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Coming Soon to Advantage:
Credit Card Vault
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The Importance of Data Security
In late summer of this year, news broke that Equifax had been the victim of a massive data breach, likely one of the largest thefts of consumer data ever---see article
here. As one of three primary agencies charged with tracking consumer credit in the US, Equifax fully understood the consequences of what it means for a consumer to have sensitive financial data stolen. While it appears that a sophisticated hack was involved, the case highlights the importance of data security and the risk that a company takes on in handling sensitive data.
The theft of one's Social Security number, credit card data, or other personal data can cause many problems in today's world. It also costs businesses billions of dollars (maybe it's trillions of dollars by now) a year in handling the related fraud, not to mention the effect on the invaluable reputation of a business. Data security encompasses the need to protect a wide range of data, whether it's financial, demographic, or general personal information like names and email addresses. At AdvantageCS, we're constantly focused on the full range, but we've especially been working with our clients on PCI compliance in the past couple of months.
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Salesforce Integration Update
by Phil Montgomery
Have you heard about AdvantageCS's R&D project to revamp our integration with Salesforce?
Started in January of this year, this project has made a lot of progress, and it's about more than just Salesforce. Publishers, content providers and membership organizations commonly use Salesforce for prospect relationship management, where sales teams are involved. These companies are selling into businesses, educational institutions, governmental entities, etc.---essentially business-to-business sales efforts. The Salesforce Integration project includes several features that further strengthen Advantage's B2B functionality. And you don't have to be using Salesforce to take "advantage" of these expanded B2B features.
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Congratulations to:
Egmont and the American Medical Association
on their recent Advantage upgrades!
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Bryan Varblow Promoted to VP, Operations
Vice President Bryan Varblow has been promoted to Vice President, Operations, in which he will be responsible for the entire Client Services Division. The promotion took effect October 15th.
In his twelve years at ACS, Bryan has filled multiple key roles including vice president of Client Services, director of Client Services, project director, team leader, upgrade project manager, implementation project manager, and Support Center analyst. He brings a broad-based knowledge of Advantage projects, client activities, and the publishing and membership association industries to this position.
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An Annual tradition in publishing: the Frankfurt Book Fair
Every year, for the past 14, we have attended the Frankfurt Book Fair, which takes place in October in Frankfurt, Germany. If you've never attended the "Frankfurter Buchmesse," it is difficult to paint a picture of just how gigantic this event is. This is the largest trade fair for books in the world.
http://www.book-fair.com/en/
It has been an annual event going back over 500 years to 1454, soon after Gutenberg invented the printing press, when the first book fair was held by local booksellers. It has evolved into
the event for negotiating international publishing rights and license fees, and is surrounded by technology companies and other vendors to the industry who are able to do business with many publishers, authors, librarians, and agents in a short time.
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'Tis the season to give online gift certificates
by Paul DesRosiers
The Cider web platform provides a robust environment for customer self-service and order placement. Now, just in time for the holidays, the platform also supports payments made through gift certificates.
Gift certificates are already a native payment method in the Advantage software package,
But now the Cider platform will also support payments made via Advantage gift certificates. You can choose whether or not a certificate is usable for web orders.
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Tyranny of the Urgent
In our world of constant interruptions and crises, it can be difficult to find time to address the critical tasks and projects that fall into the category often referred to as "Q2." These are the things that in mapping out priorities get put into the second quadrant, which is reserved for those tasks that are important but not necessarily urgent. We become victim to the tyranny of the urgent. Our time and our lives become dominated by addressing whatever emergency has popped up that day. It's easy for those things that belong in the third quadrant (tasks that are urgent but not necessarily important), to masquerade as a top priority.
There are many ways to reorganize your priorities to focus on what truly should be at the top of the list. Sometimes that involves accepting that there will missed be opportunities in the short term in order to focus on what is more important long-term. Other times, it means needing to hand-off the urgent task or reassess whether the task is as urgent as first believed.
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Have you seen our videos?
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Take Me Out to the Ball Game
As part of our annual summer picnic, AdvantageCS staff and their family members recently headed to Detroit for America's pastime: a Major League Baseball game. Though our home team lost, our Tigers fans enjoyed cheering their team on, singing traditional ballgame songs, and watching the finale - a spectacular fireworks display. Everyone had a ball (pun intended)!
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Check out our blog for the most up-to-date news and information about Advantage. New posts weekly!
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Editor: Cindy Mikol Twiss
3850 Ranchero Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48108 USA
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