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Contribution of TEAM Across Scrum

#Contribution of team across scrum #Across Scrum #Sprint Backlog #Daily Scrum #Sprint Planning

Infographics related to: Sprint Review || Sprint Retrospective || Sprint Planning || Daily Scrum || Release Planning Meeting || Distributed Scrum || Metrics || Scaling Scrum - Bala Guntipalli

Bala Guntipalli - Digitalization Management Consultant

Team Builder. Engage. Execute. Customer-Focused. Profitability.

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

Are you confident that your IT advisors are helping you exceed your business goals?

Are you satisfied in the way your company calculates ROIT (return on IT spend)?

Are you sure when a new product or service is developed, the TCO (Total cost of ownership) is reduced, and the ROIT is improved?

Are you prepared to accelerate the business success by transforming into an omnichannel digital enterprise, for a better long-term marketplace position?

I help companies answer those questions and achieve their goals. I have accreditations from Harvard University (Cybersecurity: Managing Organization's Critical Business Systems, Networks, Data and Risk In The IT Age), The Indian Institute of Technology (1 Year course in IT), an MBA from Madurai University, India, Mini MBA in Healthcare from University of St. Thomas, MN. I am a recognized public speaker, an author on Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity. I’m an experienced past board member for 3 for-profit US companies and non-profit. 1) ArtSpace International, owned 25 Art galleries in GA; 2) Global Rehabilitation, a healthcare company in MN; 3) EdTrainU.com - most mgmnt consultants are Ph.D.’s in their specialty; Non-profit – RisingStar Outreach, and serving as a President at Plymouth Rotary.

My IT and business advisory processes have been honed over the past two decades across the globe in a variety of small, medium and large enterprises and assisted in expert decision making around “partner,” “buy” or “build” decisions to enable business strategies. I served in leadership capacities at a range of companies including TechVelocityPartners.com, Cox Group, CUNA, IBM Corporation, Corcoran Real Estate, BCBS, Global Healthcare Rehabilitation and more and responsible for strategy, innovation, corporate growth, operations, P&L, and product management.

As a management consultant, I am supported by 2 proven global IT sourcing companies (610 +employees) to achieve quantifiable results, and lessen the risk of working with unknown or newly hired vendors.

I am a unique business-minded IT professional...and a technology-minded business strategist who advances projects and initiatives with an out of the box approach… I have observed that some departments view their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead.)

I focus on:

1) Acquiring/developing cost-effective, business-appropriate technology, and

2) Using IT as a means to attract, keep, engage employees and customers... while generating sales, increasing profitability and satisfied customers guided by the "Rotary 4-way test."

Achievements: P & L responsibility for TechVelocityPartners.com. Plus delivered three IT products with time and revenue savings of 7 weeks and 18%. Designed and developed products and services, and aided in creating new revenue channels that generated over 20 % of the annual revenues.

1. As part of the rebranding and growth strategy at TVP, developed materials to approach corporate growth and marketing agencies. Interviewed, negotiated and selected the agency. Responsible for executing several projects, delivering multiple portals, printed corporate materials, and implemented omnichannel customer engagement channels and platforms aligned with the corporate strategy.

2. Healthcare client: Designed C-suite business dashboards, analysis to improve operations in 6 clinics.

3. Independent Software Vendor (ISV) serving the State Departments of Corrections across the USA. Helped in the development of software related to case plans, assessment, and collaboration.

4. GIS data Management client in Public Safety industry: Led negotiations with potential partners. Devised an alternate plan for managing resources from a local MN university. Debugged high severity problems on production servers that had existed for over 6 months. Provided root-cause analysis and architectural recommendations for prevention in less than 4 weeks.

5. Set up offshore teams and offices for multiple clients resulting in shortened Product Development Life-Cycle, 30 to 40% cost savings and improved communication between teams. Located and interviewed the offshore partners to reduce cycle and delivery time. Facilitated C-level strategic planning and discussions between the client and partners. Five engagements (on-demand staff augmentation and projects outsourcing) closed with successful outcomes for both sides.

6. B2B e-commerce client: Provided input during strategy sessions. Assisted in preparing materials for attracting investors from Europe. Prepared case studies to launch new revenue-generating channels.

7. EdTrainU, MN: Assisted in developing an 18-month strategy; activities related to website and business launch. Fine-tuned sales, marketing offerings, client intake process, procurement and contract lifecycle review, board development and outsourcing specific programs aligned with the business plan. All this resulted in the successful launch of the business and the multiple portals.

8. Media Conglomerate: 120+ Print, Radio and TV channels reaching 50M+ Americans weekly. Reduced regression testing from 10+ hours, with 6 to 8 team members, to under one hour by cutting-edge automation efforts. Savings over $5M/yr. by reducing manual errors and catching issues early in the cycle, thus avoiding critical production outages.

9. OpenGates (AirBnB concept-connecting outdoor adventurists with landowners) and Oil Exploration Company (OEC): Led Strategy and Requirements analysis. Developed initial POC for the OEC portal that integrated software and hardware to design a tracking and alarm device that saves lives.

Below are (partial) lists of completed projects, industries served and relevant certifications:

Digital Transformation Projects:

Agile Product Engineering

Business Process Automation

Corporate Growth Portals

Efficient Vendor Management; ERP

Social Media Strategies; Automation

Quality Assurance; Cybersecurity

Risk Governance / IT Compliance

Business Continuity Management

Industry:

Automotive

Banking

Finance

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Retail and Media

Pharmaceuticals

Real Estate

High Tech

Relevant Certifications:

Security Assessment & Testing

IT Governance and Management

Certified Scrum Master

Microsoft Corporation:

MS Certified Solution Developer–MCSD

IBM Corporation:

Principal Certified Professional

Certified Product Specialist

IBM Domino Server Administrator

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

#Sprint Review #Sprint Retrospective #Digitalization Management Consultant

Internal or Insider threats are far more dangerous than the external - Bala Guntipalli

Internal or Insider threats are far more dangerous than the external.

In the 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index, IBM found that 60% of all attacks were carried out by insiders that you trust. Of these attacks, three-quarters involved malicious intent, and one-quarter involved careless negligence.

Cyber thieves use personal information to launch spear phishing attacks, commit fraud with social security numbers to steal medical identities to obtain fraudulent prescriptions or merely to blackmail. IBM Security research found healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services are the top three industries under attack, due to their personal data, intellectual property, physical inventory, and massive economic assets.

During a recent visit to a large Midwest healthcare payer/provider with over 23,000 employees at their cybersecurity awareness event, a panel member stated that the average cost of each Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is worth over $1350.

In the article below, "Your Electronic Medical Records Could Be Worth $1000 To Hackers" – Mariya Yao outlines where the most threats originate. Internally.

One can cancel credit cards and even change social security numbers, but health information cannot be changed or canceled. But if there is a breach, hackers can blackmail for a lifetime.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariyayao/2017/04/14/your-electronic-medical-records-can-be-worth-1000-to-hackers/#6fe6c1d050cf

I recommend this reading from my IBM associate, Marc van Zadelhoff on Insider Security

Threat, published in Harvard Business Review:

https://hbr.org/2016/09/the-biggest-cybersecurity-threats-are-inside-your-company

Rogue players from inside companies steal identities to hack into their assets. When I worked at IBM Corporation, I held dual responsibilities for application and server security. I learned firsthand how effectively IBM implements multi-layer protection from internal and external threats which is critical in today’s connected world. It’s interesting to learn from Marc van Zadelhoff about Cyber Security Intelligence Index and his thoughts on Insider Threats. While the value of the records in industries and sectors differ substantially, the threats businesses have in common are people, assets, and the technology. All three have the potential to be an insider threat.

15 Approaches to Minimize Potential Insider Threats: While this is not the complete list, it helps begin the thought process. Ask the IT staff how they ensure “insider malware” is not present already in the network and what precautions are taken so far?

The risk-based approach addresses each problem individually and is a cost-effective approach with the best results.

Automation is the key. Logging and automating the process of checking the logs for unusual activities is a good idea. Keyword-driven automation testing frameworks might be a fit for the organization. Involve existing resources (e.g., Automation Architects.) Use their expertise to build automation programs to filter, detect and alert based on relevant keywords to identify unusual activities from the large log files. Security and Automation architects should work together, follow a lean approach to achieve the best results.

Regular auditing of high-risk users or employees who have a past problem history with their verbal/non-verbal cues and who are dissatisfied with their job.

Know who the weak links are and working with HR to identify them.

Identify information that is lucrative to rogue players and protect that with additional layers of security.

Traditional methods of investing time and resources in background checks and pre-employment screening still prove valuable.

Cybersecurity is only as strong as the weakest link is. All cybersecurity tools and technologies are one side of the coin and the employees are the other. Employees are often an afterthought of significant cybersecurity incidents or breaches.

Conduct Risk Assessment, Insider Threat Analysis, and Identity Privilege Management. Delete inactive users, contractors, vendors, and vendor ids.

Implement multi-factor authentication. Rotate the critical responsibilities between the employees randomly. Financial institutions have yielded positive results with this approach for decades.

Conduct Basic Social Engineering Attacks and Prevention methods periodically (Phishing, Baiting, Tailgating, Quid Pro Quo, etc.)

Patching and manually checking the patches are actually applied and are the latest version.

Conquer easy things first and then move to next harder threat.

Phish - top to bottom and bottom to top in the organization.

Carefully monitor USB ports, network and look for any abnormal activities.

Monitor vendors and contractors activities strictly. If there is a doubt, phish with relevant content. See who gives the information that they should not. Train.

Something we implemented at IBM and TechVelocityPartners.com which produced better ROI is “strictly enforcing the separation of duties and identifying least privileges required to perform the job from day one.” This should be the first thing to be done.

No industry or organization is immune to cyber threats. IBM in the 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index suggests how to outthink threats.

It's time for all organizations, boards, executives, and security leaders to realize that addressing compliance requirements, conducting risk assessments, annual penetration testing or incident response exercises is enough. A single careless employee or a loophole is all a hacker needs to steal millions of dollars’ worth of data and cause irreparable harm to the organization.

The security experts at IBM suggests these four essential steps toward developing a strategic cybersecurity program:

Prioritize business objectives and set the risk tolerance

Protect the organization with a proactive security plan

Prepare a response for the inevitable and sophisticated attacks

Promote and support a culture of security awareness

This article was written by Bala Guntipalli, Sr. VP of Technology & Operations at TechVelocity Partners, global technology services company offering cost-effective, independent IT consulting services focused on digital transformation and other game-changing technology strategies.

COST MATTERS

Executives almost immediately ask about cost of such best practices. A thorough and well implemented security plan don’t need to be exorbitantly priced.

Can you find consultants who combine excellent work at a reasonable cost? It’s not easy to find cybersecurity/business technology consultants with the needed industry expertise who can also easily prove the ROI. Instead of a typical consultant model with “ideas” only and no “implementation”, they are the ones who work relentlessly to solve the problems with passion rather than a desire for a quick contract.

My IT and business advisory processes have been honed over the past two decades across the globe in a variety of small, medium and large enterprises and assisted in expert decision making around “partner,” “buy” or “build” decisions to enable business strategies. I served in leadership capacities at a range of companies including TechVelocityPartners.com, Cox Group, CUNA, IBM Corporation, Corcoran Real Estate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Global Healthcare Rehabilitation and more and responsible for strategy, innovation, corporate growth, operations, P&L, and product management.

I am a unique business-minded IT professional...and a technology-minded business strategist, who advances projects and initiatives with an out of the box approach…

I have observed that some departments view their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead.)

I focus on:

1) Acquiring/developing cost-effective, business-appropriate technology, and

2) Using IT as a means to attract, keep, engage employees and customers... while generating sales, increasing profitability and satisfied customers guided by the "Rotary 4-way test."

Are you prepared to accelerate the business success by transforming into an omnichannel digital enterprise, for a better long-term marketplace position?

Are you confident that your IT advisors are helping you exceed your business goals?

Are you satisfied in the way your company calculates ROIT (return on IT spend)?

Are you sure when a new product or service is developed, the TCO (Total cost of ownership) is reduced, and the ROIT is improved?

I help companies answer those questions and achieve their goals.

I have accreditations from Harvard University (Cybersecurity: Managing Organization's Critical Business Systems, Networks, Data and Risk In The IT Age), The Indian Institute of Technology (1 Year course in IT), an MBA from Madurai University, India, Mini MBA in Healthcare from University of St. Thomas, MN. I am a recognized public speaker, an author on Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity. I’m an experienced past board member for 3 for-profit US companies and non-profit. 1) ArtSpace International, owned 25 Art galleries in GA; 2) Global Rehabilitation, a healthcare company in MN; 3) EdTrainU.com - most mgmnt consultants are Ph.D.’s in their specialty; Non-profit – RisingStar Outreach, and serving as a President at Plymouth Rotary.

Bala Guntipalli, Sr. VP - Technology and Operations;

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

Feel free to comment on your experiences or tactics you found useful in uncovering insider threats/risks.

#Cyber Security Intelligence #cybersecurity #Bala Guntipalli

Are you Agile or Fragile in Product Development? - Bala Guntipalli

Are you Agile or Fragile in Product Development?

Agile product management aligns the Product, Technical and Marketing teams towards building customer-centric products faster with a possibility to refine the product scope based on the market conditions.

Marketing teams demand more features (quickly) to sell the product in new markets or expand in the existing markets. Technical teams command more time (slower) to deliver the products with the required quality.

Product Managers (the investors) are caught in between these conflicting demands. Product Managers have a tough time in convincing the senior management in justifying the ROI on product development investments.

Agile Product Management can address these challenges gracefully and create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders. This method can also bring the potential beta users, who could be your paid customers after the project launch.

Are your Products meeting the needs of your customers? Are you able to achieve ROI on your Product development investments? Experts say 64% of the delivered features are rarely used.

We solved a number of problems similar to this for our clients with our Agile Product Management consulting expertise. We also helped our customers overcome the most common pitfalls in Product development and save up to 50% of investments upfront.

The common hurdles to overcome and balance are:

1. Getting Ideas/Innovations Flow

2. Streamlining the Bubbling Energy

3. Balancing Passion and Profits

Apply proven Agile frameworks like Scrum/XP for dynamic product development life cycle (from inception to product launch). Agile Product management framework encourages pragmatic product development based on customer needs and market demand. Product managers can deliver the minimum viable product (MVP) even in situations with small budgets.

Applying Agile Product Management framework we helped several clients achieve:

Improved customer satisfaction

Reduce / Minimize rework

Meeting Project timelines

Enhanced Utilization of Service/Product

Improved ROI

Implement Cost-Effective Solutions

Minimize Time-to-Market

Fail Fast

Accommodate rapid changes

Improved involvement of Customer

Transparency and Visibility to all Stakeholders

If you would like your organization to avoid the pitfalls, innovate and create MVPs faster, improve the ROI and reduce the TCO on the Product Development, please free to contact us for a free assessment.

COST MATTERS

Executives almost immediately ask about cost of such best practices. A thorough and well implemented Agile Product Engineering plan don’t need to be exorbitantly priced.

My IT and business advisory processes have been honed over the past two decades across the globe in a variety of small, medium and large enterprises and assisted in expert decision making around “partner,” “buy” or “build” decisions to enable business strategies. I served in leadership capacities at a range of companies including TechVelocityPartners.com, Cox Group, CUNA, IBM Corporation, Corcoran Real Estate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Global Healthcare Rehabilitation and more and responsible for strategy, innovation, corporate growth, operations, P&L, and product management.

I am a unique business-minded IT professional...and a technology-minded business strategist, who advances projects and initiatives with an out of the box approach…

I have observed that some departments view their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead.)

I focus on:

1) Acquiring/developing cost-effective, business-appropriate technology, and

2) Using IT as a means to attract, keep, engage employees and customers... while generating sales, increasing profitability and satisfied customers guided by the "Rotary 4-way test."

Are you prepared to accelerate the business success by transforming into an omnichannel digital enterprise, for a better long-term marketplace position?

Are you confident that your IT advisors are helping you exceed your business goals?

Are you satisfied in the way your company calculates ROIT (return on IT spend)?

Are you sure when a new product or service is developed, the TCO (Total cost of ownership) is reduced, and the ROIT is improved?

I help companies answer those questions and achieve their goals.

Bala Guntipalli, Sr. VP - Technology and Operations;

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

#Bala Guntipalli #Agile #Fragile #Agile Product Management

Results Oriented Digital Transformation: Overcoming 6 Pitfalls by Bala Guntipalli

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, the C-suite is always looking for innovative and cost-effective ways to grow the business. A successful digital transformation is a vital tool and one of the most direct ways to positively impact the bottom line. In fact, IT may at times run and sometimes ruin, businesses across the globe. This article identifies six common pitfalls which if avoided can be game changers for leaders executing a digital transformation of their company. This is a version of "All I needed to learn, I learned in kindergarten" for digital transformation organized around six pitfall points below.

Pitfall 1:

Doing It Later Has Consequences

Sears filed for bankruptcy in Oct 2018 because they never doubled-down on digitalization. This is a perfect example of what happens when the wait is too long… the world passes by. While working with Fortune 500 companies and many small to medium-sized business, I noticed patterns in their implementation of agile product engineering and digitalization programs ranging from "Do It Later" to "Do What Works Now.” Those who wait, lose market share to new business models deployed by fast-moving start-ups that create new consumer behavior taking advantage of the latest technology. At the same time, growing companies miss opportunities to gain customers and further increase revenue due to lack of collaboration between internal and external IT development partners that delays digital transformation implementation plans.

With a “do it later” mindset the business may fail as many others have. Instead of waiting, companies should move now using an agile mindset to:

Leverage existing IT platforms by exploring new business channels, new horizontals, and verticals.

Maintain employee engagement and make sure good employees and partners are not lost.

Be responsive to customers, using partners to support activities if staffed inadequately to manage client’s issues.

As the company starts to enter into the digital transformation plan, use long-term strategic thinking. It’s more than implementing bleeding edge technologies for the sake of being first. Leaders should ask the following questions with their “business hats” on:

Will using this technology win more business?

Will this improve customer engagement while providing efficiency?

Am I taking better care of my customers?

Am I gaining more insight into my customer and customers’ digital footprint?

How will I use this data to serve my customers’ and prospects better?

Another example of what not to do is Kodak. They lost their market dominance and brand advantage by missing the digital revolution after spending $5 billion on digital technologies that did not deliver the intended results. Companies miss opportunities by not implementing genuine pretotyping, rapid experimentation, and not having the right team to speak up and do the right thing. Think about “iPhone moment” or “Kodak moment” when “do it later” comes to mind.

Companies invest heavily in R & D to deliver innovation and top line growth. Unfortunately, these investments are often made without addressing the “+1 step” of creating being agile culture that fosters innovation (see infographic below). Lean approach, agile culture and aggressive implementation of pretotyping techniques will help ensure smooth delivery of the desired innovation. Companies must adopt tools early to enable internal collaboration, create an MVP culture, encourage employees to think freely and test innovation related products periodically well ahead of the release to reduce risks.

The infographic below depicts the before and after effects of innovation in isolation vs. the recommended team environments, and digital workplaces for real-time access to information and improved transparency.

“The best results are achieved by being agile - not by just doing agile. Doing agile is implementing the latest tools and training by agile experts. Being agile, on the other hand, is about the mindset and culture. Like the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him to be a fisherman. The longer-term and more reliable results come from a mindset – create being agile culture.”

Pitfall 2: Missed Upfront Thinking

Executive leaders are charged with setting strategy and effective implementation. How efficiently the organization is growing and managed during these disruptive times, will define the future. For example, Toys R Us did not pursue their customers’ preferences, use technology in stores, add online enhancements or improve the customer experience with disastrous results. Walmart used the data collected online and in-store to build a weekly toy sale program which engaged customers.

Similarly, Amazon took advantage of its digital footprint data by designing marketing campaigns for toys appealing specifically to the decision making parents. In both instances, big data, AI, and digitalization played a crucial role. A critical first step is considering how digital transformation enables the business strategy. Many leaders jump into execution without first thinking through the essential aspects of how to best use technology to drive their business results.

To avoid this pitfall, consider what customer behaviors will drive the business. Make sure these outcomes are integrated into the plan and move quickly to implement. As the project progresses, develop the “secret sauce” insights that will provide a strategic advantage. Validate these so they can become an exclusive part of the business transformation. To establish these insights quickly, use upfront market research, study consumer behavior shifts, industry trends, competitor news, and observing how innovative start-ups are disrupting.

Some key questions to consider during upfront thinking include:

Who can help the company to be proactive to see down the road for the next 3-5 years and determine what type of technology implementations, readiness and IT modernizations will be vital?

How to gain independent perspectives from management consultants and IT domain experts offering cost-effective resources to support the transformation?

What ideas and changes are needed to improve the culture to create alignment across the enterprise to ensure collaboration between all functions recognizing that the core digital transformation components will differ for each?

What are the competitors doing and not doing? Are there aspects of their digital offerings that should be adopted or avoided?

To put this thinking into action, build an expert team composed of independent thinkers and doers. Challenge them to think critically about how to make the implementation successful. They should build on and enhance disruptive ideas in ways that bring C-level leaders and their boards of director’s visions to a business reality. Lack of expertise will be paid for, whether in market misreads, execution failures, or dollars spent to fix poor implementation. If in-house experience is lacking, find solid high quality outside partners to support the internal team. Make sure the right talented team is in place to dedicate to the effort right up front, rather than waiting and learning what is needed through a failed initiative.

A successful digital transformation expert who also possesses hands-on, multi-industry experience will help develop a smarter IT trajectory for the transformation efforts.

Pitfall Observation 3:

Missing Straight Talk

Internal experts sometimes hit a wall. They know there must be a better way to create or enhance a program or product, but they can’t risk saying so because they know it’s not politically correct or fear they will somehow be blamed for the costs to make the needed changes. These experts feel that their job security might be at risk if they tell the truth. Rather than face this risk, they keep quiet. Instead of embracing an opportunity that could vault the company forward and perhaps create disruptive positive change, they opt for staying calm. The bottom line is that “straight talk” about the real situation sometimes is missed. For this reason, it is vitally essential to get an independent perspective, either from the internal team or external consultants.

Whether leadership decides to put the full power of an external consulting organization behind the work or to stay solely with internal experts, make sure the team believes in the principle of robust and authentic communication of the facts of the situation. It will be candid and hard-hitting at times. Public expression of the reality of the case will serve the company well despite the pain at the moment. Selecting and training the team to have this approach will help them well into the future. If external consultants are engaged, a common pitfall is working with consultants who recommend solutions based on their own product sales agenda rather than what works most cost-effectively. As an example, while working as a management consultant to a large-cap media company, I noticed that a mid-range consulting firm was hired to conduct a critical production issues analysis. Instead of a cost-effective fix of their most significant issues initially, followed by a root-cause analysis to determine if more work was needed? Within a few weeks, they convinced management that what they needed was a complete rebuild of their whole platform. Leadership did not go for “straight talk.” In evaluating the situation four years later, serious problems surfaced with the newly installed platform. Consequently, the teams were replaced twice in six years. Had the company created the “being agile” culture and embraced the straight talk early, this may have been avoided. Focusing specifically on critical issues at hand rather than opting for an entirely new platform the outcome may have significantly improved.

To avoid this pitfall, consider using independent experts to help leadership understand the actual situation and shape their requests for help with a clear results orientation. Encourage teams to use “pretotyping” approaches to identify critical needs and process feasibility before implementation. Be on the lookout for firms offering a quick “transaction grab” to implement their own systems rather than focusing on just the work that is needed to address the identified needs. Be candid. Upfront straight talk will help avoid problems and ensure a successful digital transformation.

Pitfall 4: Choosing The Wrong Partner (The Important Question)

Selecting an outside resource can be challenging. Looking for a true “partner” is essential. This is a firm or person that takes on the role of walking in customer shoes as a leader to make sure the benefits of the work are realized in business results. Sometimes digital transformation means improving operational efficiency, customer experience, or creating new business models. To achieve these objectives, the partner must have not only the skills but also the patience to “walk” in customer shoes, during both the ups and the downs of the business. If the needs and gaps in the skills of the internal team are assessed, use this information to make the right choice of an outside partner. So, the “important question” is: What makes for an excellent digital transformation expert?

So many digital transformation companies have broad experience in technology, but sometimes they create dependency on their technology experts with the host company. The responsibility of outside IT expert or “partner” is to share their expertise. They should provide tools such as infographics to help explain the current status and desired future state, along with cheat sheets and checklists to enable management to be as self-sufficient as possible in the future. The proverb “Give them a fish, and you feed them for a day, but teach them to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime” certainly applies here. Experts should teach leadership to “fish” in “productive business waters.” The best experts provide the long-term partnership with a trusted advisor-type attitude during the transformation journey. It is not a single milestone event. Some of these partners are often willing to get paid for results (outcome-based) and are not just interested in billable hours.

To find the right partner, consider the following 11 criteria and ask if the prospective partner has:

Substantial exposure and experiences with SMAC3 (social, mobile, analytics, cloud, content, and commerce)?

Ability to quickly analyze and visualize the customer’s customer, and understand their perspective?

Strong product engineering roots?

Prior investments in understanding the customer’s business model and have the ability to learn, unlearn and re-learn quickly?

Experienced in design thinking, problem-solving, innovation, strategy, creating partnerships, proper sourcing both on and off-shore, and IT enablement and modernization?

Awareness of opportunities, and pitfalls, what can go wrong and how to handle these?

Ability to give a quick, short and straightforward cheat sheet or checklist of “Do’s and Don’ts” along with the rationale behind them?

Has a “Lean” approach. Do they help to realize the vital 20% using 80/20 rule?

Ability to help leverage existing investments, internal resources, employees, tools, and software?

Have a proven methodology using frameworks combined with deep experience in digital transformation with a blend of roughly eight-plus years of solid business experience and eight-plus years of IT know-how.

The right partner for transformation should be able to provide a positive response to these questions. The result will be the solid management of all five stages (1. Strategy, 2. Design & Planning, 3. Implementation, 4. Optimization, 5. “+ 1” step of creating being agile culture) of the process using agile and adaptive teams with appropriate skills required for each stage to deliver results at the “right time, at the right price.”

“Design thinking, innovation, and ‘out of the box thinking’ do not come from ‘blinding insights’ or from episodic training programs. They come from a culture of open communication of ideas, and from approaching problems and solutions from different perspectives over time.”

Pitfall 5: Getting Stuck In The Process

Organizational leaders are responsible for the strategy and performance of the team. Sometimes, even with good intentions and focus, it seems like the team is just not making the desired traction. When stuck, business leaders and their digital transformation partners should work together to execute the following three simple points:

1. Empower internal teams to identify what went wrong (or what is about to go wrong) and give them the freedom to bring on board the resources and skills needed to implement a fix and solve the issues. By bringing in the right independent experts to address the identified problems, it showcases the support for the internal team and have greater confidence that the job will be done correctly. Focus on the benefits of the outcome balanced with the undesirable cost. Results are what matter.

2. Challenge the team to implement fixes that solve short-term problems without affecting the long-term strategy or goals. Sometimes small changes can have significant and costly implications, so the choice of the right small steps (pretotyping) is an essential first step.

3. Identify internal experts that are familiar with systems and provide them the training. If needed, partner with external consultants to create a roadmap that paves the way for the action steps to move the organization forward toward meeting the goals.

In short, empowering internal teams and using outside support to get the job done right will ensure to get “unstuck” and keep moving toward the digital transformation goals.

Pitfall 6:

Forgetting That Cost Matters

When problems surface or aggressive new strategies are developed, one of the first questions is “how much will this cost?” The good news is that stable partners working to implement a well thought out digital strategy will have tremendous rewards. These services don't need to be exorbitantly priced as compared to the value created.

Some consultants call themselves "digital transformation experts," offering world-class "solutions." And maybe they are and they will, but once fully revealed, the "solution" sometimes offered may be a way to sell their software and services. If not careful, this can lead to soaring costs and limit the ability of internal teams to work cost-effectively without expensive additional new software implementations. Be on the lookout for consulting companies with conflicts of interest generated from providing software solutions, managed IT services and strategic consulting simultaneously. Consider the benefits of an independent perspective. The most valuable advice comes from recommendations that are 100% independent keeping client’s interests first and foremost.

Find partners and consultants who do excellent work at reasonable cost early in the process (few hints are listed above in pitfall # 4: finding the right partner section) who genuinely have the customer’s interests in mind. They are the ones who work quietly and relentlessly to solve the problems with passion rather than a desire to make the quick buck and take advantage of the situation to promote their “solution.”

Conclusion

The power of new technology continues to fuel results-oriented competitive advantage for companies and leaders around the globe. Businesses must try to avoid these six pitfalls while implementing digital transformation. They are (1) doing it later, (2) missing straight talk, (3) missed upfront thinking, (4) choosing the wrong partner, (5) getting stuck in the process and (6) forgetting that cost matters. As a business leader managing transformation, understanding and acting on these six observations will help ensure you harness the power of digital transformation to deliver exceptional results.

At TechVelocityPartners.com, we have captured the essence of digital transformation in the Medha™ Framework. The infographic below depicts both the 4 steps, and “+ 1” process and the tools for both internal and external digital transformation.

If you have found this article helpful, the tactics listed in the related article titled “5 Steps to Effectively Handle Digital Transformation and Business Disruption: A Framework for Digitalization”, initially published in Oct 2017, may also be helpful additional reading.

This article was written by Bala Guntipalli, Sr. VP of Technology & Operations at TechVelocityPartners.com, Global Technology Services Company offering cost-effective, independent IT consulting services focused on digital transformation and other game-changing strategies.

Bala’s expertise and two-plus decades of experience include broad innovation, strategy, project management, product development, cybersecurity, P&L management, business development, and operations. He creates smarter IT-enabled processes, supports strategic decision making around “partner or build” decisions, enables business strategies and digital transformation.

His passion for strategy drives his success, creative problem solving, use of design thinking, implementation of agile methodologies, ability to build partnerships with other third-party providers. The “Rotary 4 Way Test” guides his work.

Thank you to Steve K. Snyder, [email protected]; CEO and founder of Third Meadow LLC, a corporate growth consulting firm, for his contributions to this article.

If you would like to solve business problems cost-effectively or thinking of transforming your business into an omnichannel digital enterprise for a better long-term marketplace position, please contact me. We would be delighted to partner with you to accelerate your business success.

Bala Guntipalli

612-322-2470 / [email protected]

#Bala Guntipalli #Digital Transformation #Straight Talk

Cybersecurity Resilience and Best Practices for Fraud Prevention - Bala Guntipalli

The CFO Leadership Council conducts professional development programs with the goal of empowering CFOs across the globe empowering them to make better strategic IT decisions.

As part of this I was moderating the seminar titled:

Cybersecurity Resilience and Best Practices for Fraud Prevention - Why should a CFO care and what can they do about it?

Dr. Willie E. May, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and many leaders have often stated that "Cybersecurity Is Not Just an IT Issue, IT Is a Business Risk." Because financial executives are quantitative by nature, so I would like to put the cost of Cybercrime in context:

Per CNBC: Cybercrime costs the global economy $450 Billion

Forbes: Cybercrime costs projected to reach $2 Trillion by 2019

Here are a few relevant points for the broader cybersecurity community, CFOs, and the boards in most industries and organizations of all sizes.

A) When performing Risk Analysis and Risk Management, ask these questions:

Which assets, digital and physical, is the organization trying to protect?

How is the data classified? And how is it treated differently?

Where is the risk?

How could that risk change over time?

After these questions are answered, then identify where to begin. Too many companies attempt to “protect everything” and wind up “not” protecting much at all.

Few points to consider:

Trained people and processes should supplement IT tools. Consider the Equifax hack where the staff forgot to restart the system after patching. Relying solely on the technology will have adverse effects.

Do not limit penetration testing to just for one area of the company infrastructure and IT landscape. Choosing the vulnerable areas serves the organization better.

Companies should test across the firewall, server, web applications, mobile applications, infrastructure, for both inside and outside threats.

Hackers don’t play by rules. They do their homework. They are patient.

Perform vulnerability tests to check for potential risks, and pentest (Penetration tests) to identify if any of the vulnerable spots can be exploited.

Ask the CISO/CIO about the current Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) in place and how the alerts are being managed?

Choosing an Intrusion Detection System that best suits the organizational needs is critical.

The options available are:

Network-Based intrusion detection system

Host Based intrusion detection system

Blended option (RealSecure type systems)

Three things to consider when choosing an Intrusion prevention system (IPS) are:

Detection capabilities

Context understanding

Threat intelligence use

Follow all other steps, just as when any other mission-critical technology is acquired.

B) How to reduce the chances of a hack and steps to take when there is a compromise:

Have multiple levels of authorization.

Reach out immediately to the financial institution (if the finance systems are comprised.)

Documentation of every process is important.

Training is critical – specifically against several social engineering attacks (Pretexting, Quid pro quo, Tailgating, Baiting, Water holing, Diversion theft, Phishing - Phone and Spear phishing.)

Do not shame or punish when someone opens a malicious link. Use it as a teaching moment. Create a culture where employees are not afraid to share what they did.

Acting immediately when breached minimizes the impact on the business and the customers.

Want ROI? Act fast. Contact the law enforcement authorities.

A cyber break is like quicksand. One doesn’t realize that the next step taken could sink.

Pay attention to the Business Email Compromise (BEC). Often companies are attacked through email by exploiting the target to allow malware or wire fraud.

C) Conquer the easy threats first:

Implement simple checks and balances.

Do not leave all authority to one person.

Audit each account and user.

Get rid of inactive accounts/users.

Monitor usage.

Test the humans (Drop USB data sticks on the ground to see who will use it.)

Require training for those that fail the tests.

Sharks smell blood: Hackers will look for patterns and wait for a vulnerable time/opportunity.

D) What can be done?

1. Create and implement a policy: Being breached is not about if, but when. Put the recovery protocols in place before anything terrible happens. When it does happen, systems are ready to deal with it.

2. On the Governance side: To determine measurements, the board and C-suite should meet with the CIO, CRO, and CISO and establish the critical metrics of how often the company systems get audited, document and follow-up. Cybersecurity is only as strong as the weakest link in the company (the employees.)

3. Ask these questions:

Does the organization need a cybersecurity commitment team?

Are the risks analyzed and understood?

What are the investments required and the ROI?

How the staff educated and what are they trained on? How that relates to the business?

Do employees understand their roles?

Is the company utilizing partners?

How do the vendors impact the company?

Does the company have a security policy or process in place for vendors?

4. Educational options:

Many frameworks are available and specialized to fit specific industries. Some banks and merchant vendors will help with free necessary assessments.

Figure out what data need to be protected and how those different buckets of data will be treated differently.

Know that there is no one blanket protection policy.

5. How to best protect passwords?

Password manager

Biometrics

Multi-security factors (at sign in) – e.g., using 2nd tier authentication such as enabling second level authentication that requires to send a passcode to the mobile phone

Use Privilege Identity Managers

E) How to validate if the policies are working or not?

When developing technology, most designers/engineers use test-driven development (TDD.) and similar TDD policies in cybersecurity to enhance the posture.

Test

Measure

Improve

Tabletop test

Monitor progress.

Simple clean up. Delete inactive/duplicate data.

F) How the staff, CFO’s, and the board can enhance the cybersecurity posture?

Cyber security involves Process+ People + Technology. Be engaged, ask questions, document, and follow-up. If C-suite is not versed with the latest threats or not aware of which questions to ask, work with passionate consultants whose industry expertise can fill in the gaps.

G) 15 items to consider while enhancing the cybersecurity posture are:

1. Pay attention to the third party vendors (Remember the Target Corporation breach where the hackers entered systems through a HVAC vendor from out-of-state?)

2. Who is accessing the network from the vendor side? Are they sharing the credentials with multiple users?

3. Are the vendors able to access only the components of the network that they need to conduct their business? (follow “Minimum Authorization Required” rule). Who is responsible for which part of the company systems and network?

4. Ask how often the vendor systems and policies get audited

5. Who audits the vendor systems? Pay attention to the answers. Is it a third party independent audit or an internal audit?

6. If the third party is employed, how reputable they are?

7. If the internal staff is used, who the information security/audit staff performing the audit report to?

8. If they are reporting to the CTO, conflict of interests should be considered.

9. Are the systems getting patched?

10. What is the formal patching process? Is it verifiable?

11. How often does the company perform risk assessments? Is there a malware scan in place?

12. What is the formal method for interpreting the results and what actions are taken for the evaluations conducted in the past 24 months?

13. How are the vendors and their systems monitored currently?

14. If Managed Service Provider (MSP) is employed or if the IT and Infrastructure is outsourced to 3rd party vendors make sure close attention is paid to MSP’s Risk Management, Risk Mitigation, Business Continuity Management policies/procedures

15. At a few midsize companies I have consulted I noticed the C suite is entrusting cybersecurity to a few engineers with additional full-time duties. Russian proverb President Reagan used during the cold war era (Doveryai, no proveryai - Trust, but Verify), is highly relevant to all aspects of Cybersecurity, where things are not always what they seem.

If small-to-medium (SMB) size companies CFOs are dealing with a lot of in/outbound financial transactions they should shop banks for security tools with support available and ask the staff where they can avoid reinventing the wheel?

Cybersecurity is not a project, it is a process, and it is ongoing.

COST MATTERS

Executives almost immediately ask about cost of such best practices. A thorough and well implemented security plan don’t need to be exorbitantly priced.

My IT and business advisory processes have been honed over the past two decades across the globe in a variety of small, medium and large enterprises and assisted in expert decision making around “partner,” “buy” or “build” decisions to enable business strategies. I served in leadership capacities at a range of companies including TechVelocityPartners.com, Cox Group, CUNA, IBM Corporation, Corcoran Real Estate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Global Healthcare Rehabilitation and more and responsible for strategy, innovation, corporate growth, operations, P&L, and product management.

I am a unique business-minded IT professional...and a technology-minded business strategist, who advances projects and initiatives with an out of the box approach…

I have observed that some IT departments view their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead.)

I focus on:

1) Acquiring/developing cost-effective, business-appropriate technology, and

2) Using IT as a means to attract, keep, engage employees and customers... while generating sales, increasing profitability and satisfied customers guided by the "Rotary 4-way test."

Are you prepared to accelerate the business success by transforming into an omnichannel digital enterprise, for a better long-term marketplace position?

Are you confident that your IT advisors are helping you exceed your business goals?

Are you satisfied in the way your company calculates ROIT (return on IT spend)?

Are you sure when a new product or service is developed, the TCO (Total cost of ownership) is reduced, and the ROIT is improved?

I help companies answer those questions and achieve their goals.

1) ArtSpace International, owned 25 Art galleries in GA;

2) Global Rehabilitation, a healthcare company in MN;

3) EdTrainU.com - most mgmnt consultants are Ph.D.’s in their specialty; Non-profit – RisingStar Outreach, and serving as a President at Plymouth Rotary.

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

Panel members:

Chris Veltsos @DrInfoSec - Risk and Privacy Strategist, Minnesota State University

Damien Riehl, Vice President, Stroz Friedberg; Doug Underwood, Risk Advisory Principal, RSM

Kyle Mekemson, VP Global Treasury Solutions, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Moderated by: Bala Guntipalli, Sr. VP - Technology and Operations;

Feel free to comment on your experiences in uncovering/ thwarting cybersecurity threats and risks.

#cybersecurity #Risk Management #Cybersecurity Resilience #Bala Guntipalli

Agile Silver Bullets for Innovation Investments

Is Agile a Silver Bullet for Innovation?

Are your innovative products meeting the needs of your customers? Are you afraid of under-engineering or over-engineering?

Are you focused on the right capabilities?

Experts say 64% of features are rarely or never used.

1) Maximize The Predictable Product Development/Innovation Expectations.

Engaging Beta users can have the dual benefits of first hand feedback and potential paid customers

2) Identify the Essential Functions That Excite Your Customers

The MMF (Minimum Marketable Features) are the meat of your offering.

Focus your engineering and marketing efforts here.

Be the first to the market to capture the lion share and set the base price expectations.

3) Applying Agile Prioritization Techniques can significantly increase the chances of your company being the First to Introduce Products to market (with the latest technology).

A Few Prioritization techniques that can improve ROI on your Innovation are…

Relative Weighing: Brings the market demand, costs, benefits & risks associated with developing a feature or a component together. It provides a measurable ranking system.

KANO Analysis: Ensures innovation teams don’t lose the customer focus. This technique ensures that right amount of time and energies are spent in delivering the products with features or components that create WOW factor to Customers.

MoSCoW: Helps the business and innovation teams to deliver the products or features that address and solve the core problems first. This technique ensures that time and money is not wasted on unimportant things.

Agile frameworks use the PDCA model (Plan Do Check and Act.) This model ensures the Innovation teams are getting regular feedback from the customers throughout the Product Development Lifecycle. Applying Agile Frameworks (Scrum/XP) can make the dream products deployed/released faster and position your organization as a market leader. These frameworks also help you to realize any false hopes/wrong expectations faster and thereby help to manage investments in appropriate manner.

To know your Agile Maturity Index (AMI), please free to contact us for a free AMI assessment.

COST MATTERS

Executives almost immediately ask about cost of such best practices. A thorough and well implemented Agile Maturity Index don’t need to be exorbitantly priced.

My IT and business advisory processes have been honed over the past two decades across the globe in a variety of small, medium and large enterprises and assisted in expert decision making around “partner,” “buy” or “build” decisions to enable business strategies. I served in leadership capacities at a range of companies including TechVelocityPartners.com, Cox Group, CUNA, IBM Corporation, Corcoran Real Estate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Global Healthcare Rehabilitation and more and responsible for strategy, innovation, corporate growth, operations, P&L, and product management.

I am a unique business-minded IT professional...and a technology-minded business strategist, who advances projects and initiatives with an out of the box approach…

I have observed that some IT departments view their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead.)

I focus on: 1) Acquiring/developing cost-effective, business-appropriate technology, and

2) Using IT as a means to attract, keep, engage employees and customers... while generating sales, increasing profitability and satisfied customers guided by the "Rotary 4-way test."

Are you prepared to accelerate the business success by transforming into an omnichannel digital enterprise, for a better long-term marketplace position?

Are you confident that your IT advisors are helping you exceed your business goals?

Are you satisfied in the way your company calculates ROIT (return on IT spend)?

Are you sure when a new product or service is developed, the TCO (Total cost of ownership) is reduced, and the ROIT is improved?

I help companies answer those questions and achieve their goals.

Bala Guntipalli, Sr. VP - Technology and Operations;

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

#Agile Silver Bullets #Bala Guntipalli

5 Steps to Effectively Handle Digital Transformation and Business Disruption: A Framework for Digitalization

Digital technology continues to change the business world dramatically. This article provides business and IT leaders’ helpful tools to drive and manage digital transformation effectively.

The Why:

“Digital is the main reason just over half the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000” – Pierre Nanterme, Chairman, and CEO of Accenture.

“Companies must be open to radical reinvention to find new, significant, and sustainable sources of revenue”– McKinsey, a global management consulting firm.

The How:

As a strategic part of the everyday business, the role of the IT team is shifting from the “keep the lights on” era to the “use of digital technologies to win” era. The benefits of digital technology are best understood in the context of one’s organization.

Digitalization should not be considered as just another shiny IT project because it impacts the entire enterprise. It is a crucial tool enabling growth strategy for most businesses. This document aims to offer a “4+1 digital transformation” approach which brings together thought leaders, execution teams, SME’s, customers, and partners to help collectively outperform the organization’s status quo.

In this paper, we propose a simple, yet effective framework for leaders to conceptualize both the process and possible IT tools within The Medha Framework™, consisting of 4 + 1 steps to digital transformation. This will assist the companies to increase revenue, provide better customer service, create maximum impact, improve speed to market for new products, and boost ROI.

The Medha™ TechVelocityPartner.com’s approach also supports the “+1 “step of creating a being culture of innovation and communication. Digital transformation should be considered both from the employee and partner facing (inward) and from the customer-facing dimension (outward.)

Medha Framework ™ Approach to Digital Transformation

Step 1. Defining the Strategy

The first step in the digital transformation effort is establishing a digital transformation strategy. This should be in sync with the company’s business strategy, as well as, with the 5-year strategic plan. It should identify and focus on short-term and long-term wins that can impact the business positively. This should be looked as an agile version of business planning with various moving parts. The following key objectives for digitalization are typically valid for most organizations.

o Program enhancement: Establish business programs that have a direct impact on business functioning directly or indirectly. Describe each program or action concerning “desirability,” “feasibility” and “viability.”

o Financial implications: Obtain a high-level understanding of the cost and investment implications as well as potential return on each program/action.

To bring structure to the strategy and to achieve the objectives mentioned above, the following guidelines are recommended:

A. Form a Digital Transformation Management Commitment Team: Choose executives from various functions with forward-looking mindsets who will become the key decision makers or influencers for the entire program.

B. Potential Impact: Invest in conference visits or in-house sessions by experts to help the digital transformation commitment team see the possible effects and returns of digital implementations. It’s essential that the team considers the digital transformation as a game changer and not merely another company initiative to increase revenue. Profitability is ultimately important but focusing on the numbers alone too soon will destroy the creativity of strategic visioning that is key to digital transformation.

C. Make Customers, Vendors and Partners’ part of the Transformation Journey: Visit the customers, vendors, and partners to understand what they think of the service and products offered currently. Identify trusted confidants who can give genuine feedback on the plan and as well as with whom the transformation journey can be shared.

D. Key Players: Identify and include various individuals in the organization who need to play an active role during this journey.

Identify Core Concerns: Identify concerns, problems as well as opportunities across the organization. They become the foundation for transformation. Here are some issues, few customers most frequently-cited:

o Provide Omnichannel experiences: Improve customer experience with an eye to improving retention rates and lowering customer turnover by providing consistent omnichannel experiences and seamless customer experience by making decisions based on data, context and sharing customer information updates across all engagement channels.

o Increase Brand Loyalty: Provide real-time customer information to the service agents across all channels to avoid asking the same questions. This, in turn, may pave the way for first-time visitors become customers and then deep-rooted loyalty to the brand.

o Attract Employees and Partners: Attract partners, employees, and suppliers by improving engagement and maintaining consistency across channels.

o Increase Responsiveness: Provide faster response to customers, partners, and employees.

o Manage Threats to the Business: Emerging startups with threatening business models.

o Capture Global Opportunities: Expanding to new geographies and vertical markets.

o Exploit New Sales Channel Opportunities: Potential to leverage new business channels or move to new verticals.

o Increase New Customer Acquisition: The single most significant source of growth. Talking to the customers, partners, employees and creating forums with cross-functional teams, etc. are few ways of increasing new customer acquisition.

F. IT Modernization: In most cases, digital transformation is built on top of the existing enterprise IT. Hence, it is essential to consider IT modernization itself as an activity. To ensure the IT team is empowered enough for the transformation journey analyzing the following eight components is recommended:

Customer experience platforms

Enterprise integration strategy

Data and analytics strategy

Infrastructure management and cloud enablement

Enterprise security and cybersecurity

Release management and implementation program

IT response time

Enterprise IT architecture

A gap analysis of the above points will help the digital transformation commitment team understand the scope and investments required to support the journey.

G. Cross-pollination: Include team members from other functions and “outside of the industry” specialists in brainstorming sessions to analyze the “gap analysis” and see how they approached digitalization journey, and the lessons learned. In some cases, real change and maximum benefits from transformation may be achieved by looking and comparing problem and solutions from other industries. Bring in experts who worked in multiple domains and across different sectors. To solve long-standing problems, do not approach the solution just from one’s industry.

Step1 Outcome: To be successful, digital transformation leaders must first understand, communicate and agree with CxO’s on the expected outcomes of the initiatives. Metrics for business programs and actions must be identified, as well as discussing the risks and probabilities of success for each program and activity.

Case study: Below is a feasibility study created for a B2B e-commerce/marketing company whose leadership wanted to pursue technology as a competitive advantage that shows how these principles work in practice. Here is an example feasibility study report for the initial phase of digitalizing the processes and operations in a high growth B2B e-commerce company in 2017:

Project

Increasing responsiveness for suppliers and distributors

Problem / Opportunity Statement

Supply chain management (SCM) process: Entire SCM process requires an exchange of various documents such as PR, PO, Invoices, QC documents, etc. This entire process is manual and slows down the supply and distribution cycles, and plenty of room for human errors when data is entered is manually

Desirability

Highly desirable for following reasons:

Opportunity to reduce human errors, which is 12% of the total time

A chance to reduce processing times by 50%

Helps in increasing onboarding of suppliers and distributors by 90% monthly can aid to scale the business rapidly

Feasibility

Technology feasibility: Digital process automation solutions and integration technologies are available and mature enough to implement the solution(s)

Viability

Cost viability: There are established tools in the market such as Dell Boomi (iPaas) and OCR technologies (Kofax) which could be tested on a subscription basis (try before you buy.) Amount invested vs. the ROI is around 56 % in two years

Skills viability: Very active system integration partner ecosystem with strong credentials

In addition to the business cases, key professionals who will lead the digital transformation journey, gap analysis for IT modernization, as well as an estimate of investments required, should be identified.

Step 2. Design and Planning

The “Bimodal IT Approach” by Gartner states, “Providers that fail to co-innovate with their customers will not realize the full potential of digital business.”

To establish programs, design and implementation details are needed. One of the best ways to develop these details is to adopt the following three-stage approach concerning each business case:

Design Thinking Sessions: To arrive at solutions to the identified program.

Proof-Of-Value (PoV): To confirm that the identified solution does solve the program’s business issue.

Formulating the IT Project plan: Based on the solution identified and learnings from PoV conducted, develop a project plan and get ready for implementation.

Design Thinking Sessions: Use of design thinking workshops, hackathons, and appropriate means the team must generate ideas to address business cases; i.e., create PoV to validate concepts quickly and cost-effectively. Gartner further suggests, “Mode 2 of Nonlinear IT is used where there is a need to be exploratory in the pursuit of new business designs, processes and models, and there is a prioritization of speed over reliability.” This approach reduces risk and increases the chance of ultimate success of projects or initiatives.

To realize better results from “Mode 2”, a review of current literature on the subject combined with the experiences of the author, endorses an approach utilizing agile philosophy to take stock of the gathered insights to create maximum impact, increased speed of implementation and overall enhanced ROI. The winning companies are those that are “being agile” within an agile culture vs. just implementing or “doing agile.”

Sometimes the best ideas/solutions come from employees, because they may understand the problems better. Companies may get the best results when internal experts work in collaboration with external digital transformation experts. Whoever is engaged in design thinking, they should not lose focus on the problems users (customers) are experiencing during the entire journey. Best results of design thinking come when issues can be identified before users notice them and possible solutions are brainstormed during the design thinking process.

Design thinking itself can be broken down into a five-step framework for out of box thinking, utilizing brainstorming, prioritization and thinking without boundaries.

1. Empathize: To find an appropriate solution, first, one must understand the problem from the user perspective and empathize.

2. Define: Stephen Covey’s “Begin with the end in mind” philosophy applies literally to design thinking. Start with end-state and work backward. Design the future state of each process without regard to current constraint, e.g., shorten process turnaround time from days to hours. Reflect on the problem and define the problem and a plan.

3. Ideate: The team imagines innovative solutions. Work with the graphics designer to draw pictures of the issue, and various solutions discussed in the previous stages and repeat the process. Have the internal experts collaborate with external digital transformation experts who can solve more significant problems with a collaborative mindset. Internal experts know the domain, product, employees, and customers. Provide them with training and tools. Find passionate, qualified consultants who can teach internal leaders and experts to conduct this work on their own.

4. Prototyping: Most often companies and teams make a mistake, spending a lot of resources by moving directly to an expensive and time-consuming prototyping stage. Preferably this should be a genuine pretotyping effort to get to the next logical step in the prototyping process. The solution should be brought to life in incremental steps. Exhausting resources during this stage cannot help to deliver the best solutions to the end user. Always get feedback from the end-users and continue to fine tune as the project moves forward.

Slice the prototyping process into smaller portions. Test the service/product with real users for usability/acceptance of the same before investing substantial resources.

Use pretotyping techniques, gather feedback early, and process the outcomes scientifically. If it makes sense from the customer point of view, move forward with the idea/product or scrap it and move on to the next.

Look into creative ways of pretotyping - incrementally and empirically.

5. Testing: During this stage repeat the process multiple times to identify weaknesses and opportunities to improve the process or implementation.

Step 2 Pre-outcome: By this time of the Design and Planning stage, a concrete solution to the business case is identified. It is possible that multiple programs might get grouped into one overall business project with a solution proposed within the project plan.

Proof-Of-Value (PoV): The business case and the identified solution(s) in the above step must be validated and ascertained by clearly defining the PoV.

Depending on the circumstances more than one can be used. Appropriate approach will depend on the nature of the program and the problem it is solving. Some approaches are highlighted below:

1. Hackathon: Helps in building prototypes in a short period. A valuable approach when the solution is dependent on cutting-edge technologies, and there are concerns regarding the feasibility of the technology.

2. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): This might be valuable if the solution or problem being addressed pertains to the customer behavior. Therefore, building an MVP, which can be tested with actual users for accurate feedback, is the best way to validate the solution.

3. Surveys: A cost-effective approach. This approach gets clear user feedback. It can be a very successful method if the target segment is either internal employees or partners.

Step 2 Outcome: Based on the PoV and cost–benefit analysis, the digital transformation commitment team is now able to decide whether it’s worth pursuing the project. Hence one should expect some programs are dropped, and others endorsed strongly.

Formulating the IT Project plan: By now it should be clear which projects need to be pursued. It is vital that the digital transformation commitment team start planning for its execution, budgeting, and team creation. At this point, a formal project plan should be written and agreed upon by all stakeholders. Apart from the solutions identified through the design thinking sessions, it is recommended that the IT modernization projects also need to be a part of the project plan.

Step 3. Implementation

By now the digital transformation commitment team should have a clear idea of what IT

projects / products need to be delivered. Based on inputs from the previous stages, work on specifications and expectations so that the IT team can successfully fulfill the requirements for transformation. The following approach toward each of the identified IT project is recommended.

A. Establish a Global IT Steering Commitment / Governance team: Establish a Global IT steering commitment/governance team that can prioritize, estimate and approve projects. The commitment team is comprised of an Enterprise architecture team, Functional SME’s and Business stakeholders.

o Enterprise architecture team: Owns the Enterprise IT architecture, platform adoption and technology direction to all IT projects. Also gives estimates for the projects identified.

o Functional SME: Owns the definition and direction of the IT project from the business point of view.

o Business stakeholders: Govern the ROI aspects of each project, hence control the budget and other financial support for the success of IT projects.

B. Establish the Project Specific Governance Model: Four key teams are essential for the success of the entire project portfolio.

o Architecture team: Owns the project-specific IT architecture. They report to the enterprise architecture Team.

o Engineering team: Owns the delivery of the IT project. Often headed by a project manager and consists of developers and testers.

o Product owner: Owns the functional success of the IT project. Often dictat es the functional requirements.

o Sponsor: Owns the budget and overall success of the IT project.

C. Architectural Considerations: Some aspects of information technology are becoming a commodity with no upfront capital expenditure. Ever-growing social media networks are changing the dynamics between customers and businesses. Hence innovation in the form of digital services has become a necessity. Opportunities for open source technology adoption has lowered the barrier for entry to anyone with a good idea to start experimenting with new products or services. For businesses to stay genuinely competitive, they must embrace software innovation as a differentiator within a culture of organizational agility.

The following are five essential guidelines to keep in mind when building solutions and architectures that support the goal of agility.

· Make the system fault tolerant: Things will fail, so develop applications to be resilient and handle failure, and not just prevent it. Deal with flaws gracefully and do not let the defects propagate to the point of causing a total collapse of the system.

· Build autonomous systems that reduce dependencies: To be able to move fast and be agile from an organization or systems standpoint, design systems with dependency thinking in mind. Implementing “loose coupling” in teams, technology, architecture, and governance is needed. Autonomous teams and services enable companies to change things quickly as required by the business, without impacting those services around the whole enterprise system at large.

Domain-driven design: Often the real complexity in software is not the technology, but rather the ambiguous, circular, contradicting models that SMEs sort out in their heads on the fly. Humans can understand models given some context. These models and the context must be built-into the software to help users to be productive.

Consumer contract driven design: The relationship between service providers and service consumers is based upon a contract. There is an agreed-upon exchange that provides value to both. As autonomous services are built, service providers must avoid the mindset to put obligations on other teams and services that are out of their control or ownership. Instead, they should focus on meeting promises with service consumers gracefully and innovatively.

Design with the purpose in mind as one size does not fit all: It is essential to understand that distributed architectures (e.g., microservices architecture) that support agility, come with their own drawbacks. These architectures are optimized for problems that require the ability to change quickly. It may become difficult to understand the system holistically and may be substantially harder to debug problems.

Design with portability in mind so that the applications can simultaneously be hosted internally and public cloud platforms. Designing architecture based on loosely coupled microservices and multiple small APIs for faster integration into different internal or external systems as this is more accessible than dealing with single monolithic API.

D. Cross-functional Team: Below are some of the team members that are utilized across all projects, and often their contributions are undermined.

UX/UI team

Agile coach/scrum master

DevOps teams (some enterprises call them the Release Management Team)

Cybersecurity ninja’s

E. Identify the Skill Requirements and Provide Pro-active Training where gaps are found. The following approaches are recommended.

Partner with training institutes for crucial technology skills training

On-demand online training subscriptions

Hackathon culture or in-house coding challenges

Budget for technology conference visits with training sessions

Partner with the right companies to help with on-demand, pay-per-use, and staff augmentation

F. Agile Scrum or Kanban Methodology for overall execution: Evaluate the right agile methodologies that will work for the IT project.

o Agile Scrum helps to deliver time-boxed features. This might be useful particularly in projects which are somewhat “from scratch.”

o Kanban is famous for incremental improvements. If the IT project sounds like a modernization or migration, then Kanban might be a good fit.

G. Lean Software Approach: This might be useful in building Minimum Marketable Product (MMP). Keep the focus on identifying and developing the “MMP” features and then fine-tune the features (through user feedback) as the development progresses.

Clear Objectives: Quickly introduce features that matter most to the users and onboard them sooner. Do not stop learning the users’ behavior as requirements keep evolving. Some hints for successful user testing process:

Identify those users who are receptive and motivated to provide the feedback.

Develop a reward mechanism to motivate the users to provide feedback.

If applicable use an A/B Testing paradigm. UX/UI focused projects can greatly benefit with this approach.

Step 3 Outcome: The focus of this phase is to ship the solution to market as fast as possible to hasten ROI realization. If the desired ROI is not achieved, then probably evaluate if the project can be terminated and move on to the next.

The infographic below shows the before and after stages of digital transformation related to a Marketing Automation project.

The client was using generic marketing and promotion campaigns which were not reaching the target audience. Therefore, the client failed to meet their customer’s expectations. By using big data and analytics, we helped the client run campaigns to target a specific audience with specific information. Numerous studies were conducted that using big data and analytics of the campaign, efforts proved the effectiveness of up to 350% and generated up to 60% more revenue.

The Genesys omnichannel Engagement Center study by Forrester Consulting further proves that omnichannel engagement leads to better customer service, enhanced profitability and increased ROI. Benefits of $37 million over five years versus implementation costs of $14 million, resulting in a net present value (NPV) of over $22.8 million.

Step 4. Optimize & Enhance

A successful implementation is often attributed to factors such as “high adoption of the product,” or “providing the desired output,” or by measuring “happy customers,” or other similar approaches.

To achieve these outcomes, the focus should always be time-to-market, constant user feedback, and testing during the development cycles. However, what often gets left out is the opportunity for optimization. Therefore, it’s important to look at various ways of optimizing the project further after the initial delivery. Optimization is often a focus on cost savings (“reducing the financial spend” or “reduce manual workforce”) and to increase overall agility (“Increasing responsiveness”) for the delivered IT project. Technology, process, and culture play a vital role in the optimization and enhancement phase. Below are some ideas to implement these concepts.

A. Automation and DevOps: This area increases cost savings and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO.) Part of being agile involves building a robust delivery pipeline so IT projects / products can be delivered continuously and reliably.

B. Cloud Usage Optimization: Most IT projects today are delivered are software as a service (SaaS) and leverage public cloud platforms. Initial architecture design favors the design decisions towards easy to use infrastructure services rather than optimized infrastructure usage. There are various strategies such as “containerization” and “auto-scale feature implementation” that will ensure the resources used are minimum and yet enough to handle the current load. This could lead to significant cost savings.

Test Automation: Post implementation, there is generally a ramp down of the IT project team, and a small group is retained for bug fixes, enhancements, and testing. Test engineers are required to do the regression testing to ensure the quality of the released application. Using test automation strategies and tools, the IT team can be reduced significantly. Establishing test automation takes time, but breakeven could be achieved in a few months rather than over a more extended period, resulting in cost savings. Test automation should not be an afterthought. It should be put in place up front as solutions are built following any methodologies (Agile, DSDM Atern, Waterfall, etc.) during Step 3.

C. Kanban Dashboards Ensures Service Level Agreement (SLA) culture: Kanban is a recommended approach for continuous improvement. Having a Kanban Dashboard, the flow of improvement tasks can be tracked and ensured for completion. They help establish and track SLA’s which guarantees the people on various tasks are held accountable.

D. Microservices Speed Up the Release of Software: Breaking application into smaller apps which are independent, yet can talk to each other, can make the application maintainable. Small or significant enhancements to applications result impacting the entire application causing more extensive testing or alter release time. By having smaller independent apps, the effect of a change is reduced inevitably, hence faster release of the software.

Optimization is a phase in which the ROI, which has started to become visible at the end of the implementation phase, is now examined for additional ways to further increase. CxO’s and shareholders focus on ROI continually. This needs to be part of every project and implementation.

Step 4 Outcome: Cost reduction, reduced time-to-market, increased adoption of IT and products by employees, partners, customers, and vendors. Simplification and reduction of steps by streamlining business processes.

Step 5. “+ 1” - Consider Communication for Creating Cultural Buy-In

The right amount of Information should be communicated at the right time, to the right audience. This applies to both employees and partners (internally) and customers and vendors (externally.)

Culture: How to create and address culture inside each department and team members, so they understand and adapt to the changes faster? It’s vital to decide when to communicate, what to talk and the appropriate audience. The steps below are a few examples that are proven to be effective:

Initial discussions with the core team (digital transformation commitment team)

Conversations with the internal digital transformation extended team

Interactions with external partners, suppliers, vendors, and customers

To build confidence, these types of communications are vital. The message must be that “there is a new way of doing things.” This will initially cause confusion or inconvenience. However, the results will be more user-friendliness and generally an improved working environment. Leadership should communicate that the pain associated with adopting the new culture or changing the way of doing things is temporary. If the results of transformation are achieved, the future will be more productive for all.

The best results for experimentation comes with agility. Leadership should communicate that the change in culture is required to achieve digital transformation. Every employee and department should be aligned with the initiatives and adopt agility and lean mindset.

Step 5. Outcome: The IT staff will start to view themselves as business strategists using pretotyping techniques, agility mindset to build digital products that achieve profitability for the company and supporting the C suite more closely. Business and IT will start working more closely to accomplish the company vision, mission, and goals. The entire company, partners, and vendors will become better oriented towards realizing company goals and better serve the stakeholders they support.

Conclusion:

For companies that get the business fundamentals of digital transformation right, they will not only improve their odds of survival, but also excel in driving profitability by penetrating new markets, providing optimized customer service and increasing revenue. Digital transformation is a journey requiring strategy, agility, and perseverance. Outcomes will vary, but through collaboration, communication and employing iterative methodologies contained in the Medha™ framework, leaders can build enterprises using innovation and digital solutions that can take them to the next level of success and profitability.

----------------------------

If you have found this article helpful, the tactics listed in the related article titled “Results Oriented Digital Transformation: Overcoming 6 Pitfalls”, initially published in November 2016, may also be helpful additional reading.

Bala’s expertise and two-plus decades of experience include broad IT innovation, strategy, project management, product development, cybersecurity, P&L, and corporate development. He supports strategic decision making around “partner”, “buy” or “build” decisions, enabling business strategies. His success is driven by his passion for creative problem solving, design thinking, implementation of agile methodologies, ability to build partnerships with onsite and offshore third-party providers.

Thank you to Steve K. Snyder, [email protected]; CEO and Founder of Third Meadow, LLC, a corporate growth consulting firm, for his contributions to this article.

Bala Guntipalli

[email protected]; 612 322 2470

Forrester Consulting, Gartner and McKinsey are registered trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc., Gartner Inc. and Mckinsey & Company respectively.

1. Neville, Laurence. “THE TAKING THE LONG VIEW: Crises Demand Attention, But So Do Long-Term Trends.” Global Finance, vol. 30, no. 4, Global Finance Media Inc., Apr. 2016, p. 8.

2. From disrupted to disruptor: Reinventing your business by transforming the core; Peter Dahlström, Liz Ericson, Somesh Khanna, and Jürgen Meffert; February 2017; McKinsey & Company;

3. Technology Service Providers Must Implement a Bimodal Road Map or Risk Being Left Behind;

April 4 2016, Gartner, Inc.

4. Technology Service Providers Must Implement a Bimodal Roadmap or Risk Irrelevance and

Decline; Published: 7 December 2015 | Refreshed: 4 April 2017, Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates

5. Results Oriented Digital Transformation: Overcoming 6 Pitfalls; Bala Guntipalli, Author / Sr. VP-Technology and Operations; November 2016, TechVelocityPartners.com

6 The Total Economic Impact™ Of The Genesys Omnichannel Engagement Center Solution

A Multi-Company Cost Savings and Business Value Analysis for Enterprises; Commissioned by Genesys in February 2016, and study conducted by Forrester Research, Inc.

7 Results Oriented Digital Transformation: Overcoming 6 Pitfalls; Bala Guntipalli, Author / Sr. VP-Technology and Operations; November 2016, Singular Technology Group LLC, SingularTG.com

#Digital Transformation #Digitalization #Business Disruption #bala guntipalli

Infographics related to: Team, Scrum Master and Product Owner by - Bala Guntipalli

Bala Guntipalli - Digitalization Management Consultant

Team Builder. Engage. Execute. Customer-Focused. Profitability.

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

Are you confident that your IT advisors are helping you exceed your business goals?

Are you satisfied in the way your company calculates ROIT (return on IT spend)?

Are you sure when a new product or service is developed, the TCO (Total cost of ownership) is reduced, and the ROIT is improved?

Are you prepared to accelerate the business success by transforming into an omnichannel digital enterprise, for a better long-term marketplace position?

I am a unique business-minded IT professional...and a technology-minded business strategist to advance projects and initiatives with an out of the box approach… I have observed that some IT departments view their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead.)

I focus on: 1) Acquiring/developing cost-effective, business-appropriate technology, and

2) Using IT as a means to attract, keep, engage employees and customers... while generating sales, increasing profitability and satisfied customers guided by the "Rotary 4-way test."

1. As part of the rebranding and growth strategy at TVP, developed materials to approach corporate growth and marketing agencies. Interviewed, negotiated and selected the agency. Responsible for executing several projects, delivering multiple portals and printed corporate materials, and provided omnichannel customer engagement platforms aligned with the corporate strategy.

2. Healthcare client: Designed C-suite business dashboards, analysis to improve operations in 6 clinics.

3. Independent Software Vendor (ISV) serving the State Departments of Corrections across the USA. Helped in the development of case plans, assessment, and collaboration software.

Below are (partial) lists of completed projects, industries served and relevant certifications:

Digital Transformation Projects:

Agile Product Engineering

Business Process Automation

Corporate Growth Portals

Efficient Vendor Management; ERP

Social Media Strategies; Automation

Quality Assurance; Cybersecurity

Risk Governance / IT Compliance

Business Continuity Management

Industry:

Automotive

Banking

Finance

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Retail and Media

Pharmaceuticals

Real Estate

High Tech

Relevant Certifications:

Security Assessment & Testing

IT Governance and Management

Certified Scrum Master

Microsoft Corporation:

MS Certified Solution Developer–MCSD

IBM Corporation:

Principal Certified Professional

Certified Product Specialist

IBM Domino Server Administrator

Linkedin.com/in/bala-guntipalli-mba/; 612 322 2470; [email protected]; BalaGuntipalli.com

#Team #ScrumMaster #Product Owner #Bala Guntipalli

Contribution of TEAM - Across SCRUM (Cross Functional Teams) - Infographic by Bala Guntipalli

Digital Transformation Expert with unique business strategy capabilities. Able to quickly walk in the customer's customer shoes to advance initiatives and solve the hardest problems with a creative approach based on 25 years of business experience and information technology.

My observation is that some IT departments:

1) Seek to acquire or implement state-of-the-art technology/apps without fully considering the holistic needs and benefit-cost analysis.

2) View their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead).

In contrast, as an executive leader I emphasize:

1) Acquiring cost-effective, business-appropriate resources to achieve transformation goals.

2) Using IT as a means to obtain, retain and engage customers... generating sales and satisfied customers.

Bala Guntipalli’s passions and expertise are in digital transformation, agile software methodologies, cybersecurity and management. My consulting experience and accomplishments have been mastered with 4 full time employers, 60 + clients and 200+ projects from 15+ countries. Working closely with business leadership, I have managed technologists and support staff, both onshore and offshore, moving beyond order taking to enhance the product/offering with order shaping to bring C-suite’s vision and goals to reality.

My education includes being a student of Harvard University, University of St. Thomas (MN), Madurai University & The Indian Institute of Technology in Cybersecurity: Managing Risk in the Information Age, Mini MBA in Healthcare, MBA, and Yearlong Intense course in IT. A recognized public speaker, moderator, an executive leader, a global IT sourcing company with 450 employees to support with my clients’ large emergency needs. I am enthusiastic in helping companies that want to digitally transform, providing efficient, cost-effective services - promoting success.

I embrace emerging technologies quickly, understanding the vital need to pivot, innovate, and disrupt —proven skills in Agile, Innovation, Pretotyping, IT Enabling, Partnerships, Proper-Outsourcing: Onsite/Offshore, Design Thinking, Problem Solving and go-to-market strategies. My thinking and planning includes both short-term needs and long-term objectives. Managed cross-cultural teams globally, giving 24 hr. coverage, and moving forward efficiently.

My work is guided by the “Rotary 4 Way Test,” which emphasizes the importance of truth, fairness, good will, and benefitting to all concerned.

Digital Transformation Expertise: Agile Product Engineering, Business Process Automation, Quality Assurance and CRM , Efficient Vendor Management, Social Media Strategy and Marketing Automation, Cybersecurity, Risk Governance / IT Compliance, Business Continuity Management

Industries: Automotive, Banking, Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail and Media Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, High Tech

Certifications: Security Assessment & Testing, IT Governance and Management, Certified Scrum Master Microsoft Corporation: Microsoft Certified Solution Developer – MCSD IBM Corporation: Principal Certified Professional, Certified Product Specialist, Server Administrator

If you would like to solve business problems cost-effectively or to grow your business efficiently, let's talk. I would be delighted to partner with you to increase the velocity and accelerate your business success.

Sincerely,

Bala Guntipalli / 612-322-2470 / [email protected], [email protected]

#ContributionofTEAMacrossSCRUM TEAMContribution Scrum DigitalTransformation

Release Planning Meeting Not Included in Scrum But it is Practiced Widely - Bala Guntipall

My observation is that some IT departments:

1) Seek to acquire or implement state-of-the-art technology/apps without fully considering the holistic needs and benefit-cost analysis.

2) View their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead).

In contrast, as an executive leader I emphasize:

1) Acquiring cost-effective, business-appropriate resources to achieve transformation goals.

2) Using IT as a means to obtain, retain and engage customers... generating sales and satisfied customers.

My education includes being a student of Harvard University, University of St. Thomas (MN) & The Indian Institute of Technology in Cybersecurity: Managing Risk in the Information Age, Mini MBA in Healthcare, and Yearlong Intense course in IT. A recognized public speaker, moderator, an executive leader, a global IT sourcing company with 450 employees to support with my clients’ large emergency needs. I am enthusiastic in helping companies that want to digitally transform, providing efficient, cost-effective services - promoting success.

My work is guided by the “Rotary 4 Way Test,” which emphasizes the importance of truth, fairness, good will, and benefiting to all concerned.

Industries: Automotive, Banking, Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail and Media Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, High Tech

Sincerely,

Bala Guntipalli / 612-322-2470 / [email protected]

#ReleasePlanning Scrum DigitalTransformation

Roles of Scrum - Infographic by Bala Guntipalli

My observation is that some IT departments:

1) Seek to acquire or implement state-of-the-art technology/apps without fully considering the holistic needs and benefit-cost analysis.

2) View their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead).

In contrast, as an executive leader I emphasize:

1) Acquiring cost-effective, business-appropriate resources to achieve transformation goals.

2) Using IT as a means to obtain, retain and engage customers... generating sales and satisfied customers.

My work is guided by the “Rotary 4 Way Test,” which emphasizes the importance of truth, fairness, good will, and benefitting to all concerned.

Industries: Automotive, Banking, Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail and Media Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, High Tech

Sincerely,

Bala Guntipalli / 612-322-2470 / [email protected]

#Digitaltransformation ScrumRoles

Digital Transformation Expert with unique business strategy capabilities. Able to quickly walk in the customer's customer shoes to advance initiatives

My observation is that some IT departments:

1) Seek to acquire or implement state-of-the-art technology/apps without fully considering the holistic needs and benefit-cost analysis.

2) View their role as supporting the objectives of a cost center (overhead).

In contrast, as an executive leader I emphasize:

1) Acquiring cost-effective, business-appropriate resources to achieve transformation goals.

2) Using IT as a means to obtain, retain and engage customers... generating sales and satisfied customers.

My work is guided by the “Rotary 4 Way Test,” which emphasizes the importance of truth, fairness, good will, and benefiting to all concerned.

Industries: Automotive, Banking, Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail and Media Pharmaceuticals, Real Estate, High Tech

Sincerely,

Bala Guntipalli / 612-322-2470 / [email protected]

#Digitaltransformation sprintplanning sprintplanningchecklist

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