Some industry experts might tell you that the mobile computer repair business is somewhat oversaturated. After all; a cursory Internet search will reveal a plethora of service providers in even the most rural of areas! However, taking a computer repair shop out on the road is still a viable and profitable endeavor.

There are many reasons why there’s plenty of space for entrepreneurs like you to offer mobile computer repairs to individuals and other businesses. For a start, consumers seldom relish the thought of their PCs and laptops getting fixed by the big-name retail chains. And many small businesses don’t want to spend a fortune on maintenance contracts.

Sometimes, people may need a computer repair carried out as a matter of urgency; something office-based providers are unlikely to offer. Now that we’ve established how there’s still a market for mobile computer repairs , how can you provide the service and remain profitable? Here are a few pointers.

Don’t price yourself out of the market

As you can appreciate, an enterprise such as mobile computer repair will make most of its profit from selling time rather than physical products. You need to know the value of your services in the areas you wish to target. Bear in mind that you can justify charging higher hourly rates in inner-city areas, particularly affluent ones.

To find out the average of what you should be charging, you need to put your detective hat on! Your task is to find out prices from your local competitors and work out where you can fit yourself in the market. And don’t forget to analyze your profitability metrics before and after your price review based on the data in the software you use to manage daily operations in your shop. Still don’t have one? Check out this cloud-based solution for computer repair shops.

Offer fixed-price repairs for quick or easy jobs

There will be some tasks that hardly take you much time to complete. The thing is, your customers won’t attempt them for fear of damaging their computers. You can offer fixed prices for certain jobs to maximize your profit. And if you get any customers complaining about your fees, remind them they are paying for your skills and expertise!

Keep track of your computer installations

You will no doubt offer to build and install systems for both your residential and business customers. At some point, those machines will need maintenance work carrying out. Many mobile computer repair operators profit from providing preventative maintenance services to their existing clients.

Of course, you’ll need a way of keeping track of what you’ve installed, when it was done, and when those items next need your attention. Did you know that a CMMS software solution can help you out with that? It’s an investment worth implementing for.

One service that will cost you the least amount of money to offer is remote technical support. In a nutshell, this is where you take control of a client’s computer from your office and do any checks or repairs via the Internet.

The brilliant thing about remote access is that such solutions are cheap to implement and easy to use for both service providers and their customers.

So, now that you see how profitable running a mobile computer repair business can be, when will you get started .

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Mobile Computer Repairs: Why It’s Still A Profitable Startup Idea appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Your business almost certainly has a LinkedIn presence. Are you doing everything you can to get the most out of that presence — which, after all, comes with free exposure to hundreds of millions of regular users worldwide?

Chances are good that you’re not getting the most out of LinkedIn. Fortunately, this is a relatively straightforward deficiency to correct. These six strategies will help your organization approach LinkedIn with fresh eyes and build the sort of presence that really turns heads.

1. Make Sure Your Corporate Information and Contact Details Are Accurate

It sounds basic, but you’d be surprised how many businesses forget to tend to this straightforward little line item. Inaccurate or out-of-date corporate information and contact details are kryptonite to your organization’s credibility, and they’re likely to actively jeopardize your lead generation efforts besides. At your earliest convenience, take 30 minutes to make sure everything is shipshape.

2. Post Content Consistent With Your Brand Identity

Plan and post LinkedIn content that’s consistent with your corporate brand and identity. Centre for Arts & Technology, a British Columbia-based digital arts school, has this exactly right: its LinkedIn content embraces and celebrates its core brand values, leaving no illusions about what it stands for. Take a page out of its book.

3. Connect With Your Employees

How many employees does your organization have? Whatever the answer, its total number of internal LinkedIn connections should be close to or equal to that figure. For prospective customers, company profiles with thin or nonexistent internal connections beg the question: If its own employees aren’t engaging with this company, why should I? 

4. Post at Least One Longform Article Per Week

Publish at least one longform LinkedIn article per week. Shoot for at least 500 words, and longer if you feel you have more to say. Cross-posted blog content is fine when you’re strapped for content generation resources, but original content is optimal.

5. Tag Influencers and Key Employees Liberally

Publishing content is one thing. Making sure it reaches the right people is quite another. When appropriate, tag industry influencers and key employees in your posts, drawing them into the conversation and alerting them that you have something valuable to say. But you have to make sure that your profile is appealing to them. One idea of boosting your image would be to buy LinkedIn connections as the more you have, the more affluent and appealing you can appear to be. However, do not go too overboard with this strategy. Gaining 1000 connections overnight can appear suspicious to the influencers and key employees you are trying to connect with.

6. Deploy Visual Content Wherever Possible

LikedIn has a reputation as a text-first social platform, and it’s certainly amenable to dense prose. But the most successful LinkedIn posts generally incorporate rich visuals. Resolve to publish at least one such post per week, even if it’s just a repost of an infographic originally published elsewhere, or a throwaway meme you created at the last minute. Your audience will respond — and your LinkedIn game will be stronger for it.

Up Your LinkedIn Game Today

What are you doing to up your LinkedIn game today?

If you’re trying out any of the six strategies discussed above, you’re on the right track. But, just like most other worthwhile things, a continued successful LinkedIn presence requires constant measuring and monitoring. Knowing how to manage your LinkedIn ecosystem is almost more important than understanding how to create content that resonates with audiences. See the good OctopusCRM reviews to know details in respect of Linkedin growth service tools. 

Think you’ve got what it takes? Here’s to a LinkedIn presence of which you can truly be proud.

Contributed content

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post A Fresh Look at LinkedIn for Businesses – 6 Things To Do Now appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

How To Keep Your Business Healthy All Year Long

Summer is here, and depending on where you live in the world, the changing temperatures can lead to soaring office temperatures and subsequently a slump in productivity or motivation. Whatever the case, it seems that regardless of what season you are in, there will always be some factor to consider when looking after the overall health of your employees and your company. Winter brings along with it sniffly colds, flu, and hacking coughs, while the January blues tends to put down the overall morale of the office.
Illness and a lack of motivation are some of the biggest threats to a healthy and productive business, and just because we are out of winter (for now), it doesn’t mean that you should let your guard down. Ensuring that you are aware of the most common health-related dangers to your business will allow you to put checks in place and avoid a dip in your profitability as well as having a happy workforce.
 

Have a worker-friendly sick leave policy – Business Healthy All Year Long

that ensures employees feel comfortable and supported when they need to stay away from work. Often employees may feel penalized for taking sick leave, particularly if their illness stretches on for a substantial period. People may decide to come to work while they are still sick due to certain factors, sometimes as a result of not having any remaining sick days, but quite often due to feeling the pressure to perform and get on with the job. Employees who come to work with the best of intentions when they are still ill can cause all kinds of problems, however.
Spreading their illness to other colleagues is the main threat that comes from workers coming in before they are well again. In an office environment where large groups of people sit together for long periods of time the risk of infection is quite considerable, particularly in the summer when fans or air conditioning systems are in use which can carry germs around the office.

Coughs, colds and the flu,

while not as common as the winter months still affect a substantial amount of people during the summer months. Maintaining good hygiene in the office and continuing to support those on sick leave should be a policy that continues all year round. Set up hand sanitizers around the office as well as having boxes of tissues in convenient locations around the office.

Create an enjoyable work environment – Business Healthy All Year Long

While encouraging too much ‘fun’ can be problematic, finding a suitable balance between professional and enjoyable will foster a positive working environment. This can be as simple as having a ping-pong table in the break room, to having a designated ‘chill’ room with snacks, games, Ipads and bean bags. Creating an attractive break room boosts morale and acts as a fantastic stress buster, while also improving your brand perception and encouraging people to want to work for your organization.
 

Promote a healthy work-life balance – Business Healthy All Year Long

Professional burnout is one of the killers of people’s careers. Putting in too many hours, can after a period, lead to stress, exhaustion and then burnout. This is something that is hard to balance, as many people will have ambition and a desire to perform well, which can often mask the stress and exhaustion that they have.
As a result of overworking, however, people can compromise their professional and personal lives as well as the health of your company. To boost morale and create an environment that is conducive to employees, create clear expectations for your them that are both realistic and provides them with a sense of direction.
Some companies create an environment specifically targeted to combat stress and might even have a Chief Happiness Officer (CHO),  usually someone who is an HR Manager and is tasked with looking after the happiness or well-being of a company’s workforce.

Provide childcare options – Business Healthy All Year Long

Parents who have the option to drop off their young children at a childcare facility in or near to their office will be able to focus on their job rather than worrying about their childcare arrangements or having to rush off to pick their children up at the end of the day. This is usually a low-cost option for employees and fosters a sense of trust between the company and the employer.
 

Consider letting your employees work from home – Business Healthy All Year Long

The number of companies offering remote work to their employees is steadily increasing.Many companies are allowing their employees to work either full time or part time at home, with the advances in technology making this move much more convenient for many.
Allowing people to manage their schedule, and how they divide their day gives them a sense of authority and control over their work, and in turn, makes them more likely to engage with their job. The flexibility of this form of working, also allows many groups of individuals, such as parents or carers, to work while having the room to cater to other responsibilities in their life.
 

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post How To Keep Your Business Healthy All Year Long appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Electric Cloud Simplifies Application Onboarding and Takes the Rocket Science Out of Continuous Delivery

Electric Cloud (https://electric-cloud.com), the leader in DevOps Release Automation and Continuous Delivery, today announced a new version of ElectricFlow that provides a new, programmatic way for Developers to onboard applications, simplifies the way deployments are run for Operations teams, and provides visibility into deployments and releases across any DevOps toolchain (http://electric-cloud.com/products/electricflow/).
 

For a demo of ElectricFlow, visit Electric Cloud’s booth (#707) at O’Reilly Velocity Conference!

“A few years ago, the ‘Consumerization of IT’ boosted job satisfaction and organizational productivity by inviting employees to ‘Bring Your Own’ Devices into the workplace,” said Steve Brodie, CEO of Electric Cloud. “Today, ElectricFlow enables the ‘Consumerization of CD’, by allowing organizations and teams to ‘Bring Your Own’ processes, patterns, practices, tools and other technology into a secure and well managed DevOps toolchain. Our aim is to make it easy for both Dev and Ops practitioners to ship software in a way that ‘works best for them.’”
To help Development and Operations teams who are looking to automate and coordinate software deployment and release, ElectricFlow now includes:

• Customizable Self-Service Catalog with out-of-box templates for pipelines, applications, and environments to accelerate time to value and facilitate object re-use
• An easy way for Developers to define applications, environments and dependencies as code to ensure consistent, predictable downstream results
• Release and Deploy Analytics Dashboards to enhance visibility into the status and health of releases and pipelines

Self-Service Simplicity and Bulletproof Deployments

A new Self-Service Catalog in ElectricFlow offers on-demand templates for common stacks/environments, pipelines, patterns, applications, and common DevOps processes. Teams can then customize or add to this catalog to create a shared repository of approved, reusable automation.
This self-service, centralized and scalable solution gives Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) teams a way to empower developers with the tools they need to move fast, while maintaining consistency, governance and compliance. This allows organizations to balance team ownership and flexibility with standardization and control, which provides manageability, system-level visibility and lower operational costs.
Coupled with push-button access to advanced features such as Container and Microservices Orchestration, Automated Rollback and Rolling Deployments, ElectricFlow takes the ‘rocket science’ out of Continuous Delivery, and provides I&O teams a safe way to keep up with the demands of the business by making software deployments and releases a boring, routine affair.

Treat Your “Process as Code,” and your “Pipeline as a Product”

DevOps is all about eliminating silos. ElectricFlow is the industry’s only DevOps Release Automation solution to span the entire Continuous Delivery process – from code check-in to production release – with a single, unified platform. It provides the entire organization a central point of governance, collaboration and visibility to eliminate the gaps that can introduce friction and errors in the end-to-end process.
The unified platform allows users to interact with and manage all DevOps processes and platform features in a way that works best for them – either as code, or via the product’s GUI. This enables teams to “treat their pipelines like a product,” to continuously improve application delivery and decrease the cost and risk of deployments.
In addition to application onboarding options like GUI and DSL, ElectricFlow now allows Developers to automate the generation of application, environment and pipeline models directly from common CI tools. Using a simple JSON manifest file, developers can “shift-left” application definition as part of the Build stage. This ensures consistency of the deployment package when used by downstream teams.

Visibility and Control for Dev, Ops and the Business

In addition to faster onboarding and improved self-service, new ElectricFlow Release and Deploy Dashboards provide users with detailed reporting about the health of their commit, deployment and release pipelines. This secure, role-based and in-depth view can be filtered by time, project or other characteristics to give teams the fast feedback they need to spot trends and visualize application deployment and release lead times, successes/failures, frequency, throughput and duration.
“By taking the manual effort, guess-work and anxiety out of software delivery, AdvancedMD will be able to innovate more quickly, which gives us an advantage in this fast-moving, regulated market,” said John Esser, senior director of data center operations and SaaS at AdvancedMD. “ElectricFlow provides a secure, unified platform for cross-team collaboration and visibility on deployments and releases that won’t force us to sacrifice compliance for velocity.”
 

Connect with Electric Cloud

• Follow @electricccloud on Twitter
• Connect with Electric Cloud on LinkedIn
• Like Electric Cloud on Facebook

 
For more information
Electric Cloud’s newest release is available now. ElectricFlow Community Edition can be downloaded and used for FREE at http://electric-cloud.com/products/electricflow/.
 

About Electric Cloud, Inc.

Electric Cloud is the leader in DevOps Release Automation and Continuous Delivery. We help organizations like E*TRADE, Gap, HPE, Intel and Lockheed Martin deliver better software faster by orchestrating, automating, and accelerating application releases.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Electric Cloud Simplifies Application Onboarding and Takes the Rocket Science Out of Continuous Delivery appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Don’t Let Your Recycling Company End Up In Landfill

When we first invented plastic we were churning it out like there was no tomorrow and throwing it away by the ton. Then we realized that might not be the best idea because it isn’t going to degrade, it’ll just sit there for thousands of years to come. Now that we’ve started running out of space, somebody came up with the great idea of recycling it. That idea may have come a bit too late in the game and so recycling companies are playing catch up.
Also, companies in every industry are making an effort to go green because consumers take that into consideration when choosing products. That means there is always an abundance of work for the companies that deal with recycling plastics. It’s not the sexiest business to be in, but it is a very safe one that is likely to see a return. If you are considering starting your own plastics recycling company, here’s how to make it a success.

Decide Who You Work With

There are a few different places that you can source the plastic that you recycle. You could try to work with local authorities and take on some of the plastic that they get from garbage collections. This ensures a steady stream, but they often use larger companies so it might be a bit harder for you to get those contracts.
Your other option is to work directly with businesses and take their recyclable plastics off their hands. You can reform it into products and sell it back to them at a reduced price. You are more likely to get contracts with smaller businesses that can’t afford to or don’t want to deal with the bigger companies.

Focus On Quality

One of the reservations that people have about buying recycled products is that the quality isn’t as good as something that has been made from new plastic. This doesn’t have to be the case if you put a lot of effort into creating quality products.
Hire employees with scientific molding training to make sure that your products are formed perfectly without any blemishes. This will set you apart from some of the other companies that might be putting out sub-par products.

Get The Right Equipment

The only issue you might find when trying to start a plastic recycling company is the start-up costs. Recycling involves a lot of expensive machinery and quite a few separate processes before you have something that you can sell.
It might be tempting to go for the cheaper equipment or cut corners in other ways. If you do this, you won’t get the level of quality that we talked about earlier and that is the thing that is likely to help you become profitable.

Find A Good Location

The key to locating your recycling plant is proximity to plastic sources. If you have transport the plastic over long distances, the transit costs are going to eat into your profits in a big way. Finding a space in an area that is close to lots of different businesses allows you to bring in a lot of plastic quickly and without huge transit costs.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Don't Let Your Recycling Company End Up In Landfill appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Viva Technology: An even bigger success for 2017! With over 60,000 visitors, over 500 international speakers, over 6,000 startups and exhibitors from over 50 countries in 3 days!

Viva Technology, the global technology event, dedicated to innovation, has met the challenge to do even better than its previous year. Over 60,000 visitors attended Viva Technology over the three days, (the first two days were dedicated to professionals with the last day opening its doors to the public) and have met with 6,000 startups, 1,500 investors and thousands of executives from around the world.

In addition, Viva Technology was honoured to welcome the President of the Republic of France, Emmanuel Macron, who declared: “France is becoming the nation for startups and must succeed in this challenge”.  

Emmanuel Macron was joined by a number of other well-known politicians and officials from the French government including: Bruno Lemaire, Minister for the Economy, Elisabeth Borne, Transport Minister, Muriel Pénicaud, Labour Minister, Frédérique Vidal, Education Minister, Mounir Mahjoubi, Secretary of State in charge of Digital, Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State in charge of Gender Equality, Valérie Pécresse, President of the Ile de France region and Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris.

The home of worldwide game changers – Viva Technology, An even bigger success for 2017!

Over the three days Viva Technology played host to the biggest digital players in the world. Throughout the 250+ conferences, 500+ entrepreneurial leaders, CEOs, investors and researchers discussed many off the key issues surrounding the impact of digital on the world’s economies and societies. Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Jean-Laurent Bonnafé (BNP Paribas), John Chambers (Cisco), John Collison (Stripe), Paul Eremenko (Airbus), Jeffrey R. Immelt (GE), David Kenny (IBM Watson & Cloud Platform), Isabelle Kocher (ENGIE), SY Lau (Tencent), Emily Leproust (Twist Bioscience), Yuri Milner (DST Global),  Ambarish Mitra (Blippar), Jonah Peretti (Buzzfeed), Prof. Bertrand Piccard (Solar Impulse), Kira Radinsky (ebay), Carlo Ratti (MIT Senseable city Lab), Oliver Samwer (Rocket Internet), Eric Schmidt (Alphabet Inc), Joe Schoendorf (Accel Partners) Adam Singolda (Taboola), Yossi Vardi (Entrepreneur de l’Internet Israélien), Eleanor Watson (Singularity University), Philippe Wahl (Groupe La Poste), Mark Weinberger (EY), Yuanqing Yang (Lenovo Group) and Daniel Zhang (Alibaba Group) were just some of the special guests who graced the Viva Technology halls to discuss these important issues.  

Our top 10 talks from some of these icons at the conference included:   

·         China at the forefront,

·         AI and Big Data,

·         What’s next for FinTech?,

·         Will robots take our jobs,

·         Virtual and augmented: moving towards a different reality?

·         Mobility as a service,

·         Media and advertising: the challenge of the truth,

·         IoT,

·         Startups: how to accelerate?

·         The active energy revolution,

·         The ‘next tech’

Where they divulged their predictions for the future and discussed many of the emerging trends at the moment.

Viva Technology also created the platform for 20 industry-focused labs, whereby the biggest leaders in industry, geared towards real open-innovation such as BNP Paribas, La Poste, Orange and LVMH supported  collaborations with more than 1,000 startups. Incubations, prototype financing, mentoring and investments have all been initiated as a result. 

Within the Hall of Tech, visitors discovered the latest innovations, set to transform business and impact our day-to-day life. Exhibitors included the likes of Google, Facebook, IBM Watson, Alibaba and Lenovo. As well as many innovative startups, such as Histovery for an immersive visit of patrimony in augmented reality, Buddy the family robot by BlueFrogs, Navya driverless shuttle and H3 Dynamics drones.

Maurice Lévy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Publicis Groupe said about Viva Technology: “I sincerely thank all those who helped us confirm that Paris is at the heart of the digital world, from our partners who believed in this event, the startups that this whole event is dedicated to and all the speakers who supported us along the way. I also want to acknowledge the teams, who, under the supervision of Julie Ranty and Maxime Baffert, Co-Directors of Viva Technology have accomplished such a success, with a special mention for Publicis Events. Finally, I really want to recognise and commend our collaboration with Les Echos Group, Francis Morel and his teams”.  

Francis Morel, CEO of Groupe Les Echos added: “With this latest edition of Viva Technology we have confirmed that it is a truly exemplar event for innovation in Europe. We have succeeded in creating concrete collaborations between startups and big corporates – which is exactly what we set out to do, and the figures confirm that our results are way beyond our ambitions. We are happy to announce that we will obviously renew this formidable experience in 2018”.

What you missed if you weren’t able to attend Viva Technology 2017  – Viva Technology, An even bigger success for 2017!

·         100 of the most inspiring innovations such as humanoid robots of Engineered Arts, the l Go Touch VR glove that allowed users to really feel objects in virtual reality, next generation drones, such as Staaker, the most advanced uses of AI with Google Assistant, a 3D printing of urban furniture (Bouygues Construction) ; a model of the Solar Impulse, the autonomous car presented by Cisco and Valeo, and SeaBubble’s latest prototype.

·         Over 450 one-to-one meetings between startups and investors from around the world (more than 70 investment funds, 60% from abroad).

·         Ten drone races on the Longchamps Hippodrome organised by PMU for the public, where drones were piloted over 5km. 

·         A 25 hour Deep Tech Hackathon, which brought together more than 200 developers and 50 mentors from 8 different countries. 

·         The first edition of the LVMH Innovation Awards won by Heuritechdata. The award was presented by Bernard Arnault, Chairman & CEO of LVMH himself.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Viva Technology: An even bigger success for 2017! appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Cloud-Based Security Services Will Be Worth $9 Billion in 2020

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD, 15 June, 2017 — Growth in worldwide cloud-based security services will remain strong, reaching $5.9 billion in 2017, up 21 per cent from 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. Overall growth in the cloud-based security services market is above that of the total information security market. Gartner estimates the cloud-based security services market will reach close to $9 billion by 2020 (see Table 1).
Gartner analysts discussed cloud security trends during the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit taking place in the US this week.
 

SIEM, IAM and emerging technologies are the fastest growing cloud-based security services segments.

“Email security, web security and identity and access management (IAM) remain organisations’ top-three cloud priorities,” said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. Mainstream services that address these priorities, including security information and event management (SIEM) and IAM, and emerging services offer the most significant growth potential.
Emerging offerings are among the fastest-growing segments and include threat intelligence enablement, cloud-based malware sandboxes, cloud-based data encryption, endpoint protection management, threat intelligence and web application firewalls (WAFs).
 

Increasing security threats, operational and cost benefits and staffing pressure drive market growth.

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are driving growth as they are becoming increasingly aware of securitythreats. They are also seeing that cloud deployments provide opportunities to reduce costs, especially for powering and cooling hardware-based security equipment and data centre floor space.
“The cloud medium is a natural fit for the needs of SMBs. Its ease of deployment and management, pay-as-you-consume pricing and simplified features make this delivery model attractive for organisations that lack staffing resources,” said Mr Contu.
The enterprise sector is also driving growth as they realise the operational benefits derived from a cloud-based security delivery model.
“Cloud-based delivery models will remain a popular choice for security practices, with deployment expanding further to controls, such as cloud-based sandboxing and WAFs,” said Mr Contu. According to a global survey conducted by Gartner at the beginning of 2016, public cloud will be the prime delivery model for more than 60% of security applications by the end of 2017.
“The ability to leverage security controls that are delivered, updated and managed through the cloud — and therefore require less time-consuming and costly implementations and maintenance activities — is of significant value to enterprises,” said Mr Contu.
 

Cloud-based security services market growth presents opportunities and challenges for providers.

“On the one hand, new greenfield demand arising from emerging requirements from SMBs is driving growth. On the other hand, new competitive dynamics and alternative pricing practices threaten traditional business models,” said Mr Contu. Providers need to adapt to the shift from an on-premises to a cloud-delivery business model. “Overall, one of the main focus areas for providers relates to the shift from owning and selling a product, to selling and supporting ongoing service delivery.”
Visit the Gartner Digital Risk & Security hub for complimentary research and webinars.
Gartner clients can learn more about the cloud-based security services market in Market Trends: Global Demand for Cloud-Based Security Is Growing Through 2020.
Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis on IT security trends at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summits 2017 taking place in Tokyo; Mumbai, India; Sao Paulo; Sydney; London; and Dubai. Follow news and updates from the events on Twitter at #GartnerSEC.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Cloud-Based Security Services to Grow 21 Per Cent in 2017 appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

How Can I Boost Productivity In The Workplace?

To do well in business, you have to be working at maximum capacity; fulfilling orders, improving and expanding. Keeping productivity levels high ensures you’re not slipping behind, are keeping ahead of your competitors and turning the highest amount of profit possible. Looking to give your workplace productivity levels a boost? Here’s how you can go about it.

Offer Rewards or Incentives – How Can I Boost Productivity In The Workplace

Great employees will be motivated and hardworking, but everyone can benefit from a boost now and again. Having some kind of incentive or reward on offer for employees might give them what they need to work that bit harder. Another small way you can boost productivity and employee satisfaction too. Whether it’s gift vouchers, tickets to a spa or a free meal on the company it’s sure to be something the winner enjoys. Alternatively, you could offer ‘employee of the month’ to recognize their great performance and give them credit.

Use an Employment Agency To Cover Illness – How Can I Boost Productivity In The Workplace

Staff illness can take a toll on your entire workforce. With members off sick, it falls to everyone else to ensure the job is done which can be stressful for them and not result in their best work. Reliable staffing agencies can help to take the pressure off, and whether you have one or multiple people off sick, it allows you to keep workflow going and to stay productive.

Create a Nice Office Space – How Can I Boost Productivity In The Workplace

Did you know that there are certain things you can do in the office that make your staff more productive? The first is to change up the lighting. We all know how harsh artificial lighting in offices can be, it can lead to eye strain and headaches and generally doesn’t look very pleasant. Natural light on the other hand is a mood booster and can increase happiness levels as well as productivity. It could be as simple as changing up your window treatments, or moving desks, so they’re closer to the windows. You could use daylight bulbs overhead too. Plants are another small thing you could do, psychologists have shown that living plants increase productivity at work. Plus they look nice too, you could allow workers to display a couple of mini cacti or a plant on their desk and dot a few larger ones around the office. However, instead of redesigning your office space to make it a more attractive and happy place for work, you can choose a more favorable option and rent an already well-furnished office space with the necessary amenities in a business-friendly location. For instance, you can consider renting office suites in Dallas, as the city is among the top places for workers thanks to its low unemployment rate and job diversity. Cities like Atlanta, Tampa, and Houston also can be considered.

Use The Right Equipment – How Can I Boost Productivity In The Workplace

You might have found the hardest working, motivated employees in the world. But if they don’t have the right tools to do their job, it’s always going to slow down progress. Make sure you have good quality, fast and reliable computers. They should be loaded with up to date business software which allows your employees to get through tasks quickly and efficiently. Do some research to work out which softwares will best suit your business, and update from old fashioned methods such as paper files which are time-consuming with a high chance of human error.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post How Can I Boost Productivity In The Workplace? appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Making a good impression is crucial in so many aspects of life.

It is particularly important when you are meeting your prospective new employers for the first time at a job interview. There are lots of obvious things that you have to do that everyone knows about, like turning up on time, dressing appropriately, and using polite, formal language.
These things are so important because it is estimated that you have about seven seconds to make a good first impression. However, the dynamic of a job interview is such that the interviewers have to make a good first impression too. If they do not make you want to work with them, taking the job would probably be a mistake. It is widely assumed that the paradigm of supply and demand is usually more beneficial to the prospective employer.
They have the job, and the opportunity for you  to earn a wage, after all. But you have the skills and the capacity for work, without which they cannot continue to trade. In any case, if you run your own business, you will be familiar with the feeling of trying to impress people. If you are going to survive, you will need to continue to find new clients. Once you have them, you need to retain them, which is difficult enough. There are lots of things that you can do to make people want to work with your business for their personal or professional needs though. Here are a few ways that you can make yourself more attractive to potential clients:
 

If you have an office where you host clients, you need to make sure that it makes a good impression from the first moment.

 
When someone drives up, they need to feel that they are going to a place where people care about their image. That is why you should invest in a commercial irrigation system to keep your lawns luscious. Cleaning the outside of your building with a pressure washer is a good idea too.
 
A lot of people today, if they need something, will turn to the internet to help them find it. While word of mouth is still important, having a good website that is easy to use, and rich in information, but not mired in detail, is crucial. A study conducted last year found that 46% of small businesses did not have a website.
This is a serious mistake. Websites are not expensive to run, and they are a great resource. If you sell products, setting up an online shop is easy and can help you increase your sales many times over. You should be sure that you implement the appropriate securities though. When a customer trusts you with their financial information, you have to make sure you protect it.
If they cannot trust you, they will not shop with you. If you offer services, it is a permanent advertisement for your company that can be accessed day or night. If you work on your SEO rankings, it can drive a lot of traffic to your business.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Effective Ways To Impress Prospective Clients appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

SEO

SEO stands for ‘search engine optimization,’ and deals in improving the search engine ranks that your website operates with. There is absolutely a market for this because the more people see your content, the more people are likely to click on it, and as a result, you can market more products and services that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do so subtly.
Search engines like Google prefer informative content that helps a blog seem authoritative. There’s no reason as to why you should cheat this, and in fact, Google can suss out when your article is insincere or simply using too many keywords in order to bolster its rankings. It will penalize you for this. Running a blog still takes time and effort, but if done right, your web traffic will be positively bolstered.

Social Media

Running a blog will give your business social media pages more reason to increase their postings on a daily basis, and consumers prefer seeing articles that are trying to educate them rather than just simple advertising. They’re more likely to look at you as a friendly business rather than one simply trying to maximize profits over all else.

Promotion

Blogs are a great way to sell products because as mentioned before, they’re subtle. You can simply talk about how a product is worthwhile and in the same article link a similar product or service that will benefit the consumer. This one to one equaling of a reason for buying and method of buying goes hand in hand, and it actually looks great.

Genuine Informative Help

Business considerations aside, it is actually a great boost and benefit to you to give genuine informative business teaching to those visiting your website. It fosters goodwill, and goodwill improves brand loyalty. There’s no better way to benefit your business than to seem like an authority on something useful, and this can help you to no end. Don’t worry about how you’ll be perceived because as long as you’re attempting to positively influence your clients, you’ll have no reason to be criticized.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post The Very Many Benefits Of Running A Business Blog appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.