Category: Insights

7 Ways Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Will Revolutionise Banking in 2019

Miley on August 1, 2019

The Deloitte Global RPA Survey 2018 provides a clear indication regarding the significance of RPA benefits: payback was reported at less than 12 months, with an average 20% of full-time equivalent (FTE) capacity provided by software robots.

Adopters’ expectations have been exceeded concerning improving compliance (92%), quality and accuracy (90%), or productivity (86%), to mention a few, view product website. This is the case cross-industry, but we should not forget that banks are pioneers of digital transformation simply because automation technology serves them so well.

A simple reason for this is that robotic process automation (RPA) can assist in dealing with some of the main current challenges in banking, i.e. the need to improve customer service to live up to the standards of a growing number of tech-savvy clients, who expect very precise and rapid processes.

Some of the effects of delegating the responsibility for mundane processes to bots are faster outcomes, not marred by errors, or optimized advisory services.

Robotic process automation can streamline banking operations, making them more efficient and simultaneously lowering costs. According to UiPath, by automating the trade settlement in a global investment bank, the average handling time (AHT) to process trades was reduced from 40 minutes to 3 minutes, with an expected effort benefit of 444 hours per year.

Robotic process automation (RPA) in banking in 2019

Saying that RPA will revolutionize banking in 2019 is a strong statement indeed. What can we expect to happen automation-wise during 2019 in the banking sector?

Orchestrated use of other tools and technologies (e.g. the cloud), more premises for higher-value jobs, improved employee and customer satisfaction, enhanced human-robot collaboration, to name but a few.

We believe the most important development is that robotic process automation adoption is set to become mainstream. This should be easier to understand if you consider that some leading RPA service providers will begin to broaden their reach to small and medium-sized businesses too.

What are the benefits of RPA in banking, the gains that you can reasonably expect to enjoy throughout the current year? In the first place, automation doesn’t require a significant change in your IT department because the implementation is just like adding another low-cost layer to the banking applications already in use.

The launch can be quick since software robots can be tested in short cycle iterations. Then, employees can be trained to handle the bots themselves, without having to wait for help from the IT team. The significant reduction in AHT cited above is easy to understand if you consider software robots’ scalability potential and their capacity to work around the clock, 365 days/year. Moreover, bots remove the burden of menial tasks from employees’ workload, thereby increasing the likelihood that they are satisfied with their jobs.

Let’s now see more concretely how robotic process automation is likely to address some challenges the banking industry may face in 2019. Before diving into specific processes, let’s take a look at the general guidelines for selecting high impact application areas.

You should look for repetitive, mature and stable, rule-based, high-frequency processes, with a low rate of variable outcomes and with readable inputs. We also recommend starting automating activities with measurable savings, to grant objective outcome evaluation and goal achievement. Here are 7 such examples.

1. Credit underwriting

This complex process can be broken down into retail credit assessment, and retail fraud prevention. The problem is that insufficient resources, particularly workforce resources, can weigh heavily on the staff when they have to carry out these tasks.

You’ll better grasp the size of this challenge if you consider the requirement to access multiple internal and external applications to bring to completion the two subprocesses of credit underwriting. But software robots’ integrative capacity allows them to access and process data fast and accurately. They can easily check relevant information, including scanning for a suspicious activity about the credit applicant across different databases.

Bots can accurately predict the customer risk of fraudulent activity based on analyzing these data patterns. They can then gather all the information needed for credit assessment and fraud prevention in a single report to be presented to the human credit analyst. The analyst is thus freed from the painstaking task of carefully tracking bank account and credit card activity and can make a good decision based on the bot’s assessment.

A case study from UiPath illustrates this scenario, where bots performed these activities in 5 minutes with exceptional accuracy (as opposed to one hour for manual processing).

2. Trade financing

This process calls for a collection of documents in various formats, such as purchase orders, bills, or invoices. Software robots can easily parse through this variety of documents to capture, classify, and extract the relevant information.

Furthermore, they can also handle matching and validation tasks. The outcome can then be delivered to the document management systems as a simple Excel spreadsheet.

3. Corporate loan processing

This activity requires, in the first place, collecting application forms and supporting documents from multiple sources, such as fax machines, printers, or email folders. Bots are not at all bothered by the need to check multiple sources. They scan the documents, categorize and extract the needed data, and export it to an Excel spreadsheet, which is part of the document repository.

4. Account opening

A whitepaper from Tata Consultancy Services named “Why Banks Must Bank on RPA” gives the example of a global bank using software robots to pick out information from input forms and deliver it to various host applications.

By so doing, the bank was able to avoid the daunts of manual processing, such as high rates of error and increased processing time. The outcome was indeed satisfactory: almost a third of processing time, zero error, and cost reduction of $50.000/year.

5. Customer service

RPA can easily handle customers’ low priority queries on its own while allowing the human minds to concentrate on the high priority ones, which require more complex and intense processing (and offer correspondingly higher job satisfaction).

Software bots can verify faster and more accurate customer details from different sources, and consequently onboard them promptly. The resulting capacity to reduce waiting times contributes significantly to the bank’s improved relations with customers and consequently, to their higher satisfaction with the bank.

6. Know Your Customer (KYC) processes

KYC is an essential compliance process for all banks. It is underpinned by activities such as customer data collection, screening, and validation. Given the software robots’ ability for fast and accurate data processing, they are prime candidates to take over these repetitive tasks.

7. Processing credit card applications

RPA software streamlines document gathering, making credit and background checks, and finally, deciding customer eligibility for a credit card based on clearly set parameters. This results in a substantial reduction of waiting times for credit card applications, thereby addressing an important challenge in banking.

Conclusion

Competition in the banking sector is fierce. Banks must use all resources to meet customer expectations, optimize costs, and react appropriately to FinTech players’ counter competition. They must do so in conditions of rising workforce costs and scarcity of skilled resources.

Simultaneously, the competitive atmosphere demands increased productivity. As you may notice, there are a lot of imperatives involved. They all call for leveraging robotic process automation in banking to successfully attain business targets such as cost-effectively transforming the backend, decreased processing times, increased accuracy, overall efficiency, and quicker time-to-market.

It comes as no surprise then that RPA in the banking sector provides a good example of why automation is a noteworthy competitive advantage.

About the author

Daniel Pullen is General Manager at CiGen, one of the first dedicated Robotic Process Automation companies based in Australia. He is passionate about intelligent automation, robotics automation consulting and bringing the benefits of digital robotics into the workplace.

Insights Martech SaaS

How to Create an Amazing Impact by Integrating Instagram & Web Design

Miley on August 1, 2019

Businesses have been relying a great deal on the power and versatility of social media platforms to engage the right audience. Among so many popular options available to marketers, Instagram is regarded as the way to go in 2019 since it has witnessed the best ever conversion ratio. As such, every web design business or freelance web designer is seriously thinking in terms of creating synergy between Instagram and website design to enjoy the fruits of both the worlds.

Instagram has a phenomenal outreach and as a result, it is the destination to go-to for all aspiring web designers and marketers. The platform has an astonishing user base of over 1 billion active users and with some of the follower services available, it is not difficult reaching lots of them. However, you do need to careful with the companies offering such services; The Small Business Blog suggests Buzzoid is a dirty scam, for instance. The users are actively interacting on the platform as they end up uploading 40,000 pictures every day and they end up posting 1,000 comments every second. The activity level on this versatile and vibrant social media platform makes it more enticing for the web design fraternity to leverage the platform to their maximum advantage. Let us explore ways to achieve an effective design synergy between Instagram and your official website.

Strive for an Interactive Web Design

The most amazing characteristic of Instagram is its inherent quality of interacting with users naturally besides, generating engaging content. This interactive characteristic of Instagram would be taken to the next level by utilizing effective tools such as Gramista that is used as a substitution for the Instagram users when they are absent from the platform. This helps in keeping the regular activities going on as usual.

Web visitors, who are coming from Instagram, are having certain expectations from your website too. They could be expecting similar browsing comfort and intuitive web design. Web designs must be made more interactive in order to deliver the same degree of comfort as on Instagram. Moreover, an interactive website could assure a better UX or user experience to the traffic that is redirected from Instagram. Better User Experience automatically implies better brand appeal. The interactive element and amazing user experience on Instagram help you to obtain massive followers for Instagram.

Logos: Keep up with the Trend

It is mandatory to stay abreast with the latest developments and trends in the field of web designing and social media in order to win a competitive edge. As such, a design makeover is a must. An overall website overhaul becomes all the more necessary when we focus on creating a website with elements of interactivity so that it could be on par with Instagram.

As per https://buffer.com, it is quite challenging to stay abreast with the latest social media logos. Moreover, even when you are able to identify the logos, it could take a reasonable amount of time to understand fully the brand guidelines. We know that Instagram has a sole focus on captivating and truly fascinating imagery and nothing really symbolizes this better than its logo. While creating content for your website, it could be really helpful to consider having a transparent logo of Instagram for using it in your designs.

Moreover, the design of the brand logo must be created with a lot of care as it would become the face of your company. Brand logos must be adjusted and refined for resonating with the brand aesthetics.

Minimalism Is the Key to Success

Optimal use of all the design elements seems to be the cornerstone of minimalism. Website designs must have adequate free space. Avoid clutter and overcrowding with undesirable pictures and content. Websites with the clutter-free design would motivate visitors to spend quality time on your website without any unnecessary distractions. Websites with excessive design elements just for demonstrating the web designer’s proficiency could prove to be a flop idea as users would be irritated or frustrated with such distracting design elements.

Conclusion

Instagram has actually redefined web design. If you want your website to stay attractive to the visitors and potential customers, you must necessarily stay abreast with the latest social media particularly, Instagram trends and hire a web designer or business to help you with it.

About the author

Pete Campbell is a social media manager and has immense knowledge about email marketing and Instagram promotion. He delights his clients by helping them buy real Instagram likes. He loves to travel, write and play baseball.

Insights

How to Hire the Right Town Planner for Your Need?

Miley on July 31, 2019

Town planning and development application companies advise the real estate developers in matters of property designs and development ideas as per the rules and regulations of the local councils and state. They prepare strategies and analysis reports to get approval from the bureaucrats for your property. From a simple house extension work involving duplex to elaborate projects, including large boarding houses, they can come in handy in various scenarios. You don’t have to worry about whether your design is facing a compliance issue or how you can develop your property the best way for more returns. These professionals are there to solve your every concern related to planning and development. However, for that, you need to be accurate with your hiring decision.

In New South Wales, there is no shortage of these types of consulting companies. To understand which can be in your best interest, you can follow the tips recommended below.

Experience and expertise

Before you loop in any company, go through at least 4 to 5 such service providers in your area. Look for their services. How long they have been working in this field and what types of spaces they handled in this journey can help you identify the right one for you. You can shortlist the town planners by exploring the best construction projects in your city and the people behind them. As an alternative, you can also search online for companies specializing in this field. From websites, you can get a fair amount of information about them.

Design feedback and suggestions

Once you feel that a particular company can handle your project, you can invite the contractor to your construction place. Ask him what he thinks about the design and what improvements can be there. You can also seek answers for a couple of questions like these:

Do you believe there is a need for a pre-application meeting with the council? (Look for reasons in either situation)
Do you think the board will approve this development project?
Can there be any challenge from our neighbors?
How much time may a formal application process take?

You can try this with at least three to four companies. The more views, the better! It will help you decide who can be perfect for the job as you can compare their suggestions before finalizing their services.

Service charges

Different companies can have their pricing quotes. The fees may vary depending on the nature of the project. However, you need to have a precise estimate of how much their services can cost you. It will help you stick to your construction budget and find someone more suitable for your needs.

Reference

You can go to a well-known real estate development company in your circle to find out about the town planners they have hired. You can ask for recommendations from them so that you can rest assured that the consulting company is trustworthy. Bringing someone who has prior experience of serving local government can be advantageous. So, keep this factor in mind.

Finding an experienced urban planner may look challenging initially. But with patience and careful approach, you can discover the most suitable service provider quickly. In case you have any urgency in this area, you can consider visiting Outlook Planning website once.

Development Insights Martech

Top Five Reasons to Verify Your Email List

Miley on July 30, 2019

Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective strategies to garner leads and sales. However, for a successful email marketing campaign, there’s more you need to do. From good design down to interesting content, everything should be almost perfect and catered to your subscribers.

And of course, you also need to make sure that the people you send emails to are the right ones. This means you’ll need to verify your email lists regularly, which some people may not actually like doing. While it’s admittedly a tedious task, it’s very beneficial and can help with your overall email marketing strategies.

But why exactly should you invest your time in your verifying email lists? Read on as I show you the top five reasons to verify your email list now!

Top Five Reasons to Verify Your Email List

What happens when you don’t verify your email list regularly? Think of it as leaving your doors open in bad neighborhoods, meaning you only get low-quality traffic. With that said, these are the five specific reasons why you need to run through your existing email lists regularly:

1. Improves Your Inbox Deliverability and Engagement Rates

Your email marketing campaign means nothing if it doesn’t reach inboxes, which is referred to as inbox deliverability. This is correlated to a Sender Score, which is a system that identifies you as either a spammer or trusted sender.

With better quality data from verified email lists, it equates to better performance, listing you as a trusted sender. This lessens the chances of your emails reaching spam folder.

Besides this, verifying email data can help you eliminate emails that don’t matter to your campaign. While it means your list size is smaller, it also means better and more quality engagement. It increases the chance of improving your open and click-through rate.

2. Reduces Hard Bounces and Spam Complaints

If you don’t already know yet, hard bounces are such nightmares in email marketing. It lowers your Sender Score, also leading to your meal becoming blacklisted. That’s why it’s important to verify your email, which checks accounts to make sure you only send it to real users.

You don’t only look up the email database, but you also need to check that usernames are registered and have active mailboxes. It gives you assurance your email lists are engaging, lessening any chances of an increased hard bounce rate.

Also, with verified email addresses that actively subscribed to your emails, this lessens the number of spam complaints. This is an advanced email validation tool, costing a bit more but worth it!

3. Avoid Sending to High-Risk and Temporary Emails

What are risky email accounts? These involve sending emails to well-known litigators in the world of email marketing. Or, it can involve email accounts that are linked to chargeback or fraud!

If you send emails to such email addresses, it can be troublesome, leading to you in the blacklist. With proper email validation, it prevents you from emailing high-risk accounts and the dreaded blacklist!

Besides this, many fraudsters also use temporary email accounts. These are emails that are randomly generated and last for only less than two days. Since they do look real on the day of collecting such emails, it sneaks into your opt-in process.

By using an email validation service, they identify any temporary email account and eliminate it immediately. This saves you from looking like spam.

4. Identify Catch-All Email Accounts

For those in the B2B industry, you’re probably already familiar with the catch-all mail servers. These are server configurations which accept emails sent to whatever username, even if mailboxes aren’t created yet! So the email looks real but that result in a kickback.

With the right email validation process, you’re familiar with what mail servers are configured in that way. This has you make the right decisions with your marketing campaign.

5. No More Spambot and Alert Typos

Spambot would flood contact forms with fake data for various reasons. While some companies use CAPTCHA codes to reduce the bots, doing so frustrates subscribers, discouraging them from trying. Once you’re familiar with differences between fake and real accounts, you beat the bots and make the subscription process easier for real users.

Also, email verification prompts if users make a mistake. It lessens human error as they type down their email, with services detecting which is real and what isn’t. Both you and the subscriber will be alerted with an error message if given the wrong data, which has you convert such data to quality email contacts.

How to Verify Your Email Lists

Now that you know all about why it’s important to verify your email lists, how can you do so?

Fortunately, there are many different email verification services you can find online! You can either hire companies to do the job for you or look for services online to do the job for you.

Just make sure that you check the service’s reputation and performance, basing it on overall customer reviews. It’s also important to select the right email verification service that’s reasonably priced. After all, quality services don’t come free!

This allows you to filter out all spammy and useless email accounts quickly. You won’t have to hassle yourself to do it and can focus more on your actual marketing campaign for better results.

Wrapping It Up

Email verification is crucial to campaign the email deliverability and its overall performance. If not, then expect some complaints and hard bounces, which would definitely be a nightmare for many marketers. You’ll be surprised that it isn’t as difficult to do as well, as some options of email verification services do the job for you!

Hopefully, this article on the top five reasons to verify your email list gave you an idea of what to do! So don’t wait any longer and start taking the right steps into verifying your email lists now.

If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences with verifying email lists, then comment below. Your thoughts are much appreciated!

Insights

Smart Ways to Optimise the Security of Your SMB

Miley on July 26, 2019

The job of an SME building manager is both challenging and rewarding. The working hours are long, risks high, and responsibilities often relegated to a small workforce. One can argue that concerns about the security of equipment, building, and employees are not unlike concerns about the safety of a home and its residents. Here’s a list of ways SMB owners and managers can increase safety for their property and business 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/silver-security-camera-207574/

Analyse business risks and company culture

The way you approach the building security and safety sends a message to both your employees and clients about what kind of company you want to become. Overhanging security cameras, remotely-activated doors, and mandatory ID cards might make your business look like a top-secret government installation. On the other hand, the total absence of any visible security measures might speak of a laid back approach to securing the company assets and workforce.

Appraise potential loss

Determining the level of physical and digital security that your company needs becomes easier if you apply a universal risk analysis formula R=PxC, where R stands for Risk, P for probability, and C for consequences. Take a look at all the security incidents your business has had in the past two years and estimate the potential loss or non-financial consequences associated with each threat. When the estimate is done, look for solutions that will eliminate or minimize the chances of each incident repeating. The measures should also reduce the impact and magnitude of the incident, as well as enhance the recovery measures.

Ensure absolute access control

Business owners and managers are constantly in motion, whether within the company limits or in the field. The latest technological achievements in access control systems allow them to control access remotely, using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Still when the high tech fails, and one gets locked out, they still need an emergency response locksmith service to solve the problem. For example, if a scheduled delivery needs to be made via the main gate, using a remote technology a shift manager can grant temporary access to the premises and revoke it as soon as the goods are unloaded.

Focus on digital security

The increasing incidence of data breaches has raised digital security measures to a high priority level for every SME. One way of gaining customers’ trust is keeping their personal data, like name, address, and financial details safe from cyber-attack. For example, a gym that is open 24 hours a day can have automated security solutions that grant members with key cards access, while keeping unauthorised persons out. Even with no overnight staff, paying members who like to take advantage of extended working hours can exercise without worrying about their safety, while the owners know that their assets and patrons are protected even with no staff around.

Eliminate risks from inside

The security solutions you’re looking to implement shouldn’t be measured simply by their efficiency and cost, but also by their impact on your business culture. For example, if the assessment has identified employee theft as one of the highest risks, video surveillance coupled with 24/7 access control eliminates the need of additionally security valuable assets, which also saves time employees would waste signing them out from a specialised storage. By letting non-invasive technology do the ‘policing’, you’re keeping the atmosphere in the company relaxed and enabling yourself to keep any security breach a strictly technical issue.

While challenges that will test the security measures in your SMB can never be completely eliminated, any security measure you implement becomes much more effective if you assess internal and external risks and evaluate potential consequences beforehand.

Insights Products SaaS

13 Best Features of Mac OS Mojave

Miley on July 23, 2019

The macOS Mojave happens to be the 15th prime release of the desktop operating system by Apple.

Hence, it is packed with a range of new functionalities, features, and new capabilities to look at. In this article, we aim to introduce the top 13 best features of the macOS Mojave.

Mojave 10.14 is compatible with Mac system from mid-2012 or later, just as 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models that incorporate the prescribed Metal-skilled illustrations cards. On the off chance that you’re shaking one of those systems, then finding what’s going on in Mojave would be of incredible help.

Dark Mode

The Dark Mode is one of the most loved aspects of Mojave. In this mode, all of the native applications such as Xcode, Photos, Calendar, Safari, and more feature darker themes and colors. These colors happen to be very easy on the eyes, which is especially handy for those who spend a significant amount of time working on the mac.

Dynamic Desktop

Have you always dreamt of having a desktop experience which changes as the day progresses? Well, the dynamic desktop of Mojave allows you to experience a desktop that shifts along with the position of the sun based on your location. Essentially, it changes the wallpaper dynamically from the light sky to blue, followed by darker blue as the night approaches.

Desktop Stacks

Do you struggle with a messy background that is full of icons? Well, the Desktop Stacks in Mojave can help you in bringing everything into order. In order to use Stacks, simply right-click on an empty space and choose ‘Use Stacks’.

Screenshot Markups

The Screenshot Markup feature has been on the IOS for some time. Previously, there was a need for a separate app to annotate the screenshots. However, Mojave brings options to quickly make edits after you have taken the screenshots.

Screenshot Utility

There is a new shortcut added to the macOS screenshot arsenal. The Screenshot Utility bar can be brought up by pressing Cmd + Shift + 5. Using this bar, you can screenshot a specific window or the entire screen. On top of that, you can also record the entire screen or a specific area of the screen.

Continuity Camera

The document scanners are dying out as the world moves to the digital side. The continuity Camera on the Mojave makes it easier for you to scan your documents. Essentially, it detects the document in the frame and cuts everything else out while fixing any minor issues.

IOS Apps on Mac

After you update Apple Mac to Mojave, you may notice a number of familiar icons in the app launcher. Soon, Apple will introduce a translation layer which will make it possible for you to run the IOS apps on the mac. As of yet, only four supported apps from IOS can be run on the app including Voice Memos, News, Stocks, and Home. Also, it is always good to know about CleanMyMacX Review.

The App Store

The new relationship between the macOS and IOS grows even further due to the App Store. Currently, we can see hints of the mobile counterpart in the desktop app store. The new app store is expected to e much more powerful and easier to move around.

Finder

The Finder has not been ignored in the entire Mojave treatment. Previously, the pictures used to look a little awkward with the Quick Look or Cover Flow in the Finder. The new Gallery View in the Finder has changed this completely.

Other enhancements in Mojave

Mojave carries a range of security improvements, along with improvements in Safari revolving around autofill, creating, and storing passwords.

Use APFS to help Fusion Drive

Mojave currently cares more for your files. As guaranteed, Apple made APFS work with Fusion Drive in macOS 10.14 – the unity which empowers you to make, resize and store various volumes of data all the more proficiently on your Mac.

Ask Siri more

The old great Siri gets smarter in macOS Mojave. Not exclusively is Apple’s voice aide lined up with Home Kit, it can likewise enable you to discover saved passwords.

Follow trending topics on Apple News

With Mojave, Apple adds macOS-improved Apple News to the Mac. If you already an active user, you’ll be glad to know that the News application is synced with the iOS version, so you can get speedy access to your preferred sources on Mac directly. Right now, the application is accessible only in a few selected nations like US, UK, and Australia. If you can’t get your hands on Apple News because of geographic restrictions, News Explorer is a good alternative. This convenient newsreader Mac utility is a great device for reading, marking, and sharing content online.

While this is Apple’s greatest and best MAC OS update yet, there are bunches of significant improvements, as well as hidden features in Mojave, which make the upgrade worth it, despite all the trouble. Combine all these tips with the tried-and-trusted applications and you’ll be one happy Mac user.

Insights Martech Products SaaS

How To Protect Your Office Network From Data Theft

Miley on July 23, 2019

Many businesses, especially SMEs, are unaware that they are at risk of data theft until it actually happens to them. This finding was supported by data from the UK’s Cyber Streetwise Campaign indicating that two-thirds of small businesses in the United Kingdom do not think that they are vulnerable to cybercrime. Because of this, it should not come as a surprise then that according to a 2018 Verizon Report, 58% of malware victims are also small businesses.

While there is no 100% guarantee that any method is foolproof, applying these recommended security measures will give you that extra peace of mind that you deserve.

Install anti-malware programs

One of the most common ways cybercriminals steal data is through malware. Malware is short for malicious software, which are usually harmful computer network programs like viruses, worms, adware, spyware, and Trojan horses used to access various devices stealthily. Nowadays, infecting a device with malware does not only happen by plugging external devices like USB sticks and hard drives. You can also get malware on your system electronically when you click a malicious email, download files, and visit unreliable websites. In fact, according to a 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, around 92.4% of malware sneak into a device through email.

You can prevent malware from infecting your office network and risking data theft by installing anti-malware applications on all devices. The more advanced programs can detect even the most sophisticated malware. However, if installing an expensive anti-malware program is out of your budget, you will be surprised to know that even the most basic antivirus apps are still better than leaving your system vulnerable with no protection at all.

Enforce access control policies

With most companies digitizing their data and using Cloud technology, it has become much easier for employees to access and use the information on demand. But with this convenience, there is also the added risk of confidential data being vulnerable to data theft. Business owners often fail to realize that there is a need to enforce data restrictions so that unauthorized users will not be able to access sensitive business information.

This does not only apply to external users but to the internal employees as well. Depending on their job roles, employees should only be granted access to information related to their tasks. For example, entry-level employees, interns, and temporary staff should not be given access to the company’s financial information, legal contracts, and other confidential data assets.

Only use trusted third-party service suppliers

It is common for businesses to use third-party service providers to run business operations. In many instances, these service providers gain access to the company’s data so it is critical to choose with whom you work with very carefully. When selecting a supplier to work with, make sure to research about the company, its track record, and client testimonials.

Examples of third-party suppliers that usually gain access to your data are web hosting and email providers, cloud computing companies, and companies offering remote services. For example, having remote printer diagnostics connecting to an external company means that people outside of your business have access not only to your printers but also to your office network. When granting remote access, make sure to limit the duration of access and the specific part of the network the third-party supplier is allowed to access.

Aside from screening companies that have electronic access to your data, it is also important to scrutinize third-party service providers that gain access to your physical workplace. Building maintenance, facilities management, security, and catering are examples of such services that are often outsourced to third parties, especially by larger companies. Make sure that the suppliers are reputable companies and are not fly-by-night entities.

Use data encryption

You can add another layer of protection to your data by encrypting them. In case anti-malware programs and access control measures fail, having encrypted data will make it harder for data thieves to open and use the stolen information. When you encrypt your data, an encryption key will be required in order for it to be accessed.

Data encryption is also important because it ensures that your data is protected at all times, whether it is just stored when it is in transport. There are also data encryption programs that can protect your data across different devices. This means that even if you lose a device with access to that shared data, it will be more difficult to access because it is encrypted.

Update your software and apps regularly

How many times have you clicked the “dismiss” button when prompted that you need to update some of your device software and applications? A lot of people ignore these important updates and many are even guilty of skipping the automatic updates set-up by their IT guys. You may not be aware that these updates are actually essential to protect your system from a data breach.

Most programs often need to be updated to fix issues including security vulnerabilities discovered by developers. If your system is filled with outdated programs and apps, you are exposing yourself to potential risks so make sure that you’re always running the latest version.

However, it is also recommended to wait at least a week before installing the latest update instead of installing it on Day 1. The reason for this is because there have been instances wherein newly released software updates contained security flaws that were not discovered until users started experiencing them first-hand.

Block instant downloads and access to unreliable websites

During off-peak hours, many employees admit to browsing the internet to pass the time. While it may be harmless for your staff to read the latest news or watch a YouTube video, some of your employees may not realize that the funny gif image that they’re downloading to share with other colleagues is infected with malware. Another common scenario is when users try to download songs or videos from piracy websites, unknowingly downloading spyware in the process.

To prevent this, you can use web filtering software that can automatically block access to websites depending on the categories you choose, the nature of the websites, or the reputation of the websites.

Protecting your data is a worthy investment

The increasing number of businesses being dependent on technology also means that more companies are becoming vulnerable to different types of cybercrime, including data theft. Whether your business is a small start-up or a huge corporation, implementing security measures is definitely worth your time and your money.

Development Insights Martech Products

Importance of Live Event Integration for Tech Enterprise Marketing

Miley on July 22, 2019

To keep with the changing scenario of modern business marketing, enterprise technology, and software companies especially need to follow a different approach in their marketing endeavor. The prime objective should be to leverage tactics that will ensure that they have real results.

In this modern business world, there is an increased competition especially in the technology companies to gain more attention to the different digital channels that are available. The technology companies in the Business to Business sector especially are often found to be struggling to reach out to the right decision-makers to get an idea to increase their sales funnel on the right channels.

However, this inability of them to connect with the decision-makers regarding an important issue or challenge and to find the most dynamic a solution to meet their business goals create a dramatic, if not a drastic impact on the success of most enterprise technology organizations.

The solution to the issue

Now the question is what should you do in such a situation? According to expert marketers and digital marketing agencies like blastup.com and others, if you want to maximize your investment in your marketing initiatives you must look for:

Workable strategies and tools that have the potential to engage these decision-makers and
Making they understand the specific challenges that you are facing currently.

Since they are the thought leaders of the industry they will come up with useful and most dynamic and unique solutions that will help you to gain substantial ROI.

In addition to that, the best things that you can do as a technology, the company is to transform how you market yourself. This will help you to emphasize digital marketing because no matter how counterintuitive it may seem to you, face-to-face interactions are the most important thing to consider. Using the digital channels solely you will be able to separate contenders from pretenders.

Attending live events

Attending and integrating live events will let you have a different focus on your marketing approach, depending on where your organization and solution stands in the marketplace. This will help you to meet your core marketing needs at any point in time and given circumstances. Apart from that, there are several other good reasons to integrate live events with your digital marketing strategy.

Better branding and awareness: For any startup tech company, the main challenge during the early stage is to get noticed in the marketplace. If you take help of the live events you will get a better opportunity to showcase your skill and a couple of good factors about your solution. Live events will also help you to the history of your company as well as yourself. All these will ensure a better branding and creating a larger awareness about your tech company among the audience, targeted and beyond. The prime objective is to get the word out in the marketplace so that when prospects evaluate your solutions eventually they find you ready for service.
More lead generation: If your business is in a much more mature stage, you will need to generate more ‘face to face’ sales leads. Planning here is a crucial aspect and therefore you must make sure that you communicate well with all your important prospects well in advance so that you can drive more attendance to your booth in the event. To collect more contacts, you can have systems installed in place. This will ensure that you have more qualifying leads. You will be better off if you also set up follow-up sales engagements either during the event or after it.
Stronger customer engagement: To meet and greet your existing customers, there is no better way than live events. This will help you to engage with them in a more fun way in a low-pressure format. Since they are your customers already, it will be easier for you to know them in a more personal and granular level. You can discuss their success more casually regarding your solutions. This will, in turn, help you to know whether or not there are any potential up-sell openings.
Impart education: You can organize educational workshops and content in the live event to draw more current customers and new prospects towards you. This will also help you to drive decision-makers to your company on the technical side. This will also help you to gain contact info upfront before you set up any training session. You will also be able to follow up with them just to find out what they got out of the event and the consequent sessions. Finally, you will be able to determine whether they are any good as a potential sales qualified lead.

To organize and attend live events more frequently you must make sure that you stay engaged and active on social media not only before the event but also after it as well. In addition to that you must also:

Encourage your employees especially in the sales team
Spread the word on social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
Find ways to maximize the probabilities of active prospects attending or meeting and
Moving ahead along your sales funnel and cycle.

To move ahead with your sales cycle, you will have to choose the best and most effective channels both online and offline to market your events. A few of these channels are:

Website and blogs
Email and social media
Social communities
Mobile web and apps
SMS text
Paid search and outdoor ads
Online display advertising and direct mail
Affiliate marketing
Print and other media
Telemarketing and others.

All these will help you to get quick exposure and increase the volume of your prospects. All you have to do now is create a useful and smart strategy to nurture these prospects and convert them to your sales leads.

Technology will help you a great deal in all these with marketing automation and set up a proper sequence to follow.

Author’s Bio

Insights Martech

Skills of a Digital Marketing Consultant

Miley on July 20, 2019

Featured image credits by Diggity Marketing

Digital advertising is also called Internet marketing. It can be explained as when the technologies are involved in the business to deliver promotional advertisements to the consumers. It includes promotional advertisements, messages delivery, social media websites, search engines, and online advertising, etc. Are looking for a source to improve your skills in digital advertising?

Networks for online advertising

In the new era, luckily we have various preeminent platforms such as Google, Instagram, and Facebook to enhance online marketing. It helps your business to reach your customers through advertisements and promotions. Though these networks give a wide range of advertisers and offers, digital advertising is one’s own cup of tea. It depends on the interest and potentials to do something outstanding.

The growth rate of digital advertisements

Digital marketing plays a strategic trick to improve business. You can reach millions of people with a laptop and an Internet connection. It helps in spreading your message or product in a matter of hours. 63% of business marketers believe that generating traffic for their promotions and ads is the biggest challenge. Connecting with the right people also matters in advertising. Here is a quick glance at the growth rate of digital marketing:

Email marketing: increases the growth rate by 158% with the help of button clicks.
Social media: helps in doubling the budget over the past few decades
Content marketing: Content marketing strategy increases the growth rate by 50%
SEO Optimization: creates traffic through organic search and increases marketing by 33%
Events: 67% of business runs on event marketing and it is considered to be the most effective strategy

Digital marketing skills

In today’s world, it is highly difficult for you to choose and opt for the right channel with the right plan. To work with a startup or with established firm digital marketing skills are essential. Though it is tough to master all the skills in digital marketing, you can choose the sub-skills and improve in those areas. Here are some tips to learn more about how to improve your digital advertising strategies.

1. SEO – Search Engine Optimization specialist

In the rapidly shifting world, SEO optimization kicks the user experience across the websites. It also helps in driving more traffic to the business via online platforms. SEO helps in adding keywords to the sites with the consideration of border scopes. If you want to enhance your skills in SEO initially you should try to sort and keep track of the important metrics of the selected websites. You should check out these SEO Services.

2. PPC marketing specialist

As the name says “Pay-per-click” is a blog post which operates on three different strategies. If you have to become a PPC marketer then you should have a strong grasp in mathematics and analytics. As it involves huge investments it is said to be highly risky.

Initially, get the money which follows the thumb rule as spend, learn and refine.
Empower yourself with the gathered data and start the marketing
Customer acquisition and keeping yourself upgraded to compete in the market.

3. Become a social media expert

In the current marketing world, social media is growing faster. Almost one-third of the population uses social media platform for various purposes. As there are multiple options like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo, YouTube and so on, the opportunities for marketing is wider. It also includes,

User engagement
Copywriting
Analytics
Visual marketing
Color psychology
Paid marketing

So, if you become a social media expert then you can master the study of marketing.

4. Email marketing

If you have a large number of contacts in your email, then you can master the skill of email marketing. Most business people prefer responsive design for their products along with emails from their campaigns. Writing emails that deliver value, respecting privacy, making unsubscribing easier, creating filters will help in marketing rather than spending hours searching for clients’ every day.

5. Mobile marketing

Writing complicated thoughts, intelligently via an SMS with a responsive design is a way to conquer mobile marketing. The art of mobile marketing overlooks desktop marketing. It also adds real value to the company and also it is less complicated than SEO.

6. Digital marketing analytics

Tracking and analyzing the data is highly important for any marketing strategies. It helps to acquire knowledge about the overall skills of digital advertising. Analyzing different marketing strategies like,

Preparing a report of the intelligence
Product design
Pricing strategy
Pre-post campaign strategies
Marketing ROI

Apart from the above-mentioned skills, there are few more like UX Designing, Desktop marketing, etc.

Final words

The cool fact about digital marketing is that even if you master any one of the above-mentioned skills, you can achieve success in a fast lane. It serves various purposes either for your own business or if you are an entrepreneur for different clients.

Development Insights Martech Products SaaS

Benefits of Developing Mobile Application for Business

Miley on July 19, 2019

Did you know mobile apps are predicted to generate 189 billion USD in revenue by 2020, and right now, the Apple App Store has more than 2 million apps ready to download while Google Play Store has almost 3 million apps? Tools, communication, social media, entertainment, shopping, and health are some of the most popular uses of the mobile application. Individual developers may make some of these apps. Others might be small businesses. Whoever it is, it is evident that certain benefits of mobile apps can’t be denied.

So, here are seven benefits of mobile apps for small business

– Promote Communication

The objective of developing a mobile app is to make mobility more dynamic and communication more efficient. Apps are a useful tool for communication between management, employees, and stakeholders. Additionally, mobile apps are also a robust way to create awareness about company activities, promotional offers, and product launches. Whether it is geo-targeting or direct communication, an app can work miracles.

People also use apps to search the web when they are moving. Besides hunting, apps also enable users to get in touch with the company’s management. It is reasonable to post notifications based on the demographics and proximity of users through mobile apps. Therefore, apps, in a way, help your business meet your customer’s demands and enhance marketing strategies.

– Grow Customer Loyalty

It is a difficult job to create and manage your business’s reputation online. Here, mobile apps become an online agent. They build an uninterrupted and seamless link between a company and its customers. You can add many features that would let users finish tasks, starting from reminders to offering better customer services. Apps help to spread awareness swiftly about your products, which helps in growing brand recognition.

Additional Helpful Resources:

10 Ways Your Business Can Grow with a Mobile App

Stand Out Of The Crowd With The Best Of Mobile App Development

Top 10 Mobile App Development Trends to Watch Out in 2019

– Boost Company Sales

As already mentioned, mobile business apps that are rich in features can increase recognition of your physical or digital products. You can take advantage of the paradigm shift now happening where people are moving more to smartphones from desktops or laptops when they search online for products. People today do a lot of product browsing when they are either waiting or traveling. Your app allows you to approach a broader audience that contains such people.

Apps also offer easy, interactive, and quick navigation. It makes them more suitable for browsing and shopping when contrasted to websites. Thus, customers prefer mobile apps more to buy products. Sites can facilitate awareness, but mobile apps are more suitable to elevate brands and produce sales. These are some advantages of mobile apps over websites.

– Improve Customer Engagement

Mobile apps are more interactive and engaging than enterprise websites. It bolsters business-to-customer communication by expediting customers to get in touch with the management regularly. Be it reviews, feedback, suggestions, or complaints, users can quickly provide their views and also use your social media accounts for the same. Since you can be in direct contact with customers, an app helps a lot in improving customer engagement.

– Offer Competitive Advantage

When your app performs seamlessly and is visually appealing, you are already way ahead of the crowd. With regular updates that meet the demands of users and address the evolving needs of a business, you manage to retain customers, and this gives you an advantage over your competitors who may not have invested in an app yet.

– Develop Brand Recognition

Customer support, reviews, loyalty program, and integration with social media are among the most appealing and essential features to a user. These features help the brand grow and add to your online marketing efforts. Business mobile apps provide a cost-effective method of promotion. Hoarding, newspaper ads, or paid ads on social media can consume a considerable part of your advertising funds when you want to develop brand recognition. However, with an app, you don’t need to spend a lot on developing brand recognition.

– Increase Visibility

Google has created its mobile-first approach, which it is now more comfortable for you to get noticed and improve visibility with your mobile app business. With a tailored app, you can get word-of-mouth suggestions with sharing on social media. You can reach a larger audience through this, and your online visibility is also enhanced.

There are also other ways to create buzz to enhance visibility. With advancements in technology, IoT, AR, and VR becoming mainstream, many app development enterprises are ready to integrate these technologies into their apps, which offers users an engaging, interactive, and immersive experience.

Conclusion

By extending all these advantages, a mobile app rich in features can take the business to the ensuing level of success irrespective of its scale and size.

Author Bio

Maria Brown is Chief Content Editor, Blogger and maintaining Social Media Optimization for 21Twelve Interactive which is one the top iPhone App development company in India and USA. She believes in sharing her strong knowledge base with a leaned concentration on entrepreneurship and business. She also writes for Top Mobile App Development Companies. Follow her on @Twitter.