Advisor Articles
Avoiding Catastrophic Failure
By Peter Aggus
A surprising number of systems are vulnerable to “unexpected” failure modes. Their datacentre cooling fails during a heatwave. Their phone system overloads with unexpected results. The Baltimore bridge collapsed due to “grandfathering” rules. Here’s our take on predicting the “unpredictable” and avoiding disaster.
July 2024
Office Evacuation: What To Bring?
By Guy Robertson
Your office fire alarm sounds. You must leave as soon as possible, but what should you carry with you as you exit? The answer is to bring as little as possible --only what you'll need for personal safety and security. Here’s the do’s and don’ts.
July 2024
Power Outlet Danger
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
We tend to use electrical power without much thought. Unless there’s a power outage it’s easy to ignore. Have you ever given any thought to the danger posed by incorrect usage of electrical power in your office? And would you be surprised that “normal” electrical wiring can cause a fire? Why does this happen?
July 2024
Soft-Fail Designs
By Kristin Kiewitz
Are your systems vulnerable to failure modes you have not considered? Will your datacentre cooling protect your servers during a heatwave? Can your phone system or data network cope with a traffic overload? In short – do you design for “soft failure” or do you cross your fingers and hope that you’ll never face an “unexpected” disaster? Here are some examples of how to design in soft failure modes.
July 2024
Risk Management at Holiday Properties
By Guy Robertson
Is there a better place to contemplate the meaning of life than the deck of your holiday cottage? Building contractor Paul Young didn’t think so. One afternoon several years ago, he fell asleep on the deck of his cabin near Banff. When he awoke, he found himself under close examination by an adult male grizzly. Risks are everywhere, even at your holiday property.
May 2024
IoT Cyberattack Risks
By Peter Aggus
Businesses often consider IoT as a non-IT responsibility. We take a look at how wrong that perception is. IoT devices connect to IT infrastructure and cause an increasing cyber-security risk. We recommend what you need to do to protect your enterprise.
May 2024
Selling Change
By Kristin Kiewitz
Gartner reports that the average employee experiences 10 planned enterprise changes every year, and they are getting fatigued. Willingness to support organizational change collapsed from 74% of employees in 2016 to just 43% in 2022. Here’s how to gain buy-in.
May 2024
You Are Not London Drugs
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
With London Drugs’ troubles all over the news, it reminds us all that it’s not ‘if’ but ‘when’. Every time you come across the London Drugs name, do you flinch and think that your organization might be next? Is your IT department well prepared? Are employees cyber aware? Do you have an updated and vetted cybersecurity incident response plan? Here’s a checklist.
May 2024
Recent Trends in Disaster Planning
By Guy Robertson
After the Covid-19 pandemic, disaster planners in many organizations are blowing the dust off old three-ring binders that contain material compiled in preparation for Y2K. Remember Y2K? Perhaps not. But suffice it to say that this risk prevailed before January 01, 2000. Fortunately, for most organizations it turned out to be a false alarm. A lot of risks have changed since then.
April 2024
How to Find a Trusted Advisor
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
If you already have developed one or more relationships with trusted advisors, you are either lucky or have foresight. A trusted advisor has a breadth of knowledge and a range of experience that makes them the perfect sounding board for new ideas and ‘what if’ explorations. Also, if you put them in charge of a project, you can feel confident that it is in good hands. If you’ve not yet developed any trusted advisor relationships, maybe it’s time to look.
April 2024
When IoT Fails
By Peter Aggus
Much of our hardware, such as vehicles, can last more than 15 years while cellphones and computers last 5 years or less. What happens when long-life devices embed shorter-life components? You may, as some users are finding out to their cost, be left up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Network support for embedded old-tech cellphone modems have been or are being shut down. You need to figure out what may stop working and what its impact might be. You need a risk mitigation plan – before you need that paddle.
April 2024
Why Employees Need Cybersecurity Training
By Kristin Kiewitz
The biggest threat to your company’s cyber integrity comes from what your employees don’t know. They need to navigate the internet and handle incoming email to do their job yet many don’t know the basics about what is safe. When it comes to cybersecurity safety there are three types of employees and each type benefits from training in different ways.
April 2024
Satellite Phone Services
By Peter Aggus
In the last issue, we looked at a new technology that is hoped to deliver conventional cellular service in remote areas where there are no cell towers. Currently, service in remote areas is limited to satellite service of various types. Here’s a run-down of current satellite services, including what some people confusingly call Apple’s satellite service.
February 2024
IT Cost Savings Checklist
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
If one of your departmental goals for 2024 is to save money, this checklist will help. First, it contains the tried-and-true options as you would expect as well as some ideas that require an investment and some that you don’t think of as money savers, but they really do save money. Choose what works best for your operations and save other ideas for another year.
February 2024
Everyday Succession Planning
By Guy Robertson
A variety of problems arise when one of your key employees suddenly can’t work for an extended period. One way to reduce these problems is through succession planning. Once limited to filling positions vacated by senior managers, succession planners now handle situations arising from the unavailability or loss of any key employee.
February 2024
Analogue Service Failure
By Kristin Kiewitz
Last year we wrote about global PSTN retirement plans - copper pairs are expensive, fibre optic connectivity is common, so it makes sense to the telcos. Some PSTN users in the UK are protesting plans to shut down service by the end of next year, saying that their existing services will not work adequately over replacement technology. They’re right. Here’s the story.
February 2024
Cellular Via Satellite
By Peter Aggus
Conventional base stations give us good cellular coverage in populated areas where traffic levels justify the investment in infrastructure. However large areas of land, such as much of Canada’s far north, will never justify regular terrestrial base stations. Satellite Phones work well but are expensive. New technology is now being tested that could enable satellites to work with regular cellphones.
January 2024
A Different Way, A New Way
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
I recently met with Stolo Tribal Council President and Tribal Chief, Tyrone McNeil to discuss the Coast Salish approach to emergency management. He has embarked on a path that combines First Nations traditional knowledge with the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction along with some other international standards and tools. Here are the highlights of what he had to say.
January 2024
Don’t Give Your Data to Scam Artists
By Guy Robertson
Everyone has heard about the Nigerian scam letter that asks for your help to transfer a large sum of money to an organization in a foreign country. Your reward will be a percentage of that money, but first, you must tell the scammer your bank account details. Of course you didn’t fall for that, but you’d be surprised to learn how many intelligent people have been duped in this way. Here’s how scam artists work.
January 2024
Enforced Resilience
By Johnnie Denton
We are moving towards an age of enforced resilience – where governments around the world will mandate resilience as a way to protect services and systems that are vital to national security, public safety, economic priorities, international agreements, etc. So far, it’s cybersecurity and telecommunications centered, but the requirements may evolve to all areas of business resilience.
January 2024
Mitigating Office Risk from Heat Waves
By Guy Robertson
Warm weather is generally welcome, but a heat wave that pushes temperatures above 40 degrees can prove dangerous in offices and other workplaces to employees and the equipment they need to do their jobs. The power grid is also at risk as the resultant electrical demands can lead to power outages. Here’s how to mitigate those risks.
November 2023
PSTN Sunset-Consequences and Opportunities
By Peter Aggus
The PSTN, the public switched telephone network that operates in parallel to private IP networks and the internet, is winding down and users will find many locations where PSTN based service is no longer offered. The telephony world is moving to VoIP and you need to understand the consequences of that move as well as the opportunities it may offer—like reduced costs.
November 2023
Does Your IT Staff Know Too Much?
By Johnnie Denton
Consider your day to day operations – you’re rushing around, “putting out fires”, and working to restore normal operations. Where do you get the information that you use to reset or replace and reconfigure your equipment – from existing documentation or from someone’s head? Is vital information resident in someone’s head that is not written down? What will happen if they aren’t there?
November 2023
Understanding VoIP Pricing
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
All VoIP phone services are not treated equally by our federal regulator, the CRTC. They have a historic policy that ensures affordable public switched telephone service (PSTN) in every corner of Canada. This means that you may be paying extra to subsidize rural phone service on your VoIP telephone bill where the company next door is not. Here’s why.
November 2023
5G Is Now Very Real
By Peter Aggus
5th Generation Cellular is now offered in many locations by most carriers. 5G-capable phones are offered at a premium and the choice is expanding steadily. Time for a look at progress to date, what new features might be important to you and when you should consider upgrading. We also look at the way private 5G systems might become an option and how it will all integrate with next-generation WiFi.
September 2023
Evacuation Planning for Long-Term Care
By Guy Robertson
Imagine that you’re responsible for a long term care facility and that 10 minutes from now, a fire will break out in a building down the street from your facility. A firefighter will appear at your reception desk and say that he may need to evacuate your staff and residents, “depending on the toxic fume hazard.” Are you prepared for this? Many facilities aren’t, despite occasional fire drills and binders of directions.
September 2023
DR Questions for Your Executive
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Often, IT Managers make all of the decisions about their IT disaster recovery strategy and disaster recovery site. We know many organizations where this is the case and when disaster strikes, senior management is sometimes shocked to learn that the IT DR Plan didn’t deliver what they expected. Work with your Executive—ask them these questions to keep that from happening.
September 2023
5.5G, AKA 5G RedCap
By Johnnie Denton
The Internet of Things, or IoT, was supposed to grow rapidly along with 5G as part of the ’connected world’ future it serenaded. That has not happened for many reasons and has caused the 5G industry to look at a stepping stone solution that builds on 5G but adds in what the IoT industry needs. In a word—simplicity. Full 5G is way too complex and power-hungry to fit into a smart watch or similar. Enter 5.5G.
September 2023
Fixing Poor Cellphone Coverage
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Cellphones can have trouble getting a good signal inside buildings. Problems can be caused by building structures or high tech windows that block signals or by poor coverage outside of the building. Cellular signal boosters and relay systems can provide a stronger signal, but an often overlooked idea is to use what is known as ‘Wi-Fi calling’. There are many advantages—take a look.
May 2023
Remote Work + Power Outage
By Peter Aggus
Deciding what you might do if ‘situation normal’, or Plan ‘A’, is compromised is something we regularly teach. Have you ever thought that this is not just a corporate concept—but also one that applies to the increasing numbers of home-based workers? Take a look at how a real, if small scale, ‘disaster’ can shut you down, and see how having a Plan ‘B’ can keep you working.
May 2023
Disaster Planning 101
By Guy Robertson
People may use a variety of names for Disaster Planning. Regardless of this, you need to think in terms of:
- before the event - emergency preparedness planning
- during the event - disaster response planning
- and after the event - disaster recovery planning
May 2023
Conversational Interfaces
By Roban Chahal
Remember how everyone in Star Trek talked to the ship’s computer? That was great, and it is where business computing is heading, but we’re not there yet. At home, people talk to personal assistants like Siri and Alexa and others but what’s happening about voice interfaces at work? It turns out that it is likely much closer than you think.
May 2023
Presenting IT Budgets Graphically
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Asking for the IT budget that you need is a perpetual struggle. It’s easy for decision makers to downgrade the importance of your budget request in favour of funding something in the organization’s main line of business. If you’re a municipality, then fixing roads, if you’re a school district, then better resources for students or teachers. Here are three ways that you can use graphics that I think will grab some attention.
March 2023
Keeping on Top of Your Data
By Peter Aggus
These days, storage is relatively cheap—but backing up everything is not always better. We recommend designing your backup structure and process to be fit for purpose, not just a data dump. As an end user, you need to work with IT staff to ensure that your IT backups deliver what you need. Here is a look at the issues and what we recommend as best practices, including anticipating cybercriminal attacks and disasters.
March 2023
Worth Protecting: Your Vital Records
By Guy Robertson
Is your office paperless yet? No. You still rely on paper. Despite the growth of electronic records, you use lots of paper for your daily operations. In fact, in many offices there is solid evidence that the growth of paper files occurs as quickly as the implementation of new IT. Often, many vital records are still on paper and without these records, your operations will be crippled. Here’s how to keep them safe.
March 2023
Massive AI Implementation Within 3 Years
By Roban Chahal
Generative (AI) is a category of algorithms (such as ChatGPT) that can be used to create new content, including audio, software code, images, text, and videos. Gartner predicts that by 2030, a major blockbuster film will be released with 90% of the film generated by Generative AI, up from 0% in 2022. Here are Gartner’s 3-year predictions and our suggestion of how you might start a pilot.
March 2023
Make Your Disaster Plan Pay
By Guy Robertson
Your corporate disaster plan is more useful than you think. It includes many potential benefits aside from protecting you and your coworkers in the event of a fire, flood, or earthquake. Don’t ignore these benefits: enhanced safety and security, identification of future leaders, improving your brand with your clients, and even improved morale. They can justify your disaster plan even if you never need to activate it.
February 2023
No A-S-K, No G-E-T
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Are you one of those IT Directors that gives up too easily? For example, you complete and submit your budget request, then watch as management deems something else in another department to be more important. You give up gracefully and accept the outcome. That might be a big mistake. Here’s the best practice for what you should do instead.
February 2023
The Future of Fax without the PSTN
By Peter Aggus
Fax is one big reason why some users don’t want the PSTN to be shut down. This 1980’s era technology survives against the odds. Brick sized cellphones, dial-up modems, 8” floppy disks—all are similar aged and all are extinct. Curiously fax survives—but is it time for that too to go extinct? Should we find better ways of transmitting printed material or must we keep fax on life support?
February 2023
The PSTN is Not Dead (Yet)
By Roban Chahal
In this installment of our series of articles on the planned demise of the PSTN, we look at who still needs copper connectivity to the telephone company central office. We asked readers about their concerns and what they were worried about. Here are their comments as well as our observations about the consequences—both intended and not.
February 2023
Renting Rooftops for 5G
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Cellular carriers rent a lot of rooftop space. With the rollout of 5G cellular under way, carriers are adding 5G antenna systems to existing 4G cell sites in urban areas. They will also need to find many new sites to deliver 5G benefits. Carriers use some free-standing towers as well as a great many installations on suitably located rooftops. What kind of rent are they paying? What are the downsides of renting your rooftop?
January 2023
Beyond Your Primary Regional Focus
By Guy Robertson
Everybody talks about your #1 risk and knows that it will happen, although nobody can say exactly when. In BC it is earthquakes, with the threat of the ‘big one’ occupying conversations at coffee breaks and during emergency planning meetings. In other regions it could be ice storms or hurricanes. How much of your emergency plan should focus on your #1 risk?
January 2023
End of the PSTN
By Peter Aggus
The Public Switched Telephone network was created to interconnect telephones using copper wire connections. Copper is on its way out, being replaced by IP delivery to the customer, usually over fibre optic cable. New technology is great for telephones but other services work best on the PSTN and we rarely think about them. How did we get to this? What do we need to do?
January 2023
AI Speaks Up in Court
By Roban Chahal
DoNotPay, the world’s first “AI lawyer”, will soon argue a case in traffic court. While AI in the legal field is not new, DoNotPay has a chatbot interface to assist users with a wide range of legal tasks, including contesting parking tickets and filing for compensation for delayed flights. It will be used in traffic court in February 2023 and no one is planning to tell the judge.
January 2023
The PSTN—a Historical Overview
By Peter Aggus
The PSTN was created to interconnect telephones. Over time it grew to be the largest man-made technical artefact ever created. Now the old 2-wire analog PSTN is nearing its end days as many new buildings have only fiber connections into the network. We are looking into implications for users for a later article but we begin the series with a look at the interesting history of the PSTN – where we started from.
November 2022
Is Your Disaster Plan Weak?
By Guy Robertson
Are you certain that, after a disaster such as a fire, flood, or earthquake, your disaster plan (or Business Continuity Plan) will help you to get back in business? Will it support the recovery of your network and vital data? If your plan is inadequate, your organization’s recovery costs could be much higher than you expect. That is, if you can avoid bankruptcy. After a disaster, many organizations do not survive.
November 2022
Zero Trust Network vs. VPN
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Traditionally organizations have relied on VPNs to provide access to remote workers to let them operate securely, as though they were working at their desk in the office. More and more, this is considered to be insufficient from a security perspective, and the move is towards zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solutions, even for local access at the corporate office.
November 2022
Amazon’s Amazing AI
By Roban Chahal
Amazon has amazing AI. When I called to resolve a billing problem and realized that I was talking with an AI, I was really impressed. One of their goals is to be the “Earth’s most customer-centric company,” and to support this, they have developed a few flavours of AI - some for internal customer service and some for outside organizations like NASA through their AWS operations.
November 2022
Emergency Evacuations: Best Practices
By Guy Robertson
It’s not complicated but it’s vitally important. When the fire alarm rings, you need to evacuate right away. That’s no time to start asking coworkers “Do you remember where we’re supposed to meet? Who’s in charge? Should I bring my computer? What are we supposed to do with Fred? He’s in a wheelchair.” Here’s the simple plan.
October 2022
Cable Piracy
By Peter Aggus
When Vladimir Putin made his move into Ukraine, few expected the underwater explosions that destroyed two Baltic gas pipes. Whether that was done by Russia is a moot point—it was clearly done, and Russia has the known submarine capacity to do it. It is not only gas pipes at risk—but the undersea telecom cables that underpin a lot of what we do today. It’s not just telephone cable.
October 2022
SLA Plus XLA = Happy Users
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Our traditional advice to IT clients has been to negotiate an SLA with their internal users as part of IT Service Management. It makes for happier end-users but it’s no longer enough without adding an XLA. End users understand an XLA and appreciate you for including it. They think that they understand SLAs, but they really don’t as they can be counterintuitive.
October 2022
Web3 – Delivering the Future
By Roban Chahal
The new iteration of the World Wide Web is going to bring much development to the internet and applications ecosystem, with the biggest companies already releasing early products. Experts say that it will take around a decade for Web3 to fully integrate however, some indications suggest this is incorrect since there are already a few products out.
October 2022
Wi-Fi Woes
By Peter Aggus
In theory, modern Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) should be able to provide Gigabit speeds and several hundred metres range. So why are many disappointed with what they get? Sadly, Wi-Fi is not plug and play—at least not in a shared environment with competing devices. Users need to understand a few basics, some of which are counter-intuitive.
September 2022
Avoiding Emergency Preparedness
By Guy Robertson
Preparing for emergencies takes time, effort, and money. Why bother? You and your coworkers have better things to do, such as deleting e-mails and planning holiday parties. You can’t neglect these tasks. To complete them, you should avoid disaster planning as much as possible. But this can be difficult. To thwart emergency preparedness planning, follow these commonsensical steps.
September 2022
Improving Hybrid Teamwork
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Many people are back to working at the office while others are still working from home. Experts have identified a host of problems caused by operating with a hybrid workforce. These include loss of corporate culture and remote workers feeling like second class citizens as on-site employees unintentionally hold inaudible side conversations in a meeting. Here’s my advice.
September 2022
Changing Faces In Our Workforce
By Elleni Koskinen
Canadian workforce demographics are noticeably changing, and they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In fact, there are three main trends for the 2020’s. These trends are important for businesses across the county, because they will continue to guide the trajectory of businesses’ successes or failures. Here’s the rundown.
September 2022
How UCAAS Has Changed
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Gartner's Magic Quadrant is the go-to source when you want to know the players in a field such as UCAAS (unified communications as a service). The following table charts the dramatic changes from 2009 to 2021— players have appeared and players have disappeared, sometimes through acquisition, but more often not. Take a look and see if you agree with Gartner’s placements.
July 2022
If You Can’t Stay Connected
By Guy Robertson
Little things can overwhelm even the most sophisticated disaster plan. For example, your plan is based on the assumption that after an emergency, your power might fail but should return within three hours. But perhaps it will not be restored for several days. Never fear! At a substantial cost, your organization has purchased a state-of-the-art emergency generator. But will it work?
July 2022
The Cost of Telecom Failures
By Peter Aggus
Earlier this month, the Rogers network suffered a major outage whose impact was widespread. Clearly, as many have said, our reliance on telecom services needs to be reviewed. Whilst it is easy to blame Rogers, they are only the cause of this particular problem. Next time it could be a different carrier. So, if the real problem is the network design, what can we do?
July 2022
At Home in the Dark
By Elleni Koskinen
The recent Rogers outage has highlighted a common issue impacting our post-Covid workforce: how do you work from home without the services that you need? Network outages, power failures, and the dreaded system updates all impact our ability to work and stay connected. But whose responsibility is it to ensure that we have access to the resources that we need at home?
July 2022
The Cost of Not Doing a Project
By Peter Aggus
It’s easy to think that cancelling a project will save the money that would have been spent on it. But what about the hidden costs that will be incurred because of the project’s cancellation? It’s easy to spend more money not doing the project than the project would have cost to do. Illogical? Sure—but many companies do exactly that. Why do they do that, how do you avoid it?
June 2022
Come Hell or High Water
By Elleni Koskinen
Communities in British Columbia have recently been surveyed on the status of their wildfire and flood plans. The results showed that the majority of at-risk communities were lacking detailed plans, or were lacking the funds necessary to appropriately enact them. With hotter, drier summers, and more frequent flooding predicted for the coming years, what does this mean for BC?
June 2022
Telephony—The Magic Wand
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
A receptionist is an entry level job, yet they have so much power over their organization’s reputation. Of the ones that do their jobs well, do they radiate warmth, or are they robotically efficient? In my years as a telephony and IT consultant, I’ve had many opportunities to observe switchboard and call centre employees. I’d like to share some stories of the superstars that I’ve met.
June 2022
Hot Data
By Guy Robertson
Summertime conjures up images of days at the beach, holidays at the cabin, and barbecues on the patio. It may also bring to mind sunburns, highway traffic, and uncomfortably hot weather. However, summer temperatures can also damage your computer hardware and cause data loss. At risk are motherboards, CPUs and other components not designed to withstand extreme heat.
June 2022
The Power of Resilience
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Currently, most organizations are designed to please the stockholder or taxpayer, making cost efficiency a primary driver. Those organizations that have maximized cost reduction and increased efficiency have learned a painful, sometimes fatal lesson from Covid-19, even if they had Business Continuity Plans in place. On the other hand, resilient companies have fared far better.
April 2022
5G vs. Aviation
By Peter Aggus
Like any new technology, 5G cellular has its fair share of PR challenges. Is it safe, do we need it, will it work? We have looked at some of the safety issues in previous articles, so this time we turn to look at the allegation that 5G is unsafe around airports. What is the truth behind this—and might there be an issue that is way larger that 5G or aviation?
April 2022
The Truth on Paper
By Guy Robertson
Paperless offices are rare. Those few that exist usually rely on external, paper-using offices for various kinds of support. Despite the claims of digital experts, the world continues to depend on paper, and will continue to do so for many years. So, before we complete our transition to paper-free and still rely on paper documentation, let’s explore the risks associated with it.
April 2022
Securing the Cloud
By Elleni Koskinen
There are a number of reasons why traditional security approaches are futile when they are applied to cloud security. Mainly, it’s that they are designed for isolated, unchanging systems, with a set of rules that the security systems can follow. However, the cloud is not unchanging, and it frequently does not adhere to the rules that we may think of.
April 2022
Identifying Email Phishing
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Pretty well everything you don't want to happen can happen through phishing attacks - a user is tricked into clicking on a link, opening an attachment, or disclosing information. Everyone knows that we shouldn’t fall for a phishing attack, but what exactly does that mean? We can’t delete every email that might possibly be dangerous. Here are some simple ways to check out a questionable email message.
November 2021
Telecom Service During a Disaster
By Peter Aggus
Old school analogue telephone service was powered from the telco office and was almost bulletproof. When all else failed, you could go to the designated power fail phone and dial the world. These days, telephony is part of data networking so often will not work during power outages. Worse, unknown damage some distance away from you can affect your service thanks to the way providers have designed their networks.
November 2021
Needed: Flashlights
By Guy Robertson
What happens in a business office at the beginning of a power outage? Overhead lights snap off. Dim emergency lights turn on in the hallways as you sit in the near dark, trying to decide if the lights will come back on quickly. Flashlights (real ones) are very useful.
November 2021
9 Future Work Trends Post-COVID-19
By Maria Colasurdo
A recent Gartner survey has identified some lasting changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic disruption, “large-scale shifts that are changing how people work and how business gets done“. These trends will form the scorecard on how you are judged against your peers and will likely mean that you need to revisit both your Strategic Plan and your Business Continuity Plan.
November 2021
Non-collaborative Collaboration
By Peter Aggus
Companies choose a platform for video/web conferencing, instant messaging, telephony, voicemail, file sharing etc., and it works well for all corporate users. Unfortunately, the internal collaboration system doesn’t inter-work well with outside participants’ internal or cloud systems. Everyone needs to download apps for Zoom, Teams, etc. so that they can join someone else’s meeting. Things look to be changing with developments in gateways.
August 2021
Build A Virtual Go-Bag
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
In this time of wildfire evacuations, people in risk areas are advised to keep a personal ‘Go-Bag’ handy in case they need to drop everything and go. Evacuations can happen at work, too, triggered by a wildfire, a gas leak, or for other reasons. If you need to evacuate, we recommend that you prepare a virtual Go-Bag with priority items you need to recover your business operations. Here’s what should be in it.
August 2021
Cloud Security Roundup
By Maria Colasurdo
Cloud security risks are a big concern and are getting worse, according to four recent studies. As examples, 97% of Google Workspace users have authorized at least one third-party app to have access to their corporate Google account and 89% of organizations say that microservices, containers, and Kubernetes have created application security blind spots. Here’s a high-level review.
August 2021
Audit Your Own BCP/BRP
By Guy Robertson
You’ve been working from home for the past 18 months, and a lot has changed - including your office’s risk profile. If you’re like many others, your business resumption plan (BRP or BCP) lives in an “out of sight, out of mind” state, perhaps sitting in binders gathering dust on the shelf or buried in SharePoint or in a corner of a website. It’s time to blow off the dust and audit it. Here’s how to do that yourself.
August 2021
New Cellular Options for Canada
By Tony van Wouw
Mobile Virtual Network Operators do not build their own networks. They buy wholesale capacity from a primary carrier and then resell it under their own brand name. Competition proponents love them, primary carriers hate them. Currently they are commonplace in the US but not legal in Canada. That may change as a result of current regulatory reviews—but will it mean lower prices, more choice and better service—or the reverse?
June 2021
The Future of Jobs
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
The phrase “Future of Jobs” suggests impending disruption to our work-lives, and the World Economic Forum reports that it’s true, that this future has already arrived for a large majority of the white-collar workforce. 84% of employers are set to rapidly digitalize work processes, including a significant expansion of remote work—with the potential to move 44% of their workforce to operate remotely.
June 2021
Advanced Video Tricks
By Peter Aggus
Most video applications such as Zoom are built on a single fixed camera —sometimes intercut with a slide show. This talking head approach can cause viewer boredom. Broadcasters make things much more interesting by using multiple cameras and other video tricks. Recent changes pioneered in the gaming world have put ‘broadcast technology’ capabilities within anyone’s grasp to support more engaging business meetings and training sessions.
June 2021
Focus on Eyestrain
By Guy Robertson
We tend to treat symptoms of eye strain as if they were something else. Headaches make us reach for that aspirin bottle and red, itching eyes lead to mirror inspections followed by a dash of Visine and a promise to “do something about those contacts”. Eye strain at the office is common and can interfere with your ability to concentrate, sometimes seriously. There are multiple causes and some easy ways to improve your life.
June 2021
“Voicemail Jail”
By Peter Aggus
Do you remember that old term? When Auto Attendant capability first began to replace live switchboard operators, callers hated the idea. While it’s no longer a new concept, it is widely implemented and is often the first contact many customers have with your company. The Auto Attendant is part of your brand, your reputation. Is it working for or against that reputation? How do you find out and fix the damage?
March 2021
An Emergency Plan in Your Pocket
By Guy Robertson
Emergency Planners and Managers work hard to design emergency response plans to best serve their organizations. The work can drag on and they often need more time to make sure that they do a great job and include everything. Unfortunately, time and money alone do not guarantee good planning or plans that work. Here’s a novel way to create a tiny plan that has been proven to save lives in actual emergencies.
March 2021
Media Crisis Preparedness
By Maria Colasurdo
The news media has a clearly defined understanding of what counts as news: a major crime, a major disaster or a major crisis. A crisis occurs when the reputation of an organization is threatened or actually harmed by bad press. Nasty stories can make the public lose confidence in an organization. Those stories can be accurate or inaccurate. It doesn’t matter because the damage has been done. Here’s our advice on how to be proactive.
March 2021
Power Outage Preparedness
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Climate Change and COVID-19 are each causing changes in electricity demand and service availability. BC Hydro reported that climate change-caused storms that cause power outages have tripled since 2013. Wildfire numbers have also soared. 2020 brought Covid-19 and the drive to work from home. All of this has affected electrical delivery and increased the need for power outage preparedness.
March 2021
Hidden Issues—Working from Home
By Peter Aggus
It was a quick fix to deal with the pandemic—pack up your gear and work from home. That allowed many service companies to adapt to the new world we were plunged into—but it has consequences. Previously we have looked at technical issues but there are legal, tax and liability issues that companies are ignoring or have yet to consider. Ignorance is not an acceptable legal excuse. You could face serious issues as an employer or employee.
January 2021
One Foot Back in the Office
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
As you reopen the office, you’ll likely abandon 100% work-from-home and stop short of 100% return-to-the- office. Just as either model causes operational problems, so does this hybrid model. If you’re looking to bring back (or develop) an environment that incubates creative collaboration, mentoring, the fun, people-side of the workplace, and a sense of belonging, you need a plan that anticipates problems and mitigates them. Here’s our checklist.
January 2021
Beyond Handwashing: Workflow Issues
By Guy Robertson
In the coming months, the new coronavirus vaccines, distancing, etc., new pandemic-related workflow changes could be much more important. Workflow changes can cause employee uncertainty about roles and processes, which can lead to job dissatisfaction and customer complaints. Here is our advice.
January 2021
Reconnecting “Back in the Office”
By Thomi Glover
I was listening to a presentation, on line, of course, in which people were discussing how they felt about getting back to the office. Some people were very happy about seeing everyone in person again while some were not so sure. Back to the office will mean different things for different personality types so managers will need to use the right strategies to get everyone reintegrated and working well as a team. Here are the top issues.
January 2021
Sidestepping Best Practices
By Peter Aggus
We all believe in best practices, although we sometime end up not following them. Maybe it’s a lack of budget so you end up buying consumer-grade equipment or maybe it’s a short time-line to get something operational. Once the solution is in-place it becomes invisible and may continue to exist for years without attracting critical scrutiny. Take a look around to see if you have any of these disaster- waiting-to-happen situations in your workplace.
November 2020
Enterprise Risks
By Guy Robertson
In a world of risk, there’s more to think about than earthquakes, pandemics and cyber-attacks. Equally serious, and a growing area of corporate concern is enterprise risk. It can have a large impact on our markets and money, yet it’s neglected in many business resumption plans and continuity programs. It needs to be understood and addressed by senior management.
November 2020
Conversational Intelligence
By Thomi Glover
Last month I explored the critical role of conversational intelligence in effective consulting. We saw the way the amygdala, or lizard brain, that has been with us for millions of years impacts not just what we do, the old fight or flight pattern, but also what we are able to hear and how we can move into trusting relationships. Without trust our clients are highly unlikely to want to work with us. Fortunately, it is a skill that anyone can learn.
November 2020
AI FOMO - The Fear of Missing Out
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
The many benefits being realized by early adopters has caused latecomers to the game to experience AI FOMO. For example, a lot of money is being saved with loss and fraud prediction in insurance and banking. When dozens of global companies adopted the Amelia AI-based digital assistant technology, 24/7 customer service became easy to deliver while front-line layoffs paid for the technology. Here’s an update and our advice.
November 2020
Have You Been Hacked?
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Maybe you’ve completed a pen test on your network and the penetration tester was able to get in without much trouble. You’ve followed their advice to improve your security posture and you’re feeling much better about things except...the report included the following worrisome words: “This test did not assess whether you have been hacked.” Can it be true that someone has hacked you and you don’t know? Of course. Here are some DIY actions that you can take.
October 2020
How Old is Your Disaster Plan?
By Peter Aggus
The aim of a Disaster Plan (DP) is to document your business systems and processes and describe how you plan to recover should an event disrupt or stop your operations. The DP needs to be a living document and should reflect today’s operations, not how things used to be when it was written. As you contemplate updating your DP, here’s your trip down Memory Lane about how out-of-date things could have come to be.
October 2020
Proximity Risks: What’s Next Door?
By Guy Robertson
You work very hard to identify and mitigate risks on your own premises, yet when disaster strikes, you’re crippled, maybe down for the count. Look out your office window. Around or near your building, there stand structures that might be at risk for fires, floods, and gas leaks. Their events extend to you: a traffic shutdown can stop your traffic; proximity to a crime scene can shut you down. Proximity risks are a big deal and need to be addressed.
October 2020
Conversational Intelligence
By Thomi Glover
Several of my clients have said that they find it almost impossible to “read” other people on zoom or the like. Though doing business through a variety of on-line platforms is now commonplace, many of us long for face to face meetings where it is easier to “pick up the vibes” from others. Without that proximity, we feel we are at a real disadvantage in forming working partnerships. Fortunately there is another approach - “Conversational Intelligence.”
October 2020
Before the Security Scan Part 2
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
When you run vulnerability scans or pen tests, best practice is to first lay groundwork and “clean up your act,” data-wise. The scan can then be a report card as well as a road map. Previously, we addressed foundational issues: creating a Security Committee, identifying critical or sensitive information and identifying the risks. Now we discuss prioritizing risks and establishing mitigation plans, as well as adopting recommendations from a scan.
September 2020
Whoops! Human-Caused Risks
By Guy Robertson
The most destructive human-caused risk to any organization is war, with civil unrest and rioting coming in as close seconds. Luckily, the most common human-caused threats are less dramatic, but in some cases, they can also cause extensive damage. Apathy, carelessness, forgetfulness, inattention, and ignorance are such widespread concerns, that it’s safe to assume that every organization has suffered because of them.
September 2020
5G Update
By Peter Aggus
We were promised lots—but, as is typical for complex developments, rollout takes time. So what is going on? Time for a closer look at what Canadians can now do with 5G and when the promised “big gains” will arrive. Should you switch to 5G now, or keep waiting? Who is offering service? Are there many 5G phones available yet? How might all of this be affected if Canada opts to join other countries and remove Huawei equipment from the networks?
September 2020
Bridging the Skills Gap
By Elleni Koskinen
The digital skills gap is an issue currently affecting organizations around the world. Even the most technologically advanced companies are coming face-to-face with the reality that the work is evolving faster than their workforce. With a lack of digital skills within their own people, and a very limited number of trained graduates emerging into the candidate pool, what are these companies to do?
September 2020
Beware of the Dragon
By Peter Aggus
The controversy surrounding Huawei is often front-page news these days. The US wants them removed from all networks on security grounds. The UK has just mandated that no new Huawei kit will be installed and all existing kit must be removed over the next few years. This will have a massive impact on 5G rollout as well as costs from pulling out perfectly good equipment. Time for a closer non-political look at what this all means to operators and customers.
July 2020
The History of Ransomware
By Elleni Koskinen
Ransomware attacks have posed a considerable threat to individuals and organizations alike since the mid- 2000s. However, the first attack actually occurred much earlier, in 1989. Since then, attacks have gotten much more sophisticated and prevalent. Let’s take a look at how ransomware has evolved over the years, how it attacks and who it targets, and what the future of ransomware looks like.
July 2020
Before the Security Scan
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Many IT departments run vulnerability scans or pen tests, then fail to take action. After a major data breach an IT Director will be asked “Did you know about this risk?” Far too commonly, the answer is “Yes but we haven’t had time to deal with it—our scan report made so many recommendations!” Best practice is to focus security efforts on sensitive and critical data. So before you scan, decide what data needs protecting and where it can be found.
July 2020
Understanding Natural Risks
By Guy Robertson
Natural risks affect every environment on Earth. No space is free from natural phenomena that human beings consider negative: high winds, floods, storms, epidemics and pandemics, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and heat waves. Given the current state of affairs in our world, more organizations than ever are coming face-to-face with the reality of their preparedness (or lack thereof) for natural risks.
July 2020
SpaceX Plans For Canadian Service
By Peter Aggus
Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network is close to offering broadband internet service, and possibly other telecom services, in Canada. The company has applied to the CRTC for a BITS licence, currently under review, and is looking to start operation as early as this fall. What might this mean, particularly for poorly served rural communities? How will the established players react? Could we, at long last, have real change in the wind?
June 2020
Looking Good on Video
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Of course you’ve heard the one about the woman who accidentally clicked a special effect button at the start of a Zoom call and found that she had superimposed her face onto a russet potato…and she didn’t know how to make it stop. Most of us have done a lot of video meetings over the past months using Zoom, Webex, Teams, etc. and except for Zoom, no one has the potato effect. Even so, it’s easy to look less than your best. Here’s how to look better.
June 2020
The Deep World of Deepfakes
By Elleni Koskinen
No, you don’t need to get your eyes checked. No, you don’t need to adjust your screen. You really are seeing the impossible. How could he say that? Why would she do that? Here’s a hint: they might not have. Deepfake technology can now create audio and video that is so convincing and realistic, that it can be almost indistinguishable from reality. Unfortunately that means that it can have very real and damaging impacts for companies.
June 2020
The 8 Kinds of Risks
By Guy Robertson
We are prudent to consider our entire risk profile: that is, all of the risks that could affect us in the future. This begins with sorting them into the following risk categories: natural, technological, human-caused, proximity, security, crisis, enterprise, and cascading. We can assign all risks to one or more of these categories. In the coming issues, we will address all of these categories and provide overviews for how to prepare for them.
June 2020
It’s Life…But Not As We Know It
By Peter Aggus
We are all working in a new and somewhat unfamiliar environment—both at home and at work. Dealing with “Social Distancing” is now the new norm. Some think (or maybe hope) that this is all temporary and that life will magically return to normal in the near future. But will it? Even if it does, is there a risk of more pandemics around the corner that will precipitate a return to isolation rules? Or are we going to learn the lessons of this pandemic and be ready for the next?
April 2020
The Other Way to Handle Disaster
By Thomi Glover
A year ago it would have been unimaginable that we would be dealing with a pandemic that has killed thousands of people and brought many organizations to their knees. This will likely change the way that we do business, not just for the foreseeable future, but forever. My husband, an information security specialist, often comments on the regularity of cyberattacks and the anxiety that that creates. But there is another level of anxiety in this situation that badly needs attention, and that is the anxiety that we all face as the world that we knew crumbles before our eyes.
April 2020
The Time for Security Awareness
By Matthias Koch
With COVID-19 disrupting business operations in an unprecedented way, many organizations have been required to adapt to remote working. While many managed to deploy the required infrastructure and technologies to enable their workforce to work from home, how about security awareness training? Who has access to the company’s data when working from home, in many cases from a shared workspace? What happens to the printed documents that may contain confidential information?
April 2020
The Risks of Shadow IT
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
When we conduct IT department assessments, an important area of investigation is “shadow IT.” Shadow IT refers to the situation where user departments reach out directly to suppliers to sign up for software applications that meet their business needs (bypassing their organization’s IT department to do so). This process can put the company at risk. These risks include security, violation of provincial or federal privacy laws and more.
April 2020
Disaster Response
By Peter Aggus
The world is reeling from what disaster planners feared: a viral pandemic. So, how are those “best laid plans” faring? Is everything working like clockwork, as it was planned to? Are we learning from the challenges we face? Disasters do not wait for a more convenient time. Are we ready for a second disaster that could strike while we are still trying to deal with the first? They said “smile—things could be worse. So I smiled … and things got worse.”
March 2020
The 4th Industrial Revolution
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Covid-19 has shaken up everyone’s lives and forced us to go more deeply online. One of the interesting consequences will be the speeding up of our move to the 4th Industrial Revolution. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “By affecting the incentives, rules, and norms of economic life, it transforms how we communicate, learn, entertain ourselves, and relate to one another and how we understand ourselves as human beings.”
March 2020
Your Disaster Plan is Incomplete
By Guy Robertson
No disaster plan is perfect. All plans contain weaknesses and gaps, some of which could accommodate unexpected perils. For example, numerous plans in California have prepared organizations for earthquakes, power outages, and wildfires but not for the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2020. In New York City and London, corporate plans have justifiably concentrated on terrorist attacks and severe weather, but often include no mention of pandemics.
March 2020
Evolving Cloud Threats
By Elleni Koskinen
Last year Symantec published the Cloud Security Threat report to assist companies in identifying cloud based security threats. They found that many of these threats existed as a result of the company’s own misuse and misunderstanding of cloud based work. With over half of the average organization’s workload now occurring in the cloud, it’s time to get serious (and get educated) about cloud security.
March 2020
Optimising Your Tech Refresh Schedule
By Peter Aggus
How do you balance getting value out of a major investment with missing out on improvements offered by newer technology? Many years ago, telecom and computer technology was expected to last 10 to 20 years and that mentality has carried forward to some extent. We regularly encounter clients with servers that are much too old and networks that are architected for long ago. Here’s our approach on optimising your refresh cycle.
February 2020
Creating ’Beginner’ Dashboards
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
Gartner says that most organizations should be doing better with data and analytics, given the potential benefit. We agree…and the irony is that most managers like the concept of dashboards. However, reality sets in when Business Intelligence projects are launched, but the resulting dashboards fail to deliver the promised value. I want to talk about dashboard basics and how to use ‘beginner’ dashboards to teach yourself how to succeed with dashboards.
February 2020
Top AI Trends for 2020
By Lee-Ann Dittrich
Forbes recently predicted the top AI trends that will affect us in 2020. Included are dystopian ideas such as China looking at ways of making facial recognition compulsory for accessing services like communication networks and public transport. Also included are the opportunities for on-screen magic in entertainment industry using the example of Robert De Niro being de-aged using AI, in Martin Scorsese’s film, The Irishman.
February 2020
Six Reasons Why Your Disaster Plan Will Fail
By Guy Robertson
Many people don’t do their part in disaster planning committees. This can cause the planning process to stretch indefinitely into the future and deliver negligible results. Of course, everyone is sorry when disaster strikes and preventable problems happen, but before the disaster there are so many reasons why planning should occur at some later time. These reasons include fear, embarrassment, denial and overconfidence. Here’s our advice.
February 2020
Drones: Risks and Restrictions
By Guy Robertson
Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs) perform many useful tasks, including search-and-rescue support, wildlife tracking, sheep herding, security surveillance… with more uses identified every day. They also provide hours of recreational entertainment for the hobbyist. On the dark side, drones have created many new risks to air traffic and elsewhere, so government regulators have stepped in with serious penalties for violating the rules.
November 2019
The Lure and Danger of ‘Free’
By Peter Aggus
We have all heard the saying ‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’ - yet, like flies to a jam pot, many of us are attracted to what seems to be ‘free’. Free WiFi, free apps (forever-free or 30 day free trial), free cloud storage, wonderful free phone apps... So where does the money come from to pay for the cost of these free offerings? What do you put at risk when you accept the offer? —particularly if it is your business that is put at risk.
November 2019
AI and the Contact Centre:
By Lee-Ann Dittrich
Contact centres have seen massive changes over recent decades. They began as voice only, with agents using binders of information to find answers for callers and writing on paper forms to submit customer orders into the sales process. Then they progressed to multi-channel, and now omni-channel. We’re now entering the age of analytics and AI. Aragon Research has released an assessment of 13 providers of intelligent contact centres.
November 2019
Saved by Content Services?
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
The number of digital files (documents, email, databases, webpages, video, etc.) continues to grow at a blinding rate and managing this content properly is complex. Inadequate efforts are common and can become a source of embarrassment and even a serious risk to an organization. Worse, digital content management tends to be the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. Inaction is often the unofficial preferred course of action.
November 2019
Security Scare Tactics Don’t Work
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
If your executive team doesn’t support your cyber-security program, the likelihood of disaster increases. For everyone’s sake, you need to convince them to take your recommendations very seriously. Unfortunately, they don’t speak tech, and they can’t be scared into understanding. So how do you convince your executive to see cyber-security for what it is?
September 2019
Ten Trends You Need to Know
By Lee-Ann Dittrich
Gartner has identified ten trends with the most potential to transform industries in the next 5 years. The trends will be introduced here, but must be examined more thoroughly through a business lens in the coming months. The top trends fall into three categories. Gartner calls them “Intelligent,” “Digital,” and “Mesh.” They mean evolving tech intelligence, cool technology advances, and game-changing ideas. Are you ready? The future is already here.
September 2019
Afraid of the Dark Web?
By Elleni Koskinen
Hackers are an ever-evolving breed, becoming stealthier and more resourceful with each passing year. The Symantec Internet Security report takes a look at the past year to identify trends, threats, points of entry, and practices that may put your business at risk. Whether you’re online to reorder office supplies, emailing with a colleague, backing up into the cloud, or just conducting business as usual, you may not be as safe as you think you are.
September 2019
5G Rollout
By Peter Aggus
In the last issue, Tony looked at “The 5G Conundrum” and explained some of the technology issues faced by 5G deployment as well as some of the claimed benefits that we look to enjoy. So is 5G here yet? Or is it forever on the horizon? We take a look at progress and expectations as well as whether the hype is really justified—or even necessary. To some, 5G is still “a solution looking for a problem.”
September 2019
The After-bite of Data Breaches
By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson
The event: cyberattacks against Wendy's point of sale systems. The allegation: Wendy’s failed to safeguard customer payment card information and failed to provide notice that payment card information had been compromised. The outcome: a Settlement Agreement that will cost Wendy’s $50 million, $22.5 million more than their insurance will cover. Your take-away: use this to lobby for more cyber-security resources.
February 2019
The 5G Conundrum
By Tony van Wouw
The technical issues have been solved. We can communicate using 5G technology at blisteringly high speeds and with the very low latency needed for fast decision making in automated transportation. Now we need to solve the business issues as there is a massive infrastructure cost to make 5G a profitable reality. Might the Achilles Heel of 5G be the business model rather than the technology?
February 2019
Death Of The Payphone
By Peter Aggus
They used to be a common sight—before cellphones, but most lose money. Some argue that the entire concept is anachronistic and payphones should just go extinct - but that misses issues like their ‘social role’ for those who cannot afford personal phones, as well as the fact that payphones are the last line of service in a disaster. Most of us don’t need them … until they become a matter of survival. Payphone demise may have major unintended consequences.
February 2019
What To Do First – Digitizing Records
By Guy Robertson
Every organization has a records management system. Most have a mixture of paper and electronic, active and archival, personally held and centrally stored. Many even include an ad hoc use of SharePoint by the IT department. When you’re finally are given approval to ‘get rid of the paper’ there’s a tendency to jump in and start digitizing. STOP! Here’s what to do first.
February 2019