PCI - Credit Card issues

Credit cards are in need of more protection. Hackers and Crackers are making millions from stealing personal and corporate credit cards. Many companies have spent millions of dollars trying to protect credit cards necessary to conduct business. But for medium size businesses, this is proving to become very costly.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) has put forth some of the best practices to ensure companies are protecting credit cards. However, the standards and practices are very difficult to implement and enforce. Please be encouraged, there are tactics to help reduce the affect and exposure to PCI standards.

Here are three tactics to help reduce the PCI scope in your environment and to reduce unnecessary duplication:

Tactic #1
For audit and management purposed, reduce the network and processes that touch payment cards to a separate network. Basically, you need two networks. Firewalls, segregation of duties and other divisive tactics will help keep the effect of the PCI requirements focused to only it's scope. PCI should only be restricted to PCI systems and processes.

Tactic #2
This may sound like a contradiction to the first tactic, but it helps your management of resources and talent. Align as many of your overall standards and practices with the PCI standards. Simply, developing and managing your standards and practices with consistency will save money, reduce errors and eliminate many redundancies within your organization.

Tactic #3
Do not wait to audit at the end of the year. Conduct small, random audits, every month throughout your organization. This will help ensure that standards, practices and processes are compliant. This tactic will help your employees know that they must continuous comply--which keeps the errors low and compliance high.

PCI is difficult, but very necessary. Do not take this standard lightly, but find efficiencies to help make this requirement helpful for all.

New Venture in tough times

New Ventures in tough times -- GO WEST--
It has been interesting to see the new venture landscape change significantly over these past few years. There are many great ideas waiting for development, however, capital has, for all intensive purposes, dried up.
Creativity is the way out of this drought. The American way can reign supreme, if we look back to our roots. The west was settled by boats and wagon trudging through thick and thin. It was tough times for the United States. However, the country was established and we became the strongest country in the world. Maybe we have forgotten the lessons of our country. Hard work equals progress and success.
--Go West--

Failure is not always bad. We can learn and move on. Edison had to fail over a thousand times to get the working light bulb. Our failures leads us to our successes.
--Go West--

I would encourage us all to look inside ourselves and hearken our American spirit. It is not a dirty word, or a bad thing to be AMERICAN. Stop believing the Kool-aid of others or the diplomacy of "working together".
--Go West--
Go forth, build and make a new frontier with your ideas and ventures.
--Go West--
How does one go west with ideas. Build the prototypes yourself. Find partners to come along side you and work together to build your idea or venture. The pioneers of the past did not have Capital investors telling them where and how to go west. The pioneers went forth. Let's go forth and make the life we want. It is hard, but you can do it.
--GO WEST ENTREPRENEUR, GO WEST--

Business Alignment - Part Two

If the Business says “Go West!”, IT needs to get a compass.

Central to many problems and issues facing IT is the disconnect between business goals and IT goals.   It is not an issue of focus; it is an issue of communication.  Ascension has repeatedly observed that when IT sits at the table of high-level business decision, IT tends to move in line with the business.  IT must respect the direction of the business, and the business must respect the ability for IT to help or hinder business.  We advise that IT and business sit at the table together on strategic issues.

Matching IT burns rates with revenues: a marriage made in heaven.

This concept is relatively new. Ascension promotes the concept of a two-tier IT budget. The first tier is ongoing expenses that "keep the ship afloat,”  such as infrastructure, systems maintenance, and base wages for necessary staff. The second tier is a quarterly re-forecasted budget of new projects or initiatives based on last quarter’s revenue performance.  Agile budgeting focuses on access to real funds and involves the business as an integral part of the decision-making.  This is in contrast to the old methods of budgeting.  This new construct forces IT to behave in alignment with the business and forces the business to seek IT's services to directly help increase revenues.

We hope these observation are helpful.  Please let us know if we can help you in your business endeavors. Ascension has experience and a long tradition in technology management, such as

¨ Information Technology and Product Development Management

¨ IT Services and Best Practices

Please call us at 425-750-0760 or email us at info@ascension-tg.com.

Business Alignment

 

Questions to ask yourself

¨ Do you know if your IT goals are aligned with your business goals?

¨ Does your IT department have a close relationship with Sales and Marketing? Can the relationship improve?

¨ Do business revenues/vision correlate with IT’s budgets and burn rates?

¨ Have your customers experienced problems from your IT systems?

 

According to the Society of Information Managers “Top IT Trends” report, IT leaders ranked business alignment as one of the top three concerns. It's not about technology; it's about the business.  The following simple practices will help you bring IT in alignment with the business:

Finding Customer Voice, It’s not just a survey

Your customer will inevitably be affected positively or negatively from services provided by IT.  It is critical that IT staff be able to hear your customer’s voice.  We have found simple and efficient means to have  IT hear what customers say and in turn, IT leaders and staff become more customer centric.  One way is to have various IT staff participate in customer focus sessions or customer service calls asking the customer for direct feedback.  We also believe strongly in having all management participate in a ‘day in the shoes’ activity—be a novice customer service or sales person for one day.

Working together for the win.

Does your IT department have a close relationship with Sales and Marketing? Can that relationship improve? Ascension strongly encourages IT leadership and Sales/Marketing leadership to have more face-to-face encounters.  Not another meeting!  We suggest IT reaches out to the business in an informal manner and discuss issues personally.   Here is an example:  Let's say IT has a critical project that needs funding.  Who has the best talent for selling a concept?  It's not IT.  IT needs to reach out to sales/marketing seeking their advice and guidance.   By doing this, mutual respect will grow between the sales and IT leaders and their respective teams. 

It's not about Technology, It's about Business Part two

Track effort, find efficiencies, and reduce cost

Use simple tracking tools to monitor all technology-based work. By tracking and reporting technology work load, your teams will find inefficiencies, duplications and unproductive work.

It's not about technology it's about business

This next practice may seem trivial, but Ascension has found it to be a fundamental cornerstone for turning technology groups into business groups. It’s not about cool technology, it’s about business.  Leadership needs to outline the business goals clearly with a firm and consistent statement regarding technology arguments surrounding  (Microsoft vs. Google) or methods (Waterfall vs. Agile). Simply put, it's not about technology, it's about business!

ABILITY TO SAY NO AND EXPLAIN WHY

Technologists need to understand that saying “No” and the ability to explain why, is an important tool in providing valuable services to the company and its employees.  We are not suggesting saying “no” to customer service or that technology teams dictate permission for business goals.  Individuals and groups within the company have “wants” that may not align with the business needs of the company.

Technologists are typically stuck in the middle, trying to satisfy individual requests without the ability to make the decision whether or not that request is in alignment with company’s goals. The team needs to be trained up with the ability to say no and explain why.

Standardized to make it easier

Find ways to provide simple standardize policy and practices that technology teams can safely and easily implement. These policies and practices should be simple, clear and concise; and relate to business performance. Consistent policies and practices will save time, effort, and money. It sounds simple, but standardizing will go a long way in matching technology effort directly to company performance.

Thank you.  Please let us know if we can help you in your endeavors.  Ascension Technical Group is a trusted advisor to business. Ascension's services encompass technology and business management.  We provide services to develop and streamline core management functions. Please call us to see how we can assist you.