Mega-retailers maintain websites with information on their extensive inventory, and keep that information up to date with new products and changes in product pricing and availability. It’s a data base that smaller retailers, even with a more limited or niche-focused inventory, do not generally have the manpower to create and maintain. Brother and sister entrepreneurs James Kane … [More]
Technology Isn’t License
Technology has transformed many aspects of our lives, and we’ve come to take for granted that we can implement it. However, technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum; there are use repercussions. The common practice of screening movies in waiting rooms is one widely misunderstood example. Purchase of a DVD bestows ownership rights that allow it to be played in small groups in … [More]
Accelerating the Ad Experience
“Most people aren’t willing to sit through nine to ten ads before they can watch the programming. They will stop using a site instead,” says aspiring filmmaker Stan Wong. “That will hurt a lot of artists and other content creators.” His epiphany — online advertising needs to be more efficient — led to his interest in developing VAAC Army, the first voice-activated ad … [More]
Benefits and Challenges of BYOD
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has been gathering momentum among businesses and their employees alike. BYOD is a model of business technology deployment whereby employees, rather than companies, provide and maintain their own personal technology devices — such as computers and phones — for business use. While there are many potential benefits to adopting a BYOD model, businesses … [More]
Model Behavior: 3-D Printing Is Building
“In construction, we’re bidding the concept of what we can deliver,” says Jeff Perelman, senior vice president and chief growth and strategy officer of Sundt Construction, Inc., explaining the advantage of 3-D over 2-D is “it’s hard to go from a two-dimensional piece of paper to give people a sense of scale of what you’re building.” Building a model rather than simply producing … [More]
Thwart Internet Hackers with Employee Firewall
There has been a lot of investment in corporate IT security, especially infrastructure, observes Felix Odigie, CEO of Inspired eLearning, and it has paid off — networks are more secure. But with hackers finding it more difficult to hack the network, they have turned their attention to the weakest link: humans. “It’s easier to hack users of the network — employees, vendors, … [More]
Distracted Driving Is an Employer Issue
Distracted driving is a potential minefield for employers, due to a liability issue that many misunderstand. “A common mistake is to think, ‘If it’s the driver’s equipment, we don’t have any responsibility.’ That is not so,” says David Lewis, CEO of HR company OperationsInc, noting, “The courts have emphatically said that if a person is performing work for your firm, and at the … [More]
A Digital Approach to Employee Training
Training a new employee is a lengthy process. Recognizing that this can be especially burdensome for small businesses, local entrepreneur Chris Ronzio recently launched Trainual, a Web-based software geared toward small businesses to make the training process easier. Because the software is Web-based, it affords convenient access from any location at any time. “Building the … [More]
A New, More Secure Payment Method
“It’s been something that’s been in the works for quite some time now,” says Scott Shedd, referring to the upcoming switch from traditional credit and debit cards to EMV cards. Shedd is the information security consulting manager for WGM, an IT company located in Scottsdale that analyzes technology risks and compliance. The noticeable difference between a traditional card … [More]
Pay-in-Advance Meals
Restaurants are starting to use technology to cut their losses from reservation no-shows through a ticketing system similar to that for theater performances, pioneered in 2011 by Nick Kokonas; diners will not be able to change reservations or get refunds, but can give their reservation to someone else. Kokonas’s “Tock” also provides restaurants with other commercial business … [More]
Amazon Opens for Business
Amazon recently launched Amazon Business with features tailored to businesses. It was designed as a response to business customers wanting an experience at work similar to how they shop at home, according to Prentis Wilson, vice pr esident of Amazon Business, who says it offers “features and back-end integration businesses need to save time and money.” … [More]
LifeLock Program for the Workplace
LifeLock’s recently launched product, LifeLock Benefit Elite™ identity theft protection, was created specifically for employers and brokers to offer as a benefit for employees. It is designed to help detect potential fraud, including issues with a 401(k) account, and bring it to the attention of the employee through alerts within the company’s network via email, text or phone. … [More]
Technology Assesses Physical Fitness for the Job
A post-hiring physical involves a host of compliance issues, but technology is giving businesses a way to assess some applicants’ fitness for the job as a simple step in the interview process. “Cost Reduction Technologies came up with a way to test an individual’s strength and agility,” says Melissa Lykins, claims manager for Lovitt & Touché, an insurance and employee … [More]
Geolocation Is a Marketing Find
There are 6 billion smartphones in the world, and the number that have geolocation technology continues to grow. “It’s the largest growth rate ever seen in any technology,” says Andy Lombard, CEO and founder of Socialwhirled, a marketing and technology company based in Phoenix. The marketing landscape is shifting dramatically, and Lombard believes geolocation is important … [More]
Secure Against Internal as well as External Breaches
Diligence against cyber security breaches is as much an issue of internal processes as external threats. In fact, the breach Home Depot so publicly suffered last year was enabled through a pfishing scheme whereby hackers first gained access to a third-party vendor that had access privileges with Home Depot. In the recent survey “Privilege Gone Wild 2” by global cyber … [More]
Securing Mobile Financial Access
Working with financial institutions to provide risk management solutions against the constant evolution of threats, Early Warning is building an ecosystem that will continue to match up with the threat over time. With no direct link itself to the end user, Early Warning’s strategy is collaboration among companies with their own expertise and a consortium model in sharing data … [More]
Communication Control
Consumers “have little control over their messages thanks to autocorrecting tools and the lack of ability to easily fix errors leading to miscommunication,” says Kevin Wooten, reTXT Labs co-founder and CEO. His Tempe-based company’s recently launched app (patent pending) puts users in control of their text conversations by enabling them to edit previously sent messages and to … [More]
IT Staff in Demand
The unemployment rate in Phoenix for IT professionals is half the general unemployment rate. That shortage of talent makes for a very competitive market, and therefore, observes Allan Dunn, managing director of the Phoenix office of IT staffing agency MDI Group, “Businesses must be willing to pay above the median rate based on a skill set.” There is non-salary compensation … [More]
