Category Archives: Employee Collaboration
Will Collaboration Expose your Business?
Opening up your business to social media collaboration carries significant risk. Major brands have experienced issues with social media strategies that encourage customers to share with them, most recently Coca Cola.
We Matter in Knowledge Management!
It’s not every day you get recognized by a leading publication for being a major player in your space. Recently, we were named one of KMWorld’s 100 companies that matter in knowledge management.
How to Prevent SharePoint Mistakes
Readin
g Mathew J. Schwartz’s article in Information Week, ‘10 SharePoint Security Mistakes You Probably Make,’ there were a few items of particular interest.
- The first was on the discovery that in the case of Bradley Manning leaking 250,000 U.S. State Department cables, the forensic expert “discovered Wget scripts on Manning’s computer that pointed to a Microsoft SharePoint server holding the Gitmo documents. He ran the scripts to download the documents, then downloaded the ones that WikiLeaks had published and found they were the same, Shaver testified.” (Source: Wired, Forensic Expert: Manning’s Computer Had 10K Cables, Downloading Scripts)
Olympic Security Dossier Left on Train: Could SharePoint have prevented?
The Sun reported earlier this week that a secret dossier detailing plans for policing this summer’s London Olympics were left on a train. Included in the dossier were names and mobile phone numbers of constables, sergeants and inspectors as well as details of pre-Olympics rehearsals, emergency “lock-down” procedures and plans to avoid traffic congestion.
The Guardian wrote an interesting post criticizing the Sun because of its dramatic reference that the file “contained details that would have helped al-Qaida terrorists mount a devastating attack on the Games in London this summer.” Before I get too involved with The Sun verses The Guardian newspaper, my point is that we should ensure the possibility doesn’t happen that an al-Qaida operative is on the same train at the same time as a police officer leaving a security dossier.
On this note, I couldn’t help wonder if SharePoint could have prevented this situation in the first place? Lost documents are nothing new so why does it still happen? Secure documents do not need to be left in places because they shouldn’t be printed in the first instance. It makes more sense for organizations to use SharePoint with a specific automated rules engine to define the parameters that people can access information.
In this instance, if the document was available to the constables, sergeants and inspectors mentioned in the dossier, they should only be able to access it from a computer using a secure SharePoint connection. Then, they should only be able to read it on screen or comment in a secure Team Site on the platform. No printing of the material should ever been allowed. Not only would this mean no loss of documents, but it would also help the Met monitor who was reviewing the information and how the readers felt about the plan (using the Team Site) to make improvements such as the radio comments that appeared in the dossier. Lastly, the Met could see if there was any person wanting to print the materials or access it inappropriately.
SharePoint could lend itself to a useful collaboration tool for the Met. If used with appropriate, automated compliance and security solutions, SharePoint could ensure that instances like this would be a thing of the past.
To help discover the range of issues driving organizations toward stronger content security and policy enforcement, and learn how the most forward-thinking organizations are managing content compliance, download a privacy whitepaper.
New Year Event: Microsoft SharePoint® Customer Journey
Microsoft is sponsoring the ‘SharePoint Customer Journey’ information event at the end of February. This event is a platform to learn how to gain the best value from your Microsoft SharePoint investment.
As one of the ISVs involved, HiSoftware will present a 30 minute session on compliance in SharePoint and how to ensure your organisation is protecting itself from both external and internal risks. Metalogix, Ninetx and KnowledgeLake will also present on how better to find information and how to better use your internal expertise and knowledge.
As part of a four city tour in Edinburgh, Manchester, Reading and London, attendees can:
- Learn how to efficiently use SharePoint 2010 to increase your business’ ability to perform.
- Hear how customers are using SharePoint 2010 in a variety of ways to deliver against their business strategies and regulatory requirements.
- Learn about the powerful partner solutions that extend SharePoint’s out-of-the box capabilities to help you empower, optimise, transform and protect your business.
- Better understand how you can quickly and easily get started to drive more value today.
The agenda will include:
- How to ensure successful deployments with SharePoint 2010.
- Extend SharePoint 2010 across the business, creating broad adoption.
- Enhance your SharePoint ECM engine to manage document scanning, capture and indexing
- Deliver next-generation compliance for your SharePoint environment
- Extend the platform with process automation solutions that are deployed to any device.
Register to attend by clicking one of the locations below.
- Edinburgh: 27/2/2012 09:30 – 13:30
- Manchester: 28/2/2012 09:30 – 13:30
- Reading: 29/2/2012 09:30 – 13:30
- London: 1/3/2012 09:30 – 13:30
Apple’s Leaked Social Media Policies Show Areas to Improve by Frazer McKenzie
Apple’s Leaked Social Media Policies Show Areas to Improve
Frazer McKenzie
Last week Apple’s internal employee social media policy was leaked and published by 9to5mac. The policy outlines exactly how an employee must conduct themselves on social media and highlights the blurring of lines between public and private behaviour online.
“The lines between public and private, and personal and professional are blurred in online social networks. Respect your audience and your co-workers. This includes not only the obvious (no ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc.) but also topics that may be considered offensive or inflammatory. In sum, use your best judgment…
“…In general, what you do on your own time is your business. However, activities that affect your job performance, the performance of other Apple employees, or Apple’s business interests are still covered by company policies and guidelines. This applies whether you engage in these activities in or outside of work, and whether or not you identify yourself as an Apple employee.”
Apple’s policy includes separate guidelines for social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. They cover confidentially, customer privacy and rumour commentary in depth; with distinct guidelines of conduct over email and media platforms.
A few interesting points that are relevant to internal social media include:
- Respect the privacy of your coworkers. Blogs, wikis, social networks and other tools should not be used for internal communications among fellow employees. It is fine for Apple employees to disagree, but please don’t use your external blog or other online social media to air your differences. Do not discuss your co-workers without their permission, and ask permission before posting their picture. By respecting your co- workers’ privacy you will be helping to maintain the professional work environment at Apple.
- Protect Apple’s confidential information. As an Apple employee you have an obligation to protect the confidential, proprietary and trade secret information of the company. This obligation is laid out in several places including the Intellectual Property Agreement you signed when hired and in Apple’s Confidential Information Policy. For example, do not discuss any Apple confidential information including your store’s financial or business performance, and the timing, pricing or design of Apple’s products. Also, do not post pictures of the inside of the Apple Store – including the back of house – as those are not generally made public. Finally, do not post or disclose the contents of any Apple policy. These documents are intended for the use of Apple employees, and not for public distribution.
- Don’t use your Apple email for personal use. Your Apple email address has been given to you for use at work. Therefore you should not use your Apple email address on your personal blog or when posting on social network sites. You have been given a free .mac/.me email address to use for non-work related emails. Please use that email or another personal email address for those types of communications.
For Apple and any other worldwide enterprise business, keeping tabs of all employees on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. is an impossible feat. In some cases, employees are caught and fired, but in many cases I’m sure it goes unmonitored. However this shouldn’t be the case internally. The policies above can be automatically monitored on all internal corporate sites as well as email so that guidelines can be enforced safeguarding both the business interests and employees.
451 Group Webinar on Making SharePoint Safe for Sensitive Data
451 Group Webinar on Making SharePoint Safe for Sensitive Data
When it comes to the collection, storage and collaboration of private or other sensitive data in Microsoft SharePoint®, what organisations don’t know can, in fact, hurt them. Such are the real dangers of unregulated enterprise content. Without clear policies for information governance in SharePoint, unstructured data can lead to serious data breaches and regulatory lapses, something organisations around the globe can’t afford to overlook.
451 Group Senior Analyst Kathleen Reidy will address information governance challenges in “Making SharePoint Safe for Sensitive Data,” a complimentary, one-hour webinar on 13th December at 3:30pm GMT.
During this session, Reidy, in partnership with HiSoftware’s Eric Darbe, will discuss the critical need for organisations to assess their processes for regulatory compliance and information security within SharePoint. The presenters will also highlight what organisations can do to identify the presence of sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) within SharePoint, and reveal how new solutions for automated monitoring, classification and encryption can protect enterprise data while supporting greater collaboration and workforce productivity.
Register to attend the webinar at http://hisoftware.com/company/webinars-seminars/webinar-451group.aspx
Are the Right People on Your SharePoint Project Team?
Most people use the IT team to drive a SharePoint® project. Stakeholders from sales and marketing and product gurus are often consulted during the pre-implementation process. Recently, HiSoftware hosted a webinar by Mark Morrell, former BT intranet manager that covered the topic of stakeholder involvement. During the presentation, he pointed out that it’s not often a person from the compliance department is including during the initial concept development through to post-implementation. Mark stressed the need to include the compliance team in any SharePoint projects.
Ultimately, if you are using SharePoint there are loads of ways you may not be compliant. Accessibility being the number one issue. Many of you will know that SharePoint is not accessible out of the box. Companies could face serious compliance issues if they don’t, from the initial concept stage, include a tool to make it accessible. Brand integrity and compliance standards are also issues that need to be addressed. Have a read of a previous posting on the topic.
Spelling Mistakes Matter to Site Quality
Site quality matters. In fact, it is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for internet businesses, says Charles Duncombe an online entrepreneur in a BBC article posted earlier this summer. The BBC article reported:
“Mr Duncombe says that it is possible to identify the specific impact of a spelling mistake on sales.
He says he measured the revenue per visitor to the tightsplease.co.uk website and found that the revenue was twice as high after an error was corrected.
“If you project this across the whole of internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes,” says Mr Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please group.”
In this article, it’s highlighted that the education system needs to improve so graduates are provided with the skills they need to spell. While I absolutely agree that spelling is essential and every person should learn these skills (or at least have a dictionary to hand!), if the cost is millions of pounds in lost revenues, then why leave this up to chance?
When site quality impacts revenues, it calls for action. 28% of online consumers said that by improving web site usability companies can better engage with them and encourage them to spend more. So why is site quality not always automated? The answer is it should be.
Check out the HiSoftware webinar ‘When Good Websites Go Bad’ to learn more about the ways you can improve your website and ensure your website isn’t’ losing millions of pounds worth of business.
Thoughts from Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2011, Barcelona, Day 2
Here’s an update from the thought-provoking Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2011 in Barcelona. With 4,000 attendees, it’s an event that I’m finding of particular relevance given the step-change in collaboration technology.
Here are some of key quotes and my thoughts from a few sessions:
Gartner’s Keynote Presentation
Collaboration is a key theme coming out of this year’s Gartner Symposium in Barcelona. During the keynote presentation, Peter Sondergaard, SVP, Research, Gartner said:
“This is the era of mass collaboration driven by consumerisation of IT. For the IT leader, therefore, to thrive in this environment you must re-image your role; you must lead from the front.”
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