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Us: |
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To get information on any
of the products featured in this newsletter, call
our office at 864.232.1234.
Available
Technology provides outsourced IT and network
support to businesses in SC. We are a
Microsoft Small Business Specialist and are Apple
certified.
Call
to schedule an appointment or for remote support
go to our website at
www.available-tech.net | | |
Available
Technology has achieved Microsoft Small Business Server
Specialist status. We
join only 12 other SBSS within 100 miles of
Greenville! Thanks for your help in making
this achievement possible. For more
details, visit www.available-tech.net or call
today. |
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3 Technologies You
Need to be Using NOW |
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There are many
technologies that deserve to be on this
list! It is very difficult to narrow it down
to 3, but these are some very useful technologies
that are underutilized by home-based and small
businesses today.
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Desktop Search
Face it. You're not as organized as you
should be. You don't print labels for every file
folder or color code your gas receipts. Not
many of us do, so don't feel bad.
A commonly cited statistic states that 80% of
a company's important data is difficult
to locate, locked up inside an
unstructured collection of folders and
drives. This data is the information stored
on an end user's PC, the files and directories
they've created on a network, documents stored in
repositories such as corporate intranets and a
multitude of other locations. This means that
most users' files are not logically organized
and as a result, are more difficult to
access than they should be. The longer it
takes you or your employees to find, work
with and save a file, the more valuable time is
wasted and the more productivity
suffers.
Enter Desktop Search. Desktop Search
Applications like Microsoft
Search, Google Desktop
Search and Apple
Spotlight make searching your computer as
easy as searching the internet. They utilize
desktop search engines that index virtually every
file on your computer, creating a database that
can very quickly find any keyword in your
files. They can even look inside Word
documents and emails to find every word they
contain, so one simple search finds relevant
documents including email messages, documents,
compressed files, instant messaging and web sites
you have visited.
Indexing usually takes place when the
computer is idle and most search applications can
be set to suspend it if a portable computer is
running on batteries, in order to save power. When
indexing the files, desktop search tools collect
three types of information about files:
- File and directory names
- Metadata, such as titles, authors, comments
in file types such as MP3, PDF and JPEG
- Content of supported documents.
The desktop search window appears on the
desktop, usually on the taskbar, where you can
type your search terms directly in. If you
have Windows Vista, desktop search is built in.
Just go to the Windows button and start typing
what you are looking for in the "Start Search"
field at the bottom. you don't even have to
press <enter>.
Download a free Desktop Search application
today and give it a try. It will save you at
least 20 minutes a day.
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Backup
There's no excuse
anymore! Now anyone can afford a reliable backup
solution for home and business that keeps your
important data safe and secure, and does it
without so much as a thought from you.
Using iBackup or Carbonite, you can backup files,
pictures, movies or documents to a secure offsite
location over the internet for only a few cents a
day. Carbonite, for example, installs
easily, and once you set up the program to backup
your important information, the program takes over
and backs up everything over the internet to a
location set up just for your data on Carbonite's
servers. This protects you from data loss in
case of computer theft or damage, or hard drive
failure.
What's more is that several online backup
services have some amazing features for their
users such as the ability to email anyone a copy
of your files. This can
be extremely handy in a work
environment. Other really nice features include
the ability to password protect your files, and
the ability to share your files with anyone.
Need to restore one particular file or a
whole drive? No problem. You can
browse for the files you need just as if the
volume were a local hard drive. You do not
need any special software, or drivers
installed.
Programs like Carbonite are not for
everyone, however, especially businesses that have
database applications that use Microsoft SQL or
ACCESS data. It is made primarily for
small files, unless you are going to be connected
to the internet with a really fast
connection. Some businesses can do just fine
with Carbonite as their primary backup
system.
Once you setup one of these excellent
services, you really do enjoy the sense of
security of knowing that your data is safe.
This type of service is definitely worth the
money.
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Most business owners will
tell you that their largest source of new business
is word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied
customers or colleagues. Various services on
the internet have simplified the process of
making those connections by allowing you
access to business people in your area with
similar interests or in similar fields without
needing a friend to make the
introduction.
Social Networking sites
like MySpace and Facebook are good at
bringing together people with similar
interests, but there are other social networking
sites designed specifically for business
owners and salespeople. Set yourself up an
account on LinkedIn, Spoke, or Tribe.net and begin
making connections to new clients and old
acquaintances.
Just sign up and
enter information like city, state and zip of
your company, where you went to school and the
type of industry you operate in, and the site does
the rest. In short order you should begin
receiving invitations to chat with other business
owners or managers, and these relationships
can turn into business opportunities. Members
looking for businesses like yours will contact you
to ask questions or set up meetings.
Spoke.com lets you discover
and target businesspeople by name, title, company,
industry, or geography, and also lets you review
their credentials. Connect to businesspeople
via mailing address, phone, your professional
network or via Spoke's direct e-mail
service.
LinkedIn
is probably the best known social networking
site out there. Their description says you
can:
- Find past and present colleagues and
classmates quickly.
Discover inside connections when
you're looking for a job or new business
opportunity
Harness the knowledge of industry
experts willing to share advice. Have a question?
Just ask.
In my own experience, I
have been contacted by friends from college and
people that just needed information about my
industry. These calls have been excellent
opportunities to present my business to
individuals I would probably never have known
otherwise.
If you
have a sales manager or are running your own
business, it's definitely worth the time to setup
an account and try it
out.
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For information
on any of the informaton in this month's
newsletter, please call Available Technology
at
864.232.1234 |
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Be safe and be smart. Remember: Your
computer should work for you, not the other
way around.
Sincerely,
Michael
Lane
Available Technology Inc
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