Category: Uncategorized

  • Ideas Meeting

    So despite our limited experience and no major plan for the meeting we decided to try it ourselves. We wanted it to be a very open, creative space so we carved out a couple of hours and brought in lunch and off we went!

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  • Continuous Compliance Technology – Making the Transition

    Financial Institutions have for years been required to have an annual audit done for many areas of the bank. Wouldn’t it be nice to get away from the peaks and valleys of annual audits and examinations and transition to having a means of conducting continuous reviews?

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  • Cyber Security New: White House Names their First Cyber Security Chief

    Cyber Security News

    If you blinked, you might have missed it. Nestled back in September’s headlines, there was a little news item that indicates how much the world has changed. In the face of new cyber threats, the U.S. government took an important first step toward getting hacking under control: they announced that Gregory Touhill, a retired Air Force general, would be their first-ever cyber security chief.

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  • Who impacted Who?

    A word of warning….

    This isn’t your typical “Security World” blog post! This post has more to do with this world we are living in — a world where we have the opportunity to impact lives both positively and negatively, and make a difference.

    It has always meant a lot to me that us “Garland Groupers” are not your typical auditors. (And that’s a good thing!) I enjoy seeing the relationships we build with our clients, and having the opportunity to build my own. If you know me personally, then you know that I have the stigma of being one of the “talkers” of the group (or so I have been told!).

    One of the great things we are encouraged to do at Garland Group is to not be afraid to interact with our clients on a personal level. If we see an opportunity to impact our clients in a positive way, we have been given the go-ahead to do so. It can be anything from a hug, to a card, or just using the time it takes to simply listen to a client’s story and possibly lend a helping hand. One of our clients has a wonderful story and is doing her part in making an impact on her own.

    First, a little background on the story:

    Her son, Calin, was born with Down Syndrome and is a really awesome little dude. I have heard many great stories about him (and his brother, Traevin) as well as some of the hardships that come with raising a child with his set of circumstances. Last year, Tracy and her husband Calvin created “Calin’s Casino Night” to raise money and awareness for children with Down Syndrome. Once they saw how successful it was, they decided to make it an annual event. With the help of their co-worker Whitney, the second annual casino night was held not too long ago, and many of the client’s employees pitched in to donate time, food, and money to support the night. It was great to see co-workers so excited and eager to help (much like when we come onsite with y’all!).

    All kidding aside, it was great to see folks get energized to help and support such a wonderful cause. Some of us Garland Group guys asked what we could do to help and what was still needed to make the night a success. We were told they still needed prizes since that is the hardest thing for them to acquire and is the fuel needed to acquire donations. I was quickly given approval from our company to provide prizes, and to go deliver them in person. I wasn’t expecting to be given this opportunity and was immediately excited to get to do this.

    The night was an absolute blast and when reporting back to my Garland Group family what happened, I expressed how much I was personally impacted more than I could have ever imagined. The joy and fun that I had (more…)

  • Trusted Advisor

    I read a great book called Trusted Advisor by Maister, Green and Galford a while back. I thought I would share one of its fundamental messages. The book uses an equation to demonstrate how people we meet, and later learn to know, perceive our trustworthiness. They impressed me because of their ability to put this concept into a mathematical equation that I think is really accurate.

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  • E-banking Info

    Here is a combination of Internet Banking text that sums up the controls and security of e-banking.

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