Smart technology, regulations, and ethical hackers

PA’s Peter Siggins, smart technology expert, is interviewed as part of November’s FT The Connected Business Podcast. In the podcast, Peter talks about building a smart business.

The podcast focuses on a recent survey from PA. The survey findings highlight how smart technology could change the information companies gather on their customers and Peter looks at how companies can use smart technology to improve the way they operate. Smart technology covers a wide range of tools and devices from utilities’ companies meters to tools that monitor social media sites, all of which can give companies a much richer view of their customers, if the business is prepared to change the way they operate, says Peter.

Peter points out that information and data “tends to be organised in silos within an organisation and change is needed to break down these traditional silos so that information and data can be shared more effectively across the enterprise.”
The PA survey also found that 40 per cent of data companies gathered was inaccurate. Peter says that this can be a very big problem, as organisations are making decisions based on inaccurate information. However, Peter points out that “companies don’t need wholesale re-tooling of the organisation to make the necessary improvements, but need to recognise that smart technologies such as social media can be utilised within the existing tools.”

Peter goes on to talk about the role of the CIO and how they need to align the board so that the organisation can see what smart technology can offer from the top down. Peter concludes that alignment at board level is key if organisations are to adopt different ways of working and realise the advantages of smart technology. 

You can listen to the podcast in full here. Peter’s interview starts six minutes 20 seconds into the recording.