Ulistic Projects Blog

You may be a small business, but there’s no reason you have to think or act small. Today’s technology innovations offer small businesses all sorts of powerful tools that just a decade ago weren’t available or were only affordable to large firms. Technology can help small businesses think like big ones in all sorts of ways. Here are 7 ways small businesses should start thinking bigger.

1. Embrace the Cloud

There are numerous cloud-based technologies that can help your small business punch above its weight. By embracing the cloud, you can save money, improve your staff’s productivity, and expand or contract IT operations far easier than you could without the cloud.

Entrust things like email and calendar hosting, file storage, and video chat to cloud-based software and infrastructure solutions. Most small businesses will pay less for a cloud solution than they would to purchase and maintain servers and software. This is due to the economy of scale: your cloud provider is operating at a very large scale, so the cost of adding just a bit more server space is negligible. Without cloud services, your small business shoulders all the unique setup and maintenance costs all your own.

2. Improve Your Website

Sometimes the difference between a successful small business and a failing one is as simple as the quality of their website. Your website is your digital storefront, but it’s also your digital billboard, white pages, classified ad, and more. If it looks terrible or doesn’t function well, you’re sending a poor message to your customers and prospective customers.

If revamping your website is more than your business can do well in-house, consider contracting with a vendor for this crucial task. Many managed service providers offer this service or can contract with qualified vendors who do.

3. Leverage Social

Your business needs a social presence, even if it’s small. This is true of all small businesses, but the smaller your business, the more important grassroots tools like social become. Share content regularly (including photos and videos) and encourage your most loyal customers to do the same.

As your brand’s social presence grows, it’s important to keep an eye on your reputation. What are people saying publicly about you? Is there anything you need to intervene on? Social can be a great avenue to see what challenges your customers are facing.

4. Use CRM Software

Customer resource management (CRM) software is the way big businesses keep in contact with customers in an organized fashion. CRM software isn’t limited to large firms, though. Affordable cloud-based options that work well with small business are available.

5. Big Data Isn’t Everything

Big data helps big companies win, right? That’s what we’re always hearing, and there’s truth to it. That said, we’ve all seen plenty of examples of big data leading companies astray, like “targeted ads” that miss completely or hyper-local campaigns that come off as fake or out-of-touch.

As a small business, you have access to something big businesses don’t: real, interpersonal data. Call it “small data” if you like. You likely know your customers much better than large firms do. Write down the things you learn. Better, input that information into your CRM software. You have the ability to send more personal notes than your large, faceless competitors. Capitalize on this.

6. Plan to Plan

You have a business plan in place, but as you grow, does your business plan grow with you? Your small business runs the risk of losing focus as it grows. Employees and leadership get so focused on daily tasks that they don’t keep their eyes on the overall plan. In other cases the overall plan becomes outdated and less applicable. Schedule time each year to review your business plan and goals, just like the big guys do.

7. Don’t Go It Alone

Lastly and most importantly, don’t go it alone as a small business. Your business is unique, set apart by some feature, product, or ethos that your competitors don’t have. Focus as much of your energy as possible on that thing, on your core competencies. As much as possible, divest yourself from other things.

One of those other things, for most businesses, is IT. Partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) to implement and support your IT infrastructure can save you money and increase productivity. You’ll also gain access to a deeper bench of IT professionals than you could afford to keep in house. If you’re ready to explore what we can do as your MSP, contact us today.

The rapid increase in technology use in businesses has affected every industry. Across all businesses, the need to keep up with the competition means paying attention to what technologies are available and incorporating the right tech tools as they become viable. Whatever your business, you know that you need to invest in information technology to excel in your industry. But how much should you invest, exactly? To determine your IT budget, you need to look carefully at your industry, your business goals and most importantly, what you can reasonably expect information technology to do for you on your path towards those goals.

Putting Technology Investment in Context

Depending on what stats you read, it appears that businesses spend anywhere from 3% to 6% of their budget on IT. The average spend on tech is expected to go up in the coming years, but no one is quite sure how much it will increase. It makes sense to expect an increase, of course, given the drastic increase in tech adoption across all facets of daily life and business. But the amount of increase is hard to be certain of because no one is sure exactly what the future holds.

What is clear is that an IT budget is necessary for building and maintaining a business. However, the size of that budget can vary considerably depending on the business and the industry that business is part of. In a study conducted by Deloitte, it was found that banking and securities spent 7.16% of their budget on IT—the most of any industry—while construction spent the least at 1.51%. Other industries spent somewhere in between. Such a large difference in spending is indicative of a spectrum of need for IT that differs significantly depending on the business. Those differences make it impossible to define a one-size-fits-all budget percentage for IT for all businesses. There are simply too many variables to consider.

How to Determine How Much Your Company Should Spend on IT

Guidelines on how to determine your own IT budget can be much more useful than a blanket statement about how much you should spend. By knowing what questions to ask, you can get the answers you need to form your own ideas about what your company needs as far as IT goes.

Some questions you can ask include:

Do we need an IT budget?

The answer to this is an obvious “YES”, but it is worth coming up with your own reasons for having a budget to begin with. The closer you look at your circumstances, the more apparent it will be that IT is simply a part of doing business and an area that you will always have to navigate as a company. And it is not enough to put off IT decisions until you make a split-second purchasing decision financed by extra cash you have lying around—not if you want IT to generate reliable results. For long-term success, you need a specific budget.

What is the budget for?

IT investments should serve to further your business objectives. Pulling a random number out of the air is not going to achieve optimal outcomes. The budget should be set to ensure that you can use the technology you need to achieve the outcomes you desire. Of course, to answer this question, you may need to clarify your business objectives and your IT needs. The CIO, CMO and other business leaders can work together to set guidelines for what needs to be accomplished and the budget can be built from there.

Are we spending more just because?

Knowing that business spending on IT is increasing in many industries is useful, but just because others are doing it does not mean that you need to do it. Increasing spending on IT is not enough on its own to improve your business. That increased spending needs to have a purpose. Maybe you are upgrading important infrastructure. Or, perhaps you know of a new tech tool that is virtually guaranteed to make you more competitive. Just make sure that an increased budget has a purpose.

Is the budget based on current economic conditions?

Some businesses are still stuck in a recession mindset. They try to avoid any extra spending because they think it is a necessity for survival. But if the economy has picked up, it is vital to take advantage of increased revenue to bolster your technology while you can. The better you equip your company to move into the new age now, while you have the resources, the more capable your company will be of weathering any storms to come.

The reality of IT budgets is that they need to be customized to the business using them. Fortunately, the process of determining the IT budget can greatly improve your company’s understanding of where it is, where it is going and how technology will help it get there.

More than ever, cybercrime is a reality all businesses in Australia must face. No matter your industry, company size, or level of technology use, it’s up to you to ensure the security of your data and the strength of your security.

Together with the Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG), the Australian Taxation Office has developed 3 key tips to help businesses throughout the country combat cybersecurity. We’ve summarised these tips below.

3 Tips for Better Cyber Security

1. Ensure your system and individual accounts are constantly monitored.

All accounts owned or operated by your company need to be monitored constantly for unusual activity. This may mean hiring a security company to carry out consistent monitoring, but it will also mean checking your company interactions and transactions in-house. On an individual level, instruct your employees to follow the same self-monitoring protocol.

2. Train your employees in best practices for optimal security.

Evidence shows that phishing scams are at the root of most cybercrime activity. A phishing scam is generally conducted by email, but it can be done over the phone or by mail as well.

Most often, a criminal on the other end of the scam will send an unsolicited email to one or more employees in your company. The email will likely appear from a legitimate source, such as a bank, credit card company, security manager, or higher-up in the company. A key feature of a phishing email is the request to:

• Reply with more information (usually personal or sensitive information such as a login or account number)
• Login to an account you possess via a link the provided in the email
• Click on a link for some other reason (to retrieve a prize you’ve won, for example)

In order to avoid phishing scams from affecting your company, the only truly effective measure is to train your employees in common cyber scam activity. Teach them how to avoid such scams. It’s important to teach your employees to:

• Never click on links from or reply to suspicious emails.
• Avoid providing sensitive information (logins, passwords, account numbers, access codes, etc.) when prompted by email. When in doubt, double check with the sender by calling them directly or speaking to them face-to-face to see if the initial message was real.
• Never open attachments or programs from unknown sources.
• Never leave their open or logged in computers or terminals unattended.
• Watch your social media presence carefully. Not everything (meaning, sensitive details) should be shared on public accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as hackers may come back to use this information with malicious intent. Make sure whoever is managing your social media accounts is aware of this.

3. Be wary of conducting business on public Wi-Fi connections.

Public Wi-Fi can be a tricky Internet connection to safely use because it’s not always secure from corruption by nearby hackers. This certainly goes for individuals on a personal level as individuals can easily be hacked via their bank account logins or by email, but it always goes for business conducted on company laptops or through company websites or cloud accounts.

This is often an issue “on the road.” Many businesses will send employees on company trips, during which they may want to use public Wi-Fi (at an airport, hotel, or restaurant, for example). In general, this should be avoided whenever possible, or, if it is absolutely necessary, only general, non-sensitive business should be conducted when connected to public Wi-Fi.

Is Cybercrime on the Rise in Australia?

Yes. Top businesses and the Australian government strive to attain optimal cyber defence capabilities. However, even as awareness of cybercrime grows, there are still mounting incidents of cybercriminals getting away with their crimes. This is partly because hackers can commit their misdeeds internationally — and most do. This makes them much harder to track as they often route their hacks through a variety of countries.

The best way to combat this type of criminal activity is to follow the directives listed above. Only thorough and attentive security monitoring and diligent training of employees can stop the threat of cybercrime to your company.

Sign In With Apple…Should You Use It?

Apple recently reported that its new “Sign in with Apple” feature will be part of the iOS 13 release in the fall of 2019. It promises to protect your privacy, and authentication experts say it could have an enormous impact on data privacy.

What Is Sign In With Apple?

With Sign In With Apple, you’ll be able to log into your applications. It offers a single-sign-on functionality, much like other sign-in buttons such as Facebook’s, Google’s and Twitter’s.

What Are The Benefits Of Using Apple’s Sign In?

When you sign onto apps, Apple will mask your personal information and email address. But the application will still be able to contact you.

Unlike with Google, Facebook and Twitter, your email won’t be passed on to the developer. You can opt not to allow this, but you won’t be able to use their sign-in service. If you do choose to let Google, Facebook or Twitter track your email, they will also be able to see the applications you use.

Aaron Peck from Oauth explains:

“The way most “sign in with [blank]” systems work is that the app you’re signing in to will get your username on that service and likely also your email address,” he explained. “These apps can sell your email address to advertisers, or correlate your activity between unrelated applications by matching your username.”

Apple solved this problem with its single-use anonymous email address. You’ll be able to share the information you choose with the application. Apple creates a random, anonymous, single-use email address for each application. Apple then forwards emails sent to that address on to you. You have the option of deactivating the single-use email address whenever you want.

By using Sign in with Apple and the single-use email address, your true email address won’t be tracked. Apple is offering this to provide a more private option for use. And they are offering developers a way to provide a fast one-step login without forwarding their user’s data to another company. Apple’s button will also work on websites.

Can You Use Apple’s Sign In With Any Application?

No… only applications that integrate their systems with Apple’s Sign In button. Some may opt not to because they won’t be about to use your information for marketing purposes.

What Phones Can Use iOS 13 & Sign In with Apple?

These are the devices that will be able to use iOS 13:

• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 6s
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone SE
• iPod touch (7th generation)

Is There Anything Else To Consider When Using Sign in with Apple?

If you are a developer, there may be. There are some concerns surrounding Apple’s terms and conditions for application developers. If they offer Google, Facebook or Twitter’s sign in, they must also offer Sign in with Apple.

And there’s more. According to Reuters:

Apple will expect developers to place their login button above Google’s or Facebook’s.

Apple Inc will ask developers to position a new “Sign on with Apple” button in iPhone and iPad apps above rival buttons from Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc, according to design guidelines released this week.

The move to give Apple prime placement is significant because users often select the default or top option on apps […]

Apple’s suggestion to developers to place its login button above rival buttons is part of its “Human Interface Guidelines,” which are not formal requirements to pass App Store review. But many developers believe that following them is the surest way to gain approval.

This means that some app developers won’t have an incentive to actually add the Sign in with Apple feature. But Apple is getting around this by mandating that if developers what to place their app in the Apple App Store, and they already offer a third-party sign in, they must offer Apple’s.

Apple’s terms and conditions don’t require this for applications with a dedicated login system, and those that don’t use third-party buttons from Google or Facebook.

What’s The Benefit For Apple?

Sign in with Apple will improve users’ privacy and provide a far better experience than others.

Will LaSala, director of security services and security evangelist at OneSpan, tells us more:

Apple is going one step further than traditional single sign-on, they are forcing their users to use stronger authentication, such as Apple’s FaceID and TouchID,” he said, noting that Sign in with Apple will ask mobile app users to use the biometrics functions.

The use of adaptive authentication is what should be celebrated – the ability to prevent login tracking or protect a user’s information is a secondary benefit. Any way that we can get users to move to adaptive authentication that is easy and portable across many sites and platforms is a security win for the internet.

Apple is positioning themselves as the privacy provider. So when we want more privacy, Apple hopes we’ll choose to use their technology. It’s a great marketing strategy…something that Apple excels at. We think many people will want to use Sign in with Apple due to its privacy features.

If you’re a CEO — whether your company is big or small, new or old, successful or working on it— there’s no doubt certain problems do a great job of keeping you up at night.

These are the challenges you just can’t seem to master. They plague you day-to-day, quarter-to-quarter, year-to-year. Yet try as you might, there seems to be no getting around them.

The good news is, yours are likely the same problems that all CEOs face. In other words, you’re in good company.

Below, we take a look at a few of these common CEO challenges and offer up some useful tips for tackling them once and for all.

Top Challenges CEOs Face

#1 – “How do I hire the best talent (and keep them motivated)?”

Attracting the best employees is certainly a leading cause of concern among CEOs. As a CEO, your team is the engine that drives your business. You may be the “ideas man” or “ideas woman,” but you need great talent to bring your concepts to life.

The Solution: Top employees can definitely hard to find, but it’s important to take your time. Quality hiring is doable if you know where to look, what to look for, and how to entice the right people.

First, make sure you’re clear about your job descriptions. Don’t be wishy-washy with prospective candidates.

Next, know where to look. Job fairs, sites like LinkedIn, and open job searches are good places to start. Still, you should always thoroughly review applications and prescreen candidates with a tight checklist before narrowing your best options.

Be thorough about checking your candidates’ references, backgrounds (job and education history), and experience. After you’ve made a short list, hold in-person interviews to get a feel for each candidate’s interest level and how they behave.

Lastly, when you find the right candidate, make sure you have a stellar hiring package ready to show them. Make it one they won’t be able to say no to. Budget restraints are certainly a challenge here, so if your resources are tight, find ways to promise pay and benefit increases with improved performance and company success. This shows your investment in your company — and in your employees as members of the larger company family.

#2 – “How do I retain my talent?”

Keeping employees motivated is certainly essential for extending and prolonging the flow of unique, creative ideas and hard work. Still, if you’re not taking care of your employees in other basic ways, some of them will walk away. Of course, this won’t necessarily be because they want to … they simply might have to.

The Solution: To ensure a consistent, long-lasting team of the best talent in your industry, you have two jobs:

1. Find ways to keep your employees motivated to do well.

2. Reward them for their hard work.

Many CEOs have trouble grasping the fact that their best employees won’t necessarily hang around just for the love of the work. This is often because, as CEOs, they’ve turned over their own life over to their business.

But remember that your employees — no matter how similarly passionate they are about your company — have lives of their own. Many have mouths to feed at home, student loans to pay, and second mortgages on their homes. If you’re not providing for them (as you said you would when you hired them) and incentivizing them to continue doing amazing work … you can probably expect their two weeks’ notice sometime soon.

In order to motivate employees, you’ve got to have a great idea that’s worth working for. Of course, it helps if you’ve hired a team that’s passionate about the same things you are.

Team-building is another great way to keep employees motivated. Organized company events, fun incentive programs, a comfortable work space, and opportunities for self-development within your company are key.

# 3 – “How do I make my product (or service) stand out?”

Yes, your company solves “problem A” … but so do six other companies. What you have to decide upon and sell is how you solve your problem better than anyone else.

Easier said than done, right?

The Solution: For the most part, the key answer here is creativity. Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, there are a lot of creatives out there doing awesome work. You’re probably creative too. But you have to be more creative than your competitors.

The good news is you have some options.

If you know for sure that your company is just like another company, for example, look for ways to differentiate by:

• Unique branding
• Varied size, shape, or level-of-service options
• Amazing discounts and sales
• Bonuses for loyal customers
• World-class customer service
• Added, unique features
• Exceptional marketing *

* This is key. By investing in your marketing strategies, you’re tinkering with the first thing potential customers and clients will see — and that’s the right place to begin.

It’s true, if you can get someone to your website to read about your unique product features or see your amazing discounts, you might be able to turn them on to your product or service. But if you can “have them at hello,” you’re going to see a much higher and more immediate rate of success. Smart marketing will also give you one of the highest returns on your investments.

Generally speaking, all CEOs will face the above challenges at one time or another. The key to overcoming them is two-fold: First, try to anticipate whatever key issues you’ll have before they become serious dilemmas. Second, using the advice above, don’t be afraid to face these issues head-on. When something doesn’t work, don’t give up — simply try a new tack.

Are You One Of Many Affected By The LabCorp Data Breach?

Financial & Personal Information of 7.7 Million Exposed

Just yesterday we wrote about the Quest Diagnostics’ breach affecting nearly 12 million. Today we’re writing to tell you about a LabCorp breach affecting 7.7 million people. Both of these breaches were caused by a third-party; the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA). AMCA provides billing collection services to both LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics.

AMCA has informed LabCorp that it is in the process of sending notices to approximately 200,000 LabCorp consumers whose credit card or bank account information may have been accessed. AMCA has not yet provided LabCorp with a list of the affected LabCorp consumers or more specific information about them.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, LabCorp said the breach happened between August 1, 2018, and March 30, 2019.

A section of the filing reads:

“AMCA’s affected system also included credit card or bank account information that was provided by the consumer to AMCA for those who sought to pay their balance. LabCorp provided no ordered test, laboratory results, or diagnostic information to AMCA. AMCA has advised LabCorp that Social Security Numbers and insurance identification information are not stored or maintained for LabCorp consumers.”

The information included in the breached system includes:

• Bank account information,
• Credit card information,
• First and last name,
• Date of birth,
• Address and phone,
• Date of service and provider, and
• Balance information.

Forensic experts are investigating the breach. It’s possible that the AMCA breach could impact other companies and millions of more consumers.

What Should You Do?

Anyone who was affected by the data breach should freeze their credit report to prevent criminals from opening credit card accounts in their name. They should also be concerned that their Social Security numbers were exposed.

If you believe that your information has been leaked, you can contact LabCorp customer service on their contact page.

For today’s tech blog we’ll tackle a topic that’s become much more visible over the last couple years. What are tracking cookies? How do they get on your devices? Can they harm your devices? We’ll answer these three questions in this post.

What Are Cookies?

Tracking cookies are a specific type of cookie, so we first need to define cookies (the non-baked-good variety). In the digital world, the term cookie describes a text file saved onto your device that contains information specific to you, the user. Every time you log in to a site and click the “remember me” box, your browser creates a cookie. Just about anything a website “remembers” about you isn’t stored on the website. It’s stored in cookies on your device. The next time you visit the website, it sees the cookie on your device and picks up where it left off.

What Are Tracking Cookies?

Tracking cookies take this concept much further. A site that uses tracking cookies will store marketing data on you. They may keep track of things like which links or stories you clicked on and especially which advertisements you clicked on.

Why do they do this? For data and advertising. Advertisers pay by the click, so websites are motivated to get you clicking on their advertisements. Remembering what you clicked last time enables a site to serve a more relevant ad to you this time. For example, if you clicked on a car advertisement last time and ignored one for beer, you’re fairly likely to do the same this time. The site will then serve up a car ad rather than a beer one.

Some firms take tracking cookies even further. Google, for example, serves ads on millions of sites. It has the ability to track your browsing and even shopping history across a wide range of sites. Google and others use this kind of information to retarget ads to you all across the internet.

How Do They Get On Your Devices?

Tracking cookies get loaded on your devices through the natural process of browsing the web. There’s no real way to stop them from loading, either. In the past few years, an initiative called Do Not Track was supposed to limit tracking cookies, but it hasn’t worked. Apple is even removing support for the feature and looking for other options.

Can They Harm Your Devices?

The good news here is that tracking cookies won’t harm your devices. That said, if you dislike them, you can get rid of them. You can delete all cookies manually in your browser’s settings, though this deletes the helpful ones (like “remember me”) along with the nuisance ones. The NAI Consumer Opt-Out can also limit tracking cookies for your accounts.