Tag Archives: Strategy
Teradata Appoints Nicolas Chapman Chief Strategy Officer
Chapman will lead the development of the current and future strategies for the organization, focusing on growth and innovation
Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the cloud data analytics platform company, today announced the appointment of Nicolas Chapman as Teradata’s Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). In this newly created position, Chapman will be responsible for working collaboratively across the organization to develop Teradata’s strategic plan, annual operating plan, as well as the ongoing measurement and refinement needed to achieve the company’s strategic goals.
“As we execute across the company to be cloud-first and accelerate our position as a profitable growth company, we must ensure that we have a well-defined strategic and operational plan that guides our way,” said Steve McMillan, CEO at Teradata. “Nicolas has a proven track record in accelerating organizational performance through cohesive strategy planning and execution. Teradata has made solid progress on this front over the last several years and Nicolas will help us build on our momentum.”
In his most recent role as SVP of Strategy at Imperva Inc., an enterprise cyber security software and services company, Chapman successfully led a team that worked to transform Imperva into a world-class, highly profitable growth company. Prior to that, Chapman held leadership roles at McKinsey & Company, guiding technology companies around the world in executing successful business turnarounds.
“Teradata’s market position and opportunities are tremendous,” said Nicolas Chapman, Chief Strategy Officer at Teradata. “It’s clear that Teradata has already turned a corner to become focused on providing the very best data analytics solutions for a hybrid, multi-cloud world, and I am committed to ensuring this momentum not only continues – but accelerates. By listening to the market and to our customers, we will find new opportunities to grow Teradata by providing value for our customers.”
During his time with Imperva and McKinsey, Nicolas was actively involved as an executive sponsor for various inclusion communities. Fluent in French, Chinese & Hungarian, Nicolas has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in International Relations & Economics from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Teradata Reports Inducement Award Pursuant to NYSE Rule 303A.08
In connection with Chapman’s appointment, Teradata also announced today that the Compensation and Human Resource Committee of the Board of Directors (the Committee) has granted an equity award to Chapman, effective September 22, 2020. The award was granted pursuant to the company’s previously-announced New Employee Stock Inducement Plan (NESIP) and as a material inducement to Chapman joining Teradata as Chief Strategy Officer.
The award granted to Chapman under the NESIP is a new-hire award consisting of service-based restricted share units covering 42,955 shares, which shall vest in equal amounts on the first, second and third anniversaries of the grant date. Pursuant to the NESIP, the company may grant equity incentive compensation as a material inducement for certain individuals to commence employment with Teradata within the meaning of Rule 303A.08 of the NYSE Listed Company Manual, and, as such, the NESIP is not a stockholder-approved equity compensation plan. As an award under the NESIP, the restricted share units were granted by the Committee in reliance on the employment inducement exemption under Rule 303A.08.
Refocus Your Sales Strategy on the Phone Call
When the coronavirus pandemic first hit, telecommunications companies prepared for an uptick in internet use. While they were right to ready themselves, there’s been an even larger surge toward a more time-honored device: the classic telephone.
Indeed, the number of daily phone calls U.S. carrier Verizon handles has risen to 800 million — the same as on a typical Mother’s Day, when phone lines are at their busiest. That’s a 33 percent increase over last year, compared to the 25 percent growth in internet traffic.
While some have declared this a “comeback” for the “humble” phone call, the simple truth is that the phone never really went away. While we may use messaging apps and video calls to navigate much of our personal lives, savvy leaders know the power of the phone call in a business environment. Now, as people spend even more time talking rather than tapping on their phones, the power of voice will become even more important — particularly as a means of increasing sales.
Raise Your Voice, Win the Sale
For a robust 21st century sales strategy, you need to go omnichannel. Maintaining your social media presence and content marketing strategy online can lead to great inbound results, yet for making the pitch and closing the deal directly, you simply can’t beat a one-to-one conversation.
Getting a prospect on the line and talking to them directly matters. It’s the ability to deliver the pitch with the right content, cadence, and care for your future clients’ needs that makes a voice call so effective. It’s not just salespeople who prefer a call — 92 percent of all customer interactions happen over the phone. Simply put, that direct human connection creates the right environment to establish trust.
That’s not to say sales is easy. Your salespeople need to have the conviction to promote your product in a clear, persuasive way, knowing when to utilize your other marketing resources when needed to win over leads. Emphasizing phone calls as part of a holistic sales and marketing strategy gives your employees the tools they need to develop their voice — literally.
The emphasis on direct, clear communication goes above the bottom line. As a whole, companies lose over US$ 37 billion each year due to poor communication. Helping your employees gain a better understanding of effective telephone conversation improves not only sales, but internal communications as well — in a way that video conferencing simply can’t match.
The Problem With Zoom
Predictions about the seamless, unstoppable climb of videoconferencing have been a mixed bag in practice. In the early weeks of March 2020, videoconferencing apps experienced a 90 percent surge in demand on the app store. These numbers have declined over time, as the entire workforce takes part in the global remote experiment.
The results? Serious security and privacy concerns
aside, many people have simply become tired of video calls. Remote employees and friends looking to reconnect have all noted a type of fatigue that comes with meeting remotely, one that’s been the topic of scientific scrutiny.
The results of these studies find that the visual stimulation provided by video calling apps is at odds with our brain’s desire to actually be present with another person we can see. Simply put — eye contact through a webcam just doesn’t feel real and ends up being a distraction from the content of the conversation.
That’s not to say that video calling doesn’t have its place. There are times when live streaming helps to show off a product, or when you’ll just want to see everyone’s face on a conference call. Yet the fatigue noted by researchers can be extremely limiting for your sales strategy. The last thing you want a salesperson to feel is exhausted or disconnected from their prospect due to the alienating nature of a video call.
Old-school phone calls allow both salespeople and prospects to focus on the content of the message — not the pixelated face on their screen. It opens up an avenue for conversation without the likelihood of technical issues endemic to video applications.
Sales Calls in a Socially Distanced Age
Since the start of the global lockdowns in March, nearly every worker has seen a major shift in the way they conduct business. Salespeople are receiving an overwhelming portion of these changes, due to the very nature of their jobs.
Business lunches, in-house meetings, cross-country travel to make a sales pitch — so much of what your sales team does has historically relied on face-to-face conversation. Obviously, phone sales calls are nothing new. What has changed is their importance to your bottom line — and their surprising effectiveness in the face of all this change.
Preliminary research on the effects of COVID-19 have found that nearly half of all workers with jobs prior to the pandemic are now working remotely. That’s an incredible shift given that the previous number for remote workers was roughly 15 percent. With those kinds of numbers, companies face an obvious yet unprecedented reality: remote work may simply be the new norm.
As mentioned earlier, these changes have brought with them an emphasis on new technologies. Video calls, chatbots, and a focus on social media can all bring your company into the digital age more effectively, particularly when it comes to inbound marketing. At some point, however, your biggest customers are going to want to get to know you and your employees personally, in a way a tweet or a chatbot simply can’t satisfy.
This is where the phone call can truly shine. Instead of having your best customers email you with concerns, company leaders can now offer a dedicated phone number that’s exclusive to the clients they value most. This sort of offer is based on the Pareto Principle, which states that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your customers.
VoIP technology and other tools that help your employees stay connected can significantly boost your sales results. Just having the ability to stay in touch with customers from wherever your employees are helps lead to better, more frequent engagement — and thus, higher sales.
It’s not just outbound calls that are becoming a more notable presence in the work from home space. While remote work brings numerous benefits, the distance felt between your employees can reduce creativity and idea generation. We rely on that real-time communication between employees to spur the kind of new ways of thinking essential to improving current business practices.
In the sales department, this means restrategizing, rethinking, and redeploying once new methods are in place and ready to be tested. Your best salespeople should consistently strive to help out those who may struggle a bit more or need further coaching. Since the sales themselves happen on the phone, so too should the level of instruction.
Finally, don’t be afraid to invest more funds into the technology your employees use. Consider the savings you’ll be able to free up by having a less-mobile, more phone-focused sales team. It will take some time to adapt to this new approach, just like with most business processes in our new remote era. However, the investment in infrastructure can pay dividends as your company grows.
Omnichannel With a Phone-First Approach
If you’d like to test how a phone-first sales strategy can improve your marketing, start by taking a look at your current CTAs on inbound marketing materials. Where do they lead? If you’re seeing great results by getting in touch via email or chatbot, great. If you think there’s room to improve, however, it may be time to run an A/B test.
Have some of your prospective buyers fill out an email form while the rest are prompted to call or schedule a call to get more information. Put your expectations aside and focus on looking at the data. At the end of the test, collect the results and compare them against the historical model.
You and your sales team are results oriented. You may find that leads in one region prefer to go at their own pace, while in others an early phone call leads to a stronger chance of success. Remember — just because a prospect is browsing your company profile on social media doesn’t mean they’ll never want to get in touch. A bit of prompting to make the call might be all they’re looking for.
If you don’t have a phone-first sales strategy in place already, it’s likely time to start building one. Remember that there’s a limit to how much change employees, clients, and prospects can handle without feeling ill-at-ease. Your team has likely seen changes beyond anything they expected in their lifetimes happening in the span of a few short months.
We’re working from home, staying socially distanced, and wondering what the future might hold. With so much change happening all at once — good and bad — relying on time-tested, effective, communication methods like the telephone call gives a sense of control and familiarity needed in today’s hyperconnected yet socially isolated business environment.
Eric Schurke is VP Operations at
Ninja Number.
Monitoring the Power Platform: Power Automate – Run Time Part 3: Implementing a Monitoring Strategy
Summary
is a service allowing makers to create business processes, orchestrations and workflows to help achieve common and even complex business requirements. Within the Power Platform, Power Automate represents one of the most important pillars of the platform. It provides a no to low code solution to process automation. From sending , to complex flows, Power Automate can be used in virtually any workload.
The goal of this article is to describe how to implement a monitoring strategy for both Power Automate and the Logic App services. We will explore how to create custom identifiers to be used for tracking run time actions and flow history. We will discuss using the Azure Log Analytics Data Collector connector. The article will also show how to build a delivery mechanism to Azure Application Insights from Power Automate Flow. Finally, we wrap with considerations for using Azure Log Analytics and Azure Application Insights.
Adding Custom Identifiers
Power Automate Flows generate tracking identifiers for each individual flow and specific action within a flow run. For each workflow, triggers and action, these auto generated identifiers are included and available as part of the various objects . These typically are very helpful, specifically the workflow run name, when reviewing previous run information via the UI or PowerShell.
We’ve also seen, in , how connectors themselves can often provide identifiers in form of header properties that can be tracked. These returned properties from the connector response are vital when troubleshooting and supporting standard and especially custom connectors.
That said, there will come a time when you may need to generate or provide an identifier yourself. Luckily, Power Automate Flow provides the ability to do both, by passing in a tracking identifier or generating one which can be used across actions or even other flows as the calling flow. This allows makers to set the expectation that the flow will return a pre determined identifier which can then be used across other workloads.
Tracked Properties
Before we get into identifiers, please take a moment to review the Tracked Properties section in to familiarize yourself with attaching data to actions.
Utilizing a system provided Correlation Id
Power Automate includes its own correlation identifiers as referenced in the Get-FlowRun cmdlet as part of the ClientTrackingId. This identifier can be obtained in the flow itself by use of the outputs object. Consider using this or a custom tracking identifier when working with external integrations to assist with application and workload monitoring. By implementing this early, the beginnings of an application map can appear when working with Azure Application Insights as shown below.
AUTHOR NOTE: CLICK ON EACH IMAGE TO EXPAND FOR DETAIL
, we can generate a identifier based on various formats that can be used as the ClientTrackingId or passed to other connector actions such as Common Data Service creates or updates or even custom connectors as detailed below.
Adding a custom Tracking Id
The Custom Tracking Id, part of the trigger, allows for the static of dynamic input of an identifier that can be passed in or set from the trigger and added to the response. This identifier can also be used across child flows to represent the calling or parent flow.
As the image below shows, we can use the “Custom Tracking Id” field to set a static or dynamic value. This example shows setting the custom tracking id from a property in the body of a HTTP request called correlatonid.
An added bonus to using the trigger in this fashion is that we now can add conditions that work as a gate keeper to our flow. In this scenario we can strictly enforce that if a correlating identifier is not provided to the flow, the flow will not run and return a message expecting the identifier. This design is very important to ensure visibility and supportability, and as such needs to be included as a first step, as we include more and more integrations into our workloads.
In the example below we have a HTTP request and response Power Automate flow. In the request a Tracking Id “PowerAutomateArticleExampleId” has been provided.
In the response, captured in Fiddler or Postman, we can see the response header now includes our custom tracking Id represented by “x-ms-client-tracking-id”.
This technique can be propagated down to as well as shown below. As with the parent, the “x-ms-client-tracking-id” is now included within the Child Flow. This allows the Child Flow to use the same tracking Id for any actions or tracked property.
Finally, an added benefit is that this same custom tracking identifier will be available as part of the “Get-FlowRun” cmdlet covered in .
The Log Analytics Connector
One approach that can help deliver event data to Azure Monitor is to utilize the connector. Utilizing the Azure Monitor HTTP Data Collector API, we can ingest data in virtually any structure using a JSON formatted string. Since every object in our Power Automate Flow is formatted in JSON we can send any item we want, from scopes to actions to the entire workflow.
Creating Custom Tables
Log Analytics Data Collector connection action.
Here are the actions that created these tables starting with the PowerAutomateFlow custom table.
Here is the action for PowerAutomateActions:
As shown, one of the benefits of Log Analytics is the ability to add custom tables to the workspace. When these custom tables are created, they can be added to by passing in additional properties. For instance, in the image I have a table for Power Automate Actions that was created by passing an action object in. Starting with a simple initialize variable I may only have a couple of fields created in my new table. However by passing in a more robust output from an action, like the Common Data Service, I begin to grow my table exponentially.
Here is an example gif showing using the workflow and action object. The workflow object is well defined however actions can become cumbersome. In this example we are splitting these into two separate tables.
NOTE: Consider using custom tables for specific actions.
This approach provides extreme flexibility but does come with a cost. Data can quickly become fragmented, null saturation can become unmanageable and even fields that we would often use for identifying can become obscure. We quickly can render our logs useless working this way and should provide some limits to what can be provided. Without meaningful data, what value are the logs we’re capturing?
Thoughts on Controlling the Collector
I like the approach shown due to the flexibility of the endpoint and the native integration it has with Azure Logic Apps. Creating custom tables and allowing data ingress in any shape or form does have benefit. Also, by using the Log Analytics Connector, all Azure Logic App and Power Automate Flow run time data (tracked properties, action results, etc) can be centralized. This allows for ease of use reporting and monitoring. That said, we need to build in enforceable and stringent rules to what our tables will accept to ensure quality as we move ahead.
The Case for Application Insights
Azure Application Insights, as mentioned in previous articles, is an application performance monitoring platform. Power Automate, at the time of this writing, does not have a native integration or feature to push events to Application Insights. However, as with Log Analytics, there is an HTTP endpoint that can be used to send messages to Application Insights. How that HTTP endpoint is invoked is up to the enterprise. HTTP requests can be issued directly from Power Automate Flows. .
The next section will go into building a direct request to Azure Application Insights. .
Utilizing the Application Insights REST API directly
To achieve this we will send a POST message to the Application Insights endpoint with the definition of the specific event we want to capture. This endpoint can accept one or multiple messages so it can be used at the end of a Power Automate flow run or really anywhere. Combining the messages and sending at the end would follow a similar approach as with the Azure Log Analytics Data Collector action. As long as the action is ensured to run and we have our contracts correctly defined, we can rely on the API to deliver our messages. One of the benefits of the Application Insights endpoint is it does allow any well defined message payload and will report back the number of accepted and failed messages.
The trigger I’m using here is which allow for use of this flow as a child flow. Remember, to use this flow in this manner utilizing Child Flows, the flow must be solution aware.
Building the Message Body
Azure Application Insights, like Azure Log Analytics, can accept JSON serialized requests and store within tables within the log store. Unlike Log Analytics, specifically the Data Collector, is that Application Insights expects a well formed structured message. Each message contains these minimal properties: time (represents timestamp), iKey (Instrumentation Key), name (the name of the table/message) and data (the message payload).
The data property is specific to each message type and will include a baseType and baseData property within. A good reference for finding out more can be found on the For each message type, be it exceptions, custom events, traces, etc., there are common and explicit properties. Consider the below image.
The image above shows how to take the contract for a specific table and inject variables which will show up in Application Insights. In this example I’m only using the customEvents table but this can easily be extended for all tables within Application Insights.
Most tables in Application Insights include a customDimensions and customMeasurements property bag which I would recommend passing contextual data from the flow. In the example above, the properties property within baseData allow for a json object to be passed in. The image above shows the trigger function but this could also be the workflow object, or maybe a particular action that failed. The below image shows using the action object output with the Exception message in Azure Application Insights.
All tables include user and session data points which can be used to help facilitate out of the box capabilities in Application Insights such as the application map mentioned above.
Utilizing Azure Functions and Custom Connectors
Azure Functions provide a great way to build micro services including ones to help surface run time data from Power Automate Flow or Model Driven Application Plug-in tracing. Azure Functions can be written using .NET Core and included is native integration with Azure Application Insights. Alternatively, we can import the Azure Application Insights SDK to provide a streamlined approach to delivering messages. The article covers building both an Azure Function and Custom Connector to realize this approach.
Choosing between Log Analytics and Application Insights
The information above has provided mechanisms showing how to deliver events to Azure Monitor utilizing the Azure Log Analytics Data Collector or the Azure Application Insights REST API. Choosing one of the other requires considerations into the features and benefits and maybe more importantly the limitations of both. For an overview of each please review the article.
As we progress through the Monitoring the Power Platform series, we will dive deeper into these considerations and why to choose one over the other based on requirements. Ultimately the log store for Azure Application Insights is available in Azure Log Analytics but the features provided by Azure Application Insights allow for deep “insights” into scenarios we are interested in.
Next Steps
In this article we have discussed using custom identifiers to help track flow history and specifically group parent and child flows together. We have examined how we can use trigger conditions to enforce the use of custom identifiers. From there we reviewed the Azure Log Analytics Data Collector connector and how to setup and send messages to custom tables. After that, we went into building and sending Azure Application Insights messages directly in Power Automate flow.
In previous articles, . In the following articles covering Microsoft Power Automate Flow run time, we will discuss pushing events to Application Insights and reviewing previous flow runs for monitoring and governance.
If you are interested in learning more about , which includes a , please contact your Technical Account Manager or Microsoft representative for further details.
Your feedback is extremely valuable so please leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to help where I can! Also, if you find any inconsistencies, omissions or have suggestions, .
Index
What Your Business Can Learn from an Open Banking Strategy
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Digital businesses today don’t have the luxury of sitting static on old infrastructure. In our current era of digital transformation, it’s not even enough to be a fast follower—you have to be an innovator. And there is one thing every innovative organization has in common that enables them to provide superior customer experience: Data.
Data is the asset that allows you to keep your customers at the center of your business strategy. However, you have to know how, with a combination of the right tools, strategy, and people, to make smart use of that data. Being an early adopter of the latest technologies means you see those opportunities first, leaving no space for market disruption from competitors.
How data is used to improve the customer experience might vary across fields, but banking and financial service firms are currently front and center of this business reinvention. By adopting an open banking strategy, these institutions are using data to personalize customer experiences and connect the overall customer journey, This also provides new openings for cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and new revenue streams through partner ecosystems.
While banking and finance are already taking advantage of this strategy, every industry can benefit from collecting, analyzing, and sharing data. To successfully harness the power of your data, adopt an open banking type mindset. Create personalized customer journeys, introduce new digital products, and discover new channels of revenue; these aren’t limited to core banking alone.
Data is the asset that allows you to keep your customers at the center of your business strategy. However, you have to know how, with a combination of the right tools, strategy, and people, to make smart use of that data. Click To Tweet
To take the first step, you must have the right foundation in place. This will allow you to connect the data across your enterprise, govern and secure that data, and even bring in outside data from partners through APIs. To learn more about the open banking approach and to gain some insights into how a connected ecosystem can help you take advantage of data can benefit your digital business, download this eBook and watch the solution whiteboard video today!
How to Build an Outcomes-Focused Data Strategy
Money never sleeps and neither does your data. In Monetizing Your Data, we look at digital transformation: the ways of turning data into new revenue streams and apps that boost income, increase stickiness, and help your company thrive in the world of Big Data.
The first waves of digital transformation started decades ago and the ripples of this trend continue to be felt to this day. However, what exactly a digital transformation looks like varies widely from company to company. One common theme among many transformations, however, is trying to make better use of data, whether to build analytic apps to unlock new revenue streams or to make smarter decisions internally (or both).
While these are worthwhile applications, one blind spot that many teams charged with these projects share is that they look at the data they have on-hand before figuring out what kind of problems they wish to solve with it.
“I recommend starting your data strategy with a right-to-left approach, focusing on the desired business outcomes first, instead of the data, to support those outcomes,” says Charles Holive, Sisense Managing Director of Data Monetization and Strategy Consulting. “And there are primarily three areas that industries across the world look to improve: the top line, the bottom line, and customer satisfaction.”
Define your desired outcome — before you start building
Every company knows they need to digitally transform in order to survive and excel in the modern era. However, many organizations fail to define their goals for this process before they start, and predictably encounter obstacles or outright failures instead of paving a path for future success.
Business goals should be defined at the very beginning of the digital transformation in the “right-to-left strategy” that starts by answering this question: What is the organization specifically looking to solve or improve? Understanding the details is key, otherwise “digital transformation” will be merely a corporate buzzword that causes headaches, heartbreaks, and lost money instead of producing measurable improvements.
From there, rather than trying to accumulate and house the company’s entire dataset, the digital transformation team should identify the specific actionable insights and associated data needed to solve for (and measure) agreed-upon outcomes.
“Not every dataset is made equal; some are more valuable than the others. So being outcome-focused is a way that can you stack-rank the data sets that are most important. Your team can then begin moving that most-important data into your warehouse.”
Experiment to guide a winning data strategy
Just as the waterfall method of software development—the strategy of gathering all the requirements upfront and then building and releasing a complete application—has fallen out of favor for agile methods, the same thing should happen when creating an outcome-first data strategy: Rather than trying to build a complete data warehouse right from the outset, approach data strategy as an “innovation factory.”
“Identifying the exact data you need to solve a singular problem results in a perfect candidate to go into your warehouse on the first cycle. This is because you know exactly what the business is going to do with that data set,” Charles explains. “It’s powerful because it’s already informing or measuring a specific business outcome.”
And when this data is warehoused and accessible to business partners to make key decisions, you already have a chance to quickly prove this outcome-first data strategy. You’ve immediately created an experiment to win.
Another piece of advice that Charles talks about in his “Hacking the Analytic Apps Economy” video series is where the innovation factory should live. Namely, not in a mature business unit, but in an agile, fast-reacting department that reports to a Chief Innovation Officer or similar highly-placed exec. This team can deliver on new ideas quickly and won’t get bogged down in pre-existing frameworks or goals that don’t work for what the new data experiments are trying to achieve.
Create an innovation factory at your company
“Creating an innovation factory for your company results in faster innovation. You can do these smaller experiments more cost-efficiently, saving money over the traditional data strategy. This also should help your team prioritize projects for the data warehouse that deliver the greatest value, as opposed to the department that screams the loudest.”
And while any experiment can fail, but here are some solid tips to help improve your likelihood of success and to maximize the impact of triumphant experiments:
- Start by listening to the frontline employees who use the data to make decisions—this will improve the odds of success for your experiment out of the gate.
- If your experiment works, find other departments that can benefit from that same data—this is where it is key to have a good semantic layer on top of your data warehouse (courtesy of your data analytics software) so you can repurpose the same dataset for different ends.
- If your experiment fails, see if you can tweak the dataset or use case to apply elsewhere in the company.
Regardless, approaching data strategy with a focus on business outcomes will put you on the right course.
“Everything else in the company is business-centered. It just seems counterintuitive not to approach data strategy in the same way.”
Jack Cieslak is a 10-year veteran of the tech world. He’s written for Amazon, CB Insights, and others, on topics ranging from ecommerce and VC investments to crazy product launches and top-secret startup projects.
COVID-19 & Building a Strategy to Go Remote: 3 Tips for CIOs
Need to Go Remote? Follow These 3 Tips
With the current COVID-19 pandemic, businesses nationwide are faced with the same challenge: transitioning their workforce from office-based to home-based.
For some organizations, having employees who work remotely is nothing new or unusual. But for many businesses, this is unfamiliar territory. If you’re the CIO of a business that’s suddenly having to transition dozens (or hundreds, or even thousands) of employees to remote work, what should you do?
First off, take a deep breath. Remember that there are countless examples of successful, multinational companies who have had employees telecommuting for many years. In the end, you may decide that having some of your employees working from home is a good thing — and you may even keep it up once this situation passes.
That said, we know that developing and executing a can be complicated. To help you start the process, here are three essential tips.
Tip 1: Make the Switch to the Cloud
Is your business still using an Exchange server? Are you still dependent on physical in-house file servers? If so, it’s time to transition to the cloud.
If you’re using a network share, your employees have to be physically on premises in order to access important files and software systems. The only way around this is with some kind of VPN solution — but getting hundreds of employees set up with a VPN takes a considerable amount of time and money, and can also create security concerns.
Rather than opting for a complicated workaround, the better option is to simply switch to the cloud with With a cloud setup, employees can access everything they need from home. There’s no need to be on premises and logged into the company network. You can also rest assured that employees will be accessing files and software in a completely secure environment, minimizing security risks.
Tip 2: Use Microsoft Azure for Legacy Client/Server Issues
In our experience at AKA, we’ve found that while many companies have upgraded the majority of their software to SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and other modern solutions, it’s still common for businesses to rely on one or two legacy client/server applications. These apps are based around physical installs, often on desktop computers, which means that employees won’t be able to access them when working remotely.
Fortunately, there’s a relatively simple solution to this problem. With , it’s possible to set up a remote desktop that gives employees access to legacy client/server software from their home office. Thanks to the power and efficiency of Azure, developing this sort of solution can often be accomplished in just a few hours and for a minimal investment.
Tip 3: Enable Collaboration with Teams
Once you’re up and running in the cloud and have ensured that your employees can access what they need from home, there’s one other major consideration to account for: the ability to collaborate. Employees working from home will sometimes struggle with a lack of face-to-face interaction–an essential element of effective collaboration.
With Microsoft Teams, employees can keep in touch, work together on group projects, and monitor one another’s progress. With Teams running on an employee’s mobile phone and home computer, they’ll receive push notifications for upcoming meetings and ongoing chat conversations. Built-in video capability allows team members to interact more naturally during remote meetings. Sharing documents and files is easy, and Teams keeps all of your communication in one easy-to-access place.
The Time is Now: Modernize Your Organization’s Culture
Over the past few years, successful businesses have been transitioning to the cloud and setting their employees up to work remotely. And with tools on special trial offer like Microsoft Azure and Teams, it’s never been easier.
While the current situation brings with it certain challenges, it also presents businesses with an opportunity to modernize and update their company culture. AKA can help your business get started with Dynamics 365 CRM, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Teams, and other essential solutions for working remotely via the cloud.
Want to learn more about transitioning your workforce to remote work? Read Ready to take the next step? to discuss your needs.
ABOUT AKA ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS
specializes in making it easier to do business, simplifying processes and reducing risks. With agility, expertise, and original industry solutions, we embrace projects other technology firms avoid—regardless of their complexity. As a true strategic partner, we help organizations slay the dragons that are keeping them from innovating their way to greatness. Call us at 212-502-3900!
Article by: Greg Inks | 212-502-3900
With two decades specializing in Microsoft and Azure platforms, Greg leads AKA’s Cloud practice. He is a Cloud evangelist offering deep expertise in Cloud architectures and adoption strategy. Greg has developed subject-matter expertise and wide-ranging business acumen by working with some of the largest, most successful technology providers and client companies on the planet.
The Ultimate Strategy Guide for Microsoft Dynamics and Marketing Automation
Want to make the most of your Microsoft Dynamics and marketing automation platform integration? You’ll need a strategy that considers data, execution, and integration points first.
One of the things we love most about Microsoft Dynamics is how customizable the solution is for sales and marketing departments. It’s flexible enough to match up with just about any customer journey, and the ability to create custom data points makes it an ideal CRM for marketers looking to build hyper-personalized marketing campaigns.
All of that customization, however, can lead to data paralysis on the marketing side–with so much available data, setting automated nurture campaigns can feel like an overwhelming task. Layer in that marketing often gets left out of the CRM conversation, and building out a true strategy for leveraging Microsoft Dynamics with any marketing automation platform can be troublesome.
We’ve worked with marketers across countless industries leveraging dozens of different marketing automation platforms, including our own (the ). Based on those conversations, we’ve put together a guide designed to help marketers better leverage Microsoft Dynamics with their marketing automation platform.
In this guide, we’ve included tips for marketers who would like to better communicate with their CRM stakeholders and step-by-step guides on building seven of the best-performing automated marketing campaigns for marketers leveraging Microsoft Dynamics.
Get our guide for yourself or download it and share with your marketing team here:
“I’ve Got A Guy In Toledo” Is Not A Strategy
Recently, I heard the following from Diane Swonk, Grant Thornton’s chief economist, on Marketplace: “Supply chains are being disrupted.” Your favorite sources – be they in Toledo or elsewhere – have always had your back, but they can’t always anticipate coronavirus, trade wars, and natural disasters.
However, when you have a global supplier network at your fingertips, you can tap into other resources to ensure that critical materials still arrive at your doorstep, especially if your guy in Toledo, for any number of reasons, simply can’t deliver.
Strategic sourcing is the smartest way to save.
In addition, it’s good to be able to get the goods, but it’s even better when you save time, money, and hassle in the process. Nevertheless, if you are operating without a strategic plan for automating, streamlining, and tracking your sourcing activities, it’s likely that you’re spending more than you should.
By accessing a supplier network, you can:
- Positively impact your profits by preventing stock-outs and keeping new product introductions on track
- Secure best-value deals for all your purchases, including both indirect and direct materials
- Eliminate slow, paper-based processes
- Eradicate costly, unplanned, unmanaged spend
With the right solution, you can spend more strategically and save with more certainty. Organizations that source this way, in fact, cut costs by an average of 39%.
How do you source this way?
Like everything you do in procurement, there is a process to strategic sourcing. And give or take a few nuances, that process typically looks like this:
- Identify savings opportunities
- Apply the appropriate category strategy
- Create a sourcing event
- Analyze and optimize supplier responses
- Negotiate and manage contracts with trading partners
Executing that process consistently well takes an automated solution that frees you from spreadsheets and other unrelenting paperwork, plus the hours and human errors that accompany manual processes. With this off your desk – and with a proven plan for smarter sourcing – you’ll improve the cost, quality, and performance of your supply chain and, therefore, your entire business.
There are a few common-sense rules to follow as you plan your plan. Make sure any strategic sourcing solution you choose can support them.
Don’t spend more than you need to. If this rule is so obvious, why do so many well-meaning procurement professionals ignore it? They continue to use paper-based “solutions” and a scattershot approach to sourcing which, without fail, leads to surprises, shortages, and greater expense. The solution you’re looking for supports the entire strategic sourcing process – pointing out where you can cut costs, simplifying supplier selection and responses, and negotiating competitive contracts. The result? You spend significantly less.
Follow best-practice (and far more efficient) procurement operations. Whether you’re buying chairs, procuring direct materials, or commanding a complex services procurement program, your sourcing solution should help you develop an organized, optimized plan for each and every sourcing event. It should be based on current best practices (and adapt to evolving best practices) and enable you to define sourcing phases, tasks, milestones, and team members. Companies with this type of solution in place have achieved 69% compliance with contracts.
Increase the effectiveness of your sourcing program and category functions. This one is all about working well together, and your solution should provide a centralized “workspace” where project teams and suppliers can collaborate and share documents. It should also offer version control, comment capabilities, and the ever-important audit trail. These things may sound simple, but every little thing that boosts effectiveness boosts productivity. Organizations that have mastered this typically see 17% higher spend under management.
Integrate categories. Building a profitable, competitive supply chain is difficult when you’re trying to source direct and indirect materials separately or on a disconnected system. To bring it all together, find a solution that easily integrates with your ERP and allows you to manage the entire source-to-contract cycle in every category. This level of strategic sourcing, along with industry best practices, results in a better supply-chain collaboration process for your direct materials.
Stay on top of your sourcing activities. With the right solution in place, you can easily compare suppliers; you can trust that you’re making informed decisions, and you can be sure that every purchase and everyone is in compliance. You’ll have dynamic dashboards that enable you to see and track the current status of all your sourcing activities. And you’ll be able to communicate with suppliers in real time — from instant messaging to actual bidding.
Track your savings. You need to be able to measure your success, so your solution must be able to analyze estimated, negotiated, implemented, and actual savings across regions, time periods, departments, suppliers, and spend types. That’s a lot of numbers to look at, but if you want to know where you stand on spending and, more importantly, savings, your strategic sourcing solution has to do the work.
Strategic sourcing can slash cycle time – as much as 50% – and cut costs. It can reduce workload from procurement to IT. It can help expand your trade around the world, breaking language and currency barriers. When you have a solid, secure sourcing plan, you can cut risk out of the equation.
That’s a plan you want to have in place because your guy in Toledo is not infallible.
Learn more about “Strategic Sourcing for Midsize Businesses.”
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How One Airline Won Customer Loyalty with an API-First Strategy
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Maintaining customer loyalty in the travel industry is no easy feat. There are so many factors and variables on the customer journey, many of which are out of an airline’s control. So how is Air France-KLM working toward accomplishing its goal of becoming the most customer-centric airline group in Europe?
Air France-KLM knew it had to find a way to address those variables, making every step of the journey less stressful. To do this, the airline implemented an API-led strategy that enabled agile change in order to move faster than their competition, and their customer’s expectations. The airline group connected every step of a customer’s travel journey using APIs, making any and all relevant information available in one central app, and in real-time.
Air France-KLM is now able to deliver new digital services such as flight change recommendations, seat upgrades, and partner inventory more quickly, with one update reaching the entire ecosystem of connected channels. Customers, partners, and the airline group all have benefitted from the API-first strategy. For example, the group relies on its loyalty programs to retain customers, and APIs make it easier for Air France-KLM as well as its SkyTeam partners, such as hotels and transportation services, to provide the personalized experiences loyal customers expect.
This API-led strategy has proved successful, with Air France-KLM’s Net Promoter Score increasing by 20% since they partnered with TIBCO. To learn more about Air France-KLM’s journey to becoming the most customer-centric airline in Europe, read the full case study.
5 Strategies for Digital Transformation in Banking – Strategy 5
There are 5 strategies banks can use to overcome challenges with the help of Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Strategy 5: Modernize and strengthen lead generation
Historically, banks have used “push marketing” to drive leads but this is becoming less and less effective. Direct mail, cold calls, and email can be intrusive. The last thing you want is a prospective consumer opting out of all further bank interactions.
Social media should be a lead-generation tactic for every bank. Social selling is considered “pull marketing,” and it often results in warmer leads that convert at a higher rate.
The buying process is changing and banks need to connect with prospective customers by serving them in the customer’s channel of choice. Doing so illustrates a bank’s sophistication and focus on customer experience.
How Dynamics 365 can help: Introduce social selling into your lead-generation strategy
In the age of social selling, researching the companies and people you are about to call is invaluable to the prospecting process. Social media such as LinkedIn and Customer Insights integrations allow for integrated research beyond current bank information.
The tight integration between Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn allows seamless access to LinkedIn profiles, prospects, and leads. Company details infused with social information allow you to drill down into related connections and pull lists of potential targets.
“Today ‘s highly digitally engaged financial services customer has 4.4 products, compared to only 2.7 for the digitally unengaged.”
Source:
Social selling amplifies your ability to reach warm prospects. According to Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner), referrals, including social networking leads, rank highest in their qualification. And company news, recent posts, and promotions can all serve as great icebreaker conversation topics.
helps banks score and prioritize leads, track referrals, monitor social insights and record every customer and employee interaction in one place.
“Nearly half (47 percent) of U.S. social media users today actively seek customer service through social media”
Source: NM Incite Social Care Survey
Interested in more strategies? Download the full white paper:
Learn how banks can use Microsoft Dynamics 365 to help improve the customer experience, streamline processes, optimize opportunity management, build relationships, and modernize lead generation.
Crowe CRM for Banking
Crowe works with 1,800 financial services organizations across the country, including more than two-thirds of the top 100 U.S. banks. With , you can get a true 360-degree view of the customer – with a single view into all communications, interactions, operations, and relationships.
For more information about Crowe CRM for Banking, contact us at +1 877 600 2253 or visit .
By Ryan Plourde, Crowe, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Gold Partner
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