This post also appeared in The Tennessean, where Concept Technology has a bi-weekly feature in the Business section.

More and more businesses are taking advantage of cloud applications such as Salesforce, Basecamp and ZenDesk to handle any number of business operations.

When your employees start using Basecamp, for example, to manage a complex project, they are essentially moving your company’s data out of the traditional enterprise system and into the public cloud. This move may leave business owners wondering: Is my data less secure?

Cloud applications that are favored by big enterprises exist in very carefully managed environments, and the companies that own these applications have a deeply vested interest in protecting them against attack.

Further, since these cloud applications are high-profile, they get attacked all the time, so their infrastructures are continually battle-tested. Take, for example, the customer service and support application ZenDesk, which was breached in February. Hackers stole email addresses and email subject lines from three of the company’s highest-profile clients: Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr.

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This post also appeared in The Tennessean, where Concept Technology has a bi-weekly feature in the Business section.

Picking a new software solution can be tricky business.

Say, for example, your company needs enterprise resource planning software. You might start by looking into the companies that create them. This search will probably yield dozens and dozens of potential providers. Unfortunately, once you start knocking on providers’ doors to learn more, your phone won’t stop ringing with sales pitches from vendors who promise that their product is a perfect fit for your company — even before they know anything about your company.

Here are some tips to help you weed out the vendors just looking for the sale from the ones who offer a meaningful product for your business:

 

Do your research

Before approaching a possible software vendor, carefully check into its company history and makeup. Dig around. Find as many clues about the vendor’s reputation as you can.

Here are some questions to consider:

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