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Article Check - Desktop Management: Saving Your Small Business Resources!
Follow up, as we said last time, is a critical component of your marketing system. You need to stay in touch with your contacts. The tricky part is making sure your follow up doesn't cross over into pestering. This is where creative follow up comes in.Last time we gave you some follow up tips, here are some more to help you kick start your follow up strategy:Ask your contacts to get together with you over breakfast, lunch, dinner, golf etc... to catch up or explore potential business energies.When you are running a special promotion, send your prospects a follow up letter extending the offer to them personally.Pass along a newspaper or magazine clipping or URL that you think could be of interest to your prospects.Periodically send along some educational tips or FAQ’s as a creative follow up.Send along a case study. This type of follow up showcases how you are helping other businesses like theirs.When something new and interesting happens, use the opportunity to send a follow up letter. Examples include when you win a major account, win an award, move to a new location, launch a new product, or provide a new service guarantee.An excellent type of follow up, and one that will help hold you in high regard, is to send a warning letter about a virus outbreak, a hoax, or some other IT security issues.Bottom Line on Follow-UpFollow up is used as a reason to stay in touch. You want your name to remain in your leads' minds. To do this effectively you need to come up with innovative excuses to follow up. Don't use your follow up to make a hard sell - that's not the point. You want to be perceived as a friendly, neighborhood computer business whose follow up is helpful, interesting, and engaging. We have given you a number of creative follow up ideas, now it's your turn to get out and try some of them.Copyright MMI-MMVII, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Become an Actuary? What the heck is an actuary? That’s what I first said when I heard that job title. Little did I know that being an actuary has been consecutively ranked as one of the best jobs in United States by the Jobs Rated Almanac. The fundamental role of an actuary is to assess a company’s exposure to economic risk. Given that the job was first conceived in the insurance industry, it is no coincidence that insurance companies still employ the majority of actuaries. Think your insurance premiums are too high? You can blame an actuary for that because it is the actuary’s job to calculate and set the rates so that insurance companies can stay profitable.To make such calculations, requires knowledge of mathematics beyond algebra and actuarial modeling. Although not necessary, most actuaries have at the least a bachelor’s degree. No specific major is required but courses in calculus and probability will help an inspiring actuary past the battery of exams needed to become a full-fledged actuary. (Hint: Those with degrees in quantitative fields such as mathematics and statistics do quite well on the exams.)The actuarial exams are probably the biggest obstacles in becoming an actuary. The exams have the reputation of being the most rigorous of all professional exams, even harder than the Certified Public Accountant or Chartered Financial Analyst exams. Nevertheless, the exams can be mastered with perserverance and many hours of studying. After passing four to six exams and completing a few college-level courses, one can become an Associate actuary. At this level, it is possible to start making six figures, however, the mega bucks start when you become a Fellow in one of the actuarial societies. This is attained after passing all of the required exams, roughly ten (10) exams.I encourage you to visit D.W. Simpson, an global actuarial recruitment company, which posts their yearly salary surveys. To give you an idea of the six figure potential, an Associate with 4.5 to 6.5 years of experience has a salary range of 85-121K/year, while a Fellow with same amount of experience makes between 106-157K/year. If you are a Fellow with 19.5+ years of experience, you can expect to make anywhere from 148-409K+/years. The great thing about the actuarial profession is that most employers encourage their budding actuaries to pass exams by giving them pay rais
Introduction.......................................................1
Importance of PC Management.........................1
Effective PC Management.................................2
Alternatives for Acquiring Good Tools: Build, Software as a Service,
Outsource..................................................................2
Building an Internal PC Management Infrastructure.....3
Software as a Service...................................................3
Outsourced PC Management........................................4
Morton & Morton’s Perspective...................................4
Introduction
Personal computers have delivered on the promise of productivity for knowledge workers. As a consequence, desktop and laptop computers have proliferated to almost every knowledge worker in a company. Advances in network bandwidth and the availability of wireless connectivity options have radically increased the number of home and remote workers. However, the increased use of personal computers and remote access has added significant workload and coordination to the already busy IT schedule.
For many companies, desktop management is not a core competency and there are other IT tasks that are considered mission critical or more strategic. Yet for many knowledge workers, the desktop is mission critical. Schedules, correspondence, contact lists, presentations and work in progress all live in the desktop for most office workers. Take away the desktop and work stops until the desktop is back up and running.
Most small and medium businesses do not have the IT staff and tools to treat desktop management issues with the attention they deserve. IT shops in small and medium sized companies are generally over-taxed and doing the best they can to keep the IT infrastructure running smoothly. Budgets are much smaller than those of their large enterprise counterparts, staffing is limited, and toolsets are few and far between. Too often manual processes and “just enough to get by” scripting is the answer to desktop management in the small and medium sized company. Individual users can be left to handle minor issues for themselves, and pseudo power users often get themselves into trouble and require IT staff assistance to resolve problems they have created through their self-help efforts. It is no longer a viable answer for small and medium sized business to treat desktop management casually.
Importance of PC Management
The task of PC management has become too large and too important to be handled on an ad-hoc basis with limited tools. The number of personal computers is significant. There are many versions of operating systems and many different software applications. This is also complicated by the number of employees working from remote offices. The scale has become rather large, even in a small to medium sized business. Now add in the constant stream of Microsoft patch updates (security, operating system and application software updates), periodic operating system upgrades, user initiated software installations and configuration changes, antivirus updates, and IT configuration changes. The rate and volume of change is significant, if not overwhelming. Not to mention the problem of Microsoft phasing out th
We, as small business people, naturally dislike complaints from our clients and customers. Because we're intimately involved with our home businesses, small businesses, or freelance careers, any complaint takes on a personal commentator. A dissatisfied customer is a direct reflection on our performance and a blow to our egos. The common reaction of small business people to a consumer complaint is defensive posturing and/or avoidance.But ignoring a disgruntled customer can be much more damaging than small business owners realize.When consumer complaints are avoided or ignored, the customer still needs to vent. A study done at Western Washington University and Illinois State University, shows that consumers who had a bad experience at a store most often responded in three ways:They decided not to shop at the store again.They told their friends and relatives about their bad experience.They convinced friends and relatives not to shop at the store again.If the customer decides never to use your services again, you've lost one customer. But the damage may be worse. There may be a real problem that the business is unable to address because they aren't focused on it right now.If the customer tells friends and relatives about their bad experience, the business now has a negative reputation with several customers and potential customers.If the customer convinces friends and relatives not to use the business, the business has now lost several customer (probably for good), and the influenced customers will likely spread news of the original bad experience to their peer network in order to bolster the validity of their decision.
Personal computers have delivered on the promise of productivity for knowledge workers. As a consequence, desktop and laptop computers have proliferated to almost every knowledge worker in a company. Advances in network bandwidth and the availability of wireless connectivity options have radically increased the number of home and remote workers. However, the increased use of personal computers and remote access has added significant workload and coordination to the already busy IT schedule.
For many companies, desktop management is not a core competency and there are other IT tasks that are considered mission critical or more strategic. Yet for many knowledge workers, the desktop is mission critical. Schedules, correspondence, contact lists, presentations and work in progress all live in the desktop for most office workers. Take away the desktop and work stops until the desktop is back up and running.
Most small and medium businesses do not have the IT staff and tools to treat desktop management issues with the attention they deserve. IT shops in small and medium sized companies are generally over-taxed and doing the best they can to keep the IT infrastructure running smoothly. Budgets are much smaller than those of their large enterprise counterparts, staffing is limited, and toolsets are few and far between. Too often manual processes and “just enough to get by” scripting is the answer to desktop management in the small and medium sized company. Individual users can be left to handle minor issues for themselves, and pseudo power users often get themselves into trouble and require IT staff assistance to resolve problems they have created through their self-help efforts. It is no longer a viable answer for small and medium sized business to treat desktop management casually.
Importance of PC Management
The task of PC management has become too large and too important to be handled on an ad-hoc basis with limited tools. The number of personal computers is significant. There are many versions of operating systems and many different software applications. This is also complicated by the number of employees working from remote offices. The scale has become rather large, even in a small to medium sized business. Now add in the constant stream of Microsoft patch updates (security, operating system and application software updates), periodic operating system upgrades, user initiated software installations and configuration changes, antivirus updates, and IT configuration changes. The rate and volume of change is significant, if not overwhelming. Not to mention the problem of Microsoft phasing out t
When you are looking for a job the last thing you need is to have your time wasted. This is why job fairs can be effective if you use them correctly. If you do not have a plan of attack when going to a job fair you may as well stay home and send resumes through email. This article will look at several ways that you can make job fairs an effective use of time.First and foremost on the list of things you must do before you attend a job fair is make sure you have enough resumes. When you meet with companies at the job fairs they obviously will want a resume to view. If you are meeting with a company and they have an interest in speaking with you further not having a resume will give the impression that you are not prepared and they may take this as a sign that this how you conduct yourself.You should know which companies will attend and who you will be hoping to meet with. You generally can get a list of companies from the location hosting the event and you can prepare in advance by researching the companies that most intrigue you. When you meet with the companies you can impress them by the knowledge you have about what they do and who their customers are.Make sure you have your game face on for interviews because you will be getting interviews. The interviews may be shortened versions of what you are used to but if a company pulls you aside and wants to interview you on the spot you must be prepared. If you go into the job fair with the attitude of being on an interview you will make a good impression when you do get a face to face with the companies.Job fairs are just like anything else in life you get out of it what you put into it. Make sure you benefit at the job fair by following these steps.
Most small and medium businesses do not have the IT staff and tools to treat desktop management issues with the attention they deserve. IT shops in small and medium sized companies are generally over-taxed and doing the best they can to keep the IT infrastructure running smoothly. Budgets are much smaller than those of their large enterprise counterparts, staffing is limited, and toolsets are few and far between. Too often manual processes and “just enough to get by” scripting is the answer to desktop management in the small and medium sized company. Individual users can be left to handle minor issues for themselves, and pseudo power users often get themselves into trouble and require IT staff assistance to resolve problems they have created through their self-help efforts. It is no longer a viable answer for small and medium sized business to treat desktop management casually.
Importance of PC Management
The task of PC management has become too large and too important to be handled on an ad-hoc basis with limited tools. The number of personal computers is significant. There are many versions of operating systems and many different software applications. This is also complicated by the number of employees working from remote offices. The scale has become rather large, even in a small to medium sized business. Now add in the constant stream of Microsoft patch updates (security, operating system and application software updates), periodic operating system upgrades, user initiated software installations and configuration changes, antivirus updates, and IT configuration changes. The rate and volume of change is significant, if not overwhelming. Not to mention the problem of Microsoft phasing out t
Collaboration involves massive investments in systems, redefined processes, and data reconciliation. Collaborate by linking with your partner's value-quality chain for the best value-added.We hear a lot these days about problems with business collaboration. There is talk of a business chain to create shared value. I see contrived methods to link raw materials to a finished product that are called value chains, but they are chains with no value links. I have never seen a working example of successful business collaboration across a defined value chain. I have never even seen a real value chain established within the confines of a company. Does any company have a value chain linking all they do across the company that manages value, cost, and value-added at each link in the chain to come up with their own shared value at the end? If we cannot create a value-chain within one company, how can we hope to create a value-chain across companies?Conventional 20th century methods prevent definition of true value chainsConventional methods do not provide a way to define the precise links in the chain. Collecting costs is difficult even within one company since the high-worth capital is “intangible”, many costs are “unknown”, and capital is rarely managed as capital that incurs costs to create value. Costing is even more difficult across companies, since partners structure the capital consumed differently, and charge costs to different wrong things.To create shared-value, we need to understand value across a value chain. To understand value across the chain, we need to understand the links in the chain and how costs are incurred and value is created. We must understand the relative value of the links to the total value of the chain. Conventional methods prevent us from doing this, by managing contrived entities rather than the components of a value chain.R-pM enables definition of true value chainsResult-performance Management (R-pM), enables value chains by defining and managing the components of a chain. R-pM creates value chains by defining results as links in the value chain and the relationships between results as the interlocking of links into a chain.To understand where value is added we need to understand costs for each link and across the chain. The costs must be defined for all tangible and intangible sol
Importance of PC Management
The task of PC management has become too large and too important to be handled on an ad-hoc basis with limited tools. The number of personal computers is significant. There are many versions of operating systems and many different software applications. This is also complicated by the number of employees working from remote offices. The scale has become rather large, even in a small to medium sized business. Now add in the constant stream of Microsoft patch updates (security, operating system and application software updates), periodic operating system upgrades, user initiated software installations and configuration changes, antivirus updates, and IT configuration changes. The rate and volume of change is significant, if not overwhelming. Not to mention the problem of Microsoft phasing out t
Call them what you will: Loss Prevention, Assets Protection, Security, or Store Detectives. The larger your store, the more you need to protect your assets from shoplifting. Shoplifting costs businesses millions of dollars every year. Protection is important, but if your customers feel like they're being watched, they'll feel uncomfortable and shop elsewhere. While a visual deterrent will make dishonest shoppers think twice about stealing, if you're interested in catching thieves, your surveillance will need to be covert. While a great camera system and trained observers can be an excellent way to detect shoplifting, the expense of such a surveillance camera system can be cost prohibitive. So what is a business owner to do? You can have covert surveillance without an expensive camera system by hiring a store detective.To be effective, a store detective must blend in with your customers. The first step is to match the dress of your typical customers. It could be casual or formal, or somewhere in between. Another technique to blend in is to actually shop. Looking at and carrying merchandise is important. However, shoplifters know what to look for. Store detectives often carry underwear or socks and small electronic merchandise. So store detectives should avoid carrying these types of merchandise. The most reliable way to spot a shoplifter is to look at their eyes. Shoplifters don't want to be noticed, so they will look around to see who's watching. But it is important not to make eye contact, because a shoplifter will feel like he's been noticed.Once a detective notices a suspicious activity, a common reaction is to startle or jump. It's a common physical reaction, but it must be tempered in order to avoid detection. Another thing to avoid is tunnel vision. Inexperienced store detectives often lose sight of the bigger picture and focus only on what's right in front of them. Shoplifters often have accomplices that stay back in order to spot store detectives. A detective should always keep her eyes open for people who are watching what she is doing. Another type of accomplice is a decoy. Decoys will act overly suspicious, or create a disturbance, in order to draw the attention of store detectives while another person does the actual shoplifting. Some shoplifting rings have been known to send a decoy into a store to defecate on the
The risks of doing a poor job of desktop management are now quite high given the security risks to every PC every day. Left unprotected, PCs are subject to Trojans, Keyloggers, Root Kits, Spyware and Viruses. One of the best ways to be protected is to apply all patches to operating systems and applications in a timely fashion. However, coordinating, staging and testing these patches is time consuming and something that should not be left to end users or ad hoc processes by the IT team. Every desktop needs Anti-virus software that is constantly updated, and users cannot be trusted to keep their virus data files current. Mobile users should also be protected with personal Firewall software, but again, users cannot be depended upon to install and keep such software current. Leaving this to chance can put the entire network and subsequently the entire company at risk. The employee desktop today contains significant corporate data, both data taken from corporate repositories for use on the desktop as well as work-in-process data not yet stored on a secured and backed-up repository. Employees handle important and sensitive data that needs to be protected. This can include price lists, customer lists, customer data, human resources data, strategic plans, product plans and corporate financial information. Security breaches, viruses, and spy-ware can lead to stolen, lost or corrupted data. Regular backups can mitigate the risk of lost or corrupted data, however most users are not disciplined enough to perform regular backups. Mobile and remote users complicate the backup problem and render home-grown backup scripting ineffective.
Dealing with the disruption and potential data loss of security breaches can represent significant productivity loss. Work-in-process data on the desktop can represent weeks of effort and may be difficult or impossible to recreate. The loss of such data can affect project time-lines, which in turn can cause customer satisfaction issues and/or contractual penalties. Desktop data loss can also affect revenue if a desktop problem interrupts critical timeframes for customer proposals.
Another factor driving the need for good desktop management is the increasing regulatory compliance issues that are affecting businesses of all sizes. Consumer and patient privacy laws such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the wave of trend setting privacy laws out of California affect businesses of all sizes. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance include
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