IT

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7. May 2010

IT Guideline for Medium-Sized Enterprises

I often hear directors of medium-sized enterprises lament about IT technology being so complicated and costly. By way of answer I mostly give them the following very pragmatic guideline:

For the critical applications, such as email and merchandize management, you had best engage a provider who installs the software for you. I, for example, stored my emails for the domain duerre.de (roland@duerre.de etc.) with a provider for storage and processing power. The same is true for my wordpress applications (duerre.de, IF-Blog.de …). This is both economical and reliable.
Merchandize management is also something you had better not try to do yourself. There are quite reasonable providers. It makes sense, even if it seems to be a little more expensive.
Try to remain in the LAMP world (Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP) with your own applications wherever possible. You will then be able to do without a “Rootserver”. Instead, you can use the cheap space of your own provider.
Stick to the OpenSource world standards and shun complex proprietary systems.
Always use the most simple systems, preferably the leaders on the OpenSource market (for example mediaWiki for your projects and your knowledge, wordpress for your web activities).
Wherever possible, use “browser based” software.
Only use applications that are easy to install. Anything that starts out with complications calls for “hands off”.
Do not let yourself be tricked by so-called “IT experts” and do not have too high expectations concerning automating and security. In this field, there is distinctly a danger of overkill.
As a client, also consider using Linux or Apple (it also has a Unix core) systems.
Try Open Office (Neo-Office).
If there is something you do not understand: try Wikipedia!
And in general:Always let your business common sense prevail and be wary of your own desires, perfectionism and dangerous advisors.
Or in general terms: KISS (see also my article on “keep it simple and …?”).