Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/867305
Wireless World 1 3 Tuesday, September 12, 2017 A Startup with a 14 Year History In 2001, Will and Laura Land were fresh out of college and looking to make ends meet. At the time, Will had procured a contract to sell phones and cellular serv- ice in Tucson, Arizona. As an incentive to gain accounts, Will would purchase phone accessories (cases, chargers, etc) at wholesale and give them away for free with the phones he sold. After several months selling this way, excess acces- sories started to pile up all over the Land's home and that's when things went online. The online business started on eBay in late 2001 and Will and Laura quickly learned that logistics and inventory man- agement are the heart of any eCommerce business. In the early days, overselling and mis-shipments were common and led Laura to start implementing basic order management and logistics systems. The Land's online accessory business grew quickly and within two years of starting the business, they had both quit their full-time jobs and committed 100 percent to the company, Accessory Export LLC. Over the next 10 years, Will focused on product development and marketplace selling strategies while Laura focused on inventory control, warehouse manage- ment and logistics. During those 10 years, their business grew from a small home-based business to a flourishing cell phone accessory brand (EMPIRE ® Cell Phone Accessories), that has sold and shipped over 10 million direct to con- sumer orders. In early 2016, Will & Laura Land partnered up with fellow YEC member and ecommerce entrepreneur Justin W. Boggs. Having developed a personal friendship and business relation- ship, the group decided to try something new. Realizing that the entire infrastructure was already in place for an efficient ecommerce and logistics opera- tion, the group saw fit to start feeding other products, different from cell phone accessories, into the system. The test resulted in a tremendous success, going from zero to thousands of orders in just the first 30 days. The newly proven con- cept showed the team that there was a much bigger story, that other companies would find value in tapping into this sys- tem. Marketplace Valet was born. "We had uncovered something truly special. Now we are like a new startup company, but with a 13 year history," said Will Land, Chief Executive Officer of Marketplace Valet. Marketplace Valet is the evolution of the Land's business that had become a highly efficient and effective marketplace listing, sales, ware- housing and fulfill- ment solution. It is a new one-of-a-kind service, internally referred to as a "4PL," that offers all of the benefits of an out- sourced efficient multi-channel fulfill- ment operation plus access to an incredi- ble direct to consumer sales engine avail- able through Marketplace Valet's Seller Accounts. As a client of Marketplace Valet, you will have full access to the systems and knowledge they used to build and grow their own brands. They believe that with their expertise, logistics infrastructure and the assistance of veter- an staff, you can catapult your brand years into the future and achieve a much greater success, faster. For more information, go to www .marketplacevalet.com or call 951.687.1140 ext 112. Understanding IoT Security By Amit Khetawat, Director of Product Management When it comes to internet security, the stakes are significantly higher with IoT deployments. While illegal breaches, like stolen credit cards or identity theft, can cause problems and inconvenience, they don't result in fatalities. An IoT-enabled medical monitoring service failure or a hacked vehicle computer system can. Even worse (if that's possible), a single well-publicized tragedy attributed to an IoT infrastructure breach can threaten the IoT industry as a whole. Right now busi- nesses and consumers alike welcome smart devices into their lives, and assume they are safe. But if that confidence is shaken, they will begin to question every IoT purchase, and that backlash could have repercussions for decades. Unfortunately, with the rush to meet the unceasing demands of IoT, many service providers treat security threats as they would any other internet service, and that's a mistake. IoT infrastructures have too many interrelated and vulnera- ble components, so employing security protocols at the device level is not enough. The entire IoT service chain must be taken into account, including the transport network, network infrastruc- ture, data connections, host servers, organization processes, automation and the weakest link of all – humans. Research continues to show people are responsible for the majority of system failures, often unknowingly so. Getting to Secure Achieving security goals starts by incor- porating state-of-the-art practices within a rational context – identifying likely threats versus potential damage, and deploying security accordingly. For example, forest rainfall sensors would be treated differently than patient monitors in a hospital. Analytics easily can deter- mine the cost/benefit of securing any given system, and enable companies to make the best deci- sions to protect their users. In addition, every variable also must be looked at from a privacy stand- point. A hacked inter- net-connected baby monitor can cause tremendous harm in ways beyond simple economic damage. Aeris views four methods as being vital to IoT security, regardless of appli- cation – traffic segregation, network whitelisting, multi-stage verification and anomaly detection through analytics. Traffic segregation means a device does not have carte blanche to communi- cate with all devices on the network, and this ensures attacks cannot instantly pro- liferate throughout the entire infrastruc- ture. Whitelisting at the network core defines who (human or machine) can interact with which devices, eliminating unauthorized communications. Multi-stage verifications allow secure over-the-air (OTA) updates – mis- sion-critical facets of any IoT deployment especial- ly if devices are embed- ded, widely dispersed or not easily accessible. Anomaly detection baselines device commu- nications via analytics to assess normal patterns and then sends alerts when something is amiss. Any device behaving outside its normal range is denied network access once the system deems the anomaly a threat (versus something like a minor power outage). Finally, companies need to remem- ber that IoT security cannot be easily retrofitted. Everything connected to the network – and anything subsequently added – must be secure from the start. The stakes simply are too high to con- sider any other approach. A service provider's reputation, future legal lia- bilities and even ongoing viability are determined by what is implemented now. To learn more, visit www.aeris.com. Using Great Customer Service as a Differentiator By David Inns, Chief Executive Officer, GreatCall For almost 30 years, business leaders have treated customer service as a neces- sary evil. When analyzing P&L, it's clear that customer service is one of the largest cost centers, so it immediately gets tar- geted for cost reduction. The first few cuts may go unnoticed, but as manage- ment continues cutting costs, in most cases the well goes dry. Why isn't customer service meet- ing the expectations of the consumer? Maybe the department is outsourced overseas, causing training challenges or a feeling of disconnect. Maybe cus- tomer service phone numbers are diffi- cult to locate and IVRs are used to keep people from reaching a human. Maybe representative training time has been cut. Whatever the cuts are, one group of customers is not as happy and loyal as it could be – boomers and seniors – and that group controls 52 percent of U.S. consumer package goods spend- ing. It may be hard for Millennials to understand this problem. Millennials grew up with companies like Google and Uber that don't have humans pro- viding customer service because Millennials don't need the same help getting up and running with services or learning about new features as older adults do. Older consumers often need help getting familiar with new technolo- gy and need support and encouragement to continue use. There aren't many companies out there trying to wow customers with service. Therefore, the door is open to use customer service as a competitive differentiator. Customer service is more than just a cost. Part of the problem is viewing customer serv- ice only as a cost, rather than an opportunity to gain the trust and loyalty of customers. For com- panies serving the older adult or senior market, customer service is a key driver of lifetime value. It extends beyond improving customer sat- isfaction to simply building loyalty. By establishing strong, trusted customer relationships, companies earn the right to sell new products and services to existing customers, increasing the revenue per customer. As companies develop a larger portfolio of products and solutions that need to be sold and serviced, the competency of the customer service team must also increase. Experts must be trained and able to make a complex array of solutions feel sim- ple to the customer. A team that can evaluate customer needs and make sensible product rec- ommendations that add value to cus- tomers' lives is nec- essary, as is a team that truly believes in the company mission and knows they are the company as far as customers are concerned. This type of team should be seen as an investment in customer care and wellbeing, rather than as an unnecessary expense. Welcome customer service back home. Whether the customer service depart- ment is across an ocean or in a separate part of the office, consider what could happen by bringing them back into the company. Not just insourcing, but truly integrating the team into company cul- ture. You may be surprised at the value that could be unleashed. For more information, go to www .greatcall.com.