Information from the Network World Technology Tour
I’m on the road for the Network World “IT Strategies for Small to Mid-Sized Business” Technology Tour this week and next. The marketing department called this “A Practical Blueprint for Smart Growth,” but I like a shorter description: smart, secure growth.
If you’re in one of the cities we’re visiting (Chicago, Seattle, New York, and Houston) come by and see us because we include many more laughs and gifts than I can here. But let me hit the high points and provide some overview.
What do I mean by smart?
1. Leverage experience of outsiders.
2. Don’t try to reinvent the technical wheel.
3. Share knowledge throughout the company.
Does that list match what you think of as being a technically smart manager? One of the things that surprise me is how often companies avoid making good relationships with local technology suppliers. If the driver of the company’s oldest delivery van came to you and complained about grinding noises and wheel shake over 30 mph, would you call the GM technical support number or your favorite mechanic? When a server dies, it may be fun to rant about Microsoft, but it’s more productive to get help from a local company who fixes and supports servers. You know your business best, but a local dealer or consultant knows technology and can help choose the right hardware and software for your situation.
What do I mean by secure?
1. Protect company data.
2. Reduce annoyances (spam, spyware, etc.).
3. Good fences make good networks.
4. Manage and focus employees during the workday.
“Protecting” company data includes everything required to keep your information safe and private. You can’t protect your company by doing one part of the job (we have excellent authentication and user access security) while ignoring other parts (we’ll get around to a back-up system next month). When every employee has authorized access to the files they need, confidence the files are current and sure their information will be safely shared with coworkers, your data is protected.
What do I mean by growth?
1. Invest in technology with a future.
2. Prepare for a distributed workforce.
3. Extend your network intelligently.
How can a business manager pick a technology with a future when all the supposedly smart pundits in the technical magazines disagree constantly? Go with companies providing interesting innovation to solve real problems, go with previous market success, and go with the most standards-compliant products.
Standards and vendor cooperation now make VoIP a solid bet. For computer-to-computer telephone calls, Skype leads the world but ignores standards. They have the leading market share by far, but for internal use you may want to consider a standards-based (Session Initiation Protocol) offering from a competitor. It’s a rare company (Microsoft) that can garner the majority of the market while ignoring standards. Buying products before standards are set, like new products in wireless networking out now, may be necessary for specific projects, but playing the odds means relying on standards over the long term.
To expand upon these points, my afternoon talk is “Top 10 Ways to Tempt Technological Fate,” listing things people say that will turn good luck into bad. Example #6: “I don’t need to test our tape back-up system – it did fine two years ago.” When you hear someone say that on a sitcom, you know the next sound will be a scream from the network administrator realizing the tapes wore out six months ago, none of them work anymore, and the critical database for the company disappeared.
Running a small to midsize business isn’t easy and requires constant attention. If managing technology for small and midsize businesses was easy, they’d teach it in school.
