Benchmark Lending

Benchmark lending is something that has to do with interest rates and banking. The benchmark rate is set by the Federal Reserve in the United States, and it is the interest rate the banks pay when they borrow money. That’s right; your bank borrows money, too. They must have a certain amount of money on reserve, and when they don’t they borrow money over a very short term (such as one night).

Banks and mortgage companies seek out people who might need a loan. Banking makes its money on loans; it’s just a valuable business to be a part of when there are lots of customers.

Event Management Security

This is a very specific term for people with very specific needs. Although you would probably guess it has something to do with hiring rent-a-cops for concerts, it actually has to do with computers. Event management software monitors activities and resources on a network, and responds to such problems as security breaches. Obviously, individuals do not need this type of thing. You can use anti-virus software on your personal computer and enable software and hardware firewalls. Large networks need a little more. A security breach could cost a company millions of dollars, especially if vital information is stolen.

Event management software:

Event management software specializes in event management solutions. This technology provide you with the tools that enable your people to manage electronic invitations, content and full registration services with real time reporting and credit card processing so they can stay focused on strategic business objectives.

Here value proposition is about reducing the cost of event management, time to market and removing the headaches involved with getting and evaluating the data. Regardless of the size and scope of your event, this particular software should have a solution that will exceed your expectations.

Services of Event Management Software:

• Consultation with system developers
• Assessment of current applications
• Integrating new elements into existing applications
• Registration solutions for internal use
• Full service solutions including on-site support
• Guaranteed customer support
• Custom solutions

Anti-spam Appliance

In simple Anti-spam appliances are hardware devices integrated with on-board software that implements anti-spam techniques.

Apparently, an anti spam appliance is not just anti spam software. You can find software anywhere. There must be a hundred different anti spam programs and filters, some are free. An anti spam appliance goes a little deeper than just software. It is hardware that can be used to block spam, and then sort it based on standard industry practices. This type of device is not for individuals, it is for businesses, especially those that might have a spam problem. If spam is getting in the way of company productivity, this type of thing might be for you. Obviously, these things are not cheap, and the profit margins are going to be fairly high, as with any specialized computing device.

Market analysis for product software

Market analysis for product software consists of a number of techniques that allow an organization to collect and disseminate information from their external environment of software products for use in determining their market strategy and actions. For example, market analysis helps to determine critical strategies for new software products such as time-to-market length, creating product differentiation, creating and preserving supplier credibility, developing effective distribution channels, forming relationships with large customers, and managing market efforts.

This topic has its roots in marketing discipline. Many types of market research techniques are used to gather this information. Market analysis plays a large part in explaining the current situation of a marketing plan. Marketing is very important to new product development because software products have a short average lifespan of five years and incur 75% of the costs during the research and development phase. Therefore, including market analysis information early on in the product lifecycle can ensure resources are not wasted.

It is a wide field so this article is a sample of scientific work that has linked the fields of marketing and product software. This consists of research in the fields of general market, customer, and competitor analysis which can be seen as processes that are hierarchically grouped under market analysis in the meta-process model from the figure below. There are many processes that can be used for each of these three processes to acquire information from the market. This article only lists a selected few for each.

General Market Characteristics for Product Software

Analysis of general market characteristics should lead to information about the market such as definition, size, trends, and market segmentation. This analysis is needed to help develop and maintain marketing strategies for product software and overall business strategies. The covered methods and techniques to obtain this information are Porter’s five forces model, risk analysis, marketing intelligence, and marketing decision support systems.

Porter’s five forces analysis is useful for software since it highlights many important factors that will be discussed in customer and competitor analysis such as switching costs, brand equity, product differentiation, and price of total purchase.

Customer analysis for product software

Customer analysis is needed to predict behavior and create demand forecasts for product software. It is also necessary in the development of new products to help select the most profitable choice. To analyze customers, aspects such as demographics, buying motivation, and expectations are studied. Besides basing behavior on software only, customers also look at the network externalities from software packages, such as manuals, add-ons, and training courses, to make purchase decisions. All of these subjects are useful for determining target groups (also known as market segments).

Customers can be divided into two groups, consumers (an individual) and corporate buyers. Consumers generally buy software for personal use on their home computer. While they behave as individuals, they are influenced by the environment and the other people around them. For consumers, psychological traits, such as risk-taker versus risk-avoider, play a great role in major decisions by the individual. Many other factors play a role for corporate buyers of product software. Businesses buy product software usually as an indirect material to help them increase the effectiveness of their processes.

Competitor Analysis for Product Software

The final major area of analysis in market analysis is the industry itself. By knowing what is happening with competitors, a software company can adjust strategies to be more successful in the marketplace. Companies should know about market share percentages, strength and weaknesses, industry structure, and strategic groupings among other things to get a good picture of what the competitive environment is like. Strategic groupings can be in the form of alliances between product software firms.

Competitor analysis is especially important when it comes to new product introductions. There are many advantages, especially for revenue, for a software company that can show major enhancement to software or be first to market. This makes competitor analysis particularly important because it can help a firm decide which new product opportunities to pursue by what the market size will be following the actions of other competitors. Knowing what is going around in the software industry is essential for software firms to be successful. Firms need to know which other software products their product must work with (eg operating systems) to provide the most usability for the customer.

Life Insurance Cautions

Knowing what type of life insurance policy to buy, who to buy it from, and what to consider when you buy a policy can be confusing and even overwhelming. Here are some tips to think about before you buy a policy:

• Beware if it sounds too good to be true.
• Never ignore notices from the insurance company even though your agent tells you it’s a “mistake” and nothing to worry about.
• Be careful of any life insurance plan that promises “vanishing premiums” or guarantees you a premium-free policy over a specific period.
• Don’t buy life insurance portrayed as a “pension plan” or a “retirement fund.” Life insurance is NOT a pension plan.
• Don’t let someone pressure you. You do NOT face any deadlines.
• Never buy coverage you don’t understand. It is the responsibility of the agent, broker, or company to explain your coverage in terms you can understand.
• Save every piece of paper explaining your coverage and your policy. Keep them on file with your policy. (If the agent used a laptop computer, insist on a hard copy version of what he or she showed you.)
• Every new insurance policy issued in Washington state comes with a 10-day “free look” period. If you change your mind and return the policy during those 10 days, the company must return your premium to you within 30 days.
• Don’t cancel or let your old coverage expire until your new policy takes effect.
• If an agent or broker tries to sell you life insurance as an investment with a high return, insist that he or she show you that specific guarantee in your contract.
• If someone offers you a chance to turn in a small policy for a larger one without paying substantially more, WATCH OUT!
• Never give an agent or broker money without getting a receipt.
• Never sign a form that includes blank spaces, even if the agent or broker assures you it is merely a formality.
• Never buy insurance from an unlicensed agent or an unauthorized company. You can check to see if an agent is licensed by calling the Insurance Consumer Hot line at 1-800-562-6900.