For an organization to stand up to its competition and continue growing – they have to keep up to various technological trends and advancements unfurled in their realm.
There are very many technological trends that are shaping and fashioning the Canadian techno sphere which are affecting business operations. Until and unless businesses take notice and put in corrective action the aftermath could be adverse.
We have taken 3 major technological trends into consideration that would have long standing repercussions and detrimental effects on businesses if they do not opt for remedial steps.
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GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
Even though GDPR birthed a year ago, not many small and medium-sized firms have taken corrective steps. This could entail them to possible punitive action such as potential fines and penalties. It is imperative that Canadian firms must operate in compliance to the European Union’s privacy legislation, the GDPR to prevent a fiasco.
GDPR asserts that data collated has to be stored in anonymous fashion to safeguard the interests/privacy of individuals. Nevertheless not all firms would have the capital or wherewithal to engage in such technology. Not only that, various departments must engage with each other to ensure that the business operates within the ambit of set regulations.
To ensure that privacy and protection is maintained, firms would have to incorporate fresh policies and procedures to go with the flow of the newly laid statutes. This could have a detrimental effect such as data collated would not be in their ambit now to be mined to take profitable business decisions.
Few corrective actions that can be initiated could be:
- To ensure protection of all Personal Identifiable Information (PII), firms should allocate security controls to maintain safety and unauthorised access of records. There should be implicit identification of the location of information.
- The seriousness of the procedure should be fathomed and steps should be taken to make policies and procedures compliant with the regulation. Audits need to be initiated to ensure controls are in place and in line with the statutes.
- It’s primal to ensure documentation to enhance accountability of third parties and contractors with regard to access to data.
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Technological Trends & Digital transformation
The evolution of purchases has not only affected some spheres but all, including IT purchases. Digital transformation considered as IT’s baby is now being proffered to non-tech leaders who are fervent on modernizing their domain. Digital transformation is the heightened interrelationship between crew, processes and technology of an organization.
Products and services that help solve crucial business concerns and constraints must be brought to light among the business leadership community by Tech firms. Thereby demonstrating recognized ROI and case studies so as to enunciate the value of imbibed technology. Therefore the paradigm shift from IT department to non-tech leaders is a part of the digital transformation. Software as a service (SaaS) solutions has driven this by unparalleled simplicity and accessibility.
Digital transformation does not entail humongous or unnecessary investment, thus small and medium businesses can imbibe / scale efficiently, quickly and purposefully. This further has marked consolidations to customer retention and loyalty as consumers are more digitally inclined and knowledgeable than ever before.
Digital transformation can be made effective by inculcating ideas such as:
- Have short-term markers to achieve long-term objectives. Taking short steps to infuse technological trends is considered the optimal approach as this would entail better monitoring and steering in the case of minor corrections at any particular stage.
- To align business strategies the change must always begin as a top to down approach which is far more productive. Hence senior executives must lead the transformation.
- A SWOT analysis is rudimentary to fathom your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in an organized list. This is imperative to understand how to go about making the transformation successful.
AI and Cyber-security
AI will aid businesses to cut down costs and enhance efficacy. But AI entails higher investments to infuse cyber-security.
Industry experts and technological trends predict that cyber-security will be vital to drive growth of US firms this year in the light of new data privacy regulations and cyber issues.
Artificial intelligence (AI) will become prevalent in the world of cyber-security both in terms of fortifying protection and in propagating it. AI is a double edged sword that has the potential of being utilized on both sides of the cyber battlefield.
Data deception technology enabled by AI cyber solutions can aid firms defend themselves by automating attack detection and response. This can confound attackers effectively. But AI also aids cyber-criminals by providing automated hacks that imbibe target’s vulnerabilities over time.
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AI systems are trained with data and the pace of machine learning will indicate the winner. Each side procures new data-sets of both malicious and non-malicious codes to learn from it.
AI can help unauthorized access of social media sites to mine personal information, that is utilized for phishing attacks. Emails can be easily modified and this could result in confidential data disclosure. AI can increase the resistance of a system having attacks, which could in fact result in further attacks. Incidents may go undetected due to lack of human intervention.
AI has considerable clout to gain the status of an impartial security solution and firms should:
- Ensure cyber-security professionals test systems and networks for vulnerabilities and fix them preemptively.
- Include firewalls, malware scanners, encrypt organizational data and set alerts for outgoing data.
- Work with cyber-security professionals and create recovery policies.
- Conduct audits of hardware and software to monitor systems.
After an Engineering degree and a Diploma in Management I devoted 16+ years working in the automotive industry. My innate skill and extreme passion in writing, encouraged me to adopt it up as a profession. I have been writing for more than 10+ years in the software industry. The 400+ blogs I published are informative, exhaustive and interesting to a professional and causal reader.
