Some companies have decided to tap into the phenomenon of social networking to create similar networks within their own organizations. While this can do wonders with the way every member of the business communicates with each other, it’s important to have proper and specific rules that pertain to its use.

With the waves created by social networking in how companies do business nowadays, many have also utilized the same principle to develop internal social networks to enhance their in-house communications as well. However, the use of this new medium of communication also requires that companies develop new policies to cover its use.

One concern that may leave you apprehensive about creating an internal social network might be the fear that it could be abused by employees. However, reports have shown that introducing an in-house social network has produced generally positive results.

As long as company policies regarding the use of internal social networks are developed and implemented properly, employees will view such a network as an extension of the workplace, and will try to put their best foot forward. Such policies must specifically tackle the use of the internal social network, and many experts recommend revising existing company rules that govern the use of email, IT resources, and even external social networks. To be on the safe side, it's a good idea to consult with a lawyer to avoid any legal problems with the policy in the future.

Who's going to be in charge? Your managers, of course. Since the social network will be for company use, it follows that department heads should be given administrative duties and permissions which they will use for moderating communications and discussions in and pertaining do their respective sections.

While an internal social network can do wonders for your in-house communications, good policies and rules pertaining to its use will be what keep it working like a well-oiled machine.

If you are in the habit of using passwords like 'password', 'qwerty' or '123456', you may be helping hackers and online thieves steal your data. Security experts have compiled a list of the 25 most common passwords – passwords that you should avoid.

If you think using 'password' as your password is no big deal, then it's time to rethink.

Security experts have recently compiled a list of the worst passwords users can choose, and 'password' is at the very top of the list. Weak passwords make your information more vulnerable simply because hackers can guess them. It may be easier to pick a password that you don't have to think about, but it's a choice that you may come to regret.

To help you avoid common password choice mistakes that users make, management application provider SplashData has compiled a list of the 25 worst passwords to use:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Make a smart password choice Experts advise using a combination of letters and numbers when creating your passwords, and to avoid things that anyone might be able to guess, such as birthdays and anniversary dates. Passwords with eight characters or more are safer and it's best to use different passwords for different accounts and websites. Use a password manager to help you keep track of all of your passwords if you're finding it difficult to remember them all..

No matter how sophisticated your security system is, a weak password gives hackers and online thieves an advantage. Helping all the users in your organization understand the importance of password strength will help you secure the IT systems in your organization.

If you're interested in learning more, please contact us so we can develop a comprehensive and custom security blueprint that meets your specific needs.

Reference: Worst Internet Passwords

If you are using Windows Gadgets (or those small mini-applications that are embedded on your desktop that show interesting things like the latest news, weather updates, or sports scores), you may sometimes wish you can just quickly hide them to declutter your workspace.

In Windows 7, you can do just that. Simply right-click on the desktop, go to View, and then clear the check mark on Show desktop gadgets. This will hide the gadgets. If you want to bring them back, just restore the check mark again.

Productivity is one of the fundamental building blocks of profitability. In New Year planning sessions around the globe, a common theme is how to enable current employees to achieve more in less time. For companies using Microsoft productivity tools such as Office and Exchange, the strategic advantage of an ERP system that fully integrates with those applications is clear.

Productivity tools are just the beginning Day in and day out, your employees work with productivity tools like Microsoft Word to create forms or Microsoft Excel to analyze data maintained in a SQL Server database. All of these applications share the Windows platform and present a familiar look and feel to users. An ERP solution that works like and with these productivity tools and server products can unlock a new level of value. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

The Line of Business (LOB) applications that your organization uses to manage core business processes are probably built on the Microsoft platform. Choosing an ERP solution that runs on the same platform could simplify integration and shorten your time to benefit. The broad acceptance of the Microsoft platform also encourages competitive pricing among alternative LOB applications and technical support services. With a single platform focus, IT resources can dedicate time to improving business processes instead of integrating and troubleshooting disparate applications.

The value of Microsoft Dynamics ERP The Microsoft Dynamics ERP product line provides the foundation to build on the Microsoft platform for flexibility and ease of use. Facilitating the flow of information between the many parts of your business, you’ll connect financial management and business intelligence to LOB and productivity tools. Productivity will improve through:

• Fast, easy integration with your existing technology systems,
• Quicker and better decision making with central business intelligence,
• Fast, universal adoption to drive down costs and boost efficiencies.

As your organization plans for 2012 and beyond, consider the productivity gains you can achieve with connected systems that are familiar to your employees. Making employees’ lives easier will pay off with improved operating margins and increased cash flow.

Call us today to find out how you can increase employee productivity.

A joint operation between the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), authorities in Estonia, and IT security firm Trend Micro recently put down a massive bot network that victimized an estimated 4-5 million users around the globe.

Four million is a big number – which makes four million bots, in security terms, a staggering and frightening number as well.

It is a good thing, then, that four million is also the number of bots taken down in a recent bust by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Estonian Police, and security firm Trend Micro. Data centers in New York City, Chicago, and Estonia were raided by authorities, shutting down hundreds of servers used to create a network of bots that spanned some 100 countries.

The said bust, dubbed “Operation Ghost Click”, is one of – if not THE – largest cybercriminal bust in history, putting to sleep a sophisticated scamming operation that victimized 4 to 5 million users and was said to have generated at least $14 million in illegal revenue.

The scam mainly involved hijacking Domain Name Server (DNS) settings in infected computers, which can be used not only to introduce more malware into an IT system, but also to hijack search results and replace advertisements loaded on websites visited through an infected computer.

While this bust does bode well for all IT users everywhere in the world, it also illustrates the scope of influence and level of organization behind security threats. Since this is probably not the only scam / fraud / botnet operation in the world, it is always best to have a comprehensive security policy for your IT infrastructure to minimize the risk of compromising your company’s data and information.

For more details on the bust, check out Trend Micro’s blog post here.

For most small businesses using Office 365, the sender limit restriction will never be a problem. But in some situations, the restriction of 500 (1500 for Enterprise) recipients per day per account could pose a challenge. There’s an easy solution for organizations that need to send high volume emails.

While many small businesses evaluate moving their productivity applications to the cloud, it's important to understand and manage restrictions that may affect your business processes. The Sender Limit in Office 365 was set up to deter spammers from abusing Microsoft's cloud solution. A noble cause we can all support. But some organizations have legitimate reasons to send bulk emails from one account.

Distribution Groups count as one recipient By using distribution groups you can easily stay under the 500 recipient limit even when you need to send the same email to a large group. Use distribution groups or dynamic distribution groups when you send messages to large numbers of recipients. Groups are counted as a single recipient toward the Sender Limit.

For example, if you send a message to 100 recipients by adding each of those recipients on the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: fields, that counts as 100 recipients toward the recipient rate limit. But if you add those same 100 recipients to a distribution group or dynamic distribution group, and then send the same message to the group, that counts as one recipient toward the recipient rate limit.

Most organizations already use distribution groups to streamline email productivity. With Office 365, you may want to build a few more internal or external groups to manage the number of recipients for high volume email senders. A little planning can eliminate any concerns about the daily Sender Limit.

Office 365 is a cost effective solution that can fuel growth by retaining capital for your small business. We’ll be happy to sit down with you and talk about solutions that support the growth and success of your business.

Have you ever sent an email and then immediately regretted sending it? If you are using Gmail as your mail client, you can do just that with an interesting but buried option in Gmail settings.

To enable this feature, go to Mail Settings in Gmail (upper right corner, under the gear icon). Navigate to the "Labs" tab. In the labs search box, look for "Undo Send" and choose Enable, then save. Now in Mail Settings you will see an option to "Undo Send: Send cancellation period: __ seconds." Enter the number of seconds that Gmail will allow you to change your mind in the future (try 10 seconds).

With this enabled, the next time you send an email, you’ll be able to “Cancel” it from being sent out, as long as it is within the time frame you specified.

When evaluating ERP systems, most companies analyze the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) as part of the decision process. TCO includes the full cost of implementation and maintenance over a period of time, often 3-5 years. Factors incorporated into the analysis generally include software license, implementation, and software maintenance costs.

Well managed implementation will deliver results quickly

In the Analyst Insight "ERP: Is High ROI with Low TCO Possible?" released by Aberdeen Group, researchers found that the actual TCO realized by companies is more dependent on the Best-In-Class use of the ERP systems than TCO alone. Return on Investment (ROI) derived from the ERP system will offset costs when companies implement ERP efficiently to quickly achieve cost savings through productivity gains.

For their research, Aberdeen Group measured those benefits on the following criteria:

• Number of days to close the month
• Days sales outstanding
• Percent of orders delivered complete and on-time
• Growth in operating margins year over year

These basic factors are indicators of the operational efficiency and productivity gains that a company is typically trying to achieve with the implementation of an ERP system.

Key recommendations from the Aberdeen Group report include:

• Establish specific ERP implementation benefit goals, and measure results.
• Initial implementation should focus on achieving results in critical areas.
• Continued measurement of ERP results leads to increased business value.

Find out more about the Aberdeen Group's research on the benefits of ERP implementation. Download the report here.

Contact us today to find out how your organization can realize productivity improvements of a Best-In-Class ERP implementation. Dynamics ERP delivers high ROI with a low TCO.

With mobile devices becoming more accessible, many are finding it more comfortable and more productive to use these devices not only for personal purposes, but also for work. This may seem to be a good thing initially, but it also means that you have less control over the way these devices access your IT system. The best thing to do is to have a good IT security policy in place to make sure that important company data is not compromised.

As technology continues to become more affordable and accessible to consumers, it's an inevitable fact that employers will see more and more of their employees using their own personal devices such as laptops and mobile phones to access the company's IT system.

This can be a dangerous thing. Since these devices aren't company owned and regulated, you have limited access and control over how they are used. Employees could download all sorts of malware and viruses on their devices and pass the infection along to your IT system when they access it.

The solution: a comprehensive IT security policy. It's important that you find a compromise between the freedom of the employee to use the device as desired and your need to keep your IT system safe from viruses and other threats to your data's security. Steps such as having employees run mobile device management (MDM) software on their devices is one of many actions you can take to lessen the risk of security breaches. You may also want to implement applications and software that check and screen for malware, both for laptops and mobile devices. And don't forget that while Android seems to have a bigger problem with malicious software, Apple isn't exactly virus-free, either.

Employees have a right to use their personal devices as they see fit, but not at the expense of important company information stored in your IT system. Running a tight ship in terms of security is an effective way to protect your business interests and your sensitive company data. If you are interested in knowing more about developing a concrete and effective IT security policy for personal device use as well as general system access, please don't hesitate to give us a call so we can sit down with you and discuss a custom security blueprint that's just right for you.

Do you prefer Bing over Google but like Google's sparse but fast loading page better? With this tip you can get the best of both worlds.

As users of Bing know, when you visit the home page of Bing, a page with a featured photo as the background is displayed by default, which increases the load time of the page. This can be distracting or annoying—especially if you have a slow connection. Disable this photo from loading by simply bookmarking this URL (http://www.bing.com/?rb=0). The next time you visit Bing, the photo will not appear.