Affirma Consulting

As a business working with an external PM, effective communication is the only way your needs can be met. On top of general communication preferences, a PM should check in with your business on the logistical communication requirements, such as: What is your preferred channel for communication? Once it’s clear how your team prefers to communicate with the project team, the PM must set up reoccurring and consistent times that your teams can connect. Even if your business prefers less communication, creating even 15-30-minute meetings at regular intervals will help the PM maintain a solid understanding of your needs and allow you to stay informed on how the project is progressing.

Penetration testing is when an organization hires cybersecurity experts to try to breach their IT environment to test the integrity of an implemented cybersecurity plan. Healthcare, for example, is subject to mandatory compliance requirements by the federal government called HIPAA, which compels organizations and/or companies working in the healthcare industry to ensure they secure patient information, or personal health information (PHI), and protect it from compromise. Rather, it provides a set of rules and regulations that an organization needs to meet to ensure it is raised to a sufficient standard of IT security to ensure the protection of the PHI data. A Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) is an “outsourced” IT security architect that supports organizations to develop a strategy and roadmap that will mature the security of an organization’s IT infrastructure.

While Affirma has always made conscientious efforts towards diversity, 2020 was a year of substantial growth for our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Another significant update to our DEI efforts initiated in 2020 included becoming a client of Diversity Window, which works with companies to re-envision and re-invigorate their diversity and inclusion efforts. Christine Allison, a Program Manager at Affirma and one of the leaders in our organization’s 2020 DEI efforts, shared a significant emphasis on how Affirma’s greater global expansion will also reshape how we as a company think about our DEI efforts in the future. These efforts and discussions are always evolving and ongoing, but I’m immensely proud of the work our employees have driven to start the conversation and ensure that there is a productive, thoughtful, and ongoing discussion around our company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Affirma’s Director of Change Management, Carrie King, provides some keen insight: "Change is constant in today’s business world. Change management is a collective term for all approaches to prepare, support, and help individuals, teams, and organizations in making organizational change, according to The Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP). By providing innovative change management tools and resources, which are adapted for every client’s unique situation, Affirma is able to set the framework for successful, long-term change with the user’s needs at the forefront of our process. By helping drive the successful adoption and usage of change within business and helping employees understand and commit to the workplace shift, change management experts help navigate organizational transitions to be more cost-effective, efficient, and accepted.