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Greetings!
It's 90 degrees. And it's June. I can put the snow shovel away, for at least a week or two. We've migrated over to Office 365, and lived to tell the tale. We've added some new customers to the wonder world of Simplex-IT. We've also added Mario Worwell (see an intro article down below). We've made the jump to the next level of Microsoft Partner (Silver with Benefits? Competent Gold?). We were awarded our first Competency, but it looks like we'll get our second one within a week or so. And we're starting to think about our Annual Picnic (our 4th??) Make sure you set aside Wednesday, August 17th). Last year we had about 70 or so people, many of them actually nice and somewhat interesting! Bob |
Microsoft: What's in a name? | |
Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
Bob here. When we deal with objects, it's important to know how to refer to that object. This is true in real life, and is also true in the wonderful world of IT. And when it comes to naming things, nobody does it better than Microsoft.
Sorry, what I meant to say was that nobody does it worse than Microsoft.
Sure, there have been some folks in the past who have made some great mistakes. Remember the Chevy Nova? It wasn't until it was released in Spanish-speaking countries that Chevrolet realized that the word "Nova" translates literally to "no go." Or when KIA was first introduced into the United States, they didn't realize the meaning of the letters KIA.
Ah, but Microsoft? Seriously, a database program named Access? How many of us loved say the sentence "can you access your Access database using Access?" How many of us were eager to become a MOUS (Microsoft Office User Specialist)? Or their Windows Update Services ("WUS")? And SharePoint? I have to believe that Microsoft has it written in their corporate bylaws somewhere that they simply cannot release 2 subsequent versions of this product with either the same name or same versioning scheme.
Read more here |
June Lunchinar: Developing a Social Media Strategy for Your Small-Medium Business | |
It's been almost a year since Simplex-IT first presented this topic and it remains today one of our most highly attended events. This year, we're happy to announce that our panel of experts - Chris Brown, Deborah Chaddock Brown and Norma Rist - have agreed to return and share their collective wisdom to help you effectively promote your small-medium business through the various social media like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Read more here.
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 Hey, my name is Mario Worwell and I am the newest member of Simplex-IT.
I'll start this off by telling you a little about myself. I am born and raised in the Northeast Ohio area, with most of that time being in Cleveland and Lakewood. I am the oldest of 4 siblings. I was in the military for almost 5 years, and it was overall a very positive experience for me. I gained toughness, discipline, and a greater sense of dedication, which has helped me transition into IT. Most of all, I got to serve with many great men and women that I share friendships with still today.
I have always had a passion for technology and problem solving, so I decided to finally get into the IT industry once my time in the military had passed. I'm quite glad I did, because IT is a very rewarding, interesting, fun, and challenging field to be in, which is perfect for someone like me (a little crazy).
Read more here. |
Lunchinar on "Office365 - Microsoft's Newest Cloud Services" a Success! | |
Simplex-IT's May 2011 Lunchinar on Microsoft's Office365 carried on our tradition of successful monthly presentations. With an audience of business and IT professionals in attendance, Bob Coppedge discussed and demo'd many of the new online services that are being made available in this newest cloud service.
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Bob here.
Mike Halsey is a Microsoft MVP, which are a set of initials that I don't have after my name (okay, okay I'm jealous I admit it). Mike is the author of a new e-book which is free, entitled "Windows 7 Power Users Guide." It contains over 170 pages of information and is not a bad piece of work.
To get the book, click here. To actually download the e-book you need to make sure you're clicking on the right link. Unfortunately these days it's not unusual for download links to be overpowered by links that look like you might be getting what you want, but are actually ads for other items. As you can see in the graphics accompanying this blog entry, the good link is almost hidden behind the other links.
I want to be clear. I'm not suggesting that the other links are malware, evil, or will take you to bad places. Not at all, I'm just saying it's not what a majority of people are going to the site for.
Read more here. |
Bob Demos how *not* to Migrate your email | |
Bob here. I don't know if you're the kind of person who enjoys motivational posters (like I sure am, by golly!), But last Friday sure reminded me of the classic poster "Mistakes" from those great motivators at Despair, Inc.
"It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others."
Now, it might seem rather strange that I'd start out an entry with that kind of reference. But you have to understand that we chose Friday as a swell day (by the way, did you know that last Friday was the 13th?) to migrate our e-mail from Microsoft BPOS over to Microsoft's new Office 365.
After all, our beta test went swimmingly. The research we did made it look like it would be fairly simple for us to migrate our current environment albeit manually over to the new one. And yes, it was raining, but by golly, we were going to do it!
After all, how tough could it be?
Read more here. |
Bob shares Simplex-IT Marketing to 50 IT Pro's worldwide | |
Bob here.
A pretty cool thing happened this week. As many as you know, Simplex-IT has long been doing a lot of marketing. eNewsletters, postcards, Lunchinars, blog entries... The list goes on.
In fact, I have found that we're actually pretty much ahead of the curve in terms of our marketing efforts versus other similarly sized IT companies throughout the world. Now, that doesn't mean that we're the best or that our stuff don't smell. Just that in this one category we seem to do pretty darn good.
This really came to light this week. We participate in an online community that is specifically made up of companies who do what we do, namely, provide IT support to small-medium companies. And recently another company asked the community about marketing programs, what to do, what works and all that fun stuff. I offered (without really thinking about it, honestly) that if anyone was interested in what we do I'd be happy to do it online event and go over some of our programs.
Really didn't think this one through... Within less than 24 hours I had over 50 people asking to attend the event should we actually come through with.
Read more here. |
Lunchinar on "Making the Most of Your Data" Now Online! | |
For those of you who could not attend our April 2011 Lunchinar in person here's your chance to participate from the comfort and convenience of your favorite chair!
Through the magic of technology you can now hear Simplex-IT's Bob Coppedge and Doug Tombow give a broad overview of how every business collects, uses, evaluates and protects data. Just click on the thumbnails that follow for the entire presentation in easy to digest segments. We hope you enjoy!
Click here to view thumbnails and videos. |
| Announcing Even More Microsoft Incentives Designed to Save You Money! | |
It's getting to be that time of year again - specifically, the end of Microsoft's fiscal year, June 30. Typically, that's when they roll out a number of incentives designed to do a number of things:
1 - Help you upgrade your organization to the latest, most productive and efficient versions of Microsoft software
2 - Save you some significant money in the process
3 - Maximize Microsoft's 4th quarter financial numbers
In other words, there is likely no better time to consider bringing your company up to speed with the latest and greatest in today's productivity software! Following is a synopsis of the offerings that are available.
Read more here. | |
| Want to find out about this stuff quicker? | | |
Blog updates from Simplex-IT over the past month
Remember to check out our blog:
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| Plain Funny #33 | |
When you time travel, you really gotta think things through.
Remember "Back to the Future?" Remember Biff? Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy, ya know...just given a bad deal out of the checkers game of life.
Or something. Anywho...here's an alternative ending. Watch it yourself here.
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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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