What can a leader learn from the WikiLeaks Scandal?
This post is in response to a request from a regular viewer. Thanks for the feedback. I am working on a new, tighter format with the goal of bringing these down to 90 seconds. I’m not there yet but this is the tightest episode to date and I am very excited to share it with you.
Here’s a question: I want these to be 90 seconds but love putting in great music in the credits. Do I have to count the credits song in the 90 seconds? Leave me a comment or a suggestion and please Share Share Share!
This week, it is my pleasure to share with you some quick and easy ways to stay on top of developments during an emergency or crisis in your area. This is one you’ll want to share. All links below the video.
Do you have any idea how many hours your employees and co-workers spend online checking eBay listings, cruising social networks, looking for vacation deals, Googling old flames or (even worse) ogling porn or gambling? A survey by America Online and Salary.com concluded that employers spend nearly $760 billion a year paying employees to goof off on the Web. And with the ever-increasing popularity of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, the urge to goof off instead of working increases daily.
Where Do You Draw The Line?
While a certain degree of personal online usage may be perfectly okay, the goal here is to stop employees who waste HOURS online and/or to prevent employees from accessing damaging online content such as pornography or gambling web sites, as well as preventing them from downloading illegal software, inviting viruses into your network or spamming out racist or off-color jokes using your company e-mail – all of which can create bigger problems legally and financially.
Two Simple Fixes
So what’s a business owner to do? First, make sure you have a good AUP or acceptable use policy in place that outlines what employees can and cannot do online or with company e-mail and resources. If you have one, make sure it’s updated to include the use of social media sites and rules on sharing confidential company information. Next, we recommend installing good content filtering software that will “police” the network for you 24/7/365. For our ConnectCare clients, we provide both as part of our service. If you’d like to get your people back to work, feel free to ask us for the answers!
If you want to save your organization a good amount of money on hardware, software and support, you ought to be looking at the various hosted IT solutions that are available.
A hosted solution is simply a business application – be it a CRM system like Salesforce or Microsoft’s Exchange – that is stored (or hosted) on a server outside of your office and is accessed via the web. This is also called “cloud computing.” While some folks are still a bit skeptical of putting their entire computer network in the “cloud,” that fear is starting to subside with the incredible cost savings and ever-increasing security and reliability of hosted applications.
How Hosted Solutions Save You Money And Solve Many IT-Related Problems
Cost Savings. With a hosted solution, you get the instant advantage of having very sophisticated software running on top-of-the-line, fully supported hardware without having to pay for it out of pocket. Since the resources are shared, you only pay a small fraction of the overall costs. Plus, upgrades and on-going maintenance are included, saving you even more.
You’re Not Stuck With Any One Solution. Another advantage of a hosted solution is that there is no long-term commitment. If you don’t like a particular CRM or application, you can (usually) cancel the contract and move on to something else. Compare that against building your own in-house solution which costs a LOT more money and is much harder to walk away from because of the investment.
Your Costs Go Up Or Down Based On Users. Since most hosted solution fees are based on the number of users who have access, you can quickly scale up or down.
Less Hassle. Since your provider is providing these services like a utility, THEY are responsible for all the upgrades, maintenance, security, etc.
Faster Implementation. Building your own infrastructure is not only expensive, but also time consuming. With hosted applications, you simply turn the service “on,” making it much easier (and faster) to get started.
Easy Access From Anywhere. If you or your employees travel a lot or work from remote or home offices, going to a hosted solution makes even more sense because users can work from anyplace they happen to be connected to the Internet.
What About The Downsides?
Some folks are still a bit too squeamish to put their entire network and data into a hosted solution, usually because of concerns over security or the fear of not being able to access their data if the Internet goes down. While these are valid concerns, they can easily be addressed by choosing a reputable company with a long-standing history of good service and by getting a backup Internet connection (something we recommend to all clients).
There once was an old farmer who grew award-winning corn. Every year he entered his corn into the state fair and won the blue ribbon.
One year, after winning yet another competition, a young newspaper reporter requested an interview with the famer to try and uncover the famer’s secrets to his prize-winning corn. Although he expected to be turned down, the farmer welcomed the interview. He asked the old famer several questions about his techniques and then discovered something interesting about how he grew it: the reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors!
“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering their corn into the same competition with yours every year?” the reporter asked. “Why sir,” said the farmer, “didn’t you know? I can’t afford not to! The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it around from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn as well. It’s one of my secrets to success.”
So it is with our lives. Those who choose to live in peace must help their neighbors to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
While this may not make a huge difference in any one company’s success, it’s our way of helping our neighbors “grow good corn.” To request this service, simply contact us and ask for the “good corn” offer. There is zero cost or obligation; and if you know of someone who could use a little technical support during these tough economic times, please forward this on to them!
One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed - Proverbs 11:24-25
According to a survey of 2,100 businesses conducted by Applied Research and commissioned by Symantec, the vast majority of businesses are frequent victims of cyber attacks, data loss and non-existent backup and recovery systems. Here are just a few of the shocking facts discovered:
74% of the businesses surveyed were affected by cyber attacks – including hackers, viruses, worms, etc. – in the past 12 months.
The average annual cost of these attacks was $188,242
62% had lost at least one mobile device in the last 12 months, and 100% admitted they had no password protection on these devices.
100 percent of these businesses said at least some of their lost devices had no password protection.
Less than 1/3 of the devices lost had a way to wipe these lost devices clean to prevent unauthorized access to confidential data.
42% of businesses have lost confidential data in the last 12 months and 40% reported a direct financial loss because of this.
47% of those survey said they STILL do NOT backup their data!
To be perfectly blunt, this is just plain stupid and irresponsible behavior on the part of businesses who allow these attacks to happen. Even worse, it’s a black eye on their PR if the confidential information is CLIENT data, such as credit card numbers, bank account information, medical records or other important identity information like social security numbers, birth dates, passwords, etc.
ALL businesses know of the threats to their computer network, be it viruses, hackers or internal employees; not taking some simple measures to protect against theft and loss of confidential data is completely foolish – not to mention expensive!
If you have any doubt whatsoever about whether you’re backing up your data properly, protecting mobile devices and maintaining up-to-date firewall, patches and security updates, NOW is the time to get this fixed! Call us at 954-920-9604, or ask here for a free, no-obligation consultation, and we’ll be happy to review your current network security and backups to see if you truly ARE protected, or if you’re more likely to end up another statistic.
Are you a Leader with a plan? Or, just hoping for SPAM?
This week, The Master of Disaster looks at the recent Carnival Splendor fiasco. What lessons are there to be found for business owners and leaders? This is the perfect follow-up to the last episode on Leaders and Luck.
Enjoy this episode and if you’re a Monty Python fan, be sure to watch through the credits. As always, please comment and Share Share Share!
This post is in response to a request from a regular viewer. Thanks for the feedback. I am working on a new, tighter format with the goal of bringing these down to 90 seconds. I’m not there yet but this is the tightest episode to date and I am very excited to share it with you.
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