|
You Got Mail!
A Good Idea Gone Amuck
Is there anyone in charge out there?
There must be a better way of managing our inboxes. The
technology is wonderful. The benefits are innumerable.
But, pardon us, we have some issues, here. Nobody told
us part of the deal was a daily time commitment equal to
that of another part-time job.
You've
probably seen some of the awful statistics. Someone
guesses it's costing companies $300 billion a year in
lost productivity. The Wall Street Journal reported we
spend 4 hours digging out of our pile of email each day.
VeriSign and the International Data Corporation have
been counting and took a stab with their total of 62
billion emails zooming through the digital ether,
everyday. And, we figure most of you believe most of
them are landing in your inbox.
For most companies guidelines on
effectively using email
don't exist. But, some are trying. Intel has created "The
10 Commandments of Email", as has Harvard Business School
Publishing.
The problem is no one that you know actually
follows the rules.
Nonetheless, that doesn't keep us from trying.
ARRC surveyed the plethora of best practices
that various experts have assembled. Let us share the
best of what we found:
Be ruthless - Scan headers, and delete everything
you don't need to know or act upon materially. We know
it's not easy.
Lose the attachments - It's wasted time struggling
with incompatible formats, files that never arrived, and
attachments that got garbled or stripped off the
message. Instead, find a good spot on a company intranet
for posting and downloading.
Read
more
|
|
|
Beware of “Social Engineering,”
The Art of
Tricking You into Disclosing Sensitive Data
Quick. What is the
weakest link in your company’s computer security? Is it virus
protection? Your network firewall?
NO. It’s your
people.
So writes convicted
hacker Kevin Mitnick in his book, The Art of Deception:
Controlling the Human Element of Security. “I could often get
passwords and other pieces of sensitive information from companies,”
he explains, “by pretending to be someone else and just asking
for it.”
This hacking
technique is known as social engineering, and anyone with access to
sensitive data needs to guard against it.
What should
you watch out for? |
|
Is VoIP Right for Your Business?
|
 |
More and more businesses tired of racking up high telecommunications
bills are turning to the Internet for their phone service.
Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) services enable businesses to conduct calls across
the same network to access the Internet and get email – and at a
fraction of the cost of traditional voice networks.
|
However, VoIP
developers have been focused on quality and reliability versus
security. Therefore, if you choose to adopt VoIP, it is up to you to
take the proper steps to secure it.
Background and
benefits
The technology behind VoIP has been around for a few years; early
incarnations of VoIP were plagued by spotty service, muddled and
dropped calls. Only in the last few years has VoIP service improved
enough to make it sufficiently reliable and stable for business use.
In fact, businesses are finding that a well-planned and implemented
VoIP system can provide call quality and reliability that rivals
mobile phone or landline calls.
The number one benefit
of VoIP is its low cost. In the conventional telephony world,
multiple phone lines, conference calling features, and long distance
charges create many extra charges. However, most VoIP providers not
only offer unlimited local and long-distance calling for a
relatively low flat fee, the fee also includes most, if not all, of
the additional features businesses need. In addition to lower phone
bills, here are some other benefits of VoIP:
|
|
Stay Fit While You
Sit
Tips
for Staying Healthy
at Your Desk Job
Do you sit at your desk
for long periods of the day? Have you ever experienced back, neck or
shoulder pain after a long day at the office? Perhaps you put on a
few pounds after taking a desk job. Research has shown that people
who work desk jobs are likely to lose muscle tone, experience back
pain, gain weight and suffer from increased stress. That's because
inactivity, poor posture and bad eating habits tend to plague those
who sit at a desk throughout the day.
|
 |
One study by the
American
Council on Exercise (ACE) showed that those whose jobs require
them to sit at least six hours a day are twice as likely to be
overweight as those who sit for less than 45 minutes a day at work.
So what can you do to stay fit but keep your desk job?
Check out
these tips.
|
|
|
Dates to
Remember
March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
March 23 – Easter Sunday |
|
Seeing Double - Practical
Productivity
By Jane Cage, HTS COO
Do
you have the luxury of doing only one task at a time? If you’re like me, I would
guess the answer is probably “No”. I find myself answering email, working on a
spreadsheet, looking at an accounting issue and searching for info on the
internet all at the same time. It’s just become part of the way that we all
work. Most computer users, however, are forced into single-tasking because of
the way they see their work – on a single monitor. Windows XP and VISTA provide
desktop users with the ability to “spread” their desktop across multiple
monitors.
Having two monitors has changed and improved the way I work. I’ve seen
several study results that state two monitors can improve productivity from
20-50%. I agree. I can cut and paste from one application to another without
having to change applications on screen. I can look at the info that I need on
the internet and type that information directly into a spreadsheet at the same
time.With two monitors, I can read the email with an accounting question and
look at the accounting screen at the same time to understand the problem a user
is having. I have become so dependent on two monitors that you could never get
me to go back to a single screen.
Is it expensive? Well, if you are
using a laptop, all you need is the second monitor. You can connect an external
monitor to your VGA output and use the screen display settings to stretch your
desktop across them. If you use a desktop, you will need to add a dual display
video card (less than $150) and a second monitor. Not convinced that your
company might benefit from providing dual displays to certain users?
Here are some examples that
might make you think again. |
|
Beware of "Social Engineering"