In the morning meeting today, we started out talking about security and the value of data. We are seeing more and more a bigger need for being proactive on security issues. Russell and Steve were talking and I was taking notes and chiming in here and there.

- Steve was talking about a senate hearing and about how Facebook had an outside app that grabbed some of the data from their users. Big deal. We want to be proactive and setup our structure to allow data flow but only where and as needed. We also want our clients to play into the yes/no decisions of what happens to that data.

- Steve was talking and asking questions about closing down the hatch on customer data. This was mostly dealing with 3rd party solutions and internal adilas API sockets. Internally, we have often used the analogy of opening and closing virtual windows and doors. We were using similar verbage and talking about what is installed, what is still needed, and what the ideal would be.

- The value of data - this is the new gold mine. We spent some time talking about how data and being able to get at data is a new form of currency. As a side note, we had a company tell us one time that they would be willing to foot the bill and put clients on a system, pay for everything, etc. The only catch was, they wanted full access to all the data that was entered and generated. They were going to use the data for marketing and research. They just wanted the data and access to that data. That is the value of data.

- Black box and updating code. We talked core vs black box. Who is responsible for the updates? Do all updates get passed down or only critical updates? When building black box code, we need to make sure that we are going off of the last known good.

- We talked about how both education and maintenance are more important that new features. Sometimes that is hard to see.

- We need a team meeting to cover security, API sockets, and black box code.

- Shannon could be a good tester and even a person who could record and present the new features and such. Have her support a support team. We would love to tap into her mind and see what we can pull out.

- Speed at which things are going - it is hard to slow down enough to do help files, news and updates, videos, and training. However, that is part of the education and maintenance that is needed.

- We may need to hire out some technical writers.

- Lift where you stand - everybody just helps where they are. Russell brought up this point that he learned from Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Quorum of the twelve apostles.

- We are seeing a problem with only certain people having the knowledge... For example - Will did the direct deposit section... nobody else knows about it. Alan did the EMV chip reader stuff for credit cards... nobody else knows about it. Russell did the email marketing stuff. Same deal, no one else knows it as well as he does. We need to share and spread the knowledge.

- Change - we are seeing that we are either too busy and it is hard to learn something new or the new way is harder (or seems harder) than the old way. We often resist change.

- Sadly, our focus tends to be on what is not done or what is still needed vs what is done and what works. We may never get to the end of the road. Maybe we need to change our focus.

- The other idea of the day was... schedule what we need... this could be training meetings, harvesting experience (info mining sessions), harvesting knowledge from the person who did it, and then publishing that information for others to see and/or use. Help educate ourselves and our users.