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Monthly Archives: April 2020

How to Customize Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales (CRM) Solution

April 30, 2020   CRM News and Info
crmnav How to Customize Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales (CRM) Solution

We recently talked about the benefits of customizing Microsoft Dynamics 365: from fields to forms and various business processes and workflows, you can adapt almost anything to your specific needs and realitiesBy ensuring your customer relationship management solution works well with your organization’s business processes, you can increase productivity, efficiency and user adoption across your organization.

Standard customizations such as views, forms, dashboards and entities ensure you get the information you need, but it’s also possible to put more advanced customizations in place. Microsoft’s vision over the past couple of years has been to provide several tools within the Microsoft Power Platform to allow customers to elevate their Dynamics 365 solution with advanced features and customizations on top of the basic system.

Here are a few of the tools at your disposal:

  • Microsoft Power Automate: Previously known as Microsoft Flow, Power Automate lets you create workflows, i.e. specific actions based on trigger events of your choice. These can be anything from simple notifications to multi-step workflows connecting several applications. Both robust and intuitive, Power Automate connects your various tools and applications to automate various processes.
  • Microsoft Power Apps: The Power Platform lets you build no-code or low-code apps to streamline processes and better meet your objectives. Configured from a simple interface, Canvas apps can be built for web, mobile and tablet applications, connected to your choice of 200 data sources. Model-driven apps use the Common Data Service (the platform on which Dynamics 365 applications are built) as their data source and are suited to more complex operations.
  • Microsoft Power BI: Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence solution that fully integrates to Microsoft Dynamics products to increase your reporting possibilities and data analysis capabilities. Personalized dashboards and reports tailor the data according to users’ roles and needs for better visibility and insights, and this information can even be shared easily outside the Dynamics 365 user base.

All these tools extend the possibilities and capabilities for reporting and integration of your Dynamics 365 Sales solution. The trick is not to think of your CRM solution as only a tool for your sales team: its flexibility and customization options make it a powerful platform that can increase productivity and efficiency across your organization. Speak with your provider to know how to best leverage the customization tools at your disposal.

By JOVACO Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementation specialist in Quebec

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WHEN 2+2= WHATEVER YOU “FEEL” IT SHOULD BE………

April 30, 2020   Humor
blank WHEN 2+2= WHATEVER YOU “FEEL” IT SHOULD BE………

Or when 11th grade essays can be turned in with spelling and grammar errors plus be done in crayon and still get an “A” then you know we’re talking about Common Core.

And the results are abysmal.

Every one of the fuckers responsible for this should be tarred, feathered, drawn, quartered and their heads put on pikes.

Reading and math scores in the US have suffered ‘historic’ declines since most states implemented the Common Core curriculum standard six years ago, according to a new study from the Pioneer Institute.

While Common Core was promoted as improving the international competitiveness of U.S. students in math, our international standing has remained low while the skills of average and lower performing American students have dropped in both math and reading. -Pioneer Institute

The study notes that in the years leading up to common core, fourth and eight-grade reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were rising gradually (2003-2013). After Common Core was implemented, scores for both grades have fallen – with eighth grade falling nearly as fast as it had been rising.

The declines were most severe among the lowest-achieving students, which the Pioneer Institute suggests increases inequality.

Scores for students at the 90th percentile have mostly continued their pre-Common Core trend of gradual improvement. But the farther behind students were, the more substantial the declines, with the biggest drops occurring for those at the 25th and 10th percentiles. -Pioneer Institute

So, Common Core requires more diligence and effort?

“The sustained decline we’re now seeing, especially among our most vulnerable students, simply cannot be allowed to continue,” said Theodor Rebarber, author of “The Common Core Debacle.”

According to the Pioneer Institute, Common Core is the product of ‘misguided progressive pedagogies and biases of the education establishment that developed it.’

“Several of us allied with Pioneer Institute have been pointing out, ever since it was introduced, the deeply flawed educational assumptions that permeate the Common Core and the many ways in which it is at odds with curriculum standards in top-achieving countries,” said the institute in a statement.

According to the report lower scores as a result of Common Core were predicted a decade ago.

“Nearly a decade after states adopted Common Core, the empirical evidence makes it clear that these national standards have yielded underwhelming results for students,” said Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios. “The proponents of this expensive, legally questionable policy initiative have much to answer for”

“It’s time for federal law to change to allow states as well as local school districts to try a broader range of approaches to reform,” Rebarber added. “With a more bottom-up approach, more school systems will have the opportunity to choose curricula consistent with our international competitors and many decades of research on effective classroom teaching”

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Google Duplex now speaks Spanish, starts calling businesses in Spain to update hours

April 30, 2020   Big Data
 Google Duplex now speaks Spanish, starts calling businesses in Spain to update hours

Google today launched Google Duplex, its AI chat agent that can arrange appointments over the phone, in Spain to automate the updating of business hours across Google Search and Google Maps. For the first time, it’s speaking in Spanish — Duplex previously only spoke in English.

The expansion follows a pilot in New New Zealand and Duplex’s quiet expansion to the U.K., Australia, and Canada. It also comes as Google looks to leverage Duplex to confirm which stores are closed as a result of shelter-in-place orders intended to limit the spread of COVID-19. In a March blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company was increasingly using Duplex “where possible” to contact restaurants and businesses about their hours so it can reflect them accurately.

A Google spokesperson told VentureBeat via email that the Spain rollout is part of that effort and “only for confirming store hours only during the health situation.”

Late last year, Google brought Duplex to select “devices that can access Search or Maps,” expanding its availability beyond Pixel phones, iOS devices, and select third-party Android devices. To be clear, it’s not quite the Duplex experience Google demoed at its I/O 2018 developers conference in May — in the U.K., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Spain, Duplex can’t make restaurant reservations as it can in 48 U.S. states. But it’s no longer limited to businesses Google has explicitly partnered with through its Reserve with Google program.

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At the beginning of an exchange, Duplex makes it clear that the call is automated, and it doesn’t call late at night or early in the morning. In all countries, Duplex informs the person on the other end that they’re being recorded. If restaurant owners and front of house staff respond with “I don’t want to be recorded” or some variation of the phrase, the call is handed off to a human operator on an unrecorded line. (Those operators also annotate the call transcripts used to train Duplex’s algorithms.)

Google received a ton of criticism after its initial Duplex demo in 2018 — many were not amused by Google Assistant mimicking a human so well. In June of that year, the company promised that Google Assistant using Duplex would first introduce itself.

Part of the reason Duplex sounds so natural is because it taps Google’s sophisticated WaveNet audio processing neural network and intelligently inserts “speech disfluencies” — the “ums” and “ahs” people make involuntarily in the course of a conversation. These come from a branch of linguistics known as pragmatics, which deals with language in use and the contexts in which it is used — including things like taking turns in conversation, text organization, and presupposition.

Still, Google appears to be hedging its bets with Assistant on the Web, a relatively new service that uses Duplex technology to handle things like car rentals and movie ticket bookings on the mobile web. Assistant on the Web launched in general availability in November 2019, starting with movie ticket purchasing — Google partnered with over 70 cinema chains and ticket sellers in the U.S. and U.K., including  AMC, Fandango, MJR Theaters, Movietickets.com, and Odeon.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, rollouts and development of Assistant on the Web and Duplex are likely to slow as governments mandate that non-essential businesses shut their doors.

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How Much Does It Cost to Own Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM?

April 30, 2020   CRM News and Info
crmnav How Much Does It Cost to Own Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM?

In today’s business world, all types and sizes of businesses can benefit from the efficiency of a comprehensive CRM(Customer Relationship Management) solution. If your company hopes to grow and expand, it’s even more valuable.

When you hope to increase your client base, open new offices, or expand into new markets nearby or around the globe, you need a powerful, integrated system such as Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM.

There’s no shortage of information and articles about the features and functionality of Dynamics 365/CRM; you can find a wealth of articles right here on the CRM Software Blog.

But one piece of information you might have had trouble pinning down is the price. When budgeting for a new or upgraded solution, you need to know the total cost of ownership. That’s not always easy to determine. There is a difference between the sticker price of the software and the actual cost of the software plus installation plus ongoing costs.

The CRM Software Blog’s Quick Quote Tool is here to help. The Quick Quote Tool will generate a ballpark estimate of the total costs involved in implementing and operating Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM.

Here’s how the Quick Quote Tool works:

Look for the orange ‘Request Instant Quote Dynamics 365/CRM’ bar at the top right of each page of the CRM Software Blog. Click the bar, and you’ll be taken to a screen with a short form to fill out. You’ll answer basic questions about your type of business, the number of employees who will be using the system, the level of support you’ll require (don’t worry, the questionnaire will help you answer these questions), and any concerns you have unique to your business. Include your contact information, and you’re done.

The Quick Quote Tool will use your information to customize a quote which you’ll receive instantly as a PDF sent to your email. After you’ve received your non-binding quote, your contact information will be made available to just one of our expert CRM Software Blog members in your area who will be happy to answer any questions you may have. You can choose to work with that partner or not; it’s up to you. The non-binding estimate and the referral are a free service we provide for our readers.

The CRM Software Blog Quick Quote Tool can get you started in determining just how much your Microsoft Dynamics 365 system will cost you from the first licensing to long-term support. Simply fill out the quote request form and be well on your way to a deeper understanding of the total cost of owning a Dynamics 365 solution from Microsoft.

By CRM Software Blog Writer. www.crmsoftwareblog.com

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Strategies For Navigating An Economic Slowdown

April 29, 2020   SAP
 Strategies For Navigating An Economic Slowdown

We are all living in a once-in-a-lifetime situation. Entire countries and even continents are forced to stay at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries are looking forward to gradually opening up the lockdowns and allowing people to restart work, albeit in a controlled fashion. This means the work we return to, in all likelihood, will not be the same as before the pandemic.

Regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur or an intrapreneur or a business leader, we all need to figure out what the new normal looks like.

Almost everyone who is in the prediction business is forecasting that the next few months will not be easy for many kinds of businesses. People might lose jobs. Businesses that don’t find ways to bring in new customers could wind down and create more job losses.

It is in this environment that I saw a presentation by Porus Munshi for TiE Surat. I am privileged to know him, having worked with him in the past. In the session, he shares his insights on what businesses can learn from the past and other businesses about finding, retaining, and delighting customers. If you have time, I strongly urge you to watch the video. In this post, I will describe some of the strategies that he shares in the video and add some thoughts of my own.

Strategy 1: Seek —> Sense —> Respond

As humans, when we sense danger, we typically respond in one of three ways: Fight, Flight, or Freeze. Typically, when organizations face a crisis situation, they react in a similarly, doing one of the following:

  • Ignore: They wait for things to come back to normal, i.e., how things were before the crisis. They think, by not acknowledging the magnitude of change brought by the crisis, that they will not have to respond. These businesses act as if nothing has changed. They are the most at risk of going out of business.
  • React: These organizations will actively fight the situation. They will do more of what they did in the past and double-down on their existing programs (e.g., marketing, sales, production, procurement). These organizations will find that the environment has changed in so many different ways that their past strategy will no longer work. This will create frustration not only to the people in their business but also in their ecosystem (e.g., partners and customers).
  • Respond: These businesses will seek to understand what is happening around them. They will try to make sense of the changes and then figure out the best response to them. These are the businesses that show that in every crisis lie great opportunities.

Your goal should be to seek, sense, and respond: Set yourself up to seek what is happening around you, make sense of it, and then create an informed, strategic response.

Strategy 2: Shift your mindset from crisis to opportunity

One of the first things we need to do to change our behavior is to change our mindset and belief system. Consider the following example.

Let’s say you decide that you want to buy a car and have shortlisted a specific model. Suddenly, you start seeing this car everywhere you go. But there are not really more of that model car on the road; rather, you are noticing it a lot more than you used to. This happens because the act of shortlisting that specific model tells your subconscious mind that this car is important for you. So, it does not filter it out as noise.

The same thing happens with everything else. If you train your mind to see opportunity, you will see it all around you. If you train your mind to see crisis, you will see it all around you. This is especially true in times of crisis. When you see crisis all around you, it takes a conscious effort to see opportunities.

Strategy 3: Be in service to your customers

One way to look at opportunities is to find ways to add value and stay in service to your customers, prospects, partners, or society at large.

We all can learn from the story of a surgical shop in Kerala. When COVID-19 began spreading and there was a spike in demand for face masks, shops started to hoard them and sell them at a premium. However, a surgical shop in Kerala’s Kochi acted like a good Samaritan and made the masks available at a price of R2 per piece to those in most need: hospitals and medical teams. They bought the masks at R10 per piece and sold them at R2, incurring a loss of R8 per mask. They sold more than 5,000 masks within two days. They did this in service to their customers and prospects and also for the society at large.

We need to remember that in times of crisis, emotions run high. In this situation, if someone takes care of you, the chances are that you will remember their act of service and respond in kind when the opportunity presents. This is not to say that the surgical shop’s owners acted on the potential quid pro quo; this only works when you truly act in service without expecting any kind of return.

Strategy 4: Do a Fosbury Flop

In his talk, Porus shares the story of how one man, Dick Fosbury, changed the way athletes do the high jump. He thought through the science of gravity and, at the 1968 Olympics, jumped back-first, the opposite of what everyone else was doing, and won the gold medal in the event.

We can bring that same level of focus to our business and do a Fosbury Flop. You can be certain that at this time of crisis, every one of your competitors will be fighting to sell their products or services to customers.

What if instead, you focused on getting your customers more business? What if you could come up with unique ways of promoting your customers’ business? Regardless of the results you get, you will get noticed. And if you get good results (which is not only possible but also very likely if you apply your creativity), you not only get your customers’ attention but also their loyalty for the long term.

The reason is because of a simple hack of how humans work. When you are trying to brainstorm ways to increase your business, you are likely to get stuck and not get truly creative ideas. This is because you are too close to your business and the risk of failure, and that might keep you and your team from following breakthrough ideas.

However, if you try to come up with ideas for someone else’s (i.e., your customers’) businesses, your creative juices will flow easily and you can come up with some really creative ways to promote their business.

Brainstorm ideas about what you would typically do and then try and find a way to go in the opposite direction. If you would typically increase your ad spend, decrease it. If you would usually go aggressive on discounting, try to come up with a service to increase your pricing. You get the point.

Strategy 5: Seek the other side of the moon

It is a well-known fact that we only see one side of the moon from anywhere on Earth. This is because of “tidal locking.” Just like the moon has other sides we can’t see, in every situation or challenge, we tend to see only one face or perspective of the problem. The moment we recognize that and look for different perspectives, we can come up with interesting and creative solutions.

In the same way, look at how you are prospecting and the value you bring to your prospects and customers. Is there a different perspective that you can see for:

  • A new way to add value to your customers?
  • A new way to find prospects?
  • A new way to convert your prospects to customers faster?

All of these are great ways to bring in additional revenue that could be unique to you and your way of doing business.

Porus talks about the “Pure for Impure” strategy run by jeweler Tanishq, where the company exchanged impure gold jewelry for pure jewelry at no extra cost. This strategy moved it from being a loss-making unit to an extremely profitable unit and established it as the gold standard in gold jewelry in India.

Porus also talks about another jewelry store that takes the consumer’s view. Instead of talking about design or hiring expensive models for its ad, the CEO talks about the best way to buy gold jewelry. He shines the light on hidden charges consumers typically pay when buying jewelry and thereby differentiates his business from his competitors. Instead of focusing on the product, he focuses on the consumer’s perspective.

Strategy 6: Create an ecosystem

Porus also talks about how someone’s problem could be your solution, and how your problem could be the solution to someone else’s problem. You just need to find the people who can solve your problem or whose problem you can solve. The question is: how do you find these potential partners.

In most cases, they are hiding within your existing value chain. You just need to look for them consciously. They might be one of your vendors, or your vendor’s customers, or your customer’s vendors, or your customer’s customers, or even your competitor’s vendors. They may even be one of your competitors operating in a different market from yours. You just need to look for them.

You can also explore partnering with unusual partners. Apply the strategy of going in the opposite direction from everyone else. For example, if you find out that all of your competitors are partnering with large systems integrators (SIs), then find startups or smaller SIs in the same field and partner with them. By enabling them to become successful, you create your success.

Applying the strategy of the other side of the moon, reflect on the different perspectives of how you engage with your partners and see if there are opportunities to expand your relationship. Explore whether you can compete not as individual firms but as an ecosystem or a conglomeration of firms, thereby increasing your marketing and sales muscles. Explore whether you can partner with others who also sell to your customer category and see if you can help each other out.

In conclusion

Each one of these strategies applied in isolation can accelerate growth for your business. However, the true power of these strategies is unleashed when you use many of them and build upon one another. Combined, they can bring about remarkably creative strategies to grow your business. These strategies can be applied to all businesses, irrespective of their size or the industry they operate in.

Get to know SAP Transformation Navigator, a self-service tool that helps you chart your digital transformation with SAP S/4HANA. Join our Webinar session on May 4, 2020.

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Eddie Murphy Locks In Date To Return To Stand Up And Does It For Charity

April 29, 2020   Humor

It has been decades since Eddie Murphy has done stand-up comedy for the general public, but in a precursor to his upcoming Netflix specials, Murphy has agreed to perform a set from home for Byron Allen‘s upcoming charity event, the Feeding America Comedy Festival.

Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish and Billy Crystal are also part of the star-studded lineup for the festival, which Allen put together via his Entertainment Studios. Funny or Die is co-producing the charity event, which will raise money for Feeding America.

 Eddie Murphy Locks In Date To Return To Stand Up And Does It For Charity

Image via Paramount

The three-hour event won’t air on a major network or streaming service, however. Instead, it will be live-streamed on Allen Media Group’s television networks Comedy.TV and The Weather Channel as well as on the free streaming service app Local Now on Saturday, May 9. Viewers will be encouraged to donate to Feeding America at www.feedingamerica.org.

Additional comedians who will perform sets from home include Marc Maron, Jon Lovitz, Brad Garrett, Marlon Wayans, Howie Mandel, Taraji P. Henson, Louie Anderson, Margaret Cho, Kenan Thompson, Caroline Rhea, Billy Gardell, Tim Meadows, Jamie Kennedy, Bill Engvall, Sheryl Underwood and Allen himself.

“In partnership with Feeding America, my comedian friends and all of us at Allen Media Group are pleased to announce this global live-streaming comedy event on May 9th,” Allen said in a statement. “Laughter is often the best medicine, and we are extremely motivated to bring attention to issues of food insecurity, and to assist in providing meals to families across the country who are financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

 Eddie Murphy Locks In Date To Return To Stand Up And Does It For Charity

Image via NBC

“The coronavirus pandemic and the economic downturn it has created is shining a light on the fragile nature of people’s household budgets,” added Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, a nationwide network of 200 food banks. “Millions more of our neighbors are turning to food banks for help and we cannot thank Byron Allen and Allen Media Group enough for their support to raise funds and awareness of our work.”

Murphy is riding high off strong notices for his Netflix movie Dolemite Is My Name, as well as his recent hosting stint on Saturday Night Live. His new comedy special was supposed to hit Netflix later this year, but it’s unclear if that’s still the case, as I’m not sure whether he had a chance to film it before comedy clubs across the country were forced to close their doors. While Murphy’s Feeding America set may be short and safe, it’s something to hold fans over until his full-fledged Netflix special arrives. At this point, we’ll take any laughs we can get!

Source: Collider.com

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Best Practices to Get Paid Faster – Building a Successful Recurring/Subscription Business​

April 29, 2020   Microsoft Dynamics CRM

As Simon Sinek says – “Start with Why”?

Volumes play an important role in a subscription business. This revenue is billed more frequently, in fact monthly- for 1 customer you are generating 12 invoices a year! The invoices are typically smaller in size than one-off sales. If you are reselling products (which is true for most Microsoft CSP Partners), the margins are tight. If customers don’t pay or delay payments, there is an impact on cash-flow.

Related post – The Need for Collecting Cash Fast

How to Collect Cash Faster?

Step 0: Sell to who will pay: In order to make sure there is no risk of non-payments you need to establish credit limits, do background checks and ensure that you won’t be left with the proverbial “bag in hand”- this is typically part of your Sales Process.

Step 1: Invoice Accurately. An accurate invoice is correct on all counts.

  • Who has the check or credit card? It could be the finance department, the procurement department, and the IT manager or relevant stakeholder who would need to approve your invoice.
  • What are exactly are they getting billed for? Are all the services and subscriptions correct, prices, changes in quantities and refunds clearly shown in the invoice so that there isn’t any confusion?
  • When do they need to pay and most importantly receive the invoice? Is the invoice being sent to the customer on the correct date and with the correct due dates? The invoice needs delivery needs to predictable. We see so many cases where customers have cash flow issues but are not able to generate an accurate invoice on the correct date based on the billing frequency.

Step 2: Invoice: Delivery, Persistent, Actionable, Convenient: It’s imperative your invoice is delivered to the right stakeholders in a medium that is acceptable to them (email, mailed physical signed copies). Is the invoice persistent? Can the invoice be easily accessed by the intended audience? A self-service portal that shows their orders and invoices would allow them to access your invoice when they need it. Is the invoice actionable: Does it clearly state how to pay you and how convenient is it to pay you?

“The customer experience is the sum total of all customer moments. The invoice is a defining customer moment. “

What Systems are Involved in Generating an Invoice and Collecting Cash?

xNot so Ideal Landscape 625x368.png.pagespeed.ic.cLpOKfrhgJ Best Practices to Get Paid Faster – Building a Successful Recurring/Subscription Business​

The problem with the above situation is that while you’ve got all the pieces together:

  • There are multiple logins/identities
  • Your brand is diluted and there is no consistency is not there because of the different looks and feels.
  • Data is the new oil – and it’s messy to have oil all over the place
  • Access to these systems is limited and to a few people. The lack of access to this data creates problems like selling to customers you don’t want to, inability to create an accurate invoice.

What is Required for a Successful Billing Automation Solution to Generate Accurate Invoices and Collect Cash?

  • Customer data in one system
  • Single Identity
  • Single Portal for everything: what they’ve bought from you, when they bought is from you, agreements, invoices

xBilling Automation 625x296.png.pagespeed.ic.BtXdYrH47B Best Practices to Get Paid Faster – Building a Successful Recurring/Subscription Business​

Cash Collection is a business function:

  • Credit Limit should be associated with Aging Data and affect new Sales
  • The customer Payment information should be in the customer system
  • Automate Collections using Payment Gateways
  • Don’t reward bad behavior – Credit Holds so that provisioning is stopped

Work 365 offers a Billing and Subscription application that helps cloud companies archive the necessary requirements and processes to grow your revenue. Learn more here.

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Amazon bought cameras from Chinese company on U.S. blacklist to screen for coronavirus

April 29, 2020   Big Data
 Amazon bought cameras from Chinese company on U.S. blacklist to screen for coronavirus

(Reuters) — Amazon has bought cameras to take temperatures of workers during the coronavirus pandemic from a firm the United States blacklisted over allegations it helped China detain and monitor the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

China’s Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. shipped 1,500 cameras to Amazon this month in a deal valued close to $ 10 million, one of the people said. At least 500 systems from Dahua — the blacklisted firm — are for Amazon’s use in the United States, another person said.

The Amazon procurement, which has not been previously reported, is legal because the rules control U.S. government contract awards and exports to blacklisted firms, but they do not stop sales to the private sector.

However, the United States “considers that transactions of any nature with listed entities carry a ‘red flag’ and recommends that U.S. companies proceed with caution,” according to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s website. Dahua has disputed the designation.

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The deal comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of a shortage of temperature-reading devices and said it wouldn’t halt certain pandemic uses of thermal cameras that lack the agency’s regulatory approval. Top U.S.-based maker FLIR Systems has faced an up to weeks-long order backlog, forcing it to prioritize products for hospitals and other critical facilities.

Amazon declined to confirm its purchase from Dahua, but said its hardware complied with national, state and local law, and its temperature checks were to “support the health and safety of our employees, who continue to provide a critical service in our communities.”

The company added it was implementing thermal imagers from “multiple” manufacturers, which it declined to name. These vendors include Infrared Cameras Inc, which Reuters previously reported, and FLIR, according to employees at Amazon-owned Whole Foods who saw the deployment. FLIR declined to comment on its customers.

Dahua, one of the biggest surveillance camera manufacturers globally, said it does not discuss customer engagements and it adheres to applicable laws. Dahua is committed “to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19” through technology that detects “abnormal elevated skin temperature — with high accuracy,” it said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Commerce, which maintains the blacklist, declined comment. The FDA said it would use discretion when enforcing regulations during the public health crisis as long as thermal systems lacking compliance posed no “undue risk” and secondary evaluations confirmed fevers.

Dahua’s thermal cameras have been used in hospitals, airports, train stations, government offices and factories during the pandemic. IBM placed an order for 100 units, and the automaker Chrysler placed an order for 10, one of the sources said. In addition to selling thermal technology, Dahua makes white-label security cameras resold under dozens of other brands such as Honeywell, according to research and reporting firm IPVM.

Honeywell said some but not all its cameras are manufactured by Dahua, and it holds products to its cybersecurity and compliance standards. IBM and Chrysler’s parent Fiat Chrysler did not comment.

The Trump Administration added Dahua and seven other tech firms last year to the blacklist for acting against U.S. foreign policy interests, saying they were “implicated” in “China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”

More than one million people have been sent to camps in the Xinjiang region as part of China’s campaign to root out terrorism, the United Nations has estimated.

Dahua has said the U.S. decision lacked “any factual basis.” Beijing has denied mistreatment of minorities in Xinjiang and urged the United States to remove the companies from the list.

A provision of U.S. law, which is scheduled to take effect in August, will also bar the federal government from starting or renewing contracts with a company using “any equipment, system, or service” from firms including Dahua “as a substantial or essential component of any system.”

Amazon’s cloud unit is a major contractor with the U.S. intelligence community, and it has been battling Microsoft for an up to $ 10 billion deal with the Pentagon.

Top industry associations have asked Congress for a year-long delay because they say the law would reduce supplies to the government dramatically, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that policies clarifying the implementation of the law were forthcoming.

Face detection and privacy

The coronavirus has infected staff from dozens of Amazon warehouses, ignited small protests over allegedly unsafe conditions and prompted unions to demand site closures. Temperature checks help Amazon stay operational, and the cameras – a faster, socially distant alternative to forehead thermometers – can speed up lines to enter its buildings. Amazon said the type of temperature reader it uses varies by building.

To see if someone has a fever, Dahua’s camera compares a person’s radiation to a separate infrared calibration device. It uses face detection technology to track subjects walking by and make sure it is looking for heat in the right place.

An additional recording device keeps snapshots of faces the camera has spotted and their temperatures, according to a demonstration of the technology in San Francisco. Optional facial recognition software can fetch images of the same subject across time to determine, for instance, who a virus patient may have been near in a line for temperature checks.

Amazon said it is not using facial recognition on any of its thermal cameras. Civil liberties groups have warned the software could strip people of privacy and lead to arbitrary apprehensions if relied on by police. U.S. authorities have also worried that equipment makers like Dahua could hide a technical “back door” to Chinese government agents seeking intelligence.

In response to questions about the thermal systems, Amazon said in a statement, “None of this equipment has network connectivity, and no personal identifiable information will be visible, collected, or stored.”

Dahua made the decision to market its technology in the United States before the FDA issued the guidance on thermal cameras in the pandemic. Its supply is attracting many U.S. customers not deterred by the blacklist, according to Evan Steiner, who sells surveillance equipment from a range of manufacturers in California through his firm EnterActive Networks.

“You’re seeing a lot of companies doing everything that they possibly can preemptively to prepare for their workforce coming back,” he said.

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COVID-19: Let us not forget the hopeful news, part four

April 29, 2020   CRM News and Info

I know I’m supposed to write about CRM, customer engagement and customer experience and that’s what you expect from me. And far be it from me to fall below your expectations. But, if you know me, one of my major themes for the last two or so years around engagement and experience has been not just personalization, but humanization – which translates broadly and very roughly into empathy and the need to be empathetic as a business and as individuals. It also has been themed around communicating that empathy with your customers, your employees, your friends, your family, even absolute strangers. It should be part of your soul, and in a different way at the heart of whatever institutions you are involved with.

Thus, for the last now month, I’ve been doing the “Let us not forget hopeful news” a.k.a. the acronym-awkward LUNFHN (Lunfin?). The purpose was to separate the good, the warm, the hopeful news signals from the non-stop litany/noise of  the sensationalism of the media  premised on their head-scratching decision to double down the old saw “if it bleeds, it leads.” I have a degree in journalism and a major in English from Northwestern and honestly, I am ashamed of the way that the press makes sure that all the horrors are evident all the time and when you watch the broadcast media, you see them going into excruciating detail of the worst of the worst. For many it becomes suffocating and even traumatic as they see what they believe is a never-ending horror.  To punctuate this, the media makes a point of interviewing grieving people who have lost a loved one to COVID-19 and make sure they ask questions that make the heartbroken person relive what they just saw and felt so that the media can push the point home.  All in the name of realism and news.  So, what you get if you watch the news is an overwhelming, suffocating feeling of both horror and uncertainty and at minimum a nasty headache.

I say otherwise.

If human history means anything, you find always that we manage to get past these crises and once we do, we’ve learned something that at best ends the crisis and prevents future similar ones, or at worst gets it under control in a way that allows us to continue on with our lives – even as changed as they may be.  We are often better as a result of the worse.  World War II was an uncertain horror of a different kind. But we ended up with a prosperity that led us to the generation of the greatest wealth in human history – and to the benefit of a larger part of the population than had previously been imagined, though of course, there were struggles along the way.

But what has been phenomenal as we approach May — the third full month of this pandemic — is that the human spirit is not only not lost, it is flourishing. The level of creativity, the transformation of norms and changes in memes and weathering storms (note the poetic turn there) has been just inspirational.  It is amazing what people can do on their own, with their families and friends, or professional colleagues when physically unable to communicate but virtually in communication all the time. Also, its genuinely astonishing how many beautiful voices are out there singing to and for all of us – and themselves of course. Just as amazing is that we have the technological infrastructure to allow a massive increase in volume and velocity of digital communications that, while it might be stretching the system, isn’t breaking it – allowing us to continue to connect.  And equally as impressive is the imagination of people and the creativity and humor they manage to bring to themselves, their families and the world in the midst of crisis. And despite all the dire warnings of the length of time it will take to arrive at a safe enough vaccine and to develop the treatment to help resolve the illness and to end this pandemic even if it doesn’t eliminate the virus, the level of global cooperation is unprecedented with scientists/medical professionals working together around the globe to come up with an answer. The results of ongoing and just starting, efforts? In record time, we’ve begun human and animal trials.

Hopefully, this is a source for you of some positive but real information, news and entertainment. I spent hours auditioning the videos to come up with the best of the best that I find each week. I spend hours and hours finding what can be random but always interesting and useful (I hope) posts and articles and videos on things that might do anything from keep your hygiene at human levels to entertain you – but all of this is to remind you of both the resiliency, creativity and general goodness that characterizes our species and that manifests even more powerfully during crises like the current one.

So, event though we are in a pandemic….enjoy.

Useful Information…Sorta

  1. McKinsey charts a wise course for how to engage (or “connect”) with customers during  a crisis like this. Not surprisingly they come to the same conclusion that most of us have come to. Empathy.  Their way of putting it might be a bit more dispassionate – “lead with empathy” but the sentiment remains important.  For the complete document – well worth reading – come here. You’ll have to register for a McKinsey account, but its free.
  2. Okay, cutting your own hair as a useful thing in a business post, might not rise to the level of a McKinsey report – but then again… Don’t think this is important? Take a look at yourself in a mirror, dude(ss).  It’s clearly important. Given that we still cannot go to barbers and that barbers are actually essential to the grooming of our coiffure, I scoured the web looking for the best guides for cutting your own hair (given that your significant other may refuse to do it). First, here’s what Bored Panda found happens when it goes wrong for 24 different people.  If that isn’t scary enough to make you want to do it the right way, then let it grow out. But if you want to do it properly, here are guides on how to cut hair the right way when you are doing it yourself.  First for women: Here’s what Good Housekeeping put out just as the crisis wound up. Now for men: Men’s Health magazine includes some recommended kits)…a lot simpler. At least I thought so.  Let’s just say if I had a butcher do the haircutting for me I would have been better off. Oh, BTW, buying hair clippers is not so easy either. Most of the ones  mentioned in the Men’s Health article are unavailable except for a very few. Mad rush to Amazon….commence.
  3. Since you do have time, I’m thinking that you’re thinking “I wish I was a DJ.”  Well, lucky you. The Library of Congress, the center of contemporary music, has a new tool out called “Citizen DJ” which lets you mix your own beats. For me I can mix beets (the red ones) and, thus make a salad, but this….?  Nah. But hey, each to his own. I’d do this if I had any talent at all. I don’t.
  4. This is an old school thing that might be of real interest to those of you who are a. baby boomers and b. die-hard sports fans who are really missing sports (I raise my own hand). Here is an article that appeared in ESPN re: playing the baseball replay games that might fill that hole in your various organs. If you are interested in playing your kids or your parents in the board games, here are two of the most popular (for 50 years) APBA. Stratomatic. Not to be outdone, if you are younger and a sports fanatic here are some PC-based versions of the same and similar things.  APBA Baseball for Windows.  Stratomatic Computer Baseball. The multi-sport (baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Golf) Action PC Sports – arguably the best of the lot.  It will help, though won’t complete you.
  5. Zoom fatigue isn’t just a term invented by some bored SIPers, it’s something that we are now going to have to deal with because of its impact on people’s psyches.  SAP’s Future of Customer Engagement and Experience’s  Editor in Chief and all around Renaissance person Jenn Van De Zande speaks of not only the emerging issue that is concurrent with the continuous use of Zoom (and other engagement communications platforms) but some of the ways to disengage and deal with the fatigue.

The Good Things Non-Tech Companies Do

  1. All State is returning the enormous sum of $ 600 million in premiums to their customers. These are their auto insurance customers. They are giving the customers a 15% rebate on their already paid insurance premiums due to the lower instance of auto claims due to the….obvious. Geico is doing the same, though, being a Geico customer, I personally have no evidence of this.
  2. Verizon has been acting super responsibly during the crisis – in part by adding services and bandwidth for free to existing customers, like 15GB of wireless LTE (4G) hotspot data for free, but even more importantly by investing seriously in supporting the frontlines.  They have donated more than $ 50 million to “nonprofits including No Kid Hungry, the American Red Cross, and the CDP COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO. And in partnership with the New York Times, we’re giving 14 million high school students within the U.S. free digital access to NewYorkTimes.‌com.”

The Good Things Tech Companies Do

  1. Once again, I’m mindful of how important it is when companies are supporting the supply chain in this time of crisis. Materials management — which involves the prioritization of goods and services being made available to the appropriate parties and the movement of goods when disruptions upset the supply chain among its many values — is the subject of an app that German-born tech company Celonis has developed for customers and non-customers alike. It’s called Celonis Snap. For their customers, it can be dropped into the system. For non-customers there is an online site where you can upload data and get the results you are seeking.
  2. Oracle is now the technology infrastructure backbone for Zoom. That might not sound like “the good things” and might be seen by some as a business deal – Reuters for example, but it is much more than that. Read this blog post by Oracle correspondent Barb Darrow on the agreement between Oracle and Zoom that is public as of April 28.  The key is the blog headline: “Zoom Taps Oracle to Keep Schools Teaching, Businesses Running, Friends and Family Connected.” With 300 million Zoom users and Zoom as a verb, Zoom has become vital to international communications, even though it was unintentional. Oracle’s backbone can support that scale and thus can –as best as can be anticipated — help secure the success of communications that are currently vital to the world.
  3. Microsoft was asked by New York State to help build an app to support COVID-19 and antibody testing. A team of Microsoft, local, and state government engineers built it with Dynamics 365 and had it up and running in five days. Now it’s being used across 22 testing sites to register patients and schedule tests. Five days.

The New Normal?

    stabakrobot1 COVID 19: Let us not forget the hopeful news, part four

    Source: Thomas Torjusen
  1. The Norwegian Professional Football League’s Stabaek team held a press conference announcing a new appointment for the club. In attendance: a club official, the new guy, a camera man, a sound man and the press…robots.  Each of the press were not only represented by these cute little R2D2ish creatures but even had press credential badges and were able to ask questions via the robots and get answers.  Went off without a hitch. (See above.). For more of this tune in to this CRM Playaz episode that Brent Leary and I did last week with Thomas Torjusen, Head of Media and Chief Digital Officer at Norsk Toppfotball — and a thoroughly knowledgeable, and charming man.
  2. Preferred Hotels did a global travel survey to see what people are planning post-pandemic when it comes to travel. It has an old normal vibe to it which is somewhat surprising, but it still is something to see that people still want to get on planes and go places, with all of this. Kind of makes me happy.
  3. Apparently the signage industry has a new, hot category, social distancing signage.  There isn’t a whole lot to say about this one.  Just click on the link and look at the signage.
  4. Finally, Phil Wainwright of the esteemed diginomica writes a piece on how business will be changed forever post-Covid-19 “Six Ways Business Will be Changed Once Covid-19 Passes” that isn’t just the usual fluff and fantasy. None of what he says is a stretch – all of it is possible.  He wrote it at the end of March. But its still timely since the crisis hasn’t ended, and, thus, its ahead of its time.

Best Corona Covers

These are some of the most creative things I’ve ever seen – virus or not – the level of parody, production and great singing voices are nonpareil.(I’ve inserted the link to the definition because I know you don’t want to bother to look it up but you’re not sure I’m using it right).

Broadway

Zach Timson seems to be a really talented parodist and his lyrics are exceptionally clever – leading to Corona cover medleys of Broadway tunes. And he has a decent Broadway-ish voice too! Here is his Broadway Corona Medley recorded 3/21/2020. The reason I mention the date- he makes a point of saying, updated info please wear masks.

Pop/Rock

This comes from a very talented someone who calls himself “The Kiffness.” Not sure where that comes from, but the guy not only writes funny parodies but also does spot-on imitations of the artists singing the songs he parodies. This was my favorite though spoiler alert and warning, it’s a politicized one. It’s called “Crappy” parodying of course, Pharrell’s “Happy.”

Best Original Not-Really-A-Corona-Cover

Once again, my favorite Corona Cover artiste (yes, artiste) Chris Mann, has an original from his album on what a date night looks like under quarantine. His wife is in this and she’s pretty good too.  Called “Old Fashioned.”

Best “We Are In This Together” Professional Zoom Music

Broadway wins again in this one. This is the official London Theatre Company Quarantine Zoom Production of the Mamma Mia theme song. The sheer fun they have singing it is worth it alone. Just great!!

What Can I Say? John Krasinski SGN #4 The Prom

There’s no competition with this guy with his funny, sweet, empathetic, brilliant show and audience connection.  So, from, now on he is hall of fame and will be featured in each of these LUNFHN posts I do. In this one, John realized that no one was going to the prom this year so he staged a prom with the Jonas Brothers among others and lots of shots of kids dressed to the prom eights (hey, the nines dressing comes when you are older) dancing to the music. Kind of touching to see these high-schoolers dressed up and smiling as they danced to an audience of millions on the internet – and music that, most likely, they wouldn’t have heard at their actual proms.

CRM Playaz presents the Playaz Place Bar and Not Grill Happy Hour

If you are interested in joining the hit event The CRM Playaz Present: Playaz Place Bar and Not Grill Happy Hour any time in the next 38 weeks, here is a link to register. Warning: We are sold out (don’t worry its a free ticket) for April 29 and now May 6. There is some availability for the rest of the month of May but we are getting daily registrations. We do have other weeks available, so feel free to sign up for them. Or put yourself on the Waitlist for an already sold out Happy Hour. If you are interested, the Happy Hour is 3:30pm ET every Wednesday. Bring a glass of a drinkable liquid with you. You will be asked about it.

We will be announcing some super cool stuff throughout the Happy Hour (called, by some of the attendees, the Magic Hour), though for those of you who are willing to date themselves, I’m not a big fan of that, because if you do remember, Magic Johnson had a TV show called the Magic Hour that lasted all of six episodes and was the only thing that I think he ever failed at. Thus, the Happy Hour it stays. Come join us. All are welcome.

Coronavirus Updates

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this is far better happy talk: “What we need is more ‘economic intercourse'”

April 29, 2020   Humor
 this is far better happy talk: What we need is more economic intercourse


Giggling RWNJs seized on a Biden comment that only reveals how much context will be needed with an IMPOTUS who’s a pathological liar.

x

If @realDonaldTrump said this the left would mock and the MSM would write articles about economic intercourse for days.

— Russ Arnold (@Russarnold22) April 28, 2020

x

Economic Intercourse: the branch must communicate knowledge concerned with the dealings of production & consumption of wealth by individuals or groups; communicating the knowledge of the condition of the region concerns groups who deal with the production & consumption of wealth?

— LazzySaltCajunMan (@CajSaltLazzyMan) April 28, 2020

For example, Trump lied again today:

x

Trump used his latest coronavirus briefing to push a bizarre lie about the deficit || By Aaron Rupar https://t.co/omjqzhKcV3

— SafetyPin-Daily (@SafetyPinDaily) April 28, 2020

Better, not more

x

“Holy God. We’re about to lose everything.” Airbnb hosts built mini-empires. Now coronavirus lockdowns have customers cancelling, and mortgages are due. https://t.co/2CyaVwGZQt

— WSJ Markets (@WSJmarkets) April 28, 2020

x

Trump and Kushner’s obsession with post-impeachment score settling set the WH coronavirus response back 6 weeks. My VF feature is out today:https://t.co/oRSLTi9Vq8

— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) April 28, 2020

x

Freed of briefing duty, wounded Trump airs full collection of grievances on Twitter, retweeting claim of “coup attempts” https://t.co/fgBTSh0FrT

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 27, 2020

President Trump’s first tweet Sunday came unusually late, popping up a few minutes after noon — hours behind schedule for a president who is often awake and tweeting as the sun rises.

“Happy Birthday to Melania, our great First Lady!” Trump tweeted at 12:06 p.m.

The celebratory tweet kicked off a long day of tweeting and retweeting that really ramped up at around 2 p.m. when Trump observed, in response to a recent New York Times article, that those who know him regard him as “the hardest working President in history.”

Over the next seven hours or so, Trump took aim at everything and anyone he could, unleashing a barrage of more than two dozen tweets and retweets that targeted media outlets, high-profile commentators and hosts, and Democrats.

He also returned once more to the Russia probe and impeachment, promoting a tweet that accused his political adversaries of “three failed coup attempts.” The tweet went on to suggest with no evidence that the president’s opponents could “attempt to steal the election” by making the novel coronavirus’s impact on human lives seem worse than it really is.



x

Hillary Clinton endorsed Joe Biden in a virtual town hall, saying the coronavirus crisis shows the need for different leadership: “Think of what it would mean if we had a real president, not just somebody who plays one on TV.” https://t.co/eu60B3xwh3 pic.twitter.com/Qm53z3yjqp

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 28, 2020

x

all of the coalition shifts we’re seeing boil down to this:

the democratic party is now the party for those who have cultural capital and the republican party is for those who don’t

for most of the 20th century, the main determinant of party coalitions was economic capital

— Thao Nguyen (@helloitsthao) April 28, 2020

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