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The importance of Trust

The importance of Trust Data breaches, corporate re-structuring and collapses have alerted business to the value of an intangible ... trust. We are big advocates for the use of email as a communication medium rather than the paper documents of the past. Working in law firms and accounting firms though has always been at odds with "Paperless" and environmentally responsible communication. I believe that as a profession it is no longer possible to ignore paperless processing. The time has come to embrace the challenges and implement features like electronic payments WITH the requisite controls. Unfortunately we see a focus on the problem and not the solution. Electronic control systems can close fraud options that are available now. A recent article in New Zealand is a case in point. OpenEFT  would have prevented this fraud. The conclusion that Lawyers and clients should be careful with emailed instructions could have been ensure you have systems and policies in pla
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Shopify and WooCommerce gain eCommerce market share

According to BuiltWith a site measuring the top web sites and the technology used behind it the results for August show Shopify building to a 19% share of "Australian" eCommerce sites. There are a few holes here though as this uses geographical data and .au  domains. It is cheaper to use a .com domain though and many sites are hosted on remote servers. BigCommerce also saw some local growth with some better pricing and more attention to new sites. This came at the expense of old systems like osCommerce and ZenCart. The "Other" space has grown which includes Neto . Statistics for websites using Ecommerce technologies in Australia https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/country/Australia When looking globally at the top Million sites Shopify is dwarfed by WooCommerce. As we have pointed out WooCommerce is used by a very large number of sites, it may not be as successful but it gives a shopfront at little cost. The global strength of WooCommerce was throu

Online Legal Service Conference - Sydney 2014

I recently presented at this conference held in Sydney. The day before I had been at a briefing by MobileIron on their security technologies for Mobile devices. It was interesting to hear both sides of the mobile security argument. I am here today as both an observer and a participant in global legal services. I am the CEO of Timeframe a consulting firm based in both the USA and Australia. My story used to be an exception in law, someone trying to bridge two very different cultures, this is no longer the case. So the US, UK and Australia. Who is leading? All of them! It depends on the question. I was in Perth earlier. One of the cities that we are told missed the GFC, and yet it is the most expensive city in the world outside Scandinavia to live in. Moody's recently reported Perth has the postcode with the nation's highest mortgage delinquency rate. And so we have a tale of two economies. A similar story is unfolding for legal services practitioners. M ajor clients ar

Smarter eCommerce mailouts - Opening up Retail Express to Mailchimp

Translator for MailChimp Currently the sources used for email marketing include Shopify, Retail Express MailChimp, other mail applications such as Outlook groups and CRM systems like Insightly. Would it be nice to have ONE list? ·          Seamless and Simple without end user intervention The Translator for MailChimp means one centralised mailing list, providing centralized reporting and results. We can run tight campaigns and then report and measure the success of the campaign. Both with clicks and reads AND sales. This is all done using the categories that you understand and value. For more information please contact us at info@translatorhq.com .au 

Billing quick wins

Billing quick wins How you bill your clients makes a big difference to cash flow. The way you bill has everything to do with how payment will be made. Are you giving your clients an easy excuse to not pay you?   1. State the payment terms Firms traditionally offer credit easily. Whilst new clients are accepted through a risk analysis process the voice of the Credit Controller is not heard enough. These processes should identify potential risks through references to available searches and past history including the firm’s own records. Before you offer credit make sure you agree and negotiate the terms of payment. You do not have to accept the 30 days from the end of the month the invoice was received. You are allowed to ask for a shorter term. What is important is that the client understands the terms and agrees to these terms before you start the matter. As a reminder, always ensure that the payment terms are listed on every bill. State the actual due date which is mo

Year end collection push

I am heartened by the many Collections projects we were involved with last year. These projects will have made a major difference to these firms final collection numbers and more importantly the effort required to collect these amounts. Law Firms Press to Get Bills Paid by Year-End http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304773104579270470475326780 The critical number in here was the drop in total recovery rates have dipped from 90% in 2007 down to 83.5% in 2013.   There are some simple measures to improve your Collections which firms can implement :- 1) Review payment terms. Consider 7 and 14 day accounts. 2) Look at your payment options do you make electronic payment easy? 3) Do you deliver bills electronically as PDF? They are faster and match the expectation of clients for quality and authorization. 4) Have you reviewed your client payment requirements? Some bill consolidation services are too expensive in the long run. Negotiate accordingly or leave these cl
Are you ready for  Much More Easier European Business? February 1st, 2014 is a day of great significance for banks and other organizations in the euro zone– it’s the deadline for single euro payments area (SEPA)-compliance, and it’s approaching fast. SEPA aims to create a single domestic market for euro payments through standardization and the development of common financial instruments and procedures. This will create a simplified, harmonized bank transfer system for the 32 SEPA countries, helping to reduce costs for all and improve the efficiency and speed of payments. Hopefully, your organization is already well underway with compliance preparations – such as replacing current account numbers with the common format of International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN), identifying areas and processes that will be affected by SEPA, and implementing message format changes for payment instructions and reconciliations. Timeframe’s Electronic Payment Solution OpenEFT, anticipated these m