Tag: IT

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
For investment gains or for purpose?

As much as institutions, risk-averse, or simply skeptical people have downplayed the new digital currency revolution. It still, a decade after coming to public light, remains resilient.

Bitcoin now gets a regular mention in daily news and stock market reports. It is being traded by several established investors and even included by fund managers as high-risk portfolio instruments.

We all by now, have heard the rhetoric of high volatility and use for criminal activity when it comes to Bitcoin and its crypto-family.

Billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates also weighed into this by publicly lambasting Bitcoin. Buffet equated cryptocurrency to rat poison 🙂

Be it may, digital currency, however, does have some unbeatable benefits and functions you cannot ignore.

Financial emancipation

Bitcoin and ‘altcoin’ investing have created a new wave of financial investors.

These include retired bankers, ‘millennials’ – who instinctively jump on-board a new discovery that has creative destruction-like tendencies. You also have the plumber, bartender, or ‘average man on the street’ looking to change their lifestyles instantaneously.

Based on their phenomenal returns, many people have taken to social media (via groups, profiles, and communities) to share their success stories. But this is also a reason to for you to heed caution when you take counsel from anyone claiming to be an expert in cryptocurrency investment.

Volatility is not new to trading – and especially not with Crypto trading. It is constantly on a rollercoaster ride making it hard for even seasoned trading experts to predict movements with traditional market analysis tools.

Money transfer

We all have undergone the painful stress of waiting for funds to clear so your rent gets paid or waiting endlessly to receive money from abroad.

With cryptocurrency, the aim is to be not only the most secure form of funds transfer – but the fastest.

Converting cryptocurrency to fiat money, however, remains a bottleneck. It still needs institutions to adopt or directly accept payments in cryptocurrency to avoid you going through another step in order to transact.

Cryptocurrencies still cut down transfer time significantly compared to traditional electronic fund transfers of fiat money.

Some well-established companies already use Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and Litecoin for fund transfers, or even direct exchange for services.

Cost savings

We cannot ignore the reduced costs associated with dealing with money you have (hopefully) earned from hard work.

Even inheritances are gained because of the toils of the giver’s hard work. So, it wouldn’t be fair for a group of a few companies headed by executives to siphon it from you while claiming to ‘provide you with a service’.

We all pay for Internet use (and the security software associated), for smartphones and computers.

We, therefore, have the technology to make transactions ourselves without having to rely on others to charge us for things we can do ourselves.

The financial institutions have long preyed on your ignorance, obedience, and unquestioning trust. This, while they brazenly burn cash dabbling in equally questionable high-risk investments like derivatives and futures.

Use cases

Cryptocurrencies have nevertheless, got us thinking about making profits, the tax implications, and anything financial for that matter!

A recent development called Hodl Waves attempts to track and predict Bitcoin movements via complex usage history. It basically compares behavioural patterns of what you do when you have coins and when you choose to reinvest them.

Blockchain technology has also spurred a new path of careers and industries. More companies globally are looking to acquire lucrative Crypto-exchange licenses to operate.

These cryptocurrency exchanges require people to service clients in various areas. They will require employees as any company would.

Governments too will benefit from their operations. While there are still discrepancies in most countries about how to tax you, authorities can get a lion’s share from directly taxing exchanges.

A new wave arises

It is only a matter a time before the banking institutions and big companies get on board to benefit from the high-level encryption and speed provided by digital currency.

To conclude, the ‘wait and see’ mantra is all that we can exercise when predicting the future of digital currency.

There are, however, concerns on how secure the encryption can remain with the advent of quantum computing. This ground-breaking tech can make calculations at millions of speeds faster and thus able to crack the toughest data encryption.

Some form of regulation would be required in some form to keep Crypto prices stable.

10 May 2018
Life hacks using tech

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

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

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

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

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

Problem-solving scenario

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

The concept explained

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

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

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

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

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

Application and security

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

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

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

Shopping and housing convenience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tweaking the solution

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

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

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

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

Welcome to the future!

9 February 2018
Rise of the machines

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

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

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

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

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

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

Automation & AI usage

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

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

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

Trading bots

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

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

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

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

Other use cases

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

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

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

Limits of robotics

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

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

Embracing it

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

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

3 December 2017
One tool to serve them all

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

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

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

The purpose

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

Practical uses of CRM

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

Salient features

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

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

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

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

30 November 2017
Connect with the world faster

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

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

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

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

Information overload

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

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

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

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

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

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

Uses of social media

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

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

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

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

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

Google:

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

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

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

Wikipedia:

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

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

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

Investopedia:

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

Twitter:

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

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

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

Facebook:

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

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

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

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

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

LinkedIn:

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

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

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

Instagram:

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

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

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

WhatsApp:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snapchat:

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

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

20 November 2017

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