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Michael Cocanower
President, itSynergy |
Welcome
I hope you'll indulge me a bit as we toot
our own horn this month.
Jose Ramirez, our Director of Application
Development has been VERY busy over the past
several months creating phenomenal solutions
for customers.
This month, we finally documented some of
his success and translated it into hard
dollars and benefits. We recently published
two new case studies on http://www.itsynergy.com
from our application development practice. |
The first is right on the front page on the right
hand side under Latest Case Studies. The case study
describes some of the projects Jose has completed
for FNF Construction, one of which saved them over
$1.5 Million in insurance premiums. Talk about a
good return on investment!
The second case study we published recently
describes some of the work Jose has done for SelectBuild, a local residential construction
company. You can find that case study on our case
studies page under the Medium Business heading. I
especially like the focus this case study has on how
our application development team lead by Jose
designed an application that gives SelectBuild a
significant competitive advantage. That is always
our focus when taking on a new development project
as we feel that is what customized software is all
about.
As you take a few moments to read through these
case studies (both are only a couple of pages long),
think about those areas of your business that could
use a healthy dose of efficiency, or maybe a vision
you have for how to create a strategic advantage in
your marketplace. Sometimes our application
development projects are very large in scale. Often
times, however, we can create huge returns either
via increased efficiency, competitive advantage, or
financial savings or gain with a very small
investment and in a very short period of time.
We'd be MORE than happy to sit down with you and
just do a little bit of brainstorming about how our
application development practice can start to create
some of these returns in your business. Give us a
call today! |
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Business Interruption Planning
Not Just for Big Business:
10 misconceptions about disaster recovery
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Paul
Sullivan has seen it all. A 25-year veteran of disaster recovery and
business continuity management, Sullivan witnessed the growth of
continuity planning among the Fortune 1000 in the 1980s. He watched,
first hand, the successes and failures of business continuity plans
following the events of September 11, 2001 and in 2005 throughout
the most active hurricane season in recorded history. Today,
Sullivan is helping small and medium-sized companies plan for and
recover after significant business interruptions.
"Continuity planning has
always been associated with big business," said Sullivan, Vice
President and General Manager, Agility Recovery Solutions.
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"We're
using the same knowledge, strategies and tactics we developed with
the Fortune 1000 and implementing them among small and medium-sized
businesses across North America."
Agility
Recovery Solutions, a former division of General Electric, focuses
planning and recovery efforts on small and medium-sized businesses,
though the company continues to do work with giants such as IBM and
HP.
Why Business
Continuity? Why now? |
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Why Your Small Business Needs an
Intranet
By
Kim Komando
Reprinted with permission from the
Microsoft Small Business Center
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One thing I like about
running a small company is the ability to act quickly. Decisions are
not bogged down by layers of management. In fact, most moves are
made with the interested parties meeting around a conference table.
But there can come a
point when your business outgrows this arrangement. You need
constant, reliable and secure communications with others in the
company to ensure successful growth. You need an intranet.
An intranet is similar
to a Web site, and it uses Internet protocols, but it's an internal
network exclusive to one company. (An "extranet" also is an internal
or private Web site, but access privileges are extended to
designated customers, partners and/or others.)
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Most large corporations
use intranets. Information distribution is a huge task when you have
10,000 or more employees. Intranets can help cure that headache.
I hear you, "I don't
have anywhere near 10,000 employees!" But I can give you three major
reasons why your small business should invest in one.
Here they are:
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System Engineering Corner
Notes
from the Network Engineering Department:
Note to readers: As our network engineers
work with all of you across our entire customer
base, they observe trends and issues that many
people have in common, or that many customers will
find helpful to know about.
This section is designed
to give them a mechanism to communicate those issues
to you, with the hope that YOU might benefit from.
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Engineering Corner
Windows
XP SP3, the wait continues
for some AMD users.
By Mark D. MacLachlan, itSynergy
If you have not heard the news, Microsoft has finally released the long
awaited Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)! SP3 includes all previously released
updates for the operating system and also includes a small number of new
functionalities geared mostly toward integration with Windows Server 2008 and
Vista.
The arrival of the final XP service pack did not come without some troubles.
After initially releasing the service pack to the public, Microsoft removed it
from the download site because of incompatibilities with Microsoft's point of
sale system Microsoft Dynamics. Later, users of some Symantec products reported
registry corruptions after installing SP3. The jury is still out on where the
problem exists for those users, both Microsoft and Symantec don't want to admit
guilt. A simple way to avoid any issues there is to uninstall the Symantec
programs and then install SP3. Once SP3 is up and running the Symantec products
should be safe to reinstall.
Shortly after re-releasing SP3 a new bug was found. Some systems running with
AMD processors would enter an endless reboot state after applying the service
pack. Most systems reported to have this problem were from HP. It took a bit of
digging but the root of the problem had nothing to do with the service pack or
the AMD hardware. The problem was in the way that HP imaged the systems. Large
system manufacturers typically setup a system and then image that system to
apply to the systems that are sold. Microsoft has long warned manufacturers to
be careful with such practices. It is important to only apply such an image on
similar hardware. Where HP hurt themselves (and their customers) was the fact
that they imaged a system with an Intel processor and then applied that image to
computers running AMD processors. This configuration causes a driver (intelppm.sys)
to load at boot. When intelppm.sys attempts to load on an AMD-based system after
the install of SP3, it causes a blue screen and the system experiences a
continuous reboot. Systems affected by this problem can be identified by
checking the computer's registry and verifying the processor architecture.
Microsoft is blocking systems that are affected by this from automatically
obtaining the service pack. Neither Microsoft or HP have released a fix.
There is however still hope for users of the mal-imaged systems. Microsoft
MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) Jesper Johansson has created a fix.
Once a program manager for security policy at Microsoft, Johansson now works at
Amazon.com. Johansson posted a link on his blog to a free tool he created that
will analyze and repair systems to allow the installation of SP3. The
free-of-charge VBScript file is available for download.
https://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/attachment/7647.ashx
Windows XP Service Pack 3 can be
downloaded and installed via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download
Center. |
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June 2008
In this issue
□
Welcome
□ Business Interruption Planning
□ Business Needs Intranet
□ Engineering Corner
□ Referral Program
□ Security Insecurity
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itSynergy Referral Program
 Can we
buy you dinner and send you to the movies? How about
make a donation to your favorite charity in your name?
Earn rewards for referring new customers to itSynergy.
For more details, please
visit here.
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Security insecurity:
How concerned should you be?
Jason Appel,
Security Practice Manager
SAGE Computer Associates Inc.
Information Security cannot be
achieved with just a device or program, but must be embraced as a foundation for
building your organization. These days, it's not only giant multi-national
conglomerates that are experiencing security issues with hackers, viruses or
breaches. Increasingly, it's small and medium sized organizations that are being
compromised, extorted, and/or breached.
Why? It's a simple matter of
following the path of least resistance. Larger organizations are finally being
forced to take notice of information security issues due to increased regulatory
rules and oversight. As these larger organizations lock down their internet
connections, web sites, and remote access, they become harder and less
attractive targets. Statistically, there are a lot more smaller and medium sized
organizations, and historically they have been considered low profile targets
because their computing base and public profiles were limited. With many smaller
organizations, there is a general lack of expertise in the Information Security
arena as the skill sets needed to defend against these incursions are highly
specialized and technically demanding. All of these factors, as well as the
small and medium organizations' general increase in computing and information
assets, leaves previously overlooked organizations, like yours, as the low
hanging fruit.
Think of Information Security
like fire prevention. Can the threat of fire ever be entirely eliminated? No.
All we can do is take reasonable precautions depending on how likely a fire is
to break out, how much damage a fire would do, and our level of tolerance for
this risk.
As with any prevention, in
Information Security there are a few general steps that can be taken to begin
mitigating the risks. The following steps go a long way towards keeping your
information secure: they are the smoke detectors and sprinkler systems of
Information Security.
Read on for steps
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Quote of the
month
Fatherhood is pretending
the present you love most
is soap-on-a-rope.
- Bill Cosby
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7310 North 16th Street,
Suite 130
Phoenix, AZ 85020-8203
Telephone: 602.297.2400
Fax: 602.297.8703
Email:
info@itsynergy.com
www.itsynergy.com
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