The following scenario is all too common. A CEO/CFO is inundated with chronic business problems: on-time delivery, customer service responsiveness, inventory inaccuracies or any of a handful of other afflictions. The management team blames a host of demons, most notorious amongst them, obsolete or dysfunctional systems.
There are many lessons to be learned from the 2017 Equifax breach, (one of the three major national credit reporting agencies). A key one: pathetically weak IT disciplines leave businesses vulnerable to attack. Two months after an industry group discovered the coding flaw in their data systems and shared a fix, hackers took advantage of that flaw at Equifax.
Group Purchasing Organization Plans (GPOs) have gained a lot of popularity lately. Most organizations have joined a GPO to combine their purchasing spend with other GPO members to get better pricing and streamline supplier spending. In many cases, GPOs deliver a valuable service. Not all GPOs are created equal and it is important to find right fit for your organization. In some cases, direct supplier negotiation is a viable alternative to GPO.
Author Marc Hallquist
WannaCry – Petya – Ransomware – Phishing – DDOS. Unfortunately, these terms have entered the lexicon of the modern board room. Experts predict global annual cybercrime costs will grow from $3 trillion in 2015 to $6 trillion in 2021.
