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Top 3 Best Advice for Startup Project Management in 2021
Running a startup is not easy, and as a founder there will undoubtedly be tons of things that you need to focus on. One of the most important however is definitely project management, as it will play a huge role in determining the success or failure of your endeavor.

The good news is that although project management may seem complicated, you can get a lot done as long as you know the basics. To be more specific there are three pieces of excellent advice for startup project management that you need to know.

1. Decide on the Project Management Methodology

Did you know that there are lots of project management methodologies out there? One of the first things you should do is decide which one you want to implement in your startup, as it will help provide some structure.

It should be noted that there is no methodology that is ‘best’. Instead, it is up to you to find one that fits your startup based on the size of your team, complexity of the projects, expected growth, and other relevant factors.

Some of the more popular types of project management styles are:
- Agile which is a very flexible project management methodology that focuses on finishing a project quickly and then iterating on the design to improve it. Although it is highly adaptable, the lack of structure can be an issue.
- Scrum is a very structured approach where each day ‘standups’ are hosted where the team communicates and stays connected, while ‘sprints’ are held to focus on specific goals. While this style is great at helping startup teams become self-sufficient, it requires someone experienced to run it.
- Kanban is a lean project management style that focuses on efficiency and eliminating waste. Its boards will let you visualize workflows and identify bottlenecks. Despite being powerful, this style is not great for making big changes in a short span of time.
2. Come Up with a Project Plan

If you want to manage projects effectively, you first need to have a solid project plan. The plan you come up with must include:
- An agreed-upon end goal that is determined after consulting any stakeholders and getting opinions from employees.
- Clearly-defined roles that outline each team member’s responsibilities and the part that they play.
- Complete project timeline which maps out project milestones, sets due dates and deadlines, and organizes tasks based on priority.
- Detailed budget that encompasses not only external expenditure but also labor costs to figure out what areas are worth the investment.
By carefully planning out your project, you’ll find that it is far easier to manage – regardless of the system you choose.

3. Move to a Project Management System Step-by-Step

Moving to a project management system for the first time can be intimidating – but it’ll be much easier if you go about it step-by-step.

The first few steps are relatively straightforward. All you need to do is take an inventory of the tasks that are on your teams to-do list, organize them by project, and then map out a workflow.

Next you should look into finding a project management tool that will help you to manage the system more effectively. It will also be a good idea to try an employee monitoring tool such as WorkExaminer that will let you keep track of what your team members are working on.

If you do use WorkExaminer, you’ll be able to see what apps are being used, websites visited, or even use employee screenshot monitoring. It is an important tool to track how your employees spend their time, identify distractions or bottlenecks, and improve productivity.

The data in WorkExaminer’s reports can help you to review exactly how effective your project management system is, and make improvements accordingly. It’ll also be a source of objective and unbiased data that you can use to reward or talk to employees based on their productivity.

Just remember that WorkExaminer does have different versions, so you should compare pro versions.

With the right tools in place, the final step is to brief your employees on the new system. Explain clearly how things will be done, and let them know the reason why the system is being implemented.

At the same time you should also introduce them to the new tools, and in the case of WorkExaminer explain how it will be deployed.

Final Words

By following these three pieces of advice, you should be able to manage your startup’s projects far more effectively. It may take a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the new system (and tools), but before you know it things will be running smoothly.

In fact as time goes by you may want to improve upon your system further. The data from WorkExaminer and the project management tools you use can help pinpoint issues in your system so that you can work on them.

Make no mistake there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ system, but your goal should be to find a project management style that is the best fit for your startup – even if it is a hybridization of several other styles.
March 27, 2021
Negative Impact Of Data Breaches & How To Protect Your Business

Collecting data is an important part of every business that operates in the modern world. Protecting said data is even more significant. You certainly want to keep your customers’ information safe, especially if they are inputting their credit card numbers and similar data.

This is why data breaches, as explained on this website, are probably the worst nightmare of every single company out there. If you leave the information vulnerable, you are basically putting a target on your back. That can lead to some rather unpleasant attacks, which will ultimately affect both you and your customers.

People who are not that informed about data breaches might not be aware of the dangers of such a situation. If you haven’t had to worry about this in the past, then you are either quite lucky, or you have done everything it takes to be properly protected. Whatever the case might be, you most certainly don’t want to worry about this in the future either.

Well, if you don’t ever want to face those unpleasant and dangerous situations, you will need to protect your business against data breaches. Before we get to explaining how to do that, though, let us first check out why these attacks are dangerous and how they can impact your company negatively. Here we go.

1. Financial nightmare

First things first, you have to understand that data breaches are a financial nightmare. Regardless of the size of your customer database, exposing their confidential information can be extremely expensive for your business. There are quite a lot of factors that make it expensive.

Here’s what these breaches actually are, in case you aren’t sure you understand everything: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/obligations/what-data-breach-and-what-do-we-have-do-case-data-breach_en.

As I was saying, there are a lot of factors that make these attacks expensive. For starters, there are regulatory fines and legal fees that you would have to pay. Then, there are also expenses related to improving your security after a breach, as well as PR expenses that will occur in your effort to save your reputation.

On top of it all, the revenue you will lose is unmeasurable and it is actually the biggest hit that your business will have to deal with. A certain portion of customers is bound to take their business elsewhere in the event of a data breach. Simply said, they’ll lose trust in you and they’ll stop using your services.

2. Brand reputation

I have briefly mentioned this above, but it definitely deserves some more attention. Businesses depend on their reputation. If your brand is recognized as ill-reputed, you are highly unlikely to get many customers. After all, nobody is going is going to choose ill-reputed companies over reputable ones.

Date breaches can seriously affect the reputation of your brand in a negative way. No matter how hard you have tried to make sure that you have a stellar reputation, one issue with information security can undo it all. Consequently, your whole business will suffer and you will hardly, if at all, be able to restore your previous brand reputation. That’s why using the right IT services to protect you is of utmost importance, but we’ll get to that later.

3. Consumer trust

Your customers will provide you with their personal information, such as phone numbers, addresses and credit card info, and they will expect you to keep the info safe and private. As long as no breaches occur, they will keep trusting you. Consequently, they will keep using your products and services.

If, however, you end up dealing with a data breach, you will not only lose revenue as mentioned above, but you will also lose customers, since consumer trust will certainly reach an all-time low. Recovering from that is rather difficult and it is sometimes even impossible, especially when smaller and newly established businesses are in question.

How To Prevent Breaches

Now that you understand just how important it is to protect your information against any possible attacks, thefts and dangers, you will probably want to ensure that nothing like that happens. When you become aware of the dangerous after-effects of data breaches (such as those explained on this useful source), you become all the more interested in safeguarding all the information you possess. The only question is how you can do that.

Well, there are quite a few methods that work towards protecting the information, but here’s the most important thing you need to know. If you want to make sure that every single piece of data is perfectly safe, you will need to hire an IT specialist that could take care of all your technological needs. Without the right professional on your side, you will hardly be able to achieve the goal of protecting the information.

That basically means that you will have to find the right company that works in this field and entrust their experts with your technological needs. Now, the only thing is, you’ll need to be pretty careful when choosing those companies. That’s not because there aren’t a lot of companies offering the services, but specifically because there are.

As the risks connected to data breaches have been made clear, I am sure that you will want to search for the right companies to hire right away. That’s a pretty great decision. Yet, as I have mentioned, you will have to be careful, which means that you will need to know exactly what it is that you should take into consideration in order to find the right IT company for you. If you are still unaware of the risks of these attacks, you can find out more at https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-advice-for-small-organisations/understanding-and-assessing-risk-in-personal-data-breaches/.

Basically, the most important thing to take into account is the reputation of the companies you decide to work with. In addition to that, you should also check how experienced specific providers are. Those are the two most important elements to keep in mind when trying to decide which IT expert to hire, so make sure you check that before making your decision.

March 26, 2021
An Overview About Online Proctoring
When you deal with high quality exams or being part of an accreditation program a number one priority has always been integrity. There is no need to certify the integrity of each and every person before they sit for the exam and explore ways to check out their questionable conduct of sorts. With the help of moodle exam proctoring it enables you to break down the barriers. Further it goes on to provide you with a flexible approach where you do not have to compromise standards or security.

A proctoring service indicates a state of the art cloud based examination module that enables the instructors or teachers to hold the exams with integrity. It reduces the scope of browser tolerance and a quality result is provided to the invigilator. Of late online exams along with certifications have gone on to become the norm. Most of the educational institutions are conducting the exam so as to overcome the loopholes that arises with the disruption of an education system and ensure that it follows a recurring pattern.

A series of benefits springs up once you conduct exams online. It is more the case with the one that might require standardization or invigilation. Most of these activities might require an extensive work force, scheduling and planning. But these tests can be automated once you resort to the use of an online proctoring exam making sure that you provide a sense of stability to the entire process.

The choosing of a quality proctoring software does turn out to be a major cause of worry for most of the educational hubs. One of the major reasons is the lack of knowledge and people are not familiar with the same. Those who have gone on to benefit from the same would go on to develop anti- cheating software tools.

The working module of an online proctoring tool

The concept of online proctoring tools is that it relies on algorithms or machine learning so as to prevent any type of cheating during the course of an online exam. It is going to require the test takers to certify their identity before they begin the test and detect suspicious activity during the exam. They are going to incorporate this feature in the form
- A biometric test mainly facial recognition.
- With a text recognition rules out the possibility of plagiarism.
- Web browsers that are secure.
- AI centric participant monitoring.
Though the solutions could have a lot of functional features that are built in, an instructor should be able to go one notch ahead and develop their preferences. It goes on to specify the degree of flexibility that the test takers might require and it would be of help so as to undertake things like outside applications or key types of web pages during the test.

The key benefits

There are a series of benefits with online proctoring as follows:

Easy to use

Online and integrating proctoring solutions once you are part of the learning platform might give the learners and instructors a steady access to secure assessments. As a test taker you just need to register, sign in and log in to the system. A test taker might be able to incorporate those systems as they are normally going to do so where they automatically pull in student information along with the pre- set of preferences.

Accessibility

An online proctoring solution might help the instructors to become quality learners who have disabilities. For students who might require special accommodations it could also be of help. The best part is that it enables someone to take exams as and when needed.

Security

It is necessary for the students to validate their identity before they begin their exam and when they complete it. Though it might turn out to be an end to end process but it would follow the below mentioned pattern somewhat:
- An user before starting the exam is asked to take their own picture with the use of a webcam.
- They would be prompted to take another photo of their ID as it is mostly a personal identification document like a driver’s license.
- A comparison of the image of step 1 is validated against image two as mentioned on the ID.
- The monitoring of participation is undertaken as per custom rules.
- Once the session is over it is clear or validated and follows the rules of the session.
Analytics

An online proctoring exam might provide the instructors with online recordings for every person who has gone on to complete the assessment. Even it is going to provide reports as per learning performance evolves. With the help of this information an instructor could try to understand and engage the numerous patterns. They further could figure out the challenges that an individual group goes on to face. Even it further goes on to address the kind of challenges that the individual groups might stumble upon.

Review

An online proctoring tool does not have to rely upon algorithms. Some of them possess a human proctor audit and go on to provide a professional review of the audit. Here the results of the automated solutions are right in front so as to trim the false positives or anything that is going to alter the results of an assessment report.

How to choose an online proctoring software company

The choice of a proctoring software or a company does not work out to be an easy task. In the market there are numerous service providers and the choice of one of them seems to be a difficult task. They have to be undertaken with a process of standardization, efficiency. The system operates in such a manner so that a detailed operation of the output of the students is obtained. But in the market there are numerous types of proctoring software vendors available and it becomes really difficult to choose which one is the best among them. Hence the internet is a viable platform to obtain more information.
February 9, 2021
The Importance of Business Cybersecurity in 2021

As a business company, you don’t have the luxury of deciding whether you should implement cybersecurity systems, tools, audits, contact a cybersecurity expert such as Cytelligence, or relevant policies. In simple words, it isn’t a question of “should” anymore. On the other hand, it has become mandatory. Since we live in a digital era, cyberattacks can happen anytime and to anybody. While it is possible to remain secure from potential cyber threats, there are several strategies a business organization can implement to ensure cybersecurity optimization.

Creating Cyber Awareness

Many hackers and attackers get successful when an employee or an internet user makes a web security mistake. The mistake might be committed due to ignorance or a lack of knowledge of observing and practicing the best security practiced while utilizing IT assets. By creating cyber awareness and providing your employees with due training on cybersecurity, you can significantly minimize the probability of cyber hacks.

While you provide your employees with the mandatory training on cyber awareness, you can start with the practice of creating and managing passwords. Passwords are the most direct form of defense against potential hackers. However, in case of mismanagement, they can also lead to a gateway for potential hackers to knack through your system. Encourage your employees to create strong passwords that are difficult to crack.

You can also create cyber awareness by training your employees against phishing attacks in which emails are utilized that contain malicious links and attachments. Employees need to be made aware of how to spot spam and fake emails.

Safeguarding Data Leaks

One of the greatest threats faced by business companies is data leaks. Irrevocable damages are caused by data leaks, which can damage your company on a national and global level. Not to mention that the loss of a large clientele and trust can cause unrecoverable damage to your company. As a business company, you store confidential employee and client data along with other crucial company data, such as finances, objectives, strategic directions, intellectual properties, etc. In the case of data leaks, you can lose confidential information that can have severe consequences for your business.

One way of preventing data leaks is by delimiting the data accessibility of users. In other words, refrain from sharing customer and employee profiles in public domains such as social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Accessibility to sensitive data should be granted to authorized individuals (specific numbers of employees/ managers/ superintends) only while ensuring that they adhere to the company’s policies that control how such confidential data is handled.

Safeguarding Against Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware attacks are one of the topmost threats that business owners have to deal with. A ransomware attack occurs when a cybercriminal encrypts the data of IT assets and victims and demands payments/ ransom to provide the decryption keys. Mostly, the data stored in physical computers are at a greater risk of ransomware attacks that target computer data stored in the cloud.

For safeguarding your business against ransomware attacks, ensure that your employees have multiple backups while storing the data in separate and secure locations. Suppose an attacker encrypts some of the data stored in a physical work computer. You can still retrieve the data from different backups and go on with the organizational operations. Usually, cloud backups should suffice. However, these can sometimes turn out to be unavailable. Therefore, you must ensure that all backups are replicated in locally available devices and gadgets, such as a USB.

You can also use antiviruses and trusted firewalls, so your business can stay safeguarded against ransomware attacks. Don’t forget to keep your antivirus products updated according to the latest security definitions.

February 8, 2021
4 Ways Businesses Have Changed in 2020

The disasters of COVID-19 consists of the repeated lockdowns, ever-changing safety measures and the resulting politico-social repercussions, and, last but not least, the devastating impact on the business world. For every business emerging from 2020 barely hanging on by their fingertips, there’s one that’ll never be seen again.

Even now, as a possible vaccine seems to be emerging, the business world’s recovery is years away. And according to McKinsey & Company, a management consultant, somehow there’s optimism. The company reports most businesses see a bright ahead.

Let’s take a look at four ways business has changed in 2020 and where they’ll probably go in the coming years.

1. The auto industry

The auto industry will end the year with $100 billion going down the tubes. Sales will have dropped near 30%. COVID-19 only hastened disruptions started before the coronavirus. The industry was already struggling with ridesharing, factory automation and autonomous cars.

The industry plans to return to glory. The rise of services based on software subscription and the shift towards online shopping has given all commerce new opportunities. The industry sees how people are paying for unlocking features like self-driving or heated seating. There is still a great interest in buying vehicles. They hope to find ways to drive consumers to sales through smart and integrated tech.

2. The restaurant industry

It might be said no industry was hit like hospitality and especially the restaurant industry. Thousands of eateries have shuttered. And many are wondering how the rest will survive. Only a new long-term economic model can change what happens next.

Restaurateurs have to develop new ways to keep customers. That’s optimizing drive-through and pick-up operations. It’s rethinking pricing and menus. This could include varying discounts, special delivery services and high-margin menu items like desserts, appetizers, sides and beverages.

3. The banking industry

The banks have doubled down to catch up with credit risk, downsizing and less interest in brick-and-mortar. Risk management teams are doing everything to circumvent what the pandemic is changing. Underwriting automation will come full force as small business and retail customers come back. Software will enhance calculating creditworthiness by a margin of 5%–10%. Banks will come out of the pandemic leveraging transactional data to reduce credit-risk losses and to boost monitoring.

4. The education industry

Educational systems have amplified their efforts to meet pandemic challenges. They’ve had to meet issues of not just COVID but inclusion, drop-out rates and inequalities. A study shows 55% of lower-income students are planning to delay graduating due to the coronavirus compared to high-income students.

Both online and remote learning isn’t likely going anywhere after COVID, and education will continue to reconfigure itself virtually and physically. They’ll reimagine the academic calendar, perhaps making instruction a year-round opportunity.

Main takeaway

Digital transformation will be instrumental from educators to innovative leaders and entrepreneurs to the elderly. Industries across the globe will develop and share and inspire and build meaningful connections. We’re leaving 2020 maintaining the connection but we will grow it, initiating a reset across regions and industries.

December 21, 2020
Why Nord VPN Is The Best VPN For Android

Although there are many different VPN services currently available to users looking for one, such as Express VPN, Cyber Ghost, IP Vanish, and Private VPN, it is Nord VPN that is the best of the lot. For another view click for the top vpn for android devices.

Thanks to it being super affordable to many individuals and having many different features, it really is a cut above the rest of the competition that is out there right now. This also makes it appealing to both first time users of VPNs, as well as more experienced elitists.

The mobile interface of Nord VPN is really impressive in how easy to use it is, whilst also being really attractive. Not only is it easy to use but it is easy to install also and with a single subscription to the service you are able to connect as many as 6 different mobile devices that can all be used simultaneously. Should you need to connect any more devices, that can be done providing that you have a router that is supported.

Privacy

Nord VPN does not log any of your online activity so you can rest assured that everything that you do whilst connected to their service is kept fully anonymous. The security that they used is of the highest quality, super reliable, and fully compatible with any and all Android devices.

Unique features

There are some unique features that this particular VPN has that most others do not. This includes Cyber Sec, Double VPN, and Onion technology. The app also comes with a built in advert blocker, which lets users browse the Internet freely and without using as much data.

Large network of servers

Boasting more than 5,000 servers that are located in almost 60 different countries throughout the world, you should never experience any issues with the speed of the connection. In most tests, download speeds of around 78 Megabits per second (Mbps) are experienced.

Streaming with Nord VPN

With Nord VPN you are easily able to fully unlock streaming services, such as BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Kodi, Amazon Prime, and Netflix, so that you can access all of their content, regardless what country you are based in.

Support

If / when you ever experience any issues with the service, you are able to contact the company via their live 24 / 7 chat feature or via email. They also provide you with answers to many of their user’s frequently asked questions (FAQs) so that you can resolve the issue yourself with the need to ever contact their customer service team.

Although the VPN service is affordably priced, as previously mentioned, it does not, unlike many others, come with a free trial and so you are not able to test it out before purchasing a subscription. However, this is the only negative that we found when using it.

October 28, 2020
The Benefits of Reading Web Hosting Reviews

When shopping around for an authentic web hosting service provider, reading reviews can save you. With reviews, it’s easy to spot a reliable service provider. Also, they will shield you from partnering with rogue companies.

So, why read reviews? Will they help you partner with the right web hosting company? This guide is going to give you explicit reasons why you should read reviews when looking for an authentic, dependable, and efficient web hosting service provider.

Know about the cost

Cost is an important component when choosing a web hosting service. Most rogue service providers will have hidden charges. They may not disclose these charges to customers. However, if you read web hosting reviews, you will learn about the charges.

This will help you choose a service that fits into your explicit needs. Of course, most of these service providers will list these services in their different sites. However, there may be hidden fees. You will get an opportunity to learn about these fees by reading reviews. In a nutshell, reviews are effective when it comes to uncovering the truth regarding costs.

Understand the features, services

With web hosting reviews, you will have a chance to learn about the features of that provider. You will make yourself aware of features such and bandwidth, the programming language used, domains, control panel, disc capacity, etc. So, if you want to choose the best web hosting provider, learn about the features. Read reviews to know more about the features offered by that provider.

Learn about the support desk

A good service provider should have a good customer support desk. Things like live support, live chat, telephone, and emails should be perfect. It’s difficult to know about these services by just looking at the website of a particular web hosting service provider.

The best way to understand the quality of the customer care desk is by reading customer reviews. Unhappy customers won’t shy away from airing their issues through customer reviews. Similarly, a good web hosting platform will have plenty of positive customer reviews.

Reliability

You can also read web hosting reviews to learn more about the reliability of a particular service. It’s important to note that a good number of editorial reviews will tell you about server hardware, security, and power backup—features that tell you more about the reliability of that service.

Also, you will learn about performance as well as downtime. In a nutshell, web hosting reviews will lead you to the best web hosting service provider. So, don’t just choose any web hosting service provider. Go for the best one. Read reviews first. Reading reviews will help you make an informed choice and get the best option.

The bottom-line

If you want the best, shop from the top. Go for the best web hosting service provider. But how do you spot a good web hosting service? Well, read online reviews. Hosting Foundry’s comparisons are legit. They will lead you to the best web hosts. The above are common reasons why you should read online reviews when shopping around for a good web hosting service.

October 2, 2020
4 Apps to Transfer Money Internationally with Low Exchange Fee

As we live in a globalized world today, it is not a surprise that a lot of us have to send or receive money internationally from time to time. But when it comes to transferring money internationally, banks are not the only places through which you can send money. There are several alternatives available out there that are much faster and cheaper as well.

Most of these transfers can be done through digital apps, which means you might not even have to leave your home to send the money. In this article, I have mentioned a few ways in which you can transfer money internationally without paying any hefty fees. Most of these apps are easy to use and provide users with the much-needed efficiency they are looking for.

1. Western Union

The first vendor that comes to mind when thinking about money transfers is none other than Western Union. While they started with a physical location for their services for people who were looking for answers to questions like how to do a money order or how to send money to their family abroad, the company has grown and adapted to the ever-growing global market.

Western Union also provides its users with an app to transfer money, which is one of the best apps out there. The app makes it much easier for users if they are looking to send money to someone as quickly as possible.

2. PayPal

Another way of sending money online is through the PayPal app. With the help of PayPal services, you can send and receive money in almost a hundred countries around the world. The fee they charge is a lot less than the banks, but it can also be slightly higher than the amount of money transferring services charge.

However, if you still prefer to use this way, it is a great way of sending a small amount of money. PayPal started out with an online web service, but since gaining huge popularity, it has introduced a mobile app, which is one of the best money transferring apps right now.

3. TransferWise

You can also send money online directly into the receiver’s account without paying too much. To do that, you will have to create an account on a platform like TransferWise. Also, because services like TransferWise matches the sender’s money with other users who are sending the money in the opposite direction, it does not need to reroute the money directly.

This results in a very low transfer fee, and there is no minimum transfer limit, which means you can use it for sending a small amount of money as well.

4. Venmo

Another popular money transferring app that makes peer-to-peer money transfer a piece of cake is Venmo. The best thing about this app is that you can directly connect your bank account and debit card to the app, which makes things much simpler.

After connecting your bank account with the app, you can cash out your money and directly send it to your account through the Venmo app. So, it doesn’t only make money transferring easy, but it also makes it easier for users to cash out money.

September 25, 2020