Understanding GLBA Compliance

When an individual or an enterprise employs the services, or uses the products of any financial institution, they are protected by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or GLBA. This act is applicable to all financial institutions and has been enforced to protect customers' confidential information. The FTC or Federal Trade Commission presides over all institutions that provide loans, advice related to finance and investments or insurance. All loan brokers, debt collectors, entities who prepare tax returns, banks, real estate settlement service providers, non-bank mortgage lenders and real estate appraisers come under the purview of this act.

As per the GLBA compliance financial institutions have to implement security standards to protect the customer's information from unforeseen threats. The act mainly provides cover for collecting, disclosing and protecting customer's personal information. Thus it is extremely necessary for all financial institutions to implement a compliance management procedure that takes care of the security policies.

Importance of GLBA

It is not a simple job to handle a financial institution. Simply providing attractive offers is not enough to acquire and retain customers. It is also extremely important to safeguard customer information and ensure their security. Financial issues are highly sensitive and critical. Therefore organizations in this sector have stringent security measures to adopt. Effective compliance management software can be helpful in ensuring GLBA compliance to a large extent. Here are the features common to most GLBA compliance solutions in the market:

GLBA Compliance Management Software Features

1. Cloud based program using on-premise deployment procedures to help reduce large investments. With easily available cloud based services the returns are very high.

2. They reduce the time typically wasted on individual compliance processes, and therefore reduce management costs.

3. A centralized repository procedures handle the data efficiently by storing documents, evidences and processes in one place. Accessibility to this data is possible from any location and at any time.

4. With the help of centralized dashboards, institutions can have clear visibility of the compliance status that is being enforced across multiple units located globally.

5. They provide a web based secure interface for easy accessibility, management of workflow, inventory control and document management.

6. They conduct intranet scanning of information and integrate all information related to compliance from several sources and match them against compliance signatures.

7. They handle all activities that are relevant to compliance and compliance compliance regulation optimization by sending reminders.

8. They monitor and track movements to detect any loopholes and immediately set remediation processes in action.

9.They provide an exhaustive audit trail.

GLBA compliance has been beneficial to both customers and financial institutions. While the mandatory regulations of GLBA ensure a high degree of IT security, making financial institutions safer for customers, by ensuring compliance with GLBA financial institutions can win people's trust and attract more prospects.

A Guide To Vehicle Tracking With Fleet Management Software

Maintaining and organizing fleet vehicles, field personnel or other assets is impossible without a reliable centralized system accessible at all levels of the business. Luckily these systems do exist and are referred to as fleet management software or vehicle tracking systems. There are a number of solutions available and these have been developed to handle all aspects of managing and maintaining a fleet as well as personnel and job dispatching. Each comes with a raft of features and capabilities making it difficult to choose a solution.

There are many companies providing vehicle tracking and fleet management software solutions. These fall into two types of system, online or locally installed software.

Online systems are usually a web-based or "in the cloud". They are accessed via a web interface or web browser where as a locally installed system is installed on a local computer. The pros and cons to these two systems are minimal and come down to IT infrastructure already in use by the business. If a business has an existing database to manage parts of the business then this data may need to be accessed by fleet management software and this may need a locally installed solution.

What features or capabilities make fleet management software a good investment for a business?

Centralized Data Storage

Having all information in one place is a must for organization of all aspects of a business. All good solutions enable the input and storage of vehicle information like service, MOT and road tax records. Driver records such as driving qualifications, medical requirements and endorsements can also be entered on to the system. Important vehicle and driver documents can be scanned and easily retrieved when required.

Vehicle Service Reminders, Alerts and Management

One really useful aspect of fleet management is the ability to set reminders or alerts for vehicle servicing, MOT or road tax due dates. Personnel can update the status of vehicle repairs and drivers can record any vehicle faults when completing daily checks.

Vehicle Tracking with GPS

An important feature when deciding on a fleet management solution is the ability to know where vehicles or personnel are located or where they have been. Vehicle tracking is usually achieved with the installation of a small device in the vehicle or in the case of personnel or assets a small device can be carried in a pocket or attached. Once setup it is possible to see vehicles, people and assets in real-time on maps. Knowing where all the business assets are allowed the fleet manager or transport dispatcher to assign the right asset to the correct location.

Job Assignment and Dispatch

This is a very useful feature but not all fleet management systems feature it. The ability to assign jobs via the system is a really useful function. Mobile personnel, drivers or field engineers can update the job status, upload images and signatures enabling back office staff to immediately see and inform a customer of progress. These systems can be installed on existing devices such as smart iPhones, Android and Blackberry handsets.

History Trails and Reports

When all of a business's data is stored in a centrally managed system it is easy to compile reports that can improve efficiency and even save money.

Detailed reports on individual assets such as vehicles can show total running costs for that vehicle. Vehicle tracking information can show how much fuel has been used and help to suggest cheaper alternative routes. This combined data from personnel can help a business to see where efficiencies can be achieved.

To summarize, fleet management software and vehicle tracking solutions should enhance a business and if used correctly and should improve the operating and efficiency of a business's mobile resources. The savings that can be achieved may be out-weighed by the costs of the systems but that should also be balanced against the increased productivity and the ability to offer a better service to clients.

Block Spam with An Easy Behavioral Change

E-mails now have a connection back to their servers. I will
leave the technical aspects out of this article. Instead, I
will walk you through how information from your computer is
getting back to them.

You have probably already experienced this, an e-mail lands
in your box with many symbols in the subject line created
with the Shift Key plus a Number Key. This is the most
common one. For example, it may look like this:
& *) (* & ^% $ #! Exception the length of the symbols are longer.

When you click on it to delete it, any further action,
including the deletion of the e-mail looks to go into la-la
land. In other words, you can do anything else. This may
last up to a minute or two depending on your computer speed.
You have just been pinged and information is going back to
their server saying there is a live connection.

In addition, because the symbols change all the time, it's
difficult to block them without you use a program like Spam
Arrest.

Here is an easy way and excellent way to protect from this
and all you have to do is change the way you dial in and
out.

If you have a DSL line or any other type Internet connection
that is open all the time. Control how frequently you allow
e-mails to upload into your system. If you use Outlook, you
go into Tools, Options, select the Mail Delivery tab and
change "check messages every" 30, 60 or 90 minutes. This
also helps on time management if e-mails are eating up too
much of your time.

Next, after all your e-mails are uploaded into your
software, whether you set the time management feature above,
close off the Internet connection. It will not stop the
lost 30 or 60 seconds these e-mail lock up your computer but
you have cut off any possible pinging.

After you close the Internet connection, read, review and
delete the e-mails. After completing this, you can go ahead
and reopen the Internet connection, and send your responses.

If you have a dial-up connection, you can do this same
method, except you will ignore the Mail Delivery option
mentioned earlier.

This actually is not just happening on e-mails with these
symbols. There are other programmed e-mails dumping cookies
on your computer. I will not address how to remove cookies
in this article. To find out how your software can remove
your cookies use F1 (help) on your keypad in your e-mail
software to find the answer before. WindowsXP also has
additional information for removing cookies under: Start,
Help and Support.

BOTS Companion of a Modern Revenue Manager

Bots have become an important part of human life both, at the personal and professional front and their involvement is climbing new peaks with every passing day. They surround us in our daily life in the form of Artificial Intelligence, Search Engines, and Software. Part of it has also paved way for smarter and efficient revenue management for hotels fueling the debt that if humans should be irrevocably replaced with bots for this complex round the clock function. Although the practice may be at a nascent stage to draw concluding, it has certainly made a mark in the real of the hospitality industry and has become an indispensable part of any hotel revenue management.

Artificial Intelligence powered robots can analyze and synthesize large chunks of hotel data collected at various touch points in a fraction of seconds to present meaningful insights about the booking pattern, demand, guest behavior which is impossible to be grouped or processed by any amount of human workforce with the same efficiency as bots. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the Artificial Intelligence has sort of revolutionized the hospitality industry across the globe, enabling every business to improve on multiple fronts like hotel pricing, price optimization, revenue management, guest experience management, booking management, demand and even capacity optimization of properties.

Furthermore, these bots are also capable of analyzing trends and trace upcoming events in the town to estimate the rise in demand, providing enough room for revenue managers to tweak the pricing and availability instead of fire fighting the situation at the last minute.

Leading hotels have already started betting big on AI powered bots and poised to explore new ways to make bots a part of their business operations. One significant advantage bots have over humans is that they can work tirelessly 24X7 with the same precision. Hotel industry requires attention 24X7 and is one of the most dynamic industries with continuous fluctuations in trends, demand, and prices. That is where these robust machines have huge value to add to the revenue management realm. These invisible machines can not only quickly determine the best rates at a particular time for your property, (room rate optimization) but also advise the revenue managers on which segment to target and the kind of promotional offers to be run to maximize the revenue.

Another major area where hotels continue to hustle is direct bookings. Hotels have been continuously trying to improve booking numbers on their own website since OTA missions are touching skies, eating up a major revenue share of hotels. Hotels would be surprised to know that even in this area, bots can improve their game and help increase the number of bookings by a decent percentage. With advanced learning capabilities and rigorous analysis of visitor's purchasing behavior, AI powered bots can refine the visitor experience and personalize every visitor's journey to their needs and interests. This increments visitor engagement and reduces the cycle time of purchase leading to conversion on the hotel website itself.

This again brings us to the joke that wherever revenue managers can be gradually replaced by bots completely risking their roles and jobs in the industry altogether. The answer is obviously NO since these micro machines can only process and analyze only a set number of parameters in their decision and often neglect external market implications that may not be considered by such bots but are easily identifiable only by human revenue managers and this acumen is gained by experience.

Therefore, the ideal mix should be machine results mediated and supervised by human revenue managers. For eg, Pricing is one area which could have been automated with a reasonable amount of diligence and control of the revenue manager. Similarly, online reputation management can also be monitored with technology; however, a personalized approach will take you a long way. The key is to automate the processes that require minimum human intervention and involve human where necessary. This will help revenue managers to don more hats at the same time like exploring more avenues to maximize per guest audience and focus on other revenue increasing strategies.

Thus, witnessing the scenarios discussed above, we can conclude that the status of the bots is of a companion to revenue managers instead of a successor who will complement them at every step with razor fast information and analysis of the market and competition, enabling revenue managers to take informed decisions in no time and help them optimize revenues and drive the hotel towards new millions of success.

5 Ways Blockchain Will Transform the Life of a Common Man

With all of the media set ablaze with news of prices of cryptocurrencies, you may wonder how it affects a common man. Right at the heart of cryptocurrency and other digital currencies is Blockchain technology.

There are various industrial and administrative problems that the technology can solve for the common man. Do you own a small business but often feel transparency is lacking because of traditional methods of communication? Have you ever ended up with higher than usual medical bills? As a business owner, is finding legitimate candidates a hassle for you? These problems affect entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, individuals and Blockchain technology seeks to provide solutions to make the life of a common man much simpler through simplified solutions.

Banking

Banking in almost all countries is still very focused on paper-intensive transactions for any money transfer, recordkeeping or other back-end functions. Blockchain technology can replicate this in a digital format and create a decentralized ledger that allows not only the bankers but also the customers to access a single source of information. This system allows banks to eliminate chances of fraud as documentation and proof of ownership of assets can be checked digitally by bankers in the Blockchain ledger which can be accessed at any time in an unalterable format.

Identity theft is also a major problem in the banking sector, with citizens' information being stolen and used to open fraudulent accounts for illegal activities. According to the Federal Trade Commission's online database of complaints, there have been over 13 million complaints filed for card fraud and identity theft with 3 million of these complaints being filed in 2016 alone. Through a blockchain system, customers can directly view all accounts owned under their name and immediately notify their respective banks in case they spot any suspicious activity in their banking details. Some of the known examples include IBM-backed Hyperledger Fabric project and the Utility Settlement Coin by UBS.

Healthcare

Blockchain technology can simplify healthcare in incredible ways and make medical data management much simpler. Making patient records widely accessible can allow research on drug development much more convenient, and it also reduces the implications of counterfeit drugs. Clinical trials and their outcomes can be made available in a decentralized network, allowing healthcare specialists and researchers to conduct research and find solutions to better healthcare. Accenture is one of the biggest companies that have started offering innovative healthcare solutions for the medical care sector for secure and fraud-free transactions.

Medicare frauds can also be brought down through blockchain billing management as the billing system can be fully automated without any scope of intermediaries committing fraudulent activities. With over 56 million people under Medicare as of 2017, over $1.3 billion has been ripped off the government through fraudulent activities by rehabilitation facilities and home health care services. Blockchain systems can effectively safeguard citizens who seek medical assistance from healthcare providers that overcharge for services offered through fraudulent billing practices. The centralized data not only help medical professionals in offering treatment based on the history of the patient and his/her family but it also eliminates the chances of a patient incorrectly recollecting past symptoms or disorders.

Public Records

One of the most important civic administration functions of a government is to record all information about its citizens. This includes information about individuals and businesses with regards to their assets and activities. Most of the recorded information is recorded in paper databases, making data management extremely difficult even in developed countries.

Blockchain-based systems like Ubitiquity can encode all public records in a digital ledger to keep the data on citizens from being altered for fraudulent activities. Identity theft is a problem that can be very difficult to deal with for the administration and digitizing all public information to make it tamper-proof can help prevent such instances of criminal activity.

Voting

One of the biggest limitations of the voting system in almost every country is that even today, voters need to be physically present at polling booths to cast their votes and can make things difficult for people who need to travel on poll days. More importantly, there are no means of verifying the poll results for the average citizen.

Blockchain development companies like Followmyvote are coming up with solutions that seek to make online voting a reality. It will allow citizens to view accurate information on poll standings and results and various other statistics publicly. It also leads to safer voting for citizens of countries in internal or external conflict and criminal activities to coerce citizens into voting for specific candidates can be completely avoided.

Business Hiring

Businesses of all sizes have a hard time finding the right staff. Through blockchain technology, it is possible for businesses to verify credentials of all applicants through a digital database. Blockchain technology can be applied to create a decentralized database of professionals with verified qualifications in a secure ledger that businesses can refer to for hiring candidates. Learning Machine is a New-York based company that seeks to address this problem that focuses on recording verifiable information on workers.

Tax or employment-related frauds make up 34% of all identity theft as of 2016, and a blockchain system makes the hiring process for any business much more secure as a company would have access to valid candidates only, reducing the risk of hiring fraudulent employees. It also helps applicants by speeding up the hiring process and helping them to find jobs they are eligible for and have a hassle-free application process.

Use of blockchain technologies helps individuals and businesses alike, and it also protects personal information while making important data publicly visible. While blockchain has the best application in cryptocurrency, its use can spread to other sectors as well to provide meaningful solutions to citizens around the world.

6 Steps to Effective Customer Relationship Management

Nurture Your Customer Relationships

Simply put, customer relationship management is a way of tracking and nurturing your customer relationships throughout the customer's life-cycle, as they move from prospect to customer, to repeat-buyer. Once a customer buys from you, it is much more profitable to make efforts to keep that customer, than it is to acquire a new one, because there is now trust between you. If your customer is happy with your product, then that customer is much more likely to buy from you again in the future, much more likely than a new prospect would be. That's why customer relationship management is so crucial.

Don't badger your customers to death with every product and affiliate offer you come across, especially if the products are unrelated to the product the customer originally purchased. Email your customers ONLY when you have something good to give them, some really helpful information, or when you have a really good, high-quality offer that would interest that particular customer. For instance, don't email your Internet Marketing customer a "Free Gift Certificate" to your gift store.

Automate Your Customer Relationship Management

Well, how do you automate customer relationship management in your e-business? You use email, and a dynamic database. You use auto-responders to stay in touch. I'm not talking about your regular auto-responders that deliver a vacation or "out of office" messages while you're away, either. I'm talking about sequential auto-responders.

Use Sequential Auto-Responders In Your e-Business

Sequential auto-responders allow you to pre-format and load a series of pre-typed messages to your prospects and customers. You benefit by not having to follow-up with these customers manually each time. Instead, your auto-responder delivers your messages on a timed interval set by you. To your customer, it looks as if you sent out each message yourself. This way, you stay in touch with your customer and not let them forget about you. When they have a need for one your products or services, your business will hopefully come to mind first and they will re-visit your site directly or by clicking a link in one of your emails, as a loyal repeat customer.

Personalize Your Messages for a Warm Feel! (Mail Merge)

Most decent auto-responders have mail-merge capabilities. This is the ability to merge personal information into your emails, like your customer's first and/or last name or their email address, etc. This personalizes your email messages even further and gives your customer some "warm and fuzzies". What's more you set all this up just one time, and any new prospects or customers will get the same message series without you having to lift a finger.

If the sequential auto-responder you're using has mail-merge capabilities, then it will automatically take that customers name and incorporate it into the email series you have set up. Usually the auto-responder service you're using will have some sort of tokens set up for this purpose. Look at the example below. Let's say your customer or prospect's name is Bob.

Hello, $firstname, - That translates into: Hello, Bob.

You could also do this with a customers email address too, like "$email". The token would be replaced with the customer's email: bob@bob.tld













Do you see the power of mail-merge?

Use Lead Capture and Subscription Boxes

For instance, you could set up a simple box on your sales or download page that asks the customer for his/her name and email address in return for some free product, or simply just to subscribe to your newsletter. If you set up a page specifically for this purpose this is called a "lead capture page". The information entered by the customer into your subscription box can be mail merged into the follow-up messages sent by your auto-responder.

Stay In Touch

Keep in contact with your prospects and customers. Set your auto-responder series to deliver your messages over an extended interval. There are several e-books and articles dedicated to this topic; however, if you want the first, most informative and still the king of auto-responder help, get "AutoResponder Magic". This e-book once sold for about $17, but you should be able to find it free many places on the 'Net. It has a plethora of information regarding auto-responders, as well as many examples you can build from.

Global Business? Speak the Language and Content of Your Client

According to many sociologists, in the last decades we have been experiencing a "sea change" in several fields of humanity, from technology, science, economy to politics. This huge shift they talk about is called "Globalization" and it has seriously affected our lifestyle, our habits, the entire social structure and hence the way we deal with the contemporary world.

As a matter of fact, our world seems to have been experiencing a sort of time-space compression since 1972, as a famous anthropologist and geographer, namely David Harvey, affirmed in his famous book The condition of Postmodernity: An inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (HARVEY, David, The condition of Postmodernity: An inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, Blackwell, 1992). Think out to the rapid flow of information triggered by the ICT revolution that nowdays enables us to send a message to the other side of the world in real time through "a click on the palm of our hand". Think out to the increased flexibility of the means of transports thanks to the technological advances that enable us to move through the world in a matter of hours. All these improvements have made the world get smaller and smaller in a metaphorical sense so that today in the business field organizations are no longer bounded by their geographical location.

All of a sudden, their markets have no limits at all and they can start looking at new opportunities overseas where they could not even imagine going only some years ago. In other words, what happens is that they become global and, as they achieve this new status, their new customer targets are no longer exclusively composed of local clients. New global segments emerge that share more or less the same lifestyle thanks to globalization. For instance, the Chinese women of the emerging middle-class act like and identify themselves with the American women.

Companies willing to internationalize have a desperate need to start off from internationalizing their communication ... but, would not it be enough to use English for their foreign communication ?? Perhaps, the jury is still out on this issue but No ! We definitely think No and we are going to show you why below.

Multilingual communication: fundamental for going global in business

In today's global economy multilingual communication is an essential tool to succeed in business because:

• Buyers in every country are increasingly demanding products or services described in their own language
• companies that realize the point above too late inevitably lose market shares and 33% reduction in long-term profitability of the product life cycle on average, according to McKinsey & Co
• companies' global brands decline in value if they speak a non-local language

Unfortunately, it seems that many organizations are failing to address their efforts towards localization and translations along with creating relevant and valuable multilingual digital content. If they do it, most of the time is just an accidental process without yet a carefully considered plan nor relying on a well-conceivable strategy behind it.

Redefining the value of content management: towards multilingual global content management

The user, potentially interested in a product or service just just Googles it on the Internet and guess what? Among the Google's list of results, he picks out and clicks only on those delivered in his own language. This action will be repeated in any touch point of its online journey before ending up purchasing the searched product or service.

Therefore, what a business would better do is to start redefining the value of its content management and upgrade it to a multilingual global content management. The later drives the global customer experience, increases the customer satisfaction, promotes the brand awareness, its consistency and supports the time to market goals. Moreover, since the content is a significant corporate asset, it must be managed as any other corporate asset, since it is imperative to turn it into a multilingual one and working relentlessly on its translation to the client / user's idiom.

As the former German Chancellor Willy Brandt once said:

If I'm selling to you, I speak your language. If I'm buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.

(Then we must speak German)

Although one might be induced to think that simply embedding a Google Translator plugin into his business website would do the trick, it would soon find out how short sighted this choice is. Not only would translations turn out to be of poor quality but this would also heavily affect the reputation of its business and brand.

Furthermore, a global economy is more and more requiring not only a multilingual content but also a content which is appropriate to the targeted population. In other words, a business must meet the expectations in terms of localization and translation processes of a targeted country, otherwise even a perfectly translated message may sound weird for a native speaker.

For instance, a Spanish firm could use in its website an expression such as

llevar el gato al agua - to take the cat to the water

to highlight that they have fulfilled a very complex task in a particular job, a feat.

Clearly, the English translation does not convey the same meaning of the original Spanish one and a web user would feel puzzled when reading this expression. As a consequence, that business would not be perceived as professional and its reputation would soon break down into pieces. It goes without saying that the user / potential customer would dash off to another business website and, sometimes, buy a product or service from the competitor.

The Importance of Quality Banking Software

Perhaps as never before, the necessity for excellent banking software has become evident. Retail banking requires a client-focused approach that will attract new customers and maintain them in a long term business relationship. One way to ensure customer satisfaction has been to guarantee rapid response to questions as well as information-gathering for business transactions.

New banking software technology can provide broad retail functionality while it supports various multi-channel models simultaneously. Scalability and resilience are also important features in quality software for banking needs. New core banking applications need to be able to address and support merger and acquisitions activities.

A new concern has been raised by the recent financial collapses within the banking industry. Astute attention to collateral management may have played a positive role in averting some of the humiliating losses that occurred and adversely affected so many smaller banks and loan institutions as well as the customers they represented. Quality banking software is being developed to include systems that monitor contractual descriptions and types. It will have the capacity of maintaining customer information, contractual data, and credit count relationships. This will be a significant part of any core banking application program.

Excellent financial software is also available for corporate and correspondent banking requirements. This banking software can introduce new business models as it responds speedily to ever-changing market conditions. It can reduce costs and identify and manage the risk factors at work, as well. In contractual management, this feature will assist in recognizing contractual shifts in value before they can cause significant damage. An excellent banking computer program will be flexible enough to include new products as they become available and should improve the overall efficiency of the banking business. All of these improvements should add value to the customer relationship which, of course, is paramount.

When one thinks in terms of universal banking, the amount of information that must be collected, processed, re-calculated regularly, and stored is mind-boggling. More and more banks have chosen to simply out source some of this mass of data collections, including information in contractual management, rather than handle it in-house. New technology will allow for broader functionality in the banking service. Various different kinds of banking products will be able to move across all kinds of channels, especially on the international level. This agility will enable banks to compete with the large international financial institutions that venture into their markets.

When considering the best in banking software, one must look at its "functional richness" as well as its scalability and flexibility. It must be adaptable to the latest in open technology, and it should include a system- connectivity with bilateral management. Customers today want as close to real-time views as possible. They want quick access to their counter-party's collateral and exposures. The ability to function with broad and sweeping informational strokes will strengthen the attractiveness and competitiveness of banking operations for the approaching years.

Computer Degrees Online Available for You

Computer degrees online allow students to acquire a solid education on any computer related course from a reputable college or university, offering online computer program, without actually attending school. It is a distant learning that harnesses the student's knowledge and skills in any computer field.

Online computer degrees provide students with the required talent to enter into a rapidly growing industry with a well-paid profession. As technology advances, the need for computer experts continues to increase. Employment opportunities will exponentially grow in this field as technology and computer use becomes more relevant to the modern life.

Anyone interested in acquiring an online computer degree can choose from any of these courses available in online computer programs of most colleges and universities.

Computer science degree

Computer science degree online will give the students the edge in terms of employment and career advancement in today's fast-paced marketplace. This profession offers a lucrative paying job with a starting salary of over $ 50,000.00, and still increasing as demand for the profession continues to grow.

Computer science is described as the study of theoretical foundations of information and computing. The students also learn practical techniques for their implementation and application in systems.

Software engineering degree

A software engineering degree online can land you a six-figure salary job once you graduate and get certified. Although, this degree is admittedly one of the most difficult Information Technology programs because its coursework consistors of intricate mathematical principles.

Software engineering is the application of engineering to software. It involves the design and development of faster, affordable and easy to maintain software.

Computer networking degree

Computer networking degree online is an off-campus opportunity for individuals to learn and maintain secure network infrastructures. Usual subjects for a computer networking program includes study of hardware devices, including routers, switches and bridges and their problem areas; wireless devices, networking security and security protocols; computer applications and software like sharing files and shared applications; working with various operating systems and programming tools and languages; and designing, modifying and upgrading to more complex systems.

Computer information systems degree

This field is among the fastest and highest paying professions in Information Technology. Individuals can get online computer information systems degree from many reputable universities offering distant learning opportunities.

The program involves designing and developing information-based systems critical for operations and management.

Web design degree

Many now rely on the internet to provide almost everything they need: from getting news to providing information, from doing business to paying bills. Virtually, almost everything is accessible and can be done with a click of button. Because of the convenient use of the internet, more and more people are turning towards worldwide web for business or even their day-to-day needs. This phenomenon has resulted in the surge of websites to cater the growing public demand, thus making web design a very profitable profession. Web designers can easily secure a good paying job whether in a company or working freelance. What's great about it is that an online web design decree is available for everyone with access to computer and internet and with some spare time to the study the course at their own space. Visit websites of colleges and universities to learn about their requirements.

Game design degree

Game design can be said to be in its early stage of rapid growth. The opportunities for development are vast and wide, and this can be observed in the increasing market needs for new and exciting gaming software. Too, the industry is constantly in need of expert game designers, and professionals in this field have very well-paid jobs. Get an online web design degree from well regarded universities to have that extra edge. At any rate, a web design degree can get a solid employment.

Computer programming degree

Programming is a critical phase of software development. It involves creating source codes that will determine how software works. In simple term, programming can be understood as the detailed instructions that tell computers what to do. As a vital part of computer engineering, computer programming is regarded as a highly intricate process that requires excellent skills and expertise in the field. That is why this profession is among the most in demand and well paid position. Major universities offer online computer programming degree, which can be completed at the student's convenience.

CAD degree

Most high-quality presentations now require Computer Aided Designs or CAD. It is the use of a variety of computer-based tools to assist engineers, architects and other design professionals produce well structured real or virtual objects. CAD software allows objects to be designed in two dimensional or three dimensional space. Online CAD degree programs or online CAD degree courses may be offered through schools like ITT Tech and Penn Foster.

If you are planning to enroll in any of the computer lessons online be sure to study its requirements, and determine whether the specific field suits your interest. Any of these courses can provide good employment opportunities.

10 Advantages Of Field Data Collection With Mobile Devices

Field Data Collection can be a very difficult and time-consuming process. Collecting field data manually requires a great supply of money, materials, staff and other resources. With such an investment comes the great responsibility of collecting the right data in the short amount of time, as the data collected on the field affects the productivity of the company.

All thanks to the ever-evolving technology, with the help of mobile devices seems to be the only solution to the challenges faced by the field data collection teams. This not only replaces the age-old obsolete Pen-Paper method of data collection but also provides new ways of utilizing the time of the workforce available on the field. The field data collection app is built suitable for all devices be it data collection app for Android or be it data collection app for iOS.

The mobile device based tools have been established in almost all developed as well as developing countries. It is but obvious that the companies which adopt this online method prosper more than the ones who are still stuck in the age-old methodologies.

Let's take a look at the advantages to executives and workers who have specialization in this area.

1. Supercharged Productivity













Mobile forms based platforms allow systematic and efficient organization of the data collected thanks to its real-time indicators. This allows a lot of time to be saved in collecting data and reporting it back to the head office. All the employee has to do is simply fill the form on his/her mobile device and submit them instantly for analysis.

2. Never Lose Data













Data, mostly old data is always required to verify or sometimes even to compare with the new data allowing a company to set new benchmarks and define long-term goals. The data collected on the mobile form is saved directly to the cloud. This helps in enabling the user to access the data whenever and wherever the user wants without the fear of ever losing the data.

3. Allows Collection Of Rich Data













Collection of just numbers and text is just like some other methods. But the collection of rich data is now possible all because of mobile data collection forms. Rich data includes things like images, location, audio, video and also scanning a barcode. This enables one to determine authenticities of the collected product or information.

4. Huge Cost Savings













Saving idle time and resources lead to the savings of huge amounts of money. Mobile forms do the same thing and cut costs in the processes like transportation or even cutting the use of paper and many more such things. As it also saves data to the cloud the losses occurring due to loss of data is also eliminated.

5. Works Even Offline













Mobile forms can be filled both online and in offline mode. This works very well as there are a lot of areas in the world which still do not have mobile network coverage. All the worker needs to do is fill in the form and save it to upload later whenever the device gets internet access.

6. Comparing With Other Data













It is very easy to compare data on field apps rather than comparing it manually. Data collected on the App can be easily compared with the already existing data. This allows the management to take important decisions that can further add to the productivity of the company in near future.

7. High Service Quality













Mobile forms do the evaluation of work in a faster and efficient way with great accuracy, This adds to the satisfaction of both the service provider and the customer.

8. Workflow Automation













Zero or minimum human interference minimizes the time required to do work and also eliminates errors made by humans. The workflow is made smooth as it is being automated and hence follow every step as set by the form builder at the start and is followed again and again without the actual involvement of the user.

9. Accelerated Process













Instant email of collected data is sent to the customers, colleagues, and partners instantly. The dispatch feature allows to assign jobs quickly and handle approvals with mobile workflows.

10. The Ease Of Use













Perhaps the best advantage of field data collection is its Ease of use. Mobile forms are prepared easily using drag and drop method on their websites. These data collection mobile forms are then distributed on the mobile devices of the field worker to fill up and provide necessary details.

Online Bill Pay and How It Works

Online bill pay is fast becoming a popular means of payment among people who want to practice good debt management skills, and save on both time and money in the process.

What exactly is online bill pay?

Generally, it is a payment method that lets an individual carry out payment instructions to creditors electronically through a computer program. This can actually get rid of errors, making it easier to manage debt. In addition, it is faster than mailing checks.

Online bill payment methods come in two basic categories: those being offered via a bank, and those offered via a service provider- like a credit card or phone company.

In general, online bill pay is designed to be fast and simple to use. Majority of major banking institutions, as well as businesses, provide this service without any charge. Individuals can choose to manually enter their payments every month, or arrange for an automatic withdrawal from their account. Automatic withdrawal allows them to set up their payments before their due date without worrying about giving manual instructions to make a monthly payment. The creditor will transfer funds straight from the bank, and enter these funds into their account with no action needed whatever.

Advantages of Choosing Online Bill Pay

The following information will help you consider the different advantages of using online bill pay:

Hassle-free

Individuals can save on time when using the online bill pay platform. Instead of writing out checks, wetting stamps and filing lots of papers, they can set up an online account to get rid of all these steps. It will also be easier and faster to manage their debt.

When they need to go over past bills, they do not have to waste time in looking for them - because all of their account information can be seen in one centralized location.

Cost Efficient

They can save on the stamping costs, which can add up. The average household gets 15 bills every month, which could amount to $ 70 a year in just postage costs.

They can avoid late payment fees that are incurred every time a payment is received after the due date. Missed payments could lead to the following:

• Increase in interest rates;
• Late payment charges and over limit fees.

When the payment is past due, their account could probably go to collection status.

Convenient

What is a more convenient solution to managing debt? Individuals could create their own automatic online bill account, so they can set up recurring payments that are to be regularly withdrawn from their account. This decreases the chance of late / lost payments, saving time in the process.

When they find out that one of their bills is due for payment on the next day, the best way to make sure that their payment will be posted on time is through online bill pay.

Freight Management Solutions

Business models of all sizes have complications. The goal of businesses in terms of logistics basically narrows down to having what the consumer desires, at a price they are willing to pay, in the quantity they wish for when they want it. That is not too much to ask right? Companies with issues in logistics are continuously searching for freight management solutions often times turning to companies that specialize in providing this service for companies big and small.

This is done in one of two different ways; third party logistics or fourth party logistics. Third party logistics uses outside companies to carry out the various logistic operations that have been accredited to being done internally. An example of this is when a company that has its own storage facility decided that it will now use an outside transporter to carry out distribution. Distribution was previously done by the company but in evaluating it was determined to be more cost effective to bring in a third party for this sector of the supply chain. This was determined to be an effective freight management solution.

Fourth party logistics is somewhat of a new concept. This is when a company determines that the freight management solution that desire is one in which the whole logistics procedure is outsourced to another party. This company has a sole purpose of providing logistic solutions to companies. They bring together their companies resources and technology and pair it with other organizations to plan out, operate and maintain a fully functioning supply chain.

The main difference between the two; third party logistics and fourth party logistics, is that the third party is specifically targeting one function of the supply chain solution where as with fourth party they manage the entire process from beginning to end. In general a fourth party logistics provider is a contractor serving the entire logistic needs for a company.

Fourth party logistic providers are the future of freight management solutions. Consulting companies are now offering so much in the way of cost savings and services to companies that they are becoming hard to live without. It is easy to see how needed a fourth party logistics company is when examining inbound logistics and outbound logistics. In smaller companies especially it is important to have support that specializes in all aspects of logistics. To pay specialized logistic personal to be on staff would not be nearly as cost effective as hiring companies, with a system already in place to help manage that piece of the business puzzle.

Inbound logistics is a basic process in the business equation which includes purchasing, arranging the movement of materials coming in, parts and finished inventory from suppliers to manufacturers, assembly plants and stores. Outbound logistics is related to storing and moving the end goods and information from the end of production to the end user.

The field of logistics is complex and absolutely integral to a business's success. Without the proper logistics in place a company could be losing money with increased shipping costs or improper communication through the supply chain. In order to give the client what they want, when they want it, at an acceptable price and time a highly functioning freight management solution should be maximized.

What Travel Agents Need to Know About Corporate Travel Today

This is rightly named as the age of traveler-centricity and with the evolution of the new era of personalized travel; it is leading to research and development of a host of new so-called intelligent services. The command-and-control perspectives of traveling have changed a lot from the past and the focus has shifted more on the traveler and the productivity of each trip. It has become essential to maintain that the travelers have the greatest return on investment on each trip. New generations of young employees and managers, who have been growing up and dwelling in a digital age, are moving up the ranks as travelers. It has become essential to recognize the need for greater flexibility acknowledging that the employees who travel on corporate trips also consider a percentage of their trip to be a leisure outlet. With increasing globalization and rise in companies sending their staff overseas to network and connect with their offshore prospects/customers/suppliers, corporate travel is a highly profitable tourism segment. Before we talk about how tourism companies can better cater to business travelers, let us first look at why they prefer to use specialized corporate agencies over traditional agents

Why do businesses use Corporate Travel Agencies?

This might be the most basic question for a travel agency as to why they need to use agencies specializing in corporate travel when there are plenty of regular travel agents in the market. Here is the importance of corporate travel agencies who have online systems which allow business travelers access to their complete itinerary.

The following information is at the fingertips of the CTAs:-

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  full business itinerary details














• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  up-to-date tracking details of flights (including delays or rescheduling)














• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  transparent details about additional costs such as baggage fees or in-flight fees














• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  travel alerts, if any, in the destined area














• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  complete and up-to-date details about the visa procurement policies and identification required














• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  currency requirement and conversion rates

What do corporate clients expect from Corporate Travel Agencies?

Negotiated Fares

The Corporate Agencies tend to have tie-ups with hotels, car rentals, flights etc. giving them access to lower fares which can be used only by the frequent business travelers. Discounted prices are not the only advantage though as they also offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP check-in lines as required.

In-depth information about the travel industry

Corporate travel agents have access to many travel resources and most importantly, quickly, than any other leisure travel agent. Additional information helps to make the business trips convenient and comfortable.

Changes in Itinerary

When an airline ticket needs to get rescheduled or cancelled, chances are the airline or the online service provider will charge lofty fees. When booking with a corporate travel agent, most of the times schedule changes can be done at zero or minimal extra charges.

Viable emergency contacts

It is important for the business travelers to reach the correct person at the need of trouble. Corporate travel agents have the experience and professionalism to relieve stress for both the traveler and the company.

What you need to consider as corporate travel increases?

Business Travel Barometer reported that corporate travel is witnessing an accelerated growth. However, when poorly managed, it may be no longer an advantage to companies and may, in fact become a burden. There are some factors which the corporations and CTAs must consider to get the best out of the time spent traveling.

Adopting a travel policy

The corporate must define a travel policy which is applicable to and respected by travelers at all levels. This policy should be used to establish the standards which will help to track the improvement of business travel. It will eventually help to reduce the costs of the entire package.

Do not limit the traveler's autonomy

The management is responsible for budgeting the travel policy which helps to improve cost management however, it is also essential to give a degree of autonomy to the traveler. The policy should be flexible enough to allow the employee to adapt the trip as per the situation.

Traveler's security should be a major concern

Business travelers need to have security in place. The company needs to stick to its definition of standards to ensure the employee's integrity. The CTAs should have reliable partners (travel insurance, airlines, hotel chains etc.).

Mobility and automation

To optimize time and ease the processes, the administration of management platforms should have automated processes. This means they should adopt mobile solutions where search options, travel alerts, ticket reservations etc. can be accessed quickly, easily and on the go.

Corporate Travel Trends in 2016

Corporate travel trends tend to change regularly. 2016 has also not been any different and the travel management companies (TMCs) and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) are quite focused to provide steady if not strong axis all over. A growing MICE sector, investments in mobile and big data and enhanced focus on duty of care are some of their areas of focus.

Rising prices

The consolidated buzzword among global suppliers, airfares, hotel rates etc. is the rising fares. It is sometimes the move of the suppliers to generate discounts which encourage travel if there is a strong decline in demand. A positive 2016 world economy has been bringing an increase in air fares of a few percentage points, hotels are expected to see 4%-6% rise in average global rates and the competition will remain moderate in the car rental services.

Duty of care

Risk management is one of the major points of emphasis for corporations. Corporate customers are allowing new policies and improved technologies to monitor employees' location in case of an emergency, especially when they are travelling to foreign destinations. For instance, Concur Risk Messaging helps to identify the travelers moving around in the world and alerts them with alternate travel arrangement as and when needed.

Focusing on MICE

Meetings industry is a major growing sector and the corporate travel trend is developing on it. The corporate travel agencies should better start aligning the various meeting procurement methodologies with its transient travel sourcing. One of the ways could be to broaden the variety of meeting services by incorporating incentive trips within it.

Investing in technology

A sharper focus on increasing value and becoming more traveler-centric can be done by bringing in mobile friendly technologies. Mobile and big data are definitely the two most significant technological investments which any corporate travel agency must focus to make their platform more appealing.

Business travel analysis after Brexit

Following Brexit, ACTE and CAPA shared their speculations. According to them, the greatest short-term effects on the travel industry will come from the weakening of the pound against other world currencies. Greeley Koch, executive director for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said that the business travel industry will trend on currency fluctuations; with some companies taking advantage of the weaker pound and traveling more, while others may withhold business travel until world markets find their own level.

Impact of terrorism on corporate travelers

Travel policy makers and administrators need to be guided by rising terrorism scare. For executives and staff undertaking travel on behalf of businesses, the travel agents and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) should prove the reassurance for their safety through the travel policies. It is more than likely that the surveys conducted over corporate travelers reflect the general concern of the global business travelers about the spate of terrorism. However, there is no denying the fact that terrorist threat is changing the patterns of business travel. The key impact of this is to keep in mind that the companies providing travel services for business travelers need to enhance their focus on security and the associated risks in delivering the services to corporate clients. According to a recent finding, travel managers have higher estimation of their policy's effectiveness in addressing risk compared to skeptical business travelers.

Concluding

Although the corporate travel sector has continued to progress, there are a plethora of challenges faced by the industry. A rapidly changing consumer market, the emergence of new business models, the impact of technology, man-made and natural crises are some of the fulcrum points that need to be considered before planning corporate trips.

Drive Your Business With the Automotive CRM Tool

If you are always scrambling for active leads, future leads, dropped leads, or sold cars, then your CRM data management is up for a drastic overhaul. You can not give the lame excuse that you're not computer savvy that's why you can not make use of the automated CRM tool. This is suicide if you're in business.

Car Dealers, Sit Up!

A sale a day keeps the bankruptcy at bay. Car dealers have to reach a target sales quota monthly to reap their rewards from the wholesale purchase of cars. That's how they make a living. If you're in the car business, you know how important it is to keep your customer information updated and manageable. The automated CRM tool saves all the trouble of wading through messy files.

If you are not computer savvy, or if your CRM staff is not that clever with computers, you still can not give the reason that the technology is beyond your ken. Software architects had this in mind when designing the software. They have made the features easy to use, and they did not design a rubic-like puzzle just to confound users of the software.

The screen layout of the software has recognizable buttons and have different color codes for different files. You can even keep track of the weekly appointments you have scheduled, so there's no time wasted; you have the customers well within your speed and mileage meter. You can also send your customers emails or chat them up.

You can even do a quick inventory of supplies and spare parts in just one go. You do not have to get up and rifle through old files to update anything needing a quick touch up. This expediency is not limited to your customer databank, but also extends to your suppliers' info tank.

Easy collaboration with suppliers from all over the globe makes it effortless for you to be updated about their latest products and stocks. You can always have first hand and consistent information to share with customers and target leads. This improves your customer care and services, helping your business pick up speed.

Efficient Collaboration

The automated CRM tool enhances your accounting methods. It becomes easy for you to track customer accounts and company expenses. You do not need many workers to manage your CRM databank. A fully trained employee can do the job of three persons efficiently with the CRM tool for automotive dealership.

You still have the option to let a third party manage your system. This comes cheaper because you do not have to pay for add-ons that may be required later or measures for your data security. Instead of paying the wages for a worker to manage your CRM, the service provider does this competently and costs much less when expenses are summed up.

The technology gives you the edge in sharing information with different departments in the business and with the car makers, gives better communication links with customers and suppliers, and helps personalize customer interaction.

Improved Sales

When there is a ready and updated file on customer information, it is easy to track leads and consistently follow them up, especially when there are new car models or spare-parts that have become available.

The automated CRM tool contains modules for sales force computerization and customer communications administration. Collection of customer data becomes efficient and the information that is collected is organized for easy analysis, which determinates consequent action.

With prompt action on leads and better customer service, sales is improved. Automotive CRM tool gives the business the better drive.

Advanced Mobile SEO TIPS For Mobile Marketing

In 2016, Google introduced the mobile-first index system to provide the best user experience for their mobile users by prioritizing mobile-friendly websites. This new indexing system will first look into the mobile version of your website to determine the ranking. Websites without a mobile version or poorly optimized mobile websites will drop out even further in search engine results pages (SERPs). But, the good news is this Mobile SEO is simple and easy to do yourself tasks.

Advanced Mobile SEO Tips for Mobile Marketers:

Mobile SEO is nothing than a conventional SEO, creating content and tagging to make it stand out online. These white-hat mobile SEO tips will help you to avoid search engine penalties and maintain better online visibility.

1. Google My Business: mobile online marketing.

One of the most important and effective mobile marketing move that business owners can do is signing up for Google My Business account. It is free and simple, by filling the information to the best of your ability and add more possible pictures of your business. When people searching for the keyword that is related to your business, there is more likely to visible your 2nd information first. So, think of using it for mobile marketing.

2. Using social media:

According to reports, average mobile users spending their 80% of the time on social media of the total times they are spending on the mobile. These social media sites bring a huge amount of traffic to your website. So, to improve visibility to mobile users, priorities your social media marketing strategy. The frequency of posting, Quality of content and optimized social media campaign will help your brand stands out. Also, read our Content Marketing Guide.

3. Take advantage of plug-ins for mobile SEO:

If your website uses WordPress or another content management system (CMS). you can use various plug-ins to improve your mobile site more user-friendly. One of the popular CMS, WordPress offers a large number of plug-ins to optimize images, improve speed and take care of other important mobile SEO factors.

WPtouch is the popular universal WordPress plug-in that will create a Google-approved mobile version of your website. If you can't afford a professional to update and optimize your website, try these plug-ins to build a mobile-friendly website and improve visibilities.

4. Use keywords for mobile users:

It is proven that mobile users search differently than other desktop users. Optimize your content for mobile keyword search phrases to show up your content to the right people. Find the right tools to find the right keywords for your content, you can find keyword comparisons by the device in Google's Search Console.

5. Improve page loading time:

When it comes to mobile SEO, page loading time is the most important issue. There are many factors that define the page loading time. Gzip compression, Image optimization and using Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), there are some tools and plug-ins to perform this tasks and improve the faster loading of mobile web pages.

Final Words:

Digital marketing trend changed the whole scenario of marketing. Mobile SEO is becoming a most essential task for all bloggers and webmasters for mobile marketing.

How to Successfully Manage Bad Press

Too many cooks will always spoil your broth, and try as you might, teaching new tricks to old dogs is an entirely futile enterprise. However, in spite of the wisdom of some old adages, the idea that "All Publicity is good Publicity" can definitely be tossed into the "ignore" pile by anyone pursuing a serious career in PR. If you're working for any substantial length of time in public relations, there will be occasions when you have to deal with bad press, so reputation management is a skill which you need to learn. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy, since bad press can come in all shapes and sizes, but these four pointers will help you to remain calm and give you time to focus on next steps...

1. Make sure key players are informed

No matter what the size of your company, or your client's company, you should have a PR plan. This should include a crisis management section which will detail the procedures which are taken whenever there is a risk of bad press. Top item on the plan ought to be who needs to be kept informed. Typically, this will be all senior management, and often it will include all members on the communications/marketing team. If this is a lot of individuals, it might even be worth setting up an email group, so that when you do have a crisis you can alert everyone quickly. As press officer, it is your responsibility not only to inform them at the onset of a crisis, but also any key developments and also further press coverage as it occurs.

2. Ensure that employees direct journalist calls to the correct spokespeople

Depending on the number of employees and the amount of clout your company has, journalists may try a number of different methods to speak to an insider about what is going on. This could be sketchy, since other members of the team may not know the ins and outs of the story, or your official company line, and it is easy even for media trained personnel to be flustered by questions. As a part of your day to day strategy, every member of staff should be aware who the press officer is, so that they are able to field any press enquiries. However, when a crisis occurs, it is essential to remind everyone that media enquiries should be directed to the appropriate team member. Having said this, it is important that all members of staff are kept up to date with key developments in any crisis. A successful internal communications strategy will send out updates to all members of staff which give them the information they need.

3. Have a statement ready to go

If the phone starts ringing and emails are flying, even the most experienced of PROs can become flustered. That is why it is useful to have a written statement ready to go to media. The benefits of a written quote are twofold. Firstly, having a written documentation of all of the media you have spoken to will make it easier to track who you have been dealing with. This will be important when the crisis is over since you may want to let those people know some good news, and the journalists will appreciate being kept in the loop as developments happen. Secondly, it avoids a lengthy or difficult telephone conversation which may see you having to deal with awkward questions.

4. Balance it with some good PR

Here's a maxim to believe in: "All Good Publicity is Good Publicity". It's not rocket science, and maybe you can think of it as the yin and yang of PR, but after you've had a crisis it's a good idea to sit down and think about what is great about your company. Unearth the charity work that staff have been involved in, find a real life story about how your product has really made someone's day, or if you're really stuck, just write a press release about how the crisis has been resolved and what procedures have been put into place to protect you and your customers from a similar crisis. If you can get some senior spokespeople to lend their voice to this good news, then it is even better, as it gives more credibility to the story.

Whatever type of PR you are in, you will have to handle bad press at some point in your career. It can be unpleasant, although for some people, this type of reputation management can be one of the highlights of the job. Each case is different, and you learn as you go along, but by remembering those four points, you are well on the way to handling bad press in a professional way.

Top 10 Tips for Choosing a Web Designer for Your Business Web Site

How to Choose a Web Design Firm

Simple. You do your homework on them. Then, you start asking questions and taking notes. There are plenty of web designers available. You want to go with the best because, in fact, your web designer is in essence your partner. You want to choose a designer that takes YOUR business seriously.

What questions do you ask?

There are several important questions to ask when choosing a web designer for your business web site.

Creating your web site can be a tricky process. Choosing the best web design firm for your business web site is a very important decision. And if your company is like most small businesses, you probably do not have a web design experience. Building your web site will take time and work. And working with a web designer is no easy task. So choose the right web design company from the start and avoid do-over's, which can be cost and time consuming.

1. What kind of web experience do you have?

For starters, find out what kind of design experience your potential design firm has. Do they have experience with content management systems such as Joomla or Drupal, do they have experience working with "raw" HTML? Has the web design company created web sites similar to yours? Do they have relevant industry experience? If you want to sell products through your web site and accept credit card payments, does the web design company you are considering have experience with ecommerce hosting?

2. Do you have a portfolio that I can review?

An experienced web design company will have a solid portfolio of web sites that they have created for other clients. Ask for links to other site the design company has created and reviewed each one. Do you like what you see? Do the sites have a style that appeals to you?

3. Do you have any references?

In addition to reviewing web sites, ask for customer references. Contact their clients and ask them about their experience with the web design company. Were they happy with the results? Did they get what they paid for? How much did they pay? Would they recommend them? How long did it take? What did not they like about the company? How responsive was the company when they had questions?

4. What are your prices?

The most important step in pricing is to make sure the potential design company outline all of the prices associated with the work and puts it all in writing. Never enter into a deal without all of the costs are well understood up front.

Ask them a bit about how they manage payments. If they respond in a very business-like and professional manner, this is a good sign. If they throw out answers like - "Do not worry, we'll manage" or "Whatever you are comfortable with", do not be fooled. This is trouble waiting to happen. Get the price in writing before you begin the project.

5. Do you have experience with search engine optimization?

Most small business owners do not have it in their budget to hire a separate marketing firm to work on search engine optimization (SEO), so it is imperative that your web designer have experience in SEO. A good designer will know that design and SEO go hand-in-hand. Designing a web site for search engines with "clean" code that utilizes cascading style sheets is essential to getting your content indexed in the leading search engines, such as Google and Bing.

6. Do you have experience with social media marketing?

Many marketing firms do know the first thing about social media marketing. These firms are stuck in the past and are not as effective as they pret to be. Be sure that you work with a designer that knows how to setup a Facebook fan page for your business and design a customized Twitter profile. This is important because you will want your social media properties to mesh with the design of your web site. The web site and social media pages should complement one-another.

7. What is your process for designing or building a web site?

Make sure you ask your potential web design company about the process that they use? Do they design a web site or do they build a web site? An experienced Internet professional should understand the difference between these two concepts. If they do not, they're probably not as experienced as they claim to be. Building a web site is a highly technical process, while designing a web site is a highly creative process. Many advertising firms specialize in web site design which does not necessarily require any web development skills whatever. At the same time, many firms design web sites, yet out-source the creative portion of the project. Find out from the beginning what the process if for the firm that you are considering.

8. How long will it take?

Perfectionism can be a huge stumbling block in the fast paced world of the Internet. Some designers are unable to compromise between quality and time to market needs. Test: See how long it takes until you receive a proposal.

9. What type of support is offered after web site launch?

If your design firm does not offer web site maintenance, you might want to continue looking. Most reputable design firms will offer "post-launch" maintenance for companies that do not have an in-house webmaster.

10. Which web hosting providers do you work with?

If your design firm does not know the first-names of the contact at their favorite web design firm, then this should raise a red flag. Most reputable web designers know not to choose a web host simply because they are the most popular or because they offer the cheapest web hosting. A reputable web design firm should know who to call and how to get results! Does your web designer work with a green hosting company? Environmentally-friendly web hosting is becoming more and more popular for business web sites looking to implement an eco-policy.

Getting a little recognition on the W3 is hard, even in a niche market (especially in a niche market). You have less than 10 seconds to convince a site visitor to stick around long enough to learn about the quality of your services, your products or your message. Web surfers are jagged out on information overload. If they do not see what they want to see on your home page or a landing page, they bounce. So, making a statement about your corporate culture and your business' core values ​​has to happen in the blink of an eye. Visitors will never even see the "About Us" page if you do not create a good impression - in 10 seconds. So, go green! An emblem or banner claiming that you employ green hosting makes an immediate statement about your on-line business. It says you care about the environment.

Do your homework when choosing a web design firm.

Good designers are creative people that need to think out of the box. Finding a good web designer is getting harder and harder. The good designers are being snatched by agencies and large projects. They are overloaded with work and often, you will not know about them because they do not have time (or need) to market themselves. Doing your homework and asking the right questions is important to decide if they are right for the job.

Elevate Your Business With Data Entry Services

The sole aim of many organizations is to progress well in their objectives and hire people who are good and efficient in their work. However, sometimes, there are some work profiles that are mundane in nature but equally important like data entry services. You will be amazed to know that these services also play a crucial role in building the future of an organization.

In fact, with the coming of information technology, the data entry services have actually become a kind of industry, as various businesses need accurate and detailed information for various reasons. So they are relying on such services that not only help them in growing but they cost effective too. These data entry services are an asset for any organization irrespective of its size in both the terms of work, financial status and area. With the help of such services you are able to get the information on the market trends, your clients and moreover, about the status of your own business. Here, there is a lot of demand for data entry services in order to do great business.

As you must be aware of the fact that data data services can be time consuming; it it requires efficient work to execute various tasks perfectly and diligently. Every transaction has to be recorded, processed and analyzed so that the management or the decision-makers can have a clear picture of the actual financial standing of the company. In fact, there are many organizations that are interested in the data of the company so that they can strike a business deal with the company in the future; the competitors are also the one's who are constantly following the events of the company. However, the most important part that constituents group are the shareholders, employees, creditors, consumers and the market in general. Therefore, this service plays a significant role in determining the future of the company. Thus, it is taken very seriously by many business enterprises for various reasons that can elevate their businesses by many fractions.

In fact, data entry services are now being outsourced from various leading vendors to further simplify the requirements of every business. Well, these services cover many business activities like document and image processing, data conversion, image enhancement, image editing, catalog processing, and photo manipulation. In fact, you can use data entry services for transferring hard or soft copy to any database format; insurance claims entry; PDF document indexing; online data capture; product catalogs to web based systems; online order entry and follow up; creation of new databases. Moreover, banks, airlines, government agencies, direct marketing services and service providers are using these services for better businesses.

The data services are also utilized for mailing lists; data mining and warehousing; data cleansing; audio transcriptions; legal documents; indexing of vouchers and documents; hand written ballot or card entry; online completion of surveys and responses of customers for various companies. Now its up to the company to whether go for a vendor or hire in-house staff to accomplish tasks in a better way; the main purpose of this service is to offer convenience that can help in curbing time as well as other resources.

Are You Embarrassed by Your Sales Manager Job Description Skills? Here's What to Do

Supervisors, and especially sales managers, acquire their outputs from the group they manage. This requires behavioral attitude that enhance the company and accommodating attitudes.
• These abilities are created predominately from:
• An enthusiasm for individual needs and perspectives
• An eagerness to invest time and commit thought to analyzing states of mind
• A feeling of equity or reasonable management

RESPECT FOR OTHERS 'SPECIAL PERSONALITIES

Typically the business manager will have to work his or her way up in the company and will have to amaze product learning, a database of loyal clients, awesome thoughts regarding development of sales, and incredible compatibility with partners and customers alike. However, there is a likewise scope for experienced transactions directors to be parachuted into an organization to convey a crisp way to deal with dealing with the business department. Sales managers now and then decide and build up sales territories in accordance with the organizations' development plans. He or she will likewise be in charge of setting standards and sale objectives for the business officials and the business group in general. Successfully working in as the controlling hand for the business team, the business manager will likewise outline the staff's training programs, create methodologies for the business group to work productively and urge collections to outperform short-and-long term targets.

INBOUND MARKETING MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION

If you're in a promotion department then you simply need to move to an inbound approach, it's conceivable every thing you'll have to demonstrate the accomplishment of your inbound marketing program. If so, you'll likely be looking to hire a holding nothing back inbound advertiser, someone who can build and grow your inbound marketing system starting from the earliest stage. Search for somebody who is exceptionally self-motivated and flexible ... also, completes stuff (what's more, in case regardless you're trying to persuade your manager to make the move to inbound in any case).

21ST CENTURY DEALS SUPERVISOR

The business profession has changed over the prior decade as an after effect of advances in IT, the expansion of correspondence channels and automation. "The administration job is trying to understand the change and sale supervisors are critical to its prosperity," says one encountered sales director. Sale administrators today should comprehend IT system, perceive the force of web-based social networking, and be fully informed regarding sales and customer trends. He or she will be great with figures and ready to analysis measurements and always monitor deal figures and the group's execution, as indicated by agreed KPIs.

CAPABILITIES REQUIRED FOR SALES SUPERVISOR JOBS

Employer hiring stuff tend to search for applicants with a bachelor or graduate degree in a business organization with a concentration in marketing. Education in business law, economic matters, business administration, bookkeeping, arithmetic, finance, and statistics will surrender candidates a leg on the opposition. Computer and Internet skills are likewise valuable for record-keeping and information services. Many business supervisors are promoting inside from the business executive part. A few companies likewise offer confirmation programs, a capability that is turning into a standard among managers. The Institute of Sales and Marketing Management offers a scope of Marketing and sales manager job description add qualifications for expert business people from little Awards to larger Certificates and Diplomas. These capabilities are on the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) and are directed by the UK government education controller.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with Marketing to assurance predictable lead era.

• Work together with sales manager to make and prepare prospecting process.

• Work together with sales leadership to make and prepare lead capacity handle.

• Hire high-performing business people as indicated by HR staffing rules.

• Prepare new sales representatives to guarantee achievement.

• Oversee everyday execution of all business collections and deliver reviews.

• Work with sales authority to produce thoughts for sale challenges and motivational activities.

• Lead and timetable week after week or potential month to month group gatherings with deals group and administration.

• When you hire, an employee must be stated in sales manager job description that that Prepare and guarantee adherence to sales handling.

The Five Components of a Business Strategy

Can you define exactly what makes up a business strategy? Some people say no, but we think you can.

In fact, we believe a valid business strategy has five components:

1. Your company's current or desired core competencies
2. A description of how you will differentiate vs. competitors
3. The industry or industries in which you intend to compete
4. The initiatives you plan to implement in the areas of marketing, operations, information technology, finance and organizational development
5. A financial forecast that shows how your plans will meet stakeholder requirements over the next 3 to 5 years

Let's look at each of these components .

The first component of a valid business strategy is a clear description of your company's current or desired core competencies.

You may be thinking, "Great, but what's a 'core competency?"' While there are many definitions, here's a good one from Wikipedia:

" ACore competency is something that a firm can do well and that meets the following three conditions:

• It provides consumer benefits
• It is not easy for competitors to imitate
• It can be leveraged widely to many products and markets.

A core competency can take various forms, including technical / subject matter know how, a reliable process, and / or close relationships with customers and suppliers. It may also include product development or culture, such as employee dedication. "

For example, we could say that Southwest Airlines is a reliable airline that offers low fares. But in order to provide those benefits, it has to have certain "core competencies," important capabilities that enable it to have low fares and to be reliable. We believe that Southwest Airlines has four core competencies that it executes so well that it regularly beats all other US airlines in terms of profitability.

These core competencies are:

• The lowest operating costs per plane
• An economic point-to-point airport network
• A fanatical culture focused on customer service and cost savings
• An ability to keep planes in the air more of the time than its competitors.

Southwest airlines could not offer the benefits of low prices and reliable service if it did not master these core competencies. What key benefits do you want to offer your customers? What core competencies do you need to master to provide them?

The second component of a valid business strategy is a description of how you differentiate vs. competitors.

In our experience, differentiation is about being the best at something. This should be encapsulated in your mission statement - what are your company's aspirations and how are you going to beat the competition? We just talked about how Southwest Airlines differentiates - what are you going to offer customers that will make them choose your products or services so that you can grow your business?

It takes a lot of hard work to come up with a great answer to this question and even more work to make that difference real. It's easy for us to say that Southwest is the best low-cost airline in the US, but it's extraordinarily difficult for them to pull it off.

The third component of a valid business strategy is a description of the industry or industries in which you intend to compete.

You need to be able to define just what kind of company you are - are you a furniture manufacturer? A gift card retailer? A consulting firm, a bearings distributor, a toy importer, etc.? This step sounds easy but we find that companies are often so concerned about getting too narrow in their focus that they fail to become really clear about what they want to do. A company with a good business strategy will have thought through these issues and made the hard decisions necessary to clarify its identity. If it has, it can easily pass the litmus test of identifying the industry or industries in which it operates.

The fourth component of a business strategy is the set of initiatives you plan to implement in the areas of marketing, operations, information technology, finance and organizational development.

These are the plans that guide your company's focus and resource allocation over the next several years. If your business strategy is specific enough to be relevant, you will have detailed plans in all of these areas.

The fifth component of a business strategy is a financial plan that forecasts the results you expect to get from your plans and illustrates how they will meet stakeholder requirements over the next 3 to 5 years.

Your strategic planning process can not be separated from your annual budget process. In the vast majority of companies, if it's not in the budget, it does not exist. That's why you have to have a very senior financial person on your strategic planning team, preferably the CFO. During the planning process, your team must agree a financial plan that estimates the results of implementing your strategy. This plan needs to earn the approval of your company's management and board and should be reviewed on a regular basis to track results and make refinements.

So - those are the five components of a valid business strategy. Good luck planning your success. And succeeding because you plan.