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I grew up around the advertising business. My dad
was an advertising executive who ran the creative
departments for the two largest advertising
agencies in New England. He won many awards and
still today has a prestigious award named after
him, even though he passed away over 25 years ago.
He represented clients like John and Robert
Kennedy, Wang, Lotus, John Hancock, Spaulding, Red
Sox, Bruins and Celtics as well as many other
organizations.
Early in my career I sold advertising for Warner Communications representing some of the most well known publications in the world (WSJ, Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest and others). So you may ask what the heck does this have to do with Copying, Printing, Scanning, MPS and Document and Data Security, etc. A lot. When I was in college, majoring in marketing, I learned a very valuable lesson from my dad. He was working on a campaign that I told him I thought was terrible. Although being a very kind and even tempered man he said very sternly to me, “If you ever want to be really successful in business you should understand one thing, it doesn’t matter what you think.” What he meant by this was that you had to identify your target market and the key decision makers and make sure your products, services and messaging was directed at what they thought, not what you thought. He also told me, “Listen to them and learn what is important to them today and in the future; ultimately, what keeps them up at night?” Finally, “Understand that business environments are constantly changing and if you don’t learn to help your customers change with them, they and you will fail. Once that is understood, then become a student of their industry; learn so much about their markets, environment, competition, customers and organization that you become their go-to person.” By the way, he won a major global award for the campaign I had criticized so strongly. I have never forgotten that lesson, and it has served me well over the years. I eventually went to work for Neopost, Pitney Bowes’ largest global competitor, but certainly at the time a pimple on the proverbial elephant’s you-know-what. I started in sales and moved up to sales management, branch management and eventually National Sales Manager responsible for all field operations. We sold postage meters, mail machines, folding and inserting equipment, shipping systems and mailroom furniture. At the time it was the inbound and outbound document flow for all organizations. Competing against Pitney Bowes we had to learn to offer more value to the customer. We did that by learning about their internal and external information flow and helping improve efficiencies as well as secure their most critical information. The major difference from today is that it was primarily manual. That said, the challenge was still the same; how do I get the appropriate information in the right hands as quickly and effectively as possible in a secure manner? When I became National Sales Manager almost 20 years ago, by listening to our customers, we recognized a growing trend. How do they become more efficient with their document and data processing needs? We came to the conclusion that by partnering with Xerox Business Services we could create a more efficient environment and combined, manage their copying, printing, mail and shipping needs. It was the first managed services partnership in the industry. I remember many a time speaking to XBS people at their training center in McLean, VA. I ended up at Captaris in 2001 whose largest businesses were RightFax, the world’s leading fax server, and MediaLink, a broadcast fax and e-mail business. Again, the common theme was how do we get appropriate information in the right hands as quickly and effectively as possible and in a secure manner? We had a lot of positive things going for us: great brand, strong global channel and market with close to 25,000 implementations. However it was obvious that it was a maturing challenged business. If we wanted to grow, we would have to change our culture and expand our capabilities and solutions for our customers. In evaluating customer feedback they were asking us to go beyond document delivery and help them with process improvement, data storage and retrieval and document and meta-data scanning on the documents that we were already touching. We took the steps and added those capabilities and grew the business from just over $50M to above $140M, also growing recurring revenue from about $7M to close to $40M. The most interesting part was our core fax business almost doubled even though many thought it was dying. One primary reason was in the customers’ minds the ability to encrypt files in transport was the most secure way they could send information. Also, it provided them with validation that information was delivered. Many of you have grown your businesses from hardware to supplies to MPS, software solutions etc. If you look at the industry’s large manufacturers they are all hustling to become major players in the electronic document delivery arenas. I applaud those of you who have figured this out. It is a challenge to take legacy successful businesses and risk changing them and making investments in new areas. So what’s next? As you look at expanding your business models in these areas realize that data security has become an extremely high priority for you and your customers. If you don’t think so look at the number of data security hits below identified by Google searching some security terms directly related to your businesses. It can be overwhelming for your customers. But for you it is an opportunity! Secure Document, Data and File Management • Secure Printing - About 186,000,000 results • Secure Copying - About 55,800,000 results • Secure Scanning - About 35,200,000 results • Secure Managed Print Services - About 19,400,000 results • Secure Document Management - About 27,200,000 results • Secure Enterprise Content Management - About 26,800,000 results • Secure E-mail - About 473,000,000 results • Secure Faxing - About 7,080,000 results • Secure Document Collaboration - About 3,440,000 results • Secure File Collaboration - About 3,020,000 results • Secure File Transfer - About 24,900,000 results • Secure Mail Management - About 123,000,000 results Assessments • Secure Printing Assessments - About 37,500,000 results • Secure Copying Assessments - About 41,400,000 results • Secure Scanning Assessments - About 11,500,000 results • Secure Managed Print Services Assessments - About 6,620,000 results • Secure Document Management Assessments - About 3,650,000 results • Secure Enterprise Content Management Assessments - About 4,340,000 results • Secure e-mail Assessments - About 63,100,000 results • Secure Faxing Assessments - About 26,500,000 results • Secure Document Collaboration Assessments - About 5,030,000 results • Secure File Collaboration Assessments - About 4,060,000 results • Secure File Transfer Assessments - About 5,000,000 results • Secure Mail Management Assessments - About 3,970,000 results With your current relationships you have the opportunity to assist your customers in sorting through this maze. You can become the go-to organization for them. As my good friend Jim D’Emidio from Muratec said in his partner meeting presentation, “Mark your territory; if you don’t someone else is going to.” So how do you get started? Some of you already have, with the tools being provided by some of the hardware manufacturers and software and service solutions available in the market. The question is, are you developing a data security practice and making it part of your culture, strategy, products and services? Outside of traditional network, virus and malware security from a simplistic point of view, there are several places that an organization really needs to focus on to protect their data, files and documents. • Where the data, file or document is created (computers, laptops, PDA, tablets, servers, hand written etc.) • Where the data, file or document is stored (computers, laptops, PDA, tablets, servers, printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines, cloud, filing cabinets, outside party offsite facilities etc.) • When a data, file or document is transported (mail, e-mail, fax, courier, scanning, collaboration tool, file transfer, hand delivered etc.) • When data, file or documents are altered (as once that occurs you have to look at the first three bullets again) Here are basic beginning questions you can ask inside your own organization and your customers to get you started. 1. Does your organization have a data governance plan? 2. Does your organization have a records management program? 3. Who are the key decision makers and influencers when it comes to data governance and security? 4. Has your organization identified and prioritized types of data, files and documents based on sensitivity? 5. Does your organization have any special compliance requirements based on your industry or business? 6. Do you have data security training built into your recruiting, orientation, succession and ongoing training programs? 7. How often and where do you print, scan, copy or fax your organization’s, customers’ or partners’ confidential records or information? 8. Can unauthorized employees, partners, visitors, customers, cleaning staff or delivery people access your printers, scanners and copiers? 9. Are your printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines that deal with sensitive data in a secure area? 10. Do you ever find confidential files on printers, scanners, copiers or fax machines located in unsecured areas? 11. Has anyone ever taken electronic or physical documents that they were not authorized to have? 12. Can copying, scanning or printing tasks be performed without the user having to provide proper authentication? 13. Do you need to share physical or electronic data, files or documents with outside parties? 14. Do you dispose of confidential documents without shredding, cross shredding or pulverizing them? 15. Are all hard drives wiped clean from servers, computers, laptops, mobile devices, printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines etc. before disposal? In next month’s article I will focus on some products and solutions available in the market for you to look at providing in a data security practice. David Anastasi is CEO of eDocument Sciences LLC. Prior to eDocument Sciences served as President & CEO at Captaris, Inc. acquired by OpenText in October 2008. Also currently Board Member of Onehub, Inc. eDocument Sciences partners with public, private, educational and government organizations securing their most important asset, mission-critical data. We assist in the development and management of Data Governance programs that focus on People, Processes, and Technology. We deliver results by matching technology, distribution and services companies focused on data security with each other, distribution partners and customers. Our focus is on delivering highly secure environments increasing productivity, scalability, and ultimately higher value. He can be contacted via email: danastasi@edocumentsciences.com. Visit his website: www.edocumentsciences.com |
