Business & Corporation CLE

Supply chain shortages and delays have cost companies millions of dollars and caused a slew of issues, making it harder for businesses to meet consumer demands.

Due diligence in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions does not only involve the financial aspects of the deal. Although often overlooked, information technology (IT) is also a critical part of the process. With industries’ growing implementation of various disruptive technologies such as analytics, artificial intelligence, and big data, IT due diligence has never been more relevant.

As cyberattacks become increasingly sophisticated, cybersecurity leaders also continue to look for more effective ways to protect business data. Today, organizations are warming up to the idea of shifting from the “trust, but verify” mantra to a “never trust, always verify” approach. In a zero-trust architecture, all users are treated as potential threats and are not allowed to access data unless properly authenticated.

QA automation has been prevalent over decades in the Software Testing Industry, and it's continuing to mature to pace up with a wide variety of technologies, programming languages, and methodologies. While QA automation has helped enhance the test coverage, lower overall QA costs, and accelerate test cycles; however, we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg.

Tax automation is not necessarily a new topic for global manufacturers. Over the years, many businesses within this sector have adopted scalable and affordable technology solutions enabling significantly improved accuracy in determination, filing and remittance.

As COVID-19’s economic impact continues to generate shock waves among financial institutions, incorporating solutions that would ease banking activities is vital. Consequently, intelligent process automation (IPA), which enables businesses to create digital platforms and faster end-to-end processes, is currently gaining popularity. This momentum is brought by IPA’s benefits that expand from saving time and reducing costs to avoiding physical interaction between clients and employees.

Cyber insurance has been valuable in covering non-physical losses in commercial contracts. Significantly, as cases of cyber threats continue to proliferate, many contracts now contain a sub-clause on cyber coverage which protects businesses from damages brought by data breaches and computer attacks. Cyber insurance also provides coverage for regulatory investigations as well as for third-party claims.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations were forced to make the shift to virtual operations. With very short notice, companies had to adopt digital processes to meet new consumer needs and accommodate a digital workforce. This sudden change has left many businesses in a digital transformation limbo with some critical business processes converted into digital workflows while other processes remain paper-based.

Today's digitally-dependent market requires businesses to store all sorts of data into their systems. From simple day-to-day transactions and records to the most sensitive company and client data, business processes have now evolved in order to accommodate and effectively implement the complex nature of data protection. Adding to these complexities is the increasing number of data breaches which was driven by the abrupt cloud migration when the pandemic started.

In today’s business climate where sophisticated cyberattacks continue to challenge organizations, cybersecurity programs must be anchored around the “zero trust” principle. This approach is a security scheme designed to ensure that critical assets are accessed by authenticated and authorized users only, preventing potential outside and inside threats.

Over the years, cyber incidents have become more and more rampant. Companies encounter various risks and challenges daily, that avoiding such attacks does not anymore suffice as a countermeasure. Companies must, therefore, develop a comprehensive cyber incident response and recovery plan that will efficiently protect them from risks, costs, and damages.