(This post originally appeared on Forbes)
Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 — Dropbox’s big redesign makes it a lot more useful at work.
At an event in San Francisco this week, Dropbox announced that it will be overhauled and thus much more integrated into various aspects of its users’ work lives. Its new interface will centralize users’ contacts, calendar, communication, tools and more in a single space. For example, Dropbox will allow users to have Google Docs live side-by-side Microsoft documents, with all of them easily accessible and integrated. Plus, PowerPoint documents can be edited right inside a Google editor with changes then saved on Dropbox. (Source: engadget)
Why this is important for your business:
As I wrote here, I’m a huge fan of Dropbox and use it in my business. My concern is that with all these great new integrations with collaboration apps like Microsoft Office and G Suite that already have file storage management services as part of their offerings, is Dropbox risking that some of their users will just move to those collaboration apps for the sake of ease? Will I? Will you?
2 — Dynamic email in Gmail launches for all domains on July 2.
The beta release of dynamic email in Gmail that Google announced in March will now launch for all domains on July 2. Dynamic email was originally available to most Gmail users on the web, except for certain G Suite customers. In July, it will be turned on by default and thus usable by everyone. Support for Gmail’s mobile apps will follow soon. (Source: Venture Beat)
Why this is important for your business:
For those of you using Gmail in your business, this is a significant enhancement if you’re willing to take the time out and learn the new features – which include enabling users to inject messages with interactive content like questionnaires, appointment-booking flows, and browsable product catalogs by using Google’s open source AMP for email framework.
3 — Mary Meeker’s Tech State of the Union: everything happening on the internet in 2019.
Respected analyst and investor Mary Meeker revealed her 2019 Internet Trends Report this week at Vox Media’s Code Conference. Her 2019 report on the biggest trends in digital focused on education, immigration, and the future of work—topics that have recently been priorities for the tech industry and the U.S. government. Last year, Meeker’s report put heavy emphasis on data and personalization, e-commerce innovation, and China’s rising intensity and leadership in internet-related markets. (Source: Business Insider)
Why this is important for your business:
For years, Mary Meeker’s report has been the go-to analysis of where technology is headed over the next few years. Her recent report doesn’t disappoint. It’s filled with research data that shows the kinds of technology trends business owners need to know to stay ahead of the curve. The best thing about her annual report is that she’s made the PowerPoint she uses publicly available and it can be downloaded from many places, including the Business Insider article above, which I strongly recommend.
4 — Salesforce acquires Tableau Software in $15.7 billion deal.
Salesforce—long a dominant player in the CRM enterprise realm—announced this week that it will acquire Tableau Software—the world’s number one analytics platform. The acquisition will be made through an all-stock transaction—a deal that gives Tableau an enterprise value of $15.7 billion. According to Salesforce Chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff, ‘Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers. It’s truly the best of both worlds for our customers—bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.’ (Source: ZDNet)
Why this is important for your business:
Many small and medium sized companies use Salesforce and with this acquisition, the company adds a powerful analytics feature to its already strong data set. Look for Salesforce to offer deeper reporting for your sales pipeline, customer interactions and employee activities as part of their existing package and – for a fee, I’m sure – the ability for your business to take advantage of deeper analytics tools that were previously only available to companies with bigger budgets.
5— Microsoft warns about email spam campaign abusing Office vulnerability.
Late last week, Microsoft’s security researchers issued a warning about an ongoing spam wave that is spreading emails carrying malicious RTF documents. Once users open the documents, their computers are infected with malware. Microsoft said the emails are sent in various European languages and that the spam wave appears to target users in Europe. Though the ‘backdoor’ trojan’s command and control server appeared to have gone down by June 7, (Source: ZDNet)
Why this is important for your business:
Microsoft says danger remains in the form of future campaigns that may exploit the same tactic to spread a new version of the trojan that connects to a working server, giving hackers direct access to infected computers. Luckily, Office users can be safe from this spam campaign because the initial infection vector relies on an old Office vulnerability that Microsoft patched in November 2017. But check with your partner to ensure that you’ve got the right updates applied. (My company, The Marks Group PC, is a Microsoft partner)
