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Data Recovery in the Cloud Era: Advantages & Considerations
In today's dynamic digital landscape, disaster recovery has undergone a transformative shift, and...
Using Social Media for your Business
Social Media such as Blogs, Micro-blogs, Wikis, and Social Networks are not only helping many people communicate and connect, but are also powerful tools for business as well. They can be used to promote your products and services, engage customers in meaningful conversations, network and develop new relationships, or simply to distribute information about your business online. Recently, the media has been awash with reports about Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter , but many of you may be unclear about the concept, or unsure of its relevance to your business activities. Learn more about this new media online . Get to know how these tools can benefit your business or contact your IT Consultant for advice. Related articles by Zemanta: More notes from “Social Media Marketing” Social Media Marketing Industry Report The 4 Customer Types of Social Media The Five Myths of Social Media Using social media to network
What’s Next for Conflicker?
April fool’s day came and went, but so far the much feared attack from Conflicker never materialized, leaving security researchers to ponder what’s next for the notorious Internet worm . Although it didn’t release any detectable malicious payload, the arrival of April 1 did trigger a change in its behavior, with experts finding a finding a changed domain generation algorithm that opens up unfettered communication to 500 of the 50,000 potential newly generated domains. The latest variant, Conficker C , now has the ability to contact its command and control centers for further instructions while circumventing interference from the security community, which up until now had been able to block communication with its parent domains. At this point users are still advised to patch their operating systems or to seek the assistance of their IT service providers to make sure all variants of the worm has been removed. Read more at Channel Web .
Protecting Against the Rampant Conficker Worm
PC World posts a nice overview of the highly infectious Conflicker Worm. The Worm is dangerous as it uses several methods of attack. Once one computer in a network is infected, it often has ready access to other vulnerable computers in that network and can spread rapidly. The worm can download and install additional malware from attacker-controlled Web sites as well. Since that could mean anything from a password stealer to remote control software, a Conflicker-infected PC is essentially under the complete control of the attackers. Conficker and other worms are typically of most concern to small businesses that don’t regularly update the desktops and servers in their networks. If you’re not sure your network security is up to day get some help to find out. Read more at PC World…
18 Tips For Small Businesses That Outsource
Janet Attard of The Business Know-How Blog posts 18 tips for small businesses considering outsourcing. She offers insight on how to get the best possible results from outsourced work. Among them: Know the results you want to achieve. Understand how long it should take to complete the work. (Ask others in your industry if you’re not sure.) Set a realistic time table for achieving results. Insist on all service providers and vendors document their work Offer feedback and praise When it comes to your outsourced computer support and network management these are great tips to keep in mind. Read more at Small Biz Resources…
Microsoft quietly extends Windows XP lifecycle, again
Microsoft announced that is has granted system builders a “flexible” delivery date of Windows XP licenses to customers beyond the official phase-out deadline of January 31, 2009. PC vendors still have to purchase licenses before that date, but can now choose to take delivery of those licenses through May 30, 2009. For all small businesses it’s important to have a plan to manage computer support for end-of-life products. If you’re not sure where you stand now might be a good time to get a thorough review of your licensing. Read more at TG Daily
How Much is Conficker Really Affecting the Enterprise?
Lately, we have been hearing about how quickly the Conficker Worm is spreading. News sources have pegged the number of infections in the neighborhood of 3.5 million computers. Given that Microsoft issued a patch for the flaw targeted by the Conficker worm and the use of strong passwords can prevent much of the spread, it seems odd that enterprises (large corporations) with network management would be hurt by the worm. But sometimes enterprise security isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Regardless of your size – small or large you need to make sure you’re taking all available steps to protect your network security. If you’re not sure, get help. Read More at eWeek
7 BIG Business Secrets to Increase Your SMALL Business
Whether the economy is up or down, no matter what is happening in the world, most small business owner’s work hard anyway. It’s never been easy to start a business, nurture its growth and succeed in any line of business. It’s competitive, more so in some industries than others, but every butcher, baker, candlestick maker or software developer started the same way – small. There are an astronomical number of variables that are involved in any business success, certainly, but there are also some truisms that seem to apply always and everywhere. The primary ingredient in success, of course, is not genius, creativity, a college education or a lot of working capital. The key is persistence, pure and simple. Read more at SB Informer…
IT Emergencies: Who Ya Gonna Call?
We all want to minimize costs – both planned and unexpected – but not at the expense of keeping systems and essential equipment running smoothly. Small businesses without an IT department often wait until something breaks to call in an expert for help, or simply rely on the most techy person in the office to take care of the computers in addition to his regular duties. Read more at SB Informer…
Online Fax Service – Why Your Company Should Have One?
Online fax services are becoming extremely popular with business owners. There are several reasons why Internet or online faxing has found favor with the business sector. Mainly because it’s easy, fast, available 24/7, truly mobile and perhaps most of all, online faxing is very convenient to use. No wonder, Internet fax providers like MyFax have reported they’re getting over 15,000 new costumers signing up each month. Many companies, large and small, are switching over to this new way of faxing; while others are adding an online fax service to compliment their traditional office fax machine. Read more at SB Informer…
Brand Building is a Journey
Brand building is indeed a journey. Branding is all about how your product or service is perceived by customers and potential customers. A brand marketer attempts to manipulate brand awareness by associating traits they would like consumers to associate with the brand. Building a brand has everything to do with capturing the hearts and minds of consumers. Building a brand is much more than just promoting an image. A brand incorporates and conveys the values and traits that a company wants associated with their product or service. It sounds like building a brand is a simple task, but the marketers must do more than just create a brand image. The magnitude of branding encompasses all aspects of a product. With this in mind, we’ve put together a guide for marketers on the journey of brand building… Read more at SB Informer…
How to Be a Successful Web 2.0 Puppetmaster
One of the key characteristics of Web 2.0 is participation, collaboration and moderation through the use of web applications. Web 2.0 sites derive their power from the human connections and network effects from this characteristic that is made possible, and grow in effectiveness the more people use them. Read more at SB Informer…
When Technology Gets in the Way
For the past few months I’ve been using a variety of wireless, blue tooth headsets, with my cell phone. The latest head set I’m using does not have clear reception. Often times I can hear the person fine, but they can’t hear me so well. I love technology, and in fact, the particular blue tooth headset I’m using is made by one of the premier brands. Read more at Small Biz IT…
Virus Attack: What to Do on Zero Day
Virus Attack: What to Do on Zero Day
Lemon Juice Email: Keeping Email Messages Secure
As a kid I used to write messages with lemon juice and when the juice dried I had a secret message (or so I thought) that was viewable when held up to the light. Of course these child hood secret messages only work in the mind of a child, but not the corporate shield of real business. For your communications between your employees, your partners or your clients you need to ensure that each email message that needs to be secure, is secure. Read more at Small Biz IT…
The ROI Series – Calculating the ROI of a Technology Investment – Part 3
When an economic downturn starts to hurt, small businesses often hunker down and cut costs. But new technology solutions may be necessary for survival and growth—and they may not be as expensive as you think when you consider their return on investment (ROI). In this three-part series, we’ll review what ROI is, explain how an ROI analysis can help you save or make money, and provide guidelines for analyzing the ROI of a technology investment. Part 3: Analyzing ROI As we explained in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, today, more than ever, small businesses considering a technology investment should analyze not only the costs of that investment, but the expected ROI as well. Unfortunately, few models exist to guide you through that analysis, and with good reason: Determining ROI involves looking at many components, then applying those components to your particular situation. Doing this requires making many choices, so first, let’s look at the things one must consider—from both a cost and benefit perspective—when considering the ROI of a technology investment. Your existing technology infrastructure. There are few companies without existing technologies in place—and any new solution will need to work with these systems to be effective. There will likely be costs associated with the new technology’s impact on existing systems—but there will also be benefits. For example, a new technology might offer more efficient automation of workflow or improved information collection, storage, and access. Your b usiness processes. A new technology can clearly improve your businesses processes as described in Part 2 of this series—by reducing downtime, improving productivity, and lowering costs. But implementing the new technology will likely involve training staff in using the technology—and that can have associated costs. Your external relationships. Finally, no business is an island: Your systems may link to customer and vendor systems. As a result, any new technology may impose constraints or require changes of external organizations or individuals—in the way information is delivered or received, for example. To solve this puzzle, it can be helpful to ask three different but related questions about the technology solution’s cost , effectiveness, and efficiency . Cost: Can you afford the technology—and will it pay for itself? To answer these questions, you’ll need to know the cost of the solution itself and the monetary value of the resources used to implement it, measured in standard financial terms. You’ll then compare the dollar cost of all expenditures to the expected return (in terms of the projected savings and revenue increases). You may need to project the cost and return over a multi-month or multi-year time span in order to show a payback period. Effectiveness: How much bang for your buck will you realize? Now the analysis becomes more complex. Analyzing the effectiveness of a technology solution requires you to look at its costs in relation to how effective it is at producing the desired results—in essence, to expand your measurement of ROI beyond cost savings and revenue increases to include performance relative to your company’s goals. To do this, you’ll probably want to look at unit cost or activity cost. Efficiency: Is this the most you can get for this much investment? Finally, you’ll want to ask whether the technology will produce the greatest possible value relative to its costs. That can present difficulties, as it will require you to conduct a similar analysis on many alternatives, perhaps simulating the performance of the alternatives in some way. These three types of measurements differ in several ways. While the first is based simply on Financial metrics—i.e., cost in pure dollar terms—the other two include production output metrics, including the quality of goods or services and customer satisfaction. These production output metrics may even extend to employee morale, or in the case of some companies (such as manufacturers of “green” products or non-profits), social or political benefits. All of these measurements, however, help you answer the same basic question: whether an economic downturn is a time to reduce technology spending, or a time to examine priorities and decide which technology investments will pay off in the long-term.
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