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When a small or mid-sized business gets an eCommerce site up and running, it feels good. You have just exponentially expanded your reach to clients. That's definitely a victory to enjoy.

But data shows there are some eCommerce trends you should be aware of – things that will help you maximize your profits when selling online. By all means, enjoy each success as your company grows. But we also recommend making a note of these 4 developments, analyzed by Larisa Bedgood at Business2Community:

1. Prioritize your returning customers: These customers have already started making a commitment to your company. That's worth cultivating. Especially since this group is typically less than 1/5 of your total clients, but their spending can amount to 1/3 of your online income. Make sure your CRM tools can keep track of these VIP clients.
2. Personalize the shopping experience: With that robust CRM software, make sure customers are seeing material that's most relevant. As with any sales process, a vital aspect is building a relationship. You strengthen that relationship by delivering customer-centered recommendations and discounts.
3. Promote satisfied reviews - The most persuasive comments on a product are often the words of prior customers who are happy with their purchase. The trouble is that satisfied customers don't usually take time to communicate how pleased they are. You'll need to get creative here, developing incentives that work for your customers and your industry. But make sure your site has a place to publish reviews and testimonials.
4. Present engaging content: One way to get customers to return to your site is to provide interesting material. Taking your site from merely selling to also educating is an excellent way to strengthen customer loyalty. How you do this needs to be crafted to your industry and clientele of course – what appeals to a light manufacturing buyer will be different from what engages buyers in warehousing and retail fields. (And yes, this closes the loop back to #1.)

Whether you're just starting out in eCommerce or have a thriving online store, these tips can help you take your business to the next level. And if you're searching for business management software for Mac and PC, contact us today to learn more about aACE's eCommerce integrations.

"aACE has also worked well with 3rd party software we run on the web and integrated our online store with the aACE program. We are very happy with the product and service we've received from the aACE team!" ~ Sabrina Fabian, The John Birch Society

While cash flow is crucial for your business, hounding your clients for money owed can be tricky. Like Aesop's fable about the goose who laid golden eggs, we don't want our efforts to secure profits now to ruin future income.

Over at CorpNet, Anna Helhoski suggests these 5 best practices for invoicing to help balance immediate needs and future possibilities:

1. Clear paper-trail – Follow up verbal agreements with documents that specify costs, timeframes, and payment details. Make sure your invoices include all the information that will make it easy for your client to process payment (e.g., itemized lists, costs, taxes, totals, and payment instructions). Keep track of these documents by attaching them to the client's record in your ERP solution.
2. Good software – A spreadsheet can only do so much. Invest in a tool that reduces mistakes and streamlines billing. A high-quality system will be able to economically meet your immediate needs as well as expand with your business growth.
3. Consistent tracking – Any accounting or billing system hinges on dependable usage. Create an ID method that works for you, then stick with it. Good organization here can be a great help during tax season.
4. Prompt billing – After order fulfillment, don't delay invoicing. Send your payment request while you're still on the client's mind. aACE, for example, can be configured to generate an invoice as soon as the order ships for prompt delivery at the push of a button.
5. Appropriate Follow-up – Using methods that you've spelled out in your initial agreement documents, feel comfortable reminding clients of payment due dates. While additional fees are often used for late payments, consider whether it will be more effective to set up your billing with reduced charges for early payments.

Respectful communication is an essential part of your customer-relationships, especially when it comes to money matters. Always invest in a "please" and "thank you" to help keep your golden eggs in steady supply.

For more information about a proven business management software for Mac and PC that makes invoicing a breeze, get in touch with us today.

The holidays will soon be over, but a gift that's an investment can benefit your company through the years. High quality ERP software is exactly that kind of gift for your growing small business. Owners and entrepreneurs can easily imagine the value that comes from greater efficiency plus increased visibility.

This can't be a last-minute purchase though.

Where your entire staff is counting on you to help the company succeed, this present for the SME has to be just right. And that means doing the necessary due diligence. Getting sales quotes and demos from highly recommended ERP providers is a great start. But as Angela Nadeau at SmallBusinessTrends.com explains, there are other essential details you need to know to buy the best ERP product for your organization.

The five key factors to ERP implementation success, as described by Angela and supported by her readers, go as follows:

1. Professionalism - The fact that you CAN buy an ERP package off the shelf and deploy it out of the box is not evidence that you should. Instead, smart business owners know that they're also investing in a partnership with the ERP provider or consultant. Make sure that ongoing support and training is something they assume is the case, not an unexpected question they have to look into. Reliable professionals will realize that their success is intertwined with your company's success.
2. Flexibility - The best ROI will come from an ERP solution that can adapt to your unique business expertise. You've put a lot of energy into figuring out the best ways to sell and support; imagine the value that can come from software tools that leverage your experience and insights! One of the best open-source, modular platforms is Apple FileMaker. This means you can implement existing products for managing purchases, projects, customer relationships, and finance needs, then easily customize the software to give you an ideal harmony with your organization's setup.
3. Research - You're off to a great start on this one, but there are other questions you'll want to ask about your ERP solution. Do they offer you data warehousing? Clear visibility on the data for good forecasting? Mobile features? One good approach for this level of research is to build a dream-team of features describing everything the perfect product would bring to the table. Of course you may not find a 100% match to your list, but it will give you a good view of your group's priorities so you can match up the most important functionality.
4. Business Intelligence - This element is quickly becoming a driving factor in marketplace success. Any ERP tool will start to open this doorway for you, but some do a better job than others. You want to find a solution that presents the information most vital to your industry and that gives you the quickest, clearest view on that knowledge. The critical detail here is that you know the data that's most important for your growth analysis better than most ERP products. That brings us back to flexibility and customization. Getting your people involved in capturing data and translating it to wisdom is a key method for getting the most value from our software.
5. Rapid Adoption - Speaking of the other personnel in your organization, they are obviously a crucial factor in making a new software tool a successful addition to the mix. "Rapid" isn't necessarily the key term here, but "adoption" is. To help ensure your staff is comfortable with the new tools, get them involved as early as possible. Letting them know you're looking to upgrade their tools can raise morale and help you collect insights about what functionality would be most helpful in day-to-day productivity. And with the right ERP platform, the people who know your business inside-out can transform their understanding into useful tools. The bottom line here is that even the best ERP product won't strengthen you business much if the people who use it feel alienated from it.

With these five guidelines in mind, you're well on your way to making a smart decision for your company's ERP needs.

As noted on Capterra, a software research site produced by Gartner, the world’s leading research and advisory company, aACE Software ranks high in customer reviews and product quality. We provide a fully integrated, cross-platform solution for accounting, CRM, and ERP. To find out how well aACE matches with your company's needs, watch our videos and browse our site.

"aACE was able to customize a few key components for us very intelligently that now just work. Exactly the way we need them to." ~ Derek Navratil, IT Administrator, Janibell Inc

You know what you could lose if a tax collector comes to your small business with authorization for an audit. And you also know what could be lost if you don't offer your customers the best prices. Savvy entrepreneurs protect their businesses from larger loss, balancing between the two extremes, by investing in reliable methods to manage sales tax.

Avalara's many years of experience have helped them identify four of the most common approaches that small businesses use to deal with sales tax. They have listed these options in order of increasing effectiveness, helping companies recognize where they currently stand and where a better balance could be found.

1. CME - "Close My Eyes" - This is the toddler's approach to sales tax. After all, if you can't see them, they can't see you. We all know how well that works out though. This non-management of sales tax should be avoided.
2. WID - "When In Doubt" - This method leaves no stone un-taxed. It is the audit-phobia approach; if you charge taxes on all items, at all times, at max rates, you can be pretty sure the tax man cometh not. The trouble is that soon customers might stay away too. Winning business sometimes hinges on small details, such as sales tax amounts and word-of-mouth warnings to watch out for unnecessary charges. This route is legally safe, but not optimal.
3. STT - "Sales Tax Table" - Or as might be a more accurate description: Single Sales Tax Table. This is one step forward for tax accuracy, one giant leap for tax automation. When a computer is so good at crunching numbers, it's silly to not have it running calculations for your sales tax rates. The trouble is that your typical computer is bad at knowing when the state or local legislature decide to change tax details. Which brings us to...
4. ERP + DTE - "Enterprise Resource Planning plus Dedicated Tax Engine" - To be fair, Avalara didn't go so far as to create their own self-referencing abbreviation. But this is the optimal solution: your customized business solution integrated with a tool that specializes in the complicated, convoluted, evolving web that is sales taxation. This method ensures both full compliance and the most attractive pricing for your clients.

While AvaTax provides you with solid tax information, you'll want to be sure that your ERP system can make the most of this investment. A business software package that also integrates your entire operation — from the warehouse docking bay to the main conference room — can ensure that your up-to-date taxation info is leveraged throughout your business.

aACE 5 offers this kind of quote-to-cash integration. Our integration with AvaTax is a favorite service. It reflects the thorough attention to detail that can be see in the entire aACE system. Contact us today to learn more about how our cross-platform solution for accounting, CRM, and ERP can accelerate your business velocity.

"Unlike other solutions, you will never have to worry about not being able to collect, deliver, and/or report the data your organization needs. This product can fully tailored to fit your company's processes. If you want to gain control of your business and eliminate all of the islands of data that exist today, then I highly recommend that you give aACE a call." ~ Bryan Anderson, All Solutions 360 LLC

Editor's note: Anthony La Polla is Vice President of Operations at Critical Defence, LLC. We're delighted to share his expertise in cybersecurity with our audience.

As the use of technology continues to increase in today’s business, so do the concerns pertaining to cybersecurity. According to the Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigation Report:

• 75% of breaches were perpetrated by outsiders
• 62% of breaches featured hacking
• 81% of hacking involved weak or stolen passwords
• 66% of malware was installed via malicious emails
• 73% of breaches were financially motivated
• 1 in 14 users were tricked into following a link or opening an attachment

The statistics are alarming, and the consequences of a breach could be catastrophic. From theft of client personal data, loss of propriety data or intellectual property, or payment card data leakage, a single breach could cause the total collapse of the business. As a result, companies are taking action with some key measures, including:

• Training staff to identify warning signs
• Following the principle of least privilege
• Instituting patch management policies
• Encrypting sensitive date to make it useless if stolen
• Requiring two factor authentication to limit damage if lost or stolen
• Regularly reviewing log files for warning signs of a breach

And companies aren’t the only ones taking notice of the risks associated with cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities. Government agencies are making concentrated efforts to protect companies, employees and consumers from these digital crimes. Two of the most recent mandates addressing these issues are the General Data Protection Regulation (more commonly known as the GDPR) and New York State’s DFS Regulation 500 Part 23.

GDPR

The European Parliament adopted the GDPR in April 2016, replacing an outdated data protection directive from 1995. It carries provisions that require businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens for transactions that occur within EU member states. The GDPR also regulates the exportation of personal data outside the EU. The GDPR applies to any company which has a presence in an EU country, processes personal data of European residents, has more than 250 employees, or fewer than 250 employees but its data-processing impacts the rights and freedoms of data subjects, is not occasional, or includes certain types of sensitive personal data. That effectively means almost all companies.

The GDPR protects basic identity information such as name, address and ID numbers, web data such as location, IP address, cookie data and RFID tags, health and genetic data, biometric data, racial or ethnic data, political opinions, and sexual orientation. The GDPR requires that companies appoint a Data Protection Officer, identify all protected data within the network, create a data protection plan, create a data retention policy which allows individuals the right to have their data completely removed upon request, conduct a risk assessment, report any breach within 72 hours and revise risk mitigation programs.

The GDR also outlines the consequences of failing to comply, and they are steep. It allows for financial penalties of up to €20 million or four percent of global annual turnover, whichever is higher, for non-compliance. Management consulting firm Oliver Wyman predicts that the EU could collect as much as $6 billion in fines and penalties in the first year. The good news is that there is still time to comply; GDPR enforcement will begin May 28, 2018.

DFS Reg 500 Part 23

The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has issued 23 NYCRR Part 500, a regulation designed to promote the protection of customer information as well as the information technology systems of regulated entities (financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies). This regulation requires each company to assess its specific risk profile and design a program that addresses its risks in a robust fashion. Senior management must take this issue seriously and be responsible for the organization’s cybersecurity program and file an annual certification confirming compliance with these regulations. A regulated entity’s cybersecurity program must ensure the safety and soundness of the institution and protect its customers.

The regulation requires that covered entities create and implement a cybersecurity program and policy the identifies and mitigates risk and aims to prevent breaches. The regulation is rather specific and requires, at a minimum, that covered organization do the following:

• Assign a Chief Information Security Officer
• Perform annual penetration testing
• Perform Bi-annual vulnerability assessments
• Maintain an audit trail
• Limit access privileges
• Ensure the use of secure deployment practices
• Conduct a periodic risk assessment
• Utilize qualified cybersecurity personnel
• Implement a third party service provider security policy
• Utilize multi-factor authentication
• Limit data retention and create a secure disposal policy
• Provide regular cyber security awareness training and monitoring
• Encrypt of nonpublic information
• Establish a written incident response plan
• Notification within 72 hours of cyber event identification

There are few exemptions to this regulation. Only organizations (including independent contractors) with fewer than

10 employees, organization with less than $5,000,000 in gross annual revenue in each of the last three fiscal years, and organizations with less than $10,000,000 in year-end total assets, calculated in accordance with GAAP including assets of all affiliates are excluded from the compliance requirement. This regulation was put into effect on May 1, 2017, and covered organizations were required to be compliant by August 27, 2017. By February 15, 2018, covered entities are required to submit the first certification for 23 NYCRR 500.17(b). On March 1, 2018, covered entities are required to be in compliance with sections 500.06, 500.08, 500.13, 500.14(a) and 500.15 of 23 NYCRR Part 500, and by March 1, 2019, organizations are required to be compliant section 500.11.

As technology and internet usage continue to grow, so does cyber crimeCybersecurity and Key Compliance Requirements . In order to defend against it companies will need to implement appropriate policies and procedures that align with new mandated regulations. These requirements will need to be monitored closely and will need experts to ensure proper implementation and maintenance. Otherwise, the costs and consequences could be catastrophic.

About Critical Defence

Critical Defence, LLC is a global provider of cyber security services including, but not limited to Assurance, Response, Compliance and Training. Additional information can be found at www.criticaldefence.com.