November 2015 Issue I Have a Dog in This Fight (Albeit an "Older" Dog)   As a boomer, I admit that articles about older workers tend to get my attention. I read an interesting one the other day on bbc.com that spoke to the "secret strengths" of older workers. I wondered why these strengths should be considered such a secret! I do know that there is a certain amount of reluctance in the workplace that continues to hamper the efforts of older workers...and worry younger managers. And that's a shame because there is some amazing talent out there that can and should be tapped.   The article references Shawn VanDerziel, a 40-ish chief of human resources for the Field Museum in Chicago, and Dirk van Dierendonck, professor of human resource management at Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands. Both had some great insight to share. Here are some of the benefits of hiring older workers and some words of advice to bring out the best in them. They have good ideas. There is an advantage to having been around awhile. You can accumulate some good ideas that are just as fresh as those coming from younger workers, but with a dose of reality that comes from more years of experience.   They are more technologically adept than you think. This is one of the stubborn myths about many older workers. If they are still working, they are using plenty of technology. According to Dirk van Dierendonck, older workers complete assignments faster than many younger workers.   They are loyal. "If you're building your company or department for the long run, it may be more profitable to invest in people who are invested in the organization," van Dierendonck said. "You're more likely to see that investment from older workers. They don't need hand holding. They are more independent, VanDerziel said, and they don't need constant feedback about how they're doing. More than anything, he said he's learned about when to back off. One last benefit that VanDerziel shares with us. "They're also not going to take that criticism personally," he said. "With millennials, you might want to put feedback in context, to give them compliments first." What have your experiences been working with older employees? We'd like to share your stories. Let us know what you think about old stereotypes and how you have adapted to older workers.   -Kevin Young, CEO/Founder, CDR-Data About CDR-DATA CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide  you with all the resources needed to  effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources. eCDR®: All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.     eBill-Back®: Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers, shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end users. Call us or drop us an email: cdrinfo@cdrdata.com. Visit us at www.cdrdata.com.       Stay Connected           A Cloud is a Cloud, Right?...   Okay there are private clouds, public clouds and hybrid clouds. But which format do you think serves business needs the best? Fortune asked around. Here's what they found out. IoT: a Primer First, a definition of IoT, courtesy of Officing Today, for those who may not yet know what IoT stands for:  "The Internet of Things is a vast collection of physical objects connected through an online network. "Things," in this sense, is virtually anything with the ability to connect to the Internet: smartphones, smart TVs, monitoring implants, fitness bracelets, cars with built-in bluetooth, tracking sensors...the list is endless." Want to learn more? Read the full article here.   CDR-DATA| | mchin@cdrdata.com | http://cdrdata.com PO Box 41141 Pasadena, CA 91114 www.cdrdata.com Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.

"Wise Words"

The 6 Startup Expenses You Need and the 6 You Don’t

Money is not funny. Especially when it comes to your own company. It’s no news that after the bootstrapping stage, startups often fall in the trap of spending their preciously raised funds on things that are not that important – to the point at which they run out of runway and eventually find themselves as another failed startup.

However, don’t rush into choosing the cheapest options possible and cutting down the costs to the barely survivable minimum for the sake of impressing your investors. In fact, some expenses are not only unavoidable, but necessarily.

6 Important Startup Expenses

1. Market research. Never cash out until you precisely know what your customers are ready to buy. Knowing the ins and outs of your target market and having a clear vision of your ideal buyer persona is a must for any startup. Understanding what the market needs, how tough is the competition and what pricing strategy will work best is an essential component of success.
2. CFO or accountant. As we are talking about optimizing expenses here, you need a person to keep a close eye on your business finance. A good CFO will save you more money than you pay them by holding you accountable for spending and analyzing your current ROI and ways to increase them.
3. Legal counseling.  Paying for professional legal advice can save you heaps of money in the perspective in terms of potential legal settlements later on. Have doubts about certain legal procedure? Do splurge on a lawyer.
4. Marketing and branding. The biggest nightmare of most startups is when no one comes on the big launch day. That can be a real life scenario if you invest poorly in your marketing. Certainly, you should not waste more money than you can afford (ask your CFO about that), but consider hiring a reputable company or stashing creating an in-house team with the best professionals.
5. Customer Support. How do you plan to retain and assist the customers you’ve spent time and money acquiring if you have zero people to cater them in a timely manner? Doesn’t sound really clever, right?
6. Technical Support. Never play it cheap when it comes to choosing your hosting provider and creating a stable website. There’s nothing worth than losing customers because your payment form glitches or your website is down during a particularly high traffic peak.

6 Startup Expenses You Should Avoid

1. Expensive software solutions.  Most tools and software these days have cheaper, free or heavily discounted alternatives. Don’t rush into buying yet another trendy product until you are 100 percent sure it is essential for your company’s further growth.
2. Fancy office space. Sure, you’d love to move to a bigger, brighter space and stock it up with loads of cool furniture, art prints, and elements of Scandi design. However, the moving and furnishing costs can quickly add-up. Don’t rush into building an office of your dream until your company has a proven traction record.
3. Non-measurable outreach efforts. Whether it is influencer marketing or personal branding, once you see that the strategy is not bringing any consistent measurable results, stop spending money on it. Instead, invest in those marketing channels that already gained you some feasible outcome.
4. Hiring staff before you are ready. Sure you’d love to have more people on board to share the joys of building a company together, but if your business isn’t ready, you’ll just waste the money. Outsource and hire out-staff freelancers to work on permanent basis till your business advances steadily.
5. Expensive equipment. Yes you’d love to have an ultra-tech office, but now may not be the best idea to heavily invest into new gadgets. Purchase things you actually need, rather than those you want.
6. Spending money before you’re even sure you’ll make some money.  Don’t rush into spending large sums before you are making enough to cover it. Live according to your means is a golden rule both for personal and business finances.
   

October 2015 Issue Apple Getting Ready to Disrupt Again! And Carriers Won't Like It!  Talk about disruptive. And, for consumers and Apple, it's all good. With the recent release of iPhone 6s comes an influx of new features rolling out, and one of them stands ready to change the way we deal with our wireless carriers forever.  If that sounds good to you, think about how it sounds to Apple! It started off slowly with the marketing and selling of content direct to the consumer, leaving the carriers scurrying to create more inviting and less expensive (at least perceptively) options to consumers. But Apple's winning with their new $32 per month deal, which gives you a new unlocked iPhone every year. Who are you bypassing? The carriers!  While they will not go quietly --- we can expect all sorts of special deals and rebates in the months to come --- the experts are predicting a very different world to emerge over the next year or so. The "P.S" here is what's happening with Apple SIMs. You know, those little chips that allow users to pay for data traffic via iTunes. Experts predict that the SIM will be extended to the iPhone. And you can connect the dots from here. Will carriers eventually begin selling both voice and data services to their customers? And the add-on question is: What does this mean for traditional telecom management? The bottom line: Be ready. Because Apple does not move slowly. What do you think about Apple's next move? We'd like to hear from you. Feel free to contact us to learn more about how CDR-Data can help you with the right tools to allocate, manage and control your telecom costs.     -Kevin Young, CEO/Founder, CDR-Data Photo credit: "WWDC 2011 Moscone West Exterior" by Ben Miller - Moscone Center WWDC 2011. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons About CDR-DATA CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide  you with all the resources needed to  effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources. eCDR®: All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.     eBill-Back®: Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers, shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end users. Call us or drop us an email: cdrinfo@cdrdata.com. Visit us at www.cdrdata.com.       Stay Connected           Not to be Outdone by Apple...   Microsoft has announced ExpressRoute, a new service to incorporate private high-speed connection through the Azure Government cloud. What does this mean for the public sector? Here's the link to the details from govtech.    When is a Box not a Box? Box recently announced  that they are out to cover the business universe with content access. Their Box platform will be providing ways for businesses to share content, connect it to processes, and basically connect seamlessly to other cloud services. Is this cool? What do you think? You can read the entire article here.  One Fall Conference Left; but it's a Good One Are you headed to GWA? Better make your plans now! Global Workspace Association Fall Conference, October 21-24, Denver   CDR-DATA| | mchin@cdrdata.com | http://cdrdata.com PO Box 41141 Pasadena, CA 91114 www.cdrdata.com Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.

September 2015 Issue If It's October, It's GWA!      If you have never attended this annual event, this may be the year to do so. Global Workspace Association GWA's annual Educational Conference & Trade Show is designed to get members up to speed on all of the trends and issues of interest to workspace-as-a-service providers. And every year it does just that. GWA is a great opportunity to meet with both vendors and operators. It's sort of a "win-win" in that everyone gets to mingle together at the dinners and cocktail parties and then break free for the various panel sessions. This year the educational sessions are organized into sections: Operations, Sales, Technology and Human Resources in order to cover a broad range of interests and needs. Kicking off the event will be the Association's Annual Business Meeting led by the Board of Directors. It will include an overview of the Association by President Scott Chambers and Treasurer Nick Logothetis. New Board members will be introduced and an open forum for member discussion will be held.   After that, the special panels begin with an assortment of subject matter experts covering everything from design to economics to technology. But don't take our word for it, below is the link for all the details. 29th Annual GWA Education Conference October 21-24 Westin Downtown Denver   As always, we'd like to hear from you. Feel free to contact us to learn more about how CDR-Data can help you with the right tools to allocate, manage and control your telecom costs.     -Kevin Young, CEO/Founder, CDR-Data  What is the "Frictionless Age"?  We came across an interesting marketing article that you might find useful. But what do they mean by "frictionless"? Hint: think Uber, Amazon and airbnb and you're on the right track. Here's the link to read the entire article.  Let us know what you think.   Fall Conferences Only a few short weeks until Fall!  Here are a couple Fall conferences to put on your calendar now: IT Expo/Anaheim October 6-8, Anaheim Global Workspace Association Fall Conference, October 21-24, Denver About CDR-DATA CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide  you with all the resources needed to  effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources. eCDR®: All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.     eBill-Back®: Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers, shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end users. Call us or drop us an email: cdrinfo@cdrdata.com. Visit us at www.cdrdata.com.         CDR-DATA| | mchin@cdrdata.com | http://cdrdata.com PO Box 41141 Pasadena, CA 91114 www.cdrdata.com Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.

July 2015 Issue Why 30% of Mobile Workers May Leave Over BYOD      As convenient as BYOD is, one issue stubbornly persists; that is the issue of privacy and security of data. A recent Harris Poll survey, commissioned by MobileIron queried over 3,500 mobile workers from all over the world. Only 61% of them feel that their employers are keeping their personal data private.   About half of those surveyed indicated that they would not be comfortable if their employers were able to see their personal emails, contacts and text messages.   Finally, if their employers were able to access their personal records, 30% would leave. As might be expected, younger workers were less concerned about personal data being accessed than older workers. Interested in learning more? You can read more about the survey results at Network World. Why is this important for IT and Telecom managers? As you know, data security has a lot of legs to it. While keeping mobile phone data intact and secure within your four walls is important, you will need to make an extra effort to ensure you are addressing the challenge of keeping data personal as well.   BYOD is here and, by all appearances, here to stay. Getting on top of how you deploy, manage and control BYOD is essential. How do you plan to tackle the enormous issue of personal mobile privacy? Or have you already got it covered? Let us know. Feel free to contact us with your questions or to learn more about how CDR-Data can help you with the right tools to allocate and control 'the true cost' of your calls.   -Kevin Young, CEO/Founder, CDR-Data  About CDR-DATA CDR-Data applications are supported by products that, collectively, provide  you with all the resources needed to  effectively manage your communications and personnel expenses without having to add resources. eCDR®: All the reporting options and flexibility needed to effectively manage and allocate telecommunications expense. Easy to use and customizable.     eBill-Back®: Fast, accurate telecommunications billing system for business centers, shared-tenant environments and any business requiring bill back of end users. Call us or drop us an email: cdrinfo@cdrdata.com. Visit us at www.cdrdata.com.       Congrats to CDR-Data client, Premier Business Centers, on their first Chicago office opening! Premier Business Centers, the largest privately owned executive suite operator in the US, announced that they will be opening their first Illinois executive office suite location in Downtown Chicago this coming Fall.    Located in the prestigious West Loop at the class "A" address of 200 West Madison, Premier will build-out 15,204 square feet of serviced office space on the  21st floor.   You can read the full release in Officing Today here. Living and working in paradise: the rise of the 'digital nomad'  Fed up with spending the 9 to 5 in a stuffy office? Anna Hart packs her Mac and follows the trend for extreme remote working - in Bali. Typing these words, my forefinger sticks sweatily to the trackpad. When I glance up from the screen, I see steam rising from the neighbouring paddy field. Read more here Fall Conferences Summer will come and go fast! Here are a couple Fall conferences to put on your calendar now: IT Expo/Anaheim October 6-8, Anaheim Global Workspace Association Fall Conference, October 21-24, Denver   CDR-DATA| | mchin@cdrdata.com | http://cdrdata.com PO Box 41141 Pasadena, CA 91114 www.cdrdata.com Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.

Is the AT&T-DIRECTV Deal a Precursor to Increased FCC Control of the Internet?

On July 28, 2015, the FCC granted permission for AT&T to acquire DIRECTV and merge the two companies into one combined entity (see FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket 14-90, released July 28, 2015). We will leave it to others to discuss the merits of the deal. However, there are certain aspects that could have significant implications for broadband Internet service providers specifically and Internet regulation in general. That is the issue of whether the Commission, now that it has seized Title II authority over the Internet, will begin to control the pricing of Internet services and, in fact, all Internet behavior?

In its Open Internet Order that became effective on June 12, 2015, the Commission asserted that it would forebear from using its Title II pricing authority and would not mandate specific Internet prices. Critics of the Order did not buy this and argued that it was just a matter of time before the Commission would use its section 201 and 202 regulatory authority (which it refused to forebear from) to prescribe “just and reasonable” prices as a backdoor way to control Internet prices.

Unfortunately for those who were hoping that the Commission would stay out of Internet pricing, the AT&T-DIRECTV merger includes a requirement that will be in effect for four years that is a clear instance of the FCC prescribing ISP pricing. Here is the relevant condition imposed by the FCC:

Read more here...

Living and working in paradise: the rise of the 'digital nomad'

Fed up with spending the 9 to 5 in a stuffy office? Anna Hart packs her Mac and follows the trend for extreme remote working - in Bali 

Typing these words, my forefinger sticks sweatily to the trackpad. When I glance up from the screen, I see steam rising from the neighbouring paddy field. As with all workplaces, there’s a steady hum of white noise: coffee being brewed, group meetings peppered with jargon such as “touch base”, “reach out”, “loop back” and “incentivise”.

 

 

• Five reasons why everyone should live abroad at least once
 

This is one of a rapidly increasing number of co-working spaces, where freelancers, sole traders and small companies rent desks and share printers and coffee machines. But even within that hip, fast-evolving realm, Hubud is an outlier – and its 250-strong community believes that this highly covetable office environment is the workplace of the future. The diversity of this group also signals another change: that more and more jobs are becoming portable, possible to do at a digital distance – not just web designers and freelance writers but fashion designers, photographers, models, marketers and even a remote-working GP.

As a freelance journalist, I have long been a convert to co-working spaces. I work from Netil House in Hackney, east London, where I share a studio with a jewellery designer, an arts curator and a photographer. Cycling to work, choosing my working hours and studio mates, I feel like I have got it pretty good, particularly compared to the years I spent working long, inflexible hours in a staff job. Or I felt good until I heard about Hubud. Because if going it alone in a co-working space is the first step towards freedom for the growing number of frustrated, ambitious young professionals, phase two is complete “location independence”; also known as “digital nomadism”.

Read More Here...