InfoBusiness 2.0

If you think your existing phone services are too costly, or you aren’t satisfied with your phone company’s offerings, then check out the new voice over IP (VoIP) systems.  These systems use existing Internet lines to transfer voice data, and in most cases, are far less expensive than traditional phone services.  Additionally, they provide features that are not available with standard landline service, such as video conferencing. 

You can quickly and easily replace your existing service by transferring your phone number to a VoIP provider like Vonage.  You’ll get all the features you need, plus unlimited calling throughout North America and five European countries (note: please check with each service provider for current rates and plans).  And, International rates may be as much as 50 percent lower than what you’re paying now. 

Corporations can leverage the many VoIP services available through most major phone companies, or purchase the systems offered by telephony solution providers such as Cisco, Nortel, and Alcatel-Lucent.  Companies looking for a smaller-scale solution can look at packages provided by BizPhone and other manufacturers.  You can get complete VoIP with fully-integrated voice mail, greetings, auto attendant, and other advanced features for as little as $2000 (for eight extensions and four phone lines). 

One of the most affordable solutions on the market today is offered by Project Asterisk.  This Linux-based software provides many of the same features as the larger, more expensive VoIP systems, but without the hefty price tag.  In fact, it has no price tag at all.  Many hardware providers sell their systems with Asterisk software pre-installed and ready-to-go. 

Or, if you prefer a standard office PBX model, Packet8 can integrate all of your existing employee phones as extensions.  Staff around the globe – in the US, Canada, Mexico, Russia, or any other location – can be seamlessly linked together through one PBX system for as low as just $40 a month for each extension.  No more long distance fees, no missed calls, and no lost voice mail. 

Long before there were VoIP systems, there were computer-to-computer communication systems. This type of software has been around for quite a while, can be downloaded directly from the Web, and is, in most cases, free.  Once this software has been installed on your desktop computer, it will enable you to talk to anyone, anywhere – in another room, or even another country – as long as they have the same software installed.

The most famous computer-to-computer communication software is Skype.  Millions of people have signed up for, and are actively using this service.   All major Internet Messaging solutions – such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and ICQ – have free talk features as well.  Many of them even offer free Web or video conferencing. 

There are also computer-to-phone and phone-to-computer systems to consider.  These allow you to make calls to anyone in the world at discounted rates.  You can receive calls as well, as long as you have speakers, a microphone, and a special service enabled.  Skype, for example, offers Skype In and Skype Out.  For a small monthly fee, Skype In will provide you with a local number in any available city (the complete list of available cities can be found on the Skype Web site).  People that dial this number will be automatically forwarded to your computer.  Caller ID, voice mail, and other features are also available through this type of service.  And, for a low per-minute rate, you can use Skype Out to call any phone, in any country, right from your computer.  You can even make calls from Windows Pocket PCs and other handheld devices. 

Other solutions worth mentioning include VBuzzer, Packet8, and Gizmo Project. With VBuzzer, you can obtain a North American phone number for just $2 per month.  Gizmo Project uses a standard data transfer protocol known as SIP to provide a free phone line to your computer.  The company has recently formed an alliance with Google to offer one-cent per minute calling to all US phones. 

More advanced users can purchase a USB or WiFi phone to connect to their computer and VoIP service, so they can make and receive calls through the device. 

Six Things You Must Do At A Minimum To Protect Your Company From These Types Of Disasters:

   While it’s impossible to plan for every potential computer problem or emergency, a little proactive monitoring and maintenance of your network will help you avoid or greatly reduce the impact of the vast majority of computer disasters you could experience.

   Unfortunately, I have found that most small business owners are NOT conducting any type of proactive monitoring or maintaining their network, which leaves them completely vulnerable to the types of disasters you just read about. This is primarily for three reasons:

#1. They don’t understand the importance of regular maintenance.

#2. Even if they DID understand its importance, they simply do not know what maintenance is required or how to do it.

#3. They are already swamped with more immediate day-to-day fires demanding their attention. If their network is working fine today, it goes to the bottom of the pile of things to worry about. That means no one is watching to make sure the backups are working properly, the virus protection is up-to-date, that critical security patches are being applied, or that the network is “healthy” overall.

   While there are over 37 critical checks and maintenance tasks that need to be performed on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, I’m going to share with you the 6 that are most important for protecting your company.

Step#1: Make Sure You Are Backing Up Your Files Every Day

   It just amazes me how many businesses never back up their computer network. Imagine this: you write the most important piece of information you could ever write on a chalkboard and I come along and erase it. How are you going to get it back? You’re not. Unless you can remember it, or if YOU MADE A COPY OF IT, you can’t recover the data. It’s gone. That is why it is so important to back up your network. There are a number of things that could cause you to lose data files. If the information on the disk is important to you, make sure you have more than one copy of it.

Step #2: Check Your Backups On A Regular Basis To Make Sure They Are Working Properly

   This is another big mistake I see. Many business owners set up some type of backup system, but then never check to make sure it’s working properly. It’s not uncommon for a system to APPEAR to be backing up when in reality, it’s not. There are dozens of things that can go wrong and cause your backup to become corrupt and useless. That is why it’s not enough to simply back up your system; you have to check it on a regular basis to make sure the data is recoverable in the event of an emergency. Remember the Health Products Company that shelled out $40,000 to recover data they THOUGHT they backed up? Don’t let that happen to you.

Step #3: Keep An Offsite Copy Of Your Backups

   What happens if a fire or flood destroys your server AND the backup tapes or drive? This is how hurricane Katrina devastated many businesses that have now been forced into bankruptcy. What happens if your office gets robbed and they take EVERYTHING? Having an offsite backup is simply a smart way to make sure you can get your business back up and running in a relatively short period of time.

Step #4: Make Sure Your Virus Protection Is ALWAYS On AND Up-To-Date

   You would have to be living under a rock to not know how devastating a virus can be to your network. With virus attacks coming from spam, downloaded data and music files, instant messages, web sites, and e-mails from friends and clients, you cannot afford to be without up-to-date virus protection.

   Not only can a virus corrupt your files and bring down your network, but it can also hurt your reputation. If you or one of your employees unknowingly spreads a virus to a customer, or if the virus hijacks your e-mail address book, you’re going to make a lot of people very angry.

Step #5: Set Up A Firewall

   Small business owners tend to think that because they are “just a small business”, no one would waste time trying to hack in to their network, when nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve conducted experiments where I connected a single computer to the Internet with no firewall. Within hours, over 13 gigabytes of space was taken over by malicious code and files that I could not delete. The simple fact is that there are thousands of unscrupulous individuals out there who think it’s fun to disable your computer just because they can.

   These individuals strike randomly by searching the Internet for open, unprotected ports. As soon as they find one, they will delete files or download huge files that cannot be deleted, shutting down your hard drive. They can also use your computer as a zombie for storing pirated software or sending spam, which will cause your ISP to shut YOU down and prevent you from accessing the Internet or sending and receiving e-mail.

   If the malicious programs can’t be deleted, you’ll have to re-format the entire hard drive causing you to lose every piece of information you’ve ever owned UNLESS you were backing up your files properly (see 1 to 3 above).

Step #6: Update Your System With Critical Security Patches As They Become Available

   If you do not have the most up-to-date security patches and virus definitions installed on your network, hackers can access your computer through a simple banner ad or through an e-mail attachment.

   Not too long ago Microsoft released a security bulletin about three newly discovered vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to gain control of your computer by tricking users into downloading and opening a maliciously crafted picture. At the same time, Microsoft released a Windows update to correct the vulnerabilities; but if you didn’t have a process to ensure you were applying critical updates as soon as they become available, you were completely vulnerable to this attack.

   Here’s another compelling reason to ensure your network stays up-to-date with the latest security patches…

   Most hackers do not discover these security loopholes on their own. Instead, they learn about them when Microsoft (or any other software vendor for that matter) announces the vulnerability and issues an update. That is their cue to spring into action and they immediately go to work to analyze the update and craft an exploit (like a virus) that allows them access to any computer or network that has not yet installed the security patch.

   In essence, the time between the release of the update and the release of the exploit that targets the underlying vulnerability is getting shorter every day.

   When the “nimda” worm was first discovered back in the fall of 2001, Microsoft had already released the patch that protected against that vulnerability almost a year before (331 days). So network administrators had plenty of time to apply the update. Of course, many still hadn’t done so, and the “nimda” worm caused lots of damage. But in the summer of 2003 there were only 25 days between the release of the Microsoft update that would have protected against the “blaster” worm and the detection of the worm itself! 

   Clearly, someone needs to be paying close attention to your systems to ensure that critical updates are applied as soon as possible. That is why we highly recommend small business owners without a full-time IT staff allow their consultant to monitor and maintain their network.

Special Report:

What Every Small Business Owner Must Know About Protecting And Preserving Their Company’s Critical Data And Computer Systems

If You Depend On Your Computer Network To Run Your Business, This Is One Report You DON’T Want To Overlook!

   This report will outline in plain, non-technical English common mistakes that many small business owners make with their computer network that cost them thousands in lost sales, productivity, and computer repair bills, as well as providing an easy, proven way to reduce or completely eliminate the financial expense and frustration of these oversights.

You’ll Discover:

§  The single most expensive mistake most small business owners make when it comes to protecting their company data.

§  The universal misconception business owners have about their computer networks, and how it can end up costing between $9,000 to as much as $60,000 in damages.

§  6 Critical security measures every small business should have in place.

§  How to greatly reduce – or even completely eliminate – frustrating crashes, slow performance, and other annoying computer problems.

§  How to avoid expensive computer repair bills and get all the computer support you need for a low, fixed monthly rate.

Dear Colleague,

   Have you ever lost an hour of work on your computer?

   Now imagine if you lost days or weeks of work – or imagine losing your client database, financial records, and all of the work files your company has ever produced or compiled.

   Imagine what would happen if your network went down for days, where you couldn’t access e-mail or the information on your PC. How frustrating would that be?

   Or, what if a major storm, flood, or fire destroyed your office and all of your files? Or if a virus wiped out your server…do you have an emergency recovery plan in place that you feel confident in?

   How quickly do you think you could recover, if at all?

   Many small business owners tend to ignore or forget about taking steps to secure their company’s network from these types of catastrophes until disaster strikes. By then it’s too late and the damage is done.

But That Could Never Happen To Me!
(And Other Lies Business Owners Like To Believe About Their Businesses…)

   After working with over a 100 of small and mid-size businesses in the Greater Toronto Area, we found that 6 out of 10 businesses will experience some type of major network or technology disaster that will end up costing them between $9,000 and $60,000 in repairs and restoration costs on average. 

   That doesn’t even include lost productivity, sales, and client goodwill that can be damaged when a company can’t operate or fulfill on its promises due to technical problems.

   While it may be difficult to determine the actual financial impact computer problems have on your business, you can’t deny the fact that they do have a negative effect. If you’ve ever had your business grind to a screeching halt because you and your employees could not access the data or systems necessary for operations, you must have some idea of the frustration and financial loss to your business even if you haven’t put a pencil to figuring out the exact cost.

Take a look at these statistics:

• Companies experience an average of 501 hours of network downtime every year, and the overall downtime costs an average of 3.6% of annual revenue.  (Source: The Costs of Enterprise Downtime, Infonetics Research)
  
  
• 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster, and 50% filed for bankruptcy immediately. (Source: National Archives & Records Administration in Washington.)
  
  
• 20% of small to medium businesses will suffer a major disaster causing loss of critical data every 5 years. (Source: Richmond House Group)
  
  
• This year, 40% of small to medium businesses that manage their own network and use the Internet for more than e-mail will have their network accessed by a hacker, and more than 50% won’t even know they were attacked. (Source: Gartner Group)
  
  
• Of those companies participating in the Contingency Planning & Management Cost of Downtime Survey: 46% said each hour of downtime would cost their companies up to $50,000, 28% said each hour would cost between $51,000 and $250,000, 18% said each hour would cost between $251,000 and $1 million, and 8% said it would cost their companies more than $1million per hour. (Source: Cost of Downtime Survey Results, 2001.)
  
  
• Cyber-criminals stole an average of $900 from each of 3 million Americans in the past year, and that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of PCs rendered useless by spyware. (Source: Gartner Group)

What These Failures Are REALLY Costing Your Business

   Even if you don’t factor in the soft costs of lost productivity, there is a hard cost of repairing and restoring your network. Most major network repairs will require a minimum of four to eight hours on average to get the network back up and running. Plus, most consultants cannot get on-site to resolve the problem for 24 to 48 hours. That means your network could be down for one to two days.

   Since the average computer consultant charges over $100 per hour plus a trip fee and a surcharge if it’s an emergency, the average cost of these repairs is $600 to $1,000; and that doesn’t even include any software or hardware costs that may also be required. Over a year, this results in $1,800 to $3,000 in costs without even considering hardware and software costs, or other soft costs of lost sales and work hours. Of course, those numbers quickly multiply with larger, more complex networks.

   What’s most exasperating about this situation is that 100% of these disasters and restoration costs could have been completely avoided or greatly mitigated easily and inexpensively with a little planning and proactive maintenance.

Putting a data backup system into place is just the first step.  In order to fully prepare for an emergency, you need to create a thorough business continuity plan.  Do you have temporary office facilities secured, so you have a place to operate in the event of a fire or flood?  Who will be responsible for restoring systems if your entire infrastructure collapses?  Statistics show that 80 percent of organizations who do not implement a well-structured continuity plan shut down within 12 months after a major event. With a “Plan B”, you can ensure that all links in your business chain will operate smoothly if a disaster strikes.       

Start your plan by calculating the cost of down time, then determine how much down time you can afford.  For example, if your company brings in revenues of $10 million a year, and follows a 9 to 5/Monday through Friday working schedule, then one hour of down time would cost you about $480.  That means that for every hour your business is idle due to unforeseen computer problems, almost $500 of your hard earned cash goes down the drain. 

If you cannot afford any downtime at all, then you’ll need to implement 24×7 computer monitoring, and make sure that technicians are always on call to immediately resolve any issues that may arise.  Although there are expenses associated with this approach, it will still cost you far less than losing hours, or even days of productivity while you wait for someone to fix your computers. 

There are many basic monitoring software packages available, from vendors such as Uptime Software, IP Monitor, Chevin Software, and NetScout.  These solutions can be set up to page you, or your technicians, in the event of a problem.  You can even set up the paging system to alert your technicians first, then page you if the problem is not resolved within a few hours. 

The 5 Most Important Things You Should Do To Make Sure Your Company Is Protected From These Types Of Disasters:

While it’s impossible to plan for every potential computer disaster or emergency, there are a few easy and inexpensive measures you can put into place that will help you avoid the vast majority of computer disasters you could experience.

Step#1: Make Sure You Are Backing Up Your System

It just amazes me how many businesses never back up their computer network. Imagine this: you write the most important piece of information you could ever write on a chalk board and I come along and erase it. How are you going to get it back? You’re not. Unless you can remember it, or if YOU MADE A COPY OF IT, you can’t recover the data. It’s gone. That is why it is so important to back up your network. There are a number of things that could cause you to lose data files. If the information on the disk is important to you, make sure you have more than one copy of it.

Step #2: Perform A Complete Data Restore To Make Sure
Your Backups Are Working Properly

This is another big mistake I see. Many business owners set up some type of backup system, but then never check to make sure it’s working properly. It’s not uncommon for a system to APPEAR to be backing up when in reality, it’s not. Remember the Health Products Company that shelled out $40,000 to recover data they THOUGHT they backed up? Don’t let this happen to you.

Step #3: Keep An Offsite Copy Of Your Backups

What happens if a fire or flood destroys your server AND the backup tapes or drive? What happens if your office gets robbed and they take EVERYTHING? Having an off-site back up is simply a smart way to make sure you have multiple, redundant copies of your data.

Step #4: Make Sure Your Virus Protection Is ALWAYS On And Up-To-Date

You would have to be living under a rock to not know how devastating a virus can be to your network. With virus attacks coming from spam, downloaded data and music files, web sites, and even e-mails from friends, you cannot afford to not be protected.

Not only can a virus corrupt your files and bring down your network, but it can hurt your reputation. If you or one of your employees unknowingly spreads a virus to a customer, or if the virus hijacks your e-mail address book, you’re going to make a lot of people very angry.

Step #5: Set Up A Firewall

Small business owners tend to think that because they are “just a small business”, no one would waste time trying to hack in to their network, when nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve conducted experiments were I connected a single computer to the internet with no firewall.  Within hours, over 13 gigabytes of space was taken over with malicious code and files that I could not delete. The simple fact is there are thousands of unscrupulous individuals out there who think its fun to disable your computer just because they can.

These individuals strike randomly by searching the internet for open, unprotected ports. As soon as they find one, they will delete files or download huge files that cannot be deleted shutting down your hard drive. They can also use your computer as a zombie for storing pirated software or sending spam which will cause your ISP to shut YOU down and prevent you from access the Internet or sending and receiving e-mail.

If the malicious programs can’t be deleted, you’ll have to re-format the entire hard drive causing you to lose every piece of information you’ve ever owned UNLESS you were backing up your files properly (see 1 to 3 above).