Posts Tagged ‘IT’
Portable scanners can help your mobile users
I carry a portable scanner with me everywhere. I can scan in receipts so my capable staff can bill clients. I scan in program evaluations to learn from valuable feedback from audiences where I speak. I scan anything important that I might need again. When I used to collect business cards, I would scan them into my CRM customer relationship management system.
If you or users in your company travel, ask yourself if there are any documents they could scan to increase productivity and improve the service you provide your customers.
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Does it help not to open e-mail from strangers?
An executive recently wrote me, “I got a virus that infected our network because I opened an e-mail message from someone I didn’t recognize – I’ll never do that again!”
While that strategy may help some, it is far from being a reliable way to protect your network. First of all, without performing some technical detective work, it is hard for a non-IT professional to tell who the e-mail came from anyway. You may get an e-mail from a cybercriminal who uses “spoofing” to make the e-mail message appear that it is coming from your best friend, bank, the FTC, or anyone else.
Better protection comes from scanning tools running at one or more locations including your e-mail server, your firewall, your spam filter, and the anti-virus client on your local machine.
Training users “not to open e-mail from strangers” is a moot point if your user is supposed to open e-mail messages from prospects interested in your company’s products and/or services. There is some training that matters though…
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Productivity – what programs do you use most?
You might be surprised what programs you use most often. Tools from www.rescuetime.com watch your activity on your computer and give you a useful report about your daily activities.
Their privacy statement and FAQ clearly state that they won’t gather any private information, and if you are willing to trust them, you may learn ways to make huge changes in your productivity. In addition to web site categories, you’ll get reports about using word processing, spreadsheets, utilities, and every one of your programs. Just opening an application on your computer doesn’t generate “time spent.” Rescue Time actually tracks the time you are using the applications.
You may determine you are spending enough time at the news web sites finding out just how bad everything is. Or you may find, like me, that you are devoting many hours per day to responding to e-mail messages.
As with all software, check with your IT professional first, and if they approve then give www.rescuetime.com a try to rescue some of your time!
How much should IT companies charge per hour?
“Mike, I pay my outsourced company $75 per hour – is that a good rate?” This is a common question from executives.
The answer is simple: Hourly rates mean NOTHING.
I have seen $40/hour companies spend months resolving simple issues that they should have known how to fix in a moment. At the same time, those companies may sometimes fix problems quickly. I know when I had an IT services firm, we did everything possible to avoid the “paid by the hour” trap. I strongly believe services should be based on ROI – Return on Investment. If you pay someone 100 dollars and get 200 dollars of value in return, that is a great deal!
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Notify your IT department sooner when hiring
When you hire a new employee, you want IT to have them up and running ASAP, right?
Around a third of the companies where I consult one of the initial complaints from IT is, “Management doesn’t give us enough warning when they hire a new employee.”
It is understandable for managers who do not understand about Information Technology to expect their IT professionals to “Just order a new computer and turn it on! What is the big deal?”
Read on to find out what is involved in setting up a new user. Continue reading ‘Notify your IT department sooner when hiring’
Can you not decide what sites to block?
Many organizations fail to implement web-blocking technologies because of the arguments that erupt around what is and what is not inappropriate content to block from employees on the job. Keep in mind that most web blocking tools block by category such as, “gambling sites” and “news sites.”
This frustration and confusion causes the organization to not filter any sites at all. Here is a simple way to move forward on your protection.
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Are users sabotaging your IT?
I was presenting in Atlanta recently and asked two IT professionals in the audience to estimate how much of their time is spent fixing problems that their own users created. The first IT professional said, “75%!” The second professional said, “At least that much for me!”
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Avoid a major pitfall of outsourcing your IT services
Most organizations outsource IT at least some of the time, and some outsource 100% of their work.
When your organization outsources the IT support, without the appropriate checks and balances, the tactic of “put out the IT fires but don’t prevent the fires” can get out of control. Look at the vicious cycle below:
Should your IT professionals seem invisible?
Should your IT professionals seem invisible?
Realize it or not, some IT professionals would rather fix the symptoms that, to users and management, appear to be the “problems” rather than the deeper root cause of your IT challenges. Users are very happy and speak highly of the IT professional when, “oh – when I had the problem – you came right out and fixed it! Thank you!” Management likewise refers to their IT team as “very capable and on top of every problem.” Often they fail to realize they are reinforcing a broken system.
Face it – your IT professionals should be more like your invisible guardian angel than a knight in shining armor riding in to save the day.
How many IT professionals should you have?
If you have “X number” of computers, how many IT professionals should you have?
CEO’s, CFO’s, Owners and other executives are always asking me that question. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some simple formula like, “you need one IT professional for every 50 users in your company?” The fact is that the formula is more complicated.
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