by Felicien | Apr 23, 2019 | Education
More than ever, today’s CFOs are expected to have a degree of tech savviness. Big data and analytics are tools that are just too powerful to ignore in the CFO suite. If you’re not particularly tech savvy, harnessing the power of these tools to the fullest extent will remain out of reach.
Why You Need to Become the Tech Savvy CFO
It’s crucial to understand just how powerful today’s technology tools are for financial leadership. Whatever the nature of your business and industry, technology can empower you and your staff in the following ways.
Forecasting and Risk
Forecasting has always been a part of the CFO’s role. Forecasting today can be much more accurate, thanks to the rich data that’s available. CFOs must have the skills to understand and interpret that data (or they must employ people who can). Use robust data and analytics to reduce the amount of guesswork in your forecasting.
Risk management is another responsibility under your purview as CFO. Forecasting and risk management are interrelated, of course, and both have traditionally involved a fair bit of prediction and uncertainty. If you’re like most CFOs, you’re a fairly risk-averse person. Reduce the risks of prediction and uncertainty by basing your decision-making on data wherever possible.
Advanced Data Visualization Techniques
All this data that companies now have access to can quickly become overwhelming. Today’s tech savvy CEOs harness the power of advanced data visualization techniques to bring the most important information to the surface. These techniques include making dashboards for interacting with the data and scorecards for presenting it to users at all levels.
Predictive Analytics
In the 1960s, business predictions were often made around a conference table in a smoke-filled room. They were based on some amount of data, but hunches, opinions, and interpersonal power dynamics often played an outsized role.
Today, there’s a better way. Predictive analytics are driven by algorithms and data, not by cigars and opinions. Leverage the power of all the data you’ve collected into predictive analytics. While they are neither perfect nor omniscient, predictive analytics remove human biases from forecasting. This powerful tool can enhance your effectiveness as a CFO.
Adjust in Real Time
The CFO that understands how to use these new tools can be agile, adjusting in real time based on the data that’s coming in. Many marketplaces change rapidly, and a 6-month-old report may no longer ring true. Big data and analytics let CFOs make these quick adjustments as they continually monitor data and adjust their predictions.
Drive Growth
Acting on your analysis of data can often spur on innovation and growth. Creating efficiencies aids in growth, and as you do so you’re likely to discover new business opportunities, such as a hole in the market that your company is suited to fill.
How to Become the Tech Savvy CFO
Having a tech savvy CFO brings many advantages to a company. As a result, being a tech savvy CFO makes you a much more valuable asset. If you’re not there yet, here are a few quick tips for how to get there.
Learn Analytics
Yes, this sounds basic, but if you don’t understand how to use analytics to do the things we’ve talked about, you need to learn. If others in your company already know analytics, leverage your rank. You are the CFO, after all—make it part of their job to teach you. If you’re in a smaller firm that has yet to embrace big data and analytics, it may be time to go get a certification in this area.
Meet Regularly with Experts
Your CIO, if your firm has one, should be well versed in the sorts of technology we’ve discussed today. Meet regularly with your CIO and ask questions. Do the same with other experts in your network. They aren’t the finance people, so they may not readily see how big data and analytics can transform your role. As your understanding grows and you learn to them the right questions, you’re likely to discover breakthroughs together.
Read What They Read
Sites like CIO.com are go-to resources for CIOs, but you can benefit there, too. Not every article will apply to what you’re learning, but many will. Reading sites like these will increase your overall tech comfort level.
Leverage the Data
As your understanding of analytics grows, you can start leveraging that data in real, meaningful ways. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in a deluge of data if you don’t have the tools to parse through it. At the same time, it’s possible to parse the data so finely that you miss valuable conclusions. As your comfort level grows, you’ll improve in leveraging data to the fullest extent.
Educate Your Team
Last, you need to educate your team. As you journey to become a tech-savvy CFO, teach your team what you’re learning so that they can help you win using data and analytics.
by Felicien | Apr 22, 2019 | Education
This year, what will you do to celebrate Earth Day?
The 49th Annual Earth Day is nearly upon us. As always, it’s April 22nd and the perfect day to celebrate this beautiful blue planet we live on.
Let’s learn more about what Earth Day is, where it comes from, and how you can celebrate.
What is Earth Day?
Earth Day is an annual worldwide event, celebrated each year on April 22nd. It was created to raise awareness, support, and appreciation for the earth and environmental protection.
Why was Earth Day started?
The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22nd, 1970 when the event was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson. Originally, the event was focused in America only. Today, however, Earth Day is a worldwide phenomenon and celebrated in over 193 countries.
The Earth Day Network is current keeper and organizer of the environmental movement surrounding Earth Day. Year-round, the organization works to educate and inform the worldwide community about climate change, pollution, endangered species, and other environmental issues.
What can you do to promote and celebrate Earth Day?
We only have one earth! Earth Day reminds us how important it is to preserve and protect it. No matter what environmental practices you’re used to doing on a daily basis, you can always use Earth Day to pay more attention to how you interact with nature and the environment.
Here are three great places to start!
Plant a tree. Help repopulate the planet with trees by planting just one tree on Earth Day. Earth Day Network calls this initiative the Canopy Project, the goal of which is to “conserve, repair, and restore tree cover” throughout the world. Learn more about tree planting on Earth Day (or any day) here.
Go outside! Just going outside for a walk or raking leaves are excellent ways to engage with nature and realize the beauty of our planet. You might also go for a hike, take a bike ride on a shady trail, or enjoy a picnic in the park. If you really want to go the extra mile, consider picking up trash while you’re out and about.
Unplug. Literally and figuratively! Unplugging literally means keeping lights and appliances off as much as possible throughout the day to preserve energy. Unplugging figuratively means taking the day to engage in activities other than those involving screens — preferably those that take place outside in the fresh air.
Lastly, if you own or manage a business, make sure to celebrate Earth Day this year! Businesses can promote widespread awareness of special events like Earth Day and enact real positive change. There are many actions you can take, including promoting the event on social media, motivating your employees to take part in Earth Day activities, and spreading awareness about environmental issues.
Happy Earth Day!
by Felicien | Apr 19, 2019 | Education
Business objectives should help determine how technology will be used. The growth planning helps as technology experts determine the plans for support services. Several companies of many sizes are continuing their research of private and public clouds. The question is, “Should we go with a private cloud or public cloud?” The reviews of public and private clouds are lengthy with numerous pros and cons for both. Many businesses are finding success with the appropriate technology. With the debate analysis, the decision-makers have been weighing cost, data control, security and in-house technology staffs. The technology should support how the company will process information and help determine staffing and deployment.
Some preparation steps for going with a private cloud or public cloud are to thoroughly review profitability plans, network solutions, and all other business needs. The planning analysis is helpful, and the report plans are smart to confirm with your in-house technical staff. Communication across the company is smart as everyone understands the company messages, directives, and planning.
Profitability with Management Support
Top providers of public clouds include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud for models that are scalable, secure, provide data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities. Technology updates with monthly reports are smart options for a company’s impressive success and growth. The time and labor allocations might be considered with choices for information storage, customer IT interfacings, and staff requirements. Profitability reporting may be different between departments, employees in the field, administration, and sales teams. The IT solution should allow for customized reporting. On-premise private cloud and hosted private cloud providers are suggesting to consider security, regulatory compliance issues, and governance. Customization and controlled reporting can also improve with IT tools for data analysis. The flexibility of technology can be very helpful for overall sales and marketing.
What are Some Considerations for Planning and Design
The public cloud is considered to be easy to purchase and deploy which are a few of the reasons for being chosen by businesses. Setting up an in-house infrastructure is a consideration with fast company growth and this is another reason a public cloud may be reviewed as an IT solution. Data collection improvements are smart for profitability reviews and expense management. A completely improved plan that is chosen by the business leaders can be included in any IT rollouts with equipment reviews for business processes and requirements. Starting with the business designs and planning is helpful for many IT professionals that want to understand the business side, industry positioning, and proposed growth plans.
Network Solutions
A public cloud can be helpful because it is constantly updated. The enhanced reporting and functionality may be an attractive reason to select a public cloud, especially with fast company growth. Hosting is important and the plans for staffing are reviewed easily. One way of viewing the public versus private cloud options is to look at responsibility for hosting. It is proposed that the differentiator for a public cloud as a hosting solution to be one management responsibility that would not be needed. The hosting solution as a management plan is important as a reason to consider additional costs for staffing, equipment, IT support, administration, and overall company expenses.
Analysis of Business Planning
A private cloud may be useful for support teams if the company has an experienced managed IT services team that have been supporting data storage and data center infrastructures. The IT consultants can also prepare reports and utilize customized features with any technology experts. This is also an appealing feature for business executives that prefer to analyze sales and profitability data with their IT teams. The choices for technology solutions are important. IT providers should be leveraged and the relationship is helpful for implementations. Security planning is important with analysis of a business and regular reporting covering the following:
Privacy of Data
Customization Strengths
Efficient Record Keeping and Reporting
Technology Systems and Information Storage
IT Support for Public or Private Cloud Services
The solution must be the best for how a company is making money. Profit potential should be a simple review and the technology solutions for industry-specific businesses should be addressed. In-house technical expertise and company growth plans are two main factors to consider with the decision to go with a public or private cloud.
by Felicien | Apr 19, 2019 | Education
According to some in the technology industry, criminals use the dark web to buy and sell stolen data. Identity thieves are a must stop with any Internet offerings. The top priority with all of this is forced compliance for Internet data protection, consumer protection, and business information protection.
Internet Structures and Business Use
Understanding a few areas of consideration with the surface web and the dark web makes it easier to know how to best protect your data. Search engines use links to index websites. The links help rank searches and the results of browser requests for information. The results of searches may be related to keywords, inbound links, and relevancy. Many consider browser searches to be referred to as the “surface web”. Some information for certain title searches may not be found if the data structure is not on the surface web. This is a reason why many are hoping for Internet improvements for meaningful results of browser searches. There are two points of technology being reviewed with this topic. How does data provision improve and how do consumers with the Internet get improvements for locating the relevant information that meets their needs?
Information Hierarchies and Storage
Login information is stored somewhere with technology offering databases, cloud services, and computer capabilities. The content of information should be private and the data that is stored could be considered as part of the deep web that should offer protection and privacy of personal information. Some examples of deep web content that may not be found with Internet searches but should be a high priority for managers of businesses include the following:
Information in emails
Information with banking account online services
Information shared between social media accounts
Data in business databases
Information from medical providers
Information from legal firms
Information for the IRS
Information from public institutions, such as libraries and university databases
Understanding the deep web and surface web concepts for the Internet is what can make everything more sensible for business planning and data protection. This includes personal data protection and the suggested improvements for the usage of any information sharing processes. Overall, technology is impressive with the deep web not having private information that turns up in a web search. Misuse of data must be avoided and IT experts are excellent leaders for helping to make sure the web is safe for everyone. Routine security checks and appropriate planning are the best ways to manage protection in a smart way. Proactive plans to protect how information is provided, collected, and used is another simple way to demonstrate smart management. Managed IT support is understood better as an intelligent way to make sure a business has the experts available to help with processes, sales planning, and customer satisfaction. Profitability is a smart focus and security planning is a nice way to promote a successful business.
What is the ‘Dark Web’ and why is inappropriate and inefficient scanning disallowed?
The dark web may be used for criminal activities. Password protection is understood as more important and the selections of account data should be determined with smart planning. Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are another way to encrypt the data and protect the privacy of information. Email content from unknown sources is another consideration and company managers should consider processes and policies to protect their employees, company, and clients. Training is another smart way to make sure business information is protected and the planning processes support best practices for IT support throughout a company.
The dark web should not have any criminal activities. Dark web scanning is disallowed and should not be anything with your network. Scanning devices involved with the dark web are not considered ‘clean’ and involvement with anything like scanning services is not the best plan. Forced compliance is now the best and IT support teams are smart to focus on security and protection of all information. Companies that notice any forced inappropriate web and computer scanning may want to consider a reporting process or work with their IT experts to plan out security protection. Employee training is a smart way of protecting the information and assets of a company.
Dark web scanning services are inaccurate and inappropriate. To put it simply, the scanning is disallowed and not allowed on the Internet. Nonusage and prohibited refers to the scanning, service, providers, and convoluted partnerships. What action can you take to stop inappropriate computer presentations and forced disallowed services? What action can you take to confirm computer and network efficiencies? Manage your network with IT professionals. Also, email management is smart planning. This may include security planning, checks for computer efficiencies, and optimization of speed with performance.
by Felicien | Apr 18, 2019 | Education
The ability to work anywhere used to be limited to freelancers and writers, but today’s professionals need the flexibility to be productive regardless of their physical location. Microsoft Office 365 provides the full-featured suite of services that businesses need to scale quickly and focus on core growth. While Office 365 may call to mind basic programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, there are far more software apps available that allow you to create custom solutions by department and quickly add or reduce your licenses as needed. See why Microsoft Office 365 is the choice of millions of businesses throughout the world.
Integrated Apps: Superior Experience
Designed to help you grow your business, Microsoft Office 365 provides your teams with simple collaboration internally as well as with customer and external vendor partners. This is ideal for organizations with multiple locations that need the ability to share calendars or documents in real time. Chat functionality is built in, as well as version control that works across mobile and desktop applications. What’s better — users are able to install the apps on up to five devices, making it easy to always stay in sync.
Apps included in Office 365 include:
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
OneNote
Teams
SharePoint
Exchange Online Protection
Access (PC only)
Publisher (PC only)
Each application is fully managed and supported by Microsoft, with 24/7 phone and online support as well as their uptime guarantee of 99.9 percent so your software is always available for use by your team.
Cloud-based Storage You Can Trust
Each Office 365 subscription level also includes 1TB of storage in Microsoft OneDrive, an extremely secure solution for cloud-based business data storage. OneDrive allows you to send links to files in a secure location instead of attaching the files directly to your emails, and your devices will always be up-to-date with the most recent versions of documents — allowing for quick edits on the road. Patches are applied on a regular basis
Easy Access to Tools for Building Your Business
Your time is important, which is why Microsoft has created this integrated approach to business productivity and operations. From chatting with remote staff members to collaborating across devices with customers in other parts of the country, you’ll find all the key services that you need to build your business without the overhead of internally managing the licenses or support. From mileage tracking and protection against unauthorized access to your company’s confidential information, Microsoft Office 365 has you covered.
When you’re able to focus on the key tasks associated with business growth and are spending less time on administrative background work, you may be surprised at the high level of value you are able to deliver back to your company on a weekly basis.
by Felicien | Apr 18, 2019 | Education
As tax season rolls around, another tax scam has reared its ugly head, this time in Australia. This particular scam is fooling so many people that the Australian government’s Taxation Office has issued an urgent warning about it to the citizens of the country. It is the goal of the Taxation Office to prevent any other Australian citizens from falling victim to this scam, as it can have a devastating effect on a person’s finances. To protect themselves, it is important that all Australian citizens pay close attention to the warning and heed it carefully.
According to the Australian Taxation Office, there is an email being sent to people around the country that has a convincing copy of the myGov branding on it that the federal government uses. However, the email and branding are fake. One will know the email is a scam by reading it, even if the branding initially makes them believe it is the real thing.
The scam email tells the recipient that they are owed money in overpaid taxes, and directs them to fill out an application form to receive these funds. When the email recipient clicks the link to fill out the form, the scammers, whose identities are not yet known, are able to access all of the extremely personal information the recipient puts on the form.
The amount in back taxes the email says a recipient is owed varies, but it can be considerable or quite small. One email obtained by a local newspaper in Australia claimed the recipient was owed $80.93.
Even when the amount is small, people usually want to claim any money that may belong to them, so those who are not aware of the scam may fill out the form even for miniscule amounts. To many people, receiving $80.93 back from the goverment would be worth filling out a simple form, and the scammers know this.
The email obtained by the newspaper reads:
“After the last annual calculation, we noticed that you are eligible to receive $80.93 AUD,” it reads.
“To submit the application electronically, please fill out the form. Once the form is completed, you will be asked to confirm that the information in the document is correct.
“Please click on the link below to submit and eForm for refund.”
While the email is enticing and the logo for myGov looks real, it is relatively simple to tell if the email is from the scammers. All one has to do is hover their mouse over the link to the form. Instead of the my.gov.au address being shown, as it would if one were being re-directed to a legitimate government website, a different URL is shown.
Another way to tell that the email is not real and is from scammers is to examine the grammar and spelling in it, which are both poor. The email also does not include a name, which is another sure sign of a scam.
According to the Australian Taxation Office, there is no tax refund form issued by their office. Also, all of the online management of tax issues with individual taxpayers is handled through one of the genuine myGov accounts, with a URL to prove it. Looking for a link leading to a myGov site is imperative in learning whether the email one receives is a scam.
This scam is a good example of why it is so important for email users to be careful about what links and attachments they click on. This is true even if the email looks like it comes from someone you know, or from a legitimate source. Always check the re-direct links, and make sure the grammar and spelling are good. If you still have questions, contact the person or agency who supposedly sent the email and ask them if it is legitimate before clicking on anything in the email.
Scammers today are becoming more sophisticated. Their ability to successfully recreate the myGov logo in a convincing enough way to fool many Australians who receive it is a testament to that. In this age of cyber-scams, one must always be on one’s toes, even with emails from friends and family. You never know who has hacked your computer and received information on your contacts to use to scam you.
Be alert, be aware, and avoid becoming a victim of the next cyber-scam.
