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5225 Darrow Rd

Hudson, OH 44236

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In This Issue

Next Lunchinar...Still Using XP...Now What?

Goodbye XP Networking/Party!

Crotchety Olde Geek #5: Why XP Must Go!

Our Next Free Webinar - "PowerPoint 2013 - From Zero to Presentation in 60 Minutes"

Outlook 2013 webinar now online

Simplex-IT wins awards (again)!

Office Web Apps becomes Office Online

new Improvded Encryption

OpenDNS Wins!

Bob in Crain's

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs...

Plain Funny #71

Issue: #71

March/2014

Wow...for a short month, February was pretty full of stuff. Good stuff, thankfully.

First of all, I have to say that I'm ready for winter to be over. I say this with no anger, no vitriolic rampage against the elements. I grew up in Cleveland, and this is the kind of winter that I grew up with. And for whatever reason (yeah, I'm a "believer" in Global Warming, but that's another topic), the last 10-20 years have mostly been much milder, or the snow only seemed to stay for a couple of days and then was conveniently melted away.

But I'm done walking down Nostalgic Lane, especially since it's cold.

I think we're finally hitting stride with our monthly webinar. More people attending, more feedback from the attendees (especially helpful in terms of next topics). And we're finally past (we hope<g>) the technical glitches that we had the first couple.

Then we were recognized for being one of the best in what we do by MSPMentor. Same awards as last year (which is nice). Still waiting for my Oscar, though.

Ended up quoted in Crain's Cleveland Business in an article about Windows XP.

Finally got another "Crotchety Olde Geek" blog out.

And I'm excited about our event on April 8th (the last day of support from Microsoft for XP). I really hope we get a good crowd there both for the networking as well as watching the movie.

Bob

Our Next Free Lunchinar: "It's March, and You're Still Using Windows XP - Now What?"

By now you may have heard - effective April 8, 2014 Microsoft will no longer support its most popular operating system of all time, Windows XP. And that's not all! Office 2003 will be reaching its End of Support on that date, as well.

You may well be wondering, "What does this mean to me? Call me old fashioned, but I'm still using Windows XP and/or Office 2003 and the software seems to be working just fine. What's going to happen on April 8? Will the software continue to work? Or not? Will I be exposing myself or my company to potential risks if I don't upgrade? How concerned should I be?"

Click here for more!

"Goodbye Windows XP" FREE Party/Networking/Movie Event - You're Invited!
Say goodbye to Windows XP, do some networking and watch a classic SF movie on the big screen! Date: Tuesday April 8th, 2014 Time: Networking starts at 5:30pm, tribute to XP and 2003 at 6:30pm. Movie at 7. Where: The Kent Stage, 175 East Main Street, Kent, Oh 44240 Register now (and tell your friends) here:

Crotchety Olde Geek #5: Why XP Must Go!

This is the 5th blog entry I've done under the "Crotchety Olde Geek" handle. Bottom line is, we've all heard about Microsoft discontinuing support for XP (heck, we're even throwing a party for its demise).

But why is this a big deal? We IT folks have been trying to get folks to upgrade all the time. But the truth is, Windows XP works. Plain and simple. It works for what a majority of people need it to do.

So do we need to upgrade? In a word, yup. Watch the video and understand why (no geeky stuff here).

Crotchety Olde Geek #5: Why XP Must Go!

Our Next Free Webinar -"PowerPoint 2013 - From Zero to Presentation in 60 Minutes!"

Working with PowerPoint is pretty easy - hey, even 3rd graders are using it in school! Most users can jump right in and work with it because it is a very user-friendly program. This webcast, presented by Simplex-IT, is designed for any user, beginner or seasoned, to demonstrate some quick ways of creating slides and of working with the new features in 2013, plus assorted tips and tricks.

In this session we will:

create slides
change layout designs
use the new section feature
work with placeholders and
change those placeholders to SmartArt designs and use graphics for bullet points.

We will look at some of the old and new views such as slide sorter, notes and the new reading view, as well as some of the design templates (they have really cut those down but you can still download many from the website).

Click here for more!

Simplex-IT's Webinar "Outlook 2013 - Making it work for you!" is now online

Our most successful webinar to date (ok, so there have only been 3) is now online and available to everybody. Take a look and learn more from Michele Bobola about Outlook 2013 (and really, previous versions of Outlook).

Office Webinar #3: Outlook 2013

Simplex-IT recognized Twice by MSPmentor as top-notch MSP!

For a second year in a row, Simplex-IT was honored by MSPmentor, a division of Penton Publishing, in their annual rankings of top MSP's (Managed Service Providers) in the world.

The term "MSP" or "Managed Service Provider" is frequently used (and more frequently abused) to describe the primary service we provide, namely being the IT department for small to medium businesses.

Simplex-IT ended up ranking in both the "MSPmentor 501 Global MSP List for 2014" and the "MSPmentor 501: Small Biz 100 Edition 2014" (for MSP's in the US with 10 or fewer employees). It looks like you might have to register at the site to see the 100 list.

Click here for more!

Here We Go Again! Office Web Apps Become Office Online!

Your favorite Office applications have been available online for quite some time, but now you're going to find your Office Online experience easier to find, share and collaborate with others.

To start, they're getting a name change. Yes! Apparently people were getting confused about the moniker Office Web Apps. Is it something I install? Do I have to go to an App Store to get them? No, all you need to use these familiar programs is a web browser. It's like Office, only Online. Get it? Office Online! Of course, it makes perfect sense!

Click here for more!

Microsoft Announces new Improved Office 365 Message Encryption

Microsoft has announced the general availability of their new and improved Office 365 Message Encryption services. Originally introduced in November 2013, this allows users of Exchange Online to send encrypted mail to anyone!

To begin using the message encryption service, you simply purchase a subscription for Windows Azure Rights Management, which also includes Information Rights Management capabilities. This will give you a comprehensive solution to help protect your internal end external communications..

Click here for more!

OpenDNS - A Simplex-IT Partner - Voted #1 Most Innovative Security Company

A recent survey at "Somaini's Cyber Security Blog" (http://somaini.net) has produced a list of the top IT Security vendors and Simplex-IT is proud to be associated with the company that came out the clear winner.

"OpenDNS came out way ahead of all other vendors. While they have been around for some time, since 2005, their core value of threat and policy management via DNS is a strong value with 43% of people saying they provide "High Value".

Click here more!

Bob Coppedge in Crain's

Bob Coppedge, CEO of Simplex-IT (um, and the writer of this blog post), was recently quoted in an article in Crain's Cleveland Business "Window is closing for XP support."

As you can imagine, everyone at Simplex-IT was amazed at the wisdom Bob shared. Yes. He's still writing this blog post. But it was actually a decent article talking about how area companies are dealing with the upcoming retirement of Windows XP.

Click here for the article

Want to find out about this stuff quicker?

Blog updates from Simplex-IT over the past month

Remember to check out our blog:

http://BizBlog.Simplex-it.com/

Plain Funny #71

I haven't seen the movie "She" yet. About a guy who falls in love with his computer/OS/iPhone/Siri. But you may not have known that the final version with Scarlett Johansson as "Samantha" was not the original casting choice:

Hal 9000 In "her"

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