TechTidBit - Tips and advice for small business computing - Tech Experts™ - Monroe Michigan

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Tired of Dumping Money Into Your Network?

Read On To Discover How You Can Make Those Darn Things Finally Pay Off!

If you ask most business owners why they invest in computers and technology, you will hear things like “to increase employee productivity,” or “to improve customer service” or even to lower operating costs, make information more accessible, and give them a competitive advantage.

But the question is, are the computers in your office actually contributing to your productivity, or do they act as a money-sucking stumbling block to your businesses success?

In this dog-eat-dog world, you cannot afford to have anything slowing you down or interfering with your day to day operations. Especially the tools you rely on in your computer network. If you want to learn how we can help you experience fewer interruptions, problems, and downtime, AND lower the overall costs associated with your computer network, then you’ll want to know about our “Experts Total Support” plan.

This program was designed specifically for small business owners that do not have a full time IT staff taking care of their computer network.

For a small, fixed monthly fee, we will monitor and maintain your computer network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to make sure all systems are running at peak performance. We’ll also make sure critical network maintenance such as security and virus updates, backups, and system optimization happens when it should to avoid bigger, more expensive problems from happening.

Our Free 60 Minute “Technology Tune Up” May (Finally) Make Your Computers Pay Off

To introduce this new program to all of our clients and prospects, we are offering a free, 60-minute “Technology Tune Up” to the first five businesses that contact us this month.

In less than 1 hour, we can come in and examine your computer network, talk to your employees, and provide a very revealing analysis of all the under utilized or overlooked capabilities being wasted in your current computer system. We’ll also look for security loop holes, check your system back ups and virus protection, and look for other hidden problems lurking in the background, waiting to turn into bigger, more expensive disasters.

After doing this analysis, we can not only advise you on how to improve the speed. reliability, and security of  your computer network, but also on ways you can improve your overall office productivity.

Normally we charge $297 for this type of service but we are giving it away FREE as a special promotion this month to demonstrate our “Experts Total Support” plan. To secure your spot, simply call our offices at (734) 457-5000 or e-mail us at info@MyTechExperts.com and we’ll schedule a convenient time for us to come out and conduct this tune up.

No Risk, No Obligation, No Hassles

You will be under zero obligations to do or buy anything if you sign up for a FREE Technology Tune Up. This is just our way of introducing our new network maintenance program to you and we certainly don’t expect everyone to sign up.

So what are you waiting for? Call us right now while you’re thinking about it. Remember, we are only giving away five tune ups on a first come, first serve basis so call now while there are spots left!

This offer will expire as soon as we have five companies signed up, or on August 29th. Call today!

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.

Upgrade Your Computer Network Now and Save A Bundle of Money on Taxes, Hardware and Support

If you hate handing over a chunk of money to Uncle Sam every year (and who doesn’t!), then listen up…

If you upgrade your computer network before December 31st, you can claim a BIG tax deduction THIS YEAR.

And, to sweeten the deal, we’ve uncovered a number of rebates and discounts on workstations, servers, and laptops to save you even MORE money on a upgrade. Plus, as a bonus to anyone doing a complete network upgrade, we are giving away 3 FREE months of our network monitoring service. This service is designed to keep your network always up, always fast, and always secure. After all, you don’t want your data to become corrupt or lost due to a virus, hardware failure, or a glitch.

With the tax savings, discounts, and free support, NOW is the absolute BEST time to upgrade those old computers.

But hurry! You only have until December 31st to make the upgrade! Give us a call today at (734) 457-5000, or e-mail sales@expertsmi.com.

FREE Report: 12 Surefire Signs Your Business Is Ready For A Server

Is your business limping along using outdated computers or a peer-to-peer network that is constantly giving you problems?

Are you planning on adding employees, opening  a remote location or adding an additional office?

Are you just sick and tired of dealing with conflicts, error messages, and expensive breakdowns and down time?

If so, you might consider upgrading your network to a file-server network for greater security, functionality, and file-sharing capabilities.

At one time, servers only made sense for larger organizations because of their high cost and complexity. But thanks to major advancements in technology, client-server networks are very affordable and easy-to-implement.

To learn more, call our office at 734-457-5000 and ask for Carol.

You can also send us an e-mail to request this report. Just send your request to serverreport@expertsmi.com.

Why You Need A File Server Right Now

If you’re the owner or manager of a small- or medium-sized business that still uses peer-to-peer networking, it’s time to consider upgrading your network by installing a dedicated business server.

Due to recent technology advances, particularly the availability of Microsoft Small Business Server and Windows Sharepoint Portal Services, the pros definitely outweigh the cons. In fact, the upgrade may result in some benefits you hadn’t counted on.

How do you know when it’s time to upgrade to a server-based network? Here’s a simple checklist you can use to assess your needs, followed by a more detailed discussion.

It might be time to upgrade if:

  • Your staff is moving to laptop PCs.
  • Your staff is specializing and you need to start to segregate data.
  • You want critical data backed up securely and automatically.
  • Your office needs to use collaboration software, such as shared calendars.
  • Your staff requires remote access to shared data
  • Moving to Laptops

One characteristic of a peer-to-peer network is that individual member PCs share resources, such as files, printers, and fax modems, with each other.

Unfortunately, several recent technology trends are making peer-to-peer networks difficult to use and manage.

For example, many of today’s knowledge workers are switching to highly mobile laptop computers which may or may not be in the office at any given time.

When a PC is disconnected from the network, its resources aren’t available other users in the office.

Data Segregation
One of the most compelling reasons to upgrade your basic network to a server-based configuration is data security.

Even small companies have a legal responsibility to protect payroll, human resources, and other sensitive information from misuse, but the file sharing schemes used in peer-to-peer networks don’t provide the high level of control offered by server operating systems.

Automatic, Secure Backups
Along with access, backup is also an important part of any data security scheme. Regular and dependable backups are difficult to manage when data is stored on multiple desktop PCs because even the most sophisticated backup software can’t back up a PC that’s been turned off.

Once you move your critical data to a file server, regular automated backups can be scheduled to take place during off hours. Since the office staff doesn’t typically have access to the server’s operating system, it’s unlikely that anything will “interfere” with backup, and even if the network is down, a file server can faithfully back itself up to tape as long as it has power.

Collaboration
Although shared calendars and other collaboration tools are available from a number of Internet-based sources (Yahoo, Google, and others), your data is much more secure when it’s stored on your own file server.

You’ll also find that the selection of privately hosted collaboration software is broader and the applications are more customizable than those apps available online.

Remote Access
The increased use of laptop computers mentioned above eventually results in the need for remote access to company data. While this can be accomplished with products such as Symantec’s pcAnywhere, Citrix’s GoToMyPC, and even Windows XP’s built-in Remote Desktop Connection, secure remote access is built into most file server operating systems and remote users are subject to the same access restrictions and privileges as locally connected users.

In the past, one of the main deterrents to server-based networking has been the complexity of server operating systems, but this is rapidly changing. Once installed and properly configured, Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 requires about the same day-to-day technical expertise as Windows XP or Windows Vista.

And later this year Microsoft will release a “server appliance” product called Windows Home Server (WHS) that will provide many file server features with almost no human interaction. In fact, the device won’t even require a keyboard, mouse, or monitor — just plug it in and you’ll have an instant file server!

Another traditional objection has been the cost of dedicated file servers, which often out-weighed the budget – and the benefits for many small offices. Fortunately, technology advances are making low-cost, easy-to-operate servers available to offices that wouldn’t have considered them just a few months ago. Server equipment from IBM and HP, combined with Microsoft’s Small Business Server software, is now more affordable than ever for small companies.

In summary, if you’re still using a basic peer to peer network, you’ve probably outgrown it! Consider adding a dedicated file server to your suite of office tools to improve data access, security, and usability.