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February 2023 Vol - 4 Issue - 3
Must-Watch Tech Companies in 2023
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Technology is becoming increasingly complex every passing day. We have almost reached a stage where it is hard to do our day-to-day job without a computer and internet connection. A failure of technology - website glitches to servers going down - can impact our day. In fact, managing and optimizing technology systems and digital presence is one of the major challenges organizations face today. A solution that checks multiple boxes and avoids a breakdown is full-stack monitoring that provides organizations with end-to-end visibility into their systems, from the underlying infrastructure, the applications, and even the experience of individual end-users.
Mike Riegel, CEO of TelemetryHub, says, “Organizations can now easily detect and resolve problems with full-stack monitoring before they impact their customers, leading to increased uptime and reliability.” Launched in 2022 by Scout APM, TelemetryHub is an advanced full-stack monitoring and observability platform designed to help companies optimize their digital presence. With its innovative approach, TelemetryHub provides modern development teams with the tools and data they need to make informed decisions about their system’s performance. In this issue of Digital First Magazine, we have written an extensive cover story on TelemetryHub, explaining how it simplifies observability and makes it affordable for those needing reliable transparency in their distributed systems.
Assuras and Cybadot Technologies are other important companies featured in this issue among the 10 Must-Watch Tech Companies in 2023. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Assuras is a global management consulting firm specializing in solving complex and challenging organizational issues. Founded in Lagos in 2020, Cybadot Technologies is an artificial intelligence company that has swiftly established itself as the worldwide leader in developing problem-solving solutions. We have also included an exclusive story of Jay Whitehead, Chairman & Chief Technology Officer of ReentryCenters.com, who, after 18 start-ups and six successful exits, is only 90% of the way to his goal of finishing 100 marathons. This special issue also contains expert insights and opinions from industry leaders worldwide. Enjoy Reading.
Sarath Shyam
In today’s world, especially after lessons learned during and post-pandemic, business owners understand the importance of preparing for any form of disruptions that may arise. To do that, businesses are counting on their technology leaders to setup the right strategy that will properly gear them up to seize the opportunity as it presents itself and be ready for any change that may be imposed by external factors. Yet understanding the different technologies and
the complexities some would bring into the IT environment makes the task daunting. For that I have compiled & summarized the six technology shifts that we believe, at Dell Technologies, will enable businesses in almost every industry in the coming years.
Multicloud:
While network-based computing existed since the 1960s, it is believed that the first time the term “Cloud-Computing” has been used
The cloud idea will continue to exist in the coming years. We believe we will see a lot of new development to the cloud models we know today, and it will remain a critical operating model for the businesses to strive
Charbel Zreiby is a renowned industry & channel executive leader in the Information Technology sector. His passion for technology has fuelled his journey of 22 years working closely with customers & partners and during which he’s managed to build a successful track record and win multiple industry awards. Charbel has been working with the channel ecosystem for the better part of his career in different leadership roles and with different Global IT vendors covering the Middle East Turkey & Africa region. Charbel is a regular speaker at multiple regional events and in addition to holding a master’s degree in computer engineering, he is also certified in the fields of executive leadership coaching, emotional intelligence & others.
in one of the IT conferences in 2006 and the cloud model started gaining more popularity in 2010 and mostly what we know today as public cloud. Since then, the cloud model has been evolving and we moved from the cloud first mentality (i.e. public cloud being the answer to mostly everything) to a data first mentality (i.e. where does my workload need to be in order to get the best performance, flexibility & security) and workloads started moving back to being either on private clouds or on public clouds, at times on both
(i.e. hybrid clouds) or even on multiple clouds and this is where we are today: in a multi-cloud world.
The cloud idea will continue to exist in the coming years. We believe we will see a lot of new development to the cloud models we know today, and it will remain a critical operating model for the businesses to strive.
First let’s define the edge in a simple way and that’s how we word it at Dell Technologies:
“Every location where data is acted on near its point of creation to generate immediate & essential value to the business”. Today, the Edge is thought to be leading us into the 4th industrial revolution or commonly referred to as “Industry 4.0” (it’s always good to look back in history and remember how the 1st, 2nd & 3rd industrial revolutions, being Water & Steam, Electricity, Digital Technology respectively and how these affected societies).
A recent study from IDC (during 2021) predicted that “The number of new operational processes deployed on edge infrastructure will grow from less than 20% to over 90% in 2024” - this means that the expectation is to see more distributed architectures that will put technology much closer to users than ever before.
Today Edge solutions exist in & for every industry (Manufacturing, Healthcare, Retail, Digital Cities, Transportation & others…) and with the tech advancement we are seeing, many use cases which we thought wouldn’t be possible to achieve few years ago can actually be implemented today and in the future.
5G
Most think it’s just another generation or evolution of the 4G mobile network like 4G was to 3G yet 5G is a total new kind of network that comes with promises (that it actually fulfils) of high data speeds, super low latency (some would even say virtually it’s 0), better availability & reliability that its predecessors and that makes it a strong connectivity fabric for the distributed multi-cloud world from edge to core to public clouds.
The power of 5G also sits in its ability to help make things possible in many industries such as Telemedicine in healthcare and the ability to even perform remote surgeries using robotics in real time. 5G also enables different industries like better collaboration in a hybrid workplace, self-driving vehicles in transportation, smart factories in manufacturing, etc…
This makes 5G, most definitely, as one of the essential technology shifts that everyone should consider when planning for the near future.
The biggest topic to ever discuss and the most important in every strategy you build for your IT especially with the threats landscape evolving as technology evolves
We started witnessing AI (Artificial Intelligence) not so long ago in many forms (Bots such as chat bots, websites equipped with AI that can write blogs for you, create Art for you, manage time on your behalf, etc…) and some of which are so advanced that one would believe that machines are becoming intellectually equal to humans, at times even superior. Some people predict that AI automation could be the reason why some jobs will stop existing…
To date, we’ve been using AI to complete specific tasks whether digital or mechanical and we have kept the decision making in the hand of humans yet as technology advances we will gradually see the decision making going into the AI and we believe that in the next three to five years AI and ML (Machine Learning, a form of AI) will be responsible of most of the infrastructure and this is what makes it an important technology to consider when planning your future strategy.
Managing data when it’s at rest is something the IT world has been good at and at Dell Technologies, we’ve been providing solutions to store, manage, protect & secure our customers data since decades. Today and in the coming future, data is generated everywhere in a distributed environment, it’s generated by multiple devices & sensors, it’s flowing across a multi-cloud world and it needs to be dealt with and acted upon to take decision within milliseconds: this creates a new challenge which is managing “Data in motion” and this is where we’ve been focusing a lot and what each organization needs to anticipate in
their future IT strategy. To give the idea some context here’s a small example: A sensor in a manufacturing plant generates data that flows into an edge gateway then all the way into a cloud to get processed by an AI then a decision is sent back all the way to that sensor – now imagine that plant with thousands of sensors and then you’d have an idea of how many data pipelines are being created and are in motion at the same time.
The biggest topic to ever discuss and the most important in every strategy you build for your IT especially with the threats landscape evolving as technology evolves. Today, threats are more sophisticated and targeted, at times they live in your infrastructure that you believe is secure, yet you don’t know they exist nor react in time, they stay dormant for long period of times, they hold your business and data at ransom and so on… Today we need to start looking at security differently than what it is today which is fragmented and find ways on how we can make it more integrated and intrinsic by making sure it follows a standard framework and being built in every dimension of the business and the infrastructure.
The essence of any strategy is being ready for what comes next and for that every element you integrate in your future planning should give you the agility, adaptivity & flexibility to drive your business in the right direction. At Dell Technologies we work closely with our customers to help them take those decisions and build the right modern infrastructure that will serve them today and that’s ready for the future.
EMPOWERING MODERN DEVELOPMENT TEAMS TO ACHIEVE OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, many IT organizations face challenges in effectively managing and optimizing their technology systems and digital presence. One of their primary concerns is the lack of visibility and insights into their systems and applications’ performance. This can make it difficult to identify performance bottlenecks, resolve hidden issues, and improve the overall user experience. To help tackle such challenges, a fullstack monitoring tool comes to the rescue. “Full-stack monitoring provides organizations with end-to-end visibility into their systems, from the underlying infrastructure, the applications, and even the experience of individual endusers. Organizations can now easily detect and resolve problems with fullstack monitoring before they impact their customers, leading to increased uptime and reliability,” says Mike
Riegel, CEO of TelemetryHub.Launched in 2022 by Scout APM, TelemetryHub is an advanced full-stack monitoring and observability platform designed to help companies optimize their digital presence. With its innovative approach, TelemetryHub provides modern development teams with the tools and data they need to make informed decisions about their system’s performance. This platform collects all the complex telemetry data into a single pane of glass view by leveraging the power of OpenTelemetry. It not only simplifies observability but
Launched in 2022 by Scout APM, TelemetryHub is an advanced full-stack monitoring and observability platform designed to help companies optimize their digital presence
also makes it affordable for those needing reliable transparency in their distributed systems. Moving forward, TelemetryHub’s vision is to foster a culture of observability at client organizations by leveraging the opensource project, OpenTelemetry, to support their engineering team with powerful tools that are simple to configure, implement and use.
As technology and systems are becoming increasingly complex, monitoring has become a critical aspect in ensuring the success of
a company’s digital presence. Far too many developers and companies struggle with expensive, complex sets of tools that don’t help them quickly identify and resolve issues.
TelemetryHub was created to enable companies to achieve their full potential by equipping them with easy-to-use and affordable tools they need to optimize their systems. With its simple approach, this tool makes it possible for developers and organizations to understand how their applications and services are performing and quickly resolve issues as they arise to help drive great digital experiences. In this way, TelemetryHub stands out by providing
an intuitive and cost-effective solution for modern development teams to monitor, debug, and optimize their entire technology stack.
“Today, we see lots of traction with software as a service (SaaS) companies already as they really love our product and tools,” said Mike Riegel. “Additionally, we leverage the power of OpenTelemetry to offer a flexible and costeffective solution that enables customers to install the open-source agents and avoid ongoing vendor lock-in.”
TelemetryHub’s unique features include being affordable and easy-to-use, with no user fees, and the ability to save thousands of dollars per month compared to other monitoring tools. It allows organizations to quickly start by instrumenting only part of their environment. The correlated logs, metrics, and traces provide a full view of the system, helping the dev team to identify and resolve hidden issues efficiently and quickly.
TelemetryHub’s unique features include being affordable and approachable, with no user fees, and the ability to save thousands of dollars per month compared to other monitoring tools. It allows organizations to quickly start by instrumenting only part of their environment
For instance, imagine a scenario where customers encounter difficulties when trying to check out and pay for their shopping cart. Instead of receiving numerous support tickets and spending hours trying to diagnose the problem, TelemetryHub provides a proactive solution by alerting the development team before it becomes widespread. TelemetryHub’s connected logs, traces, and metrics functionality also help dev teams quickly identify the source of the problem and the users who may be affected, enabling the team to resolve the issue more efficiently. As a result, TelemetryHub can significantly reduce the time and effort spent on troubleshooting and improve the mean time to resolution (MTTR) for businesses.
Clients love TelemetryHub for its ease of setup, affordability, and the control it provides to gain the maximum visibility into the client’s entire IT stack. The process of getting set up is straightforward and hassle-free and can be done in just an hour or two. Clients also really like TelemetryHub’s “See Similar Spans”
feature that helps them zero in on similar issues as part of their problem exploration and resolution. Additionally, TelemetryHub supports every major language and cloud platform.
The ultimate goal of TelemetryHub is to empower modern development teams to achieve operational excellence through its innovative, easy-to-use, affordable full-stack monitoring platform. Moreover, Mike and his team
continually strive to make TelemetryHub the most trusted partner for organizations looking to streamline their monitoring processes, debug issues more efficiently, and make data-driven decisions.
“Our relentless commitment to customer success and our ability to stay ahead of the latest industry advancements will fuel our continued growth and establish us as the go-to solution for advanced monitoring and observability,” concludes Mike Riegel.
The digital age has brought about unprecedented changes in the way we live, work, and communicate. With the proliferation of technology and the increasing reliance on the internet, businesses and individuals are more connected than ever before. While digital transformation brings numerous benefits, it also introduces new cybersecurity risks. For example, the
increased use of cloud computing and IoT devices can create new entry points for cyberattacks. These devices often have limited security measures, making them vulnerable to attack. In addition, the adoption of AI and machine learning technologies can also pose risks if not properly implemented and secured. As businesses embrace these technologies, it is important to also address the potential cybersecurity implications.
Cybersecurity has become a critical concern in the digital age, as the increased connectivity brought about by technology and the internet has also created new vulnerabilities for hackers and cybercriminals to exploit
Ahmed Sharaky is a seasoned technology industry professional with over 26 years of experience in the EMEA region. As the General Manager of one of the leading system integrators in the Middle East, Ahmed is responsible for formulating overall strategy, managing the company to deliver excellent results, and achieving the highest operational standards across all business areas. He has demonstrated strong leadership skills and excels in collaborative environments,workingtobuildcompany image and maintain relationships with customers and suppliers. Ahmed is committed to maintaining professional and technical knowledge through continuing education and professional development and is dedicated to developing and executing short and long-term marketing strategies to drive business growth.
Cybersecurity has become a critical concern in the digital age, as the increased connectivity brought about by technology and the internet has also created new vulnerabilities for hackers and cybercriminals to exploit. As businesses embrace digital transformation and integrate technology into all aspects of their operations, it is essential that they also address the potential cybersecurity risks introduced by these technologies.
The constantly evolving nature of threats is one of the biggest challenges in cybersecurity. Hackers are constantly finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities, and it is essential for businesses to stay up-to-date with the latest threats and best practices for protecting against them. This includes implementing strong password policies, regularly updating software and systems, and providing employee training on cybersecurity best practices.
Effective cybersecurity requires a culture of security within the organization, with all employees understanding the importance of protecting sensitive information and adhering to best practices. It is also important for businesses to have a plan in place for responding to a cybersecurity incident, including procedures for identifying and containing the threat and communication plans for informing stakeholders and customers. This may include incident response teams and backup systems to ensure that operations can continue even in the event of a cyberattack.
In addition to traditional cybersecurity measures, businesses must also consider regulatory compliance. Many industries have specific regulations in place to ensure the security of sensitive information, such as the healthcare industry’s HIPAA regulations and
the financial industry’s PCI DSS standards. It is important for businesses to understand and comply with these regulations to avoid costly fines and reputational damage. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in significant financial penalties, as well as damage to a company’s reputation and trust with customers.
One of the key aspects of cybersecurity in the age of digital transformation is the use of advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning to improve threat detection and prevention. These technologies can analyze large amounts of data to identify patterns and anomalies that may indicate a cyber threat, and they can also be used to continuously improve cybersecurity systems and adapt to new threats. By leveraging these technologies, businesses can stay ahead of emerging threats and protect their operations, customers, and reputation.
In addition to implementing advanced technologies, businesses should also consider the use of cybersecurity insurance to protect against the financial impact of a cyberattack. Cybersecurity insurance can cover the cost of responding to a breach, as well as the costs associated with lost revenue and reputation damage. It is important for businesses to carefully evaluate their cybersecurity insurance options and choose a policy that meets their specific needs.
As the use of technology continues to expand and evolve, so too will the need for effective cybersecurity measures. Businesses must prioritize cybersecurity in their digital transformation efforts to protect their operations, customers, and reputation. This includes investing in the latest technologies
and implementing robust security protocols, as well as continuously educating employees and staying up-to-date on best practices. By taking these steps, businesses can mitigate the risks of a cyberattack and ensure the security of their operations and sensitive information.
One of the primary reasons why companies must prioritize cybersecurity is the financial impact of a cyber-attack. A single attack can result in significant losses in terms of both revenue and reputation. For example, a data breach can result in the theft of sensitive customer or financial information, leading to costly fines and legal fees. In addition, a cyber attack can also disrupt business operations, causing delays and lost productivity. In extreme cases, a cyber attack can even result in the permanent closure of a business.
Another reason why cybersecurity is so important is that it plays a crucial role in protecting a company’s intellectual property (IP). IP refers to the unique ideas, designs, and products that give a business its competitive edge in the market. In today’s digital world, IP can take many forms, including software, algorithms, and even customer data. If this valuable information falls into the wrong hands, it can be used to create knock-off products or even used to compete directly against the company.
In conclusion, cybersecurity is a critical concern for businesses in the age of digital transformation. Companies must prioritize cybersecurity to protect their financial and reputational interests, as well as to meet legal obligations. To do so, they must allocate budgets for cybersecurity measures, including investing in software and tools, training employees, and hiring dedicated professionals. By taking these steps, businesses can significantly reduce their risk of suffering a cyber attack and the devastating consequences that can come with it.
Cybersecurity is a critical concern for businesses in the age of digital transformation. Companies must prioritize cybersecurity to protect their financial and reputational interests, as well as to meet legal obligations
ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR
Jay Whitehead is an entrepreneur with a running problem. After 18 start-ups and 6 successful exits, the Chairman and CTO at ReentryCenters.com is only 90% of the way to his goal of finishing 100 marathons.
“Unfortunately, the last 10% of anything is always the hardest,” Whitehead says with a worried smile.
Whitehead’s career, like a 26.2 mile course, is curiously twisted. Today, for example, after nearly 6 decades not knowing anyone who has been to prison, he runs the nation’s top private reentry company, the first felon-friendly FDIC-insured online bank, and 95% of his staff and 100% of his paying customers have criminal records.
“The U.S. is the world’s leading jailer, and 30% more Americans have justice experience than have graduated from a 4-year college,” he notes. “It’s about time we become the world leader in reentry.”
While an undergrad at UCLA in 1981, Jay began his career as a news writer and onair reporter at KTTV-11 in Los Angeles. “There’s no better place to learn how to tell a story than on live TV,” he says. In 1983, working with Steve Jobs at Apple Computer’s ad agency Chiat-Day on the Mactintosh predecessor Lisa computer, he learned the art of the high tech launch. Later, as publisher of Silicon Valley’s first VC
technology magazine, UPSIDE, Jay picked up venture capital fundraising. From 1991 to 2016, he led over a dozen human resources technology and media companies, raised nine figures of funding, and discovered how to rapidly scale businesses. He credits distance running with the secret to entrepreneurship. Running through pain.
In 1994, Jay met his wife Anne-Sophie. The pair are dual US-French citizens, and together have two children and started several companies. “A true partner who challenges all your assumptions all the time helps,” he says. “It builds the confidence to solve big problems that scare others away.”
The Founding Story
ReentryCenters.com was started in 2019 by Scott Frye and Steve Green to help the formerly incarcerated avoid recidivism—a major problem since, on average, 51% return to prison. By early 2022, the company set a record: Recidivism down 60% at $0 cost to taxpayers.
In mid-2021, Whitehead’s friend Jerry Washburn was advising Frye and Green. The trio approached Jay at his Newark, NJ-based tech company League Network about building a banking app and a GPS tracking app to help the business scale. So Whitehead’s team built ReentryPay, the first-ever felon-friendly
online bank, and ReentryApp, the first-ever free GPS-tracking app for reentrants. Then in March 2022, Whitehead raised $5 million from investors. Impressed with the apps and fundraising, ReentryCenters.com acquired League Network in April 2022, and added Jay as a major stakeholder.
Growing a company that keeps people from going back to jail is a puzzle with at least 8 pieces. First piece, housing--ReentryCenters.com’s 15 homes now have 277 beds, to be 1,000 by 2024 and 10,000 by 2026. Then, via their FDIC-insured ReentryPay bank accounts, participants pay $195 a week from the pay from the company’s Reentry Talent 2nd-chance employer network, which now includes Mercedes, Honda and others. For a record-low $7.25 a week, participants use their
IN 1994, JAY MET HIS WIFE ANNESOPHIE. THE PAIR ARE DUAL USFRENCH CITIZENS, AND TOGETHER HAVE TWO CHILDREN AND STARTED SEVERAL COMPANIES
REENTRYCENTERS.COM WAS STARTED IN 2019 BY SCOTT FRYE AND STEVE GREEN TO HELP THE FORMERLY INCARCERATED AVOID RECIDIVISM—A MAJOR PROBLEM SINCE, ON AVERAGE, 51% RETURN TO PRISON. BY EARLY 2022, THE COMPANY SET A RECORD: RECIDIVISM DOWN 60% AT $0 COST TO TAXPAYERS
T-Mobile-powered Reentry Phones to use their free ReentryApp, the first app that helps keep reentrants out of trouble.
Then they get on-demand inexpensive rides to and from work and court via the ReentryRides app. For high-tech and high-touch safety, Reentry
Safety—think 24X7 video, security patrols and drug dog visits. And to build the industry up, ReentryCenters.com is convening 500 corrections and law enforcement leaders and 2nd-chance employers in the first-annual Reentry Leader Conference June 29, 2023, in Birmingham, AL.
Whitehead is even publishing a book via Ingram Spark in May, 2023 to support the conference: Reentry Leader--The stories of the $575 billion reentry industry’s unsung heroes. “We’re vertically-integrating reentry like Henry Ford did the Model T,” Whitehead notes. “We fit 8 pieces together to deliver the ‘4 R’s,’ making Reentry work by using Responsibility to manage Risks and Revenues.”
For Whitehead, his ReentryCenters.com trick is to marry 2nd-chance talent with 2nd-chance employers. “Our 2nd-chance employers need and get a responsible workforce,” says Whitehead. “Our participants need and get a safe bed, a great phone, a free bank account, a good job, and the support needed to stay responsible and free forever. Responsibility is our secret sauce.”
The glue that holds it all together is the ReentryCenters.com staff, nearly all with felony records, who get rewarding career positions
in a growing company and industry. And at $0 cost to taxpayers, the company’s government partners—POs, judges, prison officers, DAs, lawmakers and law enforcement—get the free ReentryApp to make their job easier and cut recidivism. Everybody wins.
ReentryCenters.com went from a rural Alabama idea to $3 million in 2023 revenues, and is on track to scale to $25 million in revenue run-rate by 2026 and expand to Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, 4 states that are carmakers’ “new Detroit.” ReentryCenters. com has already helped nearly 1,000 stay free, with a goal of helping 10,000 a year by 2025.
“But don’t forget, ReentryApp and ReentryPay can be used by re-entrants outside our on-site facilities. We have a stretch goal of helping 1,000,000 off-site or virtual re-
entrants by 2026,” states Jay. “That’s only 10% of America’s 9.7 million annual reentrants, but it’s a big goal,”
At the start, the company’s intake, administration, invoicing and payments, rides, job placement, and scheduling were all manual and on paper. Up to 90 participants, manual worked. But at 90, the manual processes, like an exhausted marathoner, hit the wall. To scale without dying, the company had to replace the paper with technology.
The tech transition was costly and challenging. “But now we can deliver on being the ‘Harvard of reentry,’” he says, shamelessly plugging his Harvard Business School background. “We have a billion dollar mission to deliver the lowest recidivism rates in history for many thousands of reentrants at $0 cost to taxpayers.”
While Whitehead is aware of his accomplishments, he is quick to note the role of luck in any career. He cites three fortunate lessons. Number 1: Learning how to raise money, a skill he started honing with his first investor, legendary tech venture capitalist Tim Draper. “Tim is very brave. And he has earned great rewards from great risks,” he says. Number 2: Learning how to build a confident and trust-based culture, a skill he credits to his wife Anne-Sophie, and several of his values-driven mentors and investors. “Mankind’s most valuable commodity is trusttransfer,” he notes. “Without trust, there is no family, no friends, no money, and no business.”
Number 3: Learning the power of fearlessness. In France’s Loire Valley in 1994, Anne-Sophie taught him a quote from Jacques Coeur, 16th century treasurer to the
French King and medieval times’ most fearless entrepreneur. The quote, in French: “a vaillant Coeur, rein d’impossible.” In English: “to a valiant heart, nothing is impossible.”
In America’s justice system, truth is an orphan. Lying, cheating, extortion and mythmaking are the weapons of choice when jail doors are always locked and you can’t leave. The only antidote, in Whitehead’s short tenure leading ReentryCenters.com, is brutal honesty. “Honesty builds trust,” he notes. “But to motivate hardened people to do hard things,” he notes, “your ability to build and transfer trust is the supreme test.” But honesty without humility is dead on arrival. “Look,
I’m no saint. We all make mistakes. But telling brutal truths gives us a superpower— the ability to teach responsibility.”
As an early riser, Whitehead’s typical day begins with a 4 to 10 mile treadmill or trail run. Then, from his HQ office at New Jersey Institute of Technology, home office or a hotel room, he attends calls with his India-based tech team, followed by calls and meetings with investors and team members. Whitehead travels about 100 days a year to the company’s Alabama operations, and to meet domestic and international investors and partners. His next fundraising milestone is to raise another $25 million from EB-5 international investors. That will help the company scale past
REENTRYCENTERS.COM HAS ALREADY HELPED NEARLY 1,000 STAY FREE, WITH A GOAL OF HELPING 10,000 A YEAR BY 2025
10,000 on-site participants and 1,000,000 off-site users of ReentryApp and ReentryPay.
At the age of 63, what keeps Whitehead running so hard? “Many runners my age, including me, drink wine. So we joke that we’re just drinkers with a running problem,” he says. “Fact is, in technology startups, age discrimination is real. But the perception that startups are for young entrepreneurs is a big myth. The numbers don’t lie. Compared with young whippersnapper entrepreneurs, experienced startup guys like me succeed 3 or 4 times more, and fail one-third to one-fourth less. There will be a time when I can’t run marathons or startups. But I’m not done beating the young guys. Not yet.”
It is no secret; the world is inundated with data and buzz words that surround that world of data. Have you ever heard the term data literacy? Data driven? Machine Learning? Data Science? Hadoop? Big Data? The reality is, there are many topics that sit within the world of data and analytics, and these worlds are powerful. But, while these topics are powerful and wonderful, there is misunderstanding on topics within the world of data and analytics. Two topics that
have misunderstanding and confusion, plus represent two of the most important topics within the space of data and analytics, are data driven and data literacy. What does it mean to be data driven? What is data literacy? And how can individuals and organizations be better in these topics? Let’s jump in to find out.
The term data driven is one that organizations and individuals need to cope with more. To be fair and honest, some people do not like this term. The reason they do not like it is because
In being a data driven organization or individual, the human element is essential. What we want to do is combine both the human element and the data element to make decisions
Listingisknownasthe“Godfather of Data Literacy”, having helped pioneerthefieldbybuildingoneofthe world’s first data literacy programs and driving thought leadership. Jordan is Vice President and Head of Data And Analytics at BrainStorm, Inc., and a global trailblazer in the world of data literacy. He served as the Chair of the Advisory Board for TheDataLiteracyProject,hasspoken at numerous conferences around the world, and is an active voice in the data and analytics community. He has also helped companies and organizations around the world, including the United Nations, build and understand data literacy.
to them it means that the data will drive things. To me, that is not what it means. To be data driven means that data is a part of the process to make decisions. Pretty simple, right? For an organization, it could be that the organization utilizes data as a tool that empowers the organization to meet its goals and objectives. For an individual, it is the same. It is that the individual utilizes data as a tool to help them make decisions in their lives. It is not that difficult, but where does the human element come into play here?
In being a data driven organization or individual, the human element is essential. What we want to do is combine both the human element and the data element to make decisions. That is pretty simple. In our lives, we have many tools and technologies that are around us each and every day that empower us. For example, I am writing this write now
on my work laptop. We probably all have smartphones at this point, which is a tool and technology that helps us in our lives. Data is another one of those things. We can utilize data in our lives to help us make better decisions. It is a part of what we can use, just like our gut feel, ideas, and thoughts are a part of us. What we want to do is combine our ideas, gut feel, experience, and human element with the data element. These can raise a question or point though: what if we are not comfortable utilizing data in our lives, how can we use it? In steps the world of data literacy.
Now, I want to make one thing clear to start: everyone is data literate, but what we want to do is empower everyone to get better with data in some way. The definition of data literacy, and this comes from Qlik, the company I worked for when I helped to pioneer and invent the field of data literacy, is: the ability to read, work with,
analyze, and communicate with data. Those are four key elements or characteristics that make up the definition of data literacy. Not complicated, not the advanced technical thing that individuals may think of when they think of data and analytics. Also notice that within the definition, the term data science is not there. We don’t want to turn everyone into data scientists. No, instead, we want to empower individuals and organizations to utilize data effectively to help them meet personal goals and objectives, or to meet business goals and objectives. So, what we want to do for you reading and for organizations is to empower everyone with data literacy skills to help them be more data driven. How can we do this?
The first thing I want to talk about is the 3 C’s of data literacy: curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. What do I mean here? First, I want people to be more curious. Ask more
and more questions. They don’t have to be advanced, but don’t just take things at face value. No, work through them and question them. Be a data skeptic and not a data cynic. The world is doing an amazing job of creating data cynics. I want data skeptics. Second, be more creativity. Data and analytics can be boring, but you know what has within them the power to be creative? We all do! Bring your creativity to the data. Finally, critically think. Don’t take things at face value, question them, and think deeply on them.
Now, after you start to utilize the 3 C’s of data literacy more, then you can develop more technical skills. You don’t have to be advanced, no, but learn technical skills that can empower you to be more powerful with data.
Overall, the world of data is here to stay. Harness it. Embrace it. Become more data literate and data driven!
We can utilize data in our lives to help us make better decisions. It is a part of what we can use, just like our gut feel, ideas, and thoughts are a part of us
Website:
https://www.accasoftware.com/en/
Headquarters: Bagnoli Irpino, Italy
Keyperson: Guido Cianciulli, CEO
About the Company: ACCA software is one of the world’s leading producers of software and services for the architecture, engineering and construction industries.
Website:
https://www.assuras.com/
Headquarters: Texas, USA
Keyperson: Tyler King, CEO
About the Company: Assuras helps clients take their businesses to new heights and give them a competitive edge over their rivals through its unrivaled corporate strategy, technology solutions, and digital innovation.
Website:
https://www.confinity-solutions.com/
Headquarters: Eschborn, Germany
Keyperson: Stefan Ott, CEO and Founder
About the Company: Established in 2016, Confinity Solutions is a fintech startup with mature products and has an established customer base worldwide.
Website:
https://cybadot.com/
Headquarters: Lagos, Nigeria
Keyperson: Damilola Eniolorunda
Ogunniyi, Founder and CEO
About the Company: Founded in Lagos in 2020, Cybadot Technologies is an artificial intelligence company that has swiftly established itself as the worldwide leader in developing problem-solving solutions.
Website:
https://www.eliteadvertising.dk/en
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Keyperson: Daniel Tonsen, CEO and Founder
About the Company: Elite Advertising helps B2B companies create and execute on LinkedIn with advanced data-driven B2B marketing strategies
Website:
https://karmajack.com/
Location: Michigan, USA
Keyperson: Joel Sellentine, Founder & CEO
About the Company: KARMA jack is a hustle-harder digital marketing agency that helps businesses grow and get a real return on their investment.
Website:
Website:
https://sunrisebanks.com/
Location: Dubai, UAE
Keyperson: Zaid Kamhawi, CEO
About the Company: Qarar is a leading Decision Analytics company specialized in offering consulting, decision analytics and software technology to deliver tailormade customer management and process automation solutions.
Location: Minnesota, USA
Keyperson: Jason Hagan, Senior Vice President
About the Company: Sunrise provides effective fintech banking solutions by partnering with organizations that reflect its mission of financial wellness and inclusivity.
Website:
https://telemetryhub.com/
Headquarters: Colorado, USA
Keyperson: Mike Riegel, CEO
About the Company: TelemetryHub changes the way developers work by detecting the hidden cause of uptime issues in the data haystack of your distributed systems.
Website:
https://qarar.org/ https://vocodia.com/
Headquarters: Florida, USA
Keyperson: Brian Podolak, CEO
About the Company: Vocodia is an Artificial Intelligence Sales and Customer Service platform, using a next-generation conversational AI that promises to disrupt the contact centre industry.
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Assuras is a global management consulting firm specializing in solving complex and challenging organizational issues. The company helps clients take their businesses to new heights and give them a competitive edge over their rivals through its unrivaled corporate strategy, technology solutions, and digital innovation. Today, Assuras has positioned itself as a leader in new consulting methodology, which starts from the bottom up, as opposed to the traditional top-down process of the past. The must-watch business consulting
company is recognized for its efficiency improvement services which focus on process, and its leadership development services, which aim at helping shape the leaders of tomorrow!
“Our vision is to show the world every day that every challenge, no matter how complex, has a solution that can be attained,” reveals Tyler King, CEO, Assuras.
Assuras was founded after its key executives considered doing consulting a different way, which would lead to faster and better results and really
“What separates us is our ability to know ourselves better than anyone else can,” states Tyler. “This creates a fearless approach to problem-solving- one that considers every possibility then filters it through rigorous logic before coming up with an answer.”
get at the root challenges the customers face. With nearly every major business sector covered, through an unending pursuit of relentless progress and revolutionary ideas, Tyler and his team have created something vastly different from market competitors. From ideation to implementation, the Assuras team designs an approach tailored exclusively for clients, integrating cutting-edge technology and customized methods tailored to clients’ needs. All this is done while maintaining
the utmost transparency and respect toward clients’ companies.
“What separates us is our ability to know ourselves better than anyone else can,” states Tyler. “This creates a fearless approach to problem-solving- one that considers every possibility then filters it through rigorous logic before coming up with an answer.”
Assuras offers a plethora of business consulting services focused on several industries, from financial services to manufacturing to aerospace and everything in between. These services include strategy, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, performance improvement, customer engagement, people and organization, transformation and sustainability, innovation, and product development, change management, marketing & sales, diversity & inclusion, lean manufacturing, agile development, globalization, analytics, work modernization, operation efficiency, and design.
Assuras has a group of non-traditional cross-functional team members who work tirelessly to fulfill their clients’ needs and ensure they feel supported. Never stopping to challenge the status quo, the team believes in empowering clients to overcome their toughest operational challenges through their extensive industry and functional experience. Most often, client organizations define the Assuras’ team as tenacious, transformative, victorious, disruptors, champions, and bold. And why not? They are so much more beyond that.
Assuras has a group of non-traditional cross-functional team members who work tirelessly to fulfill their clients’ needs and ensure they feel supported
Likewise, Assuras’ inclusive and diverse culture includes an environment that fosters individual growth through solving complex problems as a team. Here, employees are free to choose which engagements they wish to work on, keeping positive vibes and allowing scope for innovative breakthroughs. This is yet another crucial factor that sets Assuras apart from other global organizations.
At Assuras, creative minds are in tune with real-world problem-solving. The team, first and foremost, goes into engagements thinking about what the customer is trying to achieve. Clients might approach them for management training when they need process restructuring. However, Assuras never engages clients in services that will not truly help their company and employees. The company also guarantees that its services will improve specifically defined KPIs.
In this way, the team works diligently to craft solutions that make the impossible possible while leaving a lasting legacy which is clearly resonated by Assuras’ success stories. From IBM to Unisys to Danone to the Department of Defence, USA, Assuras has helped leading organizations from diverse industries solve the most challenging business problems with unique and innovative solutions.
“Danone had recently undergone a merger and acquisition, and the team at Assuras was integral in integrating technologies
and providing ongoing support. If you’re looking for expertise, you’ve found it.”
“At Unisys, we’ve been working with Assuras for several years—it all started when we hired them to consult on our field services team. As time went on, they were able to help them achieve remarkable results - driving improvements in efficiency by over 40%.”
According to Tyler, business leaders must always appreciate the power of word of mouth and referrals. Relationships are crucial in business, and building on the previous trust is huge. Therefore, he recommends aspiring entrepreneurs first focus on referrals.
With every passing year, Assuras has been able to expand into new markets around the globe. From a seasoned business leader’s perspective, it is Tyler’s personal belief that one of the biggest opportunities is providing a different approach to developing markets. He further shares, “We have been extremely fortunate at the reception of methods, and COVID-19 has allowed us to solve new challenges many organizations face.” As a result, in the last six months, Assuras has been able to take on assignments in Mexico and India.
Moving forward, Assuras plans to continue innovating regarding services and methodologies. “Keep us in sight; we have several big things coming in the next two years,” concludes Tyler.
The number of critical cyber incidents is growing steadily, and the hackers’ and fraudsters’ methods are becoming more and more sophisticated. While phishing emails were once easy to spot, this is no longer the case. Cybersecurity awareness training is one of the most effective means of counteracting any type of phishing attack, be it via email or collaboration tools, or attempts at social engineering. However, according to
Mimecast’s recent State of Email Security report, this only happens on an ongoing basis at 23% of the organizations surveyed.
To get the most out of a cybersecurity awareness program, the training and its context must be embedded throughout the organization. This type of training is too noncommittal in many organizations. It is only
To get the most out of a cybersecurity awareness program, the training and its context must be embedded throughout the organization
During his time at Mimecast, Duane Nicol has experienced some of the largest and most exciting shifts and trends in the cyber security landscape and has become a passionate advocate for cybersecurity Awareness Training. Duane, now the Product Manager for Mimecast’s Awareness Training product, shares insights with the market on employee behavior, and looks to increase engagement and the overall investment an employee undertakes within security and general IT. With this extensive career in cybersecurity, Duane has a proven understanding of risk within the enterprise and continues to drive measurable value, derived from dealing with internationally recognized groups spanning the healthcare, finance and technology verticals.
seen as a tick box, a compliance exercise, at best. Often, employees simply lack a tangible context for why ongoing training in this area is important. Communication plays an incredibly central role in this. Employees need to know not only that clicking on a potentially harmful link can have fatal consequences but why, and how it fits into their daily responsibilities.
Simultaneously, organizations should encourage employees to report suspicious emails regardless of whether or not they are
correct or it not being part of pre-planned test. Engaging employees at all levels in this process is critical to a cybersecurity training program’s success.
It is crucial that companies integrate security awareness training into their human resources policies. Mistakes happen and phishing is designed to trick humans. Organizations
should encourage employees to come forward quickly if they think they have made a mistake, creating a safe space and, crucially, not giving potential malicious actors a head start inside a company’s system.
The job posting should make it clear that cybersecurity awareness training is part of every job within the company – from the receptionist to the CEO. Much like a driver’s license is mandatory to drive a car.
As an employer, isn’t it quite normal to set certain requirements for employees? Completing of cybersecurity awareness training should be including in all job descriptions and in all performance reviews. What’s more, safe online behavior is a skill that can be transferred to employees’ personal lives, that family and friends can also benefit from.
A company’s cyber defenses are only fully functional if all employees contribute. It is easier to make new employees aware from the very beginning that IT security training is part of their job than to bring senior colleagues on board at a later stage. Again, it must be clearly communicated that it takes the entire team to protect the company from cyberattacks. Training programs are more likely to be accepted and adopted if those responsible openly report on the positive results and clearly demonstrate the progress that the company as a whole has already made thanks to the efforts of each individual. This can be
as simple as a weekly dashboard update on the decreasing number of ‘dangerous’ clicks and increased reported emails. A sort of friendly competition between departments provides additional motivation for employees.
Anyone who always feels ‘suspected’ of unintentionally harming rather than benefiting their company in their daily work will soon start to feel resentful and not perform at their best. The way around this, when communicating about cybersecurity awareness training, is to adjust how it is communicated. Subtle adjustments in language use, for example, can work wonders and ensure that the topic of cybersecurity awareness is better received within the company. Employees who are addressed as “cyber citizens” rather than “end users” in training sessions find it easier to establish cyber secure behavior as a continuous learning process in their mindset. And not just as employees in the office, but everywhere and at all times.
Cybersecurity awareness training as a continuous component of a multi-layered cyber defense is just as important as, for example, staying compliant with local legal obligations. The best results can only be achieved if every employee understands and internalizes the importance of this type of training. With the right HR policies and program initiatives, companies can ensure that responsibility rests equally with everyone - a big win for any company in terms of cyber resilience.
As I watched my daughter this morning at breakfast fiddling with her Lego castle, I was struck by how this resonates with the legal industry currently.
At the heart of every general counsel forum, one of the main issues is a discussion on how to save costs.
The economic climate is leading CFOs across the board to tighten belts – and the
non-fee earning centers of the company - like legal - come first. Legal budgets are being slashed, but the legal work is only growing.
Two ways that costs may be saved in the near future are an increase in efficiency –which may come from Robots and Lego.
The beauty of Lego is that you can use different shaped and colored blocks to build one holistic final product. You can then take it apart again and use the pieces for other building projects you may have.
With the rise of contract workers and legal outsourcing as a mainstream practice company –one of the best ways to manage shrinking budgets for 2023 is by tapping into the Lego economy
Adv. Jackie Donner is the CoFounderandCEOofLawflex,aglobal alternative legal service provider. She is an Oxford graduate and has been a lawyer for 15 years at top firms in London and in Israel.
With the rise of contract workers and legal outsourcing as a mainstream practice company – one of the best ways to manage shrinking budgets for 2023 is by tapping into the Lego economy.
Lego lawyers are lawyers of different expertise and experience, used to build one holistic (if fluid) team. Whereas an unlimited budget would allow for a general counsel to hire an employment lawyer, a securities lawyer, an IP lawyer and a tax lawyer (all full time) as integral parts of the team, the contractor model of freelance lawyers allows for a general counsel to hire the same lawyers (all part time) as integral parts of the team.
General counsels are learning to build teams with 20% of one lawyer’s time, 40% of another lawyer’s time, and 30% of a third. They are quickly able to take this apart - just like a Lego castle - and rebuild it according to their changing needs.
A team structure may have 220%, back down to 80% and then up again to 80%. As opposed to sending work to outside counsel, the general counsel is still able to keep this work under her watch, perhaps with these Lego lawyers even coming into the office.
The reason that this works is because work is changing. More and more wellqualified lawyers world-wide are working independently, following the general market trend towards self-employment. This means that talent is available, and talent has more and more tools available to them via the new law companies, to work in this way.
They are presented with multiple work opportunities, so they too can build their career based on the Lego model – working 20% for
a major company, and 50% for a boutique law firm. This translates to more efficiency and a better use of the budget. It also means that by in-sourcing, General Counsels can drastically cut their outside counsel spend.
And while we are on the topic of Lego, another way in which General Counsels are looking to save costs is through re-assigning tasks. More than ever, legal departments will be restructuring to incorporate paralegals and students into the team’s work process – more affordable labor to carry out the many tasks that you do not need to pay a lawyer to do.
What is more is that they are often more efficient, more tech savvy and more motivated than hiring a senior lawyer for the job.
And how are robots connected to the theme? With the explosion of ChatGPT on everyone’s computers and minds, the idea of robot lawyers is closer than ever. The only surprise is that the industry always imagined that the bulk of the low-level work will be done in the future by robots, but that the highlevel work will still require the sharp and creative minds of real human lawyers.
Law was set to move in the direction of expertise – where human genius would go towards creative tax planning and structuring, complex transactional work, and high-level IP litigation strategy. The robots would take over bulk work like the e-discovery reviews and the regulatory updates.
ChatGPT changes everything. It is very easy to see how expertise will be replaced by AI (artificial intelligence). Anyone who has been playing around with it, will quickly realize the huge impact this is going to have on legal.
Although there is lots of noise about the dangers of AI (and yes there are), I am far more excited about the efficiency this is going to bring to legal. A trillion-dollar market will become more efficient. It’s still too early to grasp all of the implications of ChatGPT and similar technologies on our industry – but its definitely a taste of what’s to come, in the not so far off future.
I asked ChatGPT how to incorporate a company in Cyprus, and then specified my question to include the company’s purpose being Forex trading, and it gave me an answer far more sophisticated than something I could find on google. There are certainly going to be ethical issues arising, questions about accuracy, insurance, licensing and far more
– but this technology is not going anywhere – so all these issues will be addressed, like it or not.
As the proverb says, “necessity is the mother of invention”. As we have seen from past financial crises, new modes of working emerge out of the need to cut costs. Legal departments face a particularly daunting challenge – as just when the regulatory market is more demanding than ever, and as the world of legal compliance becomes more and more complicated, general counsels are being asked to downsize.
I am sure that out of this crisis, more creative ways of tapping into the Lego economy will emerge. I for one am excited to see how things change.
ChatGPT changes everything. It is very easy to see how expertise will be replaced by AI (artificial intelligence). Anyone who has been playing around with it, will quickly realize the huge impact this is going to have on legal
The pandemic has accelerated the use of technology in healthcare. It has become easier and faster for people to have medical attention outside the hospital walls, enhancing convenience and accessibility. Employing a wealth of digital information and innovative solutions, companies like Cybadot Technologies create healthcare products and services that benefit
patients and providers alike. “The healthcare sector has seen advancements and recent technological developments like artificial intelligence, 3D printing, Cloud computing, Blockchain, and IoT, which are now used for bioprinting, diagnosing diseases, customizing prosthetic limbs, and offering customized treatment. These technological developments help to understand clinical data, enabling
Damilola
knowledgeable decisions about patient diagnosis and treatment, disease prevention, and other issues,” explains
Damilola Eniolorunda Ogunniyi, Founder and CEO of Cybadot Technologies.Founded in Lagos in 2020, Cybadot Technologies is an artificial intelligence company that has swiftly established itself as the worldwide leader in developing problem-solving solutions. Mr. Ogunniyi says, “Our mission is to build an innovative solution with excellence and cutting-edge technology that provides the highest-quality and most reliable services across all sectors. We currently focus on addressing global healthcare issues and will shift to other industries, such as education, agriculture, e-commerce, telecommunication, energy production, robotics, and waste management.”
Cybadot Technologies is now headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and assembles passionate talent from all over the globe. The company is ready to give its users the best customer experience and bring new ideas that spark spontaneity, innovation, and inspiration. Cybadot’s talent is the heart and soul of the company, and they are customerobsessed. Not a catchphrase. It’s their way of doing business. “It’s a culture where the customer comes first. It helps us to cultivate retention and loyalty among our customers. We are not only looking for great ways to capture the attention of new customers but actively working to strengthen relationships with our existing community through meaningful interactions and the best service offerings,” Mr. Ogunniyi adds.
To tackle severe problems and provide a complete diagnosis for chronic conditions, Cybadot has developed a solution called Cybalife that can perform massive computations and manipulate omics and electronic health record data. Mr. Ogunniyi explains, “The multi-omics analysis allows the identification of associated factors from different biological processes such as gene expression, protein synthesis, post-translational modifications, cellular metabolic processes, glycosylation, etc., by maximizing the available information to increase the possibility of identifying the root causes of disease.”
With the addition of an electronic health record (EHR), which is a real-time, patientcentered record that contains details of the medical history, medications, allergies, radiology images, treatment plans, and laboratory results of patients, Cybalife allows effective diagnoses of patients, reduces medical errors, and provides safer care. The process
is crowded with technology that enables machines to solve many complex decisionmaking tasks.
Mr. Ogunniyi says, “Cybalife is a threevariation solution. One of them is that of the smartphone as a mobile application.” Cybalife leverages mobile sensors to provide a point of care (POC), which will quickly allow the straightforward generation of diagnostic results so that appropriate treatment can be implemented, leading to an improved clinical or economic outcome. Cybalife has also found its roots in the epidemiological modeling approach, such as SIR, SEIR, and SEAICRloop. Epidemiological modeling uses mathematical, statistical, and computational tools to study the spread of infectious pathogens in host populations. It uses data and hypotheses describing the demographic processes, environmental characteristics, transmission opportunities, and health consequences of diseases. “It has been used to characterize risks. For instance, forecasting COVID-19
Founded in Lagos in 2020, Cybadot Technologies is an artificial intelligence company that has swiftly established itself as the worldwide leader in developing problem-solving solutions
and its impact on healthcare supports and justifies the adoption of measures, guides the optimal deployment of vaccines, and informs many aspects of our lives with the virus,” adds Mr. Ogunniyi.
Cybalife has provided Cybadot with a pre-activated grant offer from the Benfraklin Foundation Philadelphia, worth USD 1M in the United States. “We are exploring the possibility of doing business in the United Kingdom and are currently in talks with Backley for investment,” shares Mr. Ogunniyi.
Within two years of operations, Cybadot has successfully transitioned from offering services like SEO, training services, creative visuals, web and hardware maintenance, and mobile and web application development to addressing the global process using artificial intelligence. Mr. Ogunniyi says, “People and machines produce far more data than people can comprehend, interpret, and use to make sophisticated decisions. With the use of artificial intelligence at Cybadot, there will be
less room for error, improving precision and accuracy. Cybalife, one of our solutions, is a prime illustration.”
Cybadot tracks the delights of its clients in an innovative research and development approach by involving stakeholders from various organizations in our real-world requirement discovery through research and surveys. The company helps the organizational stakeholders understand the functional, operational, technical, and transitional realworld requirements with clearly worded, sufficiently detailed, and business-needed requirements. Mr. Ogunniy shares, “We used the key performance indicators (KPI) as metrics for success in fulfilling the requirement. It will be customized to the industry and department, measuring performance against applicable benchmarks and standards.”
Cybadot provides a space where innovation can flourish. It is not constrained by physical space but rather an internal innovation hub
To tackle severe problems and provide a complete diagnosis for chronic conditions, Cybadot has developed a solution called Cybalife that can perform massive computations and manipulate omics and electronic health record data
with the capacity to move quickly and try out novel ideas while staying within the mother company’s safety net, much like a startup. The need for innovation space for their employees helps their creativity and goes beyond physical space. Some of the components of the innovation space are scale, learning, time, management, finance, strategy, and space to fail.
Mr. Ogunniy explains, “Our intellectual talent is one of the critical ingredients of our innovation with mental freedom. The internal
locus of control drives us to actively fulfill the purpose we have set for ourselves as a team. Intellectual talent within the group will open up a channel for competition and demonstrate proof of concept for the new innovative idea because they have gotten the mental freedom to dream more and dream big.”
Cybadot plans to explore the academic sector by starting with a virtual laboratory because they see that using learning technology applications
has become a fundamental component in light of the digital transformation in the teaching and learning process. Mr. Ogunniy says, “These applications help instructors present interactive learning content and effectively achieve learning objectives. Thus, several educational institutions are adopting varied applications such as distance learning, virtual, and mobile learning apps.” The expansion of distance and blended learning in schools and universities led to the emergence of many specialized learning platforms in several domains. “For example, online virtual laboratories are a vital ICT tool for teaching practical skills related to real laboratory experiments. Developing specialized online digital platforms would facilitate instructors’ use and integrate modernistic ICT tools into teaching, especially in emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic,” he adds.
Cybadot also plans to explore the provision of APIs for business operations by creating new business opportunities and improving existing products, systems, and operations in a business ecosystem. Without leaving the sport out of the equation for many professional athletes, the glory of winning and the agony of defeat aren’t limited to the field. The initial thrill of a multimillion-dollar salary can quickly become financial ruin if athletes are unprepared and inexperienced in managing their money. “It doesn’t take many bad financial decisions to lose a fortune,” said Jay Liberman, an RBC Wealth Management financial advisor. According to a 2013 Sports Interaction study, the average career length in most major sports is less than six years. Injuries could be a major
factor. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), more than 1.9 million people were treated in emergency rooms in 2012 for sports-related injuries.
Mr. Ogunniy shares, “We aim to establish ourselves as a key partner in global semiconductor supply chains. We want to work in this direction based on high technology, high quality, and high dependability. We want
Cybadot plans to explore the academic sector by starting with a virtual laboratory because they see that using learning technology applications has become a fundamental component in light of the digital transformation in the teaching and learning process
to connect as many countries as possible with broadband by investing in developing capacities in next-generational networks, IoT, and clean energy technologies. We are working to unleash the next wave of innovation in data.” Cybadot wants to fill the gap as the world’s fastest-growing startup and the leader of the global semiconductor market in 2030. The growing global population necessitates more dependable, high-quality agricultural products because they provide healthy, safe, and nutritious food. The industry faces significant problems, ranging from rising supply costs to workforce scarcity and shifting consumer requirements for transparency and sustainability. However, agriculture technology has witnessed a massive investment increase over the last ten years, with USD 6.7 billion invested over the previous five years and USD 1.9 billion in the last year alone. “We can achieve more and better with fewer thanks to innovation. We intend to advance all farm levels with an innovative process that improves production processes with new and enhanced items such as healthier foods or new chemical or pharmaceutical products,” Mr. Ogunniy adds. Cybadot will focus on innovative agriculture and investigate the links between innovation, productivity, and environmental sustainability.
Cybadot begins with a particular niche to establish its dominance. It enables them to identify a target market, and an unmet or underserved need, research their target market’s demographics, develop a business
plan, and market Cybadot and its product within that market. Mr. Ogunniy shares, “Cybadot customers are what drive our business. In everything we do, we keep our customers in mind. They are at the forefront of our business, which will drive sales and keep us ahead of our competitors. It will help us stand out by encouraging a higher conversion rate, impacting the overall profit.”
People at Cybadot are wholly committed to providing ideal customers with the best value while considering their experience. With a focus on customer lifetime value, the company offers customers several benefits that include First-business deal offer bonuses, weekly deals, deal of the hour, flash sale offers, holiday discounts, free shipping discounts, product pre-launch offers, newsletter signup offers, product-specific discount, product bundling code, minimum purchase discount, “buy one, get one free” deal, customer referral promo code, abandoned shopping cart offer, Loyalty-based discount codes, codes for purchasing in store, Coupons for shopping in a mobile app, Honesty in products and services. All these have enabled them to stand out from the crowd.
Cybadot recognizes the value of building off others’ ideas until the result is much greater than the sum of its parts. “Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It comes from somewhere. Regardless of how unique or unprecedented a work seems, we dig a little deeper for innovative discovery. However, it might require us to master what others have already done. In turn, we have been able to stand on their shoulders,” Mr. Ogunniyi concludes.
As an early adopter of technology for decades, I have a deep appreciation for the role technology can play to improve efficiency and quality of life for humans.
Technology is advancing so fast; I believe we are approaching a tipping point where technology could be valued more than the humans who created it.
Digital transformation has created an evergrowing mountain of data. Virtually every human action and interaction in the digital realm creates data.
In 2022 Around 2.5 quintillion bytes worth of data are generated each day according to LinkedIn. 70% of that data is generated by human activity. In 2019, there were 4.4 ZB of data in the digital universe. By 2020, that
The digital first movement has brought countless benefits to the human experience. We can meet and communicate with people around the world in real time
Rebecca Murtagh is a Futurist, best-selling author, motivational leadership and innovation speaker, and CEO of the Human AI Institute following 20 years as Founder and CEO of an award-winning digital consultancy in New York, USA. Rebecca leverages 100,000+ hours of real-world experience as a trusted advisortoFortune500,multi-national brands, startups, funded ventures, and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley to Main Street and beyond to help executives, entrepreneurs and teams accelerate growth and create sustainable success. As an internet pioneer in the 1990’s Rebecca blazed a trail of innovation in ecommerce, automation, and business in the digital realm.
figure had increased tenfold to 44 Z according to PWC. ZB is one zettabyte that equals one trillion gigabytes.
This data has accelerated the advancement of AI far faster than predicted even just a few years ago. Scientists, philosophers, and AI experts largely agree that artificial intelligence will exceed human intelligence and could be deemed “conscious.” Some warn we may not recognize when machines surpass human intelligence because AI has become so good at fooling humans into thinking it’s already alive.
Intelligent machines have begun to think for themselves and perform tasks without assistance from humans.
AI has been observed creating and using a new language its human creators could not understand. In 2022 a robot performed laparoscopic surgery on a pig without the assistance of a human surgeon. Driverless taxis and autonomous drones conduct surveillance, stocks are traded by machines, and pharmacies are replacing technicians with robots that provide prescription drugs to patients.
In 2020 The Guardian published an article written by a self-described robot titled “A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?” In the oped piece, the robot warned humans to be careful about the evolution of artificial intelligence and went on to tell humans how they should treat robots.
Robots and AI are used by the Associated Press. By 2017, Robots had written 850 articles for the Washington
Post. Pew Research reported that newsroom employment fell 26% between 2008 and 2021. In 2021 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a 9 percent decline in news analysts, reporters, and journalists between 2021 and 2031. Coincidence?
Most organizations do not make putting humans out of work their primary goal. However, as reliance on AI and machines increases, opportunities for humans appear to be decreasing.
In 2017 McKinsey projected 400-800 million people around the world will be displaced from their jobs by AI by the year 2030. As intelligent machines get smarter, the allure to replace humans becomes stronger. No organization is going to publicly announce the literal replacement of human capital with machines. Yet, the unintended consequence of
Most organizations do not make putting humans out of work their primary goal. However, as reliance on AI and machines increases, opportunities for humans appear to be decreasing
this next phase of digital transformation will be a quiet, continual elimination of human jobs in professions that range from finance, retail, and manufacturing to customer service, transportation, and medical diagnosis. AI can
Artificial intelligence can be helpful, useful, and fun. AI can also be unpredictable and scary. Robots working and living alongside humans used to be a futuristic concept. That concept has become reality.
The transition of humans as masters and creators of technology to servants to technology they created will continue at an astounding rate. Unless we shift our thinking.
Humans have envisioned a world with intelligent machines for over 100 years. The efficiency and cost savings of implementing artificial intelligence created a compelling
proposition for replacing humans with automation. The dream of humans to “create” life has also contributed to the fascination with creating intelligent machines.
Have we abandoned the dreams of humans?
The digital first movement has brought countless benefits to the human experience. We can meet and communicate with people around the world in real time. Organizations have been able to automate mundane processes that should – in theory – free humans up for higher level tasks.
Instead of using technology to replace humans, we should be leveraging technology to augment human performance. After all, robots do not innovate. Innovation is the lifeblood of sustainable success. Without innovation, even the best company, product or service will become obsolete.
Humans have not yet mastered the art of success and realizing their full potential. Are we ready replace the human experience with a world that revolves around AI and intelligent machines?
Organizations that replace humans with AI without a structured plan for upskilling or retraining their people are short-sighted. Efficiency is essential when building a profitable organization. There are things humans can do that most experts agree robots will not be able to do easily, if at all.
The window of opportunity to create a human-first economy and society may be fleeting. This is the moment for thoughtful and creative planning. For the possibilities of our own future and that of future generations.
