A company's collection of Information Technology devices should be thought of as a single entity, a network, or system. This system should be managed from the top down.

JCS can write procedures for this management, as well as performing any, or all of the work. The following paragraphs offer both information and some concrete examples.

The 'network' is a necessary part of almost every business. Just like pencils and paper and the telephone. The devices (computers, servers, routers, firewalls, printers, switches, etc) as well as their cables in the network should be labeled for easy identification.

Budget
It's use needs to be budgeted for on an every year basis. Replacements, maintenance, expansion and upgrades.

Plan for a yearly cycle instead of boom (we all have new stuff, wow it's fast, wow it was expensive, oh, oh, broke the budget!!) to nothing. Plan where the company does some replacement every year with a server replacement every 5th year.

Computer Usage Policy
A computer should not be thought of as 'belonging' to a person. That's John's computer. Actually, it’s the computer that John uses. It is a company resource and it's use should be defined by a clear cut company policy that stipulates what can be done, cannot be done and the consequences of not abiding by the company policy.

This policy should cover personal use of the computer, internet usage and email usage. Not having an appropriate, enforced company polices leaves the business vulnerable to liability, if an employee misuses the technology in a way that harasses, or offends others.

Centralization
Storage of data should be centralized as much as possible. Storing the data on servers eases backup and restore tasks. This can be achieved by using server files shares or redirecting the users My documents directory to the server (requires Windows server software).

Servers allow most desktop maintenance tasks to be run/performed/initiated from the server, eliminating wasted time by technicians, and interruption of the work day for the end user.

Most Small Business or Corporate versions of Anti Virus software have centralized maintenance and monitoring consoles that are installed on a server (See the Security page).

Standardization
Standardization should start with naming conventions. These conventions should cover user names, computers names, and file/folder names.

The overriding premise behind naming conventions is the idea that the business will grow, survive and prosper. The current personnel (excluding the owner, if applicable) may be temporary.

User names - Use the last name and first initial. I prefer <last_name><first_initial> (e.g. jacksonp), but <first_initial><last_name> (pjackson) works also. Just using first names can cause problems as the business grows.

Computer names - Based on my 22 years of IT experience I strongly recommend against naming computers for the person who uses them (Johns computer), their physical location (Front Desk) or the function (Accounting) that they perform. As computers age they nearly always are replaced and are relegated to a different role in the company.

My recommended computer naming convention, using only capital letters is: <company_acronym>-<2DigitNumber><SingleLetterDeviceType>

Company Acronym-try to keep this meaningful, but short.

2 Digit Numbering - Numbered in the order that they are acquired. Use leading zeroes. This assumes that the company won't ever have more than 99 computers. If the company is likely to go beyond that, then 3 digits should be used.

Single Letter Device Type - D for desktops, L for laptops, S for servers

Example: my company acronym is JCS. One of my desktops is named JCS-04D, one of my servers is named JCS-07S. Note that these are the 4th and 7th computers acquired by my company, not the 4th desktop, or 7th server.

File/folder names
The purpose of these standardizations are to ensure that retrieval/finding of information is made easier by the fact that everyone names their files and folders the same way. This will also facilitate the ability to sort file or folder names in a meaningful way. This pretty much depends on the company's business. One standard that is useful for all businesses is that dates in file or folder names should be in a YYYYMMDD format so that they will sort correctly.

Plan
As a general rule, individual users should not be responsible for maintenance (defragmenting, Windows updates, etc.) of their computers, or backing up of their data. In a very small company it may be unavoidable. Regardless of who does the work, the company should have a policy specifying what gets backed up, when it gets backed up and what is done with the backup media.

I can provide assistance in all of the above mentioned areas.