In many cases, for example, inadequate management reporting strategies, are unwittingly enabling internal and opportunistic fraud – and IT systems and networks could be the weak link when it comes to spotting a potential threat. Erratic, incomplete or excuse-laden reporting could all be warning signs that something is wrong. IT failures and compatibility issues between different company systems will be used to explain away gaps and delays.

An automated, integrated data network that underpins a company-wide strategy should enable up-to-date, on-demand reporting that reveals anomalies in real time rather than waiting for suppliers, contractors or customers to raise alerts that can’t be properly addressed due to broken links in the audit trail.

Make sure data audits are treated with respect and that they are completed on time. If there are delays, you should make it a priority to understand why they occurred and make sure there are no sinister reasons behind them.

Your data security policy should make sure files are protected from deletion. Always be wary if a request for information is met with the news that those particular data files have been dumped. You might even want to make unauthorised file deletion a disciplinary matter. Increased automation also makes it easy to forget that paper records should be managed just as closely as their digital equivalents.

Process laziness – the assumption that everybody in the communications chain is playing by the book – could be another weakness. Control processes, and anything that focuses on the purchase-to-invoice and customer control cycle, should be tightly managed and frequently reviewed. Look out for data inconsistencies. Factual mismatches will always happen due to human error and rogue staff could use this to explain away discrepancies.

Don’t forget the human element. If staff are working on systems unsupervised and outside office hours, are they being monitored by your IT security manager? It’s an uncomfortable truth but these are situations in which company data is often at risk of theft or corruption by disgruntled users. A full IT asset register and IT audit system are essential elements of any anti-fraud programme.

The solution to this complex challenge is to have a comprehensive anti-fraud strategy, enabled by the company’s ICT systems and driven from the top of the business. Of course it must embrace high profile cyber crime issues but it should also alert management to the early warning signs of possible fraud and data anomalies in routine business processes.

Cloud computing is all about giving your people access to server-based computer resources – systems, applications and storage – via the network, whether it’s your corporate WAN or the Internet itself. Only the servers probably won’t be in your computer room, like the old days. If you’ve decided to outsource your infrastructure, they could be anywhere in the world and your applications and systems could be spread across different locations by a hosting company which effectively takes on the technical and financial burdens of maintenance and service quality, leaving you to focus on your business without the distractions of technology overheads.

That’s the theory, anyway. System performance and accessibility are unaffected. Your staff don’t need to download applications to their mobile or desktop devices. They don’t even need to store documents or data because everything is kept remotely in the cloud. It isn’t hard to see the potential economic and administrative appeal to edg customers of a concept that potentially gives a mobile workforce such fluid, trouble-free and secure access to their key data and applications across a much simplified model.

Conventional 24×7 hardware support and running costs go out of the window, replaced by service agreements and hosted software licenses. And the cloud grows with the requirements of the business, flexibly and exponentially, without the need to factor in the expense of planned server upgrades.

No wonder the cloud has captured the imagination of business owners and their senior IT professionals, with its promise of complete flexibility. Workloads can be shared between private and public clouds, as business requirements shift. Resource, memory and storage resources are guaranteed rather than impacted by bandwidth-hungry applications – and users. The cloud can be managed via a single, intuitive dashboard, regardless of the variety of environments it consists of.

According to a new study from market analyst IDG Research, a quarter of European IT leaders have already deployed the cloud model, at least at departmental level. Many organisations have spotted the low-risk possibility for exploring the cloud’s resilience by trying it out in single projects or low-budget development programmes.

With business agility and visibility now major drivers behind any changes in IT strategy, the cloud is increasingly seen as the go-to model.

IDG Research estimates that UK CIOs are allocating as much as one third of their IT budgets to cloud computing. That’s quite a commitment. And much of this is being spent on developing the appropriate skills and staff resources, use to use the cloud model effectively, you need to understand how it will support your business services and communications, and make sure that you are buying a service that will override the disruptions and slowdowns that traditionally affect corporate IT infrastructures.

But as cloud service vendors rise to the challenge of delivering performance and security levels that organisations have always demanded of their in-house infrastructures, businesses of every size should take the potential benefits – reduced costs, greater efficiency and limitless computing resources delivered seamlessly – very seriously indeed.

• 38.107.179.233 – IP Address of the reader
• Glendora – City of the reader
• CA – Two letter State code of the reader
• United States – Country name of the reader
• US – Two letter Country code of the reader
• 34.1321 – Latitude of the reader
• -117.8511 – Latitude of the reader

Armed with this information, you can monitor fuel usage, identify harsh breaking and acceleration, reduce engine idling time, spot the difference between private and business usage, cross-check fuel receipts and timesheets, help your drivers to manage their hours on the road and reduce overtime, always know the location of your vehicles (thanks to UK aerial photography and European street level mapping), keep your customers up to date with drivers’ arrival times and know the minute a vehicle returns home or reaches the depot.

Your business will run more efficiently, and you’ll make bottom-line savings from day one.

Case study 1: When a builders’ merchant implemented the solution, it slashed weekly idling times that could run to two or three hours per vehicle, saving a gallon of fuel for each idle hour.
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Case study 2: A transport company used the solution to show a commercial vehicle manufacturer that by recalibrating the throttle slightly, its vehicles’ fuel consumption could be improved by 0.5 MPG – generating immediate savings from vehicles doing more than 75,000 miles per year.
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Case study 3: A telecommunications company is using the solution to boost its customer service by telling customers the estimated arrival times of its engineers when they are stuck in traffic.
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From as little as £25 per vehicle, per month, our special introductory offer can help you exploit a new layer of business knowledge immediately. Call us on 01245 380009 for more information.

Advantedg, which operates across Moto’s three truck washing sites – with more to come – has been tailored to support the specific requirements of Moto’s truck washing business, including automated data capture on rugged handheld computers, mobile printing, tight integration with back office applications, real-time management reports and automated invoicing.

Truckwash manager Paul Lipton says that by replacing manual methods with a secure, streamlined, hosted system has performed beyond expectations. “Before, any query meant we would spend a lot of administrative time searching the back office system and old files,” he says. “The search facility on Truckwash reports makes it easy to find an electronic file and send it on to a customer.”

Other benefits include reducing the cost of Moto’s paper trail, freeing staff to focus on key business activities rather than manual data input, avoiding the cost of a standalone fuel card system and the compilation of a specialist HGV operator database.

In summary, businesses deciding which handheld computer to purchase face a high stakes buying decision: is it more cost-effective to buy a consumer-grade handheld for less money upfront? Alternatively, is it wiser to pay more money initially to purchase a more durable rugged handheld device?

What do you get for the money?

• Greater reliability- Rugged devices ensure fully functioning equipment for many years. Indirect costs related to downtime are significantly lower than that of the consumer-grade devices
• Higher performance – A longer battery life than a consumer-grade device ensuring full productivity for an 8 hour shift
• Long term security – The stable life cycle of a rugged device means you can plan ahead with confidence as you won’t be facing the maintenance and support issues that come with a mixed population of devices.
• Repair and not replace – One of our customers has been using their rugged devices for over ten years which is maintained / repaired in our dedicated repair facility.

Total Cost of Ownership

• Two years after deployment, 35% of consumer devices had been replaced compared to only 2% of rugged devices
• Three years after deployment the percentage of consumer grade devices still in use is only around 20%. After the same period, over 75% of rugged devices are still in use.
• The annual downtime suffered by users of consumer grade devices is almost double that of users of rugged devices.

Source: VDC Research Group

Mobile handheld devices are designed to increase productivity. The ability to do work on the move and in the field presents the opportunity for enhanced speed and accuracy. These advantages are lost, however, when devices breakdown, need repeated service or must be replaced. Therefore, for businesses concerned with obtaining the greatest productivity over the long term, rugged handheld computers are the clear and convincing choice.

edg are completely hardware agnostic, meaning that we only supply branded equipment from reputable manufacturers that best suit our customer’s business environment and needs. To find out more about rugged devices that suit your business, contact edg.

As part of the acquisition from Dairy Crest and the rescue of DFoB, Andy French, edg Managing Director and Nick Curties, edg Systems’ Support Manager worked alongside Terry Ziton, Medina Director, to ensure a secure transition of data and systems. The edg Depos and RBook solutions were deployed into all sites and ensure that a consistent solution manages the business units. edg’s FieldMaster and RoundMaster hand-held computer solutions (now sold under the brand Advantedg) are used to manage the semi-retail and doorstep customer base. edg sourced the servers, which are hosted and managed at their Essex Head Office, reducing the timescale and ensuring that these devices are managed remotely. The edg software solutions include features such as:

More efficient customer service
The customer receives an accurate delivery note or invoice at the point of sale. As the customer becomes satisfied that all deliveries are accounted for correctly they become more receptive to the roundsman’s selling.

Total stock control throughout the van sales operation
All stock issued to the vehicle is automatically logged by either the depot software or the hand-held computers.

Reduced losses
The audit trail details the stock position at the end of the day. It shows the load at the start of the day, the issues made, returns collected and the stock that should be returned to the depot. This report is available by the time the vehicle has returned to the depot. Therefore the stock manager uses this report to check stock back from the vehicle and can pinpoint stock discrepancies.

For more information please contact the edg sales team on 01245 380009.

The system will plan loads and delivery routes from orders received, taking account of customers’ required delivery dates. Individual drivers will confirm proof of delivery and print invoices based on actual quantities pumped.