SmallBiz InfoTech by Denis Wilson

Collaboration Ideas

dwpia — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:45:41 +0000

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.

9 Hidden Benefits of Blogging

dwpia — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:47:10 +0000

An excellent post by John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing on the 9 Hidden Benefits of Blogging. These are some things that you probably hadn’t thought of. It is well worth a quick perusal.

TweetDeck and Twitter

dwpia — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:18:12 +0000

I needed help when I first started to use this utility called TweetDeck to view and consolidate my Twitter feeds. I found a great video tutorial by Rich Brooks at Flyte New Media. Now, I wouldn’t use anything else.

New Meetup Group

dwpia — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:20:33 +0000

I am hosting a new meetup group in Westlake Village, CA. It is designed as a small business forum to discuss technology without the sales hype or the geek-speak. This is a discussion for businesspeople by businesspeople using their language, and mirroring their concerns and goals. It’s called SmallBizExec Tech Roundtable.

Topics that may be discussed include, but are not limited to:

Trends in Business Technology
Social Media Marketing
Cloud Computing
Internet versus Desktop Applications
Small Business Advantages
Mobile Computing Applications
Secure Your Business Tech
Finding Reliable Business Consulting

NO SALES PITCHES ALLOWED. Otherwise, industry folks such as computer consultants and web designers are welcome. As long as we share Rule #1.

We meet on fourth Tuesday of every month at 5:30 pm at Vivoli Cafe in Westlake Village for little dinner, a little wine, a lot af discussion and a generous sprinking of fun.

To find out more, go to Meetup.

Spring Cleaning of Your Network

dwpia — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:42:54 +0000

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

Small Biz Can Take Advantage of Federal Investment Dollars

dwpia — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:51:11 +0000

Right now, one of the most asked questions that I get is, how can I as a small business compete and win dollars from the government. And more specifically, how can can I get a slice of the big pile of federal investment dollars. I recently asked a question on LinkedIn about this very subject and I got a great answer from Tiffeny Price, a self-employed marketing consultant and previously employed at Cisco as a marketing expert in the SMB market segment.

The answer is yes, and Tiffeny’s blog will tell you how.

Opportunity for Businesses in Ventura County

dwpia — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:15:42 +0000

Naval Base Ventura County is the 3rd largest naval facility in the world. On April 2nd they are holding an open house for folks who have never done work with them in the past. They are going to explain how, who, what and where to do business with NBVC. One of the great innovations has been to give purchasing agents the right to buy up to $2,500 of goods and services locally to solve a problem locally, without having to go through the whole purchasing process. This event is put on by Ventura County Economic Development Agency. Check out www.vceda.org/documents/0803-triad.pdf

Passwords: Silly or Serious?

dwpia — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:57:16 +0000

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

dwpia — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:06:38 +0000

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.

Passwords are the worst

dwpia — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:23:55 +0000

Why is it the simplest security the toughest to get right? We still leave our cars idling outside the dry cleaners, we still leave our kids sleeping in the back seat while we dash into the bank, we still let out newspapers pile up when we’re gone for the week-end, and we still stick our passwords under our keyboards.

The What’s My Pass website provides insights, as well as laughs, as they list the 500 worst passwords of all time.