Collaboration Ideas

SharePoint is a great way to create an intranet within your company to build collaboration within your empoyees, both inside and outside your brick and mortar location. SharePoint offers a complete intranet infrastructure out-of-the-box with a number of powerful features. However, it can be a daunting task for an administrator/employee when looking at setting up the environment. Microsoft has a number of simple guidelines that can help. Check out Microsoft at Work for ideas that can help.

Spring Cleaning of Your Network

Jim Gaskin of Network World had some great ideas for getting your network tuned up during Spring. Go to his blog at Network World

Passwords: Silly or Serious?

I recently asked the question of my Linkedin connections ”how do professionals managed to design a password strategy so that it was usable and secure”. I had some great answers.

Andy Foote’s answer to the password question is worth repeating - ”Take your next door neighbor’s dog’s name, if it is a bitch, start with the first letter, if a male, start with the last letter, add a vowel and the letters ‘eze’ or ‘nuts’ ,and then add the last two numbers of your birth year. Do this every time you move address or the postman gets bitten.”

I like it, but that’s just me.

John Ross and Stacy Sneeden point out that complicated passwords and biometrics are a choice, but complicated passwords are a pain for the users and biometrics are an expense for the SMB. 

Jeremy Lee made the excellent point that humans are horrible random-number generators, and that there is a relatively simple way to provide secure passwords that users will use. He asked “What’s wrong with writing the passwords down?” (as long as it is not under the keyboard). Keep it in a wallet, purse, glasses-case or something else physical and personal. This then becomes a poor-man’s two factor authentication.

Something you know: “Where I hid it, and possibly how it’s recorded”
Something you have: “My wallet”

I love it. It has something the SMB loves (not expensive) and something his users love (not complicated). So I am going to suggest a modified solution that my company (a managed services provider) has been using for sometime.

One of the complexities that faces the SMB is that very often the password change affects the network login, Exchange access, smartphone email, and etc. My company takes responsibility for changing and recording the users passwords for our clients. What we do is to simplify by having a portion of the password that is common to the company that all the users knows (i.e. Acme Manufacturing Co. has all their passwords start with AMCo*).  We then follow this with a 4 digit addition to the passcode (AMCo*1234).

The strength is that the passcode is 1) 9 characters, 2) non-dictionary, 3) has all four types of chacters, and 4) the users only have to remember 4 numbers. The weakness is that 1) it still goes on the bottom of the keyboard, and 2) it is relatively easy to break for an internal ne’er-do-well (but they’re all on the bottom of the keyboards any way).

So why not give out a business card with the number of the help desk on it, and on the back: the date the card was issued (version control) and the 4 digits that the user has to remember. Voila, if there is a problem the user calls the help desk and the card fits easily into a wallet or purse. It is easy for the help desk to issue a new one when your password changes and we get to advertise on it.

Thanks to all input to the article from my friends at Linkin.

Ideas for Small Biz Savings

Smallbiztechnology.com is a great source of info. Their most recent article is a case in point. They looked at real savings that can be acheived by small business implementation of new technology. It is good reading and good sense http://tinyurl.com/cuohvo.

Small business doing well… so far.

I fully expected (and still do) that small business in my area would be affected by the general business malaise. For the most part (knock on wood…) they have not.

Although my largest client is now one of my smallest, all of the others have continued to do the same amount of business with us. In fact, the are generally looking for additional tools or savings that technology can bring to bear.

I tested my results at the SMBTN Los Angeles meeting the other night, and had very similar feedback. None of the small business IT professionals were seeing a slowdown at all.

It is extremely gratifying for a small business advocate like I am, to see the resiliency and the fire shown by small business. The question is can it continue with so many employees laid off, and so many enterprises chopping their business. It cannot help but affect small business. Let’s see how small business responds.

Holiday networking – Santa could show up at my door.

Jason Rosado has had a brilliant idea for dealing with networking during the holidays. He feels, like many of us during these next several months; overwhelmed. However, we need to continue our personal marketing efforts. Just think of it this way; are our competitors marketing? If not then we can steal a march on them. If so, we need to work to stay up.

Follow the link to Jason’s comments on Holiday Networking.