The virtual European Compliance and Ethics Conference (ECEC 2023), hosted for the fourth time by EQS Group, a leading international RegTech provider for compliance, was very close to the pulse of time. This large-scale virtual event discussed the future of compliance in a challenging environment with global crises and new technologies. The host of the conference, Achim Weick, founder and CEO of EQS Group AG, immediately put his finger in the wound in his opening speech: "Credibility has never been as important as it is today, but at the same time, surveys show that global trust in business is only 62 percent - which is why we all need to commit to the right values and a healthy and transparent corporate culture. This is the only way we can meet the challenges of tomorrow."

"We all need to be committed to a healthy corporate culture"

"How can corporate values be preserved in a crisis?" This question was the focus of numerous presentations. In addition to open and transparent communication, Sven Clodius, Partner Assurance, Investigations & Compliance at Ernst & Young, therefore recommended that companies reassess their risk strategy and reallocate limited resources: "Once the biggest compliance risks are identified, regulations can be systematically implemented." Ethics business consultant Dr. Bettina Palazzo, speaking with Richard Bistrong, an internationally recognized anti-corruption consultant, emphasized the importance of sharing with employees. Her conclusion: "Rules without relationships lead to rebellion."

Good corporate governance is an important competitive factor

One in five compliance officers fears that their function could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). This is the exciting result of a survey that EQS Group had already conducted in the run-up to the ECEC. However, the overwhelming majority of conference participants saw the positive aspects in using the new technology responsibly. "With a competent compliance team, companies can use the powerful innovations to promote ethics in the organization - and thus gain a competitive advantage," explained Anne Vogdt, Head of Compliance & Data Protection at FREENOW.

Alison McDermott: Toxic waste and a toxic work environment are a dangerous combination

The emotional highlight of the 26 sessions with more than 30 internationally recognized compliance experts at ECEC 2023 was the appearance of whistleblower Alison McDermott, whose case has made headlines in the UK over the past two years. In a moving conversation with journalist Katy Diggory, the HR consultant described her marathon trial and the reprisals she suffered after denouncing bullying, sexual harassment, homophobia and racism at the Sellafield nuclear power plant in 2018. "A toxic work environment combined with toxic waste is a combination that can also be extremely dangerous to the general public," McDermott said, explaining her motivations for not remaining silent despite all the opposition.

Record participation in ECEC Award: Award goes to ABN Amro

Once again this year, the compliance conference concluded with the presentation of the ECEC Award. 25 companies and organizations applied for the award for outstanding compliance projects - more than ever before. "This record participation is overwhelming. It demonstrates the high regard in which this award is held by the industry, now in its fourth year. Congratulations to the finalists!" said a delighted Marcus Sultzer, Member of the Management Board of EQS Group, who awarded the winner ABN Amro. The Dutch bank narrowly beat Iberdrola and Vodafone in the live voting with its "Dilemma on X-Day" project, which involves employees in decisions in an interactive way.

Source and further information: www.ecec-community.com

Advances in remote health monitoring based on the Internet of Things (IoT) are transforming healthcare for individuals, caregivers and physicians. This transformation is enabled by new 5G mobile standards that enable improved functionality and usability of wearable technologies for checking vital signs, medications or responses to drug trials, and fall detection.

It is expected that the new standards will have a 10 - 100 times Enable increase in data rates, support 10 to 100 times more connected devices, and result in 5 to 10 times reduction in latency compared to our current standard. Communications service providers (CSPs) will be in tune with advances in the Healthcare through service offerings that support multiple parties: Caregivers, patients and physicians.

What are the benefits of IoT for nurses?

With the rise of the older generation, a "caregiver crisis" has emerged as members of the sandwich generation struggle to care for their parents and children at the same time. CSPs can help ease this struggle by powering smart devices that allow caregivers to closely monitor various health metrics. Whether it's heart rate monitors, blood oxygen sensors, drug reaction detection devices, cancer treatment monitoring devices, or fall detection devices, 5G-enabled enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) work together to collect large amounts of data in real time. The 5G-enabled IoT also provides the ability to see historical trends in the data and receive notifications when a health event of concern occurs.

So how exactly does this help caregivers? Since they can't be in all places at once, a caregiver can work with a healthcare practice to select a networked device that digitally monitors an aging parent's vital signs, and then work with their service provider to enable connectivity. CSPs are beginning to partner with companies that specialize in IoT-based health monitoring to provide the service needed to ensure these devices are minimally invasive, safe and easy to deploy.

What are the benefits of IoT for the patient?

Medical devices - whether it's an insulin pump or a heart rate monitor - can send information directly to healthcare providers over a private, provisioned and secure network, eliminating the patient's exposure to data analytics and ensuring speed and quality of service. Another benefit to the patient is security and peace of mind that their health status can be proactively managed and personalized through advances in AI and the IoT. The technology takes into account real-time data about the patient's activity, environment, and health statistics, and then uses predictive models to notify them when they appear to be at risk for various diseases.

What are the benefits of the IoT for physicians?

Much like a caregiver, a physician can't be in two places at once. As medical IoT devices become more powerful and connected, dashboards, on-demand data, and frequently asked questions help physicians and other healthcare providers reduce the flood of questions from patients and caregivers. For CSPs working with healthcare organizations, there is an opportunity for stronger, digitized interactions between patients and their healthcare partners. By providing a tailored customer experience and eliminating some of the additional challenges of post-visit communication, healthcare professionals can provide high-quality, undivided service to the patients they treat.

In addition, specialists such as oncologists, cardiologists, and orthopedic surgeons receive the latest information about their patients' diagnosis and treatment, and can personalize treatment plans based on real-time data from patient devices through AI- and ML-driven improvements. This includes monitoring drug side effects and predicting outcomes.

The beginning of the 5G future

Oracle's recent acquisition of Cerner will enable us to create more accessible, safer, efficient and effective care for patients and caregivers. Through unified connectivity, we will collect near real-time data from hospitals and lab diagnostic devices connected to the IoT network and aggregate it into a single source of truth. AI and machine learning will provide actionable information and contextual insights that - when integrated back into the clinical workflows of the electronic health record - can increase accuracy, improve outcomes and reduce costs.

There are many ways that patients, doctors and caregivers can get even more out of wearables and IoT-enabled devices, especially with the reliability of a 5G connection. IoT connectivity technology evolves the network, applications and cloud infrastructure to maximize business impact by optimizing network capacity and delivering high-quality IoT throughput. 5G increases the reliability of IoT devices in healthcare environments, such as areas that experience power outages or natural disasters, or remote or rural areas that struggle with a slow network.

In addition to the benefits to caregivers, patients and physicians, another important relationship driving the progress of 5G is Oracle's partnership with CSPs. Oracle solutions enable CSPs to work with healthcare organizations to support these offerings, advise purchasers on the selection of services that are tailored and optimized to their needs, and manage the IT and communications network resources required to deliver the services.

Author:

Andrew Morawski is executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Communications. As head of Oracle's global business unit for the telecommunications industry, Morawski is responsible for sales, strategic planning, product development, service and support for Oracle's communications products.

In a test phase, it was checked whether the mixed collection of the various packaging materials could be integrated into the operating room operation without hindering it. Here, too, the feedback has been almost exclusively positive. For example, the waste generated was always a thorn in the side of the operating teams. The fact that this problem is being addressed is pleasing to all involved. The largest proportion of materials collected was cardboard, followed by plastic composites, pure plastic film, mixed plastics and aluminum.

The discarded materials should not lose quality

In the future, the Schulthess Clinic, which is committed to sustainability and certified to ISO 14001:2015, will return all clean waste generated to the cycle with the help of Mr. Green. A final test phase will be conducted by the end of the year to ensure that the quality of the discarded materials remains high and that the recycling process runs as efficiently as possible. This example shows that such a partnership between different players is a win-win for everyone. All in the spirit of "Healthy People need a Healthy Planet". 

Source: Schulthess Clinic

The special show will present a cross-section of innovative technologies, applications and system components from the field of non-contact measurement and testing technology on an area of around 300 square meters and will offer users initial guidance in selecting the technology suitable for tackling their own testing tasks. (Companies, research institutes and universities interested in participating are requested to submit an exhibit proposal to the Fraunhofer Vision Business Unit by October 13, 2023, including a title and brief description: vision@fraunhofer.de).   

Special show as an integral part of the trade show

In recent years, the special show "Non-Contact Measurement Technology" has successfully established itself as a place for communication and the exchange of innovations for exhibitors and trade fair visitors. It is now firmly integrated into the program of events at Messe Control. The performance and flexibility of modern systems are constantly growing, so it is not easy for users to find their way around the market.

As every year, the latest developments and innovative measuring and testing systems are to be presented which, in terms of their principle, operate without contact. On the one hand, the focus will be on the inspection or measurement of external or visible features of components or materials. Relevant technologies for this are, for example, light sectioning, fringe projection, photogrammetry, white light interferometry, holography, time of flight or confocal measuring methods. In addition, a platform is also provided for measurement and inspection techniques for the interior of materials that operate in the non-visible part of the wavelength spectrum, such as thermography, X-ray, ultrasound or terahertz, or spectroscopic methods such as hyperspectral imaging.

The special show also offers an excellent opportunity to present exhibits in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning in image processing. This is particularly relevant as there is considerable interest among potential users for information on this topic.

Control 2024 aims to build on the success of 2023

Quality inspection and quality assurance have gained unprecedented importance. Production-integrated testing of properties and the condition of workpieces and products is essential for manufacturing quality. Efficiency, resource conservation and sustainability can only be implemented through modern methods of measurement and testing. Control brings suppliers and users together at eye level. Control 2024 aims to build on the success of Control 2023 - according to organizers, participants and exhibitors, it was pure enthusiasm. "What a great week at this year's Control show!" This was the résumé heard from exhibitors and trade visitors everywhere at Control 2023 in May. Thus, impressive and groundbreaking solutions for quality assurance should once again be on display in the exhibition halls at Control 2024. 

Sources: www.control-messe.de; www.vision.fraunhofer.de

Many manufacturing companies are turning to the Internet of Things (IoT) as part of their digitalization and Industry 4.0 strategies. However, the increasing interconnection of OT and IoT devices with IT networks increases the risk of cyberattacks and security breaches in their OT environments. Also due to the increasing number of hacker attacks on critical infrastructure, a robust OT security strategy is no longer optional but mandatory and must be a top priority for enterprises. 

OT firewall as a ring of defense in production

This serious threat situation especially increases the need for a firewall that not only protects the IT environment, but also puts a ring of defense around the Operational Technology in manufacturing plants. Open Systems' OT Firewall is now designed to provide companies with complete visibility and control over network communications within their critical infrastructure. To ensure this, it includes features for segmenting the network and setting up dynamic IP groups, among other things. According to the manufacturer, the OT firewall is particularly suitable for companies with multiple locations due to its architecture, which provides for different security and trust zones. In this way, manufacturing companies are not only able to control and regulate communications between their software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) and the Internet. They can also protect certain zones from internal threats, such as hackers gaining access to a security zone.

Round-the-clock support

The Open Systems OT Firewall also includes round-the-clock technical support from the managed SASE solutions provider's team of experts. It helps users successfully implement meaningful network segmentation across the OT Firewall, which they can then easily manage through policies. "Few organizations have complete visibility into their OT environments. While many can identify threats as soon as data leaves a factory for the Internet, by then it may be too late," warns Stefan Keller, chief product officer at Open Systems. "Companies therefore need to bring transparency to their operational technology environments. With the Open Systems OT Firewall, we offer them central functions of a network security monitoring system: from traffic monitoring and threat detection to their mitigation via network isolation." "The demand for information from production, for example through sensor data, is increasing visibly, which is why a secure OT environment is crucial," adds Dirk Theissen, Enterprise IT Security Architect at GEA, an early adopter of the OT Firewall. "By implementing Open Systems OT Firewall, we have the security we need as a 24×7 service. We appreciate the trusted partnership with Open Systems in securing critical infrastructure."

Source and further information: https://www.open-systems.com/sase/ot-firewall

In the field of environment and climate protection, the carbon footprint has established itself as a relevant metric. Companies are confronted with the extent of the emissions they cause - depending on the area of activity, for example in the manufacture of their products. But the focus is also on the selection of business partners, such as suppliers, and their behavior. Wilhelm Heckmann, Managing Director of CNT Management Consulting in Switzerland, a consulting firm specializing in digitalization, explains how decision-makers can use SAP to compare relevant factors and thus obtain a transparent picture of how far they have come in achieving their goals.

Pressure on companies increases

Sustainability and climate change have become relevant topics for decision-makers in the Swiss economy. This is also shown by the results of the Deloitte 2023 CxO Sustainability Report. Four out of ten Swiss CxOs surveyed rank climate change among the top three priorities for their business, and in three out of four organizations, sustainability investments have increased in the past year. Strikingly, decision-makers at Swiss companies feel strongly affected by the impacts of climate change compared to their international peers. For example, 48 percent of respondents in Switzerland say they feel pressure from shareholders, compared with a global average of just 41 percent. 47 percent also perceive pressure from civil society, compared with only 38 percent internationally.

Focus: CO2 targets 

Large Swiss companies will be required by law to report on their CO2 targets from 2023, affecting around 250 companies. Many Swiss companies, not only those required by law, are increasingly addressing sustainability targets and digitizing their progress. This often affects the entire value chain, including suppliers and subsidiaries. Sustainability should be considered comprehensively to avoid risks from uncooperative business partners.

Carbon footprint and digital managing  

Various software solutions from SAP offer a smart way to conduct professional sustainability monitoring. SAP Sustainability Footprint Management enables companies to measure and analyze the carbon footprint of their products and optimize it throughout the entire lifecycle. By providing conclusive data on energy and water consumption and other sustainability factors, decision makers can act on this data and identify opportunities for improvement. "SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, in turn, is designed to track not only the financial stability of suppliers, but also their sustainability performance with real-time data and alerts," Heckmann explains. The "SAP Responsible Design and Production" solution enables data-driven, environmentally friendly product development and manufacturing, reducing the amount of plastic, for example. Finally, the SAP Sustainability Control Tower brings together data from different levels and gives managers an overview of various sub-areas. 

Source: CNT Management Consulting AG

Orange Cyberdefense is accelerating the expansion of its cybersecurity activities in Switzerland following the acquisition of SCRT and Telsys last November. Both sister companies, based in Morges (VD), have around 100 experts in cybersecurity and related services in Morges, Geneva, Bern and Zurich, and will operate under the name Orange Cyberdefense Switzerland with immediate effect.

Within four years, the company has acquired and integrated four new companies. This underlines its ambitions to become number one in Europe by 2027. Last year, the European market grew by 9 percent, while Orange Cyberdefense saw growth of 14 percent in its global operations, generating revenues of €977 million.

Switzerland: Europe's seventh-largest cyber market

The integration of SCRT and Telsys under the Orange Cyberdefense brand allows to fully exploit the increasingly significant synergies between expertise in the cloud and cybersecurity. In Switzerland, the company will therefore expand its portfolio of secure cloud offerings by providing comprehensive support to enterprises and government agencies while expanding its competencies in back-up and recovery. In return, customers will benefit from what the company says is a world-class level of security that meets the highest market standards. Thanks to synergies with Orange Business, Orange Cyberdefense Switzerland is able to support multinational companies and international organizations globally.

In the first half of 2023, the new developments have already led to growth of almost 20 percent in cybersecurity and sales of over 25 million Swiss francs (CHF) in the Swiss market. The company's recruitment policy aims to build the largest cyber community in Europe. It is also being progressively implemented in Switzerland to strengthen the teams' capabilities and meet the diverse and growing needs of customers.

Nicolas Lutz, Managing Director of Orange Cyberdefense Switzerland since January 2023, emphasizes: "The integration of SCRT and Telsys into our company, a European leader in cybersecurity, represents a new milestone in the history of our company, of which I am proud."

Source and further information

Generative AI is already a great help for numerous tasks in everyday work. It answers questions, creates texts for marketing, translates emails and documents, and even optimizes source code. So it's no wonder that employees are eager to use these tools to make their work easier and more productive. However, this creates risks for data security in the company: Confidential or personal data can easily end up in ChatGPT, Bard or Copilot and thus possibly even in the replies for other users. Finally, providers use not only data available on the web, but also user input to train their AI models and improve their responses.

Firewall against data leaks: not an ideal solution

If companies don't want to lose control of their data, they have to take action. The easiest way is to train employees in the security-conscious use of generative AI, but mistakes happen - in the hustle and bustle of everyday work, attention can lapse so that employees still upload sensitive data to the services. That's why some companies choose to firewall the URLs of the various AI tools, but that's not an ideal solution either. For one thing, the blocks do not provide sufficient protection because employees can easily bypass them by accessing the services from outside the corporate network. For another, companies hinder their workforce from working productively and potentially cause frustration. 

Zero trust approach as an alternative

To regulate access to AI tools and protect data, companies would be better off adopting a zero-trust approach. Here, security solutions such as Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) ensure that only approved services are used, and only by authorized employees - regardless of where they are located and what device they are using. A central policy set reduces management overhead and makes it easier to prevent security breaches across all AI tools, communication channels, and devices.

In addition, consistent control of the data provided by the services is necessary. Only when companies recognize that employees are in the process of sharing personal data or source code with intellectual property via chat or file upload with the AI tools, for example, can they put a stop to this. This requires classification of data and policies that regulate and monitor how the data is handled. Data loss prevention (DLP) solutions combine both and minimize setup effort because they come with ready-made classifications for a wide range of data and a large set of predefined policies. 

Focus on data worth protecting

In addition, companies usually do not need to classify their entire data stock - it is sufficient to focus on the data that needs to be protected. The individual departments usually know exactly what the data is and can provide examples: customer lists, presentations, contracts, code snippets. DLP solutions analyze these and are then able to reliably identify similar data. Depending on how sensitive the data is, they allow for graduated responses: For less critical data, it is usually sufficient to notify the employee of a possible data security breach; for more important data, approval by the supervisor may be required, while the upload of particularly sensitive information is blocked directly.

"ChatGPT and other AI tools solve even complex tasks within seconds. This is extremely convenient in everyday work, but can lead to data breaches if employees accidentally enter confidential or personal data into the services," emphasizes Frank Limberger, Data & Insider Threat Security Specialist at IT security service provider Forcepoint. "With DLP, organizations can reliably protect their data without restricting the use of AI tools, which would inevitably impact employee productivity and motivation. The solutions can be deployed faster than companies often assume, delivering initial results in just a few days or weeks."

Source: Forcepoint

Every minute that a company is offline is not only expensive, but also entails other problems. For example, it is difficult to restore a company's reputation if it is unavailable to its customers due to problems. To prevent this, it makes sense to set up a concrete business continuity plan. That way, in the event of a disaster, such as a ransomware attack or a natural disaster, everyone responsible in the company knows what to do. And it ensures that the company has the necessary resources to keep operations running.

The following 6 steps can be used to develop a business continuity plan.

1. risk assessment

Regardless of a company's size or structure, managers should know where the risks of failure lie. The idea is to list all potential threats to business operations, assess them, and consider how those risks can be most effectively mitigated or eliminated. This risk assessment should be a team effort across the enterprise that considers every business aspect and type of threat, including natural disasters, cyberattacks, ransomware, human error, unplanned downtime, power outages, data corruption and system or hardware failures.

2. analysis of potential effects on the business

It is important that the business continuity planning process includes an analysis of the impact on the business. This may include lost revenue, increased expenses, compliance impact and other factors. As part of this analysis, the individual recovery time objective (RTO) - the downtime a business can tolerate - and recovery point objective (RPO) - the amount of data a business can lose if necessary without the impact being too great - must be defined.

3. identification of critical systems

Once the organization is aware of the risks and potential impacts, the next step is to identify the systems and functions that are critical to an organization. This overview can be used to ensure that these systems are prioritized for protection and recovery. When developing the individual business continuity plan, mapping the network, hardware and software topology, as well as their interdependencies, can help locate and fix problems early on to speed recovery.

4. reliable data backup

Even if a company already backs up its data reliably, risk assessment and analysis of potential impacts should form the basis for choosing the most effective backup strategy. One proven strategy is the 3-2-1-1 backup rule. This calls for keeping three backup copies of data on two different media - for example, hard disk and tape - with at least one copy in the cloud or secure storage and one copy in immutable storage.

5. recovery plan

Every business continuity plan should include a disaster recovery (DR) plan. This plan should take into account the nature of the technologies needed to meet the previously defined RPOs and RTOs. It should also define the recovery strategy - from file-based recovery to virtual machine (VM) recovery and cloud-based recovery. With cloud-based backup and disaster recovery, for example, Arcserve Cloud Service ensures business continuity at all times, no matter what.

6. regular review of the business continuity plan

If you need to put a business continuity and disaster recovery plan into action, there is no time to waste. At the same time, it is important to then test this plan to ensure that it will work in the event of an emergency.

Conclusion

There's a lot to consider when developing a business continuity plan. When it comes to backup and disaster recovery, it pays to talk to an expert. Not only do they have extensive expertise, but they also know the platforms and solutions available on the market to help turn such plans into reality.

Author: 
René Claus is EMEA MSP Sales Director at Arcserve.

Force transfer standards (KTN) from the manufacturer GTM are characterized by high repeatabilities of ≤50 ppm with different standard force measuring devices and ≤20 ppm under comparable test conditions. Thereby, eccentric loads, disturbing forces or bending moments have only a minor influence on the measuring accuracy. According to the manufacturer, other positive features include long-term stability, hermetic encapsulation, extensive options such as double measuring bridges or bending moment measuring circuits Mx, My, as well as the comprehensive ISO 376-compliant mechanical accessories. This makes the force transfer standards particularly suitable for use as reference transducers or master sensors: In these applications, they are used directly in the test or calibration equipment.

Reference Force Transducer Series KTN-D

ISO 376 is the internationally recognized standard when it comes to the calibration of force transducers; class 00 is the highest classification. GTM has defined a standard with the factory accuracy class VN, which can exceed the class 00 many times over. The reference force transducers of the KTN-D series comply with GTM accuracy class VN (measuring range 40 % to 100 %) and ISO 376 accuracy class 00 (measuring range 10 % - 100 %). Thus, GTM offers the highest precision available on the market for comparison of national metrology institutes with each other or for traceability of accredited calibration laboratories. Other typical users are companies that offer force transducer calibration as a service or where a large number of force transducers are used that need to be calibrated regularly. Models of the KTN-D series cover a nominal force range from 10 kN to 5 MN.

Reference Force Transducer Series KTN-Z/D

Force transfer standards of the KTN-Z/D series are designed for measuring tensile and compressive forces with the highest precision according to ISO 376 Class 00. They can also be used as reference force transducers or master sensors with a nominal force range from 5 N to 1 MN in calibration machines. GTM manufactures the force transfer standards of this series according to ISO 376 class 00 and class 0.5 (measuring range 10 % to 100 %).

Force transducer series KTN-LF

GTM has developed the force transducers of the KTN-LF series for large nominal forces from 1 MN to 30 MN combined with low weight - they are available according to ISO 376 class 0.5 (measuring range 20 % to 100 %). The best-in-class force transfer standards for high static compressive forces are extremely robust and reliable, and also particularly tolerant of overload. According to the manufacturer, this makes them the optimal choice for calibrating testing machines at changing locations.

Source and further information: www.gtm-gmbh.com. The company will show the mentioned products among others at the SPS 2023 trade fair in Nuremberg (November 14 - 16). 

Today, no department in an administration and no department in a company can do without IT. The digitization of work processes, interfaces to customers, other departments or suppliers, and information and reporting tools are affecting every single workplace. On the other hand, there are the traditional hierarchies and superiors who only rarely have IT expertise, but who can look back on a long career. This combination causes many IT projects to fail. If external IT project managers are added to the mix, many projects get completely out of hand. "Those who have the expertise are external, and those who are in charge are outside the field. Both encounter employees who are not necessarily eager for new technologies," says Oliver Meinecke, describing a common situation from his professional practice. Meinecke is an IT project manager and is considered an expert on efficiency in IT. His thesis: Many projects fail because of egos. Egos not infrequently hinder the digitization of entire divisions and agencies.

When egos get in the way

"Hierarchical guidelines and authority based on the experiential knowledge of the analog world are no substitute for the expertise it takes to introduce new software or map complex processes digitally," Meinecke is convinced. "To think is not to know. Technical processes cannot be changed by decree." According to the IT and digitization professional, it is not uncommon, especially in administration and at the management level, for a great deal of paper to be produced stating how the world should be: from security issues to functionalities to the meticulous project process from procurement to implementation. With the power of the function, these specifications are then enforced, often against the professional and technological expertise and without the participation of the subsequent users. "So in the end, everyone has to live with the consequences, both those responsible for the project and those involved and later users."

Many projects failed because of this. "Rules and specifications are increasingly becoming dogmas. Changing them would mean a loss of face for one or the other. Many supervisors in public authorities and managers in companies are incapable of taking countermeasures, admitting mistakes or having specifications measured against reality or questioning them," Meinecke knows. Agile project management, creative solutions and spontaneous optimizations would thus become almost impossible. They simply fail due to ego.

Don't just digitize bad analog processes

The digital expert is convinced that a new culture is needed: away from being absolutely right and toward the recognition of changes of opinion and direction. "Consistency is often confused with stubbornness. Those who change their opinions all too often are seen as fickle. Thus, people are denied the opportunity to turn new insights and knowledge into successes. What is needed here is a flexible culture of error, insight and improvement," says Meinecke. Especially when external experts are hired to implement a project, it makes sense to use their competent view of the matter and their perspective from the outside. "Consultants must be allowed to play to their advantages. Unrepentant egos in neuralgic management functions stand in the way."

Digital transformation will not succeed if poor analog processes are simply digitized. It is necessary to rethink, to focus on the customer, the user and the technological processes, not on the career ladder of the decision-makers. Anything else costs time and money and produces exasperation, Meinecke said. "Sometimes it will be necessary to put managers in their place or even replace them as part of IT projects - in the interest of the cause and the goal," concludes the IT expert. What is needed are creative problem solvers instead of hierarchically thinking checklist abhakers - even on the executive floors.

Source: Sowacon Ltd.