I’m working on an outline for a book about Information Technology and The Internet for small business. I’ve got a couple of decades of good experience in all sizes and flavors of networks and I have always wished someone would take the time to bypass all the blather and rhetoric and just supply some practical answers for the everyday small businessman in regard to the “voodoo” of IT.
I’ve compiled the following Table of Contents. I’d love some feedback on things you’d like to see included in such a book, and / or specifics beneath particular headers.
A Practical Guide to Information Technology and the Internet for Small Business
- Introduction
- Knowing what you need
- Internet / Intranet
- Wireless / Wired
- Telecommunications
- Software
- A Word on Open Source Solutions
- Antivirus / Anti-Spyware
- Hardware
- Inventory and help desk
- Backups
- Lessons on corporate data
- Security
- Training
- Web Pages
- Blogs
- SEO and Internet marketing
- Social Networking – the new frontier
- Resources
- Checklists and forms
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I find most (very) small businesses are unaware of how to get inexpensive generalized support (it's ended-up being me in a few instances) – I know there are some sites out there that offer better support than the software and hardware vendors, and solutions like LogMeIn, etc, are incredibly useful in providing direct support remotely (I've used this to help various family businesses, often from a large geographic distance). Some local, small IT services companies offer this kind of support.
The most effective support for a very small business is for at least one employee to be trained in the software and / or hardware they use. Outsourced help is almost never cheap…and most companies actually USE a very small footprint of equipment and software – not hard to get a grasp on. We buy all of our equipment through DELL currently, and I buy the extended 3 yr on-site maintenance. It relieves a lot of the time I would otherwise spend troubleshooting and repairing equipment that changes too often to keep up with…
Understood for a reasonably sized company. I was thinking about really small business, way down in scale, as in micro: sole proprietorships, small partnerships (e.g. two dentists sharing space), etc. They simply don't have the size to specialize for even basic IT functions. For them, it pretty much means they have to rent a geek, on retainer or on demand. But they may not know how to obtain those services with confidence.
That's a really good point, and I WILL mention that…I wasn't thinking of businesses quite that small…
Cool, thanks David
Saw your note on Twitter – we deal with this a lot because our clients (usually being small businesses on a shoestring) seem to think because we know web design we know their IT issues! Well, I can understand that because we do hosting we should understand how to set up their email (NOT, but well, okay – I can see the stretch). It maybe is covered under one of your chapters…but internet access when you have dsl (or cable), a firewall and a router is confusing to most of our clients. AND EMAIL. I cannot tell you how many people don't understand how their email works or how to access it. Just plain POP3. Or how to troubleshoot when it doesn't work. Hope the feedback is what you were looking for and helps!
Absolutely right, and it's something I should have had in the outline…will add it. Setting up pop accounts is pretty easy…and usually you can get at least minimal support from the ISP provider, but again – it's something at least one person in the company should take the time to learn.
David, Your outline and the comments prior to mine bring a few things to the fore: The first is under Knowing What You Need should expand to cover (if you don't already have it in the details) identifying their business processes and information generation needs. The second (hinted at in a couple of places) is "interoperability" between software programs. Some just don't play well together. The third is information management (documents and files). For most small businesses, it doesn't take too long before file retrieval becomes a chore. Fourth, if not there somewhere, the issue of synchronization of units in the field and problems that can arise in small businesses when the boss's machine has programs and/or files needed when s/he's off traveling. I'd also agree with others that either a rent a geek or a managed services program makes sense for most small businesses (ala your Dell service agreement on the equipment side) Hope this is helpful.
It helps a lot. Much of what you've added to the mix will fall under other headers, but it's all good to mention…it also makes me think of VPN access, which I should mention.
John_Reddish's comment also reminds me that to be truly current, you'll want to provide some advice on using (or not using) storage and apps in the Cloud. Google Apps and Zoho come to mind.
Drop.io for big file transfers between business and customers or vendors. DropBox for an easy way to sync files between trusted machines (used by the same or different employees). Lots of free or nearly free goodies out there. And the SMB SaaS apps list is huge. The days of the bloated office suite and fat local server may be ending for many businesses, especially those just starting now.
Time management… personal management of the brand's web presence vs. outsourcing to a more tech-oriented aide… being everywhere vs. being where it matters (and how to tell)… There are so many intangibles to take into account… Good list, good start.
I will very much try to work this in completely. I have some pretty good tools and habits to suggest that should (if followed) greatly reduce the amount of time necessary to actually run a small IT Network and web presence…included in that will certainly be some pros and cons of outsourcing to the various "nerd herds"… My company was outsourcing to a local company when I came on board…so I have some lessons learned there too.