According to Symantec SMB, 50% of SMBs admit to having no backup and disaster recovery plan in place. 41% of those surveyed confessed that they had never even given much thought to implementing a disaster recovery or business continuity plan. If you are one of them, then you really need to think about whether you can afford the status quo. Answering these questions will help you decide.
1. How often is employee productivity and customer accessibility or service stalled each day from a downed network or system?
2. How much downtime can your business truly afford and what kind of backup or recovery solutions are in effect when systems are unavailable?
3. What level of IT support can be accessed? Can it be accessed quickly enough to minimize damage? Are you confident that your business can either be back online or be able to access lost data with minimal disruption, no matter what?
4. Is your most critical data frequently backed up? Is the data on the personal laptops, iPads or Blackberrys of employees backed up? Are all backups stored in a location off-site and quickly accessible in the event of theft, fire or flooding? Are you using any custom installed software and is the supplier still in business should this software need to be re-installed or updated? Are account details, licensing agreements, and security settings somewhere on record, and is it duplicated off-site?
5. Are your systems truly protected from theft, hackers, and viruses? Are passwords to sensitive data changed whenever employees leave the company or business unit?
6. When was the last time you tested backup processes to ensure they are working properly? How quick were your back ups?
Answering these questions will help you understand if you are needlessly bleeding money every day by subjecting your business to the high hourly rates, service charges, trip fees and wait times of on-call IT support. If you are an SMB, you don’t have to fear technology failure. A trusted MSP can help you resolve these challenges in a more effective and efficient manner.
Mitigate Costly New Technology Risks for Continued Stability and Profitability
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadnaIs your Business Safe from Virtual Threats?
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadnaIs That Email a Phishing Scheme?
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadna2. The links seem to be fake – Phishing emails always contain links that you are asked to click on. You should verify if the links are genuine. Here are a few things to look for when doing that:
How Much Does Downtime Really Cost Your Business?
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadna1. Customer Loss – Today’s buyer lacks patience !important; They are used to getting everything at the click of a mouse, at the tap of a finger. Suppose they are looking for the kind of products/services that you offer and your site doesn’t load or is unavailable—even if temporarily– you are likely to lose them to a competitor—permanently.
2. Damage to Brand Reputation – Customers are now using Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and blogs to vent their bad brand experiences. Imagine an irate customer who doesn’t know if their card was charged on your site, or not, due to a server error. If it’s your bad day, they could probably be using Facebook or Twitter to share their bad experience, and it could be viewed by hundreds of people, causing irreparable harm to your brand image.
3. Loss of Productivity – When your systems don’t work, this can have a direct impact on your employees’ productivity. Consider a research firm of 200 employees where they primarily rely on internet connectivity to access the knowledge base. If the server hosting the knowledge base is down, there’s a total loss of at least 1600 work hours for one day.
4. Overtime, Repair and Recovery, Compensatory costs – In the above case, imagine the overtime wages the business would have to incur if they were to make up for the work loss they faced owing to downtime. In addition, there’s always the cost of repair—the money the business would have to shell out to fix the issue that caused the downtime and get the server up and running again.
In some cases, businesses would have to incur additional costs to make customers happy. These could include giving away the product for free or at a discount, or using priority shipping to make up for a delayed order.
5. Possible Lawsuits – Businesses could also be at the receiving end of lawsuits. For example, a downtime that has an impact on production, delivery or finances of the customer could invite litigation.
6. Marketing Efforts Rendered Useless – Consider a pay-per-click advertisement that shows up for the right keywords on Google, or an extensive e-mail campaign that your business engages in. However, when the prospect clicks on the link, all they see is an error message – Isn’t that a waste of your marketing budget?
The bottom line—one natural disaster, one technical snag or just one power outage has the power to put you out of business – both virtually and in reality. It’s probably time to think about how you can mitigate the threat of a possible downtime and whether your MSP can act as an effective and efficient ally in this battle for you.
Has Your Website Been Optimized for Mobile Users?
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadna1. Make sure your mobile site is different from your regular website – While you must stick to your branding standards, your mobile website should be simpler than your web version. The reason being is that complicated designs that load well and look good on computers are often distorted when accessed through a mobile device. Plus, mobile surfers don’t really have the time to sift through a lot of content. Bottom line: your website’s mobile friendly version should be short, simple and sweet…offering your viewers the most important and basic sections of your website.
2. Option to access the actual website – That said, do provide your viewers with the option to access your regular website through their mobile device, as some viewers will prefer to stick with what is familiar.
3. Sitemap – Whether it’s your actual website or the mobile version, make sure you have a sitemap in place. A sitemap just makes it easier for your viewers to navigate through the site.
4. Get rid of flash – Most mobile devices don’t support flash. Keep this in mind when optimizing your website for the mobile surfer. Simple images that load fast are your best bet.
5. Testing – Make sure you test your mobile website thoroughly on different operating systems, browsers and devices. What looks good on one device might be totally distorted on another.
You could also develop a mobile application instead of a website, but most SMBs find that option too expensive and complicated. So, for now, put the 5 tips mentioned above into use and get your mobile-friendly website into action…
Five Ways Your Business Can Improve Its Search Engine Rankings
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadnaFive Things You Should Do Right Now to Preserve Your Network and Systems
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadnaData Loss Can Cause You to Shut Down
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadnaCan You Really Afford Not to Have a Backup Plan?
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by teamadnaSo Long Vista! Windows Vista end of life coming next month
/0 Comments/in News /by teamadnaWindows Vista’s lifecycle comes to an end on April 11, 2017. This date is the end of extended support and end of life.1 We strongly recommend that you upgrade or replace any personal and business Windows Vista machines to Windows 10.
Mainstream support for Vista ended in April 2012. Mainstream support includes requests to change product design and features, non-security updates, and complimentary support. Extended support for Vista ends on April 11, 2017, which means there will no longer be security updates, any non-security updates, and paid support available.2
With no available updates (complimentary or paid), continuing to use Windows Vista after April 2017 could open you up to potential security risks.
1 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet
2 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14085
Mainstream support ended for Windows 7 in January 2015, and extended support will end in January 2020. Windows 8 does not reach the end of mainstream support until January 2018, and Windows 10 in 2020.