How can EDI integration help strengthen your online business?

Buying tickets, gifts, clothes, equipment and even food – most of us do it online. Being anywhere, using a phone or a laptop, it doesn’t matter, as long as we’re connected to the Internet. Simple user interface, fast actions and results. It’s so easy, it only takes a few minutes. This explains why the number of online buyers is increasing dramatically year on year. For example, the number of online-only shoppers in the USA is estimated at 230.5 million in 2021, compared with 215.4 million in 2017.

Source:
The Statistics Portal “Statista

The graph above shows statistics on online shoppers who have browsed products, compared prices or purchased goods online at least once in the corresponding year. You’re seeing an increase in online shoppers every year thanks to the active introduction of Omnichannel retailing.

What is Omnichannel retailing?

Omnichannel is a business model that companies are using to enhance their customers’ experiences. “Omnis” can be translated from Latin as “existing everywhere”. In our case – covering all customer communication channels: such as physical locations, online store, social media, online chat, mobile apps and phone communications. Customers can access all products and services in the most convenient way for them, while still being visible to the retailer.

Setting up your online store

Opening an online store in today’s digital world is not difficult; however, running an online business is more challenging. Here are some of the undeniable advantages of running an online store:

  • There are no rental fees
  • You need fewer employees to run the store.
  • Companies can overcome geographical limitations
  • The best of all, it’s open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Use e-commerce best practice

To stay ahead of the e-commerce game, you need to pay close attention to detail and research the best practices in e-commerce. On the Internet, there’s some great advice for entrepreneurs starting up their online business: choose an e-commerce platform, optimize page load speed, create unique content, promote products, etc.

However, there aren’t many resources talking about the technical and logistical aspects. Critical information such as the electronic exchange of documents between an online company and its trading partners or transport companies is crucial to such a project.

Another important e-commerce practice is full integration and electronic data interchange (EDI), to improve speed, accuracy, information quality and business efficiency.

The role of EDI integration in logistics and e-commerce

Even in traditional retailing, the term “logistics” was still far from clear. One of the definitions of corporate logistics:

“Having the right item in the right quantity at the right time in the right place for the right price under the right conditions to the right customer”.

When you run an e-commerce business, whatever method of supply chain management you choose(Drop-Ship or other), you’ll be faced with a significant amount of business documentation that you’ll need to exchange with your trading partners.

Now let’s do some simple math: how much time do your employees spend on order entry, shipping, invoicing, label generation? What is the error rate? Perhaps that’s why the return rate for products sold online is so high. Research into e-commerce product returns shows:

In my opinion, the above statistics, reflecting e-commerce product returns, seem frightening. Is it possible to reduce the above percentages? Can your online business avoid these mistakes?

EDI integration improves data quality, reducing transaction errors by 30% to 40%. This integration eliminates illegible handwriting, typing errors, lost faxes/mails and transmission errors.

Think and manage your online business better

The positive effects of EDI integration will be measurable in all the following departments: trade, production, logistics and finance.

in sales:

  • The sales cycle and the quality of your customer relations are improved, as is your turnaround time.

In production:

  • Lower production costs
  • Better inventory management
  • Short production times

Logistics:

  • Reduced processing time for mailings
  • Eliminating anomalies and errors
  • disposal of paper documents
  • Significant improvement in information quality

In finance:

  • Reduce billing time
  • Reducing disputes

In conclusion, moving to EDI integration gives a company access to an undeniable competitive advantage, reduces the costs of its products and services, improves business processes and meets the demands of customers and suppliers.

Contact our experts today to find out more about our EDI services or visit EDI2XML.com

/by

What is EDI 846?

What is EDI 846?

The 846 X12 is one of the most frequently exchanged electronic documents between business partners. It is especially important because of the evolution of the drop-shipping business, which has made great strides in recent years, all due to e-commerce and online sales. Basically, this document is derived from the paper document entitled ” Inventory request and advice “. This is a notification sent by the manufacturer to the seller, informing him of stock status and availability. It can also include pricing information.

In other words, this EDI message is for exchanging information on the availability of goods and merchandise.

EDI 846For e-commerce, up-to-date information on the availability of goods is very important. That’s why one of the main EDI requirements for
Amazon
 is the supplier’s ability to transmit an EDI 846 message. This is not just a requirement exclusive to Amazon; other major retailers such as Cabela’s, Wal-Mart, Costco, all have the same EDI requirement, to be able to feed their e-commerce platforms with accurate inventory information.

The EDI 846 document can be sent to trading partners as many times as required. This can be 2-3 times a week, or even several times a day; each retailer has its own requirements. The EDI 846 document enables suppliers to provide information on the trading partners for their products, without forcing them to make a purchase. EDI 846 is also often used to inform trading partners about the availability of goods at reduced prices.

EDI 846 inventory request and usage advice

The other obvious question about 846: who uses EDI 846 other than Amazon and the major e-commerce retailers? The truth is that not only can e-commerce retailers use this EDI transaction to exchange 846 documents, indeed, all trading partners can agree to use it to exchange inventory availability. Here are a few examples:

  • Sellers to provide information on inventory availability to a potential customer.
  • Seller’s representatives to provide the seller with inventory information.
  • A store to provide product availability information to another store.
  • The seller may request an inventory availability report.

What information does this X12 document transmit?

In EDI 846 transmission, inventory location identification, quantity and item description are the basic information included in almost all EDI 846 documents; however, additional information can be added such as:

– Expected quantity

– Number of items already sold

– Quantity in stock

– Pricing information

With EDI 846, online stores can optimize their deliveries. They don’t need to enter data manually into their internal systems, such as ERP. It provides online buyers with precise, real-time information on stock availability. What’s more, it reduces administration and order processing costs, and allows consumers to purchase items without having to keep stock on site.

For more information on how edi2xml cloud services can help you set up your EDI 846 with your trading partners, please contact us.

 

/by

3 reasons for EDI integration with Shopify

3 reasons for EDI integration with Shopify

This article was taken from our blog, published on our EDI2XML platform.

Shopping cart Icon on smart phone screen over blur mall

Many times, when I meet business owners and executives, the same question comes up during the discussion: why do companies operating eCommerce stores on Shopify or Magento need to have EDI integration? I decided to publish this post, and explain my points, by identifying the top (3) reasons why businesses running on Shopify, need to comply and integrate with EDI.

What is Shopify?

In a quick description, Shopify is one of the leading Canadian eCommerce platforms offered to clients based on monthly subscription fee, where companies and individuals can subscribe, put up their own items on the eCommerce platform, and start selling to the public. For more information about Shopify, you can visit their website, it has tons of information about how things are done.

Who uses Shopify?

Individuals or companies of all sizes, who want to sell products online to their clients and B2C consumers, are mostly the users of a platform such as Shopify. With less than 100 $ a month, they can start selling products and ship it to their clients.

A word about Drop-Shipping

One important thing to emphasize here is that with the emergence of the online retail and eCommerce over the internet, companies selling products online on platforms such as Shopify, are not necessarily carrying inventory of the products they are selling.

They do receive the order from the consumer online into the Shopify platform (or store), and than they transfer this order to the manufacturing business partner(s) for shipping and delivery, while “white labelling” the packaging delivery. This concept is called “Drop-Ship” (or Drop shipping) in the retail and eCommerce world. The store owner will receive the order from the consumer, who gets paid for the merchandise upfront. The Store owner forward the order to the maker for shipment and direct delivery to the consumer.

What EDI has to do in this context of eCommerce?

As a reminder about EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), it is a set of standards and processes to exchange documents of business nature electronically between business partners. What I mean by business documents is Purchase Order, Invoice. This data exchange can happen in both direction (in and out).

In the context of online sales over the internet on a platform such as Shopify and drop-shipping orders, the EDI comes into play for several reasons:

  • Most manufacturing an major distribution will require a system-to-system integration through some sort of EDI
  • Shipping companies require also integration via EDI
  • Consumer today is very well educated and require to be informed on the status of their orders at every step of the way during the shipping process.

As you notice, all the above requires system-to-system integration between so many heterogenous systems and platforms. All major companies and retailers are well equipped with EDI platforms and standards that they have been investing in developing for years now, so it is the right moment for them to pay off all their investments.

Top (3) reasons why you need EDI integration with Shopify

As you might have noticed from the previous sections, the reasons are very obvious, to have an EDI integration with your Shopify store:

  • If you are in the Drop-Ship business and you are selling online, chances are that your suppliers will impose on you to go on EDI.

  • When you are selling online on Shopify, and you have a high volume of clients, that require to be informed of their orders at any given moment, this is another reason why you need to have EID integrated with your Shopify store

  • In case you are dealing with shipping companies (FedEx, Purolator, UPS…) and you have high volume of shipments daily, you need to integrate your systems and Shopify with EDI

The above are the main reasons for such a need, still more reasons are out there, just wanted to share the most important ones.

But can we integrate Shopify with EDI?

Certainly, it is feasible, we do this every day. With the right team of integrators, that have years of expertise in integrating EDI to any system, there is no going wrong.

/by

20 Tech Terms You Need to Know

Definition of business and tech term

We compiled a short list of business technology terms that are useful to keep on hand when looking for software solutions for your business or when speaking with an IT Service Provider. Because, sometimes a short and simple definition is all you need, and that’s exactly what we have here.

‘BUSINESS CONTINUITY’ Terms

Business Continuity: Set of activities to ensure an organization can respond to a crisis or disaster in a timely manner in order to continue business operations as usual
Business Continuity Solution: A software solution implemented at an organization to ensure continuous, secure data backup as well as quick restoration of data (to its former state) if a disaster or crisis strikes
Disaster/Crisis: Any event that has the power to disrupt an organization’s activities
Downtime: A period of time that a company’s system is unavailable (or has failed to perform its normal functions)
Data Backup: The process of taking a secure copy of a person or company’s data files and storing it on an external medium or device for future use in case of disaster
Off-site Backup: The backing up and storing of data to a place a distance away from a company’s physical location
VM: Virtual Machine; an imitation of a physical computer; basically, a VM allows you to run other operating systems within your current OS

 

Virtualization = The creation of a virtual version of an operating system, network, server, storage, device, etc.
Restoration: The process of returning a company to its normal operations by repairing hardware & recovering data from the business’ backup methods;

 

File Restore = recovery of specific files] [Bare Metal Restore = restoration of complete VM from “bare metal” (without previously installed software or OS)]
RTO: Recovery Time Objective; a parameter in disaster recovery used to calculate the duration of time within which a business must be restored back to normal before the disruption seriously impedes business operations
RPO: Recovery Point Objective; a parameter in disaster recovery used to calculate the point in time that can pass during a disruption before the quantity of data lost during that period is greater than the company’s max allowable threshold

‘CLOUD’ Terms

Cloud Computing: A means of storing & processing a company’s data. Rather than housing the data on a customer’s servers (on-site), it is housed in a network of servers in a secure Data Centre; therefore the data is accessed remotely (over the Internet)

 

Knowing the difference between ‘SaaS’ and ‘Cloud Computing’
Public Cloud: Multi-tenant environment; this form of cloud computing relies entirely on a Service Provider; all services (servers, data storage and applications) are delivered via the Internet
Private Cloud: Single-tenant environment or “cloud computing at home”; it is a cloud computing platform that is implemented within the company’s firewall, giving them greater control over the data and its security; has same features as a public cloud
Hybrid Cloud: An integrated cloud service (combination of private and public clouds) where some applications or resources are provided and managed on-premises and others externally (in a public cloud)
On-Premise: Traditional way of delivering IT services; when a company chooses to have their own server room to host all their IT equipment, that is typically managed by their own in-house IT staff (can also be managed by an outsourced IT team)
Off-Premise: (Or off-premise hosting environment); delivering IT services off-site, where IT services are managed by a Third Party Provider and servers and hardware is leased by this provider
Data Centre: A secure facility that houses servers and telecommunications equipment. When speaking about “cloud hosting”, these Data Centers are the homes of these cloud services
SaaS: Software as a Service; This is a software distribution model where an application is provided to a customer on a subscription basis, as the software is hosted by the Service Provider and is not owned by the customer. Typically, the software application is provided over a network (Internet)
Managed Hosting: When a Service Provider leases servers and required associated hardware to a customer. It is monitored and maintained by the Service Provider and all hardware is at the provider’s facility
Application Hosting: When a business moves their software to an off-premise hosting environment (usually to the cloud)

If you have any terms you’d like us to add to the list, simply leave us a comment in the section below!

Free-IT-Consultation
/by

Integration with Amazon “Seller” or “Vendor account” – what you need to know

Founded in 1994 in the United States, Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer of books, apparel, electronics, music and many other products. Today, it has become one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms. Amazon keeps pace with technology, using it to minimize the human error factor and improve efficiency. Amazon was an early adopter of process automation and electronic data interchange for its e-commerce platform.

Read more: Free Guide – Introduction to EDI Communication

Amazon Vendor Central or Amazon Seller Central?

We’ve heard these terms so often:“Amazon Vendor Central” and“Amazon Seller Central”. So, what are these terms? what do they mean? Let’s explore both, one at a time. Any company wishing to sell its products or services on the Amazon platform will be configured on this platform either in the “Amazon Vendor Central” portal or in the “Amazon Seller Central” portal. What’s the difference?

Amazon Vendor Central

Firstly, Vendor Central is a web portal used primarily by manufacturers and distributors. Access to Vendor Central is by invitation only.

A company that sells its products/services directly to Amazon, which in turn sells them to the end consumer, will be configured on Amazon’s Vendor Central portal. In a similar case, Amazon is the buyer of the company’s products. Amazon will sell the products under its own brand name to the end consumer. Usually, when a package is shipped from Amazon to the end consumer, packages are marked as follows: “Ships from and sold by Amazon.”

Companies using Amazon Vendor Central are considered 1P (or first seller).

Amazon Seller Central

Once again, Seller Central is a Web portal used primarily by the seller (or store owner on Amazon). Amazon offers its e-commerce platform for businesses that want to run their own stores on its platform and give them the opportunity of the Amazon marketplace. This service is offered against a fixed monthly fee for use, and other fees for transactions.

In this case, the manufacturer or distributor will sell its own products directly to consumers on the Amazon marketplace using the Seller Central account.

As a seller on the market, a subscriber will be able to manage the execution and logistics of his seller account according to (2) different options:

  • Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM): The seller can manage shipping, customer service and returns for each individual order. A ” Fulfillment by Merchant” order will be shipped from the merchant’s warehouse. The seller may also use the drop-shipping method subject to compliance with the Amazon Drop Shipping Policy.
  • Fulfilled by Amazon program. (FBA): Sellers will be able to allow Amazon to manage the fulfillment of their orders, via inventory sent to Amazon warehouses. Obviously, the seller has to list its products on Amazon as part of the FBA program, and Amazon will have additional charges for the use of its fulfillment resources.

Amazon data integration

Integration with Amazon, is the process of implementing one or more feeds to extract relevant data from the company’s system and send it to its Amazon account/store (i.e. product and pricing information, inventory data …). At the same time, extract order, customer and payment information from the Amazon account/store and send it to a company’s internal software system.

Automating data integration with Amazon

As described above, integration with Amazon is very important and crucial to a successful e-commerce business. The integration process doesn’t happen just once. It’s a continuous process of keeping the “synchronization” as close to “real time” as possible.

To be able to maintain a permanent, seamless integration between a company’s Amazon account and its internal software system, companies have no choice but to adopt “automated integration”.

Benefits of integration with Amazon

Here are the 5 main advantages of integrating with Amazon, which will also be detailed in another article in the future:

  1. Ability to deliver your products quickly to your customers in a highly competitive market
  2. Avoid chargebacks, credits and penalties related to poor or non-existent inventory and stock status on your Amazon account
  3. Avoid unnecessary non-productive human errors when manually handling orders received from your Amazon account
  4. Gain visibility and credibility for your Amazon account and products.
  5. Comply with Amazon’s terms and conditions for product delivery.

Amazon options for efficient integration?

Amazon offers (2) integration methods depending on the type of account configured for your company:

  1. EDI (X12) integration (in North America) for Vendor Central account customers
  2. Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) for Seller Central account customers

Messages to exchange with Amazon

Whether you use EDI X12 or Amazon MWS to exchange messages, the following documents are mandatory for successful integration:

Amazon works with various suppliers and types of EDI software:

EDI X12 documents

  1. EDI 846 – Inventory status
  2. EDI 810 – Invoice
  3. EDI 850 – Purchase order message (Customer triggered)
  4. EDI 855 – Order acknowledgement
  5. EDI 856 – ASN (advance shipping notice)
  6. EDI 860 – Order change notification

Amazon MWS messages

  • Products
  • Controls
  • Acknowledgement of order
  • Order payment

Why integration with Amazon is crucial

Integration with Amazon is crucial for several reasons:

  1. Huge customer base: Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce platform, with millions of active customers. By integrating your company or product with Amazon’s platform, you can access this vast customer base and considerably increase your visibility and sales chances.
  2. Logistics infrastructure: Amazon has a well-established logistics infrastructure and network of warehouses around the world. By integrating your business with Amazon, you can benefit from this infrastructure for storing, packing and shipping your products. This saves you time and resources by outsourcing these activities to Amazon.
  3. Consumer confidence: Amazon is known for its high-quality customer service and solid purchase guarantees. By being integrated with Amazon, you benefit from the reputation and trust associated with the Amazon brand, which can reassure consumers and encourage them to buy your products.Namtek-Consulting
  4. Marketing and promotional tools: Amazon offers various marketing and promotional tools for sellers integrated into its platform. You can take advantage of targeted advertising, personalized recommendations, loyalty programs, and other marketing strategies to reach a wider audience and increase your sales.
  5. Process simplification: Integrating your business with Amazon enables you to simplify certain business processes. For example, you can use Amazon’s features to manage orders, stock tracking, payments, and returns. This allows you to concentrate your efforts on other aspects of your business, such as product development or range expansion.

Amazon integration for your business

Don’t miss out on the huge opportunity for your company to sell on Amazon. We provide integration and automation for Amazon Seller Central users as well as EDI integration for Vendor Central users. Contact us today for more information, to request a quote, or schedule a demonstration.

 

/by

Systems integration platform to improve business performance

Integration platform for business efficiency

Information technology is developing rapidly. Many experts call IT the fastest-growing sphere of human activity. Systems and applications integration plays an important role in the IT space, and has a significant impact on company performance as well as on all industrial and commercial sectors. That’s why we’ve seen a surge in corporate interest when it comes to integration…

What is “systems integration”?

According to Wikipedia: system integration is defined in engineering as the process of bringing together subsystem components within a single system (an aggregation of cooperating subsystems so that the system can provide overall functionality).

But it would be a mistake to think of “systems integration” as simply the assembly of hardware and software tools; the essence of the concept is much broader than that.

“Systems integration” is an activity aimed at improving a company’s efficiency, decision-making and information quality through an automated process, where “heterogeneous” systems can communicate and integrate with each other in real time.

Most companies in today’s business environment run many “heterogeneous” systems and software, yet there is no established communication between them. This type of environment creates a lot of inefficiencies and poor quality information, which in most cases leads to reduced profits and delays in management decisions.

Automated system integration acts as a bridge where data flows between heterogeneous systems, software applications and databases in multiple directions, based on predefined business rules, as if the systems were totally “homogeneous”.

Why do companies need “systems integration”?

Increasingly, companies are arming themselves with software and hardware to solve specific business needs. All this while adding new modules and “stand-alone” systems to their IT management system. Most of the time, these solutions don’t communicate natively with each other.

While the adoption of a specific software application (cloud or on-premise) may meet a company’s business requirements and solve a business problem, it will create a series of new challenges in its own right:

  • Redundant data entry; most of the data already exists in another system.
  • Need to hire more staff to manage more systems
  • Open the door to more human error when managing new systems.

The above challenges are relevant to companies of all sizes, whether small, medium or large.

How to solve integration problems?

To solve the integration problems identified in the previous point, companies should not hesitate to adopt integration projects to synchronize and orchestrate IT software, databases, processes and equipment.

To achieve this, companies will need to adopt an “integration platform” capable of exhibiting the following properties:

  • Easy to use (drag and drop)
  • No coding required
  • Quick to learn, develop and deploy
  • Easy debugging and simple error handling
  • Several options for triggering and launching processes and flows
  • Able to connect to most of the databases commonly used in today’s market
  • Able to connect to brand-name software systems (e.g. SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, SugarCRM …) with connectors certified by the manufacturer.
  • Generic API-based connectors for IoT projects
  • Extensible to go beyond “out-of-the-box” where you can build your own connectors for specific solutions.

Benefits of systems integration

The benefits of implementing a robust API-based integration that can connect to a wide range of enterprise ecosystems are invaluable. Here are the 5 advantages:

  • Real-time data synchronization

Having a robust integration platform responsible for orchestrating and synchronizing data and processes, eliminates delays in data publication. Data is synchronized between different systems in real time, without the need for human intervention.

  • Faster data processing

With an automated integration platform, which is able to synchronize data and trigger flows and processes efficiently based on rules and conditions, data processing also becomes real-time, eliminating the need for data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL). No need for a separate ETL tool.

  • Improved employee productivity

Data synchronization and orchestration obviously eliminate a lot of time and effort for employees to manage and enter/extract data from one system to another. Employees can focus on business-related problems business-related issues, where they can generate more revenue, rather than entering and manipulating data in “heterogeneous” systems.

  • Faster decision-making

Having a robust integration platform, with all the benefits identified above, business leaders will be able to make quick decisions and avoid the time-consuming process of extracting data from different systems and merging the sets to obtain a unified data sheet.

  • Increased profitability

Taken together, the above benefits will significantly increase the profitability of any company with heterogeneous IT systems and applications.

magic-xpi-scheme-iotWhat are the signs that a company needs an integration platform?

Here are the main signs in any company that an integration platform is needed to improve business processes.

  • Your company has several stand-alone software systems, with no direct links between them.
  • Your company has a combination of on-premise and cloud-based software solutions that are not connected.
  • Employees spend a lot of time on their daily work, feeding several systems
  • Your company has an e-commerce site managed separately from the internal ERP system
  • The company’s IT department is unable to provide reports and analyses on time.
  • Unable to meet your customers’ business requirements, deliver within 48 hours
  • There are major data mismatches between systems and solutions, due to redundancy.
  • Many employees work on report writing and data entry work
  • No visibility of company equipment data and performance (production machines, cameras, field service data, etc.).

Are you looking for an integration platform solution for your company?

For over 18 years, our company has been an official partner of Magic Software Enterprises, a global provider of software solutions, supplying Magic xpi, an integration platform based on a fully reliable SOA, and API-driven for all necessary connections.

The Magic xpi business integration platform provides enterprise-level integration, business process automation and data synchronization, with complete security and proven reliability.

Implementing a wide range of certified and optimized connectors and adapters, Magic xpi integrates leading ERP, CRM, financial and other enterprise systems, such as SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and many more.

Are you looking for integration solutions? Contact us today

/by

A fruitful first meeting between students and companies in information technology and engineering

A fruitful first meeting between students and companies in information technology and engineering


April 4, 2018 Namtek Consulting Services

participated in the 1st edition of “Recrutement éclair étudiant en TI/Génie” organized by Le Service du développement économique de la Ville de Laval.

In the form of a networking 5 à 7, the recruitment flash concept was much appreciated. Companies had access to students from 12 different educational institutions in the Greater Montreal area. At the same time, to optimize pairings, recruitment blitzes were organized.

The participating companies, all from Laval, offered 10 internships and 25 jobs in the IT and engineering fields.

In fact, they left with numerous curricula vitae of potential candidates. Building on this success, a second edition of the event is scheduled for this autumn, and will be extended to other business sectors.

Namtek Consulting Services

Namtek Consulting Services at a glance …

Founded in 2000, with headquarters in Laval, Quebec – Canada;
Experienced software developers and engineers serving customers in Canada, the United States, Europe and other parts of the world;
Main specialities: In-house software design and development and systems integration, EDI as a service;
Expertise includes:
– IT consulting and analysis;
– Software customization and development;
– Systems integration and electronic data interchange (EDI);
– Business Intelligence & Analytics;
– Business continuity and disaster recovery;
– Cloud hosting;

Secure, private cloud application hosting data center located in Montreal, Canada;
Strategic partnership with Magic Software for over 20 years.

/by

Ransomware: Why You Should Care

Ransomware: Why You Should Care

Viruses extortionists (ransomware, cryptoviruses) work in a similar way: they block the user’s desktop, encrypt important documents and files saved on the computer, then delete the originals and demand a ransom. Typically in Bitcoin, so they can provide you with a key to unlock your computer and to be able to continue working and have access to your saved files. Often the creators of cryptoviruses have strict conditions for the terms of payment of the redemption. If the owner of the files does not fit within these terms, the key is deleted and it will be impossible for the user to restore the files.

Ransomware is the most massive and significant attacks of computer viruses in the world.

Here a chronology of the first viruses in history, as well as the largest-scale virus computer attacks.

In 1971, the first program in the world, which was able to independently reproduce copies of itself on a computer network, was created by the engineer of the American technology company BBN Technologies, Bob Thomas. The program, called Creeper was not malicious: its functionality was limited to self-copying and displaying the message: “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” A year later another BBN engineer, e-mail inventor Ray Tomlinson, created the first anti-virus that self-replicated on the network computers and deleted Creeper.

The first virus created in 1981 caused an uncontrolled “epidemic.”  This virus spread using a technique now known as a boot sector virus. A virus called Elk Cloner was created by a 15-year-old American high school student Richard Skrenta by infecting the Apple II operating system. The virus infected the magnetic diskettes and, after the 50th access to the infected media a blank screen appears and a joke poem message was displayed. In some cases, the virus could also damage the floppy disk.

The first malicious program Michelangelo that infected over 1 million computers worldwide appeared in 1991 in Australia was written for IBM-compatible personal computers (PCs) and the DOS operating system. Other information from the disk could be restored, but it was difficult for an ordinary PC user to do it. The creator of the virus remained unknown, some cases of program activation were recorded until 1997.

On June 2, 1997, Chen Ing-hau, a student at the University of Datong (Taipei, Taiwan), created the first version of the Chernobyl virus (“Chernobyl” or CIH – according to the first syllables of the author’s name). The virus infected computers with operating systems Windows 95 and 98, triggers on April 26 of each year, the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The virus erased the boot sector of the hard disk and, sometimes, the BIOS data – the boot sector of the computer. In the latter case, it was required to change the chip on the motherboard or even acquire a new computer, since the old one was out of order.

It is estimated that more than 60 million PCs were infected worldwide, and the damage exceeded $ 1 billion.

On May 5, 2000, the world’s largest epidemic of computer virus began. Created by Filipino students Reonel Ramones and Onel De Guzman, the “worm” ILOVEYOU sent itself to all e-mail contacts of the owner of the infected PC and replaced most of the files with documents, images and music on copies of itself. Only in the first 10 days of the epidemic, the number of infected computers exceeded 50 million. To protect themselves from the epidemic, many government agencies around the world have temporarily disconnected e-mail. The total damage was subsequently estimated at $ 15 billion. The Philippine police quickly found the creators of the virus. However, they went unpunished due to the lack of an article in the local criminal code providing responsibility for computer crimes.

On September 2010, the Stuxnet virus hit the computers of employees of the nuclear power station in Bushehr (Iran). It created problems in the functioning of centrifuges of the Uranium Enrichment Complex in Natanz. According to experts, Stuxnet was the first virus to be used as a cyber weapon.

Danger of Ransomware

On May 12, 2017 a significant number of computers with Windows as operating system were attacked by a virus-extortionist WannaCry. The virus encrypts user files so that they cannot be used. For decrypting the data, the attackers demanded $ 600 in the crypto currency of bitcoin.

According to Europol, the attack affected more than 200,000 computers across 150 countries. The four most affected countries were Russia, Ukraine, India and Taiwan according to Kaspersky Lab.  The attack, in particular, affected the National Health Service hospitals of Great Britain. Up to 70,000 devices including computers, MRI scanners, blood-storage refrigerators, and theater equipment have been affected. Cyber risk modeling firm Cyence estimates the potential costs from the hack at $4 billion.

Don’t Miss: The Dangers of Ransomware & How To Overcome A Cyber Attack

On June 27, 2017, from the attack of a new variant of Petya Ransomware many of large organizations have suffered in multiple countries, but especially in Ukraine and Russia.

The Petya virus spreads through links in e-mail messages and blocks the user’s access to the computer hard drive, demanding a ransom of $ 300 in bitcoins. This is similar to the malicious program WannaCry. During this attack, the radiation monitoring system at Ukraine’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant  went offline. Some Ukrainian ministries, banks and metro systems were also affected. It is said to be the most destructive cyberattack ever.

The Business Continuity Solution to Ransomware

The best solution to protect your data and company from a different type of cyberattack is QBR (Quick Backup Recovery) Business Continuity Service, powered by Datto and provided by Namtek Consulting Services.  QBR entails on-site real-time data and machine backup through virtualization as well as off-site backup to the cloud. This hybrid solution allows for quick recovery during a disaster with no downtime or data loss. For more information about the latest solutions in Backup and Recovery visit us at: Quick-Backup-Recovery.com

dont-be-the-next-victim-of-a-ransomware-attack-qbr

/by

Systems integration: how to avoid mismanagement

Systems integration: how to avoid mismanagement

As we mentioned in one of our previous articles, change in the workplace is inevitable. The business world is constantly evolving, and companies must always be ready to adapt to change.

This change is happening whether we like it or not, for example, systems integration needs to be well managed in order to constantly improve and take advantage of the surge in technology. As a result, companies with a well-detailed plan that explains the procedures to be followed will gain a competitive edge. That said, unfortunately, poor implementation management is more common than good management, and will often lead to internal resistance.

Business Automation

The major changes we see every day are the implementation of new management software, B2B integration and systems integration.

When business leaders realize that they need to innovate and streamline their business processes, they need to introduce changes to their workplace. Many of them put off this change for as long as possible, until it affects the growth of their business.

Why does this happen so often? Partly because people are creatures of habit. Habit makes our tasks and jobs much easier, and it’s not surprising that people like repetitive actions, stability and security. So it’s not surprising that employees are generally the biggest opponents to business process change. This happens, not because employees don’t want to see their company thrive; but mostly to poor implementation management , the main topic of today’s blog.

Poor management of system implementation and integration

Change is a sensitive subject. As mentioned above, not too many people accept change with open arms. So broaching this subject with employees is a difficult task, and it needs to be presented well.

So why do employees tend to resist software implementation?

  1. Managers don’t communicate with their people properly. If employees don’t know exactly what’s going on (they’re in complete darkness), they’ll resist. Will they lose their jobs as a result? Will their daily tasks be affected? Who will be responsible? How long will it take? When employees have more questions than answers, it becomes a slippery slope.
  2. Employees do not trust the management team, which is not as transparent and open.
  3. The timing of the new software implementation was poorly chosen by management, i.e. during a company’s busy season, causing additional constraints and pressures on the entire team.
  4. Managers, who are responsible for disseminating information, are not competent or expert in this field. Their stress and anxiety about the new project don’t help to calm employees. Fear of the unknown is contagious – managers should be aware of this.

How to implement changes effectively

First of all, managers need to understand that everyone handles change differently, and that resistance is always a possibility. The best way to deal with it is to COMMUNICATE and LISTEN. This strengthens trust between management and employees.

In addition to this, once a Systems Integration has been announced, through a corporate email or meeting, it’s important to address the following points:

  • Why is this integration necessary?
  • Why it’s important for the company (what are its general benefits, short-term benefits and long-term benefits)
  • How will Systems Integration impact the work of individual departments and employees? (What’s in it for them?)
  • What are management’s objectives and expectations for this integration?
  • Who will manage this change? Who can employees contact to discuss change-related issues or share ideas to make change easier for everyone?

By sharing all important information with the whole team, everyone will be on the same page and feel listened to and appreciated.

integrationSoftware implementation in several stages

It is also extremely important to implement any type of software implementation or systems integration in several stages. There are many steps that managers can take before starting a software implementation. Once the news of a software upgrade is announced, it is essential that employees take the time to ask questions, address concerns, read any system documentation, view a system demo (for each department) understand their role during implementation, plan training during implementation, learn about the new process changes that will take place with the new system… After all this, the implementation can take place. Jumping headfirst into an implementation without proper preparation can lead to major resistance and setbacks in the future.

Systems integration – a major advantage for your company

There’s no stopping creation and improvement in the business world. As industries develop, companies must evolve; as technology advances. Companies need to implement changes as quickly as possible; when governments pass new laws, companies need to comply. As customers become more demanding and better informed, companies need to provide better products and fast, efficient service.

It’s time for managers to stop putting off software integration and implementation, and instead focus on helping employees see change in a positive light, which will undoubtedly bring major benefits to your business.


Contact us today for a smooth and successful software implementation.

/by