The 3 Basic Functions of Technology in Today’s Digital Workspace

Protect

Today, every business, no matter its size, must take steps to protect its documents and data.

At first, you might think, “Cybercriminals go after the big enterprises, who would want to access my network or steal my data?”

In our interconnected world, the simple answer is everyone. Take, for example, this Verizon executive brief that found 43% of data breaches involved small-to-mid-size businesses (SMBs).[1]

Data breaches only sometimes involve malicious intent though. Upwards of 30% of all breaches come from within your own organization. The cause? Inadequate or nonexistent protocols that result in weak passwords, clicks on links in one of those phishing emails, and lost documents or devices. Human error remains the biggest threat to your data.

Fortunately, you don’t need an enterprise-sized IT budget to implement effective solutions. A little proactive planning can go a long way to create a solid foundation for protection against data loss. For a successful plan, you need to include these three basic approaches: educate, monitor and prevent.

1. Educate

Train your team on their security responsibilities. Training begins on every employees’ first day and continues on a regular schedule. You want to cover all potential points of entry in the flow of your documents and data such as:

• How to spot phishing emails

• How to ensure devices and applications are secured

• The importance of strong passwords

• What to do if you suspect a data breach

2. Monitor

You need to know who has access and what is done with your data and documents. Implement tools and processes to control who sees sensitive information, tracks activity with automated reporting, and secures your information.

For example, converting paper documents to digital via scanning with immediate, automated storage in a secured cloud application bypasses the many points where accidental breaches can occur. 

3. Prevent

Start with simple steps to prevent unauthorized access to documents and data. Strong passwords are one way to do this. Another step you can take would be to protect confidential documents and securely manage print jobs with password-controlled printing.For many small and medium-sized businesses, this can add extra tasks that employees simply don’t have the time to do, creating a need to add staff. Finding a technology partner with expertise in security and business processes can give you the expertise needed to develop the best solution, at less than the cost of adding staff.

• Empower workflows. Define and simplify workflows to make them desirable and encourage adoption using integrated tools and applications. Scan-to-cloud workflow solutions, for example, automatically route documents to pre-configured destinations.

• Make information easier to access. Connected systems, especially centralized cloud applications, make it easy for you and your team to access your data and documents from anywhere, at any time, while retaining control and security via access rights.

• Enable communication. Connect your systems and you’ll connect your people whether it’s through a software-as-a-service application like Office 365®, email, VoIP phone, Google Docs™, presentation and meeting tools, or any of the host of collaboration tools available on the market today.  

If you find communication breakdowns occur, you may need to do a workflow analysis. Look for irregularities like unsanctioned or nonstandard solutions, noncompatible tools, or unmanaged processes. Any of these can disrupt communication between your team and you and your customers.

And isn’t that the challenge of our new, digital workplace? Balancing access to information with secured, carefully managed systems.