"When it comes to digital transformation, the personal touch is often what takes projects from 'good' to 'exceptional'. Plenty of companies can deliver technology, but it's the relationships that really drive innovation in long term."

Philip Button, Regional Business Manager – Enterprise

As a long-standing technology partner for multiple financial organisations across the UK, the team at Exponential-e have been observing the sector's evolving relationship with technology for some time - both the growing demand for a higher standard of operational resilience, and an increasing awareness of the challenges and opportunities that Cloud transformation presents.

The Finance sector has always been one of the most dynamic, rapidly evolving industries, and this shows no signs of changing any time soon. But while shifts in the landscape may well open new opportunities, they will also come with new challenges, and it is the organisations who are ready and able to face these head-on who will continue to thrive in the years ahead.

With the current global situation, the past week has shown the importance of being able to create the Digital Workspace to provide flexible working solutions for your workforce. 

I decided to write a blog around how Microsoft's Teams, a Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) solution, has enabled my productivity to not slip despite the whole of my team now having to work from home thanks to Coronavirus.

Twitter, WhatsApp and other means of consumer service technology are becoming part and parcel of communicating at work alongside Unified Communications (UC) technologies. As a result, the boundaries between our work and personal lives are becoming increasingly blurred.

Phishing is the fraudulent use of electronic communications to try and obtain sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by posing as a legitimate institution. Phishing attacks attempt to get individuals to click on a malicious link and enter confidential information to steal their identity, funds or to be the first step in a serious cyberattack against an organisation.

All organisations store data, and regardless of whether it's a recipe or an algorithm, this data is an organisation's most prized asset, which is why hackers make it their target. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) found that 32% of businesses identified cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months, which have cost an average of £4,180 in lost data and assets

Organisations generate millions of system logs every day from the likes of servers, firewalls and network devices. Their ability to process, analyse and react to this information affects how they will manage any security risks and incidents. To help process this data, many organisations implement a Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) system or outsource to a Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) for their monitoring, which provides a real-time analysis of security alerts.

Cybercriminals are only getting more cunning and skilful with their cyber attacks, which is bad news for organisations when it comes to meeting privacy and compliance regulations. There can be significant legal implications for organisations if their data is not secure and regulations are not met. For instance, since the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect in May 2018, data protection regulators have imposed 114 million euros (approximately 97 million pound) worth of fines under the GDPR regime (GDPR Data Breach Survey 2020 by DLA Piper).

With cyber breaches growing in volume and frequency (Carbon Black reported that 88% of UK organisations suffered a breach in 2018) you can guarantee that your organisation will be targeted by cybercriminals at some point.

The short answer is yes - thousands of businesses are grappling with DX, however most do not consider themselves to be completely 'transformed' yet. Many of the largest Pharma organisations have launched initiatives and created entire departments focused on innovation, and are well on their way to operating in the same way an organisation which has completed its DX journey so far, is.

Cyber professionals say that companies involved in the manufacturing industry are more exposed to cyber-attacks. This was revealed by a number of studies produced by the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI). According to MAPI; 40% of manufacturing firms experienced a cyber-attack within the last year. Of those attacked, 38% of them suffered over $1 million in damages.