A experiência das pessoas nem sempre um tópico importante. Soa estranho escrever isso e mais ainda dizer em voz alta, mas a realidade é que houve uma época onde não esse não era o foco. Um exemplo é a famosa …
The rapid rise of Slack has ushered in a new wave of apps, all aiming to solve one challenge: creating a user-friendly platform where coworkers can have productive conversations. Many of these are based around real-time notifications and “instant” messaging, but today a new startup called Threads coming out of stealth to address the other side of the coin: a platform for asynchronous communication that is less time-sensitive, and creating coherent narratives out of those conversations.
Armed with $10.5 million in funding from Sequoia, the company is launching a beta of its service today.
Roussau Kazi, the startup’s CEO who co-founded threads with Jon McCord, Mark Rich and Suman Venkataswamy, cut his social teeth working for six years at Facebook (with a resulting number of patents to his name around the mechanics of social networking), says that the mission of Threads is to become more inclusive when it comes to online conversations.
“After a certain number of people get involved in an online discussion, conversations just break and messaging becomes chaotic,” he said. (McCord and Rich are also Facebook engineering alums, while Venkataswamy is a Bright Roll alum who worked with McCord on another startup before this.)
And if you have ever used Twitter, or even been in a popular channel in Slack, you will understand what he is talking about. When too many people begin to talk, the conversation gets very noisy and it can mean losing the “thread” of what is being discussed, and seeing conversation lurch from one topic to another, often losing track of important information in the process.
And there is an argument to be made for whether a platform that was built for real-time information is capable of handling a difference kind of cadence. Twitter, as it happens, is trying to figure that out right now. Slack, meanwhile, has itself introduced threaded comments to try to address this too — although the practical application of its own threading feature is not actually very user friendly.
Threads answer is to view its purpose as addressing the benefit of “asynchronous” conversation.
To start, those who want to start threads first register as organizations on the platform. Then, those who are working on a project or in a specific team creates a “space” for themselves within that org. You can then start threads within those spaces. And when a problem has been solved or the conversation has come to a conclusion, the last comment gets marked as the conclusion.
The idea is that topics and conversations that can stretch out over hours, days or even longer, around specific topics. Threads doeesn’t want to be the place you go for red alerts or urgent requests, but where you go when you have thoughts about a work-related subject and how to tackle it.
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These resulting threads, when completed or when in progress, can in turn be looked at as straight conversations, or as annotated narratives.
For now, it’s up to users themselves to annotate what might be important to highlight for readers, although when I asked him, Kazi told me he would like to incorporate over time more features that might use natural language processing to summarize and pull out what might be worth following up or looking at if you only want to skim read a longer conversation. Ditto the ability to search threads. Right now it’s all based around keywords but you can imagine a time when more sophisticated and nuanced searches to surface conversations relevant to what you might be looking for.
Indeed, in this initial launch, the focus is all about what you want to say on Threads itself — not lots of bells and whistles, and not trying to compete against the likes of Slack, or Workplace (Facebook’s effort in this space), or Yammer or Teams from Microsoft, or any of the others in the messaging mix.
There are no integrations of other programs to bring data into Threads from other places, but there is a Slack integration in the other direction: you can create an alert there so that you know when someone has updated a Thread.
“We don’t view ourselves as a competitor to Slack,” Kazi said. “Slack is great for transactional conversation but for asynchronous chats, we thought there was a need for this in the market. We wanted something to address that.”
It’s may not be a stated competitor, but Threads actually has something in common with Slack: the latter’s launched with the purpose of enabling a certain kind of conversation between co-workers in a way that was easier to consume and engage with than email.
You could argue that Threads has the same intention: email chains, especially those with multiple parties, can also be hard to follow and are in any case often very messy to look at: something that the conversations in Threads also attempt to clear up.
But email is not the only kind of conversation medium that Threads thinks it can replace.
“With in-person meetings there is a constant tension between keeping the room small for efficiency and including more people for transparency,” said Sequoia partner Mike Vernal in a statement. “When we first started chatting with the team about what is now Threads, we saw an opportunity to get rid of this false dichotomy by making decision-making both more efficient and more inclusive. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Threads to make work more inclusive.”
The startup was actually formed in 2017, and for months now it has been running a closed, private version of the service to test it out with a small amount of users. So far, the company sizes have ranged between 5 and 60 employees, Kazi tells me.
“By using Threads as our primary communications platform, we’ve seen incredible progress streamlining our operations,” said one of the testers, Perfect Keto & Equip Foods Founder and CEO, Anthony Gustin. “Internal meetings have reduced by at least 80 percent, we’ve seen an increase in participation in discussion and speed of decision making, and noticed an adherence and reinforcement of company culture that we thought was impossible before. Our employees are feeling more ownership and autonomy, with less work and time that needs to be spent — something we didn’t even know was possible before Threads.”
Kazi said that the intention is ultimately to target companies of any size, although it will be worth watching what features it will have to introduce to help handle the noise, and continue to provide coherent discussions, when and if they do start to tackle that end of the market.
Keeping on top of your calls is key to sales success. While many companies are interacting with their customers via email and live chatbots, the telephone still reigns king in the world of sales: 92 percent of all customer interactions happen over the phone, while only 24 percent of sales emails are opened.
If we’re aware of the importance of interacting with our customers over the phone to close those all-important deals, why did these studies find that 93 percent of companies don’t respond within the recommended 5 minutes, and 23 percent of companies don’t respond to their leads at all? Clearly, businesses are so slammed that getting back to customers and possible sales leads is proving impossible. And while many are making use of virtual phone systems, often their features aren’t actually that important in helping them make more sales.
Luckily, artificial intelligence can lessen the workload of sales teams and help them to become more efficient. In fact, 55 percent of telecom companies are already using AI. Here are the top ways integrating AI into your phone system can boost your sales performance.
If you were to look into your company’s call data and try to interpret it, you may spend hours diving into the numbers. While reports can be helpful, without AI, there’s a slim chance you’re going to use it.
AI can notice trends from your phone calls and alert you of any opportunities for improvement. For example, the most common cities your calls are coming from could give you insights into potential new markets for your company. It can also pick up on how long it’s taking you to answer calls and alert you to slow response times, which could help you determine when to hire a salesperson who can follow up while you concentrate on your work.
AI can not only tell you what is your busiest time of day, but it can also recommend when you should stop working and return phone calls. And on top of this, it has the power to analyze call transcripts themselves to evaluate and offer suggestions for improvements how your sales team is pitching to leads.
When your business receives a lot of calls, it can feel almost impossible to get back to every single one you missed. AI can recognize when you get over your head and suggest ways to increase the number of callbacks. It can alert you about phone calls, and send a reminder to call them back.
This feature is invaluable, especially since research has shown that companies that reach their leads within an hour are seven times more likely to have meaningful conversations with decision makers than those who waited more than 60 minutes. And the more people you get back to quickly, the more likely you are the make the sale and increase revenue.
For when calls don’t need your personal attention, AI bots can take much of this extra workload away. The bot can answer voicemails based on the content of the message transcript, and give information such as hours of operation and directions — so you don’t have to call them back.
So, you’re utilizing the insights and reminders you’re getting day to day, but what about the value of all of that data taken over an extended period? AI can compile it into a detailed profile, helping you to make sure you’re improving on your stats each month and calling sales leads and customers back quickly. Insights into when and where your calls are coming from mean you’ll be able to identify what marketing strategy is the right one and who are the most important customers to prioritize in order to increase customer retention.
It’s high time companies left behind flashy virtual phone systems that are oversaturated with features they don’t really need. The advent of AI in phone management systems has the power to revolutionize your sales process by giving you true insights into the strategy you should be adopting, and helping you keep up with more leads than would otherwise be possible.
Jay Reeder has more than 23 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He began creating voicemail systems in high school, which led to his first job as a software developer creating voicemail technology. Within the first year, he had completely rewritten the company’s voicemail software platform and at the age of 20 was selected to lead voicemail development for telecommunications giant ITT.
In 1994 Reeder founded his first company, Revox, developing high-end voice platforms for telephone companies. This was followed by Atlanta Voicemail, VoicePlus, Buzzworks and ultimately VoiceNation, a live answering company that has been recognized by PC Magazine, Clutch, and others as an industry leader. His latest product, Ninja Number, is a virtual phone system that helps entrepreneurs increase revenue by improving their communication with customers.
The post How to Use AI To Triple the Efficiency of Your Sales Process appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.
With connectivity to the outside world growing, cyber attacks on industrial computers constitute an extremely dangerous threat, as these types of incidents can cause material losses and production downtime for a whole system. Moreover, industrial enterprises knocked out of service can seriously undermine a region’s social welfare, ecology and macroeconomics. Not surprisingly, cybersecurity is therefore […]… Read More
The post Trends in Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity appeared first on The State of Security.
Greetings again! If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, you’ll know that I love talking about all things graphics. Indeed, that’s where I spend most of my time, often collaborating with the wider team on how we can …
VMware announced a new Kubernetes product today called VMware Essential PKS, which has been created from its acquisition of Heptio for $550 million at the end of last year.
VMware already had two flavors of Kubernetes, a fully managed cloud product and an enterprise version with all of the components such as registry and network pre-selected by VMware. What this new version does is provide a completely open version of Kubernetes where the customer can choose all of the components, giving a flexible option for those who want it, according to Scott Buchanan, senior director of product marketing for cloud native apps at VMware.
Buchanan said that the new product comes directly from the approach that Heptio had taken to selling Kuberentes prior to the acquisition . “We’re introducing a new offering called VMware Essential PKS, and that offering is a packaging of the approach that Heptio took to market and that gained a lot of traction, and that approach is a natural complement to the other Kubernetes products in the VMware portfolio,” he explained.
Buchanan acknowledged that a large part of the market is going to go for the fully managed or fully configured approaches, but there is a subset of buyers that will want more choice in their Kubernetes implementation.
“Larger enterprises with more complex infrastructure want to have a very customized approach to how they build out their architecture They don’t want to be integrated. They just want a foundation on which to build because the organizations are larger and more complex and they’re also more likely to have an internal DevOps or SREOps team to operate the platform on a day-to-day basis,” he explained.
While these organizations want flexibility, they also require more of a more consultative approach to the sale. Heptio had a 40-person field service engineering team that came over in the acquisition, and VMware is in the process of scaling that team. These folks consult with the customer and help them select the different components that make up a Kubernetes installation to fit the needs of each organization.
Buchanan, who also came over in the acquisition, says that being part of VMware (which is part of the Dell family of companies) means they have several layers of sales with VMware, Pivotal and Dell all selling the product.
Heptio is the Kubernetes startup founded by Craig McLuckie and Joe Beda, the two men who helped develop the technology while they were at Google. Heptio was founded in 2016 and raised $33.5 million prior to the acquisition, according to Crunchbase data.
Everyone seems to have a major focus on mobile devices and virtual machines, but the physical desktop PC will not go away. Many of us continue to use one for our day-to-day work. The physical desktop PC is critical to …
A couple of phishing schemes are currently targeting contractors who do business with two U.S. federal government agencies. Anomali Labs uncovered a malicious server hosting the two schemes in late February 2019. The first scheme begins when users visit transportation[.]gov[.]bidsync[.]kela[.]pw, a suspicious-looking subdomain which contains the legitimate “transportation.gov” domain for the U.S. Department of Transportation. […]… Read More
The post Online Bidding Phishing Schemes Targeting U.S. Government Contractors appeared first on The State of Security.
Vulnerability management and patch management are not products. They are processes, and the products are tools used to enable the process. You cannot buy a hammer, nails and wood and expect them to just become a house, but you can go through the process of building the house or hire someone to do it for […]… Read More
The post Vulnerability Management and Patch Management Are Not the Same appeared first on The State of Security.
For various reasons, many executives and senior team members with privileged status on the network and/or access to financial assets oftentimes need to access corporate IT systems from a public place outside the office. What is very common in these types of places is that they’re covered with security cameras. Such devices are a must-have […]… Read More
The post Do Security Cameras Undermine your Authentication? appeared first on The State of Security.
If you’re a regular reader of Small Biz Technology, you’ve probably got a smidge of entrepreneurial spirit in you. This means that you’ve also probably got a bit of creativity in your soul, too. The odds are also good that you would love to find a way to inspire even more creativity, so we’ve got a few ideas that could get a fresh flow of fantastic going.
1. Start moving. Exercise is one of the best ways to inspire creativity. Get your face away from the screen and get your heart pumping. You’ll be surprised what pops into your mind while you’re getting fresh oxygenated blood moving through your veins.
Go ice skating or roller skating.
2. Attend a conference. Listening to other people talk about their experiences while surrounded by like-minded peers is an ideal way to come up with new ideas. Your neurons will begin firing as soon as the first speaker gets going. And, if you have the means to travel to a conference far from your home, you can get even more inspiration. Check out some of these options:
3. Take care of yourself. A wellness retreat will help feed your mind, body, and soul. In these retreats, you spend a few nights in a luxurious lodge, hotel, or resort where you are pampered to no end. Each retreat has a different focus, whether its fitness, relaxation, nutrition, or mindfulness. At a retreat, you get to take time away from the stresses and struggles of real life and reconnect with yourself. It can be helpful to bring a journal with you to record all of the creative ideas that will be sparked as your senses are stimulated in memorable surroundings. This are some notable choices:
4. Read a book. If you are unable to get away for a wellness retreat or you are just not in the mood to exercise, try reading a book. There are several titles available that are perfect for inspiring creativity in all aspects of your life. These books are written by authors who have experienced the ups and downs of life. They share their experiences in easy-to-read texts filled with relatable experiences. Consider these titles:
5. Commit to daily journaling. Publishers have made this easier than ever before. You can buy journals that drive the topics, like a gratitude journal or a one-line-per-day journal. You can also find books filled with topics that will help guide your writing.
6. Volunteer in your community. Getting involved in your community lets you meet new people. It gives you the opportunity to see all of the good happening in your community and to give something back. No matter where you live, someone is looking for volunteers. Check out the opportunities near you:
7. Read something different. If you always read books about entrepreneurs or business, it’s time to change it up. When you stick with the same genre, you are not learning anything new – you’re just rereading the same things. Try some different publications that might outside of your normal reading lists. Of course, it is important to stay up to date in your industry, but reading something new every now and then doesn’t hurt. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
8. Find or become a mentor. One of the best ways to learn about yourself and about other people is to become a mentor or find a mentor for yourself. It is possible to do both through the website SCORE. You can learn about issues in the business world by participating in workshops and webinars on the SCORE website.
9. Listen to a podcast. If you are tired of talk radio and audiobooks are just too long, podcasts are a good alternative. It easier than ever before to find podcasts about topics that are of interest to you. Once you find them, you simply subscribe and they can be synced to your smartphone or other electronic device. Check out a few of our favorite podcasts for small business owners. These are some of our favorite podcasts for female entrepreneurs.
10. Start networking. When you’re looking for a way to inspire creativity, get out there and talk to people. If you’re not sure where to go, try some local networking opportunities. Networking opportunities provide opportunities to learn about businesses in your area and to share yours with business owners. If you aren’t sure where to start with networking, these websites organize and share opportunities by location.
The post 10 Easy Ways to Inspire Creativity in Yourself appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.
The European online talent marketplace Malt and the European Forum for Independent Professionals recently released Freelancing in Europe, a study based on a survey of close to 1,000 European freelancers.
The results are generally consistent with studies of U.S. freelancers.
As the study chart below (click to enlarge) shows, the main reasons for Europeans becoming freelancers are quite similar to the reasons Americans do.
The same is true for the challenges of being a freelancer.
It's not surprising the data is consistent. The same trends and shifts driving the growth of the gig economy in the U.S. are also impacting Europe.
So the consistency shows that the growth of freelancing and independent work is global.
For more on this study, see future of work expert Marco Torregrossa's excellent What we learnt from the first ever European Freelancers Survey.
BTW, Malt recently raised $28.6 million. They're based in France, which means this is the second day in a row we've featured a French startup that recently raised lots of money.
