(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 – Visa gives businesses new way to pay gig workers in real time.
This week, Visa announced the introduction of Card Payouts—an app built to support card capture, tokenization, and card-on-file transactions. It’s designed to help mid- to large-sized businesses manage cash flow and expedite payments to gig economy workers. (Source: PYMNTS.com)
Why this is important for your business:
With research showing that 85 percent of these workers say they would work more if they could get paid faster, Card Payouts provides a solution—a card-based front-end user experience that integrates with treasury banks’ existing infrastructure and, through a pilot program, complements the Oracle NetSuite Banking as a Service program. If you’re a freelancer – and a company hiring freelancers – this is something you should check out.
2 – Bill.com partners up with Mastercard to improve small business.
Bill.com, a company that helps small and midsize businesses handle daily payment needs, has partnered with Mastercard to bring these businesses into the wireless payment world. According to Mastercard’s North America Small Business Lead, ‘virtual cards are more secure and provide transparency into cash in-flows and out-flows, which is critical to the growth of all small businesses.’ (Source: Payment Week)
Why this is important for your business:
Instead of the slow process of using cash and checks, this new virtual payment system using Mastercard could significantly help you and other business owners speed up payments and invoice processing.
3 – End of support looms for Windows 10 versions 1607 and 1709.
Microsoft has announced that April 9 is the last day it will issue updates, including security fixes, for some of its Windows 10 versions and affected devices. That is the end-of-support deadline for Windows 10 Enterprise 1607, Windows 10 Education 1607, Windows 10 Home 1709, and Windows 10 Pro 1709. Customers running Windows 10 Enterprise 1607 or Windows 10 Education 1607 will have had an extra-long support lifecycle of 32 months by the time the SKU (stock-keeping unit) is retired. (Source: Computer World)
Why this is important for your business:
You need to make sure all of the devices using Windows in your business have been upgraded to the most recent version of Windows 10. It’s not just features and performance I’m concerned about. It’s you being fully protected from ransomware and other malware attacks.
4 – Gmail can schedule messages to send them at a better time.
Google marked its 15th birthday on April 1st by introducing Smart Compose—an option to schedule sending your messages so they’ll arrive at a better time. The AI-guided feature allows you to write an email anytime—even late at night—and then schedule it to arrive during office hours or whenever you choose. Smart Compose can also adapt to your personal writing style—recognizing your usual greetings and suggesting subject lines based on the body text. Smart Compose is now available on Android beyond the Pixel 3, with iOS coming soon, and it works in French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. (Source: engadget)
Why this is important for your business:
As anyone in sales will tell you, catching that person with your message at the right time is all that matters. With this new feature your salespeople can compose emails whenever they want and then schedule for when they – and Google – thinks the recipient is most likely to see it. Seems like a no brainer.
5 – A “smart tampons” startup raises $9 million.
NextGen Jane, a 4.5-year-old, Oakland, Calif.-based company has raised $9 million from venture capitalists to help them develop their technology that can use the blood captured by their tampons to quickly search for and alert women if there is an early marker for endometriosis and (hopefully in the future) cervical cancer and other disorders. (Source: TechCrunch)
Why this is important for your business:
This is another example of innovative technology built from products that have been around for years to – in this case – potentially save lives. It’s also tapping into a huge market opportunity. According to TechCrunch, “the global fertility services market is expected to reach $31 billion by 2023, says the consultancy Allied Market Research, nearly double where it stood in 2016 — more women are clamoring for information about their reproductive health.”
