The 3 Key Elements of IT for Small and Medium Sized Organisations

Some IT companies appear to be obsessed with providing new computers, software and services to companies - while there are business cases to be made for much of this equipment, there are 3 key services which no organisation should be without.

• 1. External Firewall,

This is a box which sits between the internet and your computers. It provides a barrier preventing access to your network from the internet and allowing you to control access from your company to the internet (one current customer has restricted access to the bebo webpage for example).

SupportsIT currently uses the Watchguard Firebox series of firewalls costing between €500 and €2,000. These represent a good level of protection and functionality for money spent.

• 2. Backups,

Many companies use a range of informal backup processes to protect from data loss. These range from USB keys (easily lost, not encrypted) to external hard drives (not encrypted, subject to failure).  The business case is obvious, imagine the cost to your business of losing a single file or folder. Not a lot? What if it was your list of debtors? Or your sales pipeline? Or your weekly timesheet?

There is a cost-effective solution - online backups. This service allows you to select the files that are most important for your business and have them copied securely to an online storage facility. The data is encrypted and the process is automated.

While major data-loss may be a doomsday scenario, the statistics are compelling - 94% of companies experiencing major data-loss go out of business within 2 years, 43% never reopen, 51% close within 2 years.[1]  

This service is easy to set up and costs between €2 per gigabyte (for large volumes of data) and €5 per gigabyte (for small amounts of data)

• 3. Remote Access,

Wouldn't it be great if you were able to call your IT maintenance company and they could see your computer screen, direct you through the menus and fix the problem This is now possible through remote access.

By providing a secure means of accessing your network your IT provider can not only provide faster fault resolution and can help you deal with the irritating it ‘gremlins' (the headers and footers in MS Word sometimes seem to have a mind of their own). The same system can also be used to manage staff who want to work from home or staff who are on the road but need access to email and other services from the computer network.

So there you have it, you may need a computer system like NASA or something much more modest, either way, these three services - Firewall, Backups and Remote Access represent three key elements of any organisation's IT requirements.

[1] Impact on U.S. Small Business of Natural & Man-Made Disasters, HP and SCORE,  University of Texas Center for Research on Information Systems, www.score.org/pdf/HP_Download_ImpactofDisaster.pdf