Bring Them Down To Size – Manage Small Business IT with Big Network Techniques

Have you ever felt that your IT systems were running you instead of the other way around? If you've lost data with failed backups, had your email system hold your emails hostage, been unable to get your system to generate invoices…then you know the risks of not managing your small business IT system.

Frustrating? Absolutely. Just the way it is? Absolutely not!

Savvy small business owners know that they can learn a lot from how large scale networks are managed. Large organisations implement systems that reduce downtime, protect data, and generate cost benefits. These companies don't have any secret solutions – they just plan for and actually make changes that keep their IT systems up to date and running smoothly.

Your small business can also benefit from a plan that:

• Identifies and implements the best applications for your needs;
• Controls changes to your network and tracks the related costs;
• Completely documents the IT processes and procedures;
• Tracks your IT assets and manages the financing for your benefit; and
• Includes a well designed disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Any one of these large scale network management techniques can help you get control of your IT system. Implement a full range, and you will find cost savings and a large dose of peace of mind for your small business.
Now…wouldn't it be good if you found a company that could help you do all this, at a small business fee you can afford? You just have.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Is Your Marketing Message Getting Through?

You know what it's like…you open your email in the morning and see dozens of unread emails, maybe more. Now put yourself in your client's place. After dealing with the urgent emails, which messages do you think will be opened and read?

The answer is, the emails that deliver a valuable message, in an easy-to-read and pleasing form, are the ones that will be read and remembered. The challenge for you as a business owner is making sure your message is one of them. Not only do you need a message that works, you need an email marketing system that creates professional-looking emails, helps you manage contact email lists, and measure results. Above all, you want confidence that your messages will be delivered, and you want to be able to collect information from your market.

Sound like a full time job? It can be, but there's another option for the small business owner. Let someone else do it! Instead of spending hours and dollars trying to do it yourself, consider one of the companies that is set up specifically to handle email marketing. Companies like Constant Contact and Vertical Response can help you manage this important part of your marketing program.

The advantage to your business is two-fold. First, these email marketing companies have systems that let you run campaigns, include surveys, and stay in touch with clients and prospects alike. Whether you send a regular newsletter or need a special promotion, they are pros at marketing and might even have some new ideas you can use. Second, and just as important, the time and money you save can be spent where they will do the most good in building your bottom line.

Email marketing is here to stay. If you're going to reach out to your market, doesn't it make sense to get the most for your investment?

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Backup or Break Up – Data Loss Could be Bad News For Your Business

I just saw a very disturbing statistic: 93% of companies that suffer a significant data loss are out of business within five years. That's from the U.S., but data loss doesn't care about national boundaries. Small to medium sized businesses are especially vulnerable if there is no in-house IT staff, which is often the case. Whether from a hardware failure, natural disaster, virus, or just plain human error, the risk of losing data is a business crisis waiting to happen for companies that do not manage the backup process well.

Though most businesses have some backup plan, there is often a gap between plan and reality. When backing up is not someone's primary responsibility, it's too easy to let that slide in favor of some other pressing task. But even when people have good solid backups they do not always take that extra step and test the backups. Have you ever tried to restore files from a damaged tape? Or perhaps from a tape that is taken offsite for safety (good idea) but not available when it's needed (bad idea.) And even backups to other media are only as reliable as the people and the media they depend on.

The thing is, there just is no excuse anymore for not backing up all your data regularly. With on line backup services you can delegate this important function to a company that thinks of nothing but securing, storing, and restoring your data. You can schedule online backups to run automatically to the provider's server, with no interruption to your business.

The data is secured by encryption both during the backup and while stored. And if you need to restore a file, it's generally available in minutes. What if you have staff scattered around the globe, each with a PC full of important data? There are systems for that, too, so that your data can be safeguarded wherever it happens to be. A PC with an Internet connection can also recover those files when needed. And, of course, your data is automatically stored offsite for added protection.

There is a variety of service levels for online backup, so even a small company with a limited budget can find a cost effective solution. Whatever the cost, it is sure to be a bargain compared to recreating lost data. It's some of the least expensive business insurance you can buy. Get started today!

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

The Handheld Revolution

There you are in a hotel two or three time zones from home, feet up and cool beverage in hand. You've finished your meetings for the day and now it's time to open the laptop, check on email, review your next presentation, and get ready for tomorrow. Except the hotel's Internet connection is down so your laptop isn't talking to anyone, at least for the time being. Not a problem. You have your hand-held, perhaps a BlackBerry or maybe a Treo, and you're still in business.

Mobile computing has improved exponentially in the last few years to the point that, today, you can make phone calls, receive and send emails and instant messages, take pictures, update your calendar, browse the Internet, download and review documents, and play music, all from that one small device. There are models that have WiFi capability, 3G technology, and video recording ability. With some, you can even figure out where you are with GPS capabilities.

With older handheld devices, when you were away from home base and your PDA's synching cradle, you had to depend on email or a phone call to let you know about a schedule change. No more. The newer handhelds have push technology that doesn't wait for you to ask "What's new?" Changes to your calendar, tasks, and email in Outlook take only seconds to automatically synch to your BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or mobile phone calendar.

Sometimes what you need is a quick look at a document or spreadsheet. No problem now for the newer handhelds. With small screen readers much better than they used to be, you can receive Acrobat, Excel and Word documents on your phone and read them easily. This capability becomes even more powerful coupled with the latest version of MOSS (Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server) intranet software. Now, handheld users can see mobile versions of their KPI data, those all-important measures of performance.

Imagine you are at a client's office an hour away from your office. How much would it be worth to know that the prospect you've been trying to get in to see for months can see you today if you can be there in two hours? That's when you can quickly see the value of making a full-featured handheld part of your every day business outfit.

With these new mobile computing options there is no longer any question about whether we can be connected anytime, anywhere . Should we always be connected? Ah, that is a topic for another day.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

In Sydney or San Francisco, You're Connected

It used to be that people would ask each other, "How are you?" These days, the question is just as likely to be "Where are you?" For both business and pleasure, people today are highly mobile. But they are also highly busy, so being out of touch is not an option whether the trip is all the way to Geneva or just down the road to a grocery store.

Technology has not only kept up, it frequently leaps ahead of our mobile society's wants and needs. The development of laptop computers was a response to the need for portability. Built-in WiFi was a response to the need for those laptops to connect to the Internet. Now, building 3G ("third generation") modems into laptops means that users can access high-speed data services outside the range of their ISP by relying on the 3G wide area cellular telephone networks. With increased bandwidth and transfer rates, 3G allows for high-speed data exchange to handle Web-based applications, audio, and video files.

All that transmitting and receiving of data can add a feature that no one wants – security issues. Technology has an answer for that, too, of course: the Virtual Private Network (VPN). Imagine that you are sitting at your desk in an office, connected to the company's network through a little blue cable plugged in to your laptop. Imagine then that you pick up your laptop and take it home…with the cable still attached, still connecting you to the company's secure network. That's your VPN. Instead of a cable, though, you connect through the Internet to the company's private network just as if you were still at your desk. Except that you are sitting at home or on the beach or in a café.

The benefits to you are obvious – you can work anywhere and collaborate with colleagues just as if you were in the same building. For the company, there are many benefits:

• Global networking opportunities are increased.
• Travel costs are cut or eliminated for remote users
• Travel time and commuting stress are reduced
• Productivity improves along with employee satisfaction
• Overall operating costs are reduced
• VPNs are secure so confidential data can be shared safely

A few years ago, a small hand-held device became the badge of importance that marked executives and in-the-know technophiles. Now, less than 10 years since its debut, hundreds of millions of people seem to have a BlackBerry as a permanent attachment. It's no wonder, either. The BlackBerry includes a major improvement over the PDAs that went before. Instead of having to manually sync a PDA to your computer, the BlackBerry syncs itself continually over the Internet and cell phone network. So besides your phone calls, a BlackBerry brings email, calendar updates, and documents to the hand-held device.

Mobile computing options are expanding every year. Whether you prefer a hand-held BlackBerry type of phone/PDA, or a lightweight laptop with a G3 modem and a VPN, we can help you communicate and do business anywhere you go in today's connected world. So…where are you?

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Work Side by Side, Continents Apart

Collaboration is one of the hot topics in business today, and Microsoft is getting in on that Groove. Three years ago, Microsoft acquired Groove Networks, a software company based in Massachusetts specializing in productivity software that allows multiple users to work collaboratively on computer files simultaneously. Now Microsoft is bringing the brilliance of Groove into Messenger and other MS offerings.

Imagine MSN Messenger on steroids and you have Office Groove. With this tool, you can chat online with a colleague or several team members about a project you are all working on. In the same workspace you can share files, exchange information, and collaborate dynamically no matter where in the world any of you are.

This is a compelling model for a small business as it is relatively inexpensive to set up. There is no need for elaborate networks as all Groove workspaces, tools, and information are stored right on your computer. This means that you and your team can work productively anywhere you’ve got your laptop. And since collaboration is only useful if everyone is on the same page, automatic synchronisation keeps you and your team members up to date.

Office Groove has five core elements: (from MS Groove FAQs http://tinyurl.com/2rjwpm)

• Workspaces. Containers created by information workers to share information and work together on team projects.
• Tools. Applications added to workspaces by team members for the purposes of sharing and working together on information, both structured (for example, forms) and unstructured (for example, files).
• Presence and Communications. Built-in presence awareness, chat and messaging.
• Alerts. Text and audible notifications that inform workers of key events and work activity.
• Launchbar. A single starting point for users to monitor all Office Groove 2007 elements including workspaces, contacts, presence, and alerts, and to execute basic functions such as creating new workspaces and communicating with or inviting users.

Kick it up a notch by combining Groove with other technologies such as Sharepoint, and you have an environment where:
A team of people (either intra- or extra-corporation) can easily share file and other pertinent subject information.

• Participants can easily see if other team members are available online
• People can work side by side (virtually) on document/spreadsheet/presentation creation.
• You can coordinate teamwork with shared calendars, alerts and notifications.
• Teams create, capture, and share community knowledge
• You can broadcast information with blogs and Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
• And more!

Collaboration without boundaries is here, today. How much can your business improve with Groove?

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Use the Other CRM to Create Future Success

What is the single biggest cost for most businesses? Correct – people. Salaries, taxes, and benefits are a major expense, so managing the hiring and retention of good employees is critical to an organisation's success. In the information age, when knowledge has become the product of value, managing your company's talent resources is as critical as managing cash flow or making investment decisions.

The other CRM – Candidate Relationship Management – is an outgrowth of traditional Human Resource (HR) activities. In the past HR departments have concentrated on making policy, hiring and troubleshooting staffing issues, and managing the risks of being an employer. That's no longer enough. The best managed organisations are reaching out ahead of need to create a system that identifies candidates and builds an optimal workforce for the business. And it's working. Companies that invest in talent management are showing higher performance than their competitors, because it is the people who are the creators of value.

CRM systems are designed to help improve recruiting, development, and retention of employees who have the skills and aptitudes to meet a company's needs, both now and in the future. If your company always seems to be scrambling to find good people to hire, consider adding a CRM system to help expand the pool of qualified, pre-screened candidates before you need them.

There's a good article that includes techniques for building your talent management process here: http://tinyurl.com/2kl72n. CRM tools don't have to be elaborate and expensive to be effective, and there are options for small firms with salaried as well as hourly employees. The key is not size or complexity, but how well you are able to build a knowledge base of good candidates. If you have employees, you owe it to your organization to build a business-enhancing CRM system.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Why Won't My Listing Show Up on the Google?

That's the question many businesses ask. You spend money to design a great, effective website, and you sprinkle the content with what you think are sure-fire keywords. You know enough about search engines to realise that they "look" for not only keywords but also frequent updates to content and activity when calculating your search engine ranking. Each of the major engines – Google, Yahoo, Ask, and others – has a closely guarded system for ranking web sites.

So you have a great site. You want to see your listing there on the search results page. You start trying your keywords in a search and scan down the page of results – your listing isn't there! You go to the next page, then the next…and somewhere down the line you finally find your company.

If you have a product or service that is not unique in the world, this has probably happened to you. Try searching on "computer repair" – in Google I got 17,200,000 possible results! Narrow it a bit more to "computer repair service" and now we have 2,200,000 results. Try again with "computer repair service Sydney" and it's down to 166,000. But that's still a massive number, and if you're not on the first couple of pages of results, chances are people won't scroll long enough to find you.

Why do some companies always seem to be at or near the top of the list? The answer is simple: They pay to be there. That's right, you can buy your way to the top of the page. Look again at your search results, and notice that the very first few results have a slightly different background colour and, in small print, "sponsored results."

But unlike traditional advertising, where you put an ad in a magazine and hope your potential customer sees it, advertising on search result pages is very much targeted. All of the search engines have such programs; you choose your engine and then plan your advertising campaign around it. Google's AdWords is one that has been around for several years and has features that not only help you get business but also help you tweak your ads for best effect.

Here's how it works. You create an ad that Google displays above or beside regular search results, based on the keywords you choose to be associated with. For instance, if you have that computer repair service, you might want your ad to appear when people search for "PC repair" or "computer parts" or even "memory chips."

What's different from traditional advertising is that you don't pay Google to run your ad. You pay them when someone actually clicks on your link, at so much per click. How much? That's also up to you. You "bid" on keywords. If you bid more than other people then your ad will appear nearer the top. In addition to your bid, Google considers how effective your ad is, based on how many people click through, when choosing how high on the list to display your ad.

The major advantage of using AdWords is that, if someone uses your keywords in a Google search, you know they are looking for what you are advertising. You've hit your target. Google also has great tools that help you refine your ads to be better targeted. Using their reporting capabilities, you can even tell you which buttons are being clicked.

AdWords can be a cost-effective part of you marketing. To get started, visit our web site and let us help you.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

What's All the Fuss over VoIP?

Sometimes that thing that sounds too good to be true turns out to really be true. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) has turned into one of those techno-promises that has proven its potential, especially as a cost saver for business.

The concept is simple – plug your phone into the Internet, and talk to the world as if it were all next door. And the reality is almost as easy: VoIP service converts your voice to a digital signal, and that can be sent over the Internet. On the other end, it comes out as your voice in a signal that the receiver can process – cell phone, wired phone, whatever. VoIP does require a broadband (high-speed Internet) connection for your computer, but these days you need that just to conduct business effectively anyway.

Since the service starts with your computer, your desktop computer can actually make calls directly from your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Now, while you talk to a customer you can also be reviewing their information on your computer, entering orders, checking schedules, or even writing a confirmation of your phone conversation. Sure, you could do that before, but what was that phone call costing you?

As simple as the VoIP concept is, the main attraction has always been the potential cost savings. Installing a traditional wired phone system for your office with multiple stations could be an enormous investment. But a VoIP PBX system with up to 16 extensions costs under $2,000. And if that got your attention, how about calling from Sydney to Perth for just 10c? Period. Now your mobile phone can become an extension of your PBX, and a call to a mobile can cost only 20c/minute, regardless of the carrier.

During the early days of VoIP there were stories of dropped calls, just as there were with the early cell phones. But the technology has advanced rapidly, and these days VoIP is highly reliable. You do need to understand how the system works and what services are available, because there will be differences from your old style wired phone system. But that brings us to another advantage of a computer-based VoIP phone system - one service provider can install and support everything for you. That provider will be able to advise you about the best service choice for your business.

So give VoIP a look and a listen. With the cost savings and increased efficiency, I think you will soon be saying, “Now we’re talking!”

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Dashboards are Not Just for Cars

Remember the first time you slid behind the steering wheel of a car, gripped the wheel, and saw the instruments on the dashboard? It was exciting to feel that you could be in control of that powerful machine. All the dials and gauges spread out before you told you how fast you were going and how well the car was functioning. You had all the information you needed to go wherever you liked, whenever you wanted.

I can’t promise that thrill each time you look at your business dashboard, but you will find it gives you the same sort of up-to-the-minute readout on how well you are doing on your business journey.

A business dashboard presents visual displays of data pulled from different business systems, and tells you at a glance how things are going. A dashboard can provide real-time intelligence that includes your key performance indicators (KPIs), and can generate ad hoc reports to support decision-making. The display might include red-yellow-green lights, graphics such as bar charts and gauges, summaries, and drill-downs, all to provide consolidated information.

A well-designed dashboard is customizable and usually role-driven, so that the dashboard displayed on the company president’s screen will be different from that of the CFO or the middle manager. The good news is that the source data for a dashboard is probably already sitting in your system right now. With a bit of planning and design work, the information living down in your digital records can be given visible form and made to work for you in new ways.

Employees benefit from having the information they need to do their job right at their fingertips, and dashboards generally allow for customization to the individual’s likes and interests. For the CFO, accounts receivable aging status can be displayed in a bar chart, but the same data could appear as a pie chart for the CEO. The Sales Manager can see the comparison of monthly goals to actual performance, and then drill down to each salesperson’s individual performance. And for the Project Manager who has customized his desktop with widgets for weather and surf conditions, it’s a simple matter to add KPI information to tell him which tasks are on, ahead, or behind schedule and which are running over budget.

In your car you have spread before you all the vital information to get from where you are to where you are going. Fuel remaining, speed, distance traveled, engine function, warning lights, perhaps even compass direction as well as time and distance to destination. On your computer screen, the digital dashboard does the same for your business.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

Choosing an ISP, with Emphasis on SERVICE!

Have you noticed that the more choices you have, the harder it is to decide between things that look and sound similar? If you aren’t already an expert, how can you choose? When buying a digital camera, how do you choose the right combination of mega pixels, optical zoom, digital zoom, wide angle, memory cards, batteries, and so on? You want a checklist that would say “Here’s what to look for.”

I can’t help you with the camera, but I can make the task of choosing your Internet Service Provider (ISP) a little less daunting. First of all, let’s be sure we’re talking about he same thing. An ISP is a company that provides access to the Internet for a fee. An ISP might provide dial-up service, cable, DSL, or other types of Internet access. For a business, having cable, DSL, or another high-speed connection is essential, but it is just the start. To make the best use of technology today, you will want to be able to provide appropriate access to your network to employees and customers.

How do you know whether an ISP has what your business needs? These are some of the key questions to ask:

• Does the ISP offer permanently managed VPN (Virtual Private Network) links between offices or outworkers to the main office? A VPN allows for multiple locations to have a secure permanent connection over the internet. It also allows key employees to gain full access to all network services – in effect, enabling to them to work as if they were sitting in the office, no matter where they actually are.
• Does the ISP offer link services in every location you want to be in? If you do not have access to your ISP wherever you are, then it is not going to provide value to your business.
• Will the ISP deliver and install your communications service to your locations? If you have several offices, or remote locations, they all need to be connected to your ISP to take full advantage of high-speed connectivity.
• Does the ISP offer QoS (Quality of Service) so that services such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) can perform well? VoIP is a new sort of phone service. It allows you to call and communicate with friends, colleagues and others, whether those people are also using VoIP, or whether they are using a conventional telephone service. VoIP lets you place voice calls using your broadband service as the medium that carries your voice, instead of using the 'Plain Old Telephone Service (or POTS) to do it. In order for VoIP to work well, though, the network has to have the capacity to guarantee that data will flow without delay. QoS is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance. QoS guarantees are important if the network capacity is limited, for example in cellular data communication, especially for real-time applications, such as voice over IP (VoIP), since these are delay sensitive.
• Are anti-spam filters available? The fastest network can grind to a crawl when overloaded with spam (junk email.) You want an ISP that includes anti-spam filtering in its services. You should be able to “blacklist” senders that you never want to receive messages from, and likewise “whitelist” senders that you always want to allow through.

With an ISP as with most other things, you get what you pay for. So whilst yes's to all these points may cost a little more, the advantages of getting FULL service from an ISP is well worth the investment. Put another way, what is the cost of a dropped call with an important customer? How much might it cost to have an employee idle because he cannot log on to his VPN account and get information to complete an important proposal? Choose an ISP with the emphasis on Service to give your business the best competitive advantage.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don't sweat - Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.