Why Your Company Needs an Email Policy

Email is an important and necessary part of your business. It provides an economical and instant means of communicating with staff, customers, and vendors – that’s both simple to use and enables increased efficiency. An email policy is required to protect this necessary business tool.

An email policy is a legal document that details your organization’s definition of acceptable use for the company email system. It should indicate who emails can be received from or sent to, as well as outline what constitutes appropriate content for work emails.

In additional, having a company email policy will:

Protect the Organization from Liabilities: When all employees read and sign an email policy, it proves they are aware and agree to the information contained in that policy. Should an email be sent that is not considered appropriate content according to the email policy, the employee, not the business, would bear the brunt of liability for any damages or suits brought as a result of their sending an inappropriate email.

Promote a Professional Environment: If email is used only in a professional manner in the workplace, you can be sure that embarrassing mistakes will not occur. For example, if staff are using work email to communicate with friends, the content in those emails are likely to be sloppy, unprofessional, and informal. If those emails accidentally get sent to clients or other professionals – the company image may become damaged. If an email policy does not allow for personal use of the work email system, your staff will remain in a professional mindset and eliminate the potential of personal emails going out to customers.

Increase Productivity: Email tends to be a distraction for employees who are using it for non-professional reasons. If an email policy prohibits the use of work email for personal use, your employees will stay on task more and avoid the distractions that come from sending and receiving personal emails during work hours.

Establish Systems for Email: If the email policy outlines appropriate content for an email sent during work hours over the company email system, it can also help establish systems to ensure all staff members are contributing to the brand or image of the company. Have each staff member use a template for email responses and set up signature lines that appear in all outgoing emails to further establish the company’s professionalism and image in the eyes of individuals who may receive email from your staff. Setting guidelines for content and use of email creates a single, comprehensive image of the company that helps keep the organization aligned with its mission.

An email policy is a document that provides your business with certain legal protections involving misuse of the email system by employees. Because it is a legal document, many businesses elect to have a lawyer draw up the email policy, or at the very least, review the policy before it is implemented within the organization. Having a lawyer review or prepare an email policy may seem like an unnecessary upfront cost, but has the potential to save you in legal fees in the future.

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Windows XP – End of Life Timelines

After today, Windows XP preloads are no longer available from OEM’s on new computers.  As for XP downgrades , it appears that Microsoft will make them available through January 15, 2015.

Just as a reminder, if you’re still running Windows XP – Service Pack 2 (SP2) expired on July 13th, 2010 and is no longer supported.  You need to install SP3 or look into moving to Windows 7 to be running a supported version of Windows.  Support for Windows XP SP3 will continue through April 2014.

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October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

NCSAMNational Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), conducted every October since 2001, is a national public awareness campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation’s critical cyber infrastructure.

Cyber security requires vigilance 365 days per year. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), the primary drivers of NCSAM, coordinate to shed a brighter light in October on what home users, schools, businesses and governments need to do in order to protect their computers, children, and data.

Anyone – family, employers, consumers, teachers, and students – interested in online safety is encouraged to access the National Cyber Security Awareness Month Web portal. The Web site hosts an abundance of information including tip sheets, ideas for how to get involved, events, and additional awareness resources to help organizations and individuals participate in the public awareness and education campaign.

The portal offers printable materials for schools, businesses, government agencies, law enforcement and consumers. All NCSA materials are free and there is no cost for endorsements or event listings.

You can access the NCSAM portal here: http://www.staysafeonline.org/ncsam

National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), conducted every October since 2001, is a national public awareness campaign to encourage everyone to protect their computers and our nation’s critical cyber infrastructure.

Cyber security requires vigilance 365 days per year. However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), the primary drivers of NCSAM, coordinate to shed a brighter light in October on what home users, schools, businesses and governments need to do in order to protect their computers, children, and data.

Anyone – family, employers, consumers, teachers, and students – interested in online safety is encouraged to access the National Cyber Security Awareness Month Web portal. The Web site hosts an abundance of information including tip sheets, ideas for how to get involved, events, and additional awareness resources to help organizations and individuals participate in the public awareness and education campaign.

The portal offers printable materials for schools, businesses, government agencies, law enforcement and consumers. All NCSA materials are free and there is no cost for endorsements or event listings.

You can access the NCSAM portal here: http://www.staysafeonline.org/ncsam

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Subscribe to Our RSS Feed

You can keep up to date with the latest articles, news, and tips from ProTech Computer Solutions by visiting this site regularly or by signing up for our RSS feed.

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Find out more about RSS

How do I subscribe?

To subscribe to an RSS feed, you need to have an RSS reader or news aggregator. Many of these services are free of charge, including Google Reader, MyYahoo!, and NewsGator.  Users of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or newer have a built-in RSS reader available to them as well.

Once you have set up your feed reader, you can return our website and click the “RSS Feed” icon RSS Feed or this link.

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Small Business Network Storage – How To Choose The Right SMB NAS Device

Small business network storage has progressed from simple peer to peer filesharing with all of its drawbacks through the phase of expensive Intel hardware and complicated Microsoft licensing back to the more realistic SMB NAS device.

The simple truth is, why should you buy more than you need or settle for less than what works?

If you have a complicated Microsoft server in place now and need to keep it, that does not mean you need to spend many thousands of dollars for another expensive box with expensive licenses just because you need more storage or an iSCSI target.

Or, if you are in the situation that my of my clients are in and have an aging Microsoft Small Business server that needs replacing does not mean you need to spend all that money on something similar when there are now other alternatives available.

SMB NAS devices are so flexible that they can either completely replace many Microsoft systems or work in tandem with them.

In the past, many businesses wanted Small Business Server just so they could have Microsoft Exchange with calendar sharing and email. But now, so many are instead opting for a web based or “cloud” solution that they no longer require or want to maintain such a complicated and costly system.

Buy only what you need. Keep the extra money to add to your profits instead of Microsoft’s.

Most SMB NAS devices require very little maintenance or updating, unlike the typical Microsoft Server solution requiring monthly updates at a minimum to maintain security.

So how do you buy the right SMB NAS device for your small business network storage needs?

Start by choosing a device that is designed for business usage. Often I will see a business owner try to save some money by purchasing a home unit or prosumer NAS device that is not intended for consistent high demand access by many users.

If you already have an equipment rack, or have a jumbled mess of network electronics and should perhaps consider an equipment rack, then it makes perfect sense to be looking into rackmount NAS devices. Rackmount NAS units will certainly be built for business usage.

Desktop NAS units will come with either 4 or 6 drive bays, which certainly should be hot swapable. If you think you will need more drive bays than that, then look toward rackmount NAS which usually offer up to 12 drive bays.

If server virtualization is currently being used or you feel it is in your future, then make sure that the NAS device supports the virtualization platform you either use or expect to use. Not all SMB NAS devices fully support iSCSI targets or do so without monopolizing the data volume.

Certainly choose a model that offers gigabit networking, settle for nothing less. Often you will find dual gigabit ports on good small business network storage servers. It does not require that you buy high end products just to get the feature of NIC teaming and failover which can be nice additions.

When you plan for data volume sizing to determine quantity and size of NAS hard drives, determine first which NAS RAID level protection you will be choosing.

In fact, if you want to take advantage of the highly desirable RAID6 with dual redundancy, that decision could push you from a 4 drive unit into a 6 drive unit in the case of Netgear ReadyNAS devices which only offer that feature on 6 drive units and above.

For a full explanation of how these factors affect the SMB NAS buying decision process further, come to the small business network storage section of our website and blog where we explain these topics if further detail.

Find SMB NAS device reviews, comparisons and tips at http://NetworkStorageTips.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roger_DeReu

Interested in a NAS solution for your small business?
Contact Us Today!


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The Importance of Backups

Most small business owners understand the importance of their data and the need to back it up.  What’s amazing however, is just how many small businesses we encounter that continue to operate with either inadequate backup solutions or without any backups whatsoever.

Recently we were contacted by a client that turned on her computer one morning only to be greeted by a message on her screen that the hard drive was not found.  Upon investigation, we found the hard drive had failed and everything on it was gone.  Her email, accounting data, documents, and photos – all gone.  Luckily, she had a backup, but unfortunately, it was several months old.  While it wasn’t a total loss for her, she did lose some critical emails and she had to manually re-enter her lost accounting data and recreate several documents and proposals.  In the end, she lost some critical data that could not be recreated and of course it cost her several days of lost productivity.  The client estimated the value of their losses to be several thousand dollars.  A good backup solution would have cost a fraction of what the resulting expenses were.  Needless to say, she now has a solid backup solution in place.

What about your business?  Do you have an adequate backup solution in place?  What would the cost of an unexpected data loss be to your business?

Backing up your critical business data doesn’t have to be expensive – contact us today for a backup solution designed to meet your needs.

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Free Security Software for Your Small Business

Microsoft just announced last week that beginning in early October 2010, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) will become free to use for organizations with up to 10 PCs.  Microsoft Security Essentials is no-cost antimalware software that provides real-time protection to address the ongoing security needs of genuine Windows PCs, helping to protect from viruses, spyware and other malicious threats.

MSE has been freely available for home and home office users since September 2009.  Since its release, Microsoft Security Essentials has won awards and certifications from a number of independent agencies and does a good job of protecting your computer.  Our experience with MSE here at ProTech Computer Solutions has been positive and in fact we have deployed MSE to many of our residential and home office customers with good results.

While MSE may lack some of the more sophisticated central management and reporting tools offered by competing products, it is well worth evaluating for any small business in need of desktop security software and looking to cut costs.

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Buying Computers for Your Business

We frequently field questions from our customers about purchasing new computers for their business.  Very often they’re surprised by the prices when compared to the ads they’ve seen from local electronic stores.  The problem is, this is not an apples to apples comparison.

There are distinct differences between consumer and business class computers.  While the specifications between the two may appear to be very similar, business class computers are typically built with higher quality components offering a higher degree of reliability.  Business computers also don’t include all the special offers and trial software that bogs down so many consumer PCs.

Here are some additional key differentiators of business class computers:

  • Longer warranty periods and support options including next business day on-site support.
  • Professional level operating systems – better suited to business software, security, and network requirements.
  • Life expectancy – availability of drivers will be updated and maintained for years to support business and industry that rely on sustaining their technology.

The bottom line is that business should never purchase computers from local big box consumer stores.  The initial cost may be lower, but they will cost you more in the long run and likely need to be replaced sooner.

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New Website!

Our website has been in dire need of a refresh and content update for quite some time and we’ve finally manged to find the time to get our new site up.

Keep an eye on our Blog for upcoming announcements, news, tips and other useful articles. And while your at it, feel free to follow us on FaceBook too.

We also have some exciting new products & services lined up that we’ll be introducing soon  so be sure to check in frequently with us or subscribe to our RSS feed.

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