Customers are more tech-savvy since COVID? C-suite policy makers, does your sales team feel overwhelming near-term quota pressure? The right approach to training – whatever that means in your organization – is worthless if your sales staff are unable to mentally engage due to short-term pressures. Mandatory webinar training delivers ZERO benefits if your sales staff are all checking email and following up with customers on their 2nd screen during the session. I’m a big believer in face-to-face training, (possibly even 1-on-1 uber-tailored training depending on the economics), but even those approaches can fail if their focus is so set on this month or quarter that they can’t spend mental energy envisioning a better way to operate long-term.
Recent incidents should serve as sufficient motivation: Yahoo – 3.5 billion account details were hacked in two different breaches. Every single account on a system serving nearly half of the world’s population in 2013-14 (not fully disclosed until 2017). Sony Motion Pictures – hacked by a group working with North Korea and used sensitive stolen data to force Sony to cancel the release of a movie about Kim Jong Un in 2014. Anthem Health – 80 million customers’ identity and health insurance records were breached in 2015. Equifax – 146 million customers’ detailed credit records and social security numbers were breached in 2017. Find a few more details on IT strategy insights for small business.
A simple info any CEO should know about cybersecurity: Cyber-attacks and security breaches will occur and will negatively impact your business. Today, the average cost of the impact of a cyber breach is $4.9 million. Historically, cybersecurity has been an area that is housed solely in the technology department of a company, whether that consists of one or twenty employees. But more and more executives are understanding the importance of being not only knowledgeable but also involved in the conversations and decision-making process when it comes to protecting their data.
Any business should want to have an IT consultant! The main advantage of hiring an IT consultant is that a business gets professional services and advice. Business technology is dynamic and IT experts can help a business integrate the latest technologies into its operations. In addition, experts can predict future trends in business technologies and help businesses adjust their operations in line with those trends. Certified IT consultants can analyse the current and future technology needs and help a business to meet those needs. Discover extra details at innovate or be disrupted.
Innovation Vista has a unique approach to selecting consultants for our engagements; we only hire lead consultants with experience as C-level IT leaders or Partner-level consultants who have demonstrated track records of tangible business results impacting Revenue, Market-share, and/or Margin significantly for their employers/clients. Our network includes consultants with experience in all major industries: Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials, Information Technology, Materials, Real Estate, Utilities and more.
The real power comes when you know how a customer will best interact with YOU. Beyond understanding a customer or client generally, the real benefits come to companies who know how customer needs overlap with the company’s offerings, and to companies who can predict the timing of those needs more fully. This can be challenging when you’re not doing business with a customer yet, but to fill this gap myriad data brokers and aggregators offer data which can be harvested and combined for useful insights. One critical prerequisite for combining multiple outside sources (and later integrating internal data) is to identify a unique key for each record, which ideally can be obtained automatically from data generally complete and accurate in each source. Don’t be dissuaded if this step does require working through exceptions using outsource data cleansing services or temp/intern help. If you’re going to leverage multiple sources of data, it’s a critical step to develop and nurture this unique key; many companies who skip this step end up in a nightmare of duplicate records. Explore additional details at Innovation Vista.