Managing Information Technology
Many business owners these days are asking themselves if they should move their whole business to the cloud. While there is much to like about a web-based “cloud” model – unless your business is small and simplistic, you will want to carefully consider a number of aspects before making your final decision. Here are some of those critical aspects:
Bandwidth: If you were to move your business technology entirely to the web, it is imperative that your bandwidth be reliable and of sufficient capacity. The more interruptions you have, the more your productivity will be impacted. And don’t be fooled - interruptions are not always a complete outage. On occasion you could experience network latency for a variety of reasons. Because different applications rely on different communication protocols – they have different resiliency to network latency. For example, e-mail and web apps are designed to be very resilient against network latency. Database type applications, on the other hand, often experience data corruption if network latency is experienced. If your bandwidth speed is at least 3-6mbs, and has very little latency – you may be “cloud ready”.
Data Size: If your business creates and manages large data files – such as high-resolution pictures or CAD drawings, it is unlikely that moving these files to/from the web as a day to day practice will result in acceptable performance or reliability. If your business relies on files or attachments several megabytes in size, or any type of design application/files, the cloud will generally not be a good fit for you. However, if your business only manipulates common file types (Word, Excel, Outlook e-mail, .pdf, .jpg, etc.) - you may be “cloud ready”.
Database Applications: Many business applications store their information in a database repository such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL, MySQL or some propriety database technology. It is important to know that database applications almost always require direct-attached storage, and cannot run on externally attached storage. For applications that already run on the web – you have no database concerns because your hosting provider is hosting the database right along with your web application (i.e. Salesforce, QuickBooks, etc.). If you are currently running an “on premise” business application (meaning it is running on a server located in your business) that has a database component – then the cloud is not going to work without switching to a cloud based version of your software. If you are considering switching from premise-based software to web-based, be prepared for less functionality. To accommodate lower bandwidth customers, web based application creators tend to pull all but the most common features from their software to improve performance. On the other hand, if you do not run any applications that use a database at the core of the application – you may be “cloud-ready”.
Security: Depending on your business, you may need to abide by specific security measures such as HIPAA (medical), Sarb-Ox (publically traded stock companies), or PCI (credit card transactions). Additionally, data security relies on many factors. Perhaps the single greatest factor is “who” wants what you have. Even the most security-minded and capable organizations (i.e. US Dept of Defense and Microsoft) have been breached. Most SMB’s following common security best practices, do not become the target of malicious security breaches because the resources they protect provide relatively little reward for the effort required obtain the information. Compare this to larger organizations who can offer significant reward – even when the effort is greater. For the SMB market, this equation changes when many SMB’s are consolidated into one cloud offering. Many SMB’s combined start to offer a combined reward that can be worth the effort. So, unless you obtain and store sensitive data for your organization or your customers, you may be “cloud-ready”.
Cost: If you have made it this far without ruling out the cloud, one of the last considerations will be your business size. During a few general cost comparisons, I have found the typical inflection point to be between 10-15 users. When you consider the cost of data storage, user fees, and the other monthly recurring fees, the long term cost of moving to the cloud can be more expensive than purchasing the Hardware/Software needed for your company. However, if your organization is under 10 users, and you do not have issues with the most common considerations above – then you will find the cloud can provide a significant cost advantage over purchasing, installing, and managing your own technology.
In summary, it is my opinion that there is currently a stampede toward the “cloud”. The herd mentality states that if everyone around me is running a certain direction – then I had better run that way as well – even if I don’t know exactly why. Unfortunately I have also found a few business owners that have started moving toward the cloud without considering all of the above aspects, only to find their business in a difficult position. Like anything, with a bit of proper research and planning you can avoid an operational and/or financial setback.
If you find this article helpful - I would appreciate you letting me know by clicking on the Like button below!
As President and co-founder of Crossroads Business Solutions, Rob Green is responsible for the day to day operations of this central Indiana IT Outsourcing Company. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration & Management, as well as an MBA in Finance from Butler University. Over his 25 year career, he has obtained a broad array of Sales, Accounting, and Operational experience with businesses of all sizes, from startup to Fortune 500 high-tech corporations.
Crossroads Business Solutions is a central Indiana company providing Professional IT Services including advice, design, implementation, management, and maintenance support to small and medium size businesses that typically have 1 or no IT personnel on staff. To receive additional technical updates, sign up for our quarterly newsletter here.
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Go to http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/index.html and check your laptop serial number information to see if you qualify.
Learn from experts how to develop a consistent approach to excellence.
How to coach and manage the "Millennial Generation" to new heights of success.
How to develop your own personal "brand" to differentiate yourself and your business.
Bruce Jenner, is an Olympic Decathlon Gold Medalist, author, and small business owner talks on setting and achieving goals.
Our second speaker, Coach Larry Judge, Ph.D., CSCS, is an associate professor and the coordinator of the graduate coaching program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Coach Judge is recognized as the premier throws coach in the United States, Coach Judge has coached 8 Olympians, 2 American-record holders, 3 collegiate-record holders, 3 American collegiate-record holders, and 2 world-record holders, and tutored more 100 NCAA Division I All-Americans, 11 NCAA national champions, 16 USATF champions.
This is an INVITATION ONLY EVENT. Contact Scott Cunningham @ 317-529-0418 for registration information.
Tuesday, October 19
8-10 a.m.
Hamilton IMAX 16 Theatre
13825 Norell Road
Noblesville, IN 46060
If you are in the software business, or you developed custom software to run your business you should attend this free seminar.
Patent Protection for Computer Software and
Business Methods After Bilski
Wednesday, November 3, 2010, 8:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Johnson Room, Robertson Hall - Butler University
4600 Sunset Avenue, Indianapolis, IN
There is no charge to attend this seminar.
Program Description
This presentation will provide guidance for assessing whether to seek patent protection for software or a business method and will briefly explore other methods of intellectual property protection and open source licensing.
On June 28, 2010, after months of speculation and anticipation, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed in Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U. S. ____ (2010) that at least some business methods may be patent-eligible. Although the Court affirmed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s determination that certain patent claims at issue in Bilski are not patent-eligible, the Court refused to find that all business methods are ineligible for patent protection. The Court also rejected the Federal Circuit’s en banc determination that the machine-or-transformation test is the exclusive way to determine whether a process is patent-eligible. However, the Court did confirm that laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patent-eligible.
In light of the Bilski decision, lower courts and the U.S. Patent Office will be more likely to focus on whether the patent claim boils down to an abstract idea. If so, the claim is unpatentable.
Speakers:
James A. Coles, Esq., Co-Chair of Taft’s Intellectual Property Practice, Patent Attorney
Mr. Coles has vast experience with all types of intellectual property and technology matters, including agreements and resolving disputes involving technology and intellectual property issues, and helps clients determine the breadth and value of their intellectual property assets through audit services and strategies for protecting and exploiting those assets. Mr. Coles frequently assists local, national and international clients with intellectual property and technology agreements and issues in a broad field of technologies including but not limited to electronics, information technology, healthcare, software and medical devices.
Anthony P. Filomena, Esq., Partner, Patent Attorney
Mr. Filomena has a diverse background in electrical engineering, computer science, business and law that gives him broad experience and equips him to address a variety of intellectual property issues for clients. He counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property law, including preparation, prosecution and licensing of patents, as well as drafting, reviewing and negotiating proprietary and open source licensing agreements. Mr. Filomena’s practice experience also includes preparing patentability, non-infringement and invalidity opinions. He has experience working with a diverse range of clients, from individuals and entrepreneurial start-up companies, to universities and Fortune 100 companies.
Please join us for this discussion with time for questions and answers.
Please register by clicking here by October 27th.
Questions: Please contact Kelly Sharpe at ksharpe@taftlaw.com or 317-713-3441.
Date: August 27, 2010 | |
Dear Valued Customer, We regret to inform you that the ePeachtree service will no longer be available as of November 30, 2010. The ePeachtree service runs on a platform that will not be supported going forward, therefore we are retiring the product line. We at Sage value you as a customer, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. If you are due a refund, you can expect it to be refunded to the credit card on file with us for your account within 6-8 weeks for the ePeachtree service. In an effort to make this transition easier for you, we are offering: Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting software at no cost. If you choose to accept the desktop version of Sage Peachtree software – Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting single-user or multi-user version – at no cost, we will also provide you with 30 days of free support which includes extracting and converting your ePeachtree lists and balances information into Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting, as well as assistance with installation and setup. Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting has even more functionality than ePeachtree including:
For more information about this product, see http://www.peachtree.com/productsServices for a list of features or call 877-481-0341 for your free downloadable version of Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting software. Extract your data from ePeachtree by November 30. If you do not wish to convert your data to Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting, you can manually extract your ePeachtree data by following the instructions in KnowledgeBase Library article: ePeachtree Data Export Overview. We recommend that you start the process today to ensure the availability of your data. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please call us at 877-481-0341. Sincerely, |
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Free Monthly Maintenance!
Most of our business comes from referrals of satisfied customers. To show our appreciation, we have developed a Customer Referral Program which rewards you whenever you send us qualified contacts that turn into successful new clients. The more friends or associates you refer, the greater your rewards become!
Earn a Referral Reward of your choice, for every successful referral:*
- Free Monthly Maintenance - total value equal to 20 hours, OR
- $500 check from XRBS, OR
- "Priceless Experience" of similar value**
*A valid referral must be a prospect with which Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC has not previously had contact regarding its services
** Based on a questionaire you complete, a unique and personal event will be created for you and a special someone to enjoy. This could include travel, entertainment, or a unique once-in-a-lifetime experience. It will be a surprise and experience to share for a lifetime.
How the Referral Program Works
To refer a prospective client call 317-770-6400 x 2 and provide the name of the decision-maker and the company's name, address, phone, and a little background on the opportunity. You can email the information to sales "@" xrbs.com and we will contact you to discuss the opportunity. Upon the referral signing a service contract with Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC, we will deliver the referral reward of your choice.
To qualify for this program referred prospects must sign a Crossroads Business Solutions support agreement within 12 months of referral date. Rewards are delivered after agreement between Crossroads Business Solutions and the prospect is signed and first payment is received from the new client. A referral reward may be split if multiple parties refer the same prospective client. This offer is valid in the 48 contiguous states, subject to local laws, jurisdiction. Crossroads Business Solutions is not responsible for lost or misspent money by the referring party. Referring party must pay all applicable taxes, tariffs, visas, fees, etc. Terms and conditions are revocable, subject to change without notice by Crossroads Business Solutions, LLC.
As the layoffs continue, http://www.employmentspectator.com/2010/07/lilly-to-cut-340-info-tech-positions/; capital expenditures slow, and new jobs are not being added; services companies find themselves utilizing current staff fully. Service companies are running lean and are without extra staff to complete special projects or handle unexpected emergencies. Companies are not keeping resources on payroll that are not generating revenue. I talk daily with business owners on how this high utilization service model is creating a problem for them, and their service partners. The shortage of skilled and trained employees to deliver on increased demand for those services is real and will cause problems. Short term affect is servcie complaints will increase as delays happen. Long term more serious issues will arise.
I will speak from experience on why this is a costly problem for your business.
Deferred Maintenance
Get an IT Assessment now, ahead of when you will start new IT investments or business changes. What will happen when demand rebounds is service companies called to do this new project work will find the current state of the business information technology is not up to date due to deferred maintenance. Systems maintenance has been deferred or not completed due to budget and time constraints. There will be service companies that will fail to address these issues up front and you will get project price adjustments to address these issues while the project is in process and you have no choice but to pay. Get the IT Assessment done first, correct maintenance issues, then build on top of the solid foundation.
Contract Workers
Service companies, especially in IT, use sub-contract workers to "fill in" when they need an extra hand. Serious issues for the business arise from this business model. Continuity is important to the business in the area of IT. This can be mitigated through knowledge transfer, usually through strong documentation. When a sub-contractor is used I see the companies losing continuity and knowledge when they leave, project complete. If there is a problem with the technology you access to the engineer who did the work to support their work, warrantee it. With an IT sub-contractor it is common for them to NOT be available, and you have no leverage to hold them accountable. Avoid using service companies that use sub-contractors, your IT is a 4-6 year investment and the pain of poor craftsmanship last longer than the pleasure of low price.
To avoid these Issues
Do an IT Assessment ahead of your need for new projects to start. Understand where you are, before you start building on a unstable foundation.
Bring your service providers to the management table. Discuss your upcoming plans and what increased services you will need from them. Get an understanding of their ability to meet your needs and if necessary what ramp up period they will need to meet the additional service levels.
There will be a lot of rush to deliver, and haste makes waste. If you don't have the time and money do the work right the first time; when will you find the time and money to redo it?
Questions, drop me a line scott.cunningham@xrbs.com
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Microsoft is offering financing through its partners including flexible payment options of 3 months of zero payments with the outstanding payments structured as regular monthly payments for the remaining term of the loan. Contact Scott Cunningham at 317-529-0418 for more information.
Quick overview: opinions of over 350 Indiana chief executives from all areas of the state and from a wide range of manufacturing, service, and not-for-profit organizations captured in this survey. Link to the survey overview and results: http://www.inceosurvey.com/2009_results/
Lots of interesting information and I pulled this info to share and comment on:
Section 6: Information Technology
1. Over 60 percent of respondents indicated their company has no method for monitoring the amount of time employees spend on the Internet, and over 75 percent indicated their company has no formal policy on employee-authored blogs.
2. There is only weak agreement that executives are able to monitor the productivity of their IT staffs, or that they are able to evaluate their IT leaders.
3. "Production/maintenance of company Web site" and "server maintenance" are the only IT functions which emerge as having a "likelihood of outsourcing" that rises above the scale midpoint.
#1 bodes well for Compendium Blogware out of Indianapolis. It is so simple and inexpensive for a monitoring tool to be installed. Not sure why this isn't happening, and we made this recommendation a stern request in a recent letter to our clients - see: http://blogs.xrbs.com/managing-your-information-technology/smb-internet-usage-alert
#2 Business leaders cannot evaluate IT Leaders. There is a tremendous shortage of competent business and IT trained individuals to lead and manage. A smart business leader reads a book or an article finding the right "questions to ask" your IT staffer. Yet, the business leader can't evaluate the answer. Business leaders can't call "BS" or dig deeper to ferret out miss-information. (Business can't hold IT accountable, as they can't audit the IT work).
I talk after about how SMB business owners can't hold their IT staff accountable. When you outsource accountability is the service vendors’ responsibility. This should be part of your interview questions, "How do you hold your IT Staff accountable?" If you don't know the answer, ping me and I'll share 1-on-1.
#3 There are three core areas of an IT department: help desk, applications, infrastructure. Applications are where you create a competitive advantage for the business (process, workflow, one-click, etc). You are likely to want to own what gives you a competitive advantage. Infrastructure, you want to outsource that to a service provider that can use operation excellence to manage and maintain it. Maintenance is repetitive, boring, detail oriented. Sr. IT staff won't do maintenance, and business leaders are ignorant of the issue (can't hold IT accountable, as they can't audit the IT work). Help desk, outsource or insource based on volume.
What do you think?? Can you manage your IT staff? How do you hold them accountable?
This topic is critical to all businesses, so I am sharing this alert we sent to our clients recently. Scott C.
Crossroads Business Solutions LLC would like to advise you of a most serious situation affecting a number of our clients recently.
Over the last month we have been responding to an increasing number of malware infections. These infections, in addition to becoming more prevalent, are increasingly difficult/time consuming and therefore expensive to resolve – occasionally requiring a complete system rebuild.
The source of these infections appears to be a result of visiting web sites – perhaps even sites of reputable companies - but we do not yet have more specific information. The symptom is typically a pop-up alert on the user's display designed to look like a Microsoft Security alert. It attempts to entice the user to click on the scan to resolve the issue. If anyone receives a pop-up with any kind of virus or spam alert – DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING.
Please have that user contact us immediately.
Furthermore, it is our recommendation that until further notice, all web activity be confined to only business uses. Until further notice, we highly encourage avoiding social web sites such as facebook or free web-mail unless avoidance it would be disruptive to your company operations. It is our hope/expectation that this can be controlled in your organization via a stated verbal policy, but if you would like more certain control, a Sonicwall router (~ $900) can be installed to block/monitor web usage.
We will send a subsequent notice to you when we have a better handle on the source(s), further protective actions, or even a more effective response.
Respectfully,
Robert M. Green
317-770-6400http://it-b.harrison.edu/?video=jobs-in-information-technology
http://it-b.harrison.edu/?video=the-power-of-a-degree
What do you think?
Stress is unnecessary in information technology. Avoiding stress requires proper understanding of the problem so the proper solution can be designed and implemented. Stress is created by business owners and managers who fail to plan and who fail to invest up-front in assessing the problems, needs, and requirements. What I wonder is this: why don't business owners learn from their past stressful experiences and change their stressful ways? Life would be much less stressful and much happierif we all took the time to plan.
Share your thoughts. Add a question and we'll answer it in a future blog update.
When acquiring a company, what do you need to investigate regarding the information technology systems? Hardware, software, licensing, configuration, data backup, etc. This tells you what you need to know for the SMB owner.
Let us know if this was helpful by commenting on the blog. If you have questions, call or email us and we will answer them in a future blog.
