Category: Best Practice
Maintenance vs. Support – The Down & Dirty
The Freemail Pitfalls
In January’s newsletter, I covered the Four Pillars for any Business, and why selecting the right tools as the foundation of your business is critical to your success. In this installment of Mike’s Musings, I’d like to dive a little deeper into one of the common traps and why you should avoid it for your business - that is the use of Freemail.
When discussing the use of Freemail in business, we often hear comments like, “It’s free and it works, so why pay for something else?” Well, here are a few very good reasons to spend $6-7 a month.
Anything offered for free always has a catch
In any product or service offered, if you are not purchasing said product or service , you are the product.
All services have a cost. Companies offering the service must cover that cost. If you are not paying for the service, the company providing the service is leveraging you and the data you provide (along with all its other subscribers) to recoup the cost and make a tidy profit. How do they do it? The two most common ways companies turn your free use into cash through either advertising revenue, direct sales of your contact information, or both.
For personal use, okay. For business, notsomuch.
So you use Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail personally. You are familiar with the services. Why not use them for your business right? Wrong. Here’s why:
- While you may be fine with personal use data being farmed, you should assume you have next to zero data privacy. Communications and data about your business should never be exposed for the whole world to see. Doing so leaves your business vulnerable so hackers targeting your company with Social Engineering exploits like Spoofing, Phishing, Smishing and Vishing, with no ability to secure your data.
- Because you can’t expect any reasonable data privacy, you are potentially giving your competitors vital information about how to compete with you. Information you send to vendors and customers is valuable to your competitors. If you’re sending and receiving sensitive information with Freemail , you should expect it to be reasonably easy to get.
- Because you have no semblance of privacy, you are susceptible to the all-dreaded spam, spam, spam. I’m not sure if I know anyone that like’s spam. And because you are using a Freemail domain that you don’t own, there is nothing you can do to prevent it.
- You are missing out on the ability to brand your communications. If you have a website, you likely have a domain registered for your business. You registered the domain for branding and marketing purposes. You cannot use your domain with Freemail services. So, every email you send is a missed opportunity to reinforce your brand.
The Real Costs of Business Class Email
Business-class Email costs about $6-7 per month per mailbox. Sure, you can add on other features and services to suit your needs, but value of Business-class email alone is obvious. At CMHWorks, we offer not only the Email services at the same price you can buy it directly from the providers, but also the setup, support and maintenance because we believe it is fundamental for any business.
The Technology DIY Trap
Essential Tools for Today’s Business
One of the most common challenges facing any business today is differentiating itself in the digital world. It is virtually impossible to compete today without a visible digital presence. This challenge applies to all businesses from start-ups to multi-national conglomerates alike. But unlike large companies that have the technical capacity to implement tools to market, support and secure their operations, smaller companies typically do not. This is especially true for small businesses who often do not have the resources or skills to build a solid technical foundation. The good news is that for most businesses large and small the foundation is basically the same. And regardless of your company's size, there are essential tools to build and grow your business today on a solid foundation.
Four Pillars for Any Business
In addition to any specific tools used to deliver services, there are four (4) essential or foundational tools for all digital businesses today. These tools are equally important and should work in concert to serve as the foundation of your business:- Website AND Social Media ‐ the website and social media make up the "visible" marketing aspect of a business's digital presence. While often handled as separate tools, they should be working together to continually increase your visibility.
- Collaboration ‐ typically starting with Email, Collaboration tools should also include calendaring/scheduling, file sharing, real-time chat, and audio/video conferencing that allow your team to work together and with your customers.
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) ‐ CRMs primary functions are to proivde a framework to manage Marketing, Sales and Customer Service activities enabling the management of potential business "cradle to grave" from leads to sales to support of your products and services.
- Cybersecurity ‐ including User Training, Endpoint Protection, Monitoring and Mitigation, Cybersecurity tools provide digital security for all other tools and protects your company's digital assests from denial of service attacks, hacking and theft.
While there are likely other tools your company will need as it grows, the tools above will serve as the ecosystem to support them. And the sooner you build that foundation, the sooner you can get to the business of growing your business.
Avoid the Common Pitfalls
There are several pitfalls to avoid when selecting the tools that are the foundation of you businesses digital presence.- Don't Use "Freemail". ‐ Anything offered for free usually has a catch. Freemail services such as GMail, Outlook.com, Yahoo and the like the tradeoff is privacy which is a big payout for little savings. And you@gmail.com does not enhance your digital presence.
- If you don't know, ask a professional. ‐ The old addage "Do what you do well and pay experts to do the rest&qout; especially applies to selecting your tools and making them work together. Get advice from people who know. Not all IT People have the same skills. Your nephew who is "really good on Social Media" maybe inexpensive, but is probably not qualified to build the foundation of your business.
- Don't view the tools as individual solutions. ‐ All of your tools should work together to serve as a solid foundation. Make sure the tools you chose integrate, and integrate everthing you can.
Summary
Selecting the right tools is critical for your business, and you should take care in the choices of what tools to use so you house isn't built on sand. All tools are not created equal.
Stay tuned for future installments where we will be discussing each of the Essential Tools in more depth.
Quality Assurance… What is it and Why do I need it?
What is Quality Assurance?
Like saving money and delivering a sound product to your customer? Who wouldn’t!
Quality Assurance testing assists companies in fulfilling the expectations based on requirements provided by their customers to ensure that their products or services meet a certain level of quality. Yup, identify and fix any bugs or errors before the products or services are released to the customers.
Quality Assurance testing methods focus on establishing good practices to produce products with the quality already built in, rather than going through an unmonitored production process and attempting to “inspect the quality” of the product that has already been provided to the customer. Taking a specialized approach in quality assurance testing focuses on monitoring each portion of the process prior, during and post implementation to effectively measure the performance or the application.
So how do you Quality Test, you ask?
Here are a few types of software testing that can fit the needs of your client:
- Unit Testing – Unit tests are generally automated and can run very quickly by a continuous integration server. They focus on testing individual methods and functions of the components or modules used by your software.
- Integration Testing – Integration tests verify that different modules or services used by your application work well together. For example, integration testing validates that the interaction between a database and integrated microservices work together as expected.
- Regression Testing – Regression testing is a method of testing that is used to ensure that changes made to the software do not introduce new bugs or cause existing functionality to break.
- Functional Requirement Testing – Functional tests focus on the business requirements of an application. This type of testing verifies the application feature works as expected, per the software requirement.
Now that we have covered the “What” it is, let’s talk about the “Why” you need it!
Want to keep your current customers happy? And not risk losing potential customers? Considering how much time a company spends on the internet, it is more important now than ever to be sure that your websites and apps function properly. If your website is not functioning properly, you could risk losing both current and future customers. Delivering the best possible product that you can gives your clients a peace of mind that their software runs as smoothly as possible.
Benefits of a Quality System
- Cost Savings! The longer a bug goes undetected, the more difficult and expensive it is to fix. Detecting a bug in-house during the software development phases, prior to your client or customer finding the bug builds confidence in the product quality.
- Quality Assurance Brings Security – Given the growing trend of cyber security attacks, software quality assurance testing allows you to probe every phase of the development process and check for vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of any leaks in data that would cost you more than you expected.
- Improved User Experience – A thoroughly tested software product ensures a better user experience and makes their navigation hassle-free.
- Prevents Software Breakdowns – Given that you cannot predict errors while working, quality assurance software testing allows you to check your products performance under various loads, devices, and architectures to avoid unforeseen breakdowns. During the software development lifecycle your product will undergo functional and non-functional testing to ensure efficiency, productivity, and user experience are working as expected.
Takeaways
Hopefully, reading this article makes you feel more knowledgeable and empowered in understanding the importance of Quality Assurance Testing and how it benefits millions of companies across a vast variety of industries each day.
Get started today with your Quality Assurance Testing experts here at CMH Works!
Benefits of Cybersecurity Awareness Training
The Power of Cybersecurity Training: Safeguarding Your Digital Assets
In an increasingly interconnected world, where cyber threats loom large, threat actors are smarter than ever, and data breaches make headlines. To combat this threat, we must take proactive measures to protect our digital assets. Cybersecurity training, in general, plays a pivotal role in equipping us with the knowledge and skills necessary to defend against cyberattacks, and maintain a more secure digital environment.
In 2021, 98% of cyberattacks relied on social engineering. According to PurpleSec (2021)
Social Engineering is a category of cyber threats focused on humans and their social behaviors. Right now, Social Engineering is the most prevalent attack vector because it preys on the uneducated person’s “likely” behaviors. Hackers use these behaviors to gain access to your systems and assets. The key to combating these Social Engineering threats is to educate, and thereby change that behavior.
In this article, we explore the compelling benefits of Cybersecurity Awareness Training as a tool to combat Social Engineering threats, and how they can provide measurable value in securing your organization.
Heightened Awareness and Threat Recognition
Cybersecurity Awareness Training serves as a powerful tool to educate your organization about the various types of cyber threats and attack vectors that they are exposed to. By educating on the latest techniques used by hackers, your staff becomes more adept at recognizing potential threats. These threats include phishing emails, malware, or social engineering attempts. Recognizing these threats means faster detection and reporting of suspicious activities, mitigating the risk of successful cyberattacks.
Exercising and Testing Knowledge
It’s critical to understand where your organization is in terms of Cybersecurity Awareness. Providing knowledge is the first step to increasing that awareness. But, exercising that knowledge is what really changes the behavior. The best way to exercise is through real world testing.
An effective CyberSecurity Awareness Training program includes the periodic testing of users with safe Social Engineering attacks, such as phishing emails, to record their actual behavior. Did the user click the link, or did the follow protocol and report it to the Security Team? Or did they at least delete it? Measuring the results of these exercises across your organization will give you the insights you need to continuously improve your stance against cyberattack.
Reducing Vulnerabilities and Improving Response
It’s not a matter of IF you will be hacked. It’s a matter of when. What is critical is how quickly and effectively you respond when it happens.
A well-trained workforce is a crucial line of defense against cyber threats. Cybersecurity Awareness Training equips your organization with the skills not only to identify the threats, but respond to them when they happen. And eventually, they will happen.
Another fundamental part of Cybersecurity Awareness is understanding the risks associated with the digital endpoints, a.k.a. the Desktops, Mobile Devices, Servers, and Online Services that are the foundations of your digital footprint. Understanding the importance of basic security fundamentals as password protection, timely patching, and regular backups is paramount. By exercising these fundamentals, your team contributes to a proactive security culture, and thereby reduce risk. Adopting automation tools and having dedicated resources to enforce behavior is the key.
Furthermore, training modules on incident response enable organizations to minimize the impact of an attack by swiftly containing and remedying the breach, mitigating potential financial and reputational damages.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity training is a pillar in safeguarding your organization against ever-evolving threats. By increasing awareness, strengthening defense strategies, and reducing vulnerabilities, organizations and individuals can significantly reduce the risks associated with cyberattacks. Investing in comprehensive cybersecurity training programs not only protects sensitive data, but also instills a “security-first” mindset among your staff. Remember, when it comes to cybersecurity, knowledge is power, and training is the key to unlocking it.
When it comes to cybersecurity, knowledge is power, and training is the key to unlocking it.
If you would like to discuss your current Cybersecurity posture, we are here to help. To get a no obligation consultation with a CMHWorks Cybersecurity expert, please feel free to reach us at info@cmhworks.com. Take a look at some of the managed security solutions we offer here.
Additional Information
- https://www.cshub.com/attacks/news/social-engineering-most-dangerous-threat-say-75-of-security-professionals
- https://cmhworks.com/solutions/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-awareness-training/
- https://www.eccouncil.org/cybersecurity-exchange/ethical-hacking/understanding-preventing-social-engineering-attacks/
The Reality of Orphaned Apps
Orphaned applications are unfortunately a fact of life. This is most especially true in the small business world. While it’s very easy to find an application developer to build you an application, it’s very hard to find one that can build the environment to support it and provide ongoing hosting and maintenance at a price you can afford.
The disciplines of service architecture, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) are not native to most development shops. To the layperson, these are all tech buzzwords. These disciplines are unique areas of technical expertise reserved for larger IT departments and companies that have robust architecture, engineering, database, DevOps, and content delivery capabilities. Most importantly, they also do Application Performance Monitoring. These skills are not in any way in the skill set of your “classic development shop”. Yes, you went to a podiatrist for a facelift.
Ordered a Ferrari. Got a Pontiac.
So, what does this mean for small companies that have outsourced the development of their web app, mobile/native app, PWA, or software to classic development shops? It means often the project is completed, you pay for this solution, you get a salute from the vendor. And when you need updates or want to integrate it with something else, you pay through the nose if they oblige you at all. And you have no idea if it will be secure, perform well, or scale at all.
Sound familiar? You have an “orphaned app” of dubious quality and questionable performance “at scale” – and you just got started. Well, you are not alone.
How Did This Happen?
The hard truth is the answer lies in your lack of expertise in cars and your lack of diligence in researching what you were buying. The same holds true for custom development. Most buyers don’t know what to ask for. And even if you did know what to ask for, how would you verify the quality of the solution? The truth is you cannot, or you likely would have the expertise to build it yourself.
Now let’s talk about performance. The overall performance of your application depends on how the application is built, what infrastructure it runs on, how scalable the component architecture is, as well as how well the code is written. When you buy an app from a development company that does not do architecture design and hosting as a core business, you are essentially buying code that is not been tested to scale. The vendor will likely deploy your code to a single cloud server running everything including the database. They will ask you to test is to make sure it does what you need it to do (the minimal requirement), provide enough fixes until you accept it, and send you a bill.
The bottom line is you probably asked for “working code” and that’s all you got.
Building is Easy. Maintenance Takes Commitment.
There are literally thousands of these “classic dev shops” promising to leverage their vast development resources to build your app “for a fraction of the cost”. Why are there so many? There are so many classic dev shops because many countries have a glut of developers that have been churned out of school with basic skills that do this work for peanuts. And the initial development of something is where the easy money is. The quality of the work is likely not a success factor. The objective is to minimally meet the requirements and get paid. You want a warranty? Good luck with that. You wouldn’t buy a car without a warranty. Why would you buy a tech solution without one? But it happens all day every day.
What does that mean for you? That means that eventually, if your business model is realistic and the use of your application grows, you will have performance issues, security issues, and maintenance issues. It's not a question of if, it’s a question of when.
It’s All About the Foundation
Many people use the old “house foundation” analogy. But it is so true here I will risk it. The environment hosting the thing you just paid for is the foundation of your solution. Some questions you should ask:
- What is my roadmap for the solution over the next 3-5 years?
- Will the solution support the roadmap and all the users we anticipate?
- Can it scale efficiently to support the user base (whatever that user base is) with no interruptions?
- Who will maintain and monitor the ongoing performance of my solution?
If the answer to any of the questions is “no” or “I don’t know”, stop, and get some help from a solution provider, not just a “dev shop”.
How to Engage a Solution Provider
Ideally, you should make sure you have access to adequate expertise to scope and manage your investment. You should understand that vendors are very good at presenting things that sound good initially, but don’t necessarily meet the needs in the long term. Like everything, the technology space is a “buyer beware” world. If you have a trusted and reputable vendor, it is much easier. But it is always a “trust but verify” situation.
Your best defense is a team of experts you trust with the experience and skills to help you ensure you get what you need.
The Minimum You Should Do
If you are thinking of hiring a vendor with unknown performance, you should do your diligence. The level of diligence depends on many factors not least of which is cost. But ideally, the diligence you do should be adequate to mitigate the risk. Development is a service like any other. And to protect your investment, you should consider some best practices when engaging anyone providing you any service:
- To protect your Intellectual Property, execute an NDA with the vendor prior to discussing your needs in any detail.
- Require 2-3 reputable and verifiable references and verify them before engaging the vendor.
- Have the contract reviewed by a contract attorney. At a minimum, this should include terms such as:
- warranty terms and guaranteed service levels,
- the deliverables be delivered to you, and not owned or managed by anyone else,
- and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) of the deliverables reviewed by a third party.
Honestly Assess Your Own Skills
Last and most importantly, you need to be honest about your capabilities. If you own a business, you likely have one, if not several, areas of expertise. If technology development or contract law are not in your wheelhouse, admit it and enlist the help of a professional with those skills. You will be glad you did, and you won’t end up holding an orphaned app wondering how you got here.
IT Security Primer for SMBs
How big of a deal is IT Security for SMBs?
No business is too small. Small and mid-sized businesses are the number one targeted segment of cybercrime. It’s not a question of if you will be attacked, it’s a question of when.
SMB IT Security
A PRIMER FOR SMALL AND MID-SIZED BUSINESSES
American University and Hacker U Select CMHWorks as a Hiring Partner
American University & HackerU has chosen CMHWorks as a recruitment partner to consider candidates who have completed their Cybersecurity Security Professional Program. With the threat of cyberattacks on the rise, the program recognizes how appealing an IT Professional with a Cybersecurity knowledge base can be to a company like CMHWorks.
Washington, DC – July, 12, 2021. Israel’s premier digital skill and cybersecurity institute, HackerU, has been partnering with educational institutes worldwide, currently in 12 countries. In 2019, HackerUSA, a subsidiary, has partnered with American University, based out of Washington, DC.
According to Bryan Gulcin, Business Relations Manager at HackerUSA in recent LinkedIn post,
“We are happy to collaborate with CMHWorks and add them to American University‘s and HackerU‘s growing list of hiring partners!”
Mike Harvey, founder and principal owner of CMHWorks, has more than 30 years of experience as a Technology and Operations executive with broad experience in enterprise technology strategy, development, implementation, and management. He founded CMHWorks, LLC in 2014 to provide Technology Services and Support to public and private sector clients.
Part 3: Why Customer Case Studies Pack The Most Marketing Punch
Out-of-the-box Case Studies
Go outside the format box
The traditional case study format with four subsections isn’t written in stone. Shaking things up can grab a prospect’s attention and provide a bit of entertainment along with education about your product.
- Make it eye-pleasing. I’ve seen a case study that placed just Problem and Outcome side by side at the top of the page. I have to say it looked less like an ugly homework assignment than those case studies with long bullet lists at the beginning.
- Slideshares can present key info in an inviting format that’s quick to go through for prospects with little time to spend reading. And who can resist clicking those arrows?
- Infographics are great for presenting key numbers and stats you’d like to boast about.
- Video case studies are an increasingly popular alternative to long-form text case studies. One study found that 72% of consumers prefer video messages over text. Consider the power of marketing content that combines their preferred media (video) with their preferred message (real customer review). A three-to-five-minute video featuring a customer can give a prospect a personable introduction to the brand that’s hard to achieve in text — and it can be less time consuming for fickle searchers at the beginning of the sales funnel.
- Some of the best case studies combine text, video, images, etc. on the same page, immersing prospects in a multimedia experience of the product and customer.
Use visuals — and not just pie graphs
Photographs, pictures, vivid colors, animations and video — especially video — can all help bring your customer story to life.
- If your numbers — for increased sales, growth, etc. — are impressive, consider placing them at the top of the page, enlarged and in color.
- Visual elements are especially useful if your case study text content is limited. A large photo with some punchy text and blown-up statistics or percentages can make an impact on prospects.
- Dramatic before and after pictures that demonstrate a product’s effectiveness can be compelling. If you can get your client to collaborate, you can also make a photo story following the company from initial adoption to results.
Use a different variant of the case study for each part of the sales funnel
Show B2B buyers at the beginning of the sales funnel case studies in the form of infographics and video (actually, video’s a great converter at any stage); show those at the middle of the funnel articles, interactive content, webinars; and give those at the end longer case studies that emphasize ROI.
This is especially important for companies with dense or difficult material in their case studies. Technology companies, for instance, might do well offering a light video testimonial as an introduction rather than a long text filled with technical terms.
Make a sidebar for long text-based customer stories that gives an overview of the story with important data. Use color or images to make it stand out and attract the eye. Those without time to read the full can read the sidebar to get the gist of the problems and outcomes.
Combining text, video, infographic and slide share on the same page offers a version of the case study for every kind of prospect in one place.
Repurpose case study material
The material in one case study can be spread and repurposes all over your online sites. Not only can you can publish the case study on your company website, Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. You can also place glowing customer quotes on product pages and near CTAs, tweet them out and post them on Facebook (and use them in FB ads) and LinkedIn. Passages can be used in emails, presentations and eBooks. They can be used in white papers to make them less dull. They can be referred to in subsequent blog articles on your site.
The cross-promotional potential of case studies presents a particularly interesting opportunity for exposure. Request that case-study participants — which may be just the person interviewed or every person in the company, depending on how you look at it — to pose the story on their social channels. That will instantly put your brand in front of all of their combined social followers. After all, you are giving them exposure to your audience by posting it on all of your pages, so they probably won’t mind reciprocating.
Case closed
True customer accounts are what customers want to see when they have a buying decision to make. They are also the kind of high-quality original content that search engines reward with high rankings. A great case study combines so many high-power marketing elements in one package — real reviews, unique material, authentic quotes, data and stats, a relatable story, etc. They answer your customers’ pressing questions about how your product or service performs in real life in an enjoyable format. Competitors publishing rehashed mush from around the web or tooting their own horn with overused buzzwords won’t be able to compete with that.
Contact CMHWorks today to find out how we can help you reach your marketing, content and social goals.
Sources:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-video-marketing-new-data