Blog Archives - Page 12 of 13 - Bellwether Technology

Why Are IT Policies & Procedures Important

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Merrick Sloss

[Updated 2022] IT policies and procedures play a strategic and crucial role in making sure that your company’s corporate information is safe. Policies document how people and other IT systems can access your data and network. Policies and procedures work together with your technical security controls to protect confidential information from unauthorized access, disclosure, corruption, loss, and interference in both physical and electronic formats. When it comes to protecting information, maintaining privacy is just one aspect of security. You also need to be concerned with the information’s accuracy and your ability to access it when you need to. In IT […]

How to Select an IT Vendor

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Merrick Sloss

Choosing a reliable service for your company’s IT needs saves you a lot of money and time. Plus, the common pitfalls of poorly chosen IT services and technology can lead to frustration, capital loss, and low adoption rate. Even worse, you can get stuck with a long- term contract for IT services that are useless for your company. The selection process of an IT vendor or services has become more complex as companies want a representation of the stakeholders who will benefit from the new technology. That means when you propose a new technology purchase, you must think about how […]

IT User Training

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Steven Ellis

Don’t Think IT Solutions Are Complete without User Training. A frequently underappreciated contributor to a well-run IT operation is the ability to communicate with and train end users effectively. Its absence too often leads to a disconnect between the way the computer guys intended a system to be used and the way that people actually use it. Several factors are widely accepted as critical to the success of IT projects and to the overall effectiveness of an IT organization. They include ensuring that IT is aligned with well-defined and understood business objectives, that executive management supports the IT department’s efforts, […]

The Importance of Standardization and Documentation

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Merrick Sloss

The Importance of IT Standardization and Documentation

[Updated 2022] Imagine working with a blindfold on your eyes. You’ll constantly be thinking about your next step. Not only will you have to search for which direction you should take the next step but also you will waste a lot of time while doing so. It is a perfect analogy to describe what it is like to work without standardization and documentation. Put simply, standard guidelines are concrete benchmarks that define specific rules and voluntary characteristics of a particular industry. From providing reliable information to structured methods, standardization and documentation serve as an indispensable tool of development to organizations. […]

Cyber Insurance

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Steven Ellis

Do you need it and, if so, what kind? I am not a cyber insurance expert, nor am I qualified to give legal advice, but as someone who thinks a lot about IT vulnerabilities and threats, I believe that every business should evaluate the cost-benefit of cyber insurance to help protect from cyber risk. Such an evaluation starts with a careful consideration of the business’ true exposure to the negative impact of cyber incidents. The next step is to review your current insurance policy to understand any deficiencies in coverage. If unacceptable gaps become apparent, you can likely find a […]

Know Your IT Strategy Priorities

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Steven Ellis

The key to aligning IT with your business Given the variety of approaches and number of choices available in IT for small businesses, a certain amount of strategic planning ensures that your business applies technology as well as it should. To be reasonably effective and applicable, strategic planning needs context, which means you should have a very good sense of your overall priorities before you can begin to think about how IT should fit in. We have defined a set of nine IT-related priorities to help understand how our clients approach technology. We ask our clients to force rank the […]

Online Meetings

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Steven Ellis

They’re more useful than you may realize. Online meetings through solutions like Webex and GoToMeeting have been around for nearly 20 years, and not a whole lot has changed over that time. Today, as before, they allow people to collaborate in real time over the internet via audio or video conferencing and screen or document sharing. But despite their relative longevity, stability and usefulness, I find that online meetings are still extremely underutilized. Not that I don’t understand the importance of in person meetings — interpersonal relationships are surely the key to many business deals; rather I have come to […]

Data Analytics: Not Just Numbers

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Steven Ellis

Data analytics is becoming not just more prevalent, but more useful for business. As someone with a mathematical, financial and technological background, I am a strong proponent of the benefit of analyzing and using data to make better decisions. Not surprisingly, then, I am happy to see a number of trends and emerging technologies that promise to help in that effort. The first is that data sources are becoming more open and easier to connect to. This trend exists in virtually all modern applications. One example of interest to those of us who live or work in New Orleans is […]

Cybersecurity

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Steven Ellis

Like much of IT, cybersecurity is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. The comprehensive approach that large enterprises should employ to identify and address risks and detect and respond to attacks is often out of reach for small businesses. Yet as the frequency and impact of cyberattacks on businesses of all sizes continues to grow, the typical small-business approach of taking the usual precautions and hoping for the best is proving to be inadequate. Many small-business owners are willing to do more to improve their cybersecurity but don’t know what else to do. The number of options — whether products or services […]

Not Just Core Networks: The New Role of IT Services

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Steven Ellis

Demands have changed in this cloud-based world. As the cloud and other developments continue to change the ways small businesses deploy and use technology, IT departments must adapt. Long gone are the days when most IT environments looked the same — a few Windows servers in a closet and a Windows PC on every desk — when all the IT department had to worry about managing core networks. Now we see a variety of different approaches and an overwhelming number of available applications. As a firm believer in technology’s ability to make a meaningful difference in a typical small business’s […]