Improve the Value of Your Business Data

Are you making the most of your business’s greatest assets? The data your employees and customers generate is an unsung hero, just waiting to take your business to the next level. Obviously, enough information can help any company make better decisions, but how can a small or medium-sized organization use data analysis to increase revenue?

Many businesses shy away from data analytics due to the perceived costs and resources required to get anything of value. However, even the most humble mom-and-pop stores and home-based entrepreneurs have access to a broad range of worthwhile information.

It doesn’t make sense to spend half your week mired in spreadsheets and charts if you’re not extracting information that helps increase revenue. Basic data analytics solutions from companies like Microsoft and Google offer solutions to streamline the collection and examination of company information. But with an array of different tools to choose from, what should you consider before investing in one?

How easy is it to use? There’s no point investing in a dashboard solution if you don’t understand the way the insights are presented. Analysis functions must be straightforward and user-friendly.

Are the results actionable? Great insights are worthless if applying them requires another staff member that you can’t afford. Test drive an analytics solution before investing to ensure that its insights are easy to understand and apply.

Does it save you time? If you’re already relying on data analysis for growth, your first priority should be boosting productivity. Look for solutions that will enable you to complete your current analytics tasks in less time.

Is it compatible with other apps? You need a solution that cuts down on manual data entry and doesn’t add steps to any existing processes. Make sure any analytics software you’re considering can integrate with your existing solutions before signing on the dotted line.

Whether your aim is to attract new customers, retain existing clients, expand your services, or decide on a new location, your data is an indispensable asset. It’s there in good times and bad times, just waiting for you to take a closer look.

If you’d like to learn more about adding value to your business with data analysis, or want to explore data analysis software options, get in touch with us today – we’ll be happy to recommend options based on your needs and requirements.

5 Ways You Could Blow Your Online Reputation

As a small business owner, you’ve probably used social media to establish a connection with your customers and share stories that will shine a positive light on your brand. While social media is a great tool to foster your business name, if used incorrectly it could just shatter your online reputation. Here are some common mistakes you should avoid when implementing social media marketing in your business.

Your online reputation will not take care of itself

Assuming that your enterprise doesn’t need an online reputation management (ORM) strategy is the most common ORM mistake business owners should avoid and, probably the first one as well. Just because your business’s reviews were positive today, doesn’t mean they will be tomorrow. Your online reputation can change in an instant.

Think about it: The key to protecting your business from the harmful bad reviews is a good ORM strategy. In short – this is a process that could make or break your reputation, and you should be extra careful. The more work you put in ORM, the more control you have over what appears in search engines for your products or services.

Expressing your personal opinion

You’re making a big mistake if you let your emotions get in the way when posting content on your business’s social media profiles. Discussing religion, politics, or other controversial issues may turn off people who matter to your business. Unless they’re relevant to the nature of your business, avoid mentioning sensitive topics. Instead, try to keep a neutral tone, since the goal of your social media efforts is to appeal to everyone.

Ignoring or responding aggressively to negative comments

Negative feedback can be painful to hear but, if you can put aside your pride, it is a real opportunity for improvement. When customers post a negative comment, ignoring it can make things go from bad to worse. Customers may think that you’re not taking their issue seriously, and could resort to posting complaints on all sorts of platforms, which quickly become impossible to control.

Also, don’t let things get out of hand – reply in a timely manner and try to solve problems as best you can, not by posting abusive rants or sending back angry emails to authors of bad feedback.

Posting fake reviews (both negative and positive)

Another online reputation mistake is to post negative reviews on your competitors’ website to dampen their credibility. This underhanded strategy is ethically wrong.

On the other hand, influential websites like Google have algorithms in place to help weed out false customer feedback, so making the mistake of posting fake client reviews to boost your business is such a waste of time and effort. Instead, focus on delivering high-quality products and services to generate authentic customer reviews, which can really pay off in the long run.

Being inconsistent

To build a good online reputation, you need to be consistent. Your social media fans followed your page for a reason – they have certain expectations that you will post regular and interesting content. Updating social media with ten posts one day, followed by complete silence for the following few weeks, is a bad example of consistency. Don’t disappear for days or weeks on end. Try to schedule a routine and interact with your audience on a regular basis.

A credible online reputation is an important part of your business’s public image. If you want to discuss how to establish an online presence and a strong ORM, contact us today and we can give insights from experts.

Changing Your Network Profile

The Windows operating system has different settings for connecting to different networks. While this may seem like a minor detail, it actually can have considerable ramifications to your cybersecurity, not to mention that of your business. For this month’s tip, we’ll discuss how to use your network profile to stay secure, based on your situation.

Network Profile?
Each time a Windows 10 device connects to a new network, it will ask the user if it should be able to be discovered by other devices on that network. Selecting “Yes” will set your network profile to Private, and selecting “No” will set it to Public.

The Private and Public settings are referring to the kind of network your device is connecting to, and what level of security your individual device is responsible for. If you are connected to your company’s network, with all its protections and other users with whom you need to collaborate, the “Private” network setting is the one you want to use. However, if you’re using your device in a public setting, on a network that is “Public”-ally accessible, you don’t want any Tom, Dick, or Harry Hacker to be able to connect to you.

Switching the Network Profile
Windows 10 offers a few different methods of switching the network profile that a device uses. One way is to use the built-in Settings application.

From the Start menu, access the Settings application. Go to Network and Internet, and then select the kind of connection you have established from the left panel menu. If you’re physically connected to the network, select Ethernet, and if you’re using a wireless connection, select WiFi. Then, click on Network in the right panel. You can then switch between a Public network profile and a Private network profile.

Domain Networks
Alternatively, enterprise workplaces often leverage a third network profile – a domain network. Unlike the Private or Public profiles, only a network administrator can set its use, and it can only be applied while the device is in the workplace.

Want to know more about your network, or need more help managing it? Reach out to Net Activity at 216-503-5150.

7 Must-Follow Steps to Getting The Most From Your Managed Services Provider

The decision to move your IT management and operations to a managed services provider (“MSP”) can offer your organization a multitude of benefits and opportunities to grow your business. The right managed services partner can help you manage a complicated, every-changing internal technology network (without blowing through your IT budget) and allow you focus on making dynamic business decisions that move your company forward.

However, the increasing range of expertise, technology and management models can make choosing an MSP a difficult task. MSP relationships can be as varied as working with a partner who takes full operational control of your IT operations, to a smaller-scale arrangement where an existing IT staff relies on an MSP to augment existing skill sets and provide backup support where needed. Choosing the right provider is essential for successfully migrating your network to an outsourced network operations center. Making sure to do your “due diligence” and take the time necessary to select the right MSP partner can help you avoid making a rushed, uninformed decision that can lead to costly and time-consuming mistakes.

Knowing what to look for, and what to expect, from a managed services partnership is critical in getting the most out of the relationship; we have put together a list of 7 critical items to consider when selecting and working with your managed services provider.

1. When opting for an MSP, think about your requirements first. Numerous MSPs offer various services so choosing the right one can be confusing. Are you looking to address specific functions like storage, desktop management or help desk services? Do you need cloud computing services, server maintenance and backup/disaster recovery support? Having a clear idea of your specific requirements first helps you decide which MSP package best suits your needs.
2. Choose your MSP carefully. Once you’re done evaluating your own IT requirements and what you would need from your MSP, take the time to evaluate multiple MSPs before choosing one. Do not rest on comparing cost either. Most MSPs will try to lure you using rock-bottom deals but be sure to check on them. Do research on their business model. How stable they are? How long they have been in the business? You could also ask for case studies or talk to their existing clients to get a better idea of what they offer.
3. Resist the urge to bargain shop. See above! While it might be tempting to select the least expensive option you will be missing out on the partnership value an MSP can offer your business. Beware of cookie-cutter service agreements and look for an MSP partner that speaks more to your business needs, rather than a direct focus on the technology itself. Your managed services provider should be able to speak to your business objectives, and how technology can support them, rather than the other way around.
4. Build a relationship with your MSP. What’s the point of evolving from an older break-fix IT template, only to fall into the trap again? Make sure you meet with your MSP partner on a regular basis — monthly or quarterly — to review the overall state of your IT operations and issues that came up in the preceding period, looking at how many tickets came through, the time of resolution, etc. The value in your MSP shouldn’t just be delivering service but also reporting on that service and working with you to enhance the maturity and functionality of your network.
5. Work out a clear data backup and disaster recovery strategy with your MSP. If you ever wonder if you need a data backup strategy, the answer is simple, you do! No matter how advanced your security systems are, how encrypted your files are or how secure your storage space is, at some point or another, your data will be at risk. The reasons could be anything from a human error, a machine error, a virus attack, a hacker or even a natural disaster like a hurricane. Considering how important your data is to your enterprise, you would be well advised to guard against it. Work with your MSP and put together a smart data backup plan along with a disaster recovery strategy. Go through it step-by-step and be sure to test the backup process and do a sample restore.
6. Take full advantage of the benefits that were discussed when your partnership with the MSP first started. Follow up to ensure that the services and value adds that were slated to be delivered actually were implemented by your organization. MSPs frequently have the capacity to serve as a virtual CIO — not just fixing equipment but also taking your business to another level. Are you engaged in dialog to address the bigger picture? You’ll also want to take seriously what the MSP provides in terms of strategic advice, including helping you plan future IT projects and upgrades. Most MSPs proactively evaluate your network, systems, workstations, etc., in order to present a case on outdated workstations or a trending problem on the help desk, along with a solution, what it would cost to implement it and the efficiencies that would result.
7. And last but not least; remember, if you’ve outgrown your MSP, don’t be afraid to move on. Much like most things in life, your business model needs to be continually adaptable. Maybe the MSP that once served you well, isn’t capable of doing so anymore. This often happens when a company outgrows their MSP establishment. If you find yourself with recurring problems or issues from your service provider, don’t be afraid to change. A great MSP is not a repairman but a partner who adds real value to your organization and ensures that your IT is aligned with your business strategy.

You need to invest time and resources into the relationship with your MSP to make sure it’s doing more than just putting out fires. And don’t wait until 60 to 90 days before the MSP’s contract renews to engage. Taking an active role in the partnership with your MSP will pay big dividends by creating a more effective, cost-efficient IT operation within your business.

Simplify your search for your next MSP with our free 10 Absolute Must-Haves To Look For In Your Next Managed Services Provider Checklist.

How OneNote Helps Your Project Management

Microsoft OneNote is an extremely useful application in the professional setting, with plenty of features and capabilities to assist in keeping you and your employees organized. These features are actually comprehensive enough that OneNote could feasibly serve as your project management tool. For this week’s tip, we’ll review how.

Need Collaboration?
Most projects that a business completes will require more than one person to work on them, assuming that this project needs to be done with any efficiency. This means that multiple people will need to be able to access not just the materials, but the organizational documents as well, to ensure that the project’s status is correctly maintained.

If you also use Microsoft OneDrive, storing your project note there and sharing it out to those who need to access it will enable collaborative abilities for each of them. This can also be done through a sharable link, and sharing permissions can be removed with just a few clicks, if necessary.

Tags for Organization
In OneNote 2016, tags allow much quicker access to key pieces of information in notes, whether that information is a single set of numbers or an entire paragraph of text. These tags include items like Important, Question, and Remember for Later, and you can even remind yourself to Discuss with manager or to Send in email. Of course, if you need a tag that says something different, you can always add a new tag or modify one that you don’t need – for instance, Movie to see probably isn’t going to come up in a project very often, so it can probably be repurposed safely.

These tags are also searchable, making it easy to find them later, and once you’re done with a particular piece of information, the tag can be removed so as to not add to any confusion later.

Customizable Templates
OneNote also comes with an assortment of templates that you can apply to a page before adding any information to it. While some may be well-suited to your project as-is, you can also create your own from scratch or by modifying one that’s already there. Whatever you choose, your process can then be standardized, saving time and energy later in future projects.

How else have you utilized OneNote? Let us know in the comments, and make sure you subscribe to the Net Activity blog!

The Chrome Browser is Redefining Your Security

When you are surfing the web, do you know if you are secure? Typically, your browser will tell you when a site is secure or not. This is especially important if you are putting in sensitive information, like passwords or credit card information. Google Chrome is stepping up it’s game to keep users safe.

How Chrome is Shaking Up the Conventional Advice
There are two major types of websites out there, HTTP and HTTPS. The primary difference between them is that the one with the S at the end signifies that the data was sent through a secure connection, meaning that there are extra layers of security there to shield it from any prying eyes. It’s been a best practice for a long time to make sure that any sensitive data sent to or from a website utilizes a secure connection. This is done by looking for the padlock icons in the address bar.

Google is finally stepping up its game by labeling businesses that don’t encrypt their communications with their host server. Chrome will notify users when they are surfing a site that isn’t using HTTPS. The idea is that this is supposed to put the pressure on websites that have yet to adopt HTTPS. Since Chrome is the most popular web browser, it makes sense that this approach could spark a revolution in website security. So far, the approach is seen as ideal by security professionals.

What Are Other Browsers Doing?
The other major web browsers, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, also have some plans for how they will handle unencrypted websites in the future. However, not all of them plan on flipping the script in such a dramatic way.

• Firefox: It’s likely that Firefox will follow a similar path to Google Chrome. Firefox is still subscribing to the “confirming the page is secure” method. Firefox will also tell you whether or not the HTTP page contains a login form with a padlock that is stricken through. There is even a warning that pops up when the cursor moves over any of these fields. In the future, the browser will display all HTTP pages with the strike-through padlock, even if there aren’t any forms.
• Safari: Apple has yet to deviate from tradition. By this, we mean that the browser just confirms that the connection is secured by showing the lock. However, Apple has taken other, different steps toward ensuring the security of its users. If a user attempts to log into an HTTP page, the page will inform them with alerts popping up into the field and the address bar, much like Firefox does now.
• Edge: Microsoft Edge only tells a user when a page is protected, but there are other options in place that allow the user to access even more information about their connection. This information can reveal if the connection isn’t encrypted, identifying it a potential risk. This same feature doesn’t extend to the input fields on unencrypted pages, though. We don’t feel like Edge is doing enough to warn users about unsafe browsing.

Are you unsure of how to keep your business secure? Reach out to Net Activity Inc. at 216-503-5150.

4 Internal Threats Every Business Owner Should Understand

In light of all the data leaks and vulnerabilities that have been brought to light over the past few years, network security has to be a priority for every business. One problem many organizations have is that while they are protecting their network and infrastructure from threats outside their company, the real threats are actually coming from inside. Today, we’ll look at four ways threats can cause havoc from inside your organization.

A lot of times, the problems a company has with its network and infrastructure come from the inside. There are countless ways your employees can cause a major security problem for your business. They include:

Retribution – Disgruntled employees can often be a problem for a business. This is no more evident than in its IT. If the employee is dissatisfied with elements of their job, they could conceivably take it out on the business. They can delete information, deliberately bring malware onto your network, or just be blatantly negligent to situations and your network can end up having many major problems. Moreover, if an employee is crafty enough, he/she could conceivably hide their betrayal; or worse yet, access the network after they’ve left the company.

To handle issues like this, promptly removing access to the network after a former employee leaves the company is one way to mitigate issues; while constantly monitoring workstation behavior can give you a precise idea on just how these types of issues can be unleashed in the first place.

Trickery – Hackers today realize that a frontal assault on a business network is mostly impossible, so they attempt to get in any way they can. If your employees haven’t been properly trained to decipher the telltale signs of a social engineering attack, they could put your company in a lot of danger.
Having a strategy to train your staff on the best practices of handling emails and extensions can go a long way toward keeping malware and unwanted visitors off of your network. The more they know how to protect themselves, the better they can protect your business.

Subversive Activities – The computers that your employees use are essential for productivity, sure, but they are also attached to one of the biggest distractions in human history: the Internet. Since there is an endless amount of content online, sometimes viewing that content can get in the way of their productivity. Some employees will go even further, viewing content that is highly inappropriate for work and could pick something up along the way, putting your network in jeopardy.

To ward against this, content filtering is a great option. It gives you the opportunity to block certain websites by a per user basis. By being able to control the content that your employees can access, you can eliminate a lot of distractions, while also controlling your network against the threats third-party sites can bring.

Leaking Data – Some employees could want to take information out of the sanctity of your network. Some are simply looking to be productive outside of the office, while some may just be looking to take data for personal or professional gain. Whatever their reason, it can be a big issue when people’s personal information is at stake.

One solution to this is hosting information in a secure cloud server with dedicated access control. Giving your employees the option to do more away from the office is a great strategy, while preventing them from accessing information they don’t need can go a long way toward protecting that information and your network.

If you would like more information about how to mitigate threats to your network and data, contact the certified professionals at Net Activity at 216-503-5150.

What Can We Reasonably Expect the Workplace of the Future to Look Like?

It’s not unusual for people to try and predict what the future will look like, but too many times when people try and predict what will happen in the future, the reality of what is happening today isn’t taken into account. Imagining the workplace (and workforce) of the future requires we look at where we are today, the pace of change, and what changes are expected. It may not go the way you envision, but the more empirical data you use to model what the future looks like, the less disappointed you’ll be when your imaginary benchmarks aren’t met.

Consider for a minute the world of science fiction. The whole genre is less about fantastic images of a future world than it is about commentary about how humanity functions when faced with drastic change. Many of the 20th century’s best science fiction authors legitimately thought that by the turn of the millennium we’d have flying cars, have visited the surfaces of other planets, and have developed sentient computer men that would usher in utopia.

Of course, that time is long gone and, now, almost one-fifth into the new century, we have barely mastered self-driving cars, haven’t really explored the solar system, and have developed some machine learning capabilities that we bill as “artificial intelligence” when it is really just advanced data analysis. That’s not to say we haven’t come a long, long way in a short period of time, and that the pace in which change is happening isn’t accelerating; but, ultimately, we tend to let our imaginations run away with us too often. This month we will attempt to look into the future to see how the technology we’re developing today will change the world, and how that technology will affect humanity.

Where are we now?
As we stated before, the best way to gauge what will come is to look at where we are. Some of the technologies written in fiction have come to fruition. Smartphones and tablets, nanotechnology, even A.I. (as it is today) are all right out of a science fiction novel from the 1960s.

Today’s business is operating on two fronts. On one hand they have their operations, and on the other they have their online presence. In fact, many times, the difference between two similar businesses is how they’ve been able to use the Internet to their advantage. As the transcendent technology in a time where there are several society-changing technology innovations, the Internet is now available on almost any device you can imagine, and for the business that hasn’t yet embraced the technology, it can be intimidating to consider how to begin.

Some of the technology offered on the Internet, like cloud computing and social media are both relatively new and extraordinarily useful. Many small businesses have started moving parts (or all) of their computing infrastructure to the cloud, using virtual environments to cut infrastructure costs and provide superior accessibility. Social media has also been extremely useful for the average small business by giving them access to a whole cache of potential customers, and a platform in which to engage with them.

With the development of these advanced, Internet-based technologies, the modern small business is able to compete with larger organizations better than any other time in modern commercial history. Management software that can manage supply chains, human resources, and all the bookkeeping an organization does, have allowed some businesses to remain lean, spending capital on production workers rather than support staff.

What’s Next?
Some technologies are in their infancy and being billed as complete game-changers. We’ve already mentioned artificial intelligence, but there are other technologies that are new over the past decade that people are trying to build use out of. Blockchain is one. Distributed networks are traditionally more secure, but had lost their function in the enterprise space (due to the demands of data storage and dissemination) up until the development of blockchain technology. Adding encryption to the concept of distributed resources creates in essence a static, secure ledger, that if innovated upon, could revolutionize the way people send and share secure information. This presents a myriad of uses for blockchain, and investors have noticed as venture capital firms have invested at least $1.3 billion in blockchain so far in 2018, up from the $900 million that was invested in the technology in all of 2017.

Another technology that businesses of all sizes need to be aware of is the growth in the Financial Technology sector. Known as FinTech, which along with building more opportunities for businesses to raise capital outside of the traditional banking structure, it also is forces those banks to change their policies to be more user friendly. In particular, a strategy called open banking is forcing financial institutions to build a whole set of processes that allow businesses to pay and get paid faster. Digital bank-to-bank transactions through secure applications can go a long way toward offsetting the costs most businesses incur because of a litany of unpaid invoices.

The Workforce
No matter how much technology we utilize today, the backbone of almost every business is still people. The modern workplace has largely been altered from the repressive factory farm strategy that many older workers have had to deal with over the years. With workers requiring a lot more work-life balance; and, the work they are doing being much more collaborative, organizations have turned to technology to improve productivity.

This has led to more organizations than ever installing and using tracking technology, as they need to get the most out of their workers in order to compete. Sure, allowing someone to work remotely has its own benefits for the worker, but to get the most out of that strategy, the organization needs this tracking software to set performance indicators that need to be met by their workers in order for the organization as a whole to prosper. Remote workers cut down on a lot of utility and management costs, but with data security an important line item for almost any organization, other considerations have to be made when an organization decides to allow people to access data, applications, and communications remotely.

According Pew research 35 percent of the workforce is now characterized as “millennials”, while 33 percent are from Generation X, 25 percent are baby boomers, and the other seven percent are elderly and teens. Most millennials have lived their lives with access to the Internet. Now that they are all of working age, and have become the largest part of the modern workforce, you are beginning to see a shift in the way that people are managing their employees. You are seeing more open office setups, more collaboration, more remote working, more outsourcing.

You are just beginning to see a trend that many analysts have expected for some time: the replacement of human workers with automated smart systems. The robot workforce is growing quickly and may turn into a troubling situation before long. In fact, Forrester Research suggests that automation will replace up to nine whole percent of U.S. jobs in 2018 alone. The trend of adding automation to cut costs isn’t really a new phenomenon, but the better systems are at performing the jobs that humans traditionally have performed, the more expendable the human workers, who cost much more, are.

Looking Into the Future
We’ve touched on a lot of things that need to be considered. Firstly, technology is replacing humanity at a pretty alarming rate, and workers that aren’t technically savvy are going to have a harder time in the workplace of the future. As machines get smarter and able to analyze data better and “make “decisions,” humans will be pushed out of the workforce. That’s not to say that humanity won’t react to this trend, but as it stands the growth of machine learning and the use of metrics to quantify the effectiveness of humans vs. machines are not promising for the future worker.

Businesses will continue to use innovative new technologies, software, and strategies to push productivity to higher levels. Based on modern trends, the worker in the future will be in almost ubiquitous contact with technological systems in order to push efficiency, and ultimately profitability, higher and higher. A reliance on technology will come with new and innovative ways to secure it. The more people are pushed out the workforce, the more companies will be looked on as subversive organizations rather than champions of innovation, changing the culture in multiple ways.

Multinational professional services giant PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that the next twelve years will be a time of great change. In fact PWC suggest things could go in four directions. One scenario suggests that humans will get so fed up by technology that they will create a “Made by Me” strategy that would indicate that no machines have been involved in production of a product.

It’s totally possible, then again, we’ve been wrong before.

The U.S. Is The Most At Risk Nation For Cyber Attacks

Being “number 1” isn’t always a good thing.  Rapid7 has just published their third annual “National Exposure Index,” and unfortunately, the United States has the dubious honor of being the nation most at risk for a cyber attack on its core services.  The group’s methodology for ranking national exposure comes down to tracking the number of exposed services and comparing this number to the nation’s total allocated IP address space.

Ranked in this way, the top four most vulnerable countries are:

• The United States
• China
• South Korea
• The UK

All told, these four nations control more than 61 million servers listed on at least one of the points surveyed by Rapid7.

Drilling down a bit more deeply, the report also contained this chilling fact:

“There are 13 million exposed endpoints associated with direct database access, half of which are associated with MySQL.  Along with millions of exposed PostgreSQL, Oracle DB, Microsoft SQL Server, Redis, DB2, and MongoDB endpoints, this exposure presents significant risk of crucial data loss in a coordinated attack.”

Given that this year has already given us the largest DDOS attack in the history of the internet, Rapid7’s findings should not be taken lightly.  The risks are very real, which is why the company is so strongly committed to the publication of their annual report.

As they put it:

“…national internet service providers in these countries can use these findings to understand the risks of internet exposure, and that they, along with policymakers and other technical leaders, are in an excellent position to make significant progress in securing the global internet.”

A lofty goal indeed.  Unfortunately, although the data is illuminating, there are no quick or easy answers here, especially in the United States.  Thus far, the U.S. has struggled to put together a cohesive digital security policy at the national level, which seems unlikely to change at least in the near future.