April 7, 2020: How are you using Technology to address your Association’s and your member’s needs during this time of unprecedented disruption? That was the topic of discussion when CIOs and CTOs from 30 leading Associations met on April 7, 2020 for the Presidential Forum Roundtable via Zoom Web-conference. The peer-to-peer discussion was moderated by Prabhash Shrestha, EVP & Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).
Shrestha started the dialogue by asking the CIOs “what is working and what is not”? From a technology perspective CIOs pointed out the various technologies that they are effectively using during the pandemic such as Teams, Zoom or Skype Conference, Ring Central, GotoConnect, and Intrado. One CIO mentioned that you can “hire” a Zoom consultant to help orchestrate your Web-conference (think about larger web-conferences). Several CIOs mentioned that the work done in the last 2 years to prepare their Association for moving to the Cloud and for the ability to work remote has paid off. So in many cases, company-wide telework was implemented overnight, and even staff who were viewed as slow adaptors to technology have made the transition successfully. As one CIO pointed out, the internal “profile” of the IT Department substantially elevated since the pandemic. Several CIOs also pointed out the importance of having a COVID-19 Resource on their website for their members.
“What is not working” (i.e., the issues) include poor internet connectivity for rural areas which makes telework difficult for some staff. Cross departmental communication not being as effective as it should be even with Web-conferencing technologies, i.e., the culture aspect, was also mentioned.
One of the biggest shortcomings has been how to solve for the sudden cancellation of annual or regional conferences. Many talk about standing up virtual conferences, but it seems that no one has done successfully on a large scale. Some think a viable virtual conference solution is needed because this is the future. One CIO offered up a resource: https://www.delcor.com/resources/blog/virtual-meetings-real
In addition to the CIOs in attendance, the sole sponsor CSC Global provided the group with important subject matter about protecting Associations and their member organizations from being targets of fraud and phishing scams. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an exponential growth in fraud exposure which means more external risk than ever before to organizations. “We will see millions of phishing attempts, BEC scams, Vishing phone calls, SMShing text messages and Job Scams attacking any and all private and public organizations. Scammers target your PII, stimulus checks, and online accounts. For more info: https://www.cscdigitalbrand.services/ POCs: Gianni.Maiorano@cscglobal.com or Elizabeth.Sylves@cscglobal.com
The Presidential Forum Association CIO Roundtable series was co-founded by Prabhash Shrestha, Group EVP & Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and Wade Tetsuka, President, U.S. Transactions Corp. wadetetsuka@ustranscorp.com
DELIVERY METHOD: Group live presented online due to COVID-19
