Event details: GBA Operations and Technology Conference

February 26-28, 2025
The DeSoto, Savannah, GA
Want to register? Sign up here.

What You’ll Learn at the Conference

The GBA Operations and Technology Conference isn’t just about networking—it’s a valuable opportunity to gain insights into the latest trends shaping banking technology. With sessions covering cybersecurity best practices, fintech partnerships, vendor risk management, and payments innovation, attendees will walk away with actionable strategies to improve operational efficiency and security.

For financial institutions managing mission-critical data in SQL Server, staying ahead of these trends is crucial. As technology evolves and regulations tighten, banks must ensure their database environments are secure, compliant, and optimized for performance. That’s where The SERO Group comes in—we’ll be there to discuss best practices, answer your questions, and provide expert guidance tailored to your institution’s needs.

Would you like a dedicated time to chat with our team at the event? Contact us today to schedule a quick meeting!

Why visit our booth?

Stop by our booth to enter our raffle, grab a free gift, or chat about how The SERO Group can support your banking technology needs. We help financial institutions keep their SQL Server environments secure, reliable, and efficient—whether you’re tackling security, compliance, or performance challenges.

Can’t make it to the event? Connect with us for a call.

If you won’t be at the event, we’d still love to connect! Schedule a free, no-obligation discovery call to see how we can support your organization in 2025.

The post Visit Us at the Georgia Bankers Association Operations and Technology Conference! appeared first on The SERO Group.

This interpretation misses a key benefit of data governance, however: competitive advantage. We cannot diminish the critical importance of regulatory compliance and its role in shaping governance efforts, but it’s important to understand that this is not the whole picture when it comes to data governance.

Governing Data as an Asset

Data is a business asset, not unlike cash. If you asked any business leader whether their cash flow processes needed controls to ensure their accuracy, integrity, and protection, they would likely give you a quizzical look and assume you were baiting them into some trap…of course their cash flow processes need controls.

Similarly, data has the potential to guide and inform nearly every aspect of a business. To leverage data effectively, businesses must ensure its integrity in an ongoing and reliable way. From financial reporting to performance evaluation to operational efficiency, data quality sits at the heart of modern businesses. Later, we will see some examples of how data quality and integrity issues can have significant impacts on SMBs.

Additionally, company data assets need to be secure and protected—arguably even more so than other company assets. This is because many personal data elements do not ultimately belong to a business. These considerations impact regulatory compliance and are essential for effectively and responsibly leveraging data as the valuable asset that it is.

The policies and processes that ensure the availability, usability, integrity, and security of data assets are what we mean by data governance.

Did you know that…

• 97% of data leaders state that their companies have experienced the costs of disregarding data quality and integrity in the form of lost revenue opportunities, inaccurate performance forecasting, and/or poor investments.
• More than 87% of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) collect or process sensitive customer data that could be compromised.
• Small businesses spend an average of $955,429 to restore normal business operations in the wake of successful attacks.

AND…

• About 85% of data science and analytics projects fail due in part to disregarding data governance processes.

Four Common Challenges for SMBs

Challenge #1: No Buy-In

To effect change within an organization, you must secure buy-in from key constituents. For data governance, these important players begin with executive leadership and extend through the organizational hierarchy to front-line staff. However, some SMBs question whether data governance has any real applicability for them. In response, consider: Do you store sensitive customer, client, or patient data? Do you keep sales, productivity, performance, or program data for decision-making? If you answered yes to any of those questions, data governance principles do have applicability in your environment.

Business leaders and decision-makers should prioritize data governance because their decisions directly impact the company’s value and profitability. Without data governance policies, decision-makers can only hope that their data-driven decisions are well-founded. Inaccurate data can lead to poor decisions in ways that are difficult to detect or explain even after the fact, leaving decision-makers accountable for the outcome.

Securing employee buy-in is equally important when implementing data governance. Buy-in should stem from an understanding of the shared responsibility for the data that drives business outcomes. A collective sense of accountability for data quality works to prevent resentment and misunderstandings towards your policies that could undermine even the best data governance efforts.

Tips for Success:

• Elicit interest and assistance from vested stakeholders. Leverage opportunities to ease business pain points through data governance. I’ll list some examples in “Data Governance in the Wild” below.
• Pave a step-by-step path to mature your data culture. Start with education, delegated responsibility, and distributed data ownership.
• Align policies with the existing strategic objectives of the company. Be specific about the expected business outcomes of your efforts.
• Empower business stakeholders to take ownership of and make decisions about business data.
• Create strategic goals and an initial roadmap. This will work best if it is an ongoing organizational effort that is largely led by the business, not by IT.    

Challenge #2: No Budget

Chances are that unless improving data governance is already a top business priority, perhaps because of a recent security incident, audit, or a particularly problematic data irregularity, you will be up against budget constraints when introducing formalized data governance to an SMB.

This is a challenge, but not a barrier. Yes, there are tools on the market that can be very helpful, but they are by no means necessary for SMBs—and certainly not at the outset.

Tips for Success:

• Start small and go slow. Introduce change gradually by beginning with what you can accomplish internally. Define and document business logic for your most critical data objects, and then introduce business processes to enforce that logic.
• Treat data governance as a process of continuous improvement rather than a costly one-time project. Small, inexpensive wins can produce significant results.
• Avoid a box-checking mentality. Use internal data audits to showcase regulatory compliance, but don’t let minimal standards dictate strategy. Prioritize business advantage over compliance, focusing first on areas with immediate value, such as labor cost savings, enhanced reporting, or boosted analytical capabilities.
• Leverage tools strategically. Develop your strategy and framework first. Look to tools second, and only for ease of implementation and execution. Tools alone will not provide true data governance.

Challenge #3: No Champion

You know that data governance is important for your organization and that someone needs to advocate for it. You also might not have the authority, capacity, or desire to be that person. In that case, use the suggestions about securing buy-in from Challenge #1 to find or create a data governance champion within your organization.

Tips for Success:

• Business and IT need to collaborate for effective data governance. There should be a designated senior IT team leader who is collaborating closely with at least one senior business leader. In a small organization, this could simply mean your one IT resource working with the business owner. Regardless of the size of the organization, the effort should not be one-sided.
• Champions should not limit their scope to policies alone. Having centralized documentation, tools, and processes at the ready will help to avoid individuals and teams developing their own tools and processes to implement the policies their own way. Disparate processes can lead to inconsistency and diminished success.
• Champions need to be committed and persistent. Don’t roll out data governance processes and forget about them. Remember that education and training will need to be ongoing, as will the refinement of governance practices to keep pace with technology and changing business requirements.
• Champions should consider the needs of the employees that work with the data when creating policies and approving tools. If your governance initiatives are seen as an unnecessary burden, workarounds will be developed that could compromise your efforts.

Challenge #4: Internal Skills Gap

You have the needed organizational buy-in, a small budget, and even a champion, but your IT team is small (or outsourced), without any data professionals on staff. Where can you begin?

Remember, the key is to go slowly and implement organically. The full implementation of data governance will ultimately require technology expertise, but defining rules, requirements, and workflows may not. Start there, then reach out for help with technical implementation when you’re ready.

Tips for Success:

• Research any compliance regulations applicable to your business sector. Perform an analysis of how your business is meeting these requirements. Where you find gaps, assess a strategy for how to fill those gaps. Implementation can be left to a third party as needed, but be sure that you understand what needs to be done. If you are unsure about how to get started, use some of that budget to reach out for support.
• Perform a security audit of your data systems. Adjust and delete credentials and permissions as appropriate. Review third-party system access. Inventory inbound, outbound, and internal data pipelines and evaluate for best practices. Then set up ongoing processes and/or reports to assist with security monitoring.
• Look for critical data objects that need to be formally defined. Beginning with mission-critical data elements, document all business logic and metadata requirements associated with these elements in a data dictionary or catalog. This doesn’t need to be elaborate, but it should cover all key data elements. Start in one business area and expand out from there.
• Assign ownership and accountability. Look for data owners who are invested in the quality of the data within their domain because of their connection to the processes that produce or consume the data.
• Upskill and/or seek third-party guidance as required. Provide access to resources for interested staff to get trained to become data owners, stewards, and partners in data governance. Reach out to third parties for guidance in areas that are outside the internal expertise of the organization.

Data Governance Challenges in the Wild

Below are some real challenges faced by SMBs that could be solved with improved data governance processes.

Local Restaurant Chain

A small, local restaurant chain encountered a discrepancy between a company report on drink sales and individual location reports generated in Excel. This irregularity surfaced after a competition to incentivize staff to sell more drinks by holding a competition between locations with a cash prize. At the end of the competition, when managers compared their individual reports, Store A had sold the most drinks. When using the central company report, Store B had. Which was correct?

Upon investigation, one of the restaurant locations had long ago coded milkshakes as drinks. All of the other locations coded them as desserts. This was never audited or corrected. As a result, the individual reports that were rolled up by individual menu item codes produced a different result than the central report that was rolled up by the “Drink” category. This confusion affected competition results as well as drink and dessert sales analytics and other location-to-location comparisons.

Small Food Manufacturer

A large grocery store chain approached a regional manufacturer of salad dressings and condiments, requesting the production of one of its products as a generic for the chain. Similarly, a bulk food retailer asked the same manufacturer to produce a bulk version of the same product. The contracts were accepted, but the original product, the generic version, and the bulk version of the product are all assigned different product codes without being rolled up to any parent product category. When the accounting office ran their standard report of overall sales trends by product, they had no way of recognizing that these three items represented the same underlying product and ended up producing a skewed and incomplete product analysis.

International Boutique Wholesaler

A private international wholesaler with dispersed brick-and-mortar locations was having continual problems with their inventory. Customers complained that the website frequently showed products as available when they were not. Retail associates complained that the inventory in the POS was incorrect and frequently showed negative inventory when stock was actually present in the stores.

One of the issues in this scenario was that individual store inventory was manually counted and entered with different workflows, lacking a centralized mechanism for tracking inventory. Furthermore, associates often used the “miscellaneous” category to sell products that were at the stores but didn’t have a corresponding inventory item recognized in the system. These issues produced a myriad of operational, financial, and analytic discrepancies, as well as increased costs in the form of labor inefficiencies, lost revenue, and misplaced or stolen inventory.

Social Services Organization

A social services organization gathers information about its clients to produce an annual statistical analysis of clients and outcomes. This nationally distributed, highly regarded report serves as a source for scholarly research and influences funding for numerous public and private institutions.

However, the organization faces challenges in bringing consistency to its intake processes. Since many clients arrive in crisis, intake steps that can be skipped by staff often are because intake personnel are in a rush and do not realize the importance of each step. Furthermore, the application being used to collect this valuable information does not require answers to many questions that are deemed critical for this organization and the annual report. The organization has attempted many process changes to improve the consistency of this workflow. However, the problem still persists and is consistently cited as a limitation of their statistical findings.

Is data governance important for SMBs?

This is just a small handful of examples of how a lack of data governance can affect SMBs. In fact, once you’re on the lookout for data governance issues, you may start to notice them everywhere.

Additionally, we have only begun to touch on the security and compliance aspects of data governance. Many of the challenges to implementation outlined here are less prominent when a regulatory requirement is at play since compliance is mandated. Even when regulations play a less obvious role, most of us are aware of the gravity of security risks. It is important to note, however, that this security risk is even greater for SMBs than for the largest companies. According to Veeam’s 2023 Data Protection Trends Report, 85% of ransomware attacks targeted small businesses.

The take-away? If your business or organization retains data, and very few (if any) businesses do not, formalizing some level of data governance will help you to securely and responsibly leverage that asset to drive your business.

Further Reading

• • More interesting statistics

• • A privacy audit checklist

• • A guide to data governance for small businesses

• • Data governance frameworks

• • Amazon’s guide to data governance for SMBs

Want to continue the conversation about data governance for SMBs?

To learn more, you can click here to access a recording of our May 14, 2024 webinar on Data Governance for SMBs.

Need help? We can help you tailor practical data governance solutions to meet the specific needs of your SMB. Schedule a call or send us an email. 

The post Data Governance in Action: 4 Challenges for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses (SMBs) appeared first on The SERO Group.

If you’re not familiar with the Unstuck Business Academy, it’s a great resource designed to help small business owners overcome obstacles to growing their businesses. Check it out.

Kudos to Brent Barcus of i65music for producing the podcast.

The post Camp, Hike, and SQL appeared first on The SERO Group.

One of the biggest events of the year for data professionals is just one week away. The PASS Summit in Seattle, Washington, kicks off on November 6, 2018. Each year the event draws thousands of attendees from around the globe for three days of intensive learning, engaging networking, and embracing camaraderie. If you’ve never been, I highly encourage it. I’ve been to the annual conference 16 times, speaking at a dozen of them. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this year.

What’s that? You can’t go either? There’s always next year. But just because you cannot make it to Seattle this year doesn’t mean you cannot continue growing in knowledge of your craft. Successful IT professionals make continual learning a part of their routine.

So, what are some options for learning SQL Server? Here are a few that we regularly recommend to those we coach and mentor. 

• PASStv.  Although PASS makes many of the sessions from the conference available for purchase on its website, some recordings from the conference, from the 24 Hours of PASS, and virtual chapter meetings are available for free on YouTube. Just search for SQL Server PASStv and you’ll get a long list of available sessions worth watching. For example: 
  • Watch Brent Tune Queries by Brent Ozar
  • SQL Server 2016 Always On Availability Groups Enhancements by Jimmy May
  • 7 Tips to Performance Tuning, Optimization, and Everything by Pinal Dave
  • But It Worked in Development by Brent Ozar
• YouTube Videos. PASS doesn’t have the market cornered on good SQL Server content on YouTube. There are other videos available as well. For example, if you search for SQL Server, you can watch these great sessions: 
  • SQL Server 2017 Deep Dive by Bob Ward
  • SQL Server 2016 Hidden Gems with Adam Machanic
  • Running SQL Server in a Docker Container on a Mac by Kendra Little
  • T-SQL: Bad Habits and Best Practices with Aaron Bertrand 
• Vendor Resources. Many SQL Server tools manufacturers create a lot of educational content to help you not only learn to use their products but to learn SQL Server concepts as well. Some are videos. Others are free ebooks. For example:
  • SentryOne Resources
  • Redgate Hub
  • Microsoft Channel 9
• White Papers. Quite a few companies create white papers and other technical documents that can be helpful as you learn. There are good collections curated by others: 
  • SQL Skills 
  • MSSQLTips
  • PASS 
• Paid Training Sites. Although free training is good, sometimes high-quality training is available from paid sites. These offer some reasonably priced alternatives to in-person conference attendance.  
  • Lynda.com
  • PluralSight.com
  • PASS Summit Recordings

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. Rather it’s designed to spark interest and to offer proof that good education is available online, often for free.

These online experiences are no substitute for actually being at the conference where you can meet the speakers, connect with others in your industry, ask questions of the product teams, and immerse your self in the SQL Server goodness that is PASS. But, if you cannot make it to the World’s Largest SQL Family Reunion, these are good opportunities to expand your knowledge. 

The post Learning SQL Server appeared first on The SERO Group.

The Top 10 Mistakes that New Leaders Make

We can easily recognize a great leader when we see one. The great ones make it look easy while the bad ones look inept. Some people believe that leadership is innate, that a chosen few are born to lead while the rest are destine to follow. But that’s not true. Leadership is a skill; it can be nurtured and developed like any other skill. And as with many things, we can learn from others’ mistakes.

Join Kevin and me at the Nashville Technology Council’s Sales and Biz Development Peer Network meeting on January 8th, 2014. In this session we’ll learn the top 10 most common mistakes that new leaders make and how to avoid repeating them in our own careers.

When: January 8th, 2014 from 8:00am to 9:30am.

Where: Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc
937 Herman Street
Nashville, TN 37208

Cost: Free

The post Join Us on Jan 8, 2014 for The Top 10 Mistakes that New Leaders Make appeared first on The SERO Group.

The synthesized voice over the speaker startled the crew, “Ugly, ugly giants bags of mostly water.” Star Trek The Next Generation fans may remember this quote from the “Home Soil” episode that originally aired in February, 1988.

Despite the capabilities of the universal translator, much was lost in that translation. Although the words may have been translated accurately, Captain Picard and the “microbrain” did not understand one another. They just didn’t connect.

These kinds of misunderstandings don’t just happen on the Starship Enterprise. They happen all the time in businesses all around the world. Many managers and people from non-technical teams simply do not understand their technical colleagues.

In a 90-minute breakfast workshop, Kevin and I will discuss the challenges of leading and working with a technical team. Whether you manage a technical team or work with one regularly, this session will help you understand the motivating factors that drive technical people and will help you to build a stronger sense of cohesion with the team.

When: 

Tuesday, Oct 22, 2013,  7:30 – 9:30 am

Schedule: 

7:30 am: Check-In and Networking
8:00 – 9:30 am: Program and Q & A

Location: 

Williamson College
274 Mallory Station Road
Franklin, TN 37067

We hope to see you there.

The post Understanding Technical Teams Breakfast Workshop in Franklin, TN appeared first on The SERO Group.

A better title on the business card. A little more take home pay each week. And automatic influence and credibility in the organization. These are the things that we get while climbing the corporate ladder, right?

Umm, no.

Authority Is Not Influence

Many leaders assume that one of the automatic perks that comes with their position is influence. They mistakenly believe that direct reports and peers will automatically begin seeking our their input and valuing their contribution to the organization. They believe that in their new role, people will automatically listen to them and take heed of their perspectives.

They quickly learn that this is not the case. It’s not an easy lesson sometimes.

Authority is not leadership or influence. These are distinctly different things. You can have authority without being a leader. Likewise, you can have great influence without having authority.

In an upcoming free breakfast workshop, Kevin Kline and I will share how you can increase your influence with your team and in your organization, even if you don’t have explicit authority.

Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch, er, breakfast? See you there.

Visit the EventBrite page to register. Hurry, seats are limited.

Thursday, September 26, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM (CDT)
120 White Bridge Rd
Nashville, TN 37205

The post Leadership vs Influence: A Free Breakfast Workshop appeared first on The SERO Group.

Kevin and I regularly speak on IT Leadership topics at conferences across North America and Europe. With the conference season just around the corner, here are a few places where you can catch us speaking.

• Steel City SQL in Birmingham, AL, Aug 20, 2013
• DevLINK in Chattanooga, TN, Aug 28- 30, 2013
• PASS in Charlotte, NC, Oct 15 – 18, 2013

There will likely be a few more that pop up before the fall. I hope to see you at one of these events.

– Joe

The post Upcoming Speaking Events appeared first on The SERO Group.