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Security Tech

RIP Access Cards

Written by Jagat Parikh on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Remember when you used to swipe your access card through the electromagnetic reader at the office door?

That norm will soon be done away with.

In the contemporary context, the world of access control and visitor management systems will be run by mobile-based credentials.

Instead of on a card, the visitors who come in will have their identity information on their smartphones, smartwatches, and other devices. This will be authenticated by the workplace’s physical access control system—be it a turnstile or digitally-lockable door—before allowing them access inside the premises.

In 2017, Gartner had reported that 1 in 5 companies would use smartphones as vehicles for identity management and access control by 2020.[1] That number will only be set to increase as social distancing concepts gather momentum, and the need for contactless protocols rises.

[1] Gartner Says That 20 Percent of Organizations Will Use Smartphones in Place of Traditional Physical Access Cards By 2020, Rob van der Meulen.

Access cards, while still handy, have several drawbacks which mobile access credential systems solve.

1. Reduced Costs 

The cost of material, micro-wire, and printing for each card can dent a company’s revenue. Some companies in the U.S. pay as high as $15-25.

In the event that a company adopts mobile-access credentials, this whole cost process is eliminated. Due to the easy availability of smartphones in the world today, your employees will already have the bare bones of the protocol. Should identification be needed, there are several protocols available to a smartphone due to its versatility: QR code, One Time Passwords (OTPs), face recognition, and other biometrics.

2. Time Needed to Implement

When a new employee or maintenance staff is recruited, the process from production to obtaining their card can take 5-7 days! Employee codes have to be known, the data has to be entered into the card, and the material needs to be bought and paid for.


When you use mobile credentials, this process is whittled down to a 3-minute process. The analogy is the process of onboarding an employee into your company: you send them a company laptop with usernames and passwords. Similarly, you only need to send them an email with the directions to download a company app that has their access credentials ready for smartphone usage whenever they make a trip into the office. 

3. Contactless Process

Access cards often required the visitor to swipe through a card reader or place it face down on a different type of card reader. This process involved contact with surfaces. While this is not a major plot point in the prevention of fatal danger, it can be salient to health standards. 

With a smartphone, on the other hand, you do not always need to make contact with a surface. There are a variety of technologies out there that allow remote and contactless entry.

One such example is near field communication (NFC), which has already been used in access control, due to its ability to operate on low frequency, proximity and provide selective access. NFC devices can also record the access information, time of access, how long the access is granted and other security metrics. This information can be helpful to security professionals and HR managers alike. Other technologies like Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy can also be implemented to arrange a secure and safe protocol through personal area networks (PAN).

4. Complete User Experience

Physical access control systems are often closed systems and have an inability to integrate with other IT infrastructure. But with greater availability of mobile and cloud technologies, the user experience is now superior. Employees and visitors can be notified of any workplace emergencies on their smartphones through the integrated visitor management app. Credentials and other identity information that need to be updated (such as promoted designation, higher clearance, etc.) can be easily undertaken on a mobile phone, which avoids the lengthy process of creating a new card with new credentials.

Mobile phones are also just more valuable to people and are less likely to be lost than a card!

In the world of visitor management systems (VMS) and identity and access management (IAM), it is becoming clearer and clearer that mobile-based credentials have too many advantages to not dominate the future. Smartphones, due to their quality, are conducive to several multi-factor authentication parameters which can only people to feel secure, safe, and efficient over time.

The views in this article are Jagat’s personal and not endorsed by any organization.

 



Categories
Digi Tech

I’m Linda

Written by Linda Wells on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

I am not a tech geek. I am not an academic professor at your local university. I’m just me! and all I want to do is show people what they are eating/drink/consuming and the harm it does and nudge them to pivot to healthy food and drinks, plus increasing their physical activity.

Before the global pandemic happened, I had a small business that did just that – face to face workshops and speaking gigs at conferences, workshops and meetings – all within a few kilometres of where I lived (well, maybe up to 500kms).

Now … My clients are global, some of them 16,500kms away. Why? Because of technology and the digital revolution, we are currently in.

Whilst I ran live workshops on my topic of healthy food, drinks and exercise and I always dreamed of creating online content, making some online courses on a digital platform. The truth is, I didn’t think I was smart enough to do that!!

I am smart in my thought leadership sector (for example I know what artificial numbers 950 and 951 mean and what harm they do to our body … check the closest drink you have on your desk while reading this and see if it includes those), but tech guru: NO. I know how to achieve the goal of 10,000 steps a day, but how to understand the digital world: NO.

When the pandemic hit, I had just moved to another State with no friends, no business contacts, not a member of any business forums or groups and had no work opportunities at all. So, guess what I did?

I decided to put my content online. I searched digital platforms, chose a few to test and ended up subscribing to Thinkific and put my courses online. I made video content. I learnt how to edit the content, how to add to YouTube, how to create the captions etc. I created resources and pdfs for students to download as well.

I used to use all the MS(Microsoft) things, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel and had used these for many, many years (I’m not telling you how many as I don’t want to disclosure how old I actually am – haha).

Now I use Google Drive, Google Docs, I use Zoom (doesn’t everyone), I use MS Teams, I create content in Canva, I’ve do email video messages via Loom, I use Mailchimp for my newsletters – I have learnt so much from my digital and technology journey since 2020 – all the while teaching people how to understand what is in discretionary, ultra-processed food and drinks.

I’m Linda from e-RAW.

e-RAW is a digital learning company that helps people transform their lives from consuming ultra-processed food/drinks and risks to their health to the best version of themselves they have ever been. Bonus: they get to pass it on to their family and friends – at home and in the workplace.

In fact, the word ‘discretionary’ wasn’t in my narrative, until I asked a group of smarter people than me on an online Retail Food Environment course from Monash University with me, what word I should use instead of ‘crap food’ to be a little bit kinder. This was on a digital Zoom weekly course roundup and guest speaker gig. So, I learned from my fellow students the word ‘discretionary’ on a tech video helping us with our online course we were studying from our home offices or workplace offices. See how important tech has been, even when it is just in the background!

Categories
Digi Tech Fin Tech Med/Health Tech

HOW INDIA IS GETTING DIGITALLY LITERATE

Written by Rishikesh Patankar, Ph.D. on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

The need for digital literacy in a country as populous and diverse as India is critical. The gap between limited availability of resources as against vast requirement could be addressed by use of technology. Technology can provide effective ways to scale up solutions and bridge the gaps. The technology and connectivity together can make a huge difference to the socio-economic levels of a community, and ultimately, the country, true progress comes from inclusive growth.

The Government of India has launched ‘Digital India’ – A programme to transform India into digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. The Digital India programme envisages to ensure that Government services are available to citizens electronically. Under the ‘e-Kranti – Electronic Delivery of Services’, one of the initiatives includes ‘Technology for Education – e-Education’ under which ‘Universal Digital Literacy’ at the National level is envisaged.

I would like to share the experience gained in implementation of a successful Digital Literacy programme across India, led by CSC.

THE NEED FOR DIGITAL LITEREACY IN INDIA

The technology and connectivity could be utilized effectively for delivery of education, healthcare, citizen services, financial services etc. The true potential for these aspects can only be realized if all the citizens are made digitally literate.

The key is to have sustained efforts by harnessing collective energies, strengthening partnerships and leveraging them to pull down the divisive digital wall.

Digital literacy is therefore a key component of the Government’s vision of building an empowered society as envisaged under “Digital India initiative”. Spinoff effects of digital literacy especially in the context of rural India would address a number of socio-economic issues.

  • Rural population can gain immensely from the ‘Digital Literacy’.
  • ‘Digital Literacy’ would bring the benefits of ICT to daily lives of rural population in the major thrust areas of Healthcare, Livelihood generation and Education.
DIGITAL LITERACY GAP

As per Census of India 2011, 68.84 % (883 Mn) of population resides in rural India. The number of rural households is 168 million. 5.2% of these rural households possess a computer.

Computer Literacy (who can operate a computer) by age group in rural India:

14-29 years – 18%

30-45 years – 4%

46-60 years – 1%

In addition, a significant number of these households don’t have computer access and are likely to be digitally illiterate.

IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITAL LITERACY

The implementation of the PMGDISHA Scheme is being carried out by the CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd. (CSC-SPV) which acts as the Programme Management Unit (PMU). More than 250,000 Training Centres have been empaneled under PMGDISHA to provide enrollment/training to the candidates. The Training Centres are spread across the country and are participating in achieving the goal of making India digitally literate.

In the years 2014 to 2016, two Schemes entitled “National Digital Literacy Mission” (NDLM) and “Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (DISHA) were implemented with certification of 5.4 million candidates, out of which around 42% candidates were from rural India.

In February, 2017, the Government approved a scheme titled “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (PMGDISHA) for ushering in digital literacy in rural India by covering 60 Million households.

Under this Scheme, as on 08/01/2022:

– 54.5 Mn candidates have been enrolled

– 46.2 Mn candidates have completed the training

– 34.30 Mn have been certified

TRAINING ESSENTIALS

  • Online Portal, Real-time Online Monitoring Tool for Analytics & Reports (www.pmgdisha.in )
  • Handbook & Multimedia content (in 22 Scheduled languages of India and English)
  • Mon-Sun, between (8 AM to 8 PM) we conduct online Remotely Proctored Examination System
  • Digital Signed Certificates are generated for all passed candidates. Digital Locker has been integrated with the system
WE COULDN’T HAVE DONE THIS ALONE

We had the support and capability of the below companies in carrying out this humongous task through their CSR initiatives.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT

3 impact assessment studies of the Scheme were carried out by:

  1. The Council for Social Development (CSD) in 2017-18.
  2. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Delhi in the year 2019.
  3. Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) in FY 2020-21.

The aim of the study was to analyze the ground level situation of the scheme with a larger aspect of continuation of the scheme.

The brief highlights of the impact assessment reports are:

  • PMGDISHA training has had a formidable impact on the use of ICT and other forms of digital media
  • 59% of the respondents stated that after attending the IT literacy training, their digital ability & confidence levels using digital has increased
  • Women participation is very large and their inclusion at the rural level will open the path for the learning of the whole family.
  • However, less participation of very poor and very illiterate was observed

We are very proud the Digital literacy drive continues in the country, aided with the integration, and help of NGOs and others under the leadership of CSCs.

Facilitated by PMGDISHA (Universal Digital Literacy for Rural India through Prime Minister Rural Digital Literacy Mission)

Subscribe to the below link for Digital lessons in many Indian languages: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbFPVWaOPS4tZ8EnXgXWwUg

Categories
Mar Tech

Marketers in the “Marketing 5.0” era

Written by Clare Wong on Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Convergence of Marketing 5.0 and T-Shaped Marketing

Here we are, on the precipice of a post-covid world, yet another one is brewing…(It’s not the emergence of Omicron if you are reading this in early 2022).

Ever-present Marketing 5.0

You might have heard of Industry 4.0, but I recently came to know of Marketing 5.0 by Philip Kotler – which essentially is the backbone of Industry 4.0. Marketing 2.0 to 4.0 was “Mad Men meets The Social Network with a sprinkle of Suits”, but Marketing 5.0 is “Black Mirror meets Love, Death and Robots” (but there are the good bits, like iOS 14 with their privacy move). Since 2019, Covid got us embracing a kaleidoscope of Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation. Industry 4.0 effects of Automation, Next Tech and Accelerated Digitalisation, in tandem, Marketing 5.0’s Hyper-Personalisation, Responsible Innovation and Smart-Connectivity. This inevitably caused considerable transformations within societies and market disruptions. Naturally, marketers had to react to this change.

Industry 4.0’s impact on many facets of human lives and societies (Image Source: The Marketing Journal)

Convergence of New Customer Experience and “Next Tech” (Image Source: The Marketing Journal)

Customer Empathy first, Technology second

So, how do marketers fit into this ‘next tech’ vision?

As the book’s name suggests “Technology for humanity”, humans are central to successful applications and marketers are still at the core of Marketing 5.0.

It is not about replacing the human with computer intelligence but rather finding ways in which “machines and people might fit and deliver the most value across the customer journey.” 

Mercè C. (Co-founder, Lead Consultant & Chartered Marketer)

In today’s connected and on-demand economy, relevance is the most important currency. This harkens back to the drivers of marketing evolutions, which are marketing technology and consumer needs. To stay relevant, marketers must adopt a customer-centric approach.

The 5 components of Marketing 5.0 (Image Source: Think Beyond)

Next Technologies’ main purpose is to amplify the capabilities of marketers to create and deliver value. With the rapidly-changing consumer behaviours due to the pandemic, marketers can create solutions that are more relevant than those created by the current-state AI.

Kolter touches on how Technology is adding value to marketing through the above five components with society and sustainability in mind.

Stepping into Marketing 5.0, T-shaped marketers would see the expansion and deepening of various domains (e.g. Behavioural Psychology, Digital Analytics, AR/VR, Service & UX Design).

Am I ready for Marketing 5.0?

The biggest challenge marketers face is the journey from strategy to execution!
Let alone being ready for Marketing 5.0.

In my career journey, I am neither on track with Jack Ma’s career advice nor ready to take on the entrepreneurship path. ​​I believe there is no rush to setting deadlines to attain your career goals (something that Jack Ma begs to differ).

My current goal is to advance from being a T-Shaped to a V-Shaped Marketer by broadening my business acumen, technical know-how while strengthening interpersonal skills. Individuals are rarely capable of achieving a true, deep “V” shape in their skill sets, but a collective unit can. I am blessed to have the opportunity to learn alongside similarly-minded, differentiated knowledge-experts within Google.

If you are just starting your digital marketing journey or at the cusp of a career-pivot, don’t fret – here are some readings that will help you get up to speed with the MarTech Universe (not the Marvel Universe!) and pivot to becoming a T-shaped marketer.

Good Reads and Frameworks:  Marketing 5.0’s Marketer

Have an Awesome 2022, Everyone!

Categories
Mar Tech

WALLED GARDENS AND AD-FRAUD

Written by Aditya Satheesh for Digilah (Tech Thought Leadership)

Low data prices has increased Internet users in India (mobile first Internet market) while propelling the growth/reach of social media giants as well as video content watch time over the last 5 years; but digital media still isn’t the preferred vehicle of marketing for most clients and only accounts for 25-30% of the industry spends, although it is growing YOY.

The adoption of digital media has been hindered by the fragmented digital ecosystem, doubts over ad fraud and effectiveness of the medium, questions over viewability of ads, traditional mindset of brand managers and their lack of understanding of the digital ecosystem. Even until recently, I have been asked to run campaigns targeting the brands HQ or been provided with custom audience lists of senior executives in the company, to be targeted with the brand campaign so as to satisfy and address the question a lot of brand managers ask – I am not able to see my ad; as they compare it to traditional media where ads are shown in an appointment-viewing manner.

The ever-changing pandemic situation has definitely forced a digital pivot, with print and outdoor media taking a hit. Brand managers are forced to consider digital due to its targeting capabilities ensuring low spillage and cost efficiencies. And like learning the ABCs of the alphabets, all brands jump on the bandwagon of Facebook and Google with over 80% budget going to these 2 platforms. The platform scale/reach, along with cost efficiencies as well as brand credibility is definitely unbeatable in the space and hence becomes a no brainer for brands. But as the adoption of the duopoly increases, the strength and power of the walled gardens grow and so do their prices.

As marketers spend more on these platforms, they understand less about their customers as walled garden campaigns and interactions can’t be tied back to the brand’s CRM database. Brands receive a consolidated view of how their campaigns performed rather than an individualized view. There’s no way to verify impression/reach data or understand affinity target selections that work, you simply have to take it on faith. Yet marketers continue to spend more and get less.

A more equitable value exchange needs to be more about standardizing taxonomy and identifiers across all of these platforms to see and understand the customer journey. Today, even having unified unique reach in a digital campaign is next to impossible due to the fragmented ecosystem as well as walled gardens.

With the increased spends on digital, reports indicate that ad fraud rates gone up by 40% in these COVID times. Today ad verification in India is in its nascent stages and only around 10-15% invest on third party verification tools.  The path for safer and more secure digital advertising effectiveness lies in third party ad verification, which ensures that brands are investing in quality media. Third party verification would ensure 4 things mainly

  • Brand Safety/Brand suitability – identify inflammatory/negative content and protect brand image/reputation
  • Ad Fraud – identifying Invalid Traffic to help evaluate efficacy of platform and calculate brands return on media investment
  • Viewability – helps measure effectiveness of ad delivery
  • In Geo – ensure ads served within intended demographics

Advertisers need to understand these underlying challenges as the adoption of digital increases at a rapid pace. Investing in third party verification tools will not only improve trust and transparency in the ecosystem, while also holding publishers accountable and thus help decreasing fraudulent traffic and increasing overall return on investment.