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(Massive hat tip to Clay Shirky here)

Software is eating the world. The world’s largest taxi company owns no cars. The largest provider of overnight accommodation owns no hotels. In 2017, two companies took a whopping $120 billion in advertising spend, despite not owning a printing press or TV network between them.

All these companies were founded as modest startups in the last 20 years. Many of the business’s they’re displacing have been around for over a century. 10-year-old Uber has the same $60 billion valuation as 100-year-old General Motors.

How did this happen? It seems counter intuitive that a company like Uber, which only owns software, is worth as much as GM, which owns hundreds of huge factories and plants.

How do small software startups founded with less than five employees ‘steal’ the markets from billion dollar incumbents? Like all counter intuitive truths, the answer lies in what we think we know… and what’s actually going on.

If you want to increase your productivity, you’re not alone. We love employing the latest apps to automate repetitive, laborious tasks and free our brains up to tackle the “bigger” problems.

There are countless apps available for iPhone or Android that act like personal assistants by automating time consuming tasks or by allowing you to multitask (when performing routine, habitual stuff like cleaning). With them, your brain is free to engage or absorb more info!

By embracing technology and adding a few apps into your daily life, you can completely overhaul your levels of productivity and give yourself the cutting edge amongst your colleagues. To back this up, a study looking at over 240 enterprises has found that when people use mobile apps specifically designed to get their work done, it increases productivity by 45%. 

On that note, we’ve compiled a list of must-have apps to start you off. These are our favourites and we’re sure you’ll love them, too!

 IT security is all about how to best secure your information. With a number of attacks happening over the course of 2016, we learnt that everything can be at risk - from customer related data sitting in your network to the photos saved on your phone.

Unauthorized access to information (hacking) has been on the rise in the last few years. In this post, we picked our technical director's brain and collected a number of factors and predictions for the year ahead.

Along with the concepts of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL) has zoomed into business discourse as a promising technique to advance the capabilities of software and drive further automation and convenience. But what are the similarities and differences between these closely related constructs?

Chief financial officers aren’t going to stop concentrating on the books by any means. But they are increasingly looking to leverage the power of data to make better decisions – and to make those decisions more of the time. The future belongs to these individuals, who are taking advantage of the ability to mine, organise, analyse, and act upon data.

That’s thanks to the ready availability of the technology which enables data driven decision making. It is also a reflection of the increased interest that CFOs are taking in identifying and deploying technology in their organisations (an effect which isn’t limited to the financial office, either, as people across smart businesses look to maximise the operational efficiency through technology).

Considering Microsoft Office 365 as your first step in moving to the cloud? Like any other applications, there may be some inconsistencies in your research giving rise to myths which make it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Here are our top four – dispel these ones and make a more informed decision.

Digital marketing is a big deal today. In a world where digital transformation is delivering efficiency and satisfying the rapidly changing needs of customers, businesses need to be online, active, visible and speaking the language of customers. But making the most of the opportunity depends on the use of right tools, connections growth and establishing your profile as an authority on the internet.

If you are looking to increase leads, accelerate sales, or simplifying your processes, it could be time to put some free (or low-cost) and highly effective tools to use to amplify your efforts and bring in those leads.

Check out our three top picks to take your digital marketing to the next level.

Referrals are the best recommendation for your business as they easily prove the value you add from the perspective of a happy customer. That cuts straight through all the marketing, advertising and sales noise to tell prospects what they really need to know. After all, business owners trust other business owners, so a recommendation is something of a seal of approval which can’t be matched by an advert.

It’s the time of year where we all start to consider resolutions whether it’s exercising more, eating healthier or finally moving to that dream job. Your organisation shouldn’t be treated any differently and we’ve created a short list to let you trim the fat and start fresh in 2017.

Ah, passwords, the mish mash of letters, numbers, CAPITALISED and lower case, and you must have at least one symbol, that we all love to hate. Like really LOVE to H@t3 (password must be at least 8 characters long, please try again).