AgniTEK - Newsletter Articles

Balance Of Work And Life Is A Myth

AgniTEK — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Written by Stephen Shapiro Many years back, I led classes on Stephen Covey’s “Principle Centered Leadership” for Accenture’s managers. Over 75 percent of the attendees said that achieving balance in their life was their number one reason for taking the course. This is not surprising given the fast pace of life today. But what does balance mean? Balance implies two opposing forces that reach equilibrium. This is not easy to do. Remember when you were a kid trying to balance with someone else on a seesaw? Either you were up or you were down. But rarely were you balanced. In life, either we are working hard or playing hard at any given moment. But we rarely are in balance. And when most refer to work/life balance being out of alignment, it is typically not because they are enjoying too much play and not enough work. Maybe balance is not the solution. So what’s the alternative? Integration. Find ways of integrating your work and personal life together. In doing th ...

Seven Tips To Establish Rapport With Potential Prospects

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Written by Michael Halper Being able to build rapport with potential prospects will be a very valuable skill when trying to launch a new business. This is important because not only do people buy from people they like, but also because having rapport will greatly improve an entrepreneur’s ability to control and manage an opportunity through a sales cycle. Below are a few tips that can be used to try to positively trigger rapport with prospects. 1. Display Humility Finding times to display humility can sometimes establishing a friendlier atmosphere when dealing with prospects. This might actually sound counterintuitive as we have always been taught to act very confident and assertive as an entrepreneur and showing humility in many ways is the exact opposite of that as it is showing that you are modest and at times imperfect. You certainly want to be confident in whom you are, in the products you sell, and confident in the company you have built. But to sh ...

Share presentations painlessly with Broadcast Slide Show

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

The PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show makes it easy for PowerPoint 2010 users to share a presentation on the fly with anyone, anywhere. Just send a link, and in one click everyone you invite will be watching a synchronized view of your slide show in their Web browser, even if they don’t have PowerPoint 2010 installed. To broadcast your slides to an audience, follow the directions below. Starting a broadcast To start a broadcast from PowerPoint 2010, click Broadcast Slide Show on the Slide Show tab. Ensure the PowerPoint Broadcast Service is selected and click Start Broadcast. Sign in with your Windows Live ID. (If you use Hotmail, Live Messenger, or Xbox LIVE, you already have a Windows Live ID. If not, it only takes a minute to sign up.) PowerPoint will provide a public link that you can send to up to 50 remote attendees. Anyone who receives a link to the broadcast may watch it. Keep in mind that if an attendee forwards the link to someone else, that person ...

The Future of Screen Technology

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Paper computer shows flexible future for smartphones and tablets

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Nancy’s Talk from TEDxEast: You Can Change the World

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

10 insider's shortcuts for Outlook

AgniTEK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Shortcuts are generally good: When training to do heart surgery? Not good. When developing software that helps people be more productive? Not good. When using software more efficiently? Good. These last two are obviously related: When the developers of Outlook created the program, they did not take shortcuts so that you, as the user of aforementioned software, could. And Outlook has a bevy of really great, really easy to remember keyboard shortcuts that you should know if you want to speed up your everyday interactions with it. (Keyboard shortcut: individual keystrokes—or combination of keys pressed at the same time—used to execute commands.) 10 favorite Outlook keyboard shortcuts from some people who use the program all day, every day Switch between Mail, Calendar, and Contacts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3: (Mail is Ctrl+1, Calendar is Ctrl+2, and Contacts is Ctrl+3) Create a meeting request Ctrl+Shift+ Q Move a message from one folder to another Ctrl+Shift ...

BYOD, Are You Prepared? Questions You Should Ask

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:41:00 GMT

No, I’m not talking about having a party but rather one of the hottest topics in technology today. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is becoming an absolute factor in almost every business today. Your employees, vendors, and guests all probably bring some type of personal communication device or their own notebooks to your workplace every day. Many employees are using their own devices to connect to your business networks, if for nothing more than the receipt of your corporate email. So why is BYOD a hot topic? Many companies provide their employees laptops and smartphones to serve as their business computing and mobile communications devices. The business owns those devices, and as a result, the business can control the security of those devices and any business data that the user had downloaded to them. When Blackberry was a standard, Blackberry server handled many of the business security concerns present in mobile devices. Today, we see that burden of security falling back on the business and their IT d ...

When Subscription Lists Go Bad: e-Marketing TLC

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:39:00 GMT

Be honest with me. When was the last time you looked at your e-marketing statistics in Constant Contact, MailChimp, ConnectWise Marketing Manager, or whichever email service provider you use? If you said "yesterday" or "this week" or "every time I send out a campaign," you get a gold star. But here's your next question: When was the last time you analyzed your statistics and acted on them? E-marketing has an illusion of simplicity about it – maybe because it's digital, maybe because there are so many services and tools that claim to make it easy as pie. With a few clicks of a button you can send an email campaign to thousands of people, and then never look at it again. And if you never look at it again, you might miss the fact that most everyone who got it isn't looking at it either. I’ve run into this issue a couple of times in the last few weeks, both from working on cleaning up our own subscription lists and from talking to clients. It takes effort to review your sent emails, campaigns, and e-inv ...

The Future of Windows

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:38:00 GMT

Microsoft held their first ever Build Conference in Anaheim in September. It’s a new annual event for Windows developers to gather and learn about building applications for the Windows platform. This one was special not only because it was the first, but also because leading up to it, all the buzz was about how much of Windows 8 Microsoft would show and what details we would learn about the next version of the most popular operating system in the world. Microsoft did not disappoint. They have showed demos, talked about features and functions, and even made an open beta immediately available to all who are interested to download, play with, and Microsoft hopes develop applications for. The buzz leading up to the conference has grown into a fever pitch with partners, developers, and customers all extremely excited about the next Windows release. What is it about this platform that Microsoft is doing right, and why is everyone so excited? First off, Windows has a new look and feel. The next interface, du ...

How to photograph holidays and special occasions

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:36:00 GMT

The problem with most photos taken during the holidays or other special celebrations is that they don’t capture the special feeling of the season or event. That’s why most holiday, anniversary, birthday, and graduation pictures seem so average. Why settle for ho-hum photos? With preparation and just a few simple tips on photography techniques and photo effects, you can turn your digital photographs into unique works of art that you and your family and friends will enjoy looking at for years. 1. Plan ahead for special occasion mailings The classic problem with holiday photos that you want to use for cards, your annual family letter, or other special mailings is that they have to be taken weeks in advance. Some decorations, like Christmas trees, might not be available, or you might not want to take your menorah or other once-a-year holiday decorations out of storage so far in advance. Or maybe there’s no snow on the ground. It's never too early to think about the perfect image to accompany your specia ...

When Disaster Strikes - The Big Bad Wolf

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:34:00 GMT

It may be superstition, but many of us still believe that catastrophes come in 3s. In the case of a catastrophic loss of business facility (i.e. hurricane, earthquake, waterlogging of fire hoses), many businesses get to experience all three of these catastrophes within the span of a few short days (or even hours). Firstly, one must endure the physical and emotional trauma of experiencing the actual disaster. Secondly, one must pick through the pieces and assess how bad things really are. Thirdly, and the most delicate, will be communicating with employees and customers, having to tell them what’s happened, how bad it is, and what uncertainties the future holds. A Backup System Alone is Not a Disaster Recovery Plan Most small business managers rise to their positions because they have the vision and drive to succeed. For them, planning for a disaster can feel like planning to fail. They don’t like to think about what a disaster would do to their business continuity, so they don’t. Of course, they appr ...

Are your emails falling into a black hole?

AgniTEK — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:31:00 GMT

It’s so frustrating: you regularly send out emails and then sit staring at your computer, waiting for some sort of response. Don’t you sometimes get the feeling that you’re just sending words out into a black hole? Of course, you can never "ensure" that emails are going to be read or acted upon. It’s a sad result of the information overload we suffer from. People who sit working at their computers for hours every day might have the time, energy and interest to open the numerous messages which fill their inbox—or they might not. So what is it exactly that tips them over the delicate, crucial line between “read” and ”leave for later/delete”? The answer is that most recipients of emails often decide whether or not to read them because of two things: the “subject” line and the “from” line. They must recognize who the email is coming from They must see a benefit or reason to open it So consider these useful tips before you send your next mail: 1. Keep it short Would you immediately open and read an em ...

3 Steps to Streamline Your Next Project

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center Have you ever had a project "go sideways" on you? When it happens to you, it feels like you are treading water. You're working hard, but going nowhere. After building a beautiful coordinated project plan in Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel, your dates start slipping. You can see that too much time is being wasted on unnecessary communications, but how do you take back control? Typically, the problem isn't in the upfront planning, it's in the ongoing communication and collaboration. Follow these three steps to ensure all team members are on the same page, making progress to your mutual goal. 1. Create a collaboration site. Endless hours are wasted and bandwidth consumed from circulating documents via email. The larger the project, the worse this problem becomes. Because the document isn't centrally stored, multiple versions are created, and that's where questions and confusion pop-up. "Is this the latest version? Has John reviewed this? ...

3 ways to convert documents to PDFs

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

PDF is a file format that allows text (including fonts) and images to be embedded into a non-editable document. This file format is great for documents that you do not want changed or that you want to make sure anyone can open. There are multiple ways that you can convert your non-PDF documents (such as Word files and Excel spreadsheets) into PDFs. Using Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 If you have Microsoft Office 2010, you can easily save documents as PDFs in Word, Excel, and other programs by going to File > Save As > Adobe PDF. (In Office 2007, you an also look for the Acrobat tab on the ribbon and click Create PDF.) Simply save the PDF with the name and location you want it to have and the PDF will generate. Using CutePDF CutePDF is one of many free programs that allow you to convert documents by "printing" them. You can download CutePDF online at http://www.cutepdf.com. Install the program that you downloaded. Now, when you go to print a document, in the list of printers you can print to, you’ll ...

5 ways to win the PC security battle

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center by Heather Clancy Yes, as you've doubtless heard umpteen times, even the smallest business is vulnerable to a PC or network security breach. But you can find some peace of mind simply by taking some preventive measures. Better yet, by taking action before an incident occurs. IT consultants believe that the most effective data security policies are those that treat security not just as an IT problem but as an underlying business process. What good are firewalls, for example, if you don't have a way for trusted business partners to access your network from a remote location? How effective is a software patch management service if telecommuting employees who are rarely in the office aren't encouraged (or forced) to update? Step one for any security strategy means getting your entire organization involved in the discussion. If you're an IT type, find yourself a champion who has line-of-business responsibilities; someone who understands your c ...

Remote working is no longer an employee perk, it's a business necessity

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center The kind of office most of us are familiar with is a building with four walls and a roof that we probably drive to 40 or so hours each week, Monday through Friday. Today, many companies still maintain traditional offices, but the decision makers are also discovering that to compete in the current economy, employees must be able to do their jobs anywhere, anytime. Microsoft recently commissioned a survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs among more than 4,500 information workers in 15 U.S. markets to better understand opinions and attitudes related to mobile and internal business technologies and capabilities. The survey results further underscore the growing requirement for mobile work solutions - more than half of respondents (57%) report that their company has a formal telework policy and more than three quarters of information workers (77%) say their company provides access to technology support for working remotely. Working without wal ...

Protecting your wireless network

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center Why wireless security? When you have a wireless network, you need to make sure it's kept secure. An unencrypted network presents the potential for security breaches. Wireless technologies that provide long-range connectivity can't be contained within an office. When you use a network that's not secure, hackers could potentially "capture" the information you're sending back and forth. This means passwords, records, and more. Isn't my network already secure? With some older wireless technologies, like Bluetooth, access is limited by physical proximity to the corporate network. However, wireless technologies that provide long-range connectivity, such as 802.11n, can't be contained within an office space. That means anyone within range of a non-secure network can gain access. What happens if I don't secure my network? It may seem harmless to offer your network's access to outside users, but it's more than just letting people surf the Internet for ...

How Smart Is Your Phone?

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Millions of BlackBerry users around the world had their work, business, and social lives severely affected recently after a server crash that disconnected smartphone users across the globe. The three-day outage interrupted email messages and Internet services for customers spanning five continents. In today's world of continuous communication, a network disruption can be detrimental to your business. Below are some simple tips to keep you and your employees connected during an outage. SMS Text Updates: Regardless of the severity of the interruption, it is important you have a way to notify employees, clients, and stakeholders. SMS text messaging has proven to work when other mobile functions are down. Backup Contacts: Keep your contacts updated across all channels, including phone, email, and social media. This will make it easy to reach out to the right people quickly. Update Your Website: Know how to quickly update your website to address the situation. Consider having a pre-populated webp ...

Employee Spotlight - Linda Grasley

AgniTEK — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:00:00 GMT

As AgniTEK continues to grow and develop into an influential regional technology firm, we take pride in showcasing some of our stellar employees. Linda Grasley, our Administrative Assistant, has been working for AgniTEK since March of this year. Originally hailing from Canada, Linda handles the dispatch of service tickets to our technicians. She is also the point person for the invoicing and processing of payments made by clients. Most importantly, Linda is usually the smiling face greeting you when you come by our office! Linda enjoys how the work pace at AgniTEK is "thankfully busy”. She states, “I love the interaction with our clients and trying to help them. In this job you hit the ground running, shortly after 8 A.M. the phone starts ringing as people get to work and start up their computers." As a member of the AgniTEK team, Linda enjoys most "The people I work with and the variety of things I do each day. There is never a dull moment!" When Linda isn’t working, she enjoys antiquing, reading m ...

Are You Ignoring Customers?

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from the HP solutions Site Customer Feedback Want to respond to your customers' needs instantly? Learn more about becoming an Instant-On Enterprise Out of frustration, a team of gardeners wanted to fence a flowerbed after visitors repeatedly cut through it. But one visionary saw things differently and had a path installed instead. After all, it wasn't just any destination—it was Disneyland. Founder Walter "Walt" Disney understood that guests knew where they wanted to go, and it was the staff's job to give them what they wanted. Just like those guests, customers—both in business and the public sector—seek the easiest path. If you don't help your customers get there, your competitor will. Unfortunately, many organizations are losing supporters by ignoring customer feedback on a daily basis without realizing why. High Tech vs. High Touch Technology can be one of your greatest assets—as long as it's used appropriately. Technology usage is the most critical differentiator. Leaders mu ...

Four Habits for Effective Workplace Communication

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

by Marlene Chism Often it is our little habits that prohibit effective communication in the workplace. Whether it’s giving too much advice, offering too much leniency, or sharing too much excitement or passion, here are four habits to increase effective communication in the workplace. Hold your Tongue When your employees are excited, it means they are engaged, so let them talk. This will take self-control, especially if you love to teach or love to share examples and stories. Take a step back and a deep breath instead of rushing to add your two cents. When you interrupt someone, you are simply taking up air space. Even if you are anxious to interject your own point of view, wait. The other person is unable to hear you when he is focused on finishing what he has to say. Encourage your employees to speak about their successes and ideas and you will keep them engaged. Hold your Advice It’s easy to get into the habit of advising and rescuing rather than making them think, but giving advice too quickly ...

5 Tips for Building Connected Work Teams with Online Collaboration Tools

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from Microsoft small Business Site Anyone who has tried to manage a geographically dispersed work team knows how challenging it can be to keep the lines of communications open and efforts well-coordinated. Time zone differences delay communications, different communications styles cause misunderstandings, and activities are difficult to schedule. To complicate matters, it's not easy to make sure that everyone has the latest progress updates, project information and changes to customer requirements. Too many companies are still relying on phone calls, emails and expensive on-site meetings to manage their team collaboration and keep projects on schedule. That's unfortunate when current technology can help build a connected work team and make long-distance collaboration so much simpler. Here are five tips for using online collaboration tools to build connected work teams: #1 Maintain one version of the truth Many of the challenges in project management stem from individual team mem ...

Ten Tips for Making Your Business More Efficient

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from Cisco To keep pace in an increasingly competitive world, your business needs to run as efficiently as possible. "Sooner or later, any company not operating efficiently will be out of business," says Laurie McCabe, vice president of small and medium business insights and solutions for research firm AMI-Partners. Efficiency is even more important for small and medium-sized businesses, McCabe adds, because their resources are limited compared to large global companies. Here are 10 tips for using network technology to help your business work more efficiently, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition. 1. Give employees secure, consistent access to information. You have an advantage over larger competitors because you can react quickly to business changes. But you can quickly lose this edge if your company network is frequently down, sluggish, or unsecured. A secure, reliable network based on intelligent routers and switches lets your employees acce ...

Five Steps Toward Disaster Preparedness

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from Cisco Small Business Site For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the impacts of a disaster can result in loss of or lack of access to data, applications, and work facilities. Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005 impacted countless businesses, from retail stores and hotels to major corporations. Those with disaster recovery plans in place fared much better than those without such contingency plans. More SMBs Beginning to Plan for Disasters While the business impacts of disasters—such as the loss of data and communications infrastructure, leaving a business unable to function—are widely understood, SMB have been slower to develop disaster recovery plans as compared to larger organizations. But that appears to be changing. According to the Yankee Group's 2006 U.S. Small and Medium Business IT Survey, after security the other major concerns of SMBs are now backup and restore and then application and data availability. Globally, spending on data pro ...

File organization tips: 9 ideas for managing files and folders

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from Microsoft at Work The tips in this article can help you master file management by supplying some tips to help you better manage and organize computer files. After you’ve decided on a strategy for organizing and managing files and folders, we bet you’ll see improved time management skills and increased productivity. Tips to manage your files better Use these tips to help with organizing your computer files. 1. Use Documents. For many reasons, it's smart to take advantage of the Documents feature, which is called Documents in Windows 7 and in Windows Vista and is called My Documents in Windows XP. To open Documents in Windows 7 and Vista, click Start, and then click Documents to discover an easy way to store your personal documents. In Windows 7, the Documents feature is actually a virtual library. By default, the Documents library includes your My Documents or Documents folder and the Public Documents folder. You can customize the Documents library (in addition to the Music, Pic ...

Employee Spotlight - Antonio Ortiz

AgniTEK — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Antonio Ortiz is the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at AgniTEK. He has worked at the company since it began serving corporate clients in the summer of 1999. He started as a technician and worked onsite with clients’ networks, servers, and workstations every day for AgniTEK’s first 6 years. As the customer base grew, Antonio refocused his efforts on enhancing project management and customer services. Today, Antonio spends the majority of his time communicating with his clients and finding ways to make their lives easier. Antonio most enjoys the problem-solving aspect of his professional life. Receiving a Telecommunication Engineering Technology degree from Texas A&M University in 2005, he graduated with the skills and desire to help his clients decrease their costs, increase their revenue, and handle their technology stress more effectively. To accomplish these goals, Antonio enjoys using new technologies, highly skilled teams, and –sometimes- just simple common-sense. When he’s not working, Antonio p ...

Unleash The Power of Email

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:07:00 GMT

used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Site Can you imagine running your business without email? Probably not, and even if you can, you surely can't picture going back to those bygone days of telephone tag, snail mail, and scribbled notes left on colleagues' desks. Not to mention the frustration of trying to schedule meetings without access to your coworkers' calendars, or fumbling through a stack of business cards to find a client's phone number. Whether you're contacting customers or suppliers, scheduling a staff meeting or tracking down a critical message, email has become the backbone of business communication. But a growing mountain of email has made it increasingly difficult for users to organize and manage their mailboxes and has turned up the heat on IT to protect and maintain critical business communications. Now is a good time to ask yourself: Has your email solution kept up with demands for larger mailboxes and easy access for mobile workers? Does it provide the security, reliabil ...

Are You Deploying the Right Protection Technologies to Avert a Data Breach?

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:34:00 GMT

used with permission from Symantec Summary: New information about the cost of data breaches, enterprise encryption trends, and the WikiLeaks case should prompt a re-examination of some of your data protection priorities. New information about the escalating costs of data breaches, enterprise encryption trends, and the rise of the “malicious insider” should cause organizations to re-examine some of their data protection priorities. Consider the findings of the 2010 Annual Study: U.S. Cost of a Data Breach, released in March. They show that data breaches have grown more costly for the fifth year in a row, with the average cost of a data breach now standing at $7.2 million. What’s more, the study found that organizations are responding so rapidly to data breaches that associated costs are rising as well. At the same time, the latest annual study of enterprise encryption trends reveals a significant shift in organizations’ reasons for deploying encryption technologies. For the first time, regulatory complianc ...

Why Lying in your Marketing isn't Worth It

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:28:00 GMT

by Joanna Krotz used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Site In the constant roar of advertising noise today, small businesses have a tough time getting attention. How can customers distinguish your message from other claims? How do you compete against big guys with deep pockets? How can you identify an effective medium when niche markets demand multichannel messaging? It's not easy. "Advertising has gotten a lot more aggressive in the past 20 years," says Robert Darwell, head of the entertainment and media practice in Los Angeles at Sheppard Mullin, a national law firm. Small businesses have less to lose than large enterprises by dancing on the edge of credibility. So, to stand out, some entrepreneurs ratchet up their claims, promising the one-and-only, the biggest, the absolute best, the cheapest, and more. When it comes to advertising, Darwell says, "my experience is that smaller companies seem more willing to assume a greater degree of risks." Since hype is now the norm, you probably ...

Is a Remote Workforce the Right Solution for Your Business?

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:23:00 GMT

used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Site Ask yourself the following questions to evaluate whether a remote workforce suits your business. Are you in a client-service business? Do your employees spend more than 50 percent of their time at client locations? Do most of your employees have laptop computers? Do you have employees who travel frequently as part of their jobs? Do the majority of your employees daily spend more than one hour commuting to and from work? Is the majority of your business conducted in a non-regulated industry? Do your employees have the technology tools needed to work remotely? Does your company have the ability to share documents securely? Do your IT professionals support users in multiple locations? Are your employees open to the idea of working remotely? RESULTS To see if your business should consider a remote workforce, add up the number of "yes" answers that you made to the questions above. 7-10: If you ans ...

Top 10 Things Your IT Professional Would Like You to Know

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:15:00 GMT

Diana Johnson, Wood Networks Sometimes it seems like your IT guy speaks another language. Some of the words sound like English, but surely the definition differs. Perhaps there is an alien life form that currently inhabits his body. Which would make sense, wouldn’t it? I mean how else does he work his IT magic, if not by using some extra-terrestrial super power? Well, in an effort to bring peace to our species and understanding to the human race, I have compiled a top 10 list to cover some of the more basic phrases. Computer When a tech is talking about your computer, he is referring to the CPU tower that generally sits in a cabinet in your desk or on the floor. The monitor, keyboard, and mouse are not a part of the computer, think of them as accessories. Overheating the CPU Your CPU (refer to number 1 if you are unsure what your CPU is) needs to have some room to breathe. Overheating is the easiest way to ensure your computer will not work properly, but it is also the easiest to fix. ...

Getting to Know...Scott Dawson

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Scott Dawson is a veteran IT Tech at AgniTEK. He began working with AgniTEK over two years ago and has experienced the tremendous growth that the company has undergone in that time. Scott graduated from Prairie View A&M in 1996 with a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science. Scott’s expertise and forward-thinking problem solving abilities enable him to create or find solutions to the Brazos Valley’s businesses’ needs. Exploring IT solutions for businesses both regionally and nationally, Scott also fixes every matter of computers, software, networks, and printers for businesses in the Bryan/College Station area. Scott finds great joy in sharing tips that make things easier and faster for AgniTEK’s clients. When Scott isn’t competitively dancing West Coast Swing with his wife, Suma, he enjoys spending time with his son, Eric, who starts college in the fall. A Few of Scott’s Favorite Things: Color: Blue Band: Luther & the Healers (from Houston) Movie: So many good movies, why ...

Business Resiliency Prevents Downtime, Data Loss & Disaster

AgniTEK — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 21:45:00 GMT

used with permission from IBM ForwardView For years, midsize companies have protected themselves against downtime and data loss caused by disasters such as hurricanes and fires. But in today's intelligent and interconnected world, where information is one of the most valuable assets a business can have, many midsize companies are not doing enough to protect themselves from the full range of risk. Despite reminders from experts that most businesses at some time will experience an event that results in serious data loss, significant numbers of midsize companies' IT managers acknowledge that they do not have an adequate backup strategy for their critical data. Why is this? To a large extent the answer lies in the economic climate. Over the last few years, companies accepted greater levels of risk to reduce expenses. But as the economy picks up, companies are focusing on initiatives for growth. Meanwhile, data protection and business continuity remain on the back burner. Growth, of course, is good for busines ...

Aerofit Health & Fitness Centers: Workin' it Out in the Brazos Valley

AgniTEK — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Aerofit is the Bryan/College Station’s premier fitness facility with two full service locations and two Express locations. With a third location opening in the Summer of 2012 next to the College Station Medical Center, Aerofit is proud to not only be expanding in locations, but also in services. Aerofit Health & Fitness Centers offer extensive personal training programs that can be customized for an individual’s lifestyle and fitness goals. Aerofit’s full-service locations include cardio and weight training equipment, group fitness classes, court sports, swimming pools, locker rooms with showers, summer camps, and facility rentals and lock-ins. Aerofit Express facilities are open 24/7 and are perfect for the healthy lifestyle that is on-the-go. Included in these brand new Aerofit Expess locations are cardio machines, weight training equipment, and showering facilities. Aerofit Health & Fitness Centers offer an array of membership levels that will fit any individual’s schedule and health and fitness ...

Unified Communications: A Collaborative Approach for an Always-On World

AgniTEK — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:50:00 GMT

used with permission from IBM ForwardView As the economy rebounds, many companies are faced with pressure to capture new opportunities quickly, while simultaneously managing an increasingly mobile workforce and continually controlling costs. It's these forces that are driving interest and investment in unified communications. With communications systems that work together, midsize companies can listen and respond to their customers, partners and employees more effectively. And they can do so with greater speed and accuracy. That's important today, when near ubiquitous access to applications, information and resources is changing the way people shop, work and live. It's important, too, because access is raising expectations of the services people receive, placing greater pressures on companies to deliver optimum performance. Integrated, interconnected enterprises keep pace with change A recent IBM study, "Inside the Midmarket: A 2011 Perspective," found that unified communications and mobility are among t ...

Building a Small Business Network: The Basics

AgniTEK — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:45:00 GMT

used with permission from Cisco A small business network isn't just about making contacts and exchanging business cards at trade shows. In today's global economy, a small business network is about reducing your operating costs. It's about reacting quickly to changing markets and customer needs. It's about being prepared for the future. A small business network begins with a secure and reliable data network foundation that's fast and accessible. Here are seven ways that a small business network can transform your company: Work Anywhere A small business network uses a host of technologies such as virtual private networks (VPNs) that enable mobile employees and teleworkers to work securely at home, on the road, or at customers' offices. They have full, secure, remote access to your phone system, data network, customer database, and any other tools they need to be productive. It's almost like they're in the office. Access Customer Data Wherever, Whenever With a secure small business networ ...

5 Tips for Top-notch Password Security

AgniTEK — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:30:00 GMT

by Kim Komando used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business website Whether it's a few PCs or hundreds on your network, there's one thing that can separate your system from being compromised: a great password. Why? Hackers want access to anything and everything. If they can guess your user name and password, you might as well have given them your wallet and the keys to your building. Before we talk about what makes a good password, let's begin with the first of five things to know and practice in using passwords. 1. Don't be complacent: Attacks can and do happen. Hackers are a devious bunch and will stop at nothing to get into your network and files. They use three different methods to get to you: brute force, dictionary attacks, and social engineering. Brute force is the most time-consuming method. Basically, it involves a program that tries every combination of letters, numbers, and keyboard characters to guess your password. It starts with trying every character, then tries two-character co ...

Lemonade Day BCS

AgniTEK — Mon, 02 May 2011 20:41:00 GMT

The Brazos Valley celebrated their first annual Lemonade Day on Sunday, May 1st 2011. With well over 1,200 registrations to participate in this entrepreneurship opportunity, Lemonade Day brought the Bryan/College Station community together to foster goal setting, business plan development, budget planning, and community involvement in our youth. This successful event was an opportunity for the Bryan/College Station area to engage our future business men and women in fun, free, and exciting entrepreneurship. Several local entrepreneurs, as well as The Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School helped gain widespread involvement throughout the community. AgniTEK is looking forward seeing our community’s young entrepreneurs return for Lemonade Day BCS 2012!

Employee Spotlight- Becky Jacobson

AgniTEK — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:43:00 GMT

As AgniTEK continues to grow and develop into an influential regional technology firm, we take pride in our employee’s overwhelming amount of dedication and attentiveness to our customer’s needs. Becky Jacobson, a Texas A&M University graduate of 2007, joined AgniTEK’s web team in 2006 and currently serves as the IS Project and Account Manager in the Web Development Team. Becky is creative and forward-thinking, and she has the ability to adapt each individual client’s needs to conform to the industry’s newest technological innovations. When she isn’t developing websites or integrating new SEO strategies into clients’ websites, Becky enjoys being outside, playing with her Boston Terrier, fishing, and finding new recipes to cook up in the kitchen. Favorite Color: Red Favorite Movie: Legally Blonde Favorite Type of Food: Mexican Favorite Aspect of Working at AgniTEK: “My favorite thing about my job is working with people in different industries. During the development of a website I get to learn about a ...

Client Profile

AgniTEK — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:33:00 GMT

Voices for Children recruits, trains, and supports volunteers from the community to be advocates for children in foster care. VCF’s Court Appointed Special Advocates (or CASAs) assist a child or sibling set who have been placed in the state’s custody because of abuse or neglect by interviewing the child and service providers; reviewing all relevant records; participating in mediations and staffing, as well as specific tasks as directed by the court. They represent the child’s best interest. Voices for Children was established in the Brazos Valley in 2000, and since has expanded to serve nearly 70% of the children in Brazos County, 50% in Grimes and 40% in Burleson who are in the state's custody. With a goal to have 100% of the children in Brazos, Grimes, and Burleson Counties having a CASA volunteer speaking for them, Voices for Children recently teamed with AgniTEK to launch their new website. Visit voicesforchildreninc.com to learn more about this organization, donate to their cause, or volunteer as a CASA ...

Unsung Heroes - How Routing & Switching Keep the Business Going

AgniTEK — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:16:00 GMT

used with permission from the Cisco Website Routers and switches are the building blocks for all business communications from data to voice and video to wireless access. They can improve a company’s bottom line by enabling your company to increase productivity, cut business costs, and improve security and customer service. Specifically, routers and switches support: Sharing applications Provide staff access to business applications Improve employee productivity Using routing and switching technologies allows your staff, even those located in different locations, to have equal access to all your business applications, information and tools. Keeping everyone connected to the same tools can increase employee productivity. Routing and switching also can provide access to advanced applications and enable services, such as IP voice, videoconferencing and wireless networks. Speeding access to information Manage information efficiently Review what is happening across your business ...

Should You Own Your Servers?

AgniTEK — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:09:00 GMT

used with permission from the Microsoft Business Site Technology buyers today have more choices than ever before. Hardware and software can be purchased, leased or rented. Software can deployed "on-premise" or accessed "on demand" using cloud computing offerings, where you pay a monthly fee for software access. Each of these options have their place. In spite of the trend toward cloud computing, many companies are still buying servers and software to run their business. In fact, most businesses will deploy one or more servers in-house for needs which are not effectively met by in-cloud services. Before you go out and buy your own servers, consider your options. A server purchase requires an upfront investment, but over the course of several years, you may meet your business objectives much more effectively by buying servers and software vs. using cloud computing or co-location (data center rented server space) options. When you use cloud computing, you're also usually limited to standard optio ...

Disaster-Proof Your Business

AgniTEK — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:05:00 GMT

If you're a business owner, you need to know how to protect your business. Try as we might, there's often no way to skirt disaster — whether it's national, personal or weather induced. But there are strategies to cope with it as best we can, no matter if its source is a burst river levee, a thoughtlessly discarded match, or the deranged actions of others. Knowing what to do in the event of a disaster is crucial for anyone, of course, but particularly for a small-business owner, whose livelihood may depend on a small storefront or home basement office. Start with some strategies.

Help! I've Spilled Coffee On My Laptop

AgniTEK — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:47:00 GMT

It’s late and you’re struggling to stay awake at your desk, so you decide to make yourself a cup of coffee. A few more hours of work ahead and the coffee will perk you up. Then, oops, there it is, all over your laptop, ruining your evening. The coffee has drained into the machine. The damage could be irreparable.

Unified Communications: Right For Your Business?

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:25:00 GMT

by Heather Clancy reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center While most of us welcome the opportunity to stay in touch virtually anytime from anywhere, keeping up with phone calls, voicemail, e-mail and instant messaging can distract even the most disciplined person from more important concerns. Enter the white knight of "unified communications," technology that integrates phone calls, voice mail and video conferencing - all your telephone communications - with your e-mail, documents and other applications on a personal computer. Unified communications becomes even more valuable when extended to fax and especially useful when linked with information in customer or sales-prospect databases, according to Dave Casey, president of Westron Communications, a network technology integration company in Carrolton, Texas. Think about the customer service experience unified communications can offer: A customer calls; whoever answers the phone addresses the customer by name and pulls up the cu ...

Connected Businesses Win

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

used with permission from the Cisco Small Business Website People in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) regularly connect with others who are vital to their success. Customers bring income, the lifeblood of any business. Partners, such as contractors and suppliers, provide services and products for daily operations. Prospects are vital for growth and new opportunities. And employees are the brains, hands, eyes, and ears that make a business successful. A network can connect them all, according to Deb Mielke, operator of HomeOfficeReports.com, a Web site providing technology advice and information to small and home-based businesses. "Electronic communication is a great way to reach a lot of people," she says. "The beauty of networking and the Internet is that it can make a little guy look like a big guy." But what is a network? And how can it connect your world securely, reliably, and efficiently? Cisco commonly refers to the concept of a Secure Network Foundation which encompasses a flexible communi ...

Thinking About Hiring Your Own Internal IT Staff – Think Again!

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Outsourcing your IT brings additional business value by Stuart R. Crawford, V.P., IT Matters, Inc. Businesses today wrestle and grapple with the thought of hiring their own technology support staff to support their daily need for IT support without fully understanding the risks and the costs associated with having their own team of technology professionals. Business owners, C level execs and Managers are attracted to the idea of having a team or a consultant readily available within shouting distance down the hall, basically having an IT resource committed to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, many of today's business owners across the country are not aware of the total risks their business is exposed to by electing to bring their technology support in-house. More often than not it is purely a cost based decision, on the surface it may appear to be more cost effective to hire a consultant or employee who is committed as a full time employee. CFOs and Accounting Managers often look only at the c ...

AgniTEK is Hiring!

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

AgniTEK’s Technology department is hiring a network engineer intern. AgniTEK offers students the opportunity to participate in the evolution of a growing technology firm. Participation in the Network Engineering program provides the hands-on experience students need to develop technical expertise and a better understanding of emerging technology. Upon completion of the program, select students will be asked to participate in subsequent summer sessions to build upon their achievements. To apply for the Part-Time Technician position, please submit your resume online by clicking HERE.

Bryan/College Station Hazardous Waste Collection

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Do you have an old computer that needs to be properly disposed? Join AgniTEK on April 23rd for the biannual BCS Hazardous Waste Collection event, and dispose your computer properly. The cities of Bryan and College Station are teaming up with the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Agency to sponsor the biennial Household Hazardous Waste Collection. The collection takes place once in the fall and once in the spring, and is a great opportunity for our local citizens to safely dispose of household hazardous wastes. Common Household Hazardous Wastes include, but are not limited to: Cleaners Aerosols Batteries Herbicides Pesticides Corrosive Wastes Ignitable Wastes This FREE collection is taking place on Saturday, April 23rd from 7am-2pm. For more information, visit www.cstx.gov/hhw or call the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Agency’s 24-hour hotline at 979-764-3809 for more information. AgniTEK is proud to go green with the BCS Hazardous Waste Collection.

Employee Spotlight

AgniTEK — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT

As AgniTEK continues to grow and develop into an influential regional technology firm, we take pride in our employee’s overwhelming amount of dedication and attentiveness to our customer’s needs. Kevin Crenshaw, a Texas A&M University graduate of 2001, is one of AgniTEK’s veteran employees and has excelled both professionally and personally while with AgniTEK. Kevin’s strategic thinking, attention to detail and critical information, and his ability to examine all factors in his daily troubleshooting tasks enables Kevin to consistently surpass his position’s obligations. As the Internet Services Manager, Kevin has established enduring relationships with clients and customers. “Technology is an ever-changing field that demands abstract problem-solving and direct communication”, says Kevin. And as the technology field continues to evolve, we are certain that Kevin will adapt and stay ahead.. Development of community, both in the workplace and in his personal time, is highly valued by Kevin. In th ...

Lemonade Day!

Becky — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:15:00 GMT

AgniTEK is joining with the Bryan/College Station community on Sunday, May 1st 2011 to participate in the area’s first Lemonade Day! Founded in 2007 by Prepared 4 Life in Houston, TX, Lemonade Day has grown to be a national organization that encourages the youth of our nation to participate in entrepreneurship. This unique experience combines academics and life skills that will help foster a passion for community leadership and entrepreneurship in our nation’s future leaders. The young entrepreneurs that participate in Lemonade Day are able to keep all of the money they earn from this experience, and are encouraged to open a savings account with the money earned, pay back investors, and make further investments in the community by donating a portion of their profits to a charity of their choice. Registration opens soon! If you are interested in joining the Lemonade Day, or if you would like to learn more, please visit our area’s website at http://bcs.lemonadeday.org/

4 Ways Social Media Can Improve Sales Performance

Becky — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:13:00 GMT

used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business website Every salesperson knows that information is power. The more you know about your prospect, the more insight you have into what makes them buy. The Internet has made researching your customers easier than ever. You can visit company websites to research products, read press releases, and get a feel for a prospect's organization. Taking your research one step further, subscription-based research tools allow you to easily gather information on key executives, company size, number of employees and other quantifiable information. But if you're limiting your pre-call sales prep to company websites and subscription-based research tools, you're just scratching the surface. Here are four ways to expand your research with Web 2.0 tools. 1. Social Networks One of the best-known professional social networks is LinkedIn. In addition, there are numerous social networks that cater to specific industries. You should consider joining these specialized networ ...

Virtual Office Management

Becky — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:11:00 GMT

by Jeff Wuorio used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business website Carole Martin has a marketing expert upon whom she relies for sharp ideas and provocative sales angles. What's interesting about this is that the two have never met face to face. Their business relationship is truly "virtual." "It takes many skills and personality types to run a business, even a small business. You really can't do it alone," says Martin, a Burlingame, Calif., writer and coach. "It's a strange world we live in." Strange, but increasingly common. Yes, welcome to the burgeoning world of the virtual office, where businesses have a mission and focus — but have personnel as far flung as the planet allows. On top of the usual challenges that businesses face, a successful virtual-office business requires a whole new set of strategies. But here are seven ways to help make one work. 1. Make your team feel that they belong. Perhaps the biggest land mine that can sabotage any office where workers are connected by teleph ...

The Top 5 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your IT Partnership

Becky — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:09:00 GMT

Diana Johnson, Wood Networks An IT Partnership with the right company can decrease your downtime and increase your productivity. Most small to medium sized businesses use the services of an IT Support Firm, but many feel frustrated by the experience. There is no doubt that nothing is as frustrating as having everything you need on your PC or laptop and not being able to access it. For businesses with critical data on their computer network and those that require functioning servers and computers in order to do business, the IT Partner is an important consultant in the day to day operations of the company. An IT Partner is a technology management company that you have contracted to monitor and manage your IT Network. The question is, do you have an IT guy who comes out and fixes things when they break, or do you have a fully vested IT Partner? If you have an IT Partner you need to know how to maximize that relationship. 1. Determine the level of partnership Almost every IT company out there will tell you t ...

What IT Decision Makers are Saying About Cloud Computing and Why It Should Matter to You

Becky — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:07:00 GMT

As a business decision maker (BDM), you have a lot of tough choices to make, whether they are based on intuition or extensive research. Knowing what your peers think about business trends and what your IT staff says about new technology solutions can help you make sound decisions. Along these lines, Microsoft recently commissioned a survey on cloud computing that lends some insight into how IT decision makers (ITDMs) can examine the benefits of cloud computing and how it might help their businesses. Conducted by 7th Sense Research, the survey found that ITDMs across the U.S. strongly agree that cloud solutions present a strategic opportunity for businesses and concur that the cloud is "an engine of growth." Additionally, more than 35 percent of the 2,211 ITDMs surveyed are currently or are planning to implement cloud-based solutions within their organizations sometime in the next year. The larger the company, the more cloud computing projects they have planned or in process. Underscoring the sentiment that ...

Ten Tips for Making Your Business More Efficient

Becky — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:04:00 GMT

used with permission from Cisco To keep pace in an increasingly competitive world, your business needs to run as efficiently as possible. "Sooner or later, any company not operating efficiently will be out of business," says Laurie McCabe, vice president of small and medium business insights and solutions for research firm AMI-Partners. Efficiency is even more important for small and medium-sized businesses, McCabe adds, because their resources are limited compared to large global companies. Here are 10 tips for using network technology to help your business work more efficiently, cut costs, improve customer satisfaction, and stay ahead of the competition. Give employees secure, consistent access to information. You have an advantage over larger competitors because you can react quickly to business changes. But you can quickly lose this edge if your company network is frequently down, sluggish, or unsecured. A secure, reliable network based on intelligent routers and switches lets your employees acce ...

Software and the Taxman

AgniTEK — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:01:00 GMT

By Jeffrey A. Levenstam, Partner, Ernst & Young LLP—International Tax Services used with permission from the Microsoft Small Business website What do you consider when you're buying new business software? How well the product addresses the needs of your organization? Naturally. The cost per seat? Sure. The ease of administration and maintenance? Of course. The tax implications of the purchase? If you're not thinking about taxes, you should be. The green-eyeshade gang in your finance department will thank you for it, and heaven knows we could all use a friend or two in finance. So, sharpen your pencil and grab your abacus, and let's take a look at some of the tax implications of software licensing. Two Strategies, Different Tax Treatments. The first thing to consider, tax-wise, is the different way in which subscriptions and purchases are treated. If you acquire your software through a subscription, such as Microsoft Enterprise Agreement subscription for Office or Windows, the subscription costs are co ...

Five Essential Elements of Business Recovery

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 05:04:00 GMT

The article re-printed courtesy of IBM ForwardView eMagazine In the current business environment, the old adage "time is money" applies now more than ever. So what happens when everyday operations are disrupted? According to the U.S. Labor Department, more than 40 percent of all companies that experience a disaster never reopen - and more than 25 percent of those that do reopen after a disaster occurs will close down for good within two years. But even if your company doesn't go through a major disaster, chances are high that it will experience the negative consequences of unplanned outages that make business as usual impossible. The problem is amplified in challenging economic times, says Warren Sirota, a segment executive with IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services. "If the business is already suffering from lower revenue because of the economy and a significant outage occurs, the impact can be much more dramatic than during good times," he says. Downtime quickly becomes revenue loss Ev ...

Ideas to Help You to Use SharePoint Effectively in Your Business

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 05:01:00 GMT

Top 20 ways that SharePoint can solve your common business needs. And I want to emphasize that these 20 are only a few of the many ways to utilize SharePoint . Author: Andrea Kalli Andrea Kalli Online Business Services 1 Store all your emails on a secure and centralized Website for easy archive. 2 Keep a central task location for assigning tasks to team members. These tasks will automatically show up in your team's Outlook 2007 To-Do List. Those tasks will also link to your projects so you can easily find out what tasks are still open for each project. 3 Organize large events and store the related documents, assigned tasks, and generally post anything and everything related to the events. It will also integrate with Outlook for added efficiency. 4 Collaborate with team members ...

My IT Department – Why So Much Harder to Manage Than the Rest?

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:55:00 GMT

by Chris Geiser - PC Solutions - cgeiser@pcstechnology.com In the last 5 years PCS has evolved from an IT consultancy to an IT support organization, relying on our people, processes, and controls to achieve our performance objectives. Our focus on service level improvements has, at times, been revealing about how IT personnel prefer to function. Today, I wanted to share a little bit of what we have been learning in the hopes that it can help you continue to improve the usefulness and efficiency of your IT systems. So, what’s different about your IT department than, say, your Human Resources, Sales, or Finance departments? If You’re Not Measuring It, You’re Not Managing It If you are a business executive, you may not be an expert in any of those other departments. However, when circumstances require you to do so, you spend a week or two in and around those departments and get up to speed. You observe the inputs, the outputs, and the performance metrics. Then, you identify performance gaps and inspire new ( ...

Start small, get big results with business analytics

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:51:00 GMT

used with permission from the IBM website How does your organization make business decisions? Do you go with a "gut feeling" because you lack accurate and complete data? Or do you have visibility into your processes, performance, offerings and customers to support smart, fact-based decisions? With business data today growing at exponential rates, the need also is increasing to gather, analyze and use data wisely. In a highly instrumented, interconnected and intelligent world, business analytics can help your midsize organization achieve valuable insights and build competitive strengths. Using business analytics, a smart organization can enhance opportunities for profitable growth, optimize the allocation and deployment of resources and capital, and proactively manage risk. A company using business analytics is not overwhelmed by today’s vast amounts of data and instead can turn that data into a business advantage. But where does a company begin? Know when you're ready In business planning and operations ...

Why Your Small Business Needs an Intranet

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:15:00 GMT

by Kim Komando Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center One thing I like about running a small company is the ability to act quickly. Decisions are not bogged down by layers of management. In fact, most moves are made with the interested parties meeting around a conference table. But there can come a point when your business outgrows this arrangement. You need constant, reliable and secure communications with others in the company to ensure successful growth. You need an intranet. An intranet is similar to a Web site, and it uses Internet protocols, but it's an internal network exclusive to one company. (An "extranet" also is an internal or private Web site, but access privileges are extended to designated customers, partners and/or others.) Most large corporations use intranets. Information distribution is a huge task when you have 10,000 or more employees.Intranets can help cure that headache. I hear you, "I don't have anywhere near 10,000 employees!" But I can give you ...

Five Essential Elements of Business Recovery

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:13:00 GMT

Bringing Cloud Computing Down To Earth

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:10:00 GMT

by Susan Twombly used with permission from the HP Enterprise Business Website What is the cloud all about? Does it offer different kinds of technology-based services? Is it different than enterprise computing? Is it the next big thing? The answer to all those questions is a resounding "yes!" The cloud brings together all these things and more to create new services to solve business problems unsolved by traditional approaches. The cloud provides a rich, new source for bringing technology-enabled services to the business. Massively scalable services no longer need to be delivered by internal or outsourced data centers. Instead, they can be delivered by cloud service providers via their vast computing resources. Bringing value to the business Cloud computing shifts the focus from how an IT service is implemented or hosted, to what business value it delivers. And that's the very essence of what a service-centric IT strategy is all about - linking services to specific business outcomes. Moving forward, we ...

Ideas to Help You to Use SharePoint Effectively in Your Business

Becky — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:06:00 GMT

Top 20 ways that SharePoint can solve your common business needs. And I want to emphasize that these 20 are only a few of the many ways to utilize SharePoint. 1 Store all your emails on a secure and centralized Website for easy archive. 2 Keep a central task location for assigning tasks to team members. These tasks will automatically show up in your team's Outlook 2007 To-Do List. Those tasks will also link to your projects so you can easily find out what tasks are still open for each project. 3 Organize large events and store the related documents, assigned tasks, and generally post anything and everything related to the events. It will also integrate with Outlook for added efficiency. 4 Collaborate with team members on all documents and stay on top of who did what. Earlier versions can easily be restored in case ...

5 Essential Keys to Successful IT Projects

Becky — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:33:00 GMT

Despite being a hot topic in business for many years, the truth is that project management still isn't well understood among many businesses. And the success rate of projects appears to be lower than ever. According to The Standish Group's April report, "CHAOS Summary 2009," 44 percent of all projects are late, over budget, and/or have less than the required features and functions. Even worse, 24 percent fail altogether – either cancelled prior to completion, or delivered and never used

Never Lose Another File: Four Reasons Why the Time Is Right to Adopt Document Management

AgniTEK — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:29:00 GMT

If you're like most small to midsize businesses today, you can recall a time when you had to rummage through thousands of files -- just to get your hands on the one you needed. And if you're a company in the highly regulated accounting, finance or healthcare world, you may encounter this frustrating scenario almost every day. Worse yet, the amount of data produced and retained by companies continues to soar -- with no real end in sight. So how can your company become more effective at organizing and locating important documents and files -- while reducing the headaches and risk associated with lost documents? One great place to start is with an automated document management solution -- a solution that dramatically increases accessibility, security and cost savings.

7 Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet

AgniTEK — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:25:00 GMT

In business, the key to survival is not a secret. Your customers have to be able to find you. Most of us spend a great deal of time and money looking for the perfect way to attract prospects. I have spent the bulk of my career looking for the perfect marketing mix. We try direct mail, networking, pretty flyers, telemarketing, web site search engine optimization (SEO), and a million other things.

Business Continuity Tip

AgniTEK — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:39:00 GMT

We talk about the importance of creating a comprehensive and actionable recovery plan. It will come as no surprise, that most plans are built with the worst-case-scenario in mind. But the reality is that most business interruptions are not major "smoking hole" events. Employee illness, transit strikes, religious holidays or even scheduled events like the recent G20 in Toronto are just a few examples of the many things that can keep people out of work throughout the year.

The Elephant Named Sharepoint

Becky — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:36:00 GMT

Many of us have heard the fable about the blind men and the elephant. When the men were asked to describe what an elephant looked like the descriptions ranged from a snake to a tree to a fan depending on whether the blind man had touched the trunk, the leg or the ear. What does an ancient fable like this have to do with technology? It's the same problem we have when we try to explain to you how useful a tool Microsoft SharePoint can be to your business. SharePoint is so flexible and has so many uses; we often have trouble describing it in a way you can get the whole picture.

AgniTEK Receives Award

Becky — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:40:00 GMT

On Thursday December 16, 2010 AgniTEK Technology Solutions was honored alongside two other prominent Bryan businesses for their work and dedication in downtown Bryan. This award was received with great esteem by AgniTEK owners David Ohendalski and Antonio Ortiz, who made the move to historic downtown Bryan in 2009.

The 11th Annual Mayor’s Downtown Impact Award honors businesses that put forth an “extraordinary effort” toward revitalizing historic downtown Bryan. Antonio and David look forward to both a forthcoming prosperous and revitalized downtown Bryan and a successful 2011 with continued growth.

5 Essential Keys to Successful IT Projects

Becky — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:33:00 GMT

Vacation Checklist: Prepare your PC

David — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:56:00 GMT

Whether you're leaving the office for the holidays, going on vacation, or taking a business trip, there are a number of things you can do to prepare your computer for your time away. Canceling appointments and letting people know you'll be gone are just a few of the things you can do to make sure...

Missed Manners

David — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:12:00 GMT

5 Beliefs that Limit Productivity

David — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:11:00 GMT

3 Ways to Recover a Corrupted Excel Workbook

AgniTEK — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:06:00 GMT

It's your worst Excel nightmare: a damaged or corrupted workbook. This can happen for a variety of reasons -- and the good news is that there is a variety of ways to retrieve your damaged file. If a file is corrupted, Excel should normally perform an automated recovery. However...

Smile - You're on the Phone

David — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:04:00 GMT

Forget the research evidence, the dozens of pages of documentation and the years of prodding by communications consultants. Do your own survey right now. Pick up your telephone and call ten companies or businesses in your area that provide some sort of customer service, such as banks, brokerage firms, business equipment or insurance companies. Ask to speak to “a manager.” If you get through, explain that you called to evaluate their telephone techniques. Then give the manager...

What a VAR Can Do for Your Business

AgniTEK — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:51:00 GMT

Technology can go a long way in helping your business stay competitive, meet customer expectations and improve operational efficiencies. But most small businesses simply don’t have the resources to evaluate technologies and aren’t sure where to find the right technology partner. That’s where a value-added reseller can help...

3 Ways to Recover a Corrupted Excel Workbook

AgniTEK — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:55:00 GMT

Missed Manners

AgniTEK — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:52:00 GMT

Some tech junkies tend to neglect etiquette in the office. E-mail is still one of the leading culprits, but newer arrivals like BlackBerrys and wireless earpieces are causing their share of social snafus. "Technology should not be an opportunity to multitask conversations," says technology etiquette expert Laurie Puhn, president of Laurie Puhn Communications . "Anytime you're [doing that], it is rude and unacceptable."

Smile - You're on the Phone

Becky — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:50:00 GMT

Used with permission of Joel H. Weldon & Associates, Inc. Forget the research evidence, the dozens of pages of documentation and the years of prodding by communications consultants. Do your own survey right now. Pick up your telephone and call ten companies or businesses in your area that provide some sort of customer service, such as banks, brokerage firms, business equipment or insurance companies. Ask to speak to “a manager.” If you get through, explain that you called to evaluate their telephone techniques. Then give the manager a brief report, hang up, and record your findings. Chances are your research will prove that the most common errors you encounter in telephone answering are among the “dirty dozen.” Here they are: 1. Letting the phone ring too long. 2. Not identifying the company name or department. 3. Inability to transfer calls properly. 4. Disconnecting calls. 5. Asking the caller to repeat requests more than once. 6. Leaving the line without an explanation. 7. Not using the caller ...

5 Beliefs that Limit Productivity

Becky — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:49:00 GMT

When I work with people in my business productivity practice, the first question I ask them is, "What's stopping you from being more productive?" The answers that keep coming up are pretty much the same from everyone. 1. There's too much information coming at me too fast Belief: My e-mail is overwhelming me. I can't keep up with it. Reality: The volume of e-mail isn't the issue. How you process and organize the volume is the issue. Learning how to better manage your e-mail by using McGhee Productivity Solutions' "Four D's for Decision Making" will transform this belief. Each year we receive more and more data from a growing array of devices, which can be accessed from an increasing number of locations. If you're not careful, the quantity of data starts to drive you instead of the other way around. Learn 4 ways you can take control of your e-mail Inbox. And when you do, you can reduce the number of messages in your inbox by as much as 80 percent. 2. I have to keep everything Belief: I have to kee ...

Technology that Impacts your Bottom Line

Becky — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:46:00 GMT

When you're running a business, success depends on your company operating as efficiently as possible. We can show you a wide variety of ways to increase your productivity and that of your employees, and share the easiest ways to cut IT costs for your business. The demands on your IT systems never stop: better performance, more security, increased reliability. Whether you are considering Windows 7, Office 2010, or a slew of new technologies from Microsoft, you don't need to spend all your time playing catch up. That's why it makes sense to get help from the specialists here at HTS. Are you still debating whether Windows 7 is right for you? With so many new features, the answer is a resounding "yes". Windows 7 simplifies the desktop and makes navigation so much easier. Documents are snap to find because Windows 7 keeps a list of your recent documents that will appear when you hover over the Program Icons for Word, Excel and other Office applications. A right-click on the Internet Explorer icon on the task ba ...

The Importance of Thank You Notes

AgniTEK — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:44:00 GMT

The importance of writing thank-you notes was reinforced to me years ago when I was on a Delta Airlines flight to New Orleans. I fly a lot, usually a couple flights a week -- so when it comes to the service provided by flight attendants, I'm sort of an expert. On that particular day I received exceptional service from the moment I boarded the plane. The flight attendant hung my coat up, got me some lemon water, which is what I always drink, and provided excellent meal service. She smiled easily, had a positive attitude and just seemed so happy to be of help.

How Big is Your Mailbox?

Becky — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:42:00 GMT

We have spent a lot of time recently (which translates to a lot of extra expense for our customers) troubleshooting, managing, and working with VERY large mailboxes. From a purely technical standpoint, once a mailbox gets over a GB in size, it starts to become a minor challenge in terms of supporting it, speed of access and search, and management in general. Once a mailbox gets to be over 2 GB in size, we start to run into some very serious limitations that will manifest in support, management, and disaster recovery scenarios. Believe us when we say we are VERY heavy Outlook users, but using a few simple techniques, it is not much of a challenge at all to keep our own mailboxes under the 1 GB limit we need to keep us ‘light on our feet’ with our own mailboxes. First: archive! Outlook has a built in archive feature that will remove things from your mailbox and put them into a long term storage file. Our technique is to add to that archive file daily until it gets to be between 1 and 2 GB in size, then burn ...

5 Ways to Make Your Keyboard Easier to Use

AgniTEK — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:40:00 GMT

For most people, the keyboard is the main way to enter information into and control their computer. But are you controlling your keyboard, or is your keyboard controlling you? If you make typing mistakes or find your keyboard a bit uncomfortable, it's not hard to correct those problems. Here's how to quickly and easily change your keyboard settings and comfort options.

Life Without Internet

Becky — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:33:00 GMT

Reprinted with permission from the HP small and medium business website When the Internet first came about, it was simply a source of knowledge and entertainment. Now, however, many people rely on it for everyday activities such as banking, doing business, storing information, mapping locations, communicating and more. This puts a huge strain on businesses, data center operators and web-hosting service providers as they seek to make web services available around the clock. But being available 24/7 is not even something the Internet’s biggest businesses—Amazon, Google and Yahoo, for example—can promise: even their sites have suffered from “unplanned downtime” in recent months. The causes of these and other web outages can vary widely: glitches during system upgrades and migrations, human error, electrical failures or even hacking or hijacking. How does this impact me? For the average user, finding that a site you frequent is down can result in minor annoyance. However, with the popularity of such servi ...

Thinking About Hiring Your Own Internal IT Staff?

Becky — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:31:00 GMT

Outsourcing your IT brings additional business value By Stuart R. Crawford, V.P. Businesses today wrestle and grapple with the thought of hiring their own technology support staff to support their daily need for IT support without fully understanding the risks and the costs associated with having their own team of technology professionals. Business owners, C level execs and Managers are attracted to the idea of having a team or a consultant readily available within shouting distance down the hall, basically having an IT resource committed to them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, many of today's business owners across the country are not aware of the total risks their business is exposed to by electing to bring their technology support in-house. More often than not it is purely a cost based decision, on the surface it may appear to be more cost effective to hire a consultant or employee who is committed as a full time employee. CFOs and Accounting Managers often look only at the cost of having the ...

Non-Compliance to New Regulations

Becky — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:30:00 GMT

In the past 10 years, over 10,000 new regulations have been placed on the books by local, state, and federal agencies pertaining to the handling, storage, and disposal of confidential client, patient, and employee documents and information. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for example, recently enacted one of these privacy laws and is requiring anyone who has business in that state to comply by March 2010. Basically, ANY company that holds social security numbers (your employees’ SS#’s, for example), credit cards, or financial statements needs to comply with these regulations or the fines for not doing so can be hefty. Want to make sure you stay on the right side of these laws? Here are a few tips that will go a long way in making sure you don’t end up fined, sued, or with a bad reputation for not securing client or employee information: 1. Get The Facts- If you think you are holding confidential information that should be secured, ask a qualified attorney who specializes in data confidentiality ...

7 Ways to Organize Your Email

Becky — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:28:00 GMT

With meetings and the general chaos of a normal work day, your e-mail Inbox can quickly get cluttered. An unorganized mailbox can make it difficult to find the e-mail you need and know where to get started. This messy situation can be remedied. Microsoft Office Outlook offers great tools that help you organize your messages in meaningful, easy-to-control ways. Whether you're already using Outlook 2007 or still using Outlook 2003, you'll be able to stay on top of your mail. Not using Outlook at all? Maybe you have Windows 7 and have downloaded the new, free, Windows Live Mail. Or perhaps you're using Outlook Express, which comes as part of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both programs have an interface that's similar to Outlook, but don't offer the same breadth of tools for e-mail management. Find out more about Windows Live Mail and Outlook Express. This article shows some tools in Outlook that you can use to manage your e-mail. You can use one of these tools—or a combination of tools—to help shrink your Inbox ...

Need Security Help? Enlist a Partner

Becky — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:26:00 GMT

Sometimes it’s okay to ask for help — especially if you are a small or mid-sized business that doesn’t have the time, staff, or expertise to properly manage your IT security and availability. Security help is available — you just need to know how to find the right partner for your business’ unique needs. Partners don’t just sell hardware and software; they also offer strategic planning, design, implementation, training, and consulting services. In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of enlisting a security partner, and some factors to consider before you make your decision. Partner benefits IT security partners are trusted professionals whose job it is to stay on top of the current threat landscape, employ the right data protection and recovery measures for your business, and do so within your budget constraints. This is a win-win situation for many businesses whose in-house IT staff is stretched thin and/or isn’t able to stay on top of current security technology and threats, which can change from ...

Ideas to Help You Use SharePoint

Becky — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:24:00 GMT

by Andrea Kalli I’ve found that people have a general idea of what SharePoint is, but many have no idea how to apply it to their own business. I’d like to share with you the top 20 ways that SharePoint can solve your common business needs. And I want to emphasize that these 20 are only a few of the many ways to utilize the SharePoint Services. Once you start using it, you will begin to realize the many other valuable benefits that can easily be accomplished by the everyday user. Shall we get started? Let’s see if you can find a few productivity solutions here that you’ve been trying to find for your own organization. With SharePoint you can: 1. Store all your emails on a secure and centralized Website for easy archive. 2. Keep a central task location for assigning tasks to team members. These tasks will automatically show up in your team’s Outlook 2007 To-Do List. Those tasks will also link to your projects so you can easily find out what tasks are still open for each project. 3. Organ ...

5 Ways to Win Over a Dream Client

Becky — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:22:00 GMT

Every business has a dream client — one prospect they'd give just about anything to land. The gap between that wish and reality can often be substantial. But it's not hopeless. Here are five different issues that may separate you and the customer of a lifetime, along with strategies that may turn your wish list into a working relationship. 1. "I'm working with a competitor." Most every business has a competitor with a significant client in the fold — one that you'd dearly love to bring into your own. The first step is to avoid the issue of loyalty. No matter if the customer is satisfied or not, they may feel a degree of attachment to a business with which they've worked for some time. Instead, offer a fresh perspective. "Ask them if the current company is giving them anything new — fresh ideas or new ways of approaching things," says Alan Weiss, author of "How to Write A Proposal that's Accepted Every Time.""Every company changes accounting firms or others they work with regularly. It's a way of getting ...

Cloud Computing for Small and Midsize Businesses

Becky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:20:00 GMT

reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center You’ve no doubt heard a lot about cloud computing (or the cloud). What you may not have learned is how this misty concept can help with the real problems of operating your business, especially in hard times. In short, cloud computing offers attractive options for small and midsize businesses that need critical IT upgrades, but may lack the cash for a large capital investment. Through the cloud, you can add new, vital applications or you can supplement the capacity of an existing infrastructure. Because cloud services are delivered via the Internet (often the Web) you only pay for the features and functionality you use and don’t pay for extra hardware, software, staff and maintenance. As a result, your business can grow its IT capabilities, often at a lower cost than doing everything itself. And you can pull the cost from your operating budget rather than your capital budget. So what is cloud computing exactly, and why is it signifi ...

Windows 7: Snipping Tool to capture screen shots

Becky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:19:00 GMT

Have you ever wished you could take a snapshot of something on your computer screen? What about the ability to send someone a picture of your error message? In Windows XP and 2000, the only way to get a screen shot was to get a picture of the ENTIRE screen. With VISTA, and now Windows 7, you can get as much or as little of the screen as you want in a format that's much easier to work with. How? You can use the SNIPPING TOOL. Snipping Tool: You can capture any of the following types of snips: -Free-form Snip. Draw a free-form shape around an object. -Rectangular Snip. Drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle. -Window Snip. Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture. -Full-screen Snip. Capture the entire screen. After you capture a snip, it's automatically copied to the Clipboard and the mark-up window. From the mark-up window, you can annotate, save, or share the snip. The following procedures explain how to use Snipping Tool.

Expiration of the 2009 AARA and Section 179

Becky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:16:00 GMT

The Economic Stimulus Act and Section 179 “ The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” has been officially extended. The Section 179 Deduction increases made available in the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 through December 31, 2009, if you have purchased and installed the equipment. With the current news that is all around us it is sometimes hard to justify opening our pocketbooks and investing in our companies. We all know that the best way to improve ourselves and our businesses is to invest time, energy and money in accomplishing our goals. As the year draws to a close you need to take a look and see what can be done to improve your business. The decision to improve may save you money. With the changes to the Section 179 Deduction made by the Economic Stimulus Act signed in February 2008 there are some exciting benefits for business. 2009 Limits Deduction Limit $250,000 same as in 2008 Total Amount of Equipment $800,000 also identical to 2008 (deduction decreases dollar for dollar after limit ...

Expiration of the 2009 AARA and Section 179

Becky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:16:00 GMT

Great Tips for Better Holiday Photos

Becky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:15:00 GMT

This year, you don’t have to worry about making your holiday photos stand out. Here are some great tips that are sure to improve your pictures! Tip: Plan Ahead The classic problem with holiday photos is that they have to be taken weeks in advance so you can send out cards and mailings beforehand. Some decorations like live trees aren't available, and you might not want to take the menorah or other holiday items out of storage so far in advance. If you're like me, you're surprised by the sight of holiday decorations at the mall when most people are still wearing shorts and flip-flops. It seems too early to drag out once-a-year decorations just so you can take a holiday photo before the snow flies. But it's never too early to think about the perfect image to accompany the annual "year in review" letter that describes your nearly perfect family. The solution: Go generic. How is such a thing possible? Find an object that says "holiday." For ideas, check out the Office Live Clip Art Web site. Do a search for ...

USB Set Free- Wireless Connection

AgniTEK — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:14:00 GMT

Everything's going into it: plugging into a USB port. Now you can do it wirelessly: connect USB hardware to your PC, that is-- with Belkin's Cable-Free USB Hub. This untethered option for your USB hardware provides a glimpse into the future of the ubiquitous standard.