Here are five things in tech that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
(This column originally appeared in Forbes)
1–23 work-from-home tech products that will level up your office.
PCWorld presented a lengthy list of “work-at-home essentials” they recommend that will enhance your productivity and home office environment. Among them include: The Logitech C920e webcam for virtual meetings. Its crisp resolution and autofocus capability are just a couple of notable specs. The adjustable laptop stand by Lamicall is noted for support when positioned in front of a screen throughout the day. The Hiearcool USB-C with several connections including a microSD and USB-A port for just $25 bucks. Logitech’s MK540 wireless keyboard and mouse combo is listed for its affordability and performance. For the entire list, visit the link. (Source: PCWorld)
Why this is important for your business:
We’re all working remotely nowadays and I found this list really useful — I even bought a few products from it!
2 — DailyPay to offer earned wage access to small businesses nationwide.
Payment platform DailyPay is expanding its services to small businesses with 400 or fewer employees, the company announced in a press release. Services like DailyPay that offer employees “Earned Wage Access” — giving them flexibility in when they receive payment — is a growing method as shown in recent studies. (Source: PRNewswire)
Why this is important for your business:
I’ve been writing and talking about earned wage access for a while but one of the limitations was that platforms like DailyPay were only available for larger enterprises. But no more. Offering an earned waged access solution is a great benefit to provide to your employees, particularly when as many as 60 percent of them are living paycheck-to-paycheck. It could make the difference between hiring or losing that next good worker.
3 — Ransom payments surge by 500% to an average of $2m.
Funds that are lost to ransom attacks is soaring, James Coker of Infosecurity reports. Payments have increased 500 percent as compared to 2023 (Source: Infosecurity Magazine; PRNewswire)
Why this is important for your business:
Coker cites cybersecurity company Sophos and their State of Ransomware 2024 report that shows 63 percent (nearly two-thirds) were ransom demands of $1M or more and 30 percent exceeded $5 million. In correlation to the ransomware stats, cybersecurity firm SonicWall released a report of the “Top 5 most widespread network attacks” that are used against small businesses. The most used affecting 43 percent of SMBs is what’s known as Log4j. Discovered in 2021, this vulnerability has been “one of the most widely deployed” (globally) where hackers have used malicious scripts exposing passwords and other sensitive information on Windows and Linux systems.
Your best defense? Training!
4 — Amazon introduces an AI Assistant.
Amazon’s AI assistant — Amazon Q — is offering business owners and developers access to its capabilities of harnessing data, software development, and applications to boost productivity. As detailed on the AWS blog, there are three specialized assistants: Amazon Q Business, Amazon Q Developer, and Amazon Q in QuickSight. A breakdown of each assistant is presented in a video on the AWS blog. (Source: ZDNet)
Why this is important for your business:
With Amazon Q Business, apps can be created based on the insights of employees who are looking to streamline tasks or find more efficient ways of organizing/retrieving data. The assistant will build the app specified to the input given by the user. Developers can use the Amazon Q Developer to request “real time code suggestions” and speed up the process of working with Java.
5 — Microsoft Teams added many new features in April 2024, like multi-turn chats with Copilot.
Microsoft Teams has been newly-updated with features like Microsoft Planner — a task management app that organizes task management and project scheduling; multi-turn chats — users can ask follow-up questions after Microsoft Copilot has produced a chat summary; town halls can also be created for multiple team members with real-time captions available in six different languages; and it will be easier to retrieve and attach files during chat sessions. (Source: Neowin)
Why this is important for your business:
I strongly suggest hiring a Microsoft consultant to review all the features of Teams to your group. Why? Because I’m pretty sure you’re using a very small percentage of everything available to your company…and you’re paying for it!
