Displaying items by tag: CGU

The COVID crisis has demonstrated the viability of mass remote working and embracing the practice long term has significant advantages, writes Shad Mortazavi, Founder and Managing Director, OpenIQ

GUEST OPINION by Shad Mortazavi, Founder and Managing Director, OpenIQ: Did your company’s contact centre make a sudden shift to remote working when the COVID crisis struck? If so, you’re in good company. In the wake of government shutdown announcements in March 2020, scores of Australian organisations equipped their agents with mobile devices and dispatched them home to work.

Cyber-attacks, hacks, breaches, data loss, DDoS, ransomware and more are a fact of life, but so far it seems only the big end of town, not SMEs, receive the publicity. It is a case of when, not if, the Australian government will introduce mandatory data breach notification revealing the true extent of the pain.

New Zealand-based, global online accounting software company Xero is shouting from the rooftops about its performance in the Australian market, claiming an ‘explosion’ in customer numbers to 147,000 businesses using its software, up from 109,000 in March.

When CGU ran a series of roadshows in nine separate regions of Victoria it was trying to reach as many principals as it could in the State's 1,600 public schools to educate them about their workers' compensation obligations. About 250 people showed up in total. When it offered the same education programmes via a webinar it got 350 in the first hour.