by Jim Culkin
In an industry that is by its very nature unpredictable and risky, there are two key areas where business leaders can exercise at least some control over, with the help of technology: financial project management and cybersecurity.
When we talk about financial project management, we’re really focused on managing the financial information associated with every construction project and more importantly, how the analytics derived from this information can help keep the business on track.
On the cybersecurity front, it’s obvious – and ironic – that technology itself has made all of us vulnerable to theft of data and the spiraling costs and implications of that vulnerability. And all businesses today are faced with taking whatever steps possible to protect their business and their employees from cyberattacks. At KBE, we’ve put several systems in place to address these two areas.
First is our new financial and project reporting dashboard, powered by Microsoft’s PowerBi. This software connects multiple cloud-based systems to provide easy access to real-time data for financial and operational KPIs. In simpler terms, this gives senior leadership an easily accessible view into project performance on every job, from financial metrics to compliance with project documentation. This lets us identify and focus on meeting our clients’ requirements. In turn, the dashboard has ramped up our ability to finely control projects and develop more targeted and accurate business forecasting.
Another key technology that we continue to invest in is cybersecurity training and protective measures. Like nearly everyone else on the planet, KBE is constantly under attack by “malicious actors” trying to steal something – information, money – or looking for opportunities to wreak tech havoc on our business operations through phishing and other cyberattacks.
We’ve implemented and continue to manage an ever-widening scope of tactics, applications, and solutions to keep the company’s data and our personal data safe and our systems operating at top capacity. One such software is Abnormal Security, which provides email protection against a wide range of attacks. Over the last six months, we’ve thwarted nearly 12,000 attacks.
Increased Productivity
During this same period, Abnormal Security, which was implemented one year ago, filtered through incoming email to all KBE Companies employees to identify nearly 270,000 “grey mail” messages, and kept them out of our inboxes.
As the name implies, grey mail are messages that are most likely promotions, newsletters, or marketing advertisements. By automatically moving these to the “Promotions” folder in our mailboxes, we can keep our focus on the legitimate emails that do come our way. Projected time savings during that six month period: nearly 750 hours of employee time not spent weeding through unwanted and unimportant emails.
Being on Guard
One other technology we invested in eight years ago continues to pay off. We know that the ultimate protection comes from an educated workforce, so we implemented a mandatory cyber awareness training program, KnowBe4, that must be completed each month, covering a range of security topics. As part of that program, our IT team initiates a simulated phishing email attack once a month for all staff. As a result, we have all collectively made improvements in detecting bad actors, and our goal is to achieve 100% success in employee detection skills.
Jim Culkin
Jim Culkin, DBIA, is executive vice president and chief operations officer for KBE Building Corporation.
