Office Document Strategies Blog

Every once in awhile I come across articles that are published in other periodicals that cover a topic we like to address in this blog in a manner that makes it worth republishing some of the material.  Of course we do not wish to plagerize others good work and therefore we always try to credit our sources. 

At one time if a business wanted IT infrastructure it was a process of hiring expertise in house, figuring out what hardware and software was needed to be purchased, decide on a computing platform and then start building it.  The process challenged even the most knowledgeable businesses as the choices to be made and the risks were extremely varied and costly. 

It seemed that it was a never ending road of new purchases, tough deployment and constant training.  I can remember doing an implementation for a client when they were introducing their employees to using a windows based system for the first time )moving from an old green screen package) and they had to get their employees to do some playing with some games software so they could learn to use a mouse for navigation.

Today the options available for a business seem even more challenging as decisions are made on whether to build it themselves or hire out the process to an 'expert' that supports their kind of business.  The range of options are massive with the potential for a business to try to be almost hands off on their IT to being totally responsible and immersed.

While the dollars committed to IT systems continue to grow in businesses the needs for connected services, web support, online purchasing and online communication require an even bigger range of expertise.  Trying to acquire and pay for all of this talent in house has become almost impossible except for very large organizations.

So how well are the offerings available working out?

The story seems to be mixed if recent information is correct.

CanadianCIO Census 2018 reveals outsourcing disappointment is still commonplace

With AWS Outposts, even Amazon acknowledges it’s a hybrid cloud world

These two articles outline some of the thoughts regarding two of the most common ways that businesses have structured use of outside resources to accomplish some of their IT goals.  Reading them shows that all is not perfect and the vendors, even the big ones like Amazon, are finding the need to respond and to provide more options to meet the needs of clients.

As it as always been the world of IT systems support and design continues to challenge businesses as they try to use these systems to support their own goals and operations.  Outsourcing can work, but it can also leave managers wondering whether they have done it right.  In house seems fine but the need to constantly manage upgrades and software changes gets tiresome.  Hybrid models where some is done in house and some outside seem better often, but making sure that nothing falls into the cracks between is important.  

When we hear about the Internet of Things we usually think about video doorbells, electronic locks, Alexa, Google Home, automated lighting, connected appliances and the many other ways that the world wide web has impacted consumer life styles. 

We all know that traditional retail industries have changed significantly due to the digitization of commerce.  While there are still more dollars changing hands in physical stores than online the volume of digital transactions have mushroomed exponentially and the interaction at physical stores has changed as well.

A key component of Canadian Privacy Law which was created in 2015 come into full effect on the first day of November this year.  The provisions of the law deal with the consequences of failing to notify the Privacy Commissioner when specific conditions occur in the event of a privacy data breach. 

Many Canadian companies are not going to be aware of the specifics of this legislation as a lot think that they either do not hold data that would be of concern or that they have taken adequate steps to protect their information.  Of course in many instances this may be true but unfortunately as stories come out about the breaches that occur they show that many organizations can be hit even with due concern having been taken.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself about Data Breaches

1. Does your company have a data breach response plan?
2. Have you identified the criteria you will apply to determine whether the breach meets the test of real risk of significant harm?
3.  Do you have a decision tree to determine who will decide on notification?

What is important here is what you do in the event there has been a breach.The legislation anticipates that most organizations will take reasonable steps to protect their data from hackers and out right theft.  It does not generally penalize the breach itself.  What it penalizes is the lack of notification of those affected by the breach and lack of notification of the appropriate authorities so the public can be protected.  Being unaware of the requirements is not going to be seen as a defense.

Unfortunately in the instance where there is a breach too often the tendency might be to try to ignore it or to hide it since it can be both embarrasing and potentially could lead to costs associated with notification of those affected. 

The consumer market is flooded with tools to enhance personal tech performance through hardware and software tools.  In these days of Alexa and Google Home there are many ways that consumers interact with physical devices using apps and voice commands.  Check the weather, turn on and off lights, schedule events in your calendar and get reminders on critical activities all through your mobile device or a small speaker system in your home.  

In the current world space for electronic storage seems unlimited.  Unlike the days when everything a business did was held in paper and stored in files in cabinets today's offices hold massive amounts of information on individual computers, on network servers, in cloud storage sites and sometimes if they are current on technology in organized electronic storage systems. 

Reliability is a keystone of any successful copier/printer MFP installation. Limiting downtime, wait times for repair and user frustration with devices is something that all companies want to reduce. When colour became a standard for MFPs you want to avoid challenges and manage them appropriately.

Anyone who spends any time at all listening to what happens in the technology and retail fields will know by now that Amazon experienced intermittent outages with the launch of their 2018 Prime Day on Monday afternoon this week.  For anyone who is not up to what is happening at the world's most aggressive online retailer each year they launch a roughly 36 hour promotion day which makes Black Friday in the US and Boxing Day in Canada look tiny.  Estimates are that over 3.4 billion dollars in sales will be produced this year on Prime Day in spite of the glitches which occurred. 

It is over twenty five years ago that our company started to actively work in the field of document management.  In the early days it was called document imaging as the primary technology involved using high speed scanners to scan and capture images of paper documents for long term storage and retrieval.