“If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,”

With this rather powerful statement the Pentagon commented on their first formal cyber strategy, which concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war. This is the first time the US has considered answering with traditional military force when a cyber attack causes ‘death, damage, destruction or high-level disruption that a traditional military attack would cause’. This stems from the notion of ‘equivalence’, one idea getting more popular at the Pentagon. While certainly worrisome for most people with any imagination (who likes to think that hackers can gain access to sensitive military information, or start playing with the controls of your nuclear reactors?), a lot of us still look at cyber security as other people’s problems. Yet, this is a growing issue that we all need to address. And that means all of us. Most companies do not pay enough attention to this issue and find themselves under attack on a more and more frequent basis. Lockheed Martin Corp and broadcaster PBS are just some of the prominent recent victims. Banks are regular targets and almost no one gets upset anymore when another notice of ‘compromised personal information’ from several million users is lamented. On top of people trying to steal valuable data, so-called hactivists will surely become a force to reckon with as companies wrestle with their public images. In a recent WSJ article, Ted Chung, chief executive of Hyundai Card/Hyundai Capital Co., an auto finance provider in South Korea, was quoted saying: “When it comes to big companies or big banks, no CEO is that stupid not to pay attention. But maybe they pay the same attention I did, which is giving encouragement and budget to IT but then saying ‘What do I know about programming?’ he said in an interview Monday. “That is the wrong support.” Corporate executives have to take a more active approach to cyber security.

While you might feel like ‘putting a missile down your hacker’s smokestack’ after an attack, prevention is the better strategy and will keep your blood pressure lower.

On a personal level, it’s a wise decision to have different passwords for different things (yes, really)… and while you probably have decent security software on your laptop, you may not be as diligent with your smart phone. Hackers like to use those to get to your other accounts (like mobile banking, email, etc).

“Miscreants are continuing to find new and creative ways to exploit network, system and even human vulnerabilities to steal information or do damage. The challenge is that we need to block their exploits 100 percent of the time if we are to protect our networks and information. They can be right once; we have to be right all the time. We need to be ever-vigilant in our efforts to protect our assets, information and ourselves online.” says John N. Stewart, vice president and chief security officer, Cisco.

I could list recommendations of how to prevent these things but they would probably be outdated by the time you read this. What is important is to take an active role and be diligent with the information you use and transfer – your own or your employers. And if you are one of the lucky ones that have IT report into you – take an active role. Consider using VPN’s with business partners you trust and digital signatures to ensure your documents arrive un-tampered. Create an incident response team and consider hiring experts that can diagnose your network vulnerabilities. It may not eliminate all risks, but it will reduce your exposure greatly.

Sources:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html#ixzz1Ny4KTCJ4

www.cisco.com/go/securityreport

Remember my article about productivity and efficiency improvements? Have I got another one for you!

If your employees need a refresher or an introduction to TQM principles, I highly recommend the video Modern Chairs. In a little more than 10 min you are treated to one of the best summaries of TQM (Total Quality Management) principles, including an excursion into lean manufacturing that I have seen.  It is done in the style of Charlie Chaplin’s movie ‘modern times’, with a nice dose of Scottish Humor; and not only do you learn something, but will actually enjoy the process.  The objective? 6 stacks of 5 chairs each.

A group of men sets out to fulfill this customer order. The initial production takes 120 seconds. Through applying TQM principles like teamwork, process optimization (lean manufacturing) they reduce the cycle time to 90 seconds while maintaining flawless quality. That is a 33% improvement! This would make most people pretty happy. But our guys were not yet satisfied! They continue, to Orff’s dramatic Carmina Burana, to apply continuous improvement principles. This last important action of TQM brings the cycle time down to 65 seconds. And that even includes some (very important) time for cheering and celebration of the team at the end.

You, too, can learn how to cut your production time in half. Watch this video while sipping a cup of coffee. And if your employees haven’t been trained in TQM and/or Lean Manufacturing yet, it is time! It will increase your productivity and efficiency. Less waste helps everybody, even the planet. But that is another blog post altogether.

Things change. But change, while often good, usually also means additional work. In our current economic climate, we have to achieve more with less. Increasing our efficiency and productivity becomes a top priority.

Many companies focus on supply chain optimization as discussed in ProcurementLeaders. KPMG noted that consumer companies worldwide report that “improvements in supply chain efficiency are critical to growth strategies with 50% of respondents intending to improve distribution structure, invest in technology, decrease inventory and consolidate suppliers”. Most low-hanging fruit have been picked and companies have to get more creative to optimize the supply chain. How? Optimizing the forecast and then lowering inventories for example. Re-shoring and thus lowering the logistics cost and inventories (again!) is another option to drive cost out of the supply chain. With the Chinese labor rates and currency rising at 17% per year, the US is becoming competitive for some manufacturers.

Another significant aspect in cost and strategic growth initiatives is information technology (IT) investment. More than 70% of respondents plan on investing in “IT systems for customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, business intelligence and forecasting”. One way to achieve this is document control software that automates workflows, moves documents electronically and allows for complete version traceability of specifications, contracts, drawings, etc.  And when was the last time that you updated your IT infrastructure? Do your systems have the uptime required to support your operations and allow you to ship on time? Do you use ERP and CRM systems that are tailored to your company’s specific needs? Customize where you can to reduce the redundancies in your systems. It will free your employees up for productive work and reduce your bottom-line.

Our document imaging partner Kodak isn’t kidding when they say digitizing a whirlwind of documents just got easier. Recently our document management engineers here had a chance to take Kodak’s i4600 scanner on a test drive with Document Locator. The scanner munches through stacks of sheets at a speed of 120-pages per minute, a rate that can easily convert many offices’ steady flow of paper. Our engineers were mainly interested in how well the lion of a scanner purred with our document management software (the two cozied up just perfectly). But watching the scanner do its thing also left many others impressed here.

Companies are increasingly relying upon remote employees driving their sales and customer service efforts.  Embracing a geographically disbursed workforce makes perfect sense for both the employee and the employer because it promotes greater access to customers while reducing the costs of business real estate and travel expenditures.  In addition, studies indicate that companies benefit from increased employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention as a result of allowing their employees to work outside of the office.

Providing a fast, scalable, and secure network infrastructure for remote employees requires that IT departments rethink their existing architectures.  Historically corporate networks minimize their exposure to the outside world of hackers and malware by limiting entry points into the system from outside of the company’s firewall.  However with the increased demand to support remote employees, IT departments are researching new technologies that improve how they control and manage information flow from offsite resources.

To that end, ColumbiaSoft is engaged in developing solutions for a handful of Fortune 500 companies that provide simple, secure online access to their enterprise document management systems.  The user interfaces are tailored to specific roles in the organization in order to align the application functionality with the user’s specific job function.  This customized design provides a quick and efficient means for looking up account information and uploading company critical documents in seconds.

The online portal solutions provided by ColumbiaSoft support interactive searching against a company’s backend database system including CRM, ERP, or Accounting application.  By interfacing the document management system with other mission critical systems, the web interface design promotes minimal data entry along with accurate spelling and auto-populated supporting fields.  ColumbiaSoft also provides web-based drag/drop functionality allowing users to quickly drag multiple attachment files from Microsoft Outlook or Windows Desktop environments directly into the clients’ document management system.

Storing corporate records in a document management system provides numerous benefits enterprise wide that support both management and IT functions within an organization.  This includes fast searching on metadata and file content, records management capabilities, email archive, routing documents for digital signature and approval, compliance audit trails, version control, and much more. By providing simple, efficient solutions for external resources to share corporate documents, companies operate smarter and allow their workforce to focus on their core job functions.

Building a list, and checking it twice… many business professionals these days are realizing that finding ways to manage information more cost-effectively is a top priority for the new year.

Nephila Capital is one-step ahead; they’ve already scratched this from their list of to-do’s and possible new year’s resolutions. Using document management software, they have improved on everything from publishing content for customers with greater speed and fewer resources, to paperless processing of invoices and accounting files, to better management of contracts and agreements, and more.

A new document management case study highlights their success, and you can read all about it here: http://www.documentlocator.com/resources/casestudies/nephila.htm

Curious how business process can be made more efficient and less error-prone? One way is to eliminate all the paper and put the necessary controls over processes so that tasks are performed with precision and accuracy.

A new 3-minute introduction to paperless document workflow shows how business processes can be automated with the help of document management software. It’s just a short introduction, but it shows that it really is possible to improve efficiency, accuracy, and repeatability with business process automation.

Watch it here:

Today marks the release of ColumbiaSoft Document Locator v6.  Version 6.0 enhances many of Document Locator’s greatest document management features including seamless integration into Microsoft Windows Explorer and Microsoft Office while expanding into new areas including business process management and real-time reporting analytics for all of ColumbiaSoft’s customers.  We are excited to see how our customers can transform and automate their business operations leveraging the workflow and dashboard style reporting now included with Document Locator.

Document Locator’s business process management components are in use today at a number of enterprises as well as government entities helping drive efficiencies and enforcing compliance.  Solutions built using ColumbiaSoft’s workflow automation include accounts payable processing, ISO/FDA continuous improvement processes, vendor submittals for AEC firms, routing mail to remote workers, expense reports, vacation request processing, and more.  These implementations were all designed around improving productivity, efficiency, and traceability enabling companies to focus on their core business operations.  In Document Locator v6 the workflow module is integrated as base production functionality providing enterprise level business process automation to all of our customers.

The reporting components added in Document Locator are entirely new and based on Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.  Users can select from a variety of canned reports included with the upgrade package in addition to being able to produce custom reports using Microsoft’s easy-to-use WYSIWYG report generation tools (Report Builder 3.0).  Reports can be launched securely inside of Document Locator’s Windows Integrated client or from within Document Locator’s internet application WebTools.  The reports provide users unlimited real-time access to critical business information displayed in graphical and roll-up style dashboard reports.  Reports are available for records management statistics, user activity, workflow automation, SQL Server configuration, as well any business specific reports that our customers can dream up.

Document Locator v6 continues the tradition of providing well-designed, easy-to-use document management and business process automation software.  We are excited about this current release and look forward to helping companies transition to a more organized and automated organization that can easily report against their critical business operations. For more information click here.

The average office worker uses a sheet of paper every 12 minutes, over 10,000 sheets of paper a year, and disposes of 100 to 200 pounds of paper annually. Document management helps businesses reduce the need for paper, and take a paperless approach. With paperless document management software, businesses store and share paper electronically so that the need for printing and shipping of paper documents is reduced.

While offering a positive impact on the environment through less paper production and transportation, reducing the use of paper also provides for cost savings by improving business efficiency. The cost of handling, storing and shipping a single sheet of paper can add up to as much as $30.00 over a document’s lifecycle. When managed electronically, the actual cost of paper, storage facilities, and mailing or shipping are eliminated.

Business processes are improved using electronic collaboration tools that make sharing of documents easy with workflow routing, versioning, notifications, and approvals. Scanning tools capture paper documents and turn them into electronically searchable digital files, reducing the need for document storage and speeding document retrieval.

In addition to an all-around paperless office solution for managing electronic files, digitized paper documents, and email records, document management offers specific paperless business solutions in areas of: Accounts Payable routing and approval; electronic project collaboration; HR employee records management; compliance and regulatory document control; remote access for customers, vendors and partners; and more.

To learn more about growing a greener business, paperlessly, with electronic document management software visit ColumbiaSoft’s booth at the Energy Trust Better Living Show in Portland this weekend March 26th - 28th.

http://www.betterlivingshow.org/

A recent trend I am seeing with our customers is the desire to enhance their business infrastructure to support having employees work remote.  This arrangement benefits businesses in a number of ways including helping employee morale, allows for business continuity when weather strikes, saves space on real estate, and allows for increased productivity from their staff.

Creating an environment permitting employees to work remotely requires providing online access to critical information and documents.  At minimum, employers will need to enable remote access to their network environment and online computer systems.  However for most companies who are not paperless, acquiring information contained in filing cabinets and binders is simply not possible for remote employees.  A similar challenge is the capability of routing paper documents received in the mail to remote workers in a timely manner.

Document management systems with support for digitally scanning paper documents provide real-time access to information to your remote employees.  It is not uncommon for me to help companies create processes that involve scanning common mail items including applications, claims, and change of business forms and then assigning those items for processing (via workflow) to resources that work remotely.  I also work with companies to back-scan legacy documents from countless rows of filing cabinets, freeing up square footage and providing for online retrieval and manageable disaster recovery processes.

By implementing a paperless process, your organization will gain efficiencies, increase employee morale, free up office space resources, and provide for business continuity should disaster strike.