Posted: 19 Mar 2010 04:04 AM PDT

Technology solution providers serving small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs) are invited to attend a technology open house Tuesday, March 23 from 2:30 to 7:30 at the Holiday Inn Los Angeles International Airport Hotel, 9901 S. La Cienega Blvd. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Sponsored by Zenith Infotech and Autotask, the event, one of 124 scheduled for the first quarter of 2010, enables attendees to 'test drive' the latest backup and disaster recovery technologies designed specifically for the SMB market. Zenith Advocate Mark Perez of TechMD will also be on hand to provide real-world perspective on the technologies showcased at the event.

Guests will see live demonstrations of remote management tools that enable SMBs to automate IT processes and more efficiently run their businesses. In addition to networking opportunities with their peers, those attending will receive a free 45-day managed services or a 30-day business continuity solution evaluation from Zenith.

"In today's business environment, most small business owners are so focused on driving sales that they aren't spending time out of the office to learn more about how the latest technologies can help them be more efficient," said Maurice Saluan, Zenith Infotech Vice President of Sales and Channel Management. "By bringing these open houses to 124 cities across the country, we're making it easier for them to identify highly cost effective, reliable business solutions for SMBs, at margins that help them improve their own profitability."

"Any time you can offer a customer this type of business continuity solution for as little as $199 per month, the solution practically sells itself," noted Mike Martin, Vice President of Operations for IT services company Marnoble Computer Sales & Service Inc. "Almost our entire network clients need the type of protection that Zenith Infotech's BDR provides."

For more information or to register for this event, visit http://www.zenithinfotech.com/register

About Zenith Infotech

Zenith Infotech Ltd. is a leading provider of remote monitoring and management (RMM), backup and disaster recovery, and virtual help-desk solutions for technology service providers worldwide. The company's award-winning solutions enable its technology partners to scale their business without increasing their overhead.

Toyoda: Training lapsed amid growth - Omaha World-Herald

Posted: 19 Mar 2010 04:54 AM PDT

TOKYO (AP) - Toyota's training of workers to maintain quality control failed to keep up with the automaker's rapid growth, company President Akio Toyoda said in an interview with a major Japanese business daily.

Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, said the problem became especially acute after Toyota's global production and sales topped 6 million vehicles in its fiscal year 2002.

Toyota's quality controls have been under fire after massive global recalls starting late last year for defective gas pedals, faulty floor mats and flawed braking affecting more than 8 million vehicles, mostly in North America.

"It has been tough and frustrating emotionally for me, but we must accept it as an inevitable," he told Japan's top business daily the Nikkei in a front-page interview published Thursday.

Toyoda was widely criticized for being invisible when the quality woes surfaced last year. He has appeared since then at press conferences in Japan. He attended a U.S. congressional hearing last month on Toyota's recalls.

He has also appeared on a Japanese TV news show, as well as on CNN's "Larry King Live" in the U.S.

Earlier this week, he wrote in his Japanese blog for the first time since the recall troubles hit, apologizing to customers.

Writing under his handle Morizo, he said Toyota would "take seriously, accept humbly and respond sincerely" to criticism.

In the Nikkei interview, he promised to beef up quality controls, including promoting non-Japanese employees, to better respond to different customer needs, to become a "small Toyota" instead of focusing on sales expansion.

Entering an alliance with other automakers was not a priority with Toyota, and strengthening networking with suppliers and dealers is more important, he said. The decision on recalls would still remain with officials in Japan, although Toyota plans to become quicker in responding to complaints from overseas drivers, according to Toyoda.

Copyright ©2010 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.

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Review site Yelp under fire in business' lawsuits - Forbes

Posted: 19 Mar 2010 07:46 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO --

Yelp, one of the most popular Web sites that let people post opinions about restaurants, shops and local services, is being sued by several small businesses that claim they've been pressured to advertise on the site in exchange for getting negative reviews squashed.

Yelp denies the claims, but exactly what happened may never be clear. And regardless of what happens in court, the lawsuits could taint Yelp's reputation as a leader in online reviews.

San Francisco-based Yelp has faced many complaints since it began letting consumers post reviews about local businesses ranging from all-you-can eat buffets to zip line operators six years ago. Often businesses have complained about how reviews on the site - positive or negative - can mysteriously disappear and reappear.

But since late February, at least three lawsuits seeking class action status have been filed against the site by a dozen companies, complaining that reviews are manipulated depending on which companies advertise on the site and which ones do not.

The first suit, which explicitly alleges Yelp engaged in extortion and attempted extortion, was filed Feb. 23 in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by Cats & Dogs Animal Hospital in Long Beach, Calif.

That lawsuit was amended in March to add nine more companies - some Yelp advertisers, some not. It alleges Yelp sales representatives indicated to businesses that they could alter site listings to help advertisers and harm non-advertisers, and that Yelp has actually done so.

The lawsuit began with Cats & Dogs owner Greg Perrault, who said in a court filing that after receiving negative reviews on the site he started getting calls from Yelp, informing him that if he advertised Yelp would hide or lower negative reviews on his page and let him choose the order of the reviews.

Perrault said he decided not to advertise, and a week later a negative review that had disappeared from his page reappeared. He also received a second negative review from someone who had previously written one, he said. Yelp refused his request that the reviews be removed, he said.

The lawsuit seeks an order barring Yelp from manipulating reviews and forcing the company to return money reaped "by means of its wrongful acts and practices," along with unspecified damages.

At least two similar lawsuits have been filed: One by Christine LaPuasky of D'ames Day Spa in Imperial Beach, Calif., on March 3 in the same district court, and one by Boris Levitt of Renaissance Furniture Restoration in San Francisco on March 12 in San Francisco Superior Court.

In an interview, Yelp co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said that the businesses suing his company don't understand how Yelp works.

Yelp says some reviews might come and go because it relies on an automated program to weigh reviews and filter out ones that might be untrustworthy, such as a negative review a spa owner might write about a competitor. Yelp says it does nothing to manipulate reviews, aside from allowing advertisers to choose one review they would like to feature at the top of the page about their business.

Stoppelman said the automated filter has helped Yelp stay relevant to consumers, even though it frustrates some businesses.

Bob Gutgsell, whose San Carlos, Calif.-based Astro Appliance Service is one of the 10 businesses involved in the Cats & Dogs suit, said he does understand how Yelp works, and he doesn't like it.

Gutgsell said that after responding to a negative Yelp review from a customer, he got a call from a sales representative asking him to pay several hundred dollars a month to advertise. Gutgsell said the Yelp representative explained that if he did so Yelp would help him control his good and bad reviews.

"The attitude that was conveyed was, `You really need to do this for your business.' And I felt I really didn't need to do that for my business," Gutgsell said.

Soon after declining to advertise, he noticed some positive reviews had disappeared from his site profile, he said.

Stoppelman countered, however, that his sales reps have "absolutely no ability" to move reviews or remove them from Yelp. Once a sales representative closes an ad deal it is handed over to an account manager who, unlike representatives, is not paid in accordance with the number of deals he or she makes, Stoppelman said.

"We would immediately know from our account manager that something was going wrong, or their messaging was off-key, and we simply haven't found that," he said.

Stoppelman says the lawsuits are suspiciously timed, because Yelp recently got deeper pockets. Yelp got an infusion of venture capital in January, snagging $25 million from Elevation Partners. That values the company at about $475 million and brings its total financing to $56 million.

Some plaintiffs said they were unaware that Yelp had just gotten more financing, though. Ronald Marron, a lawyer for D'ames Day Spa, said he just wants money returned to people who were subject to Yelp's "unfair business practices and bought advertising as a result."

Yelp has tried to head off problems by making efforts to connect with businesses and educate them about the site. After a rash of complaints early last year, Yelp started allowing businesses to respond publicly to customers' critiques right on their Yelp pages. Previously businesses could contact reviewers only privately. Yelp also has hired an outreach manager who has met with business owners and business groups.

Given that more than 15 million small businesses are listed on the site, including businesses that have not yet been reviewed by Yelp users, lawsuits from even a dozen businesses don't seem like very many, said Ray Valdes, a Gartner Inc. analyst.

"The question is," he said, "how many more will come out?"

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Was Ala. snack food heir's death tied to business? - Yahoo Finance

Posted: 17 Mar 2010 04:10 PM PDT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- An angry letter and a bag of Golden Flake chips were taped inside Major Bashinsky's abandoned car when it was found near downtown Birmingham.

Days later the snack food heir's body was fished out of a public golf course pond a few miles away, and now police are trying to find out if the chips that made his family wealthy had anything to do with his death.

Bashinsky's father and grandfather founded Golden Flake, a brand that has been sold across the South for generations and was a fixture on Alabama coaching legend Paul "Bear" Bryant's TV show.

Police were counting on a coroner's report, expected sometime this week, to determine whether someone killed Bashinsky or he took his own life. He had last been seen leaving work two weeks ago; his adult daughter found his car March 7 and golfers found his body Monday.

"That's the big question at this point, whether it was a homicide or a suicide," Mountain Brook Police Chief Johnny Stanley said Wednesday.

The letter found in Bashinsky's Toyota Camry criticized members of his family for taking dividends out of Golden Flake, claiming it put the Birmingham-based company's more than 800 workers at risk, Stanley said.

He said other members of Bashinsky's family have received similar letters, but added that it's unclear whether the one in the car -- and the bag of chips -- are important to the case. Bashinsky, 63, wasn't involved in the company's operations -- he was an attorney who handled tax, estate and financial planning issues.

"It had been taped inside the car where it would be seen. We don't know if it was misdirection or what," Stanley said.

The body bore signs of an injury, Stanley said, but he wouldn't elaborate. A search of the pond turned up evidence -- reportedly the man's wallet -- although police wouldn't elaborate on what was found.

The pond where Bashinsky's body was found is in a residential area. It would have been difficult for anyone to dump a body in the water without being seen.

Bashinsky's death is a "total mystery," his brother-in-law Steve Hewett said.

"We don't know of anyone who would want to do him any harm. And why would anyone who is such a devoted father to his children and husband and with no outward signs of any problems want to do anything to harm themselves?" Hewett said.

Bashinsky got a refill on his cholesterol medicine the morning before he disappeared, Hewett said.

Bashinsky's widow, Leslie Bashinsky, said it was excruciating not knowing what happened to her husband while he was missing. They have two children, ages 6 and 8, and he had two older children from a previous marriage.

"Obviously it's a huge shock to me. I would have never dreamed things would have turned out this way," Leslie Bashinsky told WBRC-TV.

Golden Flake was founded in 1946 by Major Bashinsky's grandfather and father, Leo E. Bashinsky and Sloan Y. Bashinsky.

"The Golden Flake family is saddened by the tragic news of Major Bashinsky's death and extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends," said Mark McCutcheon, President and CEO of Golden Enterprises, the parent company of Golden Flake Snack Foods, Inc.

The company's products -- including potato chips, tortilla chips and 10 kinds of pork rinds -- are ubiquitous on shelves in grocery and convenience stores all over in Alabama and 10 other states. Schoolchildren all over Birmingham tour the Golden Flake plant, eating warm chips right off the production line.

Sloan Bashinsky was a close friend of Bryant, the late University of Alabama football coach. Bryant's Sunday afternoon TV show during football season was sponsored by Golden Flake for years, and the coach munched its potato chips on air as he discussed the latest game.

Golden Flake remains close to Alabama's football program, and even sponsored a play about Bryant last year.

Golden Flake prospered as a regional producer, and its 2009 annual report listed net sales of $122 million. The Bashinsky family is the largest shareholder in Golden Enterprises through an investment company chaired by Joann F. Bashinsky, Major Bashinsky's stepmother.

Hewett, Major Bashinsky's brother-in-law, said Bashinsky's mother died of cancer when he was a teenager, and Joann Bashinsky inherited almost all of Sloan Bashinsky's stock in Golden Flake after his death. "Major might not even have any stock at this point," Hewett said.

The mysterious letters delivered to family members said dividends paid by Golden Flake "force us to act with urgency," without specifying what may happened.

Hewett said the letter complaining about dividends didn't make any sense.

"The family is the largest shareholder. Certainly they are entitled to dividends. The employees are the second-largest shareholder, so any dividends would be of benefit to them," he said.

Records on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed the company paid dividends of $734,801 for the 26-week period ending last Nov. 27, which was slightly less than the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the company said in its 2009 annual report that net income rose 76 percent, Golden Flake's best results since 2002.

It's unclear what role, if any, the letters or Golden Flake's finances played in Bashinsky's death, the police chief said.

"If it turns out to be a homicide it would be a lot more significant," Stanley said. "But if it's a suicide ... we just don't know."

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Business

Friday, March 19, 2010

“Business Continuity Solutions to be Featured During Interactive ... - PR-USA.net” plus 3 more

“Business Continuity Solutions to be Featured During Interactive ... - PR-USA.net” plus 3 more

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