THE CXO S GUIDE TO MANAGING EXPANSION... WHILE CONTROLLING COSTS & COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS

Transcription

1 THE CXO S GUIDE TO MANAGING EXPANSION... WHILE CONTROLLING COSTS & COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS

2 The CXO s Guide to Managing Expansion While Controlling Costs & Compliance Considerations 2 45% OF IT PROFESSIONALS REPORT THAT THEIR BUSINESS IS IMPACTED IF IT IS DOWN FOR JUST As an executive at a rapidly growing firm, you must take many factors into account when planning for business growth and IT considerations should be among them. While IT is not always top-of-mind when developing expansion plans, appropriate deployment of technology is essential to support business growth. Assessing the capacity of your current technology and planning necessary changes in each of the five key areas on the following pages will help enable successful expansion while controlling costs and addressing security compliance requirements. BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING ENTERPRISE SERVICES DELIVER 15 MINUTES OR LESS. 1 Without a continuity plan in place, unexpected events COST-EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ranging from natural disasters and power outages to cyberattacks can bring business to a halt. Forty-five A rapidly growing airline sought to control costs percent of IT professionals report that their business is while improving its customer service experience. impacted if IT is down for just 15 minutes or less; 17% say Using Verizon s enterprise-class cloud-based business is disrupted the moment an IT outage begins. 1 infrastructure-as-a-service, managed security, Downtime not only causes short-term loss of revenues, advanced communications solutions, mobility but also can irreparably damage your business reputation, networks and professional services, the airline has eroding the trust of customers, partners and vendors. Seek a solutions provider that offers wireless redundancy, secure remote backup and restore services, managed storage and resilient network-attached storage (NAS) to protect mission-critical data, as well as storage capacity adequate to support planned growth. Implement network-embedded applications, cloud-based solutions and hosted phone systems to keep your business up and running during unforeseen events. Consult with continuity consulting and management experts who can help you develop a robust plan for continuity and disaster recovery, implement solutions and monitor results. been able to support its targets for growth, manage costs and deliver a world-class customer experience.

3 The CXO s Guide to Managing Expansion While Controlling Costs & Compliance Considerations 3 69% OF CONSUMERS ARE LESS INCLINED TO DO BUSINESS WITH AN ORGANIZATION WHOSE DATA HAS BEEN BREACHED. 4 PROTECTING AGAINST SECURITY BREACHES As your business expands to new locations nationally and globally, its exposure to security risks increases exponentially. The effect of security breaches on a growing company can be financially devastating. Some 59% of companies that experience a data breach face the possibility of litigation; 33% face fines and 32% experience a decline in share value. 2 Beyond the financial fallout, a data breach can destroy a brand s reputation. Consumers have named data breaches as the single biggest factor that would hurt their opinion of a brand; in fact, they say a data breach is even more damaging to a firm than causing a natural disaster. 3 Sixtynine percent of consumers are less inclined to do business with an organization whose data has been breached. 4 When it comes to security, growing companies must be proactive rather than reactive. Develop security strategies that leverage existing assets to contain costs, but pull in outside expertise to fill the gaps. Enlist a solutions provider that has access to the latest threat and vulnerability intelligence, as well as the security expertise you need to help defend your business. Employ managed and professional services to control costs and get help from experts with up-to-date knowledge of evolving security issues. Work with your provider to update your security strategies as your business grows. SECURE ACCESS DRIVES PRODUCTIVITY A leading automotive aftermarket retailer wanted to give both remote and on-site employees secure access to store and inventory data from any location at any time. By implementing a cloud-based Verizon infrastructure, the company improved security, deflected threats, maintained business continuity and secured its data, while providing employees with the access they needed to improve productivity and grow the business.

4 The CXO s Guide to Managing Expansion While Controlling Costs & Compliance Considerations 4 TRANSFORMING IT FROM CAPEX TO OPEX PROVIDES GREATER FLEXIBILITY FOR BUSINESS UNITS. REDUCING CAPEX TO OPEX For today s growing organizations, IT operations must become a business growth enabler, not a cost center. But how can a growing company consolidate and standardize its operations and deliver flexible IT services while remaining within a tight budget? U.S. companies are spending 69% of their IT budgets on maintenance and capacity replacement rather than new projects. 5 How to support rapid growth on a static or declining budget is a conundrum faced by CFOs and CIOs alike. The good news is that investments in technology and innovation no longer require large capital expenditures. Thanks to infrastructure-as-a-service and software-as-aservice models, growth solutions can now be implemented quickly and financed creatively. Transforming IT from CAPEX to OPEX provides greater flexibility for business units, as obtaining approval for operating expenditures often requires jumping through fewer hoops. It also enables innovation, as money that would otherwise be used to keep an aging IT infrastructure up and running can be used more productively for new projects. Last, but not least, it allows IT departments to take more risks. If cloud-based solutions don t work out, changing course has fewer financial consequences than shuttering projects that involve costly hardware investments. Investigate how data center services, cloud services and storage; managed network and security services; and hosted phone systems and professional services can help you shift IT projects from CAPEX to OPEX. Look for solutions that allow you to pay only for the technology you use rather than investing in costly hardware that goes unused. Use the IT budgets and resources saved to develop and deploy innovative solutions that will grow your business. OUTSOURCED INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANDS GLOBAL REACH A global retail florist struggled to deliver new services, control costs and leverage its existing investments in mainframe platforms. With Verizon Cloud and a phased approach to simplifying those existing platforms, the specialty retailer was able to embrace big data, social media and virtual computing to control operational expenses throughout seasonal ebbs and flows. The outsourced infrastructure provided a costeffective method of expanding the company s global reach with expedited same-day delivery and a stronger competitive position.

5 The CXO s Guide to Managing Expansion While Controlling Costs & Compliance Considerations 5 IDC ESTIMATES THE NUMBER OF MOBILE WORKERS WORLDWIDE WILL REACH 1.3 BILLION THIS YEAR. 6 SUPPORTING REMOTE STAFFING Remote work is a growing trend at companies of all sizes and it s here to stay. IDC estimates the number of mobile workers worldwide will reach 1.3 billion this year. 6 For growing companies, the challenges of remote staffing go beyond supporting the IT needs of home-based or mobile workers locally. Companies expanding nationally or globally must unify geographically dispersed teams, often on a worldwide scale. Businesses in rapid growth mode must efficiently incorporate teams brought on as a result of mergers, consolidations or acquisitions, which typically involves integrating disparate teams and IT systems. Remote, geographically distributed and/or mobile workforces create unique burdens. Employees require always on access to applications, data and communication/collaboration tools in order to improve productivity. New employees must be onboarded quickly and become productive immediately. Employees in farflung locations must be connected 24/7, able to share data and collaborate in real-time without compromising security. Networks and storage must support additional data and applications. All of this must be accomplished while closely monitoring costs. Look for solutions that unify and secure communications, including , voice, unified messaging, video conferencing and web conferencing, so your remote and mobile workforce can communicate and collaborate efficiently and securely. Consider implementing a virtual or hosted call center to maintain a consistent customer service experience. Use professional and managed services to cut costs and free up in-house IT resources to focus on projects that drive business growth. MANAGED NETWORK CONNECTS GLOBAL EMPLOYEES A midmarket developer of software for the health industry was expanding rapidly, acquiring a leading company in its industry. To position itself for growth, the company needed a world-class, secure global managed network to connect a workforce dispersed over multiple continents. Verizon implemented a fully managed, integrated WAN, enabling geographically dispersed teams to seamlessly perform day-to-day operations in 36 locations worldwide. By eliminating multiple service providers, the company gained better control of communications costs. Verizon network services and unified communications transformed a wideranging workforce into a unified team.

6 The CXO s Guide to Managing Expansion While Controlling Costs & Compliance Considerations 6 NEARLY 80% OF ALL BUSINESSES FAIL THEIR INTERIM PAYMENT CARD INDUSTRY (PCI) COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT, LEAVING THEM VULNERABLE TO DATA BREACHES. 7 RISK MANAGEMENT/REDUNDANCY Risk management is an integral part of strategic planning for any growing business. By identifying, assessing and prioritizing potential risks, you can plan cost-effective strategies to monitor and significantly reduce them. Today, risk management is closely aligned with data security, and failing to meet compliance standards exposes your business to multiple risks. For example, nearly 80% of all businesses fail their interim Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance assessment, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches. In fact, of all payment card breaches investigated by Verizon in the past 10 years, not one of the companies was compliant with PCI DSS standards at the time of the breach. 7 As your company expands, introduces new product or service lines, or targets new markets, compliance becomes increasingly difficult. Your organization must keep abreast of evolving security regulations, sort out overlapping standards and understand different authorities varying interpretations of compliance. CIOs and CSOs must work closely with other C-level executives to assess the most likely risks and develop plans for mitigating them. But risk management is about more than just prevention. There is an often-overlooked opportunity to turn risk management into a business advantage. Forward-thinking planning can help your business not only meet security compliance guidelines, but also promotes and publicizes its commitment to security. This demonstrates leadership to customers, partners and other stakeholders, building trust and enhancing your organization s reputation. Enlist a partner with wide-ranging expertise in risk assessment. They can help you identify the risks that are the highest priority for your industry and business, and control costs by focusing your efforts in the areas where risk mitigation is most critical. Look for a company that provides security program management, support for PCI and other regulatory compliance requirements, vulnerability assessments and application vulnerability scanning to help you develop a comprehensive risk management plan aligned with business goals. Document and promote your business s commitment to security in order to transform risk management into a business differentiator. REDUNDANT SOLUTIONS As a business grows, maintaining business continuity becomes more vital, yet more complex for the CIO. Combining on-site data backup with secure, encrypted transmission to remote storage provides data security while enhancing efficiency and reliability. On-site storage enables local restores, helping to control costs and reduce downtime. For added security, look for a provider that can store your data in multiple offsite locations. Solutions that offer multiple storage tiers and data deduplication provide cost efficiencies to keep your CFO happy, too.

7 As you plan for business expansion, IT concerns may not be top-of-mind but unless they are taken into account, these issues can severely hamper business growth. Explore ways in which deploying the proper IT solutions can support your organization s business continuity, security, remote staffing and risk management. Planning ahead to foresee and manage increasing IT needs as the company grows will help streamline and speed your organization s expansion. Download our interactive infographic, Are You Ready For Expansion?, to learn how to prepare your network and IT infrastructure for expansion. To learn more about how technology can help you grow your business, contact a Verizon representative at [email protected]. Sources 1 xmatters, Business Impact of IT Incident Communications: A Global Survey of IT Professionals, xmatters-2015-survey-report.pdf 2 Scott & Scott, LLP, The Business Impact of Data Breach, 3 Experian, The Aftermath of a Mega Data Breach: Consumer Sentiment, 4 Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report, 5 Forrester Research, Create an Infrastructure and Operational Transformation Road Map, July 2014, Create+An+Infrastructure+And+Operations+Transformation+Road+Map/fulltext/-/E-RES IDC, Worldwide Mobile Worker Population Forecast Doc #232073, December Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report, verizonenterprise.com 2015 Verizon. All Rights Reserved. The Verizon name and logo and all other names, logos, and slogans identifying Verizon s products and services are trademarks and service marks or registered trademarks and service marks of Verizon Trademark Services LLC or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. June 23, :15 PM