Author: Stuff Business

Vodacom Business has partnered with Cisco Meraki to bring the power of SD-WAN Express to small and medium-sized enterprises in South Africa. This cutting-edge networking solution promises to simplify wide-area networking for SMEs while delivering the kind of connectivity that keeps them safe and secure while boosting overall performance and productivity. Now, thanks to Vodacom and Cisco Meraki, even the smallest businesses can harness the power of Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) to enhance their operations and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. What is SD-WAN? SD-WAN offers a dynamic approach to crafting and setting up corporate WANs,…

Between now and early-mid 2024, LinkedIn will add three new AI-powered features to the platform to bring even more useful functionality to the site. The new features, based on OpenAI’s technology, will enhance the site’s marketing, recruiting, and learning capabilities and complement the AI tools already available on the platform. Microsoft, the owner of LinkedIn, is clearly looking to leverage its partnership with OpenAI and get even more value from the billions of dollars they’ve invested in the company so far. Enhanced LinkedIn Ad Campaigns The first of these new AI tools will strike fear into the hearts of anyone currently…

Having access to an IT helpdesk is important for any business with a lot of staff as they streamline the solution of IT issues and help to keep the business running smoothly. But they are also a point of vulnerability; we recently ran a story about casinos in Las Vegas falling prey to a social engineering attack that manipulated the IT helpdesk into giving hackers access to important systems. So we thought we’d follow up with ways you can beef up your helpdesk’s security. Basically, doing so comes down to ensuring the right processes are in place, and then making…

South Africa is a prime target for cybercriminals, partly because we as a country do not have the cybersecurity skills needed to properly protect ourselves against them, and partly because of the massive adoption of smartphones and the internet by our people that has given cybercriminals access to a huge number of people who don’t necessarily know how to protect themselves from attack. We’re so popular with cybercriminals, in fact, that South Africa rose from 6th position in global rankings for countries affected by cybercrime in 2021, to 5th in 2022. And it’s not only the hoi polloi being affected:…

Massmart has introduced a brand new online platform aimed exclusively at business customers. Dubbed ‘Makro Business,’ the site aims to provide businesses of all sizes with a unique online shopping experience, offering an extensive array of business-relevant products at attractive prices. All Business Much like individual consumers, South African businesses face economic challenges that demand innovative solutions. As you know, Makro has a huge product range that encompasses food, liquor, stationery, office furniture, catering supplies, and more, as well as considerable buying power, so it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to the business market.…

For reasons unknown, Microsoft has insisted on changing the Windows Start Menu in every version of Windows they’ve developed since Windows 7. And every time they’ve changed it, they’ve made it worse. From Windows 8’s ill-fated Start Screen that nobody liked, to Windows 11’s far too Apple-like Start Menu, Microsoft still hasn’t found the middle-ground that would please both long-time Windows users and new users. This is because thousands of people in the business world used Windows prior to 2013. They became accustomed to the operating system’s design language and were not huge fans of change. While Windows XP’s colourful…

The business world is in the midst of a massive technological revolution, driven by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, and more. Workers around the world are experiencing the effects of these shifts firsthand, with increasing demands on their creative abilities and time while they contend with meetings, emails, and information overload. It’s no surprise, then, that innovation is taking a back seat, ultimately impacting productivity, employee happiness, and even global economic growth. As one might expect, artificial intelligence (AI) could be the solution workers are looking for. While AI has so far not shown itself to be…

Podcasts are an excellent way to consume business-related information, insights, ideas, warnings, and much more, and there are a ton of them business enthusiasts could tune in to. What’s so great about them is you can get the benefit of others’ experiences in business so that you can (hopefully) avoid the mistakes they made and make your business the best it can be. We’ve rounded up a handful of business podcasts that you can listen to today; some are taken from South African radio shows, while others are international shows that cover business in general. If you like listening to…

The two most important digital marketing channels for any organisation, whether a startup or an established brand, are its website and social media presence. It’s important, then, to give both of these aspects of modern business ownership serious attention, lest you’re left in your competition’s dust. The third most important channel is email marketing; the latest stats from the various blogs and websites we’ve checked say that for every $1 a company spends on email marketing, they get back anywhere from $36 to $40+ in return on investment. Why we’re telling you this is to underscore the importance of having…

Business owners, if you think your IT systems are completely locked down and beyond the reach of cybercriminals, we invite you to think again: some of the biggest casinos in the world were hacked recently, in a social engineering attack that bypassed what were, presumably, incredibly stringent cybersecurity measures. After all, there’s a lot of money at stake at casinos, so we imagine their IT systems would be locked down tighter than the employee break room at an Amazon warehouse. Not so much, apparently. Hacked by Social Engineering On or about the 10th of September, hackers managed to breach the…