IT Visionaries

Nikola Mijic is the Founder and CEO of Matik, and he has one piece of advice of for anyone entering the start-up arena:“When people ask me what have you learned through this experience of starting your own company, I would say how to ruthlessly prioritize because your users and your customers and prospects are gonna want the world, and it's your job to be able to decipher what is valid and what is habitual.”Building, scaling, and maintaining success is every entrepreneur’s dream, and there’s one way to get there. By consistently meeting customer expectations and finding product-market fit. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Nikola peels back the curtain on how he stepped outside of his comfort zone of product management and took a chance in launching Matik, a personalization tool designed to automate Google slides and powerpoint presentations with customized data points. Nikola also explains why customer success is dependent on managing expectations and how data-driven insights are not here to kill dashboards, but to assist them.Main TakeawaysGet Your Priorities Straight: When you’re running a company, prioritization is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. When you are first starting out, prospects and clients are going to consistently be asking you to over deliver with your products and services. You won’t be able to do everything or meet every expectation, so you have to prioritize what is possible and be sure you can deliver on what you promise.Trust Your Data: Your products need to be rooted and consistently measured based on what your data is telling you. Is the user using the product? If they are not, use your data to understand why and get to the bottom of why a particular product is succeeding or failing.Not Here to Replace your Dashboards: Dashboards still serve a purpose of being exploratory while providing the ability to quick insights, but they don’t solve the entire problem of pulling all that data into a single place so that you can quick find those insights and make them accessible.-IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For years there has been a debate about whether video games are the next great learning tool, or gateways to desensitization due to violence and a lack of face-to-face interaction. The debate rages on, but regardless of the long-term side effects of video games, there are scenarios where they are being put to use in practical ways as it relates to military training.“The idea of training soldiers using computer games was like, ‘There's no way a computer game can train my guys how to shoot. You have to go out into the mud and do it for real.’ And while there's some truth there, what we offered was like an accelerator for decision-making processes.”Mark Dzulko had been serving in the military for 13 years when he recognized the potential that computer-based simulation tactics could have in the military. As the CTO and Director at Bohemia Simulations, Mark is now turning the potential into something practical. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Mark breaks down the difference between traditional consumer-based video games and Bohemia’s simulation device, plus, he explains how the company scaled despite having a limited customer base.Main TakeawaysAn Open World: By using open source tools, engineers are able to quickly draft up different scenarios to fit a potential need rather than completely build a model from scratch. This gives simulation a sense of agility and scalability that traditional training models, such as pre-built flight simulators, do not have.Game vs Reality: Video games are built with an end goal in mind: to achieve the highest possible score. Simulations are designed to recreate actual life tactics. By being put in a simulated scenario, soldiers can hone their response times and get a better sense of how to react before being deployed. How to Make It: When you bring any product to market, it’s important to have an understanding of if you have product-market fit first. But when your customer base is limited it’s even more important to know that you will solve a problem for that base of customers in a reliable way, which will help ensure your success from the start. Constantly testing and gathering feedback from potential buyers before you hit that market is a strategy to put in place so that when you are ready to launch your product, it’s already set up for the customer to succeed.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let’s be frank: the healthcare industry needs help. Medical records have far too many inconsistencies, patients struggle to find ways to transfer information from one doctor to another, and as the world slowly begins to reopen and the focus on health increases, the industry is going to have to lean on modern technology more than ever in order to track and maintain records as it relates to COVID-19. “There are several like electronic health information systems out there and their operability is pretty poor. You have to be able to get that information [to your doctors]. You have to be able to integrate it and make it accessible to your patients, as well as your primary care providers. And, that's something that we do better than anybody else.”Claire Hough is the CTO of Carbon Health, a tech-enabled healthcare provider that is developing data-driven programs in an effort to help modernize the healthcare industry by removing the boundaries of health care to create high-quality experiences. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Claire details how Carbon Health has used technology and data to solve a wide array of issues in healthcare, including the delivery care model. Plus, Claire dives into her past experiences scaling startups such as Netscape, Napster, and Udemy.Main TakeawaysUser Error: There’s a saying when it comes to data, “garbage in, garbage out.” When it comes to data entry, this still applies because there is still far too much room for user error. Workers are manually inputting data in spreadsheets allowing for a margin of error, and this is one of the biggest problems facing the healthcare industry. By using an automated system that removes the physical person from that process, you can access a clearer picture of your data without concerns about input accuracy.Not Enough Information: The healthcare industry is overrun with processes that are not streamlined or convenient for patients. When a patient gives information to a physician or an urgent care provider, that information remains only with those sources rather than shared widely to the patient’s broader healthcare team.. By creating a central record system that controls every aspect of the healthcare process, companies are able to not only have the most accurate information regardless of where a patient is seen, but it creates a better overall customer experience for your patient who no longer have to repeatedly provide the same information.Built to Scale: When you’re scaling your engineering teams, you have to think about what the company is going to look like in the near future and not just what you need in the present. Make sure the people you are bringing on can work in a fast-paced environment and possess multiple skill sets.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Move fast and break things. A famous adage adopted by many software companies. But what if you’re an industry giant where innovation is required, but failure is absolutely not an option. That doesn’t seem to be a mix for success.Meet Amdocs, a company withe more than 26,000 employees and generating more than $4.2 billion in revenue annually, the expectations for success are a little bit higher.“The difference between great companies and good companies is how much your endurance is to failure.”Avishai Sharlinis the Division President for Amdocs Technologies, a company that works with communication and media companies to help consumers complete more than 1.7 billion digital journeys every day. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Avishai explains how Amdocs uses open source tools to provide the scale and agility needed to operate some of the world’s most complex systems, and he reveals why and how Amdocs is helping to accelerate many companies' journeys to the cloud.Main TakeawaysWhat Separates Good From Great: The difference between a good company and a great one is a company's ability to deal with failure. In technology, failure is inevitable, but the key is to make sure that with each failure, your team is continually learning from your mistakes and building off of them.Different Ways to Architect Your Technology: There are no longer one-size-fits-all solutions for your digital products. Today, each individual piece of technology must be adaptable in order to meet a consumer's needs. This means that technology teams building products have to keep multiple solutions in mind and take into account the different ways users will use technology.  A Whole New World: With the rise of IoT devices, 5G networks will not only bring the bandwidth and low-latency needed to power today’s networks, but it will also enhance the ability for communication companies to better prioritize the amount of data they send to individual devices and how to protect them from cyber threats.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

NFTs, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Tokenization. There is more hype than ever for these technologies and endless debate on the utility of this technology. . While consumers are attempting  to understand the value of cryptocurrency, governments and private firms across the globe are doing the same, and they are experimenting with the idea of a central bank for digital currency that will adapt and meet changing consumer needs.Main TakeawaysBenefits of a Central Bank: The digitization of currency will not only simplify the distribution of government cash, but it will eliminate banking deserts, which are large populations of the country where traditional banking branches are not accessible to the general public. By moving to a digital currency, users will be able to easily complete transactions similar to how cash purchases are done, but without the time needed to complete a credit transaction.Programmable Money: One of the exciting innovations and benefits of digital tokens is the concept of “programmable” money. This means that during the design and build phase, the technology that houses the currency can be reconfigured to scale and add critical functions at any time.Easily Traceable: By modernizing currency and moving to a digital token, the flow of currency from one user to another will be much easier to track than physical transactions. When transactions are done digitally, you can trace that currency back to where it originated, making it simpler and easier to detect fraud.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform  -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gabe Gumbs has a deep-rooted passion for technology and information security, and his goal is to share that passion to push data security to the forefront of every business's agenda.“Security is all I've ever done. It's what I know, it's what I love. I enjoy every aspect of [security]. From building it, to talking about it, to marketing, into selling it to you, It's a passion.” Gabe is the Chief Innovation Officer at Spirion — a leader in rapid identification and protection of sensitive data— and these days he’s channeling that passion to make the digital world a safer place. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Gabe explains his vision for data privacy and why it’s time to kick siloed data to the curb. He also provides a detailed view on the future of work and why the talent shortage that security professionals have discussed may not be exactly as drastic as it seems.Main TakeawaysSilos are an Unnecessary Evil: Data professionals are ingesting data from various sources which is opening them up to unnecessary vulnerabilities. When data is sourced from multiple areas, such as datasets and the cloud, security models are spread thin, making that data harder to protect. By bringing that data into one single area, companies will have a better chance of not only understanding data, but protecting it as well.Your Off-the-Shelf Model Needs to Go: Organizations that use a cybersecurity maturity model as a framework to measure the progress of their security tactics are leaving themselves vulnerable to attackers. Every bad actor is different, which requires a unique model to prevent those attackers from infiltrating your network.The Security Skills Shortage That Wasn’t: Analysts have been writing about a cybersecurity shortage for years and some believe the data privacy sector will suffer a similar fate. The issue however is not a lack of talent, but rather data security professionals must broaden their hiring practices because security is no longer simply about keeping data safe, but it’s also about policy and compliance with new data rules.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An A.I. the model is similar to a boat in that it needs constant maintenance to perform. The reality is  A.I. models need adjusted boundaries and guidelines to remain efficient.  And when you live in a world where everyone is trying to get bigger and faster and have a certain edge, Scott Clark is helping make that possible with his finely-tuned A.I. modeling techniques.“As you're building up these rules and constructs for how that system will even learn itself, there's a lot of parameters that you need to set and tune. There's all these magical numbers that go into these systems. If you don't have a system of record for this, if you're just throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks, and then only checking the best one, and you don't have a system of what you tried, what the trade-offs were, which parameters were the most important, and how it traded off different metrics it can seem like a very opaque process. At least that hyper parameter optimization and neural architecture search and kind of tuning part of the process can be a little bit more explainable, a little bit more repeatable and a little bit more optimal.”More explainable, and more optimal, but most importantly scaleable and reproducible. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Scott, the CEO and Co-founder of SigOpt, a company that’s on a mission to empower modeling systems to reach their fullest potential, explains the basic steps that go into successful models, how his team tweaks and optimizes those models to build more efficient processes. Plus, Scott touches on the future of algorithmic models — including how they will improve and where they struggle. Enjoy this episode.Main TakeawaysBad Data, Bad!: When you’re building algorithm models you have to not only focus on the data you are putting into those models, but you have to know where that data is coming from and if that data is trustworthy. When you have untrustworthy data — either its coming from an unknown source or is bias in any way — this can lead to models that deliver poor results.Delivering Consistency: While every algorithm needs to be tweaked and tuned at the start, the best way to deliver consistent, scalable algorithmic models is to make sure you are able to define hyper-specific patterns that the algorithm can abide by. When algorithms know what rules they are looking for (such as this person only likes medium sized shirts with stripes) it has a set of hyper-specific boundaries it can operate off of in order to deliver the best results.Where is the Band Conductor?: Algorithms will continue to infiltrate our everyday lives, but the truth is they still need humans to effectively run them, to tune them, and to make sure that the decisions they are making are the right ones. ---IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Over the last quarter century, data and its ability to provide valuable insights for companies to plan, predict, and implement strategies has expanded exponentially. Organizations have grown more reliant on data, and the speed at which data is uploaded and analyzed now must match the pace at which it is generated.“Data has to be up to date and available almost immediately in order to just keep the business running.”Mark Van de Wiel is the CTO of HVR, a company that specializes in partnering with enterprises to realize the full potential of data through real-time data replication. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Mark explains why data replication is an imperative step for companies wanting to take a more data-driven approach, how replication is providing real-time insight as opposed to batch data uploads, and why having a single source of truth when it comes to your data is just good business.Main TakeawaysHolistic Data View: Today, organizations are pulling data together from multiple sources. But regardless of whether your data pulls are from first-party or third-party sources, getting all of it into one unified space is paramount. Replicating data is a very quick way to migrate data from multiple sources in order to provide a holistic view of your data.Know Where Your Data is Coming From: Garbage in, garbage out is a philosophy every data leader is familiar with, which is why it's important to understand where your data is coming from. Be strategic about how you manage your data, what sources you are collecting your data from, and if the source is reliable.Real Time Data Application: Being able to replicate your data in real time and not have to wait on monthly or quarterly data uploads is an enabler for allowing an organization to be more data-driven.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The modern worker needs access to multiple applications. And with every new piece of software implemented, the security and identity requirements grow exponentially.  Identity authentication is creating increasing headaches for IT professionals everywhere. Relying on usernames and passwords won’t be enough much longer.“We've been using usernames and passwords as the primary identity feature for 50 years. I really have been working in my career to help change that and come up with a better way. When I think of usernames and passwords, I think that is a lose, lose situation. It's a bad experience and it's bad security because everybody uses the same passwords and doesn't change them.” That’s Fran Rosch, the CEO of ForgeRock, a company that is helping users connect with the world and its software safely and simply with it’s A.I.-driven platform. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Fran explains how ForgeRock is pioneering next generation identity authentication that can help verify users through multiple passive data points such as domains, ip addresses, time of day, previous logins, concurrent logins, and many others. If his future comes into reality, you might be able to forget that username and password for good.Main TakeawaysUnder Pressure: IT organizations today are under immense pressure to not only create a secure and safe digital environment, but also where their employees feel safe. Today employees need to trust where they are storing their information, but that user experience must also be seamless.What’s the Username?: For more than 50 years, usernames and passwords have been one of the primary features used to secure a digital environment. The problem with this process is those passwords have to constantly be changed in order to remain secure, which creates a poor user experience. An emerging tool when it comes to creating a seamless experience is using face ID.Demanding control: Enterprises are now demanding control over where their identity lives. As more companies operate in the cloud — whether that’s a private or public cloud — they want their identity authentication to run separately and have control over it and not have to have multiple identity services based on where they’re running the technology.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There’s a festering problem growing beneath the surface of small businesses everywhere, and it’s an issue that most SMBs are refusing to address. As large-scale companies invest big money in information security teams to protect themselves from data breaches and bad actors, their small business brethren simply refuse to invest in security at all.“People only spend money on things they can detect.”Gary Chan is an information security management consultant and president of Alfizo, a company that is helping SMBs and large-scale enterprises use IT as an enabler while meeting compliance, security and privacy obligations. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Gary dives into some of the biggest obstacles facing SMBs from a security perspective and why small businesses leave themselves vulnerable to cyber attacks. Plus he explains why regardless of how secure your network may be, the weakest link remains your staff.Main TakeawaysWalk in Through the Front Door: SMBs are leaving themselves vulnerable to security threats because they don’t believe they need to invest in the basic tools and services to protect themselves. SMBs are attacked at a far higher rate than large-scale organization because they often leave themselves open to attackersBasic Tips and Tricks: For SMBs that don’t want to invest high dollar amounts into a security tech stack, it’s still wise to invest in simple things that fit what you need, such as phishing training for your staff, which can help detect and report malicious emails, multi-function authentication, and password vaults.IT Visionaries is brought to you by the Salesforce Platform - the #1 cloud platform for digital transformation of every experience. Build connected experiences, empower every employee, and deliver continuous innovation - with the customer at the center of everything you do. Learn more at salesforce.com/platform -- This episode of IT Visionaries is brought to you by Meter - the company building better networks. Businesses today are frustrated with outdated providers, rigid pricing, and fragmented tools. Meter changes that with a single integrated solution that covers everything wired, wireless, and even cellular networking. They design the hardware, write the firmware, build the software, and manage it all so your team doesn't have to.That means you get fast, secure, and scalable connectivity without the complexity of juggling multiple providers. Thanks to meter for sponsoring. Go to meter.com/itv to book a demo.---IT Visionaries is made by the team at Mission.org. Learn more about our media studio and network of podcasts at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.