Technology in Business - All Comments

re: PCI Compliance - Why it's important for you!

Justin Couto — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:02:12 GMT

PCI Compliance is a good thing for the consumer, but it has a long way to go before it actually provides value. When it comes to the self-assessments, the questionnaires are a joke. They force people to answer all questions even when the questions don't apply to their situation. For example, a business will fail PCI Compliance as the result of honestly answering the question that they don't have a secure wireless network. PCI will take that to mean the customer is not being secure when in fact the customer literally does not have a wireless network. Unfortunately, PCI has not done a great job developing their questionnaires which results in people being forced to answering questions dishonestly simply because they don’t apply to their situations. In my example above, you would be required to answer that you do have a secure wireless network even though you have no wireless network at all. Answering the question honestly would result in a failure to comply with PCI Requirements. Consequently, PCI really needs to improve their questionnaires making it so companies can answer all questions without having to state things as being a certain way when they simply don't apply to them. Until then, in my opinion, PCI is just another cost and strain on small business.

re: Check Settlement in the Digital Age

Hans Sommer — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:39:16 GMT

Ken,

What a great example of the huge positive impact the application of document imaging technologies can have to businesses and their customers. Cheers, Hans Sommer

re: Check Settlement in the Digital Age

Rosa Couto — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:10:46 GMT

What an interesting journey those small slips of paper took around the nation just a few years back. I think the most interesting thing about this is that the transition from paper pushing to digital settlements took just a few years. Thanks for posting this Ken!

re: Check Settlement in the Digital Age

Justin Couto — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:37:44 GMT

Wow Ken! Excellent article! I had no idea all of that took place in the past and I certainly can appreciate the benefits the technology has had on the banking industry. You would never think that a process as simple as scanning a check could have such an impact on the environment. Thanks for sharing your insight on this process and banking technology in general. I look forward to learning more in the future.

re: What is VOIP and should I be using it in my business?

Justin Couto — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:48:58 GMT

This is great advice. In order for your phones to be reliable, you need to have reliable service. This means paying for quality Internet Connections and working with quality providers. We use an Asterisk based system called a Trixbox (http://www.trixbox.org/) as our VOIP PBX. We set it up ourselves and it works great. We have not had any problems with it since we installed it. We use a combination of SIP Trunks and POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) lines. Having this combination ensures reliablity as our POTS service would still be available even during an Internet outage. I wouldn't recommend self installation to most organizations. However, we were able to do since our staff includes IT Pros with PBX experience.