I've left disaster recovery for last because it frightens and depresses me. Almost every business I see has some flaw in how they protect their business data.
Most businesses don't understand that computer hardware is cheap and easy to replace; it's the data stored on the system that is valuable. For most businesses, losing all their data would be the end of the enterprise.
Backing up data is the most fundamental part of a disaster recovery plan. But that’s not the whole picture with disaster recovery.
The aim of a disaster recovery plan is to get your computer systems back on line as quickly as possible should a disaster strike. That disaster could be a fire, a break in, a flood or even the building collapsing.
So it's more than just the data; you need something to save the data onto, you need somewhere to store the data, you need something to read the data. You need to be able to access everything quickly should the worst happen.
It's probably a good idea to keep at least part of that locked cabinet full of software and folders we discussed earlier at home rather than the office.
Until the rise of cheap external hard drives, most business data backups were done onto tape. Tapes were comparatively cheap, stored a lot of data and were portable.
The only problem was they failed as often as not, the mental scars of my own encounters with this are why this subject fills with me with dread.
The disaster recovery plan has to include rotating the backups. If you rely on one drive or tape, your whole system will fail if that drive or tape fails. Ideally you'd have twenty of the things working on daily weekly and monthly schedules that mean your data is saved for a year at a time.
Most businesses though balk at this cost and that's understandable. A compromise is often two or three backup devices where one is plugged into the computer while the others are taken home by the boss or the secretary.
This means you'll lose a weeks work should the building burn down. For most small businesses this is a reasonable trade off between costs. For some though, the cost of re-creating a week's work is prohibitive so the cost of a few more $200 external drives is worthwhile.
Disaster recovery is an absolutely key area for small business IT. The smaller your business is, the more your data and intellectual property is important to you.
It's critical you discuss a disaster recovery plan with your IT consultant and make sure you have a working one in place.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Small Business IT mistake 9: No training
I never ceased to be amazed at how we don’t train staff on how to use computers. As business owners we wouldn't dream of not training staff to use a forklift or lathe, let alone give a company car to an employee without a driver’s license.
Yet almost no staff get training in using computers.
I remember clearly the first day I faced a personal computer. I was sat down in front a computer on it and told to get on with it. It took me half an hour to turn the thing on, it was nearly a week before I got anything productive done.
People are wonderfully inventive and curious beasts. Most folk will eventually figure out how to do something by trial and error. The problem is this leads to bad and inefficient habits in the office.
Couple this with the self taught office guru and you have a problem like I described earlier; those bad habits start getting very expensive.
Training's surprisingly easy to find. There are the local newspaper and Yellow Pages, but many computer trainers there share the problem with the local computer tech that anyone can claim to be one.
Far better in my experience are the local community colleges or the corporate training companies. Corporate training is expensive and sometimes their instructors leave something to be desired but the courses are usually well structured. The local community college is cheaper but it usually requires staff to attend out of hours.
There is a question about offsite versus onsite training. Onsite training is cheaper and uses the equipment that the staff work on every day. In my view, offsite training is best for staff as it gets them away from distractions.
While offsite training adds to the cost of computers and staff, it's money well spent for businesses of all sizes as it improves the productivity and morale of staff immensely.
From the businesses owner’s point of view training increases the return on their IT investment dramatically.
Yet almost no staff get training in using computers.
I remember clearly the first day I faced a personal computer. I was sat down in front a computer on it and told to get on with it. It took me half an hour to turn the thing on, it was nearly a week before I got anything productive done.
People are wonderfully inventive and curious beasts. Most folk will eventually figure out how to do something by trial and error. The problem is this leads to bad and inefficient habits in the office.
Couple this with the self taught office guru and you have a problem like I described earlier; those bad habits start getting very expensive.
Training's surprisingly easy to find. There are the local newspaper and Yellow Pages, but many computer trainers there share the problem with the local computer tech that anyone can claim to be one.
Far better in my experience are the local community colleges or the corporate training companies. Corporate training is expensive and sometimes their instructors leave something to be desired but the courses are usually well structured. The local community college is cheaper but it usually requires staff to attend out of hours.
There is a question about offsite versus onsite training. Onsite training is cheaper and uses the equipment that the staff work on every day. In my view, offsite training is best for staff as it gets them away from distractions.
While offsite training adds to the cost of computers and staff, it's money well spent for businesses of all sizes as it improves the productivity and morale of staff immensely.
From the businesses owner’s point of view training increases the return on their IT investment dramatically.
Small Business IT mistake 8: Get more from the Internet
When businesses get online they have little more than an email address. Sadly this is how it remains for many businesses. That's a shame because the net has a huge range of benefits for the small business.
Nearly fifteen years ago the New Yorker had a cartoon saying on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog.
For a smaller business, the Internet gives you the opportunity to project yourself as a much bigger organisation and allows you to reach a much bigger audience and markets.
The absolute must do for every business is to get a business domain registered. This is cheap and makes your business look professional. Using the email address supplied by your ISP screams cheap, cheap, cheap.
The next step is to organise hosting a website. Good hosting services cost between ten and fifty dollars a month depending upon the features such as multiple email addresses, mailing list services and all manner of tools to help you add features to your online presence.
To setup that online presence you need to start with a website. You can do it yourself but there are plenty of good website designers that can put together an attractive and functional website for a few hundred dollars.
The Internet doesn't just stop with websites. Other applications include hosted software services where you pay a monthly fee to use a software program, this can save a lot of money in capital costs and allows you and your staff to do their work while at home or on the road.
Accessing your information remotely is probably one of the biggest attractions of the Internet for small business. With the fixed IP addresses we discussed in the last post you can log into your office while anywhere in the world. This is a serious productivity gain for the small business owner.
The Internet has huge opportunities for the small business owner and I'm only just scratching the surface of what can be done. Once again, it's worthwhile consulting a professional who can look at your business needs to see what the net can do for you.
The next step is to organise hosting a website. Good hosting services cost between ten and fifty dollars a month depending upon the features such as multiple email addresses, mailing list services and all manner of tools to help you add features to your online presence.
To setup that online presence you need to start with a website. You can do it yourself but there are plenty of good website designers that can put together an attractive and functional website for a few hundred dollars.
The Internet doesn't just stop with websites. Other applications include hosted software services where you pay a monthly fee to use a software program, this can save a lot of money in capital costs and allows you and your staff to do their work while at home or on the road.
Accessing your information remotely is probably one of the biggest attractions of the Internet for small business. With the fixed IP addresses we discussed in the last chapter you can log into your office while anywhere in the world. This is a serious productivity gain for the small business owner.
The Internet has huge opportunities for the small business owner and I'm only just scratching the surface of what can be done. Once again, it's worthwhile consulting a professional who can look at your business needs to see what the net can do for you.
Nearly fifteen years ago the New Yorker had a cartoon saying on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog.
For a smaller business, the Internet gives you the opportunity to project yourself as a much bigger organisation and allows you to reach a much bigger audience and markets.
The absolute must do for every business is to get a business domain registered. This is cheap and makes your business look professional. Using the email address supplied by your ISP screams cheap, cheap, cheap.
The next step is to organise hosting a website. Good hosting services cost between ten and fifty dollars a month depending upon the features such as multiple email addresses, mailing list services and all manner of tools to help you add features to your online presence.
To setup that online presence you need to start with a website. You can do it yourself but there are plenty of good website designers that can put together an attractive and functional website for a few hundred dollars.
The Internet doesn't just stop with websites. Other applications include hosted software services where you pay a monthly fee to use a software program, this can save a lot of money in capital costs and allows you and your staff to do their work while at home or on the road.
Accessing your information remotely is probably one of the biggest attractions of the Internet for small business. With the fixed IP addresses we discussed in the last post you can log into your office while anywhere in the world. This is a serious productivity gain for the small business owner.
The Internet has huge opportunities for the small business owner and I'm only just scratching the surface of what can be done. Once again, it's worthwhile consulting a professional who can look at your business needs to see what the net can do for you.
The next step is to organise hosting a website. Good hosting services cost between ten and fifty dollars a month depending upon the features such as multiple email addresses, mailing list services and all manner of tools to help you add features to your online presence.
To setup that online presence you need to start with a website. You can do it yourself but there are plenty of good website designers that can put together an attractive and functional website for a few hundred dollars.
The Internet doesn't just stop with websites. Other applications include hosted software services where you pay a monthly fee to use a software program, this can save a lot of money in capital costs and allows you and your staff to do their work while at home or on the road.
Accessing your information remotely is probably one of the biggest attractions of the Internet for small business. With the fixed IP addresses we discussed in the last chapter you can log into your office while anywhere in the world. This is a serious productivity gain for the small business owner.
The Internet has huge opportunities for the small business owner and I'm only just scratching the surface of what can be done. Once again, it's worthwhile consulting a professional who can look at your business needs to see what the net can do for you.
Small business IT mistake 7: Choosing the wrong Internet plan
It's not surprising many people get their Internet plans wrong. The range of plans and options are massive and deliberately confusing. Researching ISP deals leaves even the most switched on tech with a headache.
The simplest advice for small business owners is to invest in a proper, business grade Internet plan. This cuts out the noise of the consumer plans.
The vast majority of Internet plans are designed for home users. Like IT equipment, this means they are pitched at a price, which in Australia is around $30 a month for an entry level plan.
That price means you won't get a lot of features that businesses need; a fixed IP address, multiple email accounts, reliable service and a support line that doesn't hang up when you tell them you have a router and server.
You should work with your IT consultant to find a business Internet provider. It's also worthwhile exploring references from other businesses. As with other IT fields, word of mouth is always a good way to find suppliers.
Some services will include website hosting and other features. I prefer to have websites hosted by specialist hosting companies as my experience is ISPs don't do it particularly well. But many small businesses prefer the simplicity of one point of contact and one bill.
A decent small business ISP plan is going to cost between $60 and $100 a month. This is money well spent for reliable service and the additional features and support small businesses need.
You should work with your IT consultant to find a business Internet provider. It's also worthwhile exploring references from other businesses. Word of mouth is always a good way to find suppliers.
Some services will include website hosting and other features. I prefer to have websites hosted by specialist hosting companies as my experience is ISPs don't do it particularly well. But many small businesses prefer the simplicity of one point of contact and one bill.
A decent small business ISP plan is going to cost between $60 and $100 a month. This is money well spent for reliable service and the additional features and support small businesses need.
The simplest advice for small business owners is to invest in a proper, business grade Internet plan. This cuts out the noise of the consumer plans.
The vast majority of Internet plans are designed for home users. Like IT equipment, this means they are pitched at a price, which in Australia is around $30 a month for an entry level plan.
That price means you won't get a lot of features that businesses need; a fixed IP address, multiple email accounts, reliable service and a support line that doesn't hang up when you tell them you have a router and server.
You should work with your IT consultant to find a business Internet provider. It's also worthwhile exploring references from other businesses. As with other IT fields, word of mouth is always a good way to find suppliers.
Some services will include website hosting and other features. I prefer to have websites hosted by specialist hosting companies as my experience is ISPs don't do it particularly well. But many small businesses prefer the simplicity of one point of contact and one bill.
A decent small business ISP plan is going to cost between $60 and $100 a month. This is money well spent for reliable service and the additional features and support small businesses need.
You should work with your IT consultant to find a business Internet provider. It's also worthwhile exploring references from other businesses. Word of mouth is always a good way to find suppliers.
Some services will include website hosting and other features. I prefer to have websites hosted by specialist hosting companies as my experience is ISPs don't do it particularly well. But many small businesses prefer the simplicity of one point of contact and one bill.
A decent small business ISP plan is going to cost between $60 and $100 a month. This is money well spent for reliable service and the additional features and support small businesses need.
Small Business IT mistake 6: Not keeping records
Nothing irritates a tech more than missing disks and passwords. This can leave even the most the thick skinned IT god in a speechless rage. It also means big costs and a lot of downtime for the business.
Manuals, invoices, disks, registration keys and passwords are like gold. They need to be stored safely and securely.
Software disks are valuable. Microsoft Office retails for $700, a specialist program like AutoCad costs ten times that. If those disks go home with a staff member that's an expensive asset lost.
What's more, you'll end up spending money while a tech or staff members spends hours scrabbling around for those missing disks. Needless to say, they'll go missing when you need them most.
We like to see software kept in a locked filing cabinet along with a folder containing all the warranties and purchase records for your existing equipment. Another folder should contain all your passwords and registration details.
Another frustration for computer techs is the missing Internet Service Provider password. Keep those passwords in the computer stuff folder. This ties into our next small business mistake.
Manuals, invoices, disks, registration keys and passwords are like gold. They need to be stored safely and securely.
Software disks are valuable. Microsoft Office retails for $700, a specialist program like AutoCad costs ten times that. If those disks go home with a staff member that's an expensive asset lost.
What's more, you'll end up spending money while a tech or staff members spends hours scrabbling around for those missing disks. Needless to say, they'll go missing when you need them most.
We like to see software kept in a locked filing cabinet along with a folder containing all the warranties and purchase records for your existing equipment. Another folder should contain all your passwords and registration details.
Another frustration for computer techs is the missing Internet Service Provider password. Keep those passwords in the computer stuff folder. This ties into our next small business mistake.
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