Having a dedicated staff to analyze and maintain IT investments is becoming increasingly necessary among businesses of all sizes. Unfortunately, the cost of having dedicated IT staff on the payroll can be extremely prohibitive for small and medium-sized businesses. Often the tasks of trying to maintain, troubleshoot and correct IT or computer system problems falls to the owner or an employee with only rudimentary computer skills. This leads to distractions and major time drains that take them away from their core business responsibilities.

Fortunately, managed IT service providers are now available to help these same businesses in an affordable fashion. Finding a managed IT provider is a big task. With the wrong one, you will end up right back where you started. However with the right managed IT provider, productivity and workflow can flourish.

For the best possible results, ask these questions when choosing a managed IT provider:

Are you familiar with my industry? This is a simple question that often gets overlooked in the name of convenience. Remember that a managed IT provider will make your life simpler, but the process of finding the right one takes careful planning. Be sure this potential provider is familiar with your workflow style.

How will my information, as well as my customers’ information, remain safe? A managed IT provider will specialize in ensuring the security of information – your own confidential information as well as that of your clients. Be as inquisitive as possible when it comes to details like these.

What do you bring to the table? Beyond the abilities of a managed IT provider are their connections. What are they authorized to distribute and use? Furthermore, establish whether their toolbox is sufficient for the specific needs of your company.

Where will you start? Oftentimes, a managed IT provider must correctly assess your company’s current situation before moving onto optimization. For example, how will a managed IT provider incorporate your current physical systems?

How big is my up-front investment? You’re running a business, which means that you must always consider the bottom line. The right managed IT provider will be sure to construct a plan that works for your needs and minimizes your in-house expenses.

Managed IT service providers have a range of IT services available to help clients optimize their computer systems. Many offer free, no-obligation assessments to help understand the current state of your computer systems and business requirements. They’ll then work with you develop a plan that minimizes threats, safeguards your system, avoids costly downtime and maximizes the productivity from your systems.

IT has emerged as a central business function for many organizations in the recent years, and this holds true regardless of the industry that an organization caters to. Having said that, irrespective of the huge part that IT plays in reducing costs, standardizing processes, enhancing productivity and improving workflow and communications, its role in business planning is subservient to a large extent.

It is high time that establishments stop looking at IT as a mere implementation tool which does not have any role in shaping an organization’s business strategy. Today, technological developments pave the way for many business opportunities and IT can play a proactive and larger role in developing the long term business strategy of organizations.

Given below are some tips that would help your organization align its IT with its business objectives:

Understand your business and the nature of your organization

Unless you understand the nature of your business and how it fits into the sector and economy, it is very difficult to come up with a serious IT plan that would actually work. You can start by gathering important information such as organization charts, roles and responsibilities and associated markets and products. Needless to mention, you must also possess a crystal clear understanding of your customers and their persona. Also, you must take time to analyze the structure and cultural ethos of your organization. Once you have a map of your corporate model and how it fits into the larger picture, you can start planning for the future. At this stage, it is also crucial that you start documenting all IT assets and applications.

Identify and understand the relationship between your core business and your IT assets

Understand your business’ value chain and analyze its major components. You must have an in depth understanding of the factors that drive your business as these key scaling factors play a crucial role in planning IT strategy and alignment. At this stage, you must also duly collate information about internal as well as external factors.

Determine and set the change agenda

While setting the agenda, you must research and analyse your strategy several times; not only that, you must also ensure that there is a perfect balance between the cost, value and precedence of the IT estate and then identify the impact and implications of the IT alignment plan. Of course, you must also identify requirements, prioritize time frames and functionality, model and test the strategy well in advance to ensure that the final outcome is lucrative.

Once you have all the necessary information, chart out an IT plan that has business drive and is not extremely technology-eccentric

The most difficult hurdle that many organizations face while aligning IT with its business objectives is that most IT strategies lack business drive and are too technology-eccentric. This strategic variance can be counter-productive and can lead to overtly intricate IT infrastructures that are difficult to sustain and modify. In order to avoid such obstacles, it is recommended that organizations invest in strategic partnerships with IT Managed Service Providers who specialize in aligning IT with business objectives.

There have recently been a significant number of articles in the media relating to what are called “Spear Phishing Attacks”.

Although directed, for the moment, mainly at larger organisations, they are causing a degree of concern throughout all business sectors and technical computer support personnel.

What are they and are you vulnerable?

Phishing – a recap

To begin with, there is nothing new in this approach which is used by various forms of hackers and crooks to gain access to your confidential information.

It basically involves putting something on a screen in front of you, perhaps an e-mail or a website screen, that appears to be one thing when it is actually something else. You trust the screen in front of you and therefore obligingly enter things like your ID and password or follow the links it contains.

In fact, you are not communicating with anything legitimate and the people you have provided your password and ID to will make use of them for their own various nefarious purposes.

Although this has been around for a long time, there has recently been a variation developed which has earned the title Spear Phishing.

Spear Phishing

What happens here is that you will receive an e-mail from a friend or organisation that appears to be extremely credible in terms of its origin.

It will seem to be so because the crooks of the world have realised just how much public domain information is now freely available online relating to individuals and their business connections. For example, in facilities such as FACEBOOK and LINKEDIN, it may be comparatively easy to look at public information pages that give at least some details relating to you but also numbers of your business and personal contacts.

So, it is comparatively easy to craft an e-mail to you that appears to be coming from someone you know and trust. As a general rule, that e-mail will also invite you to send a note or look at something online, courtesy of a provided link. When you follow the link, you’ll be asked to enter your Microsoft Outlook ID and password.

From that point onwards, the tale will follow a gloomy pathway of allowing outside people access to some of your most personal and private communications.

Can you stop it?

The bad news about this type of attack is that it cannot be stopped through technical means.

It can be difficult or impossible for software, anti-virus systems or even online helpdesk support services to spot that an e-mail is not from the originator it claims to be from.

So, the ultimate weapon against it is common sense and public awareness. If you receive an e-mail from someone you know, you should really look at it and ask yourself a few questions:

1. Is the person’s phraseology exactly as you would normally expect to see it?

2. Does it contain minor grammatical errors and glitches in the English language?

3. Is that e-mail out of context? For example, are they asking you to send something or look at something which you have already previously discussed with them?

4. Is it referring to a subject matter that isn’t one you would normally expect them to be raising in an e-mail?

Two final stages:

1. Is the link it contains showing up with an “HTTPS” prefix? If it isn’t, that can be a warning sign.

2. Don’t hesitate to send a separate e-mail to the originator (NOT simply hitting the ‘REPLY’ button to the e-mail you are in doubt about), asking them if they sent it.

The bottom line is simple – vigilance is required.