NetCareBlog

HP Responds to Media Stating “HP Is Exiting the PC Business”

pedersenll — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:19:47 +0000

Last week, the IT industry was shocked to hear that HP had evidently made a strategic decision to pull the TouchPad from the marketplace and to exit the PC business. This sent shockwaves through the industry as HP is after all, the number one manufacturer of PC’s in the world. As a reseller who has sold and support HP products for over 25 years, we could only say “WOW!”.

Late last week, I was invited to a teleconference with Mike Parottino, Vice President with the PSG (Personal Systems Group) Sales Division. Mr. Parottino stated that while it was true that HP’s board of directors had authorized “The Evaluatation of Strategic Alternatives for Personal Systems Group including the exploration of the separation of its PC business into a separate company through a spin-off or other transaction” that should not be interpreted to mean that HP is exiting the PC business.

He went on to make the following key points….

We are NOT exiting the PC business.
PSG is a profitable $42 billion entity that would rank #59 on the Fortune 500 List as a standalone company.
We are the most profitable PC company in the world.
We will focus our continued efforts on investing in the PC opportunites with the highest return.
Don’t confuse the Touchpad and Smart Phone’s announcement with the PC business and our ongoing PSG strategy.
In the meantime, immediately after the announcement that the HP TouchPad would be pulled from production there were approximately 500,000 in inventory (Best Buy reportedly had approximately 270,000) The price was reduced to $99 and $139 and the TouchPad quickly became the hottest selling tablet on the market. Over the weekened, reports surfaced of developers working to come up with a conversion to install the Android OS on these TouchPads, thus perhaps giving them new life – stay tuned!

7 Ways Non-Profits Can Minimimze IT Related Expenses

pedersenll — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:15:37 +0000

We serve some non-profits associations and fully understand the pressure they face today. The slow economy and unemployment situtation has sent more people than ever to search out resources and services available through many of these non-profits. At the same time, fund raising is understandably more difficult than ever.

I recently created a white paper to help non-profits identify areas where they might be able to reduce their IT expenses (and at the very least, control these expenses). In this paper I addressed the following areas:

Software
Customized Software and Applications
Hardware
Websites
Cloud Computing
Communication Circuits
Management and Support Services

This white paper can be downloaded by clicking HERE.

HP to exit the tablet and PC business!

pedersenll — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:41:01 +0000

WOW!!!! That’s all I could think to say when I first read this. We are all very much aware of the wild success that Apple has had in the tablet business.

Last year, HP paid $1.2 billion for the Palm OS with the plans to build their own smart phone and tablet business on this platform, creating their own niche. The tablet was recently released (July 1) and received terrible reviews. We would agree as we brought one in to evaluate and it’s performance was not what it needs to be in the business world. In less than two months, HP has made the decision to pull the plug on their tablet and smart phone business.

What is more surprising is at the same time, HP announced plans to spin off or sell their PC business. Keep in mind that HP is the largest manufacturer of PC’s in the world. This is affirmatino to what people have been saying – the world is going mobile. Tablets are growing and PC sales are dwindling. HP PC’s will probably remain in some form (separate company, selloff similar to IBM’s PC to Lenovo) but the market is changing and computing is changing.

Stay tuned for an adventure!

How can IT earn a CFO’s trust?

pedersenll — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:27:06 +0000

My last blog referenced an article from a June issue of Network World stating that CFO’s distrust CIO’s and IT departments. The article mentioned that 42% of IT organizations today report to the CFO. Our experience in working with small business is that often, we are reporting directly to the CFO so this article caused me to really sit back and think about what a CFO wants and what would earn their trust. In the previous blog, I described what I feel are some of the key differences in terms of each party’s prioities and stated that I would describe what IT could do to earn a CFO’s confidence back?

How to earn a CFO’s trust

Provide a level of reporting that instills confidence without burying someone in technical jargon and three-letter acronyms. We provide our clients with an exclusive “Network Scorecard” that grades eight key areas of a network to identify potential vulnerabilities with solutions described in non-technical wording.
When discussing a potential technology to be considered within an organization, identify the reasoning behind it (i.e. competitive advantage, immediate or long-term cost savings, necessary upgrades.
Create an IT budget that identifies costs associated with maintenance and support and costs related to new technologies. Provide information that demonstrates the money being spent on ongoing support is comparable to other organizations.
When proposing a new technology, begin with the business reasons and benefits (i.e. cost reductions, competitive advantage(s), improved data reporting, etc.) Include all associated costs and provide a realistic timeframe for implementation. Try and avoid any “surprises” later.

While these might be especially relevant when reporting to a CFO, these can honestly be very helpful working with any manager. Managers who are tasked with overseeing technology and are not part of the IT department want to be informed and confident that work being done is productive, efficient and cost-effective. They want to know that the network is stable and when new technologies are being proposed that there is a justifiable reason for endorsing such a technology while being given a realistic framework for the time and costs associated with the implementation along with a list of the anticipated benefits from it.

Most CFO’s lack faith in CIO’s and IT’s abilities

pedersenll — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:21:12 +0000

There was a very interesting article in a June issue of Network World that described how only 25% of CFO’s see the CIO as a key player in determining the business strategy. CFO’s are increasingly being given oversight responsibilities in regards to the IT department and IT spending so this opinion is not one to take lightly. (According to a recent Gartner/FEI survey, 42% of IT organizations now report directly to CFO’s and this is expected to increase). Now, I’ve never worked in a larger, corporate environment as I’ve been in small business all of my working life. My education is accounting, but I own a technology company, and as I read the article, I could understand where the struggles may lie.

I believe that CFO’s are continually looking for:

Efficiencies and process improvements which translate into productivity and expense management.
Reporting that can provide measurable results for work that is done.
Enough information that can keep them confident that needs are in fact being addressed without having to become an engineer themselves to learn all the three-letter acronyms and terms that only have meaning to other technical people.

IT personnel have a very difficult task:

Everyone expects (needs) the IT system to “always be on”. Even if the business is not a 24×7 operation, employees want access to the network 24×7. This means virtually no downtime and if maintenance is to be done, it can’t affect access to the network. This expectation requires redundant systems combined with continual monitoring and proactive maintenance of the network.
At the same time, IT is the fastest changing part of any business with new technologies and applications constantly being introduced. This requires a significant amount of training, testing and adaptation to stay abreast of these changes.
AND….everyone wants these new technologies be implemented as they are presented as they latest solution for companies and staff to improve efficiencies, leverage systems to improve productivity, and provide information in the manner that people want. These are huge expectations!

In the next blog, I’ll describe some ways I think IT can earn a CFO’s confidence.

You can read the original article in it’s entirety here

Outlook Tip – changing the font and body style in your messages.

pedersenll — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:35:20 +0000

Changing the default fonts in Outlook is easy: just go into the Stationery and Fonts dialog and assign new fonts. The font for new mail messages is used for composing HTML email and in the notes field of calendar, contacts, and task items. The font for composing and reading plain text messages is also used when ‘read as plain text’ is enabled.

However, these options won’t change the font assigned to +Body style which is the default “font” in Outlook 2007/2010. If you want to change the +Body style, you need to change the style, which is also easy to do, when you know where to look. From a new message form (actually, any new item will do), switch to the Format text tab and expand the Change Style button. Change the fonts (and colors & spacing if desired), then click on Set as Default to set this as the +Body style in all new items. (Paragraph Spacing is not active unless the cursor is in the message body.)

Is there any benefit to changing the body style instead of just assigning a new font in Stationery and Fonts? Not that I’ve discovered. Theoretically, changing the style could update all items using the generic body style, but I have yet to find any saved items that use the generic body style – the formatting is saved with the text. When you change the style while composing a message or adding notes to an item, it changes font used in the entire message, but I see more questions from people who want to change the style in previously saved items.

[1]Access the Stationery and Fonts dialog through File, Options, Mail (the Stationery & Fonts button is near top of the dialog) in Outlook 2010 and in Tools, Options, Mail format tab when using Outlook 2007 and older.

This tips was provided by Outlooktips.net where you can find new tips every day. From time to time, we will repost some tips that we feel might benefit many of our readers….or you may elect to visit this site on a regular basis.

Three Steps to Maintain Control When Outsourcing

pedersenll — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:50:36 +0000

The definition of a small business owner in the past (when I first entered the business world in 1974) was that you had to wear many hats. Working with clients, purchasing product, managing inventory, accounting, doing payroll, heck, even emptying the wastebasket were all part of “doing your job”. Many small business owners appreciated the fact that they had so much variety in their day. And, it was about “ownership” which ato many, also meant “control”.

Small businesses today face numerous challenges. The economic slowdown has meant we had to either reduce our costs or expand our client base. (or preferably both!) Today’s global economy means that you are no longer competing with another business in your community – you are competing against other businesses world-wide. And guess what, some of those businesses are working out of their homes with very little overhead. Marketing used to consist of decisions like “Should I do a direct mail piece, or go with electronic media”. Now, it’s all about social media and attention directed to internet sites, blog sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, electronic coupons. And don’t underestimate the amount of time it takes to not only learn these but to also maintain them. Nothing is static anymore. It’s very dynamic and requires your full attention.

Today a small business owner has to focus on being a specialist in their field. Today’s small business has to be lean and focused on delivering to their clients as competitors wait around every corner to compete for their clients.

Focusing means avoiding distractions. These distractions are some of the same “hats” that business owners used to wear.

Payroll companies have seen tremendous growth as it no longer makes sense to hassle with calculations of wages, benefits, taxes while trying to keep up with the business.

Human Resources is a major challenge for small businesses as new laws and rules have come into play.

Warehousing and Fulfillment Operations can be outsourced to a more efficient operation when it’s to an organization that is focused on that are alone.

IT / Network Support is commonly outsourced today for businesses that can’t justify a full time internal position or who want to have a depth of staff available that wouldn’t not be available with one internal person.

Legal and Accounting have long been outsourced areas, even when small business owners wore the many hats (after all, a head can only support so many hats at a time)

The benefit to doing so many tasks in the past was that you felt you had “control”. You knew where things stood and if tasks were being done according to your stands and on time. When you begin to outsource, there can be that sudden feeling that your losing control. So the question is, how do you outsource without losing control?

Step 1 – Define your “Success Criteria” In other words, for this outsourcing role to be successful, what do you hope to achieve from it. For our business, the first thing clients say is “Network Uptime” which makes sense. I always ask clients to identify three success criteria. It sets the stage for their expectations and gives us an opportunity to know what they are (and more importantly, to tell the client up front if they are realistic). After all, if the expectations are unrealistic or simply cannot be met, what’s the purpose of engaging, right?
Step 2 – Treat this as a hired staff member After all, in the past, this would have been a staff member, right? That was where you had the control – you had authority over that person or role. This shouldn’t change. So the questions is “What would you do in the case of a hired staff member?”
Implement a probation period. Frequently a hiring takes place with the understanding that person is on a 90 day probation, or trial. If it’s not a good fit that person will not be retained. Why shouldn’t an outsourcing arrangement give you the same latitude? Of course, everyone is hoping for a long term relationship (just as you are when you hire an individual) but you shouldn’t be held hostage to a contract that forces you to remain with an outsourced provider for a lengthy period of time without a termination option (without penalty)
Define reporting requirements. When a person plays a supervisory role, they either interact with staff members daily or have regularly-scheduled times for reporting. This should be no different with an outsourced party. Let’s be clear, if an outsourcing organization doesn’t already have a plan for reporting, that should be a red flag. However, you need to be clear about what type of reports you want and the frequency. Being informed puts you in a position of being in control.
Hold performance reviews. Most organizations hold performance reviews either semi-annually or annually, why shouldn’t an outsourced role be held to the same standard? Holding these reviews provides the opportunity to reaffirm the “success criteria” I mentioned earlier.
Step 3 – Accountability If something is not being done to your satisfaction, this should have been addressed in the prior step, but if it hasn’t been you (the employer) do have the responsibility to point this out and demand correction.

The bottom line is this…..outsourcing does not mean losing control. But it is the responsibility of the outsourced part to deliver to the employer’s expectations and it is the responsibility of the employer to hold the “employee” accountable.

Five key questions to ask yourself regarding network security

pedersenll — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:06:59 +0000

If I were to ask you to identify what “Network Security” truly means you might reply that it includes a good firewall, valid password usage, anti-virus. A lot of people would stop there and figure if they’ve addressed those three items, they’ve done a pretty good job of addressing security issues on their network.

What about regulatory requirements such as HIPAA? Is your business subject to HIPAA guidlines? Even if you are not a direct healthcare provider – you could be indirectly if you are a provider of services to a healthcare provider. If you are considered a “business associate” there is an excellent resource and questionaire here. Even if you aren’t subject to regulations, there are some critical questions you should be asking of yourself:

Does your organization gather payment information or health data electronically?

Does your organization gather personal sensitive data like social security numbers, credit card numbers, or other personally identifiable information electronically?

Do your employees access Webmail, social media sites, or cloud-based services?

Does your company encrypt important information leaving the network?

Do your employees regularly exchange electronic documents as part of their daily duties?

If only security were as easy as fastening a padlock on a computer, we’d all rest easier. Increasing reliance on systems to collect and maintain data and records, increased volumes of correspondence that frequently contain sensitive data including credit card information and social security numbers and increased regulations regarding the handling of data (PCI Compliance, HIPAA requirements, etc.) all combine to make network security a bigger responsibility.

If you find you’re not verifying that you have addressed PCI Compliance, that you are not utilizing encrypte email for sensitive data, or if you don’t have stated policies in place to define company standards – it might be time to do a review of your security standards. Representatives from upper management, human resources and your IT staff (or provider) should sit down and review what is being done within your organization to address these items – at the very least, ask yourself the questions provided here.

Cost of Downtime for an SMB is $12,500 per day

pedersenll — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 05:45:48 +0000

Symantec Corporation just released their 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey which included some very interesting facts.

Half of the respondents do not have a plan in place.
Less than half of SMBs back up their data weekly or more frequently
Only 23 percent back up daily.
Median cost of downtime for an SMB is $12,500 per day.

Believe me, as a small business owner, I fully understand that it’s easy to say that you don’t have time or that you’ll get around to it. The fact is that 90% of those are aren’t back in operation with 5 days fail!¹ Let’s leave the gambling to the casinos.

The first, very basic step for disaster recovery is to have a valid backup of your data. Honestly, I was SHOCKED to read in this report that Only 23 percent of those surveyed actually back up their data dailyand even then they don’t backup all of their data. And, 44 percent of those surveyed said they would lose up to 40 percent of their data in the event of a disaster.

If you don’t have time to address this, at least contact your IT service provider to review your policies and make some recommendations with priorities. You can’t afford to gamble with your organization’s data.

You can view this report in its entirety (9 pages) by going to “FREE STUFF” at the top of this page and scrolling down to the appropriate title and pressing the “Download” button.

¹ http://www.preparemybusiness.org/planning

Were you waiting for a touchpad that would handle Adobe Flash Player?

pedersenll — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 05:19:59 +0000

It’s official – HP today announced that the Wi-Fi version of HP TouchPad will be available in the United States on July 1.

“The platform’s unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use. This is only the beginning of what HP’s scale can do with webOS.”

HP TouchPad will be available from U.S. retailers, commercial resellers and direct from HP with the option of either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage(1) for $499.99 and $599.99, respectively. Preorders in North America and Europe will begin June 19.

“What makes HP TouchPad a compelling alternative to competing products is webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager, Palm Global Business Unit, HP. “The platform’s unmatched features and flexibility will continue to differentiate HP products from the rest of the market for both personal and professional use. This is only the beginning of what HP’s scale can do with webOS.”

With webOS, HP TouchPad users have a next-level multitasking experience, access to the web, premium audio playback with stereo speakers and Beats Audio™ technology, the ability to find information on the device or in the cloud using the Just Type feature, integrated access to their information with HP Synergy, and HP’s exclusive Touch to Share capability for sharing web addresses between HP TouchPad and compatible webOS phones.(3)

Optional accessories for HP TouchPad include the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, the HP TouchPad Wireless Keyboard and the HP TouchPad Case (sold separately).

HP also announced it will be partnering with AT&T to introduce a connected version of HP TouchPad later this summer. More information will be available closer to availability.

More information about HP TouchPad, including product features and specs, is available HERE.