November 18, 2009
I wanted to take a minute and provide our members with a few updates here at AMRCON. I am pleased to say we’re still growing and carefully continuing to provide better products and service to our clients. We understand that in order to retain and earn the business of new clients, we need to continue with the vision of making our clients the most important part of our business. Given that we need to make changes from time-to-time. Here are a few of the changes that we have successfully implemented.
- In October we completed a small expansion project in our main office to allow for additional employee seating. Most of all it provided a better configuration to provide fast response to our walk-in clients in our store front.
- A few months ago AMRCON realized the need for a Dispatch Manager to better serve our clients. We tested and changed internal protocol to allow a single point of contact for our help desk. The purpose was to provide better efficiency to the tickets already in progress with our technicians instead of pausing to talk to new incoming calls. It also provides a layer of quality control for accuracy and making sure the flow of tickets are meeting our guarantees.
- AMRCON has hired our new Dispatch Manager Richard Wong. If you have not had the opportunity to speak with him, I’m sure you will the next time you have the need for support. Richard is a seasoned service coordinator from Dow Jones and Company. In addition he has experience with level 1 support, so he is an excellent resource for point of contact at AMRCON. We’re very pleased to have him on board. His direct extension is 2309 and his email is rwong@amrcon.com.
- Our Keyport dataroom went through an upgrade to provide even better up-time and availability through a power outage. Additional battery runtime was added as well as an upgrade to a larger generator backup. This will ensure our availability for smooth management and support quality in the event of an extended local outage. Additional cooling has been added to the dataroom as well, to handle additional future expansion.
- Internal policies has also been updated to include help desk protocol as well as others. These are dynamic changes that take place once an issue is recognized in our plan. Be assured that our help desk team and policies are adaptive. All of our valued clients benefit from our diligent eye on our own efficiency.
As a business partner and trusted advisor to our clients I think it’s important to keep you posted. You provide us with a great trust in providing support service to you. Partners need to know what’s going on. Please feel free to ask questions in this blog and or post ideas. We welcome them all.
November 5, 2009
Windows Small Business Server 2008 is an all-in-one server solution designed to help you keep your data more secure and your company more productive. It provides many of the features used by larger companies, such as e-mail, Internet connectivity, internal Web sites, remote access, support for mobile devices, file and printer sharing, backup, and restore—all at one affordable price.
Highlights
Connect to your business from anywhere. Boost your productivity and responsiveness whether you are out of the office, at home or on the road. Windows Small Business Server 2008 helps you stay plugged in and connected to your business.
Affordable, Integrated Solution
Windows Small Business Server 2008 is designed for small businesses. It is designed to work with existing technology, build on Microsoft best practices, and deliver a comprehensive network at an affordable price.
- Have virtually anytime, anywhere access to your business desktop, including e-mail, files, business applications, and more.
- Share resources and equipment, such as Internet access, printers, and fax machines, to get the most value from your technology investments.
- Enjoy compatibility and scalability. As your business needs change, Windows Small Business Server 2008 can change with you—easily add users, servers, and applications, or expand into other Microsoft technologies.
- Work more efficiently and add more value to your business with an integrated administrative console.
- Work confidently with a top performing network based on Windows Server 2008 technologies.
Protect Your Business Data
Windows Small Business Server 2008 helps protect your vital business information from loss, by backing up the data on your network and helping enable you to recover accidentally deleted files.
- Use antivirus and anti-spam protection to help protect your information from malicious attacks, viruses, and spam.
- Keep your computers and servers current and your network healthy and up to date with the latest updates.
- Get better control over your business and business information with daily and weekly reports alerting you on the health and security of your technology. A single administrative console gives you or your IT consultant a daily view of PCs and servers and makes it easier to manage common IT tasks.
- Get an at-a-glance snapshot of the security and health of your PCs and servers from a ‘green check’ report.
Grow Your Business Capacity
Windows Small Business Server 2008 gives you highly secure access to business contacts, calendars, e-mail, files, and other important desktop resources from any Internet-connected computer, virtually anywhere at any time, so you can be productive while you’re away from the office or on the road.
- Improve your day-to-day efficiency by using a central repository for storing and sharing information.
- Connect with customers, vendors, and suppliers easily and professionally, with access to contacts, appointments, and files from any Internet-connected computer or a Windows Mobile–powered smartphone, so you can be responsive even when you are away from the office.
- Create a bigger business presence with online marketing tools from Microsoft Office Live Services Small Business*, so you can differentiate your business and present a more professional image to your customers.
November 4, 2009
In the fall of 1621, about a year after the Mayflower Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, they put together a feast and broke bread with their Native American neighbors. The menu featured fowl, venison and fish, along with wheat and corn products.
Sporadic national, regional and individual Thanksgivings followed, but the day did not become an annual, national holiday until 1863.
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day in which to express thanks for the many blessings enjoyed by Americans.
Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. Thanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members, and features a menu of turkey and a variety of vegetables and side dishes.
Well I figured I’d add those interesting facts I learned from my MSPU newsgroup. I’m sure none of us forget the long weekend or day off we get for the holiday, but even I need to remind 
myself of the purpose. Now needless to say I think the spirit of the holiday has grown, so I believe it means something different for everyone. For instance I am very thankful for the life and family I have today. I’ve also been provided many successes, for which I can only take a small acknowledgment for. Here are just a few things I’m very grateful for to the right. Here is Santino and Andrij actually sitting still, together in a model train in Lancaster PA last month. We visited the world’s largest indoor train set, which Santino has seen 2 years in a row now. If you have kids into Thomas The Tank Engine, I highly recommend it.
I’m actually one of those people who happens to enjoy spending some time with the rest of my family. Yes, I will also be one of those crazy people traveling on the wonderful US highways, however don’t feel sorry for me, we leave early and stay late. We purposely try and miss the traffic. Thanksgiving being the highest traveled holiday of the year. I hope everyone who plans to travel has a safe trip.
I know it’s November but I figured I would also share a little about October. We traveled to Hershey PA for the Halloween festivities. We’ve been doing that for a few years now and it seems like people are starting to catch on. It was busy but still very enjoyable. The picture here show the boys as Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story. I have to say they looked the part. Trick-or-treating in Hersey is a blast. They setup an area of the park designated just for it. The weather was perfect and the family had a nice long weekend.
I really can’t believe that we’re close to Thanksgiving and you know what’s right around the corner. That’s right 4th quarter financial closing. Just kidding, yes more holidays. It’s been an exciting year for the Rudko’s as well as AMRCON. I just want to close with another Thank you for Thanksgiving and that goes to you my clients, colleagues, friends and family.
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