Europe’s influence over technology regulation has led U.S. companies to send lobbyists to try and influence European lawmakers as they debate Internet access policy.
“The U.S. companies see the outcome of the fight in Europe as key,” says Jeremie Zimmermann, a lobbyist for French Internet advocacy group La Quadrature du Net. “Each side is hoping to score points on the issue here so they can take it back to the [United States] to influence the outcome there.”
Net neutrality is supported by free-speech advocates and Internet businesses that want to prevent network operators from filtering Internet traffic, but Internet service providers say that basic traffic management is needed to deal with the soaring demand for bandwidth. The outcome of the debate over net neutrality could affect whether consumers will continue to have access to unlimited bandwidth for downloads on a flat-rate plan, or if they will have to pay higher fees based on the amount of data they download.
Continue reading ‘Fight Over Internet Filtering Has a Test Run in Europe’
A survey for 2008 year, conducted by Ponemon Institute on 950 peoples who were laid off, fired or quit their jobs, revealed that more than half would take private company data with them. Thinking at the consequences, it only takes some time until this data gets into competitors’ hands, which might be critical for someone’s business. More than that, the survey revealed that 67% used their previous company’s private data to leverage a new job.
Larry Ponemon, the institute founder, said: “I don’t think these people see themselves as being thieves or as stealing” because “they feel they have a right to the information because they created it or it is useful to them and not useful to the employer.” Data was taken on CD’s, DVD’s (53%), memory sticks (42%), sent as an attachment to a specific e-mail address or even taken as a paper document. (Source)
Beside these entire data leak, the survey pointed out that most of the companies in cause, fail in protecting against data theft during layoffs and more than that, 24% of ex-employee said they still had access to the company network after leaving the building.
These numbers should make us think twice when it comes to protecting companies resources and providing access to confidential data.
Securing data is essential to a company’s reputation, profitability and business objectives. And when it comes to security one should be aware that there is an important distinction between network security and data security.
Data security
Information is the support of a business, together with client’s and product’s details. All these are 
stored on computers and operated by employees. An important matter is that often companies are not aware of the threats related with sensitive information within databases until they are checking and creating lists with persons who have access to sensitive data. Considering that almost 80% of all business information is stored in electronic format and keeping in mind that in the last years there was an improvement made by companies related to their data security the conclusion is alarming: only few of the companies have barely achieved a medium security level regarding data protection. Continue reading ‘Data security vs network security’
Despite the deteriorating economic outlook, there are a number of steps that organizations can take to improve employee morale.
Most importantly, organizations should consider how they can help employees shoulder additional work and provide ongoing assistance to leaders struggling to maintain productivity. In the process of interviewing managers and HR professionals about keeping workers engaged and focused, OnPoint Consulting has developed a mix of traditional and innovative ideas for maintaining employee morale.
Increasing disclosure of what’s happening to your company and your industry is one way to improve employee morale. Senior leaders should share timely information regarding the company’s financial health as well as the overall health of the industry. Companies can also rejuvenate recognition programs. Many firms have these programs in place, but don’t use them effectively. Consider gestures ranging from a simple thank-you note to monetary awards.
By finding alternatives to layoffs, companies can boost employee loyalty. To cut costs without displacing staff, many companies are tapping furloughs, salary freezes or cuts, four-day workweeks, and reducing contributions to health and retirement plans. This helps ensure companies will have the staff in place for when things rebound. Finally, encourage employees to contribute ideas for cost savings and process improvements. Not only do some of the best ideas come from workers, but involving people in decisions that affect them decreases the feeling of uncertainty.
Continue reading ‘Maintaining Employee Morale’
It seems that this is going to happen. It’s not an unexpected decision considering that many companies are using Twitter in order to market their brands. Businesses have found it very useful and had many benefits from it, but now it’s seems that Twitter has find a way to take advantages. Or maybe the financial crisis has stroked even Twitter and looking for solutions they found that this is their best way of facing it.
“We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them,” Stone said. “We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts.” (Source)
The subject regarding the costs was avoided the only mention was that individual users would not be charged. At this moment is quite interesting what companies will decide regarding this matter, how high will be the costs and how many of the commercial account will still be active. For example the computer giant Dell told that its “Twitter sale alerts” have added up to about $1 million in revenue, which is quite a deal. (Source)
You can either get it fast or get it right, but there is a small chance to have both at the same time. Efficiency is a measure of speed and cost and it based on the fact that is more important to get someone in here right now than getting the right person later. That’s why efficiency is somehow associated with activity. Effectiveness on the other side is a measure
of quality and goodness and is based on getting the right person at one time than getting someone as fast.
Based on the description above, activity describes a person who is eager to put in time, but not eager to engage himself – a person who tries hard, but is not willing to care. On the opposite, productivity, associated with effectiveness, describes a person who is fully dedicated in what he is doing, both in personal and work life. These people are passionate about their goals, accomplishments, and destinations.
Continue reading ‘Business focus on activity or productivity?’
I found on CNet news an article talking about our addiction on Google, which captured my attention instantly. As you can remember, last weekend Google labeled the entire Web as malware and the error was caused by a simple person. Somehow this made me see things different and to ask myself how does Google influence our lives and business. Below I have extracted a very interesting paragraph which presents a “might happen” situation that everyone should take into consideration:
“If Google were to go down (or become essentially unusable — same thing) for, say, 72 hours or more, how disruptive would it be to the economy? Would online retailers see a slowdown in business? Would job-seekers remain out of work longer? Would the productivity of information workers (who supposedly spend a couple hours per day doing online searches) be seriously affected?…”
Continue reading ‘“Have we become too dependent on Google?”’
Last week I was talking you about a new version of Cyclope Employee Monitoring Software coming on. Well, I can announce you that the new release 4.0 is now public and we are waiting for our evaluators to test it and give us feedback.
Before taking any action, I will shortly present you the list of improvements and the functionalities embedded in the new version of our employee monitoring software. As we mentioned in the previous post, new embedded features regard reports related to the top applications used, top websites visited, top active users, top idle users but also the top online users.
Top applications used provide information about the top 15 applications used by an employee or a department. If the manager chooses to view statistics for an entire department, beside the top applications used in the specified department one can see the time each member of the department spent on each top application. This feature has a printable version and for a deeper analysis there is also the “export to Excel” option (this feature is available in others reports also).
Continue reading ‘Cyclope Employee Monitoring Software – version 4.0 released’
Is this true? Well I was reading all around on the Internet about different predictions from different points of view about thing companies will focus on this year, about strategies adopted, and different trends. From all these reading the most promoted and reminded was about companies going “green”. 
As for me, I do think that everyone must take the effort to be more environmentally friendly and take up corporate citizenship. But the decisions are taken by each business in part.
The opportunities provided in this strategy might be for some companies a way of saving costs.
The paper, water and power should not be wasted and cutting the inefficient use means spending less on these resources. Think twice before printing a document: do you really need it? And did you know that fax-modems allow documents to be sent directly from a computer, without requiring a printed hard copy?
Continue reading ‘In 2009 – companies go “green”’
Everyone is talking about productivity, increasing productivity, boost productivity, but in fact what is this productivity?
I’m sure everyone who’s reading this post has already defined productivity accordingly to its work parameters and activity domain. But let me ask you: have you ever create a debate plan to analyze factors that influence productivity, improvement methods, profit from productivity etc. I have to admit I have never reflected on this … not to a large scale because short ideas and activities I’ve wrote them in hurry on my posts. But edger to do things well done, I started to document myself about how to start a deep analyze on productivity. Below you can find key points you also should take in consideration.
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Study and describe. What is the meaning of productivity, which is the production process, the industry you debate on, how is production measured? Why is important to improve productivity?
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Evaluate productivity. Before any action to be taken, an evaluation is well received because effect of changing participation and resources is valuable and critical.
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Factors that manipulate productivity. This category includes both physical and psychological factors. Also, the use of resources and their importance, motivation and work methods are clear factors that can manipulate productivity.
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Measure efficiency. This refers to time defining. Is not the same to do something in five hours or in an hour, as is not the same to do things well or in hurry.
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Measure and get better productivity on departments. Time management, task analyze, establish work rules and attendance within a department. Continue reading ‘Deep down looking for productivity’
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