Posts Tagged ‘recommendations’

Executives-be sure your CPA saw this article

One of my best clients, a CPA firm, forwarded a quick article from the AICPA—American Institute of CPA’s—called “Four Fast and Easy Tech Fixes.” Be sure your CPA sees it.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security, Technology on March 3rd, 2010.

Tags: professionals, read, recommendations

Two crucial pieces of advice for executives

My wife and I were traveling a little over a week ago when we got a phone call that one of our immediate relatives dropped dead from a heart attack. He was standing in line at the pharmacy to get medicine his doctor just prescribed for “heart burn” and collapsed, unconscious, and his heart was no longer pumping blood. Simply put: he died.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security on February 24th, 2010.

Tags: danger, IT security procedures, recommendations

Online safety not a priority for families?

I’m having a revelation in my career—home users care more about other issues than they care about IT security. Can this be true?

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security on January 27th, 2010.

Tags: computer security, protect, recommendations, secure

Banks suggest you dedicate one PC for online banking

USA Today reports that the American Bankers Association (ABA) recommends small and mid-sized businesses dedicate a computer to use only for online banking, and avoid using any other computers for online banking. While this may sound good, it can create headaches in practice.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security, Save time, Technology on January 20th, 2010.

Tags: computer security, network security, professionals, recommendations

When you outsource IT, stop paying them by the hour!

To help ensure your IT projects are finished on time and in budget, pay IT outsourcing a flat fee. Do you realize that when you pay outsourced IT companies by the hour, unless you put some other restraints in place, you basically reward them for taking longer?

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices on January 13th, 2010.

Tags: professionals, recommendations, Working With IT People

How to know if your IT professionals are good

Executives often want me to answer the question, “How good are my IT professionals” be they in-house employees or outsourced IT professionals. The first thing I say is, “If the IT professional is like a knight in shining armor, riding his horse in to save the day every time there is a problem, that’s not the best situation at all.”

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security, Save time on January 6th, 2010.

Tags: IT Network Teams, Managing IT Professionals, recommendations, Working With IT People

Are your employees still using single monitors?

Microsoft’s research shows that worker productivity increases from 9% to 50%: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/vibe.aspx

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, Save time, Technology on December 23rd, 2009.

Tags: professionals, recommendations, Working With IT People

Prepare now for cost effective move to thin clients

If you have been buying the “box copy” licenses for Microsoft Office and other applications, Microsoft may not allow you to use those licenses in your thin client environment!

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, Technology on December 16th, 2009.

Tags: professionals, recommendations

When it comes to passwords, length is what matters

Ever heard the rumor that you need upper case letters, lower case letters, symbols, and numbers in your passwords? This is called “password complexity.” If you have to keep password complexity for compliance reasons, you have no choice, but otherwise—make your life easier—just switch to passwords that are 15 characters or longer—commonly referred to as passphrases.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, IT Security on November 18th, 2009.

Tags: computer security, IT, IT network safety, protect, recommendations, secure

So how is Windows 7 in business?

Windows 7 is out, about, and is working great! If you have not let your IT professionals set up a test machine on Windows 7 to see how compatible the new operating system is in your environment, now is a great time to let them start.

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Posted by Mike Foster in Best Practices, Save time on November 11th, 2009.

Tags: IT, professionals, recommendations