_____LEADS
**1. HEALTH INSURANCE: COMPANIES REDUCE HEALTH CARE COSTS WITH AUDIT SOLUTION. MICHAEL WATSON, vice president for BUDCO, a Highland Park, Mich., company that developed a leading edge dependent audit solution: "As health care benefits costs continue rise, organizations are proactively taking steps to reduce their costs. Health Care Dependent Audits have proven to be an effective solution. Dependent audit programs find that an average of 10 to 15 percent of employees have ineligible dependents on their health plans. Savings from deleting ineligible dependents are significant and can quickly be in the multi-million-dollar range."
**2. INVESTING: INVESTING IN INTERNET GAMBLING. SHIMON CITRON, CEO of ZONE4PLAY, a leading technology provider to the interactive mobile gaming/gambling industry: "London-based Party Poker's successful $10 billion IPO this week is not without fears from U.S. investors vis a vis the legalities of gambling online. Savvy investors all over the globe are investing heavily in the poker- fueled Internet gambling craze, as there are estimated to be over 100 million online poker players. The amount gambled on poker Web sites around the world in 2005 is estimated to exceed $60 billion, and the commission revenues will be around $3 billion (around 60 percent of the Las Vegas strip revenues). As the poker boom and mobile gaming boom are exploding worldwide, it's questionable as to whether Americans can legally invest in the worldwide online gaming phenomena, but a completely legal option for Americans may be to simply invest in gaming technology providers, rather than directly investing in gaming sites."
**3. MARKETING: VOC INPUT BUILDS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS. GARRY COLE, president of creative services and marketing for BUDCO in Highland Park, Mich.: "'Voice of the Customer' input following an interaction with a corporation is the best way to identify customer concerns, assess satisfaction levels and build loyalty. Not only does it provide real-time information that can be acted upon immediately to quell any dissatisfaction, but with well- defined processes concerning the disposition of the customer information, it can be used for process improvement purposes to prevent unfortunate situations from reoccurring."
**4. MARKETING: INTERNET SOLUTION CENTRALIZES DIRECT MAIL, BUILDS BRANDS. BRUCE MASON, EVP of BUDCO in Highland Park, Mich.: "Companies are developing central Internet portals accessible by targeted audiences to manage their direct-mail initiatives. Corporate-endorsed materials can be selected by users who can tailor messaging, offers and timing to particular audiences. It's an ideal solution for real estate companies, restaurants and automotive manufacturers -" any organization having multiple branches or locations. The advantages are significant: it reduces costs, generates revenue, builds brands and improves communications."
**5. PERSONAL FINANCE: TRAVELERS AND IDENTITY THEFT. RICHARD WARNER, professor of law at CHICAGO-KENT COLLEGE OF LAW: "ATMs and credit and debit cards have decreased the need for vacationers to carry around large amounts of cash or travelers' check, but the convenience afforded by the technology has also increased concern about identity theft. Travelers are often on unfamiliar ground, so it is difficult for them to assess the privacy, credit card fraud, and identity theft dangers. But there are things they can do to protect themselves. They include using a credit card with a low limit, dealing only with reputable businesses and minimizing the personally identifying information divulged." Warner has lectured on Internet security at the second United Nations Economic Commission for Europe workshop in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the invitation of the FBI. He also spoke on global cybercrime before the Chicago Crime Commission.
**6. PERSONAL FINANCE: MONEY WITHOUT MATRIMONY. SHERYL GARRETT, CFP, certified financial planner and co-author of "Money Without Matrimony": "Unmarried couples need financial planning even more than married couples." Garrett can help unmarried couples -- both gay and straight -- tackle the unique challenges they face as an unmarried couple, including tips on structuring legal documents to mirror the more than 1,100 federal laws that apply to married couples, the dos and don'ts of merging finances, and the best ways for unmarried couples to own and rent property.
**7. TECHNOLOGY: PROCESS REDESIGN REDUCES FULFILLMENT COSTS. ROB HYMAN, group vice president of operations for BUDCO in Highland Park, Mich.: "Companies have found they can reduce costs and improve satisfaction by evaluating their fulfillment methods. They are not only centralizing and consolidating distributions, which are those proactively sent to recipients, but incorporating the Internet-based distribution processes whereby recipients request materials in a manner similar to an Internet store."
**8. TECHNOLOGY: CYBERFORENSICS, RISK MANAGEMENT AND IDENTITY THEFT. BRYAN SARTIN, vice president of incident response at CYBERTRUST: "As hackers and malicious insiders become more sophisticated, so must the security approach organizations use to protect their sensitive and business-critical information. However, should an organization find itself a victim of a breach, new advances in cyberforensics can track the footsteps hackers leave behind "- enabling incident response teams to catch thieves red handed." Sartin is available to provide insight on information security trends and the evolving threat landscape specifically relating to identity theft and fraud, hacking, cyberforensics, information breaches, civil and criminal responses to breaches, and best practices in proactive risk management.
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