Month: November 2020

Risk Management

According to the Marquette University Risk Unit, risk management is the continuing process to identify, analyze, evaluate, and treat loss exposures and monitor risk control and financial resources to mitigate the adverse effects of loss. We typically simplify this a bit and describe it as the Identification, Analysis (or Measurement), Treatment and Monitoring of risk. 

Risk Management is the art, science, process and all the ongoing activities involved in identifying, understanding, assessing, monitoring and then effectively reducing one’s exposure to risks, and the likelihood, impact and undesirable results should any of those risks materialize.

Although risks can be managed, it’s important to appreciate that risks are always evolving (Old risks can metamorphose and change, while new, unfamiliar risks are always emerging) and can never be truly eliminated.

Risk Measurement is the effort to “quantify” the likelihood and potential impact of a given risk or set of risks occurring. It’s just one of the many possible elements of risk assessment.

Measuring risk is generally conducted by using probability and statistical analysis of historic data that conforms to a classic “normal” bell curve distribution. As a result “Standard deviation” is the most common unit now used for risk measurement.

This approach was first articulated by Prof. Frank Knight, in his 1921 book “Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit.” In that book Dr. Knight was the first person to observe that the principal difference between Risk and Uncertainty is that “Risk” can be measured (using statistical methods) and “Uncertainty” cannot be measured. That’s so because the variability of the range of outcomes of uncertain phenomena do not conform to the bell curve distribution model, and by definition cannot measured.

As a result its extremely important to recognize the risk measurement is only reliable when its used in analyzing phenomenon where bell curve distribution patterns are the norm, (outcomes are unknown, but probabilities are known) such as casino gambling, slot machines, lottery, height, weight, and life expectancy.

Attempting to measure risk in areas where uncertainty reigns, (Outcomes are unknown and probabilities are unknown) such as romance, war, earthquakes, business, and investing is flawed & problematic from the very start.

Risk Organization is the process of identifying, quantifying, and managing the risks that an organisation faces. As the outcomes of business activities are uncertain, they are said to have some element of risk. These risks include strategic failures, operational failures, financial failures, market disruptions, environmental disasters, and regulatory violations. Risk is a statistical concept that is measured using statistical concepts that are related to the unknown future. Almost all investments are exposed to it.

Risk Organization involves identifying the types of risk exposure within the company, measuring those potential risks, proposing means to hedge, insure or mitigate some of the risks and estimating the impact of various risks on the future earnings of the company.

While it is impossible that companies remove all risk from the organisation, it is important that they properly understand and manage the risks that they are willing to accept in the context of the overall corporate strategy. The Organization of the company is primarily responsible for risk Organization, but the board of directors, internal auditor, external auditor, and general counsel also play critical roles.

Risk can be managed in a number of ways: by the buying of insurance, by using derivative instruments as hedges, by sharing risks with others, or by avoiding risky positions altogether.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be beneficial to both supplier and customer. The supplier reduces costs by offering only products that are wanted, when they are wanted, and he passes the cost savings on to the customer who signed up for the company’s CRM. To implement such a system, extensive information about the customer must be collected and stored. The two concerns with regard to this system are customer privacy and the accuracy of the information collected.

Collecting Customer Data

Ethical issues originating with the collection of customer data for CRM are related to secure collection methods and to the verification of the information. Ethical companies ensure that sensitive information such as credit credit card numbers or medical histories are collected in a secure environment and transmitted back to the databases securely. During data collection, it is also critical to verify the identity of the customer and the accuracy of the information being submitted. High security for these functions is costly but ethically necessary.

Storing CRM Data

Once customer data is safely in a company database, ethical companies adhere to four principles regarding storage. Data is only stored with the agreement of the customer. Customers must be able to view their data and either change their data or ask for it to be changed. Customers can withdraw from the program, and such a withdrawal causes their data to be erased. The ethics behind these principles are that the data belongs to the customer and the customer must be able to control his data.

Using CRM Data

Given that much of the customer data for CRM is sensitive, ethical companies ensure the data is kept private to the maximum extent possible. To achieve this, the company must store the data in a form or in a location not generally accessible. The data must only be consulted when necessary for the fulfillment of a CRM task, and only those employees who handle the data to complete the task are able to access the data. When sub-suppliers need to use the data, they must first commit to restrictions similar to what the CRM company has in place.

Disposing of CRM Data

Since customers must be able to withdraw from the CRM program and since their data is then erased, the company needs a procedure in place for safely destroying customer data when it is no longer needed. While deletion from the database is initially sufficient as long as the database remains secure, data on obsolete equipment and equipment that changes status to non-secure is at risk. An ethical company has detailed policies and procedures for tracking and destroying data and keep accurate records of such activities.

Mobile CRM, or Mobile Customer Relationship Management, is a CRM tool designed for mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. By connecting through mobile CRM, you allow your sales team’s access to customer data through a mobile CRM app or through a web-based browser with cloud CRM. A key benefit of using mobile CRM is to allow your sales force to access real time data while out in the fields meeting prospects and customers.

Getting started with Mobile CRM

Before you begin to implement your mobile CRM, it is important that you define goals on what you want to achieve by having a mobile CRM and what your work force needs in order to take advantage of real time data access.  I’ve outlined three highly important areas you will need to address before launching:

1. Internal buy-in

Before you implement a mobile CRM app, it is important that you get internal buy-in from the sales force. Your sales teams are the ones that will be using the smart phone application daily and in order to get their buy-in, you need to implement extensive in-house training on how to use the application in the form of user guides and training programs as well as explaining the key benefits of what they can achieve by working with the mobile CRM.

2. Provide the device

People love getting things for free and one of the easiest ways to get your sales team to adopt a smart phone CRM is to provide the device itself to your sales force and include the application pre-installed. Although most CRM mobile apps are supported by iOS, Android and Blackberry, make sure that you check with the provider before giving it to your sales force.

3. Mobile app usability

Your sales force will rarely need access to complete functionality on their CRM mobile app to all the same data and reporting they would access via their desktop. Start out by providing only basic access that the teams use on a day to day basis. For example, writing and sending an email, scheduling a meeting and/ or updating contact information.

Selling on the move – The next generation of CRM

Introducing mobile CRM to your sales operation can be a dramatic change for the better. Your salespeople can update and synchronise information on the move, sharing real-time data from across the business. Day-to-day sales tasks are freed from the desktop, so a salesperson carrying a tablet or smartphone can:

• Plan the day with calendar integration
• Dial in to meetings with click-to-call
• Access and update leads, contacts and oportunities
• Open and share files
• Access dashboards

But today’s mobile CRM platforms can do so much more. Add cloud storage to mobile CRM functionality and you’re no longer synchronising data with a local copy you’re accessing live, centrally held information from whichever device you choose. Distributed teams can share files and background information and can update, share and send proposals on the move.

Custom apps can feed information directly into your CRM back end, with new app releases rolled out to your sales team in real time. Every salesperson has the benefit of complete CRM data, analytics and customer-facing material at their fingertips, on any device freeing them to spend more time on sales and less on administrative tasks.

Expert answers, anytime, anywhere

Using a CRM platform to handle and track customer service activity already makes sense, and adding a mobile dimension brings even more benefits. Combining mobile with social CRM gives you a whole new range of capabilities. Not only can your customers now contact you where and when they choose, but you can track, manage and respond to every case with the full capability of your CRM platform.

A mobile CRM platform means instant, simple escalation, with issues routed straight to the right subject matter expert, product manager or executive, regardless of location. You can implement round-the-clock cover for urgent queries and respond on the same platforms your customers use no more losing issues as they change from one channel to another.

The privacy principles of ECRM are:

Lawfulness, Fairness, and Transparency

When ECRM collects personal data, it will be processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.

Purpose Limitation

When ECRM collects personal data, it will be collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.

Data Minimization

When ECRM collects personal data, it will be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is processed.

Accuracy

When ECRM collects personal data, it will be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that personal data that is inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, is erased or rectified without unreasonable delay.

Storage Limitation

When ECRM collects personal data, it will be kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed.

Integrity and Confidentiality

When ECRM collects personal data, it will take measures designed to protect against unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage.

Lawfulness of Processing

Any and all processing will be done lawfully. ECRM will process personal data only if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies:

(1) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes

(2) processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract

(3) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the data controller is subject; (4) processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person

(5) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller

(6) processing is in the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data.

Information collected

As you interact with ECRM, there may be opportunities for you to provide us with your information. Additionally, we may collect certain information about you as further described below.

You may provide us with information about you through a number of sources: ECRM websites, applications, tradeshows, events, surveys, social media platforms, sweepstakes entries, and through our customer contact centers. We also receive information about you through third party event coordinators where you have registered for certain services.

The types of information that ECRM collects about you may include, but are not limited to:

• Contact information (such as name, address, city, state and ZIP code, age or date of birth, occupation, email address and telephone number);
• Payment information (such as your bank account information, credit card number, debit card number, bank or investor account, CVV code, expiration date, and payment history);
• Information about your connected devices (such as mobile phone, computer, or tablet) and how you interact with our services, apps, and websites (such as IP address, browser type, unique device identifier, cookie data, and associated identifying and usage information);
• Demographic information (such as gender and date of birth);
• Marketing/business profile information; and
• Photographs and videos such as those that you may submit for contests, sweepstakes and social sharing.

Disclose information

We use and disclose personal information you provide to us as described to you at the point of collection. We also use and transfer personal information from or about you:

• To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests, such as to send you documents you request or e-mail;
• To send you important information regarding our relationship with you, changes to our terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information;
• For our business purposes, such as marketing new products, events, and services, data analysis, audits, developing new products, events, or services, operating or enhancing our website, improving our products, events, and services, identifying usage trends, providing products, events, and services, maintaining customer/client relationships, improving the quality, safety, and security of our products, events, and services, administering your account(s), troubleshooting, supporting electronic signature, customizing and improving communication content, evaluating product, event, or service performance, providing customer support, and determining the effectiveness of our website;
• With other registrants or our trusted third-party business partners that are participating in the same event that you have registered for, or otherwise have requested certain event information, via print and online materials;
• To our third-party service providers who provide services such as website hosting and moderating, mobile application hosting, data analysis, infrastructure provision, credit card processing, IT services, e-mail services, marketing services, auditing services, and other services, in order to enable them to provide services;
• To verify your information and authenticate payments and process orders, such as disclosing certain financial and other information you provide to ECRM to third parties that provide credit reporting, payment or order fulfillment services;
• To a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings); and
• when we otherwise have your consent.

In addition, we use and disclose personal information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate:

(a) As permitted by applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence

(b) To comply with any legal process

(c) To respond to requests from public and government authorities, including public and government authorities outside your country of residence

(d) To enforce our website Terms of Use

(e) To protect our operations or those of any of our affiliates; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others

(g) To allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

We also use and disclose information that is not in personally identifiable form (such as anonymized, masked or de-identified information) for any purpose. If we combine information that is not in personally identifiable form with information that is (such as combining your name with your geographical location), we will treat the combined information as personal information as long as it is combined.