Digital Transformation

The past year has created opportunities for small businesses to increase their audience through digital technology and adapt innovative ways to reinvent their business model. Some ways to embrace digitalization include:

1. Social Media and Digital Marketing. Being active on social media helps you build meaningful relationships with key stakeholders in times of uncertainty. Startups can accomplish their marketing goals and connect with a wider audience through digital marketing.
2. Flexibility. Flexibility has become an important part of the push for digital spaces and work environments. Employees have the autonomy to work from any place at any time, and we are now able to connect with people beyond our usual network. Stats Canada reported that at the beginning of 2021, 32% of Canadian employees aged 15 to 69 worked most of their hours from home, compared with only 4% in 2016.
3. Better Investments Towards Technology. With the significant push towards digitalization, organizations have been able to adapt to this change at a rapid pace. According to Mckinsey, respondents stated that their companies were able to adapt to digital change 20-25 times faster than usual.

Emphasis on Community

If there is one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s the importance of community and care. Businesses that emphasize community initiatives are more likely to succeed long term. A survey from Deloitte found that 87% of executives believe companies perform best over time if their purpose goes beyond profit. The common nature of entrepreneurship is that there will be highs and lows – in those low moments, you can look to your community for support. 

1. Utilizing Community. While being wary to not dilute your message or lose authority, partnerships with local, national, or international organizations operating in the same sector can strengthen connections to the community, expand customer bases overnight, and assist in reallocating resources where most needed. For underrepresented entrepreneurs – such as women, LGBTQ2+, Black, Indigenous, and rural founders – Chambers of Commerce and other targeted, specialized support organizations exist to help.
2. Giving back. Many startups don’t have the luxury of giving back to their communities in the form of capital or monetary action. However, founders can get creative in their attempt to give back to other SMEs, including sharing staff expertise, sharing capital-heavy subscription services or workspaces, offering your time and advice, and making your support known through your various platforms – scream it from the rooftops!

Embrace Innovation

COVID-19 has disrupted and fundamentally changed the way many businesses operate in Canada. Many weren’t fully equipped for this drastic change, however, this had led to the emergence of new and innovative ways for ventures to adapt to the new normal.

1. Skill Building. Virtual Communication tools have created an avenue for businesses to offer educational workshops and panels, featuring advice and mentorship. According to a Mckinsey report, 69% of respondents have seen an increase in skill-building during the pandemic as a result of digital learning panels and workshops.
2. Agility. We’ve seen an increase of ventures adjusting to the needs of customers during the pandemic. Companies like VitalTracer, Co-Founded by Azadeh Dastmalchi, launched a medical-grade smartwatch that measures all vital signs and provides cardiac monitoring, while also serving as an early-stage COVID-19 prediction solution.

Although the pandemic has left entrepreneurs and small businesses vulnerable, there has been a large drive towards transforming the business landscape, impacting positive change for years to come. Businesses have shown immense resilience in the face of adversity, and are now equipped with the necessary tools to better deal with future challenges.

The post Business Resilience During COVID-19 appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Businesses need to provide excellent customer service and engagement even during times of crisis. Avaya OneCloud CPaaS helps businesses build that resiliency.

The COVID-19 crisis has accentuated the link between customer engagement and business success. “The pandemic basically disconnected this common pattern where customers can physically see you and engage in your business,” says Davide Petramala, Director of Avaya OneCloud CPaas, at Avaya, an international technology company specializing in cloud communications and workstream collaboration solutions. “Suddenly businesses found themselves competing with thousands of other online options with staff all working from home.”

Despite the disruption, many businesses not only survived, but thrived during the pandemic. “Stats showed that the ones that thrived were focused on the business of customer engagement, where customers are the centre of their business,” says Petramala. “Those businesses are seeing higher profits and faster growth because each customer represents not only more revenue, but also more commitment and loyalty.”

Why great customer service and a great customer experience are essential for success

Even in non-crisis times, great customer service and customer experience are essential to business success. Recognizing this, businesses are increasingly putting customers at the centre of their business model, instead of at the end of the supply chain. “Customer engagement and experience are no longer side pieces, but the focus of your business if you want to succeed,” says Petramala.

A happy customer is more likely to become a long-term customer and to share the good experience with others. Conversely, the negative impact on a brand from a bad experience can be exponential. “They say that for every positive experience, that customer will organically go and tell six other people, but for every negative one, they will tell 14,” says Petramala.

Shaping the business and its services around customer expectations is challenging. “What customers are asking for is dynamically changing,” says Petramala. To meet the challenge, today’s businesses need technology that’s flexible and responsive to constant change.

Technology as a service allows for flexibility and adaptation

The Avaya OneCloud ecosystem and its solutions are designed to do just that. The Avaya CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) is a composable platform that lets businesses take pre-built frameworks and modify them for their unique customer experience and engagement requirements.

Unlike in the past where companies invested in costly technology infrastructure only to see it soon become obsolete, a service like CPaaS enables them to adapt quickly to a customer’s ever-changing requirements without added expenses. “By purchasing a service instead of a product, companies are relieved from taking on any technical debt, and they can pick and choose the tools, customize them, and then modify them on demand based on their needs,” says Petramala.

Whether it’s compliance, health care, finance, or curbside pick-up, the business simply takes up the framework, embeds digital challenges, adds in AI, and can be up and running within weeks or even days. “Because it’s all based on AI, one can deploy the service, see the customer engagement in real-time, get feedback, and improve over each iteration,” says Petramala. “Having a composable system, with no technical infrastructure tied to any physical investment, means businesses can get a return on investment (ROI) on the technology while actually using it. That allows businesses to exceed customer expectations, so they don’t just survive but thrive in chaotic times.”

To help businesses identify their customer engagement pain points, Avaya runs free workshops.

The post How Businesses Can Keep Customers at the Centre — Even When Disaster Strikes appeared first on HiveInnovates.

With a “return to normal” on the horizon, what challenges do you foresee persisting for small businesses over the next year?

One of the more intensely felt impacts of the pandemic has been on supply chains and business logistics, and unfortunately, it is one that I do not see as magically disappearing overnight. If even one link in the chain, such as a factory producing vital materials in another country, is delayed because of ongoing restrictions or outbreaks, then the entire chain can be backed up for days or weeks on end.

And this is an issue that small business owners are well aware of CFIB data from May 2021 indicates that 41 percent of business owners are worried about business logistics, such as getting and shipping products or managing inventory, up from 29 percent in April 2020.

Your recent report on these challenges talks about what you call a “domino effect of delays”. Who is being affected on the latter end of these delays?

As our country moves towards economic reopening and recovery, we need to be mindful of the fact that these disruptions will add up for small businesses and significantly affect their operating costs. To avoid shuttering their doors completely, these increasing costs are going to inevitably fall on the consumer. On average, businesses indicated that they will increase prices by 3.3 percent over the next twelve months, the biggest increase we’ve seen since 2009. Small businesses are already in a precarious position due to the past fifteen months, and higher prices will further hurt their ability to rebound and make up lost sales.

Is there anything small businesses can do to mitigate these challenges?

Capacity and policy surrounding rapid testing have developed significantly over the past few months. Now more than ever is the time to capitalize on frequent testing in manufacturing and warehouse settings. Workplace outbreaks can grind production to a complete halt due to shutdowns that last a minimum of two weeks, often more. Rapid testing can help avoid these shutdowns. Physical distancing requirements could also be relaxed with more rapid testing, allowing production to increase and become more stable.

This is also an opportunity for the government to step in and proactively address what has the potential to be a real threat to economic recovery. By keeping taxes low and reducing red tape, such as internal trade barriers, governments will be able to offset some of the increasing costs facing small businesses.

The post How Governments Can Help Business Recovery Affected by Logistics Issues appeared first on HiveInnovates.

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.

Climate change and resource misuse are arguably the largest collective challenges we all face; solutions will need to be aggressive, thoughtful, and scalable in order to make a truly significant impact.

As large organizations face roadblocks on their journey to sustainability due to internal red tape and hierarchies, small businesses have an advantage – their ability to move quickly and act boldly. As we strive for an increasingly circular economy, Canada’s entrepreneurs will be forging the path.

Water security

As of today, the demand for clean water is projected to grow by 30 percent over the next 30 years. Fortunately, many startups across the country are contributing to Canada’s role as a global-leader in this space:

Based in Toronto, RainStick is a unique recirculating system that saves 80 percent on water and 80 percent on energy while still feeling like a high-pressure shower. The company is currently on a mission to save 10 trillion litres of water by 2030.

Birch Bark Coffee, founded by Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, is a social enterprise helping to educate consumers about the water crisis in First Nations communities across the country. For every 100 bags of coffee sold in retail stores (and 50 bags sold online), the venture equips one home with a certified water purification unit, free of charge.

Food waste

Each year, 58 percent (35.5 million tonnes) of all food produced in Canada is lost or wasted. The good news? Experts believe about a third of this can be rescued, and Canada’s SMEs are forging the way:

Based in Halifax, Earthli is a producer of sustainably grown, zero-waste, hemp-based superfoods. Canadian-grown hemp, unlike other common protein products, doesn’t require pesticides, absorbs CO2 as it grows, thrives on minimal water, and grows tightly – decreasing total land use.

Founded by Scott McKenzie, Yukon Organics supplies a curated selection of organic foods, transported with the lowest possible footprint, which cannot be grown in the Yukon. With the product being sold in bulk, customers have the option of sharing their order with others in the community – helping to improve food accessibility and reduce food waste in the region. The venture’s proprietary sharing feature is a global first.

Out of Langley, British Columbia, CubicFarms offers a number of solutions to food waste and improving our food systems, including their automated vertical farming machines. The machine offers commercial-scale produce farming anywhere in the world, 12 months a year.

Striving for circularity

Circular economies – an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and promoting the continuous use of resources – are often seen as far-fetched and unattainable. Through their innovative solutions, a number of Canadian startups are already practicing circular models:

5.7 billion plastic amenity bottles (think the small shampoo bottles found in hotels) are sent to landfills across North America every year due to their small size, low quality grade of plastic, and soap contamination. Based in Kitchener, EarthSuds is on a mission to replace all single-use plastic bathroom products with their zero-waste shower tablets.

Based on Vancouver Island, Nyoka Design Labs is attempting to solve the problem of over one billion plastic glow-sticks being sent to landfill each year. The Nyoka Light Wand, powered by bioluminescent algae, is not only reusable and non-toxic, it also heals the earth where it biodegrades.

Textile production contributes more to climate change than international shipping and aviation combined. Nudnik produces kidswear exclusively from pre-consumer textile waste that would otherwise pollute the planet. Beyond this, all garments are made from fully compostable, 100 percent organic cotton and are shipped in zero-waste packaging.

As the world searches for solutions to the ongoing climate crisis, we should look to innovative entrepreneurial ecosystems for answers. Balancing sustainability, circularity, and profit is possible in today’s business landscape – and Canadian startups are proving just that.

Kayla Isabelle is the Chief Executive Officer of Startup Canada, the national rallying community supporting and giving a voice to Canada’s 3.5 million entrepreneurs. Kayla has dedicated her career to supporting entrepreneurs, both in Canada and internationally. Kayla is an award-winning strategic communications consultant and change management facilitator and is passionate about leveraging the power of storytelling in the entrepreneurial community.

The post Entrepreneurial Innovation: Leading the Way to True Circularity appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Having just filmed season 15 of Dragons’ Den, how did you see entrepreneurs adapt to the new normal?

Lane Merrifield

We definitely had a very different season this year. First of all, there are a lot more entrepreneurs out there. This pandemic has forced a change in so many people’s lives and we saw that in the Den. We saw a lot more people, story after story, saying, “This an idea I’ve thought about for years, this is something I’ve wanted to do for years, and I finally had the time, the ability, and the space to take it on.”

Jim Treliving

Everyone who came in the Den was a reflection of having had time to think and look at their life in a different way — that’s the biggest change I felt.

Michele Romanow

The world has done a whole 180 on us! This year, we’ve seen entrepreneurs being more adaptive and resilient than ever.

Manjit Minhas

Canadian entrepreneurs have pivoted and adapted with new strategies to not only survive but to thrive. Many are creating new products using existing supply chains to serve their existing customers and finding new customers in creative ways.

Arlene Dickinson

What makes entrepreneurs special is that they see opportunities where everyone else sees obstacles. Entrepreneurs are problem-solvers, so they’re often undaunted — and even excited — by problems.

Vincenzo Guzzo

If I look back to past seasons, entrepreneurs were simply pitching their idea or product. Now entrepreneurs are pitching their idea, how they’ve adapted for today, and how they’re going to adapt for tomorrow.

Why is it important for people to continue supporting and investing in small businesses? 

Michele

Over 40% of Canada’s GDP is from small businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and our communities.

Jim

The backbone that we’ve got is now changing daily. Big isn’t necessarily the best anymore. It’s something you have to look at and ask, “Is smaller better?”

Lane

Entrepreneurs are on the bleeding edge. They’re the innovators. They’re the job creators in times like these, when our world is rapidly shifting and when the solutions that have worked for decades no longer work.

Vincenzo

When you’re small, you’re an idea-minded business. As a corporation becomes bigger, there are efficiencies in those sizes but there are inefficiencies when it comes to innovation. Without small businesses and without entrepreneurship, the economic development of a country is stale.

Manjit

Small businesses are important to the economic and social fabric of our society, and we all play a part in their survival. When you shop local, your dollars stay in the community and help local development. This is called the multiplier effect.

Arlene

Think about the restaurants, clothing stores, coffee shops, art galleries, and all the other small businesses that make up the fabric of our communities and add to the rhythms of our daily lives. Lots of these places are at real risk of not surviving the winter. Now is not the time to be shy — call the places you love, the places you picture yourself when this is all over, and ask what you can buy from them now.

What are some of the key challenges your own industries have faced, and how are you working to overcome them?

Jim

For restaurants, the most important aspect is to make businesses the safest they can be in these times. People still want to get out and socialize but they want to feel safe when they’re there. First, we have to make sure our employees are safe when coming to work and secondly, that the guests are as safe as possible when coming in. Ultimately, we must make sure we’re ready for anything that can be thrown at us. For example, with takeout and delivery, many restaurants didn’t offer this or had to make their existing system better. Restaurants have had to change direction to stay alive.

Michele

Clearbanc was an entirely in-office team. You could feel the energy when you stepped through the doors. Being together was a big part of our culture — being able to have random encounters that generated new ideas and solving problems in-person allowed us to grow quickly. It’s been difficult to replicate that virtually since we’ve transitioned to a fully-digital workforce. We have three regular all-company calls to try and replicate it!

Arlene

Marketing and communications are always contingent on the success of the companies we work for — if they’re hurting, we’re hurting. If revenue falls, that might mean cutting spending in ads or content creation. I get it, when your company takes a 20% hit, it’s hard to spend money on a commercial. But on the flip side, communication is even more important during a crisis. We’ve seen the most-successful businesses come out strong during COVID-19 and really get the message across — messages of new services, improved products, and enhanced safety measures. The challenge for us is to work with our partners to create a great strategy and creative that addresses the current climate, but also looks ahead and creates brand affinity for years to come.

Vincenzo

For the movie business, it’s just a matter of time. Every pandemic, every war, every socially-shifting event has created a return to going to the movies. The truth of the matter is that the first thing people will do — “once the war is over,” as I call it — is wanting to go out and re-socialize. That re-socializing will look different, but people will go back to the movies, they’ll go back to restaurants, and we’ll get a natural upswing from being unconfined.

What surprising changes or opportunities in the business landscape have you seen during the pandemic?

Arlene

I think the most surprising thing is how many Canadians are making the best of a bad situation. People who have been laid off, and maybe have had an idea for a business percolating for years — they’re using their time to form business plans.

Manjit

When a new normal begins to unfold, customers discover new needs and we’re all open to trying alternative ways of doing things. In turn, innovation is accelerated and strong companies will emerge even stronger. And for small businesses, this is a moment to take advantage of your innate flexibility. It feels counterintuitive, but I firmly believe there are great opportunities now in all industries — it’s about how agile you are and how quick you can pivot for the future.

Michele

We’ve seen e-commerce absolutely surge from 14% to 28% of retail sales. It’s an incredible time to digitize your business. Clearbanc has now backed more than 3,300 e-commerce companies with over $1 billion and has continued to as the e-commerce sector has continued to grow.

Lane

Moments like these, whether it’s been the World Wars of the past or the pandemics of the current, have always been an instrument for radical change. It moves us from evolutionary businesses to revolutionary businesses. Instead of just trying to reinvent the wheel or create a better mousetrap, we’re having to build a brand-new trap that has nothing to do with mice.

What advice do you have for business owners who want to future-proof their operations?

Arlene

Don’t be reactive, be creative! Entrepreneurs need to be flexible and change with the times, of course, but they also need to shape the times. At the beginning of the pandemic, I saw plenty of businesses scrambling to fill the gaps in their digital offerings, and a lot of them failed to do so effectively. Others got it immediately. I saw it as a difference in mindset — the companies that were already trying to figure out better ways to do business before the pandemic were the ones that were able to adapt the quickest.

Michele

A digital presence is critical today. We’ve all living in a world now where you can’t meet your customers face to face. It’s so important to switch your focus and be thoughtful about creating a special experience online.

Manjit

• Don’t depend on one part of your business for complete success. You must think about other ways to diversify your product portfolio.

• Identify and start managing risks. You won’t be able to predict the problems that might occur in future, but you can certainly take some steps to better prepare yourself. You need to find the risks or possible points of failures for your business. These risks could be in areas like people, system or business processes, legal compliance, or data security.

• Listen to customers and observe their behaviour. Business owners are normally so busy with product development and sales that they completely forget their main stakeholder — the customer. In order to future proof your business, you should start focusing on the changes in customer behaviour that might happen in the near future.

• Watch for influencing factors surrounding your business. If you really want to future-proof your business, you need to keep an eye on your surroundings. You must make yourself aware of the developments happening around you even if they aren’t related to your industry.

• Create a favourable environment for innovation. You can’t always win by following the leaders — at one point, you must innovate to stay ahead of the game. Innovation isn’t easy and you might fail several times but once you hit the bull’s eye, you’ll leap ahead of your competition. To foster the culture of innovation, you need to create a favourable environment for it.

Lane

We’re in an era of major revolution when it comes to the workforce, how we manage the workforce, the latitudes we give, how we measure productivity, and how we return that time back to the employee.

Ask yourself: what are you doing to support the changing needs of your employees? How are you changing your policies as a company in order to adapt? How are you changing as a leader and leading differently than you were a year ago? I’m constantly asking myself all of these questions as well because it’s one thing to say, “We’re going to change our revenue model and we’re going to sell our product this way instead of that way.” However, if that’s the only thing you’re looking at, you’re missing major elements of health that need to be addressed in a company.

Vincenzo

I think the most important thing that people need to remember is to not beat yourself up too much over this. Nobody thought a pandemic was going to happen and many didn’t plan for this so the fact that you weren’t ready is okay. Don’t panic, keep a cool head, and manage the burn rate!

The post The Dragons on the New Normal for Small Business appeared first on HiveInnovates.

We tap into cloud solutions and cybersecurity every day. Storing photos online uses cloud services. Updating passwords is practising cyber-secure behaviour. So why is it that, in business, we become wary to adopt new technology?

Apprehension around new technology often comes down to the users themselves. The best technology in place won’t be effective if the user doesn’t know how to employ it properly or is focused on all the things that could go wrong.

A change in attitude and approach might be required — a transformative cultural shift — to focus on educating on the benefits of such tech tools while acknowledging that the majority of day-to-day technology isn’t rocket science. But it’s important to remember that with the adoption of technology comes responsibility.

Andrew Loschmann, Chief Operating Officer of Field Effect and a member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, says it’s crucial to ensure a potential cloud service allows you to monitor the activity going on in your part of the cloud. This enables complete visibility of your network so it can be monitored by your cybersecurity solution for possible threats.

How COVID-19 revealed our technological dependency

The accelerated need for employees to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inherent interconnectedness of the personal and professional realms. This abrupt change in working conditions has driven greater demands for cloud service and security tools, emphasizing our need to communicate sensitive data regardless of geography.

This brings us to the fundamental shift: moving from “Is the cloud secure?” to “Am I using the cloud securely?”

Two of the most-used technologies have been collaboration (cloud) and security (cyber) tools, with one in five small businesses in Canada experiencing a cyber-threat or attack over the past few months.

Cloud security breaches regularly make headlines — but often, the challenge exists not in the security of the cloud itself, but in the policies regarding security and control of the technology. Ultimately, it’s the user, not the cloud or cybersecurity provider, who’s more likely to fail to protect an organization’s data and information.

This brings us to fundamental shift: moving from “Is the cloud secure?” to “Am I using the cloud securely?”

Powering the next normal

Supporting a remote workforce requires a modern and flexible network alongside uncompromised connectivity and ongoing user education.

When configured correctly to implement security monitoring, cloud services can be used effectively and securely. This allows employees working from home to:

• Access and retrieve all the data and information as if onsite
• Collaborate via software as a service (SaaS), replicating the office environment through cloud-based virtual tools
• Easily use, share, and collaborate on sensitive and confidential information
• Acknowledge that cybersecurity involves understanding your network, acknowledging the risks, and knowing how to respond to threats promptly

The path to secure networks is quite easy, but many companies don’t take the required precautions. The key is understanding your threat surface, knowing what threats exist, and how to respond to them. And if that feels daunting, not to worry — there are people who can help.

As the work-from-home trend will continue well beyond the pandemic and will likely manifest itself as a permanent structure for many companies and their employees, cloud security will become an increasingly integral part of everyday business. A not-so-daunting must-have after all!

The post Why Cloud Solutions and Cybersecurity Don’t Have to Be Daunting appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Dan Martell is a serial entrepreneur who’s built several multi-million-dollar technology companies, his first at the age of only 17. He’s since become an award-winning angel investor, having invested in companies like Intercom, Udemy, Hootsuite, Unbounce. Today he’s an executive coach focused exclusively on software-as-a-service (SaaS), helping the founders of startupslike ClickFunnels, Proposify, and Carrot, to scale their businesses. He spoke with Mediaplanet about how businesses can benefit from software-as-a-service (SaaS).

What is SaaS?

SaaS stands for software-as-a-service. It’s any application on your phone or site online that you pay for monthly. Things like Dropbox for storage, Trello for project management, and Canva for design are all examples of a SaaS.

This is a relatively new business model. Before the cloud, business software required you to buy the hardware it would run on, be responsible for maintaining it, and pay upfront for at least a year, if not longer.

Now with SaaS, you can try out most solutions before paying in the form of free trials and only pay monthly beyond that.

Quite simply, this is a win-win for everyone. The cost to support customers has come down, making the software available to smaller businesses ensuring they have the same level of power as the big companies.

What are some ways that people are already interacting with SaaS, even though they might not realize it?

As a consumer, you could consider Netflix a SaaS since it’s an application that delivers value on your TV or mobile devices. Other examples include Spotify and Apple Music, or any applications like meal tracking or weather forecasting that offer monthly or annual subscriptions.

In the business realm, it’s pretty much any software you use to help run your business from accounting (Xero), email (Front), or video conferencing (Zoom).

With work-from-home proliferating virtually every industry, how can SaaS help make this transition easier?

There’s a lot of tools remote workers can use to make their lives better. I would suggest applications like Be Focused Pro to set time blocks to complete work, or Krisp.ai to allow them to work from a loud coffee shop while having their audio come across clearly.

With so many options on the market, how can business owners decide which services fit their needs?

The best way is to use a review site like Capterra or G2Crowd to search for different solutions, easily compare competitors, identify specific features needed, and determine which product delivers that solution at the most effective price point.

There’s no point in paying for an Enterprise-grade email marketing solution when something simpler like Mailchimp will work for your needs.

How can SaaS help even the playing field in the digital economy?

Since SaaS now lets you access powerful business solutions for a fraction of the cost paid monthly, it allows small companies to leverage automation, insights, and collaboration that wasn’t previously available unless you could commit to a full year through a five- or six-figure check.

For example, solutions like Zapier allow you to connect all your systems so you can get a 360° view of your customers. This creates the opportunity to build deeper relationships and identify ways to serve them better.

The SaaS has enabled anyone to deliver better services and experiences to their customers at a pace that bigger companies can’t keep up with — provided you’re willing to invest the time into learning the software.

The post Dan Martell on How SaaS Can Help Your Business appeared first on HiveInnovates.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, how has working from home affected the cybersecurity world?

There have been two main changes:

1. Users are now on their home network and physically in their home
2. COVID-19 themed phishing schemes

We need to have our employees connect to our networks over VPN, protect their machines and other work equipment from accidents, and always lock their screen when they are away from their machine (unless they live alone). We also need to educate them about current phishing attacks, and how they play off our emotions about the pandemic.

When starting a business, what are some of the biggest challenges faced while implementing cybersecurity measures?

Most small businesses are unaware of the cybersecurity threats they face and the risks they pose. I would say lack of awareness of what they need to do to protect themselves is the main challenge.

Why is cybersecurity often not considered to be a priority for small business owners?

Small business owners usually concentrate on whatever their business is about, which makes perfect sense! If you’re an expert at floral arrangements, that’s what you need to ensure your business handles perfectly. That said, education can help you protect your businesses from threats online.

What are three best practises that you recommend for business owners?

I suggest that all small businesses get an email filtering and web filtering system, to protect them from phishing attacks. The second thing is to get a company-wide password manager, to use for storing all of your work-related passwords, and teach your employees good password hygiene (different password for every site and long random passwords generated by your password manager). The last thing would be turning on multi-factor authentication for all your important accounts. Watch the video below for a more in-depth explanation of all three!

To what extent can business owners be their own cybersecurity experts?

I honestly feel that every business owner doesn’t actually need to be an expert, they just need to know when to call in an expert. If each small business could follow those three pieces of advice (web & email filtering, good password hygiene, turn on multi-factor authentication), they would be an in decent spot. Then call in an expert if you need something past that, for instance; if you are going to handle credit card information over the internet, why not outsource that to company that only does that one activity as a service? It’s cost effective, and they are experts at this one thing. Then you can spend your time worry about your business, instead of each different security detail, because you know you’re in good hands.

The post Why Small Businesses Need to Be Smart about Cybersecurity appeared first on HiveInnovates.

Avaya Canada helps organizations improve employee and customer experiences and adapt to new ways of working.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, about half of Hydro Ottawa employees immediately moved to working from home, including their customer contact agents. The company worried what impact the disruption would have on such a vital piece of its operations.

In less than a week, Avaya Canada, a global leader in digital communications and collaboration, deployed a cloud-based Contact Centre as a Service solution (CCaaS) that enabled Hydro Ottawa employees to safely work from home, with no disruption to customer service or employee productivity.

“Digital transformation helps organizations deliver a more effective, efficient, and personalized customer experience, which is one of the biggest differentiators in the marketplace. COVID-19 has made digital transformation even more critical and accelerated the digital transformation journey for public organizations and private companies,” says David Robertson, President of Sales and Managing Director of Avaya.

Turning to digital solutions

Robertson says that the pandemic propelled organizations to turn to digital solutions in order to keep their employees working and to continue to serve clients, customers, and constituents. Now, they’re evaluating their strategies and tools to see how they can take their digital transformation to the next level.

For example, imagine a customer with a question. She calls a 1-800 number and dials a series of digits before finally being connected to a customer service agent. After answering some questions, she’s transferred to a different agent, until she finally gets the answer she needs. Picture this instead: the customer interacts with an artificial intelligence (AI) self-service chatbot to quickly get her answer. If she does need help from an agent, AI tools that listen to their conversation and, based on what the customer says, provides the agent with the necessary information. This allows the agent to quickly resolve the customer’s inquiry and create a better experience for the customer.

Such solutions improve the employee experience, too. “If employees are frustrated or can’t use their company’s tools, they can’t provide a good customer experience,” says Robertson. “If employees are equipped with the right tools, they’re happier and more prepared to help the customer.”

The new way to work

Unified communications, which is when voice, video, and collaboration tools are integrated for easy flow of communication, also enrich the employee experience. The company’s solution for this is Avaya Spaces, an all-in-one video collaboration app for the digital workplace, changes the way working gets done.

“You used to go into your office and have your phone on the desk. Then, with mobile phones, people could be anywhere,” says Robertson. “Now, people are working from anywhere — on a PC, phone, mobile phone, or video.”

Avaya Spaces allows users to launch a meeting from any device and collaborate with team members over video, chat, or voice. The solution integrates with leading calendar, customer relationship management, and productivity apps. Within a space, users can also attach files and notes, keeping all of this information in one place. Teams can then find all of the related files, notes, and chats, eliminating the need to search through a string of emails.

“This really is the new way to work,” says Robertson. “Companies need next-generation, creative strategies to move along on their digital transformation roadmap and build on what they already have. That’s the journey — which by the way, never ends, because technology is evolving at such a rapid pace.”

The post COVID-19 Stimulated Digital Transformation — Avaya Canada Can Help appeared first on HiveInnovates.