I know very well that the situation is incredibly difficult for many people at the moment. And that's precisely why it's so important to look ahead. Here are three lessons we could all learn from in 2022 that will help us in the future:

Lesson 1: Stable states are an illusion.

The Russian war of aggression is not the only sign that apparent stability is over for the time being. Global turbulence and new challenges in energy supply are just some of the other uncertainties.

Let's not kid ourselves: Uncertainty has always been the normal state. Security is always temporary. This applies to politics and the economy just as it does to relationships, health and everything else. Mankind is also "successful" simply because we are very adaptable.

The past year has once again brutally reminded us of one thing: those who rest on the illusion of security will lose. Those who know that nothing is permanent, on the other hand, can prepare themselves in a completely different way and will have faster and better answers.

Convenience is dangerous - in all aspects of life.

Lesson 2: Mindset makes a huge difference.

We see it not only in the current example of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj, but you can also test it on yourself at any time: the mindset makes the difference.

In 2021 and 2022, for example, I had the best years of my business since its inception. Covid and its aftermath were the impetus to finally bring an innovation push into my business - obviously with success. My mindset was critical to that. Important: Strategies, tactics, decisions and actions always follow beliefs - not the other way around.

For example, when you think of Win If you believe in yourself and in your capacity to find good solutions in any situation, you will usually succeed. I find that fascinating and reassuring.

Lesson 3: Many small steps lead to success.

Sometimes big actions are important. But in most cases, it is crucial to consistently execute many small steps in the right direction.

This reminds me of the boxer in the ring: the many small bounces count. If you act rigidly in big steps, you will certainly be knocked out.

No matter what you want to achieve: especially in uncertain times, it is crucial that you move forward step by step and keep adjusting the path in between. The times of big strategies every 5 years are long gone.

See lessons as impulses for success

I hope that these three experiences will in turn give you some food for thought and wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch

This text was not written by an AI. Until now, such a disclaimer was not necessary, but in the future we may read it more often at the beginning of articles. For a few days now, ChatGPT, an amazingly talented bot from the American startup OpenAI, has been causing a big stir. From Süddeutsche Zeitung to Spiegel Online, almost all well-known publications have dedicated articles to it. It was particularly popular to let the bot write part of the article itself. After all, that is precisely its strength: creating content. And ChatGPT can deliver - from a "Christmas poem starring two puppies" to a "smart post for LinkedIn about the potential of ChatGPT". The results are readable and sound sappy in the case of the Christmas puppies and thoughtful in the case of the LinkedIn post. Only now and then does an oblique wording suggest that the text did not come from a human. On the other hand, oblique formulations can also be found again and again in the texts of people.

What effect does ChatGPT have on the handling of corporate data?

Applications like ChatGPT can trigger far-reaching changes and also have an impact on copyright and the cultural sector. I am particularly interested in what effects can be expected in the short term in companies, especially in the handling of data.

What is impressive about ChatGPT is the range of topics and the quality of the responses. Until now, developers had to go to great lengths to train their chatbots for specific purposes. A chatbot that is supposed to help with problems with the mobile phone contract has no idea about the last Bundesliga match day. ChatGPT, on the other hand, moves confidently on any playing field. The quality of the responses suggests that our search behavior on the Internet will soon be different. In response to the query "Give me five reasons why companies should look into AI applications", the bot does not deliver a list of suitable websites, but a text with five arguments in favor of AI. A text that would not stand out negatively among the vast majority of posts on the subject.

It's easy to imagine how this technology will shake up much of what's attached to search on the Internet - whether it's search engines, search engine optimizing, or the ad business. But not only that. The next generation of our word processors, content management systems or marketing automation tools will include ChatGPT-like features out of the box. The 500-character product description for the online catalog or the five-page dossier for the board of directors could then simply be taken over by a bot.

Where man still has the advantage

Not much time is likely to pass before most companies use such or similar technologies - the potential is too great. In the future, even the websites at the bottom of the structure will shine with compelling texts. And in target groups with several hundred thousand people, every single person will receive a cover letter that exactly matches their individual situation. If all companies use these technologies, the overall level of quality will rise - but that will make it difficult to stand out. At this point, the human contribution is needed again. The art will not be collecting and condensing data - the bot will do that. It will be drawing the right conclusions and deriving the best alternative courses of action. That has always been the decisive point, and it will be even more important in the future.

The actual task is then no longer to list five arguments that have already been published a hundred times in this or a similar way. The challenge is to find the one argument that no one has come up with yet. To recognize the one connection that is not in the database, but in the sudden change of mood at the negotiating table.

Because ChatGPT does not think up new things - the bot always looks backwards. This makes us humans aware of our strength again: looking ahead.

Author:
Prof. Dr. Volker Gruhn is founder and chairman of the supervisory board of the adesso SE. This company is one of the leading IT service providers in the German-speaking region and focuses on the core business processes of companies and public administrations with consulting as well as individual software development.

Accounto is a FinTech company from Zurich with around 30 employees. The company offers fiduciary companies software solutions for the extensive automation of accounting. Thanks to data-based assistance, fiduciaries can generate sustainable financial benefits, process optimizations and industry comparisons for Swiss SMEs, as Accounto writes.

In order to now further strengthen the strategic, industry-oriented development of Accounto, the Board of Directors has recommended the election of Thomas Koller to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting. "With Thomas Koller, we are gaining a proven expert in the fiduciary industry for our mission. He complements our Board of Directors in an ideal way and the cooperation has already started," says Alain Veuve, founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company. And Thomas Koller can be quoted as follows: "I am very pleased about the election to the Board of Directors and am convinced that Accounto will soon be established on the market as an ideal complement to the long-established fiduciary products." In addition to the new member, the Board of Directors of Accounto AG now consists of Alain Veuve (Chairman and Founder), Dominique Kaspar (Vice Chairman), Michael Manz and Alessandro Micera.

In addition to his many years as Chairman of the Board of Directors and overall Head of the Fiduciary & Business Consulting Department at OBT AG, Thomas Koller is President of the Fiduciary & Business Consulting Department at ExpertSuisse. Furthermore, he is a member of various committees dealing with the digitalization of the fiduciary industry. In mid-2022, he also founded his own consultancy, KollerNext AG.

Source: Accounto AG

Things can't stay the way they were: In recent years, there has sometimes been severe turbulence in the Swiss SME sector. Unlike most air traffic turbulence, however, these have not always been harmless, but have made course changes inevitable for long-term business success. Nearly half of employees in Swiss SMEs (47 %) say recent crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have also led to a rethinking of business travel. Not only in terms of security, but especially with regard to sustainability aspects. This is the conclusion of the current 2022 SME study by SAP Concur, a provider of expense and travel reporting systems.

Business travel: More sustainable, but also more expensive?

Further study results show that employees in SMEs have concrete ideas about the introduction of sustainable measures: 54 % of respondents would like to plan appointments strategically so that they travel less frequently but for longer, and 36 % would like greater flexibility in the choice of the means of transport they use for their business trips. Respondents recognize that the more sustainable alternative can often be the more expensive or take more time. They therefore express a desire for their companies to agree to higher expenses or travel costs (38 %) and longer travel times (41 %). If they still have to fly a lot, almost a quarter of employees (24 %) would like their company to pay sustainability compensation for this.

The respondents are aware that it is not always easy to choose the most sustainable means of transport when traveling to work or on business. That's why 38 % of them would like their employers to provide digital tools that already show the most sustainable option when booking business trips.

Flexibility for all distances

There is also an awareness that not only business trips to distant locations, but also the journey to the office or to a customer appointment nearby calls for flexible mobility concepts - especially if it is to be sustainable. Four out of ten respondents from Swiss SMEs (41 %) would therefore like their company to consider sustainable alternatives such as e-cars when planning mobility. 38 % also say they no longer need a company car and instead welcome a flexible car-sharing offer from their employer. Likewise, 38 % would like to have an e-bike. Job tickets for the region are also absolutely desired (37 %).

Three times better: Sustainable employee mobility

Many of the employees in Swiss SMEs would like to see more sustainability in their mobility planning and, at 27 %, almost three in ten say that their company has already introduced new regulations in the past year to make business travel more sustainable. "Many employees are ready to make their mobility behavior more sustainable. Now it's up to the companies to also provide the corresponding mobility concepts. The successful implementation of sustainable business travel programs is a win-win for the environment, employees and the company," says Dennis Torchetti, Head of Switzerland & CEE at SAP Concur. "When it comes to implementing environmentally conscious mobility concepts, digital solutions are the decisive key to success. They offer employees the greatest possible flexibility and at the same time enable transparent and responsible weighing of sustainability aspects and costs."

Source: SAP Concur

The post Business travel: Are companies ready for more sustainability? appeared first on Organizer.

BDO's partners' meeting has appointed Stefan Kühn, a long-time employee, as a member of the Executive Board and Head of Zurich-Eastern Switzerland as of the beginning of 2023. Kühn currently acts as Head of Risk Advisory and Performance Advisory Services and has been with BDO since 2009. During this time, he has further developed the services of the audit, trust, tax and advisory firm for the challenges that the digital world brings to organizations. In the process, Kühn has been instrumental in positioning BDO as an expert in cyber security, blockchain and e-forensics, according to the company. As a member of BDO's Global Leadership Team, Ethics and Compliance Switzerland (ECS) and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts' "Support in Operational and Strategic Matters" expert council, he brings his expertise to bear in a variety of ways. Kühn will remain Head of Risk Advisory and Performance Advisory Services. In the future, he will continue to support his clients in addressing risks associated with fraud and corruption, developing internal control systems and implementing appropriate compliance programs.

Andreas Wyss strengthens cross-border cooperation

After twelve years on the Executive Board, Andreas Wyss will reach term limit at the end of 2022 and hand over his position as well as the management of the Zurich-Eastern Switzerland region to Stefan Kühn. Wyss, who has been with BDO since 1993, will continue to bring his expertise and vast wealth of experience in various audit and consulting mandates to bear for BDO in the future. The certified public accountant and partner will also assume the function of "Head of International Clients & Relationships" as of January 1. As International Liaison Partner of BDO Switzerland, he will continue to be responsible for cross-border work in the BDO network and will increasingly support the regions in the global coordination of their mandates.

Yvan Haymoz takes over the Executive Board seat and Regional Management from René-Marc Blaser

After twelve years as a member of BDO's Executive Board, René-Marc Blaser will hand over the Executive Board seat and the Regional Management of Western Switzerland to Yvan Haymoz as of January 1, 2023, also due to term limits. René-Marc Blaser has made a significant contribution to BDO's strong growth in Western Switzerland for almost 30 years. He will continue to apply his expertise on a selective basis in the context of a number of mandates until the end of June next year; he will leave BDO on July 1, 2023.

Haymoz, already a member of the regional management in western Switzerland, is currently responsible for the branch in Fribourg. Under his leadership, it has grown strongly since 2012, both in terms of sales and number of employees. In the future, he will manage all activities in Western Switzerland while maintaining his strong connection to the Fribourg market, where he maintains a large network.

New branch managers in Lausanne and Fribourg

In the spirit of continuity, the management of BDO in Lausanne and that in Fribourg will be taken over by two employees who have already been convincing with their competencies for many years.
Jürg Gehring will be responsible for the Lausanne branch, Lucien Jordan will become branch manager of BDO in Fribourg.

Source: BDO

When talking to people, we often notice that our messages are received differently by our conversation partners, even though we use the same words. This can have various causes. For example, the interlocutors have different know-how or different interests. Often, however, communication does not work because our partners "tick" differently than we do. Because the value systems of us humans are different. For example, while material success is very important to one person, social recognition is the top priority for another. And yet another wants to experience a lot of new, exciting things above all else.

Thinking and communication styles diverge

These values shape our thinking style, which in turn shapes our communication style. For example, people who evaluate everything primarily from the point of view of "Does it pay off?" usually have a rather logical thinking style. Their communication style corresponds to this. They prefer short, concise statements and love numbers, data and facts. This is different for people who primarily look for the appeal of novelty. They get tired of columns of numbers. This is similar for people for whom human relationships are very important.

What happens, for example, when a manager with a more logical thinking and communication style meets a more relationship-oriented employee? The manager showers the employee with numbers, data and facts. Because she assumes: These will also convince my counterpart. The employee experiences the situation differently. He thinks: "The boss doesn't even ask me how I'm doing. Instead, he throws numbers at me and demands that I work more - as if I've been lazy so far." What the manager actually wants to say doesn't reach the employee at all. Not because the employee is unmotivated or even rebellious - no, the cause is different.

Our brain evaluates what we hear

When someone says something to us, the limbic system in our brain first evaluates this statement. Based on our value system, it decides whether the statement is rather important or unimportant, good or bad, for example. Only then does the limbic system forward the information linked to the relevant emotion to the cerebrum, and we react accordingly. Managers should therefore package their messages in such a way that they are perceived as significant by the limbic system of the respective employee and trigger positive emotions in them.

That is easier said than done. For this, we first need to know the communication and thinking style or the value system of our counterpart. These can be determined with personality tests. But you can't always do such tests. A product developer cannot say to his superior, before he presents his ideas to him, "Boss, first fill out the test, ..." It's the same with salespeople before contract negotiations. They need other tools to decide: I should use this communication style because....

Identify the partner's value system

This (pre)decision is made easier by the fact that certain types are disproportionately represented in most professions. For example, safety plays a major role in the value system of most civil servants. And sales managers usually have a different thinking and communication style than the heads of research departments.

Another indication of the value system of our interlocutors can be the furnishings of their offices. Lots of plants, pictures of loved ones and warm colors indicate a relationship-oriented type. If, on the other hand, there is designer furniture and abstract drawings hanging in the office, then our counterpart is probably an experimental type. An indicator of our partner's value system is not only his language but also the way he greets us: Does he get up from his desk and walk towards us or...? Does he get straight to the point or...? Based on such factors, we can make an initial assessment.

Adapt the argumentation and language style

If we know the preferred thinking style or value system of our counterpart, we can deduce which messages we should place at the center of our speech because they are

• offer him the greatest benefit from his point of view, and
• trigger positive feelings in him.

This assumes that we have identified in advance the core messages relevant to the different types. For a person for whom material gain is very important, this may be the time and cost savings achieved by a solution. And for a person who values security? With her, the argumentation can be aimed at how error-free a machine works.

However, it is also important that we package our messages in such a way that they are received. Let's say you want to convince your colleagues to purchase a certain software. Then, to a more logical thinker, your argument might be, "This software reduces processing time by 30 percent. This will reduce our costs by 15 percent." For an experimental type, it might be, "Imagine production that runs completely glitch-free. We are getting closer to this vision with this software, because ..." With such a type-specific argumentation, there is a high probability that your colleagues will at least consider your proposal sympathetically.

To the author:
Joachim Simon from Braunschweig, Germany, is a leadership trainer and speaker specializing in (self-)leadership (www.joachimsimon.info). He is the author of the book "Selbstverantwortung im Unternehmen" (Self-responsibility in the company) published by Haufe-Verlag and co-founder of the (self-)leadership coaching app Mindshine.

Graphax has restructured and expanded its management team. With immediate effect, Juan Chenevard, as CEO, bears overall responsibility for the company with its 190 employees and eight branches in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. Juan Chenevard has been with the company for 14 years, most recently in the role of CSO. He will be supported by a new and expanded management team that will be formed in 2022. "In the coming months, we will continue to steadily implement our digitization strategy and expand our service portfolio to be even more customer-specific. In doing so, we will not disregard our in-house values, as Graphax's corporate culture, developed over almost 5 decades, has always stood the test of time, especially in challenging times. We value this very much and we feel obliged to continue the company in this spirit," says the new CEO.

Manuel Marquina (COO) is responsible for the customer-first orientation in customer service and its further development. He will also deal with the digital transformation in operations and the expansion of the service structure throughout Switzerland. Sonja Nobs, who has been responsible for marketing at Graphax AG for many years, has been newly appointed to the GL as CMO, with the aim of strategically and operationally expanding customer dialog in the digital world and promoting the growth areas of the various business units. Thomas Fux joins the traditional company Graphax for the position of CFO. In addition to the classic tasks, the finance specialist will also take care of strategic analyses in order to further improve operational processes and to be able to initiate cost-relevant decisions.

Due to the strategic management tasks resulting from the digital transformation and in order to manage the customer experience holistically, new responsibilities must be placed in the strategic management, according to the statement. In close cooperation, the new management will develop agile measures that will be necessary in the future to further successfully expand customer retention and acquisition.

Source and further information

Machine learning has been hyped in the industry in the past. However, the reality has so far fallen short of expectations. Although the technology is certainly being used in production, it is spreading there only with great delay. According to LeanBI, a Swiss specialist for data science applications that develops customized data analysis solutions based on artificial intelligence, this is about to change. There are four main reasons why industrial companies will increasingly rely on machine learning in 2023.

1. Volatile environmental factors. The global crises lead to delivery delays for input materials and make sales forecasts more difficult. If industrial companies want to take all influencing factors into account, their corporate planning becomes highly complex. This complexity can only be mastered with the help of machine learning systems. They can significantly help companies to forecast developments while taking a wide variety of scenarios into account - and thus ensure reliable delivery to end customers.
2. Individualized production. The batches of industrial companies are becoming smaller and smaller because their customers increasingly expect individual product solutions. To cope with this development, they need to increase the performance of their manufacturing processes. For this reason, industrial companies will increasingly implement predictive maintenance and predictive quality applications. They make it possible to avoid unplanned downtimes and the generation of scrap through timely intervention, thereby optimizing overall equipment effectiveness.
3. Energy scarcity and ESG. The current energy shortage will remain the normal state for the foreseeable future. Industrial companies are therefore forced to make their productions as energy-efficient as possible. Machine learning systems enable them to measure and analyze energy consumption online and take it into account in production planning. Collecting energy data also enables them to meet increasing ESG (environment, social, governance) requirements. For example, they can equip their products with environmental and energy labels or provide traceable proof of ESG compliance at any time by historizing the data.
4. Demographic change. Workforces are aging, many employees are retiring soon and cannot be adequately replaced due to the shortage of skilled workers. This means that industrial companies are losing valuable expertise in machine management. In many manufacturing processes, influencing factors such as materials are subject to strong fluctuations that cannot be absorbed by a recipe. Machine operators therefore level out these fluctuations through process interventions based on years of experience. To ensure that this know-how is not lost, companies will try to transfer it directly to the machines. Special machine learning approaches based on ontologies such as Bayesian networks are best suited for this.

"Machine learning can provide the best answer to many challenges faced by industrial companies," explains Marc Tesch, owner and CEO of LeanBI. "The conditions are favorable, because in recent years many companies have already worked on equipping their machines with sensors for data acquisition through digital retrofit, networking the machines and bringing the data to the cloud. Now they can take the next step and profitably analyze their data with machine learning algorithms."

Source: LeanBI

What will logistics look like in 2023? Lasse Landt provides the answers. He is Managing Director and CFO of Pamyra GmbH, a comparison portal for freight forwarding services. It allows users to compare the prices and services of reliable freight forwarders and other transport companies for private and commercial customers. Pamyra's network includes freight forwarders in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and throughout Europe.

Three main trends for logistics in 2023 can now be derived from the comparative values and usage data. Accordingly, Lasse Landt considers topics such as the modernization of IT, the setting of sustainable climate targets, and the use of automation and AI in logistics to be essential.

1. Necessity of IT modernization
   One thing is certain, the transport industry is still under pressure to make strong progress with digitization in the coming year. While digitization is more than IT modernization, it is ultimately a big part of it. The goal of logistics companies must be to be able to intelligently combine different technologies in order to connect with business partners and customers and continue to grow. The fact that the IT in many companies is very outdated means that collaboration is often very complicated. In the future, it will be important for industry players to further develop common communication standards to ensure interoperability. This works much better in other areas where digitization or modernization is already further advanced. Here, RESTful APIs show that communication between different software can work well with good documentation. A good example of this is the start-up and our partner Magaloop. The ordering app digitizes ordering processes of kiosks and retailers and connects them with suppliers and manufacturers. The tool ensures fast, simple and efficient ordering processes and thus helps an entire industry to better manage its resources.
2. Advancing sustainable goals and climate neutrality
   The importance of promoting sustainability has not passed the logistics industry by. Setting their own goals here and improving their ecological footprint is a major hurdle that many companies in the industry have to overcome. Logistical processes must be converted to be resource-friendly and CO₂-neutral - quite a mammoth task. At present, there are still too few ways to meaningfully determine CO₂ consumption, for example. However, as digitization progresses, there will also be solutions here to make logistics greener. At present, we feel that the willingness to pay here is unfortunately still lower than media reporting would suggest. On the other hand, due to the complexity and fragmentation of the transport market, we often simply lack the means to assign an exact CO₂ footprint to a package. But we are working on finding a solution that will enable freight forwarders to offset their CO₂ emissions through our platform.
3. Automation and AI as problem solvers
   New and innovative problem-solving approaches are more important than ever in the logistics industry in order to survive in the long term. In this context, automation and artificial intelligence can contribute to mastering numerous challenges in logistics and, above all, to increasing efficiency and resilience. The topic has been set as a trend for many years, but in 2023 a large number of processes will certainly continue to be automated with it. We, too, are already working internally on an AI-driven document capture capability. The goal is for our customers to enter documents and then have them automatically recognized and processed using AI. In the future, more and more logistics companies will work with the help of artificial intelligence and automation. This will then take over many tasks, such as planning routes or avoiding empty runs.

Source: Pamyra GmbH

Founded in 1934, the Schlagenhauf family business has grown from generation to generation. With several locations in the greater Zurich area, Winterthur, Baden
and Zug, it operates on a supra-regional basis, but still has a local presence. This allows it to be quickly on site with the customer. The company specializes in a wide variety of painting, flooring, plastering or masonry work, facade insulation, facade construction, scaffolding or complete renovations.

Responding to new needs

With the conversion of its offices in Meilen, Schlagenhauf is now responding to the changing needs and requirements. The company's goal is to digitize in a meaningful way over the next few years in order to offer both existing and future employees the most modern working environment possible. In addition, digitalization will enable the Schlagenhauf Group to work even more efficiently in the future and to implement customer projects with greater process reliability.

For the implementation of this vision, Schlagenhauf works together with the company Integral. Integral is responsible for the consulting, the design and the new office environment. By April 2023, the rooms at the headquarters will be transformed into an open-plan office with modern furniture and an inviting entrance area. The room layout and an adapted IT infrastructure are designed to encourage mobile working and offer employees greater flexibility. Instead of fixed workstations, different zones will be available for different activities in the future. In addition to "standard workstations," there will also be project rooms for team collaboration and retreat rooms for personal conversations or telephone calls.

Uniting a wide range of competencies under one roof

For Schlagenhauf, the offices in Meilen are an important calling card for customers and partner companies. Owner Rolf Schlagenhauf says of the renovation: "The new headquarters will reflect our passion for craftsmanship, our creativity and our quality awareness, and at the same time show that we literally unite a wide range of competencies under one roof."

More information

The main topic of FOCUS Continuing Education 2022 is change at the organizational level. The study presents the results of the provider survey conducted between April and May 2022 by the Swiss Association for Continuing Education SVEB. 211 continuing education providers from all three language regions participated in the online provider survey. The results of the survey were qualitatively deepened in the course of three group discussions with providers.

Majority implements changes

The vast majority of Swiss continuing education providers are currently implementing changes at the organizational level. 9 out of ten are currently adapting their structures and processes. These adjustments vary in scope. While just under half are making targeted optimizations, one in ten providers describe the current changes as a radical transformation. Slightly more than half of the providers are also undertaking a strategic realignment.

Pressure to change is high

The pressure for change at the organizational level has intensified in the wake of the pandemic. In this context, the pressure is primarily determined by external factors: digitization continues to occupy training providers, but issues such as changing demand and changing customer needs also trigger pressure. Accordingly, providers want to increase the agility of their organization and make internal processes more flexible.

Growth has priority

For many, issues such as gaining target groups, increasing sales and growth are of great priority. On the one hand, this can be explained by the fact that the sometimes massive drop in demand must be made up for. On the other hand, it is now a question of increasing profitability, since investments in the development of the offering and the further training of personnel are associated with high costs.

Source: SVEB

The risks for power outages are difficult to assess. Therefore, companies should better prepare for their operations being limited or interrupted by a power outage in the data center or server room. They should review their disaster recovery plans now and adapt them to the new situation. Wolfgang Huber, head of the DACH region at Cohesity, a provider of data management and security solutions, offers seven tips on how companies can protect themselves and their data in the event of a blackout.

• #1 Prepare use of battery and diesel generators.: In the event of an emergency, battery accumulators must be charged and diesel generators topped up in order to reliably supply a data center with power. These preparations should be checked regularly.
• #2 Personnel planningDisaster recovery tests prepare IT teams to deal with data loss, but in an emergency, they have to switch the power in the data center to generators and back again for weeks. Data center staffing plans must ensure that operations run smoothly.
• #3 Implement governance frameworks like COBIT: The single point of failure means that the failure of a single component can endanger the entire server system. The standardized framework COBIT provides best practices for analyzing and testing these points of failure. This ensures that companies test, understand and document every element in the IT stack.
• #4 Make data inventory: How much and what data is stored where? A precise overview of the company's data, the dependencies between data processing and storage, and the provision of services is crucial. This is the only way to understand which critical workflows depend on external infrastructures that could be lost in the event of a power failure.
• #5 Keep regulations in view: Data protection and legal requirements - i.e. governance and compliance - must also be strictly adhered to when data is moved due to an emergency. This requires a clear picture of data storage for companies. For personal data, the Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets out the rules for this.
• #6 Automate as much as possible: Looking to the future, companies need to introduce modern data management solutions. This allows all workloads and data services to be managed automatically on one control plane via a single user interface. This saves IT teams time and resources when they need to move data and applications to alternative storage locations.
• #7 Practice makes perfect: Proper preparation is key - IT and management teams must work together in a smooth and orderly manner in the event of an emergency. To do this, everyone must be on the same level of knowledge at all times regarding potential risks and data management. For this reason, the company should conduct regular exercises and simulations.

Data Management as a Service (DMaaS) offers are a flexible and reliable solution for protecting against power outages. Critical data is stored at an alternative location. This means that companies no longer have to implement and manage the infrastructure entirely themselves and can concentrate on other business-critical tasks, especially in the event of an emergency.