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Phishing emails are malicious emails that attempt to guide recipients into providing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, and other confidential information. These emails often appear official and legitimate, but in reality, they are carefully crafted to elicit a response and cause a data leak.  Phishing attempts are becoming more savvy with sophisticated AI technologies that mimic natural human language and tone. Before the widescale use of AI, it was easier to identify potential phishing emails as they often contained grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, or inaccurate information. With the advanced capabilities of Generative AI, hackers can quickly understand brand tone, messaging, and pertinent information. With the advancement of AI language models, traditional indicators of phishing emails no longer apply. More sophisticated and targeted content means highly personalized copy that has well-written grammar and information that is relevant to the recipient.  However, you can still protect yourself and your company from these phishing attempts.  We’ve listed out 4 ways you can identify AI-generated Phishing emails  Inaccurate domain and or email address.  This includes inconspicuous text variations that would lead you to believe that the message is reputable—for example, this could look like support@aptimized.c0m. Because AI-generated emails can appear from a trusted source, recipients are more likely to overlook subtle variations like this.  Generic Greetings  Ai-generated phishing emails are often sent in bulk, meaning they typically will not include personalization within the email. Automated phishing campaigns require many outgoing mail attempts, so they capitalize on messaging that applies to all audiences. Be aware of terms like “Dear Customer,” “Hello there,” or  “Attention user.”  Time-sensitive or urgent messaging Cyber Criminals want their targets to act quickly. They encourage fast action by leveraging urgency and encouraging end users to make impulsive decisions. They attempt to elicit fear by using convincing messaging.  Unusual URLs  The goal of these AI-generated phishing emails is to entice you to click on the provided link and gain access to pertinent information. Even if you believe an email is authentic, develop the habit of hovering over any hyperlinks within the email to view the URL without clicking. This will uncover any alarming domain names, suspiciously shortened URLs, or other unusual domain names.  As the power of AI continues to develop, it is essential to stay aware and alert of the changing security recommendations. While AI can generate potentially harmful phishing emails, it can also be used to identify and protect you from these attempts. In our upcoming blog posts, we will share more about these identification tools and how you can use them to help amplify your security measures. Contact us here to receive early access to this post.

Measurements, dashboards, reporting, analytics; these are all things of our recent past. Everyone is now talking about Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots, etc., and they are so stressed out about missing the boat on something huge. Even this soon shall pass, as have so many recent topics like big data, data lakes, data integration, business analytics, etc. People still say the words, but they are now taken for granted as part of some more extensive data strategy that no one ever really seems to execute in a complete fashion for their company. At this stage, the key message is to stop thinking about the technology behind these solutions and start thinking about the business use case instead. Managing a service, a production line, the financials, or any other business value driver will all require the ability to obtain data, detect conditions, report and alert on those conditions, then respond with the appropriate action.  With that said, there are a variety of modern tools that allow this. Most of these tools are low cost with low barriers to implementation. Companies have already spent millions on dashboards, data lakes, reports, and other technologies. The cool part is all of these can still be used, and they are not redundant. However, they do need to be leveraged in new ways that add far more value. The hard part is not the technological next step. The hard part is finding a proper analyst that can establish use cases that align to the business value metric that then can be automated with tools like Google Vertex, CoPilot, Cinchy, and many other platforms. People must be reminded that they are not being asked to replace or shut down their lifelong work for the BI environment that they have tirelessly rolled out. They must take the next step and seek a bolt-on AI tool that will leverage all their hard work, pulling together the data.  AI should not cause anxiety: AI is not overwhelming once you assign mini-use cases to it. You simply just pick a tool, implement it and enable customers to get access to it. Do not boil the ocean for an entire company's worth of data. Just do it one by one. The AI tools prefer that, and they can be much cheaper to implement.  Last piece of advice, make sure you have a plan to “train” your bot with business rules that your customers care about. They do not train themselves, you have to write the business rules, as well as automated responses based on the conditions. (some tools require code, while others, like Google Vertex, use plain English) After you build the AI system, then just put access to your AI engine in places where your customers need it. (Websites, apps, text or Via MS Teams, etc.) Aptimized helps you start with gathering data, then building business value drivers (KPIs), and then we help with the AI engines or automated alerting coming out of your dashboards or data lakes. We can help you build a roadmap to AI that will not cost millions.  Everything starts and ends with the business case. In the coming weeks, we will be sharing more information, examples, and specifics about the business cases for these exciting new AI developments. 

Ivanti is known for its IT management and security solutions; designed to help organizations manage their IT infrastructure, secure endpoints, automate processes, and enhance user experience. While they do offer some supply chain management solutions, their core strength lies in IT management and security. Q3 of 2023 showcased Ivanti furthering its already impressive lineup of innovative IT solutions.  Digital Employee Experience(DEX)/Ivanti Neurons Platform: By decoupling the agent policy, Ivanti effectively increased the overall value of the product for customers. The Neurons Platform has also been revamped to include a new connector for Microsoft Defender and Azure AD group filter. Other improvements to the DEX and Neuron system include a completely redesigned reconfigurability to edge monitoring and a healing system that allows bots to create ITSM ticket stages. Service and Asset Management Ivanti’s new ITSM Neurons make it simple to enhance search capabilities that allow you to provide more relevant search results and visible user DEX scores. Additionally, Ivanti has added more types of Neurons for novel capabilities including ITAM, PPM, GRC, Spend Intelligence, and Service Mapping Security Also as a part of this release, Ivanti has made great strides towards protecting the security of their clients. For example, Ivanti has made significant changes to improve its IPv6 support, Rest API, and HTML program. Furthermore, the Secure Access program has been enhanced, allowing Configuration Sync and Universal Access to improve customer accessibility. Anomaly Detection has also taken a step forward to promote admin workflow. Additionally, Ivanti has made efforts to improve patch management by incorporating Neurons for both ASOC and RBVM. Unified Endpoint Management As part of the Q3 update, Ivanti has incorporated a new Endpoint tool into their system called the “Ivanti Endpoint Manager.” This new application distribution tool improves MacOS patching capabilities and includes removal of ports 80 and 9595 security enhancements   Overall, Ivanti has continued its trend of excellence in the business software space as it continues to revolutionize and improve its product every quarter. The advancements to the Neuron database and security measures stand out specifically this quarter. Even though Ivanti has made massive strides, its hard to fathom the fact that there are still more improvements coming to their system in the foreseeable future. 

How SAP’s Latest AI Integrations Are Transforming Enterprise Operations in 2025 Some are afraid, some are resistant, but AI is definitely here to stay. SAP has responded to this trend by creating new capabilities. As a leader in the business-centric software industry, SAP is utilizing AI-based software to drive innovation, enhance user experiences, and improve business outcomes.  Here are some of the avenues SAP has taken: Enhancing Intelligent Automation - SAP Leonardo SAP actively integrates artificial intelligence through machine learning, natural language processing, and robotic process automation to consolidate many existing practices in the business world. These processes help automate otherwise repetitive tasks to minimize errors and maximize efficiency. Leonardo effectively combines AI, IoT, blockchain, and analytics to drive innovation in the SAP space. More specifically, Leonardo uses AI to enable intelligent technologies. Its AI powers intelligent investment/asset management, predictive maintenance, and demand-driven planning making it easy for companies to enhance user experience.  Enabling Predictive Analysis - SAP FieldglassSAP’s cloud and artificial intelligence run platforms analyze massive amounts of real-time data and trend the data where humans would far less likely be able to identify. Your company can now optimize customer acquisition and minimize risks. SAP Fieldglass is a cloud based vendor management system that incorporates AI to optimize contingent workforce management. It matches the right talent with the right job requirements, improving your talent acquisition.  Advancing Natural Language Processing - SAP Conversational AI SAP has recently bolstered their AI capabilities through its Natural Language Processing. By creating AI-powered chat-bots, SAP-run products can respond to user submitted queries conversationally. These bots can provide around-the-clock support. SAP Conversational AI helps businesses build their own conversational chatbots and AI-driven assistants. Using NLP to understand user queries, Conversation AI provides personalized assistance, creating an unparalleled experience for customers around the world at any time. Empowering Intelligent Insights - SAP Analytics Cloud SAP has created AI capabilities into its diverse deck of analytics platforms to extract meaningful insights from its immense array of data. SAP users can gain more information thanks to SAP’s revolutionary insight collecting algorithms. SAP Analytics Cloud is a revolutionary system that allows AI to generate user insights from mass collections of data. SAC can accurately use its machine learning software to detect anomalies and make data informed decisions. Facilitating Intelligent Supply Chain Management- SAP Ariba Supply-chain management becomes increasingly more workable through its AI solutions by optimizing costs, forecasting demand, and streamlining logistical back-office operations. SAP Ariba effectively uses Ariba to optimize customer experience in its procurement processes. Using its AI, Ariba can leverage itself to provide recommendations for supplier selection, pricing, and contract negotiation. These are only a few of the ways in which SAP is utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance capabilities and improve customer experience. We know that the discussion around AI and business development raises a lot of questions, and we would love to discuss. You may click this link to submit your questions, start a discussion, or request a proposal from the Aptimized team. 

Three signs you need to refresh your online presence:  1. Decrease in website traffic  If your website does not drive traffic to your sales teams, it should be redesigned. If you’re seeing traffic stagnancy, it's a good idea to reorganize and refresh. To be effective, your online presence must grow with your customer. A decrease in web traffic can result from algorithm changes, insufficient promotion, technical issues, or competitor changes. Knowing the root cause of the decrease will help you understand what areas of your online presence you must prioritize.  2. Decrease in Engagement  If you’re generating traffic to your website but not seeing engagement, it's time to enhance your online presence. High traffic but low engagement typically means your customer isn’t getting what they want from your website. It can be challenging to understand exactly what content your customer is looking for, but with a healthy, complete online presence, you’ll be able to understand the unique needs of your customers more effectively. When done correctly, your online presence will deepen the relationship with your customers and clue you in on their questions, desires, and needs. Not only that, but you will gain insight into the language of your customers, allowing you to align your messaging with what matters most to them. Sometimes, you are providing the correct information but in the wrong language, which doesn’t resonate with your target audience.  3. Decrease in Conversion Rates  A low conversion rate indicates that your visitors have not been convinced to take the intended action of the website. Or worse, there is no intended action. When adding any content to your online platforms, it is essential to ask the following:  What value am I providing with this content? Who specifically is this for?  What is the intended outcome?  At Aptimized, we find that the most common causes of low conversion rates are cluttered/confusing website layouts and ineffective content. Disorganization, lack of clarity, or irrelevant content makes the viewer less likely to take positive action. Your online presence should engage your intended audience, provide valuable content, convey the relevancy of your solution, and do so clearly and concisely. We take pride in helping businesses optimize their online presence; contact us here to take the next step. 

It seems like everywhere you look, a new software tool is claiming to increase sales, generate leads, and make profits fall from the sky. The tech stacks for businesses are on an upward trend, requiring organizations to continuously invest more in tools and solutions. In fact, “The average growth rate for annualized spend on SaaS by company size is 58 percent,” according to Vendr research. At Aptimized, we believe that when it comes to business growth, businesses typically don't need more; they usually need the software that is right for their specific use case. This is why we are a proponent of Hubspot, a robust CRM platform that connects marketing, sales, content management, and customer service.  We’ve compiled a list of the features we love about Hubspot’s CRM and how to utilize them for business growth.  Hubspot designs its features and tools to reflect the flywheel model, which breaks the buyer stage into three main phases.    ATTRACT, ENGAGE & DELIGHT  Attract In the attract phase, the goal is to catch the attention of your target audience.  Ads  Hubspot helps businesses create impactful ads that can be tracked, optimized, and distributed effectively. You can quickly manage Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google ad campaigns all in one place. This will help you to understand the correlation between total ad spend and company revenue, gain insights on lead interactions, and its impact on omnichannel marketing efforts.  Blogging tools  With the advanced blogging tools available, blogs become a source of generating MQLs. You’ll gain access to analytics, details, and suggestions to improve your blog’s effectiveness. The unique blogging software with Hubspot is designed to drive more traffic to your blog and publish content that will convert readers into customers.  Social Media  Effective social media marketing requires thoughtful content creation. Hubspot has a wide array of tools designed to support and enhance the process of content creation. The social media software within Hubspot connects you with the right people, so you can allocate more time nurturing relationships and less time aimlessly searching social platforms.  Engage In the engage phase, the goal is to keep your potential clients engaged in your company, its products, and its people.  Lead organization  Hubspot makes client management effective and easy to use. The CRM seamlessly logs relevant data, client details, and information that can be used to create more personalized lead interactions.   Email Marketing  With Hubspot successfully integrated, email marketing becomes more effective. Whether your goal is brand awareness, product marketing, or thought leadership, Hubspot has unique customization tools to increase effectiveness.  Conversation Bots  Do you notice your customers frequently asking the same questions? Hubspot’s integrated chatbot makes it easy to provide customers with the answers they need and quickly get connected with the right person to help answer their questions if necessary. This also allows you to link visitors to custom landing pages, useful resources, or even suggested products.  Delight In the delight phase, the goal is to meet and succeed customer expectations.  Marketing Automation  The benefit of Hubspot’s CRM is that it grows with your business. Scaling your business while maintaining a level of personalization can only be achieved by applying a bit of automation. With this software, you can automate routine tasks and create unique workflows and bot builders designed to keep your customers engaged. This lets you provide your customers with the right information at the right time.  Hubspot Conversations  Hubspot Conversations can be used in conjunction with marketing automation to ensure you are providing the most valuable information to your ideal customers. The conversation inbox can be used to create authentic, contextual interactions with both potential and existing customers. You can also use this feature to share engaging content to prospects in a variety of formats, including video.  These features are just a fraction of the innovative tools and integrations available within Hubspot. This is why we believe this CRM is an excellent choice for so many businesses looking to grow. With different pricing options, Hub specializations, and tools available at your fingertips, Hubspot can create a competitive edge for your business. Contact us today to find out how you can use Hubspot to optimize your current business processes. 

When it comes to website speed, good enough simply isn’t good enough. Interested buyers are often discouraged from purchasing a product or service they were otherwise interested in due to slow website load times. Website Latency can be defined as the delay for a request to travel from the sender to the receiver. Today’s e-commerce landscape is more competitive than ever before, and buyers can choose alternatives for your product without hesitation. To avoid this, the end-to-end experience must be seamless, and the website should support the buyer's journey. Website latency could be the thing holding your business back from heightened success.  How slow is too slow?  With so much to consider when designing and maintaining an optimized website, how do you know if your website is fast enough? A survey conducted by Forrester Consulting concluded that “47 percent of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less, and 40 percent will wait no more than three seconds for a web page to render before abandoning the site.” In a matter of seconds, the customer you worked so hard to attract is gone, and you’ve given them a chance to check out your competitor. This is one of the reasons why optimizing your website speed should not be overlooked; let's look at some additional benefits you might experience from improving this performance metric.  Higher Ranking SEO   Website latency negatively affects Search Engine Optimization, making it harder for new customers to find you. In this announcement, Google named site speed as an included factor in their search ranking algorithm and explained some tools that can be used to evaluate site performance. Google recognizes the importance of speed for search rankings and the experience of others on the internet. With so many factors contributing to the overall site experience, we know how difficult it can be to understand if you’re doing well. You can access a complimentary SEO Audit for our specialists at Aptimized by giving us a call. This will help you to identify and address the main concerns slowing down your site speed and, ultimately, improve your SEO Ranking.    Improved User Experience  User Experience, or UX Website Design, is vital to a successful website. When a customer visits your site, they step into your virtual office. Whether they visit your website for information, direction, or to purchase from your company, your website can provide a lasting impression. With website latency, it is unlikely that your customers will have a pleasant experience. By placing emphasis on website speed, you’ll inherently increase your user experience and overall brand image.  Higher Conversion Rates  A user ‘converts’ once they’ve successfully completed the intended action of the website. This might look like downloading a file, registering for an event, or purchasing a product. However, none of this can happen if your user has left your site due to latency. The goal is to grab and keep their attention and provide value as quickly as possible. With optimized site speeds, you can give your customer what they’re looking for before they consider leaving. As stated in the findings from Portnet, “A site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds.” With this statistic in mind, it's safe to say that a slow website means a loss of revenue.  Consumers are used to speed in this modern digital age, and your website is no exception. By optimizing your website speed, you avoid standing out for the wrong reasons. A modernized, speedy site ensures there’s nothing in the way between you and your customer. At Aptimized, we are passionate about website optimization and have a team of skilled professionals eager to help you. Contact us here or leave a comment below, and we will contact you as soon as possible. 

Ivanti ITSM (IT Service Management) is a powerful software solution that enables IT teams to manage the end-to-end delivery of services seamlessly. Ivanti ITSM can improve service delivery, organizational service processes, and overall customer satisfaction if implemented correctly. This article covers five best practice recommendations for Ivanti ITSM implementation.  Know your needs.  With the large capabilities of Ivanti ITSM, it is important to clearly define what your organization is looking for and understand what offerings can best support these goals. Ivanti has great features like DEX Scoring and Edge Intelligence that can predict user problems long before they open a ticket. These types of capabilities can drastically improve the services that your customers or users get to enjoy as part of their day to day experience working with your service desk.   Set Specific and well-defined goals What are you trying to achieve with each module needed? Once you’ve understood your needs, you must set up clear objectives for the implementation and ensure they are communicated amongst the team. For example, your organization might want to leverage Ivanti ITSM to improve incident response time. This would mean identifying an agreed-upon percentage of improvement within a given timeframe. Another organization might want to focus on driving continuous improvement, where the objective is to leverage the reporting features to improve IT Service performance and promote ongoing enhancements for IT service delivery. Whatever your goal, it is necessary to specify the details and understand how the results will be measured. Once this is completed, you can move to step 3…  Create an implementation plan and set your priorities A clear and precise implementation plan with specific requirements will help with ensuring a successful outcome. The new Ivanti Cloud system is very easy to configure and time to value is faster than most leading ITSM solutions. We recommend that you start with the standard ITSM processes, then add asset management and the edge or spend intelligence suite of products into your mix as you mature your processes. If your company is doing M&A work, we would recommend that you employ data center discovery early in your implementation roadmap to ensure that all of your hardware and software information is inside your ITSM solution. Plan your set-up  Once you’ve identified your needs, set specific expectations, and created an implementation plan, it is time to dig into the setup. You must design a plan to understand the exact needs to ensure your system will work well and provide an easy roll-out. Ivanti ITSM offers configuration options to align specific workflows to requirements. You can modify or create forms to include relevant information for your team throughout incident, problem, change, or asset management. You also can configure workflow automation that will assist in streamlining cumbersome processes. If you want a detailed end-to-end plan, contact Aptimized to take the next step and get the most out of your implementation. Develop a proper training and support model  A well-developed plan without proper operationalizing can ruin all the hard work. This is why it is extremely crucial to provide your team with the tools, training, and support needed to carry on using the system post go live. Process training and rollout communications will be helpful so that employees obtain hands-on experience before the rollout. Additionally, assigning an internal SME for each business service or department will give the team confidence for an easy rollout.  With continuous improvement in mind, our goal at Aptimized is to help companies make the necessary technological changes for business growth. We understand there is a lot to think about during each phase of the implementation process, which is why we are passionate about providing you with assistance and assurance. If there is a specific question you would like us to answer or you have thoughts on this topic, leave a comment below to start the conversation. 

You can’t escape it; Social Media has become a large driving force for business development. And when it comes to optimizing Social Media for E-commerce, it's all about the data.  If used correctly, this data can become an undeniable accelerator for your social sales funnel.  But businesses often are stuck with useless data, vanity metrics, and misinterpreted analytics.  So what causes this disconnect, and how can you ensure your e-commerce business isn’t trapped in this cycle?  In this article, we’ll dive into the three main components of Social Analytics for E-commerce growth and provide a simple roadmap for implementation.  First, It all begins with understanding your customer:  Are you reaching your ICP?  To attract and resonate with your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), you must first understand them. Sure, you might have a developed clear buyer persona, but are you tailoring your content based on the right data?  It’s time to operationalize the data you gather from your social media, so you can create targeted content that is impactful and useful to your potential buyer. Because the more you know about them, the more you can help them.  With the appropriate tools, you will be able to create data-driven responses to questions that will serve as a guide in the content creation process.  To get better answers, we must ask better questions. It's time to become curious about the details of your customers.  Where is your customer having conversations with others in their industry?  What questions are they having trouble finding the answers to?  Who do they consider an industry expert/who do they frequently listen to? Where do they currently go for information?  What are they struggling with?  By effectively answering these questions, you can place your focus on what you can give to your customers rather than what you can get from them. Establishing your company as a resource for relevant information can only be done if you have useful data. Data that tells you what your audience is looking for and when.  Once you have identified pertinent information about your potential customers, it's time to understand how to use this data to create better content.  Optimizing your content for E-commerce growth  Gathering data is the first half of the equation; it's what you do with it that makes the difference. To stand out in the world of e-commerce, your content must not only be relevant and relatable, but it should also trigger an action from your customer.  Ask yourself these 3 questions before sharing your content:  Identify the goal: What action would I like my customers to take?  Identify the metric for success: How will I know if it's working? Analyze and adapt: How could I adjust based on the information I gather?  Fueling the purchasing stage:  Once you have answered these questions, you must focus on nurturing the bottom-of-the-funnel customers. These customers are in the consideration stage and are making the decision to buy your product or service. But all too often, interested buyers disengage once they reach the purchasing stage on the website. Robert Carroll, VP of E-commerce at Aptimized, offered his advice on this common sticking point  “You first need to analyze where you are seeing high drop-off rates and then develop a plan to combat this. This might look like creating a responsive mobile design, enhancing your web copy structure, or updating your UI/UX Design.”  Essentially, an effective social strategy is not complete without an effective website.  The two need to work together for optimal results, now more than ever. As stated in the 2023 State of Marketing Report from Hubspot, “Web traffic was overall down 6% in 2022 compared to 2021” This means that e-commerce companies will need to optimize their social profiles to drive traffic to their website and, ultimately, increase sales.  If data is used strategically to optimize your social and online presence, traffic will increase, sales will climb, and your customers will be more likely to repurchase. By reaching the right audience, creating valuable content, and developing a strategy to enhance your website performance, your e-commerce business will see undeniable growth in 2023. If you're ready to enhance your e-commerce performance and catapult your success, click here to take the first step. 

Have you ever heard of the phrase penny wise but pound foolish? This is often the root cause of a series of technological mistakes or uninformed decisions that lead to painful conditions in the long term. It begins with leadership experiencing difficulty or a limitation that hinders their ability to do business. Revenue growth or cost savings likely created a new need that a specific technology can help to solve. In these cases, the first step of the technology implementation is usually ignored. Systems are often implemented without considering the business process first.  Let’s begin by identifying where mistakes begin: When organizations do not have a defined set of business processes, they implement technologies without considering the complete scenarios. This is where the mistakes begin. Missing process steps are discovered after the technology is implemented, resulting in manual behaviors or band-aid technology bolt-ons that cause data problems. These data problems become more cumbersome as system usage expands, and soon there are upstream and downstream impacts as a result. More band-aids are required, usually resulting in more people and expensive support models.  How can you prevent falling into a string of errors? The best way to avoid this string of errors is to pause, take a deep breath, and look at the problem you are trying to resolve with technology. Take the time to document the business process first, then evaluate the technology after you have a defined process. This will enable you to expose gaps up front and design your systems accordingly.  You’ve found yourself in an error string; how can you escape?   The best way to escape an error string is to pause again and ensure that you have your business process documented end-to-end. After you can see the full process end to end, the gaps can be identified and redesigned. Performing a proper root cause analysis on the issues will identify the preventative actions that are required to prevent future error strings. My advice is not to be afraid to change a poorly performing process. Continuous improvement must be a culture, not a threat to any organization.  Understanding the probability of error:  ERP projects and order management processes are often the two largest system implementations that lead to error strings. ERP systems are often complex and interrelated. They are also expensive, resulting in quite a bit of cost avoidance and multiple teams. These complexities often overlook the full business process. Order management processes are equally as challenging because they impact revenue and speed often drives process failures.  IT Managers need to ensure that they collaborate with the business teams and consider the end-to-end process. This collaboration is very important because no matter how good your product or service is, if navigating your back office becomes a challenge, it will make the user experience terrible. If customers cannot navigate your company or if they are forced to learn too much about your internal processes, they will look to other providers and eventually replace you.As companies evolve, grow, and mature, their technology systems can easily do the exact opposite. New systems pop up to solve needs in different departments, but they are rarely integrated from day one. This creates pockets of process and manual data being passed between internal teams. There are simple and easy to implement integration tools that connect these different systems. However, there still needs to be (at least) a single human being within the organization that can see and understand the business processes across these organizations.  This function can be outsourced to save on costs or filled internally, but it cannot be ignored. 80% of all issues in technology systems are data related, mostly because someone ignored the business process or they were unaware of the need to consider processes end to end when systems were installed. This is ultimately the reason why companies have IT mistakes that lead to a string of mistakes across the company over the years. Once embedded into a company, it becomes difficult to pull out from these conditions without major IT transformational projects. (That in turn have political, financial, and organizational hardship on larger companies in the future)  If you are a small to mid-market company interested in growing, evolving, and planning for the future, contact empower@aptimized.com for more information.    - William Mills  Aptimized CEO 

In today’s modern business environment, we have grown to rely on instantaneous connection no matter where we are in the world. That last-minute email before a flight, the phone call we’ve been waiting to receive from a team member across the globe, or the video call that allows us to present with ease. It is no secret that we rely on these areas of connection, but when was the last time you thought about how it's happening? It all comes down to telecommunications.  Telecommunications is the art of communication across the span of long distances. This includes the technologies we know and love, like telephones, emails, instant messengers, and video conferences. Telecom services have become undeniably essential with the increase of virtual collaboration and remote work. Many people forget just how important telecommunications optimization is; in this article, we explain the three main benefits and their importance for your business. TEAM COLLABORATION  Telecom allows employees to collaborate with their teammates and clients without the need to be physically present. This means that projects can still move along despite employee distance, allowing for brainstorming, suggestions, and improvements at any time.  EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY  Telecommunication and remote work coincide, making it easier for employees to complete tasks regardless of location. Employees can receive access to VoIP services, collaboration software, and other fire-sharing platforms that allow for continuous advancement.  IMPROVED COMMUNICATION  All interactions with modern telecom infrastructure are enhanced. This benefits not only employees but those external to the company as well, like partners, stakeholders, and customers.  Collaboration, communication, and productivity are vital for operational efficiency. Any interruption in any of these and your business operations will be significantly impacted. This is why we take telecommunication optimization seriously. We identify risks, redundancies, and opportunities for cost-saving. Doing so allows us to provide cost-effective implementations for all voice, data, and converged telecommunications product sets. Contact us today to be connected with a telecommunication expert to begin your optimization. 

In the world of software development methodologies, there is a lot of discussion about DevOps compared to Agile. But the truth is, these two concepts might be more complimentary than you think.  Let's begin with the basics:  What is Agile? Agile approaches software development through the lens of collaboration, adaptability, and customer satisfaction. Agile teams are known for working in short increments of time called ‘sprints’ with the goal of delivering working software at the end of each sprint. Usually, these sprints are between 4-6 weeks, and the team works together to turn priorities into requirements and set the right requirements for the next sprint. This approach follows the Agile Manifesto, prioritizing interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and response to change.  What is DevOps?  DevOps is a methodology that combines the philosophies, tools, and practices needed to deliver applications and services quickly. A functional DevOps team requires collaboration between developers and IT operations to increase the efficiency of software development within the product lifecycle. DevOps teams frequently use continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines to automate the testing, building, and deployment of software.  By definition, these two approaches might seem mutually exclusive, but the two can work together seamlessly. To understand how this can work, let's compare this concept to something everyone can relate to… food. Take a moment and think of your favorite restaurant.  Each time you visit, the restaurant aims to provide you (the customer) with an unforgettable experience, from efficiency and accuracy to creating an exceptional culinary experience. In this scenario, consider Agile like the master chef. The chef wants to deliver a delicious meal to the customer; he starts with his ingredients and tastes the food along the way, making slight adjustments until he gets the final dish just right. He is always testing new ingredients and techniques and frequently comes up with new ideas during the creative process. He is focused on creating an excellent product quickly without spending too much time worrying about what comes next. Consider DevOps like the waiter. The waiter delivers the chef’s culinary masterpiece to the customer on time and with quality. They make sure to take care of any customer needs and/or modifications. Essentially, DevOps is focused on ensuring the final product can be delivered continuously and smoothly.  The chef and the waiter work synergistically to provide an exceptional dining experience for the customer.  The same concept can be applied to your business operations because these two methodologies complement each other.  Devops helps Agile teams to work quicker by automating processes that would be done manually without it. DevOps tools allow for easier deployment of new features and customer changes. Changes in response to customer requests can be made quickly because DevOps supports continuous feedback loops between stakeholders. Additionally, Agile sprints are measured more effectively due to DevOps tools, providing a clear understanding of improvement areas. The conjunction of these two concepts ultimately leads to better team collaboration, Increased productivity, and enhanced efficiency. If you want to speed up your development process without jeopardizing quality, contact us today for guidance on the next steps. 

Picture this scenario. Your E-commerce storefront is growing faster than ever. People are raving about your products; customers keep returning, and your brand awareness is rapidly increasing. Projected revenue for the next year is double the previous year and is expected to maintain growth if this trend continues. Everything sounds great, right?  The only problem is you can’t keep up with the growing demand. Your site keeps crashing due to the high volume of traffic and sales, leaving customers clueless about important information regarding their orders. Customers are often left without details on what they care about, like their shipping statuses, return requests, or order histories. When customers reach out for support, they don't get it because your business is not yet equipped with dedicated support agents. But, you yourself are too busy fulfilling the influx of orders to respond. So where do you go from here?  This is where Shopify Plus comes in. Shopify Plus is designed to support and enhance online platforms in a customized, scalable manner. Shopify Plus is the enterprise-level version of the popular Shopify e-commerce platform, designed for high-volume and high-growth merchants. There are so many benefits of Shopify Plus, but we’ve narrowed down 9 main benefits we think you should know about.  1. Scalability  Shopify Plus is built to support high volumes of traffic and sales. This allows you to focus on growing your business without worrying about things like downtime and slow page load.  2. Customization  By using Shopify Plus, you get access to the Shopify API, meaning you can create custom scripts and apps tailored to your store’s specific needs. This is particularly helpful for businesses with complex product catalogs or unique requirements.  3. Support  Shopify Plus merchants can access a 24/7 support team for assistance and guidance. Issues are resolved quickly and effectively, leaving no time for loss of store revenue.  4. Multi-channel selling  With Multi-channel selling, you can meet your customers where they are. Whether they like to browse on Instagram, Facebook marketplace, or offline sales channels, you can make it easy for your customers to find the products they want by placing them where they already shop.  5. Fast checkout  How much revenue do you lose from abandoned carts? Shopify Plus has a faster checkout process, which can reduce cart abandonment rates by using simplified checkout forms and optimized payment processing.  6. Security  Additional security features come along with Shopify Plus. They are designed to protect your store from fraud and other security threats by using features like a dedicated SSL certificate, a customizable fraud prevention system, and third-party fraud detection services.  7. Lower transaction fees Shopify Plus merchants can negotiate lower transaction fees based on their sales volume. This can help to reduce costs and increase profitability, particularly for businesses with high order volumes. 8. Checkout Customization  Shopify Plus provides a fully customizable checkout experience, allowing merchants to tailor the checkout process to their specific needs and branding. This can help to improve the customer experience, reduce cart abandonment rates, and increase conversions. 9. Analytics  Shopify Plus provides advanced analytic tools to help merchants track and analyze sales data, customer behavior, and more. This enables businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their operations, leading to increased revenue and profitability. So if you crave sky-rocketing growth for your business but want to do so without worrying about your platform’s inefficiencies, it's time to try Shopify Plus. Aptimized has a team of Shopify experts who understand the power of Shopify Plus and know how to operationalize this power for your business. We have a passion for helping businesses succeed, which is why we offer a zero-cost assessment to get you started on the right foot. Contact us to get started.  Continue reading related articles: https://www.aptimized.com/blogs/news/maximizing-your-web-store-revenue-8-emerging-shopify-trends-you-need-to-know https://www.aptimized.com/blogs/news/why-work-with-a-shopify-partner https://www.aptimized.com/blogs/news/increase-revenue-with-shopify

Speak to any IT professional, and they’ll tell you all about their thoughts on IT process development. But in the IT Industry, it is hard to get IT professionals to agree on the conversation around ITIL and DevOps. Which one is better? Does one help the other? Do you need to pick one and stick with it? The answer depends on your company’s use case.  Let's start with the foundation.  What is ITIL?  ITIL (The Information Technology Infrastructure Library) provides a framework adopted by thousands of organizations that have chosen a standardized approach to IT Service Management (ITSM). This highly structured methodology leads to a better quality of service management, outcomes, and operations. ITIL reduces IT operations costs, allows for more focus on business issues, and increases productivity for IT employees.  What is DevOps?  DevOps is a methodology that combines the philosophies, tools, and practices needed to deliver applications and services quickly. A functional DevOps team requires collaboration between developers and IT operations to increase the efficiency of software development within the product lifecycle. The DevOps lifecycle is often depicted in an infinity loop, like the one below, because it symbolizes the necessity for constant improvement and collaboration. This approach works very well for businesses that prioritize working holistically and encourages team collaboration.  In some situations, both approaches might be needed to achieve optimal results.  At the surface level, the principles of DevOps directly contradict the standard structured principles of ITIL, but if implemented correctly, the two can support each other.  The key to doing so effectively is to begin by listing the key ITIL processes needed and identifying potential complications. After identifying, businesses can utilize these complications as a starting point for DevOps integration. By working in this manner, most companies find that misunderstandings within the software development lifecycle are reduced. We see this shift because DevOps is considered more of a philosophical idea that focuses on evolving employees’ mindsets to support collaboration between development and operation teams. By using the processes of ITIL and then implementing the principles of DevOps, companies skyrocket their business operations. With tools like ServiceNow and Ivanti ITSM, integrating these systems can be integrated with quality and accuracy.  We know there is a lot to consider when trying to establish an appropriate approach for your business. It's important to cover the foundational questions first, so you can align your thinking and develop a comprehensive strategy.  You’ll want to consider asking the following questions:  What is the problem you are trying to solve?  What results and/or benefits would you like to see?  What current processes support existing capabilities?  What is the typical rate of change within your organization?  Once you’ve answered these questions, it's time to take the next steps.    But keep in mind a careless implementation of either of these solutions can bring about more problems than it solves; Aptimized is here to bring ITIL and DEV/OPS together in a productive way. We leverage your ITSM solution to ensure process adherence and ensure rapid time to value for all tech deployments. Contact us with your questions, and we will connect you with the best point of contact to assist you. 

ERP software is essential to the success of your organization, and maintaining the value of your investment is of utmost importance. Customizing an ERP has a considerably broader scope and often entails significant software coding changes to better meet the organization's needs.  An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a comprehensive software application that manages various business processes such as finance, human resources, manufacturing, and customer relations.  The advantage of designing and installing a customized ERP system and application is that it allows the organization to balance integration and specification. ERP customization can also result in the following advantages for the organization.  — Better alignment with your business processes,  — Increase security and competitive advantage, — Better data management and reporting,  — Optimized and improved decision-making — Greater efficiency, — Better integration with other systems, and  — Better customer relationship and supply chain management.  Below are some necessary steps an organization should follow to customize an ERP system to meet specific business goals or needs. The first step in customizing an ERP system is - Identify specific business goals and requirements: Every organization must identify the specific business goals and requirements the system must meet. This includes thoroughly analyzing business processes, workflows, and activities to determine areas where the ERP system can be adjusted to improve efficiency, productivity, and performance. Identify areas to customize: Once your specific business goals and requirements have been identified, the next step is to determine the areas of your ERP system that need to be customized. This includes workflows, reports, user interfaces, and other features. Define customization needs: After identifying areas for customization, the organization should define specific customization needs. This includes creating a detailed list of customization requirements, the desired outcome, specific changes, and a timeline for implementation. Consult with the ERP vendor: The ERP vendor can guide you on the best way to implement the customization, the potential risks involved, and the benefits of the changes. Customization implementation: After creating a customization plan, companies can implement changes to their ERP system. This includes workflow changes, custom report creation, user interface redesign, and other changes. Testing and Training: Once customizations are implemented, organizations should conduct testing to ensure the system works properly and produces the desired results. Training activities should follow these tests to ensure users are familiar with the new system and can use customized features effectively. By following these steps, an organization can tailor its ERP system to its unique needs and achieve its business goals.  Aptimized can ensure you’re selecting the right ERP system for your business. In this post, we covered the functionalities of ERP system customization to meet specific business goals. We have a proven track record of generating success in ERP functionality, and we’re eager to help you.  Supriya Shivalkar SAP Consultant, Aptimized Kiran Karasala Country Manager, Aptimized

Social commerce: Social media platforms are becoming increasingly popular for shopping, and Shopify has been making it easier for merchants to sell their products directly through social media channels. Sustainability: Consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, so the demand for sustainable and eco-friendly products has significantly increased. Shopify store owners who focus on sustainability and transparency are likely to see more success. Voice search: As voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant become more prevalent, optimizing your Shopify store for voice search can help improve your visibility. Augmented reality (AR): Augmented reality is becoming more popular in the world of e-commerce, and Shopify is making it easier for store owners to integrate AR into their stores. AR can help customers visualize products and make more informed purchasing decisions. Subscription services: Subscription services are becoming more popular, and Shopify store owners can take advantage of this trend by offering recurring billing and subscription-based products. Multi-channel selling: Many Shopify store owners are now selling their products across multiple channels, including their own websites, social media platforms, and marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Video marketing: Video marketing is increasing in popularity, and Shopify store owners are using video to showcase their products and engage with their customers. Artificial intelligence: Shopify is incorporating more AI into its platform, which can help store owners automate tasks like inventory management and customer service.   - Jay Sinha  Shopify Plus Developer Aptimized LLC (888) 332-5310 

We’ve seen it time and time again; modern companies are burdened by difficult-to-use systems that make business operations wildly inefficient. So how are some companies managing to enhance operational efficiency, improve decision-making, and easily work across devices? The answer: A mobile ERP.  A mobile ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a software solution connecting all business operating systems to increase efficiency and effectiveness.  These systems include human resources, supply and demand, accounting, and many other key business sectors. With the ability to control all these sectors, efficiency and productivity inherently increase, and employee productivity soars.  Mobile ERP solutions allow users to access information anywhere at any time. With the cloud and mobile-based system, there is no need to resort to a singular desktop or location to access systems. This allows employees to seamlessly transition from location to location without a lapse in productivity. With remote work steadily increasing worldwide, a mobile ERP provides these employees with the needed ease and usability.  Even with time differences, ERP enables real-time accessibility of documentation and tracking progress. Mobile ERP is compatible with several devices and can adjust itself based on the type of device used.  While mobile ERP solutions provide an undeniable business advantage, they do not come without fault. When first implementing these solutions, it can be difficult to figure out which systems support ERP integration and which would be interrupted. If a business has an efficient workflow, ERP can slow down its productivity by adapting to the transition. Without proper training on how the system works, there can be resistance from the teams.  This can create conflict within the business, leading to inefficiency.  Although mobile ERP may be an easy and efficient start, it is important to take note of the maintenance costs attached before it is implemented. Determining its longevity in a company as well as its compatibility with the company’s software partner, is a vital detail when making ERP implementation worthwhile.  While the lack of information on mobile ERP solutions can be disadvantageous when first implementing it, this system proves to be highly effective with the remote workforce. Since many companies have hybrid or complete remote options for their employees, mobile ERP solutions give businesses the ability to manage departments from any device in real time at any location. With the correct training and implementation of this technology, companies can better understand and organize the capacity of their own sectors. Aptimized has a proven track record of generating success in this area, and we’re eager to share it with you; contact us below for more information. 

OpenAI, a research organization dedicated to advancing the field of artificial intelligence, has made several impressive innovations over the years. One of their latest creations is ChatGPT, a language model designed for conversational AI.

As customer behavior returns to normal post-pandemic, many companies are scrambling to decrease overhead costs. In a report released by Bloomberg, Amazon announced a total of 18,000 job cuts in 2023. With over 67,000 jobs eliminated within the tech industry since the beginning of the year. While this may be a necessary course of action for certain companies, its impacts are felt both internally and externally. This means that partners and vendors of these companies might be left without proper points of contact, resources, and direction for the upcoming year.  Business customers in today’s marketplace depend on their partners to be there for the long haul. With these layoffs happening in tech, seemingly without regard for individuals’ performance level or longevity, customers are experiencing a loss of current relationships with their vendors. By doing business with Aptimized they can eliminate these concerns altogether because customer trust is the #1 reason we exist.  Service organizations with the breadth of knowledge that have not had significant attrition can bring stability to organizations ongoing major transformation.    Our customers experience a true sense of partnership with our team because Aptimized has had a very low attrition rate compared with the industry. We value our customers, but more importantly, we value our people. Our team members have historical views of our customers and they possess a detailed business understanding. This knowledge enables our customers to minimize their own risk during their transformation; which in turn creates more value out of services they receive from us.  If your partner does not provide this type of value and commitment, it may be time to search for a new one.     Joe Battista Strategic Account Director

Through Google’s new and impressive MusicLM, AI can generate music pieces that are minutes long using just a simple prompt. Although the system is still facing many challenges, the sample songs that Google released are very promising. This AI can use prompts that are over a paragraph long, such as ones that describe the instruments and genre, but can create the same with a mere two-word prompt such as “melodic techno”. One of its challenges, however, is simulating human voices. The overall sound and the tone generally match a human voice well, but the quality is not quite the same. The lyrics may sound like English, but they don’t actually contain real sentences. Without concentrating on the words, the songs can sound very real. Google was not the first to perform music generation with AI, and will definitely not be the last. Systems in the 90s were already composing pop songs and copying Bach with human-like capabilities. What makes MusicLM different is its high precision in adhering to the prompt and the quality of music that it produces. One of its unique features is allowing users to input a hummed tune and generate an electronic synth lead, string quartet, guitar solo, and more to go along with it.  Despite its amazing capabilities, Google announced that it has no current plans to release the system. The company faces potential issues of cultural appropriation and plagiarism, not wanting to take that risk just yet. On the bright side, researchers and developers of other music AI can definitely make use of Google’s system, with over 5,500 music text pairs being released publicly soon. Even though MusicLM may not be the future of musical AI, the potential for other systems to take that role is now tremendous. Although this system has yet to be fully released, it has the potential to massively impact the music industry. To get ahead of the curve with technological advancements, contact Aptimized below to start a conversation.