You’re stuck at home on a busy Friday morning after a major overnight snow storm.   A long time client alerts you with an emergency request. You built your business on quality customer service by placing their needs first, and today is no exception.   If you can’t respond in time, you run the risk of loosing a key customer, but there is no way anyone can get to the office.  Fortunately, you have a business continuity plan in place.  You quickly spring into action by rerouting your office’s inbound calls to your team members via an online portal, upload the necessary documents to your virtual file server and video conference the details to your project managers at their home offices.  At times like this, and for everyday business use, having the right suite of communications solutions can help you stay on top of client requests.

Across every industry, one important trend we’ve seen is the importance of flexibility in your communications solution. While having a single fax line and phone number might have been enough to open the doors to success a few decades ago, today’s small business can compete with much larger firms using the same diverse set of tools that were previously cost prohibitive to deploy.  Any business can meet with clients a continent away, hold a training session with your sales force without the expense of travel, manage their relationships between their employees and customers and showcase how an idea becomes a finished product.  In a results-driven business environment, delivering more than your competitors is what matters and the right set of communication tools can bring that competitive vision into reality.

Some of the largest companies today were built on the premise of making information more accessible.  You can apply these same principles to improve, grow and simplify your firm. No longer do you have to rely upon a handful of products or vendors to manage the flow of information across your enterprise.  When internal projects or client requests for information come in, you can respond immediately in the format that is most effective without having to hesitate for a second – getting your team or clients exactly what they need when they need it.  

A customized solution can ensure you’re always there to take on more orders, which will help extend the loyalty, trust and confidence of each firm you work with. Companies want to know their business partners on the other end of the line are ready, willing and able to make adjustments at a moment’s notice – with the right set of communications tools you can make and keep this promise.

Your employees put their trust in your management, and it’s important to return the favor by keeping their personal information secure at all times. For both professional and legal reasons, having a secure network and protocols protects confidential data that limits your company liability, ensures you’re compliant with a broad set of privacy regulations and give your employees full confidence in your operations. Following network security best practices can help improve the reputation of your firm, while preventing any negative events or publicity.  There are 4 simple principles which can help keep your employees’ information secure in the workplace:

Protect Daily Employee Computer Use

In the course of everyday business, your employees will communicate with countless clients, prospects and co-workers. Take steps to secure their privacy by investing in quality anti-virus and malware tools to prevent unauthorized downloads which can compromise their privacy and yours.

Setup a Secure Firewall

The first, and most important, step to take to secure confidential data is to prevent unauthorized external access. With a secure firewall and a dedicated security server, you can ensure the files cannot be taken from an external source. With data encryption you can further protect the integrity of the data at all times to ensure protected of corporate information.

Create tiered internal access

By placing your employee information on a secure server you can limit access to further ensure that information is only available to those who need it.  Creating tiered security levels for each employee, protects information internally by only allowing access to those who meet the criteria specified at that level.   You should audit the logs on the server regularly to ensure only authorized users are accessing these files.

Develop a Loss Protection Policy

By monitoring your servers from both internal and external access, you remain alert to any unauthorized access to the files. With a contingency response plan you can ensure any breach is mitigated and immediately addressed to limit data loss, abuse, corporate espionage or identity theft.