On April 17th & 18th 2024, Comcast Business hosted its 9th annual Analyst Conference, a two-day summit bringing together industry analysts and thought leaders to share updates on Comcast Business’ expanding global solutions roadmap, strategic initiatives, and customer success stories. 

The themes explored throughout the conference included how emerging technologies are disrupting customer and employee experiences, why AI and cybersecurity remain top of mind for business leaders, and how a clear strategy is key to unlocking the benefits of secure networking solutions.

Experiences at The Forefront 

CIOs are no longer just the tech experts in their organizations—they are now responsible for driving business growth and transformation. As their roles evolve, they are under growing pressure to ensure current technologies deliver on day-to-day needs, while also exploring how emerging tech can help their organizations drive impact through new experiences. This involves creating innovative experiences externally for customers, and internally for employees, finding ways to better engage with them.  

In this effort, IT decision makers across industries share similar challenges, whether they are the CIO of a leading financial services firm or a large healthcare network. For example, in an industry like sports and entertainment, stadiums increasingly compete with the high-definition coverage that fans can experience at home, requiring them to push the envelope to draw fans to live events.

Stadiums are responding by elevating the fan experience, keeping fans connected from the moment they leave their homes to when the game ends. Connectivity is also critical to powering how teams interact with their fans during the event and creating lasting impressions to keep them coming back each season. Stadiums are leveraging customer data to identify where emerging tech can add value to the fan experience of the future, whether it be in ticket pricing, managing fan flow, or even catering to fans’ food and beverage preferences.

While connectivity is powering new experiences for customers, it is also creating benefits for employees in the workplace. This is critical in an industry such as professional services, where employees of global organizations expect to have a consistent experience whether they’re in their company’s New York, London, or Shanghai office. To these employees, an always-on experience means the technology should be effortless so they can focus on delivering value to their clients.

Recognizing the transformational goals its customers are looking to achieve, Comcast Business takes a strategic approach — focusing on locating where customers are in their digital transformation journey, understanding the business problems they are trying to solve, and then identifying solutions that can achieve those outcomes.

“The solution we provide is not just a product, it’s not just the tech” explains Christian Nascimento, VP of Customer Solutions at Comcast Business. “It’s how we deliver it through an end-to-end customer experience, from the time a sales rep first walks through the door. It’s the tech, plus how we deliver it, and how we continue to support it.”

Little Anomaly, Big Problem 

With the estimated cost of global cybercrime forecast to increase to $5.7 trillion between 2023 and 2028, today’s business leaders face an increasingly pressurizing cybersecurity landscape. And as enterprises continue to digitally transform, next-gen technologies present a whole new set of potential vulnerability points.

Business and tech leaders across industries are mastering the same balancing act — eager to implement emerging technologies, like AI, in their organizations, yet facing the challenges of governance and risk mitigation they bring about. Internally, this requires establishing the right set of rules and policies to govern how employees leverage emerging technologies without compromising organizational data. And externally, it means helping to protect an organization against potential breaches, while anticipating how the landscape might evolve, and therefore what new threats might be imminent.  

The growing volume and sophistication of cyber-attacks means enterprises need to continue strengthening their security posture and seeking partners who can help them detect even the smallest of potential threats. Comcast, for example, is leveraging AI to "detect little anomalies in a sea of data,” said Noopur Davis, Global CISO of Comcast. “When we do, we have a whole team of threat hunters who can pull the thread and see where it leads.” 

Comcast Business also recently launched its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution, which combines an advanced security analytics platform and a Security Operations Center (SOC) to support enterprise customers in detecting, analyzing, and mitigating cyber threats. With MDR, Comcast Business provides robust security for network, IT, endpoint, and cloud assets, enabling enterprises to build a strong security posture with 24/7, fully managed cybersecurity services.

From Strategy to Implementation

As leading enterprises set out to fulfill their goals for transformation, they need to balance the potential for innovation via a range of emerging technologies, with the practicalities of choosing and implementing the right technologies that will drive business outcomes. 

“We’re not solving technology problems; we’re driving business outcomes,” said Jon Friedman, SVP of Product Strategy & Operations for Comcast Business. “ For example, in food & beverage, we’re supporting clients with guest line management and throughput, helping them to serve more customers in their stores.”

To align business and technology strategy, enterprises should look to partners that can be both visionary and pragmatic, advising on strategy for new technologies but with an eye toward implementation.

For some organizations, implementation can be a challenge. It requires keeping pace with ambitious roadmaps and tight timelines, handling any potential roadblocks that arise along the journey, and training internal teams on how they can best leverage new solutions. In light of these challenges, managed solutions partners play a meaningful role in streamlining implementation for businesses and making new technologies actionable within their organizations. 

“We are building automation into our work, but we also maintain the human element,” said Jim Samaha, SVP of Operations for Comcast Business. “We understand customer needs and what is important to their business so we can execute on those needs efficiently.”

Looking Ahead to What’s Next 

In this new era of emerging tech, it has never been more important for CIOs to select the right partner — helping define the strategy to leverage emerging tech, delivering reliable solutions, and creating seamless customer and employee experiences.

Comcast Business takes pride in supporting today’s tech leaders to deliver on their organizational needs today, while providing best-in-class solutions to support customers on their journey to tomorrow. 

As businesses continue to undergo rapid digital transformation, Comcast Business solutions are here to help. Learn more here.