As the payments landscape evolves, financial institutions and other organizations must strive to stay consumer-centric and competitive.

The payments industry is currently undergoing significant disruption. Financial institutions, fintechs, and other organizations are all competing to keep up with customer expectations and to make payments faster, easier, and more convenient. This requires core infrastructure transformation, new product innovation, and adhering to the new regulations and legislations popping up to accommodate the industry’s transformation. Payments modernization has never been more important or diverse in strategic opportunity, choice for participation, and positioning organizations for the future.

Industry-wide disruption

“If you look back 10 or more years, the payments experience was characterized by quite a bit of friction for the end-user,” says Geoff Rush, Partner and National Industry Leader of Financial Services at KPMG in Canada, a leader in financial and payments services. “It took a lot of effort to complete a payment and often a lot of time for it to clear. What we’re seeing now is a lot of innovation to take that friction out of the process.”

Higher customer expectations are driving the trend. “Customers are expecting more on the service level, which includes the cost, efficiency, and visibility of their payments,” says Edwin Isted, Senior Manager at KPMG in Canada. And the non-traditional entrants into the payments ecosystem, big tech or fintechs, are shaking up the ecosystem significantly, forcing incumbent financial institutions to evolve and innovate.

Full-service payments support 

With organizations striving to meet customer expectations, stay competitive, and future-proof their businesses, they’re also now having to contend with new regulations and legislative changes around payment service providers, new digital currencies like crypto, and other disruptions. These compounding factors are driving an accelerated pace of innovation in payments, says Rush. That’s where KPMG comes in.

“We’re one of Canada’s largest professional services providers,” says Rush. “We’re well-known for our advisory, technology, and analytical services.”

Included in KPMG’s financial services management consulting business is its payments practice, which helps organizations manage risk, enhance regulatory compliance, optimize customer and digital strategies, and improve operations.

“Our payments team is industry-agnostic,” says Cody Greer, Senior Manager at KPMG in Canada. “We help both traditional payment clients — such as wholesale banks, commercial banks, investment banks, retail banks, central banks, card associations, and payment market infrastructures — as well as non-financial institutions like retailers, technology companies, fintechs, transit providers, and governments with payments transformation.

Embracing open banking

“One of the trends we’ve seen and which the Canadian market is about to embark on is open banking,” says Isted. Open banking refers to banking that provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). 

“Open banking is very interesting because we’ve seen a variety of models to enable it,” says Isted. “On the one end of the spectrum, you’ve got a pure legislative requirements-driven approach, while on the other end, you’ve got a purely market forces driven approach,  and then you have something in the middle which is sort of a hybrid of both. Open banking isn’t just about payments. It’s a fundamental change to many organizations in terms of how they view their data assets internally.”

“This is again about reducing friction and making lives easier for the end-customer,” says Rush.

What really separates us is the calibre of our people on an individual level. We’re the friendly firm and not only do we bring really great insights and help our clients achieve great results, we’re also great people to work with, and that’s hard to replicate.

Encouraging innovation   

“Modernizing the Canadian payments infrastructure can have enormous benefits to all Canadians, and other countries are already there,” says Rush. “At the core, what we’re trying to do with open data sharing is to create a more innovative and competitive payments landscape.”

“Open banking and payments modernization aren’t separate things,” adds Isted. “They’re both bringing more efficiency, lower costs, and require greater integration than before.”

From enabling real-time payments for both businesses and consumers to increasing operational efficiencies and boosting revenue for financial institutions, there are many benefits to open banking and payments modernization.

Open banking adds complexity, however, which the Canadian market is currently grappling with. “There are things that need to be in place to enable open banking, such as the surety of the actors involved,” explains Paul Jackson, Director of Payments Modernization at KPMG in Canada. “Being able to verify their digital identity becomes key.”

“To put this in place therefore requires some massive changes — changes to regulation, changes to incumbent players, technology infrastructure and processes, and even education and changes to consumer behaviour,” says Rush. 

Prioritizing payments modernization   

Payments modernization is therefore a critical priority, and organizations must work quickly to evolve their payment models and core infrastructure, adopt digital channel experiences, and innovate.

“We focus on three primary areas: payments modernization, getting financial institutions ready for the SWIFT mandates around ISO compliance, and strategy around payments across multiple industries,” says Isted.

“The new international data standard (ISO 20022) and open banking aren’t small transformations that organizations can just plug into,” says Greer. “These often require years of planning, testing and execution to ensure that they are ready on time. And compliance is only one half of the journey. At the same time, they need to consider the competitive and customer impacts in their new reality.”

KPMG assists its clients with a broad range of services related to payments transformation, from payments strategy and implementation to process reviews, automation and digitization, payment products, market research, risk assessments, and more.

Leading the way 

For organizations looking to tackle these changes and thrive in the payments landscape of the future, turning to a leader in financial and payments services like KMPG is a smart move.

“As a national industry leader, we’ve got some extremely talented professionals who are very deep in their areas of expertise,” says Rush. “But what really separates us is the calibre of our people on an individual level. We’re the friendly firm and not only do we bring really great insights and help our clients achieve great results, we’re also great people to work with, and that’s hard to replicate.”

The post Embracing Payments Modernization and Open Banking Is Good for Business appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Cheryl McGrath

Area VP & Country General Manager, Optiv Canada

The art of balancing innovation and risk management in the world of IoT

As organizations continue to digitally transform, Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as cell phones, tablets, watches, refrigerators, medical devices, vehicles and many more, are becoming critical components to enable companies to act quickly on information to increase competitive advantages and operational efficiencies. 

The addition of these devices to IT environments allows for improved data utilization to better manage technology, increase output and reduce costs and downtime. However, the effort to utilize these new data sources significantly alters an organization’s threat landscape, opening up vulnerabilities that previously couldn’t be exploited. In many instances, network security is unable to detect IoT connections or provide visibility into the extent of an organization’s expanded threat landscape.

Organizational goals are often focused on accelerating time to market. As such, much of the attention and celebration goes to the developers and pioneers who create these IoT tools. In the rush to market, many companies’ security programs are not optimized or utilized at all.  

In conversation with Cheryl McGrath, Area VP & Country General Manager at Optiv, Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director of Digital Economy, of Technology & Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, takes a closer look at some of the key concerns around IoT security. As the discussion demonstrates, the importance of this issue is pressing, as the trail of technological innovation, especially over the last five years, has also served as a pathway for threat actors to target what they should go after next. 

The term IoT is increasingly being used, and yet, the risks of its real use and application aren’t necessarily well understood. How can this discrepancy be explained?

Companies are looking to unlock data from the next asset class to consume and monetize   —   and that’s IoT.  

The physical interface to digital systems is changing along with everything else. Developers have unlocked tools and gadgets for a wide range of applications   —   machines that don’t run off of regular user laptops or standard servers. Keyboards and mice are being replaced with voice commands and VR.  And that is just the beginning. The development of this is still in its infancy and is guaranteed to create vast issues for security teams during this evolution.  

For critical infrastructure, let’s face it   —   IoT devices control most of the physical world. Everything from the gas in the pumps to our cars, medical devices, the temperature in food processing plants and nuclear facilities. Devices that operate without standard operating procedures are everywhere. 

You can’t secure what you can’t see and most organizations don’t have complete visibility to all of the devices on their networks. If threat actors exploit these IoT vulnerabilities, it can be disastrous. Look at Log4j.

The physical interface to digital systems is changing along with everything else.

How will security be knitted into these new environments? 

These devices are becoming integrated into many new forms of data. For example, consider modern distribution centers, where product is moved from one side of a factory to another via conveyer belt. Once these facilities had just a few sensors used for measurements for the whole facility. Now, more than a hundred sensors are used   —   per foot. We’re livestreaming terabytes of data regarding destination, package shape and weight and much more, but not securing the system any differently. Some security teams are still assuming that one external firewall will secure the facility. Contrast this with the cathedrals of defense implemented on the IT side. The rate of data creation is outstripping our ability to use and secure it.

As we look ahead to the next three years, what should people and businesses be considering with regard to IoT?

There are “three wants” that need to be considered.

Uptime: Many facilities care more about the ability to operate than they do about security. We are replacing aged digital infrastructure with modem cloud networks. A shift of this scale requires people to change their mentality and that can sometimes be a big ask. We also know that people are often wary of new business practices, so that needs to be thought through and immediately actioned.

Digital tools: Think of something as ubiquitous as temperature controls. Many automation systems are trained and honed to regulate small bands of temperature constraints. This plays out in many environments in varying degrees of criticality, ranging from data centers to food storage. All of these facilities have their own digital record, which will need to be extracted, centralized and made tamper-proof.

Security: In many organizations, these new data paths and devices have not been fully monitored or assessed against company risk thresholds. It took us 15 years to secure the modern ATM. These new IoT devices can be larger and closer to more valuable data (yes, more valuable than an ATM full of cash). With information this valuable and technology this new and vulnerable, security and risk mitigation have to be at the forefront of all organizations.

What can companies do to mitigate IoT risks?  

To be proactive, businesses can: 

1. Tap into their production networks to identify all IoT-connected devices and identify the most vulnerable assets.  Then assess devices for vulnerabilities and mitigate outstanding security issues.

2. Understand security in relation to new IoT devices that an organization is looking to purchase and how they may affect their network.  Companies may want to hire a trusted security provider with IoT labs to test devices before they’re implemented on company networks. This is done in order to ensure third party devices aren’t erroneously capturing private data via back door portals and to test integrations with their other technologies end-to-end.

3. Adopt a policy-driven, risk framework based on the organization’s business needs. These policies should include a baseline platform for the development of automated vulnerability management and incident response solutions for IoT.

The post Transitioning from the Internet of Things to the Interconnectedness of Everything appeared first on HiveInnovates.

It is imperative that Canada develops a national strategy for IoT, in consultation with business, industry, policymakers, and academics. Canada cannot afford to stay behind in this sector, given the pervasiveness of the technology and the economic stakes.

The Internet of Things is the latest evolution of the “web”. In 1969 ARPAnet was born when a message was exchanged between the computers of two research teams at Stanford and at UCLA. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, as a network of HTML pages accessible through the HTTP protocol. These technologies launched a race, among existing bricks-and-mortar companies, to establish a “presence” on the Internet to advertise their products to a broader audience of potential clients. The mid-90s saw an explosion of eCommerce websites, eBay and Amazon being just two notable examples, selling products and services online without a real-world store. The launch of Facebook in 2004 brought about Web2.0, offering every individual on the planet the opportunity to connect with each other. The Internet of Things, first mentioned in 1999 to promote RFID technology,  is the natural evolution of this increasingly expanded “connectivity” and promises to seamlessly connect the physical world to the Internet, to enable the “sensing” the natural and built environment, the analysis of the collected data at the edge, where it is first collected and on the cloud where it is eventually aggregated, and the optimization of the activities and systems that impact them.

The Opportunity and The Challenge

IDC predicts that the value of the global IoT market will be 1T by 2022. Solid numbers on how much Canada will contribute to this economic activity are not available but unfortunately, there is some evidence that Canada may be lagging behind other countries in taking advantage of this family of technologies. In 2015, there were 363 million visible devices online with some 84 million recorded in China and 78 million in the US. When computing the number of online devices per 100 inhabitants, Canada does not make the list of the top 10 Countries. 

Use Cases for the Canadian Economy

The top five economic sectors in Canada, i.e., Real Estate, Manufacturing, Mining, Construction, and Health, can be substantially amplified by IoT. Modern buildings are equipped with sensors that monitor their indoor environment and building usage; this data can be used to fine-tune the HVAC systems’ parameters to improve comfort and reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs, amplifying the return on real-estate investment. IoT can optimize manufacturing processes through robotic control and automation; the reduction of manual effort and risk can boost productivity and quality. The mining and extraction industries have potentially the most to gain from IoT-enabled innovation: environmental sensing can help to precisely identify mining opportunities, and reduce environmental impacts. Construction projects often suffer from cost overruns that could be avoided if the progress of the work on construction sites was better monitored through cameras and sensors embedded in the machines and materials involved. Finally, health care costs could be reduced, and citizen health could be improved, if the variety of data emitted by the devices worn by consumers was analyzed and considered at the point of care.

Recommendation

It is imperative that Canada develops a national strategy for IoT, in consultation with business, industry, policymakers, and academics. This national strategy should include a framework (and incentives) for public-private partnerships to build the necessary IoT infrastructure and deliver demonstrator projects in all major sectors of the Canadian economy, including the Government itself. Canada cannot afford to stay behind in this sector, given the pervasiveness of the technology and the economic stakes.

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AI for business

The advances made in Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the past decade have transformed the world of business. New AI-powered consumer goods and services such as self-driving cars and smart homes are now available to the public. Both traditional business practices such as hiring processes and new business models such as Industry 4.0 all rely on AI as a cornerstone. And new career options, such as machine learning developer and data scientist, are available to AI specialists. A recent Accenture study shows that over 80% of Canadian businesses consider the adoption of AI as a necessity for growth and see failure to do so as a guarantee of bankruptcy; a number on par with international respondents.

Faced with this new reality, the Canadian government has acted resolutely to embrace AI and its applications to industry. Through new programs and increased funding, it has used its research organizations NSERC and MITACS to foster research collaborations between Canadian universities and industries. In addition, it appointed the research organisation CIFAR to lead its Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the world’s first national AI strategy, with one of its goals being to translate Canadian AI discoveries into real-world applications.

These actions have created a healthy AI ecosystem where universities and companies work together to create and market innovative ideas, and the benefits are being reaped by everyone in our country. The number of AI firms in Canada has increased exponentially over the past decade, and includes both major international players, such the new offices opened by Microsoft, Google and Facebook, as well as AI start-ups which are supported by unprecedented levels of funding. These new businesses create new career opportunities in AI and technology, and as a result the number of jobs in AI is increasing at twice the national average rate. University research labs also benefit from increased research funding and new research collaborations, which attract quality students (enrolment in computer science programs nationwide is nine times higher than the average post-secondary enrolment) and fosters a quality learning environment (three Canadian universities are among the top-25 for machine learning education worldwide). Nowhere is this symbiosis more visible than at the Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the annual meeting of university professors, graduate students, and industry researchers, where fundamental research breakthroughs and applied solutions to industrial problems are presented side by side.

AI and business for good

Of course, we should not talk about the rise of AI in business and industry without mentioning its darker consequence: the rise of algorithmic discrimination. Indeed, most AI systems learn from examples, and most examples come from human experiences or human decisions. This means that human biases and prejudices taint these examples and are learned by the AI systems. Those systems then naively repeat these prejudices and discriminate in their decisions based on them, negatively impacting both customers and companies.

But even in the face of this major complication, Canada has taken a leadership position. Canadian researchers wrote the Montreal Declaration for Responsible AI , which AI researchers here and internationally are encouraged to sign to commit to working on ethically-responsible AI projects. They also created the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI with the mission of maximizing the positive impacts of AI and technology. Research labs and individual researchers across our nation are increasingly incorporating societal impacts and ethical responsibility in their research programs and integrating them into the curriculum of AI courses. After taking the leadership in AI for business, Canada is now taking the leadership in AI and business for the good of humanity.

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David Kim

Partner & CEO

Massive Insights

The year is 2012 and big data is all the buzz. For many companies though, it is just that, a buzz word. Everyone has figured out that their data is an asset, and terms like data lake and cloud are being thrown around freely, but few have yet figured out how to actually navigate that landscape and unearth the value. The maps are still being drawn, and the early movers are operating out at the edges where the cartographer has penned: “here be dragons.” And David Kim has caught the explorer’s bug.

In 2012, Kim had already built himself a successful and stable career in direct and digital marketing. But he wanted to be on the frontier, writing the future of data. And so, with his business partner, Clarence Chow, and a shared dream, they took the leap and Massive Insights was born. “We started with clearing out the proverbial garage office,” says Kim. “We were coming from really comfy, cushy, steady jobs, where we were well paid and had some great clients. But we had this dream of creating a culture that truly provided real value back to clients. Ultimately, our hearts are in helping others create their own success stories for us to be a part of.”

Relationships matter, even in this highly technical world of ones and zeros, and bits and bytes. We always focus on the quality of work, but we never lose sight of the relationships we’re building along the way.

In those early days, when there was some uncertainty about the future of the data sector, a guide with the right instincts and sense of direction was of inestimable value. With a prescient understanding of the power of analytics and data visualizations, Massive Insights soon secured a reputation as one of the few trusted navigators in the wilds of big data analytics. And in a frontier environment, reputation is everything. “Looking back over the last 10 years, how we’ve grown and how fortunate we’ve been, a lot of that was based on relationships, networks, the referrals from client endorsements,” says Kim. “Our very first client continues to be one of our clients today. Relationships matter, even in this highly technical world of ones and zeros, and bits and bytes. We always focus on the quality of work, but we never lose sight of the relationships we’re building along the way.”

Today, there are a lot fewer blank spots on the map, and Massive Insights has been instrumental in filling it. They have chosen to draw roads to a better world for their clients, and for Canada as a whole. Kim understands that data touches everything. For some companies, data is primarily a marketing asset; for others, it is a tool to reshape and improve not only how a product is delivered, but also to enhance the product itself. And sometimes that product is a healthier future for a sick child.

“We’re currently working the number one children’s hospital in the world, SickKids Foundation. Our objective is to help them understand their ability to uncover opportunities with donors, and how they can optimize and maximize their activities to generate the most value back to the hospital. It’s these types of meaningful applications of data that really connect us back to things that matter to us. And we’d always like to use any of our superpowers for good.”

In 2021, looking forward to their next decade, Massive Insights is retaining their explorer’s spirit, with their eyes set on new horizons beyond the map’s edge. And the network they have built and nurtured will continue to grow and expand with them as they uncover ways to build value and use data for the betterment of all.

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Since the very first modern computer appeared in office, we’ve all been asking, “Do we still need all this paper?” It’s a harder question than it seems. If we want to limit the waste, the ecological impact, and the productivity drain of paper, we need to step back and ask ourselves what it is that keeps drawing people to the printout. We need solutions that ease the transition to an enhanced digital workflow while understanding real-world business needs.

The reality of paper

The invention of paper ushered in a never-before-seen age of literacy and education. It’s a cheap, portable, accessible, and lasting vessel for information. Those qualities still drive its use today. But, in an era where workers are spread across the globe, handing a sheet of paper to a colleague is rarely convenient. This is a world where information may as well not exist if it can’t be accessed from your phone. This is a moment when costs are measured not only in dollars, but in time and tons of carbon.

The advantages of going paperless are clear. The Association for Intelligent Information Management has reported that 84 percent of organizations that undertook paper-free projects achieved payback in less than 18 months. But that value is only realized when the undeniable power of print is preserved through this transition.

Canon has spent decades perfecting the philosophy and the practical reality of how people and businesses create, preserve, use, and share information. They’ve leveraged this experience and insight into the creation of new suites of tools that aren’t just paper replacements, but reinventions of the business information ecosystem. And, critically, these systems are informed by a deep understanding of what businesses and employees want and need.

A complete digital transformation

According to Gartner, every time an employee touches a piece of paper, it costs the company $20. Gartner further estimates that the average employee loses almost four weeks of productivity every year searching for lost and misfiled documents. There’s real money and time to be saved here.

But, when the office is a maze of filing cabinets, and home work spaces are chaotic mountains of paperwork organized only by memory and hope, the gap to a structured digital solution may seem unbridgeable. Going paperless is a process, not an event.

Canon’s flagship information management solutions provide an answer to this problem. And cutting-edge OCR, intelligent document fingerprinting, and high-accuracy indexing provide a seamless on-ramp for any document into the digital workflow the moment it’s needed.

These solutions provide workers with the ability to capture, archive, retrieve, edit, and process data at any point in the workflow quickly and securely. They turn every document into a transactable work space with a memory of its own, providing every bit of the power and flexibility of a paper and a pen while maintaining the accessibility and security of cloud-based collaboration.

And, just as importantly, the new digital paradigm to which these documents are transitioned, to has been crafted from the ground up for efficiency. After all, little is gained by replacing a stack of marked-up paper with a tangled email inbox housing dozens of threads with hundreds of versioned documents. A comprehensive solution gently and seamlessly tames this mess into a cohesively streamlined whole.

So, do we still need all this paper? Not necessarily, but we do need a knowledgeable and thoughtful guide to lead us away from it. We need a voice that is intimately familiar with the way businesses work and is unafraid to imagine ways they could work better. Reaping the benefits of the paperless transition requires not a leap, but a series of well-informed steps along a carefully crafted path, a path paved by companies like Canon.

The post Helping Companies Upscale As They Outgrow their Paper Workflow appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia

Senior Director of Digital Economy, Technology, and Innovation, Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Marjorie Dickman

Chief Government Affairs and Public Policy Officer, BlackBerry

Securing Canada’s digital infrastructure has never been more critical.

In this interview, Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia (Senior Director of Digital Economy, Technology, and Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce) speaks with Marjorie Dickman (BlackBerry’s Chief Government Affairs and Public Policy Officer) about BlackBerry’s new collaboration with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce on the Cyber.Right.Now. campaign, and Canada’s capability to be a world leader in cybersecurity. Bahr-Gedalia is leading the Cyber.Right.Now. initiative for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia: What are the core components of the Cyber.Right.Now. campaign, and why did BlackBerry decide to partner with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to raise cybersecurity as a key issue for the Government of Canada?

Marjorie Dickman: The Cyber.Right.Now. campaign aims to make Canada one of the most cyber-secure countries on the planet. It’s a unique initiative championed by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, BlackBerry, and more than two dozen leading technology and cybersecurity organizations including Microsoft, Cisco, AWS, General Dynamics, Innovapost, and eSentire. Together, we’re urging the government to make cybersecurity a top priority and Canada a world leader in this sector.

Canadians and businesses have become all too aware of the impacts of cyberattacks on economic and societal stability. Not surprisingly, the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 65 percent of Canadians fear falling victim to a cyberattack. (This is the second highest worry among Canadians today, only behind the fear of job loss.) A PwC report similarly indicates that 80 percent of Canadian CEOs are concerned about cybersecurity as a threat to growth. Recent cyberattacks on pipelines, water treatment facilities, hospitals, universities, and businesses underscore the need to act quickly to secure the country’s digital infrastructure, businesses, and communities from cyberattacks.

Notably, Canada boasts world-class cybersecurity capabilities, including some 400 cybersecurity companies. In fact, some of the world’s top cybersecurity companies are Canadian, and BlackBerry is proud to be one of them. The Cyber.Right.Now. campaign is urging Canada to invest in and leverage this expertise to prevent cyberattacks, grow the economy, and secure our digital future.

BG: Becoming one of the most cyber-secure countries on the planet is an ambitious vision. How can Canada turn this vision into action?

MD: Canadian cybersecurity companies have some of the most advanced cybersecurity solutions in the world. For instance, BlackBerry’s AI-driven cybersecurity solutions can identify cybersecurity threats before they occur, in some cases even two years before the malware has been deployed. This prevention-first security helped protect our customers from recent high-profile cyberattacks, including those by DarkSide — the ransomware gang behind the Colonial Pipeline attack, Nobelium – the infamous threat group behind the SolarWinds attack, and REvil — the group behind the attacks on Kaseya, JBS, and Acer.

Canada also has world-class centres of cybersecurity innovation, including Waterloo, Fredericton, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. And Canadian cybersecurity companies consistently rank among the top 100 R&D spenders in the country, with an R&D intensity three times higher than the ICT industry average.

Yet, Canada risks falling behind, as other countries increase their cybersecurity investments. The OECD reports that Canada is one of the few countries where technology R&D investment is “stagnant,” investing only 1.5 percent of GDP and declining, while Canada’s competitors are investing billions in advancing their cybersecurity capabilities.

Notably, Canada boasts a wealth of cybersecurity talent. But competition for this cybersecurity workforce is fierce. There are over three million unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally, with more than 100,000 of these in Canada. This means Canada’s top talent is very often poached to work abroad. In fact, nearly two thirds of Canadian-educated software engineering students leave to work outside of Canada.

For Canada to be a global cybersecurity leader, the Cyber.Right.Now. campaign advocates three goals:

BG: How can we ensure that these three goals are included in the federal government’s 2022 budget?

MD: Cybersecurity has never been more vital to a nation’s security — its people, government, and businesses. The Cyber.Right.Now. campaign urges Canada to invest in cybersecurity at a globally-competitive level. For example, the U.S., the U.K., and European governments are investing billions to secure their digital infrastructure and help position their economies for future growth. A focus on cybersecurity in the federal government’s 2022 budget can set Canada on a leadership path in this critical sector.

This article was made possible with support from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic theory — it’s pervasive throughout our daily existence, in our offices, our kitchens, and our cars. As its capacity and reach grows, so does concern about just how much we can trust the AI in our lives.

Earlier this year, IBM announced new capabilities for IBM Watson designed to help organizations build trustworthy AI, expanding on its ability to support businesses as they govern and explain AI-led decisions, increase insight accuracy, mitigate risks, and meet their privacy and compliance requirements.

I believe trusted data and AI is one of the ‘grand challenges’ of our generation. Developing and enforcing standards, ethics, and governance around the use and development of trustworthy AI systems has become an urgent priority – Pavel Abdur-Rahman, Partner & Head of Trusted Data & AI, IBM Canada

An IBM-commissioned survey found that trust, transparency, and explainability are top-of-mind concerns for businesses, with 84 percent of AI professionals surveyed agreeing that consumers are more likely to choose services from a company that offers transparency and an ethical framework on how its data and AI models are built, managed, and used. However, the barriers to developing trustworthy AI and mitigating risk remain pervasive, with 82 percent of AI professionals surveyed saying that their organization has been negatively impacted by problems, like bias, with data or AI models.

With sentiment as pervasive as this, there’s growing urgency for more rigorous standards for the ethics and governance around the use and development of trustworthy AI.

“AI is rapidly emerging as an important tool for solving humanity’s challenges, but it’s not without its risks,” says Pavel Abdur-Rahman, Partner and Head of Trusted Data and AI at IBM Canada. “People are increasingly uneasy about allowing intelligent and autonomous machines to access their personal data to make decisions. This has prompted a growing demand for ethically-aligned AI that creates trust and protects privacy, fends off would-be hackers, and prevents bias.” Abdur-Rahman goes on to cite a recently-unveiled proposal by the European Union (EU) as an example of this trend, with the EU calling for strict horizontal regulations to govern the use of AI, with severe penalties for those who contravene the rules.

Banking on Trusted Data and AI

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In today’s competitive environment, financial services institutions are using data — including customer, firm, and third-party data — to deliver innovative alternatives to traditional banking solutions. With open and trusted data as the main currency, open platforms deliver relationship-based services built on customer engagement and experience, and in so doing, allow banks and the emerging fintech companies to leverage their complementary strengths, instead of competing.

Driven by trusted digital relationships between banks and customers, this new business model is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and generates value even during a pandemic lockdown. However, many customers are rightly concerned about how and when their personal data is being used. Trust in AI systems will increase only when customers are confident that their data and insights are protected, not leveraged for profit without their permission.

Customers and investors will flock to the most trusted brands in AI, and financial institutions that take a leadership role will benefit the most in the platform economy. Consider:

• According to a recent IBM Institute for Business Value survey, more than 68 percent of consumers are willing to share personal information and data with their bank or other financial services institution. Almost 91 percent of individuals who share personal data with their bank trust it to protect their personal information and data to at least a moderate extent, second only to their own employer.
• AI hyper-personalization increases the likelihood of attracting, retaining, and delighting customers with a company’s product offerings, services, and 24/7 availability.
• Data and AI also provide new tools in the fight against fraud. When effectively used, these tools improve fraud detection, reduce credit losses, and enable know-your-customer regulatory checks.
• The future relationship between bank and customer is likely to be much deeper and much more interactive. But getting there from here requires radical transformation across business and operating models, as well as changes in the way resources, business processes, and technologies are assembled to create value.

The post Privacy and Artificial Intelligence — Is Your AI Trustworthy? appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Organizations cross-Canada and cross-industry are focused on emerging strong into a post-pandemic economy. In a recent survey, 59 percent of surveyed organizations reported that digital transformations have accelerated due to the pandemic. Projects that may have once taken years to complete are now being accomplished in a matter of weeks, with many executives citing cloud computing as a driving force behind these results.

IBM Canada Vice President of Technology Sales Frank Attaie recently shared his thoughts on how and why organizations have accelerated their journeys to cloud during the pandemic.

Why do you think so many business leaders are turning to cloud ­— particularly hybrid cloud — for their digital transformations, despite the potential economic downturn in the wake of the pandemic?

Hybrid cloud brings together on-premises, public cloud, private cloud, and edge computing to create a single, flexible IT infrastructure that enables companies to migrate workloads to cloud environments while keeping others where they are. This helps businesses achieve their objectives more effectively and securely than using public cloud or private cloud alone. In fact, according to one study, companies derive up to two and a half times the value from hybrid cloud than from a single-cloud, single-vendor approach. Technical and financial efficiency are now more critical than ever, so decisions like these make sense.

The financial services industry is one of the most highly regulated in Canada. How has this acceleration to the cloud affected banks in their digital transformation efforts?

In the past, banks have been somewhat reluctant to move their mission-critical workloads to the cloud because the platforms they used weren’t built with the industry-specific regulatory compliance and data protection needs in mind. Now, banks are recognizing if they want to stay competitive, they can no longer hold back. The very nature of their business requires a cloud that is secure to the core at each layer, highly scalable and interoperable. They’re also recognizing that urgency and speed will enable them to be agile in the future, providing the resiliency they need to innovate and provide customers with a seamless experience. IBM Cloud for Financial Services is a game-changer for the industry — with built-in regulatory and compliance controls it aims to help banks migrate to the cloud with confidence.

With the sharp increase that we’re seeing in cyberattacks, data protection has to be top of mind for most organizations. How have industries been rising to these unprecedented challenges?

Cybersecurity is more important than ever across all industries and that’s one of the reasons for IBM’s significant focus and investment in data protection in the cloud. Those in highly-regulated industries — like banking but also government and health care — are stewards of the privacy of sensitive data. As these organizations migrate more of their mission-critical workloads to the cloud, the old methods of securing sensitive data are no longer sufficient. Cloud providers need to offer higher levels of data protection commensurate with the critical nature of the information, as well as satisfy stringent regulations.

Data privacy and security are at the heart of IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy, and IBM Cloud is the most open and secure cloud for business. This also means a high degree of focus on privacy assurance for our clients and our clients’ clients. Capabilities such as keep your own key (KYOK) and confidential computing give an extra layer of technical assurance, which helps make each digital transaction seamless and secure, giving businesses confidence that privacy is at the centre of their digital experiences. With these capabilities, the client’s data is theirs and theirs alone — not even IBM as the cloud provider is capable of accessing the information.

IBM is all in on hybrid cloud because we understand that businesses need a clear and critical path to modernize their mission-critical systems with advanced cloud services. A hybrid cloud strategy is about meeting you where you are in your journey. It’s about giving you the ability to leverage the capabilities and benefits of the cloud, across a whole spectrum of environments. – Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM.

You’ve mentioned how now, more than ever, there’s an increased urgency for governments and health care organizations to advance their digital transformations. How optimistic are you that this will happen?

I don’t think anyone could have predicted a year ago just how much everything would change in the way services and information are delivered by governments and health care authorities. I’ve observed digital acceleration across all industries to meet the immediate demand faced by the public sector for access to information, flexibility and scalability, operational resiliency, and actionable insights. Given their experiences and progress over the past year, I don’t see any scenario where governments and health care organizations would make the decision to decelerate the advancements that they’ve been making. The stakes are just too high. At the same time, similar to financial services, these are two highly-regulated industries where there are unique challenges and security requirements that have to be met. We’re committed to continuing to drive clients’ hybrid cloud journeys with our industry-specialized approach that’s underpinned by security and trust.

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Stephanie Terrill

Business Unit Leader of Management Consulting at KPMG in Canada

What’s in store post-pandemic? No one knows for sure, but the KPMG CEO Outlook report offers a unique lens on evolving attitudes.

Canadian business leaders and decision-makers have faced myriad challenges throughout the pandemic, from building financial and operational resilience to digitizing their businesses and processes to managing employee engagement and customer interactions. Every industry has been impacted differently by the pandemic — for example, an airline’s challenges are vastly different from the challenges that a financial institution has faced over the past 15 months — but most Canadian companies have something in common: they’ve navigated business resilience, risk management, and unprecedented disruption in an entirely new way.

A fine balance: responding to uncertainty and unique risks

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought extraordinary unpredictability to the world’s business landscape. Business leaders have had to learn how to maintain agility while responding to uncertainty and unique risks across the enterprise.

In its 2021 CEO Outlook Pulse report, KPMG in Canada — a leader in delivering audit, tax, and business advisory services — found that according to global CEOs, the top five risks are climate/environmental risk, disruptive tech risk, supply chain risk, cyber risk, and regulatory risk.

The report also found that despite these challenges, Canadian leaders are moving forward with a sense of confidence and persistence.

“In our report, 84 percent of Canadian CEOs said they’re confident in the growth of their company over the next three years,” says Stephanie Terrill, Business Unit Leader of Management Consulting at KPMG in Canada. “This confidence is a sign of resilience and optimism. Wherever there’s disruption, there’s always opportunity. Having a growth mindset and an agile mindset is critical.”

Evaluating the future of work and embracing a hybrid model

Canadian business leaders’ resilience has also come to the forefront when evaluating the future of work.

Will knowledge workers return to the office? A KPMG poll released in March 2021 showed a trend of virtual fatigue and declining satisfaction with work-from-home scenarios, and its team expects to see more hybrid workplaces in the future. In fact, 77 percent of Canadians believe a hybrid workplace, or hybrid office, should be the standard model for all organizations.

“When it comes to remote working and virtual transactions,
flexibility is the number one benefit,” says Doron Telem, National Leader of Risk Consulting at KPMG in Canada. Access to specialists and talent from around the world is another benefit. But there are risks to virtual work environments, too.

“We see many employers working to foster greater resilience among their people: maintaining culture in a digital world, onboarding new talent, retention, and loyalty,” says Terrill. Cybersecurity is another key concern, with ransomware, identity theft, payment fraud, and other cyber incursions on the rise as a result of more employees working remotely. Employee mental health issues also need to be addressed. In the same March 2021 poll, 54 percent said their mental health has suffered during the pandemic. Leaders must consider their role in terms of helping their team deal with stress and burnout.

Supported by the right technology tools and digital processes, a hybrid work environment will allow teams to collaborate efficiently when needed, while also accommodating flexibility and independence.

Improving resilience and business continuity

Real-life scenario testing can go a long way toward improving operational resilience and business continuity — whether it’s a “what if” simulation around supply chain disruption or war-gaming for cybersecurity.

“Operational resilience scenario testing has become much more sophisticated now that organizations have seen a ‘black swan’ event,” says Telem. “Using stress testing and simulation technology, we run different scenarios and look at how they would affect a business’ various departments. Often, there’s a solution and a company can pivot.”

It’s important for organizations to define and adopt a risk appetite level, too. “Have a framework where you define the areas where you absolutely won’t accept risk,” advises Telem. “Then, you can focus more on protecting your most critical systems and information.”

The importance of optimizing costs and driving innovation

Despite their overall confidence and optimism, 43 percent of Canadian CEOs say the pandemic “forever changed” their business. It’s never been more vital for business leaders to optimize costs, stay agile, and innovate.

“Financial resilience is about keeping your eye on the balance sheet and your cash flow, and ensuring that you’re maintaining adequate liquidity,” says Terrill.

“It’s also about becoming hyper-flexible,” adds Telem. “Organizations with the ability to pivot and rapidly scale their expenses up or down as required can build stronger resilience.”

Operational and performance improvement, such as automating workflows to create efficiency, is also vital to optimize costs and efficiency. Encouragingly, KPMG’s study found that 84 percent of Canadian CEOs are placing more capital investment in buying new technology.

Investing in innovation and disruptive technologies

“We’ve seen organizations looking for new online revenue sources, so the disruption has also really driven a focus on innovation, which has been great to see,” says Terrill. “Our data indicates CEOs are planning to continue to invest in innovation and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital communications platforms, and data and analytics. We’re hoping that this will remain post-pandemic, and put Canada in a good place on the global economic stage.”

With 91 percent of CEOs wanting corporate Canada to think bigger by making significant investments in technology and people, and with Canadian organizations embracing digitization and agile operating models, it’s clear that many business leaders are rising to the challenge of our new reality.

The post Staying Agile and Innovative Post-COVID: Critical Insights for Business Leaders appeared first on HiveInnovates.