IT Visionaries

A lot of times people look at someone who changes the world and think that person must have known exactly what they were doing right from the very beginning. A lot of times, people are dead wrong. Creating comes from a place of not knowing exactly what comes next, and being willing to try to make something new anyway. Sure, trying something new takes courage; but, it’s more about being willing to try things and not be concerned with the outcome. Also, in reality, individuals don’t change culture — people join forces to do that. If a company wants to change the world, then they need to develop a culture that promotes creativity. Dieter Shirley, the Co-creator of CryptoKitties and the CTO and Lead Architect of Dapper Labs, explains the creative process he has learned to employ.“We would try all sorts of crazy stuff. Of course, most of it didn’t go anywhere. But that was how we learned. Even if CryptoKitties hadn’t taken off, we would have learned a ton and been able to try something else.”Creative people often make objects that other people collect. Creative-types do this because creating new things help them to interact with the materials of the world and then shape them into a certain type of order. Collectors collect because these items help provide meaning to their lives. In this way, both creators and collectors are attempting to create order. Today, these objects can be digital too. CyptoKitties — digital blockchain cats — the latest basketball sneaker, or the hottest painting are now all one in the same. People will queue up for digital collectibles just like they would stand in a line at the sneaker store. They’ll outbid each other for digital memorabilia just like they would for that painting. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Dieter talks about all he and his team learned when they created CryptoKittes, the limitations that blockchains such as etherium placed on their ability to scale CryptoKitties or other similar products, and how they've applied that knowledge to NBA Top Shot — which are digital NBA and WNBA collectibles they build on their blockchain, Flow. Enjoy the episode!Main TakeawaysTry Crazy Things: Just create new things. Not knowing where everything is going is okay. The creation process is never wasted time even if a certain project isn’t considered successful. Creating is about learning. Regardless of the outcome, what’s learned can always be applied moving forward.The Power of Fun and Games: Having a spirit of playfulness in the creative process allows new things to be tried. It’s also really important to make technology that’s fun too. If consumers find the tech fun in itself, like a game, for instance, they’ll take the time to interact with the technology.If You Build it, They Will Come: Just build the tech and keep it simple. If you build something, that gives it a chance for consumers to use it. If it’s simple, even better. If it’s fun, that’s the best because people will take the time to actually use it. People don’t need to know everything about a certain technology to use it. They just need to be interested in it and be able to learn just enough to engage with it.If You Need To, Build It Yourself but Better: Sometimes, taking matters into your own hands is the best path forward. CryptoKitties crashed the Ethereum network. Rather than relying on Ethereum or any other blockchain, Dapper Labs built its own blockchain, Flow, that increased efficiency and met their requirements to scale.Something That Never Dies: Digital memorabilia is attractive because it never dies. Collectors collect items to create meaning for their lives. Digital items, that can live forever, can provide comfort to collectors in that they will always exist and be there for them to provide that meaning.Trust Your Team: As a leader, it’s imperative to trust the team. Even if a leader is initially very involved in the creative process of a certain project, over time the team members working on the project every day will likely develop greater expertise. When that happens, the best thing a leader can do is trust the team. This, of course, also opens up the leader to meet other responsibilities, including dreaming up new projects.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable

In the sport’s world, some teams have all the talent they need to win championships, but, oftentimes they can’t seem to put it all together to be the last team standing at the end of the season. On the other hand, there have been moments when the most unlikely teams come together to shock the world. But when you look back, their success is not so surprising. It’s simply that their culture, their togetherness, was underrated. Championship teams don’t just appear; instead they are built. Company cultures are a lot like teams. Winning is the work, and work must get done. This is especially true when complex software products have to be created that solve problems for customers. Himanshu Palsule, the President and Chief Product and Technology Officer at Epicor, explains how the team works together at Epicor.“We operate pretty flat, including our CEO, Steve Murphy, who’s a process engineer himself. We all roll up our sleeves and talk to the person that has the answer versus sort of go down a hierarchy of people. If you want to succeed at Epicor, you need to be comfortable with that.”Part of building a great team is when leaders are members of the team too and not above it, and everyone works together. Another aspect of being on a successful team is being able to define what the team does well, stick to that core identity, and then having respect for other teams for what they do best. Every game is a series of problems and then solutions. Solve enough problems and the game is won. Great teams create cultures that identify each problem correctly and then work together to solve them.On this episode of IT Visionaries, Himanshu discusses how the Epicor team works together to provide enterprise resource planning software. To do their job effectively, he describes a culture of teamwork that extends to even incorporating the fans, the customers, into the team too. Enjoy the episode!Main TakeawaysBeing a Vendor/Coach: Sales go ary when salespeople either push a client too hard to take on more than they need or allow a client to overcommit to more than they require. Rather than thinking from only a sales perspective, it is helpful for a vendor to think of themselves as the client’s coach. With this mindset, they seek to help educate and support the customer so that their business can succeed. This mentality allows long-standing relationships based upon respect to develop.Core Identity Versus Respecting Other Players: As a large player in an industry, it’s important to identify core company work and stick to that. If there are other players with a specific technology to solve a particular problem, it’s good to respect their product and allow them to do what they do best too. A large player in the industry doesn’t have to do everything; they just need to do their thing.Creating a Problem-Solving Culture: A constructive culture is essential to solve project problems and get work done. Creating an environment where hierarchy is not rigid and communication is fluid is one key. Another key is providing some guardrails to brainstorming sessions in a group of can-do people. Parameters can drive creativity.Fielding a Good Team: Team building involves creating places for people to learn. Partnerships with academic institutions certainly can help. It’s also important to look for potential employees who have a specific skillet that can be adaptable even if they haven’t done the exact type of work before. These sorts of workers can be trained to be very productive members of the team.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In general, creative-types fall into two camps. The first camp loves the excitement of creating something flashy — things that people can identify, experience, and viscerally respond to. The second camp is made up of those who care about building a foundation so that other people can create great things upon it. If they do their jobs really well, their work may go relatively unnoticed. But that’s okay with them. They can sit back and smile, knowing they helped other creators do their best work. Tony Minessale, the Founder and CEO of SignalWire, describes the satisfaction that comes with building a strong foundation to help developers do what they do best.Main TakeawaysCreating Infrastructure so Developers Can Flourish: Some people are attracted to the bright lights of creating flashy applications. That’s fine and helpful too. It’s also necessary to have people that are focused on creating a strong foundation of infrastructure so that developers can build their artful products on top of it.Lessons From Open Source: Open-source work can teach developers a lot. There’s a sense of community that is often established. Also, there’s something meaningful in people doing work for its own sake, rather than for money. On the other hand, the open- source model does have its limitations. Often, a developer can end up serving too many masters because a solution for one person can be a problem for another. At some point, creating a company makes more sense as the capital allows focus and the ability to create a unified team to serve the vision. The Benefit of Rolling out Tech Gradually: Consumers learn more about a new technology when it is delivered to them over time in multiple products that are successively more complex. This graduated process helps consumers to understand a given technology better. It also provides more sales.No Sympathy for the Buzzword: If buzzwords are rated, they’re overrated. Buzzwords can be bandied about by anyone wise enough to recognize them. Too often, however, they lose their meaning from overuse, are imprecise, or don't serve in educating other people and fostering effective communication. An Internet Driven Telecom Industry is Inevitable: Legacy telecommunication models are still around, but an internet telecom industry is the future. Even now, satellite internet has enough bandwidth to stream content. Legacy telecom companies will evolve as they always do to make money. It may take a while for people to adapt but the technology is here. IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One way to think about data is that it is like rain, and it is pouring outside. Imagine c-suite executives running around in a parking lot with huge buckets trying to capture as much as they can. Afterward, they return to the office, analyze the data, and then decide what to do based upon their discoveries.But in this example, it’s not about how many buckets you come back with, it’s what’s in the buckets that matters most. Data is interpreted based upon a person’s values. In fact, certain types of data are acquired, or discarded, because of someone’s core principles -— their guiding light as to how they see the world and their role in it. Entire companies make decisions about how to use data based upon their mission. It all comes down to values whether at the personal level or at the overall company level. In business, data is leaned on because it is measurable. Data is useful, no doubt. It can guide decisions. But, really, the heart of decision-making is about a leader’s values. The underlying question is: What do you believe in? On this episode of IT Visionaries, guest host, Michael Rivo, Director, Salesforce LIVE, Virtual Events Content & Platform at Salesforce, is joined by Kimberly Paige, EVP and CMO of BET, and Dan Torunian, VP of Employee Technology &Experiences at Paypal. They discuss how their intuition and values drive how they use data and help make decisions for their respective companies.Takeaways:Data Drives Decisions: Data is driving decisions all across companies. At BET, it is being used to adjust brand marketing. At Paypal, it is being used to increase the wellbeing of employees so that they can, in turn, serve customers more effectively. Data Versus Instinct: Using data to make decisions certainly is important. Striking a balance between using data and using intuition is key for good leadership. It’s ideal to find an even balance between both data and intuition, while leaning slightly on common sense.Collaboration Through Mission: Shared values and a shared mission creates collaboration and helps break down silos of people and data. Data can be used to support a company’s mission, but values are the foundation. It’s important to remember that values are at the core of everything, including how data is gathered, interpreted, and acted upon.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Despite so many technological advances, the way people worked stayed fairly static for many years. Work has now changed suddenly; there is no doubt about that. Where work was mostly in person, now a lot of work is remote or in a hybrid model. Nobody wanted this change to happen in this way — by being forced to quickly adjust due to a global health crisis. It’s like the whole working world collectively face-planted. No one asks to fall. But with any fall, there is an opportunity to reassess, get back up, and change course. Now, there is a tremendous opportunity to redesign the rituals of work. Ashok Krish is the Global Head of Digital Workplace at Tata Consultancy Services, and he believes we are in a transitional phase of work where new routines and rituals are being established.“A lot of new rituals of remote work had to be put in place. And I think that is the single biggest culture change that a lot of companies missed; more so than the technology. I think the technology, most companies already had it. They just accelerated the adoption and rollout of it.” The entire world is right in the middle of a work culture change. Employees are still learning to work and be productive from a distance. And companies are figuring out how to bring people together despite distance. But there is a way to bridge the divide between a company and it’s employees, wherever they may be physically working. Thoughtful analytics and technological design are the answer, and when applied effectively, they can create new digital norms that foster productivity and employee contentment. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Ashok explains how work must be reimagined with these new norms in mind. He details how new rituals must be designed and then incorporated, and he dives into how reshaping the old way of work can actually open up new possibilities and efficiencies within the technology companies already have under the hood. Enjoy the episode!Main TakeawaysTransitioning Work Rituals: Work has changed suddenly from mostly in person to often remote. The old rituals of work no longer apply today. Long, frequent meetings don’t work well remotely. Perhaps they were never really efficient in person either. New rituals must be established for remote work to be successful and for workers to be content. Valuing Frontline Workers: Frontline workers are immensely valuable. Given the tumult of the last eighteen months, companies have learned to better appreciate their frontline workers. Historically, frontline workers were underserved by IT and had to find their own tech solutions. Now, there is more of a focus on providing frontline workers the IT support they need.New Work Norms: New norms must be established given more work is remote or hybrid now. Technology can be used to increase productivity and contentment in the workforce. Using tech to limit meeting times and messages increases the importance of these activities. It’s essential to get two-way communication going, perhaps especially in high power distance cultures. Interactive town halls, that aren’t too long, can create two-sided communication that connects leaders with their employees. Creating a Culture of Connection: The challenge with remote work is that we can no longer rely on physical proximity to create connection between people and to identify when people are feeling disconnected. Analytics can be helpful to determine if people are overworked and stressed. Then, HR needs to reach out to establish contact to make sure employees are doing okay.Ritualization of Design: New IT design principles must be established that support today’s work and workers. Ritual can be helpful for many types of work because it establishes an efficient guide on how to efficiently get things done the right way.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Some people are super health conscious, with their days driven by early-morning trips to the gym and kale smoothies. Others try their very best to avoid thinking about anything health-related at all, pushing thoughts of vegetables or long walks right out of their minds. Regardless of which camp you fall in, your overall health is important and your medical history is critical data. So why is it so difficult to get access to important health information for ourselves and those we love? Is the onus on us? Or is it due to a breakdown within the system? Either way, we clearly need systems and technology that support our health. Vijay Anand is the EVP of Engineering at Castlight Health, and he believes that technology combined with the human touch can increase everyone’s health.“What we actually do is a combination of things. [We] certainly help you with content that helps you understand, why is that important? And what is it? But it's also about now using the power of high touch, right? This is essentially a key element of what our care guides do. On their single panel as they support our users, they actually have your whole health profile, but also the key recommendations and the gaps that you need to be closing.” Healthcare can feel like the ocean. It’s huge, important, overwhelming at times, and its waves can crash down on a person if they’re not careful. There’s a sea of healthcare information out there. Without some assistance, no one person can gather it all, make sense of it, figure out a plan, and then act accordingly. Fortunately, we do have help. There is technology that can guide us through the data and help us figure out what to do. Well-intentioned people can be a great support too. The key is getting technology and humanity working together toward the common goal of individual and community health. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Vijay explains the steps we can take to create a system that aggregates health data, personalizes it, and then helps engage people in making healthy decisions. He also shares how future innovation can help those who need services the most by identifying need and targeting care. Enjoy the episode!Takeaways:Three Tech Steps Toward a Healthy System: The first step is aggregating data from a variety of sources concerning health providers and procedures. Secondly, users need the ability to have personalized health information that is driven by the data. The last step involves engaging users so that they can adjust their behaviors to act on information that supports their health. Commonality Between Taxes and Healthcare: Making technological advances for people is not only about taking something that is incredibly complex and making it more simple. People need confidence that they can actually do something in order to even give it a try. The need for confidence to complete one’s taxes is similar to the confidence required to care for one’s health, as it is in many other important endeavors. The human touch can help support people’s confidence and encourage their perseverance.Tech/Health Innovations: Targeting services to people who really need it is something to look forward to and be motivated to do. Information will hopefully become less siloed and more holistic. A.I. advances will target/personalize health even more and then drive healthy behavior changes.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We talk to our computer by asking it a question and then the computer talks back, trying its best to answer it. At least that’s how the conversation generally happens between humans and A.I. Sometimes we’re happy with the computer’s answer and other times, not so much, and we either try again until we’re successful or give up. But real learning takes place with true dialogue, when there are successive exchanges that deepen understanding and where either a person or a computer can start the conversation. For people and computers to learn, good data is very important — as are ways to access it quickly. Even more important is constructive communication driven by language. Corey Patton is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pramana Labs, and he thinks prose and narrative conversations are the future in communication between A.I. and people.“We created a way to learn about a relational database using training processes and NLP models that allows a user to just ask the question in free text. What are the most home runs that any Angels outfielder has had in seven at bats, and then instantly get the answer back. It comes back in tables and graphs, and then also human prose, narrative language.” Developments in natural-language processing are beginning to allow for dialogue between people and A.I., which in turn creates a foundation for learning. Many people point to the bright, shiny object of vehicle automation when thinking about the potential for A.I., but perhaps the most exciting aspect of A.I. overall is the future of conversation and the amazing opportunity for learning quality exchanges between people and computers will provide. After all, this thirst for learning, and our need to talk to do so, may draw humans and computers even closer together.On this episode of IT Visionaries, Corey covers the bases about how natural-language processing is being incorporated into the sports world, with professional leagues such as the NHL and beloved publications like Baseball America relying on the technology to get information to audiences more accurately and quickly. And, as Corey says, that’s just the beginning for Pramana Labs as its applications are seeping into other industries spanning from commerce to finance to mortgage lending. Enjoy the episode!TakeawaysBuilding a MVP: When creating a product, it’s important to solve one particular problem for a customer rather than trying to solve all of them. Lean on the customer to inform the scope of the product based on what they need.Making the NLP Reusable: Having reusable, paramentixed, and interchangeable pieces of NLP data cuts down the time required to get a question answered. Once a question is answered, another question can be asked with only a slight variation, and then another answer can be quickly provided. In this sense, both speed and delivery of accurate information increases.Answering Questions for Intent: The key in NLP is to discover what question a person is trying to ask and then offer up the correct answer. Looking at the entire sentence signature through an analysis of all the pieces that the computer has been trained for allows A.I. the ability to decipher the sentence and then respond accordingly. A True Two-Way Conversation: The future of NLP is really tech that scans a database and then provides prose, narrative responses. In fact, A.I. will react to things that are happening in real time and create a narrative for what it is seeing without the user necessarily having to ask any questions. This will allow A.I. to initiate conversation and guide a person to the knowledge that they are seeking.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Each day, we’re coming into contact more and more with artificial intelligence and machine learning that is meant to make our lives better. We’ve all had some A.I. experiences that have gone really well. Perhaps, we didn’t even realize A.I. was helping us at first. On the other hand, getting help from A.I. doesn’t always work out perfectly, at least not right away. So why the inconsistency? If the human mind can take in so much complex information and make sense of it, why can’t our computers? Or can they if they have good data to learn from? Brad Porter, CTO of Scale AI, believes the key to A.I. learning efficiently is the right labeling:“What you need is those samples to be labeled perfectly because if they're labeled ambiguously, then the model can't actually decide what exactly is signal versus noise. So one way to solve that is to throw more and more data at it. Eventually you have enough data that the algorithms learn, okay, this is the signal and all these other pieces are the noise. If you get [a] really high quality signal, though, you can learn that signal very quickly if there's not a lot of noise in it.”Computers need lots of data to learn. More accurately, they really need lots of quality data labeled properly. Fundamentally, this just makes sense. The best way to learn something is through repeated exposure and practice. This is just as true for people as it is for computers. That’s where Brad comes in. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Brad explains how his diverse work experience, particularly his work in robotics, ultimately led him to focus on solving the problem of data labeling for A.I, which is setting us up for an exciting future. After all, if proper labeling is the key, and the key is becoming more readily available, then we can expect great things in the A.I. space. Brad discusses some of those great things, including how the tech will help us understand medical histories and its use in autonomous vehicles. Enjoy the episode!Main TakeawaysBreaking the Data Bottleneck: There is a lot of data in the world for A.I. to access. The primary issue for machine learning is for the computer to be able to distinguish what information is most important so it can learn. In this way, people and computers are similar. But computers need our help to know what data is essential. Labeling Data is Key: It’s easy to get caught up in the glamorous possibilities of A.I. and how it can help us. Computers need data to learn, but they need the right data to learn effectively and efficiently. Labeling data is essential to speed up the pace in computer learning. What is Signal Vs. What is Noise: Proper labeling helps A.I. distinguish between signal as opposed to noise. A.I. doesn’t necessarily need massive amounts of data to learn if the right, properly-labeled data is being provided.Quantity vs Quality: Without proper labeling, there has been a tendency to simply inundate A.I. with data so learning can happen eventually. Of course, this is inefficient and costly. Proper labeling streamlines this process. In an ideal situation for learning, there’s a tremendous amount of data that’s also all properly labeled. With large amounts of properly labeled, automated data, A.I. has a real chance to take off.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It used to be the case that we mostly proved our identity by offering up a piece of paper. Perhaps that seems silly now — at least a little. In the digital age, that is definitely no longer the situation — and for good reason. Right now, we have difficulties of our own. Today, our digital information seems like it is everywhere and available for anyone to access, whether they are well intentioned or not. Because there is so much information, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to prove who someone actually is or is not. Through the use of A.I., Persona answers the fundamental question: Are you who you say you are? Rick Song is the CEO and Co-Founder of Persona, and he believes removing humans from the verification process is part of the solution.Main Takeaways:Identity Service Tools: Building identity infrastructure can be incredibly challenging for companies if that is not their area of expertise. Rather than having to create that structure from scratch, integrating an A.I. platform can make identity verification much easier. Using A.I. technology increases speed, privacy, and specificity.Tailoring to Companies and People: Many companies and people suffer due to lack of trusted identity services geared directly for them. Companies typically have difficulty identifying their customers. Through the use of A.I. technology, customers can be reached that historically have not had access to important resources.Learning to Sell: It’s definitely not easy transitioning from engineering to selling. Good friends, mentors, practice, and lots of honesty help. Focusing on the customer rather than what the company does is the key. Find what the customer cares about and hone in on that. ---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Many times we think about ideas in terms of debate — that there are only two ideas that are oppositional in nature and that one is superior to the other. This is true right now in the network conversation concerning an industry push toward either decentralized edge computing or more centralized network systems. What if, as is often the case, there is another way to think about duality where a unity lies somewhere in between? Raj Yavatkar, CTO of Juniper Networks, believes that to be the situation in terms of the debate for supremacy between decentralized versus centralized networks. “So before I get into the debate, which is a very interesting debate, you can say that three factors, a trio of trains, are coming together. People are putting more and more workloads to the public cloud, the 5G infrastructure, which is very densified, and there [are] micro cells.There's a densification of the traffic, which is at the edge. And third is the new applications based on A.I., M.L. and analytics. So when you look at all these three trends, it's not so much just sending the traffic to the public cloud. You're using edge from multiple lists.” In this episode of IT Visionaries, Raj proposes that, in truth, networks can be both things simultaneously as they become increasingly “aggregated at the edge.” He also shares that teleportation via quantum networking is occurring right now.Main TakeawayAggregation at the Edge: Rather than an either or proposition concerning decentralized edge computing or centralized network consolidation, there is a great deal of network aggregation at the edge. On one hand, there is a drive to centralize due to the ability to send traffic to the public cloud. Alternatively, issues concerning limits of data transfer across national boundaries due to GDPR regulations as well as the potential need for local networks for automation are promoting edge computing. In reality, aggregation is still occurring but simply on the edge.Customers Drive Tech Advances: Customers are the vanguard of technological advancement and driving development based upon their evolving needs. Customers increasingly want automation and predictive analytics to support maintenance. In terms of network service, this includes maintaining the physical products that support the network operating seamlessly.Quantum Networking is Real: Not only is computing capacity advancing rapidly but so is communications. Simply put, quantum networking is real. It is based upon the idea of encoding data into quantum bits in order to send it along a network. In other words, teleportation is not relegated to the realm of science fiction. It’s happening now.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every solution starts with an idea. Consumers needed more home security, so the founders of Ring came up with the smart doorbell. Home owners had trouble finding time to complete recurring tasks like vacuuming, so Roomba automated the vacuum. But despite those great ideas, every founder needs some help along the way. Or more specifically, they often need financial backing to scale a business, and they need someone to believe in them when others won’t. “We often joke that our best investments are the ones that nobody else likes. We're investors in Dollar Shave Club and I was told that was stupid. It was acquired for a billion dollars. With Ring, people laughed at me and they're like, ‘You invested in a doorbell business?’ A lot of times the ones that aren't necessarily obvious are really the best opportunities. So it was digging in and understanding if this does work, is it going to be really valuable?”Kevin Dunlap is Co-founder and Managing Partner of Calibrate Ventures, a VC firm focused on funding early-stage A.I. and automation companies. Every year Kevin and his partners sift through hundreds of companies looking to take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey. But what separates the companies that receive funding from the ones that never make it past the pitch stage? And what trends is he seeing within the automation and A.I. space? On this episode of IT Visionaries, Kevin explains Calibrate process for picking companies to partner with and what questions start-ups should be answering before they step up to pitch to VCs. Enjoy this episode. Main TakeawaysIt’s All About Data: Data capturing and data labeling remains the two most important factors to developing functional A.I. solutions. When data is not effectively captured and/or labeled, the algorithm cannot effectively decipher what it needs to in real time. An example of this involves self-driving cars that need to not only be able to recognize the distance of a truck in front of them, but what kind of truck is in front of the vehicle, and all the other road conditions that could impact a drive.Honesty Gets you Far: Everyone wants to impress in their pitch to a VC, after all, the ability for them to fund a business could make or break a company. But one of the leading things that separates good pitches from great ones is the ability to admit where there is a gap in your business and how funding will help you close that gap. Going into a pitch meeting with all the answers is an early red flag and raises more questions than answers.Building a Better Tomorrow: With a growing labor shortage in tough skills and technical skills, companies and government programs must invest in STEM and STEAM programs to ensure that we are funding future generations of innovations, but also opening up more geographical regions as well. This also means that investors want to see how owners recruit talent to an organization, but also their strategy for training and retraining individuals to fit the needs of the business.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Standing in line at an airport is a bad experience. Shuffling through your wallet once you reach the front of that line only to realize you don’t have your driver’s license, that’s a worse experience. From boarding airplanes to purchasing alcohol, the technology that enables digital driver’s licenses already exists, but with adoption levels still so slow, the question is what’s the hold up?“I always liken it to chess and checkers — checkers, super easy to play. And giving access to people is playing checkers. Giving access to people based upon them being who they say they are, that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, that they are where they're supposed to be, that they've been given approval for those assets, that's chess.There's this notion of authentication authorization approval, and today it's expanded into verification and proofing. So four key components and just like chess, you learn how to play it relatively quickly, but you spend the rest of your life mastering it.”At least 17 states in the continental US have considered or implemented digital driver’s licenses, but few have been able to create a system that leads to widespread adoption across the population and in government offices alike. On this episode ofIT Visionaries, Richard Bird, the Chief Customer Information Officer at Ping Identity, explains what the hold up is in getting digital driver’s licenses to all 50 states, and he sheds light on the biggest obstacle that is stalling the adoption process.Main TakeawayThe Privacy Paradox: From GDPR to CCPA, all data privacy legislation requires companies to protect consumers from harm that could come by way of using its product or services. But there are few or no rules or guidelines that protect users from their own digital identities. This means that companies must take on a larger role in not only making sure that users’ digital identities are secure, but that they are educating users on the proper ways to protect themselves.You’re So Predictable: Digital identity experiences need a vessel to live on such as smartphones or wearable devices, but one of the big concerns from implementing these pieces of equipment is the amount of data that will be gathered from these events. What is the appropriate level of data aggregation and how much is too much when it comes to being able to predict things such as human behaviors and predictability patterns?A More Inclusive Environment: Digital identity has the power to be a key driver to globalgrowth and digital transformation, but at the same time it can also lead to data biases that are collected from these. If someone fails to update an address on their driver’s license, that information could lead to misrepresentation of population.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The way we learn is no longer unilateral. So why act as if still one teacher, standing in front of a group of students lecturing them on a particular subject is the best way for them to learn a second language? Instead of teaching simple words or phrases such as bike, or car, what if the focus was on developing the skills that actually help people advance their careers? “The old way of teaching, where you teach the same thing to everybody — teacher in front of the room, using a textbook that gets purchased — no one thinks that's a good way of doing it. Good teachers actually go out and try to find supplemental materials that were interesting to their students. They look for news articles, or short stories, or something, but they can't take all that content and curate it and deliver it to learners. It's impossible for humans to do that. However, machines are really good at doing that. When I realized that was the very best way to teach learners, I decided to try to use computers for what technology can do best, to let people do what teachers do best.”That’s Dr. Katie Nielson, who earned her PhD in the school of languages from the University of Maryland in 2013, where her research focused on technology-mediated language training. Katie has dedicated her career to making language learning more accessible and now, as the CEO and founder of Voxy EnGen, she’s using technology to deliver high-quality needs-based instruction to immigrants and refugees.On this episode of IT Visionaries Katie, dives into why the way we teach language in the states is a broken process and how to fix it. She also explains how her platform is delivering personalized learning at scale to those that need it most. Enjoy!Main TakeawaysIf There’s A Problem, Fix it: When you’re developing a solution to a problem, you have to think about how your solution can be applied across different verticals. This means taking time to research the various options you have when it comes to getting your product to market, but also thinking about what your unique identifier is.A Barrier to Success: English is often what holds workers back from succeeding at their jobs. Instead of non-English speakers having to go to class in order to advance their linguistic skills, they should be able to do that on their own time with a program that teaches them the basics, but real-world scenarios based on their jobs to help them improve.Setting a Baseline: When you’re developing any kind of algorithm or personalized experience, the first thing you have to identify and establish is a baseline for your measurement. This is how you identify the areas where someone needs to grow, but it also can be used as a tool to identify how far a user has come with your program.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Companies are built off profitability. The investments you make are designed to support the products or services you sell. But let's be honest for a moment, you like buying the things that are core to your business because that’s what you care about. The secondary expenses that occur, those are less fun. Whether you’re dealing in electronics, retail, mortgages, or hamburgers, inevitably there are expenses that arise that don’t support your product. So how do you cut down on those expenses? And how can all the data gathered from shipping and receiving actually improve your profit margins? “What's not core to you is core to us. What I mean by core to your businesses is at Harley Davidson, they make motorcycles. They source and buy steel, bolts, oil, leather, so on and so forth. But what they also need to operate their business is they need marketing. They need packaging, they need stores to sell their motorcycles in. Their retail operation. They need to ship things. It's everything else.”Craig Garno is the CTO at LogicSource and he’s helping companies such as LuluLemon, BIG Lots, and Tupperware cut down and streamline their spending. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Craig explains why companies that fail to focus on indirect services will struggle to scale the business while also paying more than fair market value. Plus he dives into how LogicSource is helping these businesses trim the fat on those investments, and the role data management plays in its efforts.Enjoy this episode.Main TakeawaysLost in Time: One of the main challenges to solving indirect procurement problems is the lack of attention these services are afforded. In most cases, the data input is still done manually, which also means most of the technology is behind as well. Businesses need to invest in these services in order to not only understand the areas within the supply chain where they are experiencing disruptions, but also to have a better idea of the costs they are incurring on items such as packaging and delivery services.Understanding How to Use Data: Once companies begin investing in their internal structures, they need to follow that action by doing a deep dive into understanding what data points are most important to the overall success of the business. But you also need to have a better understanding across the business of how to read and understand what the data is telling you. Once this is accomplished, you will have a better idea of how to fix some of the challenges the company is facing when it comes to procurement spend.Keep it Simple: The key to good product design is to not overcomplicate the application. When apps are easy to read, agile, easy to scale, and simple to understand, you have a greater chance of the product gaining traction and more adoption.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are 750 million transactions processed every day. Let that number sink in… Across ATMs, self-checkout machines, and online payments, NCR — through both hardware and software infrastructure — is helping you checkout faster. We already have tap-to-pay credit cards and payments-synced watches. So is there a way for transactions to actually get more seamless? And can creating that more effortless experience actually save you money?? Tim Vanderham, CTO and SVP at NCR, said it’s not that unrealistic.“We're going on this notion of frictionless, passive, and then us as consumers sharing our data where we want to share it so that we get benefits from it in our daily lives. If you're not a bank individual, but you start thinking about what's happening with decentralized finance around cryptocurrencies and blockchain, I can start to leverage that data in ways that I can ask for loans from my financial institution when I'm making larger purchases. It also gives me a way to save an extra $500 for a week.”In 2021, data is precious currency, especially when you’re a company that moves hundreds of billions of data points at a time. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Tim provides a new outlook on the future of your transactions Tim also goes into how NCR, a company established in 1884, is going through its own digital transformation to deliver customers the interactions with brands they desire. Enjoy this episode.Main TakeawaysInto the Serververse: Right now a majority of transactions are done with the swipe of a credit card or through physical cash. But that will change, and one way it will change is through the use of digital wallets on smartphones. These digital wallets will be able to store and read your information without you ever having to actually pull out a credit card.It’s Just a Transaction: NCR covers more than 750 million transactions a day, which means that hundreds of billions of data points pass through its system. These data points will eventually allow consumers to use that information to create better financial profiles — meaning if a user routinely invests 20 dollars into an account, the system will be able to automatically do that or that data will be used to create recurring buying profiles.From Hardware to Software: When you’re transforming a company that has been around for more than a century, you have to understand the verticals your company operates in. This means identifying where your technology is successful, and where you can improve. For NCR, that means moving away from just hardware products and developing a software platform that allows the three unique industries it serves to operate under one umbrella. ---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let’s think about this for a second — what is more important: the pace at which a business must change its technology in order to keep up with its competitors or the culture that makes the whole thing flow efficiently? It’s an interesting conundrum, and one that Gautham Pallapa, Senior Executive Advisor at VMware thinks about often.“I look at things through the lens of culture, organization and people and processes first, because it's very easy to bring in the right technology. Technology is much more discreet. It's people and the culture that's not.”The bottom line for Gautham: culture wins, and it’s time for companies of all sizes to invest in it. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Gautham, self described as a culture evangelist, author, and a founder, explains how he works with some of VMware’s biggest customers to help them transform their businesses. He talks about why he advocates for culture ahead of technology, and he gives his reasons for why focusing on workplace culture is going through a digital renaissance of its own. Enjoy this episode.Main TakeawaysTaking a Modern Approach: While every company goes through some kind of digital transformation, it is important to also make sure that while you’re investing in your technology, you also invest in your workplace culture. Oftentime companies focus solely on the things that drive value and profit margins and not enough on the components of the organization that make it run.Leading with Empathy: 87% of remote workers report working longer hours than the traditional nine-to-five. With more employees working remotely than ever before, businesses must adapt their leadership styles to reflect the changing workplace. This means taking into account the challenges remote workers face and working with them through those struggles.End the Day on High Note: One of the ways organizations can lead with empathy is by creating a workplace culture that not only motivates employees to accomplish their tasks, but also praises them for their accomplishments. This can include implementing meetings such as “spin downs,” which are end of the day conversations designed to praise employees for the work they did that day.---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An A.I. the model is similar to a boat in that it needs constant maintenance to perform. The reality is A.I. models need adjusted boundaries and guidelines to remain efficient. And when you live in a world where everyone is trying to get bigger and faster and have a certain edge, Scott Clark is helping make that possible with his finely-tuned A.I. modeling techniques.“As you're building up these rules and constructs for how that system will even learn itself, there's a lot of parameters that you need to set and tune. There's all these magical numbers that go into these systems. If you don't have a system of record for this, if you're just throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks, and then only checking the best one, and you don't have a system of what you tried, what the trade-offs were, which parameters were the most important, and how it traded off different metrics it can seem like a very opaque process. At least that hyper parameter optimization and neural architecture search and kind of tuning part of the process can be a little bit more explainable, a little bit more repeatable and a little bit more optimal.”More explainable, and more optimal, but most importantly scaleable and reproducible. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Scott, the CEO and Co-founder of SigOpt, a company that’s on a mission to empower modeling systems to reach their fullest potential, explains the basic steps that go into successful models, how his team tweaks and optimizes those models to build more efficient processes. Plus, Scott touches on the future of algorithmic models — including how they will improve and where they struggle. Enjoy this episode.Main TakeawaysBad Data, Bad!: When you’re building algorithm models you have to not only focus on the data you are putting into those models, but you have to know where that data is coming from and if that data is trustworthy. When you have untrustworthy data — either its coming from an unknown source or is bias in any way — this can lead to models that deliver poor results.Delivering Consistency: While every algorithm needs to be tweaked and tuned at the start, the best way to deliver consistent, scalable algorithmic models is to make sure you are able to define hyper-specific patterns that the algorithm can abide by. When algorithms know what rules they are looking for (such as this person only likes medium sized shirts with stripes) it has a set of hyper-specific boundaries it can operate off of in order to deliver the best results.Where is the Band Conductor?: Algorithms will continue to infiltrate our everyday lives, but the truth is they still need humans to effectively run them, to tune them, and to make sure that the decisions they are making are the right ones. ---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every day we make a choice — to recycle, to compost, or to simply discard an item. But regardless of what decision the consumer makes, corporations are one of the biggest contributors to environmental damage. “Recycling and composting and all that stuff. It's great, but it's not where the real problem is, the real problem is the way we make things and move things around. It's the factories, and supply chains. If you want to reduce waste in the world, that's where you target.”Reducing waste is an ambitious challenge to tackle, but it's one Steve Pratt, Founder and CEO of Noodle.ai, is facing head-on. The strategy: use artificial intelligence and machine learning to help manufacturers and supply chain distributors limit the amount of waste they produce everyday. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Steve explains just how much waste is produced yearly by industrial operations and the monetary ramifications that waste brings. He also explains the way his team is using A.I. to help manufacturers predict hiccups with their machines, and why it's time for users to overcome their fear of A.I. Enjoy this episode. Main Takeaways:It’s Not a Hardware Problem: The biggest problem facing industrial machines remains the software that runs them. In order to cut down on waste, the software must be consistently updated and optimized based on the working conditions.Data Library, Data Lake, Data Everywhere: There’s been an explosion of data, and yet corporations still can’t figure out how to put it all to good use.One way to use data is by extracting it from industrial machines, which can be in operation for decades, and then using it to design A.I. solutions based on variables a machine needs to run on.You Have to Test Your Models: When you are trying to build an effective modeling solution, you should consistently test your models to understand if your predictive models are working as they should. Make sure you take your time and test over and over again before implementing. A vast majority of A.I. solutions fail because they are not properly tested.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Too lucrative, too easy, and not enough investment. In the simplest terms possible, that is how you could describe the current state of cybersecurity. Over the last month, we’ve heard from some of the top minds in the industry, and a general consensus is that despite the innovations and optimism in the world of cybersecurity, those three issues remain at the heart of the problem. “There's more tools available. There is more research. The hacking communities are actually businesses. They employ people, they pay people and they ride these things and it is becoming easier. The overall system has not been very well-studied to understand what are the right things to do and what things we should limit and that kind of thing.”That’s Taher Elgamal, CTO for Security at Salesforce and on this episode of IT Visionaries, our cybersecurity series concludes as Taher is joined by Ed Amoroso, Founder and CEO of TAG Cyber. The two discuss the state of cybersecurity, including where companies are getting their security measures right, and where the industry is struggling as a whole. The two also detail why the growing divide in skills is a problem without an immediate solution, and why financial incentives are simultaneously the biggest opportunity to stop attacks and the biggest threat to escalating attacks.Main TakeawaysCyber Know How: Today it’s easy to simply buy a product or service and bolt that service on top of your current tech stack. But one of the biggest problems most enterprises are running into is a lack of knowledge in how to actually operate those services efficiently and effectively.Test, Then Test Again: Securing a network is not a one-time fix, it requires companies to be continually testing their networks for vulnerability. A good practice is to place a heavy emphasis on hiring white hat employees, or other hacker services whose sole responsibility is to attempt to break your network. When you are continually testing, it's much easier to understand where your weaknesses are and then design products to patch those weaknesses. Can’t We All Get Along?: There are more cybersecurity applications than ever before, but even with the growing number of available vendors, attacks are increasing. Until cyber threats begin to dwindle yearly, a good solution would be for companies to start sharing assets and information in order to help build more securable and unbreakable products.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The work from home shift has revolutionized IT Departments more than any invention ever could. When closets became offices, and commutes morphed into strolls around the neighborhood, corporate IT was left scrambling. Many companies were ill prepared to support remote workers and this shift exposed security vulnerabilities. “The level that this pandemic made everybody go right at home, immediately created tons of risk around how you're going to support traditional security. That was out there and remote workers and remote security, it changed the dynamic tremendously.” While that dynamic had been changing for a while, it was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. On this episode of IT Visionaries, we sat down with Bob Venero, President and CEO of Future Tech Enterprises, a global solutions provider that works closely with the Fortune 500. Bob explains why companies that have shifted to a philosophy of bringing your own devices, are opening themselves up to a bevy of productivity and security challenges. He also dives into the level of security challenges the pandemic has caused and how his company is aiding those enterprises through this big pivot.Main Takeaways:No. 1 in our Hearts: The rise of software as a service is evident with many companies moving to a public cloud infrastructure, but companies still must focus on hardware components as well. Hybrid infrastructure models, where companies have a mix of public cloud and on-premise are the only way to ensure a company can avoid drops in productivity in case an internet failure occurs. Is this BYOD?: With more employees working from home, companies have started to deploy a bring-your-own-device approach — a service where employees are provided with stipends and allowed to pick out their own device. The problem with this approach is it opens the company up to a lot of productivity flaws, including employees buying models based on price and if it can actually perform the duties of the job.It’s a Skill Issue: While many developers have focused heavily on producing software components, a ripple effect is that it has created a big gap in terms of personnel that can actually develop hardware products and service those products.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The biggest innovations don’t always occur where you expect. Canon and Nikon didn’t invent the go-everywhere camera known as GoPro. It was a surfer who wanted to film his friends. Automakers didn’t believe styling could attract buyers to Electric Vehicles until Tesla defined the industry. The reality is that insights can occur anywhere, and come from anyone, and Will Grannis, Managing Director of Google’s CTO Office, knows that.“The more ambitious [the problem], the more ambiguous, the more complex, the better. In my experience, if you're going to try to transform an industry, it's hard. And it takes a long time and a lot of new technology. It takes years of discovery of trying things, of finding what works and amplifying that and this whole consideration of people, process and technology. And so in the CTO office, one of our goals is to work on the most ambitious projects that our customers have.”Find the most ambitious projects with an eye toward redefining an industry, that’s the mission of Google’s Office of the CTO and it’s one that Will takes seriously. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Will describes how his office works with some of the most prominent companies to help build better customer experiences. He also discusses how holistic team building can be a recipe for innovation and why disruption across industries can happen anywhere. Enjoy.Main TakeawaysTransaction, Approved: It’s important for businesses to provide collaborative teams to big clients to solve business problems free of charge. When clients feel as if they have a support group to lean on, not only are you providing a valuable customer experience, but you can also potentially solve problems for other clients that might be experiencing the same challenges.Are you Actually Listening to Me?: It sounds simple, but when you’re approaching any relationship with a client, the number one thing consultancy teams need to do is listen to the issues at hand. This includes talking to multiple stakeholders within the business and not just the leadership group within the department you are solving for. All in This Together: Your teams should never have a niche focus, but instead focus your team building on having a wide breadth of knowledge with varying degrees of experience across multiple backgrounds. When you build holistic teams, you have a better chance of being able to provide insights to multiple clients across multiple industries. IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The rapid pace of change can be boiled down to one mission critical service: the cloud. But despite widespread adoption and enthusiasm for the cloud’s seemingly endless possibilities, many organizations are still not seeing the payoff from their investments. At least that’s what Jenny Koehler, the US Cloud and Digital Leader at PwC, told us“There's this notion now of how am I going to deliver this thing? So I don't have to wait until the bitter end to get value out there. How do I sequence it the right way to get the value unlocked earlier? How do I not have to wait until the end? I think almost as much as the price take conversation is happening and trying to tie it to value, there's also this approach to get it rolled out. How do I see value faster? How do I not have to wait? That's a conversation that's different. And technology allows it.”The good news is Jenny has one mission; to change the digital face of her clients and on this episode of IT Visionaries, she offers up some insights into why companies are no longer worried about security when it comes to cloud, and instead are focusing on if they are deriving enough value from it. Jenny also touches on PwC’s intense initiative to close the talent gap within the IT space. Enjoy Main TakeawaysThe Talent Divide has Worsened: As the digital divide has worsened, companies now must invest more resources into not only being a destination for talent, but also upskilling the current talent pool on their roster. When thinking about upskilling, it’s best to take a holistic approach to team building. Not everyone is going to be an expert in a particular field, but if you have enough team members who can compliment each other and effectively work together, you can fill-in a lot of the gaps.Security is Not Top of Mind: Enterprises are no longer focused on securing its cloud infrastructure, but rather actually getting value out of the investment. At the heart of this issue is that while the members of executive teams have bought into the cloud’s benefits, there is no synergy amongst the C-suite when it comes to strategy and integration practices.Data Remains a Company's Biggest Asset: With third party cookies going away, a company's biggest form of currency remains its data and how it’s using that data to unlock value insights for other parts of the business. One of the main drivers of data moving forward should be how companies are using information to create a frictionless experience for consumers at every digital touch point.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Security is big business, but has the role of securing networks and employees bloated to the point that businesses cannot properly protect themselves? Or is the speed of business moving too fast to care? On a roundtable episode with Beth-Anne Bygum, CISO at Acxiom and Anthony McMahon, CIO/CTO and Principle Consultant for Target State Consultants, the two discussed a host of topics, including if technology was moving too quickly for security measures to matter.“We have to move at the speed of the business anymore because the ability to access, purchase, integrate, buy, share, is extremely fluid,” Bygum said. “It means one, we have to constantly press ourselves to be more efficient. Two, we have to constantly ask ourselves: is our defense fabric, the set of tools we use, even keeping pace with the tools my development teams are using?” On this episode of IT Visionaries, our security series continues as Beth-Anne and Anthony take a look at why implementing proper security hygiene practices remains crucial to ensure better overall security. The two also touch on why security officials are having to constantly defend against attackers at the code level and why that problem can be solved by architects designing with security in mind. Enjoy.Main TakeawaysPracticing Good (Security) Hygiene: Until application developers start designing with security in mind, a best practice is to consistently be measuring the health and cleanliness of your current security measures. There are some downsides, like oversecuring and unwanted steps in some processes, but it remains the one of the only ways to properly protect a company and its employees.Feeling the Pressure: With the pace of business moving more quickly than ever, vendors are first to roll out new apps and services without thinking about security. This means that security teams are not able to provide proper risk assessments on these services prior to their installation and that leaves people at risk.Privacy by Design: The only way to avoid employees and businesses from feeling “oversecure” is for vendors to begin designing their applications with security in mind from the beginning and not as an afterthought.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, technology is an integral part of the sports landscape. In fact, it’s become so ingrained in American sports that data and algorithms are part of pretty much every broadcast and in every locker room. Technology is now used to predict win probability, analyze launch angles of home runs, and track shot charts of NBA superstars. But technology isn’t just used to build a better viewing experience. It is also being dropped into the hands of coaches to do things like perfect a runner's stride and track every moment from the beginning of a sprint, to the final lunge across the finish line to reveal surprising information.“We pull out things like velocity acceleration and when they hit their top speed. For example, when an athlete hits their top speed. We can see something that's really fascinating. They actually hit a top speed and then they start to decelerate and every athlete does it. Even when you look at Usain bolt, you see his races and he looks like he's pulling away. And you think that he's kicking it up to another gear. He's actually slowing down, just not as much as his competitors, you just can't see it until you look at the data.”That’s just one of the fascinating data points that Jonathan Lee, the Director of Sports Performance Technology for the Olympic Technology Group at Intel, has at his fingertips. And on this episode of IT Visionaries, he offered up details about how his department and Intel are working together to enhance 3D tracking technology ahead of the 2021 Olympic games in Tokyo so that the athletes and coaches can also benefit from Intel’s technology. Jonathan explains how Intel is leveraging everyday cameras to track and monitor athlete performance and he also dishes on how this technology is being used to enhance the health and well-being of some of the best athletes on the planet.Main TakeawaysWhat Kind of Camera is That?: By designing technology around cameras in a way that makes it possible for anyone to use it — from professionals to amateurs — you’re able to increase the adoption of the platform, and increase the scale at which the system can operate. Since Intel designed the technology around smartphones, a coach with a phone or table, can record an athlete doing a particular drill and have instant analysis on the spot. If you only design for high-definition or high frame-rate cameras, those cards then have to be pulled off the cameras and then run through the system.The Future of Sports Medicine: Thanks to A.I. tracking, coaches can more easily hone in on body mechanics or identify trouble spots to bring to an athlete’s attention. From there, the athlete can more effectively train to fix a specific problem or enhance a part of their performance based on data. So there’s no Sensors?: With a sensorless system, you are able to get more accurate results based on the exact moment an athlete completes a drill or finishes a run. When you use sensors to identify when a particular test has begun or finished, you are reliant on the sensor to identify the exact moment it was crossed. By relying on instant tracking, Intel is able to gather more precise times which have led to higher accuracy with its data sets.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Have you ever tried to upload a video and been frustrated by the time it takes to land on the server? Now imagine you’re a broadcast crew, working the Super Bowl, with hundreds of cameras that all have to upload video simultaneously. Transferring millions of data points, and moving massive files with no latency puts your video upload woes to shame. It’s no easy task, yet it gets done relatively seamlessly every year. For that, you can send your thank you notes to Garrett Boss, CIO West Coast at FOX, where he is responsible for providing the infrastructure and technology to the broadcast crews that bring you your favorite sporting events and television shows.“Our mandate is to reduce friction everywhere we can to enable creatives and production to spend all of their energy and time focused on those things. I want to remove every barrier, every hiccup, every challenge that they have that's not related to their talent of putting inspiring content on the air for our viewers.” It’s no small feat, and the challenges are vast, especially when you consider that the media landscape is undergoing a renaissance. There is more need to push content to over-the-top platforms, and customer expectations are getting higher and higher every day. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Garrett gives up the goods on how his team rises to the occasion. And he provides a unique look at how FOX went through a massive digital transformation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Plus, he discusses the shift from a hardware mentality to a software mindset, and how FOX is building scalable technologies with reliable partners. Enjoy this episode.Main TakeawaysBuild vs Buy: Software as a service, and digital platforms have allowed IT teams to rethink what products and services they should build themselves and which products they can buy from vendors. When you are going through this process, it’s important to have a clear understanding of where some of your previous technology was over-indexed and where you can streamline some things.Digital Video Revolution: OTT platforms are providing broadcast partners with the ability to not only compile a better understanding of their viewers’ habits, but also the ability to push more targeted advertising to their audience. But the infrastructure required to compile the data, digest it, and then use that information means rethinking what your tech stack looks like.Team Building: When you’re undergoing a digital transformation in a virtual environment, it’s not a great idea to have a hierarchical structure with technologies that are forced down the ladder. Instead, employing more of a linear decision making process allows everyone on the team to have a hand in the decision making process, and still allows for quick and thoughtful decisions under tight deadlines.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Technology is advancing at pace never seen before and the newest tech, applications and widgets are being widely adopted at an even quicker rate. Just look at A.I. and machine learning tools,which are now used to identify things once thought unimaginable — whether it's to figure out simple things such as what clothes best suit consumers or completing everyday work tasks, the endstate for these technologies appear endless... But as technology grows more sophisticated, why is the software that operates it not being secured?“The human without the suit is weak and the suit without the human is dumb. A.I. and machine learning, these different computer learnings we've got to work with now in cybersecurity and across the board, they're levers. They're not a replacement in my mind for human intelligence. When that happens, we're going to be worried about Skynet, not these conversations. And I'm going to be thinking about how to hack that stuff, to make sure that humans stay safe.”The future of A.I. and machine learning is mostly rooted in Hollywood sci-fi; Tony Stark’s Jarvis, or Skynet represent the full advancement of our imaginations of these technologies so far. But the reality of these tools isn’t there, but the power is. So why are we not protecting ourselves from it? On this roundtable episode of IT Visionaries, we explore the impact A.I. and technology are having on society and cybersecurity with Casey Ellis, the founder and CTO of BugCrowd, andMalcolm Harkins, a cybersecurity advisor, coach and board member. The two discuss why you’ll never be able to eliminate risk and why the lack of financial incentives is leaving most companies vulnerable to nefarious attacks. Enjoy this episode!Main TakeawaysJust Throw Money at the Problem: One of the leading issues right now when it comes to cybersecurity is that app developers are not incentivized to protect products during the development lifecycle. When there is no monetary incentive for developers to protect their software, the needed layers of security are not built in. This leads to security teams doing patch work on problems that could have been architected during the development process. Two Repelling Magnets: Security and privacy are consistently bound together but the reality is that good security can encroach on a user’s privacy. When designing products, developers must be thinking first about the layer of security they are placing within the code, but also how those security measures will infringe on the user’s rights.Working Hand-in-Hand: Your cybersecurity strategy should be a mix of technology and human creativity. While A.I and machine learning algorithms can help detect irregularities within a platform, most of those algorithms are not trained to learn from mistakes, leaving them open to vulnerabilities. Instead of relying just on technology, deploy a hybrid model using crowdsourced protection which allows for highly-trained and skilled hackers to test the vulnerabilities within a system that can then be fixed immediately. IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Companies big and small, old and new are trying to get a handle on the best way to secure their data. But the challenge is that there is so much that goes into cybersecurity, it can be overwhelming for a company to oversee it internally...These vast challenges are often shouldered by a couple people in the IT department who are left to defend an entire company against a host of bad actors. “Cyber security is one giant game of whack-a-mole. It is either, you're trying to take out the threats against your company as they're attacking your organization or entity, or you're trying to tackle one problem at a time as it comes up because you never assessed what those problems could be in the first place.”To help defend against these nefarious attacks, more companies are employing the services of third parties to aid them in their defense. Jenna Waters is a Cyber Security Consultant at True Digital Security, where she specializes in assisting clients with security development and threat intelligence. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Jenna explains how her service in the military led her to defending clients from cyber criminals. She also explains cybersecurity essentials every company should deploy, plus she speaks to the future of privacy regulation and the need for security professionals to align their personal goals with the business.Main TakeawaysOut of Alignment: When designing your security measures, you have to take into account what the goals of leadership are. If you are pushing strict security measures on your product and services and they are hampering leaderships’ ability to sell the product, you are going to consistently be pushing against the current when it comes to implementing your policies, so you have to make sure you are aligning your values with the businesses.Secure by Default: When developing in-house software systems, make sure you are designing these systems with security in mind. When software or products are developed with security measures already in place, you can see as much as 80-90% of the security work will already be done. When systems are not designed to be secure, it creates a scenario where patchwork security systems need to be developed, making the product more vulnerable.Lonely, I’m So Lonely: One of the key issues with the alignment of IT and security teams is that they often operate in silos or within departments that don’t know how to manage them or have the proper resources and budget to support the vast needs of a cybersecurity team.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So you want to build a giant enterprise platform. Great. You want mission critical and private data to flow between CRMs and other critical applications flawlessly, with no leaks, no breaches, and no compromises. You also want to build infinite user controls and optionality, and also smooth and seamless user identification to access these business apps. No pressure right?Marla Hay is the Senior Director of Product, Security and Privacy at Salesforce and she knows how to balance critical security with smooth identity management. It’s actually one of the key reasons she’s in the field.“We've seen an increased focus on data security and privacy over the last like 15 years. One of the things that makes me really excited, and one of the one of the reasons I loved and picked this area to work is that intersection of data security, privacy, and usability. That's a place where I think we've seen a lot of evolution.”Data and privacy are two hot-button issues right now, but a company’s concerns over these two topics isn’t insular. The worry goes beyond the data on internal networks and into the idea of what’s happening to the information that gets sent out to other services as well. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Marla explains how Salesforce designs its products and services, including a detailed look at the feedback loops her team has in place to ensure product quality. Plus, Marla touches on the evolution of digital identities and how Salesforce is managing those permissions.Main TakeawaysCan I Get Access to That? Managing digital identities is a two-way street: employers must be able to make sure that the permissions they are granting to a group of employees are the appropriate permissions, but that they are securing those identities depending on where that data is going. On the other side is the employee, who is responsible for knowing where their permissions are being used and remaining conscious of the risks associated with sharing data. Designed to Fail: Your customers are your biggest asset, so make sure you are constantly asking them what is working and what is not working with your products and services. When you are consistently communicating with your customers, gain an idea of big picture themes that are coming down the pipeline, but you are gaining ideas on how to fix thousands of problems, not just one.Intersection of Data and Privacy: Over the last 15 years, there has been an increased focus on data and privacy and how that data is managed on internal services, but also the group of products that a company’s data is being fed to.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For many people, the process of buying and selling a home will undoubtedly be the most difficult decisions they will make in their lifetime. Is the price you’re paying for your home fair? Is the price you’re selling your home for an adequate sale price? For a long time, realtors have been oracles with the answers to those questions, but times are changing. Today, Opendoor, a data-driven real estate start-up, is putting data to work to answer those questions for you.“Opendoor from a technical perspective, is the hands down single most fascinating technical challenge I've ever come across. If you look at the questions that we have to answer, they're just fascinating and you have to answer them in the right ways. Otherwise they just don't really work. You think about the prediction problem, you think about the optimization, probably you think about the portfolio optimization problem. There's so many different pieces to the problem and you just have to do it.” Kushal Chakrabarti is the VP of Research and Data Science at Opendoor, a company that is reimagining the way homes are bought and sold by moving the process online and empowering buyers and sellers to make informed decisions by taking an algorithmic approach and removing the ambiguous nature of the home buying process. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Kushal explains some of the processes Opendoor uses to help make home offers, including the importance of clean and trustworthy data. Plus, Kushal opens up on his personal journey, including how he got into data science and some of the trends he sees in the A.I. and machine learning space.Main TakeawaysThis is Trendy: There are two popular trends happening in A.I. and machine learning. The first is the democratization of tools, which in return is making it easier for data scientists to quickly test and measure their models. The second is the abundance of third party data that is readily available, which is making it more difficult for data scientists to know which data they are getting is trustworthy data, and which is not.Trust in Numbers: All great algorithms start with great data, but having a high fidelity of data is one of the key differentiators for any high-performing model. When you’re mixing first-party data with third-party data, be intentional about how you create strategic data models that fit your business. Asking the Right Questions: As a data scientist you must be asking the right questions otherwise, your models will have a tendency bias introduced to them. When models have bias, you might get an answer that is close to your hypothesis, but it won’t be the correct answer.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated, more frequent? Do people even care anymore? Do businesses care anymore? As these threats rise in frequency and the monetary damage continues to increase, why aren’t businesses taking the necessary steps to protect their systems, data, and customers? Anthony Johnson is the Managing Partner and CISO of DelveRisk and during a roundtable discussion with Rohit Parchuri, an industry veteran and security advisor, Johnson spoke at length about the threat cybersecurity poses today.“Cyber can be fully catastrophic to a company. A big enough cyber event could delete the backups, could delete the ability of the company to operate, and just completely wipe the organization. There is not another threat that can be as macro systemic to any one organization.”Those are strong words from Anthony, but the subject matter is just as stiff. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Anthony and Rohit discuss a host of topics, including how recent events have shifted the spotlight on network security, and they debate whether security breaches will make a difference in the long run. The two also touch on why security can often take a backseat to the goals of the company. To learn more, keep listening!Main TakeawaysAre you Worried Now: The No.1 reason most companies end up with breeches is due to negligence when it comes to their security measures. A passive system is a network ripe for issues. Make sure you are consistently educating leadership on the risk of passive networks.Can I Get An Adjustment? It’s more important than ever for security professionals to align their personal goals with that of their companies. When your value set is not aligned, you may create a security strategy that will not be backed by leadership or have company-wide buy-in.Rising Threat Level: While risk models are important in order to understand where a network is vulnerable, it’s equally imperative to understand the types of threats your company might be vulnerable to and understand what the motivations of the attacker might be. Doing this will help quickly identify what is a need for your system against what is a want.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Much like a snowflake, no two companies are alike. After all, something has to separate you from your competition — from mission statement, to products and services, to customers, nothing in the marketplace is exactly like the other. But regardless of what industry you serve, more than likely you’re dealing with many of the same issues that your peers are. From all sides of the C-Suite, every executive is dealing with similar obstacles. Maybe that’s designing an infrastructure to support remote work, or navigating a treacherous journey to the cloud, or fixing a workplace culture. No matter what the issue is, there are more similarities than we may think.On a recent episode of IT Visionaries, special guest host, Neeracha Taychakhoonavudh, the Executive Vice President, Global Customer Success & Strategy at Salesforce, was joined by two industry experts representing very different parts of the marketplace. The result is a conversation which brings together two executives from two different roles for a look at what makes their challenges similar, but different. Tony Wells, is the Chief Brand Officer of USAA, and Michael Smith, is the CIO of Estée Lauder, and on this episode, the two discuss why they believe that companies will inevitably embrace a hybrid work environment and how to bring employees back safely. They also touch on how to build a tech-first culture, and the need for IT and other departments to work together.Main TakeawaysDeep Thinkers: Non-technology executives need to constantly be thinking about how current or future technology could be a disruptor to their current business model. It’s important for members of the C-suite to understand the challenges they face, but also to work together to attack those challenges. Working with the CIO on a day-to-day basis to help optimize some of the company's responsibilities will pay dividends in the long-run.What do you Value?: The younger workforce we see today puts value in things other than just a steady paycheck and benefits. Now it’s incumbent on the employer to provide a state-of-the-art facility that can best set up employees to succeed, but they have to ensure that the value and image of the brand aligns with their workforce.Is That a Hybrid?: The future model of work will include both a physical office and provide employees with the ability to work remotely and with distributed teams. If companies are going to retain and recruit talent, that is likely the only model that will draw them in.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Security identity management comes in all shapes and sizes, and it’s an industry that continues to innovate at a rapid pace and there is no end in sight. Think of identity management like this: that card or fob you scan to enter an office or building, that’s security management. Or maybe the password you change every 30 days, that’s identity management. But while these processes seem simple and familiar, they haven’t been part of the security ecosystem for very long.“15 years ago, phones were different. We didn't know about online identities. We didn't have digital passports. We were using batches to access buildings. If you fast forward, the pace of what we are changing is pretty traumatic and fast.”Traumatic and fast are strong but appropriate words when describing the pace at which Martin Ladstaetter, and HID Global, are working at when it comes to making it easier for consumers to access their everyday necessities. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Martin, the Head of Consumer Authentication and VP of Product Management at HID Global, explains how the company is digitizing this new world and securing consumers across multiple networks. Martin also dives into the struggles enterprises are facing when it comes to securing distributed workforces and what the future of access identity management holds.Main TakeawaysCreating an Unknown Digital Experience: Customer experience is key in any sector. In identity management, the key to a good experience is to make it not feel like an experience at all. The future of this space involves users being able to make purchases, access buildings and cars seamlessly, without having to use security cards or fobs or other devices.Is This Ethical?: As distributed workforces rise in popularity, one of the hot discussion topics is how large enterprises should be securing their employees and what is the right line to toe when it comes to security procedures? You don’t want to be constantly monitoring an employee's actions, but at the same time you must make sure you protect sensitive data. Finding a good balance between security and privacy remains key.Securing Against a Single Breakpoint: Every building has multiple entry and exit points — this is necessary in case of an emergency. Your technology should be built the same way, You have to secure your devices and technology against having a single breakpoint. That way, if a a card is deactivated, a phone system breaks down, or a password fails, employees and IT professionals have other ways to gain access.. IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The spirit of innovation is mostly positive. After all, innovation leaps humanity forward. The wheel enabled transportation, space exploration led to the internet, the smartphone has connected the world.These are just some examples. And the innovation wheel keeps turning. These days there is no doubt that For our brief history of breakthrough innovation, we’ve rarely had to discuss or think about the ethics behind those efforts like we do with the next breakthrough; Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.A.I and Machine learning are widely considered to be the tools that will leap humanity forward into the future, but there’s a catch...… who decides the ethics of AI and ML? Who tells the computer how it should think? What should the computer value? What is ethical? And at what point have we gone too far?“This technology is not fully developed, It's not an end state. So we don't know all of the consequences of using this technology.”When we think about innovation, we think about all the good that will come from it, and rarely think about the consequences that innovation leaves in its wake. Someone is thinking about that, though, and that someone is Beena Ammanath. As the Executive Director at Deloitte’s Global A.I. Institute., It’s her job to go through all the “what ifs” of A.I. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Beena explains how she weighs all the outcomes, and she discusses the three paths companies are currently pursuing ethically A.I. . She also talks about why trustworthy A.I. and machine learning will be the secret to all successful technology breakthroughs. Enjoy!Main TakeawaysCan I Trust You?: Trust must be at the center of all your A.I. models, which means you need a clear understanding of the data sets you are using and if the data you are using to build your algorithms is reliable. When using third party data, make sure you have a clear understanding of how that data was collected, what the subject matter was and if it truly fits into your modeling. When you can’t trust your data sources, you end up with biases in your algorithms.The Secret Sauce: A.I. and machine learning continue to be the two big underlying pieces of technology that businesses are using today because of their ability to consistently digest data and learn on the fly. Traditional software used to rely on updates that may arrive every six months, now machines can continually be evaluated and taught new techniques at a moment’s notice.Driving Adoption: Getting people to use your product is always goal number one, but with A.I., and really any new form of technology, consumer adoption is key because in order for A.I. and machine learning to be successful, it’s reliant on the continuous feedback loops it gains from its users. When you’re designing UX, you need to think about how you are going to drive adoption upfront, and not just about how the technology is going to be deployed.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On IT Visionaries, we talk a lot about security, but we mostly talk about cybersecurity and making sure that your networks are protected from cyber criminals. We don’t really talk about in-the-flesh criminals and how technology is helping to keep them out of your home.But what is the value of home security? Is it being able to constantly check your front door to see if a package has arrived? Is it the calmness that comes with being notified that there’s movement in your driveway? Or is it simply the piece of mind that you get when you know that if something goes wrong, you’ll know it? In 2014, Ring did something no other company else had done: andit gave homeowners a sense of security by providing a 24/7 view of their front door… “[We ] had a mission around how to create a better layer of security for people to always be home. Our slogan is always home. What that did was allow people to either answer the door comfortably from their phone, whether they actually wanted to go to the door, or if you weren't home, at least give the perception that you were home and the doorbell was really an amazing product to start with.Over the last seven years, Ring has built a businessan business empire fromoff of not just doorbells, tobut an entire smart home that is accessible to everyday homeowners. Josh Roth is the CTO at Ring, and it's his responsibility to build an ecosystem that gives those homeowners some piece of mind. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Josh discusses how Ring went from a start-up trying to find product-market fit, to an Amazon acquisition thatacquisition billion-dollar company that now sells hundreds of thousands of security and smart devices every month.Enjoy! Main TakeawaysMore Than A Doorbell: You products need to be able to make that initial connection with consumers, but your products and services must consistently remind the user why your technology is different from other products. For example, while a video doorbell was unique and gave users access to their home they didn’t have before, it was the software within the product and the Ring ecosystem which led to different consumer touchpoints and as a result added additional value.Letting Your Engineers Grow: Software engineers need the ability to explore new things, and they also need the freedom to fail. Your management style should cater to both those realities. And when you’re managing a group of engineers, it’s helpful to think about the product from their perspective, and also allow them to design and develop with as little friction as possible. When engineers feel as if they have more liberty, their creativity and innovation can break through.Customers Driving Innovation: Regardless of the size of your organization, you need to consistently be listening to your customers in order to drive innovation. Don’t just listen to your customer service team, especially when you are in the early stages of designing a product and customer feedback can make or break you. And when customers do come to you with problems, don’t pass them off, solve them yourself because if you can solve one problem for a single customer, you can solve that same problem for thousands.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is chat support helpful or annoying? To me, it’s both. It’s helpful because it’s the way I prefer to be helped. It’s asynchronous, it allows for multitasking, and it can be done anywhere. But, it’s also annoying. It sucks when you type something in and your customer service agent or bot has no idea what you’re talking about. LivePerson is trying to make customer interactions smarter.Joe Bradley is Chief Scientist at LivePerson, and his mission is to define and anticipate customer needs and intent, via each and every single customer-to-brand interaction. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Joe explains the difference between creating conversational A.I. that not only can hold meaningful conversations with the user, but also understands the intent of the customer. He also gives a look into the future of how A.I. will empower brands to create better customer experiences. Enjoy. Main TakeawayWhat’s the Intent: The future of conversational technologies is going to rely heavily on A.I. and machine learning to not only be able to process the question the consumer is asking, but to be able to understand the intent of what the customer is asking. Importance of the Hand-off: Conversational intelligence can coherently communicate with the customer on its own, but perhaps more importantly is able to store that information in a centralized location so that when a customer service representative gets to the case, the hand-off is clear and there is no breakdown in the conversation from the consumer’s perspective.How to Manage Your Data: When developing A.I. solutions, it's important to think of ways to creatively encourage your customers to engage with the platform so that you can collect useful first party data. By asking leading questions that get to the root cause of the customer’s issue, you can design a platform that is not only consistently learning from your customers, but also building trust.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every company is undergoing some kind of digital transformation. Whether you’re upgrading your tech stack, migrating to the cloud, or analyzing your processes to improve your employee experience, every enterprise is saddled with the need to improve their systems. But what if that daunting process was a thing of the past? What if instead of having to undergo massive technology upgrades every few years that process was continuous? If you ask Jon Knisley, Principal Consultant, Automation and Process Excellence at FortressIQ, that’s the way of the future.“Process data is that missing puzzle piece that nobody's had access to. Once we get it in place, that's when you'll have a complete and comprehensive understanding of how [your company] truly operates. I'm starting to play with this idea that when we get to that point, is that going to be the end of our digital transformation journey? The end of digital transformation? Sounds too good to be true, but is it? In this episode of IT Visionaries, Jon explains why the reality of continuous system improvement through the use of automation tools is not far off. Plus, Jon dives into data-driving insights, powering continuous transformation across enterprises and why employees should embrace automation tools. Enjoy!Main TakeawaysBuilding a Roadmap for Tomorrow: Understanding how your organization actually operates is foundational to improving key business initiatives. Enterprises need to have a 360 view of how their organization operates on a day-to-day basis to have a better understanding of not only the knowledge that long-time employees possess, but how they can improve the overall experience for those employees as well.It’s an Ongoing Process: Digital transformation projects tend to be slow and take years to complete. Companies should not rely on large-scale changes every few years, but instead implement a continuous improvement model where they are consistently measuring their tech stack to understand what is being done today so they can improve, automate and optimize for tomorrow.Automation as a Companion: Employees should view A.I. and automation as a companion to their work efforts and not as a piece of technology that is going to eliminate jobs. When automation is implemented properly into an organization, it should free up employees to be more productive and more creative.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the last year, a number of auto companies have announced huge investments into the development of electric vehicles, with some committing to transforming their entire fleets over to clean energy. In the past, the biggest hurdle consumers and businesses had to overcome when switching to electric power was the question of battery life. Drivers were worried, and understandably so, about whether their car’s battery would be powerful enough to get them where they needed to go, hassle-free. The answer is yes, and it’s thanks to some interesting software that a cleaner future is possible."By unleashing what we call depth of discharge and top of charge on a battery just with software, we can add five to 10% range. And so that may not sound a lot, but if you have a car that's 300 miles, now it's 330 miles that trip to the beach is no problem.” Anil Paryani is an EV industry veteran and pioneer who possesses more than 30 patents and currently he serves as the CEO of Automotive Power, where he is committed to getting the most out of your electric vehicle. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Anil explains what really controls an EV battery’s capacity and overall performance, and he reveals why you might not need that fast charging station afterall. Main TakeawaysCan I Get Some Charge?: In order for electric vehicles to become widely adopted, consumers need to feel confident that they can get to their desired destination. Fast-charging stations already exist, but there is still a mental hurdle consumers have to clear in order to feel secure in their ability to get from point A to point B. As such, more charging stations and options are still needed in more locations to give drivers the sense of security they require. Running to the Edge: Preventing lithium platinum plating is what will keep your car running efficiently for as long as possible. Lithium plating is what happens when the battery is pushed past its maximum abilities. In order to prevent this from happening, the software that the car runs on must be optimized to keep the battery running at the edge.Cool Car, Man: One of the main obstacles EVs face is the stigma that electric cars are not fun to drive. Initially, when manufacturers designed EVs, they were small and seen as practical, everyday cars for consumers. Now, the tides are changing as OEMs, such as Tesla, Ford and Audi, are now bringing EVs to everyday, classically-cool, performance-based models such as the Mustang. IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Industrial equipment lasts for decades, and the data produced by these machines are invaluable to the organizations that rely on them. So what happens when industries that rely on industrial equipment, with on-location workers, and limited digital reliance face a pandemic and limited to no travel. “I had a CEO of one of the big utilities [companies] telling me, he taught, given the last discussions he had with his leaders, that it would take five to six years to do digital transformation. When COVID started last year, they did a lot of what they thought would take five years in five weeks. It worked, so now the question is can you continue doing it?”Colin Parris is the SVP and CTO of GE Digital, a billion dollar software division dedicated to creating better outcomes using the immense data produced by industrial machines.At GE, Coliin leads software, systems, and analytics teams to push the boundaries of how data can power industrial digital transformation. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Colin explains one of the ways GE Digital is transforming industries with their digital twins program. He explains exactly how digital twins is helping factories effectively predict the lifetime of machines, maintenance schedules, and predictive optimum yields all with an eye towards safety to ensure their plants stay up and running. Colin also touches on the importance of gathering data at the edge and the impact that kind of computing will have on efficiency.Main TakeawaysMeasuring Success and Proving Value: Measuring success or measuring value from data and analytics is a difficult proposition. A best practice for measuring value is to set a baseline and make sure that you pick the right tool to advance your use case. Then you can measure that baseline to provide the value of those investments to gain the credibility to advance your analytics.It’s a Balancing Act: When you are measuring your data and setting baselines, you must be using both data at the edge and cloud-based data to predict the life expectancy of a system. When you manage data locally, you are consistently setting benchmarks with your local products, and then by sending that data to the cloud, you’re allowing your systems in other areas to use that data to then prevent potential problems.Industrial Problems: The two biggest issues currently facing the industrial industry right now are decarbonization, reducing a factory’s carbon footprint and cyber security, protecting that software that manages and runs their machines. The software that runs inside machines now must not only be able to predict when a machine might need maintenance, but that software must make sure the machine is not only safe and secure, but keeps it running efficiently in order to help it’s sustainability efforts.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nikola Mijic is the Founder and CEO of Matik, and he has one piece of advice of for anyone entering the start-up arena:“When people ask me what have you learned through this experience of starting your own company, I would say how to ruthlessly prioritize because your users and your customers and prospects are gonna want the world, and it's your job to be able to decipher what is valid and what is habitual.”Building, scaling, and maintaining success is every entrepreneur’s dream, and there’s one way to get there. By consistently meeting customer expectations and finding product-market fit. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Nikola peels back the curtain on how he stepped outside of his comfort zone of product management and took a chance in launching Matik, a personalization tool designed to automate Google slides and powerpoint presentations with customized data points. Nikola also explains why customer success is dependent on managing expectations and how data-driven insights are not here to kill dashboards, but to assist them.Main TakeawaysGet Your Priorities Straight: When you’re running a company, prioritization is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. When you are first starting out, prospects and clients are going to consistently be asking you to over deliver with your products and services. You won’t be able to do everything or meet every expectation, so you have to prioritize what is possible and be sure you can deliver on what you promise.Trust Your Data: Your products need to be rooted and consistently measured based on what your data is telling you. Is the user using the product? If they are not, use your data to understand why and get to the bottom of why a particular product is succeeding or failing.Not Here to Replace your Dashboards: Dashboards still serve a purpose of being exploratory while providing the ability to quick insights, but they don’t solve the entire problem of pulling all that data into a single place so that you can quick find those insights and make them accessible.-IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For years there has been a debate about whether video games are the next great learning tool, or gateways to desensitization due to violence and a lack of face-to-face interaction. The debate rages on, but regardless of the long-term side effects of video games, there are scenarios where they are being put to use in practical ways as it relates to military training.“The idea of training soldiers using computer games was like, ‘There's no way a computer game can train my guys how to shoot. You have to go out into the mud and do it for real.’ And while there's some truth there, what we offered was like an accelerator for decision-making processes.”Mark Dzulko had been serving in the military for 13 years when he recognized the potential that computer-based simulation tactics could have in the military. As the CTO and Director at Bohemia Simulations, Mark is now turning the potential into something practical. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Mark breaks down the difference between traditional consumer-based video games and Bohemia’s simulation device, plus, he explains how the company scaled despite having a limited customer base.Main TakeawaysAn Open World: By using open source tools, engineers are able to quickly draft up different scenarios to fit a potential need rather than completely build a model from scratch. This gives simulation a sense of agility and scalability that traditional training models, such as pre-built flight simulators, do not have.Game vs Reality: Video games are built with an end goal in mind: to achieve the highest possible score. Simulations are designed to recreate actual life tactics. By being put in a simulated scenario, soldiers can hone their response times and get a better sense of how to react before being deployed. How to Make It: When you bring any product to market, it’s important to have an understanding of if you have product-market fit first. But when your customer base is limited it’s even more important to know that you will solve a problem for that base of customers in a reliable way, which will help ensure your success from the start. Constantly testing and gathering feedback from potential buyers before you hit that market is a strategy to put in place so that when you are ready to launch your product, it’s already set up for the customer to succeed.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let’s be frank: the healthcare industry needs help. Medical records have far too many inconsistencies, patients struggle to find ways to transfer information from one doctor to another, and as the world slowly begins to reopen and the focus on health increases, the industry is going to have to lean on modern technology more than ever in order to track and maintain records as it relates to COVID-19. “There are several like electronic health information systems out there and their operability is pretty poor. You have to be able to get that information [to your doctors]. You have to be able to integrate it and make it accessible to your patients, as well as your primary care providers. And, that's something that we do better than anybody else.”Claire Hough is the CTO of Carbon Health, a tech-enabled healthcare provider that is developing data-driven programs in an effort to help modernize the healthcare industry by removing the boundaries of health care to create high-quality experiences. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Claire details how Carbon Health has used technology and data to solve a wide array of issues in healthcare, including the delivery care model. Plus, Claire dives into her past experiences scaling startups such as Netscape, Napster, and Udemy.Main TakeawaysUser Error: There’s a saying when it comes to data, “garbage in, garbage out.” When it comes to data entry, this still applies because there is still far too much room for user error. Workers are manually inputting data in spreadsheets allowing for a margin of error, and this is one of the biggest problems facing the healthcare industry. By using an automated system that removes the physical person from that process, you can access a clearer picture of your data without concerns about input accuracy.Not Enough Information: The healthcare industry is overrun with processes that are not streamlined or convenient for patients. When a patient gives information to a physician or an urgent care provider, that information remains only with those sources rather than shared widely to the patient’s broader healthcare team.. By creating a central record system that controls every aspect of the healthcare process, companies are able to not only have the most accurate information regardless of where a patient is seen, but it creates a better overall customer experience for your patient who no longer have to repeatedly provide the same information.Built to Scale: When you’re scaling your engineering teams, you have to think about what the company is going to look like in the near future and not just what you need in the present. Make sure the people you are bringing on can work in a fast-paced environment and possess multiple skill sets.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Move fast and break things. A famous adage adopted by many software companies. But what if you’re an industry giant where innovation is required, but failure is absolutely not an option. That doesn’t seem to be a mix for success.Meet Amdocs, a company withe more than 26,000 employees and generating more than $4.2 billion in revenue annually, the expectations for success are a little bit higher.“The difference between great companies and good companies is how much your endurance is to failure.”Avishai Sharlinis the Division President for Amdocs Technologies, a company that works with communication and media companies to help consumers complete more than 1.7 billion digital journeys every day. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Avishai explains how Amdocs uses open source tools to provide the scale and agility needed to operate some of the world’s most complex systems, and he reveals why and how Amdocs is helping to accelerate many companies' journeys to the cloud.Main TakeawaysWhat Separates Good From Great: The difference between a good company and a great one is a company's ability to deal with failure. In technology, failure is inevitable, but the key is to make sure that with each failure, your team is continually learning from your mistakes and building off of them.Different Ways to Architect Your Technology: There are no longer one-size-fits-all solutions for your digital products. Today, each individual piece of technology must be adaptable in order to meet a consumer's needs. This means that technology teams building products have to keep multiple solutions in mind and take into account the different ways users will use technology. A Whole New World: With the rise of IoT devices, 5G networks will not only bring the bandwidth and low-latency needed to power today’s networks, but it will also enhance the ability for communication companies to better prioritize the amount of data they send to individual devices and how to protect them from cyber threats.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

NFTs, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Tokenization. There is more hype than ever for these technologies and endless debate on the utility of this technology. . While consumers are attempting to understand the value of cryptocurrency, governments and private firms across the globe are doing the same, and they are experimenting with the idea of a central bank for digital currency that will adapt and meet changing consumer needs.Main TakeawaysBenefits of a Central Bank: The digitization of currency will not only simplify the distribution of government cash, but it will eliminate banking deserts, which are large populations of the country where traditional banking branches are not accessible to the general public. By moving to a digital currency, users will be able to easily complete transactions similar to how cash purchases are done, but without the time needed to complete a credit transaction.Programmable Money: One of the exciting innovations and benefits of digital tokens is the concept of “programmable” money. This means that during the design and build phase, the technology that houses the currency can be reconfigured to scale and add critical functions at any time.Easily Traceable: By modernizing currency and moving to a digital token, the flow of currency from one user to another will be much easier to track than physical transactions. When transactions are done digitally, you can trace that currency back to where it originated, making it simpler and easier to detect fraud.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gabe Gumbs has a deep-rooted passion for technology and information security, and his goal is to share that passion to push data security to the forefront of every business's agenda.“Security is all I've ever done. It's what I know, it's what I love. I enjoy every aspect of [security]. From building it, to talking about it, to marketing, into selling it to you, It's a passion.” Gabe is the Chief Innovation Officer at Spirion — a leader in rapid identification and protection of sensitive data— and these days he’s channeling that passion to make the digital world a safer place. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Gabe explains his vision for data privacy and why it’s time to kick siloed data to the curb. He also provides a detailed view on the future of work and why the talent shortage that security professionals have discussed may not be exactly as drastic as it seems.Main TakeawaysSilos are an Unnecessary Evil: Data professionals are ingesting data from various sources which is opening them up to unnecessary vulnerabilities. When data is sourced from multiple areas, such as datasets and the cloud, security models are spread thin, making that data harder to protect. By bringing that data into one single area, companies will have a better chance of not only understanding data, but protecting it as well.Your Off-the-Shelf Model Needs to Go: Organizations that use a cybersecurity maturity model as a framework to measure the progress of their security tactics are leaving themselves vulnerable to attackers. Every bad actor is different, which requires a unique model to prevent those attackers from infiltrating your network.The Security Skills Shortage That Wasn’t: Analysts have been writing about a cybersecurity shortage for years and some believe the data privacy sector will suffer a similar fate. The issue however is not a lack of talent, but rather data security professionals must broaden their hiring practices because security is no longer simply about keeping data safe, but it’s also about policy and compliance with new data rules.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An A.I. the model is similar to a boat in that it needs constant maintenance to perform. The reality is A.I. models need adjusted boundaries and guidelines to remain efficient. And when you live in a world where everyone is trying to get bigger and faster and have a certain edge, Scott Clark is helping make that possible with his finely-tuned A.I. modeling techniques.“As you're building up these rules and constructs for how that system will even learn itself, there's a lot of parameters that you need to set and tune. There's all these magical numbers that go into these systems. If you don't have a system of record for this, if you're just throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks, and then only checking the best one, and you don't have a system of what you tried, what the trade-offs were, which parameters were the most important, and how it traded off different metrics it can seem like a very opaque process. At least that hyper parameter optimization and neural architecture search and kind of tuning part of the process can be a little bit more explainable, a little bit more repeatable and a little bit more optimal.”More explainable, and more optimal, but most importantly scaleable and reproducible. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Scott, the CEO and Co-founder of SigOpt, a company that’s on a mission to empower modeling systems to reach their fullest potential, explains the basic steps that go into successful models, how his team tweaks and optimizes those models to build more efficient processes. Plus, Scott touches on the future of algorithmic models — including how they will improve and where they struggle. Enjoy this episode.Main TakeawaysBad Data, Bad!: When you’re building algorithm models you have to not only focus on the data you are putting into those models, but you have to know where that data is coming from and if that data is trustworthy. When you have untrustworthy data — either its coming from an unknown source or is bias in any way — this can lead to models that deliver poor results.Delivering Consistency: While every algorithm needs to be tweaked and tuned at the start, the best way to deliver consistent, scalable algorithmic models is to make sure you are able to define hyper-specific patterns that the algorithm can abide by. When algorithms know what rules they are looking for (such as this person only likes medium sized shirts with stripes) it has a set of hyper-specific boundaries it can operate off of in order to deliver the best results.Where is the Band Conductor?: Algorithms will continue to infiltrate our everyday lives, but the truth is they still need humans to effectively run them, to tune them, and to make sure that the decisions they are making are the right ones. ---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Over the last quarter century, data and its ability to provide valuable insights for companies to plan, predict, and implement strategies has expanded exponentially. Organizations have grown more reliant on data, and the speed at which data is uploaded and analyzed now must match the pace at which it is generated.“Data has to be up to date and available almost immediately in order to just keep the business running.”Mark Van de Wiel is the CTO of HVR, a company that specializes in partnering with enterprises to realize the full potential of data through real-time data replication. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Mark explains why data replication is an imperative step for companies wanting to take a more data-driven approach, how replication is providing real-time insight as opposed to batch data uploads, and why having a single source of truth when it comes to your data is just good business.Main TakeawaysHolistic Data View: Today, organizations are pulling data together from multiple sources. But regardless of whether your data pulls are from first-party or third-party sources, getting all of it into one unified space is paramount. Replicating data is a very quick way to migrate data from multiple sources in order to provide a holistic view of your data.Know Where Your Data is Coming From: Garbage in, garbage out is a philosophy every data leader is familiar with, which is why it's important to understand where your data is coming from. Be strategic about how you manage your data, what sources you are collecting your data from, and if the source is reliable.Real Time Data Application: Being able to replicate your data in real time and not have to wait on monthly or quarterly data uploads is an enabler for allowing an organization to be more data-driven.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The modern worker needs access to multiple applications. And with every new piece of software implemented, the security and identity requirements grow exponentially. Identity authentication is creating increasing headaches for IT professionals everywhere. Relying on usernames and passwords won’t be enough much longer.“We've been using usernames and passwords as the primary identity feature for 50 years. I really have been working in my career to help change that and come up with a better way. When I think of usernames and passwords, I think that is a lose, lose situation. It's a bad experience and it's bad security because everybody uses the same passwords and doesn't change them.” That’s Fran Rosch, the CEO of ForgeRock, a company that is helping users connect with the world and its software safely and simply with it’s A.I.-driven platform. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Fran explains how ForgeRock is pioneering next generation identity authentication that can help verify users through multiple passive data points such as domains, ip addresses, time of day, previous logins, concurrent logins, and many others. If his future comes into reality, you might be able to forget that username and password for good.Main TakeawaysUnder Pressure: IT organizations today are under immense pressure to not only create a secure and safe digital environment, but also where their employees feel safe. Today employees need to trust where they are storing their information, but that user experience must also be seamless.What’s the Username?: For more than 50 years, usernames and passwords have been one of the primary features used to secure a digital environment. The problem with this process is those passwords have to constantly be changed in order to remain secure, which creates a poor user experience. An emerging tool when it comes to creating a seamless experience is using face ID.Demanding control: Enterprises are now demanding control over where their identity lives. As more companies operate in the cloud — whether that’s a private or public cloud — they want their identity authentication to run separately and have control over it and not have to have multiple identity services based on where they’re running the technology.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There’s a festering problem growing beneath the surface of small businesses everywhere, and it’s an issue that most SMBs are refusing to address. As large-scale companies invest big money in information security teams to protect themselves from data breaches and bad actors, their small business brethren simply refuse to invest in security at all.“People only spend money on things they can detect.”Gary Chan is an information security management consultant and president of Alfizo, a company that is helping SMBs and large-scale enterprises use IT as an enabler while meeting compliance, security and privacy obligations. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Gary dives into some of the biggest obstacles facing SMBs from a security perspective and why small businesses leave themselves vulnerable to cyber attacks. Plus he explains why regardless of how secure your network may be, the weakest link remains your staff.Main TakeawaysWalk in Through the Front Door: SMBs are leaving themselves vulnerable to security threats because they don’t believe they need to invest in the basic tools and services to protect themselves. SMBs are attacked at a far higher rate than large-scale organization because they often leave themselves open to attackersBasic Tips and Tricks: For SMBs that don’t want to invest high dollar amounts into a security tech stack, it’s still wise to invest in simple things that fit what you need, such as phishing training for your staff, which can help detect and report malicious emails, multi-function authentication, and password vaults.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Maggie Louie remembers the moment her career changed forever. Working with the L.A. Times on digital and mobile products, Maggie, now the founder and CEO of Otto, remembers a friend asking her to look into an issue they were having with their website.“[they asked] me to look at their ad tags and figure out why their traffic was going through the roof, but they weren't making any more money. They couldn't figure it out. I had suspected that their ad techs were either misconfigured or there's something easy there, and after 24 hours looking through their code. I discovered that they indeed were being stolen internally. The head developer was hijacking all of the ad tags and just doing all sorts of crazy stuff.” The lines of code hidden in the JavaScript were driving traffic and stealing money, and it was that revelation that opened Maggie’s eyes to underground ad fraud and bot traffic, and this ad fraud wreaked havoc. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Maggie details how that moment led her to launch Otto and she discusses the company’s efforts to democratize access to internet security for all, its Chrome extension to protect consumers when online shopping, and the variety of enterprise solutions for businesses her team has developed.Main TakeawaysNew Frontier: Hackers are always looking for new industries with vulnerabilities to disrupt. Ad tech is one of the fastest-growing industries underserved by cybersecurity solutions. This is due to the complex nature of ad tech, which makes it difficult for cyber security experts to easily shift solutions into.Safety is a Fallacy: Popular ecommerce platforms want you to believe that just because you use their service and tools that your company is safe from bad actors. The truth is that just because you use popular no-code or low-code operating systems, bad actors still target vulnerable people who don’t secure their code.Always Be Testing: Just because your platform is safe today, doesn’t mean that it is safe tomorrow. The more your platform is customizable the more vulnerable your JavaScript becomes to outside bad actors. A general rule of thumb when it comes to security is to constantly be testing and looking over your code.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The journey to cloud is not the same for everyone. In fact, for some, it can be a grueling and daunting process. For CIOs and CTOs of century-year-old companies, they are burdened by server after server piling up and as they tackle the obstacle of migrating data to the cloud. Meanwhile, peers at digitally-native companies, born in the cloud, use their agility and ease of scale to soar past their old-school brethren. So what’s a legacy company to do?“The reality in the environment is that there are all stages of software in these companies and disentangling that and figuring out how to move to the cloud is a journey. And that's the thing where we're really excited about being able to help with at least kind of taking care of the infrastructure pieces. So CIOs and CTOs can focus on the application layers and not really have to worry about how the infrastructure gets operated.” 19:37That’s Preeti Somal, Vice President of Engineering at HashiCorp, a company constructed on the idea of building open-source communities to help users quickly implement the infrastructure necessary to run cloud applications. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Preeti unpacks how open-source tools are helping customers get to the cloud faster, how hybrid cloud models have evolved over the years, and more. Main TakeawaysAll Shapes and Sizes: There is not a one-size-fits-all method for companies trying to move to the cloud, but cloud adoption has been driven by organizations prioritizing the ability to quickly add applications and implement them within their network.Building a Secure Environment: The shift to operating in the cloud requires a different approach to security. Instead of focusing on a secure network perimeter with the assumption of trust, you must shift your focus to securing the infrastructure and application services themselves through a trusted source of identity managementBuilding a Remote-First Team: When you’re building a remote-first team, you have to be intentional about how you document your process so when you scale, your team members will have a complete understanding of the workflow.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.