Jem Eskenazi, chief information officer at Groupama Insurances, does not believe in a totally restrictive approach to personal computing because it can stifle creativity and productivity.

Working within the heavily regulated and security-conscious financial services industry, it would be understandable if Eskenazi ­ – who joined the UK insurance group last April ­ – favoured a draconian policy, stopping devices and services that are available in our private lives from infiltrating the workplace.

Although he takes security extremely seriously, he does not believe it should be his job to issue a blanket ban on any particular technology associated with personal computing.

“The technology and methods of using them are a boost to the productivity and creativity of employees and I do not believe it is IT’s job to say what is allowed and not allowed,” says Eskenazi.

“The IT department in its ivory tower can never know which of the tools employees use in their daily work make them more productive, but clearly there are confidentiality and security issues ­ – and measures must be taken to ensure there is no threat to the company infrastructure. We have a very clear security policy employees must sign up to.”

Eskenazi, who leads an IT team of 80 employees, making up 10 per cent of the company’s 800-strong workforce, is moving Groupama towards greater tolerance of personal computing.

He is leading by example and starting with his own team, who now have greater access to the web and to blogs. Prior to Eskenazi’s arrival, access to the web was only open at lunchtime.

“It is about finding a balance between using tools and the security of the network. Clearly, you take as many measures as possible at the periphery of the network to block sites showing pornography, for example. But beyond that I can never know which particular web site could help a customer,” he says.

“Ninety-nine per cent of time spent looking at YouTube at work might be a waste of time, but one per cent could result in workers finding a site that explains a programming technology that is very useful to a member of my team. Fifty years ago, using the telephone at work was considered frivolous and 20 years ago the same was true of email, so using the web should not just be dismissed as time wasting.”

By opening up web access, one of Eskenazi’s team discovered the online application Basecamp, a project management tool that allows third-party access.

“A traditional approach might be to say everything you need for project collaboration is on Lotus Notes, but we are starting to use Basecamp and are finding it very practical and cheap. It is very Web 2.0 and is geared towards using software as a service,” he says.

Eskenazi is also a fan of wikis and is installing Deki Wiki, a free open-source application for authoring, aggregating, organising and sharing content. “We are standardising and installing it to run alongside the intranet, which is the party-line communication to the company. The wiki is more dynamic and collaborative, with lots of add-ons,” he says.

“With open source, instead of depending on one hotline to a vendor to solve a problem, you have many minds collaborating. It is a more modern approach because it is flexible with open application programming interfaces and it will evolve.”

For similar reasons, Eskenazi uses the open-source browser Firefox rather than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer ­ – but he would not advocate that all employees use it. “I use Firefox because it is dynamic, with useful add-ons. But Internet Explorer is the standard browser and it would be another support issue for us if we rolled out Firefox company wide,” he says.

Notes on applications

Another open-source application that Eskenazi is keen to trial is Zimbra, an email and calendar application that could usurp business software Lotus Notes, following the results of a forthcoming trial.

“Ten to 15 years ago, Lotus Notes was considered revolutionary, but it has fallen behind. We are on version seven and have issues with user friendliness and the calendar function, so we will test version eight to see if it sorts out these problems and stick with it if it does,” he says.

“We will also pilot Zimbra, which has next-generation email and calendaring with lots of mash-ups. For example, you can hover the cursor over an email address and the location can be shown on a Google map, and putting the cursor over a date in an email opens the calendar.”

A possible sticking point for Zimbra is lack of support in the UK, says Eskenazi. And Microsoft’s Exchange application has been ruled out on cost grounds.

“We will have 20 users piloting Zimbra who will also work with Lotus Notes. A Lotus Notes upgrade would cost the same as installing Zimbra from scratch. I have looked at Exchange, but it is much more expensive,” he says.

Decision time

Cost is also one of the reasons driving Eskenazi’s decision not to upgrade to the Windows Vista operating system from XP, despite the software’s collaborative capabilities and enhanced security.

“We are not looking at Vista ­ – I cannot imagine a particular benefit for us. There are a number of devices that do not work with Vista because the drivers are not available,” he says.

“People say it is more secure ­ – but certain add-ons in XP give us improved security features already and we have collaboration covered with Lotus Notes, the Deki Wiki and Basecamp. As we are not on a Microsoft Select licensing agreement, any upgrade would be costly. We will only look at Vista when support ends for XP.”

This practical approach to technology is central to Eskenazi’s policy towards personal computing; nothing is ruled out, unless it makes no sense in terms of cost or security.

Exemplifying the approach, Eskenazi has made the decision to introduce Wi-Fi networking, which has been developed to allow documents to be read on screen.

“Printing documents before a meeting is costly and not environmentally friendly when compared to bringing your laptop to a meeting,” he says.

Security measures have been adopted to reduce any corporate risk. “Our Wi-Fi has proper security specifications installed by my network team to ensure it does not broadcast outside the building,” he says.