THESE ARE EXCITING TIMES.
Although Sphera’s products have been in the marketplace in a variety of ways for 30 years, Sphera recently celebrated its third anniversary as an independent company. We are proud of all the innovations we have brought to the marketplace in such a short period of time with many more on the way designed to create a safer, more sustainable and productive world. With this issue, we are also celebrating the first anniversary of Spark magazine, which we are proud to call an award-winning publication. You can learn more about that on the opposite page.
The cover story explores Integrated Risk Management 4.0, which is an integral part of any organization’s Digital Transformation strategy. I introduced the concept at our inspire user conferences earlier this year, and, as you’ll see in the cover story, companies have an unprecedented amount of risk-mitigation capabilities at their fingertips from technology and software innovations.
As I discussed at inspire, the first iteration of Integrated Risk Management (IRM 1.0) focused on compliance alone; it was reactive, departmentalized and PC-based. The second phase (IRM 2.0) turned to risk mitigation; it was proactive, enterprise-wide and based on a client server. The third stage (IRM 3.0) tackled sustainability; transparency was added along with value chain initiatives, and the cloud emerged as well.
In IRM 4.0, we see the strategic application of Industry 4.0 technologies. By that I mean the process is data-driven with predictive and prescriptive capabilities based upon the enormous amount of information collected from Industrial Internet of Things components, including sensors and mobile technology. Many devices can be potentially integrated into an IRM 4.0 strategy through a software platform like SpheraCloud; and, we’re excited to share that information with you.
Additionally, when Sphera was formed in 2016, we knew that establishing a culture that focused on sustainability would be an important part of our identity as evidenced by our recent acquisition of thinkstep. We believe sustainability is a significant part of many of our customers’ DNAs as well. A few months ago, I was asked to contribute to the UN Global Goals Yearbook with my thoughts on guideposts for C-suite executives in evaluating sustainability initiatives. I was happy to do it, and we thought it was such a valuable exercise that we decided to reprint the article here. By using it as a guide, you, too, can learn more about how to “crunch” the numbers to show the true value of sustainability and advance your plans to bring about a better tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Paul Marushka
Publisher, President & CEO
