Over the years, I’ve worked with businesses, schools and nonprofits to help them find the right technology resources to meet their particular needs and goals.  In many cases, the “devil they know” is the resource that they continued to use year after year -  either because they were concerned that change might not bring something better, or because they weren’t sure if their expectations of a better partnership were realistic.

Let’s start by considering when you might look for a technology partner.  The obvious answer is when you don’t have a full-time IT person, web site designer or developer on staff.  But even if you do have someone handling the day-to-day needs internally, planning for a project that they haven’t done before or discussing possibilities of how technology can help you reach your goals may be areas where you can have the best of both worlds - someone who knows your environment and your culture and someone who can bring an outside viewpoint and a wide-range of experience and training.

No matter what your specific network includes or what your challenges are, there are 5 critical factors that you can use to evaluate your technology resource - whether you rely on internal staff, outside consulting or a combination of the two.  Download the list of 5 critical factors to keep in mind as you plan for 2010.

Great question.  Maybe you shouldn’t?  We talk to clients about this all of the time and have counseled many businesses into and out of replacing network equipment currently in place.  Often the issue if forced when there is an outage of an aging server but in our network support model we try to be more proactive about the process and help a business owner understand the potential business benefits to replacing a server, leaving it as is, or even extending the warranty for another year.

The first thing you should do in considering a server replacement is calculate the ROI for the project.  Unfortunately, there is no magic number for the payback of a new server as all businesses are different but we have compiled 10  Things to Consider when making this ROI calculation.   The list includes hard calculations like the average hourly wage of your employees and the amount of time spent on repetitive processes but it also considers less concrete items like peace of mind of the business owner as that is also definitely worth something in today’s stressful business world.

Some quick guidelines as to whether or not to replace would be:

Replace if:

• There a positive ROI (as discussed above) for the project
• The server is out of warranty (if it is, it will more likely have a hardware failure) and it can not be extended
• The server does not meet your basic business functions and is holding you back

Extend the Warranty if:

• The warranty can be extended and the server is meeting your basic business needs
• You do not expect your business needs for the server to expand greatly in the next 12 months
• You would like to replace the server and it is borderline, but you need to plan for the expenditure in the next budget cycle

Generally, a server will be an effective business resource for 3-5 years depending upon business growth.  After 5 years, server hardware can become unreliable, sluggish and apt to fail.  If you are in the gray area somewhere, you may want to consider calculating the ROI of replacement to see if there is a real payback for your business.

Download 10 Things to Consider when Calculating the ROI of a Network Server Replacement

Have you ever Googled yourself or the company you work for?  Come on, you know you have!  It’s human nature to wonder what others are writing about you and the company you work for.  Before accepting your new position, didn’t you Google your new company to see if you could find any negative information?  Googling is an easy way to lose hours sorting through irrelevant web entries hoping to find the information you’re repeatedly looking for.  Valuable time and energy can be saved by using one of Google’s many convenient and useful tools, in this case, Google Alerts.

Google Alerts are emails or RSS feeds automatically sent to you when there are new Google search results for your specified terms.  After signing up using your GMail account on the Google Alerts homepage, you enter the search term, type of alert (search Google News, Google Groups, or the web), frequency of emails (daily, as it happens, or weekly), and your email address. Google Alerts sends you an email each time a new page for your chosen term makes it in the top twenty results on Google’s web search. You can set up alerts for as many as 1,000 search terms.  Google Alerts currently offers 6 variations of alerts - News, Web, Blogs, Comprehensive, Video and Groups.

• A News alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.

• A Web alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.

• A Blogs alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.

• A Comprehensive alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources (News, Web and Blogs) into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.

• A Video alert is an email aggregate of the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.

• A Groups alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.

Google Alerts’ many uses make them convenient and helpful in our daily personal lives including monitoring a developing news story, tracking medical advances, being aware of what is being written about family members, and even getting the latest on a celebrity or sports team.  But there are many professional reasons to harness the power of Google Alerts, find out how to put the power of Google Alerts to work for your business by downloading Ten Important Business Uses of Google Alert.

Everybody’s talking about social media marketing, but how do you know if it’s right for your business?  And what if you are a nonprofit agency or a school - does social media have value outside the business world?

First let’s define social media by its most well known forms, including blogs and social networking (Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn).  Blogs, like the one you are reading right now, provide you with a way to communicate a message or share a story with the outside world.  A blog is like a newsletter that you write and share article by article.  When you think about it that way, you probably already create content that you could use for blogging.  Because blogging is more informal, you can get more people involved to write a paragraph or two about a timely topic in your industry, a success story or an experience that your audience can relate to.

Social networking requires a little more thought about who it is that you want to connect with.  Are you looking to inform potential clients about your services, or brainstorm with others in your industry, or maybe find potential sources of referrals?  Each goal will require you to think about who those people are, and what forms of social media they are likely to be using.  For example, I find LinkedIn to be a powerful networking tool to connect with clients, former colleagues, and other professionals that I meet and want to keep in touch with.  By regularly updating my LinkedIn status, I can share what I am working on with all of my contacts with one click of the mouse.  I can even include links back to my blog or a particular page of our web site that provides more information.  I have found that even people I have known and worked with for many years may not fully understand all of the ways that I can help organizations with their computer network or web site, but if they hear a success story, they suddenly think of someone else they know with that struggle who they can’t wait to refer me to.

Maybe you realize that you have something to say, and you know who you want to reach with your message, but there are other considerations to making social media marketing a success.  The questions in our “10 questions to ask before starting a social media marketing campaign” will help you determine if this is the right step for you.

Good news!  In response to concerns voiced by many small business owners in Massachusetts, the Office of Consumer Affairs has announced revisions to the identity theft regulations that were set to take effect on January 1st 2010.

New language in the regulations includes risk-based in implementation -  requiring safeguards that are more appropriate to the size of the business, the amount of personal data stored (client or customer data and employee files), and the type of business.

The revised regulations are more consistent with Federal law, and therefore an appropriate guideline for businesses and other types of organizations in Connecticut to measure their risks and identify what steps they can take to minimize their exposure to security breaches and the potential remediation and litigation that follows a breach.

A public hearing will be held on the changes on 9/22/09 at the Transportation Building, 10 Park Plaza in Boston at 10 a.m.

Click the link below for a copy of the compliance checklist: 

http://www.foresitetech.com/forms/download_compliance

As a business owner, it’s sometimes difficult to think about upgrading things that seem to be “working”, especially in tough economic times.  The question is, “are they really working as hard as they can be for your business?”.  A great example of this is your company’s website.  While it was OK 5 years ago to have someone take your brochure and turn it into a website so you could put it on your business cards, that’s just not the way the web is working today for businesses who are taking full advantage of it.

Today, the first thing most people do when they are looking for a product or service, even if it was referred to them, is Google it.  The first few seconds form a large part of the impression the visitor will have of the target business forever (remember what your mom always said about first impressions).  Below are a few key things that people react to  - whether they know it or not.  You should keep them in mind as you look at your own web site, even if you think it doesn’t matter for your business (because it does).

1. Is the design attractive and does it look “current”?  A design that was nice 5 years ago does not always stand the test of time.  Compare how your site looks to others in your industry, or even other sites you feel project the type of image you want for your company.  You might be surprised.
2. Is your date specific content up to date?  If the last newsletter or news item you posted was in 2006, you should probably pull that section of the web site out.  Its hurting you more than helping you.
3. Is your site cross browser compatible?  While the world used to only view the web through the eyes of Internet Explorer, other browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have come a long way in gaining market share.  Make sure your web site looks the same (or at least presentable) in all of the major browsers available today.

These are just a few items that can make a good first impression.  But once people decide they are “OK” with you, you need to keep talking.  There has to be enough valuable information on your website to make the visitor (prospect) contact you instead of the next person on the search list.  Keep it interesting.  Add content regularly and give people reasons to come back.  If they browsed by but weren’t ready to buy the first time, impress them with fresh content and ideas the next time they “stop by”.  People want to get to know you by visiting your web site and be comfortable that you can take care of them.  You have to work to keep that conversation going, especially when you sometimes don’t even know that the conversation is happening (we’ll talk about how to know exactly when someone is on your web site in a future post).  One of ForeSite’s web site experts wrote a paper on “10 Tips for Developing an Effective Website“.  Check it out if you are interested in how to upgrade your web presence.

In general, think of your web site as your ultimate marketing tool which if used properly will bring leads (and ultimately new business) to you so you don’t have to go searching for it yourself.  View your site through the eyes of your prospects.  And if you are having difficulty doing that, ask some of your current customers to do it for you.  Make sure that the conversation prospects are having with your web site is the same one they would have with you if you were in front of them.

Download 10 Tips for Developing an Effective Website

One of the most common things I hear when I meet with small business owner to talk about technology is “I just want it to work”. You didn’t start your business because you wanted to design and maintain a computer network or a web site, but you have come to the realization that you can’t do business without them.

According to this article in Technology, Inc magazine the top ranked concerns for small business are:

• Using technology to reduce costs in other areas
• Stretching the lifespan of your hardware
• Finding vendors that can understand their company and tailor solutions to fit their needs

My Dad owned a small business, and I saw him struggle with the same issues. That makes it very personal for me to provide resources for my clients that my Dad didn’t always have, and to be able to save them from making some of the mistakes he experienced.

Not every technology investment is a good one, but the ones that make sense can really pay off. For example, when personal computers were just making their way into the business world, Dad saw a demonstration of the “paperless office” concept and immediately saw where using computers to gather information once, store it electronically, and move it from order taking to production to delivery could save time and prevent orders being lost along the way. His return on investment came quickly as less people handled an order, mistakes were reduced saving material and labor to redo orders, and the gap between taking an order and receiving payment was greatly reduced.

This positive experience led to a misconception that all technology investments would be great for business. I’ll talk about examples of failures in future blog posts.

What can you do when facing these concerns?

• Take a close look at your business. Ask employees how they spend their time and where they see bottlenecks. Is there a way to automate process?
• Weigh cost and risk. If the hardware and software can handle your needs for another year, then hold off on the replacement, but don’t skimp on maintenance and keep the hardware under warranty. These two steps can prevent unexpected and costly downtime.
• Find a technology resource that you trust and talk to them about your whole business, not just your computers. The more they understand what you do, how you do it now, and why you do it, the better their recommendations can be.