Data Loss Prevention

Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re on a business trip. You hear the boarding call for your flight and reach down to grab you laptop – only your laptop isn’t there. Whether it was left at security or snagged by another traveler in the terminal, your laptop is gone and your company data is at risk.

So what do you do? Typically you’ll need to make a call to the office, notifying your IT department of the incident. This call will initiate a chain reaction of events set into place to ensure measures are taken to secure the files and equip you with a new device to keep business running as usual. This process typically involves a series of forms, approvals, signatures, etc.

While it may sound simple, enforcing processes with effectiveness is one of hardest things for companies to do. With multiple people involved and steps required, any number of things can go wrong, slowing down the process – and costing you and your company valuable time, money and possibly confidential information.

The key to managing this complicated process is automation. By shifting and automating the process of security management, a laptop owner can simply input information into an online form – automatically setting off the necessary chain of events. As you decide to use process orchestration, I would like to suggest a few pointers:

• When you decide which process to automate first, start with one that is highly visible or involves too many employees.
• Look into tools that will help you facilitate workflow, and be sure to choose one that is open and can link to other systems.
• Assign an owner to each process. Investigate the ins and outs of the process itself, and be sure to keep flexibility in mind.
• Test the process in chunks – start by piloting pieces of the process on smaller groups of people.
• Once automation is up and running, measure and evaluate the results to make sure it is a well-oiled machine.

As busy as IT staff can get, it is worth the time to set up the right automation tools and start reengineering your processes. Security will improve and your employees will thank you – making the next lost-laptop incident a whole lot simpler for everyone.

For more information, check out my article on Information Management.