Microlecture on Search Engines

Written on January 29, 2009 | by RP Mickler | Leave a Comment |

A Microlecture on Search Engines…

Ten Approaches from IT to Save Money

Written on January 24, 2009 | by RP Mickler | Leave a Comment |

What the small business needs right now – in this economy – is a new metaphor for doing business. All indications are that we’re in an economic restructuring that’s here for the long haul. A dramatic change that could be implemented next Monday which could save your company thousands of dollars on an annual basis.

Hey, if you were my CEO and I was your CIO, here are ten imaginative approaches to leveraging IT to save you a lot of money in a little time.

1. Lock Asset and Software Purchases.

If you were looking to spend money on acquiring new hardware or software, don’t. Tuck those funds away for the rainy day; if anything, the industry will be hurting so bad around Q3 2009 that the consumer will have stronger purchasing power and OEM’s will be offering steep discounts to cycle their excess inventory. Live within your means, and with what you presently have, right now.

2. Reduce/Eliminate Licensing and Service Renewal Commitments.

Eliminate or reduce those recurring fees and charges. I have several dates marked on my calendar to end those recurring charges hitting my card every month for web-based services. Terminate or suspend automated renewals of software licenses; perhaps you can negotiate a better deal with your provider. If your circuit/telecom term comes due in 2009, talk to your provider about lower-cost, higher-bandwidth options, or, consult with competitors: get more bandwidth at a lower monthly rate to preserve cash-flow.

3. Skype.

Litterally, I paid $20 for a full year of phone calls for 2009. That’s it. I cut down my usage on my BlackBerry and was able to switch to a lower-cost plan, saving cash flow. You can, too. Skype offers unlimited calls, unlimited long distance, anywhere in the domestic US. Calls on Skype can be routed from Skype to my mobile and to Skype Voicemail. Instead of paying your LD and LEC carriers for long distance and local calls – on top of what you’re already paying your ISP – leverage your Internet bandwidth. Also, Skype can be used for IM, peer-to-peer calls on the Internet, and for video/audio conferences for up to 20 people. Really: re-think your phone expenses. Buy everyone in your office a cheapo USB headset and a $20 annual subscription to Skype.

4. Efax.

Right now, you’re paying at least $35/month for an analog line for the priviledge to send/receive faxes on an ordinary fax machine. Ditch the line and throw away the fax: many LEC’s offer an electronic fax option that can even keep your existing phone number. They’ll receive the fax and route it to you electronically via email. Otherwise, take a look at your local server resources: chances are you’re not using an electronic fax solution native to your small business server. As a last resort, think of subscribing to EFax which will route faxes to your email. Save on toner, maintenance of the fax machine, the productivity loss for handling paper documents, and the monthly expense of the fax line.

5. Work Anywhere/Telecommute.

Realistically: the modern knowledge worker can work from anywhere. We’ve been able to do this for ten years now. Therefore, what is required to make it happen is a change in thinking and in policy – enable your team to work from anywhere by simply allowing it through policy; to exercise the privilidge, have them sign a release if workman’s comp claims trouble your decision-making, and tell them that you’ll be reviewing them more frequently to provide corrective action over solo-behaviors. These are dire times: stop worrying about it and just do it! You’ll find that you can trust your employees more than you think. Meanwhile, leverage small business resources you might already have with your Windows network like Remote Web Workplace and Remote Desktop Services; sign up with Microsoft Office Live for free and consolidate documents online, accessible from anywhere and secure; consider Windows Terminal Server to offer up applications to any PC on the web. Limit driving, insurance payments, utility expenses, take advantage of municipal and state tax breaks for offering telecommuting options, move to a 4/10 workweek or offer variable flexibility in schedules to both inspire your employee and give them the flexibility to save a buck or two themselves.

6. Ditch the Server – Centralize to the Cloud.

Managing and maintaining a server on your premises raises Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for your network. Instead, have your services professionally managed. Whether or not you need file sharing, Exchange hosting, application or web hosting, or Terminal Server hosting, contain this expense by shifting your server away from you and to a professional hosting service. They’ll manage it professionally, patch it, contain security risks, and offer you a scale of bandwidth and disaster recovery that your small business couldn’t possibly afford on its own. If your crew is telecommuting, you’ve effectively shifted bandwidth and maintenance costs for the server to a fixed, static agreement that makes your costs more predictable, yet eliminated your administration burdens. You’ve also enabled Option 5 because of more bandwidth available in the hosted facility than in your own premises, and you’ve arguably repositioned to leverage Option 2 because you don’t need as much bandwidth coming into your facility. You can do more with less!

7. Try Open Source or Low-End Competitors.

Software and hardware are commodities: every manufacturer offers the same value to you. If you must make purchases this year, try going down the road of open source or purchasing licenses from low-end competitors. Shop around. Get the functionality you need at the lowest possible cost.

8. Online Backups.

If you must maintain your own server, get out of the business of managing your backups. Tape management, rotation, staging, and flipping costs you money in labor. Avoid all that by leveraging your Internet connection and turn your backup process into an automated service on your server. Many solutions are available. Get out of the business of worrying about tapes and disaster recovery, and automate it.

9. Lock Down the PC.

Lowering TCO on every machine is critical. The average TCO on a standard microcomputer is $2,300 annually – more often, that’s more than three times the asset’s cost! Have your administrator or consultant put tighter controls over the PC as to prevent users from introducing malware or configuration issues that would increase the cost of time spent with each PC.

10. Audit.

Finally, just because you’re cost cutting, don’t cut your attention to security. Make sure that holes are patched, terminated employees’ network access are suspended, that access to critical documents and files (read: your intellectual property) are patrolled and that confidentiality is maintained, and that risks are investigated. It would take little time at all for a disgruntled employee to reach inside the network and cause disasterous harm – pay attention to the details.

By exercising just a few of these ideas, I’m sure there’s some substantial cost savings to be had. Bold, innovative approaches to the way you do your business may very well be your saving grace when it comes to controlling expenses, as well as give you a leg up on the competition.

Microlectures and YouTube

Written on January 23, 2009 | by RP Mickler | Leave a Comment |

Experimenting with YouTube. Here was my first microlecture that I created today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oaloqFDMu4

Ooooo So viral! And who needs stuffy lecture halls of the past – I have YouTube!

I look to create a series of microlectures this year to both update the content on my website and as a way to break down these ideas into more managable chunks. Further, I can see where I could direct students and clients to this content and offer up the PPT for download. Finally, I can also see myself using something like e-junkie to interface a tip jar into a PPT download.

Was wondering what people thought of this – students and/or clients of mine? Do you like the YouTube microlecture thing? Something I could do better? Curious about your thoughts and feedback!

Malware Microlecture

Written on January 23, 2009 | by RP Mickler | Leave a Comment |

A video microlecture on Defending Against Malware Threats…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oaloqFDMu4

Seven Great BlackBerry Applications

Written on January 10, 2009 | by RP Mickler | Leave a Comment |

Here’s some free (or nearly free) applications that I’ve got on my BlackBerry.

WeatherEye. An excellent weather application that shows the forecase in 8 hour, daily, and weekly increments. It has a nice menuing system and you can customize its locality. It even changes the icon on the BlackBerry desktop to reflect the weather for current conditions.

TellMe. A Microsoft product that leverages MSN, this tool allows you to look up the names and addresses of businesses, but it can also look them up by category. So, if you’re looking for “pizza”, for example, it will return pizza restaurants. If you’re looking for “movies”, showtimes and movie theaters are returned. If you’re looking for “stocks”, you can enter the company name and get its history and changes including the summary chart. Also, TellMe’s interface can also use voice recognition – you can say what you’re looking for and it interprets the entry pretty well. A nice application for the price: totally free.

Yahoo! Mobile. The Yahoo! Messenger allows you to keep in touch with your IM buddies from the Yahoo! network. It’s a pleasant interface and seemlessly integrates with the BlackBerry’s native messanging system. You can turn the IM on and off, and setup status messages while you’re unavailable.

OperaMini. An alternative to the native BlackBerry browser, OperaMini is a great application. It allows you to view websites in desktop mode and mobile mode; I find Opera easier to read than the native browser although a little clunky on data entry – usually requiring Opera to accept the data input in a separate page before it’s submitted. If you’re looking for an alternative to the native browser, give this one a try.

MileageManager. This is a commercial application that I use to track my mileage. It allows you to record mileage with a lot of the details (date, time, mileage rates, categories) already filled in. Once you’re ready, you can then export the database to an email account as a *.csv attachment. If I recall, I paid less than $10 for it… it’s a great little application for what it does.

Google Mobile Apps, Google Maps, and Gmail. Google has a fantastic suite of free applications that are a “must have”. The Maps application from Google is far superior to the native maps application and is GPS aware; the Gmail applet allows you to manage your Gmail account in real time using a local application instead of a web browser. And Mobile Apps puts the search engine at your fingertips using a local interface to the BlackBerry as well. Despite Google’s commitment to Android, Google’s attention to detail on these applications for the BlackBerry really provides really powerful capability.

TwitterBerry. If you’re a Twitter fan, this is the application you’ve been waiting for. A nice local interface to review Tweets from your friends and add your own.

All of these applications are tools that I use daily and expand my BlackBerry experience. What other tools do you think I should have in this list that are valuable to you?

The Top Three Tech Trends Impacting the SMB in 2009

Written on January 3, 2009 | by RP Mickler | Leave a Comment |

Technology is always changing. Staying on top of trends is critical to your company’s success. Here are some things happening in 2009 that your small to mid-range business (SMB) should be ready to take advantage of.

1. Mobility. Unchained from the desktop, consumers are in the field using powerful, high-resolution wireless devices at broadband speeds everywhere. Instead of using a computer strictly in the home or office, today’s computing experience is immersive and real-time. Consider:

a. Mobile advertising. How is your advertising and SEO (search engine optimization) strategy designed to attract the mobile consumer?

b. Mobile self-service. How are your customer service solutions and web site engineered to provide exceptional self-service for your customers? How do your online technology solutions help them do business with you?

c. Mobile sales. How is your sales team positioned to collaborate, share leads, and land the deal at any time and any where?

d. Mobile workplace. Given the state of the economy, think about the incentives that go along with telecommuting: how is your firm positioned to work from anywhere, to minimize lease and utility expenses, and to obtain state and local tax benefits for reducing carbon emissions?

e. Mobile advantage. How can your business processes be optimized and extended by mobile computing to give your small business the dexterity to run circles around your larger, more inflexible competition?

2. Transparency. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that more regulation and accountability will be an outcome of 2008’s financial melt-down. The need for greater transparency is coming. So, how is your firm positioned to provide immediate transparency to your customers today? In the upcoming year, how can you use technology to make it easier to do business with your company, and to automate business transactions while providing useful business intelligence and auditing tools to interested 2^nd and 3^rd parties? And in an age of fiscal volatility, how will you be prepared to rapidly answer strategic questions from your functional management team, stakeholders, and shareholders?

3. Open Computing. Unlike any other time in the history of microcomputing, the consumer has a wider range of software and application choices, and many of these products can be acquired at little or no cost. Email, contact management, document management, productivity applications, project management solutions, operating systems, advanced graphical editing tools… all of these applications whose licensing costs – historically – presented a barrier to entry for the SMB can be acquired today for free. Listen, save a buck and use it wiser: where your competition will be shelling out useless dollars in software licensing this year, get your software for free, gain immediate capability, and throw your money where it matters – like at advertising or customer service improvements.

Understanding how these factors can influence your company’s reach, further your cost containment strategy, and may very well be what separates you from your competitors this year.

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