Postage Meters: An Inside Look at Business Mailing Technology

Postage meters and postage scales are perhaps the most crucial components to any company's mailing system. Postage meters and scale come in many different models based on varying levels of sophistication and output. Let's examine some attributes of each.

Your postage meter system handles to print postage amounts based on mail pieces according to the current rates and regulations of the Postal Service. Since these rates are usually estimated based on the weight of the package being shipped, it is necessary to have a postage scale to weigh packages and letters to figure the correct cost.

By utilizing a postage scale, you can eliminate the likelihood of extra and over payments that occur when you are supposed to affix additional stamps to mail packages due to lack of "proper change" so to speak or when indecisive of cost. Studies have indicated that savings to the average business can be up to 30 percent.

Scale-Integrated Postage Meters

A number of digital scales have a direct relation to your postage meter, resulting in automatic recording of the postage amount. This is helpful when you often send mail of variety of weights and can also facilitate costs for other carriers, like Federal Express and United Parcel Service.

Spring scales on the other hand do not handle all the features of digital scales. If however you have fairly low volume and mostly ship just letter and envelopes, spring scales offer a reasonable solution, sometimes costing as little as $35 as opposed to a digital scale which can run upwards to a few hundred dollars. Scales can also be rented and a small digital scale will run you about $5 each month.

When it comes to service and support for postage meter systems, the meter itself does not require a service contract because the manufacturer is the owner as you merely lease it, and they are responsible for repairs. Prior to leasing a meter, be sure you understand how repairs will be handled, whether you must send it or will a technician come to your office?

Features & Components of Most Postage Meters

Most postage meters will offer the following features and components to help improve the overall mailing process.

• Base: It is the seat on which mail is moved through a postage meter.
• Postage scale: It weighs consignments calculating required postage amount. Interfaced postage scales automatically apply the calculated postage amount. Digital postage scales charge correct postage automatically.
• Feeder: Your mails and packages run through feeders before being stamped on the postal mark by the meter. You can opt for manual, semi-automatic and automatic feeders. Automatic and semi-automatic feeders are more suitable for handling large mail stacks. Feeder come in different dimensions and their speeds vary from 15 to 270 letters per minute.
• Sealer: They glue, moisten and seal mail envelop flaps. Sealers require comprehensive maintenance.
• Stacker: Stamped mails are moved to the stacker or collection. Low-end stackers hold a few metered mails in a tray while power stackers move stamped mails onto a tray through a conveyor system.
• Tape dispenser: Pre-cut and rolled tape dispensers allow you to fix tapes or postage strips on irregular shaped packages. Tape dispensers along with the base ensure proper placement and sticking of postage strips on packages.

Advantages of Postage Meters for Businesses

Postage meters are a vital asset for all types of businesses. They can help save time and money on postage, not to mention the labor invested making frequent trips to the post office. Some of benefits of postage meters are:

• Easy stamping: With postage machines, businesses can print and pay postage without leaving the office. You don't have to stand in long queues at the post office to get shipments weighed and metered. You only need to make the trip to drop the consignments or you can arrange to have them collected from your office.
• Easy management of all types of mails: Postage machines can take care of all kinds of mails
• Parcel Post, Priority, Domestic First-Class, Express, International parcels, International First-Class etc. As it is very easy to print directly on envelopes, large volume of mails can be weighed and stamped speedily and correctly.
• Cost savings: Postage meters always print packages with precise postage unlike the occasional case at post offices where precise postage is not available all the time or when you weigh the package on a scale and estimate the postage from a lookup table. Consignments are weighed on a scale on the meter and postage is calculated on that basis along with the type of mail and its destination.

Postage meters continue to evolve as some of the most technologically-advanced mailing systems. They provide a solid ROI for businesses that engage in high volumes of postage.

Web Presence Optimization: A New Look at SEO & Internet Marketing

Over the last few years, SEO best practices have significantly evolved from focusing keywords and website optimization to optimize all content and platforms across a brand's entire web presence. This change marks the emergence of Web Presence Optimization (WPO), a new and more cohesive approach that takes SEO and Internet marketing to higher level.

Unlike SEO that centers on a brand's website (and the search metrics surrounding the site,) web presence optimization focuses on an entity's website, blogs, social media profiles, and search engine presence (organic and paid) to improve its overall visibility, findability, and engagement with users. The main aim of the web presence optimization is to optimize across all possible platforms in an all-inclusive manner.

WPO is beneficial to businesses as it gives an insight into the business digital footprint by tracking, managing and measuring the entire web presence for organic search without breaking the budget, which makes it suitable for all businesses small and large.

How WPO is Reshaping SEO

The web presence optimization brings together social media, SEO, and content marketing as an integrated practice that ultimately leverages the power of earned and owned media for greater discoverability of the business content in social and search platforms. In making this success, the methodology used takes into consideration all essential factors such as the recent Google’s algorithm changes and the role of the content marketing as the basic ingredient of a strong web presence for effective content marketing and greater content discoverability.

Some SEO and internet marketing companies are really making a push for web presence optimization. WebPresenceGroup.net is one such company that has created specific programs for web presence optimization and marketing.

In addition to the primary factors, the smart marketers are also focusing on two related secondary trends that help set their outcomes and strategies apart from the competitors. These secondary factors include the keyword-driven content for the sales funnel and content distribution. By using data to inform their content marketing, the digital marketers have an opportunity to deeply understand how their prospects search terms change as well as possible content gaps throughout the sales funnel. This allows businesses to create content that is relevant for each stage of the sales funnel based on the relevant keyword progression.

Where to Focus Your Web Presence Optimization Strategy

With web presence optimization, digital marketers also understand that although businesses invest a lot of resources and time in creating content, they do not do enough on distributing it through the right channels at the right time and to the right audience to fully maximize the returns of their efforts. Businesses need to understand that a published and minimally socialized blog post or any other content through the business social channel is only scratching the surface. The best WPO strategies should focus on social influencers and utilize every social influencer as a distribution point for the content to create a strong web presence.

A strong web presence gives the business an opportunity to audition for the attention of prospects based on who, what and where they are seeking. In web presence optimization, focusing on who offers your business with an opportunity to create positive attributes by creating a strong foundation that reduces the chances of negative attributes in the future. It also enables customers to aid your sales team in reinforcing your brand reputation and trust through association.

WPO enables the business to be found for what it is offering leading in early-stage opportunities. By focusing on the where aspect, the WPO helps your business put efforts and resources into channels that generate quality backlinks, grow domain authority and increase keyword rankings naturally and sustainably.

Cutting-Edge Security Technology Behind Today's Banks & Financial Institutions

Security is the number one priority of any corporation, but it is even more important for the banking industry. In this digital-age more and more sensitive data is being processed on internet connected networks which are increasingly vulnerable to hackers.

In order to keep that data protected network security system focus on three things: a good firewall, intrusion prevention, and intrusion detection. These bank security systems focus on the digital aspects of banking, which have revolutionized how financial institutions operate.

Digital Security Systems for Banking

The firewall is the first line of defense in protecting any networks security even if that network isn’t connected to the global network. The firewall is a simple gatekeeper which selectively blocks or allows traffic through the network.

This selection is based upon rules that are decided by the Network Administrator and relies on the person doing that job to be up to date on the latest news and tricks that hackers are using to sneak past firewalls. Companies that specialize in bank security systems, like Seico Security, are starting to adopt such security technologies into their suite of solutions.

Normally this would mean that any good banking system is dependent on well-educated and proactive Network Administrators but thanks to development in detection and prevention programs they are not the only line of defense.

Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS)

Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) have become much more sophisticated. These actively monitor the traffic on the network 24/7 whether or not someone is there. The first thing these systems do in their monitoring is look for strange or unusual activity on the network.

If most of the network activity takes place between 9am and 6pm, the detection systems record this normal activity and watch for activity that shouldn’t take place outside of those time frames. The second part of the detection system is just how much data is moving on the network; when there are sudden increases data moving through at a time where it shouldn’t the system flags that activity and block it from taking place.

IDS/IPS is fully customizable and available from many providers. Cisco is one of the highest ranked and most well-supported supplier of IDS/IPS systems and frequently stays ahead of the game with the Cisco Self-Defending Network IPS 4200 Series Sensor by monitoring the known hacker networks for the latest exploits and tools being used.

This allows them to “pre-patch” vulnerabilities in their systems removing some of the human error out of the equation. However, most providers do this same thing and has become nearly industry standard by this point.

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In IPS there is an active pre-patch shield in place that forms a second security wall around the network which allows for a quick response to possible intrusions; the pre-patch shield identifies the possible intrusion and simply resets the connection to that intrusion.

This is a very simple but effective method in preventing nefarious entities from entering the network through known vulnerabilities until it is repaired. On the back of this is IBM’s Protocol Analysis Module (PAM), this system from looks at the network data on a deeper level than an IPS can. Learn more about this system by visiting IBM.

Monitoring & Pinpointing Unusual Activity

One of the popular ways for hackers to get into a network is to hide their activity deep within normal data transfers on the network. PAM allows us to look deeper at normal activity in order to find strange behaviors that may be hidden from the IDS and IPS system.

For example, hackers will try to hide their activities behind the IP’s of normal customers accessing their accounts. This can sometimes slip through the Firewall, the IDS, and the IPS security since it seems to be normal activity but PAM takes a deep look at the data and makes sure that what the IP sends is what is normal for that IP to send.

If the hacker is trying to download a virus to the system through a client's IP’s this will show up as excess data in the connection and PAM can shut it down. Since PAM is as customizable as the other security systems, this means that there can be a strict restriction on what outside data and connections are allowed or those restrictions can be loosened for a specific client, IP’s, or outside networks.

Network security is a critical infrastructure of the banking industry which is in continuous motion and development. Providers for IDS and IPS are constantly updating and monitoring the effectiveness of their systems to help support the banking industries data and networks.

An Inside Look at Nerds on Call of Illinois

Starting as a Central Illinois-based computer repair shop, Nerds On Call has grown its local roots to now offering a wide spectrum of digital solutions ranging from remote virus removal to home audio technology.


Nerds on Call specializes in on-site Mac, PC, laptop, and iPod repair services, as well as remote virus removal services for customers all across the U.S. Recently, the Illinois business has gained reputation across the nation through their introduction of remote-based solutions. Nerds on Call continues to grow and expand into many facets of technology.

Technology & Computer Services at a Glance

Nerds on Call is your go-to shop whenever you have an issue with your computer. Put simply, Nerds on Call is a comprehensive computer repair service; all your computer problems solved. Some of their services include:

1. Setting up a new computer which involves installing an operating system, installing software like music players, browsers and other basic computer setups.
2. Troubleshooting and eliminating malware, spyware and viruses, including installing antivirus software.
3. Computer repair services; if a part of your computer (i.e. screen or monitor) is broken or simply not working, you can have it replaced by Nerds on Call computer repair technicians.
4. Transfer of data, finding lost or deleted files (data recovery).
5. Residential and commercial computer networking.
6. Establishing Internet connections.


Other services include windows server management, hardware troubleshooting, printer setup, network cabling and regular computer maintenance services. Nerds on Call specializes in PCs, laptops, Apple devices, and video game consoles. Whether you need a software installed, iPod repair, or your computer is slow or you cannot access some important files, Nerds on Call can help you.

What Makes Nerds on Call So Reputable?

Expertise In All Types of Computers

Nerds on Call have the expertise to repair all brands of laptops and computers, including Apple. They can work on laptops, tablets, desktops, wireless and mobile devices. Being part of Facet Technologies, the computer service has garnered a team of experienced specialists who ensure the job gets done within a short time.

Remote Services

You do not have to be in Central Illinois to have your computer repaired. You can be in a remote location anywhere in the US and still have your issue attended. A specialist will guide you (on phone) through the troubleshooting and repair service until you have the job done.

Fast, Secure and Smart Services

Nerds on Call have a record of responding to customer issues fast whether on-site or on phone. While having your computer repaired on-site, the specialists will have the computer repaired fast to reduce downtime. This is possible thanks to the high number of technicians.

The service leverages on the most advanced computer security hardware and software to ensure your data is secure from hacking and viruses. The technicians are highly trained and use proven techniques to solve your computer problems the first time.

Residential & Business Solutions

Nerds on Call also caters to specialized demands for individuals, small business as well as large businesses. Besides computer repair, Nerds on Call sell new computers, used computers and computer parts and accessories. The beauty of buying computers and computer parts and accessories from an expert is that you can be sure the items are high quality and tested.

Their latest introduction to the list of products are drones. The Syma X5C is a lightweight yet solidly built and well balanced drone. It comes with a camera to up the fun in your drone flying adventure.

Convenient Locations

You can access Nerds on Call in Peoria, Normal, Pekin, Peru and Farmington, Illinois. They have a shop in each of the towns to ensure they are closer to the people of Illinois.

For more information, contact the Nerds on Call Headquarters in Peoria, Illinois at:

Nerds on Call
4906 N. University
Peoria, IL 61614
Phone: (309) 689-3900
www.CallrNerds.com

3 Innovative Solutions Revolutionizing Bank Security

Banking security has been in drastic development and advancement for a number of years as most processes become more digital. In fact, some of the best security innovations are used in the banking sector today. Many of the largest banks out there use these systems to effectively manage the security of their customers at all times.

These bank security systems must be reliable and be able to deliver undisturbed performance in the toughest of times. Below we delve into three innovative products revolutionizing bank security systems.

Mobile Banking Payment Security

Mobile banking payment security is emerging new security platform for banks. Many financial institutions have encountered that the major hurdle to overcome is user adaptation and the lack of confidence in the security of mobile services. Integrated biometrics and specialized mobile banking applications are working together to provide a service beneficial to financial institutions and their patrons.

Mobile banking is not a new concept, and is the target of heightened security critique. As we all know mobile devices get stolen or lost quite often. The physical of your mobile device is not the problem. The amount of mobile anti-malware apps have a smaller availability on mobile devices than on desktops and laptops. Instant push notifications and geolocation tracking, mobile banking allows for custodians to monitor any fraudulent transactions in real time with their banking institution.

More recent developments allow for improved banking security systems by using biometrics and a specialized applications. This also harness some self-help features which decrease customer calls to the customer care service.

IP-Surveillance Monitoring Systems

IP-surveillance monitoring systems are also widely used in banking security systems out there today, allows financial customers remote, real-time control of all their branches, ATM’s and their corporate offices, verify alarm events immediately with integrated video capabilities, search and report easily on a specific site or event or even generate customized reports from thousands of sites while being anywhere on the network.

This digital IP-surveillance technology can be adapted based on the requirements for every individual institution. This technology uses the client’s internal IP network and requires no dedicated phone lines. This technology enables remote management eliminating the need for constant site visits, and the client can monitor the whole system internally. For instance, see the video below to understand the comparison and value between digital IP-surveillance systems versus more conventional CCTV surveillance.
This will eliminate operational costs from external management contracts. These surveillance solutions all the use the most leading brands in digital video systems, video monitoring, intrusion panels and wireless devices make this kind of security solution a truly open system that offers integration on any level, by providing reliability and maintaining flexibility.

Cash-in-Transit

Cash in transit is another area of banking security, this is the physical transport of banknotes, coins and other items of value. To many different locations including, cash centers, bank branches, ATM points, very large retailers and a number of other premises holding large amounts of money.

Most cash in transit organizations are private security companies that offers the handling of money as a service. By law the cash in transit companies are seen as logistic companies within the private security industry and must comply with certain legislation. This may impose restrictions on the use of firearms, kind of vehicles used, the amount of members to be used in a crew, or even the use of an intelligent money neutralizing system.

These companies are very specialized in the transportation of money, the drivers are never allowed to leave the vehicle until it returns to the keeping premises, all of the crew on a vehicle like this must wear bulletproof vests or ballistic helmets.

3 Security Systems That All Small Businesses Should Consider

There are critical and important elements even in small businesses that require protection such as files, computers and other assets. Business security system should not be seen as expensive or extravagant because its overall contribution to the business security and success is overwhelming. You should not ignore incorporating security systems for your business, because they not only protect your business against tangible breaches, but also digital theft and online security threats.

The type of security system you install for your small business depends on what you want to protect in your business. Below are three types of security systems that you should highly consider:

Video Surveillance

Video surveillance systems monitor and protect your business both from the inside and from the outside. Video surveillance cameras are essential in case you want to monitor the progress of your business through the day. Many video surveillance systems can be integrated with your mobile device or even the web for easier access even when you are far from your business premises.

This system helps you track the action of your customers as well as your employees round the clock. It also gives you a video proof in the event that you need to file an insurance claim for damages or theft. You can easily install this systems via a vendor who sell them to you and also help you in setting up the necessary software to run the system.

Alternatively, you can turn to the web and purchase the security cameras and other accessories and install them yourself. When you opt to install the system yourself, the cost is significantly reduced because the only cost you incur is that of the security cameras and their accessories. On the other hand, a professional vendor will charge you an initial installation fee and monthly maintenance fee which will sum up to a large chunk of money.

Digital Security System

Digital security and surveillance systems protect your computer and web-based documents and files, customer information, online transactions, and other software programs that helps your business run smoothly. These systems are crucial to your business especially considering the current risk of hacking and identity theft. It helps protect your business from hackers, viruses, spyware and other threats.

Another key importance is protection from massive losses in terms of hours of productivity, interruptions in conducting normal business and potential loss of customer in case the business information is compromised. Such consequences can affect your company greatly even to the extent of bringing it to its knees and should therefore be avoided at all costs.

Viruses and spywares can be avoided by installation of a good antivirus program and a firewall program that will protect you from malicious websites. You can also protect your business information by hosting it virtually via online services. You should look for the best service that will not lose or compromise your information.

Access Control Systems

This system prevents access of certain rooms by all employees. Employees with security clearance are the only one allowed to access those rooms. This system can help you keep sensitive or branded business information from falling on the wrong hands. They can also restrict access to certain risky sections of the business to inexperienced employees in case it is a production company.

These systems are easy to use because all you require is to set a keypad entry to a door you want to restrict. You can also setup a networked system that involves access cards. This system is very essential in businesses where certain information is classified and cannot be released to all employees. This includes government institutions and other hierarchical form of businesses. The cost of installing this system depends on the type of hardware that you opt to use and also the number of doors involved.

These three small business security systems can help you in running your small business smoothly without fear of compromise or vandalism. These systems will always keep you appraised of the day to day activities and occurrences in your business premises even when you are away.