Secure

Sit down for a moment and count up how many usernames and passwords you have. Start with the ones you use everyday, then the ones that you use less regularly and finally the ones you gave to websites but have never used again. It probably won't take you long to get to 100.

Best Practices for security say you shouldn't use the same username and password combination more than once, but everyone does. Most people have a favourite that they enter on all the websites and this is what the hackers rely on.

Password tools such as KeePass can be used to hold all your usernames and passwords and they help generate new passwords for each site. The passwords are protected by a single password, so this should be a very strong password (see the TMC June Newsletter) and kept secret.

Protect

Business Continuity is key to any business in the modern world. It moves businesses away from thinking that backing the server up to tape is a Disaster Recovery Strategy to the idea that a Business Continuity Strategy looks at the people, the buildings, the IT and the processes.

Accepted as a Specialist of the Business Continuity Institute in June, Paul Maloney from TMC writes, speaks and consults on the benefits that BC can bring to businesses of all sizes. The BCI website has a pocket sized Good Practice Guide as a free download or paper copies can be ordered from TMC.

Automate

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software is designed to help automate the sales and marketing tasks of any business. Starting with basic contact management, who, when, where and what, the systems add on features such as sale process tracking, mailshots and sychronisation with portable devices. Traditionally seen as expensive, especially when adding multiple users and web access, there are now some Open Source and low cost alternatives available from online providers.

FreeCRM is offered by CRM ASP Inc and will meet the needs of most small companies, they offer a paid for package for those it doesn't.

SugarCRM requires more technical knowledge but is an excellent Open Source solution that is quickly becoming a feature packed CRM system. Hosting packages are available for SugarCRM if the host it yourself option looks too complicated.

Deliver

Collaborating with other people remotely normally ends up with e-mails being sent backwards and forwards, large document attachments and information being lost because a certain individual wasn't copied in on the e-mail. Online collaboration tools can take away the pain of tracking e-mails and bring project tools to a web browser.

Backpack offers a free version that allows you to try online collaboration and share it with other people. The same company also offers Basecamp which is more project orientated and paid for versions of both products that come with extra features.

Empower

Ever wondered what an acronym stood for, what a buzzword meant or who that famous person is that everyone is talking about?

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is maintained by the whole Internet community. Although it has received some bad press in the past, because of the ability of anyone to add an article or comment, the site is still an invaluable store of knowledge. Try typing your name into the site to see if there is an entry.