Jim's Articles

Digital transformation summary for business leaders

Today we discuss about a hot topic in the IT consulting business today: IT strategy. 2020 is the information security year. GDPR, fines for personal info security breaches and so on. Security and personal data its a very big topic for every CEO.

A trick any CEO should know about cybersecurity: Achieving information security compliance with one or more government regulatory standards for information security (i.e. ISO 27001, NIST 800-171, HIPAA, NYDFS, etc.) is good, but not sufficient to ensure real cybersecurity. Historically, cybersecurity has been an area that is housed solely in the technology department of a company, whether that consists of one or twenty employees. But more and more executives are understanding the importance of being not only knowledgeable but also involved in the conversations and decision-making process when it comes to protecting their data.

Every business should want to have an IT consultant! Some technical issues or crisis may be too overwhelming for an internal IT department to solve. Sometimes, hackers breach the systems in a way that internal experts cannot reverse or contain the damage. Natural disasters such as floods or fires may affect technology in a way that only experts can resolve. In such cases, a business cannot avoid hiring experts to restore normalcy and prevent a similar crisis in the future.

Digital transformation is driven by a broader view of Information Technology than its traditional goals of increasing efficiency and automation to help businesses save money and boost productivity. Today, technology has advanced in ways that allow businesses to do much more than what was possible in the past. Even in its traditional scope, IT has become a major component of most businesses’ success. Most corporate executives (CXOs) are comfortable with it in this shape and size, but when there’s talk of re-envisioning IT, even with the promise of greater impact, CXOs can become understandably nervous. Discover additional info at Information security checklist.

This is not the main driving problem though. The top CRM systems (Salesforce, Dynamics, SAP, Oracle) have been designed with sales input, design thinking and user experience experts coming out their ears. I find several of the top systems really elegant in their combination of simplicity and power. It’s hard to imagine these systems being much simpler while still achieving their intended goal. Neither is the tech IQ of sales staff the major problem. Never before have salespeople had the level of technical skill that today’s sales professionals possess.

Trust is a universal Human Need Turbo-charger! Although we apply this approach to IT-driven transformation, it is truly in effect in every aspect of our lives. Myriad leadership studies have proven the connection between success/efficiency/effectiveness and trust. And each of us can confirm in our own lives the “difference” between situations where trust was absent vs. present; it is not difficult to recall in which situations we were at our best. As with many things, the impact of trust may be seen more clearly by examining what happens when it’s absent. There is something deep in human nature which causes us to hold back, maybe in subconscious self-preservation, in these situations. See extra information at IT strategy.

Nextfiles offers Nextcloud services with CalDAV

Do you look for a good quality Nextcloud service with Collabora? NextFiles is a high quality , hight privacy german based cloud provider, a fast and secure Nextcloud service in a German data center with ISO 27001 certification.

For the true offsite cloud storage experience, you will need to rent server space from a third-party provider. Here you have two options – you can install the server software yourself on server space that you have independently rented, or you can let a Nextcloud partner setup and manage an account for you. Installing Nextcloud on independently rented server space gives you complete control over your cloud server, much as you would have over a self-hosted server. The main benefits over self-hosting are that your data is safe in the event of a fire or burglary at home and that you don’t need to have a computer running at home all the time.

A major component that makes NextCloud a viable Dropbox alternative is large file support. For those using cloud storage for personal files, LFS may not be deemed a very important issue. Although for teams and businesses, particularly those who work with large multimedia files, having large file support is crucial. Having the ability to sync and transfer large files with no limitations to any other team member is invaluable. A Self Hosted Cloud Storage Solution: Upon first glance, NextCloud makes its open source license visible to users. An open source license states that the source code of the application can be used, modified and/or redistributed which depends upon the terms and conditions. To some, this may be irrelevant, yet to others a huge sigh of relief. Perhaps one of the biggest draws to using NextCloud is having the flexibility of private hosting. Because of this, not only do you gain full control over your data but it also becomes more secure in doing so. Additionally, NextCloud allows read/write permissions between users on a server, and will automatically encrypt all files that are synced. If you’re ready to deploy a NextCloud server, simply follow the link below. Otherwise, continue reading for more information on the main features and user interface.

The biggest pull, of course, is that Nextcloud provides you with total control over how and where your files are stored. This is a big privacy win, although the fact that end-to-end encryption remains at the “trial” stage does introduce privacy concerns when using third-party (hosted) storage space. We get the strong impression that e2ee is in reality considered fairly robust even at this stage, but until a stable version is released, it is not possible to recommend for sensitive data. That said, encrypting the entire instance with something like EcnFS should provide more than enough security for most users. Setting up a fully hosted Nextcloud account is so easy that your mother could do it, and is certainly a privacy improvement over using a big name cloud service. It does, though, miss out on the real privacy benefits of running your own Nextcloud instance as it requires trusting a third-party provider to manage it for you.

Nextcloud gives you access to all your files wherever you are and whatever device you use. The easy web interface allows you to share files with other users on your server, to create and send password protected public links, to let others upload files to your cloud and to get notifications on your phone and desktop when a user on another cloud server shares files directly with you. And you can do all these things from the desktop or mobile clients, too. Nextcloud clients for Android, iOS and desktop systems allow you to sync and share files, in a fully secure way through an encrypted connection. The mobile clients feature automatic upload of pictures and videos you take and can synchronize select files and folders. The clients can handle multiple accounts, show all activity happening on your server and notify you of new events such as the availability of new shares. See extra details on Nextcloud with Cloud Storage .

Huawei repairs guides

Cracked screen repair in Colorado Springs? Our repair in summary: Replacing a display wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t very complicated either. Having the right tools and the iFixit guide definitely made it feel more accessible. iFixit kits being readily available is just one more reason why Motorola phones are awesome. Whether you’re ready to undertake a display replacement yourself or you prefer to take your phone to a local repair shop, you can bring your recently repaired phone to Ting and get credit back for what the repair cost you. Learn more and visit our promo site.

A folk remedy circulating online suggests a paste made from two parts baking soda to one part water can fix screens. Just make a thick paste and then use a cloth to rub it in. This should cover up the problem for a while. But this is amateur stuff, i recommend to see a professional.

If the phone is seriously damaged, get it backed up as quickly as you can, making sure all your photos and videos and important files are saved somewhere else just in case it dies completely and you can’t get it working again. If it’s already stopped functioning, then a professional repair is probably your best bet. Here are the solutions, in ascending order of professionalism. And, of course, the most obvious option: buying a new phone. Sometimes you just need to pony up the cash to replace your damaged device. Sure, it might be painful to spend that much money. But it might be cheaper than buying a replacement and upgrading a few months later anyway. If you were already thinking about upgrading soon, it might be best to just do it now. If you do decide to buy a new phone, don’t automatically buy one from your carrier. Buy an unlocked version instead; it’ll save you a lot of money, even though it seems more expensive.

J’s Electronic Repair has been fixing electronics in Colorado Springs for over 15 years. Our goal is to give you the best price without sacrificing quality. We’re so confident in our repairs that we provide a lifetime warranty with every single repair we do. We work on electronics such as smartphones, tablets, games consoles, and computers. We fix various issues, including problems with cracked screens, charging ports, batteries, buttons, and more. We commonly work on Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Apple products. If your Mac is running slowly, crashing, or otherwise experiencing issues, give our team a call and get a free repair quote today! We have over 15 years of experience in repairing electronics, with our team possessing the tools, resources, and expertise necessary to help you. We know how crucial electronics are to your personal and professional life in the digital age, which is why we strive for the fastest possible turnaround times. Next time you search for “phone repair near me”, why not give J’s Electronic Repair a try? We provide top-quality affordable smartphone and iPhone repair in Colorado Springs. Read additional details on Cellphone repair Colorado Springs.

Bigger lifespan for you iPhone or other mobile phone brands? Sometimes, you don’t need to do anything to have your data backed up, while other apps or files need to be backed up manually. For instance, Android phones require a Google account to log in – this functions to save all of your data to the cloud under your Google account. You can do the same with an Apple phone and your Apple account. Many apps downloaded from the Google Play or App store link to your Google or Apple account and so also save your game data to the account; others use their own logins while others only save progress to your device.

We were promised that the Doogee S90 would be unlike any other rugged smartphone on the market, and to be fair, that’s what we got, with a modular design that lets you build a handset that best suits your needs. This modular approach means the Doogee S90 is bulkier than many of its competitors, so bear that in mind. However, in our tests the Doogee S90 performed brilliantly, racking up some of the best numbers we’ve seen in our benchmarks. Doogee confirmed that the price of the S90 after Kickstarter will be $369.99 (£285). The gamepad and the wireless charger will cost $29.99 (£23) each while the battery will be available for $39.99 (£31), the intercom for $49.99 (£39) and the night vision camera for $59.99 (£46).

After you have your phone repaired maybe it’s time to buy a better screen protection ? If you happen to be the type of person who drops their phone often (guilty as charged), then RhinoShield has you covered – literally. Its screen protectors are specifically designed to be impact resistant, using carefully selected shock-dampening material, ensuring your phone will be protected from most major falls. To prove its reliability, RhinoShield even tests a hammer against its products, just to prove its confidence in each protector.

Website audits digital marketing agency in Winnipeg, Canada

Looking for a digital marketing company in Winnipeg offering lead gathering ? We have excellent news for you! We will talk about the latest marketing strategies in 2020 and also introduce you to one of the leading digital marketing agencies in Winnipeg.

Video marketing has been an important tactic for big brands for years. But video is changing. By 2020, video will make up more than 85% of all consumer internet traffic in the U.S. Most of the videos people will be watching won’t be uploaded by brands or businesses – they’ll be uploaded by individuals. One of the biggest hang-ups many businesses have with video marketing is the production aspect. They want their videos to look professional – like they were produced by Hollywood directors. But you can do fine by using simple recording and editing tools. For example, InVideo can help you create stunning professional-level videos in minutes with pre-made templates. Most importantly, people aren’t looking for dazzling special effects. They just want good content that’s entertaining, informative, and story-driven. Not only does HubSpot introduce its new video series, “Brilliant,” the company tells the story of an entrepreneur who overcame significant challenges and built a business through persistence and determination. The video contains some excellent production elements, but it’s the story that drives it. These are the types of videos that garner attention and go viral. Instead of selling software, HubSpot has found a way to build a community around its brand. And that type of brand recognition is priceless.

We’ve been banging the ‘Actionable Analytics’ drum for nearly 10 years now since we believe in the power of data-driven marketing based on digital analytics and customer research. It’s why we’re called Smart Insights! Systems such as Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are relatively static in terms of reports and functionality. For me, the main trend here is using softer measures to get customer feedback. For example, I’ve been taking a look at some really interesting case studies from Vision Critical (Disclosure: A Content Marketing Partner of Smart Insights) which show how savvy brands are using customer communities to feed back. Another trend here is the adoption of dashboard reporting and analysis systems. At Smart Insights, we have adopted Google’s Data Studio (since it came out of Beta) for our monthly and weekly trading reports alongside the Google Sheets Add-In for the Google Analytics API, which we use for pulling the data through for our RACE digital marketing dashboard.

If you want to stand out in 2020, you need to personalize your marketing – and that means personalized content, products, emails and more. Consider these personalization stats: 63% of consumers are highly annoyed with generic advertising blasts, 80% say they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences, 90% claim they find personalization appealing. Kevin George from EmailMonks asserts that “personalized, triggered emails based on behavior are 3x better than batch-and-blast emails.” When you want to study examples of the power of personalization, it’s hard to overlook Netflix and Amazon, with their tailored recommended products or movie titles. Here are a few other companies that are successfully using personalization today: EasyJet launched a data-driven email campaign that uses customers’ travel history with the airline to build personalized stories, which then suggest where they might like to travel next. About 12.5 million unique emails have been sent, which had a 25% higher click-through rate than non-personalized emails.

EasySeo caters to clients who require an intensive, full-service approach to search engine marketing. We have more than 13 years of experience in executing Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click and Affiliate Marketing campaigns for our clients. See more info on Winnipeg Digital Marketing. Inventive Web Track works in the line of business success through customer satisfaction because we believe that happy customers can take us towards the path of success. We believe in maintaining endearing relations with Our Clientss and customers through delivery of top-most quality projects on time.“A business can achieve success through happy clients” is Inventive Web Track’s paramount motto and also the vision.

Disqus replacement for WordPress and other CMS

JointComments is a Disqus comment like system, a free comment solution for WordPress and non CMS websites. Adding a comment plugin to your website has many benefits, and we will talk about them in this article.

A comments section is an excellent place for building these kinds of relationships with influencers. If you get to the end of an article, you may be thinking, “Hey, this person forgot to mention this point, but I have some thoughts on that.” Adding in a helpful comment or linking back to another article can spread the conversation. It can connect you with others (or with the blogger) in a bigger way. It’s not that linking back to another blog or website is bad. Sometimes people do it because they’ve written something related to the topic and they think it addresses something missed in the post. But when it’s done just to drive traffic, it’s spam. Moderating these comments is much more difficult. It takes a lot of time to filter the manual spam ones out from all the other normal comments.

However, to figure out how much additional traffic he was receiving from those rankings, Neil took a look at the actual number of impressions and clicks that those rankings received. Overall, he found that the comments section brought in 16% of all search traffic. Neil concludes, “Comments didn’t drive as many visitors as I wanted, but considering that it’s user-generated content, it’s not that bad. It could be that Google may not be placing as much value on text created through comments or words appearing lower on a page (since comments are located below each blog post) as it does on the post itself.” I should note that Neil only analyzed 560 blog posts–so far less data than the 100,000+ blog posts from the HubSpot study–but it is interesting information nonetheless.

JointComments comments have virality. Everyone uses JointComments almost daily. When you embed JointComments comments, you end up using the viral nature that JointComments has built into the comments. When people comment on something, it shows up not only on your blog but also in their news feed. Their feed gets viewed by a lot more people. Most of the times their friends are likely to be completely unaware of your website. So what this does to summarize is ‘it puts your website in front of new audience’. This new audience has a high probability of having similar interests as the person commenting on your blog. This further adds to the likely hood of you getting a new returning visitor.

JOINT Token Rewards: JOINT is a tradable cryptocurrency which works on Ethereum blockchain. JOINT also the fuel of Joint Comments platform. Acquire traffic from other publishers. Reward your team members & writers. Hold it to get future profit from Joint Comments. Platform Features: Manage multiple websites in one dashboard, Embed anywhere (websites, static pages, ecommerce), Invite your team members as moderators, Define upvote & comment limits, Customize the widget colors and widget position, See stats of your community. Read more info at Disqus alternative.

Tree removal firm in Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs tree removal professional? Invasive plant species: It’s fun to experiment with new plants in your landscape, but it’s important to make sure that what you plant is as non-invasive to the existing flora and trees as possible. Non-native species that are introduced into any forest, landscape, or gardening eco-system can become a huge problem in the long run. Their genetic material can have an enormous impact on biodiversity, which can make them invasive to the existing trees later. This can also threaten other local native species outside of your landscape and in some cases endanger them.

Tree stumps are both unattractive and dangerous. We have the proper tools and experience to remove or grind any stumps on your property. Your satisfaction with our work is guaranteed! Local, family-owned and operated by the father-and-son team of Jack and Clay Webb, Tree Artisans offers reliable, timely tree care. We are members of the International Society of Arboriculture and the Tree Care Industry Association. Licensed and insured to operate in Colorado, we are based in Colorado Springs. Our services extend anywhere along the Front Range, and we can quickly service El Paso, Teller, and Douglas. See extra details at Tree care services in Colorado Springs. Most deciduous species of trees are at risk if stressed by insect defoliation, weather, poor soil conditions, or other factors. One of the best things you can do is simply to keep your trees healthy with regular maintenance including proper irrigation and mulch, fertilization, and removal of dead wood. Healthy trees are better able to withstand an infestation. Once the damage is obvious, it’s probably too late to treat effectively for optimal protection. Be sure to inspect your trees for any signs of infestation in early spring. For more information call Tree Artisans at 719-822-6733.

Tree staking is never done with the intention of harming a tree. Staking is usually done with love and with a desire to promote root and trunk growth and protect a young tree from harm. What some tree planters do not understand is, rather than helping a tree develop root and trunk growth, improper tree staking replaces a supportive trunk and root system with an artificial support that causes the tree to put its resources into growing taller but not growing wider. As such, some of the best trees to plant in Colorado are evergreens. However, the larger ones, such as blue spruce and the various pine and fir types are not suitable to be used as street trees; on the other hand, smaller evergreens like Piñon (Pinus edulis), Hawthorn species (Crataegus spp.) or Bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata) are. Small ornamental trees are also successfully used for landscaping. Canada red cherry and Mayday tree with their white flowers, Canyon maple (which is a Rocky Mountain native), Ginkgo biloba, American linden and Sycamore trees are only a few examples.

Tree watering is a key part of tree care, but it is difficult to recommend an exact amount due to the variety of climates. A few guidelines will help you to water your trees properly. For new trees, water immediately after you plant a tree. Usually 30 seconds with a steady stream of water from a garden hose w/ a diffuser nozzle per tree seedling is sufficient. During the first couple growing seasons, your newly planted tree is expending a lot of energy trying to get its roots established in the soil. Especially during the first few summers of your new trees life, it will have a difficult time dealing with heat and drought. You can make this easier by providing water and covering the soil with wood-chip mulch. Deep watering can help speed the root establishment. Deep water consists of keeping the soil moist to a depth that includes all the roots.

Looking for the best choices if you need to cut down the tree maintenance costs? Start with picking the right trees for Colorado! Russian Hawthorns are one of the most drought-tolerant trees on our list. Again, establishing these trees with two seasons of normal watering will get their root systems healthy and strong enough to withstand dry conditions. Susan highly recommends Russian Hawthorn. It was the first tree she nominated for our list! Russian Hawthorns mature at 15 to 20 feet tall and wide with an upright oval form and slightly spreading lower branches. These hawthorns have beautiful, finely-cut, dark green leaves, turning yellow in the fall. The white flowers emerge in clusters in late spring. They mature into richly-colored dark red berries late in the season.

Do you want to keep your trees safe? First we will suggest some advices on tree care and after that we will introduce Tree Artisans, a tree services company in Colorado Springs. To direct the growth by slowing the branches you don’t want, or to “dwarf” the development of a tree or branch, pruning should be done soon after seasonal growth is complete. Another reason to prune in the summer is for corrective purposes. Defective limbs can be seen more easily. For trees that bloom in spring, prune when their flowers fade. Trees and shrubs that flower in mid- to late summer should be pruned in winter or early spring. Because decay fungi spread their spores profusely in the fall and wounds seem to heal more slowly on fall on cuts, this is a good time to leave your pruning tools in storage.