* Look to save money in the right places
I love hearing how dealers and consultants help small businesses. Michael Kendrick, owner of Business Networks (http://www.bcn.ca), recently responded to my our dual-WAN router tests in the pages of Network World (see editorial link below).
When Manitoba Telephone closed its data communications service and support department in 1995, Kendrick and the rest of the group formed Business Networks. Twenty percent of its customers have fewer than 100 employees; 60% have 100 to 500.
Since Kendrick wanted to talk about security devices such as firewalls and routers, I asked for his top three recommendations to small companies looking for help.
“Look for something easy to configure because misconfiguration is the biggest problem for most installations,” Kendrick says. That’s exactly right, and many security devices are tricky. A badly configured firewall is as effective as an expensive paperweight at stopping hackers.
“Look for flexibility, because you don’t know what your business will need next year,” he says. Most small businesses want to get bigger, and spending a few dollars more on a flexible product today might save you from replacing it entirely tomorrow.
“Look at the reseller and vendor, and their speed of support and replacement part availability,” he says. If your company runs two shifts, find a supporting dealer open when you are. If you need instant replacement of security products to keep your company running, pay the hardware maintenance fee for overnight or same-day replacement.
Ah, fees. Don’t be penny wise and security foolish. Some readers of the dual-WAN tests story complained that we didn’t highlight the fact that Router A has no yearly service fees, so it is obviously better than Router B. Others said the continual upgrades from Router B make it obviously better than Router A, and we should have stressed that.
This illustrates Kendrick’s view that different companies have different security needs. Sometimes a remote office with one PC needs a high-end router, such as a trucking company Kendrick supports.
“One PC doesn’t seem to require all that much,” says Kendrick, “but in this case, if the remote office lost its VPN connection to the main office, they couldn’t print paperwork for the truckers. Without the correct paperwork, the trucks couldn’t go through the weighing stations, which meant one broken connection to headquarters would stop 35 trucks.”
Sticker shock is a serious factor in most small business purchases. “The marketing materials for a $14,000 Cisco router/firewall might say just about the same things as that of a $50 router from Best Buy,” Kendrick says. What do companies do then? They rely on word of mouth, and when they hear about Kendrick, he comes to explain the differences and which unit will provide the best protection for the best price.
Service and support play a huge role and provide Kendrick with a way to stand out from the crowd. “We have relationships so I can cover most of Canada and major cities in the U.S.,” he says. This means a call to Kendrick in Manitoba can dispatch an authorized service tech to a branch office in Cleveland that same afternoon.
Do customers demand certifications? “We’re certified in a wide range of products,” Kendrick says, “but we let most of them lapse because customers care more about a good working relationship. We sell ourselves, not the products.”
One final thought: Kendrick says the most expensive security appliance can’t protect your company if its employees aren’t careful. “Small business people are friendly people and want to help. So when someone who sounds important calls and says they’re from the phone company and need information about their Web site or e-mail server, they give them access.”
Just one more example that security is a process, not a network appliance.
