Types of Computer Repair Technicians and How to Choose One

Computers are an absolute necessity in the modern world, and statistics suggest that every 2 out of 3 households in the U.S alone have a computer or similar device. Not surprisingly, this has led to a significant increase in computer repair edmonton demand. But here is what bugs me about the industry – there is no actual certification process. Anyone can set up a website or hang out a post that reads “Computer Repair” and – La fin! You are officially a computer repair guy. Unlike accountants, lawyers, doctors, and basically any other decent industry, computer repair is not governed by anyone, which creates a wide disparity of quality from one computer repair person to the next. Generally, computer repair companies can be grouped into three
categories.

computer-repair

Category one: the “quickie” techs

The “quickie” techs are usually (but not always) located inside large stores. They are mostly salespeople who’ve been trained to tackle a couple rudimentary technical tasks, such as “formatting” a machine (wiping out all the software, including the O.S), and reinstalling it from scratch. If they are competent enough, they will remember to back up your data beforehand, although there are horror stories reported where this step is skipped and critical data, photos, and files are lost forever.

Merits

  • It is easy – doesn’t require an expensive, highly skilled technician. As such, in theory, you actually cut back on your costs.
  • It is predictable – it involves one method that’s basically guaranteed to solve all software-based problems, including data corruption, spyware, and virus.

The quandary is that someone (usually the client) has to reinstall all their previous applications and hope the technician was sure to back up their data properly. Getting things back to normal also tends to waste way too much time. But with its ease and predictability, it is understandable why most large department stores prefer taking this direction.

Category two: The “stumblers”

These are the types of computer repair technicians with some level of IT experience, but not enough to market themselves as pros. Stumblers have a huge market in the industry, mostly because half of what computer repair entails is relatively easy and usually the same: scan for virus, discard what you find, restart, test, and move on. These guys are more like advanced computer users, with extensive knowledge on some parts of the computer, and some gaps in others. For instance, they could be very handy with software, but no so much with hardware. Or they may be comfortable with servers, but not very familiar with networks.

They are called stumblers because they tend to stumble through most of their computer repair situations, before they eventually get a satisfactory result. They may take eight hours to accomplish a 2-hour job, or take on a complicated work around simply because they did not understand a certain aspect of the server.

Category three: The Professionals

The last group is a rare breed commonly referred to as the Professionals. This is the type of computer repair services in which computer troubleshooters and a relatively small class of other providers fall into.

How can you determine if you are working with a Professional computer repair service provider?

  • Professionals are punctual
  • Professionals solve the problem the first time after troubleshooting, most of the time
  • They have a team of IT specialists on hand to deal with every possible problem as ideally as
    possible.
  • Apart from fixing problems, professionals suggest new technological ways to enhance your business.
  • Professionals take proactive measures to prevent other issues from ensuing. This includes using a cost effective monitoring service to keep an eye on impending computer repair problems such as missing security updates, virus infections, hard drive errors, and overheating.

Bottom line

If your business is not using a professional computer repair service provider, then perhaps it’s time to change. Certain professionals may offer all the repair and maintenance services, while others choose to concentrate on one field. The key is to consult thoroughly before hiring. In the modern competitive business environment, you’ll need all the help at your disposal!

Global IT Solutions for Integrated Operating Online Market Research

As business people we all want to know how our customers reacts to the product or services we provide them. This helps us know how to upgrade or change a thing or the other that is displeasing the customers. It is said a happy customer a successful business. With the help of global IT solutions for integrated operating online market research, this has become possible.

Global IT solutions for integrated operating online market research focusses on the major regional market conditions of the IT solutions philadelphia, focusing on the major regions which includes N. America, Asia, Europe.

IT solution

They are the global provider of consulting, Information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) services. They focus on delivering value through integrated solutions for data intensive business processes that help enterprises across the world to overcome business challenge. These solutions have brought about innovation, knowledge and domain expertise which provides a competitive edge.

They are many companies that deal with the online market research which includes: light speed research which has merged the other day with GMI, online market intelligence (OMI).

The existence of this organizations benefits research organizations, advertising agents, marketing departments and brands, this is through digital data collection. They offer reliable and convenient, cost effective solutions to receive feedback from customers, employees and partners. As earlier said through innovative technology, proven sampling methodologies and professional skills they are able to offer deep understanding of consumer opinion and behavior. This may leads to one being able to tap the virgin ‘market’

The benefits of the Global IT solutions for integrated operating online market research are: as a business one is able to strategize on what to do to up their game, also they get to know clearly who their target market are and probably what to improve on their product. It is best for anyone who wants to maximize their profits.

Global IT solutions for integrated operating online market research offer access to online research respondent with high quality, capacity and targeting for every budget. Most Of the IT solutions include innovative online survey design which engage respondent and online survey research panels which usually have millions of deeply profiled double opt-in panelists. They tend to create a balanced data set which eliminates respondent source biases. These full suite of data collection is what helps in the conduction of accurate online research.

What is surveyed mostly in the online research is the market research and customer satisfaction. The advanced features that help in the survey in terms of market research include branching, randomization, extraction and many more. Through the integrating emailing system one is able to send mass invitation and track response rate. After collecting the data one is able to analyze the data with SPSS which is a good statistical analysis software.

It is appropriate to choose an organization that is well suited to research on your business, and the online research is accurate and whether we like it or not the cost should be friendly to your pocket. Within no time your business will be a leading global business.

Ultimate IT Tips For Making Your Business More Efficient

Well, it has been said over and over that technology and business goes together and for you to succeed in small enterprises you must have figured out how to strike a balance. So, how do you do it? Your biggest goal should be minimize cost, maximize quality hence the efficiency is high.

Here are some tips on how to make business more efficient in terms of technology:

Encourage the use of technology

This is through smartphones, laptops and computer. Lately the trending style of advertising is through the social media, most businesses are connecting to the people through it. All you have to do is post pictures of products you are selling. This increases productivity. Also in terms of keeping in touch with employees and employers through phones and emails. This way you are familiar with whatever to one department of the business as well as the business itself. Most sensitive documents can be saved as backup for the longest time via technology. This yields efficient results.

Cost of technology

It is very crucial to look at the cost of technology. You need to look at what technology is most suitable in your business, its relevant should be significant. The second thing to consider is can I afford it? Let it not lead you to financial constraints. The beauty of technology is as times passes by, it becomes cheaper and one can afford.

marketing online

Networking

Sometimes going to a business trip can be very expensive. So it is good to look for alternatives that can save up on your money. Hobnobbing with potential clients and competition is essential if you are business owner. It is essential to look for an accountant who can act as a hub for networking and knowledge sharing. The network should also give employees secure, consistent access to information. This way your business will easily and quickly react to any changes to the business. This is the tool to keep you ahead of competitors.

Staff training

Technology dynamically changes within time, and is not that easy to catch up especially if you have other works to do, hence it is very appropriate to train your staff as one on technology. Lately business technologies have a much more consumer feel, making them more intuitive.” Mark Williamson insisted. This gives you more reason to familiarize yourself with the newest business technologies.

Sell your product

Now many people may not understand how one will sell their products via technology but it is very simple. Through consultant marketing one is able to create and shape demands. There is need to create mechanism that one can be able to market as well as sell their product. First of all you need to market products to the right target then sell, for instance Amazon sells products for their business as well as others.

To manage the business is not a simple task but given the right tools it becomes a bit easier. Technology can be your biggest strength or your weakness depending on how you embrace and use it. Many are those who think technology is more expensive but as time goes by, you will realize without technology, it is much more expensive.

What You Didn’t Know About IT Outsourcing & Technical Support Services

Many business operations rely on Information Technology. In fact, it is almost impossible for companies to carry out their daily operations without IT baltimore. This explains why most of them have installed IT Systems. Some of them outsource IT services to reduce expenses and also benefit from high quality service provided by experts. Unfortunately, technical problems do occur from time to time hence the need for technical support services.

IT Outsourcing

IT Outsourcing refers to the process where a business enters into contract with an external firm to carry out either part or entire IT functions of an organization. Quite a number of companies outsource IT services due to inadquate IT resources. They also do it in order to reduce costs.

IT-outsourcing

The best IT service providers usually take the responsibility to provide excellent IT services to clients. Services that will meet their needs and enable them achieve their set goals.

Such service providers also help clients reduce or eliminate the problem of IT downtown which negatively impacts on most businesses. This in turn leads to increased productivity.

Companies providing IT support to clients have special softwares which enable them to monitor their client systems. Such softwares make tracking possible. They also help them to respond to various needs of clients.

In addition, they are dynamic so as to adapt to changes in technology. This helps them to come up with precise solutions to various IT problems.
Many companies outsource IT support to reduce on costs. The good thing is that most IT service providers charge competitive prices. They are therefore affordable.

Technical Support Services

There are different technical problems that occur within IT systems of an organization. This negatively affects operations thus leading to reduced productivity. However, with technical support services in place, such issues can easily and quickly be resolved.

Technical support services involve hardware maintenance support. This helps to ensure that hardware systems are kept in good condition to prevent damage to its components. Vital hardware such as hard disk is well taken care of to prevent physical or any form of damage that may lead to loss of data.

Technical support services also include software maintenance support. Techical service providers help clients to fix any software problem that may affect normal functioning of computer system. They also carry out software upgrades to ensure that all applications are up to date to deliver the best service to users.

In addition, techical support services also involves helping clients fix any issues in their data centres, network systems, equipments as well as user devices. They are equipped with excellent tools which enable them to offer perfect solutions to their clients.

Furthermore, technical specialists help to analyse IT infrustructure to determine any areas that are prone to technical failure. They design solutions with such possibilities in mind to prevent their occurrence.

In order for companies to achieve measurable results, customizable solutions are important. The best technical support service providers ensure that they develop customizable solutions that perfectly suit the needs of an organization.

Bottom Line

In conclusion, IT Outsourcing is very important to any business. It helps to reduce costs while improving productivity. Firms should also get techincal support services from reliable specialists so as to fix any technical issue that might arise.

Global Field Support Models For IT Services

Owing to increase in demand for IT services, global field support models are now available. Clients can now access IT services from service providers regardless of their location in any part of the world. Global field support models for IT services have made it possible for service providers to leverage global outsourcing. They also enable them to provide both onsite and remote support to clients in different parts of the world.

IT companies edmonton that provide IT services using global network models have established an extensive network with their service partners in the field all over the world. This enables them to fix various IT problems that affect their clients whenever they arise.

IT company

Some of the IT services provided based on global field support models includes desktop and laptop maintenance. They guide users on how to use them to prevent damage and enhance durability.

Global field support model is also about maintenance of network devices including servers. This helps to ensure that network is at its optimum functioning to prevent delays in work operations. It also involves maintenance of storage devices such as hard disk drives to prevent loss of data which is crucial to business. Service partners visit clients in the field to provide them with such service.

The models also help service providers to come up with remote deployment methodologies. Such methods enable them to serve their clients even when they are not physically present. Thy simply install excellent infrustructure which allows them to provide remote IT services to ensure that their client business is running smoothly and efficiently.

On top of that, it offers extended support options. This is advantageous to clients because it enables them to get extra IT support from global service providers. In addition, it gives them a variety of choices so that they can select the services they want.

The model also features deployment and project management. This is where global IT service providers employ their specialists in the field to monitor their project while also providing IT services to clients.

Global field support model for IT services enables clients to get software support for various operating systems such as Microsoft, Unix, Linux, Cisco and many more. It also offers flexible options to fit different requirements of the end user.

This wonderful model is advantageous because it helps to reduce costs by considerable amount. One is only required to pay a certain amount of fee for a given period depending on the contract agreement.Clients can therefore save money for other useful projects.

The fact that the model features dedicated partners at different locations all over the world makes it worth being embraced. This enables clients to get high quality IT support from IT specialists distributed in key locations.

The model also gives clients an option to buy assets from service providers without restrictions or lengthy procedures.

Final Verdict

In conclusion, it is quite evident that Global Field Support Model For IT Services has numerous benefits to both clients and IT service providers. It should therefore be immensely adopted.

Fleet Management Solutions: Why You Should Not Ignore It?

fleet management solutions

With the advancement in technology, the people behind the handling of medium to light truck fleets should remain ahead of trends by determining the current fleet management solutions in the industry to expand the general efficiency of the fleet.

Preserving the Vehicle

As the expense for keeping vehicles at its highest efficiency level keeps on increasing, the industry professionals have to find ways to reduce the cost of the vehicle maintenance. Among the largest trends to perform this was the change from a preventive maintenance to a more motivated method that will let the fleet influence its current information to change the parts before failing. The fleet companies have started shifting to current engine motor oils to enhance the fuel efficiency and to secure its engine. Although this exchange has been beneficial in the temporary expenses of fuel, the permanent expenses are rapidly increasing due to the necessary maintenance of these engines by the professional mechanics.

Reducing the General Spending of Fuel

The strategies and the limiting of fuel spending, which continue to move upward, are always the biggest element in the operational expenses. The fleet managers are continuously searching for the competitive advantage from fleet management solutions in developing fuel efficiency and a lot of concepts are to be taken into consideration like the use of smartphone apps to determine the lowest expense for fuel, the changing driver behavior, and the modification of vehicle specifications that will lessen the necessity for fuel.

Discovering Chance for the Substitute Fuels

Although other fuels were not taken up on a countrywide scale yet, there has already been an increasing inclination of its use. A lot of companies have taken up adopted, compressed natural gas to be a substitute fuel; however, there is a little uncertainty about this. The required cost of switching the whole fleet to a current fuel source is large enough for an investment for a an even larger part of the fleet. Also, the managers are uncertain about the type of alternate fuel source to support.

Shifting to Recaps

Repeated buying of new tires for the whole fleet will only bring weariness to the fleet managers. This is the reason why a lot of companies have been shifting to recaps for the required tire replacement.

Retreading the tires has evidently saved fleets with a minimum of 30% each tire over the purchase of a new one. Plus, the increased protection and dependability of newer recaps have also helped them become a viable choice for trucks.

Using Fleet Telematics

Telematics can enhance the efficiency of the whole fleet in a lot of ways, which brings in a surprise that some companies are yet to adopt its use. The managers are able to check the fuel spending, to lessen or remove available time, and locate the direction of the vehicle.

The utilization of telematics as part of fleet management is increasingly spreading as companies are now able to witness the advantages. From the capturing of diagnostic details to directing the vehicles in actual time, the fleet managers have observed development in the general operations by applying fleet telematics.

IT Infrastructure: Outsourcing Advantages For Effective Business Transformation

IT infrastructure

Today’s IT infrastructure outsourcing is about addressing business needs that could give an advantage to the entire organization. As a business accomplishment is at stake, self-driven leaders are aggressively looking for different ways to maintain their competitive edge. With the current economy, many businesses have moved to outsource non-strategic functions due to new technological needs and rate of progress.

In Forrester’s Survey, it shows that most businesses are using the advantage of strategic IT outsourcing to effectively meet their business needs and wants in a certain period of time. Thus, IT infrastructure outsourcing makes you the expert of your business, giving you special capabilities to focus on certain field by sourcing out technical expertise to create bigger results.

3 Major Advantages Of Outsourcing

Continuous innovation for effective business transformation.

Many organizations, basically don’t have adequate resources required and management competency. It is practical to have a more responsive IT infrastructure to accommodate ongoing changes of your business and technology. Most importantly, employees must maintain their competitive edge. Operational excellence can only be achieved if you leverage your outsourcing as it can provide flexible and more agile foundation and operating model in your business. Increasingly, many businesses are switching into IT outsourcing to expand their capacity of gaining by giving strategic importance to their IT organization. If your business is devoted to non-strategic operation, IT issues can ruin the focus on things resulting to poor results.

Nowadays competitive market obliges a thorough focus on your business core, and IT outsourcing enables scarce talent and energy to improve operational competitive capabilities. Outsourcing allows on-going operation of business processes of most organizations and strategic change to deliver a fast and more successful long-term business transformation. This is possible if you have reliable and flexible infrastructure that could accommodate speeding changes in a business environment, improves organization’s ability to cater services faster and introduce new products with greater success. Furthermore, outsourcing can provide real flexibility when it comes to clearing your IT organization and enabling you to reach out new markets, at the same time gain new customers.

Improving your customer and employee satisfaction.

The best part of outsourcing is that, it can transform your businesses by re-engineering processes into more improved quality, productivity and customer experience. Your organization can become more receptive in giving customers the optimum service through flexible IT applications. This can eliminate unnecessary processes while leveraging the effective and efficient use of technology to aid business processes and increase performance and productivity.

Greater value for less cost.

There is always an exceptional pressure to cut expenses, minimize budgets and keep consistency on your system. Lessening budgets make it harder to keep up service levels that meet or surpass expectations of your clients. Some people prefer to outsource for potential partners that can share economies of scale with their customers rather than trying to operate at a competitive disadvantage or investing their scarce cash to anything possible that can resolve the issue.

Through outsourcing, your scarce cash is freed up and you can have reduction of service levels and give more focus on strategic techniques. Most importantly, outsourcing core and network infrastructure enables organizations to give more without compromising internal resources.

DR Cloud Provides Faster Results

DR cloud

All organizations aim for greater efficiency in all aspects of their operations. In today’s world there is greater emphasis for speed of delivery, and lower costs. This is one of the reasons why many organizations have shifted their computing requirements to the cloud. To be efficient, an organization also needs to be reliable and somehow disaster-proof. It needs to have the ability to get back up and running after a disaster or disruption in the shortest time possible, and with minimal loss of data. This is where VMware DR cloud solutions come in, and it promises faster recovery times and much lower cost than onsite disaster recovery methods.

What Makes DR Cloud Solutions Better?

When an organization’s computing requirements are moved to the cloud, almost everything is done through virtual machines. Virtual machines are used to contain the operating systems and applications that the organization need for its operations. The same machines also contain software updates and data files. This makes it easier to scale cloud services and to replicate entire virtual servers. What makes it possible is the very nature of virtual servers which are really data, applications and operating systems bundled together in a cloud environment.

In the cloud, organizations do not have to deal with hardware – the cloud service providers take care of those. This makes it easy to move virtual servers and their contents from one place to the other safely. Whatever you need to backup d can be created in a very short time. As a bonus, data transfers are done more accurately and safely. Transferring entire virtual servers with all the software, software updates and data can be done in a snap – almost as easy as copy-paste operations. Very fast recovery times are possible as data is replicated from one storage area network (SAN) to another. When using physical computer servers for backup, the operating systems and applications need to be loaded onto them. Then all the loaded software needs to be updated up to the last configuration used. Only after that can data be restored.

Competition among cloud service providers is so strong that prices charged for services, including disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), have gone down sharply. It is now cost effective to use online digital backup of files and data. This has made the use of tape backup methods almost obsolete – very few organizations use them anymore.

The lower cost of backup and data recovery services in the cloud has made warm site disaster recovery affordable. A preventative warm site lets you preload operating systems and applications on virtual servers, ready to receive recovered data when disaster strikes. Even the cost of hot sites featuring live updates is considerably lower. This online site explains the differences between disaster recovery cold, warm, and hot sites.

Security has also improved a lot, with most companies using various types of encryption technologies and firewalls which meet or exceed industry standards.

There is a DR cloud solution for your company out there. All it takes is a consultation with one of many cloud service providers to start the ball rolling.

C-Cure 9000 – Perfect For Event Management

c-cure9000

When people discuss security systems, they usually think of home and business security set-ups. Very few people think of the security requirements at events; but software called C-Cure 9000 SiteServer provides all you need to run your event securely. C-Cure 9000 SiteServer is a web based security and event management suite with its own embedded operating system.

Events come in all shapes, sizes and forms and actually small events do not really need sophisticated security set-ups – but big ones do.

The Challenges Of Events Management

When people go to events they only see the end result of hundreds of hours of preparation. They don’t realize the many challenges that the organizers have gone through to prepare the site and make sure everything works as it should. This online article should provide an idea how complex planning for event security can be.

In the preparation stages alone there are a slew of workers and technicians who need to be given access to specific areas and at specific dates and times. When they are through their access privileges need to be revoked. There may be event participants who will need access at certain time prior to, during and perhaps even a little time after the event finishes. Demobilization crews need to be allowed to do their stuff upon completion of the event. And the most important thing is that the event should be able to proceed as per original schedule, unless anything changes.

C-Cure 9000 Solutions

C-Cure 9000 offers the following solutions for efficient and secure event management:

Access Control: ID and badge issuance for authorized personnel can be controlled through C-Cure 9000. ID’s and badges which have not been used can be automatically be disabled or delisted based on pre-determined criteria. Controlling includes the tracking of badges, some of which are temporary in nature, as they are used at entry and exit points. One key feature allows door monitoring for up to 14 inputs which may relate to lock release, fire alarm and many others. User names and passwords for network access are validated through email for greater security.

Even access to elevators, vehicle access, and parking slots may be controlled using the same system.

Intrusion detection: There is a Guard Tour capability which allows security people to patrol set location within a specified time frame, by event or through email notification. Intrusion sensors, surveillance video cameras are centrally controlled. Remote Access: If you want to check on site security you can do so from anywhere in the world through a computer with internet connection. You can change views, modify and filter data, and tweak other settings remotely through just a single screen. If you don’t have a connected computer you may also access C-Cure 9000 through a smart phone app called C-Cure Go.

Central Management: The entire system covering ID’s, intrusion detection, access control, fire alarms, surveillance video cameras, elevators, parking, etc. are controlled through a multi-dimensional single point event management control panel. This makes it easy to incorporate last minute changes in personnel availability and schedules into the system.

These features of C-Cure 9000 make security and event management easy.

Large Format Touch Screen – The Larger Picture

large format touch screen

The large format touch screen is getting more common. Where we used to see mostly small smart device and computer monitors we are now exposed to more useful and larger screens. The large format touch screen is finally emerging as a favored business tool, especially when used to encourage interaction with clients.

So why is it only recently that business finally makes use of the advantages of large touch screens? The answer to that question may lie with technological advancements and cost. The touch screens we now see, no matter the size, are much more useful than the ones that first came out. It makes them powerful tools that allow users to bigger images, and business to see the big picture. Even now organizations such as the Computer and Communications Industry Association continue to be on the lookout for new technology.

Old touch screens were able to track only a single touch at a time, while the latest ones can sense and track multiple touches and gestures. On the surface that may not seem such a big deal but being able to use multiple touches and gestures to manipulate content is a giant leap when measured in terms of immersive experience; it is that kind of experience which encourages interaction.

Why is encouraging interaction so important? Let us consider the uses of large touch screens:

In-house collaboration among employees of a business when used as a video wall or as a multi touch table: They make great presentation aids and allow participants an equal voice in discussions, which is essential to true collaboration.

When used for instructional purposes in a classroom setting: It is not only small children who are more responsive to physical instruction than staid classroom lectures, all of us are. Large multi touch monitors allow student-teacher interaction at a higher level than through the use of whiteboards – the students don’t even to stand up to give their inputs.

When used in advertising: When installed as indoor video walls they provide a very attractive way to generate client interest. The same can be said when they are installed in outdoor pathways with large foot traffic – they get the message across without being too obtrusive. In these two applications, bigger is usually better, so long as the whole area of the touch screen remains accessible to the user.

When used in real estate sales: You can have the buyers, builders and real estate agents interacting through large touch screens. What is better is that all the information on the screen can be instantly updated remotely; maintaining current info on prices and special offers has never been easier.

As powerful tools in trade shows: Large touch screens make attractive platforms for the most important products or service information you want your clients to view. And when they ask for help you have the beginnings of a sale. What made large multi touch screens more attractive, is a significant price drop also as a result of technological advances. So now we all see the bigger picture; and it is a beautiful one especially for the future of big touch screens.