If you’re keeping tabs, five Federal U.S. agencies—including the Veterans Affairs Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Agriculture—have recently reported data breaches that are expected to cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars. The loss of reputation, including the associated trust citizens might have had in the organizations, can’t be measured in dollars. 

 

You know the risks, so what are you doing to prevent these unwanted expenses, especially when you’re trying to remain competitive in business or meet government mandates to “do more with less” and work seamlessly with other agencies?

 

If you haven’t realized it yet, the solution is quite simple: consider implementing secure IP-based collaboration software, which will enable private information sharing with colleagues, clients and partners with lower costs and boosted efficiency. The return-on-investment (ROI) you can actually measure will be nearly immediate. Even better, you’ll never have to consider the potential financial damages from data breaches. That ROI is simply immeasurable.

 

So, how does it work? Technologies designed to streamline work for government and business professionals alike have come and gone over the years. Streaming media, video conferencing, project management software, and many other innovations have promised greater efficiency, lower costs and enhanced security.

 

Some have had success but many have fallen short of these promises due to high initial costs, difficulty of use, narrow range of functions, and inability to effectively address real business issues. Moreover, proving increasingly destructive is their inherent lack of security, which as we have described can be very expensive.

 

Secure collaboration, in turn, facilitates the remote communication of two or more people in real time over the Internet, enabling you to see and talk to someone as if you were in the same room and work jointly together on documents, exchange information, and more.

 

Even more significant, however, all data being communicated or stored using the software—even audio and video—is fully encrypted, ensuring complete protection of conversations and data at all times. 

 

Participants can use a variety of tools and features such as live video and telephone-quality audio; an ability to introduce documents, diagrams, exhibits and other applications, a robust document markup/editing capability.

 

On top of those features, you can also get archive-able instant messaging, offering the ability to see which of your colleagues or clients is online and available to answer your immediate questions; to multitask; and launch into a full-blown interactive meeting if necessary.

 

In addition to eliminating the possibility of costly security breaches, secure collaboration can save significant time and money by eliminating travel and increasing efficiency from the moment of implementation.

 

 

The phrase “time is money” might be an overused cliché, but as we are all experiencing, it has never been more true than it is now. Time is an increasingly scarce asset, and each hour wasted in tedious, repetitious or inefficient work processes can add up to a budget in red or a national debt higher than it already is. Not good.

 

While information sharing with secure collaboration can take place at any time, comparing the return-on-investment from holding one single meeting online versus in-person makes the significant time and money savings really stand out. Many business and government professionals, both under significant pressure to curb expensive travel expenditures, still spend a considerable amount of time traveling across town, the United States or even the world.

 

Face-to-face meetings are the best—or only—way to handle certain types of meetings. Not every communication requires in-person contact, however, and the increasing expense and inconvenience of travel is becoming increasingly difficult to justify.

 

Not only is airfare increasingly expensive, it also equates to significant downtime, meaning time is not being spent productively.

 

To calculate the cost savings of a typical in-person meeting versus the use of secure collaboration for a specific meeting, the following table can be used as a reference. Suggested costs for the commercial space have been inserted, which can be adjusted accordingly for government travel.

 

 

 

What these categories of savings indicate is that secure collaboration software—which only requires the software quickly downloaded on a computer, a high speed Internet connection, an optional web cam and a headset—can pay for itself immediately based on travel savings alone.

 

On top of the obvious financial savings, when you add in a conservative estimate of the cost of the unproductive time spent during travel—whether it is cross country or across town—the savings realized from the secure collaboration software can become even more dramatic

 

 

There are alternatives to secure collaboration, but as mentioned previously, they often lack the full range of functionality or cost savings, as well as the level of security that is inherent in quality secure collaboration software.

 

For secure information sharing, a virtual private network (VPN), intranet or extranet might do, depending on the audience, but they lack truly interactive and collaborative capabilities that would enable your organization to discuss the information in real time or otherwise without resorting to traditional—and often non-secure—phone calls, e-mail or instant messaging applications, meaning you have to pay for these additional services. They also require three separate applications, making the implementation and maintenance costly, unproductive and impractical.

 

In addition, while e-mail and instant messaging applications offer more collaboration, they alone limit this collaboration to information sharing and usually do so without the encryption capabilities that would meet most government requirements, meaning you need to pay for additional security capabilities to keep your data secure. When products attempt to add security post design, add-on techniques can significantly affect product performance and leave exposed gaps.

 

With secure collaboration software, specifically VIACK’s VIA3 Assured Collaboration Service, security is part of the core design, with the industry’s best encryption built in from the ground up. For IT professionals, this means there is no need to retrofit the product with additional layers of authentication or security. Teleworkers or other government officials that must communicate while outside the confines of the agency building can do so securely, without the need for a separate VPN or connection. 

 

Video conferencing uses specialized video suites complete with remote control cameras, monitors, and so forth to facilitate communications between remote locations. While this solution can provide audio and video, it often requires significant investments in equipment (upwards of $100,000 to buy, $250 or more per hour to rent) for participants in all locations and does not offer the document interaction or instant messaging capabilities needed to make meetings productive or information sharing practical. 

 

Secure collaboration software, on the other hand, makes collaboration highly flexible and inexpensive with a very minimal equipment investment (headset, optional Web cam). 

 

Web conferencing offers many of the capabilities of secure collaboration but most do not offer information sharing capabilities such as file cabinets, instant messaging that can be used outside of a conference or integrated video and audio, meaning you still will likely pay a separate audio conference bill to present or listen to the presentation.

 

Without collaborative applications inherent in the product, web conferences are less productive for document reviews, brainstorming and project work, which can be done in days, rather than weeks, with a collaborative application.

 

 

As we’ve already explained, secure collaboration can be an effective solution for streamlining work processes, increasing productivity and saving time and money. While there are many forms of communication available, very few offer truly secure information sharing coupled with fully interactive capabilities that will enable your organization to meet E-gov initiatives or remain competitive in business.

 

When considering any type of secure collaboration software, ask yourself the following questions:

 

How do you share secure documents now? Do you meet in person for simple status updates or still send sensitive documents by e-mail for editing or simple sharing? How often are you making expensive long distance phone calls?

 

What capabilities are included? Can the secure collaboration solution offer the capabilities you need (audio, video, document editing, instant messaging, total security, etc.) for effective communication and information sharing with colleagues, partners, clients, etc.?

 

Is the technology easy to use? Is it user friendly? Does it require complicated firewall configuration? Does it require special equipment? Will it run on your operating system? Does it enable you to basically work the way you always have?

 

What are the associated costs? How much does the service cost? What is the vendor’s billing scheme? Do the rates climb or fall as more people attend meetings or even use the instant messaging capabilities? Can you customize the billing codes? Are there already contracting vehicles in place that will provide a simple, low-cost way to get started?

 

Is the communication secure? Not all collaboration services are secure and some only provide security as an option or partial solution. What security measures does the service employ? Are online documents protected? How are passwords handled? What are their privacy and security policies?

 

 

In addition to eliminating the chance of a data security breach resulting in potentially millions of dollars in lost revenues, secure collaboration services provide the added benefits of shorter, more focused communications and information sharing (meetings included) with reduced travel and downtime.

 

The ROI will be easy to demonstrate. Just give it a try.