Skip to content
Tiatra, LLCTiatra, LLC
Tiatra, LLC
Information Technology Solutions for Washington, DC Government Agencies
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact
 
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact

Leveraging Cybersecurity to Supercharge Retail’s Frontline

By Ravi Balwada, CTO of Guitar Center

In retail, we don’t have the luxury of thinking about security as an afterthought. We have to think about security early in the innovation process and make sure our security best practices, governance and architectures are taken into account when we are designing our solutions—everything from defining what a container needs to look like when we deploy something to what sort of access controls we have. 

With modern cybersecurity technology, we have better tools and instrumentation to monitor environments more effectively, to change the security posture very rapidly and meet the changing needs of the company—whether it is adapting to a new wave of mobile devices or introducing a new population of workers to information that is sensitive. 

Also thanks to modern cybersecurity, new use cases have become available in retail that were never possible before. Many retail leaders talk about the changes being enabled for their customers, but it’s also vital to explore the exciting new ways retailers can enable their frontline workers.

Three areas cybersecurity is helping to supercharge our frontline workforce

When you focus on cybersecurity in an environment like Guitar Center, you have the power to do amazing things—for your sales associates, customers and overall business. Here, digitization and cybersecurity are empowering our sales associates in three major aspects of our business:

  • Customer service
  • Back office functions
  • Efficient, individualized, business management

Securing a new level of customer service and relationship

Our mission is to build a lifetime relationship with our customers in their musical journeys. Whether it’s lessons, product, repair or rental services, acquiring or selling used equipment, technology connects how we build our relationships with customers. Customers can start online and finish in a store; start in a store and finish online; or any combination they choose.

As a result, we’re shifting the engagement with the customer to the aisle instead of at the point of sale. In a previous incarnation of our business it was: “What do you need? Let me ring you up.” Now we are about: “Let me work with you collaboratively. I understand who you are, your needs, your aspirations. Let us brainstorm and together we can find the best solution. Let’s move this conversation to the aisle where I can help you make good choices.”

Our sales associates leverage information across all channels, which changes the conversations we have with customers. If you’re a salesperson, you actually know if the customer has been browsing certain items online. You know what the customer has purchased in the past. You can make recommendations for equipment, lessons, sheet music. You can help them complete their purchase and you can help them take advantage of other things that might make their musical journey more fulfilling. 

For our almost 12,000 frontline sales associates, it’s no longer a world of post-it notes and pieces of paper. We are bringing a massive amount of information and insight. They have full visibility into supply chains, status of inventory, deep insights into each customer, and much more. They are dealing with volumes of information around dozens of variables. There is far more data and activity at the edge and a much larger attack surface.

This requires cyber innovation and evolution. You now have multiple places where data is residing that have to be secured, which means you need cybersecurity with visibility and granular access controls to ensure that the right people are accessing the right information at the right time. There is also the challenge of forensics and investigation of security incidents. We need systems that have amazing logging and automation for us to be able to react very rapidly to any security incidents. That requires us to work with modern technologies that are agile and can very quickly be swung into action. 

Our data management is a key focus, including building data lakes and visual analytics capabilities that we are introducing across our entire enterprise. We also have to make sure we have a secure platform. We are replatforming our firewalls and leveraging new technology around identifying threat patterns—isolating problems when necessary, isolating our environments so they are more effective. Only through these kinds of moves can we support our associates to build those deep customer relationships that fuel their success.

Supporting the latest back office functions

Our associates have new frontline tools that enable not only customer relationship management but back office function. For example, every associate will have a mobile device. If associates need to perform actions such as pick up from a store, ship from a store, or access inventory, they have the information at their fingertips using their mobile devices. This provides a tremendous benefit for each of our people, but it also means our endpoints will increase ten times versus what we have today.

With each new device and endpoint, we put powerful capabilities in the hands of associates. You have to have amazing security—with isolation, compliance, controls, encryption, edge protection, and more. We are giving associates the ability to process payments on mobile devices. As you run financial transactions on mobile devices, on wireless networks, you need to prevent associates from compromising personal identifiable information. Another important factor is the ability to onboard people quickly and efficiently, especially with our seasonal workforce. Technology compresses time to value so they can be productive faster with information that is easily available and tools that are highly intuitive. And this speed only becomes possible when all of those interactions are properly protected.

Bringing new levels of management to the business

At a time when retaining and motivating workers is paramount to business success, Guitar Center has been executing operational advancements that are geared toward empowering and engaging our associates in new ways. Today, sales associates can manage their own businesses from their mobile devices. They can view status on commissions; access training; get real-time information on promotions; collaborate with colleagues and peers.  It’s not enough to just build an application that works on mobile devices. It has to be engaging. We’re building experiences across the enterprise that are more gamified.

It is an important, fundamental change—knowing that we have a security posture to support this kind of innovation. We continue to harden our security to ensure all of our 12,000+ sales associates can be more and more digitally enabled.

Enabling workforce satisfaction, innovation, and long term success

The value of empowering sales associates with robust, secure, digital experiences cannot be overstated, especially in today’s environment where workers have more options and are seeking jobs that are more enriching and satisfying. There is, however, one caveat. The kind of data-driven frontline innovation I am describing is only possible when we invest in and treat cybersecurity as an enabling technology, and a nice-to-have. At Guitar Center, we are always aware that we can only do the things we want to do if we have the security that we need. 

About Ravi Balwada:

Security Roundtable author, Ravi Balwada, is the chief technology officer at Guitar Center, the world’s largest musical instrument retailer.

IT Leadership


Read More from This Article: Leveraging Cybersecurity to Supercharge Retail’s Frontline
Source: News

Category: NewsJanuary 19, 2023
Tags: art

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:The essential check list for effective data democratizationNextNext post:Why sustainable transportation needs 5G connectivity and digitalisation

Related posts

휴먼컨설팅그룹, HR 솔루션 ‘휴넬’ 업그레이드 발표
May 9, 2025
Epicor expands AI offerings, launches new green initiative
May 9, 2025
MS도 합류··· 구글의 A2A 프로토콜, AI 에이전트 분야의 공용어 될까?
May 9, 2025
오픈AI, 아시아 4국에 데이터 레지던시 도입··· 한국 기업 데이터는 한국 서버에 저장
May 9, 2025
SAS supercharges Viya platform with AI agents, copilots, and synthetic data tools
May 8, 2025
IBM aims to set industry standard for enterprise AI with ITBench SaaS launch
May 8, 2025
Recent Posts
  • 휴먼컨설팅그룹, HR 솔루션 ‘휴넬’ 업그레이드 발표
  • Epicor expands AI offerings, launches new green initiative
  • MS도 합류··· 구글의 A2A 프로토콜, AI 에이전트 분야의 공용어 될까?
  • 오픈AI, 아시아 4국에 데이터 레지던시 도입··· 한국 기업 데이터는 한국 서버에 저장
  • SAS supercharges Viya platform with AI agents, copilots, and synthetic data tools
Recent Comments
    Archives
    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • July 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    Categories
    • News
    Meta
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
    Tiatra LLC.

    Tiatra, LLC, based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, proudly serves federal government agencies, organizations that work with the government and other commercial businesses and organizations. Tiatra specializes in a broad range of information technology (IT) development and management services incorporating solid engineering, attention to client needs, and meeting or exceeding any security parameters required. Our small yet innovative company is structured with a full complement of the necessary technical experts, working with hands-on management, to provide a high level of service and competitive pricing for your systems and engineering requirements.

    Find us on:

    FacebookTwitterLinkedin

    Submitclear

    Tiatra, LLC
    Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.