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Finding Retail Marketing Efficiency in 2021

Last year, we saw the COVID-19 pandemic alter buyer behavior as consumers migrated to digital purchase channels. In 2020, McKinsey uncovered that 40 percent of consumers reported switching brands or retailers. Gartner noted that “Marketing organizations are ill-prepared for COVID-19’s impact on the global economy and consumer sentiment, and this crisis will only exacerbate the budget strain we saw developing in 2019.” Indeed, in this new world where retail marketers are being asked to do more with less, it’s imperative to search for ways to attract more shoppers, increase purchase conversion, and generate more repeat purchases.

Now a year into the pandemic, what have we learned?

Our partners at DELVE took a look at the year behind us and found the key to retail marketing efficiency in 2021. Their recent article outlines how to improve ROAS, CPA and ROI in Retail Marketing for greater efficiency.

Go here to read the full article.

About DELVE

DELVE helps brands improve marketing ROI and accelerate revenue growth by identifying and converting their most profitable audience segments. As a data science expert, we integrate disparate data sources and technology stacks to deliver analytics and predictive insights that business leaders trust to improve decision making. As a digital marketing partner, we act as an

extension of brand marketing teams to plan, deliver and optimize analytics-first media campaigns to accelerate lead generation and recurring revenue growth. As a technology consultant, we provide digital skills training and technology integration services to sharpen digital competency. With locations in North America and Europe, DELVE is trusted by brands around the world for efficient revenue growth. DELVE is a certified Google Marketing Platform Partner, a Google Cloud Certified Services Partner, and one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies.

#MillenniumLive with Darktrace on Recent Cyber Attacks & Enterprise Defense

It’s definitely a historic time for cyber, with challenges of remote work, greater risk, and finding the right solutions for your enterprise security posture. #MillenniumLive is thankful to have Justin Fier, Director of Threat Intel & Analytics at Darktrace, to help our members understand these challenges. In this episode, we discuss the recent attacks targeted on the healthcare and education sectors, why supply chain attacks aren’t anything new, and how cybersecurity leaders can prepare for the demanding year ahead.

Watch the video interview below, or listen to the podcast episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

About Darktrace’s Cyber AI:

The application of artificial intelligence to the cyber defense challenge has marked a fundamental shift in our ability to protect critical data systems and digital infrastructures. For strained security teams, it offers the possibility to keep pace with an ever-evolving threat landscape.

While rule and signature-based solutions offer some protection against pre-identified threats, the reality is that attacks consistently evade these tools. Powered by unsupervised machine learning, Cyber AI responds to these threats before they become a crisis.

Cyber AI is a self-learning technology — it learns ‘on the job’, from the data and activity that it observes in situ. This means making billions of probability-based calculations in light of evolving evidence.

Darktrace has crystallized this approach to cybersecurity in the form of the Darktrace Immune System, which is relied on by thousands of organizations to protect against threats in the cloud, email, network, and industrial environments.

“Darktrace has identified a new form of cybersecurity that moves the whole industry forward beyond current defense models. By applying advanced machine learning methods to a novel software application, it has established a world-beating company that has no significant competitor.”

Click here for more information!

Assembly Recap: Transformational CISO & CISO Healthcare

Cybersecurity leaders have been brought to the forefront of their organizations in the wake of ongoing disruption, which is why we were excited to host our Transformational CISO & CISO Healthcare Virtual Assembly this week. It was an engaging two days filled with interactive workshops and keynotes, C-Suite networking, and peer-to-peer problem solving on the most pertinent topics within cybersecurity today.

What We Learned From Our Keynote Speakers

Sujeet Bambawale, CISO at 7-Eleven, started off this two day event with an engaging Keynote on what’s ahead in cybersecurity. Threat intelligence is on the rise, paving the way for attack simulations in order to meet increasing expectations. This will allow security teams to test efficacy in real-time against the latest threats. Sujeet also touched on a subject that proved to be a theme throughout the remainder of the Assembly: rapidly changing talent pipelines and the importance of diversity of experience and background within cybersecurity teams.

Our day two Opening Keynote Panel was led by Diana Burley, Vice Provost for Research at American University, and featured panelists Ann Hines, Business Information Security Officer, Principal, USAA; Shefali Mookencherry, CISO, Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare; Brian Mork, CISO, Westinghouse Electric Company; and Devin Shirley, CISO, Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. The panel focused on rethinking data governance frameworks in the midst of constant disruption. Shared insights included the need for more stringent asset management, building trust with vendors and maintaining control over subcontractors, and adequately training staff on security in a remote setting. Our panelists also noted that remote work is not new, but the scale at which it is currently implemented is, which means that security must be part of the overall workplace culture.

Chris Leach from Cisco led an interactive discussion on what it means to be a CISO for change. The CISO is responsible for managing security, but security is a team effort. That’s why CISOs need to act as thought leaders and involve other leaders within the organization in order to lead valuable change. CISOs are often viewed as the “no” people, but with the right collaboration, they can be the force behind change.

Engaging C-Suite Discussions

Tim Rohrbaugh, Chief Information Security Officer at JetBlue Airways Corporation discussed the Kaizen approach to security program improvement. This approach focuses on incremental, measurable change to threat actors’ cost, value proposition, or address motivations. The incremental change prevents the fear associated with long term change, and Threat-Informed Defense speeds up response times to quickly changing threats. The concept’s ultimate goal is to improve visibility in order to eventually automate response.

Next up, Jim Rutt, Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, Dana Foundation led a discussion on a risk management approach to allocating budget. He notes that while risk cannot be completely eliminated, it can be reduced as much as possible to an acceptable level with proper qualitative and quantitative analysis. Risk mitigation can feel like a daunting task, but basic risk formulas can help give you a better understanding of your situation.

Robert Pace from Invitation Homes addressed the big threat: endpoint security. He stresses the importance of going back to the basics and determining the right “tools of choice” within your organization. Discussions on configuration, strategy, budget, and reporting are essential before new technology is introduced, but also for existing systems that need enhancement.

Ed Harris from Mauser Packaging led an interactive session on becoming a 2.0 CISO. His advice is to use four simple tools. First, hiring smart people allows your team creates a strong team capable of bringing new ideas and value. Second, creating visibility is key because identifying anomalies requires understanding your baseline. Next, personal R&D teams can utilize think tanks and resources to problem-solve and stay on top of new developments in cybersecurity. Finally, it is important for CISOs to not just understand security and information system language, but also business language in order to make decisions on behalf of the business and move up in their organization.

For the final session of the Assembly, Benjamin Corll CISO at Coats addresses automation’s role in cybersecurity. Automation can be useful in reducing alert fatigue, filling the gaps where there is a lack of resources, and creating the consistency that the human element lacks. While there is still room for growth and improvement in automation, the only way to progress is to start implementing it.

Insights From Our Solution Providers

Sophos

Our partners at Sophos led the discussion on targeted ransomware. The best way to combat these targeted attacks is to understand how they are conducted by hackers. The key is to keep your guard up and be on the lookout for attacks that take place when the organization is most vulnerable.

Abnormal Security

Roman Tobe from Abnormal Security gave us the intel of Vendor Account Compromise, including how hackers gain access to accounts and how to stop them. It is important for organizations to understand common communication practices in order to more easily detect anomalies and stop them before they wreak havoc on vendor accounts.

Palo Alto Network

Bruce Hembree from Palo Alto Networks noted that while people take time off, cyber threats are constant. That’s why Palo Alto Networks assesses organizations dynamically and in real time, and automatically respond to active threats. An automation funnel is used in order to handle a large volume of alerts and avoid major incidents.

Fortinet

Troy Ament and Jay Mervis from Fortinet led a workshop on evolving threats within healthcare. Between increased virtual visits and the rise of AI and Machine Learning, there is no doubt that digital innovation is causing an increase in cyber threats. That is why it is important for leaders to integrate network solutions with security policies.

BeyondTrust

Chris Hills from BeyondTrust explains how you can switch from a reactive to a preventative approach to endpoint security. As threats continue to evolve, endpoints are becoming more complex, which leaves companies needing to do more with less. Furthermore, the “new normal” has created a perfect storm for privilege abuse. Because of this, organizations need complete endpoint security that acts as an ecosystem, not a single solution. One key part of creating a secure ecosystem is removing admin rights from the end user and giving them just enough privileges to do their job.

Qualys

Jeremy Briglia from Qualys notes that it is important to create an automated system without increasing associated risks. Continuous risk assessment can help ensure risks do not slip through the cracks. Asset inventory, vulnerability and configuration assessment, patch management, and threat risk and prioritization are essential to mitigating these risks.

And the Winner of The Millennium Mission Prize is…

Mario Memmo

The Millennium Alliance will donate $1,000 on behalf of Mario Memmo to the charity of his choice. Mario won this award as a part of The Millennium Alliance’s new initiative, Millennium Mission, in which we donate to charities such as AdoptAClassroom.org, Feeding America, The Miracle Walk, the U.S. Coronavirus Emergency Response, and others on behalf of the most engaged attendee for each event. We are excited to make a donation in Mario Memmo’s name!

Don’t miss out on the next Transformational CISO Assembly! Join us on April 27th for our Transformational CISO Assembly & CISO Financial Services Virtual Assembly. Go here to RSVP.

Karina Kogan of Peloton to Keynote Our Upcoming CMO & Retail Assembly

On March 9, 2021, our Transformational CMO & Retail Virtual Assembly kicks off with our featured keynote speaker, Karina Kogan, SVP, Head of Global Product Marketing at Peloton. Kogan is a marketing and digital transformation expert with a special focus on innovating the way businesses approach media & technology. In what’s been a banner year for Peloton, they now boast over 4.4 million members, becoming the leading interactive fitness platform in the world.

In a fireside chat with our Advisory Board member Cynthia Johnson, Co-Founder & CEO of Bell & Ivy, Kogan will share insight on turning a crisis into an opportunity for change. If you’re interested in joining this keynote session, go here to RSVP!

About Karina Kogan

Karina Kogan is a senior executive with two decades of marketing and general management experience fueling growth and innovation for companies operating at the intersection of media & tech. Karina is a proven strategic and operational leader with a track record in growing brands, audiences and revenues, and aligning corporate strategy with operating plans. Whether at start-ups or large corporations, Karina has developed a passion for building and working in teams that are innovative, nimble, entrepreneurial and diverse, while solving emerging challenges in digital media and consumer tech.

Marketing Innovation Starts Here

Digital Transformation involves ongoing exploration by today’s leaders, and our best advice is to not trek the journey alone. Our Transformational CMO Virtual Assembly coming this March is set to be a groundbreaking opportunity for leaders to virtually connect on the current trends & challenges the industry is facing amid COVID-19. Our assemblies are virtual for the time being, but you can still expect the same high-level discussion & networking as a Millennium onsite experience. Go here to RSVP!

#MillenniumLive’s 100th Episode with Sujeet Bambawale

The Millennium Alliance is proud to present the 100th Episode of #MillenniumLive, a Digital Diary Podcast! For this very exciting milestone, we are joined by Sujeet Bambawale, CISO at 7-Eleven, and our Keynote Speaker for this week’s Transformational CISO & CISO Healthcare Virtual Assembly. He covers an array of topics including organizational leadership, aligning with the customer, prioritizing cloud security, and the human element of remote work. He also gives us a sneak peak of some of the topics he will discuss in his Keynote at the upcoming CISO Virtual Assembly.

Watch the video interview below, or listen to the podcast episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

About Sujeet Bambawale

Sujeet Bambawale’s focus is on maturing the organization’s security posture by driving execution to a well-socialized and accepted security strategy that benefits internal and external stakeholders through a pragmatic mix of building cross-organizational relationships and developing people managers. He has a Masters degree in Electronics Engineering and is a Certified Chief Information Security Officer (C|CISO), a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) as well as Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT). Most recently, Sujeet Bambawale was fortunate to learn about organizational leadership at global scale, with a focus on innovation and cybersecurity; from his professors and colleagues at the Haas Business School in UC Berkeley.

In Case You Missed It: Digital Enterprise CIO and Data Virtual Assembly Recap

Contributed by Katie Perry and Elizabeth Radziul

Our 2021 Assemblies are officially underway! We kicked off the year with the Digital Enterprise CIO and Data Transformation Virtual Assembly, and it was a huge success.

Engaging Keynotes from Top Thought Leaders and Executives

We’ve been looking forward to the Keynote from Suzette Kent, Former Federal CIO for the US Government, and she did not disappoint! We heard about Suzette’s transition from the private sector into the Federal Government, and the task of preparing Federal Agencies for the adoption of modern technology and beginning the process of digital transformation. Her time in the private and public sector is nothing short of impressive, and she was kind enough to share some tips for other data and technology leaders looking to change their organizations for the better. Suzette outlined 3 imperatives that are critical to the future of successful organizations: Digital, Data, and People, both inside and outside of our organizations. Want more from Suzette Kent? The Millennium Alliance’s Co-Founder, Alex Sobol sat down for an exclusive interview with Suzette Kent for an episode of #MillenniumLive. Listen here!

We kicked off day two with an interactive, high-level discussion on technology, predictive analytics, and more. The panel was moderated by Sunil Mithas, Professor and World Class Scholar, University of South Florida, and panelists included Isha Bhatt, Chief Data Officer, VOLVO; Pete Gibson, Chief Information Officer, Friendly’s; Eileen Mahoney, EVP, CIO, PVH; and Eileen Vidrine, Chief Data Officer, Department of the Air Force. Coming from an array of industries and organizations, the panelists’ experiences, challenges, and insights varied, but they still found some common ground with their analytics journeys. Shared challenges included dealing with large datasets from “legacy” companies, creating a “data culture”, instilling trust in AI and data insights, and finding the right talent to grow analytics capabilities.

Interactive Workshops with Industry Experts

On day one of the Assembly, Harry Moseley, Global CIO at Zoom, led a discussion on what’s to come in the Post-Covid era. In an unpredictable world, Harry advises that we can rely on three things: talent, transformation, and trust. With these things in mind, the possibilities are endless. As for the logistics of it all, the hybrid workplace is the future. Companies will continue to downsize their corporate headquarters in favor of more WFH opportunities and smaller satellite offices to allow for more productivity, access to more diverse talent, and overall flexibility.

Next up, Patrick O’Connell, Chief Digital Transformation Officer for the US Navy, addressed the topic of improving digital transformation probabilities. He warned against the “7 deadly sins” that prevent transformation: leadership, not owning; “shoestring”, scattergun and/or unstable budget; no stable, full time and “all star” core team; no formal specific vision and strategy; lack of urgency; technology first; and “big bang” approach. Are you guilty of any of these sins? Avoiding them moving forward can dramatically improve your digital transformation efforts.

Anurag Harsh, Group Chief Data Officer at LafargeHolcim, closed out day one with a presentation on democratizing data & analytics. Anurag explained that data and analytics can offer 5 broad benefits to your employees: foresight, assistance, expertise, explanation, and simulation. He also notes that investing in employee training and using AI for projects that create change at scale rather than focusing on profit is essential to growth.

On the second day of the Assembly, Gahl Berkooz, Vice President, Data Monetization and Venture Acceleration, ZF Group, led an engaging workshop on data monetization. How do you turn data into cash in the face of the many obstacles that present themselves? Create a digital gateway early on, start data monetization in the product development stage, and “act like a startup” when pursuing new data ventures.

Our next workshop was led by Jessica Lachs, Vice President, Analytics & Data Science, DoorDash. Her biggest piece of advice is to involve analytics in the decision making process and quantify the impact of data to prove its value. Along the lines of a common theme at this assembly, Jessica emphasized the importance of maintaining talent, and suggested integrating data scientists into strategic business decisions.

Wrapping up our first Assembly of the year was Santosh Kudva, Chief Data Officer, GE | General Electric. He led the discussion on self-service analytics and its role in accelerating business outcomes. He stressed that organizations must create an ecosystem where data is readily available, usable, reliable, and shareable.

What’s New From Our Solution Providers?

Gigster

As the labor economy shifts to a freelancer/gig economy, the developer deficit continues to increase. Gigster looks to maximize talent without creating technical debt by creating teams. They do this by taking apart each person’s skill set, then they validate these skills to each individual and create teams. The teams have a broad range of skills to complete deliverables that would not otherwise be possible. Gigster not only maps out not only each individual’s work load, but also tracks engagement, which shows where the individual thrives throughout a project. Having this data can lead to more ideas, more bandwidth and wider skill range.

Espressive

With work from home not going away in the near future, if ever, and help desk tickets continuing to increase, Espressive has a way to decrease cost by eliminating a percentage of the help desk tickets through automation. Although the technology is automated, Espressive has a comprehensive approach, which has a high deflection rate. Their high deflection rate is contributed to their various omni channel capabilities and an understanding for over 1.7 billion words within the English language. Espressive’s technology is not only for the IT department; it can be used throughout many different departments in a company.

Fortinet

As retailers move from “bricks to clicks”, businesses move to the cloud, and digital innovation accelerates, technology must adapt to the changing landscape. This is causing a shift from point product to platform decisions, and the platform you use is the key to achieving digital goals. Security plays a key role in securing networks from emerging threats in this work from home environment, which means there must be an integrated approach to branch networking. Fortinet explains ways to continue to innovate securely during these changing times.

Qlik

Qlik discussed optimizing your data-to-insights pipeline in 2021. While they know it is not easy, Qlik wants you to re-imagine what is required for a business intelligence. It is a process of understanding what data means, how to identify and automate sensitive information, and form policies that are well documented for the people that are there. Additionally, this paradigm should separate the two different concepts of governance. The data streams should be looked at as their own processes, so they can be repeatable, and separate from the analytics governance. Looking beyond the dashboard, Qlik has created the ability for different people to see different parts of the data. Data scientists, for example, should have access to the raw data, whereas the business executives can see the analytics.

Coursera

Coursera is a data-first online course provider platform, and their goal is to use data to drive business transformation. They’re using data to make better, faster decisions, improve revenue growth and improve margins. However, many organizations fail to achieve their desired transformation. The key is to fill the talent and the skill gaps by upskilling and reskilling. Additionally, there will need to be a culture shift to drive and achieve this desired transformation.

The Winner of The Millennium Mission Prize Goes to…

Jean-Pascal Chauvet!

The Millennium Alliance is proud to launch The Millennium Mission, a new charitable endeavor that gives our attendees the opportunity to give back to those in need simply by participating in the Assembly. The Millennium Alliance is donating $1,000 on behalf of the most engaged attendee to the charity of their choice. Some of the charities we’re donating to this year include AdoptAClassroom.org, Feeding America, The Miracle Walk, and the U.S. Coronavirus Emergency Response. This Assembly’s winner is Jean-Pascal Chauvet, CTO of Corporate Bank at Deutsche Bank, and his charity of choice is Habitat for Humanity! Congratulations to Jean-Pascal for this award, and we look forward to making the donation in his name.

And our 2020 Data Innovator of the Year Award Goes to…

Craig Brabec!

The Millennium Alliance was proud to present the 2020 Data Innovator of the Year Award to Craig Brabec, Chief Data Analytics Officer at McDonalds. Advisory Board Member Sean Ammirati sat down for a fireside chat with Craig to discuss the innovation that has led McDonald’s through the past year. The big takeaway? Never let a good crisis go to waste. Opportunities for innovation are plentiful when organizations use data to drive decisions.

You won’t want to miss the next Data and Technology Assembly! Join us on June 15th for our Digital Enterprise CIO, Data, and FSI Transformation Virtual Assembly. Go here to RSVP.

IntelePeer Helps with COVID-19 Vaccination Scheduling

As the vaccine rollout continues in the United States, scheduling has proven to be a challenge for healthcare organizations as systems are overwhelmed by demand. That’s why our partners at IntelePeer have created an automated vaccine scheduling solution. A bi-lingual self-service hotline pre-screens and collects pre-registration information from callers before they are placed on a call to schedule an appointment. The solution has already been deployed and is ready to be implemented on a wider scale. As the demand for vaccinations become more urgent, Intelepeer’s solution will be critical in eliminating the website crashes and dropped calls that result from inundated systems.

Go here for more information

AI-Driven Clinical Surveillance Accurately Identifies Patient Risk and Informs Objective Care Decisions

Hospital leaders are acutely aware that one of their biggest unmet challenges is optimizing the use of high-intensity care settings to most effectively manage high-risk patients. AI-based risk models are becoming a key tool to support care teams in making real-time decisions about patient status and the ideal level of care. Hospital researchers have not ignored the challenge of identifying decompensating patients early. Numerous studies have shown that early identification of deteriorating patients in hospital units outside of critical care can improve mortality rates and clinical outcomes—and reduce costs. Check out this report from our partners at Wolters Kluwer to learn more about these studies and evidence that supports the strong need for AI-driven early warning systems.

Download the full report here.

Transforming Your Digital Transformation

As originally published by Nick Van Weerdenburg

Change is difficult, so most companies pull the bandage slowly, hoping to avoid the hard, painful part – especially with regard to digital transformation. But in the corporate world, cautious change inevitably leads to entropy. Progress gets made in one department at a time, at the expense of others. Leaders turn over, priorities shift, plans fall apart and the desired results never happen. The bandage never really comes off.

I see this happen a lot in companies that say they want to transform their digital customer experience – across all industries we work with. The board or the shareholders might not embrace a truly digital-first strategy or understand what the end-state transformation goal actually is. Instead, they end up digitizing the past, refreshening a longstanding brand with a new storefront in a doomed effort to maintain business-as-usual.

These companies start with a well-meaning internal innovation team. They preach agility, then spend months researching the problem and consulting internal stakeholders, all the while trying to stay close to their comfort zone of existing practices. They write reports, they create roadmaps, run design-thinking workshops and come up with a solution … and then throw it over the wall to IT and wash their hands of it. Nine months later, the team is busy executing the new plan, but, with no internal champion, it can’t innovate. Due to the chaos and complexity of the project, the company burns through its budget and the project becomes a sad statistic. In fact, 95% of corporate digital transformations fail outright or produce diluted results, according to one recent study.

Go here to read the full article

Implementing Automated Secrets Detection for Application Security

Dev & Ops teams from large organizations use thousands of secrets like API keys and other credentials in order to interconnect the building blocks of their applications. As a result, they now have access to more sensitive information than companies can keep track of. The risk is that these secrets are now spreading everywhere.

In this whitepaper from our partners at GitGuardian, we look at the implications of secret sprawl, and present solutions for Application Security to further secure the SDLC by implementing automated secrets detection in their DevOps pipeline.

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