Local Community Action Agency Says “Our Network Is Running Better Than Ever Now!"

MCOP Counts on Tech Experts For A Problem-Free Network

Monroe County Opportunity Program (MCOP) is one of Monroe County’s most successful community action agencies, serving thousands of residents every year. The agency relies on Tech Experts to keep their computers and network problem-free.

Founded in 1965, MCOP’s mission is “To enhance the quality of life and reduce the effects of poverty by providing opportunities, services, and collaborating with community agencies to foster self-sufficiency.” 

They do this by administering programs such as Homeless Prevention, Homebuyer Rehab, Weatherization, Specialized Transportation, Utility Assistance, Food Programs and assistance for Seniors with lawn mowing, home making, unmet needs and resource advocacy.The agency uses computers and technology extensively on a day to day basis. 

“We use Microsoft Office applications for spreadsheets, presentations and word processing,” explained Larry Hansen, MCOP’s fiscal director. “MCOP also uses a specialized software package, designed just for non-profit agencies, for general ledger, payroll accounts payable, etc.”

“Also as a nonprofit serving the low income population, MCOP uses an in-house Client Tracking software program,” Larry continued. “We also access web based systems that are utilized by various agencies within the community.  These are communication tools that are required by the government agencies that provide MCOP’s funding.”

When it came time to upgrade MCOP’s network, Technology Experts installed a Microsoft Windows 2003 Server system along with Windows Terminal Services.  Terminal Services allows users to connect to the server using thin client terminals, decreasing the need for individual computers on each employee’ desk.

Another advantage of employing a Terminal Services environment is that older computers can be used as
clients without slowing down the computing performance of the user, since the applications run on the server instead of on the client stations. “Even though there were many changes that took time to get used to,” Larry said, “the entire process was a success and our network is running better than ever now.”

MCOP provides many services in Monroe County, including home buyer rehab, weatherization services, and assistance for seniors with lawn mowing and home maintenance.

When asked what MCOP liked most about Tech Experts service, Larry was quick to answer: “The timeliness in responding to our calls for assistance. Help is usually on site the same day and many times within minutes.”

Monroe County Opportunity Program:  1140 South Telegraph Road Monroe, Michigan 48161 (734) 241-2775 www.monroecountyop.org 

How to Declare Freedom from Slow Computers, Downtime, Viruses, Hackers, and Computer Problems Finally and Forever!

Are you sick and tired of worrying about the security of your network against the latest spyware, virus, or hacker threat?  Would you like to have peace of mind knowing that your backups are working properly and storing your data in a secure, easy to restore format?  Do you want your network to always be “up” and running fast?

Then we have a service you need to know about...

It’s called our Experts Total Support plan. This program gives you fast, 24-7 computer support, maintenance, and monitoring for one low, fixed monthly rate without any surprises, hidden costs, or the expense of a full time IT staff!

Why Do you Need This?

Having a secure, reliable computer system is no longer a luxury for businesses today. If you can’t access your e-mail, financial information, client database, or other critical data, you’re OUT of business.

Plus, you must keep your data secure from corruption, loss, and theft; if you don’t, it could not only cost you dearly in downtime, but it could also cause your reputation harm when customers find out your network (and their data) has been compromised, stolen, or lost forever.

How Does It Work?

The concept is simple. For a fixed monthly fee, we will monitor and maintain your computer network 24/7, 365 days a year. We will make sure your anti-virus, spyware, and security patches are up to date. We’ll monitor your network for looming problems that could turn into downtime or data loss such as hardware failures and disk space problems.

We’ll also watch your backups to make sure they truly are running and not giving you a false-positive reading, and we’ll constantly optimize the health and overall speed of your network. After all, nothing is more frustrating than a slow computer!
Last (but not least!) we’ll be able to provide remote support through a highly secure Internet connection to provide almost instant support whenever you need it. No more waiting around for a technician to show up!

FREE Network Check gets you Started...

If you want to find out how our Experts Total Support plan can help your business, call us for a FREE Network Health Check. At no charge or obligation, we’ll come onsite and...

Look for incorrect network configurations that show up as unexpected downtime, application errors, printers not working, e-mail problems, etc.

• Assess your current security against data corruption, theft, hardware failures, power outages, computer viruses, worms, hacker attacks, spam, and even employee sabotage.
  
  
• Scan for spyware that is secretly stealing your company’s bandwidth, jeopardizing the speed of your computer system, and embezzling confidential information about your company.
  
  
• Check your data backup system to ensure it is working properly and accurately backing up all of the critical information you NEVER want to lose.
  
  
• Diagnose slow, unstable PCs and perform a quick network “tune up” to make programs load faster.

When we’ve finished, we’ll give you a network ‘report card’ that will reveal any weaknesses in your security or trouble spots on your network that could lead to bigger (more expensive) problems.

Normally we charge $297 for this, but if you call during the month of July, we’ll give it to you for FREE as our gift for introducing our Experts Total Support plan. Again, you are not obligated to sign up for this program or pay us anything for this service—but you have to hurry!

To get signed up now, call 734-457-5000 or go online to www.ExpertsTotalSupport.com.

Secrets About your Customers Hidden In your Company’s Web Site Reports

No matter who hosts your web site, it's almost certain that you have we site traffic reporting.  These reports can tell you a LOT about your customer and who is visiting your web site IF you know how to read them.  Here's a quick less on how to decipher them...

Hits V. Unique Visitors

Its' been said that "hits" is short for "How Idiots Track Sales."  That's because "Total Hits" is a deceptive number: it counts every single graphics file, style sheet, and script a visitor pulls for each page. A single visitor on a single page could easily pull a dozen files or more.

The only number you should watch is “unique visitors” or “unique referrers.” This is your best indicator of how many individual people are actually visiting your site.

If your number of unique visitors is extremely low, you’re probably not marketing your web site properly; but it could also be a sign of a technical issue.  Occasionally a site is so far off the beaten path that it’s never been indexed by the search engines. Sites built in Flash or that use images instead of text are also difficult for search engines to index and, therefore, will get very low rankings and traffic. 

Browsers

Your reports should give you a list of web browsers your clients are using when coming to your site. Most people use a recent version of Internet Explorer, but you may also see Firefox, Safari, or older versions of IE. Bottom line, you need to make sure your site works in all the browsers being used by your visitors. 

Exit Page

Have you ever heard the term “web site conversion?” It’s a measure of whether a visitor has done what you wanted them to do on your site. A conversion can be a purchase, an enrollment to your company’s e-zine, or a completed “contact us” form.

If the most popular exit pages correspond to your conversion pages, congratulations! If not, take a closer look. Why are people leaving? There may be a technical issue, a bad headline (or no headline), no offer, slow-loading graphics, or confusing copy. Something on this page is making your visitors leave abruptly.

Maybe it’s not clear where they should go next, or how to find out what they need to know. A few departures are expected, but if there’s a trend, you must address it. Experiment with various headlines, it will allow you to further optimize your web site to attract customers AND help you when using pay-per-click search engine marketing. Browse this list regularly. If the words and phrases are NOT ones aligned with what you sell or whom you sell to, try changing the content on your site to be more targeted and specific. 

Keywords and Keyword Phrases

Keywords and keyword phrases are a list of words people type into search engines to find you.

This is very important information to have because it will allow you to further optimize your web site to attract customers AND help you when using pay-per-click search engine marketing.

Browse this list regularly.  If the words and phrases are not ones aligned with what you sell or whom you sell to, try changing the content on your site to be more targeted and specific.

Errors

Check out the error list from time to time to make sure you aren’t experiencing any technical issues. The most frequent error you’ll find is a “404” code, which means “document not found”—also known as broken links.

Broken links are caused by deleted pages, new page names, or links to other sites that may no longer exist. These errors should be corrected to keep your site current.

Another good tip is to have a custom “404” page that shows up instead of the stock standard “file not found” page that contains your company name, phone number, and a way to report the problem. Your web master can set this up for you. 

Sam Walton’s 10 Rules for Building a Phenomenally Successful Business

Sam Walton, the found of the Wal-Mart chain, had 10 rules for building a business that he adamantly believed in.  According to the Wal-Mart web site, the following are the principles that have enabled the company to experience more than 40 years of outrageous success:

1.  Commit to your business.  You have to believe in it more than anyone else.  you have to have passion.  Love your work and do it the best you can every day.

2.  Share your profits with all your associates and treat them as partners.  This will make the people who work for you perform beyond your wildest expectations.  Behave as a servant leader.

3.  Motivate your partners.  You have to constantly think of new ways to motivate your partners.

4.  Communicate everything you possibly can to your associate.  The more they understand, the more they'll care.

5.  Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.  Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise.  They're absolutely free and worth a fortune.

6.  Celebrate your success.  Have fun.  Find humor in your failures.  Loosen up.

7.  Listen to everyone in your company.  and more important, try to get them talking.  The ones who really talk to the customers are the ones who really know what's going on.

8.  Exceed your customers' expectations.  Give them what they want--then give 'em a little more.

9.  Control your expenses better than your competitors.  you can survive a lot of mistakes if you're efficient.

10.  Swim upstream.  Ignore the conventional wisdom; find your niche by going another direction.

Take Caution Before Opening your Next e-greeting Card

According to a new article in PC Magazine, cyber criminals are now starting to exploit e-greeting card sites in an attempt to steal confidential information.

In 2007, nearly 1/3 of infected e-mail messages contained a phishing scan, while 7 percent of such e-mail messages masqueraded as an electronic greeting card and directed the target to a malicious site.

Here's how it works:  Hackers place a malicious hyperlink in the e-mail greeting, which first sends the user's web browser to an exploit server that checks to see if the user's machine has the most up-to-date security patches.

If it's unpatched, the server silently force-downloads a rootkit and a keylogger onto the user's computer before redirecting the web browser to an authentic Yahoo greetings card.

On the user-facing end, the victim clicks the link to view the card.  However, the card does not let them know who sent it.  The victim closes the card and goes about his business without realizing arootkit was delivered to his PC before he even picked up the card.

How do you avoid this from happening to you? 

• First, never open emails from unknown sources. 

• Second, make sure your PC/Servers always have the most up-to-date security patches. 

• And finally, always maintain an active, up-to-date anti-virus software.