Tag: business information technology

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Big Data, Analysis and Business Intelligence

Big Data, Analysis and Business Intelligence

big dataThere is a lot of talk among IT professionals of “big data”, and discussions at many business conference tables center on how the organization might find greater benefit and advantage from the intelligence buried in the business systems and information.  It is a two-part problem, where the collection and the analysis each play essential roles in developing real business intelligence.

“So what’s getting ubiquitous and cheap? Data.

And what is complementary to data? Analysis. ..”

Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google and emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley
“Hal Varian Answers Your Questions,” February 25, 2008 (http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/02/25/hal-varian-answers-your-questions/).  BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS: FROM BIG DATA TO BIG IMPACT; MIS Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 1165-1188/December 2012

The information technology and systems in a business support the operation.  Software and computers help people do their jobs, and the information collected in and generated by those systems becomes the foundation for developing business “intelligence”.   Today, businesses must reach beyond their own direct operational support systems and consider the full realm of data to be collected, including IoT sensor data or social media data.

Business intelligence is gained from the analysis of the critical business data – analysis which helps owners and managers make better and more informed decisions which are based on an understanding of the business and market.   Business intelligence was a term popularized in the 1990s, but the key was the analytical component (business analytics), which gained focus in the late 2000s. Today it is big data and big data analytics, where organizations are working with massive data sets not previously even imagined.

“…one of the most significant challenges facing enterprise IT teams today is how to efficiently support and enable the “science” of big data, while providing the confidence and maturity of more traditional (and often better understood) infrastructure services.”

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2015/05/26/hadoop-big-data-storage-challenge-overcoming-science-project/

The volume and velocity of information collection is ever-increasing even in the smallest of businesses, creating a great need for tools which can structure and correlate data so that it might render some insight.  Simply storing and managing these huge and growing data sets has become a challenge, and there isn’t one right way.

Once the business has the data, then it must find a way to analyze the data, which generally involves also applying visualization tools. Many IT departments are feeling pressured in the development of new skills and capabilities around data collection and management, yet it is more frequently the business user who provides the analysis and applies visualization tools to the task.

“Data collected by the Aberdeen Group, found that employees in organizations that used visual data discovery were more likely to find the information they need, when they need it. These same companies were able to scale their use of scarce IT skills more effectively.”

http://www.tableau.com/learn/whitepapers/visualization-set-your-analytics-users-free#0vXrkWZbizxyutw

The use of business intelligence and advanced analytics continues to grow in every segment of the market – from small business to enterprise – and plays an increasingly important role in supporting business success.

Until this point, most businesses didn’t have the technology or the data to enable significant quality or business transformation, but the times are changing and deployments of data collection, analysis and visualization software and tools are expanding with it. This is a fundamental aspect of business digital transformation and fuels the next step, where intelligence is applied to conditions revealed in the data and activities are automatically performed guided by that intelligence.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Robots are just automation you didn’t know you needed

tall-tower-vancouver
There is a big trend in software integration these days which involves automation – turning connected systems into free-flowing conduits for data to move intelligently into and out of with ease.  Well, maybe not quite that, but the key is the unattended and intelligent movement of data from one system to another.  People don’t have to get involved in order for the information to flow from one system to another… it just goes by itself.  Like a robot.

Having software and systems connect to one another isn’t new at all, and businesses have for many years recognized the value of being able to have information entered in one system available in another.  Entire ERP frameworks have been created based on this concept of entering data once and using it in many ways.  The trick is when there is more than one system or software product involved.

A simple example might be someone who owns a web store and does their bookkeeping with QuickBooks Premier.  The webstore isn’t running QuickBooks; it is running an e-commerce solution or shopping cart system that allows customers to buy things online.  However, the webstore does create sales orders and charge transactions, and may even have to manage an inventory of saleable items.

Getting the information from the webstore to QuickBooks and vice versa is often a task business owners take on, either by entering the information manually themselves or hiring and employee to do it.  This manual re-entry of information introduces a large potential for errors in the data entered and is time-consuming and costly.

“It was just awful,” said David Clothier, treasurer of the Knoxville, Tenn., company, which operates more than 500 Pilot Flying J truck stops nationwide. “There were humans everywhere.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-bookkeeper-is-a-robot-1430776272

Rather than having a person re-type the information from one system into another, software-based integration programs may be available to help users map the data and move it from one solution to the other.  Using a software program to transfer the information is much faster and reduces the error rate, increasing the overall value and usefulness of the information.

Automation isn’t the only requirement that makes this all robot-like.  The additional requirement is the intelligence.  If people still have to get directly involved in order for something to happen, then all the happening is still based on human performance. No robots here.

Intelligent integration of information occurs when the systems on both ends are capable of making decisions and acting on them.  For example, a business might use a solution that allows vendors to submit their invoices electronically.  Through a base of rules that match invoices to requests and approvals, the system is able to issue payment and record the transactions automatically and without human intervention, saving hugely on personnel and processing costs.  Robots (the automation solution) wouldn’t make up all the rules, but could follow them repetitively and without question once established.

…software can help businesses operate more effectively. “If you think like a human, there are only certain things you can do. When you think like a robot, many things are possible.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-bookkeeper-is-a-robot-1430776272

It isn’t a new paradigm for building businesses – this doing of things a bit smarter than before and leveraging technology to get more done in less time.  The difference is that the pace of change is increasing, giving businesses less time to stand by and rub the chin and consider whether or not this new fangled technology makes sense. Robots, you say? Meet your new part-time bookkeeper.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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The Cloud and the Business Desktop

Cloud computing is here – no longer is it considered to be temporary or just a fad.  Even though there are many businesses in the country without access to high quality high-speed Internet connectivity, the levels of investment and revenue surrounding cloud and mobile computing solutions and technologies has proven that mobility and managed service matter to those who are connected. What’s interesting is that the popularity of the cloud and the emergence of cloud-based applications and services haven’t really put much of a dent in the need for the desktop, which remains as the business workhorse and – connected or not – represents the foundation for business productivity and getting work done.

Some years ago, business applications began to emerge in SaaS (software-as-a-service) format, meaning a customer could simply subscribe to an application on the web rather than purchasing and installing software.  This option clearly resounded with many business customers and ushered in an era of online application services oriented specifically toward mobile users. Yet the desktop remains as the place where online solutions meet productivity (export any online data to an Excel spreadsheet recently?) and where accounting and finance connect with the rest of the operation.

Believing too much of the marketing-speak around cloud computing, many business users believe that they can only remotely access business software solutions if they are “cloud” and subscription model applications, and that the desktop products they know and have invested in cannot be available to them in a fully managed online model.  In fact, a large number of the business owners I speak with that actually use hosted desktop services somehow believe that the software they are using is something special and different from that which would be installed to their PCs. The fact is that the software is not different, regardless of what they may think. More often than not, the hosted applications are EXACTLY what the customer had previously installed (or would have installed) to their own computers had they not been working with a hosting provider.  Whether they are hosted or not… the desktop products generally function with all the features and capability designed into them because they are hosted on platforms they were designed to run on (like Microsoft Windows, for example).

Customers of the QuickBooks hosting companies often refer to their systems as “QuickBooks cloud, but not the online one”, not really understanding that it is simply the full desktop application that is being hosted for them.

Regardless of how many online application services emerge, and even if (IF) web-based versions of our favorite word processing and spreadsheet software become as useful as the installed kind, there will still be a need for the desktop if for no other reason than to make it easier to use and work with a variety of solutions at the same time.  Perhaps this is why remote desktop computing and hosted application services are becoming increasingly popular approaches to cloud and managed computing services.  The user benefits from having the feature-rich applications they need and a single place to access them and make them work together (the desktop value proposition), yet is able to have remote and mobile access, comprehensive system management and maintenance, data protection, helpdesk support and affordable monthly payments (the cloud value proposition).  In many ways, application hosting models represent the best of both worlds for the business.

JJoanie Mann Bunny Feet

Make Sense?

Consider how beneficial it would be to businesses who want the advantage of remote desktop and mobile access to applications to be able to run their QuickBooks (feature-rich desktop QuickBooks) and/or other business applications in an anytime, anywhere sort of environment. Businesses can obtain hosting services for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise – allowing organizations to have their QuickBooks financial applications managed, protected, secured, and made available to users all the time and from any location. Some hosting services may also support integrations and extensions for QuickBooks – for both desktop and Web-based applications and services. When the host can provide authorized subscription licensing for Microsoft Office, a business can have a complete, outsourced IT solution and pay only monthly service fees to get it. No installation or system management to worry about: the QuickBooks financials, the productivity, the operational systems and plugged-in applications can all be hosted in the cloud.

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Run Your [New, Small, Growing] Business from Anywhere

The office for a small business used to be where all the work got done.  The hub of activity and productivity for a small business, the office was where you could connect with team members and co-workers and generally keep on the same page with what was going on in the business.  Customer orders are taken, those orders are fulfilled, and bills are paid – all from the small business office.  Yet today’s small business isn’t tied to the office location any longer.fishingpoles

Mobility and the cloud now provide businesses with mobile office options that allow users to get their jobs done no matter where they happen to be.  Business moves at a fast pace, and mobility and remote access solutions help companies be more nimble.  Collaborating while on the go and exchanging ideas and concepts quickly helps businesses be more agile and better-able to meet changing customer needs.  Successful small business owners leverage mobility and action to beat the competition.

The cloud and Internet-based computing lets small businesses access and benefit from IT solutions that were previously only available to enterprise organizations.  Better IT means being more competitive, giving smaller businesses a leg up and positioning them among even the largest of competitors. For the business owner, the freedom of being able to manage the entire business from anywhere delivers a freedom and flexibility previously unimagined.

Here are some ways hosted and cloud-based IT can help small businesses overcome everyday business challenges:

Reduce or Eliminate the Need for a Physical Office

Starting a business is tough, and many small business owners decide to use their own homes as a business location rather than forking over a bunch of lease money to a commercial realtor.  Using hosting application services and cloud technologies can help keep team members and co-workers working together, no matter where they are located.  Many businesses are able to get off the ground and operating successfully without ever having an established office.

Work when it Works for You

Remote desktops and hosted applications deliver functionality to users no matter where or when they need to work.  With ready access to everything needed to get the job done, workers are able to be productive even when they’re not at a desk (or even a computer!).  Smartphone and tablet apps can make working from a mobile device highly effective, extending productivity and capability to workers whenever and wherever it is required.

Keep Everyone on the Same Page

When systems are centrally located and accessed, it is easy to keep everyone on the same version, the same edition, and the same page.  No matter where users are located, documents and application data are kept in sync, ensuring that everyone is working on the most current information available.  Mobile access to applications and data keeps information from being distributed to various devices, making revision control easier and providing better protection for valuable business information.

Mobile computing and the cloud make it easy for small businesses to have better IT that enhances productivity and supports growth.  Reducing capital costs and exchanging large technology investments with affordable monthly subscription service gives small businesses the boost they need to implement the solutions and services which will develop and improve collaboration, streamline workflows, and reduce overhead costs while enabling a fast-paced and agile business ready to meet any challenge.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

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Securing Business Data When Mobility is the Target

driving1-ANIMATIONToday’s workforce is a mobile workforce. Technology has enabled businesses to allow their employees to reach beyond the office walls, doing business and operating effectively from just about any location.  SaaS, online access to business data, and smart phone technologies have brought flexibility in working models previously only imagined by the workforce tethered to business locations and office computers. Yet this flexibility comes at a price if the business is to keep up with securing and protecting data assets as readily as it extends access to them.  The bad guys are well aware that mobile computing and remote access working models are growing in adoption with businesses, and are finding ways to take ever-greater advantage of the situation.

Teleworking, which is not quite the same thing as telecommuting, is on the rise and it doesn’t look to be a trend that will slow down any time soon. According to GlobalWorkplaceanalytics.com, “telework is defined as the substitution of technology for travel”.  Those who work sometimes from an office, but sometimes not, are teleworkers. Working at the office during the day and then taking work home at night makes you a teleworker. The primary tool of the teleworkforce is the smart phone – the mobile computer with built-in connectivity and enough processing power to handle many basic office workloads.

  • 50% of the US workforce holds a job that is compatible with at least partial telework and approximately 20-25% of the workforce teleworks at some frequency
  • 80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to telework at least part-time. Two to three days a week seems to be the sweet spot that allows for a balance of concentrative work (at home) and collaborative work (at the office).
  • Fortune 1000 companies around the globe are entirely revamping their space around the fact that employees are already mobile. Studies repeatedly show they are not at their desk 50-60% of the time.  http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics

The number of teleworking employees is on the rise, and so is the variety of devices used to facilitate mobile working.  Smartphones, tablets and phablets and, of course, laptop computers are used by mobile workers – often in addition to the company-supplied desktop in the office. The variety and number of computing devices per user is growing. Knowing this, businesses must take increasingly expansive steps to strengthen and secure remote access systems and business data, yet many organizations are just beginning to fully realize that the mobility they extend to their users is part of the reason for the increasing number of data breaches and attacks against business information systems.

Cybercriminals and their crafty programs are often able to steal important information or access a network by first infecting computers and devices used for telework.  Many of the devices available to the attackers are not company-owned, but are introduced to the system by contractors, vendors and employees (BYOD or bring-your-own-device users).

Even if the device isn’t a vehicle delivering a nasty payload into the network, data breaches may still occur when business information is stored on an improperly secured device. Most people who work with computers have some recognition of the potential for virus attacks and malware, but far fewer recognize the threat potential of attacks against mobile devices such as phones and tablets, and even fewer may implement meaningful protections on those devices.

“To prevent breaches when people are teleworking, organizations need to have stronger control over their sensitive data that can be accessed by, or stored on, telework devices,” said Murugiah Souppaya, a NIST computer scientist. [1]

Providing guidance and information to the public on such topics, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is revising its publications on telework to cover growing use of BYOD and how contractor and vendor devices are increasingly used to access company information resources.  Two new publications – one for organizations and one for users – are now available for review and comment.  You can find them here.

“As one of the major research components of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) has the broad mission to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology through research and development in information technology, mathematics, and statistics.”  [NIST Information Technology Laboratory Mission]

The rising number of threats, attacks and breaches caused by compromised devices used for teleworking is nothing to take lightly, and protecting against them shouldn’t be approached as a merely perfunctory obligation. Organizations must create and consistently update policies and requirements relating to protecting information accessible by remote workers if they intend to reduce business risk and provide assurances to stakeholders and customers that the information is adequately guarded.  But it doesn’t stop with the policy; businesses must also make an effort to properly educate their users (employees, contractors, vendors, etc.) on those policies, ensuring that all parties involved understand the responsibilities and requirements and strictly adhere to them.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J

[1] http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/attackers-honing-in-on-teleworkers-how-organizations-can-secure-their-datata.cfm
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SEC Watchful Eyes Focus On Cybersecurity and Protecting Personal Information

SEC Watchful Eyes Focus On Cybersecurity and Protecting Personal Information  #cybersecurity BehindBars

Information privacy used to be a fairly simple thing.   Systems – what systems there were – weren’t so interconnected and information wasn’t so easy to share with thousands (millions) of people all over the world.  Security used to come down to gaining physical access to the information, which was usually on paper.  If you couldn’t get to the paper, you couldn’t get to the information. Yet those very analog days are long gone, and most of us have come to recognize that our personal information assets are no longer so tangible that we can touch them and feel them and keep them secured safely in the lockbox in the closet. What’s disturbing about the landscape of security in the cyber-world is that it is risky to trust not just the systems but the users – including the folks you want and need to trust – with your personal information.  It isn’t that you can’t trust anyone these days.  You just can’t trust that everyone is taking the precautions necessary to protect YOUR information.  You need to be sure.

Trust has always been an essential element in business and finances, and in every business relationship there is some element of it present. The prudent customer performs necessary due diligence before entering into any business arrangement, but there are often factors taken for granted in the review; factors which are overlooked or remain unconsidered, often due to an essential level of trust which  is placed with the other party. This is among the issues identified by the SEC as it relates to broker/dealers and their recognition of the importance of securing their clients personal information.  Yet recognition of the risk and responsibility isn’t always enough, especially with the number and makeup of bad actors out there. As the threat landscape changes, so must the approaches and technologies used to protect information from those threats.

Consumers place a high level of trust with their financial advisors and generally provide them with a great deal of personal information, and the broker-dealers and advisors generally recognize the importance of protecting the personal information they are entrusted with.  The problem is that these entities too often approach the problem of information security and protection as something with static and unchanging requirements. Compliance in establishing a baseline of protection is met.  A lack of ongoing diligence required to adjust to new threats and changing conditions… not so much. According to a summary report on the subject issued by the SEC in February 2015, the “vast majority” of examined broker-dealers and advisors have adopted written information security policies, yet the report goes on to discuss additional measures and constant reviews which should be applied to better guard the personal information of consumers.

Most of the examined firms reported that they have been the subject of a cyber-related incident.  A majority of the broker-dealers (88%) and the advisers (74%) stated that they have experienced cyber-attacks directly or through one or more of their vendors.  The majority of the cyber-related incidents are related to malware and fraudulent emails.

National Exam Program Risk Alert issued By the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”); Volume IV, Issue 4 February 3, 2015

Among the agencies placing focus on the issues of cybersecurity and personal information protection is the SEC.  Within the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is an office called the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE).  The OCIE exists to “protect investors through administering the SEC’s nationwide examination and inspection program”.  Registered entities examined by this office (in Washington, DC and the Commission’s 11 regional offices) include broker-dealers, transfer agents, investment advisers, investment companies, municipal advisors, the various national securities exchanges, clearing agencies, and certain self-regulatory organizations (SROs) such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

In February 2015, OCIE published a summary of observations of the findings from a SEC-sponsored Cybersecurity Roundtable which included SEC Commissioners and staff as well as industry representatives.  The roundtable discussion, held in March 2014, focused on the important part cybersecurity plays in preserving the integrity of the market system and protecting customer data.  On the heels of the roundtable came a Risk Alert published by OCIE, in which it announced a series of examinations and tests aimed at the identification of cybersecurity risks and assessing the preparedness of the securities industry to meet the challenge.  After all, federal securities laws require registered investment advisers to adopt written policies and procedures reasonably designed to protect customer records and information.

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The watchful eyes of the SEC are looking directly at broker-dealers and advisers, bringing additional attention to messaging about the requirement for these entities to protect consumer personal information.  The message is more likely to be heard when it includes the threat of censure and big fine. In September 2015 the SEC charged an “investment adviser with failing to adopt proper cybersecurity policies and procedures prior to a breach”.  According to the SEC release, the firm “failed to establish the required cybersecurity policies and procedures in advance of a breach that compromised the personally identifiable information (PII) of approximately 100,000 individuals, including thousands of the firm’s clients.”  Also in September, the OCIE communicated another Risk Alert notifying of their intent to focus on cybersecurity compliance and controls, including information about the next round of examinations which will include more testing to evaluate firms’ implementations of procedures and controls around information protection and cybersecurity.

Gathering information on information security and privacy practices is not always easily accomplished for the SEC OCIE.  FinCin (US Dept of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), on the other hand, seems to get more reports of breaches from broker-dealers than does OCIE.  Maybe it is due to the advisor wanting to take more the role of the victim rather than admittance of culpability in any way, but the OCIE reports that roughly 65% of broker-dealers that acknowledged receiving fraudulent emails, for example, reported them to FinCen, yet perhaps 7% or fewer actually reported the information to law enforcement or other regulatory agencies.  It is the public report of the breach which gets the attention, and which continues to spur the efforts within the OCIE.

Public reports of cybersecurity breaches occur with too much frequency.  Sadly many of these events are due to failures or weaknesses in basic controls – failures which might have been identified if testing and review of basic processes, systems and controls was part of regular procedure.  With some of the largest data breaches possibly resulting from hacking of 3rd party vendor systems and platforms, review and assessment of vendors and suppliers must also be folded into the realm of consideration.  Failure to protect personal information of consumers and clients is risk to not just the firm or the client, but also to the entire market.  Risk reduction and management is among the focus areas for OCIE, a charter which supports the recent creation of the Office of Risk and Strategy, and which recognizes the challenge in gaining the information necessary to effectively inform the SEC and the market on cybersecurity issues.

jmbunnyfeetMake Sense?

J