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Backup and Disaster Recovery Planning

Here is the methodology that Trinity uses when performing backup and disaster recovery planning for a client. This article follows Is Your Network Data Backed Up? Are Your Sure?.

First, Trinity works with the client to identify data on the network and to classify its importance. Essentially, Trinity finds out how much data of each type the client can afford to lose. The answers dictate cost/benefit for the proposed backup and disaster recovery planning.

Second, Trinity proceeds to schedule onsite backups, offsite backups, and backup integrity checks (according to client need)—with separate schedules for data with different levels of importance. For example, the most critical data might be backed up onsite every three hours and migrated offsite nightly, while less critical data might be backed up once per day and migrated offsite weekly. Backup integrity checks might be scheduled every two weeks.

Most clients understand the function of onsite and offsite backups, but fewer (even at companies with annual revenue exceeding $100MM) understand the importance of backup integrity checks. Backup integrity checks confirm that the data in your backup sets will actually perform functionally when restored—they make sure that backups sets (or individual files within them) have not become corrupted either before, during, or following the backup process.

If Trinity is engaged to perform backup integrity checks for a client, it will typically perform a restore of the data to Trinity’s test-bed network—then test various files (particularly those of top importance) to determine whether they are functioning properly after the restore.

This, combined with proper data maintenance planning, helps to ensure that backups are actually worth something when they are needed.

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Is your network data backed up? Are you sure?

How critical is the data you use every day?  How important are the files on your network share?  What would happen if suddenly some of that information was missing?  Worse, what if the latest recoverable data backup was six months old?

When engaging with a new IT client, the first service Trinity typically performs is an IT audit. One aspect of this audit is a backup routine review and file-set integrity check. You would be surprised at how many times we discover glaring holes in the backup routine, or find that it has been a year since a successful backup, or learn that a test restore has never been performed.

This problem is more common in small businesses without full-time IT personnel. In many instances, stopgap or emergency IT support personnel do not (or are not in a position to) properly establish, execute and monitor data backup plans.

Therefore, when Trinity starts a new IT engagement—even when we are taking over from another IT contractor—we don’t take anything for granted. Trinity always start with data backups and disaster recovery planning.

First, we learn the client’s idea of its current backup routine. Trinity then discovers the actual plan being implemented (this often differs from the client’s idea of the plan), analyzes what the client’s existing backup routine is designed to do, and compares that design to what is actually occurring (the resulting data backup file-set). Finally, Trinity proposes a plan to improve the client’s backup routine and  achieve the necessary results.

Simple but effective.

In a subsequent article, I will elaborate as to how Trinity conducts backup and disaster recovery planning for clients.

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Windows 7 PDF Preview Handler Solution

While Windows 7 is, in many respects, a great leap forward in terms of application compatibility, every so often we'll discover a basic functionality that Microsoft or a Microsoft partner has inadvertently run into the ditch.

For instance, Adobe's PDF Preview Handler has long had an uncertain relationship with 64-bit Windows, and users who'd hoped that Windows 7 might resolve the issue out-of-the-box are bound to be disappointed when they fire up Outlook , open an email, and discover that the Preview function is still broken.

However, Pretentious Name's Leo Davidson has come up with a fix.

http://www.pretentiousname.com/adobe_pdf_x64_fix/index.html

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Jobsite Document Management for General Contractors

Large general contractors require an IT solution to handle the creation, access, and storage to what I call “jobsite documents”.  Jobsite documents are those created by field users, such as daily reports, RFI, drawings, etc.  Many companies develop the bad habit of storing these documents on jobsite computers and/or in the Project Manager’s email software data file.

There are several scenarios under which this incorrect approach might prove to be problematic for the construction company. Two of those scenarios are as follows, concluding with the provided IT solution.

Scenario 1: What happens if the jobsite computer hard drive crashes? An attempt to recover the data might not be successful, either in part or in whole.  Hopefully that data wasn’t needed for any critical part of the construction process or to support claims in litigation!

Scenario 2: What if someone else in the company needs to quickly access the document? Of course, that someone else can always ask the field user to send the document via email. However, it may take time to track down the field user and receive a response. Also, sending the document through email duplicates the document and creates possible workflow problems.  (If no one knows who has the authoritative document, this can cause numerous  issues.)

One solution Trinity has deployed for a construction client is Microsoft SharePoint.  Trinity’s application of SharePoint solved all of the client’s jobsite document management pain points, within an affordable budget. Moreover, Trinity’s provided a SharePoint interface that allowed for ready adoption, minimizing training time for all related personnel.

Today, Trinity’s SharePoint solution for the client provides a central, secure, web-based system allowing the client to create, access and store its jobsite documents. Document storage in a centralized database permits IT staff to provide an effective backup and recovery solution for critical data (addressing Scenario 1) and allows all key staff members at multiple offices to access and  manipulate jobsite documents, as appropriate (addressing Scenario 2).

If your company is suffering from poor document management, please contact Trinity! We will be happy to develop and apply a solution for your specific needs.

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New Year’s Resolution: Put Your Old Hardware to Good Use

With the beginning of a new year and a new decade, it is a good time to take a look at the technology lying around the home or office and decide what to keep and what to toss. If you are like me, you have piles of technology stored all over that you “might need someday”.  Over the past holiday vacation I cleaned up my home office and found the following items.

• 2 laptops (one that was eight years old, another with a broken screen)
• 1 docking station and monitor stand (Dell) from my previous laptop
• 1 cell phone (my father-in-law’s old phone)
• 3 desktops (one build-it-myself project that never got done and two ancient Dells)
• A multitude of hard drives, power cords, USB cords, and a rats nest of power adaptors that I could not match to anything

Knowing that my IT department could use some of the items, I gave them the eight-year-old laptop (it could be turned into a decent Linux test box) as well as all of the usable parts from the broken laptop (wireless card, battery, DVD-ROM, memory).  I also gave them the Dell docking station and monitor stand.  These items can still be used with some of the laptops we have at the office, and it is nice to have some spare parts around (if they are really usable).

I tried to give the old desktops to The Salvation Army, but they will not take computers that are five or more years old, which mine were.  I thought about stripping the desktops down to their usable parts and offering them to my IT team, but since I just gave them an eight-year-old laptop...I had a feeling that if they saw me headed in their direction with old PCs they might run away.

So, I utilized a recycling option for the desktops. Best Buy has a recycling program—you pay $10 per item and are limited to two items a day.  You get the $10 back in a gift card, so if you are going to buy something at Best Buy anyway, you might as well drop off your old computer.  If a computer-specific recycling program proves to be impossible, you can always take old computers to your local dump.  Just make sure you drop them off at the hazardous material section since many of the internal components contain hazardous compounds.

The old cell phone was donated to Cell Phones For Soldiers.  I have done this in the past, and it is a painless process.  You go to the web site and print a pre-paid shipping label, so it costs you nothing.  The organization asks that you remove the batteries, chargers and accessories (but they will gladly accept them if sent).  They sell the phones to recyclers and use the money to buy pre-paid phone cards that are donated to our soldiers overseas.  As an added bonus, the value of the cell phone is tax-deductible.  Make sure to delete all of your contacts, sent and received call logs and any other personal information on the phone. There is usually an option to set it back to factory defaults buried in the settings menu. 

Finally, I threw the rats nest of power adaptors away as well as all but one or two power cords.  I stacked all of the hard drives in a box for some sledge hammer fun in the spring (whenever you need to vent some technologically caused frustration).

Now I have enough room in my home office to actually get some work done! Moreover, I’ve resolved not to accumulate useless technical junk in the New Year!

Think that resolution will last?

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Customizing Internet Explorer 8: Efficiency and Stability

Set IE8 to open links in a separate tab rather than a separate window

Internet Explorer 8 is peculiar among modern browsers in that, when a link is clicked on (from a document or email), its default response is to open that link in its own discreet window. On the other hand, Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox and Opera will easily open the link in a tab, conserving desktop real estate.

Convincing IE 8 to function like the other browsers requires a quick menu change: In the menu bar, find Tools > Internet Options, and under the 'General' tab, click the "Settings" button under the Tabs heading, near the bottom of the dialog box. Find the option 'Open links from other programs in:' and click the radio button next to the option 'A New tab in the current window'. Click 'OK' to save this setting.

Change settings so that bad code in one tab does not affect other tabs

Malicious or poorly written web applications result in many browser-crashing errors: even novice internet users are familiar with the phenomena of the 'unhandled exception' or 'application fault' errors on a single web page forcing the closure of a few hours' browsing session.

Google Chrome (and now Internet Explorer 8) have provided something of a solution to this problem: by registering each window and tab as its own running process, any instance of the application that needs to close unexpectedly can do so without bringing down the rest. At the expense of a few more CPU cycles and some RAM, the power user can be assured of (relative) invulnerability to bad code.

This behavior is default in Chrome and impossible in Mozilla Firefox 3.5.3 and earlier versions, and IE 8 allows this option to be managed via the registry.

The following guide is from httpWatch.com Blog.

#4 : The IE 8 Process Model is Configurable

The IE team has documented a single registry value that controls the new process model. If you create a DWORD value called TabProcGrowth in:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

you can control how many browser processes are used by IE 8:

The three most useful values for this setting are:

1. TabProcGrowth = <absent> - this is the default setting allowing IE 8 to control how many processes are used based on the amount of physical memory installed

2. TabProcGrowth = 0 - a value of zero means use the same process for all tabs, frames and pop-up windows in each browser session. This makes IE 8 behave just like IE 7 on Windows XP. There’s no frame merging and clicking on the IE icon creates a new instance of iexplore.exe in a separate browser session. Protected mode on Vista is not available with this setting because the IE frame and tabs can only operate at different integrity levels if they are in separate processes. This setting may be useful if you are debugging an IE add-on or if you have automated tests that rely on the IE 7 process model.

3. TabProcGrowth = 1 - this means use one process for all the tabs and pop-ups in a browser session and one process for the IE 8 frame window. Frame merging occurs with this setting and protected mode is supported on Vista. You may want to use TabProcGrowth = 1 where you want to keep tabs and pop-ups in one process but still allow the use of protected mode.

Specifying a number greater than 1 sets an upper limited on the maximum number of tab processes to use per frame window process.

http://blog.httpwatch.com/2009/04/07/seven-things-you-should-known-about-ie-8/

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Malware eradicated with Malwarebytes

"Malware" has long been the scourge of organizations of all types and sizes, with dramatic increases in computer malware infections in the past couple of years. One of the primary "malware types" from which users suffer is the fake anti-virus program, masquerading on the web under such names as "Anti-Virus 2009" or "Anti-Virus Pro 2010". Once on your computer, this malicious software compromises many aspects of the system, including disabling security features, and may use the computer as a staging area for attacks on other computers connected to the network/Internet.

Such malware programs are difficult to entirely remove from the computer. In years past, many such infections required Trinity to reformat the client's hard drive in order to completely eradicate the infestation.  However, the need to perform such a drastic action is typically no longer necessary due to the advent of effective "malware removing" programs. The most effective and inexpensive solution that Trinity has found for combating malware is the free version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (available at http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php).

Once you have installed the Malwarebytes program, run a full scan and remove the infestations found on the system. Typically, a reboot will be required to remove all of the infected files, but once having done so, you should be up and running--and free from all malware.  If you continue to experience difficulties, contact Trinity (customers only).

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Business Efficiency Gains In Information Technology

Three years ago, Trinity collected research from diverse sources about increasing business efficiency through Information Technology. Specifically, we were looking for low-cost solutions that did not require implementation of sophisticated process automation. What we found, based on the available statistics, is that one could theoretically increase worker efficiency by more than 200% per person by spending less than $2,000 per person. (Among employees that were heavily reliant on a computer on a business network in order to perform their jobs.)

Over the years, Trinity has seen many IT oriented efficiency claims that represent best-case scenarios or are created from bogus statistics. Even assuming that 20 different IT-backed solutions produced an efficiency increase of 10% per solution: due to may considerations, it is impractical to assume that a single person already operating at an average efficiency level could realize a 200% gain in efficiency by implementing every one of the available solutions.

As you can imagine, Trinity did not immediately sally forth with a marketing campaign based on improving workplace efficiency by more than 200% overnight. We knew from experience that would be a ludicrous proposition.

What Trinity did do was test solutions that could be implemented in our own office, and checked the results. For our client approach, Trinity focused only on solutions backed by reasonable claims. Trinity could clearly go to market with the potential of increasing performance by at least 20% in some environments. In many cases, we could (and do) make cost-offset arguments in favor of the necessary expenditure.

A few years back, a study emerged indicating that the average user could experience efficiencies in work performance of up to 10% by adding an additional display (monitor). Trinity deployed this in our work environment over a period of time, starting with our "power users" and extending the policy through to our administrative staff, interns, etc.

It was very difficult, and impractical, to perform process studies to precisely calculate the efficiencies gained after adding the additional display. However, the anecdotal evidence was clear. After a very brief period of initial orientation in which efficiency decreased slightly, efficiency increased noticeably for all users. The impact was that many tasks were made easier, and none more difficult, by adding the additional display.

Today, I remain confident that the application of a second display for all computer users results in a net productivity gain of at least 5% per user. Therefore, Trinity feels very confident recommending this expense to our clients. If the client is reluctant, we drop in a few extra displays to let them try it free for 30 days. (Once you have two widescreen displays on your desk, you don't go back--the benefits are palpable.)

There are many such IT improvements that can make a difference to IT efficiency within the workplace. Contact Trinity to discuss a free network efficiency diagnostic.

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Content Filtering in a Business Environment

Once you have your http proxy in place, another layer of protection is to enable content filtering.  Most companies fail to do this because they are afraid their employees will revolt, but content filtering can be used effectively to prevent malicious sites and programs from infecting your network.

The question should be: "How can my company best leverage content filtering to fill a major gap in our network security?"  IT security must be approached in a layered manner.  The more layers an attacker or virus has to break through, the safer your network will be.

Failure to implement content filtering can have the following negative effects:

(1) Lost productivity. In the absence of content filtering, computers run a higher risk of becoming infected with spyware, viruses, adware, etc. from malicious websites. This results in lost time for the user and for the IT staff who have to clean up the mess.

(2) Increased liability. Your staff should be protected from accidental exposure to such things as hardcore pornography, child pornography, extreme fetishes, etc. Exposure to such material can occur from being redirected from one website to another (containing the material classified as objectionable). It can also occur when a staff member directly accesses objectionable material and then either deliberately or accidentally stores the material on the computer or network where other staff members can encounter it.

Other negative effects from a failure to implement content filtering: bandwidth clogging, liability from users illegally downloading music or movies, or liability after an infected computer sends confidential data (like social security numbers) to a hacker.

Tips for installing a content filter include the following:

• Install the filter as a gateway device (not per computer). This allows easier manageability.
• Let users know there is a content filter in place, and make sure they understand the company’s "acceptable use policy" for web browsing.
• Let users know what to do (who to contact) if they are blocked when browsing the web, and need to access a web site for business purposes.
• Make sure you perform some user testing before broadly deploying the filter--and add all the main web sites your users need to access to the white list.

Since most corporate IT security incidents are caused by careless/dangerous user behavior, it is a very prudent step to install content filters on your business network.  It is that "next layer of protection" which most small to medium businesses have not added to their IT security.

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Greatest Potential Threat to Business Networks (During 2010) - Part II

Education is the primary practical step to keep the network secure and business data safe.  Employees need to understand that if an unauthorized individual has successfully infiltrated a computer, he or she can cause immense and often irreparable damage to the employee, as well as to the company.

For example, an unauthorized individual can use personal information obtained through social media sites to obtain email passwords, generate personal attacks, or simply to acquire additional confidential information such as answers to secret questions by visiting a personal Facebook page to find names of pets, a place of birth, etc.

The unauthorized individual may even be able to obtain a contact list and then send a bot-infected email to every associated contact, may obtain confidential information related to the company accounting data, personnel files, or project information, and may disseminate this or other information to illicit third parties.

For the protection of your business’s critical information, as well as for the protection of private data for each of your employees, Trinity recommends the following practical policies for work computer use.

1. Do not visit social networking sites while at work.
2. Do not click on instant messenger links or download files using instant messenger.
3. Do not install any program or download any non-work file without approval from your IT department.
4. Identify the source of all work-related files prior to downloading them.
5. Delete any email received from an unknown source.
6. Never download files that end with .bat or .exe. Notify your IT department if files with these extensions are received.
7. Prior to clicking on a link pasted in an email, contact the source of the email to ensure that the indicated individual actually sent it.
8. Do not browse the internet for fun, even during "down time", and do not visit websites that offer anything free or “too good to be true”.
9. Immediately report viruses or even pop-ups to your IT department
10. Think before you click.

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Greatest Potential Threat to Business Networks (During 2010) - Part I

During 2010 the greatest potential threat to business network (i.e., computer) infrastructure is a “bot”, a type of malware that allows an unauthorized individual to gain complete control over a particular computer or network of systems.

A bot attempts to silently infect a specific computer and remain undetected thereafter, using the computer to disseminate corporate or confidential data (to the bot’s owner), disperse spam or even viruses, and infect other computers on the network. Bots can infect a computer (and thereby a network) via many different avenues, the most common being the internet, to include email, instant messengers, and standard web pages.

Of particular note, social networking sites, such as linkedin.com, classmates.com, facebook.com, myspace.com, and youtube.com (among others), are now among the most common sources of malicious bots. To illustrate how a bot may infiltrate a particular computer, as well as to illustrate what information is at risk, Trinity will herein use these social networking sites as a general example.

Networking sites are dangerous because an unauthorized individual can easily impersonate a friend or colleague and post an infected link or file to an otherwise harmless personal page. Once another individual selects the link or file, a bot can instantly infect the person’s computer without the individual being aware of the intrusion (note that the vast majority of antivirus programs are ill equipped to prevent bot infection).

Moreover, personal information stored in particular networking sites is not private, regardless of whether the individual shares the information publicly. In other words, any information placed online – on one of these networking sites (or numerous other information-storing sites for that matter) – is information the entire world can view. This public visibility of personal data poses inherent security challenges to corporate networks. I will explore this issue in more detail as well as provide practical guidelines to keep private data safe in Part II of this blog series.

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Simple, but often not employed, firewall protection

Many organizations, from small business to the enterprise, are not adding two layers of firewall-level protection to their network.

The first layer: block unused ports for outgoing traffic

Many organizations are concerned about threats coming onto the network from the Internet (incoming traffic). However, there are many ways in which a threat can enter a network (such as SPAM)—and malicious software may still make its way onto one or more network systems. Blocking unused outgoing ports will prevent many forms of malicious software from using random, non-standard ports to send update requests and information gathered from the system(s) to the rogue source outside the network. If the policy administrator takes action, he can effectively restrict such communication and thus reduce risk and liability.

Many if not most routers/firewalls, by default, allow all outgoing packets on all ports. Many companies never get to the step of reversing this default by closing ports. Basically, what we advocate is to take the "turn everything off, then white list" approach to controlling outgoing port traffic.

The second layer: implement an HTTP proxy

Proxy filtering is different from packet filtering. A packet filter examines the IP header for each packet. If the packet header information is legitimate, the filter allows the packet. By contrast, a proxy filter examines both the header information and the content. If the content does not match the criteria allowed by the administrator, the packet is denied. The HTTP proxy acts as an intermediary for all client-to-server HTTP (web) requests. However, by default, most firewalls do not employ a proxy filter for HTTP traffic (the feature is not enabled).

It is important to implement the proxy in order to protect web users and your network. Establishing and properly configuring an HTTP proxy allows the administrator to filter requests made through the web. Filter rules can be set to restrict what files, file types, and even web page content can be accessed through the user's request.

Conclusion

Network security is a fine balance: companies must attain the highest level of security possible while still allowing the necessary communication and functionality for business to take place. A clear knowledge and understanding (including risk/reward and cost/benefit) is necessary to properly set up and configure a firewall. Where a business deliberately leaves itself exposed for other strategic purposes, the vulnerability should be documented and monitored.

There are reasonable steps (such as the two layers of protection described above) that should be taken to protect all business networks. Trinity has the expertise necessary to assist companies with firewall installation and configuration.

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Beyond Exchange: Mail Server Solutions

Trinity has been performing mail server administration for more than a decade and has been experimenting with Windows-based alternatives to Microsoft Exchange™ for eight years. Many SMB cannot make a strong business case for Exchange™, but require a solid alternative that meets their needs.

To this end, Trinity recommends MailSite Fusion™ and SmarterTools SmarterMail™, both of which present a compelling alternative (though by no means a replacement) to Exchange. (Click on the link for each product to see their claims as Exchange alternatives.)

Trinity has extensive experience with both of these products, including integration with third-party anti-virus and anti-spam solutions, as well as integration with third-party products and proprietary application development. MailSite Fusion utilizes SQL Server™, which eases some aspects of integration.

If you require Exchange, but are not willing/able make the investment for in-house housing, you should consider AppRiver™—one of the best in the business for outsourced Exchange hosting, with extremely competitive pricing. AppRiver offers a free 30-day trial on all services, and their team members have been extremely helpful to us in past dealings.

If you have an interest in how one of these solutions can work for your business, please contact Trinity.

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Why Can’t My Excel Spreadsheets Open in Separate Windows in Vista?

This is a common complaint for both XP and Vista. Rather than open up an automatic second window to view a second spreadsheet, Excel 2007 opens up another spreadsheet in the same window. When a client is comparing two sets of data, toggling between two different spreadsheets in the same window can be time-consuming, cumbersome, and frustrating.

This past week one of our clients (running Windows Vista) asked us for the ability to open two Excel Worksheets at the same time, in two separate windows in order to view them on two separate monitors.  After some research and trial, we discovered a solution for Windows Vista. It is important to note that the following solution applies to computers running Windows Vista ONLY:

Your installation of Excel may default to open new files in their own Excel environments, but if it doesn't, a simple registry edit will affect the necessary change.  Before you begin, confirm that:

• You have Administrator rights on the machine whose registry you are attempting to edit
• You have permission from your IT Administrator to make a registry change
• You are using a copy of Windows Vista and Office 2007 (Office 12)

NOTE: registry changes have no 'undo' path and may impact the stability and functionality of your OS. You should ALWAYS export a copy of any key you change, so you can restore it if necessary.

Step One:  Load the Registry Editor

1. To load the Registry Editor, go to Start > Run.. and type “regedit” in the box and press enter.
2. Navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet8\shell\Open\command.

Step Two:  Save a Copy of the Registry Branch

1. Export a branch by clicking on the branch you want (in this case: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet8\).
2. Right click, and click the menu item: Export...
3. Note the location and name you choose to save it under and click: Save.
4. Now you are ready to edit the registry entry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet8\shell\Open\command.

Step Three: Edit the Registry

1. Double-click on the default key located in the right-hand pane. Erase the string provided and, including the quotation marks, replace it with:  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE /e".
2. Click the OK button and restart your computer.
3. Excel should now open new documents in separate instances of Excel.

This can also be done for XP, however, there are different steps involved.  Let us know if you need these steps by clicking on the Contact Button.

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Information Technology Is Your Friend!

Wouldn’t it be nice, the next time you are passing by, to gaze lovingly into your server room?

If you don’t generally get excited about Information Technology, take a few minutes to put yourself into my shoes. I promise to repeat the favor, given a chance, at some point in the future. ;-)

When I was a teenager, my father and I spent hours assembling our first business workstations and servers. We sat on the floor, read poorly translated Japanese-to-English instruction books, hooked this cable to that set of pins, soldered, sweated, laughed, and burned out a few parts through stupid mistakes.

Why did we do all of this? Two reasons – first, it was much, much cheaper than buying them preassembled; second, we needed those damnable machines to communicate with people all over the world. Next thing we knew, people from across the globe were dialing into our BBS (Bulletin Board System) reading our information and admiring our glorious graphics -- eight color, ASCII character-created, and beautiful.

For those of you who have been through a similar experience, or simply had to shout to be heard over the incredible din of a room full of two huge dot matrix printers and one daisy wheel printer, you know that personal computers were good for us then, and they sure as hell are much better now.

When you think about those days and realize the advancements that have transpired in intervening years, you start thinking about our current amazing techno-contraptions as something wonderful. And when you start to think more positively about your IT, you start to think about how it can be even more wonderful than it already is!

Well, maybe you have lost that sense of wonder, and are just thinking that IT is a pain in the ass. Well, there’s a litmus test for determining just how much of a pain in the ass it actually has become. This test may not apply specifically to your business, but I’m sure you can think of a version of this test and self-apply.

Let’s say that you have a digital form that you need to fill out and then save. When the form is saved, it goes into a database. Two days later, you need to retrieve the data from the database and reference it to make a phone call pertinent to the data entered using the form.

If, at any point in the process, you find yourself thinking that it would be easier to write down the information on a piece of paper, file it in a two-drawer lateral filing cabinet two rooms removed from your office, and pull the same piece of paper two days later for reference (refilling it afterwards)…you have no doubt lost any sense of romance that you once had with IT.

Anyway, if you have any situation that remotely approaches this admittedly hyperbolic (or is it?) litmus test, you need an IT consulting firm to assist you to restore that feeling of wonder. Because, doggone it, business is beautiful, the computer is wonderful, and it should be working for you (not vice-versa).

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