Now more than ever, effective collaboration and communication are the keys to success. Throughout 2020, we saw a widespread shift in how we interact with each other, both in and out of work, and how we stay connected to our colleagues and customers. Just consider the following:
The digital landscape is evolving at a rate that's never been seen before and is set to continue accelerating in the years ahead. In such a fast-paced environment, the ability to work flexibly, responding to unexpected challenges and optimising the time-to-market for new innovations, is critically important for all organisations - whether they're ambitious start-ups or established global leaders. While IT infrastructure must certainly support this - hence the widespread phasing out of legacy infrastructure in favour of increasingly sophisticated Cloud transformation strategies - any new technology will be of limited effectiveness if processes and methodologies do not evolve in parallel.
After several years of serious global upheaval, it is clear that resilience, agility, and the ability to adapt to the unexpected are critical priorities for all organisations – regardless of size or sector. However, this accelerated pace of change has, in many cases, revealed the limitations of existing IT services. With an increasing emphasis on on-demand services and a highly fluid workforce, legacy services and their systems often struggle to support new propositions and customers' evolving needs, which will – in turn – make maintaining a competitive advantage difficult, if not near impossible.
We're all trying to do more with less, whether that's making our monthly shop go further and reducing our utilities consumption at home or doing more with our organisations' available budgets and resources in our professional lives. But while getting the most out of the resources we have available is certainly admirable and sensible, our most precious resource – one that we cannot replenish once it's been used – is all-too-frequently neglected: our time.
Now more than ever, organisations across the public and private sectors depend on seamless, secure, and high-quality communications. Even with an increasing range of channels having established themselves in recent years - including voice, email, video, and SMS - voice services remain a key part of how we communicate and collaborate.
From day-to-day consumer banking to high-profile asset and wealth management, the way we all access financial services is changing in ways that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. Online banking is now firmly established, allowing customers to manage their money securely within a few clicks - anytime, anywhere and without the need to visit a branch. A 2022 survey revealed that the quality of the online experience was a key factor in 81% of adults' choice of bank1.
"When it comes to digital transformation, the personal touch is often what takes projects from 'good' to 'exceptional'. Plenty of companies can deliver technology, but it's the relationships that really drive innovation in long term."
Philip Button, Regional Business Manager – Enterprise
As a long-standing technology partner for multiple financial organisations across the UK, the team at Exponential-e have been observing the sector's evolving relationship with technology for some time - both the growing demand for a higher standard of operational resilience, and an increasing awareness of the challenges and opportunities that Cloud transformation presents.
The Finance sector has always been one of the most dynamic, rapidly evolving industries, and this shows no signs of changing any time soon. But while shifts in the landscape may well open new opportunities, they will also come with new challenges, and it is the organisations who are ready and able to face these head-on who will continue to thrive in the years ahead.
Working from home can at times be compared to Marmite - you either love it or hate it. You have people that regularly work from home and find themselv...
With the current global situation, the past week has shown the importance of being able to create the Digital Workspace to provide flexible working solutions for your workforce.
I decided to write a blog around how Microsoft's Teams, a Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) solution, has enabled my productivity to not slip despite the whole of my team now having to work from home thanks to Coronavirus.
Twitter, WhatsApp and other means of consumer service technology are becoming part and parcel of communicating at work alongside Unified Communications (UC) technologies. As a result, the boundaries between our work and personal lives are becoming increasingly blurred.
Ransomware is malware that encrypts an individual's files so that they no longer have access to them, and subsequently demand payment for the fi...
Phishing is the fraudulent use of electronic communications to try and obtain sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by posing as a legitimate institution. Phishing attacks attempt to get individuals to click on a malicious link and enter confidential information to steal their identity, funds or to be the first step in a serious cyberattack against an organisation.
All organisations store data, and regardless of whether it's a recipe or an algorithm, this data is an organisation's most prized asset, which is why hackers make it their target. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) found that 32% of businesses identified cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months, which have cost an average of £4,180 in lost data and assets
Organisations generate millions of system logs every day from the likes of servers, firewalls and network devices. Their ability to process, analyse and react to this information affects how they will manage any security risks and incidents. To help process this data, many organisations implement a Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) system or outsource to a Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) for their monitoring, which provides a real-time analysis of security alerts.
Cybercriminals are only getting more cunning and skilful with their cyber attacks, which is bad news for organisations when it comes to meeting privacy and compliance regulations. There can be significant legal implications for organisations if their data is not secure and regulations are not met. For instance, since the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect in May 2018, data protection regulators have imposed 114 million euros (approximately 97 million pound) worth of fines under the GDPR regime (GDPR Data Breach Survey 2020 by DLA Piper).
With cyber breaches growing in volume and frequency (Carbon Black reported that 88% of UK organisations suffered a breach in 2018) you can guarantee that your organisation will be targeted by cybercriminals at some point.