I recently attended a conference of bankruptcy lawyers. It's one of those groups where business owners in non-competing geographies get together to share best practices in order to improve their businesses. I attended as the outsourced IT support provider to Indiana bankruptcy attorney Mark Zuckerberg. If any of the good ideas presented had to to with computer network services, my job was to make sure I understood it and how it might impact Mark's network support.

One of the attorneys ignited an interesting discussion about personal communications at work that made me realize that our Indianapolis small business IT outsourcing company spends a lot of time doing things that are intended to keep people from hurting themselves -- babysitting, in other words.

The conversation started with the need to block popular Internet sites like Facebook, Pandora, Amazon, and other social, entertainment, or shopping sites during work hours. It went on to include a debate about whether or not people should be allowed to use their cell phones at work and what can be done about it. I was surprised at how many had already implemented such rules in their workplaces. I guess I shouldn't have been. As more of us turn to the Internet for entertainment and socializing, it will become more difficult to separate our personal and business lives. In the end, nothing that your IT support services company can do will solve this issue.

We can add filtering and monitoring and alerting to the network, but clever people will figure out how to avoid or defeat these measures (I had teenage kids so I know what I'm talking about). In the end, as we agreed at the conference, staff has work to accomplish. As business owners, we may have to look more at quality and quantity of work than at how our people spend their time each day. Good people will do good work. Mine do.

As someone who works in computer consulting, it is part of my responsibility to look to the future for my Indianapolis small business computer outsourcing customers. 2010 is going to be a year full of major change for most people. Microsoft is all but forcing adoption of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Both of these are vastly different from their predecessors (excluding Vista, which no one used anyway). Google has released phones to compete with the iPhone, Microsoft is releasing a new Windows Mobile OS, and then there’s the iPad, which at least one person in your office wants. Add to that new versions of end-user software like Office 2010 and you’ve got the recipe for a lot of headaches.

So, what can we do as a network consultant to ease the pain? For one, we can access most of the software in beta format and use it for a few months before it's officially released. But, here’s the trick…we need to actually USE the software. I understand installing it on a secondary computer, but your IT consultant needs to use it regularly to be able to really recommend changing (or not changing for that matter). This isn’t practical for all applications, but for things like Office, Browsers, and Operating Systems, it’s essential.

In our Indianapolis-based small business computer consulting company, we try to get at least two people using new software as early as possible. We had 3 people using the release candidate for Windows 7, and all their raving got the rest of us amped up to do the switch as well. We currently have 2 people (including me) using Office 2010, which is in beta release. It’s got some cool features as well, but hasn’t generated near the buzz that Windows 7 did.

So, let’s be proactive instead of reactive and get ourselves ready for our clients’ benefit.

I spent several hours on a plane today, which gave me a chance to catch up on some reading. One of the things I read was a NY Times article from December that claims that American data consumption has grown by 350 percent in the last three decades to a whopping 34 Gb per day. The rate continues to increase by 6 percent per year.

Now I don't know why they did a 30 year comparison, but I do know the amount of data we save is growing far faster. Perhaps it's because, like me, people are saving stuff they hope to get to during their next plane ride and the trips aren't coming often enough. All I know is that the size of the disk space we install in new servers for our Indianapolis small business computer outsourcing customers gets larger and larger. Still we frequently have to contact our network support clients to let them know that they are nearing the end of their storage capacity and need to purge old information. 

Often, our IT support services clients will ask us to do this for them. By the time we call we've already done all that we can do without having some detailed knowledge of the value of their data. We invoke the "one man's junk is another man's treasure" excuse to avoid causing unhappy results.

If it's been a while since you cleaned up your files, take some time to do it now. There is stuff there that is taking up space that you will eventually have to replace. It's also getting backed up regularly, taking time and resources. And it might be causing some of that low level anxiety you feel when you set out to find a piece of information amid all that stuff.

I attended an event last evening at the home of local entrepreneur and philanthropist Scott Jones. The gathering was to introduce Lemonade Day to Indianapolis. My schedule required me to arrive late and leave early. I did get to see the entire presentation and am still wondering about my involvement in Lemonade Day. However, things went bad when I tried to leave. I was the first person to give my parking ticket to the valets. Several more people came out shortly after me and before long a steady trickle of people were departing.

It didn't strike me as strange when the first car to pull up was not mine. I started to be a bit concerned when the fifth one arrived and still I hadn't seen mine. It became ridiculous when I had been standing in the rain for 30 minutes without getting my car. The valets kept telling me they were getting my car, but it was obvious to everyone that they weren't. Finally, after 45 minutes and several polite requests for information, they told me that they couldn't get my car to start. You can't imagine how furious that made me.

The whole ordeal reminded me of one of the important tenets we hold here at Port-to-Port Consulting. We always tell our small business computer support customers the bad news as soon as we know it. They most likely are going to find out sooner or later, so why not tell them right away. Besides, they might be able to help. In the network support business, there are going to be problems. Companies that outsource their IT support services know that as well. They also know what is most critical and can help prioritize in a pinch.

I walked to my car in disgust, got in, turned the steering wheel a quarter turn, and started my car. I waited 45 minutes to find out that something was wrong that only took 10 seconds to correct. I hope these young men learned something from the experience. I'll get my own car next time.

In the grand scheme of things, the thing that we do at our Indianapolis small business computer support company is to help our customers do whatever they do a little bit better. Often, particularly with new network support customers, that amounts to nothing more than keeping their computer network running without crashes. After we've worked with them for a while, that becomes less exciting to them because they become accustomed to the idea that their business computer system should work without unplanned down time. That's when we have to start working to earn our keep.

Sometimes we do obvious things like informing our computer consulting customers about the status of their IT system. We keep them up to date on the age and status of their equipment and help plan replacements, refreshments, and upgrades as they go about budgeting. At other times, we move a bit out of the normal things considered outsourced computer support to areas like online marketing and social media. Every now and then we really step outside the normal envelope and do research that only touches computer support because it's done online. A recent example was a question posed to me by a customer who received several gift cards from friends and vendors at Christmas. He knew he would never visit many of these stores and wanted to know if there were options other than "re-gifting" these cards.

We took the challenge and, believe it or not, there is another option. We found a website, giftcardrescue.com, that allows you to trade in your gift cards for cash or other cards. Sure, my customer could have spent a few minutes online himself and perhaps found this site. I could have told him that I didn't know of anything other than re-gifting and moved on to my next task. But the reality of our outsourced computer service is that we do what our customers need us to do so that they can be more productive. Besides, now that I've found this option, I can share it with the rest of my Indianapolis computer consulting customers and perhaps help them with a small problem as well.

According to new media marketing firm Penn Olson, these are the top 10 questions posed to Ask.com in 2009:

1. How much should I weigh?
2. How do I get out of debt fast?
3. How do I get pregnant?
4. What is Miley Cyrus’ phone number?
5. What is Twitter?
6. What is the meaning of life?
7. When will the world end?
8. How long does marijuana stay in your system?
9. What are symptoms of Swine Flu?
10. What time is it?

Most of those questions indicate something bad about the confidence many of us place in the power of the Internet. The list did make me think about the kinds of questions that get asked at our computer help desk. Rather than list the top 10, I'm offering up the 10 I hope we never hear again:
 

1. I didn't do what you told me, but can you fix it now that it's broken?
2. If I didn't put in my backup tape, can you still restore my files?
3. Can I keep using my computer after the power goes out?
4. Should I have called you before I clicked OK on that popup?
5. The salesman said it would be easy. Why can't you make it work?
6. I just sent out an email to a couple thousand people and now I'm getting bouncebacks. Can you look at it?
7. So I wasn’t supposed to open that Hallmark e-card?
8. What do you mean I’m not supposed to work out of my deleted items folder?
9. Is this trojan message good or bad?
10. I didn't do anything. Why isn't it working?

Our Indianapolis IT outsourcing company fields dozens of calls every day at the Help Desk. We know that each caller us a customer with an issue that is unique to them, and we do all we can to help them. There are times when we wish we could have gotten to them sooner, but we understand that they use our IT services because this stuff is a bit foreign to them. If all of these questions stopped being asked, we'd have another 10 that we wish we didn't hear. Our favorite thing to hear is, "Thank you for fixing my problem."

 

My Indianapolis small business computer consulting customers still make fun of me for my prediction in the mid-nineties that we were only a couple of years from being able to talk to our computers just like Spock and Kirk did on Star Trek. At the time there were several major companies investing big dollars in voice recogmition. It seemed like a safe prediction. So you can imagine that those same computer outsourcing customers take my predecitions with a grain of salt. Heck, so do I, most of the time. Nonetheless, I've been right more often than that talking computer proclamation would indicate.

The latest advice I gave to my computer services customers was to get involved in social media in 2009. I told them it was transforming from a fringe thing into a mainstream tool for business as well as personal activities online. As the year comes to an end, the statistics are proving me correct. Let's just look at Facebook:

• 350 million users worldwide with 35 years and older representing the fastest growing group
• 10 million people daily becoming fans of one of the 1.6 million fan pages daily
• 6 billion minutes spent there each day - twice as much as Google and 55 minutes per person
• 55 million updates, 14 million videos, 2.5 billion photos added daily
• 45 million active groups with the average user belonging to 12

Sure, it's possible to waste a lot of time in the social media space, but it's time to invest a little in figuring out what it's all about. Remember wishing you'd started doing email sooner? Our communications world is changing again, and it's going to have as big an impact as email eventually.

There are a few days left in 2009. Sign up somewhere and start learning about these new communication tools.

Becky Hardwick was telling us about her four year old daughter's ability to add small numbers. The interesting thing was that her daughter couldn't add two numbers, like 2 plus 3, but she could quickly calculate the answer to, "If I have 2 apples and you have 3 apples, how many apples to we have?"

This points out an interesting thing that our brains tend to do. We compartmentalize our knowledge like Becky's daughter. You've probably seen it. A person can remember all of the stats for a major league pitcher's entire career but he can't remember a phone number long enough to cross the room. This phenomenon must have something to do with the way we're wired together. It becomes a problem when working on the networks of our Indianapolis small business computer consulting customers. That's why we use a collaborative approach to designing and managing our provision of computer network services.

Many of my computer outsourcing peers tend to assign a single network technician to each of their customers, ostensibly for consistency and uniformity. In reality, they are guaranteeing these knowledge compartmentalization problems will sneak into every computer network they support. My IT consulting company makes sure that everybody gets to see and experience all of the computer networks we support. You never know when someone needs to count apples instead of numbers.

I just read that a new iPhone has been detected in the wild. A public Internet provider in San Francisco found a device in its access logs that identified itself as "iPhone 3.1". That's a version above the 3GS, which identifies itself as "iPhone 2.1" or the "iPhone 1.2" that is the 3G. Combine that with the recent release of new Android phones from Motorola and HTC and it creates a conundrum for this Indianapolis small business computer consultant. One of the most difficult questions for us to answer for our computer outsourcing customers is, "Which smartphone should I buy?"

The answer depends on so many things, not the least of which being personal preference. With each generation of phone, the ability to synchronize to email, calendar, and contacts gets easier (Blackberry is an exception, but it at least doesn't get harder). At that point, my network technicians are content with any choice. Not me. I want to put the closest thing to the perfect device that is available into my computer services customer's hands. I want to know when they'll use it, where they'll use it, how they'll use it, and how they intend to treat it. Will it be a prized possession kept safe from all dangers, or will it be treated no better than a 19 cent Write Brothers pen?

Understandably I obsess about this particular choice more than most IT services decisions. This is the area in which the geek in me expresses itself most. However, it is indicative of the way in which we go about recommending any element of our customers' computer network services. We want the best answer we can find, given the business constraints and availability.

I met with a couple of guys this morning who are about to launch a new business. My computer tech support business is going to help set them up. As we talked, I found it interesting that they didn't initially expect me to add to the conversation. They had a list of questions that they wanted answered by an IT consultant so they could make decisions about next steps. As I started asking clarifying questions of them they began to see the real value of a good computer outsourcing company.

The trick isn't in knowing how to set up a computer network. It's in knowing what the small business is going to do with the network. Most IT services providers forget this fact after they've been in business for a few years. It's forgetting this that puts so many of my Indianapolis IT outsourcing peers out of business. The number one job of an Information Technology provider is to make the small business owner's job easier to do.

At the end of the meeting this morning, these two guys shook my hand and turned their attention away from technology needs to the innumerable other things that have to be done in order to launch their new enterprise. I'm excited to be a part of it all.

I am convinced, and now tell my Indianapolis small business computer outsourcing customers that social media is making a permanent change to the way in which we collect and disseminate information. Blogs are a primary source of news for a growing percentage of the US population. Keeping in touch with an ever-increasing number of acquaintances - people you would like to keep in your life, but who would otherwise not warrant the effort - is made simple by social media. You can find endless lists of good reasons to dip your toes into the social media world so I'll summarize with this: You can't avoid it forever. You might as well get started. Here are some things to remember:

1. The marketers will follow you there and so will the spammers.

2. The hackers won't be far behind.

3. Social Media will become an important element in every organization's marketing.

4. It's not the end of the world as you know it.

5. Your privacy ends if you put it online.

6. Rules and protocols will develop.

7. Something else will come along to supplant it.

Go ahead. Give it a shot. If you're reading this, you've already started. An easy next step is to leave a comment.

I read an article recently where the author declared the latest series of smart phones to be the first of a new category. He called them App Phones. I tend to agree that the iPhones and Android phones and, to some extent, the Windows phones have evolved to the point that they are certainly more than phones. In fact, I'd use the term Smart Devices because calling them phones is too limiting. In fact, a gentleman told me the other day that he loves everything about his iPhone except making calls on it, which he rarely does. A phone manufacturers trying to figure out how to get the jump on his competition should pay close attention to a statement like that.

These are just the first of this next evolution. Today's Smart Phones are the Model Ts or sputniks, or homo erectus of what will become the Smart Devices. Take for instance the latest catch phrase, Augmented Reality. This is where we get to see additional information overlayed on a real scene, kind of like the way Arnold Schwarzenegger saw things in The Terminator. The first real world use I heard about was decades ago at Boeing. Their wiring technicians wore glasses that overlaid the schematic diagram of the plane's wiring so they could see where they were supposed to be running the wires.


I can imagine how this would help my computer network support technicians as they go about doing their jobs in the offices of my Indianapolis small business computer outsourcing customers. The overlay could show them how the screen is supposed to look when they're done, or walk them thru the steps to get software properly configured.

When I was in the Air Force I would sometimes come home and, within a few minutes of being there, my wife would say to me, "You spent a lot of time with Colonel Jones today didn't you?" The first few times I would acknowledge that I had and wonder how she knew. I thought perhaps his cologne leached onto me and she could smell it. Eventually I had to ask. She said, "Whenever you spend time with Col Jones, you come home cussing like a drunken sailor."

She was right. Col Jones was a brilliant man, but he had a mouth like, well, a drunken sailor. It turns out that foul language is not only a way to express agony, but a way to alleviate it as well. Recent studies confirm that people who swear can withstand pain longer than those who don't. That explains why those of us in the computer outsourcing business tend to swear more often than most of our peers. Imagine if you had to spend the bulk of your day dealing with computer tech support from a guy named "Bob" in India? That's the life of a network technician.

Now we don't tend to curse and swear in the presence of our Indianapolis small business computer support customers. We wait until we get back in the safety of our office where the free flow of agony relieving language can be heard at a volume considerably above a whisper. We maintain enough decorum to avoid a comparison to Animal House, but we are accustomed to frequent short bursts of four letter words. Now we know it enhances our ability to withstand the hard parts of IT support services.

While Apple has managed to maintain an image of being virus-impervious, most of us in the computer outsourcing business have always contended that the reason there weren't many native Mac viruses was because there just weren't enough Macs to make it worthwhile for evil hackers to bother with it when there were far more Windows PCs out there to attack. In fact, as the Mac continues to becomes more popular on the Intel platform, I imagine computer help desks all over the country will start to see more infected ones. The popularity of the iPhone (30 million sold and counting) has already attracted some attention. A young man in Australia has written a worm that infects the iPhone while pretending to be a Rick Astley screen saver. I have to admit that I didn't know who Astley was, but this is sure to raise his popularity briefly.

One of the most frequent questions from my Indianapolis small business computer consulting customers is, "What can I do to ensure that my network is safe from hackers?" I always answer the same way: "Disconnect your machines from the Internet."

That's the only way to be sure, and even then you may have a mole in your own organization who ferrets out data on a flash drive. (How about that, two rodents in the same sentence?) Data security is an important element of any good network design. We do all we can to keep our computer network services customers' data safe. The best analogy I can use is your home security. You lock the doors when you leave to keep bad people out. If you feel you're at a higher risk, you turn on an alarm as well. These measures will keep out most burglars or thieves. They'll just move on to the next house in search of one without an alarm or with an unlocked door. However, if the burglar is looking to get something from you in particular, your locks and alarms become a nuisance to him. He'll have to plan better and it will take longer, but if he's committed, he'll get around your reasonable precautions. The same holds true for your network. Practice safe computing and avoid upsetting anyone who might have crazy tech skills.

If those infected iPhone users had practiced safe computing, they wouldn't have jailbroken their phones, and the worm wouldn't have gotten in.

A recent eWeek article recalled the top five priorities of the IT industry. According to Doug Tracy, CIO of Dana Holdings, the top five are:

• Set a Vision
• Manage Vendors
• Improve Process
• Standardize Operations
• Test Open Source

I found this list interesting because it contains the elements of our Pertingo(r) Computer Support service that most of our Indianapolis small business computer outsourcing customers overlook when they are looking for a good computer consultant. We know that our customers use price and convenience as the primary factors in deciding on a computer support service. It isn't until they've had a provider who looks at things like these top five priorities for them that they come to realize the full impact of good IT support services.

• We work with each of our clients to develop a vision for their technology that fits the vision they have for their company as a whole.
• We have always described ourselves as the "one throat to choke" to our customers. We manage the activities of every other provider who touches their computer network.
• We take the time to learn how our customers do their jobs so we can make suggestions to improve the process.
• We strive to standardize, as much as possible, all of the elements of their network.
• We're always playing with something new to see if it has applicability in our customers' IT environments.

In short, we are always working on those top five priorities. Any good IT support services company should do the same. Many don't. Sure, we are also doing those routine things as efficiently as we can. But we don't add value if all we do is fix broken stuff and wait for you to tell us what new stuff you'd like to buy. Our job is to maximize the benefit you get from having bought all this stuff in the first place. That's good IT.

Now that Windows 7 has been fully released, Microsoft is turning its attention to the next big software release: Office 2010. That's right! Just as you started getting used to having (or avoiding) Office 2007, the next version is being readied for the marketplace. If you're like me, you probably wonder how they can find anything else to do in a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, or mail client. While I did find some features in Office 2007 surprisingly useful, I could have continued without them forever.

The biggest new feature of Office 2010 will be the web-based version. Microsoft is taking the online office tools like Google Apps and Zoho seriously now. And they should. I know many small businesses that use these exclusive of full desktop applications. Many of my Indianapolis small business computer consulting customers use these tools from time-to-time, but none so far have abandoned the desktop application. With the advent of Microsoft Office 2010 web apps, we may have some that take that route.

One of the things that we do to keep our computer outsourcing customers aware of changes in the IT area is to play with new things as they come along. Sometimes that means we find the coolest new things to make life easier. At other times it means we break our stuff and have to figure out how to fix it. The web version of Office 2010 could fall into either category. Time will tell.

A series of experiments conducted at Princeton and Harvard universities shows that thinking fast can make you happier. It doesn't seem to matter what you think about as long as you think about it fast. Apparently, we're wired to be mentally challenged. So why are so many people trying to get thru life without thinking at all? I hear so many people talk about how much it hurts to think.

Perhaps that's why the people who work with me at our Indianapolis small business computer consulting company are happy in the midst of ever-changing challenges. We can't get thru a day without doing some very quick thinking. Most of the time that we interact with our computer outsourcing customers, they need an answer right away. Even those who earn their living by researching the answers to complex questions expect us to have all of the answers at the tip of our tongue. Oftentimes we do, which perpetuates the myth that every computer geek can run Jurasic Park after looking at the screen for a few minutes.

Nonetheless, we are a happy bunch, even when our circumstances seem to dictate that our attitude should be less cheery. Its one of the joys of coming to work. The quick thinking nature of our jobs helps to keep us happy.

I have a second grade child that has been excelling at her private christian school.  She has been at this school for the last four years. Before Kindergarten and first grade, I compared what she was being taught in the private school to the public school curriculum. For the first two years the standards were higher at the private school so, I didn't evaluate against the public school for second grade. Boy was I wrong in not doing that!  The private school's standards fell below the public school.  When I approached the school to see why and what needed to be done to challenge my daughter, I was informed that it was too hard and I would need to do all the challenging at home. I challenge my child at home but it does need to be reinforced by the education system. Well the public school has increased what they require the children to know. If I had kept my daughter in the private school she would have been behind and potentionally not able to catch up.

What does this story have to do with computers, consulting, etc.?  It is never bad to evaluate who you are using against other people and services.  If you have a good network support group or computer outsourcing company, they will want to know where they are behind and will want to improve.  If the school had said, "Let's try these things to get back to that higher standard," we would have stayed. We liked the school, we liked the people. As I am sure you are with the people that support your computer network. If you don't like the company that supports you or you don't like the people that support you, maybe you need to evaluate why you use them. If you've talked to them and gotten answers like my private school gave me, you should see what other options are available. My small busines computer support company takes feedback from our customers extremely seriously. We don't take a squeaky wheel approach to it either. We assume that if one company is telling us they have a problem, many are feeling the same pain and we need to make changes quickly.

Don't allow your computer network services company to take your business for granted. Make them work to continue to earn your business. We know that's what our customers expect, and we do all we can to deliver. Every IT consultant in the nation should do the same.

One of mycolleagues and I went to the gym after work the other day to work out.  As the workout went on we both noticed how sore we were becoming but said that's good because it means we are improving ourselves.  It is that way for our Indianapolis small business computer support customers as well.  As their businesses mature and grow, they have to keep exercising them to keep them strong and growing.  Our task as their computer consultants is to work along side them so their technology can change as it needs to.  Sometimes, we are involved in those planning meeting but other times we are not.  Often, people don't realize that a decision they're make directly impacts their computer network and should at least include input from the outsourced IT department.  We have had trouble with a couple of clients lately in this area.  One of them uses email to run their business.  Due to the amount of email they were storing we needed to make changes to their system to allow them to keep the email in the way that they prefer. We attempted to change their behavior by archiving email instead of keeping it. They decided as an organization that they wanted to keep the email. ( As their computer consultants we can only advise them.) So, we spent many late nights dealing with corrupt mail storage to get them working. The reality is that they have outgrown their current configuration and need to do some significant upgrades. So even though the large bill for equipment may be painful, it is necessary for them to continue to grow and develop.

This incident reminded me that they hired us to be their computer consultants. Our not saying something turned out to be more painful than just telling them what they needed to hear and addressing it from there.

I know it isn't spring time and no one really wants to do any cleaning, but just think about how much you enjoy the nice clean straightened out space.  That is exactly what we do for our clients.  We try hard to clean out things as time goes by for our Indianapolis Small Business Computer support customers, but for one reason or another it doesn't always happen.

I had a meeting with one of my Indianapolis small business computer outsourcing customers. She mentioned that they had some old computer stuff that needed to be removed from their office.  A couple of techs were scheduled to pick up the equipment from their office.  Boy were we surprised to find filing cabinets and shelves filled with old IT equipment...two vehicles full of stuff! It took 3 hours and 3 people to go through the stuff to see if there was anything of value.  When we finished, there were a few items that we are keeping for spare parts ( a couple USB keyboards and mice, software and spare monitor).  The client wants to help other organizations as much as they can, we will be formatting the laptops and desktops to be reused at another of our Indianapolis small business computer customers.  

Just like at home, the rooms need to be cleaned out in your offices as well. And even though my boss still has a couple of Apple Newton's in his desk (He says the portable device technology is headed back toward this idea.), most of the stuff you stashed away has no usefulness after it's been put away for more than a few months.