business technology july 2012

Congestion moan 1

How firms can successfullyavoid travel chaos

Threat landscape Page 6

Sam Curry advises on how to arm yourself against the business baddies

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Adapt to survive

How is the evolution of technology impacting on your workplace?

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The power behind decisions AUGUST 2012

A close call Page 12

Which phone wins the battle for business?

Poor old Research In Motion. Just a few years ago, when the company’s ubiquitous BlackBerry ruled the corporate handset roost, it seemed unthinkable that it could ever be dislodged from executive affections. Fast-forward to today, and RIM seems to be fighting fires on every front, not least against the challenge of the iPhone and smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system (p12-13).

The lesson for businesses is clear: if you switch off, even for a minute, then you are handing your competitors the chance to move ahead. This seems a particularly relevant point during the summer months – if one can believe that

the UK actually has such things – when many minds are on matters other than work. As well as staying aware of the threats posed by competitors, businesses need to make sure their networks and data are as secure as possible (p6-7). The recent flurry of data breaches at companies like LinkedIn, eHarmony and Last.fm has served to highlight the need for constant vigilance (p5).

Although shares in Facebook fell after the company’s first set of results since flotation in May revealed a loss of $157m, social media are still proving popular in the workplace. So popular, in fact, that many businesses are being forced to consider whether they should start laying down the law about how much time employees should be spending with their social networks (p8). This is an issue that will arise more and more frequently as younger workers, who see social media as a vital part of their everyday lives, embark on their chosen careers.

It’s hardly surprising that some executives feel that technology can be a curse as well as a blessing.

Jonathan WatsonEditor

Switching on to stay aheadThe mutable landscape of today’s technology means bosses have to up their game if they want to master the latest media at work

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Business Technology August 2012 an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

Foreword2

PublisherBradley Scheffer [email protected]

EditorJonathan [email protected]

Production EditorAmy Dickson [email protected]

Sub EditorJuliet Conway [email protected]

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Justin Payne [email protected]

Matt Nathan [email protected]

Danny Dunn [email protected]

For more information on any of our supplements please contact us:

Telephone 020 8349 4363

Email [email protected]

ContributorsJonathan Watson regularly edits Business Technology reports for Lyonsdown. He is a journalist specialising in law, business, telecoms and technology. Before going freelance in 2004, he worked for Euromoney and Screen Digest.

Michael Newlands has written for titles including The New York Times, South African Sunday Times and the Times. Now settled in the UK, he freelances for telecoms and IT publications.

Sue Tabbitt is a business technology journalist with over 20 years’ experience. Sue has written for The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Guardian as well as specialist technology and industry publications.

Paul Bray has written about almost every topic from business and technology to travel and education, for titles such as The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, Britain’s Top Employers and Computing.

The lesson for businesses is clear: if you switch off, you’re handing competitors the chance to move ahead

EMC2, EMC, RSA, the RSA logo, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. © Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Like us: facebook.com/biztech Find us online: biztechreport.co.ukBusiness TechnologyAugust 2012an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the daily telegraph

Briefing3

Wi-Fi gets streetwiseO2 will provide free Wi-Fi across several of the busiest areas in London, including Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. The deal will stretch across seven squares and streets in the capital, and will even be available to those not

currently on O2. Accessing the service will involve signing up to log in, which will then happen automatically in the future.

I spy a paperless futureTameside Metropolitan Borough Council has given 57 councillors and senior council staff iPads in a bid to save on printing costs. The council, which aims to become paperless in future, claims the move could save about £10,000 a year.

Lumbered by legacyMore than a quarter (27 per cent) of UK businesses cannot take advantage of new “agile” infrastructure that can scale to their needs because of the restrictions imposed by

existing legacy systems, according to research from business consultancy Accenture. More than half (66 per cent) of technology and business executives questioned expect to allocate up to 30 per cent of their IT budget to legacy systems over the next two years.

Technology helps to get things moo-ving Dairy products specialist Dairy Crest has deployed a new business continuity and disaster recovery system from Avaya which it says has reduced data back-up times for business-critical systems by 50 per cent.

Not banking on riskThe Bank of England is planning to implement an IT system by the end of this year that will be able to assess the risk of firms operating in the financial sector. The system, which could cost up to £2.5m, would be designed to allow the bank to record firms’ risk scores, while also providing

the capability to analyse and report on risk assessments.

New way to charge your phoneTelefónica, which owns UK

mobile operator O2, has agreed global framework deals with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion to enable customers to purchase digital goods using their mobile phones. Customers can buy apps and make in-app purchases using their phones, and charge the payments directly to their phone bill or prepaid credit account, removing the need for a credit card.

High security can pay offImproving Europe’s cyber insurance market could encourage firms to provide better protection for their information systems and data, according to a report from the European Network and Information Security Agency. Insurers could offer reduced insurance premiums to companies that implement stronger IT security standards or use industry-tested IT security products, the report says.

Living in a virtual worldTogether Housing, a housing association based in the north of England, claims its new data back-up system is saving the business £70,000 a year. The association says recovery times have been cut by more than 80 per cent and that it is moving towards a 100 per cent virtual environment.

Stamping down their innocenceThe Post Office has hired a firm of independent forensic accountants to conduct an

investigation into its Fujitsu-built Horizon computer systems. The Horizon point of sale system has generated a great deal of controversy over allegedly problematic accounting, resulting in a bitter legal battle with sub-postmasters who say they have been wrongly accused of fraud.

Driving efficienciesLuxury carmaker Aston Martin has deployed a Microsoft Dynamics AX system to improve accounting and customer relationship management. The system, which is being flexibly used across all accounting ledgers, , has made its operations “flow more easily and efficiently than before”.

IT spend takes a nosediveAirlines expect to cut their IT spending as a percentage of their overall revenues in 2013, according to SITA, a company that specialises in IT and telecommunication services for the airline industry. SITA’s annual Airline IT Trends survey found that only 49 per cent of airlines expect to increase IT spending next year.

CONTENTS

News bytes

Home comforts 5 Workers’ response to a BYOD pilot

You shall not pass 5 Toughen up your password to keep hackers at bay

Keep your enemies close 6 We explore solutions to data security threats

Re-routed 11 Sub Tabbitt looks at how firms are adapting this summer

Pick of the crop 12 Apple and BlackBerry in the mix to become business choice

System update 16 BBC broadcaster John Linwood on how times are changing

Evolution theory page 8

In figures

6037%Reduction in overall power

consumption at specialist pensions provider Suffolk Life

since it migrated most of its server and storage infrastructure to a

virtualised environment

Amount of information BT claims will be carried at peak times during the Olympic Games by the network it has developed for the event – the equivalent of 3,000 photographs a second

gigabits

Percentage of overall IT spending that cloud computing will account for by 2016,

according to research firm Gartner. It currently accounts for 2 per cent

24Percentage of Ocado orders

placed via mobile devices during the six months to 13

May 2012

With thanks to the following organisations:



Industry view4

Ringing in the futureAs wireless technology advances, mobile phones will bring better security, portability and convenience to your business

W e never go anywhere without our mobile phones and they’re no longer just for calling to say

the train is late; we rely on them for all our business needs. But could the mobile phone signal the end of a pocketful of keys and cards?

The advent of secure smartcards has reduced the importance of the mechanical key. These cards have become increasingly capable and

intelligent and now, a quantum leap in access control technology has the

potential to do away with both mechanical keys and even cards, by ushering in a new era of portable identity credentials embedded into smartphones.

Near field communications, or NFC, the term used to refer to a collection of short-range wireless technologies for exchanging data between devices, is a prime technology for this. It is quick, easy and secure. A mobile phone equipped with NFC technology can be used to carry a portable identity credential and then wirelessly present it to a reader or lock. The phone is simply waved in front of the lock or reader and the user opens the door. The ultimate

goal is to bring about a convergence of services at the heart of your daily routine, such as banking and payments, transport and secure access.

“The simplest model for NFC digital keys is to replicate existing card-based access control principles,” explains Dr Tam Hulusi, senior vice president of strategy and innovation at HID Global, a secure identity solutions company and a pioneer in mobile access technology.

“The phone communicates identity information to a reader, which passes the identity to the existing access control system, which then opens the door.”

Key to checking inThe Clarion Hotel in Stockholm piloted such a system in 2011, replacing room keys with digital keys sent to guests’ NFC-enabled mobile phones pre-installed with mobile keys software. Guests were able to skip the check-in queue and go directly to their room where they presented the phone to the lock to open the door. When checking out, guests simply touched their phones to a kiosk in the lobby.

Sixty per cent of trial respondents said they saved more than ten minutes by

using the digital key solution, and 80 per cent said they would use the system if available. The hotel meanwhile benefitted by re-allocating check-in staff to other customer service areas and having a cheaper and easier option to replacing lost keys.

Flight to efficiencyAir travellers have already shown interest in using their phones as boarding passes, (QR codes can be texted to mobiles), and in Japan, NFC payment systems are installed in fast-food restaurants, taxis, and vending machines.

“On university campuses, students will be able to use NFC mobile phones to enter buildings, (as HID Global’s pilot at Arizona State University has proved), make purchases, use transport systems and identify themselves before taking tests. NFC phones could even provide doctors or paramedics with access to your personal health history,” concludes Hulusi.

Industry experts predict that NFC will revolutionise our lives in the near future.

[email protected] www.hidglobal.com

INDUSTRY VIEW

Hotel room keys could be a thing of the past thanks to NFC


Trendwatch5

By Jonathan Watson

Cambridgeshire County Council is one of many organisations currently testing what life would be like if employees were allowed to use their own laptops, tablets and smartphones for work purposes. It ran an 11-week BYOD (bring your own device) pilot between May and July this year to find out what people thought.

According to the council’s IT strategy manager Alan Shields, most of those who tested the approach responded positively. “We had comments like ‘it’s totally changed my ability to work’ and ‘please please please bring it back’,” he says.

However, there are still several issues that IT staff have to deal with before implementing a full roll-out.

“Obviously security was the most important consideration,” says Shields. “You only have to read the news about local government and health authorities and the financial costs they can incur for breaches, so that’s especially important for us.”

The council’s preferred solution was to create a sandbox – a separate partition – on employees’ devices. This contained all the data relating to their work. “We could delete this segregated area if the device was lost without affecting any of the data on the device,” says Shields. “This is the only feasible route, otherwise users have to accept that they could lose personal data.”

The product makes a distinction between work and personal information, meaning that an

employee can’t download an attachment from their work email and save it on to their smartphone or tablet’s memory.

To ensure he could have full confidence in the effectiveness of the sandbox software, Shields only considered using products that complied with Communications-Electronics Security Group, the government standard for security. He settled on Dynamic Mobile Exchange (DME) from Excitor, and says it has worked very well, both in terms of the security it offers and simplicity of use.

DME works by downloading an app on to the device that creates the partitioned area in which work data is stored and utilised. This has allowed the council to pursue “a very

hands-on voluntary system,” says Shields, thereby avoiding the dangers of spiralling costs that could result from the maintenance and support of employees’ devices.

“We’re aiming to have a very light-touch support system,” he says. “We produced a one-page document that shows people how to download the app and how to configure the software. Beyond this document, we had a dedicated email that people could contact, and we had a Sharepoint site where they could discuss matters. But we weren’t accepting any telephone support; our attitude was very much, let’s see how you get on it with yourselves.”

Despite this low-cost approach, Shields is still not entirely confident that BYOD will save the council money overall. “That’s really

difficult to predict, because you’ve got to create the infrastructure to support people’s own devices, so there’s a capital and technical cost involved,” he says. “Obviously you are offsetting that by not buying £200 smartphones, as well as by not engaging in £15 data tariffs. I would say that greater efficiency and high user satisfaction make it worthwhile, but the jury’s out on whether you can make a total saving.”

The council also laid down codes of conduct and expectations. “Clear guidance and policy is critical,” Shields says. “For example, we wanted employees to password-protect the device. And, while the app didn’t cause any problems, we wanted to make it clear that if it does, we will not be held responsible. We also wanted to make it clear that they are using their own data tariff and that we won’t be reimbursing them. We didn’t want to impose restrictions, just to lay down the responsibilities on either side so they’re clear and there can’t be any confusion over accountability in the future.”

The security solutionAs an increasing number of employees work remotely using smartphone devices, one council carried out a BYOD pilot to see how people would react…

David Matheson and Danvers Baillieu of international law firm Pinsent Masons set out a few tips for CIOs looking to implement a BYOD strategy

Find strength in numbersIt’s time to toughen up passwords as online companies get hit by the hackers

It’s been a bad few months for password protection. Earlier in July, Yahoo became the latest high-profile company to suffer a significant security breach when up to 450,000 user accounts and passwords thought to be related to Yahoo Voices were stolen by a hacking group and posted on an internet forum. Yahoo Voices is the company’s voice over internet protocol service.

The breach enabled security specialists to highlight some strange password choices by the users of

Yahoo Voices. According to an audit of the stolen information carried

out by Swedish security firm Eset, almost 2,000 people were using “123456” as their password. Other popular choices included

“password”, “welcome” and “abc123”.The Yahoo hack followed a number of

similar attacks carried out against other companies in recent weeks.

Create a strong passwordSocial Q&A website Formspring was targeted just before Yahoo in a security breach that led to about 420,000 passwords being accessed and posted to an internet forum. This prompted the company to disable all passwords and instruct users to set new ones. “This is a good time to create a strong password,” wrote Formspring CEO Ade Olonoh in a blogpost offering advice on how to create passwords that are difficult to crack.

In June, eHarmony, LinkedIn and Last.fm all confirmed password breaches. eHarmony, an online dating company,

did not say how many users had been affected, but estimates suggested that the figure could have been about 1.5m. This breach was trumped by networking site LinkedIn, which suffered the theft of 6m passwords, and by online music site Last.fm, which lost 6.5m.

Mike Kelly, security analyst at SpiderLabs, analysed the eHarmony passwords and concluded that they offered “further proof that organisations need to not only store passwords in stronger, salted formats than was previously acceptable, but also need to enforce stronger case-sensitive password policies.” Users, as a whole, still do not understand the need for strong passwords, and will continue to set passwords that meet only the minimum requirements, he said.

Drive the right behaviour from the outset. Employees must understand that in using their own devices for work, they have a duty to keep company data secure.

Make the extent of the policy crystal clear. Delineate the extent of the employee’s rights and obligations in a BYOD policy. Any conditions likely to be objected to by the employee must be

brought to their attention to mitigate the risk of them raising a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at a later stage. The ICO can fine businesses up to £500,000 for breaching the Data Protection Act (DPA).

Include a clear policy on remote wiping. To stay on the right side of the DPA, a business should obtain an

employee’s explicit, fully informed and freely given consent to “process” (ie delete) personal data, or show that it is in the business’s interests and does not cause unwarranted prejudice to the employee. Ensure the policy advises that employees back up their private data.

Separate company and personal data as far as

possible. There is technology available to prevent crossover between personal and company data. This ensures that IT administrators can only access the relevant, company content.

Make clear what devices are and aren’t allowed. Having a BYOD policy doesn’t have to mean a technology free-for-all.

How to… implement a BYOD policy

“Our attitude was very much, let’s see how you get on with this yourselves” – Shields

A separate area on employees’ devices can contain all their work data



Q&A6

Companies that helped build large-scale venues across the capital are running sessions with

the students. The students have developed their

own projects focusing on the energy performance of important facilities, sustainable design and building processes. This work will later be disseminated across a network of European universities.

The students’ work was presented in the last week of July on the closing day of the summer school in central London.

The students are attending the Universities and Students for Energy Efficiency (USE EFF) summer school, held in partnership with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Italian Ministry for the Environment.

They are working with companies including Buro Happold, Arup Associates, Sutton Van Associates and

Expedition. In addition, further learning sessions are being delivered through the IET and companies such as Laing O’Rourke and AECOM.

Dr Daniela Melandri, president of the USE Efficiency Association, said: “This is a tremendous opportunity for students across the world to come together, to work with professional experts, to bring a fresh point of view in the professional debate to improve energy performances in the building sector.

Fundamental passionDr Mike Short CBE, president of the IET said: “Nurturing and supporting tomorrow’s engineers is a fundamental passion of the IET and we are proud to be the primary partner for the USE Efficiency summer school.

“This partnership was born out of our relationship with the ODA’s Learning Legacy programme and sees the IET underpinning the industrial material for these students during their summer school. This will reinforce the early

stages of their career once they leave university, equipping them for a solid start in engineering. We have been delighted with the student response to the IET’s contribution and look forward to watching their progress.Observing how USE Efficiency had overcome the challenges of organising the school in London over the summer, Bruce McLelland, IET Built Environment sector head, said: “It was quite remarkable how determined the students were to be in London and their dedication to the summer school.

“They have personally had to finance themselves in some cases and resolved accommodation issues by camping in some cases. The school even managed to find a venue to host the school at time when such places are extremely hard to come by at reasonable cost. The IET and its partners are only too delighted to part wisdom to such motivated individuals.

www.theiet.org/olympics

Leading students learn about sustainabilityTop architectural and engineering students from 20 countries have been in London learning about the latest in sustainability and energy efficiency at the heart of the city

By Jonathan Watson

What do you see as the key threats to data security in 2012?There is definitely something that seems to be heating up, there’s a sort of boiling of the kettle, if you will. The most important thing is that the emphasis should no longer be on the tools and techniques the bad guys use; the bad guys themselves should be the focus. Rather than talk about the worm of the week or the latest virus, it’s much more important to think in terms of who the adversaries are.

The first group consists of cyber-criminals. Frankly you are quite a stupid criminal if you are still holding up corner stores or banks. The real money to be made is online. Cyber-criminals are out for profit. The good news is that we can understand that and use it to anticipate their behaviour. Like financial markets, they behave in predictable ways, based on margins and return on investment.

There is a second group of people often described as “advanced persistent threats”. I prefer the term “advanced persistent adversaries”. If you’re a nation state, a terrorist organisation or a hacktivist, you are probably quite stupid if you’re not investing in hacking as a means to achieve your ends. Groups like LulzSec and Anonymous, certain nation states and large criminal organisations are all doing this. That was really the hallmark of what was happening last year.

This year, the message is: be aware of who your opponents are. It’s not about the tools they use – there’s no pride of ownership over whether they do phishing or use Trojans – it is the people on the other end that you really have to understand.

Information security is one of the hot topics of 2012. We asked Sam Curry, chief technology officer at security firm RSA, for his assessment of the threat landscape that businesses face

Beating the bad guysLine-up: which bad guy is threating your business?

INDUSTRY VIEW

Students taking part in the energy-performance project

Cyber criminal HacktivistIP trader


Q&A7

Do many companies believe their activities couldn’t possibly bother anyone, and therefore they have no opponents?There is a risk of that sort of thinking, and in some industries, they might be more or less correct. I don’t think it’s time to run to the hills screaming that the barbarians are at the gate – to mix metaphors a little bit – it’s much more important to understand who the actors are out there and that even relatively small companies face a threat.

I’ve dealt with smaller local companies who have perhaps four to five branch offices, and they tell me that even they see hacking activity.

In crime there is something called Locard’s Principle, which says there is an exchange of evidence between a criminal and a crime

scene. That’s why we have all these TV shows based around forensics departments. There are two ways of defeating the authorities if you want to commit a crime. The first is to try to cover up all the evidence and hide it, while the other strategy is the exact opposite – the criminal can try to leave so much evidence that it’s difficult to tell who is the criminal and who is not.

That means that even if you are a relatively small company with a relatively small local business, even if you’re not being targeted, you may see the detritus of other attacks. That’s the debris left behind by the increased volume of attacks that these people create by encouraging a generally hostile environment.

Having said that, almost every organisation has some online component. You might have insider information floating around your networks, you might have personally identifiable information such as credit card or healthcare information, or you may even have things like intellectual property.

So you have to imagine that someone from the outside might want to get to you or your partners because they want the data that belongs to your customers or your partners. You might just be a vector to get to someone else.

Are companies more likely to be targeted by hackers if they’re going through a mergers and acquisitions process?There’s a generally sustained level of hacks happening behind the scenes all the time against any two companies that are about to merge. Firstly, the knowledge that a

merger is happening means that they might get hacked, and then once it’s gone public, they may see a sustained set of attacks. There are many reasons for that.

The first and most obvious one is when you’re joining two organisations, there are bound to be seams. If company A does their IT one way and company B does it another way, while they harmonise on a new way, there’s a transition period in which neither company is familiar with what the other one is doing. The first organisation doesn’t know the size of the network because it’s twice as large, or the second organisation might not know the processes to follow.

When there are seams, when things are in flux, that’s an opportunity for the bad guys. Very often, especially when the financial markets are involved, having insider information and being able to manipulate performance by denying the ability to do business helps these guys.

If you know you can shut down a company and predict the impact that will have on revenue, then you in effect have information that other people don’t have. When companies come together, it’s a chance for stocks to go up and down and that naturally attracts organised crime.

If you’re acquiring a company or being acquired by someone else, it’s a very good idea to think about what the threat landscape is for you. Are you worried about hacktivists who might not like the types of businesses you’re involved in?

There are some rather extreme opinions on almost everything out there. Are there nation states that want access to your intellectual property or organised criminals who could take advantage of being able to disrupt business or obtain insider information?

Rather than talk about the worm of the week or the latest virus, it’s much more important to think in terms of who the adversaries are

Capitalising on consumerisationFirms are increasingly allowing staff to use their mobile devices for work. But this will only be productive with careful management

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is born out of the consumerisation

of mobile technologies and our ‘always on, always connected’ society. With advantages for both the employer and the employee, it is crucial to recognise that this isn’t just a trend, it is a change of behaviour and it is happening at speed. According to Gartner, consumerisation will be the hottest topic for IT managers for the next 10 years.

Whether you allow it or not, your staff are bringing their personal devices into the workplace. Employees are keen to use their own mobile devices at work because they are more convenient, easy to use and often the newest technology.

Organisations that are embracing consumerisation are delivering operational cost savings, better productivity, higher employee retention and improved customer service. However, to effectively leverage mobile device management technology for employee-owned devices, you will need to take a strategic approach and reach an agreement that both IT and your employees can live with.

Every business has different requirements but BYOD policies stretch far beyond the realm of IT, so considering the following factors is advisable:

Devices: Understand and keep up-to-date with the devices that are attempting to connect to your corporate network both now and in the future.

Compliance: Adhering to

legal regulations is one thing, ensuring users comply with your corporate policies means they have to be simple, easy to understand and an element of self-service will encourage their co-operation.

Security: What security measures are needed (passcode protection, jailbroken/rooted devices, anti-malware apps,

encryption, device restrictions, iCloud

backup)?Acceptable

usage: Define what is acceptable usage for employee

devices with corporate data.

Data usage and paying for devices:

Should the employee or the business purchase the device and data plan? Is it fairer to share the costs and how will usage be apportioned?

Privacy: What data is collected from employees’ devices? What personal data is never collected?

Usability: Simple enrolments for users and IT, self-service, over-the-air configuration and automatic warnings will all help

maximise efficiency for both

IT and business users alike.

One size never fits all, but a carefully crafted

BYOD policy arms you with the direction you need

to manage mobile devices effectively and efficiently.

Consumerisation enables workers to stay connected wherever they are, improving their productivity and leading to higher customer satisfaction. It is also a great way to extend mobile working to employees who may not be eligible for corporate devices.

BYOD is an emerging best practice for giving employees the freedom to work on their personal mobile devices while reducing IT costs, but it will never deliver on these promises of streamlined management and cost savings without a well-written policy and a robust management platform.

If you think BYOD is right for your business, Arrow Business Communications can advise on policy implementation and the right mobile device management tool for your business.

Rob Munro is operations director at Arrow Business Communications0800 027 1010 www.arrow communications. co.uk/byod

BYOD is born out of our ‘always on’ society

Rob Munro

Sam Curry: bad guys themselves should be the focus, not the tools they use

INDUSTRY VIEW

Commitm

ents

Innovation forces

Rivalry forces

Con

ditions

Compet

ence

Contributions

Service model

Laying the

groundwork

the alliance

Ma

naging

the

dea

l

Form

ulat

ing

By Michael Newlands

First it was the telephone. Decades ago the debate raged as to whether employees should be allowed to make and receive private calls on the office phone. Now it would be regarded as ridiculous to question employees calling friends or family.

Then with the introduction of the mobile phone, and with messaging on mobiles, the argument was held all over again and email ignited a whole new debate. In the case of email it also brought in the question of IT security and nasty worms and viruses getting onto office systems via private email.

While email is still controversial in some more old-fashioned enterprises, up-to-date IT security measures have generally laid

management’s fears to rest on this score and people have realised productivity is no more likely to suffer from personal email in the office than personal phone calls. Some surveys have found it even helps productivity.

Now the focus has turned to social networking sites such as the ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter, the teen and young adults’ new favourite Tumblr and the working executive’s stay-at-home (or in-the-office) alternative to the cocktail party, LinkedIn.

Although social networking is a comparatively new feature of the workplace, a growing number of companies and executives are coming to the conclusion that the pros outweigh the cons and the end result of embracing it will be a boost to the bottom line.

A recent study by consultants Deloitte found that 45 per cent of the executives surveyed thought social media had a positive impact on the workplace because it allows management to be more transparent, helps build and maintain relationships amongst colleagues, helps build company culture and fosters a feeling of connection to the

New technology causing loss of productivity is an ongoing bugbear for businesses, and a cause of controversy every time a new technology hits critical mass



Viewpoint 8

Outsourcing success is more achievable for businesses that view their partnership as a coalition. But how can companies do it?

Create a coalition

Despite decades of outsourcing, firms and their service providers still struggle to meet their strategic objectives.

So what’s the problem? “Often outsourcers and service providers fail to establish common objectives from the start,” says Charles Hughes, partner at global consultants A. T. Kearney. “Even when common goals are set, they are often not strategic, forward thinking or flexible enough to deliver long-term value.”

The solution, says Ramyani Basu, co-author of the coalition concept, is to see outsourcing not as a marriage, or a transactional arrangement, but as a coalition.

A successful coalition outsourcing is founded on clear accountability and has three types of actions: your actions (parties do individually), our actions (parties do collaboratively) and each other’s actions (parties do to each other),” says Basu.

She identifies three stages in creating a coalition. First, laying the groundwork, so as to understand and align

the overall objectives. Then the deal must be formulated and the coalition’s operating model agreed and communicated. Finally the alliance must be managed to ensure the common objectives are still aligned, and changes made as needed.

However, there are risks. A. T. Kearney has identified “Four Cs” that can make or break a coalition. “If one or more of these elements fails, the arrangement is likely to fracture resulting in renegotiations or at worst terminations,” warns Hughes.

The “Four Cs” are: Conditions: a coalition requires the right environment, solid structures and governance models to support it. Commitments: leaders from both parties must be committed to the goal – and deliver on their commitments. Contributions: contributors who firmly support the coalition concept through the life of the arrangement. Competence: both parties need the right skills, talents and capabilities for the coalition to succeed. Putting together such a coalition is not easy, which is where A. T. Kearney can help. “We know from our experience that the chances of outsourcing success are far greater for companies that view their partnership as a coalition,” says Hughes. “We can show you how to get coalition-ready.”

[email protected] www.atkearney.com

INDUSTRY VIEW

Network security: to avoid viruses, most organisations will have controls on the downloading of software. Technical security features, such as firewalls, are usually managed by the IT department.

Acceptable behaviour and use for:• Internet and emails: what limits are there on personal use of internet and email?• Smartphones: employers need to update their policies to cover new and evolving ways for accessing social networking and to reflect changing employee attitudes.• Social media sites: remind employees of privacy settings. Research suggests that most employees would change what they have written on their social networking

sites if they thought their employer could read them. Also cross reference to your bullying and harassment policy.• Blogging and tweeting: if an employee is representing the company, set appropriate rules for what information they may disclose, the range of opinions they may express and reference relevant legislation on copyright and public interest disclosure.

Data protection and monitoring: have you considered alternatives to monitoring and can you justify its use in terms of the negative impact it will have on your business? Make sure you consult with your employees and their representatives.Business objectives: as well as setting clear

rules on behaviour, many employers are integrating the use of social media tools into their business strategy. Social networking can be used internally to promote levels of employee engagement and externally to promote the brand and reputation.

Disciplinary procedures: try to apply the same standards in virtual and non-virtual settings. To help you respond reasonably, consider the nature of the comments made and their likely impact on the organisation. Provide examples of what might be classed as “defamation” and the sanctions you will impose. Also, be clear about confidentiality and what constitutes intellectual property.

Source: Acas

What should be included in a written policy on the use of social media at work?

company and its leadership.However, Deloitte also puts a health

warning on the social media box: “Executives may be using social media as a crutch to build culture and seem accessible — but good leadership can’t be dialled-in. Norms for building an exceptional culture and

Putting the work

into social networking

Can social media have a positive impact on your office?


Viewpoint9

This summer has been the perfect practice run for any business considering a BYOD (bring your

own device) strategy. With delays on the roads and public transport, around a third of employers have extended flexible working practices and another 13 per cent are actively encouraging staff to

work remotely, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

But rather than seeing this as an interim policy, many firms may find that putting in place such practices

now will have longer-term benefits, such as greater flexibility and improved productivity. Mobile working is a way of life – our office has become the train seat or home – and according to research that we conducted recently, 38 per cent of us believe our job would be impossible without mobile access to work email.

With employees increasingly expecting to use their own personal devices for work, companies should embrace it. But, with all the benefits of flexibility, come questions about security and control. IT departments are faced with the challenge of allowing staff to use their own devices, while making

sure these devices are safe. Locog (London Organising

Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) is a great example of an organisation that’s allowing staff to use their device of choice in order to be more productive. Locog is using our technology to support a broad range of devices while providing enterprise-grade security across multiple platforms. Now its 14,000 personnel can handle any challenge, like organising an extended workforce of 200,000, knowing their device is absolutely secure.

Sainsbury’s, with its 150,000 staff, is also adopting a similar model, and has

already seen productivity go up, costs come down and morale rocket. Using Good Technology to provide enterprise-grade mobile security and ‘containerise’ information, the supermarket chain can keep personal and corporate data separate on the same device, and, if necessary, wipe data if the device gets lost or stolen.

A smart security approach for mobile workers benefits not just the individual, but the employer as well.

Andrew Jacques is GM for EMEA, Good Technology www.good.com [email protected]

Practice makes perfectAs more workers conduct business outside the office, mobile use is higher than ever before. But the key question is: how can you ensure your device is safe and secure?

“Management need to be clear on what they and employees can and cannot do while using social media in the workplace” –Raj Samani, McAfee

organisation have not changed.”One company which frequently has its

advice sought on the security aspects of allowing social networking in the office is McAfee, and the company’s CTO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Raj Samani, has some strong views on the subject.

In the hotseatWe ask Paul Coby, IT director at John Lewis, three burning questions

What are the main technology challenges faced by John Lewis?At John Lewis we have worked hard to develop our multi- channel offering, so that now we are an approximately 25 per cent online company by sales, with significant year on year growth. Our next challenge is to become a genuinely omni-channel retailer, offering our customers seamless service across and between channels – shops, online, mobile and social media. This will require investment in foundation systems over the next few years.

In other developments we are now set up to take Chinese credit cards at our shops on Oxford Street and in Westfield Stratford City.

Do you find that chief executives generally don’t really “get” the value of technology within their organisations? This has certainly been true in some areas of the British public and private sectors, but our senior stakeholders absolutely “get” the importance of IT to the delivery of the John Lewis’s future strategy. Our senior leadership team has been a strong supporter in developing the role and capability of the IT function within John Lewis.

What is the one item of technology (hardware or software) you could not live without?My iPad!

“Social networking blurs the lines between consumer and business,” he says, with the impact of social networking being both quite broad and also beneficial. He notes that several big banks now use social networking and social media as a tool to engage with their customers.

“Some banks provide financial incentives for customers to join their Facebook pages,” he says. “Organisations are finding a huge amount of business benefit in leveraging social networking, but with that comes risks.”

On an individual executive level, he points out, people use social networking as a form of reference for their skills and where they work. “Most employers and recruitment agencies use LinkedIn for recruitment purposes these days, so there is huge benefit from it,” Samani says. “For many people, LinkedIn is their CV.”

But there are those risks. There is the risk somebody might release or talk about things management don’t want in the public domain, and a single individual breaching confidentiality can reach a wide audience.

“Then you have the security risk,” Samani adds. “Instead of email with a malicious link, you might receive that within a social networking message.”

There is the whole subject of loss of productivity, but he feels that should have been put to bed with the initial discussions about telephone use.

To guard against the potential downside, Samani says the most important thing is to implement a digital social media policy. “Management need to be clear on what they and employees can and cannot do while using social media in the workplace,” says Samani. “What is allowed and what is not allowed should be clearly spelled out. It should also be borne in mind that the requirements of social media are slightly different from the rest of the company’s information security, and many firms are taking this into account when addressing it.”

Yes there are risks, he concludes, but there are enormous opportunities. “Apple, Facebook and Google are amongst the largest companies in the world today, but they are new companies that have leveraged technology. Take a lesson from them and do the same while managing risk to a level you are comfortable with, that is acceptable to you as a business.”

Essential: my iPad

INDUSTRY VIEW

Traditional business processes rely on people being in their offices to receive and ink-sign

paper documents. This is a problem when business is threatened by volcanic ash, strikes, sporting events, demonstrations or thefts. Ascertia changes this paradigm and provides fast, effective document workflow and digital signature approval using its SigningHub service. Business need not be

delayed anymore – documents can be securely reviewed and approved from anywhere.

SigningHub is a cloud service that is perfect for signing sales contracts, legal agreements, board papers, forms, HR and compliance documents; in fact anything requiring an ink signature. Now you can get your documents digitally signed by anyone, at any time, from anywhere using laptops, iPads or other mobile devices.

Beyond its obvious green

credentials, the savings are substantial when compared with the costs of printing, sending, scanning, faxing, courier charges, plus any resends, errors, omissions etc. SigningHub frees people to do more business rather than wasting their time chasing paper.

SigningHub is a high-availability cloud service that enables anyone to upload a document to a secure database, control who can view it and define where their digital signature will be placed. Email

messages alert recipients about the document waiting for their approval. No local software is needed, just connect using your web browser.

The key features of SigningHub include: being used as a person-to-person solution or as a digital signature front-end for any website or business application; providing current document status and a

detailed history of actions; using legally-binding individual long-term digital signatures valid for 15+ years; and using high security (AES-256 encryption and RSA 2048 signatures) together with effective DLP and date/time based controls.

www.SigningHub.com/2012 [email protected]

Signing in the cloudLiving in today’s fast-paced world means time is of the essence – and cloud technology enables people to access, review and sign documents anywhere, at anytime

Near but yet so far

For a number of years there have been rumours of an all-pervasive smartphone technology, which will transform all our

shopping habits. With a simple tap of our phones we will be able to pay for goods, collect loyalty points or download movie trailers. However, due to lack of uptake by manufacturers and complexity and competition around the payments space, the much-hyped NFC (Near Field Communications) technology could remain just that – hype.

Most successes in the mobile space – notably SMS and music downloads – have come from consumers driving mass adoption of technology, rather than the development of solutions from manufacturers. Deloitte has recently conducted a

survey showing that mobile phones will influence the purchasing decision of retail sales fourfold by 2016, accounting for 19 per cent of total sales in the US. In the UK, it is set to be even more influential as adoption of smartphones is higher. So the real question is: can the declining high street wait up to two years for NFC to revolutionise the shopping experience, when consumers want it now?

Not all companies are waiting for this holy grail of connectivity. Some are challenging the vision of an NFC future with technologies that create a smartphone retail experience now. Organisations such as Shopkick, Square and TikTap are creating mobile experiences for consumers without any reliance on NFC. Square now has two million merchants in the US processing credit card sales

on smartphones, while UK firm TikTap has closed the loop on voucher marketing by automating the redemption of coupons directly into any EPOS till with a simple tap of a smartphone.

The decline of traditional high street sales requires engagement with consumers in new and innovative ways. With the economic forecast showing marginal growth at best, consumers and retailers cannot wait for the perfect future to fit neatly together. It seems that near field may be too far off, leaving the path clear for tech-savvy new entrants who can bring speed and instant value.

Nicholas Maguire is head of M-Wallet technologies at 2ergo 0161 874 4222 www.2ergo.com

There is a lot of hype around near field communication, but is high consumer demand rendering this technology out of reach?

INDUSTRY VIEW



Industry view10

Document owner SigningHub.com

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Business application

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call us on +44 (0) 207 960 6551

INDUSTRY VIEW

By Sue Tabbitt

Many businesses still don’t do enough to prepare themselves for transport problems or other sudden disruptions to their activities, like severe weather or terrorist attacks. Yet there is now so much technology available that organisations can achieve quite a lot in a short space of time.

Consumer goods giant Unilever is one of those companies that seems reasonably well prepared, its focus sharpened by the fact that London, a national hotspot for transport problems and probably the most likely target of any future terrorist attack, is home to one of the group’s two global headquarters. Fortunately, the company has been championing flexible working rights across the global business for the past three years, seeing it as a means of gaining competitive advantage.

Unilever already promotes home working for anyone who can reasonably carry out their jobs remotely. About 80 per cent of staff take advantage of this on a regular basis, from secretaries to research and development personnel. The majority of the 2,750 employees based at Unilever’s offices in the South East (London, Leatherhead and Kingston) have laptops.

If people are not able to get into work for whatever reason, then according to Unilever’s global change and communications manager Jacobina Plummer, staff

can easily spend more time working from home. She has worked on various campaigns over the past three years to encourage employees to use tools such as Microsoft Communicator to share calendars, update their current status and stay connected with each other

wherever they are.In a recent survey among all

Unilever’s employees based in London (around 1,000 are based at Blackfriars), more than 70 per cent said they were already confident about agile working. Plummer says: “We’ve been running campaigns around Skype and Live Meeting [the Microsoft Office web conferencing service] to ensure we overcome any remaining barriers around virtual meetings. We’ll also be running workshops to influence behaviour – such as using central document tracking and staying accountable and visible using technology.”

Unilever has chosen to embrace Skype informally, offering support to users as they set it up on their various systems, in recognition of its value in connecting dispersed users quickly and easily without any real investment.

“We’re not an IT company, so we don’t have the fanciest technology,” Plummer explains. “Our view is that we should use what we have.”

Unilever is exploring the possibilities offered by Microsoft Lync Server, of making virtual working more formal, co-ordinated and robust across the business. As for IT support, this is provided remotely via a third party help desk arrangement.

It isn’t just in London that Unilever is prepared for disruption. “But agile working is in our DNA, so it won’t matter if people aren’t in the

office.” Last year, staff across the business conducted 10,000 telepresence video meetings (hosted by Teliris), in addition to 162,000 Live Meetings – double the number held in 2010. Unilever has

sought reassurance from its main service providers that the capacity needed will be there when the time comes, while the company has also stepped up its internal network investment. However, recent

research suggests that three in four company IT decision-makers are not confident that their continuity plans would be effective during a crisis, while few companies have resolved how they would manage incoming telephone calls.

Many companies will be heavily dependent on their IT and communications service providers. Out of necessity, most have been investing in ensuring their systems, network capacity and security measures are as robust as possible to avoid any significant problems if a major external event disrupts the normal flow of business. Managed services provider InTechnology recently invested in a 600 per cent increase in bandwidth across its two main UK hubs in Manchester and London.

On the home straightLondon has many quirks – but unfortunately, transport troubles is one of them. Businesses however are well-equipped thanks to today’s burgeoning technology


In focus11

Pods at Interxion mean staff can sleep at work in between shifts

All companies can take a few basic steps to prepare themselves for interruptions

Contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP)– check what provisions they’ve made and consider a service upgrade.

Is your technology set up for remote working? – consider a virtual desktop infrastructure(VDI) solution which will run efficiently even over reduced bandwidth.

Security – if employees’ home computers and smartphones are connected to company networks, they should be password-protected. Ensure removable media such as USB sticks are encrypted or use software that locks down all ports and stops data leaving the network.

Login details – ensure that everyone can remember their passwords and the procedures to log in from home.

Source: Databarracks

Protect and serve

“We’re not an IT company, so we don’t have the fanciest technology” - Plummer



Social media12

Senior managers face a tricky decision when choosing mobile platforms for their businesses. Should they stick with a tried and trusted recipe, or take a chance on something fresh?

By Paul Bray

They used to say that nobody ever got sacked for buying IBM. Until recently, much the same could be said of Research in Motion (RIM), the company behind that must-have executive accessory, the BlackBerry.

Secure, reliable and inexpensive, BlackBerry was trusted with keeping mobile workers in the loop and out of trouble, no matter how senior or sensitive their job. Even Barack Obama has one.

But in October 2011, RIM squirmed and customers fumed for three days as its network suffered

major problems. And in June 2012, the company announced a second- quarter loss and savage job cuts, and delayed the launch of its new operating system, BlackBerry 10, until next year.

While the king faltered, rivals ringed the throne. As more executives fall in love with iPads and iPhones running Apple’s operating system, iOS, demands to bring them into the corporate network are getting louder. Google’s Android operating system has some heavyweight backers, including Samsung, while the new version 8 of Microsoft Windows Phone promises a uniform experience from

desktop to palmtop.According to analyst firm

IDC, BlackBerry is now used by 35 per cent of mobile workers, iOS by 29 per cent, Android by 17 per cent, and Windows Phone by 6 per cent. Within 18 months, iOS will probably draw level with BlackBerry or take the lead, IDC predicts.

Security versus appsBlackBerry does still hold some advantage. “BlackBerry is by far the most secure smartphone operating system in terms of manageability and traditional security,” says Rik Ferguson, research director at security specialist Trend Micro. “It

was designed with management in mind and gives great granularity of control.”

But iOS is catching up, says Ferguson. The latest version offers acceptable security out-of-the- box, and is designed to work with third party security and management add-ons that bring it into the same class as BlackBerry. Windows Phone is very close behind iOS, adds Ferguson.

Only Android lags behind.

Making BlackBerry and Apple crumble

Get smarter, go mobileMore people in the UK text than call – but before companies communicate with customers in this way, they must first learn how

Today, people are busier than ever, and want to browse, consume, and communicate on the go. Smart

businesses give customers what they want. For this reason, mobile continues to grow at a rapid pace and marketers are continually implementing mobile messaging, mobile web, QR codes, mobile advertising and applications into their marketing efforts to reach consumers on the move.

Narrowcast channels such as mobile are out-gunning email and other direct response media due to targeting accuracy and cost efficiencies, but it is the incredible open rates and response rates of mobile messaging that wins every time.

Over the past few years, with the continual rise of smartphones, and more people accessing information online via their phones, mobile has become a primary

channel in the overall marketing mix, and nowadays the majority of campaigns out there have a mobile element to them.

There are many ways in which mobile can be used for businesses to boost profits, communicate with customers and run efficient operations, but this year mobile

messaging has come out on top. More people in the UK use their phones to text than to make calls these days. Ofcom released a report this month stating that there has been a clear shift away from traditional ways of staying in touch.

Educate businessesThat said, Textlocal believe there is still work to be done to educate businesses to communicate with their customers in this way.

In Textlocal’s Great British Mobile Marketing Survey, 600 businesses across the UK were asked how they used, and what they thought about, mobile marketing and

communications. We found that 86 per cent were not aware of the high response rates of SMS, which can reach up to 28 per cent – impressive when compared with email where the response rate tends to stay around 5 per cent. Similarly, 75 per cent of responders didn’t know that 97.5 per cent of all text messages are usually read within five seconds.

Alastair Shortland, CEO of Textlocal, said: “Our own research indicates that many businesses are aware of mobile messaging, but there are still some who are yet to tap into the full potential of how powerful it can be as a business driver. We know that, whether businesses have a mobile strategy or not, there will always be a place for opt-in bulk SMS within the marketing mix, as a personal

INDUSTRY VIEW

With the continual rise of smartphones, businesses must utilise technology for marketing

“Android wasn’t designed as an enterprise operating

system and has very little mature enterprise management functionality,” says Ferguson. “It’s the focus of active and sustained criminal interest, and the great majority of mobile malware runs

on Android.”Android’s latest

incarnation, version 4, has much improved

security, and manufacturers such as Samsung offer

enhanced security options. But the fragmented nature of Android

– an “open source” product that can be implemented and changed by many vendors – remains a worry.

“If it were my enterprise I’d allow Android for employees’ own

devices, but only if they had very little or no access to sensitive information,” says Ferguson.

If BlackBerry is the gold standard for security and manageability, iOS has that accolade when it comes to applications, says Nick McQuire, research director for mobile enterprise strategies at IDC.

“The desire to increase employee productivity means firms want a more ‘consumer-grade’ experience on corporate devices,” he says. “Many are starting to look at iOS as an application platform, retaining BlackBerry for email only.”

Low demandRIM is somewhat peeved by this

approach. “The latest BlackBerrys can do everything other products can do – still and video camera, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC and so on – but companies turn it all off,” protests RIM’s director of enterprise, Mike Gibson.

The company even has its own tablet, the PlayBook, though it trails far behind the iPad in popularity.

Windows Phone has the attraction of being able to run core Microsoft software such as SharePoint and Office.

“It should be strong for business devices because of its tight application integration and potential as a development environment,” says Jeremy Spencer, head of corporate

propositions at Orange. “With Windows Phone 8 I think Microsoft will start winning back market share.”

However, for many companies the key question is not which mobile operating system to standardise on, but how to accommodate several. As if in acknowledgment, the latest version of RIM’s Mobile Fusion device management software can manage iOS and Android devices.

“Most companies acknowledge that the more you say ‘no’, the less secure your organisation becomes, because people find unauthorised alternatives,” says McQuire.

“It’s a consumer-driven market now, and there’s a lot more pressure to stay agnostic and support all platforms as they become popular with users, whether that’s for corporate-owned equipment or employees bringing their own devices.”


Social media13

86%of respondents were not aware of the high response rate of SMS marketing

97.5% of all text messages are read within five seconds of being received. Source: Ofcom

53% of businesses rank mobile marketing as their number one way to communicate, while 67 per cent feel that both mobile and internet marketing are the most important channels

63% of businesses surveyed said that SMS text marketing was more effective than email

Source: Textlocal inside mobile research

The numbers

“Both BlackBerry and Apple offer an acceptable – very small – level of risk” Robert Cockerill, head of infrastructure, Thames River Capital

“We got BlackBerrys because they gave us the resilience and security we needed in advance of the Apple offering. Now we’re piloting RIM’s PlayBook tablets. BlackBerry has proved very reliable and there’s still a sense that if you go with RIM you know what you’re getting. Standardising on one platform thelps achieve economies of scale.But our security requirements are relatively modest, and as consumerisation and bring your own device (BYOD) become more common I think people will feel secure with Apple, too. Many firefighters have iPhones and want to use them, and there are several iPhone apps that are relevant to their work.

CIOs need to be people who say

yes, and we would be straitjacketing ourselves if we

didn’t allow non-RIM devices.”

– Neil Moore, head of ICT, Hampshire

Fire and Rescue Service

In my opinion...

communication tool, sales or promotion tool or simply to send alerts and updates. Texting leads the way in fast, low-cost, direct conversations with consumers.”

Twenty-three years on and the humble SMS still has an important role to play in mobile marketing: as a driver for action, response or as a delivery mechanism. The problem for many businesses is understanding what mobile entails, how versatile it can be, and how it can be used to target audiences on mass.

The right toolsSo the question is, how do you rapidly reach out to a mass audience on the fly? How do you capture their contact details and communicate targeted messages to them in seconds? Mobile messaging gives you the tools to do this.

Using shortcodes, and even QR codes to encourage people to opt-in to receive your communications is powerful. No other marketing tool can do this while customers

are on the move, instantly and for little cost. It can be as simple as advertising a shortcode in a prime location, (for example, text EVENT to 60777) inviting people to text to receive more info, discounted offers, confirmations, alerts or promotions. In a short time, you can easily

build a substantial list of opted-in mobile numbers. Allowing customers to opt-in to receive your marketing, means that your follow-up activity becomes more targeted, and in turn increases return on investment; collecting the numbers during a busy period gives you the opportunity to build and maintain those relationships in the long-term.

Mobile messaging is based on permission and trust, allowing any businesses to grow opt-in lists of customer data and intelligence and to send targeted communications directly into the palms of customers’ hands. So why are so many businesses still yet to unlock the full potential of mobile messaging? Do they feel it’s had its day? Or is it because they don’t understand how it can be used alongside other marketing channels?

SMS has moved on: it can now incorporate rich media like links to websites and documents, and the overwhelming advantage that mobile has is its capacity to reach people virtually instantly, wherever they are, usually within five seconds.

Shortland concludes: “Our award-winning system Messenger 2.0 could be described as a free bespoke project management tool for your mobile messaging campaigns. It has

been developed through years of experience working with all types of businesses with the aim of making them more profitable. It provides the ability to auto-schedule campaigns to reach different recipients at specific times, send shortened links to free mobile sites created in the platform, generate QR codes, and location-based functionality.

The opportunities are endless. If you’re in the restaurant trade for example, you can build a free mobile web page containing your whole menu or specials board and send it to your whole database of opted-in contacts in seconds for pennies. There really is nothing else like it on the market and we feel if every business understood this it would help change the face of British business.”

Textlocal provide those businesses with the tools to reach thousands of people instantly from one central award-winning platform, managing responses and opening up long-term conversations and relationships. After all, isn’t

texting about convenience, speed and that personal touch?

One thing is clear: it is here to stay.

Download the white paper by visiting www.textlocal.com/telegraph Or text: REPORT to 60777

The overwhelming advantage that mobile has is its capacity to reach people virtually instantly

75% of businesses

have not unlocked the potential of mobile marketing

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

iOS Android Windows 7

Activations by platform Q2 2012: April - June

Source: Good

APR 2012 MAY 2012 JUNE 2012 Q2 TOTAL



Expert panel14

VIEW FROM THE TOP INDUSTRY VIEW

Preparation is the keyWhat are the most significant cyber threats facing those in charge of a large-scale IT infrastructure project?

Kate Craig-Wood

Managing director Memset

memset.com

At high-profile events, millions of cyber attacks are expected per day. Focus can often be on ticket fraud, and while online fraud and “phishing” are certainly increasing in sophistication, I foresee a larger threat from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

We host 20,000 of Britain’s largest websites and see 20 DDoS attacks every hour,

most of which are deflected and absorbed thanks to our automated defences and multi-gigabit uplinks.

High-profile websites are tempting targets; last year hacker group LulzSec brought down soca.gov.uk and cia.gov with DDoS attacks.

Emma Morgan

Founder and managing director Business Leadership Exchange

thebusinessleadershipexchange.com

Basic phishing scams are long gone; today, a large-scale IT infrastructure faces far more sophisticated threats. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are well funded, motivated and researched.

Once inside, cyber criminals are undetectable, extracting data or using malware too fresh to be recognised by antivirus software, bringing down the

IT environment. A secure perimeter alone is not enough; you must have rigorous internal defences on the assumption you will be breached. These APTs represent the biggest threat to large IT systems. Only by sharing best practice tips and implementing a complex suite of defences will an organisation prevent being on the growing list of victims.

Andrew Jacques

GM for EMEA Good Technology

good.com

Bill McCluggage

Chief technologist – Public Sector, EMC Computer Systems (UK) Ltd

uk.emc.com

Bring your own device (BYOD) is part of most large-scale IT infrastructure projects today. With this trend a new world of cyber threats accompanies it, the critical one being data loss.

With BYOD corporate data is used on the same device as personal data, giving ample opportunity for data leakage and critical company information to get

into the wrong hands.IT organisations are

challenged with guarding against data loss, whilst still ensuring full use of mobile devices.

The key to this lies in protecting the data rather than the device itself and separating corporate data from personal.

Securing the IT for this year’s ‘digital events’ in London against cyber attack is a daunting challenge.

Critical infrastructure has been locked, standardisation has been a key cyber defence posture, network capacity has quadrupled and extensive and exhaustive testing has been carried out.

The most significant cyber threats are likely to come from

unexpected places. The highest risk is from human error triggering a perception of a successful attack, then the threat of Trojans exploiting sophisticated social engineering and DDoS attempts. Fraudsters are more likely to target lucrative scams on the unsuspecting public via their smartphones rather than attack a hardened infrastructure.

Rob Rachwald

Director of security strategy Imperva

imperva.com

Andrew Farrell

CEO Matchbox Mobile

matchboxmobile.com

There are many, from straightforward denial of service attacks through to deliberate attacks using specially crafted exploits.

However, the biggest issue is people as many businesses increase staff and contractors to handle the extra workload. Without adequate training and procedures, social engineering attacks and the accidental (or intentional)

abuse by staff are likely to be the hardest area to both monitor and secure against.

Social engineering attacks can form part of an Advanced Persistent Threat, or APT, which uses multiple attacks with a single objective.

Stressful environments and poor procedures can lead to poor decision-making. Staff need training and resources to cope effectively.

Large-scale events are a hotbed for cyber security incidents The UK, London particularly, is at risk this summer as hacking has evolved tremendously in the past four years. There are three types of attacks that are especially threatening at the moment:

Data theft - Hackers will try to obtain and expose sensitive data. For-profit

hackers will try to make money while hacktivists will use data for humiliation.

Denial of service - Primarily hacktivists will deploy distribute denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks which attempt to bring down a website. The purpose is to embarrass organisations.

Website defacement – Hackers may try to deface websites.

Weathering a signalling storm

More than ever, the surplus of three million visitors in London this summer will share their unique

experience with friends through social networks and mobile apps on their smartphone. For them, this is the ultimate use of wireless technology. But for the wireless carriers, it will mean almost crisis levels of wireless signaling traffic and data throughput.

Unfortunately, the problem is broader than this – all across the globe the explosion of smartphones and their chatty

apps generates a data tsunami and a signaling storm that threatens wireless networks with a meltdown.

Why? Many of today’s smartphone apps constantly ping the network to keep their content up to date. In fact, it is estimated that while the average smartphone user only actively interacts with his/her device two hours per day, the device still gets on the network during the other 22 hours of the day. Social messaging, email, chat, news, weather updates, ads – all of

this information is downloaded in the background. That’s why all of the smartphones in the capital, with their constant network requests, could potentially bring down the network.

But there is a solution. SEVEN’s Open Channel is the leading traffic optimisation solution on the market. Open Channel tames mobile app chattiness and eliminates unnecessary traffic by filtering out thousands of extraneous network requests made by every app on a device. No app rewriting is needed, and Open Channel has no impact on performance. A side benefit is that fewer requests mean longer battery life which makes consumers very happy.

[email protected] www.seven.com/openchannel

Smartphones could bring down networks


Industry view15

INDUSTRY VIEW

Secure your data in a mobile worldThe evolution of mobile security poses a risk to valuable data, and while there are many solutions, the three-tiered approach proves highly popular

As more people work from home, IT is faced with the increasing challenge of balancing employees’ desire for

greater mobility and choice with the need to secure company data.

Whether it’s remote salespeople or high-level executives, smartphone, tablet and at-home log-ins will involve the use and storage of enterprise data, of varied sensitivity.

Those that ignore the inevitable trickle of mobile devices into the enterprise risk suffering significant fines and reputational damage should a data breach occur.

A three-tiered approach to secure mobility is best: offer secure connections, protect the data and monitor devices.

Securing connectionsEmployees can get encrypted mobile access to company data on the corporate LAN through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPN clients exist for virtually all of the popular mobile platforms and while applications might be run locally, the data, in theory, remains ‘upstream’, encrypted and protected in the company servers.

However, without an effective mechanism to ensure the data isn’t copied to a local device, VPN solutions don’t necessarily allow CISOs to sleep well at night.

Securing dataA more sophisticated way to protect data and integrate mobile devices is through

cloud-based multi-tenancy. The term ‘multi-tenancy’ here describes a mobile device that contains both an employee’s personal data and corporate data.

Backend servers deploy services to the device and the virtualisation solution runs in its own space to keep data firmly segmented, copying nothing but the client application to the endpoint.

Securing devicesMobile device management (MDM), for example Absolute Software’s Absolute Manage and Computrace, can remotely monitor smartphones and tablets.

This provides alerts of error conditions as

they happen, so if a tablet is

never supposed to leave a factory floor

and a geotechnology alerting system

indicates it is travelling to an employee’s home, an alert

of a potential breach and resultant liability scenario is sent. The same technology can also flag potentially dangerous applications installed on an endpoint – and can lock, wipe, or reset an out-of-control device.

0118 902 2000 www.absolute.com

INDUSTRY VIEW

Brand new behaviourA new image-recognition tool is on a mission to revolutionise traditional media and advertising – as well as becoming a lower-case verb

Blippar is a revolution for traditional media and advertising offering the

power to turn every single piece of printed collateral or physical branding in the real world into an instantaneous, interactive experience. Already embraced by the likes of Tesco, Nike, L’Oreal, Budweiser, EMI, Universal Music, Dominos, Unilever, PepsiCo, Waitrose, Cadbury, Sony, Mercedes, Nestle, Samsung, Xbox, Heinz, and more, Blippar is the market leader and projecting rapid, international expansion with a view towards becoming the world’s default smartphone ‘lens’ and eponymous verb ‘to blipp’ for real-world image recognition and augmented reality executions.

How do you know you’ve made it in the world of technology?

That would be when you become a lower-case verb.

Google (to google something), Twitter (to tweet a thought) and Facebook (to facebook somebody) have all done it.

So what about Blippar? Have you ‘blipped’ anything lately? Probably not - but it’s early days. And there’s a chance that within a few years you might not just ‘blipp’ something - but you’ll know it when you’ve done it.

Blippar has also a rapidly-growing audience of 1m users who are engaging with their favourite brands motivated by, and interested in, brand engagement. Campaigns with music superstars like Justin Bieber and The Wanted does take the platform and behaviour to mass market adoption.

Blippar is an award-winning start-up, which uses image recognition to bring

ads to life. They’ve won best start-up awards at

LeWeb, CES, Mobile World Congress, AR Summit and many more.

Ambarish Mitra, CEO and co-founder of

Blippar says, “Blippable ads have appeared in print, on walls, on products, on TV and pretty much anywhere you can imagine. We predict the behaviour of blipping and interacting with the real world will become a mass-consumer behaviour in next five years.”

Blippar demand across the pond has influenced the start-up to launch in US with a base in New York.

Download Blippar from the app store [email protected]

INDUSTRY VIEW

1 Download the Blippar

app on to your device

The surge in smartphone use has triggered a data deluge, threatening wireless networks with collapse – but there’s a solution at hand

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The smartphones in the capital could potentially bring down the network

Watch as the page comes

to life

Point your camera at

‘Blippable’ page

Watch as the page comes

to life2 3

By Jonathan Watson

What technology projects is the BBC working on at the moment?One of the things we’re doing is working on collaboration tools for our journalists. We have journalists all over the world, so when a major news story breaks, we find that a lot of them are all working on different parts of the same story.

Historically it’s been quite difficult for them to share their findings, so we’ve developed JPortal (The Journalism Portal), which is a way for journalists to share background information and sources. It’s based on the Microsoft SharePoint platform. That’s fundamentally changing the way our journalists work by giving them access to better information and helping them avoid duplication.

We’ve also done a lot of work on the virtualisation of local radio. Historically, broadcast technology was engineered to be robust and resilient which made it quite expensive. Over the past fiveto six years, more people have started using commodity IT technology with software on top of it to do what they used to do with dedicated broadcast and content production tools.

This has prompted us to ask

ourselves if we could take all the equipment out of the radio studio, put it away somewhere in a data centre and then share it between all BBC radio studios. In England, for example, we have about 80 local radio studios and each one has huge amounts of equipment. Recently we ran a pilot in Northampton where we took all that kit out of the studio and the presenters just had a microphone, a headset and control services.

That makes things significantly cheaper and enables us to provide the latest greatest technology to multiple radio stations all at once. It also offers fantastic resilience in that you can log on from anywhere and become any BBC radio station. So if Northampton’s building was shut for some reason, they could just go to any other BBC studio, log on and provide all their usual programming from there.

What about cloud?We’re not particularly early adopters. People are using tools such as Dropbox to access documents from their mobile devices, and we use cloud services from Amazon and IBM for building software development and test environments. We’re taking a slow approach because we want to be sure it makes sense for us, and there are

still some parts of our systems that we can’t put in the cloud because of Patriot Act issues and the BBC’s need to protect confidential information.

Does the licence fee freeze mean you have to do more with less?The BBC is actually spending slightly more on technology because apart from our people, it’s our biggest area of leverage in terms of how we can make the BBC more nimble and agile. We have a big Skype trial going on; we’re about to deploy the Microsoft Lync unified communications platform; we’ve upgraded our Wi-Fi in all BBC locations; we’re developing flexible working, allowing people to access BBC systems remotely; and we’re developing a policy for BYOD (bring your own device), allowing people to connect their own mobiles and tablets to

BBC systems. None of this is sexy IT but is fundamental to the way people work.

If you look at the overall technology spend of the BBC, it accounts for 12 per cent of our revenue. That’s a healthy spend on technology. The BBC started out as a technology company, building its own transmitters and microphones. The number two role in the BBC for the first 14 to 15 years of its existence was the chief engineer. In the last 4 to 5 years, technology has come back to the fore because it’s a great enabler and differentiator for organisations like ours. There is a resurgence of technology taking place at the BBC.

JOHN LINWOOD, BBC CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

Going back to my rootsBBC CIO John Linwood reveals a resurgence of technology is taking place at the British broadcaster

Can radio producers work with just a headset and microphone?



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