Tech Connect: Up your tech knowledge

There is no doubt that being online is necessary to perform all the basic functions in business. We use it to take orders, invoice customers, receive bills, pay bills, track inventory, communicate with employees, advertise and on and on.

This interconnectivity results in faster communications, and hopefully more accurate information flowing around. And yet many companies still have a very minimal understanding of the technology they use every day.

The owner or chief executive of a small business must not delegate all technology decisions to anyone else. There are some fundamentals in information technology that every owner must know to be able to make informed decisions.

There are several ways to get the basic technology language you need. First, talk to whomever you now depend on as your technology expert. Pick that person's brain and go for understanding.

This means not blindly accepting jargon. Often, the jargon represents an important concept. If you are smart enough to run a business, you are smart enough to grasp the concepts.

Get used to looking up technology terms. You must understand jargon well enough to explain it to someone else.

In general:

1. Know what the software used in your business does, and if the staff are OK with it.

2. Understand the kinds of servers you need. And then you need to understand how servers interact within the secured work stations on your network.

There are many benefits in using this kind of infrastructure. Make sure you know the benefits and the annual costs.

3. Understand the cloud and how it can help you manage your company. The cloud must be considered if you are in the process of growing. For example, the cloud is becoming less expensive than investing in your own storage space and in your own applications.

4. Understand how your data is protected. This includes the use of strong passwords; installation of a firewall; off-site backups, techniques used by hackers to trick employees to give them access (social engineering); and use of security software that is updated continually to protect your business from infected emails and websites.

5. Chief executives should investigate the use of hosted versus on-site phone systems. Most new phone system installations use Voice over IP technology (VoIP), while older technology phone systems do not offer the ease of making improvements in productivity and professionalism.

The key thing for owners and chief executives to remember is that technology is not an overwhelming area to understand what you need in business decision making.

We are not talking quantum physics here. Approach technology as you have had to do with accounting, financial analysis, legal and the like. You need to understand major concepts - the critical 10 percent.

You have to know the flow of your accounting data and read statements, but you do not have to be able to make accounting entries. Same deal for your technology.

I have a document I put together for a presentation called Techi Talk that provides definitions for common abbreviations and acronyms. If you would like a copy, email me.

' Mike McKay is general manager and founder of Keystone IT, mike@keystoneit.com