Archive for March, 2021

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ServiceNow Enhances Vaccine Solution To Help Organizations Vaccinate At Scale

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 17, 2021 by itnerd

ServiceNow which is supporting vaccinations for more than 20 million people with the Now Platform and its Vaccine Administration Management solution, today released further product enhancements to its Vaccine Administration Management solution to help organizations quickly meet the “last‑mile” challenges of vaccinating and protecting people at scale. The latest enhancements make it easier for people to schedule vaccination appointments and for providers to manage vaccine inventory.

With the Biden administration directing states to make all U.S. adults eligible for vaccinations by May 1, ServiceNow is committed to leveraging the Now Platform to help states and healthcare providers convert vaccines into vaccinations as quickly as possible. The Now Platform and Vaccine Administration Management solution are being deployed in just days by some providers, using ServiceNow’s workflow technology to rapidly improve vaccine distribution, administration, and monitoring. The NHS National Services Scotland, for example, is using ServiceNow to help quickly vaccinate Scottish citizens.  

Additionally, Children’s Minnesota, one of the largest pediatric health care systems in the U.S., recently went live with ServiceNow Vaccine Administration Management in just five days. When Children’s Minnesota expanded its vaccination rollout beyond staff, to patient caregivers and the most vulnerable members of the community, it experienced similar challenges as those faced by other organizations across the country. With its new system, Children’s Minnesota has reduced wait times from three hours in a walk‑in model to 20 minutes with an appointment and successfully vaccinated nearly 1,400 staff members, caregivers and the community in 11 hours.

ServiceNow is helping organizations across healthcare, government, education, and the private sector distribute COVID‑19 vaccines and get people vaccinated quickly, including:

  • The Department of Homeland Security is facilitating vaccinations for its 240,000 employees via ServiceNow for vaccination eligibility checks, communication management, and coordinating mass vaccinations at Veterans Affairs facilities.
  • The University of Central Florida is leveraging ServiceNow to coordinate and schedule first and second dose vaccinations for its faculty and staff.
  • The State of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is relying on ServiceNow’s technology as the foundation for its command center for healthcare providers, clinicians administering the vaccine, and supporting NCDHHS staff to access the latest information related to state vaccine requirements and to get their vaccine‑related questions answered.
  • Outside the U.S., The NHS National Services Scotland is using ServiceNow’s Now Platform as the digital backbone of its program to rapidly roll out the vaccine to protect citizen health in the fight against COVID‑ Over 220,000 vaccination appointments were booked in the first 12 hours of the Now Platform going live.

Introducing more control and visibility for vaccination scheduling

The latest updates to the ServiceNow Vaccine Administration Management solution improve the vaccination scheduling process for vaccine recipients, administrators, and clinicians, providing increased visibility into inventory, to help convert all available vaccines into vaccinations.

New capabilities announced today offer increased control and visibility over available vaccine doses to help match vaccine appointments with inventory supply to minimize waste and avoid overbooking appointments. This has been a challenge for many organizations, leading to long wait times and leaving many recipients in line with cancelled appointments. New capabilities include:

  • The ability to schedule and cancel appointments based on vaccine inventory as vaccines are distributed. Organizations can automatically track vaccine inventory in real‑time and open, close, and reschedule appointments based on the number of vaccines they have available.
  • Location‑level configuration capabilities enable organizations managing multiple vaccination sites to specify inventory, available hours, and appointment slots by location.

Additionally, new capabilities announced today give vaccine recipients more control over the scheduling process for a seamless booking experience, including:

  • The ability to select a specific day and time for appointments and independently book second appointments. Previously, users were automatically booked into the first available spot.
  • The ability for contact center agents to book appointments on behalf of recipients.
  • Options for family scheduling will be available soon, allowing families to book appointments together and at the same time, rather than signing up individually with different accounts at varying times.

These updates will support smoother and more efficient experiences for both those receiving and administering vaccinations as more people become eligible and vaccines are made widely available.

Workflowing a healthier future

The recently passed U.S. stimulus package has prioritized helping state and local governments recover from the challenges of COVID‑19 to get people back to work and to restart the economy.

ServiceNow also continues to innovate its previously announced Safe Workplace suite to allow governments and organizations to safely return to work. ServiceNow’s Safe Workplace suite supports all aspects of creating a safe and efficient return to work for governments, campuses, and companies. This now includes Vaccination Status, an app that helps public and private sector companies track the status of vaccinations in the workplace.

With the ServiceNow Vaccination Status app, employees and stakeholders in an organization can easily submit documentation of completed health vaccinations to meet return to workplace requirements, where permissible by law. Organizations can also collect vaccination data to assess when it’s safe to bring employees and stakeholders back to a workplace and provide benefits to employees who received vaccinations, in accordance with their respective policies.

To date, more than 1,000 organizations globally have downloaded the Safe Workplace suite of apps with over 12,000 unique installations.

Availability and additional information

New features are currently available in the ServiceNow Store, and caregiver scheduling options are expected to be available in April.

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Accenture Named A Leader In IDC MarketScape: Canadian Cloud Professional Services 2021 Vendor Assessment

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 16, 2021 by itnerd

Accenture has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Canadian Cloud Professional Services 2021 Vendor Assessment (doc# CA46215320, January 2021).

In this inaugural report, Accenture was named a Leader in part due to its industry expertise, deep technology skills, and strong partnerships with prominent technology players. In addition, the IDC MarketScape sees Accenture differentiating itself in cloud professional services with its investments in a variety of proprietary solutions to accelerate clients’ cloud journeys as well as its aggressive global strategy to help organizations digitally transform and become cloud-first businesses. 

The IDC MarketScape report also noted that Accenture’s cloud clients have a high level of satisfaction, including in its ability to integrate with client teams and its overall delivery strength. Accenture’s offerings provide numerous benefits because of the breadth of functionality and its investment in innovation centres, intellectual property, and employee development that results in a high level of service quality, the report said.

In September 2020, Accenture launched Accenture Cloud First, a new multi-service group of 70,000 cloud professionals, with a $3 billion investment to help clients across all industries rapidly become cloud-first businesses and accelerate their digital transformation to realize greater value at speed and scale.

According to Accenture’s latest report, “Sky High Hopes: Navigating the Barriers to Maximizing Cloud Value,” just 34% of Canadian companies say they are achieving the full value expected on their cloud investments, compared to 37% of companies globally. The report also found that only 18% of Canadian businesses are completely confident that their organization’s cloud migration initiatives will deliver the expected value at the expected time

In this study, the IDC MarketScape evaluated Accenture and nine other cloud professional service providers. Participation in this study was determined based on annual revenue from cloud professional services in Canada, official consulting or integration partner status for Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform or IBM Cloud, and an active Canadian presence with at least 50 professionals.

Accenture was recently named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Canada Salesforce Implementation Services 2020 Vendor Assessment (doc#CA46257720, December 2020).

Accenture was also positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Cloud Professional Services 2020 Vendor Assessment (doc#US45439120, April 2020).

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Guest Post: 99% Of US Government Employees Run Outdated Android OSs Says Atlas VPN

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 15, 2021 by itnerd

Shockingly, 99.2% of US government Android users run outdated operating systems, exposing themselves to hundreds of vulnerabilities. 

Let’s not forget that due to COVID-19, the majority of government employees had to shift rapidly to remote-work. Meaning, workers started to use their mobile devices to access government data more than ever before, in turn creating a vast attack surface for cybercriminals.

According to Rachel Welch, COO of Atlas VPN, “These figures are a massive concern since government agencies store extremely sensitive information. If that data falls into the wrong hands, it could cause large-scale havoc.”

Diving into the analysis, it appears that as many as 22.8% of the US government workers still use the Android 8 operating system. 

This version of OS is called Android Oreo and was released to the public on August 21, 2017. This operating system has 636 known vulnerabilities. We can expect countless new attack vectors to surface as time goes by.

Moving forward, 28.2% of federal, state, and local government employees use the Android 9 operating system. According to publicly available data, this OS has 173 publicly known vulnerabilities. This Android version is known as Android Pie and was released to the world on August 6, 2018.

Next up is Android 10, the most popular operating system amongst the US government employees. Over 38.3% of workers run this OS on their Android devices. This operating system has more than 266 vulnerabilities known to date and was originally released on September 3, 2019.

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/99-of-us-government-employees-run-outdated-android-oss

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TikTok Launches Its FIRST North America Brand Campaign Called “Heads Up”

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 15, 2021 by itnerd

Today, TikTok announced their FIRST North American wide marketing campaign called “Heads Up”, which highlights TikTok’s diverse individuals and communities, as well as celebrate their continued resilience and creativity this year.

The creative spot will feature Canadian creators including LeendaDong, Bomanizer, NotoriousCree, Lubalin, and Kissy Duerre, and also voiced by actress Gabrielle Union. A localized French version will also be launching featuring TV and radio personality Anne Marie Wittenshaw. The spot aims to turn the camera back on the community – showing emotions we’ve all collectively experienced.

Despite things still being strange in the world, this year, TikTok is looking ahead, becoming stronger, and more united as a community. Because no matter who you are, TikTok is a welcoming space where all kinds of people come together to be entertained. So whether you’re looking for an escape, to find a community, or opening your mind to new ideas and perspectives, you can start on TikTok.

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Canadian Employees Still Trying To Adapt To Remote Work After One Year Of The Pandemic: Citrix

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 15, 2021 by itnerd

New research from Citrix revealed that 75% of Canadian workers would like to be given the option of working at home or at the office once the pandemic ends. But if remote work is here to stay, then companies must ensure they are creating a corporate culture that promotes physical and mental wellbeing and offer greater flexibility in the way their employees work.  

According to the study, a majority of Canadian employees want to continue some form of remote work upon return to the office, but working from home has taken a toll on them. Forty-nine per cent (49%) of Canadian office workers declared that their physical wellbeing was worse or much worse since the onset of the pandemic, and 57% said the same regarding their mental wellbeing. 

Company Culture Matters

As a result of the negative impact the past year has taken on employees, Canadian office workers are seeing great value in working for a company whose culture promotes the upkeep of physical and mental wellbeing; as almost all of those surveyed (97%) declared that a company that promotes wellbeing matters to them.

Company culture can be reinforced by many different departments or positions within a company (management, HR, IT), yet none seem to have risen to the levels of support that their workforces feel is required. Of those surveyed, only 23% felt very supported by their organization as a whole, with 32% feeling very supported by their management, 22% feeling very supported by their IT department, and 16% feeling very supported by their HR department. 

When asked what factors play into establishing and maintaining a good company culture, 71% felt that leadership is the most important factor, followed by 43% that felt that flexible work environments and schedules can contribute positively to the culture of a company.    

A Hybrid Return to the Office

Despite the difficulties they experienced working remotely, most employees still want to keep doing it.  When asked what their feelings were towards continuing to work remotely, 58% of respondents said they would like a hybrid model where they can choose whether to work remotely or from the office each day, 17% have no interest in returning to an office; while only 16% stated they would like to return to working in an office each day. 

Remote work has also now become a main factor when employees are looking for new employment or deciding to stay in their current role. Sixty-three per cent (63%) of employees agreed that they would only accept a new job if it offered flexible or remote work options, and most surprisingly, 38% would accept up to a 20% reduction in pay compared to what they are making now if the new role offered remote work models. Overwhelmingly, 73% of employees agreed that businesses will lose out on talent if they don’t offer flexible or remote work. 

Methodology:

The poll – commissioned by Citrix and conducted by OnePoll – questioned 500 Canadian office workers, asking about their views on their current working situation, company culture, and the impact of the pandemic on their wellbeing, career and work/life balance. The poll was conducted between February 2, 2021 and February 15, 2021. 

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Rogers Communications Intends To Buy Shaw Communications For $26 Billion….. This Cannot Be Good For Canadians

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 15, 2021 by itnerd

The news dropped this morning that Rogers Communications has signed a deal to purchase Shaw Communications in a transaction that’s valued at $26 billion.

This transaction will create Canada’s most robust wholly-owned national network, and as a result of the combined teams and enhanced capacity, will generate more choice and competition for businesses, as well as realizing the full benefits of next generation networks for Canadians and Canada’s productivity. Once the transaction is complete, the companies plan to invest $2.5 billion in 5G networks across Western Canada, which is expected to create up to 3,000 net new jobs.

It also will likely remove Shaw Communications and Shaw owned Freedom Mobile from the telco landscape in Canada. So that cannot be good for Canadians. But Rogers did say this:

The combined company is committed to continue offering affordable wireless plans, with no overage fees, that meet the budgets and needs of Canadians. As part of this commitment, Rogers will not increase wireless prices for Freedom Mobile customers for at least three years following the close of the transaction

That may be cold comfort for Freedom Mobile customers who hear this news. You can fully expect this deal to get a lot of scrutiny given the fact that it will result in less choice in the telco landscape. Which by extension is not good for Canadians. And you can also expect that other telcos, AKA Bell might have something to say about this. But if this deal goes through, it would make Rogers top of the food chain in the Canadian telco space.

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Survey Findings From Pulse Research & Keyfactor Show Gap Regarding PKI’s Role In A Zero Trust Security Strategy

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 15, 2021 by itnerd

96% of North American enterprise IT security leaders say public key infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificates are essential to achieving zero trust architecture. Yet only 39% use PKI as part of their zero trust security strategy today according to an executive survey from Pulse Research and Keyfactor, the leader in PKI as-a-Service (PKIaaS) and crypto-agility solutions. The survey explores enterprise security priorities, the challenges of zero trust strategy implementation and the use of PKI and digital certificates within a zero trust architecture.

PKI is comprised of digital certificates and cryptographic keys that provide trusted and secure connections to protect user and machine identities. A zero trust model relies on trusted connections, controls and machine identity authentication to mitigate security risks and ensure machine-to-machine communications are secure.

Additional key findings:

  • Adoption drivers: 68% are prioritizing zero trust strategy implementation for security risk mitigation with 50% citing time-to-breach detection reduction.
  • Investment priorities: 72% of IT leaders cite cloud-first migration followed by remote workforce (65%) and digital customer experience improvements (46%).
  • Budget allocation: 92% of respondents have allocated up to 20% of their 2021 technology budget to PKI and/or cryptography investments.
  • Implementation challenges: 73% see technology gaps as their organization’s greatest barrier to implementation, followed by cost concerns (69%) and a talent or skills shortage (45%).
  • PKI requirements: 71% of IT leaders are prioritizing key and certificate visibility, followed by enabling automation (56%) and cloud-first PKI deployment (49%).

The survey was conducted by Pulse Research on behalf of Keyfactor and included responses from 100 North American executive and VP-level IAM leaders in enterprises with between 5,000 and 10,000+ global employees.

View the complete findings and download the report today.

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Nooie Launches All-In-One Doorbell Cam With Base Station

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 15, 2021 by itnerd

Nooie today announces the release of their new Doorbell Camera and Base Station with Chime ($149).  The 5G capable Doorbell cam packs advanced motion detection, 2K resolution with wide angle view, 2-way audio, and more. It is also  Alexa and Google Home  enabled for voice commands.  The Doorbell Cam adds to Nooie’s family of smart home products including security cams, smart plugs, power strips and bulbs, and makes Nooie a one-stop shop for consumers looking to elevate their homes with stylish smart devices.  The Doorbell Cam with Base Station is available from Nooie’s website and also Amazon.  

The Nooie Cam Doorbell comes loaded with 5G wireless, and includes a base station with multiple chimes.  The Nooie Cam Doorbell stands out from the competition with:

Crystal Clear Resolution

  • 2K video resolution with superior night vision (2K video contains 2x the pixels of 1080P resolution)
  • 158° field of view provides a bigger and clearer view outside your home or business.
  • Superior night vision up to 49ft. (15m) in pitch-black

Intelligent Human Detection

  • Advanced PIR (Passive Infrared) sensors, and human detection algorithms give you accurate motion alerts.
  • You can monitor visitors and interact with guests remotely, either live or through pre-recorded messages.

Elegant, Minimalist Design that is Durable and Beautiful

  • Our warm and earthy colors and non-traditional materials blend seamlessly into your decor.
  • Includes a built-in anti-theft alarm for additional security.
  • Easy to install, intuitive App 

You’ll never miss a moment with Nooie Playback and Nooie Day – available within the Nooie App.  You can record precious moments in the cloud or on an SD card, and it’s as easy as 1,2,3 to install – no wires needed.   

To learn more about Nooie visit their website,

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BREAKING: 800K Canadians To Be Locked Out Of Their CRA Accounts Tomorrow

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 12, 2021 by itnerd

From the “this does not inspire confidence” department comes news that 800,000 Canadians will be locked out of their Canada Revenue Agency accounts tomorrow due to “cybersecurity risks”. This sounds similar to what happened less than a month ago where 100,000 other Canadians had their accounts locked as their credentials were allegedly floating around the dark web. Those who are affected by this will get instructions as to how to unlock their accounts.

I’m sorry, but this is once again a #fail on so many levels.

  1. Simply sending an email out saying that your Canada Revenue Agency account has been locked is going to freak people out. That’s because the history of the Canada Revenue Agency when it comes to IT security quite frankly sucks as they have been repeatedly pwned by hackers.
  2. Clearly their defenses are so poor that they clearly have to resort to locking out accounts. That’s pretty poor.

The fact is that the Canada Revenue Agency needs to really explain this. They can’t keep resorting to locking to accounts to solve what is clearly a larger IT security issue. So they need to step up their game otherwise they will not be trusted by Canadians.

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Rainbow Six: Your Guide To The 2021 North American Season

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 12, 2021 by itnerd

With the debut of the North American League in 2020, Ubisoft is excited for a brand new 2021 Season! After the Canadian and US Division merger, they are continuing forward with 9 teams in the North American League who will be playing in an offline environment at the Esports Arena in Las Vegas, NV, the home of the North American League.

This year, nine teams will be playing in a best-of-1 round robin format with no draws. While they may not have a Canadian division per say anymore, that just means that Canadian teams like Mirage and other Canadian players need Canadian love and support more than ever!

Make sure you tune into the action for the 2021 Season kick-off on March 24th and bring that Canadian pride with you. As always, you can tune into the action on Twitch.tv/Rainbow6. You can also take a look at the full guide to the 2021 NAL Season for more info.

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