Tech advice? Don’t fight human nature! Or at least, don’t kid yourself that waging such a fight will be effective to any extent. CRMs hold the promise of maximizing collaboration across an enterprise and putting the knowledge of the entire firm at the fingertips of each and every salesperson working there; they can be a key component of Monetizing IT…! Of course, there are critical responsibilities for IT staff and vendors in making a CRM launch successful… But to fully realize the vision and potential of a CRM, a company’s senior leadership must do its part to set the stage and nurture a culture in which the team will WANT to operate in a way that a CRM can empower.
Recent incidents should serve as sufficient motivation: Yahoo – 3.5 billion account details were hacked in two different breaches. Every single account on a system serving nearly half of the world’s population in 2013-14 (not fully disclosed until 2017). Sony Motion Pictures – hacked by a group working with North Korea and used sensitive stolen data to force Sony to cancel the release of a movie about Kim Jong Un in 2014. Anthem Health – 80 million customers’ identity and health insurance records were breached in 2015. Equifax – 146 million customers’ detailed credit records and social security numbers were breached in 2017.
This is not the main driving problem though. The top CRM systems (Salesforce, Dynamics, SAP, Oracle) have been designed with sales input, design thinking and user experience experts coming out their ears. I find several of the top systems really elegant in their combination of simplicity and power. It’s hard to imagine these systems being much simpler while still achieving their intended goal. Neither is the tech IQ of sales staff the major problem. Never before have salespeople had the level of technical skill that today’s sales professionals possess.
Every business should want to have an IT consultant! Business owners are always looking for new ways to improve customer satisfaction. Technology can help achieve this goal when implemented in the right way. Current technologies enable businesses to communicate with their customers easily and efficiently. The technologies also help employees to improve their productivity and efficiency. IT consultants can advise businesses on the best technologies to adapt to improve their efficiency. The most appropriate technology depends on the nature of business and number of users. Read additional details on systems always crash.
A trick any CEO should know about cybersecurity: According to most cybersecurity surveys, over 60% of all data breaches originate from unauthorized access from one of your current or former employees, or third-party suppliers. Historically, cybersecurity has been an area that is housed solely in the technology department of a company, whether that consists of one or twenty employees. But more and more executives are understanding the importance of being not only knowledgeable but also involved in the conversations and decision-making process when it comes to protecting their data.
Innovation Vista has a unique approach to selecting consultants for our engagements; we only hire lead consultants with experience as C-level IT leaders or Partner-level consultants who have demonstrated track records of tangible business results impacting Revenue, Market-share, and/or Margin significantly for their employers/clients. Our network includes consultants with experience in all major industries: Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials, Information Technology, Materials, Real Estate, Utilities and more.