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Don’t let the cloud rain on your parade

I hear a lot about the many virtues of moving to the cloud. There are a lot of reasons this makes sense—among other things, the cloud can provide greater efficiencies, reduce costs, enhance productivity, remove geographic barriers and improve disaster recovery. And with so many cloud-based applications available and more hitting the market constantly, it definitely is the way of the future (if not the present).

But the articles I’ve read tend to focus on the benefits, and working in the cloud is not without risks. You don’t control the platform, and your company’s critical data (about employees, finances, customers, etc.) is being stored outside your premises with a third party. Even though someone else is managing your data, you are still responsible for what happens to it. Here are a few risks to consider:

Data location. Where is your data being hosted? Data protection and privacy regulations in many countries specify where certain employee data can be physically located. Also, different countries provide different legal protections, so if your provider moves its data center to another country there could be serious consequences for you.

Data ownership and migration. What happens to your data if you switch vendors or if a vendor goes out of business? Will it disappear? Will it be deleted securely? Will it cost to transfer your data from the vendor at the end of the contract?

Security. What controls are in place for transmitting data to your cloud provider and storing data securely? Is customer access secure? How are security breaches handled, and how soon are customers notified? (Ask for a SOC2 report to help assess data protection and security.)

Reliability. Industry standard uptime is greater than 99 percent. Does your provider meet that? How often is maintenance performed? How are customers notified of scheduled down time? What is the disaster recovery plan? Are full backups taken at least daily? Are there redundant sites and systems?

Integration. Evaluate how well the application integrates with existing applications (both in the cloud and at your location).

If you’re moving to the cloud, be smart—weigh costs and benefits, and evaluate options carefully. If you have an enterprise risk management (ERM) program in place, make sure the cloud is part of your strategy. Know what your risks are and address them up front; if something goes wrong you may be looking at business disruptions, damage to your reputation, lost customers and more. You don’t want to be surprised.

Don’t have an ERM program? Learn more about ERM for midsize companies in our latest report, ERM: Not Just for the Big Guys.

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ERM isn’t just for the big guys

Enterprise risk management (ERM) tends to be thought of as something only big companies need (or can afford). But it’s not just a megacorp thing—it can protect assets; rescue your company from unforeseen catastrophes, like a supplier going out of business or an epic PR crisis; guard against weak links in your supply chain; and more. Done right, an ERM program can also make decision making smarter, more strategic and more sharply focused on key success factors.

And it doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. Our new report, ERM: Not Just for the Big Guys, shows how midsize businesses can benefit from ERM and how to implement a program cost effectively with a plan that’s right-sized for your company.

How can you get the right fit? The report covers this checklist:

  • Give the CFO the lead
  • Get support from the top
  • Take a step-by-step approach
  • Provide the right tools and frameworks
  • Integrate ERM into decision making
  • Identify key performance indicators

The thought of yet another program when you’re already running lean may make you want to run the other way. You’re not alone: in a recent CFO magazine survey, participants said a commitment of time and resources was the single biggest impediment to implementing ERM.

Think about what you could gain—and what you might lose if unseen risks arise and you don’t have a plan. ERM: Not Just for the Big Guys shows how you can get started sensibly, one step at a time.

Other RoseRyan intelligence reports are available on topics such as M&A due diligence, acing your IPO filing, debt financing and revenue recognition.

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Secret to success: hire people smarter than you

Last week RoseRyan CEO and CFO Kathy Ryan and 99 other women leaders chosen as Women of Influence by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal were celebrated, wined and dined. Here’s what she had to say about the honor and how business has changed for women since she started her career.

What makes this a real honor for you?
At first I thought of it as kind of a PR gimmick, I have to admit. Then I began getting comments from people—and a lot of them I hadn’t seen or heard from in years. Then, so many people were at the event, from big companies to small, and people were so excited—I realized it really is an honor. These women have done a lot of great things, and it was a genuine honor to be in such a great crowd of talented individuals.

What was the event like?
It was very festive! Almost 1,000 people were there, and I think 96 of the 100 women who were honored showed up.

We [the honorees] were asked to answer the question, “What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?” in 10 words or less. There was a lot of variety but most were along the lines of, follow your heart, work hard, don’t listen to people who say you can’t do it. Some were really funny—for instance, someone said her mother told her, “Don’t marry the pilot. Be the pilot.” Someone else said she came home after a hard day and her husband said, “If it was easy, Paris Hilton would do it.” They held people’s attention—that’s amazing with an audience of 1,000.

What did you say?
Hire people who are more talented than you are and you’ll always be successful. That has guided me with RoseRyan. I think that’s what makes us a great community of talented individuals, and it’s made us a lot better as a company. I’m relying on other people’s talents to move this company forward. It also makes me a better person, a better CEO, manager, owner—the whole bit.

Could something like this have happened 20 years ago, when RoseRyan began?
I don’t know. Move that to 30 years ago, and I’d say no. When I was at Price Waterhouse there were very few women partners anywhere. Accounting was a man’s world. At Quantum, I saw women start to take more of a managerial role. Now I’m seeing more CEOs and CFOs who are women. There are more women’s business organizations that are serious and are respected.

Do women in business really have more influence?
Women have more influence, but I don’t think we’re where we need to be quite yet. Women do have more choices and power than they’ve had in the past. We’ve become part of the regular cycle of business—and it’s no longer a surprise that women are in top roles and are recognized for their leadership and smarts rather than being the lone female in the C suite.

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