February Newsletter - Business & NAV Insights

"What distinguishes ABC Computers from many other business partners is their support persistence. ABC walks....the talk. Whenever and whatever it takes, they persist to get the job done correctly!"

Deb Erce

IT Director

P&S Investments, LLC

Read and watch more testimonials

Shiny New Gadget
of the Month:

Smartbean Bluetooth Wireless Receiver

Make your favorite headphones Bluetooth-compatible. Switch seamlessly between audio and phone functions.

Learn more about it here

January Quick Quiz

Enter our Quick Quiz drawing for your chance to win this month's Shiny New Gadget.

Question:

According to Tim Beyer's (contributor to "The Motley Fool"):

"Big data is the new ____________"

a. cloud computing

b. small data

c. money maker

d. Google

Submit your answer to info@abc-computers.com

A winner will be drawn from the correct responses.

Last Month's

Quick Quiz

Question:

Which of the following are important points in selecting WMS Scanning Hardware?

a. Screen Size

b. Scanning Distance

c. Battery Life

d. All of the above

Answer:

d. All of the above

Winner:

Congratulations go to

Teri Boers

Ordered Motion Systems, Inc.

who won the

USB Desktop Aquarium

Greetings!

The days are getting longer, at least the daylight at the end of the day, and that is really nice to see. Most of our staff live in the upper Midwest, and we've had our fair share of cold days this year, so the extended day light has a number of us thinking about warmer days. Several of us are fortunate enough to get a sneak peek as we will be in Atlanta in 3 weeks, attending Microsoft's Convergence event.

I highly encourage you to consider attending this event. I understand the dilemma of competing priorities and mounting demands that make it difficult to justify time away from the office. However, it is still worth considering. Microsoft is changing: Satya Nadella has been the CEO for a year and is the keynote speaker. It will be great to hear Microsoft's vision directly from him. You will see product insights and vision - many, many changes have already seen but there are many more to come. There are excellent opportunities to spend one on one time with experts as well as to network with your peers in business. And of course, there will be some fun, too!

As you can see, there are many excellent reasons to attend this event (the warmer weather is a bonus). Hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

NewMicrosoftCompetencyLogo

Mark Christie, CEO

ABC Computers, Inc.

NAV security just got easier

By Per Mogensen

If you have tried to set up security in NAV, you know that this can be a very complex and time consuming trial and error process.

Due to the complexity and time it takes to set up security, customers often end up going live with all users as Super users, which means they have full access to all data in NAV. Not until the auditors knock on the door and require tighter security, or the company experiences data loss or damage because users unintentionally changed or deleted data, do they start the process of tying down security.

Navigating The Challenge Of Choosing ERP Software

By Abbe Robinson

This article excerpt, by Bridget Bergin, originally appeared here: http://bit.ly/ZCZFH0

Finding and utilizing the right ERP system is a great way to streamline a company's manufacturing process, minimize miscommunication and disconnect amongst your employees, and decrease the resulting errors. An ERP system puts all the data-from supplier to production to consumer, from executives to managers to supervisors to line workers-on the same database, providing a thread that connects the entire process.

5 Things You Should Know When Buying ERP Software

By Kristina Wieland

Enterprise Resource Planning Software can be described as a business management software which is used to collect and interpret pertinent data. ERP software helps facilitate organized production and transaction, but implementation of an ERP solution within your business should be thoroughly planned. The following article will lay out key tips to consider when determining the correct solution for your unique business needs.

My One Big Fat Cloud Computing Prediction For 2015

By Alan Wyne

The promise of the cloud has been around for many years. It seemed like every time technology got close to acceptance, some horror story appeared about a company losing their data or not being able to access the cloud based system for hours. CIO's and IT managers alike would read these stories and back away from cloud based initiatives. The feeling was that the promise was there but the technology just wasn't stable enough. For the most part, the days of needing to worry about the infrastructure being substandard or access failure are now largely gone.

Windows Server 2003 End of Life: Are You Ready?

By Jeffrey Pergolski

July 14, 2015 is the date that Microsoft will end support for Windows Server 2003 R2. Windows Server 2003 was released over 10 years ago and has been a stable platform for organizations worldwide. So stable in fact, that some organizations have found little motivation to move off of it. Server 2003 is built on the same "bits" that Windows XP was built on. Last year we fought through Microsoft's end of support notice on Windows XP so we have a little bit of experience to prepare us for July. I'm hoping to remind you what "End of Support" means in Microsoft's world as well as give you a few things to consider on deciding how and what you might do with servers that remain in your infrastructure that are currently running a version of Windows Server 2003.

About ABC Computers

ABC Computers has been providing a unique blend of business software solutions and computer support services to businesses - small and large - since 1984. Over the last 25+ years, we have earned a reputation for exceeding clients' expectations and developing lasting relationships by first listening - learning about your business - and only then suggesting solutions to help you achieve your objectives.

With 3 locations in Wisconsin (WI), 1 location in South Bend, IN, and staff throughout the upper Midwest, ABC offers business consulting and IT services through two distinctly related teams.

Our business management systems group specializes in financial management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision).

ABC's computer support services team specializes in troubleshooting IT problems that disrupt business operations and transforming technology from a burden into an asset.

Donavan Lane, as well as each team member of ABC, is dedicated to your complete satisfaction. Thus our commitment to implementing "Business Solutions...Your Way."