Miles Technologies: More Than Just An IT Company!

Investigative Computer Forensics: Examining Virtual Evidence in the Twenty-First Century

2010-10-11T12:19:00.003-04:00

Computer forensics may sound like a concept for the next TV drama series to follow CSI and Law & Order, but it’s an everyday reality in today’s technology-driven world, albeit a lesser-known reality far behind custom software development and network hosting services. At Miles Technologies, we’re on the cutting edge of computer forensics technology.

Our computer forensic examiners are like modern-day private investigators in the computer world. They often work with confidential information in a private, secure setting. There’s no physical crime scene, but a hard drive can host a virtual crime scene that our examiners can’t wait to crack open.

Because computer forensics is still a relatively new – and way cool – concept, some of you may be wondering, “What exactly is it all about?”

Investigative computer forensics serves business and legal purposes in many industries, basically any sector that relies on electronic data. Law firms, government agencies, corporations, organizations and educational institutions enlist the help of computer forensic consultants in both civil and criminal lawsuits. Computer forensic examiners are highly trained to understand the complexity of restoring electronic data that seems to have been deleted. Or has it?

That’s what our Senior Implementation Specialist and Computer Forensic Examiner Mike Nelson works to find out every day. Mike oversees many forensic projects from start to finish and brings an enormous wealth of expertise to our IT Company as the leader of our computer forensic team. He answered the following questions to shed some light on this mysterious subject.

Based on your experience in computer forensics, what is the biggest challenge you face in your line of work?

The biggest challenge is making each step of a forensics case clear and concise. We want to make sure our clients know what a forensic case entails and how complex it could be. Even the most basic examination can be lengthy and complicated. Many steps need to be taken to properly document, image, and analyze the computer equipment in order to maintain the chain of custody and follow the best practices. Our goal at Miles Technologies is to keep our customers happy and well informed.

How long would you say an average computer forensic case takes from start to finish?

Well, when it comes to computer forensics there really is no “average” case. Each case has its own unique twist or spin and presents different challenges and requests. For example, one case could involve exporting emails or recovering deleted items. Another case could involve network intrusions and undesired access to data. Each case is unique and each case is treated with the utmost importance.

Miles Technologies strives for a 10 business day turnaround, but that depends on multiple factors. Some of those factors could include the size and number of machines or drivers involved in the case.

What seems to be the usual response from customers after you complete their forensic investigation?

The response is generally enthusiastic, but it depends on what we find. If the results show their client was lying or it didn’t happen “just one time,” then usually they are grateful for the truth, but know they have a whole other matter to deal with.

Of the forensic services you offer, what makes up the majority of your work?

In general, forensic investigations and data recovery are what I usually work on, but lately email investigations and data recovery have been the hot topics. Each case is unique, complex, and challenging, and that’s what makes this job so interesting. Everyone at Miles Technologies, including myself, is very proud that our experienced, highly trained and well-certified computer forensic team can tackle the most complex forensic cases.

For more information about computer forensics and other IT services from Miles Technologies, please visit http://www.milestechnologies.com.

Do You QQ4U?

2010-08-27T14:20:00.005-04:00

Here at Miles Technologies, we're pleased and excited to introduce QQ4U (Quick Question For You), a new free question and answer tool that anyone can use.

You may have already heard some buzz about this system, or even seen someone (like myself) sporting a DoYouQQ4U? temporary tattoo. In a few words, QQ4U is useful, fun and simple

Here's how it works: You can sign up for free at http://www.qq4u.com/ and ask quick questions to highly targeted groups of people to receive statistical results accompanied by graphical charts, in real time. (Basically - ask a multiple choice question to whoever you like, and see a pie chart of responses.) You can also comment other uers' answers and responses, so the tool has a strong social media aspect.

You can even create and join public or private groups related to your interests. Our Miles Technologies group has had a lot of fun using QQ4U. (Yes, we now have statistics on which employee has been to the most Phillies games this year and who was voted most likely to win in an armwrestling match.) But the system isn't just about fun. It's about utility.

For business purposes, we've used the system to schedule company-wide meetings, choose between website mockups and more.

QQ4U is unlike any other surveying tool available. Here are just a few of the ways it takes simple question and answering to a whole new level:

QQ4U focuses on asking a question and showing a breakdown of responses via both percentages and graphical charts which assist with decision making and voting.
Question results and comments are presented to both the sender and recipients of each question.
QQ4U provides multiple methods of adding question recipients which include importing from Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail/MSN, and AOL accounts in addition to importing from a list.
QQ4U allows users to set specific dates and times for their questions to close, enabling voting on subjects with a fixed deadline.

So... Do You QQ4U? Check it out for free at http://www.QQ4U.com.

An Apple A Day

2010-07-08T16:48:00.003-04:00

We at Miles Technologies, as a leading IT company providing technology-based business solutions to businesses of all sizes, are proud to announce our official membership in the Apple Consultants Network. Apple will list Miles Technologies on the Apple Consultants website as an Apple support service as well as an Apple product provider.

Senior implementation specialist and computer forensic examiner Mike Nelson will be the first Miles Technologies professional to be certified in Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system.

“With this certification, we’re prepared to meet the growing needs of our business customers who are interested in Apple products,” says CEO Chris Miles. “As is the case with many IT companies, we have worked with Apple hardware and software for many years. Becoming part of the Apple Consultants Network enables us to better serve our customers working with Apple applications.”

For our customers...
The official Apple certification will provide peace of mind that your business technologies will be maintained by Apple-trained experts. Businesses can call on Miles Technologies to integrate new and innovative Apple products into their traditional business environment or upgrade their current system with the latest technologies.

“The recent exponential growth of new Apple products like the iPad and the iPhone, along with their implications for the business world, propelled us to take this step and become an official member of the Apple Consultants Network,” says Miles. “Many of our customers are already using Apple products and asking for support or integration services, so we knew this certification would lead to immediate customer satisfaction. Now and moving forward we will be able to continue providing first-rate customer service as the technological world continues to change and progress at a rapid pace.”

Bring Your Business Closer By Going Miles Apart

2010-06-25T09:33:00.002-04:00

Miles Technologies is all about keeping up to date with our customers’ needs. As more and more businesses expand through online marketing, we’ve realized that many of them lack the time and resources to effectively use what’s available.

To solve this problem, we’ve created a new division in our company: Miles Apart Media.

Let’s begin by mentioning why online marketing is so important. Our culture is immersed in technology. Socially and professionally, we use online communication because it is cost effective, reaches a wide range of audiences and can be easily updated and customized.

Miles Apart Media, a.k.a. MAM, takes an agency-like approach to our customers’ marketing needs while staying true to our IT company’s top-notch customer service promise. The creation of MAM shows that our dedication to industry-leading technology solutions goes beyond that of other companies.

We’re bringing together creativity and profitability. It’s nothing short of anything else Miles Technologies offers. MAM is just the next great service we provide.

Our team of talented professionals provides website design, search engine optimization, online branding and online marketing. MAM launched early in 2010 and is already helping companies across many industries increase revenues.

With our services applied to your business, we’ll have you saying, “Thank you, MAM,” with a whole new meaning.

See what we can do for you! Visit our website at http://www.milesapartmedia.com or call (856) 793-3810.

Streamline Your Everyday Business Operations

2010-06-08T10:07:00.005-04:00

I was recently asked by the owner of a warehousing company about how he could streamline communications with his customers so that his employees could get more work done. His major obstacle was that his employees were spending so much time on the phone providing order status updates that they couldn't fulfill the orders in an efficient manner.

I told him that a web portal would be a very effective automation solution. When developed correctly, a web portal can significantly reduce the time your employees spend on the phone manually providing updates to your customers. A web portal allows your customers (as well as employees and vendors, if you like) to login to the system and see any information you deem relevant to that specific person or group.

Some of the many advantages your business will gain by using a web portal include:

Increased productivity due to elimination of tedious paperwork and data entry.
Enhanced customer relationships with personalized, user-specific portal access.
Effective communication with colleagues, employees, and customers.
Streamlined business processes with vendors, field staff, subcontractors and others.
Strong corporate branding with unique, consistent design.

At Miles Technologies, our customers log in to our customer portal to view the progress and status of their projects, submit requests for support and even pay their invoices.

Although a web portal may involve custom software development in order to provide the functionality your business requires, it pays for itself over and over again by allowing your employees to be more productive and giving your customers a sense of well-being when they are able to access the information they need whenever they need it.

If you’d like to learn more about how a web portal can help you run your business more efficiently, contact Miles Technologies today!

What You Need To Know About National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

2009-10-19T16:31:00.006-04:00

Happy 6th Annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month!

Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, the theme for this October's National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is “Our Shared Responsibility” to emphasize the need for all computer users to protect themselves at home, school and perhaps most importantly - at work.

So what does "Our Shared Responsibility" mean for your business?

Every business has a responsibility to protect the confidential information of its customers and employees. This means that as a businessowner, you must take a proactive approach by knowing where the threats to your security exist.

Conducting an information security assessment is a highly effective way of identifying and resolving your business' vulnerabilities before they are exploited. There are a number of information security assessments available to help you evaluate every aspect of business security. These include:

Application Security Assessments: To enhance the security of your software applications and protect any confidential information contained within them.

Penetration Testing: To examine your network’s level of vulnerability to an outside attack.

Internal Assessments: To identify the possibility of an attack originating from inside your business, including unauthorized network access and employee security breaches.

Social Information Security Assessments: To ensure your employees’ awareness of security threats.

Physical Security Assessments: To evaluate your entire physical facility including electrical systems, security alarms, surveillance systems, visitor procedures and access points.

Wireless Network Assessments: To evaluate the security of your wireless networks by testing signal range and power, attempting to obtain normally unauthorized access to your networks, and challenging encryption schemes.

It's time to get proactive about upholding your responsiblity to protect confidential business information. Talk to an information security professional about how an information security assessment can protect your business from the multitude of threats that exist today.

For more information on National Cybersecurity Month, please visit http://www.staysafeonline.org/.

Five Website Mistakes That May Be Hurting Your Sales

2009-08-31T15:36:00.004-04:00

Could your website actually be hurting your sales?

Just because you have a website doesn’t mean that it is working to convert visitors into customers. In fact, certain website factors could be causing you to lose site visitors and revenue. Take a look at the following five website mistakes to make sure that you are not committing these common, but detrimental blunders.

5. Not Being Found by Customers
What good is a website if customers cannot find it? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can help your site be easily located for relevant search engine queries, resulting in more website traffic and revenue.

4. Difficult Navigation
If your site navigation is disorganized, you risk frustrating your visitors and missing out on the opportunity to convert them into customers. Make it easy for visitors to find the products and services that they are seeking by organizing your site navigation in a straightforward and logical manner.

3. Long Path to Purchase
Don’t complicate the purchase process with unnecessary fields or registrations on your ecommerce website. The more pages that your customers have to navigate through in order to make a purchase, the more likely you are to experience a high rate of shopping cart abandonment.

2. Slow Load Time
It is crucial that your site loads quickly in order to avoid a high bounce rate. Test your site using a free web tool to ensure that it is loading before your customers decide to look elsewhere. There are a few opinions as to how quickly your site should load, but I recommend no more than four or five seconds in order to avoid losing sales. If you do find that your site is loading too slowly, you can help to decrease that time by optimizing your HTML code and CSS, eliminating unnecessary or redundant items, and compressing images.

1. Ineffective Elements
How can you be sure if your content, images, headings, and other site elements are effective? Eliminate the guesswork and conduct multivariate tests to figure out exactly what works for your customers. Multivariate testing allows you to test multiple website elements simultaneously in order to determine which combination results in the highest conversion rate. Once you have statistical information that tells you which combination of website content, product images, headings, and price points produce the most conversions, you can dramatically increase your website revenue.

Need help improving your website’s effectiveness for increased conversions? Give us a call at 800.496.8001 or visit http://milestechnologies.com/.

Should You Have Your Head In The Cloud?

2009-06-19T09:16:00.005-04:00

You’ve probably heard a lot of recent buzz about cloud computing, but what exactly does it mean for you and your business?

In a nutshell, cloud computing delivers services or virtualized applications over the internet. The actual software and data used to deliver these applications are stored and managed by the service provider. This allows for you as the user to take advantage of existing resources without having to build your own applications or own the physical infrastructure to support those applications.

Why should you care? Because cloud computing can save you money.

Since cloud computing services are sold on an à la carte basis, you pay only for what you need, when you need it. By taking advantage of existing pay-as-you-go resources, you can significantly reduce the costs of installing and supporting your own applications. Besides saving you money, cloud computing gives you instant access to the services you need and offers scalable services that can grow with your business.

Basically, cloud computing can give you more for less. It’s a great way to capitalize on available applications and minimize your overhead. As with any technology, the exact value of cloud computing depends on your specific circumstances and requirements. So contact your technology consultant to see if cloud computing can help you to save money and advance your business.

The Key to Successful SEO

2009-05-14T10:46:00.007-04:00

Wouldn’t it be great if you could mow your lawn once and have it stay freshly cut all summer long?

It’s a nice thought, but we know it’s just not possible. The grass is always growing, and sooner or later it will need to be cut again.

Mowing the lawn isn’t a “once and done” type of chore. If it’s going to be done right, then it must be done consistently. It is the same way with online marketing, in particular, search engine optimization.

Because the internet is constantly being updated with new information, the search engines are constantly being updated as well. Unless your business is keeping pace with these changing tides, then you are in danger of becoming invisible to potential customers who are using search engines to look for your products and services.

All too many businesses look at search engine optimization as a “fix it and forget it” task. They spend a great deal of time and money on SEO initially, only to drop off and lose the results that they worked so hard to achieve. They actually end up wasting their resources on efforts that have very little impact over the long term.

So how do you make sure that your business remains in the online limelight? One of the biggest things you can do is to make regular, frequent efforts to increase your search engine visibility. Here are just a few tactics that you can employ on an ongoing basis in order to maintain a strong online presence.

Link Building: Gain quality backlinks by submitting your website to relevant directories, distributing online press releases, participating in targeted forums, etc.

Article Distribution: Writing relevant, industry-specific articles for online distribution will help to improve your online branding and search engine optimization.

Blogging/Social Networking: Interact with your target audience through blogs and other social media outlets for increased search engine visibility with the added benefit of boosting your online reputation.

Of course, there are a number of other ways in which to keep SEO in the forefront of your business plan, but these will give you a head start in surpassing your competitors and remaining relevant in the virtual marketplace.

Don’t make the mistake of taking a one-time approach to SEO. Be consistent, and be successful.

Findmymenus.com: Your South Jersey Menu Solution

2009-03-19T11:20:00.006-04:00

Why is it that the more options there are, the harder it is to choose? Take South Jersey, for instance. We have plenty of great places to eat, yet deciding on just one restaurant that everyone in your family will enjoy isn’t always as easy as driving down the block and stopping at the first place you see.

When our team designed and developed findmymenus.com, we wanted to create a free, useful menu directory for members of the South Jersey Community. The site has menus from some of our best restaurants, representing nearly every type of cuisine from all price ranges.

You can narrow your choices down by location, and then click on a restaurant to see its menu. This way, you can settle on a place that everyone will agree on before you leave the house.

The best part about the site is that it’s free for restaurants, too. Any South Jersey restaurant can have their menu posted at no charge just by calling us at 800-496-8001.

So check out findmymenus.com the next time you’re looking for a restaurant that delivers lunch to your office, a caterer for your business meeting, or the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion.

Driving the Future of Business Technology Solutions

2009-01-28T16:03:00.005-05:00

In the twelve years since Miles Technologies has been in business, our technology consultants have traveled in their own vehicles to provide onsite support to customers of all industries. I am pleased to report that this is no longer the case. We're still traveling onsite, and we're still providing the same comprehensive support, but now we are doing so in our Miles Technologies branded vehicles.

With the arrival of our first fleet of automobiles just three weeks ago, our employees are now traveling onsite in customized Ford Focuses. The cars have been wrapped using a large scale digital formatting process and now display Miles Technologies’ logo and graphics, contact information, and business technology service offerings.

We chose Ford for several reasons. First, the Focus has an excellent reputation for fleet maintenance. As a company that is constantly striving to achieve efficiency, the time and money that is required to keep our vehicles running well is important to us. Most importantly, choosing Ford gave us the opportunity to stimulate our nation’s economy and specifically, one of our big three automakers.

It is our responsibility as a business to support the economy that we depend on everyday and to provide our customers with unparalleled responsiveness in our service offerings. The Miles Technologies fleet is helping us to do both. With our growing employee and customer base, there is a good chance that we will be adding to our fleet in the future.

So be sure to say hello if you see us out on the road, and give us a call for technology solutions that get your business up to speed.

Smart Technology: Predictable, Planned, Proactive

2008-12-18T14:39:00.006-05:00

Failure to keep technology running smoothly is ultimately failure to keep a business running smoothly. The end result is lost data, lost productivity, and lost money spent on costly repairs that could have been prevented with regularly technology maintenance.

Here at Miles Technologies, we wanted to find a way to help our customers spend smarter by taking a proactive approach to their business technology needs. The solution? Monthly Budget Plans.

Here’s how it works: with a Monthly Budget Plan, a customer can receive a complete set of technology services for a predictable monthly rate. The plans are designed to be flexible, customizable, and free of obligation so that each customer can choose to continue or modify their plan on a month-to-month basis.

Included in the Monthly Budget Plans are IT infrastructure support and maintenance, website maintenance and updates, online marketing & PR activity, and custom or packaged business software support. The plans also include strategic consulting to focus on each business’ unique needs in order to make the best possible decisions for that business. There truly is no better solution for maintaining productive business operations within the unsteady economic conditions.

No one wants to waste money. So why do so many business owners do just that by waiting for their technology to fail before giving it the attention it deserves? With our Monthly Budget Plans, customers can take a predictable, planned, and proactive approach in order to keep their technology - and businesses - running smoothly.

Smart Marketing - Part 2: Using Online Marketing to increase advertising response

2008-10-20T10:16:00.007-04:00

Right now, I can’t think of a single business that can afford to spend money on advertising that will be ignored by potential customers. That’s the beauty of Online Marketing - it actively reaches out to your target audience, rather than waiting around to be noticed.

Let’s say that you own a flower shop, and that you want to advertise a Valentine’s Day sale on roses. A one page ad in the newspaper costs you $600 per day. You want the ad to run for five days, which costs you $3,000. How do you know who is going to see your ad? What are the chances that people who see your ad will actually respond to it? There’s no way to be sure.

On the other hand, you could run a five day pay-per-click online advertising campaign. Let’s say that you are willing to pay $3 per click, and that you set a daily budget of $600. You only pay when a customer clicks on your advertisement, and here’s the best part: people who see your advertisement are actually searching the internet for roses, on sale, in your area. Your ad is now much more targeted and much more efficient. You can even see exactly how much it costs you in online advertising to make a single sale. There’s no better way to determine whether or not your advertising efforts are providing value.

Questions about Online Marketing? Call us at 800.496.8001 or visit us at http://www.milestechnologies.com/.

Smart Marketing - Part 1: Attracting the right traffic, at the right time

2008-10-13T16:23:00.009-04:00

It doesn’t matter how well-designed your website is, you will never make a single sale unless your customers know who you are and where to find you.

With more and more business being conducted online, it has never been more critical to have a strong internet presence so that you can be easily found by potential customers. If you aren’t aggressively pursuing internet visibility now, then you should seriously consider reevaluating your marketing strategy to make the shift.

Traditional marketing broadcasts your message to a passive audience who may or may not be interested in what you have to say. But Online Marketing appeals to a different kind of audience - potential customers who are actually looking for your products and services. The right online advertising campaign can help you to attract visitors to your website at the exact time that they are seeking your services. The idea is to gain more visibility and as a result, more sales.

Thanks to free programs like Google Analytics, it doesn’t get much easier to track the success of your campaign once it’s up and running. By showing you things like how many times your advertisement appears and how many potential customers respond to it, Google Analytics helps you to figure out exactly how well your Online Marketing is working and even helps you to fine-tune your efforts accordingly.

Measurable precision; you just can’t get that from print, television, or radio advertising.

Questions about Online Marketing? Call us at 800.496.8001 or visit us at www.milestechnologies.com.

Software That Makes Sense

2008-09-30T15:41:00.008-04:00

Keeping software that isn’t adding value to your business is like keeping a car in your driveway that doesn’t have an engine. You can do it, but it won’t get you very far.

The right software should add value to your company, not cost. So how can you tell if your existing software is increasing your profitability or just weighing you down? It’s not as difficult as you might imagine. A good way to start is by taking the time to answer the following questions:

 Are you still doing a lot of things by hand?
 Do you have to enter data over and over into multiple in-house systems?
 Are you unable to get the reports that you need?
 Do you use MS Excel to manage key areas of your business?
 Have you ever felt that the present system doesn’t work the way your business does?

If you answered yes to any one of these questions, then it is probably time for a change. Advances in technology have brought forth some fantastic software solutions that can be tailored to fit the needs of your company.

Having the right system in place and knowing how to use it can produce a high return on your investment. Using technology to make business more efficient- it’s the heart of what we do here at Miles.

Want more information on how software can help your business run better? Give us a call at (800) 496-8001 or visit our website at

A Proactive Approach to IT

2008-09-23T10:13:00.011-04:00

What does a system downtime mean for your business? Lost uptime usually means lost conversions, lost customers, and lost revenue. Those are things that few businesses can afford, and yet few take steps to avoid.

A proactive approach to IT can help your business to minimize downtime and keep systems running smoothly. Here are two simple ways to be proactive about your IT systems.

1. Monitor Your Networks

Ideally, your business should have someone watching over its network, servers, workstations, and applications all day, every day - not just during regular business hours. This way, in the event of a system crash, the issue can be resolved right away, minimizing downtime for your website and avoiding prolonged service outages.

Not only will IT monitoring keep your networks operating at peak efficiency, but by identifying and resolving system limitations early, you can also prevent costly collapses before they happen.

2. Protect Your Networks

Another proactive approach to maintaining your IT systems is through firewall implementation and management. A firewall is a hardware or software device that limits access to a computer network in order to prevent unauthorized intrusion.

A firewall is an important component of your overall IT maintenance strategy, working to prevent dangerous intrusions that not only pose a threat to information security, but can infect and shut down your entire system, resulting in unnecessary downtime.

By employing Proactive Information Technology Services to keep systems running smoothly, your business can optimize its time on the web, safeguard important information, and run at peak efficiency.

Have questions? Call us today at (800) 496-8001 or visit us at http://www.milestechnologies.com/.

Making the Most of Your Online Reputation

2008-08-14T12:32:00.010-04:00

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth, especially when it’s traveling at megabits per second.

As Google secures its status as the go-to place for any and all information, the use of internet forums, blogs, and discussion boards is becoming increasingly influential. The instantaneous pace of global communication is changing the way the public sees you and your company – and what’s being said online matters like never before.

When search engine results make your first impression for you, your reputation is at the mercy of online word of mouth that is easy to pass along, yet difficult to reverse. Positive reviews are highly beneficial as they’re more visible than ever, but negative reviews that stem from disgruntled customers or personal agendas can cause immediate, significant damage to your personal and professional reputation. No one can afford that kind of adverse publicity, even if it is free.

The question is - exactly how do you protect and defend your reputation from unpredictable public scrutiny? Ideally, you could try to prevent negative reviews before they happen, but that isn’t always going to be feasible due to the impulsive nature of some internet users. When hostile reports just can’t be avoided, you may need to rely on Reputation Management to restore your good name.

Reputation Management can defend against personal attacks and preserve your company’s positive brand image by using strategic Search Engine Optimization and profiling to generate positive material and make negative results difficult to find. Whether you’re suffering from the effects of a damaged reputation, or making a proactive attempt to monitor and bolster your image, every individual and business can benefit from Reputation Management.

Right now, public opinion is more powerful than ever. Make the most of it.

For more details on Reputation Management, call us at (800) 496-8001, or visit our website at http://www.milestechnologies.com/.

Maintaining Information Security

2008-08-12T11:58:00.003-04:00

Your customers trust you with their private information. So how safe is your business from an online security breach? If you don’t know, chances are you haven’t taken the proper precautions to protect confidential information from unauthorized access.

Nearly every business has at least some personal information on file – Social Security numbers, credit card information, and addresses are all needed for everyday tasks such as filling orders, billing, and completing payroll. Your customers and employees need to know that you’re doing everything you can to secure their privacy by employing the very best Information Security practices. Their privacy should be as important to you as it is to them - because when security is breached, not only do individuals suffer, so does your bottom line. Lost business, lawsuits, and bankruptcy can all occur as a result of compromised security.

It’s never too late to develop proper Information Security guidelines for your business. Here are a few tips on how to protect your company from a security crisis.
1. Know your database: Be familiar with what type of personal information is kept in your computers, laptops, flash drives, and other media. Talk to your staff and service providers about who sends personal information, how personal information is collected, what kind of information is collected, and who has access to the information.

2. Decide what to keep: Do not keep or obtain any information unless it is absolutely necessary for conducting business. When personal information becomes irrelevant, dispose of it immediately and confidentially. If you do need to maintain sensitive information, develop policies that outline what information should be kept, how long it should be kept, and how to dispose of it when it is no longer needed.

3. Protect your information: Make sure that your software is regularly updated. Run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on a regular basis. Use secure connections and web applications for online transactions. Avoid using Social Security numbers as identification numbers. Safeguard your files with strong passwords that are only accessed by authorized personnel.

4. Train employees to follow proper security procedures: Make sure your employees do not share passwords or store passwords where they can be easily located. Instruct employees to keep computers logged off when not in use. Keep staff updated about new security practices.

Ongoing Information Security is not only vital to the continued success of your business, but to your peace of mind as well. Don’t let a security breach damage your company’s credibility. Protect your information today and protect your profitability tomorrow.

Need help getting started? Give us a call at (800) 496-8001 or visit our website at http://www.milestechnologies.com/.

Managing your business efficiently- Part 1

2008-08-08T13:24:00.003-04:00

Increasing efficiency by automating certain processes is something we at Miles Technologies feel very strongly about. Fact is, a lot of businesses don’t seem to realize that their staff resources are being wasted by having to perform the same, redundant tasks over and over again.

Sometimes it’s obviously repetitive work like filing or sorting, but there are other time wasters that aren’t obvious, like business decisions that the owner or other high level management person has to make every day. Having these decisions automated will save time for the business owner or manager, which becomes very valuable because they can spend more time growing the business.

A good example is automating the sales estimation process. For a big job, you know you’ll quote less of a margin, or for a small job, you know you have to increase the cost since more time may be spent on the detail work, but your employees have to come to you or other managers to make that decision.

What if you could automate that process so your employees could create quotes that you know will follow your guidelines and feel comfortable that it’s still going to be both profitable AND competitive? Imagine what you could achieve with that extra time.

It’s wonderful what technology can do- make it work for you!

Think we can help? Give us a call at (800) 496-8001 or visit our website at http://www.milestechnologies.com/.

Paperless Offices: Miles Technologies’ solution to increasing efficiency and staying sane.

2008-08-08T13:14:00.003-04:00

Fed-up of filing a mountain of paperwork? Tired of sorting through endless files to find a document? Stressed out because your desk is strewn with paper? We were too, and in true Miles Technologies fashion, we found a solution- the paperless office.

Adopting the practices of a paperless office had several benefits for us, including increasing productivity, making it easy to keep track of documents pertaining to our hundreds of clients, reducing the costs of mailing, shipping and storing paper and most of all it’s great for the environment!

We did however, find it impossible to eliminate paper completely; after all paper is just so versatile- you can scribble on it, dog-ear it, and take it with you anywhere to read in comfort. Keeping paper to an absolute minimum is the real description of our “paperless” office.

Making the change initially took a bit of time and getting used to, but in the four years since the switch, I can see that it has really paid off. Just throwing away the filing cabinets gave us so much extra space!

A good tip to remember is that before making the transition, its important to invest in a good data back-up and archival system. Additionally, it’s important to ensure that all members of the team work towards and get familiar with the paperless goal, to ensure a smooth transition.

For more information on Miles Technologies, call (800) 496-8001 or visit our website at http://www.milestechnologies.com/.