We talked about the huge volumes of eWaste out there and the things you can do to help reduce it in an earlier post.   But the reality is that eWaste will still exist as we need to upgrade our computers, cell phones and copiers.  So what else do you need to think about when getting rid of this equipment.  How about the fact that your confidential company data may be on it for the taking?!?!

Most people consider deleting their files from the hard drive of a computer they replace, but did you know you how easily that information can be retrieved unless it is deleted with a special program that restricts recovery?  How about the emails that are on your cell phone when you turn it in that may include your customer’s credit card information on it from the last big sale you made?  And your fax/copier/network printer?!  This unit probably contains more confidential information than your kitchen sponge has bacteria after being used for several years.  Scared?  Good.

Several studies have been done recently that determined that confidential information is being recklessly discarded to the great peril of the companies that discarded it.  CBS news did a piece on copiers that revealed medical records, criminal records, and bank statements.  Kessler International did a study of hard drives purchased on eBay and found that over 40% of them had confidential data such as corporate financial data.  For some organizations, this is a breach of corporate conduct,  Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and other  state and federal privacy laws.

Don’t worry though, you don’t need to rent a storage shed for all of your old equipment or have a huge backyard bonfire.  There are ways to ensure that your data is safe and that you are protected.  To help, we have compiled this list of 5 things you should consider when disposing of old equipment.  While following these will not guarantee that your data will never fall into the wrong hands, you can at least be assured that you have made a good effort to protect it.

It is so un-”PC” to be wasteful in any way these days.  We bring our own bags to the grocery store and turn down a bag if we have just a handful of items.  We wash and separate our trash and even take the bus if we can to save harmful emissions into the air.  So would it surprise you to know that despite all of your efforts, you are probably still being wasteful in ways that are putting lead and mercury into our landfills growing at a rate of 2-3 times that of other types of waste?

eWaste is being generated by all of us as we replace our cell phones, upgrade our computers and install 50″ flat screens in place of our old 19″ CRT televisions. With the rapid changes in technology, this is happening at a faster rate than ever before as we just have to have the latest gadgets (think - iPhone 4). According to sources on the Internet, an estimated 50 million tons of eWaste is produced each year. To make matters worse, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that only 15-20% of eWaste is recycled and the rest goes directly into landfills and incinerators.

While the problem sounds overwhelming, there are things you can do to help control the effects.   Here are a few:

• Refurbish and Reuse - The old saying that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure certainly holds true here.  Schools, non-profits, and organizations that ship refurbished goods to less privileged areas can take your “worthless” technology and help someone who is not able to have the latest and greatest.  One partner we have worked with is mysbk.org.
• Recycle - Sometimes pieces of the equipment can be salvaged for the precious metals that it is composed of and the usable parts removed so the net eWaste effect is lessened.
• Dispose Properly - If a device can’t be reused or recycled, there are proper ways to dispose of them.  Depending upon the device, some towns have special drop off days and others will take them at a dump or transfer station.  There are even companies designed specifically to take this type of waste for a small fee.  If you are going to use one of these be sure that they are a reputable operation who is not simply going to take the fee and then dispose of them improperly after you leave.

eWaste is a large and growing problem, but every little bit of controlling the issue can help.  Think about that when you open up the box to your shiny new iPhone and are about toss your Motorola StarTAC into the kitchen trashcan.

Picture it; sitting pool side with a cool fruity drink.  Your family is with you, the sun is out, and the temperature is 75 degrees.  It’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it?  But let’s look a little closer, as you look around the pool, half of the people are staring at their Blackberrys checking email and clicking away.  What happened to being able to unplug while on vacation!?

I recently took a trip and was able to let it all go, without stressing out that the world was ending back at the office by just doing a couple simple things:

Set proper expectations

Make sure that people understand when you will be out of the office and what types of things that they should contact you for.  It is almost as if we feel like we have to apologize for going on vacation these days, so we tell people to call us if they need anything.  The fact is if we have the right people working with us, the world should be in fine shape without our wisdom for a few days or a week  - so only emergencies should be sent in your direction.  You might even want to define what an emergency is in your organization so it’s not up to interpretation.

Set your out of office on voice mail and email

When you do this, don’t say you will be checking messages or have limited access.  Tell people that you will be unavailable.  It’s OK for you to go away for a few days, you should be able to enjoy it without having to check messages.

Use Outlook rules

Since it is hard for some of us to unplug and not check messages on our iPhones and Blackberrys even when we set good expectations, you can create yourself a rule in Outlook that only high priority emails will be sent to your phone.  Let the other stuff build up in a folder somewhere to be cleaned out when you return.  A friend recently offered a great thought: “Email is like wine, it ages quickly”.  Most of the stuff in the folder will be out of date before you ever see it.  You’ll be able to delete it when you return.  To setup a basic rule to move normal importance mail to a different folder than the inbox, do the following in Outlook 2007:

1. Click on Tool, Rules and Alerts
2. Click on New Rule and the rule wizard appears
3. Select “Check message when they arrive” under the “Start from a Blank Rule” section, Click Next
4. Check “Marked as Importance” and when it appears at the bottom, click the word “Importance” and select “Normal” from the dropdown.  Click Next.
5. Check “move it to a specified folder” and when it appears at the bottom, click on “specified folder”.  Select the folder you want to move mail to or create a new one for this purpose.  Click Next.
6. Continue through the wizard for any other exceptions you want and to name your rule.
7. Remember to turn the rule on when you go on vacation.

At the end of the day it all comes down to expectations.  If you set the expectation that you are available, people will treat you that way.  With these quick tips, you can also control your urge to check messages every time you see the number of “new” ones increase.

The bottom-line with LinkedIn is that people would much rather work with people who their friends and colleagues know and trust. To truly realize a return on the investment of time required by LinkedIn you need to increase your number of viable connections and thus increase your chances of getting more business. In order to make your profile more appealing you need to nurture it by being committed to completing at least one or two LinkedIn tasks every single day. Make a connection, join a group, or just enhance your profile. Be sure to track the traffic to your website and what percentage of it comes from LinkedIn.

If you’re interested in learning about some good LinkedIn practices that help you make the most of your profile, find great contacts quickly, and network to get work, download parts one, two and three of our three part series.

I polled IT professionals from the ForeSite team and beyond to determine what key things every business owner, director of a school or nonprofit should know about their network.  My goal was to create a checklist that will help “nontechnical” people who have the ultimate responsibility of making technology related business decisions and protecting sensitive data to better understand what questions to ask of their IT professionals - whether you rely on an internal IT staff or a technology firm.

Some of the questions are obvious, such as making sure that your critical data is being backed up and that you know important passwords.  But there were also questions that could be eye-opening, such as “what remote access is being allowed?”.  I think back to a meeting with a Head of School when this question was asked, and it was determined that a former vendor and two former employees still had remote access to their server (and the data residing on the server)  simply because no one had thought to regularly audit the remote access and disable accounts that were no longer valid.

We hope this checklist will help you to get the information you need to make informed decisions about your network.  Your comments and questions are welcome!

Without a doubt, the answer to the above question is THE BUSINESS!  But it’s amazing how often we forget this when looking at new technology to implement in a business.  Far too often, a cool new technology noticed by a business owner or the desire of their IT company to play with a new technology drives the decision for an implementation.  While there may be merits of the technology, the decision to affect a business’s production environment should be driven by a business need.  For example, we have clients come to us all the time saying something like, “Shouldn’t we be upgrading to Windows 7?”.  Our reply is usually, “Why?  Do you feel that one of the new features can help with a business problem you are having?”  While the answer is sometimes yes, most often it is because they have a friend who got it or saw a good ad on TV.

As a technology partner for our clients, we use the mantra that business needs should always drive technology implementations, not vice versa.  To help our clients make the best use of their technology investments we will work to understand their business so we can help them make informed decisions.  Some of the things we want to determine are:

• Is there a business problem you are having that is driving this?
• Have you considered all of the costs of this implementation?
• How will this affect your interactions with your clients?

By working in this fashion, we believe it build good long term relationships as we are not simply looking to book every billable project we can get our hands on.  In the long run it is a win/win.

We have compiled a more thorough list of the things we evaluate when helping a client determine if a new technology is right for them.  Download our “10 Reality Check Items to Consider in any Technology Implementation“.

When I was working from home the other day, I started to feel a sharp pain in my side.  At first, it was just annoying but it really started slowing me down.  I was working on filing the forms for my defense in the murder charges that had recently been brought against me which really isn’t that fun so I decided that instead of continuing, I would give myself surgery to see if I could find the cause of my pain and resolve it.  I figured hey, I’ve been living with this body for 38 years, who knows it better than me?

So I got out my trusty pocket knife and jammed it into my side just above the area where the pain was so I could look around.  I took out a few organs and made quite a mess before I realized that I was probably in over my head, so I jammed everything back in and used my trusty Swingline stapler to close my side up.  Then I went back to the murder defense because I was there, who could defend me better than me?

Sound ridiculous?  Of course!!  But for some reason, we step into situations every day where non-technology folks decide that they can setup a new server or firewall themselves because they figure “how hard could it be?” only to find out that their “work” has not not only delayed the project, but for us to undo what they did will take twice as long as if they had simply let us take care of it.

We have created a checklist of questions to ask yourself before embarking on an IT project on your own.  By answering these questions honestly, it will help you decide if you should call a professional.  You can probably come up with a similar checklist for when to call a doctor or lawyer as well.

Download 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting an IT Project on Your Own

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

As many people in the business community are trying very hard to make the most out of a year when all the cards seemed to be stacked against us, it is easy to put off the task of figuring out what we will spend next year to move our businesses forward again.  While budgeting for technology can seem daunting at times, it is the best way to make sure that you take into account all of the things that will help your business run most efficiently with minimal downtime.

We must first consider the standard operational items such as preventative maintenance and support - which every business should have in place.  There are also a myriad of other items that often get overlooked during the budgeting process that can pop up during the year causing undue stress on the budget and the management.  Some things to consider include  software renewals,  such as anti-virus or backup software.  You should also review your current hardware to determine what is out of warranty.  Based upon the function of the device, a warranty renewal or hardware replacement may be in order.

For those of you who have already considered the items above, congratulations!  You are ahead of most businesses at this point.  There are a few more strategic items you might consider,  a new business resumption plan or updates and testing to the one you have to ensure its viability.  Also, in today’s world of hackers and viruses, many businesses are being proactive about auditing their network and web site security to protect their valuable business data.

While this all may seem overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be.  You can use a budgeting template much like the one we use for our clients or simply hire a technology company to review and plan all of this for you.  We have seen many cases where our involvement early in the process has helped our clients plan better and avoid unexpected expenses during the year.

Download the Technology Budget Planning Worksheet