This is the final theme in this series on Flex Work Gone Wild. The first three - Flex Work Trade Secrets Part 1: Leaders know their audience, Flex Work Trade Secrets Part 2: Design Integrated Systems and Flex Work Trade Secrets Part 3: Help managers and employees make informed choices were all about implementing a flex work program.

Now, I’ll get down to the bottom line and the fixation every flex work implementer has on data.

THEME 4. MEASURE THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

Leading flexible enterprises are obsessed with data – the good, the bad and the ugly - and they use that data strategically to drive decisions at every stage of the Flexible Work Lifecycle. They use it to make program investment decisions, evaluate effectiveness against targets, communicate with the external stakeholder community by incorporating it into their annual CSR reports, and even to satisfy sustainable supply chain requirements.

3BL x 3

So when do you measure, and what do you measure?

Quite simply, you measure everything – and you start measuring before do anything else. You begin with an emphasis on discovering whether there’s even a flex work opportunity at all. Usually, this means measuring at the individual level. We want to know who works where and when, what kind of vehicles or mode of transport they use to get to their workplace, how far and how long they travel and how much it costs them to get to and from work. Of course, this data is also important as a benchmark for measuring the success of your program at the back-end.

During the implementation, we measure again. Here, we want to know who’s where in the implementation, how many people are at each stage and how long it takes to get through each stage. This tells us if there are any pinch points that need attention. We would likely also ask managers and employees about the program and how it’s affecting them. We might ask questions like: Is the quality of work improving? Is the volume of work increasing? How accessible are people to each other when they’re not sitting in the same place? What’s the level of satisfaction for each employee? Of course, this data isn’t as quantifiable as the number of kilometres someone used to drive, but it still gives us a good sense of how well the program is performing and if and where it needs to be adjusted.

Finally, we measure the success of the program when it’s running. This can be very specific, such as the environmental impacts of a program, the real estate savings, the efficiencies achieved by employees and so on. It can also be softer, for example around how people use the time they’ve saved by not having to travel. We know from past implementations that many employees give back some of the time they’ve saved, working longer hours to make up for the lack of a commute. So individual time-savings can benefit the organization as well.

Finally, of course, there’s ongoing measurement. Some organizations do quarterly and annual surveys, asking managers and employees to report on ongoing savings, or any problems.

Quite simply, we never stop measuring. And that’s what allows us to see that the aggregate triple bottom line impact can be quite staggering.  Here you can see the average annual 3BL benefits currently being realized by some our Flex Work enterprise customers with approximately 10,000 employees.

The final word

It’s a must to understand the impacts on the full range of metrics that are important to your business. Whether you are driven by cost savings, retention / recruitment, environmental performance, health and well-being, conservation, productivity, space utilization or all of the above, there are literally hundreds of 3BL performance measures that can and should be considered.  The flex work rock stars figure out what is most important to their stakeholders and then benchmark it, measure it, and measure it again.

About Ian

Ian Gover is a pioneer in the field of flexible work. He has focused his entire career on helping organizations optimize their technology, workplace and human capital management infrastructure to provide a better match for today’s flexible workforce requirements. As President & CEO of Teletrips, Ian works with public sector organizations and Fortune 500 companies to help them improve their triple bottom line performance - improving employee effectiveness, realizing millions in operational savings, and achieving significant improvements in environmental efficiency. Prior to Teletrips, Ian held executive and senior management positions with Sun Microsystems and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds a Master of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York.

About Teletrips

Teletrips (www.teletrips.com) is the leading provider of software as a service tools that help organizations improve their triple bottom line performance through Intelligent Workplace and Workforce Management. The Intelligent Enterprise Software as a Service Platform is helping organizations around the world realize millions in operational savings, improve employee effectiveness and achieve significant improvements in environmental efficiency.

For ages, philosophers (and college freshmen) have pondered this well-known question: if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

I don’t know the answer to that.

A more recent question is similarly pondered by great minds, notably contact center managers and strategists: if a question is posted on the Social Web, do we have to answer it?

Here I’m on firmer ground.

But getting to an answer means moving from philosophy to pragmatism. And doing this means focusing on the three pillars of social support: Awareness, analysis, and action.

Pillar #1 - Awareness

You can’t do anything about anything—whether it’s a tree falling, a question being tweeted, or sending a card on your brother-in-law’s anniversary (don’t ask)—if you don’t know about it. Awareness of particular posts often happens via direct observation. You may Google certain key words, scroll through posts on Facebook, search particular Twitter hashtags, and read the usual blogs. If there’s something important, there’s a chance you’ll find it directly.

But while serendipity can be powerful—fun even, such as when connecting with a former colleague, classmate, or neighbor on Facebook - when it goes in our favor, it doesn’t make for a trustworthy or repeatable business process. Chance doesn’t cast a wide or tight enough net to provide the predictability that businesses need, or to help limit the risks that businesses face. You sure don’t want to find out about a post from your CEO, someone on the legal team, or a member of the media.

Here’s where social media monitoring tools come in. They’re the BFFs of contact center managers and brand and PR managers alike. And you’re likely already using one or more of them to scour the social sites and networks that are relevant to your business, and to identify the questions, comments, and other forms of social content that matter to you.

Pillar #2 - Analysis

Leveraging eyes and technology brings awareness of a question that might need to be answered.In fact, it will bring awareness of dozens, hundreds, or perhaps thousands of questions. But, at this point, deciding whether or not to respond is still premature.

You need some degree of analysis first. What exactly should be analyzed? Different business units have different interests, so the answer to this question varies based on where you sit in the organization. But you’ll likely want to be able to answer many of these questions:

• How many relevant posts (questions, comments, etc.) are being created, per channel, per time period?
  
• Are these the same, or different, types of questions that are being received through your other support channels?
  
• Are you searching the right social sites and networks?
  
• Are you using the most appropriate and relevant key words?
  
• Are there themes or trends that your colleagues might find interesting?
  
• Is the overall sentiment positive or negative? How does that slide along important lines (such as departments, products, etc.)?
  
• Who are the authors, based demographic, behavioral, and other criteria?
  
• By what dimensions (such as time, sentiment, author, etc.) can these be prioritized?
  
• How are these things changing over time?
  

Pillar #3 – Action

Taking action, of course, is where the rubber hits the road. The analysis you do informs the actions you take. As with the two previous pillars, people, process, and technology play fundamental roles not only in deciding which actions to take, but in prioritizing those actions and performing them efficiently and effectively on an ongoing basis.

Appropriate actions may include the following (note that they are not mutually exclusive):

• Answering it
  
• Getting more information, such as from a knowledgebase or a subject-matter expert
  
• Asking the author for clarification
  
• Suggesting the conversation be moved to a different channel
  
• Make a point
  
• Creating an incident
  
• Flagging it or making a note (for internal use)
  
• Bringing the question to someone else’s attention
  
• Letting someone else—perhaps one of your customers, if it’s in an online community—answer it
  
• Ignoring it – non-response is indeed a type of action
  

The point of the tree-falling-in-the-forest question is not to come up with an answer, but to spur thought and, I would argue, enjoy the all-but-inevitable debate that ensues. Contact center managers have no such luxury for intellectual stimulation and amusement; they deal with the reality of providing service and support, made more complex through the ubiquity, ceaselessness, and continuous growth of social media.

So…no…you don’t have to answer every question on the Social Web. But you should know about it (awareness), learn from it (analysis), and do something (action), even if that means not responding to it.

When you become successful at operationalizing these three pillars, you’ll reach a plane on which you’ll not only hear that tree fall, you’ll also hear the sound of one hand clapping.

-------------------

This is the first in a new limited series from TELUS Talks Business on how to leverage social for maximum efficiency in the call centre. Matthew Lees leads the Social Practice Group for RightNow Technologies (NASDAQ: RNOW) a U.S. software company that develops customer relationship management (CRM) software for enterprise organizations. Before joining RightNow, he was a vice president and analyst with the Patricia Seybold Group, where he ran the group’s social media research and consulting practice. He has published over 50 research reports and trade magazine articles, and has presented his work at dozens of industry events.

Twitter: @mlees

Blog: http://www.socialcx.com

Toronto-based entrepreneur Evan Carmichael is making major life changes. Some are physical, like walking to work instead of driving. Others are material. Like forsaking men’s dress shoes for a pair of Vibram FiveFingers.

The footwear resembles colourful frog’s feet and, yes, Carmichael – an international speaker who has consulted with companies including Microsoft, Xerox, and Google – gets his share of stares.

Wearing Vibram is the closest thing to walking barefoot because of the lack of cushioning, Carmichael explains,. As such, the shoes force him to walk on his mid-foot as opposed to his heels (The theory is Vibram stimulate muscles in the feet and lower leg.)

What’s it’s meant for the 31-year-old is this: he feels little pain in his knees and lower back, compared to what he suffered throughout his 20s while working long hours at a desk to establish his business. “My doctor would say ‘You’re young, you shouldn’t have these issues,’ I saw chiropractors, tried orthotics and inserts. And nothing really worked.”

Now this isn’t an advertisement for Vibram. This is a story about improving your health and your productivity by getting your butt out of your chair. Before I get to how Carmichael improved his health and how you could do the same, let’s travel back to childhood.

Get, get, get on up

Remember what it was like to be carefree? You were 3’ 5” and in continuous motion.

As it turns out, evolution meant for you, me and everyone else to be zipping hither and yon, from the time we were 3’ 5” to the time we hit 6’ 1”. Study after study has found that movement is what’s best for the human body. It reduces the risk of heart disease; deep vein thrombosis; cholesterol; back pain; diabetes; and obesity. And it reduces general fatigue: that feeling at 3 p.m. that makes you reach for an oatmeal-raisin cookie the size of a steering wheel.

Apparently when you sit down the muscles go dark and you stop burning calories. And a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology this year, found that folks who’ve done sedentary work for 10 years or more are almost twice as likely to develop distal colon cancer (the lower colon), versus people with physically active jobs.

The worst news is that hours of sweating at boot camp i.e. rigorous exercise, isn’t a perfect antidote for sitting all day (not to mention there’s that growing mass of flubber around your middle.)

In this century, the nature of many jobs – telemarketers, accountants, bureaucrats, and home office workers – require us to be at the computer or on the phone or in a boardroom or on a plane sitting for hours on end. In one place. Blood pooling like Jell-O in our ankles. Spine compressed. But there are ways to combat this.

Tomorrow: Ditch the desk?

What ergonomic changes have you made / are thinking of making to increase your productivity & reduce your aches and pains at work?

Amber Nasrulla is an ex-pat Canadian writer based in L.A. who specializes in profiles from business leaders and scientists to Hollywood celebrities. Her work has appeared in North American and British publications including L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Magazine, ELLE Canada, Chatelaine and London Weekly Times.

Here’s part 2 of my morning keynote at this week’s SMB @marketplace event, The Road Less Travelled: Our social media journey.

Social media affords you an online dialogue with customers that provides a special insight to their needs. Conversations become a highly accurate “compass” that helps guide product development, sales, service and marketing. It affords opportunities to query an engaged audience prior to solutions development. And finally, it surfaces negative feedback to a place where immediate action can be taken to improve the customer experience.

To get there, our strategy is based on three activities: listening, engaging and measuring.

• We listen by monitoring key words, tracking important conversations and identifying potential trends and/or influencers.  Listening also allows us to understand what our competitors are doing in a particular space and enhance our capabilities if required.
  

• We engage with our customers. Listening has the added benefit of identifying conversations that we want to be a part of – everything from support requests or business challenges. As we seek to engage our customers in the social space, we’re able to enter into dialogue in a purposeful way.
  

• We measure our progress. You won’t know if you’re successful if you haven’t set a target to measure your success against. For us, success is measured by maintaining a vibrant and healthy social community and the measuring of things like our share of voice and traffic to our blog.
  
• 
  

One more benefit: By listening and then engaging, we’re able to participate in conversations that could otherwise negatively reflect on our brand.

Social media is truly built through grass roots effort and a large telecommunications company is no different in that regard.  If you build it, they won’t necessarily come – we launched, tweaked our efforts and continued down the path of trial and error, but without measuring our success, we wouldn’t know if we’ve made any progress and how we need to modify.  From March 2010 to March 2011, we increased our readership by almost 2000%, which is remarkable.

We’ve got a long way to go on this journey, but we’ve had good external validation that tells us our strategy is sound and we’re on the right track.

Where do you start?

Start your plan by listening: Start slowly by listening. Pick a few spots where you know your customers are and listen to what they say, listen to what your competitors are doing, start to formulate your social media strategy that works best for your business; Identify keywords related to your business and competitors and listen to conversations, use monitoring tools – Google alerts, RSS feeds, Twitter Search.

Narrow your focus: don’t try to boil the ocean. Pick one or two aspects that pertain to your business where you’d like to be seen as an expert, and connect your social media plans with what you heard by listening. People often forget that with social media, common marketing practices apply. Identify who your customers are and how they use social media, marry them with your objectives and strategy, and then decide what tools are most appropriate.

Plan the steps you want to take. Look for ways to participate in conversations that will help you grow your community.

Remember the rules of collaboration and respect for your community. Don’t be afraid to try out social media – try, learn and retry.  Mistakes happen. Learn from them and move on. Don’t shy away from the opportunity social media affords you to demonstrate your company values, and the people behind your brand or business that makes your company unique, personable, social.

Nancy Kay is the director of web and social media for TELUS business. 

www.TELUStalksbusiness.com

Follow: @telusbusiness

Engage: www.facebook.com/TELUSbusiness

Watch: www.youtube.com/TELUSvideos

Perhaps there's one silver lining to battling the daily commute: you can stay productive and connected while behind the wheel – safely – thanks to today's "hands-free" technology.

After all, holding a cell phone up to your ear can be a major distraction to those driving, while texting on a phone is even worse because your eyes and thumbs are busy. Not only could you face a serious fine for breaking the law in your province, but worse, you might hurt yourself or others, or cause damage to your vehicle.

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, two out of 3 people talked on the phone while driving in the past month, and one out of 5 admitted to texted while driving.

To ensure you and your loved ones remain safe – and as the late Jim Morrison famously sang, "with your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel" – the following are a number of products and suggestions worth considering for drivers who want to remain connected to friends, family or colleagues.

* While many might refuse the option, the safest thing to do is put away the mobile phone while driving. If tempted, turn it off and put it in a glove box, purse or jacket pocket.

* If you must talk on a mobile device while driving, use a hands-free solution. Most mobile phones include a wireless technology called Bluetooth, which lets you pair the device with a Bluetooth headset or speakerphone. Many car stereos and GPS navigation units also offer Bluetooth connectivity.

* Some prefer Bluetooth headsets, worn in the left or right ear, as someone beside you can't hear the other side of the conversation. Plus, when you get out of the vehicle, you can continue the conversation. A speakerphone is less private and you must stop the conversation when you exit the vehicle – but is a more ideal solution for those who don't want to wear a blue-flashing gizmo on their head.

* Some speakerphones give you the option to mount to a windshield or dashboard. The latter is preferred, though, as a suction cup might easily fall off the windshield -- and pose as a distraction while driving. Better yet, secure it to your visor as you'll sound clearer to the person you're speaking with. There are also rear-view mirrors you can install on top of your existing one that has a built-in Bluetooth speaker and microphone.

* If cash is tight, you can always use a wired headset that plugs into your smartphone. Check the box your phone came in and chances are it's in there. Otherwise you can pick one up for as low as $1 at your local dollar store. Just make sure it doesn't get caught in your seatbelt or it could pose as a distraction while driving.

* For your safety and the safety of others, never text and drive. This includes email, SMS (text messaging) and instant messaging (e.g. BBM). Yes, it can wait until L8TR. Some people use smartphone applications that can read messages aloud in a human-like voice. In some cases you can respond and the recipient will get an audio clip as an attachment or a transcribed recording of what you said (though accuracy can be an issue).

* Some vehicles have robust voice-powered options to keep your hands on the wheel. The 2012 Ford Focus, for example, with Sync technology, features more than 10,000 programmed voice-activated commands.

* For incoming calls, enter your mobile device's settings and choose "auto-answer." That way, your phone will answer right away when a call comes in and you won’t have to press a button while driving. Or simply let your voicemail take messages for you.

Not all cloud services and the providers who deliver them are equal. In the conclusion of our series Send in the Cloud: A limited series to help you develop a Cloud storage strategy, we thought it useful to present some final guidance when considering suitable cloud storage providers.

We’ll walk through four areas to look out for:

• The Cloud Storage Provider
  
• The Cloud Storage Service
  
• Your Data – Portability, Security
  
• Implementation and Support
  

Cloud Storage Provider

• The Organization
  

As with any decision involving the sourcing of a business service, it is important to determine whether the organization delivering it has the expertise and track record to demonstrate seriousness in the particular domain. Usually, a solid provider includes a long reputation of delivering similar or identical services.

• Trust
  

Consider a service provider with whom you feel you can entrust some of your most valuable assets, your data backup, intellectual property or the content that fuels your business. Just like you would treat holding your organization's cash with an established financial institution, consider a cloud service provider that is in good financial standing, engages in ethical business practices and presents fair and equitable terms and conditions for the service.

• Legacy of data centre expertise
  

Not only is the history of delivering IT services an indicator of trustworthiness, but also one of technical and organizational competency. Hiring, training, and managing experienced data centre professionals provides distinct skills and capabilities that are the foundation of a trust and stable cloud service.

The Cloud Storage Service

• Quality Commitment
  

The quality of the provided service should include a commitment for service quality. Enterprise class services entail a well-defined service-level agreement (SLA) with specified provisions should service quality not be met. Note that some services providers describe service objectives that the provider has no vested in reaching, in particular with value-oriented or free services.

• Flexibility
  

As with service providers, client organizations are not created equal. Good service providers will be able to adapt their services and work with you to address your specific needs. Modular services allow for more flexibility whereas integrated solutions can provide advanced capabilities. It is also helpful to consider whether the provided service offers room for future growth that aligns with your organization’s changing business requirements.

• Technical Capabilities
  

Some services are more capable than others, with some offering far more access and connection options, different back-up solutions, compatibility with existing IT systems and services or powerful management tools. It is up to you to decide whether these are essential for your organization or “nice to have”s.

• Subscription Commitment
  

Commitment from you, as the client, is a key deciding factor as well. Certain services providers offer service in a flexible manner, whereas some require term contracts. The level of incremental service or tier can also be large or small. Being able to try the service before committing is invaluable in choosing the appropriate provider for you.

• Fees
  

Obtain a clear breakdown of what is included in the service and find out the cost of any optional add-on services. Be well-informed of all overage charges, surcharges, or hidden fees. In the case of cloud storage specifically consider things such as bandwidth charges and the cost of performing bulk migration of data either to or from the service.

Data, data portability, data security

• Data Protection
  

Your data needs to be protected with the most modern IT and physical security practices from malicious activities and natural disasters. Fully-secured data centres with built-in redundancies are expensive investments that not all organizations are capable of making. Some cloud services offer multiple tiers of protection which you may find suitable for your needs even for additional fees.

• Data Security
  

Ensuring data security in a multi-tenant cloud is a key consideration and a known barrier to cloud adoption. A cloud storage service that obscures user account information from the stored data helps eliminates unlawful access to by both outsiders and the service provider’s staff. Some service providers perform background checks on all employees to prevent such occurrences.

• Jurisdiction
  

As your business data resides in your service provider’s facilities, consider the physical location of the infrastructure and the ensuing jurisdiction issues. An end-to-end Canadian service provider (incorporation, data centre facilities and network connections) is not subject to the US Patriot Act, which allows the US government access to data stored with the service.

• Data Portability
  

As a client, provider lock-in is both irritable and expensive. To minimize this concern, consider a service that uses industry-standard software and protocols that allows your data to be transferred at your convenience, and will not retain your data beyond your service commitment. Don’t forget to check for the existence and cost of optional services to perform bulk migration to the cloud storage service or from it when you choose to.

Implementation and Support

• Assistance
  

What levels of assistance and support will you receive when you subscribe to the service and on an ongoing manner, even round the clock support. Phone, e-mail, online (self-support) mechanisms and the languages in which these are provided vary between providers. Some providers will also provide integration or development support for cloud storage services that are accessible for application development.

• Ease of use
  

The level of complexity of the service can determine whether your organization is receiving the solution’s full value.  Those that are simple to integrate with your existing IT environment and easy to implement will reduce your operating costs and will also lower switching costs significantly. You will be delivering value to your organization much quicker as well.

I hope you found this blog series on Cloud Storage valuable and welcome your questions or comments.

Shawn Myron is the director of products and services for TELUS' hosting and data centres.

Today's mobile devices are like pocket computers, as they can perform many of the same tasks as your PC or Mac – including accessing email, browsing the web and playing games, music and TV shows.

In fact, they can do things your computer probably cannot, such as taking pictures, shooting video and providing GPS navigation.

Smartphones are also great for getting work done as there are powerful word processors, spreadsheet tools, presentation software, voice recorders and calendars, to name a few productivity applications for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

So with all this data you're likely carrying around, it's important to protect it from falling into the wrong hands.

Shield your device – and thus, yourself -- from scams, viruses and identity theft with these following smartphone safety tips.

Back it up

The first line of defense is to back up your smartphone regularly in case it's lost, stolen or compromised. The easiest and least expensive way to do it is to connect the smartphone to a computer – via USB cable or wireless Bluetooth – and synchronize the data between the two devices. Should you need a new smartphone, all the info will be copied back onto the new device.

There are also many "cloud" services that can wirelessly back up your contacts and other information to a password-protected website.

Lock it out

Speaking of passwords, ensure you've set up a 4-digit PIN (personal identification number) to use your smartphone – and don't use 0000, 1111 or 1234 or any other numbers easy to guess. Sure, a PIN is a bit inconvenient, but you'll get used to it quickly and will be thankful if you can't find your mobile phone.

"Take it to the second and third level by using password protection on any applications that contain personal or confidential information," advises Chris Stier, managing director for NetQin Mobile, one of the world's leading mobile security providers with roughly 100 million registered users in more than 100 countries. For example, those who do mobile banking on their phone should create a password that's at least seven characters long and contains letters, numbers and symbols.

Software protection

"Threats like malware, hacking and spamming have always existed for traditional PCs, but a smartphone attack can be even more damaging," cautions Stier. "You likely have personal and business information stored on it, personal conversations and messages that can be recorded and your location can be also tracked."

As such, software to protect against malware (malicious software) is "critical" for a mobile device today, says Stier.

NetQin Mobile, for example, offers a free antivirus smartphone solution and a more robust "premium" option for $1 to $2 per month. The software works on Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices (not Apple's iOS platform).

Remote control

If your smartphone is lost or stolen, there are free mapping tools to remotely track the GPS-enabled device on a computer, smartphone or tablet. Note: if your phone was stolen it's recommended to give this info to authorities rather than you trying to retrieve it.

These same tools, such as Apple's Find My iPhone and BlackBerry Protect, can also remotely wipe the smartphone clean, making it ring loudly (if, say, left under the cushions) or display a message on the screen (such as "Please call me").

You need to set up these tracking apps ahead of time, so be sure to do that before it's too late.

Check your statement

Finally, it's recommended to check your monthly statement carefully for suspicious calls and SMS (text messaging) charges.

"Comb through your bill closely because you might find charges made without your consent," says Stief. "If you find any, contact your carrier immediately to dispute the charges and they'll identify the company or service for you."

DEADLINE TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 9: Attention IT security professionals – your perspectives matter. For the 4th straight year, TELUS Security Labs and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, are partnering to conduct a study on Canadian IT security practices. It’s the only original Canadian research of its kind. Add your perspective to the research (input is anonymous) and you could win a BlackBerry PlayBook and receive a complimentary copy of the results. Click here to take the survey: http://www.telus.com/securitystudy. Hurry. The survey closes Friday.

*******

As we began discussing last week in 10 key learnings for IT security in Canada from 4 years of Rotman-TELUS analysis, when it comes to IT Security, Canada is not the same as the US. What do we know today that we didn’t know four years ago?

1. Only in Canada

First, there are fundamental differences in terms of risk profiles, technologies deployed and initiatives pursued, budgets allocated, governance structures, and government regulations. As a result, organizations of similar size and undertaking similar lines of business in Canada and the US would not necessarily have similar optimal IT solutions, where optimal indicates the solution that best fits an organization’s environment. In the absence of clarity on the Canadian market, Canadian IT managers would be forced to adopt similar solutions as their US counterparts by default.

The clarity that comes with the Rotman-TELUS IT security studies allows Canadian IT security managers to develop Canadian-specific IT Security solutions, resulting in superior IT Security outcomes. Put differently, the clarity our efforts delivered has enhanced the ability of IT security managers in Canada to develop and deploy optimal strategies.

2. A snapshot of top performers

Second, we have been able to paint a picture of top performers to understand where organizations in Canada ought to focus their efforts. These top performers were characterized by the following:

• Investing in processes and  capabilities to manage the vulnerability lifecycle from discovery to remediation, considering the business context and the ongoing evolution of threats affecting IT assets
  
  
• Educating themselves continuously on the collective risks associated with the  introduction of new technology such as mobile devices and social networking
  
  
• Ensuring that security organizations are staffed with experienced leadership, backed by strong executive support
  
  
• Building security into their development lifecycle as a key risk-mitigating component to ensure that secure systems and applications are delivered to the business.
  
  

3. Budget and how to allocate

Third, we have developed important insights on budgeting. The description of top performers above highlights the theme that to optimize vis-à-vis IT Security, it is not just about the spend: there is a prescription of how that money should be allocated to achieve optimal IT security outcomes.

Nevertheless, our results have consistently shown that there is threshold amount of spending that needs to be allocated to IT Security before overall satisfaction with IT Security reaches a plateau. Although the majority of organizations reported security budgets that range between 3% and 15% of the overall IT budget, respondents with budgets in the 7% to 9% range were most likely to report satisfaction with the effectiveness of their security program.

4. IT security a C-suite issue

Fourth and reflected in point two above, we find that satisfaction with IT security is significantly higher in organizations where IT security is viewed as a C-level issue. More specifically, in organizations where IT security reports to the C-level, IT security performance is significantly better in comparison to organizations where IT security does not report to C-Level.

5. Hacking grows like any other business

Fifth, we find that the hacking industry is maturing in the same way legitimate industries emerge over their life cycle. Hacker groups are becoming more sophisticated and are increasingly seeking data that can be monetized. This trend and recent detections of breaches that penetrated the IT systems of governments, international organizations and corporations, going for years undetected, should serve as a wakeup call and elevate the importance of information security in the agenda of stakeholders and policy makers.

6. Talent is worth the spend

Sixth, talent matters. We have shown that in the wake of the financial crisis, there has been significant growth in the salaries for directors and CSOs. These changes have occurred in the face of significant budget cuts in the face of the financial crisis and cuts in head counts in many IT security departments.

Furthermore, the lower IT budget shares allocated to security within government indicates that there is the risk of a brain drain from these lower paying positions within government to higher paying positions in the private sector.

Our results highlight the importance of high-skilled talent in maintaining the preparedness. Budgets must be made significantly flexible to respond to market pressures on salaries for the skills that are most in demand.

These trends point to an important challenge for organizations that experienced significant budget cuts during the financial crisis. As the security risk landscape worsened, demand for experienced directors and CIOs increased. Those organizations that are able to retain and or attract the very best and well paid talent have been rewarded with better security performance. Organizations that fail in this talent war risk falling behind in their security preparedness.

7.  Social networking

Seventh, many organizations must become more pragmatic in how they deal with social networking. As social networking emerges as an increasingly important part of business and personal lives, management needs to be embrace new phenomenon, not suppress it.

The results of our survey indicate that organizations blocking access are not achieving better IT security outcomes relative to those that do not block. This does not mean that organizations which currently block should simply allow access, but it does mean consideration needs to be given as to how to allow access and at the same time maintain security.

8. Outsourcing pays

Eighth, organizations that have outsourced their IT security functions have experienced better IT security outcomes, and these companies also have higher levels of satisfaction with their IT security posture. Since the IT aspect of their organizations is being taken care of by a specialized outsourcing provider, they are left to focus on their core functions, and hence work towards enhanced financial performance.

9. Mobile security a top priority

Ninth, corporate data loss and weakening of the security perimeter are top concerns for mobile phones. In 2009, we noted that mobile-related breaches were the second largest breach category reported in Canada. At the same time, we noticed a growing interest in Smartphone technologies. This led us to include questions around mobile security in the 2010 survey.

Specifically we asked respondents to indicate what areas of security for mobile devices concerned them most. The concerns were fairly consistent across company type and company size. We also asked respondents which technology platforms they felt best addressed their security concerns. Not surprisingly, the BlackBerry phone was seen as secure enough by 85% of respondents, with the iPhone and the Windows Mobile platform being seen as secure enough by 10%. The Android platform rounds out the top 3 at 5%. While the study does not focus on the actual abilities of the technologies, it is clear that security professionals are very concerned with mobile security and have exacting requirements.

10. Effects of the financial crisis persist

Finally, we predicted that the financial crisis would bring about a simultaneous reduction in budgets, and hence preparedness, and increase in threats.  This divergence resulted in dramatic increases in the breaches in the year after the financial crisis. Our results indicate that the effects of the financial crisis still persist, and, for example, budgets have not reached their pre-crisis levels.

Conclusion

The TELUS-Rotman studies have provided clarity on the state of IT Security in Canada. It is no longer the case that IT Security managers have to make assumptions about the number of security breaches experienced by Canadian organizations, or the nature of those breaches, or the extent to which they are caused by insiders or outsiders, or how these numbers compare across sectors, or organizational type (public, private government) organizations. Our research in these areas has provided formal evidence to answer these questions.

Furthermore, our extensive analysis now allows Canadian organizations to benchmark themselves against other Canadian firms, within the same industry and within Canada. As a result, Canadian IT Security managers are better positioned to develop and deploy IT security solutions that are optimal given their environments.

The 2011 study will allow us to continue to build an understanding of the state of IT security in Canada. In addition to adding another year in our trend analysis, we have also added questions to develop new insights, particularly as they relate to areas of strength and weaknesses across three broad dimensions, namely people, processes and technologies, and to the challenges and opportunities which accompany the explosion in the use of mobile devices.

I am sure that as we continue our research, there will be new and richer insights derived, thus further enhancing IT security practices in Canada.

This is the last in our TELUS Talks Business summer series, Security 360, a unique blog on information security from Dr. Walid Hejazi, professor of international business at Rotman School of Management and a world-renowned expert on IT security. Dr. Hejazi has primed the TELUS-Rotman Joint Study on Canadian IT Security Practices on behalf of Rotman since its inception and has unique perspective and insight into IT security in Canadian business. Your comments and questions are welcome here.

While I usually write about small business-related apps in this Telus Talks Business blog, this week we'll look at a handful of handy back-to-school apps for students – or parents who want to help their kids manage their time, homework and assignments.

After all, both businesses and students can both benefit from smartphone and tablet apps that help increase productivity and organization.

And so the following are a half-dozen suggestions that make the grade.

What's the word?

Anyone who needs to write extensively on an iPad – bloggers, students, businesspersons, and so on – can do much better than the free-but-limited Notes app that comes preloaded on the tablet. Yes, you can purchase Apple's Pages word processor, but that will set you back $10. Instead, Notability is a powerful $0.99-cent app that gives you a number of font types, sizes and colours to choose from; the ability to sketch or draw diagrams with your fingertip; and the ability to import web pages, photos and voice clips to help you at school and on the go.

Calendar on steroids

Those on an Android smartphone or tablet can take advantage of the free HomeWork app. Keep track of class schedules, homework, assignments and study sessions with a series of colour-coded calendars designed for the mobile student. Consisting of three main screens, you can access lists or timetables, sorted by date and subject, including notifications for homework not completed yet. Along with some built-in templates you can create up to 20 lessons per day and set the beginning and ending time per class.

What's your number?

iPad owners are likely aware there's no built-in calculator, as there is for iPhone, therefore you might want to snag Calculator Pro for iPad Free, an app ideal for math, statistics or economics students. While using a calculator on a 9.7-inch tablet might look a bit odd, you'll actually see how much faster you can punch numbers on it. Much like the calculator included on the iPhone, this app has basic functions when in portrait mode (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and memory buttons) but tilt it sideways for a horizontal view and you’ll have access to many more advanced options, including degrees, fractions, functions and radians. You also have the ability to swipe your finger left on the numeric display to remove something you accidentally typed.

Free speech

Keep in touch with other students or friends and family with the free Skype for Android and iPhone. Make video calls as easy as a phone call, over Wi-Fi or 3G, to any other Skype user in the world. As long as you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot you can call for free and talk as long as you like, too, plus you can text at the same time, as well. You can also "Skype Out" to landlines and cell phones for a few cents a minute. iPhone users can also use the FaceTime app with other Apple users, over Wi-Fi only.

Geography, remixed

Be prepared to be blown away with the incredible size, scope and graphics of Google Earth for mobile devices, a free virtual rendering of the entire planet -- including the ability to zoom in down to street level using 3D satellite imagery and first-person views. You can also tap and flick through historical data and informative articles, find directions between two places, locate nearby businesses, see where you are via the smartphone or tablet's GPS and import "geo-tagged" photos and videos to see where they were taken on the earth (marked with pushpins). If you're more into astronomy than geography, iPad owners should consider the awe-inspiring Solar System app for $13.99.

Remote control

What to do if a student accidentally left an important file on their PC in the dorm room or back at their parent's place? Rather than asking someone to email you the file, simply install the free TeamViewer software on your PC, Mac or Linux machine, and then download the free app for Android and iOS devices. Now you can remotely log in via a secure password, and see (and control) your computer as if you were right in front of it. This remote access solution is also ideal for helping other less-than-tech-savvy students when something goes wrong with their computers (you know who they are) as you're controlling their mouse from afar, as they watch and learn.

Attention IT security professionals – your perspectives matter. For the 4^thstraight year, TELUS Security Labs and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, are partnering to conduct a study on Canadian IT security practices. It’s the only original Canadian research of its kind. Add your perspective to the research (input is anonymous) and you could win a BlackBerry PlayBook and receive a complimentary copy of the results. Click here to take the survey: http//www.telus.com/securitystudy, Hurry. The survey closes September 9.

In addition to working in IT Security, one of my areas of research has been global competitiveness. Although initially these may seem to be completely unrelated they are in fact, not.

In an increasingly information based economy, intellectual property and knowledge are the foundations of a company, and by extension, a country’s global competitiveness. Of course, there is the need for human capital, protection for intellectual property, and financing that are critical to the development of knowledge and intellectual property. However, knowledge cannot survive as the source of competitive advantage without an ability to protect it.

As such, one of the pillars of a company’s and country’s ability to sustain its competitive advantage in a knowledge based economy is IT Security.

Four years ago when the Rotman School of Management and TELUS embarked upon this program to build an understanding of IT security in Canada, there was a significant void. The studies that were available at that time were US or globally focused. As a result, Canadian IT security managers were forced to make decisions based on insights that were not directly linked to the Canadian environment, but rather to the environments in other countries. In using these non-Canadian studies, IT managers were therefore implicitly assuming that Canada’s risk profile, preparedness, and governance structures were the same as in other countries.

At the time, there were many reasons to expect the Canadian environment would have its unique characteristics, and more specifically would differ in many ways from that in the US. For example, the US has a much larger private sector role in Health Care relative to Canada. The US has thousands of banks, whereas the Canadian market is dominated by the Big 6 Banks. Regulations and compliance requirements are also very different in the two countries. As such, risk profiles and preparedness would likely be very different. Furthermore, given differences in reporting requirements, reported breaches and actual breaches would be very different as would the associated costs.

Our analysis has confirmed our expectations: Canada is not the same as the US, for example. There are many differences.

What this means therefore is that when IT managers make decisions based on non-Canadian data which are not an accurate reflection of the Canadian landscape, the strategies deployed and outcomes achieved are sub-optimal. Put differently, only with an accurate reflection and hence understanding of the Canadian IT landscape can optimal IT Security strategies be deployed and hence outcomes achieved. Furthermore, as the threat environment and preparedness change through time, vulnerabilities can emerge, and only with clarity on the state of the Canadian environment can optimal proactive strategies be deployed.

The TELUS-Rotman efforts have gone a long way in providing this clarity.  We have now completed 3 annual surveys, undertaken many roundtable discussions, and given many presentations. Currently, we are in the final stages of the fourth annual TELUS-Rotman survey.

The appetite for the findings of our surveys and hence of knowledge of the state of IT security in Canada is apparent from the participation rates in our survey. In comparing Canada to the US, there is the 10 time rule. The US is 10 times the size of Canada. So Canada’s population is just over 30 million, and the US just over 300 million. Canada’s GDP is 1.6 Trillion, and the US about 10 times that. So when you consider the US CSI IT security survey that received about 500 respondents, in Canada, we were aggressive in expecting 100 respondents: the 10 times rule would predict 50.

However, the respondents to the TELUS-Rotman surveys have been in the range of 400 to 600 respondents per year, totaling 1,500 over the first 3 years of the survey. Furthermore, we had over 100 participants in roundtable discussions we had across the country: in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. The appetite for clarity on the state of IT Security in Canada is obvious.

Next Thursday: What do we know today that we didn't know 4 years ago?

This summer, TELUS Talks Business bring you Security 360, a one-of-a-kind limited series on information security from Dr. Walid Hejazi, professor of international business at Rotman School of Management and a world-renowned expert on IT security. Dr. Hejazi has primed the TELUS-Rotman Joint Study on Canadian IT Security Practices on behalf of Rotman since its inception and has unique perspective and insight into IT security in Canadian business. Your comments and questions are welcome here.