Articles by Jack M. Germain

Most contractors the Department of Defense hired in the last five years failed to meet the required minimum cybersecurity standards, posing a significant risk to U.S. national security Managed service vendor CyberSheath on Nov. 30 released a report showing that 87% of the Pentagon supply chain fails to meet basic cybersecurity minimums. Those secur...

If you're looking for a solution for mobile devices with inferior sound that works equally well as a better sound system for portable devices that usually are desk-bound, consider the Poly Sync 20 Speakerphone The unit I tested is the limited-edition pink version of the Poly Sync 20. The pink device has all the same features as the gray fabric and ...

Need a last-minute corporate gift idea? Consider a branded e-gift Gift-giving in the business world is often more an attempt to engage with clients, customers, and worthy workers than in spreading holiday cheer....

Sellers on Amazon face a potentially lower bottom line this holiday season as they wait for partial refunds of wrongly calculated seller fees. Often, the wait drags on with little or no money returned That situation leaves retailers constantly at odds with Amazon's automated accounting system. Frustrations set in as erroneous fees for customer retu...

One thing that small and medium-sized businesses have in common with large enterprises is that cybersecurity remains a persistent and complex problem Hackers understand that SMBs are vulnerable when connected to the internet and that there is a market to monetize stolen data....

November put a shining spotlight on the progress open-source technology offers: Significant announcements at the ONE Summit North America in Seattle showed that non-proprietary software continues to thrive and innovate....

Streaming video content from non-mainstream providers might make you an unwitting target of content piracy. If you get a bargain pricing offer, at first you might not care. But you stand a chance of becoming the victim of scammers and hackers, losing personal data, and having your financial assets stolen. That amounts to a hefty financial loss for consumers and legitimate creative content providers...

Building emotional loyalty with customers and employees might be the secret to long-term business success Emotional loyalty is the strong emotional bonds people attach to brands, products, services, or providers. Its practice rests on doing good business through a great experience that meets people's needs....

The retail industry requires small and midsize companies to respond swiftly and nimbly to constantly changing circumstances. However, the Covid-19 outbreak and recent economic news have caused a degree of upheaval like never before Plus, SMB retailers face an increasing need to meet their customers where they are. That includes online marketplaces,...

Women comprise 56% of the U.S. workforce but hold only 26% of technology jobs. The percentage of female STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math graduates is about 19%. According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), that number has been steadily declining Research shows that gender-diverse teams bring in m...

In marketing, the term "influencer" refers to a generalized category of people who use their vast social media reach to publicize products or services to their audience interested in learning about what they are promoting. Influencers fall within identity tiers depending on the type of products they favor and the size of their audience Research sho...

Troubles with software supply chain safety have recently grabbed a chunk of negative headline space. That might well set the stage for what to expect in an upcoming State of Open Source Report A collaboration between OpenLogic by Perforce and the Open Source Initiative (OSI) will provide the industry with a snapshot of organizations' benefits a...

Spiraling inflation is increasing consumer demand for incentives wherever they shop. So, retailers take note: if you want shoppers to buy your wares, reward them for it That marketing strategy was the top-shelf tip tallied in a June survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adult consumers broaching shopping rewards programs, including cashback, discounts, an...

The role of digital marketing continues to gain traction in the wake of the retail rebirth following the pandemic As a result, retailers need to pay close attention to the benefits of using a variety of digital marketing tactics to differentiate themselves from competitors and improve their shopping experience....

Traditional CRM software often overburdens sales teams with manual data entry and missing critical pipeline data that ultimately provides inaccurate projections An industry report published in 2016 voiced that assessment. Those criticisms remain today, as CRM is plagued with low adoption rates, often due to fragmented implementations and processes,...

Germany-based Tuxedo Computers has released its tailor-made operating system as a stand-alone distribution that offers a reasonably productive option among the bloated supply of Linux variants Previously, you could only get Tuxedo OS pre-installed on the company's line of computers. Now anyone can try it as a separate distro, making good on its mis...

Marketers are paying more attention to presenting potential buyers with a blend of product videos as a model that adopts live commerce goals based on consumer-led and consumer-centric product discovery The developing new marketing method shares several names. The most prominent usage centers on live commerce and livestream shopping. Whatever you ca...

Have you checked your online accounts lately? If not, make doing so a priority today Account takeover fraud is on the rise and looking for new victims. The holiday shopping season is already underway, with more consumers relying on e-commerce than ever before. So, let's hope that today is not too late....

Some e-commerce watchers predict that the growing trend of live shopping will probably not grow as extensively with U.S. customers as it has in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market. Still, merchants should not mark down the potential it offers them for growing e-commerce sales Platforms such as TikTok and Facebook reportedly have concluded that live shop...

Alice Min Soo Chun is a woman driven by a passion for doing good and helping save the planet with innovative products she invented powered with sustainable lighting technology Chun is a former university professor who taught architecture and materials technology at MIT, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. She worked with her students to...