Bring Your Own Phone

With the recent boom in smartphones showing no signs of slowing down a new trend is emerging within businesses where employees would rather use their own personal device than the standard company issued handset.

'Consumerisation' as its being labelled can have real benefits for businesses who adopt this policy but at the same time it doesn't come without it's headaches. 

The upsides are if employees are prepared to pay or at least subsidise the cost of hardware then this eases any capital investment required for the business to adopt this technology but better still according to a recent study, Gartmore claim that mobilised workers i.e. those with a smartphone, are on average 240 hours more productive each year than their non-mobilised counterparts.

However the downsides are clear, scaling up to manage different user platforms, managing security on the enterprise network and bringing personal apps and social networking into the work environment are just some of challenges that lie ahead.  Then you're into who pays for the smartphone data plan and what's the data being used for, business or personal?

If you think this won't apply to your organisation you might also be interested to know that Gartmore also predict that by 2014 90% of organisations will support corporate applications on personal devices.

If you'd like to know about managing multiple mobile platforms on your business network contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com 

‘I never said that…’

Financial services companies that trade stock, shares, bonds and derivatives are in a tizzy over enforced regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to record mobile phone calls by the 14th November. With less than 20 days to go it’s estimated that as many as 80% of companies have not yet ordered a system and may be in danger of not complying, facing the dreaded FSA visit and potential fines.

This enforcement by the FSA, designed to stop insider trading, follows over a year of consultation with the industry after the successful regulation and implementation of recording landline calls.

But long before the FSA took this decisive action it was reported in the Ombudsman News in 2002 that the Insurance Ombudsman had long since stressed the importance of recording critical conversations.

If insurance companies of any sort could not ‘demonstrate why on the balance of probabilities they should accept its (the company) version of events rather than the customer’s’ the Ombudsman would give the customer the benefit of doubt and find against the company.

And an unsuccessful defence of a customer dispute costs money which is at the real nub of why many businesses today record their calls.

Recording is not only about regulation but about protection of profits and reputation, protection of your staff and importantly rapidly improving your business performance, essential in these times of austerity.

How else would you find out what the your staff are really saying to your customers, who is you best performer, how many sales and cross selling opportunities you are losing and ‘who said what’ in a dispute which drains time, energy and resource and often ends up with an unnecessary and costly concession to your customer?

The next time you hear, ‘I never said that’ think how quickly call recording could prove it.

For advice on any aspect of your business communications, contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com  

10 Steps To Reducing Toll Fraud

As a key starting point we suggest all business telephone systems should have a Telephone System Secure Fraud Audit, this audit will be best carried out by the system maintainer who for a nominal cost should be able to provide this service covering the following:

Remove or de-activate all unnecessary system functionality including remote access ports. If you must have the latter, protect them with strong authentication techniques such as strong passwords or pin number access.

Restrict the numbers that employees can dial into the system.

Call bar all premium rate numbers and add restrictions for international numbers, operator and international operator and Directory Enquiries.

Review your telephone system call logging/reporting records regularly to spot any increases in call volumes or calls to suspicious destinations. Treat all internal directories, call logging reports or audit logs as confidential. Destroy them securely when they're no longer needed.

Lock out all voicemail ports for outgoing access to trunks if you can, if access to lines-voicemail is vital and then introduce suitable controls. Lock any surplus mailboxes until you have a user for them.

Change your voicemail and DISA (Direct Inward System Access) passwords regularly and don't use the factory defaults ...not using DISA? Then disable it completely.

Change the system and engineering passwords.

Remove Auto Attendant options for accessing outside lines.

Only give individuals the appropriate and minimum level of system access they need to carry out a specific task. Review your system security and configuration settings regularly. Follow up any vulnerabilities or irregularities promptly.

For advice on any aspect of your business communications, contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com