Category: Product and Services

Get more organised digitally!

We often hear the phrase “technology is your friend” To what extent this friendliness is, to help you to cope with your daily activities or business plans depends on how you embrace it.

Life can be chaotic. Which so much to do it is easy to frequently miss important appointments. Delays often come from having to wait till you get to a PC to respond or not remembering contact details. The worst is having to ask someone repeatedly for their number or business cards.

If you often experience that, you are getting it all wrong and definitely need this friend!

The need for emails

Emails are on a progressive, disruptive path to eliminate postal services. They even facilitate and encourage the acceptance of digitally signed documents.
Most financial companies and legal institutions in many developed countries already accept digitally signed documents.

Your digital signature confirms that the information originated from you and has not been altered through encryption. This makes it legally binding.

Naturally, you need special software or Adobe Sign, to digitally sign and attach as a PDF to an email.

Thanks to emails, we can now also easily store and get in touch with our contacts. It could be in the office, lounging around a park, watching your children play; even onboard/at the underground train station.

Additional email tools

Calendar and contacts syncing is a simple tool which is not offered entirely by all domain host providers. It works wonders along with your calendar and scheduler.

If you need a simple CRM tool to just help with email contacts and plug into an existing sales app, you can do so with a useful add-on like Outlook Customer Manager.

There are certainly advantages of decluttering your emails. This helps to alleviate the frustration of unimportant mails getting in the way of the ones you need to access frequently. For that, there is a clutter service offered by Office 365.

Additionally, to avoid retaining important attachments, and clogging up space on your mailbox, you can with a click, save large file attachments directly to your cloud storage.

With all that relevance of emails, it is critical that you source the best one – even if it costs a bit more than the (free) webmail services provided by Outlook (Hotmail), Gmail and Yahoo.

Naturally, with a paid service, you will almost be freed from the scourge of spam and malicious items embedded in documents. In some cases, they are screened even before landing in your mailbox.

More advanced features

Other perks like a ‘catch-all service’, data loss prevention, in place-hold (compliance features), and advanced threat protection. You can add them as essential services to give you an even more peaceful emailing experience.

You can, for instance, use In-Place Hold (Litigation Hold) to place user mailboxes ‘on hold’ and preserve mailbox items permanently.

This feature is especially crucial for those in the financial and legal sectors – requiring emails and its contents to be preserved for a minimum of seven years typically. Security is the central factor that has kept the postal service in business – well at least for now.

Your checklist when shopping for a good email solution:

• A decent-sized mailbox – with archiving ability – 50GB is the new standard size (don’t get short-changed!).

• Should allow you to sync emails, calendars, and contacts onto multiple devices – and it must always work!

• SMTP is now the standard and preferred Email protocol. If you are still on POP3 or even IMAP – run away!

• Customizable domain (a .com or .net or any other you have bought), with the option to add more domains and email aliases. (info@ …sales@ etc).

• Sync to an active directory – to keep your user-profile and allow for ease of single sign-on or extra security features like two-factor authentication. (Prevents unauthorized people from accessing your emails by pairing to your phone via an SMS code).

• Your mailbox (since you are storing contact details or using it along with a CRM or ERP solution) must be GDPR-compatible.

Final thoughts

Finally, a good email hosting service should provide the ability to add innovative features in the future. These include extra archiving space, advanced threat protection, and enterprise voicemail. These are characteristics of a good email solution.

Preparing to use an email solution can be effortless if you have the time. Most software suppliers like Microsoft (Office 365), have support sites with primary training material and “how-tos”.

Check out Microsoft’s Support page to upskill your Office, email, and overall cloud-software aptitude.

24 October 2018
N26 is Space bound!
We were just getting used to the innovative and speedy services provided by the young and tech-driven bank and yet, they just got more practical with another practical feature.

Imagine a space where you can share your account details with friends or business partners securely for the purposes of collaboration? Something like a file-sharing solution for your banking needs?
Well, the N26 Bank recently announced the launch of a feature dubbed ‘Spaces’. This new addition provides a fast and easy way to set aside money based on your personal preferences.

With Spaces we give users the freedom to set up their financial world without the limitations of traditional banking, Valentin Stalf, CEO and Co-Founder of N26.

What does that mean?
You will now be able to instantly move funds to your personalized “Space” and back to your main N26 Personal/Business/N26Black/Metal account.
This provides control over how you organize your money and keep track of multiple financial goals.
This also means that for the first time in banking, one can create tailored sub-accounts to save or allocate money for specific things.
So, your purchases and experiences: whether it be shopping for a wedding, starting a small business or planning a holiday, can all be clearly budgeted for.
Your ‘Spaces’, therefore, are set up as separate sub-accounts. It makes it even easier to maintain discipline over your daily spending. Some of you(referred to as penny-pinchers) are disciplined enough to be already doing this.
Spaces will help you avoid using tedious spreadsheets or pen and paper.
You are now given the flexibility of customizing ‘Spaces’ by choosing names, transferring money seamlessly between accounts with simple drag-and-drop motions. You can also open and close the spaces as when as needed.

Some ‘good to knows’
- Spaces is available immediately to customers in all 17 markets that N26 operates.
- In addition to your main account, you can create and delete additional Spaces as often as you’d like. The number of active Spaces at any one time depends on your account type.
- You get 2 more Spaces with an N26 or N26 Business account; or up to 10 additional Spaces with N26 Black and N26 Metal.
- Your primary account statements will include all transactions sent to a ‘Space’ or received from one.
- Only your primary Space can be negative (if you are eligible for an overdraft). All other balances in Spaces cannot be negative: meaning you can only transfer what is available in a particular Space.
- You can only use the balance from your primary Space toward your Mastercard transactions. Consider transferring money before making a purchase.
- Drag money from one Space to another by dragging your finger from one Space to another. Once the amount is confirmed the balance is updated right away.
Welcome to the future of innovative and mobile banking!

– Click on the card to get your new* N26 account –

*The personal card is free of any monthly management fees and available in EU and soon in the USA.
10 August 2018
How would you like to be served?

The thought of “servers” and “hosting” are rarely things you consider on a daily basis. If you are not an IT or a software architect, then probably not at all.

For the mentioned professionals, however, these decisions are critical to the operations of a business however large or small.

There is a fine line between how (and where) your software systems are used. This line has become thinner because of evolving cloud technology and automation.

Sourcing and deploying the right IT architecture could therefore help your business stay afloat, or sink without.

Communication is key

The most effective mode of communication in any business (other than verbally or telephonically) is still electronic mail (E-mail).

It is effective because it helps you get a time-stamp and a reference point when it comes to the documentation of your conversations. This is important tool when it comes to your legal obligations and commitments.

Emails are, therefore, something that should not be taken for granted!
We consequently send, receive emails with attachments through various devices. All this without a second thought as to how this happens.

After all, this is the job of the IT-guys, right?

Well quite rightly so. They often clash with their management and board of directors for funds to keep this going without compromising operations. Emails are crucial not only from a daily functional point of view but from security but also the compliance facet.

Defining servers

Your company’s IT infrastructure: Emails; File-servers; Databases (CRMs and ERPs) and other communication tools are commonly managed on-site on systems referred to as ‘on-premise’ solutions.

These are managed by computer-like CPUs that look like the standard boxes that you plug your monitor and keyboards. They, however, have a lot more processing power and storage than your average desktop and are called Servers.

Your servers naturally must be kept cool because of the heat they generate from being on all the time. As you can imagine, built-in fans are far from being enough to cool them off!

There an array of server types. Each of them is designed to run the tasks of your mail exchanges, file storage, and the storing/deploying of remote PC operating systems. Others handle your databases and other dedicated functions.

You would need to have the licensed software to operate each server providing unique services. This makes it quite an expensive outlay if you have all of the abovementioned requirements!

Servers are not irreplaceable and can overheat, get corrupted, or crash like a hard-drive (or a NAS server system). You, therefore, need to be maintain them at a cost to your business via your IT department.

Depending on the amount of data and complexity, the maintenance is outsourced to specialized IT companies or software license providers.

Cloud-computing

In the early 2000s, ‘the cloud’ or ‘cloud computing’ became a new concept. It is basically a very large set of high-end servers equipped with software to manage all the tasks mentioned above. It is usually offered as a service under a single (monthly or annual) subscription.

So basically, you are renting the service of a server as opposed to owning it. Renting, just like with property or cars, relieves the user of all the costs of maintaining the product in question.

This sort of rental service offered by cloud service providers is now known as Software as a Service (SaaS). This also saves you from purchasing any hardware let alone paying for the extra electricity bill to cool a server room.

According to Quora.com, the main difference between a cloud and a datacenter is that a cloud is an ‘off-premise’ form of computing that stores data on the Internet.

A Datacenter, on the other hand, is an on-premise set of hardware that stores data within an organization’s local network.

As an IT professional, you constantly face the burning question of whether to go for a solution that will relieve you of mundane tasks – like server maintenance. Naturally, you would also want a solution that facilitates the daily administering of user-profiles, data archiving, and backups. But to what costs then?

Deciding on which to go for

There are many pros and cons when it comes to the hosting of your company’s data on a local server as opposed to having it run via the cloud. There is also a massive array of choices and bundles between the top cloud service providers.

Cloud service providers have several data centers used as backups. So your email hosting may have several servers in different locations to serve that function. This curbs the risk of your data getting lost, unavailable, or hacked.

Naturally, Datacenters are kept highly secure in undisclosed locations globally. Google is known to have one of its datacenters floating on a massive container ship somewhere over the Atlantic ocean.

Maintenance

Maintaining a server is expensive as you require massive cooling systems. Some smarter companies like Microsoft, are now taking to the deep oceans for that function.

When it comes to email hosting or the storage of your files in the cloud only five large multinational corporations’ names come to mind. Microsoft, Oracle, Google, IBM, and Amazon.

These companies however bear the burden of maintenance, while providing just the service you require on a subscription basis.

Setting up an on-premise solution, in contrast, can be a tedious exercise and an expensive one. This is more applicable to smaller companies that do not have large IT budgets.

Licensing your server is no child’s play either!

Having to decide on costs versus functionality will determine how to license your server. This would be either per-server, per virtual machine needed, or per processor core and then you need CALs). If you don’t believe it, just have a look at this licensing guide!

An example

To illustrate the difference, let’s say you have an outlay of a hundred thousand dollars to acquire the software licenses for three years. This compared to a cloud-hosted package that performs the same function over the same timeframe.

You can then piggy-back off companies like Amazon and Microsoft’s security services, which then costs eight thousand dollars monthly ($96k annually).

So, within three years of using the cloud, you would have reached the $100K cap that would be spent only for licenses. You would have also saved with an extra $188K in additional services.

This is a portion of what you would have been spent on maintenance, technical support, security, upgrades, and updates.

These figures are rudimentary, but the long-term savings are noticeable as cloud service providers tend to provide value-add solutions when pricing their bundles.

Microsoft recently launched its Microsoft 365 package which includes an upgrade to the latest operating system (Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise). This is something you would have had to source and pay for separately.

Stress relievers

Software deployment and the administration of user accounts is cloud-based. This means you can do this conveniently and remotely from your PC, laptop, tablet, or even your smartphone!

This means as an IT professional, you will now have more time to oversee more important issues like data security and overall IT policies. Better yet, you would have the time to investigate ways to automate and improve your systems.

This is possible without the inconvenience of running from PC-to-PC to install operating systems, Office software, or manage mailboxes.

Remote desktop services of an on-premise server were a step in this direction – but are a pain to set up. So, you can view the cloud as an evolution of remote-desktop services.

Infrastructural setbacks

The only (and potential) hindrance to using cloud services naturally would be the availability of good and cheap broadband (Internet connectivity).

Without both, the justification for running your business fully on the cloud would not stick. Some businesses, especially in developing countries, go endure desperates attempts to adopt the cloud.

They use what is known as hybrid-systems: a combination of cloud and on-premise solutions.

If you operate in a country without forward-thinking government officials that facilitate broadband availability, you will suffer the most.

Like an old, car, outdated hardware and software can lead to costly services (out-of-date and warranty solutions). This leads to you having heftier maintenance fees and support costs by third-party IT professionals.

The old rhetoric of ‘not trusting the cloud’ is now one of the past. Cloud services often outperform on-premise solutions when it comes to high-end security software and data protection. This is because of the obvious economies of scale involved in setting up expensive security software.

The level of security has to be the digital equivalent of Fort Knox. This especially if you are dealing with sensitive data such as financial, legal services, healthcare, and educational institutions.

Your company would need a system that will keep all such data secure and data compliant.

Data is now treated as a commodity. There is now a subsequent need to trade and value it. We now have Blockchain-based solutions like IOTA to facilitate your payments. This while keeping data encrypted, decentralized, and safe.

In the advent of the new GDPR laws, some companies will still opt to keep and maintain their servers internally. By doing this, however, you might lack the transparency and tools needed to show your consumers how you handle their sensitve data.

16 June 2018
Piggybacking on company shares

It is clear that the business of share trading and its intricacies still create a dark cloud for many of you. This is, however, a rather unnecessary element of sophistication.

It is only fair to, therefore, delve in and break it down by discussing not just the way to trade, but the whole point of it.

While trading may seem like something only smart people engage in, this is, however, not the case.

What are shares?

The first thing to understand is that shares (referred to as stocks) entitle the holder to have part ownership in a company.

So, if you own a share in, Amazon, Manchester United, or a Cryptocurrency company like Ripple – you literally OWN a part of that company.

You are basically co-owning with other stakeholders of the company. This with the hopes that the people who run it will increase the monetary value of your shareholding by making the company a success.

Now your share will determine what level of control (decision-making) you have when it comes to the company’s operations.

Naturally, owning just one, ten, or even 1000 shares of Amazon (a hefty $1400 each today), still does not entitle you to have a say in how it is run.

As the majority shareholder, you would probably be the company owner (chairman/founder) or one of its board of directors. To gain such a majority shareholding and full control of a company, the minimum number of shares you would need would be 51% of all shares issued. Good luck obtaining that many!

The rationale for issuing shares

But let’s take a further step back and unravel why shares are issued in the first place. Your company (hopefully) has value because of its ability to generate revenue. This makes it a constant target for investors in a capitalistic market. Wealthy individuals carefully monitor its value to brace for a potential takeover or for just a piece of the pie.

To get listed on a stock exchange your company will decide how much of its equity to publicly issue as shares. You can even issue shares to raise more capital to help grow your business.

This form of equity will be backed against your total assets (and its debts) on the balance sheet. So hypothetically, a company with 100 Euros worth of assets and liabilities has 100 Euros worth of (owners) equity.

This basically enables you to determine its net worth at a given point in time.

The easiest way to remember this is through this basic accountant’s formula:

Total Owner’s Equity (OE) = Assets (A) + liabilities (L).

The shares are accounted for in the OE and are issued in denominations based on various factors. This helps to provide you with an indication of the relative strength (or weakness), or potential growth rate of the company.

What do they tell us?

The (snapshot) total value of the company is thus determined by its share price multiplied by total number issued. This is referred to as its market capitalization. There are several other measures and tools to evaluate the general health of a company.

Rising share prices, though always good, does not always necessarily mean that the company is great value for money. This is because share prices can also be undervalued or overvalued.

Shares for large companies are naturally offered in millions and via an initial public offering (IPO) from as little as one cent (penny stock), or much more (depending on its valuation). Thereon, it can rise astronomically to what was quoted for Amazon earlier.

Where to get them

The open market or local bourse is where you can buy and sell shares at specific times depending on side of the world it is located.

Obtaining shares come with additional costs (brokerage fees, commission, interest payments in cases of leverage buying, etc.). Depending on the terms and conditions in the overall market (regulations), but more specifically, on the company or broker offering you access to shares.

A good company share will also give you a return on an annual dividend. This is basically a share of the company’s profits over and above its share price.

It is a good idea to include high dividend-yielding shares like Coca-Cola, in your trading portfolio – if you can afford them.

Influencers

Once you purchase your stake in the company, you will naturally, even if you don’t have a controlling say in how the company is operated, take a keen interest in the company’s activities.

Everything it does whether internal operations or outside for that matter, will have an impact on its valuation.

Naturally, investors follow the age-long rule of common sense: buy when the price is low. If you missed the IPO and the price dips, you can always get in at a good (low) price. The stock market runs like a rollercoaster – you just need the right time to hop on!

“Unless a company goes belly-up, a share-stock price that is going down is actually going up – in the long run.”

Obviously, the price (trend) is not always upward and one must be prepared to weather such storms. You shouldn’t have to be continuously focusing on the price after thorough due diligence on your chosen company.

Read more about Due Diligence here

Choosing a good stock and leaving it to work is the best advice you will get. This is because you can become emotionally attached to the performance of the shares and that can affect your mood.

There are also a lot of trading tools to help prevent a total meltdown if the company folds-up. This can be due to external factors like fraudulent scandals or government intervention. Keep tags now and then – this is important.

The recent events and scandal faced by Facebook saw it lose a significant amount (billions of dollars) in it the value of its share price.

Read more about investing here.

Short-selling of shares/stocks

There are also ways to “have your bread buttered both ways” in investing. This is where the concept of short-selling comes in.

So, while we all inclined to bet on a company’s stock to go up – there are groups of investors who bet the other way. They have the hopes (based on indicators) that the price will rather drop.

This seemingly dubious form of trading is perfectly legit but comes, naturally, with an even higher level of risk. If the price increases in favour of all ‘normal’ long-term investors – the short position starts losing money. You may even have to fork out more to cover the amount borrowed to make the short-sell in the first place.

Short-selling is, therefore, if you are inexperienced and ill-informed!

So, you “buy” or rather borrow (leverage) the future value of the share/stock price usually at its apparent peak and hope that it will drop. You will continue to profit from the bet by as much as the share price continues to drop.

Earlier in the year, one such investor dubbed “50 Cent” bagged 200-million-dollars in a major shorting stint.

Shorting a stock is a complex, risky but highly lucrative method of balancing out a portfolio. A seasoned trader will, therefore, have several positions including some “buy” and “sell” positions on their chosen shares.

You should have various mechanisms (take profits and stop losses) set in place to execute their trades based on those positions.

Naturally, you wouldn’t just short a stock if you didn’t know something about what factors were to lead to a sharp/large drop in the share price.

But getting this right is often an exercise that straddles a fine line between being well-informed and intuitive and blatant insider trading.

The bigger picture

So, in summary, shareholding generally occurs when you acquire a stake in a business. You can own intellectual capital, founding rights, or be s a funder/seed investor to help start the business.

So why do companies issue out shares to the public again you might still ask?

Think of share listing as a way for your company to hold itself publicly accountable. is the ultimate branding weaponry in its arsenal and quest to exponentially increase its profits.

24 March 2018
Life hacks using tech

We often do things out of routine without considering if there is an easier way to achieve the same result quicker and even more effectively. In a larger company or organization, this is the job of the business analyst.

What if we applied this to other daily activities and tasks that shape the way we live?

This would give us more time to partake in the things we love.
It’s hard enough for most working-class adults to spend most of their days in the week behind a PC. This is usually followed by hours behind the wheel in traffic or commuting via public transportation.
This makes the task of going shopping or even attending a doctor’s check-up after an 8-hour work stint more of a burden or chore. Worse over if you must queue further to get the service.

This very example came to mind when a relative complained about having to go from one doctor to another. When referred to a specialist they had to then book another appointment by calling that specialist’s practice.

Now granted, this is basically a ´first world problem’. Because having a specialist attend to a back problem after your doctor recommends it during an initial check-up is a luxury. One that third world citizens could only dream of having in the first place!

Problem-solving scenario

So, in the case of the referral to a specialist, a simple unified medical system can resolve this. A CRM database linking all the medical practitioners including their schedules can save you the time taken to arrange the new appointment.
This system would also have a secure high-tech scanning and attachment add-on so that X-rays, scans, diagnoses and the attending doctor’s notes can be attached. All for the attention of the specialist.
The times for the new appointment can be chosen quickly while the patient is at the doctor’s practice. When convenient, you could then go to the specialist directly.

The concept explained

This is one very basic and rudimentary example of how an automated, centralized software solution can help schedule appointments.
To achieve maximum optimization the system would clearly require several tests before implementation.

Too often systems analysts and developers do not consider the end users. The user experience (UX) is the most crucial aspect of software development and should be the first step in building an automated system or it will never achieve its purpose.

It doesn’t have to be used as a national health solution. This is because centrally planned systems, as mentioned in a previous blog, can lead to inefficiencies.
It would need to be localized in order to make the system easier to maintain and be updated with contact details. This especially when information can change on a weekly or monthly basis.

Naturally, and for decades, health insurance companies have utilized card systems to document patient visits to practitioners. This also helps you and practice to easily claim back medical costs.

But this only serves a singular function and is laborious to run. What is being proposed in this blog post is something to resolve this in a more secure and decentralized manner.

Application and security

Cloud security has become a huge requirement and will be a necessity for all businesses and services in the very near future. Europe, for instance, is implementing compliance laws for storage of data under its new GDPR regulation.

Countries like Sweden also have similar compliance laws to handle financial (with a lot of banking going mobile) and medical data stored in the cloud.

So, security would become less of a concern for businesses when it comes to data storage and automated CRM systems in the future.

Shopping and housing convenience

The burden of shopping can also be alleviated with initiatives such as cashless processes. We first saw this introduced in Asia (China) and now adopted in the West through Amazon’s new cashless´ and cashier-less grocery stores.

While shoplifters might not see the innovation in this ‘new method’ of shopping; it saves you time spent queueing to pay and will invariably help resolve the scourge of shoplifting.

It will, however, require more reliance on technology for surveillance, to monitor and track the scanning of the goods and keep a database of records on a server.

This helps you with the inventory management and other back-office processes and is managed by an automated ERP solution (and not a person).
We are still waiting for massive roll-outs of the so-called smart houses equipped with smart chips that help regulate temperature, turn off energy-consuming devices when not in use.

Some are even equipped with fridges that remind you when food is expiring or simply needs to be replaced.

Designing such systems would naturally require careful observation into the various steps needed to reach the desired result. Details in every step from how you go from point A (selecting a product); to point Z.

Point Z being you walking out of the shop with a fully paid item. All without using cash or the need for a cashier.

Tweaking the solution

The system analyst’s job would be to engage or even simulate the processes using different test subjects and not just the best practice.
There is the possibility that you might forget to pay for the milk after checking out of a security area. That could result in an embarrassing scenario for all.

These are just two examples of countless scenarios that can help us benefit from the use of automation and AI.
There are many other subtle examples such as in the motor industry. This includes the use of computers to diagnose a ‘sick car’.

There can be a solution for every bottlenecking problem. Addressing this is now has become a new field of study. Computerization and the use of robotics to handle manual labour and repetitive blue-collar jobs will be new highly lucrative career paths.

Many new start-ups already exist purely to develop system automation.

Welcome to the future!

9 February 2018
Peer-to-peer service

History has taught us that a fully centrally controlled government system fails completely – well, in the long run.

The idea of a communistic system has its merits and could still work in some sectors of our economies. It, however, omits the very thing that was provided to us as human beings – choice.

Knowledge is empowering – but the power to do the things you would like to do effortlessly without fear of error.

This shared knowledge emanates from scientific, biological, or financially proven theories and tests.

They can help you make the right investments. Such as saving money on the best deals, obtaining rights to social benefits, travel to great destinations. Or simply just helping other people achieve their personal and spiritual goals.

Monopolistic behaviour

Those that cling onto knowledge though, serve their interests alone and should not be revered but rather shunned for power-hogging.

Sadly, some governments monopolize access to information, basic services, resources, and even education to create an artificial demand for ´their services’.

This forms the basis of a centrally controlled or outright communistic state.
In business, this is a common practice of a monopoly to control the price of their good or service as they are the only ones providing it.

The quality of that good or service, however, can and will be determined by them and them alone!

Can you imagine then, based on the previous sentence, a situation that only governments have this power to dictate a basic service such as healthcare or education for you?

Scary thought and if you look at most developing countries, the evidence of this is overwhelmingly sad.

But we are not here to talk about the governments as there would be several cases to point out and this is not a political platform.
Case in point, the concept of a centrally controlled system nevertheless is less efficient and prone to failure to disseminate the very items it sets out to provide.

Deploying software by a global firm like IBM, via a centrally stored-located server would be absurd because the infrastructure of the recipient regions or end-users might not be well equipped to handle it.
So one begs to question, why would you do it for social services for instance?

Decentralized systems

Decentralizing a system can improve efficiency because it gives options to get the best quality possible. It also removes power from one or a few providers and shares it equally amongst other stakeholders.

This way all will stand to mutually benefit from a working system indirectly rather than just the state collecting monetary compensation or tax and deciding what to do with it alone.

Centralized systems can learn from the blockchain to efficiently provide services.

Let’s take the now “illegal” peer-to-peer file-sharing and downloading software such as eDonkey/eMule (developed by Microsoft).
Or take BitTorrent for example you could with them, build together any file by downloading “bits” of the file by many connected servers or PCs (peers).

This system leads to faster downloads and allows one to source from the best quality of the available digital bits to get the data to form the e-book, music track, or movie that you were after.

Leaving your download running would enable others to get the files you have already amassed (you reciprocally upload the files). The cycle continues until everyone acquires the same great quality file from the best ‘seeds’.

Downloading from a sole server for the same product, on the contrary, could crash the server.

Let’s not forget the delays due to operational differences in time-zones, or complete failure to download if the file source is corrupted or the file quality is bad.

Application of decentralized systems

Naturally, the entertainment industry put a stop to this because it meant that people could attain their copyrighted material.

Many fines and warnings were dished out to individuals as well as companies hosting the sharing servers.

You can, however, still access them via carefully planned entry gateways to hide your IP address using VPNs. Those of you who are IT experts can use (old-school) backend protocols like FTP.

BitTorrent -> Bitcoin…Torrent -> Tor ..anyone seeing a pattern here?

There is now even a new digital currency designed to help artists curb piracy and reward the artists for their work.
Such protective software is already in the pipeline thanks to blockchain technology.

Decentralizing services such as money transfers in the advent of Cryptomania removes power from regulated financial institutions. They tend to charge high fees for sometimes slow and error-prone services because they can.

Conclusion

So, swiftness and security are a prime reason for the adoption the Blockchain technology. Everything else such as the price of digital alternative coins or ‘altcoins’ boils down to basic supply and demand for it.

Governments and other institutional service providers can take a leaf out of the blockchain technology tree and its true intention.

The aim is to decentralize the provision of a service to give everyone access to it. This will reduce associated costs of using it and improve efficiency!

28 January 2018
An investor state of mind

As an Arsenal Football Club fan, one has the natural tendency to follow the progress of both present and past players of the revered North London title-winning institution.

The prestige of playing for the club comes along with all the bell and whistles required to make life living in the small yet expensive hub city often dubbed to be the centre of modern Europe, a breeze.

It was rather sad to read about the unfortunate fortune of a former player who had a big heart and passion for the beautiful game. He was, however, a bit aloof and care-free on the pitch. It turns out this was a character trait that perhaps extended to his financial affairs.

He was recently reported as sleeping on the couch of a friend without a penny to his name. How can that happen, you might ask?

His weekly wages were a reported 50 000 Great Britain Pounds! So how did he go from earning that figure, to being dead broke?

Such a bad turn of fortune is not uncommon for celebrities, qualified professionals, and lottery winners. This can be explained by a simple lack of ‘investor mentality’.

The right state of mind

This mindset can be instilled in us from a relatively young age if you have had the luxury of growing up with parents, teachers or a mentor who imparts this knowledge to you. It can also be learned later in life – often the hard way.

Similar to starting a business, the biggest barrier to entry into any form of investment is always the initial capital. Once you have it, coupled with the investor mentality, it’s hard to fail financially in life: just ask the current sitting American president!

Now as obvious as this sounds, you need to put in money to make money. That is why investing, for instance, is mainly carried out on a large scale by banks – with your money!

What you do with the money when you inherit it, win it, or save up from a weekly or monthly project-based income is more important than just having it in the first place.

Wouldn’t you agree that money comes then often goes faster than you realize? Having a grasp on why it leaves so fast is what we should be paying attention to.

Let’s firstly be sensible about this – investing is always a long-term project. A desire to reap short-term gains or having such a mentality is paramount to risky gambling or betting against the odds.

“Patience is an investor’s game – if you don’t have any, don’t bother with the mechanisms that don’t lock you in for a few months to enable you to realize a return.”

Enough of the rhetorical questions and statements. Let’s briefly look at a few investment vehicles in the true fashion of Debunqed.

Savings

This is the least risky investing vehicle and tends to suit patient investors. Usually, it is for you if yo are the kind that loves to watch paint dry. 🙂

Your only risk would be using a non-government backed bank for it. The higher the amount you invest, the better the interest rate you get. So this basically benefits the already wealthy. Some savings accounts are even known to offer you 0% or fractional decimal interest rates which are calculated nominally.

So it begs the question – why would you even consider putting your money in savings? Well, using this investment strategy helps with a good credit score. That comes in handy when you apply for loans or obtaining financial backing to start your new business. So they do have some use.
Risk level: Little to none.

Property (residential or commercial)

This is the golden nest egg of investing – that is if you can raise the bond for property or inherit one.

Property is one asset class that tends to only appreciate and relatively well over the years depending on what is happening in the area/town or economy.
Getting in is the difference between having a spender or an investor’s mentality.

What do we mean by this? Well, if you can save up for a deposit to buy a brand-new luxury car, you could and should do the same for a house.

That way each “monthly rent” payment goes towards something you will eventually own. You could also buy-to-rent. The income generated from the tenant (rent) will help you pay off the bond.

Consider the appreciation value of property in your local area over the years. But like anything valuable, you must be prepared to maintain its upkeep – the costs will be more than your weekly carwash.

In the long-run when you realize the greater future value, you could even downgrade to have some extra cash to spend. You could then get that car of your dreams or travel and see the world.
Risk level: Low to moderate.

Share/Stocks

The days of stockbrokers are numbered. Trading firms and hedge fund companies are slowly being replaced by AI computers. These days, you can take full charge of a portfolio of equities, CFDs, Futures, Commodities, Options, Forex and Cryptocurrency directly from your laptop.

There are a number of online trading platforms out there so it is a good idea to go with the accredited ones.

One of the key benefits is that they all offer a free trial – which often gives you a mock .account. That’s a great way to learn about the tools and the above-mentioned markets.

There are aspects you need to pay attention to. One of them is leverage trading . It is essentially borrowing money to trade (payable with interest) – a double whammy if or when things go south for you.
Risk level: High to Excessive.

Mutual funds

As the name suggests it is derived from a pool of funds from a specific institution or industry. Mutual funds are offered by institutions as a supplement to retirement plans (pensions and annuities).

They offer you a return (often a stable monthly or quarterly pay-out) based on a fixed term that you agree on with your portfolio manager.
The offering institution would then apply your pooled monthly contributions into a diverse portfolio to spread your risk exposure.

This, however, requires the attention of a (paid) portfolio manager and is thus susceptible to the principal-agent problem.
Risk level: Low to moderate.

Venture Capitalism/Angel funds

If you have some spare cash and don’t want to bear the risk and burden of running a business yourself, you can fund other people you believe will be successful.

In this arrangement, confidence is placed by you on the owner and the offering. You can then state the terms for the release of your funds such as a quarterly return on investment or a larger stake in the business and its profits.

Rapper Nas is known for his investment in Silicon Valley start-ups as a Venture Capitalist – which gives him a share in the companies he backs with the hope of it growing exponentially to increase that shareholding’s worth.

Celebrities and sports stars usually have the capital to diversify their portfolio by investing in or starting up a new business. One such notable venture was the one where Rapper/Producer Dre’s Beats brand got bought by Apple for three billion USD.
Risk level: Moderate to high.

Rare items

Though not an easy commodity to come by because often the initial value can be quite high (unless of course, you are lucky to find an item at a junk sale or low-key auction), rare commodities can also form part of your future financial security.

Rare coins tend to take a long time to mature in value. Likewise, a painting can appreciate quickly in value if the artist’s “interesting” background comes to light in the press for good or bad reasons.

As an example, a rare Nelson Mandela coin once sold for 100 000 USD while he was still living. So, one can only imagine what the few in circulation are worth now.

Read more about rare coins here.

A rummage around old antique shops and secondhand sales can reap rewards if you know what you’re looking for.
Risk level: Low to moderate.

Bonds

These are long-term interest-bearing certificates issued primarily by governments (via monetary policy) but also by certain large public institutions.

Bonds give you a guarantee of a future value using a specially controlled interest rate. They are usually issued with fixed terms and can only be accessed after 3 to 10 years.

This locks you in, to hold the bond for the agreed period regardless of which way the interest rates are going.

Naturally the higher the rates the better for you. As a cautionary note, you will be subjected to the regulatory activities and monetary policies of the country in which you hold the bonds. Choose where you buy very wisely.
and research your product.

Accessing bond markets is also not easy and you may be subject to complex rules pertaining to the country, residence status and your credit score, and so on.

It is really for the long-term investor and can be used in the same way mutual funds tend to be applied, to supplement one’s retirement annuity package.
Risk level: Moderate to high.

All things investment

You need to remember the importance of imparting this knowledge to our youth, friends, and family so as to continue the cycle.

The simple answer being: Education. The lack of it is one of the fundamental causes of poverty.

A number of celebrities and sports stars have overlooked it’s true importance so as to follow their true passion and skill. This is not necessarily a bad thing. If you have the right people around you to help you manage your finances.

It was reported he signed documents without knowing the full content and liability of what was being presented to him. It was also said that she would even bring paperwork to the football club’s training ground for him to sign.

Let’s be honest, we don’t know the full facts but there is a lesson. This “wife” character could be anyone that you entrust with managing your finances so, be wise as to who you choose to oversee your accounts.

Make a plan

Having a grasp of your assets (if any) less your liabilities is the first place to start. Once you know what you have or don’t have, you can then set goals.
Think about what you need to do to achieve a net worth that will sustain you for the long term.

Granted we all must pay bills. We will write down that part of our income but we need to focus on what is being done with the money that is left once your overheads are met.

Educate yourself (skip a binge session on Netflix). Take a deeper dive into the investment vehicles briefly spoken about. The resources page will provide more comprehensive details about all seven vehicles discussed.

It will also guide you on where to go to find out more once you have decided and which vehicle or combo would fit your investment type and appetite for risk.

Make 2018 a sensible year finance-wise and happy investing!

1 January 2018
Rise of the machines

As a young man born in and living in Pretoria South Africa, multi-billionaire Elon Musk – better known for pioneering the Tesla battery-operated motor concept – was shunned by the Industrial Development Corporation several times.

His innovative ideas were denied financial backing so he moved to the USA for better support. The rest as we all know is history.

The futuristic thinker, however, took a rather skeptical and worrisome handbrake-turn when it came to the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and its benefits to society.

When a man like that with so much insight into technology warns of its potentially harming effects, it warrants notice. Musk warned that its use could foster ‘the coming of third world war’. We have to for such reasons, delve a little deeper into the topic.

We have rapidly progressed from longer periods of stone, iron, industrial, to that of space, technological/information ages. The world is now apparently fused between the latter three.

Despite skipping a few ‘crucial’ stages, we have now surged into the age of digital automation. This is while sadly still dealing with the ravages of poverty, disease, and irreversible damage to our environment.

Automation & AI usage

Automation is helping business through software like ERPs that take over traditional back-office finance and operations.

In the IT industry, the Internet of things (IoT), cloud services, and general Software as a Service (SaaS) have simplified things for IT managers. You can now just monitor and attend to more pertinent issues and tasks (hopefully not just stream movies and play games on duty).

While seated comfortably, you will be able to now perform tasks such as deploying new software, installing/removing updates on multiple machines/devices simultaneously. All with a push of a few buttons.

Trading bots

In the high-risk investment scene, automation has given traders more room for better research and analysis Thus relieving you from the known stresses and mundane tasks associated with trading.

For many trading houses and brokers, AI has even completely taken over the mundane task of making and executing trades.

Advert

If you haven’t already, read this great book entitled: The Fear Index (thriller by Robert Harris). Though fiction, it illustrates the use of a machine learning tool using algorithms to help a hedge fund company generate billions for its investors.

The use of AI is not without fault. It can also lead to costly system-generated errors like the trading error a few years at Goldman Sachs cost the firm $100 million and other cases.

Other use cases

It can still, on a ‘micro’ level, help free human capital (individuals) from PC-related issues. So things like having stress, headaches, backaches, and lack of time spent with family and friends can be a thing of the past.

In the industrial and manufacturing sectors, the advent of AI creates even more of a fear and a concern. The number (staffing) of redundancies, may increase when it is introduced.

This would require careful planning to ensure the blue-collars that are ‘replaced’, are compensated. More so, they would need to be incorporated into different areas of businesses.

Limits of robotics

Obviously, not every task need to be automated or performed by robots. We (as humans) are still required to check-up, inspect, and perform quality checks for instance.
We can, as a result, deal with inter-personal jobs that require more empathy like in customer and social service.

Human resources or getting into corporate social responsibility (CSI) projects that reach out to communities.

Embracing it

More importantly, policies by governments will need to focus ever so more on job-creation. Governments must now adopt innovative means of creating jobs or foster and supporting entrepreneurship. Projects like those of Mr. Tesla/Mr. PayPal/Mr. SpaceX has created thousands of new jobs.

As for the use of AI in weaponry and military defense systems, the less said the better. When it comes to privacy and security concerns we can only hope that rogue politicians don’t get unregulated access to such technology. In such a case we would only be able to protest and hope not to feature in a real-life James Cameron sequel to Judgment Day.

3 December 2017
One tool to serve them all

When working in retail, finance, and manufacturing (sales) industry, you often come across one unavoidable piece of software.

A Customer Relationship Management software or what is abbreviated to CRM.

Now what really is really astonishing is when people ask how a CRM can actually help their business. Often one gets asked what CRM stands for or even means!
Now granted, it is a technical and industry-specific jargon depicting an online tool. More specifically, it is software used on hardware like PCs, tablets, scanners, point-of-sale devices, and modern cash registers).
What it does, however, is something many businesses both small and large take for granted – and mostly to their detriment.

The purpose

We use CRM solutions a lot more than we think. Take our Smartphones for instance: they are basically miniature customer (data or content) managing tools and though personalized, they serve the same function.
Now to put this into perspective very quickly and simply: our phones store and manage all our contacts. Our friends, family, businesses, and clients are kept in records primarily to help us access and communicate with them quickly.
Mobile phones, have also evolved to now enable you to not only manage your contacts to just make calls or send SMS. You can now share all sorts of content with via the various social media platforms.
Each of these platforms naturally has its own purpose and account. Android phones, for instance, come with (need to be activated by) a Google account.
You can then subsequently use it to access many applications (via an app store) and not just your email.
CRMs manage a company’s accounts in a similar way. They enable you to quickly get a hold of people to either sell directly to, create or follow-up on a sales lead, or nurture the lead until it becomes a sale.
This is carried out by software that sits on the front-end of a database stored on a local server or on the cloud. The software is normally user-friendly for it to be adopted and used frequently by end users.
This enhances your productivity and therefore increases revenue for your business.

Practical uses of CRM

They are used more by salespeople and staff of companies that offer a service via their customer support services or front-end teams.
So, when you call your local phone company because you are behind on a payment or would like to hand in a product for repairs, it is a CRM system that is used to log, track and manage the case till is solved.
The transcript, along with the call logs and resolutions are kept for a later date or time for if you make a follow-up call, request a new service. These records are stored in a database or what is called an instance.
Depending on what your company does, it will have several (national or regional) instances to help access data even faster.
A CRM can help you manage a healthy relationship with your clients to ensure that you are not calling them several times a day to put them off.
It will stop you from forgetting to follow-up on scheduled calls or emails or worse yet, sending them the wrong product or information about your offerings.

Salient features

A good CRM package also comes equipped with a means for you to create and store brochures, create effective and targeted marketing campaigns, generate quotes and invoices (PDFs). It will also come with a solid built-in knowledgebase.
This is a stored pool of resources containing processes and scenarios to help you quickly resolve a problem, prescribe a product or log a case.
And nowadays, like a mobile phone, a good CRM software can seamlessly help you integrate with social media platforms to follow, service or attract customers from those digital marketplaces.

Several CRM tools out there that offer different functionalities and depending on the size of your business, you can get a basic one that just manages your contacts and interactions.
Then you have ones that handle full-scale operations (back-office processes like warehousing, inventory, accounting, finance, payroll, and HR).
Those fall under another high-level category of CRMs known as Enterprise Resource Planning tools or ERPs. A topic for another blog perhaps as they are a totally different animal altogether.
CRMs are however, an component of ERPs and bigger companies would need both to handle large scale operations.
So you see how useful a CRM is in helping to run your company. They are now being even more automated with the help of Business Intelligence and AI.
That makes it even easier for you to use them to grow your business to levels where ERPs you would eventually need an ERP.

Many CRM suppliers offer free trials and even free online software, so take a shop around to see which one fits your needs.

The current industry leaders in CRM solutions are Dynamics (Microsoft), Salesforce, Oracle, SAP CRM and Zoho.

30 November 2017
Connect with the world faster

It is quite hard to understand why anyone would bother to ask (sometimes silly) questions these days when answers lie within the tips of our fingers – literally.

Back in the day, we used to have the ordained task of trekking to school or public libraries, or in some cases, rely on the local nerd to help answer questions and grasp difficult concepts.

Most of you don’t realize it, but we carry information boxes via our smartphones and tablets daily. It is easy, however, to get bombarded by misinformation and what is now dubbed ‘fake news’.

This is why it’s important for you to be able to identify credible sources when conducting research or looking for quick answers.

Information overload

One source of information that we subconsciously consume daily is social media. Thanks to the advent of the Internet, news, and information can reach us within milliseconds.

We can now tune into local news broadcasts only to get things that are specific to our areas of interest.

A quick and ill-prepared online search for a diagnosis, however, can lead to you discovering that you only have three days to live.

Worse yet, you might even “uncover” an imminent evil ploy to destroy the world and have us living underground or under the ocean.

Not all such theories, however, are far-fetched. Soon we will be seeing flying cars and man-manned drones such as the EHANG 184.

And whether rumour of fact, these quick news snippets get us thinking and prompts further research into more credible sources.

Uses of social media

Your football clubs, politicians and musicians are all actively using them to break new signings, announce new albums or push new policy or campaign objectives.

In addition, most, if not all companies, banks governmental institutions and even religious organizations now have a presence on social media. They use it to aggressively promote their brands or agenda.

So, you see, ignoring the news and social media completely these days is the equivalent of retreating to a cabin in the woods or cave. You would be shutting yourself completely from family and the rest of the world.

A social media detox is probably not a bad thing to do. We often get overly bombarded by information. However, skipping a week can leave you feeling as though you just emerged from the stone ages!

Here is a quick guide to the mainstream information sources that you can use as starting points for your research.

Google:

The biggest search engine and while it generates more results (quicker than other search engines ) – it also naturally, carries a lot of misinformation.

Google specifically has great features such as the voice-activated ‘OK Google‘ feature. It is quite responsive and good if you can’t be bothered to type but need voice-activated quick responses.

You can quickly get the latest football scores, the next flight to Tokyo, or the latest stock price of Oil or Bitcoin.

Wikipedia:

Always a quick reference guide (commonly used here). Bear in mind that their entries are put together by ordinary people.

So while fairly accurate, you should cross-reference information there especially when it comes to dates and events.

The website, however, gets reviewed/verified regularly and is therefore still quite a practical ‘go-to’ source for you to get quick facts. Be wary of the usage of short ‘Wikis’ though.

Investopedia:

For credible and simple to understand finance-related terms concepts on the go along with related news and great blog. They even have a great simulated stock trading game that you can enjoy.

Twitter:

Brandishing the iconic blue bird logo, Twitter is quick, instant, and addictive to some (no names mentioned).

Twitter is the best platform enabling you to announce and share information quickly via your mobile devices. News often breaks on it often before mainstream can media can announce/publish it.

It’s even quite common for news anchors to quote the tweet handle of a politician or celebrity when delivering news these days.

Facebook:

Launched as the first real (public) social media platform. It was designed to connect university/college peers. It has since grown to be the one source of finding your old flames, colleagues, family.

Authorities and companies are known to have used it to find out criminals or veto job candidates.

The platform was even allegedly used as a source for political campaigns and meddling with outcomes of a certain major presidential election.

It has, since its inception in 2004, been a place where many applications such as gaming application developer Zynga have made millions by capitalizing on our addiction to mobile games.

Facebook also has its other uses. It serves as a large marketplace to sell things, sends instant messages (with video-calling), and provides us with security alerts in times of terror attacks and natural disasters.

LinkedIn:

This app is important but often overlooked source of company information, recruitment, and career-building website. Though it looks similar to Facebook, it is more career-oriented and a great source for recruiters to head-hunt find you online.

LinkedIn gives you an extra professional ‘leg-up’ and even enables you to quickly convert your profile into a well-structured PDFed CV.

So useful, that it was acquired by Microsoft late last year. It is a powerful resource for their CRM solutions to be able to track individuals, companies, and decision-makers.

Instagram:

This has become a lot more than a place to post pictures of your dog´s gourmet dinner. This picture-based app has a fully-fledged marketing engine backed up by hashtags like Twitter. Like Whatsapp, it also now belongs to Facebook.

It has become a necessary tool for both, individuals and businesses and of course, celebrities like Kim Kardashian.

Instagram took over, in terms of popularity, the likes of similar older picture sharing platforms such as Photobucket or Flickr.

WhatsApp:

Owned by Facebook (if you didn’t know). This phone and the desktop-based app got their edge by taking over the SMS function from mobile operators.

We don’t send SMSes anymore. And if you still do, it’s usually because your phone is too old – or you are up to something shady! 🙂

Blackberry (R.I.P) started this idea with the BBM Messenger. But like others that tried and failed using exclusivity, not everyone wanted a Blackberry just to use that feature.

Enter WhatsApp with the ability to use your mobile phone number rather than the device itself to set it up. And just like that, it snatched up the whole market!

Running off Wi-Fi or your mobile data, you can instantaneously share videos, links, and pictures.

You can use it to host – or rather – facilitate group events like the planning of a surprise party, a birthday party. It can help you also get serious things done. You can collaborate on assignments, prepare a presentation, or (for start-ups on a low budget) launch a marketing campaign.

The funniest thing is how we now have people walking with more authority – with the title of “WhatsApp group admin”.

Snapchat:

This animated short video-making application is more for the youth but you can also use it for enterntainment. Snapchat is used mostly by celebrities like DJ Khaled – who is often viewed as its ‘ambassador’. He even owns shares in the company.

It also has also recently surged in popularity (number of users) and earned a place with some of the business powerhouses on the NYSE.

20 November 2017

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