Ensure PCI Compliance with Automated PCI Compliance Management Solution

The good old days of paying in cash are definitely over as plastic cards replace paper money.  Today people carry different kinds of cards in their wallet namely debit cards, credit cards, prepaid cards, e-purse cards, ATM cards, and POS cards.People use cards for every kind of monetary transactions over the Internet, over the phone and even in person. Though the use of cards has made life easy, it has made it less secure as well.


The number of complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the year 2011 serves as a proof. Of the 1.8 million complaints received, 15% were on fraud and identity theft, which includes data breaches associated with cards. This definitely proves the need for all members of the payment card industry such as financial institutions, credit card companies and merchants to comply with PCI compliance guidelines.


The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was established to protect cardholder data and identity theft. As part of this policy all entities accepting, storing and transmitting credit card data had to be PCI compliant. It originally began as five different security programs by five major card brands namely Visa (Visa Card Information Security Program), American Express (American Express Data Security Operating Policy), MasterCard (MasterCard Site Data Protection), JCB (JCB Data Security Program) and Discover Card (Discover Information and Compliance). In 2006, they decided to bring in the separate policies and procedures under one single umbrella called the PCI DSS.


For companies and organizations to be PCI complaint, they need to adhere to the 12 security requirements specified within the PCI DSS. The following are a list of the 12 security requirements.


1. The members of the payment card industry must install and effectively maintain a firewall configuration to protect the sensitive cardholder data.


2. For system passwords and other security parameters, the ones supplied by the vendor shall never be used.


3. Adequate measures need to be taken to protect stored cardholder data.


4. When transferring cardholder data across open public networks it is to be ensured the data is encrypted.


5. It is to be ensured that all systems have the current updated version of the antivirus software.


6. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications.


7. Restrict access to cardholder data to those persons who genuinely need the information.


8. Assign a unique ID to those people accessing the computer containing cardholder data.


9. Restrict physical access to cardholder data.

10. All access to network resources and cardholder data must be regularly tracked and monitored.


11. Test security systems and processes regularly.


12. Maintain a policy that addresses information security and adhere to it.


Companies can ensure a future-proof compliance solution by investing in an automated PCI compliance management solution that gets constantly updated with the latest versions and revisions of the act.


Click here to read more on - vendor management solutions, audit log

Ensure PCI Compliance with Automated PCI Compliance Management Solution

The good old days of paying in cash are definitely over as plastic cards replace paper money.  Today people carry different kinds of cards in their wallet namely debit cards, credit cards, prepaid cards, e-purse cards, ATM cards, and POS cards.People use cards for every kind of monetary transactions over the Internet, over the phone and even in person. Though the use of cards has made life easy, it has made it less secure as well.


The number of complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the year 2011 serves as a proof. Of the 1.8 million complaints received, 15% were on fraud and identity theft, which includes data breaches associated with cards. This definitely proves the need for all members of the payment card industry such as financial institutions, credit card companies and merchants to comply with PCI compliance guidelines.


The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was established to protect cardholder data and identity theft. As part of this policy all entities accepting, storing and transmitting credit card data had to be PCI compliant. It originally began as five different security programs by five major card brands namely Visa (Visa Card Information Security Program), American Express (American Express Data Security Operating Policy), MasterCard (MasterCard Site Data Protection), JCB (JCB Data Security Program) and Discover Card (Discover Information and Compliance). In 2006, they decided to bring in the separate policies and procedures under one single umbrella called the PCI DSS.


For companies and organizations to be PCI complaint, they need to adhere to the 12 security requirements specified within the PCI DSS. The following are a list of the 12 security requirements.


1. The members of the payment card industry must install and effectively maintain a firewall configuration to protect the sensitive cardholder data.


2. For system passwords and other security parameters, the ones supplied by the vendor shall never be used.


3. Adequate measures need to be taken to protect stored cardholder data.


4. When transferring cardholder data across open public networks it is to be ensured the data is encrypted.


5. It is to be ensured that all systems have the current updated version of the antivirus software.


6. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications.


7. Restrict access to cardholder data to those persons who genuinely need the information.


8. Assign a unique ID to those people accessing the computer containing cardholder data.


9. Restrict physical access to cardholder data.

10. All access to network resources and cardholder data must be regularly tracked and monitored.


11. Test security systems and processes regularly.


12. Maintain a policy that addresses information security and adhere to it.


Companies can ensure a future-proof compliance solution by investing in an automated PCI compliance management solution that gets constantly updated with the latest versions and revisions of the act.


Click here to read more on - vendor management solutions, audit log

Role of Global Engineering Firms in SEZ Benefits in India

India realized the significance of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) back in April 2000 for being able to channel Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) within the country in order to trigger IT export revenues. This in turn would offer a global platform to local manufacturers and firms. Indian government always supported SEZ expansion to improve their agendas and came up with multiple policies that are evaluated quarterly. This ensures numerous facilities to SEZ developers along with other enterprises and engineering firms that are establishing their units.

 

In the past, companies specializing in aerospace manufacturing engineering have contributed to the development of special economic zone in India. A noteworthy example is the Precision Engineering and Manufacturing SEZ unit in Belgaum. This serves as a base for foundry operations for numerous industrial and automotive facilities. There is presence of more than 100 foundries and 150 machine shops. Furthermore, there is access to skilled labor force at a competitive price range that adds value to its credibility.

 

This engineering special economic zone offers an organic, eco-friendly and a sustainable industrial development. Some of the SEZ benefits and basic incentives are as follows:-


* There is international standard landscaping with approximately 15,000 trees

* There is bicycles for intra-zone mobility

* A proper landscape with a huge amphitheatre visible and available from total campus

* Has rain water harvesting

* Provides a water treatment plant

* Provides a sewage treatment plant

* An existing small stream is being converted to a natural water body

Apart from the above mentioned SEZ benefits there is also consulting facility that is offered in the form of turnkey solutions for setting up green field projects in the area of precision engineering and manufacturing. Furthermore, there is incubation facilities to the consumers, till such time their units in the Zone are ready. Under this plan once can access furnished offices and other business facilities at easy rental plans.

Keeping all the above mentioned facts in mind, the main SEZ benefits in India can be summed up as industrialization promotion and economic growth through sustainable development. The primary policy statement of the initial SEZ policy statement says that the Indian SEZ units shall given fiscal incentives, tax rebates and lands at subsidized rates. The execution of the first drafted SEZ policy happened in 2000 and it was a five year project that commenced from 1.11.2000 to 9.02.2006.  The first policy statement was also amended to complement and accommodate the growth attained.


Read also on: Precision machining

Need For Online Language Translation

The rapid expansion of the internet can be best estimated by analyzing the pace of social networking and online trade. Users today prefer more social, online and immediate communication in their native languages.

 

For globalizing business deals organizations need advanced translation technology that offer translation of the business contract and other essential details. It is imperative to be able to reach out to overseas clients and customers with messages and demonstrate your core business or product, objective and vision.

 

Online language translation is a must for new business development and continuity. Generally, translation is of two main categories--human edited translation and machine translation. Furthermore, there are specific language translation solutions that can deliver fast results.

 

Innovative online language translation solutions provided by leading companies enable content owners and other users to interact effortlessly with their target customers. The language used is of the user’s choice. Simultaneously, these solutions with their user friendly, secure and strong web applications enable any business user to become a multilingual communicator as well as a publisher. Few other advantages are discussed below:-

 

  • Improved customer satisfaction and engagement

With mechanized, trusted translation, organizations can afford to publish the overall content in multiple languages. As a result, more users can reach the significant information in their desired language.

 

  • Any business user can use it

With the help of this translation software any business user can communicate with his or her target consumer

 

  • Maximize Margins

By making the content available in most communicated channels and languages, more users can self-serve due to the company’s translation or its community, reducing the expenses of servicing and selling.

 

Apart from this, the new online language translation solutions have unique advanced features that help in:

 

Offering safe branded interaction across every communication channel

 

  • Translation solutions have specific touch points that enable business users to monitor and define the apt content, quality, language, place and the time for branded interaction.
  • Brand and Terminology management assists users to define how essential terminologies and brands should to be translated
  • There are automatic quality enhancement mechanisms that help inimproving future translations in an ongoing manner

Easy to Use

  • One single place to handle all the real-time communications
  • Provides built in reports and analysis
  • Intuitive, consumer grade user that any business can utilize

 

With the help of advanced translation solutions, content owners can provide trusted, multilingual, branded communication in real-time and digital form.

 

Read Also On: Software Localization

 

Understanding ISO Compliance

Though globalization has opened up new markets and avenues for businesses to grow and expand, it has also increased security risks manifold. In this age,as companies and organizations depend largely on technology to carry out their various business activities, their greatest risk would definitely be information security risks.  Hence, it necessitates the need for a code of practice or set of standards in place to effectively manage the privacy, integrity and accessibility of information assets and thereby reduce information security vulnerabilities. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) hope to achieve this with the promulgation of ISO/IEC 27000-series also known as the ISMS Family of Standards or simply ISO 27K series.


ISO is the world’s largest non-governmental, voluntary organization for developing and publishing universal industrial and commercial standards while IEC is a non-governmental, non-profit organization preparing and publishing international standards for all electronic, electric and related technologies. These organizations have come together to help companies and organizations in having an overall management and control framework to deal with information security risks.


Today it has become imperative that companies and organizations must achieve ISO compliance particularly ISO 27001 and ISO 27002 if they want to minimize information security risks. Those companies that do not comply with ISO 27001 and ISO 27002 compliance guidelines would have to face severe consequences such as financial losses, harsh penalties, loss of brand reputation, lossand loss of investor confidence and so on.Let’ look at the two standards in detailbrief.


ISO/IEC 27001

An Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard published in 2005, it details the requirements for the establishment, implementation, monitoring and review, maintenance and improvement of a management system for managing an organization's information security risks.As per this standard, the company management must

  • Assess the information security risks, vulnerabilities, threats and impacts systematically

  • Deploy sound and comprehensive information security controls to address the information security risks  effectively

  • Ensure that the implemented information security controls continue to meet the security needs of the company


ISO/IEC 27002

It is a code of practice for initiating, implementing and maintaining an information security management system. In its introduction it states “Information can exist in many forms. It can be printed or written on paper, stored electronically, transmitted by post of using electronic means, shown on films, or spoken in conversation. Whatever form information takes, or means by which it is shared or stored, it should always be appropriately protected.”  The ISO 27002 consists of 12 sections with each section specifying the information security controls and its objectives.


Though ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002 are two different standards, they are always used together.Though compliance to ISO 27001 and 27002 is a complicated process, companies and enterprises can achieve it through ISO compliance management software easily, quickly and accurately.


Read on - IT Compliance, GLBA Compliance

The True Cost of the $50 Lead

In an environment of intense competition, unpredictability, and shrinking marketing budgets, every business is seeking cheaper alternatives for lead generation and management processes. However, they fail to realize that these cheap leads are in fact more expensive because extracting qualified leads from various sources (website inquiries, tradeshows, webinars, seminars, banner ads, telemarketing, ad campaigns and email broadcasts) is a time and labor-consuming process. The “$50 lead” eventually turns out to be a costly affair.

 

As a business owner, you must envision long-term objectives that guarantee an enhanced ROI and other various rewards. Pay heed to the old adage “penny-wise and pound-foolish” and look beyond your current situation to achieve your future goals. Employ tools that provide you with qualified leads through practical, cost-effective, and timesaving contact discovery practices. The qualified leads that these tools generate may seem costly in the beginning, but will convert leads into sales much faster and in greater numbers, ultimately reducing the total cost of ownership and improving your marketing campaign ROI.

 

As you are probably aware, finding B2B customers is a demanding process. You need to constantly stay in touch with your prospects through several engaging tactics before they are ready to buy your products or services. You therefore need to implement optimized and integrated lead management and nurturing practices that successfully lead you towards your objectives. The lead generation services rendered by these solutions provide you with a database of contacts through audience acquisition processes, such as webinar registrations, email correspondences, telephone inquiries, etc.

 

The solutions demonstrate highly commendable inquiry management capabilities to ensure that the captured leads are not lost during the ongoing process of marketing-to-sales conversions. Your customers are kept engaged through interaction and participation to assess their needs and data is consistently updated to reveal changing trends. This allows you to close sales deals effectively. The lead nurturing solutions enable your sales force to concentrate on selling effectively and efficiently while staying within the budget.

 

Resourceful marketing strategies simplify the selling process, provide shorter lead times, and generate qualified leads according to specific demands and requirements. They also help leverage the marketing and sales processes with higher sales conversions in a cost-effective manner, allowing business to progress and overcoming setbacks and challenges.

 

Boost Channel Partner Marketing for Success in the Marketplace

Channel partner networks are critical for business success. They play a significant role in helping you open doors to new business opportunities in a shorter time frame, at a lower cost, and with less risk than a merger or acquisition. Strong channel partner programs are built through the combination of mutually beneficial partnerships, local market insight, exceptional channel professionals, and a sustainable, long-term approach to training and sales support. Strategic channel partners are long-term business allies who rely on each other to position their products, services, and brand in the marketplace.

Success with the Right Channel Partner

 

Identifying and selecting the right channel partner is vital to the success of your brand. There is no substitute for experienced channel professionals who, with an understanding of your firm and products, have insight and connections into your target markets. In order for channel marketing to improve the reach and volume of your sales, channel partners must have the required expertise and knowledge to evaluate and implement the best solutions and increase the marketing campaign ROI. Your partners must be equipped to reach prospects and customers with strategic, multi-channel marketing campaigns with accurate and timely content, integrated programs that build synergies, and tools to assess the results that reveal where and how to allocate resources.

How to Boost Channel Partner Marketing

 

To boost the value of your channel partners, companies can implement effective channel partner programs. This can be done by providing channel partners with qualified, sales-ready leads. "Sales-ready leads" fit the vertical market profile with pre-identified and engaged contacts; these prospects have acknowledged the business pains and have access to a budget. This can increase your control over the early stages of the sales process and maintain sales momentum.

Proper integration of a few carefully selected partners into your channel program is likely to be profitable in the long run. The channel partner that you choose must use the best, most common business practices so that all kinds of companies can work with and benefit from one another. If channel partners focus on pre-screened and qualified prospects, sales efficiency will increase. With a powerful channel partner marketing program, you can greatly improve the sales efficiency of your team.

Invest in a solution that fulfills your business needs as well as the needs of your channel partners, bringing those practices to the entire process. There can be success in the marketplace when channel partners work together to help build target databases and qualified sales lead pipelines, particularly for firms with complex sales processes.

Read Also On: Account Mapping, Inquiry Management

Use the Social Business Software to Increment Your Team Collaboration

Your enterprise is a miniature version of the business network that facilitates your operation with external partners. It consists of various teams that are assigned to do specific tasks. You need to ensure that there is a great amount of collaboration between the teams so that their joint efforts help produce a comprehensive and prolific result. Many fail to understand that optimized independent performances barely create the effect that a combined performance does.


Each team has to complement the others to facilitate unhindered workflow. Today the competition has increased to such extremities that it has become imperative to have a definitive business social networking platform that demonstrates profound capabilities. The group collaboration software provides a competent business social networking platform with some amazing benefits -

 

  • Accentuates Team Collaboration : 

The group collaboration software leverages the social business network in your enterprise by facilitating each member to receive news feeds, email or sms alerts on projects they are involved with.  This ensures that all information is shared universally among the team members and everyone is aware of the current status. Each team is provided with a library for storing and maintaining their documents. A simple project module is available for allocating the tasks to team members and monitoring their activities.

 

  • Easy Communication 

The software provides an interactive platform where you can instantly communicate with anyone from any location through the browser-based mobile applications. You can post discussions and leave public as well as private messages for the concerned person. You can send updates from your phone via the mobile applications or through an SMS. It also provides you the facility to customize the email alerts that you want to receive so that you can still remain in contact with your team members without logging in.

 

  • People Management

The software facilitates the individuals in your enterprise to create their profiles. You can view their latest activities and assess their talents and capabilities. This helps you to easily select the most eligible candidates for your assignments.

 

  • Training

The traditional style of training employees is redundant and impractical. The social business software provides you relief from time wasting and expensive methods by facilitating you to upload the training modules in the group library. The team members can view these modules and add their comments, discussions and feedbacks. This helps the new recruits tremendously as they can find all the information from scratch in this library.

 

  • A Secure Architecture

The social business software provides secure access and controls to only your employees and authorized individuals. The services can be securely accessed from any mobile device.

The social business software is a wise option for a prosperous future in business.


Know more onEnterprise microblogging software,  Social Software      

US India tax Preparation

The United States of America is a federal republic with autonomous state and local governments. Taxes therefore are levied in US at each level and comprise taxes on property, income, sales, payrolls, imports, estates, gifts and other fees. Taxes are levied on an individual’s net income and corporations by the federal, majority state and some local governments. Residents are thus on taxed on worldwide income and are allowed a credit for foreign taxes.

 

Hence, if you are an American and is presently located elsewhere, such as India and want to clear of taxes then it is best that you seek professional help. Eminent services dealing in corporate tax preparation solutions help you with their varied service portfolio such as US India tax. These companies have trained professionals with desired education, knowledge and experience to cater to both individuals and business houses to pay their taxes in US. They offer a wide range of services from simple tax filling of current income and expenses to advanced tax planning in near future. This includes estate and gift tax planning and reporting as well.

 

Corporate tax preparation solution providers manage their level of services depending in their clients need and involvement. Services that they offer include:-

 

Early Tax Planning (ETPS)

Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR)

IRS/ State Forms

 

Efficient tax planning is an essential factor for financial success in business and also for individuals. With US India tax preparation solutions you are able to reduce your tax bill. At the same time, Financial/Tax planning service assists businesses to expand by estimating the taxes properly. Clients are can also receive suggestions on how to plan their finance in the optimum way.

 

The tax regulations remain the same everywhere, irrespective of the size of the corporate taxpayer. The difference lies in the capacity of large scale business firms to leverage the legal technicalities and interpretations to their advantage. Contrary to this, the small scale firms simply adhere to the tax rules and regulations. With efficient corporate tax planning solutions small scale business firms that manage their operations in the best way to have a low tax bill.

 

Regardless of our like or dislike, tax laws these days are a little complex. This means filing a relatively simple return can appear tricky. It is simple to overlook credits and deductions to which you entitled. Even if you are resorting to a computer software program, an experienced tax professional is beneficial the most. The reason for this is that you can have customized solutions to your tax planning queries. Going by a study that was released by the US Government’s General Accounting Office lately, majority of taxpayers 77% of 71 million taxpayers) trust the services offered by a professional tax preparer.

 

Read Also On: llc Tax Business Entity Formation

Enhanced Returns with Effective Aerospace Manufacturing

With the increase in travel and the expansive use for military operations, there has been tremendous competition in the aviation industry. The aerospace engineering and manufacturing business involves a lot of risk as there is intense calculation and planning is required to deliver the precise results. Being a challenging and complex domain, it is very important for engineering businesses to implement radical processes without any compromise on competence to achieve successful results.

The undertakings that manufacture machines for aerospace, automotive and for industrial use have to ensure that the models prepared for mass use are safe and risk-free. These manufacturing units face a lot of dilemma as they have to provide safe and quality products without upsetting their budgets. Aerospace manufacturing engineering services require meticulousness based development processes to ensure quality products with faster delivery rates. And to ensure that the processes deliver optimum results on time the business need to adopt highly advanced tools, processes and applications which inevitably incur additional costs. Since the job of manufacturing and engineering requires high levels of competency and extensive experience these companies should employ specialists who have spotless track records in proficiency. It is a good decision to employ the outsourcing companies who are adept in managing the entire process right from its nascent stage to the final stage of completion. Those who are able to manage a strong and reliable balance between demand and supply have the strength to lead comfortably despite all odds. The manufacturing and engineering services provided by these outsourced specialists are rendered with consideration to the SEZ protocols. These engineering services consulting work collaboratively within a team to arrive at a right design which would yield the required end results like reduced cycle time, reduced tool change-over time.

 

The companies responsible for automotive and manufacturing services for industrial purposes need to execute responsible and well-defined actions that can help in achieving credibility and garnering effective results. With the right combination of people, tools, technology and process, an efficient engineering service provider will be able to achieve a remarkable mark in supporting this industry resulting in the growth of its customer base across the globe. Enhanced generation of revenues while meeting the exacting industry standards is a commendable feat. To accomplish their goals these businesses require focused and smart processes and people. Implementing positive practices help in overcoming all challenges efficiently without causing any adverse reactions.

Read also on: Aerospace testing, Special economic zones in India