THE TECHNOLOGY &WORKPLACE MAGAZINE FOR SMES & PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATIONS WWW.BUSINESSINFOMAG.UK ISSUE149 CYBERSECURITY How to protect your business from this year’s biggest cyber threats PAGE 32 COLLABORATION Martin Day shares his Top Tips for avoiding hybrid meeting hell PAGE 16 IT SUPPORT IT support when you need it, at a price you can afford PAGE 24 Welcome back to the office See page 10
2 0 2 2 At each event there will be a prize for Overall Highest Score for the Day, Longest Drive and Nearest the Pin. At the final event the top 6 players from the first three rounds will play for Overall Golfer of the Year 2022. All other players will still be able to play for Overall Highest Score for the Day, Longest Drive and Nearest the Pin. The PrintIT Reseller and Technology Reseller Golf Society is open to everyone; Resellers, Dealers, VARs, System Integrators and Vendors – the maximum number of players being 72 at each event. The top two players from each of the first three events will play to become the Overall Golfer of the Year 2022 at the final event taking place at the Warwickshire. The Golf Society is open to everyone no matter what your handicap is... so don’t be shy. Come and join us. & The four events for this year... The First round will take place at Belton Woods Golf Resort on the 12th May. The Third round will take place at Wyboston Lakes Resort on the 14th July. The Second round will take place at The Welcombe Golf Resort on the 9th June. The Final round will be played at the Warwickshire on the Kings Course on the 22nd September. The is cost per event is £99 per player or £396 per four ball + VAT. SPONSORSHIP If you would like to discuss the opportunities available, please call Martin on 01732 759725 or Paul on 07887 944433, email [email protected] If you would like to join us at any of the events please email [email protected] or call Paul on 07887 944433
IN THIS ISSUE 04 What’s New A round-up of new products for work and home 08 B ulletin Top tips for successful email prospecting 10 Workplace How to increase productivity through smart office design 11 D igital Transformation Dr Vijay Magon explains what the NHS must do to maximise the impact of IT investment 14 S ecurity Why it pays to take voice fraud seriously 15 Audio IRIS Clarity promises clearer conversations 16 Collaboration How to avoid hybrid meeting hell 17 Computing Introducing the Logitech Pen 18 IP Telephony Snom celebrates its first 25 years 21 E-commerce How Doji aims to disrupt the market for used mobile phones 24 Tech Support NerdApp targets businesses with expanded offering 28 I couldn’t do my job without... Kieran Dalton, Cloud Sales Manager for NEC, on what he relies on to get his work done 30 HybridWorking How to build a sustainable hybrid working model that works for your business and your people 32 Cybersecurity Jeremy Handy identifies this year’s big cyber threats and explains how to counter them 34 Month in Numbers The world of work in numbers Editor: James Goulding 0780 308 7228 · [email protected] Publishing Director, Social Media &Web Editor: Neil Trim 01732 759725 · [email protected] Advertising Director: EthanWhite 01732 759725 · [email protected] Group Sales: Martin Jenner-Hall 07824 552116 · [email protected] Art Director: Nick Pledge 07767 615983 · [email protected] Advertising Executive: James Trim 01732 759725 · [email protected] Business Info is a controlled circulation magazine. Applications for free copies will be considered upon receipt of a completed and signed reader info card or online form. Business Info is available on subscription @ £40 p.a. to UK companies or residents and @ £75 p.a. for non-UK subscribers. The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the publishers who cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. No part of Business Info magazine can be reproduced without the prior permission of the publisher. © Copyright 2022 Kingswood Media Ltd. ISSN 1464-8814 Design: Sandtiger Media – www.sandtiger.co.uk FOR THE LATEST INDUSTRY NEWS VISIT: WWW.BUSINESSINFOMAG.UK “ ” Comment Kingswood Media Ltd., 10 Amherst House, 22 London Road, Sevenoaks TN13 2BT Tel: 01732 759725 • Email: [email protected] BUSINESS INFO GET YOUR FREE COPY To make sure you get every issue FREE, as soon as it is published, just visit www.businessinfomag.uk, click the ‘FREE Registration’ button and add your details to our mailing list. @BinfoMag facebook.com/ BinfoMag If you no longer wish to receive Business Info magazine please email your details to [email protected] I wonder where you are as you read this. Are you at your kitchen table between Zoom meetings or back in your office surrounded by fewer people (and more meeting spaces) than you remember there being before? Perhaps you are in a sound-proofed booth in a branch of Costa Coffee (see page 8) or pounding the treadmill at your local gym and taking advantage of discounted membership offered by your employer. In today’s hybrid working world, you could be anywhere. This presents business managers with major questions around corporate identity, productivity, security, resilience and equity – i.e. fairness between those who have the freedom to work anywhere and those who are required to work in one place or, as Martin Day points out on page 16 in relation to meetings, equal visibility and access for all employees, regardless of whether they are joining via a corporate collaboration system or a mobile device. Guaranteeing this, he suggests, requires new rules and most probably some form of moderation or intervention. On page 30 Simon O’Kane explains how work management platforms can help businesses address another potential difficulty with hybrid working – the amount of time people spend on status checks and meetings. He suggests that having one place where team members can find all they need will help reduce what he calls ‘work about work’, remove silos and create a common sense of purpose. Hybrid working also raises issues around tech support, which NerdApp is addressing with on demand back-up for businesses and service providers (see page 24), and, of course, security. On page 32 Jeremy Hendy, CEO of digital risk specialist Skurio, highlights some of this year’s biggest threats and explains what small and medium-sized businesses can do to protect themselves. The last 24 months have shown the extent to which businesses have been able to adapt and keep working no matter what obstacles have been placed in their way. The challenge now is to move from a reactive mindset to a proactive one and to develop and implement hybrid working and digital transformation strategies created specifically for the new world of work, whether you are a small local business or the NHS (see page 11). James Goulding, Editor, [email protected] 03 magazine
businessinfomag.uk magazine 04 Recipe for success CIONET, a community of 10,000 business executives in 20 countries, has produced a cookbook for business success in which 25 of today’s most influential CIOs share their tips on how to thrive in a rapidly changing digital era. The CIONET Cookbook: Recipes for Digital Success covers what a leading digitally led business looks like; what tools make up the best IT kitchens; and what is expected of IT Master Chefs and their teams. www.cionet.com No touching required The product of a partnership between Samsung Electronics Europe and iNUI Studio, the interactive AIRxTOUCH KIOSK Series 3 features a hygienic touchless design perfect for busy environments like airports and train stations. The combination of Samsung’s 55in, 4K screen, iNUI Studio’s AIR TOUCH optical sensors and a powerful processor delivers he same experience as a standard touchscreen kiosk without the need physically to touch the screen. Instead, users can click, doubleclick, drag & drop, slide and zoom using gesture alone. news.samsung.com Reskube, an enterprise-grade remote working resilience solution, is designed to combat the growing threat of internet and power outages suffered by two in three people who worked from home last year. Developed in partnership with APC by Schneider Electric, the UK-made solution monitors the supply of home internet and power and instantly provides back up if either drops off. Once supply is restored, the Reskube switches seamlessly back to the home network and power. Reskube is available in models with different levels of backup, with or without a SIM, depending on customer requirements. It can be bought outright from £599 per unit or acquired as a service from Computacenter or Kyndryl, with subscriptions starting at £39 per unit, per month. Reskube.com Smarter glasses Dynabook has updated its dynaEdge AR smart glasses solution with a new mobile edge computing device offering improved mobility, performance and security for diagnostic and repair applications, information capture/sharing and data processing in remote locations. Key features of theWindows 10/11 Pro dynaEdge DE200 include 4G LTE integration so that users can connect via 4G independently of a smartphone; an AI engine that offers improved image quality and video streaming; a choice of 11th Gen Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors; better data security, with support for Active Directory, in conjunction with two-factor authentication; on-device data classification to mandate how data is shared; and the option to extend battery life by connecting a power bank via the device’s universal Type C charging connector. https://uk.dynabook.com/ generic/dynaedge/ Resilience for home workers Foldable smartphone Huawei Consumer Business Group’s flagship foldable smartphone, the HUAWEI P50 Pocket Premium Edition, is the result of a collaboration with haute couture designer Iris Van Herpen. Highlights include a 6.9in display (when unfolded) with a 21:9 ratio perfect for viewing cinematic content; an improved hinge and seamless folding design; a smart cover screen for notifications and easy access to services; and enhanced camera functionality. Two notable features are Sunscreen detection, accessed via the Mirror app, which lets you check for bare patches; and Super Privacy mode, which automatically disables the cameras, microphone and location when the device is folded. The HUAWEI P50 Pocket is available in White or Premium Gold. consumer.huawei.com The missing piece Sophos has strengthened its secure access portfolio, which already includes Sophos Firewall and Sophos Wireless, with the launch of a new range of network access layer switches to connect, power and control device access within a Local Area Network (LAN). The Sophos Switch Series, featuring models with 8, 24 and 48 ports, integrates seamlessly with the Sophos adaptive cybersecurity ecosystem and can be remotely managed through Sophos Central, a cloud-based platform that enables partners to monitor and manage all customer installations, respond to alerts, and track licences and upcoming renewal dates via a single, intuitive interface. News.sophos.com WH AT ’ S N E W INNOVATIONS
01732 759725 05 magazine Modular UPS for harsh sites Riello UPS has launched a range of uninterruptible power supplies for industrial sites with harsh environmental conditions, such as high dust and humidity levels. Based on its transformer-free Sentryum series, the Sentryum Rack is available as a 20 kVA standalone rackmount UPS, suitable for plug and play installation in standard 19inch server racks, or as a modular UPS that can be scaled to a maximum capacity of 160 kVA. Power connectors (input, output, batteries) are isolated from communications connections to eliminate the possibility of any disturbance from the grid supply network – a common issue in industrial environments. Available with single-phase or three-phase output, the UPS has an operating efficiency of up to 96.3% in online mode and the ability to deal with sudden load peaks without having to transfer to bypass. https://www.riello-ups.co.uk/ products/1-ups/144-sentryum-rack www.riello-ups.co.uk Three’s a crowd Powell Software’s recently launched intranet for small businesses has been garlanded with a trio of awards. Accessible from Microsoft Teams, Together provides a secure, all-inone workspace, deployable in minutes, and a single, intuitive interface through which workers can collaborate, share documents, socialise on a Virtual Coffee Machine app and access support via the HR Hub. Together’s success in helping SMEs support remote and hybrid workers was recognised at the International Brilliance Awards, where it won Gold awards for Innovative use of Technology in HR and for Brilliance in use of Technology in Internal Communications, and at the 2021 HRO Association awards, where it won the award for Innovation in HR Technology Small-Mid Market EMEA. https://powell-software.com Enhanced support Brother has enhanced support for its TJ range of industrial thermal printers with the launch of a next-day maintenance service on top of the standard three-year returnto-base warranty. Available with the options of five-day or seven-day cover, Brother ONSITE guarantees a next-day visit from an engineer for any fault reported before 3pm. The introduction of Brother ONSITE follows the launch of Brother’s Managed Label Services (MLS), which enables firms to acquire Brother label printers, third party hardware, software, services, supplies and warranties like Brother ONSITE via a monthly payment plan. www.brother.co.uk Surface protection Bluechipworld Sales & Marketing, distributor of the Bioarmor range of antimicrobial, antibacterial & anti-viral products, is actively seeking independent and multi-site retailers to stock the company’s wipes and sprays. Bioarmor claims that a surface coating applied by wipe or spray protects surfaces for 90 days and is 99.9% effective in reducing Human Coronavirus Type 229E, as well as phi6 enveloped virus, E-coli and MRSA. Bioarmor has surface protection packs for six categories including a home and small office pack and a mobile phone, tech and gadget pack. Interested parties should email [email protected] or [email protected]. https://bioarmor-nano. com/collections/trade Accounts payable Quadient has enhanced its Intelligent Communication Automation portfolio, which already includes the YayPay accounts receivable (AR) solution, with a cloud-based accounts payable (AP) solution. Available in North America since 2012 and now launched in the UK, Beanworks by Quadient provides accounting teams with a faster, more secure way to approve invoices and pay vendors from anywhere. Features include automatic data capture, multi-level invoice approval channels, purchase order matching and integrations with financial software including QuickBooks, Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 200, Sage 300, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Xero and NetSuite. www.beanworks.com INNOVATIONS Cyber exercises The Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) has launched a Micro Exercise in a Box programme to help organisations protect themselves from cyber-attack. Providing real world scenarios against which businesses can test their cyber resilience, each free, 90-minute session combines aspects of existing SBRC Exercise in a Box workshops with broader cyber security learnings. Available in virtual and in-person formats, Micro Exercise in a Box workshops cover topics such as password security, identifying phishing emails, connecting securely during remote work and responding to a ransomware attack. www.sbrcentre.co.uk Partnering with the best ArcticWolf has entered into a global partnership with Formula 1 world champions Red Bull Racing Honda. As official cybersecurity partner, Arctic Wolf will implement its cybersecurity operations platform across the team’s existing technology and security infrastructure – at the factory, the track and at all points in between – to ensure that all cloud, network and endpoint activity is safely monitored 24x7 to reduce exposure to cyber threats. Christian Horner, CEO of Red Bull Racing Honda, said: “Our partnership with ArcticWolf will enhance our team’s world-class cybersecurity operations that are required to help design and test the car, win races, achieve world championship titles and keep our data safe.” arcticwolf.com Quadient Beanworks ISSUE 149
businessinfomag.uk magazine 06 INNOVATIONS A bed with a view PPDS is bringing personalised viewing to hospital patients in a new partnership with display mounting specialist Glamox. Supporting faster and more economical installs, the agreement enables PPDS to provide partners and healthcare customers with a complete TV and mounting solution comprising a 19in Philips Heartline Android TV and a Glamox Luxo Maximum self-balancing arm that enables patients to adjust TV position and angle for viewing comfort. https://www.ppds.com Xerox is helping overcome delays and bottlenecks in everyday processes with the launch of a cloud-based software platform that gives 24/7, secure access to workflow automation and digitisation tools from any device (PC, tablet, smartphone, multifunction printer), when in the office, at home or in transit. XeroxWorkflow Central enables users to transform printed and digital documents into the optimum format for sharing, editing and processing. Core capabilities include the ability to turn handwriting into text; to translate to and from over 40 languages; to convert PDF or image files into Microsoft Office formats; to redact sensitive information; to convert documents into audio files; to merge and combine files; and to summarise lengthy reports. Advanced subscriptions include additional functionality, such as the ability to create custom workflows, to route documents to cloud-hosted repositories and to encrypt and track emails and attachments. xerox.com Say goodbye to bottlenecks Cloud contact centre Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) has enhanced its contact centre offering with a hybrid, cloud-based Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution powered by Akio. Offering seamless omnichannel customer communications across voice and digital channels (email, live chat and social media), ALE Connect features a single unified interface for agents, multi-tasking to manage different interactions simultaneously and AI-based assistance for a better, faster customer experience. Its hybrid cloud architecture enables organisations to leverage their existing communication equipment. al-enterprise.com Simpler SASE Aryaka’s new range of all-in-one SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE) solutions offer a non-disruptive way to accommodate the migration of workloads to the cloud and to meet the connectivity and security needs of a hybrid workforce. Based upon Aryaka’s FlexCore architecture, Aryaka’s new EZ and Pro lines for SMEs and mid-to-large enterprises respectively provide a simpler way to acquire managed SASE and SD-WAN offerings, with T-shirt size pricing models (a-la-carte pricing is also available), standardisation of the five most requested service tiers and a new silver support tier for customers with lower response time and support requirements. www.aryaka.com A healthy App-etite With Steambox, there is no excuse not to eat warm, healthy and fresh meals wherever you are. The portable, rechargeable steamer can produce a nutritious meal in just 15 minutes, and heat three meals on a single charge. Just press a button or use the associated app to start a specific steaming programme. The first Steamboxes are due to be delivered in April, following two years of development and successful crowdfunding campaigns. Timeless design As part of its multi-year partnership with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team, global audio brand EPOS is launching a co-branded headset featuring accents in iconic Aston Martin British Racing Green. The sleek, contemporary ADAPT 660 AMC also boasts outstanding functionality including superb call clarity powered by EPOS AI machine learning algorithms; four adaptive ANC microphones that monitor a user’s environment and adjust noise reduction accordingly; a dedicated Microsoft Teams function for collaborative working; tap and hold to activate Alexa Voice Assistant; and a 30-hour battery life for long-lasting performance. EPOS ADAPT 660 AMC ISSUE 149
01732 759725 magazine 07 INNOVATIONS Seeing is believing Distributor Northamber has hailed Konftel’s 3D room guide as a valuable tool for UC, AV and IT resellers. Launched last autumn, the interactive tool helps users identify the optimum products and connectivity options for different video meeting spaces, from personal workspaces, focus and huddle rooms to large multipurpose spaces. Northamber UC&C Business Manager Mark Sumner says that by enabling customers to visualise how equipment fits into different spaces, the guide speeds up the sales process. “The guide brings everything to life and adds a compelling new dimension. Seeing really is believing,” he said. konftel.com Antivirus product of the year AV-Comparatives, the independent ISO-certified testing lab for security software and mobile security solutions, has named McAfee as its 2021 Product of the Year, following long-term testing of 17 consumer Windows security products. Key criteria included the ability to protect against internet threats, identify malicious programs, defend against targeted attacks and provide protection without slowing down a PC. In these assessments, McAfee received 6 Advanced+ Awards and one Advanced Award. It took a Gold Award for the Malware Protection Test, along with joint Silver Awards for the Real-World Protection and Advanced Threat Protection Tests. Avast, AVG and Bitdefender all won Outstanding Product Awards, with Kaspersky winning the Top-Rated Product Award. Encrypted USB drive The F-Secure Armory Drive combines encrypted storage on the world’s smallest secure-by-design computer with multifactor authentication. The solution, which works on any desktop or laptop without the need for additional drivers or software, consists of two parts: firmware, which adds F-Secure Armory Drive functionality to the USB armory; and an iOS app that turns an iPhone into an authentication mechanism for data stored on the device and an unlimited number of microSD cards encrypted by the solution. Using an iPhone for authentication means that even if a microSD card or the USB armory is lost/stolen, data stored on it remains secure. It also ensures the solution’s encryption keys are not exposed to laptops/desktops that might have been compromised. Additional security is provided by the authentication of firmware updates pushed to the USB armory by the desktop installer and the device itself, which helps protect the system from compromise via malicious updates – a common tactic in supply chain attacks. www.f-secure.com/armory-drive Application monitoring for all Cloud technology specialist Vapour has introduced Application Monitoring as a Service (AMaaS) for an organisation’s entire IT infrastructure, including on-premises, cloud and hybrid applications. Through performance metrics, proactive alerts and monthly recommendations, Logic Monitor enables organisations of all sizes to identify IT issues, such as broken processes, bandwidth drains and potential network risks, before they become a problem. Carol McGrotty, Vapour Head of Transformation, said: “We liken Logic Monitor to the ultimate fault finder. It allows us to tell a customer – if you continue working like this, your server could fail in X days. It also aids informed decision-making when it comes to inefficient device usage and energy consumption.” Carbon neutral cartridge recycling Brother UK has achieved carbon neutral status for its cartridge recycling centre in Ruabon, NorthWales, following an audit of Scope 1 and 2 emissions by The Carbon Trust and the purchase of carbon credits to offset the 173 tonnes of CO2e produced by the site in FY2020. Offsets will be used to support renewable energy projects in Kenya, Ghana, Indonesia and India, to provide 820,000 fuel-efficient stoves to help reduce deforestation and to make affordable water filters. Brother’s Ruabon facility (including its fleet of electric vehicles) is powered by 100% green-certified electricity and sends no waste to landfill. For every cartridge returned by customers, Brother makes a donation to the rainforest charity CoolEarth. Brother Group aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across global operations by 2050, with a 65% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions (from 2015 levels) by 2030. www.brother.co.uk F-Secure Armory Drive ISSUE 149
BULLETIN businessinfomag.uk magazine 08 MOBILEWORKING I’M ON THE TUBE! Three and EE customers can look forward to uninterrupted mobile use across the London Underground network after the two mobile operators became the first to partner with BAI Communications (BAI) in the delivery of 4G and 5G-ready connectivity on the London Underground. In June 2020, Transport for London (TfL) awarded BAI a 20year concession to provide mobile coverage in ticket halls, platforms and tunnels across the entire Underground network. Billy D’Arcy, CEO of BAI Communications UK, said: “We’re pleased to welcome Three and EE as our launch partners and the first operators who will be transforming customer experience on the London Underground by enabling them to access seamless, 5G-ready connectivity.” The first stations (on the new Elizabeth Line) are due to be connected this year, with all stations and tunnels scheduled to have uninterrupted mobile coverage by the end of 2024. https://tfl.gov.uk MARKETING THE SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL EMAIL PROSPECTING Sopro has revealed the dos and don’ts of effective email prospecting in a new report based on billions of data points from 25 million emails sent over the last five years. The State of Prospecting 2022 identifies various factors that contribute to successful prospecting, including how and when to send messages and which targets generate the best response. Examples of the former are: n Perfect email length: 150 words n Best time for email opening: Friday at 8am n Best time to send: Midday on Wednesday and 11am on Thursday deliver the highest Lead Rates (new connections that convert into revenue) n Optimal response time: Monday at 11am n Number of times to contact a prospect: The third email in a prospecting sequence gets the most responses Examples of the latter are: n Best open rates: Any job title that includes ‘founder’ n Best industry open rate: Media Production, with a 45.9% open rate n Best responding role: Payroll Managers, replying to 39% of sales emails n Best responding industry: Government Administration, replying to 30.2% of email To download a copy of the report, The State of Prospecting 2022, visit: https://sopro. io/results/the-state-of-prospecting/ whitepaper/ COMPUTING BEWARE SLOW START-UP TIMES A computer that takes longer than five minutes to start will produce at least 450 tons of CO2 emissions per year, the equivalent of 50,636 gallons of petrol! This is one of several thought-provoking statistics in Quantifying e-Waste in Corporate IT from Digital Employee Experience (DEX) management software provider Nexthink. Based on data collected from 3.5 million anonymised devices, the report highlights simple steps businesses can take to reduce the environmental impact of corporate IT, such as: 1 Don’t automatically refresh every device. Nexthink’s research shows that 20% of devices that are replaced still perform perfectly well and don’t need to be changed. Of the 80% of machines that do have a low performance score, only 2% are unsalvageable; the remaining 98% are fixable with a simple RAM upgrade or by optimising startup performance. 2 Reduce computer start-up times by checking the applications installed and upgrading old devices. 3 Educate employees on green computing habits and create two-way communication between the IT team and employees. Nexthink says that, collectively, gaming, personal communication and media streaming apps generate 33 tons of CO2 emissions per year, which it would take 300 trees a full year to absorb. IT leaders have the potential to cut CO2 emissions by a minimum of 695 Kgs every week simply by educating workers about smart computing habits and by eliminating applications that are heavy emitters. www.nexthink.com BULLETIN PROCUREMENT BIDDING FOR BUSINESS Public sector procurement contract expert OPPORTUNI is doing its bit to support the levelling up agenda by adding a bid-writing service to its suite of software-as-a-service products designed to help SMEs find, compete for and win public sector contracts. BidNow has an annual membership fee of £3,500 for unlimited, no win-no fee bid-finding and bid writing from hundreds of qualified bid writers. This compares to an average submission cost of £2,800 for just one bid. TimWard, co-founder and CEO of OPPORTUNI, believes the service’s win-fee model removes one of the big obstacles stopping SMEs from competing for public sector tenders. “BidNow significantly reduces the element of risk for SMEs as they are effectively employing the best in the business, without any overheads,” he said. www.bidnow.co.uk WORKPLACE MEET AND EAT Costa Coffee is installing bookable pods in select branches where customers can work and conduct video meetings in peace and quiet while they enjoy a café latte. Sound-proofed Framery Pods from My Work Booth come with a stool, table, light, power socket, charging points for mobile devices and constant fresh filtered air. They can be booked and paid for via the MyWork Booth app and accessed with an emailed QR code. The first four Costa Coffee branches with Framery Pods are located in Media City Salford and Portland Street in Manchester and Broadgate and Tooley Street in London. Additional sites will be added in March/ April 2022. www.myworkbooth.co.uk Three simple fixes IT can make to prevent their businesses from wasting millions and polluting the environment. Quantifying e-Waste in Corporate IT Nexthink Insights What every sales and marketing team should know. A no-nonsense guide to successful outbound marketing, based on data, trends and case studies from the leading prospecting experts, Sopro. The State of Prospecting 2022 TimWard
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businessinfomag.uk magazine 10 Business Info (BI): You’ve just launched a series of podcasts on office design and productivity.Why have you chosen to launch them at this time? David Basson (DB): In the Nestlé Coffee Partners Smart Coffee Hub we talk a lot about productivity and how office design can support certain behavioural outcomes, such as individual flow and focus; optimised teamwork; teamto-team and in-team collaboration; and unplanned interaction.We also consider the role of coffee points in the workplace and how we can help businesses optimise their placement to encourage desired outcomes. Over the last few years, the workplace has evolved dramatically, and as businesses move towards a hybrid model of ‘office-home working’ many are finding that employees now expect more from the office environment. With that in mind, in September we surveyed 1,000 UK consumers to try to understand how businesses should adapt to meet these new demands. We launched Smart Coffee Break – The Productivity Podcast in partnership withWORKTECH Academy to discuss this research and the broader topic of workplace productivity with a number of world-leading experts. These include Despina Katsikakis, Global Lead at Total Workplace, Expert advice on office design Cushman &Wakefield; Dr Fiona Kerr, Founder & CEO, the NeuroTech Institute; Simon French, Director at Glaxo SmithKline’s Worldwide Real Estate business units; Primo Orpilla, Principal at San Francisco design firm, Studio O+A; Kristi Woolsey, Associate Director at Boston Consulting Group, New York; and Bruce Daisley, Ex-VP at Twitter. BI :What, for you, are some of the key insights they provide? DB: We have designed each episode to provide actionable insights and ideas, especially now that people are starting to return to the office and are looking for opportunities to reconnect with their co-workers. In that regard, our experts talk about how providing spaces that revive connections and drive collaboration will not only boost morale but also spark new ideas. Social interaction within the workplace becomes more significant in a hybrid working world, as it helps to build social cohesion which can boost productivity. Office attractors, such as a coffee point or water cooler, play a key role in promoting this interaction. Our contributors also highlight how important it is to enable employees to attain a state of concentration and flow, and the impact this has on productivity, as well as how giving people more personal control in small, semi-autonomous teams within the organisation can raise productivity levels. This is particularly important in a hybrid workplace model, where empowering teams and ensuring high levels of trust are key to keeping employees motivated. BI :Was there anything any of the experts said that you found particularly surprising or did their comments reflect your own experiences/thoughts? DB: One recurring theme in our conversations has been the value of serendipitous encounters in enabling individuals and teams to interact, exchange ideas, connect the dots and feel part of a group. These encounters can be spontaneous, i.e. a chance meeting in the lift or office car park, or engineered, for example through the design of office space. This very much reflects our thinking at Nestlé Coffee Partners and our belief that the location of hot beverage points can facilitate planned and unplanned interactions and encourage movement throughout an office, boosting productivity as well as giving employees a chance to refresh and regroup. BI : Are the insights provided by your experts mainly of value to businesses that are moving office/undertaking a complete office re-design or are there smaller steps that businesses can take to improve employee productivity, effectiveness and wellbeing? DB: There are a lot of things businesses can do to improve employee productivity and wellbeing without having to undertake a complete office redesign. Look for ways to make employees feel trusted, for example by giving them choice; understand that this is a change journey; entice employees into the office with compelling experiences; encourage breaks from technology; and inspire serendipitous connection through workplace attractors. We discuss these in more detail in an article recently published on the Business Info website1 and in the Smart Coffee Hub Productivity Playbook2. Download our productivity playbook before the end of March and you could win a set of five books written by the expert contributors to Smart Coffee Break – The Productivity Podcast3. Nestle Coffee Partners recently launched a podcast on the hybrid workplace. We find out more from David Basson, Head of Beverages at Nestle Professional WORKPLACE Further information 1 http://www.businessinfomag.uk/B2B-Technology/ smart-coffee-podcasts-reveal-recipe-for-workplaceproductivity/ 2 https://www.nestleprofessional.co.uk/smart-coffeeproductivity-hub/the-productivity-playbook 3 https://www.nestleprofessional.co.uk/smart-coffeeproductivity-hub/insights
01732 759725 magazine 11 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Widely considered the best sprinter of all time, with gold medals in 100 and 200 metres from three consecutive Olympic Games, the Jamaican athletics icon Usain St Leo Bolt is a speed phenomenon. Now retired, he still holds the 100 metres record at 9.58 seconds set in 2009 at the Berlin World Athletics Championships. Bolt achieved an average speed of 23.35 mph although data shows he hit a mind boggling 27.8 mph mid-race; no wonder he’s affectionately nicknamed Lightning Bolt. Another record breaker from 2009 – and in this case it’s actual physical records – is St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. It was the first trust in the UK to stop using paper medical records in clinical practice after migrating to an electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) to coincide with the opening of two hospitals costing £338 million at Whiston and St Helens. The implementation of EDRMS software and a scan-on-demand approach allowed the Trust to stop hand delivering 7,000 paper files to outpatient departments each week (which it would then file on return) and close its records library, a building containing over one million folders, each holding on average 250 pages. The EDRMS cost £1.2 million, but with annual savings of £1.4 million in storage, transportation and staffing costs (existing staff were redeployed), the new digital system paid for itself within a year and has been saving a vast amount of money ever since. Moreover, by ensuring that the right medical records for the right patient were available to the right doctor at the right time, the Trust has been able to reduce the number of elective care appointment cancellations because notes were lacking; improve clinical productivity as more patients are seen; and enhance patient safety and overall clinical care. All of which is a useful segue to the Record breakers focus of this article: the announcement in last October’s Budget Statement of an extra £2.1 billion for the NHS to improve its use of digital technology and data. Digital transformation is a broad area, but to focus on patient records specifically, it is clear that many Trusts are still far too reliant on paper. Our own Freedom of Information requests show that 50% of the country’s 233 Trusts have yet to transition to computerbased systems as St Helens and Knowsley did 13 years ago. This begs the question why so many have been slow to embrace change and what should be done with the new funds to ensure the best return on investment? Why has it taken so long to get rid of paper? The Coronavirus pandemic provided further evidence that the NHS has simply not put enough effort and investment into digitisation despite Health Secretaries – specifically Jeremy Hunt – challenging the NHS to be paperless. He wanted this by 2018, although his predecessor Andrew Lansley pledged to start an information revolution back in 2010. There are various reasons why this has not happened: n First, whilst funding was available at an umbrella level, it didn’t universally filter down to support local digitisation projects. n Second, other IT priorities have consumed budget. n Third, a lack of people resources and ownership to drive projects through has hindered progress, with records digitisation delayed time and again. n Fourth, some Trusts have managed the process poorly by not indexing or classifying information properly, which has meant the digital solution offered is actually worse than delivering paper. Time-pressed clinicians have been presented with a large PDF displaying pages of historical notes which it is impossible to navigate when Dr Vijay Magon, managing director of CCube Solutions, weighs up how the UK Government’s extra £2.1 billion for NHS IT should be best spent Photo credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo continued...
businessinfomag.uk magazine 12 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION consultations last just 15 minutes. Enduser system acceptance and adoption therefore failed. In the post-Covid world, clinicians and their patients are often geographically separate. Nor are paper notes helpful when multi-disciplinary medical teams come together in an individual’s treatment and need access to the same information. Paper notes self-evidently aren’t practicable and compromise patient safety, hence the impetus to revisit digitisation. Consider also that an average paper record is physically handled 10 to 15 times from storage to delivery. Not only is there an infection risk from touching paper but costs mount each time a file is requested and then put away. It is now time to address this with an ‘invest to save’ process and to get rid of paper once and for all. How should the new money be spent? New money for NHS IT is welcome, but we should be mindful of the errors made in the past. The National Programme of IT championed by the Blair Government in 2002 is the poster child of how not to manage things. It failed because IT systems were foisted upon Trusts in a ‘top down’ approach that didn’t take into account local needs. It cost the taxpayer billions and was dismantled in 2011. To ensure the new cash is well spent, it is vital to give some thought and consideration to the following: q Digital transformation is a loose term that means different things to different people. There needs to be clearer definition about what it actually involves, including areas of technology, costs and expected benefits; w Spending should be allocated to tackle obvious problem areas first and provide quick wins. Patient records is an obvious example. e Innovation should be championed and promoted, with Trusts free to make their own decisions about the IT systems they want based on local requirements. r Systems deployed must meet uniform data standards enforced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) so that System A from Supplier 1 can talk to System B from supplier 2 and so on. HL7-FHIR is one standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically, along with SNOMED CT, which contains all the clinical terms required to document procedures, symptoms, clinical measurements, diagnoses, medications and so on. It gives IT systems a shared language that everyone can use. t IT interoperability must be at the heart of any future national NHS IT investment and be enforced fastidiously by the DHSC with penalties imposed on suppliers that act in commercial self-interest. There is too much of this going on already, with the NHS likely to be held to ransom in the long term with costly fees and proprietary ‘lock in’. Incumbent clinical IT vendors must be managed closely to ensure they do not act in monopolistic ways and prevent additional functionality and value from other suppliers from being easily integrated. APIs are a good example of this. While all suppliers state in their NHS bidding questionnaires that they have open APIs, some make it difficult for other firms to use them or seek to charge for access – in effect doublecharging the NHS. Once Trusts have purchased software licenses, APIs need to be free so that integration is simplified and ‘air gaps’ between systems are avoided. y Government must not be seduced by big or trendy technology firms that appear to offer ‘the’ perfect solution. It doesn’t exist. Competition is key and must be encouraged. And competition comes from firms of all sizes. u The convoluted and complex NHS procurement process which negatively affects SMEs needs to be simplified. Once a firm is authorised on an appropriate framework, they should be free to bid on technical merit rather than wasting time on onerous formfilling which impacts smaller firms disproportionately. i Care should be taken to ensure the ‘right’ technology is used for specific purposes rather than stretching systems to do things outside their main scope. For example, clinical EPR systems used in both primary and secondary care are perfect for holding structured clinical data. They’re not designed to hold large volumes of unstructured information from scanned legacy patient records that require lifecycle management rules to be applied. o The application of any technology should address specific problems and whatever solution is installed must be expandable over time so that ‘roadblocks’ in the future are avoided. Trusts that fail to do this to a reasonable level of detail are likely to suffer from difficulties at some point. 1) IT departments must engage and work closely with their end-user community about system selection, given that it is clinical practitioners who use the technology day to day. There cannot be an ‘us’ and ‘them’ approach. The numbers associated with UK healthcare provision are staggering, inflated by the Coronavirus pandemic, an ageing population and a growing number of people who need medical treatment every day. The ONS estimates that in 2020 the UK Government spent in the region of £220 billion on healthcare alone. It is essential that we maximise the use of our finite financial resources and the extra budget announced by Rishi Sunak in October 2021. If the NHS focuses on the requirements outlined above, then like Bolt himself, digital transformation has every opportunity of being a running success. For further information, visit www.ccubesolutions.com or email [email protected] ...continued
BUSINESS BRIEFING 01732 759725 13 magazine Under the new partnership, edding UK will be donating 5p from the sale of every edding EcoLine marker to the tree-planting campaign. The campaign is also part of the Tree Twinning initiative through which every tree planted in the UK will also see a tree planted in Africa. This means that for every 120 edding EcoLine markers sold from April 2022 onwards, two trees will be planted (one in a UK school, one in Africa). Based on the EcoLine sales forecast for the year 2022, edding has the potential to help remove over 700 tonnes of C02 from the atmosphere by planting trees. “With a long and celebrated history of supplying writing and marking products to schools across the UK, edding understands the importance of educating children particularly on the topic of climate change and environmental conservation,” said Holly McDermott. edding UK partners with UK schools for global tree planting campaign “This new partnership with Tree Appeal not only teaches children the importance of nature, but takes an active stand against climate change.” Since the launch of the EcoLine range, edding has been investing resources and research into the development of its EcoLine portfolio. Including using vital post-consumer recycled material, such as empty yoghurt pots, old watering cans, and discarded plastic buckets which have been processed and turned into raw materials for reuse across the product line. edding’s EcoLine markers are eco-friendly with at least 90% of the total plastic used made from recycled material (including 83% post-consumer material), whilst the edding 24 EcoLine Highlighter has been awarded the ‘Blue Angel’ eco-label and at least 90% of the cap and barrel are made from renewable resources. Through the use of post-consumer plastics, edding is currently saving up to 126 tonnes of carbon emissions every year. This is the same amount of C02 produced by a car travelling around the world 15 times.With the Tree Appeal collaboration edding can remove almost 6 times this amount in just one year. Holly McDermott concluded: “You can never do too much to help our planet, which is why edding has joined up with Tree Appeal to help re-populate the world’s woodlands and reduce its carbon emissions further.We can’t wait to see what the initiative can achieve in partnership with UK schools in the future.” edding (U.K.) Ltd. AcrewoodWay St. Albans AL4 0JY +44 (1727) 896 -114 [email protected] www.edding.com edding UK, the marker specialists are joining forces with Tree Appeal this spring, to raise money for the popular Trees for Schools campaign and encourage UK school children to plant trees, reduce C02 in our atmosphere, and learn about the environment.
businessinfomag.uk magazine 14 Voice fraud may not have the high profile of cybercrime, but according to Dr Nikolay Gaubitch, Director of Research at Pindrop, it is a very real problem and one that criminals are exploiting to support their online activities. “In the 10 years since Pindrop was started by CEO Dr. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, we've analysed over 2 billion phone calls and have detected around 1 million fraudulent calls, so somewhere between one in 700 and one in 1,000 calls received are fraudulent. In the retail sector, we have seen fraud rates as high as one in 100.” According to recent research conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Pindrop, the prevalence of fraudulent calls increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 59% of call centres in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) reporting a rise in attacks and 61% of respondents complaining about the impact on their bottom line. Gaubitch points out that despite high fraud rates, some call centre managers continue to underestimate the problem because the consequences are not always immediately apparent. “There are fraudsters who specialise Who’s calling? in very fine data. They get a list of data and all they do is call banks or retailers or insurance companies to confirm that the data is valid. Once data is confirmed, they may sell it on to somebody else. This is very difficult behaviour to catch because companies are not losing money. “Banking and retail customers can assign concrete value to losses. But that is not the case with utility companies, for example. They are huge targets for fraudsters wanting to get names and addresses, particularly in the UK where utility bills are effectively a form of ID. Because there’s no real monetary loss linked to it, it can be very difficult to persuade them to take action.” So what are some of the activities fraudsters use this data for? “In the banking world a typical example is where fraudsters get hold of some details – your account number, your name, your address – and then call up a bank pretending to be you. There was one fraudster we dubbed Postman Pat, who was calling up banks, claiming that he had lost his debit card and requesting a replacement card to be sent to the home address on file. Because this fraudster had access to bank customers’ addresses, he was able to intercept the mail, which is relatively easy to do especially if the victim lives in a block of flats. This fraudster had details of many people’s accounts and was doing this in volume.” Gaubitch adds that fraudsters also use phone calls to facilitate online fraud, the classic example being requests for new passwords that are then reset online to facilitate online fraud. Three pillars Pindrop offers a range of voice authentication and fraud prevention solutions to help banks, insurance companies, retailers and other customers to automate the identification of genuine customers and to identify fraudulent callers. These include Pindrop Protect (for fraudulent call detection), Pindrop Passport (for caller authentication) and VeriCall Technology (for Automatic Number Identification and spoof detection). As Gaubitch explains, all Pindrop solutions are based on three technology pillars. “One is obviously voice analysis and being able to match a known voice to somebody you’re talking to, which you can use to detect known fraudsters and/ or to authenticate known callers. “The second pillar is the patented technology of Pindrop, called phone printing, which analyses everything about a phone call, from background noise to artefacts in the audio that are introduced when it is compressed and transmitted across networks.We have about 1,300 features that we measure outside of the speech, which can tell you lots about where the audio is coming from. “The third pillar is the behaviour of callers. For example, when you see the phone number of a caller who calls many, many times it could indicate that something is not quite right. “These three pillars or engines produce a risk score for every phone call going into a call centre between zero and 100, with a low score indicating low risk and a high score high risk. This helps call centre agents and fraud specialists to deal with phone call security in a completely new and different way.” The benefits of technology Gaubitch points out that the artificial intelligence and machine learning We hear a lot about cybercrime, rather less about voice fraud. But as Dr Nikolay Gaubitch explains to James Goulding, this is a major problem and one that call centre managers must do more to address SECURITY Dr Nikolay Gaubitch
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