(This article originally appeared in Forbes)
Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 -Google’s workspace suite is now available to anyone.
Google announced this past week that it is making big changes by deciding to open Workspace to anybody who has an account with Google. Previously, users were required to have enterprise access in order to utilize additional features such as Sheets, Docs, Meet, Drive, to name a few. However, now all education, enterprise, and consumer users will be granted full access to Workspace. With the majority of the features now coming at no cost, Google will have a new paid tier known as Google Workspace Individual, which is geared toward small business owners. (Source: Engadget)
Why this is important for your business:
Although Google will have a (paid) version for small business owners I think that many individuals, freelancers and very small companies may be fine with the features provided in the no-cost version. With these changes, it’s important to review what’s available for you.
2 — Yext is adding new Zendesk integrations to bolster customer support offerings.
AI Search company, Yext, Inc. announced some new integrations this past week with Zendesk, Inc. in an effort to further empower teams focused on customer support. (Source: Yext)
Why this is important for your business:
With the new integrations, businesses that are already using Zendesk’s customer support tools and Support Answers- which was rolled out in May- will be able to provide even better support for their customer service agents and customers looking for self-service through new features such as Help Center Search, Agent Workspace Search, and Case Deflection, which all provide the customers and agents with more autonomy when working to fix a problem.
3 -Bank of America is spending over $1 billion per year on cyber security.
According to Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan, cybersecurity spending has been elevated to more than $1 billion a year. When Moynihan became CEO over 11 years ago, cybersecurity spending was between $300-$400 million per year. With major cyberattacks crippling both federal government organizations as well as private businesses and companies over the last year, governments and firms have been forced to update and analyze their current defenses for cybersecurity. (Source: CNBC)
Why this is important for your business:
Frankly, I’m not even sure that’s enough. I recently went through a security review with my bank and was shocked at how exposed my company’s data is to fraud. I can promise that most of your individual and company’s data is available on the “dark web” (and yes, that includes things like social security and employer identification numbers) and I can also assure you that spoofing phones to accept text messages is not difficult. I strongly suggest reaching out to your bank and having a knowledgeable rep review your company’s security settings before someone drains your funds. Let’s put that $1 billion investment to good use.
4 — SurveyMonkey is changing its name as it expands beyond surveys.
SurveyMonkey recently announced that it is changing its name to Momentive as the company expands to doing more than just surveys. While online surveys are still a large part of what the company does, Momentive will now also focus on selling various business software as well. Momentive has continued to develop new services and software that go further than the corporate surveys SurveyMonkey became known for, such as tools that will assist in analyzing customer and employee feedback to help turn it into actionable business management choices and newly developed products. (Source: Fortune)
Why this is important for your business:
Interesting to see if the company’s promised business software will be competitive in an already crowded market of CRM, project management HR and collaboration cloud applications. Still, just wanted to be sure that you weren’t surprised when that familiar monkey disappears.
5-Osome raised $16M to automate repetitive accounting tasks.
Osome- an accounting platform powered by AI- shared this past week that it has raised $16 million in funding and plans to use the funding to help expand internationally and build new products for integration. The company- which is based in Singapore- focuses mainly on providing accounting services online for small and medium-sized businesses mostly in the ecommerce realm. (Source: VentureBeat)
Why this is important for your business:
The accounting platform stores the documents sent to them by companies, tags, categorizes them, and automatically creates the required paperwork for compliance while also ensuring the processes and documents can be traced. Potentially worth a look, particularly if you’re in the e-commerce field.
