Office Document Strategies Blog

Lee Kirkby

Recent Posts

Tech Industry Responses To Trump Travel Ban Shows Global Integration

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Feb 8, 2017 @ 07:02 AM

Whatever your political stripe the broad response of the Tech industry in Canada and the US to the immigration and travel ban proposed by the Trump administration shows graphically how broadly based the industry is when it looks for talent.

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Topics: it, Canadian IT

Key Decisions To Make When Purchasing New Printer

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Feb 1, 2017 @ 08:02 AM

One of the infrequent tasks that every organization faces at  some point is buying or leasing a new print device.  Often someone just says, 'order one like the one we have now".  Of course since print devices tend to last for some time the one you have now may no longer be in the market and it may not really be the right fit for your current needs.  Here are a few of the key decisions you need to consider BEFORE you place that order. 

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Topics: Multifunction Printer, MFP, Printer, colour multifunction, Multifunction Printer support

Technological Change Continues To Alter The World

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jan 25, 2017 @ 07:01 AM

At the risk of seeming simplistic it is possible to describe some of the reasons for the latest US Election results and the Brexit vote in the UK as being victims (or successes) of technological change.  Many people who voted did so because they have felt left out of the benefit which a changing society has been bringing forward and sought a shift back to a previous environment.  

Many of the ills that were attacked in the debates during both of these major political events related to the sense of dispossesion that is felt by people who have been affected by shifts in employment patterns which they feel are out of control.

While often the bad guy is classed as globalization the real shift in many instances is the result of significant technology changes as production moves to a more mechanized world through automation and application of newer technologies.

At the latest World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, there were reports given that addressed some of these issues with the impacts of large technology changes as seen as one of the culprits for dispossession.

"Trade is not to blame for job losses." The real problem, according to Kerry, is automation." is one of the quotes attributed to outgoing US Secretary of State, John Kerry.

It appears there was some serious introspection that occurred during the discussions with wide ranging understanding of some of the issues caused by rapid and ongoing technological change while also acknowledging that solutions for dealing with the downsides are not easy to find.  Read through some of the comments and ideas discussed in the link article and you get the feeling that the challenges are going to continue and unrest is not going to go away.

Cyber Security

Another area that was touched was the management of cyber security in organizations and the role that government bodies must take in dealing with these threats.

To help organizations better equip themselves for managing the risks of cyber challenges a new document was released at Davos to help provide guidance and some structure for responses.  Advancing Cyber Resilience Principles and Tools for Boards " the product of an extensive process of co-collaboration and consultation, has distilled leading practice into a framework and set of tools that boards of directors can use to smoothly integrate cyber risk and resilience into business strategy so that their companies can innovate and grow securely and sustainably," as excerpted from its introduction is designed to help organizations grapple with this important challenge.

The Davos conference is billed as a world leadership event designed to permit broad and challenging issues to be discussed by those who can take action to impact them.  

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Topics: technology tools

269.7 Million PCs Means A 6.2 Percent Decline In Sales For 2016

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jan 18, 2017 @ 08:01 AM

A recent Gartner report looking at the worldwide market for PCs in 2016 shows the fifth year in a row where sales have declined substantially.  In the report it sales that the 2016 level of sales equals that of 2007 almost a full decade ago. 

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Topics: Computer, it

Auto Everything Is Becoming A Common Thread

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jan 11, 2017 @ 08:01 AM

The CES show in Vegas is the annual event which sees much of the showcase for current and future trends in technology.  As its name implies (Consumer Electronics Show) the focus is at first on consumers but much of what appears here has implications for the commercial and business market as well.  

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Topics: IT network, digital tools, automation

Incremental Change May Not Reflect 2017 IT Issues

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jan 4, 2017 @ 07:01 AM

As the new year starts off it is common to look at what the researchers are saying about the newest trends in IT, technology in general and what may be the flavour of the coming months. 

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Topics: IT network, Canadian Pricing, Canadian IT, IT connectivity

Key Stories From 2016 As 2017 Comes Along

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Dec 28, 2016 @ 07:12 AM

Its the final days of 2016 and we thought it might be a good time to revisit a few of the key stories of this past year before we moved into 2017.  

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Topics: Document, data security, Microsoft

Canadian Government Builds New Centralized Website

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Dec 21, 2016 @ 08:12 AM

Any organization that has set out to build a new website after having built its presence over time will acknowledge that creating the revised site can be a difficult and monstrous task.  When that new site is designed to become the online portal to the government of Canada it is easy to see that it will become controversial and will be a major challenge.

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Topics: Canadian Legislation, Canadian IT

Amazon Web Services - AWS - Opens Canadian Data Centre

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Dec 14, 2016 @ 08:12 AM

Canadian cloud services users have always had to be cautious in their choice of providers if they want to make sure that their data remains in Canada and subject to Canadian legislative jurisdiction.  

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Topics: Software, cloud computing, data security, Canadian IT

Pay Attention To Avoid Ransomware

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Dec 7, 2016 @ 07:12 AM

At the risk of appearing to hammer the topic to death it is time to take another crack at warnings about Ransomware Malware attacks.  

This time of year is potentially even more challenging to IT managers and users alike as everyone is rushing to get things done before the holiday season really locks in.  It means that normal caution can easily be thrown away as people try to clear their email, deal with online activities and perhaps not take that extra two seconds that avoidance can take.

Why now?  Simply because the predators can.  A recent IT World Canada article outlines how late last month Carlton University had over 3000 of their computers affected, some in research labs by an attempted ransom ware attack.  It appears that the IT people got it under control pretty quickly and it was isolated to only a portion of the university network.

It did mean however that thousands of students, faculty and administrators were unable to use the network for a period of time while the details of the attack were sorted through.  Eventually, users were advised they could login to their network but many hours of productive time was lost due to the issues.

Another attack in Calgary saw that university paying out $20,000 to the ransomers.  Again much time and effort was expended to deal with the circumstances.  These are just two of the known instances where Canadian organizations have been impacted by such attacks.

The are for certain many others where users and organizations have not publicized their problems with malware.

 For some reason Canada is reported as being more prepared to send compensation for removing the attack when compared to other jurisdictions.  Why this would be the case is subject to speculation but unfortunately if it gets known in the perpetrators world it could lead to Canadian targets becoming even more frequent.

What do you do?

The first line of defense is the users on the network.  Encouraging everyone to take a little time to investigate whether an email from an unfamiliar source is legit.  If a user is not CERTAIN of the sender then the default response should be to NO OPEN IT.  Either delete it and take the chance someone legit has to try again, or contact IT support to have it checked out.  

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Topics: data security, network security, IT Scams