We’ve received a number of calls in the past few weeks from both new and existing clients looking to get more organized in the New Year.

One of the most recommended type of systems we advise our clients to adopt are called CRM  or Customer Relationship Management systems. They go beyond an address book list of who; by adding context of what, where and when.  They can also help you track what’s next and who needs to do that.  CRM systems help people take the sticky notes off the wall and bring everything together for everyone to see.  How much time do you spend a day tracking all that down?

A technology trend we are huge advocates of  is for companies to adopt software that is hosted on the Internet.  You may hear people refer to these as SaaS or Web Applications.  They allow for powerful software to be easily accessed by anyone, anywhere just by going to a website.  Since we focus on the small business market; allowing our clients to gain access to powerful software with little upfront costs is a great win for our clients.

A popular CRM software you likely have heard of is Salesforce.com.  They make powerful software that is very popular in the Enterprise market for providing a CRM solution to clients who want the quick implementation and other benefits of hosted software.  As great as their offerings I was reminded today by our friends at DBPro’s that one size does not fit all.  If found Salesforce.com to be to expensive  for small business; charging for pretty much any user and any devices to access your data.  I’ve also found the extendability of their services to also come with additional costs for both access and implementation.  In our experience Salesforce.com is just to cost prohibitive for small business customers.

We are advocates of systems that are very lightweight:  easy to setup, easy to learn, easy to use and affordable!  A great hosted CRM which we’ve been advocates of for years is called Highrise by a company called 37Signals.  They offer their hosted software on a per-company flat rate, there also are inexpensive partner products, services and iPhone Apps that work with their fantastic service.  I encourage all small business to give them a try.  You can signed up for a 30-day trial by clicking on this link or the banner to the right.

Tags: CRM,Customer Relationship Management,Highrise,Organization,Salesforce.com,Small Business
Categories: Advise, Web 2.0
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For those of you who love using iPhoto to manage, create and share your digital photography you’ll really enjoy this video. It is an excerpt from a talk The Oxonian Society where Ken Burns personally tells a the story of how the “Ken Burns effect” became to be a part of pretty much every iPhoto slide show you see.  I particularly love the impression at the end of a happy iPhoto user; dead on.  To all our Apple users, i hope you enjoy this story as much as I did.

Tags: Apple,iPhoto,Ken Burns,Ken Burns Effect,Photography
Categories: Apple, Commentary
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When speaking to business about Google Apps one of our most asked questions is what’s the difference between the standard edition and the Premier edition.  This presentation gives a brief overview of Google Apps and expands on the key features of Google Apps Premier edition.  For decision makers interested in Google Apps this is a must watch.

After watching if you have any additional questions we’d be happy to discuss with them.  You can email us here.

Tags: Google Apps,Premier Edition
Categories: Advise, Web 2.0
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I’m very happy to announce that were are now official authorized resellers of Google Apps!

For those of you who don’t know, Google Apps is a very powerful suite of hosted applications for businesses and organizations.  The main services include email, chat, calendaring, documents, sites and video sharing.  Google Apps is a hosted services; meaning all the software is hosted and maintained on Google servers, users access these services via a web browser.  This allows organizations large and small to implement powerful collaboration tools and services with a few simple steps; no expensive infrastructure needed.

Internally we’ve used Google Apps for a few years now.  We’ve also been implementing it for our clients for just about the same time now.  Now that Google has established a reseller program we’re very happy to have that formal relationship with Google in bringing their services to our clients partnered with the professional training, implementation and support of ours.

If you’re interested in seeing what Google Apps can do for your organization, check out these customer stories or drop us a line, we’d love to show you.

Tags: Consulting,Google Apps,Hosted Services,The Digital Life
Categories: Consult, The Digital Life, Web 2.0
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NOBEL PRIZE FOR VPN ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCED

Stockholm, Oct. 9, 2009  –  The Nobel Prize for VPN administration was awarded today to Brian Weber of Watchung, New Jersey for his ground-breaking work implementing Feury Image Group’s remote access capabilities. Using nothing more than a frisbee and a cigarette lighter, Mr. Weber was able to change the subnet on FIG’s LAN, manage port assignment, route traffic in and out, and maximize performance while deploying and configuring new remote clients.

Hans Finngersmells and Vlad Rektalprobe, co-chairs at the prestigious Nobel Institute’s Technology Committee, said that Mr. Weber took the prize in first round voting. “All of the members were agreed that Mr. Weber’s work qualified for the prize and hoped that if he won he would tell them what he used the frisbee for.”

When asked for comment, Tom Vincent, an associate of Mr. Weber’s replied “Dude is f*cking awesome!” adding, “You guys from Sweden? You bring any of that righteous vodka?”

Other prize winners today included Barack Obama for something to do with peace.

Tom Vincent

Nearly Normal Services

Categories: Commentary, Consult, Support
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Earlier today I spoke on the topic of “How to keep your business in-sync.” at the Apple Store in Menlo Park, NJ.  Synchronization for email, contacts and calendar items is one of the most requested topics for both new and existing clients.  It a pleasure to share some knowledge with the many in attendance at the monthly Business Networking session the store hosts; they always host a great crowd.

The event was co-sponsored by Apple and Kerio so naturally their solutions were the topic of discussion for the day.  As many home users are familiar with MobileMe is a great solution for syncing your Mac’s and iPhone with practically all your data.  We’ve found MobileMe to be a great solution for personal use and for families.  I’ve also seen business make great use of the collaborative features as well.

For businesses in need of a robust server solution for communication and collaboration I’ve found the solution from Kerio in their Mail Server to take the needs of businesses to the next level.  We’ve recommended Kerio Mail Server to clients for over 2 years now because of the great value it provides to our clients; enterprise features at a value price.  I’ve included our Kerio Apple Store Presentation that outlines Kerio as a small business solution in greater detail.

Get Sync’d has been our hosting partner of choice in delivering the power of Kerio with the reliability, support and value price that is perfect for our small business clients.

Tags: Apple,Colaboration,Communication,Kerio,Kerio Mail Server,MobileMe
Categories: Advise, Web 2.0
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One of my rules of the “new” TDL blog was no YouTube videos.  I had to break it for this one.  This clip is from an interview of comedian Louis CK from an appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.   It really is some great commentary of how we, as both a society and individually, take for granted the amazing life modern technology affords us to enjoy.  Keep this in mind the next time you think technology is ruining your day.

Disclaimer:  We do not claim ownership of the video above.

Categories: Commentary
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Continuing our series of how to save money on IT in (any) economy is Part 2: Plan, then purchase.

It’s cheaper to purchase things only once.  That’s a pretty self-evident statement if I’ve ever written one.  However, you’d be surprised the amount of waste that clogs up an IT budget in the form of unplanned or unneeded purchases.  I like to refer to this as “buying” when you should be “investing”.  I’ve view it from this paradigm:  You buy costs; they are expenses like office supplies or postage.  You invest in assets; they can be in many forms but they must either allow your business to earn more income or reduce costs.  Technology in business must be viewed as an investment.  The net effect of either making more or spending less will result is your company being more profitable.

They key to it all is with the plan.  When financial planners meet with new clients they analyze their situation, develop a unique plan based upon their clients goals and then implements that plan over time.  When you start with the end in mind you can build upon a solid foundation of right fitting technologies, ones that complement your business goals.  The person behind this plan is your IT architect, like an Executive Consultant from TDL.  This is the person responsible for working in conjunction with your management team will develop a technology plan to accomplish your business objectives.  Sure, it may “cost” more to hire an advisor to chart this out early on, but it’s far less costly than retooling during heavy growth or the missed opportunities of using a poorly selected system.  Does your IT plan support your business plan?

Tags: Advising,Architect,Budget,Investing,IT,Planning,Technology
Categories: Advise, The Digital Life
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Starting off our series of how to save money on IT in (any) economy is Part 1: Protect your Assets

Yes, assets, those wonderful things that make you money.  However, nothing can halt your operations and stop your business as quickly and dramatically by having your IT assets lost, damaged or destroyed. Anyone who’s ever had a virus take over their system (or whole network) can attest to that. Keeping your IT assets safe and secure will help ensure the same for your IT budget and cash flow.  Skipping or skimping on routine mainentance is like running your car without an oil change… sure it’ll run for a while, but it will break and it will be very expensive when it does.

Here are 3 best practices to keep your assets in good order.

1. Ensure your anti-virus is up-do-date and renew that subscription when it comes due.
2. Apply the latest security patches to your systems and servers to keep them protected from outside threats.
3. Review (or create) your disaster recovery plan. Know your key soft assets (documents, client files, financial data, project files, etc.) and how they are secured. A well implemented and tested onsite and offsite backup strategy is a requirement. If you haven’t tested in a while, now is a great time to do that.

Investing in proper maintenance and review by a trained professional is the best way to ensure your assets are properly protected.

Categories: Advise, The Digital Life
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Many of our clients have been reaching out to us recently on ways they can save on their technology budgets in 2009. I like to remind them we’ve been working on that very process since they became our clients. Making smart decisions on technology is not something you just do in rough times, but all the time. For the next week we’ll be outlaying a few simple points will help your make smart decisions on IT for your small business.

Categories: Advise, Consult, Support, The Digital Life, Train
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