• Everybody likes a good gadget, a clever idea that saves time and hassle – but how to decide which product will create more problems than it solves and which will make the business more efficient and easier to manage?

• A few things to bear in mind;
• Many businesses make decisions on technology based on the product itself, without thinking about maintenance, training of staff or redundancy. In our experience most companies end up spending more on these than on the product itself.
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References – most companies seeking to provide computer services will provide a list of references with a proposal, however over 90% of potential customers fail to check even one reference.

• All computers require maintenance, the more complicated the system or the larger the network, the more maintenance required. Money spent in this area should be looked at as maximizing the usefulness of technology and minimising downtime – after all you wouldn’t expect to drive a car for 15,000 miles without a service.

• In general (and particularly when things are a bit tight economically) companies should be careful to maintain their basic infrastructure – desktop machines, firewall, server, while approaching any new IT projects with a skeptical eye.

small business | IT Support | Systems | Maintenance

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One question that was posed to me today is whether implementing MS Exchange in a small business environment poses more of a threat to a network than using a more traditional POP3/hosted approach.

My answer was that, quite the contrary, in our experience, implementing MS Exchange provides a more centralised approach to email than the POP3 method and so is far easier to police, no matter how big the site.

Our experience goes as far as the 200 user mark but the majority of our customers would fit into the 5 - 25 user bracket. Having MS Exchange installed at their site has always lead to an increase in productivity and a decrease in overall spam and malware outbreaks, given the correct anti-X tools.

MS Exchange | IT Support | threats | small business

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Over the years we have worked for a number of schools and charities. Most of these organisations didn't realise that they could avail of great discounts from most of the bigger software vendors until they met with us.

There are a couple of simple rules to get cheaper software licenses from these guys:

• If you are a charity then you must have a charity number. In Ireland there is no such thing as the "Charities Commission" like the UK and therefore there is no such thing as a "Registered Charity". A fact which surprised me when I first read it here. The Irish charity number is issued by the revenue commissioners for tax purposes only.


• If you are a school, then you must be registered with the Department of Education to get software discounts.

Once you satisify the rules, the discounts are quite considerable and well worth asking for. Never buy Microsoft Office "pre-installed" from your hardware supplier if you qualify for the above rules.

charities | software | schools | IT Support

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