Riverbank It management

If your business is going to grow in a flat market (let’s be optimistic about the wider economy) you have to do so by winning market share. That means taking business from your competitors. To do that you have to be better than them. You also have to communicate your message to your potential customers.

What underpins your success at attracting that new business is your systems – the way you run your business. Here are seven ways that IT can contribute to your success.

1. You have to be more efficient and get more results for less effort. Without a doubt one of the most effective tools you can use is CRM software – Customer Relationship Management. CRM software enables you to store the intelligence (call back in six months, birthday is 15 May, etc). It also enables you to track your successes and your failures so you can establish what works and what doesn’t.

The hype around cloud computing could be reaching a peak, but are companies actually doing it? Many large firms are apparently holding back from making a drastic change to their IT systems, preferring to wait until others have gone before them and made their mistakes. Many smaller businesses are hesitant about committing their entire business to a single Internet connection. They are also worried about the security of trusting their intellectual property in an environment where they feel they have little or no control.

But fortune favours the bold, so should you be brave and take the plunge into cloud computing? Are you even sure what it is or what it's supposed to do for your businesss?

Cloud computing is the first of the Riverbank lunchtime workshops for 2010. If you would like to understand what lies behind the hype, what it can and can't do for your business, and whether now is the time to be brave then come along to "Cloud computing -  what's in it for me?" on Tuesday 30 March. Contact Amber Juffkins to reserve your place.

I attended a PGP event this morning to hear the latest news around IT security and encryption (by the way 'PGP' stands for 'Pretty Good Privacy' and it's also a world leader in encryption technnology).

The news is that spending on IT security is increasing even during a recession, because companies recognise the importance of staying secure and the damage any security breach can cause (prison, for example).  Many firms have now got all their laptops encrypted and are now starting to take email encryption seriously. After all, what's the point in keeping everything nice and secure on your computer and then broadcasting confidential information on the digital equivalent of a postcard?

The PGP message is clear. You can implement a fully-automatic email encryption system quickly and easily. And with zero impact for computer users it won't get in your way. If you would like to find out more about it do call me on 01844 278036 or e-mail malcolm@riverbank.co.uk.

Dell have a 0% finance deal on offer for server purchases. The finance deal can include software and Riverbank services, but must have a total price of at least £10,000 to qualify. The offer runs until the end of April.

 Contact Chris Jones for more information.

The Sophos Security Report for 2010 has some thought-provoking predictions for 2010. One is the impact of cloud computing. As more data is stored on the web so the security threats will migrate to those sites and the individual desktop computer will become less important. Before you commit your data to a web-based system you might want to know how good your supplier's security protection is. If a major data store did suffer a security breach the impact could be enormous.

More worrying on a global scale is the arrival what Sophos calls a third phase of security threats. The first phase was the hobby virus writer whose interest in writing such stuff usually ended when they found a girlfriend. The second phase was the arrival of organised criminality out to sell fake goods, get access to your bank account or steal your identity. A new third phase is happening at government level with attacks aimed at getting commercial, military or political gains.

As individuals and businesses all we can do is to make sure that we protect all aspects of our computer usage including personal computers, servers and mobile devices like iPhones, BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile phones.

Don’t get stuck in the 10% trap, where you use just 10% of the power of your software. Work better, faster and more effectively by continuing to learn more about the software you use. Use that extra time you liberate to drive growth in your business.

Here are ten tips to help you accelerate your work with Excel.

1.    Entering text
If you want to enter multiple lines of text, or create paragraphs within a cell, use Alt Enter to move to a new line.

Pasting text from another application? If you paste it directly into the cell it will retain its current formatting (font, bold, italic etc). If you just want the text and not its current format, paste it into the formula bar (see below) and press the Enter key to send it into the cell.  

If you want your text to span multiple cells use Merge and Center. Remember you can go vertically as well as horizontally.

The January snow meant that many people were working from home. Some fared better than others, and the calls to our help desk revealed where employers and employees were struggling. Here are Riverbank’s top tips for keeping your business running when the unexpected happens.

1.    Top of the list by far is preparation. Have a plan and rehearse it. Then you know how you will do it. Waiting until you are cut off by a foot of snow is not a good way to discover the flaw in your plan.
2.    In at number 2 is to make sure you have good instructions. If working from home is something you won’t be doing very often you will need written instructions. Don’t wait until you can’t log on to ask for instructions.
3.    Third on the list is that you need an understanding of the technology. Working from home means that you will probably have a relatively slow link to the office network and one that could get disconnected. You need to work accordingly; keeping a file open for hours while you work on it without saving your changes is a recipe for disaster.
4.    Coming in at numbers four and five is capacity. If you usually have two or three people working remotely how will your broadband line perform when 20 or 30 people are trying to work remotely?

 

One lesson from the recent snow was the importance of being able to work away from the office. A really useful tool for working anywhere is a mobile data link - a small USB device that connects your laptop to the Internet via the mobile network.

The Riverbank partner for mobile communications is O2. They are running a January incentive of 3 months' free subscription for voice calls if you change to O2 for your mobile voice and data communications. If you would like more information please contact Chris Jones at Riverbank, chris@riverbank.co.uk (01844 278036).

In this prolonged period of icy weather are you still slipping and sliding to work? Many Riverbank clients are working comfortably at home. Thanks to good remote access to their office networks they can remain productive and safe.

If you are thinking that maybe you should do better in enabling your people to work anywhere make a new year's resolution to speak to Riverbank about it. We can tell you more about the cost-effective options available and how other firms are getting the benefits of being able to work flexibly.

And remember, a white Christmas is what we've all been dreaming of. We just don't want to commute to work in it.

Cloud computing is the topic of the moment, with servers and their applications metamorphosing into web-based services. But will all businesses want to join this rush to the cloud?

The evidence so far is that for individual professionals and micro-businesses cloud computing has irresistible attractions - you don't need to buy any expensive hardware or software, and someone else manages everything for you.

Larger companies feel the same attraction, but for many it is diminished by other factors. They need to know where their data is and who has access to it. The demands of their clients might place greater constraints on their ability to entrust the care of their data to unknown people and organisations.

Enter the private cloud. In the world of the private cloud a company has its own infrastructure based in the cloud. They get the benefit of global access to their systems but they also know exactly where their data is and who has access to it. In addition they still get the benefits of scalability, flexibility and no capital costs.