Sat.Aug 04, 2018 - Fri.Aug 10, 2018

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Today In Data: Pulling Off A Good Twist Ending

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It will never be said of Apple that they lacked a flair for the dramatic – and hitting the U.S. public market’s first $1 trillion market cap two decades after it stood on the brink of bankruptcy was a pretty good twist as far as endings go. Not all twist endings are good in payments and commerce, however. The consumers who thought they were buying from a real merchant only to find that it was a fraudster surely don’t like that last-minute reversal.

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Don’t Count Out Billboards — Amazon, Facebook And Google Haven’t

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Billboards are not going gently into that good night. In fact, the old-fashioned form of outdoor advertising is winning over digital marketing heavyweights and finding ways to thrive in the online world. Examples abound. Amid data sharing and online privacy controversies, Facebook recently promoted on billboards what Bloomberg called the social media operator’s “new approach to user safety and privacy.

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Could Grubhub Become The Amazon Of Restaurants?

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Grubhub made news a couple weeks ago when it simultaneously delivered a very strong Q2 2018 earnings report and announced the acquisition of LevelUp. The focus then and the subsequent coverage since has been on the positive impact of the LevelUp acquisition on Grubhub’s ability to diversify its platform offerings. With LevelUp, Grubhub can now offer restaurants that are part of its network order ahead/pickup in-store and new CRM/loyalty initiatives to their mobile wallets using LevelUp’s white l

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Interpreting The Language Of The Supplier Invoice

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In FinTech ‘s never-ending path to combating friction, B2B solution providers often take one of two approaches: design a holistic solution that allows a company to entirely replace an entire function with a single, streamlined tool, or design a solution that zeroes in on one particular point of friction that can seamlessly integrate into an organization’s existing operations and systems.

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Why Tech-Forward Tax and Accounting Firms Have the Inside Track to the Future

Speaker: Joe Wroblewski, Sales Engineer Manager

Automating time-consuming manual tasks can save your firm hundreds of hours–and thousands of dollars. But it can also have longer-lasting benefits, like helping you attract and retain the next generation of CPAs, and we don’t need to tell you how important that is amid the current generational staffing crisis in the tax and accounting profession. You'll want to save your seat for this new webinar with industry expert Joe Wroblewski, where we'll explore how to: Maximize ROI with Cost-Effective Te

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Wells Fargo Computer Glitch Forced Hundreds Of Foreclosures

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Wells Fargo , the embattled national bank, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that hundreds of individuals saw their homes in foreclosure because of a glitch in software the company used. According to a report in CNN citing Wells Fargo , software it used denied mortgage modification requests incorrectly. The bank said it set aside $8 million to compensate the customers that were impacted by the computer glitch.

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Airbnb Listings Land In Concur

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Corporate travel platform Concur , owned by SAP , has integrated listings from home-sharing service Airbnb into its platform. A recent announcement from Concur said Concur Travel will now show listings available from Airbnb directly within its platform, making it the only corporate travel solution to do so, the company said. Airbnb listings will now appear alongside traditional hotels within the online travel booking solution operated by SAP Concur.

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First Data’s Fodor Says Retailers Must Embrace Next Gen Omnicommerce

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“How about waking up in the morning and asking Google Home or Amazon Alexa, or your mobile phone if you’re on the go, ‘Hey Google, hey Amazon, what are my deals for the day?’” asked Glenn Fodor, SVP and head of Information and Analytics Solutions at First Data. A new generation of retailers are making use of these new forms of customer data, and applying advanced technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to anticipate the types of products their customers will want to buy

Retail 46
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Why Bitcoin May Not Be Ready For Commerce (Or Starbucks)

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Starbucks brewed up a swirl of cryptocurrency intrigue last week. The coffee chain said it is among the companies that will work with Intercontinental Exchange’s planned digital asset company, Bakkt , “to create an integrated platform that enables consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets on a seamless global network.”.

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Investors Back Skippr Despite Australia’s AltFin Woes

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Alternative lending player Skippr has landed new funding, a sign that investors are still supportive of the industry after concerns were raised over alternative finance’s high interest rates. Reports in the Australian Financial Review Monday (Aug. 6) said Skippr raised $11.8 million in debt and equity financing from SocietyOne and Andy Taylor, co-founder of Douugh.

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Live Demo - Supercharge your Month End Close

Automation generally supercharges any process and brings its value to the forefront. See how infusing automation such as ART (our month-end close solution), into your close can get you to the next level of closing. We will share a live demo of SkyStem's solution, ART and share the key elements of month-end close automation. Through ART, we'll take a look at: What month-end close automation entails Which process steps can and should be automated Benefits of achieving process automation, and Why i

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China Locks Down Financial District As P2P Lending Implodes

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China has ordered a lockdown of Beijing’s financial district Monday (August 6) to prevent individuals from protesting a crisis in the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending marketplace. According to a report in the Financial Times , hundreds of police officers and security guards gathered near the offices of banking and securities regulators, as well as the entrance to the underground train stop for the financial district.

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Visa Invests In Israeli Startup Behalf

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Visa announced Tuesday (August 7) that it has made an investment in and inked a partnership with Behalf, an Israeli startup. In a press release, Visa said the investment and partnership is aimed at supporting small business growth via easy-to-access capital and financing. Behalf provides working capital solutions for small businesses and flexible financing for business purchases.

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US Bank Looking To Sell Its Payment Unit, Elan

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U.S. Bank is reportedly looking to sell Elan, its card processing business, reported Fintech Futures. According to the report, Finastra, FIS and Fiserv are in the running to acquire the unit from U.S. Bank. Elan processes credit cards for 1,800 banks in the U.S., providing payment services, credit card issuing, prepaid card and ATM services as well as debit card processing.

Banking 45
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Smart Cities Projects Testing IoT Technology To Fix Traffic, Transit Woes

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Internet of Things technology is known to much of the public through the development of smart home technology, which allows consumers to control their appliances, listen to music and shop by using their voice with an increasingly sophisticated technology that learns natural language. However, IoT is being deployed across the country, and to major cities around the globe, to help improve major transportation systems, reduce traffic, increase security and, in some cases, save lives through the imp

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Mid-Year Review: How to Ignite Employee Potential Through Meaningful Feedback

Mid-year performance reviews aren’t just boxes for HR to check. Paycor’s toolkit empowers leaders to: Identify high-potential team members. Boost engagement with meaningful feedback. Support struggling employees. Nurture top talent to drive results. Learn how to ignite employee potential through meaningful feedback. When you nurture top talent, everybody wins.

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Can Grover Do For Gadgets What Netflix Did For Films?

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As the digital economy expands, notions of ownership and loyalty change. The so-called sharing and gig economies enable consumers and workers to use products and take jobs without full commitment. Now a young company in Germany called Grover hopes to use a fresh investment worth about $47 million to expand its business of offering rentals of phones, consumer electronics, drones, gaming gear and other products to consumers and startups.

Retail 44
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Why Phishers Like B2B

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Businesses, get ready: The phishers are paying more attention to you. No company has ever been completely safe from criminals, whether it’s the type that steals in person or the hackers who do it digitally. But there is mounting evidence that phishers are turning more attention to enterprises and away from individuals — and at a time when pretty much every industry is moving away from a reliance on analog processes and toward more digitalization.

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ProofPoint Warns Of Bank Trojans: A Massive Threat Executives May Overlook

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Warnings from the Federal Bureau of Investigation have enterprises worried about cybersecurity — specifically, concerns about ransomware attacks. Business Email Compromise scams continue to grow and steal more corporate money than ever before. Phishing emails — 93 percent of which include ransomware, according to ITProPortal — should by no means be ignored.

Banking 44
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Low-Cost Mobile Card Readers Have Security Flaws

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Positive Technologies researchers Leigh-Anne Galloway and Tim Yunusov are warning that new lower-cost payment systems could hurt companies because of security flaws that could enable hackers to steal credit card data or change the value of what people are purchasing. CNET reported the researchers released their findings during the Black Hat security conference being held this week in Las Vegas, saying hackers are targeting cheap card readers, which have gained in popularity because they are easy

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Your Accounting Expertise Will Only Get You So Far: What Really Matters

Speaker: Victor C. Barnes, CPA, MBA

In the climb from contributor to leader, the rules quietly change. If you’re aiming for the summit, the air gets thinner—and what got you here won’t be enough to get you to the top (a concept first popularized by Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There ). What made you successful early in your finance career—technical accuracy, sharp analysis, flawless execution—won’t be what carries you to the next level.

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Meet The Personas Behind The Rise Of Contextual Commerce

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It can happen at the office. It can happen on Facebook and Pinterest. It can happen on a well-crafted blog designed to appeal to particular hobbyists, or an event and ticketing website, or an online platform devoted to travel. It can happen pretty much anywhere, given the right tools. And the people who try it seem to really, really like it — which signals good news for merchants and payments providers in the coming years.

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NEW REPORT: How FIs’ Top Performers Scale And Monetize Innovation

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Successful innovation is all about operationalization. The good news is that the path to operationalizing innovation looks remarkably similar for all financial institutions (FIs). Whether FIs are big or small, operationalizing innovation comes down to executing on the same four key tenets , starting with making innovation a mindset. FIs must take this mindset and bring it into every aspect of their processes, operationalizing it to align with a tangible business agenda and inform the other thre

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Blockchain Goes Local (A Bit, Anyway)

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Use cases are growing with blockchain, and while the headlines may focus on large-scale government initiatives and where distributed ledger technology (DLT) might be headed, the fact remains that smaller projects are gaining traction. Looking on a case-by-case basis, state initiatives (or local ones outside the U.S.) are showing some possibly novel ways that DLT may — at least, according to its advocates — help transform everyday activities.

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eCommerce, Delivery Firms Turn Attention To Supply Chain, Logistics

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As eCommerce and delivery companies fight an increasingly tough battle to streamline costs and compete for customers, a number of firms are moving to take control over logistics and distribution, as the cost savings and efficiencies can help accelerate growth and lower the expense of making final delivery to the customer. Domino’s , the world’s largest pizza delivery chain, said the company needed to accelerate investments in supply chain centers, as domestic volume has risen 50 percent over the

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The Hidden Science Behind Why Finance Teams Resist Change—And How to Fix It

Speaker: Kim Beynon, CPA, CGMA, PMP

The most overlooked, yet most critical, element of transformation is preparing people for change. Automation and AI aren't just technical upgrades, they’re cultural shifts which can challenge identities. That’s why change management isn’t a side project—it’s the foundation. In finance, where precision and process rule, navigating change can feel especially disruptive.

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146B Customer Records On Dark Web By 2023

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A new report has found that over 33 billion records will be stolen by cybercriminals in 2023 alone. The new findings gathered by Juniper Research and published in its report, “The Future of Cybercrime & Security: Threat Analysis, Impact Assessment & Leading Vendors 2018-2023,” shows that there will be a staggering increase of 175 percent in cybercrime in 2023.

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Singapore Provides ‘Springboard’ To Asian Markets For FinTech

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Singapore’s FinTech scene is booming: Funding for the burgeoning sector in the island country topped nearly a billion dollars in 2017, reaching $983.6 million that year. Hong Kong, by comparison, saw $596.8 million in funding for FinTechs at the time. Singapore overtook Hong Kong in FinTech funding in 2016. In that year, Singapore pulled ahead of Hong Kong with $310.5 million in funding compared to Hong Kong’s $191.2 million.

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Visa, Mastercard Cut Canadian Interchange Fees

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Visa and Mastercard have agreed to cut Canadian credit card transaction fees, which could save smaller businesses (SMBs) C$250 million ($192 million) a year. The companies agreed to reduce the average annual interchange rate in Canada by 10 basis points to 1.4 percent on cards, according to Canada’s finance department. “The voluntary commitments announced today are good news for Canadian businesses that accept credit cards, and good news for Canadian consumers,” said Finance Minister Bill Mornea

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Online Food Delivery Is Having A Bright Moment — But Clouds Are Gathering

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It was once the (stereotypical) realm of ambitious teenagers and refuse-to-grow-up rockers and stoners who either needed extra bucks or found it too … uh … challenging to land better jobs. These days, however, food delivery means digital technology, entrepreneurship and global acquisition activity — and reasonable questions about how this will all shake out in the coming few years.

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Doing More With Less: The Modern Finance Miracle

Speaker: Mark Gilham, FCCA, CPP

Finance used to be the function that counted, now it's the one that’s counted on. 📊 For accounting firms, controllers, and finance leaders, expectations are rising faster than headcount. Businesses want agile forecasts, granular analysis, seamless reporting, and smart automation—often without added resources while demanding uncompromised accuracy and compliance.