Tag: CRM

2019 in Tech

This year may have felt like it was dominated by political shenanigans, but technology also had its wild ride.

The USA vs Huawei

A story that has persisted throughout the year is the heat around Huawei in the US. The Americans have stopped Huawei phones from being sold in their country because they say the Chinese mobile phone maker has stolen technology from American companies and has spied on them.

The tussle began in 2018 but kicked into gear in 2019. Nevertheless, some American companies and organisations are still doing business with Huawei despite the ban by US President Trump’s government.

The President of Microsoft, Brad Smith, also wants to the US government to offer more evidence to back up its Huawei ban.

The core issue with Huawei has been around concerns with Huawei’s close relationship with the Chinese government and fears that its equipment could be used to spy on other countries and companies.

Huawei has also hit back at US ‘bandwagon followers’ and recently threatened to boycott Germany’s Auto industry if the European powerhouse banned them from offering 5G (broadband) in the country.

Not a great year for big tech

Big technological companies like Facebook, Alphabet, Google and Uber have faced a barrage of probes in 2019 be it around anti-competitive behaviour, spying on customers or their staff abusing customers. We also haven’t seen many new companies graduate to super-size status.

After a long drought of big-name tech IPO (initial public offerings), 2019 promised to be a banner year. A crop of highly anticipated, highly valued tech companies — with hot marquee names such as Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, and Slack listed on the public markets. The idea was to allow you to take a stake in their business.

Their reception, however, was truly tough. These companies’ stocks have not gained momentum and being listed has attracted greater public scrutiny.

The biggest disappointment, however, must be WeWork’s failed proposed listing and its subsequent business fallout.

The hottest things in tech

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – We’ve been talking about this for decades since Terminator came out but scientists are managing to harness the technology especially in manufacturing and medical fields.

Most of the top tech companies (Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, and Google) have already embraced AI. Many tout it as one of the main distinguishing features to set them apart competitively.

A little of this tech has gone into robotics with much fanfare and fear over their capabilities and propensity to ‘initiate a judgement day’. Check out Boston Dynamics

Bitcoin

Blockchain – Bitcoin may be highly volatile and not the get rich quick scheme people thought it could be, but it is still out there. Clever people are finding ways of making commerce more efficient.

There are however several practical and use-cases for Blockchain-based tokens and tech other than for payments and investments.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – this is a technology that could explode in 2020. Right now, only large enterprises are using RPA but it could become more affordable and workable for smaller businesses in 2020. RPA is the process of automating mundane tasks such as taking data from one file and entering it into a business application like CRM software.

It’s about computerizing repetitive tasks that are an inefficient use of time, so it makes our lives more efficient.

RPA is not a physical robot. It is also an approach to working across multiple business applications and entering, maintaining, migrating, integrating, mining and testing data on spreadsheets.

These tasks are prone to human error which is why computerizing them makes so much sense.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality – VR made strong progress in 2019. This was most useful in gaming, real estate companies, pornographic entertainment and for people with disabilities.

For you gamers – it is best to buy an Oculus Quest for your PC. Sony’s VR headset is still the best and only gaming set.

Look after my data – or not!

The first fines around the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) were lodged in parts of the EU. The GDPR was promulgated in 2016. It is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individual citizens of the EU and the European Economic Area.

It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. GDPR was enforced because of concerns about data breaches and attacks on privacy by the likes of Facebook and Google.

Then there were concerns our banks, insurance, and other data keepers were selling or losing our data to dangerous entities.

The types of personal data exposed included your names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and even passport numbers.

Lessons learned

The Marriott hotel group’s data breach of 2018 resulted in the exposure of 339-million customer records. Around 30-million of the records belonged to European Union citizens, and therefore they were subjected to a GDPR fine.

Facebook seems to love controversy and had been found to have allowed a massive 247 million user (mostly Americans) data leak.

Back home in Berlin, on October 30th the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information issued a €14.5m fine on a German real estate group, die Deutsche Wohnen SE. This was the highest German GDPR fine yet. The infraction related to the over retention of personal data.

Despite the turbulent year for tech companies and consumers, we look to 2020 with breathless anticipation. We also ponder on which of the mentioned technologies will stick out and make a positive impact on our lives.

Pictures courtesy of Pixabay

22 December 2019
The startup tech kit

New business? You’re going to need some basic software!

In this modern-day and age, it may seem that small businesses do not require a plethora of technological tools in order to succeed, but it’s worth investigating which technologies can give you an edge. This is especially crucial if you are not offering a niche product or service and have to compete with an army of existing players in your industry.

Accounting, CRM, marketing, analytics, taxation and other useful software may have just levelled the playing field between small and big businesses. The challenge is to choose the right one to help you grow quickly at the least expense.

You will, nevertheless, if you are even to make a first impression, need some basic software regardless of your trade.

HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Almost everybody needs some kind of online presence. You’re a business and while social media is helpful (more on that later), a website is where you will be found by prospective clients or business partners. You can build one easily these days via a paid content manager provider such as WordPress or Wix.

They will even provide and host your domain if you don’t have one.

If you do not, however, have the time nor the energy to create one yourself, there are cost-effective alternatives such as outsourcing the building to a web-designer. They can do it remotely and the safest way would be through a regulated marketplace such as Fiverr* or Upwork.

*Debunqed can recommend a designer known as aceholder on Fiverr.

Email

You need to be contactable. In the old days, you got away with Yahoo or Google email but now you need an email service that can host a domain. The free emails are also not secure and subjected to heaps of spam.

Email hosting is a service in which your email messages and associated files are all stored on a server. When you receive an email to your website’s domain address, that email is routed across the Internet and stored on the recipient server.

A hosting service stores the files that make up a website on a data server which then uploads them directly to the web.

This gives you an Internet connection and way for your customers to access the site through a domain name.

Web hosting services often come with a slew of options for designing sites. These include the one-click installation of supported applications such as a service mailbox. Wix partners with Microsoft’s Office 365 for mail hosting whilst WordPress works seamlessly with Gmail/GSuite.

Task Management System/ Job Manager

Being organised from the beginning isn’t a good idea; it’s a great idea! Get yourself a system which tracks your sales and logs the deliverables that each employee completes.

There are an array of CRM solutions focusing on different tasks from customer services or sales to project management and full-on finance and back office (ERP) operations (more on this later).

The key is to start small many of these offer trials but also some even offer a free package naturally with limited functionality. Figure out which tasks are important in order to choose the right package to handle your scheduling, sales and tasks. A simple calendar/scheduler via MS Outlook and Office 365 (Microsoft Bookings) can be a good place to start for a paid but fully functional service.

Payroll and Accounting Systems

You need to keep accurate books and not to rip off your employees. You’re a start-up; play the numbers by the books. And a word of caution: don’t ever cook the books!

There is a huge choice of accounting (and back office) systems to choose from. The big names are probably out of reach so like a CRM system, you might want to shop around and start with smaller but a reputable brand like Quickbooks.

But if you go for an Office 365 solution, you might as well look into something like Dynamics 365. One of their entry-level finance packages (Business Central) has all the ‘bells and whistles’ for a Startup to help get your books up to date for the taxman/audit.

You also need to monitor your payroll – this service can be added by upgrading to a bigger package under Microsoft Dynamics family. You could also shop around for payroll software if you are on a tight budget.

Project management and support logging system

Once you build up a workable database of existing and potential clients, you will require some kind of logging system to handle customer queries.

This will help you keep tags of what customers are having issues with. If they are repeated issues, then you know there is a recurring problem with your operations or an aspect of your business.

A good ticketing system will allow you to keep a knowledge base with instructions to help your staff with how to deal with recurring issues quickly.

Shopping cart software

If your products are sold online or does not come from a physical store, this is the mandatory software that enables you sell goods online. It is designed to quickly process debit and credit cards transactions but also allows your customers to use their PayPal and other payment methods – even Cryptocurrency.

A good shopping cart package also does inventory management, calculates packaging costs, shipping costs and taxes.

Security and Anti-Virus software

Always protect your Internet connection and your sensitive data against viruses, spyware, malware, worms and Trojans.

Most of the packages mentioned before come with in-built security measures such as sign-in authentication.

But these are not enough and you will need to source software to prevent a hack if you are dealing with extra sensitive data like patents, medical and financial records/accounts. Read our feature on Online Threats for more on this.

Cloud storage

This is a place where you can store large files as well askeep backups of files. Hardware can break. You could drop your 2-terabyte portable flash drive but at least your work will be safe in the cloud.

Once in the cloud, things can get disorganised (many files and folders) and sorting them can become a pain. The top file storage providers include, Microsoft’s SharePoint Online and OneDrive; Google’s Drive, Amazon’s S- series and Dropbox.

There are some really great add-ons like a Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool for those dealing daily with tons of documents and images by Pic.io. This software works specifically with GoogleDrive.

Social media

We have by now affirmed that you need a CRM system. With many choices of companies to buy products from for example, treating individual customers’ needs is very important.

A good CRM system will help you reach out to your customers where ever they are – online or offline. This is known as Social Engagement.

That, coupled with a powerful Business Intelligence tool, can help you leapfrog over your competitors with useful insights such as peak traffic times on your website, purchase habits and other characteristics of your client that will help you accurately predict potential revenues.

Find the best CRM platform that allows for social engagement, then set up whatever social network accounts that suit your business.

Webinar services

Remember you are doing business with groups from around the world.

Online communication tools, therefore, enable you conduct presentations and meetings over the Internet. This saves time and money associated with travelling costs whilst giving you access to markets outside your area, city or country.

Some of the most popular/effective communication tools includes those included in the Microsoft (Skype and Teams) and Google (Hangouts & Voice) bundles. There are also free standalones like Zoom.

Depending on your frequency of calls and audience size needs you can stick with the free version and then scale up to a paid subscription later. You can also run training sessions and product demonstrations and even replace your whole phone system with them.

Online Surveys and other Marketing Tools

Marketing is is the lifeblood of a company. It’s a key sales-driver and if you aren’t selling, you’re going out of business! Conduct market research using online tools such as SurveyMonkey and collect emails through opt-in forms. These valuable insights can be used in targeted email marketing campaigns.

The most advanced and widely recognised mail marketing tool is Mailchimp. It starts with a free version with 7 marketing channels and goes up to $299 per month for large companies with 200000-plus contacts. Most bundled Office solutions will allow you to add Mailchimp as a plug-in to your existing mailbox.

Conclusion

Technology constantly changes and it’s hard to keep up – so don’t. Get the basics right first and add technological services and tools as you grow. Rather understand what each button does first before you spend money on a whole super system.

28 November 2019
Digitization of the Workplace

Let’s face it: we’re accustomed to instant gratification in the Internet Age. With the expansion of technology, Amazon order confirmations arrive in email inboxes instantaneously, while hungry customers track the location of their much-awaited pizza delivery each step of the way.

Instant gratification is a sign of the times!

Likewise, if you want to run a sustainable, profitable business in 2019, then digitization is not only useful– it’s necessary. And it’s easier than you think.

Did you know that 30 percent of tasks involved in over half of all jobs could be automated using technology that exists right now?

According to McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy firm, this number will grow even higher as technology develops–which is great news for your business, your employees, and your profits.

And no, we’re not talking about robots coming to take over your job (although some pretty cool robots exist). From automatic “Abandoned Cart!” emails to payroll and employee onboarding, automation is already a mainstay of modern organizations.

So, looking for inspiration? Here’s just a few of the amazing ways to automate your business.

AI Technologies

Artificial intelligence is taking over the world–and it should be taking over your daily processes. Machine- and deep-learning AI provides a cost-effective solution for both carrying out mundane day-to-day tasks and engaging with customers.

For example, AI-powered bots are revolutionizing customer service abilities by providing 24/7 assistance for regular inquiries and troubleshooting.

Meanwhile, SiriusDecisions, an industry analyst firm, found that sales reps spend only about one-quarter of their entire work week actually selling to customers. The rest of the time–approximately 27 hours each week–is spent on administrative tasks like data entry.

These duties tend to consume a lot of time and energy. Instead, by automating the process, employees could spend their time closing deals and making connections to new leads and investors.

Customer & Employee Relations

At its core, CRM, or customer relationship management, includes all the technologies and strategies involved in these relationships, like email marketing, telephone calls, mail, and social media marketing

If it sounds like a lot — well, that’s because it is. Manually logging all customer data (accurately) throughout the sales funnel is time-consuming and subject to human error. It’s also nearly impossible to maintain communications with every single lead. In those cases, both the business and the customer suffer.

Thanks to automated email responses, data collection, and communications, these problems are a relic of the past. According to a study by Enterprise Apps Today, over 60 percent of respondents believe that automation boosts customer experience. Digitization not only eases business processes, but it improves B2C ( business-to-consumer) relationships, too.

Boost Cybersecurity

Hackers and cybersecurity threats are growing more complex and common every day. Automating your data security systems with AI machine learning can provide a base level of protection while freeing up IT professionals to focus on progressing your business’ systems or confronting only the most complex of threats.

Read more about Cybersecurity here

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Reduce Setup Costs

According to McKinsey, digitizing data-heavy processes within businesses can cut costs by up to 90 percent. You can automate everything from employee and customer onboarding, legacy-system integration, data migration, and far more.

Although the initial implementation of automation can take time, effort and money, the payoff is well worth the investment.

Where Should You Start?

To figure out where to start digitizing your business, there are a few questions you should be asking yourself, like: what would improve my customer’s experience and, how can I better communicate with customers?

Further questions such as: which tasks can I automate to save time and cut costs; and finally, how you can ease the daily tasks of your employees in order to better utilize their skills (productivity) are also important points to consider.

Whether you begin with cybersecurity, automating payroll and onboarding, or equipping your site with AI-powered technology, digitizing your small business will lead to happier employees, satisfied customers and a profitable structure for the future.

30 August 2019
Sell easily with the aid of smart tech
Practical online software can – without a shadow of a doubt – help your business (large enterprise or Start-up) get on top of its operations.

The most common operational tasks most of us use are sales and customer support. Though very important they cannot, however, be used in isolation to other business processes.

There are also other ‘bits’ and ‘bobs’ that can be built-in or integrated to ensure that your business processes are fully automated. And automation saves you time and therefore, money!

Core operations that a good ERP can manage for your business are not limited to the following:
- Sales (the lifeblood of your business)
- Customer Support (now extended to Customer Engagement)
- Accounting and Finance (all your banking, invoicing, payments and taxation)
- Supply chain and logistics management (Cataloguing, Inventory, stock management, warehousing, storage and deliveries)
- Retail (B2B, eCommerce, Point of Sales)
- Human Resources (Staffing, holiday bookings, Salaries and wages, recruitment).
- Marketing (Branding, campaign management, targeted ads etc.)
Can you imagine these have been in use since the industrial revolution and the introduction of chain stores?

Trade with IQOption

ERP is the abbreviation for Enterprise Resource Planning and is basically the software your business uses on PCs/cashier systems, scanners, and all points of sale devices.

One of a kind

We identified and reviewed a specialized ERP called SmartSaleERP. It is an integrated tech platform targeted for retail business owners to help you get in control of your business.

Granted, there are hundreds of ERP solutions out there including those from known brands such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Zoho etc.

A distinguishing feature on SmartSaleERP however, is the kind of technology they use over and above the traditional features and user interfaces (UI).

This ‘edge’ comes from the use of biometric and smartcard tech to provide you with a better customer/user experience. The sales experience can be derived from both the customer and the business side.

Read the full feature to find out more about this distinct ERP here.
2 April 2019
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
The Impact of AI, Machine Learning & Automation on Businesses
We are living in exciting and innovative times with futuristic technology literally at our fingertips. But for the longest time, small to medium-sized businesses were not serviced by the latest tech trends enterprises have been able to benefit from. That is, until now. This piece explores these technology trends and how they will impact business in 2018 and beyond.

So, what kind of things can this ‘smart’ tech do? Just 4 months ago, an AI machine managed to complete a University level math exam 12 times faster than it normally takes the average human. How? Through the art of machine learning; where computers learn and adapt through the experience without explicitly being programmed.

Furthermore, Facebook made headlines earlier this year when their chatbots created their own language. Some Fake News stories claim that the engineer’s pulled the plugin a panic as they were getting too smart. However, the truth is that for Facebook’s purposes the chatbots needed to stick to English rather than developing their own shorthand. Their machine learning chatbots did nevertheless, create their own language outside their explicit programming.

This evolving area of computer science is the future for service businesses, and it’s already affecting the way we live and work today. In fact, research firm Markets and Markets estimates that the machine learning market will grow from $1.41 billion in 2017 to $8.81 billion by 2022!

So buckle up because these technology trends will affect every part of your business, from marketing to operations all the way through to payroll and here’s how.

Marketing Gets Smarter with AI and Machine Learning

AI and Social Media Marketing

In April 2017, CRM software provider, Salesforce conducted a study of marketing leaders worldwide, and the results were mind-blowing. Respondents said they expect to see improvements in efficiency and advancements in personalization over the next five years. More than 60 percent of marketers also envision leveraging AI to create dynamic landing pages, websites, programmatic advertising and media buying.

The main way AI will affect marketing is through nurturing leads through social media. But how? Through personalized, real-time content targeting that produces 20 percent more sales opportunities. With behavioural targeting methods, AI will be able to locate and start the nurture process, for example, a marketing stack that employs AI algorithms might learn that a specific buyer who checks into LinkedIn on Monday mornings has recently started looking for a new CRM tool. The software can then suggest (or even create) targeted posts to be published on the days and times that they’ll see them: one that asks their requirements of the software and another follow up piece with a comparison of the CRM ecosystem.

Currently, savvy marketers that are using social listening as way to nurture leads don’t have the necessary enhancement of AI and is, therefore, time-consuming, manual and not in real-time. So how do you start to get ready for this type of future content marketing distribution?

Firstly, you will need to have your buyer personas (using the consumer black box theory ) well defined. Taking a solid look at your CRM will give you tons of hints for content that will get qualified leads to respond. By taking a step back and analyzing your channel’s content (like emails, phone calls and social media messages) you will start to get the right kind of insights that will prompt a lead to take the next step into the second phase of your sales funnel. For instance, a C-Suite executive might respond best to data-driven whitepapers and infographics to peak their interests, whereas a fellow marketer might be more suited for an interactive case-study or video.

The only way to get these kinds of insights is to do a deep dive into your CRM platform and conduct a thorough review of customer details – using semantic analysis to understand the level of buying intent behind the words your qualified prospects use.

Hot tip: Starting to run your analysis now and developing strong personas will be key to implementing AI algorithms to your social media in 2018 and beyond.

Marketing and Machine Learning

Put simply, machine learning is about understanding data and statistics. It’s a technical process where computer algorithms find patterns in data, then predict probable outcomes – like when your email determines whether a particular message is spam or not depending on words in the subject line, links included in the message, or patterns identified in a list of recipients. This is a perfect example of how machine learning can be applied in marketing to optimize for successful campaigns.

Businesses can also use machine learning to up-sell the right product, to the right customer, at the right time. In 2018, marketers will continue to rely on machine learning to understand open rates when it comes to email – so you know exactly when to send your next campaign to increase click-through rates and ROI. The next big thing? It might sound small but ticket tagging and re-routing can be a massive expense for small businesses – costs that can be saved with machine learning.

Having a sales inquiry automatically end up with the sales team, or a complaint end up instantly in the customer service department’s queue, is going to save companies a lot of time and money, and this is all being made possible with modern technology.

And while solving issues in record time and delivering successful email campaigns is great, this is just the beginning.

Here’s what else to expect in 2018:

E-Commerce Reaches New Heights

You’ve been shopping for a new pair sunglasses on Amazon, then before you know it, your Facebook feed is filled with multiple eyewear ads and related trends for summer: this is machine learning. In fact, this example of analyzing data based on a user’s purchase history or online shopping behaviour is the future for e-commerce.

Retail companies are also tracking what ads or images you’re most likely to stop scrolling on, in order to target you with specific content. For example, if you always click on ads that contain happy women and some text, then a machine will log this as preferred content so that you are only targeted with ads that fit this description. Machines can also track what time of day you are most active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and/or Pinterest, in order to present these ads to you at an optimal buying time.

Then when it’s time to purchase, machine learning is applied to reduce the risk of credit fraud in small businesses. How? Machines learn from historical datasets that contain fraudulent transactions and can identify patterns that represent a typical fraudulent transaction – similar to the way spam emails are detected and deterred. Machine learning will start to affect other parts of your business funnel as well, just take a look at the rise of Chatbots.

Integrating Chatbots

There was a time in which chatbots were only thought of as manmade pests on the Internet, but through machine learning, they are getting smarter and businesses are embracing them en mass.

In 2018 and beyond, chatbots will play a key role in the future of customer service. Why? Chatbots can help achieve a faster customer service resolution, as well as provide quick histories of each customer for impeccable customer service. There are some key benefits that chatbots have over solely human interactions:
- Giving 24/7 customer service: The great things about machines? They don’t sleep! Coupled with the fact that chatbots are getting sophisticated enough to recognize human emotions such as anger, confusion, fear and joy. So should a chatbot encounter negative sentiments from the customer, they can seamlessly transfer to a human to take over and finish assisting the customer.
- The era of being ‘on hold’ is gone: A huge barrier to providing excellence in customer service is long wait times. How many times have you tried to get customer service from Comcast (or any TV/Internet provider) and you are getting progressively more frustrated with the wait times? This can all be eliminated with chatbots!
- Quick access to customer data makes service more personal: One thing that humans will never be better at than chatbots is quickly digesting customer data and history to provide context to customer questions. Chatbots excel at collecting customer data from support interactions. They can serve as virtual assistants that can feed customer data to your customer service officers so they have a full history of each account quickly.
This emerging tool for businesses already has significant buy-in from thought leaders around the globe. In fact, Larry Kim, Founder of Wordstream, is all in on chatbots as he has started his own company where his bots are currently in beta. With this move, it will be interesting to see how businesses will leverage robots throughout other aspects of their business. The final trend we’ll explore is Automation and how it affects businesses today.

Automation now and beyond 2018

Though Machine Learning and AI are hot topics in the tech world, it is not to a point that small to medium size businesses can leverage it in the immediate future. But there is still hope for them with automation. Powered by the Cloud, this type of technology has already revolutionized Marketing and Sales workflows and interactions but it is also starting to touch the various other parts of a business. For example:

Operations Automation

Once you win an important sale, you’ve got to deliver the product or service you’ve promised to the client. What does that process look like for most businesses now? You all will have a kick-off meeting and hope to cover all the promises that marketing and sales have given to your client.

However, with the use of operations automation and a powerful CRM, you will be able to read the interactions and see all the various touch points a client had with your company before that kick off call even happens. This will give all service businesses a head start in providing great client relations and managing expectations. This category of SaaS products is called Service Operations Automation, or ServOps for short.

Accounting Automation

If there is one data-entry heavy department it would be Accounting. The problem is that as humans, we are fallible and much slower at data entry than a machine. Innovations with bank feeds, rules-based categorization and integrated payments have dramatically reduced the workload of clerical and bookkeeping staff and given business owners more timely access to accurate financial information for their businesses.

Research, done by Xero, (a popular financial software provider) suggests that by 2020, automation will be commonplace in accounting, and a significant number of finance professionals will be using the next level of analytical tools to help them add value to business models across the globe.

Payroll/HR Automation

Finally, the Cloud and Automation have come to the Payroll and Human Resources sector. These important areas of a business too often suffer because small businesses aren’t big enough to afford a full-time HR department. What’s the alternative? Having only part-time efforts of founders and principals which can often lead to serious risk to the business.

For instance, Zenefits will automatically submit forms to the national tax authorities on the behalf of companies. With new automation technology, compliance is automated by platforms and the effort of keeping time-off approvals in sync with PTO balances and payslips becomes a thing of the past.

In the near future, we will see the rise of great technology, powered by the Cloud, Automation, AI and Machine Learning. This truly is the start of the Golden Age of Information Technology and it is time for businesses to take a hard look at their organizations and find ways to start integrating these tech trends.

This is a slightly shortened re-blog from a marketing post on Tenfold.com *

*This post was guest-authored by Tara Callinan and Jenneva Vargas from Accelo
23 July 2018
Impact of Automation on Business
We are living in exciting and innovative times with futuristic technology literally at our fingertips. But for the longest time, small to medium-sized businesses were not serviced by the latest tech trends enterprises have been able to benefit from.

That is, until now. This piece explores these technology trends and how they will impact business in 2018 and beyond.

So, what kind of things can this ‘smart’ tech do? Just 4 months ago, an AI machine managed to complete a University level math exam 12 times faster than it normally takes the average human.

How? Through the art of machine learning; where computers learn and adapt through the experience without explicitly being programmed.
Furthermore, Facebook made headlines earlier this year when their chatbots created their own language. Some ‘fake news’ stories claim that the engineer’s pulled the plugin a panic as they were getting too smart.

However, the truth is that for Facebook’s purposes the chatbots needed to stick to English rather than developing their own shorthand. Their machine learning chatbots did nevertheless, create their own language outside their explicit programming.

This evolving area of computer science is the future for service businesses, and it’s already affecting the way we live and work today. In fact, research firm

Markets and Markets estimate that the machine learning market will grow from $1.41 billion in 2017 to $8.81 billion by 2022!

So buckle up because these technology trends will affect every part of your business, from marketing to operations all the way through to payroll, and here’s how.

AI and Social Media Marketing

In April 2017, CRM software provider, Salesforce conducted a study of marketing leaders worldwide, and the results were mind-blowing. Respondents said they expect to see improvements in efficiency and advancements in personalization over the next five years.
More than 60 percent of marketers envision leveraging AI to create dynamic landing pages, websites, programmatic advertising and media buying.

AI will affect marketing by nurturing leads through social media. But how? Through personalized, real-time content targeting that produces 20 percent more sales opportunities.

With behavioural targeting methods, AI will be able to locate and start the nurturing process. For example, a marketing stack that employs AI algorithms might learn that a specific buyer who checks into LinkedIn on Monday mornings has recently started looking for a new CRM tool.

The software can then suggest (or even create) targeted posts to be published on the days and times that they’ll see them.

Currently, savvy marketers that are using social listening as a way to nurture leads don’t have the necessary enhancement of AI. This is, however, time-consuming, manual, and not in real-time.
So how do you start to get ready for this type of future content marketing distribution?

Firstly, you will need to have your buyer personas (using the consumer black box theory ) well defined. Taking a solid look at your CRM will give you tons of hints for content that will get qualified leads to respond.

By taking a step back and analyzing your channel’s content (like emails, phone calls, and social media messages) you will start to get the right kind of insights. The ones that will prompt a lead to take the next step into the second phase of your sales funnel.

For instance, a C-Suite executive might respond best to data-driven whitepapers and infographics to peak their interests, whereas a fellow marketer might be more suited for an interactive case-study or video.
The only way to get these kinds of insights is to do a deep dive into your CRM platform and conduct a thorough review of customer details – using semantic analysis to understand the level of buying intent behind the words your qualified prospects use.

Hot tip: Starting to run your analysis now and developing strong personas will be key to implementing AI algorithms to your social media in 2018 and beyond.

Marketing and Machine Learning

Put simply, machine learning is about understanding data and statistics. It’s a technical process where computer algorithms find patterns in data, then predict probable outcomes. An example is when your email determines whether a particular message is spam or not depending on words in the subject line, links included in the message, or patterns identified in a list of recipients.

It’s the perfect example of how machine learning can be applied in marketing to optimize for successful campaigns.

Businesses can also use machine learning to up-sell the right product, to the right customer, at the right time. In 2018, marketers will continue to rely on machine learning to understand open rates when it comes to email. This way, you know exactly when to send your next campaign to increase click-through rates and ROI.

The next big thing? It might sound small but ticket tagging and re-routing can be a massive expense for small businesses – costs that can be saved with machine learning.

Having a sales inquiry automatically end up with the sales team, or a complaint end up instantly in the customer service department’s queue, is going to save companies a lot of time and money, and this is all being made possible with modern technology.

Here’s what else to expect in 2018:

E-Commerce Reaches New Heights

You’ve been shopping for a new pair sunglasses on Amazon, then before you know it, your Facebook feed is filled with multiple eyewear ads and related trends for summer.
This is machine learning.
In fact, this example of analyzing data based on a user’s purchase history or online shopping behaviour is the future for e-commerce.

Retail companies are also tracking what ads or images you’re most likely to stop scrolling on, in order to target you with specific content. For example, if you always click on ads that contain happy women and some text, then a machine will log this as preferred content so that you are only targeted with ads that fit this description.

Machines can also track what time of day you are most active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and/or Pinterest, in order to present these ads to you at an optimal buying time.

Then when it’s time to purchase, machine learning is applied to reduce the risk of credit fraud in small businesses.

How? Machines learn from historical datasets that contain fraudulent transactions and can identify patterns that represent a typical fraudulent transaction.
Similar to the way spam emails are detected and deterred. Machine learning will start to affect other parts of your business funnel as well, just take a look at the rise of Chatbots.

Integrating Chatbots

There was a time in which chatbots were only thought of as manmade pests on the Internet. Through machine learning, they are getting smarter and businesses are embracing them en mass.
In 2018 and beyond, chatbots will play a key role in the future of customer service. Why? Chatbots can help achieve a faster customer service resolution, as well as provide quick histories of each customer for impeccable customer service.

There are some key benefits that chatbots have over solely human interactions:
- Giving 24/7 customer service: The great things about machines? They don’t sleep! Coupled with the fact that chatbots are getting sophisticated enough to recognize human emotions such as anger, confusion, fear and joy. So should a chatbot encounter negative sentiments from the customer, they can seamlessly transfer to a human to take over and finish assisting the customer.
- The era of being ‘on hold’ is gone: A huge barrier to providing excellence in customer service is long wait times. How many times have you tried to get customer service from Comcast (or any TV/Internet provider) and you are getting progressively more frustrated with the wait times? This can all be eliminated with chatbots!
- Quick access to customer data makes service more personal: One thing that humans will never be better at than chatbots is quickly digesting customer data and history to provide context to customer questions.
- Chatbots excel at collecting customer data from support interactions. They can serve as virtual assistants that can feed customer data to your customer service officers so they have a full history of each account quickly.
The final trend we’ll explore is Automation and how it affects businesses today.

Automation now and beyond 2018

Though Machine Learning and AI are hot topics in the tech world, it is not to a point that small to medium-sized businesses can leverage them in the immediate future. But there is still hope for them with automation.
Powered by the Cloud, this type of technology has already revolutionized Marketing and Sales workflows and interactions but it is also starting to touch the various other parts of a business. For example:

Operations Automation

Once you win an important sale, you’ve got to deliver the product or service you’ve promised to the client. What does that process look like for most businesses now? You all will have a kick-off meeting and hope to cover all the promises that marketing and sales have given to your client.

However, with the use of operations automation and a powerful CRM, you will be able to read the interactions and see all the various touch points a client had with your company before that kick off call even happens.

This will give your service businesses a head start in providing great client relations and managing expectations. This category of SaaS products is called Service Operations Automation, or ServOps for short.

Accounting Automation

If there is one data-entry heavy department it would be Accounting. The problem is that as humans, we are fallible and much slower at data entry than a machine. Innovations with bank feeds, rules-based categorization and integrated payments have dramatically reduced the workload of clerical and bookkeeping staff.

This gives business owners more timely access to accurate financial information for their businesses.

Research, done by Xero, (a popular financial software provider) suggests that by 2020, automation will be commonplace in accounting. A significant number of finance professionals will be using the next level of analytical tools to help them add value to business models across the globe.

Payroll/HR Automation

Finally, the Cloud and Automation have come to the Payroll and Human Resources sector. These important areas of a business too often suffer because small businesses aren’t big enough to afford a full-time HR department.

What’s the alternative? Having only part-time efforts of founders and principals which can often lead to serious risk to the business.

With new automation technology, compliance is automated by platforms. The effort of keeping time-off approvals in sync with PTO balances and payslips becomes a thing of the past.

In the near future, we will see the rise of great technology, powered by the Cloud, Automation, AI, and Machine Learning.

This truly is the start of the Golden Age of Information Technology and it is time for businesses to take a hard look at their organizations and find ways to start integrating these tech trends.

This is a slightly shortened re-blog from a marketing post on Tenfold.com *

*This post was guest-authored by Tara Callinan and Jenneva Vargas from Accelo
23 July 2018
Great PC Phone Plug-ins for your CRM & ERP tools

Before deciding to purchase a top CRM solution like that of Microsoft Dynamics, many companies are left to question the said CRM’s integration capabilities — specifically, whether the Microsoft Dynamics Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) integration is user-friendly.

Find out the benefits, how to do PC (VOIP) phone integrations and what is on offer by a top supplier here: Practical CRM & ERP integration tools

27 June 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
Already GDPR-ed Out?

Well, it didn’t take long. Less than a full week in fact, for the first GDPR-related court cases to surface against social tech giants Facebook and Google.

It was as if lawyers were just waiting to pounce on them for their apparent failure to protect our rights as online users. This pertains specifically to issues relating to data privacy and the sharing of private details mainly with third-party marketers.

How Facebook stores and shares your data has been clarified by several intense inquiries in the US and recently in Europe. This is where the law is set to benefit users of the social media platform in that geospatial area of the world.

The said lawsuit, however, focuses on the opt-out clause that forces you to make a choice to comply or leave. The claimant is a privacy campaigner. He has made the Billion-Euro complaint on behalf of several users; seemingly a challenge to Facebook.

Additionally, he has launched a separate suit against Google, accusing them of “pressurizing” users into accepting their data collection policies.
This ‘comply and accept or get thrown out’ clause could leave you without your routine dose of social media consumption. Such a clause is thus deemed unfair.

It could cost Facebook a lot if they get their way based on the terms stipulated in the new law. The social media giant could be fined up to a few billion or a sizeable fraction of their earnings in punitive damages.

The aim of the new law

The passing of the new regulation on May 25^th, 2018, better known as the General Data Protection Regulation {GDPR} has been a long time coming.

Despite the warnings of the “kick-in” of the regulation, many are unprepared for it. Some of the reactions to the law include confusion, anxiety by both large and small firms alike, and plain comical hysteria!

Non-compliance now carries heavy fines and penalties, up to 20 million euros for anyone operating within the EU borders.

So, what then, is the big fuss about GDPR?

Well, it boils down to a right that has since the launch of the Internet to the mainstream, been waivered and overlooked. Gaining CONSENT to use your data for anything other than the reason you went public on the Internet is very crucial.

This has become a contentious issue as many companies have over the years, unscrupulously benefited from data acquired (mined) – without your consent. Facebook only brought this into the spotlight recently.

You can read more about data mining here

Ad: Web, Network & App Scanner

Who needs compliance?

If you hold a folder, database of clients whether online or on your internal server, you would have to comply with the rules which stipulate full disclosure. This includes who you share your details with, and how the information is tracked, shared, and kept secure.

Furthermore, research in March this year showed that only 39% of the Fortune 500 companies in the UK and 47% had GDPR compliance taskforces.

Another UK firm commissioned study found that our buying behaviours are heavily influenced by we perceive our data is being handled by companies.

The consent given to use your basic information cannot be taken for granted – even in the medical environment.

German doctors’ practices, in the wake of GDPR, are manually making you sign consent forms. Doctors are now required to fully disclose who they share your contact information with.

How to be compliant

There are simple ways you can stay GDPR compliant. One method is to adopt an attitude of embracing it rather than just complying with it. You can be transparent with your customers by doing the following:

Add a cookie bar to your website. You can also add a clause/paragraph to that effect (website disclaimer) in your ‘About Us’ section.

Similarly, you must state clearly on any opt-in forms. Newsletters and any forms where their data is collected, used, and passed onto other third-parties must be announced. State clearly who they are and which data they have access to.

You then need to give your customer the option to select what they want to share. Even if such data may not be necessary for them to receive services from you.

Constantly review your relationships with third-party affiliates and partners to ensure that they are also complying with the law.
They could be jeopardizing your data compliance efforts – as Cambridge Analytica did with Facebook.

The last and most challenging step requires the action of what is promised above. This means an upgrade of your internal software to include security/encryption.

GDPR compliant software

You can obtain full compliance by using a GDPR-compliant package like Office 365 Enterprise E3. This package has email software specially designed for those of you dealing with sensitive client’s data that need to be kept for long periods. Litigation hold, heavy archiving features; as well as basic email encryption are all included.

You can add supplementary encryption software such as Azure Information Protection as an extra layer of security. This helps you to safeguard emails and stored data from being lost, compromised, or accidentally shared.

All said and done it is likely that if you are a bigger firm, you would either need to create the position of a data security officer internally. If your lawyers are not up to date with digital laws, however, you can simply outsource the service.

This should help make you become fully compliant thereby having to avoid issues with the data compliance authority altogether.

1 June 2018

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