E-Newsletter February 2007

This month brings EXTREMELY exciting news of advancement and professional development inside itSynergy. I hope you'll indulge me while we turn the spotlight inward a bit. We are really bursting with pride for our two new superstars - so much so I wanted to share with everyone.

First, Robert Vasquez, Network Engineer at itSynergy and a customer favorite achieved the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification during the month of February. This represents a long effort on Robert's part to combine raw technical knowledge and hands on experience to obtain Microsoft's highest level of system engineering certification.

In order to be awarded with the MCSE certification, candidates must pass six core exams and one elective exam. The exams cover a wide variety of topics from very in depth server and network management to client operating systems. Microsoft also prides itself on the difficulty of these tests, including not just multiple choice questions, but also adaptive testing technology (you get more questions in areas where you miss a question early on) and live simulations. This is an AWESOME achievement for Robert, and we are proud to call him a member of our team.

Second, and equally exciting was the promotion of Jose Ramirez to Director of Application Development. Jose started with itSynergy in 1999 as an Application Developer. Since that time he has worked his way up through the ranks, and excelled time and time again in exceeding customer expectations. In his new role, Jose will be responsible for our application development practice, and will report directly to me. We are very lucky to have someone with such a great mix of technical knowledge and business skills to lead this practice area.

Please join me in congratulating Robert and Jose on their achievements. They've worked hard and have our admiration!

By Jeff Wuorio
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center at http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness.

Hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural events are disasters in every sense of the word. Lives are lost, property decimated and entire communities disrupted.

For your small business, these events can be just as devastating. But there's a great deal you can do - both to prepare before a disaster strikes and afterwards, to get your business back on its feet quickly.

Here are 10 tips to better protect your business and, if damage occurs, what you can do to speed your recovery.

First, here are tips to help you protect your business:     Read more

Vista: To Migrate or Not?

After much ado, Microsoft's newest operating system release in almost five years, Vista became available to business users in November 2006. Vista offers no shortage of visually stunning effects and new features, but these benefits come at a price - namely the need for more powerful and faster PCs. If you are among the many that are considering adopting this new operating system for your small or mid-sized business, there are some important factors you need to consider before you make your decision.

Vista's key benefits
Microsoft developers have built Vista to succeed where previous versions have fallen short. Here are just some of the improvements and features that are part of Vista:   Read more

Notes from the Network Engineering Department:

Note to readers: As our network engineers work with all of you across our entire customer base, they observe trends and issues that many people have in common, or that many customers will find helpful to know about. This section is designed to give them a mechanism to communicate those issues to you, with the hope that YOU might benefit from.

This month is a VERY busy month for the system engineers at itSynergy, so rather than focusing in on a single item, we wanted to briefly touch on several subjects. Of course if you'd like to discuss these or any other topics in greater detail, please give us a call!

1. We wrote about it last month, but many still aren't ready. This is literally your last chance to prepare for the upcoming changes to Daylight Savings Time. We realize Arizona doesn't observe DST, but it is VERY likely that you do business or correspond with someone outside Arizona that DOES observe it, so you need to be ready. The official Microsoft site is at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/timezone/dst2007.mspx but there is a lot of info there. If you'd like to make sure you're compliant without wading through all of the technical stuff, just give us a call.

2. Many customers have been asking us about Vista and whether to upgrade. We have included an article in this month's edition, but we also wanted to remind everyone that Office 2007 has also been released. A change to Vista often requires a hardware update, but an upgrade to Office 2007 often does not. Also, you do NOT need to run Vista to run Office 2007 - it runs great on Windows XP too! There were many people that thought the difference between Office 2000 and Office 2003 weren't enough to justify the upgrade. We can assure you the same isn't true for Office 2007. While Office 2007 is quite a bit different, and therefore has a learning curve associated with it, there are LOTS of new features that we think the 'average' user can immediately benefit from. If you'd like to see Office 2007, or talk about it further with us, please let us know.

3. A number of customers lately have experienced problems where their email server crashes at 5 am every day. This is easily avoidable, and we want to help you skip the downtime. By default, Microsoft Exchange (email server software) has a storage limit of 16GB. That limit can be increased at any time as high as 75 GB (if you have installed the free service pack 2 from Microsoft). Increasing the limit is a job best handled by professionals, however, because there are a lot of considerations such as disk and backup capacity that have to be taken into account. For those customers with an itSynergize Monitoring plan, our agents watch for warning signals of a database about to go over the size limit. For those customers without, when was the last time you looked at email volume? Next month we'll discuss the two theories behind managing email storage to help you decide which is best for you.

February 2007
In this issue....

 □  Welcome
 □  Disaster Ready
 □  Vista - Migrate or Not
 □  System Engineering Corner
 □  Using IM For Business

10 Tips for Using Instant Messaging for Business

• By Monte Enbysk
  Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center
  
  Blame it on instant messaging. Here's the scene: A couple dozen professionals at a New York advertising agency quietly type away at computer screens congregated near each other, in an open room devoid of office walls and tall partitions.
  
  Quietly is the key word here. An occasional laugh or chuckle punctuates the silence. But no one is talking. Why? They are communicating with one another almost exclusively through instant messaging (IM).
  
  "When I'm visiting this firm, I can't help but notice this [lack of people talking]. Seems odd to an outsider, but this is now pretty much their corporate culture," says Helen Chan, analyst for The Yankee Group, a Boston-based technology research group, who has friends at the ad agency.
  
  A technology designed initially for conducting one-on-one personal chats has permeated the workplace. Many business people are choosing text-based IM over phone calls and e-mail - preferring its immediacy and streamlined efficiency in getting real-time information from partners, suppliers and colleagues working remotely.
  
  Instant messaging is essentially the text version of a phone call. At businesses large and small, more and more people are using it as a communications tool. For many, it serves as a backstop for e-mail problems and other emergencies - witness the spikes in IM usage after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
  
  Read on

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