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Developing an IT Strategy

Consulting, TECHS Talk, TECHS Tip, Training

Why?

Developing an IT strategy sounds like it’s probably a fair amount of work and perhaps for little tangible benefit in the short term, so why bother? Because having an ad-hoc approach to IT systems means things are not usually as efficient as they could be when planned, we have all probably heard the quote “we don’t plan to fail, but we fail to plan”.

Developing an IT strategy allows for appropriate planning to occur, which helps removes quick decisions when systems fail and you need a replacement PC immediately.

How you arrive at a correct software, hardware, and communications strategy for your organisation can reduce your stress levels, and probably more importantly impact on how effective you can be in meeting customer demands. Selecting an accounting solution in the same manner as buying a dish washer can prove to be dangerous.

Process

Before any strategy can be developed you need to know what systems you currently have in place and where you want (your business) to be in the next one to three years. This means documenting who is using what equipment and then identifying what software and hardware needs to be addressed, and when.

Doing a mini IT audit should identify what age is the current equipment is, what equipment is under warranty, what operating systems are in use and what software systems are in use.

It’s useful to also identify any equipment that is critical to the running of your organisation, what can’t you live without?

In looking at where you need to go it’s good to review what areas of growth you are seeing, review how your IT needs are changing, what areas are not working smoothly or need to be more robust.

Naturally Technology Solutions are able to help discuss and plan this process with you.

Roadmap

Then it’s a process of deciding how you are going to get from A to B. Setting a budget and a time frame to establish the work, do you want to operate while upgrading, say, a workstation every two months or do everything during a quiet period?

Can you implement things gradually to minimise disruption? It’s always better to manage change when it comes to IT, so where possible avoid making lots of change all at once. Equally you don’t want the inconvenience associated with leaving things too late and dealing with a crashed system – especially if you haven’t been diligent with backups. If you can plan things to upgrade your accounting system at a different time to changing your laptops or email systems then most of the time that is going to allow for a smoother transition.

Once you have a plan it also allows you to allocate where existing equipment might go. E.g. if users are upgrading to laptops it might mean a workstation becomes available to be used elsewhere or perhaps even be a hot-spare that can be kept for use in an emergency.

It’s also important to communicate the IT strategy to other decision makers in the organisation, to ensure everyone understands the plans and processes.

Here at Technology Solutions we are here to help and guide our clients to find the best solution that suits the individual budget and direction of the business.

To discuss how Tech Solutions can help plan your I.T. needs call us on 0800 878 878

Email size does matter

Cloud, Online Security, TECHS Talk

Email size when sending and receiving may have a limit, it all depends upon who you send your email through. We hit this issue from time to time, customers asking for assistance when their email seem to stop. It will often present itself as “I can receive email but I don’t think my emails are going out.”

Why is there a maximum email size limit

Mainly for security reasons, all email server providers limit the maximum email size that an email account can receive. Otherwise, if there would be no maximum email size limit, the email server would risk to be bombarded with very large emails, causing it to cease working properly.

Some free email address providers also enforce commercial limitations on the email size: the free account gets a low maximum email size limit, but you can increase the maximum limit by upgrading to a paid account.

What happens when you hit the maximum email size limit?

Obviously, if you send an email that exceeds the maximum email size limit of the recipient’s email provider, your email will bounce off and you will receive an email error back in your mailbox. Usually, you will receive one of the following error messages:

“Attachment size exceeds the allowable limit”;
“552: Message size exceeds maximum permitted”;
“System Undeliverable, message size exceeds outgoing message size limit”;
“The size of the message you are trying to send exceeds the global size limit of the server. The message was not sent; reduce the message size and try again”.

Common provider limits

So to help we thought we would summarize the popular email services email limits. This is the stuff you would find in the terms and conditions when you sign up for a service from an Internet Provider, and we all read those – yeah right.

Yahoo/Xtra
Send and Receive limit: 20MB (per message).

Vodafone/Clearnet/Paradise
Send and Receive limit: 10MB (per message).

Orcon
Orcon do not specifically talk about email limits but instead have a “fair use” policy.

GMail
Send and Receive Limit: 25MB (per message).

Outlook.com/Hotmail
Send and Receive Limit: 10MB (per message).

Can you bypass these maximum email size limits?

A simple answer would be: no, you can’t bypass these maximum size limits. However, there are workarounds:

you can try compressing the attachments, just be warned some file formats compress better than others;
some email clients have the ability to break up large attachments into smaller chunks and then send it as multiple emails and reassemble them at the receivers end;
the most useful workaround is to upload the attachments to a cloud storage service (like DropBox, Google Drive or SkyDrive) and include the download link in your email.

References:

Outlook productivity blog
Gmail attachments
Yahoo Xtra Mail Support
Vodafone Terms and Conditions

So if you’re in need of some help with planning some upgrades, or even just some free friendly advice, get in touch with us, 6-370 8093.

To discuss how Tech Solutions can help call us on 0800 878 878.

Benefits from using dual monitors

Hardware, TECHS Talk, TECHS Tip

Utilising a second monitor is proven to improve your productivity. First of all what is a dual monitor setup? Computers & laptops these days can support more than one monitor – think of the second (or third) monitors as just a physical extension of your existing screen. If you are moving windows between the monitors as something disappears from one screen it appears on the adjacent screen.

The biggest advantage for anyone is increased productivity.

There have been a number of studies performed over the years that have attempted to calculate the change in productivity from using multiple monitors. According to a study done by Jon Peddie Research, productivity increases by 20 to 30% when using multiple displays.

The Pfeiffer Report from 2005 (testing the impact of large monitors and/or multiple monitors) found that improved productivity could even result in an ROI of thousands of dollars per year.

A study conducted by the University of Utah and NEC found 10% increases in productivity and 20% reduction in errors (plus reduced stress) for test workers that were using multiple monitors.

However, research also shows that productivity gains max out and eventually decline when size becomes too big.

So while the exact amount productivity increases might be up for debate, the fact that productivity increases with dual screens is certain.

Sharing data is easier

It’s rare that we just work with one program open these days – yet we often lack the ability to view more than one program. If you are working from a number of data sources, having the second screen to display content means less moving windows around to access the information that you need.

Work tasks often require comparison, such as comparing different versions of a design, testing in multiple browsers, financial numbers or document revisions. In these situations it’s easier, quicker, and generally more effective to compare side-by-side using two screens rather than flipping back and forth constantly.

It’s Easy

Extending your computer to a second screen is actually easy, although to some people it sounds like it would be more difficult or involved than it really is. If you’ve been wanting to try a dual screen set up but have been putting it off, there’s really no reason not to give it a shot.

Disadvantages

There are some disadvantages of having multiple screens:

Potential for Distractions

Probably the biggest disadvantage to having more than one screen is the added risk of distractions. It’s easy enough to get side-tracked when you’re working with just one screen, and even more so when you add to it. For some people using the second screen to keep email open all the time is a timesaver not having to re-open a window to check on new mail, for others it may be a distraction from the task in hand.

Lack of Desk Space

Unfortunately, the amount of available space of a desk can easily be a hindrance when it comes to getting set up for maximum efficiency.

Conclusion

Remember it’s not about how a second screen (or big screen) can make us work faster, but rather how working on a small screen slows us down. Remember the desktop screen on your laptop (or PC) is a metaphor for your physical desktop. If your desktop was replaced with something the size of an A4 piece of paper how hard would that be to work efficiently? Very.

Can we afford to be slowed down in our work?

Given the lower cost of monitors these days, and the number of hours we are often in front of them the ROI is huge even when taking the lower end of the productivity gains into account.

All these studies demonstrated that using only a single display — especially if it’s a small laptop display — can really be an anchor that drags on your productivity. Using an extra monitor can help you to more quickly and easily do your daily computing tasks.

Beyond this empirical data, the anecdotal benefits of using an extra monitor are legion on the internet.

Finally, people enjoy having an extra monitor: And happy employees are productive employees.

In fact, if you are still sceptical we are so certain that you will benefit from using a second monitor, particularly if you currently only use a laptop screen, that we will come and set one up for you to use for a couple of weeks – if you don’t like it we will take it away. No cost to you. How can you loose with that?

References:

Dell completed a whitepage showing the benefits:

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/monitors/en/dual_monitors_boost_productivity_whitepaper.pdf

Pfeiffer report

http://www.pfeifferreport.com/Cin_Disp30_Bench_Rep.pdf

So if you’re in need of some help with planning some upgrades, or even just some free friendly advice, get in touch with us, 6-370 8093.

To discuss how Tech Solutions can help call us on 0800 878 878 or email office@techs.co.nz.

Facebook Security Settings

Online Security, TECHS Talk, TECHS Tip

The Facebook Settings You Should Check

This year (2013) Facebook have made several changes to it’s privacy policy and your settings, if you haven’t looked at your profile settings lately then now would be a good time to do it.

If you’re like the most of us here, you like to share your social life with a select group of friends and not the rest of the world, there are a few settings you should make sure are in place going forward.

See your profile as others see it

First thing you should do is see how the rest of the world (except your friends) see your profile. Click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook page and select Privacy Settings, now click Timeline and Tagging in the left pane, now click View As to the right of Review what other people see on your timeline.

If you’ve limited access to your timeline to friends only, the public will see only your profile and cover photos, a link for contacting you (which you can limit to friends of friends), the people you’re following, and the groups you belong to. A tip here, you can view your timeline as a specific Facebook user, click View as Specific Person at the top of the window and enter the person’s name.

Privacy Settings

You’ll find these as a drop-down option when you click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook page on the Web. Here, you can tailor the audience for your posts. You can go back and make all your posts private in this section, access the Activity Log (see the next section), and determine how widely you want to distribute future posts by default.

You can also set who can contact you and how. This is where FB removed the feature “look up my timeline by name”, but you can still control who finds you by searching an email or phone number. We recommend you set these to “Friends” Only, and turn the Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline – Off.

Activity Log

In your activity log, you can view and edit your posts, messages, posts you’ve been tagged in, photos, likes, and comments. You can edit or delete any activity dating back to when you first joined Facebook. You can access your Activity Log via Privacy Settings – Use Activity Log.

Timeline and Tag Settings

After you’ve clicked into your privacy settings, look at the left-hand column for finer grained control of your Timeline and tags. If you want to know who’s tagging you in posts before your name publicly appears on someone’s timeline — and deny them if you choose — make sure the “review posts” setting is turned on. We also recommend you turn on “Review tags people add to your own posts before the tags appear on Facebook” and that you set “Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded?” to No One.

We hope this helps and if you have any questions about Facebook security, or even just some free friendly advice, get in touch with us, 6-370 8093.

To discuss how Tech Solutions can help call us on 0800 878 878

Using Secure Passwords

Online Security, TECHS Talk, TECHS Tip

Many individuals look upon the requirement to use and change passwords regularly as an evil inflicted by the Information Technology (IT) industry. What users should be aware of is that a password is no different than the combination to a safe and should be protected in the same way. Although you may believe your company and personal data would be of little or no interest to hackers, this often has no bearing on which sites are targeted. A large percentage of hackers are opportunists out to create petty vandalism and cause damage. Other hackers may be more interested in using your site to relay emails (spam) or viruses to others, thereby protecting themselves and implicating you. These are good reasons for making passwords difficult to crack or guess. This will make your site much less interesting to casual hackers and much harder for targeted hackers to infiltrate and abuse your computer systems.

Best Practice

There are many ways to crack or break passwords. For this reason it is essential all passwords be chosen with care and changed regularly. There are a number of industry ‘Best Practices’ which can help ensure the safety of the organisations data.

All passwords should be at least 6 characters
All passwords should contain at least one number
Passwords should be changed regularly (at least every three months).
Passwords should not be in the dictionary, names, dates or phone numbers
Each password change should introduce a new password, which should be substantially different from all previous passwords (e.g. the password should not remain the same and just have a new number tagged on the end)

If possible these rules should be enforced by software to ensure compliance and the security of the organisation.

Do

Use a password with mixed-case characters (e.g. aLEx54)
Use a password with non-alphabetic characters, e.g., digits or punctuation.
Use a password that is easy to remember, so you don’t have to write it down
Use a password that you can type quickly, without having to look at the keyboard. This will make it a lot harder for someone to steal your password by watching over your shoulder

Don’t

Use your login name in any form
Use your first or last name in any form
Use your spouse’s or child’s name
Use other information easily obtained about you. This includes license plate numbers, telephone numbers, the brand of your car, the name of the street you live on, etc.
Use a password of all digits, or all the same letter. This significantly decreases the search time for an intruder
Use a word contained in (English or foreign language) dictionaries, spelling lists, or other lists of words.
Use a password shorter than six characters

Some Selection Ideas

Often when people choose a random password it is then easily forgotten, although passwords can usually be easily reset, this can cause an overhead on the system administrator and waste valuable time. One popular way of choosing passwords that can be remembered is for the user to select a two syllable word, divide the word in half, reverse the order, and insert a number. For instance, the word SUMMER and the number 2 become MER2SUM. This becomes an easily remembered password (all the user must remember is SUMMER 2 and the rule), while still being difficult to crack or guess.

Switching letters for numbers is also a good method. Start with a normal word, say ‘computing’ and replace the i’s with 1’s and the o’s with zeros, so the password would become ‘c0mput1ng’. Use word abbreviations to create small simple phrases that are easy to remember. For example, “you too can be safe” would turn into “u2canbsafe”.

Taking a short phrase and using the first letter of each word can also be a good method. For example, ‘I like the beach in the summer’ would become ‘iltbits’.

Summary

The basic key with passwords is after avoiding all the common mistakes like using your name etc. It must be something you can remember. If you can’t remember it then you will write it down which is a big no-no. Second to remembering it is: the password should be easy to type.

So if you’re in need of some help with passwords, or even just some free friendly advice, get in touch with us on 0800 878 878

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