2009 was a tumultuous year for the small-business Owner. Cutbacks and spending freezes from our customers have forced many of us to make some very difficult decisions with regards to employee retention.

Some of us have been forced to lay off some really good people as we attempt to reduce our cost structures, collect on outstanding receivables and most importantly find new revenue.

I came across a recent article by Roger Grimes entitled “Do you have a handle on your managed resources?” The article is really geared towards a larger IT department but I think it sheds some light on a new challenge that the small-business owner needs to consider.

From a computer infrastructure perspective each employee must exist as a user on the network. In addition to being assigned a physical workstation, that user needs the workstation to be assigned as a resource on the network. Each user and resource are then granted permissions and assigned to groups based on their job roles.

For example, you hire a new controller, and want to give him or her a workstation with access to email, shared files and your accounting data.

To accomplish that on the network your controller is created as a network users in your network directory. He or she is then assigned a workstation as a resource. The controller is granted permission to access email, shared files and your small businesses accounting system as a member of the finance group.

Proper maintenance of this directory is essential to maintaining a secure, reliable computing environment. As new employees start and others move on, this directory must be updated to avoid risks to security. (stale accounts give malicious hackers great opportunities to exploit your network)

This is a difficult process to maintain under normal circumstances, but for the last nine months our business environment has been chaotic. It’s a good bet that network directory maintenance has taken a backseat to far more pressing issues. But it should be addressed and the sooner the better.

Roger’s article is a pretty easy read and it should help provide some direction for those of you that feel like you can take care of this issue by yourself. But as Roger related his story, it’s really easy to delete items from the directory and cause a catastrophe. So if you’re going to attempt to do this yourself you need to know that you might delete something that could take your entire network down.

At PMV Technologies, we’ve developed add move and change policies that we’ve baked into our internal systems and procedures. Our team does this all the time and we can guarantee our work. If you need help with this issue or with any other aspects of managing your computer network please feel free to contact us.