CRM

Jul 2 2008   1:57PM GMT

If no one is answering the front door - try the back door

Posted by: Troy Tate
awareness, diagnostics, howto, CIO, blogging, DataManagement, Development, browser, troubleshooting, metrics, Performance, web, website, design, customer service, www

I recently went to Target and was going to look at my daughter’s wedding registry to see what she and her fiance had selected. When I got to the registry kiosks, there was a Target team member and a customer having problems getting into the service. The Target team member was on the phone apparently with another store or technical support. I heard things like “This is happening at all of the stores.” “We can’t get it to work.” “How do you reset this thing?”

Since there was another open kiosk, I thought I would try my luck and see what errors may appear. The main kiosk user page is intuitive and I immediately found the wedding registry icon and clicked it as any customer would. The application immediately responded with an error page describing some issues with scripting or something. Ahhhh… so I was receiving the same error as the other customer.

Well, the IT detective side came out in me and I started back over at the kiosk home page. Target designed this page with lots of options and ways to get to information that a customer may be looking for. Along the side of this page I found another link to get into the various registry areas, baby, wedding, etc. I clicked on that topic, navigated my way to the wedding registry and lo and behold… I was able to print out my daughter’s wedding registry while the other customer and the Target team members were still grumbling about the other kiosk.

I want to commend Target for providing multiple navigation means around their website. I would hope this experience would encourage more of the same for other vendors. I know, in IT, we like to restrict how many paths a user can go through an application to get to the same information, but in this case, Target did the right thing and provided good customer service.

May 31 2008   2:28AM GMT

Did you see this? - Noticebored - Infosec Awareness Education

Posted by: Troy Tate
anti-virus, awareness, botnet, Data security, honeynet, humor, blogging, IT education, Security, antivirus, forensics, honeypot, malware, Monitoring, Policy, metrics, online identity, policy enforcement, research, wiki

Noticebored is a great resource for information security awareness. The blogs are timely and cover a great spectrum of topics with regards to this important topic.

Thanks for your time. Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!

Apr 10 2008   6:39PM GMT

Did you see this? - The Great SPAM diet

Posted by: Troy Tate
anti-virus, blogging, online identity, spam, Security, antivirus, malware, Monitoring, email

McAfee, Inc. Launches Global S.P.A.M. Experiment

Fifty Volunteers around the World Say ‘Yes’ to a Diet of Spam for 30 Days - Started April 1, 2008

McAfee, Inc. announced the launch of its global S.P.A.M. (Spammed Persistently All Month) Experiment. For the month of April, 50 participants from around the world - ranging from homemakers, government executives, and students to retirees - will surf the Web, make online purchases and register for promotions. Participants have been provided with a clean laptop without spam protection and a new email address. Beginning today, they will blog about their experiences daily at this website.

S.P.A.M. Experiment participants are from ten countries spanning the globe, including Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Let’s be good network citizens together & practice safe networking!