July  2008
In this issue...

 ►Business Interruption Planning
 ►Ensure IT Resilience
 ►Sit Up Straight & Keep Your
      Wrists in Neutral
 ►New Online Banking Tips
 
 

6 Cool New Online Banking Tips
By Joseph Anthony
Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center 

In ancient-financial times (say, in the year 2000), banks began offering small business customers the ability to bank online — for a price. Sometimes a hefty price.

You can probably guess what happened next. Business owners responded with a resounding silence. The last thing most people needed was an "opportunity" to pay for something that had been free.

Well, banks seem to have gotten the message. Fees have dropped sharply or have been eliminated on many services. The online banking offerings have increased. And more businesses are doing at least some of their banking online, lured by convenience, the ability to track their own financial activities online, and the potential of saving time.

See account activity online
"We're now seeing a lot more features and functionalities for small business owners to do more online and to manage their cash flow," says Matthew Lehman, senior analyst with Watchfire Gomez Pro, a research company focusing on financial services.

Read on for online offerings becoming more common
 


Just for Laughs

Business Interruption Planning Not Just for Big Business:
10 misconceptions about disaster recovery

Paul Sullivan has seen it all. A 25-year veteran of disaster recovery and business continuity management, Sullivan witnessed the growth of continuity planning among the Fortune 1000 in the 1980s. He watched, first hand, the successes and failures of business continuity plans following the events of September 11, 2001 and in 2005 throughout the most active hurricane season in recorded history. Today, Sullivan is helping small and medium-sized companies plan for and recover after significant business interruptions.

“Continuity planning has always been associated with big business,” said Sullivan, Vice President and General Manager, Agility Recovery Solutions. “We’re using the same knowledge, strategies and tactics we developed with the Fortune 1000 and implementing them among small and medium-sized businesses across North America.”

Agility Recovery Solutions, a former division of General Electric, focuses planning and recovery efforts on small and medium-sized businesses, though the company continues to do work with giants such as IBM and HP.

Why Business Continuity? Why now?

Ensure IT Resilience
 Creating an IT Infrastructure for Business Continuity

Business continuity is an issue that no organization can afford to ignore. In fact, according to The Definitive Handbook for Business Management, between 60 and 90 percent of companies without a proactive disaster plan find themselves out of business within 24 months of experiencing a major disaster. Increasingly, IT power and cooling are becoming more important as factors in ensuring business continuity. These 10 steps provide a good start for ensuring the integrity and availability of your IT systems.

1. Assess your situation.
Review existing power and cooling systems to identify threats and vulnerabilities to business continuity.

2. Ensure the physical security of your equipment
While large data centers often have strict access policies and procedures, smaller locations or more remote locations may not. It’s important to use racks that come with key or card swipe locks and contact closures that protect against unauthorized access. These locks and closures can be connected to your network so you can easily provide authorizations and monitor access. Within the rack, smart PDUs enable control of individual receptacles. This prevents unauthorized equipment additions that can overload circuits and create a power outage.

Read more for tips

Sit Up Straight and Keep Your Wrists in Neutral
By Monte Enbysk
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center

Ergonomics is not a four-letter word — even though many business owners may think otherwise.

That's because when business people hear the word ergonomics, they immediately think of dollar signs — as in what it will cost to outfit employee workstations with new setups to prevent sometimes crippling injuries.

But the money needed may be minimal, and your employees' health should be the overriding concern, says Dan Eisman, vice president of marketing and product development for HealthyComputing.com, an ergonomics consultant. Painless simple adjustments to a computing environment, such as getting a better chair or raising a monitor, may cost little but makes a huge difference in injuries and employee absences.

Understanding how poor positioning combined with no breaks can lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) should be a priority for anyone who works at a PC and/or employs others who do. (No, you don't have a federal law threatening you with liability anymore if you don't.)

"Businesses very often don't have to spend $1,000 or more on equipment — or completely overhaul the workplace," Eisman says. "But if you have the knowledge, you can better know what to do and what to spend." Employers should learn about what triggers wrist pain and other repetitive-stress injuries, and spend time watching and training their employees, he says.

Because people come in different shapes and sizes, solutions to ergonomic problems differ. However, there are some generally accepted guidelines when it comes to sitting at a computer for several hours a day, day after day.

Here's a look at some.