� IT for new businesses

Avoiding classic mistakes when starting a business

IT Guide for new company's

Over many years supporting SME's we noted many have IT problems that go back to very old decisions made when the company was setup. This often causes increased support costs, loss of productivity, and eventually capital cost to resolve. With a little bit of forward planning it is possibly to avoid years of frustration and increased running costs.

Classic mistake No.1

Using old or PC's from home on an office network. These machines often have Windows 95/98/ME or XP home edition installed. These are not business operating systems and often cause long term problems and crashing faults. They also have restricted functions that cause interoperability issues with servers. ME is particularly bad running on a network. Microsoft has also withdrawn support for Win95 and is planning on dropping support for Windows 98 mid 2003 and NT4 end 2004.

Recommendation

Use a business operating system on your office network from day 1, either Windows2000 or XP pro.

Classic mistake No. 2

As more staff join the company, to share data with others some one links up the PC, shares out the data on each PC in what is called a Peer to Peer network. The problems with this a too numerous to go into here, but talk our word for it, don't.

Recommendation

Consider Peer to Peer as a stop gap only. Server hardware is now cheap, get a good one once you have more than 2 users. Make sure it is big enough to last years, and install a good backup device. Get some good advice on the server operating system, especially with the changes planned my Microsoft. We provide support for all Microsoft and Linux operating systems.

Classic mistake No. 3

Many company's simply add more network cabling and hubs to their system as new staff join. This usually means running extra cables around the back of desks, around the floor and tacked to the skirting boards, around the doors etc. This quickly becomes a mess causing both support problems and unreliable intermittent network fault. The hubs end up on the floor, under desks where they frequently get kicked and accidentally switched off.

Recommendation

Cat5 cabling is the way to go, you can also use it for the phone system. Get a switch rather than a hub, you will be surprised how much faster the whole system will be, it won't cost much more.

Classic mistake No. 4

Hardware all over the floors and under desks. As company's need more equipment especially servers, backup devices etc. they go in a spare corner or under a desk, with cables running across the floor.

Recommendation

Get a rack and rack mount everything that does not need users intervention. Make sure the rack is big enough for future expansion. There is a cost downside here, manufactures treat rack mounted equipment as a premium product and change extra, but it makes the whole system more reliable and it looks a lot more professional.

Classic mistake No. 5

We frequently see company's accessing the Internet using modems, or ISDN routers. This is unreliable, frustratingly slow to connect and download files. The first ISDN bill is often a shock as they are usually dial on demand, which costs every time a connection is made.

Recommendation

Get an ADSL line connected via a good Firewall. You can use just a NAT router which will give basic hacker protection but it is very crude and will not give you the flexibility to add services later without being reconfigured. This can be a frustrating process especially if the router was supplied by BT. Where ADSL is not available get fixed price ISDN connection via a router. Or better still consider one of the new Satellite Internet connections that are becoming available at a realistic cost.

If any of the staff require out of hours access to the network, simple get them ADSL at home and with a bit of software then can connect securely via the Firewall using encryption.

Classic mistake No. 6

There are basically two systems for getting your email. POP3 and SMTP. The former is aimed at domestic use where the users mailboxes are on the Internet providers server. This is fine for a a small number of users but become an admin. problem especially if your ISP don't like answering their phones. POP3 messages also download to local PC's making changes, swapping PC's, hot-desking, and switching between desktop-laptop difficult.

Recommendation

Use SMTP on your own server, that way you can control your email addresses. Also correctly configured via the Firewall you can be independent of the ISP mail servers, email is then delivered faster and not effected by ISP server problems. You can also run a email scanner before the mail enters your system. Use IMAP or Exchange server allowing email to be server based and accessible from a multiple locations.

Classic mistake No. 7

Despite the publicity about virus attacks, we are always coming across systems without up to date antivirus software. Some people think the package that came free with their system 2 years ago is doing the job, not realizing they need updating daily.

We have just discovered a nasty trick used by some virus protection software suppliers that prevents their system being removed from PC's without special removal software, which they charge for. Some virus writer are also getting very clever by disabling the antivirus software on you system leaving you totally unprotected.

Recommendation

If possible scan incoming emails before they enter your system, preferably at the Firewall. Install a good antivirus system on your server, with automatic updating. From the central server install antivirus software on all your PC's especially any connected at home via VPN's and mobile/laptop users. Check the vendor does not try to tie you into their systems by making life difficult if you decide to make changes later.

Classic mistake No. 8

Most small company's start with either DIY IT support, or 'Bob' the IT guy who is a friend of a friend. We could write pages on the problems we have seen with this approach, so we'll just say we do not advise this.

Recommendation

Use a professional outsourcing company from the start, avoiding costly mistakes and unacceptable delays in getting support. A few years ago this would have been out of the reach of small company's, but costs have come down dramatically since 2000. We obviously recommendation ourselves itdepartmentuk.com.

Classic mistake No. 9

Ever heard of SQL Slammer. This is a virus that crashed the Internet in Jan 2003, in theory it should never have happened as a fix for the security hole it used, was published in July 2002 by Microsoft. Microsoft released numerous such updates but they are often not installed, sometimes for a good reason, they can cause other seemingly unrelated problems.

Recommendation

Make sure your IT Support supplier includes the updates in their routine checks.

Other Options to Consider

Virtual Company

We are seeing a trend from company's to be moving away from a formal single office based work unit, to a loosely based organization with staff based at home, client sites and roaming. We even know of one company that has no offices, but still have a 'center', this being a server based in a hosting center. Roaming users use a VPN or web browser interfaces to access the company's data.

A typical ISP or host charges approx. £6000 pa for space in a rack for a server at Telehouse (The center of the Internet in the UK), with an unrestricted  100Mb port connection to the Internet. They include changing the backup tape for this. With 2Mb lease lines costing between £7200-£10000+ pa this is now an attractive option. But make sure your IT support supplier has access.

Recommendation

When setting up a business you now have the realistic option of not having a main office and associated infrastructure. You can now have a virtual company, but make sure you have a good IT company that knows what it's doing to set this up and provide ongoing support.

Emergency Planning

We are starting to see a requirement for live, offsite backup systems. We have implemented this solution ourselves and have a spare offsite system that continuously mirrors the live data. If we ever loose our central office we simply move to the backup site and continue working without disruption and the expense of restoring. Using VPN's and cheap server hardware this is now an attractive option. Remember a full recovery from a dead server from backup tapes can take days, and this assumes the backup system was working correctly. We go called in to one company to after a hard disk failure to find the backup system had not worked for years, to cut a long story short they ended up hiring a team of temp's to type the data back in after we repaired the server. It took months.

Recommendation

Always use a reliable backup tape system and take tapes offsite. If any failure to service is going to cause significant disruption to business have a backup server with data being automatically updated, this can be offsite over a VPN.