Do you even know what this is? Do you care? Well, if you accept credit cards you will need to know and you may start seeing an extra charge on credit card processor statement for non-compliance. If you accept credit cards there are security requirements and assessment filing you must complete. I sure hope you don’t have an Excel spreadsheet with credit cards numbers on it! Passing PCI requirements can be simple or very complex depending on your needs. Please contact us for a free discussion of your options.
At Parsec we have long understood the business need to have all documents saved on a server and available from anywhere. Well that same thing is needed for home users too. My son is a senior in high school and forgot he homework on the printer. No problem, he borrowed a computer at school, logged into Dropbox.com and opened his Word document. 50% downgrade was avoided.
We all use laptops and these are very prone to being stolen, dropped or misplaced. Don’t leave your data on the local drive. Dropbox.com offers 2Gb free storage and you can buy more very inexpensively. It is a very simple program and you can install it on all your computers and your smartphone. You can also share a folder with other Dropbox users.
It’s free and it works. Save your day and move your important documents into the cloud today. Just friendly advice from your thankful friends at Parsec!
Bob
Yakima, Washington – August 24, 2011 – Parsec Computer Corp, a provider of IT solutions and managed services to small and medium businesses, received the honor of a ranking of No. 4195 in Inc. Magazines 30th annual listing of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States.
“Being recognized with this distinguished group of companies is a tremendous validation of the hard work and commitment of our entire team,” said Robert Guchee, founder of Parsec. “We have an excellent team of people who are committed to making our customers successful, and that drive and energy has been what has grown our business.”
Parsec success can be attributed to their approach. They develop and maintain systems that meet their client objectives. Successful consulting comes from a grasp of the client’s business as a whole and using their 30-year history of delivering technology to business. By serving the customer with a local sales person, a qualified and readily available help desk staff, and an accessible engineer, customers get the expertise and attention they need and deserve.
Complete information on this year’s Inc. 5000, including company profiles and a list of the fastest-growing companies can be found at www.inc5000.com.
This blog is intended for those of you that have your own Exchange Server that we are managing for you but may apply to others as well.
Mobile smartphones are amazing devices with their ability to integrate and store your personal and business information but this also opens up big security threats. We need to work together to keep your information as safe as possible and that may require you to deal with some annoyances. If your phone is not secured with a PIN or password that you have to enter before accessing information then understand that whoever finds your misplaced or stolen phone can access whatever is on your phone. Our ability to remotely erase your phone is also limited if you do not have it secured with a PIN. Yes, entering the PIN every time you want to access your phone is a pain but so is locking your house. We can enforce a policy that will require PIN protection for connect phones.
Remember to let us know if your phone is lost – we can remotely wipe the phone. If you find it again you will have to setup everything again but it is better to be safe than sorry. If you lose your phone we need to remotely send codes to your phone BEFORE you suspend service with your phone carrier. Please contact us and we can erase the contents of the phone. You should have a company policy that everyone is aware of for notification protocol of any lost phones.
We also need to know when you get any new phone, even if it is a replacement for a damaged or defective unit. We need to remove the partnership in the settings on your server. The partnership is assigned based on the ID of the phone. You should also be resetting the old phone to factory settings to remove all data and also erase or remove any memory cards.
I just spent an intense week in Dallas with my Peer group organization called HTG. HTG is made up of 253 groups each containing 12 IT companies from all over the US, Canada and the UK. Within each group we are from all over the country so we do not complete with each other which allows open sharing of information. We also have ability of attracting some really great vendor representatives to share new products and services with us. This peer sharing is an amazing way to grow your business and I would encourage you to find one in your business discipline.
Microsoft was a very big presence and we had the chance to share with them our thoughts and ideas on products from the viewpoint of our small business customers. The new Microsoft Small Business Essentials server is a new products that they have released now that has come from these discussions. This server software will allow us to get our clients on the newest server platform at a low cost for up to 25 users. If your server is over 5 years old you should be considering an upgrade soon.
Cloud computing is another big focus and we spent hours discussing this on our groups and with vendors. Hybrid solutions are still our focus unless really fast broadband connections are available, DSL will not cut it. We are installing a system we call “Private Cloud” now, this all seems like cloud from the business relationship, you have no upfront costs and just a monthly server agreement. We avoid the Internet problems by placing the server in your data closet but maintain ownership and responsibility. Sound interesting? Please contact me.
We are offering Cloud based backup now and if your computer systems are critical to daily operation of your business you should consider this option along with our “BDR” Backup and Disaster Recovery storage device rental.
Parsec continues to grow and we are looking for some people to fill technical roles. If you know someone that has education and experience in IT support please let me know.
My best,
Robert C. Guchee
CEO
Parsec Computer Corp.
robertg@parseccomputer.com
509-248-8309 x101
The ParsecTIME In/Out Board has a Droid App that really rocks. We use our In/Out Board all day long to see where the team is and when they plan to be back. This saves tons of time and frustration the occurs when you spend 10 minutes running around looking for someone.
We have enabled the GPS in the Droid App too so you can view a map with each of the Droid users displayed.
Do you have a mobile team that needs to work better as a team? ParsecTIME is a cloud solution you can use today.
Start your 30 day trial from www.parsectime.com
We are constantly adding to our EasyWeb editor capabilities and have now added Blog postings. We have made it easy for you to write your blogs to share on your website by using Microsoft Word or Live Writer which is free. By using one of these editors your blog writers can use familiar software and publish directly to the website.
We have built the ability to add categories for your blogs and coming soon we can send e-mail to subscribers to your blogs to alert them of new postings. We’ll keep you informed on new EasyWeb features right here; on our Blog.
There is just an amazing amount of capabilities with today’s smartphones and we are having a great time developing apps to enhance our business. I am also always sharing apps with my associates and friends and will share with you as well using this blog category.
Today’s new app of choice is Google Goggles.
Using this free app on your phone allows you to take a picture of something like a landmark, art work, logo, cover of a book or CD and Google will locate similar images on the web. This is amazing and scary too.
Give it a try – Download is free from the Droid Market, just search for Google Goggles. Thanks Google!