Category: Business

Excitement builds as Ireland’s aquatech industry aims for global recognition at BIM conference

Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), Ireland’s seafood development agency is hosting a conference next month that aims to position Ireland as the centre of excellence for aquatech. The inaugural Aquatech Business of the Year award is also being announced at the event.

The conference, being held in partnership with global aquaculture accelerator, Hatch, and supported by the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, will gather some of the leading experts in aquaculture including Kristen Virega, SVP Global Shrimp efishery, Neil Sims, Founder and CEO, Ocean Era and Jennifer Bushman, Sustainable Aquaculture Strategist and Communicator. BIM CEO, Caroline Bocquel is also among the key speakers.

Aquatech can be defined as any technology enabling sustainable seafood farming. There are currently 62 aquatech companies operating in Ireland, employing almost 900 and with a combined turnover of €217 million.

This exclusive discussion and knowledge sharing opportunity will provide a platform for senior policy makers, aquaculture and tech sector thought leaders and investors to learn how  Ireland can build its capabilities in this space.

‘Aquatech – Ireland’s Global Opportunity’ is taking place at the Brehon Hotel in Killarney, Co Kerry on Thursday 19 October from 14:00 to 16:00 (Irish Standard Time). You can register to attend for free at the following link:  bit.ly/44CLJgX

Revenue teams: Introducing Zoom Revenue Accelerator

Today Zoom announced that Zoom IQ for Sales, the company’s conversation intelligence software, will relaunch as Zoom Revenue Accelerator.

“As a customer feedback-driven company, we heard from customers that the name Zoom IQ for Sales didn’t reflect the power of the product. As we continue to evolve the product, we want to better reflect the vision and how it can help sales teams gain meaningful and actionable insights from their customer interactions,” said Mahesh Ram, head of AI applications and products at Zoom. “Just in the last quarter, Zoom IQ for Sales has grown significantly, with a 400% increase over Q1, highlighting just how powerful this application is, and how people are interested in generative AI capabilities to boost revenue performance.

Today, Zoom Revenue Accelerator provides many AI features — meeting summaries, chapter summaries, sentiment, engagement, talk / listen ratio, intelligent automatic extraction of next steps and good questions, and an email smart compose feature to help complete sales meeting follow-up, to name just a few. Zoom plans to continue expanding these functionalities and adding new AI features to empower sales teams to improve their skills and continuously improve performance, leading to better customer experience and revenue outcomes in the long run.

This autumn, Zoom is expanding its capabilities with Zoom Revenue Accelerator, including the announcement of a new Virtual Coach, Deal Risk Signals, and Discover Monthly for sales teams. 

  • Virtual Coach will leverage a customisable and dynamic training environment that simulates a real conversation to accelerate onboarding and train sales team members on new products and methodologies more effectively, including an objective assessment of their performance that they can act on to improve consistency in messaging. 

 

  • Deal Risk Signals will allow sales teams to use a rules-based engine to send alerts if the deal hasn’t moved forward in a specific period of time, to help teams understand where they are in a sales pipeline. 

 

  • Discover Monthly will help uncover trends by tracking how competitors are being mentioned on calls and summarising the trends monthly, helping revenue teams reveal insights and execute more effectively. 

 

Since its launch, Zoom’s AI-powered sales tools have helped sales teams gain meaningful and actionable insights from their customer interactions:

 

  • “Improving our sales performance while running more efficiently is critical for us. Zoom Revenue Accelerator allows us to coach sellers and identify best practices while simplifying technology and processes and lowering costs. Our sales teams already love and spend a lot of their time in Zoom Meetings, so it was a no-brainer to add conversation intelligence with Zoom to their experience,” said Alexander Atzberger, CEO at Optimizely. “In addition to using Zoom Revenue Accelerator to onboard our sales team, my C-suite dedicates time each week to listen to recordings. It allows us to not only keep a pulse on our revenue org, but hear directly from our most valuable resource, customers.”

 

  • “Our team is hooked on Zoom [Revenue Accelerator]! It’s been great for our demo process improvement and transparency,” said Tim Akhmetvaleev, head of sales at Flippingbook. “I can’t wait to see what kind of AI wizardry they have in store to make it even more awesome!” 

 

  • “Zoom [Revenue Accelerator] allows us to deliver conversation insights on prospect and customer reactions to SetSail’s features, functionality, and messaging to our marketing teams for them to take action on,” said Majed Itani, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at SetSail Technologies Inc. “As a bonus, [Revenue Accelerator] provides information for our managers to better coach and enable our customer-facing teams across sales, customer success, and business development based on actual conversations.”

 

More information about Zoom Revenue Accelerator is available on Zoom’s website. 

Google to host in-person digital training series for SMEs

Google has today announced a new training programme aimed at supporting SMEs in Ireland. You’re The Business Live Sessions, hosted in Google’s Dublin offices, will include five in-person training sessions suitable to SMEs at the early stages of their digital journey right through to those more digitally-sophisticated businesses who are ready to export globally.

The initiative is part of the You’re the Business programme, an initiative created by Google, Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices last year to help upskill Irish SMEs. The You’re the Business programme aims to help accelerate Irish SME growth through digitalisation, which is in support of the Irish government’s ambitious goals around SME digitalisation and internationalisation.

Today’s announcement follows recent Google Search data which found that Irish people are increasingly seeking to gain new certifications, particularly in digital skills. The last year has seen increases in searches for certifications in UX Design (+80%), IT Support (+60%), Data Analytics (+60%) and Project Management (+50%).  There has also been a 180% rise in searches for “artificial intelligence courses” over the last five years, with an increase of 150% for data science-related courses.

Cera Ward, Managing Director at  Google Ireland  said:

“Our partnership with Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices was devised following research last year that identified gaps in the digital capabilities of Ireland’s SMEs. It found that only 45% of Irish SMEs had a website while 50% said they lacked the basic knowledge about which digital skills to prioritise and invest in.  Irish SMEs need support which is why we partnered with Enterprise Ireland to launch You’re The Business last year and we’re delighted to continue our partnership for the benefit of SMEs in Ireland in 2023.”

The first training session will take place on Friday 15 September with live and in-person modules occurring every two weeks in Google’s Dublin headquarters. The five online training modules will help Irish SMEs to:

 

  • Get your business online

  • Help your business grow online

  • Ensure your business is secure online

  • Get your business to go global

  • Boost your productivity with AI

 

To sign up for these live training modules or for further information, please visit: rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/ytblive.

How to Get Ahead Of Your Competition

Small businesses have it tough enough. Not only do they need to establish a customer base, but they need to be more appealing than the convenience of more established (and often cheaper) corporations. This issue is compounded when there are businesses of a similar size and age in the area. If you aren’t careful, you could risk losing customers to this company, jeopardizing the business’s future. The only way to avoid this is to get ahead of your competition, so how can you do that? 

Make Payment Easy 

Straightforward payments, whether online or in the store have never been easier. Considering the majority of people pay solely through their credit cards, you need a credit card machine that covers all essentials and delivers secure and rapid payments. Businesses that protect their customer’s information and finances will always be more profitable and popular as your dedication improves the resolution and encourages loyal and repeat customers. 

Put The Customer First 

If there’s one thing that is assured to put you ahead of your competitors, it’s your dedication to outstanding customer service every time. Your customers should feel;l that you respect them and want to do as much as possible to solve their problems. Rapid responses benefit the customer as they don’t feel they are waiting around forever. It also means they can overcome their problems faster and continue their day. 

Stay Engaged 

Social media has given all businesses an excellent chance to learn more about their customers. You can encourage better relationships with all customers (and attract new ones) by being more engaged online. Posting videos or blogs, sharing information, and getting involved with trends will help your company stand out and increase your reputation. However, you need to find the perfect balance with your online engagement. Too much, and your presence will annoy people. Too little, and customers will forget about you. 

Reward Long-Term Customers 

Many businesses solely focus on rewarding new customers with promotions and discounts. While this is ideal for attracting customers, these new customer-only deals are detrimental to your brand as existing customers feel ignored. You can reward your long-term customers with loyalty points or programs. If you offer a service, discounts for bulk orders could be a fantastic way to say thanks for their business. The possibilities are endless, and they are more likely to keep your customers from frequenting other companies where the grass seems greener. 

Improve Your Website 

The best websites are those in which customers know where to find everything. However, you may have not updated your website for a long time, so there could be outdated information or everything is in odd places. There are many ways to make your website easy to navigate to improve the customer experience, and you’ll see these improvements result in more sales and longer time spent browsing your site. 

Leading The Pack

Getting ahead of the pack will take time, dedication, and creativity. If you can focus on these tips, you will put your business in the strongest possible position. But once you’re ahead, make sure you do everything you can to stay ahead, because there will always be another company that wants to take you down.

Strategies to Deal with Employee Turnover

Employee turnover can be disruptive and costly. The job market is drenched with candidates. However, hiring workers isn’t as straightforward or affordable as a few years ago.

As a result, employers must find ways to minimise employee turnover. After company name check and registration, business owners face the challenge of finding good quality candidates and making sure they retain top talent.

This piece of content will provide strategies to help reduce employee turnover rates from professional growth opportunities and offering competitive benefits to fostering a positive work culture. Let’s go through these strategies to learn more.

Offering Competitive Benefits

Pay and benefits are the main reasons why employees take jobs and complete their daily tasks professionally. Also, it’s the main reason why professional employees change jobs. Therefore, it’s no surprise that competitive pay and benefits top the list when it comes to what would convince employees to stay. Another main reason is the time off.

Your company should start by providing appropriate starting salaries that’ll attract talented and qualified candidates. Also, they should offer raises regularly and monitor what other businesses pay for similar roles, especially difficult-to-fill jobs.

You should expect to pay more for workers with in-demand skills. Also, you can offer tailored bonuses tied to project completion. Instituting talent management processes that focus on identifying top performers in your company and correcting their pay and benefit imbalances by conducting gender and racial pay equity analyses can also help limit compensation-related employee turnover.

Professional Growth Opportunities

Workers really care about training that can help build new skills or strengthen existing ones. Most individuals looking for jobs globally are more willing to exchange approximately 12% of their earnings with additional training opportunities. When offering professional growth opportunities such as learning, you need to think professionally.

Travel-intensive training sessions or traditional daylong classrooms may not be ideal for staff members’ time or the engagement type they’re seeking. Businesses with an understanding of training create time for it within a worker’s day job and encourage it actively. Also, they constantly try new techniques of delivering it.

Do not overlook the value of training existing employees for professional or entirely new roles. If you invest in training and professional growth, you’ll be able to deal with employee turnover. Businesses that clearly map upskilling and professional growth to defined job roles and make it simple for employees to find internal positions fit for individuals with particular skills can help ease this concern.

Fostering a Positive Work Culture

Workplace culture helps define a business’s identity and core values. By establishing a strong and positive culture, your business can provide consistency and structure, guide behaviour and decisions, fuel workers, and help them reach their potential at all levels. Fostering a positive work culture helps with employee loyalty, satisfaction, and engagement.

It has shown to decrease absences, boost employee well-being and minimise turnover rates. Employees who feel loved, valued, supported, and happy in their companies are likely to create positive results at both:

  • Organisational levels and
  • Individual levels.

A negative work culture, on the other hand, can result in high levels of disengagement, burnout, and stress, which can lead to bargain productivity and high employee turnover levels.

It is a common practice for workers to leave a business. They may do so to:

  • Find jobs they are more interested in
  • Start their own company
  • Decide to be stay-at-home parents or
  • Change their career paths.

As a result, employee turnover cannot be eliminated completely. Luckily, the strategies discussed above can help reduce employee turnover. Just strive to create a workplace where workers will feel valued, loved and willing to stay.

Business Industries Who Can Benefit From White Label Products

Financial institutions emphasize the significance of white Label solutions for the market. Investors must understand the principles and potential pros and cons. This post will briefly cover the type of industries that can take the most benefits from WL.

White Label products are produced by one company and later labeled and branded under a different company’s name, allowing businesses to sell goods under their branding without the added cost of production, research, and development. This approach is beneficial for expanding product lines and accessing new markets while reducing transportation expenses and taking advantage of economies of scale. This article illustrates how this method functions and why it is reliable for rapidly selling goods and services.

Who Can Benefit From White Label Products

Collaborating with third parties can bring numerous advantages for various businesses, especially those that provide online services and aim to reach as many audiences as possible. Let’s highlight three company directions that can benefit from utilizing white-label products.

  • Retailers: White Label items can be used in a variety of businesses, and large retailers have had great success with them. Whole Foods and Walmart, for example, have seen significant benefits from promoting brand products manufactured by third parties.
  • Electronic Companies: Private label branding is used in industries other than supermarkets. Even well-known makers of high-end electronics, such as mobile phones and laptops, regularly use their brand name to market lower-cost white-label products to expand their product ranges.
  • International & Enormous Merchandisers: Big merchandisers with locations worldwide are also excellent prospects for white-labeling. Several of these businesses collaborate with smaller firms, purchasing generic products in bulk and selling them under their own brand name. This allows them to offer clients low-cost products while maintaining control over quality and availability.

Final Aspects To Consider

White-label products cover many offerings, from physical goods to services like customer support, website design and hosting, and software development. Companies can provide a complete product suite without creating each component in-house by purchasing these services from third-party suppliers and reselling them under their brand. While white labeling presents numerous advantages, such as expanding product offerings and targeting specific client bases, businesses should also be cautious of its drawbacks. For example, they may face issues with quality control and finding ways to stand out from competitors. A successful example of white Label branding is Kirkland, a Costco trademark, which benefits from high-quality merchandise and effective co-branding.

 

Brief Guide To Start Accepting Ethereum For Your Business

It is critical to adapt to and embrace changes as we progress toward decentralization. Bitcoins are gaining popularity as a viable alternative to traditional payment systems. As a result, we provide a complete guide on accepting Ethereum payments. 

Ethereum is a decentralized platform that allows for the construction of smart contracts, app development, and coin trading. It is programmable, scalable, and secure, with 9.2 million units. Ethereum 2.0 seeks to improve security, decrease latency, and expand blockchain capabilities, which will benefit consumers and entrepreneurs. Let’s dive in to start accepting.

Step-by-Step Guide to Accepting Ethereum

  • Examine and comprehend Ethereum’s structure: Understanding the operation of Ethereum is critical for accepting cryptocurrency payments since blockchain technology enables smart contracts and eliminates intermediaries. Understanding alternative cryptocurrencies kinds is vital for serving a broader range of clients.

  • Create a Crypto Wallet: The next step is to obtain an Ethereum wallet, which is a digital storage space for sending, receiving, and storing Ethereum tokens. Several Ethereum wallets are available, and we’ll go over them quickly later to assist you to choose the best one for your business needs.

  • Payment Integrations: Connecting an Ethereum payment gateway allows you to accept various payment methods, such as credit and debit cards, cryptocurrencies, and converting Ethereum into other currencies. Select your favorite payment gateway, sign up, design a payment button, and integrate it into your website. Before going live, test it and seek expert guidance.

  • Inform Your Customers About Your New Payment Option: Advertise accepting Ethereum payments on product sites, social media, and website content to raise awareness and attract clients that prefer Ethereum payments. Provide detailed instructions on how to set up an Ethereum wallet, send ETH, and scan QR codes for payments.

  • Monitor All Transactions: Monitoring transactions on Ethereum payment gateways guarantees enough ETH for fees and processing. Incoming payments and transaction data can be tracked in real-time. Maintaining your wallet balance is recommended for effective processing.

  • Convert Your Digital Currency to Fiat: Using an Ethereum payment gateway with an Ethereum to Fiat conversion function lowers the risk of price fluctuation. You will get fiat money directly into your bank account once clients make payments.

  • Maintain Maximum Security: Because Bitcoin is vulnerable to cyberattacks by bad groups, it is critical to protect yourself and your business from potential events and fraudulent actions when accepting cryptocurrency payments.s.

Wallets 

Ethereum wallet types allow customers to choose the best choice based on their needs and preferences. Online wallets are less secure and more vulnerable to hacking, whereas mobile wallets keep keys on devices. Desktop wallets provide higher protection but may only be accessed from the installed device. Hardware wallets provide the highest level of protection but are more expensive. When choosing an Ethereum wallet, it is critical to prioritize accessibility, security, and convenience.

Final Takeaways

Ethereum distinguishes itself through improved blockchain technology, enhanced asset security, and speedier transaction times. Its smart contract support distinguishes it from competitors. Notwithstanding the volatility, Ethereum has made great progress with less depreciation, allowing businesses to reap the full benefits of the cryptocurrency industry.

Industries that power proxies for web scraping

In recent years, most sectors have made use of data scraping. Some use it to study market trends, while others discover client demands. It becomes more potent as the need for web scraping solutions grows.

Take a step back and look at web scraping in a larger context: What types of businesses use it as part of their business model? Why do they utilize it, and why do larger firms and sites spend so much time and effort attempting to avoid it? Here are a few basic business models that use web scraping as a fundamental component of their strategy and why they value it so much.

Why web scraping?

Every sector has distinct requirements. They all, however, face differing degrees of competition. This is true both in the actual world and online. The digitization era has altered how organizations operate. As a result, they all, without exception, have an internet presence.

Companies nowadays show extensive information on their websites, explaining the items and services they offer. Gathering information about rivals’ projects, pricing strategies, marketing methods, and so on is critical to outperform the competition. What is the most effective manner for acquiring data from an internet-based entity? Of course, web scraping.

Why use a proxy for web scraping?

A proxy server is a server program or appliance in computer networking that acts as a middleman for requests from clients requesting resources from servers that supply those services. 

Since web scraping necessitates many queries to a server from a single IP address, the server may detect excessive requests and ban the IP address to prevent future scraping. Static residential proxies are utilized to avoid blocking, and scraping will continue to operate even if the IP address changes without causing any problems. It also aids in masking the machine’s IP address by providing anonymity, among many other benefits.

Which industries must use web scraping?

As previously said, any sector may profit from online scraping technology; nevertheless, there are specific variances. Certain sectors depend more heavily on data to achieve their objectives than others, depending on how advanced the industry is in digitalization.

For some businesses, data is critical to their success; for others, it is only a source of assistance. With that stated, the following industries must adopt web scraping:

E-commerce 

Every sale is valuable in the world of e-commerce. If you know who is purchasing what, where they are buying it, and how much they are paying, you will have a considerably simpler time breaking into and growing a client base in an otherwise crowded market. 

Offering a better product or service at a lower price depends on knowing and comprehending these aspects ahead of time so that you may make that better offer at the correct time to encourage someone to try you instead. While this may seem simple, the crucial takeaway here is that you need data and a lot of it to make those judgments.

Web scraping comes into play here. With straightforward tools, you may get detailed information on product price, variation, and availability, allowing you to make more confident product and pricing decisions. Scraping product reviews is also a good idea since it may help you determine what things paying consumers enjoy so you can promote them directly.

Price comparison 

A pricing comparison site is the most basic example of a business employing web scraping in the sense that most people think of it. Sites like this rely on obtaining and reporting data in a clear and accessible manner for their consumers – this sounds simple enough until you consider the insane number of different sites they must cover. 

Each site functions differently, employs various technologies, and interacts with visitors uniquely, making traditional cataloging approaches impractical. 

This is where scraping becomes key: offering comparison sites the capacity to monitor thousands of goods on many sites simultaneously means that users can make educated decisions.

Tourism

Tourism is a rapidly expanding sector. Web scraping services are also used in this market. Travel businesses use data scraping to list the most popular travel destinations in various places. They can make trip itineraries for their customers based on information about the vacation locations. It can assist in pleasing clients by allowing them to see the most incredible attractions and dine at top-tier restaurants.

Recruitment

Another critical business that might profit from web scraping services is recruitment. Finding the proper staff is one of any organization’s problems—however, the usage of data scraping aids in the simplification of the recruiting process. You may use web scraping to get information about possible workers.

Scraping allows you to collect information such as a person’s name, address, job title, years of experience, talents, etc. Consequently, finding the best applicants for various roles becomes much more manageable.

The bottom line

Many industries are taking advantage of web scraping through proxies. You can boost your business profile by jumping on this bandwagon and getting started with web scraping.

 

52% of Irish SME businesses have raised prices to counteract inflation squeeze

There is a continued trend of price hikes across the business landscape as 52% of Irish SME businesses have taken the step to raise their prices, according to the latest Linked Finance SME Confidence Index, based on research conducted by Behaviours & Attitudes.

According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Consumer Price Index was 4.6% for July, down from 4.8% in June; and 9.6% in July 2022. Initial steps taken by businesses to tackle the inflation squeeze have focused on price increases, but as Ireland’s rate of inflation slows down, businesses are looking to boost earnings.

The survey found 54% of businesses have taken measures beyond pricing to mitigate the effects of inflation. The measures include: 34% of businesses have cut their operational costs, 19% have pursued product diversification, and 12% have introduced discounts and promotions to navigate the challenging economic environment.

Despite tightness, a positive sign is evident as fewer businesses anticipate a decline in activity for the upcoming quarter, with a projected uptick in business activity for Q4 2023. The Index shows that 83% of businesses expect to perform better or in line with projected expectations compared with the same period last year.

“Notwithstanding inflation and a price squeeze on businesses and consumers, there is evidence of the resilience that defines Ireland’s SME sector and reflect its adaptability in the face of changing economic currents,” comments Niall O’Grady, CEO of Linked Finance. “The ability for businesses to innovative and put solutions in place such as product diversification and promotional campaigns, underscores the evolving strategies adopted by businesses as they navigate through a phase of tempered enthusiasm.”

Niall O’Grady, CEO of Linked Finance. Pic. Bryan Meade 17/02/2021

Overall, the Q2 2023 SME Index sees a notable levelling off in business optimism. The latest Index showed Business Optimism at a level of 61.90 (out of 100), only slightly up from 61.62 a year ago, despite a large drop in inflation during the same period last year.

In a surprising turn, the retail sector has demonstrated remarkable performance, defying expectations. This quarter, retail businesses have seen significant gains in their business activity. Recent findings from the ESRI also found that strong improvements in retail sales continues to drive growth in the Irish economy.

However, it is noteworthy that 75% of Retail & Wholesale businesses have increased their prices, reflecting the overarching trend of price adjustments in response to inflationary pressures.

“While we are seeing increased business activity in segments of the economy and business continue to pass higher prices onto consumers, it hasn’t fully translated into higher profits and earnings. This highlight the pressure that businesses are under due to external factors and influences,” continues O’Grady.

“While challenges remain, the anticipation of improved business activity for Q4 2023 and the potential for job growth in regional markets provide hope for SMEs.”

Through its online lending platform, Linked Finance provides accessible and efficient funding options for small businesses, ensuring that they have the necessary resources to thrive in today’s competitive business landscape.

For more information about the Linked Finance SME Index and to access the full report, please visit https://www.linkedfinance.com/.