Many businesses have come to rely on both internal and external technology networks for day-to-day operations. If there is a problem with a network, a small business can lose more than just profit—with a large enough outage the business could go under. 24/7 networking can help prevent this from happening.

How can 24/7 network monitoring help your business, you ask? Through preventative operations. The main idea of network monitoring is to act as an “Early Warning System” to let managers and owners know of potential problems before they strike.

What Does Network Monitoring Monitor? There are a number of things you can monitor with Network Monitoring. The most popular areas include application and system performance, bandwidth usage, and server status. You can also set up monitoring of additional areas, for instance: server load, ink levels in printers, time left on software license agreements, which devices are connected to the network, their data usage, and more. This is all done 24/7.

The one thing Network Monitoring does not normally monitor is unauthorized access to networks. It can be set up to look for unauthorized access, but this is normally taken care of by another system.  

How Does Network Monitoring Help Me? Network Monitoring is a preventative system, intended to warn you about potential network problems so you can proactively seek solutions before a vital network goes down. This makes it, in a round-about way, a justifiable addition to business value since, when implemented right, there will be less network crashes—which means less or no profit loss.

What Should I Monitor? In an ideal world, you would monitor each and every network. Over time, you can get there, but if you’re like most Small Business owners or managers, you have neither the time nor the budget to implement a full system. As with most projects, it’s suggested that you implement a system like this in stages. The most common areas to start with are:

• Local Area Network (LAN) Data
• Internet data usage
• server status
• alerts to existing networks

If you’re unsure of where to start, try contacting a local Network Monitoring service, or hire a consultant to establish a system. If you would like to know more about 24/7 Network Monitoring, or other ways to improve business value, please contact us.

One of the enemies of the IT department is the hacker. Hackers have always been a problem and continue to keep IT staff on their feet, and now there is a new hack out there that goes after your business’s banking information. Be aware that this hack is one of the most ingenious hacks to date and could cause widespread problems for your business.

The hack, a variation of the Man-in-the-browser (MITB) hack, is a form of Trojan horse that mainly infects a Web browser and has the ability to change a Web page, insert orders or transactions covertly. The user will not notice any change to the website. This particular hack infects user’s computers with a Shylock malware program, a new form of malware that focuses on bank accounts and financial transactions.

The user goes to a banking website, attempts to log in and is given an error message stating that security checks are being undertaken. After a few minutes a window pops up telling the user that a representative from the bank will be contacting them to go over their account details. A chat window will open up and the “representative”, who is really the hacker, will ask the user for their account information. While the user and hacker are talking, the hacker will log into the account and proceed to go to town, so to speak.

At this time, it seems like the hack is not widespread, but it is spreading, and it is one of the more sophisticated programs out there. To learn more about this or any other security threat that may have you worried, please contact us.

Just when you think things have peaked – in this case the social media boom – somebody comes up and thinks of a way to make things more interesting. Case in point: Pinterest. While it can hardly stand shoulder to shoulder with giants like Facebook or Twitter, it certainly brings something new to the fold that could prove useful to businesses.

What is Pinterest? In a nutshell, it's something like a social media scrapbook, album, and bulletin board combined. Each interest / theme has its own 'Pinboard' where you put photos, videos, or other media that interest you.

What makes Pinterest unique is its concept, which has been consistently growing in popularity, especially with female audiences. And while Facebook and Twitter are more open to overt advertising, Pinterest takes a more conservative stance. While advertising isn't exactly prohibited, the marketing should definitely be more subtle and more consistent with a personal Pinterest profile. Here are some basic tips that will help you utilize Pinterest to your advantage.

1. Understand your market. The first question you should ask yourself is if Pinterest is something worth your time investment. Since the majority of Pinterest users are female, ask yourself if your products and services appeal to them directly.

2. Invest time. As in many other social networking sites, you need to put a personal and human touch to your Pinterest profile and in the way you interact with your audience. Log in often, update regularly, and respond quickly to any kind of feedback. Let your audience know that you're there.

3. Use other social media to augment Pinterest. Since Pinterest is less known, use your other social media accounts to point people your way in Pinterest, such as Tweeting or updating your Facebook status with your most recent Pinterest profile update.

4. Talk about what you represent. As mentioned earlier, since Pinterest isn't big on overt advertising, you need to market yourself in a different way. Talk about what your brand is all about. What do you represent? What content can you provide that would inspire your audience to share on their own Pinboards? If you're a furniture company, for example, you can try giving some tips on basic interior design and picking the right furniture pieces for spaces, with pictures or videos. What's good about Pinterest is that it challenges you to be more creative, and thus, more appealing to potential clients.

If Pinterest interests you, give us a call so we can discuss how you can maximize this new social media platform for your business.

In the past few years there have been a large number of natural disasters causing untold amounts of damage, setting many companies back years if not decades. There isn’t much we can do to avoid these disasters, but we can be prepared for them. Is your company prepared?

Most companies have at least basic protection from emergencies and disasters in place. The most common forms of protection are insurance, server and computer backup, and basic preparations as required by law. While these protective measures are considered adequate for most companies, there is still a chance a disaster will strike, leaving your company in the lurch.

In the recent months and years an increasing number of occurrences, such as the earthquake in Japan and flooding in Thailand, have caused widespread disruption to businesses. To counter this, two business initiatives have risen to the forefront: Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Planning (BCP). In fact, these two terms have become common buzzwords, a quick internet search returns over 53 million hits on business continuity alone. The problem is that many professionals are unclear on what each really is. It’s important to be clear on each topic and the basic steps to take to be prepared for any disaster.

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? BCP, first seen during the Y2K scare of the late 90s, is a plan that covers the way an organization prepares for and maintains all critical business functions. BC planning is comprised of activities that ensure maintenance, stability, and recoverability of service before, during, and after a disaster. The plan is typically set up on a day-to-day basis, and covers the whole organization.

It’s important to have a BCP for your organization because if something happens and you can’t deliver to your customers, they will go to another company.

What is Disaster Recovery? Disaster Recovery is considered a part of the overall continuity plan that focuses on the technical side of the business, including components such as data backup and recovery. Think of BCP as an umbrella and DR is under the umbrella — if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan, the overall umbrella is more or less useless.

What Should be in Your DR and BCP Plans? These plans both share a number of similarities, generally following the same steps involving the same elements. Both plans should include:

1. An operational plan for a number of disasters that could happen in your geographical area. The plans should cover occurrences as small as computer hardware errors and as large as massive natural disasters.
2. A succession plan for you or your top management.
3. Training for substitute employees on important tasks.
4. Cross training of your employees on the basics of different roles so they will be able to take over if need be.
5. A communication plan focused on different crises, including ways of communicating if networks are down.
6. Off-site meeting places for staff and managers.
7. A focus on safety. Foster partnerships and communication with local and emergency response services: Fire, Police, National Guard, Search and Rescue. Ideally, all employees should at least know basic first aid. If you have employees who are volunteer members of local Emergency Response Services, ask them to be responsible for teams.
8. Daily plans to backup your Enterprise systems, along with training and testing of recovery of systems.
9. Training and testing of all employees to practice recovery activities in situations as realistic as possible.

It’s important that you conduct regular tests of your systems and processes, and make changes as needed. Be aware that your business is always changing and so should your Business Continuity and Disaster Recover Plans.

With a carefully prepared and practiced plan, your business should be ready to face a variety of disasters with minimal downtime. If you would like to know more about Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery please contact us.

“Projects” is a buzzword known by nearly all people in your business. It does not matter if you are a small one-man operation or a larger company - all companies will have projects to be completed. If a company cannot follow through on projects, it will not be around for long. Many business owners and managers see themselves as expert project managers. But are you?

How many times have you started a project only to have it spiral out of control? Mistakes, delays, and other problems can be costly - both to you and your company. Here are some common reasons projects fail, and ideas to be aware of before you start your next big project.

No plan Possibly the biggest mistake any company can make is to not have a plan. A project without a plan is like a football team without a quarterback - it just won’t work. The most common plan used by businesses is a “project plan”: a plan that outlines your final goal, your plan to get there, and what resources are needed along the way. It is a good idea to involve all project team contributors in the planning phase. This will help encourage your team to stay on track.

Unrealistic budget An equally important mistake to avoid is having an unrealistic budget. All managers know they have to set and stick with a budget. However, few managers really know how to set a proper budget, and many projects end up being over budget. The easiest things you can do are:

• Determine the knowable costs. These can include software, parts, wages, fixed costs, etc. Be sure to include costs like shipping and tools needed for the project.
• Consider different parts of the project separately. Try to think which are more likely to have problems. Budget an extra percentage of the total costs based on how risky that aspect is.
• Look at budgets from similar past projects. These will help you judge whether you are on the right track.

Poorly defined expectations Many projects suffer from members not really understanding the expected outcome of efforts made. This could cause a decrease in morale among your employees. It’s best to review and update goals regularly, and tweak the scope or timelines as progress is made. It’s also equally important to involve employees in this process.

Scope creep While some change in the focus of the project can be good, beware of scope creep - uncontrolled or big changes to the original plan of the project. This can happen when the extent of the project is not properly defined or controlled. It is important that you clearly define the scope of the project with both yourself and your employees, and try to make as few changes as possible.

Poor communication This cannot be stressed enough: communication is very important. Many projects fail due to lack of good communication and interaction between the parties involved. We recommend that you stay in constant contact with all parties to ensure understanding of the project. Encourage an open communication environment where any employee can talk about anything and suggest ideas.

With good communication, a clear focus on the project and a solid plan your next IT project is on its way to be a successful one. For more information on project planning, please contact us.

These days, many businesses rely on electronic data for all sorts of tasks and for all kinds of transactions. Which then begs the question, what happens if you lose it all – or even a part of it? Do you have a disaster recovery plan to lean on in case that happens?

The high cost of downtime Did you know that for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the average cost of downtime is about $12,500? And that's beside all the headaches you're bound to get from a steady loss of clients (as your downtime continues) as well as from the hefty fines and lawsuits that you will probably have to face.

All this is why, with most (if not all) businesses nowadays that depend on electronic data to support their day-to-day operations and transactions, an effective disaster recovery plan is a necessity.

For many, especially SMBs, outsourcing data recovery is the more efficient and cost-effective way to address disaster recovery. Of course, since we are talking about sensitive and important company data, it is also important to assess several factors that will affect your choice of vendor, such as the time it takes them to put you back online, and the regularity and frequency of backups.

Recovery in the cloud While there are still some organizations that rely on traditional disaster recovery methods, there is a growing demand for cloud-based disaster recovery, since it's less complicated to manage (especially for the organization itself) and much more affordable.

Cloud-based disaster recovery enables you to be free from a dependence on hardware, and also usually increases the frequency of backups to an offsite server, making data recovered in case of any incident very recent and much easier to work with. Cloud-based recovery has many more advantages, but the bottom line is that it allows you to be back to normal in a matter of hours, and sometimes even less than an hour – minimizing any negative impact on operations and productivity.

Don't make the mistake of being unprepared when disaster strikes – and it will, sooner or later, to a degree you can never predict. So it's best to make sure you take measures to ensure that your data will always be kept safe, secure, and recent. Contact us for a comprehensive and custom plan that will meet your specific needs.

A new scam is preying on the uninformed to steal from them valuable information over the phone. Read on to learn how you can prevent yourself and others from falling victim to these clever criminals.

Unfortunately, there are people with bad intentions who want to cheat you of time and money. Phone scammers use fear to prey on unsuspecting people to steal information that they can use, by pretending that they can help you with imagined computer problems or offering some helpful-sounding enticement. Your employees are the targets of these scams, as well as your first line of defense.

Here are some tips for preparing your front line to deal with these types of phone support scams.

Never trust unsolicited calls

It may seem like common sense, but when an employee is busy or distracted, it can be easy for a phone scammer to sound convincing and trustworthy. Scammers can be very clever and sound legitimate by claiming that they represent a software company like Microsoft or Google, and they often use publicly available phone directories, so they might know names and other business information when they call. Make sure your employees know that an unsolicited tech support call should never be trusted… ever.

Don't be fooled by claims to "help"

Scammers often offer to help solve a computer problem or sell a software license. Once they have an employee talking, they might try to:

• Trick your employee into installing malicious software that could capture sensitive data, such as online banking user names and passwords.
• Take control of your employee's computer remotely and adjust settings to leave the computer vulnerable.
• Request credit card information so they can bill you for phony services.
• Direct your employee to fraudulent websites that ask for credit card or financial information.

Employees should be on guard to verify, take names, and hang up if there is any question.

Take precautions

If you use an MSP or other outsourced IT services company, make sure that your employees know who they are and the security procedures that they follow. Monitors that IT providers offer can help to improve your security system and avoid malware issues.

Security should be a key part of your IT plan. Let's talk about how we can help you prevent the unthinkable.

In late February 2012, Twitter hit 500 million users. This milestone has cemented Twitter as a major Social Media player. With this large user base, companies should be seriously considering integrating twitter with their marketing strategies. Benefits of integration include increased followers, brand awareness, and potentially a better bottom line. Here are some tips for increasing your followers.

Search for companies and people you know While it’s easy to use the search function in Twitter, it can be time consuming to search for people one by one. Instead:

1. Log into your Twitter account
2. Press the # Discover button at the top of the page
3. Press Find Friends
4. Log into the various accounts available
5. Add people as followers

This is a great way to rapidly increase your followers, and reconnect with customers and contacts you may have lost contact with.

Combine your Twitter and Facebook feeds You can combine your Twitter and Facebook feeds easily:

1. Log into your Twitter account
2. Select Profile Settings
3. Select Profile
4. Select Post your tweets to Facebook
5. Follow the instructions provided

Within minutes, your Tweets will show up in your Facebook status, enabling you to reach two platforms simultaneously. Be warned, this could spam your followers, causing them to stop following you - so it’s best to keep your Tweets or status updates to the most important information.

Join Twitter Ads for Small Business This recently announced service will be up and running soon, allowing small business owners to advertise on Twitter through Promoted Tweets. This service will be released in the near future, enabling businesses of all sizes to advertise.

If you are not on Twitter, would like to join, or know more please contact us.

For smaller businesses with less manpower and resources at their disposal, it's a challenge to keep up with ever-evolving IT trends in order to grow and provide clients with the service they need. But with the help of Managed Service Providers, or MSPs, handling and managing your IT doesn't need to be as complicated or as costly as you might think.

The nature of business has changed. Companies, no matter how small, can market products and services worldwide over the Internet. At the same time, customers can find products and services from your competitors in just a few clicks of the mouse. A Managed Service Provider (MSP) can help you maintain the technology that will give you the edge to compete and win.

Global business requirements

To compete effectively in a global market, your business needs:

• Integrated internal and external business support systems.
• Up-to-the-minute access to sales, order processing, and production information for fast decision making.
• Flexible processes that can adapt dynamically to changes in the business climate.
• A fast, reliable, and secure IP network.

Maintaining the networking infrastructure is often the biggest challenge for a small company. It's expensive to keep up with new technologies and devote IT resources to ongoing network management.

The value of a Managed Service Provider

A qualified Managed Service Provider (MSP) can bridge the gap to give you access to leading network technologies. MSPs provide management expertise without requiring high initial capital investment or ongoing costs associated with technology upkeep. A partnership with an MSP will:

• Reduce costs, including traditional service fees, as well as hardware and IT operations costs.
• Increase support levels and network availability without additional staff.
• Keep IT costs stable and predictable.
• Provide access to the latest technology and skill sets with limited risk.

Let's talk about how you can compete better globally and take your business to the next level without big capital investment.

While any kind of business can benefit from the use of social media, there is one aspect of it that many overlook – proper use. One does not simply use social media for business – it's something that, like everything else in your operation, requires a certain degree of planning and correct implementation.

Social media is booming. Since its introduction a few years ago, social media platforms have not only changed the way people connect on the internet, it's also changed the way business is done. When applied correctly, it's a cost-effective tool that helps businesses connect with a much larger audience and client base, as well as potential clients. That is, however, IF it's used properly.

One common mistake businesses make is the failure to draw the line between personal and professional. While showing a human aspect of your business isn't bad at all, doing it too much makes you less consistent as a business entity and makes followers or audiences lose touch of what you're really about.

Another common error is the failure to handle bad feedback correctly. More often than not, one negative comment can balloon into a full blown argument that will only give people an even more negative impression about you and your business. While you should acknowledge even bad feedback, more detailed discussion should be done privately and only between the parties concerned.

Social media is not a "set it and forget it" kind of thing. You need to constantly update and monitor your social media platforms so they don't become stagnant. People will be more encouraged to follow you on Twitter or visit your Facebook page if they have something new to look forward to every once in a while. Make sure, though, that you don't post too frequently – or worse, fall into the trap of making it too promotionally-driven, which comes across as self-serving and impersonal.

If you're interested in knowing more and drawing up a comprehensive and effective social media plan for your business, please don't hesitate to contact us so we can discuss things and better respond to any issues or questions you might have.