Category: Business Information Companies

How to Protect Your Business’s Sensitive Information

by  on  in Business Information Companies

You don’t need to look far to see the repercussions when a business fails to protect sensitive information. Equifax, Adobe, Target were all victims of significant data breaches that resulted in a massive blow to their reputation and bottom line. [Learn the most effective ways of how to manage your online reputation.]

Data breaches and fraud are problems for businesses of every size, affecting over 25% of businesses with an average fraud loss of $38,000. That’s enough to push many small businesses into bankruptcy.

Types of security risks businesses face

Businesses face an increasing number of threats on a daily basis. Research shows that ransomware, phishing, data leakage, hacking and insider threats are all security issues businesses are dealing with.

Information security issues have a major impact on a business. Loss of revenue can result from remedying the problem and damage to your brand’s image.

Hackers are responsible for the majority of information security breaches. Cybercriminals look for ways to make monetary gain from businesses by using malware and phishing scams to collect sensitive data. The cost to remedy a data breach can be astronomical. Large companies that have to deal with major data breaches have paid out millions to specialists to become compliant once again. According to IBM Security, the average cost of a data breach in the United States in 2020 was $150 per record.

Here is more about some of the threats businesses are facing. 

Email phishing scams

Phishing is the act of a bad actor sending someone an email designed to look like an official communication from a legitimate, reputable company. This email may ask you to log in to an account or share your credit count information to prevent something drastic from happening. This information then goes not to the reputable company, but to

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Google Lets Businesses Add Social Media Links To Profiles

by  on  in Business Information Companies

Google has introduced the ability for businesses to add social media profile links directly in their Google Business Profile.

This new option enables companies to showcase their social media presence alongside other information in Google Search and Maps.

By having social media links accessible on their Google Business Profile, businesses can provide customers with more ways to connect, acquire information, and resolve issues.

New Feature Rollout

A new Google support page explains businesses can now control which social media links are displayed on their Google Business Profile.

Businesses can add one link per social media platform to their Business Profile. The supported platforms include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.

This feature is being rolled out gradually and is available in specific regions.

How To Use the New Feature

To add a social media link to a Google Business Profile, businesses need to access their profile, click ‘Edit profile,’ then ‘Business information,’ and finally, ‘Contact.’

Under ‘Social profiles,’ they can select the social media platform they wish to link and enter the web address.

Editing or removing the link follows a similar process.

To edit a link, businesses must update the web address field for the designated social media link. To remove a link, click on the ‘Trash’ icon next to the social media profile that needs to be deleted.

Occasionally, Google automatically adds social media links to eligible Business Profiles. To modify these auto-added links, businesses can add a new link for the same social media platform following the same steps.

What This Means for Businesses

The ability to add social media links provides another way for local business owners to optimize their presence across Google’s ecosystem.

Consumers today expect to find social media and website links alongside local search results. Small to medium-sized businesses

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How to set up a cybersecurity honeypot for your business

by  on  in Business Information Companies

Honeypot techniques have been used in cybersecurity for decades to catch cyber attackers or malicious actors attempting to gain unauthorised access to a company network. The principle is incredibly simple: rather than trying to hunt attackers outright, IT teams can prepare an enticing area within the network and wait for the bad actors to come to them. Though far from new, this strategy remains high on the threat intelligence agenda, with bodies including AWS and the National Grid recently investing in such methods. 

In today’s world of skilled and persistent attackers, honeypots can be a key tool to solving a difficult problem: how to detect an advanced attacker on a busy network?

Once in a network, modern attackers hide in the noise and by mimicking normal user behaviour, stealing and abusing credentials, for example. They are increasingly hard to detect. With honeypots, organisations create something that appears to be a legitimate asset, so any attempt to access it is instantly suspicious. Rather than trying to swat the fly from afar, it gets itself trapped in the sticky honeypot.

Honeypots for research

Researchers have been making effective use of honeypots. By creating fake computers, fake services or fake people, it is possible to see what kind of malicious activity is occurring on the internet. Particularly interesting examples of honeypot research include Kippo, which pretends to be a service and lets an attacker in after a number of password attempts in order to study what attackers do once on a system. Trend Micro created a number of SCADA/ICS honeypots that appeared to be industrial networks, and found that attackers quickly compromised these services, with ominous implications for people running real internet-connected SCADA systems.

Cybercrime: the scourge of the digital economy — How cyber criminals are causing financial damage for firms.

Using

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Reasons to Use ERP Systems in Businesses

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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software helps small and large-scale organizations manage daily operations. An effective enterprise resource planning system makes business activities more manageable, such as customer relationship management, accounting, and supply chain operations.

Moreover, ERP software assists businesses in planning and managing operations accurately. This allows companies to track the organization’s performance and t have the best financial planning system in place. In organizations, ERP also smoothens the communication between different departments of various business functions.

However, the benefits of ERP systems vary according to companies and businesses. A sound supply chain system, an easily accessible human resources portal, and reliable employees are essential for running a business smoothly.

Fortunately, the process of managing a company has been simplified by technological advancements.

Today, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software has proved to be an indispensable part of any business. Business gets many benefits by effectively using the platform.

A business owner or a decision maker in any company’s ERP system can truly simplify life as a business person, regardless of whether your company opts for on-premise, cloud-based, or hybrid ERP software. Here are some of the benefits of ERP systems for businesses.

Also Read: 7 Core ERP Features for Every Enterprise

Elimination of Manual Reports

To find out a small piece of information, companies have to scan through hundreds of physical documents if the company does not have an ERP system. With the help of an ERP system, multiple departments in an organization can use a single software for submitting various reports.

Additionally, the software can analyze a large amount of data quickly. For instance, imagine you are running a travel agency with multiple departments, such as sales, accounting, customer relationship management, and operations.

Of course, you want to check how each department is performing. You can let go of

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What It Is, What’s Included, and How to Write One

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What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that details a company’s goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

  • A business plan is a document describing a company’s business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
  • Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
  • For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company’s short- and long-term objectives.
  • There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley


Understanding Business Plans

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they’ll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn’t looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, “Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs.”

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan

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Small businesses and the Corporate Transparency Act

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On January 1, 2024 a new reporting requirement goes into effect that will require millions of small businesses to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Report with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Congress imposed this requirement in a statute called the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), with FinCEN issuing the regulation providing the details on who must file a report, when it has to be filed, and what information has to be reported.  Every small business owner needs to know about this new reporting requirement as non-compliance can result in severe penalties. This article addresses some of the main questions small business owners have been asking about BOI reporting.

What is the purpose of the Corporate Transparency Act?

The CTA is mainly an anti-money laundering law.  In it, Congress states that bad actors seek to conceal their ownership of corporations, LLCs, or similar entities in the United States to facilitate money laundering, financing of terrorism, tax fraud, and other illegal acts. And according to Congress, federal legislation providing for the collection of beneficial ownership information is needed to protect national interests and better enable efforts to counter those illegal acts.

Who has to file a BOI report?

Every corporation, LLC, or other entity created by the filing of a document with a Secretary of State or similar office under the law of a state or Indian tribe is required to file a BOI report unless it qualifies for an exemption. Those entities created in the United States and not exempt, and therefore required to file a BOI report, are called “domestic reporting companies”.  (Certain entities created in foreign countries and registered to do business in the United States are also required to file a BOI report and are called “foreign reporting companies.”)

Who is exempt from

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Why You Should Invest in Research and Development (R&D)

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Research and development (R&D) is the part of a company’s operations that seeks knowledge to develop, design, and enhance its products, services, technologies, or processes. Along with creating new products and adding features to old ones, investing in research and development connects various parts of a company’s strategy and business plan.

According to the latest Business Enterprise Research and Development survey by the National Center for Science and Engineering and the U.S. Census Bureau, businesses spent $32.5 billion to support their R&D activities in 2020.

Here are some reasons your business should invest in research and development.

Key Takeaways

  • Research and development (R&D) is an essential driver of economic growth as it spurs innovation, invention, and progress.
  • R&D spending can lead to breakthroughs that can drive profits and well-being for consumers.
  • Today, R&D is present in nearly every business sector as companies jockey for position in their respective markets.
  • Smaller firms engaged in R&D can offset some of these costs and attract investors thanks to a federal tax break.

Investing in Research and Development (R&D)

The Internal Revenue Service’s definition of research and development is investigative activities that a person or business chooses to do with the desired result of a discovery that will create an entirely new product, product line, or service.

However, the activities don’t only need to be for disovering new products or services—this is only for tax purposes.

R&D isn’t just about creating new products; it can be used to strengthen an existing product or service with additional features.

Research refers to any new science or thinking that will result in a new product or new features for an existing product. Research can be broken down into either basic research or applied research. Basic research seeks to delve into scientific principles from an academic standpoint, while

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Why Marketing Research Is Important

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Marketing research is a critical tool that businesses and organisations use to gather valuable information about their target market and industry. By conducting research, companies can gain insights into customer needs, preferences, and behaviour, as well as market trends and the competitive landscape. In this article, we’ll explore five reasons why marketing research is important for businesses and organisations.

5 reasons why marketing research is important

Is your company on the fence about investing in marketing research? If so, read on for five reasons why marketing research is important to the viability and longevity of your business.

1. Marketing research helps businesses understand their customers.

Knowing your customers is the first step in running a successful business. And while this may sound simple enough, it can be difficult to look inside the consumer psyche—one whose needs, preferences, and behaviours are ever-evolving.

Fortunately, marketing research can give you a peek behind the curtain, helping you understand what motivates current as well as potential customers. A marketing research survey, for example, can provide insight into pricing sensitivity among a segment of your target population. The data yielded may suggest that boomers are more likely to purchase a product based on price alone while millennials are more motivated by the values of the respective company. Based on this information, you can tailor your offerings to better meet these needs.

Let’s take a closer look at what else marketing research can tell you about your target audience.

a. Marketing research reveals demographic data.

Through conducting surveys, you can better understand characteristics of your buyers, like age, gender, race, and ethnicity. You can also collect socioeconomic information like education, income, and employment status. These variables can help you engage in audience segmentation, which essentially involves tweaking your brand messaging to appeal to various subgroups.

b.

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Companies In The Field Activity Management Market Are

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LONDON, Dec. 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Avail a limited period discount of 33% on our uniquely designed Opportunities and Strategies market research reports. Contact us today and make winning strategies!

According to The Business Research Company’s research on the field activity management market, increasing concentration on SaaS-based solutions has emerged as a key trend gaining popularity in the field activity management market. Software as a service (SaaS) is an abbreviation for a software distribution model in which a cloud provider hosts applications for quick access by end users. Major companies operating in the field activity management sector is incorporating SaaS-based solutions to effectively track and manage resources. For instance, in October 2021, Opsivity, Inc., an Australia-based field service management company, launched its SaaS-based services in the US market. Customers in the United States can now access Opsivity’s SaaS-based solutions for real-time remote field support and management. Opsivity also leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) to harness knowledge and share operational expertise across field teams in order to solve technical issues in real-time and increase productivity in industries that face labor shortages.

Request for a free sample of the global field activity management market report

The global field activity management market size is expected to grow from $0.94 billion in 2021 to $1.14 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.7%. The Russia-Ukraine war disrupted the chances of global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, at least in the short term. The war between these two countries has led to economic sanctions on multiple countries, surge in commodity prices, and supply chain disruptions, effecting many markets across the globe. The field activity management market share is expected to grow to $2.12 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 16.8%.

Increasing adoption of automation and

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Companies Can Unleash the Power of Business Credit Reports with MCB Business Credit

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PRESS RELEASE

Published September 27, 2023

Companies Can Unleash the Power of Business Credit Reports with MCB Business Credit

“MCB Business Credit offices are based in Augusta GA and they proudly serve clients across the US.”

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, making informed decisions is paramount to success. One crucial aspect of informed decision-making is understanding the financial health and creditworthiness of the businesses with whom a company interacts. This is where MCB Business Credit steps in, offering comprehensive business credit reporting solutions that empower businesses to make sound choices.

When it comes to forging partnerships, extending credit, or entering into any business transaction, knowledge is power. Companies can pull a business credit report to access vital information about a potential corporate interaction. Business credit reports – sometimes referred to as commercial credit reports – allow a company to evaluate another business’s creditworthiness, ensuring that the company is making informed decisions. MCB Business Credit gives companies across the United States powerful access to business information that supports informed decision making.

Risk Mitigation

Risk is an inherent part of business, but smart businesses aim to minimize it. By obtaining a business credit report, companies gain insights into the potential risks associated with another business. This knowledge empowers the company to take proactive measures to mitigate these risks, safeguarding its investments and interests.

Credit Decisions

For businesses that offer credit terms to their clients, a business credit report is indispensable. It helps them evaluate whether a potential customer or partner is likely to honor their financial commitments. This is essential for maintaining healthy cash flow and minimizing bad debt.

Financial Health

Understanding a company’s financial health is crucial for long-term partnerships and transactions. A business credit report reveals key financial metrics, such as revenue, profitability, and debt levels. This information enables businesses to gauge the financial stability and growth potential of the company in question.

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