What computing basics do I need to have in place to make certain that my small business has a high performance computing environment and I achieve the best return on my investment?

The answer to your question is that computing is more about people, processes and policies, than about hardware. The twelve items listed below comprise the basics of your computing environment. Each one of them must be considered, evaluated and addressed in order to achieve success with your systems.

The good news is that once each of these items are addressed, most small businesses will never have to repeat the process or experience low computer productivity and insurmountable computer issues that we hear about so often.

1 - Provide a top tier, high-speed, secure and impenetrable Physical Network environment for your employees, customers, vendors and service providers.

2 - Provide robust and redundant File Sharing, Printing, Scanning and Faxing.

3 - Establish a computer and peripheral Hardware Procurement and Break Fix procedure. Drive cost savings by leveraging computer company opportunities with warranty, service contracts and asset management tools.

4 - Deploy Pro-active Systems Monitoring and automated self-healing computer systems.

5 - Evaluate and fix Physical Security, including lock and key, issues.

6 - Identify and optimize your Primary Business Software. Partner with a solutions provider, a VAR dedicated to your niche market. Focus on doing all of your business within the feature set offered by your chosen business software.

7 - Identify, then align your tech savvy workers to policy based, computer support functions, raising all of your employees computer skills. Promote relationships between your employees and your solutions and service providers.

8 - Evaluate your company's Internet Marketing Identity. Confirm that you completely control your email, website and domain names.

9 - Bulletproof your Email messaging systems.

10 - Use a robust Data Backup Procedure that includes scheduled testing to confirm that your backup will restore your data.

11 - Develop a worst-case, Disaster Recovery Plan to use as a guide to immediately return to business after a catastrophe.

12 - Document your entire computing environment. Document all of the specifics that you need to have in place to conduct business, including hardware, processes, names, telephone numbers, licenses, software CDs, hardware, training and user guides. Write everything down and place it in a binder for future reference.

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