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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Expert advises corporations on Human Firewalls

FOR electronic businesses to thrive in this part of the world, corporate organisations must invest in ‘Human Firewalls’ according to the Managing Director, Digital Jewels, Mrs. Adedoyin Odunfa.

Human Firewalls are those professionals who are armed with enough information and training to prevent a security breach in their organisations as outlined by Odunfa.

Speaking in Lagos, Mrs. Odunfa said that this has become imperative now that most businesses are migrating and developing electronic platforms.

Mrs. Odunfa who also is the chief executive of the independent information technology (IT) consulting entity, said that with focus on development of knowledge economy across the continent and Nigeria precisely, there is need to channel energies into building sustainable human firewalls.

With eye on becoming the continental trusted numero uno in guiding knowledge economy, Mrs. Odunfa said that the biggest challenge for the development of e-business in emerging economies is the absence of highly skilled human capital.

Such professionals, she said, are in short supply in the country, adding that in order to reverse the trend, Digital Jewels is poised to apply the “TEA” approach to it by providing Training, Education and Awareness (TEA) for organisations that are eager to develop and maintain critical e-business approach.

“We use the acronym TEA. Through this we would train people to know what to do, educate them to understand the issues and continuously spread awareness such that everyone, from the teller in the bank; the front desk officer, the call centre agent, to the top management executive, everybody will know that information security is central to the success of their business,” she said.

Mrs. Odunfa, noted that many organisations are comfortable with physical business with little understanding of e-business.

“In some organisations, those who are at the helms of affairs are yet to understand the impact and implications of the digital revolution,” she decried.

She pointed out that her team at Digital Jewels has been able to take cursor look at the information value chain and the objective so as to see how they could add value, by helping organisations to improve their value and benefits derivable from the information within their organisations.

“We found out that many times, people understand tangible assets. The banks for instance, understand the need to secure their branches. However, many really do not appreciate the need to secure and take advantage, as well as benefit from intangible assets,” she informed, explaining that if one actually value assets across the organisations, it is possible to find out that information is perhaps the most valuable asset.

“Especially if you are in service business and even if you are not in service business; information is still a valuable asset to you,” Mrs. Odunfa said.

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