Work safety and injury prevention - a common topic in all blue collar jobs. Did you know that many of us who work in white collar jobs also need work safety? Safety from what? From the computer. There are a number of injuries you can get from sitting at a desk working on a computer all day, do you know what they are and how to prevent them?

The majority of injuries sustained while working with computers are not instantaneous, they happen over time. The most common form of computer related injury is the Repetitive Strain Injury, also known as RSI. Soft tissue, muscles, tendons, nerves and ligaments are all susceptible to RSI. With proper maintenance and knowledge, almost all RSIs can be prevented. If left unchecked, an RSI could lead to lost time and possibly irreparable damage.

Eye Strain Eye strain happens when you have overexerted your eyes. The most common symptoms include:

• pain around the eyes,
• dry eyes,
• fatigue,
• photophobia (sensitivity to light) and
• blurred vision.

Often, severe eye strain will also cause pain or tension in the neck and shoulders. The most common causes of eye strain are poor workspace layout and sub-par lighting conditions.

The good news is that in most cases, eye strain won’t lead to permanent vision complaints, but if left unchecked it could cause productivity problems. The easiest way to prevent eye strain is to work in a space with lighting that is neither too strong or weak, and have a light source that does not create glare. It is equally important to take short breaks from the monitor. Follow the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something (not another monitor) 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

Posture Related There are a number of related injuries to your posture, including: back pain, neck pain and headaches. These injuries typically come from bad posture, combined with sitting for an extended amount of time. It may not seem like you can injure yourself by sitting in a chair all day, but your muscles are not designed to stay in the same position for such a long period of time, and doing so can result in muscle pain. Poor posture at work can also lead to an increased chance of a herniated disc, commonly called a “slipped disc”.

There are a number of things you can do to minimize posture related injuries.

• Adopt a proper posture. Have a chair that pushes the small of your back (bottom) out, as this will promote a more natural spinal position. Try not to cross your feet, as comfortable as it is, as doing so puts pressure on your lower back.
• Get up and move around every 20 minutes to half hour.
• Stretch. Move your joints through their normal range of motion.
• If you have kinks or muscle pain, gently massage the area with a kneading motion.
• Get up. There is a rising trend of using a standing workstation - this could be another option.

Arm Related The most common type of injury to the arm is the well-known Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). This mainly happens in two places: the wrist and the elbow. CTS occurs when the median nerve (one of the main nerves) is compressed. CTS in the wrist is the most common RSI, and can be a costly injury. The median nerve also passes through the elbow. If compression occurs there, it can result in an injury commonly called “tennis elbow”. Symptoms include: numbness of the hand and arm, pain and weakness in grasping.

There are a number of things you can do to prevent CTS:

• Keep your mouse and keyboard close together.
• Type and hold the mouse gently.
• Remove your hands from the mouse and keyboard when not using them.
• Take frequent breaks to move your wrists and elbows through their natural range of motion. Be careful to not over extend.

With a combination of breaks, ergonomic workplaces, and other preventative measures you and your staff will see fewer injuries and higher productivity. If you would like to learn more ways to prevent injuries, or increase productivity please contact us.

“Cybercrime”, “malware”, “hackers”. Three common buzzwords that have caused businesses untold amounts of lost profits, breached data and so on. As much as we would like to say that cybercrime is being eradicated, we can’t. It isn’t going to go away, but if you are aware of the common cybercrime trends, you can take steps to protect your business.

A quick Google search for “cybercrime trends” yields over 78 million results, the majority of which are likely to affect large enterprises or governments. While it is beneficial for all businesses to be aware of the major trends, there are a number of threats that will affect small businesses more than others. Here are some current cybercrime trends that SMEs should be aware of.

Mobile Malware Smartphones are becoming ever more popular, and with this popularity has come an exploding number of apps. Malware developers have been picking up on this during the past few years and there have been an expanding number of apps dedicated to attacking your phone or mobile platform. The most common type of malware on mobile devices is spyware, followed by SMS Trojans. SMS Trojans run in the background of some applications, and make international calls or text messages from the developers’ services causing huge phone bills. The final form of malware targets online payment apps on the phone.

One of the main reasons this form of malware has become so popular is due to the openness of some markets, such as the Android Market. The owners of the app markets are working to track down and get rid of the guilty apps on their marketplaces, but you still need to remain vigilant. while installing apps. Look at the developer of the app - how many times has it been downloaded? Maybe double check the app’s integrity online before installing and double check the app on the internet.

Open-Source Malware Kits A common thing malware developers do is write code for malware and then sell it to interested buyers. But a rising trend is that developers are writing malware that is open-source—any person can download and change it. The worrying thing is, many developers of already powerful malware have been releasing open-source versions of their software. This means that there will be an increase in the number of malware attacks out there, as devious developers can easily come up with more elaborate hacks.

Banking Trojans Along with the open-source malware kits, there has been an increase in the number of banking trojans—aimed at stealing account information and passwords. While these trojans have been a threat ever since banks first started offering online banking, they have become popular again as people and businesses are starting to move their online banking onto mobile devices, and the trojan software is easily accessible. This makes mobile banking apps an easy target.

With cybercrime on the increase, now is a good time to review your security, ensure its up to date and remind employees of your mobile device policy. If you don’t have a policy in place, or feel that your security is inadequate, give us a call, we are happy to help you. Remember: with good security and knowledge, there is no reason you should fall victim to cyber theft.

Many businesses have come to rely on both internal and external technology networks for day-to-day operations. If there is a problem with a network, a small business can lose more than just profit—with a large enough outage the business could go under. 24/7 networking can help prevent this from happening.

How can 24/7 network monitoring help your business, you ask? Through preventative operations. The main idea of network monitoring is to act as an “Early Warning System” to let managers and owners know of potential problems before they strike.

What Does Network Monitoring Monitor? There are a number of things you can monitor with Network Monitoring. The most popular areas include application and system performance, bandwidth usage, and server status. You can also set up monitoring of additional areas, for instance: server load, ink levels in printers, time left on software license agreements, which devices are connected to the network, their data usage, and more. This is all done 24/7.

The one thing Network Monitoring does not normally monitor is unauthorized access to networks. It can be set up to look for unauthorized access, but this is normally taken care of by another system.  

How Does Network Monitoring Help Me? Network Monitoring is a preventative system, intended to warn you about potential network problems so you can proactively seek solutions before a vital network goes down. This makes it, in a round-about way, a justifiable addition to business value since, when implemented right, there will be less network crashes—which means less or no profit loss.

What Should I Monitor? In an ideal world, you would monitor each and every network. Over time, you can get there, but if you’re like most Small Business owners or managers, you have neither the time nor the budget to implement a full system. As with most projects, it’s suggested that you implement a system like this in stages. The most common areas to start with are:

• Local Area Network (LAN) Data
• Internet data usage
• server status
• alerts to existing networks

If you’re unsure of where to start, try contacting a local Network Monitoring service, or hire a consultant to establish a system. If you would like to know more about 24/7 Network Monitoring, or other ways to improve business value, please contact us.

IT is a constantly evolving industry and one of the newer integral parts of it is cloud computing, which has been gaining in popularity especially with small businesses. As we are just finishing the first quarter of the year, cloud users will be glad to know that there are several emerging trends that promise to make cloud computing more efficient and secure.

Anyone who tells you that the cloud has reached a peak is definitely mistaken. While cloud computing is already a powerful IT service that has made a positive difference in the way businesses operate—especially small and medium sized ones—there are still many aspects of it that are continuously being improved and developed.

Better security One of the major trends in cloud services is improvements in the security aspect. Businesses trust cloud providers with important and sensitive data, and with cyber-attacks becoming more frequent and clever, vendors have to step up their security protocols and keep clients’ data safe.

Wider integration and compatibility As it stands, there are still several issues between clouds (especially public ones) and an enterprise's systems, which limits the connectivity and data exchange between users. The same can be said for the current standards being used, which have the tendency to be very vendor-centric. The trend now is to reverse this, and provide better connectivity and data sharing, as well as less vendor-centric standards for better compatibility and integration.

A more ‘solid’ cloud It’s unfortunate, but expected, that there are service providers who are hitching onto the increasing popularity of cloud computing by offering half-baked cloud services. As time progresses, expect to see a better definition—which will reflect in the service provided—of what cloud computing can and cannot do.

As expected of any emerging technology, cloud computing has a ways to go before it reaches its peak. Expect to hear better things about the cloud in the coming months and years as businesses continue to maximize the potential of cloud computing, and vendors and service providers constantly find ways to improve what is already a fantastic concept.

If you are interested in knowing more about cloud services and what it can do for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us so we can address your specific inquiries and concerns.

Virtualization. Many business owners know exactly what it is and what their companies are doing in regard to it. Whether your company has virtualized some or all of your business, it’s evident that there are cost savings. A recent report found that some organizations have achieved up to 269% return on investment from the process. Read on to learn how.

What is Virtualization? Virtualization is the creation of a virtual computing environment, where one hardware system can run multiple virtual environments. Common types of virtualization include servers, storage devices, or networks. The benefits of virtualization include lower costs, improved IT management, and reduced energy consumption.

The Survey A report published by CDW-G focuses on government organizations in the United Sates. Many SME owners and managers like yourselves are probably asking, “How do study results involving the government help my business?” Well, if you look closer you can see that what the government organizations did can easily be replicated by SMEs, just on a smaller scale.

Results In recent years, many companies have had to tighten their belts due to economic difficulties. Government agencies are no exception. The results of the survey found that agencies and organizations realized investment returns as high as 134 to 269%. The survey found that if IT managers invest in Server Virtualization, Document Management, Storage Virtualization, and Cloud Computing in that order, the returns on Server Virtualization alone can help pay for, if not totally cover the cost of, the other three processes. CDW-G found that on average, the total cost of implementing all four separately is over USD 1.1million, but when implemented in order, the average cost was around USD 400,000.

While it is unlikely that SMEs will see a return on investments of this magnitude, it is highly likely that they will see increased returns if they follow this method of re-investing returns from Server Virtualization into the other three steps. In times of economic stress, this could be a huge boost to your bottom line.

Helpful Recommendations From the results, CDW-G offered some useful recommendations that all businesses can use:

• When budget cuts are needed, first look for ways to increase efficiency without service cuts.
• Review technologies and processes to identify inefficiencies.
• Consider savings and efficiency opportunities in all new solutions.
• Leverage available savings into new projects.

As with any new process, it’s equally important to ensure that you educate the users of the processes and stay on your toes to keep updated.

In the past Business Intelligence (BI) software and practices were limited to MNCs and large enterprises. With the growing number of SMEs, BI software and system developers have been turning out many useful products for SMEs. Is your company planning on implementing BI practices?

If you are looking into integrating Business Intelligence at your company, no matter what system you choose or the size of the project, there are a number of things you need to be aware of in order to make the implementation successful.

4 Things to Know before You Start Before you start any BI project, there are 4 key BI implementation areas that you and your company will need to be clear on:

1. Data or Information: In most SMEs there is a limited amount of data available, so you need to be sure where all the relevant data is located. This typically includes client and employee information kept on accounting systems, spreadsheets or contact manager databases, sales or business reports, industry and competitor information, and more.
2. Technology: A large number of BI programs require technical systems that are stable and have minimal downtime. It’s a good idea to ensure that your systems meet the requirements and are stable. As with any software, be sure to do your homework and pick a system that is reliable and compatible with your business. Don’t just pick the cheapest system – pick the system that best meets your needs.
3. Knowledge: Many SMEs have employees that wear more than one hat, and as such may not be experts in any one thing. It’s important that, when implementing BI, you have employees who understand it and the related systems. If you don’t, there are many qualified BI consultants out there you can turn to for help and training.
4. Communication: It’s crucial that you have constant communication with the employees involved in the implementation, and that you explain what BI is, the analytics used, how to interpret what the results mean, and the actions to take.

Your Criteria To Success Once you have picked a good system, there are a number of criteria you should aim for to ensure successful implementation:

• Align Business and Technical: It’s important that the business side of your company knows about the implementation and will actually use it. Both sides need to work together to ensure an aligned team.
• Piece by Piece: It’s a good idea to not implement BI across your whole organization in one go because that involves far too much work and complication. Instead, look at the areas of your organization that could benefit the most from BI and start there. For the majority of organizations, Customer Service and Sales are a good choice.
• Ease of Use: Chances are, your employees do different jobs and won’t concentrate solely on BI. Therefore, you might want to pick or develop a system that is easy to use. As a benchmark, pick a sales or business manager and, if possible, a business analyst, and see how long it takes them to learn the system. The bigger the gap between the learning time of these employees, the harder the system is to use.
• Flexibility: It’s common knowledge that your business is always changing. Therefore, It’s a good idea to ensure that the BI system you choose is flexible and can be quickly and easily adapted to meet changing needs. If you have a rigid system, it will be successful in the short term, but a nightmare or even a failure in the future.

With planning and patience, BI will bring about an improved business and bottom line. If you would like to learn more about BI or would like help implementing it please contact us.

When we hear someone mention “Microsoft Excel” many of us will instantly think of an open spreadsheet we are working on, or have recently seen. Known by all business owners and managers, and mastered by few, Excel has become one of, if not the, most widely used business applications. While it is a widely used program, there are a number of errors that are confusing. Read on to learn about the most common ones.

While most of us are comfortable with Excel, there are many times when we have had an error pop up that is more or less confusing. Let’s face it, when we see “!#%&” characters many of us are at a loss. Here are some of the most common errors you come across in Excel, what they mean, and how to fix them.

####### This is one of the most common errors, with the # sign filling the cell. This error means that you have entered data in the cell that is longer than the cell’s size. For example, 1234567890 will show up as ##### if that column is not wide enough to fit all those numbers. This error will also show up when you have formatted a negative number as a date.

To fix this error, simply re-size the column (A, B, C, etc.) by clicking the edge of the column and dragging to the right to make larger. Or check to see if you have a negative number that is formatted as a date, and if so format the cell as a negative number instead..

?Name# This error means you have have an error in the formula or range. For example, =counif(!6:B99, “Y”) In this case, “counif” should be “countif”. Also, the “!6” should be a column letter and 6 (i.e., B6).

To fix this error, click on the cell with the error, and look at the formula in the formula bar, usually located above the spreadsheet, and correct the formula like this: =COUNTIF(A6:B99, “Y”)

#REF! If you have a formula that refers to other cells in the spreadsheet, and then you change one of those cells to data that does not compute in your formula, you will get the #REF! error. For example, if your formula for C6 is: =SUM(A1:A5, B1:B5, C1:C5) and you delete B1, you will get #REF! in C6.

The easiest fix to this is to hit: CTRL+Z, or Undo under Edit. If you made the error a long time ago and Undo does not work, then make sure all cells referenced in the formal contain valid information.

Circular Reference You get this error when you have entered a formula that includes the cell where you have entered the formula. For example, the formula =SUM(A2:A5) is entered into A5. Excel is essentially telling you that it is chasing its own tail, and can’t catch it.

The easiest way to fix this error is to simply click on the original cell, and remove the reference to the cell that the formula is entered in.

The Little Green Triangle in the Cell If you see a little green triangle in the top left corner of a cell, Excel is telling you there is an error with the formula. This is useful if you aren’t sure about what the error means. If you click on the arrow, you will get an ! with Trace Error. Click this, and Excel will give you a drop-down menu with options.

What if I Can’t Find the Error? If you are having trouble locating the error, or do not want to spend time searching for the error in a long formula, click the Formula tab and the arrow beside Error Checking. You can click either Trace Error or Circular Reference and Excel will point out the error, or provide the cell name with the error. From there, select the cell and look at the formula or data entered to determine the problem.

One of the enemies of the IT department is the hacker. Hackers have always been a problem and continue to keep IT staff on their feet, and now there is a new hack out there that goes after your business’s banking information. Be aware that this hack is one of the most ingenious hacks to date and could cause widespread problems for your business.

The hack, a variation of the Man-in-the-browser (MITB) hack, is a form of Trojan horse that mainly infects a Web browser and has the ability to change a Web page, insert orders or transactions covertly. The user will not notice any change to the website. This particular hack infects user’s computers with a Shylock malware program, a new form of malware that focuses on bank accounts and financial transactions.

The user goes to a banking website, attempts to log in and is given an error message stating that security checks are being undertaken. After a few minutes a window pops up telling the user that a representative from the bank will be contacting them to go over their account details. A chat window will open up and the “representative”, who is really the hacker, will ask the user for their account information. While the user and hacker are talking, the hacker will log into the account and proceed to go to town, so to speak.

At this time, it seems like the hack is not widespread, but it is spreading, and it is one of the more sophisticated programs out there. To learn more about this or any other security threat that may have you worried, please contact us.

All businesses have a reputation. Some have good reputations and are viewed as industry leaders, while others with poor reputations end up becoming blacklisted. Your reputation, weather you want it or not, is online — and is often the first thing customers and investors will come across when searching for you. How is your reputation?

Reputation is important to all businesses. If your business does not have a good reputation, it’s almost certain that you are scaring away customers. In the past it was easy to judge the reputation of your business: all you had to do was ask the local population what they thought. With the advent of the Internet and, more specifically, social media, your reputation has gone online, and is easily observed and influenced by many millions.

Your online reputation can be tricky to measure and manage, but it can be done effectively. Here are some tips for getting started.

Be Aware of Your Internet Presence Many companies have pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more. The only problem is that they don’t spend time maintaining them. It’s a well known fact that when a customer wants to find information on your company, they are not going to call you. They will Google you, or check you out on Facebook, Linkedin, or another social media outlet. It’s important that you know exactly where and how your business appears on these websites.

How to Assess Your Presence It’s a good idea to do a web search using keywords pertaining to your business on the major search engines. Simply enter these keywords into the search engine:

1. Your name
2. Your company’s name
3. Your main product or service
4. High profile employees, past and present
5. User names

Record the results of each search. It’s important to look for the number of negative responses, indifferent responses, and responses in which your company is not mentioned. If you have a large number of negative responses, especially in the top results, you need to work on improving your reputation. If you have lots of results with no information, it’s time to start getting your name out there.

When searching, take note: Due to the increasing personalization of search engines it’s best to log out of all your accounts, and turn off personalized search. When searching for your company, the majority of users will enter a keyword and normally only look at the first few pages of results, so be sure to review the first three pages of your search results.

Protect yourself You may have the Social Media side covered, but what about your URL? Be sure to buy not only the direct URL of your company’s name, but also any related URLs for your company. For example, if your company has a unique product, buy the URL under that name. This is important not only in helping people find you, but also in preventing a disgruntled customer or employee from buying a similar URL and creating a website to slander you and damage your reputation.

Be Proactive With Your Presence It’s important that once you know your reputation, you are proactive about monitoring and improving it. This doesn’t mean you need to spend hours each week searching for your company online. Tools such as Google Alerts help you automatically track result changes based on keywords, and website such as Technorati allow you to quickly search for keywords across many blogs and set up alerts for new mentions.

You should also be involved in industry blogs, monitoring them regularly and becoming part of the “conversation” in your industry. Try to establish a strong presence in your industry by showing how knowledgeable you are. You can also encourage employees to share company news and act as brand ambassadors by empowering them to be open with their thoughts on the company. With careful management, they can be a powerful brand tool.

Be Accountable If you come across negative reviews or posts about your company, consider objectively what is being said. While some people are simply out there to harm the company, many others will be more than willing to discuss what you have done wrong, or at least provide some feedback. It’s also a good idea to be proactive and set up a FAQ section on your website that covers the most commonly asked questions as well as negative issues, such as: “What do I do if I am unhappy with my product or service?”

Use a Social Media Management Company Small business owners like yourself may not have the time to manage your reputation effectively, or the money to hire a full-time staff member to manage it for you. What you can do is to work with a company that specializes in reputation management, allowing you to concentrate on your business. Online Reputation Management has become big business, and will continue to be a major trend in 2012 and beyond.

It’s important to keep up with your reputation management because the success of your company is directly affected by it. There are many ways to improve and manage your reputation, but positive changes won’t happen overnight. If you have questions about reputation management and would like to learn more, please contact us.

In the past few years there have been a large number of natural disasters causing untold amounts of damage, setting many companies back years if not decades. There isn’t much we can do to avoid these disasters, but we can be prepared for them. Is your company prepared?

Most companies have at least basic protection from emergencies and disasters in place. The most common forms of protection are insurance, server and computer backup, and basic preparations as required by law. While these protective measures are considered adequate for most companies, there is still a chance a disaster will strike, leaving your company in the lurch.

In the recent months and years an increasing number of occurrences, such as the earthquake in Japan and flooding in Thailand, have caused widespread disruption to businesses. To counter this, two business initiatives have risen to the forefront: Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Planning (BCP). In fact, these two terms have become common buzzwords, a quick internet search returns over 53 million hits on business continuity alone. The problem is that many professionals are unclear on what each really is. It’s important to be clear on each topic and the basic steps to take to be prepared for any disaster.

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? BCP, first seen during the Y2K scare of the late 90s, is a plan that covers the way an organization prepares for and maintains all critical business functions. BC planning is comprised of activities that ensure maintenance, stability, and recoverability of service before, during, and after a disaster. The plan is typically set up on a day-to-day basis, and covers the whole organization.

It’s important to have a BCP for your organization because if something happens and you can’t deliver to your customers, they will go to another company.

What is Disaster Recovery? Disaster Recovery is considered a part of the overall continuity plan that focuses on the technical side of the business, including components such as data backup and recovery. Think of BCP as an umbrella and DR is under the umbrella — if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan, the overall umbrella is more or less useless.

What Should be in Your DR and BCP Plans? These plans both share a number of similarities, generally following the same steps involving the same elements. Both plans should include:

1. An operational plan for a number of disasters that could happen in your geographical area. The plans should cover occurrences as small as computer hardware errors and as large as massive natural disasters.
2. A succession plan for you or your top management.
3. Training for substitute employees on important tasks.
4. Cross training of your employees on the basics of different roles so they will be able to take over if need be.
5. A communication plan focused on different crises, including ways of communicating if networks are down.
6. Off-site meeting places for staff and managers.
7. A focus on safety. Foster partnerships and communication with local and emergency response services: Fire, Police, National Guard, Search and Rescue. Ideally, all employees should at least know basic first aid. If you have employees who are volunteer members of local Emergency Response Services, ask them to be responsible for teams.
8. Daily plans to backup your Enterprise systems, along with training and testing of recovery of systems.
9. Training and testing of all employees to practice recovery activities in situations as realistic as possible.

It’s important that you conduct regular tests of your systems and processes, and make changes as needed. Be aware that your business is always changing and so should your Business Continuity and Disaster Recover Plans.

With a carefully prepared and practiced plan, your business should be ready to face a variety of disasters with minimal downtime. If you would like to know more about Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery please contact us.