Category: Executive Insights

A CEOs Guide to Artificial Intelligence

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

 

Today’s CEOs are increasingly being asked to lead their business into a data-driven world, but does that mean that immersive courses in understanding the technology are crucial? Not necessarily — in fact, it’s much more important that CEOs understand the potential of the technology and how to drive culture change throughout their organization. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) is truly changing the landscape of business, it’s doing so because fearless leaders are dreaming about the changes and improvements that are now possible through the genius of technology. See how this cultural revolution in the way we work is sweeping through business and leading a fast and furious discourse on how organizations will interact with data and individuals in the future.

 

The Promise of AI

CEOs have likely seen several generations of “transformative business models”: cloud-based computing being the most recent. As businesses are still reeling from this rapid-fire shift to Software as a Service (SaaS) models, the promise of artificial intelligence has the C-suite scrambling to understand the implications for their business. Scrappy start-ups do as they have always done, harnessing a new technology direction to quickly make changes to their business model as tech is introduced into the marketplace. Larger businesses and enterprises may be slower to act, as they can be weighed down with limited budgets, heavy infrastructure and disparate legacy systems. It takes time to move in a new direction, but the promise of AI is significant enough that business leaders throughout the world are exploring how to deploy data-driven decisioning in their operations, marketing and accounting solutions. From computers that recognize an individual human’s face to predictions of sales based on the weather, AI can be found in any number of practical applications throughout the business world — as evidenced by the 270% growth rate that AI has enjoyed in the past several years according to Gartner research.

 

Understanding How AI Works

In this season, the hype around AI is beginning to manifest itself in workable business models such as chatbots, next-best actions for customer service and predictive analytics. These systems can sense, analyze and respond to their environments in a way that is both interactive and intelligent. Creating a machine that is able to make better decisions over time based on the validation of its hypotheses requires a great deal of programming and math. However, the beauty of AI is that once the background work is done, humans are able to interact with the systems to continue the cycle of learning. AI systems “see” and “hear” sensory inputs and are able to translate that information, extract value and provide intelligent feedback to the user. Sensors and IoT (Internet of Things) connected devices also serve as input mechanisms, allowing machines to “feel” when something is cold or hot, positive or negative. This level of intuition is what is new to the business horizon, and it provides organizations with an ever-expanding range of possibilities to solve business problems.

 

3 Levels of AI Comprehension

While AI may have initially brought to mind futuristic robots that have taken over the world, true intuitive thought and “leaps of logic” are still beyond the limits of current AI technology. For example, an AI program can identify the difference between dogs and humans. The same program may be able to recognize how the two relate to each other as owner and pet and make the leap that they were going for a walk because the owner was holding the dog’s leash. However, it would not be able to intuit — or make an educated, quantifiable guess — anything about their relationship to each other in the future. This type of abstraction is still beyond the limits of current AI computing. The three primary levels of AI comprehension can be defined as:

 

  • Recognition: Identify items in a picture or video
  • Comprehension: Determine how the items relate to each other
  • Abstraction: Evaluate the information and make a prediction about future performance

 

Each stage in the evolution of AI has taken years, but the advances are coming more quickly all the time as business leaders and technology teams come together to dream and create the interactions of the future.

 

Bridging the Knowledge Gap

Business people are struggling with an unfathomable knowledge gap between their understanding of business intelligence and AI and the possibilities for the future. Data scientists are swiftly becoming the bridge that helps cross this gap between technology teams and business leaders, providing the insight that can translate business needs into practical applications of AI and machine learning. As CEOs deepen their understanding of data and possibilities for their business, a data scientist or business analyst may provide the necessary cohesion to maintain forward momentum on these highly technical projects.

 

Creating a Culture of Innovation

Perhaps the most important challenge faced by CEOs when it comes to AI isn’t technical at all — it’s cultural. If the organization is not willing to embrace the future potential of this emerging technology, it’s unlikely that AI-based projects will be successful. There is a fundamental fear within many organizations that AI or machine learning tech will replace individual knowledge workers as the AI can produce similar results in some instances as long as the correct inputs are being provided. A great example is in healthcare, where nurses or intake professionals traditionally gather basic information while assessing patients in an emergency room. AI chatbots can be programmed to not only gather and log this information quickly but also use micro-data to determine the level of distress of the individual — potentially classifying their level of pain for more immediate action by doctors. Minute facial changes, heightened breathing and sweating are all inputs that an AI can process in milliseconds that might be overlooked by a harried charge nurse.

 

While that scenario sounds as though it could potentially replace a position, what it actually means is that the human nurses are freed of repetitive tasks so they are able to add more value to other interactions. These lower-level engagements with patients are simply a distraction for nurses, taking time away from patient care and their ability to connect on a deeper and more proactive level instead of being stuck in a place of reaction to outside stimulus. CEOs who are able to clearly communicate the value of AI to their organizations in a way that is both non-threatening and that drives excitement within staff are more likely to be able to successfully sustain change initiatives for the future.

 

Rethinking Traditional Business Models

In a traditional business model, managers, directors and even chief executives are accustomed to making decisions based on incomplete data or inaccurate assumptions. While this often works out, the deluge of data that is now available allows for more informed decisions to be made — as long as business leaders are willing to take the time to ask questions and refine their understanding of business problems. Machines are exceptional at uncovering patterns, and many of these designs can fool people into making certain decisions based on their intuition. With the introduction of AI-driven decisioning, it shouldn’t be surprising that there are unexpected variances in the data that point to inefficiencies, inaccuracies and outright errors. Understanding how to interpret this information can often fall on the shoulders of a data scientist, but helping work through those questions and drill into root causes of issues will be a crucial skill for all business leaders in this brave new world of data.

 

Getting Started with AI

Whether you have a million ideas you want to vet with your team or are just starting to consider how AI can impact your organization, the time to get started is now. Organizations of all sizes are embracing basic AI — everything from social media chatbots that can help customers place a simple order or learn more about a product to connected systems that predict which products consumers may purchase next based on the buying patterns of others throughout the world. Determining where to begin is challenging, but here are a few basic considerations as you’re prepping for action:

 

  • Determine the reporting structure for AI, and this could change for every organization depending on the needs of the business. Will AI be mostly used in marketing or communications, operations or as a predictive analytics engine to determine when a potential breach has occurred? Understanding the application of AI technology can help ensure that the project gets the support that it needs to be successful.
  • Will you hire or rent the technical know-how for implementation and ongoing support? Here again, there is no “right” answer, but it requires contemplating the breadth of the engagement and how quickly you want to ramp up for your AI-based project. A similar question is needed to determine whether you will buy a codebase that contains the majority of what you need and customize it, or build your AI applications from scratch.
  • What’s the business case for AI? The most successful organizations are the ones that are able to quantify the value that they expect to gain from AI in terms of time savings, productivity boosts or improved customer engagement rates.
  • Understand (and be able to articulate!) the “Why” of your project. Are you solving a problem, beating a competitor to a goal or simply exploring the potential for the new technology within your business? Being realistic about expectations helps reduce the potential for pushback from non-believers within your organization.

 

Artificial intelligence has far surpassed the time when it was simply a buzzword that people loved to throw around and is now a thriving part of the business landscape with over 60% of businesses adopting some form of AI in the past year alone. Understanding the potential for disruption in your industry — both positive and negative — and how AI can be leveraged will be crucial skills for successful CEOs both now and in the future. There’s one thing for sure: AI is here to stay. Business leaders can make a decision to avoid moving forward with any AI-driven initiatives, but the cost to the organization may be higher than stakeholders are willing to pay.

How Technology Can Assist CFOs and Their Expanding Job Functions

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

CFOs & Technology

 

The CFO role continues to evolve. CFOs used to be considered fairly powerless scorekeepers or merely chief bean counters, but today the role has taken on more responsibility as well as prominence.

 

Of course, any CFO will tell you that the old role is not unimportant, and it has not gone away. The expansion of the CFO into strategy, decision-making, and even IT oversight creates a capacity problem. How can the CFO meet all the new responsibilities without neglecting the old? Technology can assist in a number of ways.

 

Before we dive into how technology can assist CFOs in their expanding job functions, let’s look at what some of those expanding job functions are. Depending on where your organization is in its digital transformation, you may have already taken on some of these. If not, this overview will give you insight into what may be added to your plate in the coming months and years.

 

New CFO and Finance Responsibilities

 

The CFO has traditionally focused on finance and accounting, and these responsibilities remain both significant and important. New areas of responsibility are developing, though, including these.

 

Technology

The CFO role has an increasing responsibility for overseeing technology decisions and spending, along with the CIO. The entirety of the business is dependent on technology, and good choices in this area lead to dynamic transformation. Bad choices can have catastrophic results.

 

Future Focus

CFO and finance responsibilities are evolving from sole focus on the past (compliance and reporting) to include a future focus. CFOs are partnering with managers around the company to improve operations, and they often work with the CEO and the board to help plan company strategy.

 

Financial data and analytics have helped in this aspect of transformation. Another team may be responsible for analytics, but when it comes to the financial aspect of analysis, the CFO and finance team are an essential part.

 

Partnering with CEO

 

Today, CFOs partner with CEOs to develop strategy more frequently than they did in years past. While the roles remain distinct, the line is more blurry than it used to be, and the level of partnership and collaboration is much greater.

 

Partnering with Division Leaders

It’s more frequent than it’s ever been for the CFO to partner with division leaders or line-of-business leaders. These leaders necessarily have other focuses than finance, and they may need or seek guidance from the CFO. This guidance is sometimes finance-related and other times more generally related to business vision. The CFO also plays a role in teaching division leaders to accept financial guidance from the finance group.

 

How Technology Can Assist Today’s CFOs

 

Savvy CFOs will leverage technology to assist them in their expanding capacities. Here are a few technologies empowering CFOs and finance teams.

 

Big Data and Analytics

Data is more powerful than it’s ever been, and CFOs will benefit from technology solutions in this area. Powerful customer data can drive major insights into financial trends as well as business trends. Use analytics to make better-informed predictions on the future of sales. You can often get a better picture of what the customer wants by analytics than you can by traditional means like focus groups or customer surveys. These are powerful tools that can solve many problems and speed up many tasks for the CFO and the finance team.

 

Embrace the Cloud

Cloud-based apps can lower IT infrastructure spending as well as the need for maintenance. Many if not all the major IT applications needed by the finance team are available in cloud format, including ERP and CRM systems as well as planning and reporting systems.

 

Using cloud-based applications and systems allows your company to expand without having to consider infrastructure improvement. With the cloud, you’ve outsourced the infrastructure completely.

 

Finance leaders and CFOs are sometimes wary of the cloud, and this is understandable. Cloud-based services have had their fair share of highly publicized leaks and breaches. These have led some to question whether the cloud is really the right solution for sensitive data, whether financial or privacy-related.

 

The answer to this concern is twofold. First, the track record of these cloud apps is astoundingly good. Second, take a step back and review the landscape. Do you really trust that your in-house IT or InfoSec team is as skilled in protecting you from an internal breach as the team at a cloud service is? Your business is broad, and IT infosec is only one small component. For the cloud service, it’s nearly everything. One breach and they’d be out of business.

 

Mobile Technologies

While mobile technologies are most visible on the sales force and other customer-facing services (like your website), mobile can improve the quality of life for the CFO and finance teams, too. Selecting cloud apps that allow for mobile access gives additional flexibility to where and how work is done and data is displayed.

 

Need A Great IT Company Who Works With Top CFOs

 

This is just the surface of what technology can do to empower CFOs in their expanding roles. For more, or for help implementing solutions, contact us today.

Can CMOs and CTOs Unite?

Posted on by Elevate Services Group
Learn about the importance of CTOs and CMOs uniting their efforts to create optimal outcomes for their companies. You can make business better by uniting.  

 

 

Considering the vital importance of digital touch points—including mobile and Web interactions—for the success of most businesses, there has never been a time where it was more necessary for CMOs and CTOs to unite. But what about the way things have been done for so many decades, with CMOs and CTOs occupying very different areas of the organization? Well, the times are changing, and it is up to business leaders to change along with them. It’s that or risk being left behind by the competition.

 

CMOs and CTOs Must Unite

 

Technology is the through-line that connects every aspect of today’s businesses, especially when it comes to management and the creation of content. Data is the foundation for all decisions in the modern business environment, which comes from the core technologies utilized by every organization. Leveraging technologies allow businesses to create content that is extremely personalized and therefore fulfills the needs of the target audience in ways that were not previously possible. According to Adobe, it is this highly personalized content, along with tech like AI, machine learning and more, that have become required in the modern world of business.

 

Powerful tools like the ones mentioned here are only fully utilized by combining the skills and knowledge of the CTO and CMO. The need for tech expertise is obvious since all of the most potent tools in marketing today are enriched or enabled by the latest technology innovations. But the need for marketing expertise is just as important to connect with the customer. Without a human touch and an understanding of what makes people trust a business, technology can only accomplish so much.

 

How Can CMOs and CTOs Combine Their Efforts?

 

Let’s explore some of the ways that CMOs and CTOs can work towards a united front when approaching company objectives:

 

Be equally accountable for the outcomes you are seeking for the company.

 

The CTO and CMO used to operate in individual silos that rarely overlapped. In those days it was understandable to treat the outcomes you were seeking as your own and to avoid taking on responsibility for the outcomes of other departments—especially departments that seemed to have so little to do with your own. But today it is more important than ever to share the responsibility for achieving company objectives. After all, you are in the same boat overall, and you want to make sure that boat experiences smooth sailing for the benefit of all parties.

 

Instead of saying, “That’s not my responsibility,” try discussing with your other stakeholders how you can contribute towards success. You may be surprised at the answers you get, and at how easily you can provide support.

 

Recognize the areas that you can help when developing the content management strategy for your business.

 

While you both need to be responsible for the outcomes sought by your company, you are only going to be most effective if you are certain where your strengths lie. For CMOs, you should be focused on utilizing your resources and expertise to manage communications, brand messaging and overall content strategies. The CMO understands the consumer better than the CTO and understands the way the consumer behaves. It only makes sense for the CMO to look to things like brand messaging and content strategy because of this knowledge.

 

In contrast, the CTO is best equipped to take control of analytics, delivery, and insights for the consumer. The CTO and the team underneath the CTO have the skills and reach necessary to yield the most effective results in these data-driven areas.

 

Learn to think like the other team from time to time.

 

While you definitely want to lean into your strengths, you still need to have a knack for clear communication and predicting what your peers will need in the business. In other words, you need to learn to think like a CMO or CTO, even if you are not one. No one will expect you to take over the other person’s position, of course. But the better you can get into the headspace of the other manager the better equipped you will be to cross-pollinate and predict the needs of others.

 

Not only does thinking like the other allow you to communicate and help each other better, but it also tends to lead to the kind of game-changing ideas that revolutionize the way your organization functions. The CMO can better understand and utilize the power of the tech available, while the CTO can become more aware of how marketing outcomes are achieved and the kind of information that could be most beneficial for marketing efforts can be better understood.

 

Open up lines of communication and foster their growth.

 

As with any new relationship, the first few conversations are often the hardest to get through. Typically, opening up the line of communication is a big effort, and keeping it open is not the easiest thing to do. But it is worth the effort. Realize that you both can greatly benefit from each other’s knowledge and that working together is the key to realizing the full potential of your business.

Top Questions CFOs Have Regarding Backup & Business Continuity

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

If your organization is large enough to have a CFO, it surely has some kind of backup and business continuity plan in place. Do you understand how this system works? More importantly, is the system your business has in place actually sufficient to protect you in the event of a disaster? These are questions every business needs to ask, and you as the CFO need to be a part of that conversation. To get prepared, here are a few of the top questions CFOs have regarding backup and business continuity, answered.

 

 

Aren’t Backups Enough?

 

The short answer is no. The longer answer gets into the wide range of backup formats. On-site backups are a part of the solution, but they don’t protect against natural disasters or physical site breaches. Off-site backups have their limitations, too. The farther away the site, the more logistically challenging data transfer and physical storage can become. On the other hand, if the off-site backup is just down the street, it may be just as vulnerable to the natural disaster that hit your business.

 

Is the Cloud the Answer?

 

Cloud backups are a great new innovation in the industry, but they alone won’t save your business, either. Restoring from a cloud backup takes serious bandwidth, and bandwidth could be an issue following a catastrophe. Consider that not all business disasters are natural. If your business suffers a crippling cyber attack, cloud backups may complicate the restoration process.

 

What is Backup and Disaster Recovery?

 

Backup and disaster recovery, sometimes shortened to just backup disaster recovery or BDR, is the term for a comprehensive system that includes both data backup and a disaster recovery plan. These two components are designed to work in tandem, allowing a business to remain operational through or quickly restart operations following a disaster. Having a strong BDR plan is the real solution for backups and business continuity.

 

Backups in BDR

 

The backup component of your BDR plan should be multifaceted. Most companies benefit from having at least two forms of backup: on- or off-site as well as cloud backup. With backups, redundancy is a desirable feature, not a place to cut costs. Storage drives (whether at your location or in some server farm far away) can fail without warning.

 

Disaster Recovery in BDR

 

The disaster recovery component is just as crucial as the backup component. This is security planning, in a nutshell. If your physical office building gets wiped out by a natural disaster, you need more than your data. You need replacement computers, servers, and networks to use that data on, not to mention a place to do that work. Your disaster recovery plan finds the solution to these problems. Develop a recovery time objective, a measurement of the amount of time you’ll need to resume operations. From there, build out a plan for sourcing equipment and facilities.

 

Your disaster recovery plan is closely tied to your business continuity plan, which outlines how essential functions will keep running or be restored.

 

What Does a BDR System Accomplish for the Business?

 

Implementing an effective BDR system has many advantages for your business, including faster recovery time, lower risk, and lower costs.

 

Faster Recovery

 

Your business’s recovery time will be much shorter if you have both a detailed plan for what to do in the event of a disaster and a complete, usable backup of all critical systems. There’s no real way to put an exact figure on it, but working a plan is always going to turn out better than winging it, especially when in disaster mode.

 

Lower Risk

 

Every step you take toward a well-planned BDR system lowers your business risk. Having an on-site backup is safer than having none. Having on-site paired with off-site is safer still. Adding cloud backup to the mix does the same. Similarly, the more thorough your disaster recovery plan, the lower your risk.

 

It may sound overly simple, but “be prepared” is a pretty great motto. No business can completely mitigate all risk, but implementing a BDR system lowers your business’s risk profile greatly.

 

Lower Costs

 

Companies implementing BDR systems often contract with managed services firms to create and/or execute those systems. It’s worth taking a look at what’s available. You may find that your costs with a managed service provider are lower than the costs of building a BDR in-house.

 

Even if you determine monetary costs aren’t lower, there’s also an opportunity cost to consider. How confident are you in your in-house plan (or the team that built it)? Is that team made up of dedicated experts, or is everyone involved working just a bit outside their expertise? There is a real opportunity cost to not getting this right. Contracting with a quality MSP reduces the risk of missed opportunities due to an overly long outage or recovery.

 

Conclusion

 

If you haven’t yet implemented a BDR system, it’s time to do so. If you need help developing or implementing a BDR at your firm, contact us to get started.

Is The CFO Today’s Technology Champion?

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

 

It’s always been important for the C-suite to understand the cost benefits and value associated with technology projects, but today’s complex infrastructure needs are requiring greater levels of input from financial executives, in particular. Technology spends are increasing dramatically, and there’s a need to balance the shorter-term benefits of specific tactics with the long-term strategies that will help move the organization forward. The days of technology teams making do with the funding that they are allowed are over, as technology becomes more tightly intertwined with business strategy. It is crucial that the big dollars invested in technology and innovation are tied to true business value in a way that can be communicated throughout the organization — making the CFO an integral part of the decision-making when it comes to determining the IT spend.

 

Funding Sustainable Growth

 

Technology is advancing at an unbelievable rate, with new software applications and methods of reaching customers coming at breakneck speed. Making several poor decisions around technology can create a miasma of problems that can take years to resolve, but that risk is mitigated when financial leaders work closely with technology teams to ensure that there are adequate measures and milestones in place. CFOs must ensure that the organization has the funds available to budget for items that are critical for continued business operations that support corporate strategy and sustainable growth initiatives. This has to be balanced with the additional risk that can be assumed by waiting for “something better” (an application, a way of controlling data or reduced legislation) to come along. According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending is set to reach $3.8 trillion this year, with ongoing increases in spending attributed to IoT, shifting on-premise computing to the cloud, software applications and maintenance fees. With this shift comes a fundamental change in the way technology dollars are budgeted: from capital expenditures to a SaaS model that is billed as an operating expense.

 

Aligning Technology Spend with Strategic Initiatives

 

Starting with the strategic initiatives of the business and slotting in technology where needed may be the way CIOs and CTOs are familiar with budgeting, but the new paradigm requires additional work. The risk potential of having business systems vulnerable to a cyberattack is an ongoing concern and one that can require a significant amount of spending in any given year. Data silos are being broken down and consolidated as older legacy systems reach their sunset years. This tension between supporting an often-aging infrastructure and providing a stable base for the future creates a need for creative budgeting throughout the organization. Having the CFO work with technology executives can help bring greater visibility to the IT needs of the organization and how they align with specific strategic initiatives.

 

Constantly Examining Technology ROI

 

Part of the budgeting process involves being intentional about determining business ROI for the various technology initiatives and being unafraid to boldly cut or fund projects based on the changing needs of the business. New threats occur on a regular basis — as well as new opportunities to seize dominance in a particular market. Having the flexibility to pivot and create revenue may require a continual review of the various projects as well as a fundamentally different approach to what have traditionally been multi-year IT projects. Vigorously defending projects that no longer provide business ROI can put a major drain on limited organizational resources, especially in light of changing features and functionality for even the most stable business platforms.

 

Now more than ever, CFOs must have a solid understanding of the business value that IT projects plan to deliver and a solid review of milestones. This shared responsibility with CIOs and CTOs creates not only a greater accord in financial decisions but also a deeper understanding of the value that various projects have for the entire business.

What Role Must The CMO Play In Technology Decisions?

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

 

The role of the CMO has been evolving at a rapid pace in recent years due to the constant addition of new marketing technologies or martech. You only have to compare the tech budgets of marketing departments today to those five years ago to see a drastic increase in spending.

 

Companies know that they need to embrace and leverage the right martech to remain competitive, and they are willing to invest substantial sums to do so. That leaves companies and key decision makers with a challenging question: What kind of role should the CMO play in tech decisions? The answer depends on the industry vertical, but there is an overall trend that is worth paying attention to. With each passing year, CMOs are becoming more and more involved in tech decisions.

 

How Involved Should CMOs Be in Tech Decisions?

 

To understand the answer to this question, we need to look at a few different factors. These include:

 

The Changing Role of CMOs

 

The traditional CMO role was already filled with important decisions. Chief Marketing Officers have always been responsible for things like brand management, communications, campaigns and advertising. But today, with the rise of data-driven decisions—which offer more predictability and accuracy than opinions ever could—the role of the CMO has had to evolve to encompass more and more tech.

 

Consider the options for understanding the customer experience available to marketing teams today:

 

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Big Data
  • Marketing Automation
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • And more…

 

Incorporating these tools into the company’s marketing mission requires a whole new skillset that includes customer service, data analysis, user experience (UX) and more. Of course, not all CMOs need to be experts in any one of these particular areas, but they do need to know how to manage and organize professionals who do understand these areas to fully realize the potential of their marketing efforts.

 

The Importance of Company Objectives

 

If you have recently found yourself feeling overwhelmed with the number of tech tools available, you have some idea of what it feels like to be a CMO in today’s tech-heavy environment. A visit to your favorite app store will give you the opportunity to pick from sometimes thousands of apps to accomplish the same goal, whatever that goal may be. And while the martech options available to CMOs are perhaps less numerous, they are also being pushed by sales people on a daily basis—so CMOs are being constantly bombarded with new “solutions” that are touted as the newest answer to common problems. Even more confusing, there are plenty of martech offerings that are more like solutions looking for problems than the other way around.

 

One of the key ways that CMOs can avoid overwhelm when it comes to martech is to always keep company objectives at the forefront of their minds. The company objectives can vary by organization, but most marketing organizations are focused on things like Market Presence, Revenue Growth and Efficiency. These goals can be more easily achieved using the right martech, but not all tech tools are going to offer significant benefit in the seeking of such goals.

 

Company objectives offer a guiding light in the complex world of martech. CMOs, above all others in the marketing organization, need to remain aware of company objectives and ensure that the tech budget is utilized as efficiently as possible—on technologies that will achieve measurable progress towards the achievement of the goals of the company.

 

CMOs Can Use Data to Drive Tech Decisions—Especially if They Ask Questions

 

One of the best ways CMOs can target the tech that is right for their organization is to utilize data in the decision making process. And that does not mean the CMO needs to be an expert in data analysis, either. They just need a team that can help them understand the data that they are looking at. Subjective decisions are not necessary—at least not in most cases—with the use of the right data.

 

The secret to utilizing data is to ask questions, as many questions as necessary to gain an understanding of what you are looking at. Over time, a CMO can come to understand quite complex concepts as he or she repeatedly comes into contact with them. But as with any new information, the fastest way to gain an understanding is to ask questions. It can be difficult at first for someone in a position of authority to admit that they do not know something right off the bat, but eventually asking questions becomes easy.

 

While it may not be apparent initially, employees will feel respect for the leader that is willing to admit a lack of understanding and ask for help. After all, the employee gains a sense of value when they can help higher-ups and the company as a whole with their knowledge.

 

CMOs Should Be an Integral Part of Tech Decisions

 

Ultimately, CMOs should strive to be an integral part of tech decisions in the company. They should work with their team, as well as with other key decision makers like the CIO and CTO, to guide the company in the right direction.

The CFO’s Guide to Smart Investing in Information Technology

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

 

Opportunities to spend on tech are endless these days. But your budget isn’t endless. Your company needs to invest in technology, but you need to do it in a way that’s smart and strategic. Check out our CFO’s guide to smart investing in information technology. We’ll show you how to prioritize your technology investment so that you can make smart decisions and stay on budget.

 

The Problem

 

The problem with smart investing in information technology is the sheer number of choices available. Hardly a day goes by without a new B2B information technology product hitting the market. You can’t possibly purchase them all, nor does your business need them all.

 

As the CFO you may or may not be involved in specific purchasing decisions, depending on the size of your business and the size of the purchase. You do, however, bear ultimate responsibility for setting your purchasing strategy. With so many IT investment options available, you may be overwhelmed trying to cut through the noise and decide what’s best for your organization. The lower your comfort level with technology, the worse the confusion gets.

 

Understand the Importance

 

The first step toward solving this problem is to engage with it. Understand that in many real ways technology is the future. You can’t afford to sit on the sidelines or to keep doing business as usual. Your competitors aren’t, and you’ll be left behind.

 

Simply put, picking the right new tech and integrating it successfully into your business can give you a competitive advantage over competitors. Therefore, in concert with your business’s technology team, you and the financial team must evaluate new IT developments, selecting and implementing the trends that will keep you competitive.

 

A Framework for Evaluating Emerging IT Innovations

 

Typically, companies receive far more internal requests for new software or hardware that can be approved within the current budget. To add to the problem, B2B sales efforts come from every direction. These promise to solve one problem or another or to give you that competitive advantage over your competitors. Never mind that the salesperson is trying to sell the exact same solution to those competitors.

 

What’s needed is a framework for evaluating emerging IT innovations. The questions below can help you decide which internal requests and outside sales pitches are worthy of your attention . . . and your money.

 

Question 1: How does the tech improve the group requesting it?

 

Many businesses receive countless technology requests from within. You and the finance team likely can’t approve every one of these, nor should you. The easy questions to ask are “does an employee want this software?” or “Will this software improve the employee’s situation?”, but those aren’t the right questions. Instead, ask “how will this piece of software improve this department or the whole company?”

 

This strategic question can help you prioritize your technology spend. Software A may very well improve life for that one person in sales, but if Software B realizes far more gains for a 30-person division, it ought to rank higher in the budget.

 

Question 2: Would this investment disrupt our existing IT deployments?

 

Sometimes blowing up the status quo is just what you need to succeed. Other times, though, wisdom is to leave well enough alone. If a new technology investment isn’t going to play well with your existing systems, you want to find this out before signing off on the purchase.

 

Neither internal requests nor external sales pitches are immune from this danger. Work with your technology teams to discover how a new investment will interface with your current system. Don’t spend the money until you’re convinced that the new tech will integrate into your current systems.

 

Question 3: Would this investment disrupt our workflow?

 

This is similar to question 2, but it focuses on the human component. A shiny new piece of software may well speed up Step 4 in a complex process in your business. Maybe it even cuts the time in half. Sometimes, though, there are trade-offs. You need to know if it’s going to make Steps 1 through 3 an absolute pain to complete, or whether it will add time to Steps 5 through 8.

 

Avoid facing an employee mutiny by fully vetting the impact the new technology will have on your current workflow. Be sure it’s a true net step forward before you commit.

 

Question 4: What are the returns on investment we will see by implementing?

 

With question 1 you’ve already established how the product will benefit one or more departments. Now, take it a step further and look at your ROI. How greatly will this investment increase sales? What estimate can you place on the productivity or quality-of-life gains? Is the cost worth the advantage you’ll gain over competitors? Answering questions like these gets you to a more specific understanding of the true worth of a proposed investment.

 

Conclusion

 

Navigating the new technologies available will always be a challenge for CFOs. By asking these 4 questions, you can prioritize your technology investments smartly.

Should CMOs and CIOs Partner On Strategic Information Technology?

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

 

For as long as the roles of CMO and CIO have existed, their work has rarely overlapped. CMOs focused on the company’s marketing efforts while CIOs stuck to the technology side of the business. But in today’s digital world, the hard lines that once separated marketing and tech have dissolved. Now, any business that wants to remain competitive must engage in digital transformation—which requires strategic use of information technology incorporating both marketing and IT. That transformation can only be effective if CMOs and CIOs work together.

 

The Importance of Digital Transformation

 

According to the Altimeter Group, digital transformation is “The realignment of, or new investment in, technology and business models to more effectively engage digital customers at every touchpoint in the customer experience lifecycle.” The goal of digital transformation should be to better provide value for the client or customer and to improve competitiveness. To achieve these ends, a strategic approach to information technology must be utilized. And for that to happen, CMOs and CIOs must communicate and strive together in seeking the same goal.

 

The vast majority of businesses were not founded with digital technologies in mind, and even less were created from day one to take advantage of the digital platforms that have emerged in the past decade, much less those that continue to spring up on a seemingly daily basis.

 

Chances are, as a CMO you have probably already been thinking long and hard about how your marketing efforts can incorporate the vast array of digital technologies available. Just some of the areas where digital transformation could deliver notable improvements include:

 

  • Mobile computing
  • Social media
  • Big data
  • Cloud features
  • Data privacy compliance
  • BYOD
  • Data security
  • And more…

 

Of course, to achieve the kind of transformation that you want and need, certain obstacles must be overcome. You have to determine where you are, where you want to go and how you are going to get there—all of which is best facilitated through the partnership of the CMO and CIO.

 

Partnership Between Marketing and IT Facilitates Competency

 

The terrain of digital platforms is difficult to navigate for even the most experienced professionals. To conquer this terrain and make it work for your business, it only makes sense to utilize all the resources at your disposal. Between building, running and managing the digital tools necessary to reach and retain customers, and ensuring that marketing efforts are as well integrated with new technologies as possible, there is simply too much required for one department—marketing or IT—to do alone.

 

Both CMOs and CIOs face unique challenges from the digital technology field. Some of these include:

 

Challenges for CMOs

 

For CMOs, the number of existing and upcoming digital technologies can be overwhelming. There are so many areas that must be considered to achieve competitiveness, including:

 

  • Buying appropriate technology solutions
  • Managing the technology stack
  • Creating infrastructure for technologies
  • Integrating new technologies with existing enterprise solutions

 

You could be the most effective CMO in the world when it comes to marketing, yet feel completely in the dark when it comes to how to manage the nuts and bolts of new technologies. That is why different departments exist in organizations—because true competency and skill take years to develop, and no one is capable of being an expert in everything.

 

Challenges for CIOs

 

The technology your business needs to operate and serve your customer base is the focus of the CIO. However, the marketing end of the equation is rarely an area where the CIO will have much expertise. Some of the things that the CIO may struggle with include:

 

  • Continued awareness of company efforts to reach and retain customers
  • Understanding the value proposition presented by the company to the client or customer
  • Needed adaptations in marketing messages as new information comes in
  • Which technologies are most effective for marketing based on company needs

 

CIOs have their own challenges to contend with as they strive to keep the ship running and determine what the best technology solutions are among an increasingly vast array of options. If they are not brought into the marketing conversation, there is a real risk that the left hand can become detached from the right—possibly even to the point where the CMO and CIO are working at cross purposes.

 

The benefits of CMOs and CIOs partnering quickly becomes apparent as your company embraces technology. Marketing has never had so much reach as it has today with digital platforms and real-time data. But utilizing that technology requires expertise that is found in the CIO and the IT team.

 

CMO and CIO—In it Together for the Long Haul

 

CMOs and CIOs share the same ultimate goal—the success of the organization for which they work. Success in today’s digital environment means utilizing appropriate technologies to keep the business strong, competitive and attractive to the customer. To obtain success requires a partnership between the CMO and CIO to identify areas for improvement, move forward with effective action that will achieve improvements, and to continue to adapt to the rapid changes that are inherent in today’s business world.

The CFOs Guide To Evaluating Information Technology

Posted on by Elevate Services Group

 

 

Evaluating information technology can be a challenging aspect of the CFO role. Your organization is likely inundated with requests for new IT features, and understanding the true value of many of them requires technical knowledge you may not have. The spending possibilities are nearly endless, and many CFOs have reason to be cautious. Perhaps you’ve been burned in the past, too, convinced by your CIO to sign off an expensive software package that failed to deliver.

 

In this arena, there are competing fears. You want to avoid spending money on IT solutions that don’t ultimately deliver the promised benefit or that cause unneeded disruption. You also can’t afford to reject an IT request that would have given you a competitive advantage (or worse, one that allows your competitor to gain the upper hand).

 

Evaluating IT is a tricky business. Here’s our CFO’s guide to evaluating information technology.

 

Communication Is Key

 

Communication from the CIO or the tech team is one of the big pain points CFOs face. There are a few reasons for this.

 

Apples and Oranges

 

The first communication difficulty is one of dialect. It feels like the IT folks are speaking a completely different language than the finance folks. To a certain degree, they probably are. Your IT group is focused on enabling the company to do more through technology and on increasing your business’s capabilities. Your group spends its time considering the financial aspects of the business. There can be inherent tension there.

 

Unhealthy Shortsightedness

 

In some businesses, it’s even worse. In unhealthy businesses, the CIO and IT team pursue technology innovations that don’t truly align with the company’s needs. They lobby to purchase software that adds capability you don’t need and solves problems you don’t have. Similarly, the CFO and the finance team in an unhealthy organization can fail to see the value of a spend or defer a purchase long enough that a competitor gains an advantage.

 

Either side of the equation—IT or finance—can become too narrowly focused on its own objectives. When this happens, the company loses out.

 

Finding Common Ground

 

CFOs and CIOs need to find common ground, a shared language that focuses both on the ultimate goal: making the company succeed. Ask bigger questions. Which of the company’s (not the department’s) goals will this IT spend help achieve? Is there a less expensive alternative that will still meet the company’s goals? What metrics will we gain by implementing this solution, and how will those benefit the company? Are there any metrics that can show how the proposed investment will improve a process? If those metrics show that an investment is failing to deliver, can we get out of the contract?

 

Questions like these are all rooted in a “what’s best for the company” mentality. Find a common language using questions like these, and avoid conversations that only benefit finance or IT.

 

Establish a Clear Approval Structure

 

The likelihood of conflict between the CFO and CIO increases greatly in organizations without a clear approval structure. To determine whether that’s your organization, mentally answer the following questions.

 

  • Do you (or your reports) approve every IT spend?
  • If not, who else can approve?
  • What criteria determine which requests require CFO approval? Dollar amount? Subscription/lease entanglements? What else?
  • Is there an established, documented appeal process when you deny an IT spend?

 

Depending on the size of your organization it may not be sensible for the CFO to approve every spend. Individual projects may have their own needs and budgets. If that’s the case, a clear approval structure is still crucial. Who on the team can make purchasing decisions? What criteria kick the decision up to a higher level?

 

In the end, to have a clear approval structure your business needs both a clear vision and strong, clear communication between the finance and tech teams and their leaders.

 

Visualize your Strengths and Vulnerabilities

 

Another central problem with evaluating information technologies is prioritization. Everyone wants a piece of the budgetary pie, and it’s your job to allocate it. You need a way to determine where your priorities ought to lie. This is challenging in complex organizations due to the number of requests and the varied nature of those requests.

 

Creating a visualization of your IT strengths and weaknesses can help you plan and prioritize. What can IT presently do for you? What are the known vulnerabilities? What systems or programs are on their way toward obsolescence? What functions or abilities does the organization view as needful but doesn’t have currently? Are there information technology solutions for those functions or abilities?

 

Mapping out your strengths and weaknesses gives you a clearer picture of which moves are strategic.

 

Conclusion

 

That’s it for our quick CFO’s guide on how to evaluate IT spends. If you want to learn more on this topic, or for assistance with a wide range of IT-related questions, contact us today.