Blog entries for Mark Hill

iPhone - 3G Network Enterprise Addition

mahill510

When you read through the press releases and blogs regarding the release of the Apple 3G iPhone Enterprise Addition, you are left wondering what the masses "really" think about the device, and if the device is a business tool or a new toy for bored professionals. Especially, when you read the "Comments Section" from a number of the key subscribers.

I tend to look at the benefits the device plays in making my life easier, from a business perspective [...]

The cost of the Millennial on the Baby Boomers and Generation X'ers'

mahill510

A recent CBS 60 Minutes show highlighted the gap between the Baby Boomers, those people born between 1946 and 1965, Generation X, those people born between 1965 and 1980, and the New Generation Y or Millennial's, those people born between 1980 and 1995. Highlighted below is a news article in a British Newspaper that describes the angst I am referring to.

Each older generation, has typically been critical of each newer generation, IE the "incumbent generation& [...]

Can IT help The City of Houston Become Green?

mahill510

I was reading an InfoWorld Blog on SOA (searchoriented architecture), and the effects technology is playing in the reduction of "global warming" and "carbon footprints". You may recall that in some of my earlier blogs, I mentioned how Texas based companies like Downstream Environmental have become a de facto standard of impassioned innovation in Biofuel services, that promotes a "Green" business structure.

In May, 2007, the City of Houston pas [...]

Lynx Bus Company (FL) to Make Switch to Biodiesel

mahill510

JW News

The Lynx bus agency will become the first mass-transit agency in the nation to run a fleet using its own blended bio-diesel, an environmentally friendly alternative to regular fuel.

A $2.5 million state grant awarded February 26th will allow Lynx to convert all 290 buses and four support vehicles to a diesel made from petroleum and plant oils. It also will allow the agency to set up a blending station that will serve the diesel fleets of Orange County a [...]

Pelosi hates America

mahill510

Politics aside, the title of this blog was an attention getter...

Isn't it interesting how innovative the opportunistic mind works ...on February 27th, both Democrats & Republicans under Pelosi leadership passed H.R. 5351, a bill that will raise the prices that you and I pay at the pump for gasoline through the imposition of $17 - $18 billion dollars in taxes.

Before I discuss the technical aspects of this blog post, let me give you a bit of hist [...]

Payday Lending Predatory Tactics

mahill510

I've just read two very damning articles sent to me by a reader of this blog about Payday Lenders. The 1st article from the Dallas Morning News, involving the local government of Mesquite, Texas's decision to minimize the number of Payday lenders within 1,000 feet of a similar business, and each must be in a freestanding building at least 200 feet from residential areas and 500 feet from freeways, a month after Richardson, Texas imposed similar restrictions due to some of the l [...]

Circle K - Bill Payment Boon in El Paso with TIO and El Paso Electric

mahill510

With the innovation of eCommerce in various local municipalities as a service to the unbanked or under banked, auto-payment services through merchants with their customers that have bank accounts, billing beinf either pre-paid, or billed to your cell phone each month, as well as banks trying to regain eCommerce market share with an under banked communities of interest, why are kiosk application not more readily available to the unbanked?

This April, 2008, El Paso Electric c [...]

Euronet ends MoneyGram pursuit

mahill510

E-payments processor and ATM operator Euronet Worldwide says it will not launch a new bid to acquire fund transfer outfit Moneygram due to the slowdown in the debt and equity markets.

Euronet made an unsolicited $1.65 billion bid to acquire MoneyGram in December 2007. The stock offer valued MoneyGram at $20 per share - some 40% higher than the stock's price at the time - but was rebuffed by MoneyGram.

Earlier this month MoneyGram agreed [...]

IRS Warns Taxpayers of New E-mail Scams

mahill510

Phishing, as we all know is a mass e-mail scam used to induce the email recipient into providing confidential information that can then be used to gain access to private information.

A new scam has started to proliferate throughout the Internet, involving the IRS. The latest approach as posted on the IRS web site this past January 14th provides more detail. These e-mails often target small business owners, as they are the most common targets of IRS audits.

[...]

CES 2008

mahill510

This as the 1st post of my 2008 Blog Season is pretty incredible. Not so much that it's my 1st post of the year, but at the last minute, I received an invitation from a colleague to attend the final day, January 10th, of Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, as a guest of Intel.

So after an early morning departure from Houston to Las Vegas, with pass in hand, I had the great opportunity to join friends for an all day excursion, going through CES 2008.

[...]

What about H.R. 3678???

mahill510

In my blog "3 Ways to Address Customer Service issues during the Christmas Rush" I reference Governor Spitzer 8% state wide and 8,375% in the City tax on internet purchases for large retailer sales, like Amazon.

Interesting enough, in all of the comments I received, no one pointed out the October 31, amendment to "Internet Tax Freedom Act Amendment Acts of 2007", which appears to be grounds for a challenge by some enterprising group of Tax Attorney's [...]

Blogging for Bloggers � how to get your blog noticed

mahill510

After reading "The Entrepreneurial Mind" this morning where Jeff Cornwall

Director of the Belmont University, Center for Entrepreneurship, post on "Join in on this M

onth's Ideablob Voting" where Jeff writes about 8 finalists vying for a $10,000 prize in $10K prize at ideablob.

IdeaBlob.com started life as web site dedicated entrepreneurs and small business owners, where they can share and grow their business ideas and have a chance to winning $ [...]

3 Ways to Address Customer Service issues during the Christmas Rush

mahill510

With the Christmas holiday upon us, customer service takes on a new dimension with all of the checkout lines, increase anxiety, hordes of people, of varying character, inventory losses, theft, anger, and a number of battles by angry shoppers reachingfor that last scarf...

Adding to the confusion is the methods of payments as well as where the new consumer will purchase their goods and services for the holiday season. In the fore front, Consumers are looking to change their buying [...]

Incentives To Increase Electronic Bill Payment

mahill510

In an effort to increase the number of consumers who receive and pay their bill electronically, Qwest Communications offered to donate 1% of the consumer's bill to their school district if the consumer switched to electronic bill presentment and payment. Qwest offered this incentive to its consumers in an effort to cut down on the high cost of paper billing and payment. While Qwest did not specify exactly how much money they save for every person that switc [...]

How Secure is secure

mahill510

You may think that online crimes are on the decline since we as a society are becoming more aware of the sophisticated cybercriminal, because of all of the commercials that talked about stealing your credit card, or hacking your Western Union account, and going on a spending spree.

That is not the case with company security, and not just at the network level; the more complex the system, the more likely your systems will fail through complex phishing schemes, or in other u [...]

What Measures Should You Capture For Your Budget?

mahill510

As the year comes to an end, yes, there are less than 8 weeks to go; we look at developing information that will ultimately find its way into next year's budget. Budgets for the most part have already been accounted for with regards to

the 2008 calendar year, at this point, and management knows what expenses may need to be cut, as well as what purchases may require further scrutiny.

But now is the time to build your business case to insure funds are available fo [...]

Test

mahill510

The Greatset American Hero

paypal, youtube, facebook, edi, ec, chillservices, Apple Inc, Apple iPhone, ATT, ATT Corp, Auction, B2B, Banking, Biobike, Biodiesel, biofuels, blog, Budget, Business Plan, Buzz, call center, CFSI, Chill Services, contact center, CRM integration, Customer Service, ecom, Electronic Commerce, email, Energy, FCC, FDIC, Financial Services, gadgets, Gift Card, Google Inc, IM, IVR, Marketing, myblog, New Site, Operations Plan, phishing, Phone, Process, Product Manageme [...]

Technology Drivers in the Retail Space

mahill510

In the retail environment, having products and services that the meet your customer needs is almost as important as the old adage “location, location, location”. When customer go into the retail store, particularly, grocery stores, retailers have moments to create an impression, provide value, or deeply discounted goods, as is the Walmart model, and create incentives for customers to continually return. Technology, is being developed that will allow consumers to go t [...]

What Business is Chill Services really in?

mahill510

As many of you know, we at Chill Services are in our second day of reinventing our self. There have not been many changes, aside from the new look and feel of the web site, and a more interactive blog tool, as well as the expansion of our staff with the addition of Irfan Musani, our IT lead, and Mary Wimbish, a trail attorney most recently noted for her diligence and support of the City of Houston's Waste Water Treatment and Transportation Ordinance, as well as being a significant [...]

SPAMMing Versus SNARFing - What is enough, and what is not?

mahill510

This past Friday, a New Jersey man, Todd Moeller, was sentenced to 27 months in a federal prison for sending more than 1.27 million spam e-mails to AOL subscribers (See Reuters below).

Personally, I feel that it begs the question, why are people still using AOL? but more importantly, is the sentence in keeping with the crime.

Yes, it is a crime, as I understand it to benefit from illegal acts, as is the case here "breaking anti-spam laws and [...]