Category: sales

The Future Office Worker

Aside from essential services personnel, millions of people are now working from home. The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted the growth of products to help the home office worker of today and tomorrow.

Debunqed breaks down which cloud solutions to pay attention to and which to avoid while you adjust to a changing world of commerce.

During the pandemic, one video conferencing service has exploded in popularity after years of trying on the wayside. This is the service operated by the NASDAQ-listed American group, Zoom.

Zoom has become a service of choice especially for companies and staff which may have not used online conferencing before. This popularity has made the service a target and there are concerns around security and privacy issues.

Before Zoom’s burst in interest, the most popular applications include Google’s Gsuite which offers online conferencing solution Meet, Microsoft 365 which includes competing conferencing solution Teams, and Slack.

Slack which was formed in 2013 also offers chat services that multiple people can use at once in private groups and persistent chat rooms or channels, which are organized by topic as well as direct messaging.

Zoom being hacked during quarantine might have made news headlines but it’s not the first time that technology services like these have been infiltrated by the wrong people.

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Slack was hacked back in 2015. The data included email addresses, usernames, hashed passwords, and in some cases, phone numbers, and Skype IDs users had associated with their accounts. As a result, Slack added two-factor authentication to protect data in the future.

Gsuite is the ‘OG’ of cloud-based business

How does Gsuite work? G Suite which was founded in 2006 and was formerly known as Google Apps for Work is a suite of web applications created by Google for businesses. It’s still a decent offering 14 years later. A basic G Suite account gives you access to Gmail and 30GB of Google Drive storage per user.

There are obviously Enterprise-level packages with beefed up security to match that offered by highly secured ‘on-premise‘ setups.

The suite’s Meet service is a video conferencing app. It is the business-oriented version of Google’s Hangouts platform and is suitable for businesses of all sizes. The solution enables users to make video calls with up to 30 users per high-definition video meeting.

Compared to other software, and due to familiarity and affiliation to Android Smartphones, G Suite is quick and easy to set up and use from the time you subscribe to it. It literally takes up to 15mins to start receiving emails and make video-calls!

Still in the game

Microsoft offers 365 which includes Teams. Teams is quickly becoming Zoom’s big competition. Several companies are using Teams for internal meetings and Zoom for external meetings. Microsoft gains its competitive edge from is strong data protection, GDPR, and comprehensive security measures. But others are slowly and sometimes painfully also having to jack theirs up.

The crucial factor to Teams is that it is part of the Office 365 ecosystem. In this way, it can collaborate with different services offered by Office 365. Users gain access to several functions separated into four categories:

Firstly, they have access to the main Teams application which lets them find and create channels to hold “on-the-spot meetings, have conversations and share files”. Secondly, they have access to a function called Meetings. You can plan, schedule, and track meetings. This calendar syncs with Outlook, as an example of the deep Office 365 integration.

Thirdly users have access to calls which includes VoIP calling as well as fourth, they have access to the Activity application. This application lets one access @mentions, unread messages, and replies.

Other secure apps

Then we have Signal, a very new addition to the saturated video calling and voice messaging application world. The non-profit organization, the Signal Foundation launched a stable version of Signal last month.

Signal is a cross-platform encrypted messaging service. It’s an impressive entrant and it’s opensource too.

It uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages. These may include text and audio files, voice notes, images and videos.

It is also available through a mobile application that can also make one-to-one voice and video calls. We expect the Android version to become well-loved soon. It can operate as a replacement for the SMS app.

Signal’s emphasis on messages being protected and voice and video calls being stable because of the push by hackers to infiltrate the plethora of online messaging and video applications coming online over the past few months since Covid-19 broke out.

This will become more and more important in 2020 and beyond as working from home becomes more common.

The German government has encouraged people to work from home offices beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. This call is gaining impetus after the country saw a rise in Covid-19 infections after it started to ease it is locked in marked ways.

With so much choice around cloud-based solutions, it’s best to try a few for yourself and see what works for you. But don’t waste too much time. Many of them are free and you’d really want to just get on with whatever your business is.

A key is to use strong passwords which you change regularly as well as other measures to protect yourself from hackers.

Read more about how to make your online accounts safer.

Find out more about online office collaboration tools on our resources page

12 May 2020
Startup with flair

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Every great product begins with an idea—even while the world waits in lockdown. In fact, some of history’s best masterpieces stemmed from periods of isolation, like Sir Isaac Newton’s Theory of Gravity or Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.

Whether you’re fulfilling a lifelong dream or simply seeking a new income stream, there are ways to get your groundbreaking tech idea to the market today.

Do your planning & research

The first step of software or web development is to appraise the idea itself. Most successful start-ups begin as answers to urgent consumer concerns. They also usually change the way things are done and are therefore called disruptive technologies. To be considered, your tech idea should, therefore, help resolve a relevant problem.

If you are not solving a pressing need, the fanciest invention or service (even with a solid marketing and financial plan) will fail to appeal to your target market. It will also not catch the eye of potential funders.

Many startups fail because visionaries fail to elucidate their idea to the people that can make it a reality.

Next, you should analyze the possible competition. With millions of Apps, DApps, and software developments out there, someone might have already created the same thing. If that’s the case, you could see how your product improves upon its predecessors. It might be a good idea to get your work patented or copyrighted. Likewise, you might want to check to see if the idea has not already been patented.

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Of course, transforming this amazing tech idea into reality involves a LOT of planning, too. That’s why you should research and map out an approximate timeline, possible tech builders (if you can’t DIY the work), related APIs, and most importantly, a budget.

Some software developers may offer to partner with you – as your startup’s CTO. This could be for an equity/share in the venture or to provide a discount on the work done. This is a good option if you are still early in the fundraising phase.

Finding the funds

If you don’t have the money to get your idea off the ground, not to worry! There are plenty of other ways to find the funds, such as angel investors, banks, or crowdfunding sites.

While some people rely on traditional loans from banks, others prefer to apply for grants from the government. There are also pages like GoFundMe and Kickstarter, where you can post your idea and crowdfund from private individuals around the world.

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For example, Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus (a virtual reality headset), raised over $2 million using Kickstarter to begin his business. If you instead opt for an angel investor, an individual willing to invest a large sum into budding businesses, studies show that your business is more likely to succeed.

Another form of assistance is to go through a startup incubator. You might want to look up the best ones in your country – but as ideas are not limited geographically – you can join any of the top incubators in the world.

Test & distribute

Finally, after proper planning and fundraising, you can execute and test out your brilliant tech idea. As AOL Founder, Steve Case, once said, “You shouldn’t focus on why you can’t do something, which is what most people do. You should focus on why perhaps you can and be one of the exceptions.”

This stage will also include a working prototype and a few open sessions or what is referred to in tech terms as ‘Beta-testings’. You can collect more insights from potential users to make your product stand out from others – preferably before you launch it.

There are many online tools to help you in this phase. Most of them offer free trials, so you can get away with using them just for the test period.

Covid-19 is no excuse not to launch a good venture provided it serves a pressing need as mentioned. In fact, projects that address the pandemic directly will indefinitely get preferential treatment when it comes to funding and support.

30 April 2020
Cloud-hosted services square up

Running your business requires choosing the right tools for you and your employees. In order to streamline work-related productivity, many organizations are migrating to cloud-based office suites. Specifically, Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s GSuite (now known as Google Workspace).

Both products boast a variety of helpful productivity tools and the latest remote collaboration technologies. While it’s impossible to say which one is “better”. This head-to-head comparison can help you decide which office suite is a better fit for your business.

What is Workspace & Office 365?

Office 365 and Workspace (previously GSuite) are packages, of powerful business tools that facilitate your day-to-day tasks using the cloud. They even provide business emails along with apps for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, video conference calls, shared calendars, and notes.

In addition, storing information on Google or Microsoft servers, rather than your own via these suites, can also save your business a lot of money.

Plans and Pricing

First, let’s look at plans and prices. It’s important to note that Microsoft requires an annual commitment, while Google offers you the option to make monthly payments if you prefer.

Contact us to get a formal quote for your business

Cloud packages head-to-head

Email

While both Office 365 and Workspace offer web and mobile apps (Outlook and Gmail, respectively) for email. There are, however, some subtle differences.

One advantage to Office 365 is the desktop version of Outlook, which is incredibly feature-rich and lets you sort and group emails with ease. Gmail, on the other hand, is widely used throughout the world. For this reason, a variety of third-party app options (e.g. WordPress) can be linked to it to enhance its capabilities.

Cloud Data Storage

For the entry-level plans, Office 365 Business Essentials wins out with 1 TB (terabyte) of storage per user, while the Workspace ‘Basic’ plan only offers 30 GB. GSuite includes emails in this storage limit, whereas Office 365 provides extra storage for email files with added archiving.

However, Workspace’s upgraded plans beat out most of Microsoft’s storage offerings. So long as your business has more than five employees, Workspace Business and Enterprise provides unlimited cloud storage. Although, businesses with less than 5 employees on the “Business” plan are capped at 1 TB. Only Microsoft’s E3 plan and higher offer the same unlimited cloud storage.

Applications

Applications are the cornerstones of a suite’s functionality. Workspace and Office 365 offer you a variety of comparable apps for word processing, creating spreadsheets and presentations, all on the cloud!

This means every user gets a free desktop version of the Office suite (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel) to download.

These feature-rich apps expand far beyond the capabilities of the mobile and online versions, and are available on every plan except the ‘Business Essentials’.

While both services offer mobile and online apps, one major benefit of Office 365 are its desktop applications.

Collaboration

These online applications make both suites ideal for remote collaboration. Microsoft Teams lets facilitate this with tools like real-time co-authoring, mentioning users by name and chat capabilities while working on OneDrive. Microsoft now lets you collaborate using its desktop apps, too, although the updates to shared files are a bit sluggish compared to its online apps.

Similarly, GSuite offers Hangouts for chats and Google Drive for real-time collaboration. Google’s online and mobile apps were created with cloud collaboration in mind, so some might find them a bit more user-friendly.

For remote meetings, GSuite and Office 365 both offer group video conference calls. If you plan on large-scale video conferences, then Office 365 offers far more for your money: most plans have a 250-participant limit, while the E3 plan increases to an astounding 10,000-person limit.

Meanwhile, GSuite’s Google Meet allows up to 25 participants on the “Basic” plan, 50 on the “Business” plan, and 100 on the “Enterprise” plan.

Security

Cloud services are running into a variety of security issues, and these suites are no exception.

A 2019 Barracuda Networks’ report found that a large percent of ATO (account takeover) attacks were targeted at Microsoft Office 365 accounts after businesses migrated emails to the service.

These attacks prompted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue a set of best practices. The aim was to help organizations migrate their email services while avoiding risks and vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, Google recently announced that a cloud storage feature for encrypted passwords on its “Enterprise” plans was faulty. As a result, some user passwords were stored in plaintext on Google’s servers!

While cloud computing has its risks, the two suites do have impressive security features. GSuite is comparable to Google’s own level of security and offers AI detection of suspicious activity, Two-Factor authentication, and data leak protection—in which admins can block outgoing communication determined by set keywords.

On the other hand, Office 365 has the option of Multiple Factor Authentication (MFA), along with the detection of malware, viruses, and suspicious activities. Microsoft also provides data loss protection, and admins can restrict access to company-issued devices only.

Ease of Use

So, which is easier to use? Well, it depends on who you are, and your ability to grasp software quickly.

If you’re accustomed to working with MS Word or Excel documents, and edit them for work on a regular basis, then Office 365 and its desktop-to-online formatting compatibility will probably be your best bet. This is especially true if your company solely computes with Windows PCs.

However, new users might find GSuite apps easier to learn, as the tools are a bit simpler and straightforward.

So, which is best for you?

Firstly, Office 365 offers feature-rich apps, and most of its plans come with a desktop version of MS Office applications. This is a definite advantage over its competitors.

Its entry-level plan is far more generous in terms of data storage than GSuite’s “Basic” plan. In addition, businesses that already exclusively use Windows technology are likely to find Office 365 better-suited for their needs.

With that said, GSuite was originally designed as a cloud collaborative productivity tool. Therefore, its features might be easier for collaboration and can be used among a wider variety of Windows and Mac devices. In addition, GSuite’s Business’ plans and above outdoes Microsoft when it comes to unlimited cloud file storage. <- This has changed since the article was first published.

Unfortunately, I can’t tell you which of the two is “best.” But, with this knowledge in mind, you can make an informed decision to choose the best cloud suite for you.

3 June 2019
Get a vault for your data!

It’s not often that we readily endorse a product or company. However, when the nature of work they engage in is considered ground-breaking and has a positive impact on our lives – it most certainly warrants a mention.

The rationale for considering such tech-driven projects as highly significant is neither due to ‘gut feeling’. Nor that it is simply because it is fascinating and therefore must be an excellent product. This project actually has a value proposition for you!

We are indeed well into the information age and while we have written extensively about data, its importance to marketers, and its fragility when used and abused by unscrupulous third-parties for their financial gain.

The issue of data security is, however, quite a serious one. You just need to pay attention to the news to become even more aware.

Data breach incidents

In Europe, where security is supposedly more advanced, we have seen the likes of renowned airline British Airways, being hacked. Several hundreds of thousands of customers’ personal data compromised.

These were followed by hacks on other major airlines such as Cathay Pacific. Aside from airlines, other business outfits have suffered a similar fate.

The perpetrators are getting a lot more brazen and very recently, a cable car, used as public transport in Moscow was hacked. This left vulnerable passengers terrified and stuck high up in the air. And all this happened probably to the amusement of the pranksters (hackers).

Can you imagine the chaos and commotion that would be caused if their control systems of driverless cars were to be hacked?

The digital intrusion gets even more sophisticated...

This time affecting the very wealthy: private yachts are now being hacked and taken into the pirate waters, all via uniquely coded signals, reading data from their antennas!

Data security

On the issue of data security, you often hear about extra protection but not just anti-virus and anti-phishing software. The more secure and heavily encrypted Blockchain technology is, however, making waves in the digital sphere.

It is mainly for the escalation of its once shining star by-product designed for discreet transacting – Bitcoin.

Blockchain technology has also triggered several other technologies based on its digital cryptology technology. The aim is to ensure that your information is kept safe from prying eyes while stored, used, or transferred online.

Blockchain products such as cryptocurrencies, however, are not completely safe from hackers.

A solution

The company we chose to highlight uses a unique vault system and is called Zortrex. It has adopted one of such Blockchain technologies dubbed tokenization. It will be using it to ensure that your highly sensitive data online is kept safe.

“Our tokenised solution would have protected their customers’ personal identification information (PII) details. Instead the hackers ran off with the date of birth; passport numbers; financial data etc,” says Susan Brown, Chairperson of Zortrex – relating to the British Airways incident.

Tokenization is the process of converting rights to real-world assets into a digital token on a blockchain.

Brown’s background in data privacy systems as well as her devoted passion for the protection of PII, financial and healthcare data led her to start up and chair Zortrex.

The law on data

Thanks to new laws like the European GDPR law, which enforces the protection of data, breaches are now met with hefty financial penalties.

“Companies have disrespected your data for over 25 years, and if left unattended, there will be nothing left to protect,” Browns says.

Companies now have to think twice about getting your consent and how to use and share your data digitally. But is it enough? The simple answer is no.

The authorities just do not have the resources to investigate every complaint nor to actively enforce all data breaches.

We have ingeniously invented systems that automatically align with financial messaging, payments and securing information. All of which require data.

“However, we need to go a step further to secure all the PII details with tokenization. This is so that in the event of a hack, the cookies and trackers will only be following a ‘useless’ token will be no real identification on it,” Brown explains.

Zortrex would naturally like to tokenize all healthcare data. This way, vulnerable those of you living outside of major cities can also feel assured that your privacy is protected.

Using Blockchain

The application of the all-powerful blockchain is not limited to use in the financial sector and will be applied via the supply chain to all industries that deal with your data – especially the most sensitive ones.

A business angel or any investor for that matter looking to get onto the next best thing since Amazon would therefore be unwise to pass up the opportunity to back the Zortrex venture given its scope.

Furthermore, regulations are currently being implemented primarily in the pharmaceutical sector.

A tokenized supply chain such as what Zortrex offers would be ideal for this new law which is planned to be implemented by 2023. A judiciary blockchain, for instance, would allow the police to “talk” to the prison service. They, in turn, will communicate with the legal sector or public health institutions (NHS).

Forensic evidence would in such instances be tokenized and kept secure (away from tampering) during legal hearings. In another practical scenario, Smart Contracts (which could replace some lawyers) can spark off legal aid assistance to you.

Your court cases will be heard quicker and be more efficient. Protection registers can also be guarded using tokenization – rendering them more secure.
Blockchain technology offers quality assurance making sure that no shortcuts are taken.
This will enable the monitoring and tracking if any of your data is shared with third parties once tokenized. The third-party apps would only gain access to your data once the trigger has been activated.

Like other pioneers and visionaries, Brown’s futuristic hope that every child being born will have their name, date of birth, blood type data being tokenized, might seem far-fetched.

Zortrex wants to use its technology to put the hackers out of business!

Tokenisation cannot be mathematically reversed and thus it will least it will keep the hackers busy for a while.

Scalability

For such high ambitions, the creators of Zortrex’s software have adequately ensured that the technology used is fully scalable. One stumbling block many Blockchain projects now face is what is referred to as scalability. This is the ability of a network or software to grow and manage increased usage.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum specifically – which is used to build a lot of Distributed Applications, however, have massive scalability issues.

The growth in demand for DApps is also crippling (slowing down) those systems. They need to investigate the incorporation of alternative technologies, upgrade or split their platforms to cope with such high demand.

Someone must take the first step in securing this data forever. You should be able to purchase what you want without being harassed by trackers and cookies.

The need for tokenization is endless and further, down the line, celebrities and government official’s PII can be secured by it to protect them from damaging schemes, ‘bad press’, and scandals.

In a previous blog, we “prophesized” that data is the new commodity – like gold or oil. However, the actual value with that data will lie in its privacy, the ability to store it securely and unlock it only with legal permission by its rightful owner.

19 March 2019
Get a vault for your data!

It’s not often that we readily endorse a product or company. However, when the type of work they engage in is considered groundbreaking – and one with the potential to have a massively, positive impact on our livelihoods, it most certainly warrants a mention.
The rationale for considering such tech-driven projects as highly significant is neither due to ‘gut feeling’ nor that it is cutting-edge/fascinating and therefore must be an excellent product – it actually has a value proposition for everyday people!
We are indeed well into the information age and while we have written extensively about data, its importance to marketers and its fragility when used and abused by unscrupulous third-parties for their financial gain, the issue of data security is quite a serious issue – we must just pay attention to the news to become even more aware.
In Europe, the where security is supposedly more advanced, we have seen the likes of renowned airline British Airways, being hacked – with several hundreds of thousands of customers’ personal data compromised. This was followed by hacks on other major airlines such as Cathay Pacific. Aside from airlines, other business outfits have suffered a similar fate.
The perpetrators are getting a lot more brazen and very recently, a cable car, used as public transport in Moscow was hacked, leaving vulnerable passengers terrified and stuck high up in the air – probably to the amusement of the pranksters (hackers). We all know about driverless buses and cars coming to the market soon.
Can you imagine the chaos and commotion that would be caused if their control systems were to be hacked? The hacks get even more sophisticated: this time, affecting the very wealthy – private yachts are being hacked and taken into the pirate waters, all via uniquely coded signals, reading data from their antennas!
On the issue of data security (with almost full anonymity); we have also heard about extra protection (and not just anti-virus and anti-phishing software) but the more secure and heavily encrypted Blockchain technology that is making waves in the digital sphere. Mainly for the escalation of its once shining star by-product designed for discreet transacting – the Bitcoin.
It has also triggered several other technologies based on its digital cryptology technology to ensure that information is kept safe from prying eyes while stored, used or transferred online.
The company we chose to highlight uses a unique vault system and is called Zortrex. It has adopted one of such Blockchain technologies dubbed tokenization – and will be using it to initially ensure that highly sensitive data online is kept safe.
“Our tokenised solution would have protected their customers’ personal identification information (PII) details, instead the hackers ran off with the date of birth, passport numbers, financial data etc,” says Susan Brown, Chairperson of Zortrex – relating to the British Airways incident.
“Tokenization is the process of converting rights to real-world assets into a digital token on a blockchain.”
The establishment of this start-up company was due to Brown’s background in data privacy systems as well as her devoted passion for the protection of PII and financial/healthcare data. In her view, companies have disrespected their customer data for over 25 years, and if left unattended, there will be nothing left to protect.
Thanks to new laws like the European GDPR law which is now imposing the data protection; data breaches and abuse of customer data is now met with hefty financial penalties. Companies now think twice about consent and how to use and share customer’s data digitally – but is it enough? The simple answer is a no. The authorities just do not have the resources to investigate every complaint nor to actively enforce all data breaches – yet.
“We have ingeniously invented systems that automatically align with financial messaging, payments and securing information, all of which require data. However, we should and need to go a step further to secure all the PII details with tokenisation so that in the event of a hack, the cookies and trackers will only be following a useless token as there is no real identification on it,” Brown explains.
Zortrex would naturally like to tokenise all healthcare data so that vulnerable people living outside of major cities can also feel assured that their privacy is protected. In a previous blog, we wrote about the new Internet of things (IoT). For all those devices being built for it, their IP addresses and the serial numbers can be tokenised to avoid the terrifying thought of the whole Internet being compromised.

The application of the all-powerful Blockchain is not limited to use in the financial sector and will be applied via the supply chain to all industries that deal with customer data – especially the most sensitive ones.

An angel investor or any investor for that matter looking to get onto the next best thing since Amazon would therefore be unwise to pass up the opportunity to back the Zortrex venture given its scope!

Furthermore, regulations are currently being implemented primarily in the pharmaceutical sector and a tokenised supply chain such as what Zortrex offers would be ideal for this new law which is planned to be implemented by 2023. A judiciary blockchain, for instance, would enable the police to “talk” to the prison service, who in turn, will communicate with the legal sector and public health institutions such as the UK’s NHS.

Forensic evidence would in such instances be tokenised and kept secure (away from tampering) during legal hearings. In another practical scenario, Smart Contracts (which are touted to replace lawyers) can spark off legal aid assistance, so that court cases can be heard quicker, more efficient than currently pertains. Protection registers can also be protected with tokenisation rendering it more secure.

Blockchain technology offers quality assurance with every process being undertaken making sure that no shortcuts happen; as the smart contracts trigger any possible malfeasance. This will enable the monitoring/tracking of any data sharing to third parties once it is tokenised. The third party apps would only gain access to the data once the trigger has been activated.

The company will be providing numerous business blockchain platforms; Asset Chain, Supply Chain, Accountancy Chain, Debt Chain, Life Cycle Management Chain, Outsourced Worker Chain; the list is endless, and all will be adequately secured.

Like other pioneers and visionaries, Brown’s futuristic hope that every child being born will have their name, date of birth, blood type data being tokenised, might seem farfetched – but may we remind you of the need for data protection taking into consideration the growth rate of massive data breaches.

Zortrex is aiming high and wants to use their technology to put the hackers out of business! Tokenisation cannot be mathematically reversed and thus it will least it will stop the hackers for a while.

Brown explains further that as they move with their education; other information can be added on to the token, as with all their healthcare; any allergies tokenised; what injections they have had right through their life cycle until the day no more data can be tokenised.

For such high ambitions, the creators of Zortrex’s software have adequately ensured that the technology used is fully scalable. One stumbling block many Blockchain projects now face is what is referred to as scalability – which in tech terms, is the ability of a network or software to grow and manage increased demand.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum specifically – which is used to build a lot of Distributed Applications, has massive scalability issues. The growth in demand for DApps is crippling those systems and they are having to investigate the incorporation of alternative technologies, upgrade or split their platforms and accompanying cryptocurrencies to cope with such high demand.

Someone must take the first step in securing this data forever. Citizens should be able to purchase what they want without being harassed by trackers and cookies. The need for tokenisation is endless and further, down the line, celebrities and government official’s PII can also be secured to protect them from damaging schemes, ‘bad press’ and scandals.

In another previous blog, we “prophesized” that data is the new commodity – like gold or oil. However, the actual value with that data will lie in its privacy, the ability to store it securely and unlock it only with legal permission by its rightful owner.

19 December 2018
3D Copy and Paste!

The bizarre-sounding digital printing phenomena called 3D-Printing has been mulling around from the past. Recently, has been in the limelight; specifically in the press for the wrong reasons.

Read about the new craze and get ideas for Xmas via 3D Copy and Paste!

15 November 2018
Digital Fundraising

The latest abbreviation in the finance and crypto-world is ‘ICO’. This word, however, gives global financial authorities like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nightmares for several reasons.

Not to be confused with Initial Public Offering (IPO) which is used by firms to raise cash through the issuing of shares to the public. An ICO (Initial Coin Offering) works like crowdfunding, but for digital currency and tokens.

We recently covered a feature on raising funds and capital for a business but missed out on one relatively new method. Many companies are using ICOs to raise capital for their businesses.

Why ICOs?

The concept of an ICO works similarly to how a company raises capital through shares in that it is all based on contrived value.

Funding raising in effect boils down to sales! If your actual product or service has nothing substantial or intrinsic to offer a client base, then it is nothing more than a scam.

Launching an ICO is quite easy, and to an extent, many tech companies are now catching onto it.

An ICO is the cryptocurrency space’s rough equivalent to an IPO in the investment world. ICOs act as fundraisers of sorts; a company looking to create a new coin, app, or service launches an ICO.
Investopedia

If you still do not believe it is possible, just listen to this testament from someone who did it after unsuccessfully knocking on the doors of conventional funders.

The alarming spurt rate of ICOs often brings with it a scourge of potential scammers. The SEC and other institutions have to step in to monitor and regulate them.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Google – which house a bounty of users (potential investors) have banned ICOs ads due to possible prey on unsuspecting investors; exposing them to con artists.

Basically, the scammers use fancy websites, laden with impressive figures and terminology to con users into buying into their coins or tokens.

Though the tokens barely even cost a cent, it adds up if they have millions of people buying in. Once they have reached a certain amount in funding – they close shop and disappear!

To create a new digital coin:

Create a product concept or Business Plan for the coin or what is called a Whitepaper. This describes in great detail what the coin or token aims to do; the core technologies behind it; the team and their qualifications; the product’s lifecycle/growth path etc.

Once completed and water-tight, the whitepaper would be submitted along with an application to one of the best Cryptocurrency Exchanges for review.

Naturally, you would need some initial working capital for liquidity. Some of this is raised through your savings and others through institutions (via loans etc).

You must then assure your investors of a solid return on investment (ROI) and deliver – which goes back to sales. Unless your offering is a scam, you actually need to do some work!

This assurance comes via regular updates (marketing campaigns can have a tremendous or adverse impact on the uptake and price) on milestones reached.

The updates are also necessary to keep your investors abreast with progress and might convince them to increase funding.

Growing interest and the addition of more funds create demand for the coin/ token which, in turn, drives up the price and market capitalization.

Most successful ICOs of all time

NEO:

Known as “China’s Ethereum”, and backed by Microsoft, Alibaba and the Chinese government, NEO uses smart contract applications. It does so, however, with the addition of decentralized commerce, digitized assets and identification.
It enjoyed a considerable hike in token value from $0.03 to $88.20, NEO has big things coming with a 294,000% ROI.

Ethereum:

Unlike Bitcoin, the second-most valuable cryptocurrency in the world has more functionality than just being a coin. Its ledger technology is used to build and deploy decentralized applications a.k.a. “smart contract” technology.
Ethereum’s ROI has been nothing short of jaw-dropping at 230,000%. Having sold its tokens at $0.31, an Ether token now sits at a whopping $713, second in value only to Bitcoin.

Spectrecoin:

The “premier privacy-focused cryptocurrency” enables users to send and receive currency worldwide with total anonymity. It is currencies like SpectreCoin that have most government tax offices quaking in their boots.
If you had repurchased a token in November 2016, that puny $0.001 would be worth $0.64 today, or an ROI of 64,000%.

Ark:

With Ark, collaboration is the name of the game. The platform’s SmartBridge is a lightning-fast ecosystem designed to integrate other cryptocurrencies into its blockchain.
Investors were eager as any to buy in, and they have made a 35,400% gain given today’s token price of $3.54.

DigixDAO:

DGD, which stands for Digix Decentralized Autonomous Organization, is a self-governing community. It gives out grants to different projects which will promote the growth of the DGX network.
At a current value of $346.88 per token, this gives them a return of 10,722%.

Quantum (QTUM):

QTUM is an open-source value transfer platform which focuses on mobile decentralized apps or Dapps. QTUM is the world’s first proof-of-stake smart contracts platform.
They hosted a highly successful ICO in March 2017, and since that time has seen an ROI of 6,400%.

Source: investinblockchain.com

In conclusion

The prospect can be daunting for a cryptocurrency investor looking to make money off new investment opportunities while remaining cushioned from fraudulent ICOs and dodgy coins and tokens.

As there is no guarantee that any cryptocurrency or blockchain-related start-up will be genuine or successful.

You simply need to be vigilant and take steps such as getting to know the core team, poring over the whitepaper with a big magnifying glass. Naturally, you should be monitoring the progress of the token sales.

Most importantly, you must just use common sense to gauge just how feasible the project is to ensure that you’re not falling for a scam.

Remember, if it’s too good to be true, then it isn’t true!

5 November 2018
Accountable Supervision

Leadership values are not only confined to the running of a political campaign, party, or country for that matter, however, like in any venture that has an objective and deals with human beings – it forms the backbone of a successful business.

Consequently, what leaders such as CEO of Tesla Elon Musk, for example, say or does, have a positive or, in the recent unfortunate case, a negative impact on the shareholdings of his business.

The share price can decline sharply and worse yet, it can lead to the exit of senior staff members and thus undermining the business, its leadership values, and objectives.

This why it is critical for companies to adopt the right practices and responsible leadership to enable them to address both internal and external issues affecting them.

This is even most relevant when dealing with a company that has a multinational operational facet such as the Murray and Roberts Group – a South African company that operates in a global setting.

This specific multinational company was used in a case study for a research paper because it is firmly entrenched in the construction and engineering industry.

More specifically, they service the global natural resources market sectors of underground mining; Oil & Gas; Power & Energy.
Such a diverse set of operations requires a varied set of objectives spearheaded by a solid leadership path.

A new model of leadership

We have covered the topic of Emotional Intelligence before. It now surfaces again within a brand-new leadership model known as the ARCHES model.
The name derives from a key characteristic of the physical structure of an arch and its durability.

Coupled with its diversity in models and materials and its depiction as symbols of triumph, it represents an apt analogy of what responsible and effective leadership should be.

The model was especially derived by an academic* for a syndicate group assignment and is based on six key characteristics that should be imparted in a leader.

An effective and responsible leader is one who is attuned to their followers, responsive, possesses the necessary competencies, serves with humility, is ethical and adopts a sustainable approach to leadership.

A leader who possesses all these attributes is one who can rise above adversity and lead their followers in a way that promotes innovation, motivates, develops skills, promotes personal growth, and encourages improved performance.
B.Moyo

Application of the model

The model defines attuned leadership as the act of being self-aware, informed, and aware of the environment in which you exist – servant leadership.

Employees should be encouraged to take responsibility for their actions because responsibility and effectiveness are complimentary. The demise of US energy company Enron, for example, was due to a failure of management to execute communication-based responsibility, internally and externally.

A volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment in which a business operates can result in many potential projects not coming to fruition.

In such an environment, leaders that are attuned, responsive, and possess the right competencies can expert power as their way to influence followers to exhibit the same traits.

Referent power develops out of admiration of another and a desire to be like them. Expert power, on the other hand, is a person’s ability to influence others’ behaviour because of recognized knowledge, skills, or abilities.
This requires the leader to have a tolerable level of humility.

This is defined as a personal quality reflecting the willingness to understand the self (identities, strengths, and limitations). That combined with a purpose in the self’s relationship with others.

Once again, the emphasis on Emotional Intelligence coupled with traditional leadership competencies is needed to steer multifaceted companies.

Even more so when dealing with diverse cultures and work ethics across borders and continents.

Direct consequences

Being the largest employer in the locality directly implied that Murray and Roberts had to be consistent with the idiomatic Zulu expression of “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”. This means: I am because you are, you are because we are.
Good leadership in the Ubuntu philosophy is based on the engagement with communities and defines a well-led organization.

Not paying attention to ethical issues surrounding a community or the environment can have an adverse effect on your values. This would also affect your staff and the image of the company you steer.

A bitter consequence of the failure of ethics was evident in the $4.2m (64.1 million ZAR) fine to the said company. This was for its involvement in sector collusion related to construction projects for the 2010 World Cup.

Concluding remarks

Finally, a practical leader will also consider any upcoming projects with the lens of understanding the environment that surrounds them to incorporate the concept of sustainability.

These traits might sound like they need to be learned but most should be already ingrained or come naturally to you or your leaders.

If not this is not the case, you need to quickly install the right personnel with such to help steer your business enterprise or economy for that matter, to success.

*This blog post contains excerpts and is derived from a master’s research paper. It was conducted by Bonnie Moyo for the Rhodes University Business School.

9 September 2018
Financing your Small Business
When considering small business financing, it is important to understand all your available options. If not, investors can easily take advantage of you and offer unfair terms.

So before raising any money, find out if using equity, debt, or convertible debt financing makes the most sense for you to grow your business.

Equity

Raising capital through equity is popular, if not the most popular choice, for entrepreneurs to pursue. Investors buy stock (or shares) in your company, giving them a financial stake in the future success of your business.

How It Works:
- You set a specific Dollar/Euro amount for what your company is worth.
- Based on that valuation, investors agree to give you money in exchange for a certain percentage of your company.
- Investors receive compensation based on the percent of stock/share they own once you sell the company or go public.
Pros:
- All your cash can go toward your business rather than loan repayments.
- Investors take on some risk and don’t have to be paid back until you’re doing well.
- Investors often have valuable business experience.
- Since investors have a financial stake in the success of your business, they are motivated to offer sound guidance and valuable business connections.
Cons:
- Equity financing has the highest legal bills and takes the longest time to close, making it the most complex small business financing structure says Forbes contributor and growth consultant, George Deeb.
- Selling shares of your company will make it very difficult to get them back.
- You will also most likely lose control of part of your board to your investors.
Debt

Debt-based fundraising is the form of small business financing that most small businesses end up choosing, according to Fundable. It is also the easiest to understand. Money is loaned to you with the agreement you’ll repay it over time with an established interest rate.

Get a quick loan for your business here:

How It Works:
- You borrow money with an agreement to pay it back with interest within a specific time frame.
- You will also have to offer your lender some form of collateral, which are liquid assets you will give up if you cannot make your loan payments.
Pros:
- You will raise capital much quicker than with equity small business financing. This is especially true of smaller cash amounts.
- You can keep 100 percent ownership of your company, along with 100 percent of its profits.
- Interest payments are tax-deductible.
Cons:
- You must be completely confident you can make your loan payments in cash each month. If you don’t, lenders can make you sell your business in order to get their money back.
- Interest payments can become one of your largest business expenses.
- Commercial lenders will demand small business owners to personally guarantee the loan and offer personal assets as collateral. This even if your company is structured as a corporation or limited liability company, according to Forbes.
Convertible Debt

A convertible debt small business financing structure is a mix of debt and equity financing. The money raised is considered a loan, but at some future date, the loan can convert to equity if the lenders so choose.

How It Works:
- You will negotiate an interest rate to pay back the loan. This will also be the interest rate for those lenders who decide not to convert any debt into stock.
- The details concerning how lenders can convert the debt into equity are negotiated at the time of the loan. For the most part, that means agreeing to give lenders a discount or warrant on an upcoming round of equity fundraising.
- You will also set the valuation cap, or maximum company valuation, at which lenders can convert debt into equity. If investors decide not to trade in their loan for shares at this predetermined valuation level, they can no longer do so at a future date.
Pros:
- Transaction costs are low and the process moves quickly.
- If you don’t want to set a company valuation, which involves a lot of uncertainty and risks for new startups, a convertible debt structure for small business financing makes a lot of sense, according to Covestor CEO Asheesh Advani.
- Using convertible debt protects investors from dilution in future financing rounds.
Cons:
- Investors are uneasy about giving money without knowing the exact share of a company they will own. You might have to offer steep discounts on equity in order to get them to agree to the terms.
- You may be forced to set a valuation before you are ready in order to avoid unaffordable loan repayment expenses.
In the end, it’s best you make your final choice, based on which of the mentioned options works best for you, not just now, but in the immediate future.

Read more: about other investment methods.

This article was originally Written by Alex Liu and published on UpCounsel

UpCounsel is an interactive online service that makes it faster and easier for businesses to find and hire legal help solely based on their preferences.
25 August 2018
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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