Collaboration isn’t a new concept. Managers and employees have been working together towards a common goal for as long as we can remember. With the heavy integration of modern technology, businesses have been taking advantage of all the various virtual options available. However, problems arise when it’s time to work together, as employees can sometimes find it tough to do so.

Here are seven tips on how to improve collaboration within the office environment.

1. Open communication. One of the keys to successful teams is the adoption and encouragement of an open communication culture. With this, teams are better able to grasp what’s going on within the company, and be more efficient contributors and team players.
2. Use the right technology. It seems like there are a million different software and technology options out there. Some of the tools available offer some fantastic features and it’s easy to get sucked in by a flashy component. It’s important that when choosing a tool you pick one that meets your company’s needs and is easy to use.
3. Collaboration tools must play well with others. It’s beneficial to select systems that can be seamlessly integrated with other tools and software used by your employees. If your solutions don’t work together, all parties won’t be able to work together.
4. Employee learning is key. When you find the perfect tool to use, be careful to take time and learn how to effectively use it. Training for the users of the tool is equally important.
5. Work hard, play harder. Teams and departments should step away from their computers and actually have face-to-face meetings at least once a week. These meetings should be a mixture of formal and informal, and offer employees a chance to come together as a team, unwind and share ideas. A team that can interact well will always work together with greater efficiency.
6. Mobilize. The smartphone is here to stay and with each passing year the number of users grows exponentially. It’s beneficial to encourage the use of these devices, and look for mobile solutions that allow users to be a part of the group while out of the office. If you do allow mobile devices, be sure to establish a clear usage policy so employees know how and when they should be using their phones.
7. Don’t just focus on internal collaboration. One of the most common mistakes companies make is that they focus on group participation within the business, but don’t provide adequate support for external interactions. Be sure you integrate tools that provide stakeholders with a way to connect and work with teams within the company.

With a team that interacts effectively you’ll see happier employees and higher profits: a win-win situation. If you have any questions regarding collaboration tools, or other ways to increase business value please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We’ve all been there, yes, even us IT guys… the dreaded moment where your hard drive is full and you no longer have any more space to store your data. But is that really the case? You could swear just the other day you had a ton of space left! Well, one of the toughest things to find on your hard drive with the built in tools Windows provides you is finding the space hog on your PC. Sure, you could go folder by folder doing folder size counts, but it takes forever and sometimes it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

The nice folks over at JAM software have made a great little freebie utility called Treesize Free which will help you find those space hogs on your PC. To find the free version of the software, head to the following link: http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/ and click on the free Download link on the page. Once installed, open TreeSize and review the menu bars. If you only have a “C” drive on your PC, TreeSize will immediately begin scanning your directory structure and give you breakdowns of the size of each root folder. Give the scanning process a few minutes to complete. Once you see the sizes have stopped growing, you can feel free to break down each folder and you will see the sizes broken down all the way to the file level if you dig far enough. This should help you uncover tons of missing space! Keep in mind, don’t go delete crazy… make sure what you are deleting is truly safe to delete. Unless you know what you are doing, we highly recommend against going into the Windows or Program Files folders and randomly deleting files as this can have detrimental (or catastrophic!) effects on your system.

For those power users who wish to have advanced search and reporting capabilities, check out the paid version of Treesize Professional, which has robust features that allow you to search by file size and type.

We hope you enjoy this cool utility, and as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us @ www.infostream.cc

Adobe PDF files are portable, convenient, and great for distributing documents that you might not want others to edit as it gets passed along. The format has become so popular, that Microsoft has even included the option to save documents as PDF’s in Office 2010! (Now that’s saying something..)

But what happens if your computer does not have Office 2010, and you don’t have Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional? All of these products are expensive starting at over $300 just for the standard standalone version of Adobe Acrobat. There’s no reason to spend this much just to print a PDF file here and there; several companies have come out with solutions, but the cleanest one I always find is CutePDF. CutePDF has a range of PDF creation products, but their free PDF writer installs itself as a printer you can send your documents to, which in turn asks where to be saved. You won’t be able to directly edit existing PDF’s or make other PDF items such as forms with selectable fields, but it will get the basic job done.

To obtain CutePDF, simply head over to http://www.cutepdf.com and select the CutePDF Writer “Free Download” link. Once downloaded, install the application, and allow the second application bundled with the software to be installed (it is called PS2PDF). There should be no restarts necessary.

To use your new PDF writer, simply create whichever document you wish to turn into a PDF in the application of your choice. Once ready to turn it into a PDF, select the print option and choose the CutePDF Writer printer which is now installed. After a few seconds you will be prompted for a filename and location to save; remember this location and save your PDF! You now have created a PDF you can share as needed. Enjoy!

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the team here at Infostream @ www.infostream.cc

The majority of businesses, no matter the size, are networked these days—and are often also connected to the Internet and other networks. Many of these businesses have come to rely on internal/external networks for their day-to-day business. However, when one of the networks goes down this can be a problem since an outage could cause a loss of profits. 24/7 networking can help reduce these losses.

How can 24/7 network monitoring help your business, you ask? Through preventative operations. The main idea of network monitoring is to act as an “Early Warning System” to let managers and owners know of potential problems before they strike.

What Does Network Monitoring Monitor? There are a number of things you can monitor with Network Monitoring. The most popular areas include application and system performance, bandwidth usage, and server status. You can also set up monitoring of additional areas, for instance: server load, ink levels in printers, time left on software license agreements, which devices are connected to the network, their data usage, and more. This is all done 24/7.

The one thing Network Monitoring does not normally monitor is unauthorized access to networks. It can be set up to look for unauthorized access, but this is normally taken care of by another system.  

How Does Network Monitoring Help Me? Network Monitoring is a preventative system, intended to warn you about potential network problems so you can proactively seek solutions before a vital network goes down. This makes it, in a round-about way, a justifiable addition to business value since, when implemented right, there will be less network crashes—which means less or no profit loss.

What Should I Monitor? In an ideal world, you would monitor each and every network. Over time, you can get there, but if you’re like most Small Business owners or managers, you have neither the time nor the budget to implement a full system. As with most projects, it’s suggested that you implement a system like this in stages. The most common areas to start with are:

• Local Area Network (LAN) Data
• Internet data usage
• server status
• alerts to existing networks

If you’re unsure of where to start, try contacting a local Network Monitoring service, or hire a consultant to establish a system. If you would like to know more about 24/7 Network Monitoring, or other ways to improve business value, please contact us.

The IT industry is primarily based on projects, and even companies that are not IT related will at some time need to instigate an IT-related project. These projects could be small or large, but they all need to achieve something. Unfortunately, there are all too many stories out there of mistakes made, causing the goal of the project to be missed.

How many times have you started a project only to have it spiral out of control? Mistakes, delays, and other problems can be costly - both to you and your company. Here are some common reasons projects fail, and ideas to be aware of before you start your next big project.

No plan Possibly the biggest mistake any company can make is to not have a plan. A project without a plan is like a football team without a quarterback - it just won’t work. The most common plan used by businesses is a “project plan”: a plan that outlines your final goal, your plan to get there, and what resources are needed along the way. It is a good idea to involve all project team contributors in the planning phase. This will help encourage your team to stay on track.

Unrealistic budget An equally important mistake to avoid is having an unrealistic budget. All managers know they have to set and stick with a budget. However, few managers really know how to set a proper budget, and many projects end up being over budget. The easiest things you can do are:

• Determine the knowable costs. These can include software, parts, wages, fixed costs, etc. Be sure to include costs like shipping and tools needed for the project.
• Consider different parts of the project separately. Try to think which are more likely to have problems. Budget an extra percentage of the total costs based on how risky that aspect is.
• Look at budgets from similar past projects. These will help you judge whether you are on the right track.

Poorly defined expectations Many projects suffer from members not really understanding the expected outcome of efforts made. This could cause a decrease in morale among your employees. It’s best to review and update goals regularly, and tweak the scope or timelines as progress is made. It’s also equally important to involve employees in this process.

Scope creep While some change in the focus of the project can be good, beware of scope creep - uncontrolled or big changes to the original plan of the project. This can happen when the extent of the project is not properly defined or controlled. It is important that you clearly define the scope of the project with both yourself and your employees, and try to make as few changes as possible.

Poor communication This cannot be stressed enough: communication is very important. Many projects fail due to lack of good communication and interaction between the parties involved. We recommend that you stay in constant contact with all parties to ensure understanding of the project. Encourage an open communication environment where any employee can talk about anything and suggest ideas.

With good communication, a clear focus on the project and a solid plan your next IT project is on its way to be a successful one. For more information on project planning, please contact us.

Backups are the most important safety net to protect your computerized information from being destroyed. One way to imagine their importance of is to picture how things would work if that data were suddenly gone. Based on your stomach’s reaction to that chilling thought, you now have an idea of how important your data is.

Following that discussion with their intestines, many people buy in and get a full-featured, well designed backup system including daily backups, off-site rotations, and journals proving that the backups are being run as expected. They finally get that sick feeling out of their stomach and get a good night’s sleep.

The truth is that while this is a huge step and eases much of the load, there is one more critical step before you can get that well-deserved sleep. Now that you have the backup, have you proved that it is enough protection in an emergency? Have you performed a test restore that shows that you have all of the pieces in place to recover from a catastrophe?

Test restores start simply. Grab a file or two from your backups and restore them back to your still functioning system. If you can open the files when you are done, the restore was successful. This doesn’t take a lot of time, and it proves that the core backup processes are working the way they should. These kinds of restores are the most common and are used all of the time when files are accidentally deleted.

However, a more critical test is commonly ignored or bypassed as either too expensive or too time consuming. This involves testing the full disaster scenario where the server is completely dead or unusable, and you are required to return the systems to service using a completely different piece of equipment. Many people don’t experience the thrill of this challenge until they actually have a problem of this magnitude. That is (obviously) the worst time to start learning what you need to perform a full restore.

In addition to a new server what else do you need? In many cases, you also need additional CD’s and DVD’s to boot from to initiate the restore to the new hardware. Where are they? Do you know how to use them? What about extra non-standard hardware devices added on to the original server? Can you obtain replacements for those parts? Are there any settings on the server that need to be reset after the restore is complete? Can you get that information from anywhere other than looking at the server? (Remember you are assuming your server is not available). Do you have offline copies of your hardware and software support contacts? Do you have a disaster recovery kit that has all of the necessary items gathered together in one location?

If you don’t have the correct answers for all of these questions, then it’s time to go back to a lab and test your disaster recovery plans. Additionally, DOCUMENT everything that happens in those labs, correct the sticky areas and test it again. When a server has crashed, everybody’s blood pressure goes up. If you have documented everything, you won’t be asked for any creative computing restores when you are least able to handle it.

If you have any questions about your backups, or would like some advice and assistance about performing some of these tests, InfoStream is willing to discuss these issues in detail. Let us know about any questions with backing up your data or recovering it back to a useable state.

 

Running a business isn't easy. Many companies struggle to make ends meet while maintaining cost efficiency and the quality of their products and/or services. In order to keep up with growing client demands and needs, businesses must keep a close eye on their IT operations. For some smaller businesses, this can especially be a challenge – one that can be solved with the help of a Managed Service Provider, or MSP.

The nature of business has changed. Companies, no matter how small, can market products and services worldwide over the Internet. At the same time, customers can find products and services from your competitors in just a few clicks of the mouse. A Managed Service Provider (MSP) can help you maintain the technology that will give you the edge to compete and win.

Global business requirements

To compete effectively in a global market, your business needs:

• Integrated internal and external business support systems.
• Up-to-the-minute access to sales, order processing, and production information for fast decision making.
• Flexible processes that can adapt dynamically to changes in the business climate.
• A fast, reliable, and secure IP network.

Maintaining the networking infrastructure is often the biggest challenge for a small company. It's expensive to keep up with new technologies and devote IT resources to ongoing network management.

The value of a Managed Service Provider

A qualified Managed Service Provider (MSP) can bridge the gap to give you access to leading network technologies. MSPs provide management expertise without requiring high initial capital investment or ongoing costs associated with technology upkeep. A partnership with an MSP will:

• Reduce costs, including traditional service fees, as well as hardware and IT operations costs.
• Increase support levels and network availability without additional staff.
• Keep IT costs stable and predictable.
• Provide access to the latest technology and skill sets with limited risk.

Let's talk about how you can compete better globally and take your business to the next level without big capital investment.

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) can be a real lifesaver, especially for small businesses that have IT needs just like everyone else but are hard pressed to find the manpower and resources to support a dedicated tech department. As with all business relationships, it's important to establish good rapport with your MSP to ensure that everything flows and goes as planned.

Business relationships are cultivated. Grown. That's what you do – at least if you want your business to flourish. The healthier your business relationships, the more productive and efficient your operations become.

Naturally, this applies to your relationship with your Managed Service Provider (MSP). Your IT is an important part of your day-to-day operations, and contributes greatly to how productive your business can become – so establishing good working rapport with your MSP is especially essential. Here are a few pointers for building and maintaining a great relationship with your current or prospective MSP partner.

Assess what your MSP can provide for you Sit down with your MSP to learn their ideas for your business, then carefully assess whether the services they offer support and augment your operations – current and planned. Look closely at contracts and make sure you understand the fine print, and carefully evaluate whether the service agreement meets your needs. Do some research about prospective MSPs (which is easy to do through the Internet) to verify their claims. Making sure you have the right fit is an important first step in getting the most out of an MSP.

Define roles and manage expectations Make sure that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and understood early in the process, especially if your MSP is integrated with or augmenting an existing IT operation. This will help minimize overlapping job roles (which is ultimately unproductive for the both of you), as well as territorial disputes and misunderstandings.

Communicate constantly While your MSP will essentially manage your IT, it's still YOUR IT department. Make sure that you open healthy channels of feedback and communication. It's also recommended that you keep your MSP informed of any new directions or strategies that you feel will affect the IT operations that your MSP partner handles. It's a good idea to schedule regular planning sessions and meetings with them so that they will be able to anticipate what you need – and provide it – in line with your own goals and timetables.

Establish trust and respect your MSP's decisions Treat your MSP like you would your IT manager. Give them general direction, and then let them do what they do best: manage IT. Entrusting your IT to an outside contractor can be a difficult decision, but as long as your MSP is reliable and secure, it may very well be one of the best business decisions you've ever made.