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Greetings!
 Confession time. "Hot August Night" was one of my favorite albums way back when. Neil Diamond. Actually, his was the first "real" concert I ever went to, back at the Coliseum. So August gets kind of a bum rap. At this point, we're used to summer, so it's lost the magic. And we're not in September, which is where we try to get rid of the kids (I mean, we send them off to school). And the holiday we celebrate in August is...(except for our 3rd Annual Picnic, of course<g>)? So it's not totally unusual for us to risk misplacing our focus on business. I, for example, spent Sunday tossing the grandkids around on Lake Erie. Unfortunately, they don't understand that they're getting bigger, and I'm getting older. I, however, understand that simple lesson of life very well, indeed. The same thing happens in IT for your business. You think you're fine with a level of support that's 'n.' Suddenly you turn around and find out that 'n' just doesn't cut it anymore. Not just keeping your network running. That service should really be taken for granted today. But what else is happening? For example, did you know that Outlook 2010 now seamlessly integrates Social Media with your Contacts and emails? Or that Microsoft is working on a new version of Small Business Server? Or what's going on with Los Angeles and their conversion to Google Docs? Who knew? We did. We blogged about it recently. And we talk with our customers. When we think these issues are important to them, we bring it up. Without the sales hype. |
| You're Invited To Our 3rd Annual Summer Picnic! | | |
You are all invited to visit the Simplex-IT world headquarters on Wednesday Aug 18th for our 3rd Annual Summer Picnic. The festivities will start at 4:00pm and continue until 8:00pm.
This is a great networking event for northeast Ohio business and the IT community, not to mention awesome burgers and hotdogs! And you get a chance to meet the Simplex-IT staff!
This is also the monthly after-hours networking event for the Streetsboro Chamber of Commerce! Last year we had over 70 folks attending. Can we beat that this year?
We do need you to RSVP by Friday Aug. 13th either by email, John@Simplex-it.com or call 234.380.1277.
For more info including a map click here. |
Single-dip or Double-dip Recession...
What will you have? | |
If we're talking summertime and ice cream cones the answer would have to be double-dip, of course. But if it's NE Ohio, the summer of 2010 and we're talking about the Great Recession, the answer you are likely to hear from local manufacturers is a resounding single-dip!
At least, that's what Dan Shingler writes in the current (July 12-18, 2010) issue of Crain's Cleveland Business http://www.CrainsCleveland.com in his front page story "Area Manufacturer's Dubious of Double Dip." While none of the people interviewed say their recovery is totally booming the consensus opinion seems to be one of "Fragile Optimism."
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Microsoft Has Added A Whole New
Social Experience To Outlook! | |
Outlook Social Connector for Facebook and Windows Live is now available for Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003. Now you can view your friends' and colleagues' status updates right from Outlook. Click here for the download.
I downloaded this today and have been testing (playing) with it in Outlook 10. Now when I open an email, I can look on the "People Pane" and see the profile picture, status updates, photo uploads and wall posts of that person. But to see this, the person emailing me has to be sending the email from the email address they have connected to Facebook.
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| Google, Los Angeles and Cloud Security | |
If you have been following the exploding race toward cloud computing dominance you may already know that in October 2009 the City of Los Angeles voted unanimously to move the city's email and document creation to Gmail and Google Docs.
As the second largest city in the country, this was pretty big news. Of course, highly touted as reasons for the move was a purported savings of $5 million along with an estimated $20 million in increased productivity. That won't completely address LA's $400 million deficit. But it's a good start.
Concerns started popping up almost immediately over security issues. And ultimately these concerns recently caused Google to miss their scheduled June 30, 2010 transition date for the City's service. Incredibly, some were shocked that a tech company had missed an announced deadline! Really? Come on. Like it's the first time that ever happened!
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| New Microsoft SBS (or two) Announced | |
Bob here. Ok, for years (since the last millennium, at least) Microsoft has touted (albeit somewhat inconsistently) their Small Business Server (aka "SBS") product for companies with fewer than 75 users. It packaged Windows Server (traditional security, File/print sharing, SharePoint, remote access), Exchange (email) and sometimes SQL Server (database) with some reasonable pricing and relatively simple management tools.
Pretty decent product, all told. It made a lot of these tools available to companies at a price they could afford. At least, if they were talking at least 10-15 folks attaching to the server. For companies with fewer users, the costs (especially the CALs, or Client Access Licenses) were pretty substantial for startups with 4-5 users. |
4 Tips For Getting the Most
Out of Your Technology Investment | |
How many times have you purchased new software or hardware, and avoided the help menu or user manual? Experts reason that about 90 percent of all features included with software go unused!
Much of this comes down to lack of training for individuals using the technology - they use what they know and need most, and avoid anything that would require study or practice to implement. It's human nature to take the path of least resistance, but with a little motivation you could better benefit from the money spent on technology for your business.
Instead of letting your technology investments continue on underutilized, here are 4 tips for getting the most out of your technology dollars.
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| 5 Reasons to Track your Web Site Traffic | |
By Monte Enbysk
As a small-business owner, you're not likely to hire a new employee and then become totally clueless as to whether that person ever shows up for work.
You're also not likely to take on a new partner without some way of tracking the revenues, benefits or efficiencies gained from the relationship. So why do so many small businesses build Web sites, invest in online marketing campaigns and then devote little or no effort to analyzing the return on their investment?
"It's more common than you would ever realize," says Elisabeth Osmeloski of Beyond Ink, a search-engine marketing consultant based in Portland, Maine. "People are not taking the time to look at Web log files or traffic trends - even those who spend a lot of money on online advertising." Because a vast number of small businesses are still relatively new to the Web, many have yet to take the next step of tracking their return on investment (ROI), she and other experts say.
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| Move Over e...Now it's the Cloud! | |
We like to simplify how we define things. Watergate made the term "cover-up" so passé. Now it's "Contragate," recently "Climategate," and my personal favorite, "Billygate." By simply adding a suffix, we can lump every perceived scandal together! And the best part is, we don't even need a lot of letters to do it.
Sometimes, though, we prefer a word. "Bubble" comes to mind. We had the "Dot Com Bubble," of course the "Real Estate Bubble," and the one I hope bursts sooner rather than later, the "Silly Band Bubble" (please-please-pleeeeeeze burst soon!).
But once in a while, a simple letter will do. Those who were around the dot com days of the 90's remember the craze of the letter 'e.' All you had to do was to attach that letter to the beginning of any boring, traditional old school way of doing anything, and *wow!* You had yourself something really cool. Mail became eMail. Shopping became eShopping. Commerce became eCommerce. Dating became eDating, and Divorce became...well, more common, it would seem.
And now I'm seeing a new kind of stereotype happening. And it's unavoidable. And the best thing is, it has the benefit of seeming to be well-defined, but in fact it isn't. Which is really cool, if you want to act really smug and yet not really know what you're talking about (why are you looking at me that way?).
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| | Blog updates from Simplex-IT over the past month
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| Plain Funny #21 | |
Every watch the TV show House? And you see the main character, Hugh Laurie? Many of you know he's quite the British type, but he also had a great run on the BBC with Stephen Fry. Good stuff. Here's a taste. |
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We'd love to hear feedback about this! Send comments to Bob@Simplex-IT.com, or call us at 234.380.1277!
Sincerely,
Bob Coppedge
Simplex-IT LLC |
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