While hybrid working has now become an established practice, debate has continued around whether workers can maintain similar productivity at home as in the office. According to research sponsored by Kyocera and conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, 64% of employees that fully support using digital tools have seen an increase in productivity when working remotely. The report identified a positive correlation between the greater uptake of digital tools and increased productivity. Of those who reported their employees as extremely supportive of using digital tools, 64% saw an increase in productivity and just 17% a decrease. Among those who believed productivity had decreased with remote work, 38% attribute the decrease to their employees not having access to tools for information management. Group Sales & Marketing Director Martin Fairman, said: “Higher productivity among larger companies compared to smaller companies is likely down to funding. Put simply, bigger organisations have the funds and resources to provide tools such as work laptops or information management software. While SMEs don’t have the same financial clout, they do tend to be more agile and can implement new tools more quickly, so should take advantage of this as best as possible. A good strategy and a willingness to invest in digital evolution will pay dividends in the long run.” www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.co.uk BULLETIN Keeping productive Over-stressed and under-prepared Osirium’s 2021 Ransomware Index survey has revealed that 46% of its 1001 UK IT manager respondents don’t believe they invest enough to prevent ransomware attacks, whilst a similar number (52%) don’t feel supported to do so by their company’s board. The survey findings raise concerns about UK IT teams’ ability to properly manage potential ransomware attacks, of which their likelihood of becoming a victim is increasing rapidly. Of those surveyed, only 21% claimed they had never been attacked. Perhaps more surprisingly, 53% of respondents agreed with the statement: “It would be cheaper to pay the ransom demand than continuously invest in preventing ransomware”. More than half of the survey respondents also claimed that they do not have sufficient budget/ resources to cope with the constantly evolving threat landscape, which makes the research finding, that many feel the only way to deal with the problem is to pay, even more impactful. The stress to UK IT managers, caused by the spectre of Ransomware, is an increasingly significant downside to an already difficult job. 86% of the IT managers surveyed said they feel stressed about the prospects of a ransomware attack, with 22% saying it more than doubled their stress levels. www.osirium.com IoT security challenges Research by Inmarsat reveals that most businesses face security challenges when deploying IoT solutions. The 450 global respondents across a range of industries surveyed said the fear of external cyberattacks and poor network security are their two biggest concerns, underlining the need for stronger cyber-security defences for their IoT solutions. The research also shows businesses are increasingly taking proactive measures to combat IoT security threats, such as introducing internal IoT security policies and investing in new security technologies. More than three quarters (77%) of respondents said their organisation’s IoT projects could be more secure. Half of all businesses consider the risk of an external cyber-attack the biggest security challenge associated with the use of IoT projects within their organisations. The other top IoT security threats identified include poor network security (49%), insecure or unencrypted edge networks and employees mishandling data (both 44%). www.inmarsat.com Machine learning Research from STX Next has found that 68% of CTOs have implemented machine learning. This makes it overwhelmingly the most popular subset of AI, with others such as natural language processing (NLP), pattern recognition and deep learning also showing considerable growth. Despite the popularity of AI and its various subsets, it’s also clear that AI implementation is still in its early phases and there’s progress to be made in recruiting the talent needed for its development. 63% of CTOs reported that they aren’t actively hiring AI talent and of those that are, over 50% report facing recruitment challenges. www.stxnext.com PRINTITRESELLER.UK 7 01732 759725 1680 We can buy your unused toners As a Managed Print Service provider, we understand how important it is to deliver the best value and performance to your customers. After all, your business is all about helping your customers to reduce costs, optimise efficiency and automate processes. Our dedicated team at The Jolly Savage work closely with many Managed Print Service businesses to handle their customers’ surplus toner stock; if you have unused toners that you are interested in selling, contact us today for a no obligation quote. Are you a Managed Print Service provider? 01462 60 50 50 · [email protected] · www.thejollysavage.co.uk Martin Fairman
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