Is Your Business Getting the R&D tax credit it deserves

Businesses tend to overlook eligibility for R&D tax credits related to technology investment. Much like technology advances and evolves along with your organization, rules and regulations for R&D tax credits continuously change. It’s always worth reviewing your businesses technology investments to determine if anything qualifies under the credit’s current rules.

Here are the basics of the R&D tax credit and what you need to know to get what your organization deserves. Identifying and properly documenting the R&D costs that qualify for the credit is key to successfully claiming and sustaining this tax benefit. Don’t make assumptions about what is or isn’t eligible — take the time to understand the wide array of products, processes, systems, and platforms that could be eligible. You just might save a lot of money!

Download The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing

With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 came a blitz of new and urgent concerns over cybersecurity. Manufacturing’s growing reliance on automation, advanced control systems, and remote work only expands the attack surface for cyber criminals.

MxD’s Hiring Guide addresses a daunting challenge: America must build a new army to protect manufacturers’ intellectual property, factories, and products from cyberattackers that lurk in the shadows, and mutate as readily as any virus.

The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing is a playbook for building that urgently needed workforce. It describes 247 job roles; recommends how to train and upskill workers to handle these jobs; and breaks out detailed descriptions for three specific roles crucial to the future of cybersecurity.

The Hiring Guide, developed in partnership with ManpowerGroup, is an indispensable roadmap and must-read for manufacturing executives, HR departments, educators, and policy makers.

Download The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing

With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 came a blitz of new and urgent concerns over cybersecurity. Manufacturing’s growing reliance on automation, advanced control systems, and remote work only expands the attack surface for cyber criminals.

MxD’s Hiring Guide addresses a daunting challenge: America must build a new army to protect manufacturers’ intellectual property, factories, and products from cyberattackers that lurk in the shadows, and mutate as readily as any virus.

The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing is a playbook for building that urgently needed workforce. It describes 247 job roles; recommends how to train and upskill workers to handle these jobs; and breaks out detailed descriptions for three specific roles crucial to the future of cybersecurity.

The Hiring Guide, developed in partnership with ManpowerGroup, is an indispensable roadmap and must-read for manufacturing executives, HR departments, educators, and policy makers.

Download The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing

With the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 came a blitz of new and urgent concerns over cybersecurity. Manufacturing’s growing reliance on automation, advanced control systems, and remote work only expands the attack surface for cyber criminals.

MxD’s Hiring Guide addresses a daunting challenge: America must build a new army to protect manufacturers’ intellectual property, factories, and products from cyberattackers that lurk in the shadows, and mutate as readily as any virus.

The Hiring Guide: Cybersecurity in Manufacturing is a playbook for building that urgently needed workforce. It describes 247 job roles; recommends how to train and upskill workers to handle these jobs; and breaks out detailed descriptions for three specific roles crucial to the future of cybersecurity.

The Hiring Guide, developed in partnership with ManpowerGroup, is an indispensable roadmap and must-read for manufacturing executives, HR departments, educators, and policy makers.

How did you get started?

Many engineering organizations struggle to integrate security into their SDLC while maintaining development velocity. Carve was created to provide modern security services to customers who want to move beyond penetration testing.

In 2011, that looked a lot different than it does today. Mike, Jeremy, and Max had come through traditional penetration testing companies and saw a clear gap and a way to better serve customers. We started with a couple of core customers in telecom, mobile, and IoT and started delivering services earlier in the development cycle and working directly with the engineering teams.

We’ve grown through referrals and word of mouth. We have a fantastic customer base who have been with us for a long time, and a small number of strong industry partners who share our philosophy on security services and customer service.

What problem do you solve and how do you solve it better than the competition?

Our clients need to know that their products are free of major security flaws, that their own customers’ data is secure, and that they have expertise they can count on to develop and improve the technology supporting their core business.

A traditional approach in this space is based on so-called penetration testing: hiring an outside firm to attack a system prior to (or after!) public release and report all the vulnerabilities. This can have shortcomings, especially because it is relatively expensive to fix flaws late in the product development cycle.

Carve prefers to partner with clients throughout product development, working alongside engineering teams to solve security issues before a line of code is even written. Yes, we will test and assess the finished product, but we will also make it less likely that you will have security flaws in the first place.

Are you headquartered in Chicago? What made you choose Chicago? If you are not headquartered in Chicago, what made you open an office here?

Carve is headquartered in midtown Manhattan, but that doesn’t mean the majority of our team is there. Denver and Chicago are the other cities popular with our consultants (who can be anywhere).

Carve has several clients based in Chicago and the Midwest. Chicago’s deep experience with industry and agriculture, and the technology innovation happening in these sectors, make it a strong fit for Carve’s IoT expertise. We have made a conscious effort to be present and part of the community, and it has now been a home for us for years.

What are the biggest challenges you face as you scale your business?

Consulting scales linearly. But as we gain size, we can specialize in more areas. That has been a real win, with our consultants able to spend their non-billable research time going deep on certain technologies. That translates into one individual being able to support the entire team on engagements when those technologies show up in client systems.

What’s the coolest perk Carve System’s office has?

Maximum flexibility. Carve is a remote-first office, with consultants working across North America. This lets our high-performing technical experts balance their lives as they need to and gives them long periods of deep concentration. In normal times, there’s also plenty of opportunity to travel to client sites across the globe. These are great perks to be able to offer to our experts, and is a reason so many talented folks are working here and not somewhere else.

The whole company also gets together twice a year, often in a retreat setting somewhere on the continent, to socialize, share expertise, and guide the firm.

How has your company culture evolved as Carve has grown?

Cybersecurity has a natural counter-culture element, and that is true at Carve too. But it is paired with pride of craftsmanship – we love that we can use our expertise to help our customers be good stewards for everyone in the digital sphere.

As Carve has grown, we have put systems in place to help us manage projects, communicate effectively, and collaborate. These are necessary as the head count goes up, and we take pride in our management practices, too. That ultimately helps us be effective. The trick for us has been to automate the boring stuff without automatically making Carve boring and stuffy.

How does Carve Systems interact with the Chicago community?

Chicago is home for many of us. We are involved in the local tech ecosystem, including at ITA and the Chicago Connectory. We have attended ThotCon, Chicago’s hacking conference, in recent years, and sponsored high schoolers interested in technology and security there. One of our consultants will be presenting at THOTCON 0xB, whenever the pandemic allows us to gather again. Hopefully in 2021!

What is Carve’s core industry or vertical served?

We joke that our best customers are the ones who actually wanted to hire us! But in reality, that is true – we take great pride in our work and customer service, and our most successful customers are really looking for something more than just checking the box when it comes to security services.

CHICAGO, IL – September 16, 2020 – The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have awarded physIQ a contract to develop an AI-based COVID-19 Decompensation Index (CDI) Digital Biomarker to address the rapid decline of high-risk COVID-19 patients. Today, high-risk COVID-19 patients and their providers, are finding out too late that in the disease continuum they are getting sicker and need urgent care. The new early warning system under development could allow providers to intervene sooner when a COVID-19 patient is clinically surveilled from home and begins to worsen. Rather than relying on point measurements, such as temperature and SpO2,  that are known to be lagging or insensitive indicators of COVID-19 decompensation, continuous multi-parameter vital signs will be used to establish a targeted biomarker for COVID-19.

“Despite the technological advances and attention paid to COVID-19, the healthcare community is still monitoring patient vitals the very same way as we did in the 1800s,” said Steven Steinhubl MD, Director of Digital Medicine at Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) and a physIQ advisor. “With the advances in digital technology, AI and wearable biosensors, we can deliver personalized medicine remotely giving caregivers new tools to proactively address this pandemic. For that reason alone, this decision by the NIH has the potential to have a monumental impact on our healthcare system and how we manage COVID-19 patients.” 

PhysIQ will develop and validate a CDI algorithm that builds off existing wearable biosensor-derived analytics generated by physIQ’s pinpointIQTM end-to-end cloud platform for continuous monitoring of physiology. The data will be gathered through a clinical study of COVID-19 positive patients in collaboration with University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System (UI Health) and build upon work already in-place for monitoring COVID-19 patients convalescing at home.

For patients who participate in the program, physiological data will be collected before and after their admission to the hospital. “Since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, UI Health has been at the forefront of clinical research, patient care and community-based efforts to support the Chicago community. Working with physIQ is an opportunity for us to study and adapt new technology and potentially improve patient care and make a difference among the many vulnerable patients we serve, many of whom are experiencing COVID-19 disparities in their communities,” stated UI Health Chief Medical Officer, Terry Vanden Hoek MD.

In the development phase of this project, physIQ and its clinical partner will monitor participants who are confirmed COVID-19 positive, whether recovering at home or following a discharge from the hospital. During the validation phase, physIQ will evaluate lead time to event statistics, decompensation severity assessments, and the ability for CDI to predict decompensation severity. “The application of the CDI may provide a universal indicator of decompensation,” said Karen Larimer PhD, ACNP-BC,  study PI and physIQ’s Director of Clinical Development. “Application of this technology could detect COVID-19 decompensation and prevent hospitalization or morbidity events in both scenarios.”

The study is designed to capture data from a large, diverse population to investigate CDI performance differences among subgroups based on sex/gender and racial/ethnic characteristics. This project will not only enable the development and validation of the CDI, it will also collect rich clinical data correlative with outcomes and symptomology related to COVID-19 infection.

“We are honored to have been selected by the NIH to pursue such a worthy cause in such challenging times,” said Gary Conkright, CEO of physIQ. “This is a culmination of many years spent in the pursuit of developing a clinical grade product to address serious medical conditions, without taking shortcuts, that has the ability to monitor the most complicated machine in the world, the human body.” 

This index will build on physIQ’s prior FDA-cleared, AI-based multivariate change index (MCI) that has amassed more than 1.5 million hours of physiologic data, supporting development of this targeted digital biomarker for COVID-19. This will enable new research and further insight into using digital health to advance the public health response.

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds under Contract No. 75N91020C00040 as a component of the Congressionally supported response to COVID-19 from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services.

###

In a year of constant change, CSC Corptax, the leading corporate income tax solution provider, successfully met the challenge of delivering customer product training without connecting in person. To remedy the restrictions of the global pandemic, CSC Corptax employees created a distance-learning program to replace the in-person training customers relied on for years.

The“Corptax Compliance Series” wasn’t an ordinary training program. It was a two-day virtual event, featuring 17 distinct one-hour training sessions. The company’s first-ever attempt at a large-scale, multi-session virtual training event attracted more than 3,400 attendees. The successful program was planned and executed in just two weeks. How did all this come together?

“We pulled together as a team to help prepare our customers for the upcoming compliance season. It entailed a subset of our virtual training, along with a roadmap to support our customers while they worked remotely,” said Angela Warren, senior technical trainer with CSC Corptax.

The entire education services team contributed to the project. “It wasn’t just the training coordinators and the trainers; it included the technical writers and multimedia specialists as well,” says Christina Hulett, senior training coordinator. “We also worked with staff on the support, professional services, and marketing teams to ensure the series flowed. The executive team were major advocates as well.”

“The summer is an important training time for tax professionals because they file their tax returns later in the year,” says Christina. “Typically, we host many in-person training sessions to complement our regular online training, but that wasn’t possible due to the pandemic.”

Having everyone focus on the same goal was the key to success. “Our teams realized we couldn’t have in-person engagements,” stated Christina. “We were all on the same page and understood we needed to deliver training as soon as possible.” From production to presentation, team members also took on roles outside their normal work scope to create the series.

With expectations for the program set high internally, the results spoke for themselves. “To average more than 200 people per live session was amazing,” says Jamey Heim, manager of CSC Corptax education services. “At times we had three concurrent sessions, reaching more than 600 people simultaneously.” The team discovered that virtual events breakdown attendance barriers associated with in-person events, such as travel, lodging, and cost. The virtual event platform also enabled the CSC Corptax team to track thousands of data points, allowing them to respond to customers more proactively and gain insight for upcoming virtual events. It’s an experiment worth repeating.

“Teamwork was key to all of this,” said Angela. “We had people with great attitudes who were willing to make this happen, so it didn’t even feel like work. At times, you miss the camaraderie working virtually. Even though we weren’t physically there together as a team, I felt the commitment and that made a big difference.”

Customers are relying on a company’s ability to understand their situation and adapt to the current environment. As we’re likely to see virtual events be the norm for quite a while, it’s important to have an effective strategy in place. From road mapping and planning, to creation and execution, CSC Corptax learned it takes a coordinated team with a common goal to make it a success.

Chicago, IL, September 10, 2020 — Steadfast, a leader for over 20 years in complex cloud consulting, engineering and managed hosting, is proud to announce a new partnership with Convesio – the first self-healing, autoscaling, platform-as-a-service for creating and managing WordPress sites. This exciting venture sets a path for a seamless and stress-free experience for businesses that want to move to a more friendly development and performance driven WordPress.

Steadfast and Convesio’s New Partnership Paves the Way for Businesses to Quickly Design and Deploy Exceptional Websites with Dynamic Increase in Network Performance.

This recipe of Convesio’s WordPress expertise and Steadfast’s world-class hosting services offers businesses a worry-free WordPress experience as these two exceptional providers bring a full circle of technical savvy to the table. This partnership expels service gaps most companies experience, having to spend time and money researching and navigating a wide array of hosting and web development services to simply set up an efficient website. This partnership solves uncertainty and weight of searching for fast and reliable WordPress/hosting, re-directing that energy to focus on growing their business.

“We were pleasantly surprised when we connected with Steadfast and discovered the amazing speed and reliability nested in their infrastructure and network. Establishing speeds from 30% – 60% faster than ‘Big Box’ providers is astounding.” – Tom Fanelli, Convesio CEO/Founder

The Simple and Stress-Free Difference with Steadfast and Convesio

• Create highly scalable WordPress sites in less than a minute. No need to configure Load Balancers, Docker Containers, or Database Clusters.
• Enjoy high-performing private, public or hybrid hosting options. By eliminating physical hardware constraints of owned, on-premises servers, businesses can scale resources on-demand and feel a sense of ease knowing their data is secure and well managed.
• Backup, cloning or restoring sites is easy with advanced backup and retention policies in just a few clicks.
• Hosting is secured in a state-of-the-art data center located in Chicago, near the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) at 350 E. Cermak, meeting high demands of telecommunications providers and Fortune 500 companies with complete redundancy in power, HVAC, and high-performing (30% – 60% faster) network connectivity, while delivering complete 24/7 security.
• Maximize your WordPress site’s speed, performance and security with easy to use tools like Free SSL’s, Integrated CDN, Edge Page Caching and Optimization Services.

“Steadfast was established over 20 years ago on the foundation of helping companies build websites and then providing a high performing hosting service to ensure continuity and personal support. This venture feels like ‘home’ as we are once again weaving complete website development services back into our foundation with Convesio’s WordPress expertise.” – Tim Monner, Steadfast Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

About Steadfast

We make IT work, so you can take care of business. Specialists in Cloud Consulting, Engineering and Hosting for over 20 years, offering customized services at all stages of design and deployment to maintenance and expansion planning. As an extension of your team, Steadfast’s goal is to ease technology constraints, making your life easier so you can Strengthen Your Focus on your core business. www.steadfast.net

About Convesio

Convesio is the first self-healing, autoscaling, platform-as-a-service for creating and managing WordPress websites. www.convesio.com. Start a free trial today at https://account.convesio.com/.

Contact Information:

Steadfast

Tim Monner

312-602-2689 ext. 240

Contact via Email

www.steadfast.net

Read the full story here: Steadfast Joins Forces with Convesio, Helping Provide 30% – 60% Increase in WordPress Platform Speed and Performance

Press Release Distributed by PR.com

The ad tech world is committed to diving deep on topics related to the industry. If it has to do with building a better tech stack or smarter media buying, an avalanche of discussion ensues. But the swell of conversation has often stalled when shifting the conversation to diversity and acknowledging the industry’s lack thereof.

The issue resurged several weeks ago following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. These underlined how racial inequality persists in America. The far reach of that inequality takes many shapes. One longstanding manifestation where employers (knowingly or unknowingly) contribute to inequality is through hiring. This is particularly visible in advertising and ad tech.

The industry has been aware of the issue. A 2018 diversity report from McKinsey noted a direct correlation between diversity in leadership and profitability. The same report found that ‘companies in the top quartile of ethnic and cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability’.

Despite insights supporting the hiring and retention of diverse leadership, the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing 2019 report found no lift in YOY hiring of Black, Hispanic or Asian CMOs or CMO-equivalents.

The lack of progress suggests that most organizational leaders need to start at the beginning when tackling racial diversity and the hiring of other professionals with marginalized identities.

Having been at the same ad tech company for a decade, one built on principles that create a welcoming work environment, I’m well aware of the challenges. We’ve lacked diversity since our establishment, and that’s after revising hiring practices and rolling out internal and external diversity and inclusion efforts over a year ago. Some change has occurred, but we need more substantial results.

In the last several weeks, D&I efforts have accelerated. We established measurable, time-sensitive diversity goals, notably focused on recruitment and internal education. But newfound enthusiasm alone can’t guarantee change.

Much of the responsibility falls on leadership, but I’ve also recognized my role in ensuring that my employer’s commitments are upheld. Besides inquiring internally to learn about company processes and how to be a part of it, here are insights from my time focused on diversity initiatives. They were my starting place as I sought to be a part of the path to progress.

Reach Out to the Industry 

The issue of workplace diversity and inclusion doesn’t end with your organization. Hearing from other industry voices that actively focus on Diversity and Inclusion can help your education, improve the way you engage with your team and enable you to pass back insights to your employer. This is especially important for tenured leaders who may lack diversity and inclusion expertise. A lot of industry organizations and companies are making resources and content available including the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the 4As, the American Advertising Federation, and Google.

Employees, Hold Your Leaders Accountable

Broad value statements are meaningless unless executive leaders are accountable for establishing goals and seeing them through. If your employer has communicated that they plan to act, ask for specifics. What quantifiable goals is it planning to achieve and when does it expect to achieve them by? It’s equally important to receive progress updates. If the details seem hazy or there aren’t updates, then follow up.

Leaders, Hold Yourself Accountable

Leaders who manage employees should do a pulse check on what they’re doing to not only educate themselves but understand what diversity goals they’ll be accountable for. Benchmarks should be communicated to the teams they oversee so transparency exists at all levels.

Executive leadership can also publicly verbalize what they’re holding themselves accountable to. Many D&I specialists suggest presenting goals that are SMART (Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Based). Regular updates on pacing against those goals should be communicated across the company.

It’s Not All for You to Take On

While involvement in workplace D&I efforts may be a personal goal for some employees, calibrate for a commitment level that is manageable. Overcommitment by exuberant employees won’t solve these longstanding systemic issues overnight. Even if an employer is willing to accept employee help, employees should neither be overextending themselves nor solving problems they aren’t equipped to tackle. Some work demands the hiring of external resources and enthusiastic employees can’t substitute for trained expertise.

Ad tech employers must actively accept their personal responsibility in tackling the inequality that remains so visible in our industry. These efforts have enabled me to reflect on longstanding industry norms that should have never been normalized.

As this recent series of tragedies slowly dissipates from the headlines, the work towards achieving a more equitable industry remains. I stand by my employer as it progresses towards our long-term commitments and will question it swiftly if it falters. The moment for substantial and sustainable change in ad tech is now.

Originally pushed on AW360 — https://www.advertisingweek360.com/diversity-the-kpi-that-ad-tech-forgot-to-measure/

As the COVID-19 situation continues to wear on, every school district in the country has been forced to make difficult decisions, many of which can easily be perceived as “lose-lose” due to the complexity of the ever-changing COVID regulations. Remote learning is certainly not ideal as it can force parents to stay home from work, and in-person learning comes with the obvious risks of exposing children and teachers to the virus.

Employers are caught in the middle of this issue as they try to understand the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA or Act) and how it applies to their employees with school age children at home.

This post is designed to provide some guidance to the millions of employers who now face the dilemma of how to best approach this situation.

In this post, we’ll cover:

• What things CAN you do to better understand the situation that your employees find themselves in.
• What things you must NOT do while trying to make leave decisions because they violate the FFCRA or other regulations.
• Things to consider as you weigh the pros and cons of certain FFCRA-related decisions.

Green Light: Things You CAN Do

If you are an employer or HR administrator who is tasked with making FFCRA leave decisions for employees whose children are starting the school year, the first thing you need to do is understand the specific situation of each employee who submits an FFCRA leave request. Fortunately, there are some questions that you are allowed to ask and other pieces of information you are allowed to request from your employee:

• You are allowed to ask how old the employee’s child or children are. If the child or children are age 15 or older, you can and should require that the employee provide a statement or affirmation that there are special circumstances that cause the older child to need their care. If the employee is unable to make such a statement or affirmation, then you can deny their FFCRA leave if the children are over 15.
• You are allowed to request from your employee the name of their child or children’s school, place of care, or caregiver that is closed or unavailable due to COVID-19. In the case of a closed school, you can contact the school district to confirm plans that the school has made, whether it’s in-person learning, remote learning, or a hybrid option. Remember, FFCRA leave is not available for the parents of a child whose school is open for in-person attendance. If the child is home not because his or her school is closed, but because the parent has chosen for the child to remain home, the parent is not entitled to FFCRA paid leave.
• Some employees may ask about the possibility of bringing their children to the office with them. Depending on the nature of your workplace, this is a possibility that you may want to consider. However, you should consult with an attorney or trusted insurance broker that is familiar with the kind of licensing and insurance that would be required to do this.

Most importantly, try to keep an open channel of communication with your employees. If your employees can see that you are there to support them, they will be much more willing to discuss compromise and alternatives such as only requesting a few hours off each day in the morning or afternoon. Alternatives like this can still allow your employees to get significant work done – which can make a world of difference during these uncertain economic times.

Red Light: Things YOU CANNOT Do

Now let’s talk about the things you must NOT do while considering FFCRA leave decisions for your employees:

• You cannot ask an employee to look for different childcare if their usual provider is unavailable. An employee is entitled to leave if the child’s usual care provider is unavailable due to COVID-19 — they are under no obligation to look for alternatives, and any attempt on your part to require that would be an illegal interference with their right to leave.
• You cannot request FFCRA documentation from an employee until after the first workday of FFCRA leave.
• If an employee with children over the age of 15 provides a statement explaining that there are special circumstances that cause the older child to need their care, you are not allowed to dig any deeper into the situation.
• Independent sleuthing to verify what an employee tells you is not a good idea. Never do anything that might infringe upon your employees’ right to privacy.

Yellow Light: Weighing the Pros and Cons of FFCRA Leave Decisions

When making decisions about approving or denying employee FFCRA requests, always be sure to weight the pros and cons of your decisions.

In some instances, you may be tempted to terminate an employee if they are unable to work and do not qualify for FFCRA leave. Assuming that no other leave laws apply, termination may be an option. However, you may want to instead consider offering the employee an unpaid personal leave of absence or revisiting whether a flexible or part-time work schedule would be better than losing the employee entirely. Recruiting, hiring, and training are all expensive undertakings, so if there’s a way to keep an employee around — even if they need some time off — that is likely better for your bottom line.

Making the determination that a leave request is fraudulent is another situation in which you’ll want to spend considerable time thinking about your next steps. If you feel like you have enough evidence to believe a leave request is fraudulent, you have the option to deny it. However, there is significant risk in denying a request for FFCRA leave if an employee has provided the appropriate documentation. Further, you don’t want to discipline an employee who was acting in good faith and simply misunderstood the leave rules.

Key Takeaways

There are still many gray areas related to the FFCRA. The Department of Labor will be releasing more guidance in the coming days and weeks. Be sure to stop by our blog regularly as we will make future posts that highlight the most important things that employers need to know about the FFCRA.

However, there are things that you CAN do and things that you CANNOT do related to the FFCRA as we’ve discussed in this post.

• You CAN ask certain questions to ensure that your employees qualify for FFCRA leave.
• You CANNOT ask an employee to look for different childcare if their usual provider is unavailable. And never do anything that violates an employee’s privacy.
• As is the case in many aspects of managing your business, take time to weigh the pros and cons of FFCRA decisions. While you may be tempted to try to fight an employee leave request, consider the long-term costs and benefits of doing so.

TransUnion, a global information and insights company, processes more than 1,000 transactions per second, and Chief Information and Technology Officer Abhi Dhar says that each and every one is important.

TransUnion’s business customers rely on it for instant access to information that allows them to make immediate financing decisions. And consumers need and deserve fast answers, Dhar says. That’s why he’s using machine learning to bolster TransUnion’s IT uptime.

Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, allows the company’s IT team to predict problems in advance, so they can proactively resolve issues before outages occur.

“We have to be highly available for our consumers and business customers,” Dhar says. “Anytime anyone wants to make a risk decision in the biggest banks and biggest insurance companies in the world, we have to be able to answer that question very quickly.”

AI is a hot topic in IT these days, but often it’s just a baked-in feature that makes software more effective without businesses having to do anything. Now, many businesses are taking advantage of AI platforms and solutions more intentionally to change how they engage with their customers and employees.

The technology quickly processes and analyzes enormous volumes of data, allowing organizations to keep business operations running smoothly, for example.

It can also help companies better understand their customer preferences, which in turn lets them personalize marketing offers to boost revenue. And some businesses are taking advantage of automated AI-powered chatbots to improve customer service or help employees become more productive.

“There are so many ways AI can help businesses,” says Bob O’Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research. “At the end of the day, it’s advanced analytics: AI is proving to be good at finding patterns and translating that into something you can turn into meaningful action.”

Businesses Can Serve Customers Faster with ML

When Dhar joined TransUnion 18 months ago, his priority was to improve uptime. One of the key enablers, besides the traditional disciplined IT processes, was to apply machine learning to predictively achieve that outcome, he says.

It’s a huge undertaking because TransUnion operates in more than 30 countries and aggregates information on 1.2 billion consumers from 100,000 data sources. But the company, whose business customers include financial institutions, auto insurance carriers and healthcare providers, has made strides.

Splunk software is part of TransUnion’s strategy. In 2013, the company began implementing Splunk’s core enterprise software to monitor and analyze the health of its applications, IT infrastructure and networks across its data centers worldwide.

Today, the Splunk tool centralizes and correlates log data and uses machine learning to provide real-time visibility into its applications and infrastructure, says Ed Bailey, TransUnion’s senior monitoring and operations architect.

In the past year and a half, TransUnion’s IT staff has collaborated with its data science team to develop advanced machine learning algorithms to spot performance issues and predict outages, allowing the IT team to troubleshoot and remediate before downtime occurs.

They used Machine Learning Toolkit from Splunk to develop the models, and over time they’ve gone from predicting outages one hour in advance to six hours in advance.

“We are using hundreds of millions of events as a training data set to look for minute fluctuations in application and systems health, and when the model sees those fluctuations, we can alert the appropriate teams,” Bailey says. “Instead of having a full-blown outage, we can take action much earlier, so it becomes a business-as-usual exercise instead of a fire drill.”

It’s a highly predictive model that can even tell IT administrators what days of the week and during which hours the company is most likely to encounter a problem, Dhar says. TransUnion has successfully implemented it in some business systems and is currently rolling it out across the enterprise, he says.

How Machine Learning Can Power Smarter Marketing

While AI is a powerful ally for ensuring continuity in IT operations, its analytical power can be harnessed to inform decision-making within every part of a business. Recognizing the potential, TransUnion is expanding its AI program beyond outages — building machine learning algorithms to deliver more business and operational insight to every business unit. “Anywhere we can bring value, we are looking to do it,” Dhar says.

Smaller companies are taking advantage of AI too. Apparel manufacturer Buffalo Jeans wanted to boost its online sales, so in 2016, it deployed several AI-powered IBM marketing applications to better understand its customers and send more relevant, highly targeted email marketing offers to them.

Read the full article here!

Inaugural Cohort of Relativity Fellows Begins Unparalleled e-Discovery Tech Training Program

12 Chicagoland area individuals embark on a new career journey at Relativity

CHICAGO – AUGUST 26, 2020 – Relativity, a global legal and compliance technology company, has officially begun its inaugural Relativity Fellows program. After reviewing more than 320 applications and conducting 116 first-round virtual interviews, Relativity chose 12 motivated individuals from a diverse pool of applicants based in Chicago. The program will run through early 2021 and Fellows that complete the program will be placed in a full-time role at Relativity or one of its e-discovery partners.

“All of us at Relativity are beyond excited to welcome these bright and talented individuals to learn with us so they can launch their careers in litigation support and e-discovery,” said Mike Gamson, Chief Executive Officer at Relativity. “Each of these unique Fellows brings a diverse set of skills and ideas to the table that will not only help them succeed individually but help our organization develop strong subject matter experts and the e-discovery industry build a more inclusive environment.”

In addition to the proprietary educational content around its software, Relativity has also partnered with the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists (ACEDS) to provide supplementary foundational training and development programming so the Fellows can gain an in-depth understanding of complex e-discovery issues and challenges.

“The main goal of this program is to connect the untapped talent we have in our communities to career opportunities in our industry. We want the Relativity Fellows program to act as a career launchpad,” said Colleen Costello, Head of Social Impact at Relativity. “Our team, with the support of various partners in the community, has worked tirelessly over the last year to put together a program that will truly change the professional and economic trajectories of talented Chicagoans and I can’t wait to see where their careers go from here.”

Relativity will distribute a call for applications later this year for the next cohort scheduled to begin in 2021. You can learn more about Relativity Fellows here.

About Relativity  

At Relativity, we make software to help users organize data, discover the truth, and act on it. Our platform is used by more than 13,000 organizations around the world to manage large volumes of data and quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations, and compliance operations with SaaS platform RelativityOne and Relativity Trace. Relativity has over 329,000 enabled users in 48+ countries from organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, and 199 of the Am Law 200. Relativity has been named one of Chicago’s Top Workplaces by the Chicago Tribune for nine consecutive years. Please contact Relativity at sales@relativity.com or visit http://www.relativity.com for more information. 

Session available on-demand

FinTech Lunch & Learn with Lucro, OutSystems & TruewindThe banking and financial services industry has undergone tremendous innovation in recent years, however, many companies are still challenged with delivering a customer-centric – omnichannel experience that drives results.The recording of our FinTech talk, organized along with OutSystems and Lucro Commercial Solutions is now available on-demand. In this session Lucro, a leading credit union services organization shared how they developed and delivered a successful, omnichannel end-to-end digital transformation strategy before and during the pandemic.

Register today to view the session on-demand!

Crisis Communications, Reconsidered: Evive Supports Workforces through COVID-19, Return to Work, and Beyond

Crisis communication really isn’t so different from day-to-day communication—not if you’re doing the latter effectively.

In this eBook, we share the journey Evive has taken with its large-employer customers from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic to the Return to Work phase, and the key role rapid, relevant communications played throughout it. COVID-19 threw everyone for a loop and catapulted employers into crisis mode, forcing companies to pivot how they positioned their benefits and resources to employees with strategic, highly-segmented messaging in the right moments. To help our customers support their populations throughout the crisis, we equipped them with tools to help their employees feel heard, supported, and safe.

Read the full eBook to understand how the Evive platform empowered these employers with effective communication capabilities. Plus: learn the compelling insights gleaned from our national survey research and MyEvive user polling that helped inform these efforts and more.

What problem do you solve and how do you solve it better than the competition?

Our approach.Not only does Kastle differentiate with our SLA for response times, but we offer we most comprehensive, advanced technology to keep security current for our clients.Our clients are not experts in physical security.The alternative to Kastle, leveraging an “off-the-shelf” security & video system, means that the responsibility of running, advancing, maintaining, altering, and protecting the equipment falls to the end user. That results in data vulnerabilities, slower resolutions, and equipment that becomes obsolete and requires repeated capital investments.

Kastle pioneered the concept of “managed security” over 45 years ago. We operate and manage advanced, sophisticated security systems for our clients, around-the-clock. We do not merely sell security products, but rather provide our clients a partner in security.  From the design to installation, then monitoring and maintaining, onto continuously advancing the technology, the integrity and the service model, our clients go through a vetting exercise one time as opposed to every 3-5 years.  Our average length of customer relationship?  It’s over a DECADE. We’re doing something different to make that happen.

Most recently, we have faced a new problem: COVID-19 has flipped the world on its ear.  In addition to the obvious health concerns, COVID is preventing us from living a public life.  That includes our ability to go back to the office safely. Our customers are seeking ways to safely get back to the workplace. Enter KastleSafeSpaces . We took our ‘partnership’ position, and knew we had to answer the need. From all things touchless, automated screening solutions, to contact tracing, to social distancing, our tech is comprehensive and groundbreaking.

How did you get started?

Gene Samburg founded Kastle Systems in 1972 with the mission of providing a more effective, efficient, and convenient approach to securing commercial spaces. In 1972, the technology to manage security simply did not exist.Kastle answered the need with removing it from our clients’ plates.In 2020, the opposite is true.There is so much technology, where do clients start?Recognizing this need, particularly in commercial real estate and its tenants, allows Kastle to provide an outsourced, managed solution for security issues with real security expertise so our clients can focus on running their core business safely.

Are you headquartered in Chicago? What made you choose Chicago? If you are not headquartered in Chicago, what made you open an office here?

In 1992, Kastle opened our Chicago location, and expansion from our HQ in Washington D.C. One advantage to a managed approach is giving the ability for clients to maintain consistency from market to market. Chicago is a hub for business and technology and was a natural extension for our solutions.When we opened this market, we were crystal clear on Chicago’s stature in America’s business community. It was an obvious location, richly populated with some of the greatest companies in the world. Why shouldn’t they have a world-class security solution?

How are you supporting the Chicago tech community philanthropically?

We focus are philanthropic efforts on the broader community, partnering with organizations like Move for Hunger to collect food from members of real estate industry in Chicago, and other cities across the country to provide food to the local foodbanks of each city we serve.

What’s the coolest perk Kastle’s Chicago office has?

In addition to our hands-free technology, the Chicago team benefits from a culture that differentiates us both within our market as well our company. With the growth that our Chicago team has experienced in the last 5 years, our team is (thankfully!) like a family- we have one another’s backs and like to have fun!

What are the growth and scaling opportunities within Kastle’s industry?

Generally speaking, cloud computing, big data, and IoT are creating significantly more intersection points between a company’s network security and its facility security. The ability to bridge virtual security and physical security is, and will continue to be, a very powerful tool. Second, with an endless thirst for data in 2020, an access control provider has the potential to add a ton of value: we know who’s allowed in the space, potentially who is in the space, and specific traffic patterns.But there’s such a thing as data overload (I swear!); the information we provide must be actionable.Additionally, like everyone in technology, integration with outside companies is critical.Providing data is great.Automatically feeding that access control data to a 3^rd party for response and system changes is priceless. Finally, it’s all about video.Make video smarter.Make video easier. Make video faster, sharper, and give it the AI it needs to reduce unnecessary (and often ineffective) overhead.

Which companies across the globe inspire you either through brand, innovation, scale, campaigns, organization etc.?

Our goal is to provide Ritz-Carlton like service levels, plain and simple.If there’s someone higher, then we want to be them.For innovation, we want to be like Apple. Constantly pushing updates/ bug fixes to our clients and remaining highly secure.

How has your company culture evolved as Kastle has grown?

Our culture starts with leadership.Kastle is a privately held company run, in many ways, like a family business. Although we are a $120MM operation, with offices in 13 cities, we retain the feel of a family business. While the culture has evolved with new technology, and the pace of change, many things have remained true that defines us as an organization.

Commitment to Service – Our business strategy starts by establishing long-term business partnerships: we offer peace of mind by ‘owning and delivering’ a wholistic approach to our client’s security.  Therefore, Kastle seeks and attract people who believe in going above and beyond to ensure satisfaction.

Embracing Technology – In order to provide a managed security solution, it was clear that in order to scale quickly and retain clients, we would need to provide advanced technology. That has defined us from day 1.  It is even more true of our culture today than was true in 1972.

What are your primary goals for Kastle?

Innovate, 100%. We want our clients and potential clients to see us as leading the charge in access control, video and visitor technology.Beyond that, we want to keep growing! Client satisfaction and retention are the foundation of growth, so we live and breathe that every day.

Where do you see Kastle in two years? Five? Ten?

While we can’t predict the future (see pandemic), we do know that in two, five and ten years, we will be innovating and using technology to keep our clients’ spaces safe. In two years, I see us providing solutions to every ITA member and partner!  In 5 years, as a culture, AI will start to feel a bit more real.  For us, AI means that video solutions will see huge advancements.  In 10 years?  Let’s talk about robots monitoring that video for you!

What’s the No. 1 thing on your to-do list?

Getting Americans back to the workplace safely!Let our tech spark your plan!We dove headfirst into creating a solution, KastleSafeSpaces, back in March to get this tech available as quickly as we could.

Best company/team outing in company’s history? Why?

It happens every year at our annual national sales and marketing conference because it is the most able to all be together at once as the “Kastle family”.

In your opinion, what are some of the pros and cons of being an Illinois business?

Chicago is such a great place. Our clients are direct, real, hardworking, funny, and smart. They want technology, but they are conservative on where they spend their money. That means we have to work harder here to prove our worth to our clients—and we’re ok with that! The recent downside is the crime. It means that we’re busier than ever, but It’s so frustrating to see our city at such a crossroads. And of course, the darn weather.

What risks or issues do you foresee in your industry’s near future?

2020 is defining players in our industry without question. COVID is defining who and which technology has staying power. But COVID is just the impetus. There is truly great, differentiated tech on the market. Clients now need to be educated that it exists and COVID is making that happen.There’s positive in everything!

What are the biggest challenges you face as you scale your business?

Oh, it’s always finding talent to match our client-first, fast-paced, and innovative approach to allow us to grow in the right ways.  We are a team-centric, creative organization run almost like a family business. The clients we serve stay with us for typically over a decade and we seek a workforce that is eager to stay with us and our clients for a long time.  Our people are our biggest asset, hands down. 

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve faced as an organization, and how did you overcome it?

Over ~50 years history, we’ve got a few! But, like everyone else, we can’t see past this dang COVID!

We’re fortunate. We’re built for innovation. We hire innovative people, because if we don’t provide cutting-edge tech, someone else will!  We rely on that culture to provide our clients vital relief with a technology-first approach to solving problems.

Our pivot with COVID-19 has been next-level though. Kastle stopped reeling at the end of March and started driving for change. We recognized that it was absolutely in our wheelhouse to get people comfortable with being back at work! We creatively re-configured our existing touchless technology to integrate screening methods, leveraged the Kastle Presence app to create our KastleSafeSpaces program, and made advancements to existing infrastructure to help with contact tracing and social distancing.  Brilliant! 

What motivates your employees to come to work every day?

Coffee!!!  And our customers.  We love our clients, we love client satisfaction, and we love being challenged.

What was the ‘aha’ moment when you realized Kastle made it?

Kastle Chicago started to define its current culture about 5 years ago. We began to fill our team with the right skillsets- smart, responsible, independent and hilarious people.We won (internal) region of the year in 2016.That was good.We had a repeat in 2017.It was at the time of our Bulls-like Threepeat in 2019 that the lightbulb went on- we’re doing something special here.Financial metrics were on point, our client cancellations were next to none, we had zero turnover.Most importantly, our client reviews knocked it out of the park. It was a special year.We’re ready to become a dynasty now- no last dance for this crew!!!

What do you do to encourage constant growth and change for your employees?

Continuous Discovery – Continuing innovation requires continuing discovery – to stay engaged, energized and informed from top management to the service team. Employees participate at Kastle both as students and teachers. Kastle keeps employees motivated, informed, and inspired to create new security solutions for clients – staff informs Kastle what skills they want to improve, and the company finds a way to provide learning.

How does Kastle interact with the Chicago community?

Through partnerships like ITA, ALA, IFMA, BOMA, IREM.Kastle Chicago seeks opportunities to socialize (and give back) by working with our clients on what they care about. We love our associations!

What are the top reasons employees would say they love working for Kastle?

Our culture is work hard, play hard. You will never be in search of personality at Kastle. We spend too much time at work to not enjoy what we do and the people that we do it with. We encourage our employees to enjoy their time at the office (or on Teams these days)! It’s this culture, along with providing a service that our employees believe in, and our relentless pursuit in client satisfaction that spurs our success.

What makes Kastle stand out?

Our technology, hands down.Our industry, and the accompanying expense, is typically seen as a commodity or a “burden” to the P&L.Our technology has a cool element; now your access control or video is actually an amenity!Our evergreen approach is the reason clients come on board, and why they stay for over 10 years!

What is the one thing Kastle cannot live without?

Our clients.

Our customers (partners) keep raising the bar for us.  Whether it’s technology advancements, data integrity, response times, or an even more specific need, our advancements are because our clients ask for them.  We continue improving because our clients need us to. Period.

This one is all you… anything else you want to tell us?

Our Chicago team is amazing! We have experienced a ton of success in the last 5 years because of yes, very hard work. But we love to have fun! We have a family-type environment- honest, hilarious, and happy! Reach out!