Thursday, April 28, 2016

Serotonin-Plus Weight Loss Offers Individualized Weight Loss Programs to Fit Your Need

Medical Weight Loss Program Serotonin-Plus offers individualized weight loss programs to fit every weight loss need. Whatever your weight loss goals are we offer effective, safe and responsible weight loss to fit any budget.


We tailor programs to you based upon your specific needs, capabilities and limitations. Our weight loss program has a very high success rate and patients are re-evaluated until optimal weight loss is achieved. Serotonin-Plus provides flexibility so that you can achieve your goal while maintaining your busy schedule.


The program's foundation is built on behavioral and lifestyle modification with a medical “jumpstart”. The Serotonin-Plus Weight Loss Program™ is medically supervised and consists of weekly visits with the medical staff depending upon the program chosen.


We feature the Serotonin Formula™, our unique patented oral serotonin supplement that acts as a natural appetite suppressant and significantly reduces carbohydrate cravings. When appropriate, we utilize an FDA approved prescription appetite suppressant to jumpstart the metabolism.


Serotonin is a natural body brain chemical. Serotonin imbalance has been implicated as contributing to increased carbohydrate cravings, binge eating, depression.


See What Real Patients Have to Say and Get Started Today!


“In the last 5 years my participation in various weight control programs had been disappointingly unsuccessful. However, The Serotonin Formula Weight Loss Program™ has been AMAZING!! While following this program during this past 12 week period that included Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year festivities, I LOST 20 lbs. TRULY AMAZING”. – Shirlee C.


“Best-Northern-Va-Weight-Loss-CentersI started the Serotonin Formula Weight Loss Program in May at 180 pounds and by November I reached my weight goal of 125 pounds. I lost 55 pounds and went from a size 18 to a size 6. I had tried all kinds of programs and nothing seemed to work. With Serotonin Formula, I followed the program and diet plan, as well as, began to exercise every day and the weight came off. I work two jobs and I was able to follow the program without any problem. I would tell anyone that really needs to lose weight to try the Serotonin Formula Program because it really does work. People are amazed, everyone that knew me when I was heavy tells me I look great!” – JoAnn K.


“I never did a lot of different diet programs – other than weight watchers many years ago – I always tried to control my weight by exercising. Because I am tall, I could get away with this. But as I got older (53), exercise could not make up for the large portions of carbohydrates I seemed to require. I was always hungry.” – Amy B.


“I must have thought about my weight, and felt bad about myself, 30 times a day at least. It affected everything. I was angry at myself, angry at other people, I wore black jeans and a black sweater everyday to work, I felt old and unattractive. My slow but steady weight gain – in five years I went from a size 14 to a size 18 – affected all aspects of my life; my relationship with my extended family (their firm belief: “fat=lazy, this=a good person”), my social life (none!), my work relationships (I believe I was passed over for promotions and opportunities because I looked old, acted angry and was just not part of the team).”


“I knew myself well enough to know that weight watchers, Jenny Craig and other similar denial programs and “group support” programs were not going to work for me. I just felt that I could not keep that kind of commitment. I wanted to see some immediate results or I would just lose hope and give up. Unlike many other people, I had not tried all sorts of diets prior to the Serotonin Formula program. I did nothing – just felt bad and thought there was no solution.”


“I spotted the Serotonin Formula ad in the Washington Post last March and emailed Dr. Posner on a whim with a question about anti-depressant medications I was on (also a cause of inability to lose weight and cause of weight gain!). I just felt that his program sounded like it might work for me. I was so surprised and impressed when he answered my question, and then later when he called my psychiatrist to consult with her and work out a safe program which did not interfere with my current medications – some doctors resent working with other physicians and it becomes a big hassle to manage. Dr. Posner wasn't like that at all. He wanted to see me succeed.”


If you have questions regarding our Serotonin-Plus Weight Loss Program™ or for appointment requests, please call 561-330-7579.


“Right from the start I felt supported by his staff and right from the start – I saw results. I had to change my entire way of eating and shopping for food. But I did it with help from resources available through Serotonin Formula. It was hard work, but by seeing results every week, I kept at it.”


“In seven months I went from a size 18 to a size 8. I wouldn't have believed it. I had always exercised vigorously – and this continued throughout the Serotonin Formula program. But the exercises got easier and my performance level improved dramatically. With much improved nutritional habits to match my regular exercise program, my depression is better controlled, my chronic migraines are improved (not totally gone, but certainly 95% improved). In both cases, I am taking less medicine and feeling better.”


“I cannot begin to tell you how much better I feel about my life, my work, my self-image. All my relationships – with family, friends, etc. – have improved. My work habits and work energy are high and I believe I am viewed as a more valuable resource by my co-workers and manager. I did not discuss my diet commitment with my friends, family or co-workers. It was my own business and I just did it for myself. I can't explain why, but I feel that keeping this to myself helped me stick to it.”


“Its been a great experience. I feel very lucky to have spotted that small ad one day last March and took a step towards gaining control of my life. No fad diet would have done this for me. I feel that my new habits are going to be with me for life.” – Linda M.


“Like many, I've tried many other weight loss programs in the past. I was interested in Serotonin Formula because I felt I needed a jumpstart at my age and couldn't do it on my own. The weight has been harder to take off now than it was when I was in my twenties and thirties. The program was very effective for me and I was able to lose over 24 pounds in 12 weeks. I was held accountable for my weight every week and I became diligent at sticking to the program. It has changed my life. I have modified my eating habits so that I now know what to do to be able to keep the weight off long-term. People have noticed the difference in my appearance which is great!”


These are results for these individual, results will vary and are not guaranteed.


If you have questions regarding our Serotonin-Plus Weight Loss Program™ or for appointment requests, please call 561-330-7579.


 


Serotonin Plus Weight Loss Program



 


Beauty Smart Cosmetic Laser Center Medical Spa Boca Raton


 

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

MasterCard Follows Visa To A More Comfortable EMV Experience

On Wednesday April 27, MasterCard unveiled its M/Chip Fast, which is an almost identical version of Visa's Quick Chip For EMV. Both approaches cut down on some authentication so that the EMV card can be removed a couple of seconds after the shopper dips it. And both Visa and MasterCard are only pushing it for retailers that have the greatest need for speed, which has the unfortunate result of guaranteeing vastly different EMV experiences as shoppers go from merchant to merchant.

In a GuestView this week, Mercator Advisory Group's Tim Sloane argued that by encouraging different kinds of EMV experiences, the card brands might be impeding the rapid adoption of EMV. In MasterCard's statement, the brand said it was important that it join Visa's effort and that EMV can only succeed through industry standardization. "MasterCard called for the industry to activate current action-oriented forums like the Payments Security Taskforce and the EMV Migration Forum to align behind a common approach to address perceptions of speed of a chip card transaction," the statement said, before quoting Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise risk and security for MasterCard saying "Ultimately, we all want to deliver great experiences for consumers and merchants. That's why we believe that M/Chip Fast or any similar product should be implemented in consultation with the industry. With that holistic view, interested merchants can easily integrate this with their current systems to provide both speed and security for all chip cards.”

Stripe's Hiring Experiment

It's well known that payment facilitators are toying with and improving payments mechanisms all over the world, but one PF-Stripe-is also getting rather creating about hiring the talent to make those new age payments happen.

In an experiment called Bring Your Own Team (and like any PF, it feels the need to generate an acronym. Hence: BYOT), the company has set up its HR job applications to allow one application to be linked with as many as five others. If the group passes initial inspection, they are given the same interview day/time. If the group crosses the HR hiring finish line, they will be asked to all start on the same day. In a blog post by Stripe engineering manager Avi Bryant, the rationale for the trial is made explicit. A key part of the magic of workgroups is getting groups that get along with each other and already work well together.

New EMV Methods: Confusion To Reign Supreme

Visa introduced Quick Chip for EMV on April 19th and MasterCard quickly followed with the announcement of M/Chip Fast on April 21st. By speeding up how quickly the consumer can remove the card from the POS, these two networks have also increased complexity for the already complicated payment process as implemented by consumers, merchants, and issuers. Where once it was possible to have some confidence a card would work as long as the brand was displayed, life is now more complicated. Besides Swipe, Dip, and Tap, we now have Swipe, Hover (MST), Show (Chase Pay), Dip, Quick Dip, and Tap – to name a few.

Then there are is the question of compatibility. NFC won't work at non-NFC terminals while a Samsung device with MST will. Swiping an EMV card forces a dip, but only at terminals that support EMV. I'm in payments and I have no idea what happens if I present an EMV enabled card within my Samsung Pay device and use MST to communicate it to a POS that only supports swipe and EMV – does it ask me to dip my phone?

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Inside 3D Printing Sydney Conference Program Explores 3D Innovation in Australia and Beyond

Rising Media and 3DR Holdings' Inside 3D Printing Conference in Sydney Reveals Keynote Speakers; Partners with Reed Exhibitions' National Manufacturing Week for Expo; May 11-13, 2016 at the Sydney Showground


Rising Media, Inc. and 3DR Holdings announced the keynote speakers and preliminary agenda for the Inside 3D Printing conference, taking place at the Sydney Showground in conjunction with Reed Exhibitions' flagship manufacturing event, National Manufacturing Week.


The Inside 3D Printing Sydney conference program explores 3D innovation in Australia and beyond, covering additive manufacturing applications in medicine, manufacturing, research, product design, and more. The conference will run on May 11-12, 2016, whereas the National Manufacturing Week exhibition hall will remain open May 11-13, 2016.


Confirmed keynote speakers include:



  • Ian Gibson, Professor of Industrial Design, School of Engineering, Deakin University

  • Fred Fischer, Director – Channel Development, Applications, Products, Stratasys Ltd

  • Paul D'Urso, Neurosurgeon, Epworth Healthcare and Founder, Anatomics

  • Prof. Gordon Wallace, Executive Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong


“Australia is approaching a stage that has been seen in other countries where there is an increasing enthusiasm and appreciation of the benefits of 3D printing in local industry,” said Ian Gibson, Professor of Industrial Design, School of Engineering, Deakin University. He continued, “This conference aims to uncover this enthusiasm and discuss the platforms that are appropriate to this emerging market.”


Session topics for Inside 3D Printing Sydney include:



  • 3D Printing: International Trends and Markets

  • Accelerating the Adoption of Industrial and Commercial Supply Chains

  • The Death of Manufacturing

  • Community Based Personalised Healthcare

  • 3D Printing: Putting the Ability to Create Back in the Hands of the Creative


3D Printing Events - 3D Printing Innovations Prices increase on-site, so register before to save with early bird pricing. For more information and to register for Inside 3D Printing Sydney, visit inside3dprinting.com/sydney.


If your company is interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Inside 3D Printing Sydney or an upcoming event, please contact sponsorship@risingmedia.com.


Inside 3D Printing is the largest professional 3D printing and additive manufacturing event worldwide with annual events in Singapore, Germany, Brazil, New York, Australia, France, South Korea, Japan, China, India, and California. To learn more about upcoming Inside 3D Printing events, visit inside3dprinting.com/upcoming-events.


About Rising Media


Rising Media is a global events and media producer excelling in Internet and technology-related events and content. Events include Inside 3D Printing, RoboUniverse, Virtual Reality Summit, Data Driven Business, Building Business Capability, Predictive Analytics World, Text Analytics World, eMetrics Summit, Conversion Conference, AllFacebook Marketing Conference, Search Marketing Expo, Affiliate Management Days and Web Effectiveness Conference in the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Dubai, India, China, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Brazil.


For more information, please visit www.risingmedia.com.


For press inquiries, please contact media@risingmedia.com.


Monday, April 25, 2016

ETA Develops Guidance to Payment Facilitators

“The explosion of the payment facilitator market is not going to slow any time soon,” said Todd Ablowitz, CEO, Double Diamond Group. “Evidenced by recent research we conducted, and are releasing at TRANSACT16, not only is the number of payment facilitators skyrocketing year over year, but we predict that Payment Facilitator transaction volume will experience at least a 70 percent average annual growth rate through 2018. I'm excited to work with ETA on this project to support the success of this rising segment of the payments industry.”


READ MORE: http://www.electran.org/eta-develops-guidance-to-payment-facilitators-with-voluntary-industry-best-practices/

Friday, April 22, 2016

How to Clean Your House Fast – Cool Cleaning and Organizing Products – The Cleaning Company

Beautiful Clean Home Interiors


We all know how hard it can be to clean your house quickly! Have no fear, all you need is 10 minutes to get it looking spotless. Now you can fill your home all season long, without worrying! What are your sneaky tips for making your house look clean in a snap?



 


HOW TO CLEAN YOUR HOUSE FAST


I picked up a few tricks and I'm telling you that yes, you can clean an ENTIRE average size house in an hour but it takes work-and focus!


READ MORE


 


15 Cool Cleaning & Organizing Products at the 2016 International Home and Housewares Show



 


The Best Cleaning Products …From Someone Who Cleans Houses For A Living


Personally, I clean about 200 homes in a year's time - not including my own home. So I use a lot of cleaning products.


I have tried a variety of different cleaning products, but I usually stick to the ones that I think are the best…


READ MORE


 


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Eric Clapton Autographed Photo 1988

Eric Clapton, is an English, rock and blues guitarist, singer & songwriter. He is the only 3 time inductee, into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Once as a soloist, and as a member of the bands “The Yardbirds,” and “Cream” as well. Eric has been referred to as, one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time ! His version of “I Shot The Sheriff,” helped reggae reach a mass market. After leaving the “Yardbirds,” he formed super groups “Cream” and “Blind Faith.” Clapton departed “The Yardbirds,” the day “Heart of Stone” became a hit song.  He claimed, “he was interested in the “blues,” not commercial success.”   In “Cream,” he developed his singing, songwriting and guitar playing. He would achieve the commercial success, he never wanted. “Cream,” had worldwide hit songs “White Room,” “Crossroads,” and “Sunshine of Your Love.” Clapton was uncomfortable, being called, “The greatest guitar player in the world.” He couldn't bare to have people say, “Eric Clapton Is God.”  The public decided, Eric Clapton's reputation, as a guitar legend, would reach new heights ! Always breaking new ground. His hit song “Layla,” with “Derek and the Dominoes” was a worldwide hit. His […]

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Are You Looking for Chemical FREE Safe Skin Care Treatments?

Chemical Free Skin Care


1. Read Labels and Avoid the Dirty Dozen*


Thanks to great websites like www.safecosmetics.org and free mobile apps you can download on your smart phone like: Think Dirty, Skin Deep and Good Guide you can scan the bar code of products before you buy or type in the ingredients and get a level of safety of that product.


2. Beware of “Green-washing” and “Pink-washing” Words like natural and organic have no legal meaning in the cosmetic industry.


Read the label or scan the product with your smart app. Beware of the pink ribbon on products during Breast Cancer Awareness months-many of these products have ingredients that cause cancer.


3. Less is More – The less products you use, the better for your skin and overall health.


Look for Do It Yourself recipes and if you are a busy girl, scan bar codes and only buy products that are deemed safe using one of the independent apps like “Think Dirty”. Look for products that have more than one purpose so you don't expose yourself to more chemicals.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

The Best Vitamins and Supplements For Muscle Tension and Faster Muscle Recovery

Are There Supplements to Relax Tight Muscles?


There are many vitamins and supplements that may be helpful for relaxing tight muscles in your body. However, before taking supplements, ask your doctor to discuss possible side effects and proper dosage.


Arnica may be an effective dietary supplement to help decrease your tight, aching muscles.


Magnesium helps maintain normal muscle and nerve function, keeps your heart rhythm regular, supports your immune system and keeps your bones strong.


Kava kava may be a beneficial dietary supplement for relaxing tight muscles.


READ MORE


 


Other natural solutions for muscle tension include:


Turmeric

Ginger root

Omega-3 fatty acids

Bromelain and other natural sources of enzymes

Modified Citrus Pectin


Massage, particularly craniosacral and trigger point manual therapy, can also relieve tension. Trigger point and craniosacral techniques target specific points in the musculoskeletal system that hold tension, gently manipulating and realigning ligaments, tendons and muscles.


LEARN MORE


 


4 SUPPLEMENTS FOR FASTER MUSCLE RECOVERY


Protein is arguably the most important nutrient to take immediately after your workout, alongside carbohydrates. Your muscles have been broken down and therefore need repairing and rebuilding.


Branched chain amino acids (BCAA's) have become a staple supplement for athletes due to their role in muscle and energy production during exercise and therefore are commonly used immediately around or during one's workout.


Fish oil is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids which offer numerous health benefits including keeping your heart, brain and eyes in good working order.


Not only will magnesium allow you to sleep like a baby through its ability to relax muscles, but it is another critical supplement to help speed up recovery.


READ MORE


 


Improve Your Performance and Increase Your Endurance with Faster Recovery Time


OUTPERFORM YOURSELF


Redox Signaling - Cellular Health Supplements


 


Benefits of Massage for Pain Relief


Massage therapy is more effective for chronic back pain than other complementary therapies. Massage therapy promotes relaxation and alleviates the perception of pain and anxiety in cancer patients. Massage stimulates the brain to produce endorphins…


How to Relieve Your Back Pain?


Call 303-777-1151 – The Center for Massage Therapy in Cherry Creek, Denver, Colorado


CONTACT US


Visa's Quick Chip EMV Move, Banking On Perception To Trump Reality

Using the Electronic Transaction Association's TRANSACT 16 event as a backdrop, Visa on Tuesday (April 19) rolled out Quick Chip for EMV, which the leading card brand described in a news release as being "a technology enhancement that optimizes EMC chip processing and speeds up checkout times." Unfortunately, Quick Chip isn't a technology enhancement nor does it optimize chip processing and it certainly doesn't speed up checkout times. Other than that, the lead of Visa's news release got it right.

What Quick Chip, however, does do is potentially just as powerful an aid to EMV-or quite destructive to EMV adoption, depending on who is talking-as what Visa claims. All that it does is allow the shopper to remove the card from the card reader much more quickly than current deployments permit. Given that the reader's retention of the card until the full transaction is complete is behind a very high percentage of both merchant and consumer EMV complaints, this could be seen as a very good thing. Let's break this down. For almost all transactions, the Quick Chip change won't accelerate the total transaction time at all. The customer still needs to stand there until all products have scanned and the cashier has been given the final transaction approval. Therefore, from the merchant perspective of "how many shoppers can I push through the line in an hour?" this change is unlikely to help at all. But like so much of what happens in retail, reality never stands a chance against perception.

Purchases Made Via Tablets Plunging

Tablets still play a large role in retail purchases, as they are the most popular device for sales associates to use to do product demonstrations and often to perform in-aisle checkout. But on the other end of the transaction-the end where shoppers use their own tablets to make e-commerce purchases-the tablet is surrendering many of the purchases it briefly stole from smartphones. That's according to research recently published from Bizrate Insights.

The iPad specifically has seen a sharp and continual drop in how many purchases it processes, Bizrate said, dropping from control of about 70 percent of such purchases in 2013's Q3 down to 36 percent in Q116. "The decrease in the percentage of online sales taking place on a tablet is the result of the increasing utility of smartphones (screen size, website optimization, and improved cell phone coverage), which are nearly always at hand," said Hayley Silver, a Bizrate VP.

Look For ETA To Publish PF Guidelines By June

The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) on Tuesday (April 19) announced "the roll-out of new Payment Facilitator guidelines offering guidance and best practices to new entrants regarding settlement, registration, funding delays, fraud, security and related issues." Those guidelines are still being finalized and are not expected to be published until "May or June," according to Todd Ablowitz, the payments consultant overseeing the guideline's creation.

The document will only be available to ETA members. The document-which now stands at 85 pages, but could easily grow-is the most extensive compilation of protocols, procedures and best practices for payment facilitators yet assembled. Amy Zirkle, the ETA's director of industry affairs, said that a lot of the software companies that are salivating over becoming PFs know their software and their merchants' environments and needs but they may not be nearly as familiar with the intricacies of modern payments systems. "These people will get into payments and they don't always know a lot about payments," she said. "This the nitty gritty of what needs to be considered to ultimately protect the payment facilitator. This is the quintessential toolkit for payment facilitators, showing new PFs all of the necessary steps."

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Immigration Interview Questions – Immigrants Fueling Economic Growth – Immigration Law Reform

5 Tips for Your Stokes Interview – U.S. Immigration Law A Stokes interview is when you and your spouse are separately questioned by an immigration officer about all aspects of your marriage to prove that it is not a fraud.…

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Friday, April 15, 2016

Hooked on Card-Linked Offers

Card-linked offers and loyalty programs are clearly an effective way for merchants to engage consumers and generate business.


Such is the conclusion that can be drawn from the CardLinx Association's 2016 Card-Linking Industry Survey, the results of which have recently been released. More than 92 percent of participants in the survey said they have seen an increased number of their customers leveraging card-linked offers over the past 12 months. More than 60 percent of respondents also said card-linking will develop into a $10 billion industry.


Under a card-linking umbrella, consumers can link their existing credit cards, debit cards, or mobile wallets to loyalty program or discount coupon offers, and then see the loyalty benefit or discount automatically applied without using a digital coupon, paper coupon, or QR code. According to CardLinx, more than half of survey respondents reported having seen their volume from “card-linking” transactions increase by at least 50 percent over the past year. This is a marked difference from last year's survey, in which only 10 percent of respondents cited increases in card-linking transactions that exceeded 50 percent.


Meanwhile, nearly one-third of respondents reported that their card-linked offers are growing at over 30 percent annually, and 95 percent stated that the number of merchants that utilize card-linked offers has increased over the past 12 months. An excess of 40 percent pegged conversion rates for card-linked marketing campaigns at higher than 10 percent.


Restaurants, department stores and clothing/apparel companies were the early adopters of card-linking, the study found. In a statement issued when the study results were announced, CardLinx President and CEO, Silvio Tavares said the findings show that card-linking has a network effect and it is accelerating.


“Merchants and brands have poured more money into marketing and social media campaigns for card-linking, attracting more consumers. This in turn is bringing more payments and fintech companies into the industry that are developing new, innovative platforms to widen card-linking's appeal to even more consumers,” Tavares asserted.


The uptick in merchants' use of card-linked offers makes sense given the benefits, which many are finally recognizing. For one thing, merchants that participate in card-linked offers enjoy the same “perks” consumers do-e.g., no hassles at the checkout counter when it comes to deal details, and no confusion about coupon exclusions.


But there's more to it than meets the eye. With card-linked offers, the need to train staff is non-existent and there's only one party to pay– the card-linked service provider, and even then, not until the sale is completed. Merchants that introduce card-linked offers also benefit from receiving big data, which can be used to see when, how, and what consumers are buying in real time. This means they can see who is buying and whether any redeemed offers turn into repeat business. That's just not so with “daily deals,” where it's impossible to effectively track whether an offer turn into customer loyalty or are being purchased by someone who simply wants a one-shot offer.


Seems like with card-linked, it's a win-win to be hooked, from the standpoint of merchants and consumers alike.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Uber Really Doesn't Like Regulators

When Uber published on Tuesday (April 12) what it calls its "transparency report"-a compilation of information delivered to law enforcement and regulators last year-it took the opportunity to express its displeasure that it had to deliver all of those data-dumps.

"Regulators will always need some amount of data to be effective, just like law enforcement. But in many cases they send blanket requests without explaining why the information is needed, or how it will be used," said an Uber blog post. "And while this kind of trip data doesn't include personal information, it can reveal patterns of behavior-and is more than regulators need to do their jobs. It's why Uber frequently tries to narrow the scope of these demands, though our efforts are typically rebuffed."

Yapstone's Way Of Unlocking Payments For Renters Everywhere

Paying rent is one of the last-and largest-vestiges of paper-check-writing in the U.S. and it's also remarkably inefficient. Combine that with the fact that rent is often one of the largest monthly costs for the country's roughly 100 million tenants and it's easy to see why Yapstone has focused on rent payments as one of its most critical verticals.

"We want to focus on multi-billion-dollar opportunities," said Yapstone President David Weiss.It's also important to remember that paying that monthly rent bill is only one part of the tenant-and landlord-financial reality. By selling the service to both apartment dwellers and apartment managers, Zapstone has the perfect audience for a group of services that make the rental process easier and therefore more profitable. "We're offering a whole range of value-added services such as credit reporting, renters' insurance that follows that resident from unit to unit," Weiss said. "This is a powerful series of products that enable us to tap into a $400 billion to $500 billion market."

Podcast: A Preview of Next Week's Payment Facilitator Day '16

The 2nd Annual Payment Facilitator Day at the ETA TRANSACT 2016 will kick off Tuesday (April 19) in Las Vegas. This year's theme is In Depth and On Target as the full-day event goal is to explore all of the relevant topics and ideas that are shaping the payment facilitator industry.

"It's about payment facilitators, for payment facilitators and entities that want to become payment facilitators,” Todd Ablowitz said in this week's PaymentFacilitator.com podcast. Event hosts, Todd Ablowitz and Deana Rich, dive into what to expect at PF Day '16 and who will be there.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

1959 Johnny Cash Song and Picture Folio No.1- Elvis Impersonation

Johnny Cash was born in Arkansas, Feb. 26, 1932. He was 1 of 7 children. His parents were poor share croppers. Music was one of the few ways, to help escape very difficult times. The family gave Johnny a guitar, when he was 12 years old. Music quickly became his passion. He became an excellent guitar player. No one would have guessed. Many years later, this young musician, would become the only person, admitted to The R. & R. Hall of Fame, The C. & W. Hall of Fame, AND, The Songwriter's Hall of Fame as well !! His mother even offered him voice lessons. Voice teachers said, “It wasn't necessary.” Johnny had a wonderful Unique Voice.” “Don't change a thing.”   And, Johnny Cash, didn't change a thing. After graduating H.S., while in the Air Force, he formed a band. Johnny took playing the guitar, and writing songs very seriously. After leaving the Air Force in 1954, he had big music plans. Johnny formed another band. He wanted, to go to Sun Records, where Elvis First Recorded. Sam Phillips listened and, had Johnny record an original song, “Cry, Cry, Cry.” It went to # 14 on the charts. He […]

Monday, April 11, 2016

PayPal's Major Mobile Milestone

PayPal has reached a major milestone: It's been 10 years since the company rolled out its first mobile payments service-a service that gave users the ability to send money via text. And over the past decade, PayPal's mobile payments volume has grown remarkably, from under $50 million at the outset, to a whopping $66 billion in 2015.


A PayPal blog written by Bill Ready, PayPal's senior vice president of global product and engineering, includes a chart that demonstrates how rapidly the company's mobile payments have spread in the U.S. since the initial mobile payments service made its debut in 2006. According to the chart, PayPal's mobile payments volume hit the $1 billion mark in 2011 and reached $10 billion the following year. Of the 4.6 billion payments processed using PayPal last year, nearly one-third were initiated on a mobile device.


In the blog, Ready attributed the mobile payments explosion that has occurred over the past decade in large part to the release of Apple's iPhone in 2007, followed by the advent of the App Store in 2008 and of Google Play in 2012.  More recently, Ready wrote, the rise of “next-gen” mobile apps like Uber and Airbnb have altered the way consumers utilize their smartphones on the transportation and accommodations front.


PayPal has expanded its mobile footprint in keeping with the developments Ready cited. Case in point: In 2013, it acquired Braintree, a payment processor with a mobile focus. This move brought Venmo, the popular P2P money transfer service, into the PayPal fold. In January of 2015, Venmo processed a record $1 billion in payments, 250 percent more than in the comparable period in 2014.


But this is just the tip of the iceberg. PayPal has also added to its “stable” mobile payments service Paydiant, remittance provider Xoom, and contextual commerce specialist Modest. In addition, the company continues to move on its own in-house mobile initiatives. One example here is One Touch, which helps to speed up the checkout process for consumers who are making mobile purchases.


Ready noted in the blog that despite the rapid growth of mobile, it remains just a “tiny fraction” of all commerce. He believes there is ample potential for more mobile payments growth-especially in financially underserved markets. “Mobile is breaking down barriers and has the power to help drive financial inclusion globally,” he wrote. “Mobile will lead to more change in commerce over the next decade than we've seen in the last hundred years and PayPal will continue to lead this revolution.”


Whether PayPal will indeed lead the revolution, it's too early to tell-although the company has more than a fighting chance at it. However, what we do know for certain is that there will be lot more to mobile payments in the short- and long terms than there is now. Industry players and merchants that refuse to acknowledge the change have a  very short-sighted view, indeed.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo – 3D Printing Channel Discount

(New York, NY – April 6, 2016) – Rising Media, Inc. announced that Dr. Joseph DeSimone, CEO & Co-Founder, Carbon (Carbon3D, Inc) is the latest keynote presenter at the Inside 3D Printing Conference & Expo, taking place on April 10-12, 2016 at the Javits Convention Center.


Founded in 2013, Carbon revealed its innovative Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology in March 2015, which harnesses light and oxygen to produce parts with the resolution, surface finish, and mechanical properties required for end-use. On April 1, 2016, Carbon unveiled its first commercial machine, the M1, and seven proprietary materials.


DeSimone will be presenting a morning keynote on April 11 from 9:00am – 10:00am called “A Future Fabricated with Light,” where he will provide an overview of the M1 product solution and Carbon's vision to accelerate the future of manufacturing, enabling creators to think beyond the limitations of convention to design the parts and products that will drive the businesses of the future.


DeSimone's keynote presentation will be one of six stand-alone keynotes as part of a program that explores new opportunities and challenges for 3D printing efforts across business, manufacturing, medicine, metal, and more.


Additional keynote speakers include: Magnus René, CEO, Arcam Group; Jonathan Jaglom, Chief Executive Officer, MakerBot; Terry Wohlers, Principal Consultant and President, Wohlers Associates, Inc.; Pete Weijmarshausen, CEO, Shapeways; and Tyler Benster, General Partner, Asimov Ventures; plus a metal keynote panel with leaders from Renishaw; FIT West Corp.; Desktop Metal; Additive Orthopaedics LLC; SLM Solutions; and Wohlers Associates, Inc.


Inside 3D Printing New York also features a full day of workshops, the Frontier Tech Startup Showdown sponsored by Asimov Ventures, and an exhibit hall with 60+ sponsors and exhibitors, including silver sponsors EnvisionTEC, MakerBot, MarkAny, and Mcor Technologies Limited.


Inside 3D Printing New York is co-located with Rising Media's RoboUniverse Conference & Expo and Virtual Reality Summit.


Prices increase on-site, so register before to save. For more information and to register for Inside 3D Printing New York, visit inside3dprinting.com/new-york.


If your company is interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Inside 3D Printing New York or an upcoming event, please contact sponsorship@risingmedia.com.


Following events earlier this year in Singapore, Düsseldorf, and São Paulo, Inside 3D Printing has events confirmed for 2016 in New York, Sydney, Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, and San Diego. To learn more about upcoming Inside 3D Printing events, visit Opening Keynote at Inside 3D Printing New York


About Rising Media


Rising Media is a global events and media producer excelling in Internet and technology-related events and content. Events include Inside 3D Printing, RoboUniverse, Virtual Reality Summit, Data Driven Business, Building Business Capability, Predictive Analytics World, Text Analytics World, eMetrics Summit, Conversion Conference, AllFacebook Marketing Conference, Search Marketing Expo, Affiliate Management Days and Web Effectiveness Conference in the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Dubai, India, China, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Brazil.


For more information, please visit www.risingmedia.com.


For press inquiries, please contact media@risingmedia.com.


Get 10% OFF w. code CHANNEL: http://bit.ly/1XfOLQa


FinCEN on Prepaid Cards and the Patriot Act: Let's Be Clear

FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) and four other federal banking agencies want to make things perfectly clear when it comes to how requirements set forth in the USA Patriot Act are to be applied to prepaid cards. In response to what they called continuing concerns about the vulnerability of prepaid cards to criminal and terrorist abuse, FinCEN and the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week issued interagency joint guidance clarifying bank obligations to identify prepaid card account-holders in line with “Customer Requirement Program” (CIP) mandates contained in the Act.


 


The guidance, according to FinCEN, is intended to remind banks that money laundering and other criminal risks related to prepaid cards “require the implementation of strong and effective mitigating controls.” Under its umbrella, banks “have a CIP obligation” with respect to their handling of individual cardholders who possess general-purpose prepaid cards with features that resemble a deposit account, regardless of whether the funds are held in a pooled account and whether funds are held in the bank or by a third-party acting on its behalf.


 


Additionally, the guidance stipulates that general-purpose prepaid cards be treated as accounts subject to the CIP requirements, provided that customers have the ability to reload funds or can access credit or overdraft features. According to the guidance, an account is not considered established until the feature is activated by cardholder registration. The guidance does not apply to non-reloadable prepaid cards, or to government benefit or payroll cards that cannot be reloaded by other sources. However, the guidance also holds that banks should still conduct CIP on program managers or other business entities that offer non-reloadable prepaid access to end-users; employees, except where the intermediary is a government agency, constitute an example.


 


Also included in the guidance is a specification of important provisions banks are advised to incorporate in their contracts with third-party prepaid program managers. Contracts should be configured to ensure that banks have access to CIP information collected by program managers, and to give banks and the financial agencies that created the guidance the right to audit these program managers.


 


The importance of drafting prepaid program agreements that clearly delineate each party's obligations when it comes to anti-money laundering controls is yet another item highlighted in the guidance. So, too, is the critical need to avoid future compliance problems by specifying in detail banks' and program managers' obligations at the outset of their relationships, as well as by providing for audit rights to verify that such obligations are being performed.


 


Collecting identifying information through CIP is said to by the agencies to facilitate other applicable money-laundering controls. Whatever these applicable money-laundering controls may be, and whatever the contents of the guidance, the latter was a long time coming and should have an impact on curbing the use of prepaid cards for nefarious purposes.

Chase's Removal Of ATM Limits Is The Right Idea But For The Wrong Device

Moving more and increasingly complex payments capabilities to ATMs and away from bank branches is a good thing, as we've argued before with ATM ApplePay and with MasterCard's patent application to turn ATMs into full-fledged POS units. But there is a line where it doesn't make sense and JPMorgan Chase's current debate about removing per-day cash limits crosses that line.

First of all, unlike mobile devices, ATMs have a very physical limitation: Once the cash that some human loaded into the ATM runs out, the ATM loses much of its most-desired functionality. Sure, it can still accept deposits and reveal balances, but not that much more. To be candid, those particular services are much better handled by a mobile app. (Note: That is true up to the limit of mobile deposits which, I assure you, I'll get back to shortly.) The ATM's most powerful function is to dispense cash, as that is something mobile apps can't do. When the money is gone, the ATM becomes rather pointless.

Finally, An Event Where PF Is The Focus, Not A Footnote

Given how important payment facilitators are to the rapidly emerging and morphing payments landscape in 2016, it's stunning how few places there are to explore the implications of being a PF today. Plenty of meetings and symposium exist for chatting about payments in general or virtual currencies or mobile payments, but the opportunities to really delve deeply into PF issues are practically non-existent. Until now.

If you can swing by Las Vegas on April 19, PaymentFacilatator.com-in conjunction with Double Diamond Group, Rich Consulting and the Electronic Transactions Association-will present our version of Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About PFs, But Were Too Geeky To Ask. Officially, though, it's dubbed simply TRANSACT 16's Payment Facilitator Day – In Depth and On Target.

Risk Teams All Over The Map When It Comes To PFs

Compliance and risk leaders in the Americas, Europe, and Asia exhibit a polarity in their attitudes about payment facilitators. First, there are those who either endorse or oppose. Second, there are PFs that are either fit or unfit for partnership. This yields three observations: Risk teams see PFs in general as either "friends" or "foes"; Risk teams categorize PFs into "safe bets" or "wild cards"; Risk teams demand oversight rights when working with PFs.

G2 recently conducted a survey with acquirers globally. The results showed a greater willingness among banks and processors to work with PFs in EMEA and APAC. In the Americas, one-half of respondents actively work with PFs. In EMEA and APAC, the numbers were closer to two-thirds. When asked if they knew if there were PFs in their portfolios, there was some doubt. A significant number of acquirers in all regions had either discovered a merchant unknowingly acting as a PF in the past year or did not know if that activity was occurring.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Goodbye, Google Wallet Card, Hello Incentives

Rumors about the death of the Google Wallet Card have been confirmed, but there's light at the end of the tunnel for consumers who keep the plastic card in their wallets.


Google has teamed up with American Express Serve and Simple to offer a bonus to owners of the Google Wallet Card, which will stop working on June 30. Those who switch to a Serve account will receive a $20 reward after a third direct deposit of $500 or more onto a Serve prepaid card. Google Wallet Card owners who opt to go with a account Simple, meanwhile, automatically receive $20 for doing so.


The Google Wallet card was an extension of the Google Wallet payment app, which was supplanted by Android's Apple Pay last year. Prior to the announcement of the Google Wallet Card's end earlier this week, the product allowed users to make purchases in stores that could only accept magnetic stripe-based cards and had no capability to process payments on a contactless NFC platform. Google Wallet accounts will not be eliminated, but after June 30, consumers will only be able to use it to make Google Play purchases and as a peer-to-peer payment service. Individuals who created a Google Wallet account solely to use a wallet card can transfer their account balances to their bank accounts at any time. Those who set up Android Pay with a Google Wallet Card will need another card to pay before June 30.


Industry observers note that although plastic card users may be straddling two worlds, American Express and Simple were intended to work well in that niche. “The consumers who signed up for Google's plastic card are the sort of people who were much more interested in Google's software than in the hardware wizardry involved in making contactless payments from a phone,” Paymentssource said in quoting a statement from Simple.


The incentives sound like a good idea to us. Great job, American Express and Simple. You've found another viable niche.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Diapers, Beer and Data in Retail


When asked how predictive analytics work, I like to tell people stories about how companies have used data to create predictions of people's buying behavior, to increase sales. Predictive analytics help to predict many trends in the business world, but the concept is perhaps best understood by using purchasing habits in retail as an example.


 




Women's shoes can be found on the way to mens clothes, and bananas are at the front of the store while milk is in the back. Studies found that many people go to the store to buy milk; by placing it in the back, they must walk by all of the other goods in the store. Here, they are predicting that if people walk by the goods, they are more likely to buy the goods. In opposition, bananas are found to be an impulse buy, and are therefore at the front. One of the more famous examples is the Target ad that predicted a young woman's pregnancy before her father even knew.


The predictive analytic that catches people's attention the most is the correlation between beer and diapers. Men who buy diapers for their kids, are also more likely to have beer in their carts.


It is said that this particular study was done by a grocery store and found that men, shopping for diapers, between the ages of 30-40, that shopped between the hours of 5 and 7 pm on Fridays were the most likely to have beer in their carts. Thus, the grocery store moved their beer isle closer to the diaper isle.


This may seem ridiculous at first, but low and behold, sales of both items did increase.


Apparently, this caught on, and other stores began doing the same. It has been suggest online that Target also uses analytics to find items that are often purchased together. They use this information to place them next to other “impulse buy” items. If you go to buy something you need, you just might also find something you want.


But this is just one of the many ways that retail stores can use data analytics to increase sales and reduce costs. Retail stores must purchase a great deal of goods, must distribute and store those goods. Analytics are great with discovering, and fixing transportation inefficiencies. They can save companies millions on distribution costs, alone. They can also be used for target marketing. The previously mentioned Target story is a great example. Analytics can also help retailers determine what products to sell, based off of consumer preferences. Finally, they can also be used in the same ways other companies use them for: ultimately to make better decisions. Businesses of all industries use data to provide valuable information that helps them retain employees, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce costs and overheads.


 


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Sunday, April 3, 2016

Big Data Video – The Future of Big Data


What will the the future of Big Data Analytics?

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Friday, April 1, 2016

Data Analysis Tools Versus Services: Which Is Better?

Data analysis is a means to achieve an end goal. For most businesses, the end goal looks something like: retaining more customers, retaining valued employees, reducing costs and overheads, or just operating more efficiently in general. More and more businesses are beginning to discover this; and discover the value in their data. Therefore, more and more businesses are beginning to develop “data strategies.”


Most executives and businesses start by finding data analytics tools. For example, a common tool, Tableau is a data visualization tool. However, data visualization is not the same as analytics. There are many tools that are needed to achieve data analysis; but many people don't know this. And even if you do invest in all these tools, they may not even help you that much in achieving your end goal. Because ultimately, all these tools are just that…tools.


A Tool Is Just That…A Tool: It Does Not Work Itself

Think of a data analytics tools as a sewing kit. A sewing kits helps you fix a torn seam. But A) it does not fix the tear by itself, it needs the manpower to do it and B) if you know nothing about sewing, or how to do it, or what the different pieces in the kit are used for, you are probably not going to fix that tear. If you decide to go online and YouTube “how to sew,” you will spend a lot of time training yourself; figuring out what all you need to buy to fix the tear, what size needle to use, and the technique in general. Then when it comes to actually sewing the tear, since you are not experienced with it, you may hurt yourself, and the sewing job might be pretty bad…And you may have to toss the shirt, or send it into a professional. It probably would have been more worth your while to have just sent it to the dry cleaner or seamstress in the first place. They will sew it right up for you. It saves time, you get a much better result, you don't experience the anxiety from it all, and it probably saves you money in the end too.


A Tool Is A Front-End Solution, Not an End-To-End Solution

As I had previously explained, a data visualization tool allows you to view the data in a more “human-friendly” way, eg. with charts and graphs. However, visualization is not analysis. There are multiple steps involved in data science, and individual tools cannot do them all…or at least not do them well.


Data Prep: Clean and Sync


To analyze data you must first do a few other things. First you have to prep the data by cleaning and syncing it. You have to gather all of your data from all the disparate sources (such as Excel, Salesforce, CRM software, Google Analytics etc.). While there are daily effective tools for cleaning your data, syncing your data is much more difficult. If you do not sync your data, you will have to repeat the same work each time you add new data to a report. It is nearly impossible to do manually, and the software to do this for you can be costly, especially for small and medium businesses.


Tool Updates


You will also have to constantly update your tools, in order for them to truly be useful for your organization. This is possible to do with an IT team, but it can easily get chaotic and messy. All others must wait for the IT team to complete the updates, without attempts to access data. Otherwise you will end up with a total mess of dashboards and reports; leading to everyone getting different numbers and insights that mean different things, and you'll never know who has the final numbers.


The Analysis Itself


Finally comes the analysis. Finally, the end result…well, sort of. Analysis involves solving very complex calculations that involve a few different sets of numbers. A proper analysis requires multi-stage formulas that perform a number of calculations, occurring simultaneously. For example, to determine your average number of sales in a month, you need both the sum and the average of all of your sales for that month. Sounds easy, right? Any math whizz can figure that out, so why can't a computer? This can be done by programs, such as Excel, but again, it involves a great deal of manual labor, and time you don't have to waste. Furthermore, data visualization will involve extra manual labor.  They will restrict the number of aggregations you can input for each formula; so you must calculate the sum. Then save it. Then calculate the average. Then save it. Then you can calculate them together.


End-To-End Solutions

End-to-end solutions are typically in the form of a service (and even these are rarer than you think, as each step requires a specific skill set). However, there are a few tools out there (eg. Sisense) that are advertised as end-to-end solutions. They may get the job done, but they don't provide you with the deep insight and competitive advantage you wanted and expected from data analysis; but you don't want to keep up with your competitors, you want to beat your competitors.


Tools: One-Size-Fits-All


The number one thing that analysis (both analysis-specific and end-to-end) tools lack is context. Tools are built as a one-size-fits-all solution. Tools don't get to know you, your company, or your industry. They also don't automatically know what type of information you are looking for, what problems you are trying to tackle, and they don't understand your people and how they will respond to change. I recently saw an anonymous quote that said something like, “100% of your customers are people. 100% of your employees are people. You can't understand business, without understanding people.”


Data analytics tools (like humans do with analysis) apply a mechanical or algorithmic process in order to derive insights. But what a data scientist does, that a tool cannot, is determine which process, or model will work best for that specific data, to answer a specific question, and to tackle a specific problem. There is a certain level of human intuition that is needed to conduct an effective analysis. It is for this reason that definitions of data analysis often involve the word “heuristic” in them.


So until computers become humans, they will simply not be able to do everything a human can do. People may be capable of doing less, but they are capable of doing different.


 


 

Data Analysis Tools Versus Services: Which Is Better?

Data analysis is a means to achieve an end goal. For most businesses, the end goal looks something like: retaining more customers, retaining valued employees, reducing costs and overheads, or just operating more efficiently in general. More and more businesses are beginning to discover this; and discover the value in their data. Therefore, more and more businesses are beginning to develop “data strategies.”


Most executives and businesses start by finding data analytics tools. For example, a common tool, Tableau is a data visualization tool. However, data visualization is not the same as analytics. There are many tools that are needed to achieve data analysis; but many people don't know this. And even if you do invest in all these tools, they may not even help you that much in achieving your end goal. Because ultimately, all these tools are just that…tools.


A Tool Is Just That…A Tool: It Does Not Work Itself

Think of a data analytics tools as a sewing kit. A sewing kits helps you fix a torn seam. But A) it does not fix the tear by itself, it needs the manpower to do it and B) if you know nothing about sewing, or how to do it, or what the different pieces in the kit are used for, you are probably not going to fix that tear. If you decide to go online and YouTube “how to sew,” you will spend a lot of time training yourself; figuring out what all you need to buy to fix the tear, what size needle to use, and the technique in general. Then when it comes to actually sewing the tear, since you are not experienced with it, you may hurt yourself, and the sewing job might be pretty bad…And you may have to toss the shirt, or send it into a professional. It probably would have been more worth your while to have just sent it to the dry cleaner or seamstress in the first place. They will sew it right up for you. It saves time, you get a much better result, you don't experience the anxiety from it all, and it probably saves you money in the end too.


A Tool Is A Front-End Solution, Not an End-To-End Solution

As I had previously explained, a data visualization tool allows you to view the data in a more “human-friendly” way, eg. with charts and graphs. However, visualization is not analysis. There are multiple steps involved in data science, and individual tools cannot do them all…or at least not do them well.


Data Prep: Clean and Sync


To analyze data you must first do a few other things. First you have to prep the data by cleaning and syncing it. You have to gather all of your data from all the disparate sources (such as Excel, Salesforce, CRM software, Google Analytics etc.). While there are daily effective tools for cleaning your data, syncing your data is much more difficult. If you do not sync your data, you will have to repeat the same work each time you add new data to a report. It is nearly impossible to do manually, and the software to do this for you can be costly, especially for small and medium businesses.


Tool Updates


You will also have to constantly update your tools, in order for them to truly be useful for your organization. This is possible to do with an IT team, but it can easily get chaotic and messy. All others must wait for the IT team to complete the updates, without attempts to access data. Otherwise you will end up with a total mess of dashboards and reports; leading to everyone getting different numbers and insights that mean different things, and you'll never know who has the final numbers.


The Analysis Itself


Finally comes the analysis. Finally, the end result…well, sort of. Analysis involves solving very complex calculations that involve a few different sets of numbers. A proper analysis requires multi-stage formulas that perform a number of calculations, occurring simultaneously. For example, to determine your average number of sales in a month, you need both the sum and the average of all of your sales for that month. Sounds easy, right? Any math whizz can figure that out, so why can't a computer? This can be done by programs, such as Excel, but again, it involves a great deal of manual labor, and time you don't have to waste. Furthermore, data visualization will involve extra manual labor.  They will restrict the number of aggregations you can input for each formula; so you must calculate the sum. Then save it. Then calculate the average. Then save it. Then you can calculate them together.


End-To-End Solutions

End-to-end solutions are typically in the form of a service (and even these are rarer than you think, as each step requires a specific skill set). However, there are a few tools out there (eg. Sisense) that are advertised as end-to-end solutions. They may get the job done, but they don't provide you with the deep insight and competitive advantage you wanted and expected from data analysis; but you don't want to keep up with your competitors, you want to beat your competitors.


Tools: One-Size-Fits-All


The number one thing that analysis (both analysis-specific and end-to-end) tools lack is context. Tools are built as a one-size-fits-all solution. Tools don't get to know you, your company, or your industry. They also don't automatically know what type of information you are looking for, what problems you are trying to tackle, and they don't understand your people and how they will respond to change. I recently saw an anonymous quote that said something like, “100% of your customers are people. 100% of your employees are people. You can't understand business, without understanding people.”


Data analytics tools (like humans do with analysis) apply a mechanical or algorithmic process in order to derive insights. But what a data scientist does, that a tool cannot, is determine which process, or model will work best for that specific data, to answer a specific question, and to tackle a specific problem. There is a certain level of human intuition that is needed to conduct an effective analysis. It is for this reason that definitions of data analysis often involve the word “heuristic” in them.


So until computers become humans, they will simply not be able to do everything a human can do. People may be capable of doing less, but they are capable of doing different.