Susan Maclean

A company's major risks used to be its reputation and financial loss. Nick Galletto, partner with Deloitte Security Services,

Let's say your employees make on average $20/hour and spend a minimum of six minutes each day dealing with the junk e-mail they receive. That works out to about $2 in lost revenue per worker each day. Multiply that by the number of your employees and the number of working days a year and that multi-billion dollar figure suddenly hits home.

Each time I come back to present an IT Focus issue about security, I find more horrors to write about. For example, I detest rats. I applaud Albertans for safeguarding their borders to keep those rodents out. Now I find an equivalent action is required for our computer systems as these rodents are among the pests that can infiltrate our computer provinces.

The powerful drive to get, keep and grow their customer base is perhaps the only truly common element between financial services organizations when it comes to customer service. Certainly how they put that drive into action varies from company to company.

Since acquiring Meridien Research about 10 months ago, IDC provides strategic technology advice to both buyers and sellers of technology in the financial services space. We spoke with James Sharp, research director for Financial Insights Canada, an IDC company.

Maintaining your highest level of service to customers even during peak times can be an expensive proposition if it means purchasing resources that sit idle when the spiked demand is over. In the mutual fund industry with its massive peak season, that could mean equipment is idle 95 per cent of the time.

Scotiabank is number one among Canadian banks at providing customers with online services, according to a Gomez Canada survey released in September. The Internet performance measuring company announced that Scotiabank rose from third place in 2002 to take the top spot in this year's survey, edging out TD Canada Trust in second place.

A phone unanswered, a busy signal or a long wait for the next available agent when a customer or prospect dials your number is a shoddy way to present your company to the world. At La Capitale Assurance G