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Origo is here to support you during this new normal. Get the latest updates in our blog

But with Origo’s SAP incoming invoice automation add-on you can cut that time down significantly for up to 80% of all incoming invoices delivering your company a substantial decrease in cost. 

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Origo has developed a time and cost-saving automation add-on into SAP that can help you automate your incoming invoices by using a powerful rule engine that assigns accounting attributes to your invoices automatically. After setting up simple rules for your vendors you should be able to automatically process up to 80% of your incoming invoices. The add-on is also able to differentiate invoices from the same vendor based on the item or items invoiced.

Can be based on multiple account dimensions like item lines

Grants an overview of all rules on one page

With our Incoming Invoices Dashboard, you have a single point of entry where you have an overview of all incoming invoices, parked invoices, possible errors, and active rules. There you can set up new rules, correct errors, filter, sort and see a picture of original invoices.

Our solution can integrate with UniMaze, offering support for paper, PDF, EDI and XML invoices. This can take the time saving to the next level. Our incoming invoice automation add-on has support for PEPPOL, the e-Procurement platform. With PEPPOL you can standardize your company’s ordering and invoicing processes to increase interoperability.

The automation add-on for SAP doesn’t only help you to process invoices automatically cutting down time and cost, the add-on also has other added benefits: 

A decrease in overall errors due to no human errors

Conformity of processing - better for reporting and overview

Less repetition of work - no monotonous repetitive tasks

Decreased overhead - less time spent on processing 

Minimal software structure - easy maintenance and simple upgrades

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Sorting through invoices can be quite time-consuming for companies. Allocating the right accounting dimensions manually for incoming invoices takes time and costs you money. 

Save time with incoming invoice automation

A customizable cloud framework sets the corner stone for a future-proof cloud environment. Origo’s cloud team has developed a cloud framework that includes several key elements and is built on best practice recommendation and well-architected principles from both Azure and AWS, providing the necessary foundation for any successful cloud journey. The framework provides flexibility, adaptability and agility that allows for and supports any cloud transformation.

In security terms, defense-in-depth is a fundamental concept for securing infrastructure resources and applications at multiple levels. Origo’s cloud framework supports this concept by incorporating defense-in-depth principles at its core. At their lowest level, stateful security groups protect individual or groups of infrastructure components, controlling inbound and outbound network traffic to and from the components, while stateless network access control lists are leveraged to further control network traffic at the subnet level. 

Best practices also entail using public and private subnets for separating infrastructure and use SSL/TLS certificates at public termination endpoints, including load-balancers, webhosts, or edge situated components for traffic distribution. Only accepting external HTTPS traffic helps to prevent common security threats like man-in-the-middle attacks. When at rest, data volumes are encoded using symmetric AES-256 keys, that can either be stored and managed securely in the cloud or owned (and managed) by the customer. Regular key rotation helps to protect encrypted data, as is always recommended, or required. 

Further up in the security hierarchy, a public cloud environment includes a basic DDoS protection that can be further enhanced by an advanced DDoS mitigation service providing 24/7 access to a response team if required. More protection for web applications can be included with web application firewalls (WAF) for common web exploits at Layer 7. A central cloud firewall manager can also be leveraged for managing rules across an entire cloud environment.

The Origo framework includes a clear workload segmentation, separating different workloads at a virtual private cloud network (VPC) and individual account levels. As an example, this can include workload or infrastructure segregation belonging to different segments, like shared-services, corporate services, production, development and staging environments. For communication between segmentations the framework includes network peering capabilities enabling encrypted traffic to flow seamlessly between different VPCs. Thus, traffic flow is kept within the cloud environmental boundaries, increasing its security posture.  

Access policies – least privilege & governance

Supporting principles of separation of duties, the framework includes a comprehensive layout of recommended user access policies with restricted access to different segmentations as well as inherently supporting Active Directory policy standards and SSO/SAML communication standards between supported identification and authorization platforms. Tagging policies are also encouraged and enforced to keep a better overview of any resources in the cloud environment and for billing purposes. According to preferences, multiple additional policies can be set, e.g. for limiting regional cloud access, allowing access to creation of certain resources, sizes and so on.  

One of the strengths of the framework is to leverage hierarchical structure using logical entities like Management Groups, Organizational Units and Resource Groups to build and support segmentation and control of different resources in the cloud. The framework hierarchy allows for top-down segmentation and division of accounts containing resources that specifically belong to them. Incorporating the concept of “Landing Zones”, both for segration purposes and The grouping of resources inside logical units helps to provide cross-account access and shared identity and access policies at account and resource level as needed. 

Modern cloud development and platform engineering is increasingly driven by writing infrastructure as code (IaC). The Origo cloud framework is entirely written as code, enabling maximum agility, flexibility and scalability. Minor changes can be done on code level and deployed instantly without impact on any other parts of the cloud infrastructure. It also provides a future proofed environment as any new application and resources can be incorporated into the framework, without needing to start from the beginning.

Furthermore, with public cloud platforms increased maturity, increasing emphasis is put on running resources at a higher level, alleviating infrastructure management, including operating systems, and patching management. This includes increasingly leveraging platform as a service (PaaS) and serverless services and writing cloud resources on a functional basis. Same goes with microservice, containers, including Kubernetes orchestration, for decoupled architecture using cloud-based messaging services and API gateways for supporting decoupled service infrastructure.

The Origo cloud team utilizes modern cloud development practices, writing most of the infrastructure code using cloud-agnostic development tools and platforms like Terraform, Helm-charts and Git. 

Using Devops practices, integrating cloud development with operational and monitoring capabilities and CI/CD pipelines for managing code lifecycle through code templates, testing, deployments, and artifacts creates a complete re-usable code cycle environment and efficient cloud management.

When organizations are considering cloud adoption, including workload migration from on-prem environments to the public cloud or deploying cloud-native applications, it is crucial to first lay the correct foundation. A well architected foundation, or framework, can determine whether any cloud adoption will be successful and provide a necessary layout and flexibility for continuous, scalable and stable cloud development and environment. 

Origo’s cloud team has developed a cloud framework that includes several key elements and is built on best practice recommendation and well-architected principles from both Azure and AWS, providing the necessary foundation for any successful cloud journey. The framework provides flexibility, adaptability and agility that allows for and supports any cloud transformation.

Origo’s Cloud Framework and Cloud Practices

Home to the headquarters of two of Iceland’s largest fishing companies, Akureyrarbær (the municipality of Akureyri) is the second largest urban area outside the capital Reykjavík. With a population of around 19,000 in the town of Akureyri, it has a dynamic higher education sector and is among the largest fishing and fish processing centers in Iceland. 

[quote] We achieved go-live with minimal disruption to our business. SAP S/4HANA now contributes to more efficient finance processes, helping us do more with less and cope with the growing demand for insightful data and more complex reporting without adding to our staff resources. [/quote]

Kristjana Hreiðarsdóttir, Chief Accountant, Akureyrarbær

Heightening Operational Performance for the Benefit of Citizens Using SAP S/4HANA®

Replace aging technology landscape with intelligent infrastructure for ERP

Preserve and optimize integrations with critical third-party systems

Align technology infrastructure with its future-ready digital strategy

Meets all the criteria and requirements outlined in its competitive tender process

Long-standing investment in SAP® solutions and the move to SAP S/4HANA® considered an essential next step in the agency’s digital strategy

SAP’s commitment to innovation and reputation as a trusted, safe, and stable technology partner for the public sector

Origo’s long-term trusted advisor status and considerable experience and expertise implementing SAP S/4HANA and other SAP solutions

Enabled key business and financial transactions and reporting, including online citizen account interactions integrated with its back-end finance system

Improved data quality, supporting timely, more informed decision-making

Decreased IT complexity, adopting a standardized SAP software environment with minimal modifications and built around best practices

Established a future-ready business landscape to support real-time business insights and reporting 

Speed and performance efficiency gains between 50% and 100%

Productivity gains made from a single digital foundation and fewer organizational structures

Managing a complex and aging technology landscape riddled with custom codes and complex interaction rules, the government agency at Akureyrarbær needed to modernize its operations. Wanting access to improved reporting and data insights while readying the agency’s technology landscape for the future, Akureyrarbær chose to transition to a high-performing ERP.

Learn how Akureyrarbær optimized business processes and gained access to financial analytics and forecasting tools, giving it rich insights that are helping it boost financial management and reporting.

How Can Switching to a New Digital Landscape Heat Up Government Reporting in the Arctic Circle?

The Covid-19 pandemic signficantly accelerated digital development in healthcare. Many of the challenges that arose, such as the organization of screening, the tracking of infections and the management of infected individuals, had to be solved with information technology. The Icelandic health system's solutions to these challenges attracted a great deal of attention outside the country, but the success is largely due to the great development of digital infrastructure.

Origo's Healthcare Solutions have been at the forefront of development of diverse digital solutions for the healthcare system for the past 30 years. The Saga medical record system was introduced in 1993 and revolutionized the registration of medical record information in Iceland. The development of Heilsuvera as a central health portal was another important pillar, as it greatly simplifies communication with health professionals and gives individuals increased access to their health information. For example, the number of prescription renewal requests through Heilsuvera increased by 94% between years, and it can be estimated that this has saved health professionals a huge amount of time that previously went into responding to prescription renewal requests.

The importance of remote healthcare will increase significantly in the coming years, as the need for health services due to an increasing proportion of the elderly is continually rising, but the number of specialized health professionals will not increase proportionally. Several steps have been taken in this direction, e.g. patient management through Heilsuvera. This enables monitoring the condition of individuals with regular questionnaires and educational materials. Increased use of solutions such as Heilsuvera brings the individual closer to their treatment and can help them make informed decisions on matters concerning their own health. Due to the small population size, Iceland is in a unique position to be at the forefront in terms of collaboration between individuals and the system through digital healthcare solutions.

Professionals with experience and knowledge

 More than 60 specialists work within Origo Healthcare Solutions. They have diverse backgrounds, but all share a common goal - to create software solutions that improve the services of the health system - for health professionals, but also for the general public.

 Héðinn Jónsson is the product manager of Origo's Healthcare Solutions; he is a trained physiotherapist and health economist and has worked within different units of the welfare system in recent years. He takes a problem-solving approach to the challenges that can be found in the health system and looks for ways to solve them through information technology.

"It has always been my passion that my job is about improving the quality of life of others. By working in information technology in the field of healthcare solutions, I see the possibilities of influencing the lives of so many individuals" Héðinn says.

According to Héðinn, the future for healthcare solutions is bright and exciting and he hopes that the biggest change in the coming years will be for individuals to have greater overview over their health issues, thus enabling them to become more involved in their treatment. "Our systems should be a support to the individual and that is how we transfer the power to them. The healthcare system then supports individuals with their decisions and treatment". 

Upcoming projects: Increased overview with digital interface

 Professionals at Origo Healthcare Solutions are constantly developing and innovating our solutions. A large part of our work is based on the Saga medical record database, where we see great opportunities for further development, such as introducing a web interface.

 This change gives us the opportunity to take bigger steps in our projects related to innovation and development. These steps are taken with emphases on the following points

Individuals having overview of their issues in Heilsuvera

Professionals having overview of individuals under their responsibility

We are proud to be a leader in the development of healthcare solutions in Iceland and grateful for our continued successful collaboration with the healthcare system.

 Would you like to learn more about the development of healthcare solutions?

 You can sign up for our mailing list below in order to receive updates about Origo's Healthcare Solutions.

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Innovation and Product Development in Origo's Healthcare Solutions

Iceland is among the world’s leading nations in the roll-out of its Covid-19 vaccination program, thanks to a system developed by Origo to track and control the flow of individuals through the vaccination process.

The system enables a level of efficiency and transparency that is crucial in keeping the country on track to achieve its target of vaccinating the majority of the population by the end of July.

Iceland is using four vaccines: Pfizer BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen. Origo’s system keeps track of every individual who needs to be vaccinated and calls them in according to the vaccine they have been allocated. The system also enables registration of people in the defined priority groups.

Registration is simple. Each person receives a text message containing a bar code. When they go to be vaccinated, the bar code is scanned and all the information about the vaccination is automatically entered into all the relevant healthcare databases: the Chief Epidemiologist's vaccination database, the individual’s medical record and the Icelandic citizen health portal, Heilsuvera. A vaccination certificate can then be accessed via the portal.

The Origo system has been extremely effective in ensuring a steady, efficient flow of patients through Iceland’s vaccination sites. This has helped to maximise the speed of the roll-out pro-gramme, avoiding slack periods or blockages, which would slow the process down.

Iceland is very advanced in terms of digital development and automation of its healthcare system. It was the first country to issue electronic vaccination certificates. A high degree of interconnectivity has created a digital healthcare system that is extremely secure and transparent. 

For the past 30 years, Origo’s Healthcare Solutions have been at the forefront of Iceland’s electronic healthcare infrastructure. It is the development of this infrastructure that has made it possible to develop a vaccination management system so rapidly in response to the urgent need to keep Ice-landers safe.

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Iceland is among the world’s leading nations in the roll-out of its Covid-19 vaccination programme, thanks to a system developed by Origo to track and control the flow of individuals through the vaccination process.

How Origo has optimised Iceland's vaccination program

Origo has developed a system that keeps track of vaccination against Covid-19 and also controls the flow of individuals on the vaccination site.

How Origo has optimised Iceland's vaccinations

 Origo has purchased a 100% share in Syndis’ internet security solutions. With the purchase Origo and Syndis will join forces under Syndis’ brand name. The goal of the purchase is in part to build a strong unit that offers complete digital security services and assistance and develops protections from cyberattacks, identity theft and data theft.

 The merger will create a powerful company with a wide array of services and products in the field of information security. Close to 20 security specialists will have positions in the company as 9 employees will transfer from Origo to Syndis. Our expertise and experience from both companies will give our clients the opportunity to increase their security awareness and be prepared to protect themselves from any kinds of cyberattacks that are constantly changing and developing.  

Digital development has become leading in the operation of companies and calls for a new approach to protecting products and data. The need for monitoring the operations and implementing preventative solutions has increased. We see a great opportunity to expand as our digital transformation and development gains ground, and we are certain that Origo’s specialized knowledge and experience will increase Syndis’ ability to specialize in all-encompassing security solutions. Our goal is to create one strong unit that specializes in security services, advice and solutions and we believe the group, that will operate under Syndis’ brand name, is exceptionally well prepared to take on the task.

Origo has for years built up a strong team of specialists in security solutions and services with a strong base of suppliers such as Cloudfare, CSIS, Microsoft, Infopulse and IBM. The group that will join Syndis will greatly improve and expand our supply of solution and knowledge. We will be able to offer around the clock monitoring of operational systems, increased internet safety and advice services for cloud solutions, perform external and internal security assessments, code review and education for employees as well as special training courses for programmers. Syndis will also aim to increase new developments and innovation in monitoring methods for our clients, risk analysis on greater web environment and advice and assist companies that need to meet security requirements to become or stay compliant to f.ex. PCI DSS.

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Syndis and Origo’s Security Solutions Unite

Origo has purchased a 100% share in Syndis’ internet security solutions. With the purchase Origo and Syndis will join forces under Syndis’ brand name. The goal of the purchase is in part to build a strong unit that offers complete digital security services and assistance and develops protections from cyberattacks, identity theft and data theft.

Syndis and Origo’s Security Solutions Unite 

More and more businesses are moving their IT infrastructure into the cloud, as the benefits of this third party, service-based model over outright ownership become increasingly apparent. The one question mark over cloud hosting is security. With cybercrime increasing and becoming more sophisticated year on year, isn’t cloud hosting akin to laying out your assets in public for hackers to plunder at will? 

This article explains why managed hosting offsite is actually more secure than keeping it in-house. 

Cloud hosting offers significant benefits in terms of cost, convenience and reliability. As a service-based model, it saves the capital outlay of buying the servers and software you need, as well as the cost of creating a suitable environment for keeping those assets cool and dry, the cost of maintenance and repair, and the cost of replacement as they become obsolete. 

This makes cloud hosting particularly beneficial to start-ups, who don’t have to worry about large capital outlays up front, nor the cost of scaling as the business grows. 

Hosted IT doesn’t just save these costs but delivers a better standard of service across the board. Servers are housed in purpose-built data centres, software is updated and backed up without fail and upgraded to the latest iteration as soon as it becomes available. There is no wasted capacity, nor lack of capacity. 

Hosting your IT in the cloud means it is available from anywhere, so employees can work remotely, share and access files in their own time on their own devices and not have the worry of losing everything if their computer crashes, gets lost or stolen. 

The reliability of your IT increases too. The systems you use are monitored every second of every day, so issues are fixed before they become a problem, thus saving damaging and costly down time. 

When considering IT security, the first threat that springs to mind these days is cybercrime. But that’s not the only threat to physical IT systems kept in-house. With physical assets on-site, fire, flood and theft pose a threat. Hosting your IT off-site ensures that whatever disasters may befall your physical environment, your systems will remain working and available. 

But the security threat concerning most businesses today comes from criminal hacks, such as phishing, malware and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks. 

Employees are your achilles heel. Carelessness with devices is, unfortunately, a very human trait and one that can open the door to all sorts of cyber attacks. With secure hosting in the cloud, however, the threat is mitigated because each device becomes merely a key to the vault, rather than the vault itself. Provided you protect those keys with secure passwords and two-factor authorisation (where a digital code is sent to a registered device as an additional layer of security at login), a laptop left on the train cannot be used to access your data. 

Malware and virus attacks are mitigated by keeping your software up to date. This is a given with managed hosting but not so much among businesses that manage their own hosting. Further protection is afforded by robust firewalls, network partitioning and the latest antivirus software. 

DDoS attacks are the biggest concern for businesses that rely on their website for delivering services to customers; for example, banks and e-commerce business. Criminals seek to bring the website down by bombarding it with traffic, denying the service to customers and costing the business huge sums of money. They then demand a ransom to call off the attack. 

Few businesses have the resources to defend themselves individually against DDoS attacks – it takes a vast network of linked web servers – but through managed hosting with Origo you can access the most effective DDoS protection system in the world, Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s network covers over 13 million internet properties in 150 countries and, at 42Tb, is 15 times bigger than the biggest DDoS attack ever recorded. 

 When it comes to securing your IT, it is a case of ‘united we stand, divided we fall’. Managed hosting gives you a much higher level of security than any individual business could achieve by bringing your systems within the protection of the crowd, while keeping your data private behind your own unique pass keys. 

Rather than worry about the security of cloud hosting, it’s those who choose to remain outside the cloud who are most at risk. 

Secure hosting: why you’re better off in the cloud 

More and more businesses are moving their IT infrastructure into the cloud, as the benefits of this third party, service-based model over outright ownership become increasingly apparent. The one question mark over cloud hosting is security.

Origo specialists are assisting the World Health Organization (WHO) in developing a digital vaccination certificate. Iceland is the first country to issue a digital vaccination certificate and the solution, developed by Origo, has attracted worldwide attention.

The vaccination project is twofold and involves vaccinations followed by the issuance of vaccination certificates. "We have been working hard over the past few weeks on the solution that manages vaccinations. Development went smoothly and we are confident that we can respond swiftly to any changes that might come," says Björk Grétarsdóttir, Project Manager at Origo.

Iceland was the first country to issue vaccination certificates and several hundred Icelanders have already received them.

"The vaccination certificates are part of a European cooperative effort. People can apply for a certificate as soon as they have completed the second vaccination. Certificates can be applied for through the Icelandic Citizen Health Portal (Heilsuvera) using electronic ID. Heilsuvera has proven to be very useful in the effort to contain COVID-19," says Arnaldur Skúli Baldursson, Project Manager for Heilsuvera at Origo.

Iceland's success in the fight against COVID-19 has attracted a great deal of attention from other countries. Representatives from the Icelandic health authorities have described the solutions used by Iceland in combating the virus at international conferences and events. Iceland is considered to be at the forefront of the development of software solutions and, as proof of this, Origo specialists are now assisting WHO with the further development of vaccination certificates.

Origo assisting WHO in developing a vaccination certificate

Origo is assisting WHO in developing a digital vaccination certificate

Health care workers are one of the pillars of society. Their work touch all our lives in various ways. Health care workers operate under great amounts of pressure every day and face high performance standards. We demand high quality and precision as well as that people work fast and with great care. 

The demands are high, and one could say they are almost impossible to live up to, yet we see health care workers face the challenge every day. So it is no surprise that they are now, in the pandemic, often compared to superheroes. 

The Implementation of Smásaga Pushed Forward in the Pandemic

With increased knowledge of technology many digital solutions have been implemented to help health care workers meet those standards. When COVID-19 hit Iceland our need for digital solutions in health care and quick implementation and development increased. 

In-home nursing staff was a part of this group. They are a part of our health care workers whose patients are among the most vulnerable individuals in our society. It was important to keep the operation ongoing but limit contact between employees. Before COVID-19 hit, all the employees would gather at a local workstation for in-home nursing early in the morning, and receive printed instructions for the day, before going to the homes they serviced. At the end of the day the information was entered into a computer and saved into patients’ medical records. This method had to be changed to limit contact due to new rules implemented because of COVID-19. In-home nursing in the capital region took the first step towards digital solutions to fit the new rules.

Origo has been in the frontline of developing health care solutions and developed the Smásaga app for health care workers. That development was in the final stages when COVID-19 hit. The in-home nursing in the capital region asked us to implement the app quicker than originally scheduled so patients’ safety could be guaranteed.

You Can Safely Send Images to Medical Records

By using Smásaga, in-home nursing workers can document information about clients in real time through a smart phone, and transferred the information straight into Saga, the individual’s medical records.  Therefore, the in-home nursing staff could avoid gathering at a joint workstation in the mornings and go straight to assist their clients. This was essential due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Smásaga proved very useful from the beginning. The former workflow included printing out sensitive information about patients’ medical records and keeping that information in paper form. Measurements and other information from visitations were then added to the paper files and not added to the digital medical records until the end of the workday. This method increased the risk of wrongly filing information. By using Smásaga it is easier to change the in-home nursing plan. If any changes happen they are immediately added to the medical record through Smásaga.

Optimization and Increased Quality of Care

Smásaga has greatly increased quality and safety. Smásaga has, in addition, optimized the in-home nursing system. Since computers and other electronics are no longer needed for record keeping, costs of care can be lowered. It also lessens peoples driving time, which has a positive impact on the environment. 

Continuing development of health care services is very important. The benefits of rethinking how we service patients and workflow can increase the quality and safety immensely. 

Smásaga is being developed for use for other health care workers, for example workers in in-house patient care and for the measuring and documenting of medicine distribution. 

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Health care workers are one of the pillars of society. Their work touch all our lives in various ways. Health care workers operate under great amounts of pressure every day and face high performance standards. We demand high quality and precision as well as that people work fast and with great care.

Smásaga – App for In-Home Nursing

Ransomware attacks – why they’re on the rise and how Origo can protect you

 The first six months of 2020 saw a 151% increase in DDoS attacks – distributed denial of service cyber attacks that cripple an organisation’s IT systems. The reason for this startling rise is quite simple: COVID-19. As organisations and their staff adapted to working from home, internet traffic soared by more than 50%. And where internet traffic grows, cybercrime grows too.

DDoS attacks involve huge volumes of traffic being directed to the victim’s website, bringing it down and causing costly business interruption. The perpetrators then demand a ransom to stop the attack. Hackers generate these massive volumes of traffic by networking servers that they have infiltrated; for example, through spam emails. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has also given hackers a broad new choice of entry points, often poorly secured.

The question businesses are asking is this: with internet traffic and the IoT set to continue growing for the foreseeable future, and hackers becoming increasingly sophisticated and determined, what can they do to protect themselves against this burgeoning threat?

DDoS attacks range from small attacks of 5 gigabytes per second (that’s 5Gbps of data flooding the victim’s systems) up to massive attacks in the terabyte scale. Earlier this year, an Amazon Web Service client sustained an attack of 2.3Tbps. Compare this to the first headline DDoS attack which brought six US banks to a halt in 2012. The scale of that attack was 60Gbps – the threat has escalated.

But it’s at both ends of the scale that the rise in DDoS has been most pronounced. In other words, it’s not just big businesses that are at risk. In fact, more attacks are initiated at the 5Gbps level than anywhere else.

The impact is fourfold. First you have to find the resources to recover and secure compromised data. Then you have to communicate with regulators and customers to inform them that you have been breached. You may have to pay regulatory penalties. And you will want to invest in more robust security around your newly restored systems. The cost for some organisations can run to millions. The reputational damage can be even more severe.

How to protect your business against DDoS attacks

When your business is targeted by a DDoS attack, it is hit by a tidal wave of data. In order to protect your website from becoming swamped, you need to break up that wave and deflect it away.

The solution is, in effect, a reversal of the tactic the hackers use to build up the wave in the first place: the creation of a network through which all traffic to your website is routed. When an abnormal build-up of data comes your way, the network dissipates and absorbs the impact.

The leading specialist in counteracting DDoS attacks is Cloudflare, a San Francisco based company with a 42Tb network of over 13 million internet properties in 150 countries. Every website under Cloudflare’s protection is routed through this global network, giving optimal page load times and robust resilience against DDoS attacks. To give an idea of the scale of that protection, Cloudflare’s global network is 15 times bigger than the largest DDoS attack recorded to date.

This year Origo and Cloudflare became partners, enabling us to increase the level of protection we can offer to Origo customers. For most businesses, the cost of building an infrastructure that can handle a large-scale DDoS attack is prohibitive, but with the Cloudflare model, businesses of any size can enjoy the best protection there is, by being part of the global network. Should your business come under attack, you can block it without any discernible impact on your ability to trade and serve your customers. That’s particularly important, given the increase in attacks at the smaller end of the scale. 

As well as mitigating DDoS and other attacks, Cloudflare provides protection against spam, saving medium-sized businesses thousands of hours a year in time taken up by employees having to sift through unwanted emails. With this saving of ongoing costs coupled with the protection against the potential cost of a ransomware attack, businesses of all sizes can afford to operate with the confidence that they are protected from the biggest cyber threat of all.

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The first six months of 2020 saw a 151% increase in DDoS attacks – distributed denial of service cyber attacks that cripple an organisation’s IT systems. The reason for this startling rise is quite simple: COVID-19. As organisations and their staff adapted to working from home, internet traffic soared by more than 50%. And where internet traffic grows, cybercrime grows too.

Ransomware attacks – how Origo can protect you

DDoS Ransomware Attacks – how can Origo protect you?

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Origo has worked closely with the Directorate of Health in Iceland to conduct testing both at the Icelandic border and other health care facilities. The border screening system showed its strength when it was implemented at the Health Clinics in the Greater Reykjavik area for general testing. Before the system was implemented, the Health Clinics conducted around 200-400 COVID-19 tests per day, but with the introduction of the border system, up to 4000 tests could be conducted daily, a big increase.

The next big project for the Icelandic health care system

The next big project the Icelandic health care system faces is fast approaching: the COVID-19 vaccinations. In recent weeks, Origo has been working on developing a computer system which will handle the management of all COVID-19 vaccinations in Iceland. The system is being developed in close collaboration with the Directorate of Health, the Health Clinics in Greater Reykjavik and other health institutions in Iceland. The system is based on a previous software developed for the COVID-19 testing at the Icelandic border which is currently used for almost all COVID-19 testing in Iceland.

A powerful system that manages priority groups and automatically calls people in for vaccination via SMS messages

In developing the new system many factors had to be considered which keeps track of priority groups, among other features. The system also had to be developed in such a way that it will able to send automatic messages to call people in for vaccination as soon as vaccines arrive in Iceland. 
This will be accomplished by sending a bar code to an individual's personal health care page (Heilsuvera) and an SMS message inviting them to come in for vaccination. It will also be possible to call people in to different vaccination centers based on which health clinic they are registered with. The system will also call people in for their second vaccination in a similar way through Heilsuvera. Thus, Heilsuvera will continue to serve as the central communication platform for individuals' health services.

The system will enter all vaccinations in the vaccination database of the Chief Epidemiologist so that it will be possible to keep a central record of all those who receive vaccinations.

Work has already begun, since 15 December, on registering the priority groups defined by the Chief Epidemiologist and the Minister of Health into the system. 

Origo's Healthcare Solutions division is also working with the Directorate of Health on compiling a list of all individuals who are at increased risk of COVID-19 based on diagnoses registered in the Saga medical records system.

Iceland is in a unique position due to the electronic infrastructure that has been developed for the health care system in recent years, including the Saga medical records system, Heilsuvera and the Hekla health network, which is managed and developed by Origo. 
This infrastructure will now enable us to vaccinate against COVID-19 in a targeted and organised manner.

COVID-19 pandemic IT system

Our next big project: Vaccinations against COVID-19

We’ve been familiar with the concept of drones fro some years now. Their use in the military, for everything from bomb disposal to surgical strikes, is no longer the stuff of sci-fi, their recreational use (and misuse) by consumers and criminals makes the news headlines with increasing frequency and we’re all still waiting for our first drone delivery from Amazon.

But while we wait, other businesses have already begun to integrate drones into their workforce. Here we’ve collected some of the applications already in use to show how drones can improve the way we work and trigger new ideas for you, our readers, as to how you might be able to employ them in your business.

A few years ago Easyjet started using drones to carry out aircraft inspections and now they are used for similar purposes in a range of industries. Inspecting an aircraft is not easy for a human. You have to get up to the height of the fuselage, then work your way around methodically, checking for minute signs of damage. A drone, by contrast, can access every part of the plane quickly and safely, gather high-definition imagery and be programmed to methodically cover every inch of the plane, so nothing is overlooked.

This highlights three key benefits of drones: their speed and agility, their ability to carry sensors and their tireless thoroughness.

These benefits are also being realised in industries such as construction, petrochemicals and shipping, where inspections need to be carried out at height, or underwater or using sensors to detect gas leaks or heat loss.

The ability of drones to take great aerial photographs has opened up a huge advertising opportunity for businesses of all sizes. Once upon a time, if you wanted to run an ad featuring swooping aerial footage, you had to hire a helicopter, or perhaps some CGI, all at very high cost. Consequently it was the preserve of very big brands and their spectacular cinema ads.

But a drone mounted with a high quality camera makes the capture of exciting aerial shots affordable across the board, and more and more businesses are being able to utilise this in their creative marketing output on digital channels. The only question is ‘how creative are you?’

Farming involves a lot of repetitive, methodical tasks. Ploughing fields, spraying crops, harvesting, inspecting fences, surveying buildings and livestock. Farm machinery has become increasingly programmable, to the point where humans are being taken out of the equation altogether and replaced with autonomous drone tractors that can manage the ploughing and harvesting all by themselves. 

Meanwhile, the cowboy or shepherd, who used to spend all day riding the ranch or roaming the hills, can now carry out much of the animal husbandry with a drone. The benefits are that it can cover the ground in a fraction of the time and send back images from an aerial or low level perspective, thus spotting things that might go undetected at ground level.

Delivery drones are ready to go; the only constraints are the air traffic regulations that require drones to remain in the line of sight of the pilot at all times. In countries where this stipulation doesn’t apply, delivery drones are already at work, ferrying medical supplies between hospitals and delivering goods across rivers.

But the logistical capability of drones doesn’t stop at deliveries. Drones are being used in warehouse management, fitted with scanners for automatic inventory control and helping to speed up the pick and pack process. They are used for transporting items within site too, freeing up human labour and adding a level of agility to the already established robot production line workforce.

In many respects, drones are answering the question of what humans could achieve if they had wings. But it’s not just the airborne capability of drones that provides opportunities for businesses. They can operate underwater, on the water and overland too. In some cases they have even negotiated tunnels.

Here we have covered just a handful of examples, chosen to illustrate the essential attributes of drones: speed and agility, safety, affordability, sensor carrying, weight carrying, tirelessness and thoroughness. If any of these are attributes you look for in new recruits, perhaps you should consider a drone. It could take to to whole new heights.

Drones: time to add them to your workforce?

Imagine being in charge of a commercial airline when the jet engine was invented. Would you concern yourself with how this new, superpowered contraption works? Or would you focus on all the possibilities that it offers for your airline?

Business leaders struggling with the mind-blowing concept of quantum computing would be well advised to take the same approach. Never mind how this complicated stuff works, just think what it could do for your business!

OK, it helps to have some understanding of what quantum computing is. Let’s begin with the word ‘quantum’: a word given to the world by the Romans but adopted by physicists to refer to the smallest quantity of any physical entity. So we’re dealing with very small particles here and their behaviour in the Universe, but that’s as much science as you need to know.

Traditional computing, as you know, uses binary units called bits; 1s and 0s that work in an either/or format of rapid trial and error. Quantum computing uses qubits, which can be both 1s and 0s, so they can do two calculations at once. Double the speed, right? Wrong. Qubits give an exponential gain, so 10 qubits can do 1,000 calculations, 30 qubits can do a billion and… 

You get the point. Quantum computers are phenomenally fast. However, they are also prone to getting things wrong. I know – seems strange for a computer to get things wrong but they do. Sometimes. So the application of quantum computing works best as a hybrid with traditional computing, where the speed of one is underpinned by the accuracy of the other.

So how can this ultrafast computer power improve the way your business works? In essence, any calculation that requires vast amounts of trial and error is a candidate for quantum computing. It might help to look at some of the applications that are already in development. We can illustrate this by looking at some examples of where quantum computing solutions are being developed right now.

The future development of many chemistry-based technologies relies on the ability to simulate the makeup and behaviour of molecules. This would replace the traditional trial and error experiments with much greater speed and precision, but it requires vast computing power. Quantum computers could provide the solution. Applications being developed include the engineering of proteins for medical purposes, a more energy-efficient method of making fertilisers and the development of battery cells for electric cars.

The speed and efficiency with which traffic moves is increasingly important as we move to cut emissions, save fuel and prepare the way for autonomous vehicles. Traffic management requires a powerful combination of pattern recognition and predictive analysis in order to plot optimum routes that can be altered in real-time as unpredictable traffic conditions evolve. Specific applications include plotting delivery routes for logistics and managing large crowds at events.

Traffic management is one example of AI and machine learning in action. AI is basically the ability of a computer to learn from experience. Again, it’s trial and error at a fast pace. Experience will be programmed in by a human initially and then it will start to grow autonomously from the feedback. Traditional computers have already shown remarkable capabilities to learn and ‘think’ for themselves, but quantum computers could carry out the trial and error sequences required to gain knowledge so much faster.

If you think traffic is unpredictable, the weather is even more so. And that’s because the computers currently being used to analyse patterns and build models aren’t yet powerful enough to handle all the variables involved. Quantum computing could change all that, enabling us to not only make more accurate weather forecasts but also to gain a better understanding of climate change and its influencing factors.

This is an interesting one because the constant battle between good and evil in cyberspace will tip dramatically towards the bad guys thanks to quantum computing, unless a new approach to security is found. Why? Because hackers employ trial and error methodologies to crack security codes and anything that speeds up the process gives them a better chance of getting in before their attempt is discovered. So the race is on to find a way to use quantum computing to build new security structures that present a whole new challenge to hackers and keep the good guys on top.

Quantum computing is still in its infancy. The first developed applications are not expected for another 10 years and there are still many questions to be answered as to how or if it will replace the role of traditional computing today.

Quantum computing: never mind the mechanics, what can it do?

Quantum computing is still in its infancy. The first developed applications are not expected for another 10 years and there are still many questions to be answered as to how or if it will replace the role of traditional computing today. This articles discusses some of the ways in which quantum computing can benefit businesses and in what industries especially.

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