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The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has a destructive reach that goes beyond that of a highly contagious and deadly illness. It is also contributing to the rapid spread of piracy -- as in spreading illegal copies of commercial software Software piracy involves much more than businesses and consumers using illegal copies of computer programs. What lurks...

CRM and CEM/CXM are essential tools for maintaining business flow with customers. Although similar, they have distinct differences. To choose the right one, organizations need to go beyond the alphabet soup of these hi-tech business applications Customer relationship management (CRM) software tracks interactions with sales prospects and customers.

Coronavirus has ushered upon us an era of isolation and curtailed face-to-face operations in favor of virtual interactions. The service of demand and delivery has shifted mainly to digital channels. While this trend was visible in the pre-COVID world, the global pandemic has accelerated digital-first engagement to something which has become known as the "new normal."

Last week was the 25th anniversary of the biggest and most critical launch in computing history. Steve Jobs was on a forced hiatus after being fired from Apple, and that platform wasn't doing well. OS/2 the supposed successor to DOS/Windows, wasn't selling well either, and DOS/Windows was way out-of-date and aging poorly. Then Windows 95 was pro...

Consumer expectations have never been greater within today's digital commerce landscape, as uncertainty drives consumers to demand real-time transparency, accuracy, and seamlessness throughout each stage of the purchase journey At the time of checkout, simplicity reigns, as frictionless, accurate, and instant calculations bolster consumer trust, an...

Municipalities throughout the United States have been switching from diesel- and natural gas-powered vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs), to cut costs and reduce damage to the environment, but the COVID-19 pandemic might slow that trend EV sales for passenger and commercial light duty vehicles "will remain broadly at 2019 levels," the International...

Users of Zoom and other video conference tools should be aware of the growing risk of impersonation attacks. Even the use of other video platforms to keep in touch with friends on a social level now poses higher security risks A report released this month by Eli Sanders, chief data scientist at INKY, attempted to raise awareness of this growing vul...

Salesforce announced big numbers in all of its financials when it reported its FYQ2 results this week. But we're accustomed to the CRM company reporting good results, so the biggest news to my mind comes from elsewhere: The company also announced that as of August 31, it will replace Exxon Mobil in the Dow Jones Industrial Average It's often remark...

Online bandits are decreasing their schemes against businesses but increasing COVID-19 scams aimed at consumers, according to a report released Tuesday by TransUnion Suspected fraudulent digital transactions against businesses worldwide dropped nine percent from the lockdown phase of the pandemic (March 11 to May 18) to the reopening phase (May 19-...

A new coalition is building a low-cost solution to save lives in earthquake-threatened regions, rather than garnishing a profit from a new early-warning system. OpenEEW is an open-source IoT project with the goal to save lives by reducing the cost of earthquake early-warning (EEW) systems and accelerating their deployments globally. The Linux Foun...

Cloud technology has matured substantially during the past 15 years, and now a paradigm shift is taking place, away from legacy in-house IT business services to a cloud-first technology-driven agile workplace IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS are now seasoned and trusted technologies. AI and machine learning are helping to advance medical and scientific researc...

After crashing in 2019, Dark Web markets for stolen credentials rebounded during the first half of 2020, largely due to major shifts in consumer behavior caused by the global pandemic According to the latest analysis of Dark Web trade by Top10VPN.com, populations locked down during the pandemic were forced to change their behavior patterns. That ha...

The holiday shopping forecast and consumer spending patterns well into next year will be marked by a pullback in spending, an increase in consumer expectations for brand behavior, and a focus on supporting small businesses That prediction does not bode well for retailers and e-tailers alike. A report from customer engagement platform provider Braze...

One of the enormous changes coming to us that has accelerated significantly of late is drone delivery, which promises to provide more speedy fulfillment of online orders. First for small items like meals or medicines, both of which are critical during the pandemic, and eventually for larger items -- and even people Still, drone delivery has a few c...

Consumer spending trends and hackers' attack strategies continue to adjust to pandemic pressures, according to a report from digital payments player ACI Worldwide on the July U.S. Retail Sales Index The data, sourced from hundreds of millions of e-commerce transactions during July and the course of the pandemic, revealed a 19 percent increase in gl...

The IDC CRM market share numbers are in for 2019 and for the seventh consecutive year Salesforce leads the pack, this time with 18.4 percent of the market. Other big vendors trailing the leader include, SAP 5.3 percent, Oracle 5.2 percent, Microsoft 3.7 percent, and Adobe 3.6 percent The list is impressive, but the numbers are absolutely binky afte...

The pandemic has exposed one fundamental, seemingly contradictory reality: people like to shop online, but they also crave in-person experiences This era has also made clear that there's an answer to this conundrum: to provide shopping experiences that combine both physical and digital elements. Also known as "phygital" experiences, these strive to...

In-person workout sessions these days might seem like a thing of the past, while solitary workouts at home replace gym visits as an ongoing result of the pandemic. The use of artificial intelligence is not yet a common feature in fitness apps, but it is a main component in a popular India-based app now focused on growing users in the U.S. and Cana...

Oracle continues to be the big software vendor we love to hate. There are a number of reasons for this, starting with the brash prognostications of founding CEO and current CTO Larry Ellison He once skipped an address at his Oracle OpenWorld conference to attend to his America's Cup racing team in its penultimate and successful race on San Francisc...

Amazon is huddling with the largest mall owner in the United States to turn anchor stores into fulfillment centers The deal with Simons Property Group would give Amazon access to space formerly occupied by Sears and J.C. Penney, both of which have filed for bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal has reported....