Given the uncontrollable nature of pandemic development, hybrid work modes have become a new normal. China Times Publishing Co. chose the AOD (Application on Demand) services of Zero One Technology as the tool for creating a high-security telecommuting mechanism so that the company is better prepared to deal with various emergencies, the objective being to safeguard the goodwill and trade secrets of the company while taking care of employees’ health.

As the world enters the post-pandemic era, working from home or in a hybrid mode has become the new normal. If an enterprise fails to choose a proper digital tool, there is a risk that its secret data may be stolen by hackers. Research reports by information security companies have pointed out that hacker attacks increased manyfold in the last two years, i.e., during the pandemic, or more specifically, when businesses started their telecommuting mechanisms so urgently that the importance of network security was overlooked. In view of this, China Times Publishing Co. chose the AOD services of Zero One Technology as the tool for creating a highly secure telecommuting mechanism, which allowed the company to start the work-from-home mode as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic broke out again in 2022, and to safeguard the operation and digital data of the company while taking care of employees’ health and lowering the risk of cluster infection.

“When the pandemic first broke out in May 2021,” says Yi-Hua Huang, director of the IT Office of the Management Department of China Times Publishing Co., “it was the joint efforts of all my colleagues in the IT Office that made it possible for the company to sustain the impact of the pandemic by way of telecommuting. However, as there seemed to be no end to the pandemic, we knew we had to ensure the security of the telecommuting mode so that all the employees could continue their work without worrying about security issues. This led to the IT Office and Zero One Technology collaboration, whose AOD services were more powerful and safer than the tool we had been using. And thanks to the AOD services, we were able to satisfy the requirements of different departments when the pandemic broke out again in 2022. The project has been a very successful one on the whole.”

China Times Publishing Co. is not only an OTC company with good performance, but also a literature brand with a long history, publishing such book series as Masterpiece, Blue Novel, and New Earthly World with great success. “Normal people”, “The Overstory”, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”, “Lincoln in the Bardo”, “All the Light We Cannot See”, and “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” are only some examples of the recently published titles that are highly acclaimed. As people’s reading habits change, China Times Publishing Co. aims to develop new products, explore new directions, expand the existing distribution channels, and increase participation in cultural activities so as to provide readers with better products and services. The company hopes to integrate global Chinese-language book markets and unfold a cultural business map centered on “respect for intelligence and creativity”.

The COVID-19 virus broke through Taiwan’s border for the first time in May 2021. When the Central Epidemic Command Center subsequently upgraded the alert level to level 3, many companies were forced to start their telecommuting mechanisms within the shortest time possible, and China Times Publishing Co. was no exception. The IT Office of China Times Publishing Co. urgently adopted an open-source tool so their colleagues could access the company’s data and services while working from home. The open-source tool, however, posed a serious risk to information security and became a test of the maintenance capabilities of the IT Office. The company, therefore, decided to introduce a remote digital tool featuring higher security.

“Compared with other industries”, says Yi-Hua Huang, “the publishing industry has simpler requirements for telecommuting. Our editors could work from home by copying data from company computers on a regular basis, so the emphasis of the project was nothing more than allowing my colleagues in the Finance Department and the Sales Department to access the data and application programs on company computers while working from home. In the initial assessment stage of the project, we did consider introducing a virtual desktop solution, but such solutions are not suitable for us because they require complicated maintenance and involve a lofty license fee and setup cost. Luckily, we learned from our partner Actie Technology Corporation that Zero One Technology provides a complete set of AOD services that might suit our needs. So, after further verification through a POC process, we decided to use the services to create our telecommuting mechanism, which was successfully set up in the first quarter of 2022, allowing us to resist the impact of the second outbreak of the pandemic in March 2022.”

An analysis of the sudden increase in information security breaches during the pandemic reveals that one major cause of the increase is the use of old, un-upgraded network connection tools, which are vulnerable points readily susceptible to hacker attacks. Second, if the IT department of an enterprise cannot control the working conditions of their colleagues working from home, malicious threats can be easily brought into the intranet of the enterprise when a colleague lacking awareness of information security downloads a suspicious file or opens a phishing email.

Many enterprises have considered introducing virtual desktop solutions to meet the requirements for both working from home and security, but those solutions are not suitable for all. Take China Times Publishing Co. for example. Its operation scale and simple work environment are such that the main purpose of its telecommuting solution is to enable its employees to safely access the data in company servers and user-end computers; it is estimated that only 10% of virtual desktop functions will be used. Moreover, before a virtual desktop can be introduced, a lot of additional hardware equipment must be purchased, and network bandwidth must be upgraded. The associated costs will be too high for and become a burden on, China Times Publishing Co.

“The IT Office does not have a large number of staff”, explains Yi-Hua Huang. “They were already busy maintaining our data center and user-end computers. It was impossible to charge them further with the maintenance work of a virtual desktop. The AOD services of Zero One Technology are easy to learn and set up, and the work required for system maintenance is simple. It follows that the AOD services are really suitable for us.” “In the course of the project, ” Huang continues, “Zero One Technology and Actie Technology Corporation provided excellent technical support, allowing us to rapidly complete the packaging of ERP and other application programs and the entire project within the predetermined time.”

Another reason why China Times Publishing Co. chose to introduce the AOD services of Zero One Technology is that each application program can be immediately used by clicking on the corresponding shortcut; there is no need to download or install the application program. Not only is an employee’s previous experience of operation preserved, but also packaged application programs, such as an ERP program, can be accessed using the patented application program streaming technology. Furthermore, the AOD services of Zero One Technology support secure channels so that secure connections can be established between networks and files, allowing safe access to data and services. This explains why when the pandemic broke out for the second time in March 2022. China Times Publishing Co. was able to start the work-from-home mechanism within the shortest time possible and continue with the release and distribution of new books.

“All of us in the company were using the AOD services of Zero One Technology for the first time,” says Yi-Hua Huang, “so it was only natural that, at the very beginning, some colleagues of mine complained they were not used to the interface. Having said that, the entire operation process was smooth because our previous experience of operation was preserved and the computation and storage resources in user-end computers were available for use. Generally speaking, the stability, security, and reliability of the AOD services have met our plans and project requirements. The top management is happy with the project.”

As Taiwan follows the global trend of coexisting with the COVID-19 virus, hybrid work modes will be nothing more than normal. So, as previously planned, China Times Publishing Co. will continue collecting its employees’ feedback on the use of the AOD services of Zero One Technology and keep collaborating with Zero One Technology to optimize the digital work environment.