“Most organizations that use Microsoft Exchange as their corporate communication tool have staff that uses a BlackBerry device as well. Our clients are no different. During each deployment that I work on, I ask the question, “How many BlackBerry users do you have?”  Knowing that the high cost for BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) licensing usually leads to sticker shock, I cringed each time.

I recently learned that Research In Motion (RIM), the company that makes BlackBerry products, now offers BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express for free! Having your own dedicated BES server will allow for seamless integration between your Microsoft Exchange environment and BlackBerry mobile devices. This eliminates any delays, outages, and other limitations that are commonly found with shared scenarios or relying on your mobile provider.

The first question I asked when hearing about this new offering was, “What were the limitations?” Great news, the majority of customers that I would work with can get by with the Express edition without a problem.

I called BlackBerry to get more details and they filled me in on only a couple minor limitations. First, there is no support for BlackBerry Mobile Voice System which I was told is rarely used anyways. Also, you’re limited to only 40 IT policies. And finally, you are limited to 75 users in a shared environment but allows for 200+ users in a dedicated server environment. From our experience, it’s best to deploy a BES server in a dedicated environment for optimal performance. So for the clients LogicalSolutions.net will work with won’t be limited to the amount of users able to access the BES server.

For the small cost of a virtual dedicated server, we can install the free BES Express application and have you up and running in no time!"

CFO’s, Financial Managers and generally anyone with P&L experience are always looking to understand their true costs to operate a business unit.  IT expenses by design and can be very difficult to understand, plan and budget for when you consider the volatility of technology and the complex group of service requirements that make this department successful to your company operations.

Expenditures on the surface are very black and white but what does it really mean, what’s necessary vs. what’s not?  Why are we managing this when it’s not our expertise?

What are my real options to reduce expenses, and increase profitability in this area or for the business as a whole without negatively impacting my business operations or clients in the process?

Consider the following typical annual expenditures running your business in any IT Department vs. outsourcing those same services or hard costs on an annual basis:

In House	Costs	Outsourcing
Server Hardware	$100,000	$0.00
Router/CSU/DSU	$12,500	$0.00
UPS Backup	$20,000	$0.00
Software Licensing	$25,000	$0.00
Hardware Servicing Fees	$7,000	$0.00
Staffing	$200,000	$0.00
DS-3 Internet Connectivity	$35,000	$0.00
Initial configuration/setup	$10,000	$1,000
Hosting Fees	$0.00	$60,000
Hardware and software support	$0.00	$42,000
Generator backup	$15,000	$0.00
Total expenses for Year One	$424,500	$112,000

In Closing, as a Financial Manager myself it’s easy to see how compelling these numbers appear, certainly compelling enough to investigate the options further.

Have you ever noticed that there are some people that you can send an email to and never get a response.  Not a delayed response, none at all. Ever.  How to they stay organized?  If you have more than a 100 messages in your inbox as you read this, you might be one of those people!

In today’s business world I challenge you to consider your inbox as a great work-flow tool.  People that work with me frequently will often hear me say “Please send me an email reminder and I will see that it gets done”.  It might not get done right away, but you can rest assured that if you email me a request, I will either do it, delegate it AND follow up with whom I delegated it to, or reply telling you that I will not have time to perform the task.  You see – I use my inbox as a work flow tool – I am constantly pushing myself to complete the email thread/task/request etc., so that I can archive the email.  Until such time as the email thread is complete, it does not leave my inbox.  In such a manner, I can assure myself that nothing slips through the cracks.

You can accomplish the same thing by simply creating a way to organize your old emails and then moving them from your inbox when they are complete.  Any email system will allow you to create sub-folders, here is what you might create when you set up your work mailbox:

You should have these by default:
- Inbox
- Drafts
- Sent Items
- Deleted Items
 
I propose you create at least a few additional folders:
- Clients
- Prospects
- Vendors
- Personal
- Staff
- Other

If you want to get HIGHLY organized, add sub-folders:
- Clients
   - Acme Tool
   - Big Time Auto
   - Charlie Cheap Seats
- Prospects
   - Delta Digging
   - Echo Excavating
- Vendors
   - Phone Company
   - Plumber
- Personal
   - Family
   - Hobbies
- Staff
   - Direct Reports
   - co-workers
- Other

While it might take a little bit of time to set up and keep on top of, you will find that you can always find things easily when you need them by opening up the appropriate folders and you will have a great feeling of accomplishment knowing that as your inbox remains clear that you are staying caught up on things.  You can rest assured that not only will your boss notice, but your friends & family will enjoy how you always respond to them and never ‘drop the ball’ on something requested of you.

Lastly, set a reasonable limit to how many messages you will allow to ‘pile up’ in your inbox before you dedicate an evening to dive in and get caught up.  A good rule of thumb is no more than double the average number of emails that you get in one day!

Like this post?  Click the 'Share This' link below!

Jim

One of many great advantages the Internet provides over traditional media like print, TV, radio, etc. is the accountability. On your website you have the ability to track just about everything. You can see exactly how many users come to your site, what they did on your site and even how they got there.

There are many tools out there that you can add to your website to help track your analytics, some paid, some free. One of the most robust and useful tools comes from Google. One advantage of Google Analytics is that it flushes out all the search engine crawlers, spiders and bad data that can distort other traffic tools. This gives you the best representation of the true traffic and activity of your website. And the best part of Google Analytics....it's completely free!

The first step is to get signed up for an account with Google. Go to www.google.com/analytics/ and you'll notice a blue Access Analytics button on the right hand side and the ability to sign up below. If you already have a Google account, just use that and sign in. Next, provide Google with the URL of the site you wish to analyze. Then follow the steps of providing what country your site is in, your contact information, etc. Once you click Create New Account, Google will provide you with a block of code. Copy this code. You will need to insert this on your website.

Placing this code on your site is a straight forward process for most sites out there. You simply copy the analytics code in the footer. If you're not comfortable doing something like this, just give us a call. Our Service & Maintenance team can place this on most websites in under an hour. The benefits will easily exceed the time and small investment it will take to get you up and running.

You probably realize by now that there is some value in blogging, but maybe you are not sure what that value is. How can blogging benefit your business? That is a good question.
A study called State of the Blogosphere was released this month from Technorati, which surveyed 2,900 bloggers in 50 countries. In it are some very interesting statistics. But lets stay focused on the question of How can blogging benefit your business?
Until recent years, companies have been trying to tell their story in 30 second TV commercials, ¼ page print ads, on the floor of trade shows and splashed on billboards. Call it branding, marketing or advertising, it doesnt really matter. Telling the real story about your company, what you do, is an excellent way to build customer loyalty. Reflecting your people and your culture as well as the things that really make your company unique and successful can be a difficult task.
Blogging can break through those limitations and give people the opportunity to see what you really do, what you really think and how you really operate. Reading thoughts from the CEO, other employees, or clients, and allowing for anyone to comment paints a true picture of the character of your company.
In writing a blog regularly, you also help boost your ability to rank more highly in search engines. You will be amazed at how you become found for more diverse and unique keywords and phrases. Fresh, relevant content on your site is the healthiest thing you can do for your rankings, and your business.
In the State of the Blogosphere report, respondents claimed the following benefits of blogging:
• 71% have greater visibility in their industry
• 63% said clients have purchased products and services
• 56% say their company is now regarded as a thought leader
• 40% were asked to speak at conferences
In summary, a blog can help you define your brand character for your customers; it can help your customers get to you more easily through the search engines. Blogging can give you greater visibility and establish you as a thought leader in your industry.
The question was How can blogging benefit your business? I think the new question is: "Are you blogging yet?"

Before high speed internet became common place in most homes one of the ways that dial up providers tried to hang in there was pointing out that you were just paying more to access the same internet. In fact, one of those companies still hangs on that slogan today. It’s true: if you have access to the internet, you’ve got access – it’s all the same, except for the speed.

That might not be true any longer. Large broadband providers and telecommunications companies want to be able to limit what parts of the internet they grant access to or charge additional fees to get there. These companies will tell you that certain company’s sites are unfairly hogging too much bandwidth and they want to reserve the right to restrict that. Opponents of their plans will tell you that they simply want to serve up their own content in its place.

And thus, the battle over net neutrality has begun. Google, a supporter of net neutrality, has defined it as: “Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet.” (Source: http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html). Google has some powerful names on their side: Facebook, Twitter, eBay, LinkedIn, Amazon.com, and Mozilla (the makers of the Firefox web browser) to name just a few.

Why is this important do you ask? Consider this made up, but potential, scenario: Time Warner is a well known internet access provider under its Road Runner brand. They also own AOL, CNN, Warner Brothers, HBO, Time – and the hundreds of brands under each. Without net neutrality Time Warner could force Road Runner users to get their news from CNN if they want to watch it online – under the claim that MSNBC, Fox News, or other news sites are unfairly hogging bandwidth. Would they? We don’t know. Without net neutrality could they? For sure.

Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are all fighting against net neutrality. These companies have sought to be able to charge companies that offer certain services online fees for increased bandwidth and/or speed. Other opponents of net neutrality will argue that providers should be able to do as they wish – otherwise investment in these providers would be slowed and they would fail to grow, or fail altogether.

President Obama has gotten involved and is a net neutrality supporter. The FCC is involved. The House of Representatives and The Senate are involved. This isn’t going to go away quietly and if you aren’t paying attention, you should be.

One good article to get up to speed can be found here: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/obamas-tech-aide-reaffirms-net-neutrality-support/2009-10-18. To keep up on a regular basis, try searching Google News (http://news.google.com/) for net neutrality and reading the latest.

 

I am always interviewing people.  Even when we don’t have a position I like to meet people that peak my interest or have been recommended to me.  I have been meeting and interviewing people for fifteen years and in the last year I have seen a very new twist on the process.

I receive many résumés each week.  Most of them are sent via our web site or emailed directly to me.  Though I still print out the ones I am interested in I usually peruse them digitally first.  The twist I am seeing in the process is the huge amounts of information that some candidates make accessible beyond the typical résumé with references.

More and more résumés I am seeing are loaded with supporting links and web addresses.  These links are to social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, personal web sites, MySpace, blogs and more.  Each of these social media “résumé extensions” is filled with more data, insight and personality about the potential employee than any employer could discover in an interview.  Those people that are carefully organized and strategic create an affective multimedia marketing campaign for themselves using these simple and free tools.

So now when I see a resume I’m interested in, I spend a few minutes reading that person’s blog, I might check out what they are interested in through their twitter and I might click over to LinkedIn and see what else is there to know about that person’s job history.  If the candidate is smart they will know I will do that and be completely prepared for my mini investigation. 

My niece was looking for her first job after graduation last spring and, because she is one smart woman, she gave her Facebook the once over cleaning, knowing that a potential employer would most likely check it out.  There are countless crazy stories about those people who didn’t “clean up Facebook” and we all know where those resumes ended up.

It is interesting to me to see the twist in the process of interviewing grow into orchestrating a full scale social media marketing plan that supports a candidate’s resume and referrals.  While I see more and more people using these tools to their advantage while job hunting, there are still plenty that rely on the limitations of a résumé and references.

 

What is it? 

Social Engineering is defined in different ways by different groups of people, but it always boils down to this: Social Engineering is the process of using the human factor to bypass security measures and gain access to something that is otherwise safeguarded.

In your business you’ve probably got plenty of security measures that you think are safeguarding you from unauthorized access: key guards to get into the building, passwords to get on every computer, and user accounts limiting people to what they need access to. By and large, that are all effective means on a day to day basis. However:

• Do you (or your employees) hold open the front door with a smile for a repair or delivery man with his hands full?
• When an employee leaves your company, you disable their accounts. But for shared programs where you have a standard password (or password format that only varies slightly) are you changing those?
• If you scribble down sensitive information like a password, customer information, etc – what are you doing when you’re done with it? Are you just crumpling it and tossing it in the trash?
• When your employees walk away from their desks for a new cup of coffee (or worse leave at night), do they leave their computer on and unlocked?

An Example
All of these are open doors for trouble via social engineering. What kind of damage can someone with bad intent do if they have physical or technological access to your systems? If you search the web, you’ll find thousands of stories about specific scams and scenarios. Let me share with you one I have firsthand knowledge of:

A friend of mine used to work for a company that ships a fair amount of inventory. They had a modest warehouse and shipping dock, with just a handful of employees. The CEO, concerned about security, had a friend nobody had met before pull up to the warehouse door in a uniform carrying a few non-descript brown boxes. The staff on the loading dock held the door open for him and he walked right in. Further, he left his boxes in the warehouse and wandered down an inventory aisle, unquestioned. Before he left, he used the unlocked computer. Someone asked him if he needed anything – and the man simply replied “No thanks, [CEO’s Name] just asked me to do a few things for him.” He was then left alone and he used the computer to email himself all the companies account numbers with their suppliers, which had helpfully been posted next to the computer.

So by just walking in wearing a generic looking uniform with a few empty boxes, he could have done all sorts of damage, in broad daylight, with employees all around:

• What could have been in those boxes? Listening devices? Something more nefarious?
• What could he have done while alone in the inventory aisles? Fill his boxes with products and leave?
• Just by dropping the CEO’s name (which is usually as simple to get as calling the front desk in advance and asking for it) he was able to use the computer. What could someone do with your account numbers with your suppliers? What else could he have lifted off the network? He could have even installed software to trap peoples passwords as they enter them and have the passwords sent directly to him.

The point is this: the standard measures for security all rely on one critical piece to be effective: people.
By nature, your employees want to be helpful and courteous. But what are you doing to make sure that good nature isn’t being taken advantage of?

What can you do?
You will find plenty of companies out there that will audit you on a one time or regular basis. They have varying levels of sophistication and cost. Deciding if you need to go this far is someone dependant on you and your business. If your company is very large (larger companies are usually more attractive targets, in part because the process is made easier because everybody doesn’t know every employee) or deals in a lot of sensitive data – maybe it is.

What is clear is that every company needs to make their employees aware of the concept and regularly remind them to be vigilant. Some common sense tips to share with your employees:

• Don’t use a shared password or password format if it can be helped.
• If you do use some shared password or password format, be sure it is changed every time any employee leaves.
• Don’t hold the door open for anyone that you don’t recognize as an employee.
• If you write something down that could be informative to someone else, shred it.
• If you see something, anything, out of the ordinary – start asking questions and alert the right people within the company immediately.

 

I am proud to announce that LogicalSolutions.net has partnered with BackupSpace.com to offer a secure way to back up your important data off-site. BackupSpace is a Simple, Safe and Secure way to backup all your sensitive business and personal data.

To say I am passionate about backups and disaster recovery is an understatement; in 1997 my apartment fell victim to Arson and was destroyed. I lost years of e-mail and files that were on my computer. All my data, backed up on 100MB ZIP disks, was destroyed in the fire as well. It gets better - in 2002 my house in Atlanta flooded and my computer that sat on the floor was engulfed in water and ruined. All of my Digital pictures I had not backed up to DVD were gone. (Ironically, the same house is again underwater in Atlanta's flooding this last month.)

I hope you will share in my lesson learned without having to experience a data disaster on your own. Off-site backups are mandatory to prevent against Natural Disaster, Hard Drive Failure and Data Loss. BackupSpace allows for instant data restore, Nightly Backup notifications, Automated Scheduling, and file versioning. Your data is 256-Bit Encrypted and stored across multiple RAIDed drives in LogicalSolutions.net Enterprise Class Data Center. Try it out for you business or personal files today.

 

                Gaining high quality links to your website content is a great way to direct more visitors to your site and improve your ranking with the search engines.  Below are five ways to build inbound links without buying or trading them.

1) Post good, relevant content and make it easy to share. 

                There is no substitute for providing specific, high quality information that your particular target market might need and then making it easy for your readers to share it with others.  The more targeted and useful your content is, the more likely you will be to cultivate the right audience for your site, and the more likely you will be to generate lots of good links to your site.  See the "share this" link at the bottom of this post for a good example of how to make it easy for readers to share your content. Share links can be automatically generated - just ask your account exec about adding this functionality to sections of your site if you do not yet have it.

2) Post high quality comments on relevant blogs and message boards and link back to your site when you do.

                The key here is picking the blogs and message boards most closely associated with your area of business/expertise and making relevant, valuable comments.  This gets you the right audience, and helps to reinforce your company's particular expertise.  You should be staying up the key conversations in your industry in any case, why not establish yourself as a contributor when you do?  Make sure that when the option is offered, you input a link back to your site, either as part of your user profile, or as part of the comment you are submitting.  

3) List your URL in your LinkedIn profile, Twitter Bio, Facebook, etc., and ask your employees to do the same, as appropriate.

                LinkedIn and Facebook both have high page rankings, which means that links from those sites are treated by the search engines as more significant than most.  (See previous LS blog post for details on making the most of LinkedIn for this purpose: http://www.logicalsolutions.net/BLOG/post/Using-LinkedIn-for-Business.aspx) 

4) Get listed on trusted sites that offer links to businesses or organizations in your niche.

                Are there trusted sites that offer selective links to sites in your area of specialty? This is different than paying for links in large indiscriminant listings.  Links from trusted sites, with selective recommendations, are far more valuable, both to users and to the search engines.  For example, if your site is for a history museum, a single link from the Smithsonian would be worth far more than dozens of directory listings alongside a laundry list of other organizations.  

5) Write press releases and always include a link to your site when you do.

                When your company or organization does something notable, write and distribute a press release documenting the where/when/how and why.  When you do, always include a link back to your site.  You never know when a media outlet might pick up your story, and run the link as well.  Sites for local newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations tend to have relatively high page rankings.  Any links from those sites can bring in a lot of visitors to your site and improve your page ranking in the process. Don't forget listings for your events in community calendars as well, as these can reach a wide audience. 
               
If you focus on quality, offer good information and resources, and stay vigilant about getting the word out, the links you cultivate will not just increase your rankings with the search engines, but will also help you to engage a larger, more loyal audience for your site.