activities. Some potential innovation measures are shown below. Choose a manageable number that are most relevant for your business and monitor them on a regular (quarterly) basis. Read more about measuring innovation (PDF, 779KB).

Communicating business performance against measures is a powerful way to engage people in the business. Display performance against key measures in highly visible areas. Use graphics to help people quickly interpret results. Start talking about performance and set goals for the next timeframe.

Input measures

Financial resources committed to innovation
Human resources committed to innovation
Operating expenses
Capital expenditure

Process measures

Number of ideas generated
Average time from idea creation to implementation
Percentage of ideas abandoned at each stage
Number of suppliers and partners involved

Output measures

Revenue from products launched in the last three years
Number of new products or services launched
Market share growth
Return on innovation spending
New product/service success rate
Number of new customers
Customer satisfaction
Cannibalisation of existing product sales by new products
Brand strength (third party ratings)
Employee satisfaction

Reference

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/right-way-monitor-measure-performance-targets-dejan-madjoski

https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/growing-business/becoming-innovative/measuring-success/monitoring

Financial Management

What Are the Benefits of a Financial Management Information System?

by Tiffany C. Wright

Financial Management Defined

Financial management involves the creation and installation of financial principles that position a company to achieve its main goal – increasing the value of the business for the owner. Financial management, which includes debt financing and cash flow management, collects and uses information to make sound decisions. Financial management systems enable businesses to leverage financing, management and investment to reach operational and financial goals.

FMIS Defined

A financial management information system helps facilitate financial management in a company by automating financial operations. It is an automated application that uses one or more software programs, internal policies and documented procedures to record, track and summarize company, departmental and functional budgets. In addition, companies use their FMIS systems to prepare financial statements, track decisions that impact profits and track the consequence of financial decisions.

Information Transparency

One key benefit of a financial management information system is transparency of information. Often, the owner and the accounting and finance-related personnel are the only ones who know and understand what is happening financially with the company. Through the use of an FMIS, all individuals with access to the system can check on aspects of a company’s financial performance. This helps managers of other departments and functions better understand how and to what extent what they do impacts the business.

Budget Control

As companies grow larger, the budgeting process becomes more complex. Because different departments can track their spending and make ongoing adjustments through an FMIS, it reduces budgeting complexity. Instead of having to regularly meet to discuss the budget and any changes, department heads can see what they and others are doing and provide insightful commentary on any issues that arose that did impact or could impact their respective budgets. This also facilitates tighter budget control.

Strengthens Financial Controls

For an FMIS to be effective, it requires companies to put systems, procedures, policies and methodologies in place. It may require one or more software systems. For example, an FMIS may require an accounting software package, a database system and an enterprise resource planning software program that pulls financial-related data from the accounting and database systems. All of these working together serve to significantly strengthen a company’s internal financial controls.

What Are the Benefits of a Financial Management Information System?

Financial management information systems facilitate greater integration of financial management functions.

The World Bank defines a Financial Management Information System as the automation of financial operations. Automation is achieved through the use of financial accounting applications and database management systems. The use of FMIS applications is designed to simplify the recording of events, processing of transactions and reporting of financial information in your business.

Quick Decisions

The FMIS application provides timely, accurate, reliable and verifiable information that hasten your decision-making process. It provides advanced financial reporting and decision-making procedures for evaluating the merits or shortcomings of your operational and strategic approaches to business. This reduces uncertainties that may derail your implementation of important business decisions.

Planning

Implementation of FMIS enhances your scheduling and forecasting capacity. This enables you to allocate your financial resources effectively and set realistic performance targets. Limit the scope of your plans to your financial resource capabilities. The realistic planning capacity also accelerates the achievement of your goals within the desired time frame.

Efficiency

You stand to achieve greater efficiency in financial operations and reporting procedures when using FMIS applications. These systems entrench the controls you need to eliminate misuse of financial resources, but also the mitigation measures you employ to protect your business against the occurrence of expected and unexpected risks. The control measures also provide the historical evidence of performance you need to regulate the current and future activities of the business. Auditors also use this historical evidence to evaluate the progress of your business.

Integration

FMIS provides you with a framework for integrating functional processes and financial resources in your business. This accelerates the processing of transactions and conveyance of financial information, in addition to eliminating duplicate activities and responsibilities along the organization’s chain of command. Systems integration also provides you greater leverage for centralizing shared services so as to reduce operational costs associated with running multiple operational units for the shared services.

Competition

The adoption of FMIS applications elevates the competitive advantage of the business. Indeed, the strategic value of information technology is extremely important in the advancement of customer satisfaction and growth of productivity. It enables the business to respond appropriately to changes in target markets and stay ahead of its competitors.

Reference:

https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/benefits-financial-management-information-system-27875.html

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-financial-management-information-system-71943.html

Data Protection

What is Data Protection?

The Data Protection Act (1998) is the protection of any personal data that is in the possession of any organisation, business or government, and how this information is used or shared. There are a set of rules that must be followed called the Data Protection Principles. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is in control of the data protection act, they judge whether organisations are using specific data responsibly, or whether they are being reckless with personal files, such as selling information.

Customers have data protection rights, including that all the safekeeping and confidentiality of their personal records. There is even stronger protection for more sensitive personal information, such as ethnic backgrounds, political opinions, religious beliefs, health, sexual health and criminal records.

How Does it Affect Your Company?

Different organisations will have different amounts of personal data; however it is advisable to audit your personal data regularly to get rid of data that you do not need. The ICO can deem it reckless if you keep old data for too long.

Keeping a large amount of personal data without auditing it can also be problematic for organisations for a number of reasons:

Older data may be out of date, causing errors or increasing the risk of passing on false information.
It is more difficult to ensure that older documents are correct.
It is more difficult to locate personal data if there is too much unnecessary data in store.

It is also advisable to put information that you do not need on a regular basis into storage to ensure safekeeping. It is not a criminal offence to keep personal data that does not get used very regularly, however it is a criminal offence to store them unsafely. It is best to outsource your document storage to free up space and also to ensure it is stored in accordance with Data Protection Act legislation. Therefore you should also conduct regular audits to be sure that you are not holding too much data for too long.

If an organisation breaches any of the Data Protection Act’s principles then the Information Commissioner has the right to issue a financial penalty. This is relevant if the company deliberately breaches any of the principles, or if the company knew (should have known) there was a risk of a breach which is likely to cause substantial damage or distress, but failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it.

The maximum penalty that can be issued is £500,000.

Not complying with data protection principles is not a criminal offense; however there are multiple ramifications for being careless with people’s personal data. People may demand compensation for any harm caused, you may need to pay a penalty given by the ICO, but most of all it is bad publicity and negative for your brand name.

Data Protection Case Study

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was fined £250,000 in January 2013. This is a result of the Sony PlayStation system being hacked in 2011, putting personal data such as payment card and login details at risk. The ICO decided that their security system was not strong enough to withstand the hack and that they should have been stronger.

Sony was responsible for keeping all of this information safe from hackers, and therefore received the fine as the ICO said that it could have been avoided. (SRC: BBC News)

About Secure Data Management

At Secure Data MGT we have over 25 years of document storage experience and we offer an auditing and storage service that minimises the risk of Data Protection breaches. We store in access controlled, weather and fire proof centres with 24-hour security and CCTV. On top of this, we help with the auditing of your documents to improve processes and workflow. Get in touch!

What is the Data Protection Act?

The Data Protection Act (DPA) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which was passed in 1988. It was developed to control how personal or customer information is used by organisations or government bodies. It protects people and lays down rules about how data about people can be used.

The DPA also applies to information or data stored on a computer or an organised paper filing system about living people. Organisations that do not adhere to the rules set out by DPA risk prosecution by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) where fines can reach up to £500,000 and even imprisonment.

The Data Protection Act was replaced in May 2018 by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Why is the Data Protection Act important?

The Data Protection Act is important because it provides guidance and best practice rules for organisations and the government to follow on how to use personal data including:

Regulating the processing of personal data
Protecting the rights of the data subject
Enabling the Data Protection Authority (The ICO) to enforce rules
Holding organisations liable to fines in the event of a breach of the rules

The DPA’s rules are very thorough and cover rules around sharing of data, and data security. At the heart of it are eight common sense rules known as the ‘data protection principles’ that all organisations collecting and using personal information are legally required to comply with.

The law provides stronger protection for more sensitive information such as:

Ethnic background
Political opinions
Religious beliefs
Health
Sexual life
Criminal history.

How can you successfully meet data regulation standards?

Ensuring you have the right technology, processes and people in place to handle the quality of the data that you hold was a key part of thriving under the DPA (and now the GDPR). Important activities you should consider include:

Regular evaluation of the quality of the data that you hold and are continuing to collect. Contact Data Validation and Data Cleansing are good ways of doing this.
Ensuring you have the right roles and responsibilities set out for your data’s management including the focal point of a Data Protection Officer.
Analysis and profiling of your data to identify any potential gaps or issues that could cause problems to arise.

Reference:

https://www.edq.com/uk/glossary/data-protection-act/

https://www.securedatamgt.com/blog/data-protection-affect-your-company/

Business Data Backup

Successful Business Data Backup

How to Protect Your Critical Business Data

BY SUSAN WARD

Updated April 28, 2018

Data backup is crucial for protecting your business’s continuity. If your only backup is on a single desktop/laptop computer or mobile device and it’s lost or stolen, your business data is gone. And having paper copies of business data isn’t adequate data protection; what if your business premises burn to the ground or experience severe flooding? Once again the data you need to carry on your business could be irretrievably lost.

Data Loss

To paraphrase Paul Simon, there are 50 ways to lose your data:

A desktop/laptop hard drive crash or damage to your mobile device can render your data unrecoverable
Your computer or phone can be stolen – business break ins are common and according to FBI statistics 97% of stolen laptops/desktops are never recovered
Data can be accidentally deleted (or deliberately deleted by a disgruntled employee)
Your computer can be hijacked by malware
Your online storage accounts can be hacked
A ransomware attack could render your files inaccessible until a substantial fee is paid

A Data Backup Regime Is a Must

For adequate data protection, you need to establish a data backup system that follows these three steps:

Backup business data regularly
Create backups on reliable media or in the cloud
If using media for backups keep the devices in a secure, off-site location

The basic rule for business data protection is that if losing the data will interfere with doing business, back it up. Desktop software programs can be reinstalled if required, but recovering the details of transactions or business correspondence is impossible if those files are lost or damaged beyond repair.

Data Archive vs Data Backup

Backups are normally periodic, short term images of data for disaster recovery purposes.

Archiving generally refers to long-term storage of data that is no longer in regular use but can be restored if need be (for example, a finished project or data from a former client).

Backup Critical Business Data

There are two steps to successful data backup;

Identifying the critical data that needs to be backed up
Implementing backups of the data on a regular schedule

What needs to be in a data backup?

All of the files that you’ve created and/or modified should be regularly backed up. For many businesses, this includes everything from accounting files through email.

More and more business applications are available through the cloud. However, if you are using desktop (non-browser) applications, these can be reinstalled from media or downloaded, so don’t need to be backed up.

Cloud Storage

Using online backup services makes backing up your data easy – which is just one of the reasons cloud computing is ideal for small businesses. But cloud services can still be vulnerable to data loss via hacking or employee sabotage (consider the recent case of the Indianapolis-based American College of Education who, after firing an information technology employee discovered that before leaving he had changed the administrative passwords to the online accounts, preventing the college from accessing their data).

It is not a bad idea to take occasional local backups of cloud data.

Local Data Backups

If you save your data locally (e.g. you are not using cloud storage) you can simplify your backups by keeping all the files that will need to be archived on a single drive on your computer. For instance, suppose you need to back up accounting files, word-processing documents, spreadsheets, photos and email. Putting Simply Accounting, Microsoft Office (including Outlook) and Paintshop Pro all on a separate drive or under a separate folder makes it easier to archive all the files you’ve created or modified using those programs.

All you have to do is back up the drive or folder.

Once you’ve selected the critical data to be archived, it’s a simple matter to install and use a backup software program to archive your business data on a regular schedule.

Backing up your data nightly is recommended. There are many backup software programs available that allow you to set a schedule that will automatically backup your data. Backup software that also zips and encrypts files saves disk space and increases data security.

Only keep your data backups on-site if they are stored in a fire-proof, indestructible safe. Investing in a tape drive or external hard drive and meticulously adhering to a regular data backup schedule won’t help if all your data backup copies are in one place and that place is struck by disaster. To be truly secure your backups should be stored off-site. (Cloud backup does not totally eliminate this concern but is certainly better than many physical locations.)

Some businesses keep their data backups in security boxes at banks. (The fee for a security box is tax-deductible, if you need further incentive.) Other small business owners keep multiple data backup copies of their records at the homes of different friends or family members. It doesn’t really matter where you choose to keep them, as long as the site you choose for off-site data backup is secure and you have regular access to it.

Backup Devices

Online backup services

For ultimate security make sure you use strong passwords, change them regularly, and make sure the backed up files are encrypted (since cloud storage is shared, cloud providers normally encrypt user data).

USB (thumb) drives

USB sticks are constantly increasing in capacity and are ideal for quick data backups. While not having the capacity of external hard drives they have fast data transfer rates and are highly portable. You can easily backup data to a USB drive and take it offsite. As they have no moving parts, USB drives are very reliable.

External hard drives

For small businesses, buying and using an external hard drive for data backups is the recommended method. External hard drives are inexpensive compared to tape drive systems. They’re also easy to use; simply plug the hard drive into your computer’s USB port. Most external hard drives come with backup software.

Local Area Network (LAN) storage

If you have a local area network (LAN) you can also backup files to another computer or server. However, if the backup machine resides in the same location it may be vulnerable to theft or damaged by fire or flood. To prevent theft a server can be installed in a locked cage, cabinet, or closet.

Tape storage

If you have large amounts of data to backup (or wish to make and retain regular complete data archives for long-term storage) tape backups are the best option. They are highly reliable and can store massive amounts of data.

Back It Up or Risk Losing It

Don’t run the risk of losing your business data. The best defensive against such a disaster is proper data protection. By creating a backup system that includes archiving and backing up your business data regularly and properly, you’ll ensure that your business will be able to weather whatever storm it faces and carry on. Remember – you can never have too many data backups!

Reference:

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/data-backup-is-the-best-data-protection-2947129

Hacking

Hacking
For years, “hacker” was a positive term that described computer enthusiasts who had a zeal for computer programming. Those who hacked took pride in their ability to write computer programs that stretched the capabilities of computer systems and find clever solutions to seemingly impossible problems. Although many computer enthusiasts still ascribe to this definition, the everyday usage of the word has changed significantly. Today, “hacking” generally refers to individuals who break into computer systems or use their programming skills or expert knowledge to act maliciously. (Traditional hackers—the good kind—prefer to use the term “cracker” to refer to these individuals.)

Some of the most common types of hacking include:

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Although portrayed otherwise in Hollywood films and in television shows, hacking is a systematic, tiresome process in which the attacker attempts methodically to locate computer systems, identify their vulnerabilities, and then compromise those vulnerabilities to obtain access. Experts have identified six steps that are generally followed in the hacking process. These include (1) footprinting (reconnaissance); (2) scanning; (3) enumeration; (4) penetration; (5) advance; and (6) covering tracks.

Footprinting.
The first technique often used by hackers is called footprinting. The objective is to gather information essential to an attack and enable an attacker to obtain a complete profile of an organization’s security posture. During this phase, the hacker might gain information about the location of the company, phone numbers, employee names, security policies, and the overall layout of the target network. Often, hackers can perform this work with a simple web browser, a telephone, and a search engine. Unfortunately, humans are often the weakest security link in a corporation. A clever phone call to the technical support department can often compromise critical information: “Hi—this is Bill and I forgot my password. Can you remind me what it is?”

Scanning.
Next, hackers perform scanning to gain a more detailed view of a company’s network and to understand what specific computer systems and services are in use. During this phase, the hacker determines which systems on the target network are live and reachable from the Internet. Commonly used scanning techniques include network ping sweeps and port scans . A ping sweep lets the attacker determine which individual computers on the network are alive and potential targets for attack. Port scanning can be used to determine what ports (a port is like a door or window on a house) are open on a given computer, and whether or not the software managing those ports has any obvious vulnerabilities.

Enumeration.

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The third phase is the process of identifying user accounts and poorly protected computing resources. During the enumeration stage, the hacker connects to computers in the target network and pokes around these systems to gain more information. While the scanning phase might be compared to a knock on the door or a turn of the doorknob to see if it is locked, enumeration could be compared to entering an office and rifling through a file cabinet or desk drawer for information. It is definitely more intrusive.

Penetration.
During the fourth phase, penetration, the attacker attempts to gain control of one or more systems in the target network. For example, once an attacker has acquired a list of usernames during enumeration, he can usually guess one of the users’ passwords and gain more extensive access to that user’s account. Alternatively, once the attacker has determined that a target computer is running an old or buggy piece of software or one that is configured improperly, the hacker may attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities with this software to gain control of the system.

Advance.
In the advance phase of hacking, the attacker leverages computers or accounts that have been compromised during penetration to launch additional attacks on the target network. For instance, the attacker can break into more sensitive administrator root accounts, install backdoors or Trojan horse programs, and install network sniffers to gather additional information (for example, passwords) from data flowing over the network.

Covering Tracks.

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In the final phase of hacking, the hacker eliminates any records or logs showing his malicious behavior. By deleting log files, disabling system auditing (which would otherwise alert the administrator to malicious activities), and hiding hacking files that the hacker has introduced, he can cover his tracks and avoid detection. Finally, the hacker can install a root kit—a series of programs that replace the existing system software to both cover his tracks and gather new information.

Recent Attacks, Countermeasures, and Motivations
Since the late 1990s, the number of hacking attacks has grown dramatically. Both private companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon.com, Buy.com, and U.S. government entities like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the White House have been targeted by hackers. In the vast majority of incidents, hackers have attempted to either launch denial of service attacks or deface Internet web pages with inappropriate content. However, some of the attacks are far more insidious. In January of 2000, a nineteen-year-old Russian hacker, using the pseudonym Maxim, threatened to publish more than 300,000 customer credit card numbers (obtained by hacking into a popular e-commerce site) if he was not given $100,000 cash. Beyond these highly publicized cases, it is unclear how many corporations have been hacked successfully; however, from all accounts, the number is definitely large and growing.

A number of technologies are available to companies to prevent hacking attacks. The most popular tools are Internet firewalls, anti-virus software, intrusion detection systems, and vulnerability assessment tools. Firewalls are used to set up a virtual wall between the Internet and the company’s internal network to repel attackers. Anti-virus software detects and removes computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Intrusion detection systems watch over critical networks and computers looking for suspicious activities, and can alert administrators in the event of an attack. Finally, corporations use vulnerability assessment tools to inventory their computing infrastructure and better understand the existing vulnerabilities.
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Contrary to popular belief, most hackers are not international or industrial spies with evil motives and a desire to rule the world; most hackers have a simpler agenda. Among hackers, one of the most frequently cited motivations is that hacking is fun and is like solving a game or a puzzle. Many hackers perceive their activities to be harmless and they do not believe that they are victimizing anyone. In addition, the thrill of doing something illegal or the ability to access data unavailable to the public can be a tempting motivator. The chance to earn recognition from within a hacker group also offers strong incentive for up-and-coming hackers who have yet to gain a reputation. Finally, many hackers justify their actions by explaining that they are doing a service for other computer users by identifying new security holes.

Judicial, Criminal, and Civil Implications of Hacking
The following federal statutes offer computer crime and hacking protection:

Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Access Devices;
Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers;
Communication Lines, Stations, or Systems;
Interception and Disclosure of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Prohibited;
Unlawful Access to Stored Communications;
Disclosure of Contents;
Requirements for Governmental Access.
As this list suggests, there is a substantial body of statutory law that applies directly to computer crime and hackers. Hacking of government computers, computers that are used by or for the government, and private computers used “in interstate commerce or communications” can be prosecuted under existing statutes. The existing statutory framework also provides for civil liability for unauthorized interception of communications. Finally, federal statutes exist to protect federal records, property, or public money. Consequently, bank, credit records, and electronic fund transfers are all protected by federal laws.

In recent cases, prosecuted hackers have been incarcerated, sentenced to home detention, and/or ordered to pay restitution. Offenders have been incarcerated for up to two years and some have been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines.
HACKING
During the late 1990s and into the new millennium, hacking became a popular term for the act of breaking in, tampering with, or maliciously destroying private information contained in computer networks. The FBI’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) reported 17,672 hacking incidents in 2000, a 79 percent increase over 1999 figures.

EARLY HISTORY
During the 1960s, the word “hacker” grew to prominence describing a person with strong computer skills, an extensive understanding of how computer programs worked, and a driving curiosity about computer systems. Hacking, however, soon became nearly synonymous with illegal activity. While the first incidents of hacking dealt with breaking into phone systems, hackers also began diving into computer systems as technology advanced.
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Hacking became increasingly problematic during the 1980s. As a result, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was created, imposing more severe punishments for those caught abusing computer systems. In the early 1980s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made one of its first arrests related to hacking. A Milwaukee-based group known as the 414s were accused of breaking into 60 different computer systems including the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Later that decade, the infamous Kevin Mitnick was arrested and sentenced to one year in jail for damaging computers and stealing software. He was arrested again in 1995 for computer fraud and put in jail for hacking Motorola Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., NEC Corp., and Novell Inc. to steal software, product plans, and data. Mitnick eventually cost the firms a total of roughly $80 million.

As negative publicity surrounding hackers continued to grow, those who considered themselves true hackers—computer programming enthusiasts who pushed computer systems to their limits without malicious intent and followed a hacker code of ethics—grew weary of the media’s depiction of hackers. As a result, several hacker groups coined the term ‘cracker’ in 1985 to define a person who broke into computer systems and ignored hacker ethics; however, the media continued to use the word hacker despite the fact that although most early hackers believed technical information should be freely available to any person, they abided by a code of ethics that looked down upon destroying, moving, or altering information in a way could cause injury or expense.

AT&T Corp., Griffith Air Force Base, NASA, and the Korean Atomic Research Institute all fell prey to hackers in the early 1990s. Federal World Wide Web sites, including those of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Air Force, and the CIA, were also attacked by hackers and defaced. During 1995 alone, U.S. Defense Department computers dealt with 250,000 hacker attacks. As technology advanced and business transactions conducted over the Internet increased, malicious hackers became even more destructive. Popular Web sites such as Yahoo!, America Online, eBay, and Amazon.com were hacked, costing millions and leaving online shoppers doubtful about security on these sites; a 16-year-old Canadian boy operating under the name Mafiaboy was arrested for these attacks, as well as for breaking into both Harvard’s and Yale’s university computer systems. Under the terms of his parole, Mafiaboy was not allowed to use the Internet or go into stores that sold computers, and his computer use was limited to that which was supervised by a teacher at school.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF HACKING ACTIVITY
As the cost of hacking attacks continues to rise, businesses have been forced to increase spending on network security. However, hackers have also developed new skills that allow them to break into more complex systems. Hacking typically involves compromising the security of networks, breaking the security of application software, or creating malicious programs such as viruses.
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The most popular forms of network hacking are denial of service (DoS) attacks and mail bombs. DoS attacks are designed to swamp a computer network, causing it to crash. Mail bombs act in a similar fashion, but attack the network’s mail servers. When eBay was attacked in February 2000, its Web server was bombarded with fake requests for Web pages, which overloaded the site and caused it to crash. Network hackers also try to break into secure areas to find sensitive data. Once a network is hacked, files can be removed, stolen, or erased. A group of teens in Wichita, Kansas, for example, hacked into AOL and stole credit card numbers that they then used to buy video games.

Application hackers break security on application software—software including word processing and graphics programs—in order to get it for free. One way they gain access to software that requires a serial number for installation is by setting up a serial number generator that will try millions of different combinations until a match is found. Application hackers also sometimes attack the program itself in an attempt to remove certain security features.

Hackers that create viruses, logic bombs, worms, and Trojan horses are involved in perhaps the most malicious hacking activities. A virus is a program that has the potential to attack and corrupt computer files by attaching itself to a file to replicate itself. It can also cause a computer to crash by utilising all of the computer’s resources. For example, e-mail systems were inundated with the “ILOVEYOU” and the “Love Bug” viruses in May of 2000, and the damage to individuals, businesses, and institutions was estimated at roughly $10 billion. Similar to viruses, logic bombs are designed to attack when triggered by a certain event like a change in date. Worms attack networks in order to replicate and spread. In July of 2001, a worm entitled “Code Red” began attacking Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) systems. The worm infected servers running Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and IIS 4.0 and defaced Web sites, leaving the phrase “Welcome to http://www.worm.com Hacked by Chinese!” Finally, a Trojan horse is a program that appears to do one thing, but really does something else. While a computer system might recognise a Trojan horse as a safe program, upon execution, it can release a virus, worm, or logic bomb.

PREVENTING HACKING ACTIVITY
While preventing all hacking activity is deemed nearly impossible by many computer experts, businesses spend billions on protecting computer networks. According to research group Data monitor, spending related to network security will increase from $10.6 billion in 2001 to $22.3 billion in 2004.
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The most popular method of protection against hacking among personal home computer users is anti-virus software. Companies including McAfee.com Corp. provide anti-virus software that scans a computer’s hard drive for infected material, alerting customers when bad files are found. Firewalls, typically used for computer networks, have also become popular with home users, particularly those who use continual online connections such as cable modems and digital subscriber lines. Firewalls act as a deterrent to hacking by protecting private networks from the public, thus keeping most outsiders from tampering with computer systems.

Other software options—mainly used to protect larger computer systems—include Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), content filtering software, sand-boxing software, and behavior analysis software. IDS is considered one of the best protection methods for large networks. With an IDS in place, system administrators can monitor network requests and detect large-scale malicious attacks. Content filtering software is advanced antivirus software that reads compressed files and allows IT managers to set specific filtering parameters to block threatening email. Sand-boxing software protects against malicious codes. The software creates a protected space within a computer where suspicious code can run, before it has a chance to interact with the main operating system. Still in its infancy in 2001, behavior analysis software protects computer systems by monitoring entire networks and checking every command of all operations.

Unfortunately, many malicious hackers eye security systems not as a deterrent but as a mere obstacle to overcome. However, as long as hacking attacks persist, both individuals and businesses will continue to invest in programs and software designed to protect systems from unwanted visitors.

References:

https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/computers-and-electrical-engineering/computers-and-computing/hacking

Problems with in a business

Big Problems with the Internet of Things

In a few short years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has gone from a technology — or set of technologies — that were cutting edge to the situation today where connected household items, or automobiles, are common. However, growth is only really gathering speed now with San Francisco-based Cisco estimating that the “Internet of Everything cisco article” — its take on the IoT — could have has many as 50 billion connected devices by 2020.

According to Helsinki, Finland-based F-Secure, a cybersecurity company citing research from Gartner, over the next two years, the number of IoT devices entering households will climb steeply from nine devices per household currently to 500 by 2022, with IoT connectivity being bundled into products whether people want it or not.

In fact according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure in research on the IoT published last month, in the future, devices without IoT capabilities may be more expensive because they’ll lack data that can be harvested by manufacturers. It’s this very data that makes the IoT such an interesting proposition for enterprises. That data, though, comes with risks, along with a number of other notable risks and problems associated with the IoT that enterprises will have to overcome in the coming years.

Last month, the World Economic Forum published its Global Risks Report for 2018, the 13th year it has published it. Each year, researchers with the Global Risks Report work with experts and decision-makers across the world to identify and analyze the most pressing risks that the world face. As the pace of change accelerates, and as risk interconnections deepen, this year’s report highlights the growing strain we are placing on many of the global systems we rely upon. The IoT and the problems related to cyberattacks take a prominent position in the report.

If the IoT has a problem, or is exposed to weaknesses, then the enterprises that are connected to it are equally threatened. In fact, while security is undoubtedly one of the major issues impacting the development, there are a number of other problems that stem directly from this. Here are 7 major IoT problems for enterprises connecting to the IoT.

Related Story: 12 Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) Trends That Will Become Mainstream In 2018

1. Walled Off Internet

According to the World Economic Forum, the growing number of cross border attacks will start pushing national governments towards breaking up the internet in national, or even regional “walled gardens.” There are other pressures too that will push them to do this, including economic protectionism, regulatory divergence and the loss of government power relative to global online companies.

This will create major problems for the concept — and practice of a global IoT — leading to the erection of barriers to the flow of content and transactions. “Some might welcome a move towards a less hyper-globalized online world, but many would not, resistance would be likely, as would the rapid growth of illegal workarounds. The pace of technological development would slow and its trajectory would change,” the report reads.

2. Cloud Attacks

Given that a large amount of the data that will run the Io T will be stored in the cloud it is likely that cloud providers will be one of the principle targets in this kind of war. While there is growing awareness of this problem, cybersecurity is still under-resourced in comparison to the potential scale of the threat. To get some kind of idea of the problem, the World Economic Forum report cites analysis that suggests that the takedown of a single cloud provider could cause $50 billion to $120 billion of economic damage — a loss somewhere between Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina.

The annual economic cost of cybercrime is now estimated at north of $1 trillion, a multiple of 2017’s record-year aggregate cost of approximately $300 billion from natural disasters.

3. AI-Built Security Issues

Although the threat magnitude of ransomware has already grown 35 times over the last year with ransomworms and other types of attacks, there is more to come. Derek Manky, global security strategist at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Fortinet agrees that the problems for cloud vendors are only emerging.

He said that the next big target for ransomware is likely to be cloud service providers and other commercial services with a goal of creating revenue streams. The complex, hyperconnected networks cloud providers have ?developed can produce a single point of failure for hundreds of businesses, government entities, critical infrastructures, and healthcare organizations. If not in the next year, he said soon we will begin to see malware completely created by machines based on automated vulnerability detection and complex data analysis. Polymorphic malware is not new, but it is about to take on a new face by leveraging AI to create sophisticated new code that can learn to evade detection through machine written routines.

4. Botnet Problems

Millions of new connected consumer devices make a wide attack surface for hackers, who will continue to probe the connections between low-power, somewhat dumb devices and critical infrastructure, Shaun Cooley, VP and CTO at San Jose, California based Cisco website said. The biggest security challenge he sees is the creation of Distributed Destruction of Service (DDoS) attacks that employ swarms of poorly-protected consumer devices to attack public infrastructure through massively coordinated misuse of communication channels.

IoT botnets can direct enormous swarms of connected sensors like thermostats or sprinkler controllers to cause damaging and unpredictable spikes in infrastructure use, leading to things like power surges, destructive water hammer attacks, or reduced availability of critical infrastructure on a city or state-wide level. Solutions for these attacks do exist, from smarter control software that can tell the difference between emergency and erroneous sensor data, and standards that put bounds on what data devices are allowed to send, or how often they’re allowed to send it. But the challenge of securing consumer-grade sensors and devices remains, especially as they connect, in droves, to our shared infrastructure.

5. Limited AI

AJ Abdallat is CEO of Beyond Limits website, an organization that was born from the labs of the Caltech deep space program. He points out that most of the current AI offerings on the market have substantial limits. After all, the machine learning and big data based AI that currently pervade are powerful tools for identifying associations in large quantities of data, but don’t have much on humans in terms of working out the complex phenomena of cause and effect, or to identify modifiable factors that can engender desired outcomes.

As big data and machine learning powered AI’s gains processing power, they can incorporate into their algorithms more and more information, more and more variables that may affect data associations. But with little human intervention, inevitably some variables may display strong correlation by pure chance, with little actual predictive effect.

The practical applications of AI to the IoT include, Smart IoT that connects and optimizing devices, data and the IoT; AI-Enabled Cybersecurity that offers data security encryption and enhanced situational awareness to provide document, data, and network locking using smart distributed data secured by an AI key.

6. Lack of Confidence

Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Gemalto is a cybersecurity firm that has researched the impact of security on the development of the IoT. If found that that 90 percent of consumers lack confidence in the security of Internet of Things devices. This comes as more than two-thirds of consumers and almost 80% of organizations support governments getting involved in setting IoT security. In fact its recent State of IoT Security research report, released at the end of October showed the following data.

96 percent of businesses and 90 percent of consumers believe there should be IoT security regulations
54 percent of consumers own an average of four IoT devices, but only 14 percent believe that they are knowledgeable on IoT device security
65 percent of consumers are concerned about a hacker controlling their IoT device, while 60 percent are concerned about data being leaked

“It’s clear that both consumers and businesses have serious concerns around IoT security and little confidence that IoT service providers and device manufacturers will be able to protect IoT devices and more importantly the integrity of the data created, stored and transmitted by these devices,” said Jason Hart, CTO of Data Protection at Gemalto said in a statement about the report. “Until there is confidence in IoT amongst businesses and consumers, it won’t see mainstream adoption,” said Hart.

7. Understanding IoT

In 2018, the real issue is how to increase the ability for people to understand the changes and their implications more clearly, and to take concrete actions to take advantage of the potential upside. “The pace of change has exceeded the rate of human capability to absorb — the cup is already full,” said Jeff Kavanaugh, VP and Senior Partner in High Tech & Manufacturing for Infosys website.

Internet of Things is moving into it’s adolescence as connected devices become smarter and more immersive, and expectations to convert IoT data to insights and financial value increase. Also, algorithms and data visualization templates have evolved so that new use cases can take advantage of earlier ones. The exponential adoption of IoT will drive down sensor and acquisition costs, enabling more and more viable business cases that have previously been too expensive.

Reference:

https://www.leanmethods.com/resources/articles/top-ten-problems-faced-business/

https://www.cmswire.com/cms/internet-of-things/7-big-problems-with-the-internet-of-things-024571.php

What is the Data Protection Act, and how does it affect my business?

The Data Protection Act (DPA) governs the holding and processing of personal data.

‘Personal data’ means information which identifies any living individual or can, with other information held by you, identify any individual.

‘Processing’ of personal data means obtaining, recording or holding the information.

As a business, you will be handling the personal information of your employees, suppliers and/or customers: it is therefore likely that your activities will be caught by the provisions of the DPA. If you are a ‘data controller’ under the Act and fail to notify your organisation to the Information Commissioner, your directors may be criminally liable for failing to do so.

A ‘data controller’ is a person or entity that determines the purposes for which personal data is processed. Under the DPA, personal data must be:

Fairly and lawfully processed;
Processed for specified purposes;
Adequate, relevant and not excessive;
Accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
Not kept for longer than is necessary;
Processed in line with the rights of the individual;
Kept secure; and
Not transferred to countries outside the EEA unless the information is adequately protected.

Non-compliance can result in an enforcement notice preventing your business from processing data, effectively preventing many businesses from operating, together with significant fines. Furthermore, the officers of your company, the managers and directors, can be held personally criminally liable for non-compliance.

Solutions

You should establish a data protection policy in your business to ensure your legal obligations are met.

The policy should take into account the particular personal data needs of the business as well as the way it processes this information. The policy should also address areas where personal and sensitive data (i.e. data relating to race, religion, sexual orientation etc.) might inadvertently leak in contravention of your obligation under the law.

The law aside, it also makes good business sense to have a policy as:

Keeping the information you have about your customers secure will help protect your and their information;
Sending out a mailing from incorrect or out-of-date records could not only annoy your customers but also wastes your time and money;
Good information handling can improve your business’s reputation by increasing customer and employee confidence in you;
Good information handling should also reduce the risk of a complaint being made against you.

Every day individuals contact the Information Commissioner to enquire about the way their information is handled. The Information Commissioner can also be asked to assess whether particular processing is likely or unlikely to comply with the DPA.

We live in rapidly changing times, especially for businesses. Consider that, in a single generation, businesses have had to adapt to entirely new marketing channels (web and social), decide how to invest in and utilise new technologies, and compete on a global stage — things that were barely imaginable to our parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

One side effect of these rapid changes and growth is that no single CEO — or any employee, for that matter — can be an expert in everything. This was, perhaps, always true, but it has never been more apparent.

This is why, in my opinion, some of the biggest challenges businesses face today are best met and addressed with qualified consultants. Bringing on a consultant helps CEOs add the expertise and skills they need to address particular problems at particular times, and can provide the best possible outcomes.

Just a few of the challenges I see businesses facing that are best addressed with the help of a consultant include:

Uncertainty about the future

Being able to predict customer trends, market trends, etc. is vital to a changing economic climate, but not every CEO has Warren Buffet-like predictive powers. Bringing in a consultant trained in reading and predicting those all-important trends could be the difference between a bright future and a murky one.

Financial management

Many CEO’s I know are ideas people; that means they’re great at the big picture and disruptive thinking, but less good with things like cash flow, profit margins, reducing costs, financing, etc. Small and medium businesses may not require a full-time CFO, but would do better to employ a financial consultant who can step into the role as needed.

Monitoring performance

Using a meaningful set of rounded performance indicators that provide the business with insights about how well it is performing is key. Most business people I know are not experts in how to develop KPIs, how to avoid the key pitfalls and how to best communicate metrics so that they inform decision-making. In most cases companies rely on overly simple finance indicators that just clog up the corporate reporting channels.

Regulation and compliance

As markets and technologies shift, so do rules and regulations. Depending on your industry, it can make much more sense to bring in a consultant to help with these areas rather than trying to understand the complexities yourself — and risk fines or worse for non-compliance.

Competencies and recruiting the right talent

Again, a small or medium-sized business might not need full-time human resources or recruiting staff, but during peak growth periods, finding the right people and developing the right skills and competencies is the key to a sustainable future. Bringing in a consultant with the expertise to find exactly the workers you need would be a wise investment.

Technology

As technologies change practically at the speed of light, it’s vital for companies to innovate or be left behind — but many CEO’s started their careers and businesses before many of these technologies even existed! Consultants can be vital for integrating new technologies, in particular mobile, app development, and cloud computing.

Exploding data

Grandpa’s generation certainly didn’t have to deal with terabytes of data or worry about what to do with it. 90% of the world’s data was created in the past two years and managing, keeping safe and extracting insights from the ever-increasing amounts of data your company produces needs to be in the hands of a qualified professional who can help you get the most return from that data.

Customer service

In a world of instant gratification, customers expect instant customer service — and can take to the web to share their displeasure at less than satisfactory service just as quickly. Consultants can find ways to improve customer service and bring it into the 21st century.

Maintaining reputation

In a similar vein, because customers can voice any displeasure so much more publicly and loudly than ever before, businesses have to monitor and maintain their online reputations. And while it’s an important task, it’s one best suited to a third party who can monitor and mediate with a certain amount of distance.

Knowing when to embrace change

Early adopter or late to the game? Consultants can help CEO’s determine when to embrace change and when to stay the course. Not everything new is better, yet eschewing every change runs the risk of becoming obsolete. A professional outside opinion can make all the difference in these decisions.

We are living in an era of constant change for the foreseeable future: change is the new normal. Preparing for and embracing that change by investing in the right kind of advice is the best way to meet these challenges head on.

The Impact of Communication Technology on Business-security risk 3

What are security risks of hacked bank accounts?

Image result for business security

Each year, over 900,000 of us find that thieves have used our card details to make purchases or to withdraw money from our accounts. However, proving that fraud has taken place on your account can be difficult.

Run antivirus and anti-malware software. Doing so could end up preventing computer viruses and losing your information.

How malware affects your business

Malware is a tool that hackers use to imitate your IPv4 address so they can gain access to your bank account.

Often you don’t even know that they have control over your bank account.

If your customers get tricked they tend to have trust issues and will look for an alternative business that doesn’t have any malware.

Double-check your transactions. Look over your statements for any fraudulent purchases, and report anything suspicious right away.

Your web browser checks the security certificate of websites, making it easier to detect invalid sites. So always make sure the websites you use are secure before entering personal information.

Consequence #1: Lost Sales

Unfortunately, bad news travels fast and if your business has experienced a hack in which data has been compromised, and then you can be sure that people will avoid your business at all costs. After a well know US retailer’s profits dropped drastically following a major hack, you can be sure the same would apply to any other business that gets hacked.

Consequence #2: Damaged Reputation

Once the damage is done, it can be very difficult to reverse. Consumer trust is something that is not easily won over and even harder to win back. At best, it can be ameliorated with countless hours of reputation management, marketing, and public relations.

Consequence #3: Compensation Costs

You may have to reassure people with compensation in the form of free credit monitoring and/or identity theft insurance. It’s free for your customers … it’s not free for you.

Consequence #4: Legal Action

Unfortunately lawsuits are commonplace nowadays. Regardless if your business wins or loses, legal action costs can be huge. If the breach occurred because your business made some mistakes, then it’s safe to assume that the law is not going to be on your side.

Consequence #5: Fines

The good news: if customers’ credit cards are actually used to purchase stuff fraudulently, you don’t have to foot that bill; the banks do the reimbursing. The bad news: the banks pass on those costs to you in the form of fines.

Consequence #6: Government Audits

Regardless of the country your business is in, if your business is large enough then there is a big chance that a government organisation such as the Federal Trade Commission (US) will be knocking on your door to carry out an audit. They may even decide to then fine your business if they find that guidelines such as PCI DSS were not followed.

Consequence 7: Remediation Costs

You’re also going to have internal remediation costs: costs to investigate what happened improve your security posture, fire and hire employees … whatever it takes to fix your internal information security environment.

Permanent financial damages 8:

Financial damages to a company came in as the second most feared repercussion following a breach. According to the Ponemon Institute, the average price for small businesses to clean up after their businesses have been hacked stands at $690,000, and for middle market companies it’s more than $1 million.

This cost escalates when organizations hire external IT professionals to help mitigate a security breach — something that would have been much more cost effective prior to a breach — but once the damage is done, it’s the best option.

Image result for business security

Irreconcilable reputation damage 9:

A data breach isn’t just a small glitch — it is a damaging mistake that a company oftentimes is unable to shake off. The inevitable PR nightmare following a data breach causes reputation damage that may be irreconcilable.

This is particularly important for small businesses, because many do not see themselves as targets and they often believe a simple step such as the activation of two-factor authentication is good enough.

But, the consequences of a breach in a small business can far outweigh the effects of a breach at a large corporation, as there’s often not a strong enough reputation built up to fall back on.

Side effects can include other organizations’ unwillingness to partner with a company that has faced a data breach, but the losses oftentimes go beyond sales, as businesses are often forced to spend hefty funds on improving security measures.

The impact of communications technology on business- celebrity Endorsement

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How to Use Celebrity Endorsement to Boost Business

PR consultant Julia Kendrick takes a look at tried and tested tactics of celebrity endorsement and gives her top tips on how to effectively harness ‘star power’ to build your clinic brand

When it comes to celebrities, more often than not they are used by the mainstream media to demonstrate the cartoonish, exaggerated or ghoulish effects of bad surgery. Yet increasingly, the UK aesthetic industry is using good quality celebrity endorsement, with the likes of Sharon Stone for Gal derma and Karen Brady for Hydra Facial. But is celebrity endorsement only achievable for big brands, or in trendy clinic hotspots like LA or Harley Street? No – in fact, celebrity marketing is well within your grasp and this article will prepare you for if and when the lightning strikes!

Why use celebrity marketing?

Nowadays, a great deal of products we use are associated with a celebrity endorsement or ‘brand ambassador’. The critical premise here is to make consumers feel that they can emulate the celebrity lifestyle by buying the fragrance, the clothes, or the food: we all want a little bit of that A-List feel in our own lives. By coupling the right celebrity face with your clinic and brand, you can achieve an instantaneous business boost, outshine your competition and gain visibility amongst a much larger network of potential audiences than through your own marketing alone.

Finding your ‘celebrity’

The ideal scenario is that a local or, even national, celebrity just happens to walk through your clinic door – but this is only relatively likely if you are in Harley Street or certain London hotspots. The vast majority of clinic celebrity endorsements arise through good old-fashioned word-of-mouth, so start by reaching out to your key suppliers, business partners and of course your patients to see who they might have connections with. Be subtle in your approach – as any new patient recommendations should always be welcome, not just celebrities – but if you mention you are looking for more ways to showcase the work you do and potentially work with some well-known faces, this is a good place to start.

A match made in heaven?

Once a celebrity crosses your threshold, don’t automatically assume that any publicity is good publicity. The success of a celebrity endorsement rests entirely on whether they align with, and appeal to, your existing patient base. If there is a mismatch, the endorsement will not deliver the business benefits and even worse, it could damage your reputation. You need to protect your brand and carefully consider:

Would the majority of your ideal patients want to look like/emulate this celebrity?
Do they resonate with your patients in terms of age, socio-economic status, personality, lifestyle and career?
Have they had a lot of previous cosmetic procedures elsewhere? Going back to the ‘ghoulish’ danger signs, you want to steer clear of anyone who looks over-done, especially if all the work wasn’t yours to begin with!
Would you be happy with their final result being publically acknowledged as your work?
Do you have matching values?
Are they easy to get along with, or are you continually fearful that something will backfire?

Seal the deal

So you’ve found a celebrity who is a good fit, but what next? The answer is to treat them like a normal patient. Give them the same level of care and excellence as you would for any other patient; build up the relationship and establish a rapport before asking them for anything. Remember, as with many aesthetic patients they may be reticent even to admit publically that they have had cosmetic procedures – so the approach here must be softly, softly. It can sometimes take years before a celebrity will be comfortable acting as an ambassador, so judge carefully when to approach them. Ideally, their great experiences as a patient may prompt them to approach you proactively and offer their testimonial or endorsement – so much so, the better.

When it comes to payment, if the celebrity is a new introduction there will usually be an expectation to have their treatment for free, in return for promoting you and your services through a number of means. Make sure you nail this down in writing so that expectations are clear on both sides. If a key supplier or manufacturer has connected you to the celebrity, ask them to cover the cost of the product for you, again, with the clear understanding of being credited in subsequent publicity.

Setting and managing prices for your products

When you import products from suppliers, the original prices are also imported into your Shopify admin. To profit from selling these products, you need to increase the prices in your Shopify store. You can set product prices manually, or set global pricing rules for automatic mark up.

The original price of the products you’re drop shipping is known as product cost. This is how much you’re paying the supplier when you place an order.

To run a profitable business, you have to determine what the final price of your products will be, then set the mark-ups or margins for them. The profit is the difference between the amount of money the customer paid and the cost of the product (the amount you paid the supplier).

Strategy for pricing your products

Consider the following aspects when pricing your products:

The types of products you’re selling: Product cost can help you determine how much you’ll charge for a product. For example, if product cost is less than $5.00, depending on the product category and type, you could mark it up 4 or 5 times and sell it for $20.00 – $25.00. This allows you to make a profit up to $20.00, depending on shipping and other costs.
Other expenses or business costs, such as marketing expenses, your Shopify subscription, and transaction fees: Reflect on these expenses when setting prices for your products. These are necessary business costs that you will incur, so it’s important your profit covers these costs at the very least.
Competitor’s prices for similar products: Looking at stores that sell similar products can help you determine the average price of the products you’re selling, then you can set your prices accordingly.

Set product prices manually for drop shipping

You can set product prices manually in both Shoplift and Oberlo. We recommend you set your product prices in Oberlo before you import products to Shopify. If you’ve already imported your products to Shopify, then you can set your product prices in Shopify.

Set product prices in Oberlo

When you have added products to your import list, you can set product prices manually in Oberlo.

Steps:

On the sidebar, hover over the price tag icon, and click Import List.
Click the Variantstab for the product.
Change the price for each variantin the Price
If you want to set the same price for all variants, then click the Change All Pricesdrop-down, then Set New Value.
Enter the new price and click Apply.

Your changes are saved automatically.

Set product prices in Shopify

Set product prices manually in Shopify after you’ve imported your products from Oberlo.

Steps:

From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
Click the name of the product that you want to update.
In the Variantssection, enter the price that you’re charging for the product for each variant in the Price
Click Save.

Setting global pricing rules

You can use global pricing rules to set prices for your products in bulk. You can set global pricing rules in the Global Pricing Rules section of your Oberlo settings.

Add a product price rule

You can set the price for all your products by using a product price rule. There are two types of product price rules:

Multiplier– multiplies the supplier product cost by the number you specify. For example, a product with supplier product cost of $2.00 with a multiplier of 3 is priced at $6.00 in your Shopify store.
Fixed Markup– adds a fixed amount to the supplier product cost. For example, a product with a supplier product cost of $2.00 with a fixed markup of 3 is priced at $5.00 in your Shopify store.

Steps:

Click Settings > Global Pricing Rules.
In the Product cost section for your Your product price, select a rule type from the drop-down list.
Add an amount for your product cost rule:
Click Save Settings.

A product price rule applies only to product added after you created the rule. If you want to apply the rule to products in your import list or that you already have in your store, then click Apply pricing rule to existing products. global-pricing-product-price-d6fecf39314f960b13950ccd8ae0022678ea63b9f8fe003fe2f5d488d704ff4a

Adding a product compared at price rule

You can set a product compared at price to simulate product sales in your Shopify store. For example, if your supplier cost is $10.00 and you add a product cost multiplier of 3 then this product is listed at $30.00. If set your product compared at price multiplier to 6, then the product appears in your Shopify store with a cost reduction from $60.00. price-compared-rule-61ea551d6c82935f6aad3f3e9b21493d90c2b95fc67e5bb2b509bc1160c9900c

The set Your product compared at price value has to be greater than the “Your product price” setting value.

Steps:

Click Settings > Global Pricing Rules.
Enable Set your compared at pricing rulesby clicking the toggle button.
In the Product cost section for your Your product compared at price, select a rule type from the drop-down list.
Enter an amount for your compared at price cost rule.
Click Save Settings.

A product cost rule applies only to products added after you created the rule. If you want to apply the rule to products in your import list or that you already have in your store, then click Apply pricing rule to existing products.

Advanced pricing rules

You can use advanced pricing rules to set the product prices for different supplier cost ranges. You can use this rule set if you have several different products with different supplier costs.

Steps:

Click Settings > Global Pricing Rules.
Enable advanced pricing rulesby clicking the toggle button.
Enter a cost range.
In the Markup section, select a rule type from the drop-down list.
Enter an amount for your markup.
Optional: Enable Compared at price markupto set a simulated sales price.
Click Save Settings.

Round the prices of your products

You can automatically round your product prices in the Shopify store. For example, you can use this feature if you want all your prices to end in .99.

Rounding only applies to product prices that are set using global pricing rules. If the supplier product costs is $2.00, you have the global pricing rules multiplier set to 3, and you set assign cents set to 99, then the product price will be set at $6.99 in your Shopify store.

Steps:

Click Settings> Global Pricing Rules.
Enable Assign cent.
Enter a cents amount between 0 and 99.
Click Save Settings.

You can also round the price for your compared at price rules. Compared at price rules simulate a product sale in your Shopify store.

To add price rounding for a compared at price rule:

Click Settings> Global Pricing Rules.
Enable Assign compared at cents.
Enter a cents amount between 0 and 99.
Click Save Settings.

Disable price auto updates

If you have set prices for your products manually, then you need to disable price auto updates to make sure global pricing rules aren’t automatically applied to you products.

Steps:

On the sidebar, hover over the price tag icon, and click My Products.
Click the Actionsdrop-down for the product that you want to update.
Enable Prevent product price from auto-updatingby tapping the toggle button.

To disable auto updates for all products:

Click Settings> Shop Settings > Auto Updates.
In the When the cost changessection, click Do Nothing.
Click Save Settingsat the top of the page.

What is competitor analysis?

Competitor analysis is the process of identifying, analysing and learning from your competitors.

It is a critical part of your marketing strategy and will enable to you to establish what makes you product or service unique in the marketplace and help you work out how to attract your target market.

Competitor analysis should be part of the planning process before your business starts. You should then continue to review your competitors regularly once the venture is up and running, particularly if you’re planning to operate in a fast changing business sector.

Who are my competitors?

The instant answer is businesses like yours. If you’re planning to set up as a painter and decorator for example, then it would be other people who offer the same service or sell decorating products.

It’s not just established businesses that you should include in your research – competition could also come from a new business that is offering a similar service or product to you.

You can start to find out where your competitors could be by:

walking around the area in which your business operates
looking through local directories
reading industry magazines and press advertising
talking to customers
attending exhibitions and trade fairs
searching on the internet
collecting flyers, brochures and marketing literature
Checking information on Companies House’s website.

When carrying out your analysis, it’s worth bearing mind that with increased internet use potential customers now have more choice in finding services and products and you could find yourself competing with businesses from further afield.

What can I find out about my competitors?

By conducting a competitor analysis you can find out:

who and where your competitors are
what they offer
how they advertise
Whether or not there is something that you can learn from them to inform your own start-up idea.

It may help to draft up a research planning sheet. To get started ask yourself the following:

My customers

Who are my customers? Age, gender, income level etc
How often often do the purchase? How much do they spend?
What do they expect in terms of service? What support will they want after they have brought from us?

Potential customers

Why do they choose a particular competitor?
When do they purchase? Time, day, year?
Where do they shop at the moment?

How should I go about this?

An internet search is a great place to start as even the smallest businesses may have some web presence. You’ll be able to locate companies offering similar products quickly and easily by running are search online (if you are a painter and decorator operating around the Leeds area then start by searching for ‘painters and decorators in LS10′ for example). A company website will give you a lot of information too. This could include the business’ history and staff biographies, the products and services it offers, including prices and how it distributes its products.

It’s worthwhile taking a look at any feedback or testimonial pages to get an idea of how satisfied customers are with their services. Blogs, social networks, forums and feedback websites are a perfect way to find out what people are saying about them. Consider approaching customers directly. Ask then what they like and dislike about competitors, what would they like to see improved and are they any gaps they aren’t filling?

Take a look at how your competitors are promoting and branding themselves. Do they promote special offers on their website? If they send out newsletters, consider joining their mailing list or request a brochure or media pack. Look through trade magazines or local press for advertisements, special offers or articles relating to them and also check it see if they have entries in directories or phone books.

Trade fairs and exhibitions are useful places to go to. Here you’ll be able to take a look at products and promotional materials from a few competitors, see how busy their stands are and who visits them.

A good way to get a real feel for your competitors and your potential location is to have a walk around the area. See how busy it is at different times of day and what the mix of potential customers is. Print off a map of your competitors, this will help in the planning of any research visit. You can also use directories such as Yellow Pages or their web based equivalent, www.yell.com, to find out where they are located.

How can I compete?

Once you find out who your competitors are you have an idea of the areas you need to compete in.

Firstly you’ll need to think about whether you want to stand out from the crowd or are happy to operate in a similar way to your competitors. Essentially, you can compete in terms of price or quality. If you’re competing on price, you’ll need to consider your how much it costs you to provide the product or service very carefully and whether you’ll be able to survive if a competitor lowers their prices.

The following can help you to stay ahead of the competition:

Differentiate. Make yourself different from the competition. Work on your USP (unique selling point). Think about why customers would choose you rather than a rival. Are you offering a product at the lowest cost or the best quality? Is it the first-ever product of its kind? If offering a service, for example if you run a garage, you could look at opening earlier or later than your competitors.
Know and look after your customers. What motivates your customers? Is it paying the lowest price, keeping up-to-date with the latest products or flexibility in service? Look after your customers by offering the highest standard of customer service you can. Be responsive to their needs and expectations. Look at rewarding customers with discounts, loyalty perks or improved credit terms.
Promote yourself. Tell people who you are and what you do. This can be done by advertising in the local press, distributing leaflets, putting up posters in your shop window, or handing out business cards. For a wider reach, look at promoting yourself online through social media, on your website or by email.
Be forward thinking. Look at your plans for growth – have a clear idea of where you want to be over the next year and beyond. Keep up with developments within your sector and look at consumer trends.

What is competitor analysis?

Competitor analysis is the process of identifying, analysing and learning from your competitors. It is a critical part of your marketing strategy and will enable to you to establish what makes you product or service unique in the marketplace and help you work out how to attract your target market.Competitor analysis should be part of the planning process before your business starts. You should then continue to review your competitors regularly once the venture is up and running, particularly if you’re planning to operate in a fast changing business sector.Who are my competitors?The instant answer is businesses like yours. If you’re planning to set up as a painter and decorator for example, then it would be other people who offer the same service or sell decorating products.It’s not just established businesses that you should include in your research – competition could also come from a new business that is offering a similar service or product to you.
You can start to find out where your competitors could be by:
- walking around the area in which your business operates
- looking through local directories
- reading industry magazines and press advertising
- talking to customers
- attending exhibitions and trade fairs
- searching on the internet
- collecting flyers, brochures and marketing literature
- Checking information on Companies House’s website.
When carrying out your analysis, it’s worth bearing mind that with increased internet use potential customers now have more choice in finding services and products and you could find yourself competing with businesses from further afield.

What can I find out about my competitors?

By conducting a competitor analysis you can find out:
- who and where your competitors are
- what they offer
- how they advertise
- Whether or not there is something that you can learn from them to inform your own start-up idea.
It may help to draft up a research planning sheet. To get started ask yourself the following:

My customers
- Who are my customers? Age, gender, income level etc
- How often often do the purchase? How much do they spend?
- What do they expect in terms of service? What support will they want after they have brought from us?
Potential customers
- Why do they choose a particular competitor?
- When do they purchase? Time, day, year?
- Where do they shop at the moment?
How should I go about this?

An internet search is a great place to start as even the smallest businesses may have some web presence. You’ll be able to locate companies offering similar products quickly and easily by running are search online (if you are a painter and decorator operating around the Leeds area then start by searching for ‘painters and decorators in LS10′ for example). A company website will give you a lot of information too. This could include the business’ history and staff biographies, the products and services it offers, including prices and how it distributes its products.

It’s worthwhile taking a look at any feedback or testimonial pages to get an idea of how satisfied customers are with their services. Blogs, social networks, forums and feedback websites are a perfect way to find out what people are saying about them. Consider approaching customers directly. Ask then what they like and dislike about competitors, what would they like to see improved and are they any gaps they aren’t filling?

Take a look at how your competitors are promoting and branding themselves. Do they promote special offers on their website? If they send out newsletters, consider joining their mailing list or request a brochure or media pack. Look through trade magazines or local press for advertisements, special offers or articles relating to them and also check it see if they have entries in directories or phone books.

Trade fairs and exhibitions are useful places to go to. Here you’ll be able to take a look at products and promotional materials from a few competitors, see how busy their stands are and who visits them.

A good way to get a real feel for your competitors and your potential location is to have a walk around the area. See how busy it is at different times of day and what the mix of potential customers is. Print off a map of your competitors, this will help in the planning of any research visit. You can also use directories such as Yellow Pages or their web based equivalent, www.yell.com, to find out where they are located.
How can I compete?Once you find out who your competitors are you have an idea of the areas you need to compete in.Firstly you’ll need to think about whether you want to stand out from the crowd or are happy to operate in a similar way to your competitors. Essentially, you can compete in terms of price or quality. If you’re competing on price, you’ll need to consider your how much it costs you to provide the product or service very carefully and whether you’ll be able to survive if a competitor lowers their prices.The following can help you to stay ahead of the competition:
- Differentiate. Make yourself different from the competition. Work on your USP (unique selling point). Think about why customers would choose you rather than a rival. Are you offering a product at the lowest cost or the best quality? Is it the first-ever product of its kind? If offering a service, for example if you run a garage, you could look at opening earlier or later than your competitors.
- Know and look after your customers. What motivates your customers? Is it paying the lowest price, keeping up-to-date with the latest products or flexibility in service? Look after your customers by offering the highest standard of customer service you can. Be responsive to their needs and expectations. Look at rewarding customers with discounts, loyalty perks or improved credit terms.
- Promote yourself. Tell people who you are and what you do. This can be done by advertising in the local press, distributing leaflets, putting up posters in your shop window, or handing out business cards. For a wider reach, look at promoting yourself online through social media, on your website or by email.
- Be forward thinking. Look at your plans for growth – have a clear idea of where you want to be over the next year and beyond. Keep up with developments within your sector and look at consumer trends.
  
  What is competitor analysis?
  
  Competitor analysis is the process of identifying, analysing and learning from your competitors.
  
  It is a critical part of your marketing strategy and will enable to you to establish what makes you product or service unique in the marketplace and help you work out how to attract your target market.
  
  Competitor analysis should be part of the planning process before your business starts. You should then continue to review your competitors regularly once the venture is up and running, particularly if you’re planning to operate in a fast changing business sector.
  
  Who are my competitors?
  
  The instant answer is businesses like yours. If you’re planning to set up as a painter and decorator for example, then it would be other people who offer the same service or sell decorating products.
  
  It’s not just established businesses that you should include in your research – competition could also come from a new business that is offering a similar service or product to you.
  
  You can start to find out where your competitors could be by:
  - walking around the area in which your business operates
  - looking through local directories
  - reading industry magazines and press advertising
  - talking to customers
  - attending exhibitions and trade fairs
  - searching on the internet
  - collecting flyers, brochures and marketing literature
  - Checking information on Companies House’s website.
  When carrying out your analysis, it’s worth bearing mind that with increased internet use potential customers now have more choice in finding services and products and you could find yourself competing with businesses from further afield.
  
  What can I find out about my competitors?
  
  By conducting a competitor analysis you can find out:
  - who and where your competitors are
  - what they offer
  - how they advertise
  - Whether or not there is something that you can learn from them to inform your own start-up idea.
  It may help to draft up a research planning sheet. To get started ask yourself the following:
  
  My customers
  - Who are my customers? Age, gender, income level etc
  - How often often do the purchase? How much do they spend?
  - What do they expect in terms of service? What support will they want after they have brought from us?
  Potential customers
  - Why do they choose a particular competitor?
  - When do they purchase? Time, day, year?
  - Where do they shop at the moment?
  How should I go about this?
  
  An internet search is a great place to start as even the smallest businesses may have some web presence. You’ll be able to locate companies offering similar products quickly and easily by running are search online (if you are a painter and decorator operating around the Leeds area then start by searching for ‘painters and decorators in LS10′ for example). A company website will give you a lot of information too. This could include the business’ history and staff biographies, the products and services it offers, including prices and how it distributes its products.
  
  It’s worthwhile taking a look at any feedback or testimonial pages to get an idea of how satisfied customers are with their services. Blogs, social networks, forums and feedback websites are a perfect way to find out what people are saying about them. Consider approaching customers directly. Ask then what they like and dislike about competitors, what would they like to see improved and are they any gaps they aren’t filling?
  
  Take a look at how your competitors are promoting and branding themselves. Do they promote special offers on their website? If they send out newsletters, consider joining their mailing list or request a brochure or media pack. Look through trade magazines or local press for advertisements, special offers or articles relating to them and also check it see if they have entries in directories or phone books.
  
  Trade fairs and exhibitions are useful places to go to. Here you’ll be able to take a look at products and promotional materials from a few competitors, see how busy their stands are and who visits them.
  
  A good way to get a real feel for your competitors and your potential location is to have a walk around the area. See how busy it is at different times of day and what the mix of potential customers is. Print off a map of your competitors, this will help in the planning of any research visit. You can also use directories such as Yellow Pages or their web based equivalent, www.yell.com, to find out where they are located.
  
  How can I compete?
  
  Once you find out who your competitors are you have an idea of the areas you need to compete in.
  
  Firstly you’ll need to think about whether you want to stand out from the crowd or are happy to operate in a similar way to your competitors. Essentially, you can compete in terms of price or quality. If you’re competing on price, you’ll need to consider your how much it costs you to provide the product or service very carefully and whether you’ll be able to survive if a competitor lowers their prices.
  
  The following can help you to stay ahead of the competition:
  - Differentiate. Make yourself different from the competition. Work on your USP (unique selling point). Think about why customers would choose you rather than a rival. Are you offering a product at the lowest cost or the best quality? Is it the first-ever product of its kind? If offering a service, for example if you run a garage, you could look at opening earlier or later than your competitors.
  - Know and look after your customers. What motivates your customers? Is it paying the lowest price, keeping up-to-date with the latest products or flexibility in service? Look after your customers by offering the highest standard of customer service you can. Be responsive to their needs and expectations. Look at rewarding customers with discounts, loyalty perks or improved credit terms.
  - Promote yourself. Tell people who you are and what you do. This can be done by advertising in the local press, distributing leaflets, putting up posters in your shop window, or handing out business cards. For a wider reach, look at promoting yourself online through social media, on your website or by email.
  - Be forward thinking. Look at your plans for growth – have a clear idea of where you want to be over the next year and beyond. Keep up with developments within your sector and look at consumer trends.

The Impact of Communication Technology on Business – security risk

Failure to protect consumer data is used results in distrust and, ultimately, loss of business.

Those that succeed will hit a sweet spot whereby customers will be willing to share more personal insights into their world in return for greater value and the confidence that their data is protected

Here a few relevant findings:

Lack of trust costs global brands $2.5 trillionper year. This compares to $756 billionlost by U.S. companies and 41 percent loss of clients.
Forty-three percentof U.S. consumers and 44 percentof global consumers reported that they were more likely to buy from companies that personalize experiences.
Thirty-one percentof U.S. respondents and 34 percentof global respondents stated they find value in services that learn their needs from personalization.
Sixty-seven percentof millennials, 56 percentof Gen Xers, and 42 percent of Boomers claimed they would be willing to share their shopping preferences in order to improve the service they received.
Eighty-sevenpercent of global consumers and 92 percentof U.S. consumers claimed they believe it is extremely important for companies to safeguard their information.
Fifty-eight percentof global consumers and 66 percentof U.S. consumers want companies to be more transparent about how the information they gather is used.

Primarily, companies should focus on minimizing “switching,” referring to the loss of one customer or client to another brand or company, by addressing the most common customer service frustrations such as having to contact the company multiple times for the same reason, dealing with unfriendly or impolite employees, and not being provided what was promised at the time of purchase.

The generation with the highest propensity to “switch” and therefore in need of the most retention efforts? Millennials. This is due in large part to their elevated “digital prowess” rendering them more adept at identifying their alternatives and accelerating purchasing power that has them on pace to control $24 trillion in wealth by 2020.

Perhaps even more importantly, if we start trusting the people we’ve hired, then thousands of people could start looking forward to going to work again. It would save companies billions in reduced stress, depression and resignations, and improve output and innovation. After all, according to a survey by HBR and Energy Group, employees who felt their leaders treated them with respect (i.e. trusted them) were 63% more satisfied with their jobs, 55% more engaged, 58% more focused, and 110% more likely to stay with their organization.

That’s makes trust worthwhile for the bottom line too

CEOs must monitor stakeholder trust

If companies do not understand the drivers of stakeholder trust, a sustainable and resilient approach is unlikely to evolve.

Trust comes down to values, competence and customer experience

PwC recognises that the process of understanding what trust is, and how it can be measured and enlisted to underpin key business decisions, is complex and goes to the heart of a company’s values, competence and customer experience.

A starting point for all CEOs and their teams is to understand how they are demonstrating to stakeholders their commitment to integrity and values. A breach of values can be irretrievable. So balancing thorny issues like executive pay and the treatment of employees and communities is key.

Secondly, how are CEOs ensuring the customer receives the expertise and competence they have bargained for? Again, this is something no organisation can afford to consistently fail if repeat business is the aspiration. Thirdly, what experience are customers receiving in both good times and bad?

Consistently great customer, employee and stakeholder experience will cover all manner of sins when it comes to building, maintaining and gaining trust.

Behaviours That Improve Trust

The management behaviours that can improve the levels of trust in an organisation. These behaviours are measurable and can be managed to improve performance.

Recognise Excellence

There are many books that emphasise the need for effective recognition and experiments demonstrated that it is most powerful and long lasting when it occurs immediately after a goal has been met, when it comes from peers, and when it’s tangible, unexpected, personal, and public.

How can you and your managers organise and facilitate more of this?

Share Information Broadly.

Uncertainty erodes trust and a lack of communication from leaders creates a vacuum that is quickly filled with gossip and rumours based on people’s fears and insecurities. This can quickly lead to chronic stress which inhibits Oxytocin and undermines teamwork. . A 2015 study of 2.5 million manager-led teams in 195 countries found that workforce engagement improved when supervisors had some form of daily communication with direct reports. Regular and ongoing communication is key, businesses that share their strategy and explain why they are taking this approach reduce uncertainty. The social media optimisation company Buffer takes a radical approach to transparency and publishes salaries for all employees including the CEO online. What do you need to do more of to improve communication throughout your business?

Intentionally Build Relationships.

There are now numerous studies that show that teams that know each and have good interpersonal relationships outperform others with less social interaction. Our success as a species is due to our social skills and the brain network that Oxytocin activates is very old in evolutionarily terms. This means it is deeply embedded in our nature. Studies at Google found that managers who “express interest in and concern for team members’ success and personal well-being” outperform others in the quality and quantity of their work. What are you doing to help people build social connections and provide team-building activities?

Show Vulnerability.

Asking for help is a sign of a secure leader. When a leader asks for help instead of just telling people to do stuff it stimulates Oxytocin production in others, increasing their trust and cooperation. Many leaders feel as if they have to know all the answers and yet it is the leaders with healthy self-esteem who are more likely to be comfortable being vulnerable and engage everyone to reach common goals. Asking for help is effective because it taps into our natural evolutionary impulse to cooperate with others. What do you need in order to feel more comfortable asking for help?

The Impact of Communication Technology on Business

How Do Businesses Use the Internet?

More than 1.8 billion people worldwide use the Internet in some way, shape or form, according to a December, 2009 study on internetworldstats.com. A significant portion of users are business owners who have learned the power of connecting with customers and colleagues electronically. Over time, a business owner’s consistent use of the Internet can help propel his company to the next level.

Research Competition

Some businesses use the Internet to research competitors. For instance, Hoovers.com allows searches for detailed information on businesses across the country. An Internet search on a competing company results in articles and news stories about the competition that may help a business owner prepare for changes in the industry.

Buy and Sell

One of the basic uses of the Internet for businesses is to sell products and services. Businesses create E-commerce websites to sell anything from cell phone contracts to books and CDs. Online selling eliminates the need for the business to maintain a brick-and-mortar store and in some cases they don’t have to hold an inventory. A business can also use the Internet to buy items and services online, such as bulk-buying office supplies or printed materials.

Gauge Customer Interest

Business owners use the Internet to monitor customer purchasing trends and interests. To discover what everyday people think about a particular product or service, business owners can visit online social networking sites and message boards. Taking in this feedback helps business owners make their products better. For example, car accessory businesses can visit car forums to find out what car enthusiasts want. A business owner can also use the Internet to connect and communicate with his customers through these same websites.

Advertising

Businesses also use the Internet to find new customers through online advertising. Offering text and banner ads on websites as well as informational pieces, the Internet allows advertisers to reach potential customers quickly and efficiently. Pay-per click advertisements are distributed on Internet search engines and websites, allowing business owners to reach potential customers using search terms related to their business. As the business pays only for each ad click, costs are lower. The affordability and reach of some Internet advertising puts even the smallest business owner in a position to compete with larger businesses

Social Media Marketing 101: What Is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that involves creating and sharing content on social media networks in order to achieve your marketing and branding goals. Social media marketing includes activities like posting text and image updates, videos, and and other content that drives audience engagement, as well as paid social media advertising.

We’ve created this guide to provide you with an introduction to social media marketing and some starter social media marketing tips and training to improve your business’s social presence.

With these tips, you can begin developing your own social media marketing expert plan.

Social Media and Marketing: Start With a Plan

Before you begin creating social media marketing campaigns, consider your business’s goals. Starting a social media marketing campaign without a social strategy in mind is like wandering around a forest without a map—you might have fun, but you’ll probably get lost.

Here are some questions to ask when defining your social media marketing goals:

What are you hoping to achieve through social media marketing?

Who is your target audience?

Where would your target audience hang out and how would they use social media?

What message do you want to send to your audience with social media marketing?

Your business type should inform and drive your social media marketing strategy.

Example of a drone company doing social media marketing on Instagram

For example, an e-commerce or travel business, being highly visual, can get a lot of value from a strong presence on Instagram or Pinterest. A business-to-business or marketing company might find more leverage in Twitter or Linkedin.

How Social Media Marketing Can Help You Meet Your Marketing Goals

Social media marketing can help with a number of goals, such as:

Increasing website traffic
Building conversions
Raising brand awareness
Creating a brand identity and positive brand association

Improving communication and interaction with key audiences

The bigger and more engaged your audience is on social media networks, the easier it will be for you to achieve every other marketing goal on your list!

The internet has become a vital tool for the success of businesses

It is very difficult to imagine how any business could operate during this time without the use of the internet. The development of the internet has significantly altered the day to day operations of a business; including how they communicate with each other and their audience. Information can be easily transmitted to any destination in a matter of seconds.

The internet has become an essential tool for marketing and advertising. A business can present itself to customers with the use of a website or online advertisements. Many businesses now use the internet as a means of making customers aware of their current promotions. This can be very beneficial to businesses that are targeting a younger audience.

Image

Creating the right image is very important to any business wishing to be a success. The internet can aid a businesses in achieving the perfect image. By having an effective website they can create the perfect web existence. Many businesses now also use social networking as a means of making themselves known to their target audience.

Communication

Communication and interaction with customers is vital to any business. The internet has ensured that this can be easily achieved. Businesses are able to communicate and interact with customers via email or instant messaging. Internet telephony such as Skype is now a popular method of communication and is used frequently by businesses in order to conduct virtual meetings with both customers and other businesses. The use of the internet also makes it easier for businesses to deliver messages to people working within the organisation.

Information

The internet has simplified the way in which businesses collects and records information. They are able to conduct effective research by searching on the web or by using online databases. An electronic record can then made of the information gathered. Important information such as the state of the stock exchange can also be obtained.

The internet has become a vital tool for the success of businesses

Image

Communication

Information

Business Security Policies & Procedures

With so much of the business world running on computer networks, it has never been more important for companies to build security into their networking infrastructures. Security policies are a vital part of the business world today, and it is vital that every member of the executive staff and management team understand the importance of keeping data safe and secure.

Know the Threats

While many businesses are concerned about hackers, it is important to keep in mind that most data loss comes not at the hands of organized bad guys but instead from inside the network. Sometimes the damage is malicious in nature, but other times the data loss occurs when well-meaning but technically unsophisticated employees accidentally delete files or download harmful programs. Understanding where the threats are coming from will help you fight back with the right security policies and procedures.

One of the simplest and most effective steps network administrators can take is to apply a global security policy that restricts users from downloading software or running executable programs. Exceptions to this policy can be made on a case-by-case basis, but instituting a global policy preventing the downloading and installation of third-party programs can go a long way toward keeping the business network secure.

Watch Out for DOS

While many modern computer users are not familiar with the history of DOS, chances are that plenty of employees in your firm know at least a little bit about this core piece of computer software. In some cases, these employees may know just enough to be dangerous, and that is why hiding the DOS window or restricting its use can be a smart move.

With the DOS window open, employees could delete files that Windows would otherwise not allow to be deleted, including files that are needed for the proper operation of the PC. Simply restricting the use of the DOS window can save network administrators a lot of grief and reduce the chances that vital data will be lost.

Competition

A competitive market has many businesses trying to win the same customers. A monopoly exists when one firm has 25% or more of the market, so reducing the competition.

Competition in the market place can be good for customers. Governments encourage competition because it can help improve these factors:

Price:If there are several retailers, each retailer will lower the price in an attempt to win customers. It is illegal for retailers to agree between themselves to fix a price. They must compete for business.
Product range:In order to attract and satisfy customers, companies need to produce products that are superior to their competitors.
Customer service:Retailers that provide customers with a helpful and friendly service will win their loyalty.

Market research

There is far more to marketing than selling or advertising. Put simply, marketing is about identifying and satisfying customer needs.

The first step is to gather information about customers needs, competitors and market trends. An entrepreneur can use the results of market research to produce competitive products.

The first step for a new business or product is to attract trial purchases.

A new magazine may run special offers to get customers to try the first issue, hoping that repeat sales are generated. The magazine will soon close if customers fail to buy future issues. The aim of a special offer scheme is to convert trial purchases into repeat sales.

Market research involves gathering data about customers, competitors and market trends.

Collecting market research

There are two main methods of collecting information:

Primary research(field research) involves gathering new data that has not been collected before. For example, surveys using questionnaires or interviews with groups of people in a focus group.
Secondary research(desk research) involves gathering existing data that has already been produced. For example, researching the internet, newspapers and company reports.

Factual information is called quantitative data. Information collected about opinions and views is called qualitative data.

Accurate market research helps to reduce the risk of launching new or improved products.

Some businesses opt out of field research and rely instead on the know-how and instincts of the entrepreneur to ‘guess’ customer requirements. They do this because market research costs time and money. Existing business can make use of direct customer contact to help them identify changing fashion and market trends.

Market Segments

Most markets contain different groups of customers who share similar characteristics and buying habits. These collections of similar buyers make up distinct market segments.

Targeted marketing

Breaking down a market into submarkets can lead to a business opportunity.

For example, a magazine publisher can target a specialist journal at one group of customers of similar age, gender, class or income.

Another tool used to help identify a business opportunity is a market map. A market map is a diagram that identifies all the products in the market using two key features.

The diagram above shows how four local cafés are competing in terms of price and quality.

The black circle identifies a gap in the market. There is a business opportunity for a new café offering standard quality products at standard prices.

Competition

A competitive market has many businesses trying to win the same customers. A monopoly exists when one firm has 25% or more of the market, so reducing the competition.

Competition in the market place can be good for customers. Governments encourage competition because it can help improve these factors:

Price:If there are several retailers, each retailer will lower the price in an attempt to win customers. It is illegal for retailers to agree between themselves to fix a price. They must compete for business.
Product range:In order to attract and satisfy customers, companies need to produce products that are superior to their competitors.
Customer service:Retailers that provide customers with a helpful and friendly service will win their loyalty.

The Impact of Communication Technology on Business – security

Image result for business security

Run antivirus and anti-malware software. Doing so could end up preventing computer viruses and losing your information.

How malware affects your business

Malware is a tool that hackers use to imitate your IPv4 address so they can gain access to your bank account.

Often you don’t even know that they have control over your bank account.

If your customers get tricked they tend to have trust issues and will look for an alternative business that doesn’t have any malware.

Double-check your transactions. Look over your statements for any fraudulent purchases, and report anything suspicious right away.

Your web browser checks the security certificate of websites, making it easier to detect invalid sites. So always make sure the websites you use are secure before entering personal information.

Consequence #1: Lost Sales

Consequence #2: Damaged Reputation

Consequence #3: Compensation Costs

You may have to reassure people with compensation in the form of free credit monitoring and/or identity theft insurance. It’s free for your customers … it’s not free for you.

Consequence #4: Legal Action

Consequence #5: Fines

Consequence #6: Government Audits

Consequence 7: Remediation Costs

Permanent financial damages 8:

Image result for business security

Irreconcilable reputation damage 9:

But, the consequences of a breach in a small business can far outweigh the effects of a breach at a large corporation, as there’s often not a strong enough reputation built up to fall back on.

The Impact of Communication Technology on Business

Lack Of Trust Costs Brands $2.5 Trillion Per Year

Failure to protect consumer data is used results in distrust and, ultimately, loss of business.

Those that succeed will hit a sweet spot whereby customers will be willing to share more personal insights into their world in return for greater value and the confidence that their data is protected

Here a few relevant findings:

Lack of trust costs global brands $2.5 trillionper year. This compares to $756 billion lost by U.S. companies and 41 percent loss of clients.
Forty-three percentof U.S. consumers and 44 percent of global consumers reported that they were more likely to buy from companies that personalize experiences.
Thirty-one percentof U.S. respondents and 34 percent of global respondents stated they find value in services that learn their needs from personalization.
Sixty-seven percentof millennials, 56 percent of Gen Xers, and 42 percent of Boomers claimed they would be willing to share their shopping preferences in order to improve the service they received.
Eighty-sevenpercent of global consumers and 92 percent of U.S. consumers claimed they believe it is extremely important for companies to safeguard their information.
Fifty-eight percentof global consumers and 66 percent of U.S. consumers want companies to be more transparent about how the information they gather is used.

Lack of trust is damaging your business

That’s makes trust worthwhile for the bottom line too

CEOs must monitor stakeholder trust

If companies do not understand the drivers of stakeholder trust, a sustainable and resilient approach is unlikely to evolve.

Trust comes down to values, competence and customer experience

Consistently great customer, employee and stakeholder experience will cover all manner of sins when it comes to building, maintaining and gaining trust.

The major consequences for a business that gets hacked

Behaviours That Improve Trust

The management behaviours that can improve the levels of trust in an organisation. These behaviours are measurable and can be managed to improve performance.

Recognise Excellence

How can you and your managers organise and facilitate more of this?

Share Information Broadly.

Intentionally Build Relationships.

Show Vulnerability.

The impact of communications technology on business – internet use

IS YOUR BUSINESS AT RISK FROM VIRUSES?

If something happened to your business software, what would it mean for your business? With technology playing an increasingly important part in most businesses, it’s more important than ever to make sure you have a plan in place to protect your business against unexpected events that might have a negative effect on your business and/or your customers.

In particular, it’s essential to keep your software up to date and protected against the increasing numbers of viruses, malware and spyware that can infect and corrupt it.

For example, currently there is an increased risk for many businesses with Microsoft’s announcement that from April 8 2014, it will no longer support the Windows XP operating system.

Since Windows XP was introduced 12 years ago, Microsoft has been supporting it with regular updates and security patches which help protect computers from viruses and other threats. However, as is normal with software products, Windows XP have reached the end of its lifecycle and soon, Microsoft will stop providing these updates.

What does this mean for your business?

If you are using Windows XP, once the updates stop from April 8 2014 your computer(s) could be at greater risk from harmful viruses and other malicious software. The impact of this type of software range from the annoying, to the potentially catastrophic. The risks include:

Business Disruption: Malware could make infected computers run very slowly, or even stop working altogether. PCs may also be constantly re-directed to malicious websites.
Financial Risk: Cyber criminals could use spyware to steal usernames and passwords, credit card details, and bank account details.
Lost Business Data: Data on infected PCs could be corrupted or deleted altogether. At-risk data could include marketing databases, customer and supplier lists, financial accounts and tax records.
Damage to your reputation: Infected computers could be used to send spam emails and viruses to other PCs, including your customers’ PCs.
Incompatible hardware and software: If you purchase new peripherals such as printers or scanners, or new software, they may not work with Windows XP.

These are worst-case scenarios, but there’s little doubt that the risks for PCs running Windows XP will continue to rise over time once the support ceases.

What should you do to protect your business?

Like any other risk in your business, you should take action to minimise it. If your software is becoming out of date, like Microsoft’s Windows XP, you should contact your software provider as soon as possible and upgrade to a newer version that is fully supported. It’s also good idea to regularly check that your business’ operating system and all software installed, including anti-virus and security software is up to date in order to minimise potential risks.

How Essential is Anti-Virus Software for Your Business?

Nowadays, there are many businesses that turn to the internet to further widen their reach. Having your own site has been useful in letting more customers have access to the products and services that you offer. But of course, there are a lot of risks that comes with the use of connected computers in business.

There is always the matter of human interference – hackers who would intrude your website to gain your clients’ information such as credit card numbers. And then there’s also the problem of viruses and malware wreaking havoc either simply do harm or to extort money.

So here comes the question, just how necessary is it to install antivirus protection for your business?

While a lot of companies deemed enterprise antivirus software as a waste of money for not being able to detect all threats before they can do damage to their computers, there is no denying the necessity of anti-virus protection in every organization’s IT department.

While the main threats that most companies face that make headlines nowadays is usually hacking and data leaks, these usually come by way of a virus or malware that takes advantage of a security loophole, which makes these preventive measures more relevant than ever.

The problems caused by viruses and malware range from harming your network to hindering your business, overworking your PC’s CPU processes while consuming loads of memory, and even spamming your precious contacts with harmful or corrupted data.

Despite the decline in popularity on everyone’s subconscious, Anti-virus protection software remains a viable way to avoid getting a bad business day out of a malicious software attack.

So how do the top free antivirus vendors stay relevant in their latest offerings? The key area that most businesses need to take into consideration these days is how the cloud factors into all this. With the Internet of Things being an ever growing buzzword for moving technology forward, the cloud has played a major role on showing businesses the overall direction its taking.

Since businesses are embracing the idea of storing important and critical data in the cloud especially now that it is becoming more cost effective, the next big thing is offloading our processes in the cloud. That’s the whole premise of the cloud antivirus. Instead of relying on each and every business workstation in periodically checking if everything is completely safe, the next generation of endpoint security is in leveraging machines with dedicated hardware to do it for them in the cloud

What makes this idea of an online scanner the logical next step is that it makes virus & malware definition updates virtually extinct. Not only do cloud antiviruses remove the process of locally scanning for threats but it also omits majority of the updating since virus definitions are now continually updated in the cloud.

Businesses are now embracing the prospect of getting protected in the cloud with the added benefits of better performance and virtually zero down-time in productivity. Viruses and other malicious software are a problem that will continue to plague businesses as it increases its reliance on the web for productivity.

Keep in mind that the traditional protection that you can usually get with free antivirus may be losing relevance, but make no mistake – anti-virus and anti-malware software are here to stay. It is up to businesses whether or not they are willing to move their implementations towards the newer and better iterations of protection software.

Whether or not cloud is the right direction remains to be seen, but it’s where most of the security innovations are heading at the moment.

Confidential Information Leaks and Your Employees

What is an information leak?

An information leak takes place when confidential information is revealed to unauthorized persons or parties. Any cursory scan of news sources demonstrates that unfortunately, data leaks happen with alarming frequency. Unsurprisingly, if the information is leaked concerning project deals or tender information, there can be a large loss of revenue for your business.

Information leaks may not always appear to directly hamper your business; however, there are often indirect repercussions. The leakage of confidential customer information can harm the reputation of your company in the marketplace. Future customers will be apprehensive about working with you, or in divulging personal information to your company.

How to

Handle upper management carefully

IT professionals often work under the umbrella of technical terminology that’s not always accessible to those outside the department. This issue, among others, can cause friction between executive teams and those responsible for managing security. Interested in learning more? We’ve written a blog post on the resistance IT professionals can be met with when communicating cyber security issues to management.

Management teams are often the gatekeepers of important information. Often time’s confidential client information is not accessible to employees at a lower level in the company hierarchy. This opens up the possibility of an information leak stemming from upper management. That’s why it’s important to include executive members in all cyber security training sessions, regardless of whether they deem it necessary. It’s also another reason why it’s always a good idea to manage relationships carefully, ensuring that employees who leave your organization do so on a positive note. If the employee is happy they’re less likely to share information that could compromise your business.

Preventive measures

There is no point in crying over spilled milk. Once a client’s information is leaked, nothing much can be done about it. You can file a complaint, inform authorities about the infraction and wait for the law to handle the matter. All the more reason for you to work harder to prevent any future leaks. Here are some tips for preventing a security breach at your business:

Mitigate threats from ex-employees by carrying out stringent security checks both before they’re hired and after they’ve left.
Change passwords after the departure of any employees who have had access to sensitive information.
Carry out a security check on all official and unofficial accounts and mail of ex-employees, at least once a month.
Keep a regular check on the outflow of confidential information from the company.
Improve internal systems and ensure that both the Human Resources and IT departments of your company work hand in hand to protect vital information.
Collect workplace feedback from employees on a regular basis so that you will be able to nip any employee negativity in the bud.
Hire information security and management controls.
If personal mobile devices are being used, implement a BYOD policy. Unsure of what to include? Here are 7 suggestions on what to include in your BYOD policy.

Don’t impose blanket bans on employees – in order to work effectively they do require timely access to data. Blocking access to information may do more harm than good, and is not the solution to prevent future confidential customer information leakage. Instead, focus on training employees and giving them the skills and confidence they need to make security decisions.

Unfortunately, there are instances where employees have accidentally leaked confidential information. In such cases, the employee should be given the benefit of the doubt. Penalizing or firing such employees may lead to the loss of good talent and even create a negative impact on employee morale. Instead, strive to develop awareness across your organization about the risks of communication and IT leakages. Try new tactics to get people excited about cyber security, so that they’ll be interested in playing a more active role in protecting your organization.

How are you working to mitigate the risk of data leaks at your organization? Let us know in the comments below.

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Aligning eCommerce strategy with brand culture

ECOMMERCE WEBSITE DESIGN
Building the Beats brand through design and eCommerce
01 —
Background
A hub for all things Beats
Beats by Dre is a billion dollar empire with a market share of over 70%. Its brand is now an icon in today’s pop culture, known for its bold and quality advertising, its roots in music and sport, and the legendary status of its founders.
Our partnership brings the emotion of the brand centerstage, creating a .com platform that embraces product-led storytelling as its strategic foundation. It’s more than a product site; this is a place where Beats becomes real, online.

Awards & Recognition

Webby Awards: 2017 Site of the Year
eCommerce / Shopping

The Story
Community, culture & commerce
Beats is all about marketing with truth. Everything it makes feels real and unforced. We created a channel in which brand inspiration, product information, and the Beats community come together.

Every Beats product has a story, and each story comes alive with in-depth information and cultural context. We connected editorial content, brand campaigns, and product stories to encourage the Beats audience to lose themselves in what they love.

User-focused, mobile-first, responsive
Directed towards the 16-24 year-old core, our eCommerce experience is designed for thumb-first interaction. The navigational structure alters between mobile, tablet, and desktop, ensuring we’re serving the user based on device type and behavior. Through a research-proven approach, we created an experience that works, looks, and feels like an app.

Establishing a new design language & standards
The new creative direction is distinctively Beats: bold, streamlined, beautiful. The design system embraces an open environment, pushing the content to hero status and the brand continually forward. Product pages now share unique stories around features and highlights; we elevated the importance of lifestyle photography and video, establishing strong art direction standards.

Improving time to market in digital
We teamed up with its teams in digital, brand, marketing, and technology. We worked iteratively to establish a system of site components that can be used repeatedly; they are flexible enough for new campaigns, trends, and product changes.
With a key focus on improving time to market and localization across 38 markets, we created a ‘digital experience manager’ that enables each region to build out its own front-end. Our style guide shows marketing teams how to use, interact, and edit the site components and code, empowering Beats to tell ‘moment of time’ stories.

The impact of communications technology on business – social media

How does a business use social media?

To promote a new business or new products by using adverts.
To show the website of the business so the target audience can see what products your business has and what their prices are.
To show the Range of the prices of the products
To show what Discounts the business will have. The special offers the business will have eg (Black Friday)
Research of the competitors eg (prices, products they sell, target audience or location of their competitors.)
Link to all their different social media accounts, address of the business or phone number of the business.
Celebrity endorsement so if a famous person wears certain clothes on an advert to promote the business it will get people to buy the clothes if they like that celebrity who is wearing the clothes.
Business ideas or design by using the business colours to maybe create a logo or design the business.
Find their target audience that includes the target audience for certain products and the different categories can include age range, gender or interest by possibly doing a questionnaire.

Why use social media?

As traditional methods of marketing to customers like advertising or direct mail become less and less effective, businesses are turning to social mediums to connect in positive ways with consumers and the people who influence them. We need to be acutely aware just how social media has fundamentally changed the way we are connecting, communicating and collaborating as individuals, and therefore society as a whole.

The key to social media success is not to get hung up on the tools and technology, but to focus on how you can use them more effectively to:
increase the visibility of your personal brand and that of your business
build and cultivate your personal and professional networks
develop and grow relationships with customers and influences
engage in real-time two-way interaction with people, including answering queries
publish and distribute original content that demonstrates your expertise
share curated links to relevant information that adds value to the lives of your customers
communicate with your community of followers, advocates and supporters
ultimately generate new leads and boost sales for your business.

Understanding the social media equation?

Think of social media in two parts.

Firstly, there is social media participation – this is where you’re present on social channels and are constantly delivering value to the online community in the form of:

sharing other people’s content (User Generated Content or USG) on Facebook or LinkedIn, retweeting them if you’re on Twitter or reg ramming on Instagram.
answering people’s questions if you’re in a position to help – whether they’re directly related to your business or not
joining the conversation on a particular topic – this could be a group on Twitter talking about a certain issue that’s sprung up through the media, or joining a LinkedIn Group
leaving genuinely interesting and relevant comments on selective blogs you read and podcasts you listen to
promoting other people’s businesses and causes, for example, your municipal council may be running a street festival that could be good for you to be promote via your networks.

Before jumping into conversations on social networks, it’s critical that you:

listen first
sit back and take note of the ‘lay of the land’
try and get acquainted with the nuances of the particular network on which you intend to become active.

Secondly, there is the creation and distribution of original content that informs, empowers, educates and/or entertains – content that will attract the right people to your brand, potential customers as well as the people who influence them.

To be effective however, content published and promoted via social media needs to be created with the audience in mind, which is why it’s important you first understand who you’re trying to communicate with and where they hang out online.

Creating content with the customer in mind

More often than not your content should provide utility. In other words, it needs to be useful, relevant and add value to people’s lives. It could simply be information that answers people’s questions or satisfies a need they have relevant to your business, or it may be more around providing ‘thought leadership’ and demonstrating your knowledge and expertise.
For example, this might mean an accountancy practice that publishes a blog post outlining its top tips on how to approach end-of-financial-year tax issues.
Once you create your content, it’s then simply a matter of publishing it to one or more of the myriad of platforms available which is best suited to your business needs, and sharing the links with your followers on social networks.
Building your presence on social networks is important – not only because they make for excellent content distributors, search engines such as Google use social media shares to determine the usefulness of content to an audience, so social media presence can also positively affect search rankings.

What Are The Benefits Of Advertising On Social Media Channels?

Why is social media advertising your best advertising bet for quick ROI? Because…
Most channels require significant lead time to yield an ROI. For example, content marketing works best over time after it has been able to yield back links and SEO traction.
Some channels yield quick results but not day in and day out. For example, influencer marketing can earn you quick results in terms of sales for low effort (though high cost). But those results don’t continue occurring over time. Instead, you earn sales on a per post basis, and often less each time it is posted.
Some channels are consistent but time consuming to dial in. For example, Ad Words can produce consistent results for your brand, but it takes a while to master and earn specific placement.
With social media advertising, you can have consistent sales coming in from the first day your website is live.
For modern ecommerce sites, the ability to immediately and consistently bring in new customers is a HUGE deal. Even if you can’t achieve net positive revenue on the initial sale, referrals, email marketing and customer retention can pay off extensively with every marginal customer.
This is why global social ad spending doubled from $16 billion in 2014 to $31 billion in 2016 and is projected to increase another 26% in 2017.
In this guide, we’re going to explore how YOU can drive consistent sales for your website through social media advertising.
We’ll look at some of the most popular social platforms, provide some advanced tactics and tips for dialing in your campaigns, and teach you how to efficiently manage multi-channel advertising without losing your mind.

The Different Types Of Social Media Platforms To Serve Ads:

Social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+).

Micro blogging (Twitter, Tumblr).
Photo sharing (Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest).
Video sharing (YouTube, Facebook Live, Periscope, Vimeo).

The 6 Best Social Networks for E commerce Advertising

New social media networks come out every week, most of which will never gain any sort of traction.In our opinion, it’s best to start with the most popular platforms, then once you have profitable systems running, you can look at allocating a percentage of your budget toward more experimental campaigns.

In 2018, there are 6 different social media channels where you can follow proven ad strategies and generate consistent ROI.

These are the best places to invest your ad money right now.

Facebook
Instagram
pinerest
twitter
linkedin
snapchat

Benefits Of Advertising Through Social Media Include:

Grow your sales and your fan base.
Use customer generated content for ads (which perform better, too!).
Better target net new and returning customers (so you waste less money).
A/B test on the fly, using platform analytics to determine winners.
One of the fascinating things about social advertising is that there is virtually no limit to your ability to scale.
You don’t have to wait for someone to search for your targeted keywords. You don’t have to wait for someone to run your promotion or read your blog. If you want to reach 50,000 people in one day, you can.
Which social media network you choose will depend on 3 VERY important factors:
Where your target customers are most concentrated (usage, groups, etc.)
Where your target customers are most accessible (preferred media, ad targeting, etc.)
Where your target customers most actively engage with ads (testing required)
Finding success on social media requires you to thread a number of needles together somewhat seamlessly.
You have to present a compelling offer via a compelling medium to people who will actually find it compelling, in a place those people will actually see it.
When you add the advertising element on top of that, you also need to a find a platform where users will actively engage with paid ads.
Let’s take a closer look at what each of these 6 platforms offer to help you decide where it’s worth your time and money to invest.
Big Commerce customers using Ecommerce Insights can quickly export a list of their highest AOV and highest LTV customer cohorts and then use those to find lookalikes on Facebook.

Snapchat Advertising

Snapchat is one of the newer platforms to emerge on the scene as a competitive force with301 million monthly active users.
While it remains to be seen if the company will succumb to Instagram’s social video push, as of now, it’s a viable advertising platform with a highly active user base.
Where Snapchat Advertising Shines
There’s really only one stat you need to know to understand the value of Snapchat. On any given day, Snapchat reaches 41% of all 18-34 year-olds in the United States.
… let’s repeat that.
41% of ALL 18-34 year olds in the U.S. will interact with Snapchat today.
That’s where Snapchat shines. But things get tricky when it comes to pricing…
How Snapchat Advertising is Priced + See It In Action
Snapchat has a number of advertising options, most of which are quite expensive. Wallaroo Media provides us with the full breakdown:

Snap Ads

Snap ads are mobile, interactive video ads with 5X higher swipe-up rate than the average click-through rate for other comparable social platforms. These cost between $1,000 – $3,000 per month to run.

Sponsored Lenses

Twitter Advertising

Twitter has revolutionized breaking news and provided unparalleled access for users to connect with both niche and mainstream influencers.
With 328 million monthly active users, it remains one of the most popular social media platforms.
Where Twitter Advertising Shines
Well, it isn’t really Twitter advertising that shines…
Unlike Facebook, Twitter is still a viable network for organic engagement. Brands don’t need to pay in order to reach their followers, which enhances the platform’s value even when running paid ads.
On average, Twitter users shop online 6.9x a month, while non-users shop online just 4.3x a month. And there’s particularly good news for smaller businesses: Twitter reports that 60% of users purchase from an SMB.
Ecommerce stores today use Twitter ads primarily to drive brand awareness and promote specific products for direct conversions. The most common model is Twitter website cards hosting under 100 characters and displaying some variety of rich media.
How Twitter Advertising is Priced
On average, a thousand ad impressions (CPM) on Twitter ads cost between $9 and $11 while clicks cost roughly 25-30 cents each. Both optimized campaigns bring about similar levels of engagement for a minuscule price difference.
Twitter ad cost has been steadily increasing over the last 2 years due to more marketers slowly taking advantage of the platform, but overall, the platform is considered to be relatively underutilized for advertising.
Twitter is considered to be relatively underutilized for advertising.

How To Set Up a Twitter Advertising Campaign

There are a number of different campaign types you can set up in Twitter:
Promoted Accounts
Promoted Tweets
Promoted Trends
Website Cards

Twitter Advertising Advanced Tactics

Use a relevant, compelling image that gives context to the viewer, fits your brand and draws attention. Rich media is a non-negotiable on Twitter.
Be very targeted with the products or lead magnets you choose to promote. Twitter requires a more focused approach than other channels.Facebook Advertising

Facebook Advertising

Facebook is THE universal social media network.

With more than 2 billion monthly users, Facebook hosts over a quarter of the world’s population, providing advertisers with an unparalleled opportunity to reach virtually anyone and everyone.

Where Facebook Advertising Shines

When it comes to ecommerce, Facebook excels at lead generation.

If you want email addresses, Facebook is the place to go, with many advertisers reporting costs below $1 per lead.

The most common model used is to run a Facebook ad directly into a high-converting landing page offering some variety of a free lead magnet or bundle product.

Common examples of content for social media advertising campaigns include:

Whitepapers.
E Books.
Product coupons.
Site wide disco

The 6 Most Effective Types of Social Media Advertising in 2018.

Limited-time offers.
Giveaways.
Free shipping.

These leads can then be nurtured with a targeted auto responder that introduces them to your brand and products.

Expression Fiber Arts does a really great job of this –– offering free products, download-ables and predictable discounts and coupons for her audience. Doing so has earned her more than $1,000,000 in annual sales in just 2 years.

Many ecommerce brands also use bundled product offerings to drive home perceived value and earn immediate conversion.

Facebook allows more advanced targeting than any other advertising platform on earth. Advertisers can target by location (within a 5-mile radius), job description, interests, past activity, and many other incredibly valuable criteria.

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How Facebook Advertising is Priced

Pricing varies widely based on several factors, including the audience you’re trying to target and the budget you set for your ads.

As a general rule, the more money you spend, the more efficient Facebook’s algorithm becomes at spending your money, increasing your ad performance over time.

According to an extensive study done by AdEspresso, the average cost per click (CPC) of Facebook ads as of 2016 was roughly .28 cents and the cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM) was $7.19.

The study went on to break it down by age and gender as well. The 65+ age grouped showed the most continuous trend of lower CPC costs over time. Females cost on average 4 cents greater CPC than targeting males.

How To Set Up Facebook Advertising Campaigns

There are 3 core parts to setting up and running successful Facebook ad campaigns:

Setting up your ad
Setting up targeting
Setting up re targeting

How Instagram Advertising is Priced

On average, Instagram advertising costs are in the same ballpark as Facebook ads at a cost of $5 per thousand impressions (CPM). While the price may be similar, most current statistics show that Instagram gets much more engagement on their posts and ads than Facebook does.

For instance, Victoria’s Secret saw an average of 2,078 likes per post on Facebook versus 283,030 on Instagram. Similar variances have been found with brands like Mercedes Benz, McDonalds and Playstation.

How To Set Up An Instagram Advertising Campaign

With Instagram being owned by Facebook, setting up Instagram ads is very similar to setting up Facebook ads. Here’s a visual, step-by-step guide to launching a campaign.

Instagram Advertising Advanced Tactics

Focus first on custom audiences. This could be audiences created through pixel tracking, an email list, a followers list or some other method. Lists of users who have engaged with you in the past perform best.

When you are ready to expand past custom audiences, lookalike audiences should be your next stop. Facebook/Instagram’s algorithm is very good at finding similar audiences that will respond well to your ads.

Use custom images of real people. Stock photos do NOT work on Instagram.

Make your offers irresistible. Instagram’s visual nature takes impulse buying to the next level, but you won’t tap into that if you aren’t offering something compelling.

Take hashtags seriously. They are kind of a joke everywhere else, but Instagram is driven by hashtags, and they are a great way to connect with niche audiences.

How Pinterest Advertising is Priced

Advertising data is a bit more difficult to find with Pinterest. Not too long ago, ads were very expensive at $30-40 per 1,000 impressions and only available to big brands.
More recent reports indicate that users are experiencing more affordable rates, with one user citing a CPM of $5.30 and a CPC of $1.52, which would put Pinterest in a similar ballpark to other platforms.

How To Set Up A Pinterest Advertising Campaign

When you talk about Pinterest advertising, you are really just talking about promoted pins. For a step-by-step guide to setting up your own promoted pins, check out this guide from Social Media Examiner.

Pinterest Advertising Advanced Tactics

Creativity sells. Users are looking through hundreds of pins in rapid succession. If you want to get noticed, you need to stand out, either through pure creativity or creative attention grabbing.
Focus on trends. What are competitors posting? What searches are trending? What products are hot?
Engage with your followers. Repin your fans and use curated repins to expand your audience and tap into larger audiences.
Be detailed. Pinterest is essentially a search engine. Include long, detailed descriptions with keywords and hashtags.
Be very intentional about where your pins are linking. The click-through destination will determine whether or not you waste the click or turn it into a lead or sale.

See Pinterest Advertising in Action

A great example of Pinterest ads in action comes from Native Union, a popular cell phone accessory brand.

The company reposts its high-class lifestyle pictures using its products to highly organize any modern home. The posts have helped Native Union earn wholesale placement in brick-and-mortars like Paper Source –– due to their popularity with 18-30 yr old women.

Who It’s Ideal For

If you don’t have money in hand to hire an outside service… you don’t have money in hand to hire an outside service. That’s just your reality, and it means that if you want to run social ads, you’ll need to do it yourself.

If you are ready, willing and able to devote a significant amount of time to mastering advertising on a given social media channel, this can be a great option for you. If you succeed, you will have the means to bring in income for your business indefinitely.

If you don’t have the money and don’t have the time, there is another option that might be right for you…

Run Your Ad Campaigns Via Automated Software

Social media advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry, and what does that mean?

It means 3rd party tools – 3rd party tools everywhere.

Over the years, some pretty fantastic software has been developed to aid in the process of running campaigns. These tools are used by in-house teams, agencies and soloprenuers alike to achieve advertising success.

The Pros

On-site ad managers aren’t always the most user friendly. Tools like Ad espresso, for example, make optimizing Facebook campaigns and analyzing results significantly easier than attempting to do so via Facebook’s Ads Manager.
Other tools like Adext use artificial intelligence to automate the entire process, allowing you to simply keep tabs on performance without needing to do much else.
There are hundreds of tools that help you in hundreds of different ways, many of which perform at a high level and limit the time you have to spend manually mastering ad channels.
The Cons

Great tools nearly always come with noticeable price tags. By and large, social ad management tools tend to be relatively affordable, but they are still an additional expense that must be taken into consideration.

And like investing time in manual mastery, there is no guarantee that any given tool will improve your results or even get results at all. Worse, it’s rarely a simple matter to identify where the tool is underperforming versus where the manual inputs are falling short. In other words, if your ads aren’t succeeding, you might be left clueless at how to troubleshoot the problem.

Facebook Advertising Advanced Tactics

Don’t run the same exact ad(s) to all of your audiences. Your prospecting and retargeting ads should be unique, and your ads for each audience “interest” segment should be tailored to that audience.

Use prospecting ads to build brand awareness and teach people about your product, and then use retargeting ads to seal the deal with users who have already signaled interest. Retargeting ads are ideal for an aggressive pitch and close.

The use of emojis in ads has been spreading like wildfire, even among larger, more established brands. They can be very effective at driving higher CTRs, but as with all strategies, you should A/B test for yourself to be sure.

Always be testing! Ad fatigue is an ever-present challenge on Facebook, and it’s best to rotate in and test new ads every 2 weeks.

Lookalike audiences are a staple for many advertisers… and rightly so. They tend to work very well for prospecting. That said, you should take care not to layer additional targeting on top of the lookalikes if you can avoid it. You run the risk of shrinking your potential reach and missing out on valuable customers.

Better Facebook Advertising Results in 5 Minutes

Big Commerce customers using Ecommerce Insights can quickly export a list of their highest AOV and highest LTV customer cohorts and then use those to find lookalikes on Facebook.

Takes 5 minutes.

See Facebook Advertising in Action

A great example of Facebook ads in action comes from Spearmint LOVE, a baby clothing brand out of Arizona.

Since integrating the pixel, Spearmint LOVE has seen a 33.8X return on ad spend on Instagram alone and a 47% decrease in the cost per purchase.

3 Ways To Manage Social Advertising Campaigns

Now that we’ve taken a look at our top social ad platforms (and perhaps selected 1 or 2 to pursue) it’s time to decide how to manage our campaigns.

There are three primary ways to manage social media campaigns.

Run your ad campaigns manually

Run your ad campaigns via automated software

Hire a managed service to run your ad campaigns

Frankly, there is no “right” answer here. Each of these have strengths and weaknesses and can work for different businesses.

Run Your Ad Campaigns Manually
Engagement.Conversions.
1. Hire A Managed Service To Run Your Ad Campaigns
The third option is the simplest, the most expensive and in many cases, the most successful. By hiring a managed service, you can expedite the guesswork and stumbling blocks that come with DIY advertising and simply let proven experts handle it for you.

The Pros

If you hire a team that is very good at advertising, you will very likely get really good results… without any work on your part. You get to keep focusing on running your business or marketing team and doing what you do best, while a team of experts takes care of the entire advertising process for you.

Assuming the fee plus direct ad spend is low enough to keep you net positive, you get the primary benefit of advertising – consistent sales and new customers – almost like you are getting it for free.

The Cons

There is only one real downside to hiring an agency: if you don’t do your due diligence (and sometimes even if you do), you can get burned. There are thousands of self-proclaimed experts whose only skill is convincing clients to waste money on them. If you hire a bad agency, you can end up losing a lot of money.

Who It’s Ideal For

Managed ad services are ideal for any business with the desire and resources to start driving new sales and profitable ad campaigns from day one. If you have a social media marketing budget and need immediate results, paid social advertising run by proven experts is THE way to go.

Social advertising is incredibly measurable. You never need to be in question about how your campaigns are performing and the exact ROI you are getting from them. If your campaigns aren’t performing, you know exactly who to blame and can fire the agency running your ads for a new, better agency.

How Much Does Social Media Advertising Cost To Outsource?

Social media advertising management cost will vary depending on who you hire. Agencies and freelancers often charge fees based on 5%-20% of your total monthly ad spend and will often include a management fee.

The impact of communications technology on business

IS YOUR BUSINESS AT RISK FROM VIRUSES?

In particular, it’s essential to keep your software up to date and protected against the increasing numbers of viruses, malware and spyware that can infect and corrupt it.

For example, currently there is an increased risk for many businesses with Microsoft’s announcement that from April 8 2014, it will no longer support the Windows XP operating system.

What does this mean for your business?

Business Disruption: Malware could make infected computers run very slowly, or even stop working altogether. PCs may also be constantly re-directed to malicious websites.
Financial Risk: Cyber criminals could use spyware to steal usernames and passwords, credit card details, and bank account details.
Lost Business Data: Data on infected PCs could be corrupted or deleted altogether. At-risk data could include marketing databases, customer and supplier lists, financial accounts and tax records.
Damage to your reputation: Infected computers could be used to send spam emails and viruses to other PCs, including your customers’ PCs.
Incompatible hardware and software: If you purchase new peripherals such as printers or scanners, or new software, they may not work with Windows XP.

These are worst-case scenarios, but there’s little doubt that the risks for PCs running Windows XP will continue to rise over time once the support ceases. RÃ©sultat de recherche d'images pour "how to get virus in your business"

What should you do to protect your business?

So here comes the question, just how necessary is it to install antivirus protection for your business?

Despite the decline in popularity on everyone’s subconscious, Anti-virus protection software remains a viable way to avoid getting a bad business day out of a malicious software attack.

Whether or not cloud is the right direction remains to be seen, but it’s where most of the security innovations are heading at the moment.

Confidential Information Leaks and Your Employees

What is an information leak?

How to

Handle upper management carefully

Preventive measures

Mitigate threats from ex-employees by carrying out stringent security checks both before they’re hired and after they’ve left.
Change passwords after the departure of any employees who have had access to sensitive information.
Carry out a security check on all official and unofficial accounts and mail of ex-employees, at least once a month.
Keep a regular check on the outflow of confidential information from the company.
Improve internal systems and ensure that both the Human Resources and IT departments of your company work hand in hand to protect vital information.
Collect workplace feedback from employees on a regular basis so that you will be able to nip any employee negativity in the bud.
Hire information security and management controls.
If personal mobile devices are being used, implement a BYOD policy. Unsure of what to include? Here are 7 suggestions on what to include in your BYOD policy.

How are you working to mitigate the risk of data leaks at your organization? Let us know in the comments below.

The Impact of Communication Technology on Business

What are security risks of hacked bank accounts?

Image result for business security

Run antivirus and anti-malware software. Doing so could end up preventing computer viruses and losing your information.

How malware affects your business

Malware is a tool that hackers use to imitate your IPv4 address so they can gain access to your bank account.

Often you don’t even know that they have control over your bank account.

If your customers get tricked they tend to have trust issues and will look for an alternative business that doesn’t have any malware.

Double-check your transactions. Look over your statements for any fraudulent purchases, and report anything suspicious right away.

Your web browser checks the security certificate of websites, making it easier to detect invalid sites. So always make sure the websites you use are secure before entering personal information.

Consequence #1: Lost Sales

Consequence #2: Damaged Reputation

Consequence #3: Compensation Costs

You may have to reassure people with compensation in the form of free credit monitoring and/or identity theft insurance. It’s free for your customers … it’s not free for you.

Consequence #4: Legal Action

Consequence #5: Fines

Consequence #6: Government Audits

Consequence 7: Remediation Costs

Permanent financial damages 8:

Image result for business security

Irreconcilable reputation damage 9:

But, the consequences of a breach in a small business can far outweigh the effects of a breach at a large corporation, as there’s often not a strong enough reputation built up to fall back on.

The Impact of Communication Technology on Business

Lack Of Trust Costs Brands $2.5 Trillion Per Year

Failure to protect consumer data is used results in distrust and, ultimately, loss of business.

Those that succeed will hit a sweet spot whereby customers will be willing to share more personal insights into their world in return for greater value and the confidence that their data is protected

Here a few relevant findings:

Lack of trust costs global brands $2.5 trillionper year. This compares to $756 billion lost by U.S. companies and 41 percent loss of clients.
Forty-three percentof U.S. consumers and 44 percent of global consumers reported that they were more likely to buy from companies that personalize experiences.
Thirty-one percentof U.S. respondents and 34 percent of global respondents stated they find value in services that learn their needs from personalization.
Sixty-seven percentof millennials, 56 percent of Gen Xers, and 42 percent of Boomers claimed they would be willing to share their shopping preferences in order to improve the service they received.
Eighty-sevenpercent of global consumers and 92 percent of U.S. consumers claimed they believe it is extremely important for companies to safeguard their information.
Fifty-eight percentof global consumers and 66 percent of U.S. consumers want companies to be more transparent about how the information they gather is used.

Lack of trust is damaging your business

That’s makes trust worthwhile for the bottom line too

CEOs must monitor stakeholder trust

If companies do not understand the drivers of stakeholder trust, a sustainable and resilient approach is unlikely to evolve.

Trust comes down to values, competence and customer experience

Consistently great customer, employee and stakeholder experience will cover all manner of sins when it comes to building, maintaining and gaining trust.

The major consequences for a business that gets hacked

Behaviours That Improve Trust

The management behaviours that can improve the levels of trust in an organisation. These behaviours are measurable and can be managed to improve performance.

Recognise Excellence

How can you and your managers organise and facilitate more of this?

Share Information Broadly.

Intentionally Build Relationships.

Show Vulnerability.

Branding Case Studies

ECOMMERCE WEBSITE DESIGN

Bringing global brand growth to Nixon through eCommerce

ECOMMERCE WEBSITE DESIGN

Bringing global brand growth to Nixon through eCommerce

01 —BACKGROUND

A partnership for the ages

Nixon is a premium lifestyle and accessories brand, bridging the the gap between California surf culture and functional fashion. Over the years, Nixon has attracted a dedicated fan following, and the once small watch brand has become a global lifestyle brand in over 90 countries.

We teamed up to deliver an on point eCommerce platform worthy of its new stature. Our name is built on bringing the human experience to award-winning, consumer-facing digital. The partnership was sound, and the results speak for themselves.

Results

10%

Increase in Average Order Value
50%

Increase in Pageviews
85%

Increase in Conversion Rate

Awards & Recognition

Webby Awards: 2016 Site of the Year

Shopping / eCommerce
Webby Awards: 2016 Nominee

Best Practices
Webby Awards: 2015 Honoree

Shopping / eCommerce
Webby Awards: 2015 Honoree

Best Practices
Awwwards: 2016 Site of the Year

eCommerce
Awwwards: Site of the Day

Site of the Day / 2015
Pixel Awards: 2015 Site of the Year

eCommerce
Addy Awards: 2015 National Silver

Websites
The FWA: Site of the Day

Site of the Day / 2015

PLAY

A shared obsession for detail

Nixon is a brand with an indisputable reputation for world-class design; its pride for the smaller things should not be overlooked though, because it’s Nixon’s watchful refinement and obsession for detail that makes its name. We share these values with them and our two teams joined as one to establish a digital strategy and creative design direction for the new platform.

After taking the time to learn Nixon’s core brand values, we designed in the style of its roots, philosophy, and future ambitions. Our focus was on striking photography that demanded attention and on minimal design that deserved attention. Crucially, we brought the Nixon brand centerstage throughout.

Global & local: no compromise

A globally emerging brand needs a flexible framework at the base of its strategy. We created dynamic modules that change depending on region, which achieves brand consistency and strategic flexibility at the same time. Partnering these two qualities takes thinking and hustle, but when they come together and it works, the brand can market specific brand content, product offers, and brand messaging on one digital platform, globally and locally.

Mobile Minded

Millennials and fashion-inspired consumers like to browse on their mobiles, and they expect the mobile experience to be as good as desktop. If people want to use their mobile phone to shop, our sites are designed accordingly. Our mobile designs aren’t scaled down from our desktop design; they are created deliberately and uniquely, with absolute focus on every responsive element.

Product focused

Throughout the eCommerce experience, the product never falls from focus. This is product storytelling. After research led us to understand the rich narratives around the inception and development of Nixon products, the pairing of product and experience was a seamless one. The strategy and design brings its craftsmanship, attention to detail, and distinct personality to the fore.

A revolutionary human experience

We strive to make the complex, simple, and sometimes that means reinventing and revolutionizing the standards. Throughout the digital platform, we crafted a number of intuitive and entertaining firsts in eCommerce.

Driving transactions is all about focusing on how people interact with the platform. We put the product centerstage at all times; the user can easily view their preferred products and add to cart instantly, with features, benefits, and brand-values always available.

The path to purchase

A major contribution to a successful eCommerce process is the pathway from browsing to purchase. We designed intuitive shopping interfaces with multiple paths to purchase, subject to customized content for each person and particular season. Search is much improved and the entire site is SEO-strong, ensuring the customer is always informed and excited about the brand.

Search Flow

Search is far superior and the entire site is SEO-strong, ensurung the customer is always informed and excited about the brand, with a clear pathway to purchase.

Personalized Shopping

When making purchasing decisions, a consumer might find any number of details intriguing enough to prompt a purchase. The product detail pages provide a rich experience, where each product purchase tile follows down the page to ensure that users know exactly what they are looking at and purchasing.

User Generated Content

Social proof has become synonymous with product reviews. A picture is worth a thousand words and with Nixon’s strong social presence, the integration of this content was an important inclusion within our design. Organic content has shown to increase conversions, and we built the site structure on that fact.

A partnership for the ages

Results

10%

Increase in Average Order Value
50%

Increase in Pageviews
85%

Increase in Conversion Rate

Awards & Recognition

Webby Awards: 2016 Site of the Year

Shopping / eCommerce
Webby Awards: 2016 Nominee

Best Practices
Webby Awards: 2015 Honoree

Shopping / eCommerce
Webby Awards: 2015 Honoree

Best Practices
Awwwards: 2016 Site of the Year

eCommerce
Awwwards: Site of the Day

Site of the Day / 2015
Pixel Awards: 2015 Site of the Year

eCommerce
Addy Awards: 2015 National Silver

Websites
The FWA: Site of the Day

Site of the Day / 2015

PLAY

PLAYCURRENT TIME00:00DURATION03:33

Seek

TOGGLE FULLSCREEN

02 —THE STORY

A shared obsession for detail

Global & local: no compromise

Mobile Minded

Product focused

A revolutionary human experience

The path to purchase

Search Flow

Search is far superior and the entire site is SEO-strong, ensurung the customer is always informed and excited about the brand, with a clear pathway to purchase.

Personalized Shopping

User Generated Content

What makes good Branding?

What is Branding?

Branding is not just a logo design. You can’t just design a logo and say “that’s our branding.” It’s factually incorrect.

Your logo design is part of your brand identity – which is different to your brand. You also can’t create a logo design and a set of stationery and call that branding either.

That’s only one tiny part of the branding puzzle. We’ll talk more about branding design and brand identity later in the post.

Branding is how people view and perceive your company. It’s also how you as the owner and your workforce view and perceive the company. It’s your what, your how, and your why.

It’s not the design of your logo, business, cards, or website. Again, that’s your brand identity. It’s about more than the brand design that your company has to offer.

It’s about how an audience connects with your company on multiple levels, and through different brand touch points.

A brand can be described as a company, service, product, or person that has a voice and personality of their own.

A designer can’t “make” a brand. Or design a brand. Designers design a brand identity that reflects a brand.

The branding itself has to come from the company. From their brand strategy.

What are some of their core values?
What do they stand for?
What makes their product unique?
What is their unique selling point?
Who are their target customers?

Questions like this form the basis of a brand strategy and should be established within the company in the first instance. A designer or design agency builds the foundation of a brand, or is brought in to enhance the brand’s visual and corporate identity.

A lot of people, including some designers, think that branding a company simply involves designing a handful of visual elements; logo design, stationery design, colours, fonts etc. In reality, it is a lot more involved than that. A design or brand agency knits together the values of the brand with the visual identity. We don’t just produce a variety of pretty designs and call it a branding project. Professional design agencies take concepts and ideas from the companies brand strategy and bring them to realisation in the most appropriate format, sometimes suggesting improvements or refining the original strategy along the way.

A professional design or branding agency creates visuals that make up the corporate identity of a company, showing what it stands for and highlighting their beliefs. It’s not just purely a logo design and some colours put together and made to look pretty.

There are some great articles and books available about branding. I’d highly recommend reading Jacob Cass’s article Branding, Identity and Logo Design Explained; in which Jacob candidly explains the difference between the three practices.

The following video is also a great overview of the definition of branding and what branding is all about.

Why do Brands Hire Design Agencies?

Brands hire design agencies and graphic designers to establish or enhance their visual identity. When fully rebranding a company, the brand handbook goes out of the window, but in most cases, when hired by a company, designers are expected to work within a set of already established brand guidelines.

Brand identity guidelines describe how a brand’s identity should or shouldn’t be used across a variety of mediums. Logos are normally shown sitting on appropriate backgrounds, in appropriate colours.

They’re also displayed in ways that they shouldn’t be used. There are a lot of easily accessible brand guidelines, Google is your friend but the Skype brand guidelines are a particularly great example.

Brand guidelines ensure that the identity of a company is preserved and kept coherent no matter which visual device it’s applied to. Depending on the company the brand identity/brand image can be made up of any number of devices.

A company such as Nike could commission but not be limited to, the following to be created within their brand identity guidelines;

A logo design (the main symbol behind the entire identity and brand)
Stationery design (letterheads, business cards, compliment slips etc)
Marketing Collateral (Flyers, brochures, books, websites, etc)
Products & Packaging (Products sold and the packaging in which they come in)
Apparel Design (Tangible clothing items that are worn by employees or sold as part of the brand’s strategy)
Retail Design (interior and exterior signage as well as interior design of outlet stores)
Email Design (email template design for newsletters, in-house memos etc)
TV Advertising (visual style and elements of TV productions and advertising)
Other Communication

All of the items listed above and many more make up a brands visual identity.

Your logo design is the embodiment of the brand wrapped up into one easily identifiable mark, but always remembers, a logo design alone is not a brand. It only represents a brand.

We’ve already written a fair bit of other stuff about logo design, check it out on the design blog if you’re unsure what a logo is or what they’re used for. Put simply, a logo design identifies a brand or product in its simplest form.

An Example of Perfect Branding

The easiest way to answer the question “What is Branding?” is to give the perfect example. In my eyes, one of the world’s biggest companies has their branding down to a tee, and that’s Apple.

Everything Apple does forms part of their brand, and they do a lot of different things.

For those that don’t know, Apple are one of the world’s biggest technology companies that designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, ranging from laptops to phones to televisions. Apple was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in April 1976 and is now one of the most famous multinational corporations in the world.

Everything Apple does is calculated and adds value to their brand communication and identity. The way they name things and typeset things (iPhone, iPod, iMac) through to the clean, functional style of their website adds to the Apple brand. The Apple brand in simple terms is “brilliant design that works.”

The way Apple delivers their keynote speeches; the accompanying videos on their website shortly before a product launch are all crystal clear in communication with an air of wonder and excitement built around them.

If somebody blindfolded you and drove you to a mystery location and when you opened your eyes and you saw bright white displays, perfectly shaped computers and gadgetry and shiny work surfaces, you would know that you were in an Apple store.

That’s branding. Apple’s customers go to them for several reasons, they want the best in modern technological appliances and they want it to look fantastic and function perfectly. Even their product boxes open and smell a certain way.

Apple has perfected branding. They’ve taken branding and expanded it into absolutely everything they do, building their whole company around it.

People have a certain level of expectation from Apple because of their branding, and part of their brand strategy is to deliver that and go beyond their customer’s expectations each and every time.

How Important is Branding?

If you look at some of the biggest brands in the world, you’ll notice that their branding is well thought out and it’s no coincidence that they’re the successful ones. Branding is an important feature of any business and all businesses should consider it as part of their marketing strategy.

In the design industry a lot of people tell clients that they should “look at design as an investment, not expenditure” and that’s not a bad way of thinking at all. When starting up, a lot of people will think “I’m not spending [x] amount on branding my company, it’s not worth it. I can do it myself for nothing.”

And that is what costs a lot of start-up businesses money. Would you decide to fix your own plumbing? Or would you hire a professional to do it for you? It’s the same thing with branding your business and creating your corporate identity.

What tends to happen is that the companies that have branded professionally from an early stage in their life, go on to realise that their initial investment into their brand has paid dividends in the long run.

We have an article about the cost of branding, just in case you’re not sure if it can work with your budget.

If you had a choice of two companies to use, and one had clearly used a professional to develop their brand identity, and the other had used Microsoft Paint to design their identity, who would you use?

And at the end of the day you don’t want your brand to end up on “Logo Designs Gone Wrong” like the Instituto de Estudos Orientais logo;

One of my favourite things to do on my lunch break is scroll through one of Twitter’s networking hours such as #NorthEastHour and look at user avatars and company websites.

In about 5-10 seconds it’s apparent which companies have used a professional to develop and enhance their brand, and which have relied on Paint and their “design knowledge” to deliver results. In an instant, I make a decision about whether I would buy something from the said company.

If their branding looks professional, and their site works, I decide yes. If the work looks like it’s done by an amateur on a design trip and their website doesn’t function properly, then I decide against it.

The above is just one example of people making a snap decision based on the way a company brands and presents itself. There are many instances in which people will make a decision on whether or not use your brand for their particular need. People choose this based on a number of factors, but branding unprofessionally will certainly hurt your chances of success.

But, I Can’t Afford Professional Branding

Can you afford not to have professional branding? Sure, if you hire a professional branding agency, things can get very expensive very quickly. However, it’s all about the return on investment.

If you invest £10,000 but make £100,000 as a result of branding or rebranding, then the initial expenditure has been worth it.

There are a few simple and low cost ways of making a difference to your brand strategy that you can start today to help build or reinforce your brand. Here are five questions to get you thinking about improving your branding.

1. What Does Your Brand Stand For?

Ask yourself what your brand is all about. What does your brand believe in? What do you want people to think about your brand when they hear your brand name? The supermarket brand Aldi is all about being a low cost supermarket, whereas Marks and Spencer’s branding positions them as a supermarket for high end luxury food products.

“Make a list of the differences and the extremes and start with that. A brand that stands for what all brands stand for stands for nothing much.” – Seth Godin

2. What Branded Collateral Already Exists?

Get all of your branded material out, spread it around your kitchen table and take a good look at it. Do you have a logo? Are you using the same logo design across all of your printed material? Does your logo look good? Is your contact information up correct on all of your collateral? Is it all consistent? Are you using the same colours and typefaces across all of your media?

3. Are You Using Social Media Correctly?

There are a lot of social media options available to businesses right now. At Canny Creative, we use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. Is your brand represented on social networking sites?

Does the visual identity of your brand flow into your web presence too? It’s best to keep your social media sites similar in style to your printed collateral and your website design.

You also need to think about the language you use, what you talk about and what you share on social media. Should you really be talking to your friends about the latest football results using your business Twitter profile? Probably not. We’d advice saving that for your personal Twitter account.

4. Is Your Website Yielding Results?

If your website doesn’t look similar to the rest of your branded materials, then it’s time to bring it in line. Also make sure that your logo design and brand colours are featured prominently on your website, this will aid in raising brand awareness.

Think about the way you present your service or product online. Are users seeing it in a positive light? Ask friends and family for feedback.

Does your website produce the results you were hoping? Are you making enough sales through your site? If you’re not, it’s worth exploring the user experience of your site.

Is it easy enough for your users to make a purchase, or get in contact? Does your site work as it should? There are lots of questions you can ask yourself, but even fixing the most basic of problems will help you along your way.

5. What Can You Do To Change It?

If you’re unsure about any of the things we’ve talked about above, then I’d advise getting in touch with a professional branding or design agency to see how they can help you. If you have any doubt at all about your branding, pick up the phone and see what they can do for you.

Lot agencies will offer a design consultation before starting work on a project.

If you’d rather go at it alone then; make sure you’re using a high quality version of your logo design and make sure the colours and typefaces that you use across your branded material are consistent. Visual elements are important and help potential customers remember your business.

So, What is Branding?

We’ve had a look at an example of a brand doing it right and we’ve explored the importance of branding for start-ups.

Conclusion: What is Branding?

Branding is the life and soul of your company. Your what, how, and why. It’s what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

Combine these elements together with your brand identity design, and that’s branding.

I think one of the best definitions of brand I’ve seen is from the Tronvig Group;

“Branding is what sticks in your mind associated with a product, service, or organization — whether or not, at that particular moment, you bought or did not buy.”

Combine that with Jeff Bezos’ quote from earlier, and that’s branding summed up perfectly.

It’s the way your brand sticks in people’s minds, and, in that instance, convinces them to buy or not to buy what you’re selling.

However, branding isn’t always about convincing people to buy, it all comes back to your brand’s strategy and goals.

Sometimes it’s about creating brand loyalty, raising money for charity, convincing them to use your service, read your books, hire you for a job, and so on. Branding can be used for many different things.

Many people work on building personal branding too.

Look at Gary Vaynerchuk – one of the world’s first celebrity entrepreneurs.

He made his money through entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship alone. Rather than making it through sports or media and then transitioning into a business leader.

To summarise; branding is not logo design. It’s not just about the visual elements of your brand.

It’s what your brand believes in and how you represent that.

It’s all about invoking an emotional response from your customers or clients. Making them think what you want them to think as soon as they hear your brand name.

Branding is how you and your company are perceived.

What does branding mean to you? Share your thoughts, success stories, and even failures in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.

What Makes Design Good?

Websites that are not well designed tend to perform poorly and have sub-optimal Google Analytics metrics (e.g. high bounce rates, low time on site, low pages per visit and low conversions). So what makes good web design? Below we explore the top 10 web design principles that will make your website aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, engaging, and effective.

1. PURPOSE

Good web design always caters to the needs of the user. Are your web visitors looking for information, entertainment, some type of interaction, or to transact with your business? Each page of your website needs to have a clear purpose, and to fulfill a specific need for your website users in the most effective way possible.

2. COMMUNICATION

People on the web tend to want information quickly, so it is important to communicate clearly, and make your information easy to read and digest. Some effective tactics to include in your web design include: organising information using headlines and sub headlines, using bullet points instead of long windy sentences, and cutting the waffle.

3. TYPEFACES

In general, Sans Serif fonts such as Arial and Verdana are easier to read online (Sans Serif fonts are contemporary looking fonts without decorative finishes). The ideal font size for reading easily online is 16px and stick to a maximum of 3 typefaces in a maximum of 3 point sizes to keep your design streamlined.

4. COLOURS

A well thought out colour palette can go a long way to enhance the user experience. Complementary colours create balance and harmony. Using contrasting colours for the text and background will make reading easier on the eye. Vibrant colours create emotion and should be used sparingly (e.g. for buttons and call to actions). Last but not least, white space/ negative space is very effective at giving your website a modern and uncluttered look.

5. IMAGES

A picture can speak a thousand words, and choosing the right images for your website can help with brand positioning and connecting with your target audience. If you don’t have high quality professional photos on hand, consider purchasing stock photos to lift the look of your website. Also consider using infographics, videos and graphics as these can be much more effective at communicating than even the most well written piece of text.

6. NAVIGATION

Navigation is about how easy it is for people to take action and move around your website. Some tactics for effective navigation include a logical page hierarchy, using bread crumbs, designing clickable buttons, and following the ‘three click rule’ which means users will be able to find the information they are looking for within three clicks.

7. GRID BASED LAYOUTS

Placing content randomly on your web page can end up with a haphazard appearance that is messy. Grid based layouts arrange content into sections, columns and boxes that line up and feel balanced, which leads to a better looking website design.

8. “F” PATTERN DESIGN

Eye tracking studies have identified that people scan computer screens in an “F” pattern. Most of what people see is in the top and left of the screen and the right side of the screen is rarely seen. Rather than trying to force the viewer’s visual flow, effectively designed websites will work with a reader’s natural behaviour and display information in order of importance (left to right, and top to bottom).

9. LOAD TIME

Everybody hates a website that takes ages to load. Tips to make page load times more effective include optimising image sizes (size and scale), combining code into a central CSS or JavaScript file (this reduces HTTP requests) and minify HTML, CSS, JavaScript (compressed to speed up their load time).

10: MOBILE FRIENDLY

It is now commonplace to access websites from multiple devices with multiple screen sizes, so it is important to consider if your website is mobile friendly. If your website is not mobile friendly, you can either rebuild it in a responsive layout (this means your website will adjust to different screen widths) or you can build a dedicated mobile site (a separate website optimised specifically for mobile users).

It is easy to create a beautiful and functional website, simply by keeping these design elements in mind. Have you got a website design that needs reviewing or optimising? Or perhaps, you are planning a website and you are looking to get the design right from the ground up. Either way, these principles of effective web design can help your website be more engaging, useful, and memorable for visitors.

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

case study branding

Middle Eastern Aviation and Etihad Airways

Air travel hasn’t been more interesting and revolutionising, than it’s been in the last decade. Thanks to its favourable geographic position and oil reserves, the Middle East has emerged as the new hub for Middle Eastern carriers connecting Europe with Asia and the US.

The dynamics of the aviation landscape has seen a sea change globally, much to the chagrin of legacy operators in Europe and the US. Carriers from the Middle East are challenging traditional European and American players, in their own backyard. Etihad Airways is one of the big three, based out of Abu Dhabi, UAE, and is the second largest (first being Emirates) flag carrier of the Arab Emirates.

Who are they?

Etihad Airways commenced operations in 2003. In 2014, the carrier embarked on a rebranding strategy, to reposition itself as an agile airline, willing to align itself with the changing commercial dynamics of Gulf aviation.

Amidst stiff competition from its friendly rival, Dubai based Emirates, Etihad Airways’ rebranding needed to capture the essence of a serious contender challenging the existing norms of airline hospitality. Further, the brand needed to reflect the understated flamboyance so unique to Abu Dhabi on the airline.

The Rebranding Design Brief

Etihad_rebranding_case_study_the_branding_journal_10

Landor Associates, a reputed brand consulting firm was tasked with the rebranding strategy. Interestingly, Landor didn’t look to aviation for inspiration but to something more earthen and sublime – the wind swept sand dunes of Abu Dhabi. The wind swept patterns on the golden desert sand cocooning the Moresque architecture of Abu Dhabi served as the canvas for Landor’s design. These iconic visuals of Abu Dhabi are interpreted as copper, silver, cream and brown tessellated polygons.

The Old and New

This is a clear departure from Etihad’s old branding and the team at Landor believe such a transformation was absolutely needful for a successful rebrand strategy. The whole design concept is interestingly titled Remarkable and the chosen colours reflect the appearance of sand dunes in different lighting conditions.

In the airline, these coloured polygons exude an aura of exclusivity and premiumness while also imbibing the airline livery with a unique identity. The design team at Landor add, “Etihad is a hospitality brand that provides experiences so magical, they have to be remarked on. No detail is too small, no idea too big. The concept of Remarkable infuses the brand, creating an airline with legendary stature.”

The new livery will adorn Etihad’s fleet and the makeover operation is expected to be completed by 2017. These prismatic shapes are a safe bet in design parlance and design experts believe they have a longer “shelf life” in terms of visual appeal.

To that end, Landor have succeeded in sticking to Etihad Airways’ rebrand strategy. Speaking at the livery unveil to Jonny Clark of thedesignair.net in Hamburg, Peter Knapp, Global Creative Officer of Landor Associates, had this to say: “…we used the ambient geometry present in the architecture and culture of the emirate and reinterpreted it with a sense of Arabian modernism which has become synonymous with Etihad and Abu Dhabi itself.”

Design Theme and Interpretation

Etihad Airways’ fleet include the super-jumbo long haul A380s, long haul jumbo 787 Dreamliners and a slew of mid range 330s and 777s. The A380 consist of an industry first Residence suite, to cater to VVIP elite guests (Etihad’s term for passengers), which is essentially based around the concept of a studio apartment in an aircraft. This is followed by First, Business and Economy class, all given that remarkable Etihad touch.

The rebrand design needed to reflect these categories by having their own interpretation of the Remarkable theme infused in them.

This is what Landor have to say:

“Simply smarter economy class—Reinvents small moments that other airlines overlook, to bring a sense of surprise, spontaneity, and fun to air travel.

Intelligent business—Designed for the new global tribe that challenges traditional notions of business class.

First class—Creates a luxury travel experience so deeply personal, it’s like being transported to your own private universe.

VVIP travel—A unique vision of VIP travel with service so exclusive only a select few will fully experience it.”

The rebranded theme is reflected from the cosy and vivid prismatic pillow to the exuberant Etihad lounges across continents. The colour cues of copper, brown, cream and silver are also represented in the Residence and other classes subtly, to complete the Etihad ambience.

Trivia: An internet search reveals that Residence fliers love the polygon Etihad pillow; I cannot, but agree!

Growth Stats

Now, onto some numbers: According to travelweekly, a UK based travel website, Etihad’s annual passenger numbers grew by 23% in 2014. Given the fact that this percentage also includes Etihad’s code sharing partner airlines, it’s still a decent number, albeit 2014 being a year of slow passenger growth, globally.

Etihad’s growth trajectory continues on in 2015 as well with a 17% jump from previous year’s numbers (Times of Malta). To put in perspective, that’s about 23.3 million passengers, of which, Etihad claim 75% of that number, while the rest are taken up by their codeshare partners. This spike in growth is evidenced from 2012 onwards, leading us to believe that the rebranding strategy indeed worked, transforming Etihad as a carrier bringing Abu Dhabi to the skies.

Six brand case studies that proved the value of storytelling

Storytelling in marketing terms isn’t just about producing an advert with a narrative, it’s about telling the story of the ‘brand’ across multiple channels and using various tools and methods.

Storytelling techniques can give credibility and personality to brands both large and small.

You can build more meaningful relationships with customers by either highlighting the people behind the brand, creating a distinct tone of voice across all channels or by using the history of the brand to broaden the richness and authenticity of your story.

Join us at our Festival of Marketing, a two-day celebration of the modern marketing industry held in November, where we have an entire stage devoted to Brand & Creative.

Here speakers will help you find the right story for your brand and teach you to how to grow your business while maintaining culture and brand authenticity.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at some other useful case studies.

Visa

Despite being one of the most used credit cards in the world, Visa had identified an emotional distance between its brand and its customers.

Industry research suggested that brands have people’s attention for just 6.5 seconds, so Visa created the GoInSix campaign where the brand would generate interactive content designed to motivate people to dine, shop and travel, using either six-second videos, six-image vignettes or six words.

The campaign ran across all of its social channels and Visa urged influencers to upload their own GoInSix stories.

Visa’s Facebook engagement score ranking went from seventh to first in ‘finance’ and climbed to second in all lifestyle brands. The campaign delivered 284m earned impressions, five times more than a previous Visa campaign, which had 18 times more media spend.

WaterAid

‘The Big Dig’ by WaterAid was an integrated campaign which brought fundraising, communications and country programme teams together to raise over £2.5m for WaterAid’s work in Malawi through digital storytelling.

Mobile blogging direct from Malawi meant supporters and donators could see their support in action and meet the people they were supporting.

It was a first for the sector, using social platforms and mobile tools so that supporters could meet people whose children were dying from lack of clean water, come together with them to change it and watch as a truck drilled the borehole bringing the village clean water.

The Big Dig was WaterAid’s most successful fundraising and awareness campaign, raising £2.6m (including government matching) against a target of £1.2m and bringing clean, safe water and sanitation to 134,000 people in Malawi.

Digital channels including the Big Dig blog raised £75,000 directly, but also drove engagement and reach to increase the overall result. 7% of new supporters signed up for email updates or left a comment.

ITV

ITV wanted to create a new multi-screen synchronised ad format that made the most of the growing audience using their smartphone and tablet to use play-along games.

While the percentage of the broadcast audience on these games is still small, it is proving to be a useful tool as it combines the storytelling potential of broadcast TV advertising with the intimacy of tablets and smartphones.

The new ad format was integrated into ITV’s play-along games so as to complement the broadcast advertising, reaching consumers on second screen devices with interactive messages synchronised with on-air spots.

The ad format was launched during The X Factor final last year, and it resulted in 252,865 impacts and 1,327,657 page views, with an average CTR of 8.75%.

Active engagement was 38% (the percentage of page views that were actively viewed by the user swiping rather than shown automatically after 10 seconds).

Microsoft

Microsoft needed to prove to an audience lured away from IE9 by Google Chrome, that its browser was just as exciting, fast and easy to use.

Microsoft teamed up with director Edgar Wright and illustrator Tommy Lee Edwards to create an animated story, The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator.

After each film, the viewer was able to contribute ideas, messages, prose and drawings through an interactive hub, all using the capabilities of IE9.

The crowdsourced, immersive story led to:

600,000 unique visitors to the Brandon Generator site
10,000 crowd-sourced entries to create subsequent chapters
308,342 organic YouTube views
12.2m media-driven YouTube views
IE market share finished ahead of target (target: 51.8%, actual: 53.9%)
1.7m IE9 downloads

IKEA

In 2011 the IKEA catalogue had more competition from other print and online publications than ever. The catalogue needed reinvention, however it needed more than a digital-only solution.

Ikea created an augmented reality application to enable smart-phone users to unlock extended content. This enhanced the experience of reading the catalogue, thereby breathing new life into its pages and giving consumers a continuous brand experience.

The design, technology and storytelling overhaul turned the catalogue experience into an evolving innovation platform, which generated real time insight around consumer preference.

Globally, the app was the No.1 downloaded marketing app for a brand in 2012 and the catalogue received three times the attention of the 2011 catalogue.

The new print and app experience led to an increase in engagement with a six minute time spent in app vs. the average 3 min with just the catalogue. The 42 scannable pages saw a 35 % increase in scanning. The app was downloaded 6.2m times.

Manchester United

Manchester United has a massive global following, with more than 300m fans in Asia alone. Connecting with this fanbase is a key part of the club’s strategy.

It identified that social media platforms are one of the primary methods by which it engages and transacts with its global following, and can be used to create new revenue streams.

Man United launched an official Facebook page in 2010 and posts an average of ten times a day, often running competitions to capture data and using content to support sponsors’ requirements, as well as running polls and asking fans’ opinions. Its timeline also displays the history of the club.

In July 2013 the club launched a presence on both Twitter and Chinese site Sina Weibo.

On Twitter, it taps into its players’ individual followings, with Q&As as well as news, with an average of ten tweets a day. It also tweets lots of photos as well as sharing fixture updates and infographics. A similar approach is taken on Seina Weibo, with the majority of posts hitting over 100 shares within a few hours.

With over 34.5m Facebook ‘likes’, MUFC is one of the most popular brands on Facebook. Both Twitter and Sina Weibo accounts attracted over 700,000 followers within just over a month of launching, with the majority of Twitter posts averaging over 700 retweets. Its Google+ page also acquired more than 40,000 followers within less than a month.

Information Governance and Regulatory Compliance

The Benefits of ‘Active Compliance’

Key Areas to Consider

Archiving

Retention Management

Records Management

Search

Business Process Management

Reasons for Performance Measurement

Setting Targets and Making Monitoring and Measurement Plan

What is Monitoring?

Planning the Monitoring and Measurement

Elements of Monitoring

Monitoring performance

Innovation measures

Input measures

Process measures

Output measures

What Are the Benefits of a Financial Management Information System?

Financial Management Defined

FMIS Defined

Information Transparency

Budget Control

Strengthens Financial Controls

Quick Decisions

Planning

Efficiency

Integration

Competition

What is Data Protection?

How Does it Affect Your Company?

Data Protection Case Study

About Secure Data Management

What is the Data Protection Act?

Why is the Data Protection Act important?

How can you successfully meet data regulation standards?

Successful Business Data Backup

How to Protect Your Critical Business Data

Data Loss

A Data Backup Regime Is a Must

Data Archive vs Data Backup

Backup Critical Business Data

Backup Devices

Back It Up or Risk Losing It

Top Ten Problems Faced by Business

1. Uncertainty

2. Globalization

3. Innovation

4. Government Policy & Regulation

5. Technology

6. Diversity

7. Complexity

8. Information Overload

9. Supply Chains

10. Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving

Big Problems with the Internet of Things

1. Walled Off Internet

2. Cloud Attacks

3. AI-Built Security Issues

4. Botnet Problems

5. Limited AI

6. Lack of Confidence

7. Understanding IoT

What is the Data Protection Act, and how does it affect my business?

Solutions

Uncertainty about the future

Financial management

Monitoring performance

Regulation and compliance

Competencies and recruiting the right talent

Technology

Exploding data

Customer service

Maintaining reputation

Knowing when to embrace change

Top Ten Problems Faced by Business

1. Uncertainty

2. Globalisation

3. Innovation

4. Government Policy & Regulation