Once upon a time, and not that long ago, the best way to ‘share’ information with anyone outside work was to sneak some papers into your bag and hope you could get past the security guards. Information was gold and was not to be shared outside the workplace.

Today, things are a little different. We work from home, pay our bills at work and do our work emails while we watch the kids play netball and cricket on the weekend. You can find out just about anything through Google and Facebook or LinkedIn.

Unfortunately, the ways that we share information at work haven’t kept up.

The state of the nation

For most of us, we now collaborate and share information beyond the organization – be it with business partners, external agencies and/or other parts of government. However, information sharing isn’t keeping pace. In fact, data from over 700 respondents in Australia and United Kingdom, plus countless anecdotal responses shows us the real situation. Here’s a quick summary:

• Email is the most common way to share. Ironically, email attachment is the most frequently used method of external sharing today (91%). However, the restrictive limits in terms of attachment size (for more than 60%) and inbox quota (for more than 70%) have started to make many of us look elsewhere for options.

• File-sharing is on the rise. In some cases, up to 45% of organisations have recently begun to use file-sharing. In fact, this has happened very quickly – predominantly during the last two years. However, the level of acceptance does vary. In fact, as much as 60-70% of public sector organisations in Australia and the UK have already restricted the use of file-sharing.

• File sharing has reached its limit. The major concerns that drive restrictions in file-sharing have been security, confidentiality and data protection. Overall, almost one in two organisations already block file-sharing.

While these new approaches to sharing have gained in popularity, it’s clear that they have more than their fair share of challenges – such as a focus on individual use, due to being consumer-oriented and lacking in administrative visibility and control.

Introducing Objective Connect

It is for reasons such as the above that Objective decided to build Objective Connect: A secure enterprise-class way to share information that’s also easy to use. This will allow you to receive information securely from external colleagues without cost. What’s more, you can trial Objective Connect Standard for 60 days and see how easy it is securely share information.

In fact, Objective invites LeadingCompany readers to register for a free account.

Why do we need a secure way to share information?

It’s clear that we need to share information – and, unfortunately, most of the time it is insecure and/or untraceable. This wouldn’t be a problem so long as the information wasn’t sensitive. But it is. Almost two-thirds of information workers have told us that they are sharing sensitive information every week. Here’s a snapshot of what they’re sharing:

• Board or Ministerial reports, and other confidential documentation
• Organisational restructure including merger, divestiture joint ventures and/or acquisition
• Critical project management data, including project schedules
• Business and legal transactions
• Requests for information, proposals, contracts and/or statutory documentation
• Sending large information sets including video, GIS, CAD and engineering
• Delivery of information to overseas contractors and suppliers (e.g., China)
• Education, research and/or training requirements

When you stop and think, it’s worth asking whether email is the appropriate way to share sensitive information today.

Before you go…

So it would seem that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Rather than walking out the door in a bag, our sensitive information is slipping past the electronic security guard while it is shared in email and in consumer-grade file-sharing.

In fact, 64% of respondents indicated that they did not believe their organisation has an adequate process for dealing with data when individuals leave. It’s just one more way that our most critical asset – information – can leak from the workplace today. However, having Objective Connect at work would mean that insecure and uncontrolled file-sharing wouldn’t add to the concerns.

That has to be worth a try.