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TAKIN' CARE OF CYBER
BUSINESS
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Snapshots
of 4 Fast Cos.
By Bill Beggs Jr.
Nearly every established or up-and-coming company has an online
component, but plenty these days have eschewed bricks and mortar
to go virtually “virtual.” Or they’ve been Internet-based from the
get-go. Staying ahead of the curve is key to success, and in the
frenzied world of IT, the curves come more fast and furious than
on any mountain road. Fast companies don’t stay ahead of the pack
by pulling into the next rest stop, because another one just down
the hall or on the other side of the globe isn’t stopping for anything.
Here’s four regional success stories, companies that understand
“nothing changes if nothing changes.”
bigwidesky
At bigwidesky, a virtual ad agency making some real money by creating
big ideas for local and national companies about stuff we mostly
can see, touch, maybe eat… and buy, for sure... hot air rocks. Consider
their web newsletter: “Hotair—marketing bluster from your oxygenated
friends at bigwidesky.”
Mike
Behr, president, bigwidesky |
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Advertising is nothing like the Madison Avenue model of yesteryear,
says Mike Behr, president of what he prefers to call a marketing
agency. The industry isn’t controlled anymore by New York behemoths,
“human factories built around producing ads,” he says. Traditional
advertising is obsolete in a world that’s exploded beyond three
TV-network affiliates, a few AM radio stations, a couple city newspapers
and a handful of national magazines. The ’Net has run some rustbuckets
into the ditch, and only souped-up vehicles with serious horses
under the hood can get back on the information superhighway.
Most folks don’t much like spam, or pop-ups, except for the creeps
who blast them out there like, well, viruses. That’s not bigwidesky’s
stock in trade. “We’re rolling out e-marketing campaigns—those things
that come up over to the right,” says Behr.
Magazine and newspaper publishers, networks and their ilk have to
assume their messages motivate certain percentages of an audience
into action. But the web-based message-makers can count clicks.
Unlike publishers, they don’t have to convince an advertiser that
their message has “pass along” value. There’s word of mouth, observable
via search engines that pick up the buzz from bloggers throughout
the known universe.
Behr cites a recent Adweek poll, 30 percent of advertisers in 2003
were likely to include online media in campaigns. By 2005, that
had rocketed to 51 percent.
It’s still essential to create The Big Idea. But how it’s released
into cyberspace—and integrated with other media—is even bigger.
For instance: Missed your favorite Comedy Central show? Catch it
on the website, along with plenty of fun quizzes, puzzles, contests
and uncategorizable audience-participation thingies that are generations
beyond “sweepstakes.”
This career requires much more than turning phrases. Candidates
must be acquainted, at least, on the front end with web design and
on the back with HTML. Though they may be geeks, they can’t be the
types of geek that don’t get out much.
“We’re building a sense of community,” says Behr.
Scottrade
The D-I-Y trader has been Scottrade’s target customer since day
one. The discount brokerage designed user-friendly trading platforms
for savvy investors who aren’t interested in paying higher commissions
for completing transactions they can do themselves. And as the trading
environment shifted from face-to-face meetings with a broker to
phone calls to online transactions, Scottrade didn’t miss a step.
“We’ve never closed an office,” says Ian Patterson, CIO.
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Ian
Patterson, CIO, Scottrade |
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But with the capability to do everything online without help, thank
you very much, who needs an office? If you run into challenges with
the site, can’t you just e-mail someone at a support facility in
California somewhere, or talk to a tech advisor burning the midnight
oil at a mammoth call center overseas?
Should a Scottrade customer need help with one of the three levels
of trading platform, or if something prevents access to the Internet
or the site, employees of the closest local branch are available
for consultation. That’s where your call to the 800 number will
be routed, whether you’re a customer in L.A. or St. Louis. Building
some level of rapport with a company is essential, asserts Patterson,
or else a customer can make a move based on price alone.
Nowadays, of course, brokerage personnel need be as savvy about
software issues as they are NASDAQ symbols.
“If you call your bank and have an IT issue, they’re your first
level of support,” Patterson says, by way of comparison. “Maybe
you’re not seeing all you expected because you just loaded the latest
Google pop-up blocker. Or, maybe you’ve never traded mutual funds.”
Or maybe you’re of the generation of clients who don’t have, or
want, access to the Internet. In any case, face-to-face, whether
to drop off a check or sit across the desk from a broker for a point-and-click
demonstration, will always be part of the Scottrade model.
“I wouldn’t say we’re ‘bleeding edge’,” says Patterson, “but we’re
leading edge.”
Platforms are designed on how much the client knows, or wants to
learn. Tools are available for anyone who wants to become a more-educated
investor.
“Rather than just giving you the typical stock info you can see
anywhere, you can drill down to what the market-makers see,” Patterson
says.
CSI
CSI Leasing was founded 34 years ago, before disposal and sanitation
were pressing issues. For the most part, work done on a computer
stayed on that computer—or wasn’t really ever there, because it
was just a “workstation” linked to the brains of the outfit, the
mainframe in the basement. Back in the day, the biggest threat to
data security might have been someone snooping over your shoulder.
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Ken
Steinback, Chairman and CEO, CSI |
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And today, regulations in some states require for computer equipment
to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. In California,
consumers pay a certain amount up front to cover proper disposal
of their discarded computers, to include recovering aluminum and
other raw materials for recycling, not to mention properly destroying
or disposing of potentially hazardous materials.
That’s not the case in Missouri. So far, it’s up to the conscientious
corporate citizen or individual. “It’s like paints,” points out
Ken Steinback, CSI’s chairman & CEO. Most of us know paint and thinner
shouldn’t just be tossed in the trash, and garbage collectors know
they shouldn’t pick up a computer left at the curb.
This happens all the time, of course—with computers, Steinback says,
it’s pathetic.
Sometimes, under the pretext the machines will be properly disposed
of, fly-by-nighters collect computers at so much per, only to haul
them to a landfill. Or, discard them off the beaten path somewhere,
Steinback laments, describing a photo recently published in area
newspapers of a mountain of computers just dumped in a field.
“We take them down to the raw materials and sell everything in the
machine; metal, plastic, you name it,” Steinback says. “We do what
any reputable scrap dealer would do.”
But the bigger issue for the small company or corporation is sanitation—“wiping”
the hard drive clean (for computers coming off lease, CSI does not
charge for this service). Data destruction is so critical, Steinback
says, that some corporations won’t settle for a document asserting
that the job has been done. To ensure that 1,000 laptops are handled
responsibly and securely, a company official will observe the process
from when the hardware leaves company hands on a truck, to the moment
data has been eliminated from the last disc.
“Some may outsource to another guy,” says Steinback. Then, environmental
issues notwithstanding, data still on those computers is not what
the previous owners would want to fall into the wrong hands. It’s
open season on the identity of untold numbers of unwitting victims.
For starters, personal data, such as credit card accounts and Social
Security numbers, are up for grabs.
“Anyone who wants to pilfer any of those hard drives can do it,”
says Steinback.
SSE
Imagine your shock upon calling in technical assistance for your
trade association’s suddenly diminished computer capacity, only
to find that a hacker somewhere has found a hole in your server
ample enough to host pornographic material.
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Elizabeth
Niedringhaus, president, SSE |
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True story. Elizabeth Niedringhaus has dozens of them.
Niedringhaus is president of SSE, a firm providing protection and
security mostly to small companies and other organizations. Her
business might be a little like small-business insurance: providing
the expertise and products that may prevent a disaster might not
be as sexy as swooping in and cleaning up after large-scale damage
has already been done.
“Lots of companies think that because they’re small, nobody’s going
to go after them,” Niedringhaus says. “So they feel secure because
the owner’s uncle’s fraternity brother knows a lot about computers.”
Maybe the frat guy’s convinced you to back up your data with some
regularity. That’s super. Well, what if he doesn’t have the software
or savvy to alert you there’s a very high likelihood your hard drive’s
about to fail? Or that the newly installed firewall hasn’t even
been activated, the virus subscription renewed, the spyware settings
updated?
According to the FBI’s 2005 Computer Crime Survey, nearly nine in
10 businesses and organizations experience “computer security incidents”
annually—one in five experiences 20 or more. Government research
indicates each “unidentified security breach” costs an average of
$943,000.
SSE has developed an ounce of prevention in Pretecht, software that
remotely monitors a computer network 24/7 by taking snapshots every
five to 15 minutes. These snapshots allow the software to predict
problems before they become an issue. In most cases, Pretecht takes
action remotely to resolve issues, but when onsite service is needed,
technicians are dispatched immediately, often before anyone knows
something is wrong.
Small companies may be spread too thin to hire an IT professional.
But it’s safe to say that as quickly as any IT expert’s knowledge
increases or skillset improves, the cyber creeps are at least keeping
up. To gain an advantage in the marketplace, plenty of businesses
employ sneaky tactics—ethics be damned.
“Companies hire IT experts to stage attacks on competitors,” Niedringhaus
points out, and Pretecht can be a cost-effective first line of defense.
Or, as in the association’s case, a hacker may not be a spy intending
“to use your data, but to use you as a relay station.” |
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