Office Document Strategies Blog

Canada was predicted to have approximately $26.83 billion in online sales in 2015 representing almost a seventeen percent increase over the previous year.  Of course part of this is fueled by people taking less time to shop, new services being offered by retailers like online grocery purchasing (then pick up on a predetermined time at the store or other location), as provided by Loblaws at their Click and Collect locations and also due to tools for easing returns when products don't match expectations.

Most business managers have concerns about their computer networks getting compromised either due to direct hacking or the inadvertent impact of someone downloading malware.  This just makes sense.  On the other hand how much time is spent teaching their users about how to avoid problems and what to do if they suspect there is an issue?  

Recently, PricewaterhouseCoopers reported in a global study that Canadian information security budgets had a significant increase over 2014 but fewer than 57 percent indicated their organization offered security training and awareness programs.  The participants in this study will be larger, more formalized firms so we can safely assume that with so many Canadian companies being SMBs (Small Medium Businesses) the percent taking the time to educate their people will be even lower.

PwC's report indicates that Canadian cybersecurity incidents increased by 160 percent year over year which shows that the problem is not going away.  There is some good news in the report in that Canada is actually doing better than other world wide jurisdictions.  This means we are not the worst at dealing with this kind of business risk but the percentages indicate there is much more than could be done.

One are identified as being problematic is the impact of connections to in house systems made by partners.  This could be the visiting technical or sales person who connects to the office network and introduces a problem by mistake.  Simple isolation steps through guest logins and isolated IP ranges can help to mitigate this kind of intrusion and most organizations could have this basic security provided.

Of course the more depth of access a user or guest has the greater the risk to the business so proper security planning and policies (if enforced) can help to protect from these challenges.

Basic to all of this, however, is making sure that employees understand the importance of IT security to the business (it could be a survival issue if the intrusion is serious enough) and that they are trained to be able to identify how they can participate in a protection regime.  The solution starts at the hiring stage as IT policies are spelled out, the consequences of violations explained, and the steps to be taken if a problem is experienced outlined.  

In July 2015, Canada Post announced new proposed postage rates for implementation effective January 11 2016.  There are always several components to a postal rate change as there are many categories of rate.  

The rate most commonly looked at is the single stamp rate which is currently $1.00 per stamp, unchanged from the previous rate.  In the July announcement Canada Post proposed to increase the bulk purchase rate (the way many people buy stamps in bundles of 10 or more) from $0.85 to $0.90 effective with the new rates.  

When a big IT data breach occurs there is lots of media coverage and we all hear some of the gory details on how serious the impact may be.  Unfortunately, we do not hear as much about the smaller breaches that also occur and that means that many companies do not work as hard as they should to protect their computer networks.  

When you look at your everyday operations it is easy to see that a highly IT connected world, fast performance from devices and quick response from systems and people is an increasing expectation.  

One of the frustrations that many organizations experience when they decide to deploy electronic workflows as part of their document management is dealing with signatures on documents. 

I participated in a short discussion with some of my colleagues as analysis was being undertaken to respond to a client request for proposal.  The discussion got me thinking.

Every business leader has heard about cloud solutions for their computing needs.  What many don't know is when and where the cloud could be the best option or even a viable option for them.  Many IT managers take a cautious approach to the cloud because it includes many pitfalls that are not readily apparent.