Microsoft is a company that’s well-known for releasing many different versions of the same operating system. With the impending release of Windows 8, they’re aiming to slim down the number offered. There will be a core set of features available across all editions, with each version aimed at different markets.

There are going to be four editions of Windows 8 available at launch:

1. Windows 8. This edition offers all the features the majority of Windows users will need. It will be comparable to Windows 7 Home and Home Premium.
2. Windows 8 Pro. Pro will have Windows 8 components, but also offers more advanced options that businesses and expert users will appreciate. Some of the extras include encryption, virtualization and PC management. Pro will be most useful in a business environment.
3. Windows RT. This version of Windows 8 will come pre-installed on mobile devices and tablets with an ARM processor, which is used primarily in mobile technology. Many of Windows 8’s features will be available on RT, although some older Windows applications will not be compatible. If your company uses Windows tablets or smartphones, chances are you’ll use this OS.
4. Windows 8 Enterprise. Enterprise is an enhanced version of Windows 8 Pro that will be specifically for businesses with Software Assurance agreements. Noted features include stronger virtualization tools, PC management and deployment, and advanced security. At this time there’s no further information on this version, but it looks like a good choice for IT companies.

There’s no official release date for Windows 8 at this time, but it’s expected sometime in the last quarter of this year. If you would like to know more about Windows 8, or any other Microsoft programs please contact us.

One of the main reasons people choose an Android smartphone is because of the openness of the system. Don’t like the layout your phone uses? Change it, Google isn’t going to stop you. One of the most common things people change on their device is what keyboard they’re using. There’s a number of options available, the problem being which is best.

Here are four great keyboards that you can install on your Android device.

Swype Traditional mobile keyboards utilize the thumbs to tap the letters. With Swype, you do use your thumb, but instead of tapping you trace the word you want to spell on the keyboard. If you want to spell the word ‘Hello’, for example, you place your thumb on ‘H’ and trace it over to ‘E’ then ‘L’ then to ‘O’.

With practice, you can quickly type out full sentences with one finger, and this is as fast, or faster than typing on a normal keyboard. Swype is currently in Beta (pre-release testing) and is therefore free, however you will have to download it from the website as it’s not on Google Play. If you’re looking for a keyboard to use with one hand, Swype is the best choice.

SwiftKey SwiftKey is all about making predictions. It won’t tell you next week’s winning lottery numbers, but it will try to guess what you’re trying to say and either correct the word or provide the next word in the sentence. You can also sync the keyboard with Facebook, Twitter, SMS and Gmail where it will learn your typing style. With syncing on, it can be eerie at how accurate it is. Beyond that, it supports 42 languages, with up to three active at once. Just start typing and it will figure out what language you’re using.

SwiftKey is available on Google Play for around 3-4 USD and is a great keyboard for users who speak more than one language and/or want to have a predictive keyboard.

Android Stock Keyboard Each version of Android has its own stock keyboard (the keyboard that comes installed on the phone) and some manufacturers also offer their own keyboard. These keyboards are generally good, albeit a little plain. If all you're looking for is a keyboard to type messages and don’t need any extra features, these keyboards are perfectly adequate.

Hacker’s Keyboard On the other end of the spectrum is Hacker’s Keyboard, a full keyboard complete with keys other mobile keyboards are missing. If you use your device to remotely connect to the office, this is the keyboard for you, as you’ll be better able to navigate non mobile apps. This keyboard is open source, which means it’s free and has a high level of support.

These keyboards should have you typing anyway you want. To find the best for you, you might want to try all of them. What keyboard do you use on your Android device? Let us know.

As the economy begins to sputter back to life, are you ready to capitalize on better times and build your business? While sales growth may come more easily during the next few years, growing profits is more important. With a focus on productivity, you can grow sales with the same team you have in place now to contain costs and increase profits.

Productivity is the key to growing profits Implementing an ERP system will give your business the foundation to automate and connect the full range of financial management, supply chain management, human resource and payroll management, manufacturing and project management. As a unified business management system, ERP gives you the power to:

• Automate manual processes to allow employees to spend their time on productive tasks rather than manually entering information,
• Centralize information so that people don’t waste their time searching for answers,
• Access information instantly to allow employees to make educated decisions quickly.

When your people can focus on their responsibilities, rather than on chasing information and juggling applications, they’ll keep critical tasks on track and get more done.

Select an easy to use ERP As you evaluate ERP systems, make sure to consider how easy it will be for your employees to use. Look for an ERP system that works the way your employees already do. Most systems today provide the basic functionality to manage the business, but real productivity gains come when the system is intuitive to use.

This is the time to prepare for growth. With systems that support productivity, you can grow profits at the same time you grow revenue. Let’s talk about how you can build your business with ERP.

Cloud computing systems are continuing to grow and become more popular, especially with small businesses. And as cloud services continue to grow and evolve along with the needs of users and clients, we are sure to see some positive developments for the cloud this year.

Anyone who tells you that the cloud has reached a peak is definitely mistaken. While cloud computing is already a powerful IT service that has made a positive difference in the way businesses operate—especially small and medium sized ones—there are still many aspects of it that are continuously being improved and developed.

Better security One of the major trends in cloud services is improvements in the security aspect. Businesses trust cloud providers with important and sensitive data, and with cyber-attacks becoming more frequent and clever, vendors have to step up their security protocols and keep clients’ data safe.

Wider integration and compatibility As it stands, there are still several issues between clouds (especially public ones) and an enterprise's systems, which limits the connectivity and data exchange between users. The same can be said for the current standards being used, which have the tendency to be very vendor-centric. The trend now is to reverse this, and provide better connectivity and data sharing, as well as less vendor-centric standards for better compatibility and integration.

A more ‘solid’ cloud It’s unfortunate, but expected, that there are service providers who are hitching onto the increasing popularity of cloud computing by offering half-baked cloud services. As time progresses, expect to see a better definition—which will reflect in the service provided—of what cloud computing can and cannot do.

As expected of any emerging technology, cloud computing has a ways to go before it reaches its peak. Expect to hear better things about the cloud in the coming months and years as businesses continue to maximize the potential of cloud computing, and vendors and service providers constantly find ways to improve what is already a fantastic concept.

If you are interested in knowing more about cloud services and what it can do for your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us so we can address your specific inquiries and concerns.

Many companies realize the benefits of virtualizing their systems, and some have even started the process. In the current economies around the world, businesses are looking at ways to save money and streamline processes. A recent report on virtualization found that some organizations achieved investment returns of up to 269%. Read on to learn more.

What is Virtualization? Virtualization is the creation of a virtual computing environment, where one hardware system can run multiple virtual environments. Common types of virtualization include servers, storage devices, or networks. The benefits of virtualization include lower costs, improved IT management, and reduced energy consumption.

The Survey A report published by CDW-G focuses on government organizations in the United Sates. Many SME owners and managers like yourselves are probably asking, “How do study results involving the government help my business?” Well, if you look closer you can see that what the government organizations did can easily be replicated by SMEs, just on a smaller scale.

Results In recent years, many companies have had to tighten their belts due to economic difficulties. Government agencies are no exception. The results of the survey found that agencies and organizations realized investment returns as high as 134 to 269%. The survey found that if IT managers invest in Server Virtualization, Document Management, Storage Virtualization, and Cloud Computing in that order, the returns on Server Virtualization alone can help pay for, if not totally cover the cost of, the other three processes. CDW-G found that on average, the total cost of implementing all four separately is over USD 1.1million, but when implemented in order, the average cost was around USD 400,000.

While it is unlikely that SMEs will see a return on investments of this magnitude, it is highly likely that they will see increased returns if they follow this method of re-investing returns from Server Virtualization into the other three steps. In times of economic stress, this could be a huge boost to your bottom line.

Helpful Recommendations From the results, CDW-G offered some useful recommendations that all businesses can use:

• When budget cuts are needed, first look for ways to increase efficiency without service cuts.
• Review technologies and processes to identify inefficiencies.
• Consider savings and efficiency opportunities in all new solutions.
• Leverage available savings into new projects.

As with any new process, it’s equally important to ensure that you educate the users of the processes and stay on your toes to keep updated.

In the past Business Intelligence (BI) software and practices were limited to MNCs and large enterprises. With the growing number of SMEs, BI software and system developers have been turning out many useful products for SMEs. Is your company planning on implementing BI practices?

If you are looking into integrating Business Intelligence at your company, no matter what system you choose or the size of the project, there are a number of things you need to be aware of in order to make the implementation successful.

4 Things to Know before You Start Before you start any BI project, there are 4 key BI implementation areas that you and your company will need to be clear on:

1. Data or Information: In most SMEs there is a limited amount of data available, so you need to be sure where all the relevant data is located. This typically includes client and employee information kept on accounting systems, spreadsheets or contact manager databases, sales or business reports, industry and competitor information, and more.
2. Technology: A large number of BI programs require technical systems that are stable and have minimal downtime. It’s a good idea to ensure that your systems meet the requirements and are stable. As with any software, be sure to do your homework and pick a system that is reliable and compatible with your business. Don’t just pick the cheapest system – pick the system that best meets your needs.
3. Knowledge: Many SMEs have employees that wear more than one hat, and as such may not be experts in any one thing. It’s important that, when implementing BI, you have employees who understand it and the related systems. If you don’t, there are many qualified BI consultants out there you can turn to for help and training.
4. Communication: It’s crucial that you have constant communication with the employees involved in the implementation, and that you explain what BI is, the analytics used, how to interpret what the results mean, and the actions to take.

Your Criteria To Success Once you have picked a good system, there are a number of criteria you should aim for to ensure successful implementation:

• Align Business and Technical: It’s important that the business side of your company knows about the implementation and will actually use it. Both sides need to work together to ensure an aligned team.
• Piece by Piece: It’s a good idea to not implement BI across your whole organization in one go because that involves far too much work and complication. Instead, look at the areas of your organization that could benefit the most from BI and start there. For the majority of organizations, Customer Service and Sales are a good choice.
• Ease of Use: Chances are, your employees do different jobs and won’t concentrate solely on BI. Therefore, you might want to pick or develop a system that is easy to use. As a benchmark, pick a sales or business manager and, if possible, a business analyst, and see how long it takes them to learn the system. The bigger the gap between the learning time of these employees, the harder the system is to use.
• Flexibility: It’s common knowledge that your business is always changing. Therefore, It’s a good idea to ensure that the BI system you choose is flexible and can be quickly and easily adapted to meet changing needs. If you have a rigid system, it will be successful in the short term, but a nightmare or even a failure in the future.

With planning and patience, BI will bring about an improved business and bottom line. If you would like to learn more about BI or would like help implementing it please contact us.

When we hear someone mention “Microsoft Excel” many of us will instantly think of an open spreadsheet we are working on, or have recently seen. Known by all business owners and managers, and mastered by few, Excel has become one of, if not the, most widely used business applications. While it is a widely used program, there are a number of errors that are confusing. Read on to learn about the most common ones.

While most of us are comfortable with Excel, there are many times when we have had an error pop up that is more or less confusing. Let’s face it, when we see “!#%&” characters many of us are at a loss. Here are some of the most common errors you come across in Excel, what they mean, and how to fix them.

####### This is one of the most common errors, with the # sign filling the cell. This error means that you have entered data in the cell that is longer than the cell’s size. For example, 1234567890 will show up as ##### if that column is not wide enough to fit all those numbers. This error will also show up when you have formatted a negative number as a date.

To fix this error, simply re-size the column (A, B, C, etc.) by clicking the edge of the column and dragging to the right to make larger. Or check to see if you have a negative number that is formatted as a date, and if so format the cell as a negative number instead..

?Name# This error means you have have an error in the formula or range. For example, =counif(!6:B99, “Y”) In this case, “counif” should be “countif”. Also, the “!6” should be a column letter and 6 (i.e., B6).

To fix this error, click on the cell with the error, and look at the formula in the formula bar, usually located above the spreadsheet, and correct the formula like this: =COUNTIF(A6:B99, “Y”)

#REF! If you have a formula that refers to other cells in the spreadsheet, and then you change one of those cells to data that does not compute in your formula, you will get the #REF! error. For example, if your formula for C6 is: =SUM(A1:A5, B1:B5, C1:C5) and you delete B1, you will get #REF! in C6.

The easiest fix to this is to hit: CTRL+Z, or Undo under Edit. If you made the error a long time ago and Undo does not work, then make sure all cells referenced in the formal contain valid information.

Circular Reference You get this error when you have entered a formula that includes the cell where you have entered the formula. For example, the formula =SUM(A2:A5) is entered into A5. Excel is essentially telling you that it is chasing its own tail, and can’t catch it.

The easiest way to fix this error is to simply click on the original cell, and remove the reference to the cell that the formula is entered in.

The Little Green Triangle in the Cell If you see a little green triangle in the top left corner of a cell, Excel is telling you there is an error with the formula. This is useful if you aren’t sure about what the error means. If you click on the arrow, you will get an ! with Trace Error. Click this, and Excel will give you a drop-down menu with options.

What if I Can’t Find the Error? If you are having trouble locating the error, or do not want to spend time searching for the error in a long formula, click the Formula tab and the arrow beside Error Checking. You can click either Trace Error or Circular Reference and Excel will point out the error, or provide the cell name with the error. From there, select the cell and look at the formula or data entered to determine the problem.

All you need is a stable internet connection, and you can access updated data, software, and other IT services through something called Cloud Computing, a trend that has been changing the way many companies do business – in a good way.

As the economy rebounds, businesses need to be ready to stay competitive while keeping costs under control. Small and medium-sized businesses must maximize the productivity of resources without compromising the end product or service. Cloud computing is helping more and more small and medium-sized businesses balance costs and resources.

Lower Costs The cloud is generally more cost effective, and spreads payment out over time. Monthly payment for subscriptions for applications allows businesses to pay only for services used each month. Updates and maintenance costs are usually included in the subscription cost. Companies save on dedicated IT support – as well as the cost of the electricity, space, and hardware that run the applications that manage your business operations.

Ensure Availability Another plus for the cloud is that it is more reliable and dependable. Few companies can afford to frequently update their hardware and software, so when problems arise, they have nowhere to turn. With the cloud, the application provider pays for the specialized staff to keep hardware and software running smoothly.

Secure Data Speaking of dependability, the cloud is also a better place to store your data. Depending on your subscription, you can arrange for regular backups of data to secure servers in case of any sort of incident – hardware failure, natural disasters, and more. With data backup through the cloud, you are better assured that you can always access your data no matter what happens.

If you are interested in knowing more about how cloud computing can help your business function more efficiently, please feel free to contact us so we can sit down with you and develop a custom solution based on your specific needs.

A smart organization is one that can act in a proactive manner to take advantage of rising trends and stay ahead of their competition. One way an organization can remain proactive is through the use of Business Intelligence (BI). Interestingly, many small businesses don’t implement BI and have found themselves lagging behind their competitors. Is your business using BI?

BI can be defined as the ability to turn a company’s processes into data that can be analyzed and converted into knowledge that is delivered to the right stakeholders at the right time and through the right medium. There are many upsides to BI solutions, and companies should be adopting them, here are five reasons why.

1. Boost productivity. Through traditional data gathering methods, users need to compile and analyze data and write related reports. This can be incredibly time consuming, especially for small businesses who may not have the employees to do it. With a BI program, you can pull data and create the reports at the click of a button thus freeing up time and resources allowing employees to be more productive on their own tasks.
2. Access to better info. With the increasing amount of data available to companies, manually tabulating and assessing data is no longer feasible if you want to remain ahead of your competitors. BI software can be set up to accumulate and monitor relevant data that’s available when you want it.
3. Competent decision making. The reason many business projects fail is because critical decisions are made without the best and most objective information available. BI processes help you monitor past and present performances of nearly all operations, while giving you a solid base with which to make future predictions. Essentially BI helps SMEs make better informed decisions.
4. Results closer to established goals. How many times have you established a set of seemingly reasonable goals for a project or other venture, only to end up with an outcome that’s drastically different? With BI you can keep track of information, and have it accessible by parties that need it, when they need it. BI goes a long way in helping achieving what you aim for.
5. ROI. Through better strategic awareness, faster reporting, decreased operating costs/lower overheads and access to better quality data and information, BI can positively influence a company’s ROI.

These are just five of the benefits your company can realize through implementing a Business Intelligence system. If you would like more control of your data or to make better, more informed decisions, please contact us.

In the past few years there have been a large number of natural disasters causing untold amounts of damage, setting many companies back years if not decades. There isn’t much we can do to avoid these disasters, but we can be prepared for them. Is your company prepared?

Most companies have at least basic protection from emergencies and disasters in place. The most common forms of protection are insurance, server and computer backup, and basic preparations as required by law. While these protective measures are considered adequate for most companies, there is still a chance a disaster will strike, leaving your company in the lurch.

In the recent months and years an increasing number of occurrences, such as the earthquake in Japan and flooding in Thailand, have caused widespread disruption to businesses. To counter this, two business initiatives have risen to the forefront: Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Planning (BCP). In fact, these two terms have become common buzzwords, a quick internet search returns over 53 million hits on business continuity alone. The problem is that many professionals are unclear on what each really is. It’s important to be clear on each topic and the basic steps to take to be prepared for any disaster.

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? BCP, first seen during the Y2K scare of the late 90s, is a plan that covers the way an organization prepares for and maintains all critical business functions. BC planning is comprised of activities that ensure maintenance, stability, and recoverability of service before, during, and after a disaster. The plan is typically set up on a day-to-day basis, and covers the whole organization.

It’s important to have a BCP for your organization because if something happens and you can’t deliver to your customers, they will go to another company.

What is Disaster Recovery? Disaster Recovery is considered a part of the overall continuity plan that focuses on the technical side of the business, including components such as data backup and recovery. Think of BCP as an umbrella and DR is under the umbrella — if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan, the overall umbrella is more or less useless.

What Should be in Your DR and BCP Plans? These plans both share a number of similarities, generally following the same steps involving the same elements. Both plans should include:

1. An operational plan for a number of disasters that could happen in your geographical area. The plans should cover occurrences as small as computer hardware errors and as large as massive natural disasters.
2. A succession plan for you or your top management.
3. Training for substitute employees on important tasks.
4. Cross training of your employees on the basics of different roles so they will be able to take over if need be.
5. A communication plan focused on different crises, including ways of communicating if networks are down.
6. Off-site meeting places for staff and managers.
7. A focus on safety. Foster partnerships and communication with local and emergency response services: Fire, Police, National Guard, Search and Rescue. Ideally, all employees should at least know basic first aid. If you have employees who are volunteer members of local Emergency Response Services, ask them to be responsible for teams.
8. Daily plans to backup your Enterprise systems, along with training and testing of recovery of systems.
9. Training and testing of all employees to practice recovery activities in situations as realistic as possible.

It’s important that you conduct regular tests of your systems and processes, and make changes as needed. Be aware that your business is always changing and so should your Business Continuity and Disaster Recover Plans.

With a carefully prepared and practiced plan, your business should be ready to face a variety of disasters with minimal downtime. If you would like to know more about Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery please contact us.