Top Graphic Design Trends, Improving Customer Experience, Trends in the Labor Market and Other Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know

15 Things Small Business Owners Need to Know

By Rieva Lesonsky

 

1—Top Graphic Design Trends for 2019

What are the hottest graphic design trends? Global creative platform 99designs unveiled its 2019 predictions, which include Art Deco, buxom serifs and 3D typography. The overarching design trend for 2019? 99designs says it’s all about contradictions. Design trends from different eras and opposing ends of the visual spectrum are all vying for attention. Here’s a look at the 10 trends most likely to dominate design work in the year ahead.

1—3D design and typography: Three-dimensional works are everywhere right now, with entire compositions that have so much depth, you can’t help but reach out and touch them. 3D typography especially feels just about ready to pop. The best part about it is there’s no particular type that works best for this trend: bold, skinny, sans-serif, script, any font can be rendered in 3D.

2—Asymmetrical layouts: We’re starting to see the beginnings of a move away from the rigid grid-based designs that have been standard for the past few years. The dominance of Squarespace and Canva and other template-based design sites provided beginners with beautiful websites and graphic products, even if they had no idea what a grid was. Now designers are looking to create products that feel more bespoke and alive, with layouts that break free from rigid and predictable grids to deliver more kinetic energy and movement.

3—Art Deco: The “modern” design era gets its name from the artistic movement of modernism that began after World War I and continued for nearly a half-century. There are two major styles from this period that are currently experiencing a total renaissance: the highly ornamental and glamorous Art Deco designs of the 1920s and the streamlined organic forms of the Mid-Century Modern period of the 1950s and 60s.

Chalk it up to the nearing centennial of the roaring twenties, but Art Deco-inspired designs are set to blow up in 2019. We’re seeing the trend emerge particularly in logo work. Designers are embracing the complex line-work intense symmetry of the era’s best work, while combining it with sharp metallics. We’re noticing this influence in typography as well, as sans-serifs get narrower and leggier, like they were pulled from a classic A.M. Cassandre poster design. These designs feel opulent and luxurious—and starkly in contrast to the rustic, country-inspired work that has dominated for the past few years.

4—Modern Mid-Century Modern: After the Art Deco period—and in direct response to it—designers decided that function should dictate form, ditching the flashy designs and embracing stripped down and organic clean lines. While mid-century influence has been prominently visible in areas like interior design and fashion for the past few years, it’s been a steadily growing trend in graphic work.

It’s especially prominent in the illustration styles that harken back to the iconic advertising illustrations of the post-War era. And like in that era, small companies and startups are recognizing the power of custom illustration work. We’re seeing a lot of brands launching with gorgeous websites, full of these mid-century influenced illustrations, often rendered in a clearly modern style but retaining dreamy vintage color palettes. In 2019 we expect to see these continue to dominate web and in print work as well.

5—Continuing evolution of duotones and gradients: Gradients—“color transitions” as they are sometimes called—have been a well-recognized trend for the past few years. Recently they’ve definitely begun to creep back into logo design more heavily. Simple one-color logos aren’t enough; more and more are showing up with some kind of gradient. Some are the expected combinations (blue/purple, red/orange) but others use chunkier duotone fades.

There was much noise made in the past year or two about the “return of the duotone.” Now, often contributed entirely to Spotify and their iconic playlist covers, the two parallel trends have combined, making 2019 the year of the duotone gradient.

6—Warm and moody color palettes for photos: Possibly in reaction to the prevalence of saturated and bold duotones, we’ve seen a rise in moody, vintage tones for photography. While a few years ago designers were told to shun muted colors to embrace the bold and neon, the photo colors of 2019 feel more like the days when cameras and screens were not able to capture deeply saturated colors.

They feel like a direct throwback to the soft, low-fi photography of the seventies and even muted camcorder footage of the 1980s. Incorporating some amount of black into each color, these photos convey warmth and wistful qualities.

7—Custom illustrations lighten up: After years of bold, thick lines in illustration, there’s been a recent rise in more delicate, elegant illustration. Heavily influenced by botanical and natural elements, this trend is more feminine and appeals to a more innocent and childlike part of us all. At 99designs, we’re seeing it take a front seat particularly in packaging design, where intricate designs are rendered beautifully against a textured paper background. With addition of premium materials like foil and embossing, these designs strike a balance between maximalism and simplicity.

8—Buxom serifs: While the illustrations are getting lighter, the fonts are beefing up—especially when it comes to serifs. While sans-serifs aren’t going anywhere—especially in digital—2019 will be the year of the serif. The past year has given us some gorgeous plump serifs that seem pulled from the days of cast-metal type. While sans-serifs and hand-drawn fonts will continue to be highly visible, this is the year where the range and diversity of serif fonts will explode.

Custom type is becoming more and more necessary for brands that really want to stand out and increasingly a signature serif type or logomark is what designers are turning to. Why? Because after years of dominance the clean sans serif is now seen as “soulless” and “characterless” and serifs are the horned-rimmed glasses of type–seen as quirky cute, smart, and bursting with personality.

9. Open compositions: Remember that old adage about leaving something to the imagination? After years of boxes and frames encasing elements in a strict order, every single part visible and accounted for, designers are starting to embrace more open compositions. These are designs where you feel like you only see a part of the whole picture and there’s an entire world off the page.
   These compositions embrace white space and eschew clear hierarchy. The elements in these compositions feel loosely tethered to each other, as if they could float away. Often open-styled, seemingly chaotic, broken and cut-up, these compositions take a very strong design hand since the placement of each element is anything but random.
10. Isometric design: While open compositions leave some things out, isometric designs create whole universes in tiny little spaces. Isometric design sounds highly technical, but it’s simply a method of drawing a 3D object in two dimensions. The drawing is simple and clean but has a depth that flat design can’t compete with. The arena where this trend is heating up the most is with icons. Isometric icons have a lot more tactility and warmth than flat design, drawing users in.

If you want to see what these trends actually look like, check out the infographic below.

 

2—Elevating Customer Experience

A new global study, Elevating the Customer Experience: The Impact of Sensory Marketing, revealing consumer attitudes toward the in-store customer experience as well as in-store shopping behaviors was just released by Mood Media, a leading in-store media solutions company dedicated to elevating customer experiences. Specifically, the report found 78% of shoppers globally say an enjoyable in-store atmosphere is a key factor in their decision to choose shopping in-store over e-commerce. For the purposes of this report, an enjoyable store atmosphere is seen as the right combination of music, visuals and scent.

A follow-up to Mood Media’s 2017 State of Brick & Mortar report, the new study was undertaken by Walnut Unlimited, a global market research agency specializing in neuroscience and behavioral psychology and economics. In addition to examining recent shifts in consumers’ impressions and expectations of in-store retail, the 2019 study explores the impact of a store’s atmosphere—including sensory elements—on the overall shopping experience, as well as what drives certain customer behaviors, such as revisiting a store or making a purchase. The study also explored customer insights across six different sectors: banks, beauty, fashion, grocery, pharmacy and quick service restaurants (QSR).

Survey highlights—global:

Combatting the e-commerce effect: 78% of shoppers cite an enjoyable in-store atmosphere plays a key factor in opting to make purchases in-store over online.

• The influence of sound: Music is the number-one factor that improves a shopper’s mood in-store and has an overall positive impact on 85% of global shoppers. However, the quality of the music played really matters: 57% of shoppers will disengage if brands make poor music choices.
• Encouraging behavior change: Combining music, visual and scent sensorial elements increases consumer dwell time, with 75% of consumers citing they’ve stayed longer in a store when these components were in place.
• Building customer loyalty: 90% of consumers have returned to a store because they enjoyed its music, visuals and scent combination.
• Scent psychology: 1 in 2 global consumers say that a nicely scented business “lifts my mood.”
• The power of visual content: 58% of consumers globally say that engaging video content has a positive impact on their shopping.
• The importance of interaction & personalization: The ability to touch, feel and try different products or services is cited as the biggest driver in making consumers more likely to want to buy something while shopping in-store (at 56%). In fact, 38% of global consumers say “feeling like the experience is personalized to me” makes them more likely to purchase something, which was the second biggest driving factor ranked.

U.S.-specific highlights:

• Tactile factors: 43% of U.S. consumers say “the ability to touch, feel & try the product” is the thing they like most about shopping in-store.
• An enjoyable atmosphere with attention to detail matters: 84% of American shoppers say an enjoyable in-store atmosphere (with music, visuals and scent) is a key factor in deciding to make purchases in-store over online.
• Music impacts dwell times: 45% of consumers have spent longer in a store than they otherwise would have because they’ve “enjoyed the music”.
• Visual Inspiration: 43% of shoppers say they have been influenced by digital screens in-store. Younger generations cite an even stronger proclivity toward being inspired by in-store digital screens—62% of 18-24-year-olds and 63% of 25-34-year-olds.
• Personalization drives sales and brand affinity: “Feeling like the experience is personalized to me” when shopping makes 41% of respondents “more likely to want to buy something” and 45% feel like they “want to come back”.
• Social media behavior: 31% of shoppers have shared an in-store experience on social media recently, with 25-34-year-olds coming in at 57%, nearly double the overall U.S. social media statistic.

“Consistent with our 2017 State of Brick & Mortar study, we found that the physical store remains important to the majority of people around the world, with the experiential element playing a large role in consumers’ decision to choose brick & mortar over e-commerce,” says Scott Moore, global senior vice president of marketing and creative content for Mood Media. “It also further highlights that brick & mortar businesses have to give consumers a reason to get off the sofa and into the store, and part of that reason lies in providing them an elevated sensorial experience. Brands should look to this report to discover how they can create the kinds of store environments that will convert shoppers into buyers and loyal repeat customers.”

To download the booklet go here.

 

3—State of Business Expenses

In its January The State of AI in Business Spend report, AppZen, a leading solution for automated expense and invoice audits using artificial intelligence (AI),  found:

Expense approval averages: AppZen’s report reveals insight into expense approval averages. 46% of companies reimburse for gifts and 39% do so for golf. Yet, only 16% of businesses reimburse employees for room service and 15% for the mini bar. Also, 41% of companies provide reimbursement for cell phone expenses, 24% do so for car washes, and 19% for clothing.

Non-compliant or wasteful spend statistics: The most (ahem!) “creative” expenses employees submitted for reimbursement last quarter include strip clubs, dog kennels, jewelry, cigarettes, and gambling losses. AI unveils “brown paper wrapper” vendor names on receipts based on intelligence gained from online sources to learn which organization names fall into categories that may be deemed inappropriate or out-of-policy.

“A well-defined spend policy clearly conveys a company’s expectations for what business activities can be reimbursed,” notes AppZen Co-founder and CEO, Anant Kale. “Auditing spend using AI helps ensure compliance to such a policy, while reducing spend and achieving more predictable financial results.”

Streamlining audit process: According to common benchmarks, companies that aren’t using AI to audit spend take about two weeks to reimburse employee expenses. Businesses that use AI recorded a significant improvement in employee reimbursement time. Half completed the expense report approval process within four hours, while 90% did so within three days.

For more information, check out the AppZen blog and look at the infographic below.

 

4—2019 Trends in the Labor Market

Guest post by Don Weinstein, Chief Product and Technology Officer, ADP

The personalization of pay: With workers being able to personalize almost every aspect of their personal and professional lives, employers will need to adopt flexible options around pay schedules and provide financial wellness tools to employees.

• Digital accounts will become an increasingly common option for employees that allow access to pay how and when they want.
• The weekly, bi-weekly or monthly payroll cycle will evolve into schedules that meet the needs of each individual worker.
• Today, 86% employees are interested in using non-traditional financial tools to manage their pay. Tools that enable workers to manage and budget take-home pay, while automatically tracking spending and suggesting budgets, will help them meet their financial goals.

Ensuring workforce agility

Employers will continue to shift to a mosaic of workers to meet business needs, increase their focus on employment engagement and embrace the importance of the team.

• As organizations become more agile, they will have a greater reliance on freelancers and contractors to help bridge the skills gap and scale effectively. Employers need to assess the right mix of freelancers (1099), temps and traditional fulltime workers (Form W-2) to best meet their increasingly on demand business objectives. As a result, employers will need to manage worker classifications in a more dynamic manner.
• Today’s workforce has more generations working than ever before. With Gen Z workers entering and baby boomers retiring from full-time work, employers will need to limit “brain drain” and engage workers in new and creative ways.
• As employers struggle to retain and engage employees, many will change how they approach the annual performance review and opt to move to new performance-based model were the frequency of team leader check-ins is key to increasing engagement. In fact, data shows that associate engagement is 57% higher when a team leader frequently checks in with their team members.
• Organizations will increasingly demand HR systems that account for and manage where work gets done. Today, more than 82% of work gets done on teams. As teams organically form to address business needs, companies need to be able to track employee performance in a more matrixed environment. Systems need to track what team members do well, what they enjoy and foster ways to do more of it. Rather than focusing on developing weaknesses, models will shift to help workers discover their strengths and leverage them more at work.

Diversity and inclusion: Pressure for employers to deliver against diversity and inclusion initiatives will continue.

• The business case for diversity had an enormous spotlight placed on it in 2018, from the lack of women and minorities in leadership roles, to the challenges workers faced in reporting issues. Despite this attention, organizations still struggle to make progress in this critical area. According to findings from Rethinking Gender Pay Inequity in a More Transparent World,a study released by the ADP Research Institute, women are paid on average 17% ($13,640) less in base salary than men. However, when factoring in incentive pay, the total earnings pay gap widens to 19% ($18,500).
• In 2019, organizations will need to address the gender pay gaps by focusing on key metrics and diversity and inclusion initiatives that demonstrate progress in both pay and bonuses.

Democratization of data: Employers and employees will benefit from better access to deeper workplace insights.

• Providing business leaders with data that delivers meaningful and actionable workforce insights, as well improving industry competitiveness, will become the new norm. An increased focus will be placed on how easy it is for leaders to consume and put data into action. HR systems will increasingly tap into artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to serve up insights in real time.
• Workers will also have more access to data through financial wellness and professional development tools that support their goals both inside and outside the workplace.
• Data privacy will continue to remain an industry and public focus with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Other countries and states will continue to look at privacy rights.

Digital consumer-grade human resources: Employees and employees will continue to demand that the technology they use at work be as user friendly as what they use in their personal lives.

• This push will require HR solutions to be fully mobile enabled, cloud-based, open to APIs and designed with the end user in mind.
• HR technology and data will need to be accessed, shared and be able to be integrated across functions and bridge internal business silos.

 

5—Reach More Customers on Yelp

Visa and Yelp are teaming up to bring exclusive advertising benefits to SMBs that use a Visa Business credit or debit card to purchase Yelp Ads. All U.S. Visa Business cardholders who enroll in the offer and spend a minimum of $150 per month on Yelp ads will receive an additional $50 toward Yelp ads each month (up to $600 annually) to help grow their businesses.

Visa provides a full suite of payment services designed to help SMBs pay and get paid, including Visa Business credit and debit cards, business reporting, payment controls and Visa SavingsEdge. This Yelp offer enables more SMBs to expand their advertising to help attract and retain customers, a top challenge for 39% of SMBs working to expand their businesses.

“Small businesses are at the center of our local communities and global economies and we are delighted to work with Yelp to offer this benefit to U.S. Visa Business cardholders that will help increase their reach online,” says David Simon, global head of small and medium enterprises, Visa Business Solutions, Visa.

To take advantage of the offer, new and existing Yelp SMB customers can enroll using the pre-populated “VISAEXTRA50” promo code, pay with a Visa Business credit or debit card and spend at least $150 each month to earn an additional $50 of Yelp Ads. Offer details are available here.

In addition to this new program with Yelp, Visa recently launched platforms including the Visa Back to Business Project that helps support SMBs in areas impacted by natural disasters and She’s Next, Empowered by Visa to empower women-owned SMBs as they build, sustain and advance their businesses.

 

6—Employee Recognition Ideas

Looking for some great ideas for recognizing and rewarding your team? Then check out the infographic below from Mrs Prindables.

 

7—Introducing Interest Targeting

Guest post by Jae Oh, Senior Product Manager, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

At LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, our goal is to help businesses grow by enabling them to engage the audiences that matter most to them. But with the breadth of content, conversations, and engaging moments shared every day across thousands of topics on LinkedIn, it can be hard for you and your marketing team to translate this activity into audiences you can reach.

That’s why we’re excited to announce interest targeting in Campaign Manager. Interest Targeting lets you reach members with relevant ads that match their professional interests—based on the content they share and engage with on LinkedIn. With these added options, you can more easily achieve your campaign objectives and grow your business.

With Interest Targeting you can fine tune your campaign targeting by using more than 200 professional interest categories, like artificial intelligence, global economy, customer experience, and more. Since members are spending more time than ever on the newsfeed engaging with content and joining the conversations they care about, you can leverage these activities to create more tailored campaigns and reach the professional audiences that matter most to your business.

With Interest Targeting you can:

• Serve relevant ads that match a member’s professional interests. Now you can tailor your campaign message and content to match the interests of your audience. For example, if you sell Cloud Computing services, you can target members interested in “cloud computing” and create a campaign with Sponsored Content ads that show how your solution is helping farmers increase their crop yields.
• Deepen your influence with the buyer committee within your target accounts. Today, many of our customers use LinkedIn’s powerful account targeting to inform their account-based marketing campaigns. Now you can kick it up a notch by using account targeting along with Interest Targeting to reach an audience of potential buyers who have already expressed, or are likely to express, an interest in the content that’s relevant to your business.

• Influence the conversations around the professional topics that matter. With more than 200 categories, Interest Targeting can help you drive greater brand awareness with a new audience by providing you a way to reach members based on their interests on LinkedIn.

• Reach those interested in pursuing a certificate program. You can also use a combination of degrees and interests to reach the audiences who would be a naturally fit for higher education programs.

To learn more, visit the interest targeting page on Help Center.

 

8—2018 Breaks Record for Small Businesses Bought and Sold

For the third year in a row, a record number of small businesses changed hands, according to the latest BizBuySell Insight Report, a nationally-recognized economic indicator which aggregates statistics from business-for-sale transactions.

In all, 10,312 businesses were reported sold in 2018, the most since BizBuySell started collecting such data in 2007. This was a 4% increase over the previous record of 9,919 in 2017 and a 31% jump from 2016’s then high of 7,842.

In addition to the reported sale data, BizBuySell also separately surveyed business brokers and small business owners about the market. Brokers say they saw similar increases, with 65% of respondents reporting their transaction activity increased in 2018 while another 21% say it remained similar to 2017’s active level. When asked why they believed the business-for-sale market has remained so hot, brokers credited an increasing number of buyers & sellers and the general improvement of the small business environment. Similarly, current small business owners credited the same factors as the reason for transaction growth.

When asked why more listings were hitting the market in 2018, exactly half of current owners cited the growing baby boomer population that is now ready to retire. Another 34% believe owners did not want to manage rising minimum wage and health care costs while 32% say owners are motivated to sell based on concerns over upcoming economic or political regulations.

On the other hand, buyers also remain eager to try their hand at small business ownership. Current owners believe most of these prospective buyers are coming from the corporate world, with an overwhelming 59% crediting the increased buyer numbers to people looking to escape a 9-5 job. Other reasons included buyer confidence that the economy will remain strong and their greater access to capital due to increased personal assets.

“The business-for-sale market has remained balanced for quite a few years now, allowing both buyers and sellers to confidently enter the market and walk away with a deal to their liking,” says Bob House, President of BizBuySell.com & BizQuest.com. “Small business ownership is the American dream and with a growing number of listings hitting the market, there should remain a steady stream of entrepreneurs ready to take over these businesses.”

You can see the whole report here.

 

9—Women in Tech

Did you know 64% of women working in tech regularly (and sometimes constantly) feel underestimated or not taken seriously by their colleagues in the workplace? Or that:

• 50% of women working in tech were only interviewed by men, and just 21% had a completely female-led interview?
• While 47% of women in tech say they didn’t have a mentor at all, only 29% said their mentor was a woman
• Women working in tech in the Bay Area are 3X morelikely to suggest they picked their profession for the paycheck
• 89% of tech executives are male, while only 3% of them are women (8% share the role)
• More than halfof women working in tech in the Bay Area considered switching jobs because of discrimination from their male colleagues—nearly 1 in 3 have thought about changing careers completely

Paychex asked women working in tech how happy they were with their jobs, the biases and challenges they faced, and how discrimination affected their career choices. As you can see, women had concerns, and yet only 20% of women have reported a male colleague to HR for gender bias or discrimination.

Check out the complete study from Paychex here.

 

10—Getting Legal Help Globally

Rocket Lawyer, the leading provider of affordable legal services, has partnered with Covéa, a leader in property damage and liability insurance in France, giving members access to digital legal documents, helpful information and more. This legal tech platform partnership marks an industry first in the EU, as Covéa integrates legal solutions into its world-class suite of products, accessible on any device.

Christophe Bardet, General Manager of Covéa Protection Juridique, says, “We are delighted to partner with Rocket Lawyer to provide new legal solutions to our 11.5 million clients.”

Through this integrated, co-branded experience, Covéa members can resolve their legal issues by easily creating legal documents, as well as accessing Rocket Lawyer’s extensive services and a library of legal guides. In addition, partnership members can instantly sign online, using the Rocket Sign eSignature feature developed by Rocket Lawyer.

“Legal issues affect small businesses and consumers all over the world, and many people are priced out of the help they need,” says Charley Moore, founder and CEO of Rocket Lawyer. “We’re honored Covéa chose us as their legal platform partner. This is only the start and we’re looking forward to serving Covéa’s customers and helping other innovative organizations bring the value of on-demand legal benefits to their customers, partners and employees.”

To learn more about partnership opportunities, email partnerships@rocketlawyer.com.

 

11—In-Store vs. Online Histories

Take a look at this interesting infographic from RedBrain comparing the in-store and online footprints of some of the country’s biggest retailers. Click here to see.

 

12—Making the World a Better Place

Lendio, a business loan marketplace, announced its Lendio Gives program has funded more than 5,000 Kiva microloans. Lendio’s employee contribution and employer matching program has provided more than $130,000 in loans to underserved business owners in 78 countries.

Recognized by Banking Technology for dedication to the industry’s betterment, Lendio Gives aims to close the financial gender gap for women business owners. It allocates over 90% of total funds donated to loans for females or female groups in the developing world and beyond. Around the globe, women-owned businesses often fail to qualify for traditional loans and must look beyond banks to access credit.

“When the bank says no, micro credit becomes the answer for many of the world’s entrepreneurs,” says Brock Blake, CEO and founder of Lendio. “Lendio Gives was created to make a positive global impact. By giving even a small boost to underserved businesses, we empower individuals to take advantage of opportunities. Small loans really do have a big impact.”

For every loan facilitated on Lendio’s marketplace platform, Lendio donates a percentage ge of funds to Kiva to support global entrepreneurship. Kiva is an international nonprofit organization that connects borrowers and lenders in an effort to alleviate poverty and expand financial inclusion. And 100% of every dollar lent to Kiva turns into micro credit for borrowers who can’t be serviced by traditional banks.

Lendio reinvests all repayments into reloans, furthering the impact of every dollar donated. Lendio Give’s top sectors for microloans include food, retail, agriculture, clothing, services and construction, and the top countries loaned to are Rwanda, Senegal, Zimbabwe and Peru. Lendio Gives funded 3,200 new loans in the last year alone.

For more information about joining the Lendio Gives Kiva lending team, go here.

 

Quick Takes

 

13—Starting an Insurance Agency

If you’re think about starting your own independent insurance agency, you’ll want to check this out: Planning for Success: How to Create a Business Plan When Starting Your Independent Insurance Agency.

 

Cool Tools

 

14—New Electronic Signature Capabilities

Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation has formed a strategic partnership with Adobe to bring new native electronic signature capabilities, called Nintex Sign™ powered by Adobe Sign, to Nintex partners and customers.

Nintex Sign powered by Adobe Sign, the leading e-signature solution used by over half the Fortune 100, meets the growing worldwide demand of Nintex customers and partners for affordably priced, trusted and fully integrated e-signatures within the Nintex Process Platform to securely complete transactions. Thousands of partners, public, private, and government organizations leverage the powerful, easy-to-use Nintex platform daily to quickly build process apps, automate their most sophisticated workflows, and generate all kinds of documents from disclosures, to orders, to closing contracts leveraging responsive Nintex digital forms and templates.

Nintex is offering current customers who sign up for Nintex Sign powered by Adobe Sign with a special introductory offer. Nintex customers should contact their Nintex account manager for details.

Go here for more information.

 

15—Simplified Approach to Layered Security for SMBs

Untangle® Inc., a leader in comprehensive network security for SMBs and Malwarebytes, the leading advanced endpoint protection and remediation solution, recently announced a new agreement to integrate Malwarebytes’ Endpoint Protection and Untangle’s cloud security platform, Command Center, to provide administrators with single pane of glass to manage security orchestration across the network and connected devices, ensuring consistent, comprehensive security protection end-to-end.

“It can be overwhelming for companies to evaluate, deploy and manage disparate security solutions today,” says Michael Osterman, principal analyst with Osterman Research. “Untangle’s seamless integration with Malwarebytes is particularly compelling as it provides enhanced visibility and streamlined Command Center operations to reduce the headache of managing security operations for SMBs. This gives a particularly powerful end-to-end solution for the products when paired.”

Untangle Command Center coupled with Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection offers administrators:

• Greater visibility into the profile of hosts on the network including operating systems, installed software and security status.
• Status of the last Malwarebytes scan, including time, duration, threats discovered, quarantined endpoints and any remediation.
• Ability to initiate a Malwarebytes scan on any host, plus easy navigation between Untangle Command Center and Malwarebytes Management portal.
• A single pane of glass for understanding the security status of the network and connected hosts, including identified threats and remediation.

“SMBs have limited resources and need an integrated security solution that is centralized and takes the guess work out of network security,” says Raj Mallempati, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Malwarebytes. “By integrating Malwarebytes’ Endpoint Protection with Untangle’s Command Center, we are able to give network administrators at small and medium-sized businesses control and visibility into their environment. This integration is a security win as it gives customers an easy-to-use, centralized platform to ensure the safety of their networks and connected devices.”

“Our partnership agreement with Malwarebytes begins an evolution of Command Center towards a full network security orchestration platform,” says Scott Devens, chief executive officer at Untangle. “This integrated solution makes an enterprise-grade, layered approach to security possible for small and medium-sized organizations by providing a simple, seamless approach to threat detection and remediation.”

Untangle Command Center with Malwarebytes is available to customers today at Untangle.

Business stock photo by Pressmaster/Shutterstock