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Demystifying Salesforce

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Salesforce is a service every business needs to use. As a CRM, it stands out primarily because of its efficiency in helping manage the process from lead management to sales to customer retention. Its accurate reporting makes it easy to keep your finger on the pulse of your company’s growth at all times. Other CRMs are available, of course. But with the sheer amount of apps that are available on the Salesforce app exchange, you’ll find everything you’re looking for in a robust CRM. And besides: even without extra apps, Salesforce alone is perfectly sufficient for any organization.

Consider how many cloud platforms your company uses. The average company uses at least 7 platforms on the books. However, when we take into account the platforms that employees personally bring to the workplace on their own devices, it’s actually closer to 21.

Sure—Salesforce’s doesn’t have an embellished direct user interface. But that actually helps efficiency as you experience decreased distractions when using the tool. When we look at Salesforce, we’re really looking at the bottom line. There’s no place for fancy UIs—only for actual useable numbers.

To help you get to know Salesforce, here are its 4 most essential sections:

  1. Accounts: See the details of your individual customers.
  2. Opportunities: See the details of your lead funnel.
  3. Personal Library, Documents, and Chatter Files: Access any needed documents that are usually linked to an account: NDAs, purchase orders, RFPs, manuals, etc. This portion is essential to your team.
  4. Reports: Understand your forecasts; understand all calculable actions your company has taken—so that you can repeat them. One of Salesforce’s most important features.

Below Are Your Top 3 Salesforce Tips & Tricks:

How to Onboard, Train, and Engage With Your Employees

Using Chatter Files can help you sift through much of your internal communications in a really efficient way. Specifically, you can use this feature to onboard, train, and receive feedback from your employees. Here’s how to set up a great cloud community which will help grow and support a positive working environment:

  1. Login to your Salesforce account.
  2. Click on the Chatter Tab.
  3. Go to Groups and click on the New Group button:
  4. Create your first onboarding group. Create a welcome message and post other things like company policies, insurance plans, welcome manuals, an employee contact list, etc.
  • To upload your manuals or files, just click on the File button:
  • Select the files you’re including.
  • You can direct all new employees to this Chatter Group to help get them incorporated quicker: they’ll have easy access to all the tools they need to get started.
  • Do the same for training and feedback groups. You’ll keep your work environment healthy by keeping it approachable.

Managing Your Files Is Easy

When you have multiple files in another application (like Dropbox, Box, Egnyte, Google Docs, or Amazon S3) and you want to share them with your groups in Chatter Files (or link them to other accounts), all you need to do is sync those files to your personal library in Salesforce. Within seconds, everything will be available from within your Salesforce platform—and in the correct mapping order.

  1. Login to cloudHQ account.
  2. Click here, and select your Salesforce account.
  3. Then, choose Sync and Backup Salesforce Documents, Files, and Libraries and click on Next Step:
  4. Select the cloud storage service with which you want it synchronized (i.e Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.). For this example, I’ll choose Google Drive.
  • NOTE: If you want to create a new folder in your Google Drive (or other storage platform) and you want it mapped to your Salesforce account, just keep following the cloudHQ wizard after you click on Create Folder.
    You’ll see this pop-up appear, allowing you to create your new file name in Google Docs. I chose to name it “Salesforce Personal Library Sync.” That way, it’s very obvious where to drop the new files in my Google Drive if I want them synced to my Salesforce Personal Library.

  1. Your sync should be up and running. Just to make sure, log in to your Salesforce account in another tab and select your Personal Library folder. Take a look and see: all of the documents from your Google Drive folder are now in your Salesforce Personal Library:
  2. Now that you’ve set up this sync, you’ll never have to download or upload documents between Google Drive and Salesforce again. The documents uploaded to Drive will automatically show up in Salesforce, and vice versa.
  • Note: If you modify or alter something in a file located in Salesforce or Google Drive, the changes you make are reflected into the synced platform. No need to reload updated versions of anything; it’s all done for you automatically.

Reports: Automate them. Share them.

Reports don’t have to be tricky.

  1. Click on your reports tab in Salesforce and check out your left-hand menu:
  2. Choose the report you want to see and you’ll find a pre-populated list of options. I’ll choose Sales Reports:
  3. Once you select the report you want to see, you can then select the criteria within that report. Be sure to save that report!
  4. Once you’ve saved, hop into your cloudHQ account.
  5. Set up your sync pair between Salesforce and your cloud storage provider. In this case, I chose Dropbox. Make sure you sync Reports. And, specifically, make sure you sync the reports in “Lead Reports.” 
  6.  You can choose to have this report backed up every 15 minutes; 6hrs; 12hrs; or 24hrs. The major benefit here is that you’ll always have your reports available (and shareable) in your synced storage folder.

 

Sign up for a free trial at cloudHQ

 

10 Google Drive Hacks That’ll Make You Look Like a Genius

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Lots of you use Google Drive for your business.

We do too. It’s simple, easy-to-use, and packed with features that make work easier.

It’s so powerful—and yet, you probably don’t realize all of Google Drive can actually do… especially with the help of a few Google Chrome extensions.

Let’s change that, shall we?

Here’s a top 10 list of our favorite Google Drive productivity features for business:

10. Translate on the Fly

Sometimes you need to translate a document—and fast.

In Google Docs, this just takes a few clicks.

Under “Tools”, select “Translate Document”.

Choose a language, click the “Translate” button. Google will create a new, translated document and save it in Google Drive automatically.

 

cloudhqblog_1_Translate_original
 

9. Save Any File Type

Google Docs, Forms, Sheets, and Slides are all easy to save in Google Drive. But you can also save any type of file in Google Drive.

That means for everything you need on a single project, you can create a folder and upload all your files to keep everything together all in once place.

You can also create shareable links to any of these files, just like you can with a Google Doc or a Sheet.

 

cloudhqblog_2_filetypes

 

 

8. Research in a Single Window

If you’re working in a Google Docs, you might not have time to open a new tab or window to research.

In the drop-down menu under “Tools”, select “Research.”

A handy research area will open on the right side of the tab.

 

cloudhqblog_3_Research

 

 

7. Search in the Link Box

Ever realize that you need to link to a source, but you haven’t looked up the source yet?

You could open a new tab or window and go hunting.

Or—because this is Google—you can select the text you want to hyperlink, then search directly within the link box:

 

cloudhqblog_4_SearchinLink_original

 

 

6. Desktop Sync

Need to work offline? No worries. It’s easy to sync your Google Drive files to your hard drive.

You can sync all your data, or just selected folders. This gives you full access to your files, whether you’re online or not.

As soon as you reconnect to the internet, your updated files will be synced to the cloud.

 

cloudhqblog_5_desktop

 

 

5. Keyboard Shortcuts

Google Drive is already simple to use.

But if you want to be a true productivity ninja, there are keyboard shortcuts galore that can get you there.

To see frequently used Google Drive keyboard shortcuts, click “Ctrl + /” on Windows or “Command + /” on Mac.

 

cloudhqblog_6_keyboardshortcuts_original

 

 

4. Make a Fancy Email Draft in Docs, then Send it as a Gmail Message

Google Docs has a huge number of formatting tools, including charts, images, tables, graphs, fonts, etc.

Few of those features are available in Gmail’s editor, however. That means it can be a challenge to create a nice-looking email using only the Gmail platform.

That’s where the Chrome extension Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts comes in.

You can create an email message or newsletter—including all its beautiful formatting—in a Google Doc, and then click a button to convert the Doc into a Gmail draft.

 

cloudhq_gmaildocs_1_Open-In-Gmail-Button

cloudhq_gmaildocs_2_draftemail

 

 

Pro tip: If you regularly send a newsletter, this is one of the easiest ways to make it look professional.

3. Use the Web Clipboard

Google Drive has a powerful clipboard.

Instead of using “Control + C” or “Command + C”, use the “Edit” drop-down menu, then choose “Clipboard.”

From there you’ll be able to copy, save, and paste multiple items on the clipboard.

It’s a great little feature for storing multiple ideas in one place.

 

cloudhqblog_8_Web Clipboard

 

 

2. Save Gmail Messages and Attachments Directly into Google Drive

You’ll need the free Save Emails to Google Drive Chrome extension for this one.

Once you have it installed, with a single click you’ll be able to save any email (plus attachments) into a Google Drive folder.

 

cloudhqblog_9_email to Google Drive_original

 

 

1. Tag Anyone

Need a friend or coworker to answer a question about a project?

Just type “+yourfriend@theircompany.com” in a comment.

Google drive will notify them of the comment and send them a link giving them access to the document.

It’s one of the easiest ways to ask questions, collaborate with coworkers, or send something to your boss for approval.

 

cloudhqblog_10_Google_Docs_Comments

 

More Productivity Tools

If you love hacks and tools, check out our full list of Google Chrome extensions.

Each one is designed to make your life easier—and your days more productive.

 

See Chrome Extensions
 

Teams Are Comfortable with Email, but Not OneDrive or SharePoint

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If you spend your entire day working out of your inbox, you’re not alone. One survey suggests white-collar workers now average 3.2 hours per day reading, writing, and managing work email.

Email is the one piece of software everyone becomes an expert at using because of its adoption rate and inherent familiarity.

At the same time, many companies use Office365, OneDrive, or Office365 SharePoint as their document management system, but many employees just aren’t comfortable using either of these solutions. In fact, many don’t even know how to access OneDrive or SharePoint at all.

Take mobile employees, for example. They primarily use their phones for communication like sending emails or texting other members of their team. If a document they need is hidden in a OneDrive Business cloud storage repository, they often don’t know how to access OneDrive Business from their phones.

The resulting user flow is highly inefficient: Those mobile employees send an email to a teammate from their phone and then that teammate tracks down the file to send it back as an attachment. This happens a lot, and worse, it represents countless hours in lost productivity.

Bottom line: finding documents is nearly impossible for remote employees.

As we’re about to show you, there’s a much easier way to get around this annoying time suck.

Announcing: Office365 Mail Folder Sync and Sharing

As we’ve already identified: Employees live in their E-mail. This can actually be a blessing in disguise. When you use cross-platform sharing for specific folders, it allows for all members of your team to access OneDrive Business or SharePoint documents directly from their Office365 Mail email folders.[1]

Wherever they are—and whatever device they’re using—they’ll be able to easily access current versions of all your company’s documents.

 

Office365 Outlook

 

There’s No Process Change.

For employees who manage your document repository (HR, marketing, etc.), they’ll be pleased to know that they won’t have to change one iota of their current process.

  • Employees who maintain your documents will continue to have full access through OneDrive or SharePoint. Their access or process never changes.
  • Anyone with a password can still retrieve documents through a web browser using the OneDrive web portal just as they’ve always been able to do. This too, never changes.

The only thing that changes, is that you can give your employees the choice to access documents from their email folder so that documents are easily retrievable.

For example, you could share the following Sharepoint, OneDrive, or Office365 folder with a user’s email folder:

  • Marketing materials
  • HR documents
  • Documents related to a specific project or initiative

How Cross-platform Folder Sharing Works

1. Distribution: One-to-Many Sharing

Using cross-platform folder sharing, you can distribute all files from a central OneDrive Business folder into your employees’ mailboxes.

 

 

Each file that’s added in the OneDrive Business folder will be automatically uploaded into the email folders of your employees.

If you change or update a file in OneDrive Business, the old versions will be automatically deleted and replaced with the new ones for everyone with access to the folder.

3 Major Benefits of Distribution:

  1. No more emailing “the latest version” to a distribution list.
    For example:
  • New employee hires will automatically have access to the database. You won’t have to “put together a packet” for them.
  • Employees will have access to the document database directly from their email.
  • As long as your employee is connected to a cell signal, they’ll have access to the most up-to-date documents. This works in iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.

2. Aggregation: Many-to-Many Sharing

cloudHQ cross-platform folder sharing can be used to enable many-to-many sharing where some users mainly use Office365 Mail while other use Office365, Sharepoint, or OneDrive.

 

Many to Many

 

To do this, you’ll establish a two-way sync between a central OneDrive Business folder and a folder within your employees’ email accounts. Whatever gets placed in any of your users’ email folders, will automatically get replicated into your OneDrive Business folder.

All changes are reflected in both platforms, but cloudHQ also backs up these files automatically, ensuring that your message and document archive system is preserved and safeguarded.

4 Major Benefits of Aggregation:

  1. All messages or documents are searchable to anyone with access to the folder either in Office365 Mail or your company’s file management system: OneDrive, Sharepoint, Office365.
  2. Messages and documents are automatically archived.
  3. Sharing information becomes simple, regardless of which platforms teammates work in.
  4. Emails become PDF files in your cloud storage archive, where each email can easily be shared with a link to its PDF file from your Office365, Sharepoint, or OneDrive.

Pro tip: This is especially great for referencing an email within in an email!

3. One-to-One Sharing (Including Cross-Platform Sharing):

Finally, cloudHQ cross-platform folder sharing lets you easily share an Office365 Mail folder with anyone, anywhere.

 

Gmail to Office365 Sharing

 

You can share your Office365 Mail folder with partners or clients who use Google Apps Gmail or any other mail service for true cross-platform sharing.

3 Major Benefits of One-to-One Cross-Platform Sharing:

  1. Easy sharing of large amount of emails
  2. Version control
  3. Convenience to choose which email platform to use in order to access the information

 

Sharing folders in a flexible way offers your business a boost in productivity. If you’re not yet a cloudHQ user, try it out by signing up for a free 15-day free-trial. No obligation or credit card required.

 

Get Started Now
 

 

 

 

Footnotes:

[1] If you use Google Apps for email, everything we discuss here can also be accomplished using Gmail labels.

 

 

 

Photo used under Creative Commons from wocintechchat

Top Tips for Company-Wide Cloud Email and Storage

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Tips_for_Company-Wide_Cloud_Email_and_Storage

Small businesses love the cloud. Actually, 87% of all small businesses already adopted some form of operating in the cloud, using a variety of cloud services and apps for many company tasks including: email, storage, calendars, and billing and invoicing.

When it comes to cloud storage, there are many services that claim to be the best, but two of the most popular choices are Dropbox for Business and Google Drive. Let’s examine why.

Dropbox vs Google Drive: An overall comparison.


1) Main offering:

  • Dropbox: Team collaboration, instant file sharing, cloud backup, and file storage.
  • Google Drive: Part of a complete suite of office apps including email, contacts, and calendar services; team collaboration, cloud backup, and file storage.

2) File size: 

  • Dropbox: is the superior service for storing and sharing large files as there are no file size limits.
  • Google Drive: limits the size of files that can be stored and shared, so this can cause issues when dealing with large files.

3) Storage quota:

  • Dropbox: Each time you revise a file and save it, the cloud storage provider saves it as an additional copy in case you need to revert back to an earlier version. Dropbox does not count those versions against your storage quota.
  • Google Drive: Google Drive counts all versions against your storage quote, so if you revise a large file many times, you may run out of space!

4) Off-line / On-line file synchronization:

  • Dropbox:
    1. Dropbox syncs real files, not “shortcuts”. All files are available both online and offline.
    2. Dropbox runs at a lower operating level than Google Drive, and does not consume as much of the CPU power or other resources.
  • Google Drive:
    1. When saving documents to Google Drive, you will have the .gdoc files saved to your computer or device. This is not the actual document file, but is actually only a “shortcut” to the online file. You cannot access files offline unless you use an offline sync.
    2. If you enable the offline sync with Google Drive to your PC, you will need to have a powerful CPU, as this process will hog up resources and make your computer very slow.

There are many online publications that state the more you pay for a service, the better it is. We must wholeheartedly disagree with this statement! The truth is, it is much more important for a business to utilize a service that does what it says it will do, and always works.

*Stay tuned for next week’s blog post: we’ll be covering this in more detail!

Company email.

Google Apps provides the best solution for company-wide email through the Gmail service, which is currently used by over 5 million business customers. There are three main reasons why companies choose Gmail to handle their company email needs:

  1. Simplicity: Gmail is easy to use, can be accessed via any browser or desktop email client, and provides simple setup controls for forwarding, multiple account creations, and messaging services.
  2. Labels: Gmail provides a superior label and filtering system which allows users to filter messages, and have labels added based on the filter requests. By labeling emails, this provides a complete organizational system to have all emails filtered by a user’s specific query (i.e. create a label called “clients”).
  3. Reliability: Gmail has years of reliable reputation, and is so simple to use, that any employee can use it on any device: PC, Mac, laptop, mobile devices, etc.

4 Steps To Save Gmail Attachments to Dropbox.

cloudHQ makes it easy to integrate all the cloud files that are being used in your business. You can use Google Apps for email, calendar and contacts, while using Dropbox for storage- and rest assured that everything will integrate perfectly and reliably.

How-To in 4 Steps on cloudHQ

The IT administrator will create an integration between Google Apps and Dropbox for Business via cloudHQ. This can be accomplished in just 4 steps:

  1. Sign up for cloudHQ. Once you have signed up, visit the Sync Wizard.
  2. Choose Google Apps for Work, then authorize Google Apps to work with cloudHQ. cloudHQ will automatically detect your users.
  3. Choose Dropbox for Business, and authorize it to work with cloudHQ.
  4. Choose the users that will have access to the files that are synced between Dropbox and Google Apps.

How to Set up Your Gmail Labels

  1. Directly from your Gmail account settings, create a label for all employees. This label will be added to all relevant Gmail emails that you wish to sync. The label can be titled something like “Emails dropped here will be saved to your Dropbox,” so that all employees know exactly which emails and attachments will be synced and saved in Dropbox.
  2. Subfolders can be created under that label to keep things organized, so you can create folders named “invoices,” “contracts,” “photos,” etc. If you receive an invoice by email, you can simply drag-and-drop it into the Gmail label titled “Emails dropped here will be saved to your Dropbox/Invoices”.

Here is what each of employees will see:


GApps-GmailDBox-v1GIF

The best part is that once cloudHQ is set up to handle all of these useful tasks, you can just set it and forget it. It performs all integration and syncing tasks in the background, and everything works reliably to make things a LOT easier on employees, small business admins, and executive officers.

 

Get Started Now 
Photo used under Creative Commons from melenita2012

How To Integrate Google Apps with Dropbox for Business In 5 Easy Steps

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5 Invaluable Benefits of Integrating Google with Dropbox.

Ever wonder why top companies like EMC, JC Penney, and Gartner integrate all their cloud apps?

Here are the top 5 reasons to consider implementing a cloud platform integration:

  1. Sharing: When a folder is shared in Dropbox, it’s automatically shared with a group from within Google Apps or/and Microsoft Office365.
  2. Formatting: Imagine automatically having a cloud format converter that can convert document formats to be delivered as though it was natively created in the platform from which you access it. For example: A Dropbox for Business document can be viewed and edited in Google’s native formats (Drive, Sheets, and Slides).
  3. Integration: All comments on any documents are replicated between Google Docs and Dropbox.
  4. Collaboration: Revisions to any files are immediately updated in real-time to other platforms, to provide the ultimate collaboration experience across cloud apps. Everything is always up to date regardless of where you access the file.
  5. Make it easy to find your documents: Gmail users can automatically save their email attachments to Dropbox, Google Drive, or even MS Office365, and use their reliable search feature to immediately have access to their documents, rather than having to manually search through all their email attachments- especially where there are multiple versions of these attachments.
GoogleApps-Dropbox_short_one

How to Integrate Google Apps with Dropbox for Business in Seconds

Just follow these 5 simple steps, and you’ll be up and running.

  1. First, head to the installation wizard which will guide you step-by-step through this process.
  2. Click on “Install cloudHQ for Google Apps”.
  3. Sign into Google Apps.
  4. Connect Dropbox for Business by signing in as the administrator.
  5. Setup Your Integration: Just choose which users you want to enable a Google Drive and Dropbox integration, and you’re done!

Why Google? Google Apps is feature-rich and affordable.

Google Apps For Work

Google Apps is one of the most popular cloud computing solutions for businesses, with over 5 million business users, including 60% of all Fortune 500 companies. The Google Apps suite includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Hangouts, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Forms, Google Sites, and Google+. All of these services are available through the $5-per-month basic Google Apps subscription. With millions of satisfied users, what is it about Google Apps that is so attractive to businesses?

 

Google Apps’ 4 major benefits

  1. Company domain email on a large-scale via Gmail.
  2. Google Calendar, keeping all meetings synchronized company-wide.
  3. Google Contacts, where all company contacts are integrated between Google services.
  4. Google Drive as an effective storage solution combined with an entire suite of office tools that has the ability to create, edit, store, and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms.

Why Dropbox for Business?

 

Because Google Apps also has 4 major downfalls:

Google Apps simply isn’t as versatile as the mighty mix of Dropbox & MS Office365.

  1. Collaboration: Not everyone you work with uses Google Apps. Many employees, contractors, clients, and partners use different cloud storage services; the main one being Dropbox as their preferred storage solution.
  2. Sharing: First, Dropbox has no file size limit, so you can share files of any size. However, Google Apps does have a very high file-size limit of 5 TBs, so large file sharing shouldn’t be a problem with either service. The largest differences are how they sync and share files.
  3. Spreadsheets: Many businesses use Microsoft Office, and there is no way to avoid the fact that even if you use Google Apps, you will come across Microsoft Office files on occasion, possibly on a daily basis. Google Apps does integrate with Microsoft Office files, but Dropbox has a better integration system with spreadsheets created in Microsoft Office, so many contractors, partners, and clients that are working with Office spreadsheets choose Dropbox over Google Drive for this reason.
  4. Storage Quota and How it Affects Speed: When you upload a file to Dropbox or Google Drive, it’s stored on servers. If you revise a large file, Dropbox only syncs the chunks of the file that were actually changed. Google Drive re-uploads the entire revised file. When you’re dealing with large-sized files in the terabytes range, this can be a huge difference in speed and bandwidth. The file sync process utilized by Dropbox can actually improve speed up to 10 times faster. One other notable stat – Dropbox and Google Drive both keep copies of your versions (original and revised copies of the file). However, Dropbox does not count these versions of the file against your storage quota, while Google Drive does.

Okay, so Google Apps and Dropbox both sound great! What’s the problem?

They’re not integrated. You have two great services that many companies are using, and you’re stuck having to constantly and manually update the information between them. As an example, let’s say your client is using Google Apps, your contractor is using Dropbox, and you’re stuck in the middle trying to figure out how to collaborate and share files between all three companies. You need to access files on Google Apps from your client, but you also have to access files on Dropbox from your contractor. What a dilemma!

Let’s say that Ann shares a legal draft of a document via Dropbox with John who uses Google Apps. John must download the file from Ann, then upload it to Google Apps before he can edit it. But what happens when Ann realized that she needs to make some changes to the document, and does so, but in Dropbox. John will never receive the revised copy, so he’ll never have the updated version of it. The result: two team members who have DIFFERENT copies of a legal company document. Obviously, you can see how this can easily become a very pricey mistake down the line.

Why cloudHQ?

Because we easily integrate Google Apps, MS Office365, Dropbox for Business, and more to achieve:

  1. Easy sharing
  2. Native formatting across cloud apps and platforms
  3. Cross-Platform Integration
  4. Easy Team Collaboration
  5. A Simple Way to Find All Your Documents

Get Started Now 

Safeguard Google Apps With 3 Awesome Hacks

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Google Apps is one of the market leaders in the enterprise cloud space. Once upon a time it was true that no one got fired for buying Microsoft Office. Now, Google Apps is the safest and most cost effective bet for the workplace.

Competitively priced, at $5.00 per-user per-month, with Vault for an additional $5 per month, TechRadar describes it as “a very compelling service for businesses”.

Microsoft has also taken to the cloud, with Office 365. The difference is, whereas 365 takes all the functionality of Office; Google doesn’t want to be all things to all people. Instead, while equally powerful, they’ve gone for the less is more approach.

This core functionality is ten products, grouped into four main areas:Plugged into the Google ecosystem are hundreds of other apps from third-party developers, like Salesforce and Evernote, which supplement the core functionality of Google Apps.

    • Communicate: Gmail, Hangouts, Calendar
    • Store: Drive
    • Create: Docs, Slides, Sheets, Sites
    • Manage: Admin and Vault

Whether you are a team of two working on a press release or a team of two dozen working across different sites, cities and time zones, Google Apps makes it easy to coordinate, communicate and sync files and documents.

How Admins Can Safeguard Google Apps

All of this is great for businesses and their employees, but with the number of corporate cyber-attacks steadily increasing since 2005, domain-level admins have to be more vigilant than ever.Google is not impervious to attack. Neither is your domain or web host provider. Threats can come from all directions, at any time. Internally and externally. Always assume, for the sake of the organization you work for, that there is a constant clear and present danger.Here are a few ways admins can safeguard Google Apps with some useful hacks.

1. Monitor Account Activity Alerts

Sudden changes at domain level, like a user who shouldn’t have admin privileges suddenly getting them, or a user entering a password wrong several times, should be monitored closely.

These could be signs of a compromised user or an attack within your domain.

Google Apps provides admins with usage and security reports; with the most useful being the Google Apps Account Activity Report. Running this report, in order to monitor email use, file sharing, 2-step authentication and location reports should be a weekly task for proactive admins.

Here, you can also monitor for any complaints accusing your domain of spamming (via postmaster@ or abuse@ emails, which Google monitors too), which means you can take action, or risk your domain being suspended by Google.

2. Defeat Spam Attacks With A Honeypot

Hackers will often try and get into your systems the most obvious way: your digital front door, email.

Most companies will have catch-all email addresses for teams, like marketing@, sales@ or tech@yourcompany.com. These public-facing emails are useful but will often receive high spam traffic, as well as being the gateway to your systems. Hackers will use a combination of war-dialing and social engineering to gain access. One way to counter this is to set up a honeypot@ email address (but slightly less obvious). You can use resources like Project Honeypot, an open-source network that’ll help you trap spammers.

Cast your net with seemingly legitimate public email addresses to entice spammers, with the honeypot email as the only member of these groups. Back this up with adding the account to all admin console groups, as well as putting the email public, across social networks. The more real the honeypot looks, the more hackers and spam it will trap.

3. How to Survive Disaster Striking

If disaster strikes, you won’t get a work email about it.

You will probably be at home, spending time with your family. You’ll get an email from an address you won’t recognise, from your boss (his personal account), or his boss, screaming in CAPS LOCK that your domain is suspended. Suddenly, everything has disappeared! You need to fix it. ASAP.

Unfortunately, without access to the domain, you can’t access Google Apps, so you can’t file a support ticket.

What do you do next?

Well, luckily Google has toll-free support number and an online support ticket helpdesk via contact.googleapps.com.

The only problem is, within Google Apps is the Support PIN you will need to file a ticket. Not very well thought out.

But don’t panic, because there’s 2 things you can do:

  • Go old-school. Print all the information you need, including the URL, support PIN, business address, support phone number and URL, so that every admin has the information they need to get processes in motion to restore your company back to full digital health.
  • Backup. Any basic security admin will know they they need to do a backup. This is the single most important thing you can do for your entire company. We highly suggest backing up to AmazonS3 or other independent third party cloud storage platform.  Make sure that no matter what apps your teams are using, ensure their files are encrypted, synched, and backed up. That way, if the worst does happen, you’ll be able to save the day with a swift fail over solution, and a provide a full restoration, fast.

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5 Safety Concerns with Cloud Data Storage, Answered.

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cloud keyStill a relatively new innovation, cloud storage has attracted a lot of scrutiny in recent months. Before entrusting sensitive data to third party storage facilities, consumers want to know that their information is going to be stored safely and reliably. And is it? The simple answer is yes. Despite scare tactics devised by hackers to undermine consumer perception of the cloud, cloud storage remains one of the safest ways to store your data today. Let’s take a look at why.

 

 

1. If the Cloud is Secure, How was Apple’s iCloud Hacked?

After the well-publicized attack on Apple’s iCloud, polls showed an immediate drop in the popularity of cloud storage. Users reported feeling more vulnerable, and began questioning the security of their own personal data. But what really happened? The headlines said that the cloud had been hacked, that nude pictures had been stolen from the private accounts of 26 celebrities. While the photos were indeed stolen from the victims’ personal accounts, the important distinction that the popular media never made was that the cloud wasn’t hacked. The breach was a result of vulnerabilities in Apple’s password security system, enabling persistent hackers to guess the passwords and security questions of select users. The cloud itself was never actually breached.

2. How is the Cloud Protected?

To keep data secure, the front line of defense for any cloud system is encryption. Encryption methods utilize complex algorithms to conceal cloud-protected information. To decipher encrypted files, would-be hackers would need the encryption key. Although encrypted information is not 100% uncrackable, decryption requires a huge amount of computer processing power, forensic software, and a lot of time. Can it be done? Yes, the only way to keep your data safe for certain is to lock it up in a safe beneath the ground. That being said, your cloud-stored data is generally safer than your locally stored data. Cloud services utilize more complex security methods than the average computer owner is able to devise, giving your cloud-stored data an added level of protection.

 

3. What Can I Do to Help Keep My Cloud Data Safe?

Keeping your data secure is your responsibility as well as your cloud provider’s responsibility. As hackers demonstrated through the celebrity iCloud breach, poor password security can give cybercriminals an all-access pass to your private data. To keep your password safe, avoid using the same password over multiple platforms; add letters, numbers and symbols to your password, and do not utilize a password that is in any way related to your personal life. Any hacker worth his salt will know your address, your husband’s name, the type of car you drive and your favorite restaurant.

Data security is a major concern, and although options are currently limited, they exist. The most secure is likely a military grade encryption from providers like Credeon or nCrypted Cloud. This allows users to encrypt and store data with their own specifications, and securely share files with other parties that can view files with a key management system.

However, the biggest cause of concern for Cloud storage isn’t hacked data, it’s lost data. Dropbox recently had a glitch in their sync system that left many subscribers with lost files. For those who only had their files hosted on Dropbox, there was no possible way to retrieve them. In this case, redundancy to another cloud platform would have been a good idea.

 

4. Is Cloud Storage Really Reliable?

Your data might be safe if the system that it is stored on has failed, but that won’t do much to mollify you in the event of a system outage. While cloud storage keeps your data secure from fires, floods, hurricanes and computer meltdowns, it is still vulnerable in the sense that it is in the hands of a third-party system. Fortunately, since there are no geographical limits to cloud storage, you don’t have to use your local Joe schmo’s cloud services. Before selecting a cloud storage provider, do your research. Top cloud providers can keep your data safe and consistently accessible. If the company you are working with has a history of data loss and security breaches, then it’s time to move on to a new provider.

Cloud storage is much more reliable when used in tandem with another storage system, such as Google Drive. As stated earlier, the biggest concern with cloud storage is lost data, not hacked data. But that issue is eliminated if the cloud is used more as a “sharing” platform instead of a “storage” platform. By taking shared files and storing them into something like Google Drive, you can ensure that if your data is lost, you can easily locate it through the other platform. Services like cloudHQ offer seamless integration via the cloud and Google apps, Box, and Dropbox; making it impossible to lose your files.

 

5. Who is Currently Using Cloud Storage?

A recent poll stated that 86% of companies not only use extensive cloud storage systems, but multiple cloud storage systems. The survey consisted of companies from 80 different countries and collected data from as far back as 2005, before cloud storage became a hot button issue. 30% of business of 1 storage account, 16% have 2, 12% have 3, 8% have four, and 19% have 5 or more (with 13% having 0 accounts).

So what does this mean? It means that most companies either trust cloud storage enough to incorporate it significantly in their data storage efforts, or that the benefits of cloud storage are so great that it’s worth the risk. Nevertheless, the trend is not stopping. Cloud usage has seen an exponential rise every years since 2009.

So although safety seems to remain a concern, despite the guidelines and practices put forth by experts in the field, big companies are still investing resources in acquiring and developing the storage platform. Which means that cloud optimization and security will mimic the rise in its popularity.

 


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How to Protect Your Sensitive Business Data

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Top Secret

Guest post from our friends at Omnistar Interactive.

Businesses are increasingly allowing content sharing in their organizations. But with constant security issues posing a threat to the safety of their data, companies need to implement procedures that ensure the sensitive information they hold remains within their organization.

Fundamental tips to protect your sensitive business data

The following are some of the basic steps and procedures that industry professionals recommend that companies strictly implement in their organization to avoid data breach.

  1. Look at the usage of your business data.
    • Examine who has access to your confidential and sensitive business data. Find out who has frequent access to the information and who infrequently accesses them.
    • Check the frequency involved in using or changing the information. For example, your customer database may be used by too many people in your organization.
    • Determine how your business data is being transferred or shared. There are various ways that employees use to transfer or share data: email, online streaming, or through USB storage devices.
  1. Create a comprehensive list of all data stored in your company.
    • Know where each type of data is kept, who has access to it, and how often it is accessed.
    • Using this list, find out how the handling of the data can cause risks.
    • To be safe, minimize access to the data to just a few of your staff or employees.
  1. Streamline manual recordkeeping.
    • Arrange and store all paperwork and documents according to month.
    • Record all transactions and payment amounts. Keep all online financial transactions by month and financial year in approved storage locations.
    • Avoid paperwork when possible and instead use a secure virtual recordkeeping system that only a few employees constantly access.
  1. Store data efficiently.
    • Use a central server to store critical data. Storing data on a single location minimizes theft.
    • To improve security on a single point of storage, mirror the data elsewhere using techniques provided by a reliable IT provider.
    • Limit access to the data to a few trusted employees. Implement a secure way for these employees to access the data.
  1. Back up the data.
    • Install an effective backup procedure to ensure that you can retrieve your data when issues arise.
    • Use backup software to schedule and maintain automatic backups.
    • Take backups on a regular basis. To use less storage space and to make the process quicker, back up only the information that has been changed.
    • Store the backup away from the main copy of the information.
    • Keep backups secure as well. Encrypt the data and store in secure devices.
    • Consistently check the security level of the backup service provider by regularly testing it. Be sure you know how to recover the data in it.
    • Back up your data to a removable unit, such as a portable hard drive, CD-ROM, a DVD. You can also use an online backup service to back up data over the Internet.
    • Assign a dependable person in your company to secure backups and to perform the backup procedures on schedule. He or she should report to you regularly.
  1. Provide better data protection.
    • Install and update security software regularly to protect from threats and vulnerability. Set it up so that updates are enforced automatically.
    • Use security software that prevents unauthorized use of USB storage devices.
    • Encrypt all confidential data and prevent easy access of sensitive information.
    • Use electronic signatures or watermarking to monitor authorship and data file changes.
    • Implement secure password usage to inhibit hackers from accessing your data.
    • If the data is connected to the Internet, install software and hardware firewalls to keep hackers out.
    • Install a remote wipe facility and promptly use it in instances when devices containing sensitive data are lost or misplaced.
    • Provide a tight security system at the application level and likewise at the data level.
  1. Comply with regulations.
    • Ensure compliance with local legislative requirements. Evaluate your security strategy and make sure it complies with regulations.
    • Establish a clear and quick action plan that your employees will follow if a data breach occurs. Fast action can have a huge difference in terms of business reputation and legal consequences.
  1. Make employees understand the need to protect confidential business data.
    • Explain to the employees the value of keeping business data secure and encourage them to safeguard information rather than keep them uninformed.
    • Establish guidelines that your employees will follow regarding handling and sharing of business data. Make the policies available through the company’s intranet.
    • Hold periodic practical workshops and meetings to reiterate the magnitude of keeping confidential data safe. Educate them on the essentials of data protection law.

Data security and ease-of-use

At times, security becomes an issue when it gets in the way of productivity. With this, it is important for any business entity that intends to allow employees the use of devices to access and share business data to ensure that everything is secure. But to keep employees from being weighed down by the maze of security involved to the point that they are unable to render their work well, consider using cloud backup services.

Cloud computing and applications

Cloud computing enables businesses to manage computing resources and business records over the Internet. These services can be set up to automate the process. A lot of companies these days make use of cloud computing to help manage their business requirements. Many cloud service providers have extremely skilled security professionals. They are continually evaluated by users and customers, are required to comply with security regulations and are driven to ensure security success.

Data access and backups can be done through systems such as Evernote or cloudHQ. cloudHQ is a cloud-syncing system that enables cloud-based applications to communicate with each other and provide real-time backup. Basically, cloudHQ works by replicating data as soon as it is changed. It can be synchronized with applications like Evernote and web-based email client Gmail.

Finding-Your-Cloud-Mix1

In this setup, all important documents received through Gmail are instantly saved to Dropbox, a file-syncing program. Dropbox is used by many businesses to sync files across computers and the cloud, access data from different devices, share files, promote transparency by using the program like a server, as well as for business deployment and management with centralized administration and more.

Evernote is a suite of software and services created for taking notes and archiving. It can be synced to an application like Google Drive to constantly back up files being created. Data in Evernote is stored both locally and in the cloud. It can also encrypt sensitive data within a note. Plus, information stored in Evernote can be exported in different formats, and taken where necessary.

Even with the many benefits that cloud computing and applications provide to businesses, it is vital that business organizations evaluate cloud computing services and utilize sophisticated technology, especially where it concerns the safety of their data and information. Doing so can save them the negative repercussions associated with services that are less than stable and secure.

Finding the ideal data protection service

When deciding to use a third-party service provider to provide protection for business data, companies must make sure that the service does not just make it possible to achieve better data protection but improved productivity gains that do not compromise security. Each layer must require distinct authentication tokens that reinforce security. Ideally, the data protection service must provide multiple layers of security and more influence over where the data will be shared as well as more protection from malicious threats and intrusions.
When adequate security measures are carried out, hacking and any malicious intent that puts your business data in high risk can be prevented. With a well-designed and well-implemented data protection system and guidelines for your business organization, you can look forward to safer handling and sharing of confidential business information. Plus, you allow your employees the liberty to achieve increased productivity whether they are in the office or working outside the business premises.

When it comes to critical business applications, businesses should not merely focus on tight security that protects enterprise data at every stage. On top of providing reliable data protection, companies must make ease of use a top priority. This is to avoid inefficiency and lower productivity that can significantly affect the business operation. It is vital to remember that security and functionality should go together. Without the other, businesses may not be able to stay around longer to reap the benefits of their corporate endeavor.

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Top 5 Cloud Computing Advantages For Small Business

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businessmanCloud computing technology continues to make advances and has proven to be beneficial to small businesses in various industries. From vast amounts of cheap storage space to software specifically designed for time and project management, the advantages of cloud computing are hard to ignore.

In this article, we look at the top 5 cloud computing advantages for small business, including the most misunderstood- security and privacy concerns. The effects the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement has created for small businesses that allow employees to use their own mobile devices to perform company work have sped up successful completion of projects.

What are the advantages of cloud computing?

  1. Collaboration
    Many times files or documents need input from more than one person. Rather than sending a document back and forth via email, a document can be created or uploaded to a cloud service such as Google Drive. Multiple users can login and collaborate on the document, each of them editing it at the same time. This can exponentially reduce time, raise efficiency, and save money.
  2. Speed 
    Cloud applications increase speed and efficiency of projects by providing easy access to authorized users. There is no waiting for slow email or faxes as all the work can be created, edited, stored and accessed in the cloud. The cloud applications can also make improvisation and upgrades with minimal cost and usually with no interruption to users.

  3. Mobility 
    Users that are authorized to access the cloud accounts can access it form practically anywhere- by desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. So even if a user is traveling or away from the physical workplace, they can still access the cloud and perform company work wherever they are. This is an effect of the BYOD movement which many companies have begun to embrace.

  4. Security and Privacy 
    Perhaps the most misunderstood advantage of the cloud is security. People have told horror stories of hacked accounts and lost data and this has spread the false notion that the cloud is insecure. Cloud services use strong encryption to prevent data from being accessed by anyone who doesn’t have proper authentication. There are also increased security measures like two-step authentication, which means even if your laptop is stolen and someone gets your password, they cannot access your account without having access to your phone as well. Cloud providers and third-party cloud services can also perform backups of all data so there is no chance of a data loss.

  5. Decreased Costs 
    The costs of upgrading and maintaining hardware infrastructure are drastically decreased or eliminated as the cloud providers address all of these issues and take care of them. The mobility and speed increase means that workers can get their work finished faster and can move on to other projects, saving money because of the speed and efficiency by which jobs are being completed. For companies involved in BYOD, money is saved because the employees use their own devices and the company doesn’t have to pay for company laptops or computers. Going paperless saves a large amount of money as well.

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