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Greetings!
Ok. The fourth quarter begins with the economy in the dumpster. Unless I talk to our clients, several of whom are having serious trouble keeping up with their customer demand. And our business is on target for another good year.
The good news is, no matter what happens, we have very bright intelligent people who are paid a lot of money to come up with a reason to blame "the other side."
Solving problems? Sure, sounds great. But assigning blame is a lot more fun. And taking stands that make wonderful sound bites, doubly so!
Take The Hippocratic Oath. Taken by physicians, the Cliff Notes version is "Do No Harm." Now let's say someone has Appendicitus. What can a physician do? Can't cut 'em up to take out the appendix, after all. That would certainly "do harm," wouldn't it?
Ah, well.
But you know what doesn't do harm? Contests. Well, contests where the winner isn't awarded a thump on the head. It was actually almost an afterthought last month, adding the questions. (giving away a thump on the head is always a consideration)
We had almost 30 "entries," almost all of the getting the questions right. And several nice comments about the eNewsletter, which were appreciated (even if they were thinly veiled attempts at winning, I'm sure<g>).
So we're going to keep that around for a few months.
But this month, the prize is a $50 ThinkGeek gift certificate.
I will randomly pick the winner out of the first 5 people who email me (at Bob@Simplex-IT.com) the correct answer to the following 3 questions:
1> Microsoft's Licensing deal is named after what city?
2> Who will be presenting at the next Lunchinar?
3> Why did the kittens stop their Light Saber battle?
The answers can be found somewhere in this issue (you may have to click to the complete article to find the answer).
Bob
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Simplex-IT becomes Microsoft Silver Partner with 2 competencies | |
 Bob here. As you know, we are a Microsoft Partner. Until recently, we've resisted the temptation to going for the larger scale (and somewhat expensive) higher-level partnerships, not only with Microsoft but other vendors as well. In many cases, these vendor partnership programs are little more than marketing strategies, helping to get logos and implied skills out more. So you might say I'm a little jaded in terms of partnership programs.
Read more here. |
Bob offers free Marketing Meeting | |
Bob here. Over the past couple years, I've tried a lot of different marketing techniques. E-mail, postcards, social media, mailing lists, blitz contains, smoke signals, phone campaigns and more.
Some things work. A lot of other things, not so much. But I do think that we've developed a pretty good program that's working for us. It's relatively low-cost, relatively measurable, and seems to generate an appropriate amount of business for us. It's a combination of blogs, email, FaceBook, LinkedIn, mail, phone, YouTube and shoe leather.
In discussions I've had with other business owners, both in and out of the IT business, there's always been a keen interest in just how we do this. And, as you can see from this YouTube video (recorded from an online meeting I gave to about 75 similarly positioned IT firms back in June), I'm always willing to share our methods and madness.
Read more here. |
October Lunchinar: Is It time to Upgrade Your IT Infrastructure? And, If So, How? | |
Your server has done its job for many years. And it still works...mostly. As long as Ralph from Accounting keeps his 6 years of his history on his desktop (which doesn't get backed up, but how likely is it something bad will happen?). And we can't get the manufacturer to renew the support agreement.
Connecting remotely? Well your VPN works, as long as you're not using Windows 7 to connect. And you're pretty sure the backups work, although you really haven't tested them...
Read more here. |
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Bob here,
Ok, this is our first real "contest." And we sort of added it on a whim, truth be told. But I thought it might spice up the eNewsletter a bit.
Apparently I was right. The amount of click through traffic doubled for the first day. We received over 20 responses specifically to the contest.
Want to see the answers and the winners? Click here. |
Social Media: Policies, Procedures and Pittfalls Lunchinar was a Success | |
Simplex-IT was pleased to host Tim Dimoff, nationally recognized security expert and President of SACS Consulting (http://www.sacsconsulting.com), who gave the 30+ attendees his views on what to look out for with Social Media in the workplace. Several real-world scenarios were presented and discussed, highlighting the importance of having and enforcing a clear written policy regarding employees' use of Social Media.
Click here to read more!
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Microsoft Rolls Out Big Savings in the Big Easy 7.0 Promotion | |
If your organization has been waiting for just the right time to invest in the latest Microsoft software, your wait may be over.
Through the end of this year qualified purchases of many of Microsoft's most popular products are now eligible for significant savings that will be paid out in the form of Partner Subsidies. These Partner Subsidies may then be used to pay for additional goods or services provided by your Microsoft Partner.
Click here for more!
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Blog updates from Simplex-IT over the past month
Remember to check out our blog:
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| Plain Funny #39 | |
Remember last month? "Kittens and Light Sabers." Don't know if anyone caught it, but CNN had a story on it only a few days after we posted it in our last issue.
Did we get credit? Heck, no. But we're not bitter. Nope. Not us.
Cuz we're too busy watching the sequel. |
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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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