Eight question companies should ask their IT department
In today's competitive and technology-dependent world, organizations must confront difficult issues and take decisive action constantly. Expanding out-of-control technology budgets, lack of IT business alignment, employee turnover, security breaches, regulatory compliance, IT failures and outages are just a handful of the issues executives face every day. There is a tendency to simply pass these issues onto the IT department. Federal regulations and business requirements demand executive ownership. All organizations should know the answers to the following questions.
1. Are we properly licensed for all software we are using within the company? How do we know?
According to a study conducted by the Framingham, Mass. Research firm, IDC, 35% of PC's worldwide currently have pirated software installed. Under law, organizations are liable for their employees' actions and a lawsuit could be brought against your company by a single employee installing or downloading unlicensed software to a company owned computer. At any given time, the Business Software Alliance has more than 600 open investigations and if your company has installed pirated software – even if you have no knowledge of it - a single phone call from a disgruntled employee could put your company on that list.
2. Are we backing up all of our electronic data and systems? Are backups encrypted and stored off-site? Have we tested our ability to recover failed systems without data loss? Is there no doubt that we can recover any and all data from a hardware failure?
34% of companies fail to test their tape backups, and of those that do, 77% experience recovery failures.
3. How do we know that we do not have viruses and malware residing in our networks and/or our employees' PC's and laptops?
Roughly 80% of the time malware does not get introduced to the corporate network via email; it's introduced via uncontrolled, unmonitored internet access to high risk/non-business appropriate content sites. Often times, these malware threats reside and operate within the organization's network undetected by traditional antivirus scanners.
For most organizations, 70-90% of all inbound email contains viruses and spam.
4. How do we monitor and prevent unauthorized access to our network systems and data from the Internet?
Although 85% of organizations have a firewall, less than 25% of companies effectively monitor the traffic that firewalls do allow into the network for unauthorized access or high-risk content.
5. If we lost one or more of the following business application systems, how long would it take us to recover and get the associated data back online and usable?
- Finance and accounting
- Time and billing
- Email
- Phone
- ERP/MRP/CRM system
- Web Site
Every week, approximately 140,000 hard drives crash in the United States. 93% of companies that experience catastrophic data or systems loss close down within five years.
6. What are the top 2-3 risks to our IT? Do we have any single points of failure within the network, systems, connectivity or data center infrastructure? If so, what would it take to eliminate those risks?
7. How do you spend your time each day? How much time is spent in each of the following areas?
A. End User Support (PC's, laptops, Internet, MS Office, etc.)
B. Network Management
C. Server Systems Management
D. IT Security
E. Documentation of Policies/Procedures
F. Tape Backup
G. Data Storage Systems Support
H. Applications Support (ERP, CRM, MRP, Web, etc.)
I. Email Support
J. Phone System Support
K. IT Strategic Planning
8. Lastly and most importantly, what are the top 3-5 things we could do over the next 3-6 months to improve the efficiency, security, and cost effectiveness of IT?
Business Vitals Professional and Managed Security Services protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your information assets. Business Vitals' provides subscription-based services, strict service level agreements, and concise reporting that reduce the complexities of IT, simplify the management and ensure your organizations compliancy. If you would like to discuss the information contained in this article or have questions about how Business Vitals can secure your business IT, contact Jeff Brewer or Phil Canders at 803.978.2296, toll free at 888.287.8483 x 101, or visit us on the web at www.businessvitals.com.
