Digital workplace and EX: productivity and profitability possibilities Salah-Eddine SAADI Wed, 04/30/2025 - 21:40 Is your digital workplace up to the job? Companies now need to enable multiple workers in multiple locations with the tools to be productive, but many employers still fall short of the expected and productive employee experience (EX). However, there are ways to enhance EX and become a more effective company. Is your digital workplace up to the job? Companies now need to enable multiple workers in multiple locations with the tools to be productive, but many employers still fall short of the expected and productive employee experience (EX). However, there are ways to enhance EX and become a more effective company. It used to be that the bad employee experience was the remote one, the work-from-home EX. Employees could be stuck trying to be productive using unsuitable devices and slow connectivity while sitting at their kitchen table. Today, it is often the in-office experience that’s worse, with 67% of employees saying their digital experience outside work is better than that of the company premises. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve visited offices and seen digital workplaces underused or inadequately provisioned. That might be an expensive video room that sits there unused because employees haven’t been properly trained. Or companies have rolled out digital workplace tools and unified communication and collaboration (UC&C) solutions and then not shown employees how to use them adequately, so adoption remains low - and adoption drives outcomes and benefits. Sometimes, I’ve seen cases where employees weren’t involved in the selection of new tools, so they feel forced into using them and often react negatively. Research by Gartner found that almost two-thirds of companies still don’t have effective digital workplaces that meet employees’ needs. It predicts that by 2025, over 70% of EX initiatives still won’t deliver a tangible business impact because of a lack of alignment between business and IT over expected outcomes. This is despite increased investment, as 24% of companies say they intend to continue increasing spending on digital workplaces. It can all add up to a confused, counterproductive situation and comes at a time when employers should show employees how much they value them by enabling and empowering them. A constantly-changing landscape The rapid increase in home and remote working created by the pandemic meant employers had to quickly enable workers with remote working tools. It was a cultural shift in which some people were initially confused by the new ways of working, but they adapted, and today many no longer want to return to the in-office working format. The shift was initially a technical exercise involving secure remote access, VPNs, and fast, reliable connectivity. A consequence of that, however, was that employees became more empowered in the employee/employer relationship than they had previously been. More employees began to demand more remote work options and to expect flexible working as standard in contracts and job offers. Today, employers must offer an EX and a digital workplace that actively retains existing teams and makes them more attractive to talented prospective employees. You need to provide more than a job; you need to offer an experience that meets expectations in terms of devices, mindset, purpose, and more. After all, if you want to attract the best new employees, you must meet them on their terms – 91% of Gen Z workers say an employer’s digital tools and EX is a factor in choosing between job offers. For example, some companies enforce a “No GenAI tools” policy, which can make workers secretively use GenAI anyway, or simply discourage talented workers from wanting to work for you. Who makes your EX decisions? EX is something that companies should have a greater focus on. There are defined heads responsible for other key strategic business departments, initiatives, and projects, so why not EX?  Many departments contribute to creating the employee workplace, from HR to facilities to IT to building management. So, it’s unsurprising it can lack clear vision or direction. Without a holistic approach to building a workplace experience, overseeing all the elements involved in EX, and monitoring for success and where you could improve, gaps will inevitably appear. Someone needs to own the workplace experience from end to end. This could be a digital EX manager tasked with generating the workplace experience brief and managing all the many aspects of EX to build a digital workplace that delivers. And a key responsibility should be about retaining existing employees and attracting talented new ones. According to LinkedIn the chief employee experience officer (CEEO) is one of the fastest-growing roles in the US, but it still omits the all-important D for Digital. So, for now, it would seem that companies need expert assistance in pulling all the digital, EX, and worker enablement together into an effective whole. How to make your EX more effective The digital workplace and EX will keep changing and evolving, so employers must keep changing with them. As just one example, AI and GenAI are growing in use in the workplace now and changing the experience again, bringing disruption just as companies and workers are getting used to another set of changes. One way to keep your EX and digital workplace up to speed is by using a maturity assessment to gauge your EX effectiveness at all levels. By working with a strategic digital workplace partner like Orange Business, and asking the right questions of your EX, you can evaluate where you are in relation to the market and identify gaps in your EX. A comprehensive assessment of your EX capabilities makes sense in today’s world; it’s effectively carrying out due diligence on a key strategic element of your business, and again, you do that kind of evaluation or audit of other areas, so why not EX? It's a process that begins with talking to different employees from different departments. Ask them how satisfied they are with the EX you provide, listen to their answers, analyze their feedback, and implement their recommendations. You do this with customers to improve customer experience (CX), so it makes sense to do it for EX, too. Once you have established that baseline of employee expectations, you can take a deeper dive and evaluate other areas, like strategy and culture. You might find you can make relatively quick improvements to EX simply by pulling disparate parts of your company closer together. For example, I’ve worked with companies that have IT in a different building from the rest of the operation but in the same city, and they simply don’t talk to each other. Ultimately, a strong digital workplace and EX directly impact your bottom line today. Research by Salesforce has found that by focusing on improving EX, companies can potentially increase revenue by up to 50% or more, and profits by nearly as much. Sounds like something worth investigating, doesn’t it? Recommended for you The changing paradigm of employee experience Leading the way in collaboration, EX and customer contact An enabling experience: how to secure your hybrid workers, not stifle them Automotive Manufacturing Public sector Smart Cities Blogs Vivien Boistuaud Vivien is responsible for driving and developing the transformation of the digital workspace for Orange Business European customers and alignment with key partners. He has almost two decades of experience in software development, sales, data and marketing in various fields such as medical research, information technology and telecoms. For more than 10 years serving Orange Business' international customers, he has focused on delivering innovative and customer-centric solutions. Collaboration');" href="#" data-taxo="1016"> Collaboration

Eco-design: powering the future of sustainable technology Elaine sherman Thu, 04/24/2025 - 14:43 As we face growing environmental challenges, integrating sustainability into technology is no longer optional; it has become essential. Orange is committed to reducing CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030, and eco-design is critical to achieving that target. As we face growing environmental challenges, integrating sustainability into technology is no longer optional; it has become essential. Orange is committed to reducing CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030, and eco-design is critical to achieving that target. Three key takeaways: Growing environmental challenges regulations, like ESPR and CSRD, are making sustainability a key business priority As part of our commitment to building a more responsible digital world, Orange Business is embedding an eco-design approach in our products and services. This aligns with our 2040 net-zero goal The eco-design approach Orange Business is deploying for our products and services, like Evolution Platform, and collaboration with partners, such as Cisco, are driving responsible sustainability practices   Eco-designing a product or service means considering its environmental impact from inception to end-of-life. The aim is to lower its negative impact on the environment, including carbon footprint, throughout the lifecycle, from the extraction of raw materials through to usage and retirement.     There is mounting regulatory pressure to make products more sustainable. The European Commission’s Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), introduced in 2024, has technology firmly in sight. It aims to improve circularity, energy performance, durability and recyclability. It is also designed to play a central role in developing a strong, single market for sustainable products in the EU. From a customer perspective, there are Scope 3 emissions to contend with in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). These indirect emissions occur as part of an organization’s supply chain but are not controlled by them. This includes hardware, software, infrastructure and services. As a result, Gartner notes that sustainability is simultaneously transforming IT sourcing and procurement. Environmental performance and transparency are now pivotal to both business strategy and reputation. IT leaders are expected to select, contract and manage vendors with credentials that align with their organizations’ sustainability plans. At Orange Business, we invest heavily in creating more eco-efficient products and services. We aim to reduce our own and our customers' carbon footprints by offering technology and services that promote energy efficiency, reduce waste and decarbonize business operations.     Limiting environmental impact We are actively working to realize this by adopting an eco-design methodology that continuously rethinks our impact on the planet. Our customers have come to expect products and services from Orange that minimize environmental impact. Our commitment also aligns with our goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Some of our products are being reworked to the eco-design approach to mitigate CO2 emissions. In contrast, others, such as Evolution Platform and Workplace Together Essentials, have been following the eco-designed approach from their inception. We aim to build all our new products and services around our eco-design methodology and rework our primary existing products when performing a significant refresh.     Our methodology follows four key steps: First, we establish a team for the project, working jointly with product development, and train them in the broader benefits of eco-design. Next is the product strategy stage, where we run workshops on eco-design product development. We look at concrete actions that can be taken to mitigate CO2 emissions and a roadmap for the product's lifecycle. In the third phase, we implement this roadmap, set goals and create a baseline to measure environmental impacts. The final phase sees the completion of the eco-design product or service. Later, measurements will be taken to chart the environmental gains that have been made. At first, we are focusing on the CO2 emission reduction; however the methods, based on LCA, will be able to tackle more environmental indicators like biodiversity, water consumption, raw material usage and primary energy usage. Lifecycle assessment is crucial for sustainability The core of our eco-design methodology is a lifecycle assessment (LCA), which uses internationally recognized criteria. It evaluates the environmental impact of a product or service by looking at all stages of its lifecycle, from raw material extraction to manufacturing, usage and disposal. This completes an analysis of its “cradle-to-grave” environmental footprint. To conduct an LCA, we collect data generated throughout the lifecycle of the product or service, such as emissions and energy usage. This enables us to understand and manage the environmental impacts associated with our products and services. We have established KPIs for each of the four steps. For one of our products or services to attain eco-design status, it must score 75% or above across all the phases. To avoid greenwashing, we only communicate eco-design results if the findings have been endorsed by a third party, such as AFNOR (Association Francaise de Normalisation), a French standards agency, and Bureau Veritas, a global certification service. The power of collaboration Collaborative partnerships are critical in accelerating sustainable technology development through the pooling of knowledge and resources. For example, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cisco in February 2024 to develop a joint action plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This will help both companies achieve their GHG reduction goals faster.     Together we are exploring different ways to integrate eco-design principles into the design of our products and services. Cisco will be able to provide us with lifecycle analysis data or Product Category Footprint (PCF) for its products. This will help us reach our goal to reduce the environmental impact of our products and services. For example, we have worked with Cisco on the Flexible SD-WAN One Box solution with an architecture that allows customers to use a single device instead of two dual boxes. Tests comparing the One Box and the Dual Box have shown more than 70% energy savings.     The more we work together to be more responsible, the faster we can offer more eco-friendly production chains and solutions that our customers demand. Progress should not come at the expense of the planet With the world up against enormous issues, such as climate change, resource depletion and technology waste, eco-design is a no-brainer for sustainable, energy-efficient innovation. Environmental needs must be seen as opportunities when creating new technologies to ensure they benefit the planet and business positively. Read more about Orange Business corporate social responsibility.   Recommended for you Is your IT vendor transparent on carbon emissions? Driving the circular economy with secure drive reuse Orange Business offers SMEs expert guidance on ESG data collection Blogs Vincent Cayeux Vincent Cayeux is Global Eco-Design Lead at Orange Business, with international experience in IT and telecom, specializing in Green IT, sustainable sourcing and project management. He is also a certified trainer for the Climate Fresk. Customer Experience');" href="#" data-taxo="1018"> Customer Experience News');" href="#" data-taxo="1022"> News

Mayotte in Crisis: Orange Business Satellite Keeps the Connection Alive Salah-Eddine SAADI Wed, 04/16/2025 - 10:30 Discover how Orange Business leverages Starlink technology to respond quickly to emergencies and establish resilient connectivity. Bridging Crisis Zones to the World: Starlink as the Essential Solution In the wake of natural disasters, like the recent events in Mayotte, Orange Business swiftly restores communication within hours by deploying connectivity solutions powered by LEO satellite networks and Starlink's portable antennas. This rapid response is important for coordinating relief efforts and sharing vital information. With reliable, low-latency, high-speed connectivity, authorities and humanitarian organizations can issue alerts, provide guidance, and deliver crucial updates, enhancing the safety and resilience of affected communities. Tailored solutions to connect devastated and remote areas in Mayotte In response to the devastating cyclones in Mayotte, Orange Business has deployed emergency connectivity solutions to restore communications and ensure the resumption of essential activities. Satellite connectivity for schools: Starlink kits have been installed in educational institutions, providing internet access for students and teachers. Support for critical infrastructures: Seven SafetyCase Crisis Centers were rapidly deployed to connect critical sites and ensure operational continuity. Rapid intervention: Orange Business teams activated these autonomous solutions within hours, enabling local actors to continue their missions without disruption. Effective crisis management solution: The SafetyCase Crisis Center provides reliable and immediate connectivity to emergency responders, independent of traditional networks. Starlink Satellite: Emergency Connectivity with Versatile Benefits With its low Earth orbit at just 600 km and global coverage, Orange Business Starlink satellite solutions excel in emergency scenarios by delivering connectivity within minutes and ensuring latency below 100 ms. Rapid Deployment : Quick antenna installation to restore communications. Transmission of Vital Information : Real-time alerts and safety instructions shared. Support for Emergency Services : Reliable connectivity to coordinate firemen, ambulances, and emergency teams. Maintaining Social Connections : Enabling residents to stay connected with their loved ones. Building Resilience to Tackle Future Climate Challenges Orange is driving innovation in LEO, MEO, and GEO satellite solutions to secure reliable connectivity for populations and institutions in the face of future climate challenges. These efforts also focus on developing accessible and dependable emergency solutions that can be deployed anytime. Beyond crisis scenarios, these solutions are designed to ensure : Service continuity in remote and underserved areas. Seamless connectivity for terrestrial and maritime transportation. A robust backup for traditional networks, such as copper, 4G, and 5G infrastructure As an official reseller of Starlink in France, Orange Business has deployed over 700 operational sites in just one year. This technical expertise and on-the-ground commitment make a critical difference, especially during crises where every connection is vital. Rhita Ismaili Rhita is an operational marketing manager at Orange Business. She has 5 years of experience in communications within the retail and industrial sectors, and 4 years in marketing. She currently works on high value-added connectivity offers. She's passionate about traveling, discovering new cultures, and taking Zumba classes.

Six steps you can take to contain ballooning Gen AI costs Salah-Eddine SAADI Tue, 04/08/2025 - 14:05 A Swedish proverb states that ‘He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself’. Nobody wants to believe they could fall into this trap, yet this is the mistake many organisations make as they operationalise Gen AI Proof of Concepts (PoCs) into enterprise-wide services. This blog highlights six strategies that will help optimise your spend on Gen AI projects. A Swedish proverb states that ‘He who buys what he does not need, steals from himself’. Nobody wants to believe they could fall into this trap, yet this is the mistake many organisations make as they operationalise Gen AI Proof of Concepts (PoCs) into enterprise-wide services. This blog highlights six strategies that will help optimise your spend on Gen AI projects. One of the key findings from a Global Data report commissioned recently by Orange Business was that cloud costs start to ’skyrocket’ as PoCs are scaled to production-grade services. It’s not difficult to understand why. Most Gen projects start on public clouds where computational power, scalability, and access to advanced AI models are all readily available. However, as you scale the project, the amount of processing power required to service the needs of your AI model increases. As a result, your costs can start to climb very steeply. At Orange Business, we know there are steps you can take – at every stage of your Gen AI journey – that can have a considerable impact on the project’s overall costs. This will increase value delivery for large companies and bring Gen AI services within reach of everyone else. 1.    Apply Gen AI to the right use cases. The GPUs required by Gen AI models are the most resource-intensive and, therefore, the most expensive resources in your data centre – and should be used sparingly. Not every use case requires this level of computational intensity or will deliver value through using it. Other, earlier technologies - traditional AI or business intelligence (data visualisation) – may deliver the same results at much lower costs. That’s why starting with the use case is essential. To take an example from our own experience, Orange Business trialled Microsoft Co-Pilot across its entire business and eventually decided that there wasn’t sufficient value generation to justify implementing it company-wide. Instead, we deployed it for two use cases: first, for the functions that create and manipulate content, and second, for project managers who must provide a lot of coordination and meeting summaries. These were the use cases where we could demonstrate real impact and for which there was a readily calculable ROI. 2.    On-premise versus cloud. Generally speaking, edge deployment is recommended if there is a high requirement for real-time connectivity or if the basic infrastructure is either unavailable or unable to provide high-speed connectivity. A use case with a high requirement for resilience and/or security may also suggest edge hosting – this would ensure that the service is available even if there is no or limited external connectivity and that sensitive data isn’t transferred externally. By contrast, if you have a co-pilot use case in a well-connected office environment where there is no need for instantaneous results, then hosting it on the cloud makes perfect sense. The Hyperscalers are pricing competitively for storage and compute power, and, if cloud deployment is appropriate for your use case, this may be more cost-effective than building and managing your infrastructure. 3.    Using the right model for your use case. Some Large Language Models (LLMs) are more efficient than others. Orange Business evaluated the use of two different generations of the same LLM for a particular use case. We found that the results with each were the same, but the older version of the LLM was 90% cheaper than the new one. However, there is no ‘rule of thumb’ you can apply here – despite being released after ChatGPT4, ChatGPT 4o-mini is the cheaper of the two models. (The same can be said for DeepSeek.)  Also, can you use a Small Language Model (SLM)? Some of these have been carefully optimised to have a lower impact through distillation – a process in which knowledge is transferred from a large, complex model to a smaller, more efficient model to bring down overall costs.  So, ask yourself if you need the most powerful LLM for your use case or if a different LLM or even an SLM will do the same job at a far lower cost. 4.    Document Governance. The compute power required by Gen AI varies directly with the volume of data being searched, so this is a significant cost driver. There are two ways of reducing the amount of data that is queried.  Technology-based approach: Have the Gen AI model create a subset of the data by preselecting only the most relevant documents, then set the LLM to work on this reduced data set.   Governance-based approach: Create rules that limit the number of documents included in a search: for example, if you have recently introduced a new pricing model, then any contract created under the old model should be excluded from pricing-related prompts. This not only provides more accurate information but also reduces associated costs. 5.    Prompt Libraries. If a user submits five or six prompts before alighting on one that provides the right answer, compute costs can increase substantially. You should consider pre-building prompts that are efficient and allow users to gain good results with the minimum number of attempts. 6. Optimise cloud spend with FinOps. The indirect costs of your Gen AI service – those relating to the enhanced infrastructure needed to run that service effectively – are often hard to determine and much higher than expected. FinOps can help organisations optimise their cloud spending by ensuring transparency and collaboration between technical teams, finance, and business units. An obvious example would be a new Gen AI service hosted by a Hyperscaler which becomes wildly popular. In just such a scenario, when we first enabled our employees to use ChatGPT, we put a value limit on usage volumes to control costs.   Conclusion There is no silver bullet that will suddenly ensure that your Gen AI project doesn’t break the bank. Instead, there are a series of small decisions that can add up to a significant reduction in your expenditure – and a concomitant increase in the value delivered by your Gen AI services.  To find out more about the six steps described above – and to learn the actionable insights that will help you reduce your cloud costs – download our White Paper, “A Hungry Mouth to Feed: Addressing the skyrocketing costs of Gen AI services”.    Frédéric Loras Frédéric Loras is the Head of Sales Enablement at Orange Business, where he leads an international team in defining customer value propositions and driving sales through value-based strategies. With over 12 years of management experience and a strong background in innovation and transformation, Frédéric has successfully collaborated with major industrial clients to adopt cutting-edge technologies such as 5G. He is passionate about fostering agile practices within his organization and has a proven track record in strategic project management. Outside of work, Frédéric is an avid tennis player, enjoying matches on clay courts. He is also proud to have co-founded a startup focused on personal digital asset management, showcasing his entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to innovation.

People, Process and Technology – the Three Pillars of GenAI Security Success Salah-Eddine SAADI Tue, 04/08/2025 - 13:40 Reliable figures are hard to come by but, as a rule of thumb, at least half of all IT security projects will fail to fulfil their objectives. Why? Because, all too often, organizations try to impose a technology solution upon a group of people – the end users – who have no say in how the solution will be structured and whose cooperation is simply withdrawn. Orange Business recommends that technology be considered alongside processes and people to ensure the solution ‘lands’ properly in the organisation. In this blog, we apply this three-pillared approach to a key challenge facing security leaders seeking to operationalise GenAI projects – data leakage. Reliable figures are hard to come by but, as a rule of thumb, at least half of all IT security projects will fail to fulfil their objectives. Why? Because, all too often, organizations try to impose a technology solution upon a group of people – the end users – who have no say in how the solution will be structured and whose cooperation is simply withdrawn. Orange Business recommends that technology be considered alongside processes and people to ensure the solution ‘lands’ properly in the organisation. In this blog, we apply this three-pillared approach to a key challenge facing security leaders seeking to operationalise GenAI projects – data leakage. By their nature, GenAI projects carry sensitive data over an enlarged attack surface, increasing the vulnerability of sensitive information to cybercriminals. Unless these risks can be managed and mitigated, then it’s unlikely the GenAI project will be operationalised on an enterprise-wide basis. It would be naive to suggest that security leaders have failed to spot this connection. A survey we commissioned with GlobalData found that an overwhelming proportion – 96% –of enterprises said they needed to re-evaluate their cybersecurity strategy due to GenAI. However, Gartner recently claimed that 30% of GenAI projects will be abandoned in 2025 and gave inadequate risk controls as one of the primary reasons for this . So, while people understand the nature of the problem, many are a long way from being able to solve it. My way or the highway? It is tempting to believe that good security is just a question of selecting the most appropriate solution for your needs and rolling it out across your organisation. However – particularly post-COVID – the bar for user experience has been raised substantially: if a proposed security solution adds to the complexity of users’ working days rather than reducing it, then they will either ignore it or raise complaints that render project implementation impractical. Nor is prohibition an effective alternative – if people want to use GenAI services, they will find a way to do so. And a large ‘shadow GenAI’ estate only compounds the problems that prohibation was intended to solve in the first place. At Orange Business, we always promote enablement and education over prohibition. Of course, it’s entirely reasonable to block high-risk tools and behaviours, but you should provide alternatives to them. Contextualise the use of these services by providing ‘pop-ups’ that alert users to potential risks and encourage more compliant behaviour. And, in any organisation, there are always certain individuals whose opinions carry more weight than many others – so engage with these opinion-formers early so they can serve as ambassadors for your project. This is part of a change management mindset that treats People and Process as being of equal importance to Technology in any security project. There is no ‘silver bullet’ that will ensure the success of your GenAI security implementation, but by following this three-pillar methodology, you will drastically increase your chances of doing so. To illustrate the value of this approach, we will look at one of the key security challenges created by GenAI services – and an area where best practice has yet to fully emerge: sensitive data propagation. There’s a hole in my bucket Significant risks arise when employees input confidential or sensitive information into GenAI tools, a practice that introduces several avenues for data leakage and may cause sensitive information to be released to the outside world. Here's a breakdown of key ways this can occur: Unintentional Data Exposure: Employees may unknowingly share proprietary information, such as financial forecasts, acquisition plans, or unpublished research, with AI engines. Data Retention by AI Providers: Many GenAI tools retain user inputs to improve their models, creating a potential risk of sensitive data being stored or accessed by unauthorized parties. Regulatory Non-Compliance: Sharing sensitive data with external AI tools can violate data protection regulations like GDPR, CCPA, or HIPAA, leading to legal and financial consequences. Reputational Damage: A data breach involving confidential information can harm an organization’s reputation and erode customer trust. The pillars of successful and secure GenAI adoption To successfully adopt GenAI tools while mitigating these risks, organizations must start by defining the desired business outcomes across the critical dimensions of People, Process and Technology. Embracing the three-pillar approach will ensure that the security dimensions of the GenAI services are treated holistically and give your favoured solution the best chance of success. 1.    Technology aspects  Technology forms the backbone of secure GenAI adoption and robust security measures are necessary to prevent data leakage and unauthorised access. SASE-based solutions provide a comprehensive framework to address the technological challenges of GenAI adoption. Key aspects include: Granular Access Controls: Implement Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) to ensure only authorized users can access GenAI tools. Limit access to sensitive data based on user roles and responsibilities. Conditional Access Policies: Use conditional access policies to enforce security measures based on context, such as device type, location, or user behaviour. For example, restrict access to GenAI tools from unmanaged devices. User Behavior Analytics (UBA): Monitor user activities to detect anomalies, such as excessive data uploads or unusual access patterns. UBA helps identify potential insider threats or compromised accounts. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Deploy DLP solutions to prevent sensitive data from being shared with GenAI tools. DLP policies can block or redact confidential information before it is transmitted. Real-Time Ticket Creation & Handling: Integrate GenAI usage monitoring with IT service management (ITSM) tools to create real-time tickets for policy violations. This ensures swift incident response and resolution. 2.    People aspects for secure GenAI adoption Employees are the first line of defense and the human element is critical in ensuring secure GenAI usage. Organizations must focus on their people and ensure they are aware of risks and trained on compliance. This should include: User Awareness Training: Educate employees about the risks of sharing sensitive data with GenAI tools. Training should include real-world examples and best practices for secure usage. Compliance Knowledge: Ensure employees understand regulatory requirements and the consequences of non-compliance. This includes training on data protection laws and internal policies. 3.    Process aspects for secure GenAI adoption Well-defined processes ensure consistent and secure usage of GenAI tools. This includes real-time guidance, approval workflows, and regular policy updates. Key considerations are: Contextual User Coaching: Provide real-time guidance to users when interacting with GenAI tools. For example, display warnings if sensitive data is detected in user inputs. Data Classification Methods: Implement robust data classification systems to identify and label sensitive information. This ensures that DLP policies can effectively protect critical data. Approval Workflow for AI Tools Usage: Establish approval workflows for accessing GenAI tools. Managerial or compliance approvals should be required before employees can use these tools for specific tasks. Regular Policy Review & Update Cycles: Continuously review and update policies to address emerging risks and changes in technology. Regular audits will ensure policies remain effective and relevant. Conclusion A recent survey found that 89% of global CEOs consider AI central to maintaining profitability  –  so the GenAI train has clearly left the station. However, with so many organisations failing to successfully operationalise these services, many will find that their train fails to arrive at its destination. The challenge is that – to a degree greater than that for any previous technology – GenAI demands a truly holistic, end-to-end mindset. It’s why Orange Business’s unique capabilities – as a connectivity expert, global system integrator, data specialist, cybersecurity leader and AI pioneer – make us such an attractive partner in this area. This is also why the three-pillar approach is so relevant to those struggling to secure their GenAI services – and why we are such advocates of SASE-based solutions. SASA addresses the people, process and technology elements of GenAI security by integrating network security and connectivity into a unified framework – making it ideal for controlling sensitive data propagation in GenAI tools. Those who choose to put this theory into practice will find that they are unlikely to be among the 50% whose security projects fail – or the 30% that have their GenAI projects abandoned.  Rob peters Rob is the Global SOC Lead Architect SASE at Orange Cyberdefense, focusing on Orange’s global strategy and offerings for Managed & Co-Managed SASE/SSE services. He works closely with our ecosystem partners, industry cybersecurity experts and our global SOC operations teams to differentiate our vendor agnostic SASE offerings.