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 CONVERGED COMMUNICATIONS & IT SOLUTIONS
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The Synertel Sentinel
Online Edition
Sep, 2009 Issue 155 |
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| Leading the Industry ... Safe Water Bottles |
Travel with us to the CompTIA Breakaway 2009 conference.
Find out if your metal water bottle is safe or not. Learn how to get a free replacement from Cole Hardware.
Moving? Shrinking? Expanding? Reconfiguring? Or just flipping out?
We are working with many clients to help them adjust to current economic realities. Let our expertise help save you time and $ with carrier renegotiation, home-shoring, unified communications, and virtualizing.
We'll help you plan ahead, control costs, and avoid last minute hassles. Call us today for Project Manage-ment, Carrier moves, Cabling, Telecom & IT re-sizing & relocation. We do it every day -- so you don't have to!
As always, we are interested in your feedback, kudos, and suggestions for improvement. Feel free to contact me at any time!
Ben Stiegler, CEO
415 746 1811
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What about Nortel??
Many system owners puzzled
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 As the demise of Nortel the company, and the families of products it generated continues, many business owners are puzzled. They might need a change, expansion, or upgrade now. They might face a failing system component - and wonder if its worth trying to fix it?
FACT - Nortel is in a slow state of limbo. While Avaya has made an offer to acquire, Nortel has now announced that it has received other offers as well.
FACT - whenever 2 companies merge product lines, workforces, and support plans - the one being acquired tends to disappear quickly. Remember Compaq servers? Intertel, Vodavi, or Comdial phone systems? Verbatim voicemails? All quickly digested by the acquiring firms. Investing more $ in a Nortel infrastructure today is not likely a wise investment.
FACT - Nortel systems tended to be hungry - for space and for electrical power (and thus cooling).
If you are facing a key decision point about your Nortel communications infrastructure, give us a call today at 415 746-1801. We'll help you evaluate the risks, costs, and rewards of sitting tight - or making a change. Toshiba offers 0% financing through September 2009. Certain Stimulus Act and ADA tax credits may not be available after Dec 2009.
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Enhance Your Systems Now, Pay Later! 3 WEEKS LEFT!
No payment till 2010, plus 0% Financing continues |
Synertel and Toshiba are offering 2 ways to help you gain the benefits of unified communications and IT solutions today, while paying for them gently over time.
- The very popular $0 down, 0% interest 36 month lease has been extended to September 30
- 6 month deferred - install now, no payments due for 6 months, 60 month term, $1 buyout
Ask us how these can work as your own small business stimulus program - allowing you to get the best possible tools to enhance effectiveness and productivity! |
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SYNERTEL AT COMPTIA BREAKAWAY - Roll your Own "Cash for Klunkers! " |
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 How does Synertel keep "ahead of the curve" - staying up to date on the ever-more-complex worlds of telephony, IT, network architecture, and convergence? One way is attending multiple intense education events annually.
Synertel CEO Ben Stiegler returned recently from the CompTIA Breakaway conference, where he met with dozens of vendors, peer and partner firms across the world, and the new CEO of CompTIA, Todd Thibodeaux.
Nearly 1000 leaders of technology service and support businesses spent a week together, discussing everything from Microsoft's latest foibles, to how we can deliver better value and service to our clients, to how the needs of small business can be most effectively represented in Congress and the state legislatures.
One idea Ben and Todd discussed was "cash for servers and phone system klunkers ". While less visible than 1978 gas hogs on the highways, old IT technology - phone systems, messaging platforms, servers, and even backup power systems were tremendously inefficient about power use -- and thus generated excess heat with abandon.
Today, we are all concerned about carbon footprint. What many people don't realize is that a power-inefficient IT device costs TWICE the power it wastes. Why? Once to operate it - and a second time for the cooling power needed to carry away all that waste heat.
Even if Congress never gets around to an official Cash for Server Klunkers" program - you may be surprised at how much money you can save by replacing old, power-inefficient systems. . Often the newer ones take less physical space as well - freeing up precious wall and rack space for other resources. Older power-hungry systems are often failure-prone as well. Synertel
finds many DOS-based voice messaging systems still in use - most of
them with 10+ year old hard drives that haven't been backed up - ever! Imagine the impact of the unexpected loss of your company's autoattendant and messaging system.
Curious how your energy use compares to what's possible, and how much it might be costing you to retain older, inefficient devices? Ask Synertel for a complimentary assessment today! Call 415 746-1801 or email sales@synertel.com today!
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SIGG BOTTLE SWAP @ COLE HARDWARE - AVOID TOXIC COATING HAZARD! |
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 Cole Hardware is one of SF's classic institutions - excellent selection, free advice, and "satisfaction guaranteed" are what has propelled Cole from a single store to having 4 locations serving SF, plus a home repair service. Rick Karp, CEO, has been a mentor in customer service to Synertel for many years.
Recently Rick sent an important bulletin that I want to summarize & share:
SIGG water bottles were deemed "safe" by the maker, but the internal coating used was never detailed. Many of you are aware of BPA (Bisphenol A), a chemical suspected of disrupting hormone operation in mammals since the 1930s. It now turns out the SIGG used BPA in the internal bottle coatings for SIGG bottles made before August of 2008. Sigg maintains they are safe - but changed the formula for the coating, which now contains no BPA at all.
Synertel is proud to be the long-term telephony, WAN, and IT security partner for Cole Hardware. Ben first met Rick in 1994, and proposed a new phone system for the Cole Street location to replace an ancient, failing system. Over the years, Synertel has installed NEC and Toshiba phone systems, created a secure Wide Area Network to support Cole's Point of Sale System, provided dial tone and internet connectivity, & solved Cole's email spam headaches.
Synertel & Cole share the approach of "exceeding customer expectations daily". If you haven't yet visited a Cole Hardware, you're in for a treat when you do!
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| PHISHING ATTACKS RISE STEEPLY - IS YOUR NETWORK PROTECTED? |
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June marked an increase in malware and the "highest rate of phishing attacks to date" on the Web. Of the overall 108 newly-reported vulnerabilities in June, 62 were active exploits, indicating an "all-time high" of 57.4%. The majority of overall activity came from the United States, which contributed 22% percent of all reported exploits. A significant proportion of the attacks were traced back to Asia - specifically, Singapore, Japan and Korea, which ranked second, third and fourth place, respectively. 13.6% percent of all attacks originated in Singapore. Online games sites hosted the most number of Zbots. Zbot malware spreads keylogging and data-siphoning Trojans through e-cards sent via e-mail, directing users to malicious sites.
Don't take chances with your network -- Ask Synertel for a complimentary network security assessment today! Learn how we can protect your network, users, & data - and also manage and monitor your entire IT infrastructure remotely.
PS - Guess which approach costs less over time!? |
| Welcome -- New Clients! Thank you, existing Clients for new projects! |
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Thank you for entrusting us with improving your IT and telephony!
Desousa Law Offices
Law Offices of Uy & Henriolle
VIZ Pictures
KBS Realty Advisors
Imperial Contracting
Financial Partners
Kathe Traynor Residence
Industrial Origami
Chrome Industries
Bouvet USA
Saltzman & Johnson Law Corporation
Bostwick & Associates
Traxler & Tong
MetaDesign
FireMaster
CP Shades
Good Samaritan Family Resource Center
Syntrio
Sierra Pacific Casting
Selix
Barbagelata Real Estate
Limon Restaurant
Blaze Fireplaces
Putney Financial
Wu Yee Childrens Services
Special Dispatch of Phoenix
Schoenberg & Associates
SF Child Abuse Prevention Center
The Gardener
St. Francis Yacht Club
Stanford MultiDisciplinary Spine Center
Durham School Services
First Graduate
EcoMetro Guide
City of Novato
Laser Center of Marin
DZH Phillips
Broadway Pet Hospital
For a complimentary assessment of your organization's IT and Telecom spending and resources, call Ben Stiegler at 415 746 1811 or email ben@synertel.com | |
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SPECIAL OFFER!
FREE Level 1 Network Security Assessment
Synertel will provide a structural and operational inspection of your network, and an optional remediation plan if needed. |
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| Offer good thru July 31, 2009. Must mention offer DANGER-WILL-ROBINSON. |
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