Softchoice, a leading North American provider of IT solutions and managed services, surveyed 1,000 full- time line-of-business (LOB) employees and 250 IT decision-makers across the U.S. and Canada to uncover how many workplaces actually walk the walk when it comes to having the right processes, leadership, culture and technology to drive innovation.
Virtual Space Race: How IT with The Right Stuff Creates a Competitive AdvantageSoftchoice Corporation
The rise of mobile and cloud has empowered more front office workers to take control over their own IT destiny. This study answers the question “is IT equipped to handle the implications of this shift?”
White paper employee engagement img zineKelly Verdonk
06
KellyNo ResponsePermalink
White paper: How a mobile first strategy can increase employee engagement
In this white paper imgZine analyzed two of its internal enterprise apps to determine the engagement level of employees. It shows that engaging internal enterprise apps can help enterprises achieve their desired business outcomes.
Today, engaged employees are more important than ever. They understand what it takes for a company to be successful and want to be involved in the organization’s everyday affairs. While internal enterprise apps offer a great opportunity to promote productivity and engagement, only a small number of companies have started to leverage their benefits.
Download the white paper here: http://imgzine.com/how-a-mobile-first-strategy-can-increase-employee-engagement/
Unified communications and collaboration tools have the power to accelerate productivity and bring people together, however, most UC implementations fail to live up to expectations. This study reveals where most organizations go wrong when it comes to UC and collaboration, and what they can do to boost user adoption, productivity, and work satisfaction.
We commissioned a study to understand how cloud application adoption impacts the workplace engagement and satisfaction of 1,000 full-time employees in the United States and Canada.
The deluge of devices and cloud apps (SaaS) into our personal and professional lives is feeding the notion that workers are overwhelmed with too much technology, tipping the scales of work-life balance and ultimately making
us less engaged with work.
Based on the findings in our survey, we found the contrary.
A Softchoice survey of 1,000 full-time people in North America found employees who use SaaS apps for work are developing bad tech habits that expose their organizations to security breaches and data loss.
Our report summary provides an in-depth exploration of how SaaS is adding a new element of risk to the way we work, and what IT departments can do to eliminate bad user behavior in the cloud.
Softchoice, a leading North American provider of IT solutions and managed services, surveyed 1,000 full- time line-of-business (LOB) employees and 250 IT decision-makers across the U.S. and Canada to uncover how many workplaces actually walk the walk when it comes to having the right processes, leadership, culture and technology to drive innovation.
Virtual Space Race: How IT with The Right Stuff Creates a Competitive AdvantageSoftchoice Corporation
The rise of mobile and cloud has empowered more front office workers to take control over their own IT destiny. This study answers the question “is IT equipped to handle the implications of this shift?”
White paper employee engagement img zineKelly Verdonk
06
KellyNo ResponsePermalink
White paper: How a mobile first strategy can increase employee engagement
In this white paper imgZine analyzed two of its internal enterprise apps to determine the engagement level of employees. It shows that engaging internal enterprise apps can help enterprises achieve their desired business outcomes.
Today, engaged employees are more important than ever. They understand what it takes for a company to be successful and want to be involved in the organization’s everyday affairs. While internal enterprise apps offer a great opportunity to promote productivity and engagement, only a small number of companies have started to leverage their benefits.
Download the white paper here: http://imgzine.com/how-a-mobile-first-strategy-can-increase-employee-engagement/
Unified communications and collaboration tools have the power to accelerate productivity and bring people together, however, most UC implementations fail to live up to expectations. This study reveals where most organizations go wrong when it comes to UC and collaboration, and what they can do to boost user adoption, productivity, and work satisfaction.
We commissioned a study to understand how cloud application adoption impacts the workplace engagement and satisfaction of 1,000 full-time employees in the United States and Canada.
The deluge of devices and cloud apps (SaaS) into our personal and professional lives is feeding the notion that workers are overwhelmed with too much technology, tipping the scales of work-life balance and ultimately making
us less engaged with work.
Based on the findings in our survey, we found the contrary.
A Softchoice survey of 1,000 full-time people in North America found employees who use SaaS apps for work are developing bad tech habits that expose their organizations to security breaches and data loss.
Our report summary provides an in-depth exploration of how SaaS is adding a new element of risk to the way we work, and what IT departments can do to eliminate bad user behavior in the cloud.
White paper I developed on best practices when selecting an HR technology product suite. Includes an amazing checklist to help those in the market for a new human resources suite tech product.
In 2014, cloud computing was still shifting into the enterprise mainstream. Back then, Softchoice commissioned a study that discovered North American workers who use cloud apps displayed markedly more reckless technology habits and were more likely to put their employers’ networks and corporate data at risk.
Two years later, most organizations have gone from flirting with the cloud to wholesale adoption, yet despite their new level of cloud sophistication – not much has else changed! From lax password security to rogue IT behavior, North American workers are (Still) Careless Users in the Cloud.
The Workplace Engagement Economy Where HR, Social, Mobile, and Tech CollideJessica Miller-Merrell
Journal article published in Wiley's HR and Recruiting journal. I discuss the rise of technology and social media for use in human resources and talent acquisition. I focus on the influences technology has on our stereotyping of generations and how our workforce wants to be communicated and engaged.
ERP usability is such a problem that according to this study by IFS North America, many users would use Microsoft Excel, online tools like Google Docs or even Dropbox instead of their system of record. Some may even consider changing jobs to get away from bad ERP.
Networking Plus December 2014: Connecting Mobile WorkersEric Wong
An excerpt from magazine where Peplink, Citrix, Vodafone and Cisco voice their thoughts on BYOD, mobile and remote workers, and the devices that make it possible.
Artificial intel impacts on organizational performanceFarooq Omar
This article is a must-read who wants to keep themselves abreast of new technologies, like AI in business processes, A must-read for senior C- level executives
This is a discussion of how firms that build strong skills in software development and data analytics, especially intelligent analytics, will dominate their industries in the next few years.
Employees use their own mobile devices to conduct their job functions anytime and anywhere. With the rise of the Mobile Workforce leading organizations recognize the importance of mobile innovations to get ahead of the competition. Good content orchestration and effectiveness solutions can make sure the right content gets to the right people, hence saving time, improving productivity, speeding up the information gathering and influencing action.
Take a look with NEOS into the future. This whitepaper is a summary of the top technology trends and impediments that are coming around the bend in the insurance industry.
The Benefits of Enterprise Social for IT ProfessionalsMicrosoft
The world has become a giant network, transformed by the
growth of mobile devices and social technologies. In fact,
there are now more devices than people.1 This networked
world is clearly evident in our personal lives: We keep in
touch with our friends and family on Facebook or Instagram,
use Twitter to get the latest news from people around the
globe, and often find our next career opportunity with
LinkedIn. In this networked world, people connect with each
other easily, information and knowledge move faster, and we
are able to accomplish more by working together.
2014 Guide to Backroom-to-Boardroom Payroll and HRPaylocity
To get from the backroom to the boardroom might not be easy. But we believe you can do it if you have the right tools. In this eBook you will learn the importance of trends like:
- Mobility: How the increase in mobile devices is changing business
- Employee Engagement: Why it matters and easy ways to make improvements
- Big Data: How “big” data applies to small and mid-sized businesses
White paper I developed on best practices when selecting an HR technology product suite. Includes an amazing checklist to help those in the market for a new human resources suite tech product.
In 2014, cloud computing was still shifting into the enterprise mainstream. Back then, Softchoice commissioned a study that discovered North American workers who use cloud apps displayed markedly more reckless technology habits and were more likely to put their employers’ networks and corporate data at risk.
Two years later, most organizations have gone from flirting with the cloud to wholesale adoption, yet despite their new level of cloud sophistication – not much has else changed! From lax password security to rogue IT behavior, North American workers are (Still) Careless Users in the Cloud.
The Workplace Engagement Economy Where HR, Social, Mobile, and Tech CollideJessica Miller-Merrell
Journal article published in Wiley's HR and Recruiting journal. I discuss the rise of technology and social media for use in human resources and talent acquisition. I focus on the influences technology has on our stereotyping of generations and how our workforce wants to be communicated and engaged.
ERP usability is such a problem that according to this study by IFS North America, many users would use Microsoft Excel, online tools like Google Docs or even Dropbox instead of their system of record. Some may even consider changing jobs to get away from bad ERP.
Networking Plus December 2014: Connecting Mobile WorkersEric Wong
An excerpt from magazine where Peplink, Citrix, Vodafone and Cisco voice their thoughts on BYOD, mobile and remote workers, and the devices that make it possible.
Artificial intel impacts on organizational performanceFarooq Omar
This article is a must-read who wants to keep themselves abreast of new technologies, like AI in business processes, A must-read for senior C- level executives
This is a discussion of how firms that build strong skills in software development and data analytics, especially intelligent analytics, will dominate their industries in the next few years.
Employees use their own mobile devices to conduct their job functions anytime and anywhere. With the rise of the Mobile Workforce leading organizations recognize the importance of mobile innovations to get ahead of the competition. Good content orchestration and effectiveness solutions can make sure the right content gets to the right people, hence saving time, improving productivity, speeding up the information gathering and influencing action.
Take a look with NEOS into the future. This whitepaper is a summary of the top technology trends and impediments that are coming around the bend in the insurance industry.
The Benefits of Enterprise Social for IT ProfessionalsMicrosoft
The world has become a giant network, transformed by the
growth of mobile devices and social technologies. In fact,
there are now more devices than people.1 This networked
world is clearly evident in our personal lives: We keep in
touch with our friends and family on Facebook or Instagram,
use Twitter to get the latest news from people around the
globe, and often find our next career opportunity with
LinkedIn. In this networked world, people connect with each
other easily, information and knowledge move faster, and we
are able to accomplish more by working together.
2014 Guide to Backroom-to-Boardroom Payroll and HRPaylocity
To get from the backroom to the boardroom might not be easy. But we believe you can do it if you have the right tools. In this eBook you will learn the importance of trends like:
- Mobility: How the increase in mobile devices is changing business
- Employee Engagement: Why it matters and easy ways to make improvements
- Big Data: How “big” data applies to small and mid-sized businesses
Top 9 HR Technology Trends to Influence Your Business in 2023.pdfTheEnterpriseWorld
Here are Top 9 HR Technology Trends To Influence Your Business in 2023; 1 Remote Workforce 2. Branding for Employers 3. Cloud-based HR 4. Improving Recruitment Experiences 5. Employee Well-Being with an Emphasis on Mental Health 6. Artificial Intelligence Analytics and Automation 7. Platform for Digital Collaboration 8. Enhanced Data Security 9. Professional Development
Today’s online world brings new challenges to businesses, making the security of your businesses’ internal information extremely critical. As we are all connected to the Internet,
we all can become a victim of cyber-attacks.
So, what can you do to better protect your business and secure your internal data?
Running head PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION1PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION .docxjeanettehully
Running head: PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION 1
PROJECT PLAN INCEPTION 2
Information Technology and Business
Babatunde Ogunade
CIS499: Information System Capston
Professor Reddy Urimindi
October 13, 2019
Information Technology and Business
Project Introduction
The very core operation of this company involves the collection and analysis of data through a currently limited technological infrastructure. The basis of this business may focus on leadership structure, the type of industry, business culture, core vision and mission including objectives. The company has a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as the highest rank, four Information Technology experts and other employees. Marketing can, therefore, categorize this company as a service industry company with a core vision of a 60 percent growth in the next eighteen months and mission of redesigning its information technology to fulfill its organizational needs.
Product features, new market product, differentiation techniques, and value addition defines the type of business which the company is operating. The assessment of its product features which involves data indicate that the opportunities focus on marketing. In the continued operations of the company, the management is not foreseeing any shift from its original product but is rather fixing a differentiation technique within six months. An addition in product value should be achieved by employing an exclusively new technology based on a hybrid model, hosted solution or on-site solution.
The idea of integrating technologies from other partners to realize cost-effective outcomes and best operations outlines the outsourcing policies as far as new technology is concerned. Consequently, future intentions to acquire services such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing technologies may involve the adoption of knowledge and skills from outside the country, therefore, describing offshoring activities. As asserted by Aithal, (2017), the success of fulfilling the effective company operation, these activities are important.
One of the skilled personnel in the company is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) whose basic role is to keep a charge on the computer systems and information technology (IT) necessary in ensuring a company’s goals and objectives. Additionally, the CEO has devolved the responsibility of security protocols to the CIO in the process of more digitized frameworks. Other personnel includes the company CEO tasked with communicating to partners, creating the company mission and vision, and generally heading the implementation of both long term and short term objectives. The other information technician is mandated in both the installation and configuration of computer hardware and software.
Based on the current collection and analysis method, data on the customer, marketing, lifecycle, website engagement, and funnel analytics. In broad-spectrum, funnel analytics provide customer information through registration, ...
Modernizing your organization safely takes a clear roadmap and with that in mind we’ve created our new whitepaper on the roadmap to protecting your modern workplace.
BT On The Productivity Puzzle in CollaborationLeon Benjamin
Leon Benjamin, Sei Mani's co-founder contributes to its strategic partner BT' and its perspective on the value of collaboration in the enterprise.
As a concept, mobile and flexible working is nothing new and the idea of where people work has widened to pretty much anywhere. The issue is no longer ‘where’ people work, the question we’re now asking is ‘how’ people work.
The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Mobile Management Q3 2014Symantec
We’re happy to share that Symantec was named a Leader in the Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Mobile Management, Q3 2014! The research conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. evaluated Symantec and 14 other vendors against 27 criteria for current offering, strategy, and market presence.
Symantec was identified as one of ten vendors that “lead the pack.” The leaders were noted for separating ourselves from other vendors by introducing a strong security background without disruption for the employee. Forrester defines Leaders as balancing OS, application, and data management functionality while providing flexible container options and productivity applications, and have demonstrated a strong vision and roadmap to help customers as they bring their PC and mobile management strategies together.
What makes a good intranet and why intarnet failJasper Warren
We are living in a digital age where people want to do more with less. Companies are faced by a growing mountain of data and information they store. More and more companies are finding it harder to manage all their information, how to find the information they want, how to track the information, how to break down the information silo within the company. How do they get their employees working in a more collaborative way?
Every year we look at the big mobile trends for the upcoming year and share practical recommendations on how to become a mobile leader. This presentation focuses on the 10 trends that will impact your organization in 2016.
Enhancing Employee Productivity and Qualtiy of Life with Big DataInnovations2Solutions
IFMA and Sodexo collaborated to sponsor and host a Future of Work Roundtable conversation on the challenges and opportunities surrounding these questions at IFMA’s Facility Fusion 2015 conference in Orlando in April 2015. The Roundtable was facilitated by Dr. James Ware, Executive Director of The Future of Work...unlimited, Global Research Director for Occupiers Journal Limited, and immediate past president of IFMA’s Corporate Real Estate Council. Jim also prepared this summary of the roundtable conversation.
Decoding Organizational DNA: Trust, Data and Unlocking Value in the Digital W...Accenture Insurance
Accenture’s research into collecting employee data can help organizations get the most out of their employees and decode their organizational DNA. Learn more: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/future-workforce/workforce-data-organizational-dna
How is mobility transforming the enterprise? What is the fizzle that drives success? What are the key tools and trends to keep in mind for 2015?
Every year we advise our customers and partners on the top trends in mobile and what it means for them. This year we've expanded this by looking specifically at enterprise mobility trends based on insights from customers, research and more.
One-in-two mobile owners in the US owns a smartphone, and many more own tablets. As most of these same consumers adapt their personal lifestyle to be “mobile first,” they expect their employers to be there to meet them. With the growing number of personal mobile devices in the hands of users, as well as increasingly remote organizations , there’s a great opportunity for organizations to increase productivity of their employees by allowing the use of these personal devices. Taking this on seems daunting, as IT has less ability to enforce a single standard than ever before. Not taking action, however, and ignoring this trend risks exposing corporate data to public clouds with no visibility on the part of IT. Enforcing a single standard will do a lot to serve all users partially, but none particularly well. "Power to the People: Identify and Empower Your Workforce," the new report by Altimeter Group analyst Chris Silva explores how companies are deploying mobile strategies to meet the the specific needs of their employees and the organization at large.
Similar to 5 ways your business can stay safe - and take off (20)
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Le nuove frontiere dell'AI nell'RPA con UiPath Autopilot™UiPathCommunity
In questo evento online gratuito, organizzato dalla Community Italiana di UiPath, potrai esplorare le nuove funzionalità di Autopilot, il tool che integra l'Intelligenza Artificiale nei processi di sviluppo e utilizzo delle Automazioni.
📕 Vedremo insieme alcuni esempi dell'utilizzo di Autopilot in diversi tool della Suite UiPath:
Autopilot per Studio Web
Autopilot per Studio
Autopilot per Apps
Clipboard AI
GenAI applicata alla Document Understanding
👨🏫👨💻 Speakers:
Stefano Negro, UiPath MVPx3, RPA Tech Lead @ BSP Consultant
Flavio Martinelli, UiPath MVP 2023, Technical Account Manager @UiPath
Andrei Tasca, RPA Solutions Team Lead @NTT Data
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
zkStudyClub - Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex ProofsAlex Pruden
This paper presents Reef, a system for generating publicly verifiable succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs that a committed document matches or does not match a regular expression. We describe applications such as proving the strength of passwords, the provenance of email despite redactions, the validity of oblivious DNS queries, and the existence of mutations in DNA. Reef supports the Perl Compatible Regular Expression syntax, including wildcards, alternation, ranges, capture groups, Kleene star, negations, and lookarounds. Reef introduces a new type of automata, Skipping Alternating Finite Automata (SAFA), that skips irrelevant parts of a document when producing proofs without undermining soundness, and instantiates SAFA with a lookup argument. Our experimental evaluation confirms that Reef can generate proofs for documents with 32M characters; the proofs are small and cheap to verify (under a second).
Paper: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1886
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
The Metaverse and AI: how can decision-makers harness the Metaverse for their...Jen Stirrup
The Metaverse is popularized in science fiction, and now it is becoming closer to being a part of our daily lives through the use of social media and shopping companies. How can businesses survive in a world where Artificial Intelligence is becoming the present as well as the future of technology, and how does the Metaverse fit into business strategy when futurist ideas are developing into reality at accelerated rates? How do we do this when our data isn't up to scratch? How can we move towards success with our data so we are set up for the Metaverse when it arrives?
How can you help your company evolve, adapt, and succeed using Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse to stay ahead of the competition? What are the potential issues, complications, and benefits that these technologies could bring to us and our organizations? In this session, Jen Stirrup will explain how to start thinking about these technologies as an organisation.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
1. 5 ways
your business can stay
safe – and take off
How to provide the right technology so your
employees can safely work where, when
and how they want to help you grow
your business
2. Stay safe +
Work well
While companies recognise the value of keeping their employees
engaged, it isn’t always achieved. A survey carried out by
professional services firm JLL in 2017 found that only half of UK
workers said their workspace environment allowed them to work
“completely effectively”.1
One important way to keep employees engaged and productive,
creating their best work, is with the right technology, and the right
working culture to support that. Your employees are used to
consumer technology that works without hiccups. If they have an
issue, they just download a different app instead. But at work, they
need to communicate and collaborate easily and seamlessly, all with
the same toolkit, whether they’re in the office or working remotely
– and they need devices that are designed to maximise the benefits
of their technology toolsets. Otherwise, they may face unsynced or
inaccessible files, siloed data, or applications that don’t work as well
on mobile devices. Technology woes like these don’t just frustrate
employees. They impede their ability to collaborate, share opinions
and ideas, and perform high-quality work. The result can be, for
example, different people struggling with different versions of the
same proposal, countless emails flying back and forth, and
information that isn’t available at critical times.
In a 2017 Forrester report, when asked about the specific impact of
16 common collaboration tools, most workers surveyed cited only
two – email and instant messaging – as helping them to be more
effective at their jobs.2
This may be why many employees take technology into their own
hands: at least one in four seek out their own mobile and cloud-
based apps. But when your employees use unsanctioned tools,
it makes it nearly impossible to safeguard your business’s data.
Your business will never possess a more
powerful competitive advantage than your
employees. Are you making the right choices
to take full advantage of the value they
represent – or even to hang on to it? And are
you providing a secure environment in which
they are free to make a real contribution?
1
JLL, Workplace Powered by Human Experience, quoted at http://www.personneltoday.com/
hr/uk-workers-among-engaged-survey-finds/
2
Forrester Research, The Way We Work: A Mobile, Collaborative Workforce Needs an Accessible
and Flexible Toolkit, January 2017.
In this e-book, we’ll first of all show how important it is for you to know your data and
information are secured. It’s only when you and your employees have this peace of mind
that everyone will then have the freedom and confidence to tackle the problems people
may be facing with their daily technology, to think big, and to work together to help
your organisation achieve its ambitions.
Only half of UK workers said their
workspace environment allowed
them to work “completely
effectively”.1
3. 1
If you’re looking to build a dynamic and successful business
– a business with a future – it needs to have firm foundations.
And the best base on which you can do this includes robust
data and device security.
Data breaches and other security incidents can affect
employee engagement and performance, taking time
away from productive tasks and undermining employee
confidence in your business if they lose important data, files,
or even access to their devices. That’s especially true when
dealing with lost and stolen mobile devices. This common
problem can be either a momentary inconvenience or major
setback, depending on your business’s mobile device
location and remote-wipe options.
Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are particularly
vulnerable. Indeed, 43% of cyber-attacks target companies in
this group.4
Why? Because many SMBs tend to be less secure
than larger enterprises, and also because automation makes
it easier for criminals to attack them in volume.4
Put your business
on a solid base with
always-on security
43% of cyber-attacks
target SMBs.4
3
Small Business Trends: 43 Percent of Cyber Attacks Target Small Business, April 2016
https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/04/cyber-attacks-target-small-business.html
4
CSO, Why criminals pick on small business, January 2015.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/2866911/cyber-attacks-espionage/why-criminals-pick-on-small-business.html
4. Steps
to take
Perform a business data-security audit
This can be completed with a few common-sense questions. Where is your business data
stored, and how is it backed up? How do employees currently share access to files and data?
How can your business control access to sensitive data? And how does your business back
up and otherwise secure data on employees’ mobile devices?
Consider your compliance obligations
Depending on the industry that you work in you will need to be compliant to industry
standards. In addition the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into
force in May 2018. It’s the biggest shake-up in data protection legislation in over 20 years,
and gives increased rights to EU-based individuals over the information you hold on them
(whether your company is in the EU or not). Failure to respect those rights or to show due
diligence in your data protection practices could result in substantial fines or affect your
ability to do the right thing for your customers – which is why you need to be ready.5
Allocate resources
It may make sense to make someone responsible for meeting your GDPR obligations
and data security in general. Many SMBs lack the time, budget and expertise to implement
comprehensive security defences.6
Look separately at device management
Consider how many employees have devices holding business data; how those devices
are updated for new security threats; and whether any special considerations (such as
regulatory compliance issues) apply to your business. As you shop for new devices for
employees, look for those designed with best-in-class security in mind, and that will
work well with the productivity tools you select.
GDPR
5
EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) portal. http://www.eugdpr.org/eugdpr.org.html
6
CSO, Why criminals pick on small business, January 2015. https://www.csoonline.com/article/2866911/
cyber-attacks-espionage/why-criminals-pick-on-small-business.html
5. 2 Most employees understand the importance of working
together: according to research by Forrester, 56% believe
improved collaboration benefits their customers.7
And in
a Dimensional Research survey of 300 SMB information
technology professionals, 97% said that anytime,
anywhere access to data and applications makes
employees more effective.8
Social technologies can make a particular difference at
work. Many organisations that use them see a distinct
improvement in project collaboration, and users themselves
agree that social technology improves collaboration across
remote locations.
Choose tools that
bring employees
together – no matter
where they work
97% said that anytime,
anywhere access to
data and applications
makes employees
more effective.8
7
Forrester Research, The Way We Work: A Mobile, Collaborative Workforce Needs an Accessible
and Flexible Toolkit, January 2017.
8
Dimensional Research, March 2014, quoted in Microsoft, 7 Ways to Work Smarter in the Cloud.
https://clouddamcdnprodep.azureedge.net/asm/593113/Original
6. Assess your current technology
How well do your business’s technology tools and devices help your employees
create, connect, and collaborate with people inside and outside your company?
Can they share and collaborate on documents on any device without versioning issues?
Are online meetings quick and easy to set up?
Get insights into your collaboration needs
Ask your employees to discuss how they work together and which tools – whether you
currently provide them or not – they like to use. Your goal should be to uncover features
they consider important, but that your business isn’t delivering.
Steps
to take
7. 3
Achieving equilibrium between work and home
commitments is hugely important for you and your
employees today, especially given the diverse demographics
of the modern workforce. Indeed, work/life balance is second
only to compensation when people decide whether to seek
new employment.9
One key to addressing work/life balance issues is to give
your workers control over their schedules and tasks, allowing
them to work on the go and remotely, using the devices
they prefer.
It’s something to which they’re accustomed and which they
even expect. Gartner reported in 2015 that employees use an
average of three different devices throughout their daily
routine. The study also found that a large majority of
employees move routinely between devices just to complete
a single task10
– and a recent online article published by CIO
stated that 94% of millennials say collaboration is “critically
important” to their work.11
Take work/life balance
seriously – and take
steps to back up your
commitment
A large majority of
employees move
routinely between
devices just to
complete a single task.10
9
Society for Human Resource Management, Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement:
The Doors of Opportunity Are Open, 2017.
10
https://www.cio.com/article/3206277/mobile-wireless/meeting-the-demands-of-a-
mobile-workforce.html quoting Gartner
11
CIO op.cit.
8. Set clear, consistent, and fairly applied policies
It’s up to you how to set policies that reflect your company’s culture for flex time,
remote work, and other scheduling options. What matters most to employees is that
they know the rules and see them being applied fairly.
Provide a remote-work toolset
Determine the types of technology you’ll need in order to make working remotely as
effective as working in the office. This can include easily accessible document and data
storage; collaboration tools, such as shared calendars and team sites; and a variety of
communication tools, including email, an intranet, video conferencing, and instant
messaging. Also consider devices, whether they’re ones you can supply or ones that
employees use under a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, to make sure they allow
mobility without compromising security and that they perform seamlessly with the other
work-related applications and tools you select.
A connected, synchronised ecosystem of apps, devices, and data can enable your team
to gain access to whatever they need from anywhere in the world.
Steps
to take
9. 4
When selecting employee collaboration and remote-work
tools, you have a choice. Should you rely on a collection of
single-purpose applications, or seek out an integrated set
of solutions from one vendor?
In many cases, the answer comes down to one key point.
Choosing multiple apps from many different vendors does
little to resolve common employee complaints about
coordinating schedules, finding the right people or resources
to do a job, working from the same version of a document,
or simply enjoying the same seamless experience
across devices.
Your success depends on your employees. They need to be
enabled to dream big and do their best work. An integrated
solution not only meets this need but offers better long-term
value, leaving you to focus on business-critical tasks instead
of dealing with multiple systems.
Choose solutions
that promote
simplicity and
usability
10. Take a methodical approach to choosing your tools
Once you have your employees’ feedback on your current business technology, make a
list of the capabilities and the business problems it needs to solve – rather than specific
applications you need.
Seek out integrated, cloud-based solutions,
and consider their benefits.
Conduct research into solutions that provide these capabilities, along with shared data and
resources, so employees can enjoy a seamless experience without logging in and out of
multiple apps or hunting down information in disconnected systems.
If you simplify your business processes you’ll increase employee productivity. Easy-to-
manage, holistic cloud-based company settings allow you to configure features and
settings all in one place. This removes complexity, with single logins for all services and
devices – making working from anywhere easier.
Steps
to take
11. 5
Modern, cloud-based productivity tools have led to a radical
shift in thinking about where and when people work. That’s
hardly surprising, given that 88% of employees work from
two or more locations during a typical week – and 21% work
from three or more locations.12
Yet it’s important to assess how your business technology
performs when it’s literally on the move. Can your employees
switch from laptop to tablet to smartphone while working on
the same document, and have confidence they’re still seeing
the latest version of their work? Can they be sure everyone
on their work team will receive a critical document ahead of
a key deadline? Can they work offline and know their emails,
calendar, and documents will sync properly when they
reconnect? Do they have access to devices that are designed
well for the productivity tools on your shortlist? And can
they – and you – be confident that whatever they use and
wherever they are, the data they’re accessing and creating
is secure?
12
Forrester Research, The Way We Work: A Mobile, Collaborative Workforce Needs
an Accessible and Flexible Toolkit, January 2017.
88% of employees
work from two or
more locations during
a typical week.12
Focus on quality
of output – no
matter where
employees work
12. Prioritise mobility
Assess every business application in simple terms. Can its mobile experience match its
desktop capabilities? Does that experience extend to every mobile device that matters to
you and your employees? It makes sense to seek mobile devices that make the most of the
capabilities of those business applications.
Offline matters just as much as online
An application should be just as functional offline as it is online. Can employees still view
emails, contacts, and calendars? Can they access and edit documents? When a device goes
back online, does everything sync and update seamlessly – and when it does, can you and
your users be sure it’s secure?
Steps
to take
13. Why does
integration
matter?
Comprehensive security
With just one company providing your productivity apps, you’ll
have just one admin panel to manage security. With a cloud-based
solution, security updates can be rolled out immediately without
concern for testing patches and new software versions.
The right solution can help safeguard your company data across
all devices – even employees’ personal devices. Automated security
updates give your business an always-on security partner.
Easier maintenance
A centralised, cloud-based management approach makes it easier
and more seamless to keep devices up to date with the latest
security updates and feature innovations, at a pace that is right
for you. So you know it’s all in hand, while your employees
know they’re always working with the latest, best-in-class
productivity tools.
Easier management
As your business grows and adds more applications, this can lead
to more potential problems. Routine management tasks, such as
security patches, updates, tying into data sources, and answering
user questions can quickly eat up time and resources.
A simplified management system removes unnecessary complexity
from the equation with single logins for all services and devices –
making working from anywhere easier.
Flexible, scalable pricing
With an integrated cloud solution, you have a single cost per
user per month – and that cost easily scales up or down, depending
on your staffing needs. No more worries about over-investing
in on-premises technology that needs to be maintained, or
juggling monthly invoices for multiple tools.
14. Does your business feel safe –
so your people can think bold?
Running a successful small or medium business is a tough job. That’s why it’s so important
to uncover ways to simplify your business and support your employees through
technology. That way freeing up time and budget to support growth and opportunity –
safe in the knowledge that you’re building on a firm foundation of data and device security.
Making the right technology choices doesn’t just solve one problem. It solves a variety of
challenges related to effective collaboration, supporting a mobile workforce, and
protecting your business data. Better yet, solving these issues can have a direct impact on
how much your employees feel empowered and emboldened to do their very best work.
Consider Microsoft 365 Business to set your organisation up for success. Microsoft 365
Business brings together productivity, management, and security capabilities in a single
integrated solution that is cost-effective, easy to manage, and built especially for growing
businesses like yours.