The NFL Draft and IT Management

Written by Courtney Kaufman
As featured in the May 13th issue of The Press Enterprise

Courtney Kaufman

Courtney Kaufman

A few weeks ago, I tuned in to watch the NFL Draft. For those of you who may not know, the NFL Draft is an annual event where college football stars sweat bullets waiting to find out if they’ll be chosen to play in the Big Time next fall.

Coaches, scouts, and team analysts spend countless hours reviewing their line-up, evaluating their team’s strengths and weaknesses and determining who would be a good fit to take their team to the next level. They know how much they can afford to spend and what they can expect to get for their money.

This got me thinking about how in the business world, owners and financial executives are in a constant state of team management. They’re reviewing their organization and looking for ways to decrease spending, make their team more efficient and provide more value to their clients. But one piece that is often neglected is Information Technology, even though it is vital to the organization’s operations.

When was the last time you reevaluated your IT situation and your IT team?

Here are some ways to determine if your IT resources, whether they’re in house or outsourced, are holding you back or helping take you to the next level:

1. Compare your technology results, what you spent and what you get, to the industry standard. Companies frequently take a “that’s the way it is” approach to technology. They live with the high costs, ongoing problems and poor service because they don’t want to deal with it, they’re used to it or they don’t know it’s not normal. It’s easy to let this happen if you don’t compare with other companies of similar size and complexity. (more…)

Can’t Stand the Thought of Losing Your Smartphone’s Data?

(Then Here’s How You Back It Up)

     Seems like just yesterday phones were simple devices for making and receiving phone calls. These days, smartphones are as functional as full-fledged desktop PCs and hold valuable applications, e-mail messages, photos, videos, documents and, of course, phone numbers and contact information. If losing the data on your phone would be a true disaster, then you’ll want to back up your phone as regularly and carefully as you do your other devices.

     Major smartphone platforms can back up their data to a computer or to a cloud backup via the Internet. Here are a couple of resources you can use with popular smartphones to ensure that all of your data is properly backed up.

iPhone
     iCloud is Apple’s new service for backing up your iPhone and other media you purchase through iTunes. When you sign up, iCloud will automatically backup the mail, calendar and contacts on your iPhone, as well as any music, books, apps, videos or media on your iPad, Mac or even your PC. iCloud uses the power of cloud computing to sync your devices automatically, so you don’t have to dock your device to keep things in sync.

Android
     Start with the settings on your phone; go to “Settings > Privacy” on your phone and make sure the “Back up my settings” and “Automatic restore” options are checked. Next, go to “Settings > Accounts” and sync, open your Gmail account, and check off all options. With these settings in place, your contacts, system settings, apps, calendar, and e-mail will be restored whenever you set up a new Android phone with that same Gmail account. However, this is only a basic backup; it won’t save the photos and text messages on your phone.

     For a more complete backup, you might try MyBackup Pro ($5 plus 50 MB online storage for free and $1 to $2 per month for more online storage). The program runs automated scheduled backups, supports a wide range of Android phones and will back up app install files that do not have copyright protections programmed into them.  If your phone is rooted, you might consider Titanium Backup ($5.99 for Pro), which backs up all apps, all data associated with them and the Android Market links that show you’ve paid for them. It also saves most phone Pro versions and will integrate with Dropbox.

 

Google, Microsoft, or Apple: Which Cloud is Right for You?

Written by Courtney Kaufman
As featured in the April 15th issue of The Press Enterprise

Courtney Kaufman

Courtney Kaufman

With all the hype surrounding cloud computing, there are been a flood of cloud-based products from Microsoft, Google and Apple that have hit the market in the last two years.

They all promise to be low cost, easy to use and a convenient way to work from anywhere, but are they really all they’re cracked up to be? And if they are, how do you know which one is right for your business?

Since these services are relatively new to the mainstream business world, new features are being added on a monthly, or even weekly basis. This means that the application will change much more rapidly than a stable desktop application hosted on your machine.

Patches for the desktop version of Microsoft Office come out about once a month and generally only fix vulnerabilities. Major feature and functionality updates aren’t released until the next version, so you have a couple years to settle into the program before it changes again.

Like any new technology, there are some tasks that will not work as well on a cloud-based service as it does on a more mature desktop application hosted on your machine. If you are a power user of Microsoft Office, you will likely be frustrated when you discover Office 365 can’t perform some of the more sophisticated functions you are used to, such as creating Macros in Excel or the advanced markup in Word.

Google Apps is a good option for businesses that need simple, inexpensive cloud-based collaboration software. However, if your company has been using Microsoft Office for years, one major factor to consider is that all of your existing documents will change when switched over to Google Apps. (more…)

Determining the Real Cost of IT Purchases

Written by Courtney Kaufman
As featured in the March 18th issue of The Press Enterprise

Courtney Kaufman

Courtney Kaufman

Businesses often inquire about the ROI (return on investment) before they make technology purchases or changes.

They want to know if their investment will provide a measurable, quantifiable return on the money they spend. In some cases, IT purchases will give you just that, but not all of them. When evaluating IT investments, businesses should take into consideration its long-term performance value.

Most business owners and managers know that technology does provide a valuable return for its cost. Try communicating with your clients and vendors without email, or keeping your books with only pen and paper. The right technology definitely has value, and applied with a smart strategy, can certainly give any business a strategic advantage. Faster delivery of goods and services to clients, increased employee productivity and reduced production costs are just a few examples.

Almost every business needs a few core IT applications to operate, but completing a new IT project or doing an upgrade does have a price tag. So how do you know if it is worth the money? (more…)

Beware of Tax Season Scams

Written by Courtney Kaufman
As featured in the February 19th issue of The Press Enterprise

Courtney Kaufman

Courtney Kaufman

For most of us Jan. 1 to April 15 is just tax season, but for hackers its “prime hunting season” to steal personal and financial information from unsuspecting taxpayers and businesses.

Each year, hackers roll out new phishing scams — fake emails used to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, financial information, credit card details, etc. They fool the user into clicking links or attachments by posing as a trustworthy source.

The most common phishing scam right now is an email that appears to be from Fidelity Investments, a well-known financial institution. The email comes to the user’s inbox with the subject line “Your statement is ready for your review” and in the message, it says that your tax statement is attached and ready for review. For Fidelity Investments customers this email might appear authentic because it looks like something they might send you, but if you open the attachment, you will find that it is a .ZIP file containing a malicious executable file.

Many of these scams target users at work, so that hackers can access company data and any client information that might be stored.

Today, hackers are targeting small businesses more than ever because most of the time they have mediocre security systems that do little to keep hackers out. Many business owners think that hackers have no interest in their small operation since they don’t have as many assets as large businesses, but they are generally easier to access, making them a good target. Small businesses also don’t monitor their systems routinely or properly, so the hacker has less chance of getting caught. The risk is lower and the reward is lower, so hackers will compromise more systems to get their desired monetary gain.

So how do you protect yourself and your critical business data? The absolute minimum security devices that every business needs are a managed firewall, web filter and spa (more…)

BYOD? What’s it all about?

Heard of BYOD, or “bring your own device”, to work before? More and more companies are letting or even asking their employees to bring their phones or laptops to work. There are obvious benefits, but also dangers that may not be as obvious. Read on to find out what they are.

You may have noticed more and more of your employees or colleagues bringing their own computing devices to work—be it their mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. Or perhaps in your company or in other companies you may have seen, they have let people decide which device they prefer because they are used to it at home. You may not realize it, but this is all part of a large trend called the “consumerization” of IT, in which the influence of consumer technology is being increasingly felt in the workplace. With the wide availability of cheap but powerful mobile devices and online services, a growing number of people are being exposed to the latest technology at home first—adopting them at a rate faster than most businesses are able to manage. This flips on its head the old paradigm in which traditionally new technologies would be rolled out to businesses first, before they would find their way to consumers. (more…)

How To Finally Hit Your Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions Thanks To High-Tech

Did you set the “usual” New Year’s resolutions of losing weight, being more organized and getting out of debt, but have a feeling deep down you aren’t going to follow through? We’re here to help! Below are 5 common New Year’s resolutions and simple techie ways to keep you on track.

#1: Be More Productive
If improving your time-management skills is one of your New Year’s resolutions, this will be a BIG help: Turn off the automatic send and receive for your e-mail (I can almost hear the gasps of horror). Admit it, you’re addicted to e-mail and if you’re like most people, you’re checking it constantly. In fact, there’s a good chance it’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night. If you want to stop the constant temptation to lose focus on your work, simply turn off the automatic send and receive function, forcing you to click on the “Send And Receive” button at set times. If that’s too “cold turkey,” you could at least turn off the sound and icon popup so you’re not distracted by it while working.

#2: Save Time
After e-mail, checking social media sites can be another huge time suck. If you (and possibly your staff) are wasting a lot of time on Facebook, good content filtering software can keep you in check by preventing you from accessing these sites from your work PC. You can also allow certain people in your company access while blocking others; so if you have a web manager or marketing manager who needs to access these sites for work but find it too tempting for YOU, we can configure the system to assist you with that temptation. (more…)

Ultrabook May Be the Best of Both Worlds

Written by Courtney Kaufman
As featured in the January 23rd issue of The Press Enterprise

Courtney Kaufman

Courtney Kaufman

With more employees working on the go, the ability to be productive from anywhere is increasingly important. Currently, businesses utilize laptops and tablets for their mobile computing needs, but the number one problem for users is the need to carry both devices around because of their limitations.

Manufacturers continue to make strides that address these concerns, and recently introduced the Ultrabook — a device that merges the technology of tablets and laptops to give users the best of both worlds.

The Intel-inspired Ultrabook was center stage at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow held in Las Vegas earlier this month. Many PC manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Samsung and Acer have already jumped on board and began producing their own custom versions of this revitalized laptop late last year.

To be considered an Ultrabook, the device must weigh no more than 3.1 pounds, be no more than 0.8 inch in thickness, and have a battery life of at least five hours. Many of them will also feature touch screens and the ability to fold into a tablet. Although this is not a new concept, Ultrabooks will be much lighter and slimmer. (more…)

Combating the Challenged Economy – Survival Strategies

By Eugene Valdez

As a commercial banker, specializing in loaning money to privately owned entrepreneurial firms, I interact with hundreds of CEOs in any given year, be they prospects or customers. Some of these firms are doing very well despite the economy, some are just “treading water,” and others are doing very poorly.

As a close observer of those CEOs that are doing well, I have noticed that there are some common surviving and thriving strategies (S&T) shared amongst them. Here are a few that stand out:

Fanatical management of cash. Cash and cash flow is a scarce resource today as more and more customers are stretching out the number of days they take to pay their invoices. The S&T firms that I have seen are fanatical with management of their cash. They are constantly preparing cash budgets to forecast their cash positions. They negotiate with their vendors aggressively for extended terms and develop ways to speed up the pace in which their customers pay them. Many are utilizing technology such as Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) and Automated Clearing House (ACH) to accelerate cash flow. (more…)

Security Policy for Personal Devices: A Must

With mobile devices becoming more accessible, many are finding it more comfortable and more productive to use these devices not only for personal purposes, but also for work. This may seem to be a good thing initially, but it also means that you have less control over the way these devices access your IT system. The best thing to do is to have a good IT security policy in place to make sure that important company data is not compromised.

As technology continues to become more affordable and accessible to consumers, it’s an inevitable fact that employers will see more and more of their employees using their own personal devices such as laptops and mobile phones to access the company’s IT system.

This can be a dangerous thing. Since these devices aren’t company owned and regulated, you have limited access and control over how they are used. Employees could download all sorts of malware and viruses on their devices and pass the infection along to your IT system when they access it. (more…)