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How Does a Clean Desk Policy Protect Sensitive Data?

Posted: 08 May 2019 01:00 PM PDT

But beyond sparking joy, a clean and neat workspace can have security benefits as well. Spring Cleaning is a great opportunity to roll out a Clean Desk Policy at your organization to help protect company and customer sensitive data. Here's a guide to the why and how of your clean desk policy.

Data security applies to ALL data

Every business handles sensitive data, from employee and customer personal information to intellectual property, business plans, and financials. One quick way to check is to ask yourself, "Would I be OK if this information was posted on a public website for everyone to see?" If the answer is "No," then consider that information sensitive and treat it with care. As a small business, you know how important it is to protect this data, and that's why you roll out a comprehensive cybersecurity program to defend against cyber-threats. But we have to remind ourselves that sensitive data is everywhere, not just on-screen. And just the same, protecting data means protecting it everywhere it's stored – even if that's on a piece of paper that can be seen, lost, or stolen.

What is a Clean Desk Policy?

A Clean Desk Policy states that at the end of each day, all papers must be cleared from employees' desks and any sensitive data locked. A clean workspace free of paperwork can have a positive impact on productivity, but the primary rationale behind this is more than tidiness: Clearing desks removes access to confidential information from anyone who walks through the facility:

  • Other employees not authorized to receive the information
  • Invited guests and customers
  • After-hours cleaning, maintenance, or other contractors
  • Burglars or other intruders

Although it's not the first thing that comes to mind when you think "data breach," either malicious or unintentional exposure of sensitive data – even to one person – is just that: A breach of confidential information that can have negative impact on the company.

Regardless of the trust you have in employees and others in the facility, you never know who could walk through and what they could do with information gathered from desks. Leaving confidential information exposed increases the chances that malicious intruders or insiders will find information they're looking for. Additionally, employees with lots of paper on their desk may not immediately notice if a sensitive document goes missing or is thrown in the trash when it should be destroyed.

Your Clean Desk Policy

Your organization's Clean Desk Policy can be customized to fit your business, but it's important to have it written down, shared, trained to, enforced and regularly updated. You can include a Clean Desk clause in your Technology and Data Use Policy or have a separate policy altogether, but be sure to consider that at the end of each day, employees should:

  • Clear their workspace of all papers, notes, and documents
  • Store all sensitive information in a locked drawer or cabinet
  • Shred any unnecessary sensitive information

Additionally, everyone should get in the habit of locking their computer (i.e. hit Windows+L in Windows or Command+Option+Power on a Mac for a quick lock) and stowing sensitive documents any time they leave their desk, even if just for a few minutes. This is particularly important for employees who have frequent visitors in their space, such as a HR professional or receptionist.

Follow these steps to make your Clean Desk Policy successful:

1. Introduce and educate

Once your Clean Desk Policy is written, it's time to involve the team. Explain the rationale behind the policy and emphasize that it's best practice to keep company data safe. Be sure to cover logistics as well: proper ways to store and protect documents, how the policy will be enforced, etc. Ask all employees to review and sign the official policy yearly and discuss with new team members during onboarding.

2. Provide storage and disposal solutions

A Clean Desk Policy isn't feasible without storage. Ensure all employees have access to storage, preferably their own locking drawer or cabinet, to stow documents. Additionally, consider investing in shredders for disposal of sensitive documents – there are plenty of small office models that can be placed throughout your workplace giving employees easy access.

3. Decrease your reliance on paper

If you're already storing information in a secure cloud or hard drive environment and keeping trustworthy, consider whether an additional paper copy is truly necessary. While ditching paper altogether won't be right for every situation, reducing the number of hardcopies minimizes the risk that they will be lost, stolen, or mishandled. Encourage employees to use their judgement in situations where keeping extra paper copies could do more harm than good.

4. Lead to succeed

Make sure business leaders and department heads understand the policy and how it might affect employees and procedures. Encourage them to keep an eye on workspaces to check for exposure of sensitive information. Each department and employee will have different work and storage styles, and employees who deal with lots of paper data may need additional support as you roll out your policy.

Security involves many components, but the more you pay attention to protecting data, the more natural it becomes. While you're spring cleaning your home and office, consider the benefits of a Clean Desk Policy to help protect data all year round.

Honoring Our Fallen Heroes at Work

Posted: 08 May 2019 12:00 PM PDT

Memorial Day, a day designed to honor those who have served our country, was initially called Decoration Day and became a Federal holiday in 1971. Its beginnings date back to the end of the Civil War when people would decorate soldiers' graves with flowers and wreaths to honor their fallen heroes.

While 97 percent of employers have designated Memorial Day as a paid day off, as many as 40% of companies still require at least some employees to work the holiday, according to Bloomberg BNA.

Whether you clock in on Memorial Day or celebrate with BBQs and parades outside the office, it's important to take a moment to honor and remember those who fought to protect our freedoms and liberties.

Here are three ways to honor our nation's heroes at work.

Tokens of appreciation

At Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS), each of our veterans receives a coin upon completion of one of the programs or on their first day of employment. These coins hold a lot of symbolic value for those who served.n the military, challenge coins represent rewards or awards for outstanding service or performance of duty. While they are not officially sanctioned, they are boost morale and recognize one's commitment to their service.

Memorial Day is a time to show gratitude and say thank you to our colleagues who are also veterans, active military, or their spouses. Don't have time to create coins? Don't fret – appreciation can be shown in many shapes and forms. Perhaps give each service member an American flag for their office or 550 cord bracelets. But most importantly, say thank you.

Arts and crafts

In an area where people will see it, such as the office kitchen, hang a bulletin board. Encourage everyone in the office to post photos from their own or a loved one's service. Here are some other printables you can put on the bulletin board to show support for our troops.

Keep this effort going through the Fourth of July and encourage veterans and active military in the office to share stories and memories from serving with their civilian colleagues. Creating an environment that encourages the free flow of information and experiences, such as what it's like to serve and the struggles they face when they return home, is the first step to truly fostering inclusive and veteran-friendly workplaces.

Operation gratitude

While we live in the age of digital communications, i.e. text, email, and social media, there is nothing that can quite replace a handwritten note. Operation Gratitude delivers care packages and letters to deployed troops, veterans, wounded heroes and their caregivers, new recruits, and first responders. Over the weeks leading to Memorial Day, and even after, make note paper available to your staff and encourage them to write thank you notes to those who serve our country. There are many ways corporations can get involved, such as assembling care kits and making paracord bracelets.

Take giving back to the next level and host a book drive to benefit Operation Paperback. This organization ships books to deployed military members and their families. Books can range from those that help with professional development to children books that troops can read to their children via webcam while deployed.

Lessons From Brexit and How to Handle Change Management

Posted: 08 May 2019 11:00 AM PDT

According to an in-depth study by Professor Jonathan Portes of King's College London, "Almost any plausible outcome will result in an increase in regulatory burdens on business ... [this] will not be an easy task."

Easy or not, potential regulatory burdens such as those stemming from Brexit are, and continue to be, a key ongoing issue for organizations around the world. But they aren't the only nightmare scenario multinational companies may face – changing business policies, local labor laws, maintaining unionized workforces and managing remote workforces can all easily upset the balance. In 2019, with a digital landscape of cloud-computing, IoT, and remote workforces, global companies shouldn't be left hedging their bets or relying on good luck when it comes to managing change within their multi-location organization. Facing uncertainty head on – and staying on top of it – is the mark of a successful organization, but the real focus should be, of course: How?

Three qualities are key for effectively managing change: adaptability, visibility and standardization.

Adaptability

In the face of uncertainty, nothing better serves an organization than the ability to adapt – to the shifting needs of the market, to new technology and processes, to new regulations – and all at a moment's notice. Being adaptable is the ability to actually implement a change. For example, a global business must cope with unique regional requirements like local labor laws, unionized workers or collective bargaining agreements, but implementing manual processes aren't exactly efficient, and customization isn't exactly cheap. How do you decide? Consider how long it takes your organization to make a decision. Once a decision is made, how long does it actually take to implement and what would it cost?

Adaptability is both as intangible as keeping an open mind, and as concrete as investing in a solution that will help manage that change. The entire company as a whole must be able to shift gears, and that means more than just the people. The technologies and systems in use must also demonstrate real agility and elasticity to keep up. Local labor laws, unionized workers, or collective bargaining agreements do change from time to time – if your business processes around time and attendance, gross pay, time off, or scheduling can't keep pace, neither can the employees. Global businesses will need to reevaluate and evolve their processes in response to any possible changes the future may hold, and collaborate with an equally flexible solution. An effective solution can help simplify making changes, instead of creating a huge to-do. This way, companies can face new challenges and changes with confidence and adaptability.

Visibility

If adaptability is the ability to change, visibility helps a company understand how. They may ask, what does this change mean? How do you plan for it? Forging ahead without a proper framework is especially high-risk. Back to our collective bargaining agreements, for instance: because they can change at any time, without any visibility, there is no real understanding of what this kind of change could cost, or how it might impact the organization. Having visibility into all related businesses processes and systems is a necessity when answering these questions. Maintaining visibility allows HR leaders, global heads and other stakeholders to understand exactly how cost, compliance, productivity and processes are functioning in an organization.

Modern technologies are available that provide real-time insights into all employee time and attendance, productivity, workforce costs, compliance to labor regulations and more. When company-wide systems allow employees access to these relevant insights, whether through generated dashboards, charts or simply an open culture, it can minimize or even eliminate the negative impacts of volatility, whether it be global or closer to home.

Standardization

How can an organization ensure any of the above without a standardized system guiding its overall practices? Not without an operational nightmare. Say your organization has chosen manual processes to tackle the specific requirements of a complex collective bargaining agreement. On the surface, it may seem like a quick fix. But realistically, these manual workflows are a long-term investment – it can take years to consistently apply these across an organization. At best, you've sacrificed expediency, and at worst, you're never fully able to unify everything, exposing your business to compliance violations. If every company relied on a unified system across multiple locations, employee types and vendors, perhaps changing local laws and collective bargaining agreements wouldn't be such a cause for alarm. This is because standardization helps to maintain consistency in application, despite the unexpected yet inevitable change down the road.

When each department in an organization is treated as its own separate entity, relying on disparate systems and workflows, maintaining order under any kind of change, unexpected or not, is near impossible. In actuality, everything is intertwined, and organizations can be more than the sum of their parts when these departments operate side by side. Working as a cohesive unit, businesses can face change and uncertainty head-on by rolling with any punches the future may throw at them.

Expecting the unexpected has become something of an art for businesses in these uncertain times – but it is far from an unattainable skill. Companies can use unanticipated changes as an opportunity to take action today, focusing on assessing and improving their adaptability, visibility, and standardization – and come out prepared to weather any storms ahead, Brexit-sized or regional, and everything in between.

The Connected Intelligence of NOW and How It Can Help Your Company's Efficiency

Posted: 08 May 2019 10:00 AM PDT

 

Today, organizations are shifting strategies to simplify their meeting experience, expedite the meeting experience, and dramatically reduce the friction caused by outdated systems. It's all about the New Optimised Workforce (NOW).

Intelligent interaction

The culture of NOW is having access in an instant to services that remove the barriers to effective communications delivering a seamless experience for the workforce to operate more efficiently. The benefits of collaborative meeting solutions are enormous including, the reduction of unnecessary IT or technical costs, simplifying the infrastructure, the elimination of futile travel, improving the architectural security posture, and much more.

New communication solutions are constantly being introduced into the market. According to global consulting firm Deloitte in their Global Human Capital Trends Report 2018, "The hyper-connected nature of the workplace means that interactions between and among workers and the outside world can be a tremendous source for analysis if managed appropriately." In addition, "70% of respondents believe workers will spend more time on collaboration platforms in the future, 67% see growth in 'work-based social media' and 62% predict an increase in instant messaging."

In fact, this is also supported by findings from the StarLeaf cloud data intelligence, where the growth in global cloud-based point-to-point video conferencing usage has increased by 880% (October 2014 compared to October 2018). This data intelligence is vital to assessing the usage and productivity of solutions to show the return on investment. The knowledge enables enterprises to understand video meetings trends and how they are helping employees collaborate more efficiently. With increasing pressures to meet tight deadlines, the need for people to swiftly reach out to field-based teams and cater to a growing remote workforce is becoming more prevalent.

Transformative enterprises are now seeking intelligent meeting solutions to support these four critical initiatives:

  • Intelligent debate: Smarter systems provide both employees and employers with the ability to connect via intuitive video conferencing, video calling, and instant messaging. Whether to share content, communicate quickly, meet in a moment, or securely share content, the ability to empower people to collaborate effectively and make better decisions is vital to keep a competitive edge.
  • Agility and interoperability: The ability to interact with agile, intuitive systems that are platform agnostic enables users to experience seamless communications across multiple systems. By not being "locked-in" to one collaboration infrastructure platform or communication standard, means enterprises have more flexibility to scale their operations and adapt their architecture to suit the needs of the business.
  • Detect and protect sensitive data: From hardware to software-based products, security must remain a high priority for all organizations. Data governance and compliance should be enforced end-to-end and throughout the enterprise. All communication traffic (i.e. video, voice) needs to be encrypted and firewall traversal must be provided for meeting systems, so that they can easily sit behind a company's firewall, adding a further level of security. Managing risk is of paramount importance as every meeting matters.
  • Visibility and control: Enterprises need to arrive at optimal decisions. The use of single-source analytics and reporting tools means that decision-makers can measure usage, productivity and do so within a safe environment. Many leaders regularly fail to make insightful decisions about significant changes affecting their business and markets. Better visibility of resources and insights into real-time data is crucial in the analysis of return on capital investment.

Meeting intuitively

Enterprises are reaching a milestone in the way we meet, message, and manage ourselves. Intelligent tools streamline communications and optimize the way we work in a fast-paced environment. Embracing the culture of NOW is gathering recognition and pace. Business is compromised when communications are not agile. Connected intelligence delivers reliability, flexibility, and security. Meet in an Instant.

Going Global: How to Expand Your Business Internationally

Posted: 08 May 2019 08:31 AM PDT

  • Evaluate if you have the funds and customer base you'll need.
  • Find the right partners and team members.
  • Structure your infrastructure properly.
  • Consider new ideas and rely on the experts.
  • Do your due diligence.
  • Be willing to change direction and adjust your customer support.

Taking your brand overseas can be appealing, and many entrepreneurs would jump at the chance. However, the international expansion journey can be treacherous. 

Between establishing a fresh customer base, learning new laws and regulations, finding trustworthy partners, and becoming familiar with the local customs, the road to becoming a global company is difficult to navigate.

While not every business is fit for such a challenge, some are. Before you decide to make the leap overseas, you need to consider these factors.

Are you ready for international expansion?

One of the first questions you must answer is whether your business is actually suited to succeed in international markets. Just because you think your product or service will thrive in a new country doesn't mean it actually will.

Diego Caicedo, co-founder and CEO of OmniBnk, which operates in multiple Latin American countries, said scaling across borders is complicated and expensive regardless of a company's size, and the process can take time and resources away from other opportunities.

"Companies should evaluate whether or not expansion is indeed beneficial, or if it will only take away from their core business," Caicedo said. "It may be better to serve one country well than several countries poorly."

Zoe Morris, president of the Frank Recruitment Group, would encourage entrepreneurs to evaluate whether their business is truly ready to grow before developing an international strategy. She said to plan ahead, monitor your market share, and try to figure out if it will support a move into new foreign markets and create more long-term business opportunities.

"Take a look at finances and honestly ask yourself if you have the funds to support the initial investment and sustain the growth you're forecasting," Morris said. "If the answer to both is yes, then it may be the right time to grow. Remember, success won't be immediate, so you'll need to factor that into your plans."

One of the biggest considerations has to be whether your business can actually build a strong customer base internationally. A product that sells well in your home country may not have the same appeal in international target markets.

"First, make sure your customers exist," said Joseph Paris Jr., chairman of business consulting firm Xonitek and founder of the Operational Excellence Society. "Is there a need for your offering? Are they inclined to purchase? Don't think that they might – know that they will."

Jethro Lloyd, CEO of iLAB – a software quality assurance company with offices in Indianapolis, London, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney – says another initial step is to conduct some significant research into the country you want to expand to.

"Don't discount the importance of education on both sides, in both your new market and your homeland," Lloyd said. "You must understand the direction your new city is going in and leverage that momentum to support your expansion, whether it's logistics, banking or a talent base."

What are the challenges of international business?

No major business decision is without its hurdles, but global expansion comes with its own unique set of obstacles. Here are some challenges you should prepare for before expanding internationally.

Language and cultural differences

Taki Skouras, co-founder and CEO of international wireless accessories retailer Cellairis, suggests hiring bilingual staff members who can translate for your company.

"If you don't have the budget for full-time translators, outsource tasks like overseas customer service," he said.

Josh Robinson, vice president of franchising and development for Pearle Vision – an optical franchise that has 500 locations throughout North America, including about 60 in Canada – said it is important to understand that there may be cultural and language differences within a country.  

"Just as you expect differences in residents of California, the Midwest and New York, you need to understand the nuances between Vancouver and Calgary [for example]," Robinson said. "You probably expect differences in laws and languages, so you would hire a lawyer and translator from the country you are moving into. But you also might need a local person's perspective to understand how the culture and even taste could affect the market for some consumer goods and services outside the U.S."

International compliance and regulatory issues

Learning the different tax codes, business regulations and packaging standards in different countries can be challenging. Trevor Cox, chief financial officer for DataCloud International Inc. – which has offices in the U.S., Canada and Australia – said compliance was the biggest challenge DataCloud faced when expanding overseas.

"In Australia, compliance was a major headache," he said. "It took months to complete the necessary paperwork for compliance and setting up a corporation."

Foreign banks may also be hesitant to deal with the administrative burden of a U.S.-based account, so you may have to set up a separate foreign business entity and bank account to make handling transactions worthwhile for the banks.

"It took just as long to set up a local bank account, with many banks declining to work with us because we were too small," Cox said. "We had to switch to an international bank, which had offices in Australia."

Packaging

Stanley Chao, president of All In Consulting and author of Selling to China: A Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, said products have to be localized. This means different packaging, foreign language instructions, different voltages, etc. 

"The issue here is that you need a local person familiar with your product to suggest these changes," Chao said. "Don't think you can just resell your U.S.-targeted product in a foreign country."

Paris said packaging standards are different from country to country. In the U.S., companies only need to include directions in English and maybe Spanish. "But in Europe, your instructions, even for the simplest product, will be in multiple languages, sometimes up to 24 languages. If your product is sold more regionally, you will have to consider the increase in packaging cost associated with labeling."

Slower pace 

In America, the business world moves quickly. That is not necessarily the case in other countries.

"Overseas, doing business is as much a personal event as it is professional," said Bill Bardosh, CEO of green materials and chemicals company TerraVerdae BioWorks. "Things will always take longer to be resolved overseas, but that isn't necessarily a sign of a lack of momentum. You have to be patient and prepared for multiple interactions to build trust."

Local competition 

It's not easy to persuade a foreign customer to trust your brand when a similar product is made in their home country. While some big-name U.S. chains have clout overseas, small and midsize companies need to work harder to convince the international market that their brands are trustworthy and better than the competition.

"Why would [customers] buy from you over the local champion?" Paris said. "Can you penetrate the market? If you do, can you be profitable under the circumstances?"

International expansion advice and best practices

If you feel you're ready to tackle the challenges of international business, follow this advice from business leaders who have been in your shoes.

1. Find the right partners and team.

If you plan on expanding globally, you'll want a great team or partner. Even if your "partner" takes the form of a mentor, you'll want someone you trust and who can vouch for you.

Caicedo said it's crucial to establish a local office and team that understand the market and language to comply with local regulations.

"Having a local country manager can go a long way in not only ensuring that the company is compliant in each new market, but that it is handling its expenses efficiently as well," he said. "Working with a local partner can also help communicate your company's unique selling point in a way that is meaningful to the local market."

The people you hire to deal with your overseas business partners and customers must be immersed in the local environment, but they should also be looking out for your interests.

"The foreign companies that you may deal with probably have more experience doing business in the U.S. than you have in their country," Bardosh said. "Without a core team on your side with the necessary cultural, language and local business contacts, you'll be competitively disadvantaged."

Biolife LLC, developer of bio urn and planting system The Living Urn, launched in the U.S. in 2014 and has since expanded to 17 countries worldwide. Biolife President Mark Brewer said those expanding internationally shouldn't rush the process of finding trusted and reliable strategic alliances.

"While the potential partner may seem like a great choice today, a better option may be available tomorrow," he said.

When you're looking specifically for a distributor, Brewer said, don't assume the largest one is automatically the best.

"Some of our best and most successful distributors are entrepreneurs like us who are focused on the product and driven to make it successful in their market," he said. "Larger distributors, having many products, may not devote the same amount of time and attention to our product in the market."

2. Have the right infrastructure.

Morris said it is vital to make sure that when you do expand, you have the right infrastructure in place to ensure a smooth launch.

These are some questions she said you should have answered beforehand:

  • Do you have a management team that can deliver your strategy from a satellite office?
  • Have you decided which business decisions can be made on a local level and which need to be made centrally?
  • Do you have the capabilities to set up IT and telephone systems?
  • How will employees share data securely, and does the data you're capturing follow the law and best practices?

3. Consider the impact of any new ideas.

Instead of only thinking about how your own country's customers might receive your new ideas, you'll need to think about how foreign customers will receive your ideas.

"As you spitball new ideas, someone definitely needs to think about scalability to your international territories – usually you," said Mike Zani, CEO of business consulting firm The Predictive Index. "Time zones, language and cultural appropriateness all need to be considered when you branch out internationally. If you don't do this ahead of time, you run the risk of offending your international partners by appearing to be more concerned about yourself [than] them." 

4. Always do your due diligence. 

Before making major business decisions, you should think through all possible scenarios – especially during global expansion. Chao advises those expanding their business internationally to spend time in the country they want to break into. An information-gathering trip can be a focal point to develop a plan for moving forward.

"Visit potential customers, distributors, OEM partners, and even competitors who are making either complementary or competing products," Chao said. "After a visit, you'll find out all the hard facts on whether your product can sell, who the competitors are, what price to sell at, and how to sell (directly, distributor, etc.)."

5. Rely on experts.

It is important for businesses looking for international growth to understand that they will need help. Chao said this can be particularly tough for smaller businesses, because they have likely been doing everything on their own up to this point.

"Realize you can't do everything, and rely on some experts to at least guide you through the beginning phases," he said. "You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Rely on experts."

6. Be willing to change direction.

Once you do expand, be prepared for some bumps in the road. That may mean changing how you operate in some ways. Adrian Fisher, founder and CEO of PropertySimple – a real estate technology company with locations in the U.S., Argentina and Chile – said you can't be afraid to pivot.

"With each new country comes new challenges, and businesses must adapt their product," Fisher said. "It's OK if the product shifts; it's more important to meet consumer demand."

7. Alter your customer support.

Once you launch overseas, you will have a whole new customer base to support. Roger Sholanki, CEO and founder of Book4Time, a provider of next-generation wellness management software that operates in 70 countries, said your current system of customer support will need significant changes when you expand internationally.

"The immediate challenge is servicing customers in different time zones, which could mean a 12-hour time difference," he said. "Your customers will want immediate support and access."

Additional reporting by Nicole Fallon and Saige Driver. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

Mixed Reality Finds Its Niche in Industrial and Business Applications

Posted: 08 May 2019 07:29 AM PDT

  • Mixed reality headsets rely on several components, such as cameras, to achieve the creation of augmented and virtual reality environments.
  • Mixed reality is being used in small business for training, project development and sales.
  • Headsets that are available now for use in business include the Microsoft HoloLens 2, Vuzix M400, Magic Leap, Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 and DAQRI.
  • Mixed reality is poised to transform more emerging fields, such as artificial intelligence.

Mixed reality is the blending of physical and digital spaces to various degrees. Both physical environments that are partially digitized (augmented reality) and wholly digital environments (virtual reality) are part of the umbrella technology known as mixed reality. These technologies are poised to become the next stage in the evolution of computing, taking our digital tools from the 2D space into an interactive 3D spatial experience.

Mixed reality is often associated with gaming and entertainment, but it has many more practical uses as well. Businesses are already experimenting with mixed reality to improve communications, training and problem-solving. As the technology improves, so will the use cases. Could we be on the cusp of a mixed reality revolution in business?

How do mixed reality devices work?

How does mixed reality work? The details are incredibly complex, but the basic concept relies on an interaction between headset hardware, mixed reality software and cloud-based servers. The headsets rely on several components to achieve the creation of augmented and virtual reality environments and the interactions users engage in with them. These components include a series of cameras, sensors and microphones that work together to identify and respond to the surrounding environment.

These hardware components work in tandem with software, which must create 3D digital elements to either overlay the physical environment (in the case of augmented reality) or create a new environment altogether (in the case of virtual reality). The software is critical to developing an immersive, holographic experience for users of mixed reality technology.

Mixed reality devices are typically connected to a remote server, which stores the virtual objects generated by the device. The server sends virtual objects to the device's processor, which then utilizes those images in its creation of augmented content. Servers also play an instrumental role in allowing real-time collaboration between multiple users in different locations.

Mixed reality for business

The question "how is mixed reality useful for business?" is broad and complex, according to Brave Williams, assistant professor at Husson University's New England School of Communications.

"This question is sort of like [asking], 'How would business benefit if every employee had a cell phone that gives them instant access to communication and documents on demand, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?'" Williams said. "The applications are as numerous as the diversity of businesses."

Here's a look at just some of the use cases mixed reality is already improving.

Training

Mixed reality enables what is known as "experiential training" sessions, which allow employees to experience a situation firsthand in a simulated environment. This makes complex learning easier without risking any company assets in the process. The manufacturing industry, in particular, has already started taking advantage of mixed reality's experiential training, said Matan Libis, CEO of WakingApp.

"As opposed to having new hires spend weeks reading dense manuals and detailed safety protocols, AR is allowing manufacturers to create highly technical, on-the-job experiences that new hires can utilize to train," Libis said. 

Project development

Another driver of mixed reality adoption in business is improved project development. For architects or builders, for example, a dynamic, 3D blueprint can improve planning and design when discussing a project with a client.  

"Creating AR experiences that their clients can explore and interact with provides … an innovative way to communicate with clients," said Libis.

Sales

Finally, mixed reality can be used to drive sales, allowing customers to try on outfits before buying or see if a piece of furniture will fit in their home. IKEA recently announced it would launch an AR app (called IKEA Place) that customers can use to digitally place a product in their home to see whether it would fit and what it would look like. Warby Parker already combines AR technology and facial scanning to create a digital profile of what a customer would look like with a particular pair of glasses.

"Retail is the industry, outside of gaming and entertainment, that has been the most rapid adopters of this technology," Libis said. "Major players in the industry are starting to leverage AR specifically."

Mixed reality devices available today

Microsoft HoloLens 2

The Microsoft HoloLens 2 builds on the design of the original HoloLens, remaining untethered and highly mobile but also increasing the field of view. The HoloLens 2 upgrades the interface, allowing users to pinch and pull objects in a way that feels natural. It can also respond to voice commands using natural language processing.

The device includes 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 compute platform. It contains four visible light cameras for head tracking, as well as two IR cameras for eye tracking. It is also capable of capturing 8MP images and recording 1080p30 video. The Microsoft HoloLens 2 is currently priced at $3,500.

Vuzix M400

The Vuzix M400 has yet to be unveiled, but the company announced the existence of the device ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. According to Vuzix, the M400 is the first headset powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon's XR1, a powerful processing platform that supports the use of on-device machine learning algorithms. Like many other leading headsets, the Vuzix M400 will be aimed at enterprise applications.

Magic Leap

Magic Leap was long the best-kept secret of the mixed reality world. Today, the cat is out of the bag with the Magic Leap One Creator Edition. Magic Leap incorporates a suite of sensors that makes digitally created objects "spatially aware" of their surroundings – if you're trying to catch a Pokemon with your Magic Leap, best not let it duck behind the couch. Magic Leap is primarily designed for creativity, gaming and entertainment, but its powerful processing and unique operating system holds the potential for real-world business applications as well.

Magic Leap One includes an NVIDIA Parker SOC and two Denver 2.0 64-bit cores plus four ARM Cortex-A57 64-bit cores. The GPU is an NVIDIA Pascal 256 CUDA core. Magic Leap includes a 128GB storage capacity and 8GB of RAM. The Magic Leap One is currently priced at $2,295. Wanna try it for yourself? Select AT&T stores are offering a Game of Thrones-inspired experience.

Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2

Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 is a lightweight, wearable device that looks much like an ordinary pair of glasses. It aims to streamline hands-on work by providing contextual information directly on the job site. Whether accessing training videos and instructions or directly connecting co-workers in real time, Glass can streamline common workplace processes.

Currently, Glass is only available through select partners. If you're interested in using Glass in your workplace, visit the company website. Costs vary based on software customization and training requirements.

DAQRI

DAQRI smart glasses are aimed at augmented reality for productivity and work applications. The device is highly mobile, with a portable compute pack that can easily be clipped to a belt, leaving users untethered. DAQRI smart glasses come with access to Worksense Standard, DAQRI's own suite of productivity apps.

Inside the device is a 3.10GHz sixth-generation Intel Core m7 processor, a 64GB solid-state drive and 5,800-mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The device offers a 44-degree diagonal field of view with a resolution of 1360 x 768 and a frame rate of 90 fps.

Where is the industry heading?

With all these amazing technological strides, it can be easy to lose track of the business end of the industry. Tipatat Chennavasin, co-founder of The Venture Reality Fund, is working to finance mixed reality studios so that, when these platforms are ready for widespread adoption, there is already myriad content to explore.

"A lot of people are asking what the driver of VR or AR adoption will be," Chennavasin said. "Well, what was the driver of traditional PC adoption? It wasn't the internet or watching videos – that didn't exist at first. It was desktop publishing – Microsoft Office: PowerPoint, Word and Excel. It was this idea of being productive, and it revolutionized communication."

Chennavasin shares that expectation for mixed reality devices, which is why he launched The VR Fund along with his partners.

"We're still at the very beginning, but there are really strong indications that this is a healthy market, a healthy ecosystem," he said. "[Mixed reality studio] Owlchemy Labs, for example, made $3 million in less than a year in software revenue from VR. That shows me there is really something here."

As the industry evolves and the technology improves, Chennavasin said he wouldn't be surprised if mixed reality crossed over with other emerging technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, or with internet of things applications, creating a unified, high-tech ecosystem of intelligent products. While that day might be some distance away yet, the emergence of mixed reality devices as a usable technology has the future on everyone's minds.

"Right now [we're in] a stage of experimentation, and there's definitely something here," Chennavasin said. "This is not just playing video games. People are experiencing that, absorbing what's out there and building on it. We'll get to those killer experiences and help drive mainstream adoption very quickly."

Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

Talking Shop: Business.com CEO Talks Change and Brand Focus

Posted: 08 May 2019 07:00 AM PDT

From transitioning into its own company to undergoing a brand and website refresh, business.com has undergone a lot of changes in the last six months.

In September of 2018, business.com separated from its former parent organization, Purch, which sold its consumer portfolio of sites to U.K.-based Future Publishing. As a newly independent company, business.com is able to focus exclusively on providing small business owners with the advice and resources they need to succeed.

Leading business.com through this period of change is the company's CEO, Doug Llewellyn. Llewellyn is no stranger to the digital media industry, having worked in the field for more than two decades. Prior to taking over the reins of business.com, Llewellyn served as president and chief operating officer at Purch and vice President of corporate and business development and digital media sales for the SMB community platform Manta Media. 

Doug Llewellyn

He also spent 12 years with CBS Interactive/CNET Networks, where he worked in a number of roles, including vice president and general manager of the B2B portfolio of properties that included ZDNet, TechRepublic and SmartPlanet.

Since taking over as CEO of business.com, Llewellyn has spent time on refocusing and rebranding the company. We recently had a chance to speak with him about those efforts, as well as what he thinks separates business.com from the pack in the crowded digital media industry and what excites him about the future of the company.

The business.com brands

Q: Business.com is more than just one website. Business News Daily and BuyerZone are part of the business.com brand. How do you see these three websites differing, and how do they complement each other?

A: First and foremost, we want our sites to complement each other. Because of that, there will be some overlapping aspects to them. But, as we continue to evolve business.com as our leading brand, the others will follow that evolution, while also still being distinguishable in their own ways.

Business News Daily takes an angle to the small business marketplace that's really around information for anyone looking to, what I would call, explore their entrepreneurial interests. This could be people who are working in big businesses now but have a little bit of a bug to maybe leave their corporate job and start their own venture.

Business News Daily certainly has content, information and resources for people who are already in small business, but more so at the earlier stages, like business plan writing and other very early startup type of stuff.

BuyerZone has typically been about purchase decisions. This includes buying guides centered on "what product should I buy and how should I go about buying it," and things like that. We have content like that on both Business News Daily and business.com because there's a natural flow between different kinds of articles. But BuyerZone is much more about buying guides and decision enablement. With this site, we are also able to utilize our quote technology services, and other tools that connect buyer and seller.

Q: Business.com just unveiled some new branding, including a new website design and feel, as well as a new logo. Why did you feel it was important to give the brand a refresh in terms of style?

A: It was two things. One, I felt like we wanted a new front door to our website that, at a very pragmatic level, provided much more clarity to everyone who landed there about what our value propositions are; our expert community, business advice through articles and what I would call decision enablement content in the form of our product reviews. You could get to all of this on our old homepage, but you couldn't necessarily do it easily. I think this new design does that.

In the process of redesigning the business.com homepage, we decided that it made sense to evolve the look and feel of the brand as a whole. When I think about the future growth of business.com, I look at the "little c" community, meaning the actual Q&A section, as well as the "big C" community, which I think of as everyone who's involved in the marketplace. We think the new chat box logo is a very good representation of that community interaction among small business owners, vendors and everybody in the marketplace.

Q: There are a lot of online publications serving business audiences. What makes business.com different?

A: I think it's that combination of peer-led advice mixed with our roots in professional journalism and expert advice. That's not to say that peers can't be experts from a small business perspective, but that's much more experiential advice, versus more what I would call having a rubric about how we decide what attributes are important in, for example, an accounting system, point-of-sale system or other types of technologies that most small businesses use. I think being able to use business.com for both purposes is a good differentiator.

We also cater to what I would call "service journalism" a lot more than what I would call "headline journalism," which is what some of the other outlets are serving business audiences.

Q: A key component of the business.com content is reviews of business-related products and services. Why is providing this type of advice important to the brand, and how do you remain transparent about your independent reviews process? 

A: In terms of remaining transparent, I think it's a question that everybody, even at some level Consumer Reports, gets. If you're reviewing products, how can you remain independent if, at some level, you're getting paid to review them? My answer is always, if we lose that credibility and lose that independence, we won't have an audience because they won't trust us. Trust is a big tenet of what we have built at business.com and Business News Daily over the years.

Whether you're Wirecutter, CNET, Inc., business.com or any of the others, trust is important if you're an independent review site. We have protocols and operations that allow us to maintain that separation. But we also have a culture where we don't need to test those boundaries. It's never been much of an issue for us. The fact that we have millions of people coming to our sites every month is a testament that we're doing it right and people trust us.

As to why we think it's important, frankly, most small business owners are really good at their craft – meaning they're good at accounting, being a doctor, being a roofer, baking cupcakes, being a mechanic or being a florist. They're not necessarily good at running their business. But as they grow, they're going to need tools and services and different types of technology to run their business. They need an efficient place to turn to figure out what the best service or software is for them. I think offering reviews will always be important.

Q: Business.com offers a community where members can share advice and contribute expert articles. What is the value in people joining the community, and how do you envision the community growing with the business?

A: Being able to get what I would call grassroots experiential advice from people, in conjunction with some of the expert advice that our staff members give, is critically important.

Let's say I own a coffee shop in Waltham, Massachusetts, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to get the morning shift to show up on time before commuters walk in the door. That is probably an issue that a lot of coffee shops have. I can go ask that question of somebody who might own a coffee shop in Chicago, Illinois, or Bozeman, Montana, or Denver, Colorado, and know that I'll hear, "Hey, you know, I had that problem too; what I did was I incented my morning shift by doing X, Y, Z and rewarded them here and there," as opposed to someone who's like, "Oh, well, I'm a business expert, I can help you."

I think the sort of real-world situations that can come from inside of this Q&A platform are critically important for business owners as they seek advice.

Q: What are the biggest changes you have seen in the digital media industry over the past two decades, and how is business.com addressing them?

A: The biggest thing is it's super easy to be in digital media. Anybody can have a WordPress blog and be up and running pretty quickly. Some of the challenges are, how do you grow at scale? How do you remain trustworthy? There are a lot of brands out there that aren't necessarily what I would call super high-utility value. They're more infotainment. There are services out there that don't have much of a brand and you're not really sure if they're trustworthy, but you can tell they're probably making a lot of money.

What we're trying to build at business.com is that authentic, trusted experience that really does serve the needs of the small business owner, but also with a business model underneath that foundation that helps us continue to invest in how we can help all sides of the marketplace.

The future of business.com

Q: What's next for business.com? Where do you see the company going?

A: I still think we have a lot of growth potential in the community side of the site. I think you're going to see a lot more organic interaction between our professional journalists and experts on staff and our community. I think there's a lot more room for the community to grow and be very valuable for people.

It's unclear how much more content expansion we'll do. We will always expand or write new categories that are important, but we're at 100-plus categories now. Are we going to be in 300? Probably not. But we'll probably be in 150 over time.

Q: What excites you the most about business.com and its future?

A: I just think we're only at the tip of the iceberg. Let's not forget small businesses aren't solely the property of the United States of America. There are plenty of markets overseas where we can be incredibly valuable as well. I think our brand can go global.

We don't have any plans in the next 12 or 18 months to be in international markets, but we're building something that should be valuable not only to small business owners in the U.S., but certainly across the world.

Q: How does your company's culture translate into what business.com does for small business owners? How is that culture evolving?

A: I think we need to be nimble and adaptable. Small business owners need to figure that out probably five times a day. We've got a little bit of a bigger operation, but we're still small – less than 100 people. We are certainly not a big enterprise.

As we see the marketplace changing, our customers' needs changing and the needs of small business owners changing, we can't just say, "Oh, we have a plan and we're going to stick to it." We have to say, "OK, how does our plan need to evolve?" so that we don't get yo-yoed back and forth into changing plans every week. How do we serve our customers on an ongoing basis?

I like to think that we're scrappy and can adapt what we're are doing pretty well. We can always get better at it, but I like to think we do that pretty well.

Grit Means More than Ideas When Building a Business

Posted: 08 May 2019 05:30 AM PDT

When I decided to become my own boss in 2011, I went in with a major assumption (and that I've since seen many other budding entrepreneurs get wrong, too) that ended up wasting years of previous solid entrepreneurial efforts. I assumed that the hard part of starting a successful business is finding that one good idea. Everything after that is yachts and sports cars.

I'm here to tell you that's simply not the case. Ideas are everywhere. They are a dime a dozen. The hard part? The part that only a select few are willing to do? Grind every single day, over an extended period of time.

I had a friend call me yesterday and pitch me a few business ideas that she thought of while on vacation. I pointed out some glaring weaknesses, and she quickly agreed. The conversation ended with her saying "I have all these great ideas! I just can't get them off the ground."

There you have it: The ultimate startup myth.

A real-world example

So far, I've spoken in generalities. To drive the point home, I want to give you a real world example of how a good idea alone will die on the vine without perseverance. I want to tell you about my business.

I started Distressed Loan Advisors in 2009, on the heels of the Great Recession. The service I provide was exactly the right service to be offering at the exact right time. I assist small business owners who are struggling to repay their SBA debt. More specifically, I help them settle their SBA debt when their business has failed.

Out of the gate, the business took off like a NASA space shuttle. SBA loan defaults were at an all-time high, and I was there to mop it up.  I was shooting the proverbial fish in a barrel. For a few years, I thought I had it all figured out. I did a bit of blogging, complimented it with some Google ads and boom, instant business for life. I had a great service to offer, and that was all I needed – or so I thought.

Fast forward five years. After being at the right place at the right time in 2009, I assumed that the phone would continue to ring indefinitely. Then, the economy recovered. Not right away, and not all at once, but eventually my business slowed dramatically. Beyond the economy recovering, my business stalled because I got fat and lazy.

For a solid four years, business was slow. I was previously spending a ton of money on Google Ads, but the leads I was getting were poor quality, so I turned off the ads. My organic traffic was way down, too. I had slacked on blogging and had been pushed to page two of organic search results, which basically meant I became irrelevant.

Rather than fight for my business, I wallowed in self-pity and cursed the strong economy. I even began to use it as a crutch when people asked how my business was going. "The economy is too good," I'd whine. "I need a good recession to get me back on track."

A much-needed kick in the pants

The light bulb finally went off when I was pitching one of my many "can't miss" business ideas to my brother. "Dude, you already have a great idea," he pleaded.  "Why don't you just focus on consulting instead of messing around with this other stuff?" He was right.

For the next year and beyond, I re-doubled my SEO and marketing efforts. I brought my website into 2018 – to that point, I had a site that I had created in Microsoft Frontpage – and reformatted my blog. And I wrote, and wrote and wrote. Not only did I write for my own blog, I reached out to dozens of business-related sites and wrote guest blogs for them.  

I didn't see results immediately. For six months, it was unclear whether my efforts were paying off, or if I was just wasting my time. Then, finally, it happened. 

After grinding day-in and day-out for over a year, I send the above screen shot to my wife. Not only did I have the top organic search spot in Google for my top keyword, I had the top-three positions! The positions drift up and down periodically, but since that day I've always had at least one result result on page one for that search term. The hard work finally paid off.

So what's the lesson here?

If there is something to be learned from my business's near-death experience, it's that marketing (especially SEO) is not a single, one-off event. It's a process that requires perseverance. Without it, even the best idea will fail, or come close like I did.

I mistakenly believed that I could rest on my laurels after some initial success. Only after becoming invisible for several years did I learn that if I wanted my business to thrive again, I needed to be busting my butt every single day. Writing a few articles over a few days doesn't cut it.  Running one ad in the Sunday paper is not marketing, it's flushing money down the toilet. I had to be all in, all the time.  

Marketing is not a flash flood, where the customers beat a path to your door with reckless abandon all at once. Instead, it's like the Colorado River. It requires steady effort over a sustained period of time. If you don't believe that can get results, take a look at the Grand Canyon.

If you are the type who believes you are just one great idea away from making millions, it's time to get real. Only when you are willing to commit yourself to sustained effort over a lengthy period of time will you ever have a chance of becoming a truly successful entrepreneur.
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