The Bridge To Digital Business

This is an excerpt from a piece originally published in Electronic Products & Technology (EP&T Magazine).

By Jordan Wosnick, Ph.D., senior scientist, Xerox Research Centre of Canada

Rapid progress in microelectronics has led to exponential increases in computational power over the last 40 years, accompanied by comparable decreases in both the size and cost of electronic devices. This has enabled the spread of electronics and computer technology – once the sole domain of scientists, engineers, and dedicated hobbyists – into every corner of our lives.

Materials chemistry R&D is providing exciting new advances in electronics fabrication.

Much of this change has been fuelled by intense R&D in the electronics industry, resulting in the evolution of chip designs with ever-increasing technical sophistication. However, despite these advances, the basic process used in chip manufacture remains the same: deposition of materials onto rigid, highly pure substrates, followed by masking and etching steps, with the whole cycle repeated as needed. Although highly effective for the production of sophisticated electronic architectures, this process has a very high capital requirement, and its batch-based workflow limits the amount of customization that can be introduced at the fabrication level.

Progress in electronics has also played a large role in driving changes in the way documents are printed. The same revolution in office and home printing that turned inkjet and laser printers into common household items has taken root in the world of commercial printing, where the plate-based lithographic printing processes first developed centuries ago are increasingly being replaced by digital technologies that deposit ink on paper (or other substrates) without a plate, under the control of systems that ensure consistently high resolution and colour accuracy.

Printing know-how turned toward electronics industry

The marking materials used in these printers are themselves the products of many years of materials chemistry R&D, which has led to inks and toners with highly controlled particle sizes, shapes, and surface features. This know-how is now being turned back toward the electronics industry, providing opportunities for electronics fabrication that circumvent some of the limitations of current techniques.

Relative to the traditional process, printing electronics provides a manufacturing method with lower capital costs, fewer steps, and the ability to work under ambient conditions. Conductive and semi-conductive materials can be formulated into inks, which are then printed via inkjet directly onto substrates (which need not be rigid) without masking or etching. While best suited for low-end, disposable electronic devices, printing electronics enables a degree of flexibility and customization not yet available in traditional fabrication.

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By Steven Connor, Vice President of Marketing, Xerox Canada

Without realizing it, we often make things more complicated than they need to be.

A recent article from Harvard Business Review, Overcome the Complexity Within You, contends that some people in an organization are more prone to creating complexity than others and rather than resolving a problem they will inadvertently make it worse.

The author refers to these individuals as “complexifiers,” since they prefer to manage lots of disparate and unfocused work streams — and rather than solving problems they end up sticking with the status quo. Simplifiers, on the other hand, “narrow the focus to a few key things and give their people permission to stop doing things that don’t make the cut.”

Improving employee productivity has strategic revenue-generating opportunities such as becoming more competitive and winning new business. It makes sense to simplify.

Clearly this concept also applies equally well to business processes as it does people. Documents continue to drive processes across almost every area of business and when they are paper-based, they can often be cumbersome, inefficient, and prone to error.  And, according to a recent survey by IDC Research, almost three-quarters of respondents said optimizing document processes, with solutions such as automated workflows, would improve employee productivity, process visibility and control, as well as operational costs.

Yet, for any number of reasons, these inefficient processes continue to persist as “complixifiers” mistakenly believe it’s easier to continue doing things the way they always have.

But, according to IDC, improving employee productivity has strategic revenue-generating opportunities because more productive employees can spend more time on innovation, customer service, becoming more competitive and winning new business. It makes sense to simplify.

At Xerox, our ConnectKey platform is designed to empower employees through simplicity, by helping them adopt new and better ways of working with colleagues and clients.

EIP (Extensible Interface Platform), for example, extends the capabilities of your multifunction printers so they can adapt to meet business needs as they evolve, while employees benefit from simplified and personalized workflows. For example, single-touch scanning allows you to scan information directly into a client folder without typing in the client’s name.

This is all done without the need for additional IT infrastructure. It’s about working with what you already have but making it work a whole lot better.

According to BLI¹, an independent test lab and consumer advocate: “Standard EIP architecture allows the device to integrate with third-party software solutions that can help control costs and simplify administration, heighten security and ease burdens associated with document capture, routing and managing.”

While I’m sure you can identify a few complexifiers in your own office, now with productivity enabling workflows of ConnectKey you can enable the “simplifier” in everyone.

[1] Buyers Lab, Lab Test Report, Xerox WorkCentre 7855, March 2013

By Paul Ironstone, Social Marketing Manager, Xerox Canada

Recently, Ajay Dhingra, Vice President, Indirect Channels Sales Organization, Xerox Canada, talked to The Canadian Channel Standard about how Xerox is leading a charge for the managed and mobile print markets in Canada with a strong partner-led strategy.

“Change is a bit of a norm at Xerox. As a company, we’ve always evolved.”

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Xerox is leading a charge for the managed and mobile print markets in Canada with a strong partner-led strategy, Ajay Dhingra, VP of reseller operations for Xerox Canada, told The Standard in a recent interview. Five years ago, it’s a business strategy Xerox Canada wouldn’t have been able to pursue; its channel culture was still in infancy.

With a goal of expanding market share in the A4/desktop printer category, as well as focusing on delivering managed print services to clients from the SMB through to the enterprise, Xerox Canada has spent the last five years transforming itself into a more services-oriented and channel-friendly organization.

“Change is a bit of a norm at Xerox. As a company, we’ve always evolved,” Dhingra said. “The B2B customers that we are really focused on prefer to buy from channel partners and in order to grow we needed to expand our channels of distribution.”

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Par Trevor Salway, Directeur du Marketing Nationale, Xerox Canada

Plus de la moitié des personnes sondées par IDC ont déclaré qu’optimiser les processus de gestion des documents aurait une incidence positive importante sur chaque critère d’évaluation commercial figurant dans le sondage.  Par conséquent, nous avons élaboré des solutions qui ne se limitent pas qu’à la numérisation  des documents — des solutions qui tiennent compte du portrait d’ensemble.

Il est important de maîtriser la capacité de reformuler les problèmes pour trouver de nouvelles solutions.

« Nous établissons des cadres selon notre expérience et ces derniers influencent et limitent notre façon de penser, » soutient M^me Seelig.  « Il est important de maîtriser la capacité de reformuler les problèmes, ajoute-t-elle, pour trouver de nouvelles solutions — de la même façon qu’on peut changer sa perspective à travers la lentille d’une caméra sans jamais bouger les pieds ».

Établir ces cadres représente un défi courant pour les entreprises de toutes tailles dans n’importe quel secteur. Avec l’informatique en nuage, les technologies  mobiles, les médias sociaux et l’analyse des grandes bases de données, nous constatons un énorme virage dans la façon dont les entreprises utilisent les documents, qui est complètement différente de la façon dont les documents étaient traités dans le passé.

Une étude mondiale récente menée par IDC, par exemple, a révélé que les entreprises éprouvent beaucoup de difficultés à gérer leurs documents —notamment pour trouver les documents pertinents, recréer les documents perdus et récupérer les documents dans les référentiels. Et la source de mécontentement principale est le cycle de vie global des documents et la gestion de leur entreposage.

Lorsqu’ils utilisent des documents dans le cadre de leurs processus d’affaires critiques, les directeurs de la TI, les directeurs commerciaux et les travailleurs de l’information soutiennent qu’un grand nombre de leurs besoins ne sont pas comblés, selon IDC. La sécurité figure en haut de la liste, suivie par le soutien des flux de production automatisés des documents et la possibilité pour de multiples utilisateurs de travailler sur un document simultanément.  La réduction de la complexité du cycle de vie des documents constitue une autre demande clé.

D’après IDC, la numérisation des documents uniquement ne suffit pas. Voici comment il pourrait être utile de reformuler le problème.

« Pour profiter pleinement des avantages de transférer les documents dans un flux de production électronique global, les entreprises doivent intégrer plus de niveaux  d’intelligence dans les documents et ainsi les adapter aux flux de production commerciaux à plateforme mixte, incluant les applications infonuagiques et sur place, les médias sociaux internes et externes et le traitement à l’aide d’appareils mobiles et de bureau , » affirme le rapport d’IDC .

Plus de la moitié des personnes sondées par IDC ont déclaré qu’optimiser les processus de gestion des documents aurait une incidence positive importante sur chaque critère d’évaluation commercial figurant dans le sondage.  Par conséquent, nous avons élaboré des solutions qui ne se limitent pas qu’à la numérisation  des documents — des solutions qui tiennent compte du portrait d’ensemble.

Il est impératif d’écouter la voix du client.  Votre message a été clairement entendu. Nous avons donc affecté nos ressources à Expo Xerox, une tournée qui aura lieu à l’échelle du Canada en mai pour présenter nos nouvelles solutions de bureau des plus innovatrices.

Nous démontrerons plus particulièrement le pouvoir de la plateforme ConnectKey, qui mise sur la force de nos partenariats avec McAfee, Nuance, NSI et Technologies and Process Fusion.

Avec nos offres combinées, vous pouvez rendre votre entreprise plus productive  —en simplifiant la gestion de vos imprimantes, en automatisant les tâches quotidiennes répétitives,  en effectuant un archivage efficace et en effectuant la synthèse de la parole en texte. Toutes ces mesures contribueront à réduire le fardeau sur la TI.

Les démonstrations en direct lors de l’expo porteront sur ConnectKey, le flux de production relatif aux comptes fournisseurs, l’impression mobile,  les solutions infonuagiques, les flux de numérisation, le contrôle des coûts, la saisie avancée des documents et les services d’impression gérés.

Je vous  invite à participer à un de ces événements  :

• Vancouver (2 mai)
• Calgary (9 mai)
• Toronto (15 mai)
• Montréal (22 mai)

Résoudre les sources de mécontentement de votre entreprise par des solutions innovatrices  — qui présentent de nouvelles façons d’aborder les anciens problèmes et reformulent les difficultés — peut révéler la possibilité d’intégrer plus de niveaux d’intelligence dans les documents. Nous espérons vous voir lors de ces événements pour vous montrer des façons de sortir des sentiers battus.

By Trevor Salway, National Marketing Manager, Xerox Canada

We often get stuck in a rut looking at problems the exact same way we always have. But, according to Tina Seelig, best-selling author and executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, taking a different perspective can unlock innovations and lead to breakthroughs — in any industry.

Mastering the ability to reframe problems is an important tool for unlocking new solutions.

“We create frames for what we experience, and they both inform and limit the way we think,” says Seelig. Mastering the ability to reframe problems, she adds, is an important tool for unlocking new solutions — in the same way you can change your perspective through the lens of a camera without ever moving your feet.

Creating these frames is a common challenge for businesses of all sizes, in any industry. With cloud computing, mobile technologies, social business and big data analytics, we’re seeing a huge shift in how businesses use documents, which is completely different from how documents were handled in the past.

A recent global study by IDC, for example, found that organizations are experiencing a great deal of pain with their documents — finding relevant documents, recreating lost documents and extracting documents from repositories. And the No. 1 pain point is end-to-end document lifecycle and storage management.

When using documents in critical business processes, IT managers, business managers and information workers have a wide range of unmet needs, according to IDC. Security tops the list, followed by support for automated document workflows and allowing multiple users to work on a document simultaneously. Another key request is reducing complexity in the document lifecycle.

IDC found that digitization of documents alone is not enough. And here’s where reframing the problem could help.

“To fully achieve the benefits of moving documents into an electronic end-to-end workflow, organizations need to build into documents greater levels of intelligence that address mixed-platform business workflows, including cloud and on-premise applications, in-house and external social media, mobile and desktop processing,” says the IDC report.

Over half of those surveyed by IDC said optimizing document processes would have a significant positive impact on every business metric asked about in the study. Considering that, we’ve come up with solutions that go beyond digitization of documents — solutions that take into account the bigger picture.

Listening to the voice of the customer is imperative and we’ve heard you loud and clear. So we’ve invested our resources into Xerox Expo, a series of road shows taking place across Canada this May, where we’ll showcase new and innovative office solutions.

In particular, we’ll demonstrate the power of the ConnectKey platform, which leverages the strength of our partnerships with McAfee, Nuance, NSI, AND Technologies and Process Fusion.

Through our combined offerings, you can make your business more productive — from simplifying the management of your printers, to automating repetitive day-to-day tasks, effective document archival and digitizing speech to text. And all of this will help reduce the burden on IT.

Live demonstrations at the expo will include ConnectKey, A/P workflow, mobile printing, cloud solutions, scanning workflows, cost control, advanced document capture and managed print services.

I invite you to participate in one of these events:

• Vancouver (May 2)
• Calgary (May 9)
• Toronto (May 15)
• Montreal (May 22)

Addressing your organization’s pain points through innovative solutions — that provide new ways of looking at old problems and reframing the issues — can unlock the potential for greater document intelligence. We hope to see you there and show you ways to think outside the box.

By Brad King, Vice-President and General Manager, Xerox Canada

Sustainability has always been part of our business model — in our early days we promoted two-sided copying, print-on-demand and the use of recycled paper. With our latest platform launch, ConnectKey, environmental stewardship is integrated directly with customer business processes.

Sustainability doesn’t just come from better products — it comes from better business processes.

Some see sustainability as a cost to the business, but using products and processes that are more efficient will help make companies more sustainable and even help them save money.

ConnectKey isn’t just our latest generation of hardware; it’s a set of solutions and apps embedded in our multi-function printers for an increasingly mobile workforce that demands more advanced security across connected devices. It was designed to simplify how work gets done in a changing business environment where employees bring their own devices to work and access applications in the cloud.

A multi-function device can do the work of multiple devices, including copiers, scanners, fax machines and printers. And fewer devices means consuming less energy, paper and supplies. But ConnectKey goes beyond this with innovative technologies and partnerships.

Our Solid Ink technology, for example, is cartridge-free and generates 90 per cent less waste than typical print cartridges, while also reducing the effects of manufacturing and transportation on the environment.

We’ve also partnered with industry experts such as Cisco. ConnectKey devices can be integrated into Cisco EnergyWise, which provides a single view of energy use across all IT equipment at customer sites. An industry first, it allows power settings to be modified to meet our customers’ energy conservation goals.

It allows users, for example, to read energy usage statistics directly from a ConnectKey device and program wake/sleep policies based on hours of activity and usage patterns. User permissions are also embedded into ConnectKey devices, allowing administrators to define roles that permit or restrict the use of colour and encourage two-sided printing.

Then there’s our Environmental Asset Recovery Program, a recycling program that makes it easy for our customers to return supplies, while expanding our efforts to keep waste out of landfills. This is an extension of our global Green World Alliance (GWA) program, which has kept more than 143 million pounds of cartridges, bottles and waste toner out of landfills over the past 12 years.

Sustainability doesn’t just come from better products — it comes from better business processes. ConnectKey, for example, allows employees to scan and upload documents to cloud repositories and send business-critical documents directly into workflow processes, reducing paper usage.

We work with our customers to build better document management processes and create better workflows, taking mobility, cloud and BYOD into account. These efficiencies go hand-in-hand with sustainability. Any time we can reduce equipment, supplies and energy use, it’s a win for the business — and for the environment.

[This piece was originally published in the April 2013 issue of The Green Guide.]

By Mark Cole, National Business Intelligence Manager, Xerox Canada

Going green isn’t just for businesses with large budgets. A small business can also take small, but effective steps, that have a big impact on the environment. Being consistent about reducing energy, water and paper can all make a difference — for the environment and your bottom line.

Developing an eco-friendly workplace is becoming a priority for many small businesses, according to the Office Depot Small Business Index. Sixty-one per cent of small businesses are actively trying to become greener, while 70 per cent anticipate becoming more environmentally conscious over the next two years.

Working with the right vendor can also make it easier for you to get involved in sustainability efforts if you don’t have the resources to do it on your own.

Eighty-two per cent of respondents say they’re doing this by recycling more; other green initiatives include reducing waste, buying energy-efficient products and reducing water use. Some of the products they’d like to see converted to greener choices include ink and toner cartridges, paper products and lighting.

That’s not to say there aren’t challenges ahead: Thirty-nine per cent of respondents are concerned about the cost of going green, as well as lack of time to follow through on those efforts.

But going green doesn’t have to be expensive, time-consuming or complicated. According to the Ecopreneurist, paper makes up about 35 per cent of our waste stream, even though it’s easy to reuse and recycle.  Simple changes include using FSC certified paper, presetting your devices to print on both sides of the page, or releasing a job when at the device.

Another way to print less is by using electronic documents where possible — particularly by cutting out inefficient paper-based processes. By shifting to DocuShare, Kawartha Pine Ridge School Board was able to significantly reduce its paper usage and storage space for documents. In fact, they were also able to automate payroll and bill paying and cut processing time by 50-60 per cent. A relevant example of how an organization can reduce the impact that paper has on employee productivity and the environment.

But going green also means curbing unnecessary energy consumption. Between 2011 and 2020, carbon emissions for worldwide ICT equipment and services are expected to double from two to four per cent of total emissions, according to research firm Verdantix.

For small companies, device idle time is a big culprit, consuming energy and racking up bills. Simply by turning off equipment, such as laptops, monitors, or peripherals, when not in use, a workplace can reduce its energy usage by up to 25 per cent, according to the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s Greening Operations guides.

Something that’s not always top-of-mind is to work with like-minded vendors. Seek out partners that are certified green, and choose to buy from suppliers who take back packaging for reuse. They can also make it easier for you to get involved in sustainability efforts if you don’t have the resources to do it on your own.

At Xerox , the Green World Alliance allows you to consolidate your returns, contributing to our overall effort to keep billions of pounds of waste out of landfills. In fact, with the launch of Eco Box in Canada, a simplified return and recycling program, you are now able to return five to 30 used supply items all at once — including consumables from many 3^rd party vendors.

Streamlining your business processes is another way to become more sustainable, while boosting productivity. According to research firm Photizo Group, businesses can save 30 per cent of their total hard-copy costs and reduce hard-copy carbon emissions by 60 per cent through the use of Managed Print Services.

Research firm Gartner says organizations spend one to three per cent of their annual revenues on printing. An MPS provider can significantly reduce how many devices are being used — and how those devices are being used — helping to reduce consumables, energy use and overall costs.

If you’re a small business, going green is a smart decision that can save time, energy and money — it’s a win-win for your business and the environment.

By Mark Cole, National Business Intelligence Manager, Xerox Canada

April is Earth Month and this year’s theme is putting an end to “environmental apathy.” Most people genuinely want to help the environment, but in tough economic times sustainability initiatives are often the first item to get cut out of the budget.

By being more efficient with business processes, companies can use the time and money they save toward sustainability initiatives.

These days, businesses are looking for an economic justification to sustainability, since there’s often a perception that being “green” is a cost (or obligation) to the business with intangible benefits.

Research firm Infosys says we’re seeing an increased focus on defining return-on-investment metrics for sustainability measures: “Sustainability as a whole can no longer be sold as the primary benefit. Defined metrics like cost reduction, revenue gain and compliance should assume primacy, else there will be challenges in funding and acceptance.”

Even if you’re a small or medium sized business, being green can provide real benefits. Indeed, it could make your business more competitive and ready to face future challenges, such as increasing energy costs — the U.S. National Intelligence Council says in its Global Trends 2030 report that energy costs alone are forecast to grow by 25 per cent over the next 10 years.

Once cost-prohibitive, many green solutions are coming down in price and are more accessible to even small organizations. And, by being more efficient with business processes — such as document management, workflow automation and managed print services — companies can use the time and money they save toward sustainability initiatives.

And that approach is likely to get the ear of decision-makers. Here are a few tips for SMBs to help increase sustainability:

• LED light bulbs: The BBC News reported that lighting accounts for 20 to 50 per cent of energy consumed in commercial buildings, even though a lot of time the lights don’t need to be on. According to a recent article in the New York Times Bits, LED light bulbs last 25 times as long as incandescent bulbs and three times as long as compact fluorescents. As their price drops, it’s easier to justify purchasing LED bulbs in return for a lower lifetime cost of ownership.
• Get an energy audit: This can be an effective and inexpensive way to reduce your utility bills and get a better understanding of your eligibility for energy rebates. Some jurisdictions, such as Vancouver, even offer free energy audits in support of SMBs.
• Consider the Cloud: A study by Quorum found the biggest single cause of SMB downtime was hardware failure (at 55 per cent), so it’s not surprising that there is a growing appetite among SMBs for moving to the cloud. A Smart Planet blog makes a good point that smaller companies don’t use 100 per cent of their server capacity — not even close — which, in turn, means resources are being used while servers are inactive. With a public cloud solution, you only use those resources when they’re needed.

At Xerox, we’re doing our part to help SMBs improve their business processes, while offering ways to be more sustainable. For example, a lot of mission-critical operational processes are, to a large extent, still supported by paper. Managed Print Services can support sustainability efforts by optimizing workflows and digitizing paper-based processes. Further, by rationalizing a print environment and reducing pages, it provides your business real cost savings opportunities while also reducing energy consumption and environmental footprint.

Through our Solid Ink offerings, we’re decreasing packaging size and after-use waste, helping to decrease storage, transportation and disposal costs. And through ConnectKey, we’re helping our customers better manage their multifunction printers — such as when and how they’re used — to minimize idle-time and waste.

In other words, we can help you print less, print better and work faster — an easy justification for a more sustainable to operate your business.

Still struggling to find time for green initiatives? Stay tuned for our next post, which will explain how trusted partners can help your business become more sustainable, while saving time and money.

Raj Wadhwa, Industry Marketing Manager, Xerox Canada

“Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.” — Alan Perlis

This wisdom applies to technology as much as anything else in our lives. Technology is supposed to make our lives simpler, but often creates more busywork — resulting in wasted time and money.

“Reducing busywork can save time and money — and, in the case of police officers and nurses, help them focus on more important tasks such as saving lives.”

Busywork affects all workplaces, but in the case of police officers and health-care workers, it can take them away from more essential tasks such as saving lives.

The Chatham-Kent Police Service (CKPS) in Ontario, for example, was burdened with busywork. Because of a time-consuming process for submitting Crown Briefs that included more than 100 steps (many of those manual), officers were spending too much time at their desks doing paperwork rather than patrolling the streets.

With a need to put more officers on the streets, but faced with reduced funding, CKPS partnered with Xerox to turn that complexity into simplicity. Xerox developed the Crown eBrief Submission Project to automate many of those time-consuming, manual processes and increase productivity by, in some cases, up to 500 per cent.

As a result, CKPS expects to see a 10 per cent capacity increase of officers on the streets — while at the same time realizing a 40 per cent savings over its previous processes.

This solution is similar to the work Xerox is doing with health-care workers — work that has been recognized in notable publications such as MIT Techreview and Smart Planet. Complexity here also precedes simplicity — and in this case, reducing busywork can help nurses improve patient care.

A study in The Permanente Journal found that nurses spend more than half of their time documenting work and coordinating with other team members. So researchers at Xerox are developing a new system — the Digital Nurse Assistant — to automate much of this busywork, from logging into computers, to pulling up patient files and coordinating duties with other nurses.

The Digital Nurse Assistant combines in-room displays with mobile technology to deliver information to health-care workers. Nurses wear a badge that automatically logs them into the system, and they can then document their work on a handheld device.

These technological innovations are in sync with the priorities of today’s CIOs — both from a technology and a business perspective. According to a recent survey by Gartner, adapting to the digital world requires doing things differently, yet in ways consistent with the demands of digital technologies.

The survey found that, of CIOs’ top technology priorities, mobile technology is high on the list at No. 2. Another priority is legacy modernization — a challenge faced by both police forces and health-care organizations.

When it comes to CIOs’ top business priorities, organizations are looking to deliver operational results, improve efficiencies, and attract and retain workers — also areas that Xerox is addressing with projects such as the Crown eBrief Submission Project and Digital Nurse Assistant.

Complexity in technology and business processes often leads to wasted time. And in the case of police officers and nurses, time wasters can be critical.

According to N2Growth’s “15 Time Wasters Successful People Avoid,” lack of focus, technology interruptions and initiative overload are all culprits in reducing worker productivity. Time can be wasted — or it can be leveraged.

It’s easy to become preoccupied with non-essential matters, especially when technology and business processes are burdened by complexity. Reducing busywork can save time and money — and, in the case of police officers and nurses, help them focus on more important tasks such as saving lives.

View the full Chatham-Kent Police Service case study:

By Steven Connor, Vice President of Marketing, Xerox Canada

Information drives business, and it’s more important than ever to protect this key asset — not just information contained in documents, but on all devices connected to the network.

The threats are real — they range from harmless (but annoying) spam messages to malware that can take down your network. A breach in security can result in unauthorized use of sensitive information, stolen trade secrets or compromised intellectual property.

And let’s not forget hefty fines and litigation if customer information is exposed, as well as damage to your company’s reputation that may take years to repair.

“Information drives business, and it’s more important than ever to protect this key asset — not just information contained in documents, but on all devices connected to the network.”

IT organizations are naturally skeptical of complexities to secure their infrastructure brought on by mobile workforces, bring-your-own-device policies and cloud-based computing.  These solutions translate into an increasing number of potential entry points for intruders and peripherals to manage. But the answer isn’t to lock down the workplace — mobility, BYOD and cloud also come with new business opportunities.

That’s where our ConnectKey product line comes in — to offer up new opportunities while reducing risks.

One of the biggest threats to security comes from employees themselves, not necessarily because they have malicious intentions but because they’re unaware of security policies and procedures.

Almost two-thirds of employees never or rarely worry about confidential information remaining secure, according to a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive. In fact, more than half of respondents said they copy, scan or print confidential documents.

And while 87 per cent of employees work at a company that has an IT security policy, one in 10 rarely or never follows that policy — and two in 10 aren’t even aware that a policy exists.

Then, of course, there are external threats, such as malware that seeks to exploit network security shortcomings. But many organizations aren’t keeping pace with these threats either, particularly as employees become more mobile, use their own devices and access apps in the cloud.

A recent RSA Security Trends survey of security professionals found that one of their biggest security concerns is BYOD. While 75 per cent of respondents accept that BYOD is prevalent within their organizations, 66 per cent consider it to have a high impact on security — yet, 35 per cent don’t believe their organization has adequate security in place to protect against threats associated with BYOD.

“Companies will do well to proactively address trends like BYOD and cloud security, but they should also look to raise their game in terms of threat detection and mitigation,” says Mark Vondemkamp, vice-president of product management for security at F5 Networks, which conducted the study.

“With employee behavior, business priorities and infrastructure demands further expanding traditional threat vectors, the proper tools and procedures are essential in maintaining a healthy level of security.”

That was the idea behind ConnectKey. Networked multifunction printers can present additional vulnerabilities to an organization, since they can copy, scan and print to network destinations, send email attachments and handle fax transmissions. MFPs are an important consideration in an organization’s line of defense against threats.

At Xerox, we’ve built security right into our technology — and right into the document workflow. We’ve also partnered with industry leaders such as Cisco and McAfee to extend our security solutions, from image overwrite, to electronic shredding, to embedded white-listing capabilities.

McAfee Embedded Control, for example, uses white-listing technology to protect Xerox devices from attack. This technology locks down critical systems and prevents unauthorized changes so only programs contained in the white list can execute.

There are a lot of threats out there, and they’ll continue to grow and evolve. This is what we had in mind when developing ConnectKey, so you don’t have to worry about your MFPs — we’re bringing you peace of mind, right out of the box.