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COVID-19 and Geographic Footprint Rationalization

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a fundamental shift in how companies do business as social distancing and other safety efforts impact various business practices. Businesses with a brick-and-mortar footprint need to re-examine their customer service strategy and assess how to best utilize digital service delivery channels. This also means that brick-and-mortar locations must consider new operating models in order to adapt to low foot traffic and balance operating expenses. Therefore, geographic footprint rationalization considerations can help in making important decisions regarding the future utilization of physical company locations.

Data Analytics and Workplace Re-Entry

As companies look to assess their best approach to reopening their physical office space and business within their state’s reopening plan, the utilization of data analytics could play a key part in the decision-making process. The data surrounding COVID-19 changes daily and varies for each state, county and zip code. Therefore, if you have offices that span multiple locations, it is important to invest in an analytic framework to assess emerging risks since the insight from comprehensive data can inform social distancing protocols as well as business contingency plans.

GrowthCast Episode 24:Cybersecurity in a Work from Home Environment

With most companies operating as a remote workforce, it’s can be easy to blur the lines between "work" and "home," increasing your vulnerability for cybersecurity attacks. In this episode, RJ Sudlow covers the little things that play a factor in keeping you and your data protected and offers advice on three steps you can do now that will help you stay safe and hopefully vigilant, while being part of a remote workforce.

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Data Driven Decision-Making to Subdue Uncertainty and Fuel Growth

 In this installment of our FORWARD series, we explore the vital importance of providers' ability to make informed and real-time decisions – from the near-term tactical to long-term strategic.

Looking Beyond COVID-19: Streaming Analytics

Since companies in every industry may have data streaming from multiple sources, analyzing such data in real-time can be helpful for providing valuable insights. Streaming analytics tools provide advancements in the streaming of business intelligence (BI) by improving access to data that is changing constantly, including social media activity, sales leads, websites, mobile apps, customer activity, etc.

The New Imperative for Dynamic Scenario Modeling

Enterprise Sustainability is the first order of the day in the "current normal" that is COVID-19, but we know that one day this pandemic will end. When it does, healthcare providers should turn their attention to emerging from this crisis with clarity and strength. To emerge in this fashion will require them to recognize and address current strategic, operational and financial uncertainty as they simultaneously look forward. Establishing holistic capabilities, including dynamic financial modeling, can be a key driver of sustainability in the future state.

Imaged Loan File Best Practices for Financial Institutions

Whether your financial institution is beginning to transition from paper loan files to imaged loan files, or already has an imaged file retention program that would benefit from enhancements, here are some key considerations to include in your project planning.

Loan Growth at the Outset of the Coronavirus Pandemic

When the U.S. president declared the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) a national emergency on March 13, 2020, local governments responded quickly by issuing shelter-in-place orders, which effectively left many businesses unable to operate. The federal government and associated agencies reacted quickly with a series of expansionary fiscal and monetary policy initiatives.

Impacts from COVID-19 on the 2020 Internal Audit Plan

Your risk assessments are complete. You have carefully designed a 2020 internal plan that is responsive to risk. The audit committee presentations are complete and the audit plan is approved. As you began to implement the 2020 audit plan, phrases such as COVID-19 coronavirus (COVID-19), social distancing and shelter-in-place became part of our daily conversation. Now what?

Network Monitoring Considerations for Remote Workforces

As COVID-19 quickly spread across the U.S., organizations had very little time to react before they were required to send employees home. While everyone swiftly transitioned from their offices to remote-work, cybercriminals began developing new tactics to take advantage of our “new normal.”

Data Analytics for Improved Business Operations

Publication | Apr 14, 2020
More About | Data | Innovation & Technology | Performance & Growth

In our current world, technology is a key driver and one of the largest disruptors in the operational functions for a business. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the goal for many companies is to develop faster, more efficient and productive business processes. In response, companies are shifting toward the adoption of new technologies to better record data as well as analyze and understand its implications for overall performance.

Data Lakehouse – Changing the Analytics Landscape

Publication | Apr 14, 2020
More About | Data | Innovation & Technology | Performance & Growth

Data is the new currency of the modern world. Companies that have learned to amass and leverage the power of data have reached significant valuations on Wall Street, with companies like Google and Facebook being the prominent ones leading the charge.

Telehealth in a COVID-19 Environment & Beyond

COVID-19 brought unprecedented challenges to the healthcare industry - most specifically the challenge to in-person interactions. In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), along with many state Medicaid programs and private payors, expanded access to telehealth services. Beginning March 6, 2020, and throughout the COV-19 Public Health Emergency, individuals covered under these plans gained access to increased telehealth options - to promote public health while maintaining access to clinical care.

Sentiment Analysis

In previous installments to this series, we shared our views on the concept of macro analytics and discussed the importance of exploring alternative key performance indicators (KPIs) to develop foresights on evolving situations. This article shines light on one such alternate KPI known as sentiment analysis.

Lambda Data Architecture for Timely Insights

Core Concepts of the Data Lake Driven by Lambda Architecture - While the world seems to have come to a standstill in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is more data clogging the internet pipelines than ever before as working from home becomes the new normal in most industries. With more data comes the need to store, analyze and develop relevant insights – this is where big data technology comes into play.

COVID-19 Cybersecurity Attacks: Now Is the Time to Educate Your Workforce

Amidst the global struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber criminals are capitalizing on the unfortunate situation. Attackers are preying on individuals looking for information regarding the coronavirus, so it is imperative that the workforce be vigilant during these times. Corporate security controls will provide necessary layers of protection; however, it is up to individual end users to act as a key line of defense to ward off these attacks.

Regulatory Leniency for Telehealth Services

Effective March 17, 2020, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will offer its enforcement discretion for covered entities on the use of remote connections to communicate with patients. This announcement comes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Providers will be allowed to utilize more options for telehealth communications, even if the platform or application does not fully comply with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. The OCR’s enforcement discretion will be to not impose regulatory sanctions or penalties for the use of noncompliant telehealth platforms as long as covered health care providers avoid the use of public-facing applications to communicate with patients. As always, professional judgement must be exercised, and providers should act in “good faith” to inform patients of their medical privacy rights.

Developing Foresight from Alternative KPIs

In our previous installment of this series, we discussed the concept of macro analytics and the importance of key performance indicators (KPIs). We suggested the critical need of keeping the intended audience acquainted with historical and current trends that can inform management and strategic decision-makers about the potential future movement of KPIs. Trend and correlation analysis can provide informative insights into the ability of KPIs to offer predictive foresight.

Insights from Macro Analytics

Publication | Mar 10, 2020
More About | Data | Innovation & Technology | Performance & Growth

Measurement is a precursor to improvement. To measure is to analyze, and a basic concept of analysis is comparative assessment of metrics to study trends and relative changes.

Blockchain Series #5: Guidance and Direction for Organizations & Series Summary

Distributed ledger and blockchain technologies have enormous potential – whether creating efficiencies in supply chain, automating financial transactions or offering better workflows and record-keeping processes for governments, insurance carriers and healthcare entities. Yet, the emerging nature of this technology, complexity of implementing it and scarcity of expert resources should give businesses pause.

Business North Carolina Cybersecurity Roundtable

Firm Blog | Nov 11, 2019
More About | IT Advisory | Data | Innovation & Technology

The importance of data privacy for individuals and businesses is becoming an increasingly significant factor in the new era of e-commerce, mobile marketing and the sharing of information. North Carolina experts discuss what state businesses need to have in mind as they secure their data, access personal information and protect key information.

Physical Security: Key Considerations for Remote and Office-Based Employees

Whether you work in an office or at a remote location, the physical security of sensitive or private information is critical to companies and customers. While it may be second nature for an employee to scan their badge when entering the office or connect to a secure wireless network on their laptop, these practices are part of the larger picture of a company’s physical security.

Pa$sw0rds! Best Practices to Protect Your Business Assets

Password quality and strength is critical for businesses to protect sensitive or private information. While many organizations have made progress in their password requirements and policies, hackers continue to gain access to restricted data and accounts due to weak passwords.

Non-Profit Boards – Focusing on Data Privacy

One of the first challenges non-profits face with data privacy is the lack of overall awareness to data privacy laws, which continue to emerge and can lead to unwanted penalties and fines. Organizations of all sizes can proactively navigate the data privacy laws by appointing a designated data privacy officer (DPO), chief security officer or an appointed champion, which may be the case for smaller organizations. This individual should confirm the proper treatment of personally identifiable information (PII) data, whether it is collected from staff, donor, volunteer or beneficiary. Additional responsibilities should include:

Non-Profit Boards – Navigating Data Security Challenges

Non-profits around the world help communities by delivering services related to healthcare, education, religion, housing, public safety, emergency response, cruelty-prevention, senior services and many other public benefit missions and activities. As these types of organizations continue to build and extend their public outreach, many have yet to fully grasp the constantly changing cybersecurity landscape and avalanche of new data privacy laws. This can place a great amount of risk exposure on non-profits if their data were to become exposed.

Blockchain Series #4: Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Implementations

Most blockchain implementations today are focused on cost reduction and efficiency improvements. In the future “programmable economy,” it is widely held that new business models will emerge, representing new ways of value exchange and new forms of business value. Distributed ledger technologies, like blockchain, are still in their infancy and changing constantly. As such, viable blockchain use cases will largely avoid speculative new business and operating model experimentation.

The Phish in 2019: Three Steps to Avoid the Persistent Threat

Organizations are vulnerable to phishing attacks due to the actions of their end users. No matter the strength of an organization’s infrastructure and defense technology, human error is a critical risk factor in business continuity and information security. Phishing attacks pose major risks to organizations of all sizes. Those that fall victim to these attacks are subject to loss of personally identifiable information (PII), reputation damage, loss of resources, denial of service, delivery of malware or ransomware and potential loss of other sensitive data. The severe impact and nature of a phishing attack make it a board-level issue.

Protect Your Business from a Cybersecurity Breach

By the end of 2018, there were more than 2,000 confirmed breaches, with more than half of those breaches targeting small to middle-market sized businesses. In each of these cases, almost 30 percent were due to internal threat actors, with 76 percent of the attacks being financially motivated1. Within the first two weeks of 2019, Collection #1 revealed approximately 775 million records from various sources were made available for the public to download. A week later, 24 million more financial documents, including mortgage loans and bank statements, were hosted on a web server that did not require a password. It is now safe to say it is no longer a matter of if, but when, companies will experience a cybersecurity incident.

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CMS Approves Bundled Payment For Care Improvement – Advanced (BPCI-A)

In this past year, the healthcare industry has seen a range of changes in Alternative Payment Models (“APM’s”) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services