December 20179 We are looking at workflow automation, using B2B to send information to other 3rd parties, like intellectual property officesincrease the bottom line. There are reductions in hardware costs and administration costs. Being able to access documents from anywhere is great for people who can't make it to the office because they're working from home, visiting clients or traveling. Business continuity is very important to us, and in New Zealand, we're prone to earthquakes and can't access our offices; so not relying on the paper file is very important. All types of documents can be stored electronically so there is not such a need to keep that physical file. Innovative cloud technologies make document management available to anybody, whether you're an individual or a large enterprise, it doesn't matter.What is your disaster recovery strategy?We have an office in another city our backups are to the cloud and our big focus for 2018 will be moving to a paperless environment. Being paperless and having docments available from anywhere will eliminate the risk to the business of not being able to access the paper file. We also anticipate a substantial saving in printing and file management costs. A year ago we had several large earthquakes and although there were no casualties in the Wellington area, we couldn't access our offices until the damage was assessed, and several buildings still can't be entered. Businesses need a disaster recovery and business continuity strategy that allows people to work from anywhere on any type of device, so that they can continue to meet their clients needs.What are some of the generic trends and challenges that you see in the technology space?The trend of the remote worker with flexible working hours and locations is becoming more popular so providing the right solution for working remotely is important. The solution must be simple, works on any device, and is secure.The growth of big data analytics, especially in the document management space, is another trend. There is so much potential in this area, with search engines learning and understanding what the user is trying to find just based on the type of searches and documents the user creates. This will be quite a change for users to understand the full potential of what is possible. Also collaborating with clients is a big challenge. Clients have different needs and there are a number of alternative options available to assist with collaboration. How do you address the security concerns?Being an IP firm, we take data security really seriously. We have software installed at all different levels of our network to make sure we are protected and quickly notified of any threat. We encrypt our backups and have software that monitors email for malware, unsafe links etc.We are actively looking at implementing two-factor authentication and we have software installed on our devices that will look for data that is being copied to an external device or any other unusual behavior. All of these preventative measures doesn't of course stop someone from walking out with the physical file so even more of a reason to become paperless.How do you foster the work culture?We are always thinking about ways to help make our colleagues more efficient and more effective. Whether that is automating a process or giving them the tools they need to be able to complete their job effectively. Our main focus is always on our clients.Any initiatives you currently oversee?We are looking at workflow automation, using B2B to send information to other 3rd parties, like intellectual property offices. This is a necessary step to becoming paperless and will be a significant productivity gain. We can't be paperless with paper dominant solutions. Workflow automation and a B2B/B2G solution will create huge time-savings for us because it takes away double entry into different systems, reduces the risk of any data entry errors and will improve the service to our clients.How do you measure the effectiveness of the tools and services in place?Every project we undertake has a slightly different approach. For example, the workflow automation and introduction of B2B/B2G would be measured by the reduction in the turnaround time from receiving instructions and reporting the outcome or completion to our clients and another measure would be the reduction in corrections required. Also, the feedback from our assistants helps us measure our service effectively.
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