Let’s face it, all companies struggle with how to best manage the collaborative process as it pertains to creating and maintaining documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.  Microsoft’s SharePoint is quickly becoming the standard toolset to enable the secure sharing and management of these critical corporate assets.  Best of all, the cost of SharePoint is finally at a level all firms can justify AND afford.

You and your team, division and company can securely be productive, brainstorm, create and empower starting at about $30 a month.  Yep, reputable hosting firms like Matrix can now offer unlimited user secure logon access to a SharePoint site for about a buck a day and have you up an running inside of a week.

Drop me a note or give me a call for more information.

Tom Colton is Vice President of Business Development at Matrix. He can be reached at 803-978-2051 or Tom.Colton@Matrix-IBS.com

As systems and market demands continue to require better productivity and efficiency, it only follows that the software that businesses use also needs to upgrade sooner or later. Such is the case with Windows XP, which Microsoft will stop issuing support for in 2014.

Part of using any sort of software is the inevitable need to upgrade. Most if not all software needs to either be replaced and upgraded as the demands of the market entail more efficient processing of the various data and information a business handles.

Such is the case with Windows XP. While many continue to use this proven straightforward operating system, Microsoft has decided to stop support by the year 2014. Microsoft further recommends upgrading to its latest OS, Windows 7, in order for users to continue to receive OS support.

While there are some lines of business applications that have not been upgraded to work with Windows 7, most have — and there are alternative approaches. Also, your business needs the security and protection that only a current, up-to-date operating system can provide.

We understand that changing your OS will entail some expense, including new licenses, hardware, and some training. Fortunately, these things are designed to help you operate more efficiently and increase your productivity in the long run. But such change will take time, and if you are interested in starting to plan for an upgrade now, we’ll be happy to sit down with you and develop an upgrade process that meets your specific needs.

A recent attack by cyber-criminals has highlighted the need for many SMBs to re-evaluate the security protocols between themselves and their bank. Hackers exploit weaknesses in such systems, and when successful, can siphon tens of thousands of dollars from your accounts.

In a recent attack, cyber-thieves managed to get away with $63,000 after they exploited vulnerabilities in the online payroll system of a small business with its bank.

First, the crooks managed to infiltrate the company’s system through a piece of malware called the Zeus Trojan. This gave them access to the company’s data, including the password and username used in transacting with the company’s bank. The thieves then created several new ghost employees and created payroll accounts for them, which they sent to the bank and authenticated using the company controller’s username and password. And to cover their tracks, the hackers erased the confirmation emails regarding the transaction.

This incident highlights the need for better security systems in both the business and their bank – as security experts cite online banking transactions as one of the favorite targets of cyber-criminals. Cyber-attacks such as this one exploit weaknesses in many existing systems that rely on very simple and automated authentication procedures to confirm transactions.

A direct threat to your business finances is not something to be taken lightly. You not only need to review your current online banking system, but also the current security protocols you have installed, since hackers and cyber-criminals are constantly updating Trojans and other malware to adapt to changing IT protection systems.

We encourage you to have us take a look at the systems you have in place to determine if you are at risk for attacks like these. Please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to draw up custom security solutions that address your specific needs.

References:
Sold a Lemon in Internet Banking
Cybercrooks Drive Away With $63,000 from Car Dealership

With hackers and electronic thieves constantly on the lookout for the latest exploits and security breaches they can take advantage of, it is comforting to know that there are also people behind bold initiatives to make our web experiences much safer.

If you think hackers are the only ones doing their research to release newer and scarier viruses and malware on the web, think again. It is comforting to know that there are also very capable people doing what they can to make the internet a safer place – like Professor Dawn Song, associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley and MacArthur Foundation fellow.

In a nutshell, Professor Song has been looking at different ways to make the internet experience more secure. Her two initiatives – WebBlaze and BitBlaze – are aimed toward developers who want to create better and much more secure programs and applications.

WebBlaze is a compilation of different strategies from Song and other like minds who tackle different problems and solutions in all sorts of platforms, and BitBlaze is an analysis tool for malicious software. While we won’t go into too much detail (it involves very complicated math), the gist is that Song and her colleagues are drawing up some very solid solutions to constantly evolving security issues on the web.

It’s exciting to see developments like these in the security industry. As threats continue to evolve, so does the means through which they are fought. The more we use the internet and the more the online experience becomes integral to the day-to-day operations of businesses big and small, the more important securing your data and information becomes. And because of efforts such as Professor Song’s, we can expect security programs to be much more effective and efficient as time passes.

Know more about BitBlaze and WebBlaze

Learn more about Dawn Song here

If you are looking to assess and beef up your security systems, we’d be happy to sit down with you and take a look at improvements that can make your business and your data much more secure.

EMRs provide measurable benefits for providers of all sizes, including small practices, according to a recent survey. Plus, the return on investment is high: According to researcher, it costs just $7,857 and takes just 130 hours to implement an EMR at a five-member practice.

In contrast to prior suggestions that electronic medical records (EMRs) may not benefit small health care providers, a new survey says there are measurable benefits for providers of all sizes.

To conduct the survey, current and past Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) staff members looked 154 peer-reviewed articles written from 2007 to 2010.

In their paper “The Benefits of Health Information Technology: A Review of the Recent Literature Shows Predominantly Positive Results,” they report that 92 percent reached the conclusion that the use of health IT has an overall positive effect.

The survey also found evidence of emerging measurable benefits for small health care practices in addition to the large ones.

That may be because the return on investment is high. Case in point: Dr. Neil Fleming, vice president for health care research at Baylor Health Center System, says EHR implementation cost $7,857 per physician and takes 130 hours at a five-member practice.

The reason for the discrepancy with prior studies, says David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health care IT, is that prior studies focused on the early years of EHR development when functionality was not as mature.

“Two salient aspects of this more recent synthesis are that it brings the literature up to date and extends it beyond the few large systems that were the source of most information on the record for health information technology, and looks at it in a much more representative set of provider settings,” Blumenthal said.

Related articles: New survey shows EHRs benefit even small providers

I heard a very impressive presentation from ERP GM Andy Berry this morning during the general session at TUG.  Infor has very agressive plans to put several of their ERP solutions in The Cloud.  Here’s what they are telling us…

Tom Colton is Vice President of Business Development at Matrix.  He can be reached at 803-978-2051 or Tom.Colton@Matrix-IBS.com

You may already know that Infor Global Systems has a very powerful ecommerce application they are now calling “Storefront”.  Storefront fully integrates with Infor’s ERP products, including FACTS, SX.e and A+ to allow business-to-business or to-consumer a dizzying array of functionality.  This, of course, includes shopping cart, and pay-online.

Gary Tudino conducted a very informative session on “Tips and Techniques” of Storefront, that included a discussion of deployment planning.  Gary listed several important planning elements, including:

• Server sizing and software stack
• Internet bandwidth and security
• Scalability expectations
• System redundancies for increased availability

This was an excellent setup for the short talk I gave on the merits of hosting Storefront.  In short, a hosting partners can take most of the burden of planning for and dealing with the deployment and ongoing platform responsibilities of Storefront.  In fact, the virtual environment we have engineered for our Storefront customers very elegantly addresses all of the elements and more.  Drop me a note if you’d like to discuss further.

Tom Colton is Vice President of Business Development at Matrix.  He can be reached at 803-978-2051 or Tom.Colton@Matrix-IBS.com

Things got kicked off bright and early this morning at the 2011 TUG Conference in Orlando.  For those not familiar with TUG, it is the user group for all ERP software products sold and supported by Infor Global Systems. 

First up, I attended the special interest group for Storefront, Infor’s web portal for their various ERP products.  In short, Storefront is slated to get some very nice enhancements this year.  Version 2.0, which is scheduled for general release this summer, will boast the following:

• A much updated look, including banner and carve-out options
• Better performance (this to be measured against metrics)
• More customization tools
• Easier administration
• Multi-currency/multi-language
• Much more

Version 2.1, slated for the end of the year will bring an equally dazzling array of functionality improvements, with the highlight being translation for Smartphones.

More information to come…

Tom Colton is Vice President of Business Development at Matrix.  He can be reached at 803-978-2051 or Tom.Colton@Matrix-IBS.com

Yes it has!  And, we will be there.  Will you?

  Infor ERP/Storefront User Group Meetings: March 27, 2011 |  Conference : March 28-30, 2011 | The Peabody Orlando

Click here for a preview of our ad in this year’s TUG Conference brochure.

What do CSI: Miami, ACR Supply and Pro Chem, Inc. have in common?  They are all businesses who recently decided to leverage enterprise computing services here at Matrix.  What is Matrix delivering to these new-comers?  Let’s take a closer look:

Pro Chem of Alpharetta, Georgia (www.procheminc.com) manufactures and distributes a wide variety of environmentally sound chemical products.  While still considered a “small business”, the owners of Pro Chem recognized that to be truly world-class in their approach to international markets, they needed to leverage enterprise-grade information technology tools and infrastructure in order to elevate the availability and reliability of their applications and data.  Matrix is delivering this world-class computing environment.

ACR Supply of Raleigh, North Carolina (www.acrsupply.com) distrubutes HVAC and refrigeration components and supplies from 10 locations across North Carolina.  Part of their very aggressive growth plan looking out over the next 5 years includes use of Matrix infrastructure to deliver their applications and data uniformly to a wide variety of devices and user skill levels.  Using the DataServe virtual environment, ACR users can securely access their systems via any Internet connection using just about any workstation, tablet, iPad or Smartphone device.

CSI: Miami (www.miami-csi.com) is, well, I’m sure you have heard of the wildly successful CSI television shows.  CSI has tapped Matrix for special IT security needs.  That’s all I can say about that.

Tom Colton is Vice President of Business Development at Matrix.  He can be reached at 803-978-2051 or Tom.Colton@Matrix-IBS.com