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2b1c1eb5d710cb1a02294b9a09b83a66 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/05/the-pandemic-put-pressure-on-the-government-workforce-how-automation-may-provide-relief/ | The Pandemic Put Pressure On The Government Workforce: How Automation May Provide Relief | The Pandemic Put Pressure On The Government Workforce: How Automation May Provide Relief
Paul Colangelo is CEO of Avenu.
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It’s no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic has hurt the U.S. workforce. It’s been months since the pandemic first struck and the U.S. economy is still struggling to recover. But while major industries are showing signs of job growth, state and local governments are lagging behind.
According to a recent jobs report by the National Association of Counties, state and local governments lost an additional 134,000 jobs in September, even as the U.S. economy gained 661,000 jobs nationally. To date, employment at the state and local level remains 939,000 jobs below where it was in February earlier this year. If governments don’t find a way to weather the current economic downturn, many of these job losses could become permanent.
State and local governments could consider automation to streamline their workforce, generate fresh revenue and keep millions of employees on the payroll. To see what automation can do for governments, we have to take a closer look at the challenges that state and local governments are facing during this pandemic and how automation can help solve them.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted governments in a complex and multifaceted way. But at the heart of it all is a precipitous decline in revenue. With businesses shut down and consumers wary about spending money, revenue from taxes and fees has plummeted. Brookings projects that state and local governments will see a $155 billion decline in revenue this year.
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At the same time, governments need to support and serve constituents through this crisis and can’t rely on slashing spending to balance their budgets. Across the country, state and local governments are forced to do more than ever before with less revenue at their disposal.
Altogether, these factors make up a perfect storm for a nationwide budgeting crisis. Cities, counties and state agencies need more money and have far less of it. Unlike the federal government, state and local governments aren’t able to borrow money to cover a budgeting deficit. Governments need to either find revenue or make significant budget cuts.
It’s here that automation can make a big difference. Automation can streamline manual work like data entry, support services, licensing applications and billing, among others. That doesn’t just save time; it also reduces costly errors, enhances data transparency and frees up labor hours for more important tasks.
One of the biggest benefits of automation comes in the form of new revenue from hidden sources. All too often, revenue from taxes and fees gets lost behind bureaucratic inefficiencies, noncompliance by businesses, incomplete internal data or even just simple calculation errors. By automating their business licensing process, for example, governments can make it easier for businesses to comply with licensing regulations, leading to enhanced revenue from business licenses.
But automation can also transform all sorts of daily operations across domains and teams. This is especially true as governments increasingly digitize their workforce and workflow. In a digital environment, automation can make downloading, extracting and sharing data from PDF-formatted applications and online forms quick, efficient and relatively error-free.
These kinds of improvements to workflow and data sharing practices won’t directly generate new revenue, but can help eliminate waste and trim spending.
Automating government operations isn’t usually very difficult, but it can entail some unique challenges. First and foremost, state and local governments need to do the legwork to discover just where and how they most need to automate. Not every jurisdiction will have the same automation priorities.
For most governments, this process will start with a data audit to see where revenue, working hours and expenses are going, how they are being used and whether they could be managed more efficiently. At the same time, governments should learn their constituents’ pain points. Is a particular service or department struggling to generate consistently positive interactions with constituents? If your legacy government processes are no longer able to satisfy your constituents’ demands for efficient and effective government, then you know it’s time to digitize and automate them.
What’s more, governments will need to make sure they have the cybersecurity and IT infrastructure in place to support digital and automated systems; if governments automate before they’re ready to manage their new systems, they could expose themselves to IT failure, cybercrime or hackers.
One area of IT that governments can’t afford to overlook is storage. Governments store a massive amount of data, and digital and automated government processes generate even more of it. Paper filing is not an option. Instead, governments will have to determine whether they will invest in their own databases or utilize a cloud storage solution. Governments will also need to make sure they have the data storage policies and IT training programs to equip their employees to handle data correctly.
Finally, governments will need to prepare their employees for the new digital and automated systems. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to do this is to partner with an on-the-job training program. These programs can help employees upskill their talents without costing too much or seriously disrupting workflow.
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be6ee3305e712bec3c917154388430dd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/05/we-need-to-talk-about-an-energy-label-for-ai/?sh=2c2956ac6750 | We Need To Talk About An Energy Label For AI | We Need To Talk About An Energy Label For AI
CSO at imec, a world-leading R&D and innovation hub active in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) can distinguish a dog from a cat, but the billions of calculations needed to do so demand quite a lot of energy. The human brain can do the same thing while using only a small fraction of this energy. Could this phenomenon inspire us to develop more energy-efficient AI systems?
Our computational power has risen exponentially, enabling the widespread use of artificial intelligence, a technology that relies on processing huge amounts of data to recognize patterns. When we use the recommendation algorithm of our favorite streaming service, we usually don't realize the gigantic energy consumption behind it. The billions of operations needed to process the data are typically carried out in data centers. All these computations consume a tremendous amount of electric power. Although data centers heavily invest in renewable energy, a significant part of the power still relies on fossil fuels. The popularity of AI applications clearly has a downside: the ecological cost.
To get a better understanding of the total footprint, we should take two factors into account: training and inference. First, an AI model needs to be trained by a labeled dataset. The ever-growing trend toward the use of bigger datasets for this training phase causes an explosive growth in energy consumption. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts calculated that during the training of a model for natural language processing, 284 metric tons of carbon dioxide is emitted. This is equivalent to the emission of five cars during their entire life span, including construction. Some AI models developed by tech giants — which are not reported in scientific literature — might emit at a greater magnitude.
The training phase is just the beginning of the AI model’s life cycle. Once the model is trained, it is ready for the real world: finding meaningful patterns in new data. This process, called inference, consumes even more energy. Unlike training, inference is not a one-off. Inference takes place continuously. For example, every time a voice assistant is asked a question and generates an answer, extra carbon dioxide is released. After about a million inference events, the impact will surpass that of the training phase. This process is unsustainable.
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Today, both training and inference are typically performed in data centers. This means that beyond the energy involved in the calculations, we should take into account the transmission energy of sending data from the device to the data center and back. Can we avoid part of that traffic by porting the inference process to the device where the data is captured? Besides saving a lot of energy, we could also save time in those cases where immediate decisions are of vital importance (e.g., image classification in self-driving cars).
Decentralizing the data processing would also be a good idea in terms of privacy and security — if your personal information never leaves your phone, it cannot be intercepted. And by bringing the intelligence to the data-collecting device, you do not even need an internet connection. So, what is keeping us from implementing this on-device inference? Well, the inference processors today are just too power-hungry for use in battery-powered edge devices because they were designed first for performance and precision instead of energy efficiency.
The silver lining? Research in developing completely new hardware architectures aimed at drastically increasing energy efficiency is picking up very quickly. Path-finding is done in new compute-in-memory architectures, exploiting the most advanced logic and memory components.
At Imec, we recently demonstrated an analog inference accelerator, achieving 2,900 trillion operations per Joule, which is already 10 times more energy-efficient than today’s digital accelerators. With these types of hardware innovations, it will become possible to directly process data in battery-powered devices, including drones and vehicles, to avoid transmission energy. However, developing energy-efficient hardware is only one side of the solution.
Running inefficient algorithms on an energy-efficient accelerator will wipe out the hardware’s benefits. Therefore, we also need to develop energy-efficient algorithms. This is not only necessary for on-device inference but also to reduce the number of calculations during inference or training of AI algorithms in data centers.
To solve this, we can draw inspiration from our own nature. If you are a good tennis player, learning how to play squash is only a small step. Similarly, we can transfer an existing AI model trained in one domain to an adjacent one. After training, we can further minimize the number of calculations by applying compression strategies. The most appealing one is the technique of network pruning — we "prune" all the parameters that have little importance for the end result. What remains is an algorithm that has the same functionality but is smaller, faster and more energy-efficient.
With the help of this compression strategy, the number of calculations can already be reduced by 30% to 50%. Thereafter, more application-based techniques will help us further improve efficiency. As such, we can already regain more than 90% of power by just optimizing the AI model, apart from the hardware considerations.
We can further improve the efficiency of the algorithms by adapting them to the specificity of the hardware. We can work on both developments independently, but the biggest gain is in the co-optimization. To create truly energy-efficient AI systems, we need an integrated approach that combines innovations in data usage, hardware and software.
While the AI research community strongly focuses on these innovations, consumers have no way to figure out how "green" the AI systems they use every day actually are. Awareness would increase if the industry provided estimates of the carbon emission related to the use of a recommendation or image recognition algorithm.
Policymakers have introduced energy labels for household appliances, vehicles and buildings, nudging more investments in energy efficiency. Introducing energy labels for AI-driven applications and systems could have a similar effect.
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4fb75528afdff3db099353b4fcc92ab9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/05/why-remote-work-is-here-to-stay/ | Why Remote Work Is Here To Stay | Why Remote Work Is Here To Stay
Steve Marsh is the Founder and Chairman of Smarsh, a leader in the enterprise information archiving industry.
Although Covid-19 vaccines could become widely available to the public as soon as the second quarter of this year, business leaders must understand that remote work is here to stay.
Indeed, not only will some Americans continue to feel uneasy about returning to the tight confines of an office, but many have adjusted well to, and prefer, the telecommuting model — which was already taking hold well before the pandemic gripped the global economy. Rather than view this shift as a challenge, firms should look at these unprecedented events as an opportunity to remake their businesses.
Consider, for instance, that initial studies are showing that remote work leads to greater productivity. Just as promising is how many firms are investing in programs and policies that boost employee wellness and engagement — a key to conquering some of the challenges associated with having a dispersed workforce.
The most obvious upside is being able to slash real estate-related expenses. Free from that burden, firms can deploy more capital on initiatives that drive growth, whether it’s retaining top talent and upgrading aging tech systems.
How Companies Are Ramping Up Remote Work
According to news reports, a wide array of prominent businesses have agreed to allow staff to permanently work from home, including tech giants Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Square and Shopify. Even Deutsche Bank is considering allowing remote work two days a week.
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Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said in April that his company has "proven we can operate with no footprint" and that it will have "much less real estate" eventually. His statements echo findings by Moody's Analytics, which recently revealed that commercial real estate was under pressure well ahead of the Covid-19 crisis.
Communication and collaboration tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack have been crucial to the remote work boom. Usage of these platforms has exploded, leading to an uptick in the number of workers using personal smartphones or tablets for business. Microsoft Teams alone added approximately 40 million users over the span of six months last year.
Staying On Top Of Remote Work Communications Data
One of the downsides of a distributed workforce is that people are typically more comfortable taking risks online and at home than in an office. That can create an environment ripe for fraud and nefarious conduct, which, in turn, increases the number of cybersecurity or compliance risks businesses are forced to confront. This problem will only become more acute as the number of workplace conversations via mobile phones, instant messaging, email, social media and productivity apps rise.
None of this is a reason for anyone to shy away from providing remote work options. However, it does suggest companies should adopt policies, procedures and tools that can address the new workplace realities head-on. One example is investing in a communications intelligence platform capable of thoroughly scanning reams of data and quickly escalating problems to gatekeepers.
Interestingly, many of the newest offerings don't just help companies protect themselves. In leveraging rapid advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, they also support their ability to analyze remote-work communications to gain useful insights into everything from customer demographics to the most effective sales techniques.
There are a few things firms should keep in mind when it comes to choosing the right retention and oversight platform for your business. It should be custom-built to meet any regulatory or risk requirements for your sector. Make sure it can capture and retain all the communication channels (e.g., email, Microsoft Teams, text messaging) that your organization uses to conduct business.
Additionally, consider where data will be stored and whether your infrastructure can scale effectively with the proliferating volume and variety of communications that accompany your remote workforce. And because new remote-work communication tools will likely give rise to additional regulations, make sure your platform provider has a good track record of developing timely improvements in response to, or in anticipation of, new guidelines.
Time To Prepare For Post-Pandemic Solutions
Although the future remains uncertain, it would be misguided to assume that coronavirus vaccines will usher in a complete return to a pre-pandemic world. Indeed, now is the time to embrace — and prepare for — a more permanent remote-work landscape.
Firms can accomplish this by incorporating technology that promotes safe digital collaboration among employees and teams, making their businesses more attractive to top talent while also supporting broader strategic growth goals.
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2dd7953cb7d878e86ed2adcdb0a8be1d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/08/preserving-retail-data-roi-means-protecting-it/?sh=2691dfdb4a88 | Preserving Retail Data ROI Means Protecting It | Preserving Retail Data ROI Means Protecting It
Ameesh Divatia is Co-founder & CEO of Baffle, Inc., with a proven track record of turning innovative ideas into successful businesses.
The retail industry transformed in many ways in 2020, with online sales representing a clear example of such customer preference shifts. In analyzing these changes, retailers can find a veritable treasure trove of data. Those with the means to channel this data will uncover insights related to e-commerce, customer experience, inventory, marketing, staffing and supply chain trends. The data can also highlight what they did well, where they could have improved and, most importantly, how to respond in the coming year.
As retailers dig into the data, it is critical that they are doing so with data protection in mind. As data’s value increases, so does its risk. It is more important than ever that data protection best practices are employed to ensure that the ROI is not diminished by the enormous cost of data exposure. There are three areas where retail organizations should concentrate efforts in the coming year to preserve their data’s value: prioritizing cloud data protection, making data “share-ready” and addressing regulatory concerns.
Prioritizing Cloud Data Protection
Like so many industries, retail has seen a mass migration of data to the cloud due to the immediate need to maintain business continuity. Cloud data migration has often prioritized speed over security, leaving wide swaths of proprietary data unprotected and vulnerable to theft.
Organizations need to implement best practices for cloud data storage to ensure this valuable data is only viewable to those who are authorized to see it while maintaining the ability to analyze it.
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In 2021, the modern data analytics pipeline will help retailers collect, classify and organize their data with state-of-the-art capabilities and help identify potential trends and make informed decisions that help them respond accordingly. Extracting market differentiation from retail data will begin with a review of Q4 2020. Having the data is great, but it comes with liabilities around protecting it. To protect the pipeline, organizations should explore solutions and best practices to ensure data is protected and essentially unusable to criminals who are able to penetrate default cloud security protections.
Protection comes in many forms, including masking, tokenization or encryption, so choosing the right method is critical to maintaining the utility of the data while not exposing it. This is especially important in data analysis, as protocols shift depending on how far upstream or downstream data is in the analytics pipeline. For example, as data moves downstream, it must be available in a format that allows it to be processed without leaving it in the clear.
Making Data “Share-Ready”
Retail organizations will also find great insight into industry-wide data sharing to help improve customer experiences by anonymously sharing information with and between suppliers. With the massive changes that occurred in retail over the last 12 months, being able to compare and contrast data before and after the pandemic can be a significant benefit. While organizations reap the benefits of data sharing, many may be reluctant to do so for fear of accidentally revealing proprietary information and customer data.
To offset this concern, retailers should consider advanced privacy-preserving technologies that allow them to reap the benefits of data sharing while ensuring that they are protecting data in a manner that reduces the risk of exposure. Such technology eliminates much of the hesitation that some organizations have with data sharing and opens the door for richer, usable industry insight.
Addressing Regulatory Considerations
The ROI data analytics can offer is certainly a main driver for creating an analytics pipeline beginning with collection, classification, storage, cleansing and, finally, processing data. The emergence of privacy regulations such as CPRA and GDPR are instituting data privacy practices, making data protection a mandatory step in that data analytics pipeline, as well as a critical part of doing business in order to build trust. And in the U.S., there seems to be growing momentum for a national privacy referendum to harmonize multiple state mandates. As such, privacy is becoming less of a necessary evil and more of a competitive differentiator for a business.
Regulatory expertise is a must. It is critical to have someone on staff or an outside, trusted partner to navigate the often confusing regulations that an organization must adhere to. The goal is to understand all of the regulations, how they intersect with one another and how to stay compliant with not only current laws but also those that are emerging.
As retailers become more reliant on data, they are also getting savvier about how information can help carve out significant market differentiators. As important as data is, its value can be neutralized if these organizations don’t implement appropriate data protection measures to ensure its ROI.
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a38d3c8375b434618723f08cf27f84e6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/08/the-pandemic-might-be-the-tech-disruptor-the-legal-industry-needs/?sh=54cddcb13a40 | The Pandemic Might Be The Tech Disruptor The Legal Industry Needs | The Pandemic Might Be The Tech Disruptor The Legal Industry Needs
CEO and Co-Founder at Everlaw — cloud-based software for litigation and investigations.
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Law is among the slowest industries to adopt new technology. Lawyers are culturally risk-averse; it comes with the job title. Litigators are also accustomed to the pace of courts, where cases can take years to be resolved and don't move at the speed of 5G. For corporate lawyers, deals tend to drag on, too. Those problems are amplified by attorney-client privilege, the requirements of trust and keeping data and communications confidential and secure. As a result, many legal teams have been slow to try new technologies like cloud-based software, citing security concerns.
The Covid-19 pandemic, however, is forcing the industry toward digital transformation.
Even before Covid-19, lawyers acknowledged they were tech laggards. A Gartner CEO survey from December 2018 found that legal departments positioned to support digital business efforts can increase on-time project delivery by 63% and increase the number of digital projects with appropriate risk management measures in place by 46%. Yet "general counsel are concerned that existing legal and compliance practices are incompatible with the speed at which digital business operates," a Gartner research vice president said.
The business of law, the sensitive nature of legal information and the need to respect attorney-client privilege put unique requirements on lawyers. Regulations governing record-keeping as well as data privacy and compliance requirements make safeguarding security and data privacy critically important. Lawyers who are risk-averse and culturally resistant to change were reluctant to take a chance on moving data from the corporate data center to the cloud. Surprise — security concerns held them back.
Then, the pandemic came and changed the game for everybody, including law firms and in-house legal teams. Videoconferencing, virtual notaries, digital documents, e-signatures and e-filing are becoming widespread. Cloud-based company Clio's 2020 Legal Trends Report released in early October found that 85% of responding firms are using software to manage their practice, 79% store data in the cloud and 83% hold virtual meetings with clients. The report also found that 69% of consumers prefer to share documents electronically and 56% prefer video conferencing to phone calls.
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Before the pandemic, market dynamics were putting the pressure on legal teams to transform the way they work. One of the biggest drivers was the growth of alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) that use technology to gain efficiencies in delivering services — such as legal research, document review, ediscovery and litigation support — at rates that are more competitive than traditional law firms. In addition, C-level executives were following larger philosophical shifts to align the various divisions within a corporation to meet the same overarching business objectives, including moves toward metrics and cost efficiencies.
Another function that has forced law firms and in-house legal teams to adopt tech is public expectations regarding services have changed. Amazon, Uber and Netflix, among other services, showed people the power of mobile apps and instant delivery. Software-as-a-service and cloud apps brought speed, convenience, remote accessibility and flexibility to business services and work life in general. This shift to customer-focus will likely require a change in the traditional legal business model which is entrenched in the longstanding law firm partnership structure.
The pandemic has forced law firms and legal teams to trim costs as the industry was hit hard in April when 64,000 jobs were cut, or 5.5% of the total — a nearly 20-year low, Thomson Reuters reported. Nearly half of the country's 100 largest firms ended up cutting pay or furloughing employees, among other cost-cutting measures, according to Bloomberg Law. In-house legal teams, in particular, are finding that they need to be able to do more work with fewer resources.
The technology journey for legal teams doesn't have to be painful. There are some important steps that can help ease the transition.
Kickstart cultural change.
The most important thing for digital transformation efforts to succeed is change management — creating a technology-embracing environment among staff. This entails articulating what specific benefits the technology will bring and getting buy-in, not just from IT but from the top executives on down. In addition to the productivity, efficiency and cost savings technology can provide, legal teams will be able to promote greater transparency and convenience to clients, and employee quality of life benefits too. Prioritize technologies that will solve your organization's biggest pain points and develop a business case that shows why the change is needed. Develop a plan to measure success so all the business leaders understand the potential impact.
Focus on user experience.
Lack of familiarity and ease of use are the most common impediments to end user tech adoption. Before choosing new technology, get an understanding of the needs and wants of clients and employees. IT teams should get feedback from all stakeholders and pay attention to the level of tech experience people have. Dedicate time for trainings so people feel empowered instead of overwhelmed. Hire or designate a program manager to focus on the technology projects, and recruit tech champions who can mentor others on their technology journeys.
Prioritize security
Because legal teams deal with so much sensitive and confidential data and are subject to specific rules around client-attorney privilege, data security and privacy are critical considerations for any technology adoption. Law firms need to protect against data breaches, ransomware, phishing attacks and other cyberthreats by using solutions that offer strong encryption, intrusion detection and response, data loss and prevention, identity access and records management and policy-based controls. Choose legal tech that offers strong security for things like case management, eDiscovery, client service chatbots and AI-based tech-assisted review. For more general office productivity functions, consider outsourcing to cloud providers that offer highly encrypted services and reliable uptime.
This pandemic-prompted digital transition is just the beginning of a larger evolution for the legal profession that will lead to more efficiency, stronger security and better client service.
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06972c7f0a449d14be72843e373baf87 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/08/top-10-digital-ecosystem-trends-in-supply-chain-and-logistics/ | Top 10 Digital Ecosystem Trends In Supply Chain And Logistics | Top 10 Digital Ecosystem Trends In Supply Chain And Logistics
Sr. Director of Applied Innovation at Microsoft. Bringing paradigm-shifting digital transformation through emerging technologies.
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The supply chain and logistics industries are exploding right now while also being in the midst of a dramatic digital transformation. As of 2017, the logistics industry was valued at a staggering $8.1 trillion, but it's projected to nearly double that valuation by 2023.
Digital giants like Amazon, along with a whole host of startups, are exposing entirely new business models and using emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, IoT and many others to change the face of logistics going forward. Gartner’s 2019 CEO and Senior Executives Survey supports this: "With 87% of survey respondents identifying that they expect some form of change to their business model by 2021."
As customer expectations evolve, so does the global supply chain and logistics organizations. The driver of this unprecedented change has been the broad sweeping effects of Covid-19, a global economic recession, trade wars and new customer expectations. While these factors have ushered in unforeseen challenges, they have also presented enormous opportunities for the supply chain and logistics industries. After all, these factors raise the stakes of this 4.6 trillion industry.
Over the next five to 10 years, the effects of these disruptions will usher in a wave of digital transformation for both the supply chain and logistics industries fueled by digital ecosystems. From now to 2025, digital ecosystems represent approximately $60 trillion in global revenue. Organizations have a tremendous opportunity to take a concept that has a 2% global market share to approximately 30% by 2025.
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Digital ecosystems provide a digital foundation for new business model designs and address adapting existing business models to future multisided businesses. According to one IDC prediction, "By 2023, 25% of organizations will ship freight using an independent, SaaS-enabled ecosystem platform, resulting in improved efficiencies in load matching and reduced shipping costs."
Here are my top 10 supply chain and logistics trends fueled by digital ecosystems.
1. Digital Giants Incursion
Traditional logistics providers are under attack. With parcel volume expected to reach 6.5 billion packages for Amazon Logistics by 2022, the company could take away a large share of e-commerce packages from the likes of FedEx, UPS and USPS. Across the sea, Alibaba is aiming to "build a global logistics network."
2. Rise Of The Startups
The Covid-19 pandemic has not slowed but accelerated digital transformation in logistics, which has already drawn large sums of venture capital (VC) and private equity. According to McKinsey, around $11.1 billion was raised by startups offering last-mile delivery services to retailers and individuals.
3. Pandemic-Proof Supply Chain
The global pandemic has had pervasive and deep impacts across material availability, labor support, asset tracking and security of logistics services. Greater durability and resilience are now required, as demonstrated by vaccine delivery across cold chains across the globe.
4. Sustainable Logistics
Growing Co2 emissions, noise pollution and waste generated by global logistics are putting more focus on the logistics industry’s environmental responsibilities. According to Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL, sustainability is an essential issue for logistics. This could result in 90% of organizations mandating reusable materials in IT hardware supply chains by 2025.
5. Blockchain-Enabled Digital Ecosystems
Logistics juggernauts like FedEx, UPS, and Uber Freight are just a few that have joined the blockchain-enabled logistics digital ecosystem called the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA). BiTA, like other ecosystems, was created to enable the logistics industry with standards, approaches and even solutions to maximize the benefits of blockchain ledger technologies. Blockchain provides transparency, auditability, tracking and peer-to-peer data interoperability to solve many of the traditional problems in the logistics supply chain, including tracking, fraud detection, contract management and cash management.
6. Logistics As A Service (LaaS)
Logistics has become a vital capability to companies — so much so that, according to a 2020 list of outsourcing trends from Gartner, "Over 80% of professionals indicate that they plan to significantly increase logistics outsourcing budgets beyond warehousing and fulfillment in 2020." These companies are looking to catch up with the growing market share being acquired by the “digital giants” and emergent players like logistics tech companies. Just-in-time LaaS providers like Just In Time or BluJay Solutions allows organizations to rapidly catch up by acquiring the capability quickly versus building their own to gain further control over their supply chain. This shift to LaaS is due to the growing costs associated with logistics.
7. Computing Is Pushed To The Edge
Edge computing has made its way to the supply chain through the evolving nature of operational technology (OT) sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G. Unlocking how data is obtained, processed and analyzed enables for the required low-latency processing and real-time analytics needed.
8. Digital Twins Of Everything
As the physical and digital worlds begin to converge, organizations are digitally unlocking new insights, simulations and real-time tracking. Creating digital twins pulls relevant data that is captured across the supply chain through IoT sensors and other technologies to be represented in virtual or simulation environments.
9. AI Driving Logistics
From self-driving trucks and virtual assistants to robotic-powered warehouses and drone delivery, AI enablement will change the face of logistics. It’s also a race to acquire these capabilities. According to another IDC prediction, "By 2023, driven by the goal to embed intelligence in products and services, one-quarter of G2000 companies will acquire at least one AI software start-up to ensure ownership of differentiated skills and IP."
10. Predictive Logistics Insights
With 93% of shippers and 98% of third-party logistics firms feeling like data-driven decision-making is crucial to supply chain activities and 63% of the largest and most impactful logistics organizations saying investment in predictive analytics is optimal to organize newly digitized fleets, it’s easy to say that data the competitive differentiator.
As a leader in the logistics and supply chain industry, you have a fiduciary responsibility to act on these trends. The innovative trends in this article will only continue to grow, and as they do, it will be up to you to disrupt or be disrupted.
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935193a7a81d895d185ec2111e5aaef1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/09/far-away-but-so-close-boosting-global-communication-with-clients-and-staff-in-2021/?sh=26401b6b73ab | Far Away But So Close: Boosting Global Communication With Clients And Staff In 2021 | Far Away But So Close: Boosting Global Communication With Clients And Staff In 2021
Founder and CEO at Innovecs, a global software development company.
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You would probably agree that most aspects of life have been tough during the last 10 months. People barely remember how to hug. This so-called new normal widened the distance between businesses and their audiences. Human communication today is totally different from what we saw some 16 months ago. It has acquired a new form and meaning.
To remain competitive, many companies entered new markets and started considering building even more multicultural teams. When it comes to the global market, one of the biggest challenges for any organization is embracing cross-cultural communication.
I keep saying that the world of IT marches to the beat of its own drum: Locations and the distance between them have never been an obstacle, but rather an opportunity to gather the most talented people — wherever they are.
Think of an orchestra where musicians use different instruments to play the same tune. The flawless performance of a symphony requires more than knowledge: It requires a conductor, notes and music as a single language, as well as the ability to listen and achieve synergy.
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As a leader, when your team and clients are scattered across the globe, you cannot help but think, "How can I make this diversity work for our corporation?" As a visionary, you likely keep speculating on a variety of ways to turn these distinctions into your superpower and ultimately streamline workflows.
As I look back at 2020, I’d like to share tips that will help you build an effective intercultural communication strategy for the year ahead.
Become Culturally Savvy
You have to be very sensitive to how various nations think and interact, what they dom and, more importantly, what they avoid doing. Some regions — for instance, Asia — have vibrant differences between countries. I've found that Japan and Singapore, for example, have drastically different manners for writing, reading, replying to correspondence, dealing with pitches and handling meetings. The same pertains to Europe: What is good in Italy might be a no-no for, let's say, Germany. Hence, one slip-up in terms of sensitivity could cost you an opportunity.
Some countries, including Israel, have a reputation for being very straightforward, so their business partners should adopt that communication style. Be direct. Be specific. Be honest. If you beat around the bush, you may have trouble building trust with partners in countries that value directness, and you may not be able to sell your services and close deals. In other words, you won't succeed.
Hire International Salespeople
You can think of selling as a sort of art: an art in which communication is key to your success. Your sales managers' communication skills — the ability to pitch, persuade and be great storytellers — define future relationships with clientele, who can be remarkably attentive to detail.
In terms of sales, one of the best ways to embrace intercultural communication is to hire knowledgeable individuals in that geographic region. Look for executives from the U.S., Germany or whatever market you are targeting. Most of the time they know and understand how local people think and talk and what their needs are. This knowledge will help your company fine-tune the cross-cultural communication process and avoid any misunderstandings.
Use Digital Tools
Statistics don't lie. According to a 2019 Deloitte report, 85% of small to medium U.S. companies think the digital tools they use have helped their businesses. This year has shown that the absence of face-to-face meetings doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world. A great variety of tools, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, can help businesses communicate effectively with clients and employees around the globe. These technologies are important for building a cohesive, distributed team and establishing a streamlined, collaborative workflow with your clients.
Obviously, face-to-face communication means a lot to any business. Given the current constraints, however, you may have no other option but to be flexible. In the sea of tech solutions, pick the ones that fit your needs and ensure every stakeholder is on the same page.
I realize that Covid-19 helped give rise to the digital tools market. I never cease to keep an eye on today’s trends and tomorrow’s directions. Despite the innovativeness and robust tech stack of those apps, there are things I believe are mostly unattainable for them. I believe that in B2B, face-to-face contact is pivotal.
Stay Honest
Be authentic. Own what you are now. Grow your business naturally. If you are a small company, try to find small clients and build trust around your company's name. When you have clients who trust you, you are more likely to get referrals. Credibility is very hard to earn and easy to lose overnight. If your company is a "good guy" through whatever hardships occur, your business will be more sustainable. For both clients and your people, that means you are something worth holding on to.
I prefer to view these strange times as an opportunity for so many things: proving your credibility and being helpful, supportive and humane. This crush test for B2B, in particular, will reveal companies' true strategic posture and have an impact on resilience at the end of the day. Be sincere because, if not now, then when?
Final Thoughts
Maturity comes along with acceptance, so let's face it: The B2B sector has relied heavily on offline interactions, period. Communication quality has always been one of my company's top priorities, both with our clients and employees. In my experience, these tips will help you learn more about management and bring your communication efforts to the next level.
Remember, understanding the culture, preferences and mindset of different people makes collaborating with them much more productive and smooth. Use modern digital tools where necessary and applicable. Hire the right talent to make your cross-cultural communication strategy work even better. Find people from your tribe and wait for the "click." Be very picky, and at the same time, open your arms to potential when you see it.
But still, keep in mind the axiom of B2B: I believe offline is crucial, and meeting people — both clients and employees — isn’t just good; it’s the bloodline of the sector.
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ccf0777981349cf5c3a6668d8cf1d1cf | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/09/in-ai-can-we-trust/?sh=11ded5c93e5c | In AI (Can) We Trust? | In AI (Can) We Trust?
Chief Evangelist at Rockmetric, Tech Influencer. Thought Leader. CXO Advisor. Author. Startup Mentor. TEDx Speaker and Dogfather.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the best thing to happen to our lives. It helps us read our emails, complete our sentences, get directions, do online shopping, get dining and entertainment recommendations, and even make it easier to connect with old friends or make new ones on social media. AI is not only skilling itself at many human jobs; it is also making decisions for us.
The question is whether these decisions can be trusted. To elaborate, does AI-aided recruitment facilitate or reject the right candidate selection? Is the Tinder match made in heaven or by the algorithm? Who is being sent to jail — criminals or innocents predicted by AI bias?
As humans, we come from a diverse range of sociopolitical, racial and cultural backgrounds. The idea of what is right — and the mere question of morality itself — changes depending on the context. How does the AI decide what is right — and for whom? Faced with the decision to save the driver in a smart car or the pedestrian, who does the onboard AI choose? How does it arrive at this decision?
A Question Of Ethics
Before AI can think for humans, humans have to think for AI. Essentially, the ethics of AI technology is the embodiment of its creators' ethics. And this is where the "ethical AI conundrum" begins.
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Human Bias
AI is good and evil, but the truth is that the underlying concern that dominates every invention or innovation is human bias. There is enough evidence pointing in this direction, the recent and most prominent one being Apple. In 2019, the company's new credit card was accused of offering some women a lower limit despite them having better credit scores than their male spouses. Of such intensity was the bias that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak noted that his wife got a lower credit limit than he did despite the fact that they had "no separate bank or credit card accounts or any separate assets."
AI is open to biases because it makes decisions based on its human creators' information, and this information contains biases. Many of the creators are males who grew up in the western world, which can predispose them to individual communities and geographies. There has been enough debate around COMPAS (Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions), an algorithm that courts in the United States devised to anticipate the likelihood of repeat offenders. The algorithm indicated twice as many false positives for black offenders (45%) as white offenders (23%).
Garbage In, Garbage Out
TechTarget defines the concept of "garbage in, garbage out" this way: "The quality of the input determines the quality of output." Apart from humans, bias can also permeate a machine's intelligence. After all, as B Nalini noted, it is humans who frame the problem, train the model and deploy the system. Even with unbiased data, there is no guarantee of accuracy, as the very process by which machine learning models achieve this can yield biased outcomes.
Teaching AI Morality
In a 2001 article, futurist and inventor Raymond Kurzweil stated that our view of progress is linear. The more we adapt to change, the rate of change itself increases exponentially. We may expect to see 20,000 years of progress in the decades encompassing the 21st century. However, even while we acknowledge the exponential growth, we must also accept that AI is a relatively new technology. The word itself came into existence a mere 60 years ago, meaning we are closer to the beginning or maybe even in the middle rather than the end.
AI is just a toddler, learning the differences between moral right and wrong and inheriting its creators' biases. It still struggles to do much more than detect statistical patterns in large datasets. Human understanding and intelligence extend far beyond static ideas of right and wrong, the rules themselves changing according to sociocultural and historical contexts. If, as humans, we are still struggling with morality, it is rather presumptuous of us to expect a machine — that we have created — to outshine us in this regard.
As the Harvard Business Review noted, there are two conclusions. The first involves acknowledging how AI can help improve the process of human decision-making itself by predicting outcomes from available data while disregarding variables that lead human decision-makers to generalize and segregate without even realizing their inherent biases. The second alludes to a more complicated need to technically define and measure the ever-fleeting idea of "fairness."
Conclusion
Bias is as fundamental as the air we breathe or the environment we live in, and it is prevalent among us all, either as individuals or as a community. At this point in human history, the world is getting ready to industrialize AI tech and deploy it more widely. Thus, addressing the "inherent" AI biases at this moment becomes exceptionally critical.
Just as a pet blindly mirrors its trainer's instructions and personality, AI mirrors its creators' input, biased or not. Thus, the root of the problem goes far deeper than AI ethics but becomes a question of human morality and the concept of "fairness" itself and how it can be defined and measured.
"Debiasing humans is harder than debiasing AI systems," believes Olga Russakovsky, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University and co-founder of the AI4ALL Foundation, which works to increase diversity and inclusion within AI. "I am optimistic that automated decision making will become fairer," she mentioned in an interview with Wired.
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c4ab7aeae372d7a17ce74d2f4cabf2a5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/09/its-2021-your-it-security-is-not-as-safe-as-you-think-it-is/?sh=3a294c30478e | It’s 2021: Your IT Security Is Not As Safe As You Think It Is | It’s 2021: Your IT Security Is Not As Safe As You Think It Is
President & Executive Technologist at ENTRUST Technology, San Antonio's leading cloud and managed services provider.
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During the past few months, several of our ENTRUST clients have asked, “Are we doing enough in the way of security?” and we must tell them that, sadly, they’re not. The digital world has changed so much in recent years that we tell our clients to “stop protecting yourself like it’s 2017.” The landscape for security threats shifted dramatically in 2020 alone, and our incoming email filters, which previously blocked dozens of malware attempts per month for a single client, now stop thousands of attempts per month.
It’s time to step up your defenses before you’re breached and your valuable data is affected.
Now that more companies are using remote and cloud-based technologies to foster work-from-home arrangements, that warning is particularly urgent this year. Based on our experience, we’ve identified seven different security “postures,” which can be ranked in levels. It’s helpful to think about them as if you’re guarding your own home against an intrusion.
See the seven levels of security in the graphic below and determine where you think you are today. Many company leaders believe they are at the benchmark or vigilant levels because they are paying for a service plan from a reputable IT firm who is “taking care of it.” In reality, they are only at the basic levels (based on information they received in 2017) with what the IT firm provides in their standard plans. In 2021, everyone needs to be at the benchmark level and should strive to be vigilant or resilient.
Image courtesy of: ENTRUST Technology
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Blind (Level -1)
Some businesses are “flying blind,” which is similar to having a short fence around your house with the gate wide open. This typically means consumer-grade technology, an unmanaged router or firewall, and consumer-grade anti-malware. This is unacceptable for any business, but small businesses sometimes reason that they’re “starting small” or “doing what they can” until they grow. We always advise using some level of professional precaution to protect your business and assets.
Basic (Level 0)
Many businesses have a basic level of security, which is akin to having a short picket fence around your house but at least the gate closed. This usually means a managed, business-class firewall plus managed anti-malware. At ENTRUST and many other managed services companies, this type of security is typically included in every service package. We consider this barely acceptable posture — minimal and unprepared for serious attacks.
Basic + (Level 1)
As businesses begin to take their security seriously, they take a step above the basic minimum level, which is like having a tall fence around your home with the gate closed. On top of the basic protections, these packages include email filtering, web filtering and mobile device management for businesses. At managed services companies, this level is usually included in premium packages for clients. This level indicates that company leaders are taking more serious steps to protect their business.
Benchmark (Level 2)
Security specialists see this as the ideal baseline level of security that they’d recommend in 2021 given all of the potential security threats that surround us today. This is similar to adding to the tall fence a security camera or two to monitor the yard and front door to see who’s approaching. At this level, businesses have two-factor authentication and security awareness training for their team, as well as phishing simulation. Typically, it costs less than $10 per month per user and is easy to implement to ensure that everyone is prepared for security threats.
Vigilant (Level 3)
Few small or medium-sized businesses have built up their security to this level, which is similar to having a brick fence around your home with barbed wire and security cameras. You are prepared, know when a threat is coming, and have a reasonable amount of defense to prevent a threat. This level includes NextGen anti-malware with Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), which is highly recommended in 2021 to stop serious threats. It’s typically a small monthly upcharge per month or user, and company leaders can ensure that each employee device is protected.
Resilient (Level 4)
Businesses that are serious about security and want a more “eyes on” approach, as opposed to only deploying tools, can incorporate threat intelligence that proactively protects against real-time threats by adding what is called “SOC and SIEM” services. This is akin to having a security guard outside of your home, posted in front of the brick fence with barbed wire and security cameras. This includes alerts for potential threats and real-time alarms on security-related events that are detected through security logs. Billed monthly by server, workstation or device, this level helps company leaders fend off even sophisticated attacks and recover from them quickly should a penetration occur.
Security Management (Level 5)
The top level of protection requires ongoing management of potential vulnerabilities, regular screening reviews, and regular updates to policies. This is like having security auditors at your home that back up the security guard and other defenses, to ensure everything is running properly and incorporating new updates as needed. This goes the extra step and continually looks for vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. This level can cost an additional couple of hundred dollars per month, which some small businesses may find too expensive, but it’s certainly worth consideration.
After review, which of the above scenarios fits your security posture? You may not realize that your current service plan doesn’t protect you from threats automatically and that you can bump up to the next level with little additional cost. Luckily, in recent years, the prices for these services have become much more affordable for small and medium-sized businesses. Even the resilient level, with the security guard, is finally attainable and recommended for smaller businesses.
If you’ve done everything your IT provider recommended back in 2017, it is most likely not sufficient for 2021. Reexamine your security posture in light of today’s threats and invest in the protection level your business deserves.
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274f1f73713cd37504db13421acf83b6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/09/why-the-new-normal-requires-zero-trust/?sh=cd914ec5f459 | Why The "New Normal" Requires Zero Trust | Why The "New Normal" Requires Zero Trust
Rajat Bhargava is an entrepreneur, investor, author and currently CEO and co-founder of JumpCloud.
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It became increasingly clear as organizations accelerated their migration from physical domains and legacy technologies to flexible and agile cloud technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic that convenience, flexibility and cost savings would become established benefits of remote work and a distributed workforce.
This shift of the global workforce looks to be a permanent change. Despite widespread Zoom fatigue, it seems like users generally like it. Gallup found that nearly two-thirds of U.S. remote workers would like to continue working remotely. And organizations like it too, with Gartner reporting that 90% of human resources leaders plan on allowing remote work even after the Covid-19 vaccine is available.
But the shift also comes with a mandate. IT teams need to do more than enable work for anyone, from anywhere; they must ensure that it’s secure. That’s no small task. At a time with reports of security threats increasing by 400% compared to pre-pandemic levels, IT teams must be more prepared than ever. It’s no surprise that organizations of all sizes are strengthening their security posture by moving to a Zero Trust model.
The Shift To Zero Trust
Thirty years ago and even just a few years back, the typical user would enter a building, go to a workstation, login and access everything they needed via on-premises servers. But as digital strategy and cloud adoption increased, the way in which users accessed their IT resources changed, too.
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The perimeter around work, once bound to a physical location, has transformed. Now, a user’s device — irrespective of location — is the central point from which a user gets secure access to the right resources. At the same time, authentication and authorization needs have evolved and outgrown simple password-based models that assumed binary login scenarios.
So it’s no surprise that organizations increasingly turn to Zero Trust (ZT), a security model defined by Forrester in 2010, as a guide for security strategy that meets the continually evolving needs of modern workplaces. As summarized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Zero Trust is an “evolving set of cybersecurity paradigms that move defenses from static, network-based perimeters to focus on users, assets, and resources.”
Said more blatantly, Zero Trust means “Trust Nothing, Verify Everything.”
How Zero Trust Meets Modern Security Demands
By not trusting devices, networks or users without verification, a Zero Trust architecture helps address not only the rapidly changing security demands of the past decade but also the specific security demands that came to light as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, Zero Trust:
• Mitigates common security vulnerabilities through learned trust. To combat ever-evolving security threats and the determination of the hackers behind them, IT admins need awareness and visibility into user activity. Under a Zero Trust model, they can monitor access and authorization activity and manage it for accurate threat assessment. As a user’s behavior and patterns become more established, anomalous events and access attempts can be denied in real-time. Violations of trusted devices, networks, applications, files and more can be identified faster through alerts from an unknown location, an unrecognized device or a user attempting to access a file for which they don’t have sufficient permissions. Because of this Zero Trust posture, organizations can defend against potential breaches more effectively: System and IT admins and network ops engineers can be vigilant and effective in their response to security threats.
• Offers identity management suitable for complicated IT ecosystems. A Zero Trust model moves organizations away from a binary access system — access granted or denied — to a system of authenticating and granting access based on a number of identity variables. This process includes verifying not only that the user is who they claim to be, but also that, in real-time, they have the correct permissions to access what they’re trying to access and working on secure devices and networks.
• Provides conditional access. Conditional access based on Zero Trust allows for security to be tightened or relaxed according to each team, department or organization’s unique needs. By assuming least privileged access, the Zero Trust model can deliver robust security that’s both automatic and adaptive. IT admins can create policies that challenge users to verify their identity in the presence of abnormal authentication attempts, as well as deny access if they use untrusted devices or networks. It can also require multi-factor authentication (MFA), such as biometrics and keys, for step-up authentication at highly sensitive access points. Despite the complex backend, the model can be implemented without introducing unnecessary friction to the user’s experience.
• Enables the shift away from passwords. Passwords don’t positively identify users; they simply confirm that someone is presenting the right combination of credentials. Alternatively, a Zero Trust model offers a depth to user identity by requiring that the user and that individual’s device, network and role all align with permissions granted them — for any resource they try to access. Organizations can provision authoritative identities and credentials and add layered security by requiring varied forms of MFA.
Many organizations will continue to operate with a distributed model, users will continue to work remotely and IT teams will continue to secure that activity in the presence of pernicious security risks. No longer is it safe to assume that a user, device or network is secure. As we look past pandemic-mandated remote work and toward a reimagined future that takes its benefits seriously, Zero Trust is a security must.
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bf2c014533287ebd467b8f2ae0c310b4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/10/15-key-questions-to-help-tech-leaders-prioritize-projects/?sh=37fa6f5f1168 | 15 Key Questions To Help Tech Leaders Prioritize Projects | 15 Key Questions To Help Tech Leaders Prioritize Projects
Every leader needs to master the ability to strategically prioritize projects. This essential skill helps managers develop solid action plans for completing the many tasks on their team’s plates. When adjusting to evolving factors is the only constant, as in the highly competitive world of tech, it’s especially critical for tech leaders to have a strong handle on prioritization.
To help, 15 members of Forbes Technology Council shared the questions they ask themselves and their teams to determine which projects to tackle first.
Forbes Technology Council members share the questions they ask to help prioritize tech projects. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. ‘Which project will improve the end-user experience the most?’
In this time of smaller technology budgets and reprioritization of projects, I always encourage my team to evaluate which projects will improve our end-user experience the most. These are not always the projects with the most immediate ROI, but they are critical to the long-term success of the company. - Steve Taplin, Sonatafy Technology
2. ‘What’s the opportunity cost to do this?’
The primary question we ask with every technology project is, “What’s the opportunity cost to do this?” Technology projects are always a trade-off, and completing one always means delaying or canceling another project. Going through the list of priorities and reviewing which other projects will be missed helps our team prioritize everything that is going to slip. - Anthony Presley, Custom Business Solutions
3. ‘How does this impact our customers?’
When prioritizing tech projects, it’s important to ask, “How does this impact our customers?” The highest priority should be given to projects enhancing the customer experience and/or solving customers issues. Fully digital businesses are able to pivot products and services to solve customer issues, even if it’s not the company’s core business. This is the sweet spot for tech projects. - Kerrie Hoffman, Get Digital Velocity; and FocalPoint Business Coaching, a Hoffman Advantage Company
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4. ‘What is our ability to execute our strategy?’
First, we look at our ability to execute strategy by ensuring that we have the right people, resources and partnerships to help us achieve our goals. Second, we focus first on the overall ROI of the investment and how it aligns with our strategic goals. Third, we focus on how the technology will be adopted to ensure that we realized the expected value of the investment. - Steve Reasner, LIFTinnovate
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5. ‘Will this support our multi-year strategic plan?’
Every initiative, be it technology-related or otherwise, needs to support the multi-year strategic plan. When prioritizing projects and efforts, their impact and hierarchy are solely based on how implementing them will get the organization closer to achieving those goals and objectives. Everything else is secondary and can be potentially tabled. - Danny Acuna, Danvir Consulting
6. ‘Does this project align with a short- or long-term business goal?’
Innovation is a top priority, and our engineers have cutting-edge expertise and the ability to develop exciting new products and features. But before we embark on any new project, we always make sure it’s in alignment with either a short-term business objective or our long-term goals and vision. - Yinglian Xie, DataVisor
7. ‘Will this project lead to new learning opportunities?’
Will the project lead to us learning something new? Will it enhance our understanding of a new technology that will be widely adopted in the future? This is important because, as a technology company, it is imperative to our relevance to stay abreast of new developments and how they can benefit our clients. - Debarshi Chaudhury, Quantilus Innovation Inc.
8. ‘Will it provide multiple value streams?
Will this technology provide multiple value streams? When time or resources are limited, prioritize the technology that maps to the most use cases. Otherwise, development of the technology that your team is most excited about will get prioritized, and that often results in innovation without impact. - Suzanne Russo, Pecan Street Inc.
9. ‘How will this enable our team to do better work?’
From an “internal customer” perspective, the best question to ask is, “How will this enable our team to do better work?” Get your project in front of the users early and prioritize the projects that have the largest impact on the employee experience. There are a lot of ways to measure that, but the key here is to focus on the outcome over the output. - Logan Brown, Visible
10. ‘Will our customers pay for this?’
Is it something your customers are asking for? Is it something they will pay for? I’ve certainly been guilty of prioritizing my own preferences in the past, anticipating that customers would be as excited for the new product or feature as I was. In many cases, they aren’t. Talk to customers in advance, review your customer feedback and prioritize based on what themes bubble to the top. - Sean Herman, Kinzoo
11. ‘Will this strengthen our core or expand our use cases?’
Strategic prioritization is a difficult exercise because businesses have multiple conflicting priorities. For example, do you invest in a feature that makes things simpler for existing customers but may not address new uses, or do you invest in features that expand your market? We use a framework where we split our investments between strengthening our core and expanding our use cases. - Krishna Subramanian, Komprise
12. ‘Where does this fall on the Eisenhower Matrix?’
Where does this project fall in the Eisenhower Matrix of “urgent” versus “important?” Projects that are urgent but not that important often get prioritized when it should really be the other way around. If the pandemic taught us one thing, it’s that innovation is born out of crisis. So the question becomes, how do we create urgency in a non-crisis situation to continue to drive that same innovation? - Anneka Gupta, LiveRamp
13. ‘What tools do our engineers need?’
We must continually ask our engineering teams what tools they need to accomplish the task of enhancing the resiliency and agility of business operations, products and services. If they’re empowered to tap into their creative problem-solving skills, instead of spinning cycles coming up with workarounds to roadblocks, much more innovative solutions will come to fruition. - Joshua Bixby, Fastly
14. ‘Do our customers need or want this?’
I will typically think of two questions in this area. First, is this a “need” or a “want” for both our existing and new prospective customers? Next, what will it take to get a good and release-ready product to market in terms of time and cost? We try to get a solid and reasonable product to market to address a customer need as soon as possible, and then work on future revisions as needed. - Nate Cote, Kanguru Solutions
15. ‘Why is this important to our customers and to us?’
For every idea that comes into our product queue, I ask, “Why is this important to our customers?” and “Why is it important to us?” These questions help us prioritize effectively using a weight matrix approach, which bubbles to the top those ideas that we believe will bring the best value overall. It also requires us to truly understand what is important to our customers. - Kathy Keating, TextUs
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a0f241dea5309b2f22bac6a35fc9a5c8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/10/what-ive-learned-as-a-female-ceo-in-a-male-dominated-industry/ | What I’ve Learned As A Female CEO In A Male-Dominated Industry | What I’ve Learned As A Female CEO In A Male-Dominated Industry
CEO of Stor.ai.
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Throughout my 20-year career leading high-tech and startup companies, I’ve worked with a number of inspirational entrepreneurs who I always strived to emulate. I admired my role models’ abilities to handle adversity and negotiate ambiguity. Despite working in an overwhelmingly male industry, I never saw my gender as an obstacle to replicating these attributes and ultimately achieving my career goals.
But the more exposure I’ve had to company boardrooms, the more I’ve come to realize that the gender imbalance at the uppermost echelons of tech leadership genuinely stymies the upward mobility of talented women. With that realization, I now see it as an obligation to support up-and-coming female entrepreneurs in their career development.
Today, I’m the CEO of a digital commerce platform. Having joined the company as the only woman on the C-suite, I’m now actively bringing female leadership to the executive team. Here are some of the key lessons I’ve learned and would like to pass on to aspiring female entrepreneurs:
Navigating Boardroom Dynamics
Like most Israelis, I jumped straight from leaving high school into my mandatory military service, where I served in the Israel Defense Forces’ prestigious 8200 military intelligence unit. I spent my service applying technological solutions to complicated topics, usually with a lot of men in the room. After experiencing that baptism of fire, I saw no reason why I couldn’t make myself heard in business settings as well.
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While everyone’s background is different, the reality is that all women in tech — simply by virtue of being in tech — acquire extensive experience in navigating tricky interpersonal dynamics. Vital networking and relationship-building moments frequently take place outside formal meetings, and small talk often feels less natural for women in a male-dominated space.
I’ve learned that employees often flourish under the sort of calm authoritativeness that women leaders often bring, especially when compared to some men who talk loudly and at length. I encourage women to prepare and participate. Feel confident to take a position and invest in building a rapport with everyone in the room. This will enhance an executive’s overall credibility, which makes those tough small-talk interactions significantly easier.
Being A Role Model Within Your Company
There’s a glut of female talent in tech, but all too often highly competent women remain in mid-level management positions. Male executives have even asked me — with great surprise — why skilled managers shy away from taking the step up to more senior roles. They assume that the doors are open but women aren’t taking advantage of available opportunities.
The reality is that there’s a lot of stigma surrounding the potentially detrimental impact of career advancement on women’s work-life balance. My response to that is that executives do work long hours and promotions will come at the expense of family time. I believe that’s a worthwhile sacrifice for some women to make in order to set an example and bring about change, and that lesson has helped numerous women make courageous career decisions.
Even when women decide to take on greater responsibility after having raised a family, there are plenty of advantages to assuming leadership roles at a later age, by which time they are significantly more mature and experienced.
There aren’t many opportunities for training as a CEO; for most CEOs, it’s their first time on the job. As a result, CEOs have to acknowledge that they’re in a constant learning process. It takes a degree of maturity to realize that knowing what you don’t know and enlisting support from colleagues where necessary is actually a mark of confidence.
Managing A Crisis
It’s often argued that women are better crisis managers than men — look no further than suggestions that nations led by women provided the best response to the Covid-19 pandemic. For me, the learning curve started at home: being a mother offered excellent crisis management training.
All enterprises have had to adapt in some way or another in the wake of the pandemic, and having experienced uncertainty is highly valuable when responding to sweeping and unexpected change. Crises also prompt companies to try something different, and many women gain unexpected opportunities in this way — it’s easier for directors to take what they perceive as a risk when there’s less to lose.
To use my experience as an example, I was appointed as CEO at a transition point for the company, and could immediately bring fresh perspectives to aspects of business which required innovative thinking. Nobody knew exactly what impact Covid-19 would have on the industry, but the end result was certainly positive: We rode the crest of a threefold increase in online grocery’s market share to achieve 300% year-on-year growth, scaling up drastically in a short period of time.
Putting Theory Into Practice: What Women Leaders Can Achieve
I’ve consistently tried to internalize the insights I acquired from my years as a lower-ranked employee, and I’ve tried to base my management style on what a younger version of me would have needed and wanted. I know that I’d have appreciated feeling that my opinion matters.
An employee once told me that he’d never worked for a female CEO before and one of the key differences he identified was management through holistic compassion: Employees were no longer seen as merely cogs in the machine. As a CEO, you have to support and inspire the best from the team around you, incorporating everyone’s knowledge to make the best decision for the company.
Having shared my perspectives and fostered a broad network of women entrepreneurs, I’ve had the privilege of seeing more than a few women rise through the ranks of their companies. Perhaps most gratifying, though, is that my 14-year-old daughter and her friends now see having a female CEO in the family as entirely natural. In a few years’ time, an entire generation will enter the workforce thinking the same way, making what now seems extraordinary perfectly ordinary.
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f377a285aca4814ba58dad3854b1b475 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/11/data-loss-preventions-classification-to-security-gap/?sh=387a1b0f58fa | Data Loss Prevention's Classification To Security Gap | Data Loss Prevention's Classification To Security Gap
Co-Founder & CEO of SecureCircle, a SaaS-based cybersecurity service that extends Zero Trust security to data on the endpoint.
Clearly, (555) 123-1234 is a phone number from the United States. Identifying critical data such as personally identifiable information (PII), credit card information (payment card industry or PCI data) or personal health information (PHI) is not a problem. Both users and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) can locate names, addresses, account numbers and other personal information. If we can identify the critical data, why doesn't data security prevent data breaches and data loss?
Data loss occurs because traditional security such as data loss prevention (DLP) doesn't secure data on the endpoint. DLP will discover and classify data on the endpoint, but it will not secure it. Instead, DLP will rely on blocking sensitive data as the data attempts to leave the device.
The reason is security is not transparent and impacts users and workflows. To accomplish this, DLP requires admins to create and maintain an extensive list of rules that identify what is allowed and what is not.
Example rule: If the user is sending PII data via Outlook/Exchange and the recipient's domain is Acme.com, block the action by removing the PII attachment. Now, the example rule makes sense. But what happens when we introduce three layers of users: limited, corporate, executive. Each has a different outcome.
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What happens if a user tries to send the file via WeirdAppOffInternet.exe? Or what happens if Acme.com also has a team in Japan with the domain Acme.co.jp? The number of rules and the ongoing maintenance to keep up with applications is nearly impossible.
Why do legacy solutions insist on not securing classified data on the endpoint? Because, until now, all solutions available impact users and workflows.
Securing data today stops work from happening. For example, when PII data is in a PDF file, DLP encrypts the PDF to protect the PII data. But now, users can't easily view or edit PDF files. Previews and thumbnails stop working. Users need to either decrypt the PDF file to edit or view. Alternatively, the DLP solution could provide some encrypted PDF viewer (or plug-in). At a minimum, users have to learn a new behavior to view and edit the secure data. More common is users pass a speed bump multiple times a day while trying to perform their job.
DLP has found ways to reduce the speed bump for common file types like PDF and Microsoft Office files. But PII and regulated data are also found in other file formats. Audio, compressed files, images, videos, source code/engineering files, databases and more are commonly used in business today. DLP is a significant speed bump for these and any custom file type. Users have to encrypt and decrypt the file before using and storing it. We can debate the end-to-end security of solutions that decrypt entire files as part of the standard workflow separately. (Hint: I will argue that any solution that decrypts the whole file is inherently flawed.)
Organizations should evaluate DLP solutions based on two criteria:
• Data security needs to be transparent to end users and workflows. Solutions need to include securing data of any file type and compatibility with any application. Users will find workarounds to security if security impedes their ability to work.
• PII and other regulated datasets need to be secured as soon as possible on the endpoint. Securing data on the endpoint protects from accidental and malicious insider threats and external threats such as ransomware.
The industry needs to change its approach. DLP solutions must secure the data on the endpoint and not just contain the data to the endpoint. This small difference is significant. There are too many inadvertent and malicious ways for data to leave the endpoint. The ongoing rule management burden DLP places on organizations is too high.
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6908e1ac329049a9f70cb5f83ac8c852 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/11/how-pets-can-enhance-stem-teaching-and-learning/ | How Pets Can Enhance STEM Teaching And Learning | How Pets Can Enhance STEM Teaching And Learning
Founder @stemdotorg democratizing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education through sound policy and practice.
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Adopting a pet is a big day for any family, and there's plenty of joy to be had in inviting a dog or cat into your life. While pets are wonderful for many reasons, they can also be a great way to spark an interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills in kids of all ages — and adults, too. Whether it's adopting a pet or just looking for ways to enhance engagement in the classroom, connecting to animals can provide a wealth of learning opportunities.
How Kids Benefit From Caring For Pets
Most people have a vague sense that raising an animal is a good learning experience for children, and scientists have begun to quantify these benefits. For example, researchers from the University of Vienna found that having a dog in the classroom increased student autonomy and social integration while decreasing aggressive behavior. The social-emotional benefits of caring for animals are enormous and include direct experiences of important life skills, including responsibility, trust and compassion.
The American Humane Association surveyed teachers about their experiences with classroom pets. Their findings indicate that teachers use pets as a jumping-off point for interdisciplinary instruction in several areas, including:
• Direct science instruction.
• Leadership and responsibility.
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• Enhancement of language arts.
• Relaxation and stress relief techniques.
Teachers in the study reported that classroom pets opened the door to deeper and more engaging STEM learning, including lessons on "habitats, ecosystems, environmental conservation, climate, life cycles, genetics, reproduction, adaptations and animal behavior."
Using Animals To Promote STEM Thinking
While classroom teachers may have developed specific curriculum and lesson plans that connect to school pets, biology isn't the only STEM subject that animals can spark an interest in. When we consider the importance of STEM learning and its impact on students' futures, we must remember that thinking like a scientist is the most important skill of all. That is, students may not become biologists or veterinarians because of their experience with a pet cat at home or a gerbil in the classroom, but they will certainly use critical thinking skills for the rest of their lives.
Much of the best STEM learning involves asking students to analyze a situation and solve problems with creative solutions. This may involve scientific experimentation or engineering a physical or technological solution. Being responsible for a pet can provide a real-world problem that makes this kind of learning truly authentic and hands-on.
For example, consider a simple fish tank. As children learn to care for the fish properly, they can experiment with a number of ways to make caring for the fish easier. Is there an optimal amount of food to provide? What's the best way to reduce algae build-up in the tank? Can you train a fish? Why?
Interacting with reptiles and mammals puts even greater possibilities into play since these creatures can be touched, moved and interacted with. From designing a cozier cat carrier to tracking a puppy's weight gain over time, there's an endless array of learning opportunities that pets provide.
The trick is to encourage wide-ranging questioning and allow students the freedom to experiment. Is there a problem that the pet experiences? Does something get in the way of its comfort or make life harder for the people caring for the pet? What is the best way to ensure its happiness? Allowing children to focus on a meaningful problem to solve is the best way to create real engagement.
STEM Careers With Animals
Solving problems for pets is exactly the type of thinking that inspires many real-life STEM entrepreneurs. The pet tech market is valued at over $4.5 billion and is expected to grow significantly through 2025. One great example of a company using STEM to make a pet's life better is the Chamberlain Group (CGI). CGI has just introduced the myQ Pet Portal, a smart dog door that opens and closes via an app so pets can safely get outside even if you're running late at work. Seamlessly integrated within the door, the myQ Pet Portal includes a hidden smart panel featuring a patent-pending smart, elevator-style opening mechanism that works with a custom collar sensor. It's an innovative product that uses smart technology and attractive engineering to solve a real problem for people and their pets.
This — like so much of the emerging pet tech market — is a teachable example of entrepreneurship and innovation that can inspire kids to envision a future in STEM that goes beyond the laboratory. Embracing entrepreneurship is a crucial key to success, and exploring pet tech is a great way to expand the definition of what a STEM career looks like.
Of course, there are plenty of careers that also involve working directly with animals — and many require a solid background in STEM. Caring for a pet today could inspire a lifelong passion that leads to work in many fields, including:
• Research in genetics, animal behavior, biotechnology and more.
• Veterinary care and other medicine-related fields.
• Food processing and other industrial work.
• Livestock breeding and farming.
• Animal training and therapy.
• Environmental science.
• Pharmacology.
• Zoologists.
Careers with animals range from pure research jobs to practical, hands-on work with animals, but all require the deep critical thinking that a solid STEM education provides. For students who haven't yet found their passion or who struggle to find meaning in traditional academic subjects, connections with animals can serve as a starting point for engagement that opens up a world of possibilities. In this way, our humble, loyal pets can truly enrich the lives of children in more ways than we can imagine.
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431c03726ebf03130872591e1864a36c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/11/seven-strategies-from-the-pandemic-to-protect-healthcare-from-ransomware/?sh=177a797a6f1a | Seven Strategies From The Pandemic To Protect Healthcare From Ransomware | Seven Strategies From The Pandemic To Protect Healthcare From Ransomware
President and CEO of CynergisTek, NYSE: CTEK a trusted partner for security, privacy and compliance.
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Social distancing. Contract tracing. Quarantine. These are phrases and words we didn’t hear much about before Covid-19 but now are part of our everyday lives. The strategies the public has adhered to during the pandemic have real applications in our digital environments. In the security world, leaders can take the strategies we’ve learned and apply them to protecting sensitive data, especially in healthcare. Here's how:
1. Testing
During the pandemic, testing is a crucial tool to slow the spread. As ransomware attacks increase in healthcare, a compromise assessment unearths if an organization is currently infected, prepared and resilient to withstand a breach. A compromise assessment looks at both endpoint and network security, along with known and unknown devices to uncover malicious activity.
These assessments also increase visibility to determine if teams have the right skills and tools on hand to quickly identify, contain and remediate incidents. Screening is critical — both in public health and security — to effectively curb the spread of viruses in physical and digital spaces.
2. Social Distancing
Ransomware can find its way into the most protected environments, so a defensive strategy is all about preventing the spread. Just like we see social distancing as a strategy to prevent the spread of Covid-19, we need social distancing on our network.
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If a single department of an organization gets infected, it is imperative to stop the spread from impacting the entire organization. Network segmentation divides a computer network into smaller parts, which can limit the harm caused by ransomware and systems restored in record time. If a network isn’t segmented, an entire organization can be locked up due to the spread of ransomware with no real avenue for recovery — sometimes resulting in massive payments to attackers to restore operational access. In a digital world, this strategy allows back-end systems to distance as a means to prevent more damage from being done.
3. Contact Tracing
In a pandemic, individuals who have been exposed to the virus should sequester themselves for a period to stem the spread. In the case of a ransomware attack, the equivalent of contact tracing is endpoint detection and response (EDR).
EDR tools provide telemetry from every endpoint in the organization, allowing IT teams to immediately identify risks at the first sign of an infection while enabling an automatic quarantine as the team responds. With much of the workforce working remotely, these tools have become essential as robust information sharing occurs outside of the network firewall. Effectively, contract tracing and EDR help triage the situation to ensure things don’t get any worse in the event of an outbreak or attack.
4. Masks
Personal protective equipment goes beyond pandemics: Digital “masks” are needed to prevent networks from being corrupted. In security, this is two-factor authentication (2FA).
Upon access, an adversary will deploy tools to crack passwords and elevate their credentials. Fraudsters can crack passwords in minutes, but encountering 2FA will slow the adversary and potentially send them off to more vulnerable targets. Extra protection is the name of the game when looking to prevent viruses from ravaging our physical and digital environments.
5. Scrubs And Gowns
If medical professionals wore their everyday clothes in sterile settings, their clothing could introduce unwanted pathogens. Medical scrubs in the security world are best likened to privileged access management (PAM), which helps dial in the appropriate level of access controls to condense the organization’s attack surface, preventing widespread damage from external attacks in addition to insider negligence.
Implementing a PAM tool (or conducting a PAM audit) can help detect any loopholes in access for privileged users. It’s important to take all precautions available to reduce new outbreaks or attacks from occurring.
6. Check-Ups
An annual check-up helps identify areas where individuals need medical intervention (or changes in diet and exercise). When it comes to understanding the organization’s health of their people, processes and technology, conducting a security control validation assessment may be just what the doctor (or CISO) ordered.
A security control validation assessment will discover exactly which security solutions are not functioning properly to best protect the organization from different attack methodologies — especially ransomware and malware. Being proactive on both fronts pays off and helps mitigate potential compromises in health and security from emerging.
7. Treatment Plan
With patients, medical professionals offer a treatment plan to overcome a complex illness. With ransomware, time is of the essence as the digital health of an organization hangs in the balance. Having an updated ransomware response playbook can easily guide leaders to manage, respond and recover from an attack much faster, offering a chance at a speedy recovery.
Final Thoughts
The events of this past year have sparked many conversations and actions when it comes to an organization’s security posture, forcing many to rethink their processes and solutions to significantly reduce attack vulnerabilities and risk.
With ransomware attacks on the rise in healthcare, it’s time for hospitals and health systems to double down on preventative measures to protect their patients at all costs. A vaccine may be on its way for Covid-19, but the only way for organizations to truly protect themselves end to end in security is to assess their condition, actively impose preventative measures and triage the crisis if an attack lands.
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0c9f277174fd013562e83163a08c03c3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/11/the-mistake-companies-make-when-measuring-productivity-and-how-to-fix-it/?sh=4a515e7771e3 | The Mistake Companies Make When Measuring Productivity (And How To Fix It) | The Mistake Companies Make When Measuring Productivity (And How To Fix It)
CEO at Terminal, a startup changing the way high-growth tech companies hire and retain tech talent.
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Productivity is one of the cornerstones of any successful business. But the truth is, most businesses are approaching it wrong.
According to my company's recent leadership survey, 78% of leaders surveyed believe that building trust is the key to employee productivity. And rightly so: Study after study shows that trust and autonomy are some of the most effective ways to keep employees motivated and boost productivity. But when it comes down to it, 34% of leaders surveyed in our report still rely on “big brother” approaches to measuring productivity, like regularly checking up on employees through tracking software or grilling them during one-on-ones. Some still require employees to report how they spend their time.
Clearly, the “trust method” is more wishful thinking than reality.
Productivity in the 21st century is a complex thing to measure and goes beyond the simple “output optimization” that has long dominated business best practices. Instead, productivity is nuanced, encompassing a business’s needs at a particular moment and the human toll of meeting those needs, in addition to typical “input/output” measures.
Here’s how you can give your productivity metrics a facelift and start building trust:
Productivity starts with a strong mission, big goals and clear KPIs.
One of the most effective ways to motivate employees is by having — and communicating — a strong mission. Employees who connect with a company’s mission are typically more interested in the work they’re doing day to day and are three times more likely to work for a company that promotes a strong sense of purpose.
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By defining a strong company mission, and living it every day, business leaders can motivate employees to attain big goals. Employees often go above and beyond when they believe their work is making a difference in the world. Clear KPIs should quantify how well business goals ladder up to the company mission, not the other way around.
For engineering teams, keep your productivity measures adaptable.
Sales orgs have revenue attainment, and marketing teams have MQLs. But for engineering teams, there is no “master metric” for measuring productivity. Rather, productivity for engineering is highly dependent on what the business requires at a particular moment in time.
When I advise engineering leaders, I encourage them to adopt an adaptable approach to measuring productivity. Of course, engineering orgs should have a good understanding of their vital signs — engagement, throughput and code quality — but productivity should always tie back to what’s important culturally within the team. And, in the end, it all maps back to the product.
If you don’t proactively define productivity, someone else will do it for you.
It’s essential for business leaders to explicitly discuss with their teams how the org regards productivity, both on the management side and with individual contributors. If executives fail to proactively define what productivity means to the org, other stakeholders will project their needs onto productivity metrics without accounting for the whole picture.
Productivity is a multifaceted beast. Business leaders have to learn to get ahead of what’s considered productive; otherwise, the definition will take on a life of its own.
Being productive does not equal being busy.
At the end of the day, productivity is about how much value a team is adding to the company, not the amount of work it’s doing. Whatever metrics a company adopts, value should always be the backbone of how productivity is measured.
So, do you want your employees to be productive or just busy? Every business leader should take a hard look at the metrics they use to see what they’re asking their teams to do.
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717e26317415851832057816c5335120 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/12/data-archiving-how-to-accelerate-a-cloud-first-strategy-for-your-company/?sh=15575d8e3fd7 | Data Archiving: How To Accelerate A Cloud-First Strategy For Your Company | Data Archiving: How To Accelerate A Cloud-First Strategy For Your Company
CEO at DefendX, overseeing Secure Data Management- File Discovery, Compliance and Mobility for our customers globally.
Over the past decade, the phrase "cloud-first" has become common language among those involved in business technology. The term has developed a definition all on its own and essentially refers to cloud-based technology as a leader in the industry. It has established itself in conversations regarding IT projects in industries across the board and has most recently become a trend to look out for in 2021.
It’s not surprising that the cloud-first mentality has become a common theme in the computer world because it allows businesses to get their hands on top-rated technology with little effort. Since 2013, several enterprises have established a cloud-first policy, and it has quickly become the choice of employers because it requires no in-house technical management, freeing up time and staffing for other projects. Adding to the additional time gained, the enhanced functionality of being a cloud-first business is a sought-after piece of the efficiency puzzle, especially because in-house options have proven to be more challenging.
By putting a cloud-first strategy in place, you’re immediately reducing your overhead costs. With in-house servers, you are typically required to pay any fees upfront — a pretty penny, compared to the pay-as-you-consume setup of the cloud-first option. When a business adopts the cloud-first strategy, it subscribes to a service provider for software, platforms or infrastructure and has the potential to obtain the best services at low and secured rates.
In addition to the obvious cost-effective perks of going cloud-first, there are no requirements to have on-site hardware or capital expenses. For smaller companies with growth goals, cloud-first offers the option of additional storage and can be initiated on demand, allowing the business owner to only pay for what they need.
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More convenient than the in-house option, backup and restore can be instituted from anywhere simply by using a computer, tablet or smartphone. To prevent data losses that can occur during disaster incidents, data in cloud-first can be backed up in as often as 15-minute intervals, and the time for recovery of small data is greatly improved. As an added bonus, you won’t have to stress about taking on the role of managing the complex technical aspects that are often necessary with an in-house server. Your subscription provider will include the management and support of the system, as well as upkeep and security.
The combination of added value, better uniformity, cost-effectiveness and less waste all point toward cloud-first as the better investment for most businesses; however, it’s crucial to have a solid strategy in place when implementing a cloud-first way of working.
Like all things in business, you’ll need to take into consideration a few key factors that will help you map out your plan. Choosing the right cloud provider for your needs should be a top priority, and you’ll likely need to brainstorm with trusted employees to narrow it down. First, take the time to establish the security risks of your business. From there, you can assess the policies of the available cloud providers. The provider of your choice should educate you on how the cloud migration will affect security and what they can do to protect the business in the process. Whether you are migrating some or all your assets to the cloud, a thorough security approach will save you complications in the long run.
A cloud provider should adapt to your business’s needs and work like a well-oiled machine, contributing to the overall effort and following a meticulously defined plan, including next-generation firewall platforms, endpoint protection, enterprise segmentation and guidance of identities and entry.
By taking the following steps into consideration, you can have a successful migration to the cloud:
1. Analyze your system
Before you hire a cloud provider, it will be helpful to understand what role your team will play in the process and how much time will be involved. Embrace an all-encompassing mentality, and make it your mission to adopt whatever your company will need to align with the cloud process.
2. Set a strong foundation
By having a solid foundation in place, you can save time and money in the long run. This can be achieved by dedicating time to plan out enterprise structures and build your workforce. And if your company grows, simply add on to the foundation.
3. Establish your team
You’ll need to recruit the help of qualified employees who will be dedicated to managing the cloud project. When determining who should be on the team, it’s critical to recruit the help of those who excel in communication because keeping tabs on the various stages of the project will help everything fall into place effortlessly.
4. Prepare data
A productive implementation is heavily reliant on data that is prepared well in advance. Prior to the data conversion process, team members need to have proper tools that are designed to extract, cleanse, transform and upload data to the cloud. This should all happen while your organization maintains solid data integrity.
5. Provide training
Whenever an organization adopts a new technology system, there will undoubtedly be some challenges to overcome. One way to prepare for these roadblocks is to provide training for those who will be affected by the new system. Because employees will adapt to change at different speeds, it’s important to open up communication for feedback and offer regular training to iron out any wrinkles in the system.
The growing complex regulatory environments have resulted in countless trials for IT management teams, which is why it’s incredibly important to choose a software that streamlines your business’s needs.
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c3965a6b7d36fb927ab30fcb1c55e46d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/12/deep-learning-sometimes-it-pays-to-go-shallow/ | Deep Learning? Sometimes It Pays To Go Shallow | Deep Learning? Sometimes It Pays To Go Shallow
CEO of Lexalytics, the leader in cloud and on-prem text analytics solutions.
Deep learning is the current darling of AI. Used by behemoths such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, it leverages artificial neural networks that “learn” through exposure to immense amounts of data. By immense we mean internet-scale amounts — or billions of documents at a minimum.
If your project draws upon publicly available data, deep learning can be a valuable tool. The same is true if budget isn’t an issue.
But depending on your project, the data you need might be behind a wall, or there simply might not be billions of data points in your dataset. If this is the case, deep learning probably isn’t the solution you need, but you can still draw on machine learning to get results.
Non-Deep-Learning Solutions: High Value And High Efficacy
Let’s assume you work in the pharmaceutical industry. The data volumes in this domain are enormous but are often protected and difficult to get at en masse. It’s also an area with rigorous regulatory requirements that necessitate detailed content classification and auditable results. These factors make it a bad fit for a deep learning solution. But other machine learning approaches can still provide high-value outcomes.
In the pharmaceutical industry, everything is tracked and categorized, so an all-knowing deep learning model isn’t really needed. A more basic type of model (MaxEnt, for example) is sufficient for the task of matching up content with a known taxonomy or identifying new patterns or trends in drug research data.
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Why is this a better solution than deep learning? Because these models are so specific, unlike the more generalized deep learning models, they can be trained on much smaller amounts of data — think hundreds of thousands or millions of documents instead of billions. These models are easier and cheaper to build and are therefore much easier to maintain and update as new data becomes available. Beyond this, the sheer size and hardware demands of a deep learning solution mean that it’s the wrong hammer to use for many of the common problems you encounter in pharma.
A Case In Point: Compendia
Let’s look at the specific case of drug compendia in the pharmaceutical industry. Drug compendia, historically known as “price books,” are essentially summaries of drug information for a specific condition that are shared to pharmacy retail chains, government databases, distributors and EHR databases. They outline which drugs are most preferred by insurers and approved for off-label uses, pricing, and which combinations of drugs do and don’t interact well together.
Compendia are watched incredibly closely because they significantly affect the revenues of pharmaceutical companies. If one drug moves up the list to become the favored drug of providers, this can mean millions of dollars in profits to the drug producer.
The challenge is that compendia are published frequently, and changes aren’t uncommon. This means a significant amount of human time is currently spent tracking changes to compendia and analyzing what these changes mean for a company’s bottom line. Given the number of recognized medical conditions and number of drugs available to treat them, staying on top of these changes is a massive chore for any pharma company.
However, a relatively simple ML differencing model can track and report on changes to compendia over time, significantly reducing the human cost and effort involved while improving the accuracy of the process. Sure, you could solve the problem with a deep learning model, but it wouldn’t be any more accurate and would be dramatically more expensive.
Another example of an ML solution in pharma that doesn’t require internet-scale deep learning comes from work that our company, Lexalytics, has done with Biogen Japan and its Medical Information Department (MID). In this instance, we configured Biogen's core NLP to identify relevant conditions, ailments, drugs, issues, therapies, and other entities and products within its FAQ and other resources. We used Biogen’s data to train and deploy custom machine learning models into the underlying NLP; the resulting system now understands complex relationships between conditions, ailments, drugs, issues, therapies, and other entities and products. MID operators can type in keywords or exact questions and get back best-fit answers and related resources in just seconds. The system provides more accurate and faster customer service and reduces costs by minimizing the number of calls that need to be escalated to costlier higher-ups within the organization.
Sometimes It Pays To Think Small
While deep learning is the technology du jour, it’s not always the right solution. Deep learning techniques require phenomenal investment as well as access to enormous amounts of data, which, for most business problems, simply isn’t feasible. But for targeted problems with smaller content volumes, less cutting-edge but long-established machine learning techniques or the use of multiple small models can and will improve business outcomes and, with them, bottom lines.
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70c773a4f290fab0e1557d1c8644534e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/16/how-to-avoid-big-mistakes-with-big-data/?sh=3bd9c001615b | How To Avoid Big Mistakes With Big Data | How To Avoid Big Mistakes With Big Data
Chief Science Officer at Codewise.
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Big data offers a number of business advantages. It can help an organization understand the customer experience, predict churn, target specific customer groups and respond to population-wide trends and preferences. As more information becomes available and tools for analyzing large volumes of data become faster, it may be tempting to base decisions solely on aggregate data analysis.
However, uncritical faith in aggregate data can lead to a distorted view of reality. The term "ecological fallacy" was coined more than half a century ago, but it has never been more important than in today's world of big data, aggregate analysis and quick decision-making.
Ecological Fallacy
In 1950, William S. Robinson published one of the most influential methodological papers in social sciences to date, titled, "Ecological Correlations and the Behavior of Individuals." Robinson argued that conclusions drawn from aggregate data may be wrong and even contradictory to individual observation.
For example, he used U.S. Census data from 1930 to analyze the relationship between birthplace and literacy, expressed as a ratio of foreign birth to literacy. The "ecological" correlation (i.e., calculated for all the people in every state) was 0.53, which indicated a slight positive correlation between foreign birth and literacy. In other words, the results suggested that foreign-born people were more likely to be literate (in American English) than native-born people.
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However, the analysis that was conducted on the individual level, rather than the aggregate level, produced a correlation of -0.11, indicating a negative relation. This is a classic example of the ecological fallacy, where aggregate data tells a different story from individual data. The correct result should have been a negative correlation because foreign-born people tended to live in states where native-born people were relatively literate. Aggregate data analysis merged the two groups and produced a false conclusion.
Staying Immune
Aggregate data analysis is very useful, provided one is interested in the aggregate model only. For instance, for a supply chain director of a global business, it is correct to run aggregate analysis between stock availability and months of the year if one is interested in detecting seasonal trends. However, an ecological fallacy mistake would be made if the director deduced the impact of holidays like Christmas at the country level from the correlation at the global level because some countries don't celebrate Christmas.
The ecological fallacy can be difficult to expose, especially when aggregate results align with expectations (confirmation bias). In addition, time and cost constraints often lead to analyzing big data solely on the aggregate level while ignoring individual observations. Revising this approach in light of the ecological fallacy is mandatory because business conclusions that contradict reality can damage any organization. Since Robinson's paper, many useful data analysis techniques have been proposed to account for the fallacy.
Managers reviewing data analysis should also be aware of potential problems. Aggregate analysis should always be supported by carefully selected individual data. If results differ, careful investigation is needed to explain the discrepancies. In addition, any observational study needs to account for confounding variables and causality. Confounding variables are those that influence the behavior of both the dependent and independent variables. If undetected, they can distort the relationship and lead to the common mistake of interpreting correlation as causation, examples of which can be surprising.
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aaf28a6b86469a368251ef74e4ca44d5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/16/the-distributed-workforce-is-here-to-stayheres-why-performance-matters/ | The Distributed Workforce Is Here To Stay -- Here's Why Performance Matters | The Distributed Workforce Is Here To Stay -- Here's Why Performance Matters
Patrick Ostiguy is Founder and Executive Chairman at Accedian, provider of network performance and end-user experience analytics solutions.
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Covid-19 has changed the world in so many different ways. But perhaps most noticeably, it forced employers to adapt and support mass remote working at astonishing speed. In October, Gallup confirmed that well over half of Americans were working either always (33%) or sometimes (25%) from locations other than the office.
Suddenly, network performance was no longer just a metric for IT departments but one to concern business leaders and boards. If staff have problems using the applications they need to do their jobs, it can ramp up IT costs and productivity losses at exactly the time when organizations most need to rein in expenditure and maximize output.
This is where network monitoring and cloud application observability come to play a crucial role. But not all options are created equal.
The Workplace Evolves
The picture across America is the same: The majority of workers are no longer stuck in office locations on local area networks (LANs). Almost overnight, employers had to swallow their concerns and get to work on what has been described as the largest work-from-home experiment ever conducted.
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Today, users of the same corporate applications and remote access infrastructure may not even be located in the same cities. They could theoretically be anywhere in the country and may move about at any point. Yet they still expect and need to receive a high-quality, consistent end-user experience, no matter where they are and what devices they’re using.
Many of these workers may be using corporate VPNs to securely access company systems and resources. Even more may also be trying to access cloud-based applications for word processing, team collaboration and videoconferencing, customer communications, enterprise software like ERP, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and much more. This is digital transformation on an unprecedented scale. The CEO of Zoom said its number of daily meeting participants grew from 10 million in December 2019 to roughly 200 million by March 2020.
Yet at the same time, the newly distributed workforce has shone an uncompromising light on many of the growing challenges facing corporate NetOps teams. A poll my company took of over 1,000 U.S. IT decision-makers in July 2020 revealed that 40% experience network brownouts several times a week, and 1 in 5 do so daily. Since lockdowns began, end-user complaints about application performance soared by 60% due to performance degradations, excessive slowdowns and network congestion. Network problems should rarely get so bad that end users are forced to report the issue.
Quality And Complexity
A confluence of challenges threatens to flood these organizations, tie up their IT teams on expensive, reactive troubleshooting, and leave home working employees high and dry. VPNs are a notable chokepoint. The truth is that remote access infrastructure in most organizations simply wasn’t designed for mass simultaneous use, and it wasn’t set up for mainly inbound traffic.
Between March 8 and March 20 of last year, the U.S. alone saw a 124% increase in VPN usage, according to one estimate. That has led to performance problems, especially in midsized firms with 2,000-plus employees because they’re less likely to have the budget for a redundant architecture and may have had less to spend in general on network performance solutions.
The cloud adds an extra layer of complexity for many NetOps managers. Organizations are accelerating their migration plans to SaaS and IaaS environments to drive productivity, streamline business processes and trim costs. But many network performance monitoring solutions don’t work effectively in the cloud from an operational viability or cost-effectiveness perspective.
According to the Enterprise Management Associates Network Management Megatrends 2020 report, 40% of all traffic on an average enterprise network is from external cloud apps. Yet 61% of enterprises claim the cloud networking support offered by their network management tools could be better.
If IT bosses can’t get the insight they need into network performance, it will be much harder to ascertain the true cause of application issues. In this regard, more attention should be paid to quality of experience (QoE) alongside traditional quality of service (QoS). While QoS is useful for measuring technical performance by focusing on characteristics like latency, jitter, packet loss, etc., it only tells part of the story. QoE looks at the impact of network behavior on the end user by taking a more granular approach to data analysis that goes beyond merely measuring the efficiency of data transport across the network.
Time To Get Proactive
At a fundamental level, enhancing preparedness helps to minimize business risk and improve your chances of success with any given goal. Network monitoring and cloud application observability are no different. This means getting proactive about measuring performance so that you can start identifying problems before they affect end users and their QoE.
Software-based remote monitoring tools install agents at various points on the network to do exactly this, injecting test packets to measure KPIs like packet loss and latency. That way you can find out and fix problems ahead of time. Being able to do so remotely is also a key consideration. In a new era of distributed working, it can save IT valuable time and protect engineers from the health risks they could encounter if forced out in the field.
However, active monitoring is not a silver bullet, which is why it must be combined with passive monitoring that looks at general traffic characteristics. The ideal system will feed both into a centralized AI-powered analytics engine to provide real-time alerts for IT to troubleshoot. It goes without saying that any tools must also have that all-important visibility into all traffic traversing on-premises, private and public cloud networks.
According to Gallup, two-thirds of American workers who have been working remotely during the pandemic want to continue doing so after the pandemic. That should make improvements to network performance monitoring a priority for 2021.
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7694c56466a49670d007347d499a6ac4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/16/welcome-home-zero-trust-why-you-should-apply-this-security-method-in-your-abode/ | Welcome Home, Zero Trust: Why You Should Apply This Security Method In Your Abode | Welcome Home, Zero Trust: Why You Should Apply This Security Method In Your Abode
Chief Marketing Officer at SailPoint, overseeing all aspects of the company marketing strategy, positioning and execution.
Zero trust is a popular topic in security circles. It requires any users — inside or outside a corporation — to be authenticated and authorized before being granted access to systems, applications and data. But what about applying zero trust in your most sacred place — your home? Zero trust guides organizations into building security solutions that question who someone is and what they want to do with access to corporate resources. This frame of mind removes the blind confidence of a user that comes from a known location.
Ideally, when applying zero trust, businesses continuously confirm that their users are who they say they are and that their access to specific applications and systems is always sound. Put more succinctly: Do not trust anyone.
It sounds like a concept you already apply at home. Doorbells, security systems and the good old-fashioned guard dog are examples of security measures we have in place to alert us that someone is near our house that otherwise would not be there — even if we know them. I offer that the same methodology is applied when talking about going online for work or personal reasons. Doorbells do not work in this landscape, and that is where zero trust comes in.
With the merger of work and family life over the last year, the concept of zero trust needs to start at home with the myriad of risks that come from our new work setup. We are going on almost one year of work from anywhere, and despite our best efforts of password training/security training, are people still thinking about the risk? It is easy to become complacent, but here are a few ways to adopt zero trust at home, borrowing from the famed security framework's principles for a secure start to 2021.
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Question Everything
Report after report reveals phishing threats rose considerably in 2020, with companies experiencing an average of 1,185 attacks every month. In the U.S. alone, almost half of workers said they experienced targeted phishing emails, texts and phone calls in the first six months of remote work, based on data from my company's report.
It is clear that hackers are working overtime, taking advantage of a global crisis by sending nefarious links embedded in deceiving emails to work or personal addresses. As I mentioned in an interview with Security magazine last year, "Upon clicking, employees unknowingly download keylogging software onto their PC providing their credentials to malicious actors. Hackers can then freely access important business assets and data, masquerading as a legitimate employee."
With vishing on the rise as well (the FBI sent an advisory about it in January), those at home need to apply the zero-trust method when receiving any email, text, or phone call from their employer or unknown senders. Question everything by vetting the person on the other line and be on the lookout for one tall tale sign: This actor wants you to take action immediately. When it comes to financial, sensitive data — or other critical requests — your company, bank or any other vendor typically will not ask you to make a hasty call.
Everyone Is An Outsider
Sorry, kids: Everyone is an outsider when working from home. Under the pandemic's personal, professional, and financial pressures, the human element of security is clear by sharing of passwords and devices. Sharing passwords across work and personal accounts, and giving those passwords to your family or friends, can lead to multiple systems being compromised — even your Spotify password is at risk if you use that same password for, say, your Outlook account.
If a hacker obtains those credentials, they can then access the corporate network. People are wearing more than one hat throughout the day — as a working professional, teacher, parent, caregiver, etc. As a result, device sharing with spouses, children and other family members is a typical occurrence. I am even guilty of this. I have shared my work iPad with my son after a long day.
If we applied the zero-trust method here, we would need to immediately stop password and device sharing. Consider everyone an outsider — even your family when it comes to work. One way to implement this is by owning a password manager or creating multiple family accounts for certain applications (Spotify, Netflix, etc.). You can also ask your employer about buying your old work computer to get a family computer for the home. We offer this service at my current company (after three years, you can buy your laptop after it is wiped).
Zero Trust Is A Way Of Life
Zero trust is a way of life. These two concepts combined — question everything and consider everyone an outsider — offers a way for people at home to apply the zero-trust method. I want to take the time to make a crucial point about zero trust: It is not a fix-all. It is a way of thinking — or, perhaps even better stated, an approach.
The entire concept is to challenge you to think differently about how you receive an unknown email, think twice about sharing a password or device and how you take your security approach at home. If you apply this “way of life” to your work at home, your company will thank you — and so will your peace of mind when working from home. Welcome home, zero trust.
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9844941e967c947336d0a893683ed407 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/17/how-5g-is-reshaping-business-support-system-services-for-telcos/?sh=5b5996a29269 | How 5G Is Reshaping Business Support System Services For Telcos | How 5G Is Reshaping Business Support System Services For Telcos
President and CEO at VoltDB Inc.
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As 5G technology rollouts accelerate — promising to bolster the user experience by improving performance — these next-generation networks offer telcos incredible monetization opportunities around business support system (BSS) services.
With so much ROI on the table, it comes as no surprise that 86% of networking executives think 5G technology will have a profound impact on their operations within three years, according to a recent study by Deloitte.
One such opportunity for telcos is reimagining the BSS offerings in their portfolios — including CRM systems, billing services, and order management solutions, among other applications. In fact, decision-makers believe that 72% of 5G revenue growth will stem from the modernization of their BSS services.
Yet that same study from Deloitte revealed that 57% of organizations think their existing infrastructure prevents them from unlocking the innovative use cases they need to get the greatest returns on their 5G investments.
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In large part, this is because 5G networks will usher in an era of even bigger data that flows into the organization even faster. To illustrate, one estimate says that 77.5 exabytes of data will flow over mobile networks each month by 2022. And not everyone is positioned to process that volume of data, which means they’ll be unable to utilize it, ending up with a pile of dark data on the other side.
Still, 87% of executives believe that they can use powerful new technologies like 5G to drive significant competitive advantage. They’re right.
But to do that, they need to have the right tech stack in place. And that stack needs to be built on top of a robust underlying technology layer that enables them to rapidly process data and deliver modern BSS solutions that make them stand out — locking down new business opportunities along the way.
The Need For Real Time — Not Almost Real Time
In today’s age of instant gratification, we all expect applications to move as fast as they possibly can. It’s almost as if right now is too slow.
Good news: With 5G, telcos will be able to meet these expectations more effectively than ever before.
That said, while many users will take advantage of leading-edge 5G capabilities (e.g., for gaming purposes), not all will because they’re perfectly satisfied by existing offerings. Maximizing your 5G investments, then, requires the ability to offer unique and efficient services customization and flexible on-demand services catalogs that can be provisioned and charged for rapidly on an as-needed, per-user basis, using network slices to serve up the requisite resources for each interaction (e.g., edge computing and IoT applications).
At its core, BSS is all about policy and charging control, which has long been a moneymaker for telecom service providers. In order for telcos to make the most out of 5G, they need to implement modern policy control function (PCF) and charging function (CHF) solutions. By doing so, they will be able to dynamically manage and provision network resources on infrastructure that supports up to 1,000 times faster download speeds than 4G networks — and charge users according to their unique service levels and behaviors.
When it comes to 5G, it’s all about latency — or the absence thereof.
The next-generation 5G networks offer the ability to deliver actual real-time experiences (i.e., under 10 milliseconds of latency) while ingesting data from multiple channels and applying hundreds to thousands of dynamic rules to make the best decisions. This latency compares to the almost-real-time capabilities of 4G, with latencies hovering between 50 and 100 milliseconds.
NewSQL Is The Glue That Makes It All Happen
Capitalizing on the promise of 5G starts with building BSS applications on top of an agile database that supports lightning-fast performance with in-memory data and can scale to meet the needs of today’s top-performing telcos. Unfortunately, traditional databases are highly consistent but do not scale, while NoSQL databases scale but are not consistent.
Leading telco providers increasingly understand this reality, which is why more and more of them are moving to NewSQL solutions that enable them to ingest and analyze incredible amounts of data coming from several different sources immediately — and in an event-driven manner.
In turn, this allows them to track user activity and make real-time business decisions while avoiding problems that other database technologies can’t solve (e.g., different devices trying to use the same credit at the same time; NoSQL databases don’t support this type of real-time transaction).
Keep in mind that such problems will only compound over time. As such, failure to build a future-proof system right now will only take bigger and bigger bites out of your bottom line as we move further into the future. For the best results, telecom systems need to be rebuilt on technologies that not only support today’s non-stand-alone 5G but will also be able to address tomorrow’s scale and latency requirements of stand-alone 5G.
This means:
1. Adopting a microservices-based approach to address flexibility and scalability requirements.
2. Processing data at the edge to ingest and analyze it as rapidly as possible.
3. Using new tools such as digital twins to optimize machine learning algorithms.
4. Using new and powerful containerization tools like Kubernetes to easily scale application deployment and management.
Creating modern BSS for telcos means doing everything you can — i.e., all of the above — to get your data working for you rather than against you. This means thinking about much more than your database. You need to think about your entire tech stack and how its supporting data platform makes everything work seamlessly together.
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52cd1a5fca7bd30cc1e890c812f18df9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/17/how-defi-is-affecting-the-global-economy/?sh=1c20484f6410 | How DeFi Is Affecting The Global Economy | How DeFi Is Affecting The Global Economy
CEO of SingularityNET. Also a cross-disciplinary scientist, entrepreneur and author, recently relocated from Hong Kong to the Seattle area.
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Bitcoin was created to form a decentralized and purely digital alternative to traditional money. Money, however, is only the simplest instrument within the modern financial armamentarium.
Crypto has had futures and options for some time, but only recently has it started developing its own versions of some of the more sophisticated structures in the traditional financial ecosystem. The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has seen astounding growth recently. In early 2019, there was only $275 million of crypto collateral locked in the DeFi economy. By February 2020, it was $1 billion, and it eventually hit $4 billion by late July before reaching $14 billion today.
The majority of DeFi applications currently run on the Ethereum blockchain; this has greatly negatively impacted the cost and speed of Ethereum transactions, but these problems have, in turn, stimulated a flurry of creative development regarding “layer 2” efficiency-oriented tools running on top of Ethereum, as well as alternative faster, cheaper, more scalable blockchains.
The ethos of the crypto and DeFi world has also recently leaked into the conventional finance arena, with the saga involving GameStop and WallStreetBets.
By this point, the question isn’t whether DeFi will become a major factor in the global economy, but rather how creatively it will be developed and to what extent it will emerge as a force for broad benefit.
One of the keys to guiding DeFi in a beneficial direction will be integrating advanced decentralized AI. So far, few DeFi projects have leveraged AI, but we may well see AI woven into the next burst of DeFi activity in 2021 — and maybe even in a way that enables DeFi to push startup decentralized tech projects forward much faster.
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The first substantial DeFi project, MakerDAO, enables decentralized borrowing and lending of major cryptocurrencies. As of this writing, it currently holds 2% of all Ether inside its smart contracts and has issued over $77 million in debt.
Another more recent DeFi contender is Compound Finance, a more flexible staking and lending scheme, powered by an Andreessen-Horowitz-led $25 million funding round. The core mechanism behind Compound and many other current DeFi projects is “yield farming” — incentivizing token-holders for staking (locking up) their tokens in a way that allows tokens to be lent out via rewarding them with a special yield token.
2020 also saw the emergence of “Weird DeFi” in the form of food-themed “memecoins” like SushiSwap, BurgerSwap, BakerySwap, YAM and more. Of course, traditional finance has also seen its share of dubious schemes, though generally with less creative names.
One of the revolutionary aspects behind the scenes of modern DeFi is its “noncustodial” nature. Noncustodial smart contracts eliminate the intermediary from complex multiparty transactions, using code that temporarily locks certain tokens until certain conditions are met — without the tokens needing to move from their owner’s crypto wallet to somebody else’s. These contracts frequently rely on decentralized, noncustodial crypto exchanges like UniSwap, which are relatively new but steadily grabbing market share from centralized exchanges such as Binance, OkEx, Bittrex and so forth.
The fully automated nature of DeFi protocols enables financial instruments not seen in the traditional, centralized financial sector. According to a Rapid Protocol blog post: "One such example is 'flash loans,' a unique form of loan that must be taken out and paid back within a single transaction. These loans allow a user to borrow funds, convert or trade them across different platforms using algorithms of their choice, and then pay back the amount borrowed, all in moments."
DeFi’s noncustodial aspect provides partial insulation from traditional financial regulations. But the European Commission plans to launch a comprehensive DeFi regulation scheme in 2022, which may provide some valuable legitimation to the sector while reducing the prevalence of pyramid schemes and such.
What, though, is the real importance of all this DeFi activity? Is it just about technical cool value, new toys for speculators to play with, and the provision of more sophisticated financial tools for those who prefer to keep their wealth outside the control of centralized authorities?
I think DeFi has the potential to be much more than this, but the key for it to achieve truly profound influence will be the extension of DeFi beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum to the broader scope of lower-liquidity cryptocurrencies (a.k.a. “altcoins”).
A significant percentage of the altcoins currently traded on crypto exchanges are utility tokens serving functions within innovative blockchain technology projects, across the gamut of vertical application domains. The market for these altcoins has risen and fallen a few times, but generally, it lacks the liquidity and sophistication of the markets for the top cryptocurrencies.
DeFi on lower-liquidity altcoins could provide the altcoin market with massively greater liquidity, decreasing the volatility and increasing the financing options for the associated technology projects. A healthier altcoin ecosystem would make the decentralized sphere far more attractive to early stage tech entrepreneurs, potentially shifting the global tech world away from centralized control and toward participatory democratic public-blockchain-based dynamics.
But lending, trading, prediction and market-making on lower liquidity altcoins is harder than doing these things for BTC and ETH, which is where AI must come to the rescue.
The SingularityDAO project, spinning off from the SingularityNET AI/blockchain platform I lead, aims to use DeFi tools together with neural-symbolic AI to foster liquidity, increase value and decrease volatility for lower-liquidity altcoins. SingularityDAO’s AI-DeFi mechanisms make it more beneficial and less risky to hold portfolios of utility tokens that individually have only modest liquidity.
Complementarily, Autonio, Loopring and others are using DeFi mechanisms to democratize market-making across the alt coin spectrum by allowing organizations running token-based projects to offer token rewards to market makers who provide liquidity for their tokens. Autonio is developing reinforcement learning-based market-making agents suitable for gradually increasing liquidity in lower-ranked tokens.
With just a little luck, 2021 may be the year DeFi begins shifting from food memecoins to AI-fueled systems designed to radically empower decentralized tech startups and those who hold their tokens.
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d7fc1f6bcfcb450d1ab62e421ac0eece | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/18/how-to-lead-thousands-of-employees-youve-never-met/?sh=594fa5f46e47 | How To Lead Thousands Of Employees You’ve Never Met | How To Lead Thousands Of Employees You’ve Never Met
As CEO of Hitachi Vantara, Gajen helps solve clients’ problems by bringing to bear Hitachi’s unrivaled industrial expertise across sectors.
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I joined Hitachi Vantara as CEO on July 13, 2020. Getting to know the company’s 10,000 employees — and our clients and partners — has been a privilege but also an unusual challenge. So far, I’ve had to do it without meeting my leadership team in person or visiting our headquarters. I have also yet to shake the hand of a single colleague!
I have led some incredible teams and businesses over the course of my career. However, nothing could have prepared me for becoming the leader of an evolving global digital business that is shaping the future of a global conglomerate parent company, all in the middle of a pandemic. In the spirit of helping other leaders learn from my experience, I’d like to share four insights gained in my first six months as a "virtual" CEO.
1. Rely More On Instincts And Intuition To Read And Shape Culture
What happens to culture when it is the product of individual home lives more than a collective work experience? Getting the feel of the organization and shaping its culture was one of the toughest challenges I faced. Without mingling with employees before a town hall or discussing issues over dinner after meetings ended, how could I gauge the vibe of the business?
I executed a huge listening tour to make up for the lack of in-person opportunities. I quickly provided feedback to my leadership, human resources, and employee communications teams, as I have in past roles and will continue to do so in the future, but my methods for the "listening" itself have diverged from any approach I’ve taken before.
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There were many virtual meetings, but reading a room when the room is digital is tough! I would love to hear from fellow CEOs about their approaches to virtual leadership, but I turned to my instincts and intuition, garnering whatever insights I could from facial expressions and body language. I upped the frequency and number of interactions, too, spending less time on group calls and more time on a rapid succession of candid, open, individual conversations to quickly formulate a big picture. My dad taught me, “You have two ears and one mouth; use them in those proportions,” so I am listening more intently than ever. I am reaching deeper into the organization, too. I’ve found employees are yearning for those one-on-one moments. They want to be heard. To be noticed. To be recognized.
2. Ask Powerful Questions
Covid-19 has extended our working days but condensed our windows of opportunity. Dramatic shifts in buying behavior, business models and value chains mean CEOs have less time to adapt to ensure their businesses thrive. A set of consistent and powerful questions has been one of the most valuable tools I’ve used to accelerate my learning and formulate my strategy quickly.
• What can we do better for our clients, especially now?
• Which of our teams is taking a unique approach that is making our clients, colleagues or partners more successful?
• Who are the role-model colleagues whose work we should showcase to the rest of the organization?
Questions like these are challenging and sometimes uncomfortable, but they can promote insightful conversations to help you become a better partner for your clients at a crucial time.
3. Get Outside, Even If You’re Staying In
We business travelers share a secret: Travel can be grueling, but it can also bring respite and inspiration. Long flights offer time to think. Visits to clients yield invaluable feedback account teams never hear. I was largely grounded this year, but I have never talked to so many clients. They are traveling less, too, so it became easier to get on their calendars.
I also spent dozens of hours with analysts and partners, which helped me build a deeper understanding of client needs and industry trends and validate strategic decisions. Equally important, despite being separated by screens, I got to personally know the people who influence the success of our business. Ask yourself: Do you feel closer or more removed from your customers than you did before the pandemic?
4. Put Aside Formality But Emphasize Accountability
Staring at flat screens all day seems like the perfect metaphor for the diminished importance of hierarchy in today’s workplace. There is no "back of the room" or "offline" backchannel on a videoconference. And there is no hiding when a family member bursts into a meeting unannounced or a pet joins you on a client call!
Having flexibility is key to embracing new working realities, especially when it comes to employees who are home schooling or caring for elders. "Work from anywhere" is our future. What we learn today will be the foundation of our new working models in the future.
My only caution to leaders is to make sure informality does not lead to a lack of accountability. We may be working in new ways, but it is as true today as it ever was that accountability is a cornerstone of shared success — between colleagues, clients and partners. I am trying harder than ever to ensure I do what I say I am going to do. My team deserves that, and it is the best way I’ve found to instill accountability in others.
Finally, to keep up your energy, I urge you to block your calendar for "me time." For me, it’s the only way to ensure I get on my bike or get in a workout. I also block time for my friends and family "bubble." That has been tremendously helpful in maintaining a level of sanity and calm.
Conclusion
As leaders, we need to make it easier for our staff to get meaningful breaks, too. You must lead by example and encourage your team and colleagues to take time to decompress. Hitachi Vantara just announced two more "self-care" days in 2021. We shut the whole company down to give everyone time to breathe.
We all continue to live, learn and work to find ways to drive success in this post-pandemic world. I would love to hear about your learnings and how we can apply them in our post-pandemic future of work.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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0562ef4cc7997b033e01336af5afa1cd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/19/13-expert-tips-for-boosting-your-companys-mobile-site-performance-and-ux/ | 13 Expert Tips For Boosting Your Company’s Mobile Site Performance And UX | 13 Expert Tips For Boosting Your Company’s Mobile Site Performance And UX
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With the proliferation of smartphones and personal devices, “mobile-first” has become the watchword when it comes to website design for optimal user experience. Businesses must ensure their websites are just as responsive, appealing and easy to navigate on mobile devices as they are on desktop computers—if not more so.
To succeed, it’s important to not only adopt strategies specific to mobile design but also to follow good practices for serving users on any device. To help, 13 experts from Forbes Technology Council share their best tips for optimizing modern websites and designing them for the mobile era.
1. Understand your users.
“User experience” begins with “user.” Understand them. Create a story or narrative that represents their good day and create one that represents their bad day. Those stories become the lens through which you can create an experience that addresses your users’ needs. - Tim Mitrovich, Artisan
2. Consider edge data methods.
You need a clear data strategy and a robust data architecture. Otherwise, your app will be making massive data calls to the backend. Cached data is not great for app performance, so do look at edge data methods to serve the right data at the right time for optimal customer experience. - Jacqueline Teo, HGC Global Communications
3. Create a quick and simple path to your call to action.
Ensure a clear and simple flow for each persona use case. In the browser, we had three-click aspirations. On mobile, we’ve changed that to three swipes for the user to see the clearly understood and interactive button or call to action. - Gavin McMurdo, IStreamPlanet
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4. Keep your operating systems and applications up to date.
One best tip for companies trying to improve their mobile sites’ performance or UX is to ensure that all servers are running the latest operating systems and applications. Frequently patching and updating the underlying infrastructure of mobile sites will provide the latest features and the most-up-to-date security posture, mitigating known vulnerabilities that might be exploitable in the wild. - Bob Fabien Zinga, Directly, Inc./U.S. Navy Reserve
5. Invest in progressive loading.
Progressive loading (a.k.a. lazyload) can help capture your users’ attention quickly by allowing your website to show meaningful content as soon as possible. From there, load in advance what your user will see next. By continuing to prioritize the loading of resources according to when your user will need them, the entire experience will feel much snappier. - Amy Czuchlewski, Bottle Rocket
6. Know your audience and which devices they use to interact with you.
As an enterprise business-to-business SaaS solution, we looked at our data and found that 95% of our visitors are on desktop. Because of that, we focus on the desktop first. If your data says mobile devices are what your visitors primarily use—which is typically true for business-to-consumer products—then really focus on a solid mobile UX or an app. - Richard Kahn, Anura Solutions, LLC
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7. Get right to the point with your message.
A lot of mobile development focuses on UX, which is incredibly important, but the message is king. Spending as much or more time on immediately and effectively getting your most important messages to your audience is vital. UX plays a role in this. But having UX and your content/messaging strategy work in unison is the Holy Grail of mobile development. - James Draper, Bidstack
8. Understand the difference between responsive design and mobile-first design.
There is a difference between a responsively designed platform and a mobile-first platform—and the distinction is important. Most companies focus on compliance and the ability of their platform to respond to a smaller form factor such as a phone. Mobile-first design asks, “How do the needs of people differ when they’re using a phone?” Mobile-first considers that features may differ on mobile versus desktop. - Pierce Brantley, Cytracom
9. Make decisions based on data, not trends.
When you decide to make changes or improvements to your mobile site, don’t just stick to the “latest trends.” Make decisions based on the real data you’ve collected on how your users or site visitors interact with your website. Measure first, then optimize. - Ivailo Nikolov, SiteGround
10. Decouple your mobile strategy from your desktop strategy.
Website strategy for mobile should be totally decoupled from your primary website, with only the message and brand being constants. What you’re trying to say has an impact on the potential direction your team can take the design. Accessibility is not really front of mind—most often, mobile visitors appreciate content that speaks to them literally. Animations and voice-overs keep you in control. - Raymond Hicks, 5thColumn Inc.
11. Design your site based on your customers’ behavior.
Know your customers. Learn and analyze the way they use your products. Which browsers, which devices and which platforms do they prefer? Do they usually use the product during the day or at night? Do they prefer a horizontal (tablet) or vertical (smartphone) view? All these factors should help you design a better product that best suits your customers. - Ariel Rosenfeld, 3d Signals
12. Keep the design clean.
Minimalism is the word when it comes to smaller screens. Stick with simple one-column designs if you can. Check all elements for redundancy. Be very frugal with information—especially above the fold—but be generous with call-to-action elements. Give links and buttons good breathing room. Similarly, for forms, keep the number of fields to a minimum; use more checkboxes and fewer typing fields. - Vikram Joshi, pulsd
13. Get expert help.
Bring in outside expertise, and make sure your internal leaders are there to be the bridge, not subject matter experts. Be the experts about the business, but let the experts from outside handle the design, as this is what they do day in and day out. We often try to become the SMEs for a “solution” when we should simply be the business SMEs who help and guide the outside experts. - Gene Yoo, Resecurity, Inc.
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a7a5a5a87ccffbb29c0acf902eb74807 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/19/the-future-of-e-commerce-grocery-has-arrived-2021-industry-outlook/?sh=7a0a99553089 | The Future Of E-Commerce Grocery Has Arrived: 2021 Industry Outlook | The Future Of E-Commerce Grocery Has Arrived: 2021 Industry Outlook
Co-founder and CEO at GrocerKey, e-commerce grocery technology and operations.
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In a year that witnessed the world navigating the onset of a global pandemic, the e-commerce grocery landscape quickly pivoted and charged forward. In the first few months of the pandemic, U.S. online grocery sales grew to roughly 40% as American shoppers started to fill their baskets online under state-issued lockdowns.
The shift in consumer habits propelled platform adoption and provided a boon to grocer retailers in 2020. Today, with the new year upon us and the vaccine rollout now in play, retailers may be pondering how to keep up the momentum. Yet, regardless of how or when we “beat” Covid-19, the habits that have been formed during the crisis — including the shift to convenient (and safe) purchasing of essential grocery items — are unlikely to change.
There’s precedent for this sort of rapid technology adoption. Following the SARS outbreak in 2003, for example, a still-nascent Alibaba was primarily focused on connecting American companies to Chinese suppliers. But when other countries began issuing travel warnings to businessmen, Chinese suppliers quickly turned to Alibaba’s e-commerce platform to market their goods. After adding 4,000 new members and thousands of new listings each day, the company grew by more than 50% that year — and soon became the largest online marketplace in the world.
While today’s grocery retailers are benefitting from a similar shift in consumer habits, they must go beyond simply offering e-commerce to retain their competitive edge. On the heels of innovation, disruption is never far behind. Grocery retailers will have to discover new ways to invest in their businesses throughout 2021 to continue adapting to the sea of change.
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Here are a few trends I think will help grocery retailers ride the wave:
Emphasis On Success Rather Than Just “Good Enough”
In 2021, we’ll see a push to increase e-commerce fulfillment capacity to maximize revenue and fulfill customer demand, in addition to driving toward profitability. There will be a focus on increasing basket size, which is an area many retailers fail to realize the potential. We’ll also see increased measurement of customer satisfaction, as retailers look for ways to improve the customer experience.
Reducing CapEx
While automation and micro-fulfillment centers certainly have their place, most retailers will continue to operate by utilizing their stores as e-commerce distribution centers. Operating models will emerge that help retailers reduce capital expenses and quickly scale to meet spikes in consumer demand — without needing to allocate significant space for order staging. And speaking of space, I think retailers will commonly shift underperforming locations to dark stores to help facilitate online orders.
A Focus On Food Safety
As e-commerce thrives and becomes a larger percentage of overall sales, many retailers are focused on maintaining and promoting food safety — especially in light of the changing fulfillment landscape. With the above in mind, retailers will be forced to adapt their fulfillment practices to ensure they’re meeting food safety best practices.
Increased Consumer Experience Expectations
With shoppers becoming more comfortable with online ordering, expect consumers’ expectations to keep on rising as e-commerce becomes the norm. Grocery retailers will no longer get credit for simply having an e-commerce option; they’ll need to offer a user experience that truly makes consumers’ lives more convenient.
Building a 40- to 50-item e-commerce basket is simply not efficient enough on the average grocery e-commerce experience today. Consumers will be looking for the ability to easily filter items by dietary preference and expect category pages and search results to adapt based on their personal browsing and purchase history.
More Collaboration Between Retailers And Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) Brands
With consumers turning to shopping for groceries online, it will be imperative for brands to share detailed product content with retailers, such as product images and attributes, to facilitate seamless ordering. There will also be an elevated need for collaboration for sponsored product listings and contextual banner displays via retailer-specific digital media offerings, an increasingly effective incremental revenue stream for retailers to help offset e-commerce fulfillment costs.
These strategies should also include impulse upsell opportunities to replicate the checkout experience in the physical store and auto-replenishment tactics as a means to build loyalty for both retailers and participating brands.
The Evolution Of Payment Options
In the economic recovery, unemployment and underemployment issues will continue to face many Americans. I believe EBT will become a payment option on a majority of retailers’ e-commerce platforms, making online shopping accessible to a rapidly growing portion of the market. Also, don’t be surprised to see alternative payment options such as cryptocurrency introduced by progressive retailers seeking to build loyalty among younger consumers.
Retailers That Stand For Something Continue To Win
There appears to be a common thread among retailers that have thrived in an increasingly competitive landscape — they all stand for something. SpartanNash increased their focus on diversity and inclusion by providing resources to its associates, including education about the importance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Raley’s is committed to health & wellness by focusing on its mission, “Changing the way we eat, one plate at a time.” One of my company’s clients, Woodman’s Markets, has remained laser focused on value and variety, offering the largest assortment in the industry at highly competitive prices. Another retailer partner, Kowalski’s Markets, prides itself in operating a civic business committed to democratic principles. There are countless other examples of this in the industry, and I anticipate that retailers who excel in having a clear and well-defined purpose will continue to build market share.
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b0784b6fd1766c57e002c6f189ddcfd6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/19/thinking-about-sase-stay-focused-on-what-matters/?sh=4456d816078b | Thinking About SASE? Stay Focused On What Matters | Thinking About SASE? Stay Focused On What Matters
Abe Ankumah is Sr. Director Marketing & Partnerships, SD-WAN & SASE Business, VMware.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken up our most basic ideas about “work,” and enterprises are still playing catch-up. When most of your employees no longer work in an office, you have to rethink everything from the wide-area network (WAN) architecture to remote connectivity to user support — and especially, security.
Many enterprises are still trying to squeeze the “new normal” into a network and security template designed for assumptions that no longer apply: that your business can be separated into “inside” and “outside”; that most of your people connect over an IT-owned network using IT-owned devices; that most of their applications live in your datacenter.
Fortunately, there’s a new model perfectly suited to this moment: Secure Access Service Edge, or SASE (pronounced “sassy”). SASE offers a flexible framework to securely connect users to business resources and applications, no matter where they’re connecting from. That’s the good news. The bad: SASE is still a moving target. As with any new technology, the marketplace is still figuring out what an effective SASE solution should look like.
As more vendors bring solutions to market, much of the conversation will focus — appropriately — on their security services and partner ecosystem. But if that’s all you’re thinking about as you evaluate SASE, you’re not getting the full picture. Let’s look at other not-so-apparent considerations that can be just as important.
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If SASE Didn’t Exist, We’d Have to Invent It
Before identifying potential gaps in a SASE strategy, let’s review just how far we’ve come from the world that many current WAN and security architectures were designed for. Even before the pandemic, enterprises were seeing:
• Huge increases in remote users
• Business-critical applications moving to the cloud
• Explosive growth in network connections and devices, with more dynamic and unpredictable traffic patterns
• Evolving threat landscape that exposes new potential vulnerabilities daily
To ensure the productivity of your workforce, you need to be able to securely deliver any application, from any cloud, to any user, anywhere. But when the network and security stack lives in a centralized datacenter, you still have to force all traffic through that choke point.
Imagine a Boston-based company, with a remote user working in Portland, connecting to a cloud application hosted in Seattle. If the enterprise’s datacenter is on the east coast, that user’s traffic takes an extra 5,000-mile round trip through the centralized security stack. This can add significant latency (and costs), which affects performance — a big problem for video conferencing, for example.
SASE addresses exactly these problems. It combines software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) technology with zero-trust network access, cloud-based security services and cloud-based firewall. By providing them from the cloud instead of a centralized datacenter, SASE makes the enterprise network and security stack follow the users, not the other way around.
SASE represents a much-needed change for today’s distributed workforce. In practice, though, many other factors go into ensuring users can work productively. As you think through the options, consider the following.
1. Client Experience Matters
When your distributed workforce could be connecting from practically anywhere, exponentially more issues could impact users’ access to resources and the performance of their applications. So, it’s essential to be able to see what’s happening from the user’s perspective. By continually monitoring client experience at the edge, you can identify anomalies and, in many cases, proactively address problems before they impact users.
Such visibility becomes critical when large numbers of employees are remote. A user’s local network, internet service provider and endpoint can all be potential points of failure. None of them are under enterprise control, but IT still has a mandate to ensure those users can work productively.
Just being able to quickly identify the source of a problem can be hugely beneficial, even if it’s outside IT’s control. Maybe you can’t fix the problem, but you can at least tell users where the issue is, so they can take action on their end. Meanwhile, your IT helpdesk can move on to other cases.
2. Architecture Matters
One big innovation SD-WAN introduced was “on-ramp to cloud,” which split off traffic destined for geographically nearby cloud-based applications instead of backhauling it across the WAN. SASE applies this innovation to firewall, remote connectivity and security services, too. Like SD-WAN, though, different architectures can have different implications.
To maximize simplicity for users and IT, consider solutions with cloud-based gateways. All SASE solutions provide network and security services through cloud-hosted points-of-presence (PoPs) that are geographically distributed to bring users closer to their applications. But in some architectures, IT has to configure policy individually for each SASE service at each edge location.
A solution that uses cloud-hosted gateways helps IT manage all policies centrally. When an Edge location connects to the network, it is automatically assigned the suitable gateway. This makes the task of setting up and managing SASE PoP connections much simpler — especially important for enterprises with many locations.
3. Flexibility Matters
The advantages you get from SASE will largely depend on the SD-WAN and security services integrated into your solution, and how your vendor connects them. Look for SASE vendors with global scale, strong relationships with leading security vendors and local PoPs that are easy to reach from anywhere.
Ideally, SASE makes life simpler by combining multiple cloud-based services in a single solution, so you have to deal with just one vendor. However, you don’t want to sacrifice business flexibility for simplicity. For example, just because your SASE provider uses one specific web security vendor, you can still use another. Look for solutions with flexibility to work with your preferred vendors.
Rethink secure connectivity for a distributed world.
In many ways, the pademic just accelerated longstanding trends, highlighting a reality many enterprises have been slow to accept: Today’s distributed workforce is a very different animal.
With SASE, we can implement a cloud-based network and security framework optimized for the world we live in now. By taking a broader view in your SASE strategy — accounting for client experience, architecture and flexibility — you can get ahead of these digital shifts and position your business for success.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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e01ff8591438cf1bf2bc898ba1603cbf | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/22/etl-pipelines-the-next-frontier-in-cloud-migration/?sh=25dd143fa5b7 | ETL Pipelines: The Next Frontier In Cloud Migration | ETL Pipelines: The Next Frontier In Cloud Migration
Chetan Mathur is CEO of Next Pathway, the Automated Cloud Migration company.
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ETL (extract, transform, load) migration is often treated as an afterthought when companies plan the migration of their on-prem data warehouses and data lakes to the cloud.
Of course, ETL pipelines — which essentially are the coding instructions on how to move data from a source to a target — are not new. Developed for commercial use in the mid-1990s, they were considered an innovative solution for moving data from mainframe systems into the on-prem data warehouse, becoming the de facto method.
Over the years, companies have built thousands and thousands of ETL pipelines to move their data from different sources to their data lakes and/or data warehouses.
But from the get-go, there were problems with ETL pipelines. The coding was done manually. The data wasn’t always considered trustworthy due to issues with data lineage and metadata, and there were high security risks and maintenance costs. As data lakes became more complex in size and scope, ETLs became more and more problematic to manage.
And this leads us to the current situation. ETL pipelines, problems and all, are an essential component of on-prem warehouses and also need to be migrated to the cloud. They are necessary for both the ingestion and the consumption of data. The ability to fully utilize your data is compromised without the requisite ETL pipelines.
At A Crossroads
Organizations are faced with determining how to convert the actual code within those ETL pipelines to make them cloud-enabled.
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That challenge can be a huge headache for companies. How do you migrate legacy ETL pipelines so they can run in the cloud?
There are a few different options. You can use a tool that automates the underlying code conversion or hire people to manually rewrite the ETL logic.
You can also use third-party tools and vendors that have proprietary platforms that allow companies to rewrite their ETL pipelines. The issue is that you’re locked into those tools and vendors — and their ongoing costs — to create these ETL pipelines and have them run constantly.
To manually rewrite the pipelines is not cost- or time-efficient. Not only are ETL codes complex, but organizations have tens and hundreds of thousands of these pipelines. Just think of the permutations and combinations of data sources and target areas that companies have, not to mention the sequencing of these jobs — very quickly you’re into the tens of thousands of existing pipelines. Having to untangle that logic in code, interpret it and then rewrite would be a Herculean effort.
But ETLs don’t have to be a stumbling block to cloud migration. All of that extract, transform and load logic can be automatically repointed from an on-prem data warehouse or data lake to the cloud or automatically rewritten to become cloud-enabled. Either of these methods will break through migration bottlenecks when migrating legacy ETLs to the cloud.
To Repoint Or Rewrite?
Since the on-prem pipelines aren’t cloud-enabled, there needs to be work at the code level to enable them to connect to modern targets like Snowflake and Amazon Redshift. Repointing is essentially cloud-enabling those on-prem legacy ETL pipelines. The result is that you can still use the on-prem ETL tool that you’re familiar with, but you now have the capability to connect those pipelines to the cloud, which previously you were not able to do.
Rewriting or translating ETL pipelines to cloud-native languages and ETL frameworks like PySpark or Azure Data Factory allows you to retire your legacy ETL tool entirely.
Each approach has its own set of advantages.
When cloud-native tools are used to perform the ETL function, you can spin up compute power as needed. Cloud-native tools are more scalable, meaning you can do a lot more with them from an analytics perspective, and they’re portable.
Repointing might be a good first phase, primarily because it’s less complex than rewriting. Your organization will continue to use the ETL tools that it’s familiar with, and the migration will get done faster. If you’re migrating a data lake or a data warehouse to the cloud, there’s a lot of complexity in that alone — even without the ETL part. With this approach, you can focus efforts on the data warehouse/data lake migration effort, along with repointing the ETL pipelines, thereby minimizing the complexity of the overall migration.
Once you’re comfortable in the cloud and things are running smoothly, you may choose to move away from the legacy ETL world entirely and translate those pipelines to a cloud-native framework to take advantage of computing, storage costs and scalability.
When automating the migration of your ETL pipelines, here are three things to consider:
1. Make sure you have the lineage trees — the ability to define or identify the data lineage across disparate and high volumes of pipeline. You need to understand your whole inventory of what needs to be migrated and where the dependencies exist between them, because you can have pipelines that are touching one another or going to the same location. You want to make sure that you're not impacting anything that’s not being migrated.
2. Have a solution that doesn’t leave you shackled to another framework that is basically like the legacy one you are using now. Make the best use of the cloud by translating all of the legacy ETL code to run natively against the cloud target.
3. Use this as an opportunity to modernize and break free from the constraints of a legacy on-prem solution to take full advantage of the cloud.
Avoid the headaches when migrating your ETL pipelines with a solution that automates the underlying code conversion, allowing you to reuse or rewrite those pipelines to ensure a smooth migration process and providing your organization with a quicker route to reaping the benefits of the cloud.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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ea204d690312b69ea6bb072a245a3c13 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/22/the-importance-of-viral-kindness-in-2021/?sh=41d8b93f20d0 | The Importance Of Viral Kindness In 2021 | The Importance Of Viral Kindness In 2021
CEO at Advanced Intelligent Systems, a practical autonomous robotics company with software and hardware modules.
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There seems to be a lot of discord around the world. One thing that almost everyone agrees about, though, is that 2020 was a stressful year. Has there ever been a more welcome sight than a brand-new calendar with “2021” printed at the top? Is there anything more heartening these days than stories of people demonstrating kindness toward those who struggle with fears of Covid-19 and its fallout?
Unprecedented times call for unprecedented kindnesses. Kindness is good for the soul. What’s more, kindness helps to improve bodily health for both the giver and the receiver.
Sometimes, though, people neglect kind acts — even simple thoughtfulness — when their own survival is at risk. History books and literature tell stories of “man’s inhumanity toward man” amid stressful circumstances that seemed to portend death for those whose will to survive was lacking.
Our Actions Define Us
Stress itself doesn’t kill anyone, but our reactions to stressful situations can sometimes do great harm. One person under stress might perform acts that appear miraculous and benevolent, while the same stresses might compel someone else to commit atrocities. The way that each of us perceives stress and its potential for causing damage becomes a catalyst for their subsequent actions.
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As an analogy and an example of different reactions to different perceptions of stressful situations, consider the often conflated emotions of jealousy and envy.
As Aristotle is often quoted as having said, “Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.”
It isn’t difficult to confuse a self-interested action with a selfish action. One’s self-interest aligns well with the self-interest of others. Being selfish, on the other hand, implies losing rationality and with it a genuine sense of self. A selfish person often becomes obsessed with an unhealthy perception that others don’t do enough to relieve them of their stress.
Animals experiencing stress undergo a fight-flight-freeze response. Whenever someone perceives that they’re facing imminent danger, they might become like a wolverine defending itself from an aggressive bear, a bird taking wing to escape a charging house cat or a deer in the headlights.
Enemy Minuscule
What happens if a perceived threat is so small as to be invisible? Is there an objective, rational response to something that can’t be fought or evaded in a traditional sense? Are people frozen in the headlights of oncoming pathogens, or do they rally together and do what needs to be done?
In recent months, the lockdown reaction to Covid-19 has been damaging livelihoods and health. Loneliness and depression have turned out to be parallel pandemics that remain largely overlooked. An alarming number of people have been taking their own lives, and the people who try to talk them out of potentially dangerous behavior are themselves becoming desperate.
Along with the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 might be remembered as a year of widespread isolation, self-harm and domestic tragedy. Substance abuse is up, as is violent crime — but on the other hand, so is entrepreneurial activity.
Seniors appear to be taking the brunt of Covid-19’s fury, although innovative ideas are encouraging younger people to show that they care. Foremost on many adult minds are two related questions: Will this coronavirus be around forever in one form or another, and when will all the restrictions finally end?
After The Pandemic
Some people have become less social during the first year of Covid-19. Others have come together to produce new miracles.
In truth, it’s too early to know one way or another whether society has transformed as a result of Covid-19 and our early reactions to it. Around the world, our most basic emotional needs remain feeling safe, cared for and loved. Every chance to pursue personal or economic growth stems from such fundamental security.
There exists a saying about the inability to demonstrate love toward anyone without first knowing self-love. What is self-love, though? Is it self-esteem? Is it self-respect? Is it those things and more?
Perhaps genuine self-love, like all love, must be unconditional. Having self-esteem and self-respect might be important for psychological health, but maybe it’s just as important to feel love — and feel loved — when some or all those other things seem to be lacking.
Caring for oneself is being kind to oneself, and kindness is one of love’s pillars. An antidote to self-harm is self-care, so any analysis of Covid-19’s effect on society must start there. Care for yourself. Be kind to yourself, and then your kindness will go viral to help those who continue to suffer. If enough of us do that, acting with sincere self-interest, future generations might look back and thank their 21st-century ancestors for establishing an era of sustained mutual aid and cooperation.
With the effects of Covid-19 and the closure of offices, specifically in the tech sector, caring and being kind to ourselves can boost productivity and motivation. We are social creatures, and now we are caged in our home offices. Tech leaders and executives should ensure they convey a culture of self-care in order to keep their team members in a happy and performing mood.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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a5226e376e4abf8c6f51c79d48e21c5b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/22/why-explainability-is-the-next-step-for-ai-in-manufacturing/?sh=3b3bf4e11517 | Why ‘Explainability’ Is The Next Step For AI In Manufacturing | Why ‘Explainability’ Is The Next Step For AI In Manufacturing
CEO of Neurala, a deep learning neural network software company, and founding director of the Neuromorphics Lab at Boston University.
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Automation: A word that simultaneously evokes technological and societal progress and a deep sense of fear.
Manufacturers have been chasing automation for years through the implementation of Industry 4.0 initiatives. With each new robot, IoT or AI-powered device — the intersection of which is known as AIoT — manufacturers took another step toward automation. But, others feared that a human worker is at risk of losing their job for every machine, Artificial Intelligence-powered camera or robot that was introduced on the manufacturing floor.
The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically shifted the dialogue around automation. Cameras, machines and AI are now seen as allies as opposed to threats. These devices are a means to maintain business as usual in the face of challenges, such as social distancing, remote working, supply chain disruptions, unplanned shutdowns and remote working.
The reasons above have turbocharged the use of AI in a way that should only continue, even after the virus is finally tamed. But as AI is widely and readily adopted in the factory floor (i.e., supplying a supplementary set of eyes for quality inspections), a new set of problems are set to arise.
As society in general — and manufacturers specifically — become more comfortable with the idea of interacting and using AI as a part of everyday life and production cycles, some questions inevitably will stick around about the way AI works and the decisions it makes.
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In essence, now that we've overcome the issue of whether AI is needed or not — with the answer being a resounding "yes" — the new pressing question is "why" AI makes its decisions. Namely, with AI now performing critical functions in industries from healthcare and e-commerce to cybersecurity and industrial manufacturing, businesses need more intelligible ways to characterize how and why AI takes a decision.
For example, look at the typical visual quality inspection process on a manufacturing floor. As images of normal and defective products are fed to an AI system and learned, it is possible to trace back and identify which components of the AI system have weighed in on the final determination of what is considered "normal" instead of "anomalous." We can also determine and highlight in the image what ensemble of pixels, image features and, ultimately, products were responsible for that decision. In this sense, despite not being able to speak and describe the decision processes like a human inspector, AI systems can be interrogated and their decision understood and leveraged.
Explainable (or interpretable) AI is a fairly recent addition to the arsenal of AI techniques developed in the past several years. And today, it includes software code and a friendly user interface able to present workers with human-readable information on how a given piece of data (input) turned into a specific decision (output). Additionally, explainable AI is also very useful for accountability and auditability purposes: Understanding why an AI system makes a "defective" determination helps pinpoint flaws in the manufacturing floor and identify where to improve the overall process.
As more and more workers are being flanked by automated systems to cope with the new normal, AI needs not only to be effective but trusted. In the same way that we humans develop trust in our co-workers when they can articulate in an intelligible way how a decision has been reached, we need to learn to trust AI deployed in the factory floor. Establishing this trust will be the foundation for unlocking the true potential of AI and automation in manufacturing as well as all industries where humans and AI are working together.
Once you understand the need, the next thing to consider is how to practically augment an industrial AI system with explainability. Peering into a deep learning network, tracing the decision process and presenting the results in a reliable and human-readable format is no small feat. Developing this feature from scratch will most likely result in a large expenditure of time and capital, and a solution that is not scalable across the organization. Your best bet is to find a partner who can help. In looking for partners, business leaders should look to AI platforms and frameworks that natively include a way to integrate AI predictions that include explanations into the decision process.
While traditionally used in the context of understanding things like bias, AI explainability will need to evolve to be industry-specific — and in manufacturing, explainability will be a must-have to pave the way for wider adoption in a sector in dire need of new tools.
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f54a12f033e6bfec6cbe540edefa50b7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/24/13-common-mistakes-that-can-derail-your-ai-initiatives/?utm_campaign=Newsletter%20Veille%20Data&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter | 13 Common Mistakes That Can Derail Your AI Initiatives | 13 Common Mistakes That Can Derail Your AI Initiatives
Artificial intelligence has made its way into businesses in nearly every industry, and it’s only continuing to rise in popularity. When utilized correctly, AI can be an incredible productivity booster and provide valuable insights to business leaders. However, many leaders are unsure of the best way to leverage it, and a misdirected AI initiative may cause more harm than good.
If you’re looking to implement artificial intelligence in your business, make sure you go in with a well-considered plan. Below, 13 experts from Forbes Technology Council share common mistakes to watch out for when implementing AI.
Members of Forbes Technology Council share common mistakes businesses make when implementing AI initiatives. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Adopting Too Many Tools At Once
The biggest mistake I see tech business owners make when implementing AI is trying to adopt too many different tools at once. AI is a delicate tool that can provide tremendous value to your business, but you have to be attentive and improve it. Some people think AI is “set it and forget it,” so they implement many different AI programs at once and ultimately don’t see positive results. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
2. Not Having A Clear Objective
You must first define the problem you are trying to solve and how you will measure the impact of a solution. I’ve seen too many companies start AI initiatives without clear objectives, hoping to find something. This is usually a recipe for failure. - David Vasko, Rockwell Automation Inc.
3. Not Having A Single Source Of Truth
As data-driven solutions proliferate, the thing that is most needed is a single source of truth that the data can be funneled into. You can then use AI to drive models and build solutions. More often than not, this is forgotten amid the enthusiasm to build AI-driven models and solutions in silos. - Lydia Miller, TATA Consultancy Services
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4. Not Analyzing Enough Data
It’s important to remember that AI is only as good as the data it ingests. If you aren’t analyzing a sufficient amount of data with your AI engine or if the data isn’t reliable, the outputs won’t add much value. Another challenge is continuously training the algorithm in production and providing feedback. Doing this manually on huge amounts of data isn’t possible. Automation is needed. - Hed Kovetz, Silverfort
5. Incorrectly Structuring Datasets
The foundation of any successful AI initiative is a well-structured dataset. If you’re an entrepreneur or small business, you likely won’t start off with sets of data large enough to make AI effective. Avoid making the mistake of not structuring your datasets correctly from the beginning, as it will be difficult to do so when you have a sufficient volume of data. - Maddison Long, CloudOps
6. Implementing Siloed Solutions
Some businesses implement siloed AI solutions or proofs of concept before aligning on a broader transformation strategy and cultural readiness. Such an approach significantly limits scalability and return on investment, even if it does not cause direct harm. - Didem Un Ates, Microsoft
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7. Not Having The Right Size Team
Most businesses know that AI solutions pack a lot of power, but many still forget about the complexities it brings. Implementing AI requires a right-sized team to always keep your algorithms in their best shape. That’s why many companies prefer to outsource their AI development projects or scale their AI development teams via on-demand staff augmentation services. - Nacho De Marco, BairesDev
8. Not Doing The Necessary Groundwork
AI is often seen as a “silver bullet,” but any AI initiative requires a solid data foundation. Working with Fortune 500 enterprises, we see leadership pushing to implement emerging technology. However, any team needs to go back to basics first and make sure their data is clean and structured in a way that will be useful to the model and real-world application. - Michael Paladino, RevUnit
9. Assuming AI Is A Catch-All Solution
Too many businesses assume that AI is a panacea for all of their problems. Consequently, many of them erroneously jump on generalized tech trends without thinking it out. I’d recommend the opposite approach. Focus on a particular purpose for your AI. Strive to address a specific problem. Then decide if you can employ an off-the-shelf solution or if a custom one is really required. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
10. Misidentifying Both The Problem And The Best Solution
“Automation,” “machine learning” and “AI” are often used interchangeably. Leaders may misidentify the business problem; further, whether an issue can be solved via ML, AI or the best automation candidate within the business is still foggy for many business leaders. Identifying the right business problem, choosing the best tool or platform, inputting the required data sets, and finding the key partners to deliver are the four pillars of AI success. - Soumen Chatterjee, Wipro
11. Implementing AI For Its Own Sake
AI is a technology like any other. We’ve seen many projects fail because businesses wanted to implement “buzzy” technology and used that as a starting point. A more effective way to begin an AI initiative is with a really clear view of the fundamental business problem you’re looking to solve and work backward from that. Focus on a specific solution and use AI in service of that. - Konrad Feldman, Quantcast
12. Implementing Solutions Without Sufficient Data
Lots of data is required for most AI solutions to work well. I also see people assuming that a generic AI solution is appropriate when an industry-specific or use-case-specific solution is the right answer. Implementing AI can be hard, but it can provide some incredible value when it’s done right. - Michael Fulton, Expedient
13. Thinking AI Is ‘One-Size-Fits-All’
AI is not “one-size-fits-all.” It is a buzzword, and too many people think it will make them look advanced on the tech front. Utilizing AI for data-driven projects is where the success is. - Bhavna Juneja, Infinity, a Stamford Technology Company
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c6510005324f6cc2db85db9eb927db7c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/24/americas-need-for-cyber-resilience/?sh=6e6476fe16cc | America’s Need For Cyber Resilience | America’s Need For Cyber Resilience
Chief technologist at Micro Focus and emerging tech enthusiast who challenges the status quo and enables growth through digital strategy.
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For my inaugural article, it is fitting to debrief on the current status of America’s digital transformation as we leave 2020 behind and a new administration prepares to lead the country for four years. The recent events at the Capitol led me to start stressing a major issue we currently face regarding governance, risk and security.
I remember one of my early mentors in the space of security, a certified information systems security professional (CISSP), spoke of the CIA Triad. He reiterated that security is all about confidentiality, integrity, availability and people’s safety first.
The crisis in D.C. is a reminder of the fragility of managing the way information, data and assets are handled by government officials. Furthermore, we saw people get access to officials' offices and laptops, where they were able to read emails and browse through documents that were sensitive and confidential.
Specifically, this is where the CIA Triad failed in this scenario:
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• Confidentiality controls protect information from unauthorized access and misuse. If stolen government assets and information isn’t a major breach of confidentiality, I don’t know what is.
• Integrity controls protect information from unauthorized alteration. The protection of information includes data stored, data transmitted between systems and data produced. There is no guarantee that data wasn't altered during the riots.
• Availability controls protect timely and uninterrupted access to the system. For an information system to be useful, it must be available to authorized users. A few days later, based on reports, laptops were still missing, and critical documents had been identified as lost.
At the center of the CIA Triad is “people's safety first.” We failed this in multiple aspects. First, it was the breach itself. The apparent ease for people to break in demonstrated the lack of controls and measures to protect the Capitol against such a threat. Second, threats against officials followed access to sensitive information about their political positions.
The bottom line is that the governing bodies — those that check the controls on our privacy, safety, and security and are obliged to set the highest standards on encryption and protection — have left much to be desired.
Haven’t these officials been educated and trained to keep confidential documents locked in cabinets while away from office? If not, then this is a failed people action control.
Haven’t they been told to lock laptops and desktops while away? If not, this is a failed technology process control. Don’t they have encryption mechanisms installed? Doesn't their screen lock after “x minutes of inactivity?” If not, then this is a failed technology control.
Unfortunately, this is the reality, not only for the government, but for companies and enterprises. There are enough reports out there that speak to similar events and breaches of security. The Capitol case brought it front and center, and now we have a unique opportunity to start making things right.
The digital ecosystem of enterprises and the government will continue to rapidly change thanks to innovation, and with each step, there are new threats and vulnerabilities. Adversaries will continue to seek ways to infiltrate and exploit these vulnerabilities, and they are getting more sophisticated as a result of innovation as well. These attackers range from "script kiddies" to criminal organizations, individuals with an espionage agenda to nation-state actors — all with different motivations and capabilities. In this reality, we have to assume compromise.
On top of a rapidly evolving regulatory environment and security skills shortage, managing even the simple stuff is a challenge, and implementing robust access controls is still daunting. Additionally, keeping track of, classifying and securing data continues to be a challenge.
A solid cybersecurity program must look into the P5 model. It takes the people, process and product (a.k.a. technology) pillars and complements them with policy and proof. An organization should address cybersecurity as a transformation program with the P5 model as the guiding principle. What makes up the P5 model?
• People: Defined responsibility and accountability for security tasks and processes as well as a continuous skill management, training, and awareness program.
• Process: Operational-defined process for implementing, monitoring, measuring and improving security in order to reduce risk.
• Product: Defense-in-depth technologies — properly configured, maintained and hardened — to mitigate risk.
• Policy: Governance and regulation documentation — for confidentiality, integrity and availability topics — to specify and manage control.
• Proof: Metrics or validation methods used to track control effectiveness.
Where do you start?
Start by assessing what works and doesn’t work today to meet objectives and compliance. Begin to define your cybersecurity strategy by classifying data types and priorities to come up with technology, procedural, operational and staff requirements. These are all 101’s of security that must be second nature to our officials. And these are foundational before we hit, 200-, 300- and 400-level security.
Above all, build your cybersecurity strategy with a core principle in mind: to ensure organizational resilience.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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433bacc19b11bf8bec530130c499d636 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/24/unique-challenges-b2b-tech-companies-face-in-moving-from-early-adopters-to-the-mainstream/ | Unique Challenges B2B Tech Companies Face In Moving From Early Adopters To The Mainstream | Unique Challenges B2B Tech Companies Face In Moving From Early Adopters To The Mainstream
Jim Witham is CEO of GaN Systems.
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Addressing the challenges that technology companies face in moving from early adopters to mainstream customers has been a topic of conversation among entrepreneurs since Geoffrey Moore wrote "Crossing the Chasm" 30 years ago. That journey from early experimentation and validation to innovative real-world designs and profitable product deployments can be especially challenging for B2B companies compared to those selling to consumers with low-cost or even "free" products.
For business technology companies selling to larger global brand OEMs (original equipment manufacturer), the process of creating a trusted relationship and providing solid proof points around reliability and cost implications can create a prolonged journey to the mainstream.
The Nature Of The Early Adopter And Mainstream Customer
Early adopters are curious but demanding visionaries and risk-takers exploring potentially disruptive technology in companies. While that exploration begins with the early adopter, the results of pilot programs must eventually attract the attention, time and dollars of mainstream business executives.
Those leaders are more risk-averse and pragmatic in comparison to early adopters. Betting on a possible outcome is not in their nature. They will only consider technology that has demonstrated quality, reliability and cost-effectiveness in the hands of early adopters.
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The technologies involved in the Global Positioning System (GPS), cordless power tools and transistor semiconductors, for example, all successfully navigated the transition from early adopter to mainstream — often over decades.
GPS
Originally developed by the U.S. military, the initial move for GPS into the business market was triggered in 1983 when President Reagan called for GPS technology to be made available to civilian enterprises in the aftermath of the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 disaster.
Fast forward 20 years, and the successful crossing to the mainstream market accompanied the skyrocketing adoption of mobile phones and advances in the business transportation logistics industry.
Cordless Power Tools
In 1961, Black+Decker designed and manufactured the first cordless power tool with a rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery for use by NASA.
After 50 years, increases in power density through the use of lithium-ion batteries and brushless motors gave cordless tools performance parity with powered tools and enabled their first step into the mainstream for commercial and home use.
Transistors
First introduced in the late 1940s, the transistor was developed to replace the bulky, unreliable and energy-inefficient vacuum tubes used in early computers.
In the mid-1950s, a revolutionary solid-state transistor was developed using silicon instead of germanium. This product delivered better performance, reliability and energy efficiency and became the dominant transistor for the next 60 years. It enabled the creation of the high-density integrated circuits that became the backbone of early pocket calculators and today’s smartphones, laptops and tablets.
Covid-19 Widened The Chasm Between Early Adopter And Mainstream
In times of great economic uncertainty, the gap between early adopters and the mainstream can widen significantly. The following factors can make an already difficult transition more challenging:
1. Growing risk aversion
Economic uncertainty leads to greater risk aversion when it comes to decisions about embracing new technologies. This can be counterproductive when building greater business resilience through investments in new innovation is what is actually needed.
2. Changing relationships and power structures
During uncertain times, the decision-making power of key executives often changes. Losing trusted relationships widens the gap for deals that could trigger the early-adopter-to-mainstream transformation for a company.
3. Falling profitability
In many mainstream companies, marginal amounts of budgets are allocated for new discretionary and R&D investigations. When profitability declines, product development plans, research and pilot programs may be closed or placed on hold.
4. Longer selling cycles
For business technology companies selling to OEMs, the education, adoption and sales cycle is longer and more complicated than for consumer-focused companies. The purchase decision of an OEM reflects a commitment to the technology of a partner company as a standard for enabling its own future success.
Practices B2B Technology Companies Need To Change
B2B technology companies are not helpless as the chasm between early adopters and mainstream acceptance widens. But they do need to focus on some key business practices:
1. Understand mainstream customers.
Mainstream customers have different risk profiles and views about innovation than early adopters. They demand that an emerging technology’s advantages be made unambiguously clear and backed by evidence.
2. Understand the competition.
In early adopter markets, competing companies focus on developing category awareness. In the move to the mainstream, the challenge is about competing with bigger and better-funded competitors.
3. Achieve scale.
As an emerging technology moves from pilot programs to mainstream applications, scale becomes important in enabling repeatable processes and addressing growing production demand.
4. Prove reliability and cost savings.
In order to convince a company to switch to a new enabling technology for use in its own important products, questions of cost and reliability must be addressed through customer testimonials, A-to-B expert comparisons, field trials and demonstrated market traction.
5. Grow the support ecosystem.
Production, distribution and complementary product partners can validate another company’s component technology in the eyes of important OEMs by incorporating it in the design of their next-generation products.
Crossing The Chasm In Uncertain Times
For any emerging technology company to succeed in business markets, the difficult journey from early adopter to mainstream customer must be made — even when the chasm widens during difficult times.
A growing chasm can still be crossed through actions that are informed by an understanding of the differences between early adopters and mainstream customers who are laser-focused on the technology cost and reliability that will bring them greater market success and business resilience.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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ed033b2d971f924cc4979c0e116f3663 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/24/watch-out-google-maps-with-amazon-location-service-the-location-cloud-is-here/?sh=3013fa5d307f | Watch Out, Google Maps: With Amazon Location Service, The Location Cloud Is Here | Watch Out, Google Maps: With Amazon Location Service, The Location Cloud Is Here
Founder/CEO of HyperTrack, helping businesses automate deliveries, visits and rides with location-based logistics.
When Amazon enters your business on the e-commerce side of things, you might be worried. But when AWS launches a cloud service in your market category, that could be great news.
Amazon Location Service introduces the market category of the location cloud and uproots Google Maps’ decade-long stronghold in a market that wants more. This is great news for the location and mapping ecosystem.
Remember when Amazon launched Redshift in 2012? Tailwinds were strong for cloud and big data. Redshift confirmed the need for a cloud-based data warehouse as an alternative to the traditional database. In fact, the name itself suggested the need for enterprises with big data to shift from the “Big Red” Oracle to a cloud alternative. While Redshift became AWS’s fastest-growing cloud service in 2015, a then-small startup called Snowflake became the largest software IPO in history in 2020. Expect a similar effect in the location cloud market over the next few years.
The tailwinds are now strong for location and mapping. The extraordinary events of 2020 multiplied home delivery volumes in food, grocery, medicines and other retail services — accelerating trends that were already gaining speed. No stranger to seizing an opportunity, Amazon unveiled a preview of Amazon Location Service (ALS) late last year at 2020 re:Invent, giving developers a cloud service to add maps and location awareness to their applications.
Amazon’s announcement sends a clear signal that “location data is a vital ingredient in today’s applications, enabling capabilities ranging from asset tracking to location-based marketing.”
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To date, developers from startups to large enterprises have had to use on-device location services through mobile operating systems and stitch together their own device-to-cloud service to work with Google Maps. What the market really needed was a cloud-based location service that did the stitching for them, enabling them to build their applications on top.
Amazon’s new service gives birth to a new market category: location cloud. The company has partnered with HERE and Esri for mapping due to their stronghold in the enterprise. Google Maps will need to offer a competing cloud service or lose business to Amazon and other players. Google’s response will likely influence plans of Softbank-funded Mapbox, and Microsoft may follow suit by expanding on Azure Maps with more location capabilities. Most notably, though, this opens up the market for startups in this space.
Amazon describes its offering as the ability to build applications that know where they are and respond accordingly. Applications built on top of Amazon Location Services may be split into two types: location-based marketing and location-based logistics.
Location-based marketing involves knowing where consumers are and responding with advertisements, marketing and better product experiences.
Location-based logistics involves knowing where drivers are and responding with dispatch, routes, payouts, progress tracking and better service experiences.
Developers can start building location-aware applications with ALS, but there is still much work to do to unlock business value.
For example, geofences help generate data about an individual’s arrival and exit at places of interest. With ALS, this data is now readily available in the cloud instead of on-device. However, a logistics or field service fleet needs to use this data to understand how much time was spent at a place or on the way, activate workflows if routes or durations deviate from expectation, and learn from this data to automate more of their business. This functionality is not available out of the ALS box, and building it requires significant work by product and engineering teams that choose to build atop ALS.
DoorDash’s first profitable quarter in Q2 of 2020 followed by its IPO in Q4 of 2020 is a wake-up call for the industry at large.
With the pandemic entering its second year and even optimistic forecasts predicting another six to twelve months before we’re out of the woods, companies that deferred building live location-based logistics are now scrambling to start. Businesses that were willing to temporarily sacrifice margins to weather the “short-term crisis” are now overdue to take back control of their business and compete on a level playing field, whether against Google, Uber, DoorDash, Instacart or the tech-savvy grocery store across the street.
Today, Grandma is ordering vegetables to her door because her life depends on it. Next year, she’ll be doing it because of how easy it is.
In this new future, more retailers will want to own the customer experience of curbside pickup and home delivery to stay competitive. Larger fleets will want to route better to service more orders faster.
If 2020 was a time-lapse video of software eating the world, 2021 will be the year that enterprises invest in technology capabilities, digital transformation and digital innovation teams — not because it grows their business but because now their life depends on it.
2021 promises to be the year of the location cloud. A decade from now, we’ll look back at 2021 as the start of a new location cloud economy. We all will recognize Amazon’s entry as a key event that marked the shift. Startups that recognize and seize the opportunity now will ride this wave, and some will become large public companies powering location logistics for thousands of customers with businesses on the move.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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9e3d3e378eaf2312a09322a9da907db4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/14-tech-leaders-share-jobs-they-believe-should-never-be-automated/ | 14 Tech Leaders Share Jobs They Believe Should Never Be Automated | 14 Tech Leaders Share Jobs They Believe Should Never Be Automated
Businesses across industries are increasingly turning toward automating repetitive tasks, and with good reason. Automation can speed up processes, boost productivity and free up employees’ time for more critical work.
Still, there are some jobs that require human intelligence, emotion and creativity—jobs that simply cannot be automated. Below, the members of Forbes Technology Council share 14 jobs they believe should never be automated and why.
Members of Forbes Technology Council share the jobs that they believe only humans can handle. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Management
The relationship between a manager and an employee is incredibly important. This interaction should never be automated. Our role as leaders is to bring vision, cultivate a clear direction (our North Star) and inspire trusted collaboration. Most importantly, our role is to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow, which is all about the leader each of us is today. - Kathy Keating, TextUs
2. Sales
Think about every sales training book you have read, sales seminar you have attended or course you have taken. Every one of them told you some version of “We buy from those we trust.” Automation will help us discover who the right target is, how to schedule time with them and what to say, but automation will never close the deal. - David Moise, Decide Consulting
3. Security Analysis
There are many phenomenal tools that help automate and optimize the mean time to detection of security threats, especially security at scale. But at the end of the day, the role security teams play in the analysis, triage and investigation of threats is critical to an organization. - Kim Huffman, Elastic
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4. Law Enforcement
Automation should never completely take over the responsibilities of law enforcement officers. Imagine if an artificial intelligence system fell into the wrong hands. Criminals with malicious intent could use this compromised technology to carry out a variety of heinous acts, such as misusing information and potentially even enacting deadly force. The downsides far outweigh the upsides. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
5. Complex Problem-Solving
Don’t focus on job replacement, as all of our jobs will change in the future. Consider how tasks will change. Automation speeds up repetitive tasks. Humans excel at creative, non-recurring tasks. Humans will continue to define the problems to solve and lead problem-solving efforts, assisted by AI and automation. As these tools improve, humans will utilize them to solve more difficult problems. - David Vasko, Rockwell Automation Inc.
6. Customer Service
When we call big companies to get help with a product or service that we buy from them we too often get the pleasure of speaking with a computer. While the systems have come a long way, customers crave the ability to speak to another human being instead of dealing with AI, where most of the time you have to request to speak to a “representative.” - Richard Kahn, Anura Solutions, LLC
7. Copywriting
AI should never take over copywriting. Even though some programs can develop coherent sentences, scripts or articles, using AI takes one element out of the process: perspective. Individual writers can provide new angles or unique ideas that a program cannot generate because of its preexisting limitations. This also applies to other types of writing as well, from newspaper articles to press releases. - Arnie Gordon, Arlyn Scales
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8. Healthcare
No machine will ever be able to replace human compassion, empathy and understanding. Even though automated human health monitoring systems are very helpful for both patients and doctors, the caring role of medical staff should always be left to humans to protect the well-being and dignity of those in need. - Pawel Rzeszucinski, Codewise
9. Piloting Aircraft
Look no further than the tragedies associated with the Boeing 737 Max and the inability of pilots—who were better suited to apply corrections in emergency situations than the algorithms—to override the software. Software is a great aid, but we must allow the human brain to process the many, nuanced variables that immature or maturing software cannot account for and respond to. - Craig Powell, Motus, LLC
10. Software Development And Engineering
Software development—and even more broadly, engineering—should never be completely automated. Conceptualizing new ideas requires the creativity of the human brain; this is true whether you’re developing software programs for autonomous digital enterprises or physical structures. There will always be a need for the person who designs the software and machines we use to automate business. - Ali Siddiqui, BMC Software
11. Human Resources
As the department charged with managing personnel, human resources should never be automated. Behind every great technology is a human, and this human needs to look people in the eye to understand their salary concerns, their opportunity to grow and how office dynamics may alter their performance. Technology can be an assistant but can never replace the human touch. - Adi Ekshtain, Amaryllis Payment Solutions
12. Motivational Jobs
Human engagement to motivate cannot be automated. That’s one thing that needs a personal connection. The pleasure of knowing from a human voice that you have done a good job can never be replaced by any technology in the world. - Bhavna Juneja, Infinity, a Stamford Technology Company
13. Arts And Education Jobs
Jobs supported by machine learning are limited to data analytics and specialists. Psychological behaviors such as empathy and creativity prevent automation from replacing the jobs that humans want to have performed by other humans. Cooks, artists, teachers and journalists—all are jobs that require creativity, compassion and human interaction. They can only be supported by automation, not replaced by it. - Dr. Alexander N. Jablovski, UZE Mobility
14. Jobs That Require Judgment
There are multiple tasks that a person will do better than an algorithm. Any position that requires human interaction benefits from having a real human, as does any position that requires some level of judgment in the face of ambiguity. AI-based automation is becoming very complex and capable, but machines can only compute. They can’t actually judge. - Saryu Nayyar, Gurucul
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d2c944edc2911f5d54644b46d62243f5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/16-critical-things-every-business-leader-should-know-about-ransomware/?sh=58b1823843fe | 16 Critical Things Every Business Leader Should Know About Ransomware | 16 Critical Things Every Business Leader Should Know About Ransomware
With more and more data being stored digitally or in the cloud, ransomware has become a rising issue in recent years. While most people have heard of ransomware, business leaders may not always be aware of factors that can contribute to higher risk.
A lack of understanding of these issues can leave companies significantly more vulnerable to a ransomware attack. To help businesses prevent this fate, the members of Forbes Technology Council share 16 things every leader needs to know about ransomware.
Members of Forbes Technology Council share important facts about ransomware every business needs to know. Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Cybercriminals aren’t picky about your industry.
Business leaders need to understand that no matter what industry they are in, they are a potential target for ransomware attacks. Cybercriminals aren’t going to care what you do as long as they can make a profit from attacking you. If you have IT and users, you are potentially at risk. - Saryu Nayyar, Gurucul
2. There may be several weak areas within your IT infrastructure.
Ransomware is synonymous with digital kidnapping. It is crucial for business leaders to know that any digital asset can be digitally ransomed if there is an issue with any of several IT infrastructures, including architecture, design, implementation and operation. Building employees’ cybersecurity IQ is one of the ways to minimize the risk. - Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare, Digital Encode Limited
3. You should be wary of cloud solutions that rely heavily on third-party plugins.
I believe addressing ransomware risk starts with choosing the right cloud platforms and being honest with yourself about your company’s internal IT abilities. Avoiding solutions that require lots of third-party plugins to function and ones that leave the burden of updates and security patches to the customer is the best course. - Jason Smith, NXTurn
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4. Ransomware is often part of a two-pronged attack.
Ransomware is no longer just about locking files to extort payment. It’s increasingly part of a two-pronged attack where the first stage is to steal data and the second stage is to encrypt systems. This gives the attackers two ways to extort payments. Companies need to be prepared for how they will handle two situations congruently: a data breach and a ransomware event. - Ryan Weeks, Datto
5. Hackers target all employee levels.
Ransomware attacks target all levels of employees, from rank-and-file staff to the executive level. Organizations often make the mistake of assuming hackers are either after the C-level crown jewels or an easy entry route via lower-level employees. Ransomware can enter a business from top to bottom, so it’s best to take measures from the C-suite to mid-management and down. - John Shin, RSI Security
6. Rapid moves to the cloud and remote work have increased companies’ risk.
With companies moving quickly to the cloud, configuration errors pose a risk. Couple that with remote employees on insecure networks, and enterprises have exposed the “soft underbelly” of their security systems. True ransomware readiness must go beyond prevention to include data preservation and fast recovery capabilities. As cybercriminals up their game, IT must stay on the cutting edge of the cloud to match wits. - Manoj Nair, Metallic
7. Real-world user behavior is rarely ideal.
Most companies regularly remind users to maintain good habits such as periodically changing and not reusing passwords, but real-world user behavior is far from ideal. Companies should employ the same best practices used by Google, Apple, Amazon and others, including spotting potential fraud through user behavior data and implementing real-time alerts to keep users involved in maintaining the integrity of their accounts. - Ari Jacoby, Deduce
8. Ransomware attacks aren’t just an IT problem.
In many cases, hackers leak sensitive information belonging to an organization so that the company cannot keep the attack private, placing the business and its reputation at risk. Hackers take control over critical operation systems, where each encryption is a very costly interruption to business continuity. - Reuven Aronashvili, CYE
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9. You can mitigate risk through smart data management.
No business is immune from ransomware. But we can mitigate the risk of ransomware by keeping extra copies of our data. This way, if ransomware attacks the main copy, you have a backup copy to fall back on so you don’t become a victim of the ransomware. This is why data management is key. Ensure actively used data receives good protection while cold, passive data is managed inexpensively. - Krishna Subramanian, Komprise
10. You need to thoroughly review your backup strategies.
Educating your employees on the signs of attempts by hackers to gain access to your network is key. Additionally, backing up your system is a crucial recovery piece. Review your backup strategy, including when your files are backed up, frequency of backups and whether they’re full or incremental. Test your backups regularly to make sure that the system is operating as planned. - Paul Valenti, Electronic Restoration Services (ERS)
11. Backups should be separate from your primary network.
There’s only one surefire way to recover from a ransomware attack: Restore encrypted files and folders from a recent backup. While a “perfect” backup process may not be possible for logistical reasons, make sure you do backups that are separate from your primary network, and test them regularly. - Caroline Wong, Cobalt.io
12. It’s important to test your backups.
One of the most important things business leaders should know about ransomware is the need to have tested backups of their most valuable data. This is critical as ransomware will encrypt computer systems, lock tech leaders out of their own data and require a ransom for decryption. Having good backups will enable business leaders to rebuild these systems and restore their data. - Bob Fabien Zinga, Directly, Inc./U.S. Navy Reserve
13. You need to rehearse to ensure a speedy recovery.
Despite best efforts, ransomware attacks will happen, and organizations need to have plans in place to rapidly recover. Make sure you have a pristine secondary copy of your primary data that you can restore within a target timeframe. Do your rehearsals diligently—the key test is how quickly you can restore operations. - Jacqueline Teo, HGC Global Communications
14. Evolving attack methods will require new tech solutions.
In 2021, ransomware will remain the go-to way for criminals to monetize a breach, and their methods will evolve. For instance, as operational technology and Internet of Things devices become more common, criminals will target them, so attacks will have a more visible impact on the physical world. Business leaders must ensure that security and IT teams adopt technologies to mitigate ransomware, including IDS/IPS and file monitoring. - Ilia Sotnikov, Netwrix
15. Education is your best defense.
Every business leader should not only know about the most common ransomware tactics, but they should also teach their employees about them. Ransomware is definitely on the rise. Fortunately, most internet criminals employ the same strategies. Familiarizing yourself and your team with them could end up saving your company’s reputation. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
16. You should focus on incremental improvements rather than a ‘silver bullet.’
Ransomware attacks continue to plague several key verticals, including healthcare and the automotive industry. Business leaders need to understand that there is never a way to reduce the risk of ransomware to zero. However, some basic things can be done to significantly lower risks. Organizations should focus their investment on smaller incremental gains, not look for a single “silver bullet.” - Craig Goodwin, Cyvatar
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5a8fed42784a1d4f1f884c5cee59914c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/cracking-the-code-on-cross-functional-teams/ | Cracking The Code On Cross-Functional Teams | Cracking The Code On Cross-Functional Teams
Bruno Guicardi is President of CI&T, the digital solutions partner driving lean digital transformation for the world’s biggest brands.
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In his book Team of Teams, Gen. Stanley McChrystal describes the in-progress transition from hierarchical management structures to autonomous, multidisciplinary teams in both business and military applications. The necessity of this transition is twofold; companies are both larger and more complex than ever, rendering top-down changes virtually impossible, and consumer needs are evolving at an unprecedented rate, making the speed at which they adapt and innovate critical to staying relevant.
Cross-functional teams with empowered members can be a huge asset to the companies that employ them. So why doesn't every company do just that? To use a famous quote: "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." In other words, putting together a crack innovation squad sounds easy. In reality, it can be quite tricky — especially when you are trying to leverage assets from the "core" like customer relationships and data because, in order to use them, you have to face their complexities: the power plays of a multitude of internal departments and a complicated technology landscape.
Unsurprisingly, most companies face numerous challenges when attempting to make such teams work. Here's what the biggest of those challenges look like in the field and the most effective way of dealing with them:
1. Cross-functional teams don't gel easily.
There are several reasons for this. First, you're asking people to collaborate who may have just stepped out of departments that were fiercely competing for budget allocations or butting heads in other ways. Even in the absence of outright conflict, people often need time to get to know and trust each other. The same concept applies to the relationship between leadership and membership. Building rapport is more art than science, and it's not a given that team leaders will get respect without earning it. Remember that at the start, the team leader — who most likely will have come from one function — will not have deep knowledge in every skill involved.
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Even if everyone on the team could automatically work well together, this style of work itself is unfamiliar and unconventional. The reality is that we put together people who still don't feel comfortable being vulnerable with each other along with a steep learning curve, and the biggest risk we run into is that the team, wanting to quickly get out of the discomfort zone, proclaims it got it "working" already — simply settling for a low standard of performance in actuality.
One solution to this challenge is bringing in people who have previously had successful experience in multidisciplinary work and are capable of applying their knowledge in practice. If you have coaches, don't let them coach; instead, deploy them in the team and let them show how it's done by actually doing. Additionally, it's critical to set short cycles of delivery where the goal is simply to have something done and in the hands of customers. Imperfect results are still results, and they help create cohesion, build confidence and reduce skepticism among team members.
2. Goals and accountability are nonstandard.
We know some things about goal-setting in multidisciplinary teams. First, tactical goals (for instance, "Finish project x by date y") take the "autonomy" out of "autonomous teams." If you've already established exactly what you'll do next year, do you have space for new ideas or freedom to adapt and pivot? Autonomous teams do need goals, but they also need space for innovating. The way to accomplish this is by shifting goals from output-based to outcome-based — strategy over tactics.
Second, outcome-based goals are high-level by design and are shared across team members — this is critical to creating an environment of true collaboration. However, this can be difficult to explain in an HR setting, where individual accountability is historically highly regarded. We recommend that you involve HR and senior leadership early on and discuss the changes; this can help them understand that in autonomous teams, accountability tends to happen organically. Groups will self-police and eject members who don't carry their weight.
3. Legacy leadership culture is difficult to break through.
Finally, probably the hardest of the challenges is how to break through the command-and-control leadership culture that is so pervasive in the enterprise environment and so incompatible with the "empowered teams" concept. The strategies we saw succeed in overcoming this encompass both working with senior leaders — coaching them in how to interact with the team — and helping the team with performance management practices.
The executive coaching focuses on making sure they lead their team interactions with questions, not opinions or directions (which may reduce the team's autonomy), creating opportunities for the team to self-reflect and "own" their solutions and performance. On the team side of things, we work to provide a higher level of transparency regarding team performance, including efficacy metrics (how we are progressing toward the outcomes) and efficiency metrics like quality and productivity (how many experiments we have run this sprint).
Even though the ultimate goal is about efficacy and outcomes, our experience has shown that efficiency metrics are essential to building trust with senior leaders. If we put ourselves in their shoes, we are going to understand that it isn't easy for them to let go of control and just trust the team to come up with the creative solutions the company needs. The team being transparent about what and how much it's doing really helps lessen executive anxiety by showing that even if the team didn't find a new killer idea yet, it will eventually get there. Our biggest takeaway here is that the discipline of execution plays a stronger role in transformation than most companies anticipate.
Growth in growing.
The old style of business management, to use McChrystal's analogy, is akin to playing a game of chess, in which the movement of each piece is dictated by the chess master. To operate competitively in the modern world, leaders need to think more like gardeners, focusing on creating and sustaining an environment that provides the necessary ingredients for growth.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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0f701d341638d10cde60b1a12bc33d04 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/five-recommendations-to-ensure-customer-loyalty-in-the-post-covid-19-era/ | Five Recommendations To Ensure Customer Loyalty In The Post-Covid-19 Era | Five Recommendations To Ensure Customer Loyalty In The Post-Covid-19 Era
Co-Founder and Head of Data Science at VOZIQ. Helping recurring revenue businesses improve customer retention using Machine Learning.
Covid-19 has put the global business community under extreme pressure. While businesses have started to recover from this jolt, customer optimism will likely take some time to return to the pre-crisis level. The demand is low. Customers are uncertain, delaying purchases and constantly browsing for better price tags, and even switching from their regular brands.
In this scenario, customer retention has assumed a paramount role, especially for recurring revenue businesses. Below are the recommended focus areas for companies to boost retention and maintain the long-term health of the business.
Gain More Insight Into Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) and customer retention initiatives go hand in hand. CLV tells you who the most loyal customers are and helps prioritize service based on customer value, improving customer loyalty, which in turn increases CLV. This insight is critical for sustainable recurring revenue businesses. As the Pareto principle in marketing suggests, generally, 20% of customers contribute about 80% of revenue.
The CLV metric holds an even higher value during these times. The pandemic has significantly reduced the marketing budget for many companies as priorities have shifted. Hence, to optimize their marketing campaigns, business leaders will have to focus more on CLV and consider developing loyalty programs to retain and acquire more high-value customers.
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Address A Concern Before Customers Mention It
A proactive approach involves predicting customers’ concerns and solving them before they become problems. As opposed to the traditional reactive support model, where the solution is offered after the customer mentions a problem, proactive service establishes a more customer-focused business.
In the pandemic-hit market, customers would want to connect more with the brands that believe in their apprehensions and proactively address their queries. This presents an opportunity to improve customer retention and loyalty, create brand advocates, increase CSAT and cut down support calls, leading to better productivity.
A Valued Customer Is A Loyal Customer
Value enhancement is about improving customer experience and driving loyalty based on service interactions. It involves validating a customer’s purchase decision, offering tailored support by anticipating their needs and letting them derive more value from the product or service. Gartner suggests that the probability of customers staying is higher when they find value from service interactions. This is particularly important in the pandemic-induced scenario with uncertainties around purchase and subscription decisions.
The impact of higher perceived value goes beyond customer retention. When customers feel more valued, they are more likely to spend more on the product or service, renew their relationship with the brand, and spread the positive word.
Connect With Your Customers Wherever They Are
Customers tend to stay loyal to a company when they feel it values them and listens to them wherever they are — whether they are talking with an agent via a live call or interacting with a service rep during a home visit. An omnichannel approach offers a unified view of every customer to create a well-rounded customer experience and proactive engagement road map. It allows companies to deliver a personalized, relevant and timely message to every customer on their preferred channel.
Given the considerable shift to digital technologies in the last three quarters, a trend that looks like it will continue through and beyond recovery, an omnichannel retention strategy is a must.
Consider Investing In Technology To Stay Ahead In The Game
Covid-19 has given birth to several business uncertainties around economic health, customer relationship, spending patterns and so on. Technology can tackle this by analyzing massive customer data to get in-depth insights into customer buying habits, experience and expectations.
Investment in advanced technologies like big data analytics, machine learning, natural language processing and deep analytics can help offer better personalization, predict attrition, identify customer pain points and design effective loyalty programs. Furthermore, companies should also consider investing in automation for better operational efficiency and reduced human errors to deliver a superior customer experience.
Despite the crisis, retention is not very different from what it was during better times. It should continue to be a top priority. Considering lower customer confidence, companies should keep abreast with their customers' evolving needs, proactively identify and address their concerns. It is the best way of telling them how important they are.
This is not the first crisis, nor will it be the last. However, it is an excellent time to listen to loyal customers, learn from their feedback and be proactive in meeting their needs. Businesses that leverage this opportunity will be able to create a positive brand image, and once these tough times are a matter of the past, they will receive a great reward: loyal and happy customers.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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a80df685ecb0d8e01cd8e2eebddef8d6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/hiring-reliable-developers-development-companies-vs-freelancers/ | Hiring Reliable Developers: Development Companies Vs. Freelancers | Hiring Reliable Developers: Development Companies Vs. Freelancers
Serial Tech Entrepreneur who built multiple 8-figure companies since 2000, currently building remote work solutions platform Missed.com.
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Considering the pace of development in the IT industry, especially in mobile app and web development, the demand for reliable developers is increasing year by year. Based on several major factors, companies hire individuals or a team of developers to address this demand, but there are always doubts about whether freelancers or remote developers are optimal to hire in terms of work quality, price and other aspects of a deal. Before deciding to hire one of them, you must analyze and compare the benefits of each. Hopefully, this article will be useful in identifying these benefits.
Security
For any business, security is undoubtedly the most important factor in launching any project. Sometimes, the lack of contracts that ensure the confidentiality of project details or mutual trust between companies and developers can lead to stolen ideas or digital resources needed for software development.
Therefore, choosing a software development company is a more reliable option than hiring freelancers, who may not even miss go through legal procedures by accepting the terms and conditions of both parties before initiating the process. However, companies that consider other factors such as their reputation, customer satisfaction and service quality, which are important to improving their company image, are far more reliable than some freelancers who may care about financial aspects only.
Resources
As I mentioned above, software development companies mainly reinvest part of their revenue to facilitate and improve their company's internal conditions in terms of software and hardware so that the development of new digital solutions is be easier and faster. Compared to freelancers' limited budgets and resources, bigger companies, even those with remote teams of experts, can afford to allocate more resources to provide better services.
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This means companies can deal with many projects simultaneously and meet the requirements and demands of all clients on time — and for a reasonable price that may be higher than freelancers, but in terms of quality and time, software agencies give no space to compete.
Team
In software development agencies, there are responsible people, such as project managers, the CEO, the COO and the department head, who control and manage the workflow, quality, and general work performance of developers, designers, copywriters, and other employees. This ensures a professional approach by every team member who closely works with project deliverables, while timelines and project deliverables are tracked by managers who are regularly in touch with clients to provide transparency and honesty in terms of working hours, development cycles and quality.
Most importantly, as companies aim to build long-term relations with clients and have their common mission accomplished, employees in an agency can work together as a team that can operate efficiently in unexpected situations.
Full Package Of Services
Sometimes, freelancers who have developed a particular software skill may not have the time or skills to maintain it, develop it further or offer other services that are closely related to a developed solution. In many cases, clients do not have a final image of their project, or it is difficult to imagine it without experts' help to guide them through the whole process. This process may include project planning, initiating, developing and maintaining — not only from a technical perspective but also from a financial and theoretical perspective.
Most software development companies offer web and app development services together with idea verification, analytics, analysis, consulting, finance and monetization, audits, promotion, and maintenance. Thus, having a team of developers, designers, copywriters, marketing specialists and QA experts under one roof could come in handy.
However, there are positive aspects to freelancers that should not be ignored. Hiring freelancers for IT projects can sometimes be financially beneficial because freelancers do not require health insurance and compensation benefits. Additionally, their hourly rates are relatively lower. Moreover, with the proliferation of freelancing platforms, it has become much easier to find a suitable expert by viewing their profile, including portfolio, rating and reviews. This accelerates the process of sorting and hiring freelancers, and in the case of unexpected situations, companies can replace them easily in a short period of time.
But the availability of many reliable online review platforms can also make it easy to choose an appropriate service provider based on their rating, finished projects, success rate, team experience and clients’ reviews. Additionally, considering the benefits of using software company services offered by a team of experts, the probability of meeting IT project requirements and achieving expected results is much higher.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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00a6a04fea9782cc0ba7c61d79ae747d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/how-identity-orchestration-can-prevent-multi-cloud-personality-disorder/ | How Identity Orchestration Can Prevent Multi-Cloud Personality Disorder | How Identity Orchestration Can Prevent Multi-Cloud Personality Disorder
Eric is CEO of Strata Identity, an enterprise cloud identity expert, multi-exit serial entrepreneur and co-author of the SAML SSO standard.
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"New year, new me" is a terrible cliché, but the start of the year is a good time to rethink how your network is handling the many online identities of users. That's because cloud computing could be subjecting your organization to multiple identity disorder.
Cloud-based operations are now the rule, not the exception, for most businesses. As more companies are using software as a service (SaaS) applications and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to handle their operations, their use of the public cloud is exploding. Gartner, Inc. projects 80% of businesses will have all their infrastructure based in the cloud by 2025.
To avoid lock-in with a single cloud vendor, many businesses are choosing to implement a multi-cloud environment; Gartner says 81% of enterprises using the cloud have two or more cloud platform vendors. Using multiple public clouds means each will require its own identity management. That's a growing list of user identities that have to be reconciled into one user profile to enable them to access and keep operations humming, but multiple technical challenges and organizational issues make that almost impossible.
Identity orchestration can weave all those identities together using a distributed identity model that lets the enterprise break vendor lock-in and operate smoothly. This approach provides users with access to both cloud-based and on-premises resources safely and efficiently while enforcing centralized access policies that maintain the same level of security across all clouds.
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To support the hybrid and multi-cloud uses of today's enterprises, identity orchestration has to be built distributed natively, not bolted onto a conventional centralized identity system. It has to enable consistent identities and unify access policies using abstraction.
For example, imagine if your company had to move 50 apps it uses regularly from on-premises to the cloud or from one cloud vendor to another. (This is not an outrageous number; the average enterprise uses 1,295 cloud-based apps.) To do this quickly, inexpensively and without disrupting operations or compromising security, the challenges would be enormous. It would require managing multiple identity systems, rewriting the apps to support the new destination identity management system and resetting all user passwords before the migration.
The challenge would not end there; after the migration, enforcing a single identity policy across systems would require a security "race to the bottom" using the loosest, most permissive requirements as the lowest common denominator across all systems. That would make security measures more vulnerable to a breach.
It would be like trying to change the tires while driving the car. Businesses are under increased financial pressure to do more with less today. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, companies have been challenged to cut costs to maintain profitability in a weaker economy, all the while spending on adapting their workforce to remote operations and health-related restrictions.
Identity orchestration can tackle most of the issues associated with managing multi-cloud environments. It can run on the cloud or the in-house network, working as a traffic cop for all online activity. It channels user logins to the appropriate identity provider and pulls up identity data from wherever it is stored to ease access across identity systems.
Identity orchestration is designed to enable moving identity data easily; it can run on open-source Linux servers and use "intent-based" declarative configuration files written in YAML, a human-readable code for handling data that's easy to understand and implement. It arranges interactions between applications, creating a layer that lets them work using any identity systems without changing the applications' code or altering its configurations.
Identity orchestration software can separate the apps and identities, and it can work as a gateway so they can interoperate with any identity system that only requires minor configuration changes. It acts as a bridge between each cloud provider's access system and between legacy and modern identity and access management (IAM) systems. In addition, identity orchestration serves as a way to avoid "big bang" IAM migrations and the disruptions they cause, and make changes incremental instead.
Here's how to get started with identity orchestration and avoid common pitfalls:
• Engineer the abstraction layer, aka identity fabric, from the ground up by natively architecting in a distributed fashion. Do not retrofit a centralized identity system since they are not designed to interoperate with other IAM products and will prevent you from centrally managing users and policies.
• To implement consistent identities across multiple clouds and identity systems, the system must integrate with various identity providers programmatically through APIs using established standards like SAML, OIDC and SCIM, and it must be able to create a composite identity profile using attributes from each of them in real time. Avoid technologies that are not natively distributed and that use proprietary integrations, which cannot interoperate with other identity systems and will prevent the centralized management of identities.
• The identity abstraction layer must be able to unify the global namespace and normalize the definition of user access policies using a common syntax. It must also reconcile user access enforcement using meta-policies to fill translation gaps that commonly occur between different identity systems due to their different feature sets. Avoid systems that force policy definitions to fit a closed, proprietary syntax since this will limit your flexibility in how you write and implement consistent policies.
• To unify different identity systems' APIs, data models, user access policies and feature sets in a consistent fashion, the identity fabric must be able to abstract all the underlying identity infrastructures that an organization uses. Avoid identity technologies that are designed for on-premise-only or cloud-only since you won't be able to manage hybrid environments in a centralized way.
• Finally, the identity fabric must be integrated seamlessly with your cloud DevOps processes and tool stack. To do this, be sure to use a declarative, intent-based approach to policy, which is far easier to understand and audit and eliminates the need to learn multiple proprietary identity system APIs and imperative data models.
By following these best practices you can seamlessly manage access for apps across multiple clouds — all while providing a seamless end-user experience.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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148ab72b89ca37f02d2525b6645d445b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/improving-medical-record-errors-through-technology/ | Improving Medical Record Errors Through Technology | Improving Medical Record Errors Through Technology
Chief Technology Officer at Imprivata, a healthcare IT security company.
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If you’re not a professional actively working in the healthcare industry, you probably don’t realize how important medical records are — or how dangerously unreliable they can be. According to Black Book Research covered in Becker's Hospital Review (registration required), "The average cost of repeated medical care due to inaccurate patient identification with a duplicate record, for example, is roughly $1,950 per inpatient stay." That's a pretty high number — but duplicate medical records also mean your provider receives incomplete or inaccurate medical information about you. Even worse, bad information can be used to make critical medical decisions about patient care.
People who aren't in healthcare often don’t even realize this problem exists. They have complete trust that, when they go to a healthcare facility, a check on their medical records will reliably deliver their actual medical information. But it doesn’t always.
Patient matching problems often start at the front end of the patient onboarding process – incorrect identification at registration is a common cause. Reducing data entry errors at this stage requires better processes during the initial patient interaction. It’s worth remembering that healthcare is moving from a transactional event to more of a relationship with outcome-based results for many organizations and programs, such as Medicare. In this context, addressing the causes of such problems is critical to ensuring patient care.
Several technologies are helping with patient identification and medical records challenges. More traditional solutions such as the enterprise master patient index (EMPI) are well known. EMPI is a software that sits on top of different systems; it attempts to provide a unique identifier or resolve duplication at the back end. When a patient goes to a hospital and provides their name, confusion may occur between that point and, for example, the emergency room. If such confusion occurs, EMPI will resolve those records by looking at that data and clarifying.
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Identity-proofing is another well-known patient identification technology. How do hospitals truly know that a patient is actually the person they claim to be? Experian and LexisNexis are perhaps the best-known providers of identity-proofing solutions, though the market has seen many new entrants of late.
Why exactly is patient identification so critical? As the CTO of a company that provides positive patient identification solutions, I believe it's because our doctors and nurses can only provide effective care if they know the correct treatment to provide. Patient identification deals with this issue while avoiding the requirement that patients provide exhaustive identification every time they seek any type of medical care.
The finance industry provides a good comparison. Digital identity plays a crucial role in the financial world and was integrated into various transactions years ago. Consumers have since grown accustomed to using more complex passwords, as well as two-factor authentication (such as when the bank texts you a code to confirm your identity before you can continue with a virtual service). Unfortunately, other sectors, namely healthcare, still often lag behind in the adoption of digital identity.
In the financial services sector, digital identity is well established. Banking customers are familiar with the process of producing a bank card and providing that as proof of identity. It’s straightforward and easy — and it works. The threat of identity theft still exists, of course, but solutions like these can help.
The healthcare industry, however, has yet to follow this approach to digital identity. Biometric solutions such as iris and palm vein scanning can also come into play here. These emerging technologies, offered by companies like mine and Aware, provide the flexibility for providers to reliably connect patients to their medical information at the various touch points across the healthcare continuum.
If we see a greater shift toward value-based care, the emphasis will become more about the relationship than the transaction. What does it look like when patients find medical errors in their chart? Would you trust a bank if it somehow misplaced your funds? In one 2020 study, 1 in 5 patients found an error in their ambulatory visit note. Errors like these can significantly affect how hospitals interact with their patients. Healthcare organizations need to develop strategies for protecting their data and ensure its sanctity.
Despite greater adoption of the latest health IT solutions, too many health delivery organizations continue to use outdated identification methods, such as matching a patient’s Social Security number or address. These processes are prone to errors because they involve manual data entry and can result in patient misidentification. This in turn, can lead to patient safety issues, not to mention negative implications for healthcare organizations.
In my experience, Covid-19 has exacerbated digital identity management challenges with the rise of telehealth. New devices are now being used from a variety of locations to enable providers to continue delivering care during lockdowns and ongoing quarantines. This reality makes it more critical than ever for healthcare to look for areas where they can improve their current digital identity management practices.
Digital transformation is happening at warp speed and will continue to evolve quickly for the foreseeable future. Healthcare leaders need to adapt to this new world and rethink their approach.
Although the financial industry has set a good standard for digital identity, the healthcare ecosystem is arguably more complex. There are different roles, and the industry must comply with HIPAA standards. While some strategies for security and privacy may cross over well from finance, HIT leaders likely know that what works in the banking sector may not transfer to their world. Healthcare requires a specialized plan to address the industry’s unique challenges. To succeed with digital identity, the healthcare industry and technology providers will need to develop solutions that meet the needs of providers and can protect medical data every step of the way on a patient’s healthcare journey. Having a modern solution in place could position healthcare for digital identity success during the pandemic and beyond.
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e83c656adc963610f8eb9ff377712706 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/its-dirty-little-secret-manual-processes-are-still-prevalent/ | IT's Dirty Little Secret: Manual Processes Are Still Prevalent | IT's Dirty Little Secret: Manual Processes Are Still Prevalent
VP of Worldwide Field Engineering - Cloud and Datacenter at Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu.
getty
It's accepted as a given in the tech industry: As companies everywhere up their digital game, automating time-consuming manual processes has become critical for making IT infrastructure more scalable, adaptive and efficient.
Survey after survey shows that companies are investing heavily in intelligent automation technologies, believing it will make them more competitive. The Covid-19 pandemic has added urgency to automation initiatives as organizations look to address cost pressures, support remote workforces, and increase agility and resilience in their supply chains.
Day-to-day reality tells a surprising story, however. Despite automation's clear benefits, manual tasks remain prevalent inside many organizations. Many businesses are increasingly adopting automation, but they're falling short in realizing its full value due to concerns over cost, integration, security and compliance.
A recent commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of Canonical, has found that application deployment and delivery professionals "are still continuously overwhelmed with the number of manual tasks and volume of work."
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Only about one-third of tasks are currently automated across IT functions, according to the study, with security, compliance and application lifecycle management the biggest areas weighing down teams. Nearly half of large enterprises are fulfilling key tasks on a completely manual basis.
"Despite the impetus for organizations to automate application lifecycle operations, it is clear that most companies still have a lot of work to do to reduce the number of manual tasks, especially the very large enterprises," the study said.
What is happening here? If automation is so attractive for managing infrastructure and networks that are growing in size and complexity, whether on-premises or in the cloud, why are so many companies clinging to old manual methods?
Our work with customers shows that implementation cost and operational complexity is one of the biggest worries of companies looking to institute application development and infrastructure automation, especially when they're planning to scale beyond the data center and cloud to the edge.
In addition to cost, they're often concerned about difficulties in integrating different automation tools used by infrastructure and development teams.
It's like the old quote: "Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere." Enterprises need to get to the automated future quickly because the costs of failing to do so are high. Let me illustrate.
Imagine a company — say, an international logistics firm — has invested heavily in digital technology to manage its transportation fleet, interact with customers, schedule deliveries, etc. Despite that, however, it still maintains an archaic manual process in one of the most basic aspects of application deployment.
Every time a developer wants to put a new application into production, they fill out a form asking the IT operations team for the required infrastructure — this number of virtual machines, that amount of storage, etc. Maybe a few weeks later — or if they're lucky, a few days — the developer receives an email that says, in a nutshell, "Here are your servers and the IP addresses, you can log in with your credentials and they're yours."
Think about the waste — the human labor for such a simple transaction and the time wasted in getting an innovative app into customers' hands.
The company's competitor, however, has automated this routine process so that intelligent code in the application itself is able to send a request to the infrastructure and provision what it needs by itself. No human is involved; it all happens in a snap. For this company, deploying applications is faster, cheaper and more efficient.
Another area where manual processes can gum up the works involves how applications talk to each other, how they integrate with each other.
The old way is for applications to be initially configured by a human or by scripts written by a human and maintained by the same human. A newer method that got introduced was configuration management, whereby tools are used to automatically create configuration scripts. That method is better than purely manual, but there's a problem: If something needs to change during the operation of that application, a person is still needed to intervene and create a specific automation script.
The most recent method of automated operations, however, involves creating an operational bubble around each application (some call it "operators," "ops code" or "glue code") that helps each app integrate with another automatically. Intelligent code tells the app how to deploy itself in different places within the infrastructure, how to scale while keeping all its integrations intact, how to automatically upgrade itself without downtime and so on.
As these illustrations show, automation is simply indispensable in operating infrastructure and applications at the speed and efficiency that the digital world demands. While it's understandable why many enterprises have concerns about various aspects of the automation journey, to stick with manual processes is to deny the reality that the future of enterprises is automated.
So what steps should organizations take to overcome the operational complexity that can come with implementing automation, and how can they integrate automation tools as seamlessly as possible?
The answer is to leverage cloud technologies at the infrastructure and application levels. Enterprises should embrace tools like Kubernetes, an open-source system that helps automate the process of deploying and operating the applications that their developer teams pump out.
Put another way, if an organization finds itself struggling with a bevy of manual IT processes mostly because it's been cloud-shy and is operating its own infrastructure, it should stop operating its own infrastructure.
By adopting a multicloud model — a combination of public and private cloud with a third party hired to manage the private cloud — companies can best leverage automation for predictable operational costs and maximum efficiency. A multicloud architecture can make the automation journey easier by allowing for wholesale reuse of prepackaged automation components.
A worthwhile goal for organizations is 100% IT automation, especially in infrastructure and application operations. The more automation a company can implement, the more it can free up IT staff and developers to focus on digital innovation that benefits customers.
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99e24a93efd23b00ab06727e6335ca18 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/the-cyber-digital-twin-revolution/ | The Cyber Digital Twin Revolution | The Cyber Digital Twin Revolution
Cybellum CTO and Co-Founder. An Entrepreneur, skilled in defensive and offensive cybersecurity.
In the space of just a few short years, many of the machines around us have become smarter than we are. Technology and progress wait for no one, and the widespread adoption of IoT has injected intelligent, autonomous capabilities into everything from vending machines and robots to refrigerators and cars.
A look under the hood reveals that this IoT technology is actually powered by CPUs, software and internet connectivity that drive the decision-making and performance of our smart machines. In fact, the most advanced smart machines, like the latest connected cars, can deploy over 100 different software components and often have more lines of code than an F-35 fighter jet.
Unfortunately, this intelligence doesn’t come without its risks. Malicious hackers are patiently and tirelessly investigating and dissecting the different software components that run our smart machines. Their purpose? To find vulnerabilities through which they can penetrate the internal system and hijack sensitive data for financial gain, or worse.
Cyber Digital Twins To The Rescue
But luckily for us, cybersecurity professionals are leveraging the latest disruptive technological trends and innovative digital concepts to stay one step ahead of the hackers and make sure that we remain safe and secure.
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Named one of Gartner’s “Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019,” digital twins are one such example. These virtual bridges connect the physical and digital worlds by offering detailed representations of complex, real-world systems. The benefits derived from their use empower new, faster capabilities in the realms of analysis, productivity, production, delivery and more.
In the context of cybersecurity, digital twins are empowering exciting new possibilities across the entire value chain. Aptly named cyber digital twins, their use is extending new scales of efficiencies in everything from research, development, testing and analysis to IP protection and vendor management.
With cyber digital twins, cybersecurity professionals can create an online, digital replica for every physical device on the planet. This digital replica is used for simulation of cyberattacks, vulnerability exploitation and more to detect potential threats before the physical device leaves the production line.
A mandatory step before critical cybersecurity processes like attack chain analysis and vulnerability management, cyber digital twins enable a detailed, rich understanding of the inner workings of the software that powers the intelligence of our physical products. They mirror the characteristics of every software component, mapping out important data that cybersecurity professionals need to secure our smart machines.
Cyber digital twins are generated by analyzing firmware — software programmed within the hardware that dictates how the device operates — to extract information about the device hardware architecture, OSs and their versions, memory flow, compilation mode and more. This innovative approach accelerates every aspect of the cybersecurity process while empowering research and maintaining the integrity of the supplier’s core proprietary IP.
Let's take a look at three ways cyber digital twins are revolutionizing cybersecurity.
Standardizing And Harmonizing Firmware Variants
Even the simplest of smart machines is composed of numerous software components, each supplied by a different third-party vendor. Each vendor develops its software according to its own needs, using different operating systems, hardware architectures, frameworks and more.
With so many different components and technologies thrown into the mix, gaining the security analysis expertise and sourcing the right mix of tools to cover all grounds becomes an expensive, time-consuming challenge.
By providing standard, highly detailed representations of the firmware, cyber digital twins facilitate analysis by product security experts and via multiple analysis tools for multiple use cases such as CVE scanning, zero-day analysis and detecting privacy violations.
Eliminating IP Protection Concerns
Ensuring the integrity of the proprietary source code of the firmware embedded within each software component is of vital importance to the vendors who develop them. However, manufacturers still need access to the firmware code for security, testing, compliance and more.
With cyber digital twins, there's no need for vendors to share the actual firmware that contains their valuable IP. Instead, they can share the cyber digital twin, which includes all the critical information that cybersecurity professionals require to do their analysis. In this manner, vendors can safely share critical information about their products without having to worry about the integrity of their IP. This new reality empowers new levels of transparency throughout the entire supply chain.
Empowering Security Teams
Every software component used in our smart machines undergoes rigorous research and assessments for security and regulatory compliance purposes. As mentioned above, the extensive use of so many different technology variants by each supplier complicates matters.
Performing the required research and assessment calls for technical experts who understand each of the different technologies, configurations and variants in use. This means that the number of researchers needed to perform the required research and assessments grows in proportion to the number of components in use.
Cyber digital twins do the heavy lifting for the researchers. Instead of spending precious — and expensive — time analyzing the binary code to get to the info they need, researchers can focus on running their tests and assessments. In this manner, cyber digital twins enable a streamlined research and assessment process and minimize time to discovery and compliance without the need for advanced security research skills.
Parting Words
The benefits described in this article — IP protection, standardization/harmonization and streamlined research and assessment — are fundamental to ensuring properly managed, effective cybersecurity processes across your entire operation. They address many of the main security challenges across the manufacturing value chain while speeding up time to market and cutting down costs.
When evaluating a cyber digital twin solution, you should understand how it fits alongside your existing frameworks and processes and how it can help satisfy requirements of compliance standards and regulations. The centralized approach and visibility it provides should introduce efficiencies and optimization for vulnerability management and reduce the complexity of integrating with your existing systems and tools.
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7edad598b72debc5b17b80d3c58c754b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/the-future-of-smb-retail-custom-and-personalized-products/ | The Future Of SMB Retail: Custom And Personalized Products | The Future Of SMB Retail: Custom And Personalized Products
Technical co-founder of Printify, a print on demand network to help merchants make more money in a simple and easy way.
getty
When identifying ways to stand out, customization is king. It has boundless potential for both brands and customers. As such, the e-commerce market is predicted to reach $27.15 trillion by 2027. Custom products are the future of small and medium-sized businesses.
2020 accelerated the rise of SMB online retail
The 2020 pandemic significantly increased the number of people working remotely, fundamentally changing daily habits. For example, the percentage of people buying groceries and pharmaceuticals online skyrocketed. And the growth of online shopping surpassed every prediction. In fact, Covid-19 "helped" accelerate online shopping by roughly five years.
The previous year showed the true power of the internet: The possibility to essentially eradicate common human interaction.
The world is going custom
A considerable percentage of consumers are dissatisfied with the one-size-fits-all approach. Consumers are willing to pay top dollar for customization. According to a 2017 study, "The future of fashion is tailor-made and online." The study found that 49% of Americans are interested in buying customized items, with 3% of these online buyers willing to spend more than $1,000 on "made-to-measure" products.
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What's more, according to The Deloitte Consumer Review, more than 50% of consumers showed interest in purchasing personalized products for themselves and their friends and family. Retailers that take part in product customization trends have the opportunity to increase product sales and build repeat business.
What's prompting the rise of personalized product sales?
There are many reasons behind wanting to customize — to demonstrate creativity, stand out and feel pride in creating something. Personalization growth appears to be driven by the ease of finding services that allow customization on the products consumers love (and products they didn't know they wanted) and advanced technologies that enable adorning apparel, accessories and home decor with digital images and art.
The rise of personalized products is a logical evolution in today's economy of instant gratification. Consumers take their access to on-demand, customized services for granted. Everything we want and need is accessible in the comfort of our own home — ordering food, cosmetics, a taxi — all without ever talking to a live human being.
Social networks also play an important role, allowing consumers to instantly share their purchases, as well as rate and comment on them. This further strengthens the connective bond between the consumer and the product. Customers who are pleased with a purchase gladly share photos of their personalized products online, transforming shoppers into brand ambassadors. That's why micro-influencers and "ordinary people" are more valuable than celebrities — they give honest opinions. In contrast, celebrities and macro-influencers get paid to show products they might not even care about.
Customization increases customer satisfaction
Customization is a smart way to stand apart from the competition. Depending on the platform, consumers can achieve different levels of control over personalizing the goods they purchase and without paying a massive markup for fully customized products. They can customize their whole outfit from head to toe and become a walking billboard for their art. Consumers personalizing products more toward their liking before a purchase is made is poised to turn production on its head and revolutionize business.
Why SMBs need customization
Customization is a smart way to stand out from the competition. After all, who knows what customers need better than the customers themselves?
Depending on the platform, consumers can achieve different levels of control over personalizing the goods they purchase and without paying a massive markup for fully customized products. They can customize their outfit from head to toe and become a walking billboard for their art. Personalizing products before purchasing is poised to turn production on its head and revolutionize business. That's why custom and personalized products are the future of small and medium-sized businesses.
How can SMBs adapt to meet the new customization needs of online shoppers?
• Incorporate POD into their product offerings. With a print-on-demand (POD) business model, online entrepreneurs can start earning without significant monetary investments. It's a great way to earn some side money, or it can even become a primary source of income. With POD services, everything after the sale — from printing to shipping — is handled by the supplier. Once the merchant has set everything up, it only takes a few clicks to fulfill an order once the sale has been made. Merchants earn while consumers get unique apparel and accessories.
• Stand out from the crowd with unique concepts. Customized products can help attract new buyers and entice existing ones to stay. Personalization can even help you collect valuable customer data that can help you deliver exactly what they're looking for. A great example of personalization done right is Coca-Cola's "Share-a-Coke" campaign. First introduced 10 years ago, Coca-Cola bottles and cans were labeled with some of the most popular names. As a result of this personalization tactic, Coca-Cola was able to successfully create an emotional connection with its consumers. Now, this campaign has spread to over 70 countries worldwide.
All in all, it's time SMBs plunged into the customization business. The market is doing exceptionally well, and that's not likely to change. What's more, SMBs don't currently have too many competitors waiting to make their job more difficult. So, they can plan their strategy with ease and gain customer loyalty before the competition catches up. Take advantage of being online, employ the true power of the internet and extract the best out of technology.
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00da8e53bd60a53d151b94912bf6d509 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/25/why-an-investment-in-infrastructure-would-strengthen-america-structurally-and-economically/ | Why An Investment In Infrastructure Would Strengthen America Structurally And Economically | Why An Investment In Infrastructure Would Strengthen America Structurally And Economically
Mark Schwartz is the Chief Digital Officer at Trimble, responsible for transforming the company’s systems, processes and infrastructure.
getty
Many of America’s major infrastructure projects were developed between the 1930s and the 1950s to combat the negative effects of the Great Depression and jump-start the U.S. economy after World War II, helping to put Americans back to work and clinch our political and economic leadership in the world. America’s economic engine went on a building spree, employing thousands of workers and producing some of the major infrastructure works that still define our country today — from the Hoover Dam to the Golden Gate Bridge.
However, the America we knew then is not the America we know today. Our population has surged, creating new demands on our infrastructure. This evolution, coupled with growing social responsibility and sustainability issues, has created more demand for technology to address our infrastructure needs. Plus, even the strongest civil works need to be maintained, repaired and modernized over time — not only to function properly but also to answer the call for more sustainable and cost-effective methods of operating.
At the same time, Covid-19 has upended major sectors of the U.S. economy, including the construction industry, where 75% of contractors reported experiencing a project cancellation or postponement due to the pandemic in September and October 2020, a 25% increase since August of that year. Since the start of the pandemic, this has equated to about $9.6 billion in projects brought to a standstill. Project delays and cancellations equate to lowered employment, disrupted supply chains and decreased profits as contractors try to navigate an uncertain business environment.
As the Biden-Harris administration determines the backbone of their “Build Back Better” campaign, it’s clear that infrastructure should be a major part of the plan to help restore America’s hegemony in the world, which would have the added benefit of economic stimulation through job creation and advancing technological progress. Economically, this would include physically employing workers to strengthening America’s technological innovation as major construction projects increasingly rely on everything from complex software management systems to sophisticated lasers. Below are three compelling reasons for how major investment in infrastructure would benefit America and why it’s needed now more than ever.
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Restoring America’s Global Hegemony
Investing in infrastructure isn’t just a domestic priority but an issue of international importance. China recently unveiled a $1.4 trillion plan for technology infrastructure, including 5G wireless networks, cameras and sensors, cloud computing services, and artificial intelligence (AI), which will reduce their dependence on foreign technology and position them to lead the global tech race. Chinese investment in cutting-edge technology and wireless communications is anticipated to drive projects around housing, high-speed railways, autonomous driving and manufacturing. The country also has an ambitious 15-year plan called "China Standards 2035," a set of global technology standards that follows an earlier plan for global manufacturing dominance. If successful, it could put the U.S. even further behind at a time when it can least afford to do so.
Economic Stimulation Through Job Creation
The pandemic put a major dent in the economy, with the U.S. GDP falling at a 32.9% annualized rate in the second quarter of 2020, erasing more than five years of growth, and unemployment hovering near 6.3% in January 2021. Within the construction industry, contractors in 2020 experienced significant declines in employment as well, with unemployment in the sector reaching roughly 9.4% in January 2021. This has a twofold impact on the economy as less employment means less discretionary spending as well.
An infrastructure bill would bring skilled workers back into the fold and help displaced workers enter into stable career paths with ongoing opportunities for advancement. Investing in infrastructure could also attract a younger generation to the construction workforce, helping to solve a labor shortage that has plagued the industry for the past several years. During the 2008 economic crash, 600,000 skilled construction workers permanently left the industry, and as of November 2020, there were approximately 236,000 vacant construction jobs, according to the U.S. Labor Bureau. Because the pandemic has greatly impacted employment for young adults aged 18 to 29, an investment in infrastructure could help employ that segment of the population while also bolstering the construction industry, which is seeing baby boomers retire.
Young adults could be further incentivized into joining the construction industry if they were aware of the focus on technology, which today includes complex automation, robotics and software. Unbeknownst to most, technology is transforming the construction industry, moving it from a tech laggard to a rapidly innovating tech front runner. With over $6 billion in private capital investment in 2018 alone, the construction technology market is one of the most attractive startup markets for innovative new technology, which could entice the next generation of workers, who are technologically capable and savvy.
Increase America’s Technological Innovations And Adoption
The infrastructure projects of yesteryear didn’t always yield positive results when it came to safety, productivity or quality. Given today’s advancements in construction technology and project delivery capability, construction projects are safer, more efficient and better quality than ever before.
However, technology adoption could be further strengthened by investment in infrastructure as construction represents 13% of global GDP, but its productivity growth has remained at 1% annually for the past two decades. If more contractors were to adopt the “connected construction” approach to technology that utilizes a combination of hardware, software and services to unify people, processes and phases, it could result in productivity gains of 14%-15% and cost reductions of 4%-6%. This is because connected construction can improve the planning and execution of projects, create greater visibility and transparency from start to finish, and help deliver completed, high-quality infrastructure assets on time and on budget. It also supplies the owners of these assets, such as state and federal agencies, with the as-built information they need to better manage and maintain the assets, with an eye toward long-term sustainability.
An investment in infrastructure would support greater technology innovation and adoption, which would benefit the U.S. construction industry and the overall economy in both the short and long term, while also serving the immediate and future needs of our nation and communities.
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bc99cec869ca9f38b2ba55069b92cc6d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/a-quick-guide-to-technical-risk-analysis-for-product-managers/ | A Quick Guide To Technical Risk Analysis For Product Managers | A Quick Guide To Technical Risk Analysis For Product Managers
Eryk is Unito's co-founder and CTO. He brings 20+ years of experience, much of it at Silicon Valley startups.
getty
One of the core responsibilities of any product manager is to help make informed product decisions for the organization. One of the ways product managers accomplish this is by assessing and understanding the technical risks of every feature the team is building or maintaining.
Since product managers are often not technical people by nature, this task can be quite challenging. But there’s a simple way to overcome that challenge: Ask the right questions.
Rather than trying to uncover the technical risk themselves, product managers can poke and prod the development teams with smart questions, pushing them to explore potential risks and concerns.
The following is a set of questions designed to help non-technical PMs run a thorough technical risk analysis by prompting deeper exploration on the part of your developers.
Conversation Starters
Before diving into any analysis, product managers should ask themselves the following questions:
• Who will be impacted? This question helps frame any risk you encounter. If a change will impact your most important enterprise customers, the risk is almost guaranteed to be high.
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• What are the unknowns? Identifying unknowns before diving into a new feature helps your project teams understand where the risks likely lie. It may also encourage people to better scope their solutions.
• Is this urgent? Not all problems need to be solved right now. This question can help you identify low-risk projects that can wait or high-risk projects that require more time and planning.
Scalability
Is this solution scalable?
Scalability is one of the first things to look for when designing products because it forces you to not cut corners and simply focus on a problem with a narrow lens. Sometimes the simplest solution will create significant blockers down the line as you try to scale. Other times, a small initiative could reap greater benefits if you build in scalability from the get-go.
Product managers should ask for specific dimensions depending on the nature of the product. Consider if it scales well with the number of users, number of projects, tasks, items, the number of interactions, and so on.
Does it need to be scalable?
On the flip side, not everything needs to be scalable. Asking this question can help prevent over-engineering, allowing you to go to market more quickly. Sometimes it’s better to do the bare minimum required to deliver value in the short-term and iterate after. It really depends on the goal of the project.
Backward Compatibility
Is the solution backward-compatible? This is a great question to ask specifically when you need to keep different versions of a feature alive at the same time. Being backward-compatible will ensure you can roll back the older feature if you have to or if you need to migrate existing users on the new feature.
In asking this question, a product manager can also assess if the developers considered the roll-out plan.
Performance
Is this going to affect the product’s performance? Some solutions look great until you explore how they’re going to affect your services. You may find that you would have to make an extra number of API calls or introduce tech debt that would need to be refactored later.
Follow up with similar questions to dive deeper:
• Is it going to introduce any loops/race conditions?
• Is it going to slow down the app?
• What’s going to be the impact on the page loads?
• Do we need to do a pre-analysis beforehand to better understand the cost of performance?
Feasibility
How feasible is this solution? While everything is possible, dev time and resources are limited. In some cases, resources will become a factor in your risk analysis.
Security
Does this solution introduce security vulnerabilities? As a rule of thumb, do a quick check if the solution touches one of the categories below:
• Spoofing: Does our solution modify or impact — directly or indirectly — the authentication of an application? How could a hacker impersonate a legitimate user?
• Tampering: Are we going to modify user data on their behalf? How could a hacker modify the data flow? What would be the consequence for end users?
• Repudiation: Does our solution add a new flow that could lead an end user to deny their actions on the application?
• Information Disclosure: Are we introducing a new entry or exit point on the application?
• Denial Of Service: Can any harm come from the abuse of this feature?
• Elevation Of Privilege: Can any harm come from a user elevating their permissions?
Asking these questions can help identify security vulnerabilities, allowing the team to address any potential issues if necessary.
Risk Analysis Is Only The Start
While product managers don’t have all the answers, they can ask all the right questions. By prompting hard conversations, sparking debate and ensuring that risk is top of mind for all developers, PMs can drastically reduce the dangers of any project.
Of course, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. To make truly informed product decisions, product managers need to do user interviews, do thorough idea evaluation and prioritization and more. But risk analysis arms you with key information to increase the odds of any project succeeding.
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a1cfaada413db6e1ffdad6492e4ac269 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/are-you-ready-for-biden-banking/ | Are You Ready For 'Biden Banking'? | Are You Ready For 'Biden Banking'?
Head of marketing at Lightico. Proven business leader driving tech in enterprises. Born into Fortune 500s — now building tech companies.
A Biden presidency means big changes for the financial services industry. There’s plenty of speculation that we are in for a return to Obama-style policies and increased regulatory control. Given Biden’s commitment to fostering equality, there is also likely to be a greater commitment to programs that protect minorities and expand access to financial services.
We already have some facts on the ground that support this speculation: For example, Biden has appointed Dave Uejio as acting director and Rohit Chopra as permanent director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). And Kathy Kraninger has stepped down, meaning an inevitable end to relaxed rules on payday lending, debt collection, mortgage lending and other issues.
Moreover, it’s not unthinkable that the CFPB would pursue laws aimed at curbing predatory interest rates on nonresidential consumer lending and use of “disparate impact” analysis.
Change Is The Only Constant
Undoubtedly, since the CFPB was formed, change has been the only constant. We went from the passage of stricter regulations under Obama to a loosening of regulations under Trump and will undergo a presumed retightening of rules and enforcement under Biden. And this cycle will begin yet again four or eight years from now.
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No wonder it is a struggle for finserv leaders to feel confident in their processes for the coming years — or even months.
Regulatory And Technological Change
The constant regulatory change due to a shifting political environment isn’t the only destabilizing force for finserv leaders. It’s putting incredible pressure on banks to make high-stakes decisions: Will this piece of technology bring us the return on investment we’re looking for? What area of financial services are best served by new technology? Is the technology a potential liability for compliance, or will it help us stay more compliant? With so many vendors doing so many things, the pace of technological change often outpaces finserv leaders’ ability to gauge what’s worthwhile and what’s not. Beyond the familiar digital friends — a bank website, app and portal — lie many other fintech providers, all of which seem to be offering the latest iteration of artificial intelligence or machine learning.
Customer Preferences Change
Particularly since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s a growing awareness of consumers’ desire for more online banking options. Which matter most? Are they all about mobile chat with bots or Facebook Messenger with a human agent? Do they want the guidance of a live agent, or prefer self-service? Given the eagerness for digitization, should we contemplate closing branches or at least merging them? It can all start to feel inscrutable.
The cost of mistakes — when it comes to adjusting to the current administration’s particular flavor of rules, picking a technology provider or deciding on a customer strategy — is high.
How can finserv leaders make smart decisions given the continual regulatory, technological and consumer is in flux?
How To Future-Proof Banking For An Unpredictable World
There’s no denying it: today’s financial institutions have more to anticipate and adjust to compared to their predecessors. The banking industry is undergoing a pace of change not seen in years past. Here are a couple of ways finserv leaders can keep up.
1. Stay Nimble Across Touch Points
Banking customers expect a consistent experience across touch points, and regulations may demand it. For example, it’s no longer acceptable that customers can apply for a personal loan on their bank’s app but not their bank’s website. In the future, there may be requirements to lower the barriers for minority groups to access banking services. Whatever task they’re trying to accomplish (i.e., obtain an e-signature on a new account) and whatever channel they’re using, banks need to adjust to their consumers’ needs.
Similarly, we are seeing that personalization is a huge trend. Customers expect you to know them. There are many ways financial institutions can harness technology to predict and respond to their customers’ needs and requirements in the moment.
For instance, banks can configure business rules that prompt bank employees to ask for certain stipulations depending on factors such as credit score. This allows banks to provide an almost tailor-made process while limiting the role of individual bias, while finserv leaders can be assured that employees are managing relationships smoothly and personally.
2. Stay True To Your Core: Harness APIs
Core banking systems are rarely replaced, and with good reason: It’s expensive, time-consuming and risky. Instead of contemplating changing back-end systems in response to changing regulatory, technological and consumer realities, banks can focus more on their frontend systems.
In choosing software that plugs into the core via API, banks gain freedom and flexibility. By harnessing APIs, banks can quickly improve the bank employee and customer experience. This may mean enjoying a better user interface, more intuitive processes or speedier procedures. Second, the flexible nature of APIs means that it’s easier to update processes depending on regulatory demands. APIs can roll with the punches of an Obama, Trump or Biden presidency.
3. Go No-Code
Business process management shouldn’t require running to the IT department every time a business rule or process needs to be updated. Given the rapid changes in financial regulations, as well as the importance of staying fully compliant, finserv leaders need to empower the right people to make the right changes.
In addition to being more compliant — banks can’t afford to have lags between new regulation and new procedure deployment. Teams should know that when new rules arise, changes won’t eat up precious IT resources. No- or low-code workflows make changes a nonevent.
The Right Approach To Get Ahead Of Change
The Biden administration isn’t the first time we’ve had an administration that’s radically different from its predecessor. And it won’t be the last time. By staying flexible and customer-centric across all banking touch points, harnessing plug-and-play APIs and relying on intuitive automated workflows that require no coding, finserv leaders won’t even break a sweat the next time big changes beckon.
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e95c627cc7a52985de846945b4cc884c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/are-you-ready-to-hire-data-scientists/ | Are You Ready To Hire Data Scientists? | Are You Ready To Hire Data Scientists?
George Fraser is the CEO of Fivetran, the leading provider of automated data integration.
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Leaders in every business are excited about bringing cutting-edge data science to their industry, and data science is the most talked-about career of the last 10 years. But many businesses hire data scientists before they are ready, and these highly paid team members end up spending their time doing basic data integration and reporting.
What does it take to be ready to hire data scientists? To answer this question, we need to understand the data hierarchy of needs:
• Top of the pyramid: data science.
• BI and analytics.
• Clean, curated, data.
• Base of the pyramid: an enterprise data warehouse.
The base of the pyramid is a solid enterprise data warehouse. Before you can do anything else, you need to get all your data in one place. You should use a modern cloud-based data warehouse, and it should contain a faithful replica of all the data in all your business systems that is always up to date. By taking a replication-first approach, you will have a single system that can support all your data questions today and in the future.
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The second level of the pyramid is a clean, curated view of all this data. Real-world data is messy, and the same concepts are often duplicated between systems. For example, you may have data about your customers in both your CRM system and your accounting system, and there may be small contradictions between these systems. As part of the data-cleanup process, you'll decide which system is the system of record for each concept. Your analysts will write SQL queries that resolve these contradictions and convert the "raw tables" delivered by your data pipeline into a simplified view of your data that will provide the foundation for everything else you do.
The third level of the pyramid is classic business intelligence and analytics. These are the spreadsheets and dashboards that provide day-to-day decision support for your managers and leaders. Data science may be getting more attention these days, but traditional business intelligence is still the foundation of using data to make decisions. This type of work is also done by analysts, whose primary tools are SQL and visualization tools like Tableau or Looker.
The tip of the pyramid is data science. If you've hired well and done a good job building the lower levels of the pyramid, your data scientists will use their specialized skills in advanced statistics and modeling, leveraging the data integration and cleanup that has already been done by your analysts.
Think of your data scientists as the star athletes of your data team. Like the starting lineup of the Golden State Warriors, they have highly specialized skills and are supported by a much larger cast of teammates. A typical NBA basketball team will have five starters, 10 other players on the roster and thousands of total employees in the organization. Data scientists are like your starting lineup — you wouldn't want Steph Curry answering phones in the front office, and you shouldn't have your data scientists doing traditional analyst work. They're perfectly capable of doing this work, but it's not the right way to use your most valuable players.
So before you hire a team of star data scientists, make sure you have built the foundation that will make them productive.
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5e2a222dd54781272d631a006d4c5821 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/breaking-health-cares-four-minute-mile/ | Breaking Health Care's Four-Minute Mile | Breaking Health Care's Four-Minute Mile
Co-Founder & CEO at Emedgene — on a mission to unlock genomic insights for the world’s health organizations with data-driven AI solutions.
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In 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4 minutes, a feat previously thought to be impossible for humans to achieve. A little over a month later, another runner, Eric Landy, broke the four-minute-mile barrier again. Then, only a year later, both runners ran sub-four-minute miles in the same race, and a new standard for human performance had been set. Today's one-mile record is held by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj, who ran a time of 3:43.13 in Rome in 1999.
In 2020, teams of scientists worldwide broke the record for the development of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Development lasted less than a year, from publication of the viral sequence on Jan. 10, 2020, to emergency use approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Dec. 2, 2020. The fastest previous vaccine development in history occurred in the 1960s, when scientists went from viral sampling to approval in four years for mumps. This sets a new standard for vaccine development timelines.
What changed in 2020? The most important driver was a collective sense of social urgency. Urgency led to massive funding. Operation Warp Speed in the U.S. alone invested over $12 billion in vaccine development, with many additional countries and private philanthropists contributing funds.
But funding was just the beginning. There was an unprecedented level of global coordination, led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which was formed for just this purpose in Davos in 2017. Researchers were able to utilize years of previous research into coronaviruses as well as the development of vaccine technologies like mRNA, to accelerate the development pipeline. Finally, regulators have approved vaccines for emergency use on a faster track, which doesn't compromise on efficacy requirements.
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While the rapid rollout of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine sets a new standard for vaccine development, it also sets a new standard for health care innovation. This incredible outcome was achieved by the international biomedical community coming together to urgently solve a problem, backed by sufficient funding. What other long-standing health problems affecting a large community of patients can we apply this new learning to?
The rare disease patient community numbers some 400 million patients worldwide, and an estimated 80% of those diseases are genetic. Fifty percent of rare disease patients are children, and three out of every 10 children with a rare disease won't reach their fifth birthday.
There is a mammoth cost associated with these rare diseases. Researchers have estimated that in the U.S. alone the cost of pediatric genetic diseases is as high as $57 billion, or close to up to 50% of the total annual pediatric bill. This is an urgent global problem, affecting an immense patient population, that we can and should align to solve.
My initiation into the world of rare diseases started when we founded Emedgene. Our mission is to make genomic insights available to the 99% of health organizations not implementing precision medicine programs yet.
Diagnosing rare disease patients was until recently a moonshot challenge, but it is now within reach. Technology innovations by market leader Illumina, among others, have reduced the cost of sequencing to under $1,000 (with the aim of making it $100). Industry consortiums like the Medical Genome Initiative are collaborating to expand access to whole-genome sequencing, an advanced genetic test that allows us to examine all 20,000 genes in the human genome. A human, on average, carries 5 million unique genetic variants, of which we need to identify the single disease-causing variant. However, AI technologies in genomics allow us to interrogate a person’s unique genetic makeup and identify disease-causing mechanisms automatically and with high accuracy. And so, equipped with a whole-genome test, and AI for interpretation, we can now accelerate diagnosis for those 400 million rare disease patients and transform their lives.
Rare diseases are, well, rare. In the U.S., they are defined as a disease affecting fewer than 200,000 people. Data-sharing initiatives and population sequencing projects are helping us combine dispersed individual data so that we can research those small patient populations in aggregate, increasing the likelihood of identifying a disease and developing treatment. One notable initiative is ClinVar, the NIH-funded database of reports of the relationships between human genetic variation and clinical presentation, with supporting evidence.
Insurers have caught up, and Illumina estimates that 169 million lives are insured for whole-genome sequencing in 2021, up from only 14 million in 2019, enabling access to testing for many rare disease patients in need.
For years, the running community accepted that no human could break the four-minute-mile barrier — until Roger Bannister showed us differently. Vaccine development has historically taken many years — until SARS-CoV-2 showed us differently. Can the biomedical community come together to break more four-minute miles? In the case of rare diseases, science and technology have advanced so that we can now embed genetic-based care in every hospital and health system. Can we come together in 2021 to shorten the diagnostic odyssey for millions of patients in need? We can, and we should.
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a0d3bba5dd83502ce65a821800e78088 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/four-reasons-to-outsource-it-to-cee-and-none-of-them-is-cheap-labor/?sh=1dc0441a2f32 | Four Reasons To Outsource IT To CEE (And None Of Them Is Cheap Labor) | Four Reasons To Outsource IT To CEE (And None Of Them Is Cheap Labor)
CEO of Ideamotive, a marketplace matching tech talent with companies worldwide. Co-author of "The State of CEE IT Outsourcing 2021" report.
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In the "analog" era, outsourcing and offshoring usually meant obtaining low-skilled, mediocre-quality services at a bargain. And at the time, this was perfectly acceptable for many middle-of-the-roaders who thought "fair enough" was good enough. Then, digital stepped in, bringing about global supply chains, value-conscious customers and hyper-competitiveness. This raised the bar for global IT outsourcing.
The cost-cutting aspect no longer measures the value of outsourcing services. Instead, hiring an external service provider aims to unlock faster growth, power product innovation, and enhance business agility. As IT services partnerships' focus turns from cost optimization to increasing market advantage, new outsourcing hubs are emerging, with Central and Eastern Europe at the forefront.
Why Outsource IT Services To CEE?
In recent years, CEE has become one of the most attractive IT outsourcing destinations for the U.S. and Western European partners. Conveniently located in the middle of Europe, the region can cover any market, providing quick access to a robust infrastructure and vast talent pools.
While cost-wise, CEE countries cannot compete with traditional front-runners in IT offshoring and outsourcing like India or China, they match them in key aspects of competitiveness, such as service quality, work reliability, and innovation.
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Four factors contribute to this state.
1. Burgeoning Deep-Tech Hub
Nicknaming CEE as the next Silicon Valley might be taking it a bit too far, yet the region has already earned its name as a robust innovation center. Success stories abound here. Brainly, Booksy, UiPath, Grammarly, Synerise, Kontakt.io, GitLab — all these high-tech brands originated in CEE.
The number of startups in the region has doubled over the last five years, and a dozen of them enjoy unicorn status. There are over 3,000 active startups in Poland alone, with more than 130 VC firms and over 100 accelerators and incubators. Ukraine is keeping close, with more than 500 startups, and its capital city, Kyiv, ranks 32nd in the world as the best city for startups.
The CEE startup scene's expansive growth has many sources, including extensive government backing for startup initiatives and a favorable legal framework for tech enterprises. A strong focus on developing practical technology skills is another contributing factor. For example, Poland ranks fifth and Belarus sixth in the world in technical skills; both countries excel particularly in telecommunications, data science and software development.
2. Tax Incentives For Investment
The CEE governments are actively pushing new laws to woo foreign investors with tax incentives and deductions. The goal is not only to position their markets as attractive outsourcing and offshoring destinations but also to encourage global firms to set up their regional offices and R&D centers.
The Belarusian startup scene owes much of its success to the enormous IT cluster Hi-Tech Park. Nearly 100 industrial parks are spread across Romania, providing their residents with tax exemptions on land, building, and urban planning taxes, among others. And Poland has turned its entire territory into a special economic zone to attract new businesses.
These measures have had an effect. In May 2020, Microsoft announced it would invest $1 billion in the "Polish Digital Valley." A month later, Google unveiled its plans for even a more impressive investment of $2 billion in its Polish data center. Foreign R&D centers are mushrooming in Ukraine — Amazon, Google, Reddit, Huawei, Oracle, and Siemens have all set up their regional offices there. Romania also thrives as a regional hub for global corporations, with Microsoft, Ericsson, Huawei, HP, Oracle and King managing their operations in the country.
3. Cultural Affinity
A lack of cultural compatibility and language barriers are critical issues for any company externalizing its processes. Cultural fit directly impacts the bottom line, and even though physical boundaries are fading, it remains a strong factor determining an outsourcing partner's choice.
In this context, European countries have a significant advantage over other outsourcing destinations. Romania, Ukraine, and Poland share a common cultural background and similar work ethic with their Western clients. They also overlap in many cultural dimensions, such as power distance index or individualism. Differences still exist, but the cultural gap with CEE countries is narrow enough to be closed quickly — especially considering that most of them boast a high level of English proficiency (Poland ranks 11th on the English Proficiency Index, while Hungary and Romania rank 15th and 16th, respectively).
4. Steady Supply Of Top Talent
According to McKinsey, 87% of companies globally are already experiencing skill gaps or expect them within the next few years. Key areas affected by talent shortages are data analytics (43% of businesses need to fill a skill gap in this field) and broadly defined IT&C services (26% of companies face skills shortages here). In the U.S., employment in the IT sector is expected to grow by 22% by 2029, yet there are no people to fill that recruitment void.
Software and tech outsourcing offers an instant solution to deal with these workforce disruptions. While roles such as data analyst, software engineer or web developer remain in high demand, the CEE region provides a largely untapped source of highly skilled professionals who could perform them. About 9 million CEE professionals work in the ICT market. Nearly half a million Poles work in the IT industry, including over 250,000 software developers. In Ukraine, the number of programmers stands at nearly 200,000. Many of these experts are available to support their clients in tech projects immediately.
Attaining A Competitive Advantage
In essence, outsourcing is geared toward cost reduction. And software development and IT services in CEE are still cost-efficient when compared to hiring specialists in-house. However, affordability is only one aspect of outsourcing IT in Central and Eastern Europe. Building a strong partnership with a technology partner in the region drives the long-term benefits of increased efficiency, strategic agility, and systematic innovation. Together, they create a competitive advantage essential to thrive in today’s jam-packed market.
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2f08c5211d398d0bfc9d0f7d276f2354 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/gaining-control-of-clinical-data-the-battle-continues/ | Gaining Control Of Clinical Data: The Battle Continues | Gaining Control Of Clinical Data: The Battle Continues
David Lareau is CEO of Medicomp Systems, a provider of physician-driven point-of-care solutions that fix EHRs.
As we settle into 2021, the pandemic continues to dominate healthcare headlines while the world works to fight the virus’ spread. Meanwhile, big tech firms and other stakeholders are fighting a different sort of battle to gain control of healthcare’s vast trove of data.
Early last year, I predicted escalating interest from tech giants seeking to increase their healthcare footprint to obtain expanded access to clinical data. Though Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase recently announced an end to their Haven joint venture, healthcare remains a strategic target for many big tech organizations. Amazon and Google, for example, both moved deeper into healthcare over the last year, entering several new partnerships and introducing services that could expand their access to clinical data.
Optum Goes Big With Change Healthcare Acquisition
United Healthcare’s OptumInsight business unit made a huge data play in the first few days of 2021 when it announced a $13 billion deal to buy the software and analytics firm Change Healthcare. According to the companies, the acquisition aims to “more effectively connect and simplify core clinical, administrative and payment processes,” which will depend heavily on Optum’s effective use of data from Change.
While Change offers a wealth of quality products and services, its access to clinical and financial healthcare data is undoubtedly the real prize for Optum, which is an established, dominant player in the healthcare analytics realm. With more data, Optum is well positioned to deliver deep insights that drive cost-effective care and better health outcomes for its provider organizations and provider partners.
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The Optum-Change acquisition makes more sense than many other strategic partnerships we’ve seen in recent months because both companies are already well versed in healthcare. In addition, both companies have tools in place to efficiently massage and analyze massive datasets, which is critical when attempting to provide clinicians with critical information to impact decision making.
Why More Data Isn’t Always Better
In recent years, healthcare has had more than its share of “data deals” designed to give clinicians more information at the point of care. For example, in an attempt to share more patient data across healthcare organizations, vendors have facilitated the exchange of certain patient information between systems.
Unfortunately, the incoming information is often “dumped” into an EHR in a disorganized fashion, making it difficult for clinicians to find the patient- and problem-specific information they need when they need it. Too many of these initiatives have failed to enhance the delivery of care; instead, they’ve created bottlenecks in EHR workflows and required clinicians to jump from screen to screen to find relevant information.
While in theory, patient care should be enhanced with more complete patient data, when the information is not delivered in a clean, usable format, clinician productivity suffers, and frustration flourishes.
Keys To Winning The Clinical Data War
Clinical data is a valuable resource for big tech and other industry players because it provides insights into consumer behaviors and offers a deep look into the health of patient populations. As the nation continues to shift toward value-based payment models, understanding patient health behaviors and trends is critical for driving lower care costs and better patient outcomes.
Organizations seeking to expand their access and control of clinical data by introducing technologies into clinical workflows must be mindful that clinicians do not want solutions that interfere with the delivery of patient care and decrease productivity. Few physicians will embrace technology that attempts to make clinical decisions on their behalf because the best computer in the room is almost always between the physicians’ ears. Instead, clinicians need tools that enhance productivity, align with existing workflows and replicate the way physicians think and act.
In addition, companies should never assume that clinicians want and need more data, though they do value more information. Before introducing more data into clinical workflows, vendors should leverage technologies that intelligently filter and clean incoming information so that clinicians can quickly access data that is actionable and applicable and that enhances clinical care.
The battle to gain control of clinical data is far from over. As the war continues, look for more big tech giants and other organizations to enter the data war and fight for greater access to healthcare’s most valuable asset.
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516cc5f406ba75d8b5fa4da39c668531 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/low-codeno-code-empowering-citizen-developers/?sh=63b4bcda5e9c | Low-Code/No-Code: Empowering Citizen Developers | Low-Code/No-Code: Empowering Citizen Developers
Global Vice President of Applications at Unisys.
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The demand for software has never been higher in today’s fast-changing environment. Business leaders began 2021 with concerns about talent shortages, and retaining top technology talent is likely the No. 1 priority for many global organizations. Because many technology organizations are struggling to find adequate developers with so many legacy subject matter experts retiring, the enterprise low-code application platform (LCAP) market is growing rapidly. Low code is about applying automation (visual full-stack development and deploy to any touch point) to software delivery and is a natural evolution of rising abstraction levels in application development. TechTarget defines it as "a visual software development environment that allows citizen developers to drag and drop application components, connect them together and create a mobile or web app."
The low-code development platform market is projected to grow from $13.2 billion to $45.5 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.1%. And Gartner predicts 65% of all software development will take place on low-code platforms by 2024.
Citizen developers are skilled professionals in their own right — financial analysts, business researchers, and many others who need software support for their areas of expertise. Others are general business or administrative personnel who can’t find just the right application that suits their specific needs. So, who better than them — the end user — to design software? None of this would have been possible even a few short years ago, but advanced low-code tools are making citizen development within the reach of most computer-savvy workers.
A recent, real-life low-code example is when Unisys, a partner of the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency in New Zealand, built a new driver licence theory testing system in less than six months, including user testing, market research and business change management. It reduced the time for an agent to administer a test by 20%.
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In my professional experience, I’ve seen five-year total cost of ownership (TCO) increase with all the evolving processes. Following SDLC (software development life cycle) levers help reduce TCO by 10%-20%. Meanwhile, other factors that are driving low-code development are:
• Cloud (public or private) infrastructure as a service and platform as a service automation, which accelerates the delivery of infrastructure and application stacks, making environment setup easy to do.
• DevOps/DevSecOps automation speeds the delivery of applications, reducing many tedious manual tasks in code development.
But how do you cut TCO by 50%? Here are some tips to help you get there:
• Create a cross-org "team of teams" development operating model with nontech business subject matter experts (citizen developers) for minor enhancements (e.g., approval workflows) to leverage no-node platforms. Redirect highly skilled technologists to focus on strategic complex projects critical to the business.
• Create low-code solution accelerators (form a no-code-platform as a service center of excellence) to facilitate faster application building. Reduce delivery timelines from months to days. Examples include the NOW platform if you are a ServiceNow shop, Power Apps on Microsoft Azure, Outsystems for other on-prem custom apps.
• Challenge vendors to address the low-code platform's continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) gap to seamlessly integrate with the existing toolchain for a consistent build once that allows you to deploy to multiple platforms and devices.
Limitations
It should be clear that low-code comes with challenges. Proper attention needs to be paid to application architecture design, quality control and security measures that are essential to managing the costs of low-code environments in the long run. Here are a few other limitations you should be aware of:
• Custom UI/UX limitations may have vendor lock-in.
• Extremely scalable applications (distributed microservices) still require traditional IT.
• Additional cost.
• Security may have a lack of visibility, data lineage or end-to-end auditing.
• Governance (DevSecOps) may not include continuous integration and deployment with the current custom toolbox.
• Industry verticals have a long way to go for full low-code maturity.
Final Takeaway
Highly scalable citizen development is changing the way most of the software delivery industry operates. Embrace the technology by establishing a low-code platform workflow decision tree and focus on business friction and pain points. Create an SDLC low-code strategy with enterprise-grade criteria integrated with your current SDLC process before jumping into yet another emerging technology and creating spaghetti code.
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8282aa84d90b99040fd366cd4c1671c5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/manufacturing-without-unplanned-downtime-could-become-a-reality-sooner-than-you-think/?sh=1e73978170d1 | Manufacturing Without Unplanned Downtime Could Become A Reality Sooner Than You Think | Manufacturing Without Unplanned Downtime Could Become A Reality Sooner Than You Think
Chief Technology Officer at Xerox.
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Unplanned downtime in manufacturing is one of the largest causes of lost productivity, causing delays, unhappy customers and lost revenue. In fact, the problem costs industrial manufacturers an estimated $50 billion each year, according to recent studies.
Short of a crystal ball, what can manufacturers do to reduce unplanned downtime? Predictive maintenance has made significant strides in recent years and represents a strong solution to this persistent manufacturing challenge.
The concept of predictive maintenance is not new, but the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) provides advanced predictive maintenance that combines sensors and machine learning to better predict when equipment may fail. These solutions hold tremendous potential. To increase adoption, we need to advance the technology to a point where manufacturers can make reliable decisions based on the predictions provided.
The Future Relies On Specifics
Most solutions on the market today don’t have the “right” data, lack high prediction accuracy, and don’t provide sufficient lead time to act on those predictions.
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To provide accurate prognostics, you need large amounts of specific data about when faults happen or run-to-failure information. If manufacturers don’t already have this data, collecting it is a time-consuming, expensive task. While current solutions offer prognostics to an extent, in my experience, they often do not deliver on it. Additionally, existing solutions typically only give a few weeks’ lead time to act on their predictions. To fully trust a predictive maintenance solution, manufacturers need longer-term results.
Moving From Poor Predictions To True Prognostics
Predictive maintenance has evolved significantly over time. The next step in that evolution is newly advanced sensors and algorithms that enable manufacturers to predict future equipment faults more accurately and with more lead time. We are seeing the introduction of sensors that can detect different phenomena that can inform prognostics.
Recently, the scientists at our Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) worked on a Department of Energy project with Con Edison and General Electric (GE) to improve the maintenance and management of their power grid infrastructure. The team embedded low-cost fiber-optic sensors in critical components within GE model network transformers, where they measured key internal parameters and events of interest. Improved sensors can enable the creation of new capabilities that provide manufacturers with a more accurate picture of their overall system health.
To address data science shortcomings, a successful platform incorporates other forms of artificial intelligence, such as model-based reasoning. This means creating physics-based digital models of equipment that capture the subtleties of real-world environments and equipment fault modes and augmenting those models with machine learning based on the data gathered by the sensors. This hybrid approach can enable more accurate prognostics and makes predictive maintenance more accessible to manufacturers who lack the massive amount of historical data required by today’s solutions.
This model-based approach is something our teams at PARC found successful on another recent project with the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in developing customized fault detection and diagnosis pilot software using model-based system analyses combined with advanced machine learning.
Implementing An IIoT Solution
In my conversations with innovators and operators, they often ask a version of the same question: How do I get started and take advantage of these new technologies? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but I always give the same advice: Get the infrastructure right and have a minimum viable product (MVP) mindset.
From an infrastructure standpoint, preparing internal networks for new sensors and services is often a stumbling block for many operators. IIoT sensors generate vast amounts of data, and most operational technology (OT) networks do not have the bandwidth to support IIoT deployments. Simple things like investing in data historians are a good first step, but longer term, firms should strongly consider investing in cloud readiness and IT, OT and IIoT integration. This upfront investment can enable faster implementation of innovative models, analytics and software that touch on production and operations.
Having an MVP mindset means taking the quickest route to value. Focusing on the problems plant managers and operators are looking to solve and defining the shortest path to testing and deployment is key to avoiding institutional fatigue with IIoT. In predictive maintenance, working with vendors that have prebuilt models that allow for cold starts is one way, but not the only way of accomplishing this.
The value of correctly implemented predictive maintenance technology can be incredibly high. For example, in 2016, Schlumberger announced that a new predictive analytics program it used to forecast equipment issues for fracturing pumps saved more than $8 million in less than a year. At the same time, it estimated that a similar program would save more than $30 million over three years.
Imagine the value of a solution that is even more accurate and provides more lead time?
If we can solve the problem of prognostics accuracy, we can deliver less downtime and more productivity and profitability, significantly impacting manufacturing across the globe. Zero unplanned downtime would be a boon for business globally. Though it will take time and a disciplined approach, there is much to gain from applying IIoT predictive maintenance to manufacturing.
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8c20e2668f8d48a2feec0411c84ec802 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/staying-safe-online-why-education-is-more-important-than-ever/?sh=6b4b2d124b4a | Staying Safe Online: Why Education Is More Important Than Ever | Staying Safe Online: Why Education Is More Important Than Ever
Al Kingsley is CEO of NetSupport, Chair of 2 Multi-Academy Trusts in the UK and a regular presenter on all things #EdTech. @AlKingsley_edu.
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As in-person activities were curtailed at the start of the pandemic and children’s physical worlds suddenly got smaller, their online worlds expanded just as quickly. Even back in April 2020, UNICEF forewarned that children were “at increased risk of harm” during the pandemic, due to the huge rise in their screen time as their lives shifted online to learn, as well as maintain social links to family and friends.
We all know that technology moves fast. New apps, trends and online crazes surface regularly, and it’s easy to get swept up in the latest, greatest thing. That has certainly been magnified during the current circumstances where other activities and social outlets have been limited. UNICEF feared that this increased use of technology could expose children to more online dangers (such as being exposed to harmful content) or prompt more risk-taking, like talking to strangers or becoming drawn into risky activity.
Protective School Technology
When students are in school, they are guided and protected by technology as they learn about the online domain. In line with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, schools will have tools in place for filtering and monitoring, and some may have keyword analysis to identify trends, enabling school counselors to keep a close eye on activity that may occur across a range of different e-safety topics, from bullying and radicalization to child sexual exploitation and more.
It is important though not to simply restrict access to everything to keep students safe or they would never learn anything. Instead, schools can use technology to provide a safe online environment in which students can test out what they have learned about interacting with others on the internet. Some school e-safety solutions will even enable parameters to be set for age-appropriate use that will allow students the freedom to learn — and, importantly, make mistakes — in safety.
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However, now that students are learning from home, the situation has changed. If they are using a school-supplied device, that same filtering and support can still take place, but the vast majority will now be using personal or household devices without these safeguards. Therefore, having the knowledge to make good decisions about online safety is crucial. In fact, the Department of Justice has published some advice for parents to help keep their children safe online, specifically during the pandemic.
What Is Digital Citizenship?
Equipping students with the skills and knowledge to use technology responsibly — to research and find information and be able to validate its authenticity and accuracy — starts in elementary school and runs right through a student’s school career and beyond. Digital citizenship is a critical part of education (especially in our current situation) because students need these skills to take ownership of their online lives and make informed choices as they interact with others.
It’s a vast area to learn about and schools must address every part. Just as we learn the social protocols of interacting in person, there is a parallel set of rules for interacting online, sometimes referred to as the nine elements of digital citizenship. They cover: digital access, digital commerce, digital communication, digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities and digital health and wellness
Getting The Message Across
Integrating teaching under these headings will ensure students have a broad understanding of what it means to participate in the online community — and there are some outstanding resources available from organizations such as ISTE to help teachers do this. Schools I have spoken with have also found success with peer-led programs, like eCadets, that empower students to be online safety experts, encouraging their friends and classmates to be responsible and keep themselves safe as they go online.
Of course, keeping up to date with the latest trends is vital, and so staff training must be kept current and the validity of resources constantly reviewed. There is no value at all in whipping out a worksheet on the dangers of MySpace!
Emphasizing essential online safety messages little and often, regardless of what the class is, will help them to become embedded. This way, when students are solely responsible for their own unchecked technology use, hopefully they will remember some of what they have learned.
An additional powerful tool in the teaching of safe internet use is to involve parents and caregivers. By taking part in their children’s online activities from an early age, they are perfectly placed to talk with them about what apps they are using and why — and guide them as they learn. I have talked to many schools who make significant efforts to keep parents in the loop on this subject, while educating them and pointing them toward useful resources, too. It is a strategy that really pays off, as busy parents need all the help they can get to keep up with the fast-changing landscape, and this means they are better placed to be alert to any potential dangers that their children are facing.
Don’t Drop The Ball
Continuous learning is the only way to ensure children have the knowledge to be able to question, research and make their own judgments on what is safe or real online. Reinforcing those essential safety messages, as well as staying abreast of online trends and the effects they can have, is key to being able to get the most out of the internet while remaining safe. Teachers and parents having those conversations with children and young people, and discussing and learning together, can really help them think twice when they are confronted with questions such as, “Is it safe to send a reply to this person I don’t know?” “Is this real or not?” or “This activity is making me uncomfortable — should I carry on?”
We are all learning all the time. We can’t shield young people from all the risks, but what we can do is give them the tools to heighten their awareness and help them make decisions to the best of their ability.
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d4f7d1ef3b51ceca4e2462b4750732aa | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/the-best-tech-tool-for-mental-health-may-be-the-simplest-broadband-internet-access/ | The Best Tech Tool For Mental Health May Be The Simplest: Broadband Internet Access | The Best Tech Tool For Mental Health May Be The Simplest: Broadband Internet Access
President and CEO of Lucid Lane. Software technology expert and digital health advocate.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has shifted every activity online, from meetings to classes to happy hours — and therapy is no exception. With remarkable speed, therapists have learned to provide personal, empathetic mental health care over video calls. This adaptability has been a bright spot in a dark time and a lifeline for many patients who've been able to get the care they need while staying safe at home.
However, this incredible shift to remote therapy has left some people behind: those without stable broadband internet access. The vulnerable populations who don't have reliable internet access are often precisely the people who could benefit most from teletherapy even after Covid-19 is finally brought under control. As the pandemic wears on, it's becoming increasingly clear that broadband access is a mental health issue and that solving this country's mental health crisis will require getting more people online.
The ubiquity of the internet in the majority of Americans' lives today obscures the many access problems that still persist. According to studies conducted by Pew Research, nine out of 10 American adults use the internet, and internet usage continues to grow for all demographic groups — although older adults are still less likely to be online. While 100% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 and 97% of those between the ages 30 and 49 are online, only 73% of people over the age of 65 are connected. Broadband internet access, meanwhile, is less widespread. Pew Research found that only 73% of American adults have a high-speed connection at home — including only 59% of those over the age of 65. The rate of broadband adoption grew quickly between 2000 and 2010, but that growth has slowed significantly in the past 10 years.
It's not just age that affects broadband access; race, income and location also play a role. Pew Research found that 79% of people who are white in America have broadband access, compared to only 66% of people who are Black and 61% of people who are Hispanic. People living in suburbs are the most connected, with 79% of them having home broadband access, while 75% of city dwellers and only 63% of people living in rural areas are connected to broadband.
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What all this means is that, sadly, some of the people who are suffering the most from the mental health impact of this pandemic will be shut out of an otherwise excellent tool for expanding access to mental health care.
Older adults who are at greater risk for severe illness from Covid-19 may have been isolating themselves for nearly a year now, unable to see friends and family members or hug their grandkids. The long-term mental health impact of that social deprivation may be severe. Remote therapy can be a lifeline for people who struggle to leave the house because they're frail or suffer from other health problems as well as for people who would otherwise have to travel long distances to obtain care. However, there are millions of older people and people living in rural areas who don't have the high-speed internet access they need to do regular video calls.
High-speed internet also widens access demographically, connecting more diverse patient populations with a broader range of mental health care providers. According to a report published by the CDC, we already know that 40.9% of Americans have dealt with at least one serious mental health issue during the pandemic, but many more people who are Black and Hispanic are struggling. It found that 18.6% of adults who are Hispanic and 15.1% of adults who are Black had seriously considered suicide in the past month, compared to 10.7% across the general population.
Many people of color have urgent mental health needs right now, yet many are lagging behind in terms of home broadband access. That means millions of people are likely struggling to get regular access to the mental healthcare they need and will continue to lack access to a powerful tool in the mental health arsenal.
We were already dealing with a simmering mental health crisis in this country even before Covid-19 hit. Now, millions more are dealing with grief, unemployment, the after-effects of serious illness and the stresses of long-term isolation. We've learned during the pandemic that remote therapy via video chat can be extremely effective, and it's clear that teletherapy will continue to be a useful option after the worst of the pandemic has passed. The remote option increases access for people in rural areas or with multiple health issues, and it's also convenient for many busy working people.
Teletherapy also enables people to connect with niche mental health services that might not be available locally. My company, Lucid Lane, specializes in medication tapering, helping patients reduce their usage of opioids and benzos over time. Online support groups exist for highly targeted groups like health care workers, teachers struggling with virtual learning, new or expectant moms — the list goes on. It's difficult to find such resources in your neighborhood, and online participation is the only viable option during a pandemic.
However, you can't get therapy online if you can't get online with a reliable, high-speed connection that can support a video call. If we're going to meet the severity of the mental health crisis in this country with every tool we've got, we're going to need to get more people online. We must increase broadband access — particularly for those populations who lag behind in access today, including people in rural areas, older adults and people of color.
As technology changes and we develop more innovative solutions to serve more people, we can't settle for leaving millions of people behind simply because they don't have a high-speed internet connection. Today, broadband internet access is a justice issue, as the struggle to connect low-income students and students of color to remote learning has proved. However, it's also a mental health issue. Remote therapy could be one of the most powerful tools we have for tackling our mental health crisis — but only if everyone who needs it has access to it.
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ca160b8e20e230349b922e4b89a626f1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/the-consequences-of-choosing-speed-over-security/ | The Consequences Of Choosing Speed Over Security | The Consequences Of Choosing Speed Over Security
Joel Wallenstrom is the CEO & President of Wickr and a world-renowned information security expert.
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In the wise words of Richard Powers, “Money you lose by slowing down is always more important than money you’ve already made.”
The first time I witnessed a bank security expert accept the electronic theft of his bank’s money was a career-defining moment for me.
In 2005, I had a front-row seat when a few of the world’s smartest security experts identified — for the first time — a security vulnerability called cross-site request forgery (CSRF/XSRF). We proved that this vulnerability could be used to steal money from our client. Discovering a new class of vulnerability was exciting. We were also pleased with the fix we identified that would thwart any attempts to use our newfound vulnerability to break into the bank’s systems. But much to my surprise, our customer refused the fix.
I didn't understand. How could a bank possibly stand by and watch money being stolen?
It turns out that while our fix would curb theft, it may have also slowed down new account sign-ups. In other words, the fix was too risky because there was a chance it could hinder growth. Our client decided to let the theft continue and take corrective action only if the losses became unbearable.
Built To Accept Breaches
It is important to understand that most enterprise customers buy software with the knowledge that there will be a breach. They accept this inevitability, and controls are needed to ensure that the losses do not become unbearable.
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This is classic and rational risk mitigation. Like our client, most of the world’s largest software companies prioritize speed over security engineering as well. Speed sells, and security may slow down market expansion. Taking a risk-based approach convinces software companies to invest in legal, incident response and public relations to mitigate the damage of breaches rather than to simply engineer products that are secure.
Just this past month, Microsoft’s PR was masterful in getting ahead of the media cycle surrounding recent Teams vulnerabilities, going so far as to push responsibility to the government. It's a well-worn strategy and ensures software is built to perform at the expense of security. This is why many of us in the security industry were not shocked by the SolarWinds breach and fallout. Vulnerable software is inevitable given the current market forces and shifting trust models.
However, the general public and elected officials were surprised and shocked upon learning that our most critical national security systems relied on products that were so easily breached. In the case of SolarWinds, public information makes it easy to conclude that this was a fast-moving company that deprioritized security in favor of rapid growth and increased margins. In the case of the remote code execution in Microsoft Teams, it seems we can draw a similar conclusion — this was a fast-moving business that deprioritized security in its quest to dethrone Zoom. Microsoft is perhaps the world’s most prolific security engineering organization, yet it, too, fell into the trap of choosing speed over security.
Tying Security To The Bottom Line
Back when our client was teaching us that securing software was not the priority of their security team, my colleagues and I got a crazy idea. We created five-year plans for building security QA processes that would quantifiably improve the security of products. We created a win-win cost model for security testing that would flatten based upon the maturity of our work and the security of their products.
We first presented our idea to one of our best customers. Their security team was excited, but the finance team was not. Once again, I could not understand, so I pressed the procurement department. The procurement officer told me that they could not be distracted by the more secure products and millions in savings we would deliver. In fact, they were focused on a different negotiation that, if successful, would save them more than three times what they spent on security testing. That other vendor sold them break room snacks and drinks.
We have guaranteed a future of more events like the SolarWinds breach if market forces tell CFOs that they will be rewarded more for cheap breakroom drinks than securing their products. We need regulations that will truly penalize technology companies when they put our information — and national security — at risk. With tangible consequence, real engineering discipline will be brought into the artform of software development. Only then will the industry, and future billionaires, view security differently — as a necessary step in the process, not something that will just slow us down.
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02f249406f3a8c19a3aa87eb8d2219f9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/what-does-reasonable-caremean-during-a-pandemic/ | What Does ‘Reasonable Care’ Mean During A Pandemic? | What Does ‘Reasonable Care’ Mean During A Pandemic?
CEO at MaintainX — the workflow coordination, communication, and compliance platform for industrial and frontline teams.
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In recent months, Ohio Gov. Jim DeVine has signed the Good Samaritan Expansion Bill, protecting his state’s employers from lawsuits arising from coronavirus-related liability, while Michigan lawmakers sent a similar law to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk. At least a dozen states now have similar laws on the books. In Congress, meanwhile, Republicans continue to call for federal liability protections for employers. “Unless you’re grossly negligent or intentionally engaged in harmful behavior, you shouldn’t have to be penalized by getting sued on top of everything else,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Industrial leaders like liability shields, and for good reason: No employer wants to face lawsuits from people claiming to have contracted Covid-19 in the workplace. Labor groups, on the other hand, say such shields open the door to corner-cutting and put workers at risk. With Democrats now in control of the White House and Congress, it’s clear that we’ll need a consensus approach that recognizes the unprecedented challenges facing America’s businesses and the urgency of keeping workers safe in order to move forward.
As Michael Bloomberg and Rep. John Delaney have pointed out, the question isn’t whether employers should get liability protection — it’s how high a bar they should have to clear to earn that protection. Even with liability shields, employers are expected to take employees' safety seriously and ensure a reasonable standard of care for their workers. To win broader support for such laws, business leaders must explain what that looks like in practice and clearly articulate the steps they’re taking to minimize risk.
The Real Threat
So far, businesses haven’t seen much coronavirus litigation: Of 5,644 coronavirus lawsuits tracked by Hunton Andrews Kurth, fewer than 100 related to on-the-job Covid-19 exposure. The bigger problem might wind up being worker’s comp claims, which could reach $5 billion in coming months. Some fear the Covid-19 crisis could increase employers’ workers’ comp premiums by up to 27%, and employers will be more likely to find themselves on the hook for such claims if workers can point to unsanitary conditions or show they were required to use hard-to-disinfect tools such as clipboards.
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Even with liability shields, companies will face legal and financial headaches relating to Covid-19. To limit their exposure, businesses need two things: a strategy for curbing workplace coronavirus transmission and a system for documenting the precautions taken. Safety needs to be managed and tracked from the top. To limit liability, businesses need to keep workers safe and show that they’ve kept them safe.
Beyond Standard Procedures
Unfortunately, many employers are currently failing on both counts. It’s not for lack of effort: industrial facilities have rushed to implement upgraded sanitization procedures, social distancing, PPE requirements and physical barriers to prevent contagion. But as workers returned to their jobs and companies updated their business models, the cracks in safety procedures were exposed.
Look at sanitization: Employers pledged widespread "deep cleaning," but clean-up crews have struggled to deliver on those promises. The airline industry, for instance, promised careful cleaning between flights — but only 44% of planes were actually kept clean, with sanitization crews reusing rags and skipping clean-ups in order to stay on schedule.
In trying to enforce new safety protocols, managers often wind up making things worse. Workflows are built around face-to-face interactions and managed using paper checklists, clipboards and user manuals. The more we use such methods to enforce good behaviors, the more touch points and transmission vectors we introduce. After all, hospital researchers have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria on crash-cart clipboards and nurse’s charts. If hygiene-conscious healthcare employees can’t keep their clipboards clean, what hope is there for the rest of the workforce?
Connectivity Is Key
To enforce rigorous standards of care, employers must eliminate risky touch points while increasing and tracking compliance. This is a twofold problem: first, minimizing literal touch points and vectors for viral transmission, and second, increasing oversight at every step along the way to ensure that implementation of and adherence to policies regarding sanitation, social distancing, mask-wearing and other preventative measures are carefully documented and can be referenced during potential liability suits or workers’ comp cases.
At first glance, these might seem like contradictory aims: We need to decrease contact between workers and streamline workflows while simultaneously increasing oversight and red tape. Certainly, our existing clipboard-based ways of managing operations and workflows won’t cut it: We can’t have people meeting up to hand over bits of paper documenting their compliance with social distancing rules.
The key is to lean into the technologies we’re already using to manage other areas of our businesses. We’re already using virtual modeling and IoT technologies to manage machinery, vehicle fleets and other physical assets. Increasingly, we need to bring those innovations into people management, too.
That might mean using Bluetooth or GPS technologies, like those used in contact-tracing apps, to monitor the flow of people through our facilities. It might also mean using digital communication tools, like online chat or video calling, to reduce our reliance on face-to-face meetings. Almost certainly, it will involve using smartphones and tablets to track compliance: rather than paper checklists. We’ll use digital apps to monitor compliance with safety protocols and actively remind workers to do their part to keep everyone safe.
Act Now Or Pay Later
When it comes to minimizing the spread of disease, decisively implementing the right tools and procedures makes a big difference. If businesses had made mask-wearing mandatory on April 1, for instance, it might have saved 40,000 lives and dramatically reduced the pandemic’s impact.
In the weeks and months to come, businesses will face enormous pressure to explain how they’re keeping their workers safe. Whether they’re protected by liability shields or not, companies that have clear strategies for reducing risk will come out ahead. We need to implement tools now that will protect our employees and our businesses in the coming months. We need to ensure we don’t look back and regret not investing in these simple solutions that could not only make our businesses more efficient but may also save lives.
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5b4203a37253164ac7a46bea3a73cd8b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/what-healthcare-can-learn-about-digital-from-automotive-and-banking/?sh=173442b06bfb | What Healthcare Can Learn About Digital From Automotive And Banking | What Healthcare Can Learn About Digital From Automotive And Banking
Kal Patel, MD, is CEO and Co-Founder of BrightInsight. He has over 20 years of experience in pharma, medtech and regulated digital health.
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Most people move money, shop and pay bills via their smartphone without concern. Healthcare's move to digital, however, has been frustratingly slow. What healthcare may have lost in first-mover advantage can be gained through learning from industries that have already gone down the digital path.
Coinciding with the first-ever virtual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, a select group of senior executives, including Atif Rafiq, former president of commercial and growth for MGM Resorts and former chief digital officer and global chief information officer for Volvo, and Amit Jhawar, former CEO of Venmo and venture partner with Accel, joined me to explore what biopharma can learn from the digital journey of other regulated industries — specifically, automotive and banking.
Automotive, banking and healthcare are all highly regulated industries, which creates challenges for digital innovation. Despite many obstacles, including culture and evolving regulations, automotive and banking succeeded in this transformation, making customer-first digital processes part of daily interactions. Driving that point home, Volvo recently added digital service booking and roadside assistance into its mobile app. And when was the last time any of us walked into a bank lobby?
Healthcare is currently on a similar path, but earlier in the journey. As CEO of a company whose mission is to accelerate digital innovation for our biopharma and medtech customers, and as an ex-biopharma exec tasked with building digital health teams and innovations, I’m intimately familiar with this journey. Here are some of the key insights that healthcare can apply to accelerate digitization.
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1. Strategy is important; people and culture are vital.
Businesses have long emphasized strategy, with goals and metrics feeding into that approach. While it is important, a solid digital health strategy will only get you so far. You need an entrepreneurial culture and vision to execute digital programs. This can be a huge change for some larger, established healthcare players.
Progressive CEOs can help lead shifts in culture and drive focus, although this is just the first step. Traditional cultures will fight off an entrepreneurial change like antibodies going after an emerging disease. Adopting a risk-taking and failing-fast culture may be difficult for any large incumbent in a regulated industry like biopharma.
Commit to taking a slow and deliberate approach. Find core values to anchor both the traditional and digital business. It may not be a straight path, but you need to embrace friction as a sign you are making progress and keep moving forward.
2. Set digital teams up to succeed.
Competing for top digital talent with Google, Amazon and Silicon Valley startups can be challenging for companies that are not known for their tech prowess. Establish distinct hiring, recruiting and retention practices for digital talent, such as rewarding a person’s ability over tenure and emphasizing the mission. Establishing purpose motivates many career decisions.
With the right team in place, set it up to succeed. Build your digital program to easily calibrate and scale with autonomy. Set goals both realistic and far-reaching, and give the team room to achieve them. Place an innovation "bubble" around your digital team so they know it is safe to fail, learn the appropriate lessons and quickly adjust. It is all part of the process.
Autonomy and flexibility can be further enhanced by fencing budgets for digital initiatives. Few topics can stop business conversations faster than budgets. Separating finances ensures less concern will surround money potentially coming from an existing program to fund digital initiatives.
3. Regulations should be built into the foundation of digital health development.
Startups often focus first on generating revenue (naturally) and put regulations on the backburner. The intention is usually there to revisit regulations, and many new solutions assume their technology will be disruptive enough for the regulations to work themselves out.
This cavalier approach can be short-sighted. Understanding regulations helps you understand what is driving the ecosystem. Know everyone's goals. For example, credit card processors want more transactions, consumers want fast and secure checkouts and regulators want safety above all else.
Establishing an early connection with regulators presents a unique opportunity to outpace competitors, along with a hand in defining a new market category and shaping regulation. Even though the option to collaborate with regulators is available to both startups and incumbents, many established players do not take advantage. Perhaps they are comfortable in their place in the industry.
4. Regulated healthcare can move fast.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that even regulated, established organizations can be nimble and partner for faster and greater change than previously thought possible. As digital leaders, we must maintain that sense of urgency after the pandemic. Continuing this enthusiasm internally around digital products and programs will help outpace competitors who may fall back into the slower pre-pandemic approach that biopharma has historically taken with digital.
Apply similar rigor to developing digital products that biopharma currently applies to other areas, including developing new therapies, manufacturing and commercialization. Now that we have seen the potential for innovation, let's keep reaching for new heights.
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ac85a0df5f4eaa1d6c9a6901080b99c6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/02/26/whats-next-for-workforce-collaboration-after-the-blockbuster-slack-deal/ | What’s Next For Workforce Collaboration After The Blockbuster Slack Deal? | What’s Next For Workforce Collaboration After The Blockbuster Slack Deal?
Ofir Paldi is the Founder & CEO of Shamaym, a leading provider of collaborative real-time learning solutions.
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The $27 billion acquisition of Slack by Salesforce makes a profound statement about the importance of team collaboration and knowledge sharing across the organization for companies of all sizes. In particular, it underscores the importance of teamwork in sales and customer relationship management. Sales organizations that previously operated with a lone-wolf mentality should look to make things easier in the workplace with real-time collaboration that leads to better results.
According to research from the Brandon Hall Group, as stated by the CSO, Michael Rochelle, “At least 80% use management, work and project teams. Virtual teams are also used by about 60% of organizations and that balloons to almost three-quarters among organizations with 5,000 or more employees.”
While many solutions help teams plan their work, manage tasks and communicate collaboratively, teams often struggle to make learning part of their day-to-day workstream. They lack a simple way to capitalize on the learning that is taking place as it happens. This was once the purview of watercooler chats, but the Covid-19 pandemic took away those natural opportunities to share and learn. But even when the workforce finally goes back to an in-person environment, learning will still be compromised without a systematic way to easily capture and share lessons learned and takeaways with team members.
And there is still a missing piece. Organizations are often unable to tap into that learning at the moment of need. This means that they miss too many opportunities to harness their shared knowledge and translate it into improved results. And, of course, this becomes even more difficult with teams that used to connect in person now working remotely.
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To overcome these missed opportunities, teams involved in any sort of work function (sales, customer service, research and development, or clinical development) need tools and routines that make it easy for employees to capture lessons learned from daily activities and share them across the organization. Some of this can be done through AI-driven collaborative workforce technology that prompts employees to enter their lessons learned in real time and highlights relevant lessons for team members facing similar situations. Or it can be through more informal or manual processes, so long as lessons learned are captured in some way and used later on to inform better workplace practices.
Regardless of the tools utilized, such shared insights can be used to facilitate collaborative debriefing sessions to create an active environment of real-time learning and continuous cycles of learning and improvement. A truly collaborative workplace must empower continuous learning where team members can get smarter by tapping into each others’ experiences.
Unleashing the power of collaborative learning requires the organization to create an environment where success and failure are viewed as opportunities to learn and grow and where debriefing and sharing lessons learned are valued and rewarded. Some of this can be done through AI-driven collaborative workforce technology that automates information gathering, prompts employees to enter their learnings, and highlights relevant lessons for team members facing similar situations. Mindset shifts are vital to ensure that progress is made using this information and lessons learned.
The ability to learn and adjust is key to every team’s success. With that in mind, it is clear that collaboration without learning leaves teams ill equipped to compete in a world of constant change.
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165b82b3733a28595f78d57e2c8f9923 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/01/how-a-distributed-workforce-can-offer-more-opportunities/?sh=2e7326476906 | How A Distributed Workforce Can Offer More Opportunities | How A Distributed Workforce Can Offer More Opportunities
Sergei Anikin is Chief Technical Officer at Pipedrive, a global sales CRM.
Only a few businesses had remote workforces before last year, but remote work is now normal across the world — driven by necessity. While the majority of businesses have adapted, it remains to be seen if they will thrive. Not all remote working paradigms are equal.
Owl Labs’ 2018 State of Remote Work report polled 3,000 employees across six continents. They uncovered that 44% of companies did not allow remote work. Two years later, a majority of global knowledge workers were, if able, required to work from home due to national lockdowns. The ongoing pandemic has been a forcing function, pushing workplaces into a remote-first stance — which puts pressure on management cultures to adapt and thrive in stressful times.
According to Owl Lab’s U.S.-focused 2020 report, almost 70% of full-time staff work from home during the pandemic. Half won’t return to jobs that don’t offer remote work later, with 77% saying that working from home increases their happiness. When Covid-19 recedes, 80% expect to work remotely a minimum of three times each week.
Enterprises know that managing work across business teams can be chaotic. Yet it’s sensible to take the challenges forcing cloud and remote working adoption as an opportunity to reset and discover better ways of doing business. Similarly to how many organizations had to undergo a rapid digital transformation, a conscious cultural and management transformation is also desirable to ensure employees and businesses are nurtured.
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Organizations must plan to decisively lead such changes rather than have the culture evolve unplanned and undirected. Here’s a few ways to accomplish this goal:
Don’t replicate meetings with video conferencing.
Although the pandemic has pushed us to use new communication tools, replacing physical meetings with Zoom is not enough. We are moving toward asynchronous communications that document process and discussion. This is important to show how decisions were made for the organisation’s memory. Asynchronous communication allows colleagues to review, improve and build on activities whenever convenient. This clears calendars from formerly extensive meetings. Restrict Zoom for impactful moments, such as setting projects and discussion/decision-making.
Improve productivity — do less “work about work.”
Work management is a conscious plan to set up systems with clarity and accountability so that organizations can ensure all teams and departments plan better, organize and carry out their business with minimal friction.
Productivity management solutions like Slack and Asana serve to solve the little frictions that build up around doing work. Once improved, employees can focus on the meaningful parts of their jobs faster and more effectively — even enjoyably.
Work management is a systematic approach to orchestrating an organization’s workflows to provide clarity to hit goals quickly. It’s about coordinating people and work to ensure everyone has visibility of required tasks, who is responsible, plus task status. Team members should have information and visibility of what matters most to work best.
Asana’s 2021 Anatomy of Work Index was called “Overcoming disruption in a distributed world.” Any enterprise that moved to a remote working culture last year may now be feeling those unclear, log-jammed and uncoordinated aspects causing friction.
So, take action. Review your business communication and productivity tools: Could new solutions replace older products? Does staff know how to use them? Do they use full feature sets? Is there a respectful culture of communication and a focus on productive achievement, rather than “working?” Take a forensic approach to the assumptions, practices and outcomes of work.
Build something new and human-centred
The opportunity for 2021 is not to get back to a virtual-style pre-pandemic working — it is to build something new and better on top of our virtual ways of working.
Consider technologies that improve productivity through automation, connectivity and collaboration. Any repetitive job that saps morale and can be automated should be. Skilled employees in any domain should be allowed to perform at their highest levels — for their own satisfaction as well as business value for money.
Help everyone be the best versions of themselves.
For example, the sales, customer care, marketing and engineering teams can better collaborate through modern CRM systems that schedule, remind and manage template customer communications. They should have access to the data and the dashboards that let them work seamlessly as a singular unit operating to ongoing customer success.
A good CRM (and modern applications in general for all departmental needs) should offer assistance functionality for managers and teams, as well as guided processes to help focus efforts. Frankly, if business applications are not removing pressure by automating tracking, monitoring and reporting, then they may not be fulfilling real business needs.
Ideally, any employee should be able to interrogate their corporate data freely, perhaps by using natural language search rather than needing software training to become their own business analyst, as AI-driven analytics brand ThoughtSpot recommends.
The opportunity to change the work paradigm is more than a “nice-to-have.” By working remotely, organizations are compelled to move from on-premise solutions to cloud solutions, which offer a step-change in agility, security and functionality while removing significant asset management responsibilities from the enterprise. When complimented by a change to management culture, organizations can reinvent themselves with agility to free up staff to work more intelligently, effectively and happily.
From the solidly quantifiable (KPIs, team and project status, sales pipelines or time-to-answer) to the human factors around enjoyment, retention, morale and cooperation, it’s important not just to carry on as before. Organizations have digitally transformed, and now is the time to consider whether they have done so consciously and conscientiously.
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b466e8009dd62d230b2280f4f5c4969f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/01/how-to-contain-threats-fast-using-soar-and-an-authorization-framework/?sh=6c62d77d1f73 | How To Contain Threats Fast Using SOAR And An Authorization Framework | How To Contain Threats Fast Using SOAR And An Authorization Framework
Jeff Brown is the CEO of Open Systems, the preeminent cybersecurity and networking provider for the enterprise cloud.
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Studies have shown that time is critical when it comes to containing a security breach.
The longer a threat lives on a network, the more damage it does to an organization. Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that the per-minute global cost of cybercrime will exceed $11 million this year.
This means that once you realize you’re under attack (and in today’s world, you should always assume that you’re under attack), you need to contain the threat — and fast.
But containment is not as simple as just dropping a rule on a firewall. Often, especially in the case of an advanced threat, there’s a litany of things that you have to do. For example, sometimes you have to disable multiple user accounts or lock out and isolate a physical host.
That requires orchestrating containment across multiple IT systems. Security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) can help you with that. SOAR enables you to plan out containment actions in advance and automate those actions so you can contain threats quickly.
A growing number of organizations are calling on cybersecurity experts that use SOAR to help them address growing cyberthreats. That way, these organizations can get out of the cybersecurity business, focus on their core business and lower their cyber risk.
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But what if you’re a company with 60 to 100 locations, multiple departments and 10,000 users? Trying to automate a response when you control all these resources is nearly impossible, and it gets even more complex when you invite a cybersecurity service provider into that world.
However, it is possible to conquer that complexity, move fast to contain threats and limit damage. In this article, I’ll provide a few best practices to help you make that happen.
Invite Your Cybersecurity Service Provider Into Your Business Process
There can’t be a wall between you and your cybersecurity service provider. Embrace your service provider as your trusted partner. Think of that partner as an extension of your team.
You may ask yourself, “How do I do that when the service provider is a third party?” I understand your concern. After all, the individuals at your service provider are not your own people, and there are legal and compliance implications to working with a third party.
But there are approaches and tools that you can use to bridge the gap.
Adopt An Authorization Framework So Your Trusted Partner Can Act Fast
Work with your cybersecurity service provider to create an authorization framework.
This will identify specific actions that your service provider is preauthorized to take in the event of a cyberthreat. For example, if the cybersecurity service provider has a 95% confidence level that a machine has been compromised, there’s no reason this partner should have to call you.
If you authorize your service provider to act on your behalf in such situations, your trusted partner can contain the threat immediately. Rather than getting an urgent call in the middle of the night, you’ll get an email in the morning letting you know that one of your machines was compromised but that your cybersecurity service provider immediately took it off the network.
Understand That You Don’t Need To Boil The Ocean
You don’t have to boil the ocean. Simply start by identifying what resources you’re most worried about being breached and automate the response to those things first.
Automating the response for that one thing will get you moving in the right direction. If you don’t take this approach, you may find automated responses too daunting of a problem.
Choose Wisely In Deciding Which Actions Should Be Preauthorized — And Which Should Not
Be aware that preauthorization is not that cut-and-dried if it involves a sensitive machine. For example, you probably don’t want to grant preauthorization on a CEO’s or other VIP’s laptop.
Collaborate with your cybersecurity service provider to decide what you should preauthorize. As you do this, consider the regulatory and governance models with which you need to comply.
Focus your preauthorized containment efforts on commodity resources. That way, if the service provider is wrong for whatever reason, the action won’t do too much damage to your business.
Give Your Provider The Appropriate Level Of Permission
You need a way to delegate; and to delegate, you’re going to need to grant permissions.
Give your cybersecurity service provider the appropriate level of permission and use the principle of least privilege required for the task. Never provide your cybersecurity service provider with actual credentials and instead grant permission using tokens where you have the appropriate level of auditing and control.
Retain administrative control of everything in your IT environment. And make sure that you are able to revoke your cybersecurity service provider’s access at any given time.
Be Prepared To Use Your Influence With Your Peers
Often the security orchestration aspect of SOAR touches systems that chief information security officers (CISOs) don’t own. This means you may have to convince your organization’s CIO or director of IT to provide your cybersecurity service provider with access to those resources.
This can be tricky.
Take the time to consider how you can get your peers to support your cybersecurity initiative. And work to bolster your position of influence with your colleagues to make that happen.
Lock Out Threat Actors Fast With SOAR, Containment And An Authorization Framework
Much of the attention in cybersecurity focuses on threat detection. That’s important because detection is where everything starts. But detection will only take you to the 50-yard line.
You have to take your cybersecurity strategy over the goal line. The goal in this case is to lock out the threat actor. And you’ll need to reach that goal again and again because threat actors will be back again and again. There’s no question about that, so containment is critical.
With an authorization framework and SOAR, you and your cybersecurity service provider will be ready to take fast, effective action any time that a threat actor surfaces in your IT environment.
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cb588cabee57a193281d203004cff19b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/01/self-serve-apis-are-a-key-retail-loyalty-trend-to-watch/ | Self-Serve APIs Are A Key Retail Loyalty Trend To Watch | Self-Serve APIs Are A Key Retail Loyalty Trend To Watch
As CTO of Engage People Inc. Len Covello helps companies differentiate loyalty programs to deliver a better experience for their customers.
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As the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the migration of consumers to digital-first — if not digital-only — experiences, brands are increasingly deploying revamped loyalty programs and features to optimize customer capture and retention. In the past few months, for example, TD became the first Canadian bank to join Amazon's Shop with Points program, "allowing customers with eligible TD Credit Cards to now use their TD points to make purchases at Amazon.ca," according to the press release.
Additionally, large retailers like Target are trying to woo their customers to share more of their data in exchange for promotions like "1% on every purchase to redeem on a future purchase and a 5% birthday discount," according to NBC News.
The Wise Marketer sizes the loyalty industry as a $200 billion annual market, and it consistently ranks as one of the least monetized. That’s because roughly 50% of customer rewards go unredeemed each year.
For brands and financial institutions (FIs) alike, the key to unlocking the full potential of loyalty points — which are now more widely viewed as a full-on digital currency in the pandemic era — is integrating within a broader loyalty network.
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What is a loyalty network?
By joining forces with other brands, FIs and fintech innovators, all players in the loyalty-points transaction chain can capitalize on a network effect to drive customer engagement by evolving siloed brand rewards.
In addition, the open-banking revolution now allows for the monetization of loyalty points. The convertibility of one brand's rewards points to currency, with the ability to purchase products or services from brands within the network, hinges on the advent of APIs. These interfaces form the foundation of open-banking technology. Leveraging nimble, cloud-based integrations, APIs enable FIs to onboard new partners, products, services and customer offerings into the cloud without having to rip out their preexisting IT rails.
In the context of loyalty programs, this means that FIs can leverage simple API integrations to join a fintech-enabled loyalty network that allows them to personally select the precise retailers and brands they want to offer access to. Once integrated, loyalty program members have the opportunity to pay with points at participating online stores. And, FIs have the flexibility to add more brands as they join the network — without additional tech integrations.
This loyalty network, combined with converting points to currency, gives consumers more freedom to choose how and where they spend their points — and in ways most meaningful to them — thus breaking through the constraints of traditional loyalty programs.
Looking Ahead
This paradigm encapsulates the promise of a retail trend that has been dubbed the "self-serve API economy." The alliance between banks, brands, retailers, payment gateways and fintechs is primed to be one of the dominant trends for the year ahead as loyalty networks help fuel retail's recovery.
When considering self-serve APIs, the first step companies should take is to look for a technology-first partner that allows for true flexibility. Typically, working with legacy applications means being locked into a solution that isn't modular. This translates into greater costs down the road. Another consideration when evaluating partners is to review all capabilities available through the solution. For example, if access to applications or service data is limited, companies may be forced to add on tools or solutions to grant that access later on. To avoid this, consider looking for a partner that has a developer's portal. A developer's portal is typically a sign that all applications have been well thought out and documented.
It is also important to seek out internal buy-in about investing in APIs. Having an agile partner comes with benefits, but without internal support, maximizing APIs can be a challenge. Engaging a forward-thinking team to clearly identify how APIs tie into broader business objectives is key. Coming to an agreement across the organization on the business direction to support leveraging APIs, can be a challenge — but there is a case to be made.
Making The Case
If internal buy-in for moving forward with a self-serve API loyalty network is proving difficult, consider the following:
• For FIs, the benefit is gaining access to data and insights that will help drive the most informed discretionary choices about the exact retailers to incorporate into the loyalty network — based on customer purchasing preferences.
• For retailers, they gain access to pooled loyalty deposits, which helps to maximize rewards redemption revenue at the point of sale.
• For brands, by partnering with other retail loyalty programs, they are awarded the opportunity to test campaigns and promotions by targeting specific segments of people without having to spend outsized sums on exhaustive platform overhauls.
But the real winner in this cyber-enabled loyalty renaissance? The end consumer — the audience that FIs, retailers and brands are looking to keep engaged. Via broader network adoption, loyalty program members have more options than ever before when it comes to where they spend their points. So, it seems the real promise of self-serve API innovation is putting the purchasing power back in the hands of consumers.
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60a7be53cec46a6ecbb207880f2914df | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/01/the-past-present-and-future-of-saas/ | The Past, Present And Future Of SaaS | The Past, Present And Future Of SaaS
CEO & Co-Founder at onetool, the platform to manage all cloudsoftware in one place: provisioning & analytics. Marketing & Product leader.
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Faster and more reliable internet, combined with lower barriers to entry in multiple markets, paved the way for a new generation of SaaS tools. Scores of companies found eager audiences in need of new solutions. To provide for those companies, several SaaS businesses opened shop to fill in the gaps and make sales processes, communications, recordkeeping and more functions smooth and simple.
In theory, a wide variety of available tools should give companies better options. In practice, companies now face decision paralysis. Wide-open opportunities have created total SaaS chaos. For many businesses, finding and using tools has become almost as challenging as doing everything manually.
Creating SaaS Chaos
A variety of factors contributed to this evolution. For starters, niche tools serving small-target markets have popped up all over the place. Businesses that went in looking for CRM systems discovered tools that provide psychometric analysis of prospects, tools to manage retrospectives and thousands more.
Other tools have recognized these challenges and attempted to create single unified solutions. No-code options, such as Notion and Airtable, are especially popular. As anyone who has built a tool knows, however, if you have nine options and build a new tool in an attempt to fix the problems with all of them, you don't end up with a single solution; you end up with 10 options instead of nine.
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Collaboration has become a central market for many of these products. Slack, for example, focuses exclusively on communication. Figma makes it easy for designers and other teams to work together on imagery and collateral.
Slack, Figma and other tools focused on collaboration also recognize the importance of integrations. Figma announced this past September new integrations with GitLab to help teams manage projects more easily. Slack integrates with everything from Google Drive to HubSpot. Unfortunately, the bigger the tool stack, the more difficult managing all these integrations becomes.
With so much complexity to navigate, users desperately seek plug-and-play tools wherever possible. No one has time to waste setting up new options, much less testing a variety of options to find the best fit. The longer adoption takes, the more frustrated teams become.
The result is SaaS chaos. Tools for everything insist they have the answer every company in their market needs. The CRM market alone has hundreds of providers. Many tools, such as HubSpot, have tried to capture more market by verticalizing. That works in some cases, but the "discovery mess" for users has grown too difficult to navigate.
When everything is a mess and no one knows which tools to use — how to subscribe (or unsubscribe), where to manage memberships and permissions, and what makes one stack better than another — where do companies turn next?
Navigating The Future Of The SaaS Market
If you expect the SaaS market to simplify on its own, think again. Based on our company's database, I believe the number of SaaS tools will grow beyond 50,000 in the next few years. Most midmarket companies will use dozens of tools for different functions, and even smaller companies will use more than a dozen to cover every function.
The solution to the chaos could be a platform that helps business leaders and IT teams understand their full software stack. In an ideal world, that platform would enable businesses to control all their cloud software in one place, including analytics and provisioning, while requiring almost no setup time. That is why we founded onetool.
Tech executives trying to create their own solution can consider creating their own infrastructure with the SKIM/SAML and oAuth protocols. These protocols enable companies to do provisioning for their employees. Setting the integrations up with your IT admin team might need some renegotiations of terms with SaaS vendors to give access to the provisioning infrastructure.
Businesses must recognize that the future of SaaS will not slow down. As barriers to entry remain low and more companies enter new markets (or create markets of their own), SaaS tools will continue to see high demand. This is a good thing. The world needs innovation, and niche companies need tools that can help them navigate their unique challenges.
No one needs complexity, though, especially when it makes doing business more difficult than it would be without the tools that should make life easier. The next-generation cloud software brings simplicity to this arena, rescuing companies from decision paralysis and making it easy for small and midmarket businesses to create and manage the stacks that work best for them.
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6d1a5b4409f50cb075dfc829e39d0f1e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/01/three-website-elements-businesses-should-focus-on-in-2021/ | Three Website Elements Businesses Should Focus On In 2021 | Three Website Elements Businesses Should Focus On In 2021
CIO at SiteGround, overseeing performance, operation, and optimization of 10 000+ enterprise server units in five data centers worldwide.
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With 2021 already showing some promising signs of optimism and normality, business owners are looking for a bit of a refresh to achieve new sales goals and find new customers. At our company, we know that one major factor that can help play into all these aspirations effectively is your website. Here are my thoughts on what will be important to ensure for your website through 2021 to make the most out of it for your business.
Strengthen Website Security
Because your website is your main channel of interaction with clients, it's essential to ensure it is safe to browse and hold client information. Consider adding an SSL certificate if you still don't have one for your website. It encrypts the communication and information between the server and your website. It also has SEO advantages and will increase your visitors' trust because your website will be indicated as safe.
Recent data has also shown vulnerabilities in many commonly used passwords. To maintain website safety, you can as well set forced password updates and enable two-factor authentication wherever possible for all employees and contractors who have access to your website admin interface, control panel, FTP, corporate emails and so on.
If you work with third-party services for assistance with the workload, don't forget to create separate accounts for them that can be later deleted with limited access. Only provide admin access where it's strictly necessary. Overall, it's important to know that website security is a constant process. The more security layers you add to it, the harder it is to get compromised.
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Add Self-Service Content And Support
As website traffic continues to grow steadily and many businesses continue to move online, customer service expectations will rise as well. If you want to exceed the norm and provide excellent service for your website visitors, you need to give them an easy solution when they need help and support regarding your product.
Create easy pathways for customers to find and seek out help, whether it's a live chat or an easy-to-find form to reach out with questions. This is the smartest way to let your visitors engage and talk to your team when they need to.
For small businesses, a knowledge base page may be a key website component to build. It can contain self-help articles, guides, video tutorials and even e-books about your product or service. The biggest advantage of having a knowledge base is that it helps customers find answers to solve their problems without asking for help and waiting for a reply. It also eliminates the need to have a dedicated customer service team to manage.
Mind Website Design And Accessibility
Website design is essential. It tells your visitors and clients who you are, and many of them are visiting your website on different devices and resolutions. According to Google, as cited by HubSpot, "59% of shoppers surveyed say that being able to shop on mobile is important when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from." Having a nonresponsive design will certainly turn customers away, so make sure you work on your site’s mobile version.
More web traffic may also mean a consumer is spending less time on a single website, so it’s important to have concise, straight-to-the-point content that is both clear and direct.
With website audiences continuing to grow, so will the expectation and need for accessibility. There are thousands of people with different disabilities browsing the web every day. Show them that they’re welcome by optimizing your site for accessibility. Some of the must-have features are high-contrast themes, screen-reader support and keyboard navigation handling, but there are many more you can add to make your website more accessible.
This year will continue to bring more focus online, so don’t postpone making improvements to your website. Start with the three essential aspects I've described because they will ensure your business page is responsive, accessible to all visitors, informational, helpful and, last but least, secure.
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7c064a0d3b1de436cdb509985c9ba09f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/01/top-10-takeaways-from-the-transition-to-telemedicine/ | Top 10 Takeaways From The Transition To Telemedicine | Top 10 Takeaways From The Transition To Telemedicine
CEO of PatientClick, Inc. — a healthcare IT and technology firm based in San Diego, CA.
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It goes without saying that we were all forced to adapt to a new way of the life in 2020. With Covid-19 leading the way through last year's plights, health care providers were among those to make the most drastic changes. Perhaps the biggest adaptation in the world of health care was the sudden transition to telemedicine. With ICUs nearing maximum capacity and the world as we knew it shut down, patients and providers needed to rely on virtual visits for continued health care maintenance.
While virtual provider services are nothing new, the fallout from Covid-19 pushed telemedicine front and center. Whereas pre-Covid-19 virtual health care was a luxury, intra-Covid-19 virtual health care is shaping out to be a necessity — and as with any new practice, there is a learning curve. Let's take a look at the top 10 lessons learned from using telemedicine technology in 2020:
• Availability: One of the greatest things about telemedicine is its reach. With this direct-to-consumer model of care, patients from anywhere are able to access care from their electronic devices — whether they live in a city center or in a rural neighborhood. Going forward, providers need to find ways of reaching low-income households, elderly patients or others who may not have the resources to own an electronic device.
• Electronic Health Records: Not only can patients and providers visit face-to-face through an electronic screen, but patients have direct access to their electronic health records. What once was filed away for the doctor's eyes only can now be accessed through user-friendly patient portals. This access to EHR has proved to make patients more involved with their treatment plans. When they can see diagnoses, test results and treatments right in front of them, they are more likely to stay on top of their healthcare regimen.
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• Competition: With high demand comes high supply, and such is the case with telemedicine. As virtual health care visits are becoming increasingly popular amid a socially distanced world, more and more telehealth companies are emerging, and patients have an array of options to choose from. This can get complicated with storing patient information and handling insurance across multiple platforms.
• Devices: A provider's and patient's device of choice is extremely important. The picture and audio quality on the phone, tablet or computer need to be sharp and clear. First, the doctor needs to be able to see a clear image of something to properly diagnose it, and second, the patient needs to be able to understand the doctor's feedback and treatment plan after the exam. There is nothing worse than a blurry image and fuzzy sound when you're trying to address a health concern.
• Security: Just because the exam is taking place outside of the doctor's office, it is necessary to remain HIPAA-compliant. The telemedicine platform should be secure to prevent any hackers from getting a hold of patient information and to ensure the personal conversations are kept only between the patient and their provider.
• Safety: Why just stay six feet apart when you can stay entirely apart? Remote telehealth visits keep sick people away from healthy people. No more sitting in a waiting room for upwards of 20 minutes marinating in other people's germs. Perhaps the most obvious lesson from transitioning to telemedicine is that it is an effective way of stopping the spread of Covid-19 and other illnesses.
• Emergency Care: Telemedicine can absolutely not replace the need to get emergency care. No matter how virtual the world becomes, in-person emergency services will always be necessary. It is important to educate patients on when to seek emergency care instead of relying on a quick FaceTime visit.
• Burnout: Burnout is real — and not just for providers but for patients as well. Between all of the on-demand virtual visits, teleconferences and Zoom meetings, we can all get electronic fatigue and yearn for some in-person interaction. It's important to take a break every now and then, get outside in the fresh air and rest your eyes with a good night's sleep.
• Simplicity: Simple and straightforward is the way to go with telehealth technology. With a wide range of tech experience levels, it is important to make a telehealth platform user-friendly for everyone.
• Progress: As vaccines roll out and Covid-19 hopefully makes its eventual exit, telemedicine isn't going anywhere. In fact, it is going to become more and more prominent and the way of the future. For this reason, it is important for providers and developers to continually be making improvements to telehealth platforms. This means identifying weaknesses in the current telehealth system and creating efficient and valuable solutions.
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8d51109be218bc2dd04084b8a4192cd5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/b2b-executives-are-solving-the-wrong-problem/ | B2B Executives Are Solving The Wrong Problem | B2B Executives Are Solving The Wrong Problem
CEO of Kaon Interactive, the global leader in interactive B2B sales and marketing software. Professor at Tufts University.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic upended how enterprises work, senior executives have pondered how to maintain or grow their businesses without the ability to meet with their internal teams and customers in person. This struggle has manifested in a variety of temporary “fixes” for each functional area, including sales, marketing, employee onboarding and training. Because this traumatic global health, economic and labor crisis will result in permanent changes to how we all work, we need to carefully plan and execute a new approach to almost everything.
Particularly in sales and marketing, the one-off approach to solving this new way of engaging with people has been fraught with challenges and, quite frankly, many failed attempts to “go virtual.” These include virtual trade shows and virtual sales meetings, as well as many internal product launches, trainings and employee events.
One of the reasons that companies have experienced so many problems is that they have approached each of these as separate activities with an individual, stand-alone solution. Another major flaw in the approach to these problems has been the inclination to digitize previous process — simply taking the way that things were done when people were in the same room and creating an online version of that same process (sales presentations, for example, where the customer now sits in a video conference watching a slide presentation).
The third key reason for these failures has been the lack of an overarching corporate strategy to moving from in-person, face-to-face processes to digital frameworks. This last factor has led to each department using different methods, tools and budgets to solve these problems, leading to a hodgepodge of solutions that do not integrate at any level.
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Executives must face the following realities:
1. All of these situations share the common thread — the need for effective engagements between people using technology in an online venue or channel.
2. There is nothing “virtual” about these meetings or events — they are just as real as any held in a conference room or auditorium.
3. Digitizing an offline or analog process does not result in success in the online world — it requires a rethinking of how things need to get done and designing an approach that takes advantage of the digital format.
When executives reflect on what has been successful, since most companies and employees worked remotely for most of 2020 and into 2021, the vast majority cite the internal processes and technology to move to remote work as a major success. These same executives see their customer events as significantly underperforming compared to the previous in-person approach.
This is because IT teams have had years to learn how to deploy technologies to enable internal electronic communication, applications and document management. Most enterprises do this well; they have worked with document sharing technology, collaboration systems, a variety of functional applications and IT architectures designed to streamline work for enough time to get these essentially right. The new wrinkle of having people connect to these systems remotely has also been addressed with VPNs and cloud-based architectures. So, adapting to the pandemic-induced new world order was a tactical adjustment.
Conversely, most B2B companies have based their entire customer acquisition and retention strategy around people meeting with prospects and customers directly (either their own sales teams or through channel partners). They have used individual sales meetings and industry trade shows and conferences as the platform around which their entire approach has been built, and this is why they were completely unprepared to deal with almost no in-person meetings for either sales or marketing. Adjusting to this new dimension of work requires a complete overhaul of almost every principle of the company’s go-to-market thinking.
By living in the digital-only world for almost a year, we have learned a great deal about digital customer engagement, including the following:
1. Customers need, want and demand interactive experiences.
2. When engaging in both one-on-one and group meetings online, having everyone actively involved (in a sensory, tactile, and intellectual way) throughout the meeting is essential to keep their attention.
3. The drive to customer-driven research, learning and evaluation has been accelerated, so the value of a dialogue with a company representative is in guiding the customer through their digital experience and in gaining insights and deeper knowledge.
So, we miss the point entirely when we ask questions such as, “How are we going to take our trade shows online?” or “What video conference tools should my sales team use?” The right questions to ask are:
1. What strategy do we need to engage prospects and customers in a mostly or entirely online venue?
2. Do analog events such as trade shows even work at all in an online venue?
3. What engagement model do prospects and customers need when dealing with us in the online channel?
4. What benefits of being a digital-first customer-facing enterprise should we strive to achieve, compared to how we were limited before?
When we see the world from this new perspective, we see that the challenges of making digital events successful, improving sales processes and conducting marketing in an online world are all the same at the core: They all require a new way to create digital engagement for both prospects and customers.
What companies now need is a customer digital engagement strategy — one that is accessible to all of the different customer-facing functional areas throughout the company. The value of a strategy provides the guiding principles and the context around which each solution is conceived and created.
In this way, the company will build a consistent framework for customer engagement and will avoid both silos of different technical approaches and wasting resources on short-term, unsustainable, one-off applications. This approach also ensures that regardless of how much or how quickly the world returns to previous models of in-person interaction, these digital capabilities will sustain an enhanced level of positive customer engagement.
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7ff0013dc724d7d3d7b676cd8f4d6bbc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/can-cloud-native-approaches-truly-optimize-enterprise-it/ | Can Cloud-Native Approaches Truly Optimize Enterprise IT? | Can Cloud-Native Approaches Truly Optimize Enterprise IT?
Chief Cloud Strategy Officer at Deloitte Consulting LLP, responsible for building technologies and delivering disruptive strategies.
“Cloud native” is all the rage these days, but what exactly is it, and what is its value to your business? Simply put, cloud native means that we leverage services that are specific to a particular public cloud provider. These native services include security, governance, storage, compute and any number of services that are foundational to a cloud provider’s applications.
The primary advantages of leveraging cloud-native services include:
• Better Performance Of Services: Because they are “first-class” citizens on the public cloud provider’s platform, they have better access to that provider’s resources, such as storage and compute.
• Lower Cost To Operate: Native services can do more with fewer resources since you pay to play on a public cloud provider. Applications that leverage cloud-native services often operate at a fraction of the cost of noncloud native services.
• Ease Of Operations: Cloud-native operational tools manage cloud-native services. These tools and services work and play well together, which means operations using cloud-native tools and services are typically less complex and more reliable than nonnative approaches.
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The downsides of leveraging cloud-native services include potential lock-in and the need for specialized skills. Lock-in issues happen when you code specifically for cloud-native interfaces that are largely proprietary to a specific cloud provider. Those applications cost more in time, dollars and risk to move to other cloud providers.
The Move To Cloud-Native Optimization
Many enterprises make the mistake of confusing something that “works” with something that’s “optimized.” A solution that works may operate with crippling inefficiencies, whereas optimized architectures, applications or tool sets operate at close to 100% of their possible efficiencies.
Looking at the potential technology configuration for your cloud project, the group of services that includes security, governance, ops management, databases and so on offers the lowest costs for the greatest degree of reliability and performance. This is the selling point of cloud native.
Problems arise when the solutions to new and different enterprise challenges present on different platforms — or if those solution sets already exist on alternate platforms. A department or division (or the IT team assigned to them) may rightly insist that a different provider’s platform will best and most cost-effectively solve their problem set. If the claims prove true, there will come a time when those siloed systems need to communicate with each other, and their cloud-native services are unlikely to work efficiently with each other.
The key to getting an optimized architecture lies in your ability to consider and test different technology solutions to determine the best solution for your specific problem set. While cloud native is the go-to solution for most architects who plan to build applications and data stores for a single cloud provider, the best answer is not always cloud native. There are nonnative services available that are cheaper to leverage and offer better optimization.
So, yes, cloud native typically offers the best optimization, but not always. You need to do your research to make the correct calls and test each cloud-native service.
Let’s look at an example. The native security system of a specific cloud provider provides good performance numbers. However, the provider’s encryption services that the application and application data need to leverage are much slower than encryption services found in nonnative security tools. In this case, due to the application's encryption requirements, a cloud-native tool was the less-optimized choice.
Another consideration is the fact that these cloud services, cloud native and not, are ever-changing. A limitation today might not be a limitation tomorrow.
In the case of the encryption performance issues mentioned above that made nonnative security tooling a better choice, the cloud provider may fix the performance issues, and suddenly, that tool becomes the most optimal solution. Thus, you need to consider what will likely be and what is in the current state.
Other Tricks Of The Masters
Here are a few other tricks that allow you to pick the best path for your applications and data:
Leverage serverless solutions or let the cloud provider select which resources are most optimal and cost-effective when running an application workload. This removes you from the process and the knowledge required to configure native compute and storage to support the application and data store, and the serverless system will find the best resources to leverage, which are typically cloud-native. Today, we have serverless container development and serverless databases, as well as serverless application development.
Observability is the measure of how well internal system states can be inferred from the knowledge of all external data and states. The idea here is that you’re better able to understand the state of a system, now or ongoing, or in the past, which allows you to better determine if something is truly optimized.
Containers and Kubernetes provide the ability to leverage cloud-native features using abstractions. The challenge here is that moving an application to a container, or building net new, means that you’ll have to do a bit more to the applications to properly leverage the container. However, much of the cloud-native services that containers leverage on a specific cloud provider are hidden from the developer using the container as an abstraction layer. This allows the containers to move from cloud to cloud without much or any modification.
The Bottom Line
There is no direct path to leverage optimized cloud-native systems if the objective is true optimization that takes into consideration cost, performance and reliability. Today’s mantra is cloud-native everything. The reality is, it’s not that simple.
It’s the architect’s role to configure optimized technology. Just going with a theme such as cloud native will rarely get you there. Instead, it takes a mix of research, testing and looking at the most likely future of these services to select the right cloud service configuration that will bring the most to the application, now and over time.
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98dcbb48ac04d601dc92a9b96d43a09a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/culture-is-the-last-thing-many-companies-worry-about-now---and-its-a-grave-mistake/ | Culture Is The Last Thing Many Companies Worry About Now — And It's A Grave Mistake | Culture Is The Last Thing Many Companies Worry About Now — And It's A Grave Mistake
President & CEO (designate) of Qualitestgroup, solving quality engineering challenges in Cloud, Data, AI and SaaS across global industries.
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Technology constantly reshapes the world we live and work in. In every decade past, disruptive technologies have dictated new winners and losers. Now, for the first time, Covid-19 — not a technology — rearranges global brands and introduces newer ones. Just like technologies in the past, this pandemic has altered business, technology and social landscapes across the globe. We have all started to question if our work, workforce and workplaces are pandemic-compatible.
Right now, survival is the primary objective for small businesses. For mid-size and large businesses, adjustments in the business, technology and operating models have become necessary. Irrespective of the size and breadth of businesses, it is clear that every organization has to rethink, rewire and reconnect in order to be resilient. Amid this pandemic, culture is the last thing one would worry about, especially when no one is sure about where we are all heading.
Culture represents the symbols, behaviors, practices and values of an organization. A corporate culture is the experiential promise of a company. This is the singular impression that you get of an organization, irrespective of whichever dimension you look at and whatever lenses you would use. All corporate culture is built on the basis of humans working together to solidify their shared beliefs. Now, Covid-19 has fundamentally challenged the way we work. The concepts of the remote workforce and the virtual workplace have raised a completely new dimension that can potentially weaken (or strengthen) corporate culture.
One can argue that cultural adaptability during the pandemic can be achieved. An MIT Sloan study found that there are companies "winning" on culture during Covid-19. Amid the instability of businesses due to performance, attrition, political challenges and social unrest, nurturing a strong corporate culture is easier said than done.
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MIT Sloan analyzed 1.4 million reviews on Glassdoor and found that employees of some of the top companies have given the leadership high marks for communication and integrity during the pandemic so far. These companies quickly established policies to protect the financial, social, environmental, physical and mental well-being of their employees.
However, culture is not just what the leadership demonstrates during the crisis. Not every company has taken all the right steps, and the excuses vary. We need to figure out how to nurture the culture that holds the company together at the time of a widespread shift to remote work.
Covid-19 seems to be the first of many such experiences. It is time now to seriously think about the future of work, the resulting culture and customer experiences. Listed below are some serious indicators of why working on culture would be very challenging.
1. Business survival. When survival becomes the primary objective, culture takes a backseat. Every business, big or small, would basically worry about its revenue, margin and cash flow. Everything else would be secondary.
2. Employee churn. Voluntary and involuntary employee attrition have both shot up in many industries during this pandemic. On one hand, the pandemic has caused job losses, leading to an unemployment rate of 6.7% in December 2020 (a drop from 14% in April 2020), which is a huge employee churn. On the other hand, Covid-19 has also induced quick ramp-ups in hiring, either to take advantage of the rising demands for certain products and services or to pivot to the new normal for adjacent business opportunities. Unless managed effectively, changing the workforce can seriously dilute the corporate culture.
3. Infrastructure issues. Though collaboration technologies have been forecast as an important CIO agenda investment, collaboration has not accelerated until recently, risking the institutionalization of best practices for business effectiveness or culture enrichment. Also, increased adoption of collaboration technologies does not mean increased productivity unless the technology is set to uplift the culture. Remember that cost, quality, time-to-market and customer experience are the judging factors for any business. Customer experience is not a technology problem but a business problem.
4. Modernization is about people and processes, not just technology. Remote work has accelerated digital adoption, and the pace of technological changes is far greater than the equivalent changes in the core people processes. Work, workforce and workplace — they all have to change to adapt to the new normal. If organizational policies and procedures do not collectively address all of these, we inadvertently abandon the culture. Note that building culture takes years; destroying it takes only minutes.
5. War for talent. Mismatch in demand-supply in a talent-short world fuels the war for talent across the board, and big (public) companies are losing out. Anytime there are financially focused efforts to deal with employees, we are not setting ourselves up for long-term success. Skill gaps in every industry and a talent shortage across the globe pose serious challenges for all businesses. While we try to attract and retain talent, it is fundamentally important for companies to start reskilling their workforces now to emerge stronger from the Covid-19 crisis.
6. Difficulty in measurement. Culture is easy to sense but hard to measure. It is even more difficult to measure during the pandemic. Covid-19 recovery is anybody's guess, so defining a mechanism to validate our progress should be carefully thought through.
The legendary Peter Drucker once said: "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." This emphasizes the importance of a powerful and empowering culture for a surer route to organizational success. His words are truer now than ever.
Though there is no definitive prescription for culture enrichment at the time of Covid-19, there are very reasonable expert recommendations on what to do next. After going through plenty of research materials, I conclude that effective employee engagement at all levels of an organization is the key. The more we communicate with our employees, the more we understand our problems and solutions. MIT Sloan's aforementioned research focuses on two specific attributes — communication and integrity. In my opinion, these two will do for an organization to solve any complex problem.
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1947f30ff975bb20d4c7a8bb3ec5153d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/dealing-with-ransomware-threats/ | Dealing With Ransomware Threats | Dealing With Ransomware Threats
President/CEO of Centex Technologies, an IT consulting company with offices in Central Texas, Dallas, Austin and Atlanta.
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Ransomware attacks have been making headlines in recent years. It is a kind of malware that encrypts files on a victim's computer and makes them inaccessible to the victim. Like other forms of malware, it also infects all connected systems. The attacker holds the encryption keys, promising to share them with the victims in exchange for ransom money. The victim can only hope to get the decryption keys by paying a ransom to the attacker or possibly from other victims or agencies that make them publicly available. Though the data remains intact, it is inaccessible until the keys are supplied so the data may be decrypted.
These ransomware attacks have become both more common and dangerous in recent years. Recently in Germany, a ransomware attack was accused of leading to the death of a woman who needed urgent medical treatment. The hospital was under a cyberattack that crashed several systems, which caused the hospital to turn away emergency patients to a nearby hospital 20 miles away. German authorities stated that the woman died from the delay of medical treatment.
Four Reasons Why Attackers Are Likely To Use Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware attacks have become a favorite form of attack for four main reasons:
1. Quick monetary gains. Many ransomware victims choose to pay the ransom instead of involving law enforcement agencies to avoid the risk of losing their data. Moreover, attackers can easily cover their tracks through the receipt of ransom using cryptocurrencies and the dark web.
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2. Minimal legal repercussions. Ransomware attackers have discovered how to avoid legal issues, like focusing their efforts in certain safe haven states where local laws and regulations make it easy to avoid prosecution for cybercrimes. Law enforcement agencies from various countries often find it difficult to coordinate with each other due to nonexistent but much-needed legal channels.
3. Software market speed. Security loopholes are common due to the speed of the software market. Many companies do not want to spend extended time in the quality management and security evaluation of software due to fear of lagging behind. These security flaws can make the attacker's job easier.
4. Not backing up data. Especially for many small businesses, the addition of tertiary storage doesn't seem like a valuable investment. When they do fall under a ransomware attack, they might often conclude that it is more cost-effective to pay the ransom rather than securing their data in advance.
Improving The Defense
There are several changes that can be made to provide a better defense from ransomware attacks. First, there is a need to have a unified response to the ransomware threat, remembering that the attackers typically operate outside of the countries where they launch their attacks. For this purpose, the development of an international forum could help coordinate between law enforcement agencies to uncover cybercriminals and track the covert channels of money transfers.
Second, the national security community should put pressure on policymakers in states to create and implement cyber regulations. Having standard policies across the nation can reduce the number of safe havens for these types of attacks. This should lead to more prosecutions of ransomware and other cyberattack perpetrators.
In this highly connected digital world, it has become difficult not to worry about the protection of our personal or critical data. Ransomware threats will continue to grow, and we must continue to develop new software or policies to thwart them.
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7a39e2f280579befa6a6c92c6301f86f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/every-company-says-theyre-changing-the-world---to-recruit-top-talent-you-have-to-prove-it/?sh=3f12d9c43983 | Every Company Says They’re Changing The World — To Recruit Top Talent, You Have To Prove It | Every Company Says They’re Changing The World — To Recruit Top Talent, You Have To Prove It
CEO of Qlarion, the leader in innovation through analytics and premier partner for government change-makers.
Last week, I had virtual coffee with one of my newest employees and she mentioned that her son — an engineer in his early 20s — had decided to move back to the East Coast from Silicon Valley just a few months after beginning what he thought was his dream job. He thought that landing a job with a high-profile tech company right out of school was his big break, but something was missing. He couldn’t find meaning in the work.
I remember feeling the same way when my first "big break" came. I was working in business development for a massive global software company and had recently transitioned from the government sales group to the retail sales group. A few months into my new role, I closed a multi-million-dollar deal with one of the largest retailers in the U.S. We would save the customer many, many millions each year, and the relationship was a game-changer for my employer. I was rewarded with a big commission.
But something was missing.
I hadn’t realized until that moment how much the mission of my public sector customers had mattered to me. What was missing was that sense of purpose, a connection to my customer’s passion for contributing to the greater good. That experience taught me a vital lesson, one that would shape my choices when I started my own business later that year.
When I started Qlarion I knew that I wanted to serve government customers, and I knew that I needed to attract a team of like-minded people to do that — employees who wanted to do meaningful work and who wanted to join a mission-driven company.
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Differentiating your company as a mission-driven organization is easier said than done because it’s become standard practice for every company to claim that they’re changing the world for the better. In the technology industry in particular, where attracting top talent is so critical to growth, it can be challenging for truly mission-driven companies to compete against the larger players that pay lip service to a mission and entice candidates with cool office spaces and free snacks.
But this dynamic has been shifting over the past few years. Study after study shows that Gen Z and Millennial workers are looking for purpose-driven work, and the realities of 2021 have pushed job seekers across age groups to reevaluate their career ambitions. An unprecedented number of workers are on the market. A recent Ceridian survey reported that 67% of workers were looking for new opportunities.
The combination of workplace and cultural changes creates a big opportunity for mission-driven companies to compete for candidates who seek meaningful work. Since working from home is the new norm and workers are leaving major metropolitan areas in droves, a company’s location is much less of a factor, which levels the playing field. Research also shows that the need to feel a connection to your company’s mission is more important for remote workers.
To attract talent looking for purpose-driven work, it's key that employers build trust and effectively communicate their mission:
Show, don’t tell.
Today’s job seekers are more skeptical than ever before, so a shallow mission statement will not suffice. Any company can say they have a mission, but only authentically mission-driven companies can show actual proof. The most powerful proof will come from your customers and your employees. Your customers' stories about your impact and your employees' stories about how they find meaning in the work — in their own words — are crucial to demonstrating your commitment to a mission.
Commit to transparency.
Executives of private companies — owner-operators in particular — are sometimes reluctant to let employees behind the curtain. Being open with employees about financials, growth strategies and client relationships can feel risky. But an unwillingness to be transparent could be catastrophic in a job market (and world) where uncertainty is the norm. Today’s job seekers are risk-averse — 64% say that they’re looking for more stability. The best way to demonstrate stability is through transparency. Company leadership should be forthcoming with financials as well as the future of the company and employees' roles within it. Creating a clear career path and investing in employee development are more important than ever.
Lead with empathy.
Today’s job seekers are looking for company leaders who are approachable and engaged, specifically the CEO. Job seekers want C-suite executives to be mentors and coaches, not distant authoritarians, and are increasingly valuing leaders with emotional intelligence. This goes beyond the words or actions of a single leader — the company as a whole must have policies and programs that demonstrate empathy and a commitment to employee well-being. In the past year, for example, two-thirds of organizations have introduced mental health programs.
It’s also important that leaders strike the right balance between optimism and realism in their communications. To project confidence and assure employees of the company's stability, leaders need to acknowledge the challenges ahead and the difficulties many employees are likely experiencing in their personal lives while also assuring employees that the company will continue to thrive and find its way through the crisis.
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9d6ae00ab25bb990a3a7cc736d63e1a2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/five-ways-to-upgrade-your-field-service-in-2021/ | Five Ways To Upgrade Your Field Service In 2021 | Five Ways To Upgrade Your Field Service In 2021
Vikram Takru is the CEO and co-founder of KloudGin, working to create transformative field service and asset management technology.
getty
The reliance on communications has never been greater. With remote working at an all-time high and virtual socializing the norm, telecommunication use is going up. More than ever, networks are fundamental in keeping us connected and vital to our work, education and personal interactions.
While the telecom industry is mature and has a built-in infrastructure, rapid change is happening alongside the huge impact brought by Covid-19, including the rollout of 5G and the increasing adoption of IoT. These changes also bring increased competition from new technology-driven entrants, and there is growing regulatory pressure.
This is all when customer expectation is at an all-time high. Service is paramount and proves to be the key differentiator, so the focus for telecom management is increasingly on better serving customers.
Integrated technologies are proving to be the game-changer in this ongoing transformation. To make the shift to this digital mindset, here are five areas to keep in mind to add significant value to your organization.
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1. Enhanced Operational Efficiency
Telecom service providers are large and multifaceted organizations, so it is not uncommon for the business to operate in silos and use separate solutions to manage workers and contractors in the field and equipment and supplies, whether owned, rented or leased. These solutions may be isolated or pieced together across divisions but could be much more efficient, cost-effective and easier to use.
Combining asset management, work management and mobile field enablement seamlessly from a single software package allows some transparency when it comes to what a company has available in staff and equipment, allowing the company to make decisions powered by data and achieve more with less.
2. Improved Visibility
Telecoms service providers manage a mix of planned and unplanned work. No two days are the same, and any day can change at a moment’s notice. Complete visibility of the work, the mobile workforce and assets is essential.
This may be focused on flagging up where a job might overrun, be incomplete or be missed altogether and reassigning jobs and managing dependencies for the workflow to be successful. It can also be reacting to get service outages back up and running or in worst cases, full disaster management following a flood, fire or other major adverse event.
Look for a mobility solution that can deliver information to workers in the field, including workers who are offline. Make sure that workers can access account and customer information, schedules, and instructions from any device.
3. Connected Customers
With customers at the heart of what a telecom provider does, service is the key touch point and the main source of friction. Telecoms, by their nature, often only come into mind when changes are being made or when something goes wrong. With customer expectations at an all-time high, getting it right the first time has never been more important.
Customers want to be empowered to report issues, book their own appointments, and track service crew location and work progress. Look to solutions with these capabilities. Telecoms experience some of the highest rates of appointment cancellation, so this form of self-service is particularly pertinent, as is a solution that optimizes scheduling in real time.
Customers want short service windows, so exceed their expectations by offering a 30- to 60-minute window, and automate scheduling so that the right crew member or contractor is dispatched. The crew will need access to the account, history and job details and will need to have the right parts and tools to give them everything they need to get the job done.
4. Reduced Asset Downtime
Asset downtime is not an option for a telecom service provider because the costs — financial, regulatory and reputational — go far beyond the lost usage. Service must be focused on prevention-focused uptime and performance, not a reactionary break-fix model. Remote monitoring capabilities enable any potential issues to be detected or predicted and then addressed.
The expansion of connected assets and equipment via the IoT, AI and ML technologies is key to a telecom company implementing these automatic, predictive processes. This will prevent downtime, improve profitability and create a competitive advantage.
5. Located First Time
A major challenge facing telecom providers is the network infrastructure they manage, and the assets they have responsibility for can cover a large geographic area. The mobile workforce is already performing vital jobs under difficult circumstances, so it needs help easily locating the right assets for the required work — even if working offline.
Location intelligence is also fundamental in keeping up with customer expectations and giving them a competitive edge. Telecom service providers are turning to location and GIS to help with their complete digital transformation by leveraging location services and maps in new IoT products and services while supporting traditional lines of business.
Integration Is Key To A Digital Transformation
With faster connectivity and the emerging technologies coming into their own, a key element for telecom service providers to consider is how critical integration of solutions is in service delivery. There is no use in having the latest applications delivering business intelligence through the fastest networks to date if only half of the available data is accessible due to siloed technologies that are isolated from each other.
Frost and Sullivan states that with organizations’ increasing migration toward cloud-based solutions, an optimized, integrated solution will lead to happier customers, faster service and increased profits. But with many organizations still deeply entrenched in legacy systems, these can be complex to integrate with some cloud-based technologies, limiting the options for digital transformation.
Organizations need to realize that the work done by those in the field is the first line of contact with customers, so they need to support workers with the best, most straightforward solution. Ideally, this should be a single solution that combines all scheduling, service and equipment tools with industry-focused IoT and AI/ML support to make it as simple as possible.
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895c1b733c6e6759d5c5ed8b7efd0237 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/how-to-re-imagine-your-approach-to-customers-now-and-after-the-pandemic/?sh=2798df1c25af | How To Re-Imagine Your Approach To Customers, Now And After The Pandemic | How To Re-Imagine Your Approach To Customers, Now And After The Pandemic
Nitin Rakesh, a distinguished leader in the IT services industry, is the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Mphasis.
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In response to a question about why human beings seem so easily taken by conspiracy theories during times of crisis, Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari says, “the truth is painful often, and the truth is complicated.”
Although the power of conspiracies may not be of much relevance to us in business, “the truth,” as Harari says, continues to be hard to handle. What do I mean? I mean the truth of the changing world and the customers in it.
Developments that were already underway over the last few decades have gained urgency thanks to the pandemic. In having been initiated into a personalized “appified” world, many customers were beginning to lose their patience in waiting at banks, restaurants, retail outlets and medical care institutions. More and more, they were getting used to being known by brands and delivered what they wanted, when they wanted it.
Based on what I’ve seen, the pandemic has only further accelerated these shifts. Compelled by extensive lockdowns that upended global trade, supply chains and everyday life as we know it, businesses have been driven during these months to hit the ground running, with inventions on the fly and assurances to their customers of speed, safety and agility.
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So, what should businesses do to better approach their customers in today’s world? In my view, they must adopt a series of principles of change. Let us take a closer look.
Bringing The Customer To The Center
One of the first principles companies should embrace is a front-to-back model of doing business. With many customers now expecting personalized treatment driven by their experience with companies like Uber, Amazon and Netflix, businesses will have to get ready to map their operations by putting the customer first. This means companies will need to create their products, services and experiences with the customer in mind, rather than keeping with prescribed rules to comply with risk management, governance regulations or back-office requirements.
Another related pivot incumbent on companies will be to break out of working in silos. Businesses should consider deploying a platform that brings together all their internal capabilities. While keeping the focus squarely on the customer, companies should then target consumers through their platform by personalizing their products and services in real-time and providing a unique experience of value.
Starting Small, Staying Quick
The second principle that companies must get ready to adopt is the ability to start small, primed for speed. This is something that most legacy companies may find hard to do at first. But do it they must. Every business that wants to remain afloat must allocate time to figure out its timeline for digital transformation.
The pandemic and the unique circumstances it created have made it even more critical for businesses to accelerate their digital transformation journeys while engaging with their stakeholders in a responsive, sensitive and relevant way. Given the fast-changing and volatile environment we’re in, businesses can no longer look at a three- or five-year time frame to make a pivot. Instead, they will have to embark upon their transformation to start reaping its benefits in as little as a few months.
To help aid this shift, businesses can consider rapid prototyping. This will speed a product’s time to market, reduce the design-to-production timeline and lower overall costs.
Co-creating With Consumers
The third principle of change companies should consider in order to make their approach to customers more relevant and impactful is to co-create with them. With constraints on social interactions expected to remain for the coming months, firms can engage customers in digital co-creation. This will not only bring in the expected benefits but also help garner consumer trust and deepen engagement.
Think of food delivery aggregators. If they included new restaurants on their list of partners based on customer requests, it would have the potential to be a huge win-win for everyone concerned.
Sparking The Spirit Of Startups
The fourth principle that businesses can adopt is an openness to leveraging the agility and flexibility of startups. Startups can often offer established businesses the link to consumers or markets at a fraction of the cost, time and effort otherwise required.
I’m reminded of what two large legacy firms in the consumer goods industry in India did when strict lockdown requirements slowed down their supply chains. One teamed up with an online delivery platform so its perishable food items were able to reach customers in some cities faster, while the other partnered with an online food ordering aggregator to ensure its consumers gained easier access to some of its items.
Including All Stakeholders
The fifth and last principle I believe companies would do well to master is achieving inclusiveness. Looking forward, firms will need to do things differently and aim higher to remain sustainable. One of the most powerful ways in which they can do this is by moving the needle to shift from serving shareholders to serving stakeholders. To do this well, they will need to consider everyone in their ecosystem: customers, suppliers, distributors, investors, their own employees and the larger society they are a part of.
This is important because today’s consumers are acutely aware of what brands stand for and tend to gravitate toward those that demonstrate a commitment to values that are dear to them. So, whether as prospective employees, customers or investors, a company’s “stakeholders” will need to be considered more expansively to define how a business conducts itself and what it chooses to produce.
It is still too soon to say how much longer it will take for the world to return to some semblance of normality. But I believe it is clear that no matter how long it takes, customers are waiting for cues from businesses to assure them that their changing needs will be recognized and fulfilled in a brave new world.
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714ad2b5f9a02eae726b8c1cedc02dc3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/02/leveraging-ai-and-nlp-for-automated-resolution-of-tasks/ | Leveraging AI And NLP For Automated Resolution Of Tasks | Leveraging AI And NLP For Automated Resolution Of Tasks
Pat Calhoun, a visionary leader focused on UX and adoption, is the CEO and Founder of Espressive, transforming enterprise self-help with AI.
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Enterprises are quickly shifting their IT help desk strategies away from one where every employee's issue or request requires human intervention to one that leverages artificial intelligence (AI)/natural language processing (NLP) for automated resolution. These are initial help desk automation platforms focused on providing automated responses to incidents or inquiries.
However, as enterprises saw the value associated with reducing their dependency on humans in problem resolution, they started looking at what to automate next. One area that the enterprise service management (ESM) market is now focusing on is the automation of tasks (e.g., fulfill a service request, create a new mailing list, schedule PTO, reserve guest desk). These types of automations move beyond providing a simple response and generally require a platform that can engage with employees, dynamically pulling (and writing) data from/to a third-party system of record via an API.
From Service Request Automation To Task Automation
In the world of ITSM and ITIL, the obvious next area of focus was on automating service requests (sometimes referred to as catalog items). This area of focus was designed to solve for two key issues:
• In many organizations, finding the appropriate catalog item can be overwhelming, which led employees to simply open generic incidents for everything. That created an additional load on the service desk team, which had to manually recategorize these requests prior to either manual processing or automation via a workflow.
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• For many catalog items, the questions being posed on the forms would overwhelm employees, and in many cases, they included questions that were confusing (e.g., business service, priority) or questions for which the system should simply know (e.g., location, phone number). This created a horrible employee experience that led to low catalog adoption.
Once this problem was tackled, customers looked to automate virtually anything an employee could ask for — essentially becoming a system of engagement for issues and requests. These organizations shifted their attention to providing a virtual support agent that can act as the front end for virtually any system of record. A common use case is automating the management of mailing lists in Office 365. Imagine a world where an employee can easily request a new mailing list, or be added to an existing one, fulfilled in an automated fashion, using their own words.
With password resets being a common call driver for most organizations, another common use case is integration with single sign-on (SSO) and other backend systems to automate the process of password reset. Beyond password resets, we are now seeing a shift toward full automation of software life cycle (e.g., account provisioning and deprovisioning).
This trend is now moving well beyond IT. In HR, it is quite common for customers to leverage their virtual support agent as a front end to the HCM system (e.g., Workday). With this, employees can request PTO, change their benefits, update their contact information, etc. In finance, there is a trend toward leveraging virtual support agents as a front end to their expense or purchasing systems (e.g., create new PO, get status of PO).
Connecting Human Language To APIs
One of the most complex parts of creating automation with virtual support agents is to connect the automation to the human language. For instance, creating an automation to create a new virtual machine is certainly possible, but how will employees access it?
To deliver an engaging experience when employees need help, AI-based virtual support agents should be capable of the following:
1) Identifying the appropriate service request based on the interaction provided by the employee.
2) Translating the service request form into an engaging conversation, where the virtual support agent completes tasks such as filling out a form or executing a workflow on behalf of the employee.
3) Making it simple for employees to be able to track and engage with their outstanding requests, whether it be with the system or an agent.
Creating automation is complex enough that organizations shouldn't ever need to worry about the underlying linguistics challenges in understanding all of the permutations of a possible request. The automation with virtual support agents in a self-service scenario should be flexible and enable organizations to define the desired behavior for a given topic. It could be a programmed response, a link to a knowledge article or automation. These capabilities can improve overall help desk agent productivity and lower mean time to resolution.
A virtual agent platform should enable customers to simply connect the human intent, which can be recognized via hundreds of thousands of different phrases, and engage the automation. Such a platform needs to make it easy for customers to simply "connect the dots" between employees and automation.
While virtual support agents were initially focused on maximizing the deflection of help desk tickets, the shift today is expanding beyond automated incident resolution. As the trend toward intelligent automation is moving well beyond IT to include HR and more, it's important that virtual support agent platforms enable organizations to accomplish tasks such as creating simple or complex integrations with virtually any REST API-enabled system. Stay tuned for more on this in the future.
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e537a23ab5fb6fae40707145800d9a3f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/2020-the-year-humanity-lost-to-hackers/ | 2020: The Year Humanity Lost To Hackers | 2020: The Year Humanity Lost To Hackers
Chief Information Security Officer at Crypto.com, overseeing the company's global cybersecurity and data privacy strategy.
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If there was any hope a year ago that 2020 would finally see a slowing of hacking activity, it was quickly dashed. Driven by direct impacts the pandemic levied on the workforce and the global shutdown that ensued, hackers made efficient work last year.
No system or industry was immune. Hotels, universities, big and small tech companies, governments, one of Europe’s most famous football clubs and even Covid-19 emergency hospitals were attacked during one of humanity’s darkest times. All were targets of data breaches, infiltrations, data theft and ransomware outbreaks in 2020. In the first quarter of 2020 alone, Covid-19-themed phishing attempts reportedly increased a staggering 600%.
The cryptocurrency industry, which had a bullish year, was also the victim of threat actors who went after familiar fish, such as exchanges, and new shiny ones like the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, which accounted for about half of all crypto-related thefts and hacks in 2020 and nearly $100 million in theft.
A year-end report from Risk Based Security indicates that the total number of records compromised increased 141% — by far the most since the firm started tracking data in 2005. Put simply, in 2020, hackers won.
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Who’s To Blame?
The finger-pointing game can be a dangerous one. There are some obvious culprits in last year’s losing season. Ransomware is on the rise; it was the most common security issue global investigations firm Kroll had to deal with in 2020. The shift of millions of workers off enterprise networks and onto unprotected home networks, some of which likely featured a WiFi password of “123456,” surely didn’t help. In fact, research from Malwarebytes last August suggested that remote workers caused a security breach in 20% of organizations, though plenty of organizations still fail to practice good security hygiene and their vulnerabilities pose a constant threat.
As we charge ahead into 2021, it’s hard to envision enough meaningful improvements on any of the above that might significantly deter bad actors. Much of the workforce remains out of the office. Meanwhile, attack vectors are evolving at incredible rates as are new technologies, making it tougher than ever for the shrinking supply of security professionals to keep up.
Tick-Box Security And Awareness Training
When I look back on why the industry ended up on the losing team in 2020, one word comes to mind: awareness. The cybersecurity field loves this word. Each year brings us cyber awareness reports and massive conferences with much of their programming covering awareness topics — we even have a month dedicated to it. Though awareness is absolutely critical to combating bad actors and improving our global security hygiene, years like 2020 substantiate what I have been advocating for years. Awareness is not enough. We need action.
The first problem with an awareness approach is that it is too focused on scare tactics — revealing the types of threats we may face — and not enough on true hands-on education and training. Phishing, for example, is annually one of the most common threats businesses and individuals face, and it’s on the rise. Yet too many companies tell — don’t show — employees how to spot a suspicious email.
Secondly, I find that too many companies are doing “tick-box security,” a process in which companies have a basic list of security awareness items they must cover and do so largely out of the mandate to meet requirements for auditors. Those security training videos you have to do every year or two while multitasking? That’s “tick-box security” and it is not effective. People often forget them immediately (I teach security to business school master’s students, and repetition and assessment is the key to drilling concepts into their heads).
We need continuous training through different methods to help reinforce the concept and to help trainees understand the same topic but from different angles.
Turning Awareness Into Action
Cybersecurity training is in need of an evolution. While awareness, checklists and table-top exercises are useful, we may need to take a page from military training, which employs an approach to preparing for the unexpected — called cognitive readiness. Used for cybersecurity training, this approach could help to adjust how employees — any company’s biggest security risk — think about cybersecurity, with a goal of adapting to different scenarios based on their conscious and unconscious automated response.
Expecting someone to be perfectly ready for an unknown is not possible, but situational awareness through critical thinking exercises can help them be mentally ready in the heat of a critical incident. For the more cyber-savvy, scenario-based learning is becoming increasingly popular. Red team/blue team exercises, cyberattack simulations and capture the flag (CTF) “hackathon” events help build a team’s communication, strategic leadership and execution. These activities often require the security team to think outside the box and use their creativity to solve problems in a pressure/time-sensitive competitive situation. While the exact activities may not mimic real-life scenarios, they can help enhance the team’s orchestration and maturity, enabling them to more quickly adapt.
For the less technically savvy, while periodic repetition (e.g., short bursts of phishing exercises and campaigns) can help reinforce cognitive awareness, more time should be spent understanding the fundamental risks so they become more cognitively ready for cyber threats. Learning is a continuous process, and cybersecurity and data privacy require more attention to ensure that companies embed ongoing assessment-based security training so that the organization’s overall security maturity can improve over time.
Final Thoughts
I am reminded of a well-known proverb from ancient philosopher Lao Tzu, who said, 授人以鱼不如授人以渔 which translates to, “Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and feed him for life.
This rings true today and, with a modern-day cyber wrinkle, can be directly applied to needed shifts in how we approach cybersecurity training: “Give a man a phishing campaign, and he knows how to detect one type of phishing for a day. Teach him how and why hackers phish, and he becomes more vigilant for life.”
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cff495d46971fd3813e08b9c8ec68d4e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/capturing-the-five-is-of-hyper-innovation/ | Capturing The Five I's Of Hyper Innovation | Capturing The Five I's Of Hyper Innovation
CEO of Emerge Inc. It's about the beauty of all things transformational. Make money and meaning without compromise.
Corporate innovators are always ready to find the next idea, forge the next pathway and bring the next narrative to the waiting audience. However, the task of seeing the future before it arrives is difficult enough, but the task of making it real and tangible is even more challenging.
In corporate life, today takes precedence, and without the work of today, tomorrow never comes. But without the work of tomorrow, tomorrow is the same as today. Standing still is one form of being disrupted in a business world where innovation speed is as important as creativity. Execution in the markets of today brings value, but executing in the markets of tomorrow requires us to see around corners in places that others cannot witness. How do we as innovators look ahead to the future continuously, constantly and without the fear of the unknown?
There is one way: A process I call the I5 principles. It's somewhat like the highway I5 that runs through the West Coast of the United States: a long journey found in one constant drive from the north to the south with winding moments and hilly challenges. Yet it's constant in process and expectation. Many times, noninnovators believe innovation to be a random act of creativity and redundancies grounded in trial and error. But true innovators know that innovation is as much a discipline as it is a random moment of brilliance. Both can be utilized to bring forth eyesight, foresight and insight to future markets and customers.
I know that other more important phases of product creation can be found in the product development cycle. We, as product creators, understand that the vast amount of project research and practice exists to bring things to market. But what is here is about how to be innovation-active in realizing prototypes that can quickly result in products because we know that 80% of all product costs are in the design phase. And if that is done incorrectly, all the costs find their way into the hands of the customers. The I5 process implements the basic phases required for fast and accurate prototyping before the product life cycle rules take over. In my experience as an innovator, using the product life cycle rules too early can actually destroy the speed and accuracy of the endeavor.
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Here are the main ingredients that can form your recipe:
Inspiration
Ideas start with investigations in a market opportunity to understand the narrative to follow in search of customer need. Transformative ideas and opportunities come from inspired actions. What are the things that bring the absence of justice to you? What do you feel when you think of a challenge you or others experience? Why should things be the way they are? What is the nightmare that never leaves you? Using this gift of uneasiness can bring you inspired action to serve the greater good and power you through years of building a solution.
Investigation
Many entrepreneurs I meet tell me of the reason why they are doing what they do. Inspired stories are evident, but the story must turn to a deep investigation with rational information turning to wisdom in the research uncovering an opportunity and an angle of incidence into the market that brings about an elegant way to look at the challenge preparing to be solved.
Isolation
Many problems have many solutions. Why did you choose the way you decided to engage in a particular solution? Have you isolated the problem well enough to solve it? Is it broad enough, or is it too narrow that it cannot help an expanded audience? The act of isolating a problem that needs to be investigated demands understanding who you are trying to serve, what the value proposition is and why someone will engage with you in a purchase. Will they purchase a solution again from you because you remind them of the value of your brand? Have you got an idea of the appropriate price? Why would someone give up what they are doing now to pick your way?
Incubation
It's important to take an idea, transform it into a business plan, and look at it with a 360-degree view to understand and implement it. This phase requires designers, builders and branders to work in concert to create the actual product or service in the prototype stage. Many times this is done in isolation to bring about the best of everything that is required to actually attract and engage customers in this transformed prototype. Here is where you test not just the functionality but test all aspects of the value chain, including how you go to market, how you present your offering and, if you have human-to-human components, what that experience delivers.
Ignition
The final phase of innovation is to light the rocket of your ideas and get the final product into the hands of customers. This phase is not the most important because if all other phases actually bring you insight that you have poured back into the product or prototype, this phase is executing the muscle memory already built into the work. But it is the celebratory movement of providing value to people or organizations who pay for your work. It is the moment where you display your painting for others to admire and enjoy.
Final Thoughts
Before one begins to deploy a product life cycle process, the I5 process begins. When innovation teams that rapidly discover, design and deliver prototypes are able to frame their solutions correctly, the product-operating teams have much of the process of checks and balances in place. As a result, their time can be spent actually building and launching the product or service.
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b309fccc46c1e38ae7a9dca8518bc686 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/five-big-compliments-to-big-data/ | Five Big Compliments To Big Data | Five Big Compliments To Big Data
Making your data invincible. General manager at VENYU Data Centers.
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It’s all about the data — or, so they say. If you’ve kept your ear to the ground on business technology, you’ve certainly heard the term Big Data. It’s commonly used to describe massive amounts of unstructured information coming from various channels of our business and personal lives. But what’s so special about Big Data? Nothing. In fact, Big Data alone is about as useful as the internet was in 1984.
In order for data to be valuable, it should also be:
Fast Data
Our expectation of instant information gratification in 2021 is high. Our world is so hyperconnected, we are conditioned to needing our data now. Most people don’t realize the enormous network and computer infrastructure required to make data fast. When we think about this in our personal lives, there are many examples: Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and Netflix all have massive amounts of data that need to be delivered to their end users. Search, video, messages — you name it, it’s almost instantaneous.
In the business world, the power behind the curtains of massive data companies is usually not attainable. Thus, for many companies, data may seem slower to reach users at work than it does in daily life. However, businesses are quickly learning the scalable and affordable options they have to make their data fast. Leveraging networking techniques that minimize latency between users and data is key. This includes everything from increasing bandwidth to user locations, keeping users on the same network or keeping frequently used data/content cached for quick access. Modern data storage and computer systems provide much higher levels of performance than conventional systems. Both cloud-based systems and local infrastructure have several options to consider that are flexible and economical for a dynamic business.
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Reliable Data
At the end of the day, the data must be available when and where we need it. If we cannot rely on it consistently, then it becomes a risk to the business. Organizations that need reliable data build reliable infrastructure, deploy reliable applications and create a reliable network. Reliability requires an investment in the right resources, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be an affordable endeavor.
Over the past decade, IT costs may have grown but value is on the rise as well. As Digital Transformation shapes the strategy of many organizations, companies are realizing smart technology investments can have a significant ROI. The cost of "downtime" calculation is key to estimating true cost and risk in today’s business. Gartner estimates the average enterprise impact of unplanned downtime to cost $5,600 per minute. Compare that to the falling costs of network, infrastructure and cloud services, and you’ll discover building reliability is worth it.
Usable Data
59 zettabytes. That’s what experts at the IDC claim the global data footprint looks like in 2020. That’s 59 billion terabytes! The IDC also cites that our global consumption of data over the next three years will surpass all of what we’ve produced and consumed over the last 30. That is a staggering statistic that most people cannot comprehend.
Interestingly, most of this massive data is just not usable to business, science and government. Our ability to mine this data into meaningful information has not kept pace with the data explosion of the last decade.
One reason for this is that many companies have not invested the time and resources to fully understand the data available to them. The shift to a culture centered around data-first decisions is not easy. Through Digital Transformation initiatives, companies are just starting to tap into the "gold" available to them under the mounds of data that exist. The ability to better understand our business with solid insights is within reach. It will take time, but it will be worth the wait and open doors we can’t even predict today.
Secure Data
For many businesses, the security of data may be the most important on this list, and for good reason. Data is power. For that reason, it is sought after by cybercriminals and leveraged to cripple an organization's operation by holding data hostage. Make no mistake, we all suffer each time a breach occurs.
The constant need to be vigilant in security efforts makes it harder than ever to run a successful business. But, with such a complex security arena, many businesses of all sizes struggle to find the right path. If your company wants to improve its security posture, it's good to consider two concepts.
First, start with a foundation. There are numerous programs and frameworks to help here. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is an excellent resource to get started. Get educated and identify your baseline so that you can begin to fill company gaps.
Secondly, work in layers. Cybersecurity is best addressed with a layered approach that includes the network, endpoints, email and employee training. Developing a solid plan to minimally cover these four critical areas is an excellent start to securing your data.
Accurate Data
Admit it: You’ve looked at your weekly business reports and said, “That can’t be right.” There is always skepticism in data since we all know there are many ways its accuracy can fall short. Input methods, system processes, bad code and many other issues can invalidate data and leave a business shortsighted on decisions.
To avoid the bad data conundrum, ensure your sources are clean and offer options to keep things in check. Data entry validation, data scrubbing algorithms and enterprise system integration points are excellent approaches to data hygiene. If your business shares data with third parties, do your homework and be sure it's from a trusted source. That will help you avoid regrettable business decisions based on bad data.
Big to Better to Best data is what we should expect going forward. In our not-so-distant future, if the data isn’t “best,” it’s just “big.” Be sure to keep pace by addressing some of the techniques mentioned here and demand the most of your data.
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d83874e7e5940fe233fe902b97f036d0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/how-to-build-trust-with-students-during-a-pandemic-by-leveraging-your-crm/ | How To Build Trust With Students During A Pandemic By Leveraging Your CRM | How To Build Trust With Students During A Pandemic By Leveraging Your CRM
Salesforce CRM Marketing Champion leading the Practice for EigenX specializing in Manufacturing, Higher Education and Financial Services
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If you are in higher education, the challenge of reopening your campus has been an ongoing battle due to the current pandemic. Many universities are operating fully online or embracing a hybrid approach, taking every step needed to ensure student safety. On top of it, you are also challenged with declining admissions, with students questioning campus fees. How can you keep your campuses safe and still focus on meeting your retention goals?
Integrate Your Protocols With CRM Technology
Most public and private universities currently have Covid-19 protocols for monitoring students on campus. This may involve regular student health check-ins, monitoring risks, handling Covid-19 incidents and evaluating campus safety. Some universities leverage HR applications, and some institutions have been building custom solutions or using third-party applications for specific needs. But the challenge is that these systems may become siloed and may not make their way to SIS and CRM systems. What is the point of sending messages to students to register for a course if the student is down with Covid-19? Wouldn't it be the right thing for marketing and admissions teams to follow up with these students during these difficult times?
To develop a centralized communication system that is empathetic to students, here are some best practices followed by other universities.
Build Personalized Journeys For Parents And Relatives Based On Student Health
You can build automation into your integration processes, which can then connect with your CRM and SIS systems to flag students at health risk. This will be passed to marketing automation systems that can opt the students out of marketing campaigns focused on courses.
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Leveraging personalized journeys with marketing automation systems can help communication teams send empathetic messages to students regarding safety protocols. These health tips can drive more student engagement.
Make sure to manage parent or guardian relationships within your CRM systems and SIS systems. Use marketing automation systems to notify parents, siblings and other important family members when information needs to go out.
Things To Consider From A Security Perspective
Most universities use a cloud-based CRM application like Salesforce. But how do you ensure the security of the student health data and meet HIPAA compliance measures? Here are some strategies to consider:
1. Use an encrypted solution like Salesforce health cloud or Shield to encrypt data at rest and in transit.
2. Have a security strategy that minimizes the number of people who need access to data and incorporates click security permissions.
3. Monitor ad hoc security violations in terms of downloads, unwanted access and restrictions from limited IP addresses and locations. This will help you make sure health data is secure.
4. When reporting to federal and state agencies on Covid-19 measures, leverage automated integration systems that extract reporting data from cloud-based CRMs and transfer that data to health networks with APIs or file-transfer protocols. Be sure that these protocols encrypt data in transit or use encryption keys.
Leveraging AI In Your CRM
It is important for universities to stay on top of students' lives and key events. There are AI solutions on the market that help organizations monitor changes in student patterns to assess their risk profiles. By monitoring financial aid misses, academic score declines, declines in attendance and student advisor cancellations, these systems can calculate risk scores that tell the university how likely a student is to complete a course or program.
By monitoring student risk levels, universities can engage with students proactively and provide programs that cater to their needs and prevent attrition. Based on what I've seen, many universities opt to increase advisor guidance for at-risk students, offer payment programs to help these students ease their financial burdens and provide career guidance programs that can help optimize retention.
In these trying times, universities should embrace digital transformation as their key strategy for offering empathetic communication to students and proactively monitoring student risk levels. This will go a long way in meeting your retention goals.
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cbda57bb97d210970630773f8a84976e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/leadership-during-a-crisis-20/?sh=6b6c98134ac5 | Leadership During A Crisis 2.0 | Leadership During A Crisis 2.0
Hari Ravichandran is the CEO and Founder of Aura™, a technology company dedicated to simplifying digital security for consumers.
It’s been nearly a year since Covid-19 gripped the world and upended life as we know it. The one-year mark provides an opportunity to reflect on the lasting impact the pandemic has had on our lives and business. As we think about 2020, it’s imperative that we continue to adapt our leadership strategies as we navigate new behaviors, patterns and habits.
Last August, I shared my thoughts on the importance of reframing your business plan. Reviewing those themes remains important today as we look at the year ahead.
Themes and Strategies That Still Hold True
Let's start with a few of the themes that are just as important to consider now.
1. Cutting Costs And Balancing Growth
Growth is a critical component of planning, and it’s important to keep a consistent view of the long-term horizon. As you assess annual objectives, continue to determine what short-term cuts can be made to enable investment back into the company. This disciplined analysis will organically help facilitate growth and create a consistent cadence for the team to be mindful of strategic budgeting.
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2. Never Say Never
Prior to the pandemic, the thought of a company shifting its entire operation to fully remote work in just a few weeks would’ve been deemed impossible. However, Covid-19 forced an immediate pivot, where people and enterprises adopted digital ways of working much quicker than many would have expected.
Innovation is often the byproduct of necessity. The ability to be flexible and adapt to this new model proved valuable: Many questioned whether productivity would be maintained from home, but in my own experience, the team at Aura is more productive now than ever before.
This shift may even end up more permanent than we initially thought as many employees simply don’t want to return to offices. Previous aspects of traditional work now seem antiquated, and it’s fascinating to experience this evolution of work in real time along with the rest of the company.
I’ve learned not to be afraid to take on complex problems and lean on my team. They take the opportunity to rise to the occasion and prove that you never know what kind of innovative solutions will arise as a result.
3. Embrace Company Culture
It’s critical to consider the differences between what employees need today compared to a year ago. Gone are the days of in-person events and happy hours, forcing these once-sought-after perks into obsoletion. Priorities, habits and behaviors have shifted, so company cultures need to as well.
Think about ways you can offer the most value to employees during stressful times. Consider implementing a more flexible PTO policy (my company is giving employees a day off on the anniversary of our pivot date to working from home) or offering free subscriptions to apps that address mindfulness, meditation or fitness. Make sure employees know that their company truly cares about them and is prioritizing their holistic mental and physical well-being.
4. Remain A Positive And Steady Leader
The most important lesson about leadership during Covid-19 is to be human, first and foremost. We are all navigating this crisis together and must lean on one another for support. Leaders may feel compelled to put on a brave face for their employees. While staying positive is indeed important, opening up about how you are coping with your own struggles will allow you to connect on a deeper level with employees who may be experiencing the same issues.
New Themes And Lessons Learned from 2020
Reflecting on what we’ve learned from 2020 is of the utmost importance as we give thought to new themes to consider in 2021
1. Identify More Visible Business Opportunities From Changes In Consumer Behavior
The accelerated shift to digital has changed consumer behavior, and companies are modifying their offerings accordingly. We have witnessed a rise in e-commerce, direct-to-consumer models and contactless pickup and drop-off, among other new trends.
Furthermore, work patterns are changing. People are migrating from cities to suburbs for more space, phasing out obsolete ways of working in the short term. However, quickly pivoting to a new style of life and work has presented areas in need of improvement, leaving businesses the opportunity to fill the gaps.
This opportunistic thinking and working extends beyond the corporate world. Consider the vaccine rollout. What normally would have taken years was accomplished in mere months thanks to great minds coming together to attack a singular problem. With this strategy and focus, the level of innovation and results that can be produced quickly is remarkable.
We’re starting to ask better questions, and we’ve shown ourselves that when we come together to solve problems, great things can happen amid the most challenging situations
2. Prioritize Empathetic Leadership And Take A New Approach To Employee Well-Being
Remote work has blurred the boundary between work and home. Life has become more family-facing and less work-facing. We are no longer able to create a separation between what is going on in the world and our lives at the office. It is paramount that business leaders understand these shifts and are even more in-tune with how employees are coping with world events.
Employee well-being needs to be a top priority. Consider limiting the number and length of daily meetings to allow your employees more flexibility. Shift to a more asynchronous model of work to enable new means of communication and documentation.
Overall, the shifts we have seen over the past year are here to stay. We’ve figured out a new way to work, shop, communicate and live. More questioning is happening. Creative problem-solving is returning to the forefront of innovation, and we are advancing at a faster rate than ever before!
As we dive into the second year of our two-year plan, we must take the lessons we learned from last year and implement them into our strategy so that businesses can keep pace with rapid advancements and thrive in our new world.
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cc8cd5bdedef603a7f8b1b2168046589 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/primary-care-physicians-are-more-important-than-ever---we-should-empower-and-invest-in-them/?sh=76a1a74e2501 | Primary Care Physicians Are More Important Than Ever — We Should Empower And Invest In Them | Primary Care Physicians Are More Important Than Ever — We Should Empower And Invest In Them
Dr. Sophia Chang is a practicing general internist at San Francisco General Hospital, adjunct faculty at UCSF and CCIO at Clover Health.
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If the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it's that human beings desperately need personal connection and interaction. America (and the world) has struggled to contain Covid-19 precisely because people have found it difficult to isolate themselves from their family, friends and communities. It's in our nature to be with others, even though we know it can be dangerous for ourselves and others right now.
What exacerbates our current health crisis is actually core to effective medical care. In fact, meeting each person's need for human interaction is key to addressing the other pandemic facing America — the crisis of chronic disease.
Chronic disease was a pressing public health issue prior to Covid-19, and it retains that distinction even though it's currently being overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. In recent years, at least 133 million Americans live with one or more chronic diseases (40% of the entire population). This is especially pronounced in our growing senior population, where 19% have three or more serious chronic conditions.
As a physician with over 30 years of experience in the treatment room, the classroom and the boardroom, I know that patients with chronic disease crave personal interaction with health care professionals. They're especially dependent on primary care physicians — the "captains of the ship" who take the lead in helping patients navigate the ups and downs of disease management. The closer the connection between patients and their physicians, the better the care the patients tend to receive and, ultimately, better quality of life is achieved.
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I see this truth borne out every day in my work. I also hear people frequently express their desire for a closer doctor-patient relationship. I've lost track of how many times my family, friends and colleagues have asked if I have any recommendations for a primary care physician. Most people intuitively grasp the need to work with someone to manage their health. We innately understand that a stronger personal bond leads to better personal health.
But all is not well. Despite the obvious need for primary care physicians, they are a shrinking share of the overall physician workforce. Fewer Americans now have one, and nearly half of adults don't see one at all. With fewer medical students choosing that career path, America will face a shortage of up to roughly 55,000 primary care physicians in just over a decade. At a time when more and more people need a strong doctor-patient relationship, those relationships are getting harder and harder to find.
Solving this problem is one of the greatest challenges facing American health care. I have seen firsthand how primary care physicians are facing record administrative and bureaucratic hassles, leaving them with less time to focus on patients. I've also spoken with hundreds of future doctors who reject the primary care career path because it won't pay enough to cover their educational debt, which often runs to more than $250,000. Whether I'm teaching future doctors or working with current ones, I often hear them say they'd gladly be primary care physicians, if they thought they could actually provide the high-quality, cost-conscious care that primary care is meant to provide. But they can't, so they steer clear.
The good news is that all these challenges can be overcome. The bad news is that health care is trying to do so in the worst possible way. Innovations have largely focused on technology that replaces the primary care physician or on regulatory, administrative and financing issues rather than the care itself. Tools such as electronic health records have proven to be more cumbersome than enabling. Primary care physicians shouldn't be replaced. They should be empowered to do what they do best — work closely with patients to improve their health.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how investors and policymakers can quickly spur incredible medical advances, with new vaccines being a prime example. Those efforts, however, are only as effective as the trust patients have in those interventions, ideally informed by their primary care physician. Now imagine if our society focused its energy on developing technology that supports and strengthens primary care physicians. There is an urgent need for actors across the health industry to develop technology that addresses the challenges that primary care physicians face. Only then will we expand that workforce, and all the benefits they bring to patient health.
The need is now. When this pandemic passes, which it will, tens of millions of Americans will still face chronic diseases. Let's use the power of personal relationships between patients and doctors to help them lead better, healthier, happier lives.
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4731cc8a91ecb6433d733aa8ceacf2ab | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/the-rise-of-video-and-the-death-of-in-person-sales/ | The Rise Of Video And The Death Of In-Person Sales | The Rise Of Video And The Death Of In-Person Sales
Michael Litt is CEO and Co-Founder of Vidyard, a global video creation, hosting and analytics platform for businesses.
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When the lockdown happened last March, organizations responded by compressing 10 years of digital transformation into 10 months. Toward the end of last year, we realized that work isn’t changing back to "normal." Businesses improvised, and necessity led them to find new ways to connect with their customers and prospects.
Nowhere were the changes more pronounced than in sales, a profession that for generations relied on romancing clients with fancy dinners and golf outings to induce them to sign on the dotted line.
If you think that approach will still work after we exit the pandemic, good luck with that. I think back to the seminal character of Willy Loman, the doomed protagonist in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Instead of changing with the times, Willy would tell himself fables. By the time he recognized that his world had passed him by, it was too late.
While many salespeople may still be enthralled with the idea that their success depends upon in-person interactions, that's simply fiction. Years from now, we’ll remember this era as a turning point when digital technologies permanently transformed the sales business.
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The changes are already apparent. Consider the findings of a recent McKinsey analysis of interactions between customers and sales reps in Europe and North America covering approximately 40,000 deals:
• High-performing sales reps now spend 22% more time with customers — and they often prefer that time to be spent remotely. What’s more, 70 to 80% percent of B2B customers say they prefer remote interactions.
• Since the pandemic, the power of video as a way to connect with customers has surged, and digital interactions with sales reps are up 41%.
• The health crisis is reshaping the profession, with sales organizations in the U.S. and Europe finding remote sales models to be as — or more — effective than traditional approaches.
The Times, They Are A-Changin’
Some may still scoff at the notion that they need to change. Sales is an art, they will argue, and it’s all about making personal connections with the buyer.
I couldn’t agree more. The question boils down to finding the best way to make those connections. The decades-old script, where a salesperson takes a client out for a night on the town, will be increasingly tough to justify in an era where videoconferencing and video emails offer a cost-effective way to connect more productively with both clients and new prospects.
Sure, this will take some people a little time getting used to. It may even be a generational thing. For instance, I did a live virtual cooking class recently with my 68-year-old mother, who found the idea of having the camera turned on during this cooking class appalling. On the other hand, my nieces and nephews, who are entirely comfortable with the technology, are one-hit wonders when it comes to making videos.
It’s those younger generations, which are now inheriting positions of authority in the workforce, that more accurately represent the future of selling — as well as the future of buying. These and other related demographic cohorts grew up with technology and more intuitively grasp how to use the internet to build relationships. They were raised on social media interactions with platforms like Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok, so being on video is just a logical progression for them.
Even before then, a mandate for change will come from upstairs. The fact is, there are undeniable dollars-and-cents reasons even the most skeptical leaders will order their sales teams to take a closer look at integrating these new technologies into their routine.
A Technology Turning Point
Technological success is built on the promise of efficiency gains, and efficiency comes in the form of time and money. The technology that wins is the technology that makes things more efficient.
Companies that are already technology-enabled and taking a digital-first approach — using tools such as CRM, marketing automation and videoconferencing — will have a much easier time transforming to video sales. The businesses that rely on more traditional sales and marketing techniques may be slower to adapt but are still under pressure to change.
So as you prepare for this inevitable shift, here’s how to get your staff on board with this coming transition.
1. Educate and empower your team. Now is the time to get your sellers comfortable, confident and excited about making video a part of their day-to-day routines. Teach them the fundamentals of being great on camera and using the latest tools for live video calls and custom video messages.
2. Develop internal video expertise. Develop or hire an internal champion to help drive your video efforts. This should be someone who is adept at video recording and editing but does not need to be a professional video producer. Leverage this individual or team to educate others and develop expertise in modern tools for video capture and sharing.
3. Structure as a program, not a tool. New sales technologies often fail because they are rolled out as a "tool" rather than an integrated program for the team. When rolling out video, treat it as a holistic program that includes the tools for the sellers, centralized management and reporting, proper training and templates, and ongoing reviews to learn and adapt.
This marks one of those moments in technology's march, similar to when the internet first entered the popular lexicon in the mid-1990s. At the time, businesses had to make a decision. Should they stick with their Yellow Pages listings and direct mail campaigns, or should they also dip their toes into this internet thing, build a website and start email marketing?
We know what happened. The businesses that decided not to build websites no longer exist. The adoption of video for sales marks another inflection point in the process of digital transformation — one of the biggest in quite a long time.
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4b9ff73304d6e20434af1c54084f65ce | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/03/what-a-difference-a-year-makes-the-new-retail-reality-is-here/ | What A Difference A Year Makes: The New Retail Reality Is Here | What A Difference A Year Makes: The New Retail Reality Is Here
CEO at JOOR.
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According to “The State of Fashion 2021” report published by The Business of Fashion (BoF) and McKinsey, “the industry suffered its worst year on record, with almost three-quarters of listed companies losing money.” Exactly one year ago, we saw abject panic and forecasts of doom and gloom.
Yet, the old adage “necessity breeds innovation” proved true once again. With business and travel at a grinding halt, we saw our industry take to the web, digitizing at a rapid rate to stay afloat. As the pandemic took root, many brands and retailers realized that doing business with one another digitally — something they had been hesitant to adopt in favor of the old ways — offered a way out.
In April, clothing sales overall had reportedly fallen 79% in the U.S., but sweatpant purchases rose by 80% (subscription required). It was a year when consumer preferences were all over the map, given the unprecedented times we were living in.
At JOOR, we saw the change happening in real-time. In 2020 alone, 488,000 new connections were made on our platform between brands and retailers; 1.1 million orders resulted in 100 million products sold. In adapting, the industry demonstrated its ability to respond to shifting consumer preferences.
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Looking Ahead
It would be naive to think that in 2021 the industry will magically repair itself, and industry experts, including the authors of the BoF and McKinsey report, agree. Tough trading conditions are likely to persist this year, and we may see more bankruptcies, store closures and job cuts. Yet, we’re starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. The aforementioned report showed that 32% of fashion company executives believe the industry’s evolution in 2021 will be positive.
There’s no doubt that athleisure and comfort are here to stay (another trend that badly needed to flourish). However, as vaccine rollouts continue, I think we’ll see an uptick of consumer interest in more formal garb and footwear — just as fashion came back in the Roaring Twenties after the 1918 Spanish flu.
With $1.5 billion in wholesale transactions completed on the JOOR platform every month, we see this trend taking shape in real-time by looking at order activity on our platform. Casual, comfortable clothes remain popular for the first half of the year, but in the second half, retailers are betting that people will want to dress up again.
Whether they are selling luxury handbags or cozy tracksuits, what we do know is that the industry has gone digital — from attending virtual fashion shows to increasing online consumer sales — and this trend is here to stay. The ability to bring collections to life and connect with buyers and consumers has upped everyone’s game. It’s no surprise that digital leaders outperform competitors in shareholder return by about 7%.
Personally, I can’t wait to attend the first in-person show that happens once it is safe to travel again. But our industry probably won’t travel as much as before. While in-person shows will return, there will likely be fewer, higher quality ones. Not only is this more efficient, but it will also result in a reduced carbon footprint, enabling us to do our part to preserve the planet. Moreover, the convenience of being able to transact business 24/7 from anywhere in the world is too good to give up. I predict we’ll see a balance of both physical and virtual events in the future.
What we know for certain is our industry has grit. I continue to be inspired by the resilience we’ve seen from brands and retailers this past year. The new retail reality is here, and it’s time to embrace it.
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00736904c174fe6275bf1641f16d5e93 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/04/10-ways-to-collect-team-feedback-on-internal-facing-tech/?sh=326568165940 | 10 Ways To Collect Team Feedback On Internal-Facing Tech | 10 Ways To Collect Team Feedback On Internal-Facing Tech
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Tech teams have a responsibility to other departments to ensure that everything internal-facing is working. New upgrades typically have a few bugs to work out once the system is initially implemented, and tech teams rely on other employees to give them feedback.
However, collecting this feedback from users isn't always easy. Most users know when something is wrong but don't necessarily know or want to make suggestions on how the tech could be adapted to suit their needs. Others just aren't willing to offer negative feedback because they are afraid it will be seen as criticism.
Below, 10 members of Forbes Technology Council examine the most effective ways to get feedback from other employees when developing and improving internal-facing tech.
1. Incentivize Colleagues To Offer Feedback
Collecting internal feedback is often about identifying bugs or optimizing UX, rather than about questions of primary functioning. Incentivize colleagues from around the company to participate in the search for a way to improve by actually rewarding them for uncovering problems. Make it a game, publicize it and award prizes to those who break the system or reveal critical issues. - Ron Cogburn, Exela Technologies
2. Ask 'Why' For Every Single Request
Ask "why?" for every single request they make. It may get a little annoying for your coworkers. But it surely weeds out the "just because" and "I was wondering" type of requests. For example, if someone is requesting some data that could take hours of your time, but the reason they want this data is only for their curiosity, it can be deprioritized compared to another project whose outcome will alter a decision. - Vikram Joshi, pulsd
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3. Treat It As External Customer Feedback
Every product — internal or external — must follow the same process and disciplines of soliciting direct end-user feedback, buy-in and ownership of the solutions being developed. While the customer may be a coworker, they are nonetheless first and foremost the customer and should be treated and responded to as such. - Craig Powell, Motus, LLC
4. Develop A Robust Beta Program
A robust beta program can help work out the kinks of a new technology rollout. Engaging internal customers as beta users can help drive engagement and a sense of ownership, which will result in a network of advocates after launch. Heavy use of logging and error reporting with beta users can also help the support team quickly troubleshoot issues. - Amy Czuchlewski, Bottle Rocket
5. Schedule A Bug Bash
One effective way to collect feedback from the whole company when building new internal-facing tech is to schedule a bug bash. Bug bashes occur when the entire company, including nontechnical employees, focus on thoroughly testing the product instead of their day-to-day duties. Bug bashes make it possible for the company to provide feedback and discover application bugs in a short time. - Bob Fabien Zinga, Directly, Inc/U.S. Navy Reserve
6. Have One-On-One Discussions
Having one-on-one discussions — as opposed to anonymous surveys — is incredibly helpful in getting feedback when building internal-facing tech. Get some of your core power users in a room and get an honest assessment of what they want and need, and if what you're building is in alignment. Quantitative data is great, but qualitative data via discussion helps you build something your users love. - John Shin, RSI Security
7. Ask The Right Questions
When building internal platforms for my team I would always start with asking good questions like, "Where do you spend most of your time? What tasks take the most time? What information would you need to do your job more effectively?" By asking the right questions, you will learn what your co-workers really need and solve their problems to improve efficiency. - Richard Kahn, Anura Solutions, LLC
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8. Correlate Feedback With Passive Data
One of the things that is absolutely a boon when it comes to internal development is the ability to get active feedback and passive data. You can interview your internal customers about their needs and asks, and at the same time correlate that with behavior on the app. Cognitive dissonance is an issue when it comes to feedback, and developing for internal teams gives you the advantage to correlate. - Suresh Sambandam, Kissflow
9. Incorporate Gamification, Interactive Methods
On the intranet site, incorporate gamification and interactive methods such as rewards, surveys and playables to ascertain feedback. Since everyone uses the intranet they would automatically be able to rate or give feedback on tech and can be also tested better with the design and UI/UX. - Lydia Miller, TATA consultancy Services
10. Build A Safe Culture For Sharing
Ensure that the culture is safe. When employees feel safe expressing themselves, they will surprise you with their creativity and perspectives. In this type of environment, curiosity abounds, experimentation and the associated failures are welcome. Encourage sharing which results in visibility into what they were trying to do and how things didn't go according to plan resulting in lessons learned. - Gavin McMurdo, IStreamPlanet
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b257fab9166c7b2d7f6530aa7450d941 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/04/b2bs-evolution-in-2021-how-ai-and-machine-learning-are-forever-changing-b2b-marketing/?sh=3c7619397132 | B2B's Evolution In 2021: How AI And Machine Learning Are Forever Changing B2B Marketing | B2B's Evolution In 2021: How AI And Machine Learning Are Forever Changing B2B Marketing
Pekka Koskinen is the CEO & Founder of Leadfeeder, a lead generation software.
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Did you know that the number of marketers adopting AI technology grew by 44% between 2017 and 2018? At Leadfeeder, we use machine learning to filter ISPs and nonrelevant hostnames out of the lead data we provide to customers. LinkedIn's VP of artificial intelligence, Deepak Agarwal, has even gone on record declaring that "at LinkedIn, AI is like oxygen."
Compared to the collective and growing enthusiasm, however, AI's actual implementation has been relatively low. Only a handful — less than one in five, according to a Demandbase report — of B2B organizations apply AI and machine learning to their sales and marketing.
However, that's beginning to change. According to Demandbase, "A full two-thirds are currently planning, evaluating, or implementing AI for marketing or sales."
With the fog of hype surrounding AI, real-life use cases — especially for B2B businesses — have been clouded by fermenting skepticism and exaggerated predictions. This raises the question: How exactly are AI and machine learning being applied to B2B marketing?
AI is revamping lead generation (without stressing sales teams).
Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business. However, considering that most leads (73%, according to MarketingSherpa) are not sales-ready, identifying leads to prioritize and pursue can place undue stress on the backs of marketers and sales reps. Small teams can't afford to invest attention in leads at opposite ends of the sales readiness spectrum. Doing so would soar lead acquisition costs, bleed profitability and harm productivity.
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Unfortunately, practices for qualifying and scoring leads, like BANT (budget, authority, need, timing), force teams to hand-pick the wheat from the chaff. Data is analyzed manually, and reps are forced to apply personal judgment and sporadic research to score leads based on multiple personas. Not only is this an unrealistic workload, but it also produces inaccurate and misleading data.
Taking a giant stride toward sales automation, there are AI tools that can streamline the lead qualifying process with predictive lead scoring based on accurate data and attributes. Marketing and sales teams can not only pinpoint but also prioritize which leads to close and nurture in the future without upping headcount.
Thanks to predictive lead scoring, Segment, a leader in API integration software, was able to predict and identify the 16% of its leads that accounted for 80% of its total revenue — all without allocating additional employees or adjusting its budget.
AI is empowering hyper-personalization.
It's no secret that the modern B2B buyer has become conditioned to a personalized buying experience. Personalization is no longer a plus; it has become a mandatory expectation, and AI-powered technology and software can help B2B businesses meet it.
With social listening tools like Awario, marketers can monitor their real-time reputation, initiate conversations with customers and even personalize lead generation with keywords/mention tracking spans across multiple social networks. With others — like Pathfinder, a content insight software — B2B brands can tailor content campaigns, read customer intent signals and better educate their audience.
Pair these tools together, and browsing habits, firmographic data and content consumption patterns — among other attributes — can be analyzed in real time and at scale, producing hyper-personalized recommendations for every buyer.
AI is nurturing pre- and post-sale customer relationships.
According to Drift, RapidMiner — a leading data science platform provider — turned from its chatbot to the AI-powered LeadBot in order to help balance customer support with lead generation.
The bot was able to quickly direct customers to resources and can resolve many customer inquiries. If it can't, it will pass the complex issues to the human team for further investigation. This has allowed RapidMiner to net more than 4,000 leads to date and generate over $1 million in sales.
B2B buyers are beginning to expect the same on-demand shopping experience found in B2C shopping. AI is bridging that gap in expectation.
AI and machine learning are changing B2B marketing.
Adopting emerging technology like AI without succumbing to hype and ending up with a product that fails to add value is challenging. Here are the steps and thought processes I use when reviewing the purchase of new tech:
1. Start with your biggest bottlenecks and problems. Pick problems that are hindering growth, limiting ROI or slowing down your workforce. Take the example of a growing company whose smaller sales and marketing teams are struggling to qualify, score, prioritize and personalize to high-quality inbound leads. AI-based automated lead scoring and personalization tech can boost efficiency and deliver more sales-ready leads without straining the existing marketing and sales staff.
2. Invest in customer experience and retention. Look for AI software solutions that can record, analyze, transcribe and infer customer insights from sales calls with prospects. Teams using such tools can keep their pulse on competitors in their market and learn how to better engage and retain their customers.
3. Improve your measurements and analytics. You can outmaneuver your competitors if you have better data and insights than them. Look for measurement and sentiment-driven AI technologies that can assist with prospecting calls and messaging. With knowledge of the emotional reaction to a pitch or particular style of messaging, both marketers and sales reps can identify what works and double down on messaging that resonates with their buyers.
4. Start small. If you're confident that a certain solution can solve existing problems or improve processes, do your research and look for a vendor with proven case studies or referrals, then gradually test and monitor performance to gauge a tool's actual potential.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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d406dd57a829f43bcdd7eebbf3a4a921 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/04/how-ar-can-actually-shape-the-future-of-manufacturing/?sh=3400c7fd5475 | How AR Can (Actually) Shape The Future Of Manufacturing | How AR Can (Actually) Shape The Future Of Manufacturing
Co-founder of Dozuki, the leading knowledge management platform for manufacturers to capture, control, and centralize essential information.
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The appeal of augmented reality (AR) has excited businesses across industries, but for manufacturing, the hype exceeds the practical application.
Sales of AR glasses are forecast to reach roughly 26 million units by 2023, and there are no signs of sales slowing down. Amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, the potential applications of AR devices have grown even further. As The Wall Street Journal noted: "Across multiple industries, augmented reality, or AR, has transitioned during the pandemic from intriguing experiment to everyday tool."
But how realistic is using AR in the manufacturing workforce? While the technology shows great promise, a more practical look at AR devices in real manufacturing environments suggests we're still a long way off. AR signals a potential disruption for instruction and training in manufacturing, but when the industry benchmark is still using paper manuals and over-the-shoulder training, making the leap straight to AR is more fantasy than reality.
Lack Of Front-Line Worker Confidence
Hands-free AR devices in manufacturing environments are certainly appealing for those seeking innovation, but the reality is that much of the current workforce could lack the confidence or skills to operate AR devices properly. AR devices sound appealing at first, but front-line workers have to interact with the device somehow.
Since the release of the first iPhone in 2007, touchscreen devices have taken over a decade to gain widespread adoption and standardization. Pinch to zoom, swipe to scroll, double-tap — these are all standardized and learned behaviors that we take for granted today.
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Given that most people don't interact with AR headsets on a regular basis, learning to interact with foreign technology may be an uphill battle for not only front-line workers but the operation and training managers who are tasked with leveraging them for their intended use.
Manufacturing leaders who have previously introduced advanced technology to their workforce know that the best chances for success are standardized interactions that workers are already familiar with. Without this, most workers could be slow to adapt and might require constant training to use the technology effectively.
Operating AR Technology In Mixed Environments
In manufacturing, environments can vary from sub-zero temperatures to sweltering climates complete with flying sparks. AR devices face a variety of challenges if they are to hold up to the extreme conditions present in many industrial environments.
Current AR devices allow the user to interact with two primary means of communication — gestures and voice commands. Researchers from Iowa State University have investigated the use of voice command as a technique, and while it does seem to be effective in certain situations, they concluded that "loud industrial environments may cause interference with auditory feedback and verbal input methods." The report found that personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gloves, helmets and masks, may interfere with gesture recognition as well.
Uncomfortable AR Headsets
Many in the manufacturing workforce have workloads that involve heavy lifting and strain from repetitive tasks. Asking employees to wear an AR headset throughout their shift is a considerable request. A change like that to their work attire may interfere with a variety of tasks and put workers under undue stress or even conflict with safety requirements.
The Iowa State report also noted that workers surveyed in a 2016 Swedish study claimed that — although it was nice to have their hands free using AR headsets — it was "difficult to wear with glasses and it felt heavy after wearing for a long period of time."
Dynamic Information Display Can Cause Confusion
Among the main challenges for AR interfaces is how and when to direct user attention to the instructional content. If information pops up too soon or in the wrong context, this display method can cause confusion and create safety risks.
For instance, some visuals are only triggered when you're looking at a designated object or specific direction. In constantly changing industrial environments, displaying information with visual cues can be problematic. This concern is less of a risk with print or traditional digital instructions because the information is not location-dependent.
A Practical Approach To AR In Manufacturing
Workforce transformations are hard, and digital transformations are even harder. A report done by McKinsey & Company found that less than 30% of companies that attempt digital transformation are successful.
It's important to keep in mind that digital transformation is an evolution, not a revolution. Most proponents would consider AR to be the end of this evolution. To better achieve transformation goals, it can be helpful to focus on the fundamentals before taking on an advanced system like AR.
AR may need some time before manufacturers are ready to dive into adoption, but that doesn't mean it's worth dismissing entirely. Instead, the focus should remain on the next stage of your digital transformation and progress from there.
As you start your efforts to digitize work instructions, there are a few useful tips to keep in mind:
• Take inventory of your existing instructions with a quick audit. From there, it can be easier to identify quick wins as you aim to improve.
• Look for a software tool that allows you to create, control and distribute digital instructions from one place. This can be tricky, as some tools focus only on distribution when the control and management features really become more important as you scale your efforts.
• Once you start your digital work instruction authoring, it's best to capture process knowledge where the work is done — on the shop floor. Including photos and videos of expert workers executing tasks can make preserving passing on valuable knowledge much easier. By nature, humans are visual learners.
Ultimately, AR is a means to present information in a new way, but that information still needs to be documented, accurate and easy to consume for the manufacturing workforce — these are the fundamentals. Focus transformation efforts by creating a body of digital work instructions, SOPs and training materials that workers can become familiar with and learn to trust. From there, identifying technologies to share those instructions with can become much more attainable. This way, when the time for AR comes, manufacturing will be ready.
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7758c01dac6563afb19087606bd2944c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/04/how-cognitive-virtual-agents-can-revolutionize-the-customer-support-industry/ | How Cognitive Virtual Agents Can Revolutionize The Customer Support Industry | How Cognitive Virtual Agents Can Revolutionize The Customer Support Industry
Maxence Bouygues is an expert in Cognitive Systems, responsible for the product development of cognitive agents at Forethought.
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Virtual assistants began booming in 2016 with the rise of new machine learning techniques. Chatbots of all kinds flourished, from buying plane tickets to ordering a burger with a bot, and the industry was in its hype phase.
The advent of new machine learning technologies triggered this revolution rather than market needs pulling it. As a result, many of the first applications were pure market making, found low value and didn't resist the hype. For instance, why would one prefer to order a pizza via a chatbot over using a normal UI in an app, sometimes considered more intuitive?
However, the technology-market fit was found in the customer support industry, where companies try to scale operations and shift to a self-serve model in which simple and repetitive questions can be processed automatically with artificial intelligence.
In this article, I will discuss what these technologies actually do so we can understand their true business value as opposed to hyped sales arguments.
Can computers understand language like humans do?
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The hype was partly created by the mistaken belief that computers could hold a conversation just like humans do. To understand what's really possible, let's dive into the technological revolution of natural language understanding (NLU).
Before holding a dialog, computers need to start with the basics — understanding the meaning of words. Tomáš Mikolov revolutionized this, as he proposed the word2vec algorithm in 2013. It proposes a way to capture the meaning of words by representing them as vectors, hoping that words of close meaning would have similar vectors. The vectors would be learned instead of being defined by humans. Assuming that words occurring frequently together have a similar meaning, algorithms would iteratively define vectors by reading large corpora of text.
This technique was a revolution, as we discovered that those mathematical representations of words were actually capable of encoding meaning. The most common example illustrating this is:
King - Man + Woman = Queen
Computers could automatically learn how to represent words and were able to perform a basic understanding of them. We're still far from holding a dialogue.
First business applications — understanding what customers ask.
One of the first NLU applications in customer support is the ability to understand the types of problems that customers have, also called "intent detection." If AI is able to understand the semantic differences between "my laptop doesn't turn on" and "I don't know how to turn on my laptop," we can initiate two separate resolution workflows. The former may end up as a warranty exchange, while the latter may be resolved by providing instructions. Even without providing a full resolution, such AI can automatically route tickets to a competent agent, saving valuable triage time and late replies due to tickets sitting in the wrong queue.
From a technology standpoint, the two above examples can hardly be differentiated with keyword matching, as words are really close. To really understand intents, we need to train machine learning models that are capable of understanding meaning (i.e., word or sentence vectors) on a predefined dataset of question-category pairs. These algorithms are often neural networks, capable of learning different categories of issues (classify), based on word or sentence vector computation.
As a consequence, implementing such technology requires building training datasets, a daunting task for which most businesses aren't qualified or don't possess the resources to build. When opting for such a solution, it is therefore essential that the vendor is capable of building the dataset on its own and doesn't offload the work to the customer.
Can AI solve customer tickets?
I've found that modern automation platforms can easily solve more than 50% of a company's customer support volume, creating significant bottom-line savings for the company.
Complex tickets require a conversational approach to be solved, However, today's AI can learn natural language but not natural conversation. To hold a conversation, the agent must remember what was said at the previous turn and act upon this. In their book, Conversational UX Design, Robert J. Moore and Raphael Arar noted that automation platforms have addressed this by leveraging the Intent-Entity-Context-Response paradigm. Platforms based on this model include Microsoft LUIS, Amazon Alexa, Google DialogFlow, Facebook Wit.ai and more. On top of understanding the customer intent with AI, these agents are built with a conversation tree that allows different interactions based on previous turns of interactions.
It is important to know that both the context and the conversation tree rely on traditional software logic rather than machine learning. Implementing a cognitive agent will therefore require an implementation team, just like normal software.
Takeaways
Now past the hype, cognitive agents have found a solid market-fit in the customer support industry, allowing them to automatically resolve significant amounts of customer inquiries and creating significant bottom-line savings for a company. In addition, Gartner, Inc. predicts that "by 2025, 50% of knowledge workers will use a virtual assistant on a daily basis, up from 2% in 2019."
As an enterprise cognitive system expert, I am particularly aware of the current challenges in customer service and the potential behind virtual assistants. From a couple of years of designing and implementing them, here are some key takeaways:
• Fall in love with your customer's problem, not the solution of virtual assistants. They're not the only solution to customer support, and sometimes, the solution may even be to remove the need for support rather than automating it.
• Treat cognitive agents as "AI-augmented software," not magic. AI provides value in the field by automatically categorizing different types of customer problems. The full ticket resolution workflow involves traditional software features. It is key to take into account its configurability, maintainability by nontechnical people, reporting features and more before choosing a solution.
• Choose a vendor that can do the AI for you. Training machine learning models isn't likely the expertise of your company, and you probably don't have time to build datasets. Most early platforms simply provided tools to build your own datasets, of which the cost of building and maintaining can overweight the value add.
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e29da49b018f89c8d3be9ee295dab20e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/04/the-context-conundrum-fostering-network-trust-in-a-digital-world/?sh=547396a53ab1 | The Context Conundrum: Fostering Network Trust In A Digital World | The Context Conundrum: Fostering Network Trust In A Digital World
Barry Field is CEO of Appgate, a secure access company making life safer for users and harder for adversaries with Zero Trust solutions.
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Authenticating users on a network is one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges for businesses and government agencies. The problem has only grown in scale and complexity as the traditional notion of the network perimeter has evaporated. The current global pandemic has exacerbated the challenge, forcing a massive volume of employees, contractors and other "trusted users" to log in remotely.
This new reality demands that security leaders rethink how we provide dynamic secure access to users. The goal is to ensure that the right people have access to the right resources under the right conditions. Traditional network access methods were never intended to provide contextual access. A modern approach grounded in the principles of zero trust — "verify, then trust" — is needed to meet today's security challenges without limiting business operations.
Context: The Missing Link In Security
When it comes to security, "context is everything." Yet with legacy technology, context is all too often absent when it comes to authenticating a user and granting them access to protected network resources.
What exactly do we mean by context as it relates to security? If you are attempting to access something on a network — be it an application, a resource or a system — there are dozens of contextual attributes that can and should be considered when determining the relative trustworthiness of a user.
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These traits might include identifying where the end user is geographically located, the type of device from which they are using to connect, when the device was last patched or the risk level of a specific transaction. While each of these discrete pieces of information on their own may not determine whether a user or transaction should be trusted, they can build a more complete picture of the user and their intentions when taken together in the aggregate.
Context can also play a significant role in the quality of the individual user's experience. Think about how a financial institution authenticates a customer's online transaction and how a variety of contextual attributes might be used to trigger a wide spectrum of security experiences.
For example, if you're logging into your account from a known device (your phone) from a known location (your home) and only checking your account balance, the context of this scenario might only demand a light-touch authentication such as your four-digit PIN code. However, if you are logging in using an unknown device from an unfamiliar location and exhibiting unusual behaviors while attempting a higher-risk transaction (i.e., wiring money to an unknown recipient), then the authentication methods should be far more rigorous.
Applying context in a way that's fully transparent to the user can create a more seamless experience while limiting fraudulent transactions. Without context, you might force users to jump through unnecessary authentication hoops, which is frustrating and can unintentionally create bad habits (i.e., one notable and unintentional consequence of forcing complex password requirements on users is that they tend to reuse the same password across multiple accounts).
Beyond VPNs: How A Software-Defined 'Segment Of One' Codifies Trust
For the past two decades, virtual private networks (VPNs) have served as the primary mechanism for connecting remote users to centralized IT resources. However, they have outlived their usefulness in a digital world characterized by hybrid infrastructure and a distributed workforce. In fact, US-CERT has issued several warnings related to VPN vulnerabilities, and as such, threat actors — including state-sponsored APT groups — are now actively targeting and exploiting unpatched VPNs.
This is one of the reasons why the phrase "zero trust" has become ensconced in the lexicon of security executives. The foundation of a zero trust framework turns the conventional "trust but verify" model that the internet was initially built upon on its head with a "verify then trust under the right conditions" approach. Any device, individual or resource that attempts to connect to the network must be thoroughly verified before conditional trust is granted.
A zero trust strategy begins with secure network access. Your network must be available for legitimate users and unavailable to all others. A software-defined perimeter (SDP) is the mechanism by which a zero trust network access (ZTNA) security model is enforced. It enables users to seamlessly connect directly to only the resources they are authorized to access.
With context awareness and risk-based policies, an SDP solution creates a "segment of one" by defining a just-in-time secure perimeter to automatically encircle the individual user and authorized resource — the rest of the network is invisible. This is especially important when it comes to damage control. Most breaches are caused by an attacker who gains access and then moves laterally throughout the network. With a "segment of one," the user — whether a malicious insider or external attacker — cannot move laterally or outside of explicitly granted access.
Many companies looking to implement an SDP solution don't typically boil the ocean with a full-scale rip-and-replace of all existing legacy technology. Instead, they take a phased approach, incrementally augmenting and/or replacing technology. They typically start with VPN replacement. The easiest way to shift from a VPN to an SDP is to identify initial areas where the change can be made with the least amount of friction or disruption to business workflows with the highest risk reduction.
Contextual Trust
One of the fatal flaws of perimeter-based security practices is that you inherently trust users once they've been allowed inside the network gates. Paradoxically perhaps, the best way to apply trust is to extensively verify, extend limited trust and continuously keep verifying. By applying context and the concept of a "segment of one" to the broader zero trust framework, we can deliver a more modern security experience that meets the requirements of the new digital age.
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8778bcddc62ad6e4ab1d97fa38b8aa86 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/04/why-the-tech-industry-can-play-a-pivotal-role-in-revolutionizing-the-healthcare-system/ | Why The Tech Industry Can Play A Pivotal Role In Revolutionizing The Healthcare System | Why The Tech Industry Can Play A Pivotal Role In Revolutionizing The Healthcare System
President & CEO Holon Solutions - Unleashing Value through Precision Information Delivery.
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Healthcare is blessed with very intelligent, dedicated, kind and compassionate people. Yet, our healthcare system needs help. Despite having smart, value-based care incentives, extraordinary medical technology and knowledge, and the recognition of the value of whole-person care, the U.S. healthcare system is plagued by poor outcomes, wasted effort, poor access and unmet incentives.
Haven't we all experienced frustration, delays and disappointments with our healthcare system? Of course we have. Why?
One reason is that care providers and their staff need to dig for information somewhere outside of their native systems and workflows, which can hamper their care process and causes waste, delays and missed opportunities.
And who's fault is that? Actually, it is no one's fault, but the causes can be found and addressed.
My organization offers knowledge delivery technology for the healthcare sector to provide more visibility for healthcare workers into patient information. We assembled a tech team from across the healthcare, gaming and consumer data landscape to tackle the challenge of delivering relevant and precise information to the point of need. I know from firsthand experience that there are root causes in our current system that are hard to see until you simultaneously take a 50,000-foot view of the situation and a more detailed, microscopic view of the inner workings. One root cause is the daunting patchwork of hyper-fragmented systems, and thus hyper-fragmented information sets, across all the key semi-connected stakeholders.
Our healthcare ecosystem and resulting information infrastructure is very complex — in part driven by well-intended regulation and payment policies. The tech industry has the opportunity to play a pivotal role in alleviating healthcare pain points and workflow fragmentation. If the right technology was applied, our healthcare system could look like:
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• At every care setting, while leveraging existing systems, providers would know just what they needed to know about a patient, the right expectations and potential actions to take.
• Any downstream actions would be facilitated by streamlined digital conversations, much the same as we all use our smartphones to converse in all media with our friends and family.
• The actions could be analyzed for continuous opportunities to improve and streamline while still being secure.
How could this be accomplished with the interoperability that exists today? Essentially, it can’t. History and experience prove it. I believe we need a new, complementary approach to alleviate the current pain points.
What if the tech industry could carefully and securely bring the proper ingredients together to deliver immediate and sustainable improvements to healthcare delivery? I believe what we should be focusing on includes:
• An understanding of the work that needs to be done.
• An understanding of the people who need to do the work and what would help them.
• An understanding of the people who need the care (the patients) and what would work for them.
• The ability to correlate all of the above and bring it into one complementary user experience supporting the task at hand.
• Assurance of compliance with all regulatory, safety and security measures.
• The ability to continuously monitor, analyze and optimize outcomes and efficiency.
We know that this information is available, and rather than hoping that information will reach its target, we should be prioritizing ways to complement any existing systems to enable the most relevant and useful information to be available and applied at just the moment it is needed.
Today's tech industry has the opportunity to create and deliver relevant, complementary approaches. While one size or one way cannot fit all, the variations are really not infinite either. To make this come to life, we need to invent new and leverage existing capabilities. As tech leaders, we need to think of ways to unobtrusively sense and establish a concatenated context of user activity and the subject/patient. Leveraging authorized data sources to retrieve helpful information can help streamline the process. I encourage all technology leaders to continue their advances in areas such as:
• Remote patient monitoring.
• AI/ML/NLP.
• RPA.
• Ubiquitous broadband.
• User-centered design.
There is no shortage of innovative technologies that can be applied to the science and art of great medical care. What we seem to lack is the shared focus on the providers' experience as they enable the patients to receive the best possible care for their best quality of life. We have the right alignment of incentives; we have great technology generating new knowledge and smart algorithms to know what should happen to whom and when.
Yet, we still have a very poor information delivery ecosystem that gets in the way. Collectively, we have the technology to really move the needle if we can improve our shared focus and align to realize the value that technology promises.
Let’s continue to innovate and now accelerate our collaboration as technology leaders. Let's aim to make our healthcare systems as smart as our healthcare teams. We know we can and must capitalize together on the promise of 21st-century technology to make healthcare better for everyone.
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fb30f129f68777eeff7076a28b77c6f8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/05/dont-let-your-industrys-pace-of-change-outpace-that-of-your-workforce/ | Don’t Let Your Industry’s Pace Of Change Outpace That Of Your Workforce | Don’t Let Your Industry’s Pace Of Change Outpace That Of Your Workforce
Dr. Francois Laborie is President of Cognite, supporting the full-scale digital transformation of asset-heavy industries in North America.
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One of our clients in the oil industry recently shared with us that when working in an old industry, making big changes is about more than technology. It’s about the entire organization, especially the people. As the president of a digital transformation company, this is a sentiment I’ve heard echoed by many in the energy industry. You can have the greatest technology in the world, but nothing will change unless the people are behind it.
Asset-intensive industries have been put on the fast-track for reinvention, propelled in no small part by the increased pressure to reach net-zero emissions and to secure an eventual place in a digital, renewables-powered future. It’s a vision that won’t come to fruition unless they meet challenges head-on to re-skill or upskill an existing workforce and reposition themselves as attractive to aspiring digital talents.
The industry faces an uphill battle, particularly in convincing people to join its transformation journey. According to a 2017 survey, 62% of participants between the ages of 16 and 19 (members of Generation Z) consider a career in oil and gas unappealing. Two out of three of these teens believe that heavy industry causes more problems than it solves. For many, the coronavirus-induced downsizing and diminishing oil price this past year are considered prescient signs about what a future in the energy business entails.
These statistics tell me that we have failed to communicate both the massive transformation that the industry is undergoing and the new opportunities that are arising as a result. I urge industry leaders to ask themselves: What are we doing to ensure that the pace of change doesn’t outpace our workforce?
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Are you creating a common understanding of your transformation while building competence among the workforce?
As sensors, automation and other new technology continue to saturate the workplace, workers will need to adapt and embrace change. But it can be difficult to change behavior or collaborate with new groups of people if you don’t understand the “why” behind it.
Another client of ours has asserted that to meet new challenges, a company must empower its workforce to leverage new technology, processes and operational models. In her view, the business must approach the transformation as a learning process for the entire company, not just a select few.
Doing this successfully requires training programs and consistent communication on the changes at play. The technology must be scaled to all corners of the organization so that people see their role in the bigger transformation picture. And the use of data can’t be confined to the analytics team alone, but rather collected and shared in a way in which everyone can access and benefit.
Are you doing enough to attract the next generation of talent to the industry?
Oil and gas continue to represent a major portion of the global economy, and the exploration and production sector alone employs around four million people worldwide. To fill the world’s current and future demand for energy, companies will continue to rely on talented domain experts and engineers, especially those with digital competence, to keep the engines running.
The success of any digitalization program in the industry comes down to the ability of the domain experts to design and operate digital solutions. They must be fluent in technology to tackle new tasks, such as operating robots and creating algorithms to complete repetitive work. We are already seeing how automation systems have improved the quality of production, freeing up engineers to focus on edge cases and other innovative endeavors.
Make no mistake, there is a competence shift underfoot. This shift doesn’t erase the need for domain experts and engineers, but it does mean that energy companies must explore candidate profiles beyond their usual suspects. Developers, data analysts and other tech-savvy individuals are in demand in this transformation age.
Are you taking steps to ensure that a generational shift in the workforce doesn’t result in lost, valuable knowledge?
The workforce that has ridden the energy wave for the past 30 to 40 years is getting ready to retire. And with it goes a wealth of knowledge and experience that is almost irreplaceable. These are experts who have honed their skills over the course of a career, accumulating a set of problem-solving skills that incorporate sound interpretation and equipment knowledge.
Energy companies must take a user-centric approach to capturing this knowledge — using a recipe of data analytics, good old-fashioned interviews and an iterative design process — to put these senior team members and their replacements at the core of the innovation and modeling process. I urge companies to be wary of simply letting this experience float away on a pension plan. Time is of the essence when it comes to capturing and labeling the data today in order to train the expert systems that will support the energy workers of tomorrow.
The digitalization of the energy industry is only as good as the people behind it.
Digitalization has long been lauded as the way forward for the industry. It’s the means of survival to optimize existing operations to reduce emissions and create efficiencies that benefit the bottom line, while still supplying a steady stream of energy to supply a hungry world. It requires a workforce that is future-ready — one that embraces technology while still understanding the mechanisms behind legacy operations. Joining this journey is a chance to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our generation: to reshape a high-emissions industry into a zero-emissions industry. Just imagine the potential if we put the right talent to the task.
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6891b390eff827f94cffc6e491f3148a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/05/how-to-modernize-the-middle-office/ | How To Modernize The Middle Office | How To Modernize The Middle Office
Nishant is an expert at starting and running tech companies. He is the CEO of RecVue, an enterprise monetization platform.
Customer relationship management (CRM) transformed the enterprise front office about 20 years ago. This happened on the heels of back-office modernization, which was made possible by enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Yet the space between the two — called the middle office — is where most business operations run and remains a tangle of custom applications, Excel spreadsheets and manual processes.
This prevents you from embracing new business models that give customers greater choice. It also stands in the way as you work to introduce digital sales channels.
Digital channels, which often involve revenue sharing, are even more important amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Just consider DoorDash, which said in May that sales were up 110% since the beginning of 2020.
Having an understanding of your revenue, cash flows and the cost of money is even more critical today. It will help you get out of the economic slump created by the pandemic and be competitive going forward.
The time is ripe for middle-office automation and modernization. Here’s how to do it right:
Acknowledge the problem.
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The middle office is the nerve center of the enterprise. But custom-built applications and spreadsheets and fragmented, manual processes used in the middle office create problems. They add cost, complexity and risk while preventing scalability and stifling innovation.
That’s not good for CFOs and controllers. And it’s not good for the larger enterprise.
Understand that the order-to-cash process is vital to your business, but acknowledge that the enterprise application landscape is broken. Once you recognize the problem, you can fix it.
Be aware of all that order-to-cash entails.
Many people think that order-to-cash is just about creating and managing an order. But there’s a lot more to the order-to-cash workflow than simply order and revenue management.
There are four components to the order-to-cash process. Those components include revenue management, order management, billing and channel partner compensation.
Get a 360-degree view of your business model. This is important to stay ahead. Choose the solutions that automate and manage all of these different — and very important — aspects of the order-to-cash process to become even more efficient.
Understand that recurring revenue is here to stay.
In recent years, many businesses have adopted recurring revenue business models. This is a good thing. As Harvard Business Review noted, recurring revenue can keep a business alive.
Despite the down economy, HBR said in June, nearly 90% of subscription businesses had flat or growing membership. It added: “If there is a lesson in the current unpredictable economic environment, it’s the importance of recurring revenue streams for businesses of all kinds.”
Realize that lifecycle models create new challenges.
Be aware that recurring revenue business models are much more complex than traditional, one-time product sales. The traditional model is a transactional model. The recurring revenue model is a lifecycle model, which means that rather than ending after the sale, it’s just beginning.
A lot of changes could happen to an initial order, and you might have a lot of non-standard pricing terms. A customer leasing a car might pay a fixed monthly amount, based on miles driven, or a combination of the two options. You may want to offer the first three or six months free. Customers who drive more miles may want to pay less per mile, so you may need to offer volume savings.
You have to recognize and calculate all this revenue to ensure that everything gets billed per customer agreements. Be aware that billing completeness and ASC 606 compliance may not be possible with an outdated middle office. Data loss is common in such environments in which data traverses multiple systems and people. That can result in revenue leakage and overbilling.
Seek to simplify revenue sharing.
Speaking of customer experience, customers today are looking for end-to-end solutions that work for them. No one company can do it all alone, so the traditional one-stop shop is dead. It’s given way to industry ecosystems and online marketplaces like Amazon and the App Store.
These partner-led solutions rely on revenue sharing among multiple companies.
Just consider one of my company's customers, Hertz, which has scores of partners. You can book a Hertz rental car through American Airlines, American Express or Expedia, as just three examples. When you do, Hertz pays a percentage of that revenue back to these partner companies. It is a highly intricate process considering that each engagement involving a channel partner agreement must include what needs to be paid to whom, on what basis, on what type of vehicle and other details.
Revenue sharing is complex. Seek partners that can help to simplify these partnership-related processes so you are better positioned now and in the future.
Save money, scale your business and score with customers.
Recurring revenue models and partners bring new opportunities. They create challenges, too.
Address those challenges — and bridge the gap between your CRM and ERP systems — by modernizing your middle office. Look for an integrated solution that addresses and automates the entire order-to-cash process. Make sure that a single system can support your existing business model, the business models you're shifting to and the business models of the future.
Modernizing your middle office will lower your total cost of ownership and decrease revenue leakage and compliance risks. You will gain the agility to adopt and adapt new business models to address changing customer expectations, make your business more competitive and scale.
The pandemic prompted businesses to think about what they are and what they want to be. It provided an opportunity to reinvent business for the post-pandemic world. Companies now have the motivation to break down data silos, modernize the middle office and move forward.
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3cf6802858765ea6298c8c1b248b94ed | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/05/key-to-growth-in-2021-structure-your-companys-mindset-and-processes-around-intelligent-forecasting/ | Key To Growth In 2021? Structure Your Company's Mindset And Processes Around Intelligent Forecasting | Key To Growth In 2021? Structure Your Company's Mindset And Processes Around Intelligent Forecasting
Rich Wagner is CEO of Prevedere, which helps business leaders forecast their company's future performance and plan for tomorrow.
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As a result of the unprecedented market this past year, there has been increased visibility and scrutiny on the CEOs' ability to develop foundational processes and an internal culture that allows for their company to have the agility to react to fast-changing market conditions. Leading with this mindset is proving to be an indicator of success during the last year. For many companies, the key factor in adapting to this model depends on their decision to turn their data into intelligent forecasts that can identify new revenue opportunities as they are forming.
While the end of the pandemic is in our sights, the economic environment that began in 2020 will continue to be volatile through 2021. As a result, there should be an expectation that companies will continue to be impacted by changing market conditions in every industry. Yet too many leaders are struggling with implementing this structure into their organizations to succeed in this environment. Fortunately, the processes for utilizing intelligent forecasts quickly within an organization has been defined.
Turning Crisis Into Opportunity
For many companies, the Covid-19 pandemic has created just as many opportunities as crises. Yet too many executives have chosen to "get through" this situation. Every industry has displayed pockets of growth that have been created due to changing market conditions. Leaders should aim to lead their organizations toward these revenue opportunities.
It Starts With Having The Right Data
But changing the mindset is not enough to succeed in this continued uncertain market. While it's crucial to be bold and act quickly, the key is to have the right data that is timely and informative and that enables leaders to have the most accurate information when making business decisions. This data should include both internal and external indicators and center on unique drivers correlated with business growth in the past. At that point, the data can be leveraged within intelligent forecasting models that provide insights for new growth opportunities.
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Quick And Decisive Decisions
Once all the necessary information is gathered, strategic decisions need to be made in order to invest the resources required to capitalize on these growth opportunities. This is not always simple. But, in times of crisis, success relies on making firm and often tough decisions with little or no time for hesitation. Business leaders should commit to moving quickly and decisively based on the intelligence they are provided.
Trust The Data And Don't Hesitate To Make Bold Decisions
One significant hurdle that is frequently presented in times of crisis is that business leaders often will assume that the safest practice is a conservative one. They tend to focus their time and energy on survival and the preservation of resources. While it is essential to continually review internal and external data, too many leaders suffer from analysis paralysis, which prolongs this process. Often, they take too long to get up to speed, missing out on precious growth opportunities amid the chaos. In taking a bold approach and shortening that cycle, companies can adapt quicker and grow their businesses sooner.
Implementing A Timely And Iterative Process
It is important to note that this is not simply a "one and done" exercise. When markets shift quickly, so do opportunities.
Organizations should be structured to regularly gather as much data as necessary to provide the right information for their businesses. Fortunately, technology has progressed to a place where data is now updated in real time. By establishing the right structure and processes within an organization to manage this information, data can be distributed at a near moment's notice. Make sure to take advantage of these monthly, or even weekly, updates because they can put an organization in the best position to grow.
Commitment To Agility
When the data provides new insights, it means that strategies must evolve as well. Being agile and willing to change is key during times of volatility. A strong organization needs to identify market changes and economic indicators in real time and adjust quickly and accordingly.
This doesn't happen in a vacuum. CEOs and leadership teams must encourage their employees to rally behind the new process because this brings a sense of belonging to an extremely sudden change. Likewise, companies should also be equipped to change their product offerings or services at a moment's notice to adapt to new market trends. A company's speed often drives success in these instances of pivoting to meet new or growing customer needs.
Making The Right Decisions
While it's important for CEOs to be decisive when making decisions, nothing is more important than making the right decision. No matter the approach or situation, the key to successful decision-making is having the right data that can provide the best possible insights at the moment a decision needs to be made.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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a6366050f951c502ce27879bbdb69ebb | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/05/the-balance-we-bring-as-women/ | The Balance We Bring As Women | The Balance We Bring As Women
Lauren Zajac is the chief legal officer and data protection officer at Workhuman. She's worked with both public and private companies.
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I am an attorney. Why? I hate injustice. As an attorney, I have served in a variety of roles from general counsel to head of human resources to chair of the board. Today, I serve as the chief legal officer/data protection officer at Workhuman, a company with the mission to “empower humans to recognize each other and create a people-first culture that drives business forward.”
I have learned much throughout the course of my career on what it takes to achieve success in business and in life, first as a human and second as a woman. The point is you cannot separate the two, and the only way you can truly be successful in the way we all want, the real authentic way, is to balance what we bring to the table as women.
The Uniqueness Of Women
Vulnerability, strength, power, decision-making and emotion. Women are fully loaded, uniquely qualified. Let’s start with decision-making. Women make decisions differently than men. Women look at the impact on any decision – across the board – to take into account how it will affect all sorts of factors. For women, decision-making is a balance between personal impact and standing in our power — and understanding the broader impact on businesses and the people that run them.
In my personal experience, I see lots of women attempting to put on a persona, bring assertive, aggressive and continually beating their own drum. But when push comes to shove, these “persona-driven” women are not good leaders and so their teams do not like or respect them. Why? There is no balance in the “persona” — she is neither real, nor authentic.
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It is here that I have found my sweet spot, at least in my career. It is a balance between vulnerability and authenticity with a team. It is the ability to advocate for myself without a boastful persona at the helm. It is standing in authenticity, understanding the value of what I have to say and finding my voice. Can you do it? Yes, you can. It is possible to bring the balance, and I can show you how.
The Interplay Of The Character Of Women
The interplay of all the characteristics of women is not easy to break down. It includes all the positions women embody throughout their lives. Let’s start with work. Like me, most women have a relationship with their work. The relationship should be one of empowerment, though that is not always the case. Let’s take a step back, historically speaking.
In the past, women didn’t have much choice when it came to work. For many women in the past, the only option was having a family and running a household. Today, we have a choice. You can have a family, run a household, get an education and build a career. If you want it, you can have it all; but with it comes the mental and physical load of it all. It’s at this point we often find that we are torn in many directions — attempting to be a good mother, a good wife, the best in our chosen field.
Thus arises the ultimate question: How do we stand in our own power? We have to let ourselves off the hook. It is where the balance comes into play as well. We, as women, try to hold ourselves to too high a standard. Does this mean I don’t think we can have it all? Absolutely not! We can have it all, but we have to do so in a way that establishes our own boundaries and puts self-care at the center.
For example, I know my value. I know what I can do. I have to prioritize what makes sense for me. I have to be able to advocate for myself. We have been programmed to believe that being our own advocate is boastful or distasteful as women. It is not true! We need to advocate for ourselves in authentic, meaningful ways. If we do not, we are doing ourselves a disservice. We are falling short.
The Balance We Bring
Value, authenticity, accomplishment, strength, power, vulnerability, purpose — within these areas is where we find the whole balance we offer as women. It means being vulnerable when it serves your purpose so you can lead in the best way possible. It is inspired action. It may also mean being assertive, aggressive or standing your ground when you need to but always in an authentic and genuine way.
It is here that empowering and advocating comes into view. For many women, there is an imbalance — a place of guilt and apology — because we have chosen to be an executive and wife or mom. There is no balance in apologizing. It is OK to be both and to stand in your value in all your roles. We have to be confident in all aspects of our lives, and when we are treated unfairly, we have to speak up in authenticity and truth. We have to develop neuroplasticity by speaking up for ourselves, owning our own value and moving forward past the unfairness to find the balance.
It isn’t a juggling act, but it is all about balance. The balance you offer as a woman begins with being present and listening to your internal compass. When you do, the aforementioned traits will begin to emerge in all your roles.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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56921c9e887f6ab6c80a1307bdaacf2d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/05/the-top-three-issues-robbing-you-of-siem-roi/ | The Top Three Issues Robbing You Of SIEM ROI | The Top Three Issues Robbing You Of SIEM ROI
Chief Technology Officer at Critical Start, a leading provider of Managed Detection and Response services.
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Upon inception, the function of the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) was to aggregate log data collected from a variety of sources across an organization. With the data centralized, the next generation of the SIEM leveraged detection logic, or rules, to generate alerts under given conditions. A single console both aggregating information from disparate systems and alerting on specified activity, the SIEM naturally became the foundation of most security architectures and the primary platform used by Security Operations Centers (SOCs) to detect and triage potentially malicious activity.
While this works in theory, the attempt to detect advancing attacker techniques, and the increasing amount of data necessary to do so, has rendered most SIEMs a noisy compliance checkbox as security teams struggle to secure the human resources to operationalize them. A recently released report (download required) created by the engineering automation platform vendor, CardinalOps, validates most security experts' opinions regarding the low value provided by many SIEM deployments. However, given the almost-mandated budget allocated to SIEM through compliance requirements to collect and retain logs, this report also shines some light on potential issues preventing the SIEM from increasing security posture.
Over-Collection
"It's better to have and not need, than need and not have" is the mentality used with many SIEM deployments. While I generally agree with the statement, additional data isn't always necessary or useful, and in some cases is counterproductive. Two of the most common SIEM complaints are cost and complexity, both of which are exacerbated by over-collection.
The study by CardinalOps suggests that 95% of SIEM incidents are generated by just 15% of rules. It's doubtful that the 15% of rules generating alerts require the 1,533 average log sources identified by the study. The cost of the licenses to collect data not used to generate alerts is, unless compliance-obligated, wasted. Additionally, the study points to an average of one security engineer per 63 log sources, and an average of 85 log source types. This equates to a little over one average security engineer catering to 1,533 different log sources, many of which are likely not required to generate 95% of alerts.
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Under-Collection
"Stop collecting everything!" Not so fast! While regulations govern much of what must be collected, the same statistics above can infer that the correct log sources are not being ingested, causing a lack of variability in the firing correlation logic. With an inability to generate detections, the return of detecting attacks is significantly diminished with an average of only 16% coverage across MITRE's ATT&CK framework.
The cause of under-detection is multifaceted. Some organizations fail to realize the sources necessary to generate detections with the vendor faced detection logic, and others find difficulty in the actual collection of the information. While the latter is being slowly remedied by the log source manufacturers realizing the necessity of log output, the former continues to plague security teams that lack the expertise necessary to evaluate detection use cases.
Lack Of Detection Engineering
So who's supposed to be responsible for ensuring the SIEM is functioning properly and generating the expected detections? While most Security Operations Center (SOCs) focus on analysts to resolve the alerts, SIEM engineering capabilities are often overlooked. While the shared responsibility of many of the SaaS SIEM platforms alleviates the burden of infrastructure management, detection engineering is still a necessary skillset to maintain.
In addition to determining which log sources provide value to the organization from a detection standpoint and ensuring the data gets to the SIEM, detection engineers are also responsible for validating the rules fire. According to the CardinalOps report, on average, 25% of SIEM rules are broken or nonfunctional. The variety of causes can range from the data not fitting the rule, to an update in key-value pairs from the log source.
While SIEM is still the current focus of SOCs, Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platforms are gaining popularity and notoriety for their endpoint-oriented detection capabilities. Though XDR provides additional telemetry with more vendor-provided detections, detection engineering will be an ever-present resource needed to recognize the greatest return on investment for security budgets.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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2dc573fed8ad192f1454bba42adab67d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/08/13-big-retail-tech-trends-to-watch-for-in-2021/ | 13 Big Retail Tech Trends To Watch For In 2021 | 13 Big Retail Tech Trends To Watch For In 2021
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While e-commerce has been on the rise since its inception, the unprecedented events of 2020 caused it to skyrocket as consumers avoided the risks of in-person shopping. As people continue to work and shop online in 2021, retail tech shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
With that in mind, those in the e-commerce sphere should keep an eye on new and emerging industry trends to stay competitive. Below, the members of Forbes Technology Council share 13 retail tech trends to watch for in 2021.
1. AI-Based Inventory Management Systems
The traditional approach to customer satisfaction focuses on increasing inventory rather than increasing product availability. There is a rising interest in strengthening inventory management systems with AI-based tools that not only make demand forecasts more accurate but also improve a retailer’s ability to satisfy a customer who walks in the door, whether physically or online. - Taresh Grover, mySupplier
2. E-Commerce Marketplaces
Marketplaces are the natural evolution of the stand-alone Web store. They benefit all parties engaged in e-commerce. Buyers are getting overwhelmed with too many stores and options, and sellers are struggling to get their customers’ attention. With marketplaces, buyers can find and compare products and check out, all while staying within a single platform. Sellers gain access to buyers they might otherwise miss. - Yoav Kutner, Oro Inc.
3. Data Analytics For Cost And Safety Management
Store operations are now a C-suite concern for retailers, from cleanliness to reconfiguring layouts for customer and employee safety. This requires financial discipline, and in 2021 we’ll see a focus on using data to manage and predict costs. Whether it’s maximizing contractor value or documenting sanitation for compliance purposes, data analytics will define store management in the year ahead. - Tom Buiocchi, ServiceChannel
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4. Agile Marketing Strategies
As some stores remain closed, retailers need to examine how they can enhance the digital customer experience. Multichannel retailers need to convince people to shop both online and in-store. They also must stand out from the competition, especially online-only retailers, which is essential for survival. To do this, retailers must quickly respond to market developments and apply agile marketing strategies. - Mirko Holzer, BrandMaker
5. Pop-Up Shops And In-Store Experiences
People are hungry for real-life experiences. Physical retail stores should not be thought of as the primary way to sell or even as a location to warehouse things; instead, they are marketing opportunities. With this in mind, pop-up shops and in-store experiences—tactile, scent and sound-based as well as those featuring expensive tech—will be showcased to drive sales and awareness online. - Joaquin Lippincott, Metal Toad
6. Collaborative Analytics
E-commerce businesses must contend with Amazon, which has much more information about consumers, enabling them to better serve customers with personalization. To compete, e-commerce companies need to build collaborative analytics systems that rely on data sets across multiple companies to gain insight into the complete customer journey, thereby enabling them to activate personalized customer journeys themselves. - Anneka Gupta, LiveRamp
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7. AI-Driven Operations
Retailers will begin to discover more ways to use AI to support their e-commerce efforts and provide better online experiences for their customers. We’re going to start seeing AI-driven customization of product descriptions and marketing copy—even crowdsourced product design enabled by AI technology. - Divyabh Mishra, CrowdANALYTIX
8. Shopping And Payment Apps
Retailers are enabling in-store customers to scan their items and check out using an app, without the need for going through a checkout line. Sam’s Club has already achieved this across all their stores, and Walmart is implementing it in phases. This will provide a safe and contactless experience for those who shop in the store. Consumers will also be able to buy online, schedule pick-up and then collect their purchases in the store or through curbside delivery—all powered by a mobile app. - Selva Pandian, DemandBlue
9. In-House Robotic Delivery
With in-house robotic delivery, retailers will deliver products anywhere, not just to houses or official addresses. You will snap a picture and the delivery service (humans first, then robotics) will deliver your order to the location the picture shows. The standard is no longer last-mile delivery but last-meter delivery. - Ayman Shoukry, Specright Inc.
10. Grocery Delivery
Online grocery ordering, along with instant delivery of fresh food, will explode in 2021. This will lead to more opportunities in logistics, gamification and security regarding the timing of deliveries and ensuring the fresh food gets delivered in a reasonable time to the correct person. - WaiJe Coler, InfoTracer
11. Payment Card Cybersecurity Software
Payment card cybersecurity software—particularly using AI—is one trend that is already exploding. The surge in e-commerce is also leading to an uptick in hackers trying to steal credit and debit card information via phishing, malware and a variety of other methods. The use of AI cybersecurity software will augment human infosec teams to help combat payment data fraud and theft. - John Shin, RSI Security
12. More Retail Mobile Apps
I believe we will see more retailers creating mobile apps for their customers in 2021. There are plenty of unique benefits business owners can offer through an app. You can give out exclusive discounts, allow access to beta features and provide exclusive content. Companies across all industries can bring more value to their customers with this strategy. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
13. Local E-Commerce
2021 will see the rise and acceleration of local e-commerce, as more small businesses “close to home” will shift to platforms such as Shopify. Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft may introduce courier services that enable these businesses to offer fast delivery. The toolsets of big e-commerce players such as Amazon will finally reach the hands of small, local businesses—and we’ll all benefit from it. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
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a25d9c64b1e65071d6019be7fd6247aa | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/08/making-the-most-of-your-it-purchases-in-2021---winning-the-zero-sum-game/?sh=43d9601535c1 | Making The Most Of Your IT Purchases In 2021 — Winning The Zero-Sum Game | Making The Most Of Your IT Purchases In 2021 — Winning The Zero-Sum Game
Wai Wong is the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Serviceaide, a global provider of enterprise service management solutions
IT budgets experienced a bumpy ride in 2020. Spending decisions vacillated between cutbacks to accommodate financial strains on the one hand and the need to protect and improve business productivity and continuity during the pandemic lockdown on the other.
According to a CIO survey by Harvey Nash and KPMG, IT spend surged during the first three months of the pandemic. However, spending was down some 5.4% for all of 2020, according to a report from Gartner, Inc. The dichotomy suggests that organizations spent quickly at the onset of the pandemic to address the IT demands of a remote workforce and business environment and then pulled back hard on budgets for the remainder of the year.
What does that mean for 2021? Editors at the U.K. publication Computer Weekly believe this will be one of the most difficult years ever to predict IT budgets. Budgets will be inspected and dissected minutely. Yet the strategic need to continue on the road toward digital transformation and IT modernization will be great. Indeed, another survey by TechRepublic suggests that IT spend decisions in 2021 are being taken out of the hands of IT managers and turned over to the C-suite.
I agree that decision-makers need to take a long, hard look at their IT budgets in 2021. There's too much to be lost and too much to be gained by making the wrong or right decisions. Just holding down spending by essentially maintaining or reducing the status quo likely won't get companies where they need to go to increase productivity and profits.
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Instead, decision-makers need to start from zero and build their budgets based on what will deliver the greatest return. Don't put a dollar in unless you get a dollar or more back. If your organization can get rid of IT costs without damaging its ability to function and grow, it probably should do it.
For many companies, this zero-based approach will undoubtedly lead to the elimination of old and underused applications and speed up the move to the cloud to reduce spending on hardware and on-premise software maintenance. It will also lead to the postponement and — in some cases — the rejection of long-term, expensive IT projects.
Decision-makers need to examine the business value of every IT cost. Are those costs critical to drive growth, improve efficiency and productivity or ensure operations and compliance? Do they allow your organization to do business better, faster and cheaper in the near term?
Many areas of IT are fungible. You can replace an existing asset with something else that will do the job more cost-efficiently or better. Cloud infrastructure and applications can replace existing spend on on-premise servers and applications. The more fungibility you have in your IT budget, the better.
One area of new IT spend that many organizations should certainly consider in 2021 is artificial intelligence. I believe AI is taking fungibility to the next level, beyond infrastructure. AI technology can replace people-intensive workloads with automated processes that reduce cost, accelerate productivity and improve business results.
AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations), for example, can detect problems and abnormal system events and quickly distill these down to a single problem that can be more efficiently and rapidly corrected, saving IT staff time and ensuring business continuity and productivity.
Likewise, AI can bring huge improvements to an organization's help desk and service and support functions. A help desk using AI-powered virtual agent technology can deliver 24/7 self-service and support for users with increased efficiency, as it can capture the user's problem and either resolve many basic issues without human interaction or quickly deliver a support ticket with all the necessary information to the right support personnel for resolution. It can also deliver knowledge and information assets about the problem to both users and support personal and automatically identify new areas of knowledge that should be included in the repository.
IT spend decision-makers will have to take a very close look at their budgets in 2021. Starting from zero to ascertain where cuts and efficiencies can be found will be crucial. Redirecting spend to new areas that can deliver rapid business value should and will be a priority for many businesses.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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7288ed6638ea03799c1b361c7cb4b683 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/08/managements-top-challenge-how-to-scale/?sh=1c96b9fb1309 | Management's Top Challenge: How To Scale | Management's Top Challenge: How To Scale
Russell P. Reeder is the CEO of Infrascale, a cloud-based data protection company providing backup and disaster recovery solutions.
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Scaling your business is always difficult, and when you throw in the complexities of our current environment, the likelihood of missing your targets grows exponentially. Here are some steps to scale a business of any size successfully.
Know Your Market
You would think this one would be easy, but it's unbelievable how many companies may understand what business they are in but do not take the time to analyze their competition. I've heard executives from both large and small businesses say, "We do not have any competition." Everyone has competition. Even in the early days at Uber, before Lyft, Uber's competitor was traditional transportation: taxies, trains, car rental services, walking. Having an open mindset and understanding all your customers' options is a crucial ingredient of winning.
Who Are Your Customers And What Problem Are You Solving?
So you have a great product, and you understand what market you are in, but that is only the beginning. To scale your business, you need to take a step back and thoroughly understand who your customers are and what problems you are solving for them. Take the time to understand your target audience and build your customer, buyer, audience or marketing personas. To construct the persona correctly, you will need to describe these personas' exact details, down to their names, where they live, their interests, their jobs, how much money they make and how they spend their money. Once you have taken the time to identify to whom you are selling, you can then incorporate the problems you solve for each customer.
What Is Your Unique Competitive Advantage?
Understanding your market, your customers and the problems you are solving is a huge first step. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning. You now have the basics of analyzing and understanding why your customers will choose you rather than their other options. You can take each of your personas and understand why they would choose your product or service versus your competition. Taking the time to define your unique competitive advantage will enable you to better focus your marketing and product development efforts. Most companies fail here by taking their standard benefits and pitching them as unique. You must challenge your team to articulate what advantages you have that are unique to your company.
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Build The Best Team
Everyone wants the best team, but it's much more complicated than what even Jim Collins describes in his legendary book, Good To Great: "If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great." There have been many books written about Jim's seemingly simple advice, and I've spent the last 20-plus years studying how to do this at scale across global organizations.
For your current employees, you want to track what they accomplish and their attitude along the way. When you hire, the key is understanding what the candidate accomplished when they had the least amount of resources and were in the most challenging situations. Many managers make the easy mistake of hiring "the perfect candidate" but fail to evaluate what made them successful in that specific role. To find the best, you must dig down to understand how people perform in the most challenging situations.
Align Goals Across Your Organization
Aligning goals is much more than creating SMART goals. To align goals, you must ruthlessly prioritize resources across your organization to focus on the specific goals that will drive success. It's best to have executives create these priorities when the corporate plans and budgets are set and then communicate through the organization. I've seen many companies fail to hit their goals because they try to accomplish too many things at once. Teams naturally add tasks to their lists. The hard part is prioritizing to put the needed resources behind the activities that will deliver the best results.
Track Key Metrics
When tracking metrics, you need to analyze your key metrics and not get bogged down in "analysis paralysis" of all your metrics. It's essential to have the detailed data you can drill into, but you want to focus on the metrics that are the best leading indicators for actual results. You also want to make sure the data you are tracking is accurate. Following the flow of data to the source is key to ensuring that you can trust your data.
As you analyze your data, you can only do so much analysis on a snapshot of data, even week over week or the same period last year. You will need to track the historical performance over time and understand why the numbers go up or down. I like to compare the analysis over time to watching a movie versus looking at a picture. Having the historical numbers over time, like a movie, gives you more in-depth insight into what is working versus what is not working.
Celebrate Your Wins
Like my grandfather Col. Red Reeder always told me, "The right decisions are usually the hard decisions." Building a business is never easy. You have to break from the status quo, question everything, ruthlessly prioritize and then execute. I'm not just saying work smarter, not harder. I'm saying work smarter so you see results. That success will energize you and your team to work harder on the things that make the most difference. And the key to making sure you can consistently deliver is to take the time to celebrate your wins and enjoy your journey — because your journey is your destination.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
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5bf1206483d9d24b1fb838d33ae93681 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/08/tech-pros-share-15-costly-mistakes-in-wearable-device-and-app-development/?sh=6a47745c35fe | Tech Pros Share 14 Costly Mistakes In Wearable Device And App Development | Tech Pros Share 14 Costly Mistakes In Wearable Device And App Development
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Wearable technology has become a hot topic in the tech world, and it shows no signs of slowing down. However, there are many challenges that come with developing and implementing wearable devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches and the apps that run on them. Without a solid strategy and user base for your device or software, you may end up wasting a lot of money before it ever gets off the ground.
If your business is planning to develop new wearable tech, it’s important to understand the obstacles and pitfalls you may face along the way. To help, 14 members of Forbes Technology Council discuss the costly mistakes tech companies need to avoid when developing wearable technology.
1. Not Having A Defined Purpose
A wearable app must have a defined purpose to stand out from the crowd. What problem will your app solve that has not yet been reasonably solved? Defining a purpose automatically involves the identification of the target consumer or business-to-business ecosystems as well as a simple human experience design. I would recommend a “Blue Ocean” strategy to help you to decide the right value proposition. - Soumen Chatterjee, Wipro
2. Choosing The Wrong Platform
Choose your platform wisely. There are many wearables on the market, and many of them are of poor quality and not built to last. Build on a platform that’s stable, has solid hardware—a good battery life, connectivity and so on—and a large and loyal fanbase. - Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
3. Not Mastering The Basics
Privacy, data security, battery consumption, stability, a responsive user interface and integration with mobile apps are all keys for any wearable app. For me, the biggest factors to consider are user experience choices for different age groups, ease of use and a well-defined contextual solution for solving a problem (whether related to health, productivity, monitoring or something else) with transparency, accuracy and predictable behavior. - Gaurav Aggarwal, Avanade Inc.
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4. Not Having A Plan For Data Collection And Usage
Companies creating wearable tech need to think about the data they want to gather from consumers to make use of specific features. Consumers are hyper-aware of their privacy. We need to collect data in a responsible way and clearly tell users what we intend to track when they use our wearables. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
5. Ignoring Cyberthreats
Wearable devices and connected apps are all part of the expanding surface area of Internet of Things opportunities and challenges. Cyberthreat actors have proven and will continue to prove that anything connected to the internet can and will be hacked. Whether your product is for personal or corporate use, you must think about its security and how the device can be managed to be relevant. - Aaron Pritz, Reveal Risk
6. Making Updates Difficult
The main issue with wearable devices and apps is the ability to reach scalable pricing in a form and factor that is user-friendly and affordable. As you develop the hardware and software, the main obstacle is finding an easy-to-install over-the-air BIOS upgrade. The update will drive a lot of future enhancements, and if it is difficult to apply, the user won’t stick with the product in the long-term. - Antonio Altamirano, Tangelo Technologies
7. Not Supporting Multiple Applications
In the larger scheme of things, a wearable gadget should support multiple applications. A user cannot wear several gadgets to support different purposes. The architecture should evolve to define generic gadgets, which in turn should evolve in the same way as an all-purpose mobile, where only software modules and apps bring new features. - Satyam Bheemarasetti, NeoSilica Technologies Private Limited
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8. Not Prototyping The Device
Don’t forget people will be wearing the device. Any time you are building a wearable device, make sure to prototype it—including its size, weight and placement—and try it out. Use design thinking to put yourself in the user’s shoes (maybe literally). If you don’t love it, neither will your users. - Tim Kulp, Mind Over Machines
9. Forgoing Early Design And Usability Testing
Tech companies often mistake wearables as just being a tech solution for the user. The reality is that for a user to agree to wear a piece of tech, they need to be convinced of its quality and their ability to integrate it into their lives. You must invest in design and usability testing early in the game to ensure that the features live up to a high standard. Companies often start the other way around. - Yotam Drechsler, BrainQ Technologies
10. Overloading Features On Your MVP
There are many mistakes organizations can make with wearable tech. They may burn a lot of money on the proof of concept by testing and trying to perfect it all in one go, overloading features up front. Don’t try to bring all the features in one go—start with an MVP and then scale. Finally, a lot of wearable apps try to copy the best in the industry and end up failing. - Srinivas Arasada, Evolutyz Corp.
11. Not Providing Immediate Value
Focus on providing value in just a few seconds. People won’t use a wearable app for long, so focus on the one piece of information or the one task that your users want to see or do on the go. If there’s a tiny bit of info that users might want to see throughout the day, consider a feature that could be added to the watch face. Then it can be a frequent positive touchpoint for them. - Luke Wallace, Bottle Rocket
12. Ignoring Early User Feedback
Just like normal apps, wearable apps are driven by user feedback. The better the feedback, the better the app. The greatest mistake those overseeing a wearable app project can make is to not get user feedback early on. Many wearables, and their apps, disappear from the market for this reason. - Pierce Brantley, Cytracom
13. Mismanaging Business Data
Tech companies must manage and secure business data. Whether personal data is located on a physical server, a cloud, a mobile device or a wearable, software developers and architects must consider data security. Security should not be an afterthought—it should be baked into the software development life cycle. - Bob Fabien Zinga, Directly, Inc./U.S. Navy Reserve
14. Cramming In Features
A costly mistake that is all too easy to make is getting over-excited and adding every feature possible to your app. Users want simplicity—your app should be simple to learn, simple to use and simple to update. You can geek out and make a one-of-a-kind app with a complex AI, but if the user experience isn’t simple, the difficulty will lose a large percentage of the targeted audience. The app needs to absorb complexity. - Justin Hatch, Reach Reporting
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1f67ccf375e67bdfb806635f24cb3428 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/08/three-reasons-mexico-could-fill-the-us-talent-gap/ | Three Reasons Mexico Could Fill The U.S. Talent Gap | Three Reasons Mexico Could Fill The U.S. Talent Gap
CEO and Founder of Wizeline, a product design and development services company with over 1,000 employees around the world.
getty
In my last article, I shared how Guadalajara, Mexico, became my company's secret weapon in scaling as a software services company after we invested in “last mile” education. I’m a firm believer that talent is evenly distributed around the world, but opportunities are not. The real superpower that education has — particularly in an industry without real geographic constraints like tech — is bringing more opportunities to a more diverse workforce.
For the U.S., it’s time to get creative in how we generate those opportunities domestically and beyond. In 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that one million technology sector jobs go unfilled annually, a number that is only climbing as Covid-19 created more urgency around digital transformation. In the U.S., we do need greater investment in tech education like apprenticeship programs where people can learn on the job while still earning a living. I also believe that one upside from the pandemic is renewed employer flexibility to remote work. This should expand opportunities for working parents and those living outside major cities.
Shorter term, I believe that more companies can alleviate their talent gaps by thinking outside of borders and identifying great talent globally. From my perspective, it’s challenging to identify a better fit for U.S. time zones, cultural compatibility and relevant work experience than Mexico.
1. Mexico’s higher education produces 130,000-plus computer science graduates annually.
Mexico’s universities graduate more than 130,000 computer science graduates annually, a number that I have anecdotally observed to be fairly conservative. I would estimate it could be 50% or more higher including math and science graduates who end up in tech. At my company, we routinely see people enter the tech sector who are self-taught. They take coding classes, attend boot camps or participate in company training programs and become successful software developers, UX designers, technical writers and more.
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Conservative statistic or not, it’s clear Mexico is punching above its weight class when compared with much larger economies like the U.S., which has just 65,000 graduates. The talent market is becoming more competitive, but the sheer volume of graduates and the rise of informal education like coding academies make Mexico a formidable player in the global tech talent ecosystem.
2. Mexico has a long history of partnering with Silicon Valley.
In the 1960s and through the 1980s, Mexico served as the manufacturing operations center for large foreign companies like Kodak, IBM and HP. Over time, management for these centers transitioned to local leadership, and we saw a boom in secondary education coursework preparing students for careers in technology and business management.
Fast forward to the 2000s, and Guadalajara experienced its own blossoming tech startup scene. Now a few decades in, there is major VC interest in Mexico City- and Guadalajara-based startups like SoftBank-backed used car marketplace Kavak, valued at $1.15 billion in 2020.
The tech scene in Mexico has existed for 60 years, but I think we’re only now starting to see that realization from an investment perspective (with likely much more to come). For prospective U.S. employers, Mexico and Latin America are heating up, and adding a team or office in Mexico should be as much about strategy as it is about the obvious cost savings.
3. Recent political divisiveness aside, Mexico and the U.S. are very familiar neighbors.
Cultural compatibility — shared interests as well as understanding and respect for differences — is an intangible but invaluable asset when forging work relationships across time and space. While the political climate in the last four years may have deepened a sense of divide, the reality is that many Americans and Mexicans have friends, relatives and colleagues living across the border. American culture has been deeply shaped by Mexico’s influence on our food, music, entertainment and more — not to mention more than 36 million people of Mexican descent live in the U.S. as of 2017. In a work environment, this shared understanding can make forming relationships over Zoom and Slack more natural and help build trust more quickly. And with most of Mexico in central time, the natural working day overlap offers more opportunities to connect.
In closing, tech companies of all sizes are competing to scale their engineering and product design talent. The U.S. talent market is highly competitive, and the tech talent pool isn’t growing fast enough to keep pace with the demand for digital products. In addition to investing in education domestically, companies can reduce risk and scale faster if they think beyond borders when growing their teams.
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386cfe4a77d12267a9e790108ba45f51 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/09/how-2021-could-become-the-year-of-efficiency-in-patient-transitions/?sh=3a624c0445bb | How 2021 Could Become The Year Of Efficiency In Patient Transitions | How 2021 Could Become The Year Of Efficiency In Patient Transitions
CEO of Central Logic, a company that helps health systems drive growth, reduce leakage, improve outcomes and streamline operations.
2020 forced hospitals and health systems to look at the constraints of their facilities in a very real way.
While capacity has long been a balancing act between efficiency and the need to adequately serve the patient population, the pandemic forced health leaders to reconsider their available bed space. As hospitalizations abate (hopefully) as we get deeper into 2021, don't be surprised to see thorough evaluations of how various systems responded to surges in demand, with an eye toward how to improve such responses in the future.
Bed availability will be prioritized in a way that it has not been in the past. That's because, even as vaccines become more widely available and we shift toward a sense of normalcy, different regions of the country will likely experience flare-ups — not to mention the expected long-term effects of Covid-19 entailing a certain level of ongoing care.
The Lancet published recent research looking at the "long-term follow-up of recovered patients with Covid-19," and the findings are noteworthy for what they could mean for continued long-term care, including possible acute stays. Researchers found that more than three-quarters of discharged Covid-19 patients experienced at least one recurring symptom in the following six months. This warrants further investigation over the course of years, to be sure, but it speaks to the need for hospitals to anticipate surges in demand long after the pandemic has gotten under control.
Technology At The Center Of Transitions
Intrinsically tied to the topic of capacity is that of transportation. In order to ensure capacity is maximized during times of system stress, we fully expect hospitals to take a closer look at how they're moving their patients into, around and out of their facilities — a process that has historically not been closely examined for efficiency. However, as the need to expedite patient movements becomes more important, a thorough evaluation and accounting of existing processes will take place.
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2021 brings an unprecedented opportunity to examine areas of improvement, including places where manual processes can and should cede ground to automated solutions. Patient transitions will be a core area in which this potential will be evident, particularly in light of the technological evolution this field has experienced in recent years.
Clinical leaders and health executives seeking efficiencies at a system-wide level have visibility into patient transitions as a result of increased EHR integration and a myriad of software and hardware improvements. Interoperability buy-in among major health systems has led to improvements to data collection and the distribution of that data to key stakeholders, providing an in-depth look at various processes at the enterprise level — something that hasn't always been possible.
The data that's being captured from various departments is united now like never before. This has led to advancements in things like resource utilization, revenue cycle management, cybersecurity and more. Hospitals have prioritized the formation of what are known as patient access centers, areas where the totality of data related to patient movement can be centralized and dispersed to the appropriate parties, who can use the information at their fingertips to make key clinical and administrative decisions.
For 2021, expect a careful analysis of capacity combined with unique, data-informed insights into how to quickly move patients to the appropriate acuity level without sacrificing care quality. Traditionally, any efficiencies in care provision have been halted when it comes time to transition a patient. Now, however, the anticipation of discharge dates, real-time analysis of bed availability and in-depth examination of prospective transition locations will change the game, enabling hospitals to turn a notoriously resource-intensive process into one that benefits patients, staff and hospitals alike:
• Patients: Patients transitioning between facilities and departments more quickly can see improved outcomes and better overall satisfaction scores.
• Staff: Automation of the care experience will become crucial as hospitals pull out all the stops to ensure their clinical workers have precisely the support they need to work at the top of license for greater periods of time, maximizing human capital utilization.
• Hospitals: With resource use maximized and care transitions happening seamlessly, hospitals can ease the strain on capacity, improve outcomes and even increase revenue thanks to a reduction in length of stay.
Of course, making the transition to more efficient transitions is not without its challenges, and the most difficult one to overcome is relatively straightforward: resistance.
Resistance to change is what typically holds up the deployment of efficient processes related to patient transitions. It's easy to grow comfortable and entrenched in a particular way of providing care, even if the current system isn't optimal. That's simple human nature, and it's not always easy to counter. I've seen system-wide implementations held up at the 11th hour due to key constituencies hesitant to embrace such a monumental shift in approach. It's only by demonstrating the value it will bring to patients, providers and the organization as a whole that those pushing for change can get buy-in from key stakeholders.
Be transparent, and be ready to answer follow-up questions from IT, clinical departments, finance and more. The good news is that by the time you're likely to encounter resistance, you're already well on your way to potential organizational change and have statistics and evidence tied to key performance indicators ready to go. The even better news is that once front-line personnel members are able to see the effects of new transition-focused processes, they'll be among the biggest champions and influencers of the new system.
Hospitals' responsiveness has been put to the test in the past year, and the coming months will see facilities reignite their commitment to efficient patient care and to iterate upon their successes while learning from their failures. Patient transitions will be key in that effort.
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4a6a88cf47195c9aea3d9a8dd8a3b7b3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/09/looking-to-the-future-redefining-work/ | Looking To The Future: Redefining Work | Looking To The Future: Redefining Work
CMO of Webex Marketing at Cisco Systems, Inc. with 20+ years of technology marketing experience.
getty
Back in the before time — that is, before March of 2020 — many of us spent most of our days in an office — and dreaded it. But that was the norm: morning coffee and commute, parking and walking into the office and preparing ourselves for another dreary day under fluorescent lights. And it didn’t matter if we weren’t productive; it was more about being there and appearing busy.
More than 10 years ago, a beer commercial captured the essence of how to look busy. Staged as a scientific lab, the humorous spot described its new invention, the fake steaming cup of coffee. This innovation allowed a bored employee to sneak out of the office to catch a baseball game or go to the bar, while co-workers and, most importantly, the boss remained impressed by the employee’s so-called dedication. Even though the employee was not at his desk, his steaming mug of coffee was, and that was enough to convince everyone he was there.
As with most humor and parody, there is a kernel of truth in this commercial. It focuses on the inaccurate definition of work as being equal to face time: If you’re in the office, you are working, but if you’re elsewhere, you can’t possibly be.
This concept has always been a fallacy, and there are myriad examples of how people have found ways to not work at the workplace. There’s even an entire subgenre of articles on how to look busy at work. And the reverse of this was also true — if you weren’t at the office, you couldn’t possibly be working. In fact, there were even pointers on how to do that effectively.
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To be fair, for much of the last century, office work centered around desks, telephones and computers. It was essential for employees to come to a central location, and it was equally inconvenient and counterproductive for them to try to do the same work at home. The technology just wasn’t able to balance these two scenarios out.
But here we are, emerging from a year in which almost everyone was sent home and companies had to review every aspect of their operations in light of a pandemic. It was a turning point.
Prior to 2020, we were already well on the way to establishing virtual workspaces with improvements in meeting and collaboration technology that allowed people to work from anywhere and connect with clarity.
But what has been slower to evolve is the definition of work. As employees struggled to do their work from their home office, kitchen or bedroom, many were forced to contend with the needs of children, pets and other family who had no concept of the traditional 9-to-5workday. This did not sit well with some managers, who believe that work cannot be done in pockets of time but must fit the contiguous 9-to-5framework.
But the 9-to-5model never worked. Physiologically, it is not possible for any human to deliver eight hours of consistent, high-quality output per day. Even those who try will succumb to the natural rhythms of the body, which delivers peaks and troughs of energy. According to Inc, "Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes." The rest is filler, disguised as overly long meetings, excessive emails and checking social media.
Kaizen For Knowledge Workers
To redefine work, we should first look back to the scientific studies done by Toyota in the development of continuous improvement (kaizen), just-in-time manufacturing and lean manufacturing, all of which focused on the smoothing of the workflow through the identification and elimination of muda (wasteful habits), muri (unreasonable work placed on people and operations) and mura (unevenness and irregularity).
These concepts can be applied to knowledge work delivered in the modern office.
We’ve had a transitional year that proves that work can be done in locations other than the office. We are still able to meet, communicate and collaborate. And the opportunities provided by virtual workspaces allow individuals to curate a schedule to deliver their best work while addressing muda, muri and mura.
Resetting And Redefining Work
This last year also offers itself as an opportunity to reset; an opportunity to redefine work. Managers and staff can look at the nature of work as blocks of focused time that may occur at different times of the day — and in which the outcome is valued more than any number of contiguous hours elapsed.
Such a change demands heightened amounts of trust, genuinely felt and copiously demonstrated, with managers empowering employees to deliver. That, too, is possible in a dynamic and virtualized workspace.
One final point: Part of the aforementioned commercial’s humor came from the fact that the “steaming coffee mug” was being marketed to employees who really did not want to be at the office. The work held no appeal. The mug was their tool for escape.
This bodes the question as to why a job should represent 40 hours a week of boredom, when engagement and empowerment generate far superior output.
A new definition of work can be one that embraces the human elements of passion, respect and autonomy — and these become the new raw materials for quality deliverables, even if the hours worked by each team member vary to better fit their own lives.
The technology exists to make this happen. It is now up to management to envision work in terms of output rather than process. This is how we redefine work for the future.
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f025a8188a0e26794d4e0f255e74336a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/09/reimagining-digital-governance-with-artificial-intelligence-and-iot/ | Reimagining Digital Governance With Artificial Intelligence And IoT | Reimagining Digital Governance With Artificial Intelligence And IoT
Senior Vice President at Henson Group.
getty
While digital transformation has remained a focus for industries all over the world for a long time now, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought it into the limelight again.
In fact, reimagining a tech-enabled future using technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things ( IoT) devices will be beneficial and equally challenging for all businesses.
Because people are now depending upon tech companies for most aspects of their everyday life — from checking their fitness levels and procuring education to managing huge monetary funds and data — business leaders must realize that just one leakcould cause their companies to lose millions of dollars and see a huge dent in their integrity and reputation.
An increasing number of people are working remotely, and cloud collaboration has almost become the norm, so companies will have to get even more vigilant when it comes to securing crucial data spread across thousands of devices unrestricted by geographic locations.
As of late, IoT and AI have been used together in a new piece of jargon. Termed Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), it promises a transformative impact on processes and people alike.
To put it simply, streaming data across connected devices (IoT) and using it for predictive analytics (AI) is interesting. In all honesty, IoT was always built around AI. The very purpose of streaming data through a network makes sense only if it is used for analysis. That’s exactly why the use of AI products in the IoT ecosystem is growing at a CAGR of 26%.
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Take a simple example of a fitness band that captures your pulse. It can send your health data in real time to a physician, who further uses inputs to make predictions and raise alerts. Or, when working from home, the data captured from multiple systems at your home desk is somewhere assuring others that you aren’t misusing the opportunity.
On a grander scale wherein IoT is spreading across industries, AI is undeniably useful in an ocean of unstructured data. The industry that was mostly considered limited to use case analysis is expected to reach a value of $124 billion by the end of 2021.
AI-Enabled IIoT: Digitizing The Most Complicated Processes
In the past year, there has been an increase in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) enabled systems driving predictive monitoring and maintenance of the assembly line. Such a setup makes comprehensive use of IoT and AI alike.
Here are a few ideas that can make this whole process secure and more organized. For instance, using remote access control systems, the machinery OEM can be connected with cloud apps that store and send data for real-time analytics. This allows anytime access to data insights on mobile devices.
Since IIoT systems work closely with ERP systems, they can stream machine performance data and map it against KPI standards in an interactive dashboard. Any mismatch, therefore, hints at repair work needed. Subsequently, automatic alerts can be sent to the service teams, whether in-house or outsourced to vendors. Needless to say, these insights are accessible on mobile.
For inventory management, IIoT systems can further enhance the transparency of the procurement workflows. With sensors, the fill-levels of containers can trigger real-time alerts. The fill level and time of the alert can be customized. Accordingly, inventory data can be closely analyzed in tandem with the location of raw materials in transit, thus improving the overall logistics ecosystem.
WFH, Cybersecurity And Public Clouds On The Rise
It would be unfair to discuss the pandemic's impact and not mention the millions of people working from home. By mid-May 2020, half of the workforce in 58% of global corporations was pushed indoors. Such an immediate shift to remote offices wherein an average of 11 devices per user were connected to the web, it is safe to believe that IoT adoption will only grow.
But homes are different. They do not assure uninterrupted bandwidths of the commercial spaces, nor do they provide complete protection against cyberattacks.
Ever since the lockdown, there’s been a 260% rise in cyberattacks all over the world. These include hacking and phishing attacks at the personal and mass levels. Citing concerns about the future of corporations in times when permanent WFH could be a reality for many, cybersecurity in the cloud has become an important layer in the digital transformation stack.
Amid all the chaos, cloud services emerged as the ultimate savior for global enterprises. The opportunity to drive business processes remotely from data centers has flocked millions of small- and medium-scale companies to host their data in the cloud. In fact, 2021 will see the public cloud market reach $4.1 billion in worth, which is the greatest ever growth for the business.
Subsequently, services such as Azure IoT Hub, which connect your devices in an IoT network to the cloud, will gain mass acceptance. This will enable business partners to develop fully customized and hybrid IoT apps in the cloud.
Getting Started With AIoT
Going forward, all IoT ecosystems should be incorporating AI in some form through predictive analytics, communication bots and more. Finding readily available workers skilled in AI and IoT domains is difficult. This applies especially to IoT. Its required stack of engineers (hardware, software and firmware), design interoperability experts (PCBs, software UIs), prototyping intelligence professionals, procurement experts and manufacturing and assembly line consultants makes it a convoluted space. Therefore, it is safe to outsource product development or engage in a partnership with a vendor skilled in these disciplines if necessary.
When choosing workers, look for those who possess the ability to perform critical cross-platform developments and manage multiple release cycles. At the same time, it is imperative to ensure security compliance across the line. I suggest hiring a cybersecurity expert to ensure protocol implementation across networks (device-cloud and cloud-cloud), data encryption, UI-to-wireless connectivity and more. Remember, this is important because AIoT systems are always at risk of an attack.
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