by : admin Website Design

Multi-Level Marketing System and Its Benefits – Explained

 

Want to dive into the vast sea of MLM but don’t know what it is, how it works, or what are the benefits? Well, then you are in luck because we will explain all of these things in this guide. Read the content below, and you will have a precise idea by the end of this guide.

What’s Multi-Level Marketing?

It is basically a distribution business model that many companies leverage to get their products out into the market and directly introduced to their customers. Instead of going for the typical routes of offering the products to customers via an online store or a physical retail shop, they get help from sales reps to promote and sell their products.

The sales reps buy the inventory and sell it in their own way, like in person or online. The sales reps are not considered as employees; instead, they are the owners of their business because they are basically purchasing the product and reselling it.

The aspect of ‘multi-level’ means that the sales reps get their own sales reps, train them, and help them start their business selling the same products. This way, they earn a commission when the sales rep under them make sales.

How Does MLM Work?

It’s pretty simple. Let’s suppose someone named Sam starts his own MLM Company, and he has bought some great products to sell. Now, whenever he sells them, he obviously earns a profit. However, to further increase his income, he hires sales reps; Marty and David. He trains both of them and educates about the products.

Now, these two guys purchase products from Sam and sell at a profit. A small chunk of their profit will go to Sam as a commission because he brought them into the business and taught them everything. Now Marty and David can further hire their own sales reps to increase their incomes and the process will be repeated. Here are a few main terms you should know about MLM:

  • Sponsor:
    The sales rep who recruited another salesperson will be his sponsor, he will train and educate the new rep and earn a commission when he makes sales. In the above example, Sam is the Sponsor.
  • Recruit:
    The person who is recruited by the Sponsor, Marty and David are recruits.
  • Downline:
    All the recruits that are brought into the company below a sales rep. So in above example, David and Martin and all the sales reps they will recruit will be Downline to Sam.
  • Upline:
    It’s the opposite of Downline, all the sponsors who came before a recruit are Upline; Sam is Upline to Martin and David and their recruits.

What Kind of MLM is Legal?

Many people are scared of getting into MLM because they have heard horrible things where people lost a lot of their money, and to be honest, they are not wrong. The problem is that when the sales reps get greedy and try to sell every kind of product, even if they are not good ones and focus on hiring recruits irrespective of their skills then the MLM turns into a scam. People who come in the last usually lose their money this way. So the ingredients of a legal MLM are:

  • Excellent quality of service/product
  • Focus on sales instead of blind recruitment

Remember, the money primarily needs to be made from the sale of quality products rather than form the recruitment of other people. This is the crucial factor that makes the MLM legal.

Benefits of MLM for Your Business:

As discussed above, you will be provided with tons of insights regarding how your campaigns when and also which leads are the best. It can even rank leads and give them scores based on how they performed.

So the next time, when you are creating another campaign, you can use this data to better prepare yourself, and instead of wasting time on unimportant leads, you can follow quality ones. This can help you turn your sales funnel into a money-making machine.

Benefits of MLM for Your Business:

  • Increase in Sales:
    One of the main benefits of MLM is that many businesses prefer it because of fast paced sales. So you can have some pretty good clients and won’t run out of business if you maintain a good standard.

    Furthermore, if you promote god quality products, more people will be interested in joining you as sales reps.
  • Low Risk:
    There will always be risk when it comes to opening up a business. However, the level of risk is minimal with MLM because you will not need high capital to get started. Just some initial amount to get a few pieces of products to sell, have a customized system for MLM developed from a software development company for your ease and that’s pretty much it.

    It all comes down to your marketing skills, the more you sell, the more you make and the more sales reps will come to you.
  • No Need to Hire Anyone:
    The beauty of MLM is that it is a self-sustaining model where the people selling products under you will earn their own bread and butter and you will get a small amount of commission from them.

    Meaning not only you don’t have to pay them; they will pay you back instead. This is a great way to earn pretty good residual income without much overhead costs.
  • Live with Freedom:
    People who do legal MLM can go to any part of the world and run their business from there. You don’t need a brick and mortar institute especially.

    Just having an MLM software or web application will help you keep tabs on inventory, sales and commissions.

Over to You:

If you are ready to dive into the sea of MLM and build a legit and legal business that sells quality products and become a reason for jobs for many sales reps then you can start with our help. We provide MLM software development service where we can do both; either make a customized system or do a clone system of a tried and tested MLM software.

 
by : admin Website Design

Software Security And Firewall – 5 Must-Have Security Levels

 

So you are getting your software developed but worried that it might become a victim of attackers and hackers? Every business owner that relies on software for most of their work and data storage is afraid of data leaks that can put them and their customers in jeopardy. However, if there are hackers, then there are security measures as well that you can take to protect your software.

Whether you are getting a customized or a clone system developed, implementing safety features is a MUST, so you don’t fall victim to the hackers waiting to get access to your personal data. Have a look at the 5 levels of security you need to protect your software below:

5 Must-Have Security Levels in a Software’s Customized Systems:

  • Script Variable and Parameter Passing:
    When you set passwords in your server or database for your employees to access, you need to be very careful about their encryption. You don’t want those passwords to be discovered by anyone, or else, it can result in a security breach.

    The problem is that by default, the passwords will be saved as ‘plain text’ in the scripts so when you enter the password, it can quickly be caught by someone with a bit of knowledge in coding. The password goes to the bot for authentication and if it is not encrypted, it can be read during the transit.

    So the basic step of securing your password is by encrypting the string value using PowerShell which obfuscates it and protects from people with wandering eyes. A professional software development company can help you with the security of not just your password but also the username so both of them are well protected from prying eyes and hackers.
  • Cloudflare and SSL Certificate:
    Even if you have secured the password and user id, it is still going to be vulnerable because advanced hackers can use SQL Injection to access the database of your software. The SQL injection allows attackers to change the queries made to the database which means they can easily view data, modify it or delete it which can cause changes to your app’s content or make it behave differently.

    This means things like passwords, personal user details and credit card information of app users stored inside can be compromised and used by attackers. This can even result in heavy lawsuits against you. So to protect yourself and the users of your app, you need CloudFlare set up. It basically protects your app against attacks like SQL Injection that can result in a data breach.

    Furthermore, you can get an SSL certificate for your app which will add an additional layer of security during the exchange of information between users and the app. This is especially necessary for ecommerce apps where the transfer of credit/debit card information happens every day. According to GlobalSign; 85% people avoid shopping from platforms that are not secure, so getting an SSL certificate is a must for you.
  • Hide the Origin IP:
    Once again, CloudFlare will help you here. You will have to ensure that your original server’s IP address is not exposed to the public. Because if it is, then it will make the job of hackers a lot easy. They can just directly target your server and send requests from different machines or bots and take the server of your app down. This will obviously result in your app not being available to the end-users and you will lose business.

    So we suggest that you use the ‘Orange Cloud’ feature of Cloudflare to add layers if front of your origin IP and not leave it exposed to hackers.
  • Security Settings in Server’s Operating System:
    This is something you need to do to secure your servers from anything that is being downloaded from the internet. A lot of viruses can be installed in the servers without you knowing and they can then disrupt your whole server database or steal important data.

    Till now, you were doing things that protect your servers from external factors like attackers and hackers but what if a virus escapes all of these things and enter in your servers? Well that’s where the firewall will protect it.

    You need to enable the Firewall system in your server’s operating system and regularly update it to ensure full protection against existing and upcoming threats.
  • Hardware Installation:
    Everything we were doing till now was based on software and applications, but if you want to add a final security layer to your software’s servers then getting a physical firewall is mandatory. It is a device that is connected to the network and positioned between the computer and the uplink.

    It will inspect the traffic that enters or leaves the server computer and grant or deny access based on its credibility.

 
by : Priscilla Ng Software, Software Customization

System Hacked? Tips on How to Prevent Database and System Hacking

Are you afraid that your system might get hacked? Well, whether you have a database that needs protection or a personal system, you need to take some necessary steps to ensure it is protected from most of the hacking attempts. This guide will help you find out how:

Tips for Securing Your Database:

  • Have a Strong Password:
    Make sure to use small and capital letters, numbers, and special characters in your password and keep the character length fairly longer; more than 15 at least. Furthermore, put a limit to the wrong password attempt so that after a certain number of attempts, the database access goes in lockdown mode. Lastly, try to change the password after every 3-6 months for added security.
  • Install Updated Security Patches:
    Install the security patches as soon as they are released. Databases are very vulnerable when the security patch is outdated, and even a simple query can easily compromise it.
  • Add Firewall:
    Install a firewall in your database servers that allow only trusted hosts to be connected to them. Block all of the ports that are not in use and also all outbound connections and set exceptions for linked databases, so your internal information flow does not bottleneck.
  • Check Non-Used Functionalities:
    Your database servers might have all of the functionalities enables as default, which can put them at the risk of attacks. So make sure to disable them all.
  • Leverage Encryption:
    If you are getting a database created by a software development company, ask them to install SSL encryption from the get-go. Encrypt every file and file system and also add encryption for the database-level column to encrypt all of the data.
  • Check for Permissions:
    You might not even know that a hacker has access to certain elements of your database because he has secretly got permission for it. So make sure to regularly check for permissions for views, database tables, and stored procedures. If you see any changes, you can be at risk.

  • New Database Check:
    When you migrate your database from one server to another using a third-party tool, you need to know that it is highly likely all settings will be at the default level. This means there will be no firewall, passwords will be very weak, and it might also not have the latest security patch. So you need to carry out a detailed check for these things and fix them on the spot.
  • Audit the Web Application:
    Check your web application for any SQL injection, weak permission, or misconfiguration. Make sure to ask the software development company to make you a customized system where you can give access to users based on privileges so that you can connect low privilege users to the database, which will limit the attacks in case of a SQL injection.

Tips for Securing Your System/Network:

  • Scan, Scan, and Scan:
    Your system, especially the one that is connected to your company’s network and database, can give hackers access to loads of valuable, private data. A virus from any hacker can do this for him, and viruses do not originate inside your computer. They are transferred from an external source. One of the most common sources are USBs and hard drives. Whenever you connect your system to an external drive, scan it first using a good antivirus, and then proceed.
  • Download Only From Authorized Websites:
    If you are downloading something in your system like software, or file, make sure to only get it from a fully secured, credible, and authorized website. Many websites offer free downloads, but those files can have spyware or viruses that hackers can use to get information from your system.
  • Be Vary of Phishing:
    When you are working in a professional environment, email is the biggest communication tool you will be leveraging. But it is also a very easy way for hackers to get into your system. When you get random emails asking to download a file or visit a link, do not do it no matter what it says. Have it inspected by an IT expert and if he/she clears it, then go ahead. Most of the time, these are attempts by hackers to get into your system and steal your data. This process is known as Phishing.
  • Do Not Set Easy Passwords:
    Just like with the database, your system can also be hacked, especially via a process called Brute Force. The shorter and easier your password is, the faster it will be hacked. So make sure to add small and capital letters, numbers, and special characters in your password.

Over to You:

Remember one thing, whether you are getting a database, website, or an application designed, try not to go for a clone system because most of the companies are already using clone scripts. This way, hackers have a good practice of hacking such systems. Try to have a customized system developed by the software development company.

by : Priscilla Ng Software, Software Customization

How Much a Software Source Code Cost? Is it Expensive?

Want to purchase the source code for a mobile or computer application from a software development company or a business? Well, it is absolutely possible, but you need to remember that when it comes to its cost, things can get a bit tricky. This is because there is not really a straightforward way to decide the value of the code, which is why you need to manually look at various factors to get the right price.

The Cost of Source Code Depends on the Following Factors:

Since there is really no hard and fast rule for setting the price of a source code, you need to manually consider some fundamental yet important factors to assess a code’s worth. And to be honest, its value depends on the software itself and also what went into the software development process. Here are some of the most key factors to take into account:

The Developer’s Experience:

This is the key deciding factor behind how high or low a software’s source code is really worth. How experienced, expert, and worthy the software developer is, will decide its cost. There are basically three types of developers discussed below:

  • Beginner Programmer:
    This is the kind of individual who has just dipped his toe into the vast sea of software development and lacks practical experience. There’s a possibility that he might use a clone system with a few changes to design software. Furthermore, he doesn’t have the experience and vision to understand the future trends in your business, which means he will just use the resources at hand and design a system that can sustain for a few years. In short, his system will have many bugs and will also not be future proof. So just to give an idea, we can say his source code might cost $.
  • Senior Programmer:
    This programmer has moved past beyond the stage where the clone system is used or where there are chances of source code having errors and bugs. However, he is still in the middle; he might not have the vision and sight to design a software that can last for a lifetime. He might be able to give you a few good years, maybe one or two decades worth of software. But when business trends change and you need to add new modules in the database, you may have to spend more money to make several changes in the code or even get a new code from scratch. We can say his source code might cost $$.
  • Software Architecture:
    This is the guy who is a professional at what he does. He will design a source code in a way that is free for any bugs and will also be future proof. Plus, his source code will be tried and tested by beta users and based on the feedback, the code will be fully improved and ready to be implemented. A code developed by a software architecture will cost $$$ or more.

The Functionality of Software:

Besides the experience of the developer, the cost of software also depends on its functionality. The better the software functions and the more it benefits businesses and other users, the higher its price will be. So here are a few noteworthy factors to keep in mind as well:

  • Business Benefits:
    Is this software benefitting existing businesses, or if you have purchased it, has it improved your business? Maybe it has helped in skyrocketing your revenue directly? OR maybe it has indirectly improved your revenue by streamlining your internal procedures and increasing efficiency? If that’s the case, then the code’s cost will be high.
  • Features of the Software:
    What kind of features does the software has, is it equipped with all the latest ones, or does its source code need some tweaking for the addition of more features to meet your competition? The more useful features a software has, the higher you can expect it to cost.
  • Adoption by Users:
    If you are already using the software without its source code, then how many users do you have? The number of people using the software also impacts the cost of source code because it is already tested in the market and accepted by a wide variety of users.

Besides the factors mentioned above, you also need to see how unique the source code is, are there many software based on it? Are there only a few of them? Or are you the only one using it?

The uniqueness of the source code also defines its cost because the source code is the property of the company. So buying the code means you are buying a part of their business, so it is obvious that it will come with a hefty price tag.  

by : Priscilla Ng Software, Software Customization

Good Database Design Defines Your Software’s Success

If you are getting software development for your business so that you can have access to all kinds of data in one place, then you seriously need to think about who designs its database.

A bad design can ruin the software, and that can ultimately do damage to your business. If you want to get more info about the database, its role, and the characteristics of a good database, keep reading this guide until the end.

Role of Database Software Development in Your Business:

Nowadays, businesses heavily rely on data to manage their internal and external operations and also make decisions that shape their future. Without the help of useful data, businesses will be shooting arrows in the dark without knowing the right direction. For instance, not having the right data on the inventory available, businesses might go out of stock, and by the time they know it, they will already be turning away customers that need their products.

Similarly, managers will not have the correct insight into the performance of their company without data, which means they cannot make the necessary decisions to grow it. So now that you know how important data is, you also need to know that without a database, all of this data is useless. You need a correctly designed database to properly organize and store that data so that it is available for the right people to access it in minutes without going through piles of unnecessary information.

For Instance: If a manager wants to see sales history for the year 2020, he can just input it in the database system, and instead of getting the history for any other year, he will exactly get the sales figures for the year 2020.

Characteristics of a Good Database Design:

You need to understand that every business needs a customized system of a good database. A bad one can result in getting wrong or incomplete data. Or it might not keep up with the pace of businesses when it starts to grow in the future. So here are the characteristics of a good database that defines the success of the software it is used for:

Independent Data Storage:

If the database design is properly created, then all the modules inside it will be independently stored. This means it will be easier to get any specific piece of information without getting the screen bombarded with all sorts of irrelevant data.

Furthermore, when you make changes to any specific data module, other modules will not be affected because they are stored independently. So if a company wants to add or remove units of inventory in the inventory management module, the sales module will not be affected unless it is programmed to do so.

Should Not be Clone System:

If you get database design from a beginner or incompetent software development firm, they might use a clone script of a database of a business similar to yours and build your entire database software based on that.

This means the database will not be unique to your business, and you might not be able to add any additional modules in it.

Data Should Be Consistent And Reliable:

A bad database design increases your risk of getting different answers to your queries. This means you might ask for the sales history of a specific product, but you might get mixed data for different products. This can result in duplication of product identification numbers in the database.

Good database design will validate the data when it is being entered and loaded and reject anything which is not according to the pre-set rules such as wrong values, duplication of ids, etc.

Should be Beginner Friendly and Load Fast:

A good database will be very easy to operate and get results from. Not everyone using it will be an IT pro, which means it should not feel like operating an airplane with lots of functions to generate simple data reports. There should be straightforward functions that deliver the right results.

Furthermore, the database should load fast. It should not take several minutes to find the data and bring it on screen; this can happen if the database is structured poorly.

Security Must Be Excellent:

The database of your business is something that should be kept very secret because if it falls into the hands of a scammer, your business can take severe damage. For instance, your CRM database leaking out means the personal information of your customers can be misused by others, and that can result in expensive lawsuits.

A good database should have layers of security like authentication that verifies the credentials of users and then give access based on the credentials stored in it.

Furthermore, different levels of users should have limited access based on their posts. A manager should not have access to executive-level data. Regular auditing also helps in finding out if there are any issues in the database like wrong people accessing the information. Moreover, there should be regular backups on a secured space so that if the database gets erased or infected with viruses, you can have a backup copy.

by : Priscilla Ng Ecommerce Tips, Software, Website Design

Why is CRM Important for a B2B Business?

The most important and perhaps the most challenging part of running any business is to get clients. And clients are captured with the help of data, knowing who wants what helps businesses hit the right spot of their potential customers.

A B2B CRM solution can help businesses do just that. It can help you make more data-driven decisions, improve your marketing and sales campaigns, and help you optimize your funnels better.

However, the B2B CRM solutions should be programmed by a software development firm to fit your particular needs instead of using a clone system that many businesses are already using.

So What’s B2B CRM Anyway?

Short for Customer Relationship Management, CRM is all about the ‘customers come first’ approach. It is a management strategy where data is collected in order to better understand customers’ needs and provide them with maximum value. Furthermore, it allows businesses to know exactly what their customers want, which means they can upsell their products and ultimately increase their revenue.

There are many B2B CRM software solutions that can help the sales team collect heaps of data from different communication channels where they interact with their clients and then analyze it. All of this data is stored in the company’s database and can be accessed by the sales and marketing teams for their existing and upcoming campaigns.

Furthermore, B2B CRM is also about nurturing your relationship with your clients. You can stay in touch with them from time to time, help them out whenever you can, offer discounts or freebies, and earn their loyalty.

Why Your Business Needs CRM?

The basic idea behind any sales cycle/funnel is to take the customer through the journey of several steps, starting from increasing brand awareness and then ultimately making the sale. Do you know that for every dollar spend on CRM, $8.71 is earned back? (Source)

Although it can be a very challenging process, with the help of CRM software solutions, you can find out what a particular set of customers need at a specific stage. This makes things easier. Here are a few core advantages of using B2B CRM:

Highly Targeted Campaigns:

The launching of any marketing campaign is already pretty tough, but what if you need to run more than one of them? What if you sell three types of soaps; Beauty Soap, Antibacterial Soap, and Acne Soap, and you need to promote them at once? The target market for all three of them will be different, right?

So how will you keep track of potential client data, and who needs which soap? This is where B2B CRM software will help you. By collecting, analyzing, and organizing data of different types of customers via your multiple communication channels, it will help your sales team keep track of who is who and what is what.

 Detailed Analytics:

Once you have concluded a marketing campaign, how will you find out if it was a success? Well, that is where CRM will help you out as well. It will analyze the data of all your sales campaigns and will provide you with detailed reports and insights on things like:

  • Which campaign yielded the highest ROI?
  • Anticipation of sales for next quarter
  • What are the best and most qualitative leads?
  • Which of your actions impacted the sales decision of lead?

And so on. Well-developed CRM software usually has a dashboard where all of this information can be accessed with just a few clicks.

You Can Make More Data-Driving Decisions:

As discussed above, you will be provided with tons of insights regarding how your campaigns when and also which leads are the best. It can even rank leads and give them scores based on how they performed.

So the next time, when you are creating another campaign, you can use this data to better prepare yourself, and instead of wasting time on unimportant leads, you can follow quality ones. This can help you turn your sales funnel into a money-making machine.

Makes Marketing and Sales Departments Collaborate:

The two hands of any business that help it collect the profits are the sales and marketing departments. However, in many business environments, they are not directly working together, which can compromise the company’s potential to reach more potential clients and nurture the relationship with the existing ones.

With the help of the CRM system, you can align both of these departments as all the data from both sides will be fed inside the CRM software. So whenever any department needs to know something about a campaign or a lead, they can just access the data from a dashboard.

Over to You:

Make sure to hire a professional software development firm to make you a customized system of B2B CRM based on your needs and the marketing channels you use to interact with your customers.

It will not only make it a piece of cake for clients to reach you whenever they want, but your sales and marketing teams will be able to make better data-driven decisions.