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Technical Consulting

Fractional Tech Expertise – Defining The Need

Let’s face it. The term “consultant” is a dirty word. Well, at least it can be off-putting if you’ve ever had experience with contracting a consultant that kept on billing without any accountability or visibility for what they are billing you. In big business, this is unfortunately commonplace, especially when there is little or no contract performance monitoring in place. In my 25+ years in big business IT, I have experienced both the pros and cons of using consultants several times over. So much so in fact, that I am often reluctant to use the word to describe some of our services. And as a practice, we don’t refer to ourselves, in any capacity, as a “consulting firm” to help avoid the stigma. We “do” consulting because our client’s need it and we can help.

In today’s business, across many disciplines including financial, legal, marketing, staffing, and technology, consulting serves a valuable purpose. But the classic “on retainer” model of traditional consulting (the origin story for much of the bad juju) is being displaced with a more efficient model - Fractional Consulting.

What is Fractional Consulting?

While there are many definitions floating around, Fractional Consulting is essentially “targeted” consulting, meaning the purpose of the engagement is clear, limited, and defined. The primary differentiators of Fractional Consulting are:

  • Outcome-centric - the entire engagement exists solely to achieve an outcome,
  • Transparent - the outcomes of the engagement are defined,
  • Limited In Scope - bounds of the engagement are set to avoid unbudgeted activities,
  • Measurable - the results are measurable in the terms defined outcome(s).

For example, a fractional staff augmentation engagement where you need a “C” level resource (e.g., CFO, CMO, CTO) on demand to help navigate your company through high-level strategy and decisions looks much different than a C type providing “strategic consulting on retainer”. In this case, the outcome is a “Strategy” deliverable which should manifest in a tangible document or set of documents delivered in a specific timeframe.

Whether your need is a specific strategic skillset in a discipline to augment your management team, or a project focused engagement, Fractional Consulting offers a risk-averse alternative to traditional consulting, allowing you to focus your resources and attention where they are needed most. Now, let’s get into some techy use cases.

Use Case: Selecting a Technology Service

A few months ago, we discussed The Technology DIY Trap , and how easy it is to get locked into a solution or toolset that, in the end, limits your company’s growth. In the tech world this is often referred to a “Vendor Lock-In”. Unfortunately Vendor Lock-In is very commonplace for small and mid-sized businesses because the vendors are very good at selling the whistles and bells of their products and services. They intentionally lower the barrier of entry to “hook you” into buying, sometimes even with free trials that offer less functionality. And if you can’t or don’t define exactly what you need in business, functional, and technical terms, the result is very often you buying something more or something other than what you really need. If the result is something more, the impact is often over-paying for the solution. But, if the result is something other, the impact adversely affects you ability to deliver efficiently, and scale as your business grows because you are “locked in”.

In today’s business, selecting a core tool/app/solution to run your operations has long term implications. Every business has some semblance of a CRM, Project Management System, and ERP system amongst others. If you can’t identify any of these it means you are doing it manually which may be fine now but will it be okay in a year or two?. These core tools directly affect your overall profitability, ability to scale your operations, and ultimately your customer satisfaction, which is the life blood of every business. Even if you define what you need in terms of what you understand, there are many aspects of tool selection that you may not have the expertise to predict. And therein are hidden risks to your success. For example, will this solution work with your other solutions? Is is secure? These appear to be simple questions, but rarely result a simple answer.

Often the first and most important missing piece of the puzzle is Requirements. The old adage, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” The requirements are the plan. The more diligence you invest into the plan, the more likely you are to end up with what you need. If you can map a solution to a comprehensive set of business, functional, and technical requirements, And that is where Fractional Technical Consulting is your friend- targeted expertise where and when you need it to ensure your requirements are comprehensive. Once you have these, your Technical Consultant can help you analyze which solutions will help you both now and three year from now.

Most small and mid-sized business don’t need or want the overhead of dedicated Tech Staff to run their day-to-day business. But it doesn’t mean you need to go without it when you do. And when you do, like you would hire a lawyer to defend you in court, hire a qualified Technology Professional to help ensure you get exactly what you need when selecting technology solutions to enable your business.

Wrapping it Up

At CMHWorks, we provide several types of Fractional Tech Expertise as well as fixed cost Technology and Security Assessments to assist you in reducing your technology risks, improving your efficiency, and gaining competitive advantage over your competition.

For More on Fractional Consulting:

Get Awesome Maintenance and Support

Maintenance vs. Support – The Down & Dirty

Some words that you may often hear in terms of IT services are “Maintenance” and “Support”. If you’re not in the business of delivering IT services, these words may be synonymous to you. In fact, they are not at all. When dealing with IT Service providers, it will benefit you to remove any ambiguity about “Maintenance” and “Support” in understanding what is being provided.

Simple Definitions

So let’s define these things in their simplest terms and provide some real world examples.

What is the Context?

The context in IT terms are applications, services, hosts, etc. Any “thing” that contributes to the functionality you expect requires some level of Maintenance and Support. Combined, Maintenance and Support determine the overall Availability, Security, and Usability of the thing.

Both Maintenance and Support combined determine the overall Availability, Security, and Usability of the thing.

What is Maintenance?

Maintenance is the ongoing care and feeding of the thing. It is:

  • the proactive measures to ensure the thing continues to do what it is meant to do,
  • regularly performed on a schedule,
  • determines the ultimate availability of the thing,
  • critical to ensure the Availability and Security of the thing.

What is Support?

Support is the activity of restoring or enhancing the functionality of a thing. It is:

  • the reactive measures to return the thing to a desired state,
  • performed as a result of an event,
  • critical to ensure the ongoing Usability of the thing.

What You Should Know

So what does this mean to you? If you subscribe to any IT Services, both Maintenance and Support will determine the overall value of the service to you. Here are the takeaways:

  1. Maintenance applies to the systems/services, code, and content of the thing. Like your house or car, without adequate Maintenance, the thing will ultimately fail.
  2. Hosting does NOT typically include all the maintenance required. It only provides for the Maintenance of the systems(network and hosts) required to deliver the code and content, not maintenance of the code OR content itself.
  3. Lack of adequate Maintenance is the primary reason that the thing:
    • does not perform as desired through failed code resulting in lack of Availability and Security exposure (hacks),
    • and drives up reactive Support events needed to restore the thing to its desired state.
  4. Support is the people and process by which a thing is restored when needed (when some event happens).
  5. Lack of or inadequate Support:
    • degrades the usability of the thing,
    • delays the restoration of the thing when an event occurs,
    • erodes customer confidence in the thing.

Summary

In dealing with any IT Service Provider, it is important you not only understand the Maintenance and Support being provided, but make sure you are getting the levels of each you need to have peace of mind in knowing your “thing” will perform as needed for the duration. While the levels of maintenance and support vary depending on the thing being provided, you should never assume you need none of either unless you are a gambler.

... Make sure you are getting the levels of each you need to have peace of mind in knowing your “thing” will perform as needed for the duration.

At CMHWorks, we provide many levels of Maintenance and Support, and can tailor one to meet the needs of your thing. For more information see:

Freemail is NOT secure.

The Freemail Pitfalls

In January’s newsletter, I covered the Four Pillars for any Business, and why selecting the right tools as the foundation of your business is critical to your success. In this installment of Mike’s Musings, I’d like to dive a little deeper into one of the common traps and why you should avoid it for your business - that is the use of Freemail.

When discussing the use of Freemail in business, we often hear comments like, “It’s free and it works, so why pay for something else?” Well, here are a few very good reasons to spend $6-7 a month.

Anything offered for free always has a catch

In any product or service offered, if you are not purchasing said product or service , you are the product.

All services have a cost. Companies offering the service must cover that cost. If you are not paying for the service, the company providing the service is leveraging you and the data you provide (along with all its other subscribers) to recoup the cost and make a tidy profit. How do they do it? The two most common ways companies turn your free use into cash through either advertising revenue, direct sales of your contact information, or both.

For personal use, okay. For business, notsomuch.

So you use Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail personally. You are familiar with the services. Why not use them for your business right? Wrong. Here’s why:

  1. While you may be fine with personal use data being farmed, you should assume you have next to zero data privacy. Communications and data about your business should never be exposed for the whole world to see. Doing so leaves your business vulnerable so hackers targeting your company with Social Engineering exploits like Spoofing, Phishing, Smishing and Vishing, with no ability to secure your data.
  2. Because you can’t expect any reasonable data privacy, you are potentially giving your competitors vital information about how to compete with you. Information you send to vendors and customers is valuable to your competitors. If you’re sending and receiving sensitive information with Freemail , you should expect it to be reasonably easy to get.
  3. Because you have no semblance of privacy, you are susceptible to the all-dreaded spam, spam, spam. I’m not sure if I know anyone that like’s spam. And because you are using a Freemail domain that you don’t own, there is nothing you can do to prevent it.
  4. You are missing out on the ability to brand your communications. If you have a website, you likely have a domain registered for your business. You registered the domain for branding and marketing purposes. You cannot use your domain with Freemail services. So, every email you send is a missed opportunity to reinforce your brand.

The Real Costs of Business Class Email

Business-class Email costs about $6-7 per month per mailbox. Sure, you can add on other features and services to suit your needs, but value of Business-class email alone is obvious. At CMHWorks, we offer not only the Email services at the same price you can buy it directly from the providers, but also the setup, support and maintenance because we believe it is fundamental for any business.

The Technology DIY Trap

In last month’s news, I covered the Four Pillars for any Business, and why selecting the right tools as the foundation of your business is critical to your success. Now I’d like to dive a little deeper into the most common mistakes we see that cost businesses time, money, and potential erosion of customer confidence - Tech DIY.

Today you can get most any technology tool via monthly subscription. But… just because you can, doesn't mean you should. While anyone can “do the Google”, it doesn’t make you an expert anymore than WebMD makes you a doctor.

In the IT world, these tools are often referred to as Software as a Services (SaaS) solutions. The companies that provide these services also market them aggressively. But not all of these services are alike in terms of features, cost and most importantly quality. Sure they want you to buy their stuff. Like any industry, the technology services space a “buyer beware” jungle. Unless you know, you may be a sucker and fall into the DIY Trap.

Something we see very often is business owners attempting to manage their technology infrastructure themselves in an effort to save money. The truth is in almost every case, unless you are a Technology Professional, you will do more harm than good. This is a classic case of being “penny-wise and dollar foolish” as it always costs more to undo mistakes and service outages than to engage a professional to manage your changes in the first place.

Lastly, let’s consider the impact of service outages on your customer’s confidence. If your customer depends on your service, there is a erosion of trust in that service every time it doesn't work. And trust is easy to lose and hard to regain.

At CMHWorks, we offer services to help our client avoid the DIY Trap including Technology Assessments, Professional Services Consulting and Support to help you navigate the Tech Solutions jungle.

Stay tuned for future installments where we will be discussing each of the Essential Tools in more depth.

Tools and Phone

Essential Tools for Today’s Business

One of the most common challenges facing any business today is differentiating itself in the digital world. It is virtually impossible to compete today without a visible digital presence. This challenge applies to all businesses from start-ups to multi-national conglomerates alike. But unlike large companies that have the technical capacity to implement tools to market, support and secure their operations, smaller companies typically do not. This is especially true for small businesses who often do not have the resources or skills to build a solid technical foundation. The good news is that for most businesses large and small the foundation is basically the same. And regardless of your company's size, there are essential tools to build and grow your business today on a solid foundation.

Selecting the Essential Tools for Your Business can be frustrating

Four Pillars for Any Business

In addition to any specific tools used to deliver services, there are four (4) essential or foundational tools for all digital businesses today. These tools are equally important and should work in concert to serve as the foundation of your business:
  1. Website AND Social Media ‐ the website and social media make up the "visible" marketing aspect of a business's digital presence. While often handled as separate tools, they should be working together to continually increase your visibility.
  2. Collaboration ‐ typically starting with Email, Collaboration tools should also include calendaring/scheduling, file sharing, real-time chat, and audio/video conferencing that allow your team to work together and with your customers.
  3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) ‐ CRMs primary functions are to proivde a framework to manage Marketing, Sales and Customer Service activities enabling the management of potential business "cradle to grave" from leads to sales to support of your products and services.
  4. Cybersecurity ‐ including User Training, Endpoint Protection, Monitoring and Mitigation, Cybersecurity tools provide digital security for all other tools and protects your company's digital assests from denial of service attacks, hacking and theft.

While there are likely other tools your company will need as it grows, the tools above will serve as the ecosystem to support them. And the sooner you build that foundation, the sooner you can get to the business of growing your business.

Avoid the Common Pitfalls

There are several pitfalls to avoid when selecting the tools that are the foundation of you businesses digital presence.
  • Don't Use "Freemail". ‐ Anything offered for free usually has a catch. Freemail services such as GMail, Outlook.com, Yahoo and the like the tradeoff is privacy which is a big payout for little savings. And you@gmail.com does not enhance your digital presence.
  • If you don't know, ask a professional. ‐ The old addage "Do what you do well and pay experts to do the rest&qout; especially applies to selecting your tools and making them work together. Get advice from people who know. Not all IT People have the same skills. Your nephew who is "really good on Social Media" maybe inexpensive, but is probably not qualified to build the foundation of your business.
  • Don't view the tools as individual solutions. ‐ All of your tools should work together to serve as a solid foundation. Make sure the tools you chose integrate, and integrate everthing you can.

Summary

Selecting the right tools is critical for your business, and you should take care in the choices of what tools to use so you house isn't built on sand. All tools are not created equal.

Stay tuned for future installments where we will be discussing each of the Essential Tools in more depth.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance… What is it and Why do I need it?

What is Quality Assurance?

Like saving money and delivering a sound product to your customer? Who wouldn’t!

Quality Assurance testing assists companies in fulfilling the expectations based on requirements provided by their customers to ensure that their products or services meet a certain level of quality. Yup, identify and fix any bugs or errors before the products or services are released to the customers.

Bugs in the Code

Quality Assurance testing methods focus on establishing good practices to produce products with the quality already built in, rather than going through an unmonitored production process and attempting to “inspect the quality” of the product that has already been provided to the customer. Taking a specialized approach in quality assurance testing focuses on monitoring each portion of the process prior, during and post implementation to effectively measure the performance or the application.

So how do you Quality Test, you ask?

Here are a few types of software testing that can fit the needs of your client:

  • Unit Testing – Unit tests are generally automated and can run very quickly by a continuous integration server. They focus on testing individual methods and functions of the components or modules used by your software.
  • Integration Testing – Integration tests verify that different modules or services used by your application work well together. For example, integration testing validates that the interaction between a database and integrated microservices work together as expected.
  • Regression Testing – Regression testing is a method of testing that is used to ensure that changes made to the software do not introduce new bugs or cause existing functionality to break.
  • Functional Requirement Testing – Functional tests focus on the business requirements of an application. This type of testing verifies the application feature works as expected, per the software requirement.

Now that we have covered the “What” it is, let’s talk about the “Why” you need it!

Want to keep your current customers happy? And not risk losing potential customers?  Considering how much time a company spends on the internet, it is more important now than ever to be sure that your websites and apps function properly. If your website is not functioning properly, you could risk losing both current and future customers. Delivering the best possible product that you can gives your clients a peace of mind that their software runs as smoothly as possible.

Benefits of a Quality System

  • Cost Savings! The longer a bug goes undetected, the more difficult and expensive it is to fix. Detecting a bug in-house during the software development phases, prior to your client or customer finding the bug builds confidence in the product quality.
  • Quality Assurance Brings Security – Given the growing trend of cyber security attacks, software quality assurance testing allows you to probe every phase of the development process and check for vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of any leaks in data that would cost you more than you expected.
  • Improved User Experience – A thoroughly tested software product ensures a better user experience and makes their navigation hassle-free.
  • Prevents Software Breakdowns – Given that you cannot predict errors while working, quality assurance software testing allows you to check your products performance under various loads, devices, and architectures to avoid unforeseen breakdowns. During the software development lifecycle your product will undergo functional and non-functional testing to ensure efficiency, productivity, and user experience are working as expected.

Takeaways

Hopefully, reading this article makes you feel more knowledgeable and empowered in understanding the importance of Quality Assurance Testing and how it benefits millions of companies across a vast variety of industries each day.

Get started today with your Quality Assurance Testing experts here at CMH Works!

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CyberSecurity Awareness Training - Don't get hacked!

Benefits of Cybersecurity Awareness Training

The Power of Cybersecurity Training: Safeguarding Your Digital Assets

In an increasingly interconnected world, where cyber threats loom large, threat actors are smarter than ever, and data breaches make headlines. To combat this threat, we must take proactive measures to protect our digital assets. Cybersecurity training, in general, plays a pivotal role in equipping us with the knowledge and skills necessary to defend against cyberattacks, and maintain a more secure digital environment.

In 2021, 98% of cyberattacks relied on social engineering. According to PurpleSec (2021)

Social Engineering is a category of cyber threats focused on humans and their social behaviors. Right now, Social Engineering is the most prevalent attack vector because it preys on the uneducated person’s “likely” behaviors. Hackers use these behaviors to gain access to your systems and assets. The key to combating these Social Engineering threats is to educate, and thereby change that behavior.

In this article, we explore the compelling benefits of Cybersecurity Awareness Training as a tool to combat Social Engineering threats, and how they can provide measurable value in securing your organization.

Heightened Awareness and Threat Recognition

Cybersecurity Awareness Training serves as a powerful tool to educate your organization about the various types of cyber threats and attack vectors that they are exposed to. By educating on the latest techniques used by hackers, your staff becomes more adept at recognizing potential threats. These threats include phishing emails, malware, or social engineering attempts. Recognizing these threats means faster detection and reporting of suspicious activities, mitigating the risk of successful cyberattacks.

Social Engineering Cyberattack Vectors

Exercising and Testing Knowledge

It’s critical to understand where your organization is in terms of Cybersecurity Awareness. Providing knowledge is the first step to increasing that awareness. But, exercising that knowledge is what really changes the behavior. The best way to exercise is through real world testing.

An effective CyberSecurity Awareness Training program includes the periodic testing of users with safe Social Engineering attacks, such as phishing emails, to record their actual behavior. Did the user click the link, or did the follow protocol and report it to the Security Team? Or did they at least delete it? Measuring the results of these exercises across your organization will give you the insights you need to continuously improve your stance against cyberattack.

Reducing Vulnerabilities and Improving Response

It’s not a matter of IF you will be hacked. It’s a matter of when. What is critical is how quickly and effectively you respond when it happens.

A well-trained workforce is a crucial line of defense against cyber threats. Cybersecurity Awareness Training equips your organization with the skills not only to identify the threats, but respond to them when they happen. And eventually, they will happen.

Another fundamental part of Cybersecurity Awareness is understanding the risks associated with the digital endpoints, a.k.a. the Desktops, Mobile Devices, Servers, and Online Services that are the foundations of your digital footprint. Understanding the importance of basic security fundamentals as password protection, timely patching, and regular backups is paramount. By exercising these fundamentals, your team contributes to a proactive security culture, and thereby reduce risk. Adopting automation tools and having dedicated resources to enforce behavior is the key.

Furthermore, training modules on incident response enable organizations to minimize the impact of an attack by swiftly containing and remedying the breach, mitigating potential financial and reputational damages.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity training is a pillar in safeguarding your organization against ever-evolving threats. By increasing awareness, strengthening defense strategies, and reducing vulnerabilities, organizations and individuals can significantly reduce the risks associated with cyberattacks. Investing in comprehensive cybersecurity training programs not only protects sensitive data, but also instills a “security-first” mindset among your staff. Remember, when it comes to cybersecurity, knowledge is power, and training is the key to unlocking it.

When it comes to cybersecurity, knowledge is power, and training is the key to unlocking it.

If you would like to discuss your current Cybersecurity posture, we are here to help. To get a no obligation consultation with a CMHWorks Cybersecurity expert, please feel free to reach us at info@cmhworks.com.  Take a look at some of the managed security solutions we offer here.

Additional Information

Application like Orphaned baby on the doorstep

The Reality of Orphaned Apps

Orphaned applications are unfortunately a fact of life. This is most especially true in the small business world. While it’s very easy to find an application developer to build you an application, it’s very hard to find one that can build the environment to support it and provide ongoing hosting and maintenance at a price you can afford.

The Application Performance Management Cycle

The disciplines of service architecture, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) are not native to most development shops. To the layperson, these are all tech buzzwords. These disciplines are unique areas of technical expertise reserved for larger IT departments and companies that have robust architecture, engineering, database, DevOps, and content delivery capabilities. Most importantly, they also do Application Performance Monitoring. These skills are not in any way in the skill set of your “classic development shop”.  Yes, you went to a podiatrist for a facelift.

 

Ordered a Ferrari.  Got a Pontiac.

So, what does this mean for small companies that have outsourced the development of their web app, mobile/native app, PWA, or software to classic development shops? It means often the project is completed, you pay for this solution, you get a salute from the vendor.  And when you need updates or want to integrate it with something else, you pay through the nose if they oblige you at all.  And you have no idea if it will be secure, perform well, or scale at all.

Ferrari and Pontiac are NOT Equal

Sound familiar?  You have an “orphaned app” of dubious quality and questionable performance “at scale” – and you just got started.  Well, you are not alone.

How Did This Happen?

The hard truth is the answer lies in your lack of expertise in cars and your lack of diligence in researching what you were buying.  The same holds true for custom development.  Most buyers don’t know what to ask for.  And even if you did know what to ask for, how would you verify the quality of the solution? The truth is you cannot, or you likely would have the expertise to build it yourself. 

Now let’s talk about performance.  The overall performance of your application depends on how the application is built, what infrastructure it runs on, how scalable the component architecture is, as well as how well the code is written.  When you buy an app from a development company that does not do architecture design and hosting as a core business, you are essentially buying code that is not been tested to scale.  The vendor will likely deploy your code to a single cloud server running everything including the database.  They will ask you to test is to make sure it does what you need it to do (the minimal requirement), provide enough fixes until you accept it, and send you a bill. 

The bottom line is you probably asked for “working code” and that’s all you got.

Building is Easy.  Maintenance Takes Commitment.

There are literally thousands of these “classic dev shops” promising to leverage their vast development resources to build your app “for a fraction of the cost”.  Why are there so many? There are so many classic dev shops because many countries have a glut of developers that have been churned out of school with basic skills that do this work for peanuts.  And the initial development of something is where the easy money is.  The quality of the work is likely not a success factor.  The objective is to minimally meet the requirements and get paid.  You want a warranty? Good luck with that.  You wouldn’t buy a car without a warranty.  Why would you buy a tech solution without one? But it happens all day every day.   

What does that mean for you? That means that eventually, if your business model is realistic and the use of your application grows, you will have performance issues, security issues, and maintenance issues.  It's not a question of if, it’s a question of when.

It’s All About the Foundation

Foundation Built on Sand

Many people use the old “house foundation” analogy.  But it is so true here I will risk it.  The environment hosting the thing you just paid for is the foundation of your solution.  Some questions you should ask:

  • What is my roadmap for the solution over the next 3-5 years?
  • Will the solution support the roadmap and all the users we anticipate?
  • Can it scale efficiently to support the user base (whatever that user base is) with no interruptions?
  • Who will maintain and monitor the ongoing performance of my solution?

If the answer to any of the questions is “no” or “I don’t know”, stop, and get some help from a solution provider, not just a “dev shop”.

How to Engage a Solution Provider

Ideally, you should make sure you have access to adequate expertise to scope and manage your investment.  You should understand that vendors are very good at presenting things that sound good initially, but don’t necessarily meet the needs in the long term.  Like everything, the technology space is a “buyer beware” world.  If you have a trusted and reputable vendor, it is much easier.  But it is always a “trust but verify” situation.   

Your best defense is a team of experts you trust with the experience and skills to help you ensure you get what you need.

The Minimum You Should Do

If you are thinking of hiring a vendor with unknown performance, you should do your diligence.  The level of diligence depends on many factors not least of which is cost.  But ideally, the diligence you do should be adequate to mitigate the risk.  Development is a service like any other.  And to protect your investment, you should consider some best practices when engaging anyone providing you any service:

  1. To protect your Intellectual Property, execute an NDA with the vendor prior to discussing your needs in any detail.
  2. Require 2-3 reputable and verifiable references and verify them before engaging the vendor.
  3. Have the contract reviewed by a contract attorney. At a minimum, this should include terms such as:
    1. warranty terms and guaranteed service levels,
    2. the deliverables be delivered to you, and not owned or managed by anyone else,
    3. and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) of the deliverables reviewed by a third party.

Honestly Assess Your Own Skills

Last and most importantly, you need to be honest about your capabilities.  If you own a business, you likely have one, if not several, areas of expertise.  If technology development or contract law are not in your wheelhouse, admit it and enlist the help of a professional with those skills.  You will be glad you did, and you won’t end up holding an orphaned app wondering how you got here. 

IT Security Primer for SMBs

How big of a deal is IT Security for SMBs?

No business is too small. Small and mid-sized businesses are the number one targeted segment of cybercrime. It’s not a question of if you will be attacked, it’s a question of when.​

SMB IT Security

​A PRIMER FOR SMALL AND MID-SIZED BUSINESSES

HackerU Cybersecurity

American University and Hacker U Select CMHWorks as a Hiring Partner

American University & HackerU has chosen CMHWorks as a recruitment partner to consider candidates who have completed their Cybersecurity Security Professional Program. With the threat of cyberattacks on the rise, the program recognizes how appealing an IT Professional with a Cybersecurity knowledge base can be to a company like CMHWorks.

Washington, DC – July, 12, 2021. Israel’s premier digital skill and cybersecurity institute, HackerU, has been partnering with educational institutes worldwide, currently in 12 countries. In 2019, HackerUSA, a subsidiary, has partnered with American University, based out of Washington, DC.

According to Bryan Gulcin, Business Relations Manager at HackerUSA in recent LinkedIn post,

“We are happy to collaborate with CMHWorks and add them to American University‘s and HackerU‘s growing list of hiring partners!”

Mike Harvey, founder and principal owner of CMHWorks, has more than 30 years of experience as a Technology and Operations executive with broad experience in enterprise technology strategy, development, implementation, and management. He founded CMHWorks, LLC in 2014 to provide Technology Services and Support to public and private sector clients.

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