Posts

Could Labour be the right move..? 5th May 2017 12:02 PM
I just don't understand why you would want some other country telling you what to do and how to live .. It's like saying your neighbour can control your life... er no My neighbours go to bed at about 7pm and eat vegetables ”
 

lol, well at least the Brexit debate is done and dusted. Whichever way you voted, we're coming out. With the political changes around the world I suspect the EU is on course for major changes, as dreams of Political Union are finally shattered and hopefully the EU just concentrates on being a Trading Bloc which is what it should be.

Would have been nice if we could have been inside driving rather than looking out the window IMHO  But hey ho, yesterdays chip wrappers.

Interesting results from the Council elections, looks like UKIP is a spent force which isn't a surprise now Brexit has been achieved and Farage has retired. Is it a barometer for the election I wonder?

Could Labour be the right move..? 4th May 2017 11:07 AM

I always had you down as a Green or a Liberal 

Euuuurrrgghhh Steve. The Tories are crucifying the Education system (speak to a teacher) and the NHS (speak to a nurse/doctor) as well as ripping benefits away from disabled people and increasing food bank use to terrifying levels.”
 

Things are definitely far from great, but with the historical spiralling costs of benefits due to the man in the street belief that it s the states responsibility to care of you form cradle to grave, versus looking after yourself with a safety net for genuine hardship, then I think we are slowly moving in the right direction.

There are plenty of people who don't need child benefit, or tax credits IMHO, there are also plenty of people who do. But £41.6bn's worth? Really? Unfortunately we have to break a culture of dependence and "I can't work any more hours because it will impact my benefits". Benefits should be seen as an absolute last resort, a safety net, with pride and work ethic a driving force to move out of benefits. 

In 2014/15 the welfare bill was £258 billion, 35% of the govt budget. Here is an interesting breakdown of benefits for 2015/16 (couldn't find a more recent one) but I imagine it has come down again. Unemployment benefits is quite a surprising one and not the massive number a lot of people believe. 

(Image removed as it seems to have broken the mobile site formatting, but you can see it from the below link).

Source: fullfact.org/economy/welfare-budget/

Nuclear weapons is a great argument. Not a sane person wants to see them used and it's a sad reality that countries are still trying to develop them, showing as a species we have learnt nothing. But in it's form as a deterrent, which could be argued has been successful over the last 50 or 60 years as we haven't had a nuclear war?

It's not an argument I'm convinced by. There are enough Nuclear weapons to destroy the planet a 100 times over, so we don't really need any more. But a much smaller collective NATO deterrent makes more sense with us making a contribution. 

This removes the likes of questions such as would you press the button as it would be under NATO control, which we have all agreed by membership to protect each other in the event of aggression.

The massive cost savings could be used to bolster our conventional military which is now the smallest and most under-strength it ever has been, while freeing up more cash for hospitals, schools etc.

Brexit in the hands of Corbyn will be a diplomacy of disaster. Brexit in the hands of May will be a nail-biting roller coaster. 

But at least she has thrown herself fully into the task, even though she was a firm remain voter. Hopefully she will do some housekeeping and get rid of mad Boris for a start.

I still believe Brexit was wrong, it will end up being a very expensive exercise that no one will see any benefit from for a generation and the people should never have been made to vote. Cameron should be locked up in the tower of London for landing us in this mess then simply walking away 

But just my 5 pence worth, from a former socialist now Tory convert with liberal leanings

Most people will have heard of Dun and Bradstreet (D&B). If you haven't, in  a nutshell they are a worldwide data company. 

In their words: Our platform’s foundation is the world’s largest commercial database, with over 240 million company records we derive from 30,000 data sources and update 5 million times per day.

D&B allocate companies a "DUNS number" (data universal number system) which is how you know if your business is registered on their database. This number is used to establish a business credit file which is referenced by third parties who can use this data for a variety of reasons, such as lending or the reliability of potential business partners.  

So what?

Because D&B are so well established, these data sets are referenced by governments around the world. eg, to tender for a UK Government contract, you must have a DUNS number (see below).

The problem

Our legal business name that we don't trade under was hi-jacked and used for fraudulent purposes. In essence they utilised our business trading address, name, business number and VAT number to conduct a complex VAT fraud. Apparently we were selling halal meat, dealing in scrap metal to exporting tractors to East Europe. 

After a few visits from the HMRC criminal investigation team, we got a clean bill of health and I spent considerable time asking hosting providers to take down fake websites that had been set up in our Ltd company name.

But the most surprising aspect that only came to light very recently was that our DUNS number had also been hi-jacked which gave the original fraud the credibility it needed. Our D&B listing had been amended without our knowledge to a fake web address and a telephone number with a Bristol area code. As our address remained the same and Warwickshire based, it wouldn't take too much due diligence to see that this was a little odd.

The fix

Contacting D&B was very straightforward and the customer services contact couldn't have been any more helpful, happily changing our details straight away and ensuring me the correct details were indeed live on their system.

After putting the phone down, I suddenly realised how simple the whole process had been and at no point had I been asked for any verifying information other than giving my public DUNS number. I phoned back to make a further amendment and challenged the ease of how updates seemed to be made, asking how the customer service person knew I was who I actually said I was?

After some waffle about due diligence checks are carried out before any amendments are made, I was also assured an alert would be placed on my account and moving forward, I would be notified of any changes to my details.

How we found out

Although the hi-jacking of our business name happened a while ago and has long since been resolved, we never realised the D&B listing had been compromised. It came to light when we ordered a website security certificate for a new website we are launching.

The certificate shows up in your web browser and tells the world that your website is secure and a website visitor has the confidence you are who you say you are. The web address will show as https and you should see a padlock symbol. As an example, below is how the certificate is displayed for this site using a Google Chrome browser.

The SSL provider we have utilised for our new website are www.comodo.com and they use D&B as an authentication source to ensure you are who you say you are, before issuing a website certificate. In our case they questioned the fact that our telephone number was different on our D&B listing. Explaining it was a scam number and not even the correct area code to our business address held little sway with the overseas call centre. The Comodo response was that they took the information from the D&B listing, if these details were wrong, then you had to get these details amended by D&B. Once the correct details were visible, then Comodo would issue a certificate.

In light of how easy it was to edit the D&B listing, this itself is even more worrying as it brings into question the confidence of SSL certificates and website security in general, showing how easy it is for potential abuse. 

Conclusion

The whole experience has left me feeling a little uncomfortable, as we seem to live in an age where data breaches seem to become ever more frequent. The D&B approach to data amendments seems a little sloppy in light how and who uses this data for reference purposes.

If you have a DUNS number, it might be worth phoning up and confirming your details. It won't cost you anything and  you can request that they send you a PDF of the data they hold on you so you can double check it. Maybe even ask if they can lock your details and alert you if any changes are made.

You can contact them by calling 0845 145 1700 or emailing ukcs@dnb.com

Come on D&B, maybe start doing this as the norm. If you have our details, then tell us when they are being amended, even just a simple email confirmation link.

How good is your English? 2nd May 2017 4:43 PM

It's a fair and interesting point.

This might seem like the whingeing of an old pedant, but I have found that the concise, precise and fluent use of English to be a great asset in both instruction and persuasion.”
 

I agree that the correct use of language in both written and spoken form are extremely important, particularly when used in business and dealing with customers.

But we also live in a fast moving communication age, from text speak to social media. Although you could argue deteriorating standards, you can counter argue that proof reading all content isn't commercially viable on social media and discussion forums?

Curious what our resident proof reader thinks (or should I say, I'm curious )

Bulldogs driving me Bonkers 2nd May 2017 4:27 PM

Hiya Ave

Just catching up mate, been out of the loop myself 

Sorry to hear you've had a rough time, but wow how much have you achieved??? Fantastic news about the Brighton Fringe, enjoy 

You are currently showing as 57.5k follower son twitter and 6,897 on Facebook. I don't about asking me for advice, I should be asking you! 

I noticed your avatar wasn't showing correctly so have added one for you, but keep up the good work and I hope you are doing all right. Let us know how you get on at the fringe.

I disappear for a couple of weeks, come back and we're in the middle of a general election 

Who said politics was boring, from Scottish Referendums, Brexit, fall of Cameron and Osborne to the trials and tribulations of Labour and it's leader. Then internationally from Trumpton to the current political upset in France.

But Labour? Are they really a viable proposition for the working person and small business owner? 

I've no doubt the mass media is deliberately stereotyping Corbyn and fuelling fear, but having watched his TV performances, he doesn't inspire me personally. I genuinely can't imagine him negotiating on our behalf when he can't even win over his own MP's. Increasing corporation tax, giving more power to the Unions and moving the UK to a non Nuclear pacifist role isn't something that's going to win me over.

I do worry about the perceived lack of opposition which isn't healthy for any democracy, and watching Tim Farrons speeches, I think the Lib Dems could be the big winners and have the potential to be come a credible opposition.

So for me personally I don't think Labour is the right move, but then again when I was 18 a die hard socialist. You've got to go with your own beliefs, circumstances and what you think is right. Failing that, if you don't know enough about it, vote Tory  

Hire or outsource? 2nd May 2017 3:48 PM
For companies who have dynamic site counts but resource constrained, would it be more practical for them to just outsource time-consuming tasks of working with service providers? ”
 

I think this is half the problem. I don't understand what that sentence actually means? What is a dynamic site count?

From my experience of outsourcing, I've had nothing but problems when trying to do it on the cheap using countries where English isn't the first language. We do a lot of outsourcing but now only use outsourced resource based in the UK. It's quicker, there are no communication problems and you still gain and flexibility and cost savings versus extra employees.

But there is little substitute for having internal employees if your business can justify and sustain them. We combine a mix of internal and external, letting outsourcing take the pressure and strain where we can't justify a permanent employee.

I've no doubt offshore outsourcing works for some, so only relaying our experience, and it's not something we would consider again. 

Did they mistake him for an animal? 13th April 2017 9:51 AM

Oh my word, this has to be one of the best stories of the year.

It has to be a masterclass in how not to do PR and reputation management. I think Mark Ritson from Marketing Week summed it up the best: United’s CEO makes a mockery of the word ‘leadership’

www.marketingweek.com/2017/04/12/united-airlines-ceo-leadership

But as always, Twitter never fails to disappoint when big brands get it horrendously wrong. Here's some of my favourites from the #unitedairlines hashtag

You clearly provided enough evidence in my opinion that you you've been sent unsolicited messages where it was stated that you were nominated for a variety of awards that happen to come from magazines owned by the same company, but it would be nice to also see further evidence.

Many thanks.

Markus”

 

Hi Markus

I think you are getting confused between spam and scam. Yep we got unsolicited messages, I don't need to check email headers for that, but then I get sent hundreds of spam emails every day. 

But the point is that the actual whole awards concept is suspect. Or call it opportunistic business, unethical business, maybe predators of the gullible, or I just call it simply a scam.

But for some that think the expense and theatre of self delusion or purchased credibility gives a good business return when able to show a winners badge on their website, then good luck to them. Alternatively just make something up in photoshop and put that on your website. eg: After a survey of 4 old ladies, Steve was found to be the number 1 business man in the  Alcester Post Office queue. Trophy and certificate in the post, £3 Morrisons meal deal award dinner. 

So have you been approached, or is this something you are considering? 

Going to have to check to see if I can take mine on my next holiday as need it to check my shop and listings every day otherwise is going to be a nightmare having to always find a PC somewhere or borrow someone's all the time grrrrr”
 
Now the idea of a holiday Andy is to down tools and not be working