Speed cameras are a bore.
In my
life I reckon I have driven about 750,000 miles and until the invention of the
speed camera I pootled around at whatever speed I felt comfortable with. In my youth
this was probably too fast some of the time. I remember one good ticking off
when I was stopped by a speed trap deep in West Sussex. It was the eighties
equivalent to a clip round the ear from a beat bobby. He let me off though.
However, speed cameras have got
me. I was once on 9 points for a very uncomfortable six months and these days
it is impossible to pootle. You have to be aware of the speed limit and look
out for cameras or there is a very real risk of penalty.
Some would say that this means the
speed cameras have done their job. However, I am not a bad driver. I have over
ten years no claim bonus, if that proves anything at all. My submission is more
about the pain of being fined and potentially losing my licence, not safety.
Thus, on the basis of providing a meaningful deterrent, I would agree that
those evil little yellow boxes have squeezed another bit of fun out of my life.
Every business takes the odd
risk, because businesses are run by people, and for whatever reason, a thrill,
a calculated gamble, negligence or laziness, we all take a chance. For
instance, crossing a busy road is a risk. We should all walk 50 yards further
and use the pelican crossing but few of us do. And we are usually ok.
Risk is there to be managed the
same as anything else. For every risk there is a reward. And the reward has to
be worth it to justify the risk. Which is why I don’t get the corporate
attitude to data security?
The fines are not £80 or whatever
they do you for speeding these days (five years and counting...). It is £500k
or 5% of GLOBAL turnover. Even Bill Gates would squeak at that. And it comes
wrapped in a nice spiky envelope of bad publicity.
As I have said many times in this
very blog the little guys think they will float beneath the radar. I do believe
that is true, unless they do something so bad that it cannot be ignored. It’s
probably ok doing 32mph in a 30mph limit, because they give you some
tolerance...but mow down a few toddlers and don’t expect any lenience.
However, there really is no excuse for
the big boys and they are generally as bad. So one has to ask what it is that
is preventing businesses making sensible decisions? And obviously as I am
already on my soapbox I am going to give you my answers to that perfectly
reasonable question...
Firstly, the cost is a barrier.
People resent paying separately to dispose of something they still see as
having some value. It is human nature.
Secondly there is simple plain
ignorance. People either ignore the dangers of a hard drive and give the kit
away to a charity or a member of staff, or they just believe the guy that says
he will dispose of it for them for free. Each route is fraught with danger.
Thirdly, there is indecision, the
result of which is either a drawer full of hard drives or a pile of discarded kit
somewhere.
But I don’t blame the customer.
I am not overly naive. I have
spent a long time working in the construction industry and I have seen and
heard of some scams that still make my eyes water. So coming into this
industry, which is regulated but not really policed (by which I mean very few
people get caught...in fact, part of the DP regulations is the requirement to
report a data breach. In other words, they expect the turkey’s to remind us
that Christmas is here), I can see huge scope for what my dear old grandmother
used to call shenanigans.
In my not so humble opinion we
need national standards for ITAD, meaningful ones, and then all businesses have
to be forced to use a recognised and properly certified supplier. It works with
gas boilers. It should work with ITAD.
The regulations are clearly
designed to influence the big boys. Businesses large enough to have policies
for everything from health and safety right through to how a request for a
local charitable donation is responded too. But look at the reality of what we
do and think how that process works in the real world.
Hypothetically we are a major
business moving our systems from Windows 7 to Windows 8. This involves
significant hardware investment, from servers right through to PC’s to laptops,
mobiles and everything else. We are spending £10m. There is a board level
champion and the IT guys are flat out preparing the procurement plan, the roll
out and the training requirements. Meanwhile, Clive is the guy tasked with
disposing of the old stuff. He has a deadline based on the roll out. He does
not have a budget.
Do you see where I am going with
this? Clive is not the boss. He is a functional guy, a doer, but he does not
have much clout. His objective is to get the space clear for the new stuff.
Maybe his boss thinks he should be able to get some money back, but the
objective is to wash its face or thereabouts because we are talking peanuts
here. With a spend of £10m on new kit, even if Clive spends £5k getting the
stuff hauled out of central London on a Sunday morning no one is really going
to care.
And Clive is generally my
customer, and 99 times out of a hundred he does a great job. But every once in
a while a Clive gets caught out by a chancer. Someone convinces him that what
his regular supplier says will cost him £5k can be done for nothing. Clive
thinks about it, looks at the website and after a meeting with his boss where
he was told that there had to be a lot of value in those four year old PC’s in
the call centre he takes the plunge.
You know what I am going to say.
My story ends with a company PC
ending up on EBay full of customer records, and the £10m procurement cost is
augmented by a £500k fine from Genghis and some rather embarrassing publicity
in the Daily Mail. The IT director is in a cartoon on page four with the head
of a donkey and Clive is looking for new opportunities on LinkedIn.
The only way to really help Clive
is to properly regulate the ITAD industry. Encourage meaningful accreditations
and licence service providers. Make the likes of the FCA demand the use of
approved and accredited service providers rather than loosely recommend.
There is no clarity anywhere. We
have big sticks and no crib sheets. It is time to change.
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