Are you prepared for an office disaster? If a fire, flood, or robbery irrecoverably damages your computer equipment, will you be able to get up and running again? The first requirement, of course, is that you have all essential data backed up, but that’s not necessarily enough by itself. One business in four that closes because of a disaster never opens again; some estimates are even more pessimistic. Those that do may suffer significant loss of business, with some customers never returning if restoration of service takes too long. A good recovery plan needs to include concrete steps for recovering all data and resuming operation, with a realistic estimate of how long it will take. To be useful in case of a disaster, at least one backup copy has to be offsite. A backup drive in your office is useful for recovering corrupted files, but if your computers burn or are stolen, it’s very likely the backup will be too. Use a reliable backup service and make sure you know how to get files back from it. Choose a service that has a good reputation and encrypts all data in transit and in storage. You should also keep a disk image backup of your primary drive. Simply restoring files to a new drive won’t necessarily replicate your original operating environment. Keep the image backup stored offsite in a secure place. Encrypt this backup too, as with anything important that you store offsite. Make sure that you have the passwords and keys that you’ll need to perform the recovery in a safe place. If you keep them on the premises, put them in a locked, fireproof box that can’t easily be stolen. If they’re off the premises, make sure they’re stored securely. Plan for how you’ll inform your employees, customers, and business partners of the situation. If their contact information was all on the lost computers, this could be difficult. Keep a copy of it in another place. Make a realistic estimate of how long it will take to restore your data and resume operation. First you have to set up a new computer and copy your saved disk image to it. After that, you need to restore all your data from the backup; this might take days, depending on how much you have and how fast your connection is. If you have to restore multiple computers through the same Internet connection, it could take a long time. Finally, you’ll need to verify that everything is working properly before going live. You’ll need to consider what it takes to catch up with lost time. If you send out reports on the first of the month and a disaster brings your systems down on that day, you need to get those reports out as soon as you recover, not on the first of the next month. Make sure it’s possible to do this. Estimate what the process will cost. You’ll have to buy new computers, replace furniture and supplies, and weather an interruption in revenue. Hopefully insurance will cover most of the loss, but you need enough money in the meantime to get through. However good your plan sounds, you need to test it to make sure it works. A full test, including failover and restoration of data, may not be feasible, but you […]

Where is your company headed, and what kind of IT system does it need to reach its goals quarter by quarter, year after year? Many businesses don’t know how to address this question with the appropriate depth and strategic thinking. CEOs, executives, managers, and small business owners may know where they want to take their company, but may not have a clear idea of the IT decisions they’ll need to make along the way. Companies are also facing a plethora of technological changes that affect everything from marketing to cyber security, and they need to decide which tech solutions to adopt and how to prioritize them within their budget. Without strategic IT planning, companies face various disadvantages: Wasted money on unneeded hardware and software. IT decisions that don’t align with business needs and objectives. A lack of focus and organization, and an emphasis on short-term thinking. A failure to anticipate technological developments and their effects on the company. An inability to prioritize projects and expenditures that are most necessary at any given point. Poor communication between IT personnel and the rest of the company. How can an IT road-map help? Your company’s IT road-map is a master plan for how you’ll use technology to support your business operations and goals over the coming three to five years. The document clearly spells out your strategic IT planning, providing a detailed overview of the projects you wish to undertake and the decisions you’re prioritizing. Employees holding leadership positions in your company can use this document as a basis for discussing, planning, and guiding decisions. It’s an excellent collaborative tool, ensuring that everyone is on the same page. It helps your IT personnel work closely with employees in other departments to make the decisions best suited for your company. How can you create an IT road-map? Creating the road-map will involve input from company leadership and from your IT team (which includes your managed services provider and any in-house personnel). As for the content of the road-map, start by answering the following questions:What are your company’s top priorities? Make a list of the important goals and milestones you want to reach, and the ways in which you envision your company developing. Even though this list isn’t specific to IT, but applies to your company more generally, it will give your IT road-map coherence and remind you of the purposes underlying various IT decisions. What IT projects or major tasks do you wish to undertake in the coming months and years? Organize these into a timeline that includes estimated start and end points and other information about the resources required (e.g. budget and personnel, including the employees overseeing each project). You can also categorize the projects by different IT areas. For instance, one category can be anything pertaining to your network architecture, and the modifications you want to make to it; another area can involve your e-commerce platform and how you want to develop it and keep it secure. What are your justifications for each project? Spelling out the specific reasons for each project will help you prioritize them, position them appropriately in the timeline, and identify projects that you may want to delay, modify, or scrap. Especially for projects scheduled in the coming year, the justifications should be well-developed and detailed. For example, if you’re planning to adopt a new kind […]

Understanding the best way to get the job done, using the technology that you already have. Workflow analysis is the process of documenting and analyzing the steps, tasks, and decisions involved in a specific business process or workflow. The purpose of workflow documentation and analysis is to understand and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the workflow, identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies, and identify opportunities for automation or streamlining. To document and analyze a workflow, an organization typically follows these steps: Identify the workflow: Identify the specific business process or workflow that needs to be documented and analyzed. Gather information: Gather information about the workflow, including the steps involved, the people or departments involved, the tools and resources used, and any decision points. Document the workflow: Document the workflow by creating a visual representation of the steps and decision points involved. This may be done using a flowchart or other visual representation tool. Analyze the workflow: Analyze the workflow to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies and to identify opportunities for automation or streamlining. This may involve collecting data about the workflow, such as the time required for each step or the number of errors or rework required. Identify improvement opportunities: Identify opportunities for improving the workflow based on the analysis. This may involve reorganizing the steps, automating certain tasks, or introducing new tools or processes. Implement changes: Implement the identified improvements to the workflow.   Workflow documentation and analysis can help organizations improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business processes and identify opportunities for automation and streamlining. It’s important to regularly review and update workflow documentation to ensure that it reflects the organization’s current processes and to identify any changes that may be needed. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been in conversations with a client, when they mention something that raises the ‘There are easier ways to do that‘ red flag. Nowadays, there are many, many tools available to automate or streamline workflow. Executives and managers just need to be open to identifying places where ‘There should be an easier way to do this’. With technology today, there usually is. So, if you have a process in your company that should be easier, give us a call. Let’s see if we can work together to find a way to use technology to simplify, automate or eliminate the problem. Planning & Consulting Virtual CIO Services Strategic Alignment Budgeting IT Road-Map Business Continuity Workflow Analysis Professional IT Management Service and Support Management Project Management Standard Operating Procedures IT Policies Systems Documentation Technology Consulting Cyber Security Training Reporting and Metrics Co-Managed IT Services Engineering & Support Help Desk Services Onsite Services Server Support Network Management Data Backup Disaster Recovery System Engineering Network Operations Network Security Project Work Staff Augmentation Cloud Services Computer Consulting

IT budgeting starts with planning, which is why it is usually tied into our Strategic Alignment services and IT Roadmap , or into a Virtual CIO bundle. The goal is to tie IT spending to company strategy. The first step is to divide your Technology budget into a few key categories: •    Run:  These are the costs to run your day-to-day IT systems and applications, and to support your users.  For instance: Costs for computer purchases, server hardware and software refreshes, and day-to-day support costs. •    Grow: These are costs to support expected growth and change in your company, or which can help support sales or marketing initiatives. In the beginning, these types of initiatives are often necessary to ‘fix’ pre-existing problems.  For instance: An upgraded virtual server or cloud environment that allows for growth or less likelihood of outages; an upgraded firewall to reduce security risks; a new website that makes it easier to interact with potential customers. •    Transform: These are costs to support strategic initiatives or research and development, for instance new products or entirely new marketing strategies; or changes to company workflow that dramatically increase productivity.  For instance: A new database and data visualization system that allows for a new client-facing product; a Customer Relationship Management system that integrates with your Website and allows for full tracking of the sales process from lead to followup to quote to sales; New integration or automation systems that could dramatically improve company productivity. White Mountain can help with the entire process, we start off by looking at your current IT systems and budget, in order to put together the ‘Run’ portion of the budget. We’ll review whether it makes sense to move your company to a Managed Services plan for your day-to-day IT service and support. Instead of traditional Time and Materials pricing, these plans provide support under a flat-rate contract. This helps transfer business risks to your IT provider, and gives them incentive to work proactively to reduce IT problems, since problems come out of their bottom line, rather than yours Next, we use the information we gathered in the Strategic Alignment process to put together a list of Grow and Transform initiatives that mesh with your company’s Business Strategy. We also prioritize these projects based on Business Goals. Then, we go through a process to scope these projects to in order to get estimated costs, so we can compare these costs against expected gains or potential risks being mitigated. Finally, we can come up with an approved IT Roadmap for the year ahead, tied to expected quarterly costs from the approved services and projects. With certain virtual CIO plans, we also tie these single-year plans to multi-year budgets, and help you monitor your IT spending as we go to ensure that run-rates match your expected budget over time. At the end of the day, you need to make the best use of your company resources, and to match Technology investments to what is most important for your busines. Using the budgeting process to help meet that goal is just like turning on your headlights. Happy driving! Planning & Consulting Virtual CIO Services Strategic Alignment Budgeting IT Road-Map Business Continuity Workflow Analysis Professional IT Management Service and Support Management Project Management Standard Operating Procedures IT Policies Systems Documentation Technology […]

Let me tell you a sure-fire way to make sure your company’s technology fails to deliver. Don’t have a conversation with your technology provider about where you see your company in the next year, next 2 years… what your business goals are or what your plans are for growth (or scale-back). Don’t discuss business initiatives, or how you might use technology to streamline, enhance or automate those initiatives. Don’t discuss your marketing or sales strategies, don’t discuss your business workflow, don’t discuss business risks, don’t discuss business continuity strategies, and don’t discuss private data you have that could leave you open to regulatory issues if it were stolen. In other words – don’t align your technology with your business strategy.  How does this lead to failure? Let me count the ways: •    You won’t be taking advantage of the competitive advantage that technology can provide. The technology landscape is constantly changing. Your IT provider should be aware of these changes, and able to help you use technology to its best advantage; they should be able to think ahead and give you ideas where your technology should be able to give even more value. For instance, we had a manufacturing client that was collecting quality data post-production. As we planned some of their systems, we made sure that the data collection systems we installed could support streaming data from their production systems. This meant that when they were ready, they could take advantage of in-line quality data collection – and tie this into production systems to ensure quality problems were addressed as the product was being made. •    You won’t be taking advantage of expert knowledge. If you go to the doctor, and don’t tell her that your chest hurts and you are short of breath; you can hardly complain that she should have known of your impending heart attack. If your IT provider knows that you plan to expand marketing, they can make recommendations or work with you to make sure that you have systems to help take those expensive marketing leads and turn them into hard sales. •    You won’t be aware of the risks you are taking. For instance, we had one client who had no idea that the files they were receiving from a vendor had extremely sensitive healthcare information, and that this data was very poorly protected. They had inadvertently opened themselves up to massive financial and business relationship risks that they were completely unaware of. •    Your plumbing will be inadequate, and more expensive. If your IT provider knows what is coming, they can help you right-size your hardware or cloud systems. They can plan for expansion, or be aware that they don’t need to worry about adding new employees for the next 10 months. That way you don’t overspend or find yourself surprised by an overly-expensive unbudgeted expansion that could have been factored into the environment. For instance, we understood from one client that they would be opening their new shared chip modeling software environment up to future clients as a service. As a result, we were able to right-size their storage ahead of time, rather than needing to add much more expensive and disruptive expansion space later. Making sure your technology and your technology company is onboard with your vision of your Company’s […]