I’ll never forget my first true IT disaster.  The IT department had just finished migrating an entire department onto a new computer system.  Everything had gone extremely well, and I was congratulating the team when I received a call the staff could not access the new program.  The IT department soon informed me the new storage system had failed and we would be down for several hours while they restored the data from backup.  

The real problem started when the IT Director came to my office and said one of the few things you never want to hear from the technology department, “The last backup we can find is…”, proceeding to explain the only available backup was the manual backup taken when the system was first installed; the backup system had not been updated to include the database for the new application and all of the newly entered data had been lost. Five thousand dollars, two weeks, and four temporary workers later, the data was re-entered and the system was up and running again.

Unplanned equipment failures and failed backups no longer top the list of risks associated with technology, nor are the risks isolated to job related technologies.

The wide-spread use of technology in all sectors of our lives increasingly adds personal and business issues to the list of things you never want to hear from IT.

#8.  “Do you have a copy of your password…”  - ever wondered what you would do if you could not remember that Internet password and security question?  My sister found out – she had to register for a new email account, delaying her online certification program required for her teaching position.

#7:  “The system was not protected by a….” – lightning and down power lines can render systems unusable unless protected by a working UPS.

#6:  “Your warranty expired last….” – one of the best protections against unexpected costs associated with hardware failures is an up to date warranty.

#5:  “The AV system stopped updating last…” – email and the Internet are now the most used distribution methods for viruses and malware. Installed and up-to-date Anti-Virus and Malware solutions are the best protection against these threats.

#4:  “When was the last time you backed up…” or “The last backup we can find is…” – tape backup is becoming increasingly impractical as the amount of data stored increases and disk-to-disk solutions with offline Internet copies are becoming more affordable. But remember, it isn’t the backup that is important, it is the restore.

#3:  “How many times have you used that password….” – Internet banking, online payments, eBay, Amazon, Facebook, email. Shared passwords across systems increase the risk, and cost, that may be incurred if your password is stolen.

#2:  “PII data is missing….” – Personally Identifiable Information: credit card data, social security numbers, medical records, and address lists are only a few of the types of data that can be lost through that laptop or backup tape left in the car for a few minutes. The U.S. Department of Veteran’s affairs spent a reported $160.5 million monitoring credit for 17.5 million veterans after a laptop was stolen from a single employee.

#1:  ” Hackers got in through…” – ever wonder what hacking can cost? T.J. Maxx spent an estimated $20 million dollars investigating, notifying customers, and hiring lawyers when 45 million customer records were lost to a hacker attack starting from an unprotected wireless network.

Traditionally, businesses purchase hardware & software to have them available physically onsite, with all software running on company-owned machines.  In the ‘traditional’ model of business, where most business was done ‘onsite,’ this worked fine.  Now, with companies becoming more mobile, and with more employees and executives working out of the office, organizations are reaching toward new technologies to adapt to the more mobile environment.  This is where cloud computing steps in.

So, what is Cloud Computing anyway?  Cloud Computing is where both hardware & software runs on the Internet.

You may not know it, but you could very well already be using Cloud Computing.  What are some ways you could already be using the cloud?

• Online email (Microsoft Live Mail, Microsoft Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc.)
• Online documents (Microsoft Live Office, Google Docs)

What Cloud Computing brings to the table:

• Scalability.  Your organization has the ability to expand and contract based on changing needs.
• Cost Effective.  Only pay on the services and utilities that you use.  And remember… the services can expand and contract where needed.  When you use less, you pay less.
• Automatic Backups.  When your information is hosted in the cloud, it is the job of the technology company to back up that information.  You do not have to worry about disaster recovery.  Your plan is already in place.
• Location is no longer specific.  With key applications and data located in the cloud, you are no longer tied to the office.  Information is available from anywhere that you have a connection to the Internet.

Budgets... Budgeting... Generally speaking, no one likes the process. However, as I have risen up the ranks from conscientious employee, to manager, to C-level executive, I have found that many business owners view Information technology as simply an expense to be managed, rather than an investment to be leveraged.

Here are a couple of quick thoughts on changing that trend for the good of the organization not just the IT department.

1. Look for ways to lower the costs of “keeping the lights on”.
2. Reduce complexity. It is easier from both a cost and time perspective to manage a certain make and model of PC, server, printer than a hodge-podge of devices.
3. Investigate how your organization might use hosted and/or cloud services to reduce long-term capital expenses.
4. Consider how you are staffing your IT department. Is your staff efficient in the mundane so they can focus on the strategic.
5. Review blogs and magazine articles that focus on the enterprise sized IT needs. These will often give you insight into what larger organizations are doing to manage non-strategic assets while allocating the savings for strategic initiatives. More than likely in 2-3 years those technologies will be available in the mid to small business space.
6. Look for ways to get more out of what you already have. Search for experts in the software solutions you are leveraging, bring them in to help your user community be more efficient, learn new features, and help them integrate systems to make the data you already have more valuable.
7. “Fail to plan is planning to fail” is so true in IT. Work with your IT department on yearly and then quarterly initiatives (that include budgets) that provide strategic business value and hold them accountable.
8. Finally, work with your IT leaders to help them understand the key things in your business that drives costs, drives profit, and/or reduces risks. Including and allowing them to participate in working on rather than just working in the business has the potential to move your whole organization forward.

I am fully convinced that when IT assets are leveraged in the proper way, they have the ability to become strategic assets that provide a competitive advantage. Take the steps to move the money you spend on IT from a budget to be managed, to an investment to be leveraged.

As executives running business, we can spend hours (or have our employees spend hours) chasing information to create the reports that we need to make the informed decisions that keep our businesses running and successful.  One of the cool things about technology today, is that we have produced ways to streamline these reports to almost eradicate that daily labor and have the reports (and information tied to them) constantly at our fingertips.  Simply put, this is called Business Intelligence. And I call it… Cool as crap!

So, what is Business Intelligence (or BI)?  BI is gathering technological information and presenting it in a way that’s useful and dynamic.

BI is not new, and companies have used it for years to create charts and graphs to keep an eye on limited information.  What’s different now is that we can actually mine the data from your company software, put it in a centralized location and create both drillable and actionable up-to-the-minute reports on the information that is most important to you.

Example:

We worked with a client recently who had an employee that spent 2 ½ hours a day putting together a daily sales report.  By using Business Intelligence, we were able to create a live report to have the same information always immediately available to our client.  Thanks to BI, our client is able to save 600 labor hours a year, and at $10/hr (conservatively speaking), that’s $6,000 in a year.

Business Intelligence can centralize information from all types of systems including:

• Accounting software (Like Microsoft Dynamics GP, Peachtree, QuickBooks, JD Edwards, etc)
• Customer Relationship software (Like Microsoft Dynamics CRM or Salesforce)
• Line of Business Application (Manufacturing software or whatever proprietary software you use to run your daily operations)

What makes this exciting is that before, you had to purchase special software to display the information in a particular dashboard or system.  Now, we are able to centralize these reports in the place that helps you the most. 

Here are some of the ways we can centralize data:

• Websites (including internal websites like SharePoint)
• Business Dashboards (such as in GP 2010)
• Excel files using PowerPivot (Yes… we can have up-to-date live information available in an Excel format with charts and graphics.)
• SQL Reporting Services

Ask yourself.  How much time is being wasted by your top managers chasing, crunching, or sharing information?  What if you could free an additional 4-6 weeks a year for these key people to focus on new initiatives?  Business Intelligence can help take your organization to the next level by having critical, just-in-time information at teams’ fingertips.”  Or, in my own words, you could simply say it’s “cool as crap!"