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Business Computers & Software Technology U.K

Vulnerability Management 101 for Businesses That Care About Cybersecurity

Businesses, both small and large, rely on technology. That means using computers (and other devices), apps, software, and, of course, a connection to the internet.

And, as technology becomes more sophisticated, it also falls prey to misconfiguration and vulnerabilities. 

These, in turn, can leave the business open to cyber attacks, leading to data breaches or loss control of assets.

That’s why vulnerability management is so essential.

What Is Vulnerability Management?

“Vulnerability management” refers to an integral part of cybersecurity management. It’s a task periodically carried out to identify, evaluate, remediate/mitigate, and report any potential weaknesses in a business’ network, system, infrastructure, or endpoints.

It forms a part of an overall strategy where cybersecurity is maintained by constantly evaluating risk and finding points that threat actors could use to gain access. Once these weak points are identified, the threat can be assessed and patch implementation carried out.

The reason why vulnerability management is essential is that it can help businesses reduce the avenues a threat actor has to get into the data and network of the company.

How Does Vulnerability Management Work?

As stated previously, vulnerability management is a process where a business scans its systems and network for exploitable weaknesses. It generates a list of potential “problem areas”.

These are then assessed and given a priority ranking. This ranking helps business team identify issues that need fixing first.

Since the process is periodic and ongoing, businesses can monitor all its digital assets to ensure your data stays safe.

What Is the Vulnerability Management Process?

The Vulnerability Management Policy

As with anything else in a business, vulnerability management starts with a plan. Here’s what security teams need to map out:

Prepare the vulnerability management policy: Once created, the policy should be shared with other stakeholders to get their input before proceeding further.

Create a priority system: certain systems might not require as much security as others. By creating a priority list, teams can focus on the important parts whilst giving others slightly less, but adequate, attention.

Factor in the industry- and region-specific regulations: Certain industries have to follow regulations and policies specific to the work they do. Certain regions might have more stringent regulations around cybersecurity and data protection.

Train cybersecurity and vulnerability management stakeholders: Whilst it is important that everyone in the organisation is trained on cyber secure behaviour, certain people would have to take on extra responsibilities. 

For example, security officers, cybersecurity or vulnerability engineers, asset and data owners, managed security service providers (MSSPs), and other business leaders. For a smoother operation, these people should know their roles and responsibilities in the vulnerability management process.

The Vulnerability Management Process

Once the policy is drafted and in place, teams can start implementing it. The vulnerability management lifecycle can be broken down into the following steps (bear in mind, all of these steps have to be repeated regularly if you want to stay on top of threats):

Finding out the vulnerabilities: Identifying vulnerabilities in a business’ networks, systems, and IT assets can be done through vulnerability scanning (an automated process that identifies and reports exploitable weaknesses) or penetration testing (a mock attack carried out by a person who uses any weak points they find to “attack” a system like a hacker would).

Evaluating and prioritising vulnerabilities: Once there’s a list of vulnerabilities, a business doesn’t just start fixing them in any order. They need to be assessed and prioritised in order of how likely they are to be exploited and how much damage the threat actor can do through them. 

It is entirely possible that there’s a vulnerability that doesn’t actually pose any threat to an organisation. That’s why they need assessing and prioritising, so serious weaknesses are dealt with first.

Remediating and mitigating: Once a team knows which vulnerabilities they need to deal with and in what order, they can start the process of fixing them. Some can be fixed with vulnerability patches. Others might not be fixable, and may require mitigation instead.

Assessing if the fixes worked: If a team doesn’t test its solutions, it won’t know whether they worked or not. This process might require additional scanning or penetration testing. That way, businesses can definitively determine if the remediation and mitigation worked.

Documenting and reporting: The team will need to document any vulnerabilities discovered as well as the steps taken towards their resolution. Of course, if there are a different sets of reports coming in from processes like scans, pen testing, or other such activities, it might help to have them all in one place. 

Leading cybersecurity service provider, DigitalXRAID, recently launched a one-of-a-kind portal that “allows a company’s cybersecurity measures to be viewed from a single source and enables greater collaboration across the business.” 

This portal, called OrbitalX, enables businesses to create bespoke and automated reports to provide clients with “a holistic overview and better visibility of [their] cybersecurity posture and risk.”

Reassess the cybersecurity framework from time to time: Cyber threats continue to evolve. To keep up with them, the cybersecurity industry keeps developing new methods and tools for protecting data. 

A business has to keep up with both the potential threats and the available solutions in order to be truly protected. The best way of doing so is by periodically reassessing the cybersecurity framework.

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Business Computers & Software Services Technology U.K

The Role of Cloud Data Lakehouses in Machine Learning and Deep Learning

Before one can understand the role of cloud data lakehouses in machine learning and deep learning, one needs to know what machine learning and deep learning actually are.

Anyone vaguely interested in artificial intelligence (AI) might have come across these two terms before. Contrary to some confusion, these terms aren’t interchangeable (despite both having something to do with learning). For anyone interested, here’s an article that discusses the difference between machine learning and deep learning.

It’ll clarify why structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data are all so important in artificial intelligence.

What’s the Difference Between Machine Learning & Deep Learning?

To understand how ML and deep learning differ, people first need to understand what these two types of learning are.

What Is Machine Learning?

Machine learning is the process of teaching computers to make decisions and predictions based on a bunch of rules. These include simple if-then logic, using mathematical equations, and neural network architecture.

The algorithms used to teach computers through ML generally rely on structured data.

What Is Deep Learning?

Deep learning is a process of teaching computers in a manner similar to how humans learn. Instead of using structured data with structured rules, this process uses unstructured data. Obviously, this type of learning takes longer and requires specialised AI learning processors.

Deep learning is used for AI that has to mimic human-like decision-making processes; eg., Natural Language Processing (NLP), software for self-driving vehicles, and image recognition software.

So, to summarise, machine learning is a structured learning model that takes less time, whilst deep learning is a more organic learning system, which takes longer, is more complicated, and requires complex hardware.

Machine learning is useful for solving simpler, linear problems, like classification, regression, dimensionality reduction, and clustering.

Deep learning, on the other hand, is used for solving more complex problems, where human-like thinking and processing might be required. These include image and speech recognition, AI game bots, NLP, and autonomous systems.

Structured Data vs. Unstructured Data vs. Semi-Structured Data

So, now that we know what machine learning and deep learning are, let’s move on to structured and unstructured data. As we just saw, both have a role in the development of AI. Here is the difference between the two.

Structured Data

Structured data, as the name suggests, is, well… structured. It follows a standard format and can be worked on directly. If you’ve ever worked with an Excel spreadsheet, with the information neatly organised in cells and tables, you’ve encountered structured data.

Such data is easy to store, access, and process, because it’s all so well organised.

Unstructured Data

Unlike structured data, unstructured data cannot be organised as easily. It doesn’t follow a standard format and each item in the database could have different properties. Examples of unstructured data include images, video files, audio files, social media posts, or behavioural data.

Since this data is so varied, it cannot be organised into neat little compartments. As a result, it needs more storage space and it can be slightly difficult to retrieve.

Semi-Structured Data

This type of data, whilst largely unstructured, does have some organisational logic to it. In fact, some people argue that there is no true unstructured data. Even an image will have some meta-data included, which can be used to retrieve it.

However, unlike structured data, semi-structured data too requires more storage.

This brings us to cloud data lakehouses.

What Is a Cloud Data Lakehouse?

When you want to store clean, organised structured data, you use data warehouses. These are ideal for business intelligence data. 

On the other hand, if you want to store unstructured data and semi-structured data, you want data lakes. These types of data can’t be housed in neat, logical data warehouses.

But, having two types of storage for structured and unstructured data means you cannot derive benefits from both. That’s where a data lakehouse enters the picture.

A data lakehouse combines the logical, analytical storage of a warehouse with the flexibility of a data lake—ideal for an artificial intelligence model which uses both deep learning and machine learning.

Whilst a data warehouse is simple in structure, the data lakehouse architecture is largely dependent on your business’s needs. You might need an expert, like Agile Solutions, to help you design a bespoke solution.

However, having a cloud data lakehouse can be an important resource if you want to make the most of the data—both structured and unstructured—that your company owns.

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Business Computers & Software Technology U.K U.S

Microsoft Introduces Closed Captions in PowerPoint Live for Teams Meetings; Presentations Expected to be More Accessible

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Microsoft has reportedly rolled out the coveted Closed Caption feature in PowerPoint Live for Microsoft Teams meetings. 

Announcing the release on March 6th, 2023, Microsoft said that with this new feature, users seeking to make their presentations more accessible to a larger audience can add closed captions to any video file embedded in a PowerPoint slide. 

The new feature is currently available in PowerPoint for Mac and Windows operating systems, reported Commercial INTEGRATOR. 

Details of the Closed Caption Feature

Microsoft expects this new feature in Microsoft Teams to help people with language barriers or hearing impairments to participate in the meetings. Participants with issues in processing auditory information, or attending a meeting from a loud place can also benefit from the feature.  

Now, while in a Microsoft Team meeting, they won’t face difficulties comprehending the audio components of the video content embedded in a PowerPoint presentation being shared via PowerPoint Live. 

“Closed captions make PowerPoint presentations more accessible and benefit everyone who watches videos, especially those watching videos in their non-native language, people learning to read, and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing,” said Microsoft in one of its Tech Community posts.

Additionally, meeting attendees can also activate or deactivate captions for any video project containing a closed captions file.

Once activated, attendees can find the Closed Caption feature at the bottom of their PowerPoint slides. Microsoft confirms the new addition, when turned on by a specific meeting attendee in the Teams, will not distract others.

Adding Closed Captions

In its Tech Community post, Microsoft has broken down the process of adding closed captions to video content included in a PowerPoint presentation:

  1. Open the required PowerPoint slide with the video content
  2. Select the video and click Insert Captions from the Playback tab
  3. Choose the WebVTT file or files to be added to the selected video content from the Insert Captions dialog box
  4. Click Insert Caption to add closed captions

When this PowerPoint presentation with closed captions is shared using PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams, the Closed Caption feature will automatically appear for all meeting attendees. 

To turn on closed captions, attendees need to:

  1. Press the Closed Captions options on the video player in the PowerPoint Live presentation
  2. Pick the language from the dropdown list

“Once turned on, the video closed captions will appear at the bottom of the slide for only the individual attendee, empowering each attendee to choose the closed captions setting that’s best for them without distracting other attendees who may prefer to have closed captions turned off,” explained Microsoft in the Tech Community post. “When no closed captions are available for a video, the closed captions button will be unavailable for participants to select.”

Turbocharge Your PowerPoint Presentation

With more than 500 million users worldwide, Microsoft PowerPoint seems like the obvious choice for many when it comes to creating business presentations.

However, with so much clicking, formatting, and manual calculations, creating a professional-looking presentation in PowerPoint becomes a time-intensive, cumbersome task. 

For users looking to create a great-looking presentation with stunning charts, using a high-end PowerPoint add-in like think-cell is a sensible decision.

A high-quality add-in fully integrates into Microsoft office 365 and helps users impress the audience while significantly saving them time.

Wrapping Up

Microsoft stated that the Closed Caption feature is “just a beginning.” The company is committed to delivering proactive and pleasant Teams meeting experience to attendees with hearing impairments.

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Business Human Resources Professional Services Services U.S

Keri Laine Executive Solutions Is Making Waves In The Private Equity and Venture Capital Space.

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Orlando FL, April 3rd, 2023: Keri Laine Executive Solutions, a preeminent firm is making significant impacts on private and venture capital firms by helping them maximize profits, realize faster rates of returns, and offer value creation. The firm focuses on the executive team and talent aspects of deals pre, during, and post due-diligence as companies look to raise capital, prepare to go public, or if they are merging or acquiring. 

Keri’s team has deep experience in evaluating leadership capabilities, developing effective leaders, building productive teams, and creating frameworks for success. 

Keri Laine Executive Solutions utilizes a platform that ties the predictability of the executive team’s success to specific metrics driven by action plans. This is a key differentiator for investors to determine how best to leverage their investment dollars with a data-backed decision-making model.

The data-driven process aims to take the subjectivity out of decisions related to talent and people at various stages in a transaction.. This provides more transparency, and predictability for success. It also creates more precise outcomes in the financial modeling of a deal, helping founders, boards, and executive teams frame their value propositions when presenting their business cases to potential investors. 

According to Keri Laine “At a time when the quality and the diligence of a deal is a competitive advantage, our platform, methodology, and applied frameworks provide significant insight and greater confidence in each decision. This sets firms or founders who hire us miles ahead of others. It enables all sides of the event to make faster decisions that are rooted in more objectivity, have higher validity, and allow there to be collective agreement gained during diligence that leverage the talent of an organization at the right time – ahead of time. We accelerate the process, we generate value within the deal outcomes, we are a risk aversion, and we save millions of dollars by avoiding unforeseen potholes or pitfalls of a deal, specifically related to talent”. 

Keri Laine Executive Solutions helps investors, venture capitalists, and private equity firms maximize profits by developing strong leaders, building efficient teams, and creating frameworks for success. They do this by developing and implementing talent strategies for their clients. 

Keri Laine Executive Solutions’ fundamental mission is to assist in accelerating their client’s journey to profitability. 

The founder, Keri Laine, is a former global chief-level executive, a certified executive coach, and a proven business strategist in the entrepreneurial and investor space. She has coached more than 200 top executives and entrepreneurs, helping them disrupt their sectors with innovative success across the globe. She has taken three companies public, and been a part of dozens of mergers and acquisitions worldwide. 

Keri has led organizations through employee growth of 100 to 4,000, both public and private, with revenue stages from $40m to $5.6b. 

For more information about Keri Laine Executive Solutions, you can visit www.kerilaine.com.

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Business Computers & Software Technology U.K U.S

Some Cybersecurity Trends in 2023 that Business Owners Should Be Aware Of

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Cybersecurity is important. I think we can all agree about that. And, it’s forever evolving, because just as we figure out a response to a cyber threat, hackers go and find a new way of attacking.

The latest in cyber threat evolution was using AI to create malware. But, that’s not all there is to it. That’s why maintaining cybersecurity is not a one-time exercise. One needs to work hard to keep up.

And, as with anything that is ongoing, one can expect to see patterns and trends.

So, what are the cybersecurity trends we can expect to see in 2023?

AI and ML For Cybersecurity

As AI and machine learning (ML) become more sophisticated, threat actors are using these technologies to avoid detection.

The preferred method of hackers is not high-tech hacking exercises, as shown in movies. What they do almost 71% of the time is steal valid credentials and then use those to force their way into accounts.

For example, they steal an email address used to register an account on an online platform. Then, they try to brute-force their way into that account using commonly used passwords. 

If they succeed in cracking the password, they’d use that email/password combination on other websites. 

(That’s why you shouldn’t use the same password for different accounts.)

Now, unless they buy a stolen list of email addresses, most hackers use social engineering attacks to get people’s credentials.

With the help of AI, they are creating not just more refined malware but also phishing emails that are more personalised.

So, whilst businesses are using AI to detect cyber attacks, they end up being reactionary rather than proactive. By the time they “teach” AI how to identify a new threat, hackers have moved on to another method.

Fortunately, just as AI can be used to craft better (for lack of a better word) attacks, it can also be used to prevent them.

One of the things AI does better than you or I is speedy analysis. Where we might take us hours or days to go through data and get anything meaningful out of it, AI can do it in minutes.

As a result, its predictive analytics capabilities could be used to infer and predict threats. Once the threats have been identified, it’s easier to mitigate them with fewer resources.

Patching Open Source Code Vulnerabilities

Open source code can be very handy. But, it is also very likely to have vulnerabilities. Synopsys researchers have reported that almost 84% of open source code bases had at least one vulnerability in their Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report.

The problem with weaknesses in the code is that they can be exploited by threat actors. The way to deal with them is by using penetration testing to find exploitable flaws and patching them.

(You can also make use of cloud penetration testing services from reliable service providers like DigitalXRAID. The company has also launched a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity platform.)

Simple, right?

Unfortunately, the report also found that 91% of the patches weren’t implemented. Maybe the devsecops team didn’t have enough time or resources. 

Maybe they didn’t think the benefits weren’t worth risking the unintended consequences.

Or, maybe they just weren’t aware that there was an updated version of the code available.

Either way, these vulnerabilities exist and can be exploited.

To avoid that, and to potentially keep the open code they’ve used updated, businesses might need to keep a software bill of materials (SBOM). According to the report, this will include any open source code they’ve used, its licenses, versions, and patch statuses.

This practice would be very handy in making sure any open source code used by your business is not putting you at risk.

Training Employees on the Dangers of Phishing Attacks

Sometimes, when something works, there is no real need to change it up. That seems to be the case with phishing.

Phishing is a form of social engineering attack where a legit-looking email is designed to get the victim to click on a link. That, then, redirects them to a page where their info is stolen.

Apparently, hackers most often like to use (or abuse, rather) Microsoft, Amazon, DocuSign, Google, DHL, and Adobe. However, don’t be surprised to see emails from banks in your inbox as well.

Again, the best way to combat this challenge is the old-fashioned “train your employees” method. Human error is inevitable, but training people to identify emails that might be dodgy can help a lot.

As can limiting their access.

So, there you have it. Here are some ways you can keep your business safe from cyber-attacks in 2023.

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Business Computers & Software Technology Transportation & Logistics World

Aramtec Adopts RISE with SAP and S/4HANA to Accelerate Digital Transformation

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One of the longest-established foodservice businesses in Dubai, Arabian American Technologies Co. (Aramtec), is reportedly adopting RISE with SAP and S/4HANA.

The company has curated a year-long strategy—Project Phoenix—as part of its effort to facilitate the implementation of RISE with SAP and S/4HANA and transform it into a fully SAP-powered Intelligent Enterprise, according to Intelligent CIO.

RISE with SAP and S/4HANA

For SAP enterprises operating their SAP workloads on the cloud or on-premise, RISE with SAP helps streamline business processes for workflow efficiency while unifying cost and business goals with the OPEX-based cost model.

Enabling businesses to use a range of SAP tools, RISE with SAP expands the value SAP delivers beyond ERP functionality to holistic business value.

On the other hand, S/4HANA allows SAP enterprises to shift and modernise to the cloud and leverage the in-memory database technology. 

That being said, SAP S/4HANA is not competitive with or separate from RISE with SAP—it’s one of the six primary offerings included in RISE’s bundled solutions.

For companies looking to accelerate business agility and digital transformation, adopting RISE with SAP or S/4HANA is a sensible decision. 

On top of that, with SAP ECC mainstream support phasing out in 2027, enterprises are quickly migrating to SAP S/4HANA. 

Even though these technologies help drive business value, assimilating new systems requires enterprises to invest in SAP consulting services like Protera. With operational support and strategic guidance, SAP consulting services help SAP-focused companies make the most of their investment.

Aramtec’s Move to SAP

The increasing need for improved visibility, scalability, and control over supply chain operations is pushing enterprises toward cloud deployments. As part of its effort to become digitally empowered and transform into a cloud-based company, Aramtec has decided to leverage the innovative systems offered by the leading multinational software company SAP SE. 

The company hopes SAP’s experience in the food industry and supply chain management will help automate and enhance its end-to-end processes of delivering food services to airlines, hotels, restaurants, and various commercial F&B outlets. 

“Our objective is to capitalise on the digitisation and automation benefits of technology to run our business more smoothly and to optimise our productivity and efficiency. We are set to achieve greater visibility and control over all areas of Aramtec’s operations as well as our complex supply chain and distribution network, as we have more than 2000 stock-keeping units, SKUs distributed to thousands of customers,” stated Edgard Chalhoub, General Manager of Aramtec. “Ultimately, Aramtec will have the capacity to respond quickly to our customers’ needs and changes in the supply chain environment.”

Zakaria Haltout, Managing Director of SAP UAE, went on to say, “The commitment Aramtec has made to becoming an SAP-designated Intelligent Enterprise means it is aligned with regional digital transformation plans while enhancing the services it delivers to existing and new-market customers. By leveraging SAP’s cloud-based S, 4HANA, Aramtec will benefit from the latest SAP technologies and updates. It will enjoy precise stock control and record keeping, 360-degree views of all operations, automation of business processes, reduced total cost of ownership, and the ability to manage business change and scale operations rapidly.”

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Business Marketing & Sales Media & Communications Professional Services U.S

Marianne Schwab, Former National Network TV Talk Show Producer, Exposes Five Mistakes High-Level Entrepreneurs Make with Talk Show Interviews

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Getting invited to appear as a guest on a TV talk show can be a valuable opportunity for experts, authors, and high-level entrepreneurs to share their message with a broad audience and establish credibility. However, it’s essential to be aware of the challenges that come with securing and preparing for such appearances on television and how to avoid common mistakes that could derail a media interview.

The media landscape is constantly evolving, and it can be challenging to keep up with the latest trends, preferences, and best practices. Marianne Schwab, a former national network TV Talk Show Producer, understands the good, the bad, and the ugly from what can go right to what can go terribly wrong and she shares her insights on some the biggest mistakes high level entrepreneurs make when they get talk show interview opportunities.

Mistake #1 – Not understanding that it’s all about the media hook and story angle. Anyone who wants to be a guest on a talk show needs to understand what producers want and it’s really pretty simple. According to Marianne, a media hook will be the number one reason a producer will look at a pitch to decide if an expert will make a good guest. “The media hook is really about how producers will promote the segment or title it on their website so viewers click to watch it online. For example, one of my clients is a Canine Caterer and she launched a cook book for dogs that also had two pages of toxic foods to avoid giving your dog. Our media hook was, ‘Toxic Mistakes Dog Owners Make.’ This is the sort of hook that you can almost hear the host of the show say, like ‘Coming up next,’ or ‘Stay tuned.’ That’s the type of media hook producers love.” 

Mistake #2 – Not understanding the amount of preparation needed before the interview. TV talk shows can be intimidating even if an expert has lots of YouTube videos or Facebook Live experience. Marianne has prepared clients for hundreds of interviews, “Without the right preparation and coaching, it can be challenging to come across as confident, articulate, and engaging on camera. For the newbie talk show guest, they often think once they’ve booked the interview, all they have do is show up and answer questions, but that is a recipe for disaster. You don’t show up for the World Series and treat the game like a batting practice. If you want to hit a home run with your interview, you need to dial in your message so you can maximize your three minute interview and then prepare it so you come off authentic and confident and this can take between five to ten hours.”

Mistake #3 – Not understanding what to look for when hiring a publicist. Hiring a publicist is the best way to fast track getting television interviews, but not all publicists specialize in broadcast or have those contacts.  Marianne advises, “You want to work with a publicist who specializes in broadcast P.R. and has media connections with producers. Also, look at their track record for clients they’ve booked on talk show programs. Since I’m a former national network talk show producer, I can guarantee that my clients will get on network quality local talk shows since I have strong relationships with producers all over the country.” So look for publicists with talk show media connections because ultimately, producers work with trusted professionals.

Mistake #4 – Not understanding that the first talk show interviews will be a local talk shows. Even if an author has had a bestselling book, it’s no guarantee they’ll land an interview on a national talk show. In fact, it’s unlikely, according to Marianne, “As a producer for national talk shows, I always wanted to see that guests had been on other talk shows and that meant local talk shows. I knew if they could do well on those shows, they’d be great on my show since my job was literally on the line if I booked a bad guest. Local talk shows on network affiliates are an excellent training ground for experts and high level entrepreneurs to master on camera media appearances while building credibility as a go-to on-camera expert.” 

Mistake #5 – Not understanding that talk shows are about publicity and NOT marketing or advertising. One of the most difficult things to understand about talk show interviews is that they are not marketing or advertising platforms so the approach has to be informational in nature with a soft call to action. Marianne shares, ” No amount of advertising can get you the credibility that appearing as a guest in the editorial framework of a talk show because at the end of the day, advertising is saying that you’re good, but public relations is getting someone else, in essence, to say it for you. Anytime you’re interviewed, you’re not just perceived as an expert, but you’re elevated to an authority in your industry.”

High level entrepreneurs often look for a direct ROI from talk show appearances, but successful public relations is not measured in the same way that a successful marketing campaign is measured. Overall, getting on a TV talk show and leveraging it correctly, can give an entrepreneur the instant know, like, and trust factor with potential clients or customers that can ultimately seal the deal on purchasing decisions.

Marianne Schwab has worked as a producer for over 25 years in New York and Los Angeles. She is currently the Executive Producer of CMP Media Cafe where she works with clients to develop compelling media hooks and story angles that get them TV and radio interviews in today’s complicated media environment. She shares tips on Instagram and has created an online training that shares her insider secrets to promoting a business on TV talk shows and details the types of guests producers love to book as guests.

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Business Food & Beverage Leisure Activities Lifestyle U.S

Is Fido a Foodie? Then Say Bone Appetite to This Purrfect Treat! eCommerce Sensation Unveils PetCakes® for Retailers

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Orlando, Florida – March 7, 2023 – Cats and dogs everywhere will want to get their paws on the most innovative treat at the Global Pet Expo 2023 in Orlando on March 22-24 as Melinda Kirk Stenger, also known as the Canine Caterer, debuts PetCakes® Complete Baking Kits for Cats and PetCakes® Complete Baking Kits for Dogs branded exclusively for brick and mortar and large retail stores. 

Melinda, who has over 20 years of canine culinary experience, is the creator of the award-winning PetCakes line, the first ever DIY organic microwavable pet treats for both cats and dogs that created a large presence on eCommerce platforms like Amazon and Chewy.com and has generated over $25 Million in online sales. PetCakes is a solid favorite with pet moms and dads who want to pamper their pooch or princess kitty and has received over eleven thousand 4.5 star reviews for the PetCakes birthday kit alone.

“What people don’t realize is that many dogs are allergic to wheat, corn, and soy, which I discovered with my rescue dog, Bella,” Melinda says. “She’s a deaf Jack Russell mix, my official taste tester, and the inspiration behind everything I create including PetCakes. For our retail rollout, we’ve created complete baking kits that are made with the finest human grade ingredients plus we source and make everything in the USA.” 

Each kit makes six fish shaped cakes for cats or two bone shaped cakes for dogs plus 24 frosted mini cupcakes and pet parents can customize flavors or add healthy toppings and includes:

  • One fish shaped re-usable pan (for cats) or One bone shaped re-usable pan (for dogs) 
  • Four cake mixes
  • Two frosting mixes
  • Both microwave and oven instructions.

“People think it’s too complicated and time consuming to cook for their cats or dogs,” Melinda says, “but this makes it so easy and why I developed PetCakes Complete Baking Kits for both cats and dogs so parents and kids can have fun and bond with their pets in a unique way while cooking for them.” Melinda has also created complete baking kits for all occasions pet parents want to celebrate with their furry friends including birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas, with purrfectly nutritious, homemade treats that will have tails wagging.

The PetCakes Complete Baking Kits for Cats and PetCakes Complete Baking Kits for Dogs retail at $24.99 and will be available to pet owners and their furry families at select retailers across the country later this year following their launch at the Global Pet Expo. Melinda is excited to be at the show this year and shares, “When we launched PetCakes in 2010 as a completely unknown company and brand, we were thrilled to win ‘Best New Product of the Year’ here and now we are back and hope to earn that honor again in both cat and dog divisions with PetCakes Complete Baking Kits.”

Melinda Kirk Stenger will be meeting with buyers and retailers at the PetCakes Booth #5804 located in the Boutique Section at the Global Pet Expo 2023 where she is also available for media interviews and product previews. Find out how to order a PetCakes Birthday Kit for those special furry friends at ilovepetcakes.com or follow Melinda on Instagram.

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Business Celebrity Fashion & Beauty Leisure Activities Lifestyle

A Closer Look at the Top Model of AAA Abraham Ackermann Agency

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This competition has been held for many years and this year Serbia is sending its representative for the second time. This year, in anticipation of spring, the largest and most glamorous competition in medaling is coming to us again. In the period from February 20 to March 4 this year, the contest for “Top Model of the World” will be held. The finals of the prestigious competition Top Model of the World are held in luxurious and modern complexes and cities around the world. Previous finals were held in Egypt, Shanghai, Berlin and Miami.

The AAA Abraham Ackermann Agency, which is the owner of the license for Serbia and Brazil, has decided to once again send top model Tara Računica, who took second place for Miss Europe last year.

The preceding year the same agency was also awarded for the best model agency in the Balkans, and its director and owner AAA Abraham Ackermann for gentleman of the year. Tara is 19 years old and comes from Belgrade. The world got to know her well last year during the preparations for this event. The audience and the jury could not resist her charm and charisma. The whole team was proud of their ranking. However, as this top model reveals to us, this year she is ready to conquer the world.

“I am proud of my team and all of Serbia. We did a great thing last year, but this year we will be even better. I am glad that my country is part of this world event for the second time. It is certainly a great honor to be a part of all this for the second time! My team and I promise you that we will win” – said young Tara.

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Business Computers & Software Technology U.K U.S

Olive AI to Divest its Second Business Line; Plans to Focus on Health System RCM

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Healthcare automation service Olive AI is reportedly planning for the sell-off of its utilisation management service line. 

Utilisation Management is the company’s prior customer-facing authorisation system with solutions that accelerate the manual operations in GreenLight laser treatment.

The divestiture is part of this Columbus-based tech unicorn’s effort to centre its focus on administrative automation for healthcare, according to THE BUSINESS JOURNALS.

“Earlier this month, [CEO Sean Lane] announced that Olive would no longer be offering UM solutions to allow the company to strengthen its core area of focus, building automation and intelligence technology for health systems that make their revenue cycle operate more effectively and efficiently,” according to a spokesperson from Olive AI.

Why Divest Now??

Sean Lane, co-founder and CEO of Olive AI, blamed tough economic headwinds for the divestiture. The CEO also mentioned that the Columbus health IT business made mistakes when it was in high-growth mode.

In an all-staff memo published on February 09, 2023, the CEO shed light on the substantial and unexpected shortfall in the capital plan now facing the company, two years after it brought in around USD 400M to turbocharge the growth of ‘humanised’ AI for healthcare.

“In our current position, we cannot make the necessary investments to be successful in transforming both Autonomous Revenue Cycle and Utilisation Management journeys for our customers,” Lane said in the memo. “We must prioritise and direct our critical resources toward Olive’s established strengths.”

“This means a return to our core area of focus: building automation and intelligence technology for health systems that make their revenue cycle operate more effectively and efficiently.”

Consequences of the Carve-out Transaction on Employees

According to the memo, Olive AI Inc. is set to lay off 215 employees as it seeks to eke out growth by cutting costs and shifting the focus to its core product lines. The recent reduction in staff comprises around 35% of its workforce, leaving approximately 630 staffers.

This declaration of workforce reduction came on Thursday, February 2, 2022. In July 2022, the company cut around 450 staff who accounted for 31% of the total workforce. 

However, the Columbus company refused to provide any further details on the specifics of the equity carve-out—such as the approximate time and size of the division, prospective buyers, etc.

According to the notice filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, in order to notify receivers of the upcoming cut in workforce, the layoff would involve a total of 209 positions, including an EVP (executive vice president) and some senior staff.

“I know this is not easy news to hear,” Lane stated. “I regret that we are in this position, and I apologise for the impact it will have on the lives of our team members. I’d like to express my gratitude for everything you’ve done to make an impact in healthcare.”

The company is committed to keeping the customers and the remaining staffer updated on the details of the transaction as it takes shape. 

In October 2022, Olive divested its population health and $340B product lines to sister company Rotera, as two of its customers had ceased doing business with Olive. 

Overcoming Divestiture Challenges

Irrespective of the size of the division, carving out the equity of a company is a complex task that requires an effort in coordination to be successful. 

For companies looking to ensure a seamless divestiture with minimum business disruption, investing in a high-end carve-out service like Fission Consulting is a sensible decision. 

A class-leading service helps clients evade uncertainty while also accelerating the timeline.

Wrapping Up

The CEO of Olive AI hopes the divestiture would help the company defy the current economic downturn by enabling the employees to focus more on strengthening Olive’s core services and product lines.