Hardware Purchasing Recommendations – Part #2

This is part two of a two-part post with our recommendations for purchasing “fit for purpose” desktops, laptops and servers for business use (with an emphasis on Small and Medium sized businesses).

Servers:

1)     Hardware Specification. With a server you are looking for a machine that will be fit for purpose for between 3 and 5 years, depending on the function of the server. Therefore, you should build in a degree of room for growth within the specification, as follows:

1. Hard Disk Capacity. Allow enough hard disk space for growth in your file storage needs. Depending on the industry you work in you can probably expect your storage needs to double (or even triple) each year. You should also allow extra storage for additional staff if you anticipate growing your business over the next 3 to 5 years.
2. RAID. Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) is where you use a number of hard disks configured in such a way as to provide built-in redundancy against the hardware failure of any one disk. With an entry level server you should always go for RAID 1 (mirroring), where you have two disks, with one being a copy of the other. There are additional RAID “levels” for larger servers.
3. Memory (RAM). Purchase enough memory to support your immediate needs and those further down the road.  With a server, you can never really have too much memory; buy as much as you can afford.
4. Maximum RAM. Modern servers can accommodate massive amounts of memory (up to 2TB), but each physical server model will have its own model-specific limitations. For example, entry level servers will have a maximum of 8GB, while the next level up will most likely have a limit of either 24GB or 32GB. When planning for growth you should think about whether or not you need to purchase a model that will allow you to expand the memory beyond 8GB in the future. Note: Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 requires a minimum of 4GB, but 8GB is recommended.
5. Processor (CPU). As with desktops and laptops, most manufacturers will offer you a range of processors within each server model. In many cases the base processor will easily be sufficient for your needs. Some entry level servers may still be offered with the option of a Dual Core processor. If this is the case, then I would recommend stepping up to at least the first Quad Core processor offered. If you have a bit of room in your budget, then going for the best processor that you can afford will future proof your server more.
6. Number of Processors. Entry level servers can accommodate one processor. The next level up will support two processors. One processor will be sufficient for most small business server requirements, unless you have a heavily used database server or are using virtualisation.
7. Power Supplies. Ideally you should go for a server that has two power supplies. This provides built-in redundancy should one of the power supplies fail (they do occasionally). Many entry level servers do not come with, or offer the option to have, a second power supply.

2)     Vendor Choice. Always purchase from tier-1 vendors, such as Dell, HP, and IBM. There was a time when Compaq (now part of HP) were the undisputed leader in the server market, with IBM coming second. These days, for small and medium sized business, there is no real difference (other than price) between Dell, HP and IBM.

3)     Payment Options. If you are not cash rich then you should lease your server across 3, 4 or 5 years. Manufacturers like Dell will offer you various leasing packages, as do various asset finance companies. Solutions Shared can also finance your server purchase (plus the software and installation costs) via Microsoft Finance.

4)     Warranty. Always take out a minimum of 3 years Next Business Day (NBD) warranty for your server. Depending on the business criticality of your server, you can take out additional warranty levels, such as 4 hour response, 4 hour fix, 24 x 7 coverage, etc.  Running a server without the basic 3 NBD warranty is madness.

Hardware Purchasing Recommendations – Part #1

This is part one of a two-part post with our recommendations for buying “fit for purpose” desktops, laptops and servers for business use (with an emphasis on Small and Medium sized businesses). This part covers desktops and laptops. I’ll post part two (servers) in a day or so.

Desktops and Laptops:

1)     Hardware Specification. When you are looking to purchase a new desktop or laptop you should be thinking along the lines that you are buying a machine that will be fit for purpose for at least 3 years. Therefore, you should build in a degree of room for growth within the specification, as follows:

1. Hard Disk Capacity. Allow enough hard disk space for growth in your file storage needs. Depending on the industry you work in, you can probably expect your storage needs to double (or even triple) each year.
2. Memory (RAM). Purchase enough memory to support your immediate needs and those further down the road. While memory is cheap and can easily be added to most machines, it is often cheaper and simpler to buy a bit extra when you first buy the computer – this also means that you get the benefit of the extra memory from day one.
3. Processor (CPU). Most manufacturers will offer you a range of processors within each PC model. If your day to day work only consists of writing a few documents, spreadsheets, dealing with email and accessing the Internet, then the base processor will easily be sufficient for your needs. However, if you have a bit of room in your budget, then going for the best processor that you can afford will future proof your machine more.

2)     Vendor Choice. Always purchase from tier-1 vendors, such as Dell, HP, Lenovo (formerly IBM), Fujitsu and Toshiba (laptops). While these manufacturers are slightly more expensive than the budget brands you will see offered in places like PC-World, their build quality is better and you will get superior after sales support. If you remind yourself that you are buying a machine to use for 3 years, then spending an extra £100 on the initial purchase only equates to an extra £33 per year.

3)     Payment Options. If you are not cash rich, but would still like to purchase suitable machines for your business, then you should seriously consider leasing the equipment as a means of spreading the cost across lifetime of the machine. Manufacturers like Dell will offer you various leasing packages, as do various asset finance companies. Depending on what else is being purchased at the same time (e.g. software & services) Solutions Shared can also offer your finance options via Microsoft Finance.

4)     Business Models. If you are purchasing direct from a manufacturers website, such as Dell, always do your shopping within the “Small and Medium Business” channel on the website, rather than the “Home and Home Office” channel. This gives you access to more business-focused models and better warranty options (see below).

5)     Warranty. With regard to warranty, we strongly recommend that you always take out a minimum of 3 years Next Business Day (NBD) warranty, rather than the default one year warranty that is offered with most models.  This is your spare parts policy and “get out of jail free” card for when you have a hardware failure (and trust me they do happen to all manufacturers). As well as covering you for hardware failure for 3 years, the NBD warranty is also an on-site warranty, meaning that the engineer will come to you (usually wherever you are) in order to replace the broken hardware item, rather than you having to send your PC back to them and waiting up to 28 days for its return. A 3 year NBD warranty will usually only add between £50 and £80 to the cost of a desktop or laptop, which, over 3 years, only amounts to an extra £16 to £20 per year.

6)     Microsoft Office. When purchasing your desktop or laptop you will be usually given the option of purchasing Microsoft Office at the same time. When you purchase Microsoft Office in this manner you are buying what is called an OEM license for the software. OEM licenses restrict you to only using your purchased software on the machine with which it was purchased. As an alternative you should consider buying a Retail copy of Microsoft Office, as the retail software license allows you to install one copy on your desktop and another on your laptop. A Retail copy will be more expensive, but if you have a desktop and a laptop it works out cheaper. You can also install your retail copy of Microsoft Office on a new PC should you replace the original one; you would not need to re-purchase Microsoft Office again, as you would with an OEM license.

Microsoft Office 2007 Tip: Save as PDF Add-in

Shortly after they launched Office 2007, Microsoft made a free add-in available for Office 2007 that allows you to save the document that you currently have open as a PDF file. The problem is, they didn’t really publicise its availability very much. I keep coming across small and medium sized businesses that are struggling with other freeware and open source PDF maker tools that aren’t really up to scratch, when they could easily be using this functionality direct from within their Office documents.

Recently Microsoft released Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007 – a collection of security updates, minor bug fixes and some new functionality. Included within the Service Pack is the “Save as PDF” Add-in. So there are now two ways to add this handy functionality to your Office 2007 installation.  I’d recommend installing the Service Pack as it will also bring the rest of your Office installation up to date.

You can download just the add-in from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f1fc413c-6d89-4f15-991b-63b07ba5f2e5

You can download Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b444bf18-79ea-46c6-8a81-9db49b4ab6e5

How to use it?

1) From within your Office document go to the Office menu and select “Save As” and then “PDF” (or “PDF or XPS” as in the picture below).

Select "Save As PDF"

2) Select where you want the document saved. You can also change a few options by clicking on the “Options” button.

3) Click the “Publish” button to create the PDF copy of your document. Your existing document still remains – it is not changed into a PDF.

I hope this post has been helpful.

Two very easy to use PC security scanning tools

Time and again I’m amazed at how many small businesses blindly ignore (or more likely, are blissfully unaware) of the very basics of keeping their PCs secure on the Internet.  As a very minimum you should have the following:

1) A network firewall, either built into your broadband router or as a separate device. The firewall should be enabled – many older router models were shipped with the firewall disabled by default. We often find that these have still not been enabled!

2) A software firewall, such as the Windows Firewall or one included with your anti-virus product. Again, the firewall should be enabled and, depending on what programs you are using on your PCs, set to block all incoming network connections from the Internet.

3) All Microsoft security updates installed. These are generally released every second Tuesday of the month.

4) The latest versions of media & utility programs like Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, Apple iTunes, Apple QuickTime, RealPlayer and Java installed.  These programs are often the target of virus and malware attacks; it’s not just Microsoft that gets targeted these days. In fact, the number of attacks that target older versions of these programs is steadily increasing as Windows becomes more secure.

5) Anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed on all PCs (and servers if you have them).

The Tools

Two great tools that you can use to check the current state of your PCs are:

1) Secunia’s Online Software Inspector tool (http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/). This will inspect your operating system and software for insecure versions and missing security updates. Instructions:
- Click on the “Scan Online” button (towards the bottom left).
- Click on the “Start scanner” button.
- Un-tick the “Display only insecure programs” checkbox.
- Click on the “Start” button.

The scan will only take about 30 to 40 seconds to run. Example results are shown below:

2) Shield’s Up scanning tool (https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2). This scans your PC looking for holes in your firewall. Instructions:
- Click on the “Proceed” button.
- Click on “Continue” in the pop-up window.
- Click on “All Service Ports” to run the scan.

The scan will only take about 30 seconds to run. In the results, Blue and Green squares are good, Red is bad.

Seven Headline Benefits from a CRM System

There are many benefits that you can get by implementing a CRM system within your company, many of which may be specific to your own company’s business processes. However, seven headline benefits and examples we find when implementing CRM for all sizes of business are:

1) You have one database to share all prospect and customer information that everyone can access.

2) You have the ability to have a CRM system that matches exactly how you run your business and track the exact data you want tracked.

3) You get the ability to know exactly what’s going with a prospect or customer at any time, all of the time.

4) You receive automatic reminders of what you need to do next. Who you need to call today, who you need to send an email to, what sales opportunities you need to work on today…

5) You never leave a prospect or a customer behind. For example, you can have automated events that tell you that you haven’t talked to a key customer in the last 14 days.

6) You have the capability for anyone, including the MD, to see live, real-time reports showing you all the opportunities in the sales pipeline at any given time.

7) You end up spending more time with your customers and prospects and less time on administrative tasks. A CRM system can help save you time and money.

7 steps for how to keep viruses & spyware out of your business

I’m sure my fellow colleagues supporting IT in small and medium sized businesses will agree, but one of the most frustrating jobs we get called out to do is to clear up after a virus or spyware infection.  This can take anything from a few hours to days and can often result in the loss of data and the need to fully re-install the infected PC or even PCs.  The clean-up cost is often more than the PC cost in the first place!

The frustrating thing about these infections is that they are totally preventable within the budget and resources of all small or medium sized companies.  Also, these are always ad-hoc support cases, never a client on one of our ongoing support agreements. In fact, in all my time in IT (18+ years) I have never had to clear up a virus or spyware infection in any company where I have been directly responsible for their IT.

So how can you keep viruses and spyware out of your business? The answer is simple: Follow the seven steps below:

1) Microsoft Updates. Install all Microsoft security updates on your desktops and laptops as soon as they are released. In general, Microsoft releases these every first Tuesday of the month, affectionately known as “Patch Tuesday”.  Just setting Automatic Updates (Windows Updates on Vista) to install the updates automatically is not enough; we are forever finding offices where half of the machines are fully up to date, while the rest have not updated for six months.  (The security updates should also be installed on servers, but this obviously needs to be coordinated, so as not to cause user downtime and disruption of things like backups.)

2) Anti-virus/anti-spyware Software. Install commercial, not free, anti-virus/anti-spyware software on all computers and servers. Configure the software to check for new updates hourly, as a minimum. There is always a time lag between a virus/spyware being released and security vendors releasing updates to detect it.  Setting your update schedule to an hour (or less) helps reduce your potential window of attack. Also, only install one anti-virus/anti-spyware product on your machines. We are forever coming across machines running multiple products. These products often conflict with each other (especially on the anti-virus side), which will actually result in you being less protected. Running multiple products will also slow your machine down.

3) Scan Email. All incoming email should be scanned for viruses and spyware at least once, ideally more than this. In an ideal world incoming email should be scanned:

• Before it gets to your network – by an email scanning service provided by your ISP or other specialist security vendor;
• At the entry point to your network – by your firewall or broadband router;
• On your email server (if you have one) – using a mailbox anti-virus/anti-spyware scanning product;
• Within your email client, such as Outlook – most commercial anti-virus/anti-spyware products do this.

4) Scan Internet Surfing. Surfing infected websites or clicking on links that take you to these sites is the other main way, after email, that you can get infected with a virus or spyware. To prevent this all Internet surfing should be scanned:

• At the entry point to your network – by your firewall, broadband router or dedicated web scanning device;
• On your PC – some commercial anti-virus/anti-spyware products do this as well.

5) Restrict Internet Surfing. Restricting what websites staff are able to get to will significantly reduce the likelihood of a virus or spyware infection.  So called “Web Proxy” devices will use various techniques, from simple lists of blocked sites, to checking for keywords in the downloaded web pages, in order block access to potentially harmful sites in the first place.  These sorts of devices are not outside the budget of small and medium businesses – there are more advanced broadband routers on the market that include this functionality.

6) Education and IT Policy. A small amount of training goes a long way.  Staff should be provided with some basic education on how to be savvy email and Internet users.  In additional, all businesses that employ staff should have a written down IT usage policy, that states what is and is not allowed on company IT equipment.

7) Remove Admin Permissions. In many small and medium sized businesses most staff have full administrative permissions on their PCs.  As a result, if they were to click on a link in an email or a website that then installed a virus or piece of spyware, the installation would proceed without warning. If they did not have admin permissions the installation would fail. There is no need for any staff to have admin permissions – all modern software programs will run happily without them.

Follow these seven steps and you should stay virus and spyware free.

Quick Tip: Outlook Map Link

When viewing a contact in Outlook you can quickly jump to a location map using the Map icon in the toolbar.  Never spotted the icon?  To be honest it took me awhile to spot it as well.  Here’s a picture:

The link uses the address details of the contact, opens up your default web browser and takes you to the location on Bing (Microsoft’s new search engine).  Here’s the page for our office location:

Simple, but effective.

Welcome to our blog

We are an IT services company based in the village of Great Shefford, near Newbury in Berkshire.  We also have a presence in Oxford.  While we’re into IT, the aim is to keep the focus of this blog on the business aspects of IT and technology, rather than have it turn into yet another techie blog that only gets read by other techies. I’ll probably by the main contributor to start with, but I hope to get other staff to post and we may even have a few guest bloggers from time to time.  So:

It’s time to relax (you know what that means)
A glass of wine, your favorite easy chair
And of course, this blog on your 21″ flat screen
So go on, endulge yourself
That’s right, kick of your shoes, put your feet up
Lean back and just enjoy the posts
Afterall, blogging soothes even the savage beast