February 2011
In this issue:

HTS 2011
Webinar Series
Every month HTS hosts a webinar, bringing in our own and industry experts to introduce and explain tools and solutions that can help your business grow. We want to keep all of our clients well-informed and up-to-date on the latest solutions available to you.

This Month’s Topic:
Is your phone system holding you back?
What’s in it for you? Take a minute and think about all of the challenges you face on a daily basis. Is your communication system one of those? It shouldn’t be! Your phone system should be something that complements your business and helps you communicate easily both inside and outside your organization, all while keeping costs down.

Join us on Thursday, March 10th at 10 AM when Susie Green from Mitel shows you how Mitel communications solutions can help you reduce costs and solve the challenges of communicating!

REGISTER HERE!
 

 Microsoft
Office Tip

Use Conversation Clean Up to eliminate redundant messages.

You can reduce the number of messages in your mail folders with the new Conversation Clean Up feature in Microsoft Outlook 2010. Redundant messages within a Conversation are moved to the Deleted Items folder.

Learn more about this here

Let’s try a quick exercise. Fire up your favorite web browser and take a look at your business’s website. Ask yourself a few questions: Is the information on my site accurate and up to date? Does my site look attractive and professional? How many people visit my site every day? What are some specific examples of how my website has helped my business?

Did you answer “No” or “I don’t know” to any of these questions? If you did, you might ask yourself whether your website could be more of a harm than a help.

If you have a website, these are some of the tough questions you have to ask yourself periodically. Websites need some TLC every once in a while, or else they (and possibly your business) get left behind in the dust.

The Internet is now the first place potential customers go to find you. Not the phone book or the newspaper. If your website is the first impression clients have of you. You want it to be a good one. If they can’t easily find what they are looking for, they will move on to the next site without thinking twice.

HTS has recently launched a web development service to help you make the most of your website. Our experienced development team has successfully created websites for organizations in an array of different industries that have both grown their business and their brand. We help you answer those tough questions about your website.

If you aren't satisfied with the way your company's website is working, contact HTS about a website refresh. Your website is the best marketing tool you have, so be sure that it is a good one!

Click here to learn more about our services, and see examples of our work.

Ten Tips for Making Your Business More Efficient
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.

Software and the Taxman
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.

READ ON

Learning to Actively Listen Will Close The “Gap”
By Craig Kitch
www.craigkitch.com

There is nothing more fruitful for your business or career than the art of active listening. Unfortunately, most people would rather talk than listen and that’s why most people live lives of mediocrity. You learn nothing when your mouth is moving but you can acquire vast amounts of knowledge by simply listening attentively. How many sales people have you dealt with that put so much effort into telling you about their product or service that they never even asked what your needs were? Whether you are selling a product, managing people or simply trying to understand your coworkers, there is no skill more valuable to have in your bailiwick than that of being a good listener.

READ ON

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