Tom Fox’s guest on Day 5 of Microsoft Week is Jesus Fernandez. Jesus is the Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. He specializes in data intelligence, risk management, and policy compliance. He joins Tom to talk about his role at Microsoft, data analytics, and its role in compliance, and the future for this industry.

Driving Compliance Through Data Analytics

Tom asks Jesus to explain how he uses data in compliance. Jesus tells Tom that Microsoft uses data to decide which partners to keep conducting business with. Deciding which partners need support and where the company needs to focus its energy is vital, and analyzing the data helps them make those important decisions. Tom remarks that Jesus and his team not only use data analytics to drive compliance but to also help businesses run more efficiently.

Data From a Compliance Perspective

Tom asks Jesus to give an example as to how data analytics has helped improve operations at Microsoft. Jesus responds that it started from looking at data from a compliance perspective: examining deals with Microsoft clients that were suspicious, and paying more attention to them specifically. From that, Jesus explains that he and his team looked at the market of each of the countries in which Microsoft conducts business, to see how it was doing and if there were any deviations from the norm. "We want to look at them - at the partner and the customer ecosystem - and try to see which partners are doing great, which ones are not doing that well and try to connect why those activities could be," he tells Tom.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital & Data Analytics in Compliance

The pandemic has helped Microsoft teams to be more comfortable with the use of data analytics. The challenge with this, Jesus explains, is that companies may not be initially receptive to changes in their processes, especially if they have their own data processes that are working well for them. Due to the pandemic, employees are using more technology and are more willing to look at data and improve the way that they are working, based on the feedback they get.

What’s Next

Companies and compliance functions need to rely on more data in the coming years. Jesus adds that experts within our organizations need to be thinking about how data helped them answer some of the questions they may have had. One of the challenges companies will face in the future is that their data may be disconnected or without structure.

Listen here to Microsoft Week episode 1, featuring Alan Gibson, Director of Legal and Compliance Innovation at Microsoft.

Listen here to Microsoft Week episode 2, featuring Abbas Kudrati, Chief Cybersecurity Advisor for Microsoft Asia’s Enterprise Cybersecurity Group.

Listen here to Microsoft Week episode 3, featuring Joseph Davis, Microsoft’s Chief Security Advisor for Health and Life Sciences.

Listen here to Microsoft Week episode 4, featuring Erica Toelle, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Records Management and InfoGov.

Resources

Jesus Fernandez | LinkedIn

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