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Michael Cocanower
President, itSynergy |
Welcome
Recently, I have noticed something
increasingly frequently among the itSynergy
customers I have had the opportunity to meet
with. Frankly, this trend is one of the most
exciting I've seen in a long time, and I
really hope this is the beginning of a much
larger trend that we'll see across all of
our clients.
For years, itSynergy has been preaching
to its customers that one of the most
effective ways of leveraging your investment
in technology is to think of your technology
as a strategic asset rather than simply an
overhead expense. Once you are in that
mindset, the focus then shifts to one of
leveraging your technology to gain a
strategic advantage in your marketplace,
rather than simply minimizing cost. |
When a customer has fully made that transition in
thinking, it is really exciting from our perspective
to help empower their use of technology by serving
as their trusted technology advisor. We as an
organization truly believe that it is when we serve
in this role that we provide the greatest value to
our customers. Sure - we can fix the day to day
issues with technology that cause inconvenience, but
our real strength is helping you with the challenge
of getting more out of your technology than just an
expense line on the income statement.
The element of all of this that I have found
encouraging is that in the last few months, I have
noticed a large percentage of customers approaching
US and asking how to be more strategic with their
investment in technology, rather than us having to
gently 'push' customers through that transition in
thinking. As a matter of fact, I even spoke with a
potential new customer yesterday that wanted to be
assured that we would engage and advise him on this
strategic level before he would agree to become a
customer. That is music to our ears, and we are all
too happy to oblige.
Where are you in this continuum of thinking
related to technology? Have you started to realize
the strategic advantage of your organization's
technology investment? |
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Leveraging Technology
Mitigates Risks, Controls Costs and Helps Meets Demands of Growing
Businesses
 As a small business
expands, the need to manage this growth with updated technology
should rate high on a company's list of priorities. Should an
organization experience rapid growth in a short period of time and
fail to advance its technology to meet these new demands, the
business owner may face significant challenges in the future,
including loss of revenues, waning market share and adverse customer
perceptions.
Incorporating the
following tips into the company business plan will help ensure a
smooth transition.
Don't do everything
yourself
Most small businesses believe they can administer technology issues
themselves without the support of an independent technology firm.
The cost of maintaining an in-house IT operation is often beyond the
means of most small to mid-sized companies. However, the risk of
lost data, system crashes, spyware and slow-running systems may be
far greater for these organizations in terms of financial loss,
diminished customer goodwill and declining productivity. For many
small businesses, outsourcing the IT function has proven to cut
costs considerably.
Read more
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Practical Productivity
Where do you keep your "Junk"?
 I have one - and
I bet you do as well. When I look in mine I see some instruction guides, a box of tic-tacs, a golf ball, a pad of personal checks, loose change, some paper clips
and a bottle of vitamins. What's in yours? In your junk drawer, that is!
Everyone needs a place for items that don't fit into any other category. And that's true for your computer
too. What do you do with information from the web that you want to remember, a recipe that your mom sent or notes from a meeting you attended? Could
there be a better place to keep information you receive in an email than stuffing your Outlook to overflowing? I've found a piece of software that I
can't live without - Microsoft OneNote. Many of you may already have OneNote depending on you're the version of Microsoft Office that you own. If
you don't - the purchase price is under $100.
Read more |
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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.
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Do you have a 'problem' computer or user doing things on the Internet they
shouldn't be?
Do they think they're smarter than you are by erasing all of their history,
cache, temporary files, etc.?
Want to know where they've been anyway?
Thanks to our resident scripting genius (aka Infrastructure Team Manager Mark
MacLachlan), we have a new script we can run on individual workstations that
gives a complete list of Internet sites visited, EVEN if the history has been
erased from Internet Explorer.
You'd be amazed at how some people spend their work day. One look at the
output from our script, and you'll either know you have a problem to deal with,
or you'll feel guilty for suspecting someone that hasn't been anywhere except
sites that have a valid business purpose.
Want to check it out? Just email us the name of the computer/user you want us
to check up on, and we can email you back a file with a listing of all of that
person's travels on the Internet.
Happy Hunting! |
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October 2007
In this issue
□
Welcome
□ Leveraging Technology
□ Tech Corner
□ Where Do You Keep Your Junk?
□ Travel Expense Deductions
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Travel Expense
Deduction Strategies
By Joseph Anthony
Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center
When you hit the road for
business trips, you have to know the rules for deducting your hotel
and meal expenses. While the rules haven't changed much lately
(proposals to increase the percentage of a meal that can be deducted
haven't gone anywhere), they're still a little tricky. There
are several different ways to deduct meal and lodging expenses when
you or your employees are on the road. The method you use could make
a difference in terms of how much money -- and time -- you save.
Here's a breakdown:
The basic method:
tallying actual costs. Keeping careful track of actual food and
lodging costs is the method with which most small businesses are
familiar. Save your receipts, document your costs and the business
purposes of your activities and take your deductions.
Alternative No. 1:
per diem for businesses (the "high-low" method). You as the
employer can give your employees a per diem allowance. The simplest
way of doing this, known as the high-low method, lets you choose
from only two different rates for meals, hotels and incidental
expenses for business trips within the continental United States.
Read more
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Quote of the
month
"When all is said and done,
more is said than done."
-Lou Holtz |
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7310 North 16th Street,
Suite 130
Phoenix, AZ 85020-8203
Telephone: 602.297.2400
Fax: 602.297.8703
Email:
info@itsynergy.com
www.itsynergy.com
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