Reasons Why Google Chrome OS Is (and Isn't) a Big Deal

Here is a link to an on-line article, giving reasons why Google Chrome OS is (and isn't) a Big Deal.  I couldn't fit the link in Twitter, hence this link to another link.

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=48997639&gid=743977&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eeweek%2Ecom%2Fc%2Fa%2FIT-Infrastructure%2FReasons-Why-Google-Chrome-OS-Is-and-Isnt-a-Big-Deal-610813%2F%3Fkc%3Drss&urlhash=BIzv&trk=news_discuss 

 

As well as supporting Mitel and Toshiba telephone systems, Digitel is delivering Managed Computer Support services to business customers throughout the Vancouver Lower Mainland.

 

Chris Miles                               Follow me on Twitter     

Business Development

604-231-0143 direct

cmiles@digitel.ca

 

Digitel Systems Inc.  

604-231-0110 help desk

604-231-0100 fax

www.digitel.ca

"Managing your Voice and Data Network"

 

 

Posted via email from chrismiles's posterous

New backup and data recovery system for business

Here is a link regarding a new backup and recovery system for business than combines data deduplication, enhanced support for virtual environments and centralized management features.  I couldn't fit the link in Twitter, hence this link to another link.

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/articles/articles-news/acronis-debuts-new-backup-and-data-recovery-system-for-business3925.html 

 

As well as supporting Mitel and Toshiba telephone systems throughout the Vancouver area, Digitel is delivering Managed Computer Support services to their business customers.

 

Chris Miles                  

Business Development

604-231-0143 direct

cmiles@digitel.ca

 

Digitel Systems Inc.  

604-231-0110 help desk

604-231-0100 fax

www.digitel.ca

"Managing your Voice and Data Network"

 

 

Posted via email from chrismiles's posterous

Affordable IT Support for Vancouver Area Business

Digitel Systems Inc. is a Vancouver BC based telephone equipment supplier and for the past 25 years we've been installing and supporting business telephone systems, including Toshiba and Mitel.  With the advent of IP Telephony, the Voice and Data network are becoming one, and we see an opportunity to deliver I.T. services and be one point of contact for our customers.

 

We know that you rely on your I.T. assets to operate your business, but maintaining and managing these investments can be costly, complicated and time-consuming — distracting you from your core business activities and using up resources.

 

With this in mind Digitel is now offering a Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) service that will result in an overall lower cost of owning and supporting I.T., more predictable costs, and will help you avoid the large, unplanned expenses that are typically associated with unscheduled downtime.

Remote Monitor, Alert and Response

With 24/7 monitoring and alerting, we’ll know immediately when something has gone wrong and can guarantee a rapid response, delivered remotely if possible, or on site if required. Problems are often resolved before you’re even aware of them.

Asset Management

Our RMM services make it possible to deliver detailed, up-to-date hardware and software inventories to protect assets for insurance purposes or regulatory compliance.

We’ll track warranty expirations to ensure you never pay for maintenance twice.

We’ll also automatically detect new software installations and discover the presence of unauthorized and illegal software, such as peer-to-peer file-sharing applications that rob you of bandwidth.

Preventive Maintenance

With detailed, accurate information about your IT assets, we minimize costly disruptions to your daily operations by proactively resolving problems before they become critical. We’ll also be able to quickly identify where maintenance activities can optimize performance and lower costs.

How It Works

Our software-based RMM solution automatically performs secure, comprehensive scans of your IT environment to gather up-to-date information about the health and performance of your assets.

This information allows us to be alerted about problems as they are evolving, deliver rapid remote remediation when issues arise, and perform maintenance tasks with unparalleled efficiency — all of which save you money.

We can proactively monitor and manage anything with an IP address, including:

• Desktops

• Laptops

• Servers

• Managed switches

• Routers

• Firewalls

• Gateways

• VoIP switches and phones

• Printers

• Faxes

• Scanners

• Off-the-shelf and custom applications

• Specialized equipment

• Environmental control devices

• Internal and external web sites

• Virtual machines

 

We see our Remote Monitoring and Management service as a perfect fit for any organization who employs their own technician or who already outsources their computer network support to a small 1 or 2 man firm.  For more information contact us anytime, or call me directly for any of your telephone or data needs.

 

Chris Miles                               Follow me on Twitter     

Business Development

604-231-0143 direct

cmiles@digitel.ca

 

Digitel Systems Inc.  

604-231-0110 help desk

604-231-0100 fax

www.digitel.ca

"Managing your Voice and Data Network"

 

 

Posted via email from chrismiles's posterous

Server Recovered in only 40 Minutes

Insight Information Technology (or Insight IT for short) recently introduced a Backup and Disaster Recovery Service, specifically designed for business customers in the Vancouver Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.  Instead of simply Backing up data, we "mirror" the Operating System, Applications and Data.  The advantage is we can restore a Server very quickly, often times (depending on the amount of data) within minutes!  In fact during a regular scheduled test of the service with a customer in Richmond BC, our technician restored a production SQL server within 40 minutes. 

Most businesses already have a Data Backup system in place, however many firms find out too late just how long it takes to restore a Computer Network once a Server is suddenly unavailable.  Companies that have implemented ONLY a backup of data need to understand the amount of time it takes to replace a Server.

• Purchase the Hardware
• Install the Operations System
• Install the Applications
• Upload the Backed up data
• Reconfigure the Server

This can often take several days.  Now compare that to 40 minutes!

For an explanation on our Backup and Disaster Recovery Service, how it works and the cost, click here.

You can also contact me directly.  I can answer your questions and go over all the options available to you, to ensure your Business Continuity Plan is in place.

Chris Miles                                          

Insight Information Technology

cmiles@insightit.ca

604-484-4218 Direct

                                                       Follow me on Twitter                           

604-484-5141 Lower Mainland

604-864-0465 Abbotsford

604-357-1471 Fax

 

"Let Us Manage IT"

Posted via email from chrismiles's posterous

Legal Precedent creation software

I recently spoke with Dave Humphreys from CompuWork Pacific Inc. regarding software they developed for a Vancouver BC Law Firm.  One of his client's realized what a pain it was for his staff to manually create and fill out new legal precedent documents for every file he was working on. So he created a set of precedent templates akin to merge documents. He then commissioned CompuWork to create a Database Management System to store his data and populate any of these documents on demand. He currently has a library of close to 1000 precedents.

"It is not an off-the-shelf product" Dave explained. "This system was custom-made to spec, but all of the functionality and methods could be adapted into a new custom package, should any legal office be interested. It's primary purpose is to populate legal precedent documents with valid data, although it's abilities have been extended quite a bit over time."

 

 The benefits that give his customer a competitive advantage include:

• fewer errors as all data resides in one system and is validated when input or modified
• staff are restricted to lists of values in many cases, eliminating the typos etc that come with entering data as free-form text
• huge savings in time and staff costs as data can be entered once, extracted many times
• easy to use, intuitive system requires little training - most paralegals are up and running within a day

Major features include (and more added every year)

• ability to sort and filter file data in tabular format
• statistical reports
• bring-forward tasks and diary for all staff
• generation of custom reports to clients in Word or Excel
• email creation and logging, with comments
• ability to print formatted file labels, envelopes, pdf documents
• data is used by the firm to provide reports to their clients on the Web
• ability to search and replace data in all precedents at once
• ability to "clone" similar precedents, eliminating the need to create documents from scratch
• ability to create document packages containing multiple precedents
• auto lookup of postal code info, based on street address and city, via web service

The caveat Dave's client offers is that the lawyer or firm must be willing to create the precedents. CompuWork can provide a how-to guide, but it does take some time to set up. Dave suggested that the best strategy is to start with that 10% of your documents that you use 75% of the time, then add or copy more precedents as time allows.

 

For any Law Firm with an interest, Dave has offered to demo the system.

 

Dave Humphreys

CompuWork Pacific Inc.

Phone (604) 684-8211  Fax (604) 684-8210

http://www.CompuWork.net

 

And if you are looking for an easy way to lower your I.T. support costs while practically eliminating computer problems, glitches, and downtime, then give us a call.  Or visit us at www.ComputerSupportForLawFirms.com.

 

Chris Miles

Insight Information Technology (or Insight I.T. for short)

 

P.S.  The last bulleted point, the postal code lookup, is another service CompuWork provides - near instantaneous population of postal codes via a web service. They use the current Canada Post database. This is a subscription service that can be used stand-alone or it can be integrated into existing software systems. www.postalcodeservices.net

 

 

 

 

Chris Miles
Insight Information Technology
cmiles@insightit.ca
604-484-4218 Direct

604-484-5141 Lower Mainland
604-864-0465 Abbotsford
604-357-1471 Fax

"Let Us Manage IT"
  www.InsightIT.ca

Posted via email from chrismiles's posterous

New Canadian Tax Break on Computer Hardware

Budget 2009 proposes a temporary 100-per-cent CCA rate for computer hardware and systems software acquired after January 27, 2009 and before February 1, 2011. In addition, the rule that restricts CCA deductions to one-half of the CCA write-off otherwise available in the first year will not apply to these computers.

This temporary measure will allow taxpayers to fully expense their investment in computers in one year. The measure will provide stimulus by assisting businesses to increase or accelerate investment in computers. It will also contribute to boosting Canada's productivity through the faster adoption of newer technology. Businesses in all sectors of the economy, including the service sector, will benefit from this incentive.

It is estimated that this measure will cost $340 million in 2009-10 and $355 million in 2010-11.

Click here for more information.

Chris Miles
cmiles@insightit.ca
604-484-4218 Direct
                                                      Follow me on Twitter
Insight Information Technology
604-484-5141 Lower Mainland
604-864-0465 Abbotsford
604-357-1471 Fax

Let Us Manage IT
www.InsightIT.ca

Posted via email from chrismiles's posterous

Free Software for your Windows Small Business Server

Over the next few weeks I will be writing a series of Blogs that highlight feature rich business applications that fit perfectly into any organization running Windows Small Business Server. As a representative of an I.T. company that support small and medium sized business throughout the Vancouver Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, many of our customers run Small Business Server and are looking for ways to add value.

I'm sure you noticed I used the term Free in the title of this piece, although I really wanted to say "Open Source Software for your Windows Small Business Server". My fear was most readers may not know the term Open Source, plus I felt safe knowing that all the Software I will be featuring all include a Free version.
So with that out of the way, the software that I will be writing about include Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Document Management, Data Backup, Instant Messaging and even Voice over IP. And all of the software featured all include a number of similarities.

• All have a FREE version, giving business owners an opportunity to introduce the application into their business process before investing in the software.
• All integrate into popular Microsoft applications, like Outlook, Word, Quickbooks, etc. Some can even integrate with your telephone system.
• All can run on a Windows or Linux Server. This is an important point. Many businesses today are running Small Business Server 2003, which only allows 1 Server on your network. If you have a robust Server, the software we will be featuring can be added to your existing machine. But if your Server is running all the bundled applications that come with Small Business Server (File, Print, Exchange and SharePoint Services), adding another application may NOT be the best course of action. And since adding a second Windows Server is not an option, adding a Linux Server is a viable option.

          Please note, businesses running Windows Small Business 2008 can add a 2^nd Windows Server to their network.

For Information or Support of Windows Small Business Server, contact us anytime. We offer Computer Network Support and Repair for business customers throughout Vancouver BC, Abbotsford and the Fraser Valley.

Chris Miles
Insight Information Technology
cmiles@insightit.ca
604-484-4218 Direct

604-484-5141 Lower Mainland
604-864-0465 Abbotsford
604-357-1471 Fax

"Let Us Manage IT"
www.InsightIT.ca

Posted via email from chrismiles's posterous