Industry Leading IT and Cybersecurity Consulting

The public cloud continues to live up to the hype, with enterprises leveraging the power and efficiency of the cloud to the tune of $260.2 billion per year by 2020, according to Gartner. Security, once predicted to be the death knell of the public cloud in the large enterprise, has adapted to cloud challenges through the combined efforts of cloud app vendors and security vendors, along with the enterprise.

To their credit, major cloud vendors have invested heavily in security, with Microsoft alone investing more than $1 billion annually. At the same time, the venture capital community has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into cloud-focused security startups.

As the CMO of one such startup that was created to keep data safe in today’s dynamic, cloud-first world, I’ve seen the inner workings of cloud security firsthand.

Leveraging cloud vendors’ native security features and third-party solutions is critical because the lines of responsibility and accountability for cloud security are often blurred between the enterprise and the vendor. In many cases, responsibility will depend on the risk a breach poses to an organization’s reputation and who has the most to lose.

However, the “breaking news test” can serve as a framework to help determine who should be held accountable. Obviously, neither of these parties wants to see their name on the front page of a publication because of a breach. This is particularly true of app vendors because their livelihood is dependent upon ensuring their products are safe for customers to use.

So, if a breach occurs, identifying its root cause (e.g., DDoS attack, malicious insider, SQL injection, etc.) and determining which party would receive the majority of the bad press can reveal who is responsible for what. In the case of app vendors, they typically invest massive amounts of money into securing their underlying infrastructure — the portion of security for which they are responsible.

As such, company executives must better understand the security and compliance risks associated with data stored in — and accessible from — cloud applications, and who will take responsibility should the unthinkable happen.

So what responsibility does that leave for the enterprise?

While cloud app vendors need to ensure that their products are secure on the backend, they do not inspect how organizations’ employees are using the data that they store in the cloud. In other words, vendors do not monitor for suspicious user behaviors on their platforms. So, if an employee (or a hacker who has gained privileged credentials) downloads proprietary data or sensitive customer information from a cloud app and sells it on the dark web, it is the enterprise that will have its name appear on the front page of whatever publications cover the breach.

Similarly, if there is an unauthorized download of personally identifying information to an employee’s mobile device, and that device is lost or stolen, the enterprise will take the blame and foot the steep financial penalties for the resulting compliance failure. In both cases, the cloud app vendors do not have their business at stake, which means that it will be incumbent upon enterprises to know what information is under their jurisdiction and step up to fill in any potential security gaps.

Covering Cloud Bases: The Shared Responsibility Model

Ultimately, the responsibility for cloud security and compliance is shared by both the client and the cloud provider. While specific boundaries may vary from one app to the next, cloud providers primarily focus on protecting their services and the infrastructure that runs their services — including all hardware, software and networking — from attackers and unauthorized intruders.

The enterprise is responsible for security infrastructure that protects its data. This includes verifying user identity and protecting against credential theft, controlling access from risky contexts such as unmanaged devices and suspicious locations, ensuring that sensitive data is controlled and protected properly, and ensuring that cloud applications aren’t used as a delivery mechanism for malware and threats across the organization.

What’s Ahead: More Cloud, More Risk

Many organizations have started their cloud journey with major SaaS applications such as Office 365, Salesforce and Box. It’s common for those same organizations, once they have a taste of the economic and productivity benefits of the cloud, to start aggressively expanding their cloud footprint. According to our company’s research, there are a lot of industry- and function-specific applications moving to the cloud, as well as a systematic migration away from applications housed in corporate data centers and toward infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offerings like AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.

While the public-facing nature of these long-tail applications is similar to that of the major SaaS vendors, there is substantially less focus and budget dedicated to security. This means more responsibility on the part of the enterprise in the shared responsibility model. Greater scrutiny must be given to the care that the app vendor is giving to their part of the model, and enterprises need more restrictive controls in order to better protect corporate data.

Fortunately, this can be achieved rapidly with the latest . Shadow IT discovery tools evaluate apps by their native security features, regulatory compliance and more, while contextual access control can govern data access by users’ job functions, geographic locations, device types and even custom factors. There is no shortage of solutions that can help organizations protect their data.

The bottom line is that enterprises need to keep the shared responsibility model for cloud security in mind. That means verifying that the cloud vendor is doing its job while building in-house processes and leveraging security tools to ensure the enterprise is keeping up their end of the bargain. Such an approach will help your organization enjoy the business benefits of the cloud while keeping your name out of the breaking news headlines.

Article provided by PartnerOn and forbes.com.

We’ve all done it before — searched for how-to instructions on something we feel like we should be able to do ourselves. Whether it’s how to tie a bow tie, how to change your oil, or how to repair a TV, people are constantly looking to do things themselves. There are activities that are beyond our actual ability to do, but can you blame any of us for trying? No, we have the information, resources, and always the desire to save money. That being said, one of the things that is likely beyond DIY abilities is combating cyberattacks for your business.

There are what feels like an uncountable amount of cybersecurity services that are created to help the wide variety of companies protect the personal and financial information of their customer. These services are best supported by cybersecurity companies but far too often business owners and managers look to buy the tools and attempt to do it themselves. The problem is, can you really learn everything you need to about things like Security information and event management (SIEM) and then manage to fight off hackers?

SIEM Systems Need Constant Management

As you may already know, depending on the SIEM system, there are different kinds of emphasis for the different services. No matter if the SIEM tool is made by Intel, IBM or Fortinet, the overall goal of being notified of attackers is the same, however, one may have a larger range of coverage for devices and log types while another may have a specific log manager that picks up different readings. Whatever it may be, the system will collect information and present an analysis on the servers, but to optimize your security, there should be someone managing the system the entire time.

Look at it this way, let’s say you want to build a shed in your backyard to protect some equipment and toys from the rain, snow or sun, and you have a hammer, plenty of nails, wood, and a few other tools. Unfortunately, nothing will get done if you don’t pick up the hammer. While it is great that you have the necessary tools and supplies, you will never build a shed to protect/shelter your equipment and toys if no one is utilizing the tools. It is the same with these SIEM services, or tools — without a full-time individual, ideally from a professional cybersecurity company, you are at risk of missing critical notifications and real threats.

Why Cybersecurity is not a DIY Product

Now, if you don’t necessarily think this is the case and you feel confident that you’ll be able to check up on the program every now and again, you might want to reconsider. If you didn’t already know, there were 668 million breaches in the U.S. just last year alone (the year before, there were over 1.5 billion breaches); this means that over 668 million times confidential information was exposed without authority. Also, 38 percent of the world’s cyberattacks are targeted at the United States. While it is a law to secure your customers’ information, these numbers alone are enough reason to understand the necessity to invest in a solid cybersecurity company’s services. So, with a constant attack from unseen sources, are you really all that confident that you’ll be able to manage it all yourself?

Let’s again assume you are adamant in doing this all yourself, are you proficient in programming Java or C/C++? Do you understand web application technologies? Linux Operation Systems? Telephony Technologies (Analog and IP)? Okay, well…maybe you don’t but you can learn, right? If that is the case, are you planning on learning on the fly from a couple of YouTube videos? It’s not that we want to discourage you from learning, but it’s just a matter of being realistic. Trying to install a SIEM program and then following a manual to figure out how to make everything work is about as easy as putting a 4th grader, who is now able to read decently well, into a college-level biology and expect them to do well. the information is right in front of them, but can you really expect that? The answer is obvious.

Maybe we aren’t giving you enough credit and you actually do understand all of these things — if that is the case, good for you for sticking with this blog and reading all the way to here — but can you handle reading all the analyzed data for every device for your entire company every day? That’s where the benefit of hiring a cybersecurity company to manage the entire SIEM system for you comes into play. Not only will you have a service that is linked to your server, but you will also have a team of professionals constantly reviewing your system for dangerous activity. With just the SIEM tool at your disposition, you may be alerted when a breach is detected but what will you do from there? A team like this, will not only notify you but also provide you with a solution.

The wisest thing you will do when you are looking to increase your company’s cybersecurity is to not only purchase one of the many tools that are on the market, but make sure you also have a cybersecurity company on your side providing you with all the readings solutions you need. Need help? Contact us today!

A modern-day battle is under way as lawmakers try to block companies’ efforts to get closer with the consumers of their products and services. And the focus of that battle is online personalization.

This is the practice of targeting an advertisement to consumers’ interests, platforms and online activities, with the hope they’ll be more likely to follow through with a company’s call to action (e.g., visiting its website, signing up for a service or purchasing a product).

Regardless of whether online personalization is referred to as “precision marketing” or merely recognized as good business sense, its value cannot be debated — particularly for small and medium-size businesses. Personalization reduces advertising spend by helping businesses focus their costs on reaching the audiences they intend, and delivering the tailored messages consumers have come to expect.

This is an important effort that can serve as an equalizer for smaller entrepreneurs who lack the marketing budgets of their larger competitors.

Despite this competitive edge online personalization enables, its efficacy as a marketing tool could soon be at risk. Privacy laws are being introduced at both the federal and local government levels, challenging how U.S. companies access customer data — and ultimately, how they conduct business.

Specifically, the federal government is considering writing its own set of sweeping privacy standards — including the ability to retract and delete information companies need to deliver targeted business advertising. Given the importance of such a law, it follows that data-reliant companies like Google are weighing in on what these rules should look like.

At the same time, states like California, Colorado, Illinois and Vermont have already enacted regulations that grant constituents control over their data, or at the very least, specify punishments for companies that don’t honor consumer privacy.

The work of these governments has created templates for other blue and purple states to create their own privacy policies, a trend some predict will be widespread sooner than later. In navigating this state-specific data policy minefield, organizations will find it impossible to customize their data privacy compliance to 50 different markets (assuming a federal law doesn’t pass first).

Instead, they will need to continually identify the strictest regulation and comply with it, to ensure they can operate in the more stringent states. Bottom line: The way companies use data to bolster their business is changing — and fast.

What the future looks like

Having limited or no access to customer data may seem like an insurmountable business challenge. Data is, after all, at the cornerstone of today’s most successful companies. From Stitch Fix to Netflix, organizations are using personal data about your clothing style or favorite TV genres to optimize their offerings. At the same time, we as customers are accustomed to businesses using our data to learn our preferences, and tailoring their offerings accordingly.

With Amazon Prime, for instance, Amazon.com has a clear record of what members like to buy, when they’re most likely to make a purchase and how much they’re willing to spend; and that data goes into offering people the right deals at the right time, and, in the process, bolstering brand affinity.

Given the importance of data, businesses will look for ways to fight or game data privacy regulations to avoid their inherent costs. Beyond the investments associated with compliance, including software solutions that gather and document customer privacy preferences, increased advertising spend will also occur.

Another change: Without access to data (and personalized marketing tactics), the marketing scales will tip back in favor of the industry giants that can afford the costs attached to broad-sweeping, online advertising tactics — effectively reducing the share of voice for smaller players.

What businesses should do

Nonetheless, if you own a small business, don’t run away from data privacy law; lean into it. Reassess your business strategy, and invest in the most effective corporate tool of all: trust.

Online ads and promotions may generate temporary awareness and consideration, but trust is essential to enabling long-term, successful business relationships. Despite the fact that consumers’ trust in how organizations handle their data is remarkably low, according to a Pulse survey, their desire for businesses to protect their information and use it judiciously has arguably never been greater, according to a survey by my business, ForgeRock.

In addition, internet access is practically ubiquitous, so the stakes of a data breach or misuse are now significant enough that customers tend to patronize companies they believe will protect their information. As a result, trust is key to building brand loyalty.

As such, for companies that honor the tenets of the data privacy laws to come, putting the trust of existing and prospective customers first, will ultimately win out. So, how exactly can companies build trust and anticipate compliance with privacy legislation?

1. Enable transparency.

An overarching theme to the laws that are being discussed (or are already in place) is transparency, a desire from the public to understand how their data is being used, and with whom it will be shared.

Traditionally, companies have kept this type of information close to the vest, but there’s actually a benefit to (at least partially) sharing how consumer information will be used and how it will benefit the customer. The point is to put consumers in the driver’s seat by clearly outlining data protection practices, establishing simple processes for customers to remove themselves from opt-in lists and reaffirming on your website your company’s commitment to data protection.

Even if you’re not yet technically required to do so, you should ensure transparency about how your company acquires, uses and protects customers’ information. That move will earn you their trust.

2. Prioritize proactivity.

Keeping customer data safe isn’t just good practice, it’s fiscally prudent. Integral to data privacy legislation is making sure that consumers are empowered to seek financial retribution from any organizations that fail to keep their data safe (already, U.S. companies are shelling out more for data breaches than businesses in any other country).

To head off such legal action against your company, take charge before catastrophe strikes. Once a breach occurs, your corporate reputation and trust will have already been eroded. Investing in a data privacy platform allows companies to ensure that classified information is shared with only those authorized to access it, preventing any form of data misuse.

I assure my company’s privacy platform by meeting with partners and customers to understand their security pain points, and then working closely with our engineering and solutions teams to tailor our product to their evolving needs. With customers, a reoccurring theme is the need for data protection tools to be scalable, and available across all traditional and mobile platforms. As such, we’ve taken an omnichannel approach to our solution, helping clients identify and mitigate potential privacy risks, no matter what the context.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), for instance, turned to us when it needed a security platform that would accommodate the proliferation of devices (mobile, tablet, web) on which its services had become available. Toyota Motor Corporation in Europe also used us to protect its increasingly “smart” vehicles from remote takeovers and other IoT security attacks by authenticating and securing the identity of both vehicle and the driver. Both companies first identified their challenges, then adopted a solution tailored to those obstacles.

3. Publicize your progress.

As data privacy laws become pervasive, there’ll be a keen eye on which companies achieve compliance by the required deadlines, and which do not. Businesses that fail to do so may face fines (even service blackouts). Those that achieve compliancy will have an opportunity to communicate their commitment to data privacy, driving customer satisfaction and trust.

Too often, data security is nothing more than a checkbox on a corporate to-do list. But with the slew of recent data breaches and misuses stirring a sea of change in how customers prioritize protecting their information, the new legislation offers a chance for businesses to reaffirm their commitment to privacy through social media and press outreach.

To date, privacy protection has been mainly seen as a nice-to-have. But with unprecedented legal scrutiny placed upon how businesses access and leverage data, they must not only comply with the letter of the law, but the spirit of it. If organizations embrace a proactive, “privacy first” approach, they’ll be prepared to weather the shifting landscape of data privacy legislation — and generate trust, brand equity and long-term success.

Are you tired of maintaining an IT team that performs the same mundane tasks of procuring hardware, maintaining server upgrades, ensuring security compliance, resolving routing loop issues, maintaining backups and other arcane operations chores?

Today, chances are, that 99% of your competition has moved at least one of their applications to the cloud. The wide range of offerings that cloud service providers offer allows businesses to avoid allocating a large number of their staff to do non-core business tasks. This advantage of being able to concentrate all of your energies on your core business cannot be missed.

1. Reducing your total cost of ownership,

Reducing total cost of ownership may involve moving some assets from CapEx to OpEx, reduction of IT skill sets to deliver, or reducing the cost of resources required to maintain your overall IT infrastructure.

2. Optimizing business requirements/operations

Operations compliance related to data security and the need to modernize your business requires a business optimization approach while deciding on your cloud strategy.

3. New innovations/revenue streams

Monetizing your data, or increasing business agility, will require an innovative cloud strategy to get started.

4. Flexibility

The cloud brings in new features of rapid elasticity, on-demand provisioning, independently scalable, and deployable microservices, which were not available in in-premise or datacenter offerings. Businesses capitalizing of these new features while moving to the cloud will carry a sustained competitive advantage with them.

5. Third-party assistance 

Engaging a cloud expert as an advisor to help you to blueprint your cloud strategy is of utmost importance. The cloud expert can educate your decision makers of the new added benefits of cloud-like elasticity, server-less computing, artificial intelligence ready-to-use models, etc. while setting flags of the risks of security, compliance, data leak, and backup strategy. An educated foresight on how the cloud would revolutionize your customers and vendors is a must while developing your cloud strategy.

Many cloud vendors have emerged in the last 10 years. There seems to be an agreement amongst the top 3 cloud vendors on the basic services and cloud features to be offered. Their deep-pocket investments to make their platforms more usable and make self-service a reality adds a sense of comfort while making a decision on a long-term partner. Selecting a cloud service provider is like a buying decision between Washington apples vs. the Himachal apples. While one cloud service provider comes with a huge experience in search and AI, the other’s expertise in handling a huge number of transactions cannot be ruled out. Though offerings look similar, their differences should be accounted while making a decision.

Article provided by PartnerOn and entrepreneur.com.

From July 31 to August 2, 2019, the MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality Symposium met on the campus of MIT in Cambridge, MA for the 13th consecutive annual program. Of course, for most of these years this event was focused on information quality, and it was only during this decade that the event has rechristened itself to focus on the Chief Data Officer (CDO) role and audience. At the 2018 program, a panel of CDO’s, consisting of CDO’s representing GE, General Motors, and Morgan Stanley shared their perspectives on the state of the CDO role and reflected on the challenges they faced, as well as the opportunities before them.

On July 31, 2019, CDO’s representing Cigna, Citizens Bank, JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard, and Walmart will convene for a panel discussion to offer their perspectives on the state of the CDO role and the challenges they must overcome. The timing couldn’t be more opportune. While the CDO role is now widely adopted — 67.9% of major companies report having appointed a CDO, up from 12.0% in 2012 — the challenges have arguably never been greater. Data continues to proliferate. Data ethics and data protection have risen to the top of corporate Board priorities. Digital transformation initiatives are driving intensified competition. Chief Data Officers are being subjected to greater demands, while greater levels of expertise are being called for.

Data challenges are growing, not diminishing. The consequence is that the Chief Data Officer can become a lightning rod. Now, more than ever, firms must come to terms with their data assets and data responsibilities. Data ownership, accountability, and policy must be a Board-level priority. Firms that recognize this will be positioned to outdistance their business rivals, while governing data within an ethical framework. The data challenge is not going away. Data will continue to grow at bigger and faster rates. Firms will be awash in more data, not less. We operate in an Age of Data, whether we embrace this view or see it as a foreboding harbinger. Companies face an existential business challenge, and a pivotal transformational opportunity.

Data-driven transformation is not a one-shot effort or project. It represents a long and sustained journey which requires commitment, steadfastness, and adaptability. A Chief Data Officer is not an alchemist. There is no single formula for success. Each organization must critically assess its own capabilities, capacity, culture, and maturity, and shape the CDO role accordingly. What works for one firm may not work for another. What works today may not work tomorrow. An external catalyst may be best suited to the CDO role today, and a veteran insider best suited to that role tomorrow.

Although firms continue to restructure the CDO role, with a few firms even having eliminated the position for the time being, the Chief Data Officer function is here to stay. As organizations mature their data capabilities and practices, the CDO function will continue to evolve. To compete in a data-driven world, organizations must continue to adapt and manage their data strategies and expectations. Firms that seize the initiative, take a long view, persist in their efforts, and learn from their experience, will lead the way. The oft-stated mantra of the data-driven organization has been “fail fast and learn faster”. Welcome to the world of the Chief Data Officer in 2019.

Article provided by PartnerOn and Forbes.

Is cybersecurity a priority for your construction business? Let’s explore why it should be.

Reports show that the construction industry is a Top 5 cyberattack target, with some ranking it as high as number 3! Construction executives may think that because their company is not storing the same type of sensitive information as a hospital or bank does, that they are not at risk. This is not true.

Because the construction industry is generally slower to implement , it is perceived that the industry is slower to implement digital security as well. As the construction industry continues to evolve and become more connected, cybercriminals look to find more opportunity for success. Professionals predict that as contractors ramp up their with remotely accessible software and systems such as ERP solutions, project management software, mobile apps and IoT devices, the attack surface becomes larger and potentially more lucrative. Designs, bids, employee information and financial data are all at risk.

That risk can be reduced radically by making cybersecurity a priority for your business. Ask yourself questions such as: How would it affect my company if my employees’ personal data got into the wrong hands? How crucial are my designs and unique business practices to the success of my company? Could my business survive a digital disaster? (i.e., my company data was destroyed). If the answers to questions like these make you uncomfortable, you should embrace cybersecurity without delay.

Whether your firm has an IT employee or you outsource your support, consider these questions.

• Are our IT devices (computers, servers, etc.) current on updates and security patches?
• What is our business continuity plan?
• Do we have a NextGen firewall and antivirus? Are they up to date?
• What are our current Web filter rules and policies?
• Is security awareness training in place for our employees?

The answers to questions such as these will help you determine your risk and what can be done to reduce it. Be proactive – make cybersecurity a priority for your construction business today. Contact Yeo & Yeo Technology for assistance with ways to improve threat vulnerabilities.

The hardest part of a successful digital transformation is the cultural piece. Like the proverbial journey of a thousand miles, it begins with three small steps.

You need to be in a state of constant revolution. You don’t make a change and then just sit back and wait for the next five years of business as usual. I think you need to build a new momentum and rhythm in your business that reflects the new reality of the industry in which you are operating.

Many companies already have a strategy of continuous improvement in their businesses and in their operations globally. You need to instill, even in that kind of organization, a culture of continuous change and evolution in how things work.

Some changes are gradual and evolve toward an end goal, which becomes clear over time, and you need to make a number of small steps to do that. Sometimes you do this through external actions, such as acquisitions, investments, partnerships, or other external activity or statements. Or sometimes you do this through internal activity, such as the people you promote or the way you talk about the company and its customers and mission. Some people will be taken a little outside their comfort zone, but that’s OK, so long as you give them the permission to take small risks and fail quickly if they can.

3. The board’s role in the digital age

The role of the board in a digital business is quite different from the role of the board in a legacy business. One of the challenges many legacy companies face today is that their boards are not really ready to challenge them and to support and encourage their digital transformation.

If you think of the average age of most board members around the world—and, frankly, of their backgrounds as well—they are not digitally ready. A recent Russell Reynolds survey suggested that only 4 percent of global 500 companies truly have a board that’s digitally ready, even fewer in Asia–Pacific, and under 25 percent in the United States. So there’s still a long, long way to go.

To make a digital transformation happen, you need complete alignment—from the board through the executive team through the whole organization. Without that “air cover” from the board and from shareholders who understand the change that you’re taking the organization through, it is very, very hard to do it successfully.

For example, many board meetings are backward looking in their approach. The data they’re looking at is often a little old. They’re not looking at live data. Many board members are often not active customers of the company’s products or services. There’s a new generation of board director emerging that is much more hands-on, with a more entrepreneurial background. You mix that with some of the more traditional board profiles and you get greater diversity on the board.

Article provided by PartnerOn and mckinsey.com.

Success for wealth managers will hinge on their ability to use emerging technologies to take personalized service and deep knowledge of their clients to the next level, according to a new report published by Temenos and Forbes Insights.

The report, titled “The Next-Generation Wealth Manager,” found that 64% of executives in wealth management said they are able to create distinct client profiles for highly personalized service, and 86% said artificial intelligence (AI) is important or highly important in delivering data analysis and personalized insights. That’s significant because nine in 10 said analytics has the same level of importance.

Taken together, the findings suggest that wealth managers are all-in on and have advanced their digitization and deployment of AI with big strides. Still, over a third are notable to deliver highly personalized service, a touchstone of the business.

Turning Data Into Insights

Executives who took the survey overwhelmingly believe that wealth managers who are adept at (84%) and increase personalization of products (82%) will succeed.

But how wealth managers practice hyperpersonalization, which high-net-worth and mass affluent investors expect, will require AI and analytics.

Technologies like machine learning that can make sense of data and patterns—and the incisive analytics that can result from its use—are now essential. And AI is important to myriad aspects of the business, including:

• Overall client experience (82%)
• Client communication (81%)
• Operational efficiency (82%)
• Back-office efficiency and automation (80%)

AI also factors into the investment side: More than eight in 10 executives see AI as important in forecasting, and almost the same percentage of executives believe it plays a big role in portfolio returns.

Still, clients believe advisors have an outsize influence over returns, even if they’re aided by AI. A fifth of them give advisors all the credit—and over half (54%) say they should get almost all the credit. In essence, wealth managers will be distinguished by what they do with the and how they deepen their capabilities. Those who are successful in this regard will be rewarded with client loyalty.

“We’re using AI in a number of tools to bring our internal enterprise data together and bring insights to our customers,” said Johnson.

She points to client services such as U.S. Bank’s mobile app and an external account aggregation feature that pulls data on the full financial picture of clients into its financial planning software. That capability helps advisors know exactly what’s going on in other areas of a client’s financial life. And the data fuels the firm’s AI systems for insights.

“It’s not one big data mark, but how you connect all that data to gain insights on customers,” she said. “We want to ensure that we are providing the best services and timely insights for them.”

Inspiring New Products

The window into clients’ behavior and financial goals—and ever-nuanced segmentation–is being opened wider thanks to analytics. Almost 40% of executives say analytics enable capabilities like more proactive financial guidance and more accurate tracking of individualized results.

Eddy Tai, global head of operations and at Bank of Singapore, points to the predictive capabilities emerging from AI and data analysis. Deeper insight into profiles enables wealth managers to gain precise readings on satisfaction levels, for example, so they can accurately predict when a client plans to leave the firm. That’s one way analytics is playing a role in retention and lowering churn.

Analytics improves Know Your Customer, or KYC, in other ways: Profiles become more accurate in a real-world way. Tai describes the example of a client who presents himself as very conservative, while analytics from this person’s behavior shows an interest in more alternative investments or new markets.

“Through data analytics, you can see why a client will behave differently than he or she would on paper or based on conversations—and this enables a level of understanding we didn’t have before,” he said.

The role of AI and analytics in personalization extends into investments by opening the way to new products and services. Almost half (45%) of respondents say this use case will change the financial guidance they give clients; they also see new and more sophisticated financial products emerging (37%).

That trend is already well under way: Over the past three years, with the rise of AI and analytics in the wealth management experience, 42% of clients surveyed say they have more clarity and awareness over their investments—and almost a third report that their advisor has a better read on financial markets.

“The reality is that even little bits of insights are so valuable,” Johnson said. “How we help our clients is an ongoing evolution. Whether they’re in emerging wealth, private wealth or mass affluent, is foundational—and clients are expecting it more and more.”

Article provided by PartnerOn and Forbes.com.

Yeo & Yeo Technology began as a two-person division of Yeo & Yeo CPAs & Business Consultants in 1984, incorporated in 1996 and has since grown to more than 35 employees.

YYTECH currently supplies IT solutions to more than 300 clients throughout Michigan from its office in Saginaw, Michigan.

President Jeff McCulloch said he is proud to be part of a business that has served its client base for three decades.

“It’s humbling to reach this milestone,” he said. “To make it this long in the IT industry shows dedication and strong backing from our clients. It not only speaks for the services we provide for them, but it also shows that they have faith in the work we do. Having strong relationships with our clients is something we take seriously and have a lot of pride in.”

McCulloch added that YYTECH’s dedicated staff is another reason for the company’s longevity. One-third of the employees have been with the company 10 years or more.

“Our staff is consistently learning new technologies and obtaining certifications to keep our business at the forefront of for our clients,” he said. “Careers in require skills and talent that push employees to their max. We are proud to have many talented individuals on our staff.”

As continues to advance, YYTECH has positioned itself for the future. McCulloch said YYTECH is ready for whatever changes may come in IT.

“We have to be open-minded,” he said. “What we are doing today is not what we are going to be doing in the coming years.”

“We have superb staff on top of some cutting-edge technologies. I am excited about what the future holds,” concludes McCulloch.

Yeo & Yeo Technology introduces a comprehensive cybersecurity monitoring and compliance solution that provides 24/7/365 monitoring of networks and is designed to prevent and accelerate detection of cybersecurity threats for Michigan businesses. The low-cost, continuous monitoring service, YeoSecure, transforms the way companies detect, investigate, and respond to cyber threats.

Over 70 percent of cyberattacks target small and medium businesses. Most of these businesses lack the and personnel to protect themselves, leaving disconnected layers of security and allowing breaches to go undetected for hundreds of days. “By using continuous security monitoring, organizations have access to real-time visibility into the condition of their security while constantly monitoring for threats, gaps in security infrastructure, and other vulnerabilities,” said Jeff McCulloch, President of Yeo & Yeo Technology, “YeoSecure automates alerts and identifies threats immediately so organizations can rapidly take the appropriate actions and reduce financial and business risk.”

YeoSecure is specifically designed to meet industry-specific regulations and compliance requirements such as PCI-DSS, COBIT, HIPAA, ISO, NIST, and others.

In BUD/S (SEAL Training), we did this awful training evolution called Log PT. It lasted roughly two hours and consisted of a 250-pound log, five to seven guys and a whole lot of swear words. The purpose of Log PT—besides weeding out the weak-minded—was to breed teamwork. Thirty seconds into the evolution, you can barely lift your arms over your head—and there’s still 119 minutes to go. 

There’s one lesson in teamwork that Log PT teaches: that it doesn’t matter who is on the team because nobody can lift the log for two hours on their own. What does matter is how the team works together. In other words, how you work together is more important than who’s on the team.

If you want to start producing real results together, start by examining how you work. When it comes to groups and teams there are three practices each must do to produce work: meet, communicate and decide. That’s it. Simple, yes. Easy, no. Here they are:

Team communication.

There are a number of things to consider when it comes to team communication, but two aspects I look for when coaching teams are the ratio of statements to questions (for the same reason why questions matter more than answers) and the types of questions used. Forward-focused questions (“How might we institute this practice next time?”), for example, create momentum, whereas neutral questions (“What are our numbers?”) or rearward-looking questions (“Why didn’t we look at XYZ?”) stifle it.

Something else to consider when it comes to team communication is the quality of conversations had. When I first began working with one of my current clients, one of the first things I noticed was the quality and frequency of conversations. Namely, candid conversations were reserved for one time of year only. I can’t begin to imagine how we—Navy SEALs—would’ve operated had we only shared and received feedback from each other once a year. Communication drives momentum. You can’t sustain (or build) progress without it.

Team meetings.

Team meetings can be the bane of everybody’s existence or an anticipated opportunity to get real work done. In my experience coaching teams, it’s the former—but only because they’ve never been exposed to tools that enable the latter. Team meetings shouldn’t focus solely on the task to be achieved but the relationships therein that make achieving that task possible. You can also classify your meetings into four different types so that everybody knows the expected outcome. Here are four I use:

1. Decision meetings. The outcome here is to make a decision on a previously socialized topic, or, something brand new where a decision needs to be made immediately. Remember, it doesn’t matter which direction you move when you’re taking enemy fire just so long as you move elsewhere. Decision-making oftentimes works the same way.
2. Update meetings. The purpose here is to share the big picture so employees become more informed as to how they fit into the larger puzzle. They also become more engaged when they know why things work because now they know how they can contribute.
3. Discussion meetings. Discussion meetings are a great way to drive innovation because the environment is psychologically safe from the start. In other words, you set the expectation that the meeting will use questions only—no statements will be made. What this does is a few things. First, it’s disarming because there’s nothing to prepare for. The only thing required of attendees is their attention. Second, it sparks a lot of creative thinking while quelling the impetus to make a decision, which is not an easy norm in a room full of executives (but always worthwhile).
4. Review meetings. After action reviews are the best example of a review meeting. Basically, the intent of a review meeting is to learn from the past in order to inform the future. You can combine rearward-looking questions with forward-looking ones to make sure insights don’t become negative. An example might be, “What did we do wrong that we can learn from and institutionalize into a best practice?”

Team decision-making.

Decision-making is a common fear for many leaders. There’s the fear that it’ll be “wrong” or that others will judge you for the decision made–and you’re right, they will judge you. However, that’s outside your sphere of control, and whatever’s outside your sphere of control is (should be) also outside your sphere of concern.

One thing I like to track for teams is the decision mode they use and how often they use it. There are four different types of decision modes: autocratic, consensual, democratic and unanimous. What gets interesting is when the team thinks a decision is democratic but is really autocratic—again and again.

If you really want to win together, forget about the endstate and focus on the process of getting there.

Article provided by PartnerOn and forbes.com. Authored by Jeff Boss.

Bill Gates has made his fortune, and has given much of it away, thinking about the endeavors that will make our the world a healthier, connected and equitable place. Recently, the MIT Review asked Gates Foundation and Microsoft co-founder to share the inventions and technologies that he believes will effect real change this year and beyond.

Some of the advances he offered up include projects such as Dactyl, which teaches robots how to develop fine motor skills like flipping a block in its hand, and work being done to develop machines that could pull carbon dioxide from the air to lessen the effects of climate change.

Related: Bill Gates Made These 15 Predictions Back in 1999 — and It’s Scary How Accurate He Was

Some of these include green toilets that can get rid of waste and treat water at the same time, plant-based meat alternatives that are developed in the lab, customized cancer vaccines tailored to an individual patient’s needs, and a capsule with a mini microscope attached to it that would allow physicians to check kids and infants for gut issues without having to use anesthesia.

Looking even further ahead to the future, Gates shared what we wanted to see on his potential list 20 years from now.

“I would hope to see technologies that center almost entirely on well-being. I think the brilliant minds of the future will focus on more metaphysical questions: How do we make people happier? How do we create meaningful connections? How do we help everyone live a fulfilling life?” Gates wrote. “I would love to see these questions shape the 2039 list, because it would mean that we’ve successfully fought back disease (and dealt with climate change). I can’t imagine a greater sign of progress than that.”

Article provided by PartnerOn and entrepreneur.com.

As agencies shift more data and applications from legacy systems to the cloud, here are some tips to keep in mind.

The Trump administration’s “Cloud Smart” strategy encourages federal agencies to continue moving data to the cloud. The strategy also notes that planning is an essential element of data migration. 

“Cloud adoption requires that agencies prioritize migration planning, sustainment, and organizational maturity in order to realize the full benefit of these services,” the strategy states.

Yet for data migrations to be successful, agency IT teams need to rigorously plan out such migrations, consider their scope, examine the agency’s existing infrastructure and data, and determine how data will be structured once it’s moved into a more modern architecture. Such processes need to be deliberate and involve strong IT governance as well as , professionals say.

“You can’t possibly pick up all of your infrastructure, applications and data and move it to the cloud overnight,” says Dave McClure, the principal director of Accenture Federal Services, who leads its CIO leadership agenda. “It’s a multiyear adventure, if you will.”

How Can Agencies Successfully Undertake Data Migrations?

Agency IT leaders should ask themselves and their staff numerous questions when undertaking a data migration process. As Valeh Nazemoff, executive vice president and co-owner of Acolyst, a business performance management consulting firm, notes in FCW, these include asking why the data needs to be migrated, what it’s currently used for and which staff will be involved.

Additionally, Nazemoff says, agencies should consider the timing of a migration, where the data should go once it is moved and how it will be migrated.

McClure, who was formerly the associate administrator of citizen services and innovative technologies at the General Services Administration, agrees, and says most agencies need to consider the target for migration of legacy databases into the cloud and why that is necessary. “What is that going to get us?” he says. “Is it getting us more cost savings? Is it getting us better security because it’s more secure? Is it getting us better performance so that mission side is happier with the process tools and service delivery tools that are available in the cloud environment?”

Once agencies get a handle on the scope of their migrations and why they want to move data, they should collect critical infrastructure and application data. That will help them determine whether data is structured or unstructured and if it is embedded in legacy proprietary systems, McClure says.

“What is the data that I need to move and why? Just having those strategy discussions about that is pretty important,” he says.

Agencies should also undertake a deep analysis of the value stream, cost savings and performance improvement that come from moving specific applications to the cloud, he adds. That enables agencies to develop a roadmap of what is going to be moved, when, how and why.

The Types of Data Migration for Agencies to Consider

Agencies can undertake several different kinds of data migrations. Here is a quick breakdown on a few of the major ones:

• Cloud Migration: Agencies undertaking cloud migration usually do so because it grants them higher reliability and greater availability of their data, McClure notes. Legacy systems put agencies in danger, according to a recent Accenture survey of 185 federal IT executives; 58 percent of those surveyed say their agencies experienced two to three major disruptions or outages over the past decade, and just 4 percent avoided any discontinuities within that time frame. Agencies also move data to the cloud for greater security protections than exist with legacy systems, in part because cloud service providers continuously update security protections. Compute power is also relatively inexpensive, delivering cost savings, McClure notes. And cloud enables agencies to achieve compliance goals and increase transparency in reporting on their data.

  The biggest fears with cloud migration are data loss and a lack of interoperability among different cloud platforms. “How easily does that data reconcile and become transferrable back to another system? What guarantee do I have that it’s actually my data and that it’s not infiltrated with other data as well?” McClure says. Agencies also need to contend with potential cloud service disruptions and costs associated with new cloud services.

• Database Migration: With database migrations, agencies often need to overcome the challenge of data stored in proprietary systems with embedded logic and rules around its use. “The movement of a database to a cloud environment may not be as seamless as one expects if you don’t understand how that data and those business rules and logic will behave when they move to an entirely different infrastructure and entirely different way of storing and computing data,” McClure says.

  Agencies should ensure that new databases have a track record of being able to perform just as well or better than what was in place before. In many cases, databases are not transferable to the cloud, McClure warns, meaning agencies need to figure out new database systems or cloud applications that can perform the same functions more efficiently.

• Application Migration: The “lift and shift” migration of applications to the cloud from traditional data centers is often difficult, McClure says, and agencies often need to re-architect apps in cloud environments. Accenture recommends to federal clients that they also consider moving nonproduction environments to the cloud because they tend to have less migration complexity and often account for a large chunk of an agency’s IT budget. Doing so gives agency IT teams experience with the cloud without having to move core operating systems or mission apps first.

  Agencies may need to renew old software, McClure says, and in some cases, software may no longer be supported. If that is the case, it may make more sense to look for a Software as a Service solution that can replace existing software.

What Is Data Migration Testing and Why Is It Important?

According to the Software Testing Help blog, data migration testing involves “a verification process of migration of the legacy system to the new system with minimal disruption/downtime, with data integrity and no loss of data, while ensuring that all the specified functional and non-functional aspects of the application are met post-migration.”

Essentially, agencies need to undertake a health assessment on whether apps and data are fit for the cloud or other new environments, McClure says. Agencies need to look at technical issues, as well as those related to migration costs, risks, business values, and complexity of the transfer and re-orchestrating of the data to work in cloud environments.

Such data migration testing is designed to give agencies a clear sense of the relative complexity or simplicity of moving data. McClure says agencies should not begin any data migration until they perform that analysis, which Accenture dubs a Fit for Cloud Assessment.

Data Migration Tools Agencies Can Use

There is no shortage of tools for agencies to examine their infrastructure and data. Unfortunately, McClure says, agencies often do not have a complete picture of their infrastructure, apps and data. Once that inventory is done, data migration becomes more doable, according to McClure, and “the roadmap of what is moved when, where, why and how becomes easier to decipher.”

Agencies often have a lot of “dark” data that is unknown to IT teams and departments’ wide reporting mechanisms. To get a handle on their data, agencies can turn to extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) tools, which are often associated with data warehouses. Such tools are designed to extract, examine and clean data, and learn how it is being used.

IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP are among the key ETL vendors, McClure says. Other vendors, such as Informatica, Qlik and NetApp, offer similar tools.

As TechTarget notes, there are also several categories of file migration tools, including host-based file-level migration; host-based block-level migration; network-based file-level migration; network-based block-level migration; and array-based block-level migration.

No matter the tool, McClure says, agencies need to understand the data they want to move and why, and then do so in a way that minimizes risk and addresses the most common issues associated with remediation problems: changing from one database scenario to another or one infrastructure or application set to another.

“It requires that careful analysis so that the risk factors are lowered and the chances of success are tremendously improved,” he says.

Article provided by PartnerOn and  fedtechmagazine.com.

The most important aspect of emerging technologies is how people and organizations put them to work.

Most businesses agree that the future of work will be rooted in , from cloud-based software to AI. But on its own isn’t enough. People, not just , will define the future of work.

The world is more open, connected and moves faster than we’ve ever known. As a new generation enters the workforce, they won’t just demand tools that are as good as those in their personal life, they have a different expectation of work itself.

Following are six trends we think will be critical to the workplace of the future. We believe these will be key principles for all businesses if they’re are develop the speed and resilience they’ll need to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world:

Trend 1: Open by Default

Young people share more of their lives than previous generations could have imagined. They see instant access as a right — to media and games and also to information and each other.

At work, being open by default breaks down organizational silos, giving people quicker access to information they need. It also helps us feel more connected to the mission and co-workers.

Consider a senior manager who uses an email memo to communicate to a team. Who would hit Reply All to that? No one. But what message does that send? It says, “Do not share your ideas. Do not share your voice.” In the future of work, we’ll move from the closed culture of email threads and 1:1 conversations to a radically open culture of transparency. The organization of the future will be one where news travels fast (good news and bad news), where the distance between all employees has been reduced.

Being open and giving everyone a voice is the only way to attract and retain talent today — not the top-down culture of the past. Connecting everyone on the same platform lets people understand who they work for and what the values and culture of the company are — making the organization come alive.

Trend 2: Mobile First and Automated

Mobile stats speak for themselves: 71 percent of time spent online in the US happens on a mobile device (that figure is 61 percent in the UK and 91 percent in Indonesia); mobile penetration is at 84 percent in Europe, 80 percent in the US and 66 percent in Asia Pacific. The next generation of workers will be tied to their phones, not their desks. That means we need experiences that are simple to perform on the go.

Automation will play a major role in this. Bots have taken what used to be tricky or time-consuming tasks and made them mobile-friendly, lightweight, interactive and fun. Bots make operating a business more cost-effective, foster business culture and increase productivity. Increasingly, we will see automation and bots become a key component of next-generation, mobile IT.

Trend 3: Multi-Modal

The mobile revolution has inspired a giant shift in the way people communicate. We’ve moved from the written world of email to a multimodal world where video, text, emojis, photos and gifs all have a role.

Video is effective in the workplace for the same reason we love it in our personal lives: attention. At Facebook, our studies show that people spend five times longer looking at video in the News Feed compared to photo or text posts. As the volume of information at work grows exponentially, video remains the most powerful way to cut through the noise and grab precious extra seconds of attention.

Trend 4: Integrated

People will always want to use multiple tools to get work done. In the future of work, it’s important to enable this flexibility by taking a “best of breed” approach to software and other tools for work.

It’s frustrating when you realize that you can’t access a link or file from somebody on a different team because their software isn’t compatible with your own, as can be the case with legacy IT systems. The tools we use in the workplace of the future will have integration built in from the start.

Trend 5: Connected

The static, desktop-based way of working no longer reflects reality.

A study by Upwork and Freelancers Union concluded that by 2020, 50 percent of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers with no fixed “place” of work. Other parts of large organizations are often cut off from central communications — people working in factories, shop floors or in the field. In the workplace of the future, everybody will be connected through mobile — giving a voice to people who have been beyond reach of traditional IT.

This is about more than connecting disparate geographies. Connecting companies from top to bottom gives a voice to new people, encouraging new ideas that transform culture. According to Deloitte, 69 percent of C-level executives say company culture — especially transparency in internal communications — is critical to their organization’s ability to realize its mission and vision.

Trend 6: Personalized and Prioritized

Productivity and collaboration tools will increase the volume of information hitting employees. As the speed of information accelerates, making sense of it quickly and prioritizing it effectively will be a key competitive skill.

Time is our most precious resource, which means we need to make smart choices about where to spend it. AI will play a key role bringing the most important information to the fore, giving people more time to get work done.

The next generation is upending communication at work, setting a stage for a more collaborative, transparent, democratized workplace. It’s an incredible opportunity to change how people work, how companies work and ultimately even how economies work.

Article provided by PartnerOn and entrepreneur.com.