POST CATEGORY : Information Technology

Tips for Selecting a Payment Processing Provider

If you plan to run any type of online business, you will typically have to decide on a payment processing provider to handle credit card and other transactions for you. While there are many different companies providing these services in this day and age, the breadth of choice can make it difficult to know who to actually choose and what level of service will be best for your specific needs.

If you’re keen to find the right provider of merchant services for your business in 2016, read on for some tips to keep in mind before you sign on the dotted line.…

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3 Biggest Online Threats to Businesses and How to Avoid Them

With so much business being conducted online, making sure all your information is secure should be one of your company’s top priorities. And although no business anticipates that it will be them who’s hit by a data breach or hack, it can be detrimental to your business if and when it happens. To combat against this, it’s important for businesses to know just where their vulnerabilities lie and how to keep those vulnerabilities from being exposed.

Data security breach

To help with that, here are three of the biggest online threats to business and what you can do to minimize them.

Customer Information Breaches

If you do business online with customers, you have to protect their data against breaches at all costs.…

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How Big Data is Helping Small Companies

The potential of solutions associated with gathering, deploying and analysing data on a large scale is steadily becoming clear to more and more companies across a broad range of industry sectors and right around the world. But while the use of big data is particularly big news for large companies, there are also lots of useful ways in which it can be deployed by smaller scale operators as well. Here’s a look at just a few.

Big data analysis

Support for strategic decision-making

Having good judgement of where market opportunities are or where they might emerge has always been a key asset for small business leaders and the companies they run.…

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Keeping Your Business Safe on Social Media

As popular as it is today, social media is a requirement for any serious business. As a perfect avenue for cheap advertising, proper social media campaigns can reach thousands, if not millions of potentially untapped customers. Unfortunately, it can also backfire in the worst of ways.

Social media security woes

While there’s plenty to get right, there’s just as much your company can get wrong when addressing the world from an unprotected soap box. Poorly thought out comments can be misconstrued to ruin your company’s image, at least temporarily. Worse, totally disengaging from these platforms can make your business seem out of touch.

Proper knowledge of how to navigate social media safely and effectively is necessary for any modern business.…

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3 Ways Technology Can Improve your Online Customer Service

Customer service plays a huge role in the satisfaction and return of your customers. However, many online companies have forgotten that having good customer service for an online business is just as important as for a brick and mortar business—maybe even more so. And because many other companies understand this, there are a plenty of different technologies available to help you improve your customer services as well as your overall relationship with your customers or clients.

Caring customer service

To show you how, here are three types of technologies you can use to improve your customer service with online visitors.

Finding Weaknesses with Analytics

Before you can know how to improve, you first need to know where you should be improving.…

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5 IT Solutions for Common Small Business Issues

It used to be that small and large businesses were separated by a lot more than just size, but technology has leveled the playing field. As small businesses seek to increase their tech budgets, they’ll find several innovative solutions to some common business problems.

Business people using IT solutions

1. Problem: Secure Storage

Small businesses are at higher risk for security issues than many believe. A majority of small businesses operate under the assumption that they’re not at risk because of their size. However, small businesses are at greater risk for storage breaches than they realize, and it’s essential that they become informed.

Solution: Adopt Cloud Storage Solutions

Cloud storage is a great, affordable option for small businesses.…

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3 Reasons to Invest in Knowledge Base Software That You Haven’t Thought of Yet

If you’ve considered investing in knowledge base software, you’ve probably already looked at the typical reasons that companies add the tool to their arsenal. Knowledge base software supports customer service, giving your employees the tools they need to help your customers quickly and efficiently, and in some cases, giving your customers more self-service options. A well-developed knowledge base helps improve staff productivity as well.

Man seeking info using knowledge base software

When all of the answers they need are at their fingertips, they don’t waste time searching for information. And knowledge base software helps keep you customers happy. Not only can they get help quickly, but a comprehensive knowledge center increases the likelihood that they will get the rights answers when they need them.…

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Data Backup and Recovery: Essential Strategies for Small Businesses

For a business of any size, data storage and information handling are two of the most important aspects of operations in the modern commercial world.

For small businesses, these two elements can be even more vital. This is because the resources that are available to them on a day-to-day basis may be far more restricted than those of major corporate-level rivals.

Data backup and recovery

Today, clients, customers, and consumers take the matter of data security extremely seriously. Recent studies have shown that breaches or leaks from a company of personal details it holds can be extremely damaging to its reputation and lead to customers moving away.…

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DDoS Attacks Taking Aim at Linux – But is it a Linux Problem, or a Human One?

There’s a certain amount of cackling that happens when one operating system has a vulnerability exposed, is hit with a major security breach or is targeted by attackers while other operating systems go untouched. It isn’t malicious, it’s more a matter of rivalry. Windows vs. Mac OS X vs. Linux is a tale as old as the digital age.

DDoS attack in progress

However, when it comes to the XOR botnet which is composed of infected Linux computers that’s taking aim at up to 20 targets a day with potent DDoS attacks, non-Linux users may need to hit pause on any feelings of superiority. Here’s what you need to know about the XOR botnet, the human error element, and how to keep from contributing to or getting hit with a DDoS attack.…

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5 Reasons That The FinTech Sector Is Booming (And Won’t Slow Down)

It’s no secret that FinTech is booming. The sector is attracting users and investors by the millions, taking over operations that were once exclusively the domain of banks. UK neighbourhoods, such as Shoreditch, Old Street and King’s Cross, have undergone dramatic overhauls as they have become hubs of the industry. Everyone wants a piece of the pie.

FinTech trends

Banks fear the rise of the FinTech sector, and with good cause. They’re quickly being replaced by the far more attractive options FinTech companies are increasingly able to provide.

But why is it that the FinTech sector is rising so seamlessly? Here are the 5 main reasons:

1.

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