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IT Strategy for Small Businesses: Why IT Matters
In today's world, IT isn't just a support department; it's the backbone of businesses. As cyber...
Cloud Computing 101
With more and more people and organizations accessing the Internet, and as the potential uses of the web grows, the way business is done is naturally evolving as well.
One example of this is the emergence of cloud computing services. In essence, this is the outsourcing of an organization’s IT services to a different company. Everything is managed through the Internet – through “the cloud”, hence the term.
Five Reasons to Consider Managed Services
Managed IT services are the technology solution of choice for large businesses, but many small and medium businesses remain resistant to considering this approach. Below are five reasons you may want to change your mind. Reason #1: You need to control costs. In today’s economic environment, IT budgets have been slashed—but a cut in IT spending doesn’t come with a cut in demand for IT services. As a result, you have to do the same amount of work with fewer resources. Although managed services might cost more in the short-term, they cost far less in the long term once you account for the domino effect of lost productivity and customer dissatisfaction. Reason #2: IT complexity is increasing. The breadth of information technology a company requires places small- to mid-sized businesses at a distinct disadvantage. Equipment is constantly upgraded in the market, and new IT-related specialties are emerging in a variety of areas, from telephony to networking. It’s difficult for small businesses to maintain the expertise necessary to properly manage these new technologies. Reason #3: You’re more dependent than ever on IT. At the same time, companies have become dramatically more dependent on IT in the past few years—and increased use of IT leads to increased outages and greater loss of productivity. Reason #4: Your existing solutions are inefficient. In today’s world, a one- or-two person in-house IT department or consultancy simply cannot handle the occasional IT breakdowns that are bound to occur. In many cases, employees have to wait in line to receive help. As a result, not only are your employees less productive, their morale is also decreased—and unhappy employees are less productive employees. Reason #5: You need to maintain compliance. More and more companies are finding themselves subject to regulatory compliance, from Sarbanes-Oxely to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)—and most small businesses don’t have the resources to fully understand the requirements of these regulations, let alone comply with them. Of course, the best reason to consider managed IT services may be that IT isn’t your specialty. If managing IT infrastructure has absolutely nothing to do with your core competency, why wouldn’t you outsource it to an expert? By implementing managed services, you can utilize your internal IT resources for other purposes, such as supporting your strategic business objectives.
Despite bad weather, the show must go on
The prevailing bad weather in the United States and Europe has caused varying degrees of production delays in all sorts of industries and business. In circumstances like these, communication is especially important – when all members of the organization need to stay connected to keep operations coordinated and moving forward. Bad weather or not, there has been an increased demand to maintain constant communication and continue productivity outside the office. With remote and mobile accessibility between all links in a company, efficiency can be maintained through working from remote locations. Your company’s employees – from the worker-bees out in field to supervisors, managers, and CXOs – no longer need to be limited by dependence on in-office resources. Our services provide solutions that allow people to maintain communication regardless of the weather and other productivity-stalling circumstances. We realize the importance of being able to keep in touch, especially in critical situations such as the current weather conditions. Please contact us to learn more about our communications solutions.
Monitor your employees’ computer activity
In today's business environment, you can't be too careful about what you're...
Assessing and Documenting Your IT Needs
You expect your computer to work when you turn it on. The last thing you want is to waste valuable time trying to get your email running or wrestling with a web browser that won’t load. These are frustrations you surely have experienced, and chances are you will again. But you don’t have to. Or, at the very least, you can make them as rare as your refrigerator breaking down or your car battery dying. To get there, you need to understand how well your IT environment is running. No, we’re not suggesting that you look under the hood to figure out what does what and how. Leave that to the IT people. What we’re proposing is a comprehensive endeavor to document all your IT processes and inventory your IT assets. Identify your best practices – those processes and functions that experience has proven to run efficiently and produce the most desirable results – and document them as part of your overall business practices. During the process of documenting your IT processes and functions, you’re bound to discover your IT environment isn’t as efficient as it should be – hence, your computer-borne frustrations. You’ll also identify needs that you weren’t aware of. Left unaddressed, these needs cut into productivity (and therefore profits), and can sometimes lead to costly IT network emergencies that would have been a lot less expensive with the right technology and proper maintenance in place. Let us help assess your needs through this documentation process, and identify solutions that will bring you peace of mind. Some common solutions include outsourcing some of your network functions such as security, backup and recovery, or email, so that they are maintained and updated to keep them running smoothly and prevent costly downtime. You expect your computer to work when you turn it on – and that is what we want to make sure happens.
Create and print envelopes for a mass mailing in Word
In Microsoft Word, you can use mail merge to create a batch of envelopes when you want to use envelopes to send a mass mailing to your address list. Each envelope can contain an address from your list. Learn how…
Create a photo album using PowerPoint
A PowerPoint photo album is a presentation that you can create to display your personal or business photographs. You can add effects that include attention-grabbing slide transitions , colorful backgrounds and themes (theme: A combination of theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects. A theme may be applied to a file as a single selection.), specific layouts , and more. After the pictures are in your album, you can add captions, adjust the order and layout, add frames around the pictures, and even apply a theme to further customize the look of your album. To share your photo album with others, you can send it as an attachment to an e-mail message, publish it to the Web, or print it. Learn how…
Create your own business cards in Publisher
Microsoft Office Publisher makes it easy to produce effective business cards, whether you create your own design or use one of the Publisher designs. You can use color schemes and font schemes to select the colors and fonts that reflect your company’s image. You can further customize your business cards for specific market segments or locales, and you can add names and job titles for new employees as your business grows. Learn how…
Collect data in Access by using e-mail messages
Microsoft Office Access 2007 makes it easy to gather data from people who are located anywhere on the globe, such as members of your sales team, survey participants, or contacts. Office Access 2007 works with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to help you to generate and send an e-mail message that includes a data entry form. Learn how…
Cyber-crime through the ACH system continues to spread
If you are using an automated clearing house (ACH) system to manage your funds, then you had better be extra careful.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned ACH users – particularly small businesses – to be on the lookout for ACH system fraud, which has already scammed as much as $100 million from unsuspecting victims.
Majority of firms struggle with security as new technologies are adopted
New research from the Ponemom Institute and Lumension , shows that a majority of firms are struggling to secure data as users quickly adopt new and emerging technologies such as mobile, cloud computing, and collaborative Web 2.0 technologies. The study, which surveyed IT security and IT operations practitioners, shows that many (44 percent) feel that their IT network is less secure than a year ago or that their IT security policies are insufficient in addressing the growing threats arising from the use of new technologies. Budgets are also a limiting factor, with many feeling that IT security budgets still aren’t what they need to be to fully support business objectives and security priorities. Other findings from the report: 56% said mobile devices are not secure, representing a risk to data security 49% said data security is not a strategic initiative for their company 48% said their companies have allocated insufficient resources to achieve effective data security and regulatory compliance 47% cited a lack of strong CEO support for information security efforts as a reason for ineffective data security programs 41% said there was a lack of proactive security risk management in their organization Just as large companies worldwide struggle to keep up with security, many small businesses do so even more. If you need help understanding the security implications that new technologies bring to your organization, contact us so we can help. Related articles: Companies face IT attacks in uncertain economy: Ernst & Young (newswire.ca) Keeping America’s information safe offers a secure career (techburgh.com) Cloud Security and Privacy (oreilly.com) Computer Security Challenged By Web 2.0 ‘Endpoint’ Growth (Investor’s Business Daily via Yahoo! News) (slumpedoverkeyboarddead.com)
Entrepreneur Magazine Shares 10 Reasons for Small Businesses to Use Windows 7
Entrepreneur Magazine’s Scott Steinberg shares in his online column Top Ten reasons why Small Businesses should use Windows 7. Among them: lower system requirements than Vista, better multitasking, and enhanced security. And while he says not everything is perfect (for instance, confusing multiple versions, and separate download and installs for email and calendar programs) he says “Windows 7 provides a welcome evolutionary step forward for the platform, significantly improving security, stability and everyday convenience.”
New study reveals that 1 in 3 laptops fail over 3 years
A new study by SquareTrade , an independent US-based warranty provider, analyzed failure rates for over 30,000 new laptop computers covered by SquareTrade Laptop Warranty plans, and found that one-third of all laptops fail within 3 years. According to the study, 20.4 percent of all failures were due to hardware issues, and another 10.6 percent were from accidental damage. Among the brands surveyed, Taiwanese brand Asus and Japanese manufacturer Toshiba were shown to have the toughest laptops, with only 16 percent of units having hardware malfunctions within three years. HP, one of the top brands in the notebook business, performed the worst in SquareTrade’s study with a 25.6 percent failure rate. Lenovo, Acer, and Gateway also had failure rates above the 21 percentile. It also found that netbooks are 20% more unreliable than other laptops. Do you have problems with your laptops and notebooks at work? Need to purchase or upgrade your equipment and looking for advice? Let us know so we can help. Related articles: Notebook Reliability – Asus The Best And HP The Worst – What Do You Think? (lockergnome.com) Notebook PCs fail more often than you’d like (seattlepi.com) Laptop reliability survey: ASUS and Toshiba win, HP fails (engadget.com)
What You Should Know Before Embracing Social Networking
If you have decided to use Social Networking technologies for your business in your marketing, public relations, employee relations, or any other initiative, congratulations – it’s a good move. However, bear in mind that there are some issues you should be aware of before starting. As we pointed out in a previous post, social networks allow people to create communities on the Internet around shared relationships, interests, and activities. In business, social networks can be used as tool for marketing, public relations, sales, customer service, employee relations, and more. Many case studies show how companies are able to use social network services to generate new leads, strengthen relationships with customers and employees, and improve their business operations. Here are some guidelines for avoiding pitfalls when implementing a social networking campaign: Filter information. Actively filter personal or private or sensively information about yourself, your company, your employees and partners, and your customers from the information you or your employees post online. Make sure that none of the information you post is covered by any non-disclosure, patent applications, or contractual agreements, which could quickly get you into hot water. Provide value. Post only information relevant to your audience online. Before any post, ask yourself: Is this information interesting and useful to my audience, or does it only serve us? Your audience will quickly tune you out if you continually post marketing fluff and self-serving promotional ads. Be truthful. Be as forthright and honest as possible. Remember that these types of media are interactive and can quickly get around. You’ll find that unhappy customers and disgruntled employees are not shy in posting negative comments about you and your company for all to see – especially if they find you evasive or less than truthful. Be vigilant. Social networking sites are a target for malware, hackers, and all sorts of online fraudsters. Before joining a social networking site, make sure to read their terms of use and privacy guidelines. How secure is their setup? Are they vetted by third-party security and privacy assurance services? Will they share your information with third parties? Do mechanisms exist to allow you to control who can and cannot see what you share online? Find out and to protect yourself. Provide clear guidelines. Take a cue from IBM and provide clear guidelines on what is and what is not acceptable, and who does and does not speak in behalf of your company. Make sure your employees know the guidelines and follow them. Let them know that whatever they post online can remain there for years to come and could come back to haunt them later on. Despite the risks of using social networking services, there are risks of not using them as well. If you don’t shape your image on the Web, people will do it for you. Social networks make it quick and easy to set up a basic profile, and that’s the first step toward gaining control of your business’s reputation online.
Windows 7: Everything that Vista Was Supposed To Be
Highly respected technology writer Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal calls Windows 7, “A Windows to Help You Forget” – and with good cause. We all remember Vista and the horror it continues to be for users. Expected to be a welcome upgrade from Windows XP, Vista was instead, from the very beginning, plagued with problems and all sorts of bugs, and was only slightly made more palatable when the Service Pack 1 was released. Many opted to stick with the more ancient yet much more reliable Windows XP and wait for better things to come. And come it did. With Windows 7, Microsoft has produced the operating system that many thought Vista would be, leaving the predecessor a memory most would rather not revisit. Faster, lighter, simpler, and easier to use, reviewers have compared this recent instalment of Microsoft’s flagship operating system to a more efficient and generally accepted-to-be-better OS: Mac OS X. While Microsoft does have a stake in Apple, it doesn’t erase the fact that the two have for years been – and continue to be – the most bitter of rivals. With the release of Windows 7, the competition has become very stiff indeed. Mossberg writes, “In recent years, I, like many other reviewers, have argued that Apple’s Mac OS X operating system is much better than Windows. That’s no longer true. Now, however, it’s much more of a toss-up between the two rivals. Windows 7 beats the Mac OS in some areas, such as better previews and navigation right from the taskbar, easier organization of open windows on the desktop and touch-screen capabilities. So Apple will have to scramble now that the gift of a flawed Vista has been replaced with a reliable, elegant version of Windows.” Key features of Windows 7 include UI and visual improvements to the taskbar, desktop, file, and networking systems. The overall speed of the OS has also been improved over Vista, which required a lot of hardware to run properly. Now, Windows 7 users are treated to much lighter spec requirements to make the OS run smoothly. Compatibility, especially with third party programs, has also been enhanced, with some touch screen features available for compatible hardware. In a nutshell, Windows 7 is what Windows Vista was supposed to be in the first place. And because there’s no sense in crying over spilled milk, Microsoft has whipped up quite the replacement mix this time around. And we mean that in a good way. To read Walt Mossberg’s full review, go to: http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20091007/a-windows-to-help-you-forget/ .
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