Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

Lawyers and law firms have to handle a massive amount of documentation. Because of antiquated laws and fear of change, the legal industry has traditionally been slow to adapt to digitalization and cloud tools. That is rapidly changing in the era of COVID-19.

Nag Vaidyanathan is the EVP and CTO for OneMain Financial. Nag’s organization is over a century old, but when the pandemic hit, the company had to accelerate the pace of its digital offerings.

Scott Kitun is a rock star in the Chicago startup and investment world. His company, Technori, is Chicago’s largest media platform for entrepreneurs and has seen billions invested in its first decade. He joins Shelli and Patrick to talk about the current state of Chicago’s investment landscape.

Let’s say it’s almost lunchtime and suddenly you receive a text from your favorite local restaurant with a coupon. You read the text and think, “That does sound pretty good.” You head there for lunch, show your coupon, and get your discount. In a nutshell, this is what Vibes, a platform that helps marketers drive experiences and meaningful customer connections, is all about.

Today, Pat and Shelli spoke to Vibes’ CTO Brian Garofola about the underutilized power of mobile when it comes to driving customer experience. Brian discusses why text marketing and mobile wallet can bridge the digital and physical divide, thus increasing transactions.

Risk management is an essential component of every organization, but not necessarily something that CEOs are excited to work on. However, Matt Kunkel, CEO of LogicGate, has a novel approach: make risk a revenue driver.

Matt joined Patrick on Innovation and the Digital Enterprise to talk shop about risk and how privacy issues have made it more interesting and necessary than ever. Matt also discusses why it’s important to have clear company values and how to get everyone from the CEO to the employee on board. Finally, Matt explains why he never says no to a coffee date. Tune in for his insights.

Over the last few decades, as things have increasingly gone digital, we’ve lost the human interaction behind satisfying sales experiences. Matt Coughlin of XSELL Technologies is passionate about the science of sales. After working with Disney and other big brands, he realized that customers were hungry for digital intimacy.

This week on Innovation and the Digital Enterprise, Matt is talking to Pat about how brands can bridge the divide between offering an array of products and personalization. He discusses how machine learning can help with that dilemma and also talks about his philosophy of “Open for Business”, which is all about being open to change and learning. Tune in for a discussion on the future of sales.

Trying to work on the next big thing in software without bankrupting the company on research and development can be a tricky balancing act. To successfully manage such operations, leaders need to think tactically.

Reza Rooholamini is the Vice President of Enterprise Architecture and Technology at CCC Information Services Inc. One way that CCC has managed this issue is by creating an innovation lab that functions as its own startup within the company. On this week’s episode of Innovation and the Digital Enterprise, Reza discusses the pragmatic approach that CCC takes toward innovation.

Listen in for Reza’s four-pronged approach to successful innovation and his criteria for success.

Gone are the days when a company’s IT teams just babysat servers. Today, individual services and outside vendors dominate the industry. With this fast pace of recent technological leaps brings new opportunities to harness technology that can help businesses find creative ways to scale.

Karen Fedyszyn, an award-winning Information Technology Executive, sat down with Pat and Shelli for a wide-ranging conversation about her experiences managing teams for brands such as Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, Ace Hardware, and HSBC. Karen shares why she believes shadow IT should be treated as an innovation pipeline, the challenges of moving from problem focused to solution focused IT, and her tips for creating productive IT teams that allow members to both learn and work on things they are passionate about.

Tune in for practical advice from an IT industry pro.

Hosts Shelli Nelson and Patrick Emmons are joined today by Adam Hecktman, long time civic technology executive at Microsoft. Adam shares how the role of technology in communities has evolved throughout the years. We discuss the social impact of technology, efficient government and the challenge of keeping talent in Chicago.

On DragonSpears first installment of “Innovation and the Digital Enterprise” Shelli and Pat welcome Roman Dumiak to talk about how technology affects collaborative efforts in anything from programming to E-sports to smart speakers.