Hardware appliances can reduce the possibility of infections by eliminating spam and blocking website access. However, protection also includes putting policies and procedures in place to govern usage of company computers and network.

Whether you have two company computers or twenty you should establish policies for:

1. Personal Web Surfing. Do you want your employees checking out porn or a new job or shopping for lingerie on company time? Some of these web sites are also the source of viruses that will infect your computers. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
2. Personal emails. Personal emails are another source of viruses. Their friends and family may not have strong anti-virus protection. Do you want them infecting your business computers?
3. Non-employee use of company resources. Do you want your employees’ children using your computers or network? What will they expose your business infrastructure to when they visit their favorite websites?
4. Taking home company data. What data should you allow to leave the office, if any? Keep in mind that it is easy to lose a USB flash drive. If you want to allow employees to take work home, what type of encryption should be used to protect the data if the drive becomes lost?
5. Downloading and installing non-business software. Non-business software consumes the limited resources of your computer, particularly memory. This software can also be a source of viruses and other malicious attacks.

Think carefully about the access you want to grant to yourself and your employees. Seek your employees’ input so that the policies protect the company without hindering their ability to conduct company business. Then set the policy. Communicate it. Work with your I.T. service provider to establish it. Enforce it.

As the owner, you need to set the example for your employees, adhering to company policies and procedures. You also need to enforce company policies, even if the violators are members of the family. If you don’t enforce them equally, then expect your employees to ignore the policies and procedures as well.

Wishing you safe passage through the I.T. Minefield!

__________________________________

This topic is discussed in greater detail in Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise. To purchase your copy, please visit http://bit.ly/SNL4W.

Leslie Knight is a small business consultant with over 20 years of experience in Information Technology management in Fortune 500 companies.  She applies her experience in Corporate America saving them millions to smaller entrepreneurial enterprises. She is also the author of Navigating the I.T. Minefield.

Are those deals really good deals? Many of them have some” gotchas” you should consider:

1)      Re-sellers provide the computer to you “as is”. If it comes with Windows XP it may not be a good deal if the recipient of your gift expects Windows 7.  By the time they add in the additional cost for Windows 7 ($299 – $319), additional memory, and software upgrades they could spend as much as you did for the gift. If the computer cannot be upgraded with additional memory, you gave a gift with a short lifespan. Do your homework first!

2)      Netbooks (mini-notebooks) are the latest rage, designed to provide the user with mobile access to the internet.  They are small, great for someone who is on the go and doesn’t want to carry a lot of extra weight, and relatively inexpensive. The downside: they are not really designed for much else.

• Memory is limited to 1GB (gigabyte), the minimum required for Windows 7. After a few service pack or anti-virus upgrades, they could see performance degrade and the recipient of your gift will be looking for a new computer.
• Most netbooks come with limited software. You may need to purchase an external CD/DVD drive for additional software installs (particularly if downloading software over the internet takes too long). Keep in mind the more software you install, the more memory you will wish you had.

The message is simple. Before you purchase a computer as a gift, understand the recipient’s needs and usage expectations. You don’t want your gift to become the “white elephant” used as door stop or paper weight.

If you have questions, contact your favorite IT service provider or feel free to DM me @ITMinefield on Twitter.

Wishing you safe passage through the IT Minefield!

___________________________________

This topic is discussed in greater detail in Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise. To purchase your copy, please visit http://bit.ly/SNL4W.

Leslie Knight is a small business consultant with over 20 years of experience in Information Technology management in Fortune 500 companies.  She applies her experience in Corporate America (saving them millions) to smaller entrepreneurial enterprises. She is also the author of Navigating the I.T. Minefield- Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise.