The B2B buying process is transforming because the people involved in the buying process have a different expectation of their suppliers. Preferences of customers are shifting from in-person interactions which once was critical in building trust, to less personal digital channels. Consumer buying behaviours are influencing the business buying process with 33% of all buyers desiring a seller-free sales experience – this figure jumps to 44% for millennials who are more critical about direct contact with sales professionals. The prevalence of mobile devices, social platforms, and widely accessible information with a multitude of opinions have greatly affected buying behaviours.

Like it does in so many aspects of our lives, technology plays a significant role in the B2B buying process. For buyers, digital platforms enable businesses to access a wider range of products and services, compare prices, and make more informed purchasing decisions, without having to interact with a person or supplier directly. Technology has scaled marketing through automation and can increase velocity and conversion during the sales funnel if applied well. continue to provide several benefits including a frictionless transaction experience between buyers and sellers.

Sellers have access to digital platforms powered by artificial intelligence which can analyse customer data and behaviour, predicting future buying needs and offering personalised recommendations. High-end analytics will quickly become commonly used by sellers to offer dynamic customer engagement models, powered by the data captured from all digital interactions with a potential buyer. The COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated the adoption of technology in businesses in general.

Today’s buyer has access to huge amounts of information, including peer reviews. Buyers are increasingly reliant on online content and digital assets to support a business case and buying decision. A 2022 Global Software Buyer Trends survey identified the top 3 preferred content types to make purchase decisions as online training (46% of buyers), video tutorials (42%), and product documentation/user guides (40%)¹.  Information availability and accessibility is fuelling the shift away from needing in-person interaction during a sales cycle however there still needs to be an element of collation and validation of the information for it to be reliable.

While the impact that technology has had on the B2B buying process is significant, the majority of B2B customers want both on their buying journey. Gartner research shows buyers typically spend only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers when they are considering a purchase. Less customer face time will mean effective virtual selling via digital channels will become critical. Evidence shows that customers still require the human element once they get to the “business end” of the sales funnel, where the initial interaction has been largely digital.

In summary, while the B2B buying process has been influenced by changing consumer behaviours, the application of advanced technologies and the information age, companies need to consider s digital selling strategy outlining how their approach to selling will adapt and implement a human-digital blend that is most appropriate to their business and their customers. When in-person interactions happen, they will more likely be salesperson mediated digital experiences – a combination of the benefits of a digital approach, and the trust that can be built by an experienced salesperson in the final phases of the buying process.

1. Source: Gartner Digital Markets 2022 Global Software Buyer Trends Survey. Q. Which of the following content have you ever used to help make a purchase decision? 2,501 Note: Percentages exceed 100% due to respondents being asked to select multiple options.

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What is fraud risk?
Fraud Risk is the risk of unexpected financial, material, or reputational loss as the result of fraudulent action of persons (internal or external) to an organisation.

Occupational fraud includes a wide variety of schemes, and the ACFE has attempted to capture every type in . ACFE defines expense reimbursement fraud as a fraudulent disbursement scheme in which an employee makes a claim for reimbursement of fictitious or inflated business expenses. Many organisations entrust the employees with self-reporting of business expenses for reimbursement.

Invoice fraud involves a scammer notifying your company that supplier payment details have changed and providing alternative bank details to defraud your business. Funds are often quickly transferred so recovering money from fraudulent accounts can be extremely difficult.

What are some of the key findings of the report?
The study forming the basis of the report covered 2,110 cases of fraud across 133 countries and causing total losses of more than $3.6 billion (at an average loss per case of $1.78m).

Certified Fraud Examiners estimate that organisations lose 5% of revenue to fraud each year. Of the various schemes, asset misappropriation is the most common (86% of cases), but least costly ($100k median loss) and financial statement fraud schemes were the least common (9% of cases) but most costly ($593k median loss).

Concerningly, a typical fraud case lasts 12 months before being detected, causing a loss of $8,300 per month. Only 6% of perpetrators had a prior fraud conviction. Of the cases in the study, 40% involved more than one of the three primary categories of occupational fraud.

The top 5 industries which suffered the highest median losses were real estate, wholesale trade, transportation & warehousing, construction, and utilities. Nearly half of all cases came from 4 departments – operations, accounting, executive/upper management, or sales.

Technology can help close the loopholes
The presence of anti-fraud controls is associated with a reduction in fraud losses and quicker fraud detection. Nearly half (49%) of the cases were due a to either a lack of internal controls, or an over-ride of existing controls. Only 81% of victim organisations modified their fraud prevention controls (that means 19% did nothing!) – and of those, 75% increased review procedures (throwing people at the problem) while only 64% invested in proactive data monitoring/analysis to combat and prevent fraud.

The shift to hybrid/flexible working has increased the potential risk of fraud, as policies and spend categories shift, and attention is focussed on other aspects of the business.

The key to proactively and effectively managing fraud, is the underlying data – capturing data accurately at a transactional level together with an electronic supporting document, systematically recording appropriate approval workflows and change logs, and leveraging external data points as sources-of-truth throughout the process.

Combine that data with the such as & , and many of the manual reviews, disconnected processes and silos of data can be systematically reviewed. Audit software can analyse 100% of transactions, spot trends in data and highlight suspicious or high-risk items for further investigation, making the audit process scalable and far more efficient.

Based on the Report to the Nations, there is arguably an opportunity to build a business case and invest in the right technology to create a robust compliance and audit process, and there is an undeniable cost of doing nothing.

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In response, organisations are revamping increasingly digitalised workforces with a cloud-first security strategy. Whether your organisation has just embarked on a cloud journey, or you’re looking to update you cloud vendor onboarding process, here are some considerations for building a cloud-first security strategy.

Involve teams company-wide to mitigate security risks

Unlike siloed business systems of the past, cloud security is everyone’s responsibility. Make sure that leaders understand the risks and cascade expectations across teams accordingly.

At an executive level, sensitive company and customer data and its governance are paramount. Breaches or leaks of sensitive data can destroy trust (and your brand) with millions of existing or potential consumers, and cost millions, if not billions, of dollars in damages to the company.

Technology infrastructure, architecture, and operational data, and its associated maintenance, availability and security are a critical responsibility for the chief information, digital or technology officer. As cloud technology develops and grows, so do the increasingly sophisticated threats, requiring more advanced protection measures. Dedicated internal IT security resources may not be feasible and/or scalable, or a cost-effective option to protect critical cloud systems.

Cloud security also extends to any business unit reliant on cloud software up-time for business-critical applications that serve existing and potential customers, while protecting the company brand and reputation. The financial and legal implications resulting from a lack of data privacy and security can be substantial.

Holistic cloud security and compliance considerations

When considering new cloud vendors, be prepared to sign a non-disclosure agreement before a potential cloud vendor will hand over their sensitive security and technical reports, certifications, and associated documentation. Cloud software and service providers storing and processing sensitive company or customer data should undergo multiple, regular, and globally recognised audits.

Compliance requirements may vary depending on the business functions, data, industry and/or geography. Common global standards for cloud security and service management include BS10012:2017 certification covering data privacy standards, ISO 9001 certification covering quality standards. In addition, ISO 27001 provides a global standard for IT security management practices, and ISO 22301 focuses on the security and resilience of business continuity management processes of the cloud provider.

For example, was one of the first cloud service providers, serving customers such as a national defence agency and financial institutions, and the 18th U.S. company to become ISO 27001 certified (formerly BS7799) in 2004. continues to undergo this and several other external and internal security audits to maintain a high level of certification.

Additional standards to consider include payment card industry (PCI) compliance related to payment data security, and SOC1 and SOC2 Type II reports, which cover compliance of internal controls and security audit reporting, respectively.

Data privacy is a growing area of scrutiny. Depending on the country and jurisdictions you are operating in, there will be local privacy laws which the vendor should comply with. For example, in Australia organisations must comply with Australian Information Privacy Principles. Common privacy product features include data retention (and deletion) procedures, and the general data protection regulation (GDPR), which are applicable to EU citizens regardless of where an organisation is located.

Data should be encrypted when it’s transmitted over a public network and at rest when being stored in databases. Cloud provider access to data should only be available to a limited, appropriately vetted number of authorised personnel. It is common to request that staff with access to data and data centres undergo appropriate background checks before being given access to customer data. Use industry standard encryption methods for data in transit and at rest.

If data sovereignty is important to your business, be aware of the location and ownership of your cloud provider’s data centres. Make sure that data centres are Tier 3+ or Level 4 facilities and confirm appropriate disaster recovery and archival/backup practices. Primary production sites should be separate to secondary backup and disaster recovery sites.

Cloud providers often outsource services to third parties for services such as infrastructure. Ask your cloud vendor about their practices, and how they will treat your data with privacy and security.

Mobile security is another consideration. Treat security capabilities of mobile applications with the same level of scrutiny as the vendor’s web applications, over and above the mobile device’s local security features such as biometrics.

Cloud security is constantly evolving. Perform continuous security and technical due diligence, as requirements, legislation, and expectations can vary between functionality, industries, and geographies. Above all, manage the integrity, security, and availability of your company and customer data with the same level of rigor as your entire cloud-based business. It’s the only way to keep pace with your digitalised workforce.

This article also appeared on .

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A business continuity plan (BCP) is common practice within an organisations overall business plan and risk management strategy. Its purpose is to help the business be prepared for, and continue to operate after, an incident or crisis. The current pandemic is an unfortunate, global, example of an incident which has stress tested many BCP’s around the world. Some other examples of incidents which can incite one or many aspects of a BCP are:

• Natural disasters – floods, storms, drought.
• Technology – computer networks, business critical hardware, data breaches.
• Work health & safety – accidents that are caused by work-related hazards.
• Economic and financial events – global financial crises, interest rate increases, rising costs.
• Human resources – union and industrial relation issues, human error, conflict management.
• Suppliers – failure or significant disruption to supply chain for inventory or raw materials.

The types of incidents can be quite broad and vary significantly, depending on the business, the event, and the potential negative impact on the business and its people. In terms of the current pandemic, this event has had an impact on several levels because it is global, and the nature of the event has meant that it has likely touched nearly every area of the list of incidents above with its ripple and flow on effects – directly and indirectly (such as ‘panic buying’). Most incidents are often more isolated, still severe, but limited only to a single business, a single industry, a single country, for example.

What is in a Business Continuity Plan?
It is not just a box to tick, as I am sure many businesses will attest to at present. The contents and complexity of the BCP will be unique to each business, but should all have 3 core components:

1. Risk management plan (and business impact analysis) – outlining the key risks that could adversely affect the business – what is the risk, what is the potential impact?

2. Response plan – how the business will respond if one of the risks becomes a material event?

3. Recovery plan – how will the business recover, following the event? If at all.

Even with a BCP in place, risks are often subjective and it’s difficult, or impossible, to accurately measure the foreseeable impact. It requires an element of scenario analysis based on what is known, what is foreseen and events of the past.

Key takeaways following COVID-19
Like we saw following the global financial crisis of 2007, I would expect that businesses will have a ‘return to normal’ debrief of the events over the last 4-5 months.

One aspect that many businesses have underestimated during this pandemic was the need to be able to decentralise business critical processes at short notice, while minimising disruption, and cost, to their business. Organisations who were most prepared appear to be those who had already commenced a digital transformation strategy or at a minimum had enabled a semi-remote workforce.

If we and procurement as one example, we have witnessed the extreme strain placed on the supply chains of supermarkets, where demand for certain products increased drastically while at the same time certain manufacturers were unable to provide products. It highlighted the need for real-time visibility for these businesses to be agile, making informed decisions about pivoting their operations to deliver the best outcomes for their customers.

I have seen can be in a challenging business environment and the importance of good communication with suppliers and customers. In my engagements with customer and prospects, one of the biggest challenges they have faced is effectively decentralising the finance function which traditionally is the last area of the business to be addressed.

In my field, and have been highlighted as areas where the challenge of manual processes have been magnified by the need for workers to move to a remote working environment. Not only from a business process point of view, but also a severe lack of control and visibility into financial liabilities at a time when cash flow is critical. Lack of insight also leads to the inability to make informed decisions, quickly, when it matters the most.

Digitising these areas along with other core business processes, will not only form a basis to build out a solid BCP, but also ensure businesses are better prepared to survive the challenging times we are experiencing today.

This blog originally published on .

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5G is the marketing term for the fifth generation of mobile networks and will offer much higher speeds (download speeds of 20Gbps) and lower latency (faster response time, less “lag”) than is currently available on 4G, which on average has a latency of around 50 milliseconds, where 5G can be as low as 1 millisecond. This is very relevant when it comes to scenarios where your response time can impact the outcome, like in online gaming and streaming, virtual reality (VR) and the growing number of

Our world is already mobile, with over 30 billion connected devices and with use cases for IoT technology expected to keep growing, the existing spectrums will continue to get congested by network traffic which will lead to maintenance and reliability issues. 5G will allow more simultaneous device connections, and towers are significantly smaller and can be installed in a wider variety of places which wouldn’t have been possible in the past (think, every lamppost in metro areas). The catch is, to benefit from the 5G spectrums you will require a 5G compatible and enabled hardware or device.

5G will be instrumental across several industries and help speed up advancements in connected technologies. These advancements will enable connected cars and autonomous driving, smart cities with transport, and infrastructure; enhancement in connected healthcare from use cases to wearable technology; industrial internet of things and smart factories; and the more extended use of augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality.

While these technologies have been around for some time, the 5G network is expected to drive exponential development, scalability and adoption of these technologies.

So how do businesses prepare for 5G?

Businesses must prepare for the technology now in order to harness the benefits and operational efficiencies offered by 5G.

Budget for investment: Initially, 5G hardware will be more expensive than 4G, and a requirement to harness the 5G benefits. It will be important to be well equipped with the correct technology once 5G is fully launched.

Planning: For the new wave of automation and artificial intelligence. Lower latency speeds will provide new opportunities for businesses to leverage automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence across more of their operations.

Education: Leaders and employees need to have a sound understanding of what 5G is and increase their awareness around how it can support business goals, including where to find the latest 5G application to benefit their business.

Strategy: Businesses should implement or incorporate a 5G strategy into their overall business strategy to ensure that product or process changes that need to be made to facilitate 5G adoption.

It is expected that it will take up to five years for significant 5G adoption and it is set to quickly bring smart technologies and IoT into the consumer and business mainstream.

In the meantime, business leaders and CIO’s are being tasked to form a strategy for a new technology, which in itself is challenging given we don’t yet fully understand the potential implications and opportunities it may present.

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