Even before COVID-19, Industry 4.0 technologies were beginning to have a major impact on the transformation of manufacturers worldwide. Now, solutions such as IoT, AI, analytics and automation have taken on a whole new degree of significance. The pandemic has hugely accelerated the drive of organizations to digitally transform. The development of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing will be the focus of the manufacturing sessions at this year’s OpenText™ World.
The growth of Industry 4.0
Initial momentum behind Industry 4.0 was slow but recent years have seen many manufacturers begin to adopt digital technologies, with Qurate Research estimating the market would grow from $68 billion in 2018 to over $205 billion in 2025.
Advances such as the integration of Information Technology (IT) and Operations technology (OT) were bringing together data that can drive efficiency and innovation. New technologies were beginning to deliver the benefits of highly automated, digital workflows.
That was before COVID-19. The pandemic has altered the operating environment for virtually every manufacturer. McKinsey suggests that adoption of Industry 4.0 will be key to success as we emerge from the pandemic, saying: “Industry 4.0 technologies were already transforming manufacturers’ operations before the pandemic. Now adoption is diverging between technology haves and have-nots”.
But business resilience is only one example of where Industry 4.0 has played a significant role. The speed with which manufacturers have been able to institute remote working has been breath-taking in some instances. We’re witnessing ever greater amounts of automation throughout operations and the supply chain. And, examples of business agility abound. An industry derided in the past for having the turning circle of a supertanker was suddenly able to pivot on a pinhead!
The acceleration of digital transformation
COVID-19 has not set us on a new path, it has just accelerated our progress. A couple of years back, Deloitte research showed that only 20.7% of manufacturing organizations surveyed rated themselves as ‘highly prepared’ to address the emerging business models of Industry 4.0.
However, a recent study from the Manufacturing Leadership Council found that 45% of those surveyed said digitization had been essential for them to respond to the pandemic, with a further 53% expecting Industry 4.0 adoption to accelerate due to their experiences.
Still questions to answer
However, there is still a long journey ahead for manufacturers adopting Industry 4.0 solutions. The current pandemic has perhaps raised as many questions as answers, such as:
Are we moving towards lights-out factories and production facilities?
How do you build resilience into operations and the supply chain?
Are fully autonomous supply chains just around the corner?
Are you prepared for fully remote or hybrid work practices?
Can virtual and augmented reality empower remote working and remote maintenance?
How do you maintain innovation faced with shrinking budgets?
How do you deliver outstanding digital customer experience and exploit online channels?
How do you gain the full value of your data to improve planning, sales, inventory management and customer experience?
How do you build performance and sustainability into your growing ecosystem of partners, suppliers and customers?
How to move forward? Start by attending OpenText World
These are exactly the type of questions we’ll be addressing during the manufacturing sessions at this year’s online OpenText World. The sessions include:
Manufacturing Industry Forum: Industry 4.0 remains the business imperative: In a June survey by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, 53% of respondents said they expect to accelerate their digital initiatives, 73% anticipate more remote working strategies will be adopted, and 42% expect increased shop floor automation. This session explores the survey findings as well as membership experiences. (Monday, 26 October, 10:00am – 10:40am. Register here).
Mitigating risks caused by disruption in manufacturing operations: In these unprecedented times of industry disruption, manufacturers have shown great resilience. In this session we will look at the challenges manufacturers have faced, the lessons learned and how these insights can help accelerate digital transformation to increase robustness and future preparedness. (Available on demand here).
Join us at this year’s OpenText World conference (26-29 October). Register your place today.
When COVID-19 entered our lives, companies were worried about how it would impact their business. As the year progressed the concern shifted to how big that impact would be. The impact on business has varied, depending on the sector, activity, country and customers, but what is clear is that the market has changed. Customers have changed, their buying habits have changed and the products sold have changed. So companies must adapt to this new situation and adapt quickly.
But these changes should be based on facts, on real information that shows what is happening in the company and the markets. So, instead of relying on best guesses, companies must look at their own data. In other words, rely on a data-driven strategy for your organization.
Organizations that properly analyze their data get answers to questions, have early access to reliable conclusions and can react faster, obtaining a better position in a competitive market.
Creating a data-driven response
How do you create a data-driven response to COVID-19? Start by discovering the impact. Find out what has changed since the pandemic began. Compare your business at the end of 2019 with your business now. What’s changed across the business, your customer base, your competition. And what has remained static?
After discovering the impact, draw some conclusions. Identify the market needs by analyzing the attributes or characteristics of the current business situation. Compare how different these new business entities are from the pre-COVID-19 ones. Once you have a better idea of your new situation, you can take action. Optimize processes. Identify cost reductions. Identify campaigns and targets.
Managing large volumes of data
But when you have big amount of data, this is not an easy task. One of the problems you can face is the capacity to manage your data to process these actions quickly and flexibly. In today’s climate, organizations cannot afford to wait days or even several hours to get an answer. Organizations need systems that can quickly analyze data and answer their questions, and they need to be in a position to draw conclusions and react to them. Your system should be able to answer questions as they appear, questions that are not predefined, and again, get a fast answer.
OpenText™ Magellan™ Data Discovery can explore billions of records in seconds, without any pre-modeling or pre-defined queries, ready for business users and analysts to access, blend, explore and analyze data quickly without depending on IT or data experts or coding.
With OpenText Magellan Data Discovery, discovering the impact of COVID-19 can be easily done by segmenting your data, creating groups of orders, products, customers, etc. With a simple drag and drop, you can easily select all sales before COVID-19 and all sales during COVID-19, and then compare segments to see products, customers, orders, or any other business entity.
OpenText Professional Services have experienced experts that can help guide and advise you through this process. For more information contact us.
Author: Samuel Belmar, Senior Professional Services Consultant, OpenText
In January, I wrote a predictions blogthat said the priorities of the financial services industry would not change greatly over the next 12 months!
Of course, no one could have seen the full extent of the global COVID-19 crisis, but as we navigate through the pandemic it’s time to re-assess those trends and see how things have evolved.
Beyond a change to a new ‘work from home’ reality, the pandemic has heightened the need for individuals and organizations to embrace the changes that have occurred while learning new business models and skills that will be even more important in the future.
Jim Marous, Owner and CEO of Digital Banking Report
Without a doubt, the biggest shift – perhaps a seismic shift – is in the move to remote working.Schroderswas the first major London institution to announce that its entire worldwide workforce can work from home, but it’s a trend that has seen many banks and financial institutions start to make similar decisions.
It’s not just home working that’s driving change: “The pandemic is accelerating the movement of all kinds of activity into online and digital channels. Innovations that were underway before it struck are massively accelerating. As we come out of it, they will be far more advanced in technology and market size.
Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO of Barefoot Innovation Group
Jo Ann continued: “In lending, we will see rising adoption of new data for credit underwriting, starting with cash flow data and evolving into machine learning models. Regulatory challenges will limit the pace, but regulators will focus on working them out as a means of promoting sounder lending, more financial inclusion, and deepened markets, especially for community banks.”
We all love the digital customer experience
Underpinning this major trend is an incredible acceleration in digital transformation, especially in customer service. With branches shuttered, customers have been forced online.
Visa reported that more than 13 million people in Latin America made their first online transaction in March 2020 and even pensioners say they are twice as likely to make online purchases as they were in 2019.Digital banking is no longer optional. During COVID-19, banks and other financial services institutions worked quickly to help customers adopt new experiences around digital and remote channels.
However, according toJim Marous: “Unfortunately, while many organizations have provided new digital engagement options, few have created the experiences that consumers demand. For instance, while our research for the Digital Banking Report found a significant increase in digital lending and account opening capabilities, the time to complete the processes remains sluggish at best. If mobile applications take over 5 minutes, banks and credit unions are only ‘faking digital’.”
AI is still the heart of hyper-personalization … as well as other priorities
In mylast blog, I suggested that financial services companies would make greater use of their data to enable an era of hyper-personalization. AI lies at the heart of this strategy. The EIU research found that post-COVID-19, 77% of banking leaders believe AI is the game-changer. While improving customer experience through hyper-personalization tops the bankers’ priorities for AI, it’s also seen as important in areas such as new business initiatives, fraud detection, and cyber-resilience.
Jim Marous shared some additional context, “Research by the Digital Banking Report found that despite knowing the importance of hyper-personalization, and having access to potential solutions in the marketplace, over 75% of organizations considered themselves ‘not adept’ as providing contextual advice on a 1:1 basis.”
COVID-19 changes cybersecurity priorities
Reports suggest that banks have seen a 238% surge in cyberattacks during the COVID-19 crisis, with financial authorities worldwidedemanding companies respond quickly to the increased threat. Every organization needs to create a cyber resilience framework, one that protects its network and data, but doesn’t affect the ability to deliver products and services to customers.
Goodbye branch, hello hub
COVID-19 shut a huge number of bank branches worldwide, with KPMG suggesting that the lockdown is a catalyst for change. Branches do hold a pivotal position within main streets across the globe, but banks, such as ING, were already beginning to turn the traditional branch into a service hub where people can access a whole range of financial and non-financial services.
In 2005 I predicted Bank Branches would decline globally by 50% by 2025. COVID has put us right on track for those numbers to hit.
Brett King, author of Bank 4.0 and The Rise of Technosocialism
Brett continued: “Instead of hoping branch business comes back after coronavirus, it’s time for banks to have a real plan for both digital acquisition and digital engagement. Branches won’t disappear, but the pandemic has shown banks who rely on branches will disappear”
A focus on cost will drive digital ecosystems
According to Accenture, banking requires a laser-sharp focus on costs. But this can’t come at the cost of customer experience or innovation. Coming out of COVID-19, we are very likely to witness a much greater degree of collaboration between players across the financial services spectrum. For example, traditional banks will look to invest, acquire, or partner with the capabilities of Fintechs to rapidly flesh out their digital offerings.
Everything relies on platformification
In my last blog, I commented that financial services organizations must develop new ways to securely share and collaborate on their information. Platformification establishes the connected infrastructure that will increasingly transform the industry. That’s as true now as it was then.
To improve efficiency and offer the array of services consumers expect in the future and to increase revenue generation opportunities, financial institutions will need to embrace the use of APIs either in the development of Banking as a Platform or Banking as a Service.
Jim Marous, Owner and CEO of Digital Banking Report
To find out more about the portfolio of OpenText™ solutions designed for the Financial Services industry, visit our website.
It’s no secret that today’s global supply chain is more complex than ever. It has become a digital ecosystem of suppliers, logistics companies, customers and other value chain partners that stretch across the globe. The supply chain relies on the synchronized movement of thousands of interrelated parts to meet growing customer demand for better, more innovative products and on-time, low cost delivery. The connected supply chain uses disruptive digital technologies to deliver end-to-end supply chain visibility and improved business operations. Let’s take a look.
According to the World Economic Forum, there are more than four trillion consumer products made, shipped and sold globally every year. Yet end-to-end traceability of each item through its lifecycle journey – from raw material to manufacturing to the consumer to recycling, resale or disposal – is still hugely challenging for the vast majority of goods.
However, 100% visibility across the supply chain is essential, not just to know where goods are in transit but in order to improve many elements of business operations including agility, inventory management, product development and pricing, and customer service. Senior decision makers need to understand what products customers are ordering, where they are ordering them, how the products are treated in transit and when they want them.
All that information lies within the supply chain but the modern supply chain is complex and global. It’s an ecosystem of companies, their suppliers, partners and customers. Each has its own way of doing things and their own IT infrastructure and applications supporting their individual business processes. Even within a single organization, this has resulted in disparate siloes of information.
But, we’re not talking about single organizations. In the supply chain, we’re talking about digital business systems that need to connect literally hundreds or thousands of trading partners. In one example of the need for a connected supply chain automotive manufacturer, Volkswagen, was found to have 5000 suppliers and each of those suppliers had an average of 250 suppliers working for them. This meant that the auto company actually had 1.25 million suppliers, most of whom it didn’t know it was working with!
This lack of transparency is not just a risk in terms of the level of operational efficiency and revenue. It hampers environmental, sustainability and ethical initiatives that are a growing part of day-to-day supply chain management. Recently, MIT revealed the scale of the problem. It found that only a few companies were investing in supply chain visibility yet 81% of a poll it cited said they didn’t have full visibility of their supply chain, and 54% admitted having none at all.
The major supply chain disruption caused by COVID-19 demonstrated that companies with fragmented and unconnected supply chains fared worse. Those with a connected supply chain could build resilience into their supply chain operations. Bain & Co. suggests there are impressive bottom line benefits from this level of supply chain resilience. Product development cycles can be cut by up to 60% and output capacity expanded by a quarter.
Margi Van Gogh, Head of Supply Chain and Transport for the World Economic Forum said recently: “Visibility, traceability, and interoperability are essential to connected, agile and more resilient supply systems now and well beyond the immediate COVID-19 crisis.”
Connected supply chain definition
So what exactly do we mean by the connected supply chain? It’s a means of connecting everyone involved in the supply chain, drawing together disparate systems and partner networks to ensure that information can flow end-to-end across the supply chain whenever and wherever it’s needed. A truly connected end-to-end supply chain has the aim to reach 100% visibility in real time, which creates an integrated view across the company, including its suppliers, dealers, manufacturers, logistics partners, and customers.
It’s very important to understand that the connected supply chain is not just about supply chain visibility and integration, it is about one single defined system. All the parts of this system talk to each other, sharing data and insights, and providing business benefits to everyone involved. Building responsiveness and resilience into the supply chains allows the organization to better predict and react to changing market demand through the improved utilization of the big data it creates.
It should be clear that the connected supply chain is a program of digital transformation. It relies heavily on the new and disruptive digital technologies that are appearing today. Using new technologies like cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, B2B integration, AI and predictive analytics enable complete connectivity and transparency to drive smarter, more flexible and more agile ways of working across the entire trading partner community involved in the supply chain.
The goal of the connected supply chain
Once upon a time, the supply chain was seen by many as a cost center – a necessary evil required to conduct business. Those days are long gone. The supply chain is now a major strategic driver and area of competitive differentiation. But that only succeeds if all parts of this complex machine work in harmony with each other.
There are really three goals a company looks to achieve through the connected supply chain:
Supply chain visibility
By connecting all trading partners together and enabling the secure and effective flow of information, every part of the supply chain can be tracked and monitored. With full visibility and transparency, it’s easier to increase efficiency, react quickly to supply chain shocks and, most importantly, improve customer experience.
Demand-driven supply chain
The connected supply chain doesn’t just provide a treasure trove of information for real time operations, it delivers the data needed to fully understand what customers want. Armed with this information, companies can move from a supply to demand-driven business. The organizations can see where spikes in demand are occurring and also use the patterns and trends in demand to accurately forecast the amount of inventory they need at every specific part of the supply chain.
Supply chain optimization
This supply chain data enables a process of continuous improvement and optimization. The manufacturers can improve efficiency, increase business agility and reduce costs. In addition, it has a much clearer view of its suppliers and their suppliers. The connected supply chain allows for much greater supplier performance management at all levels including ethical and sustainability performance metrics.
Technologies that enable the connected supply chain
There are a number of digital technologies that are pivotal to the connected supply chain. These include:
IoT
Perhaps the foundational element of the modern, connected supply chain is the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The increasing power and reducing cost of IoT sensors and other devices allows for real time visibility across supply chain operations. The connected supply chain aggregates IoT sensor information from pallets, containers, forklift trucks and multi-modal transport into a central IoT platform. Monitoring the position and condition of a shipment as they move through the supply chain provides a consistent view of where the shipment’s location and condition. It’s IoT solutions that enable new levels of track and trace capabilities are the first step on delivering on the goals of the connected supply chain.
With IoT supply chain managers have access to all the data they need to optimize the performance of their supply networks. However, there are IoT challenges. As well as a lack of IoT standards, there is the question of how you deal with the huge amount of data it creates.
B2B integration platform
One essential component for any connected supply chain is a central B2B integration platform. As the supply chain is a connection of external partners potentially spread throughout the world, it’s achieved through a series of B2B relationships. Whether connecting with various cloud infrastructures, working with processes and applications that span international boundaries, or interacting with customers and suppliers, it is critically important to have robust B2B functionality driving these transactions.
This B2B integration platform must not only be able to support robust systematic B2B workflows but also the cooperative workflows and data-driven workflows. Some leading B2B platforms – such as OpenText Business Network – include both an IoT platform and an Identity and Access Management platform to ensure that the widest variety of data can be moved and shared securely around the supply chain network.
AI/machine learning
Artificial Intelligence (AI) also plays a huge role in turning supply chain data into insight to drive improved decision making. It allows all the information to be brought together in one place to help with planning and forecasting. Applying machine learning not only helps facilitate advanced analytics, it enables business processes within the connected supply chain to become increasingly automated. AI is pivotal in removing complexities while providing the basis for predictive analytics that can help drive supply chain performance, identify and predict customer demand, and reduce costs along the supply chain.
Benefits of IoT-driven supply chain connectivity solutions
There are a large number of tangible benefits from developing a connected supply chain.
Improve end-to-end visibility
Use IoT sourced data for end-to-end visibility of shipments of highly connected supply chain assets across multi-modal 3PL providers.
Automate supply chain processes
Connected supply chain solutions provide real time monitoring of inventory levels and consumption patterns to automate replenishment processes with suppliers.
Create repeatable best practices
Identify, analyze and mitigate supply chain disruptions to understand supply chain trends and create repeatable best practices that eliminate bottlenecks.
Control and govern supply chain performance
Manage supply chain performance via a role-based interface. This enables workflows and downstream applications with real time notifications to deliver extended insights of shipments and assets.
Achieve faster ROI
Introduce digital, IoT-driven track and trace in a phased approach for quick investments benefits, while transitioning to more complex track and trace capabilities as the connected supply chain matures.
How to connect your supply chain
While the move towards supply chain visibility has been slow, there are an increasing number of organizations beginning pilot projects. There are two points to consider when setting out on the journey to a connected supply chain. The first is to ensure that you leverage digital technologies that can connect your organization with your customers and partners. The second is to understand that you will not be able to reach full connectivity in one step. Instead, it’s much better to take a phased approach.
OpenText has created a solution set that lets an organization move effectively to the next stage of maturity of supply chain connectivity. These solutions are:
Shipment Track
With the entry-level Shipment Track, companies can use IoT-driven track and trace to connect shipment and assets throughout the supply chain. All shipment and product movements can be monitored in real time. Data from sensors and other IoT devices can be augmented with other supply chain data, such as warehouse and transactional information, to provide more granular visibility.
Shipment Monitor
Building upon Shipment Track, Shipment Monitor delivers condition-based monitoring to supply chain operations. Every aspect affecting goods in transit can be monitored in real time, including temperature, humidity, location and product condition, so that immediate corrective action can be taken if an exception of aberrant conditions is reported. This provides much greater control of the shipment of perishable and high value goods with high levels of transparency and supply chain efficiency, while reducing the waste and damage of products in the supply chain.
Shipment Insights
The most complex solution, Shipment Insights, combines IoT data management with AI and machine learning to bring end-to-end visibility and continuous improvement to all parts of the supply chain. Moving beyond simple track and trace, this holistic solution uses the captured data to apply predictive and prescriptive analytics to areas, such as supply chain planning, route optimization and predictive maintenance.
Figure 1: The phased approach to supply chain connectivity
As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for resilient and adaptable supply chains has never been so stark. Building a connected supply chain isn’t just a ‘nice to have’, it’s now essential to give organizations the flexibility and agility they need to withstand the next disruption.
At the World Economic Forum states: “Building an adaptive supply chain system requires all the stakeholders across the supply system – including, manufacturers, shipping providers, port operators, trucking providers, distributors, retailers, and recyclers to name a few – to recognize we are all part of the same ecosystem and to work with technology providers and regulators to make that system of supply a truly connected one.”
To find out more about the OpenText range of intelligent and connected supply chain solutions, visit our website.
Information is key for businesses to operate and succeed, making it imperative that the Enterprise Informant Management platforms they rely on are robust, reliable, and high performing.
Over the last 23 years, I’ve been involved with designing and running many mission critical systems for corporate IT and the software vendor side across roles in Architecture, Support, and Managed Services. In this role, I’ve seen some of the best and some of the worst EIM platforms. What I’ve learned is that the key difference often comes down to how well equipped the team running the environment is. Having a well-defined set of processes in place enables the team to meet the demands of the business and continuously improve the service levels of the EIM platform.
Incident management
Every EIM platform is like a living, breathing system. It is dynamic and, as such, occasionally issues may arise. The goal of incident management is to restore service back to the end users as quickly as possible when an issue does arise. While you may not be able to prevent every incident, you can be prepared.
When an issue arises, you want to have a systematic approach to quickly triage and hone in on the source. Which components are up and responsive versus not? Are they down or merely hung? Is there a common component such as the database that is blocking all the servers? Has something recently changed?
That last question may be the most important. Something has caused the environment to shift from operating normally to not. If there hasn’t been any recent configuration or patching, it could be something outside of that such as a change in usage patterns, data related, or external factors. Always look for what has changed, as this may be the fastest and best way to restore service.
Monitoring and event management
Ideally, you want the run team to know about issues and be working to correct and/or avoid user impact before the end users even report the incident.
Typically, environments will have good infrastructure monitoring in place to alert when servers are down, storage is full, CPU is high, etc. It is just as important to have application-specific level monitoring place for the EIM platform. For example, on OpenText Content Server you can leverage the OpenText Monitoring Agent to perform synthetic requests to mimic end users. There are also alerting available from inside Content Server through PS modules like Informant to warn of issues.
With the right application level monitoring in place you can help prevent or minimize negative impact on the business.
Problem management
While incident management is focused on restoring service, problem management is about getting to the root cause and corrective actions to prevent future occurrences. At times they can be at odds with one another: in the desire to quickly restore service you may lose the ability to do deeper investigation into root cause as the issue is no longer occurring. When possible, attempt to “preserve the crime scene” even if that just means saving off logs from the time of the incident before they roll over.
When problem management is performed, too often the root cause being identified is only superficial at best. One method to get to true root cause is the 5 Whys. As the name suggests, this involves continuing to drill down further by asking “why” at each layer until getting to a true root cause that enables you to take permanent corrective action.
Taking the time to do problem management right will elevate your EIM platform to higher service levels for the business.
Assistance when/how you need it
OpenText™ enables you to run your EIM platform anywhere. If you’ve chosen the OpenText™ Cloud, then much of what we’ve discussed here is already taken care of for you. If you are running on-premise, in a public cloud as AWS, GCP, Azure, or some hybrid combination, then there are still several ways in which OpenText can assist you.
For starters, OpenText Learning Services has a series of courses to help enhance the skills of your IT staff. These are available as instructor-led for both in person and remote as well as Learning On Demand.
The OpenText Managed Services team is fully certified both in EIM products as well as ITIL v4. Regardless of the level of assistance you desire, we can tailor a program to meet your business needs. If you’re looking for an extra edge, Optimize Assist can provide your IT with on demand access to technical experts and a Service Manager. If you want to go even further, Application Managed Services can remotely administer the day-day operations of your EIM platform allowing your IT to focus on the business needs.
In an earlier blog, I discussed the trends necessitating a modern approach to data collections to support early case assessment, investigations and eDiscovery: an increasingly remote workforce, new sources of electronically stored information (ESI), including ephemeral data, and a rise in regulatory compliance mandates and litigation, to name a few.
This blog looks at the seven critical requirements for collections software to be effective in today’s environment, at the scale required to address the new world of data.
1. Comprehensiveness
Modern data collection software must be comprehensive to collect data from all relevant sources. This includes physical endpoint sources such as like laptops and desktops, on-premise and cloud-based content repositories, and email systems, including archived PST files. Modern forensic software includes robust connectors to all of these data sources as well as remote agents for collecting data from endpoints.
2. Speed and efficiency
Data collection software must work quickly and efficiently. It should use advanced search filtering to cull data at the point of collection and automatically deduplicate and deNIST data sets to limit the size of collections. This minimizes costly over-collection in the context of eDiscovery where the cost of review is often proportional to the volume of data that requires review. Efficient data collection also helps organizations identify conclusive information as expediently as possible for investigations in which time is of the essence.
3. Ease of use and insight
Modern data collection software should crawl multiple target sources in parallel to expedite collection time and enable frequently used criteria to be templated and automated. Additionally, collections should be granular to be able to target specific sources. For example, individual folders within multi-tiered folder structures should be able to be selected discretely to avoid collecting irrelevant data.
Sophisticated data collection software makes it easy to gain insight into the subject and content of the data itself. With pre-collection analytics, users can rapidly understand the scope of the data before it is collected while advanced search helps extract the specific data of interest from within large volumes of irrelevant data. Collections should also be able to be conducted in parallel so data can be analyzed as individual jobs are completed, instead of waiting for entire processes to finish.
4. Unobtrusive operation
Data collection should run quietly in the background. This avoids monopolizing system resources and interrupting the custodian’s normal operation of the device and the applications they rely on to execute their work.
5. Failsafe measures
With dispersed data, sporadic connectivity is a fact of life. Data collection solutions should maintain logs of their successful processes and automatically reattempt any collection that fails, such as when a device drops off a network. Advanced forensic data collection solutions communicate with remote agents to monitor connection attempts and automatically execute retries until devices re-appear on networks and collections are completed.
6. Defensible process and results
Data collection must not alter metadata or compromise chain of custody. Both the process and the results must be defensible and forensically sound. Data collection methods should generate legally sanctioned output formats such as EnCase Information Assurance’s LEF (Logical Evidence File).
7. Easily transferable outputs
One of the core objectives of data collection is to enable subsequent data review, so data must be collected in an industry-standard format that can be readily ported to industry standard analytics and review platforms. Streamlining the effort required to load data into review platforms makes access to the data faster and easier so review can get underway without delay.
Taken together, these seven criteria instruct a modern approach to data collection at scale that meets all the critical requirements for efficiency, effectiveness and defensibility.
Modern data collection for eDiscovery has always been demanding. Today, the challenges are exacerbated by a number of trends, including an increasingly remote workforce. By the end of 2021, the percent of employees that will be working remotely is forecast to grow to 25% to 30%. While remote activities associated with data collection are nothing new, the proliferation of remote personnel (in part due to COVID-19) and devices increases the need for a careful, streamlined approach to every component of data collection.
Here are four key issues affecting the need to modernize data collection methods—along with their interplay with an increasingly remote workforce.
First, the proliferation of mobile devices cannot be ignored. 45% of enterprise data is resident on endpoint devices. The primary challenge in collecting data from mobile devices is that collection tools must be able to adapt to the sporadic network connectivity of these devices and be able to automatically process re-tries until collections are complete. Collection tools should also be able to access the devices with or without VPN connections.
Second, ephemeral data sources have increased in volume, variety and complexity. Working remotely drives a substantial increase in Instant Messaging, chat and other ephemeral data as an alternative to popping over to a colleague’s desk for a quick update on a project. Data collection tools must be able to collect frequently but unobtrusively to capture this short-lived data.
Third, a steady rise in BYOD (bring own your device), CYOD (choose your own device), and COPE (company owned, personally enabled) has complicated collections efforts. While the particular approach should fit the organization and its culture, every approach must balance the inherent right to privacy associated with end users and their personal devices with the organization’s legitimate interest. Collection tools should be able to target only the organization’s data on the employee’s device to not infringe the privacy of the employee’s personal data. Advanced collection tools can accomplish this through granular targeting to specific sources, including individual folders within those sources.
Fourth, the people performing data collections are also likely to be remote. Whether in support of eDiscovery, early case assessment, investigations or other legal and business objectives, collections tools must be accessible anywhere, anytime through modern web-enabled interfaces.
The good news is that addressing these challenges is not a new experience. The focus is not on inventing new ways to address new issues, but rather to become familiar with modern data collection methods and learn how to deploy them at the scale required.
Imagine being able to send not only medical records, but also x-rays, CT scans, MRIs, audio, video, and almost any other kind of file you can think of. That’s the promise of a secure file transfer system. Implementing a solution with mobile app and web portal functionality can also unchain staff from their desks. Not only does this keep teleworking staff members in the loop, but it can be a boon to employees on rounds within facilities as well. However, whatever you’re replacing fax with needs to be at least as secure as fax, but ideally much more so.
Key security features – How to select a safe solution
Block prying eyes with encryption
Many digital methods are passed from server to server across the internet, making them easier to intercept. Email, while convenient, is the digital equivalent of a postcard – wide open for the hackers to see. Any protective security measures applied to it have to be bolted on separately by adjunct solutions, taking away the two things email has going for it: ease of use and accessibility.
Encryption is an essential feature that defines a secure solution from an insecure one.
Prevent staff mistakes and fraudulent access with 2-Factor Authentication
It’s undeniable that one of the biggest breach risks is human error. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office tracked 269 cases of data breaches due to misaddressed email in Q3 of 2019-2020 alone. While we’ve already discussed why email is inappropriate, the same risk often exists for other methods. The ICO recorded 286 cases of records being physically shipped or faxed to the wrong recipients for the same period.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) safeguards against misaddressed messages, but also stolen credentials. While not infallible, it’s become the gold standard for computer security, dramatically reducing risk in exchange for small monetary and sanity cost.
Ease audits with automated recordkeeping
A big part of privacy regulation (NHS Information Governance Regulations, GDPR, etc.) compliance is proving that you’re complying to the ICO and other auditing organizations.
Recordkeeping by hand takes up significant resources and opens the door to human error, so picking a solution that takes records of file transactions automatically is key. Not only do these help you “show your work,” but they also provide valuable visibility in the event a breach does happen.
Clean up loose ends with ephemeral storage
File exchange systems, even secure ones, involve storing data somewhere. That data will stay there forever unless something or someone deletes it. Keeping track of these proliferating copies, and ensuring they’re deleted once they’re no longer useful, could easily be someone’s full time job.
The risk of later discovery is very real, however. In the ICO report referenced above they also tracked 120 breaches due to the loss or theft of storage devices, and 253 due to the lost/theft of physical paperwork or data left in an insecure location.
The best solutions come with a way to automatically wipe files after you’re done with them, so the only copies remaining are under your direct control.
The catch: Usability
Because file exchange solutions necessitate active participation by both the sender and the recipient, people on the other side of the message need to understand how to access the files as well.
Studies show that users are incentivized to go around security that they feel is overly cumbersome. Thus, for any secure communications tool to deliver proper safety, it needs to be easy to use as well. Not only that, but the more difficult it is for recipients and senders outside your organization, the more staff time will be tied up with training & troubleshooting.
Why the NHS National Artificial Eye Service uses OpenText XM SendSecure
Communication with patients, consultants and other stakeholders involves the transmission of sensitive personal data, which falls under the regulatory umbrella of the GDPR, ICO and the NHS Information Governance regulations.
In order to be fully compliant, it’s important that file transfers are encrypted during transmission and at rest. As an added benefit, we also have an increased file size limit of up to 5TB.
Follow the NAES’s Lead to a fax free future for your Trust
If implementing a secure file exchange solution with encryption, 2FA, virus scanning, extensive automatic recordkeeping, incredibly intuitive design, and ephemeral storage sounds like the right next step for your Trust, getting started is easy. All you have to do is reach out to an OpenText expert for more information, a personalized demo, and/or a free trial.
Over the years, Digital Asset Management (DAM) has transformed from a digital media storage hub to a solution with the addition of improved collaboration, automation capabilities, and augmented artificial intelligence.
Here are five key considerations for DAM implementations to optimize overall productivity and increase ROI:
1. Set up DAM with accelerated file transfer
As image and video files grow to gigabyte size, waiting hours for an upload or download dramatically impacts productivity. Embedded file acceleration technology can alleviate this problem. An accelerated file transfer solution can transfer large files at higher speeds than possible through a web browser. This increases the team’s productivity by taking full advantage of available network bandwidth through a multi-part/chunk-based upload technique with uncompromised security saving time to get more done.
2. Make external collaboration easy
Sharing content and collecting feedback with internal cross-functional teams, executives, and the network of external agencies is tedious and repetitive. Media management can ease the frustrations that teams face when collaborating on digital content. This enables teams to easily send large, multimedia files and to collaborate in real-time on digital assets with everyone involved in the provisioning process, whether they are internal stakeholders or external agencies and partners, without requiring participants to be users of DAM Systems. This boosts overall team productivity and improves time to market.
3. Enhance asset discovery with AI-driven metadata
Hours of manual work spent on tagging, organizing, distributing, and editing media content to improve asset discovery takes a lot of resources. Integrating media analysis unlocks asset potential with image, video, and audio analysis that provides auto-tagging for rapid discovery to identify images by faces, age, gender, descriptions, colors, and captions. Having the flexibility of connecting to Microsoft Azure Computer Vision, Google Cloud Vision, or any other AI service allows pay per use to avoid upfront costs. This enables more visibility and control over your digital assets by leveraging the latest improvements in computer vision and Natural Language Processing (NLP) into DAM.
4. Migrate to cloud
Having DAM on the cloud environment provides scalability to grow your content as your business grows. This provides infrastructure flexibility while minimizing the overheads of IT management and costs, with improved accessibility and speed while providing a reliable DAM system.
5. Automate key activities
Plug in your business-specific requirements into DAM system extension points to enable automation to reduce manual efforts thereby improve time to market. When calculating the ROI (Return on Investment) on your DAM consider scalability, flexibility, reduced campaign costs, repurposing, time to market, and marketing efficiency depending on your soaring revenues in the overall business process.
6. Stop re-inventing the wheel
Many DAM features will help in saving collaboration effort, time, and costs depending on your organization’s needs. Leverage its full potential by learning the new features and innovations by keeping the DAM system up to date. Our Center of Excellence team owns many internal tools, solution accelerators, and has proven methods to kick start the project with the best quality delivery to reach faster go-live.
Learn more about OpenText™ Media Management, a leading enterprise DAM solution. When combined with the seamless integration of Hightail software as a service, the frustration that teams face when collaborating on digital content can be eased. OpenText™ Professional Services consultants can help turn complex business requirements into simple yet innovative customized solutions when implementing or upgrading your Information Management systems.
Author: Sagar Pudi, Senior Consultant, Professional Services – Center of Excellence – OpenText.
In part 1, we discussed how British Telecom was phasing out the PSTN and ISDN networks that many businesses depend on, not by 2025, but with rolling deadlines across the country. While the simplest replacement for fax machines is a digital fax solution, this blog describes how you can take things further.
Secure File Exchange
If you’re ready to leave faxing behind entirely, a secure file exchange solution is the answer. Such a solution will let your organization send documents, images, videos, and other large files, securely and with confidence.
It’s important to consider several things when selecting such a product – not all solutions are equal when viewed through the lens of your specific needs. Here are four key criteria you should use to make your decision.
Criteria 1: Security
The most important consideration is that the solution is actually secure. Encryption is a given, but there’s more to security than just that. 2-factor authentication is non-negotiable in today’s cybersecurity environment, dramatically reducing the risk that people signing in aren’t who they say they are. Automatic virus scanning will help protect you against malicious attachments should the person on the other end be infected.
You also need a strategy for dealing with files in after they’ve served their purpose. It is extremely easy for copies to proliferate through communications, and then be forgotten. This is a huge breach risk, so you need some way (ideally automated) to clean them up.
Criteria 2: Compliance
You likely have privacy regulations you must adhere to, such as GDPR if you have customer data from the EU. While no single solution will make your organization compliant, your new communications tool needs to check all the right boxes to ensure that it aids your compliance strategy.
A big part of compliance is record keeping. This helps your organization respond to audits quickly and affordably. If something may have gone wrong and you might have a breach, having solid records makes it a lot easier to discover if something has happened, and what the real risks are.
If a breach is confirmed, you’ll likely have very little time to reach out to those involved, so you’ll need to know who they are.
Criteria 3: Ease of use
The incoming solution must be easy to use. The net is full of horror stories about employees going around approved secure methods in favor of insecure, but less frustrating, consumer options. Not only does your IT department have no visibility at that point, but they’ve set up a breach that’s just waiting to happen.
This doesn’t just hold true for your employees’ sake, but for the benefit of outsiders too. By transitioning away from fax, you’re asking those you communicate with to start using a new method as well. The more frustrating such a solution is, the less likely they are to use it and the more time your staff will have to spend troubleshooting when they do.
Criteria 4: Efficiency and adaptability
Security solutions should keep you safer without adding a lot of workflow overhead. In fact, the ideal situation would be for them to streamline things further. Integrations with Microsoft Outlook, MFP connectors, mobile apps, and secure web portals are all helpful in allowing staff to work efficiently.
The solution you pick should either be custom-built to suit the needs of your particular industry (for example, healthcare, education, or law enforcement), or very adaptable to the file formats and sizes you need to send and receive.
OpenText XM SendSecure
OpenText™ XM SendSecure™ is a file exchange solution designed to make communications secure and aid regulatory compliance without increasing costs or slowing workflows.
XM SendSecure protects your files with double encryption, automatic virus scanning, encrypted chat, and two-factor authentication. It can send and receive files in any format and sizes up to 5TB. Such files are transferred in an ephemeral “SafeBox”. After a specific amount of time (set by the user or administrator), the SafeBox will delete itself, preventing old files from being discovered by bad actors later.
The solution has been designed to aid compliance with a broad range of regulations and security requirements, including GDPR, PCI DSS, and NHS guidelines. This includes exacting automatic recordkeeping of every interaction.
Sending files with XM SendSecure is no more difficult than sending an email. Outside recipients don’t need special training or to have their own account. In fact, they can use your account to submit files to your organization as well.
