June’s blogs and articles worth reading

 

 

Every month we select our favourite reads from around the web and promote them on our social media channels, as well as a monthly blog post. In June, thryve read about POPIA’s impact on small and medium businesses, and how the cost of insurance coverage for cyber incidents is rapidly rising. We learned what Salesforce anticipates for South Africa via its new video series. Finally, Riskonnect explains five steps to start creating a risk management process if you don’t have one – even as just an exercise to inform your business.

 

POPIA’s impact on your business

South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) will be in full force come July, and small businesses are not exempt. What does that mean for their marketing efforts? This article from Business Day notes that SMBs will have to be careful how they market in the future. For example, unsolicited messages are no longer allowed:

“The days of sending newsletters out to all and sundry in an effort to gain new customers are over. From July newsletters can’t be sent to anyone without their consent.”

POPIA places a massive responsibility on companies around the data of its customers and employees – and this includes paper files. You have to make plans to get on top of your user data – how it’s stored and organised, so you can prove you are trying to manage POPIA’s new requirements.

At thryve, we recommend you look at Salesforce Essentials, a complete CRM platform tailored to SMB costs and needs. It will keep your marketing efforts inside the law and dramatically improve your ability to reach new customers and uncover valuable leads.

 

Cyber coverage is becoming more expensive

You may have noticed a growing chorus warning that the cost of mitigating risk through insurance is rising, and coverage capacity is shrinking. A recent interview published by thryve remarked on this phenomenon, and we’ve seen similar comments from other parts of the risk industry. But new data from the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers in the US draws the clearest picture yet.

“Across all-sized accounts, the average increase in premium prices was 10% in Q1 2021, the 14th consecutive quarter of increased prices, though down from the previous quarter increase of 10.7%, and down further from 11.7% in Q3 2020. Large accounts were most impacted, with an average increase of 12.9%.”

The cost of umbrella coverage is rising the fastest, with cyber insurance right behind it. Ransomware attacks, in particular, are pushing cyber insurance premiums up by double digits every quarter.

What is the message? If you want to continue using insurance to cover key risks, you will need a more nuanced and dynamic view of risk to negotiate the proper coverage. At thryve, we recommend using Riskonnect, calibrated to your business by our experts. But however you go about it, know that blanket insurance for risks is increasingly a costly and potentially ineffective strategy.

 

Salesforce Live looks at South Africa’s potential

Salesforce has announced a major focus on the South African market, aiming to create over 5,000 jobs and realise $2.1 billion in revenue here by 2024. thryve is a Salesforce partner, and we’re very excited about the opportunities this will bring, enabling us to use Salesforce’s platform, services and third-party apps to help our customers do more, better and faster with less.

To emphasise SA’s elevated status, Salesforce Live will showcase a series of videos that unpack the Salesforce economy in South Africa. Last Friday, the first was released, interviewing several local business leaders, including entrepreneur Vusi Thembekwayo and Accenture Africa’s Cloud First Lead Jigyasa Singh, on how to unlock customer-centric growth.

Head over to the link below to learn more, watch the first video, and register for the remaining three videos that will be released weekly.

 

How to create a risk management process from scratch

Every business should consider a formalised risk management process. Even small companies and startups benefit from understanding their risks at a detailed level. Modern risk management software (such as from thryve and Riskonnect) enables smaller businesses to manage their risks proactively and strategically, so there is no reason to avoid creating a risk process suited to your organisation.

Riskonnect offers advice in a new blog to those who embark on this journey for the first time. It details each of the following steps and what you should consider. Even if you don’t have plans right now for a formal risk management process, going through these steps will raise your risk awareness, educate employees about risk, and expose risks you are likely overlooking:

  1. Identify Potential Risks – What Could Harm Your Organisation?
  2. Analyse Your Risks – How Likely Is It That the Risk Will Happen – And How Would the Business Be Impacted?
  3. Evaluate Your Risks – What Do You Want to Do with Each Risk?
  4. Implement a Plan – What Do You Need to Put Your Plan into Action?
  5. Monitor Results – What Processes Are Needed to Make Continuous Improvement?

Explore these steps, then contact thryve to learn how to make technology deliver on them and use risk for strategic and competitive advantages, no matter how big your operations are.