IT Insights

Odoo leads the path for global SaaS solutions in Hong Kong’s ‘D-Biz Programme'

Odoo currently fulfils 9 out of the 12 possible service categories in the HKPC’s ‘Distance Business (d-biz) program’. The ‘d-biz program’ fully funds companies IT solution adoption over the next six months with a maximum of 100,000 HKD per IT solution and 300,000 per company. This means that Odoo customers can be funded large sum of money to fund their digitalization using their platform. Odoo now becomes a cost-effective ERP solution to be implemented through this program. They provide companies significant ability to improve many of their business processes. For example, accounting and order management processes. Ultimately Odoo is an excellent option to allow companies to take advantage of the ‘d-biz’ program.

BlackLine named a top SaaS provider in software magazine's annual listing of the World's largest software companies

BlackLine has been ranked 1st by Software magazine in the section of companies that listed SaaS as their primary business sector. This is due to the significant growth BlackLine has experienced over the recent year. This is shown by how they moved up from the previous year’s ranking which was 7th. BlackLine also experienced 27% year-over-year growth in the period ending 31 December 2019. This growth and the fact that blackline climbed from the 275th place to the 68th largest software company globally indicates a bright future the accounting automation firm. They provide services to over 30,000 companies globally. These recent statistics show that now is the optimal time to adopt BlackLine’s services as they continue to consolidate themselves as a top SaaS provider.

WAM Group saves $1M and maintains business continuity with Automation Anywhere's SaaS platform

Automation Anywhere just announced that WAM, a Brazilian real-estate company, has partnered up with them to save 40,000 work hours and $1 million. This is significant because this whole process is cloud-based. The whole process has been implemented seamlessly and efficiently as WAM has not had to install costly servers to run the bot automation. They use these bots to complete repetitive processes that used to be done manually. The bot can now work 24 hours a day inputting data which significantly increases WAM’s efficiency while lowering their operational costs for the relevant departments. This partnership with WAM is significant as it indicates the feasibility and accessibility of Automation Anywhere and their RPA solution. Allowing any business, irrespective of physical infrastructure to implement the bot automation to improve their business’s efficiency.

System Updates

New NetSuite app helps customers safely and efficiently reopen

Oracle Netsuite has introduced an application for companies to protect their workforces as economies begin to reopen worldwide. The Workforce Case Interaction SuiteApp allows companies to track their employee’s and customer’s interactions so that they can better protect their employees in physical locations. This will be done by more specifically tracking suspected COVID-19 cases. This application provides a centralized location for employers to store data about all interactions surrounding their business. After an infection has been flagged the system will be able to provide a list of people who have interacted with the infected person. Allowing for a quick response to limit the spread of COVID-19. This will be an essential application in the upcoming months to protect employee’s health.

Innovations to help IT modernize servicing of Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise

Microsoft has recognized the need for a central communication channel to its customers for system updates. This has led them to creating the ‘Multi Enterprise channel’. Which is a channel designed to bring its users the latest productivity features with the goal to provide more information to customers about new features to ultimately reduce the burden on IT departments as they will have to deal with less queries about new systems and features. This will make all information about upcoming updates easier to access and utilize.

Cybersecurity Announcements

Why cybersecurity is really a business problem

Absolute recently released their 2020 Endpoint Resilience Report. This highlighted the face that in 2020, it is essential for any modern cybersecurity program to balance between protecting the organization and keeping the business running. This is ultimately why cybersecurity is now a business decision. It is unrealistic to have an entire enterprise secure, but it is realistic to balance security and maintaining operations. It is no longer feasible to carry on increasing cybersecurity spending, as this provides no guarantees of data protection. So, now the best method to efficiently protect an organization is to focus on securing the endpoints in the organization. This is the area which modern CISOs are focusing on as it is the most effective way to secure and organization. Moving forward, securing a companies endpoints will continue to be the best option when it comes to improving an organizations cybersecurity.

The security risks of contactless payment

The popularity of contactless payments continues to be on the rise ever since they were introduced. Yet this popularity has peaked recently with the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because consumers want to get access to goods with minimal contact to prevent potential infections. Even though contactless payment is exceptionally convenient. It does come with certain security risks. The most obvious being the lack of password security on cards for criminals to take advantage of. Yet this can be somewhat offset using NFC technology on cell phones. The larger issue comes in with data privacy. These contactless systems have the potential to extract large sums of data about its user with relative ease, meaning that users data will be at risk when using these systems. This is a risk that needs to be mitigated in the future when considering the use of these contactless payment systems.