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Welcome to the January edition of QTS QuikNews, our
monthly e-mail newsletter. In this monthly e-mail, you
will receive an update of what's new at QTS - new
products we support, new patches and upgrades, solution
ideas and promotions to save you money, and information
about our company and our clients.
In
this issue:
QTS NEWS
QTS
OFFERS SECURITY ASSESSMENT PROMOTION
In conjunction with the Microsoft Windows Security Road
Show events in December that QTS exhibited at and
participated in, QTS is offering a discount during the
month of February on its QuikSecure Security Assessment
offering. Contact your QTS Account Manager for
more information.
QTS
OFFERS FREE SYSTEMS STRATEGY CHECK-UPS
Having developed this unique engagement jointly with
Microsoft, QTS is now offering Systems Strategy Check-Up
engagements to qualified customers and prospects
throughout New Jersey and New York. This
high-value, half-day consulting engagement helps
businesses evaluate how they are using Microsoft
technologies and identifies best practices and
recommendations for how to best deploy Microsoft
technologies in a business. For more information
on this no-charge engagement, contact your QTS Account
Manager.
CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION SURVEY WINNER
Congratulations to Johanna Young of the Episcopal
Diocese of Newark, whose customer satisfaction survey
was randomly drawn as our Q4 winner. Johanna will
receive a $50 gift certificate for Amazon.com. Thank you
to Johanna and all other QTS customers who submitted
Customer Satisfaction Surveys in Q4 – we appreciate
the feedback.
QTS
IS HIRING!
QTS is recruiting for senior level technical personnel,
as well as entry and senior level sales
staff/telemarketers. If you know anyone who might
be a good fit, please have them submit their resume to
Liz Meechan, our Office Manager. Liz can be reached at lmeechan@QTSnet.com,
or (973)984-7600 x223.
SUCCESS
STORIES
ARROW
GROUP
QTS
implemented a Windows Server 2003 environment with
Citrix MetaFrame to modernize the network for Arrow
Group, a leading manufacturer of storage buildings. http://www.qtsnet.com/about/success
stories/arrow success story.pdf
J.
FLETCHER CREAMER & SON
QTS
implemented a site to site VPN for this leading national
construction company, and tightened network security
with QTS' QuikSecure services.
http://www.qtsnet.com/about/success
stories/jf creamer success story.pdf
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EVENTS
QTS,
along with partners Cisco, Microsoft and Wertheim, will
be hosting the seminar “Securing the 21st
Century Law Firm Network.” Presentations
will include an overview of network security techniques
and best practices, Cisco’s security solutions,
document management security, and patch management in a
Microsoft environment. The event will be held on
Thursday, February 26th at QTS’ office in
Morris Plains, NJ, and again on Tuesday March 2nd
at Microsoft’s New York Office (1290 6th
Avenue, near Rockefeller Center).
To
register, call (973)984-7600, hit 0 and ask to register
for this event, or visit http://www.qtsnet.com/stayinformed/seminars/register.htm.
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PRESIDENT'S
CORNER
One
of the columns that I’ve written over the last three
years that has gotten the most comments from QuikNews
readers was last June’s column discussing Stephen
Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (see http://www.qtsnet.com/stayinformed/QuikNews/QuikNews
June2003.htm for the column). I’ve had
numerous people remark to me that this prompted them to
read, or re-read, the book and that they learned and
benefited from it.
Last
fall, one of my customers mentioned he had read First
Things First – another book by Covey and Roger and
Rebecca Merrill. I always try to learn from my
customers and others I interact with (good relationships
always work both ways), and since he recommended the
book and offered it to me, I started to read it.
I
don’t really consider myself to be in the “book
review” business, but my goal for this column is to
share ideas with the technology and business
professionals who read this newsletter. Management
of our most precious resource – time – is a
universal issue with almost everyone I speak with.
There is always so much to do, and so little time to get
it all done in. So although this month won’t be
a technology column, based on feedback from last June I
hope it’s even more useful.
One
of the most memorable things that I take from Covey’s
materials, and which is illustrated in this book, is the
idea of “big rocks.” Covey and the Merrills
write of an experience in which Covey was speaking to a
group and said he was about to fill up a jar with rocks.
He then poured rocks into the jar until it was full –
or so it seemed. The class agreed the jar was
full. Covey then poured gravel into the jar.
Again, it was full. Covey then poured sand into
the jar, then water. Finally, the jar was truly
full. But the key was the sequence of events.
If the sand had been poured first, then the gravel, then
all the rocks would not have fit.
This
is a key illustration of one of the problems we
routinely face (and one with which I constantly
struggle, much as I try to apply these principles).
If we put the “rocks” in our lives – personal or
professional – first, then the other things fit around
them. But if we allow our time to be consumed in
Quadrant I (Urgent and Important) and Quadrant III
(Urgent and Not Important) – the sand and gravel, so
to speak - then we don’t typically get to the
rocks in Quadrant II (Important, but Not Urgent).
The
Covey system helps by taking a weekly approach to
planning, which provides a wide enough angle with which
to view activities. Decisions on how to spend time
can be made based on a strategy and goals, rather than
tactically based on interruptions and urgency. The
rocks can be planned for, and fit into time slots in the
week – assuming one has the self discipline and (as
Covey would say) the courage of your convictions to make
the right decisions as events come up that threaten to
derail your schedule.
A
point that isn’t really emphasized in the 7 Habits
book, but is in First Things First, is the evaluation
process that should be built into the weekly planning
cycle. The authors speak of experiments with rats
who are trained to move through a maze to get cheese.
They get faster and better at getting to the end, until
the cheese is removed. Ultimately, the rats stop
racing the maze as they realize the cheese won’t be at
the end. How many of us are caught up in the same
patterns of behavior and never take the time to stop,
step back and assess where we’ve been and where
we’re going. I can personally say that at times
I’ve been the rat that has run to the end of the maze,
over and over, even when the cheese wasn’t there
anymore. Habit and inertia are powerful forces –
much like gravity and centrifugal force, they hold us
back and it is hard to break their grip. It takes
discipline, and a strong goal focus, to do so.
So
– what are your highest priorities, personally and
professionally? Are you putting your time into
activities that directly work toward achieving those
goals, or are you in react mode with your time going
toward tangents that don’t really contribute to the
things that would have the most significant impacts?
This sounds like it’s coming from a personal rather
than professional angle, and much of Covey’s material
does deal with balancing personal and professional
demands, but even looking at things purely from a
professional context – is your time going in a
structured way toward activities that directly tie to
things that are in line with business priorities and
will help your organization achieve its goals?
What are those goals and priorities, and how do you and
your team contribute to them?
We
talked about the four quadrants in my June column, and
this is one of the key concepts behind Covey’s 7
habits. Another interesting observation in First
Things First is how organizational culture drives
activity within the quadrants. The typical
organization typically spends 50-60% of its time in
Quadrant III (Urgent but Not Important), 25-30% in
Quadrant I (Urgent and Important) and only 15% in
Quadrant II (Important but Not Urgent). Highly
effective organizations typically spend 15% of its time
in Quadrant III (Urgent but Not Important), 20-25% in
Quadrant I (Urgent and Important) and only 65% or more
in Quadrant II (Important but Not Urgent). This
is done by preventing urgent problems from occurring in
the first place.
What
are the Quadrant II activities that tie to your
organization and its mission? How do you and your
team support your organization’s mission and key
goals? I’m not saying to stop taking support
calls (non-IT staff contribute to these goals too), but
is there a way to restructure activities for greater
effectiveness?
Covey
then talks about win-win stewardship agreements as a
tool to get teams of people to work toward a shared set
of goals and values, in line with the organizational
mission. He observes that in the typical
organization, 60% of staff time is spent on activities
that don’t directly contribute to the organization’s
goals (including wasted effort and office politics).
By
focusing teams of people on goals that make a
difference, Covey feels organizations can become truly
effective. He also indicates that this is a
rarity, unfortunately. To achieve this requires
genuine commitment and open and effective communication,
as well as transformational leadership. But it can
be achieved, and is achieved by a number of
organizations.
So,
the question would seem to be, what are your
organization’s top business goals and priorities?
What are the top IT priorities, and do the two of these
align? How does your IT organization align with
these business goals, and what can be done to maximize
the effectiveness (as opposed to the efficiency) of your
organization in supporting the business? And, as
an IT leader is your time spent in production,
management, or leadership? Where should it be
spent?
When
I started reading this book, my first reaction was that
this was a re-hash of information from the 7 Habits
book. And some of it is. But this book
presents the information in a different way, and
supplements it to focus the information, old and new, in
a way that seems very relevant – to me and QTS today
for sure, and I’m guessing to many of your and your
organizations as well. I also think the approach
this book takes is equally important at a personal
level, and that’s for you to decide. But I’d
recommend this book. I learned from another client
the idea of re-reading the 7 Habits annually as a
focusing activity (and to learn new things and practice
new ideas). Now I’ll modify that annual ritual
to switch between these two books, since they focus a
body of knowledge in different ways.
Finally,
I’d like to take a moment to thank to Bob Tivey, the
IT Director at Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer and an
individual for whom I have great personal respect, for
making this column possible by recommending the book to
me.
As
always, feel free to email me your comments or thoughts
at nrosenberg@QTSnet.com.
Thank you.
Neil
Rosenberg
President & CEO
Quality Technology Solutions
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PARTNER
SPOTLIGHT: Razorpoint Security
This
month QTS is spotlighting its network security and
penetration test partner, Razorpoint Security
Technologies, Inc. Based in New York City,
Razorpoint Security specializes in researching and
analyzing security vulnerabilities and conducting
comprehensive security testing. Razorpoint
Security’s testing goes well beyond the average
“port scan” or “vulnerability scan” exercises.
They look at your network through the eyes of those
looking to do you harm. As Razorpoint Security’s
president Gary Morse says, “We know what they know, we
know what they see, and we know what they do.”
Razorpoint
Security’s assessments provide business leaders and
corporate clients the necessary security services and
solutions that help keep corporate networks secure.
They have exceptional expertise in network security,
attack/penetration testing and identifying security
vulnerabilities especially as they relate to Internet
solutions and web applications. They provide
security services that focus the view of your operating
environment. Razorpoint Security offers all
sectors of business the services to maintain a firm
grasp on the evolving state of network security.
Razorpoint
Security’s attack/penetration tests identify
potentially disastrous security vulnerabilities and help
ensure the protection of network infrastructures and
e-business ventures. While many security firms
provide singular penetration tests with limited
documentation, Razorpoint Security offers a year-round
assessment schedule, customized documentation
deliverables, and monthly security advisories that help
keep clients up to date.
As
Razorpoint Security Technologies approaches the start of
its fourth year in business, they have clearly become a
leading force in the network security industry. In
addition to providing comprehensive security services to
its clients, Razorpoint Security has become a prime
media source on information security. News outlets
such as The New York Times Magazine, ABC/CourtTV, CBS
News, Crain’s NY Business, Entrepreneur Magazine, CSO
(Chief Security Officer) Magazine, CRN Magazine and
Wired News are among those that have tapped Razorpoint
Security for their expertise.
As
local leaders in the security field, QTS and Razorpoint
Security have worked together to develop a Penetration
& Attack Testing offering that fits into QTS’
QuikSecure methodology and is a logical progression for
customers who have completed QTS’ QuikSecure Security
and Vulnerability Assessment offerings. This
QuikSecure PAT offering has been scaled, and priced,
appropriate for the Medium Business market space.
For
more information on Razorpoint Security Technologies,
please view their web site at www.razorpointsecurity.com,
email them at sales@razorpointsecurity.com, or call
212.744.6900. Or, contact your QTS Account
Manager.
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