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COMPLETE KEY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR HEALTHCARE
Government defence
Commercial Key Cabinets
High-Security Key Cabinets
How secure are key safes?
October 17, 2019 cic_adminUncategorised
In the business world, key safes take on a whole new meaning. They're full-blown electronic key management systems that allow organisations to determine how employees access the cabinet and control these permissions via sophisticated software. With the right product, you can protect your business to the same standard as government agencies.
How secure are commercial key safes?
Commercial key cabinets are much more robust than the small boxes many people use at home. Holding up to 100 keys, these systems are made from stronger materials that can withstand significant physical damage. Even inside the cabinet, individual keys are only released if the correct access information has been entered and their tamper-proof design prevents keys from being detached without authorisation.
However, it's the full suite of software controls that really allows organisations to customise their internal security arrangements. Intuitive, secure key management software allows organisations to create complex access policies that are tailored both to individual keys and employees. Administrators can ensure keys are only released to certain users, or according to agreed protocols – such as two-person authentication. This type of control means that not only does your key safe prevent external criminals from getting access to your building and assets, it restricts access within the organisation too.
Key release according to the individual access permissions granted to the employee involved and the credentials they provide.
What makes a commercial key safe so secure?
It's this combination of physical strengthening and customisable access control that makes commercial key safes so secure. Together, they not only prevent unauthorised access but work to streamline the process so that it's less prone to human error and fully adaptable to organisational change.
Physical security features
Dual-point locking
CIC Technology's commercial cabinets come with a dual-point locking mechanism involving two metal pins on the inside body. This makes it extremely difficult to open the cabinet through force. For extra protection, our high-security key cabinets come with triple-point locking.
Strong metal exterior
Unlike some of the smaller key safes you see widely available, our key management cabinets are entirely metal. There's no flimsy plastic at all, meaning our cabinets are fully attack proof.
Tamper-proof features
Each hook comes with a sealed tamper-proof key ring, making it impossible to remove or substitute a key without detection. Our high-security key cabinet range is also designed so that cable entry points are hidden and all edges have double returns to maintain extra strength.
Our high-security range of key cabinets comes with extra physical protection.
Software security features
Alarms – Stay aware of anything that could be a sign of unauthorised access. If the software detects someone attempting to force the door, if the power goes out or a key hasn't been returned within the timeframe you programmed, the system alarm kicks into gear.
Notifications – Notify key individuals when an alarm is triggered no matter where they are at that particular moment using email and SMS notifications.
Same user-return – Keep control of your keys even when they're signed out by activating same-user return. Here, only when the same user credentials are entered can the key be returned. This promotes accountability, and stops individuals carelessly mislaying keys or passing them onto someone who shouldn't be using them.
Dual PIN sign out – Add another layer of security to your key safe by requiring the presence of two people in order to release a key. Both users must enter their access details before the item is released, so you can be sure only the right people are accessing your most valuable keys.
Why a commercial key safe supports your security policies
The overarching benefit of a good-quality commercial key cabinet is the flexibility it gives to your internal processes and systems. With sophisticated software controls, there's no need to stick with outdated security protocols because it's too complicated or costly to change them. As your organisational requirements change, key control software enables you to adapt on the spot, whether you need to amend permissions for individual users or an entire group. You don't have to stick with an out-of-date policy or invest in new equipment to stay secure.
There's no need to compromise on your security preferences because it's too complicated.
Commercial key safes also allow every business to protect their assets using the type of access credentials that best suit their environment. Use PIN code, fingerprint or facial recognition technology according to the level of security you want and the practicalities of your workplace.
Finally, this type of system doesn't rely on one key staff member who manages the sign-in/sign-out process or who holds the only key to the cabinet. Your team can access keys whenever they need to – especially important to shift workers or out-of-hours emergencies – without your overall security being compromised.
At CIC Technology, we've designed a range of secure key cabinets suitable for every business. Whether you're looking for government-level security, or just a way of streamlining the sign-out process, we've got the right solution for you. Get in touch today for more information.
Previous Post Improving school security is simpler than you think Next Post The who, what, where, when, why and how of electronic key management
The who, what, where, when, why and how of electronic key management December 12, 2019
How secure are key safes? October 17, 2019
Improving school security is simpler than you think October 17, 2019
How to develop a key control system for your business or property June 26, 2019
3 physical security objectives you need to understand June 26, 2019
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The Siemens SiPass integration provides two-way data exchange between SiPass and the KeySecure software of the C.Q.R.iT Electronic Key Management System.
Nominated Cardholders and Badges are automatically replicated to KeySecure.
Nominated Transaction Log Events from KeySecure are automatically transferred to SiPass.
The integration Transaction log events from KeySecure® are automatically transferred to SiPass.
INTEGRATION SPEC:
KeySecure v1.3.5.2 is the latest version and is compatible with SiPass.
This integration can be provided exclusively through HILLS. Contact them for more information.
Key Shield
We also offer Key Shields to protect your keys from the eyes of those trusted insiders who may wish to create unauthorized copies of the keys. The product is used in conjunction with a Tamper-Proof Key Ring and hides the cut of any keys hanging in the cabinet.
The Lenel OnGaurd sofware integration provides two-way data exchange between OnGuard and the KeySecure software. Nominated Cardholders and Badges from OnGuard are automatically replicated to KeySecure and sync'd with the CQRiT cabinets. Nominated Transaction Log Events from KeySecure are automatically transferred to OnGuard.
Benefits provided include:
Reduced Data Entry Requirements (no need to enter and maintain User records in two systems)
Centralized Reporting in OnGuard
Cardholders, including card number and access levels, are automatically imported from Gallagher Command Centre into KeySecure® and the C.Q.R.iT® cabinets.
Cardholders can inherit access based on their Access Group membership and instantly gain access to allocated Keys stored in the key cabinets. All transaction log data including alarms from the keys cabinets are sent back to Gallagher Command Centre to provide a centralised reporting facility and eliminate the need for staff to monitor separate systems.
The interface can also be configured to employ Gallagher Command Centre Anti-Tailgating features to prevent Cardholders from exiting the facility if they have not yet returned their keys to the relevant cabinet. This function can also be used to prevent people entering areas if they don't have the right equipment.
As of November 2017, the latest version of KeySecure® is v1.3.5.2 and it is compatible with Gallagher Command Centre v7.01 to v7.80.
The Integriti System – C.Q.R.iT integration boasts an IP-based and bi-directional high-level interface providing two main functions: User synchronisation and Alarm/Event management.
User information within Integriti can be synchronised with CQRiT cabinets to facilitate ease of administration and mitigate against data entry inconsistencies.
Alarms and events can be sent from CQRiT cabinets into Integriti to leverage Integriti's powerful alarm management and reporting capabilities.
The Integriti CQRiT key cabinet plugin was built and tested against version 1.3.4.4 of the KeySecure software and version 1.0.0.8 of the CQReXchange software.
Integriti Professional version 4.0.3 or later and the "KeyLocker Integration" license (part number 996934) are required for a KeySecure Integration.
Damstra provides real-time, web-based workforce management solutions to ensure a safe and complaint workforce. By adding an integrated key cabinet, administrators can be certain that no keys can be accessed until the necessary requirements have been met. These may include providing licences, undergoing inductions or training or passing an alcohol test.
Damstra asset management and equipment tracking software is integrated with KeySecure version 1.3.5.1
Dynamite button
Officially called the Electrical Override device, this is a small button for use in emergencies. It allows an administrator to quickly release all of the keys. For security reasons, it can only be used with the manual override key. Pressing the button will unlock all of the keys so they can be quickly removed from the cabinet.
Breathalyser
For ultimate safety and compliance, it is possible to attach a device to test alcohol levels in the breath. Using this solution, users will not be able to log in to the cabinet until it receives a signal that the user is sober. This solution is ideal for fleet management and operations that place a large emphasis on safety, such as mining or construction
Like all biometric solutions, facial recognition technology measures and matches the unique characteristics for the purposes of identification or authentication. Third party devices are used to process the information and ensure they match an enrolled user. If a match is found, this data is transmitted to the key cabinet to initiate a session (unlock the door and keys).
We can use any third party reader device that is capable of outputting a Wiegand signal.
The first step to accessing keys is to identify the user at the cabinet. Typically this is done with a PIN or a prox card. However, because it is possible to share these details between users, biometric identification techniques such as fingerprint scanning are becoming more popular.
Fingerprint scanners work by capturing the pattern of ridges and valleys on a finger. The information is then compared against a list of enrolled profiles to find a match. If a match is found, this data is transmitted to the key cabinet to initiate a session (unlock the door and keys).
Prox reader
Many customers like to access their keys by presenting a card instead of having to enter a PIN. For more secure sites, it is often a requirement to present a prox card as well as entering a PIN. Our cabinets come standard with a Wiegand input meaning we can accept a signal from most readers on the market. One of the big advantages of prox technology lies in its simplicity. There are no moving parts, no mechanical wear, no slots, and no read heads to maintain.
Coloured key tags
Keep your keys organized with color-coded tags that are added before the key ring is sealed. This makes it easy to identify your keys if you have several sets or need to keep them separate from co-worker's key sets.
Customers with multiple cabinets will often choose a different colored tag for each cabinet. For example, key bunches with a blue tag are for Building A and go into Cabinet 1.
Tamper proof card holder
These brackets extend the functionality of CQRiT cabinets to cards as well as keys. They are "L shaped" or "C shaped" metal brackets that allow a Tamper-Proof Key Ring to be secured to a card.
Customers typically use them for prox access cards, fuel cards for vehicles or corporate credit cards
Tamper proof key rings
Manufactured with the strictest tolerances, these secure key rings provide you with the highest levels of strength and durability. This must-have accessory adds another dimension to the security of your keys by ensuring your key bunches can't be compromised. Every key ring is uniquely serialised which further increases security by allowing you to record key ring alterations. Once sealed, the stainless steel, high-security ring cannot be opened or substituted without detection.
3cm ring: 1-5 keys | 4cm ring: 5-10 keys | 5cm ring: 10-15 keys | 7cm ring: 15-25 keys | 9cm ring: 25-50 keys
Solid or flexible
Key rings are available in a range of diameters (3cm, 4cm, 5cm, 7cm, 9cm) in both a solid version and a flexible (braided cable) version.
Solid and flexible rings are laser engraved with unique serial numbers so keys cannot be substituted or removed without detection.
Specialised tools are used to close and crimp the join. When sealed, rings form a continuous loop without any weak or bulky plastic joins.
Permanent seal
Once closed, the ring is permanently sealed and keys can only be removed by cutting and damaging the ring.
Secure key rings
These key rings crimp together to form a permanent seal so keys cannot be substituted without detection.
Diameter of 4cm when closed
Braided stainless steel cable coated in clear plastic
Key rings are crimped using a generic crimping tool
These key rings do NOT contain any unique serial numbers for auditing. For additional security, see Tamper-Proof Key Rings
Bryce Seddon
Bryce has been with CIC Technology since 2005, initially as our R&D Manager progressing to Operation Manager, then Head of Design & Development and now the Senior Product Manager role.
Bryce is responsible for ensuring that the CIC Technology range of products and solutions continually meet and exceed ever-evolving customer and industry requirements.
He provides direction and support to the Engineering Team and works closely with Partners to manage the ongoing development of our products. This includes Application Software development, Embedded Software development, Electronic Hardware design and Mechanical design.
His years of experience with the company have grown an intimate familiarity with the unique requirements surrounding electronic key and asset management both in Government and the Private Sector.
Combined with a 20-year career developing software systems in various industries including Government and Transport & Logistics, Bryce brings a wealth of experience in shepherding quality solutions from concept to production.
Japan Mehta
Japan Metha has an overall responsibility to manage operations of CIC technology after being appointed as COO in December 2016. Japan is responsible of managing the Supply Chain, Service & Support, Project Delivery and Production Team for the CIC business. He is a motivating leader with more than 17 years of professional experience and Masters degree in Engineering a long with 6 Sigma and Project Management certifications. He is zealous about change management and team-building, to improve the productivity and efficiency. Japan brings experience of working in Aerospace, Bio-Medical devices, Oil & Gas and Semiconductor industries.
Head of Sales and Marketing
An accomplished sales leader and business development manager, Mr Taylor is skillful in translating the value of technology solutions to new markets and clients. He has extensive experience with all facets of IT technology and solutions and has had a keen interest in technology for over 30 years. Mr Taylor is also heavily networked within the Australian marketplace and is qualified with a master of Business Administration from Charles Stuart university.
TRENT LOEBEL
Trent was appointed CEO of CIC technology in June 2017.
Trent has overall responsibility for defining and implementing the strategic direction for the business. He is passionate about building a work environment with a strong set of values and positive culture that is focused upon delivering exceptional service. A focus on understanding customer objectives and meeting those objectives has guided our focus under Trent's leadership. Prior to joining Duncan Solutions, Trent spent eighteen years in the telecommunications, technology hardware & software industries, with roles as Chief Executive Officer and Commercial Manager.


By the time people enter my business they're all already adults. By this point, their fundamental character is established. For businesses involving sales and team building this is especially important to understand. Rarely can you teach a grown adult with low morals or questionable character to become a good person. Rather than find people that can sell and try and teach them how to be good people, find people that are good people and teach them how to hustle. Anyone can learn sales skill. They can learn how to sell themselves. They can learn how to be quicker on their feet. It may take going in the field with them numerous of even dozens of times; When you find someone that you trust, and can see trusting running a part of your company or their own, prioritize that over the initial sales results.
Work with people who value their integrity highly, as these are the people you can trust and who will make smart business decisions that benefit their team instead of themselves. The truth is that there are no moral shortcuts. When you're honest, and you want to achieve something genuinely for the good of your company and representatives, that's what makes you great in your field.
Justin Cobb has years of experience training, developing and working face to face with a myriad of different personalities, he suggests looking out for the following when questioning how important a person's integrity is to them. Do they keep their promises? Do they do what they say they are going to do? If a person is not fulfilling their promises, it makes you lose respect for them and their word doesn't make a difference anymore and that doesn't create any excitement, or encourage any amount of growth or success.


WALTHAM, Mass. – With a pair of top-3 finishes women's track and field got their 2019 season off to a solid start as they finished in seventh place at the Brandeis University Reggie Poyau Invite Saturday afternoon.
Annie Appolon (Everett, Mass.) and Olivia Burnes (Paxton, Mass.) each sprinted their way to third place finishes in Saturday's in-region meet. Appolon took third in the prelims of the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.32 seconds, before posting a time of 8.44 seconds in the finals of 60. Appolon also took third in the long jump, with her final jump marked at 16-01.75 feet.
Burnes recorded a time of 28.09 seconds in the 200-meter dash, before taking fifth in the high jump with a height of 4-07.00 feet. Burnes was also a member of the 4x400-meter relay team alongside Nana Anane (Worcester, Mass.), Gesheca Boswell (Kingston, Jamaica), and Brianna Steele (Rutland, Mass.), which earned fourth place with a combined time of 4:34.94. She was also in action in the 60 and recorded a time of 8.58 seconds to earn a top-10 finish in the prelims. Anane tripped the sensor with a time of 8.84 seconds to earn 15th place in just the third meet of her college career.
Appolon and Krystal Alvarez (Framingham, Mass.) finished in 11th and 12th place respectively in the 200-meter dash with times of 29.05 and 29.14 seconds. Steele completed the 200 with a time of 29.50 seconds, while Anane posted a time of 30.03 seconds.
Steele was the lone Beacon to compete in the 400 as she registered a final time of 1:06.53 which earned her sixth place overall.
In the 800-meter run, Rebecca Caley (Quincy, Mass.) earned 12th place with a time of 2:46.13, while Caroline Mullen (Marshfield, Mass.) finished in 17th place with a time of 3:16.40. Maggie Hale (Albuquerque, N.M.) finished the one mile run with a time of 6:50.61 to earn a top-15 finish. Chantal Clerveaux (Boston, Mass.) recorded a seventh place finish in the 3,000-meter run after finishing with a time of 12:52.18.
Alanna Olton (Stoneham, Mass.) qualified for the finals in the 60-meter hurdles with her time of 10.32 seconds. She then finished in sixth place of the 60 hurdles with a time of 11.08 seconds.
The Beacons will compete at Greater Boston Track Club Invitational next Sunday at the Gordon Indoor Track Facility at Harvard University.


text:
Nazis Sent Packing – as fash forced to hide in left luggage for their own safety
Yesterday's mobilisation against the neo-Nazi 'White Man March' in Liverpool was an outstanding victory for militant anti-fascism and an utter humiliation and total rout for National Action.
The neo-Nazis didn't have a march, they didn't have a rally, they didn't even leave the train station.
They were lucky to escape without more injuries than they did and it was only by huddling behind a thin line of Liverpool cops that they were able to be finally evacuated and bundled into police vans and rushed out of the city.
They were forced to hide in a left luggage shop for their own protection as a huge crowd of anti-fascists jeered and heckled them and pelted them with water bottles, eggs, bananas, milk, orange juice and sundry other grocery products.
Far from the 150 they had been expecting, the 'White Man March' only drew about 25 or 30 Nazis, although perhaps there were others who decided discretion was the better part of valour and never showed their faces.
Hundreds of local Liverpudlians joined the AFN to entirely block, disrupt and shut down the 'White Man March' which was cancelled due to the massive and vociferous counter-protests. The people of Liverpool were not having it and were not giving the Nazis an inch.
It's worth just letting this sink in for a minute…
The day started as AFN members from around the country met at St Luke's Church Gardens. This publicly advertised meet-up point had been threatened by the white supremacist North West Infidels, who said anti-fascists were going to "meet their nemesis".
AFN forming up at St Luke's Church
However, the fascists bottled it and were a total no-show. Luckily for them possibly, as we arrived en masse with about 100 anti-fascists from around the country. Very quickly lots of local people joined us until we were about 300 strong before we took to the streets and marched on the Wetherspoons in Lime Street Station which intelligence had indicated the Nazis were using as a gathering point. As we passed we got some cheers from locals waving an Irish tricolour outside McHale's Irish American bar on Lime Street.
The growing crowd chanted and shouted as we surrounded the Wetherspoons where worried-looking Nazis could be seen huddled inside. Having blocked off the front entrance of the pub, the crowd went around the back and eventually inside Lime Street Station where we found about 20 Nazis out the back of the Wetherspoons surrounded by a small line of cops. This group included leader of the North West Infidels Shane "Diddyman" Calvert, National Action leaders Wayne Jarvie and Alex Davies, ex-BNP youth leader Jack Renshaw and Kevin Watmough, founder of Redwatch.
In they go…
Inside the left luggage shop…
This tiny group were pushed back by the surging crowd of anti-fascists into the station left luggage shop where they were pelted with eggs and other food items. To general hilarity, the beleaguered guy running the shop eventually closed the metal shutters on the shop, trapping the Nazis inside and wandered off. However after a few minutes the cops obviously decided that leaving the Nazis in left luggage for the rest of the day was not a sustainable solution. They re-opened the shutters and against substantial resistance from the anti-fascist crowd, managed to eventually herd the tiny group of fascists round the corner and out of the station. But not before a few of the fascists has received some blows from the crowd.
Right-wing eggstremist and National Action leader Alex Davies, gets hit.
At this point the police tried to persuade the anti-fascist crowd that although the Nazi march would not now be happening, they would have a static demo outside the station. They were swiftly disabused of this notion. The crowd were very obviously having none of it. It became obvious that it was going to be as much as the cops could do just to get the Nazis out of Liverpool in one piece.
Meanwhile an unsuspecting group of 4 or 5 aging NF skinheads had just popped up out of the underground into the middle of Lime Street Station. They were swiftly engaged by the crowd and one of them, Ade Brooks, was relieved of his 'White Power' flag, which was later burnt. This group were also swiftly hustled out of the station by the cops, but not before receiving a few more blows for good measure.
What's that you say? "Not to be surrendered under ANY circumstances"? Oh dear.
Somewhere in the melee, the Nazis also lost another 'White Power' flag and the notebook with all of their racist speeches in.
Eventually the Nazis were hustled out of the train station into waiting police vans and rushed out of the area.
With the Nazis gone, victorious anti-fascists marched the route National Action were to have taken through the centre of town to the Pier Head. The march was noisy, colourful and celebratory and by this point several hundred, possibly even 1000 strong. At the Pier Head where the Nazis were to have held their hate-filled rally, we held an impromptu celebration in glorious sunshine with some photo-calls, smoke flares, chanting and singing. Anti-fascists gradually dispersed, walking back through a Nazi-free city to a warm welcome in McHale's bar.
The police reported 6 arrests on the day, but they make no distinction between fascists and anti-fascists, so it is not known at present how many of these are from our side. We know of no injuries on our side.
Of course this account only reflects what was seen by a few people over the course of Saturday. There will be many more stories from the day and we are happy to hear them. Please get in touch with your own experiences and best moments.
Why Liverpool was important
A tired Nazi decides to have a rest
It is important to appreciate the significance of what we all achieved on Saturday and why we chose to mobilise against the 'White Man March' in the first place. Since the emergence of the EDL in 2009, this country has seen an upsurge in far-right street-level activity even as the far-right electorally has declined. The EDL started off claiming it wasn't racist and only opposed 'Islamic extremism'. However anti-fascists were well aware what would be the result of opening the Pandora's Box of nationalism and bigotry. And now in 2015, we can see where this has led – it has led to the previously unthinkable – that actual out-and-out Nazis would feel confident enough to try and march through a major multi-ethnic city centre on a Saturday lunchtime.
We can see the truth of this in 'real-time', as it were, with the North West Infidels – originally a split from the EDL, they have moved so far to the right into 'white nationalist' territory that they are now happy attending demonstrations organised by people who celebrate the Holocaust.
National Action as a group has only existed for 2 years, starting out as purely an internet phenomenon. However, they have been ambitious and aided by a slick and professional image they quickly gained notoriety and publicity through a series of controversial stunts. In the splintering world of far-right street movements they have drawn people to their cause by appearing to be disciplined with a coherent image and message as opposed to the drunken shambles that a lot of the rest of the far-right consists of. They have also stood out due to their youth and their focus on creating a white nationalist youth movement. They have consciously tried to emulate the 'autonomous nationalist' movements of the continent, which attempt to copy the tactics and appearance of anarchists and create a militant subculture of white supremacists.
National Action are never going to be a huge organisation, and that is not their strategy. They aim to be as extreme as possible, to openly say things the rest of the far-right thinks but won't say. Their primary danger, as we saw with National Action supporter Zack Davies who viciously attacked and tried to behead an Asian man in a supermarket, is that they will breed and incubate terrorists.
National Action cannot be allowed to succeed in creating in Britain what exists in many other countries in Europe – a disciplined, extreme, militant neo-Nazi youth subculture.
So Saturday was not only an outstanding local victory in keeping Liverpool Nazi free, but an important blow against the most worrying new development on the far-right for some time. Hopefully the contrast of National Action's perpetually bombastic rhetoric with the miserable reality of their utter humiliation at the hands of anti-fascists will somewhat dent their kudos amongst the other members of the far-right that they need to make up numbers on their demos. I can't see members of the NF, the British Movement, the Infidels or the National Rebirth of Poland jumping at the chance of attending National Action's next outing.
Rhetoric and reality
Nazis on 'Stormfront' website are not happy…
More hubris…
This is of course not the end of National Action and certainly not the end of the struggle against fascism. National Action are a small group and cannot muster the numbers that the EDL can. However in Liverpool we have shown what can be achieved with some organisational effort and hopefully this will serve as inspiration to anti-fascists around the country and lead to more victories over the far-right.
The next dates for your diary are:
Berkshire Anti-Fascists call-out against the Infidels in Slough on September 5th
An AFN mobilisation against an anti-immigrant NF and South East Alliance demo in Dover on September 12th
Essex Anti-Fascists mobilisation against the EDL in Colchester on September 26th
If you are interested in getting involved with our work against the far-right either get in touch with your nearest AFN group or contact us centrally. Everyone can play a part, from spreading the word online, to giving out leaflets, raising money, putting on public meetings and going on demonstrations – there's plenty to get stuck into.
Finally and most importantly, the AFN would like to extend heartfelt thanks to everyone who turned out on Saturday and supported our call to stop the White Man March. We were more successful than we could have hoped for and that level of success is due to everyone who attended, but especially to the people of Liverpool who came on to the streets in their hundreds to tell Nazis that they would never be tolerated in their city.
Scousers united will never be defeated!
« Final Update on the #StopWMM Mobilisation Slough and Beyond »
Tags: infidels, Liverpool Anti-Fascists, national action, nazis
Categories : reports

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


There's plethora available on success stories of mega corporations, on their genetic code and on how they operate. There's also a lot of glamorous coverage on start-ups & start-up leaders as well. We hear of the best practices and management learning from successful large Enterprises, and we also have a plenty of advice for the Start-up leaders.
However, the fact remains that only a miniscule number of all promising start-ups actually break-through to the big league. And for those who do, the script of their painful & paradoxical journey is often oversimplified or just plain uncovered. And one of the most important aspects of such successful transformations – from a successful start-up to a mega-business – lies in whether entrepreneurs are able to successfully transform the genetic code of the organization.
Entrepreneurs & Start-up leaders that are successful in the Jump-start phase are so because of certain effective habits that they either have or have developed during the initial phase. However, the same habits, if carried forward too long become counter-productive to scale for their business. The main reason being that once the business is off the ground, it's not about the entrepreneur any more, but about the engine that propels the business. Also, entrepreneurs my find it harder to adapt because of the early successes. It's tempting to think that the same characteristics that brought them a string of successes can continue to play their part as the business grows. And unfortunately, they cannot just bring in a new leadership to take over and do this for them. They have to start with themselves – precisely for the tremendous zeal with which they brought the organization to where it is – and, then infuse new leadership accordingly if needed.
Let's look at some of such habits, why they are great for start-up and how they become counter-productive for scaling.
Entrepreneurs are adept at figuring complex situations out, and to find simplistic "anything that works" solutions to keep going through the grind of early stages. That is one trait that's critical early on when one has to contend with perennial set of challenges with minimal resources. However, this tendency, over time has to give way to intellectual freedom for others in the organization and also a more systematic set of problem solving techniques for the organization to scale. Consistency and Repeatability are important for scaling organizations.
The ability to simplify the complex situations is a great trait in general. However, as the growth requirements demands scaling up, business faces more complex problems posed by variety of employees & customers across the spectrum. A process and systems driven approach is called for, and while that doesn't have to yield to a more cumbersome and rigid process driven organization, still a more structured approach to handling the commonly confronted situations is required so that people at various tiers can operate on their own at operational level. Hence, the "Jugaad" tendencies have to give way to more structured operations.
Successful entrepreneurs are masters at adapting on the fly. Early on, this is important because most times the foundations of the business are not validated with the real markets and real customers. Ability to change the direction as required by the market is important in the early stages, even at strategic level. This "Pivoting" is becoming even more critical in the fast paced technology environment, especially in the consumer markets where one cannot always be sure of the right combination of the product, pricing, positioning and promotional approaches. This dynamic thinking, earlier on, helps validate multiple hypotheses built into the business model. One pivots as fast as one can, and as often as one can, until a successful combination emerges or until one runs out of resources. However, once the business model is validated and organization is set to run in one direction, this tendency to shout the marching orders down the hall becomes unproductive because other leaders find it difficult to fall in line at the drop of the hat. This can get chaotic pretty quickly.
This argument against "too much agility", however, should not be confused with the agility required to be watchful in a fast paced environment, where an empowered team would be able to pinpoint a change in trends and be able to adapt quickly to changing business conditions. The tendency that needs to be curbed is the one where the decisions are made at the drop of the hat without due consideration to how the organization needs to change in short term as well as longer term in response to a changing situations on the ground. And, more importantly, not to disrupt the process of building the operationally efficient organization in the business that is on path to scale.
An entrepreneur takes pride in taking the winning shot. It's not just the pride or ego, but a sense of duty and sense of right, mixed in one. When the stakes are high, it's abnormal to think of delegating the authority (looked upon as responsibility). However, this tendency gets deeply embedded in routine decisions. Unless a systematic transition to delegation and transfer of ownership happens, the organization remains a single-cylinder engine.
A scaling organization requires empowerment and that cannot come from "just assignment of responsibility" but through the "true delegation of authority and freedom to take important decisions". However, what also happens is that by the time the realization to build an empowered team strikes, the entrepreneurs find themselves surrounded by other leaders who are too habitual to take the orders and are unable to devise the strategy on their own. It's not a matter of competency in most cases, but the way the business leaders get wired into working in a certain way, and looking up for directions. They also get into a habit of kicking the issues and conflicts upstairs that makes the organization slower to respond to urgencies on the ground. Scaling organizations require the Entrepreneurs to let go of the sense of control and ownership, and empower the team in true sense.
The initial thrust in business comes from the reputation & credibility of the entrepreneur. This leads to a cycle of further boost of personal branding, further resulting into more business driven in such a manner and so on. It very quickly reaches a point where the Business and the Entrepreneur become synonymous to each other. While that is great initially, an organization looking to scale into a mega-business needs to balance the company objectives against individual objectives earlier than later. In other words, the leaders need to put the organizational goals ahead of personal goals. Even as there is little doubt that success of the company is a passionate personal goal for start-up leaders, the way it happens most times is by putting their personal whims & fancies, and branding, at back seat, and let the organization harness the power of people at all levels. The earlier it is done the better.
Entrepreneurs that are more focused to the longer term scaling of the business need to ensure that the business or the product is branded explicitly with bigger intensity than the owners of the company. I had earlier highlighted on this paradox of Branding as one of the five paradoxes of successful product business. And this remains one of the things that are difficult to fix quickly since branding takes time and change of stance in branding from personal to business is often tough unless done from the initial stages.
An early stage of a start-up requires the leaders to juggle a lot of balls at once, making them a habitual juggler. It's an invaluable trait to be able to juggle priorities, handle multiple things at ones across functions, to be able to venture into the unknowns and come out stronger. Great start-ups are known to thrive on minimal resources and require the leaders to be able to act on multiple initiatives at the same time, almost to the point of craziness.
This, however, gets deeply embedded in the habitual code as "uneasiness" and "impatience" with anything that requires systematic and long-term sustained focus. There develops a tendency to kick-off the new exciting projects on the periphery of the organization, which is difficult to do without affecting the focus on core business. Normally, operational leaders are appointed to sustain and expand the businesses that are doing well, which is fine but a scaling business also require the continuing focus of entrepreneurial mind in the core drivers of business. Successful large organizations have spun-off multiple businesses, but they do it upon the successful scaling of the core business, not at the behest of the core. Biting those bullets before the time comes is hazardous to the health of the business.
Networking and relationships are the core strengths of a start-up business. Focus on relationships gets the best out of the organization in order to delight the first set of customers. Early-on in the life of the organization, relationships and personal networks play a critical role across all the areas of the business – hiring, business acquisition, delivery, financing, marketing & PR, and so on.
On Customers front, there are two sides to this coin. Acquisition of new business, as well as sustenance of existing business are driven through relationships, which helps because of the lack of early credentials and referencible successes. The flip side is that these relationships tend to be personal relationships. The customers expect the leaders to show up at the drop of the hat. It's not scalable for an entrepreneur to show the face and shake the hands at every opportunity to build new business or when there is fire at an existing one. This needs to go beyond the leader at the helm. The organization needs to go beyond personal relationships into professional customer oriented relationship mindset – which is easier said than done once the organization is already growing.
Similarly, entrepreneurs find it hard to confront the performance issues among employees & partners due to the personal and emotional connects that hold most of these relationships together. These connections can quickly become a liability if the leaders (and hence organization) lose the ability to make objective decisions in these relationships.
Entrepreneurs tend to demonstrate heroism, and inadvertently (or sometimes intentionally) promote heroism. Start-ups are replete with stories of celebrated heroism – Single-handedly acquiring a new customer, heroically defusing an exploding customer situation, over nightly launching an offering, and so on. Due to the nature of various functions, this heroism is found more in Sales, Marketing, and delivery of larger projects. Sometimes, plain pure planning & preparation – an aspect that gets often overlooked in a start-up scenario, also necessitate such heroism. This is partially also acceptable to entrepreneurs because a start-up typically takes pride in informality (bordering on casualness unfortunately) and flat (or absent) structures.
Start-up leaders themselves set examples of heroism that over time plays down a systematic, well-planned bricklaying approach that a scalable business is built upon. Many times, the heroism culture also inadvertently sabotages any chances of under-played sustainable success, because of the glamor and awards attached to such celebratory moments. However, it has been proven that the most sustainable and scalable businesses are built by behind-the-scene bricklaying executioners. It is important for entrepreneurs to make that transition in the genetic code of the organization. An emphasis on sustainable & repeatable success requires setting up the rewards & bonuses in line with a structured longer term approach, with due importance to the backend jobs in operations, deliveries and finances, while of course not losing sight of any heroics that really save the day in true sense.
It is obviously a matter of perspective. The same traits that are huge leverage in one situation can be a liability in another.
The point is not whether these traits are good or bad, per se, but to understand where they are effective and where they get counter-productive. Business situations are often complex and it is difficult to pinpoint what is actually holding back the progress of a company. Most start-ups, when faced with complex situations like this, look for help from outside – in the form of funding, leadership talent, or even partnerships and exit plans. However, it is also true that most successful mega-businesses crossed the chasm between the start-up phase and the maturity phase with the core entrepreneur/start-up team still at the helm. While, upon introspection, some of these bottlenecks can be identified, it is difficult to ascertain how much impact some of these habits have on the overall results. However, it is safe to say that recognition of these and an attempt to consciously look at the transition can only help.
Let me start with a simple question. What is common among these, as of 2006 (and, for that matter, even as of today)?
All of these are known examples of facilitation based multi-sided business models. These are not just products or businesses; these are platforms, in the true sense of the word. These platforms have, some even in industrial and so called traditional businesses, created value by "facilitating interactions & transactions" among various groups involved. They depend on network effect to kick in, and then thrive big time.
The concept of the two-sided markets is not new. In fact, the newspapers might have been among the first to exploit it, through low-priced subscription subsidized by the sponsors paying for advertisements.
Networking Events and conferences have been a great example of a non-tech two-sided platform, and they are sold on the same direct benefit as well. The sponsors subsidize the participants' fees, and hence get presumably higher visibility. Participants get to network; sometimes get direct information or sales leads; and pay for it unless in some cases, fully subsidized by the sponsors.
However, these business models, as represented by the examples above, were still very few & far in between until few years back.
The business world, since, has changed. And, drastically so!
Google and Apple have become the most valuable brands in the world. Amazon, that revolutionized the Books & Publishing market through the e-Commerce strategy, has since transformed itself into a Platform company. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and recently Pinterest have become the household names, beyond the tech world. Travel, Hospitality & Commute have become well-integrated platforms driven businesses – driven through online technologies and ground-level operational integration.
Let's take an example of two companies that seem to be very similar on products stack otherwise. Apple and Sony. Sony actually brought upon the concept of music that you could carry, with its revolutionary Walkman. Apple came in very late, with iPod. Sony has had a premium quality tag in computing machines (with Vaio) for a long time, while Apple's Mac slugged it out in its own creative/designer/geek space. Sony even had the earliest starts with its Reader as long back as in 2006! They even had a great idea of Reader being the platform, and got the leading publications in Japan to take note that time. Sony, a very relevant company even today in tech world with the quality and huge brand image to boot, (interestingly, it has had at least one product in platforms category in Playstation) has fallen to 31-Year lows. They continued selling products in silos on their own standalone benefits. They are a product company, still a great one, but that doesn't seem to be enough!
On the other hand, Apple had an iPod – as a standalone "take your music with you device", around 2001-02. With iTunes, it took the first steps into a platform around 2003. However, it has since transformed into a true platform company, with its formidable all-integrated business strategy that brings together computing, entertainment, and business. iTunes is a comprehensive AppStore, and not just a music store. Apple is a multi-dimensional company at its best – it brings multiple beneficiaries together in this multi-facets products business. iOS developers and Applications users. Musicians, music companies and Music lovers. Local or global businesses and their customers and fans. We've even started seeing the serious Enterprises making Apple devices the central to their CoIT (Consumerization of IT) and collaboration strategy. iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac, iCloud – they sell products but they're a platform! And, in Feb 2012 Apple became the most valuable company in the world!
Google is an obvious name in the multi-sided platforms strategy. They took forward the newspaper ads model and applied it to search beautifully. And now, with the Enterprise businesses as well as their ever-growing list of vehicles – in GMail, Google Apps, Android, Chrome, Maps, Drive, and so on – have established themselves as an formidable Multi-sided platform. At this time, there doesn't seem to be a limit on what vehicles Google can choose to drive their platform strategy. Microsoft is now fighting it out on its own turf while Google and Apple make inroads into its huge Enterprise foothold. (This also points to another trend that I'm planning to write about – the blurring of lines between Business & Personal Technologies).
This era clearly belongs to the multi-sided Platforms based business. It's important, however, to not confuse this with the traditional definition of platforms in technology space. The true business platform is the one that is driven by facilitation and network effect, and which actually has multi-sided business model in the sense of heterogeneous set of beneficiaries that are not directly connected to each other. It is also important to note that this disruption has been caused not only by technological evolution, but also the interlinked effect of the other disruptive patterns such as "Long Tail" and "Free", both terms made popular by the very respectable Chris Anderson. I will touch upon these in the next couple of posts as noted in my cover post on Game-Changer trends.
If you're in a business – whether technology or not, whether e-commerce or not, whether products or services – don't ignore this trend. Think about how you can leverage on this model, or be part of this ever-growing multi-cog machine that benefits all its gears. But, if you really think details, it's not just a marketing gimmick, and it's not just a tweak in the product. It should become the foundation of how business of your product is conceived, strategized and operationalized.
PS: This post originally appeared on my blog, but I thought it's worthwhile to post it here. Very relevant, hope you find it too!
How far should you go with Professional Services in your product business?
For any products company, product support is a given, and part of the products business fabric. However, almost all Enterprise Products Companies end-up offering the professional services beyond basic product support. These services could range from simplistic implementation support, to integration, to solutions-building, to architectural consulting, to IT advisory support. The decision to perform professional services could be driven by customer-demand, or by the intrinsic need of the product being sold, or even driven by the business strategy itself to generate peripheral revenue.
It's important to understand where the boundaries lie, and what goal does a certain type of professional services serve. The decision to commit to a particular type of professional services needs to be driven by a conscious thought process. This is important because the time & resources required to build various skills & operating models for serving the various flavors, change dramatically from one to the other.
This is the core to the products model and serves as just that – support to the main products revenue, and to ensure customer satisfaction. While the core strategy for any product should be to make it so good that it requires minimal support, there's always a need for support – offline and real-time for the customers.
An ideal product is ready-to-use off-the-shelf, however, in case of Enterprise products the need to configure & customize could wary. Most times, customers demand for an implementation service packaged in the license deal initially, in order to ensure success. Most times, products businesses have to employ this mechanism also to close sales cycle and to ensure a consistent source of post-sale revenue from such services, and also indirectly to ensure expansion of the product usage through consistent personnel presence on the customer premises.
This is where it starts going slightly further away from the core skills that the organization may possess organically. Integration with the existing IT systems and other products at the customer premises would require the skills & management practices beyond the core areas of the organization. An extra source of revenue is one of the temptations, but there are also scenarios where integration of the product is critical to the success of the product, making such services mandatory. This is especially true if the product interfaces are not built with open-standards, and require the integrators to know the details of how the product is built internally. The correct approach would be to build the product interfaces in a way that doesn't force the business into such compromise to induct professional services for integration. There's an indirect impact of diversion of core product resources to such integration projects unless such professional services are pursued by design, and resources built accordingly.
This is where the game gets strategic, and resources expensive. And the reasons to do this are not any more intrinsically important, but strategically targeted to higher value to the customers and hence, access to the larger pie of the wallet. However, this is easier said than done. Unless there's enough scale & case in the existing business to allow the focus on such services, strategic, and by design, a business is better off focusing on building the core products business stronger by investing resources there. This makes sense for the products, which are more like Platforms that provide larger leverage than in a Point-solution product.
This is important for the products that are targeted for larger ticket sizes and are built for Enterprise-wide deployments. The IT strategy alignment as well as the strategic positioning of the product becomes important, and it also requires much larger IT leadership level involvement. For Enterprise Platforms, or even for departmental level strategic investments, this approach to professional services can bear fruits. However, building it into a business line requires the core product business to be strong, ready for the leap.
While the Businesses can look at starting off with the lower scale of Professional Services and build up over time, the decision is very strategic and long term. Professional Services, while offering additional top-line, could actually be a resource-intensice and money-draining proposition if not built properly. The mindset that governs the professional services line of business is drastically different from the product side of business. The operational efficiency is paramount, & profitability can very quickly take a hit. Even more importantly, professional services are more intensely people-driven and the skill sets required to build and sustain this business over long term are not trivial. Look, think, and think hard, before you leap.
These are the times, when every third person that you meet in Technology world has an idea for an App. It could be every alternate person if you're hanging out in geeky groups or among heavy Smartphone users.
Another report suggests that 78% of US mobile App Companies are small businesses (based on the Apple and Android App Stores based research). The typical apps that dominate this market are games, education, productivity, and business.
This comes as no surprise. There is a huge divide between the Enterprise Mobility (dominated by the Enterprise Architecture, existing platforms and mobility extensions to the platforms that ensure business continuity) and End-User (Consumer) Mobile Apps dominated by the App Stores supported Small and Mid-size App Development Companies. The barriers to entry in the Smart phone Apps Market seem pretty low with the supporting ecosystem from Apple, Amazon, Google, and Telecom carriers.
However, let's get back to the fact that majority of these Apps "do not" generate direct revenue.
1. Developers need to focus on the User Experience. The smartphone apps pick-up is highly skewed toward Apps that offer a good user experience even for minimal functionality. After the initial success, the App makers end up adding functionality for sustained interest, but the User Experience tops. It's difficult to focus on UX while still trying to do everything right at the underlying architecture level for long term.
2. Marketing is important. Getting the early eyeballs is key for the App developers. Any serious App needs an immediate initial take-off, and among the things that they need to do to make it happen is to market the App beforehand and to get the authoritative reviews in place.
3. Initial Take-off is just the first hurdle. App needs to be able to handle traffic bursts, it needs scale with increased traction, support virality & social connects inherently, and also build an effective User ecosystem. None of these may seem like the core functional features of the App, but are most critical for the broad-based success.
4. The Freemium model is very popular, but it can kill the business if the marginal costs are not sustainable. The paradox of the Free model is that unless the 10% paid users are able to pay for your 100% costs, every additional user takes you closer to the grave. With this come in two questions – how do you keep the infrastructural costs low, and how do you build additional revenue models around the app.
IaaS can solve some of the infrastructural headache, but doesn't provide you with the other functional layers that every App needs. You need to still build them. PaaS providers provide the scalable platform for building Apps, but you still need to build some of the functional features such as Gaming Rooms support, Messaging, User Authentication & authorization models, and so on. Mobile developers are still doing a lot of repetitive work across the smartphone Apps that can be consolidated into a framework.
Supporting the additional revenue models require integration with external Ad-services, Payment systems and more importantly the bandwidth to deal with this even more fragmented set of agencies.
5. The End-point device platforms are fragmented and getting even more so. A typical model for App developers is to develop an Android App, iOS App or a Windows App and then support the other platforms as they go along. However, keeping up with these multiple platforms is only getting more and more difficult with the speed with which Apple, Microsoft, and Google keep rolling out the OS. There's tremendous pressure to release the App within the 1-3 days window of the release of the underlying platform.
Hence, while there are millions of people developing smartphone Apps as we speak, there are only a fraction that get built at serious level, and even smaller fraction that gets built for sustainable business success.
And considering these hurdles, the arrival of the Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) is a blessing for the App Developers. Forrster's Michael Facemire refers to them as "The New Lightweight Middleware". He goes ahead and lists out some of the basic tenets of what makes a Mobile Backend as a Service, but I see this list evolving as the vendors offer more and more functionality to the customers leading to en ecosystem.
And the term "ecosystem" is going to be the key. That's because a successful mobile App doesn't stop at the user starting the app, using the app, and leaving the app. A successful App creates an ecosystem for the viral growth, user engagement, social functionality, in-built broad-based connectivity for multi-user interactions, and more importantly the ability for cross-platform usage. In a Gaming scenario, the user interactions and the relevant immediate feedbacks are paramount. Most successful apps build an ecosystem. Instagram, 4Square, Pinterest are the common household examples today.
While Michael lists out the usual suspects in his post, most of them in the Silicon Valley, there is a very interesting player in Shephertz's App42 platform, right here in India. The ecosystem approach that they have taken seems pretty much what may be required for serious app developers that need a robust backend provided as a service, so that they can focus on the app functionality, user experience, and more importantly the marketing aspects of the App.
Now why, still, aren't more and more developers building even more serious mobile App products? Why shouldn't they be? I think, they will!
Building products is hard. Building a successful product organization is even harder. Start-up ecosystem is replete with ideas and prototypes. Few of them reach the market with a product and very few turn up as successful. And, a minuscule number of product businesses are able to demonstrate sustainable success. While there could be many factors why this is such a hard thing to do, it boils down to the fact that building product business is full of paradoxes. A successful product business requires effective navigation through this paradoxical maze, especially early-on and through the first growth curve.
I believe there are five basic paradoxes of building successful product businesses. There could be more, but these are my five!
Customer Voice, Market Research, A/B Testing, Surveys have been the tools for marketers through the history of business. However, we have plenty of examples of successful products that no one thought anyone would ever buy. These Black Swans look possible in retrospect, transforming the lives of the people behind the product. Then, we have Steve Jobs who, with his combination of clarity, conviction & genius has openly declared over and over again, with successful products, that he knows better than the customers themselves about what they want.
It's easy to think, egoistically, that one can do what Steve Jobs did. However, reality strikes everyday in form of a customer complaining about a feature. It's a routine tussle between what the customers think they want against what the business is planning to build. Even a scientific, and algorithmic approach to getting the features weighted out before inclusion in the product lifecycle, is not guaranteed to get the customers what they want.
The best way to get this done is to test out the hypotheses of Feature preferences as quickly as possible. It is also important to dissect the Signal from the Noise in such feedback. Many times, product teams get disoriented based on the feature requests from "free" users due to sheer number of such demands. On the other hand, a handful of paid customers who provide you cash cannot be ignored. In case of Enterprise products, the early customer weigh in heavily on the way the product shapes out, sometimes very differently from what Product makers envisioned. This is where the conviction of one's vision is critical and should be used as the yardstick for deciding what to build. One useful approach is to Invest energies into building frameworks that help ongoing experimentation possible to validate the user inclination. A rapid experimentation, prototyping approach backed by strong analytics is a great leverage for any product.
At the face of it, this may look like a no-‐brainer. Any activity that the business performs toward Product Promotion would enhance the branding of the Product and hence the Company's. And, a lot of business owners actually leverage their personal brand for the Product promotion and vice—versa. The problem is that a Promotional activity is targeted to the Lead Generation and Conversion, while any branding activity is targeted to an emotion of enhanced value or an emotion of relatedness in the minds of prospects & customers. It's only in some cases that a promotional activity also does full service to the branding activity.
Even more difficult is to judge whether the efforts should be subjected to branding of employees, of the company, or of the product. Every day in the life of a business is replete with decisions to choose one over the other. And the right balance comes only with the long-‐term clarity & conviction around what's important. In Consumer oriented products especially, the product brand becomes more important than the Company brand. The branding of people behind the product happens organically, if at all. However, in case of Enterprise Products, the Company Brand and credentials are critical, and so are the people behind the product. Hence, a distinct & precise decision has to be made very early on in terms of where the branding focus should be.
We all know that every product should be envisioned with solving a specific problem for a specific and well-‐defined target segment. While that is true, the process to validate and revalidate the solution against this target segment is not straightforward, and there are multiple adjustments and adaptations that the product as well as it's positioning may go through before hitting the so called "sweet spot". In the process, through the experimentation and iterations, however, the tangential options may emerge. Any of these options, unless validated are only hypothetically promising. Such validations require effort, while the main product path requires fully focused effort & resources in order to ensure that any invalidation of the central idea is not due to the lack of effort.
We often get disillusioned by the examples of successful enterprises – most of them end up having done multiple things over time. What we forget is that very early-‐on, the success was a derivative of strong focus on one area. Diversification happens after the central business is profitable.
At the same time, one cannot spend infinite time & energy in validating an idea. As they always say "fail fast or succeed surely"!
It's intriguing to note that most businesses, once the product creation really kicks off, end up getting sucked into the Product Lifecycle and Technology aspects while that actually is the time, the Marketing needs to kick in with the same intensity. Even more awkward situation that most entrepreneurs face is that by the time the product is ready for alpha or a beta, the pressure to generate cash forces them to leverage "sales" efforts instead of marketing.
In the last year or two I have met plenty of entrepreneurs with a single question: How do I generate cash quickly today so that I can continue to pursue the dream of building what I want to, for tomorrow? And this question seems to be independent of the amount of time the company has been in business. Of course, I have seen and met some who have balanced this beautifully by doing certain things in the starting phase of building the product as well as the company. The right balance of Marketing, Product Development, and Sales efforts is the key, and you can do that only by developing a team that can focus on these areas as you grow. A Super hero approach falters and fails, since time-‐slicing is not an option, it's about parallel efforts.
There are going to be 45 billion App downloads from App Stores worldwide in 2012. Out of which, only 10% are going to be paid for. Out of the paid ones, 90% would have the price of $3 or less. With this ticket size, the marginal costs per user need to be drastically low. However, while this cost equation is easy to understand, more and more businesses are falling in trap of the Freemium model and burning cash and resources in the hope for another Heroku or Instagram. The examples of Twitter and Wikipedia, even though valid, sound misplaced to most businesses.
Any business needs to have a revenue model from day of inception. While, many companies got everything right and got a valuation for their efforts based on the user mass, we wouldn't hear from people who close down the business and start off something else everyday. While there's nothing wrong with the User Adoption game, cash flow is critical for the business. This cash could come in returns to the benefits any customers get or in returns to intangibles and futures that investors see for a while. But, a product eventually needs to be useful for customers that are ready to pay for it. Cash flow is what businesses need to run for, and that's the number one priority that should drive the decisions in short term and long term.
PS: These are my five, I'm sure you'd have gone through many such decisions. Do you have any experiences that you can share?


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Emily Lakdawalla • March 29, 2010
Mimas' cold region: another new mystery for Cassini to explore
EDIT: Thanks to John Spencer (again!) for correcting some errors. --ESL
This new map of Saturn's moon Mimas -- representing data captured by the CIRS thermal infrared spectrometer during Cassini's February 13, 2010 flyby -- is just baffling. At least I was baffled by it. So I called up John Spencer, a member of the CIRS team, to ask him about it, and apparently I'm in good company; they're baffled too.
Here's the map I'm talking about:
NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / SWRI / SSI
Anomalous temperatures on Mimas
This map illustrates the unexpected and bizarre pattern of daytime temperatures found on Saturn's small inner moon Mimas (396 kilometers in diameter). The data were obtained by the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) on Cassini during the spacecraft's closest-ever flyby of Mimas on February 13, 2010. The upper left image shows the expected distribution of temperatures. The white sun symbol shows the point where the sun is directly overhead, which is at midday close to the equator. Just as on Earth, the highest temperatures were expected to occur after midday, in the early afternoon. The upper right image shows the completely different pattern that Cassini actually saw. Instead of the expected smoothly varying temperatures, this side of Mimas is divided into a warm part (on the left) and a cold part (on the right) with a sharp, v-shaped boundary between them. The warm part has typical temperatures near 92 Kelvin (minus 294 Fahrenheit), while typical temperatures on the cold part are about 77 Kelvin (minus 320 Fahrenheit). The lower two panels in the annotated version compare the temperature map to Mimas' appearance in ordinary visible light at the time of the observations.
CIRS is an infrared sensor that can detect thermal emission from most surfaces in the Saturn system (though some of the surfaces are so cold that the thermal emission occurs at wavelengths longer than CIRS can "see" using its highest-resolution, shortest-wavelength detector). How bright a surface appears at these thermal wavelengths correlates with its temperature; it takes some detailed modeling to figure out exactly how brightness correlates with temperature.
What do the temperatures tell us about the surface of an icy moon? The temperature is a way of getting at the structure of the topmost surface of the moon. All these moons rotate, so they have days and nights, just like Earth. Their temperatures are expected to be warmest in the afternoon, near the equator on the part of the moon that has just rotated through noon. That's the idea behind the "expected temperatures" map on the left side of the diagram above. Now, no moon in the Saturn system will look quite like this "expected temperatures" map. But nobody expected Mimas' appearance to be so completely different than the "expected temperatures" map.
Let's enumerate some of the ways that it's weird:
The region that is expected to be hottest place is actually a cold part of Mimas.
Likewise, the areas that are expected to be coldest places visible -- the polar regions and morning part of the moon -- are the hottest.
The boundary between these two regions is very, very sharp; in physics terms, there is a steep temperature gradient between the cold region and the hot region.
There is no obvious difference between the CIRS hot region and the CIRS cold region in the photographic data from ISS (the camera instrument).
I ran these observations past John and he confirmed that that's what he saw too. One thing to be careful of: it is tempting to look at the pictures and assume that the cold region has something to do with the giant crater Herschel, since Herschel seems to be in the middle of the cold spot. (At least that's the conclusion I jumped to.) But it's just as likely that it's centered on the leading hemisphere, which is to say that it's centered on a longitude of 90 degrees; Herschel's center is offset from that to the west, at a longitude of 120 degrees. Since we're not seeing the eastern edge of the cold feature, it's a little hard to be certain where it's centered.
As for explanations, "it has to be a thermal inertia thing," he said. Thermal inertia is a physical property of a substance; it's a measure of how quickly the substance heats up or cools down. Liquid water and solid rock both have high thermal inertia; substances with high surface area, like Mars' ubiquitous dust, have lower thermal inertia. Earlier results from Cassini have already indicated that Saturn's moons, generally speaking, have much lower thermal inertia than Jupiter's, suggesting that Saturn's moons have snowier, fluffier surfaces than Jupiter's. I should note here that the caption to this image on JPL's Photojournal page uses a different term, thermal conductivity: "The cold part is probably colder because surface materials there have a greater thermal conductivity, so the sun's energy soaks into the subsurface instead of warming the surface itself." The two properties are related: the thermal inertia of a substance is equal to the square root of its thermal conductivity times heat capacity times density. (Thanks, John, for that clarification.)
Still, whether it's thermal inertia or thermal conductivity, it's not at all clear why there should be this big spot on Mimas' leading hemisphere where the properties are so different from the rest of Mimas. John did warn me to be a little less surprised about the warm areas than the cool areas because there are various effects their temperature model doesn't take into account that can result in higher apparent temperatures near the limb. But I should be very surprised about the cool temperatures over the leading hemisphere and the sharp boundary between the cool and warm areas.
One thing they are looking into was to compare the temperature map to the maps of the colors of Saturn's moonsthat Paul Schenk has been working on recently. Paul has made maps of the colors of the icy moons and discovered some intriguing patterns. Many of the moons have reddish-colored trailing hemispheres. Two of them, Mimas and Tethys, have blue color in an equatorial stripe on the leading hemisphere. Check out the map of Mimas below and note how that blue region is sort of lens-shaped -- it is grossly similar to the shape of the low-temperature region in the CIRS map.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Paul Schenk
Colors of Saturn's mid-sized icy satellites
These maps of the colors of Saturn's icy moons were produced by Paul Schenk. The data is from Cassini images captured through infrared, green, and ultraviolet filters, so it covers a broader region of the electromagnetic spectrum than the human eye can see. On each map, the trailing hemisphere is on the left; the anti-Saturn point is in the middle; and leading hemisphere is on the right.
Although the correlation is suggestive, John said he was "not convinced it's exactly the same" as the CIRS cold region, as the color difference has more diffuse boundaries than the feature visible in the thermal data. (However, Paul Schenk thinks the two are "almost exactly coincident." Different scientists, different takes on the data!) And even if the two are correlated, it's still not obvious why the region that appears blue in the color maps should have exceptionally high thermal inertia (or high thermal conductivity).
What's next? They'll be paying more attention to Mimas, John said. They're going back through their older data, which would have been taken from a greater distance, to see if they can map out the right-hand side of the cold region to determine its extent and see if that edge also lines up with the anomalously blue region seen in Paul's maps. (This will also allow them to distinguish for sure whether the feature is centered on the leading hemisphere, as it seems to be, or is centered on Herschel.) And they're taking a look at Cassini's future plans to see what kinds of observations they might do to attempt to understand what's going on. He said they're even looking into observations that could be done from Earth to learn more about this strange thermal behavior.
I remarked that every time we assume a moon is boring, we discover something about it that makes it not boring. Rhea used to be the dullest moon in the Saturn system; now we've learned that it might have its own rings. So then one might make an argument for Mimas being the dullest of the mid-sized moons, with its apparently ancient surface and only distinguishing feature being the one big crater of Herschel. But CIRS just showed us there are mysteries on Mimas that we don't understand. John pointed out to me that in both of these cases, it wasn't the camera images that resulted in the discovery of something interesting; it was the plasma instrument in the case of Rhea's rings, and the thermal infrared detector in the case of Mimas' weird temperature map. The best science comes out of Cassini when all the instruments get involved!
Read more: Cassini, Saturn's moons, Mimas


Obama is without a doubt the most worthless president in American history! He's also a traitor of epic proportions against the United States of America! Every single day his lawless presidency is being undone!
The American people have had enough of Obama, Clinton and liberal elitist lies while they get rich beyond belief and destroy America! You scumbag traitors are history!
Obama, your daddy should have used a rubber.
Liberal subhuman twisted, angry, evil, godless, freaks! Can't believe anyone would want to be one? Trump better clean out the public school system and put term limits on all government politicians.
Always knew he would do it. Keep draining that swamp.
Not one truth in this video.
He's a Muslim and worked very hard to destroy our beautiful country. Thank God he ran out of time … go back to your country you won't be missed.
Obama….low of intellect, practically brain dead, without the teleprompter, a steath operator whose bogus credentials run the gamut….from Birth Certificate, to education, not to mention he's a homo. Unqualified even as Soros' (the organ grinder) cup holder (read monkey), Barack is a paper, best used to wipe…..nothing more.
He's the who walk to walk and talk to talk!!!! Good show!!!!
students are..or should i say :attendies: like obama….President Trump graduated and his records are for all to see…obamas are still legally sealed..how can that be????????
The only crushing "blow" this halfbreed muslim queer experiences is the one Big Mike , the bluegummed , knuckledragging silverback gives him daily !!
CNN UR WASTINGS OUR TIME WITH ALL OF UR REPORTERS NOT JUST STUT U* DOWN U HAVE A CAST OF THEM NOW FIRED ALL OF THEM LIKE THAT THING APRIL AND THAT JIMMMYYY BOYYYY NOW START OVER IF U WANT TO BE KEEPING UR REPORTERS *NOW FIRE ALL OF THEM NOW NOW CNN CNN CNN U HAVE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF MOSTERS THAT ARE WORKING FOR YOU* CNN CNN UR ARE LOSER UR TV STATION AND IAM TELL U LIKE IT IS*..OK. *CNN CNN CNN CNN CNN*…U ARE OUT OF HERE *NOW..CNN.EVERONE MOST GO FROM U BROAD CAST SHOW NOW THEY HAVE DISGRACEFUL STATIONS IS *UR STATION U WERE IN THE TOP. NOW ALL OF UR NEWS WORTHY NOW U ARENT U HAVE ALOT TO BE BLAME ON U LIKE THAT APRIL SHE IS ALL OVER THE PLACE BUT SHE HAS SHOW ALL OF US THAT SHE DOENT LIKE US WHITE PEOPLE WE GOT U ON THAT ONE AND THAN U LOOK SO PROUD OF UR SELF NO U JUST MADE U LOOKING LIKE A *NON PERSON THAT U ARE OK NOW WHAT…U ARE THE MOST UNFREINDLY WOMAN THAT U MEET.*..OK NOW JUST FIRE HER TODAY AND I WILL BE SAYING THIS UNTIL U DO FIRE HER OK STARTING TODAY OK..NOW FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE HER TODAY ON 6-8-18 SO IWILL NOT GOING TO STOP THIS UNLESS U HAVE HER FIRED NOW SHE IS SO UN KIND OF A WOMAN AND WHEN I WALK BY HER SHE LOOK AT ME LIKE WHO ARE U AND THATS WHAT U TEACH THEM OK FIRE FIRE FIRE HER NOW ALONG WITH THAT JIMMMMYYYY BOYYY A.


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Q: Cannot click on specified element on UI-Windows Tree using G1ANT Robot I'm trying to use UI addon command-click. After looking for an element in windows tree I decided to use that tool to choose a specific button, which opens in the dialog window on my desktop application. Unfortunately, it wasn't working in the main script -> sometimes it clicked, but not on the button itself, it chose the point outside of the dialog box. The tricky part is that line worked, but in different robot file, I placed only one line, exactly the same and it used to work. Today none of the above works...

The error it's giving me sounds like this: "Access denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED)" do somebody knows how to make it work properly?

I tried switching on/off addons, focusing on different windows, different delays, changing scaling from windows side, etc.
The line I'm using: ui.click wpath "path to element from UI tree"
Also, res. of the screen is 1920x1080p
I can use image recognition on that part of my script, but if it's in the UI windows tree it should work correctly right?

A: The path could change, check whether you use any properties that could be dynamic (like @id). Consider using keyboard command if the button is focusable or has assigned a keyboard shortcut.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Barret Jackman to announce retirement tomorrow in St. Louis
By Jason BroughOct 3, 2016, 10:19 AM EDT
He finished his career in Nashville, but Barret Jackman will always be remembered for his hundreds of games in a St. Louis Blues uniform.
That's why Jackman will officially retire from the NHL tomorrow afternoon during a press conference at Scottrade Center, the home of the Blues. The 35-year-old defenseman played 803 games for St. Louis, before signing with the Predators last summer. He was bought out by Nashville in June.
Jackman was the Blues' first-round draft pick (17th overall) in 1999. A tough, stay-at-home defenseman, he won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year in 2003 and went on to finish with 186 points (29G, 157A) in 876 career games.
Jackman's press conference will be attended by Blues owner Tom Stillman and GM Doug Armstrong, as well as two former Blues defensemen who are now in Hall of Fame, Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis.


With recipes for breads, cakes, puddings, sweets, soups, main dishes, vegetables, drinks, and home remedies, The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book will serve as a ready reference on traditional American cookery. For each entry, the author provides the original recipe, helpful notes on the ingredients and techniques employed, and instructions—based on careful kitchen testing—for adapting the recipe in the modern kitchen. Peppered throughout with family stories and illustrated with photographs from the Lee family and other archives, the book is both an informative investigation of southern foodways and a fascinating look at one family's household history.
304 pages, Softcover, ISBN 978-0807854150, The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.


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FrightFest 2019: Extracurricular
By Morgan Truder in Features London Frightfest 2019 Reviews September 18, 2019
School is over for the day, and you're not sure what to do with your evening. Most teens in this scenario would play some sports, hang out with friends, maybe even watch a good old horror movie – but not the teens of Extracurricular. The quartet, made up of Derek (Keenan Tracey), Ian (Spencer Macpherson), Miriam (Brittany Raymond) and Jenny (Brittany Teo), would much rather take part in a slasher instead of watching one.
Unfortunately, Extracurricular peaks too soon, with the opening few minutes forming the most intriguing part of the film. It's hard for director Ray Xue to keep the film moving upwards after it begins so well. The opening is strong and purposefully shot, particularly as it's portrayed in the manner of a different type of horror film, so as to mislead our expectations. This is effective in creating a sense of excitement and mystery, but sadly suspenseful moments like this are rare across the rest of the film. Extracurricular's lack of suspense is not the reason why the film is problematic – the primary issue is that, despite a very unique concept and perspective, it lacks quality in its execution.
Following a group of teens committing murders for nothing more than mere fun has the potential to be fascinating. What is their motive? How did they get here? Where are the boundaries? However, an exploration of the group's intricacies is one of the many things the film sets out to do, but it fails – and even forgets – its commitments. The film misses every opportunity to delve into the relationships between the four kids, which, considering they are all so different, is particularly interesting. This could have helped in adding some much-needed levity to the bulk of the film. Extracurricular also struggles to commit to certain sub-plots, such as the relationship between Miriam and an outsider of the killing crew. This relationship, which began to show potential as a major conflict, never gets the treatment or time it deserves, and its significance is completely withdrawn in the final act.
There's always potential for a sub-par script to be transferred to the screen with more conviction than it was written with, but that usually requires a good cast. Extracurricular is not an example of this. In general, the cast is not fully convincing in their performances, but to give credit where it's due, there was little character development for these actors to work with.
With so much potential from the outset, it really is a shame that more positives cannot be taken from the young director's effort. Extracurricular was a wasted opportunity, so often flirting with success. This being said, the film is incredibly easy to watch, particularly due to the great pacing and editing. Despite its issues, it's not boring at any moment.
Tags: Extracurricular, Featured, Film, FrightFest, Horror, Slasher
6 Creepy Clown Movies (That Aren't 'IT: Chapter Two'!)


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CyTA support fund and Greek expansion criticised in auditor's report
By FORMER STAFF June 15, 2015 June 15, 2015 10 126
By Angelos Anastasiou
Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides found weak expenditure controls, failing businesses, and lack of transparency at the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority in his 2014 audit report for the semi-state organisation, which was released on Monday.
The key findings of his 63-page report included staff benefits, including contributions to the Support Fund and medical fund and life insurance premiums, to the tune of over €5 million for the year, contributions which should burden employees, and not the organisation.
"Investigation of the Support Fund's investments in previous years revealed various issues that warrant further investigation – for example, the signing of the purchase of a building for £1 million by the fund's chairman and secretary without the board's approval," Michaelides noted.
Marred by the Dromolaxia scandal – a case of fraud against CyTA employees' pension savings, which landed several former CyTA officials in prison last year – the pension fund was not run prudently or diligently.
"In terms of the investments made from 2009 to 2013, the fund's interests were not protected," Michaelides' report said.
"The fund was exposed to significant risks and financial damage."
Against the Audit Service's prior advice, CyTA's Greek subsidiary CytaHellas launched new operations in Greece in mid-2014, to disappointing results.
"Despite the fact that our 2013 report noted our opposition to the company's planned expansion to mobile telephony services without prior consultations with the ministerial committee on denationalisations, the board entered the mobile telephony market in August 2014," it argued.
"The targets set for 2014 were not met and, as at December 31, 2014, the company had 55.3 per cent of the customers envisioned in its business plan."
CyTA's subscription-based TV arm was an especially troubling case, according to the Audit Service's report. The unit made a spectacular loss, since "total subscription revenues did not even meet the direct cost of securing content."
"With regard to television rights and sponsorships to sports clubs, there is no transparency as to the way and criteria employed in selecting the teams to sponsor, and no method of evaluating the rights' commercial viability has been employed," Michaelides found.
"The authority's board of directors must exercise stricter control to rein in spending on team sponsorships, and safeguard the authority's interests."
Further issues spotted by the Audit Service relating to the telecoms company involved advertising spending, which reached €8.7 million in 2014, of which almost 30 per cent were ads placed in media, and 30.8 per cent in sponsorships.
"Sponsorships are not governed by an adequate policy framework, and there is no mechanism for establishing whether the returns are requisite with the cost incurred," the report noted.
auditor general's reportCytaCytaHellassupport fund
Drug price cuts head to the Supreme Court
Energy and security tops presidential visit to Israel (Update 3)


The aroma of our Mesquite Smoked Sea Salt is a great addition to chicken, pork, beef, burgers and more. Aromatic and flavorful. Great on any meat. No matter how you cook it. Compliments any of our seasoning mixes. Use sparingly because it is strong. A little bit goes a long way.
One of my favorite uses - add to fresh made salsa to add a smoked flavor that can't be beat.
Love this salt. adds such a great flavor and it only takes a little bit. Great for just about any meat!
This is a wonderful spice it will give any meat that smokey woody taste just as the name says "Campfire" Love it. Have loved every spice that we have bought for here.
They got the name right on this one! When you open the cap it smells just like a camp fire. It is fantastic on steak and chops. Broiled or grilled it is wonderful!
Click the button below to add the Mesquite Smoked Sea Salt 4 oz to your wish list.


FORT BELVOIR, Va. (May 21, 2018)—Nominations for the 2018 Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)) Acquisition Awards are now being accepted, providing the Army acquisition community with an opportunity to showcase some of its most noteworthy accomplishments.
The Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Innovation Award recognizes organizations for exceptional outside-the-box thinking and progress in tackling workforce development challenges.
The Defense Acquisition Workforce Individual Achievement Award recognizes individuals in each of the 17 acquisition functional disciplines.
The David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award recognizes civilian and military teams that demonstrate innovation and technical excellence in acquisition to achieve more cost-effective outcomes for the warfighter and the taxpayer.
The Flexibility in Contracting Award recognizes DOD civilian and military professionals who have, in their approach to program management and contracting, demonstrated innovation and local adaptation by using the flexibilities and authorities granted by the Federal Acquisition Regulation and DOD Instruction 5000.02, Operation of the Defense Acquisition System, to increase the efficiency of programs.
All nominations must be submitted online at http://asc.army.mil/web/acquisition-awards/ by the close of business on June 15. As the official collection point for Army nominations, USAASC will compile the nominations and submit them to senior leadership, which will then submit the strongest applications to USD(A&S) for consideration.
The Secretary of Defense Product Support Manager (PSM) Award is also accepting nominations. This award recognizes the PSM accomplishments and contributions in two categories: Major Defense Acquisition Programs/Major Acquisition Information Systems, Acquisition Category (ACAT) I PSMs; and Major Weapon System/Other Weapon Systems, ACAT II and below PSMs. The deadline for submitting nominations for this award is midnight EDT on June 22.
Winners will be announced later this year or early next year. Detailed information on each award and instructions on submitting nominations can be found at https://asc.army.mil/web/acquisition-awards/.
Read through all of the instructions before you begin and make sure you understand all of the deadlines, page limits and information requirements. As you're writing up the nomination, be specific and concise: What was the challenge? How was it overcome, and what puts that solution head and shoulders above the other nominees? Before you hit send, proofread. Then proofread again. Extra time invested in writing your nomination pays dividends once the winners are announced.


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Should single-family offices hire PMs?
An executive from a single-family office argues in favour of in-house investment staff over external managers. Mark Smallwood of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management disagrees.
Mark Smallwood says single-family offices are generally better off using third-party managers
It's an eternal question for institutional investors: should they employ portfolio managers or outsource to external fund firms? And this is increasingly becoming a consideration for Asia's growing family office segment.
One Hong Kong-based senior executive at a European single-family office (SFO) believes FOs with $100 million or more in assets under management can and should be employing their own investment professionals.
"If you have $100 million or more in wealth, you have enough money to hire someone or a small team who can work for you full time," said the executive, who asked not to be named.
Following the general rule of thumb on calculating spend on investment resources, he noted that 1% of a $100 million FO's total net worth comes to $1 million, "enough to hire three very good professionals to be fully dedicated to your portfolio".
"If you were to put that $100 million with a private bank, you wouldn't have three guys working for you alone," he added. "It would be one guy with, say, 10 portfolios of $100 million each. So your portfolio would get 30 times more attention if you hire your own team."
As for private banks' portfolio managers, added the FO executive, they are incentivised to bring in and retain client assets, but performance comes secondary. A private banker, for example, gets part of a fee for bringing in assets of around $1 billion and and the rest of the fee if the client keeps the asset for one to two years with the bank, he noted.
He argued that private banking should be a performance-driven business, rather like how funds are structured. "If you put $20 million with a private bank and they make a 10% return on it, I'm happy to give them part of that performance, but I don't want to pay them a management fee for very limited performance.
"If private banks mismanage wealth, they should be penalised – but that's not how it currently works, to my knowledge. Some banks are recognising that – but if they don't, why even use them?"
However, Mark Smallwood, Asia-Pacific head of franchise development and strategic initiatives at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, takes a different view.
Most SFOs don't have sufficient size to afford even a small investment team, he said. The best managers are unlikely to want to join an family office with a $100 million portfolio, argued Smallwood, and even larger FOs may struggle to bring in the best talent.
"How are you going to take on two or three really top-notch portfolio managers to work for your $500 million family office and make it really cost-effective to run? You're much better off going to third-party managers accessible through a global custodian such as a private bank, so you can hire and fire managers based on what you want them to achieve and their performance."
Being a manager of managers or asset allocator is a much safer bet than hiring people in-house at a family office, added Smallwood. "The moment you end up being responsible for the detailed decisions, you risk coming into conflict with the family. Then if you under-perform, it's your fault. So the optimum is to be the CIO or asset allocator and consequently the manager of the managers."
family offices mark smallwood deutsche asset & wealth management family office
Lucas Cacioli
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