Effective business inventory management is crucial for companies of all sizes. One technology that has transformed how businesses monitor and handle their assets is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).

RFID employs tags that can be affixed to products or assets, enabling businesses to monitor and manage their inventory in real-time. RFID tracking helps ensure efficiency and productivity. With these best practices, companies can leverage RFID tracking technology.

1. Establishing a Sound Tagging Approach

The initial step in maintaining an RFID tracking system involves establishing a tagging approach and selecting the type of tags that align with your requirements, including active tags depending on the desired range and reading capabilities.

It is more important to consider factors like tag size, durability, and attachment methods based on the demands of your industry. Correctly identifying products or assets with placed tags will guarantee data collection throughout the process.

2. Enhancing Reader Placement

Optimizing reader placement is another aspect, in enhancing the efficiency of your RFID tracking system. Positioning readers, at entry points or critical locations where tracking is necessary is essential. By assessing the movement of goods within your business premises, you can pinpoint the spots for readers to ensure tag detection.

Placing readers at chokepoints or areas with high foot traffic ensures reliable data capture without any gaps. Regular monitoring and analysis can help identify if any adjustments are required to enhance system performance.

3. Ensuring Reliable Power Supply

Maintaining a power supply is crucial to keep your RFID system running. Unstable power sources can cause readers to malfunction, resulting in failure in tag detection and potential data loss.

Consider installing backup power solutions such as power supply prevention to prevent power failures. Regularly upkeep batteries or power sources to avoid disruptions impacting your inventory management processes.

4. Performing Routine Maintenance and Calibration

Similar to any technology, RFID systems need maintenance to ensure functionality. Scheduling cheques on readers, antennas, and other system components is essential for issue detection and resolution.

Moreover, the calibration of the readers is essential for tag detection. Dust, moisture, and other environmental elements that affect reading distance can lead to faulty readings. Incorporating calibration can address these issues. Uphold a dependable tracking system.

5. Providing Training for Employees

Introducing an RFID tracking system offers training to employees to make the most of the technology adequately. All relevant staff members who engage with the system should undergo training on operating it, troubleshooting problems, and interpreting the data it produces.

Clear communication regarding workflows related to RFID usage will help reduce errors during tagging procedures. Ongoing training initiatives will also ensure new hires are efficiently integrated into the system and comprehend its significant data.

6. Enhancing Data Security

Maintaining data security today is crucial due to cybersecurity threats and privacy issues. Employing security measures helps safeguard business information collected through RFID systems.

Some strategies include deploying access controls, encryption methods, regular password changes, and secure network setups. Collaborating with IT experts specializing in data security can protect your organization from risks linked to RFID technology.

7. Performing Checks

Regularly auditing your RFID tracking system helps you pinpoint areas needing enhancement and refine operations further. These audits provide an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of tagging strategies, validate tag placement accuracy, identify differences between counts and tagged assets, examine hardware performance, and gauge employee compliance. Organizations can enhance their inventory control processes and established protocols, too.

Conclusion

Employing an RFID tracking system can significantly boost the efficiency and precision of inventory management. This is relevant and applies to businesses across domains and with different service offerings. By adopting tagging strategies, optimizing reader positioning, maintaining a power source, carrying out regular upkeep, and training employees adequately, companies can maximize the advantages of their RFID system. Implementing these techniques will streamline your operations and enhance customer satisfaction through stock availability and decision-making based on real time data insights.

In today’s age, safeguarding sensitive data is crucial for all businesses, especially in the context of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). During M&A transactions, companies often need to share information with partners or buyers.

Businesses must implement appropriate security measures to protect this data and ensure privacy and security. This article will discuss strategies for securing data in M&A deals to minimise the risk of unauthorised access or data breaches.

Recognising the Risks

Before delving into the strategies for securing information during mergers, acquisitions and divestures, it is important to understand the risks involved in handling sensitive data during M&A transactions.

Sharing sensitive information exposes both parties to threats from individuals seeking to compromise the integrity of the deal or exploit financial information. Additionally, any oversight in safeguarding data can lead to legal repercussions and significantly harm a company’s reputation.

Establishing Confidentiality Agreements

Confidentiality agreements play a major role in ensuring clear communication between businesses engaged in M&A transactions. These agreements establish guidelines on how information should be handled and protected throughout the transaction process.

When creating confidentiality agreements, companies must accurately define what qualifies as confidential information. This should encompass all details, such as business records, customer databases, intellectual property rights, existing contracts and proprietary information.

When it comes to outlining confidentiality responsibilities, it’s important to be clear about what can and cannot be shared in agreements.

Setting Up Secure Data Rooms

Secure data rooms offer a controlled space for exchanging sensitive documents during M&A deals. These online platforms use encryption techniques and secure logins to keep information safe from unauthorised access.

For added security:

1. Use multi-factor authentication: This extra layer of security requires users to provide multiple pieces of proof before accessing documents.
2. Control access levels: Give permissions based on the specific roles of individuals in the deal hierarchy.
3. Keep an eye on document activity logs: Review the activity logs from time to time to spot any suspicious behaviour.

Educating and Training Employees

Employees are key in protecting data during M&A transactions. Businesses should offer training on data protection practices to all involved employees.

The training should cover:

1. Spotting phishing attempts: Teach employees how to recognise and avoid email scams that try to get information.
2. Reporting incidents: Make sure employees know how to report breaches through the right channels.
3. Ensuring data security: Teach employees about the procedures for moving, storing, and getting rid of data securely.

Assessing Vulnerabilities and Testing Security Measures

Another key element in safeguarding data during mergers and acquisitions is carrying out vulnerability assessments and security testing. These practices help pinpoint weaknesses or gaps in IT systems that could be exploited by unscrupulous individuals.

Collaborating with a cybersecurity company can be highly beneficial:

1. Vulnerability assessments: An external cybersecurity firm can perform an evaluation of an organisation’s networks, identifying vulnerabilities that may jeopardise information.
2. Security testing: By mimicking real-world cyberattacks, businesses can evaluate the effectiveness of their security protocols while uncovering any vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.

Proper Data Disposal Procedures

Upon completion of a merger or acquisition deal, both the buyer and seller must ensure that proper data disposal procedures are followed. This includes deleting or permanently eliminating any outdated copies of sensitive data.

Here are some suggested practices:

1. Implement a deletion policy: Establish guidelines for removing documents to ensure they are completely erased from storage devices without leaving any traces.
2. Use certified disposal methods: Work with accredited third-party vendors who specialise in document shredding or electronic file destruction.
3. Keeping track of documentation: It’s important to maintain records of the information that was disposed of along with the paperwork for legal purposes.

Conclusion

For any company involved in M&A deals, safeguarding data should be a priority in their privacy strategy. By following practices like using confidentiality agreements and secure data rooms, providing employee training, conducting vulnerability assessments, and adhering to secure data destruction procedures, businesses can significantly lower the risks linked to data breaches or unauthorised access.

Protecting information not only upholds a company’s integrity and reputation but also ensures compliance with the relevant privacy laws.

Regardless of whether your company has a multi-million dollar operating budget or is only in the thousands, no one wants to face unexpected losses. A common cause for loss is data center downtime. This type of loss is also usually preventable.

Did you know that downtime costs from $137 to over $1 million per minute can occur when the power goes out at a data center? These numbers should be enough to have you asking how you can keep your data center going.

Redundancy is Key in Data Centers

Keeping your data center running means a lot of redundancy. Everything from power supply and telecommunications to your hardware and software should be redundant. Even regional redundancy is recommended. So, what exactly does this mean for your data center?

Power Supply and Telecommunications

Chances are you rely on a third-party vendor for power and telecommunications. Even if you’re data center is connected to a company-owned grid, your telecommunication abilities are supported by someone else.

This is all well and good, especially if you’re satisfied with the partnership. Pricing is where you want it and you can’t complain about the service. Have you ever considered what happens to your data center if the third-party vendor experiences an issue on their end?

You can always rely on a backup uninterrupted power source. Most data centers have a generator connected and ready to kick on the second it senses an interruption in the power supply. This will probably be enough to keep your data center going until the vendor resolves the issue on their end.

But what about communications? Do you want to be temporarily out of touch with other stakeholders that can include your customers?

If you’re not worried about your backup supply, consider making your telecommunications system redundant. Yes, this often means going with an additional third-party vendor and keeping them on standby. The other vendor can temporarily take over when your primary source experiences an issue.

Even if you’re not worried about staying in contact with stakeholders, you still need telecommunications if you use a point of sale (POS) system.

Hardware and Software

If the thought of having redundant hardware and software has you reaching for a spreadsheet to look at costs, take a deep breath. Instead of contacting a supplier and ordering duplicates of everything, there’s a more cost-effective option.

Backing up your software files is an effective way of ensuring you’re not losing any data if the power goes out. This can also protect you during a security breach when everything may need to be shut down. Investing in virtual servers, think of the cloud, helps resolve your hardware redundancy issue. The cloud is affordable, flexible, and scalable. You can also choose to go with a public, private, or hybrid cloud model.

Don’t forget to continuously backup your data; to minimize downtime due to a security breach, it’s a good idea to implement multiple protocols. Depending on your industry, this may already be a compliance regulation; the healthcare industry is an example of this. Since HIPAA applies, all data must be secure at the perimeter and all endpoints.

You have multiple options when it comes to implementing security protocols that include encryption, passwords, and limiting user access to name a few.

Regional

Regional redundancy may not be necessary for all businesses, but if you’re in an area prone to natural disasters like hurricanes it’s a good idea.

Regional redundancy means anticipating an issue and taking steps to mitigate any downtime. This often means having backup servers in another area. The cloud can also help ensure your data is safe if a disaster occurs.

However, the cloud can’t be accessed without power and this is when it’s helpful to have another environment ready to step in. You may want to consider partnering with a third-party data center; this option is a little more affordable than setting up an entire data center. When you need to use the off-site center, it’s ready to step in.

Security Shouldn’t Be Overlooked

You can take all of the necessary steps to ensure your data center only experiences minimal downtime. Backing up information and having redundancies in place can help ensure your company doesn’t experience significant losses.

However, don’t forget about your data center’s physical security—but this doesn’t refer to the building’s structural integrity. Instead, it applies to the personnel coming in and going out. You don’t just want anyone wandering through your data center. You want to limit it to authorized staff who understand the practices and protocols.

Even though it will take a little time and effort, you can minimize data center downtime regardless of the type of disaster.