Information asset is important for different enterprises in today¡¦s knowledge-based economy. Protection of intangible asset is one of the keys to success.

e-factory of Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) recently brought in a security system, IP-guard, to help local SME safeguard intellectual property, improve internal control and avoid leakage of information to external competitors.

¡§In this knowledge-based economy, intellectual property is a very significant corporate asset. It is especially vital because of the relocation of local manufacturing operations to the Mainland.¡¨

¡§Internet has become one of the main channels for the transfer of business information among operations in the mainland and Hong Kong. However, information can easily be leaked out to external competitors through the Internet. It can lead to big losses to corporations.¡¨

¡§IP-guard helps SME achieve remote control of business operations in the Mainland and Hong Kong through Internet on a real-time basis but at a low cost,¡¨ said Mr. Weiman Chu, Director (Innovation Process & Automation), HKPC.

According to Mr. Amen Chan Yat-man, Principal Consultant of e-factory, IP-guard helps executives to monitor up to 16 workstations in different areas. It is able to capture, collect and report computer activities in the networked environment. It saves time from manual monitoring and thus increases productivity. IP-guard also provides real-time monitoring and recording of screen snapshots of computers in the LAN of different locations through the Internet for the tracing of business activities.

¡§The setup cost of the system is about HK$20,000. Four (4) IP-guard agents, an IP-guard viewer, an IP-guard server, an IP-guard console and a remote console are included. There are currently 3 enterprises using the system and some other big companies are undertaking trials,¡¨ said Mr. Chan. He expects that more than 500 enterprises will be using the system by the end of this year.

IP-guard is designed to enhance the productivity and effective management of Intellectual Property for a wide spectrum of industry sectors.

Extracted and translated from Hong Kong Economic Times
5th March, 2002 issue