Consulting: Your IT in Order, in Your Name, Documented

First, buy a domain name in the company’s name (your-company.ch). Then choose an email service that uses it: Infomaniak, Google, Microsoft or another. Last, set the DNS records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) so that your emails arrive and do not end up in spam.

It is the address of your website and your emails: your-company.ch. You rent it from a registrar, for one year or more. It belongs to the person or company registered as the owner: check that this is the company.

Short, easy to say on the phone, without a hyphen if possible, and close to the company name. Take the extension of your market (.ch in Switzerland), and the .com if you work abroad. Check that it is free at a registrar, then register it in the company’s name.

A .ch domain costs from a few francs to a few tens of francs a year, depending on the registrar. Look at the renewal price, not only the first-year price: it is often higher.

The owner registered with the registrar. Often an agency or a former employee bought it for you, and the company does not own it. Ask your registrar who the owner is, and have the domain put in the company’s name.

Ask your current registrar for the transfer code (authorization code), then start the transfer at the new registrar. Before that, write down your DNS settings, mainly the email ones, to avoid an outage. A change of owner is a separate step.

Yes. You rent a domain for one or more years, and you must renew it. Without renewal, it becomes free again and someone else can take it. Turn on auto-renewal with a company payment method.

With managed IT services, you hand all or part of your IT to a provider on an ongoing basis: workstations, servers, backups, security, support. Maintenance works more case by case, when something breaks. My approach sits between the two: I set up foundations in your name, documented, then IT Care checks them every month. You do not depend on me.

It depends on the number of people, the devices and the software to look after, and on what is included: support, backups, security. IT Care is priced per person and per month, with a minimum. The exact amount is on a quote, after the IT check and a thirty-minute call.

The most common: a stolen or reused password, a fake email (phishing), ransomware that encrypts your files, and a former employee who kept their access. Three measures cover the essentials: two-factor authentication, tested off-site backups, and access closed on the day someone leaves.

To log in, you need your password and a second proof: a code on your phone, an app or a physical key. A stolen password is then no longer enough. Turn it on first for email, then for the tools that hold customer or banking data.

An encrypted vault that keeps all your passwords and fills them in for you. You only remember one. It creates a different, long password for each account, and it lets the team share an access without writing it down anywhere.

A copy of your data kept somewhere other than the original, so you can get it back after a breakdown, a theft, a mistake or ransomware. It must be automatic, off-site and tested: a backup you have never restored a file from proves nothing.

Follow the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media, with 1 off-site. Backups must run automatically. A backup only counts if you have already restored a file from it: test it at least once a quarter.

Keep a list of each person’s accounts. On the day they leave: close their accounts, change the shared passwords, collect their devices, and forward their mailbox to a colleague. With a password manager and a written procedure, this takes one hour.

The essentials (two-factor authentication, a password manager, tested backups) rely on tools that cost a few francs per person per month. The main cost is the set-up, done once, then a regular check.

No. No hardware, no on-site visits, no on-call service: a local provider does hardware better. I handle accounts, access, backups and software, remotely.