Trusted Advisor

March 18 2022

Cybersecurity Reporting Act Ratified

Mike Stute Security, Trusted Advisor cybersecurity, reporting

On Tuesday, as part of the omnibus bill, President Biden signed into law the Cybersecurity Reporting Act. This act requires companies operating in critical infrastructure to report to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within 72 hours after they discover they are under cyberattack. It also requires these same companies to report to the CISA within 24 hours if they choose to make a payment due to ransomware. This is an effort by the federal government to remove the plausible deniability of these companies regarding cyberattacks. Like many companies, these corporations choose to under invest in cybersecurity or rely on cybersecurity insurance to avoid investing in better cybersecurity. This has been prompted by the difference between reported incidents in 2021, amounting to about $29 million, and the much larger amount discovered by Chainalysis Inc. (which tracks cryptocurrency transactions) of $406 million (see Ransomware 2021: Critical Mid-year Update.)

What It Means

Several line items on this new law have changed the game completely.

The CISA has the authority to subpoena companies that fail to report cybersecurity incidents or ransomware payments. Failure to comply with the subpoena can result in the case being sent to the Department of Justice.
Companies will need to show they are taking cybersecurity more seriously. Those without a CISO will probably need to hire one, and give the CISO veto over the CIO regarding cybersecurity– related decisions.

In return the CISA is required to warn organizations of vulnerabilities that ransomware actors exploit. The director of CISA (currently Jen Easterly) will need to establish a joint ransomware task force to coordinate federal efforts working with the industry to prevent and disrupt ransomware attacks.

The sixteen critical infrastructure sectors are chemical, communications, dams, emergency services, financial services, government facilities, information technology, transportation, commercial facilities, critical manufacturing, defense industrial, energy, food and agriculture, healthcare and public health, nuclear reactors (including materials and waste), and water and wastewater systems. For more information about what is included in each sector see (CISA – Critical Infrastructure Sectors).

June 8 2020

Controlling Costs in the World of Covid

Chris Moffett Expense Management, Resources, Trusted Advisor

We have lived with the new world of quarantine and social distancing for several months and even as parts of our country begin to “open up” many of us in the business world are not certain a return to normal is on the horizon. Most of our clients are evaluating and experimenting how to continue operations with an economy stopped in its tracks. Our team and I have fielded countless calls from those looking for ways to contain expenses while revenues plummet and I thought this was a good time to share a few points that are easy to do and can be very effective to help stem the flow of dollars out the door.

*Remove the toll-free call-in option on your conferencing accounts*

Part of our new normal is dealing with online conference and video calls. Not all companies operate this way but with stay at home orders in place for those non-essential staff, many find their team is spending more and more time using tools like Zoom, GoToMeeting, or WebEx. Unexpected, and certainly, unwanted bills can show up when your staff is still using toll free numbers as they set up meetings. Those 1-800 numbers tend to be the culprit of unwanted bills.

Toll free numbers typically come with an additional monthly fee but more importantly they come with a per minute charge for every person using the call. For example, if 15 people dial into a call for one hour that equals 900 minutes (15 people x 60 minutes) and if the charge is $0.02 a minute, that call costs $18.00. That fee isn’t high but when you multiply it by the number of meetings occurring over the past few weeks the expense can be extremely high. Removing that option from your conferencing platforms only takes a few minutes and I have seen it save $40,000 in 60 days.

*Pay attention to wireless data usage*

Bundling wireless devices such as mobile phones, tablets, or hotspots into a corporate account normally saves a company money when compared to reimbursing employees for usage on their personal devices. Companies buy large data pools that let the tens, hundreds, or even thousands of staff take their small piece of a much larger pie and since all those devices don’t always use the same amount of data, the company saves money by bundling all their staff together. Rarely do all devices start using high amounts of data all at the same time–until a global pandemic.

Wireless carriers have online tools that allow the administrators to see usage and identify which devices (and thus people) are using a lot. In times like these it probably isn’t employee abuse, it’s just business as we now know it. However, that doesn’t mean the company is stuck. Options such as increasing the data pool, working with staff to find a better internet option, slowing down the automatic updates from some mobile device management tools can all save the data and reduce potential overage bills each month. Another option many of our clients use is a third party management tool that tracks usage and alerts you before a device crosses an expensive threshold. A client of ours recently experienced wireless expenses 6 times higher than previous months and most of that growth was preventable.

*Work with your providers*

Most office data networks are seeing greatly reduced traffic right now meaning those expensive Internet or MPLS connections are not providing much return. Many network operators have deferment policies or programs that will let you turn them down temporarily without a penalty. Specifically with our clients, we have helped them reduce circuit usage by an aggregate of roughly $250,000 just in the month of April. In most cases, you can turn them down just by asking. In other cases, you may be able to trade a few extra months on the end of a long contract for short term relief that reduces the drain on cashflow. Reaching out and asking the question doesn’t hurt and let’s face it, you will always miss 100% of the shots you never take.

We do believe business will come back and the entrepreneurial spirit will find ways to overcome these troubling times but it never hurts to save some money now. Some of these actions will carry forward and help the bottom line for months or years to come. Hopefully at least one of these items is helpful and stay tuned in the next few days. I’ll have some other actions a company can take to maximize cash over the near term and into the future.

Photo by John Guccione www.advergroup.com from Pexels

May 7 2020

CIO Perspectives: What is a Trusted Advisor and why do I need one?

Jon Baird Trusted Advisor CIO, Trusted Advisor

For over 30 years of my career operating in various roles in IT, the one constant I faced at every level of the organization was the expectation placed on me to deliver solutions. As an analyst on a QA team, I was expected to challenge a piece of software and expose its defects. As a developer, the solutions came in the form of (hopefully) minimal defect, highly functional and performant pieces of code. As a development manager, those pieces had to come together in the form of a software system to solve for a key element of a business transaction. And as a CIO, coupling those systems and its data with infrastructure to solve for complex business challenges proved the pinnacle of solutioning.

My recent transition away from traditional IT as a consumer of technology and services into a role as a provider of technology solutions has proven to be an eye opening experience in several ways. First, I had to truly embrace the value a Trusted Advisor can bring to the critical discipline of technology solutioning. Second, I had to realign my way of thinking in how I consumed technology in the past to current consumption models. And third, and most importantly, I had to open my eyes to the vast array of emerging technology solutions that are dramatically changing the landscape of capabilities and that, quite frankly, I was completely unaware of in my role as a CIO. I have discovered numerous technologies delivered by countless providers that I had never even heard of and solutions that I likely would have considered highly valuable to my IT strategy had I had the awareness.

As a CIO, my key objectives, driven by the business, focused my line of sight directly on my business partners, my team, my budget, and my current capabilities. And when those objectives required capabilities outside those I currently possessed, I looked to technology providers for solutions. But how did I start this journey? Well, maybe someone on my team had knowledge of a specific solution set that would solve the problem but more than likely, they were too laser-focused on daily tactical issues and firefighting to have had the bandwidth to explore the wide array of available solutions. Maybe I’d consult the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant and gather together a list of the 30 vendors that might have a solution but how do I begin to manage that list? Maybe I’d reach out to my VAR although their line-card is limited and by definition, non-agnostic. Or maybe I’d drop large sums of money on consultants.

What I truly need to face this challenge is someone I can trust. Someone who brings subject matter expertise to the problem and can quickly consume high-level goals and objectives and whittle down seemingly limitless providers into a manageable solution set. Someone who is not just an order taker but can sit on my side of the table and partner with me in the discovery process. Someone who can leverage their industry expertise to help negotiate the best deal. Someone who is vendor-agnostic and thoroughly understands the technology landscape. Someone whose success is tied to mine and who has an incentive to build a long-term relationship. And someone whose compensation is aligned with delivering a fully functioning solution. Ultimately, someone who has my back. I need a Trusted Advisor.

A good Trusted Advisor is defined by several key characteristics. First and foremost, my Trusted Advisor needs to take a “what’s in it for you” viewpoint. They need to exhibit broad subject matter expertise. They should act as a confidant and be someone with whom I can discuss the business and IT-aligned strategy but also be a tactical thinker.

The need to be outcome oriented. They need to be a true partner and someone for whom I wish to have a seat at the table. They should be willing to question and disagree with a proposed direction but provide encouragement and support when the decision is made. They need to be an avid listener and thoughtful questioner. Ultimately, they need to be an extension of me and my team.

So, to my fellow CIOs (and CTOs and CISOs alike), whether you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in an organization with the breadth to stay on top of the broad set of technologies available to you (which very few of us are) or you have limited resources and don’t have the luxury of an awareness of the solution landscape because you and your team’s focus is on driving business outcomes, seek out a partnership with a Trusted Advisor. And when you do, make sure they can bring the value you know to expect and when that happens, you will have found yourself a new ally in the daily fight to grow your business through technology.

April 21 2020

What is a Trusted Advisor?

Keith Hatley Trusted Advisor

For the better part of my 27-year career, I’ve been a sales leader working for different service providers in technology. I have had the opportunity to work for some really incredible companies and been a part of organizations that were considered best in class. In spite of that, however, the products and services I represented often didn’t solve the problems my prospects were trying to solve – we couldn’t meet the budget requirements, the implementation timelines, the billing needs, etc…or, in many cases, we just weren’t the right fit.

I was always trying to understand the business impact of the problems the client was looking to solve to see if we could fill a need…and, if we couldn’t, we wanted to lose fast. Don’t waste time. Ask questions. Qualify. Disqualify. When I sit back and think about it, I’m actually reminded of the game of baseball in that I would lose more than I would win. Derek Jeter said baseball is “a game of failure. If you fail seven out of 10 times people think you’re great.” Sales is the same way…or at least it was.

You see there’s a movement in technology right now and the procurement model is changing. Rather than selling “a” service there is a new breed of solution providers called Trusted Advisors. A Trusted Advisor is an overall solutions provider that doesn’t represent a particular product but represents an entire industry of services. They act as an extension of your team, they focus on delivering business outcomes, and they help you navigate the confusion in the market caused by the accelerating pace of change in IT. They work side by side with your team to design, procure, implement, and support even the most complex IT solutions. Quite simply, a Trusted Advisor is the best friend a CIO will ever have.

There’s a confluence of many factors that are allowing this to happen:

Technology Providers are moving away from dedicated sales and support; leveraging sales agents/partners to reduce costs.

Enterprise Clients out-tasking services to allow focus on what they do best…leaving commodity functions to other, more experienced partners; leaning on those partners for advisement, strategy, and support.

Services Evolution with new services (Cloud, Zero-Trust, IoT, SD-WAN), clients looking at multiple (new) suppliers, with an emphasis on “solutions” and/or as-a-service. Pace of change happening so fast that businesses are needing to rely on partners.

These factors are also forcing an evolution in the “partner” space which, in turn, provides the competition benefits to today’s businesses.

Enterprise clients need to recognize the shift and realize the value these Trusted Advisors can bring. They free up the Enterprise to focus on their business and innovation while the Trusted Advisor focuses on the return of high dollar spend. These Trusted Advisors engage in technology audits, solution research, provider selection, and ongoing account management and support.

For me, there’s no longer a question whether “my” product or service fills the gap. There’s no longer a need to “lose fast” so I can quickly move on to find the 1 of 3 (or more) prospects that were a good fit. Now, I get to listen. I get to really listen and learn and I have the opportunity to bat a “thousand”. I get to sit on the same side of the desk as my client to work side by side and help deliver technology solutions to solve business problems and that’s an incredible feeling.

Cloud Communications Group is a technology expense management and IT advisory firm and acts as Trusted Advisors to our clients. We are revolutionizing the discipline of IT procurement by saving our clients time and money and leveraging some of the world’s most sophisticated as-a-Service platforms for IT decision making in driving key business outcomes.