E-Commerce in a Box

Volusion.com

I have lead quite a few clients to this site whose services focus on providing their customers with a quick start e-commerce site. Upon signing up, you receive instant access to their site control panel where you can upload and import images in to their web templates along with entering inventory information for the products you wish to sell. No web design experience required - no programming skills needed.

It is also nice to have a solution that can integrate directly in to Quickbooks. I have clients that use Volusion.com web services so transparently that they have zero inventory on hand. The simply provide a means for clients to purchase material and they have everything drop shipped from the vendors.

Charges for these services are modest and fixed. Predictable operating costs are always nice and easy to compare in a budget.

For those looking to become and online merchant, Volusion.com is where it's at.

The Power of Ping.fm and Friendfeed

For those of you who try to maintain an online presence for business or personal reasons, it can be a pain to keep those sites up to date. Many of them rely on the user (you) to keep it up to date with thoughts and status updates. The problem is between the hundreds of different options that are offered for social networking, keeping them all up to date can be a time consuming problem.

I have found both ping.fm and friendfeed.com to be very convenient ways of linking your social networking sites together for status updates, blogs, mini-blogs and even photos. You essentially update one site and it will broadcast the update across multiple social networking mediums.

Friendfeed, now acquired by facebook (here) and ping.fm both link together as well and work on pretty much any social networking site or chat client that there is to download.

The Upcoming Windows 7

Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system, is slated for release at the end of this year. Many are looking forward to it as a "healthy" alternative to its predecessor, Windows Vista. Although I don't agree with the majority public opinion on the usefulness or lack of functionality of Vista, like most others I am looking forward to Windows 7.

Our company is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, consequently we received early released of Microsoft's product and we have been very impressed up to this point.

Get your Windows 7 release candidate here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Also, check if your system will run Windows 7: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/upgrade-advisor.aspx

By the way, Internet Explorer will not be included (as of right now) with Windows 7.

When its Time to Get Your Small Business a Server

Dear Business Owner,

A server will bring your business network a lot of benefit and a level of functionality that you have never had in the past. Sure, it's an investment, but it's an investment in your company's future.

That said, if you are going to invest in a server - please read the following and agree to them before making that purchase:

a. A server will not cost me less than $2,000. If I am spending less than this amount then I should not be purchasing a server.

b. A server will typically not cost me less than $3,000. If I am spending less than this amount then I should seriously review what it is I am buying.

c. Installing a server into my network is a process that requires much more than plugging it in. This requires time and training but will result in efficiencies I never had before.

d. I will not rely on a Dell/HP/Compaq server "specialist" to help me figure out what I should be buying.

e. Purchase a decent warranty with my server.

f. Know what benefits this server will bring my company. There's no payback on the investment if you don't know what it can do.

If in doubt, talk to someone who knows! Once your business is at the level of needing a server - do it right the first time.

Regards,

A Technology Consultant that tells people this on a daily basis.

Maintain your server, extend its life

Small businesses who can't necessarily afford an on-staff IT admin can still perform those ever so important maintenance functions on their business servers on their own. Best practices typically dictate a server shouldn't be used by users, so technically there isn't all that much to do on a regular basis to make sure your server gets its oil changed.

1. Get it up to date - Manufacturer and Vendor patches and updates. Critical and should be done as often as possible. Be mindful of the big ones like service packs or browser releases - these can often break as much as they fix at first.

2. Ccleaner - A gem of a program. CCleaner (crap cleaner) is a free download that cleans up temp files, junk on your hard drive... etc. Google it.

3. Verify backups - Make sure your backups are not only completing, but try to actually restore something from the backup media to make sure the data is good.

4. Check security software - Antivirus, Antispyware; whatever it is you run to protect your server make sure it is up to date and operating as intended.

5. Check out the data - Have a look at the data your users are accessing and storing on your server. Are they storing word docs? Music? Movies? Are they compliant with your expectations? Auditing what your users are doing on the server can proactively prevent bigger issues from occurring.

5 steps to keeping your server healthy and to extend its life. My company has tools to automate these steps and report on them regularly. Following them doesn't require computer certifications, just a few minutes of your time each week.

Fixing the Cost of IT Support

For some reason, no one seems to realize value in maintenance or support of their technology infrastructure. Most small business try to live on the premise of "when it breaks, we will buy another" in order to keep their cash free. The problem with this approach is overall it will cost the firm more in lost productivity, time, and wasteful purchasing.

Vision Computer Solutions (http://www.vcsolutions.com) provides support and proactive maintenance services of all computers, servers, and networks at a fixed cost allowing for business owners to budget accordingly. The days of time and material services are coming to an end. With the economy in the rough state it currently is in people want to keep their costs as manageable and predictable as possible.

Managed Services is a term that is thrown around all too much in the IT industry now with everyone claiming they are an MSP. A true MSP, such as my firm, has the technology in place to provide full on support and technology services at a reasonable fixed cost without sacrificing quality of service, or subcontracting the client to a phone bank in Mumbai.

Read about fixed-cost IT services here.