Continuing Education Conference

for Accounting /Finance and

Human Resource Professionals

Technology 2011 Update

Presenter: Tommy Riggins

Topics

• The Cloud – What is it really??

• Security issues – Trends and industry best practices to follow that

can save you from serious security and financial issues.

• Disaster recovery – Best practices for today’s business to safe

guard their mission critical data and how to get back up in running

“when” a critical issue happens

• Social Media – How to tame the beast and make it a useful tool for

business and collaboration

The Cloud…

What is it really??

Cloud: The techy definition

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient,

on-demand network access to a shared pool of

configurable computing resources (e.g., networks,

servers, storage, applications, and services) that can

be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal

management effort or service provider interaction.” -

(National Institute of Standards and Technology)

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that

involves delivering hosted services over the Internet.

Simple Definition

Visual Translation

Real examples….

Components of Cloud

Moving to a collaborative, web-based

accounting system where the firm and the

client both have access to the client's

information in real time and where the firm

is deeply involved with the client as a

trusted business adviser.

What this can mean for you?

Human Capital Trends 2011

HR in the cloud:

It’s inevitable

Next Steps…Do your homework

• Understand the Service

• Understand the Provider

• What are ALL the costs

• Review Security concerns

• Customer Service

Security issues …

Trends and industry best

practices to follow that can

save you from serious

security and financial

issues.

The threats are real…

85 percent of data breaches occur at the small business level,

according to research released in September 2009 by Visa Inc.

33 percent of small businesses lack even simple antivirus

protection, according to Symantec Corporation.

Symantec researchers found that, of SMBs that suffered at least one

breach, 44 % blamed a lost device, nearly 40 % blamed human error,

and nearly 20 % attributed the loss to outdated security procedures or

inadequate employee training

According to an April, 2009 Verizon study, 33 percent of all data

breaches in 2008 were directed at businesses with 100 employees or

fewer

In a G Data 2011 Security Survey, it was noted that

despite the very wide-spread use of the Internet, the

majority of users know little of the threats and thus

have hardly any awareness of the strategies used to

prevent computers from becoming infected with

malware.

Safe Computing does not mean unplugging…

But you need to be aware of the bad guys…

What is your current state?

• Review the basics in house or get outside assistance

• Physical security

• Office Entry – Ever hear of Social Engineering?

• Server Room – Who has access?

• Wireless Access

• Mobile Devices

• Policy and standards

• Internet use – Social Media/shopping

• Company Assets– Laptops/thumb drives

• Audit Often

#1 Place to review Security Risks….Employees!!

Human Errors Fuel Hacking

Staff secretly dropped computer discs

and USB thumb drives in the parking

lots of government buildings and

private contractors. Of those who

picked them up, 60 percent plugged the

devices into office computers, curious

to see what they contained. If the drive

or CD case had an official logo, 90

percent were installed

The U.S. Department of Homeland

Security ran a test this year

Educated and trained employees

are one of the best lines of

defense against information

security threats.

Worth Saying Again….

Disaster Recovery…

Best practices for today’s

business to safe guard their

mission critical data and how to

get back up in running “when”

a critical issue happens

60% of companies that lose their data will

shut down within 6 months of the disaster.

34% of companies fail to test their tape

backups, and of those that do, 77% have

found tape back-up failures.

20% of small to medium businesses will

suffer a major disaster causing loss of

critical data every 5 years. (Source: Richmond

House Group)

Leading causes of Data Loss:

44% -- Hardware or System Malfunctions

32% -- Human Error

14% -- Software Corruption

07% -- Computer Virus

03% -- Natural Disasters

Data, why worry???

User deletes a single file (33%)

User deletes an entire folder (33%)

Single Server software or hardware fails (44% or

14% or 7%)

Multiple Servers software or hardware failure (3% ?)

Entire Facility Destroyed (3%)

Types of Disaster Situations

Understand the types of potential disasters and the level of tolerance your

business can handle for each type of situation.

But Which Back up Plan??

Carefully consider the merits of each

technology to come up with a solution that

achieves your RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

and data backup needs, as opposed to being

stuck with a specific appliance or category of

hardware/software solutions.

Here’s a Tip…

Social Media…

How to tame the beast and

make it a useful tool for

business and collaboration

Why do I need it?

• Increase your visibility

• Get connected & build business relationships

• Enhance your search engine results

• Ask for advice

• Scope out the competition, customers, partners, etc.

Keeping Up

with Social Media

If Facebook was a country,

it would now be the third

largest country in the world.

90% of all web traffic

will be video by 2013.

The potential to set you apart and

grow your business is too great to

pass up

Taming the

Social Media

Beast

Get a Policy in place!

Positive Presentation.

Most employers immediately

leap to what they don’t want

their employees doing online.

Don’t forget how much good

can come from smart, authentic

employee use of social media.

Flexibility.

Social media is evolving all the

time. As a result, your policy

should, too. Stay on top of what’s

new with social media and how it

is being used. If your policy

needs to be changed, change it –

but be sure that all of your

employees are made aware.

Clear Expectations.

Regardless of how your

company uses social media,

your policy should be made

crystal clear.

Where are we headed next?

Q & A

Largest privately held IT Services Company in the Triad

Minority Owned

In Business for 11 Years

100 % Self Funded

Double Digit Growth over the past eight years

99.5 % Client Retention

538 Active Client Contracts

Over 86% of Revenue comes from long term reoccurring contracts

No single client drives more than 12% of business revenue

Low operational overhead allows for aggressive pricing

All employees are full time and local to Greensboro, NC