Significance Of Online Brand Protection Solutions

A brand logo or trademark can be any distinct phrase, word, picture, symbol or a combination of all that identifies and distinguishes the product of a particular organization. An organization’s brand not only comprises of its trademark, but also its product range, advertising and promotional programs, trade dress and its marketing strategy. Hence, one can call this as an intellectual property and is one of the most critical components of intangible assets that a company owns. Therefore, it is essential to secure your brand from the adverse effects of trademark/brand valuation and other forms of brand abuse.

 

In the recent past the predominance of the gray market has been the major cause for all the brand dilution activities. Original goods that reach the gray market have their prices altered or other changes. Hence, the final goods that reach the consumers are authentic, but may lack warranty or proper documentation and have heavy price differentiations.  All these, gets translated into lack of consumer trust and satisfaction, revenue loss and a tarnished brand reputation, that brands find very difficult to recover. Therefore, companies today require effective anti-counterfeiting solutions to secure their brand.


Advanced Brand Protection Solutions


In order to aid these issues, solution providers have come up with brand protection solutions/software. This software operates from a SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform offering a dynamic day-to-day visibility into a huge selection of market intelligence data that can be utilized to recognize suspect products and companies. This visibility helps in taking proactive measures to combat counterfeiting before it impacts the company's bottom line.

The software once installed offers end-to-end monitoring for buy/sell listings of goods, using innovative search agents that are able to track detailed market information from a wide selection of sources. This includes:


* Franchise and huge distribution websites

* B2B sites

* Trade boards

* Independent and gray market web sites

* Blogs

* B2C sites

* Auction sites


The data gathered using innovative online brand protection solutions are delivered through a web portal to the consumer directly in a complete, multi-dimensional, marker intelligence format. This in turn helps to create personalized dashboards, user formatted data export files and custom report views. All the data is available and can be used within a perceptive user interface offering the capacity to set up and manage case histories, assess evidence and understand the associations between the suspect enterprises, partners and other allied contacts.


Read More About: brand management, brand monitoring, enterprise risk management

OVDP 2012 & Its Necessary Implications

Under the revised policies of IRS it is essential to make a voluntary disclosure of any undisclosed foreign accounts in order to remain compliant and avert any kind of civil penalties.  This also helps to eradicate the risk of legal prosecution under the updated OVDP i.e. Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program.

 

The OVDP 2012 which is the third overseas program comes as the IRS Amnesty carries on working on a diverse range of internal tax concerns following practices with the Justice Department to pursue criminal prosecution for evading international tax. However, the primary objective of OVDP is to make taxpayers having undisclosed foreign accounts declare the foreign accounts and stay compliant with the tax laws applicable in the United States. The OVDP 2012 penalty needs participants to:


* Pay a high penalty of 27.5% of the highest aggregate balance in unreported foreign accounts at the time of the eight full tax years prior to the disclosure.

* File each and every original and amended tax return and include payment for back-taxes and interest up to eight years. It also entails paying off any accuracy-related and/or delinquency penalties.


OVDP Benefits


Taxpayers who have willingly come forward and made voluntary disclosures since the 2011 closure, they will be treated under the 2012 OVDP provisions. Other benefits that tax payers can enjoy are as follows:


* As opposed to 2011 OVDI, there are no strict application deadlines for the taxpayers under 2012 OVDP. It is however essential to note that the IRS can modify the terms of 2012 OVDP as per their discretion

* A voluntary disclosure comes with the scope to estimate with a reasonable amount of certainty, the overall cost of solving all offshore tax concerns

* You are immune from criminal penalties or any other kind of Jail Time


In order to make the most of OVDP 2012, you can join hands with a tax planning agency in the United States that can provide a complete knowledge of the tax codes that is applicable to US resident individuals, US citizens and Green Card holders. It also helps in the following ways:


* Consultation and Impact Analysis

* Analysis and Planning to reduce FBAR Penalty

* AMT Strategies, Foreign Tax Credit

* Review of 2009, and 2010 OVDI cases

* Mutual Fund or PFIC computations

* Preparation of forms required to participate in the OVDP program

* Preparation of Tax Amendments and Delinquent FBAR

* IRS Representation by Enrolled Agents or Affiliated CPAs and Attorneys


Therefore, partnering with a tax planning agency for OVDP 2012 results in complete compliance and free from all legal hassles.


Read More About: Entity Formation

Understanding Tax Regulations and FBAR

The lure of wider market, larger customer base and better opportunities is what makes the global enterprises  across borders. The professional workforce are either personals who have followed their aspirations of working with best of facilities, world-class infrastructure, exceptional work environment and a huge pay packet or those who have been deployed overseas. Nevertheless,  every country has  tax regulations that it expects its citizens, business enterprises and workforce to be  compliant  with.


The United States government has tax regulations in place for the people residing in the country. Under the US laws, every individual irrespective of being an US citizen or a green card holder has to file a FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Reporting) form.  This is a form specified by the US government and has to be filed by every US persons about the financial status of the individual or business enterprise outside the United States of America. Taxes  are filed for every calendar year and besides filing of tax returns, the US government requires that every individual provide details of bank accounts, fixed deposits as well as mutual funds or any other  financial arm with signatory powers.


Further, undisclosed foreign bank accounts  may lead to a case of willful defaults  that are likely to face criminal charges. Voluntary disclosure of all financial statements under the Overseas Voluntary disclosure will help individuals to be compliant with the regulations and also avoid any civil penalities. Besides this,  with number of offshoring and outsourcing involving freelancers, the United States have started the the Offshore Voluntary disclosure program or OVDP with objective of bringing taxpayers  who evade taxes without disclosing their foreign accounts or entities. The penalties of which includes payment of  a maximum penalty of 27.5% of the highest aggregate balance for a period of eight years prior to disclosure besides back taxes and delinquency penalties.


With tax laws remaining  the  same irrespective of the individual’s profession or  size of  business,  Tax planning  becomes  an important aspect  of  financial success. The financial success however  depends on the ability to use the legal technicalities to one's advantage. A number of tax planning services are today available to help  businesses and individuals with their finances.. Availing the tax planning services of a tax consultant or a financial expert will help individuals and enterprises to use the laws and legal technicalities to ones benefit.


As financial writer J.K.lasser defined -"Tax planning is the search for alternatives, all of which have the blessing of good accounting, of the tax law and the courts.", the tax consultants play a major role the life of a professional. The ability of the  tax consultant lies in  understanding  every client’s requirements and the changing tax regulations whether it is to advise on FBAR or efficiently  distinguishing  between reducing tax burden and complete tax evasion. Besides, the they also provide complete insight into the tax code that is applicable to United States residents which  includes  Green Card Holders and US Citizens.


Read More About: Foreign Bank Account, FBAR

Aerospace Manufacturing Trends in India

The civil and the commercial aviation sector in India have been increasing at a rapid pace. Going by the latest statistics it has recorded an annual growth of 41 percent in passenger traffic over the past couple of years. Furthermore, it has been contributing significantly to the expansion of the global commercial and civil aviation sector. This massive growth has put a pressure on the aerospace parts, products and other aero infrastructure manufacturing. Therefore, as a result the emphasis is now on modernizing the airports, aircraft bodies and other navigation systems for better air traffic management. There will also be an increased focus on radars and facilities for maintenance repair and overhaul of aircraft and subsystems.

 


Hence there is a great potential and scope for the creation and collaboration of joint ventures in the aerospace product and parts manufacturing sector in India for setting up Maintenance Repair Overhaul facilities for military and civil aircraft, overhaul and maintenance for aero engines and avionics production, its accessories and components. Leading global aviation brands have been already planning to venture into the Indian subcontinent and is keen on outsourcing defense and aerospace products, because India is quickly emerging as a center of aerospace design and engineering activities.

 


Aerospace Manufacturing Services

Eminent brand names specializing in aerospace engineering consultancy services have been aiming to expand their support base in the Indian aerospace sector by offering ready to fit aerospace precision machined parts. The aviation units are equipped with state-of-the-art machinery for manufacturing precision machined aero engines and aero parts to adhere to industry quality standards. The machining technology utilized by these companies includes the following:

 


·         3/4/5 axis machining centers

·         2/3 axis CNC turning and milling,3 axis vertical turret lathes

·         Assembly and other bench work activities

 


Furthermore, the inspection facility consists of the following components:-

·         Fully equipped inspection center

·         Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM), Leica microscope and Millipore testing for Dirt and chip level content (Clean room)

·         Other essential inspection instruments / gauges

 


Leading aerospace manufacturing service providers today are equipped with activities such as tooling design and development, process planning, value analysis and engineering, assembly process planning, assembly tooling design and development, CNC program coding, reverse engineering and many more. In addition to that, these enterprises have also taken up joint ventures with other global giants to expand their capacity into the vertical of sheet metal manufacturing and other special processing areas.

Related Links: engineering services, engineering services outsourcing

 

Social Engineering - Prevent Phishing by Enhancing Phishing Awareness

Today social engineering is the most widely used tactic by cyber criminals to trick people into performing actions for gathering critical information, accessing computer systems, committing fraud and so on. It stands for “a non-technical kind of intrusion that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking other people to break normal security procedures.” Since the social engineers appeal to the vanity, greed, and authority of people, they find success in most attempts.

 

Of the different social engineering techniques, Phishing especially spear phishing is the most extensively used by social engineers to deceive people. It is a technique employed to get hold of private information. In this form of attack, the phisher sends a fake email that appears to come from a legitimate business like a bank or credit card company. The victims are requested to update their information by clicking a link provided in the email, which is actually a link to a fraudulent web page. It is a serious and dangerous threat as spear phishing attacks are the root cause of security breaches happening in enterprises and organizations.


The other kinds of social engineering techniques are Diversion theft, Pretexting, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or phone phishing, Quid pro quo, Tailgating, Baiting, and so on. Let’s look at two other techniques used widely by social engineers.


Baiting


In this form of attack, the attacker leaves a physical item like a floppy disk, CD or USB flash drive in places where it is sure to be found, for instance, elevator, parking lot, bathroom, or in the lobby. The success of this technique depends on the curiosity or greed of the victim. The device is given a title good enough to arouse the curiosity of the person who picks it up. On inserting such a device into a computer, a malware is instantly installed thereby giving the attacker access to the victim’s PC or the company’s computer network.


Tailgating


In this form of attack, the attacker gain entry to a restricted area by walking behind a person who has legitimate access. The attacker tricks the legitimate person into believing him by producing a fake identity proof or by providing credible reasons for not being able to produce one.


The best way to deal with this problem is to deploy effective solutions to address 'people risk'. Take for instance, spear phishing attacks which are successful due to the lack of phishing awareness among the employees. Hence, the defense strategy of the enterprises must be to educate employees about Phishing and other social engineering techniques and support them with effective anti-Phishing software.


Read More About: anti phishing software, phishing protection ,anti phishing tool , protection from phishing

Enjoy Robust Quality Processes with Advanced Aerospace Manufacturing Services

To give them an edge above the rest, many aerospace and automotive companies need to constantly be at work to create better models with advanced features. Aerospace manufacturers rely on the most advanced materials in the world to ensure their projects succeed. Where the need for safe, reliable, high-technology solutions is ever more crucial in today’s world, product development and qualification is both a time and cost-critical process for every OEM , especially  for those in the aerospace manufacturing industries.

To ensure quality products with faster delivery rates, aerospace engineering services require meticulousness based development processes.  All these processes incur massive expenditure and the engineering businesses have to adopt innovative techniques without any compromises for increased efficiency and effective results. However these new models fail to produce the expected results mostly due to poor engineering skills, processes and manufacturing services. Successful  and precise aerospace manufacturing, require equipment specialists to  maintain high feed speeds and efficiently cool the workpiece while manufacturing these aerospace materials. Specialists who are skilled in engineering and manufacturing services are only eligible to develop these commercial and industrial products.

Aerospace manufacturing requires immense levels of experience to evaluate and determine the best processes so that there is neither any wastage of resources nor any excessive damages with a control on costs. Offshore engineering services help build and deliver products that are better and cheaper. Thoroughly skilled and experienced workforce provides exceptional responsiveness, efficiency and quality aerospace and defense supply chain management.

The engineering experts provide services that are of global standard. These specialized consultants provide proficient, robust, stable and secure solutions. They also have facilities that are equipped with state-of-the-art machines that follow robust quality processes and standard procedures adopted by major global aerospace companies. With efficient engineering services organizations can minimize development costs, reduce lead times and maximize resources, and suggest best practices for optimization of processes with their technical expertise and extensive experience.

Choose a service provider that has the capacity to understand the way various alloys respond to different aerospace manufacturing processes, and ensure that the aerospace components are made using the most efficient means available. It is an added bonus if the service provider has integrated facility in precision machining, sheet metal fabrication, assembly, special processing and forgings etc.

Partner with the best service provider and with the right combination of people, tools, technology and process, you can achieve a great heights of success in the aerospace manufacturing industry.

Related Links: aerospace product and parts manufacturing, engineering consultancy service

Advanced Anti Counterfeiting Solutions to Combat Spurious Drugs

With a risk to patients and brands, many counterfeit drugs cost the pharmaceutical industry billions of dollars annually. Pharmaceutical counterfeiting and diversion is a global menace. It threatens not just jobs and company profits, but affects the lives of individuals. Counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs are a major ongoing threat to patients and pharmaceutical manufacturers alike. Counterfeits have always been prolific in emerging markets and it has been found that pharmaceutical counterfeiters are becoming more sophisticated, by-passing the most stringent of tests. Pharma counterfeiting has significant social and economic consequences. Most importantly, consumers don't get safe and effective products they pay for and are put to significant risk.


Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is an evolving and an ongoing threat to patients and pharmaceutical manufacturers and patients. Over the past few decades, various factors have contributed to the growth in counterfeit drugs. Globalization, regional economies, societies, has made it easier for counterfeiters to trade and transport falsified drugs. Counterfeiters take full advantage of the fact that someone else paid the upfront money for research and development expenses all counterfeiters have to do is to copy the product. Counterfeit drugs are increasingly finding their way into global distribution chains and ultimately into patients' mouths, it is essential that pharmaceutical companies have effective enforcement strategies to combat the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit drugs.


Traditionally associated with developing countries and illegal online pharmacies, pharmaceutical counterfeiting is finding its way in the legitimate supply chains of industrialized countries. With sales of counterfeit pharmaceuticals predicted to increase at nearly twice the rate of sales of legitimate products, it is not surprising that tackling pharmaceutical crime is high on the agendas of both global policy makers and pharmaceutical manufacturers.  Such countermeasures include legislation and regulation, protection and identification, detection and enforcement. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are implementing proprietary security solutions on their products, and working on common safety measures that need to be implemented.


With a number of pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting solutions available, these solutions are effective and extremely secure. Providing real-time information formatted in a way that’s easy to use, enterprise brand intelligence pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting solutions offer complete visibility into the worldwide market. Investing in such solutions easily helps find the violators and shuts them down. It also ensures that pharma counterfeiting can be stopped and revenue and brand reputation lost to counterfeits can be successfully recovered.


Companies need to realize that if a brand is not protected its market share and profitability will also fall along with the public's confidence in the brand. Invest in an effective anti-counterfeiting solution that can offer complete protection and   safeguard your brand image and reputation.


Read More About: enterprise risk management , Anti-Fraud , brand management , brand monitoring

Ideation Platform -Online Space for Corporate and Customers

Ideas stimulate action and leads to progress. The recent decade has seen the corporate sector and the large business houses aiming for a globalized business environment so as to stand fast in the aggressively competitive world. In the process, these enterprises have given way for innovation and have also made use of the World Wide Web and crowdsourcing concepts.

 

Even with the presence of a   ownership with regard to the ideas generated, the new age enterprises opens up collaboration with customers and general public. While making use of technology, these enterprises have developed a structured electronic participation forum for the citizens. Referred to, as the ideation platform, this aims to tap the wisdom of the people, to develop ideas.  Launched by Dell in 2007, this was known as the Dell Ideastorm and was the corporate brainchild effort to engage customers to bring out ideas and rectify customer relationships.

 

The results received from the ideation platform led to the other enterprises and government administration to adopt this technique, to propose ideas, comment on and vote for other ideas. Besides for enterprises such as Starbucks and the Germany-based Tchibo, idea platform has become a main stream project to capture ideas. These innovations have led to the  development of crowdsourcing software such as the UK government's e-petition system, US patent office's  Peer-to-Patent,  as well as the Obama-led  US government's Open Government Initiatives which facilitates the  government to reap in the  benefits of  capturing ideas from a larger group.   With ideation platform as the best source to capture ideas, enterprises need to invest in creating aplatform that would encourage free flow of ideas .

 

Though ideation platforms help to keep the ideas that are captured live, idea management also refers to managing and implementing of viable ideas.  Out of the ideas crowdsourced from various vendors’ partners and employees, Cognizant technologies selected and implemented the proposal to integrate local Korean systems with the corporate standard complaint management system.  Such integration helped the top management at Cognizant achieve their goal without disturbing the existing process at the Korean units. This led to the elimination of manual re-entry  and  improved productivity with saving of $11,600. However, as the use of idea pipeline management progressed, the ideation platform served as basis for 11 idea campaigns contributing nearly 1,119 ideas which eventually resulted in $1,643,536 of benefits for Cognizant and $1,585,880 worth of benefits to the client for a financial year.

 

Thus, the use of crowdsourcing software has led to a large number of ideas to flow in. With idea management    enterprises make use of innovation management tools that would help them turn their followers into active collaborators.  A web-based ideation platform creates an online space for enterprises to engage customers and capture ideas for development of innovative products. For the customers this guides them through activities of the existing advertising campaign.

 

Read More About: innovation products, idea management solutions, idea management software

 

Leveraging The Process Of Open Innovation

In today’s fast paced and competitive world, do you know what is the main objective of most organizations? It is not being able to cater to the service and product demands but every organization also looks forward to establishing a personal connect with their target consumers. Apart from offering quality products and services, it is also crucial to address the audience in person and understand their pulse i.e. knowing what keeps them connected to a brand and what does not. Over the past few years, forward thinking enterprises have been relying on the process of open innovation to attain this objective.

 

The modern day process of idea management therefore is not only about “thinking out of the box”, or jotting it down in a pen and paper and executing the same within the confines of a conference room. It is all about addressing the public at large and indulge in mass idea capture that not only helps product development but also offers solutions for daily life.

 

In early 2012 a conglomeration of four eminent partners, namely Deloitte, Deutsche Telekom, HYVE and RWTH Aachen University introduced their open innovation contest named ‘Find & Follow for M2M’  (machine-to-machine communication) ideas and concepts. By nature M2M is a next generation technology that enables devices to communicate with each other. The specialty of this technology is that it allows an individual to find and follow almost any conceivable entity or object on this planet. The competition welcomes everyone to contribute ideas for tracking anything in categories such as animals, sports, healthcare, safety and security, nature, environment and many more. Innovative ideas came from across the globe from Pakistan, India, Nigeria, U.S and Germany with ideas such as Pizza Tracker and Remote Parking Disk that can be put to daily use.

 

Furthermore, many companies tend to use the process of idea management not only to solve daily issues but also to provide people with a better and Eco friendly way of life. Apart from establishing  deeper and meaningful audience connect, these companies aim to improve the general living and lifestyle standards and incorporate beneficial practices.

 

Plastic processing today is a major concern globally. World leader in extrusion processes Reifenhauser, Germany launched an open innovation contest making use of the crowd sourcing software to generate creative ideas for plastic processing. In order to make optimum use of the contest, participants were asked to focus on aspects such as the products that can be produced with extrusion, fresh machine developments that can be executed to the extrusion process for greater benefits and so on. The outcome of the contest apart from hundreds of entries were few winning and “out of the box” ideas that was adopted by the company acknowledging the contributor.

 

Whether a company wants to address global concerns, generic issues or develop a new product the main objective of idea management is to come up with something meaningful that benefits the world. However, companies need to keep in mind that when it’s about benefiting the world then the best ideas come from the people of this world. Hence, companies that are progressive in nature know that ideas can be generated from anywhere and find creative ways to tap into it.

 

Read More About :  idea management system, idea management solutions, capture ideas, innovation products

 

 

The Evolving Biometrics Landscpae & Its Services

Over the past few decades there has been tremendous development taking place in the medical field. In some cases it was new treatment methods that got discovered, whilst in other cases there were developments in an existing medical field. The same holds true for the biometrics industry. Fingerprints, iris scans and other biometrics are no longer only functions in the crime department. Rather biometric identification is now being widely used in transfer programs to bring about benefits to the poor. However the concern is much broader than this, i.e. Allowing citizens to set up an official identity is a critical aspect of the development process. Today identity is needed for so many reasons, banking and credit, voter registration, registering property, health care purposes and many more. A lack of id can act as a major hindrance and also makes a citizen more vulnerable to corrupt officials.

 

Keeping in mind all these aspects, eminent CRO’s in India that offers a complete range of data management services in the bio-equivalence and Phase I-IV clinical trials. The main objective of the CRO’s is to convert raw data into precise, reliable trial outcomes complying with the regulatory policies. These CRO’s have their own clinical development program and their biometrics team concentrate on speeding up the regulatory submission process and lessen the times by excellent levels of services.

 

These CRO’s has the capacity to manage various medical studies, for domestic and international needs in multiple therapeutic verticals. Furthermore their Biometrics service portfolio is used by many biotechnology, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, device and other medical research organizations. The services they offer include the following:

 

Database Programming

 

* CRF Design (paper & electronic)

* CRF Annotation

* Database Programming

* Validation Checks

* Metadata Repository Management

 

Data Management

 

* Data Acquisition

* Data Reconciliation

* Discrepancy Management

* Medical Coding (MeDRA & WHODD)

* Database Lock

* Data Extraction for Reporting

 

Pharmacokinetic & Pharmacodynamic Studies

 

* Sampling Point Estimation

* Technical Document Review

* PK/PD Query Resolution

* PK/PD Subject Matter Expert

* Pharmacokinetic support across study engagement

 

PK/PD Reporting

 

* SDMS Data Extraction

* PK Data Analysis

* PK Summary Reporting

 

Biostatistics

 

* Randomization

* Sample size estimation

* Trial Design Inputs

* Statistical Analysis Plan

* Statistical Analysis

* Biostatistics Subject Matter Expert

 

Statistical Reporting

 

* TLF Programming

* CDISC Data Mapping (SDTM & ADaM)

* Clinical Data Repository

* Pooled Data Analysis & Reporting

* Safety (ADR) Reporting

* Patient Profiles & Data Cleaning Reporting

 

In addition to that, the biometrics team in eminent CRO’s is capable of supporting clients at all phases of clinical trials. The team is also well equipped with new age software technology such as Win NonLin and SAS (SDMS & MED X view).


Read More About: bio clinical laboratories, Clinical Pharmacokinetic, Bioavailability