A1 Enterprise ScanTrust Software Security Service May Save

What is ScanTrust?

ScanTrust is a software security service offered by A1 Enterprise that ensures a customer Intranet or web site is secure and cannot be hacked.

Many customers ignore web application security until after data is stolen, deleted, or compromised in some way. The benefit of ScanTrust software security is that the service gives a customer an Inexpensive way to start doing business with A1 Enterprise without having to purchase a new software application. Once A1 Enterprise scans web sites and intranets and those scans come back showing the software is liable to be hacked, the customer is very likely to hire A1 Enterprise to resolve software security issues. This process is good for building work as well as strong customer relationships and has the customer's best interests at heart.

ScanTrust is a software security service more generally known as:

1.    Software Vulnerability Assessments
2.    Software Penetration Testing
3.    Software Security Scanning
4.    Software Security Assessments

To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at http://www.a1enterprise.com.
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Comparing Project Management Software and Accounting Software

Accounting software handles financial & accounting records, balancing financial accounts, cutting payments, and running financial statements. The primary function of accounting software is accounting and book keeping. Accounting records are kept pristine and are limited to those qualified for managing accounting records, typically book keepers and financial management staff. There is, however, another process that takes place before costs hit the accounting software and that done using project management software. Project management software is used to control work performed, manage employees, quality assurance,  budget approvals, invoice submittal, contract approval, document control, task approval, work orders, change orders, and of course task documentation.

A1 Tracker is an on-line project management software with different modules that resolve the pre-accounting project management process. It tracks budgets and budget caps for work. For example, a project manager may want to run an on-line cost report to view cost data to find out how much money was spent on project requirements and estimating. Managers and assistants can be given access to their specific project location to monitor productivity without giving access to the accounting software. A1 Tracker is a web-based project management software giving access to, for example, costs per unit and number of units budgeted and used on the project and by each employee. This on-line cost data may then be imported, once approved and finalized, into an accounting software. The project management software process keeps the accounting software data clean and secure from additional users.

On-Line Task Assignments and Task Monitoring

Accounting software will generally track the amount paid out to a company, however, not the details such as specific work activities or how many units an employee delivered in a day or over the period of a week. A1 Tracker will also calculate profitability and product output PER employee, profit per work activity, and profit per location for a company.  Accounting software typically tracks how much you pay employees from a payroll accounting and payroll tax standpoint. A1 Tracker is more geared let managers monitor employee productivity and can be tracked down to an hour by hour or unit by unit basis if desired, and then summarized and transferred into an accounting software for payroll processing.

On-Line Contract and Insurance Tracking

A1 Tracker tracks insurance documents such as all insurance policies and insurance certificates, coverage amounts, and insurance limits. A1 Tracker tracks back and forth project communication on line for project management collaboration.

A1 Tracker allows a company to assign work to vendors and an e-mail with the assignment is automatically sent.  Thus, eliminating faxes, job orders or assignments. This keeps a historical trail of accountability for who has been responsible for certain assignments and that these people are notified of their assignment which reduces dispute.

A1 Tracker evaluates employee performance to give supervisors the ability to rate employee work activities. These ratings may be used as legal documents justifying terminations, salary increases, and promotions.

To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at http://www.a1enterprise.com.

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Online Contract Management - Automatic Email Reminder Notifications

A1 Enterprise has now implemented contract document and insurance document Reminder Notifications for A1 Tracker to ensure that customers can take full advantage of their contract management crm. This new roll out allows customers to set custom email reminders to ensure that the insurance and contract documents are processed prior to their contract expiration date or termination date.

Users can set automatic email reminders to reduce time spent running reports searching for online contract documents that require follow up. This is another example of how customers may leverage A1 Tracker to increase productivity and organizational work flow. Our goal is to free up time for redundant business processes so more urgent priorities may be addressed. These reminder notifications may be set for any type of contract management business or software requirement, ranging from Information Technology contracts, to Human Resources employee contracts, Work Agreement Contracts, Insurance Policy renewals are a few examples of how a company can better maintain contract documents, contract reminders,and contract expiration dates.

To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at http://www.a1enterprise.com.
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Software Security Project by A1 Enterprise ScanTrust

A1 Enterprise, Inc. rolls out Phase II of a ScanTrust software security project for an Online Event Registration software. This
completes the process of enhancing code as it relates to web application security. The emphasis of this phase was to conduct penetration testing for the Online Registration software system for critical web vulnerabilities that might allow the web security threat of a hack to delete or alter company data. After penetration testing, A1 Enterprise updated code, functions, and technology
to prevent such internet hacks such as sql injection and cross site scripting.

A1 Enterprise completed Phase I implementation of ScanTrust software security in July. Phase I entailed updating the web-based content management CRM software for company news, events, registrations, customers, and memberships. This will complete the third ScanTrust software security implementation for A1 Enterprise since January 2007.

To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at http://www.a1enterprise.com.

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Online Contract Management and Insurance Management Implementation

A1 Enterprise, Inc. has deployed A1 Tracker for the City of Victorville for online contract management and online insurance management. Project managers, risk managers, and contract administrators may now track contracts and insurance
certificates, insurance expiration dates, and insurance renewals in a shared, on line system.

This contract CRM is a highly flexible software offering for on line access to complex, contract agreements such as prime contracts and multiple sub contract agreements. The system accommodates a multiple contract hierarchy where contracts and sub contract agreements may be organized in a hierarchical order of priority by vendor, contract type, or insurance type. Users may also upload and share electronic versions of contract agreements and insurance certificates from multiple locations and run report tracking contract costs and key contract renewal and expiration dates.

A1 Tracker for Contract & Insurance Management also allows managers and directors quick access to assessing aggregate contract and insurance dollar amounts at any level within the contract hierarchy, showing key information such as how much the organization is invested in each contract by project, phase, contract type, insurance type, or by vendor. A1 Enterprise welcomes and thanks the City of Victorville for participating in a successful implementation and customization of the A1 Tracker CRM for Contract and Insurance Management.
 
To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at http://www.a1enterprise.com.

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Project Management Software Implementation

A1 Enterprise extends a warm welcome to F & F LLC, a CA based commercial
real estate development and investment firm that has opted to use  A1
Tracker for construction project management software for construction management, construction cost control, online document control, construction resource management, and construction data
processing. F & F LLC is currently building an 18 million dollar shopping
center called Victoria Promenade which includes approximately 1.3 million
square feet of retail (Phase 1) and office space, 14 acres of peripheral
(out-lot) retail area, and 20 acres of multi-family housing. The project's
location is Northwest quadrant of US Interstate Highway 15 and Foothill
Boulevard/Route 66 right in the middle of Rancho Cucamonga in Southern
California.

Project Management Software Features

F & F LLC has also chosen to capitalize on the A1 Enterprise Data Management
Services as a value added service to the online project management software. The commercial
development company currently uses the A1 Tracker to gain competitive
advantages in the commercial construction industry in the following areas:
- Resource planning and task assignments
- Time & materials contract cost management
- Material & lump sum unit cost budgets
- Online Budget reports
- Online Profit & Loss reports
- Bid & invoice tracking
- Online Budget forecasting
- Construction contract agreements, change order requests, request for
payments, and letter correspondences
- Cost effective data entry and on-demand data management reporting

May F & F LLC meet their construction development goals with success.

To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at www.a1enterprise.com.

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Green Business Model Maximize Productivity

In order for a company to provide Green Business Services to other companies, it must first maximize it's own operational costs and operational efficiency. A strong business operating model has many facets including use of  productive time, optimizing human resource utilization, optimizing usage of office supplies, and business equipment among other things.

My objective with A1 Enterprise has always been and still is to evolve the company into the highest and most efficient operational model possible and to utilize time and money in a manner that yields the greatest results with the lowest operating cost without sacrificing quality or the ability to collaborate. In fact, I have through the years only sought ways to improve team collaboration while researching and testing new means of a Green Business operation.

I embarked on a conceptual idea for A1 Enterprise back in 2001, when I setup a garage-network with a 384k DSL circuit to feed our programmers with the necessary business collaboration software and network tools to provide our business software products and business services. The reduced overhead costs of hosting all network services and our network infrastructure in a garage kept our billing rates lower than that of our competition and enabled me to reinvest in other facets of A1 Enterprise, such as our own Saas (Software-as-a-Service) signature product, A1 Tracker.

As our volume increased, so did  our network. There was a point in which A1 Enterprise reached a seemingly uncontrollable growth rate at 170% per year for several consecutive years. With the intention to handle the increased volume, business process improvement and maintaining low production costs took a lower priority than managing the projects entrusted to A1 Enterprise by it's customers. Still, as a company, operating income remained higher than operating expenses and the organization managed to improve operations throughout the first company growth trend which lasted 7 years.

The 2007-2008 economic change has given me an opportunity to carefully assess and question the operational needs and business strategies of A1 Enterprise and initiate changes that will only serve to increase the company's longevity, customer service reliability, competitive edge in the software sector, and profitability. Although business volume is lower as compared to last year to date, A1 Enterprise is more stable than it has been since I can remember. It's ironic that this sense of stability should come during the current conditions, however this goes to show that, no matter the state of the economy as a whole, a company must maintain and value it's ability to remain flexible and dynamic. The ability for A1 Enterprise to dynamically adjust to market needs and market conditions has, since 2001, been a strength of the company and as I continue to watch the company evolve I am more so pleased with this very unique attribute.

A1 Enterprise continues to settle into and evolve from the newly restructured Green operational framework. My commitment to the company will remain strong toward maintaining this dynamic and flexible attribute of this organization. This also means the people that work with and around A1 Enterprise share in this same commitment.

Responsibility and accountability for time, money, relationships, and operating supplies is what makes A1 Enterprise a perfect candidate and business model study for managing and operating a Green Business. I congratulate and thank all of those who made A1 Enterprise into what the company is today.


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Green Business Services- Paperless Business Services

A1 Enterprise now provides a new program called Green Business Services which encompasses everything it takes for a business to Go Green and Go Paperless. A1 Enterprise has been a Green Business since inception in 2001, never once holding an office and relying on electronic means of all business activity, other than face to face communication with customers.

A1 Enterprise Green Business Services will help companies setup telecommuting environments while ensuring that employees and staff have secure access to the necessary company data. This includes employees that spend most of their time traveling too.

A1 Enterprise Green Business Services will help companies eliminate fax machines, ink toner, and printers thereby reducing paper faxes and paper mail through the use of electronic fax, fax routing, and electronic signatures. Paperless business is a reality at A1 Enterprise.

A1 Enterprise Green Business Services will help companies eliminate the need for company switchboards for phone directory routing and allow replacing manual switchboard operators with automated system attendants that can route calls to staff, even sequentially, no matter their location or number.

The software service and product offerings that A1 Enterprise offers will only serve to compliment Green Business Services. With this many years in the tech business, A1 Enterprise has found solutions for the most archaic business challenges and has brought staff members to work together in office collaboration from all over the world.

If you are a company that truly seeks to reduce overhead, lower operating expenses, and eliminate office equipment, contact A1 Enterprise for more information on how your business can gain from Green Business Services.

We will be posting updates on Green Business Services to provide more details on the theory and detail that A1 Enterprise invests to achieve success with a Green Business initiative.

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Software Security by A1 Enterprise: Content Management Software Phase I

A1 Enterprise is posing to release a major update for a customer's content management website after a month of resolving website security vulnerabilities. These issues were originally discovered by the customer when the customer used the website administration tool and noticed that the web browser emitted a warning when loading the administration web page. The customer contacted A1 Enterprise and notified us of the issue and that's when we began further investigations into the issue.

Web Application Security Details

We found that the website had been hacked by website security vulnerabilities that existed in traditional asp and sql server applications. The types of website attacks that were taking place were XSS (Cross Site Scripting) and SQL Injection. Data in the database was being changed such that, anytime a user visited the website, the website would instead direct the user to another site all together. This other site happened to be a high risk web site which attempted to download viruses onto the user's computer. In some cases, the customer site would fail to load all together because each record in the website screen, for example, hundreds of contact management (CRM) records, each record would attempt to direct the user to a different site. These repeat redirects also significantly decreased the speed and performance of the website thereby making the website difficult to use and navigate. Web and software security testers at A1 Enterprise also  noticed that as the customer website page loaded, the status bar of the web browser where indicates the page and domain name during a page load, would indicate an unrelated site. This gave A1 Enterprise immediate suspicion of the web security problem and we traced the problem to bad data added as a result of a website hack.

The most significant impact to the website security issue was one table had every record deleted from it. During these updates and due to the website security threats, A1 Enterprise and the customer agreed to take down the site so no further harm would be done to the data as well as to protect the customer website users from being taken to threatening websites due to the cross site scripting and sql injection attacks. In less than 12 hours A1 Enterprise had published a maintenance website that was not vulnerable to attack and yet the customer could still publish information for their users.

Software Security Objectives

The website and software security project that A1 Enterprise took on for this customer had two primary objectives. The first was to modify the website and database such that no further website attacks would be successful and to provide a secure website. The second objective was to restore the site to it's original state from before the website attack occurred. Unfortunately, it was difficult to determine whether this website security attack was intentional and direct from an individual or the result of automatic internet scans and robot attacks. The customer and A1 Enterprise agreed to focus attention on website and software security instead of attempting to identify the source of the web attack.

Software Security Scanning and Vulnerability Assessments

A1 Enterprise scanned the customer website and the scan yielded results that pinpointed where the web security vulnerabilities existed. A1 Enterprise then proceeded to target fixes to those specific web threats and rescanned throughout the process to ensure that the fixes left the website in a secure state. (This is called web and software penetration testing)

In completing Phase I release of the new customer site, A1 Enterprise ScanTrust software security services accomplished both objectives on time and within budget. The site is ready to go live and A1 Enterprise will be working closely with the customer to monitor the site for suspicious behavior. A1 Enterprise has also increased scheduled website backups in the event a new web security vulnerability is discovered. A1 Enterprise was able to recover all of the original data for the website.

A1 Enterprise will continue to enhance ScanTrust software security products and services and is pleased to announce the success of Phase I of this customer web and software security project.

To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at www.a1enterprise.com.


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Advanced Project Management Solutions

The evolution of project management practices and project management software has yet to recognize the true benefits that project management software brings to a project. Project management software relies on much, much more than utilizing good software. Software is one key component to run successful projects among many others including what sorts of peripheral business software is used, and if that peripheral business software has software integration with the project management software. Such peripheral business software includes payroll software, tax software, and accounting software to name a few.

In addition to technology, there is a frequently missed and highly critical element needed in running a successful project. At A1 Enterprise, we have studied this element in depth over the years of project management software development and software releases. This is the psychological element of how people in business use software and if users apply the software to run a business with the highest level of efficiency possible.

Project Management Software Integration and Software Training

These two issues can be summed up into two words:

Software integration and software training.

Software integration ensures that different software work together with minimal overlapping data entry. Software training gives the user an opportunity to best understand the software, giving a business the highest business value when using the software. Both software integration and software training work hand in hand and can really make doing business a very enjoyable experience. Businesses profits also increase. The problem I have seen time and time again is that business inefficiency becomes a pattern. When business inefficiency has become a pattern, business owners and project managers typically don't see such business inefficiencies. Therefore, the cost savings that accompanies improving business models remain hidden.

Business Software - A Capital Investment that Increases Profit

The example I have set for my company, and therefore customers of A1 Enterprise, is to recognize each dollar and each moment not as spent, but as invested. In order to make such a transition from "spending" company funds or to "investing" company funds, I encourage business managers and directors to question their business model and remain open and willing to create an improved business model.  Careful and in-depth software and business analysis leads to return on investment which a business recognizes well within the first year of improving the business model.

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Project Management and Business Management Blog by A1 Enterprise

This is a place where A1 Enterprise releases news articles related to A1 Enterprise products and services, company news, business management practices, effective project management information, and information for companies seeking to improve a business model to align their own goals and strategic objectives.

Thank you again for all those who made this blog possible.

This is worth while addition to our company and network resources. This blog is dedicated to all those who made A1 Enterprise possible through the years, those dedicated to business venture, and to those who continually strive for a optimized, efficient, environmentally conscious, and ethical business practices.

Sincerely,

Chris Day
President/CEO
A1 Enterprise, Inc.

To learn more about A1 Enterprise Business Software and Business Services, visit us at www.a1enterprise.com.
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