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Monitoring Your Employee Activities

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 17, 2012  |  IN Staff  |  Tagged with :

The moment I say “employee monitoring,” the civil libertarians in us will get up in arms about ethics, privacy, human rights, and so on. The fact is, you have the right to know what the employees are doing during your time (that is, the time you pay them for).

With the numerous new methods of scams popping up, it is important to protect the users that inadvertently land on malicious websites. So, you need to provide a “content-filtering” system. Of course, you can use that to prohibit what sites you don’t want them to go to (e.g. Facebook, Hotmail).

Many companies actually have key-loggers installed on users’ desktops, to know what kind of websites they go to or what they do. You can find out their addiction to Solitaire game, or you can use the key-logger to find out what kind of additional training you will need to provide for them.

How you use the information you gather, is up to you. It is not illegal to monitor what the employee is doing on their PC, as long as you let them know that you do it. Some of our customers find that even if they don’t implement a monitoring system, but just let employees know that they may monitor their PC activities, the employees suddenly stop unnecessary browsing.

As Grissom from the TV show CSI would say, “the nature of what is being observed changes merely by the fact that it is being observed.” Long live Grissom!

IT Chart of Accounts template

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 16, 2012  |  IN Expenses  |  Tagged with : , ,

Having the right groups of expenses will help you monitor and control your costs. Here is our recommended Chart of Accounts. It is free to download and use.

Managed IT Service from Ancient China

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 15, 2012  |  IN Managed Services  |  Tagged with : ,

Like astrology, Face Reading is a science. It’s not hocus pocus. People used to read faces not only to stereo-type people (“because your nose is shaped this way, you will have these qualities”), but also to understand the health of a person. A good face reader can tell you well in advance if you are going to have health issues. They can tell you exactly what organ will have the problem. No, they are not fortune-tellers. The Western medicine can tell us what is wrong with an organ at a specific point in time (a snapshot), but the face can give us early warning signs.

Face reading was popular in China, and it is part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). So, it is no wonder that in Ancient China, people paid their medical practitioner a retainer fee to look after their health. It was in the best interest of the medical practitioner to ensure that the patient is healthy. So, they used to proactively monitor the health of the patient, and remedy the problems. If the patient does get a health problem because of unforeseen circumstances, the practitioner would fix it.

Similarly, we now have Managed IT Service to proactively monitor your network, remedy it where possible and reactively fix any issues. Just like the Chinese medical practitioner, the service provider (that is, us) gets paid a retainer — a predictable monthly revenue (I am not sure if I’d ever survive in Retail — the revenue fluctuates so much… the sales are so finicky; if the weather changes, sales change). Different providers have different plans of managed IT service, but the concept is the same.

With Managed IT Service, you truly can get peace of mind, because someone reliable is looking after of your network while you are sleeping.

Give us a call to discuss if managed IT services is suitable for you at: 02 8197 9400.

IT budget template

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 14, 2012  |  IN Expenses  |  Tagged with : , ,

Here is a free template you can use when you are ready to do your budget estimates. There are two major categories: “Lights On” and Projects. “Lights On” is the expenses you incur to keep the lights on for your business. Then you have your various projects. This budget tool covers all the areas. Plug in the numbers and get graphical representation as well. It is completely free. Download now.

Managing Problem Employees

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 14, 2012  |  IN Staff  |  Tagged with :

This is a short slide show – based on a book. Thought you might find it useful too.

Three methods of “chargeback”

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 11, 2012  |  IN Chargeback  |  Tagged with : ,


“Chargeback” in IT (i.e. charging the business units the expenses of the IT department) is always a political battle.

You try to share the costs across the business units. They complain that that is not fair because the business units that have a larger revenue or more IT users get charged the same amount.

Then you decide to implement the second method — charge according to their size, or according to their usage (e.g. based on the number of desktops). Sometimes, the smaller business units argue, “hey, why did it take 3 hours to set up X this month, while the other engineer spent only 1.5 hours last month for this.” They negotiate on what should be charged. At the end of the day, you want to charge the business units fairly, and not have any money left over as “IT overhead.”

You then go with the third method create a service catalog that gives a menu of services with prices— to set up a desktop costs $X, to remove a user costs $Y, to change user profile costs $Z, and so on.

We have seen all three methods and by far the third method is the best and will discuss this in a future article.

When the third method gets implemented, the business unit managers wonder if it would be cost-effective to outsource their part of IT to an external provider, instead of an internal one.

Some managers, with a generous Delegated Financial Authority (DFA), do that and create a “shadow IT”.

Until recently, we used to work for the CEO of a company. The company’s IT Support was managed by another company. The staff there seemed happy with that IT Company, but the CEO was not. So, he only outsourced his desktop to another IT company — us. It’s funny. He left the company now.

Some business unit managers tell their users how much they are paying for their IT support, to see if they could help them reduce the expenses. The users will then start logging IT problems and start putting up with them, eventually affecting their own productivity. You never wanted this to happen, but it happens.

No one has a single, proven, formula for chargeback that is accepted by everyone. However, we do find that when the IT support is outsourced, the charges reduce considerably, or at least the productivity doesn’t get affected most of the times.

We find that internal IT staff have their “pet projects” on the side. Such projects are usually not a priority (or a need) for the business units. Sometimes, the costs of these pet projects don’t get shown transparently to the business units. These projects get started to fill free time at first. As they say “work expands in proportion to the time on hand.” No such pet projects happen when you outsource your IT.

“Chargeback” is an eternal struggle for the CFOs and the business owners. If you want to have a meaningful discussion, give us a call at: 02 8197 9400.

Next OS: Windows 8, coming soon

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 9, 2012  |  IN Operating System  |  Tagged with : ,

Microsoft announced the next version of its operating system, Windows 8. It comes in three versions — one for home users, one for the business users, and the other for tablet PCs, called RT (stands for real-time).

One of the exciting features of Windows 8 is their Windows To Go — you can boot the computer from a USB flash drive (called LiveUSB), along with your programs and settings.

Of course, it will come with Internet Explorer 10.

Read more about the features below.

Four productivity tools for you

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 7, 2012  |  IN Productivity  |  Tagged with : ,

1. I find Microsoft’s OneNote an exceptional tool for organisation, collaboration and search. The idea is, you create notebooks for different functions. Then you can create “sub- notebooks” within the main notebook. You can then create to-do lists, write notes, create post-it notes, paste web clippings, and so on. It comes free with Microsoft Office Professional and Office 365. Go to Microsoft’s site to learn more about this cool app. Here is a popular add-on for this app.

2. I got introduced to mind mapping a while ago, but have been using Mind Managersince the year 2000. AI find Microsoft’s OneNote an exceptional tool for organisation, collaboration and search. The idea is, you create notebooks for different functions. Then you can create “sub- notebooks” within the main notebook. You can then create to-do lists, write notes, create post-it notes, paste web clippings, and so on. It comes free with Microsoft Office Professional and Office 365. Go to Microsoft’s site to learn more about this cool app. Here is a popular add-on for this app.

3. Evernote is a popular web-based application that helps you “remember everything” (that is their tagline). You can write notes, clip text from websites, paste and organise the content in any way you prefer, and easily access it from anywhere (since it is web-based). There is a free version and a professional version for $50/year. If you prefer a desktop version, then my favourite is Action Outline. Everything at your fingertips.

If you are researching the Internet and need a bibliography or the sources where you got your material from, you can use CiteLighter. You create a project, and save all the material as you collect it. When you’re done, you can organise the content and present it.

If you are a fan of Getting Things Done (a time management program), then you will love their My Life Organised software.

4. I moved away from Internet Explorer (IE) a long time ago. But the Microsoft-based applications work only on IE. So I use IE for Microsoft apps only. For my general browsing, I used to use the Firefox browser, since it has many add-ons. I like it, but it is quite heavy, and makes the computer slow. I found Google’s Chrome browser to be lighter and faster. If any component fails to work in Chrome (e.g. the Skype add-on), you can disable that component alone, and keep browsing, rather than closing down the entire browser. I made the switch to Chrome after the recommendation from my 11-year-old child. I’ve never been happier.

What are other productivity tools you find useful? Let me know.

How to secure user passwords on your network

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 3, 2012  |  IN Passwords  |  Tagged with :

“Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months,” said an internet security expert once. Yet, the users write the passwords on Post-it stickers stuck onto the monitor or under keyboard. Typically, for most users, the password is the same for everything – from their banking, to home alarm code, to network login. Those passwords are usually one of these two: their date of birth (or the spouse’s, child’s, or a special day), or digits of their phone number, house number, or postal code.

Once in one of our customer’s organisation, the users refused to change their passwords. So, the boss asked to remove the policy of asking the users to change the password every quarter. Further, the users didn’t want the system to generate their passwords; they wanted to create their own permanent password.

Yes, it is hard to remember so many passwords and it is simpler to keep one password for every account. You and I both know that that is a big risk, because it is easier to find a single password. Once the password is acquired, the intruder can access every account.

Nowadays, there are password managers where users can store all their passwords. It has the same problem – one password that protects everything.

So, what is the alternative? There is a technology called “two-factor authentication system.” The user will get a little device that they can carry with their key chain (it is that small). When logging into an account they are required to input their usual password and press a button on the little device to get a pseudorandom sequence of digits that is only valid for a little while. The user inputs that number sequence along with the password to gain access to their account.

While this appears to be a safe bet, the user could misplace the device and it would end up in the wrong hands; or as the user utilizes different services, they may have more devices than they can handle, and start complaining – I have one device from the bank and one for our business now.

The best option is educating the users on what problems losing the password can cause to the network and business. Educated users are assets to the company.

How could Cloud Computing help?

By Maria Padisetti   |   May 1, 2012  |  IN business case  |  Tagged with :

Don’t believe someone if they tell you to move to Cloud Computing because it is cheaper. There may not be hidden costs, but you may have to upgrade some parts of your infrastructure and broadband. You can’t access the Cloud without a good broadband connection.

I think the following should be the reasons for moving to the Cloud:

  • -  No capital expenditure and only operational expenditure.
  • -  No major sunk costs for upgrades in the future.
  • -  Better user satisfaction, since they can access the application from different locations.
  • -  Since the servers and the applications on them are not on your premises, if there is a power outage or       disaster in your premises (as it has been happening in QLD and NSW over the last few months), you can   still run the business from a hotel.
  • - It is easy to increase or decrease the usage (e.g. number of users) and pay for what you use.

You keep your users happy and they will make you happy by being productive (or at least stop blaming IT for their lack of productivity).