Both have held meetings this month, which is what has taken me to Seattle two weeks in a row. There is no other company or individual in the state of Arizona that participates in either one of those programs, and no other company or individual in the world that participates in both simultaneously.

The advantage this offers itSynergy (and in turn our customers) is visibility into the future of Microsoft. The average Microsoft Gold Certified Partner who is actively engaged with Microsoft gets about 6 months worth of visibility into the future of Microsoft's products and strategies. Through our participation in these two programs, our visibility into the future is generally two to three years and sometimes more. While we aren't always able to share details on exactly what we have learned through these venues, we are able to guide our customers into the right strategy for the long term, and help them to make fully informed decisions about their technology infrastructure. The content from the two meetings this month has been extremely good and exciting, and we are looking forward to continuing to engage with our customers in strategic discussions with the knowledge we have gained.

Also this month we are EXTREMELY excited to announce that we have hired a new Technology Advisor - Jaimee Rose! Jaimee comes to us with a wide variety of sales experience working with consumers as well as small and medium businesses. Jaimee is new to the technology industry, but I think our SMB customers will view that as an asset as Jaimee only knows how to speak English - she won't bog anyone down with a bunch of techno-speak. Jaimee's primary responsibilities will be to identify new opportunities to help prospective customers with their technology needs and assist them through the buying process. Jaimee's first day is March 16 - you can reach her at jrose@itsynergy.com or 602-297-2400 x2008.

Finally, this month our PR folks were hard at work. Check out http://www.itsynergy.com/news_events.shtml often as we update that page every time there is a new mention in the press.

Have a great month!

Holding a Web meeting? 5 pitfalls to avoid
by Christopher Elliott
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center

But they're still relatively simple, even if you're talking now about meetings held via the Internet instead of by phone.

In fact, getting up and running with Web conferencing software today is so easy that virtually anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can do it. For example, it took me less than two minutes to sign up for Microsoft Office Live Meeting's free 14-day trial.

If it's that easy, how much harder can holding a Web conference be?

5 Easy Ways to Speed Up Your Computer
reprinted with permission from HP

One of the most common complaints heard by IT helpdesks is: "My computer is running too slowly - what can I do?" There are actually a number of reasons why this could be happening, and luckily, a number of ways to solve the problem.

Here are our top five recommendations to help boost your desktop or notebook PC's speed and performance.

System Engineering Corner 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.

Stump the itSynergy Systems Engineers

This month instead of a tip or tidbit of information for you, we have a request. As we were sitting around tossing out ideas for this month's column, it hit us: Why don't we ask people what they want to hear? So instead of a topic we pick, this month, we thought we'd let you pick the topic.

We're asking you to try to 'Stump' the itSynergy Systems Engineers.

Send your MOST difficult technical questions to us at techquestion@itsynergy.com. We'll take a look through all of them and pick the BEST ones. We'll then answer the question in a future newsletter. And, just to make it interesting, we'll pick our favorite question from all of the submissions and send a special thank you to the person who submits it.

So now is your chance - we KNOW you have that one question that has been bugging you or that remains unsolved. Send it to us, and if your question is selected, we'll answer it next month for all to see.

Happy questioning!

March 2009
In this issue

 □  Welcome
 □  Holding a Web Meeting
 □  Speed Up Your Computer
 □  Engineering Corner
 □  Referral Program
 □  Why Outsource?

itSynergy Referral Program

Can we buy you dinner and send you to the movies? How about make a donation to your favorite charity in your name? Earn rewards for referring new customers to itSynergy. For more details, please visit here

Why outsource, isn't that un-American?
by Mike Gonsalves, StrategicFusion

Hardly! Outsourcing is as American as Mom and Apple Pie! A lot of people believe that outsourcing is the problem with America's economy today. For the most part they equate outsourcing with sending jobs overseas (off-shoring). The fact is that outsourcing started long ago when production lines where first formed to manufacture everything from nails for building to autos for driving.

Yes, outsourcing has gotten very sophisticated over the last decade or so. Yes, we are competing on a global scale for jobs, especially in certain sectors. But the fact remains that small businesses can help themselves grow and thrive by outsourcing tasks that are:

1. Difficult to master quickly
2. Better done by someone at a lower overall (more efficient) pay scale

For example, you can do your taxes yourself, or you can hire an accountant. I don't hire an accountant to add the numbers up for me on a form (Turbo Tax can do that just fine). I hire an accountant to make sure the numbers are in the right boxes, that's outsourcing.

Read more

Quote of the month

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great
as a month.

--Henry Van Dyke

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