December 2011
In this issue:

Holiday Hours

Our offices will be closed Monday, December 26, for Christmas. We will be open Friday, December 30th and Monday, January 2nd. Have a happy and safe holiday!
 

HTS Referral Program

The highest compliment you can give us is the referral of a new client. If you know of anyone who could benefit from any of the services we provide your company, please keep us in mind.

Learn how you could earn a $100 American Express gift card in return for your referral!
 

A Chilling Forecast
Winter is right around the corner and with it comes ice storms, blizzards, and other cold weather threats. Preparing your organization before a winter storm hits can help you protect your employees, minimize damage, and lead to a speedy recovery.

Don't let a cold and snowy winter interrupt your ability to do business. How can you prepare? Download the Winter Weather Preparedness Checklist.

Just for Laughs

All of us at HTS have been humbled by the concern and care shown toward Joplin since the devastating May 22nd tornado. HTS has been a long time member of the VentureTech Network, an elite organization of computer resellers that purchase from Ingram Micro. VentureTech’s leadership had asked earlier in the fall for a way to help Joplin during the Christmas season. I suggested gift cards for displaced Joplin residents who were living in the FEMA temporary housing units.

From that suggestion, the "Tree of Hope" campaign was born. At an October meeting, computer resellers from around the country along with donations from HP and CISCO donated $13,800 in $25 gift cards to hand out. We were thrilled to receive them. The perfect project presented itself to hand them out. "Healing Joplin", an outreach of Ozark Center for Mental Health, sponsored a giveaway day for the FEMA residents that included a Christmas tree from Wal-Mart, decorations, toys for children, and the gift cards.

Around 500 people came that day and were blessed with those donations (see first image). We are so thankful for members of the Information Technology Channel all across the country for the difference that they made in Joplin.

We've also begun to see new houses being built. The Tulsa chapter of Habitat for Humanity sponsored an incredible event - Ten for Joplin. In just 16 days, volunteers built 10 houses for deserving families (see second image). We're especially proud of this effort, because the Joplin chapter of Habitat has become our new client.

Joplin was also selected as a site by Extreme Makeover Home Edition on ABC. For their 200th show, they built a record seven homes in seven days along a two block stretch of the devastation zone near St. John's Hospital and Cunningham Park (see third image). Our area was a frenzy of activity and excitement for weeks leading up to the actual build. HTS donated a laptop and a printer to each of the seven households. We hear that the show will air on January 13th. Please watch for a great example of how Joplin is working to recover from the events of that devastating day.

It's time for our HTS Quarterly K12 Webinar series! Our next webinar will be on February 7th, 10:00 AM CST.

Our upcoming K12 webinar is Bring Your Own Device: Optimize your IT resources and budget.

Stoneware is the first and only cloud-computing solution that is your desktop built in a browser. Students and teachers can securely access all of their IT resources – data, file directories, Windows, web and hosted applications – any time, from anywhere, using any machine or OS.

Join us on Tuesday, February 7th at 10:00am CST as Stoneware’s Rob Hart explains how Stoneware can help you optimize your current IT resources and help you budget for the future, as well as a live demo of the application.

Register for this webinar today!

Looking back over my last three decades in computers (actually 34 years now), technology has come a very long way and changed a lot. I saw the introduction of the personal computer, the very first computer networks, email, the dawn of the Internet, only very recently cloud computing – and now tons of personal mobile devices.

And these new personal devices are now making their way into nearly every business environment in a multitude of ways, but most concerningly as USB memory sticks or jump drives, smart phones, laptops, and tablet computers. These personally purchased and unmanaged devices are becoming integrated into business environments that already had business-purchased and securely managed laptops, smart phones and tablet PCs. In fact, many businesses are now encouraging their employees to BYOD – or Bring Your Own Device.

So now the business networks that we care for are quickly becoming networks of previously unimaginable complexity. The world of technology is clearly changing again and my business must change too – and find solutions fast!

How do you have to change for personal device management?

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