5 Essential Questions To Ask Your Qualified Security Advisor

June 4, 2013
Chris Mark

In my experience working with hundreds of companies pursing Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance, I have recognized a few trends.  Like all spectrums, two extremes exist. On one end of the spectrum...

Does Your Business Need A Social Media Intern?

Cheryl Burgess

If you’re a TV watcher, chances are you’ve seen Jack in the Box’s most recent commercial, which playfully pokes fun at social media interns.  In the clip, a young, bubbly young intern is clearly excited to be a part of the Jack in the Box...

5 Reasons Why Cloud Brightens The Contact Center Forecast

June 3, 2013
Robert Lamb

Calling all my contact center professional friends:  Have you ever developed a strategy for adding new services or updating technology just to have the request for funding stop at the CFO approval?  Because of the limits to capital IT budgets,...

Taking Dinner Orders And Other Great Tablet Uses

Allyson Fralish

At a growing number of restaurants around the country, tablets are doing triple-duty: as the menu, the waiter, and a pastime. At a restaurant near my house, you can browse the food and drinks, tap on your choices to order, and swipe...

Is Your CDN Vulnerable To Attack?

May 31, 2013
Sam Farraj

In just the past year, businesses of all types have been under attack. Some of these attacks have been very public; others have received less notoriety. But make no mistake, every major business segment was affected in some way, from...

Are You Keeping Up With The Online Joneses?

Lisa Durrett

I think we all know that old familiar saying, “Keeping up with the Joneses,” but lately it seems to me that social media has taken this phenomenon to a whole new level. But if you are a small business owner looking for the best ways to market...

Online Courses Allow Students To Go Big And Stay Home

May 30, 2013
Ben Kruse

Back in January, I posted an article predicting four top education technology trends for the year.  One of those predictions included continuing adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) - online courses aimed at large-scale...

How To Add Value To Your Brand With The Right Logo

Jean Hendricks

Are you looking for ways to add value to your brand image and grab your customers’ attention? In a previous blog, I talked about using a tagline as a way to increase brand awareness.  Another way is having your own business logo....

Making Health Data Healthier

May 29, 2013
Geeta Nayyar

Data collection and its use and security are creating healthy discussions within the healthcare industry.  I recently conducted a Q&A session with Janice McCallum, managing director of Content Advisors and a leading Health IT thought...

Why Technology Professionals Can’t Afford to Ignore Social & Mobile

Jason Druebert

Recently, I overheard a conversation in an elevator on the way to a meeting: two guys were laughing about their kids and their foolish social media usage. When I arrived at my meeting, one of attendees was talking about how he had just recently...

Manage Big Data Like A Pro

May 28, 2013
Dave Johnson

Last time I checked, the AT&T global network was reportedly carrying over 43 petabytes of data on the average business day.  That’s what I call Big Data!  To put 43 PB into perspective, that is the digital equivalent of transmitting the U.S. Library of Congress every 12 and 3/4 minutes.  Or imagine a stack of typical CD-ROMs that would stretch over 55 miles high....

Top 5 Mistakes In Content Marketing

Mark Burgess

Last fall on the Networking Exchange Blog, I presented a 10-step blueprint for building a successful content marketing strategy.  The post generated some good discussion, with a few commenters calling attention to some of the basic challenges of this burgeoning marketing tool.  In the spirit of those comments, and in the interest of diving into this topic a little further, I thought it would be useful to explore some of the challenges...

Understanding The PCI Compliance Spectrum

May 24, 2013
Chris Mark

The rules governing the PCI DSS can be complex and confusing . When coupled with the 250+ requirements, and their dependencies, it can be a daunting task to understand to which systems the standard applies, and which requirements apply under what conditions.  In training thousands of QSAs, merchants, and banks, I have developed a concept that helps...

4 Essential Ways Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Businesses Can Drive Innovation

Marianne Strobel

With 34,000 troops – about half the U.S. force in Afghanistan – set to withdraw by early 2014, service-disabled veterans will be flooding the wavering job market by starting or joining small businesses. While economic improvement seems hopeful, service-disabled veteran owned businesses (SDVOBs) still need to make wise choices in order to make the supplier connection with companies like AT&T – and drive innovation....

How Unified Communications Can Help Enhance Corporate Competitiveness

May 23, 2013
ATT

Is being the first firm on the block to adopt emerging technologies such as mobility, unified communications and collaboration platforms or cloud-based services really all it takes to secure a competitive edge? Or are there other factors that need to be in place for organizations to reap the full benefits of their technology investments?...

An Assessor’s View

Sherri Collis

It has become impossible to avoid the headlines announcing that our data is being breached, from credit card information and social security numbers to other personal information. Each day, it seems there are reports of nefarious behavior happening in our Internet / cyber world environment. Due to this, there are five questions I challenge you to consider:...

What Haven’t You Thought About IT Infrastructure

May 22, 2013
Catherine Scaramuzzi

I recently had the opportunity to attend a conference where we discussed leadership values.  We did an exercise that “measured” how well we lived values that are important to us.  In the end, we discovered which values are truly important to us by reflecting on how much time we live these values. ...

3 Apps To Maintain A Remote Workforce

Mario Armstrong

My own small business is up to 6 employees—some here on the east coast, others working daily from as far away as Texas. We work from home, the train, planes, coffee shops, and yes, sometimes, real offices. We're constantly switching between...

Compliance Meets The Cloud

May 21, 2013
Barb White

The clock is ticking down to Sept. 23, 2013, the HIPAA final omnibus rule deadline. If you’re a hospital or health system, do you have “reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards” in place to help protect your...

What You Can Learn From The Top 25 Brands On Twitter

Rieva Lesonsky

Are you trying to build more user engagement for your small business on Twitter? Then you could learn a lot from a new study of how the top brands on Twitter interact with their followers. A Study of the Most Engaged Brands on Twitter,...

Taking The Pain Out Of Data Center Management

May 20, 2013
Sander Biehn

My annual check-up with my doctor reminded me how important it is to keep tabs on my health by taking a holistic approach to my overall well-being. For example, paying closer attention to the diet or exercise regimen can alleviate many...