Times have changed in the last 10 years. This is especially true in the consumer world where things move at the speed of possibility. But while normally moving at a much slower pace, even the business world has experienced rapid progress in the past decade.
Since the advent of the iPhone in 2007, there has been a shift in the relationship between business and technology. There was a time when consumers were introduced to technology through business. Today, business is introduced to technology through consumers. This change has created new expectations and requirements for technology in the business world. Here are three of those changes you will have already noticed:
Electronic Signatures
Do you have an ink pen on you right now? No? You’re not alone. Right now, a generation of people are being raised who will never carry an ink pen on a regular basis. They will never write a check.
And when they buy their first car, “paperwork” will be an anachronistic term. One purveyor of e signature for financial services described the benefits of e-signatures in the following way:
…helps banks streamline new account openings, speed up lending, and offer more convenient customer service. CudaSign also helps to reduce operating costs and improve compliance requirements with the most secure and reliable eSignature platform.
E-signatures is not just the latest gimmick for tech geeks who want to save money on printer consumables. It is an expected part of all manner of industries including the following:
Financial Services
Government
Healthcare
High Tech
Insurance
In the modern age, not carrying a pen should never be an impediment to doing business.
End to End Encryption
There was a time when encryption was the domain of submarine battles and international spies. Today, it now covers the musings of 12-year-old girls in developing nations thanks to various messaging apps.
What we have learned from all of the security breaches in every sector of business and government is that end to end encryption is not a luxury, but a must. For a long time, doing business online was hampered by the consumer fears that their information would be unsafe. Now that online transactions are the norm, those fears are coming true.
Hackers and cyber thieves have gained access to all but the most secure networks. No business can afford to run their systems on anything less. That means end to end encryption for everything.
We should expect our banking and medical information to be on systems even more secure than our puerile chats, and images of yesterday’s breakfast.
Mobile Device Management
From CBS:
If the technology, known as mobile device management, had been installed, San Bernardino officials would have been able to remotely unlock the iPhone for the FBI without the theatrics of a court battle that is now pitting digital privacy rights against national security concerns.
It bears repeating that the national drama over unlocking a dead shooter’s iPhone could have been avoided altogether with the implementation of software for which the county was already paying.
Mobile device management is no longer an option, but a necessity. We are currently in the BYOD era. People are most productive on the laptops, tablets, and phones that they already own and are used to. Companies save a lot of money by letting employees bring their own devices to work, and provision those devices with MDM software so that they will be hardened for enterprise use.
Skipping this step can be death to a business. Because of the proliferation of excellent MDM services, skipping this step is also unnecessary. iPhones, Androids, and Blackberrys can live on the same network with encrypted partitions to sensitive data.
There is a lot of technology you need to run your business effectively. And that list grows everyday. You will benefit by following the recent headlines. Those headlines will teach you to make e-signatures a part of the solution. Add end to end encryption for everything. And use MDM solutions to ensure ultimate control over all devices that come in contact with your company’s sensitive data.