By Dave Moorman, DynaSis

Numerous surveys and reports indicate that mobile devices can be enormous workforce productivity enhancers―with employees voluntarily extending the workplace outside the office. For example, a recent survey conducted by Fierce GovernmentIT and Market Connections found that more than 50% of federal employees achieved five additional hours, weekly, of device-driven productivity, much of which occurred outside the office.

Employees in corporate environments report similar productivity increases― per the 2013 iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report, 75% of mobile workers perform additional work tasks from hotels, airplanes, coffee shops or public transportation. Yet, not all companies―especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that may be technology challenged―reap the greatest possible productivity gains from mobility.

A number of factors can impede that goal, and one of them surprisingly, may be a shortage of Internet connectivity. Few companies think about the implications of Internet access for mobile workers, other than possibly to warn them against using public, unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots. Yet, connectivity is becoming an impediment to productivity.

Many wireless providers are discontinuing unlimited free data plans in favor of “set allowance” packages for a certain price, forcing workers to be more conservative with their cellular data usage. In BYOD (worker-provided device) scenarios, this situation is especially touchy, because workers may not be willing to give up precious data allowances for work purposes without proper compensation.

Cellular providers encourage smartphone users to access the Internet over Wi-Fi, but access to these networks is far from ubiquitous. In the iPass survey, 41% of workers said a lack of wireless coverage rendered them unproductive for at least 10% of their workday. That equates to 251 lost hours per worker, per year. A whopping 18% said the unavailability of wireless left them unproductive for 25% of their day, or more.

Based on the numbers, it’s likely that this Wi-Fi shortage is happening both inside and outside the office. To neutralize such a productivity threat, SMBs need to provide sufficient Wi-Fi access inside their offices. They also need to ensure workers can access corporate data as needed, via secure Wi-Fi or high-speed cellular Internet connections when they are out of the office―and compensate them for a reasonable amount of the expense. This may sound costly, but as little $20 a month buys a lot of additional Internet access. If SMBs gain one hour a week of productivity from that outlay, it’s more than paid for itself.

The key for SMBs that adopt mobile device strategies is to find that “sweet spot” where maximum productivity, security and cost effectiveness come together. With current technologies and the help of good advisors, achieving that goal isn’t difficult anymore. In coming months, I’ll offer more mobile productivity tips for your consideration. In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss mobility or connectivity issues your firm is experiencing, please give me a call.

The Challenge

When solar cell and module manufacturer Suniva made the shift from the Atlanta Technology Development Center (ATDC – a technology incubator) to a full manufacturing plant with 24/7 operations, having robust IT support in place was critical to not losing momentum because leaving the ATDC behind meant losing the built-in IT support the technology incubator provided its protégés.

Suniva company principals understood that the transition from ATDC to stand-alone operations would be a real test for the future of the new firm and decided on a course of action for IT infrastructure and networking support that would be based on on-demand, outside specialists. This decision let them side-step the sometimes lengthy process—and higher fixed-cost expense—of hiring in-house support.

Suniva began its operations with one production line and approximately 40 employees, Suvina CFO Jim Modak reports. Even with its small footprint, the firm had a broad reach with a global market for its solar cells and modules, resulting in 80% of its product exported to companies abroad in 2010. Because of this expansive customer base and the 24/7 operations model, achieving the best possible uptime for the network was a cornerstone of operating success.

The Selection

Modak interviewed candidate firms for on-demand IT services looking at the breadth and satisfaction of their customers, and the skills of the individuals who were going to be servicing their account, and he selected DynaSis and its managed services program. “We test drove DynaSis for awhile and had a very good experience. They met the criteria, had the right team, and we had access to their executive management,” he says.

Suniva soon discovered that DynaSis was a perfect fit. That was several years ago, and both Suniva’s business and the relationship continue to expand.

The Solution

DynaSis initially provided help desk support and ongoing monitoring, maintenance and patching, and continual analysis of the network to ensure proactive prevention of system failures. As Suniva’s business exploded from 40 employees to 180—and its IT requirements expanded dramatically—DynaSis kept pace with them.

“We established a broader set of criteria that we refined over time as we expanded to make sure DynaSis could still fulfill our needs,” says Modak. “We broadened the “laundry list” based on every-day performance criteria we could measure.”

The Result

Today, DynaSis supports all of Suniva’s network and infrastructure. When Suniva was ready for server virtualization, it turned to DynaSis, and Suniva has also ramped up from an on-demand to an in-house contract., DynaSis has consultants onsite at Suniva five days a week providing both network and desktop support for the firm. During evenings, night-time and weekends, DynaSis provides on-demand support for the company and its employees, no matter where in the world they might be. “DynaSis has grown along with us,” says Modak.

“We’re 24/7 operations, so keeping the network up 24/7 is number one. Number two is keeping our desktops properly operating. That is why the on-site support helps quite a bit,” says Modak. “It is full touch as opposed to remote touch support for employee and customer issues.”

“Having support for remote network access outside of regular hours is critical,” says Modak. With DynaSis on the job, Suniva can focus on growing its global, industry-leading business, knowing problems will be resolved wherever and whenever they occur.”

DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced that it is transitioning Gardner Metal Systems, Inc. (GMS) to its innovative, hybrid on-premise and cloud-based IT solution, Ascend.

As part of the package, DynaSis has upgraded Gardner Metal Systems’ data servers and replaced the company’s Exchange server and its Microsoft office productivity software with the cloud-based solution, Microsoft Office 365. Under the terms of the arrangement, DynaSis will also upgrade or replace GMS’ equipment, as appropriate, for a fixed monthly fee.

“We had already had a major catastrophe with our server―a hard drive failure―and I didn’t want to deal with that again,” said Systems Manager Rodney D. Lester. “And, to upgrade our licenses of Office would have cost $400 per workstation, but with Office 365 we pay $15 per month, per seat.”

With Ascend, GMS will also enjoy complete IT monitoring, maintenance, support and Help Desk at no extra charge. “Previously, I was the IT guy, and if something happened to me there would be no one to understand what was going on,” said  Lester. “Now DynaSis is ‘the IT guy.’ If a server blows up or some other problem pops up, they pay to fix it.”

“So many SMBs find themselves in this position, with aging hardware and software that will cost a small fortune to upgrade and maintain,” said Chas Arnold, DynaSis' executive VP of Business Development. "With Ascend, we cover all the equipment acquisition costs as well any costs associated with keeping it operating in peak condition. Since we bear the cost of replacing equipment if it fails, it is in our best interest to ensure everything runs smoothly."

By Dave Moorman, Founder and President, DynaSis

What are your IT plans for 2014? Do you know, yet? Have you completed the budgeting process? Do your 2014 plan and budget align with your long-term IT strategy?

If you haven’t finalized your IT plan and budget for 2014, you’re not alone. According to a December 2012 survey by Spiceworks, only 53% of small and medium-sized businesses surveyed begin IT planning and budgeting more than six months out, and 25% don’t engage in formal planning and budgeting, at all. 50% of firms, per the Spiceworks survey, let individual departments make IT purchases out of their own budgets when needs or problems arise, without going through the firm’s IT manager or department.

These statistics confirm what we hear from companies, every day. We find that many SMBs engage in reactive―aka crisis-based―budgeting, with little to no planning or strategic thinking.  Or, they have a budget and plan, but it focuses on new technologies they want to adopt (virtualization is hot right now) but fails to consider maintenance expenses, such as upgrades, license renewals, replacement cycles and other issues.

During the year, these SMBs often must expand their IT budgets to accommodate unplanned expenses. For many of these firms, such approaches make management uncomfortable, but it’s easier than finding the time to draft a formal, truly comprehensive plan.

Unfortunately, failing to plan for inevitable replacements and upgrades―or not planning at all―puts companies in IT fire-fighting mode, responding to situations and emergencies as they arise. Not only does it prevent them from aligning their expenditures with strategic business objectives, but it results in cost overruns and downtime.

If your firm has already completed its formal IT strategy, plan and budget for 2014, I congratulate you. If not, take a deep breath. You don’t have to go it alone. Professional, on-demand CIO experts can help you view the big picture and develop a realistic plan and budget for both future improvements and current replacement cycles.

They can help you budget to upgrade or update equipment before it reaches the point of failure, which is much more productive and cost effective. They can help you plan to take advantage of tax incentives, make purchases during the times of year when IT vendors tend to discount their merchandise, and sign up for volume discounts and other benefits to which you may be entitled.

Many companies save enough money by having a formal, properly researched and implemented IT strategy, plan and budget to more than cover the cost of technical experts they bring in for consultation.

If you’d like to learn more, give me a call. But don’t wait too long―The start of 2014 is barely four months away.

By Dave Moorman, DynaSis

Just as we were posting last month’s article about security, I came across an interesting document developed from actual “playbook” notes from a hacker. As a follow-up to my July security article, I wanted to arm you with more information and insight regarding how cybercriminals think and work.

Today’s Hackers Don’t Believe in the “Big Bang” Theory. Unlike the hackers of yesteryear, whose aim might have been to show off their skills or make a public statement with a highly visible breach, today’s cybercriminals thrive on anonymity. Their goal is to gain entry into your network and insinuate themselves into your systems and, hopefully, those of the vendors and customers that trust your company as a data exchange partner.

One method noted in the “playbook” is to hide malware in system folders and camouflage it to look and behave like system processes. Hackers want your systems to become comfortable with their presence. It’s easier to do more damage, undetected, that way.

76% of breached organizations need someone else―a regulatory body; a customer; their IT vendor―to tell them they have been compromised.

 Hackers Don’t Grab, They Leak: Successful hackers know that copying big chunks of your data from one network to another may set off red flags. Emailing it could also be problematic and may be prohibited due to internal security settings.

In his playbook, the hacker notes that most companies do not set their firewalls to block outbound Internet traffic, and that public web traffic can be one of the most effective conduits to achieve what cybercriminals call “exfiltration.” They do this very slowly, essentially leaking data out of the network in small packets that firewall monitoring systems will perceive as normal outbound activity. Increasingly, they disguise these leaks as “secure” transmissions.

More than 25% of all data exfiltrated by attackers is encrypted by the cybercriminals using the company’s own encryption processes.

 The playbook is filled with other hair-raising tidbits that I don’t have room to share here. All of them underscore the importance of encouraging recognition within your organization that these attacks can happen very surreptitiously. Executive leadership is often resistant to accept this fact, which is one reason so many companies are penetrated and remain that way for so long.

Network assessments are a great first step to determining if your company could be―or has already been―compromised. The majority of companies we assess―even those with a security solution in place (other than ours, of course) have undetected malware on their systems. To learn more about the playbook and how we can help you defend against it, give me a call.

By Dave Moorman, Founder and President, DynaSis

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol (making voice calls over the Internet), has become almost commonplace. Many consumers and small businesses have adopted VoIP as their primary "traditional" telephone technology (in addition to their mobile service, of course). Some companies use VoIP and don't even know it. If your phone cord plugs into a modem and not a wall jack, you're using VoIP.

Sending and receiving calls over the Internet is convenient and inexpensive, but if you are not taking advantage of the benefits of cloud-based telecommunications, you are missing the real power behind the technology.

With a cloud-hosted telephony solution, information about your calls, contacts and preferences can be stored on secure cloud servers and tied in with calendars and other software. This enables a variety of value-added benefits. A few of the perks include:

• Find Me, Follow Me Services: Calls ring on all your phones at once or are routed to the phone where you are (simple systems do this through forwarding based on preferences you set; more advanced ones tie in with your calendar).
• Call Management: Although some personnel want every call getting through to them, others need selective call routing. Different classes of callers—or specific numbers—can be given priority in the queue, routed to specific individuals or be processed in other ways based on preferences you establish.

• Better Service: Call reports can identify if your customers get through to the right person, or anyone at all. Some cloud-based telephony solutions can connect with your inventory databases to allow customers to place reorders or request information, confirm if orders have been shipped, and retrieve other valuable information, often without human intervention at the time of the call.
• More Effective Sales Efforts: Additional reports can pinpoint how long sales people and other customer-facing employees talk on the phone with customers and prospects. Paired with closing percentages and monthly sales revenues, you can gain a real measure of staff effectiveness.

With cloud-based telephony, your "telephone switchboard" is in the cloud and it is more powerful than you ever imagined. Perhaps these features are already present in your current phone system but you are not using them. Or, you may need to upgrade to a more sophisticated but still affordable cloud PBX solution. A quick assessment of your current telecommunications environment by an IT expert will identify whether you require a new solution or simply need more training on your old one. To start the process, give me a call.

DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), today announced that it has transitioned JDR Enterprises, Inc. to its industry-leading, Digital Veins solution for automated problem resolution and proactive IT support. The global developer of site-water drainage solutions, including the innovative J-DRain line, has also contracted with DynaSis for hosted Microsoft Exchange and website hosting services.

"With our previous IT provider, we were having a lot of issues—especially email issues—that the company could not resolve or didn't know how to fix," said JDR Enterprises, Inc. VP of Operations Ryan Hatrak. "DynaSis takes a different approach. They are proactive about finding and addressing issues before problems arise."

With Digital Veins, JDR Enterprises will enjoy the benefits of 24/7/365 IT systems and desktop management, automated data backup and disaster recovery, managed security services and automated Help Desk and onsite support, in addition to hosted Exchange and website hosting.

Hatrak found DynaSis through an online search after the company decided that monetary losses from international emails not going through had become unacceptable. DynaSis transitioned JDR Enterprises to a new email platform (Microsoft Exchange) which has largely resolved the company's email challenges. "If there is an issue—and there are always going to be some issues—they can tell us why something isn't working and help us get it fixed." Hatrak said.

"In today's fast-paced business environment, email communication is becoming mission critical, especially for firms with a large international customer base," said Chas Arnold, DynaSis' executive VP of Business Development. "It was essential that we could provide JDR, not only with proactive, best-practices IT support and management, but also with a reliable, trusted email solution that will support their business activities now and in the future." 

The Challenge

J-Drain’s VP of Operations, Ryan Hatrak, found DynaSis through an online search after the company decided that monetary losses from international emails not going through had become unacceptable.

“In today’s fast-paced business environment, email communication is becoming mission critical, especially for firms with a large international customer base,” said Chas Arnold, Novatec's VP of Managed IT Services. “It was essential that we provide JDR not only with proactive, best-practices IT support and management, but also with a reliable, trusted email solution that would support their business activities now and in the future.

The Solution

DynaSis, Atlanta’s premier provider of IT services and support for small and medium businesses (SMBs), transitioned JDR Enterprises to a new email platform (Microsoft Exchange) which has resolved the company’s email challenges. “If there is an issue—and there are always going to be some issues—they can tell us why something isn’t working and quickly get it fixed.” Hatrak said.

DynaSis also transitioned JDR Enterprises to its industry-leading Ascend solution for automated problem resolution and proactive IT support and website hosting services.

The Result

“With our previous IT provider, we were having a lot of issues—especially email issues—that the company could not resolve or didn’t know how to fix,” said Hatrak. “DynaSis takes a different approach. They are proactive about finding and addressing issues before problems arise.”

With Ascend, JDR Enterprises will enjoy the benefits of 24/7/365 IT systems and desktop management, automated data backup and disaster recovery, managed security services and automated Help Desk and onsite support, in addition to hosted Exchange and website hosting.

By Dave Moorman, Founder and President, DynaSis

Earlier this year (or in 2012), you may have seen articles that talked about the explosion of "Big Data"—the industry buzzword for extremely large pools of data that are difficult to manage with traditional tools. (Some pundits use Big Data collectively to refer to the staggeringly large amount of digital data man has created—and continues to create.) There's been talk about how fast it is growing, what a challenge it presents for storage and perhaps most importantly for businesses, how companies can efficiently structure and access it when it is so amorphous. The question is, does any of this apply to you?

Although large corporations are the ones being the most impacted by the growth and dispersion of data, Big Data is a topic that should interest the owners of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as well. Have you noticed that over the years, more and more of the information you archive for reference purposes is becoming fractured in a variety of places, and you are having a hard time managing it effectively? Have you ever created a proposal or prepared for a meeting and thought, "If only I could find that article I read last week, but I don't remember where I stored it and I don't have time to look"?

Big Data is growing like gangbusters—according to IBM, humans now create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. IBM also reports that 90% of the data existing today has been generated in the past two years. A lot of that is what scientists call "unstructured data," which is information that is not organized into in a formal, easily searchable, structured database.

Social media is a perfect example. In 2012, Facebook announced that it was processing 500 pettabytes of new data each day (along with 2.7 billion Likes, plus other user activities). Yet, try to search Facebook for a post you wrote a year ago and, unless you are an infrequent correspondent or can remember specific details about it, the task won't be easy. The information is still there, but it takes some effort for you to access it, even with Facebook's search tools in place. This, in a nutshell is one of the great challenges—and opportunities—of Big Data.

Here's the good news. With each passing week, more companies develop tools that businesses can use to effectively structure, store and access their data, from powerful backup programs and devices to business intelligence (BI) platforms that can mine your data for information you didn't even know you had and use it to help you make sound decisions. It's also become very affordable to use services, like hosted Microsoft Exchange (Outlook), that help you store and manage your email, contacts and other related information. (A surprising amount of data is now being stored in email archives and not written to local servers.)

However, even with these tools, it's important to have an operational roadmap for data management, including how and where you will store your data, how to get existing paper-based data into a digital format and how to decide what data is important enough to keep. Expert IT consultants can help you explore your data stores, make decisions about how to archive and access the information, and help you evaluate BI and other solutions that structure and manipulate your data to your firm's benefit.

From gaining actionable insights to reducing the incidence of fraud, efficient data management and usage results in a better bottom line for the majority of SMBs. If you would like to know more, give me a call.

By Dave Moorman, Founder and President, DynaSis

The increasing number of cyber attacks against governments and large, often multi-national corporations makes for great headlines (and deep concern on the part of these giant entities). Despite the best efforts of expert in-house IT teams, governments and big (often Fortune 500 or even 100) companies continue to have sensitive business and customer data stolen by individuals and organizations with bad intent.

The unsung story behind the headlines is that small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly becoming targets, as well. In its latest Internet Security Threat Report, security software developer Symantec found that 31% of targeted attacks in 2012 were on businesses with fewer than 250 employees.

Why, you may ask, are cybercriminals interested in SMBs? Don't larger firms offer more data to steal, and profits to make? While the answer to this question is certainly yes, the decision-making process for cyber-attacks isn't limited to the profit potential or the size of the data pool.

Think of it this way. You are given the opportunity to scale a 100-foot wall by any means and at the top of it is $500.  You can also climb a 10-foot hill and collect $50. While you may take the time to gather climbing gear and attempt to collect that big prize, you're certainly not going to ignore the easy target. The same is true for cybercriminals.

In this analogy, SMBs are the 10-foot hill. Most of them devote less money and resources to Internet security and protection, making them easy prey. Furthermore, today's sophisticated cyber-ploys often don't focus on one company, alone. Some of the most successful attacks have involved compromising machines at less-well-guarded companies and using them as "back-doors," gaining access to larger targets through trusted networks.

In other cases, criminals gain access to smaller businesses and then compromise their blogs or websites. When the target visits them, the attack code downloads to their machine or mobile device in the background. If the target has already marked the site as "trusted," the attack is that much easier to pull off. Web-based attacks increased by one third in 2012; many of them originated from the websites of SMBs. And of course, your data is valuable, as well. While you may not have data on 50,000 customers, if a cyber attacker can use automated routines to compromise 500 SMBs with 100 customers each, they've collected quite a bit of data with very little effort.

Attacks and their behaviors can go undetected for a long time, because they often show up only through slow Internet speeds or poor machine performance. And SMBs often have budgetary restrictions that cause them to ignore these performance issues for weeks, months and even years.

This doesn't mean that any performance issues are the result of a cyber-attack. However, it does point out the need to maintain robust defenses, including an actively managed security program (in-house or third party) that can stay up to date with emerging threats. In addition, network and system assessments (even for firms with security programs in place) can identify current and emerging problems. The final piece of the puzzle is to protect yourself from the inside out (many security "holes" are accidentally opened by employees), but that is a discussion for a different day. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, contact me if you would like to know more.