The recent problem with salacious pictures of celebrities of celebrities appearing online shows that most folks are not stopping to think before putting something online. Americans as a rule general prefer convenience over privacy in the ways that computers interface with them. This may be fine for some things but not in an area where the content is sensitive.
Business users will shake their heads at the foolhardiness of putting such sensitive data online in a way so easily hacked by determined users. Naked pictures may be more tantalizing but just as serious is sensitive business information. The impact to your career and those of your co-workers can be devastating by leaving exposed information of value to competitors. When millions of dollars are at stake the morals of many in our world will disappear if they ever existed at all. Assuming that all of those who share the market place are ethical is just as naive as the hacked celebrities.
What areas should be considered as worth the time of reflection before proceeding to putting something down on the proverbial paper. Areas may include email, electronic notes left on your computer, company intranet, web pages, electronic discussion groups (internal and web based), and documents you compose and print from a computer. Each of these methods of communication and documentation come with varying levels of risk for both hacking and revelation of sensitive information.
In future posts each of the aforementioned areas will be discussed in more detail. For now the key thing is to stop for 3 seconds and ask the question:
Do I want to make a permanent record of this item?
Monday, September 8, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Do you still need MS Office?
Do you still need MS Office?
The question is so unthinkable to many in the business and home community that they laugh it off as a joke with out even thinking through the question. It is a serious consideration in today's tight economic climate and in particular for smaller businesses where economies of scale do not allow the luxury of enterprise licensing and budgets. MS is moving toward a subscription model that will push up the actual cost of owning MS Office. Even with the deals that make the cost around $99 a year for most small businesses. This will allow an employee to put the software on their laptop, home computer, work tablet and another two devices. The initial reaction of many is to want to split those 5 devices over multiple users but the license is written for that to be one user not multiple users. The normal 5 year life cycle of a laptop will add $500 to is cost verses the alternative.
The first alternative is a windows laptop and one of the open source office programs. This can result in a savings of $500 for the company but comes with the risk of not having enough functionality. If the needs are fairly minimal then this could be a good option. The drawback is that the end user will need retraining and time to adjust to the new interface. There may be additional problems if the file format is not 100% compatible.
The second alternative would be to switch to an Apple platform. This will negate some of the cost savings due to the increased cost of the Apple hardware, but the programs that come with the hardware are functional and allow individual cloud transfer between various devices along with a basic web based interface for use on Windows computers. The advantage of the Apple devices is increased resistance to infection from viruses and their quality of manufacture. The disadvantage besides cost is the lack of IT vendor familiarity with the software and equipment and the still evolving support from Apple for management of devices.
The key objectors will likely be the heavy Excel users in the Accounting Department. Excel is the lifeblood of many accountants and their ability to sign or not sign off on purchases can make the difference in adaptation of new items. If Apple or Open Source office suites wish to make greater penetration of the business market then they should concentrate on improving their spreadsheet software.
Even with all this it is still worth the consideration of alternatives to MS Office. Have your key user try it out and you may save some money.
The question is so unthinkable to many in the business and home community that they laugh it off as a joke with out even thinking through the question. It is a serious consideration in today's tight economic climate and in particular for smaller businesses where economies of scale do not allow the luxury of enterprise licensing and budgets. MS is moving toward a subscription model that will push up the actual cost of owning MS Office. Even with the deals that make the cost around $99 a year for most small businesses. This will allow an employee to put the software on their laptop, home computer, work tablet and another two devices. The initial reaction of many is to want to split those 5 devices over multiple users but the license is written for that to be one user not multiple users. The normal 5 year life cycle of a laptop will add $500 to is cost verses the alternative.
The first alternative is a windows laptop and one of the open source office programs. This can result in a savings of $500 for the company but comes with the risk of not having enough functionality. If the needs are fairly minimal then this could be a good option. The drawback is that the end user will need retraining and time to adjust to the new interface. There may be additional problems if the file format is not 100% compatible.
The second alternative would be to switch to an Apple platform. This will negate some of the cost savings due to the increased cost of the Apple hardware, but the programs that come with the hardware are functional and allow individual cloud transfer between various devices along with a basic web based interface for use on Windows computers. The advantage of the Apple devices is increased resistance to infection from viruses and their quality of manufacture. The disadvantage besides cost is the lack of IT vendor familiarity with the software and equipment and the still evolving support from Apple for management of devices.
The key objectors will likely be the heavy Excel users in the Accounting Department. Excel is the lifeblood of many accountants and their ability to sign or not sign off on purchases can make the difference in adaptation of new items. If Apple or Open Source office suites wish to make greater penetration of the business market then they should concentrate on improving their spreadsheet software.
Even with all this it is still worth the consideration of alternatives to MS Office. Have your key user try it out and you may save some money.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Microsoft Office for the iPad event is all about Azure
The recent flurry of news about Microsoft Office (MSO) being released for the iPad finally puts to rest several years of rumors and speculation which started by the now defunct paper The Daily ( @maryjofoley ). The event was in San Francisco was well run by MS CEO Satya Nadella who will bear watching to see how well he changes the Microsoft ecosystem. The focus of the event was not on the everyday use of MS Office but of the Enterprise ecosystem which Microsoft dominates in the deployment.
Nadella identified three constituent groups of Users, Developers and IT Pros. The users are not general users but those who with access to a license from their employer. This will likely be larger business entities which can justify the cost of the licensing agreement. Azure really was as much a part of the whole event as the MSO for iPad. Since you can only view the items without a Office 365 license the whole suite is only marginally useful for the small business and home user. They buy MSO when they purchase the computer and since they do not buy it again until they replace the device. They generally want to buy the software and not be obligated for a recurring annual expense especially if they keep the computer for 5 to 10 years. If you think that this is a stretch then remember how many XP machines with Office 2003 are still in use. The dissapointment that is MSO for the iPad is in stark contrast to the truly significant update yesterday - MSO Mobile for the iPhone.
The real news for the average user is that once both the OneDrive and MSO Mobile are installed it is possible to edit MSO documents on the iPhone. A useful tool for those on the go when dealing with documents that may be as diverse as the kid's homework, church and civic organizations or just the shopping list with no required Office 365 license. A loophole but a very useful one. The MSO mobile will install and load on an iPad.
The summary of this event is the fact that MSO for iPad is a non event for most home and small business users who are not pay the annual subscription fee. These users will find the MSO for iPhone a help. Corporate users will gain a whole level of productivity by being able to work cross device with tie ins from the Azure infrastructure. The real winners are the IT Pros who will have a new level of control and flexibility with Azure which I hope to post on in the future.
Nadella identified three constituent groups of Users, Developers and IT Pros. The users are not general users but those who with access to a license from their employer. This will likely be larger business entities which can justify the cost of the licensing agreement. Azure really was as much a part of the whole event as the MSO for iPad. Since you can only view the items without a Office 365 license the whole suite is only marginally useful for the small business and home user. They buy MSO when they purchase the computer and since they do not buy it again until they replace the device. They generally want to buy the software and not be obligated for a recurring annual expense especially if they keep the computer for 5 to 10 years. If you think that this is a stretch then remember how many XP machines with Office 2003 are still in use. The dissapointment that is MSO for the iPad is in stark contrast to the truly significant update yesterday - MSO Mobile for the iPhone.
The real news for the average user is that once both the OneDrive and MSO Mobile are installed it is possible to edit MSO documents on the iPhone. A useful tool for those on the go when dealing with documents that may be as diverse as the kid's homework, church and civic organizations or just the shopping list with no required Office 365 license. A loophole but a very useful one. The MSO mobile will install and load on an iPad.
The summary of this event is the fact that MSO for iPad is a non event for most home and small business users who are not pay the annual subscription fee. These users will find the MSO for iPhone a help. Corporate users will gain a whole level of productivity by being able to work cross device with tie ins from the Azure infrastructure. The real winners are the IT Pros who will have a new level of control and flexibility with Azure which I hope to post on in the future.
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