Select Page
A Business Automation Nation – How AI Helps Us Connect

A Business Automation Nation – How AI Helps Us Connect

by | Jun 21, 2021 | Cloud, ERP, Hosting, Managed IT Services, Software

The 2020 shift to remote work forced small to medium companies to increase business automation. To quickly become touch-less and contactless, owners used technology solutions managed by third-party suppliers to guide the new network of online business communication, home offices, and third-party vendors. As the world reopens, AI continues to help businesses network for future growth, especially for organizations leveraging ERP (enterprise resource planning) software.

Business Automation Virtual AI Interface

Artificial intelligence (AI) is human, too

Do you trust your software? Do you trust the humans supporting your software? Consider everything that your ERP software and its underlying technology supports:

  • Internal and external communication
  • Supply chain management
  • Customer transactions and interactions
  • Software integrations
  • Sensitive data

Large companies and global enterprises shifted their cultures to automation long ago. Cloud-based solutions are not new. Successful management of company resources has depended on internal or external IT support since the dawn of the internet. Now it the time for small and medium-sized organizations to access the same business automation tools used by the world’s wealthiest companies.

“As a Service” Business Strategy: Automation as a Service

AI supports your company reputation and culture, so it’s often best to consider automation with experts guiding the process. Focus areas might include the following:

  • GENERAL: How to automate business processes
  • SPECIFIC: How to use data analysis to optimize insight
  • INTERNAL: How to support employees securely as they interact with one another and with your customer base
  • EXTERNAL: How to keep your customers happy, even when supplies are running low and shipping times are burdening relationships

AI, AI, O!: Create a Real-Time Data Window For Your Business

Business owners use tracking tools and data analysis software to understand everything from organization performance to customer behavior. Google tracks search quantity and quality. Amazon compiles endless data on customer purchase intent. Apple allows customers to use their fingerprints, their voice, and their app interactions to optimize device interactions. Microsoft creates data for every email click and innovates based on how clients are using the software. All of this data is useless if not organized and managed properly.

The Automation of Cybercrime – When Malware Uses AI Against You

Ransomware is in the daily news because cyber warfare leverages the same technological innovations that global companies are using to stay ahead of the competition. If malware gets into your backups, you might have a security breach that turns your own AI against you.

Software as a service platforms are especially vulnerability because you’re completely depending on the third-party to handle a large piece of your automation. A hosted environment often provides a more secure infrastructure, especially for companies on the move. An off-site data center can be regulated by compliance regulations. The IT team is required to abide by best practices for cybersecurity. As a result, your data is set up, monitored, and maintained according to the highest security standards. This keeps ransomware from troubling your servers or your software.

Automation for CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

A business wouldn’t be a business without a product or a service to market and sell. Customer data is key to streamlining your sales process. AI allows you to track, analyze, and save valuable information about your relationships:

  • Buyer behaviors
  • Market trends
  • Customer preferences
  • Budget concerns
  • Business direction / business strategy

A business process review can be a great way to get instant insight into how your employees are supporting your customer base.

Pricing Automation: The AI Will Bill You Now

Automated pricing and billing is everywhere in the virtual world, especially when it comes to e-commerce. When customers shop for something using the internet, pricing visibility is critical to buyer engagement. “See the price in cart” might work, but “contact us for pricing” can be a turnoff in this new world of instant gratification automation and digitization.

Pricing can get complicated if you’re offering custom products or complex services. Let’s look at medical billing as an example of a complex business service. HIPAA regulates all third-party interactions. So medical professionals need to ensure that any automation tools that are outsources are in compliance with these medical industry standards. In manufacturing and distributions, everything from shipping costs to supply chain management falls within similar, often less famous, compliance regulations. Pricing and billing can benefit from automation, but the AI software must be managed according to professional standards.

Outsourced Services: A Bot That Never Sleeps is Part Human

To use the medical industry as an example again, anyone offering professional health services needs 24/7 IT support. Why? In the off-hours, portals are still open, networks are still vulnerable, and emergency services are offered around the clock. Often, small and medium-sized businesses can’t afford an in-house employee to handle the 24/7 monitoring of sensitive information and infrastructure. Automation software can help monitor your system while sleeping. If your data is sensitive, your AI tools should come with a 24/7 IT help desk that is continually on watch for a potential or an attempted security breach.

Computer systems are nothing without people. AI systems are developed as a way for machine intelligence to supplement the problem solving skills of people. Strong AI is impressive: computer science continues to build automation systems that play chess or accomplish specific tasks that most humans want to avoid. AI development continues to reduce mundane tasks within a data management system, for example. AI research is focused on creating vast and intelligent artificial neural networks capable of driving cars. To control systems remotely is no longer science fiction. With an intelligent system, even small business owners can save time on routine tasks.

Automate Your Virtual Presence

Your virtual office makes your online presence paramount to the reputation of your business. Other online interactions create a complex representation of who you are as a business owner. Do you have a website or a virtual storefront? A strong web presence can bring you global success, or propagate mass reputation damage. With an internet culture of constant connectivity, automation can help you reach potential clients, even while you are sleeping, by promoting your brand, your ethics, your differentiators, and your value that only you can bring to your customers.

E-commerce comes with high risk, but with proper technology management, the virtual markets can only bring success to your business. You might be able to open new sales channels by offering direct supply to potential and current customers. Don’t be limited by your zip code: use AI to grow your business outside of your region, offering more people the services and products that you believe in as a business owner.

Using Business Automation to Scale While Lowering Costs

AI should help you streamline operations so that you can optimize your budget. However, poorly managed automation solutions can quickly overwhelm your staff, opening the doors to chaos. Fortunately, this loss of productivity is easily avoided when automation begins with expertise. EstesGroup’s staff includes ERP and IT experts that bring complete understanding to your business:

  • Project timing
  • Budgeting
  • Software selection
  • Infrastructure planning and deployment
  • Enterprise risk management
  • Enterprise resource planning
  • Business process improvement

Save time and money while focusing on the work you love. As a Managed Service Provider and ERP consultancy, we can help you choose the latest business solutions that can help you avoid time-consuming tasks by safely using business automation to gain wealth, health, and reputation.

Are you ready to automate success? Let our IT experts help you up your AI IQ.

Don’t Avenge a Cyber Attack – Prevent It

Don’t Avenge a Cyber Attack – Prevent It

by | May 21, 2021 | Disaster Recovery, ERP Risks and Challenges, Hosting, Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security

One cyber world story that captivated me as a youth was the character of “Ultron,” as depicted in comic books and in the movie adaptation of The Avengers. The character was a breed of artificial intelligence created with the intent of protecting the earth. But he turned against his creators, and against the earth itself, becoming a cyber super villain in the process. Origin story complete. Now queue the good guys.

Cyber Attack Encrypted Files Ransomware Attack

Such is the nexus of superhero narratives. A good intention turns violently wrong, necessitating radical intervention. Movies and comic books love to prey on fears of killer robots and cyber intelligence. It’s an archetype as old as the myth of Daedalus and Icarus: technology going too far and humanity in its arrogance flying too close to the sun, then landing on those old Led Zeppelin t-shirts instead.

Companies encounter similar, albeit less explosive, narratives when deploying cybersecurity solutions, in an attempt to lock down their networks. Often such solutions are deployed in the absence of a comprehensive infrastructure threat review. As such, they fail to provide comprehensive cyber protection.

This amounts to a technical placebo. The cybersecurity plan once implemented gives the impression of the cure without any real medicine provided. And while the attempt to paint over one’s data security problems is not itself an act of malice, it can nevertheless have deleterious effects to the organization in question. 

My own experience in the business world tells me that user oblivion is as dangerous as malice when it comes to cyber vulnerability. A corporate network with rudimentary cybersecurity and normal online hacking attempts, such as phishing scams or malvertising, can be more problematic than a secured network under a heavy cyber attack, such as ransomware.

A Cyber Attack from an ERP Perspective

While the tale of Ultron and the Avengers had itself a happy ending, the story of many businesses is not so optimistic. I once worked for a manufacturing organization that was on the cusp of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) cutover. Painstaking work had been done to ensure that all steps were accomplished and that everyone was ready for a successful go-live.

Training, communication, data conversion—all of the pieces were in place. Cutover weekend went without a hitch; the steps in the go-live plan were executed without issue. The first day live went off without major problems. The normal hiccups associated with a new system surfaced, but nothing unexpected came the way of the ERP implementation team.

On the second day after the ERP go-live, users quite suddenly lost access to shared network drives. Soon after, they began receiving errors when trying to save ERP transactions to the database. Then they abruptly lost access to the application entirely. Amongst all of the communication, they hadn’t even realized yet that their email server had gone down and that they were therefore no longer sending nor receiving communication. Their network had been completely compromised. Chaos ensued.

When people think of the most common reasons for an ERP failure, they normally speak of over-customization, or a lack of management support. They rarely think of ransomware. But for the company in question, getting ransomed over cutover weekend was the first step to a cascading number of failures. In a panic, the company reached for paper-based manual processes while communicating to customers and suppliers over hotspot connections, using the employees’ own private email accounts. It was a cyber mess on all ends and resulted in late shipments, efficiency issues, unhappy customers, and months of work to resolve. Time and talents could have been spent on things other than cyber attack recovery—if only the company had been prepared through preventive measures.

Companies Running ERP Systems Can Avoid Ransomware

The moral of this story is less than heroic: there are no super powers that can save a network that is unprepared, or insufficiently prepared, for an attack. And there are no super heroes to jump in and avenge the wrongdoing.  

Avoiding a cyber attack entirely is always preferable to avenging it after it’s happened. Many companies believe they’ve taken the steps necessary to mitigate a cyber attack. Enterprise risk management needs to be an ongoing activity, however, with business owners and executives involved in designing, understanding, and implementing a cybersecurity plan customized to the vulnerabilities of the industry under attack—because every industry is ALWAYS under attack. 

A company’s greatest vulnerabilities are often the ones that they never realized they had. The greatest risks are the ones they believe they’ve already mitigated. The company in this tale of ERP implementation security chaos thought they had done everything internally to secure their network. But their efforts were done in a vacuum, without any impartial opinions or outside analysis. They weren’t out to create a monster, but their vulnerabilities created a monstrous problem. They didn’t feel they were walking on enemy ground because the villians were hidden and undetected by current cybersecurity measures.

The lesson to be learned here is that malice often masquerades as magnanimity. The most significant threats to an organization are often clothed in good intentions.

Is Your Business at Risk of a Cyber Attack?

Could cybersecurity be the biggest problem you didn’t know you had? I’ll spoil the plot—cyber vulnerability, particularly the risk of a ransomware attack, is the biggest problem currently lurking within most businesses. Manufacturers are at risk of complete shutdown. Distributors face supply chain attacks on a daily basis. And there is no type of business that isn’t under attack. Law offices, financial institutions, hotels, medical facilities—all are under the threat of a cyber attack.

Are you feeling the cyber risk and wondering what you can do to protect your business? Don’t avenge your problems—prevent them before they’ve occurred. Get a security assessment, identify your vulnerabilities, and assemble your future. Know the problems you had yesterday and predict the ones you might face in the future of cybercrime.

Cyber Security
Manufacturing Cybersecurity by the Numbers

Manufacturing Cybersecurity by the Numbers

by | Apr 30, 2021 | ERP Risks and Challenges, Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security

Old Cyber Risks, New Cybersecurity Rules

Longtime NHL coach and living legend Scotty Bowman once famously claimed that “statistics are for losers.” For a game filled with numbers, that was a pretty bold statement. Around the same time, business author Peter Drucker, a legend in his own right, argued the opposite point, saying “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” There is certainly something to be said for “the bottom line” — the final score of a game is ultimately the most important number.

But a compelling case can be made that a winning game, a winning team, or a winning organization is comprised of many discrete elements, and that by seeking to measure and improve these key elements, the overall system will benefit accordingly. Our contemporary Moneyball sports world rendered Bowman’s statement a quant anachronism. Similarly, in the business world, managers and executives increasingly look for metrics that help them understand their areas of responsibility.

Manager, Technical, Industrial, Engineer, Working, Control, Robotics, Monitoring, Manufacturing Cybersecurity Technology

“Running the numbers” is not a substitute for successful management, but can be a valuable tool in its execution.

On that note, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a list of “20 Cybersecurity Statistics Manufacturers Can’t Ignore” which details some of the critical numbers that separate winning companies and organizations lost to the nefarious designs of malware, hackers, ransomware and the varying forms of cybercrime. From this list, a few highlights immediately come to the fore. By listening to the information embedded in the data, organizations can act quickly to mitigate the biggest threats that they didn’t know they had. A good manufacturing cybersecurity strategy can address old problems, predict new ones, and keep all operations cyber safe.

Ransomware Remains a Primary Threat to Manufacturers

The impact of ransomware on businesses has been monumental. According to NIST, 1 in 5 small or medium-sized businesses (SMBs) report that they have fallen victim to a ransomware attack. This makes ransomware the number one threat to organizations. Ransomware is unique among attacks in that it does not seek merely to damage the resources within a network. Rather, a ransomware attack encrypts company files, making them inaccessible to the organization and its users. Access to the decrypted files is only provided once payment to the assailant has been made. 

The effects of ransomware are immediate. When a company gets ransomed, all operations affected by the encrypted files come to a grinding halt. This has a cascading effect across the organization as it struggles to stay open during the crisis. This often results in delayed production, late shipments, confused inventory levels, and frustrated customers. To cope with the outage, the company normally resorts to a handful of painful workarounds that are difficult to unravel and clean up once the ransom has been paid.

Ransomers Attack & Manufacturing Cybersecurity Teams Rally

In DoD environments where data cyber security is key, the impact to a company’s reputation can be detrimental. As such, it is no surprise that a ransom situation can cause an organization to go out of business entirely. Worse still, the costs are increasing. According to NIST, over the course of a single quarter in 2019, the average ransomware payment went up by 13% to $41,198. The impact on an SMB’s cash flow should be self-evident. Hackers know no limit when it comes to ransomware targets, attacking companies of all sizes. For that reason, there is no reason to believe that your organization can hide under the hacker’s radar. Therefore,  manufacturers across the nation are increasing their investments in enterprise risk management and security solutions.

Microsoft Office is a Primary Vehicle for Malware

Microsoft Office has been a mainstay of organizations large and small. But the security risks of Microsoft files in an unmanaged environment are considerable. According to NIST, 38% of malicious file extensions come from Microsoft Office formats such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel, making this the most common set of file extensions. Microsoft’s Office suite has long been entrenched in the daily life of SMBs and manufacturers. Shop schedulers frequently define and redefine priorities using spreadsheets, SOPs utilize document formats for process control, and presentations to a company’s staff routinely take the form of a PowerPoint presentation.  

While these file formats are common, they are far from invulnerable, and the robust capabilities that Microsoft created within each format provides opportunities to embed hostile code that can detonate once the files are saved within the network parameters of an organization. And file sharing across the manufacturing community is widespread. It is common, for instance, for vendors and presenters at manufacturing conferences and trade shows to hand out flash drives containing promotional materials. Manufacturing cybersecurity policies need to include these activities because should these files be infected, the consequences of introducing them to an unprotected company network could be catastrophic. As such, companies need to take care in managing the devices that connect to network, and the safety of the files they contain.

Social Media Accounts Become a New Target

Social media is widespread, and manufacturers are increasing playing along in order to get more visibility for their products and more interactions with their customer base. But with the proliferation of online social interactions comes increasing risk. In fact, 63% of MSPs anticipate that hackers will increasingly target social media accounts, according to NIST. Similar to Microsoft Office, social media toolsets have increasingly found their way into organizations. Initially thought of as a distraction, these toolsets have become embedded in many organizations, allowing for more collaborative communication between suppliers, customers, individuals, and groups.

Like the Microsoft Office suite, social media platforms have been enhanced and expanded, with new capabilities added on a routine basis. But a single compromised account can compromise an entire network when accessed from within the network’s parameters. Worse still, given the continually evolving nature of social media platforms, the threats are similarly evolving. Business owners need to understand what role social media will play in their organizations, and how these platforms can be leveraged without excessive risk. Manufacturing cybersecurity measures should take into account all accounts, including those on Twitter, Facebook, and similar online social meeting grounds.

Ghost Security Breach

When it comes to cybersecurity for manufacturers, the numbers don’t lie.

The correlation between successful IT threat mitigation and business success is well documented. Understand the numbers and take the necessary actions to put the odds in your favor. Manufacturers can avoid a cyber security breach by taking it one step further by partnering with industry experts: managed services firms with cyber specialists lead the way in cyberattack mitigation.

Three Ways to Make Compliance Everyone’s Business

Three Ways to Make Compliance Everyone’s Business

by | Apr 9, 2021 | Business Consulting, Disaster Recovery, ERP, HIPAA, Managed IT Services, Security

Compliance acronyms often become the “inside jokes” of an industry, a sort of alphabet soup, but the language of business governance can quickly result in confusion. Clever letter combinations echo the rules and regulations of businesses, especially for companies in manufacturing and distribution. Compliance is a company-wide issue that affects everyone from owner to customer. With that in mind, here are three ways to reduce the stress of compliance management by making the rules of the road everyone’s business:

1. Know the compliance acronyms that affect your business

2. Optimize your ERP for reporting and metrics tracking

3. Bring in experts when compliance involves advanced cybersecurity, data privacy regulation, or highly sensitive record management

Business Compliance

Rules and regulations serve to keep your data protected. Here are a few of the most common regulations that govern business data:

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

Information that leaves the European Union must comply with GDPR even in countries that are not part of the EU. With comprehensive regulations for security and privacy in data handling, GDPR essentially protects your company from a security breach. If you draw any traffic from the European Union, you must follow the rules of general data protection regulation (GDPR).

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)

HIPAA compliance is very common, yet many medical facilities miss important steps necessary to meet the fine print of HIPAA laws. All organizations that interact with medical practices in any way must comply with HIPAA. Health and humans services organizations obviously fall within HIPAA privacy rule, but HIPAA violations are seen across industries as more companies host data subject to these health information laws. Small businesses often fail to comply because of limited in-house expertise, which is why 2021 is moving more and more owners toward partnership with a small business IT provider that offers compliance care.

Here are a few of the types of companies that must process data in ways that comply with HIPAA rules and regulations:

Here are signs that you are keeping up with HIPAA compliance:

Failure to comply with even a single HIPAA security rule has resulted in fines of 1.5 million for small companies and up to 16 million for large scandals. Large scale security breaches are common, and everyone handling or interacting with the medical industry needs to be ready for a cyber attack. Physical theft, such as mobile device theft, is also common, so in-house strategies must include data protection from employees and other on-site actors such as third-party consultants.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)

Payment data is sensitive data, and is therefore protected by advanced compliance standards. Fortunately, these regulations demand solutions that benefit all businesses. If you collect credit card information for any reason, you must ensure PCI DSS compliance. All credit card information must be encrypted. Data access must be limited and tracked so that information stays in trusted hands.

Information transmission requires firewall protection, cybersecurity software solutions, and proactive security management. The network must be accessed for vulnerabilities, and all software must stay updated, patched, and in compliance with the PCI DSS regulations. A penetration test is the best way to see if your company is at risk of a data breach.

EstesGroup can help you create a compliance plan for your business. Compliance acronyms abound, but the right IT solution will quickly make the rules and regulations of your industry as simple as saying the alphabet.

See how ERP helps with financial compliance

See how ERP helps with FDA rules and regulations

Read EstesGroup whitepapers to gain insight into risk management trends

Managed Services vs. Break-Fix IT

Managed Services vs. Break-Fix IT

by | Apr 5, 2021 | Backup, Cloud, Disaster Recovery, Managed IT Services

What happens when break-fix IT breaks?

As a business owner, you make daily decisions on how to serve your customers and how to improve your company. As part of this, you choose partners and solutions to create a support system that guarantees the quality of your work. A business process review is a popular step in the direction of improvement. For IT support services, small and medium-sized companies often fall into a costly “break-fix” cycle. Business owners can quickly end this break-fix madness by partnering with a managed services provider for affordable, reliable IT plans that are based on unique needs.

Managed Services IT Backup Cloud on Desktop

What is “break-fix” IT?

If a computer or a phone breaks or a server goes down, do you call around until you find someone who can fix the problem? This is break-fix IT. You go about your business, and when something breaks, you pay someone to fix it.

Large companies often have an in-house break-fix team that can manage everything from mobile phones to on-site servers, but these tasks need to be balanced with more complicated demands. No matter what your company size, break-fix IT is expensive and stressful. Managed IT services provide a way for you to break the break-fix cycle while lowering both risks and costs. You can even move to a more competitive managed cloud environment via new cutting-edge hosting solutions.

Signs you’re in a break-fix IT model:

  • Unpredictability across departments: Your technology fails, and all departments spin into chaos.
  • Downtime: Unexpected software and hardware failures reduce productivity and increase costs.
  • Lost revenue: Downtime is only one part of the problem, especially when a security breach is the cause of shutdown.
  • Outages: If the network is down, how can your employees support your customers?
  • Stress: The inherent stress of a break-fix IT strategy can result in high turnover and toxic work culture.

Managed IT Services that End Break-Fix IT Unpredictability

Managed Services Provide Unbreakable IT Solutions

While the break-fix model may work for a time, it ends up costing more than you plan for. This might lead you to consider hiring new in-house IT staff. However, a managed service provider can give you the same talent at lowers costs, and the services are 24/7/365 — and you don’t have to pay for benefits, vacation days, sick days, training, and everything else that supports an in-house IT department.

EstesGroup wants you to find the best IT services for your business. Learn more about our flexible IT solutions today.

Ready for a managed cloud solution that lets you completely focus on your business while EstesGroup IT & ERP specialists manage your infrastructure? Get a free demo of ECHO, our EstesCloud hosting solution. Learn more about SYSPRO hosting, Sage hosting, Epicor hosting, and Prophet 21 hosting today.

5 Takeaways from the Microsoft Exchange Server Attack

5 Takeaways from the Microsoft Exchange Server Attack

by | Mar 8, 2021 | Disaster Recovery, Managed IT Services, Network Security, Security, Software

A Microsoft Exchange Server Attack Caused Hours of Downtime for Businesses Around the Globe

Last week’s Microsoft Exchange Server attack underscores the liabilities of on-premise architectures compared to their cloud counterparts. On Friday, March 5th, 2021, a zero-day Microsoft Exchange vulnerability was found being exploited across the globe. It affected on-premise Exchange servers, all versions, and allowed the attacker to read emails, exfiltrate data and run the “code of attackers” choice. Unfortunately, a zero-day exploit is one that usually doesn’t have any patches against it. In short, if you had an Exchange Server out on the internet, then it COULD likely have been compromised.

A computer popup box screen warning of a system being hacked, compromised software enviroment. 3D illustration.

Our Break-Fix Client’s Last On-Premise Exchange Server Was Compromised

Microsoft (thankfully) moved quickly, and released a LOT of information, much of it confusing, with many incorrect links. It took our team some time to weed through the chaff and get the actionable tasks from it. The patches are out now, thankfully. It might take your IT folks 4 or 5 hours to install them, and yes, it’s Exchange/email downtime to get them there.

What’s the answer?  I’d say “defense in depth”:

Here are 5 steps you can take to mitigate the potential damage of the Microsoft Exchange Server attack:

  1. Patching – Patch publicly exposed servers quickly and completely.
  2. Zero Trust – Once your servers are built, and before they are exposed to the internet, lock them down! Malware protection can help, but Zero Trust is the ultimate malware protection!
  3. Cyber Insurance – Offload the risk to the insurance company.
  4. Migration – Move the service to a more agile company. Microsoft Office 365 was not vulnerable to this exploit.
  5. Backups –  Enough said.

These 5 steps can be takeaway lessons for even those unaffected by this security breach. Cloud computing costs are decreasing while increasing cybersecurity availability via affordability. Talk to our IT specialists to learn more about how cloud technology can protect your business.