Inspire - Tips To Grow Your Business, Productivity & Relationships

With technology being the driving force in the business world, it makes perfect sense that utilizing it in the right way can bring about many benefits. The key here is in both embracing the right technology and using it the right way, because there is no universal solution for all industries. With careful implementation of technology as the cornerstone of every business success, it’s clear that digital transformation is your best guarantee to long-term success. To help you avoid common traps when it comes to choosing the right technology and implementing it in the most inefficient way, we’ve prepared the following list of essential tips to help you on this challenging but exciting journey.

Customer behavior monitoring

Nowadays, customers do not want to waste their valuable time. They want to be able to get all the information they need almost instantly, on-the-go or while sitting at home. This is true for almost any product or service, from groceries to finding a reliable plumber for your bathroom emergency. In order for businesses to meet expectations, they need to make it possible for customers to interact with them using mobile devices, through apps or your website. They also wish to be able to receive round-the-clock support from brands whose products they’ve purchased. Digital solutions help you both deliver your products to customers and allow them to contact you at any time.

Customer service provision

One of the technology trends that has had the biggest impact on business is related to providing excellent customer experience. With customers being increasingly concerned about after-sales services, the way you handle customer service is your key to boosting customer retention ratio. Instead of hiring customer service agents to work round the clock, you can opt for digital tools that give the desired results. Chatbots are a good example of this, as they make customer service both quick and efficient, thus fostering customer loyalty.

Accessibility and presence

Technology and digital transformation have many far-reaching impacts on business. For example, while customers used to visit a store during working hours, they can now access your offer through your website, app or social media channels. It’s estimated that most purchases are actually made online, which is why it’s vital you adopt modern technologies and use them appropriately. Also, another reason to shift your business online is that customers can get all information about your company and offer in one place and see other people’s reviews about your products or services.

Online marketplaces

While companies used to rely on local suppliers and partners in the supply chain, now they can use online marketplaces to offer or obtain products they need. This has enabled buyers to look for the best deals without being restricted to their local area. There are many examples of online marketplaces,  which cater to the needs of the oil and gas industry by providing specialized products such as butterfly valves. Companies use it to boost their supply chains by establishing contact with manufacturers and partners from all over the world. Similar platforms exist in almost every industry and using them allows you to find the best partners for your company and widen the range of your customers.

Online presence

As we’ve already established, your online presence is of crucial importance to your business, because customers want to be engaged in a personalized way that is also quick and secure. Some of the most progressive technologies are used to ensure that you meet your customers’ demands and, at the same time, they allow you to collect important customer data, which will help you create your marketing strategy and target both existing and new customers in the most efficient ways.

Cloud technology

One of the ways to cut costs and streamline your activities is to migrate your business to the cloud. With a wide range of collaboration tools available providing exceptional security, among other benefits, you’ll be able to have a simplified IT infrastructure. At the same time, you will have access to every single file or document regardless of your location. Finally, you won’t have to invest in expensive hardware to store all your data.

Artificial intelligence

One of the key advantages of utilising digital technologies is automation of your business processes. AI tools allow you to automate processes that used to require a lot of human resources, such as customer support. Next, AI is used for big data analysis and data science and many other processes, such as payments. While the use of AI may seem far-fetched for many businesses, especially smaller enterprises, it’s only a matter of time before even those companies recognise the need to embrace its benefits.

It goes without saying that digital transformation is one of the main contributors to business success. However, you can only reap the benefits if you know what kind of technology you need and how to use it. When implemented appropriately, it transforms the way you conduct business, improves your business results and provides an excellent basis for further development.

When you are working out your business’ budget for the upcoming fiscal year, one of your main expenses will always be your technology. No business today operates without using some kind of technology or other, and although some rely on tech a lot more heavily than others, it is always important.

So how much should you spend on business technology?

Average Spends

It might be helpful to first look into how much the average business already spends on their IT services. As a rule, smaller and medium sized businesses normally spend around 3-4% of their annual top-line revenue on the technology in their business. 

However, those companies in the midst of a period of considerable or sudden growth often spend around 5-7% of their revenue on technology. If you are working within these figures, you probably don’t have to worry – anything much below or above this could be a warning sign.

What Impacts The Price Of Tech?

There are so many factors that can impact how much you will need to spend on your tech each year, including:

• What outsourced services you use, if any.
• How up-to-date the tech solutions are.
• How well the IT in your business is maintained.
• Current market fluctuations.

Because there are all these factors influencing the price of tech, figures are going to change all the time – which is why it’s helpful to think of your spend in terms of the percentage of your revenue.

Important Components Of Any IT Budget

Ideally, your IT budget will include the following:

• Expenditure on hardware: workstations, computers, laptops, mobile devices. Without these, you won’t get far.
• Software. That will include everything from your email client to accounting software.
• Data services: internet, telephony and so on, so you can keep in touch with the outside world – and internally with every corner of the business.
• IT support services. How much do IT services cost? It depends, but this is one of the most vital components, so make sure to budget for it.
• Cloud technology. Few businesses don’t use the cloud in some way or another these days, so you should budget for this accordingly.

Determining Your Needs

It’s important that you are determining what your actual specific needs are, and not just following along with whatever you think other companies are doing. 

For instance, you might not have a need for mobile devices, or you might want to rely extra on cloud servers. All of that will affect your pricing, so bear that in mind.

The Signs Of Good Budgeting

You will know that you have budgeted the correct amount for your IT and technology when you enjoy the varied benefits of good tech: improved customer relations, a better service to customers, stronger marketing, an easier set of internal processes for your employees and yourself, and the ability to streamline costs more effectively.

On the other hand, if you are lacking in any of those areas, it might mean that your use of technology is lacking too – which could be the result of poor IT budgeting.

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

With the advancement of technology, professionals have learned that people have switched from seeking their expertise directly. Instead, individuals would prefer an easy way to contact them through their websites.

Yet, as someone who’s not keen on the current trends in the digital world, legal marketing might become a formidable opponent for them. But how relevant is this to the success of lawyers?

1. It establishes credibility

As a lawyer, people depend on your expertise to help them solve their legal problems. And for them to trust you, they should first see that you’re a credible individual.

One way to do this is to create your website, where you’ll introduce your background in the law industry and expertise in your field.

This allows you to have firm communication with your target audience by sharing your knowledge in the subject using blog posts and articles.

Legal marketing permits a brand to attract its ideal audience—who obviously strongly needs legal advice. With this strategy, you’ll be able to showcase informative content and optimize it, so you could be sure that you’re able to reach out to your desired audience.

Moreover, if you complement your online and offline marketing efforts based on your law firm, it won’t be long until you gain a solid and consistent web presence.

2. It encourages business growth

As a professional, especially if you’re in the private sector, it’s no doubt that your law firmly lives on sales. So it’s not a surprise that marketing your business to your ideal clients would help you survive the continuous evolution of technology.

If you have successfully established your credibility, you’ll likely rank higher in the search engine, which increases the traffic on your website. By doing so, you guide potential leads to your platform while keeping an eye on your competitors.

The trust you’ve developed with your clients would improve your brand recognition and allow your law firm to be the best out there.

Let’s not forget that social media is an authority in either breaking or building one’s business. So it might be the best idea to turn these platforms into your friend to advance in creating a good reputation.

It’s common in legal marketing to utilize informational content to lead clients to sign up for your law firm’s services, even to those who wouldn’t have connected to your organization in the first place.

3. It enhances the user’s experience

The issue with contacting lawyers is that, sometimes, the line could be busy when the client needed immediate assistance and expert advice.

But when you use digital marketing techniques, it’s unlikely that your clients would face the same problem.

The reason is that it employs legal CRM and automated replies, which reassures your clients that you could assist them as soon as possible. As you can see, investing in making your website responsive would feature you as the ideal attorney for their needs.

What’s more, it’s usually mobile-friendly so that people can reach out to you at the most convenient time for them. Plus points since legal problems occur in unexpected times, so individuals want to get in touch with an expert as soon as the incident happens.

On the other hand, legal CRM software permits the law firm to manage several business functions, such as revenue tracking, client scheduling, client intake, and even follow-ups to help you retain your current clients.

As we mentioned earlier, legal websites stay afloat because of their content. However, it doesn’t mean that you’re restricted in marketing your services by blog posts and articles alone. In fact, this was the opposite.

Since digital marketing focuses on creating a good image, it mainly focuses on video content because of its high conversion rate. With this, you could rest assured that the information you’ve included in your video content would make you the go-to lawyer once information spreads like wildfire.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that traditional efforts won’t work. But if you’re looking to take your business to another level, then we highly recommend investing early in your digital marketing strategies.

As we all know, the world is changing. With so many advancements in technology and medicine, people are living longer than ever before. For seniors that means they need to make some difficult decisions about their future: do they want to live in an independent 55 and older community or an assisted living facility? If not, what type of care do you want? In this post we will go over the benefits of assisted living facilities for senior citizens and why it might be a better option than having them live at home alone.

The Benefits of Modern Assisted Living Facilities

The first benefit is that assisted living facilities are designed to keep seniors safe. The structure of the building includes special features like security systems, emergency alarms, and 24/hour staff supervision so if your loved one needs help they will know right away. They also have a variety of safety measures in place such as handrails for moving between floors or around obstacles.

Assisted living communities offer day services which can include transportation, cooking classes, exercise programs, and counseling sessions -all things you might not be able to provide at home.

There are always people nearby during mealtime so residents don’t need to worry about getting up from their chair themselves when they’re done eating; someone else will bring them another plate.

These amenities and small conveniences can make a world of difference when it comes to the quality of life that is provided to senior citizens.

How You Can Project Your Loved Ones by Moving to an Assisted Living Facility

If you’ve been researching assisted living facilities for your loved ones, then there is a good chance that you have realized how much they can do.

If this is the case and it’s not too late yet, make sure to contact local retirement communities now! There are many who offer free consultation visits where staff members will answer any of your questions about their services.

If you’re on vacation with friends or family in another state and want to check out if they have what your loved one needs, just call ahead. It’s as simple as just getting started today by contacting these great senior care providers near you before time runs out.

After all, there are many hidden dangers in the home that can lead to accidents and injuries. Wouldn’t it be better to give your loved ones the care they need in a place that can keep them safe and sound?

Besides being unable to provide the same quality of care at home, you also can’t protect your loved one 24/7 the same way an assisted living facility can. Whether it’s from falls or medical emergencies, assisted living facilities have the staff to handle the problem and keep your loved one happy and healthy for a long time.

Many people started 2021 with mixed feelings, fears, and uncertainties, but as the year progresses, it’s becoming more hopeful as covid-19 gets into control. However, cybersecurity attacks remain a significant concern not only to big corporations but to anyone who has an online presence.

Malware injections, phishing, ransomware, breaches, and identity theft are some of the most common cybersecurity issues organizations face globally. Here are there most notable data breaches of the first quarter of 2021 and a look at how to prevent future attacks

Microsoft Exchange Attack

Cyber attackers targeted four security flaws on email software servers at the Microsoft Exchange at the beginning of 2021. Cybercriminals used bugs on the servers to access email account details of more than 30,000 organizations across the USA and 7,000 in the UK. 

Additionally, servers hosting big global organizations such as the European Banking Authority, the Czech government, the Norwegian Parliament, and Chile’s Commission for the financial markets were also under attack. During the attack, cybercriminals accessed sensitive information, including active directories and internal controls of the organizations.

In March 2021, Microsoft introduced patches to the servers, which protected networks from future attacks, but little was done to mitigate current damages. To avoid such an attack in the future, make sure you have the security patches in place but most importantly, talk to an experienced security firm such as an IT company in Lexington.

The Oxford University College 19 Lab

The structural biology department at the Oxford University, one of the most distinguished biology labs worldwide, was attacked by cybercriminals. Although no damage was reported, the breach affected the internal lab systems used for Covid 19 research. In addition, the attackers accessed biochemical samples and information that could lead to vandalization of intellectual property and research findings.

To avoid unauthorized entry, organizations must employ measures that restrict access to critical areas such as internal systems. In addition, multiple stages of authentication processes must be in place.

Walmart Data Breach

Walmart experienced theft of PII data from its pharmacy patients records at one of its data storage suppliers. The stolen information included patients’ names, health insurance details, prescription details, medical information, phone numbers, date of birth details, and physical addresses.

To prevent repeat identity theft and data breaches, systems and individuals need continuous authentication and authorization every time they access internal systems. There should be several levels of identification or authorization which every device and individual should pass through before gaining access to the company’s apps and assets.

California State Controller’s Office Cyber Attack

The California state controller’s office handles over $100 billion in public funds annually, and this year it was a victim of a phishing attack. This occurred when an employee clicked a suspicious link which granted the attacker access to the email account. 

Mimecast Data Breach

Mimecast experienced a data breach when cybercriminals compromised a certificate that authenticates its products. Some of its customers used the compromised connection, exposing their data.

For organizations to prevent future attacks, cybersecurity systems should be in place to avoid malicious damage even when attackers get company information. In addition, there should be authentication strategies that block access to sensitive information.

The most important strategy is to analyze every possible way attackers gain entry to company data and prevent access by employing up-to-date and recommended security measures. To moderate activity in apps you can also look into implementing elk log management in your company.