Analytics advice

Tech insights? CEOs are in a complex quandary on information security. On the one hand this is a topic requiring deep technical expertise which is (usually) outside the wheelhouse of CEOs, unless they head up a security tech company. On the other hand, it has become abundantly clear that in the court of public perception (and for that matter, the court of law), it is considered a CEO’s personal responsibility to ensure that appropriate protections are in place to protect the information of a company’s customers – particularly consumers. No CEO wants to end up on the front page of the newspaper or sued for negligence over a breach.

Data governors, is the bar so high on required data entry that it’s easier to enter none? Sales is an uncertain business, particularly at the upper edge of the “funnel”. A salesperson may not have a sense of which product(s)/service(s) a customer might be a fit for, or the scale or timetable of a likely transaction early in the process – right at the ideal moment when you’d like it captured in the CRM. Consider the (infinite) flexibility they have on what they track about those early-stage/potential deals in their spreadsheets, and configure accordingly. Consider also the new doors AI capabilities are opening to automatically fill in data gaps, etc. Focus your sales team’s efforts on the things that they alone can provide.

Every business should aim to have an IT consultant! Some technical issues or crisis may be too overwhelming for an internal IT department to solve. Sometimes, hackers breach the systems in a way that internal experts cannot reverse or contain the damage. Natural disasters such as floods or fires may affect technology in a way that only experts can resolve. In such cases, a business cannot avoid hiring experts to restore normalcy and prevent a similar crisis in the future.

The world is becoming increasingly personalized. Frequent flier numbers and customer membership programs enable companies to track consumers’ buying patterns; social media platforms and digital marketing channels enable them to know even more about our preferences and lives. The door has been opened to inappropriate uses of this information, as evidenced by the “fake news” and Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandals from the 2016 election. But far more commonly, companies are using customer data in legitimate to personalize their communications with customers, with significant results. Customers are happy for you to know about them. According to Accenture, 83% of consumers are willing to share their data in order to enable a personalized B2C experience, and 91% say it actually impacts their buying habits. For B2B purposes, companies have long known there is easy access to public data about them, so any gain in efficiency is welcomed from suppliers who make use of that information (ideally with internal data as well – see below) to streamline the experience for their clients. See extra info on Technology insights.

The experts at Innovation Vista have brought our expertise together to collaborate on a unique approach to technology that we call Innovating Beyond Efficiency. Traditional IT strategies yield many efficiencies for organizations which invest time and effort into them. Processes are automated, systems are implemented to gather key organization data, and reports are standardized to analyze and communicate that data. These are valuable gains for an organization, and many of these capabilities have risen to the level of requirements for operating in the 21st century. Efficiency is nice.

An advice every CEO should know about cybersecurity: Cyber liability insurance premiums are significantly increasing in cost and often do not cover all of the damages caused by a cyber breach. It is vital that CEOs establish the appropriate cybersecurity “tone at the top” for their respective organization, regarding the importance of information security and how cybersecurity is everyone’s shared responsibility in a truly digital world. Establishing an organizational “culture of cybersecurity” has proven to be one of the best defenses against cyber adversaries. It is the people, not the technology, which can either be an organization’s greatest defense, or its weakest link against a cyber-attack. Find additional details at Technology consultants.