Fortune 1000 RoundWorld-ICCG CXO Interview Panel: Jeremy Foster, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President of Analytics at Kasasa

We are proud to present ICCG Close-Up, sponsored by RoundWorld Solutions. ICCG Close-Up is a Fortune 1000 CXO Interview Panel Series that focuses on Governance, Big Data, Supply Chain Analytics, Enterprise Mobility, and Portfolio Management – where C-Level executives share their views on their main areas of priority, the challenges associated with those areas, and their future plans to address those challenges.
ICCG (Industry Council for Competitiveness and Globalization) is a 501C (6) non-profit organization with a network of CXOs/professionals dedicated to identifying, sharing, and establishing strategies to compete in a global economy.

ICCG’s objectives include cultivating communications and networking opportunities amongst its members, defining and establishing best practices and ethical standards, and creating & maintaining a link between business leaders and devising global strategies. These objectives are accomplished through events, presentations, roundtables, focus groups, and committees organized and sponsored by ICCG. One of ICCG’s missions is to serve underrepresented communities and the people who live within those communities. The ICCG network accomplishes this mission by leveraging its relationships and network to help build better local business ecosystems, ensure future local job growth, and create local internship opportunities.

As part of these ongoing initiatives, The Industry Council for Competitiveness and Globalization (ICCG) hereby releases the Fortune 1000 CXO Interview Panel with expert knowledge on Big Data & Analytics by Jeremy Foster, CFO & EVP of Analytics at Kasasa. This CXO video interview features panelist, Jeremy Foster, CFO & EVP of Analytics at Kasasa, and addresses issues surrounding the effect of Business Intelligence, Big Data, and Analytics technologies within the finance sector. When asked about his role and how it relates to both technological and business prerogatives, Jeremy Foster states, “Kasasa has a branded cooperative marketing strategy that allows community banks and credit unions to pool their resources to compete against the mega banks. With approximately 700 clients, a big focus for us it to be able to standardize our data and be able to access that data to help clients leverage it in new and better ways.” When asked about how the analytics Kasasa has implemented has changed their business, Jeremy Foster further explains, “We have had some dramatic changes over the last few years. Five years ago, we were using Microsoft Access, running Excel reports, and sending clients 16 to 24 page reports. In our world today, we have standardized a significant chunk of that (data). We have implemented a business intelligence platform that our clients can access for self-service, where they can drill down and play with their own information and do a comparative analysis. We have had a very large automation focus last year to get to the point where all of those are now on demand.”

San Diego – ICCG hosts the Fortune 1000 CXO Knowledge Video Vault Program which serves a broad audience of C-Suite office bearers and professionals for sharing the innovative and collective knowledge related to IoT (Internet of Things) and Big Data, mainly in the context of Big Data Governance, Big Data Security, Big Data Visualization, and Big Data Mobility in various domains, including Healthcare, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Finance, and Retail.

“Our Fortune 1000 CXOs have a unique platform to share, promote, and exchange best practices in many domains of knowledge that are transferrable and adaptable, so that the CXOs can learn from each other and not have to reinvent the wheel,” says Ajay Sarkar, who heads ICCG (iccgusa.org) along with Round world Solutions(www.roundworldsolutions.com). At the heart of the ICCG (ICCGUSA.org) Fortune 1000 CXO Video Vault is the library of CXO wisdom on various topics from Big Data to Data Governance in various industry verticals such as Healthcare, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Finance, and Retail. These short and informative videos incorporate a global perspective with local flavor and focus.

When asked about how his priorities have been influenced by security concerns around Kasasa’s offerings and services to its customers, Jeremy Foster, CFO & EVP of Analytics at Kasasa explains, “Today, we are very cautious about accessing P.I.I. (Personal Identifying Information) and obviously building out the securities to handle all of that has dramatically changed our approach to the market. As of today, we do have to manage permissions. We have to keep individual institution’s data secure and also simultaneously private. Yet, we have to pool that data in ways that institutions can do benchmarking against similarly profiled institutions. All of this translates to some pretty meaningful permissions management and security constraints that we track. We are SOX2 compliant and go through SOX2 audits. Obviously, PCIDSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance requires a different level of effort.”

When asked to provide tips on how to improve the relationship between I.T. and other departments, Jeremy Foster discusses, “That relationship really depends on a whole lot of trust and transparency. Some interactions between I.T. and Finance Departments are more functional and transactional in nature. That part is fairly easy, I believe, for most businesses as long as one understands both the financial constraints that the business operates under as well as understanding the technological needs of the business. A lot of times where the CFOs can go wrong is to pinch pennies and/or burn dollars by not making sure there is sufficient infrastructure to be able to support their client base or to dole out for growth. So, finding the right balance there is not too tricky as long as you have good communication going forward. The challenge for us, regardless of your function within the organization, is to not only make sure that everyone on your team understands what the ultimate objective is but that each team member also has a good understanding of how their piece feeds into the ultimate objective.”

To get involved in the Fortune 1000 CXO Video Vault Project or to share your CXO knowledge, please contact ICCG (www.iccgusa.org). RoundWorld Solutions (www.roundworldsolutions.com) is the proud sponsor of the Industry Council for Competitiveness and Globalization, ICCG.
RoundWorld Solutions is a global IT Consulting and Execution Firm with a ‘Best in Class’ proven track record with a global delivery model. Headquartered in beautiful San Diego County, California, with a global reach, RoundWorld Solutions provides IT consulting services, BPO services, software development services, and staff augmentation, which are always customized to cater to the needs of each and individual client. Whether your organization is in Healthcare, Life Sciences, Retail, Manufacturing, or Finance, RoundWorld Solutions has the expertise to assist you in meeting urgent deadlines, support special projects, or even the creation of new development teams. RoundWorld Solutions is a leader in IT Consulting within the arena of Big Data — specifically in Big Data Visualization, Big Data Governance, Big Data Security, Big Data Mobility, and Big Data – Social Media.

RoundWorld Solutions’ C-Suite 360 Degree Business Strategy tool is specifically tailored to meet the needs of CXOs. By utilizing the RoundWorld Solutions’ C-Suite 360 Degree Business Strategy tool, organizations can seamlessly align their Strategic Business Initiatives, Company-Wide Programs, and Numerous Projects. This unified view results in Business Benefit Realization, Cost Savings, Matrices, Milestones, and Revenue Generation (www.roundworldsolutions.com). This customizable and template-driven C-Suite 360 Degree Business Strategy tool provides a top-down visualization view of systems, processes, and corporate initiatives, while also taking into account the corporate culture within your organization. RoundWorld Solutions can also equip your firm with recommended approaches and processes that maintain compliance and privacy requirements, while also protecting customers’ sensitive personal & financial data.

Our C-Suite 360 Degree Business Strategy tool can determine the level of risk at every level of security management and provides a window into how targeted information might be used by cyber criminals in an ever-changing threat environment. Our CXO tool with its dynamic predictive analytics and data modeling capabilities provides solutions by extrapolating inefficiencies and duplication of efforts within your global supply chain, manufacturing operations, FDA clinical trials, international tax implications, M&A&D transactions, and portfolio management. This is just a snapshot of the countless use cases of our C-Suite 360 Degree Business Strategy tool. Our tool is customizable and scalable, and can be utilized within various verticals such as Healthcare, Life Sciences, Finance, Retail, and Manufacturing. Let us show you how our tool can extrapolate, process, interpret, analyze, transform, and monetize your overwhelming organizational data.

To get involved in the Fortune 1000 CXO video vault project or share your CXO knowledge, please visit our ICCG Fortune 1000 CXO Panel page, where you can learn about our interviewees, and see more interviews like this.