Happenings January 31, 2025

    In this issue:

• National Day Spotlight
• Customer Spotlight
• ASWi becoming 3Value
• Acumatica Update
• Managed Services Tip
• Leadership Tip
• Events, Blogs, Movies
• Webinars, Community

The purpose of a newsletter is an opportunity for the ASWi team to provide you and the rest of our clients with information on all the new ASWi an Acumatica related things (or “happenings”) that you may not otherwise be aware of.

Please feel free to share this newsletter with any/ all of your team. Pease let me know if anyone on your team who would like to be added to the mailing list for the next issue and removed.

You can always have a look at back issues of Happenings on ASWi’s web- site at: https://aswiblog.wpengine.com/category/customer-newsletters/

If work isn’t fun, you’re not playing on the right team. Frank Sonnenberg

Most of us spend a good portion of their lives at work, so why should they not try to enjoy it? While looking to find fun things to do at work, let your imagination be the leader.

Make sure to obtain your boss’s approval for whatever fun and exciting things you choose to do. Better yet, get your boss involved in the fun!

The story behind this picture is over 50 existing/prospective clients, Acumatica staff and ASWi staff joined us at The George in Las Vegas on Monday for fun, fellowship and fraternizing.

Thank you to everyone who attended and to the ASWi team who did a LOT of work to make it go so smoothly and enjoyably.

Q: Did you see the Mexican magician who disappears on the count of 3?
A: Yes but he only said “uno” and “dos”; he disappeared without a tres.

Citizen: Do you have any books on “Paranoia”?
Librarian: (whispered) They’re right behind you.

Patient: I broke my arm in two places.
Doctor: You need to start going to safer places.

My office teammate and I joke around about how competitive we are…
But I laugh more!

Q: Did you hear about the office worker who stole a company calendar?
A: He got 12 months!

Q: What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet?
A: SUPPLIES!

Q: How is your can crushing job at the recycling center going?
A: I had to quit because it was soda pressing.

ASWi is very humbled, privileged, and proud to be able to serve some of the most innovative organizations in the country as their trusted advisor business systems and managed services.

Today, I want to spotlight Viking Fence. Viking Fence was founded in 1972 and joined the Crossplane Capital portfolio in February 2023.

Viking’s three lines of business are Permanent Fencing, Site Services, and Wholesale/Retail, with 6 locations in Austin, the Metroplex and Houston.

On Monday, we announced some very big news at our Customer Appreciation Event: we are going to be rebranding from ASWi to 3Value.

Why We are Rebranding
We believe that 3Value best represents who we are, who we serve, and why/how we serve:

1. Our Faith: we serve the Lord, our customers and our team.
2. Our Core Values: Love, Serve, Care.
3. Our Mission: deliver substantial Value that Scalable Sustainable, and Systemic.

Over the next 9-12 months, we will transition our branding, website, email addresses, etc. from ASWi to 3Value but please be assured that our Faith, Core Values, and Mission will only be strengthened as a result of this rebranding.

Keeping your systems secure is critical to ensuring the safety of your company’s operations and information. It is also critical in meeting compliance standards like DFARS, NIST SP 800-171, and CMMC.

Unfortunately, staying on top of security patches and updates can be a time-consuming challenge. This is why Automated Patch Management is a “gamechanger”.

By automating security updates, you can focus on growing your business while maintaining a strong compliance posture.

Benefits of Automated Patch Management:

1. Eliminate Delays
Deploy critical patches across all systems as soon as they’re released.

2. Reduce Risk
Prevent attackers from exploiting known vulnerabilities in outdated software.

3. Streamline Compliance
Meet key requirements by ensuring your systems stay up-to-date effortlessly.

Please let our Customer Success Manager Keith Wood know (keithw@ASWiUS.com, 717-581-1226) if you would like to learn more about protecting your organization with an automated patch management system.

Rewatch the Acumatica Summit 2025 Keynotes
If you missed the Acumatica Summit 2025 keynote addresses this week, or you just want to keep watching them on repeat because of their fabulousness (full disclosure: they were good but not “I need to watch them more then twice” good), you can stream them here: Keynotes.

by Bri Williams

What AI is about to do to you emails

Horrified. That’s how I felt after watching an Apple TV ad sprinkling its AI (Apple Intelligence) for emails. It’s a business lunch with a writer meeting to discuss a pitch she’d emailed actor Bella Ramsey.

Bella, who obviously hasn’t read the email, quickly reaches for her phone and reads the AI generated summary of it, helping her feign knowledge of the project.
She lies, effectively. The writer gets excited and says “Great, I’ll tell them you’re interested”. Cue music track called “Genius” and a smug look on Bella’s face.

Why she’s smug, I’m not sure, because she’s just committed herself to either (a) a bad project or (b) a difficult conversation down the track when backing out of it, because this thin slicing, gistising approach to information can only end badly.

But…the main reason I’m horrified is its inevitability. This is how people will ingest our emails.

The path of least resistance means we’re attracted to short cuts, especially when we are short on time or energy, so AI cutting to the chase will be appealing.
The upside is your audience may glean more about your message than just the subject line. The downside is they may rely upon the summary to decide what to do.

Similar but not the same as preview text For the reader, this will serve the same function as preview text. But not for you as the writer. Preview text is controlled by you, which means you can withhold key information so your recipient reads it in context. While an AI summary will save you the pain of having to write
preview text, you will lose control of what you want to reveal, when.

That means knowing how to write effective emails, to influence behavior as well as AI, is only becoming more important.

Phishing attacks are growing increasingly sophisticated, targeting sensitive data with tactics that can bypass traditional defenses. It’s crucial for your team to be equipped not only with knowledge of the latest phishing techniques but also with actionable steps to detect and defend against these schemes.

Watch Out For:

1. Spear Phishing
Tailored emails sent to specific individuals or groups within your organization, often containing personalized details to appear more legitimate.

2. Clone Phishing
Attackers replicate legitimate emails but swap out links or attachments
with malicious versions, tricking users into clicking through.

3. Business eMail Compliance (BEC)
These highly targeted attacks often impersonate executives or other trusted sources, urging employees to transfer funds or share confidential information.

Defend Yourself With:
1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Encourage employees to use complex passwords and change them regularly. Consider implementing password management tools to help users securely generate, store, and manage their passwords.

2. Recurring Simulation Training
Set up regular simulated phishing exercises to help employees practice identifying and reporting suspicious emails in a safe environment. Familiarity with phishing tactics strengthens their response to real threats.

3. AI Driven eMail Filtering
Advanced email filters, such as those powered by artificial intelligence, can spot subtle phishing signs like unusual language, spoofed sender addresses, and manipulated links. These solutions can provide proactive defenses by filtering out suspicious messages before they reach your inboxes.

4. Be Doubting Thomases re: Links & File Attachments
Train your team to hover over links without clicking to verify URLs and check for minor changes, such as “rnicrosoft.com” instead of “microsoft.com.” Additionally, caution them against opening unexpected attachments from unknown sources.

5. Create a Culture of Immediate Reporting of Suspicious eMails
Make it easy for employees to report suspicious emails to IT or security teams. The faster they can share a potential threat, the quicker your team can respond to protect the organization.

Please let our Customer Success Manager Keith Wood know (keithw@ASWiUS.com, 717-581-1226) if you would like to learn more about protecting your organization from the phishing attacks that becoming ever more sophisticated and devastating in the damage they can do.

Nearly every weekday, a motivational quote is posted on X/Twitter by @ASWiDelivered and on LinkedIn by @ASWi.

This week’s quotes are from Baltasar Gracián, who was a Spanish Jesuit priest, writer and philosopher who lived from 1601 – 1658.

• “Know how to choose. Most things in life depend on it.”
• “Diligence removes impossibilities.”
• “Luck can be helped by skill.”
• “It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterward.”
• “Be first the master of yourself.”