Category Archives: Technology
How to create a secure password
Today’s technology allows you to hold your life literally in the palm of your hand. Before I got out of bed this morning, I had already skimmed the morning news, checked my bank account, browsed my email and confirmed an upcoming airline flight.
All your most private information is stored on imaginary clouds that seem to be protected by passwords. But even as technology evolves, the methods hackers use to break into your personal information continue to advance as well. Continue reading…
The Evolution of Online Donations
Let’s travel back in time to 2001: Google was three years old and the 12th most visited site online. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was a junior in high school and wouldn’t invent a website to meet girls for another three years. The internet was a different place – adolescent and almost unrecognizable compared to the internet we know today. Likewise, online donations were possible, but not readily accessible to most non-profits or donors.
Of course, the most memorable outpouring of support for a cause in 2001 came after the September 11th attacks. Over $1.4 billion are estimated to have been donated to the relief effort, with the American Red Cross raising $564 million through the Liberty fund within one month of the 9/11 attacks.
Fast forward ten years: March 11, 2011. Japan’s earthquake and ensuing tsunami again brings together the international community to donate to relief efforts, with Americans alone donating over $30 million dollars in just three days. Continue reading…
Nonprofits can have InvoiceSimply Free for Life
As part of PaySimple’s Philanthropy February, we are giving our InvoiceSimply® software to nonprofits free for life. But how does InvoiceSimply work, and how can nonprofits use it to be more efficient or increase donations? Here are a few ways our nonprofit customers find it helpful. Continue reading…
Will working from home become the new norm?
Everything these days seems to have gone online: marketing, meetings, online billing, customer service, networking and even invoicing. But a new trend is emerging that may someday evolve into the new norm: working online from home.
According to the Employment Review from Elance reports, the number of businesses seeking to hire independent contractors who work remotely doubled in 2011. And 83 percent of businesses surveyed said they plan to let half their employees work from home over the next 12 months. Continue reading…
What’s more secure: The iPhone or the Droid?
As the mobile payment industry continues to grow and evolve, mobile security has become a key issue when deciding which smart phone brand to buy.
The Android and the iPhone both dominate the smart phone market, but which is more secure for accepting credit card payments through your mobile phone?
First, let’s look at the similarities: Both the Android and the iPhone have idle-time screen locking mechanisms, which require a password to protect against anyone who picks up your abandoned phone. Also, apps can never access the underlying hardware of either smartphone because layers of software control all hardware interactions – acting as the carrier pigeon between the device and its operating system. Both devices also protect against web-based attacks.
Continue reading…
What to Consider when Choosing a CRM
So, your small business has been doing pretty well, customers continue to find your service and it’s becoming harder and harder to manage their information. Paper files over here and electronic files over there—organization and efficiency are becoming a real concern.
You’ve started to consider purchasing CRM software in order to make your life easier, but you don’t quite know where to begin. Here are 5 critical aspects to consider (and that we considered!) when making a selection.
1) Training
CRM’s can be cumbersome, there’s no question about that. So, depending on the size of your business, choosing a CRM will vary. For example, if you operate a business of 10 employees and getting new hires up to speed quickly is a prime goal, your CRM selection should be influenced by that. If your employee base is larger and you have the luxury of taking some time to fully train each new hire prior to kicking them out of the nest, then maybe you can select a more robust CRM that takes a little more time to pick up. Continue reading…
Mobile payment technology positions itself as game changer for 2012
Mobile payment technology exploded in popularity in 2011, and most experts now predict exponential growth into the foreseeable future for the mobile payment industry.
After breaching the milestone of 100 million active accounts, PayPal President Scott Thompson predicted in July that within the next three years, people will conduct literally all their business transactions using their smart phones.
“Consumers are increasingly giving up traditional payment methods such as cash and checks and turning to a more modern – and anytime, anywhere – form of payment,” Thompson wrote in a company blog post. “We believe that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S. – from your local corner store to Walmart. We will no longer need to carry a wallet.”
Most major credit card companies have embraced this view, as almost every brand made a move toward mobile in 2011. American Express released Serve, a mobile payment platform that enables customers to make offline, online and peer-to-peer payments. Visa launched its own peer-to-peer platform and mobile payment strategy that connected mobile payment programs in developing markets. MasterCard partnered with Google to help launch Google Wallet in the United States, and Quick Tap in the U.K. And Discover became the original partner of Isis, the mobile payment collaboration among Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-mobile.
Continue reading…
PaySimple Wins Best of SaaS Showplace Award
Announced today, PaySimple won the “Best in SaaS Showplace (BOSS)” award, which recognizes SaaS companies who are delivering solutions that produce measurable business benefits for their customers. PaySimple was recognized for its clients reporting measurably faster payments, and time and cost savings.
Jeffrey M. Kaplan, founder of the SaaS Showplace and Managing Director of THINKstrategies, commented: “Today’s tough economic environment is placing intense pressure on businesses of all sizes to better manage their cashflow to support their day-to-day operations and ensure profitability. PaySimple’s cloud-based receivables automation solution enables businesses to achieve this critical cashflow management objective.”
We are proud and honored to accept this award. We thank all of our awesome customers who share their feedback and work with us to continually improve our products to ensure they are delivering value and making their lives easier. Continue reading…
How I overcame my fear of Mobile Payments
At a recent rugby tournament in Austin, TX, I had my first encounter with mobile credit card processing.
You’d think that with all the work I do here at PaySimple with small businesses and cloud-based transactions that I might have seen this sooner or, at the very least, been eager to try it.
In reality, I was a little apprehensive, but my only alternative was the possibility of an ATM a mile away, down a down a dirt road that (I’m sure) inspired more than one slasher film. So I decided to give it a go.
Five dollars, two hot dogs and a Gatorade later, I can officially consider myself a convert – give me mobile payments or give me death.
Here’s why mobile payments might make your customers happy too: Continue reading…
Tech Support Care Packages
As a small business owner you know that technology that makes your life easier and your time more productive also makes your business more successful. Passing this knowledge on to your staff, particularly to those who may be older and not quite as “tech savvy” is both good for them and good for your business. The folks at Google have just made doing this easy and fun.
The site they created is target at kids who want to send long-distance tech help to their parents; however it works just as well for sending help to tech-impaired employees. Called Send Your Parents a Tech Support Care Package, it uses a form letter that you can customize to address the recipient by name and include videos you think they can benefit from reviewing. The email contains your note and links to the videos you selected to include. Continue reading…
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