In CyberVersed episode 33 Mandy Haeburn-Little catches up with one of the founding ambassador companies, The Very Group. She is joined by Muktar Mahama, Head of Product and Digital Experience, in a truly insightful conversation about The Very Group's total commitment to customer experience and the continuous monitoring and refinement to ensure the complete customer journey is the best it can be.

Muktar explains the process and how various teams, known as 'squads', collaborate in every aspect of the buying experience. He describes the responsibilities of each squad, which comprise Product Design, Research & Development, Onboarding, Discover, PDP (product detail page), Checkout, My Account and Mobile App. It's a fascinating look at what each team does and how they work together to refine every customer touchpoint and address any pain points they can identify through meticulous monitoring. Muktar also provides some insight into the scale of the business, which has 4.3 million customers and around one million visitors every day. He also touches on how they cope with the peak times around Black Friday and the lead-up to Christmas when the site experiences around a 30% increase in daily traffic.

Muktar also provides some information about his recent graduation from the Ethenic Senior Leaders Programme, something he is passionate about and strongly recommends to other business leaders.

CyberVersed episode 32 focuses on Trustify, one of the newest National Cyber Resilience Centre Group's National Ambassadors. Mandy Haebrun-Little talks to John Madelin, Advisory Board Member at Trustify. John is a highly respected cyber professional with 30+ years of experience in the design, build and management of Cyber Security. It is evident during the conversation that John is passionate about delivering high-quality security solutions that are accessible to the SME community.

He provides his views on what is often overcomplicated messaging and the need to demystify and simplify the topic of cyber security. It is refreshing to listen to John as he demonstrates an excellent understanding of the issues faced by SMEs and how Trustify works with each client to understand and adapt their offering to meet the unique challenges of each organisation. Beginning with a risk assessment, they quickly address what are usually straightforward issues that get the client to a point where they can 'sleep at night'. Then, the focus is on a customised action plan that addresses issues relevant to the business.

John talks about the importance of detection and the critical need for continuous monitoring. However, he again demonstrates his desire to uncomplicate things by emphasising that there are only 15 signals used by cybercriminals to get into your systems. Indeed, he offers a case of champagne to anyone who can cite a material cyber incident that doesn't fall within one of the 15 signals!

John's passion and energy are evident throughout the conversation, especially towards the end when he explains why he is looking forward to collaborating with NCRCG to help make cyber resilience more attainable to the SME community and the work he'd like to do around inclusivity and encouraging young people into careers in cyber.

In episode 31, Mandy Haeburn-Little chats with members of the team at Sir Robert McAlpine, a valued member of our growing portfolio of National Cyber Resilience Centre Group National Ambassadors. Mandy is joined by Andy Black, Chief Information Security Officer, and Rachel Lloyd-Moseley, Head of Procurement - Nuclear.

Sir Robert McAlpine describes itself as a family building and civil engineering company with a desire to be renowned for their work with clients and communities as they construct a better world for future generations.

Sir Robert McAlpine's strong family values indeed come across in the discussion, which looks at the history of the company, the sectors where they work and the inter-department collaboration across a wide variety of projects. The chat also explores why Sir Robert McAlpine joined NCRCG as a National Ambassador and how it is a perfect fit with their commitment to raising awareness of cyber security throughout their supply chain.

It's a fascinating and engaging conversation during which Andy and Rachel provide examples of how the company is embracing AI to achieve greater levels of efficiency and safety.