data Archives - Digilah

Written by Manish Dalal on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Security risks have become a de facto part of everyday business life, but in the race to plug in gaps created by technology itself, physical security threats should not be ignored. Two years of working/studying/shopping from home have inured many of us to the risks stemming from the conventional physical security measures. But the threat still exists and now includes health risks too.

In the aftermath of pandemic, as organizations reopen their doors to staff and visitors, it’s important to remember that a significant number of people caught the virus from outside or from family members who went out—to work, play, shop, etc. This danger continues to lurk; and will even after the virus becomes endemic (hopefully soon). This means that measures that require contact—fingerprint readers, card readers, keypad readers for instance—are vulnerable, at best.

But beyond worries about contracting the virus through surface contact, there is a pressing need for a more seamless process to vet and permit entry into the workplace. Ideally such solutions should be:

Contactless
Optimized
Seamless
Allow screening of visitors for identification as well as concealed contraband items

Solutions that integrate all of the above will offer benefits through higher levels of security, manpower cost savings, time savings and analytics that can provide actionable business intelligence.

It goes without saying that the data obtained in the course of tech-driven access management should be thoroughly protected by multi-layered security. This is not just to placate the woke crowd but to instill confidence in the business itself.

Biometrics has a major role to play in enabling these solutions. At ZKTeco we recognize this and our Safe2Greet solution is an effort to meet all the expectations of the customers highlighted above.

It incorporates a number of our patent pending technologies to create a complete entrance/access control solution that starts by having visitors pre-register their information via a digital invitation sent to their mobile phones and check them in using various hardware options like a self check-in kiosk or a facial recognition reader. On submitting this information, a QR code is generated and sent to the visitor. On scanning this QR code at the entrance kiosk, factors such as body temperature, mask compliance will be verified.

Once this is done successfully the visitor can proceed to the turnstile, where same the QR code can grant access as well. Cronus, turnstile with built-in metal detector also screens for concealed metal objects—an unobtrusive way to avoid violence, as well as deter pilferage—at exit points. The data collected in the process is secured through high-level security that includes encryption and multi-step access verification.

Safe2Greet avoids physical contact, reduces manpower dependence, and raises the levels of health and safety. Biometric driven solutions like Safe2Greet are not the future, they are available now and they’re here to stay.

Written by Ira Gilani Lal on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

In a 2016 Harvard Business Review article, Scott Anthony shared some insights from a study on S&P 500 companies:

61-year tenure for average firm in 1958 narrowed to 25 years in 1980 – to 18 years in 2012
At current churn rate, 75% of the S&P 500 companies will be replaced by 2027

Business leaders commonly refer to the military acronym VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) to describe the world today. The external environment is changing at a rapid pace and companies cannot afford to be caught off guard. How can companies continue to thrive, in this ever-changing external environment? While there are several challenges, and there are also plenty of opportunities. Deep-rooted assumptions hold us back from unlocking this hidden potential.

Today’s information and digital systems are capable of providing a huge amount of data at the click of a button. Most organizations measure a large number of metrics for each business unit, division, department, employee level etc. The underlying assumption is that the more we measure, better we are! Most senior executives are quite familiar with their local measurements (e.g. tons, units produced, order book, number of subscribers etc.) but are ignorant of the overall financial measurements.

Everyone in the company should understand financials; it is not just for Accounts or Finance function. In most organizations, the top management team does not have a good understanding of Free Cash Flow. In his book, Conspiracy of Fools, Kurt Eichenwald writes that in 2001, just a month before the collapse of Enron, its chairman Kenneth Lay, CEO Jeffery Skilling, and CFO Andrew Fastow did not know that Enron would run out of cash in a matter of weeks!

Dr. Eli Goldratt, author of the best-selling book The Goal, repeatedly emphasized that “Measurements Drive Behavior!”. The purpose of measurements is to take decisions for corrective actions. At the organization level, a few simple parameters are good enough. Timely data and corrective actions can help individuals to connect the dots and see the big picture.

Most companies review performance monthly. This leads to a significant time lag in getting key data or MIS. We recommend a weekly review mechanism with focus on 3-5 key metrics. The objective of the review is only to take decisions for corrective action. The weekly report should be simple and accurate, leaving no room for analysis paralysis, and facilitating effective decision-making.

Increasing digitization of data across the organization has been a key enabler for running the weekly reviews successfully. Companies that have adapted this methodology, provide a very high degree of focus on getting the reports right first time, as soon as the week ends. Many companies have integrated their digital systems (based on ERP such as SAP, Oracle, Tally, Zoho) and provide simple excel based reports and dashboards which can be accessed across devices such as mobile phones or tablets.

During the last two years of the pandemic, there have been lot of uncertainties in supply chain. Moving to a digitally enabled model has allowed these companies to be extremely nimble and agile in their decision making. Several companies have pivoted their business model quickly in order to capitalize on the emerging opportunities in the market. These decisions have been backed by analysis of marketing trends using simple AI and ML based algorithms, dynamic decision making matrix and partnerships across the digital ecosystem.

Technology acceleration has also helped some companies to take specific actions to address business challenges posed by the pandemic. For e.g. to deal with the disruption in logistics, companies have invested in GPS based end to end tracking systems. In manufacturing businesses, use of IOT based sensors has picked up significantly to collect data, and share timely alerts for predictive maintenance.

At Goldratt India, we have been working with Indian companies for over 23 years to help them increase their sales, profit and cash flow by an order of magnitude. Weekly reviews have been the cornerstone of all our engagements. Companies have been able to achieve quantum improvement in performance, just by changing a few metrics and review processes. Some of our learnings are encapsulated below:

Measure performance weekly instead of monthly
Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis, focus on corrective actions only
Instead of chasing benchmarks or budgets, always strive to “Better than Before” with respect to own past performance
Monitor plan vs. actual every week: The more our planning improves, the gap between plan vs. actual reduces
Better than Before: Each week, strive to improve upon past 13 week moving average, irrespective of the external environment

Our client JSPL has been practicing these principles for over 5 years and is well on its way to becoming a debt free company. The company has reduced debt by over Rs 25000 crores in the last 4 years.

Short video from the case study presented at TOCICO international conference in USA:

In conversation with Mr. Naveen Jindal, Chairman, JSPL