The MSPMentor 250, published by Nine Lives Media, is now in it’s 3rd year and is an annual look at the executives, entrepreneurs, experts, coaches and community leaders shaping the worldwide IT managed services market.

In order to be considered for the MSPmentor 250, members had to be nominated during a survey — which ran from May through July 23, 2010. The list was narrowed down based on specific achievements (“Jane Doe increased her company’s recurring revenue by 50 percent”) rather than feel-good statements (“John Doe is a smart industry leader”).

“Many thanks to those who nominated me – I’m genuinely honoured and really appreciate that people took the time to do so.” says Richard Tubb.

Managing Director James Cash adds “Everyone at JamesCash.co.uk is so pleased that Richard and the company have been honoured in this way. To be recognised as an industry leader on a global level is an amazing achievement!”

Consider then for a moment – what types of feelings do you think you would experience if somebody gained unauthorised access to your businesses computer systems?

At JamesCash.co.uk we recently helped one of our clients migrate their systems from a peer-to-peer network to a Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) network with central file storage, e-mail and strong security.

Before the new system, security was very minimal. Users shared the same simple passwords, and these passwords rarely changed. Everyone within the business had access to all the files on the network.

After we had installed the new system, we helped our client implement a new way of working – a strong password policy, and a file system that only allowed users access to the files they needed.

So what is a strong password policy?

We know that weak passwords provide unauthorised or malicious users with very easy access to your computer system. A strong password policy ensures that passwords are considerably harder or impossible to crack (or break) – and that’s even with the extremely powerful password-cracking software that is available via the Internet today.

Here are examples of weak passwords:

• Is no password at all.
• Contains your user name, real name, or company name.
• Contains a complete dictionary word. For example, Password is a weak password.

In contrast, a strong password…

• Is at least seven characters long.
• Does not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
• Does not contain a complete dictionary word.
• Is significantly different from previous passwords. Passwords that increment (Password1, Password2, Password3 …) are not strong.
• Contains characters from each of the following four groups – Uppercase letters, Lowercase letters, Numerals.

As part of the 24×7 Health Checks we provide as part of our IT Support services to clients, we see very regular hacker attacks on *all* our client systems. The security systems we help our clients put in place, including strong password policies, ensure they remain safe.

If your company has not got a Strong Password policy in place – then why not? Are you ignoring that advice from the Police and leaving the windows and doors to your home wide open? Or are you being realistic, realising that external threats really do exist and you can mitigate this risk by taking reasonable steps?

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced JamesCash.co.uk as their first Small Business Champions – confirming the companies status as one of the United Kingdom’s top young IT providers.

In June, our Business Development Director, Richard Tubb, was appointed as Microsoft Small Business Specialist Partner Area Lead for the UK – a role acknowledging JamesCash.co.uk’s involvement in the IT Community, recognition of their standing providing IT Support in Birmingham, and affording the company access to some of the top Decision Makers and Developers within Microsoft.

Richard has also been asked to be a speaker at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC in July – rubbing shoulders with 10,000 of the World’s top Microsoft Partners and being featured alongside Keynote Speaker, former USA President, Bill Clinton!

Richard will be keeping us posted of his activities whilst in Washington both via this blog, and our Twitter account at www.twitter.com/ITBirmingham

If you’re the owner of an iPhone, there are some simple steps that you can take to secure your data.  For starters, regularly backing up your iPhone through iTunes will make sure you have a copy of any data on the phone.

Next, you can enable the Passcode Lock feature.  You can set this to activate right away, after one minute or after five minutes.  Included is an option to automatically wipe the device after ten failed passcode attempts.  You can access the feature through Settings > General > Passcode Lock:

Once you have enabled the Passcode Lock feature, you’ll have to enter the passcode when bringing your iPhone out of standby:

If you use your iPhone with Microsoft Exchange, then it may be possible, in the event of your iPhone being lost or stolen, to remotely wipe the device.  With Small Business Server 2008 (Exchange 2007) this can be done through Outlook Web Access by the end user.  You access this functionality through Options > Mobile Devices > Wipe All Data from Device:

Remote wipe is also available in Small Business Server 2003 (Exchange 2003) but will require some prior configuration on the server from your IT support team.

The answer to all of the above will certainly be no, but if you don’t update your computer systems when an employee leaves then this is exactly what you are doing.

Windows Small Business Server allows users to access their email account anywhere in the world at any time, so even though they’ve left the company, they could still be sending and receiving emails as if they were in the office. It’s also very simple to set up remote access to enable users to continue creating and deleting documents, along with having access to your company applications such as Sage.

All too often an employee leaves acrimoniously and attempts to cause damage to the IT infrastructure such as copying or deleting files or emails; if this is not spotted and dealt with quickly the damage can be irreversible.

Fortunately all of this can be stopped from happening very easily, and all it takes is for remote access to be secured when an employee leaves. Within seconds their passwords can be changed and their ability to access your network remotely removed. Emails can also be re-routed to someone else, and their documents made available to view.

JamesCash clients of our IT support services should let us know immediately as soon as an employee ceases employment.  The sooner we are made aware, the less likely someone is to cause any problems, so please include informing us into any employee leavers process you have, and help us keep your IT infrastructure safe and secure.

Role Description

Inside Sales is where it all starts for JamesCash.co.uk. Finding qualified prospects is one of the most important roles in the company and adding new profitable managed services clients is critical to achieving our growth targets.

The Inside Sales Executive speaks with decision makers daily, bringing a unique and valuable perspective to the conversation, using a low pressure approach to control the direction of calls and show why it would benefit them to meet with us.

Every SME would benefit from meeting with us. We are the leader in IT support within our area. Our unique approach is the standard by which all companies should gauge their current support model.  Inside Sales introduces this to prospects, setting up meetings to explore this further.

Required Skills and Qualities

• Highly motivated and goal orientated
• High level of IT literacy
• Excellent communication skills, especially via telephone
• Well organised and persistent self-starter
• Positive self-image and attitude
• Well Mannered, courteous and naturally persuasive
• Honesty and integrity
• Previous experience in a B2B telesales role

Salary and Benefits

Salary: £18,000 + commission.  OTE £36,000+ (uncapped).

In the first instance, interested applicants should call James Cash on 01384 880660.

Consider the following two examples:

Company A

A heavyweight PR company based in Birmingham.  Not a current JamesCash client.

On 16th March 2010 they report via Twitter they have their email and server back after five days of downtime, asking people to call if they still have problems getting email through.

On 22nd March 2010 Company A again reports via Twitter that they are still having problems receiving email.

By our calculations, this is 10 days of business disruption and counting…

How do you think this affected one of premier PR companies in Birmingham? How much did this cost them?

Company B

An award winning Birmingham based video production and media company.  A client of JamesCash.co.uk.

At 11:00 on Thursday 18th March 2010, their four-year-old server fails due to a catastrophic hardware fault.

By 15:00 on the same day, a JamesCash engineer had taken a replacement server to site and restored their most recent backup to the new hardware, to get their team back up and running within four hours.

The Choice is Yours

You can wait for disaster to strike and lose thousands, or you can take steps now to protect your business by calling the JamesCash team (IT Support Birmingham) on 01384 880660.

For more than 6 years I have been a member of the Air Cadets, learning how to fly and shoot with the lifestyle of the RAF. With this knowledge I joined the Royal Air Force with the aspiration of becoming a Helicopter Pilot in either the Chinook or Sea King. In March 2009 I became seriously ill, losing nearly 10kg of weight in just a week, putting me in hospital for a further week. This medical condition meant that I was no longer medically fit to join the RAF or any other Service and I was left to find another way to make a living.

So it was more by luck than judgement that I enrolled at the Telford Zenos IT Academy, after seeing a small advertisement for open days at the bottom of the jobs page in my local paper. I was drawn to the challenge of getting a fistful of IT qualifications in just 5 months, and the lure of the Zenos Trainers saying that it would not be easy was what made me decide I would apply for an interview. I think more than anything Zenos taught me that if you put the effort in to what you’re doing then you will get the desired results and that it is always good to have something to aim towards, having seen what happened to others who didn’t take their opportunity seriously. One of the best aspects of the course was the way in which we practiced doing real support requests and using a basic call logger in our work so that we understood the underlying concepts and got working environment experience before starting a job.

In January 2010 I finished my 5 month course at Zenos learning how to be a desktop support technician and began working for JamesCash.co.uk, providing IT Support in Birmingham.

I applied to work with JamesCash.co.uk whilst I was still at Zenos finishing MCDST. Both James Cash and Richard Tubb of JamesCash.co.uk came to the academy to interview me and others for the job. Before I went in I had visions of RAF style interviews , and I was extremely nervous. By the end of the interview I had calmed down a lot and came away feeling that I had left a good impression. Shortly afterwards I was asked to come down to Dudley to the JamesCash.co.uk office for a trial day to work alongside a technician and watch how things were done. I’m glad to say I was offered the role, and I have been working for over a month now and I am really enjoying myself. Every day is a learning experience and I constantly find myself pulling up on knowledge gained doing the MCDST and CompTIA A+ courses at Zenos. I am hoping to keep the learning constant throughout my career to continually push myself forward and achieve the best I can. I am particularly enjoying the pro-active approach to our support as it means I always have something to do and we don’t have to wait for things to go wrong.

Outside of work I have a keen interest in Cricket and Rugby, and when I can find the time I am a bit of an artist as well. I still miss the military environment of the RAF but I feel much better knowing that I took my second chance and made the best possible fresh start.

Matthew Benson is the subject of CompTIA’s first Career Success Spotlight – check it out!

If you can, please help us towards our aim of raising £1,000 by donating here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/jamescash.co.uk

If you would like to join us, or find out more about the BRMB Walkathon click here.

• Geolocate your stolen laptop
• Remotely retrieve and delete files
• Monitor and control the thief
• Recover your stolen laptop

You can find out more about the software here: http://www.laptopcopsoftware.com

The first 19 fans to email their name and address will each receive a copy sent out to them.  Please email your request to james@jamescash.co.uk

There’s no catch, we were given these by a supplier and they’ve been hanging around the office for a few months, so we’ve decided to give them away. 

Only one copy per respondent.