OPINION! Graduate computer scientist & IT consultant Lukas Pustina: “Companies could do a lot better with work organization & IT!”

Technical innovations and social upheavals also present companies with new challenges. Graduate computer scientist and IT-Consultant Lukas Pustina gives tips for more efficient in an interview Work organization, the optimal IT solution for companies and the security of Online-Backups.

Lukas Pustina is a graduate computer scientist and is currently working on embedded systems. He has been an IT consultant for ten years and has thus gained deep insight into the way different companies work. He writes regularly on his insights and conclusions for a contemporary work environment in his blog.

Mr Pustina, what makes companies wrong when it comes to efficient work organization?

I think the adjective "wrong" is too strict. But there are some things that companies aren't getting right yet. The Technology has developed rapidly, but so far we only use it for old ways of working. For example, for many, the eMail still only a substitute for the letter. This can also be seen in the current introduction of ePost. The Internet– However, technologies offer much more than a letter substitute. Fast Teamwork across continents can achieve a lot more.

But not only the technology has changed rapidly, but also the job requirements have grown. Even today, many work processes are very complex and can only be solved by experts. I'm not just talking about technical jobs here. In a sense, one could perhaps say that routine factory work is being replaced by case- or project-oriented knowledge work. It is also particularly important here that we hardly Tasks be able to solve alone, independently of others. We need to work with experts in teams.

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So the technical changes affect the entire work organization?

Yes, because with this change comes a necessary one loss of control on the part of the companies. In contrast to manual work, knowledge work requires a lot creativity and a free spirit. However, you cannot freely dispose of these at all times, but you are dependent on human factors: Sometimes you have good days, sometimes bad; sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening.

But this fits poorly into the usual 9-to-5 Working world. Anyone who wants top performance from their employees must therefore also give them the necessary freedom. This is certainly a major hurdle for businesses that grows with company size. We have to get used to working result-oriented. When and where an employee does their work must be up to them, as long as they do their jobs. So it's a bigger one Trust in your own employees.

Teamwork across continents sounds good: which tools do you recommend exactly?

A very important point is data synchronization. As soon as you work in more than one place, you have to collect your work results. In concrete terms, I can recommend Dropbox, JungleDisk and Crashplan for data synchronization and data backup. They are small, mature in size Solutions, who do exactly one thing - but they do it particularly well! I use Dropbox for my personal work. It's extreme light to use and works completely transparent in the background; I don't even notice it and yet my data is always up-to-date on all computers. For company-wide use, I recommend JungleDisk. It allows central management of data synchronization and all data is transmitted exclusively in encrypted form. In this way, the company remains master of its data.

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Businesses should entrust their sensitive data to the Internet? Is not that a bit daring?

First of all, data synchronization must be as simple as possible; best or interaction. As soon as you have to adjust, configure or run regularly, errors are sneaking in. It is simply human that we make mistakes in routine tasks.

Today's hard drives have capacities of up to 2 terabytes. If you connect several hard drives together, it is easy even for small companies to store 10 TB and more data. However, what is overlooked in this consideration is data backup. These amounts of data can hardly be economically useful and secure reliably. It is not enough to regularly transfer the database to other data carriers, you also have to save revisions (ie changes to files).

And where is the advantage with online backups?

I'll explain that with an example: I only make my tax return once a year. That's why I only access certain data once a year. However, if I am unlucky, a virus has corrupted these files and I notice it only a year later. So my backup needs to be able to recover that one year old file. For 2 TB over a year, this is a real challenge.

The advantage of online backup here is that it relieves me of this difficult task and it is done by experts. Of course, this is associated with a certain loss of control, but times Honestly: Who really has control over their data. As soon as more complex ITSystem are used, i.e. special system administrators or even system houses take over the maintenance, you only have felt control. IT is and remains a matter of trust.

I am not quite convinced yet: Is an online backup really a safe alternative?

Information security is especially important for companies. In principle, data should never be released unencrypted from the company. Fortunately, this concern is also known to service providers, so something JungleDisk or Crashplan - software for online backups - always encrypt before sending them. In this way, you benefit from online synchronization and data backup and you are still the only one who can really read the data.

Apart from data security, what else can make companies better to organize work efficiently?

IT is becoming more complex and error-prone every year, but our dependency is increasing. As an entrepreneur, you should calculate how many employee hours are lost if IT is only down for one day; not to mention the frustration. That's why I recommend mine customers to switch away from self-management to specialized service providers.

Do large companies need software solutions other than small ones?

Basically not, the requirements are basically the same. You can see it in some, even larger American companies, which change partly or completely on Google Apps. The crucial question is again whether one is willing to entrust its data to third parties. This can only be answered case by case and not generally. For example, this also depends on how sensitive the respective data is.

For the most part, Google offers its services and there are also free open source solutions for many applications - does it always have to be the expensive software?

Basically, open source software is just as powerful as commercial software. But no comparison of acquisition costs should be decisive. The actually relevant ones Costs are maintenance costs over time. Open-source software is not necessarily cheaper here, since in my experience the qualification of the employees responsible for IT must be higher - which then in turn costs correspondingly more. How much Money a company must spend, you can only look at the special needs of the concrete Company answer.

Finally, what does your personal approach look like?

My way of working always follows the same pattern. I always try to work as simply as possible. I get up very early in the morning and start fast with the most important or biggest task of the day. I mostly work at home or in Office . But there are days when the ceiling falls on me there Head and I need a different environment. One of my favorite workplaces is then the university library.

I work until I get hungry or my head is not concentrated anymore. Then I take a break. After lunch during the lows, I do trifles, write eMails etc. On bad days, if I do not want to succeed, I go to the afternoon instead of in the evening for sports. In this way, I use the time meaningful instead of sitting idle in the office.

In the evening I go through my notes of the day and prepare for the next day. This way I can start the next morning. In order to use the same working conditions in all places, I use Dropbox. Sensitive data or basically all customer data, encrypt using Truecrypt - open source encryption software - before the data is stored in Dropbox. I record my notes, thoughts and experiences with Evernote; a note manager that automatically and transparently exchanges all notes between my computers and my smartphone. I use Remember the Milk for my task management. It is very lightweight and easy to use.

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