MJ's Business IT Blog

7 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn from the Navy SEAL's

I have long been in awe of the Navy SEAL's and our military in general.  While never having had the privelage of serving myself, I find myself even more intriqued by our nations defenders now that one of my nephews has enlisted in the Navy.  He's not a SEAL, at least not that I know of, but I'm certainly more sensitized to anything related to the Navy, so when I saw this headline, I immediately read the article and it's a great read.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Make Sure You Have Backup For Your Cloud Strategy

There is no question that the Cloud holds a lot of promise, but it also has its risks.  Just this week, Intuit, the maker of the very popular QuickBooks accounting software, suffered a very serious, multi-day cloud outage.

What does this mean?  Their web sites were down at www.intuit.com and www.quickbooks.com.  More importantly, over the past several years, Intuit has quietly baked in a lot of cloud dependant services into their software.  If you use Intuit Payroll Services inside QuickBooks, this is a cloud service that depends on Intuits data centers.  During this outage, you were not able to process payroll.

E-mailing invoices and purchase orders from within QuickBooks also relies in part, on Intuit's cloud and you may not have been able to send those documents.  If you accept credit card payments through QuickBooks, you may not have been able to get credit card approvals or receive the deposits associated with them.

In the latest version, QuickBooks 2010, Intuit has also added highly integrated document management, to scan and attach accounting documents like packing lists and bills, to the QuickBooks transactions they are associated with.  You could not access these files during the outage.

If you use Intuit's hosted version of QuickBooks, you could not use your accounting software at all during this outage.  Was this the end of the world?  No.  What is inconvenient and an interruption to your business?  It may have been.  Could you have worked around the outage?  You should have been able to, provided you had considered these possibilities and had backup plans and processes in place.

In this specific example of a cloud outage, you should have been able to continue to work using manual processes, whether that was writing checks, processing payroll manually and keeping track of the days receipts by hand.  However, if you had not considered these possibilities, it was likely an extremely frustrating couple of days.

The point is that the cloud is not infalible.  There will be outages and you need to have plans in place to deal with them.  While the Internet has become extremely reliable, don't kid yourself, there will be outages.  Whether it's your ISP or your cloud service provider, outages will happen and you need to have backup plans in place to keep your business running effectively during these periods.  Embrace the cloud, but do your homework and be sure you have considered the risks and taken reasonable steps to mitigate them.

It's Not just the Droid Incredible...

Apple is reporting that AT&T and Apple itself, have run out of their launch day supplies of the new iPhone 4.   AT&T has reportedly stopped taking orders because demand has been so high and they need to regroup and clearly communicate when the device will be available again.  Demand for these smartphones is simply crazy!

Follow up to the Droid Incredible Review

I just saw an alert come by that Verizon Wireless is now telling customers that orders placed for the Droid Incredible may not be delivered for a month.  You can see the ship date that shows online on the Verizon Wireless site in this picture of the phone.

Seems demand for this popular high end smartphone is much greater than either the carrier or the manufacturer, HTC, anticipated.  Yikes. 

If you seriously want one of these, and you should, you better get your order in fast if you want to see it anytime this summer.  Good luck!

The Incredible Droid Incredible

I've recently been reviewing several new Android based smartphones for Verizon Wireless.  The most recent smartphone I have reviewed is the Droid Incredible, manufactured by HTC.  I have to say, this is really one incredible smartphone, and there is absolutely no pun intended!

The Droid Incredible or HTC Incredible (depending on where you see the name, it may be referred to by either name) is one of the fastest and lightest smartphones I have ever used.  In fact, I liked this phone so much, that I have switched to it as my full time smartphone.  It really is incredible.

Let's start with the hardware.  The phone is very light and nicely formed.  It has rounded edges and is very comfortable to hold, whether reading e-mail or talking on the phone.  It looks very similar to the iPhone and is probably the closest head to head competitor to the iPhone in terms of the complete package.  In side is one of the fastest smartphone processors on the market, a healthy amount of RAM and a whopping 8 megapixel camera.  The phone is very smooth and fast.  I have not encountered any issues related to hardware performance.  And, I have to say, the camera is the best I've seen yet, for a smartphone.  The still and video quality are excellent and I no longer carry around a small dedicated camera as a result.

In terms of the user interface, HTC adds what they call the Sense overlay to the standard Android interface.  While I wasn't sure early on, I have come to really like Sense.  It's adds some intuitive and very functional elements to the stock operating system that make it even more enjoyable to use.  As silly as this may sound, I love the weather gadget on the home screen.  It cracks me up that wipers come across the screen when it's raining and I have not seen any negative impact on the battery as a result.  Mostly, I like how it keeps the phone application front and center at the bottom of the screen. While I used to user LauncherPro on my Motorola Droid, I'm perfectly happy with the Sense interface on the Droid Incredible.  I also like the myriad of utility widgets that HTC provides for easy access to wireless, bluetooth and other settings.

Another very efficient overaly is the messaging interface.  HTC does a phenomenal job bringing together text and visual voice mail in one single and efficient interface that is extremely intuitive to work with.  Another nice feature of Sense is the seven home screens you can customize.  It makes the phone very functional.

In terms of user experience, size, weight, features, speed, memory and more, you just can't beat this device.  It really is the best smartphone I have seen to date and the fact that it has been on a 2+ week backorder since it's lauch speaks volumes.

I definitely recommend a screen protector for this device and I use the Seidio Innocase and holster along with the extended battery they offer in the standard size format, so I have two batteries, just in case.  However, to date, I have yet to exhaust the battery in a single days use.  I'm thoroughly impressed by that, because I use my Droid Incredible all day long!

If you are looking for a new smartphone or due for an upgrade, I strongly recommend the Droid Incredible.  You will not be disappointed.

Tech Talk: The increasingly intelligent 'smartphone'

I was not planning to write about smartphones again so soon, but this week's announcement of the latest iPhone by Apple as well as the recent announcement of new Android-based smartphones make this topic too timely to hold off.

The announcement this past Monday of the fourth generation iPhone has been eagerly anticipated. While the announcement did not hold anything nearly as revolutionary as the first announcement of the iPhone, Apple has certainly built on its innovative traditions by adding high-definition video and a front facing-video camera to enable video chat with this latest version. But perhaps most notably, the curves of the device have been slightly diminished and the size is being heralded as the world's thinnest smartphone to date. The screen is also so high quality that it has a higher resolution than is discernible by the human eye. In other words, it's crisp beyond description.

It's too soon to know if this latest edition of the iPhone will make it even more of a hit than it already is, but it is certainly not going to diminish its market share. The new iPhone will be available later this month, and we are sure to see droves of current owners rushing to upgrade to the latest hardware as well as causing many who have been holding off to dive right in.

Perhaps what was missing the most from the announcement of the new iPhone was its rumored arrival to the Verizon Wireless network. It didn't happen, at least not yet, and I will not waste column space speculating on whether it will come to carriers other than AT&T before the 2012 expiration of the reported exclusive contract between Apple and AT&T.

Over the past several months, Verizon Wireless has sent me several new Android-based smartphones to evaluate, the more recent being theHTC Droid Incredible, a phone I have begun to think of as the incredible Incredible. For those on the Sprint network, the new EVO 4G is a nearly identical device. What has impressed me the most about the Droid Incredible is similar to what impresses me about the iPhone. The intuitive nature of the device, aided in part by some additional software from HTC, manufacturer of the phone, that simply makes it a pleasure to use.

I have had several clients mention to me recently that they no longer rely on their notebook or home computer for remote access to their offices. Rather, they use their smartphones, whether an iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile or Blackberry device, to access much of what they need while they travel.

One client even boldly commented to me that he does not take his notebook with him on any business trips less than four days as he can stay in contact with everyone he needs to with his smartphone, including reviewing documents and spreadsheets. This more than anything illustrates just how far smartphones have come. Business people across industries are able to operate without their main computer for days at a time thanks to these devices. It's truly impressive.

Smartphones are capable of providing secure access to business resources at a much higher level than ever before.

To be able to carry a single device so thin and light as to be able to be comfortably placed in a shirt pocket that can access not just your e-mail but also files on the company network, securely and efficiently, is a real benefit to many in the business community.

From an information security point of view, the fact these connections are secure and encrypted is critically important. Moreover, the fact IT administrators have the tools to remotely wipe out and erase a lost and stolen device provides the security necessary for many industries.

These developments are part of what is fueling the rapid pace of development of these devices.

I plan to release my detailed review of the HTC Droid Incredible on my blog at mjsblog.jenaly.com over the coming week and may devote a future column to that review, as well.

In the meantime, if you have not made the move to a smartphone, I encourage you to do so.

You won't regret it.

Latest Article Published - Securing your data goes beyond the obvious

I have written several columns over the past year focusing on data privacy and security. Over this time, there have been several new regulations that have come into effect that require businesses to take specific steps to secure their customers' data.

With all that has been written, by myself and others, there are still an alarming amount of data breaches. Individual computer users and companies at large continue to do reckless things online that put data and business security at risk. You would think this would not be the case, but it is. A recent report by Consumer Reports notes more than 1.7 million cases of online identify theft over the last year. The report further stated more than 2.4 million individuals submitted information to phishing e-mail messages. Phishing e-mail messages are e-mails that often appear to be coming from legitimate organizations, like your bank, and ask you to reply with specific sensitive information, like your account number or other similar information. The report estimates the cost of cyber crime last year at $4.5 billion. That is a staggering cost and one that needs to be mitigated.

With the dramatic increase in use of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and others, this report and others find that people post far too many details about themselves, facilitating identity theft. Many surveys show people will post complete address information and even things like names of their children, which may potentially expose your children to online advances. The threats are numerous and getting very subtle, so vigilance and common sense needs to be stressed at every opportunity.

A threat often overlooked in the office environment is the office copier, more commonly referred to as the office multi-function device. These are your large copiers that are now much more; the network scanner, copier and fax machine. These devices have changed dramatically over the years. Remember when you got your first office copier how you had to place the document in the feeder and wait for the copier to warm up, then it would pull in the original and kick out the copies one by one. Today, everything is based on the scanning engine in these units. When you place your original document into the device, it will rapidly scan in the document and then print the copies. This has led to dramatic increases in efficiency with these devices, but it also has introduced a security threat very few people recognize. In fact, you may have seen a recent CBS news expose on this topic.

Simply stated, when you use these devices, the documents you are copying and scanning are being stored, albeit theoretically temporarily, on an internal hard drive within the device. After you have received your scanned document or taken your copies back to your desk, data on those documents remains on the internal hard drive. When the time comes to dispose of this device, either by direct disposal or a trade-in back to your vendor, the data goes with it. There are documented cases of multi-function devices being removed from medical offices and returned to the vendor and replaced with a new unit. When the returned unit was inspected and hard drive removed, sensitive medical data was retrieved from the drive and that medical office had just violated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy laws. This is a serious matter and one very few business people understand.

These devices are often leased and every few years, the vendor will replace the leased device with a new one. It's very important that part of the process be a secure wipe of the internal hard drive to ensure your business does not expose sensitive data or worse, unknowingly facilitate a data breach by not managing these devices properly.

As you can see, there continue to be many threats to your data security and privacy, some of which are obvious and some are not. It's important to maintain a dynamic information security policy in your organization that adapts with the changing landscape and helps you do everything possible to keep your systems and data safe.

Thanks for reading.

Great Post on Crisis Management

The following is a blog post by my good friend Robin Robins, who is a marketing coach and owner of the Technology Marketing Toolkit.  I want to share this post as there is some sage advice in here that will speak to just about anyone, especially those of us that run businesses.  Enjoy the read and please check out the original post here.

What To Do When Facing a Crisis

by Robin Robins on April 13, 2010

Running a business is already pretty tough – so what do you do when out of the ordinary problems get piled on top of the herculean problems on every business owners’ shoulders? Just recently I received a few e-mails like this from people who were registered for the boot camp. In some cases, they called to cancel. A few others ARE coming, and wanted to get direction from me on how to use this as a catalyst for change. In essence their questions were all the same: “What should I do when facing a personal/business crisis?” How do you turn things around — or simply just keep yourself moving forward – when faced with incredible adversity, problems, health issues, lawsuits, money problems, divorce, and even a death of someone close to you?

Personally, I’m no stranger to problems myself. Last fall comes to mind when I was dealing not only with a very difficult personal issue that I won’t mention here, but skin cancer, two lawsuits, challenges with a key employee, turnover and a big, gut wrenching problem with a key client. All this landed on my plate during a time when I was traveling about every other week during the busiest time of year for us. Yet I didn’t skip a beat and kept all my personal and professional commitments, quickly reorganized some business plans and initiatives and had to put a few major projects on hold. Only prayer and few good, stiff drinks got me through. And no, I don’t wear a cape and I don’t share this with you to brag – I share this with you because many people never see that side of my business or life and think I’m somehow “lucky” to have “everything going for me” when nothing could be further from the truth. I just don’t go around complaining about it.

Fortunately, things have turned around quite nicely; sales are up, the boot camp was sold out a month early, and so far (knock on wood) everything is going according to plan. So to answer this question, I can only share with you what I did.

1. Choose only one or two really key initiatives and focus on them. As the saying goes, when you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s tough to remember your original goal of draining the swamp. Now more than ever you have to know what’s most important and hunker down to focus on these alone, cutting all the other time-wasting fat from your schedule.

2. Get around people who will support you. Dr. Hallowell says you should never worry alone. That’s great advice – but make sure you “worry” with people who can actually provide you constructive advice and the kind kick in the butt you might need to pull you socks up and get moving again. Peer groups and Master Mind groups are best for this. On multiple occasions I’ve had members going through seriously difficult times who were able to turn things around fast after braving a “hot seat” during a meeting.

3. Be the ant, not the grasshopper. You KNOW problems are coming…it’s inevitable. Your next grand, sweeping failure or crisis is right around the corner; so what are you doing now to prepare for it? One of the things that saved me was the fact that I had been working very hard to build reliable marketing systems and operations in the business…so when crisis hit, that was (at least) one area that wasn’t bleeding. I’m also a BIG believer in getting yourself completely out of debt (home, cars, etc) and saving up 6-8 months of personal income, as well as 3-6 months of retained earnings for your business. It’s amazing how that keeps Murphy away. If you want more on this, tune into my friend Dave Ramsey.

4. Never forget how you respond to a problem is a choice. Two people get on a rollercoaster. One is thrilled and having the time of their life. The other is terrified, white knuckling it the whole time. What’s the difference? The meaning and interpretation they give to the exact same experience.

I’ve heard people say that, “Adversity builds character.” I don’t believe that. I think adversity REVEALS character…and if you’re already plagued with lousy work habits, poor management of money, no real reliable marketing systems in place, no solid client base, and a complete lack of a plan and concrete goals, one little bump in the road is going to kill you. Obviously the best way to survive a crash is to avoid it in the first place.

Do You Know What's Being Said About Your Company Online?

With Social Media finding it's way into every business and aspect of life, do you know what's being said about your company online?  If not, you should.  You want to know about both the good and the bad.  There may be people praising your company or writing about good things you are doing and wouldn't you like to know that?  The flip side is that there may be some negative things being said and I would hope you want to know that and have the opportunity to respond before your reputation suffers, fairly or unfairly.

Google Alerts is a great tool to monitor for this.  It's super simple to setup and you can receive a daily message with all the times your company has been mentioned online.  If your company is known for specific products or servcies, consider setting up alerts for those names as well.  If you're in a business that services other businesses, also consider setting up alerts for your customers, so you can give them a pat on the back when you notice something positive being said about them.  They will certainly appreciate it.  Give it a try, you'll be glad you did!

Virtualization for the Small and Mid-Size Business

Virtualization is a hot topic in the IT industry, but like many hot topics, is there a clear benefit for your business?  The simple answer is a resounding YES.

VMware is the market leading virtualization pioneer, though several other companies have their own excellent virtualization technologies, including Microsoft and Citrix.  For even the smallest business with just a single server, virtualization makes sense.  In these environments, we recommend VMware's ESXi platform, which believe it or not, is also FREE!  Price is no issue here.

ESXi leverages hardware resources very efficiently and does not require much more overhead than a traditional single server.  All that is really necessary is a little extra memory and fast hard disks, neither of which will add significantly to the cost of a new server, depending how you configure it.

Running your server virtually offers many benefits, some that are "green" in nature and others that are quite practical from a business point of view.  Say you need to add a new server to your environment, either for a line of business application like a document management server, or to provide more robust remote access, like a terminal server.  With a virtualized foundation, you don't need to install another physical server, rather you can leverage your existing server hardware and simply setup the new server right alongside the existing one, within the virtualized environment.  Upgrades and backup become a snap, as in snapshot.  You may easily take snapshots of your virtualized environment to help speed the efficiency of your upgrade process or to provide enhanced disaster recovery capabilities.

As your business grows, a virtualized environment will serve you well in terms of flexibility and expandability.  You may decide to graduate into a more robust virtualized environment that will provide advanced management and features like redundancy.  Instead of having to scrap your existing infrastructure, you will be able to smoothly migrate into these new technologies.

So, if you will be considering any type of server upgrade, be sure to evaluate virtualization and it's many benefits for your business.  It will serve you well.