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In this article by Ray Barber of Kaseya, seven questions are outlined to help you choose a technology partner that will allow you to focus on your business. The article states that "you need your IT to work - all the time - and using an outsourced IT service can give small to medium-sized businesses like yours the enterprise-level IT capabilities needed to help achieve business growth, reduce costs and maximize profitability."
IDC, a U.S.-based research firm, recently reported that small businesses have few or no skilled IT workers. IDC also said that about 70 percent of small businesses go under within a year of a major loss of data.
Statistics about business practices show that 40 percent of all small and medium-sized businesses fail to back up their data at all.
Marc Osten of Summit Collaborative points out that "the best way to avoid mistakes in technology implementation is to consider the total cost of ownership and plan accordingly. In addition, it is important to assess the value that technology can have for your internal operations and programs. Combining the financial and human resources necessary in each of the categories listed above will give you a sense of the (total cost of ownership) in a particular technology tool or strategy."
Many small businesses also lag behind in preparing for a potential loss of data. "U.S. businesses exhibit blatant weaknesses on the front lines of their present defensive strategies," says Steve Kenniston, technology analyst at Enterprise Storage Group. "It is critical that corporations begin to examine, test, and update their disaster recovery plans, ensuring that these plans offer comprehensive coverage of all system resources and can be quickly put into action."
In the Washington Times article "Offsite Backup Vital to Business," Mark J. Dobosz, vice president for development at the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), states, "Small-business owners and entrepreneurs are so passionate about what they do, that their intense focus can often be a double-edged sword for them." In other words, they're too focused on their work, sometimes, to think about the worst that can happen until it does.
A spam filter is necessary to help cut back on the mass of unlicensed commercial emails that head through the Internet every day. According to Yahoo Business, "Spam currently makes up two-thirds of all email received. This figure is astounding, and experts are predicting that the volume of spam will continue to increase. Spam is more than just an annoyance; it can clog mail servers and seriously damage productivity."
The American Bar Association recommends that lawyers building their practices and firms look into freelancers for their IT services: "Even technically adroit attorneys may find that their time is better spent focused on their cases rather than trying to build a new web page, set up a mail server, or implement a data backup solution. Thankfully, there's a large pool of talented and affordable (consulting firms) who are available to address virtually any technology need your firm may have."
A 2007 NetPro survey showed that respondents reported that working with new technologies and gaining new skills increased their job satisfaction and that things that got in the way of doing their jobs inefficiently, including ineffective tools, were a major cause of job dissatisfaction.
In 2008, the Ponemon Institute determined that data breaches had grown growing 43% since 2005 to an average $197 per record compromised. According to the 2008-2009 Ponemon Institute Annual Cost of a Data Breach study, the average cost of a data breach has risen to $202 from last year's $197 per customer record.
Bill Hartnett, general manager of Microsoft's insurance solutions group, points to a study by Washington, D.C.-based KRC Research that found that 91 percent of (young people) surveyed said they would be more likely to consider job opportunities that provide greater access to newer and more innovative technologies.
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