In a world where macroeconomic conditions can change the face of business in an instant, it is more important than ever for finance and IT departments to move in lockstep. Savvy finance leaders know that they have to work with their IT colleagues to achieve success; but often, the departments are so separated they have trouble understanding one another.

In this webinar we will address the critical role financial responsibility plays in the success of business, and how decision makers can work together to instil a culture of financial responsibility across an organisation. Much like a culture of security, one of financial responsibility brings many benefits, including improved decision making, increased efficiency and reduced risk. We will explore those benefits in detail and look at how IT and finance leaders can both establish and maintain that culture, with real-world examples. As well as the importance of financial responsibility, we will delve into the key components of a responsible culture, the challenges organisations face in establishing that culture, and how to overcome them. We will also address the importance of communication and transparency between departments, and how that communication can help build trust. Finally, we will look at key aspects of the modern financial world and why IT must be involved in any rollout of new finance systems: from automation to save time spent on manual processes, to open APIs encouraging integration with other applications.

This webinar, conducted by Sage and hosted by Tech Monitor, will provide IT and finance decision makers with valuable insights and practical strategies for working together.

Finding value in the hybrid cloud

As businesses around the world face up to challenging economic conditions, they are turning to the cloud in greater numbers than ever before.

And while the fully-managed, cost effective, secure and scalable environment offered in the cloud is perfect for many workloads, others cannot be as easily migrated. Data residency and other regulatory requirements, or a need for low latency, can mean businesses must keep certain information on-premises.

That’s where the hybrid cloud comes in. By combining public cloud solutions with on-premise resources (in your own or co-lo facilities), businesses can enjoy the best of both worlds, keeping costs down and potentially boosting their sustainability credentials in the process.

How can businesses successfully transition to a hybrid future? What are the main challenges involved? At this roundtable supported by Lenovo & Intel, Tech Monitor will convene senior IT leaders to discuss how organisations can navigate the hybrid cloud landscape, and how they can obtain best value for money from hybrid cloud deployments.

Topics for discussion will include: 

• Ensuring transparency in hybrid clouds
• Utilising the cloud to drive sustainability
• The evolving regulatory landscape
• Striking correct balances in managed services agreements

State-sponsored threat actors, financially motivated cyber criminals, and amateur hackers will continue to be enticed by the massive impact that can result from an attack on a nation’s critical infrastructure. The risk of a successful attack could be severe—damaged power grids could leave cities in the dark, or even put lives at risk.

A recent study shows that attacks against energy utilities are among the top three most targeted sectors for cyberattacks in the United States. In addition, Europe, Australia, and Japan have reported an increase in threats against critical infrastructure. The threat is global and the risk alarming. This exclusive Tech Monitor webinar, in association with Fortinet, will dissect the strategies security leaders can adopt to thwart these malicious attacks and stay ahead of the hackers, as well as the suite of integrated and automated technologies available to them.

Questions for discussion include:

• What are the main cybersecurity challenges facing the power and utilities sector right now? What is the current threat landscape?
• How is the ongoing modernisation of Critical Infrastructures impacting on the threat landscape?
• What strategies are security leaders adopting to effectively combat cyber-attacks? What innovative technologies are available to them?
• To what extent must technology be paired with business strategy? What must be considered to ensure you receive buy-in from the board?

Speakers:

Claudia Glover, Senior Reporter, Tech Monitor (Chair)

Agustin Valencia, OT/IoT/ICS Security Business Development Iberia, Fortinet

Swantje Westpfahl, Director (CEO) of the Institute for Security and Safety

Technology and digital services are increasingly held up as a key component of any solution to the global climate crisis and public sector organisations are under growing pressure to operate in a way that protects resources, makes good business sense and mitigates environmental impact.

Adopting sustainable IT practices not only lowers costs by reducing energy consumption and waste but also has significant potential to improve delivery, increase efficiency and develop public trust and engagement.

This exclusive New Statesman and Tech Monitor roundtable dinner will convene technology and sustainability leaders from across the UK public sector to discuss the initiatives driving meaningful action.

It will set out to identify shared challenges, potential solutions and inspire cross-sector collaboration to develop a more sustainable and digitally resilient state.

Moving to the cloud is never simple. Businesses looking to scale their operations by moving key services into the cloud are looking for a service that’s scalable, flexible and cost-effective. What they often encounter, however, is a migration exercise fraught with practical challenges and hidden costs.

The hybrid cloud offers a way for companies to avoid this quagmire. By outsourcing only a portion of its IT services off-site while building an optimised, on-premises solution to handle its most critical and sensitive functions, a business can – theoretically – have the best of both worlds. But how can organisations achieve this without compromising on security and functionality?

In a roundtable supported by Lenovo & Microsoft, Tech Monitor will convene senior IT leaders to discuss to the extent to which adopting hybrid cloud computing enables businesses to meet technical requirements while simultaneously benefiting from the flexibility of a scalable and transparent pay-as-you-go model.

Topics for discussion will include:

• Ensuring transparency in hybrid clouds
• Scaling at pace to meet evolving business requirements
• Utilising the cloud to drive sustainability
• The importance of effective cloud security
• Maintaining interoperability
• Striking correct balances in managed services agreements

Growing rapidly is no easy feat for businesses, but with a firm understanding on how to do so successfully and with strong technology partners, the journey can be smoother than expected. For Forecast, building a strong foundation for their finance team was essential on their growth journey.

Join Sage Intacct and Tech Monitor as we discuss how businesses have used technology to alleviate pain points and what unexpected benefits they have seen since implementing the right software to help them grow. We will be joined by Forecast who will share insights from their journey to improve their finance function who were struggling with inconsistent reporting and unnecessary time-consuming work in their finance team, with the help of technology.

In this exclusive Sage Intacct and Tech Monitor webinar we will:

• Hear from Forecast about their growth journey and how technology has helped them along the way
• Discuss the benefits of using best-in-class finance software instead of a best-in-breed finance software
• Look at how Sage Intacct supports their clients and helps to build a strong finance function foundation

Webinar Synopsis: More and more the CFO and finance team are the instigators of digital transformation within financial services firms. Changing markets and shifting priorities are highlighting the hazards of a disparate and fragmented approach to finance operations. Will your current systems successfully scale as you manage ever-increasing complexities?

In this session, Gary Simon, CEO of the Modern Finance Forum sits down with Ben Collins, Senior Director of Financial Services at Sage, to discuss some practical tips that finance teams should consider when seeking to streamline their day-to-day operations.

In this session, our speakers will discuss:

• Making a convincing case for further technological investment
• Shifting responsibilities and scope of finance leadership in recent years
• Closing the books faster to reduce the “month end mountain”