By: Michael Minnich, CEO

I attended an industry conference last week in Chicago and the keynote speaker was Stephen M. R. Covey, New York Times best-selling author of The Speed of Trust and now, a new book, Smart Trust. Mr. Covey began his presentation with one of my favorite Warren Buffett quotes:

“Trust is like the air we breathe – when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.”

In a nutshell, Smart Trust posits that (a) there is a crisis of trust in America; (b) that high trust saves businesses serious time and money; and (c) that building relationships based upon a high propensity to trust – with high analysis – is “Smart Trust” which will improve your organization and your life.

Recent poll results from Gallup, Harris and others, (found in Smart Trust) support Covey’s theory that there is a worldwide trust crisis:

• Trust in the U.S. media fell to its lowest point ever in 2010;
• Only 46% of respondents in the U.S. (and 44% in the U.K.) believe business will do what is right;
• Only 33% of Americans trust our medical leadership, down from 73% in 1966; and
• 69% of Americans are dissatisfied with the current state of ethics in today’s society.

Covey told our group about the time Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway group purchased a wholesale foods division of WalMart. The deal was huge – $23 billion dollars. Because Buffett’s team and their WalMart counterparts had mutual trust, the deal was struck in a two-hour meeting between these top-level executives, sealed with a handshake, and completed just 28 days later. In a less trusting situation, it would have taken six to twelve months and millions of dollars in legal and accounting fees before closing. On a much smaller scale, a busy one-man donut cart vendor in NYC doubled his sales (and earnings) by allowing his customers to pay and make their own change from a basket of money at the end of his serving line.

Fortune magazine found that the Top 100 Best Companies to Work For outperform the market by a whopping 288%, due to each having a culture of a high propensity to trust. The Wharton MBA School analyzed IT contracts from 459 vendor relationships and found that companies that managed by trust, as opposed to by strict contractual compliance, put 38% more profit to the bottom line.

Smart Trust contains a simple set of steps that each of us can use to learn how to be more trusting, along with a high level of analysis. At NetGain, we’ve always had a high propensity to trust without shying away from rigorous analysis. The result is hundreds of win-win relationships with clients we truly enjoy serving. And when we do not live up to expectations, we acknowledge the failure and remedy the situation. That’s the basis of trust, without which we could not perform our mission of Changing Business at Light Speed.

Jim Lange, Client Education Director

Recycling –
Our initial efforts in recycling netted over 6,300 pounds of electronic equipment. Thanks to those of you who prevented this waste from ending up in local landfills. If you were unable to participate, or are in the process of replacing obsolete equipment, talk to you vCIO about recycling.

Tagging –
We have completed the device tagging at each of our client locations providing you with a more complete inventory record including device history.

Education –
Training is in full swing. Classes are being held in the areas of IPT phone usage, e-mail spam filtering and archiving and NetGain helpdesk support instruction. If you are interested in training for your team, let us know.

Kelly Jones, President and COO

I once worked for a boss who demanded revision…after revision…after revision of PowerPoint slides. Needless to say it was frustrating. Colleagues referred to it as the “bring me a rock syndrome.” You know, the one where you bring a rock that isn’t the right color, so you bring another rock, but now it’s the wrong size? You bring yet another rock only to find it is too heavy and now the boss thinks perhaps she would rather have a stick.

Her problem was she lacked a vision for the slides. She wasn’t sure what message she wanted to convey, so conversely I would struggle to put the right words and metrics together.

In project terminology she jumped straight to the D in PDIOO.

PDIOO is an acronym Cisco uses to describe the service lifecycle. It is a methodology we rely on heavily in our project deployments. P stands for Plan. D for Design. I for Implement and the two Os for Operate and Optimize.

Planning is essential to garnering the right outcome in any project. What are you trying to achieve? What are the key factors that will impact the decision? Do you have support for this project from those above and below who will be impacted?

Upfront planning takes time, but for projects—particularly IT—planning is crucial.

Before you start your next project, consult with your virtual CIO (vCIO). He or she can assist you in defining outcomes and planning the project to maximize your return on investment.

If you use Window XP, it might just be the time for you to upgrade (or at least start planning to upgrade) as Microsoft has announced plans to pull the plug on Windows XP support in 2014. While that may be a couple of years away, it never hurts to start assessing your options so the eventual move to newer Microsoft OS will be as smooth and efficient as possible.

Part of using any sort of software is the inevitable need to upgrade. Most if not all software needs to either be replaced and upgraded as the demands of the market entail more efficient processing of the various data and information a business handles.

Such is the case with Windows XP. While many continue to use this proven straightforward operating system, Microsoft has decided to stop support by the year 2014. Microsoft further recommends upgrading to its latest OS, Windows 7, in order for users to continue to receive OS support.

While there are some lines of business applications that have not been upgraded to work with Windows 7, most have — and there are alternative approaches. Also, your business needs the security and protection that only a current, up-to-date operating system can provide.

We understand that changing your OS will entail some expense, including new licenses, hardware, and some training. Fortunately, these things are designed to help you operate more efficiently and increase your productivity in the long run. But such change will take time, and if you are interested in starting to plan for an upgrade now, we’ll be happy to sit down with you and develop an upgrade process that meets your specific needs.

Hackers continue to target online banking transactions as many SMBs do not realize the vulnerabilities in their current arrangements with their bank. Left unaddressed, you run the risk of allowing cyber-criminals to steal tens of thousands of dollars right from under your nose.

In a recent attack, cyber-thieves managed to get away with $63,000 after they exploited vulnerabilities in the online payroll system of a small business with its bank.

First, the crooks managed to infiltrate the company’s system through a piece of malware called the Zeus Trojan. This gave them access to the company’s data, including the password and username used in transacting with the company’s bank. The thieves then created several new ghost employees and created payroll accounts for them, which they sent to the bank and authenticated using the company controller’s username and password. And to cover their tracks, the hackers erased the confirmation emails regarding the transaction.

This incident highlights the need for better security systems in both the business and their bank – as security experts cite online banking transactions as one of the favorite targets of cyber-criminals. Cyber-attacks such as this one exploit weaknesses in many existing systems that rely on very simple and automated authentication procedures to confirm transactions.

A direct threat to your business finances is not something to be taken lightly. You not only need to review your current online banking system, but also the current security protocols you have installed, since hackers and cyber-criminals are constantly updating Trojans and other malware to adapt to changing IT protection systems.

We encourage you to have us take a look at the systems you have in place to determine if you are at risk for attacks like these. Please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to draw up custom security solutions that address your specific needs.

References:
Sold a Lemon in Internet Banking
Cybercrooks Drive Away With $63,000 from Car Dealership

Initiatives such as WebBlaze and BitBlaze from the mind of IT genius Professor Dawn Song are setting the bar high for security, constantly providing solutions developers can use to create better security for their clients.

If you think hackers are the only ones doing their research to release newer and scarier viruses and malware on the web, think again. It is comforting to know that there are also very capable people doing what they can to make the internet a safer place – like Professor Dawn Song, associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley and MacArthur Foundation fellow.

In a nutshell, Professor Song has been looking at different ways to make the internet experience more secure. Her two initiatives – WebBlaze and BitBlaze – are aimed toward developers who want to create better and much more secure programs and applications.

WebBlaze is a compilation of different strategies from Song and other like minds who tackle different problems and solutions in all sorts of platforms, and BitBlaze is an analysis tool for malicious software. While we won’t go into too much detail (it involves very complicated math), the gist is that Song and her colleagues are drawing up some very solid solutions to constantly evolving security issues on the web.

It’s exciting to see developments like these in the security industry. As threats continue to evolve, so does the means through which they are fought. The more we use the internet and the more the online experience becomes integral to the day-to-day operations of businesses big and small, the more important securing your data and information becomes. And because of efforts such as Professor Song’s, we can expect security programs to be much more effective and efficient as time passes.

Know more about BitBlaze and WebBlaze

Learn more about Dawn Song here

If you are looking to assess and beef up your security systems, we’d be happy to sit down with you and take a look at improvements that can make your business and your data much more secure.

The drive to be more intimate can benefit your business. If you have a tighter circle of customers, you will establish yourself as a channel for consumption. This will make your next sale easier compared to the first.

November 17, 2010 was declared by Jimmy Kimmel during his television show as “National Unfriend Day”, the opportunity for all Facebook users to declutter their Facebook pages by “unfriending” people in their friends’ lists. He claims that Facebook has been “cheapening” the idea of friendship. To many the idea was hilarious, but others are seriously considering the wisdom of unfriending.

Is Kimmel on to something here? Can unfriending benefit your online business?

Research shows that as social media gets bigger, we’re getting smaller. Brian Wong, a network marketer says it simply: “With the growth of social networking, I am finding it increasingly difficult to separate business connections and personal connections.” He says that having almost 1,000 friends on Facebook has made it difficult for him to see the feeds and updates of his “real” friends and important business partners.

Lately there is a growing trend of de-scaling on the internet. People have started “pruning” their social lives online. For example, the popular Farmville app lost 30 million players this year, and people are beginning to realize that conversations and comments are more important than a huge number of blog hits.

So how can de-scaling and unfriending help your business? The drive to be more intimate can benefit your business by allowing you to form a tighter circle of customers, more successfully establishing you as a preferred channel for consumption.

Luckily, there are tools that can help you descale your social networks:

1. Path – Offers small-scale communities where people feel more comfortable sharing personal information. It controls who can view your information and does not include features that make your content viral.
2. Letter.ly – A subscription-based newsletter for bloggers who feel that public posts decrease the quality of conversations. This newsletter opens discussion only to people who pay, or who are privately invited to read a blog post.
3. GroupMe – A texting app which limits your group text participants to only 14, to ensure that meaningful dialogues take place.

What about the flip side of unfriending and descaling? While you’re considering who to eliminate from your social circles, your contacts are likely doing the same. Here are some tips to help you make their cuts:

1.       Be selective in your communications.
Of course, your product is important – to you. But not every little detail is as important to your audience. Be sure to focus on key features and benefits from your audience’s perspective.

2.       Stay on topic.
Always give relevant communications to your customers, and never rant or badmouth competitors. This is a sure way to lose customers.

3.       Provide value.
In addition to talking about your product or service, find ways to provide value to your circle of friends. Understand topics and pain points important to them, and provide valuable information and advice to help them succeed. You’ll soon come to be considered as a valuable resource to your contacts – one that they want to keep in their online social groups.

One thing is clear: quality is still more important than quantity, especially in the current economic downturn when people are downsizing everything. Start “pruning” your social network – and take steps to avoid being pruned – and you’ll reap the benefits of having a tight circle of loyal friends and customers.

Open Wi-Fi networks are indispensable, especially for people who need to work on the go. But without the proper security, you may find that they can prove to be troublesome as well.

These days, more and more people are on the go, and many of them bring their work with them. And in this day and age, it’s ideal if you’re working – or playing for that matter – while connected to the internet, which is often through public Wi-Fi hotspots.

While connecting to public and open-access Wi-Fi hotspots is indeed convenient, using open networks also poses risks that endanger your security. The open nature that allows anyone to use the connection also enables unscrupulous people to gain access to your private information. The whole act of stealing information from people who are using public Wi-Fi networks is called ‘sidejacking’.

There are applications such as Firesheep, for example, that provide an easy-to-use platform that others can exploit to spy and harvest personal, sensitive information from you. And since Firesheep is a Mozilla Firefox plug in, virtually anyone can download and use it to sidejack people on the same network.

You can’t be too cautious with your personal and business data these days, so you always need to have the proper laptop configuration and security infrastructure to protect your system, especially when you frequently avail of open and public networks. To know more about this, please feel free to give us a call and we’ll be happy to draw up some security options that meet your specific needs.

IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR QuickBooks Customers: Intuit is receiving reports of individuals receiving fraudulent emails from QuickBooks or QuickBooks Online. The two separate emails ask customers to either download a plug in to assess their security or download a Digital Certificate. Customers should delete either of these emails. As we discover these fraudulent sites (cyber criminals often use the same email repeatedly, although they change web sites), we take them down.

More at the Intuit website

Small businesses will get a helping hand with some key expenses under President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan, signed into law on February 17. Around $282 billion of the bill is devoted to tax cuts, including breaks for small businesses. Some of the highlights include:

• Small businesses will be able to more quickly deduct the cost of investments in plants and equipment from their taxable income.
• Small businesses will be allowed to recover alternative minimum tax (AMT) and research and development (R&D) credits faster.
• Small businesses will be allowed to write off up to $250,000 of capital expenditures in the year of acquisition.

As a result, 2009 might be a good time to consider upgrading your technology. Your financial advisor can help you determine if any of these tax cuts apply to you.

More information;

A Breakdown of the stimulus package:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/STIMULUS_FINAL_0217.html

Small Business Association information on stimulus bill:
http://www.sba.gov/recovery/index.html

Regularly updated stimulus page at Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/stimulus-package.html