Enhance Your Security Quotient with the Best Anti-Phishing Tools

Technology has certainly brought in a lot of convenience. In today’s age of the internet, almost everything is possible with just the click of a button.  The advancement in technology has made users more dependent on it, thus increasing the vulnerability to Phishing attacks. This has made IT security a critical issue and IT security in business is a major issue as every business is exposed to several attacks with varying intensity levels.  Sophisticated Phishing attacks target unsuspecting employees in order to access highly sensitive internal data.

The business of identity theft grows each year, and the recent years have seen a substantial increase in cybercrime, malware and Phishing attacks. One among these damaging attacks are Phishing attacks, where the targets are people working in your organization rather than the processes. The phishers today are engaged in coming up with sophisticated phishing attacks that the naive individual or employee is unable to identify.. Most attacks usually occur when staff is inadequately trained and educated about the various phishing risks and threats. Employee awareness programs and anti-phishing technologies offer only a limited protection against such attacks.

To avoid encountering unpleasant experiences you need to prepare your employees and make them aware of the phishing attacks and how to address them effectively. Equipping your computer with good anti-phishing software becomes more and more important. Whatever precautions companies might take, it essentially comes down to the employees to take sensible precautions and proactive steps so that they can avoid becoming phish baits. The standard Phishing protection solutions that are available today mostly address the technology and the process used.

Employing an anti Phishing software ensures that employees adhere to best practices for protection against Phishing and increase awareness about the topic. The software facilitates calculation of phishing risks and demonstrates high flexibility with prompt reporting services.  It is an effective anti-phishing tool not only conducts mock attacks on the employees but also educates them on how to deal with these attacks. These tools conduct simulated phishing attack to test the awareness and reactions of your employees.

Addressing people risks is of utmost importance. Today more and more organizations are realizing this fact and are looking out for a Phishing awareness program that not only solve the losses but educates people better about its source and detection. Invest in a solution that can arm your employees against such attacks and create a prioritized action plan to alleviate possible threats.

Supply Best Products with Fulfillment Solutions

If you imagine that there is a shortage of any material at your house, then what is the first thing that you would do? Chances are that you would immediately rush into to the local shop to purchase the item. Now, suppose the product that you intend to buy is not well packaged, will you be interested to still buy it. Majority would not and move over the next shop in the row. Keeping this every day situation in mind, it is interesting to think that how manufacturers offer us our desired goods and products catering to our demand. This is where fulfillment solutions come into action and without it, the product supply chain management cycle would not reach its completion.

Fulfillment solutions provided by eminent solution providers comprise of mail fulfillment, order tracking, pick and pack services and many more. The moment an enterprise is expanding its business, it needs to take numerous functional divisions that are responsible for conducting stipulated tasks. In such a situation, operations regarding shipment and storage do at time become an issue. Thus when you partner with an able fulfillment solution provider, the experience and infrastructure you gain only leads to incremental benefits. Eminent companies today undertake a 360 degree approach and configure your manufacturing systems to make optimal use of their tried and tested system of Glocal Postponement. This ensures that you are shipping only the updated products and that there is no product stocking with a restricted shelf life. As a result, this saves you from incurring heavy investment on obsolete inventory.

 

This entire procedure is appropriately synchronized and you can easily monitor it from your desktop or any other computing device, with the help of integrated software. Lesser overhead, lesser inventory, a more responsive supply chain fulfillment design along with a flexible marketing is what the order fulfillment solution providers offer you today. Other services and benefits include:-

 

·         Supply Chain and Fulfillment Solutions

·         Fulfillment & Warehouse Solutions

·         Inventory Control

·         Order Management

·         Serial Number Capture

·         Lot Control

·         Retail Packaging

·         Fulfillment and Distribution

·         Direct to Store or Distribution Center

·         POP (point of purchase) display manufacturing

·         Freight Management

·         Freight Tracking

·         On-line Inquiry and Reporting

 

Furthermore, fulfillment solutions configures your entire product from the electro-mechanical assembly (box build), retail pack out (RF sealing, clamshells, shrink-wrap) to even custom labeling in the fulfillment warehouse. This entire process is supervised by an expert quality control manager thereby ensuring that you only deliver the best quality good to your end users.

 

Read more about : evaluation system &  Supply Chain Solutions

 

Idea Management Systems- Streamlining and Channelizing Innovation

Survival in today's aggressive competitive environment is not always possible by just meeting the customer demands, continuous innovation in products, services or business models is the key to successful business growth. However, with innovation taking the enterprises into an area of least competition, exploiting the innovation potential within the enterprise and channelizing the ideas for growth from the employees and managers is a strategy that is beneficial to the organization.


Organizations have time and again proved that management of the innovative ideas that come from employees from their area of expertise helps the enterprises in the long run. Robert B. Tucker in his book 'Driving Growth through Innovation' showcases  that the employee involvement programs adopted by service organizations and government agencies have helped save nearly $2 billion a year. Many companies opt for incentive linked suggestion programs, wherein employees are encouraged to submit ideas and if those ideas help save money for the organization they are rewarded appropriately. The best example of this is, the American Airlines lead attendant's suggestion of smaller can packaging of caviar that helped reduce the annual caviar consumption of the airline by $567,000.  


Creative ideas are valuable for the companies to leverage upon as strategic innovations or incremental enhancements. Strategic innovations cover areas such as changes in business models or game changing products. A lineman- Tom Terry's invention of a tool to combat a potentially dangerous situation is today a trademark safety related product for Verizon. The incremental changes on the other hand are continuous improvements which require small scale adoptions on the part of the company but may give rise to huge benefits in cost savings and increased customer satisfaction.


Today's dynamic work environment and creative professionals, who think out-of-the box, have created the need to manage and streamline the ideas within the organization. This has prompted   leading service providers to design and develop idea management systems that work in close connection with organizational goals and objectives while streamlining the potential ideas of employees that focus on future progress. Such idea management solutions helps organizations to set up a collective intelligence around a thread of imagination wherein employees can voice concerns, share opinions and views as well as give in recommendations. This also enables a free flowing real-time dialogue with multiple view points.


Idea management system is a tool deployed at the core of management system, accessible to all employees and important customers. Being an open pool this helps the process of idea capture.  McDonald Corporation exploited the change that the fiercely mobile Americans were looking forward to. By providing Americans with inexpensive fast food with consistent quality, they successfully brought in the lifestyle changes. Others who joined the bandwagon are Old Navy and Gap's retail chain which provided the Generation Y with Hip clothing at affordable prices.  The time-sensitive parcel delivery system by Fed Express helped them meet higher levels of customer demands and gain loyalties.   


Idea management solution is thus a secure and convenient medium for a company to refresh its old development strategies. Further these solutions encourages the development of new competitive products and services, drives process improvements, improves collaboration and decision making across teams as well as provides opportunities to bring out the creative instincts in the employees. This solution also gives the organization a competitive advantage by identifying the potential growth areas, ensures employee loyalty and improves the brand value.

Know more : ideation software

Efficient Supply Chain Solutions for Successful Growth

With global markets expanding beyond borders, there is a change in the way demand and supplies are managed. Global companies are driven by markets across continents and efficient Supply Chain solutions are the critical backbone to Business Organizations today. Many businesses depend on efficient supply chain solutions to get their products to market faster and at a lower total cost of ownership.


Effective supply chain management is all about delivering the right product in the right quantity and in the right condition with the right documentation to the right place at the right time at the right price. Supply chain management solutions help in reducing inventory, increasing the speed of transactions, efficiently fulfilling customer demands. Efficient supply management ensures that all the members of the supply channel, from suppliers to end users, coordinate their business activities and supply chain processes to minimize their total costs and maximize their effectiveness.


A business usually needs to address a number of issues when dealing with a global supply chain. As a flexible and integrative system leads to efficient supply chain management, it is essential to have a transparent and a well structured process. Competent supply chain solutions provide best practices to ensure that your entire business is handled as a consistent unit. Solutions with credible characteristics like optimal utilization of resources without wastage, accurate and relevant real-time information can enhance visibility and greater control over the business process leading consequently diminishing the risks.


Adopting the right supply chain solutions can help in improving service levels and reducing operational and IT costs. The right supply chain management solutions can help in lowering operational expenses with timely planning for procurement, manufacturing and retail fulfillment. Improved order, product and execution tracking can lead to enhancement in performance and quality and lower costs. It also facilitates the improvement margins all through better coordination with business partners.


Management of global supply networks require successful supply chain solutions for the smooth functioning of their business. The real promise in delivering optimal value from the global supply network happens when a company can execute comprehensive command and control over all participants, activities and costs across its entire global business environment. Partner with the specialists who can capture your supply chain processes, goals, and key metrics to understand what you wish to achieve in terms of meeting supply challenges and making improvements. It is essential that they have the experience and know-how to keep your supply chain at top efficiency while also keeping costs low for your company.


Read more about: Systems Integration & Rack and stack

Improve Business Decisions with Social Analytics

Most companies and organizations still follow traditional business intelligence of using structured corporate data to improve business decisions. Even after the advent of social media & intelligence social , there occurred no significant changes in their attitude as they continue to do the talking and expected their customers to listen to them. They failed to see the fact that in today’s age of social media, customer is the king. Customers own the baton of power, which until now have been owned by the marketers. Hence, now customers do the talking and the marketers have no other choice but to listen to them.

 

With the business environment becoming highly competitive, companies can no longer think about customer loyalty unless and until they listen to customers and understand their desires, opinions, expectations, and perceptions. This is possible only if they take online conversation seriously and carry out engagement tracking regularly. This is what social analytics is all about. It is the process of gathering data from social media and social networking sites and using that data to take informed business decisions. Social analytics is a method that helps businesses to gauge the outcome of their social marketing efforts.

 

Objectives of Social Analytics

 

·         Evaluate customer engagement

·         Measure Interactive marketing

·         Expand customer reach

·         Drive more revenue

·         Get feedback on products and services

·         Enhance public opinion about company or products

 

Though the data available on social media is unstructured, it has the power to make or break a brand. Intelligence Social is all about bringing the unstructured customer data into the decision making process and using that power to drive businesses. Forrester defines social intelligence as “the concept of turning social media data into actionable marketing and business strategy.” The new age business intelligence thus deviates a bit from the traditional business intelligence approach by integrating social media or social intelligence with business intelligence. Companies need social intelligence to inform strategies and they can gather it with the help of different social media analytics tools.

 

Many service providers specializing in social analytics have come up with effective social media analytics tools that facilitate

 

·         Faster and smarter operating decisions by providing real time data and actionable insights

·         Tracking user behaviors in real-time and provide results within seconds

·         Immediate feedback as to want works and what not so that companies can optimize products, features, campaigns, and interactions on the fly

·         Faster Insights into what keeps customers engaged and the levers that can most impact revenues

 

Social analytics hold the key to profit growth and business expansion.

 

Also read about :advanced analytics & Social Media Analytics

 

How Innovation fuels FMCG

Globalization and technology driven economy has given the consumer access to a wide range of FMCG products from across the world. Moving down the supermarket with trolley at hand, the customers have the liberty to pick and choose products from a wide array of available goods.  As one rolls the trolley along these shelves, consumers find familiar products, with a different name, brand and packaging or a new product vying for attention either with a new and attractive packaging, competitive rates, or innovative marketing. The consumer finally ends up buying five more newly launched products.


However, not all products are sold like hot cakes as consumers are dubious  of the contents. To provide the consumers with  the required know-how before purchasing a product is a herculean task. The concept of supermarkets facilitated customers to walk through the shelves stacked with variety products, read through the packaging, understands the benefits and selects the product. The acceptance of innovation products by today's next generation consumers find supermarket shelves lined with well accepted creative products and uncommon combinations such as oats noodles, Manchurian upma or a lemon flavored salt.


Fueled by innovation, the FMCG business machinery does not just relate to creating new products but also includes the process of renovating, restructuring the products. Brand renovation is a process aimed to constantly renew the product equity with the consumer by making the product current and contemporary in tune with the emerging consumer preferences. Further, with a number of untapped markets, ideas and customers available, the need of the hour is to find the right idea which would click for the business to surge ahead. Companies today are extremely aware and have the capability to listen to the consumer and develop innovative products tailored to their needs.


The Consumer Goods and Retail companies need innovative ideas to retain their customers. Leading FMCG company Britannia entered the health drink sector, and took steps to reinvent the brand name by entering the pre-cooked breakfast category with creative ideas identified through brainstorming sessions across departments and from consumers. FMCG brands such as Frito Lays and Procter and Gamble (P&G) find their storehouse of ideas from their consumers. The upside down packaging of Heinz ketchup is the result of a consumer's observation of the ketchup resting at the farthest point from the opening.


Innovative ideas can come either from the consumers, employees or even the management or all.  Whatever be the source, effective idea management service needs to be in place to ensure that the revenue grows continuously. Market research showcases facts that most of the leading FMCG brands both India and abroad use strategic innovation by crowdsourcing software to bring out ideas and creative thoughts from consumers. Such exhaustive idea management implementation tactics will help enterprises to attain higher brand recall value and better consumer connects.


Know more on: Idea management

How to Improve Your Social Intelligence?

Internet has expanded manifold over the last decade. From online browsing to networking the journey has been that of an evolution. Furthermore, with the presence of the latest social networking forums social networking has taken a new paradigm. It is no more just an obsession or pastime for individuals, but rather a business tool for eminent companies today. Top notch brands make the most of the online social sphere today by utilizing social intelligence gathered from social network conversations and monitoring.

What is social intelligence?

Simply put, social intelligence is the inputs gathered from your online audience after you have engaged them in a discussion or results from an online poll. It could also be feedback gathered from an article or blog post. Thus, it is the collected “viewpoints, ideas, thoughts, opinions” of your online audience. Today enterprises are looking at ways for improving social intelligence as it helps them to make the overall social media strategy useful and beneficial.

 

Industry solutions for improving social intelligence

Today eminent brands dealing in social analytics  have come up with social intelligence apps that help to track data from various social platforms. This helps in taping into the consumer behavior and mindset. The main aim of these apps is to concentrate on the broader marker for social commerce and attain actionable, valuable user insights on an immediate basis. The benefits of these apps are as follows:-

 

i.                        Simple to get started and operating

ii.                        Helps you to evaluate the effectiveness of acquisition campaigns and conduct funnel analysis on viral promotions and features

iii.                        Helps in monitoring virtual currency monetization and trend metrics such as ARPPU, ARPU and conversions, payment kinds and so on

iv.                        Helps you to understand trending metrics for instance ARPPU over the last thirty or sixty days, or drill down by payment kind

v.                        Helps you to attain actionable insights  to the frequently used app features and what drives monetization to help make smarter operating decisions

vi.                        Helps to set up social profiles for targeting and customizing app content to the most valuable and engaged users, for instance frequent online buyers or visitors

 

Recently, along with social networking the social gaming market too has expanded and offers a unique scope for enterprises to understand consumer behaviors, mindset, preferences, activities and demographic profiles. With appropriate apps you can cater to their unique requirements to enhance the social intelligence and derive maximum benefits out f it. Eminent service providers of social intelligence apps turns the analytics into automated business procedures that enhance its consumer’s reach, retention and revenue campaigns on an ongoing basis. All this is done with an aim to improve the social intelligence.

 

Read more about : Social Media Analytics

 

Maintaining Your Business Credibility with Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions

Brand reputation is a certificate of quality and reliability for any organization. When customers buy your products merely on the basis of your brand name they trust you and know that they will get good value for their money. The relationship with your customers is a delicate one. You will continue to earn high profits as long as you meet the expectations of your customers. A small incident is enough to spark controversies and negative publicity for your business. And if you do not take timely action it can lead to large financial losses and loss of brand reputation.


The counterfeit industry literally weakens your hold in the market by misusing your copyrights and trademarks to manufacture duplicate and ineffective products in bulk. Your company is also at high risk when there is high demand for specific products that fall short in supply. You tend to lose market share as you are unable to protect your brand reputation, while the counterfeiters will continue to enjoy the returns at your expense.


The innocent customers believe that they are purchasing genuine products and do not realize that they have been victimized. Counterfeit products are affecting almost every sector ranging from breakfast cereals through to pharma, defense, automotive and electronic goods and have caused injuries and sometimes even death for some unsuspecting customers.  The customers are unable to comprehend that it is the work of the counterfeiters. It is also difficult for you to identify the fake products and shut down their network as they do not have any fixed location to carry on their operations.


In a report, Gartner Analyst, Avivah Litan, stated that companies who incorporate anti-counterfeiting solutions in their brand protection efforts are the ones who are taking proactive action to protect their customers. She believes organizations should let their customers know they’re making an effort to keep counterfeits off the market.


However, you can now protect your business from the counterfeiters by deploying automated anti counterfeiting solutions.  This anti-counterfeiting software tracks all activities on online auction sites and market places with real-time and consistent monitoring services. It provides detailed and correct pricing information. The solution prioritizes violators according to the damage they can cause to the brand reputation, for the  organizations to take immediate action.  


The solution provides you with real-time reports through the dashboards and provides complete support and ensures an end-to-end online fraud detection process. The solution can be customized to meet the requirements of the business. It has a capability to set the criteria for tracking and detecting the sources according to the industry standards. It means that the solution can be set based on either high volumes or high discounts that are specific to your industry to track the illegal activities. Once these activities are detected the service can send cease & desist and DCMA letters and online auctions are shut down automatically.


Without anti-counterfeiting solutions, brands will continue to be affected; hence with proper solutions in place counterfeiters will be aware that they cannot meddle with your organization's brand reputation anymore.


Read Also On:  Grey Market , Anti-Fraud

Eliminate Risk with Effective Banking IT Security Solutions

The banking industry is facing a number of challenges with the increase in malware, spyware, root kits, phishing, social engineering and a multitude of scams resulting in account takeover, new account fraud and identity theft. Banks as well as other similar financial institutions hold a considerable number of high value clients and any leak about their account information can make them vulnerable to thefts. Keeping customer information and other critical data safe and secure is of prime importance for any banking institution.

To protect their enterprise, it is critical for banks to reassess their Information Risk. Financial institutions need to prove that they are able to effectively protect their clients' valued assets and investments to maintain their reputation. To ensure effective information risk management, it is essential to conduct an evaluation of the risk management strategy and controls, to create a unified risk framework and focusing on ROSI (Return on Security Investment). Banks and financial institutions need to develop a comprehensive risk management solution that drives compliance, effectiveness, innovation and sustenance.

To safeguard your organization and stakeholders, you need security solutions like access management and intrusion, alarm, and panic systems that operate against felons and law offenders. Your employees' and customers' safety is highly important in achieving and sustaining excellent business. The Banking IT security solution must be capable of helping financial institutions to remain ahead of the onslaught of IT threats. It must also help lower costs, accelerate protection and reduce overall threats and ensure compliance and ensure smooth operations and workflow.

The security solution you choose should not merely function, it must also contribute to realizing that strategy. The solution should help manage your information risk framework comprising of regulatory compliance, optimization control and compliance reporting. It must simplify risk management by creating unified risk management frameworks to help compliance reporting, optimization control and effective sustenance. It must also reduce risk related to over-accessing of core applications.

An efficient solution must be able to manage privileged identities by simplifying user- life cycle management. It must ensure secure applications by enabling security testing of all applications for vulnerabilities before release. It must also quantify and address people and process risks associated with spear phishing and manage the security risks that have emerged with adoption of new technologies like mobile and cloud.

Enable your business to meet current and emerging security challenges with reliable integrated security solutions.

Read more on - data protection, mobile security

 

Tips on Selecting an Expert Tax Advisor

Advanced tax planning holds the key to financial success. As the name suggests, tax planning is all about planning finances in such a way that it reduces tax liabilities but at the same time, increases tax benefits. Expert tax advisors help businesses to grow and expand and individuals to save their hard-earned money by providing valuable suggestions on paying as little tax as possible that is legally permissible.

With tax system becoming increasingly complex, taxpayers need tax advisors who are specialists in that area. Otherwise, they might end up losing more than they save. Hence, taxpayers must be very careful when selecting a good tax advisor. Here is some help in choosing the right tax advisor.

* Select an advisor who is a tax expert specialized in the area where the respective taxpayer needs help. Ensure this by verifying their qualifications and credentials since only Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), attorneys, and Enrolled Agents (EAs - federally authorized tax practitioners) can represent taxpayers before the IRS in all matters. It would be good if the advisor selected is a member of any professional body so that complaints can be lodged in case of any issues.

* Decide the fee of the tax advisor depending upon the complexity of the tax situation. Pay more if the tax situation is complex and pay less if it is less complicated. Avoid those advisors who base fee on a percentage of the refund.

* Stay away from those tax advisors who promise large refunds even before knowing anything about the taxpayer’s financial situation.

* Select a tax advisor who not only offers you advice but also signs the tax return and provides a copy of it.

* Taxpayers can avoid taxes as well as evade taxes. Both saves money, but the only difference is that one leads to prison while the other leads to happiness. Hence, taxpayers must understand the fundamental difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion before approaching a tax advisor. Tax avoidance is the legitimate minimizing of taxes whereas tax evasion is the illegal practice of not paying taxes owed, through measures such as under reporting income, overstating deductions, reporting false expenses so on and so forth. Shun tax advisors who offer to help through tax evasion rather than through tax avoidance.

In order to do tax planning effectively businesses and individuals need experts in the field rather than just accountants because when filing an individual tax return or business tax return, it is the taxpayers and not the tax advisors who are held responsible for any consequences that may arise. Therefore, select tax advisors judiciously.

Also Read On: FBAR, Entity Formation