Software & Technology by MarketScale

Mistakes are costly in any industry, but when it comes to employee benefit plans, you're dealing with someone's retirement income and their livelihood. That's why being designated an employee benefits plan fiduciary is much more than crossing your T's and dotting your I's on paperwork.

In this episode of Weaver: Beyond the Numbers podcast, we discuss the role of fiduciaries with CPA Aracely Rios, an audit partner in assurance services. She'll discuss the role of good documentation in employee benefit plans and share helpful tips for navigating this landscape successfully.

"Their responsibility is acting solely in the interest of the plan participants for the purpose of providing retirement benefits, and acting prudently," Rios said.

Rios said the most common plan mistakes are not following the plan document exactly. For example, Rios often sees plan mistakes that pertain to plan amendments such as changes to the compensation definition added to the plan document, that were not executed by the fiduciary.

"Another one is untimely contributions. You might be short-staffed and thinking, 'Oh I'll get to it when I can.' But that's not acting prudently on your employees' behalf because that means lost earnings for them," Rios said.

The important thing to remember, Rios emphasized, is to have a policy and procedures in place. For more resources, including podcasts and articles, visit Weaver.com/thought-leadership.

The freelance video editing market has radically changed over the years, thanks in large part to emerging software. Avid Media Composer was released in 1994 and quickly became the industry standard come 1996, but various programs persist to this day.

Brandon Balin’s knowledge of such software is unparalleled. As a freelance video, conform, and VFX editor, he has edited everything from independent action films to World’s Scariest Police Videos - his first television show - and even Dr. Phil, where he served as a post-production technician.

Balin likened an editor’s circumstances vis-à-vis software companies to that of a magical unicorn living in a stable.

“They price out how much it is for hay and water and lodging,” he said.

The son of two actors and the nephew of another, Balin works under the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA. He emphasized that the editing market is heavily beholden to the nation’s political climate. For instance, since Balin is not currently self-incorporated, editing equipment such as the new Mac Pro desktop computer that he plans to buy is no longer tax-deductible.

While he said this financial burden is worrisome, he possesses great hope for the industry given the emergence of new streaming services such as Disney+ and Apple TV+, which may “flood the market” with new openings, as well as reliable video workflow solutions like Cinedeck's cineX software.

Ultimately, today’s freelance editors work in an expensive and perpetually-evolving market. While the near future may be bright for the industry, the bubble may eventually deflate, doubtless bringing new alterations to a still ever-changing field.

In this episode of the Software and Technology Podcast, Mike Daskalopoulos, director of strategic platform technology at ScreenBeam, shared some insights on the benefits and challenges of wireless presentation and collaboration solutions.

Bandwidth, while it may seem like it’s infinitely available, is a limited commodity that can present hurdles when integrating a wireless presentation infrastructure. But as Daskalopoulos explained, there are now enhancements that organizations can leverage to make efficient use of spectrum and optimize streaming video.

He went on to describe how collaboration solutions have also evolved dramatically from simple whiteboards to relatively inexpensive touchscreen devices that enable real-time interactions from all over the world. The rise in employees working from home offices and shared co-working spaces is driving the need for wireless solutions that allow for these team members to stay in touch.

“People should meet and work together, and technology [...] is the facilitator for that within an organization,” Daskalopoulos said.

He left audiences with a reminder that the user experience should be at the forefront of technology development. “If it’s not simple and easy to use, technology becomes the purpose rather than the vehicle for collaboration and to free yourself from wires," he said.

It’s not just your imagination. Data breaches are occurring more often than they used to, said network security expert Josh Walker. In this episode of the Software and Technology Podcast, host Tyler Kern sat down with Josh Walker, a web engineer turned digital marketing manager for APCON, to discuss why high-performance network visibility is growing more critical every day.

Oregon-based APCON offers network visibility and intelligent networking monitoring solutions for enterprise and midsize businesses. These network monitoring solutions provide visibility, improve security, and optimize monitoring tools' efficiency for any network environment.

“More and more data is being posted for sale on the dark web,” Walker said. “And most companies don’t know it’s happening.”

In fact, U.S. companies are being attacked up to 33 times a day, Walker said. Furthermore, the 2019 Cloud Adoption & Risk Report shows organizations experienced on average 31.3 cloud-related security threats each month, a 27.7% increase over the same period last year.

It’s clear that hacking is a major threat that is increasing every day, but, with the right tools, vulnerabilities and holes can be found and patched, and data theft can be prevented. For example, as data and applications move to the cloud, network security is shifting and growing to meet those capabilities and security challenges that come along with it.

“It’s up to us to fill those holes before they’re even breached,” Walker said.

A new digital payment technology by Toronto-based Nanopay is avoiding the ‘black hole’ of money transfers. Here to explain is Nanopay’s Head of Products Simon Keogh, featured guest on today’s episode of the Software and Technology podcast brought to you by Marketscale.

“When a wire goes across, it goes into a black hole,” Keogh says. “It’s up to someone on the other end to notify me that they’ve received the funds.”

Wire transfers, used by businesses to transfer large sums of money, take several days and are expensive. Checks are no less expensive to process and still one of the most used methods of business to business money transfers.

“Fifty percent of businesses in the United States still pay by check, which is just amazing,” Keogh says.

Alternative solutions, such as Nanopay’s Connect, can not only send money globally at a lower cost than traditional alternatives, but offers a suite of features businesses need: multi-user management, automated payment reconciliation, easy integration, and bank grade security.

“The fact is that I can order a pizza to my home and watch the vehicle drive right to my door, but when I send a wire it takes a few days and I rely on that bank calling me to let me know they’ve received the funds,” Keogh says. “We’re trying to do things faster, better, and cheaper.”

The true cost of managing cash for a business is hard to pin down, especially as a business owner. It's a less quantifiable cost; while retailers incur a cost to accept debit and credit cards as currency, there’s an inherent cost of labor to accepting cash as well. Simplifying this process for business owners may come in the form of cash recycling technology, which is is “reducing the cost of money” in many unexpected ways.

On today's Software and Technology Podcast episode, host Sean Heath sat down with Vik Devjee, vice president of CIMA America to discuss ways retailers can reduce the cost of managing cash through cash recycling solutions.

Rockwall-based Tech Data Systems partners with CIMA America, a global provider of cash handling solutions for banking, retail, and hospitality industries, specifically cash recycling systems for use in the retail space.

“Retailers today experience a lot of pain around managing cash in a typical retail store environment, such as a grocery store, department store, or quick service restaurant,” Devjee said. “Handling cash is a labor-intensive process.”

In retail environments, staff may spend a lot of time in a cash office manually managing cash, employ loss prevention teams to pinpoint missing cash, or use cash in transit companies to transport cash from the premises. Both these soft and hard costs of handling cash are chief reasons why retailers are turning to automated cash recycling systems.

“It’s reducing the cost of money,” Devjee said.

Devjee discussed how the dwindling use of cash is affecting the industry in the U.S. and abroad, why the U.S. leads the world in people who don’t use banks, and why partners such as Tech Data Systems use CIMA America solutions for cash handling worldwide.

There are times in a company's life where it could use a hand from a third-party expert. Whether it’s a complex new system that your company is implementing or a complex problem that you need help seeing the solution for, IT consulting companies exist to ease the burden.

But what if you’re a small company, have a small budget, and don’t really know where to start? Our guest today explained that companies have a misconception that bringing in an IT consulting partner is a luxury for larger, more complex companies. She argues that that's not the case. Host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Brandy Semore, director of professional services for Pinnacle Business Solutions, who shared four solid reasons to partner with an IT consultant.

Unbiased and focused attention, specialization, money savings, and taking on the burden of risk are the top reasons customers seek to partner with IT consultants like Pinnacle Business Solutions, Semore said.

“Offering specialization, I feel, is one of the most impactful benefits of being a VAR, or value-added reseller,” she said. “That way you don’t have to spend the time and money researching these solutions or getting trained because we absorb that burden.”

On the podcast, Semore broke down the importance of all four reasons, gave examples of potential cost savings, explained what she means by taking on the burden of risk for a company, and shared how an unbiased third party can help find solutions to IT headaches.

While you may have seen headlines about labor shortages in construction, pro AV, or manufacturing, one particularly puzzling shortage of labor is emerging in the accounting/CPA field. On this episode of the Software & Technology podcast brought to you by MarketScale, host Daniel Litwin sits down with Megan Weis, Vice President and General Manager of FAO Services for Personiv to discuss reasons and solutions for this dwindling talent pool.

"Baby boomers are retiring in droves, and taking with them the specialized talent they have acquired over a 40-year career,” Weis says. In fact, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants estimates that 75 percent of all current CPAs will retire in the next 15 years.

Meanwhile, the succeeding generation of Millennials who are entering the workforce are seeking flexible and meaningful careers that affect wholesale change — two traits not typically associated with accounting, Weis says. That’s shifting though.

Weis says though traditional accounting careers are still very much in demand as new financial regulations come on board, this is a task proving challenging for the remaining accountants nationwide. But accounting careers with a new type of forward-looking, strategic adviser role are emerging as well, Weis says. A more “creative”, strategic type of CPA, if you will.

“It’s more than a backward-looking profession these days,” Weis says. “It’s less about reporting the historical results and more about looking into the future. It’s about really using historical data to drive financial results.”

What’s the difference between a “payment facilitation in a box” solution versus an open platform that seamlessly adapts to their requirements and needs within the PF payments ecosystem? On today’s episode of the Software & Technology Podcast, host Tyler Kern sat down with Mark Bishopp, CEO of Amaryllis Payment Solutions, to discuss an API-driven solution that’s making payment systems customizable for a variety of industries.

Before joining Amaryllis, Bishopp’s resume included working with the world’s top financial, fintech, and consulting powerhouses, which taught him something simple yet powerful. “Systems are key,” Bishopp said. “There’s hundreds of payment facilitators — marketplaces, aggregators, we all do similar things — but we all bring buyers and sellers together.”

So, how do facilitators build an environment that allows buyers and sellers to conduct business?

Before cloud computing came into play, the landscape looked different — essentially closed— where everyone built their own, according to Bishopp. But cloud computing has opened up immense possibilities in open source technology solutions that make something like Amaryllis’ intelligent payment facilitation platform possible.

Amaryllis’ PF platform is a customizable, scalable, API-driven payment engine built specifically for the omni-channel platform economy servicing third-party payment models.

Bishopp said this scale of customization gives facilitators a solution that’s good for them specifically, and not a solution out of a book. “You’ll hear me say this a lot, but we’re providing ‘What does good look like?’ for them," he said.

Imagine watching an article instead of reading it. On this episode of the Marketscale Software & Technology Podcast, host Tyler Kerm sat down with Zohar Dayan, CEO and co-founder of Wibbitz, the world’s first automated video creation platform that’s making that visual mission possible.

When Dayan first pitched Wibbitz’ automatic content creation to companies such as news organizations, they weren’t just skeptical — they didn’t believe a computer could produce high-level, high-quality content without a human involved in an element of news judgment. Luckily, Dayan said they’ve come a long way since.

“Automation has gone from a scary word that content creators were scared of, to a necessity for any storyteller or publisher to do their job in an efficient way,” he said.

Part of that necessity comes from growing audience appetites for different content experiences on different content platforms and devices. Social media users, in particular, want content — long form, short form, video, and more — that’s optimized for its respective format.

“Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat… we expect a different experience,” Dayan said. ”So, it becomes a very big challenge to keep up with those user consumption habits.”

And with news staffs and outlets diminishing, content creators have the challenge of having to create more with less. “It’s becoming impossible to [create content] in a scalable way that makes sense from a business perspective.”

Dayan also discussed tagging content with metadata, creating story templates for content, and why creating rich content for both mainstream and niche markets will continue to be in demand.