Emerald Expositions is the leading operator of B2B trade shows in the United States, operating more than 55 trade shows and numerous other events. The company also owns a number of trade publications, including My TechDecisions.

The Tech Decision

After being purchased by Emerald Expositions, My TechDecisions’ team along with colleagues in sales, marketing, audience development, design, and those running sister sites Commercial integrator, Security Sales & Integration, and Campus Safety, were in need of a new office space.

After creating a scatterplot of employee addresses to find central location for all employees, the company settled on a brand-new office space at 100 Crossing Boulevard in Framingham, Mass.

The new space would serve as a fresh start for the newly acquired properties, but before moving in the entire office needed to be built from scratch.

That included hiring an AV integrator to implement technology up to the standards of the publications that cover the industry.

“I hired a project manager because this is across country for me. They are great – they represent Emerald. The project manager bid it out,” says Stacy Smith, executive assistant and corporate operations manager for Emerald. “We were ahead of schedule the whole time.

“Lee Pongraphan, our sr. director of infrastructure and services, and I worked closely for months on the spec we need on the technology side. Lee maps all that out, and then the project manager sources that out for AV,” says Stacy. “As soon as you sign the lease you’re working on the technology.”

In this case, the project manager chose Dnet Cabling & A/V Technologies to implement much of the technology alongside Emerald’s internal IT team.

“We know the project manager, so we knew clients would be moving in. We did the work downstairs (at the building). Mike Bogdan reached out and said they wanted to bring us in on the project,” says George Ziegler, AV engineer at Dnet Cabling & A/V Technologies. “We submitted a bid based on requirements from the client, they were satisfied with it, and we got awarded both the communication and AV installation.”

The Solution

The work started before even entering the building for Dnet.

“Before the project took off we started with communication,” says Ziegler.

“We made sure everything was kosher with the client before any equipment was purchased, and that they fully understood what the scope of work was – networking, sound masking, TV installations, and connections at the tables.”

Ziegler and his team first came into the space after walls were put up. They began by cabling for the communications. They weren’t handling the phone themselves, as it was a network system that then internal IT team would deploy.

They still needed to run Cat6 white cable to every location so when it came to the rack it was one color. They implemented a Systemax solution and unloaded patch panels in case of issues – they could easily remove or replace jacks or cables without needing take down the patch panel completely.

Workstations could then be moved around as needed.

“It was a pretty straightforward installation for the communications side,” says Ziegler.

A more unique aspect of the space was the sound masking solution from Cambridge Sound Management. The solution is built into the ceiling with a similar look to the sprinkler system in order to blend with office aesthetics.

Read Next: See all of our projects of the week here!

The level of white noise coming from the solution can be adjusted through a corresponding interface. A relay is inside the equipment so that during a fire alarm the sound masking will be muted so that alarms can emit to the correct decibel in the space, adhering to the electrical code.

Finally, two conference rooms in the new office are fitted with Samsung OLED displays. HDMI/USB extenders from Crestron were mounted under the tables, while a Cat6 cable runs from the device to the TV, enabling users further connection options.

Additional technology implementations at the office include a keycard access system, wireless printing capabilities, and guest Wi-Fi access separate from the internal network.

The Impact on TechDecisions

Our coworkers are very happy with the space. Coming from a space that the company had leased out for fifteen years, a fresh start after the acquisition was well needed.

The advance in new technology for the space is also a welcome addition for a company that has multiple publications dedicated to the technology field.

“The new office space is pretty amazing with all its technological perks. The design is very modern, but inviting,” says Manuela Rosengard, creative services director, Emerald Expositions.

“The artwork for the office has a personality unique to Massachusetts with its Boston theme. It is a great environment to come to every day.”

This article was originally posted in January 2020.

The post Designing and Implementing Technology at OUR New Office appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, author of What’s Your Problem? and keynote speaker at NSCA BLC 2020 told the story of luggage to illustrate a point: It took decades for someone to think to add wheels and a handle onto luggage, yet both seem like extremely obvious additions today.

“Most people, when you throw them a problem, they grab that problem and rush into the solution phase,” says Wedellsborg. “Is there a different way of looking at a problem? Is there another way to consider the situation and consider what’s actually going on? That seems, on the surface, to be a simple idea. Yet when I went out three years ago and surveyed 106 C-Suite executives, 85% of them came back and said this is something they tend not to get right in their companies.”

Wedellsborg stresses the importance of reframing a problem in order to find a better solution.

Related: Leadership Isn’t for Cowards: Being a Better Leader for Your Business or Org

For example, imagine you’re a commercial property manager and your tenants complain about a slow elevator. It would be expensive to bring in an engineer to test the system. It would be even more expensive to rebuild the elevator to be faster.

However, consider the problem – tenants believe the elevators move slow. Why? Is it because they are late to meetings as a result of the elevator? Is it because they’re missing out on time they could be working? Or, is it because there is nothing to do on the elevator and the relative time seems longer with nothing to occupy their attention?

It turns out that the reason many elevators have mirrors is for this very reason. Mirrors take up the attention span of elevator occupants as they look at themselves. This makes the ride seem shorter.

For the price of a mirror you’ve saved yourself the cost of completely updating a commercial elevator. Likely tens of thousands of dollars saved, and the problem is still solved.

This is the power of reframing the problem, according to Wedellsborg. When faced with a problem, leaders of businesses should empower themselves and their employees to think of the problem first, from different angles. There may be a better solution to address the challenge than what is immediately obvious.

Wedellsborg gives some tips on finding ways to reframe problems:

– Look in the mirror – What is my part in creating this problem? When we have a problem we tend to assume we’re the victim, and everyone else has caused it. That isn’t always the case.

– Challenge the goal – What does success look like? Is there a different way of thinking about what a good outcome here is? We tend to obsess on the barrier keeping us from getting from here to there. But sometimes we don’t need to get over the barrier at all, and instead should be aiming to get somewhere else.

– Examine bright spots – Were there times when you did not have the problem? Did you have it and solve it in a partial way? Are there positive exceptions to the problem?

– Take their perspective – Look at the other people involved in the problem, and try to step into their shoes and understand how they think about the situation.

By utilizing these tips leaders can help train themselves to better reframe problems and potentially reach better solutions. It doesn’t stop there though. The goal is to implement it step by step until it is a part of your company culture:

– Step 1.) Personal Skill – What we discussed above, training yourself to reframe problems.

– Step 2.) Team Habit – Bring your new reframing mastery to your team and make it a regular part of your problem-solving sessions.

– Step 3.) Supporting Structures – Introducing the reframing idea into different aspects of your business, and ensuring that key stakeholders are within each structure to help build the practice into their own teams.

– Step 4.) Widespread Awareness – This is where reframing the problem has become a part of your company culture, and is a standard practice for anyone solving problems.

There are always problems to be solved, and the solution isn’t always obvious. But by practicing the art of reframing the problem, new solutions arise that can have a better impact than any snap reaction.

This article was originally posted on May 7, 2020

The post Reframing the Problem to Find Better Solutions appeared first on My TechDecisions.

That’s not my opinion alone. In the past two months I have spoken with countless integrators, manufacturers, service providers, consultants – almost every one of them mirrors the same line of thinking.

The workplace can’t go back to what it was, even when a vaccine for COVID-19 is found.

While the economy took a significant hit at the onset of mass quarantines and shutdowns, it has held steady and even grown slightly since.

There are, of course, millions of positions where working from home is not possible. There are, however, millions more where working from home is totally viable.

The United States is currently engaged in the largest work-from-home experiment in history. While this experiment was thrust upon us, I’m willing to wager that the result will be overwhelmingly positive.

Studies conducted well before COVID-19 hit showed added productivity and longer working hours for remote workers compared to their in-office counterparts. Millennials and Gen Z have shown a clear preference for work-life balance over higher salaries.

Remote work and the four-day work week have become the new bastions of the labor force, the way workers had to fight for eight-hour, five-day work weeks years ago.

The debate will ultimately come down to talent, as it so often does. Talent will win. When faced with the option of working for a company with flexible work-from-home options versus no work-from-home option, talent will choose the former over the latter the majority of time.

That’ll be especially true after COVID-19, when all employees who are able to work from home and still do their jobs will have experienced that benefit.

It is an outdated, old-school way of thinking to believe employees don’t get as much work done at home as they do in the office. The same outdated, old-school way of thinking that was once convinced business only happens in person, not over videoconferencing sessions.

In the same way that businesses saw benefits in significant drops in travel expenses thanks to videoconferencing, businesses will see similar operating expense benefits in allowing remote work: less cost for utilities, smaller workplaces, fewer workstations, and so on.

The result will be a hybrid. Imagine you have 100 employees. An office for 100 employees might cost $10,000/month to rent. However, businesses will stagger office days into groups. Every employee will come into the office three days each week, and work from home two.

They’ll still see everyone they work with in the office at some point, but only 50 employees will be in the office on any given day. Now the company pays $5,000/month in rent for a 50-employee space, as well as half the utilities they paid before.

That’s an oversimplified economic breakdown, but the logic is unquestionable.

The company loses no productivity, there is still the ability for work to be done in person, and employees get the flexibility of choosing to do certain tasks in-office collaboratively, and certain others at home free of distraction.

Companies save money and employees are happier. Win-win.

There will be some organizations that must have all of their employees in the office five days each week. There will be far more that claim that they do.

They will experience higher operating costs, and they’ll lose their top talent to organizations that evolve to the new hybrid model. They’ll either go out of business or be forced to adapt.

Eventually, it will become the norm, and economists will point to COVID-19 as the catalyst that brought about the new age of the workplace.

This article was originally posted on May 28, 2020

The post COVID-19 Will Change the Workplace Forever appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Years ago, the idea of robotics and automation displacing millions of human workers seemed like an insane concept. There are just certain things artificial intelligence cannot do, right?

Today, AI and robotics can do things we never thought possible. Robotic surgeons can perform surgery with high success rates. AI lawyers, when put up against human lawyers in a study, identified 95% of issues in a contract within 26 seconds on average. Human lawyers identified 85% in 93 minutes on average. AI is diagnosing medical diseases and coming up with new medicines that are moving into the trial phase.

Certainly, capabilities of AI and robotics that seemed insane years ago are very much a reality today.

“Advancing technology has always eliminated jobs and always will,” says Colvin. “But it also creates new jobs and, what’s more important, it enables the creation of still other jobs. On average, these jobs are more productive so they pay better than the old ones, and there are more of them. That’s why the history of the past 250 years has been more jobs and higher living standards.

“Advancing technology is the best thing that has ever happened to humanity,” he says. But are things different this time?

We tend to ask ourselves what computers can’t do in order to learn where humans fit in to this changing landscape. The trouble is that when we ask this question, we get it wrong. From believing computers couldn’t play chess, to assuring that technology could never translate languages, to being adamant that computers could never drive cars autonomously.

The question instead is: what can humans do that technology cannot?

Colvin posits that there are three major human traits that are necessary in any business:

• Empathy
• Creative Problem-Solving Together
• Storytelling

Colvin tells a story of a hospital that used videoconferencing to have doctors remotely give diagnoses to patients. It did not go over well.

When human interact face to face, brain patterns sync, pupil dilation syncs, and trust is built. There are certain human aspects of dealing with customers, partners, and coworkers that simply can’t be replicated through technology.

The military has training exercises to teach soldiers how to better interact with humans. These soft skills are becoming ever more valuable within the workforce.

Humans have the ability to empathize with one another, to work together to solve problems, and to tell the story of how a particular service, product, decision, etc. will have an impact on the business as a whole. That’s what humans can do that computers cannot.

“Next steps for leaders?” says Colvin. “Above all, run toward the human issues at the foundations of problems. Most problems are human issues. We tend to run away from them. They’re difficult. They’re uncomfortable. People would rather avoid them, but we can’t do it anymore. We have to run toward the human issues, and then we have to be candid about talking about them.”

Then, says Colvin, you need to defend that new culture. Someone that delivers on the numbers, but scoffs at the culture, it isn’t a valuable employee.

Related: Will You Drive a Car with Smart LiDAR & Built-In AI in the Not-So-Distant Future?

The culture is what will recruit new talent to the company. If there are individuals hurting that culture, then the culture won’t lock in.

“What about outwardly? The business model,” says Colvin. “The friction-free economy is here. Labor, information, and money move easily, cheaply, and almost instantly.”

Eliminating friction should be the goal of leaders in order to let humans and technology do what they do best. Create new relationships with customers.

Innovate your organization so that whatever service or product you create is as easy to get and use as possible.

Use humans to figure out what the problems are, and technology can help to solve the problems. A few examples:

– Tesla employees realized that raising the hood of the car by one inch at highway speeds would prevent potential fires. A software update sent out fixed the problem.

– TurboTax developed an application to adhere to millennials that prefer to do things on their smartphones.

– Amazon Alexa devices have APIs that can let you order any number of products by just asking the device.

– The smartphone game Candy Crush developed a model in which they gave their game away for free, but earned revenue through people purchasing hints, second chances, etc.

Humans came up with these solutions, and technology enabled them to work. That’s where humans can fit in with the future of work with AI and robotics.

This article was originally posted in May 2020

The post Future of Work: How Will Humans Fit In? appeared first on My TechDecisions.

It’s a weighty proposition. You may get along very well with your direct reports. You could see them trying their hardest to get their tasks done every day.

That should be commended – but if they are trying their hardest and the tasks don’t get done then that isn’t enough for an A+ evaluation. As much as you wish to see your coworkers succeed, it is now up to you to determine their success. If it’s sub-par, then that affects the company, and you need to reflect that in their evaluation.

Luckily, there are many ways to help employees grow.

Setting goals with employees allows them to better understand where they need to grow, and measuring their progress throughout the year will help both of you prepare for what will be determined in the evaluation process.

Plenty of employees, especially those willing to work hard, have turned things around thanks to the right managers helping them better themselves.

If this is your first evaluation process or your thirtieth, there is always value in thinking critically about how to set goals and  evaluate your direct reports.

Let’s get started!

Goal Setting – S.M.A.R.T.

There are many applicable strategies for creating goals for your direct reports, but for our purposes we’re going to focus on the SMART method:

• Specific – Be precise in how this goal is necessary to improve their job functions.
• Measurable – Find a way to measure their progress toward the goal.
• Attainable – Make it something that they can realistically achieve.
• Relevant – Make sure that the goal will improve their job functions.
• Time-Based – Set deadlines for when the goal should be met.

When you’re getting ready to meet with your direct reports in order to set goals, you should be thinking about what their role is on your team.

You should also consider whether or not you have been clear with them in what their role is. It can happen that an under-performing employee simply doesn’t fully understand what you want from them, and that’s on you.

However, if you believe you’ve clearly indicated what you expect out of them then you’re ready to come up with some goals for them. Think about where they are under-performing and consider how a SMART goal can help them grow the skills in that area.

Let’s consider an example. I have an employee named Joe that is great with IT hardware but lacks the people skills necessary to perform certain job functions.

One clear example is when they are helping employees troubleshoot problems with their laptop. You’ve received several complaints from coworkers about Joe’s manners when helping employees fix problems – Joe can be short, condescending, and often fixes the problem without explaining what the user did to cause the problem.

This might not seem like a big deal to Joe. He’s fixed the problem and that’s his job.

But in many ways a part of that job is customer service. Certainly a technician that fixes the problem and teaches coworkers how to avoid the problem in the future is preferable to one that just fixes the problem.

A technician that solves the problem, teaches the user, and provides excellent service that makes coworkers happy to call on them for help would be the ideal. If Joe is only fixing the problem, he can improve.

Now, being nicer to coworkers is a goal to strive for, but it’s pretty subjective. Not very specific. Hard to measure.

How do we make that into a SMART goal? Let’s try:

• Specific – Joe is not providing the necessary customer service to end users, and needs to be more courteous when helping solve IT issues.
• Measurable – We are going to create a questionnaire that employees Joe helps will fill out. This questionnaire will ask them to rate a number of categories regarding the interaction, including whether or not the problem was solved, whether or not the employee learned why the problem happened, whether or not the employee learned how to avoid the problem, and whether or not Joe was polite during the interaction.
• Attainable – The questionnaire will be on a scale of 1-5, and we will average out the scores to give Joe a final score on each interaction. It is deemed attainable that by the evaluation process, Joe should average a score of more than 3.
• Relevant – Customer service is a part of Joe’s job as much as fixing the problem is, so this goal is relevant to what is expected of Joe in his role.
• Time-based – We are giving Joe until the review process to get his average score up to a 3 or higher.

Being nicer to coworkers is something that seems like an immeasurable goal at first, but as you can see above, there are always ways to introduce some kind of measurement into even the most abstract and subjective of goals.

Now, when it comes time to set the goals for your employees, you should not introduce the goals that you came up with first. Instead, ask the employee where they believe they can improve.

Getting their opinions of their own shortcomings can do two things: provide you with insight into how they believe they’re performing, and possibly introduce new ideas for ways they can hit goals you want to set for them.

It will also make them feel more a part of the process, encouraging them to work harder to grow as they had input into how they want to grow.

Ultimately, however, you want to make sure you’re setting goals that you believe will better help the employee perform. It’s not always easy to self-evaluate, and as a manager it’s your responsibility to ensure your employees are growing in the right way. When choosing goals, that should be your barometer.

The Evaluation Process

Once you’ve set goals you should be checking in with employees once per quarter to measure how they are progressing in achieving those goals.

This is important for intervention – you want your employees to succeed and checking in will help them do so. If they aren’t on pace to reach their goals you can have a conversation about why that is, and help them get back on course.

However, the real evaluation process will happen annually for most companies. This is where you go over the goals set and discuss whether or not each employee achieved their goals.

Keep in mind that this is why the measurement aspect of the SMART system is so important. It gives an unbiased look at how the employee did in achieving their goals.

Without something to measure, it’s difficult to determine whether or not the employee was successful – they might think they did a great job and you may think they fell far short, but with a subjective goal there is no way to know which is the case.

When an employee hits their goals it’s a pretty simple process.

Praise them, and have them start thinking about new goals for the following year to continue to improve. At this point your organization’s structure takes over – recommend a raise, promotion, bonus, whatever you think is best and fits your organizational compensation structure.

It’s when an employee doesn’t hit their goals that the evaluation process becomes a bit more difficult for some.

Many people have a tendency to sugar coat criticism. They might offer excuses for an employee’s failure to hit certain goals. They might sandwich the criticism between two compliments.

They might decide to not offer the criticism at all.

Any of these strategies can be a serious detriment to your employees. Sugar coat the problem and the employee won’t realize how serious their failure is.

Sandwich it between compliments and the employee will feel that by and large they are doing a good job. Neglect to offer any criticism and the employee will continue to make the mistake.

It won’t be easy, especially for first-time managers, but the best way to offer criticism is to be direct and honest.

Explain to the employee that they didn’t hit their goals. Discuss the reasons why you believe they failed. Explain why it was important for them to hit their goals, and what it means when they don’t.

Let’s use Joe again as an example. He averaged a 2.4 on questionnaires when working with other employees. Here’s what you could say:

“Joe, at the beginning of the year we set a goal for you to average a 3/5 on your questionnaires. You fell short of that goal, averaging only a 2.4.

“This means that end users are walking away from working with you considering it a bad experience. While you’re fixing the problem, they’re not learning how to avoid the problem moving forward. That means the problem will persist, and our technicians will need to continually step away from what they are doing in order to fix the same problems.

“That time could be spend on other necessary tasks. By failing to meet your goal you are costing our department time and resources better spent elsewhere. I need you to continue to work on being better dealing with our employees.”

Not so bad, right? We’re all adults.

If we fail at something we should have the emotional maturity to be able to accept that. If someone doesn’t have the emotional maturity to accept their failures and work toward improving, frankly, that’s not someone you want on your team. Sugar coating a problem only perpetuates the problem.

A perpetual problem for your employees is inevitably going to become a perpetual problem for you – you should do what you must to end the problem. That’s part of your job as a manager.

A quick note – this isn’t a time to overreact either. The opposite of sugar coating something is not blowing it out of proportion. A reasonable, factual, direct response that uses the measurements decided on as part of the goal is what you’re striving for.

Now, the conversation doesn’t end there. The rest of the meeting should be spent trying to discover why Joe is having such a hard time reaching his goal. Inquire.

Ask Joe what it is about working with end users to solve problems that seems to upset him. Ask him why he thinks the end users are giving him such poor scores.

Try to identify reasons why Joe failed – and use those reasons to create new goals to help him grow.

Ultimately that’s the goal of the entire evaluation process. Helping your direct reports grow. By setting goals and holding them accountable, you can do just that.

This article was originally posted on June 25, 2020

The post Evaluating Direct Reports as an IT Manager appeared first on My TechDecisions.

As a technology manager you’ll often need to strategize over the long term in order to successfully implement a new technology. In education environments, for example, the IT and AV departments often forecast years ahead based on budget and goals. For corporate clients that forecast may depend on many factors – you may go department by department, office by office, or one employee at a time when rolling out new technology.

When building a technology implementation business strategy it’s important to communicate a realistic timeframe to stakeholders in the organization. In order to communicate that timeframe, you need to understand that timeframe. That involves communication with the technology provider, the technology installers, your own IT team, and so on.

It is also important to know potential pivot points, or potential check-in points. If you have a three-year timeframe, you can’t simply set it and forget it and expect that three years later everything will be fine. Mistakes can get made. Projections can be incorrect. Outside variables such as COVID-19 can come into play delaying the implementation. It’s a good idea to break the timeline into phases, focus on one phase at a time, and as things progress tweak the following phases to reflect that.

At the onset of the technology implementation, your business strategy should look like a timeline. One long plan, with specific phases of the plan built in. That all starts with gathering the right information.

Gathering Information

Gathering information is by far the most important part of setting up a long-term technology implementation strategy. The aim here is to understand the implementation internally and externally, on multiple levels.

Your first discussion should be with the manufacturer of the technology. If you are utilizing an integrator to help with the installation, the integrator should be brought into this conversation as well. You should be asking about specific installation times for the technology. Inquire about the strategy on the integrator’s part. At this point you’ll likely have a bid from the integrator – study it and make sure to note any questions you might have. You want to know what the delay will be if something goes wrong.

Next you’ll want to talk to your IT department. You’ll want to clearly lay out each employee’s role in the installation. Make sure they ask questions if they are confused about anything. Make sure they voice concerns if they have any. Your IT department will be the front line internally to installing technology, so you want that group as tight as possible on roles and responsibilities.

Finally, you’ll want to talk to department heads whose departments will be affected by the rollout. If there is going to be any down time as a result of the implementation department heads have to know so they can plan for that. The marketing department may have their busiest week the same week you plan to switch them over to a new system – that’s not going to go over well if you inform them last minute.

Make a note of any problems that may arise, who will be in charge of solving those problems, and how that will affect the installation. You want everything as clear as possible up front so that you don’t waste time assigning blame or responsibility if and when something goes awry.

Creating a Timeline

Once you’ve learned everything you need to know internally and externally it’s time to create a timeline. It’s often helpful here to utilize project management software to help keep track of the timeline as well as everyone’s responsibility for that timeline.

The timeline will really be several timelines. As mentioned, you’ll likely want to take a phased approach, where there are multiple phases of the project over the full timeline. Within each phase there will be specific actions and responsibilities doled out.

Make sure that every internal stakeholder has a copy of the timeline so they know when the implementation will affect them. Just because the sales manager said they’ll be good to switch over two years from now doesn’t mean they’ll remember. Create reminders a year, six months, three months, one month, and a week ahead of time so they have ample time to prepare.

Before you finalize, run the timeline by everyone one last time to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Once the project kicks off there will inevitably be problems that may well lead to delays. You need to be prepared to pivot. This is where the phased approach comes in handy – you can pivot one phase and still get back on track down the line, without having to worry about the entire timeline.

Keep all of this in mind and your long-term business strategies will go off without too many hitches (though Murphy’s Law does always apply).

The post How to Build a Long-Term Technology Implementation Strategy appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The reason for the adoption of telehealth is sound. Patients enjoy it. From the HBR article:

Studies have consistently shown that consumer preference is behind much of this movement. In one recent consumer survey, 94% of people who sampled telehealth, in the form of synchronous virtual visits, for the first time during Covid reported satisfaction with the ease and convenience and expressed interest in other modes of virtual care, such as digital monitoring and at-home lab testing. In healthcare, however, it bears reminding that digital adoption is a two-way street, requiring the satisfaction and buy-in of providers as well as patients.

The same article states that, “In surveys fielded over the past few years, a third or more of physicians regularly report symptoms of burnout, while more than half say those symptoms have increased since the onset of the current public health crisis.”

So the problem isn’t that customers don’t find the technology helpful. The problem is that for whatever reason the users on the healthcare side are having problems utilizing the technology.

Consider this when you’re implementing your own technology in any business. Let’s say you’re in retail and you have a stellar sales team on the floor. You decide to install a new digital signage system that helps advertise products. This system increases sales due to advertisement by $1,000. However, your sales staff finds that customers are interacting more with the screen than with the employees on the floor. As a result, employee generated sales are down $1,500. In this case you’ve got a successful technology installation that is losing money.

That’s super oversimplified, I know. But the logic behind it is what I’m trying to impart. Often with technology the impact isn’t measured in dollars and cents. You have to dig deeper for your ROI. If your customers are locing a new technology, but your employees are losing productivity because of it, that can easily become a new failure.

That’s why it’s so important to bring employees into your process of implementing technology. You want to make sure, first and foremost, that employees will adopt and benefit from new technology. Tailor the new tech to fit into your organization’s workflow. That way you still receive the benefits from customer adoption, while not losing out internally.

The post The Need for Technology Adoption on Both Sides of the Equation appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Cyber security is becoming a main issue for many companies, and our weekly feature is a good example of why.

Every week there are multiple stories of people, businesses, and products being hacked for fun, for money, and sometimes for evil.

Luckily for you, knowing the enemy is half the battle. In order to prevent getting hacked in the future, you need to understand who got hacked in the past. Cyber security is a constantly evolving threat to any organization, and even individuals.

Make sure to check out a couple of pieces of content to gain a better understanding of cyber security, and how cyberattacks are carried out.

• The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Cyber Security– Cyber security can be confusing, but after reading our article you’ll be in the clear and ready to stay safe.
• How Does a Cyber Attack Work?– Hacking and cyberattacks are threats that should concern every company. Here’s how they work.
• What is the Worst Case Scenario for Cyber Attacks?– Cyberattacks can have serious implications at the individual, company, and country-wide level.

After reading these pieces of content you’ll understand how cyber security works and get a better idea of how these weekly cyberattacks are working. Only by being equipped with the right information can any organization hope to protect themselves against the constant threats out there.

Each week we’ll be sure to get you the information so you know what cyberattacks are going on around the country and around the world.

This week includes:

• Capcom hacked, 350,000 records stolen which include addresses, phone numbers, email, and birth dates=
• Superior Court of Justice Brazil has systems go down following cyberattack
• Akropolis cryptocurrency lender loses $2 million in hack
• And more!

Click here to find out who got hacked this week, November 16, 2020.

The post Who Got Hacked This Week? November 16 Edition appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Cyber security is becoming a main issue for many companies, and our weekly feature is a good example of why.

Every week there are multiple stories of people, businesses, and products being hacked for fun, for money, and sometimes for evil.

Luckily for you, knowing the enemy is half the battle. In order to prevent getting hacked in the future, you need to understand who got hacked in the past. Cyber security is a constantly evolving threat to any organization, and even individuals.

Make sure to check out a couple of pieces of content to gain a better understanding of cyber security, and how cyberattacks are carried out.

• The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Cyber Security– Cyber security can be confusing, but after reading our article you’ll be in the clear and ready to stay safe.
• How Does a Cyber Attack Work?– Hacking and cyberattacks are threats that should concern every company. Here’s how they work.
• What is the Worst Case Scenario for Cyber Attacks?– Cyberattacks can have serious implications at the individual, company, and country-wide level.

After reading these pieces of content you’ll understand how cyber security works and get a better idea of how these weekly cyberattacks are working. Only by being equipped with the right information can any organization hope to protect themselves against the constant threats out there.

Each week we’ll be sure to get you the information so you know what cyberattacks are going on around the country and around the world.

This week includes:

• Trump campaign website hacked by cryptocurrency scammers
• Steelcase hit by cyberattack
• Republican Party of Wisconsin loses $2.3 million in hack
• And more!

Click here to find out who got hacked this week, November 4, 2020.

The post Who Got Hacked This Week? November 4 Edition appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Externally, data can be used to better market to customers, keep track of their spending habits, understand their pain points, and gain insight into their purchasing decisions. Internally, data can be used to improve processes, cut through overhead, spur productivity, and make decisions.

It all comes down to business intelligence, which encompasses all of the things that leaders take into account in order to make decisions about their organizations. However, data has allowed leaders greater insight into the reality behind these decisions, where for many years these leaders relied on smaller data sets and gut feelings.

Digital transformation has become a favorite phrase in the lexicon of business strategy over the past several years. At the heart of digital transformation is data and analytics. Gathering data about various aspects of the organization, analyzing that data to find trends, and understanding those trends to create business intelligence to help make decisions.

How do technology managers realize the benefits of data and analytics? On the whole, by implementing sensors and software that gathers information, and utilizing an analytics platform to parse through that information to recognize trends. All of this is available to companies right now. However, different businesses and different environments will require different solutions. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to data and analytics. Instead, building an analytics strategy is about figuring out what’s possible and customizing it to your organization.

Let’s look at what’s possible, and what others are doing as part of their digital transformation strategies in terms of data and analytics.

Meeting Rooms

The meeting space has become a great starting point for organizations implementing a strategy around data and analytics. Meeting rooms are isolated, relatively uniform, and a huge part of the productivity of an organization’s staff. It makes sense that organizations want to use data and analytics to streamline the meeting space as much as possible.

Room occupancy sensors can be installed to understand when and how many people participate in different meetings. This information can be gathered to provide an overhead view of how meeting spaces are being utilized in your office. Perhaps the meeting space on the third floor is seldom used. The meeting space on the second floor is used often, but only at 50% capacity. Huddle spaces on the other hand are being utilized throughout the day.

The specific technology within the meeting rooms can be connected to control platforms to gather data as well. How often are screens used? What about audio equipment? Are people actually utilizing the touch capabilities of the screen? What kind of devices are being brought into the room? How often are different products breaking? How much time does the IT team spend fixing these problems?

Air quality sensors also bring in information. Are meeting spaces too hot or too cold? Is there too much carbon monoxide in the room, making employees unhealthy?

You begin to make decisions. That third-floor space can be converted into huddle spaces. The second-floor space can be divided into two meeting rooms. People love the touchscreens, so we should bring in more of those. People also like to use their own devices, so we should enable them to easily connect to displays in the room. This product from this manufacturer breaks down too often – let’s not use them anymore.

The secondary benefits in meeting rooms are great as well. If you learn that most meeting rooms aren’t being utilized after 4:00, you can automate those rooms to shut down hours earlier than before. This saves on utility costs. If a room is too hot or too cold you can regulate that and make the office more comfortable for employees.

None of this information is possible to gather without data and analytics – unless you want to hire full time employees to sit in meeting rooms and write everything down.

Manufacturing Floor

Being in the pharmaceutical industry, data is extremely important in both ensuring that the yield is at maximum capacity (and therefore maximum profit), and that the process and yield meet strict FDA requirements. Analytics have allowed both companies to better monitor and better create manufactured products.

In 2016, TechDecisions was able to speak at length with Gloria Gadea-Lopez about how Shire has utilized Dell Statistica in its process. Gloria works as the Director of Manufacturing Systems in Internal manufacturing at a facility that manufactures only about 30 batches of its product per year, so every batch is extremely important to the overall profitability of the company. More importantly, these batches will be used to combat real life diseases, so the pressure to make sure that there are no anomalies and all of the batches are delivered is serious.

“My joke is, we don’t have big data, we have wide data,” says Robert Dimitri, Associate Director Manufacturing Systems at Shire. “Meaning we’re lucky if we manufacture 30 batches in a year. Our processes run for weeks and months. So we have to collect an enormous number of variables in order to monitor our process. We need to enable the end users on the data side with us much data as possible because that’s all we have. With the length of time that our processes run we have to be aware of what’s going on and able to react to anything that’s happening during the manufacturing process. Having that visibility is absolutely critical.”

There was once a time when scientists at the facility would hand-record data samples and enter them into spreadsheets for analysis. This took time, as data could only be obtained by checking sensors manually, and in many cases by manually taking samples and recording the data. By adding sensors and tying them into a data collection platform, Shire was able to save time and effort, and collect data sets at a much faster rate – days and weeks which used to take weeks and months.

Statistica then analyzes those data sets to provide information about how the manufacturing processes are performing. This analysis can happen for processes that are daily as well as those that take months to run their course. Data scientists within the manufacturing facility can then take the analysis and use the information to better run their processes. So, for example, analysis might recognize that yield is greatest when a batch has a certain pH level at a certain temperature. Scientists can then monitor the pH level and temperature to ensure greatest yield. And this happens in almost real-time, so that scientists don’t have to wait until the batch is finished to understand how well the batch will come out. They can monitor as it goes in order to create the best yield for every batch.

Statistica also allows Shire to scale and validate data. “Things happen in an environment of constant change. So maintaining compliance while operating in constant change is challenging,” says Gadea-Lopez. “So we need to have the right application that allows us to manage change. At the same time, continuing the expansion of these applications, either by onboarding new products and processes, or by expanding the use of the core application to new areas of use.

“One area that’s very interesting right now is that the facility in Lexington utilizes disposable technology. Traditionally, we make the product using stainless steel [reusable technology]. Single-use systems are a completely different way of manufacturing. We have another plant that makes the same product on the traditional stainless-steel technology. So we can monitor performance, get approval for the facility, and demonstrate parallels. That’s where these applications are priceless – we can monitor and use all of the data from the separate systems at the same time.”

This same process can be applied to any manufacturing facility – implement sensors, gather data in real time, and ensure that manufacturing is at peak performance.

Shipping and Receiving

The transportation industry has also seen huge benefits from implementing data and analytics in order to better track and prepare for shipping and receiving. This involves GPS sensors in vehicles moving products and materials around, and scanning those shipments as they arrive and depart.

This allows organizations real-time understanding of potential delays in shipments. When an accident causes a truck to sit still for two hours, the organization is aware of this delay. They can reach out to customers to warn them – some platforms even have the capability to automate this and let customers know about delays quickly so those customers can better prepare for a delayed shipment.

As this data is gathered, organizations can find patterns for better efficiency. Perhaps, with all of the miles racked up, it is better to switch to electric vehicles and save on gasoline. Maybe there are shipments that can be slightly delayed in order to place them on the same vehicle. Perhaps certain drivers aren’t performing as well as others. Maybe certain vehicles are breaking down more often than others.

Data and analytics gives you this insight before it becomes a problem. It offers real-time updates to shipping and receiving. The faster you get shipments where they are going, the more revenue you can generate. The more efficiently you can get shipments to where they are going, the more money you save.

Retail Environments

Retail environments have also become great entryways into data and analytics strategies.

Again, people counting sensors can give you an idea of how many people are in stores and where they congregate. Facial recognition software can give you an idea of where people of specific genders or ages move throughout the store. This can help organizations better set up the store, to ensure the right products are in the right spots.

Inventory management is also a huge opportunity for data and analytics. The faster organizations understand what products are flying off the shelves, and what products are gathering dust, the faster they can update their strategies. Cancel a shipment of the underperforming products and use that money to purchase more of the best-selling product.

Data and analytics in a retail environment can help organizations better understand how customers shop – which allows organizations to better suit their stores toward customer habits.

Your Organization

Again, data and analytics aren’t one-size-fits-all. You’ll need to tailor your strategy toward your information.

The most important parts are the sensors that gather the data you need, and the analytics platform that digests that data and provides charts, graphs, and spreadsheets for your leaders to easily interpret.

Keep that in mind, and you’ll be well on the way to digital transformation.

The post How to Use Data and Analytics to Make Business Decisions appeared first on My TechDecisions.