D OW N LOA D
From Virtual
to Reality
Pokémon Go and Snapchat’s geofilters have elevated
augmented reality into the mainstream. As a result,
business opportunities abound for companies
willing to harness the technology’s amazing
promise. Toward that end, planned investment in
related products and services is expected to grow
significantly by 2021.
Its primary advantage is immediacy. By placing
virtual interactive overlays on the world around us,
a business can connect in real time to its audience.
So far, its largest impact is in retail showcasing, with
additional adoption within healthcare and oil explo-
ration. The opportunities appear limitless:
Î Î
SALES: Help prospects see themselves as
customers, experiencing your product or service
in their world.
Î Î
TRAINING: Share content digitally in the moment,
rapidly onboarding and educating employees
using their own devices.
Î Î
WAREHOUSING: Enable workers to visualize
container contents, with detailed inventory data
and optimized pick-and-pack routing.
Î Î
MAINTENANCE: Improve maintenance with sche-
matic and technique overlays, while also letting
workers practice dangerous repairs safely.
Alexa Gets Down
to Business
Since its debut in 2014, Amazon’s
Alexa has gone from a novelty for
early adopters to an increasingly
essential part of our days. From
hearing the day’s weather to reading
the news to choosing a music playlist
to controlling vital home settings,
we’re changing the way we live using
the virtual personal assistant. And
now, it’s going to work.
Alexa for Business is testing the
platform in the New York offices of
WeWork, the fast-growing co-working
business. As you’d expect, it’s fully
customizable. In fact, to make the
most of the platform, WeWork
has built custom Alexa skills for
everything from reserving conference
rooms to putting in maintenance
requests. Soon, savvy business
owners be able to use Alexa for
Business to place supply orders,
automate setup for meetings, handle
calls, manage schedules, and more.
The goal is making employees more
productive—and more able to focus
on those elements of their jobs that
matter most.
Revamp Your Segment Reporting
Given recent moves by the SEC to tighten regulations, simple mistakes in segment
reporting can raise a red flag with the Securities Exchange Commission and result
in large fines. Of course, careful reporting allows your investors to have an accurate
understanding of your company’s performance. To improve your segment reporting,
make sure to focus on internal control of the following.
Î Î
Identification of operating
segments and the chief operating
decision-maker (CODM). Determine
your operating segments, based
on FASB Accounting Standards
Codification, and decide who is in
charge of assessing and allocating
resources to those segments.
2
Î Î
Aggregation of operating
segments for reporting
purposes. Don’t take the aggre-
gation of segments for reporting
lightly. If separate reporting
will give investors any more
insight into your company,
don’t aggregate.
SNB.COM // CONNECT STRATEGY SPRING 2018 // RANKED ONE OF FORBES' BEST BANKS OF 2018
Î Î
Documentation of reasonable
judgment. Ensure that every
decision related to segment
reporting is documented
thoroughly and that every
public and internal reference to
company performance adheres
to those decisions.